When I paint my masterpiece... I use bourbon!

Take a load off, friends!

Looks like you could use a maple infused cocktail!

In an effort to give a "tip of the hat" to Robbie Robertson and Co., we thought long and hard about a cocktail that would marry the industriousness of American city life with the rugged wilderness of Canada.

Hence...The Maple Old Fashioned! You'll love this one, I promise!

Use high grade maple syrup and use it sparingly, as you want the suggestion of maple more than a wad of it. I also advise using a reputable rye (we really like http://www.bulleitbourbon.com). You're looking for a slow burn with a sweet ending, here. Shake up your rye, maple, ice and Angostura bitters in a shaker and strain into a glass tumbler. Garnish with an orange peel, no need for chunks of overly sweet bar fruit. This one is guaranteed to drive your dixie down all night!

XO!
-Tiki T.

A Drunkards Dream... If I Ever Did See One!

Original LP Title: "Free Moustache Rides"

The Band - "The Band" (1969) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

Tonight on the turntable we've got The Band's second LP.  Its self-titled, but here on Vinyl in the Valley we like to refer to it as The Brown Album.

And what a great listening experience The Brown Album is... a real Hootenanny!!!  Its a ramshackle mash up of American roots music: country, folk, soul, blues, ragtime & rock with some lessons in American History thrown in to boot!  There's Confederate soldiers, retired sailors, drunken miners, labor union organizers, proud thieves and unfaithful servants!  (Sounds like the unsexiest Halloween party ever!) 

The Band dressed in Civil War outfits a.k.a.
"Stuff White People Like"

Side One almost plays like a Greatest Hits collection with "Across The Great Divide", "Rag Mama Rag", "Up On Cripple Creek" and the incomparable, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".  The side closes out with "Whispering Pines" featuring Richard Manuel's heartbreaking and haunting vocals. 

Side Two is no slouch either with "Jemima Surrender", "Rockin' Chair", "Jawbone", the rocker "Lookout Cleveland", and the country-soul working man epic, "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"! 

The themes, characters and tales-- as well as much of the music-- is timeless, rustic and nostalgic.   Obviously, The Band didn't really fit the mold of mainstream rock & roll of the late 60's.  While most bands were writing Vietnam protest songs, these guys were reminiscing about the Civil War! 

In this way, The Brown Album is similar to The Kinks' masterpiece, Village Green Preservation Society '68-- an album so steeped in nostalgia with songs which longed for a more traditional "country life" that was considered to by quite unhip by many hipsters at the time!  But hey, that's the problem with these hipsters!

RATING: 5 Civil War Re-enactments out of 5

Cleveland Rocks!

The Outsiders - "Time Won't Let Me" (1966) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We've got some good old fashioned U.S. garage rock on tap for tonight!

Formed by guitarist Tom King in 1958, The Starfires were a hard-working band of Clevelanders who cut their teeth in the blue collar bars and dance halls of the North Coast.  When they signed to Capitol Records on the strength of their single, "Time Won't Let Me", the band was persuaded to change their name to The Outsiders.  Their debut LP was released in 1966 and is a perfect storm of American blue-collar garage rock, British Invasion-inspired arrangements and healthy doses of blue-eyed soul and Motor City Rhythm & Blues!

The album kicks off with the rousing, "Keep On Running"-- a Jackie Edwards song that was a hit the year before for England's The Spencer Davis Group.   The ballad, "Listen People", is up next and was also a hit for another British band, Herman's Hermits!  

The single, "Time Won't Let Me" combines an uptempo Mersey-inspired rhythm with a driving background of Motown-inspired horns.   Written by King and his brother-in-law, Chet Kelley, the song blew up on AM Radio and ensured that the Outsiders would be slightly more than a footnote in the annals of rock & roll history! 
   

The oft-covered, "My Girl", is a tip of the hat to the songs coming out across Lake Eerie while the Stonesy R&B rocker, "What Makes You So Bad You Weren't Brought Up That Way", is a nod to songs coming from across the proverbial pond!  Side One concludes with a mellow and strings-laden cover of the 1962 hit by Jay & The Americans, "She Cried". 

Side Two contains two more covers-- Buddy Holly's "Maybe Baby" and Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin"-- and the originals, "Chase Away The Tears", "Was It Really Real" and the tearjerker, "Girl In Love". In addition to being the B-side to "Time Won't Let Me", "Was It Really Real" contains a killer guitar solo!  

The Outsiders would release 4 more LP's, continually change personnel, ceaselessly tour and, by 1968, call it quits!  Another rock & roll dream left to history!  

Fun Fact: Hey kids, did you know that Outsiders' lead singer, Sonny Geraci, had a hit in 1972 with the one-hit-wonder band Climax and the soft-rock ballad "Precious & Few"?  Big Deal! That song sucks!

RATING: 4 Cleveland Steamers out of 5

Night Winds (100th Post, Bitches!)

Jackie Gleason - "Night Winds" (1956) - Capitol Records

Hello friends,

Is there anything better than a chilly November evening, a tall bottle of red French wine and Jackie Gleason on the turntable?  Well, we don't think so! 

Using an ensemble of 23 flutes (count 'em) to replace the Bobby Hackett's ghostly cornet solos, Night Winds is some more of the same lush and soothing mood music that Gleason made famous in the mid 1950's.  The songs flow into one another seamlessly-- each side of the record is like a dreamy soundscape. 

Fat, sweaty, chain-smoking and mostly drunk, its truly amazing what Jackie Gleason would accomplish in 1955-1956.  Not only was his recording career hugely successful but, "The Jackie Gleason Show" was a top- rated variety show on television and "The Honeymooners" were at their creative height!  (The last episode of the "classic 39" would air on September 26, 1956.)  I guess they don't make them like they used to!  The Great One, indeed!     

RATING: 4 packs of cigarettes a day out of 5  

Comin' in the Back Door

¡ Ay Caramba !

The Baja Marimba Band - "Baja Marimba Band" (1964) - A&M Records

Hola Friends,

We're going down tonight-- South of the Border-style-- with the debut album by the legendary Baja Marimba Band!

Led by marimba player extraordinaire, Julius Wechter, and produced/arranged by one Mr. Herb Alpert, The Baja Marimba Band was formed in part to cash in on the fiesta-style music started by the likes of the Tijuana Brass and Sergio Mendes in the early 1960's.  Their whimsical, laid-back lounge style has its roots in latin jazz and Exotica.  (In fact, Wechter, a talented percussionist, cut his teeth playing with Martin Denny in the 50's.)  

The songs are percussion-heavy (lots of bongos, vibes and marimbas, obviously), with flamenco guitar, the occasional brassy burst and spaghetti western-type wordless choruses thrown in for good measure!  The song selections range from melodic and atmospheric ("Maria Elena", "Charade", "Samba de Orpheu" "December's Child") to downright zany ("Up Cherry Street" & "Acapulco 1922")!  

"Comin' in the Back Door" would be the group's first and highest-charting single.

And don't let the fake mustaches and sombreros fool you, this band was about as Mexican as a Burrito Bowl from Taco Bell!

RATING: 4 Frito Banditos out of 5

Happy Halloween!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack (1975) - Ode Records

Happy Halloween Friends,

We're celebrating right this year... giving out candy, listening to records and polishing off a bottle of Amontillado while reading passages from Edgar Allen Poe by candlelight!

But Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without Brad & Janet, the Time Warp, a sweet Transvestite (from Transsexual, Transyvlvania), Meat Loaf, Riff Raff and Susan Sarandon's sweet jack-o-lanterns in their prime!

Because of the film's incredible cult status the soundtrack is often overlooked, but trust us friends, its worth the listen!  Its campy and glammy, with healthy doses of Broadway, Bowie, Queen and 1950's rock and roll.  Its like "Grease"-on-Acid!




Happy Halloween kids!  We're off to TP some houses!

RATING: 5 Science Fiction Double Features out of 5  

Scott Lucas and the Married Men - Ain't No Grave

Happy Halloween!

The Devil in Hi-Fi

The Devil in Hi-Fi - Westminster Hi-Fi

Hello friends,

Its that time of year again: there's a chill in the air; dark comes early; the shadows are long; and a queer breeze blows the dry leaves in the backyard.

Meanwhile we're comfortably holed up inside, lighting some candles, drinking some wine and classing the tiki bar up with this LP of macabre-inspired classical works.  Its frightfully enjoyable! Beelzebub himself would be proud!

There are four pieces represented here: Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", Saint-Saens's "Danse Macabre", Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" and Hector Berlioz's "The Dream of the Witch's Sabbath."

The Mussorgsky and Berlioz pieces have themes that have to do with witches-- and their covens-- celebrating their Sabbath.   In fact, last April we celebrated Walpurgis Night with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.  Franz Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" has to do with the devil crashing a village wedding and working all the guests into an orgiastic frenzy with his fiddle-playing!     

Speaking of fiddling... Saint-Saen's "Danse Macabre" is about Death appearing at midnight on Halloween and playing his fiddle until the dead arise from their graves for one last killer romp!  

Here's a short cartoon that played on PBS around Halloween back in the 80's...



Holy Lucifer!

RATING: 4.5 Temples of Set out of 5

Pleased to meet you. Hope you like this drink!

Hail Satan Friends!

You're just in time to help me run the checklist for our Halloween Super Satanic Tiki Bar Blowout!

Lots of records? Check!
One dozen black capes? Check!
One Candle-laden altar? Check!
One goblet of goat urine? Check!
One Virgin?     (Uh Oh!)

Oh well, no matter. Halloween is a time of year when I really like to encourage free-form cocktail making. A dash of this and a sprinkle of that can make for some real magic in your cauldron.

Whether the album title below suggests animal sacrifice or Jamaican cuisine, Goat's Head Soup is a perfectly provocative record for this spooky time of year. Nothing gets your hips shaking and your cup sloshing like the first track. Big points for having this on vinyl, as the pops and crackles make everything all the more hall-o-weenish.

Check out the recipe below (my own horrid creation) and you'll be dancing with Mr. D all night (or Mr. Pillow....hey, I'm gettin' old kids!).

Tiki's T's Blood Orange Pentagram Punch

Half pint of blood orange juice
Pint of tangerine Juice 
1 can of ginger ale 
Pint of cranberry cocktail 
Dash of vanilla extract 
Light rum to taste (be your own boss!!) 
Dark rum to taste 
Lots of maraschino cherries and orange slices 
Mix in novelty bowl and serve in punch cups to your thirsty fellow worshippers. 

XO! (in blood),
Tiki T.