Not Even a Mouse...

 

Yeah. Christmas eve and shit.

I worked Thanksgiving, so I have tonight off.

Lucky me.

It just means I'll wake up in the morning and there won't be anything open.

Blue Things (1966)

So a number of years back I sold off a bunch of Lps at a weekend flea market thing set up in the back parking lot of Grumpy's Bar and Grill when one still existed on Washington ave. It was great fun. I split a table with a good friend who had lots of stock left over from his defunct record store which missed the resurgence in vinyl by just a few years.

I chose things I knew were worth a bit of scratch but didn't have any particular attachment to having a physical dust collector for or which was big enough a thing that there were always reissues of reissues to be had and if someone wanted to blow a few hundred bucks on a copy I've had forever and bought for twenty bucks, I'd be Ok with that.

So I sold off a bunch of things. But not everything. The boxes with those records kind of sat in my closet untouched for a few years. Then we moved and I've been going back through them to see what's left and if I still want to keep it.

This is one of those records.

The Blue Things eponymous Lp from 1966. A really nice stereo copy that I think I picked up for like ten bucks in the latter half of the 80s. Pretty prime Folk Rock of the period which I really didn't bond with back in the day. But there were a few tracks I liked enough that I kept it around.

So I pulled it out of the box for reconsideration and digitized it and it's reclaimed a place in the regular collection once again and order is restored to the universe once more.

There's still quite a few in there too. Who knows what will come up next time I delve...

Son of the Return of Yet More 60s Shite

After spending way too much time clipping loud clicks and pops out of a full Lp side, I'm all out of patience, if I had much at all to begin with.

 Cry (Over Her) (1966)

Here's a fabulous fucking big ticket item that I for some reason own and paid a pittance for many many years ago. (Super cheap because the record is actually cracked but still perfectly aligned so it doesn't make a lot of noise.)

It's by the Malibus from Cranston, Rhode Island and while the A side gets all the glory and compilation space, I do have a large soft spot for the Zombies...errr...inspired flip "Leave Me Alone" which bears absolutely no copyright infringing resemblance to the Zombies "Leave Me Be" They were just fans.

You (1966)

This one by the Maltees Four has been comped a few times. Here it is in its pure unfiltered form. It jangles along nicely. The only real solid thing I could find on the interwebs as to their origins is that they are alleged to hail from La Puente, California before being swallowed by the mists of obscurity.

I can only assume it's really fucking rare because it's never been sold on Discogs and Popsike doesn't even show a single listing for it. Which is really strange considering how much this kind of stuff tends to change hands among collector scum.
Who knows, I paid like seven bucks or something or it back in the 80s..

1966

Hey here we go.

Get out your pens.

A Kiss in the Dark (1966)

the Keymen with their Teleguitars were as near as I can figure with minimal effort on my part from Los Cruces, NM.

Add it to your scorecard now.

The upbeat flip "One Love (If It's True)" is the winner, but there sure is some fine whistling on the a-side.

Determination (1966)

the Kitchen Cinq.

Amarillo, TX

Lots of fuzz

Produced by the legendary for various reasons not all of them flattering, Lee Hazelwood.

I had the Lp, but I believe I ended up selling it. or it's in a box in the closet. Either way, this is what I got for you. Make do.

Back to the 60s Garage

I just want to toss something on the stack while I'm still in the mood

Midnight Hour (1966)

Kit & the Outlaws. Dallas, TX
The flip of this fuzzed out Wilson Pickett cover is the much comped "Don't Tread on Me"

You're welcome.

Not at All (1968)

This is of interest to anyone who's interested in the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

It's the Jerms, a California group who put out a number of singles but this one is on Shana records and produced by the WCPAEB's own Shaun Harris.

Does that make it a great single?

Not as such, but it does make it a bit more interesting to me anyway.

So there's that.

Volume 2

It's the day before Valentine's Day.

Suck it romance.

Ils Sont Fous Ces Gaulois! - Vol. 2 Le Retour! 

Here's the second volume as a companion to the previous volume I posted last month.

It's more of the same only there's even a band from the Belgian Congo.

Upend this record and let it flow over your beleaguered mind like so much absinthe over a sugar cube.

You'll hate yourself in the morning

But probably not much more than you already do.

 

Get Hip to Those Crazy French

Fuck it.

This is the shit you need in your life.

Ils Sont Fous Ces Gaulois! 

A 1997 vinyl compilation of the cool hip sounds of Young French speakers in the middle 1960's from France and Canada.

If you haven't heard this.

You need to.

That's all I have to say about it

 

All the Kingsmen

A two-fer.

Names the same, different bands

Haunted Castle (1966)

It's the band and a single with the song that you most immediately think of when you see the name the Kingsmen. "Louie Louie" is the b-side here.

It's an essential part of every music collection and having a nice mono version from a half a century old 45 just makes it sweeter.

You are now prepared in case a toga part breaks out near you.

The A-side is a nice instrumental number too.

You're welcome.

Week End (1958)


What may add to some confusion is that there had previously been a band with a Top 40 hit (this song) by a different group calling itself the Kingsmen.

This Kingsmen was actually the Comets of Bill Haley & the Comets moonlighting for a little extra cash.

It's a nice little instrumental bit of the Rock and Roll.

It is also Toga Party appropriate.

You're welcome.

Just

Whatever. I'm on a roll
and there are poppy seeds.
They make my ass itch.


Are either of these singles a revelation of goodness?
Not really, I'd actually debated whether or not about posting them at all individually, but I do like to bundle names and concepts together.

So here we are.

Hook, Line and Sink Her (1977)

From Tampa, Florida came Just Boys who were Power Pop but leaned a bit more heavily on the Rock side of that equation. 
Nice hair though.

I Can't Grow Peaches on a Cherry Tree (1966)

This is a 1960's Folk Rock duo by Al Gorgoni and Chip Taylor who together and separately wrote a shit ton of songs in the 60's. Chip Taylor being himself responsible for "Wild Thing" which I shouldn't have to remind you of. It's already in your head and irritating you just reading that. (He's also the hand behind "Angel of the Morning" which almost negates any good he ever did.)

Google the names and see how many you know.

The Homer & Jethro Project #53

#53

Still going.

October 1966 - lsp-3673 - Wanted For Murder

Here we go. Back on track with their strengths. Relevant links go to the originals. Of note is the spoken word track "Great Men Repeat Themselves" which is a parody of an urban legend that alleged numerous weird coincidences surrounding the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln & Kennedy.
This is like that, but funnier despite it concerning coincidences featuring then president Lyndon B. Johnson


I Love You Drops
No Hair Sam
He Loves Me
I Want To Go With You
Wanted For Murder
Great Men Repeat Themselves
I Don't Flirt Anymore
Drop Dead Little Darlin'
Lying Time
Tiger By The Tail
Good Little Boys 
What A Lousy Day Was Yesterday

The Homer & Jethro Project #52

#52

It's actually been a few weeks since I last put a post together for this project. But I have the advantage of doing these months out in advance so I get to have my yearly Fall bender and try and catch up with that and the Hüsker Dü box set on Numero Group while this can sit and stew for as long as it will. It will still be here and still be months ahead of me for whenever I get around to picking it back up again.

There's even yet a few items I need to pull the trigger on and others to digitize and lots of other recent arrivals that I've really yet to sit down and gone through. It's never fucking ending.

At least it's less expensive than a meth addiction and I get to keep my teeth. Plus the records are reusable and some gain value, so like, totally worth it for whoever gets my shit when I'm dead. (if the people in charge of dispersing it aren't complete morons and just chuck it all in a dumpster...)

But we're here for Homer and Jethro

May 1966 - lsp-3538 - Any News From Nashville

I'll be honest, this is not my favorite of their Lps. It sounds like they had some fun making it, but it's way too Nashville inside joke to really resonate with me 52 years after its release. It's more or less kind of a throwaway for me, but other people's mileage may vary.

I mean, I usually listen to what I'm posting about while I type so I can remember what it is that I'm posting about. In this case, I'm not. I'm listening to Hüsker Dü.

The Homer & Jethro Project #51

#51

This is my goal number for the night's typing.
I want a coffee and some time on the couch turning my brain off for a while playing Fallout for the umpteenth time and the umpteenth hour.

I feel like I've earned it.

January 1966 - lsp-3462 - The Old Crusty Minstrels


The title is, for those not in the know, a jab at the New Christy Minstrels who were a large ensemble cast folk chorus of interchangeable performers going all across the country being super positive and a well scrubbed Aryan wet dream singing the songs of the people. (And their moniker was in fact derived from Christy's Minstrels who were a pre-Civil War 19th Century blackface minstrel show. So. Yeah, there's that aspect too.)

Relevant links below:

King of the Camp
Red Roses For A Blue Lady
Cotton Fields
She Broke My Heart At Walgreens
The Old Potato Peel Booze
The Chase Is On
The Great Society
Charlie Cheated on His Income Tax
The One On The Right Is The One On The Left (this is actually from 1966 when Johnny Cash made a comedy record called "Everybody Loves a Nut" which included a number of songs previously recorded by his wife's former musical accomplices. This one and the next for example.)
Egg Eatin' Dog (see above)
People Who Like People
Camp Runamuck

My sleeping schedule is all messed up

Went out of town for a week and had to flip my schedule to normal people time now I'm in some weird twilight sleep where I'm neither completely night nor day and awake when I really shouldn't be. It's going to take weeks for me to sort this shit out.

In the meantime here's some oddities to wet your sonic whistle

Daddy LoLo (1958)

Yeah, so it's kind of hard to figure out what was going on here. This single released by Ganim's Asia Minors was the product of Charles Ganimian, and Armenian-American musician and virtuoso oud player whose parents had emigrated from Turkey in the early 20's

Here he applies his heritage and oud playing to making a novelty rock and roll song.
It works.

I Wonder Why (1967)

Here's Utah. 

At least that's what the intertubes says, and I for one, am inclined to just go ahead and trust it on that.

So imagine if you will that you are a young hip garage band from Provo, Utah and you've got a sweet raw garage fuzz number and something important to say to the world, but you don't trust that any radio station that might play your record will choose the song you want to share with the world. 

What do you do?

If you're the Gents the solution is to put a version of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" as the flip to the fuzz number. Ain't nobody going to play that shit.

(Or it could be that they only had the one song. Either is plausible)

That's Your Problem (1966)

A pleasant enough 60's garage number foisted upon an unsuspecting teen audience by the production factory at Bang records under the auspices of songwriter Jerry Ragovoy. This was in the days when there were still professional songwriters who would cobble together a track with studio musicians and throw it out to the radio stations like so much sonic chum. If somebody picked it up and it started gaining some traction, they'd quickly assemble a group of long haired youth to go out and be that group for as long as the momentum lasted. Bang had a few of these faux teen groups ( the Strangeloves being probably their most famous product)

Which isn't to say that this isn't a nice track. It is. It's a professional product and nicely done. Jerry knew what he was doing and his intended audience. That it was the product of a white collar dude in his 30's for a rebellious teenage market is just icing on the proverbial cake.

It's almost weirdly reversely subversive. The revolution will not be televised, but it will be packaged and sold back to you wholesale.

Have an issue with that and your delicate sense of authenticity?

As the song goes:

"That's your problem, it ain't mine..."

Minnesota 60's

It's a new day, but let's listen to some old fucking music from Minnesota.

the Echomen (1966)

From Hastings, MN. Starting life as a surf band in the most landlocked portion of the continent. I mean, there's plenty of water around here, but no surfing to be had.  "Long Green" is a much better than one might have expected garage rocker about the evils of money. Reminds me of the Kingsmen on one of their better days.

 A quick look on the interwebs says they mutated into another group called the Bedlam Four sometime after their eyes dilated and they recorded this ode to the Hydrogen Atom before calling it quits in 1968.

the Electras (1966)

These boys came from Ely, MN and wrote this little envious fuzz pounder about that older guy that all the chicks love because of his car. (complete with car sound effects.) I mean, he's probably like 24 or something. Sure he can buy you beer, but can he give you that pure teenage love that only the singer can provide her? Probably not.... But fortunately for them they had the "Courage to Cry" for the flip. 

Bitch.

The difference a D makes

It was so much presumable fun posting like named bands last time I'm going to do it again.

the End - Memorandum (1966)

From Chicago. They apparently aren't big fans of paperwork and offices. They do apparently enjoy Buddy Holly enough to garage up a version of "Not Fade Away" on the b-side. Though it may be that they only learned the song from the Rolling Stones.

the Endd - Project Blue (1966)

From LaPorte, Indiana. Our first Hoosier record, I think. This is one of those great fuzz records. The b-side here is a cover of the Banshees recording of "Project Blue",  the fuzz makes it worth the trip. I think I like the sparer sound of the Endd myself. For my tastes though the Plug Side "Out of my Hands" is the fucking money shot. It's a heartfelt fuzz ballad. He met somebody new and he can't help himself. It's biology, baby. Teen tragedy at its finest and that drum fill just slays me.

Can You tell this is the eleventh post I've queued tonight?

Snotty 60's shit. Comped  probably a bunch of  times already. These are my copies.

 1966 - The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk

The Driving Stupid. It really doesn't get any better than this. Really. Listen to this and then realize that you'll be dead one day. Then listen to the other side and be glad you did.

1965 - Girl Can't Take a Joke

A listing on Arf!Arf! Records site places them in New York state. I'll trust Erik Lindgren on that point. He is an authority on such things. Song itself is a fabulous jangly bit of snot. She can dish it out, but she can't take it when someone plays with her heart. Sucker.

Comped to Death

Sometimes there are just some songs that are available in a bunch of different places that are just too good not to throw up here for the fuck of it. I don't know, maybe there are still some folks who haven't been overexposed to the bottomless pit of Nuggets and Pebbles collections and are unaware of some of these things. Or perhaps you're just some kind of weirdo who really like to have crackles and pops in their mp3s so they can pretend they're having an analog experience. I don't care I really really fucking love this stuff.

 

the Rationals (1966)

the Rationals were from Ann Arbor, MI. The A side is a decent enough cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" that apparently was a minor hit in a few markets around the country, but not enough to really take them to the next level. It's Ok. But nothing special. But like lots and lots of garage 45's the gold is on the flip.

I have to say I'm not really much of a Beatle fan. (They're kind of meh to me in comparison to so many of their contemporaries and frankly I've just heard their shit so much in my life that it bores the fuck out of me and I'd really rather listen to something else I haven't heard a million times already.) All that being said, "Feeling Lost" is probably the best Beatles song that they didn't write. (See also: "Lies" by the Knickerbockers which I've had to patiently explain to more than one person was not the "Fab Four") The Rationals took the harmonic blueprints and ran with them and produced pure gold. This is one I can listen to multiple times at a stretch.

 

the Todds (1967)

This super fast fuzz monster eeked out a little bit late in the cycle of garage punk monsters, but is no less fucking awesome. In 1967 it probably already sounded a bit dated by a year or so, but who cares from the perspective of the 21st century. The Todds were obviously from Chicago, IL. (The Toddlin' Town label is a pretty good clue there.) Once again the other side is a bit of let down. A pleasant enough ballad "Things Will Change" but everything you need is in "I Want Her Back". Strap on your Go-Go Boots and go to town.

Things Forgotten

Back in the Stone Ages of the 80's before the compact disc there were relatively few options for a poor fellow to have his music on the go. There was the transistor radio, of course, but that kind of tied you to what was on the radio and it was pretty bleak. You could spend some dough and get a ghetto blaster style boombox, but then you'd have to share and not everybody was amenable to that.

Then came along the Walkman and by the early part of the decade the price came down enough to be economically feasible for a penniless schmuck like myself to afford one and make his ever expanding record collection go portable. This involved lots and lots of cassette tape compilations that would be carefully chosen in the morning and carried around with a journal of juvenile profundity and various other bits of detritus in an over the shoulder man bag purchased at the Army/Navy store on Boylston st. I'd usually carry five or six ninety minute cassettes of most recent purchases. I loved making tapes. I traded tapes with other like minded individuals. I made compilation tapes for potential dates. (which is in itself a very special courtship ritual that's all but lost today.) I liked doing it.

Fast forward to the 21st Century and as I start digging into the 60's Garage/punk/psych box that I haven't really paid attention to in quite a few years and I start remembering how much I absolutely fucking loved this shit and I can still almost recreate the track listings of certain tapes that I played over and over again....

 The Lyrics (1967)

From San Diego. Both sides are quite good garage rockers of the era. This is their third single of three. It's the second one with the snotty bluesy "So What" that's been comped to death, but I personally listened to this single a whole fucking lot and still can't decide which side I like better.

 The Muffins (1966)

The Muffins were most likely from Rhode Island. They're kind of a mystery. They back two different vocalists on this single One side of this is a reverb drenched romantic ballad as performed by John Broughton called "Walk Alone" which is cool enough by itself if you're like me and like that moody New England garage thing.
But it's the garage punker "One More Time" on flip that gets all the action. This one is fronted by the inimitable Shawkey Se'au that gets all the panties damp in collector circles. Primitive and repetitive and wild. Just like the doctor ordered.

 the Novas (1964)


The Novas were from Minneapolis and threw down this love note to famed wrestler Crusher Lisowski in 1964 during some of the last gasps of the US surf music era that would be unceremoniously killed off by a bunch of lame English bands that year. But here's your opportunity, you turkeynecks to finally do the eye gouge in the safety of your own home.

The Other Singles Box

For a long while I was also pretty obsessed with 60's garage/punk/psych records. I dug deep and picked up as much as I could afford along with the other multiple musical obsessions I had. (Keeping up the prolific output of The Fall alone was enough to break any starving twenty-something's bank or at the very least put a sizable dent in one's beer money.)

I broke into that box the other day with a decision to finally do away with the arbitrary vinyl segregation of that crap from the rest of my crap. It was all going to be one gigantic pile of vinyl crap from now on. There's some really good stuff in there.

Since that's how I roll, I'm a gonna start with some of shit from the New England area because that's what I wanted to listen to when I pulled this shit out.

 

Hey Little Bird (1964)

I'll Keep Seeing You (1966)

The Barbarians are probably the famous names here. They have two big claims to fame. 1. They made an appearance in some cuts of the "T.A.M.I. Show" along side of such big names as Chuck Berry, Beach Boys, an amazing James Brown and a really really baked Rolling Stones. They performed their first single "Hey Little Bird" and 2. the drummer, Moulty, had suffered an accident earlier in his youth and had lost a hand and drummed with the aid of a prosthetic hook. Not really a gimmick, but something interesting. (there was at least one other 60's percussionist with a hook in the Cryan' Shames which though hardly qualifies as a trend makes you go hmmm...) This does however come into play for the B-side of "I'll Keep on Seeing You" which features a rather over the top inspirational number entitled "Moulty" about persevering in what you want to do in life despite the setbacks you may encounter along the way....Forgive me, I'm getting misty just thinking about it...

It is truly a camp classic that I'm sure Moulty regrets agreeing to do to this very day. I can't blame him, but still I find it a rather guilty pleasure. The one thing I've found of note about this particular recording is that the actual Barbarians don't actually play on this one. Instead, Moulty's passionate inspirational plea is backed by the Band (you know, the one who backed Bob Dylan) without Levon Helm. I'm not sure that they keep this on their resume, though.

 Is This It (1965?)

Georgie Porgie put out a number of singles with a couple of different groups during the 60's. This is maybe the second or third one. Here's an interview with him. It's one of those ones where the A-side is kind of crap, but the B-side is gold. "You've Been Gone a Long Long Time" is a little garage pounder slathered in a shit ton of reverb. I'd forgotten how much I really loved this song. It's also one that for whatever reason hasn't been comped to death like most of its ilk. I have one long suppressed memory of making an epic journey home one lysergically inspired evening many many years ago because I really really needed to hear that song because it was calling to me and it was exactly the way my head sounded that evening. It was pretty blissful and we probably played it a dozen times before moving on. Ahhhh, youth.

Rag Bag (1965)


Little John & the Sherwoods on the Fleetwood label. The A-side is a reasonable garage number about dating a girl from the other side of the economic tracks. Not bad, but listenable. The money side is on the flip with "Long Hair". It's a lovely snotty fuzzy manifesto regarding hair length the upshot of which appears that despite society's disapproval of their coiffures, they're still banging society's daughters anyway. I find that message a lot more inspirational than "Moulty".