HEY, LET'S USE THAT FOR A BAND NAME

Do any of you in the U.S. catch Svengoolie? It's a show on MeTV on Saturday nights with horror, science fiction and monster movies. It's usually the classics with all sorts of Frankenstein, Wolfman and Dracula variations, assorted mummies, earth invasions and, my favorite, Japanese monster movies. If you haven't watched the show and go looking for it, let me forewarn you. The host, Svengoolie, is not at all my cup of tea. His jokes and shtick are just plain awful. Not even so bad it's good, because it's clear the guy thinks he is killin' it. He isn't. But he does provide some background info on the movies which almost makes up for it. Tonight it's Destroy All Monsters a Japanese monster movie with all he big stars, Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan among them. Yowza.

When I saw what movie was playing tonight, it reminded me that I've never posted anything by the band, Destroy All Monsters. It was fronted by a woman named Niagara (above), now an artist. (Her paintings are similar to Roy Lichtenstein's comic strip paintings but without copying other sources, nor with Ben-Day dots. Her style is her own, usually featuring tough looking women.) The big draw for Destroy All Monsters is that it featured Ron Asheton (also above) on guitar. Asheton had been the guitarist on the first two Stooges LPs and the bass player on the third. To me he was as important as Iggy Pop as far as the sound of the Stooges was concerned. He was the guy in the band that dug free jazz and really took to the gnarly chaos of the longer songs. There would be no Funhouse without his his participation. Destroy All Monsters was a formidable band, though not nearly as intense as the Stooges. Here's a few from the late seventies and a link to a shitload of their stuff (mostly live) at Internet Archive.

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Listen:
Destroy All Monsters - Bored mp3 at Internet Archive
Destroy All Monsters - You're Gonna Die mp3 at Internet Archive
Destroy All Monsters - November 22 1963 mp3 at Internet Archive
Destroy All Monsters - Going to Lose mp3 at Internet Archive
Destroy All Monsters - Tons more at Internet Archive
Watch:
Destroy All Monsters (the film) at PBS

NEW #1 ON THE "OH WELL" LIST

You know when you get a white whale of a record that has been on your list for a few years? The more you don't see it, the more you want it. The Romancers' "She Took My Oldsmobile" is one of those records for me. I just found out what the problem is. It was released only as a promo record. Figuring that it might be pricey I checked at Discogs. Yikes. The first seller's $82 sounded like a lot but the next lowest price was $2500 and the third was $7600. Al of a sudden $82 sounded better, if for no other reason than to flip it, though I'm against flipping in general. Quick, nab it! Click. Shit. While I was thinking (maybe 15 seconds) someone snagged it. Oh well, here it is, the ridiculously over valued 45 in its streaming glory at YouTube. Probably the only way I'll ever hear it. The damn white whale is awesome though, really pretty garage, like an East L.A. version of the Seeds. It makes sense, it's from '66. "Love's the Thing" from '65 is also killer. The last few below are instrumentals from '63, some good licks here and there. This is East L.A., mid-sixties, Slauson all over the place.

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Listen:
The Romancers - Love's the Thing mp3 at Office Naps 1965
The Romancers - She Took My Oldsmobile (streaming) at YouTube 1966
The Romancers - Huggy's Bunny's mp3 at Internet Archive 1963
The Romancers - Double Slauson mp3 at Internet Archive 1963
The Romancers - Slauson Shuffle mp3 at Internet Archive 1963
Visit:
The Romancers:  The Father of 60s East L.A. Bands by Mark Guerrero

AT THE KMAKS, MCLAIN LEAD THE REVELERS

Harry Belafonte died today. He held a special non-rock position in my listening habits from way back in the day. My favorite song of his is "Man Smart, Woman Smarter". A repost is in order. When I first posted the song nine years ago, I failed  to explain the post's title. The Kmaks were a musical family with brothers Jeff (bass) and Joel (drums) mainstays of the San Diego music scene from the late seventies on. McLain was Dan McLain, better known as Country Dick Montana, former drummer, sometime vocalist and band ham for the Beat Farmers. I've written about him before and his one person crusade to turn anyone who would listen onto Gene Vincent. He did the same for the LP pictured above. Below I mention a beer spilling singalong of "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" at a party. It was one of those moments you never forget. A loud party with the cool rock 'n' roll crowd enthusiastically singing along with a drunk conductor (McLain) to a record most of their parents probably owned. It was special and I remember the moment like it was yesterday (it was over forty years ago!). As a side note I should mention that McLain passed away years ago, dying onstage from a heart attack and Joel Kmak is now sitting behind the kit for the Farmers (renamed after McLain passed). Anywho, RIP Harry Belafonte and McLain too! Here's the stuff from the old post:

If you saw the LP above in a thrift store, you might pass it by. If you saw it in a thrift store, practically every thrift store, just about every time you were in a thrift store, you'd reach the point of resist fatigue. That's how it was before thrift stores were raided daily by collectors and eBay sellers. The record was inescapable, and at twenty five cents a pop, which thrift store LPs commonly were, it wasn't much of a risk. 

While the song that most people associate with the LP is "Day O" (believe me, even if you don't think you've heard it, you have), the favorite among my crowd was "Man Smart (Woman Smarter)".  You know when a party has reached fever pitch when this sucker is blasting to the level of distortion and a dozen or so of your blitzed friends are are singing along to it, beer spilling out of raised bottles with every swinging gesture. Try it.

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Listen:
Harry Belafonte - Man Smart (Woman Smarter) mp3 at Tumblr

THEY THOUGHT THE SOAP JOKE HILARIOUS

I can't think of anything to post so I'll hit an old standby, Jon Spencer. I've liked his stuff in varying degrees since I first heard Pussy Galore (the OG cassette-only release cover of the entire Stones Exile On Main St. LP). I had to wait a couple releases before Pussy Galore fully grabbed me with their Sugarshit Sharp EP ("Sweet Lil' Hi-Fi" was a regular spin when I used to DJ). Spencer approaches music with irreverence and a just-sloppy-enough approach, for my money much more effectively than most stripped down combos (usually sans bass). What the early White Stripes and Black Keys eventually gave up on Spencer continued, for a few years at least. Not being the type that has to have every new release, I just checked and it looks like he's moved on to other projects which I'm sure I'll catch up at some point. For now here's some random Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ditties.

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Listen:
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Right Place, Wrong Time (alt.) mp3 at Internet Archive Dr. John cover
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Dig My Shit mp3 at Internet Archive
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Sweet and Sour Time mp3 at Internet Archive
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - She's On It/Jack the Ripper - mp3 at Internet Archive Beasties/Link Wray covers
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion w/ Mike D - Flavor Pt 1 mp3 at Internet Archive Mike D of the Beastie Boys
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Bell Bottoms mp3 at Internet Archive
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Buscemi mp3 at Internet Archive
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Chicken Walk mp3 at Internet Archive
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Money Rock 'n' Roll mp3 at Internet Archive

(I CAN'T GET NO) RED OCHRE

Here's something someone painstakingly did and I've got to tip my hat. They've colorized some old Rolling Stones performances from the sixties that were, obviously, originally in black and white. While colorizing may sound tacky (and it usually is), there are a couple reasons to check these  out. One is that whoever it was that colorized them did a pretty decent job, good enough. That brings us to the second reason. If you are a fan of the early to mid-sixties era Stones, even if you've seen these videos before, when colorized they seem more real. They shouldn't, but they do. I don't know how many of you remember seeing only black and white TVs, and then seeing something for the first time in color. I do. It was also the first time I saw Star Trek. Where was I going..oh, here's one and a link to others below.

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Listen:
Rolling Stones colorized live clips by George's Music Library at YouTube

THIS SONG IS AT THE WRONG GIG

I'm not sure why this damn song hooked me, but it did. I usually avoid lightweight reggae imitators (sometimes referred to as "cod reggae"). I first heard it over ten years ago posted on a long gone blog, Muzik Kurier. It's all about the pace and the bass. The lyrics are super corny, à la "You're my disco dancin' daddy, doin' it right". Clout was supposedly South Africa's answer to Abba and maybe they were. This song though is an outlier and that's unfortunate because it's baddass, so catchy that I wish they had more like it.

Here's the original, first on YouTube so you can test drive it, The second is a download link (the mp3 link goes directly to a download at Mediafire). Then there's an extended mix and a remix that someone did. Now all we need is a cod dub version.

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Listen:
Clout - Sunshine Baby (streaming) at YouTube
Clout - Sunshine Baby mp3 (via Mediafire) at Sound Boutique
Clout - Sunshine Baby (extended version) (streaming) at YouTube
Clout - Sunshine Baby (remix) (streaming) at YouTube Mysto-remix

TESTIFY SISTER

Tomorrow (or today depending on what time zone you're in) is April 20, in other words, 420. To some people that holds significance. Most see it as South Park level chuckle. (Q:What does a stoner call 420? A:"Dude!!") I was browsing the song titles of an out of print compilation, Drink Up- Light Up Jazz Noire Tales of Dope, Booze and Sleaze. Given the date, I thought I'd concentrate on one of the three categories, dope. Weed to be more specific. These are old pre-rhythm and blues jazz. Good stuff.

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Listen:
Cab Calloway and His Orchestra - Reefer Man mp3 at Internet Archive
Barney Bigard Sextet - Sweet Marijuana Brown mp3 at Internet Archive
Buster Bennett Trio - Reefer Head Woman mp3 at Internet Archive
Wardell Gray Quartet - Stoned mp3 at Internet Archive
Doc Pomus - My Good Pott mp3 at Internet Archive
Julia Lee - Marijuana mp3 at Internet Archive

THE YEAR SURF BROKE

I've had it with cold weather. Fuck you low pressure system and fuck your atmospheric river as well. I'm in Southern California and, weather-wise, I know I'm lucky. But this is getting old. Following a weekend where temperatures in the Northeast (NYC and Connecticut) reached the high eighties while here, roughly twenty miles from the southern border with Mexico, the temperature never made it past the low sixties. Worse, two weeks ago the water temperature was at an all time record low of 52.5°F.

Remedy? The Endless Summer, the first non-fiction surf movie released for distribution in regular theaters. (Prior to The Endless Summer, non-fiction surf movies were shown in rented halls. Only the phony beach party type movies got theatrical releases.) The soundtrack is pretty good, surf music with elements you don't often hear in surf music. Acoustic guitar, harmonica and, the weirdest of all, melodica. Here's a factoid for you. John Van Hamersveld, designer of that iconic movie poster (above) would later design the package for the Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St. incorporating photos by Robert Frank and Norman Seeff (the latter on postcards included in early pressings).

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Listen:
The Sandals - Scrambler mp3 at Internet Archive
The Sandals - 6-Pac mp3 at Internet Archive
The Sandals - Drifting mp3 at Internet Archive
The Sandals - Theme From The Endless Summer mp3 at Internet Archive
Watch:
The Endless Summer at Internet Archive Full length, 91 minutes, 1966

TEMPLE OF LAZINESS

I was watching a Chinese film, Shaolin, a freebie at YouTube and thought, I'm getting sucked into this and, boom!, there goes a couple hours. Looking for a quick fix to make up for lost time I remembered the post at Probe Is Turning-On the People with a dozen or so karate themed songs. Not the same as whatever Shaolin is but, you know, same hemisphere. Do check the flick, there are some amazing scenes.

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Listen:
The Torkays - Karate mp3 at Rocky 52
Travis Wammack - It's Karate Time mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People

Chop Chop - 16 Karate oddballs at Probe Is Turning-On the People Sandy Nelson, Travis Wammack, Dave and AnseL Collins and others
Watch:
Shaolin at YouTube

ROLL OF QUARTERS?

Earlier today I heard some random sequence of sounds, incidental background noise (not music) and, whatever it was, it reminded me of the jug part in the intro to the 13th Floor Elevators' (above) "You're Gonna Miss Me". Consequently, that fucking jug part was in my head all day, just the jug part. So I came home and played the damn song. And now I'm binging on Nuggets/Back From the Grave type garage stuff. Here's four from some repeat offenders.

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Listen:
13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me mp3 at Internet Archive
The Leaves - Too Many People mp3 at Internet Archive
The Shadows Of Knight - Gospel Zone mp3 at Internet Archive
Mouse & The Traps - Maid Of Sugar - Maid Of Spice mp3 at Internet Archive

DEDUCTION IS DYING. THINK IT THROUGH FIRST.

Here's a few oddball covers. Not sure of the dates, they were found in a collection from 1964-1980. Sorry, that doesn't really narrow it down. The first is a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" by Ahmad Jamal (above). The original was, what, 1972? Something like that. It's electric piano (Rhodes?) if that narrows it down any further. (I like to guess and then look it up). That one is good, a mellow vibe for putzing around, or background music if you have the sort of cocktail party where music isn't the common thread. I've heard they exist.

Johnny ‘Hammond’ Smith's cover of Carole King's "It's Too Late" had to be after her original which was around 1971. With Hammond (the instrument) you never know. It's hard to pinpoint, at least for me. The last one is a jam and a half. Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers' cover of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want". The original came out in 1968, my guess is that this cover may be from the same year or maybe a year or two later. It starts of really mellow and then all of a sudden it really kicks in. You'll want to hear the whole thing. At about two and a half minutes it sounds like the flautist is blowing his esophagus out the other end. And that's all we have for tonight. Thanks for joining us on Oddball Cover Release Date Guessing Game.

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Listen:
Ahmad Jamal -Superstition mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny ‘Hammond’ Smith - It’s Too Late mp3 at Internet Archive
Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers - You Can’t Always Get What You Want mp3 at Internet Archive

MIGHT BE GOOD

I turned the TV to CBS to watch The Equalizer (Queen Latifah) the only show I go out of my way to watch. It wasn't on but there was Tom Hanks introducing a Grammy tribute to The Beach Boys. It's on right now and will probably be available streaming. Just keep checking that link. I'm out, Weezer's doing "California Girls".

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Visit:
A Grammy Salute To The Beach Boys

THE OLDER I GET, THE COOLER HE GETS.

You know you're getting old when you no longer fantasize about someday being as cool as Keith Richards. It's a lot of work picking out what skull rings and other accoutrements will let the world know that you're not a square yet. Charlie Watts didn't give a shit. Of all of the Stones he's is the one who never became a caricature of himself. He was always a drummer first, not someone who needed to be a fashion plate, be in the limelight, or worry whether he was still cool. But man, could he swing. I just ran into some of his solo stuff that I've never heard.

There's a couple Stones covers he did, I've no clue when but they're not as good as the three Elvin titled cuts.  (Discogs people.) "Elvin Suite Pt 2" is so awesome I'm compelled to put part 1 down there too. But I'd start with "Elvin's Song" a third Elvin cut, sixteen minutes of all over the place. The Elvin in question, I'm guessing is Elvin Jones..

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Listen:
Charlie Watts - Elvin Suite (Part 1) mp3 at Internet Archive
Charlie Watts - Elvin Suite (Part 2) mp3 at Internet Archive
Charlie Watts and the Tentet - Elvin's Song mp3 at Internet Archive
Charlie Watts - You Can't Always Get What You Want mp3 at Internet Archive
Charlie Watts - Paint It Black mp3 at Internet Archive

Q: HOW MANY DOORS DO YOU SEE IN THE PHOTO?

If there was one band that represented Los Angeles to the rest of the world in the late sixties, it would have to be the Doors. I was thinking about that earlier today, followed by the thought that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg kinda wore that hat in the second half of the nineties. Then I remembered something that I'd forgotten, a cut with Snoop doing his thing over the Doors "Riders on the Storm". More than just sampling, it's almost a mash-up because there's a lot of the Doors part. At six minutes long it's a minute less than the Doors original version but it's still longer than most Snoop cuts. I seem to remember that it was done for a video game, but don't quote me on that. Here's that cut with an assortment of Doors songs and a rare live video from 1968. Dig the spoken word part at 5:15, referred to in the notes at YouTube as "Texas Radio and The Big Beat" would later appear as "The WASP (Texas Radio and The Big Beat)" three years later on the L.A. Woman LP

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Listen:
The Doors - Twentieth Century Fox mp3 at Internet Archive
The Doors - L.A. Woman mp3 at Internet Archive
The Doors - Five to One mp3 at Internet Archive
The Doors - The WASP (Texas Radio and The Big Beat) mp3 at Internet Archive
The Doors - Riders On the Storm mp3 at Internet Archive
Snoop Dogg featuring the Doors - Riders on the Storm mp3 at Street Racing

POWERED BY BEAT-MAN

Well gang, the geniuses at Google have tightened their algorithms again leading to a dramatic decrease in traffic. Yesterday, out of 3,878 posts, there were only 60 page views. That's makes this here blog, ehh, dare I say it, somewhat of a waste of time. At it's peak this blog was getting roughly 2,600 page views a day. They gradually decreased and then nosedived multiple times as Google fucked with things. If you were to look at third party analytics, they would tell you that this blog, representing 16 years of posts, is valued at a couple hundred dollars. I've no idea where they come up with figures and I'm not doing this for money anyways but what it comes down to is this: each post is valued at about five cents. And each post takes a minimum of an hour. Fu-huck.

So, what to do? What would you do? I hate to disappoint the regulars and friends I've made over the years but I can't keep banging my head against the wall. Any ideas?

As a placeholder for tonight, as my whining passes, is a 40 minute set from Reverend Beat Man (that's him above), posted because he's still one of the heroes of this blog. Come to think of it, maybe that's what I ought to do, just post the shit that's up my alley and screw yours and everybody else's. What's the worst that can happen? I lose 60 page views a day? Oh yeahhhh, I can see it now, the return of BJ the Messenger and MC Gorditas. You're in for it.

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Listen:
Reverend Beat Man - Come Back Lord mp3 at Go Retro

BONE UP YOUNGSTERS

A friend of mine posted these on Facebook and he said that the three part program, Punk Britannia was good and he's a guy whose taste I respect. (He's a diehard Clash guy, so that's his criteria.) These originally aired on the BBC in 2012. I've only spot checked and they seem good. Part one is below and links to the other two are at the bottom of the post. I just included the two Sex Pistols cuts because they were the guys who really got things moving. Full transparency: I'm too lazy to go hunt down more individual songs Maybe later...

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Listen:
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK mp3 at Tumblr
Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen mp3 at Clones Project
Watch:
Punk Britannia, Part 2 at YouTube

Punk Britannia, Part 3 at YouTube

MEANWHILE AT RANDY'S RECORD MART

Here's some reggae covers, three out of the five were hits by their original artists. I'm not sure how big Marlene Shaw's "California Soul" was because I never heard it when I was younger, but I've heard it enough by now that it had to have charted somewhere. Regardless, Faye and Mystic's cover is a good one. The other artists below, Ken Boothe, Dennis Brown, Horace Andy and Jimmy Riley are singers that started much earlier and capable of a much rootsier sound, but not on these. These have post-eighties written all over them, from the slick production to the syn-drums and what not. Diehards will probably curl a lip. My guess is that these were part of some sort of covers LP project. I guess what I'm saying is that these were intended, by way of covering hits, to draw non-reggae people to the chalice. We all can't start with U Roy.

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Listen:
Ken Boothe - You Keep Me Hanging On mp3 at Internet Archive
Faye & Mystic - California Soul mp3 at Internet Archive
Dennis Brown - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay mp3 at Internet Archive
Horace Andy - Ain't No Sunshine mp3 at Internet Archive
Jimmy Riley - Sexual Healing mp3 at Internet Archive