Why Don't You Go Love Yourself

Here's an incredibly obscure album by the 60s Florida band Kane's Cousins called UnderGum BubbleGround that was given to share with you by "Stereo Steve from SF". He sent along the tracks and the link and info about the band from a website called Southern Garage Bands. (do visit the site to see the rare photos and promotional materials)

Steve says his copy of the album was sealed, but still sounded like 'it was pressed on melted down ashtrays" (like that's a BAD thing! around here that's what we look for). There are a lot of amateurish good-natured (probably drug-fueled) hijinks, but there are two songs that stand out for me -- Morrison (Jim) is pretty clever, and then my fave, "Why Don't You Go Love Yourself":

music music music

Can we all say "THANK YOU" to our lovely friend who shared this with us?

Don, or possibly John

Talk about confusion, the cover reads "John Elliott and his Diatonic 4" while the liner notes yammer on and on about the versatility of the Hammond organ, then provide a few brief paragraphs on "Don Elliott". Since I can find other references to Don Elliott, including performing on "Mambo For Cats" (who knew there was music connected with the iconic Jim Flora album cover) I'm assuming the keyboard player is indeed Don Elliott.

Well, I like some of the cuts on this album and hope that all the disrespect didn't cause Joh...er, Don to cry into his pillow every night. And is the title Organ Rhythms, or Adventure in Sound? And were they the Diatonic 4 or the Diatonic Four?

Eh, who cares, give Diga Diga Doo a listen, whoever the hell is responsible.

 

Organ Rhythms

Hamiltono Mergaičių Choras

Remember the popularity of Le Mystere des Voix  Bulgares back in the early 90s, those Bulgarian women's choirs with all their lush harmonies and weird bleating noises? Well the Lithuanian Girls Choir of Hamilton Ontario AKA the Hamiltono Mergaičių Choras is absolutely nothing like that at all. This album has a Lithuanian version of Home on the Range, some kind of tango thing that sounds vaguely familiar (Pirsleliai), and the exasperatingly cheerful “Suk, suk rateli” with its swingin’ bass line that will have you high-stepping merrily over to decrease the volume control. 

I'm rather fond of the marginally ethnic garb the gals are sporting on the cover that still manages to look oh-so-seventies. I'm sure there was a seventies Simplicity pattern for Native Lithuanian peasant clothing, which was dutifully stitched by each girl in her Home Ec class. Fetching. ladies! 

And guess who turns up on flute on a few cuts on this album? Why, it's our old Canadian pal from a few weeks back, Moe Koffman, the Swinging Shepherd.  I’m guessing someone in the Indianapolis area was a major Moe groupie and owned both albums, and they were eventually donated together. After she died of mesothelioma after years of inhaling kitty litter dust from the dozens of cats she had around the house.

I'll bet THIS guy didn't have a lot of groupies though....he looks like a distant Barrymore cousin playing in a road company version of Rasputin, doesn't he though?He's the basso profundo soloist who is so important he doesn't even have a first name, just the initial "V". Take that, Bulgarian Ladies!!

Nerūpestinga dainelė – Hamiltono Mergaičių Choras:

Aidas

Manta Sound Company: Hamilton, Ontario Canada

Versatile

Versatile Nancy Ames? Isn't that a lot like proclaiming her as competent, or adequate, or punctual? 

Nancy Ames was the house singer for the US version of the political/satirical show "That Was the Week That Was" in the early 60s. By the time this album came out, the show was history. Nancy made a few albums, mostly a little folk and a little Latin (her was of Panamanian heritage, so she came by it honestly), but you know it's sort of a red flag when the album notes have to refer to her work in supper clubs.

The music on the album is well-meaning and pleasant, and I'm sure you know how far those accolades go in my book. Man, I have a LOT of vinyl I need to unload!

Here's Nancy performing a version of Mas que Nada with some really awkward English lyrics (Pow Pow Pow!), which is not on this album....

  Versatile

King of the Recycled Cha Cha

Fred Sateriale seems to turn up on a lot of cheapie cha cha records....or maybe the guy just recorded like 20 songs and they keep getting recycled on different albums. Just I did a search of his name to find an image of him, and found several records of his with different combinations of many of the same tunes (but no pic of Fred). Including another album entitled Big Band Cha Cha that I offered a while back, that only has 2 or 3 cuts in common with this album.


Big Band Cha Cha

Wheeee I got my picture on a bargain basement cha cha album!

That #?!* Drummer

Frankly I prefer a few more symbols to denote expletives, such as "?/#%!", but what the !@*&^?%, it's not MY album.

I had every intention of presenting this album as I had promised I would……after my last bad encounter with the heavyhanded and headache-inducing Mr. Nelson, I swore I would convert and post this album without listening to a single note. Kill the speakers, and set the levels, divide the tracks strictly by sight. 

But curiosity -- and my loathing of the oh so melll-llowwww folkie Donovan -- got the best of me, and I just couldn’t resist listening to see how the overbearing drums would mangle the feelgood vibes of Sunshine Superman. Maybe they tied one of Sandy's hands behind his back, he nearly managed to blend in. 

OK then...what evil could they do to one of the great sixties songs, "Over Under Sideways Down"? Well,  THAT cut was surely worth a partial listen....just dig the nasally singalong of the classic guitar riff! It effectively takes the place of the annoying nerdy friend who insists upon singing along with all instrumentals. (or are YOU that annoying nerdy friend?)

Beat It