11.14.2005

A bit of this weekend's harvest

Monday morning and I decided to stay in San Francisco. That means no new MP3 today, but I did score some records, so might as well do another tip sheet for you all.

The Mauds Soul Drippin' b/w Forever Gone (Mercury)
It is funny how what time of day you listen to something influences what you hear. Right now it is morning and I am alone in my girlfriend's apartment, half dressed and half awake, and this Southern boogie-woogie meets Motown White boy band (basically another MC5/Grand Funk ripoff) sounds really good. When the coffee kicks in and the day warms up, this might sound like total bullshit, but right now I am diggin' it.

Big Hog Pefferley & the Loafers Jump & Shout b/w I'm not Goin' to Work Today (Sound Stage 7)
Great early R&B in the mode of the Olympics, the Marathons, or early Isley Brothers...and that is good enough to knock some sleep out of my eyes. I'm not Goin'.. not only has a nice calypso thing (while still being R&B) but has inspired me to keep this boxer shorts, t-shirt, and socks attire going for a couple more hours.

Willie Walker & the Alpacas Money Mad Man b/w Three Hundred Sixty-Five (Freedom)
Great crawling early rock & roll that would have had a bunch of yelps & hicups for vocals has some hillbilly grabbed it instead of this Black group. However the White boys wouldn't have inspired drunk Saturday night dance floor grinding and maybe even some dry humpin'. 365 is a bit more uptempo. It has a nice shuffle going.

Lucky Peterson Blues Band 1-2-3-4 b/w Good Old Candy (Today)
Six year-old Hammond organ prodigy gets taken under the wing of Willie Dixon and does a slow one lifted from Please, Please, Please and slow funky one that is supposed to be about candy but has some pretty suggestive lines. What makes this is the organ playing is over the top and the kid's screams are fucking priceless. When Lucky starts singing it totally reminds me of Jr. & His Soulettes.

Phil Baugh Live Wire (Longhorn)
Forget the flip. Live Wire is a fucking great C&W instro with the kind of speedy hotshit guitar picking you expect from Roy Clark and Chet Atkins. Nothing really to the song, just some blazing fret runs, but that is good enough for me.

Wanda Jackson This Gun Don't Care b/w I Wonder if She Knows 45 (Capitol)
Late 60's C&W Wanda which means it has that Nancy Sinatra meets Nashville polish. Great fuzz guitar and who doesn't like it when Wanda Jackson threatens to cap someone? I Wonder... is straight from the Hank Williams school of country ballad - nice vocal melody, depressed Saturday afternoon bar room feel, and a very nice slide guitar.

The Ivy Three Yogi b/w Was Judy There (Shell)
A novelty song about Yogi Bear done in Yogi & Boo-Boo Bear vocals over an early rock & roll background. Not bad, especially since these guys were a bunch of Ivy League dorks. Was Judy There is a ballad and has a very nice guitar lead and some good vocals. Not a great record, but good enough to keep around for a while. The ballad might actually grow on me.

The Kandy Kanes Hard to Tell b/w Ask the Wind (Sound Track)
A great girl group single from 1966 with that Everly Brothers meets garage punk sound. If it had some fuzz it would be a killer. The Kandy Kanes sound like the grandmothers or mothers of the Pandoras, Del-monas, & Thee Headcoatees. This is definitely worth tracking down if you are a girl group or Girls in the Garage enthusiast.

Deon Jackson Love Makes the World Go Round b/w You Said You Loved Me (Carla)
Just threw on some jeans because this San Francisco morning is a little crisp, but that is fine because the sky is clear and it is gonna be in the 70s today. Fucking paradise and Deon Jackson is a nice soundtrack to that feeling. A very nice Smokey Robinson-style "everything is cool cuz I'm in love" song. It has a lazy jump to it and the vocals are great, especially with the vibes behind them. You Said... has a tough Otis Redding meets Dion sound to it. This is why god invented the 45.

Richie Dennis & the Group Dear Judy b/w Forever & a Day (Cameo)
Sappy 60s pop song with some talk over and seagull sounds. Good backing vocals and "Latin" horns. There really isn't much to this songs but all the gimmicks and the good stuff collide to make it a keeper. Forever... mates Shadow Morton with the Searchers and comes off as the better of the two.

Tony Pass Spring Fever b/w True True Love (Atco)
I am trying to figure out why I picked this up. It has that mid-60s pop does rockin' rock & roll sound. I am expecting a "dirty sax" to bust in anytime. This is the kind of shit that set the table for guys like Bruce Springstein and Billy Joel and Broadway rock & roll musicals. The flip improves things a bit with a Motown bit and a bubblegum feel to it, but it still lacks keeper status. Ah now I see why I picked it up: It is a Jeff Berry production. Well, throw this in his pile of losers.

The New Vaudeville Band Finchley Central b/w Sadie Moonshine (Fontana)
Is there a bubblegum group more loathed than the New Vaudeville Band? I have a friend who literally turns red with anger every time he hears Winchester Cathedral...so of course when I find some kind of special picture sleeve copy of that single for cheap, I buy it and give it to him as a gift. Well, if I played him Fichley Central, he would probably beat me with a stick and I would certainly deserve it. This is the Vaudeville Band's obligatory London subway stop song. It is a piece of crap and the flip is even worse. I am predicting that any day now there will be some neo new vaudeville scene with hipsters wearing coon skin hats and hipsterettes flapper dresses. It is bound to happen. You have been warned.

In the I've been snaked department: Terminal Boredom has posted an MP3 from a record (or maybe it is a demo version of a song from said record) that I'd been planning to do. It is from the Iowa punk band Splayed Innards' one and only 7". Way back in 2000, I wrote in Maximum Rockandroll that I thought the record was one of the best 7"s of the 1990s. The band had sent me a copy about 1996 and then they disappeared. I heard from them again when that MRR piece ran and got more from them. It is a great record and I am glad Dave Hyde hyped it on Terminal Boredom. If you like early 80s style Midwestern punk rock, check it out.

Comments:
hey crud crud, do you know what year that kandy kanes 7" is from?
 
You are very lucky. It is one of the few records from the time that has a date on it. 1966.
 
Hey Scott, good stuff once again. Regarding Phil Baugh, I agree "Live Wire" is a good one. He has another instro on the same label called "Chattanooga" that's also a real winner.
 
how boat hats & coats. i remember the brief 20s revival in the 70s inspired i think by The Sting. Scott Joplin on the radio and people in both coon skin coat and hats. if i am confused today, blame my elders!
 
I know this is a little off post, but any chance of reposting the Better Beatles? I just read about the single & read that you'd posted it. I'm a collector of Beatles covers, so I'd love to hear it.
 
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