Used record stores are like a magnet to me. There are a handful in my area that I hit on a semi-regular basis, and there are certain stores with certain sections that I always check. One of those sections is for vintage (or is it historic?) local records. It's usually full of stuff that doesn't look particularly appealing and/or stuff I already have. Every once in a while, though, something snags my eye.
Sometime in the last year, this album jabbed me in the ocular socket and made me take a closer gander. I flipped it over and saw that it was from 1977, no one was actually named Balls, and both guitarists also played synthesizers. What the heck; here's my $4. Thank you; goodbye.
Musically, these guys were pretty much straight up rock, pop, and roll. They're not flashy musicians and the compositions aren't challenging or anything, but, after a few spins, I found the songs pleasantly popping into my head on a fairly regular basis. Lyrically, the songs are mostly about love and rock and roll, i.e. Rock and Roll Freedom,A Rockin Love Song,Lovin to the Rock and Roll, etc. Today's jukebox selection doesn't have either concept in the title, but it's still about lovin', of course. It's a snazzy little power pop gem that, in my opinion, could have been a hit.
The songs on the album were all either written or co-written by the dude on the left below, Rocky Valentine. I've tried researching these guys on the 'net, but have found precious little info other than they have at least two or three more albums out there, plus some singles, all on the Gramex Records imprint, which may or may not be their own label. If anyone would like to hip me to more info, I'd be much obliged, thanks.
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Mi Ami are another group I've featured previously on the jukebox, with the title track from their debut 12" EP, African Rhythms. I'd apologize, but . . . no, to heck with it . . . I shan't!
Today's tune is the A side of their second 12" record, Ark of the Covenant (the b-side is a trippy, dubby version). While it might be ever so slightly less frantic than African Rhythms, it's certainly not by much. They're in the spotlight this month as at least one, and possibly all, of them is/are openly gay. They're also just plain fierce.
Since this record was released, there have been some changes. Bassist Jacob Long left the group after the release of two full-length albums and three more 12" records, thereby slimming Mi Ami down to the duo of Damon Palermo and Daniel Martin-McCormick. They still kick up a great, dancey fuss, however, on their two releases since the slimmin': the limited-edition 12" EP Dolphins and their 2012 full-length Decade.
There used to be a small CD store named musiCDrome near my old office that I hit on my lunch break on a regular basis. They had a dollar bin that afforded me many prizes over the few years they were around, and I missed them when they moved to a new location many, many miles away.
One of my favorite dollar bin finds at musiCDrome was the eponymous, and only, album by Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot. As soon as I saw the ridiculously long band name and super-stark cover art, I knew I had to at least give it a try. Luckily, they had a couple of CD players, so one could sample potential purchases before making a decision. I listened to a few seconds of the opening track and walked out with it moments later, $1.06 gone from my wallet.
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When I saw this album in the used bin at Tower Records in Atlanta, I thought the text was in Cyrillic. After pulling it out for a closer look, I discovered it was actually a gospel album from the mid/late 1970s by a guy from Spokane, WA, resting place of my nine-year-old appendix.
According to the liner notes:
Widely known for his unique vocal achievements in sound, Merrill is the first one to produce multiple stereophonic recordings. Through a series of delicately performed recordings of his own voice singing the various parts, he has produced duets, trios, quartets and even a 42-voice precision male chorus. Accompanying Merrill in many of his concerts are taped symphony orchestration backgrounds which are the result of years of research and development.
In addition to being a master of recording technique, Womach was also the victim of a fiery plane crash on Thanksgiving Day, 1961, just over seven months after my parents got married. This is the cause of his horrific facial scarring. Yes, it's not a horror movie makeup job; the poor guy actually looked like that.
As would be expected, nearly the entire album is graced with the sort of instrumental backing one might expect on a Caucasian gospel album of the period: dreadful. This particular track, however, is completely a cappella, albeit severely multi-tracked. I actually quite like it.
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Leo Records is a pretty cool jazz label. If I find something on Leo in a bargain bin, chances are highly likely that I will snap it up post-haste. Coincidentally, or maybe not, my two favorite jazz pianists outside of Cecil Taylor (they're much too big to fit inside) are Sakis Papadimitriou, whom I've featured before, and Satoko Fujii. Both I first heard as a result of finding CDs on Leo's sublabel Leo Lab in bargain bins.
The Satoko Fujii Orchestra CD South Wind turned up in the local store I've mentioned before where Japanese CDs used to appear on a regular basis. OK, sure, Leo Records is a UK label, but Ms. Fujii is Japanese. So there! There are actually four Satoko Fujii Orchestras. South Wind is by what later became known as the Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York. She also has orchestras based in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kobe (ordered here by number of releases).
Ms. Fujii, along with her trumpeter husband Natsuki Tamura, have collectively released a huge number of excellent CDs starting with 1996's Something about Water, a collaboration between Satoko and legendary pianist Paul Bley. As of today, there are 27 CDs on their own label, Libra Records, plus scads of other CDs on scads of other labels; every time I manage to catch up with them, they'll release another four or so at once.
This is all a bit beside the point, however. Four years before Something about Water was released, there was an album by a group named 飛不動. The compositions are all by Natsuki, and he and Satoko are joined by 金井敬一 on bass and 見世秀麿 on drums. I managed to score a copy from Downtown Music Gallery in Manhattan a few years ago. They still have it listed, and I think it's pretty great. Today's jukebox selection is the first track.
NOTA BENE: 飛不動 is a flying deity in Japanese legend. I just found that out now, while writing this.
Sometimes, bargain bin finds can end up costing a butt ton of $$ in the long run. Such is the case with ゆらゆら帝国.
There's a book and music store here that used to be on the outskirts of the Asian area of town. Used CDs from Japan showed up on a regular basis, and I often would take risks on them (and non-Japanese CDs, as well). One such risk was on this CD; I think it was either $4.79 or $5.59. See, the store prices most all of its used CD stock at $7.99 per disc. They use a letter & number system to track how long things have been sitting on the shelf, and prices used to drop in 10% increments the longer things sat (nowadays, the prices lose a dollar at a time).
As it turned out, it was ゆらゆら帝国's second album, and they'd released a buncha stuff since. The album was an interesting mix of garage rock, prog rock, and avant garde-isms like drum patterns pretty much lifted directly from early Captain Beefheart songs. It was really good! My friend Charlie was about to go to Japan for a business trip, so I asked him if he could check for their CDs while he was there. Shortly after he returned, a box appeared on my doorstep jam packed with ゆらゆら帝国 CDs.
O_O
I got worried; what if I ended up not liking them? With much trepidation, I opened one and put it in the player. It was great! Whew!! As I listened to the rest, they just got better and better!
Naturally, this put me on a quest to get the rest of their releases. I ended up spending a lot ordering their CDs from various on-line stores in Japan, as no one stocked them in the USA at the time. I'm not going to admit what I paid for it, but I paid probably at least three times as much as the second most expensive CD I've ever bought on a copy of this, their extremely rare first album. Not long after I bought it, ゆらゆら帝国 played their first ever shows outside of Japan. I drove 1,000 miles one way to see them, and it was totally worth it. I stayed with my friend James in Brooklyn for four days and got to see ゆらゆら帝国twice! I also caught excellent shows by Alice Texas and by CocoRosie with Dirty Projectors opening.
Today's song comes from the limited edition single they issued prior to the release of their 2003 concurrently unleashed albums 『ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ』 and 『ゆらゆら帝国のめまい』. The former was their most out-there album yet, while the latter expressed their softer pop side. When I put the latter in the CD player for the first time, I thought it was a mispress and not the right disc, until the voice of leader and guitarist Shintaro Sakamoto appeared and allayed my fears.
『ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ』 featured today's song, but in a rather different arrangement. I had no idea that the single version was different until I decided, a few years later, to go ahead and snag the copy I found on-line of 『冷たいギフト／貫通』. I mean, it was not only a 3" CD (cute city!) but a double one, at that! In a tiny gatefold sleeve, even. It was also released on vinyl as a 10" single, but that's not nearly as adorable.
Interestingly, the video I later discovered for the song is, in addition to being super cool, the single version, rather than the album one. So, you can watch the video on YouTube, but you can't get the single unless you want to spend a fair chunk of change. Or you could just download today's song. ;-D
Sadly, ゆらゆら帝国 decided to part on friendly terms in 2010, as they felt they had accomplished all they could/wanted to as a band. Former leader Shintaro Sakamoto just released his first solo album, How to Live with a Phantom, in November of last year. I cannot wait to hear it!
Translations:
ゆらゆら帝国 = Yura Yura Teikoku = Swinging Empire
冷たいギフト = Tsumetai Gifuto = Cold Gift
貫通 = Kantsuu = Penetration
ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ = Yura Yura Teikoku no Shibire = Numbness of Yura Yura Teikoku
ゆらゆら帝国のめまい = Yura Yura Teikoku no Memai = Vertigo of Yura Yura Teikoku
Pianist Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου (Sakis Papadimitriou) has been featured on the Jukebox before, but only as a solo artiste. In addition to his solo work and various sessions with other players, he and his wife Γεωργία Συλλαίου (Georgia Sylleou) have recorded three albums together as a duo, with her singing and him tinkling the ivories and tickling the steel.
Today's selection comes from their second album, Ανοιχτές Διαδρομές/Εννέα Τραγούδια με Ιστορία (Open Routes/Nine Storied Songs). The lyrics for "Ύμνος Ετη Μούσαν" (Hymn to the Muse) were written ca. 200 AD by Διονυσίου Αλικαρνασσέως (Dionyssios Halicarnasseas). While the entire album is wonderful, "Ύμνος Ετη Μούσαν" is my favorite track. Παπαδημητρίου's unconventional playing on this piece sets a dark, smokey, slightly menacing mood for Συλλαίου's languorous vocals.
Hymn to the Muse
Chant, my dear Muse
and introduce my song
let the breeze
from your groves
vibrate my mind
The cover for Terror at the Opera's album Snake Bird Blue intrigued me. The duo (Gretchen and Faith) are pictured in what looks like a color Polaroid from the 1950s.
No, I don't know when Polaroid introduced color film! Get off my back!!
Anyhow, it reminded me of my all-time favorite pop vocal duo, the fabulous Barry Sisters! The CD was in a bargain bin for only $3, so there was no way I was gonna pass it up. It turned out to be a rather haunting, lo-fi and low-key affair, that actually sounded more like Yoko Ono (her often charming, slightly off-key singing voice, rather than her amazing, shrieking, ululating voice) singing gypsy folk songs than The Barry Sisters. No matter. I adore Yoko (and now Terror at the Opera, too)!
Terror at the Opera's now defunct website turned me on to this single, released sometime after the album. It took until just a few weeks ago to finally find a copy, though! It turned out to be limited to only 300 copies (on clear vinyl, to boot), so I'm not entirely surprised.
Today's song is either the B-side, if you go by the back cover and/or label's long ignored MySpace page (which I found after I found the single), or it's the A-side, if you look at the mastering numbers in the matrix. Imma go with B-side. Enjoy!
The album proved to be a cool and bizarre mix of post-punk, noise, and weirdness. Leader Eric Baylies saw me mention listening to them on a message board and sent me copies of their two newest releases: Risibility and Discourse and Fort Thunder Flashback. The former begins with an 18 minute prog rock piece followed by several shorter and noisier punkers, including five versions of "Let's Get Stabbed" and today's jukebox selection. The latter is a mix of free improvisation, radio static, and noise. It's clearly not without reason that Baylies Band were voted Best Category-Defying Act in Providence in 2010!
Unfortunately, I lost all my saved e-mails not long after receiving the discs from Mr. Baylies, and was never able to properly thank him. Initial research for this post a few weeks ago led me to the above-mentioned award article and the website for 75 or Less Records, the label that released the CDR albums Eric had sent to me. Baylies Band have released two more CDRs (Man Ray & Vague Knitting and All Clowns No Lions) since the two I was gifted; I ordered copies, of course. The label happened to include a copy Fort Thunder Flashback, as well, so I am instituting the first Lightning Giveaway! The first commenter to request a copy of FTF will win my extra copy! I'll contact said winner, so, please, no address info in the comments.
The world is chock full o' nuts of weird coincidences. Listener VirginiaM requested the other day that I post some S.K. Thoth. Well, I do have his first CD, so it's a possibility.
So, what's the coincidence, you ask? Well, I already had today's post ready to go save for the write-up. I knew Sarah Kernochan has worked in film (due to research done previously, after I purchased today's song source), so I went to find her entry on IMDb.com and, holy crap, she produced and directed the Academy Award-winning documentary short that Ms. M and I saw several years ago, Thoth, about none other than S.K. Thoth! She also wrote that filthy, sex movie 9½ Weeks, which I've never seen and am therefore able to pre-judge.
I knew none of this when I spied her album House of Pain in the used racks at my favorite local record store a few months ago, however. With that title and cover and price tag ($4, I think), I had to buy it, even though I had no clue who she was. Well, it turned out she was, at the time, a singer/songwriter with a bit of a demented edge. Carole King off her meds and brandishing a meat cleaver, if you will. House of Pain was her first album of two, and it's quite a lot of twisted fun. Now, I must find that second one . . .
Ever buy a record/CD/whatever just because it looks terrible?
Me, too!
Today's tune comes from an album I bought at BestBuy a number of years ago. They had several boxes of vinyl LPs all priced at 25¢, and further marked down another 50%! I saw the cover of this one and it jabbed a barbed icepick in my eye, forcing me to pick it up. When I flipped it over and read the liner notes, well, it was just a given that it would be mine!
Mia and Tommy met on the revolving stage at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas where she was headlining and generally having a fabulous show business career, appearing on national television many times, and he was featured soloist and arranger with Esquivel. Tommy started to write musical arrangements for her while he continued working with other top stars as conductor, instrumental soloist and orchestrator. They were married and eventually moved to Los Angeles where Roger Vig was born, and weighing in at 10 lbs. 7 oz. he started to play the drums almost immediately . . . This is their first album together.
Not long after, I headed back to the office with a lovely pile of dreck*.
Leader Tommy Vig (still active 35 years later!) penned most of the material on the album, but, sadly, 3½-year-old Roger appears only on a special arrangement of the Theme from S.W.A.T. (his favorite song). I'll let the liner notes fill y'all in on today's song:
Mia is featured on this movie theme song. Tommy composed it for his original score for the Gerald Cormier film, The Barn of the Naked Dead starring Andrew Pine. (The film is about a satanic psycho who terrorizes innocent young women in an abandoned barn somewhere in the Nevada desert.)
Sounds like a lovely family film.
Now, here's the freaky thing . . . this record is somewhat collectible! It apparently goes for around $30 on eBay, according to PopSike. I can't imagine the folks who've paid that much have actually heard it in advance. I mean, my 12½¢ (plus tax) was well-spent, but I would not have been happy had I spent 240 times that.
*It wasn't all bad. I got the second Dwight Twilley Band album, Twilley Don't Mind, 'cause I remembered seeing him on Saturday morning TV when I was a kid, with Luanne Platter's then mostly unknown future husband Lucky on bass, and bought it for the heck of it. I've been a big fan ever since.
To quote The Damned, I'm "Sick of Being Sick." I've had the flu, or something similar, for the last week, hence the lack of posts. I'm still sick, but feeling up to posting at the moment, so you get one! No kisses, though. I'm not sharing my germs; they're MINE MINE MINE!!!
One of the things I love about covers, is a cover can take a song one absolutely loathes and make it listenable, nay, even enjoyable! Today's example comes courtesy of Denmark's Slaraffenland, from their fourth release, the Sunshine EP. Now, I'm not gonna say who did the original, but I'll link the video after the jump. I just searched it out on YouTube, and, yep, I still hate it. Were it not for the innovative video techniques, including ripping off Altered States, I doubt it would've been the massive hit it was.
I discovered Slaraffenland, btw, via the bargain bin at my favorite local record store. Their second album (and third release, overall), Private Cinema, was in the bin of oddly shapped stuff and it really grabbed my eye and pulled. Hard. See, it was packaged in a little hardback book, rather than a jewelcase or digipak. On top of that, the band name was interesting, the artwork was neat, and IT WAS PINK! Sold!
What is it with Canada and weird band names? Broken Social Scene? Chilliwack? Voïvod? Max Webster? Do you know how many times I've had to move Max Webster albums from the W section to the Ms at stores where I don't even work? Yes, I'm just that anal retentive . . . and saintly.
How the heck do CDs by obscure-ish Canadian bands end up in bargain & free bins way down in the Deep South? I featuredfree bin discoveryRaising the Fawn back in November of last year, and today it's bargain bin findSquare Root of Margaret. I found their most recent, at the time, album, Teragram Photeur, a few years back and was immediately attracted by the weird band name and odd album title. I snapped it up and fell in love with their poppy psychedelic space rock. Naturally, I checked on-line and found they had several other releases out, and I snagged everything I could. Today's song is from their fourth release, a limited edition EP called Levitation Days. They re-recorded it a couple of releases later, for their next full-length album, Cloud Nine Revisited. Both versions are snazzy, but this one is a bit more muscular.
I bought this one a few years back 'cause it looked like it had potential. The colorful duds and frizzed mops on the band members made me think of Todd Rundgren's band Nazz, so I gave it a risk. It turned out to sound more like early Blue Öyster Cult (more cowbell!) than Nazz, but that is not a problem. It turned out to be another keeper, too! A few of the songs are a bit pedestrian, but most of it's slammin' hard rock with prog tendencies. This was the middle release of three albums, but I've not heard the others yet, as I have yet to see any for sale around these parts.
January 24, 2011 was a banner day! Not only did I pick up the previously featured records by Geoffrey Landers and ArTOMaTik, I also decided to risk $3 on the album featuring today's song. As usual, it looked interesting and the price was right.
As the name implies, Hotguitars play guitars, and they're a duo (hooray!). Guitarist Jyrki Laiho used to play guitar with Finnish krautrocky metallers Circle, and guitarist T-mu Korpipää was Circle's soundman. I found their second album, Hierarkia (recorded with Finnish poet Santtu Puukka joining them), in a bargain bin. The cover was interesting and it was only 25¢, so how could I pass it up? How, I ask you?
Today's song, however, is from the Confessions EP, released in-between Hierarkia and their debut, Duets, Duels & D.I.Y.'s (a CDR limited to 150 copies). It's one of their more pounding numbers, and I dig it rather a lot.
They released their third full-length album, ...pronounced (hɔt gi'ta:s), in 2007. There was talk in 2005 of reissuing Duets, Duels & D.I.Y.'s on CD, with new cover art and bonus material, but that doesn't appear to have happened.
