Eagles of Death Metal - "Speaking in Tongues" (2004)

Its Friday kids!

Let's kickoff the weekend with this song from The Eagles of Death Metal.

One Rockin' Tune + A Frontman with a Cape + Sexy Go-Go Dancers = One Fantastic Video

Enjoy! 

Yvonne Craig R.I.P.

Holy Sexpot Batman,

Yvonne Craig, most notable for her role as "Batgirl" on the 60's Batman television series, passed away last week at the age of 78.

Ms. Craig has always been a favorite of ours here on Vinyl in the Valley!

In addition to Batgirl, she was also an accomplished ballerina, a girlfriend of Elvis Presley and even played a sexy, green alien who tries to kill Captain Kirk on an episode of Star Trek.

Wow! Doesn't get much cooler than that I suppose?

RIP Yvonne Craig!

Martin Denny - "Misirlou" (1961)

Hello Friends,

Some genius decided to take Martin Denny's version of "Misirlou" and set it to a scene from Fritz Lang's 1959 adventure film, The Indian Tomb.  It's diabolically sexy and borderline unbelievable!  Take that Tarantino...

By the way, the brunette hottie performing the snake dance is Debra Paget who also appeared in Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments & Elvis Presley's film debut, Love Me Tender.  Give this girl an Oscar!

Sunday Jazz Brunch on the tiny island of Espiritu Santo

Les Brown and his Band of Renown - "Dance to South Pacific" (1958) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We're enjoying another Sunday brunch here on Vinyl in the Valley.  The mimosas are flowing and Tiki T. is poaching up some eggs benny.  I'm no soothsayer, but I can see into the future of this Sunday and I see a lot NOT getting done today!

The chores can wait.  In the meantime, we've got this great Les Brown record on the turntable.  Twelve mostly swinging tracks lifted from the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical that captivated the nation throughout the fifties, South Pacific.

"Dites-Moi" and "Some Enchanted Evening" are fun, bouncy numbers punctuated by a solid brass section.  Frank Comstock's arrangement of the brunch-themed "Bloody Mary" is pretty solid as well.   "This Nearly Was Mine" is Brown and his orchestra at their somber creamiest.  "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame" sounds like something that The Count Basie orchestra might have recorded. The album's highlight is probably Billy May's cha-cha arrangement of the tiki anthem, "Bali Ha'i". 

All today needs to be perfect is a hammock strapped between two palm trees and a sexy native bringing me rum drinks in hollowed-out pineapples!

Oh and if someone can do the dishes!

RATING: 3.5 gonna wash that man right outta my hairs out of 5

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.

Dreams of Love, Hungarian Rhapsodies and Dancing with the Devil!

Franz Liszt - "Liebestraum: Favorite Melodies of Liszt" - 1965 - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We're classing things up tonight at the tiki bar!  This record features the magic fingers of French classical pianist, Philippe Entremont, and features some selected works of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.  So break out the Bulls Blood, because we've got bad case of Lisztomania tonight!

Excellent record for a stormy November evening.  Just a man and his piano playing the 'greatest hits' of the world's first rock star.

Side One
1. Liebestraum (Notturno no. 3)
2. Concert Etude No. 3 in F minor
3. Consolation No. 3
4. Mephisto Waltz

Side Two
1. Concert Etude No. 3 in D-Flat Major
2. Valse Oubliee
3. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 ("Rakoczy March")
4. Canzonetta Del Salvator Rosa 
5. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Mephisto Waltz is the album's highlight.  Ten minutes of frantic piano playing that's supposed to be about Faust & Mephisto, the devil himself, passing by a village tavern during a wedding.  Mephisto grabs a fiddle from one of the local musicians and starts playing this intoxicating melody that causes the Faust to grab and dance wildly with some local tramp.  They dance seductively into the night and eventually disappear out of the tavern and into the woods where sinful acts will no doubt follow!   (Editor's Note: Coincidentally, this is how Tiki T. and I met!)   

Plus, speaking of hotties, who doesn't love a sexy brunette looking over her shoulder while in a fainting chair? Too bad she's dressed like a Mennonite!

RATING: 4.5 servings of chicken paprikash out of 5

Happy Fall!

Fall Fantasy with Donna Loren

 

Havana in Hi-Fi

Richard Hayman and his Orchestra - "Havana in Hi-Fi" (1957) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

This record was a great thrift store find and we're enjoying the hell out of it while we suck down some mojitos and wait for the summer sun to set.

We were first introduced to bespectacled bandleader Richard Hayman on his record, Voodoo (1959).  (Review here.)  This LP, like that one, has a very soundtracky quality to it.  The heavily orchestrated arrangements are at times classical, at times jazzy, with hints of exotica and a healthy dose of spaghetti western.  (As Tiki T. points out the opening number, "Rhapsodero" would not sound out of place in a Quentin Tarantino movie!)     

The liner notes on the back of the record describe in great detail the recording process and instruments used!  In the 50's, the term "High Fidelity" was used by record labels to help market their products by promising a fuller, more authentic sound.  (Eventually, the term "Hi Fi" became pretty generic and was mostly used to replace "phonograph" or "record player.")  So if you care you can read about the "authentic"-sounding oboe on "Caminito", what kind of RCA microphones were used on the violas, or how the track "Love and the World Loves With You" is a real "treat for tweeter fans", you can! 

Plus, we love the cover!  We're always suckers for a bongos and a brunette with nice gams!

RATING: 4 Tropical Merengues out of 5

Happy Birthday Yvonne Craig aka Batgirl! (May 16)

Romantica!

Martin Denny - "Romantica" (1961) - Liberty

Hello Friends,

Tonight on the turntable?  How about the lush and exotic sounds of Martin Denny?  I'll drink to that!

Actually we picked up this gem in a used bin during Record Store Day.  Another great Martin Denny album cover featuring the incomparable "face of Exotica", Miss Sandy Warner and those inviting eyes!

As the liner notes state, "Denny has chosen twelve selections that are ideal for a dream voyage on an ocean of serene romance" and folks we couldn't have said it better ourselves!  

Pianos and vibraphones square off with exotic percussion sounds and lush string arrangements.  

Songs include: "And This Is My Beloved", "Romance", "My Reverie", "Magic is the Moonlight", "A Fine Romance", "Tenderly" and Denny's own compositions, "Love At Sight", "Aloha, I Love You" & "Blue Paradise".

RATING: 4 La Pampas Y La Punas out of 5 

The One With Kid

The Pretenders - "The Pretenders" (1980) - Sire

Hello Friends,

For some reason, Spring seems to put us in a Pretenders kind of mood and tonight we've got their debut record on the turntable.

Featuring their first single, a cover of the Kinks' song "Stop Your Sobbing" and their first chart-topper, "Brass In Pocket", The Pretenders eponymous record is the perfect balance of punk rock 'tude with big arena rock sounds and production. Raven-haired hottie Chrissie Hynde writes and sings songs with a sneering sexuality that are both radio-friendly and subversive.  Punk rock for the yet-to-be-named MTV Generation.

The manic-sounding "Precious" gets things off to a fast start.  With Hynde's sultry vocals front and center and James Honeyman-Scott's noodling lead guitar providing a gritty counterpoint, the stage is set for one of the defining rock sounds of the 1980's.

"Up the Neck" is a New Wave ballad that sounds like early R.E.M. covering Blondie!

There's a definite Clash influence on "The Wait".

At six and half minutes, "Private Life" is a little meandering.

The heartbreaking ballad, "Lovers of Today" has a nice Beatles/McCartney-esque feel to it (think: "Maybe I'm Amazed").

"Mystery Achievement" sounds like it was a big influence on early U2.

And then there's "Kid"...

Perhaps our all-time favorite Pretenders song!   Its one of those perfect songs... sad & hopeful, nostalgic & haunting.. is it about a prostitute?  Infidelity? A break-up?  All of the above?  Who cares, its awesome, has a great riff and you can dance to it!  Full of grace, you cover your face...  

RATING: 4 Tattooed Love Boys out of 5

Pretenders Deux

The Pretenders - "The Pretenders II" (1981) - Sire

Hello Friends,

We're listening to some early 1980's New Wave courtesy of the Pretenders tonight.  Notable because (a) its the second LP by the Pretenders and (b) the last Pretenders record to feature the original line up of Chrissie Hynde, Pete Farndon (bass), James Honeyman-Scott (guitar) and Martin Chambers (drums).  (By the time Learning To Crawl would be released in 1984, both Farndon and Honeyman-Scott would die of drug overdoses!  Just say No, kids!)

A great album overall, although Tiki T. and I both prefer Learning to Crawl.  

The album's opener-- "The Adultress"-- is one of those Chrissie Hynde as homewrecker/femme fatale songs.  This idea is taken to its extreme on the very next song, "Bad Boys Get Spanked" complete with sneers, grunts and whipping sounds.  Whats not to love about a sexy brunette rock star who likes to get into some rough stuff?

Side One also includes the singles "Message of Love" (like Brigitte Bardot!) and "Talk of the Town", as well as a second great Ray Davies/Kinks cover in as many albums with the lucid "I Go To Sleep"  (Hynde and Davies would have a baby girl together in 1983... Scandalous!)

Also on Side One is the sad and mysterious ballad, "Birds of Paradise" about a childhood romance with jangly, argpeggio guitars and the great lyric:

When I was a little girl

With clay horses and lambs on the shelf

I caught frogs in ditches, listened for elves

Side Two doesn't quite live up to Side One.

"Pack it Up" is a decent punk song; "Waste Not Want Not" is a forgettable reggae-ish tune.  

"Day After Day" is some good pop and if you listen with just the right ears you can hear a little bit of early R.E.M. in there.   

"Jealous Dogs" kind of sucks, however "The English Roses" is pretty amazing.  Some great lyrics and some shredding guitar solos.

"Louie Louie" closes out the album (not the famous Richard Berry/Kingsmen song)-- a horn-laden, dance number with some guitar fills reminiscent of "London Calling".  

Because of the deaths of Farndon and Honeyman-Scott, in retrospect, Pretenders II is a melancholy affair.  Listening to some of the guitar work on the album its really sad to think about what James Honeyman-Scott might have accomplished either in this band or some other one if he just took it easy with the booger sugar!    
  
RATING: 4.5 skies closing on the English roses out of 5

Pebbles Volume 10

Pebbles, volume 10 (1980) - 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're starting with Volume 10, on yellow-colored vinyl, with a sexy go-go brunette on the cover!  Sixteen tracks that are pure garage rock gems!    

Side One
1. "Talk To Me Girl" - The Next Five.  Holy shit, is this a Who outtake from the Who Sell Out era?  Amazing song from Texas garage band!  Ned's Pick for best song on the record!

2. "You'll Come Back" - The Moon Rakers.  Great Kinks-influenced, garage punk from Colorado. Members of this band would go on to become Sugarloaf (unfortunately).

3. "Baby What's New" - Peter Wheat & The Breadmen.  Shitty band name but great song with some great guitar work from this San Francisco garage band whose biggest claim to fame is that they almost opened for The Beatles at their legendary (and final) Candlestick Park concert.

4. "Since I Met You" - The Marauders.  More garage rock from San Francisco.  We dig the out-of-tune piano.

5. "Roller Coaster" - The Ides of March.  Great song from Chicago garage band!  Hard to believe its the same band that did the wretched, horn-laden "Vehicle" in 1970.

6. "Need A Little Lovin'" - The Foggy Notions. Some obscure punk via 1966 Chicago.  

7. "Just In Case You're Wondering" - The Ugly Ducklings.  Toronto's premier 5-piece garage rock band.

8. "My Group and Me" - Raga and the Talas.  Side One concludes with this rockin' & psychedelic tune penned by Miss Jackie DeShannon.  Her brother, Randy Myers, fronted this band-- which by all accounts was nothing more than a 1966 L.A. studio project.  This song is Tiki's pick for best on the album!  Good pick Tiki!

Side Two
1. "Tilt-a-Whirl" - Leo & the Prophets.  More fuzz-toned Texas punk, this time from Austin.  The band only released one 45 rpm and this song was the A-side.

2. "Love at Psychedelic Velocity" - The Human Expression.  Some nice fast-slow-fast-slow low budget garage rock (with indecipherable vocals) from Los Angeles.  Slightly reminiscent of Roky Erikson's 13th Floor Elevators.

3. "I'm On My Way Down the Road" - The Wig/Wags.  Great blue-eyed soul track!  (If you told me it was Alex Chilton singing,  I would believe it!)  Most likely from Hope, Arkansas. 

4. "Train Kept A Rollin" - Steve Walker and the Bold.  Raucous cover tune from a band of which little is know.  This speedy version gives the Yardbirds a run for their money!

5. "I'm Not Talkin" - Things to Come.  From Chicago and speaking of the Yardbirds... 

6. "Slippin' and Slidin" - The Five Americans.  Probably the most "famous" band on this compilation.  Known for their 60's pop hit "Western Union", we prefer this nerve-shattering cover of a Little Richard tune from this Dallas, Texas (via Durant, Oklahoma) quintet.  

7. "Primitive" - The Groupies.  Swampy, sleazy garage rock... just like we like it!  From New York City, of course.  Self-described as "Lower East Side Scum" and we'll gladly drink to that!  (Fun Fact: Wilco's Jeff Tweedy's first band "The Primitives" took their name from this here song!)

8. "Don't Shoot Me Down" - The Brogues.  From Merced, California.  This was the B-side to their slightly more well-known recording of the garage standard, "(I Ain't No) Miracle Worker".  Drummer Greg Elmore eventually joined the San Fran-based, Quicksilver Messenger Service. 

RATING: 4.5 Things That I Do That You'll Never Try out of 5
     

Rusty Trumpet

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass - "What Now My Love" (1966) - A&M Records

Hello Friends,

Herb Alpert's "magic trumpet" is making another appearance on Vinyl in the Valley tonight.

What Now My Love is Herb's sixth album with the Tijuana Brass and its more of the same Ameriachi-style jazz-inspired lounge muzak.  Great music to mix up a batch of margaritas to while waiting for your special lady to come over.  

So spray that cologne on heavy and tie up that bolo because tonight you're either getting lucky or hosting a Spanish game show!

Fun Fact: The puckery brunette on the cover is Mrs. Sandra Moss, wife of Jerry Moss, Herb's partner at A & M records.  Wonder if things ever got awkward?

RATING: 3.5 Memories of Madrid out of 5

9 Days of Xmas: Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops - "Pops Christmas Party" (1959)

Arthur Fielder & the Boston Pops - "Pops Christmas Party" (1959) - RCA

Hello Friends,

Pahk you ahse up at the tiki bah fahr another egg nawg 'cuz we got the bawstan pawps ahn!  Don't make me cahm ova there!

"Holy Holidays Batman.. Something just popped up!"
(Yvonne Craig)

Arthah Fiedlah condahcted the pawps for like 50 yeahs.  Released in 1959, Christmas Pawps Pahty is the first of several Pawps LPs dedicated to pahrennial hawliday favorites.  The music is fahmiliar, done up and ahranged in a lite-classical, pawps style.   Its the perfect pahty album if yaah tryin' to keep things clahssy!

Its bahmbastic in ahl the right pahts, especially on their now pretty famous take on the Leroy Andersawn's "Sleigh Ride".  Nawt only that, but its the quietah moments that really stand out... like Alfred Krips' violin solo on "White Christmas" or the nine minute, "Dream Pantomime" from Humperdinck's Hansal & Gretel.   Now thaht's some sublime cahnducting if you ahsk me!

Nawt to mention the sauhcey brunette ahn the covah!    Man, I'd invite her to my pawps pahty any day! How'dya like dem apples? 

Go Sawx!

RATING: 5 Arthur Fiedler mustaches out of 5

Witchy Woman

Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra - "Witchcraft!" (1965) - Pickwick 

Hello friends,

October's here and we're celebrating Halloween all month long here on Vinyl in the Valley!

Best known for his soundtracks and famous arrangements for the likes of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt, et al, Nelson Riddle actually had a pretty successful recording career himself!

The highlights on this LP are his lush and jazzy instrumental versions of the title track, "It's So Nice to Have A Man Around the House", "You Fascinate Me So", "Darn That Dream", "Blue Safari" and especially, "Playboy's Theme".

The instrumentation is big in spots and sublime in others.  The devil's in the details like the vibraphone in "Darn That Dream", for instance, or the background guitar on "Blue Safari".  

And check out this little minx on the LP's cover... nothing says dim the lights, light some candles and fire up the old Ouijia Board like a sexy brunette, a black cat, and a cigarette-smoking skull!

"Nice pussy"

RATING: 4.5 cigarette-smoking skulls out of 5

Walk Don't Run

The Ventures - "Walk Don't Run" (1960) - Dolton 

Hello Friends,

Tonight we're rocking out to the debut album by The Ventures.  Hailing from Tacoma, Washington, The Ventures' big guitar sounding surf rock instrumentals influenced an entire generation of budding musicians who practiced these songs with their neighborhood buddies in countless suburban garages!  



From the chart-topping title track to their versions of "Raunchy", "Morgen", Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk", this album is 27 minutes of twangy bliss-- thanks, in no small part, to lead guitarist's Bob Bogle's whammy bar virtuosity!  

Listening to "My Own True Love (Tara's Theme)" sounds like a slow dance at an early 1960's high school dance when the Civics teacher, Mrs. McGillicuddy, breaks you and your partner up for dancing too close!

And even though those guys in the background aren't really the Ventures (the band was unavailable for the photo shoot), its a great album cover! Check out the heels on that brunette!  Yowsa!

RATING: 5 Cities of Destiny out of 5

Forbidden Island

Martin Denny - "Forbidden Island" (1958) - Liberty Records

Hello friends and welcome to the Forbidden Island!

Why is it forbidden?  We're not sure exactly!  Perhaps its an island full of blood-thirsty headhunters?  Or, perhaps its inhabitants are giant, prehistoric beasts?  If we're lucky it is an exotic isle populated by sexy brunettes, dressed in sarongs, who tempt us with fancy rum drinks, a cool island breeze and the distant sounds of some out-of-this-world tiki music!

Whatever the reason, Forbidden Island is a classic of the Exotica genre.   Its Martin Denny's third album and it is a fantastic trip through the dark jungles, sandy beaches and swinging hotel lounges of the South Pacific!

While taking a break as house band at Don The Beachcomber's Bora Bora Lounge in the heart of Waikiki, Denny's quartet came up with a dozen atmospheric & hypnotic tracks including 5 originals ("Cobra", "Exotica", "Goony Birds", "Primitiva" and the title track) and some excellent covers ("Port Au Prince", "Bali Hai" & "March of the Siamese Children").  As far as instruments go there's a lot of string bass and piano, but there's also bongos, marimbas, celestes, xylophones, vibes and of course the highly exotic bird calling and special effects of percussionist, August Colon.  

What an album!  From start to finish each of these 3 minute masterpieces is a luau for your ears!   

And yes, that's Exotica girl, Miss Sandy Warner once again gracing a fantastic album cover!

RATING: 5 Mai Tai's out of 5  

Nights in Black Satin

The George Shearing Quintet - Black Satin (1956)

Hello Friends,

Turn the lights down low and stop watering down those drinks 'cuz tonight we're enjoying those "satin-smooth" sounds of Mr. George Shearing.  


Shearing-- a skilled jazz pianist with be-bop and Latin influences-- leads his quintet while Billy May arranges the orchestra making for a most seductive listening experience.  Lyrical and mysterious melodies are set to a lush and velvety backdrop.  Black Satin, indeed!


This is serious jazz for the Sears crowd.


RATING: 4 longing gazes out of a possible 5 

Whip it good!

Suddenly, her lactose intolerance went from being "mildly inconvenient" to downright uncomfortable.

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream and Other Delights



Hello friends!

This 1965 LP boasts one of the most iconic album covers of any era! 

The music is loungey Mexican-stripper music featuring Herp Alpert's "famous trumpet." [wink, wink]

The title track, in fact, was used as the theme song for "The Dating Game".

The cream-covered model on the cover, in case your were wondering, was a young woman named Dolores Erickson.  She seems nice.

Anyways, she worked out much better than the first model.  [after the jump]