THE DEAD FLOWERS
MONTHLY MUSIC PICKS

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1. The Pagans - Shit Street LP
2. The Pagans - The Pink Album LP
When listing my top reissues of 2001 a little while back on this very site, I somehow completely neglected to mention these two monster slabs, released by Crypt Records. This is the stuff of gods, that despite all the snot and testosterone, never forgets the importance of hooks and melody, even if it's all nailed to a wall of beautiful, buzzsawing guitars. The Pagans were one of the very top '70s American punk-rock('n'roll) bands, who easily rival many of the more cited groups, and as such, these two discs are essential purchases for any fan of the genre and a nice replacement for my well-worn vinyl and the last CD reissue, also from Crypt.

3. Emmylou Harris - Last Date CD
Recorded live in concert with The Hot Band (featuring the legendary-'round-these-parts, Barry Tashian), Last Date may be one of the more underrated live records I can think of. The band plays it both restrained and rippin', depending on the excellent selection of material, which ranges from Carl Perkins to the Burrito Bros. to Hank Snow to Neil Young. Harris' voice is in absolutely purrrfect form too, displaying much warmth and soul... I've also been spinning her excellent Cimarron album quite a bit.

4. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World double-CD
This is another one of those bands I've read about for last few years in the UK press but avoided due to their ridiculous name, and, all the hype surrounding 'em. Well, looks like I may be having to play catch-up yet again, as this album of modern psych meets Brit-pop sounds is a real winner, despite one or two too modern-sounding-for-moi clunkers (i.e. sample-heavy/electronics). Oh, and the fact that they supposedly got Paul McCartney to once again chomp veggies along to the beat, and released a previous album entirely sung in Welsh, makes 'em that much cooler in my book!

5. The Band - in general
As a youngin' I was a huge Dylan fan, but for some reason I could not get into The Band in the least, going as far as to declare them crap, which bothered my father to no-end as they were one of his favorites who he had seen live many, many times. Well, to remedy this situation, he took me to see The Last Waltz at the Ziegfield Theatre, and to put it mildly, it turned me into an massive fan. Many years went by without much of The Band's music being played around my pad, due mostly to classic-rock radio/bad bar jukebox overplay of the same few songs (you know the ones), until recently when I scored the excellent Capitol remasters of the first two LPs which threw me into a Band frenzy, pulling out all the old, beat-to-hell vinyl (why is the nearly-equal-to-its-predecessors, Stage Fright so underrated?). It boggles the mind to think that this essentially Canadian band did "Americana" better than any other rock group, past or present... Newsflash: Rhino Records is set to re-release The Last Waltz as both a CD boxset and on DVD (for more info head over here), and the movie itself returns to theatres for a limited-run any day now!

6. The Byrds - The Preflyte Sessions double-CD
While this collection of demos from the earliest Byrds sessions would probably rate as overkill to the casual fan, for true Byrds fanatics it's like a gift from the gods (or Sundazed, that is). Sure, you get multiple takes of various tunes, and a few stone duds (i.e. an early take on "Mr. Tamborine Man" that might have been best left in the vaults), but you also get to hear the sound of one of America's finest bands developing, and more evidence of the absolute genius that was Gene Clark. A nice surprise for me is the David Crosby pre-Byrds demos, which includes stellar takes on the blues nugget "Jack Of Diamonds" and Dino Valenti's soon-to-be-hippy-anthem, "Get Together." The two discs are housed in a handsome slipcase with two postcards and an incredible photo-packed, 50-page booklet, which features solid liner-notes by David Fricke and memories from a cadre of '60s LA scenesters and historians.

7. V/A - Psychedelic Unknowns Volume 7 LP
Despite much of the included material being comped again and again, this comp features loads of "classics" -- from the likes of The Guess Who, The Road's End, Brooklyn's very-own The First Crow To The Moon, The Boss Tweeds and The 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s psych masterpiece "Refelections" -- in a perfect sequence with generally spot-on sound. One of the top volumes from this long-running and underrated series of lost '60s garage sounds.

8. Spacemen 3 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To CD
The Spacemen 3 is another one of those groups that I totally came around on (i.e. I used to hate 'em). So far I dig all of what I've heard by them, but this collection of demos and oddities -- along with their first album -- hits me hardest, with its hypnotizing blend of stoned vocals, droney repitition and an overall '60s garage-psych reverence. Definitely stuff that lives up to the title's boast.

9. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds CD
10. The Beach Boys - Sunflower / Surf's Up CD
Springtime rolls around and out comes the Beach Boys around my place (and at the bar where I work). This twofer CD of Sunflower / Surf's Up features my favorite later-day BB stuff, and Pet Sounds is, well, Pet Sounds!!! I won't get into detail on the 'Boys are there's absolutely nothing I could say that Gary Pig couldn't say much all that much better.

Other stuff I've been groovin' to: I've been on a huge tragic singer-songwriter kick, and as such have been spinning tons of Fred Neil (my new hero!), Tim Hardin and Nick Drake. I've also been listening to loads of (early) Donovan, Tom Rush, Spiritualized, The Birds, The Tyde, The Stooges, Q65, and the latest full-length winner from The Kaisers.

1. The Lost - Lost Tapes 1965-66 CD (Arf Arf)
The Remains might be a bit better known, due probably to their opening spot on the '66 U.S. Beatles tour and some more (in reissue circles, anyway) high-profile releases on Sundazed, but in the humble opinion of this writer, The Lost were Boston's best in the mid-'60s. Balancing the fantastic McCartney-ish pop tunesmith of rhythm guitarist/singer Ted Myers with the attitudinous punk energy of vocalist Willie Alexander, The Lost were a pretty tough outfit to beat, a near-perfect blend of pop hooks and punk energy. Unfortunately, the band never received the national attention that they richly deserved, and after a couple of flop singles for Capitol in '65 and '66, they disbanded, Myers eventually surfacing in Chamaeleon Church (with Chevy Chase on drums) and the final Ultimate Spinach lineup, Alexander going on to The Mere Bagatelle. This CD collects tracks recorded at various sessions throughout 1965 and 1966 for an LP Capitol eventually passed on, and is a fantastically eclectic mix of catchy Beatles/Zombies influenced pop tunes ("I Wanna Know," "Always I Know," "Mean Motorcycle"), shimmering folk-pop ("Violet Gown"), straight-up garage punk ("Back Door Blues," "Maybe More than You") and a couple of genuine oddities ("Rocket Ship," written as the theme tune for an unproduced kids-in-space radio show, and "(No) Money in the Pocket," written by Joe Zawinul, who wound up playing keyboards with the In a Silent Way-era Miles Davis). One of the very bands U.S. band of the '60s.

2. The Rationals - Temptation 'Bout to Get Me CD (Total Energy)
Holy fuckin' MOLY! An absolutely SMOKING live set from Detroit's Rationals, recorded at the Grande Ballroom in October, 1968, while opening for the MC5. The first time I heard this CD, it had me up against the opposite wall, clutching my chest in gasping, wide-eyed, Fred Sanford-ish disbelief; 'Elizabeth... I'm comin to see you!' This is an absolutely fantastic portrait of the best band ever to come outta Detroit forging their own very unique blend of firey white-boy soul and urban psychedelia. Scott Morgan's unbelievably soulful, larynx-shredding lead vocals and Steve Correll's genius punky-funk guitar duke it out for the spotlight throughout the disc, creating an almost angry tension on some tracks, and putting a very unique high-energy spin on chestnuts like Screamin Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You," and Willie Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle." The level of freneticism is taken down a bit on "Ha-Ha," a gorgeous piece of acoustic folk-soul featuring Morgan on flute (not at all dissimilar to Autumn Stone-period Small Faces), and a cover of the Knight Brothers 1965 soul hit "Temptation "Bout to Get Me," both tracks to surface the following year on the bands self-titled LP for Crewe. My favorite track, though, has got to be "The Instrumental," an absolutely MANIC jam piece that sounds like one of those boring Grateful Dead jams on about 20 pounds of amyl nitrate. The band sustains an absolutely amazing intensity level throughout the performance -- great stuff, great great stuff. To paraphrase John Lennon, 'we shoulda been there.'

3. Charles Brown - Driftin Blues: The Best of Charles Brown CD (Collectables)
Urbane, sophisticated blues from a guy once called the "black Bing Crosby." Uh... try not to let that scare you away, though. This is a fantastic collection of sides cut by Brown from 1946 to 1960, with his piano usually accompanied by electric guitar, bass, and the occasional tenor sax. I actually came across this disc on an AMG search for "west-coast blues." I was in the mood to listen to some blues, but kinda burnt out on the Chicago style, and not really in the mood for rural/acoustic blues, and I really hit the jackpot with this -- not too terribly dissimilar to Nat King Cole's small group recordings of the same period, tracks like "Driftin Blues" and "Cryin Mercy" actually remind me of T-Bone Walker's jazzier cuts; the poppier sounds of "Get Yourself Another Fool," "I'll Always Be In Love With You" and "A Long Time" bring to mind some of Memphis Slim's more chart-directed tracks, and the aforementioned Nat King Cole. "Black Night," "Lonesome Feeling" and "Fool's Paradise" are Brown's own, a very effecting mix of smooth vocals, jazzy instrumental backup & some deep, deep blues.

4. Lowell Fulson - "Tramp" b/w "Pico" 45 (Kent)
Gritty swing. This track was later covered by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, and then by Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll. They all kick ass. Can anyone do a bad version of ths song? I can... come on over sometime; I'll show you.

5. The Herd - "Our Fairy Tale" 45 (Fontana)
Great bubblegummy pop-psych, way better than the a-side, whatever it's called. Somebody somewhere covered this, but i can't remember who.

6. We The People - Mirror of Our Minds double-CD (Sundazed)
I was a little (uh, about four years) late in scoring this amazing two-CD set from Sundazed, which collects all recordings by Orlando, Florida's incomparable We The People, but late, in this case, is most definitely better than never. This is an absolutely ass-kicking set of primo '60s garage sounds circa '66 to '68, all over the rock'n'roll map from snarling, el primitivo teen goop ("Mirror of Your Mind," "By the Rule") to impeccably crafted Zombies-ish pop ("Alfred, What Kind of Man Are You," "In The Past," "Beginning of the End"). Boasting an incredibly talented songwriter in Wayne Proctor, and one of the all-time great snot-laden garage shouters in Tommy Talton, these guys cut a non-stop barrage of classic sides during their brief career, and they're all collected here, along with some cool pre-People 45s by The Offbeets, Trademarks, and Nonchalants. This band had a sense of balance in their sound most unusual for a teenage garage band, and more typical of contemporary professional outfits like the Stones and Beatles: teen snot balances out evenly with gorgeous harmonies and genuine minor-key pop craftmanship. A great band by anybody's standards, and it's all here on this set.

7. V/A - All The Hits By All The StarsCD (bootleg)
Killer boot comp of sides liberated from the Klein-held Cameo/Parkway vaults. There's a real barrage of 'The Good Shit' on here -- Pete Best's "Boys" (which gives the Please Please Me Ringo-sung version a run for its money), the British Walkers insane fuzzed-out bastardization of Sam Cooke's "Shake," the fantastic garage-raga of the Palace Guard's "Greed," and the Rationals' awesome take on Eddie Holland's "Leaving Here." The tracks that walk away with this disc, though, are those by Bob Seger And The Last Heard -- totally raging, fuzzed-out teen-punk masterpieces, with some absolutely AMAZING vocals from the then-teenaged Seger. "Like a Rock," this AIN'T. The James Brown-rip Christmas track "Sock It to Me Santa" is hilarious and probably the best Xmas track I've ever heard, and "Persecution Smith" has to be heard to be believed, a totally manic maelstrom of grade-fuckin-a Michigan garage, with screaming fuzz, firecracker drums, and a crazed, unbelievably soulful vocal from Seger. Yeah!!

8. Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil CD (Blue Note)
Elegant, soulful and graceful, another fine LP from Shorter, taking a break from the Miles Davis Quintet. Recorded December 24, 1964, this set features an all-star quintet of Shorter on tenor, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. There is some flat-out beautiful music on this record, with Shorter's rich, restrained tenor playing off Hubbard's firey trumpet making for an especially interesting mix -- Hancock's always-gorgeous spidery-baroque piano underscoring the proceedings with pulsating backup from Carter and Jones. "Dance Cadaverous" -- presented here in two seperate takes -- is an especially beautiful piece, with a delicate, cerebral intensity in Hancock's and Shorter's solos unlike anything else I've ever heard.

9. The Essential Otis Rush - The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-58 CD (Fuel 2000)
Stinging, howling blues from one of the great Chicago guitar players, this CD collects all the sides waxed by Rush for the Cobra label. This guy was and is a BRILLIANT guitar player, pulling off some absolutely stinging hot metallic lines on these tracks, many of which were later covered by some admiring Brits ("I Can't Quit You Baby" by Led Zeppelin, "Double Trouble" and "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)" by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers). He's also an incredible singer, howling the blues with a conviction and intensity that has to be heard to be believed. There's a track on here called "Groaning the Blues," which when you listen to it, you know this guy is for real. There's an authenticity and passion to this guy's blues that's almost frightening.

10. Unknown Mystery 60s Group - Volume II CD (Octopus Recordings)
More -- uh, "archival" -- discoveries from the Unknowns. For those unfamiliar with the story, a quick recap: Volume 1, issued in late '97 by Distortions, claimed to be tracks found on an unlabelled reel of tape purchased at a Philadelphia flea market. Volume 2 claims to be more "lost" recordings from the private collection of the drummer, tracked down by our friends at Octopus, somewhere in the isles of Spain. Okay, whatever. I don't buy that crap for a minute, and even a casual listen to the tracks on this disc will reveal that this stuff wasn't recorded anywhere NEAR the time-frame claimed in the liners (mid '70s), but that doesn't matter at all. This a top-drawer collection of fucking EXCELLENT Beatles-style pop tunes, sung with a wry wit and a geuine ear for pop hooks. "Timothy," my favorite track on the record, details the adventures of a guy misdiagnosed by an inept optometrist, who persists in wearing the wrong glasses so he can keep smoking pot for his ever-worsening glaucoma. "Dark Side of the Sun" recalls the cracked pop of Syd Barrett's Madcap Laughs LP, and"The Great Northeast," "Morrell Park," and "(I Wanna Do Anything) But Look For A Job" detail the boredom and disappointment of life in mid-America with a unique sense of humor, along with the impossibly catchy hooks. This is a great record, far and away better than anything coughed up by a major label in the last I don't know how many years, so why persist in the transparent "artifacts" thing? If I was writing songs this uniformly excellent, I'd want CREDIT for 'em. This is unreservedly recommended for fans of the Beatles, Todd Rundgren and similar pop geniuses. Great, great stuff.

Gary Pig Gold awaited April showers by enjoying...

1. Lach - Kids Fly Free CD (Fortified)
For those still not fortunate enough to survive within walking distance of Manhattan's lower east side (where Lach continues to present his Sidewalk Cafe Anti-Hoots on an extremely regular basis), here is a full new CD by the man expertly produced by the one, the only Richard Barone. Please be forewarned, however, the opening one-two knockout of "Holy Days" and "Human Boy" serves as severe notice, straight off the proverbial bat, that herein's one less kind, gentle, FAR-from-conservatively-compassionate Lach ...and the expert drumming throughout of the deservedly legendary Billy Ficca certainly helps keep this mission powerful and on-track throughout (i.e. just LISTEN to how our friend Ficca positively propels "He Wanted To Talk About His Art" into the farthest-most wing of the MOMA!). Longtime-loving Lachheads will recognize their anti-hero's so wily way with a word evident especially in "I Love America (But She Don't Love Me)," chockfull of sentiments made all the more relevant in our current atmosphere of, um, diligence (then just to be on the unsafe side, a rip-routing version of Woody the G's "This Land Is Your Land" follows). But then "Sally's Gone Blue," not to mention the too-cool-for-words "Secrets Theme," would hardly sound one spec outta line on the fourth Monkees long-player even! So then, Lach goes pop? Just for a few minutes maybe. But more truthfully, here's one feller with more weighty messages to send your way today. Kindly pick up on them, and this.

2. Mick Farren & The Deviants - On Your Knees, Earthlings!!! CD (Total Energy)
Mick Farren is one of the greatest madcaps Britain has yet to produce, I hereby loudly exclaim, and On Your Knees... gathers together yet another full hour's worth of luscious musical lunacy spanning he and his Deviants' past quarter-century-plus of service towards inhumanity. Indeed, wherever to begin?! Perhaps with a cover of one of Frank Zappa's earliest and best salvos of social dung-tossing (yes, the Freak Out!-vintage "Trouble Coming Every Day"), not to mention a perversely Sabbath-sounding rendition of His Bobness' "It's Alright Ma." Along similar lines, a wickedly Dylan-esque take on Nanker Phelge's "Play With Fire" (complete with wholly appropriate background choruses of chiming Marianne Faithfulls to boot) is soon enough followed by a frighteningly apt "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," served here Stooges-style I kid you hardly, lest this particular musical circle be at all unbroken. Then from the mighty pen of Farren himself comes, to cite only several, "All In The Picture" (Beefheart meets Buzzcocks!), "I'm Coming Home" (utterly worthy of Eric Burdon's New Animals circa The Twain Shall Meet) and a trio of songs, "Deviation Street" especially, which SO easily out-Barretts the extremely early P.Floyd with one bottleneck tied behind its back. Yet still, I only touch but the tip of the sonic iceberg here my friends, and can only now urge all to seek out this disc, and its companion collection This CD Is Condemned, as very quickly as you possibly can. Promise, everyone?

3. Kelly's Heels - Gone Off Pop?!? CD (Self-released)
Fast, frantic, and nothing but fun fun fun ...I mean, just listen to that tambourine alone flail throughout the opening burst, entitled "Sabrina"! Yes, this British combo has taken all that its country's past masters have had to offer (namely the melody of the '60s injected with the mayhem of the '70s) and condensed it directly down into these here thirteen rough gems. For example, "Don't Get Me Started" pits the Searchers against the Sneetches, whilst the great ghost of Sal Valentino hovers above "It Wasn't Me, It Wasn't You" and the terrifically B. Brummelly "Forget You" most ideally. But it's really when these guys kick back and relax somewhat, giving the arrangements a chance to breath and the lyrics room to resonate, that things really do come perfectly together. I speak mainly in this category of "Nothing's Right," the brightest bit of pure pop, gone-off or otherwise, I've heard in quite some time (...well, at least since The Nines that is!) Add a tad more keyboards here and there and curb the adrenaline somewhat and Kelly's Heels would I'm sure present the even-better album I just know is lurking beneath the very-well-intentioned ultra-bravado.

4. Lord Litter - Just Blame Eddie CD (Orange Entropy)
As the sleeve to this collection handily explains, here's one discful of "remixes, new songs, demos'n'sketches" made at home alone by German indie broadcasting maverick Lord Litter Dittmar. And such a marvelous collection this is, simply (meaning usually just a vocal plus a guitar or three) and coolly bridging that little-explored gap between '60s renegade-C&W and the more acoustic leanings of those Rolling Stones of Aftermath/Flowers infamy. For example, "I Like How It Hurts" manages to somehow meld Muswell Hillbillies Kinks towards classic John Hartford, while "Take Me To Texas" should immediately be adopted by, for starters, the Houston Chamber Of Commerce. Elsewhere, BOTH the "Chicago" and especially "Nashville" versions of "Don't Send Your Blues My Way" tool cockily as can be down some high, lonesome southwestern Interstate, while "The Green Fleet" interrogates aliens (of the extraterrestrial fashion) in a way not heard since at least the Byrds' "Mr. Spaceman" landed. But I feel one should listen most closely to "Living In The Future," where Litter's alt.outlaw tendencies flavor a tune so subtly complex it harkens towards no less than the song-suite stylings of late '68 J. Lennon. Really! All this, plus an homage in twelve-bar to fellow home-recording icon Ken Klinger, adds up to forty-minutes-eleven of pure (and then delightfully impure!) rooty-rocking and even rolling which surely belongs in your ears on a regular basis.

5. The Nines - Properties Of Sound CD (Self-released)
OK, it's been nearly ten years now since my Canadian pal Bruce "Mole" Mowat, I believe it was, slipped some little cassette by The Nines into my back pocket. I still have that tape too ...up in Canada somewhere! And I've been virtually monitoring this band's slow but very steady progress since then, culminating in the SO-rightfully-so raves Properties Of Sound has been receiving far and very wide. And why the heck not? I mean, "Melanie" and "Take Time" alone could quickly devour for breakfast ANYTHING off Elton John's most recent comeback effort, while "Here It Comes" similarly swipes those dern Strokes clear off the sonic map with its artful slab of garage-nurtured p-pop. Speaking of which, "I Would Never" is unashamedly, unapologetically Pete Ham-heavy in its soaring, melodic magnificence, while a song like "Better" should more than appease all you out there still scrabbling for a Raspberries reunion. Why, even the four back-ending bonus cuts are worth their time (especially the Moe Berg-tinged "Orange Blue"!) and if you listen closely, some authentic Northern Ontario crickets and horseflies make themselves heard as well. Yes indeed, there's one great huge preponderance of GOOD SONGS stuffing this wonderful, wonderful disc. I repeat: GOOD SONGS. Please, everyone, take close note of that fact if nothing else!

1. Dressy Bessy - SoundGoRound CD
2. Wendy & Bonnie - Genesis CD
3. The Holy Ghost Reception Committee - # 9 The Complete Works CD
4. West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Volume One CD
5. The Untamed Youth - Major Chaos CD
6. Frank Sinatra - Cycles LP
7. The Lost Patrol - "Juke Box on the Moon" 45
8. The Go Go's - Beauty and the Beat LP
9. Baby Lemonade - The High Life Suite CD
10. Subsonics - Follow Me Down CD

1. The Sights - Got What We Want CD
Okay, this one isn't out yet, but Detroit's Sights are going to be a band you'll want to keep your eye on. I've written about them before, and described them this way: "They play a high-spirited brand of aggressive '60s pop, garage-rock and Brit-inspired psych, drawing on a transmogrified gene-splice of British freakbeat, new wave/punk and rock influences, including the early Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Creation, the Yardbirds, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks." Well, that was then, this is now, you might say. Last year, their former drummer, Eugene Strobe, left the band, taking with him that somewhat manic drumming sound that I described as sounding like "a man possessed by the vodka-drenched spirit of the Who's Keith Moon." Well, their new drummer Dave Shettler -- the other two members are guitarist/lead vocalist Eddie Baranek and bassist Mark Leahey -- is no slouch, let me tell you. This band sound like they've been dipping into their various LPs and pulling out all kinds of crazy influences: Motor City r&b, Ike & Tina Turner, Foghat (?), Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin's first album -- "Nobody", the last track and a new version of a song you can buy on a double-7", even quotes liberally from Zeppelin's version of "How Many More Times?". Everything works. The songs are great, the playing is great and they have a cool look too. Like their debut, Are You Green?, the new album was recorded at Jim Diamond's Ghetto Recorders and will be released by Fall of Rome Records, the LA-based Motor City label, sometime later this spring. Look for it.

2. Brother JT - Maybe We Should Take Some More? CD
3. Brother JT - Spirituals CD
Born John Terlesky -- but called "JT" since the 5th grade -- Brother JT previously sang and played guitar, from 1987 to 1998, for Bethlehem, PA's terrific Original Sins. More recently, he's been associated with the experimental Psychedelphia group Vibrolux, and he's also performed infrequent solo shows under his own moniker, lapsing into a manic street preacher/bluesman persona while seated centerstage on a folding chair. Under this nom de guerre (which was, incidentally, suggested by noted music scribe Byron Coley, who thought he looked like "a kind of defrocked monk hermit"), JT has recorded about ten primitive pop solo albums, "none of which have sold too many copies" according to his bio. Maybe We Should Take Some More? -- "recorded in the Living Room, West Easton, PA in Winter/Spring 2000" with various friends joining in -- is only now being released, but let's applaud whoever made it happen. This is a solid album that's practically saturated with buzzing, sloppy guitars and acid-drenched folk ballads. There are backwards-masked, double-tracked and flanged vocal effects amid throbbing drums, the occasional woodsy recorder, and brain-clotting feedback from droning and swirling guitars that are completely unencumbered by prog-rock claptrap or faked or forced crescendos like your average bin-clogging indie rock/emocore mewl.
Spirituals -- another recently issued JT album, this one recorded/mixed in September 2001 -- is the second Brother JT release (here using the moniker Brother JT3),on Drag City. It's also the second produced by Royal Trux main man Neil Michael Hagerty (he co-produced Way to Go as part of Adam And Eve back in '99). This one is perhaps even more accessible than Maybe. According to JT, in an email he sent to me, he says it sounds a bit like "the Velvets doing Astral Weeks." His label's publicity flack refers to it as "full-on sandals rock." Other sonic influences bubble up to the surface occasionally, including eccentric "outsider" rockers (Roky Erickson, Skip Spence, Syd Barrett and sandbox-era Brian Wilson), influential bohemian underground acts (the Fugs and the Mothers Of Invention), not to mention the Butthole Surfers and Guided by Voices. Check out the stoner anthem "Mellow," with its ringing acoustic guitars, charming flutes and recorders, and JT's lazy bonghit vocals. Spiritually cleansing hymns for the sinful masses.

4. Blue Mountain Eagle - Blue Mountain Eagle CD-R
This month's favorite vintage LP pick is Blue Mountain Eagle's self-titled album from 1970. It was released on Atco. I have the lovely miss Maureen to thank for burning this one for me. According to Fuzz, Acid & Flowers, BME "were a short-lived Californian band who came into existence in July 1969, when Dewey Martin left New Buffalo. The remaining band members were left with a recording deal struck on the strength of Martin's previous connections with Buffalo Springfield, so all that was needed was a simple name change and to recruit a Joey Newman (ex-Don and The Goodtimes/Touch) as a replacement." Remember, this was the time of the so-called "Super Group," when members of popular '60s band were forming jammy blues-rock and country-rock supergroups and taking the world by storm. BME could have been much bigger, and should have (Randy Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four was in this group, and he told me they all hated each other). This album is awesome. "Love Is Here," the opening track, is a fuzzed-out Byrds-like blast from start to finish. There's not really a bad cut here. Track down the album on Ebay if you're a fan of Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds or blues-rock/country rock bands, circa 1970.

5. Mark Eric - A Midsummer's Day Dream LP
Another recent vintage obscurity that suddenly came my way is this soft-pop album by former actor/singer Mark Eric (he appeared in that infamous episode of The Partridge Family when Laurie gets a crush on "Snake," a biker, played by a pre-Meathead Rob Reiner. Mark plays a pal of Snake's). It's very Pet Sounds-sounding, a psychedelic-surf pastiche (that description was the way Domenic Priore described him to me), with cool sunshine-y SoCal vibes (not to mention vibraphones), "bah bahhh" harmonies and AMAZING MELODIES. Highlights from this out-of-print nugget include "California Home," about a homesick airplane flight away from LA, and (here's another Priore description) "the resplendent wonderment of "Where Did the Girls of the Summer Go," a heart-felt cry about a feeling lost from LA in the post-surf era." This one usually goes for over $100 on Ebay, but it's a fine little soft-pop gem if you're looking for something to brighten your day.

1. Allen Toussainte - The Allen Toussainte Collection CD
First getting my notice as the horn arranger on the Band's Rock Of Ages and The Last Waltz, then piquing my interest with a soundtrack contribution to Larry Clark's awesome Another Day In Paradise (the lyric that got me, on the song "Soul Sister" was "Hey you, with the big bush on your head"), it's been a steady presence in the CD player ever since I got this two weeks ago. Great voice, great orchestration, drop-dead southern cool, and an exceptional backing band on almost the whole thing.

2. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere LP
Stark, creaking laments and fever-driven songs about dead women by rivers, the guy sounds entirely freaked-out and damaged through the entire 40 minute run time. Even "Cinnamon Girl," a song I thought I could never hear objectively again proves itself worth all the endless times it's been spun on AOR radio.

3. Captain Beefheart - Safe As Milk CD
I was first attracted to ouevre of Don Van Vliet when it was described to me as "Howlin Wolf on Mars", or as the ideal collision of Delta blues and free jazz -- and how wrong could anyone go with that? As usual, the description didn't quite hit it, or at least the way I envisioned it echoing from one side of my skull to another. But this one is heavy on the blues aspect of things, from the fierce, manic opening slide notes courtesy of a teenaged Ry Cooder to a howling cover of Robert Pete Williams "Grown So Ugly." And that part where the Capt. yowls the word "electricity" is said to have destroyed the microphone into which it was sung.

4. V/A - Bully Soundtrack CD
Here's another name-check for Larry Clark. This is the music accompanying his profoundly upsetting movie Bully (which, along with Ghost World and The Royal Tannenbaums, was one of last year's three best films), and with the exception of two lame indie rock wastes and a weird, creepily exultant track by Fatboy Slim (one of my favorite tracks on here) is a compendium of some seriously nasty gangsta rap. ODB's "Last Call" and "Thug Ass Bitch" by the Ghetto Inmates are the standouts. Also includes some Branca-esque incidental music from Thurston Moore, who will just not shut the fuck up.

5. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation LP
Yeah, Thurston won't shut the fuck up, but he was still part of the ensemble that created this, Sonic Youth's last unequivocally great piece of work. I put it on after a conversation with Lee where he was talking about how stellar the music is but how the vocals just didn't cut it, and he does have a point. But I still can't picture anyone else singing these songs and every time I play it, I vividly remember the sounds, sites, scents, and physical sensations of this one night, just a week or so after I moved to NYC in 1992, when I was alone in TriBeCa at 3:00 AM, lost and dazed, feeling exactly the way this album sounds.

1. Mr Fine Wine's show on WFMU
I'm always kinda frightened I'll hear something I really want to own on this show. Covers an area of r&b/soul/funk that I'm very partial to (very much '60s-biased).

2. The Artwoods - Art Gallery CD
I've had this Repertoire issue (with many bonus tracks), plus the highly overlapping 100 Oxford Street comp for some time, and definitely 'liked' The Artwoods, with some tracks sticking out a bit more than others. But since reading the liner notes to Art Gallery and noticing so many parallels with my own band, and our covering their take on "Down In The Valley" at about the same time, I just keep listening to their stuff. It's strange how you can get into things through having some sympathy develop -- even something like someone you like a lot liking a band can make you appreciate one you normally wouldn't (like, like). Not that I didn't already. If you haven't heard them, they're British, circa mid-'60s, with a more accomplished take on r&b, soul, etc. than the beat bands. Could be filed alongside Spencer Davis Group, Georgie Fame and maybe Brian Auger...

3. The Birds - The Collectors Guide to Rare British... CD
Previously hadn't given them much of a listen to. I'm quite into mid-'60s British sounds at the moment, and have my ears cocked toward the production style, with any Decca/Deram stuff always interesting me. Some of their records are a bit marred by over-compression, and sometimes the singer sounds a bit English for my taste (always makes me think of an r&b band as kinda kid-on), but they definitely have their moments. My favourite song here is definitely "No Good Without You Baby," an endearing sort of mod-soul/pop track with some nice touches.

4. Upsetters - late '60s stuff
In common with The Meters stuff from the same time, I can remember a day when I thought this kind of thing sounded 'small' somehow, perhaps wishing for cleaner production or some such rot. Well, I was an arse -- I blame my environment. Now I'm listening to it FOR the production. There are some nice guitar sounds on some tracks that seem to share tonal qualities with certain Clarence Holloman, Jimmy Nolen (or is it Alphonso Kellum?), Lowman Pauling stuff that really sticks out for me at a time when I don't seem very guitar-y (probably too much close proximity to the modern guitar-dominated local blues scene). Lots of cool tracks starting to get their hooks in me. What's that line... "take off your jacket... and suck it". Certainly... Ode to a canibalistic potato maybe?!

5. V/A - The R&B Hits of 1951
Excellent compilation from Indigo Records. Part of a series, going back to '42 I think. I've always been a bit chronological about my music, so it's great to hear a bunch of quality stuff -- maybe half of which I already had elsewhere -- in amongst other quality stuff of the same period. Covers rawer electric blues to '40s jump throwbacks, vocal group stuff and beyond.

6. Johnny Otis Orchestra - Rock'n'Roll Hit Parade CD
As far as I'm aware, this is Johnny's 'revue' doing the hits of the moment (circa '56/'7 I think). A lot of the songs are stuff that most people will be familiar with (i.e. big hits), and that I wouldn't normally listen to, but I really think their takes on them are pretty fantastic -- The Jayos are starting to get me to appreciate vocal group stuff that had previously left me cold. It's a good sounding record, and again covers quite a few r&b bases.

7. Q65 - Revolution CD
Got a loan of this from a friend, because I really like "I've Got Nightmares." Quite surprised to hear them tackling country blues, and adding in things like flutes and accordians to their songs. Nice sound. Could be a grower!

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© 2002 Sound Views. Last Revised: 4.11.02