Maher Shalal Hash Baz è la creatura di Tori Kudo, testimone di Geova e ceramista giapponese dalla biografia improbabile e sovrabbondante. Questo disco, che dovrebbe essere il diciottesimo in circa vent’anni, spinge alle estreme conseguenze quella poetica dell’abbozzo che fin dagli esordi, o almeno così si racconta, caratterizza la produzione della sigla (giacché parlare di vera e propria band sarebbe improprio): doppio CD, 177 tracce, 100 minuti di durata complessiva, insomma, numeri che potreste trovare solo sulla complete discography di un gruppo grindcore o powerviolence. La musica, per chi già la conosce, non è cambiata più di tanto, si è solo accorciata ulteriormente: sprazzi, accenni, incipit di canzoni per big band in sordina, particolare enfasi sui fiati, esecuzione adorabilmente squinternata e qualche intromissione vocale poco meno che inqualificabile, prevalentemente in lingua madre. Il tutto suona pacioso e conciliante, i volumi non si alzano quasi mai, trombette e tromboni scivolano via dimessi con appena un fil di fiato in corpo. Molti gli stili abbracciati ma mai in maniera netta: le atmosfere sono spesso bucoliche ma non propriamente folk (e poi: folk occidentale o giapponese?), i fiati flirtano ingenuamente col jazz senza propriamente concedersi, l’esecuzione approssimativa porta in territori indie senza però arrivare ad esiti apertamente slacker. C’è poi la chitarra, che quando riesce a guadagnarsi la ribalta, si diletta in simpatiche svisate sixties. Escludendo la sparuta manciata di canzoni con un capo e una coda che fanno capolino di tanto in tanto, gli altri cento e passa “brani” sembrano in realtà appunti per l’ipotetica colonna sonora di un film da girarsi fra il Giappone e una Parigi di pura invenzione: in attesa delle indicazioni del regista su cosa sviluppare e cosa invece lasciar cadere nel dimenticatoio, quello che ci resta fra le mani è un enorme ventaglio di possibilità incompiute, uno sterminato campionario di pezzi di ricambio per un songwriting pop che alla fine nessuno si deciderà ad assemblare. Non vi posso garantire che riascolterò questo album fino a consumarne i solchi, come si diceva una volta, ma è certo che ricorderò con la dovuta tenerezza queste 177 maldestre carezze.  Adesso mi sento spettinato e sereno.     

Myspace

When Os Mutantes performed live in Miami back in 06. Sergio Dias of the Mutantes said that Miami in Portuguese means “Love Me”. This completely fits the people and sounds of Miami visited over the years. Now was no exception. Local infamously strange musik acts Dino Felipe, Flux Forces, Paige and Kenny Millions all came out to play with the traveling Jacksonville acts Matrix Infinity, Omebi, Erzulie and Telepathik Friend. Even the grandaddy of the Miami freak scene Rat Bastard cut his NYC No Fun noise fest trip a day short to help us run the Churchills maddening soundboard. It was a night of loving sonics and mysterious waves.

Starting the night off was Erzulie in their third stage appearance ever in a neighborhood filled with the religion (Haitian Voudou) they borrowed their name from. Beginning with a swirling ghost song with chants of “Erzulie” hummed upon distorted psych guitar courtesy of Space Bartus while his companion Lady Becca tapped on two drums then off into a quiet gospel-like tune about running away or into a void, ending it all with a sweet drone guitar instrumental. They kept the audience in silent awe’s with shadowy psych.

Omebi played her songs about zombie minds and her outer space home in her most minimal fashion yet. No crazy headpieces or theatrics. Just her on piano and vox. The 50 million watt soundsystem made up for this with a certain dark world not yet mapped. Think of embers with UFO music scores discovered in the Arctic.

Dino Felipe tore a new hole in what can be done with future pop raving. Noisy, dreamy, crazy, and pure fun. Its amazing Dino isn’t heralded more as a top genius among the world of electro weird pop music everywhere. Though everyone that knows of his music and live sets knows that theres very lil parallel to what he does.  The Nirvana song he covered was probably the best nod to that bands music ever done in all senses. Live he was all over the stage and floor with a dancer and a live drummer backing him. Undoubtedly the best “make ya dance” performance I’ve seen since Quintron and Miss Pussycat last year and the best odd pop music I’ve heard since Ariel Pink years ago. Dino’s new cd has been on obsessive repeat since that night. How does he make music you can have a mad psych party to and dream away the times? You should go find out for yrself.

http://www.myspace.com/dinofelipe

Kenny Millions destroyed all ”physics of music” within noise sax skronk and jazz punk improv. Looping disaster guitar riffage and then blasting sax on top with a gusto most people half his age (in his 50s?) cant even seem to find for whatever reason. A one man tonal roller coaster ending on dimensional train X while he cursed, threw kicks and punched into the air to “help release tension” he later said. This was the soundtrack to the David Lynch remake of Repo Man for real or the alternate universe where Hunter Thompson was a experimental musician. Not of this world ever!

I love Miami.

Matrix Infinity played a dreamier set then the last few times id seen them using the same elements. This night they had more of a mellow cloud float vibe going in the vein of Tangerine Dream with female space drift wonderin vocals, synth laser echoes and galactic drum jars.

Paige has been in numerous wtf! in yr face sexual theatrics bands for years (Cock ESP. Laundry Room Squelchers, Wealthy Whore Entertainment etc.). This time in her new band Village Peep Hole she began quite normally with a bass and a moog dude plus electronic drummer as her back up band. It wasn’t long before she was up and dancing on and off the stage and then in her underwear with a gigantic cushion penis strapped around her which she attacked the audience while singing a Madonna song. Aye!

Flux Forces

Flux Forces played the set that Suicide must have been thinking of when they thought what weird pop music in the 2000’s would sound like. Featuring Ryan on freak out vocals and Rebeca on a circuit bent keyboards. Was eye seeing another Miami based band performing outstanding crazy off kilter high energy live mad pop tuneage with perfect lunatic precision? Fukin A!

http://www.myspace.com/fluxforces

Rat Bastard

Rat Bastard ended the night grabbing demented guitar bones with whatknot words and urghs backed up with noise throwin Squelcher crew members Luciano G. and Amanda Green. During the night, Rat told some funny tales of his recent Europe touring, mainly involving Harry Merry’s house. Next time I gotta bring a tape recorder and have pizza and beer with Rat while he tells of his million year history being involved with the underground freak rock world in his comedic style.

http://www.squelchers.com/

Bonus Level: This was the new found fun found in Miami.

Yerba Mate Soda!

Esta muchacha es Jan Terri

Es cantante, y de Chicago. A principios de los 90 sacó dos discos y ya nada más se supo de ella. Sus vídeos:

• Losing You

• Journey To Mars

• Get Down Goblin

• Live

Estos son los artistas que me interesan. Según se sabe, Jan era conductora de limusinas, y asediaba a sus clientes dándole cintas de VHS con sus videos amateur. Según cuenta un afortunado asistente a uno de sus escasos conciertos, Jan acude sóla a los shows y toca solos de guitarra encima de su propio CD sonando. En la canción Journey To Mars incluso lanza chocolatinas al público, que a esas alturas ya está completamente extasiado. A día de hoy no hay noticias acerca de esta artista irrepetible, que llegó a actuar para un cumpleaños del mismísimo Marilyn Manson.

Gracias a Davis de Dusty Springfield Está Tocando En Mi Casa por el descubrimiento.

Esta mujer, amigas, es Leoncie

No, no es la Tigresa de Oriente. Más quisiera esa viejuna. Leoncie comparte con Björk país de  nacionalidad, extravagancia, originalidad, subversión, y una voz que provoca tanto adhesión como rechazo. Pero Leoncie cae mejor, qué duda cabe. Para empezar, vamos con un video en el que invita a todos los hombres a pasarlo bien. Leoncie es Juana Paloma, ella lo guisa, y se lo come. Sus videos son caseros y abusa del croma, algo de aplaudir en estos tiempo de asepsia tecnológica. Le basta un teclado para armar melodías tan desnortadas, subyugantes y absorbentes como esta:

• Man! Let’s Have Fun

Aquí le canta a los luchadores, a esa estirpe de hombres que se crecen ante las adversidades y los torsos aceitosos. Leoncie se trasmuta en una artista de heavy-metal con riffs incendiarios y una actitud fiera. Vuelve el croma, por supuesto. Y el teclado de baratillo.

• Wrestler

Una canción digna de Burt Bacharach le sirve a Leoncie para construir una oda al amor de pub

• Love in a Pub

En esta ocasión, Leoncie es la sufrida trabajadora que, cuando llega a casa, es sometida, sexualmente hablando, por su marido, un polícia con bigote. Como dios manda. Esta canción es 100% bailable y sólo el teclado hace acto de presencia.

• Sex Crazy Cop

Tardaba en el imaginario de Leoncie el tema de los superhéroes.

• Invisible Girl

Y claro, si hay héroes, también hay villanos:

• Killer in the Park

Leoncie es una artista que no merece los insultos de cuatro pringados que no saben ver más allá de sus narices. Este artículo, aunque no lo parezca, está escrito sin un atisbo de ironía. Leoncie es una artista atemporal, única, irrepetible. Ella dice que hace canciones para hacer feliz a la gente, y vive dios que lo consigue.

It started innocently enough–as a simple effort to track down “Rebel Yell (The South’s Gonna Rise Again)” by the Pleasant Valley Boys, prompted by Alex’s post on the epic gore film Two Thousand Maniacs! What happened after that, dear reader…

I tried white-market means. I spent a dollar for a wretched cover version by Johnny Legend at Amazon. I remained unsatisfied. More Google. The lamp illuminating my fevered and perspiring brow was sputtering on the last remaining fumes of fetid kerosene when at last my efforts bore fruit.

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites contained the song I sought. But what was Lux & Ivy’s Favorites? More research yielded answers–answers to questions I ought not have asked in the first place…

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites is a compilation made by a fan of the Cramps. To be honest, I’ve always liked the Cramps better in concept than in execution–but Lux and Ivy are legendary record collectors and promoters of the obscure and bizarre, and I absolutely respect them for that. Would the awe-inspiring “Strychnine” by the Sonics even be remembered if it wasn’t for the Cramps? Perhaps not.

It’s nine volumes. All are readily available via Soulseek. The concept–compile every song Lux & Ivy have played before shows, mentioned that they liked in interviews, and so on.

It started as a way to keep track of some of the songs Lux , and or Ivy, mentioned in THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC BOOK. It was never really intended as anything but a way for a friend of mine and me to have 2 really kick ass compilations.

So we went about the arduous process of finding all the songs mentioned in that interview. It took a loooong time. We used the file sharing program, Napster, as well as our own personal collections.

So, one thing leads to another and when word got around that these compilations were out there, they started being traded from fan to fan to fan. So at some point I decided to put them up on Napster and let anyone who wanted them have them.

As the years went buy, more interviews with Lux and Ivy kept popping up, and the list of songs they mentioned got longer and longer. This resulted in new volumes.

And what does it contain? Glad you asked.  It contains:

• Rockabilly (“Skull and Cross Bones” by Sparkle Moore),
• Surf music, (“War of the Worlds” by The Atlantics),
• Novelty songs (“The Mummy” by Bob McFadden and Dor),
• Classic blues tracks (several from Bo Diddley),
• Garage rock (“Green Fuz” by Randy Alvey and The Green Fuz),
• Legendary underground recordings (“(Let’s Dance) The Screw”) by The Crystals),
• Movie themes (“Beware the Blob” by the Five Blobs),
• Just plain weirdness (Porter Waggoner’s “Rubber Room”),
• Just plain awesomeness (the epic “Taboo” by Gene Summers),
• And, not least, “The Ballad of Thunder Road.”

And I’ve only made it through volume four!

Check it out–if your sanity can handle it.

(The compiler’s Soulseek username is nimereht. Proper respect.)

Update:  I made it through them all!  And I’m still perfectly sane!  Sane, I tell you!

Update 2: Volumes 1-11 can be acquired here. Volume 12 is here.

Video: “Green Fuz” by Randy Alvey and The Green Fuz

Below the fold is the complete track listing, with some corrections made to track listings I’ve seen floating around the Internet. I’m sure there are more corrections to be made, and I may have made an error or two myself–much of this stuff is very obscure, after all. But I’ve done my best. If you see any errors, let me know in the comments or e-mail me.

At the moment, this post only covers volumes 1-9, but I’ll add coverage of the next three when I have time to go through them in detail.

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 1

1. Sheriff & The Ravels – Shombalor
2. Sid King & The Five Strings – Let ‘er Rip
3. Ersal Hickey – Bluebirds Over The Mountain
4. Ersal Hickey – Hangin’ Around
5. Ronnie Dawson – Action Packed
6. Ronnie Self – Date Bait
7. Vern Pullens – Bop Crazy Baby
8. Donald Woods And The Belairs – Death Of An Angel
9. Gene Maltais – Crazy Baby
10. Billy Ward and His Dominoes – The Bells
11. Bob McFadden and Dor – The Mummy
12. Forbidden Five – RFD Rangoon
13. Forbidden Five – Enchanted Farm
14. The Medallions – Behind The Door
15. Nervous Norvous – Transfusion
16. The Clovers – Crawlin’
17. The Penguins – Earth Angel
18. The Blenders – Don’t Fuck Around With Love
19. Sparkle Moore – Skull and Cross Bones
20. Versatones – Bila
21. Versatones – Tight Skirt Tight Sweater
22. The Tornados – Telstar
23. The Treniers – Poon-Tang!
24. The Clovers – Rotten Cocksuckers Ball
25. The Collins Kids – Whistle Bait
26. The Chips – Rubber Biscuits
27. Jan & Arnie – Jennie Lee

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 2

1. 13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss Me
2. Ric Cartey – Young Love
3. Slim Harpo – Strange Love
4. The Champs – Train To Nowhere
5. Cozy Cole – Topsy, Parts One and Two
6. Zacherley – Dinner With Drac
7. Randy Alvey and The Green Fuz – Green Fuz
8. Jackie Morningstar – Rockin’ In The Graveyard
9. John Buck and His Blazers – Forbidden City
10. Marvin Rainwater – Hot And Cold
11. Blues Rockers – Calling All Cows
12. The Five Blobs – The Blob
13. Ric Cartey – Oooh-Eeee
14. June Wilkinson and Mamie Van Doren – Bikini With No Top On Top
15. Wayne Williams – Red Hot Mama
16. Boss-Tones – Mope-itty Mope
17. Keith Courvale – Trapped Love
18. The Storey Sisters – Bad Motorcycle
19. Lightnin’ Slim – It’s Mighty Crazy
20. Bob McFadden and Dor – Noisy Village
21. The Crescents – Pink Dominoes
22. Marketettes – Out Of Limits
23. The Chimes – Zindy Lou
24. The Crystals – (Let’s Dance) The Screw – Pt. 1
25. The Invictas – The Hump
26. Earle Hagen & The New Interns – New Interns Watusi
27. Billy Ward & The Dominoes – Jennie Lee

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 3

1. The Pretty Things – Come See Me
2. The Leather Boy – On the Go
3. Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 1
4. Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 2
5. The Carnations – Scorpion
6. The Imps – Uh-Oh
7. Doctor Ross – The Boogie Disease
8. Howlin’ Wolf – Smokestack Lightnin’
9. Polka Dot Slim – A Thing You Gotta Face
10. The Ventures – The Rat
11. Mohammed Rafi AKA Ted Lyons & His Cubs – Jaan Pehechaan Ho
12. Bo Diddley – Congo
13. Anton LaVey – Satan Takes a Holiday
14. The Symbols – Do the Zombie
15. The Scarlets – Stampede
16. Danny Dell & The Trends – Froggy Went A Courting
17. Johnny Kidd & The Pirates – Shakin’ All Over
18. The Kinks – You Really Got Me
19. The Strangers – Caterpillar Crawl
20. Porter Waggoner – Rubber Room
21. Robert Mitchum – The Ballad of Thunder Road
22. Duane Eddy – Ramrod
23. Dick Penner – Cindy Lou
24. The Ideals – Go Go Gorilla
25. Jack Nitzsche – The Lonely Surfer
26. The Johnny Burnette Trio – Honey Hush
27. Mickey & Sylvia – No Good Lover
28. Duane Eddy – Stalkin’
29. Bo Diddley – I’m A Man
30. Johnny Fortune – Dragster
31. The Gee Cees – Buzzsaw Twist

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 4

1. Gene Summers – Taboo
2. Roland Janes – Guitarville
3. The Citations – Moon Race
4. Electro-Tones – Ghost Train
5. Hank Davis – Woman Train
6. Jack Nitzsche – Rumble
7. Gene Gray & The Stingrays – Surfer’s Mood
8. Charlie Feathers – In the Pines
9. Ric Cartey – My Babe
10. Reverend Charles Jackson – Wrapped Up and Tangled Up In Jesus
11. Les Baxter – Lust
12. Harley Hatcher – The Chase Is On [From the movie Satan's Sadists]
13. Jan Davis – The Time Funnel
14. The Atlantics – War Of The Worlds
15. Clyde Stacey – Hoy Hoy
16. Electric Prunes – Dr. Do Good
17. The Five Jones Boys – Mr. Ghost Goes To Town
18. Jackie & The Starlighters – Valerie
19. Musical Linn Twins – Rockin’ Out the Blues
20. Hugh Barrett & The Victors – Fungus Among Us
21. Cannibal & the Headhunters – Zulu King
22. Charlie Feathers – She Set Me Free
23. Portuguese Joe – Teenage Riot
24. Gene Maltais – Gang War
25. The Musical Linn Twins – Indian Rock
26. Jimmie Rodgers – Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No.
27. Ron Thompson – Switchblade
28. The Legendary Stardust Cowboy – Paralyzed
29. Vernon Green & The Phantoms – Sweet Breeze
30. Davie Allan & the Arrows – Theme from the Unknown
31. The Stooges – 1970

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 5

1. The Swamp Rats – Louie, Louie
2. The Trashmen – Bird ‘65
3. Link Wray & The Raymen – The Fuzz
4. Peanuts Wilson – Cast Iron Arm
5. Bo Diddley – The Story Of Bo Diddley
6. Homer Denison, Jr. – Chickie Run
7. Curley Griffin – Got Rockin’ On My Mind
8. The Isley Brothers – Nobody But Me
9. Ron Haydock & The Boppers – 99 Chicks
10. Bill Carter & The Rovin’ Gamblers – Baby Brother
11. Andre Williams – (M M M M Andre Williams Is) M-M-Movin’
12. The Quotations – Imagination
13. Carl Perkins – Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing
14. The Sparkles – Oh Girls, Girls
15. Julie London – Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
16. The Lifeguards – Everybody Out’ta The Pool
17. Ken Nordine – Strollin’ Spooks
18. Ken Nordine – Fliberty Jib
19. The Ramones – Beat On The Brat
20. Betty McQuade – Tongue Tied
21. Ronnie Ray & The Playboys – The Vulture
22. The Revels – Midnight Stroll
23. Ray Anthony – Dragnet
24. Link Wray – Genocide
25. Don Charles Presents The Singing Dogs – Oh! Susanna
26. The Deadly Ones! – It’s Monster Surfing Time
27. Edwin Bruce – Sweet Woman
28. Ted Weems & His Orchestra, with Elmo Tanner (whistle) – Heartaches
29. Vito & The Salutations – Unchained Melody
30. Jack Eely & The Courtmen – Louie, Louie ‘66

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 6

1. Earl Wade – I Dig Rock ‘n’ Roll
2. The Ran-Dells – Martian Hop
3. The Saxons – Camel Walk (Part 1)
4. The Nitecats – Jungle
5. Charlie Gracie – Guitar Boogie
6. The Flamingos – I Only Have Eyes For You
7. Kenny Owen – I Got The Bug
8. The Phantom – Whisper Your Love
9. Moses Longpiece – Slide Her Under the Door
10. Ray Harris – Come On Little Mama
11. The Cables – Choo-Choo
12. The Charades – Flamingo
13. Ronnie Isle – Wicked
14. Andre Williams With The Gino Parks Quartet – Pass The Biscuits Please
15. Gene La Marr and His Blue Flames – That Crazy Little House On The Hill
16. The Innocents – I’m A Hog For You
17. Thee Midniters – Jump, Jive and Harmonize
18. Bob Taylor & The Counts – Thunder
19. Mad Magazine – (She Got a) Nose Job
20. The Five Sharps – Stormy Weather
21. Booker T. & the MG’s – Green Onions
22. Jack Nitzsche – The Last Race
23. Elvis Presley – Milkcow Blues Boogie
24. The Fleetwoods – Unchained Melody
25. Mad Magazine – When My Pimples Turned To Dimples
26. Grace Tennessee and The American Spirits – Pow Wow
27. Phil and the Frantics – Say That You Will
28. Pasquale & The Lunar-Tiks – Moon Madness
29. Arthur Lyman – Taboo

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 7

1. Marvin & Johnny – Vip Vop
2. The Original Starfires – Fender Bender
3. Ronnie Kae – Drums Fell Off a Cliff
4. Young Jessie with The Flairs – Lonesome Desert
5. Andre Williams & The Don Juans – Pulling Time
6. Joe Clay – Did You Mean Jelly Bean (What You Said Cabbage Head)
7. T. Rex – Rip Off
8. Tony Allen and The Champs – Nite Owl
9. Betty McQuade – Blue Train
10. Sparkle Moore – Tiger
11. Stan Freberg – A Dear John and Marsha Letter [I think the compiler meant to include "John and Marsha," but this is the song that is included.]
12. The Dynamic Dial Tones – Boss
13. The Vocaleers – Cootie Snap
14. The Tokens – B’wanina (Pretty Girl)
15. Mississippi Mud Mashers – Moonglow
16. John & Jackie – Little Girl
17. The Falcons – Now That It’s Over
18. Mr. Undertaker – Here Lies My Love
19. Andre Williams – The Greasy Chicken
20. Roky Erickson – Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)
21. Kay Martin and Her Body Guards – Swamp Girl
22. The Grey Stokes – The Legend of Tarzan
23. Mac Rebennack – Storm Warning (Long Version)
24. Charlie Feathers – That Certain Female
25. Ronnie Self – Bop-A-Lena
26. Jaynetts – Sally Go ‘Round the Roses
27. The Sensational Nightingales – Standing in the Judgment
28. Stan Freberg – St. George And The Dragonet

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 8

1. Richard Strauss [composer] – Also Sprach Zarathustra – Fanfare
2. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You
3. Love – My Flash On You
4. American Teens – Shake Shake Baby
5. The Gamblers – LSD-25
6. Unknown Artist – Unknown Song
7. Lee Chandler & The Blue Rhythms – Tree Top
8. The Strikes – If You Can’t Rock Me
9. Buddy Miller – Teen Twist
10. The Tides – Midnight Limbo
11. Homer Denison, Jr. – March Slav Boogie
12. Chaino – The Pigmy Song (Tikky Tikky Boom Boom)
13. Johnnie Honeycutt – Blue Song of Love
14. Kitty & Sheeny Lanier – Do The Whip
15. The Dirtbombs – I Can’t Stop Thinking About It
16. Betty Smith With Johnny Maxwell And The Rhythmmasters – Yeah, Baby
17. Rudy Thacker and The Stringbusters – Black Train
18. Stacy Bengal & His Six Outfielders – I Come To Demolish Cleveland
19. The Gamblers – Moon Dawg!
20. Unknown Artist – Unknown Song
21. The Viscounts – Harlem Nocturne
22. Billy Lee Riley – Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll
23. David Seville – Witch Doctor
24. Freddie Cannon – Palisades Park
25. Kay Martin and Her Body Guards – The Heel
26. Sheb Wooley – The Purple People Eater
27. The Pleasant Valley Boys with Herschell Gordon Lewis – “Rebel Yell (The South’s Gonna Rise Again)” [Theme from Two Thousand Maniacs] [IMDB credits this to H.G. Lewis, but I've seen the movie twice and I swear it's credited to the Pleasant Valley Boys.  It's definitely Lewis singing, though, so I'm crediting it to both until I find out otherwise.]
28. Unknown Artist – Unknown Song
29. Mad Mike & The Maniacs – The Hunch
30. Sparkle Moore – Flower Of My Heart

Lux & Ivy’s Favorites, Volume 9

1. Jess Franco – Sex and Mystic of M. Sade (edit) [No idea what Franco movie this is from or what the cut is actually called]
2. The Kinks – Until the End of the Day
3. The Vi-Kings – Desert Boots
4. Jimmy McConville – Scorpion
5. Bo Diddley – Mona
6. Wendell Smith – Nashville, Tennessee
7. The Crystals – He’s a Rebel
8. T. Rex – Baby Strange
9. All Women Are Bad [movie trailer audio]
10. The Wailers – Dirty Robber
11. Charlie Gracie – Butterfly
12. Chuck Ranado and The Electronaires – My Baby’s Gone
13. Lonnie Johnson – Tomorrow Night
14. Flamin’ Groovies – Teenage Head
15. Howlin’ Wolf – The Red Rooster
16. The Dantes – 80-96
17. The Chantays – Pipeline
18. Gene Gray & The Stingrays – Surfer’s Mood [repeated from volume 4]
19. The Deadly Ones! – Surfin’ Dockside
20. Gary & Larry – Garlic Bread
21. The Shangri-Las – Out in the Streets
22. The Tempests – Rockin’ Rochester USA
23. Spike Jones – Chloe
24. The Vampires’ Sound Incorporation – The Lions and the Cucumber
25. The Duals – Wait Up Baby
26. Rodger & The Tempests – Bad Bad Way
27. The Dixie Cups – Chapel of Love
    
28. Jimmy Scott – Unchained Melody

So I was looking for this particular 10″ by Barbara Morgenstern and found that the whole pile of this neglected, let’s face it, pretty obsolete format was full of some forgotten gems. I was always particularly pleased if a band I liked released something on 10″. It’s such a cute size – a 7″ is always the dinkiest little treat – however poor I’ve been I’d feel I could treat myself to a few 7″s… getting lps and 12″s is always more of an investment of course – in the amount of space they swallow up in my increasingly overstuffed tiny living space…but a 10″ seems just right. The artwork always seems to be pitched perfectly and look it’s best this size…

Anyway: Got busy digitising and scanning (thanks to the rabbit for showing me a much quicker way to join up the two scans super quickly in Photoshop) Here’s the first installment in a random trawl through the 10″ pile:

Yma Sumac: Virgin of the Sun God

You probably know Yma Sumac as the increasingly overused soundtrack to many an ad (I think that filthy Lynx cinema ad used her – the one with all the girls in bikinis running in slow motion / swimming through the sea, fighting with each other to get to some berk covered in stink on the beach). I first heard of her back in the early 90’s I think. S had gotten fascinated by this obscure underground label called Twisted Village. Most of their stuff was pretty unlistenable (although of course Julian Cope would disagree: http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/710)

They had very intriguing, slightly scary covers, one of which, ‘Spirit of Yma’ by Vermonster had a girl slumped on the floor with her legs spread, her face covered up by pictures of this heavily made up, exotic lady…Yma Sumac. The back cover explained that there were rumours that Yma, far from being a Peruvian princess, worshipped by locals as a goddess as her record company would blurb on the covers and biogs released about her in the 50’s and 60’s was in fact a housewife from Brooklyn called Amy Camus. She happened to have this unearthly (8 octave range?) voice…was discovered by some canny record exec and was whisked away to record strange records, dressed up and marketed as an other worldly creature from the mysterious depths of South America.

Either way, I knew I had to hear her. She looked so great and this little mystery was delicious. This was, of course, before I could just google her to find out more. I simply had to wait. Luckily I worked in a second hand record shop at the time… Having little obsessions like this – things I was hunting for, for myself or friends or regulars – made the sometimes crushingly slow days go by with a little more zip. Maybe one of the punters struggling up to the desk with a box of records to sell would have that first Neu lp, an early Josef K single that I didn’t have…Yma….

In the end I found this 10″ in the most unlikely place. There was a tumbledown little second hand shop in Goldsmith’s Row then. Mostly house clearance crap. There was a very nice eggshell blue 50’s kitchen unit and a dog on wheels in the window (the only two things not for sale of course) and, sometimes, on sagging trestle tables outside the shop on fine days, boxes of mouldy old records from the attics of the recently deceased. I rarely bothered looking. I knew it’d all be Andy Williams and Straus Waltzes, Mrs.Mills’ Piano Party and Gilbert and Sullivan. But I was with DC, who would rifle through even the grubbiest poor old tramps’ stack on the peripheries of Brick Lane and we were pretty competitive about outdoing each other with our finds (he’d found some amazing things – Esquivel, Martin Denny – all that lounge exotica that was being exhumed and championed in hipster bars in LA then…or so we heard and read in Incredibly Strange Music.). So, I started flipping through the box of rotting old records and. There. She. Was. ! Yma Sumac – no picture, just this dusty grey blue cover: Hearing her was no disapointment. Like Diamanda Galas in a Hollywood movie from the 50’s- crazy swooping voice from an almost painful reedy high note to gravelly growling lows…and cocooned in this Les Baxter swoony orchestral backing…Pure nostalgia for an age I didn’t even live through. I went on to get lots more of her stuff. Full colour covers, normal sized LPs…but this first find and the high of hearing it the first time remains a thrill.

On a completely different tip, lurking in a plain white slip cover near Yma was this:

Evil Superstars: It’s a sad sad planet

I knew the song and loved it because me and AS used to watch Alternative Nation late on Tuesday nights on MTV (this was mid to late 90’s?) It was a favourite. The video had them doing a cute little dance to the chorus (like Ok Go before they were a twinkle in Youtube’s eyue) and – I think I still like this track a lot. I remembered it having something of the weary / cheery fatalism of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s classic tearjerker ‘Alone Again, Naturally’. We also thought it sounded like Ben Folds – that classic FM sound… I love the line ‘you’re a wrinkled mutant, before you get it…’. And now, more than ever, it’s true. It really is a sad, sad planet.

I’m uploading this to go with it instead, as there’s no cover. Isn’t it gorgeous? I found it in a flea market somewhere…Not in Denmark (I think it’s Danish? Please correct me if I’m wrong) …maybe in Berlin. I love the random-ness. A deer, a rabbit..elephant and monkey playing…erm..some mosquitos…and…a ghost! With a trumpet, of course! The record’s pretty unremarkable though – mainly spoken word stories for little-uns said in that sing-song-y voice that I’m sure even 2 years olds find patronising, but I’m uploading one of the more musical tracks from it just so you don’t have to take my word for it…and because, delightfully, this was written by one Viggo Bitch. (I know, it’s not funny at all in Denmark (or wherever)…but what a great name.). Here it is anyway. If you can understand it and fancy sending a translation please do!

Kom Her, Min Lille Kipkalv (from the 10″ ‘Noget for BØrn vol.2″

Back to the pile. I’d forgotten about this lot entirely. Thinking Fellers Union Local – there were lumped in with Pavement and Rodan and other clever, slightly dour American indie boys then. When I heard Giordini di Miro in Germany for the first time a few years ago, I couldn’t remember what it reminded me of…I said maybe Slint (and there is that, of course) but now I realised it also exhumed the memory of this angst ridden dirge (don’t get me wrong, I love a good dirge).

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Hurricane

Giordini di Miro: The Swimming Season

Also on in a melancholy mood, one of my favourite bits of forgotten 80’s pop. Souvenir by OMD. This wasn’t one of their big hits – Joan of Arc and Enola Gay were more grandiose, had more of a spring in their step, despite the weighty subject matter…and the vocals have something of a strident air – you can feel he’s trying to…emote… whereas here there’s something so neutral and restrained in the way the lyrics are delivered. It sounds like a typical Monday afternoon’s existential despair, sung like a shopping list…but surrounded by this luscious electronic ooze of layers and layers of shimmering minor chords. I always think of it when I hear Zoetrope by Boards of Canada. It has a similar feel. I’m sure someone out there will know that’s because they used the same keyboards. I don’t know about that. I just love how both tracks make me feel something like regret, but not the nasty vicious stabbing king – a kind of tenderness swells with the music. I’ll stop trying to describe it and just put the links in now:

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Souvenir

Boards of Canada: Zoetrope