Sandy Hurvitz: Sandy’s Album Is Here At Last!
I grew up going to this crappy record shop in Orange County, Ca called “Pepperland”. You guessed it, the owner was Beatlemaniac. Scary. But, in the back, if you were not afraid to get dirty and look like a deranged sex fiend, there were a lot of records. This is the kind of place that priced completely hammered Chuck Berry lp’s at like $39.95… but, digging through the less “glamorous” sections I often came away with some pretty sweet shit.
So, one day I find this in the un-priced under-stock above which hung an “All unpriced records 99 cents” sign. I was excited. Take it up to the counter and the dipshit late-30-something Joe Satriani loving rocker guy at the counter won’t sell it to me. Apparently he recognized it as a Zappa production and wanted it. I would have jumped over the counter and rung his greasy neck, but I’m a gentleman… also, a guy I was currently attending college classes with was working there that day.
Well, if you never believed in record karma, let the record show that it exists… though it’s wheels move slow… cause 3-4 years later I ended up finding a nice copy of this at Salvation Army for 50 cents. I had to contend with a geezer bitterly stacking the 3 Dog Knight records of his youth, but by god I got it at last! And it’s a good ‘un too… but even if it wasn’t, after all that I’d be keepin’ this bitch anyhow.
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Believin’ it about the record karma. The major pain, though, is when doing bad stuff leads to scoring less well in the crates. Inversely, after you being so saintly and waiting it out, and on previous form, I’m scared to think how you would have torn down this shop if the 3 Dog Knight guy had become ‘obstructive’.
Do you have any of her other records, Crink?
nope. how are they?
Primordial Lovers is essential, imo.
great record! thanks to the generosity of d at friends of sound here in austin (he sold me his personal wlp copy of “primordial lovers” w/ the booklet no less!)- i now have her first three lps. they have been life sustaining these last few months for me! btw, she’s also the voice of the schoolhouse rock fave, “interjections”! chek her website for current shows around her native philly and a recent pic of her w/ rufus harley…
also regarding pepperland…i grew up in la in the 80s and i used to go to ‘beatlefest’ at a downtown hotel, the bonaventure (or as some conventiongoer, drink saoked ladies chimed one night, “the boner adventure”). to put this in perspective, this was during the height of the ‘paisley underground’ and beatlefest was one big party for a lot of us who dressed the part.
it was kinda of like a record convention, lots of local stores had booths. but being a regular at the fairly priced rhino records, i knew that the sellers at beatlefest were crust related. the worst was pepperland! the only thing they were good for was the latest vinyl bootleg. they were expensive, but still a deal compared to the bloated prices of some orange label fab four shwag…
Those boots you speak of were probably the same ones sitting in the bins ’till the early 00’s when they converted to a mostly instrument selling/lessons business. but yeah, MAJOR crust related. haha!
She used to play with the Mothers. In fact they were supposed to have played with her on this album. Zappa was the original producer but she and FZ had a big blow-out. She was really quite a looker.
Her stage moniker during her days with the Mothers was “Uncle Meat”.
Are the 80s Essra Mohawk lps worth investigating?
Really! SHE was Uncle Meat? That’s a tail I have never heard. Plus this is the first time I have ever seen this cover without a day-glo orange Promo/DJ sticker attached to it. I had it when it was new back then and followed Essra right up to the rHINO reissue last year. Imagine my surprise when 30 years after the fact i find ANOTHER unplayed copy with the same day-glo orange sticker.
Duncan