In honor to my first Batman. Rest in peace, Mr. West.
Monthly Archives: June 2017
Horton Hears a Hayride!
Tickets are on sale for the 4th Annual Horton’s Hayride, kids! Good ol’ Port of Los Angeles… that’s Pedro, baby! Mike Ness, Face to Face, Cutty Flam, and of course, the Reverend. See you squares there!
Slipping Away
It’s a slipmat kind of day. Though the news is full of ass clowns twisting balloons into disturbing and unflattering shapes, we can focus on such subtle details as printed felt to help guide us down Sanity Lane. Today is going to be a rough one. Hold on tight.
90 Degrees
Yesterday I organized my Enoch Light collection while listening to various 20s and 30s pop tunes. Enoch Light and the Light Brigade, Enoch Light and His Orchestra, Enoch Light and the Command All Stars, the awfully awkward band title morphing Provocative Percussion and Persuasive Percussion, and then just Enoch Light. (Phew!) It appears that I was taking in too much Enoch Light in a relatively short amount of time, which, really is no excuse, but today is the first day all 26 records are in their proper, alphabetical (then chronological) order. This means nothing to you, but I can enjoy my coffee now.
Jimmy D.
Mom and pop Dorsey must have been proud parents. Jimmy, older brother to Tommy, enjoyed an immensely successful career as band-leader and musician (clarinet and saxophone). He teamed up with his brother in the late 20s and early 30s to form The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. The commercially successful brothers would go separate ways on separate labels, and would each find several years of critical acclaim. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra would reunite in 1945, and again in 1954 to perform on Jackie Gleason’s Stage Show, a successful weekly hit television show centered on The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (at this time, a new incarnation from the original). Both brothers would be dead by the end of 1957, but with the power of music, their legacy lives on.
Stick Around
(Very) likely acquired from Atomic Records (Milwaukee, WI) around the summer of 2001, this perfectly preserved Rocket from the Crypt logo sticks prominently on the office “coffee table.” A few other random bits and bobs linger around and throughout (needed to keep that organic Dole sticker), but this off-center design is one of my favs. RIP Atomic Records, and thanks for the free schwag!
Swagger
Los Angeles-based Celtic punks Flogging Molly entered the entertainment bubble with their debut studio album Swagger back in 2000. The album would be critically acclaimed for their folk / punk / oi mix, and would represent a prolific start to a 17+ year career, up to and including 2017’s Life is Good. Late nights are prime hours to spin Flogging Molly, be it Swagger or otherwise. Just make sure you have enough whiskey on hand.
Further Charges
It’s a Punk and Disorderly kind of morning (he writes while listening to Gershwin). Variety is the spice of life, or something like that. Actually, this version is Punk and Disorderly volume 2, Further Charges. Already own vol. 3, and just put vol. 1 up on the ol’ Discogs Wantlist (does Wantlist get caps? It does here). Enjoy your spinning Saturday, kids. Take note of the sax-shirt-wearing Virgin Records shopper. Classic.
Endless Summer
Endless Summer is a compilation album of Beach Boys classics from 62-65, released in 1974. It sold over 3 million copies. I own two. One, a double LP and two, this 8-track cartridge. I don’t use the word cartridge enough. Moving on… the LP version comes with a poster. The 8-track however does not. Endless Summer would spend a crazy 155 weeks on the Billboard album chart, and would become the band’s 2nd chart-topping album. It has an anniversary coming up. June 24th, for whatever that’s worth. But since we here in Los Angeles are suffocating under a blanket of fog (ol’ June Gloom), let’s look to another source of light for our summer entertainment. Even if The Beach Boys aren’t your bag, Endless Summer is certainly a must-have, in any format.
An Aging Pepper
Happy 50th birthday to (what many consider) the first album every released (a few days late, but belated is better than nothing at all… no, really…). Happy half century, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band!
The Prudent Groove 