Built To Spill - Living Zoo (2015)

Good to know that these guys are still at it!  

Idaho's pride & joy!

The Dictators - "Search And Destroy" (1977)

Hello Friends,

Its almost the weekend and we feel like street walkin' cheetahs with hearts full of naplam!

Time to break things! 

Enjoy this live clip featuring Handsome Dick Manitoba in his prime!

Alice Cooper - "Is It My Body" (1971)

Hey Kids... This is the Alice Cooper band in their prime!  

Sleazy, scummy, down & dirty rock & roll!  

They don't make 'em like this anymore! 

Pass the Sausage... its a Sunday Jazz Brunch!

Jack Teagarden - "Jazz Maverick!" (1960) - Roulette Records

Hello Friends,

Its Sunday Jazz Brunch time on Vinyl in the Valley and we need some coffee, some French Toast and some breakfast links to help soak up the ample quantities of booze we drowned ourselves with last night.

On the turntable, we got a great record by Mr. Jack Teagarden aka "The Father of Jazz Trombone".  Jazz Maverick is the perfect soundtrack record for an early Spring Sunday Brunch/hangover cure; its bright and upbeat without being too manic-sounding or overly complex.  

A self-taught jazz trombonist originally from the Texas panhandle, Teagarden eventually made his way to New York and, later, Chicago playing with a who's who of jazzmen along the way including Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke and, perhaps most famously, Louis Armstong. (Some of his best work was done as a member of Armstrong's All Stars from 1946 to 1951; their duet of "Rockin' Chair" is always worth a listen!)

An all-time great, Teagarden would be best remembered for his blues-influenced, ethereal-sounding, slightly-behind-the-beat trombone playing.  And his gravelly, world-weary tenor would complement his trombone playing perfectly.  Not bad for a white guy!

This record would sadly be one of his last recordings as he would die of a heart attack in January of 1964, age 58.  Its a first rate recording, opting for a more a throwback/traditional swing sound rather than the bebop that had all the hipster's hopped up!  

Side One contains the upbeat "Ever Lovin' Baby", "Riverboat Shuffle", a breakneck version of "High Society" and the pretty ballads, "Aunt Hager's Country Home" & "Blue Dawn".

Side Two kicks off with "Roundtable Romp" and a pensive version of Fat Waller's "Ain't 'Cha Glad".  Perhaps the album's best track is Teagarden's take on the melancholy standard, "A Hundred Years From Today" with heartbreaking lyrics like: "The Moon is shining and that's a good sign / Cling to me closer and say you'll be mine / Remember darling, we won't see it shine / A hundred years from today."  F'ing Great!

(A "hundred years from today" is when it feels like my hangover will be going away! Know when to say when, kids!)

The side and record closes out with a fantastic update on The New Orleans Rhythm Kings' 1923 classic, "Tin Roof Blues".  Great record from start to finish, not a stinker in the bunch!

Now pass the syrup!

RATING: 4 its always Spring and music is the thing 'round Aunt Hager's Country Home out of 5

Neil Young's Second Record aka Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (1969) - Reprise

Hello Friends,

We've got a true classic on the turntable tonight, Neil Young's remarkable sophomore LP, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Now Tiki T. and I are pretty big fans of Neil's self-titled debut record (review here), but he really ups the ante here.  It would be his first full collaboration with Crazy Horse 

And it sounds so fucking perfect on scratchy vinyl.

Opening with one of Neil's signature songs, as well as one of Classic Rock's greatest riffs, the punkish, "Cinnamon Girl."

Next up is the sublime title track which, according to YouTube, a lot of military guys and gals like listening to while stationed overseas.

Onto side two.

Few can do lonely as well as Mr. Young can and "The Losing End (When You're On)" is no exception.  

"Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)" is another quiet & acoustic song featuring some great fiddle work courtesy of Bobby Notkoff.  The Rockets, by the way, were a psychedelic blues band out of L.A. who released one album in 1968 before changing their name to... Crazy Horse.

Neil Young wrote in the liner notes on his Decade compilation album that this album's closer, "Cowgirl in the Sand" was written (along with "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down By The River") in Topanga, California while he was suffering from the flu and fighting a fever of 103 degrees!  

On a related note, the last time I had the "flu" I stayed in bed and watched a marathon of that television show where the adult who played Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch married some hot, young model who liked to be naked all the time.

And by flu, of course I mean the Irish variety...

RATING: 5 gotta get away from this day-to-day running around everybody knows that this is nowhere out of 5

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The Pogues - "Streams of Whiskey" (1984)

Slainte!

Salem's Pot - "Nothing Hill" (2014)

Hello Friends,

Some heavy, heavy, melodic, doom metal from Sweden (of course).

The epic "Nothing Hill" is from the band's debut LP, …Lurar Ut Dig På Prärien, which based on this song and the album cover is worth every penny!

Thin Lizzy ~ "Do Anything You Want To" (1979)

Hello Friends,

Its a Thin Lizzy kinda Friday.

Great song from their 1979 record, Black Rose: A Rock Legend.

Enjoy!

The Orwells - "Norman" (2014)

Hey Friends,

These Chicago kids are still at it.  This is one of the best tracks from their Sophomore effort, Disgraceland.

Snotty, catchy garage rock, lots of drinking and serial killers = right up our alley! 

You're not gonna make it to the sequel!

Skin Tight!

Ohio Players - "Skin Tight" (1974) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

We've got Dayton, Ohio's favorite funk band on the turntable this Saturday night and Holy Crap its funktastic!

Skin Tight would be the band's fifth LP, their first for Mercury Records, and the first to feature more jazz-based & disco arrangements which would eventually launch the band into a much more mainstream direction.

Its a soulful and funky affair with lots and lots of layers of vocals and music which makes it a particularly good listen on vinyl.  Every time you put this record on the turntable, you're almost guaranteed to hear something you haven't heard before!  (Not to mention, it continues the tradition of the Players' super sexy and risque album covers!)

The title track gets things started and the Vinyl in the Valley headquarters is rockin'.  Its officially our favorite funk song of the moment.

Check out those capes!

Things get turned up even higher on the next song, "Streakin' Cheek to Cheek" featuring a driving wah-wah, some killer Fender Rhodes soloing & a right-up-in-your grill horn section to really get your juices flowing.  The layering and complex, but accessible, arrangements in a song like this would lay the groundwork for everything Prince would revolutionize within the next ten years or so! 

Side One winds down with the oozing, sexy, soulful ballad, "It's Your Night / Words of Love" that ends with a minute-or-so long piano interlude that could have been written by Gershwin (or Vince Guaraldi). (Plus we really, really like the muted guitar fills in the chorus!)

Flip the record and we're off to the races once again with the amazing "Jive Turkey", a funky kiss-off anthem to end all funky kiss-off anthems!  One of the guys singing even sounds a little like Fozzie Bear... Waka Waka!

Things get a little schmaltzy and lovey-dovey on "Heaven Must Be Like This".     


The record's sixth & final song is the ballad, "Is Anybody Gonna Be Saved?"  It starts out dark & menacing (like a foggy night under a street lamp) and builds up to a full-blown gospel-funk epic!  Damn!

Dayton, representin'.

RATING: 4.5 Bad Bad Missus in those Skin Tight Britches out of 5

Electric Citizen - "Light Years Beyond" (2015)

Hello Friends,

Happy Friday!  

Here's some good old-fashioned Sabbath-influenced stoner rock from Cincinatti, Ohio.

The other "Cin" city!

Is it 5'oclock yet?

He's dead, Jim... RIP Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

Everyone's favorite Vulcan, Leonard Nimoy, died last week.

We always liked this song from the 1967 record, Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space.

It seemed that for a large part of Nimoy's career, he could not escape the shadow of his most famous character, Mr. Spock.  (He even penned a 1975 autobiography entitled I Am Not Spock.)  However, in retrospect, how many actors can honestly say that are responsible for one of television & movies' most iconic characters?  Everyone knows Spock. His monotone voice. His pointed ears. The Vulcan greeting.  "Live Long & Prosper", etc.

By 1995, it would seem that he came around to embracing his role as pop culture icon, when he published his second autobiography entitled, I Am Spock. 

All in all, he had a great career.  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan still has one of the most heartbreaking scenes in any Science Fiction film ever.  

The documentary-style weekly Television series, In Search Of... introduced a generation of wide-eyed nerds to such unexplained phenomena as lost civilizations, extraterrestrials, myths and monsters, missing persons, magic & witchcraft!  Its where I first heard about Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster & The Bermuda Triangle!

Of course, the apex of his career was his appearance on The Simpsons...  

That is unless you consider this to be the high-point of his career...

Or this...

RIP Leonard Nimoy!

Enjoy the giant pon farr in the sky!