DUDE HAS A FOLDING SOUL

After days of running around here's just what was needed, an oddball private pressing by a Lou Rawls wannabe singing hairdresser. His voice is actually not bad, but the mix is horrible. Horrible as in really interesting, About all you can hear is blurry bass and his voice, with everything else barely audible.  Now that I think about it, it sounds more like he's trying to sing like Marvin Gaye in his later years. This isn't all-time by a long shot, but I found it good background music that never really goes anywhere. Totally digging the cover.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Kijana – You Hurt Me (But I Wanna Thank You) mp3 at The Melting Pot
Kijana – Two more songs at The Melting Pot Go there to get them

CACOPHONY IN THE DOLLAR BIN

Every once in a while one of these pops up. A self released monster of chaos. Just batshit crazy "what were they hoping to achieve?" private pressings that pretty much defy everything. I'd recently run across a post at Roots and Culture about Your Exotic Prince's Speak Up LP. There were a couple songs and one of them, "Concert For My Lady" was one such song, out there enough that I looked for more. Leave it to Beware of the Blog. In an old post from 2008, just sitting there, the whole LP, all six songs.

Continuing our private pressing mini WTF-fest, here's a couple from our ol' buddy Luie Luie. I highly recommend his "Lord What a Wonderful World". Get past the one minute intro and you'll be rewarded with...sheesh, I don't know. Just what the hell is this stuff?

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Your Exotic Prince - Concert for My Lady mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your Exotic Prince - Drums In Passion mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Your Exotic Prince - Four more mp3s at Beware of the Blog
Luie Luie - Lord What a Wonderful World mp3 at Waxidermy
Luie Luie - Lost mp3 at Super Sonido
Luie Luie bio, photos and sample clips at Companion Records
(NOTE: For instructions on how to do the Touchy, listen to sample of "Touch Me With All Your Heart")

MEET LUIE LUIE

Private label recordings are always a little unusual. Sometimes the artists are sponsored by a hotel (or other tourist attraction), but most record and self release records themselves. And it's not for the same reasons that indie artists do (artistic control, not getting ripped of by record labels, etc.). They usually do it because they're determined to get their music heard, by any means necessary. Seldom does this process have an entirely happy ending. For lounge entertainer Luie Luie, though, it appears that it has. His cult-like fame has been percolating for years, prompting Companion Records to not only collect all of his works, but track down the man himself, receiving his blessing to reissue all of his decades old recordings.

Luie Luie is a one man band act, and he's been plying his trade in lounges and restaurants for thirty-plus years. But that doesn't really say it all. His music is so out there that it is hard to describe. "Herb Alpert on acid" might be as close as you get, but that doesn't even get it. Let's just say if you like Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart and Wesley Willis, you would probably like Luie Luie. In addition to his music, he does these spoken word introductions to his songs, with everything from his view on the world, to instructions on how to do his versatile "Touchy" dance (of which, he relates several variations). Everything about him is so heartfelt, that it's hard not to like him. He just seems like a really genuine sort of...oddball. There, I said it. A genuine oddball, but an oddball nevertheless. That is not a bad thing.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Luie Luie - What a Wonderful World mp3 at Waxidermy
Luie Luie - Touchy mp3 at Doklands (Link removed)
Luie Luie bio, photos and sample clips at Companion Records
(NOTE: For instructions on how to do the Touchy, listen to sample of "Touch Me With All Your Heart")

If you're so famous, how come I've never heard of you?

Ooh, this is a perfect song to listen to while driving. You start lulled into zombie-driver mode, listening to an uptempo lounge-ish version of Winchester Cathedral. Then, BAM! A little more than two minutes into it, all hell breaks loose.

Psychedelic? Maybe not. but it is a pretty noisy racket.

If you're into this kind of oddball shit, the BellyBongo Archive has a huge amount of lounge, psych, personal pressings and one-man bands.

Here's the Famous Casanovas - Winchester Cathedral (and more)