Schadenfreudian Therapy

This blog has moved to moretherapy.wordpress.com

2011-09-06T07:47:00.000-04:00

This blog is not quite dead yet--but I seldom remember to post new entries here, so check there first.

¡Aja……bibi!

2011-07-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

The swingin' sounds of the Castros, now available at More Therapy.

Bubbley Time

2011-07-07T07:45:00.000-04:00

We don't scream obscenities at our children to get them to sleep, we bore them into oblivion with tunes like Bubbley time and a song about an adorable little locomotive with an infectious upper respiratory disease that all the kids will share by morning.

Condemned to Limbo

2011-06-29T12:05:00.000-04:00

Fall on your ass, and condemn your loved ones to Limbo.

Avast There, Matey!

2011-06-21T16:53:00.000-04:00

New post on my primary blog featuring tales of spunky gals, Gitmo, and the Laws of the Navy. Other great old stuff from this blog so it won't all disappear when it gets shut down.

(flirtatious gesture with one eye)

2011-06-05T08:20:00.000-04:00

Was there life before "Tic Tac Dough"? Yep, and it included stories of a miner's dead bones being picked clean by buzzards, a grotesque and grandly awkward Negro preacher (hey, it’s HIS story, not MINE, “sho nuff”), a poem by a man named Joyce, baby-snatching angels, and a serviceman threatened with the stockade after committing the worst crime ever, namely taking out a deck of cards in church.

Find it here.

Two Petticoats

2011-05-31T15:44:00.000-04:00

The 1950s group The Petticoats singing "Motorboat Song" (keep your crass motorboat jokes to yourself, please)

Motorboat Song by baikinange

The 1980s DIY punk band The Petticoats:

Many kind comments on this blog really help me want to continue offering the most offbeat music I can find. A great day yesterday on my Oddball Music Blogs Facebook site yielded some amazing shares of music by Mickey Katz, which have really helped recharge my interest in strange music. I’ve also rediscovered a lot of music I posted long ago (by going back and downloading my own files to replace what was lost when my hard drive crashed). It makes me want to slow down and appreciate when I find something exceptional before racing on to the next. So surely the amount of music you’ll find here will be considerably less than in the past. Several strange 45s (including today's) virtually landed on my lap, so they will probably show up here & there in the next few weeks. I also have an album I know will be horrible sitting patiently for me to get the energy to put it on the turntable.

Fellow PCL-er Lex10 helped inspire me further by creating a new header of many of my favorite things. It was designed for my new wordpress blog which I have to say is a LOT less easy to use than Google, but it's better than being homeless.

Red Hot

2011-05-24T12:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a little beauty from harpist Robt. Maxwell, best known for his version of Solfeggio, AKA the Nairobi Trio Theme.

It's been a really tough month on the blogging front as more and more music blogs disappear. My days here are obviously numbered, and surely so are my days at PCL--as many of my favorite links are gone forever, I feel I have nothing more to share there. Those people with small minds who can only see the black and white--that all music sharing is theft--continue to register complaints about all music sharing venues (what could possibly be in it for them, except some form of power over the impotence of the rest of their life? emphasis on the impotence, no doubt), and googl-blogger happily responds to all their complaints by slamming the door on the most interesting (and surely most visited) blogs. Charming little gems like this album (not in print, and not likely to be re-released) will disappear into the landfills in the future, and the world will be a little less unique and delightful for it.

Last week I felt that I had completely lost my passion for the music. My oversaturated hard drive crashed, taking away years of music collecting (despite the valiant efforts of my IT husband). Including all the originals I have posted here in the past. I found I really didn't care that much, and everything I was able to rescue started to bore me as well. I went to a favorite record store and was ready to walk out empty handed, and had to force myself to buy two albums I would have been crazy-excited to share not so long ago. This is the first (the second will be nowhere near as good). And the way things are feeling for me, this could very well be my last post here. I would much rather pull the plug on the whole blog myself and maintain what little bit of control I still have.

So if you've been putting off looking into the deep archives of the blog for some hidden gems, now's the time to download whatever you can still get. Don't bother using the search, I disabled the search function a while back to try to keep the blog under the radar.

Anyway, do download this album, it's a real peach. If this is goodbye, thanks to the small group of you who have been loyal and vocal supporters. Maybe I'll get my energy back and keep fighting the good/bad music fight, we'll see. The wordpress version of this blog feels like a sham, though.

Red hot

Sing Sing Sing - Robt. Maxwell

Sing Sing Sing by baikinange

Dancing Boinging Skritching Percussion

2011-05-03T11:12:00.000-04:00

Where percussion ensembles go, bedlam follows--if the percussion ensemble is worth a damn, that is. This album did not disappoint, taking Glenn Milleresque arrangements of such usually tame 1930s tunes such as "There's a Small Hotel" and I Didn't Know what Time It Was, and opening the floodgates with a barrage of
bongos, tympani, xylophones, and miscellaneous ratchety tappety and boingy instruments and generally sending the tame of heart to seek cover in the nearest fallout shelter.

I Didn't Know What Time It Was:

Cha Cha Imormptu and other Twist Favorites

2011-04-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

OK, I can't type so that's what the tag for "Cha Cha Impromptu" reads. Here is one of those lovely albums where some subpar record label takes every leftover song they have, call the band "Guest Artists", and choose some half-assed theme ("Make your home a discotheque!) and see how many suckers bite. The leftovers include a fairly swinging jazzy combo/big band playing a few un-discotheque numbers, and some odd growly-voiced twist numbers. Something for everybody, or nobody.

Big Ben Twist - The Guest Artists

I Love a Salesman

2011-04-18T18:04:00.003-04:00

Today's record has no sleeve and apparently is a boring looking record, so I had nothing to use as an illustration. It is one of my favorite types of records, a disc created by a corporation (in this case, Standard Oil) for use by its employees at annual meetings or pep talk rallies. The tune is called "I Love a Salesman", and as owner Evan describes it, is sung by a group of "blowsy-sounding chorines".

I thought I might find a suitable image by searching the words "chorine" or "blowsy", but Google thought I wanted to search for chlorine (thanks for being a know-it-all, G) and showed me pictures of beakers, and the only description I could locate for "blowsy" was for Carrie Fisher (no thanks). But finally someone in a blog described the chorus girls in the movie "Palmy Days" with Eddie Cantor as "chorines", and since I sort of relate blowsy with doughy, it seemed suitable enough.

So let's sing the praises of those fabulous corporate hucksters who can take our money whether we want them to or not. Hit it, chorines!

I Love a Salesman

At the Rest Home with the Mom and Dads

2011-04-12T13:52:00.000-04:00

You know, I don't have a lot of fear as some do about being sent to live at a retirement home one day (probably one day next week, judging by the frequency of my memory lapses). I imagine sitting around the common areas with a lot of other similarly medicated oldsters, eating applesauce and listening to marginally talented but earnest musicians playing toe tappin' (if neuralgia allows) music like today's album by the Mom and Dads. Before I get called to my sponge bath by some beefy guy named Horst.

The Mom and Dads hailed from Spokane Washington and inexplicably recorded nine albums during the 1970s, which really seems like the least likely era for them to have recorded. I suspect many of their fans were Middle Americans who liked to keep the blinders on against the reality exploding around their blue-tinted hair--which is surely why I found four M and D albums in one Goodwill bin in a small town just south of Indianapolis.

They seem to favor tunes that have no bridge--or at least they seem to only play the recognizable part of the melody again and again. And again and again and again. Like a profoundly damaged individual thunking his head against the wall, because it's oddly comforting. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Anytime:

The photo of the Mom and Dads came from here.
Get the album here.

Ookpik Song, Home at Last

2011-04-11T12:17:00.003-04:00

Well, it appears that I am the only person in the world interested in reviving the Canadian Ookpik "craze" of the 1960s. Frankly, since almost all references to the one-time mascot of Canada appear to be willfully expunged from the internet, I suspect a massive cover-up by the Canadian government. Maybe they thought an association of an owlish child's toy fashioned from clubbed baby seals with Canada was bad for business, go figure. But I alone have the courage to take on the entire Canadian government (put up yer dukes, eh?) to present the history of the Ookpik, along with its seldom heard song!
At any rate, if you didn't see the video I posted on PCL a while back that tells the (incredibly lifeless and dull) tale of how Canada chose its little mascot, then slam down a few Trucker's Little Helpers to keep you awake and hit "play".

Still with me?

Then I'm sure you're all fired up and ready to listen to the Ookpik song, by The Romeos!

and the A side Muskoka and You:

EDIT: I was right about a cover-up. I found this article from 1965 about the ookpik fiasco and why the Canadian government wants all mention of them wiped off the internet:

OTTAWA: Jack Shafter, vice-president of Regal Toy Co., today accused the Department of Northern Affairs of "wheeling and dealing" in making private arrangements for commercial production of Ookpik, the fuzzy, saucer-eyed version of the Arctic owl. Designed by an Eskimo woman in Fort Chimo, N.W.T., and made of sealskin, Ookpik was promoted by the Government at trade fairs. When orders out-stripped Eskimo production, Northern Affairs granted rights to the Reliable Toy Co. to manufacture Ookpiks of white plush synthetic fabric to sell at about $2.98. Another version, made of imported possum pelts, sells at around $7. Ookpik has been registered with the trademark division and unauthorized copies are illegal. Lawrence Samuels, vice-president of Reliable, said: "We've been told bluntly to keep our mouths shut about this thing. Any public relations or publicity will have to come from Northern Affairs."

Imported opossum pelts! The root of most world scandals.

Artist, Innovator, Father, Friend - Where did you come from?

2011-04-10T20:47:00.000-04:00

Such a shame, I was hoping this album would be a teaching class with words of wisdom shouted at us by LUIGI himself--"PLIE! PORT de BRAS! DEVELOPPE! FRAPPACHINO!" so I could learn the Luigi method of Jazz Technique and begin my career as an interpretive dancer and make a lot of money and be famous. But sadly it's just some halfhearted jazzy music albeit with great titles such as "Kick Out On Tummy" and "Out-In, Out-Down". Which sounds as though it would be pole dancing music or at least something with more hip action than your standard jazz dance and frankly the drummer IS delivering an awful lot of boom-chica-boom.

LUIGI

I would tell you more about the career of Luigi except for the fact that this album sat in someone's wet basement for a few years and the cover has a lot of water damage and I think it says he was Mussolini's personal dance instructor in bowling alleys in Prague or perhaps that's just some mold on the cover, I'm not sure.

Kick Out On Tummy

LUIGI

Precious Memories: Shaving with the Kids

2011-04-04T08:51:00.002-04:00

Much to my delight, someone actually heeded my request from the previous post to send me music so horrible I might not post it here. Alex from Seattle--nice try, but here is your entry "Sunday Mornings", about which the lyricist for the insipid The Men in My Little Girl's Life said "Oh now THAT'S going too far". Probably.

Prepare to taste last night's dinner.....how quickly time goes bye-bye. Sadly, in the case of this tune, not quickly enough. You too can achieve worldwide acclaim by sending me YOUR horrible music!

MY Name is SKIP-py. SKIP-py wants WA-ter.

2011-04-03T12:27:00.000-04:00

Once again I have been given someone's weird castoff records to share with the world.....Thank You! This gift is particularly valuable to me because 1) it is a "train your bird to speak" record that I love so well 2) the donor has his OWN blog in which he often shares marginally to very weird music (recent posts: the Milwaukee Brewers theme song from the 70s, the answer song to Big Bad John, and some obscure polka music). And he deemed this record too strange for even his blog to share! But of course he knew it would have a happy home HERE.

Here's the challenge....send me something that is so horrible I won't post it on my blog. The only limitations are that it not be able to get more than say 10,000 hits on YouTube (so don't send me that Friday song, OK?) and not be purposefully offensive.
In the meantime......I'm Your Precious Ba-by!

Music By Brown People

2011-03-30T11:08:00.000-04:00

Hey bio-techs, or maybe the correct spelling is bee-otches, anyway, it's MY birthday today but we ALL get a present in this fab South of the Border LP from some German guy. Shake them maracas!

There are SO many brown people in the world, and they all provide such amusing tunes for our entertainment, don't you think? This is the thought bubble I imagine was above Hugo W. 's head as he recorded this musical gem, and all his yi-yi-yi-yi singers as well. From the fake Jamaican accent of "Rum and Coca Cola" (the words of which they sanitized--here, both mother and daughter are "singing" for the Yankee dollar. Yeah, everyone likes a rousing good "sing" now and again, even if we have to sometimes pay for it), to the "cu-cu" version of La Cucaracha, to the ever-so-slightly off-kilter soprano who gamely struggles to drown out the blazing bongos (and castanets and....harpsichord?), it's all good.Oh, and kudos for Hugo's proud declaration that he is willing to go south of the border, not all men are willing to own up.

South of the Border

I'm not sure why the back cover of this album has the rundown for HW Goes Hawaiian, but this is actually the real flip side of this album.

Ukie Dukie the Twistin' Boy and Other Classics

2011-03-23T20:34:00.000-04:00

Though I really don't WANT to own any more twist albums than I already have, I will readily admit that I am helpless when confronted by the lure of songs with titles such as "Ukie Dukie (The Twistin' Boy). So....The Charlie "Hoss" Singleton Combo is now in my possession.

I have to give these guys credit, they do everything in their power to tear the place apart despite the fact that the music is unworthy. I'm sure they were at the epicenter of many a twistin' orgy in their time.

Ukie Dukie (The Twistin' Boy)

Hoss

Myrna = Pizazz-Plus!!

2011-03-21T13:59:00.000-04:00

Somewhere at the intersection of Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, and a parrot imitating a squeaky door we find the amazing Myrna. Some of the links to Myrna's masterwork Explosive Vocal Percussion are dead (Jaykayess? a public service, please re-up?) but the comments are so apropos (and hilarious) that it's worth a visit.

On today's album we find the lovely Myrna re-creating the glorious days of burlesque with such single-entendre renditions of My Heart Belongs to Daddy, Let Me Entertain You, and Teach Me Tonight. With splendid results. But Myrna is not just a chanteuse, oh no....here's what the liner notes tell us:

In Myrna March, one is delighted with dynamic and aware musicianship, including a high regard for lyrics and their meaning. This latter trait of Myrna's is no doubt partly die to her own involvement in songwriting. Besides her contributions to this album (the words and music to "Don't Touch" and the lyric of "Tell Me What You Want To Do"), Myrna is a bonafide contributor to the "now" sound with the creation of much material in this vein. One of her songs is the recent "soul" hit "I Can Remember", which enjoys 30 different recorded versions at this writing.

I was so excited to see this album at yesterday's record convention that I spent an unheard of eight dollars on it. But I'm sure you will find it worthwhile.

Myrna

Kiski Records Presents The Men From Mars

2011-03-16T13:37:00.001-04:00

The good news: this album cover. The bad news: it's Gospel. And mundane Gospel, at that. So for those of you expecting some kind of obscure surf album or some other kind of weirdness are going to be sorely disappointed.

But look! It's autographed!

I know, it didn't make ME feel any better, either.

Though it did make me feel better to think that they would never be able to get their heads back in the spaceship through those tiny portholes.

I don't even think I'm going to bother uploading any of the songs to a music player for a preview, even though I felt compelled to offer the entire album.

Men From Mars
Kiski Recording Company
Freeport Pennsylvania

A Gray Day

2011-03-14T11:08:00.000-04:00

I wish there had been more overt signs that this was a country album so I could have passed it by, or at least been better prepared when the needle hit the grooves. If there had been the obvious clues such as a doorway-grazing pompadour, or a rhinestone wagon wheel encrusted Nudie suit I think I might have guessed country. I mean the guy looks like a slightly dyspeptic Martin Landau, someone who would sell you a Maytag at the appliance store. And he's wearing a tasteful tie! No wonder amazon only sells one paltry best of compilation of his, nothing about his look says country. Apparently later in his career the guy made a last ditch effort to get his foot firmly into country music's door by recording some trucker songs, but once you wear the undertaker suit on your album cover, you've lost all Nashville street cred. Sorry, Claude.

Man, there is a lot of downer music here for just one album. By the middle of side 2 of this record I was wavering between yelling "Get a grip, already!" or just writing the guy a check to get a hooker or a pony keg and a twisty straw or something else to cheer him up.

I was going to use the incredibly clunky titled "My Ears Should Burn (When Fools are Talked About)" for the sample tune, because it's so awkwardly written it's almost song poem bad--though unbelievably the album songwriting credits include such familiar names John Loudermilk, Roger Miller, and Johnny Bond. (though I suppose good delivery can rescue a badly written song) But I opted for "You Take The Table (And I'll Take The Chairs". When the dinette suite (pronounced suit) gets busted up, then you KNOW the relationship is over.

The dinette suite in happier days

what, you want MUSIC, too?

An Evening with Phil

2011-03-09T15:55:00.000-05:00

I really dig Phil Harris and his lackadasical playboy persona. I love him on the old Jack Benny radio show, I love his music, I love his radio shows with his wife (they were married over 50 years) Alice Faye, and I love him on this album.
Phil portrayed himself as a good ol' Southern boy, but was really born in Linton Indiana. He never forgot those roots, and sponsord a golf tournament fundraiser for many years in Linton. This album is a live concert to raise money for the Phil Harris/Alice Faye Scholarship fund. It was recorded on May 5, 1979--which happened to be Alice's 64th birthday. Alice even steps up to the mic to do a reprise of one of her biggest hits, "You'll Never Know", and sounds pretty darn great. Phil's buddy, sportscaster Chris Schenkel traveled from his home in Bippus IN (yes really) to pay homage to the Harrises. Throw in the mix some local combos and singers, and you've got a real crowd-pleaser, at least the folks in Linton sure seem to think so. I kinda dug it too.

Evening with Phil

What?? I took a crappy picture of an album cover? Shocking.

Side 1

Consider Yourself
Back Home Again in Indiana
Stardust
Do You Known What It Means to Miss New Orleans
Up a Lazy River

Side 2

Washington and Lee Swing
Basin Street Blues
Chris Schenkel
You'll Never Know (Alice Faye)
Just to Be Alive
Saints

Not a Dinghy in Sight

2011-03-06T18:02:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was half price day at the Goodwill thrift store, and I braved the squalling babies and fellas who seemed to have a wide range of special needs to search for vinyl gems for you and me. Honestly, some of those folks were really creepy. And way less than special.

Ol' Ruth is best known for her tunes about dinghys and boys and their yoyos and Hawaiian Leis, but this album from the early/mid sixties has some of her wittiest lyrics backed by some great big band arrangements. I like this one a lot and think it far outshines any of her older and more easily found music. But of course YOU didn't have to withstand the perils of a central Indiana Goodwill thrift store to find it, now did you.

It's Great to Be a Broad!

stay sexy!

My Lurrrve Puppet, and Other Non-Yodeling Tunes

2011-03-02T16:07:00.000-05:00

If I’d heard it once from readers of this blog I’ve heard it a million times….why doesn't ST feature more country music? And the “country” I’m referring to is, of course, Canada. Well, pine no more, me hardies, today we have music from Marie King (though if she’s French-speaking, why is she not Marie LeRoi?) a fine country songstress who sings in French, the way God meant country music to be sung. Or maybe I mean the way "Dieu" meant it.

One thing I must say before any further discussion about music…..can we all take a moment to appreciate her wide point Magic Marker eyebrows!!!! Take THAT, Joan Crawford.

As I listened to the album, I kept thinking there’s nothing wrong with this album that a little creative yodeling wouldn’t cure. So why did they wait until the last cut, "Cloches de Ma Vallee" so show off her substantial yodeling chops? I wish they’d allowed her to let it rip much earlier and more often. So to speak. Which would have made for a better album. Either way, actually.

This album is also great for people like me who had basic French lessons in school, and want to see how much they remember from their lessons. Here's how I did:

Poupee d’Amour = Love Puppet (possibly lurrrrrve puppet, depending upon the regional patois)

Maman a Raison = Mom is getting some dried fruit.

Allo Mon P'tit Bobby = Howdy Thar L'il Bobby ("thar" is option, I only used it to confuse any readers using Google Translator)

Lurrrrve Puppet:

music

Cowboys and Indians, Cowboys and Indians, Cowboys and Indians, Cowboys and Indians.......

2011-02-26T07:24:00.002-05:00

I was a little hesitant to post today's 78 record since the annoying refrain stuck in my head for hours after I heard it. But hey, you wouldn't be back here regularly if you didn't already have a massively high tolerance for irritation, right?

While searching for information about this record I found all these old Billboard ads that have absolutely nothing to do with Roberta Quinlan, Jerry Murat's Harmonicats, or Jan August. But who cares, it's great stuff!

Roberta Quinlan, Jerry Murat's Harmonicats and Jan August. It apparently takes a village to make a bad record.

Cowboys and Indians:

I Never Had a Worry in the World (zzzz-zzz)

It's Karaoke Time!

2011-02-21T09:52:00.005-05:00

I have posted a picture of my insane dog Abby because today's record is a real bowser! Arf arf!

If you think Toddlers and Tiaras is a new concept, then you forget why there are so many old ladies named Shirley....stage mamas have been around for ages trying to cash in on their kid's purported talent. Hence the market for today's 78 record, surely used for auditions or recitals. The songs are "The Little Old Man With the Green Thumb" and "My Dolly Never Grows": the first cut includes an adult's simpering portrayal of a cute kid, and the second cut is just the instrumental....so YOU can learn the words and sing along! Providing veritable minutes of fun for you and your family.

Vocals by Laura Leslie:

My Dolly Never Grows -

Little Old Man With the Green Thumb

Bonus fun - the backup group on this record is the Tony Mottola Trio.

Green Thumb:

Dolly:

S & R503

Mumph?

2011-02-18T21:12:00.002-05:00

You know, I could have gone out yesterday and spent my hard-earned $2.63 on a whole mess of half price candy hearts. Do you have any idea how many half price Valentines candy hearts can be purchased with $2.63? But instead because I love you all SO much, I stopped by the Sal Army on the way home from work and found this little beauty. It's pop/rock/jazzy versions of classical music standards (most of which I recognize but can't name). Though I know "Forgive Me, Beethoven" (my favorite cut on the album) is Chopin's Waltz in C# Minor:

The album also contains that one Rachmaninoff piece Harpo plays in Night at the Opera when he demolishes the piano (unlike my classical music part of my brain, my Marx Bros. memory bank is intact) and the one that turned into Lovers Concerto by the Toys (which came out in 1965, a year before this album was released), but without words. Another great cut is Secret Service, a spy sendup of a Hungarian Dance by Brahms

So anyway.... this is a pretty clever little album, most of which works pretty darn well. for 49 cent s, a bargain indeed, mold damage nonwithstanding. A late valentines gift to you!

Mumph?

Tell Her Bout the One-eyed snake

2011-02-16T16:57:00.000-05:00

Bluegrass, old time country and white people blues--throw in opera, rap, and Tibetan monk throat singing and that about covers 90% of music I automatically avoid. (Memphis) Beck and Roy "The Fishin' Musician" Gentry do the first three, though wouldn't it be entertaining if they had done an album combining the last 3? Now that's an album I could sink my teeth into.

I can't hate this record, because there is some mighty nice mandolin pickin' and even some tolerable yodeling mixed in with the songs about evolution and getting your gal likkered up on whiskey and telling her all about your one-eyed snake. Julian Cramer provides the mandolin music, and Fog O'Bryan is on the accordion. No, I have no idea who they are either, but I thought maybe if I mentioned it you might be fooled into thinking my knowledge of music is more far-reaching than it actually is. Beck seems to lose track of pitch along the way sometimes, though her old-timey Annabelle and yodely Cowboy's Sweetheart are pretty much spot-on. Roy's voice makes me think of guys who wear overalls and no shirt. But don't mind me....download it if you're into this sort of music, it sounds like the real thing even to these cranky ears.

Beck and Roy

Ham and Biscuits:

¡T Town!

2011-02-07T16:53:00.000-05:00

If you get misty-eyed longing for the days when Tijuana was just a whorehouse for the US, then this album is for you.

Scintillating, sinister, dusty and typically Mexican, this little town does jump! Scene of the bull fight, Jai Alai, and much other activity both illicit and otherwise, “T” Town reeks with atmosphere. “Manana” seems to be the order of the day, and no one knowingly does today what might be put off until tomorrow.

Many dogs, large sombreros, and dusky ladies of doubtful occupation are everywhere. Night life goes on until daybreak, and swarms of taxis cleverly bump their way through impassable traffic jams,. Liquor, “weed”, and women may be had cheaply everywhere, and U. S. servicemen from nearby military bases are heavy buyers.

Ah, nostalgia! I suppose a case could be made that Tijuana is still a bawdy house for the US, albeit one in an increasingly more dangerous neighborhood.

¡T Town!

High Fidelity Recordings, Inc. Album No. R810

Uno, dos, tres....cuatro Caballeros? We seem to have one caballero too many.

And could they had been any more emphatic that this album is for DEMONSTRATION ONLY?

Why Don't You Go Love Yourself

2011-01-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-26T15:46:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-19T21:25:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-15T20:57:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-01T11:39:00.000-05:00

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

Ain't We Got Fun?

2010-12-31T17:53:00.001-05:00

Here's a good choice for the end of the year....it's a really upbeat and quite entertaining party singalong album that can really swing. Too late for your New Year's party, but early enough to help nurse you through your hangover. I bought it because I thought the name of the band was delightfully stupid, and saw there was a version of Mississippi Mud, and had to know if they sing "the people beat their feet in the Mississippi Mud", or the original "the darkies beat their feet...." (answer: the former).

The combo really gets into it on some of the cuts, and I would say there are several keepers here--By the Waters of the Minnetonka, Casey Jones, and Keepin out of Mischief, and Silver Dollar, for starters. Not a bad return for an investment of a buck. Hope you like it too....and THANKS for all the support many of you have shown this blog. We all know Google shartity blogs are hanging on by a thread.....if you're not already part of my Facebook group, it's a good idea if you want to find out what happens next after this blog disappears. My passion for odd music will undoubtedly continue, and the satisfaction I get when I hear one (or more) of you say you like the music is considerable.

Hope your New Year is full of charmingly cringeworthy tunes. XXXOOO

Redheads

By the Waters of the Minnetonka:

Here's a cut not on this album:

Here We Go Again

2010-12-20T16:33:00.000-05:00

"If you believe the blossoms on a peach tree, the gentle warmth of the sun and the marvel of a new-born baby emanate from some source more lofty than the test-tubes of welfare state chemists......."

....then this one's for you. Today's album is from the Key Record label out of L.A., and reveals the lighter side of 1960s right wing nutjobs. Maybe you'll be surprised to learn that this label that featured the greatest hits of the John Birch Society also offered an album by future president Ronald Reagan, released in 1964, the same as this album.

One hee-larious story Mr. Anderson tells is of an Arkansas couple who move to Detroit, and seek out a school with the smallest number of black children attending, seven in all. They ask their young daughter about her first day, and she says that she ate her lunch with the seven black kids. When quizzed about her choice, she replies, "You didn't want me to sit with the YANKEES, did you?" Kids say the darndest things.

This might sound like a quaint period piece, but sadly it helps to explain a lot going on in US politics even today. Just replace "Communist" with "liberal", and here we go again.

Here We Go Again (1964)

Tippy music

2010-12-19T11:11:00.001-05:00

Just found out this is still in print, so you only get Tippy jr., a collection of 5 tunes from the album. In glorious mono.
Includes the title track, the maudlin Vietnam weeper Dear Brother, and the really stupid story of Pinocchio that really isn't a story at all. It ends abruptly when he falls in love, which I guess is a lot like real life.

Tippy jr.

The Freshness of Much Music

2010-12-12T12:22:00.000-05:00

This album gets awfully close to barbershoppery for my tastes, there's way too much in the pizazz column. On the plus side, there are several numbers that rate high for dorkitude, particularly the "Big Bad John" takeoff, "Big Bad Jane".

I'm not sure I understand the significance of the above phrase from the back of the album cover. Any ideas? It sounds awfully engrish.com to me.

...a quartet of modern young men who consistently break it up!

(note: "A La Mode Al" is totally ruined, I have no idea why I included it, other than to annoy you.)

Considerably-Less-Than-Happy Sing-a-Long

2010-12-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

Music from Kirby Stone Four (yayyy!)! But it's sing-a-longs like Oh Susannah and East Side West Side (booooo!). And Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous! (yayyy!) But all in all, the album sucks! (booooo!) So I didn't bother doing the whole album (yayy-boo!)

Kirby, what Were You Thinking?

StereoSonic Jubilee

2010-12-05T12:02:00.000-05:00

A mixed-bag vocal compilation featuring the kitschy-sultry Gretchen Wyler (a sexpot named Gretchen??), a succulent though nearly overripe Della Reese, the pitch-challenged Bobby Freeman, and the wrongfully obscure Accents (not the Indianapolis Ac'cents posted here previously) -- who has a copy of their Cha-Cha Jubilee for me?

It's StereoSonic, so it's GOT to be good!

Calypso Jazz

2010-12-01T16:11:00.000-05:00

This album is a sampler from the Cook records Caribbean series featuring Lord Melody, The Mighty Sparrow, the Brute Force Steel Band (great name!), as well as some other odds and ends of various quality (and interest to me). The live version of Lord Melody's "Mama Looka Booboo" is a complete musical mess, but is still an interesting peek into how Calypsonians performed live for one another, rather than in the more polished studio recordings made for the European and US markets. I didn't have a copy of Lord Melody's "Creature From the Black Lagoon" before this album, and it's a welcome addition to my calypso library.

Calypso Jazz

Bubbles, Without Buck

2010-11-29T22:25:00.000-05:00

He taught a young Fred Astaire some showstopping tap moves. He was part of the classic act Buck and Bubbles that played every important vaudeville house, and performed in the Hollywood classic "Cabin in the Sky". And even if it's not true that George Gershwin wrote the part of Sportin' Life especially for him, he played the role in the original cast of Porgy and Bess. Are those enough reasons for you to remember the name John W."Bubbles" Sublett?

Witness the awesomeness:

Despite some schlocky arrangements (think backup chorus on Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You") there's some real charm on the album.

Hear the music

The Swingin' Shepherd Plays For Teens

2010-11-22T08:32:00.002-05:00

A hearty "howdy" to all you teens who read this blog, or as you-all say, a "shout up", I KNOW there are veritable dozens of you out there, give or take a score, today's HEP PLATTER is for YOU! What could possibly be more in tune with today's teen than a flute-playing Canadian who plays swingin' dance versions of such cutting edge (OUCH!) numbers as Darktown Strutters Ball and (gulp, must take a Xanax before listening, you know all about my "Saints" phobia? SAINTS ALERT!) When the Saints Go Marching In? Plus, he wrote a bunch of new songs that are sure to resonate with the acne-inflicted, namely "Swingin' Shepherd Blues Twist", "Twist the Hully Gully", and "Twist That Thing" (I did, and it's still throbbing).

Is anyone else terrified of this babe on the front cover, with her painted-on black light dress and matching lip-smear? I'm going to put on this album and frenetically hully gully myself into an amnesic state in the hopes that her image disappears from my mind's eye.

Darktown Strutter's Ball

Koff, koff

Millions, and Possibly Billions of Strings

2010-11-15T14:39:00.002-05:00

Today’s album probably would be deemed too corny and over the top for Welk-watching blue-haired grannies, which means it may be just a tad too understated for me. Both Werner and Helmut rate alarmingly high on my last.fm charts due to my passion for Teenagers Rock Party and SuperTwist, respectively.

Unfortunately there is nothing of that caliber on today's album, though the kitsch factor rates a fairly respectable 3.7745 pfennigs/hectare on the official kitsch mathematical calibration scale. Such as Mr. Muller's "Bistro" (written by two Belgians so it HAS to be good!):

Zillions

Daddy's Little Girl

2010-11-11T15:16:00.002-05:00

Hmm. Well. I just made the mistake of googling today's artist only to find a lot of information I really didn't want to know.

ANYWAY!.

Of much lesser interest was the fact that he had a very wholesome TV show in the 50s and 60s. And this album is based on those warm fuzzy memories. Which of course means this album is shite, and despite having some peppy upbeat big band arrangements it's pretty forgettable.

Get a huge heaping bowlful of Post Toasties and give it a try, here.

You DO know I was referring to the album, right....?

Mexi-Kerr

2010-11-09T12:57:00.000-05:00

Here's an album that sounds a lot like when your mom singing along with her Herb Alpert albums while she was doing the housework. You mom, not mine, mine sort of hums along with music. Drives me nuts.

This album is notable in that it contains probably the most heinous version of "Michelle" ever recorded, even worse than the Beatles version, if such a thing is possible. .

And the intentionally funny, though ethnically insensitive, liner notes are actually kinda funny.

This seems like the sort of album that would have made the rounds 20 times or more online already--if you already have it, lucky you, because this version is scratched to death. Vaya con Queso, y'all!

Mexi-Kerr

Muri-cord

2010-11-06T06:19:00.001-04:00

Self-published album of music played on the Wurlitzer Style 235 pipe organ at the Six-Mile-Uptown Theatre in Highland, Michigan. The organ had not been played between 1942 and 1970, when it was fully restored. It must have been something to hear this wonderful instrument played in person.

Muri-cord S-1 Recorded May 9-10 1970

Scat Singing

2010-11-02T17:18:00.000-04:00

Today we have the dubious taste trifecta of homophobia, sexism, racism, and…. well……it made me laugh more than once. Despite its title, “John” is pretty sparse on the scatological humor, but is still the vinyl equivalent of poetry scrawled on a bathroom wall. The humor pretty much hits bullseye or totally misses the mark—but in all it’s still pretty funny to hear lounge-y arrangements of incredibly sophomoric one-liners (most of the songs run a minute or less). File this one under Borscht Belt After Hours, and also file it under It’s a Keeper, at least in my whacked out collection.

Tomboy:

Songs

Disembodied Clefheads

2010-10-27T15:09:00.004-04:00

"What, cheeky monkey, nothing to say today? Dance monkey, DANCE, dammit!!!"

Disembodied Clefheads

Are You Having any Fun?

The Ac'cents

2010-10-25T15:29:00.008-04:00

The Ac'cents were a band from Indianapolis who apparently made four albums during the mid-sixties, the last for RCA Camden. Other than that bit of information, and the fact that the RCA album could be mine for $40 (from a Danish website!), I was able to locate NOTHING about this band.

The record label, Forward Productions, gives an address of 1616 N. Elmhurst in Indianapolis, which is a residence (in need of a new driveway):

I wonder if there was once a recording studio in the basement? Ah, mysteries.

Do we dig the little drawing of the lads on the back cover?

As for the rest of the album, random thoughts, which is all I am capable of any more:

* I’m a sucker for just about any version of “Call Me”, especially that yummy bridge.

* If you’d ever wondered what a version of “Music to Watch Girls By” recorded by Cyrkle might have sounded like, now you can find out.

* They do a rousing (and borderline surf) version of Hava Nageela (sic), the inclusion of which says “wedding band” to me. Love it!

* Though I docked points for their version of the insufferable song “Impossible Dream”--odds are, the grandma that financed the making of this album insisted upon it.

* And at the end of Malaguena.......DRUM SOLOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Whoo!

The Ac'cents - Full Spectrum

Tschingta Tschingta Bummtara

2010-10-20T20:40:00.006-04:00

Today’s trip is a jolly Teutonic foray back to the 1930s, where apparently all the gents would stand on the street corners lustily singing such rousing tunes as “Tschingta Tschingta Bummtara” (the sound of hobnail boots on cobblestones), “Ruck-zuck!” (the sound of shattering crystal) and “Ich Geh auf Große Fahrt, Marie” (imagine your own sound effect for Marie, you shouldn’t have too much trouble). Manly good times! Jawoll!

And should you get all misty-eyed over this fine album on the Fiesta label (I guess “fiesta” is at least from the same continent), there is a second Fiesta record you could look for called “Vorwärts! Marsch!” The album cover depicts a giant eagle looking particularly predatory sitting atop a map of the world. Very inspirational indeed!

In fact it’s inspiring me to look into relocating to the Sudetenland where I think I’d be welcomed with open arms.

Tschingta Tschingta Bummtara - Herms Niel