Movie Night: A Band Called Death (2012)

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching another great documentary about a band that almost no one had ever heard of before, A Band Called Death.  

The Hackneys were three black brothers growing up in Detroit in the early 70's.  Being heavily influenced by Alice Cooper, The Who and Jimi Hendrix, they formed a raucous garage band and basically invented punk rock years before bands like The Ramones came along.  Local record labels and radio stations were hesitant to promote a band called "Death" and producers & promoters begged them to change their name to something more marketable.  Amazingly enough, they refused and they rest is rock & roll history!

The story of Death is a microcosm for the story of rock & roll: boredom and living on the fringes of society leads to immense creativity, artistry, vision and rebellion which ultimately mutates into various vices, egos, heartbreak and tragedy.  Sometimes in the story's third act, if we're lucky, there's some semblance of Redemption, comeuppance or the last laughs. Its like a Shakespearean classic (if Shakespeare lived in a ghetto, played punk rock music and had dreadlocks!)

The documentary itself is pretty good, but like we said about the Big Star documentary, the actual story and people involved are so amazing that you'd really have to screw the pooch to make a movie that's not entertaining!  Directors Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett do a fine job telling their story especially when taking into consideration that there wasn't a lot of archival footage of some noisy, pre-cell phone, pre-You Tube, Detroit punk band who never released an album, who never toured and who refused to change their name! DEATH! 

If we had to rate it, we'd give it two enthusiastic cocktail glasses up!  Cheers!

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

Get Yer Cha-Cha's Out!

Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra - "The Best of Cugat" (1961) - Mercury Records

Hola Friends,

Time to get your Cha-Cha's out!  We've got a great "best of" record from composer Cugat's Mercury years on the turntable tonight.

Spanish-born Cugat is most famous for being married five times and also for introducing American audiences to Latin-inspired big band music.

Tracks include: "Mama Inez", "Tea for Two (Cha-Cha-Cha)", "Tequila", "Taboo", "Sway", "Amor", "Amapola", "El Cumbanchero", "Ba-Tu-Ca-Da", "Misirlou", "It Happened in Monterey" and "Always in My Heart".

This is a fun record that's very good for a midsummer's cocktail party that's sure to end with a drunken and debaucherous conga line!  Olé!

That buxom blonde minx on the album's cover is Cugat's fourth wife, singer-model, Abbe Lane.  

Nice maracas!

RATING: 4 Cases of the Cha-Chas out of 5

Bummin' Around

Hank Lockin - "Bummin' Around" (1967) - RCA Camden

Howdy Partners,

We're slumming like a couple of hobos tonight on Vinyl in the Valley.  Bummin' around from one end of the tiki bar to the other while some sweet country tunes emanate from the turntable courtesy of Mr. Hank Locklin.

Throughout the Fifties and Sixties, Locklin would record various "concept" albums (mostly for RCA) done in his own distinctive honky tonkin' style.  Sometimes these records would be dedicated to one songwriter in particular (like Hank Williams or Roy Acuff) or sometimes they would be held together by a theme like 1958's Foreign Love or 1964's Irish Songs, Country Style.  In 1967 he released Bummin' Around with songs mostly about globe-trottin', philanderin' and all around slummin' it.  

I ain't got a dime, don't care where I'm going! 

One might think that the title track was an attempt to emulate Roger Miller's huge 1964 hit, "King of the Road".  However, the song "Bumming Around" was a hit for Jimmy Dean (the sausage-guy) way back in 1952.  (Dean Martin also had a great version released in 1965!)  Both Locklin and Roger Miller were important artists in the development of what would eventually be known as "The Nashville Sound", i.e. honky tonk music fleshed out with string arrangements, background choruses and slicker productions. 

On the back cover of the album, Locklin is billed as "A Country Man for All Countries" and with songs like the title track, "Headin' Down the Wrong Highway", "Kentucky Waltz", "Foreign Love", "Blue Hawaii" & "Filipino Baby", you're willing to believe it. But don't let that smile on the cover painting fool ya, Locklin is as horny as toad and doesn't care who knows it!  

Take the song "Filipino Baby", for instance.  Sure it seems innocent enough but there's definitely some potential for creepiness...

When the warship left Manila sailing proudly o'er the sea

Many sailors hearts were filled with sad regret

Looking backward to this Island where they spent such happy hours

Making love to every pretty gal they've met... 

She's my Filipino baby she's my treasure and my pet

Her teeth are bright and pearly and her hair is black as jet

Her lips are sweet as honey and her heart is true I know

And I love my little Filipino baby...

Another whiskey barkeep!

RATING: 4 Warships Leaving Manila out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: A Trick of the Tail

Genesis - "A Trick of the Tail" (1976) - Charisma

Hello Friends,

The cicadas are out in full force tonight.  The sun has set.  The drinks are flowing.  Its another prog-rock Saturday on Vinyl in the Valley.

Tonight we've got the seventh album by the English band, Genesis, on the turntable and the first one since the departure of lead vocalist/songwriter, Peter Gabriel.

Trick of the Tail has the band's drummer, Phil Collins, reluctantly taking over on vocal duties by stepping out from behind the kit in order to become a full-fledged and successful frontman.  (In this way, Phil is the Dave Grohl of 1970's prog-rock.)  Although the band remained pretty weird by mainstream standards, A Trick of the Tail is warmer and more whimsical than their previous record, the post-modern rock opera, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  They seemed to get back to basics with the focus on being a band again. By the end of the decade (and well into the next), Gabriel would be all but forgotten and Genesis would become Phil Collins's band.    

And what a way to kick things off with the awesome, "Dance on a Volcano", a slow-building prog rock epic!  Aside from the effective slow-fast-slow arrangement, one of the first things that the listener actually notices about the song is how similar Phil Collins actually sounds to Peter Gabriel.  Better start doing it right!      

"Entangled" is next and features some nice Steve Hackett 12-string guitar work (he also wrote the song) and lyrics about the British mental healthcare system and/or being molested in your dreams (or both!)

The live-staple & fan-favorite, "Squonk" is next.  It seems to be about hunting down the Squonk-- a mythical forest creature who hides from humans out of shame of being so ugly.  When catpured the creature dissolves into a puddle of tears.  Sounds pretty disgusting, but then again, a Squonk might be the perfect prog rock mascot! 

The first side concludes with the Tony Banks's keyboard-heavy ballad, "Mad Man Moon." 

Side Two opens up with "Robbery, Assault & Battery" which would not sound out of place on 1973's Selling England by the Pound (which we reviewed here.)  A song about a whimsical criminal eluding the police; Collins even does a cockney accent during some of the verses!

This is followed by the album's highlight, "Ripples".   A slow-building, beautifully-sung prog-rock ballad about getting older.  

▶ Genesis - Ripples - Vidéo Dailymotion 

Featuring some great Bee Gees worthy harmonies, the title track is next.  Another song that seems to be about a mythic creature ("The Beast") that has been captured and put on display in a freak show.  The song also beara a more-than-slight resemblance to The Beatles' song "Getting Better".

▶ Genesis _ A Trick of the Tail - Video Dailymotion

The record ends with a great very Genesis-y-sounding instrumental, "Los Endos", that sounds like something off of Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans if that album was a bit more user friendly. Its okay to be good at your instrument, kids, just don't be a dick about it!  

Although technically an instrumental, before the final fade out, Collins can be heard singing the lines, "There's an angel standing in the sun / There's an angel standing in the sun / Free to get back home."
   
FUN FACT: When Genesis toured in 1976 in support of this record, Phil Collins still couldn't manage playing drums and singing lead vocals at the same time.  Fellow prog rocked, Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) filled in on drums for the tour!

RATING: 4.5 bluegirls come in every size out of 5

Herb Alpert's Number 2

Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass - "Volume 2" (1963) - A&M Records

Hola Amigos,

Everyone's favorite Jewish trumpet player is back with his second album, simply titled, Volume Two, a record that at the time sold poorly compared to his debut record, The Lonely Bull (1962). Funny, because there's really not a big sonic departure on this record.  In fact, it sounds pretty much like everything else Herb Alpert has ever done!  

Lesson learned! Put a sexy brunette on the cover and come up with a snappy title and you're good to go!  Speaking of which, here's an interesting article about Alpert's famous Whipped Cream album cover model, Miss Dolores Erickson.

Volume Two kicks off with a rowdy crowd at a bullfight with "The Great Manolete"-- Alpert's tribute to the great Spanish Matador featuring some great spaghetti western-style trumpet solos.

His take on Ben E. King's (actually Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector's) "Spanish Harlem" is pretty good, too.  It features some signature Alpert trumpet-playing over an accompaniment of marimba and percussion, and ending with a pleasant wordless-vocal chorus with some fine acoustic guitar soloing.

"The Swinger from Seville" is a boozy, striptease-type number written by Alpert.  Its like the theme song to some sleazy television game show!  (Wife Swap?)

Side one ends with a trio of easy listening ballads, "Winds of Barcelona", "Green Leaves of Summer" and "More."  Much of the same, although, we really like the Spanish style guitar and lone trumpet that starts off "Green Leaves".

Side Two kicks off with a cover of Leonard Bernstein's "A-me-ri-ca" from West Side Story.

Perhaps influenced by the fledgling California band called The Beach Boys (heard of 'em?) is Alpert's own composition, "Surfin' Senorita".


There's two Sol Lake compositions, "Marching Thru Madrid" and "Crea Mi Amor", as well as another Herbal Pert original entitled, "Mexican Corn".  Sounds yummy!

The album concludes with some more of that rowdy crowd noise, cat calling and bottles clinking.  It sounds as if the Mezcal's been flowing all album long!  We end with a jubilant, sing-along take on Edith Piaf's familiar "Milord"!  (Although I don't think this version is necessarily what the original songwriters intended! A quien le importa!)      

RATING: 3.5 Surfin' Señoritas out of 5 

Prog Rock Saturday: Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here" (1975) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We got a bonafide classic on the turntable tonight as well as an answer to the question, how does Pink Floyd follow-up a masterpiece like 1973's Dark Side of the Moon?  The answer, of course, is with another masterpiece!   

Wish You Were Here is a tribute to Floyd founding member, Syd Barrett, who went cuckoo-bananas years earlier due to a combination of mental illness and massive amounts of psychedelic drugs! (Just say no, kids!)  At times poignant and at times incredibly cynical, the album is also songwriter Roger Waters' commentary of the state of the music industry and the band coming to terms with their new found fame. Dark Side of the Moon propelled Floyd from "weird British art rock band" to one of the biggest bands in the world.  Wish You Were Here is the sound of a band collectively coming to grips with themselves by taking one long last look at the past while keeping an eye on an uncertain future.

And speaking of futuristic-nostalgia (is that a term?), the album is bookended by the astonishing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part epic that builds from ghostly keyboards, to some incredibly bluesy David Gilmour guitar solos, to the famous four-note guitar theme that is still sad and spooky after all these years, to Waters' lyrics about his old friend, Syd:

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun... / Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky..."

Legend has it that originally "Crazy Diamond" was supposed to occupy an entire side of the record ala "Echoes".  We think it was an incredibly wise decision to break it up into two parts to serve as the record's Overture and Denouement.

The three songs providing the meat in this proggy sandwich ain't half bad either.

Side One's futuristic-sounding "Welcome to the Machine" is the band's "fuck you" to the music industry which supplants any personal or artistic vision with very impersonal and calculating motives.  "What did you dream?  Its alright we told you what to dream!"

This idea is continued on the flip side opener, "Have a Cigar" about the fat cats and greedy big wigs that basically run the music industry.  The idea behind the lyric, "And by the way, which one's Pink?" would later evolve into the protagonist for the band's 1979 double album, The Wall.  Lead vocal duties on "Cigar" are performed by English folk artist, Roy Harper.  (Hats off!)

As "Have A Cigar" ends we hear a tinny AM radio dial tuning around the stations.  Nowadays this little effect probably doesn't hold much water, but it must have been a real mind-blower back in '75 when people heard this for the first time!  While the background guitar continues, an acoustic guitar in the foreground takes over with another great Gilmour solo. The solo concludes, chords are strum and Gilmour sings their most famous ballad, "Wish You Were Here".  Talent-wise Floyd weren't as virtuosic as some of their proggy contemporaries, like Yes or King Crimson, but they were unmatched geniuses in the studio with the ability to arrange and layer their songs in such a way where lyrics about madness, alienation, paranoia & loss are perfectly complemented by their musical arrangements.

Listening to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on vinyl we're reminded of why vinyl is so great!  The clicks, the pops & hisses of the record add to the overall feel of the record. Its nostalgic and dark.  Flawed, yet preserved.  Its almost 40 years later and the album still resonates.

Shine on, kids!

RATING: 5 targets for faraway laughter out of 5 

Golden Grass

The Grassroots - "Golden Grass" (1968) - Dunhill Records

Hello Friends,

Its August, its Friday and we're ready for the weekend!  On the turntable we've got some classic Sixties tunes while Tiki T. whips up some summery cocktails!  

The creation of songwriters P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, The Grassroots were formed in L.A. in 1964 as an attempt to cash in on the budding folk-rock music scene.  Signed to Lou Adler's Dunhill Records, they had an early minor hit with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Jones (Ballad of a Thin Man)", but their first real success came with their song, "Where Were You When I Needed You" which cracked the Billboard 100.  More of a singles band than an album band, they were West Coast AM-radio pop at its finest!  (Think of them like a watered-down Monkees!)

Uncle Buck: "Hey, nice music! Who is that, the Grass Roots? Just kidding, I know my music!"

Golden Grass is a 'greatest hits' LP released in 1968.  It features their big hit, the very 60's-sounding "Let's Live For Today", as well as other mid-tempo rockers like "Bella Linda", "Things I Should Have Said", "Where Were You When I Needed You", "Feelings", etc.  The album's standout is the hit, "Midnight Confessions"- a driving bluesy rock tune and the first 'Roots song to feature a horn section.  (Quentin Tarantino liked it so much he used it on the Jackie Brown soundtrack!)

FUN FACT: Hey kids, if you think you recognize The Grassroots' guitarist, Creed Bratton, you do! Creed played a fictionalized version of himself on the American TV Show, "The Office" from 2005 to 2013.  He quit the band in 1969 over frustration with the producers and record label who didn't allow members to contribute much in the way of writing songs or playing their own instruments in the studio.  (Maybe we should start referring to this as the "Alex Chilton syndrome"!)

Here's a great clip of the band lip-synching the song "Feelings" in Doris Day's last movie (and George Carlin's first!), the incredibly-titled, With Six You Get Eggroll...

We really enjoy the "Under My Thumb"-sounding marimba in this one!

RATING: 3.5 no tickee no washees out of 5