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

Movie Night: Beware of Mr Baker

Hello Friends,

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

Tonight we're watching a documentary on the extraordinary rock & roll life of Cream drummer, Ginger Baker, Beware of Mr. Baker.

Hey kids, how many times have you wondered to yourself, "Hey, I wonder what happened to Ginger Baker after Cream and Blind Faith broke up?  What's he been up to?" 

WHAT? You've never pondered the fate of one of rock's greatest drummers?  Whether you have or not, the 2012 documentary, Beware of Mr. Baker, is here to answer all of your questions and get you caught up to speed!

Basically, Ginger Baker was one of rock's greatest drummers.  Technically speaking, he was vastly superior to Moon or Bonham.  The problem was he was a huge dick on a steady diet of drugs and booze!  Pissing bandmates off and burning bridges right and left!  In the Seventies, after the dissolution of both Cream & Blind Faith, Baker retreated to Africa and became good friends with Fela Kuti, whose band he would often be found sitting in with. Every couple of years, Baker would come out of hiding in order to pay some bills with a new band or a reunion of some sort.  Usually, because of his short-fused temper and codgery demeanor, these would be short-lived as well!

Directed by Jay Bulger, the film centers around the director's quest to go to Baker's South African compound and get a tell-all interview that documents all the ups and downs of his career.  At one point the director even gets knocked in the noggin by Baker's can! 

Good interview footage with Clapton, Jack Bruce, Carmine Appice, John Lydon, amongst others.  Its an interesting little film about an oft-overlooked rock icon who peaked, historically, over forty years ago and whose influence is still felt today!

We give this one two raised cocktail glasses!

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

(* not really)

It ain't easy livin' like a gypsy, tell ya honey how I feel

Aerosmith - "Live Bootleg" (1978) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

Tonight we've got a great double-live album on the turntable that captures one of the 1970's best hard rock bands at the height of their creative powers while in the the throes of drug addiction and overindulgence!  Sounds like a recipe for some great rock & roll!

Contrary to the LP's title, "Live Bootleg" is not a bootleg at all. Actually, it was kind of joke by the band and the record label to spoof the bootleg format which was usually plagued by bad photocopied artwork & really crappy sound quality!

Not only is Live Bootleg one of the 1970's best live records (its right up there with Alive!, Live at Budokan, Live at Leeds, If You Want Blood You've Got It and The Last Waltz), but it also would prove to be the high point in the band's career.  In our opinion, 1977's Draw the Line would be the last great, sleazy Aerosmith LP.  1979's Night in the Ruts isn't very good, 1982's Rock in a Hard Place is missing Joe Perry & 1985's Done With Mirrors is abysmal!  We all know the story how Aerosmith resurrected their career in the mid-80's thanks to MTV and Run DMC, but none of that stuff can hold a candle to their first five studio albums!

And unlike a lot of the other great live albums of this era, Live Bootleg captures the band at their most raw and strung out.  The album is not littered with polished-sounding overdubs or glossy production.  This is the band warts & all and by 1978 Aerosmith was a hot mess!  (And if you listen closely you can even hear some fans throwing M80's at the stage!  Apparently in the seventies, this was a "thing.")

The album begins, like most Aersomith shows in '77 & '78, with the sound of Norman Bates' knife music and kicks right into the opener, an amped-up version of the cowboy sex anthem, "Back in the Saddle".  

"Sweet Emotion" follows and then a sped up, seven minute version of "Lord of the Thighs". Side One ends with "Toys in the Attic" which, according to the liner notes, is a "folk song about the band's state of mind!"  Nice!

Side Two gives us "Last Child", "Walk this Way" and the underrated classic, "Sick As A Dog". It also contains a hard rocking cover of the Beatles' "Come Together" that the band would later record for the Sgt Pepper's movie.  Can't believe these guys didn't get more acting roles!

Side Three kicks off with the obligatory, "Dream On" followed by the bluesy, "Chip Away The Stone"-- the album's lone single as well as the only Aerosmith song on the LP that wasn't previously released on record!  There's a "nice and ratty" version of Draw The Line's "Sight for Sore Eyes" as well as great, great versions of "Mama Kin" and "S.O.S. (Too Bad)".

Side Four actually takes us back to two early recordings from a live performance at Pall's Mall in Boston in April 1973: the blues-standard, "I Ain't Got You" and a cover of James Brown's "Mother Popcorn".

If you look at the liner notes on the record you would not see the song, "Draw The Line", however in true bootleg fashion the song is included here in all its raucous glory!



The bad boys from beantown wrap things up with a rollicking version of The Yardbirds' "Train Kept A Rollin".  House lights come on and our ears are still ringing! But I just couldn't tell her so...

Live Bootleg is a fantastic listen from start to finish!  Capturing the band at their hardest, most cynical, strung out and sleazy! Even though the band would stick around and actually flourish over the next several decades, it's the band that you hear on this record album that's a reminder to what a great rock & roll band Aerosmith actually was!

RATING: 4.5 Keepin' Touch with Mama Kins out of 5

Fun Fact Friday: Hitler would have loved Tonetta!

Hello Friends,

We don't know much about outsider artist, Tonetta, but we know we LOVE it!

Catchy, synthy pop songs with crude, rude and downright crazy lyrics!

This is the kind of You Tube sensation we can get behind!  Its like if Buffalo Bill went viral!

The video above is for his song, "Pressure Zone".

Here's a few more videos for "Yummy Yummy Pizza", "Drugs Drugs Drugs" and "Hitler" in which he sounds like Leonard Cohen singing lead for early Ween.

Hitler certainly would have loved you, Tonetta!  Rock On!