Of Mice and Maps

Yeah, I'm on vacation.

Well, burning up some of the Paid Time Off I've earned and haven't used in the last few years and which I've been accruing at a steady pace.

Didn't go anywhere. Been spending my time doing a few things that require me being awake for normal people daylight  hours.

It's odd, but having time off is nice and I earned it.
I've been able to do some record shopping in brick and mortar stores I wouldn't normally get to.
Found a few things too.

This post isn't any of that stuff.

Winter Ocean Mary Go Round (1987)

This is a sweet bit of 80s neo-psychedelia from the Voxx label.
The "Fan Club" address is for Ontario, California which  is 35 miles outside off Los Angeles according to wikipedia
I can't find anything immediately on a quick google, so I'll leave the mystery to unravel itself.

I'm Talking To You (1979)

So if you've been playing along at home in January of last year I kicked the festivities off with some records by Boston band the Dark. One of the songs on their first record was called "Judy" and it starts with a quote from this record and is about Ms. Judy Grunwald who fronts this band, the Maps.

 It's a great, should have been a hit kind of record.

From what I have gathered after Ms Grunwald left the band to pursue other interests the remainder of the band evolved into Art Yard who unfortunately didn't get to release their single on Propeller Records before it imploded.

It would have been amazing.

Oh the things the were and could have been....

Pitter Panter Pooter

Not to be confused with the Duke Ellington tune "Pitter Panther Patter"

That's a duet between the Duke and his ace bassist Jimmy Blanton.

That goes something like this:

This post is about something very different.

Very.

 Italian Sunglasses Movie (1981)

Gary Panter is better known as an artist and illustrator who is long involved in the Residents/Ralph Records sphere. So it will come as little or no surprise that the Residents ably abet Mr. Panter in this particular seven inches of avant wonderment.

You, dear record enthusiast, may also recognize quite a bit of Panter's commercial album artwork

The other cool as fuck thing about it is that the sleeve is actually a large foldout poster.
(I couldn't find an online picture of the actual poster, but trust me.)
I have plans on getting myself a second copy someday to have one I can frame and hang proudly on my wall. It's of a robot playing a guitar.

 I'd make space for that.

Action (2000)

I suppose if I hadn't wanted to class this place up with a bit of Duke Ellington I could have alternately named this post:

"Panter, Paul & Lara"

that's probably a much better play on words.




 Oh Well.
Choices were made and we must live with them.

As it is, I'm simply biding my time while some bolognese simmers for an appropriate amount of delicious time and random play on the music player thinks this is a good night to sort through the terabytes of material to play multiple tracks by the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Wanda Jackson.

Oh yeah, this single. Hunger has me kind of mentally wandering off into the woods.

It's on Kitteridge records (1999-2006) which was label that I'm looking to pick up everything on because I haven't been disappointed yet.  They've been gone so long all the links on the website point to Myspace. Sad. (though I may have to poke around and see if I can score some NOS titles on the cheap direct from them.)

I also actually have two copies of this because I found a cheap copy and had forgotten I already had one. But at least I have both the green and the blue unreadable covers now.

Apparently this sibling duo also released a full length as Layton.

My wantlist grows one full length compact disc longer.

Three Years Since the World Got a Little Shittier

Indeed. Yes. Indeed.

Back Again (Try...) (1984)

So it was on this date in 2017 that the world lost Tommy Keene.

He's someone that nobody I've ever known had a single bad thing to say about.

The world is a lesser place for his passing.

On this 12" you get a side of what made him a Power Pop icon backed with a couple of live covers. First a reasonable stab at Roxy Music and then a Rolling Stones cover from their last listenable record.

Enjoy and pour a glass of something nice for Tommy.

I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground

A rare triple play because I'm still adding shit at a furious pace and can barely keep up.

You're welcome.

Spend the Future in 1994 (1998)

Vince Mole & his Calcium Orchestra started life as a 4-track project led by Chris Parfitt that began while he was still a member of Apples in Stereo.

Katina (2000)

That being said, you know that there's a strong connection to the Elephant Six Recording Co. and aesthetic.

This one was #4 in the Happy Happy Birthday to Me label's 2000 single of the month club that I kind of randomly picked up.

Kevin Whiskey (2002)

This was the last that they were heard from.

Though if you, as a responsible dabbler in internet musical auditioning, are interested the band offers a "deluxe" version of this particular record on their Bandcamp page.

Be a pal and toddle off and get the extra tracks and make them a buck or two.

There's a good chap.

*

No Talking.

Just posting.

Google is your friend.

The Greatest Time ep (1995)

the Mad Scene

Relentless (1990)

Men & Volts

Surprise Surprise Surprise.

Yes Virginia, there is a lot of records to be posted...

Let's go back Down Under, shall we?

Seaside Compilation (1991)

Here's that vaguely hinted at compilation 7" in the previous post and the only remaining Moles song from their original Australian Seaside output along with a couple of skull splitters from aptly named fellow Sydney bands Headache and Brokenhead.

I do not in the slightest regret shelling out fifty cents for this. It only makes me love it more



Say...as long as we're in the area let's travel forward in time and 909 km SW to see what's up in Melbourne

Melbourne Holiday (1998)

I won't type the tracklist out because it's easily visible in the pictures.

Cat's Miaow stuff was previously posted in 2015. Super Falling Star (who will appear here probably years from now if I keep this up at this pace.) do a version of  "Love is Blue" originally a mellow instrumental tune made famous by Paul Mauriat & his Orchestra in 1968.

Soak in it.

Eh, Have Some More

I'm feeling beneficent.

Untune the Sky (1999)

The Moles redux.
They released their first full length "Untune the Sky" in 1991 on Seaside.

This is a compilation put together by Flydaddy Records in 1999 that compiled their output on Seaside in one lovely compact digital package for your convenience. Previously Flydaddy had put out the second Lp "Instinct" in 1994, which I swore I had at one point, but can't locate and I think I may have given it to somebody many years ago.

So in addition to the just previously posted double 7" in pristine digital order there is the original "Untune the Sky" an additional single and 12" included here.

It lacks only a song on a Seaside compilation 7" from 1991 to be complete.
If only there was a particular day of the month when compilations...

Name's the Same Redux Plus

Everything old is new again and things are constantly shuffled and recycled.

Thus is it always with band names.

There being a somewhat finite amount of names for things in the English language there's bound to be a bit of overlap.

Which leads us into today's lesson.

We Are the Moles (1968)

One fine day in 1968 a single by a band calling itself the Moles entitled "We Are the Moles pts 1&2" appeared with little fanfare. It was both a fine bit of English psychedelia and a parody of it all in one neat little package and with no information about the band.
Ultimately it was revealed in a roundabout fashion that the perpetrators were in fact the Shulman Brothers of Simon Dupree & the Big Sound under psuedonym.

The year previous they had a minor hit with this song called "Kites"

They seem like nice lads but alas were unable to follow up on their initial minor success and broke up before a second Lp could be finished.

They then proceeded to take revenge upon the world by forming a prog rock band called Gentle Giant because the world had not suffered enough for ignoring them.

What's the New Mary Jane (1992)

Sometime later and on the near opposite side of the world Richard Davies and his compatriots formed a band in Sydney, Australia that likewise to Simon Dupree & the Big Sound decided to call itself the Moles.

Their small discography included this wonderful bit of Australian neo-psychedelice nonsense in the form of a double 7 inch release asking the important question "What's the New Mary Jane?"

Here it is in its original hissy, clicky vinyl format.

Let it flow through you like a nice cold lager laced with psilocybin.

The Drill Remains the Same

I should really consider eating something before I start posting because I inevitably realize that I'm hungry and haven't eaten the moment I start typing and I'd have something more interesting to talk about as a lead-in to the rest of this nonsense.

Oh well.
A pattern is a pattern.
(and the beans and wienies in the fridge merely await a reheat for consumption.)

I also am aware that the previous post was the 666th one I've done which is scary in more than one way.

A Girl For All Seasons (1999)

Following up from the previous post of sweet pop music with the initial appearance by Allen Clapp and the gang calling themselves the Orange Peels.
It's on the Bus Stop Label so you know I would have picked it up regardless.

And now everybody's a winner.

Something Strange (1993)

The Non-Stop Kazoo Organization is a tad bit more mysterious than you might expect.

This one even confuses the folks over at Cloudberry Cake who are usually really good about digging up the dirt on these kinds of twee indiepop wonders.

No matter. The main dude involved is named Jacques Speyser and it's French. He's involved with a number of other bands also on the Cornflakes Zoo label.

The vagueness of it all should just make it more appealing which is not even particularly necessary since it's more than appealing enough on its own.

So there.