SWARTHMORE ELEMENTARY 6th GRADE: We Love Recess - Recorded Publications Company (US) AZB-27272 Oddball and totally unique 1968 private press LP with hand-inscribed cover from the Swarthmore, PA Elementary School 6th grade class performing an original play entitled “We Love Recess”. Try to find another one of these in your lifetime, OK? But wait! Halfway [...]
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.) [...]
Once in a generation, a hesher dwarf LP exceeds all expectations and soars to new heights. “Nothing Short About Me” [Audio clip: view full post to listen] “Ain’t Gonna Pay My Ticket” [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
A brief recount of the things that went through my head as I pulled this record after about 90 minutes of fruitless digging & breathing in of mummified cockroaches bodies… Holy lord. There is no way this is as awesome as it looks. No way.
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 [...]
Jerry Rooth’s Higney-produced single is further evidence that Higney’s sonic philosophy was no accident. All the classic shimmers present are: muted drums, rough, desperate vocals, and the wonderfully inexplicable audio-temporal mixing that made Attic Demonstration such a classic. “But You’ll Try…Again” strays from Higney’s downer-rock and dives into a strange brew of hard-rock, power-pop, and [...]
Edward E. Levin has been operating his “Magic Piano Shop” since 1971, giving lessons and tuning pianos. He still enjoys composing, though a cerebellar stroke in 2009 impaired his ability to perform. This 1980 LP features an odd parody of the Monopoly board game. One of the game squares simply reads, “FOLD BACK FOIL TO [...]
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 [...]
Here is a German compilation LP from 1991. It was the first release on the Hausmusik label and was limited to maybe 200 copies, all numbered on the front cover. The covers are all handpainted and handcut with different cut locations giving views of different pictures. It comes with no less than seven inserts and [...]
With just 2 days to go until Xmas, I almost missed my window of opportunity for 2009. I like to imagine legions of fans depending upon me to post my yearly slice of ridiculous exploito holiday trash. Believe it or not, I hate Xmas music. And yet, somehow it keeps making its way into my [...]
Every year my brother and I take a road trip to dig for records. The objective is to find rare and desirable records of all genres. Without fail the highlight is always finding that special LP that none of our collector friends have ever heard before. This year our trip took us through America’s Heartland…..Kansas, [...]
“Die Laumäckse” was a school band from the small german town named Koblenz. I picked this album up at a local flea market. Although I had never heard of the record I gave it a try as one of the cover versions they do on there is a interpretation of a Mombasa song (German afro-funk [...]
I still don’t quite know what to make of this after a few years and quite a few listens. According to the liner notes “after 8 years of living in the wilderness of her Adirondack farm” the 1940′s movie starlet was spontaneously inspired to write and record music “as the result of some happening”. Bewildering, [...]
The Dove Project No. 9 compilation is one of the most obscure artifacts of Canadian psychedelia. The main individual responsible for this excursion into the remote recesses of rock’s underground was a young and aspiring musical businessman named Doug Wong. In 1969 Doug was a leading member of the student newspaper published at his high-school. Unlike [...]
I often forget the life of a record; The years, or even decades of indifference between it’s conception and the redemption of it’s re-discovery. I suppose it’s totally understandable that a sort of cooling-off period is needed before an era can be stripped of it’s personal baggage and viewed somewhat objectively. In fact, I’m not [...]
Who says a guy in the middle of the woods can’t lay down a solid funk track? Listen and enjoy!!! [Audio clip: view full post to listen] “Joy To The World” [Audio clip: view full post to listen] “Love It Or Leave It”
Not completely sure what this song has to do with POW’s, but I’m really feeling it. Yet another nice track in the vein of country funk. Enjoy!!! [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
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 [...]
A short bit of agonizing over whether or not to crack the seal followed my one dollar purchase of this local San Jose, CA bulldozer man lp. I guess it just seemed like another likely candidate for the better left to the imagination section. Glad my curiosity got the best of me though as it’s [...]