I found this today and thought I’d share its Waxidermic charms. “I Need A Sign” is a poor alienated lover man’s “Shakedown Street” The lyrics in “August” anticipate Will Oldham’s delivery 20 years later. The fuzzy track “Vanilla Man” was too risque to post… “August Is A Lonesome Tune” [audio:August_Is_A_Lonesome_Tune.mp3] “I Need A Sign” [audio:I_Need_A […]
Listenable bone from New Mexico. Real talk lyrics regarding love affairs and Firefall easy glide feelings. Three song stretch at end of side two is strong waiting for the rest to grow or show… “Everything” [audio:wickham_everything.mp3] “Lyrics” [audio:wickham_lyrics.mp3] “Luana” [audio:wickham_luana.mp3]
Before giving in completely to my soft side a couple years ago I often felt seriously conflicted about records like this. I’d sit listening with an odd mixture of emotions; somewhere between “Well this is nice” & “Jesus Christ where the fuck have my balls gone?!?”. I just hadn’t quite fully ascended to the higher […]
After finding two Rizzo acetates in some random box at WFMU, a certain psych mafioso told me he believed Rizzo had access to a lathe and was cutting custom oddities throughout the 70s. Whatever the case, Rizzo captures the perfect basemental weirdness permeating the American underground (think Vyto B, Higney, Stone Harbour, Heitkotter et al.) […]
Excellent and relatively obscure rural tinged folk/rock out of Cleveland, OH. from 1979. Windwords was a duo of multi-instrumentalists Doug McWilliams and David W. Arberman. This record has a great vibe throughout and is a really cohesive listen from start to finish. It was limited to 1000 copies as a private press upon release and […]
I’ve been meaning to post Shelly for a while now. I don’t know what the story on this dude is aside from the fact that there is a sick “cat on piano” photo of this “composer” on the back and he gives a shout out to L. RON, whom he bears a striking resemblance to.
This one has really grown on me. From the Edgartown Massachusetts address of the label and publishing company I would say that it is a safe bet that this was recorded on Martha’s Vineyard. It has all of the heartfelt singer folk writer intentions that an image of 1972 island living conjures. As the liner […]
Private folk/ssw/light rock from Illinois 1975. Released on the small Friendship Store label, there is a pretty wide range of stuff on here. On the folk stuff Cohen wears his Dylan influences on his sleeve while the more pop/rock offerings head into a more typical mid-70s style and direction. Interesting hype sticker on the shrink […]
One of You is my friend’s mom. She left Czechoslovakia during the crackdown in 1968. Everyone in Prague was always talking about how great and amazing the rest of the world was and how the communists were lying when they said the West was bad. When she came to Toronto she remembers being “crushed, totally […]
There is something that is kind of appealing about this country/gospel LP. Jim Gill runs through a bunch of styles (often within the same song) and the band is pretty tight. There is definitely some cool, smart and humorous songwriting going down here and often that’s a tough thing to find on gospel LPs. From […]
Charmingly disjointed Uni-Bomber looking dude who had me from the very first listen. Half the tracks have vocals and should appeal to anyone with a soft spot for oddball sincerity. There is an off-kilter feeling that, combined with his sunny themes, I just find super pleasant and refreshing. The rest is instrumental guitar improvisations which […]
I just don’t quite understand dudes dropping a G plus on motherfuckers like BIXBY while records like Terry Telson are still out there getting little to no shine. He’s lonely, too broke to afford a full-color sleeve, and yours for a mere fraction of the price. What more do you need? Seriously though, this is […]
Last Next is one of the odder birds in my collection. Self-released circa 1972 by a group of New York City musicians led by an army veteran songwriter (shown in uniform on the cover), the album is dominated by amateurish country s-sw with a world-weary undertone, like Hoyt Axton or Jim Croce.
Probably the most unique and unassuming record I purchased at the 2008 WFMU record fair. Housed in a plain sleeve with a screen printed bird and real feathers waxed-on to the cover, Carole Caroompas’ only record from 1981 is a sure winner for fans of minimal pop. Carole is/was an established L.A. visual artist who […]
What an incredible record…fans of The Youngbloods and Poco should check this out. I was looking for good christian records at a St. Vincent De Paul, found this and took a fifty cent chance. He writes most of the songs and they’re all over the map stylistically. They all gel quite well. Check out the […]
Lew is definitely one of the better random SSW dudes I’ve cluelessly picked up in the last few years. Good voice, good songs, good outfit on the cover… and some of more melancholy moments here almost remind me of a sort of budget Nick Drake. In fact, if the entire lp sounded more like the […]
Anchorage, Alaska rarely reaches into the depths of winter cold like Fairbanks (where I live) does. If it did, Alyeska Woman would have been an entirely different record. It would not radiate its almost hopeful vibe nor would it sound as nice. Anchorage has, for a while anyways, been Alaska’s largest city. In 1974, this […]
Jean Yves Tourbin managed to peek out of his nest of gratuitous facial hair and somehow emerge with a tender eastern instrument augmented folk album. The grueling frenchness* of the vocals may repel most, but most tracks are filled with gorgeous finger picked guitars, harps, strings and flutes. For some reason this found its way […]
This is a really solid private press (I think) LP that covers acoustic blues, country & folk territory. All the songs are originals by McElheny and the instrumentation is various combinations of voice, guitar, banjo, electric bass, drums and dobro. Recorded in October 1976 at Bickley Studios, Houston and released on the Buttermilk label, there […]
Obscure 45rpm artifact on a one-off label – the artist remains mysterious, originally from Detroit, apparently he later relocated to the Southwest. An anthem of sorts, the rough-hewn yet melodic folk sound of ‘Magic Wand’ oddly foreshadows the sound of early 90s bedroom-four-trackers. Listen
I’ve had this record for some years now and had filed it away with the mental note that it contained some nice songs. Now that I listen to it again I must say it’s really good. Side one suffers from some uneven tracks but side two is nice all the way. A quick internet search […]
There’s lots of records by crazy people out there, but albums made by real mental patients are considerably fewer. Here’s one, recorded in 1985 by clients at various mental health facilities in Colorado. The project was the brainchild of Dr Alan Melinger, and upon scrutiny it appears to be a partial vanity trip for the […]
Great private press from Vancouver, BC featuring one-half dark, haunted ssw moves with reverberated vocals, these songs being the best on the LP. Chris has a deep voice which must issue some sort of web as you are drawn to listen to him sing as he covers topics like nature, love and loss. The other […]
This private from 1971 has quickly become my most listened to record of the summer, despite finding it as late as August. Housed in a blank sleeve with hand-written labels, it’s no wonder this artifact of the early singer songwriter scene in B.C., Canada remained unknown until its recent rediscovery. I have found it difficult […]
I will begin this with the rather bold claim that this is one of the best 70’s pop records you’ve probably never heard. Which is unfortunate as this independently released 1974 lp can not only hang with any of the revered lesser known major label efforts of time, but surpasses many of them. Quite a […]