Play it Again Sam Records, now [PIAS] Recordings, the Belgian-based experimental / alt-rock label released Dog Star Man, a 12″ single from England’s Meat Beat Manifesto. It was the distribution by Wax Trax! Records that caught my eye (along with the industrial-friendly cover art), and although she’s a quick 4-track 12″, she does wet the electro-industrial-experimental whistle and leave the adventurous listener wanting much, much more. 1990 was a great year for industrial music… arguably the genre’s most prolific.
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Dialing Back
I have, unfortunately, been dialing back the record spinning lately (camping trip excluded). But, this hasn’t prevented me from acquiring more and more “essential” records. I’m getting to a point to where they’re all “essential” records. A good problem to have, all things considered. If your job isn’t too demanding, and the kids can stomach ANOTHER Me First and the Gimme Gimmes record, take some time and enjoy a spin this evening. Your future self will thank you.
Denny in the Woods
Day 3: Martin Denny’s Afro-Desia… nothing but the essentials, kids.
Miles & Miles
Day 2 essentials. Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue with coffee in the AM. Enjoy the night’s sky, kids.
Camp Muswell
Day 1 essentials. The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies. Channeling 1972 in Santa Paula. Enjoy your weekend.
Campy
When preparing for a 3x day camping excursion, do not, I repeat, do not forget the essentials.
Remember
The (questionably) uncool, always entertaining Oxford Collapse (RIP) unleashed another indie rock classic with (late) 2006’s Remember the Night Parties. Is it cool to sing about National Parks (Please Visit Your National Parks), female practicers of law (Lady Lawyers), or black treacle (Molasses)? I don’t care one way or the other, because Remember the Night Parties is, from start to finish, an essential album. Top 50 all-time, I’d have to say, which is saying something, and nothing at the same time.
Mechanic Mike
Oh, to be back in 1985, for even an afternoon, when Mike + The Mechanics’ debut dropped. Former Genesis co-founder and bassist Mike Rutherford (THE Mike in this brief tale) formed the band in Dover, England shortly before this album’s release. They (the band) would go on to record 9, radio-friendly pop albums, including 2017’s Let Me Fly. If you don’t remember the sound, but recognize the name, all you need, is a miracle.
Out of Africa
I’ve attempted this post from many different angles over the past few days, and I’m conceding. Tricops! provides a very difficult sound to define. Why the need to define is a topic in and of itself, something we’ll reserve for another time. All I can say about Out of Africa, the band’s debut album on Alternative Tentacles Records, is that it’s genre-mashing in the best sense of the term. If you enjoy high-speed journeys through aggressively dangerous terrain, and can stomach the 6+ minute tracks, strap on your bike helmet and check out Out of Africa. It’s an expedition best enjoyed cautiously.
Face the Music
Let’s face it, ELO’s fifth studio album is a crusher. Containing two of the band’s most successful singles, Evil Woman and Strange Magic, 1975’s Face the Music often gets overshadowed by the two albums that would follow, 1976’s A New World Record and 1977’s Out of the Blue (both selling tens of millions of copies worldwide). If you’re feeling a bit adventurous but don’t want to stray too far away from home, give Face the Music a spin. You can never go wrong with the Electric Light Orchestra as far as I’m concerned.
Emm Gee Emm Wreck Herds
MGM Records, circa: 1968 was the “now” label, or so it thought. With the likes of Eric Burdon & the Animals, Roy Orbison, Herman’s Hermits, Sam the Sham, and Every Mothers’ Son, very few would argue that boasting claim. Throw in the father-son combo of Hank Williams & Jr., and you’ve got yourself “The Sounds of Now” er, then. Fancy design layout, too.
The Arrival
They’ve arrived! And in record time (no pun intended). These records aren’t going to spin themselves, people! Here’s to a triple Group Sounds and double Live from Camp X-Ray type of day!
Side note: I’ve reached out to Vagrant Records to see if there are any plans to release vinyl versions of Rocket’s R.I.P. and All Systems Go! III. We’ll see how it plays out.
I Think it’s Booty, That’s What it Is
An interesting 12″ promo in this 1992 double-sided, same-track Beastie Boys release of the “non-single” Professor Booty. Obtained more as a completed checklist box than anything else, my Check Your Head singles collection is now at 100%. Why The Skills to Pay the Bills wasn’t on Check Your Head, or why it didn’t receive a proper (or even promo) single release (especially over Professor Booty), will never make sense to me. Anyway, that’s my issue. Don’t worry about me. Carry on.Camping
So, it appears that Vagrant Records is doing a 20th anniversary vinyl rerelease series, and its two Rocket from the Crypt records are showcased. Both 2001’s Group Sounds (one of their best), and 2002’s Live from Camp X-Ray (not a live album, and neither 20 years old) are featured. The record to the left isn’t part of that series (I only just ordered the lot this morning), but instead was sold at both the band’s 2013 European reunion tour, and on 2013’s North American Record Store Day. Here is the Vagrant link if you fancy a look.
Fire in the Sky
Machine Head, or Caput Machina in Latin, was recorded, wait, let me go get the record… “was written and recorded in Montreux, Switzerland, between 6th and 21st December 1971.” Though Smoke on the Water (side 2, track 1) is ranked 434 of 500 on Rolling Stone magazine’s coveted The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, it would never chart higher than 2 (Canadian RPM Top Singles), and wouldn’t even chart in its native land (UK Singles (Official Charts Company) until 1977 (thank you Smoke on the Water wiki page). It just goes to show you, that charts are shit, and one must only follow one’s instincts.
Spectra-Sonic-Sound
Double your desire for Exotica with these (slightly) varying album covers from Denny Martin’s 1957 classic, Exotica (you remember… the album that spawned the genre, and subcategory to Space of Pop?! No?! Well, get with it, man!). Spectra Sonic Sound is not just a Nation of Ulysses track (as it turns out), and was apparently “the ultimate in High Fidelity” in the mid-to-late 1950s, or at least had legal rights to such a claim. With the same catalog number, I couldn’t tell you which version (left or right) came first, though I will say I find it hard to believe that one would consciously move away from the multi-color Spectra-Sonic-Sound logo on the bottom of the right version. Essential. Listening. Material.
Is it Red?
1991’s Ribbed by (then) Los Angeles clowns NOFX received the red vinyl reissue treatment back in 2010. Crazy to think that was 7 years ago, already. Every few years Epitaph Records reissues small color variant batches of its classic albums, so it was only a matter of time before we saw another Ribbed variant. Also released in 2010 is a blue vinyl version, and the crème de la crème dropped in 2014 (clear vinyl). Still on the lookout for that one.
The HoneyKinks
Man, ever since finding The Honeycombs’ US debut for $1 at my local b&m, I’ve been obsessed with Have I the Right?. So when I found out that there existed a French, split 7″ with my favorite band (The Kinks), I knew it was only a matter of time. Yesterday, the (relatively) brief hunt subsided, and we’re now the proud owners of this gorgeous split EP. Down side, I’m now on the hunt for other mid-60s French 7″ releases.
Gimme
I call this one: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes live, and in person at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on May 13, 2017.
Red With Ivy
One of our four (4) Energy records, this red vinyl reissue was released back in April of 2012 (along with the clear vinyl version previously touched upon) and is limited to only 500 pressings. I remember ordering the red vinyl version from Epitaph Records (along with the red vinyl version of the 12″ Hectic), then later finding out that there was a Hot Topic clear vinyl version out in the wild. Took me some time to track that puppy down, but red came first. You can’t have enough Energy, am I right?!
The Prudent Groove 