Slade - "Merry Xmas Everybody"

Hello Friends,

Nothing puts us quite in the mood for the Holidays like some early 70's English glam rock!

"Merry Xmas Everybody" would be Slades's best selling single of all time which is fine by us, its a great song!  Plus, we're always suckers for Noddy Holder's lead vocals!

MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY!!

Hi-Fi Holidays: Around the Christmas Tree

Various Artists - "Around the Christmas Tree" (1957) - Decca

Hello Friends,

Found this one in a thrift store dustbin!  A dollar well spent!

Subtitled, "A Special Christmas Day Program" we were a little nervous at first that there would be sermons being preached between the actual songs, but we were pleasantly surprised when we gave it a spin and found out its just a fun mix of mid-50's holiday classics.

The lineup on the record is a little square, but who cares, its a nice, relaxing record to listen to on Christmas Eve after all the errands are run, the food is cooked and the presents are wrapped!

Here's a track listing for y'all:

Side One:
Columbus Boy Choir - We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Axel Stordahl - Glade Jul (which we think is "Silent Night" in Norwegian)
Dick Haymes - The First Noel
Vincent Lopez - Cantique de Noel
Four Aces - Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Owen Bradley - Medley: Joy to the World/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Away in a Manger
Columbus Boy Choir - Angels We Have Heard on High

Side Two:
Columbus Boy Choir - Deck the Halls
Dick Haymes - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Shulmerich Carillon Bells - Oh, Come All Ye Faithful
Four Aces - Silent Night
Axel Stordahl - Deilig Er Jorden
Dick Haymes - Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem
Four Aces - Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas Everybody!

RATING: 3.5 Decca the Halls (get it?) out of 5

(Bad) Movie Night: Christmas Evil (1980)

Hello Friends,

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

Its that time of year again, kids!  The weather sucks, everyone is broke, stress levels are high and suicide rates are off the fucking charts!  There's the constant feeling that in these days and weeks leading up to Christmas the other shoe is gonna drop!  Something's gotta fucking give! 

Luckily, Tiki T. and I relieve our holiday stresses with bourbon, like normal people. 

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Harry Stadling, the protaganist of Lewis Jackson's festive 1980 slasher flick, Christmas Evil.

Hapless Harry (played by Brandon Maggart) is driven totally batty by a traumatic event from Christmas past and goes on a Holiday killing spree dressed like a lunatic Santa Claus. Actually, the event really didn't seem that traumatic!  Basically, it involved his dad dressed like Santa Claus caressing and kissing his mother's thighs!  Geez Harry... get over it!

Now in his 30's, Harry has a crap job at the Jolly Dreams Toy Factory and when he's not working he's stalking the neighborhood children to keep track of which ones are "good" and which ones are "bad"!  Something finally snaps and Harry transforms himself into a homicidal Santa and Christmas Evil becomes the more festive of all the early 80's slasher movies!
  Is this what Christmases in the early 1980's were like?  Egg nog-crusted mustaches, crappy overhead lighting, bad suits, worse jokes and terrible disco versions of Christmas songs? Fan-fucking-tastic!

The movie is pretty much terrible and by that, of course, we mean its fucking GREAT!   

Look, John Waters agrees!

Two bourbons, up!

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

(* not really)

Hi-Fi Holidays: Christmas with Melis

Jose Melis - "Christmas with Melis" (1958) - Seeco Records

Hola Amigos,

We couldn't wait to hear what sort of magic was contained herein on these grooves when we found this little treasure on our annual Black Friday record store sojourn!

Early research (i.e. the liner notes on the back of the album) reveals that Jose Melis was a Cuban-born child prodigy who began playing music at a very early age.  He attended conservatories in Havana and Boston, and later Julliard.  He played percussion in a U.S. Navy band during World War II before eventually being recruited by Jack Paar to be the house musician on his "Tonight Show", essentially making Jose Melis an early version of ?uestlove!


From the looks of it Tiki T. and I were expecting some bombastic Space Age Pop not unlike that of the genre's grand wizard, Esquivel.  But, while the songs on Christmas with Melis are very much in a late 50's lounge form, the album overall isn't as weird as we would like it to be!

Its actually very understated, subdued (two words that really don't really speak to late 1950's Latin artists in general) and listenable!  There's some interesting sounds going throughout the record but the strength of the record is definitely his arrangements!  

On "Jingle Bells", for instance, Melis breaks the song up into three distinct sections.  He playfully starts out by adding a hint of Mozart to the familiar melody while a simple, understated organ provides playful counterpoint beneath the piano.  The middle section of the piece changes the melody to in include more minor chords on the piano, which sounds more Beethoven-y.  For the finale, things lighten up again and both the piano and the organ (probably a Wurlitzer) feverishly run to their conclusion.  All this in 3 minutes & 40 seconds!


Probably the highlight of the record is the original composition, "The Christmas Story".  Melis apparently performed this spoken-word Christmas gem (complete with his thick Cuban accent) on Jack Paar's "The Morning Show" during the Yuletide season four years prior to this release and got such an overwhelming response to it that he decided to record it for the album! link

The only other song with vocals on the album is another original, "Merry Christmas Music" which is also pretty good, but we can't help think of Ricky Ricardo when we listen to it!

The first side of the LP contains the more secular songs ("Sleigh Bells", "Winter Wonderland", "Jingle Bells", et cetera) while Side Two is home to the more religious ones ("Silent Night", "Adeste Fidelis", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and the like).  Overall, a fun holiday record that pairs nicely with some rum punch!



RATING: 3.5 making spirits bright out of 5 

Weird Al Yankovic - "The Night Santa Went Crazy"

Holy shit friends!

We're not sure how this Weird Al song from 1996 has been beneath our radar for all these years!

Its another classic from Ye Olde Weird One... this time with a festive twist!  It actually reminds us a little of The Kinks "Father Christmas" or Greg Lake's "I Believe In Father Christmas" but with a lot more blood & guts!  (Plus, I believe this song actually qualifies as a Yankovic original!)

There's a whisky-soaked Santa, reindeer sausage, Freddie Krueger and an X-files reference!  AMAZING!

Hi-Fi Holidays: Light of the Stable

Emmylou Harris - "Light of the Stable" (1979) - Warner Bros.

Hello Friends,

We're taking things down a few notches tonight with the incomparable Emmylou Harris and her 1979 album of Christmas songs, Light of the Stable.  

Great-sounding American roots music so get your fiddles and autoharps ready and dig out that mason jar full of moonshine, friends!  

The record begins a take on Tex Logan's Christmas cowboy classic, "Christmas Time's A-Comin'" which sounds like an old fashioned Appalachian hoedown with finger pickin' a-plenty!

About half of the songs on the record are typical Holiday standards ("O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Away In A Manager", "The First Noel", "Little Drummer Boy" & "Silent Night".) And if we're being honest, these are all good versions of "the classics", but based on the strength of the originals and lesser-known tracks, we kind of wish she went more in that direction! 

And speaking of which, the remaining songs include Rodney Crowell's "Angel Eyes" (which Emmylou would record as a duet with Willie Nelson on the Honeysuckle Rose soundtrack a year later);  the bluegrassy, "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem"; the mostly a-cappella, somber Irish lullaby, "Golden Cradle"; and the titular track, "Light of the Stable" (with background harmonies courtesy of Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Neil Young... who can be distinctly heard at the right volume or with the right headphones!)

Her voice is as timeless and angelic-sounding as ever and the title track is worth the price of admission alone! 

We like Emmylou Harris so much we can't even think of anything of funny to say about the album's cover art!

RATING: 4 White Candles Burnin', Old Heart's A-Yearnin' For the Folks at Home out of 5

Hi-Fi Holidays: Christmas Time

George Wright - "Christmas Time" (1962) - Dot Records

Hello Friends,

We're kicking our hi-fi holidays off in style this year with a great sounding LP by famed organist, George Wright.

Now there's no shortage of Christmas LP's that feature an organ as the featured or lone instrument, but in our opinion nothing beats George Wright's magic fingers swirling around on a Wurlitzer Pipe Organ.  

The music here is imposing and big-sounding.  Perfect for rallying the troops and just as a perfect for picking up the mood at early December cocktail party! There's not a lot of subtlety to be found on a record full of pipe organ music! Another high ball for Tiki T!

Some of the sounds coming off this record are so bonkers that even the liner notes feel compelled to clear things up:

"These are not multiple recordings; that no splicing has been done; that there has been no 'overdubbing'; in short, incredible as it may seem, that these are complete and original live performances..."

FUN FACT: In addition to playing hundreds of theaters and recording dozens of albums in the 50's & 60's, Wright might be best known for his work as studio organist on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital in the 60's & 70's.

RATING: 4.5 Quartermaines and Spencers out of 5

William S. Burroughs - "A Thanksgiving Prayer"

Hey Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

This year, Tiki T. and I are most thankful for Dixie-dog and middle-period Fleetwood Mac records!

Bobby Bare Jr. - "North of Alabama By Mornin'"

Hello Friends,

"North of Alabama by Mornin'" is the lead off track on Bobby Bare, Jr.'s 2014 release, Undefeated. 

Distorted, twangy guitars.  Clever and soulful songs about drinking, being on the road, break-ups and America.  There's funny songs, sad songs, and (our favorite) funny-sad songs!

This one seems to be about piling your band and your gear into a crappy van and driving cross-country to make your next gig!

Kinda reminds us of LA Turnaround, a fancy nickname for trucker's speed that was used and abused by touring country musicians in the Seventies because they would take enough of it in order to drive from Nashville to Los Angeles without stopping for sleep!

Now that's how you hustle!

Dirty Sound Magnet - "21st Century Witch"

Hello Friends,

This is one of our favorite songs of 2014 courtesy of the Swiss band, Dirty Sound Magnet!

The song has a good, stoner-sounding 1970's FM radio vibe.  

Nice trippy video too!

Which reminds me, why can't any of the 21st Century witches that I know look like the girls in this video?  Most of the ones I meet look like this...

(sigh)

RIP Jack Bruce (1943 - 2014)

Hello Friends,

We're living in a day and age where our rock star idols are going to all start dying off in non-rock & roll fashion.  

Like the rest of us, they're gonna start dropping like flies in hospital rooms (and if we're lucky) surrounded by family and friends.  

Jack Bruce, one of rock and roll's greatest bass players, passed away a couple of weeks ago due after losing his battle with liver disease.

In addition to fronting the legendary supergroup trio, Cream, Jack Bruce also played bass for a who's who of rock n roll, ranging from Zappa (Apostrophe) to Lou Reed (Berlin).

Obviously Bruce will be remembered first and foremost as a bassist whose playing style infused rock, jazz, soul and classical influences.  The thing we love most about Jack Bruce is his voice on all those great Cream songs.  Constrained, dark and ethereal like a confused choir boy who's struggling to sing the blues! 

RIP Jack Bruce!

Ryan Adams - "Gimme Something Good"

Hello Friends,

Well it looks like Tiki T. and I survived another wicked All Hallows Eve.

We've managed to avoid jail, death and zombies!

To celebrate we've got one more Halloween-themed video to close out the festivities.

"Gimme Something Good" is from Ryan Adams' 2014 self-titled release.  

Pretty good, straightforward FM-style rock song.  However its Elvira aka the Mistress of the Dark who's the real star here!  We've been fans of Elvira since the 80's and let's just say there's two things about her that we REALLY like!

FUN ELVIRA FACT # 1: Hey Kids, did you know Elvira (real name Cassandra Peterson) once dated Elvis Presley!

FUN ELVIRA FACT # 2: She also had bit parts in a bunch of movies of you've seen and didn't realize it was her like Diamonds Are Forever, Fellini's Roma, Cheech & Chong's Next Movie & Pee Wee's Big Adventure!

FUN ELVIRA FACT # 3 (aka, probably the greatest Elivra-related trivia of all time!):  She appeared as a red-headed stripper donning pasties and a g-string on the cover of Tom Waits' 1976 record, Small Change! More like Small World!

Alice Cooper & The Muppets - "Welcome To My Nightmare"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FRIENDS!

Its our favorite holiday here on Vinyl in the Valley and we're celebrating with the unofficial godfather of all things Halloween, Alice Cooper.

Here's a fantastic clip of Alice performing "Welcome to My Nightmare" on an 1978 episode of The Muppet Show! Fan-fucking-tastic!

So friends, beware of ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night... we're off to go trick-or-treating and we'll (hopefully) conjure up some demons along the way!

Danzig - "Am I Demon"

Hello Friends,

What's Halloween without everyone's favorite dwarf  misfit on the jukebox?

"Am I Demon" is from Danzig's 1988 self-titled debut record which is definitely worth a listen.

Great song that's pretty representative of Danzig's Misfits-meets-Sabbath sound!

TV On The Radio - "Wolf Like Me"

Hello Friends,

Its Halloween all week long on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're listening to Brooklyn, New York's TV on the Radio's epic, "Wolf Like Me" from the 2006 release, Return to Cookie Mountain.

A couple of years ago, Chicago's favorite two-piece band, Local H did a pretty outstanding cover version as well.  Definitely worth a listen.

We're howling forever!

Shane MacGowan & the Popes - "Haunted"

Hello Friends,

Back in the day, before Halloween, the Irish celebrated the pagan holiday of Samhain (which translates to "the end of summer").  During Samhain, The Celts believed that the dead would rise and roam the earth and the only way to protect yourself from them was to light fires, dress in costumes and, no doubt, drink heavily!

Here's everyone's favorite Irishman, Shane MacGowan duetting with Sinead O'Connor on the 1995 song, "Haunted" (A song originally recorded by The Pogues for the film, Sid & Nancy, featuring Cait O'Riordan on the girl part.) 

It addition to being a sultry and haunting torch song, this has one of MacGowan's greatest lyrics:  "You were so cool, you could have put out Vietnam"!

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - "Mind Crawler"

Hello Friends,

Its Halloween week on Vinyl in the Valley.

We're carving up some pumpkins and gettin' ready to TP the neighborhood!

To help boost our spirits, here's some Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats with a super creepy video for their 2013 song, "Mind Crawler" (from the album Mind Control).

Some Sabbath-inspired stoner rock from Cambridge, England.  

There's plenty of motorcycles, Manson, skulls, Satanists & naked writing bodies... I wish our Halloween was more like this!

Indigos

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - "Ellington Indigos" (1958) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

Sipping a well-made Old Fashioned with some Duke Ellington on the turntable sounds like a perfect Fall record for a perfect Fall night!

This 1958 recording of ballads and torch songs is nothing short of masterful.  Laid-back, incredibly melodic, warm and familiar, the eight songs here capture the immortal Ellington at his atmospheric finest, setting the perfect mood for an October evening in New England: a full moon rising in the burnt black sky, the stars out in full array, the ubiquitous rustling of leaves, a lone dog howls in the distance. 

The opening track, "Solitude" (an Ellington original from 1934) is worth the price of admission alone.  It begins with Ellington's lone, sad-sounding piano stumbling through the melody for two minutes until the tempo picks up and the full band kicks in! 

Side One is also home to Rodgers & Hart's "Where or When" (featuring some haunting Paul Gonsalves tenor sax), "Mood Indigo" and "Autumn Leaves" (featuring Ozzie Bailey on the album's lone vocal performance!)

Side Two is in very much the tone and mood as Side One.  There's Ellington's own "Prelude to a Kiss" (featuring Johnny Hodges on the alto sax solo), "Willow Weep For Me" (with Shorty Baker on trumpet), "Tenderly" (Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet) and "Dancing in the Dark" (Harry Carney on baritone sax).  

Another terrific set by Duke and the boys!  Time for another Old Fashioned!

RATING: 4.5 I Miss You Most of All My Darling When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall out of 5

Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings - "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang"

Hello Friends and Happy Friday,

Here's a great outlaw country song from 1978.  

If nothing else I've learned four things from this song:

1) There ain't no good in an evil-hearted woman,

2) I ain't cut out to be no Jesse James,

3) You don't go writin' hot checks down in Mississippi, and

4) There ain't no good chain gang!

On a related note, can you imagine the massive amount of speed consumed by these two after this performance? 

They probably drove cross-country afterwards! #thegoodol'days

Isaac Rother And The Phantoms - "Mima Mounds"

Hello Friends,

Some fun Horror-billy straight outta L.A.  Fun song!  Great video!  Lots of boobs!

And get your minds outta the gutter, kids, Mima Mounds are a real thing!



Now here's a guy that gets it!  Rock on Isaac, rock on!

http://isaacrother.com/

Movie Night: KISS Loves You

Hello Friends,

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

Tonight we're watching a 2004 documentary about the self-proclaimed world's greatest rock & roll band and their loyal legions of devoted fans, KISS Loves You.

The film begins in 1994.  Its been over 10 years since the band toured with their makeup on and even longer since the four original members performed together.  KISS cover bands and KISS conventions become a sort of cottage industry for fans nostalgic for the music, the kabuki makeup, the comic books and the pyrotechnics.

All this changed by 1996 when the original members of KISS decided to reunite, don their makeup and go on a massive world tour-- putting the novelty of a lot of the cover bands on the back burner.  (Also, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were pretty aggressive in putting an end to unauthorized KISS conventions... jerks!)

Speaking of jerks, one of the film's most memorable stories has to do with Ace Frehley-imitator, Bill Baker.  Bill played the Spaceman in a pretty solid Ace Frehley tribute band, "Fractured Mirror". He talks about how through the years he and Ace actually became sort of friends.  Ace would hook him up with an old guitar or some old costumes and Bill would help his "friend" Ace out occasionally as well. He'd help him move, lend him money, etc.  When KISS reunited, Bill called Ace to see if he could get him some concert tickets and, you guessed it, Ace dropped him like a hot potato!  Poor Bill, you've been Aced!

The documentary is pretty interesting.  Its a DIY, low budget affair that has some great interviews with various fans and musicians like Dee Snider, Sebastian Bach, Handsome Dick Manitoba and Jerry Only.  The film is at its core an ode to fandom and fans of KISS just happen to be some of rock & roll's most fanatical!

We give this one two raised cocktail glasses!

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

(* not really)

The Picturebooks - "Your Kisses Burn Like Fire"

Wow! What a fucking boot-stomper!

Great video and great song from German motorcycle-blues-garage rock duo, The Picturebooks.  This is what The Black Keys should sound like!

This song is from their October 2014 release, Imaginary Horse.  Check it out at their great label, Riding Easy Records.

Raw, stripped-down blues, trains, motorcycles and a smoking hot brunette to boot! What's not to love?

We think The Picturebooks are going places, friends!

Here's the band's website.

Songs and Dances of Death

Modest Mussorgsky - "Russian Songs from 'Songs and Dances' of Death" (1978) - Summit

Hello Friends,

October's here.  Days are shorter, leaves are changing and we're classing the place up with some Russian songs and dances of death courtesy of one of our favorite Russian composers, Modesto Mussorgsky.  

Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) was one of five important composers from the mid-19th Century whose work focused on themes unique to Mother Russia and who often turned to Russian folklore for inspiration. Late in his career and deep in the throes of alcoholism, he would compose his "Songs and Dances of Death" song cycle, one of his last important works. 

Written for piano and voice (usually a bass or baritone), the song cycle is comprised of 4 compositions with macabre lyrics based on really dark poems by a friend of the composer, Count Arseny Golenischev-Kutuzov.  

On this particular record the piano duties are handled by Giorgio Favaretto and the bass vocals by Nicolo Rossi-Lemini, two very distinct, non-Russian names!

Obviously these songs are sung in operatic Russian. But a quick look at the English translations reveal some of the best death lyrics ever written:

A child is groaning...  A candle, burning out,
Dimly flickers onto surroundings.
The whole night, rocking the cradle, 
A mother has not dozed away with sleep...

Magical languor, blue night,
Trembling darkness of spring.
The sick girl takes in, with her head dropped, 
The whisper of the night's silence...

Your body is tender, your trembling is ravishing...
Oh, I'll suffocate you 
in my strong embraces: listen to my seductive 
chatter! ... be silent!... You are mine!"...

Forest and glades, no one is around. 
A snow-storm is crying and groaning,
It feels as in the gloom of the night
The Evil One is burying someone...

The battle is thundering, the armour is shining, 
Copper cannons are roaring, 
The troops are running, the horses are rushing
And red rivers are flowing.
The midday is blazing -- people are fighting, 
The sun is declining -- the fight is stronger, 
The sunset is fading away -- but the enemies
Are still battling more fierce and hateful.
And night has fallen on the battlefield.

(Complete translation text here.)...   \m/

In a nutshell, Trepak takes place on a bleak and snowy night when death comes along and begins dancing with drunken peasants.  Death tempts the revelers into eternal sleep with thoughts of Summer, warmth and contentment.

Lullaby is being sung by a mother to her dying child while in Serenade a young ailing girl is being serenaded by a seductive Death who sings outside of her window.

The fourth and final piece of the song-cycle is The Field-Marshall (or The General) in which Death assumes the guise of a General overlooking the slaughter on the day's battlefield with a certain grim satisfaction.  In tribute to the fallen, Death will conduct a dance of death over their bones at midnight!  Weird shit! 

Because the song-cycle only occupies about 20 minutes (or a single album side) of space, this LP is rounded out with some of Mussorgky's shorter vocal works including, Song of the Flea, Where Are You Little Star, The Grave, The Seminarist & The Old Man's Song.

All are pretty good, but we really like the Death stuff!

In our experience, cold nights, warm, flowing drinks, Russians and the spectre of death all seem to go pretty hand-in-hand, so this album is going to be a favorite on our October turntable! NOSTROVIA!

RATING: 4 Evil Ones Burying Someone out of 5