DIY / Outsider

Recordings made by non-professionals, usually on their own dime. Also know as “real people music” this stuff can range from charming & naive, to downright twisted.

  • One of You One of You

    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 [...]

  • Various Artists - Haus Musik Various Artists – Haus Musik

    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 [...]

  • Muruga: Little Nada Drummer Boy Muruga: Little Nada Drummer Boy

    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 [...]

  • GREY EAGLE BAND Under Direction Of: Opal J. Johnson GREY EAGLE BAND Under Direction Of: Opal J. Johnson

    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 - Jazz geht's los Die Laumäckse – Jazz geht’s los

    “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 [...]

  • Alice Armand: "Erica Sings" Alice Armand: “Erica Sings”

    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, [...]

  • V/A - Dove Project No. 9 (No Label, 1970) V/A – Dove Project No. 9 (No Label, 1970)

    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 [...]

  • The Now: Muse The Now: Muse

    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 [...]

  • Nancy - Like You Do Nancy – Like You Do

    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!!!

  • Last Next - Shanty Blue Folk Last Next – Shanty Blue Folk

    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.

  • Carole Caroompas - Target Practice Carole Caroompas – Target Practice

    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 [...]

  • Merrill Clark: Operating Engineer Merrill Clark: Operating Engineer

    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 [...]

  • Robert "Killer" Fields - S/T Robert “Killer” Fields – S/T

    Who is Robert “Killer” Fields? That is a legitimate question. To be honest, I have no idea. I do know that in 1986 he decided to make a tape. A very homemade tape.  The first side of this cassette is a complete genre fuck. Mr. Fields lets loose with nine tracks of raunchy and vulgar [...]

  • Edna Mae Henning Edna Mae Henning

    Welcome to the magical world of Edna Mae Henning. A very special country singer from rural Pennsylvania. She is in many ways what I had always dreamed of in an older woman singing good ol’ fashioned country music. She has a way of capturing the soul of what is truly wonderful about [...]

  • Busting Barriers with Music Busting Barriers with Music

    This compilation came together in Canton, Michigan in 1986. The idea was to “heighten awareness of the ‘abilities’ of seniors and handicappers” (yes “abilities” was written in quotes) by pairing up senior citizens and disabled people with (washed up at this point) Michigan musicians. Highlights include a guitar-heavy version of “The Little Drummer [...]

  • Deborah E. Lillygren - Someday Deborah E. Lillygren – Someday

    Where do I start? OK, I paid $1.99 for this. I don’t know if it was the gold flourishes, the old-timey lettering…maybe it was the Corporate Seal of Approval from T.D.A. Incorporated Missouri… What is important is that I bought it, and now I am sharing it with you. The inside of the gate-fold, which [...]

  • Kevin and April Ryan: “Living in the Light" Acorn 1983 Kevin and April Ryan: “Living in the Light” Acorn 1983

    Husband and wife duos always intrigue me when I come across them in the stacks of records I come across. This particular LP caught my eye a year or so ago, first based on the strength of the cover and secondly when I realized that it was a husband/wife group that had a penchant for [...]

  • Anenzephalia - Lyse Anenzephalia – Lyse

    First I’ll start off with a disclaimer: I borrowed this record from my girlfriend who used to be a big industrial fan. I am really not that knowledgable on industrial stuff at all, hell I don’t really like it even, but this one seemed too weird not to be shared. Thanks to [...]

  • Clem Hutchins - White Cloud Clem Hutchins – White Cloud

    Fantastic outsider country dig from Louisiana or Texas. I can’t remember. Clem sounds like a combination between Old Man Death and an ancient Indian Shaman. He has Moondog-like percussion rumbling under a strumming guitar as he belts out a weird ode to the afterlife all in mystical metaphors. Unearthly wild stuff. [...]

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