Hello Friends,
Here's a new video from Swiss psych-rockers, Dirty Sound Magnet.
Not bad, kinda trippy.
We prefer their slightly doomier and darker stuff like 2014's 21st Century Witch.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Dirty Sound Magnet - "Merry People" (2016)
Not bad, kinda trippy.
We prefer their slightly doomier and darker stuff like 2014's 21st Century Witch.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
The Benny Goodman Story
Soundtrack - "The Benny Goodman Story, volume 2" (1956) - Decca
Hey Friends,
The tiki bar is swinging tonight, friends!
This LP is the second soundtrack release from 1956's The Benny Goodman Story starring Steve Allen & Donna Reed.
Never saw the movie, but we picked this record up at a thrift store and were pretty happy with it.
Side One is comprised of four songs played by the Benny Goodman Trio/Quartet featuring Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Gene Krupa on drums and Lionel Hampton on vibes.
Side Two has five songs all of which feature Goodman's full orchestra, including one song with vocals, "And The Angels Sing" as sung by Martha Tilton.
The album ends with a rousing version of Goodman's signature song, the Louis Prima-penned, "Sing, Sing, Sing".
Can't help but listen to Gene Krupa's drumming throughout this record and be reminded of the movie Whiplash.
Just waiting for J.K. Simmons to show up at the tiki bar, lift the needle off of the record and ask, "Were you rushing or were you dragging?"
RATING: 4 Silver Waves That Break on Some Undiscovered Shore out of 5
This LP is the second soundtrack release from 1956's The Benny Goodman Story starring Steve Allen & Donna Reed.
Never saw the movie, but we picked this record up at a thrift store and were pretty happy with it.
Side One is comprised of four songs played by the Benny Goodman Trio/Quartet featuring Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Gene Krupa on drums and Lionel Hampton on vibes.
Side Two has five songs all of which feature Goodman's full orchestra, including one song with vocals, "And The Angels Sing" as sung by Martha Tilton.
The album ends with a rousing version of Goodman's signature song, the Louis Prima-penned, "Sing, Sing, Sing".
Can't help but listen to Gene Krupa's drumming throughout this record and be reminded of the movie Whiplash.
Just waiting for J.K. Simmons to show up at the tiki bar, lift the needle off of the record and ask, "Were you rushing or were you dragging?"
RATING: 4 Silver Waves That Break on Some Undiscovered Shore out of 5
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Reverend Horton Heat - "Let Me Teach You How To Eat" (2013)
Hey Kids,
What better way to get ready for Thanksgiving than with some punk-rockabilly and sexy burlesque dancers making a mess with foodstuffs?
I, for one, will be having seconds!
I, for one, will be having seconds!
Monday, November 21, 2016
Singles Night: The Strokes - "Juicebox" b/w "Hawaii" (2005)
Hey Friends,
Dippin' into the 45's again tonight. Tonight we got The Strokes!
Hey kids, remember when The Strokes were really good?
Yeah, us too!
We really like their first their first two records a lot. Sort of like Nuggets-style garage rock by a bunch of NYC pretty boys influenced by Guided by Voices and beer. Hooks galore!
"Juicebox" was their pretty good leadoff single from their third LP, First Impressions of Earth (2006), and by this point in their career we were kinda like, "Eh". The song is pretty good and catchy; it just seems that somewhere along the way, they lost their relevance and we stopped caring!
The B-Side, "Hawaii" (a song not on the record) is pretty good too, but it reminds us more of the spazzy, jazz-influenced art pop of fellow New Yorkers, Vampire Weekend.
Enjoy!
"I Got Lucky On Prom Nite!"
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Beethoven's Fifth
Leonard Bernstein & The New York Philharmonic - "Beethoven Fifth Symphony" (1962) - Columbia Masterworks
Hello Friends,
Keeping it classy once again on a Sunday Morning. This time with an all time great performance of one Classical music's greatest works, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as performed by the famous New York Philharmonic orchestra as lead by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein! Hangover cures don't get much better than this!
No one loves a good hook more than Tiki T and myself and perhaps there's no piece of music with a better hook that Beethoven's Fifth. The famous Da-Da-Da-Daaah intro which was described as Beethoven as the sound of "Fate knocking at the door". I'll say!
That theme, in one form or another, permeates throughout the record as if to say there's no escaping it!
Its tense, terse, fierce and unrelenting. Fate is something to be feared. You can run, but you can't hide. Its the ultimate inevitable.
Beethoven was one dark dude!
By the time we get to the Fourth and Final Movement (the "Allegro" for you fucking snobs) the music takes us out of the darkness. The chords change from C-minor to C-major and we are left feeling satisfied, triumphant. Things sound more like a victory march than they do a funeral procession. But in the movement's final bars, we're once again reminded that Fate (a much more subdued, Da-Da-Da-Daaah) bubbles not far below the surface. Enjoy your victory today suckers because who knows what tomorrow may bring?
(For Beethoven, Fate may have in the form of the loss of hearing he started experiencing around this time.)
Our favorite part of this Symphony (and one of our favorite things in our very limited knowledge of Classical music) is the lamenting little oboe that appears out of nowhere amongst the turbulence and grandeur of the First Movement. Buried within a barrage of the four note theme (Da-Da-Da-Daaah), everything stops and a short, quiet and timid oboe solo emerges. Like a small, lonely man crying out. Its like the sound you might hear if you were drowning in the ocean, sinking fast beneath the tumultuous rocking waves, a moment of solace, calm and clarity before dying. Fucking heartbreaking.
Here's a real short clip of what we're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffacsi35Z6s
Great record and a great piece of music! Hangover is (almost) gone and we're ready to greet the day and hit the ground running!
RATING: 5 ludwig vons out of 5
Friday, November 18, 2016
Masked Intruder - "Beyond a Shadow of A Doubt" (2016)
Happy Friday Friends!
Midwest punk-pop from Madison, Wisconsin.
We also like the Class of 1984 poster that makes a quick cameo in the video!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Wallace and Ladmo Show - "Soggy Cereal" (1970)
Hello Friends,
We first heard this song on the Pebbles: Volume 3 - The Acid Gallery LP as performed by a cat named Mike Condello.
A little further research showed that Mike Condello was the musical director on a kid's show out of Phoenix, Arizona called "The Wallace and Ladmo Show". On the air from 1954 to 1989, it remains the one of the longest running children's shows in U.S. Television history. We watched a few clips and boy-oh-boy did it look weird!
Then, holy smokes, we stumbled upon this clip here and its Commadore Condello's Salt River Navy Band performing what song? You guessed it, "Soggy Cereal", in all its propagandist glory! Yowsas!
On a much sadder note friends, Mike Condello, who suffered from lifelong depression, took his own life in 1995!
Bummer!
Bummer!
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Pebbles volume 3: The Acid Gallery
Pebbles, volume 3 aka "The Acid Gallery" (1979) - BFD Records
Hello Friends,
Tiki T. and I have recently started collecting the Pebbles LP series courtesy of the BFD & AIP Record labels. Awesome compilation records, first released in the late 70's, subtitled as "Artyfacts from the First Punk Era".
They're a good companion to the more popular NUGGETS series-- records filled with 2 or 3 minute punk masterpieces mostly from the years of 1966 thru 1969. Bands consisting of pimply-faced kids in basements and garages scattered throughout the country. Some bands (and band members) would go on to bigger and better things, but most would only end up playing local teen centers, VFW Halls, dive bars and local college radio stations. Only a few would be fortunate enough to open for a touring national act like Herman's Hermits, The Jefferson Airplane or The Animals. A handful would be fortunate to record a 7" or two and then call it a day fading off into rock & roll obscurity.
One-Hit and No-Hit Wonders. Footnotes in the Rock & Roll History Books.
Some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written may have only been heard by a handful of ears. These records provide a time capsule into an honest and less-cynical past. Behind every band, there's a story; some are triumphant; some are tragic; many are uneventful... but who doesn't love a good rock & roll story?
Tonight we've got the third Pebbles LP on the turntable, also known as "The Acid Gallery". Eighteen tracks that are out there! Waaaaay out there! Enjoy!
Side One
1. "Diamond Mine" - Dave Diamond & the Higher Elevation. Dave Diamond was a rock DJ hailing from South Dakota who made his mark in the late 60's playing records by then burgeoning psychedelic bands. (He was the first DJ to play "Light My Fire" by The Doors!) This spoken word psychedelic poem sounds a bit muddled and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but it kicks the record off in quite the trippy fashion! (Dave Diamond passed away in May of last year! RIP Dave! We hardly knew ye!)
2. "Suzy Creamcheese" - Teddy & His Patches. Great acid punk from San Jose garage band doing their interpretation of Frank Zappa & the Mothers.
3. "Suicidal Flowers" - Crystal Chandelier. Awesome fuzztone on this Doors-inspired song courtesy of a little known garage band from either Texas or Providence, RI.
4. "Swami" - William Penn V. Fucking fantastic San Francisco British Invasion-influenced acid rock. Opened up for the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Them & Paul Revere and the Raiders. Mickey Hart played drums with them for a while before joining The Grateful Dead. They were supposedly about to sign a record deal with Fantasy Records before disbanding and becoming another rock & roll footnote!
5. "I'm Allergic to Flowers" - Jefferson Handkerchief. What a band name! We don't know a thing about the Jefferson Handkerchief except that they released this one novelty single in 1967 in order to poke holes in the whole "Flower Power" movement!
6. bonus track "Prana (excerpt)" - Unfolding.
7. "Flight Reaction" - The Calico Wall. Psychedelic garage punk from Minnesota band! Great trippy & paranoid song about fear of flying... Chorus: "And I swear I'll never fly again!"
8. "Loose Lip Sync Ship" - The Hogs. Weird tune, heavily influenced by Zappa. Starts out as a great garage instrumental, then moves into a druggy doo-wop spoken word section, before winding up as an abstract space jazz hymn! Fun Fact: The Hogs were better known as The Chocolate Watchband!
9. "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk" - The Driving Stupid. More whacked-out psychedelic garage rock, this time from the state of New Jersey. The acoustic stomp-blues part is fine, but the screeching, screaming vocals seem to be a little overboard! This band's biggest "hit" was called "Horror Asparagus Stories", included on Side Two! Oh boy!
Side Two
1. "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" - The Third Bardo. Releasing just one single in their short career, New York's The Third Bardo were certainly about quality and not quantity with this killer psychedelic classic! We're hearing more than a little Roky Erickson on this one!
2. "Voices Green and Purple" - The Bees. West Coast acid rock. This time hailing from Los Angeles. Not much else is known about The Bees.
3. "Spider and The Fly" - The Monocles. This is the sound of good clean-cut neighborhood kids from Colorado forming a garage band and then discovering drugs! Yowsa!
4. "Let's Take a Trip" - Godfrey. L.A. Disc Jockey Godfrey takes on this Kim Fowley classic. Sounds a little bit square compared to the original which was the original ode to psychedelics!
5. "Faces" - T.C. Atlantic. Minneapolis in the house! Decent garage band that really never made it out of their home state of Minnesota. Nice fuzzy guitars and snaky vocals!
6. "Soggy Cereal" - Mike Condello. Oh boy.
7. "Dom Kallar Oss Mods" - The Lea Riders Group. Fantastic garage rock straight from Stockholm, Sweden and doing it up right! This was the title track of the 1968 Swedish documentary about streetwise Stockholm teenagers, "They Call Us Misfits".
8. "Horror Asparagus Stories" - The Driving Stupid. "My father was a big ol' toad / He lived in a hole in the middle of the road"... it seems this collection is leaning a little too much to the Dr. Demento side of things!
9. "Like a Dribbling Fram" - Races Marbles. Oh boy, Bob Dylan is turning in his grave! (and he's not even dead yet!) Canadian band with their take on Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" that sounds like an 1960's Weird Al on psilocybin.
And "Weird" would be the best way to describe much of this record! But, like we always say, "Weird is good", friends, and there's plenty of weirdos on Pebbles volume 3!
RATING: 3.5 commie cereal, soggy cereal, they're one in the same out of 5
Tiki T. and I have recently started collecting the Pebbles LP series courtesy of the BFD & AIP Record labels. Awesome compilation records, first released in the late 70's, subtitled as "Artyfacts from the First Punk Era".
They're a good companion to the more popular NUGGETS series-- records filled with 2 or 3 minute punk masterpieces mostly from the years of 1966 thru 1969. Bands consisting of pimply-faced kids in basements and garages scattered throughout the country. Some bands (and band members) would go on to bigger and better things, but most would only end up playing local teen centers, VFW Halls, dive bars and local college radio stations. Only a few would be fortunate enough to open for a touring national act like Herman's Hermits, The Jefferson Airplane or The Animals. A handful would be fortunate to record a 7" or two and then call it a day fading off into rock & roll obscurity.
One-Hit and No-Hit Wonders. Footnotes in the Rock & Roll History Books.
Some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written may have only been heard by a handful of ears. These records provide a time capsule into an honest and less-cynical past. Behind every band, there's a story; some are triumphant; some are tragic; many are uneventful... but who doesn't love a good rock & roll story?
Tonight we've got the third Pebbles LP on the turntable, also known as "The Acid Gallery". Eighteen tracks that are out there! Waaaaay out there! Enjoy!
Side One
1. "Diamond Mine" - Dave Diamond & the Higher Elevation. Dave Diamond was a rock DJ hailing from South Dakota who made his mark in the late 60's playing records by then burgeoning psychedelic bands. (He was the first DJ to play "Light My Fire" by The Doors!) This spoken word psychedelic poem sounds a bit muddled and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but it kicks the record off in quite the trippy fashion! (Dave Diamond passed away in May of last year! RIP Dave! We hardly knew ye!)
2. "Suzy Creamcheese" - Teddy & His Patches. Great acid punk from San Jose garage band doing their interpretation of Frank Zappa & the Mothers.
3. "Suicidal Flowers" - Crystal Chandelier. Awesome fuzztone on this Doors-inspired song courtesy of a little known garage band from either Texas or Providence, RI.
4. "Swami" - William Penn V. Fucking fantastic San Francisco British Invasion-influenced acid rock. Opened up for the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Them & Paul Revere and the Raiders. Mickey Hart played drums with them for a while before joining The Grateful Dead. They were supposedly about to sign a record deal with Fantasy Records before disbanding and becoming another rock & roll footnote!
5. "I'm Allergic to Flowers" - Jefferson Handkerchief. What a band name! We don't know a thing about the Jefferson Handkerchief except that they released this one novelty single in 1967 in order to poke holes in the whole "Flower Power" movement!
6. bonus track "Prana (excerpt)" - Unfolding.
7. "Flight Reaction" - The Calico Wall. Psychedelic garage punk from Minnesota band! Great trippy & paranoid song about fear of flying... Chorus: "And I swear I'll never fly again!"
8. "Loose Lip Sync Ship" - The Hogs. Weird tune, heavily influenced by Zappa. Starts out as a great garage instrumental, then moves into a druggy doo-wop spoken word section, before winding up as an abstract space jazz hymn! Fun Fact: The Hogs were better known as The Chocolate Watchband!
9. "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk" - The Driving Stupid. More whacked-out psychedelic garage rock, this time from the state of New Jersey. The acoustic stomp-blues part is fine, but the screeching, screaming vocals seem to be a little overboard! This band's biggest "hit" was called "Horror Asparagus Stories", included on Side Two! Oh boy!
Side Two
1. "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" - The Third Bardo. Releasing just one single in their short career, New York's The Third Bardo were certainly about quality and not quantity with this killer psychedelic classic! We're hearing more than a little Roky Erickson on this one!
2. "Voices Green and Purple" - The Bees. West Coast acid rock. This time hailing from Los Angeles. Not much else is known about The Bees.
3. "Spider and The Fly" - The Monocles. This is the sound of good clean-cut neighborhood kids from Colorado forming a garage band and then discovering drugs! Yowsa!
4. "Let's Take a Trip" - Godfrey. L.A. Disc Jockey Godfrey takes on this Kim Fowley classic. Sounds a little bit square compared to the original which was the original ode to psychedelics!
5. "Faces" - T.C. Atlantic. Minneapolis in the house! Decent garage band that really never made it out of their home state of Minnesota. Nice fuzzy guitars and snaky vocals!
6. "Soggy Cereal" - Mike Condello. Oh boy.
7. "Dom Kallar Oss Mods" - The Lea Riders Group. Fantastic garage rock straight from Stockholm, Sweden and doing it up right! This was the title track of the 1968 Swedish documentary about streetwise Stockholm teenagers, "They Call Us Misfits".
8. "Horror Asparagus Stories" - The Driving Stupid. "My father was a big ol' toad / He lived in a hole in the middle of the road"... it seems this collection is leaning a little too much to the Dr. Demento side of things!
9. "Like a Dribbling Fram" - Races Marbles. Oh boy, Bob Dylan is turning in his grave! (and he's not even dead yet!) Canadian band with their take on Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" that sounds like an 1960's Weird Al on psilocybin.
And "Weird" would be the best way to describe much of this record! But, like we always say, "Weird is good", friends, and there's plenty of weirdos on Pebbles volume 3!
RATING: 3.5 commie cereal, soggy cereal, they're one in the same out of 5
Friday, November 11, 2016
Ruby the Hatchet - "Vast Acid" (2015)
Happy Friday Friends,
Got a great doomy, stoner track from a great-sounding stoner, doom band. New Jersey's own, Ruby The Hatchet.
The video has got a cool, horror-film/Evil Dead vibe with plenty of drinking, smokin', blood and violence!
Plus they got a hot chick in the band to boot!
Life couldn't be any better?!?
Life couldn't be any better?!?
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Wagner: Parsifal
The Philadelphia Orchestra - "Wagner: Parsifal" (1956) - Columbia Masterworks
Hello Friends,
Keeping it classy again this fine November morning on Vinyl in the Valley.
The opera, Parsifal, would be Richard Wagner's last great opera as well as the culmination of his larger-than-life career and mythic body of work. The original opera lasts for nearly five hours(!). Its a football Sunday at the Vinyl in the Valley HQ and we don't have that kind of time on our hands! Luckily, its been parsed down two sides of an LP so we can enjoy some of its most memorable moments while in our slippers and chasing last night's hangover away with some strong, black coffee!
And this record does get our juices flowing! This is a very big-sounding, bad-ass record, with lots of heavy-sounding themes, intimating brass, build-ups, crescendos, sinister silences and unnerving quiet moments. Its basically doom metal for the classical crowd! Its the kind of music that makes you want to "air conduct", climb a mountain or lead an army. Its no wonder that the music of Wagner would really have a tendency to rev up the scary-types like Adolph Hitler, Nosferatu or Darth Vader.
Written by Richard Wagner over a period of 25 years, the complete opera debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany in 1882. In a nutshell, the story follows Parsifal, from a young orphan boy to King of the Knights of the Holy Grail. Along the way, there's action a-plenty featuring knights, witches, wizards, holy grails, magic spears, femme fatales, holy communions, death and redemption.
Heady shit while you're trying to drink your morning coffee!
RATING: 4 today europe, tomorrow the worlds out of 5
And this record does get our juices flowing! This is a very big-sounding, bad-ass record, with lots of heavy-sounding themes, intimating brass, build-ups, crescendos, sinister silences and unnerving quiet moments. Its basically doom metal for the classical crowd! Its the kind of music that makes you want to "air conduct", climb a mountain or lead an army. Its no wonder that the music of Wagner would really have a tendency to rev up the scary-types like Adolph Hitler, Nosferatu or Darth Vader.
Written by Richard Wagner over a period of 25 years, the complete opera debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany in 1882. In a nutshell, the story follows Parsifal, from a young orphan boy to King of the Knights of the Holy Grail. Along the way, there's action a-plenty featuring knights, witches, wizards, holy grails, magic spears, femme fatales, holy communions, death and redemption.
Heady shit while you're trying to drink your morning coffee!
RATING: 4 today europe, tomorrow the worlds out of 5
Friday, November 4, 2016
Loretta Lynn - "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin'" (1967)
Happy Friday Friends!
Nurse your hangovers with this great tune by the inimitable Miss Loretta Lynn, the original Coal Miner's Daughter. (With a special appearance by Bill Monroe on rhythm guitar!)
Bring on the weekend!
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