Category Archive

Best known for the smash track 96 Tears, ? and The Mysterians’ LP, 96 Tears, is more than just the hit song.  This is straight up classic 60s Detroit garage, complete with 15 year old Mexican organ sensation Freddie Rodriguez.  Freddie’s organ strokes may have been best known for the hook in 96 Tears, but he also tore it up in Midnight Hour (not Wilson Pickett’s song). 

This is so distinctly Detroit, a mixture of psych, blues, soul, and rock-n-roll, and with that organ featured so often with MI garage bands.  Freddie, you must have been going to church, son!

Listen to Midnight Hour:

By Max Conroy

Living in Ann Arbor, it’s strange to have to purchase a European import that compiles a bunch of records recorded here, but I’m glad it’s available at all.  The name of the label, A-Square, is a nickname for the city of Ann Arbor.  It was created by Jeep Holland, a compulsive music and comic collector, DJ, manager, promoter, and manager of Discount Records, the store that Iggy Pop worked at as a teenager.  Holland would stock import records that no other stores would carry, British Invasion records, and get a feel for what area kids would respond to in the store and while DJ-ing events.  He met local musicians at Discount and eventually started promoting some of them.  In 1965 he began producing records exclusively as promotional material to get gigs for acts that he was promoting and put them out on his A-Square imprint. 

In five years, he put out records by approximately a dozen bands, including the MC5, the Rationals, the Scot Richard Case (SRC), the Up, and the Frost; all Detroit legends.  By 1970, for a myriad of reasons, including his domineering personality, poor business acumen, lack of payment from distributers, and changing times, he left Ann Arbor for Boston, leaving behind A-Square records and a wake of debt.  A lot of these records are very hard to find now, 40 plus years later, and the 45s have been the only way to hear most of these great bands.

A-Square (Of Course) was released this past May on Big Beat Records, distributed and marketed by the mega-reissue label Ace Records out of the UK.  The title comes from a button issued by the label that read A-Square (Of Course).  There are definitely some issues with this package, but the good greatly outweighs the bad.  First off, there are no Rationals tracks on it, which seems odd since they were the biggest act on A-Square and the label’s flagship act, but Ace intends on releasing a compilation of their work on A-Square soon, to be named Think Rational! (again from a button).  According to Scott Morgan of the Rationals, they’re still working on obtaining the rights to the masters.  Secondly, this is by no means an exhaustive collection of A-Square’s catalogue, which would require a multiple-disc release.  This collection contains 25 tracks by ten bands, 8 tracks by the Thyme and 5 by the Scot Richard Case.  More than half of the compilation is music that was never released originally, which is great if you’re looking for really rare stuff, but not if you’re looking to have high fidelity copies of the famous records that were actually released on the label.  Also, there are several bands that recorded for A-Square whose masters cannot be located and are not represented here; the Jagged Edge, the Children and the Gang most notably.

The bottom line, however, is that this anthology is filled with a ton of highlights and is most definitely worth the $19.  It contains an early MC5 single, Looking at You/Borderline, which has been released a ton and isn’t that rare, but is great to have in this context with fantastic documentation in the liner notes.  Apparently, Holland and John Sinclair didn’t get along that well for a variety of reasons, even though Sinclair managed the group and Holland was in charge of booking them.  According to the liner notes:

Jeep:  Sinclair went into United Sound and recorded that record with Danny Dallas, then just decided to use my label name.  He designed his own A-Square label, designed his own package and just put it out.  He finally got around to informing me as the record was coming out: ‘Oh, by the way, I put the record out on A-Square.’…My label was a success, and John thought it would get his record more attention… Danny Dallas told me some wonderful stories about that session.  He said they immediately turned their amps up as loud as they could go.  Danny kept trying to tell them, ‘You don’t have to do that.  Get a good sound and I’ll boost it in here.’  But no, John Sinclair came into the control room, looked at the board and went like this [sweeping arm motion] pushing every one of the faders up all the way.  Then he ate a big chunk of hash or something and lay down on the floor while the band played. 

Let’s just say that it’s not the 5’s best moment sonically, but well worth hearing and a great addition to this collection.  Also featured here is a rare live recording of the Prime Movers.  The Movers were a highly respected blues outfit in the Ann Arbor area at the time that never released anything.  The band included Michael Erlewine, the brain behind the All Music Guide, on vocals and harmonica and a young Iggy Pop on drums.  The track here is a cover of the Yardbird’s version of I’m a Man that was used as a tape that Holland took to New York probably around ‘66 to promote the band.  It actually features Iggy on vocals instead of Erlewine and might possibly be the earliest recording of Iggy singing.  The Up’s Just Like an Aborigine is a raw-as-hell protopunk gem and another massive highlight on this disc.  Everything else not mentioned here is good if not great, making this a must have for anyone even remotely interested in psyche, garage rock, the Detroit high energy sound, or Southeast Michigan culture.

The Up’s Just Like an Aborigine:

By Max Conroy

There are several definitions of the word scrummage.  It is synonymous to a rugby play called a ’scrum’, but also means ‘a general row or confused fight or struggle’.  A scrum can also, according to the Brits, mean ‘a place or situation of confusion and racket; hubbub’, which seems like the closest definition to the venue in Detroit.  Here is their mission statement from their site (do not click on this link if you have or might possibly have epilepsy): A psychedelic loft in Detroit’s Eastern Market district.  We achieve maximum fun.  We have giant parties with totally rad music encompassing all generas.  We teach you here at our university that no one is too stuffy to party.  This is the place where all your wildest dreams can come true.  There is apparently a market in Detroit’s Eastern Market district, but there’s no evidence of it at night; in fact, there doesn’t seem to be anything besides a graveyard, bombed out buildings, and the occasional liquor store and gas station…and this place. 

Scrummage University is a huge warehouse that must have been a toy factory at one time, based on the painted signage on the front of the building.  I drove by it a few times before coming to the conclusion that this must be the place.  There were several flyers that mentioned that it’s the large building that has ‘Toys’ painted on the front of it, but not the flyer that I had.  The flyers also stated that the event was to begin at 9PM, which is when I arrived, but there was no one there, except for a few people running the show and the performers.  Also, there is no mention of the Silver Apples playing at Scrummage on the venue’s site, so I’d seek other verification that a band will be there before driving through post-apocalyptic Detroit to get there. 

The Scrummage gate is barely wide enough for a car to fit through and is situated next to an operational junk yard; I deduced that it was operational based on the five rabid dogs hurling themselves at the fence, attempting to kill hipsters.  The parking lot is huge with weeds thriving in the cracks of the asphalt, an active train line in back, and several huge bonfire pits.  I walked around for a bit, soaking up the scenery, snapping photos, as other guests arrived.  After awhile, I noticed that everyone had 40s of beer, and asked the door guy Ian if it was cool to bring beer here: ‘Sure, man.  You should pick me up something.’  He gave me some shoddy directions to a liquor store, but I ended up finding a different one that had all the choice malt liquor and grabbed a 40 of Olde English and Ian a 24oz of Cammo XXX High Gravity for the shitty directions; he was thrilled.

By this time they were throwing huge pieces of furniture into the fire pit and igniting them.  When the fire would get low, they, presumably ‘official’ events organizers, would politely ask some people to get off of the wardrobe they were sitting on and then drag it into the fire.  This place is the ultimate in blind pigs, anything goes. 

You enter the warehouse through a defunct loading dock and enter into a wide open concrete room, piles of debris in the corners and outsider art everywhere.  There is a working bathroom that isn’t the worst that I’ve ever seen.  From what I gather, people live at Scrummage, so they probably rent the space, or maybe even squat there.  The electric hair trimmer in the bathroom also made me think that people live there. 

The opening act Benny Stoofy is kind of Scrummage’s house band.  They are some talented musicians that blend the low fi aesthetic with competence, much like Dr. Dog.  I dug a few songs and then went back to the bonfire with my 40 to chat up some people and enjoy the evening.

The Lotto Ball Show went on next.  They’re a synth-driven postpunk outfit from Chicago.  They seemed good, but the vocals were noexistent in the mix, so I again headed out to the fire after about two songs.

I went back inside after the music stopped to look at the unattended merch table and to watch people climb dangerously onto makeshift trapezes hanging from the ceiling.  Simeon, a perfectly normal looking fellow in his mid-to-late 60s, dressed in a bright green turtleneck, strolled across the floor to his rig and began calibrating or whatever one has to do to a pile of oscillators and beat machines to prepare them for a performance.

The Silver Apples are Simeon now.  He manipulates bass and melody sound oscillators over drum tracks, and sings: that’s the sound of The Silver Apples in 2008.  After listening to some of their records recently, I’ve come to really appreciate the late Danny Taylor’s drumming.  He lays down a hardcore breakbeat jazz style that really propels the monotonous vocals and bleeps and bloops.  But the music is essentially electronic music and the last thirty years of music has proven that a drummer isn’t absolutely necessary.  The lack of a drummer has actually transformed the Silver Apples sound into what it inspired: electronic dance music.  It’s fitting to see one of the pioneers of electronic music performing this way to the city that basically took what he was doing eons ago and went crazy with it. 

Simeon played for exactly an hour and politely declined an encore; this isn’t exactly encore-type music.  He performed a lot of the ‘hits’ like Oscillations and I Don’t Care What the People Say and did a handful of new compositions.  In the middle of the set, about twenty people got on stage a danced their freaky, uninhibited dances.  I went back to the merch table and bought the only Apples vinyl available: a limited press of 1000 called Selections from the Early Sessions.  I then went up to Simeon’s rig and snapped a picture of it just before he went up to it to tear it down.  I said, “Thanks, man.”  “It’s a pleasure,” said Simeon.

Click Below for information about the Selections record, some audio of the show, and pictures.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Cousin Justin

One of the most exciting things about selling records has been selling obscure music to the people originally involved.  Recently we sold this 45 to original The Novelty drummer Chip Pace.  When he brought this fact up to me I asked if he could tell me what he remembers from the sessions and he gave me this info:

We recorded the record at Trod Nossel Studios; here is the link.  Good link for you to get information on many obscure 60’s\70’s east coast bands. Follow the website and links into some interesting information. 

We recorded the 45 RPM with legendary Doc Cavaliere at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford CT.  Doc mentored us over 2 days of rehearsal on how to get the tracks perfect.  It took over 25 takes to get the lead vocal tracks to sound gritty enough to please him.  Doc made the lead singer (Ron) drink to get him a little drunk so he would loosen up and deliver the performance he was looking for.

Doc took a particular liking to the drum tracks (Chip), so much that he was adament about doing too many retakes because he did not want to lose that driving feel. He felt the drum tracks were hot!

The keyboard tracks (Larry, on a Hammond B3) were solid as were the rhythm guitar track (Dave) with the exception of producer Bill Durso over dubbing some extra guitar tracks (most notable in the opening of “Handwriting On The Wall”) to give it a more funky-bluesy feel.  The horn players (Ray & Dan) were hitting some pretty high notes during that session and pretty much shredded their lips, another reason to limit retakes. 

All in all it was a memorable experience and we all walked away feeling great about the session.  The record did quite well on the East Coast and opened the doors for promotional concerts and a video, opening for acts like The Young Rascals.

Thanks,

Chip

Novelty-Handwriting On The Wall

Novelty-Long Time Waiting

By Max Conroy

The enigmatic and visionary electronic ‘band’ The Silver Apples will perform tomorrow night at Scrummage University.  I don’t know anything about the venue and was handed a flyer for the show, which is a photocopy of a primitive pen and ink drawing, by a group of teenagers that I befriended at the Jandek performance in Ann Arbor. 

The Silver Apples formed in New York in 1967, consisting of Simeon Coxe III (Simeon) and Danny Taylor, drums.  The duo were in a band called The Overland Stage Electric Band prior to the Apples, where band members rapidly left the group as a result of Simeon’s incorporation of a 1940s vintage audio oscillator, leaving the two.  Simeon developed a homemade instrument, the Simeon, consisting of “nine audio oscillators piled on top of each other and eighty-six manual controls to control lead, rhythm, and bass pulses with hands, feet, and elbows”(from the liner notes of their first album).  They recorded a self-titled album, released in 1968 on Kapp Records that barely cracked the top 100 and the follow up, Contact, in ‘69.  They toured to support Contact and recorded another album in 1970, but it was shelved when Kapp was devoured by MCA.  This third record would eventually be released as Garden in 1998.  The band dissolved as a result of Kapp folding and lay dormant for the next twenty-five years.

The Apples were brought back to life in 1994 when a German label TRC began issuing bootlegs of their first two records, causing a long-awaited rebirth of interest in their music.  The original records eventually were officially reissued, they toured (Coxe and a multi-instrumentalist named Xian Hawkins), and released several singles and albums in the late 90s that received favorable press.  In 1999 their tour van was involved in an accident that broke Simeon’s neck.  He’s been recovering since, but will probably never fully recover the movement of his hands, so apparently his performance is a bit more direct now.  Danny Taylor died of a heart attack in Kingston, New York in 2005.  Simeon went back on the road as a solo version of the Silver Apples in 2007 and is supposed to still put on a good show. 

This music must have been totally unpalatable in the late 60s, but it absolutely presaged the future of music and the advent of electronic music, from bands like Suicide and Kraftwork in the 70s to Detroit to Radiohead.

Oscillations:

I Don’t Care What the People Say:

From Pitchfork:  Better bring some extra cash to these shows, as Mr. Silver Apples will be peddling both a tour-only ChickenCoop Recordings LP of remastered tunes entitled Selections and a new Gifted Children Records EP called Gremlins at the merch table.

by Cousin Geoff

New Orleans funk star Eddie Bo says: “Hook it baby!  Now sling it!  Ha!  Good God!  Whooo-weeee!”

This 1969 funk hit on the tiny Scram record label is one of the only ones by local legend Eddie Bo to crack the national charts.  I’m guessing that when Eddie barked out these orders live, people did what they were told, and it soon swept up the nation from The Big Easy.

Hear those New Orleans trumpets coming in?  What a sound.  “Now hook it baby!  I feel it now!  You got it!”

The strutting, helter-skelter tribal-soul drumming of James Black cuts it up.  The bass line guides your booty.  But how did they do it?  “You over there with the big yams! Sling it!” 

Eddie Bo is the New Orleans square-dancing caller.  He’s got the mic, the dance floor is packed.  People are sweatin’ as they hook and sling.  You can’t stop.  You gotta do what he says.  And this isn’t even Part 2 yet. 

So how do you do it?

 By Max Conroy

My struggle lately has been that I have way too much music to listen to.  In the past year or so, I’ve had some incredible resources and have acquired more music than I could realistically listen to.  It’s obviously the result of some sort of compulsion that I have to collect things.  But records are meant to be listened to, and I feel guilty about having some of the best records ever made lying around where I’m only able to dedicate a cursory listen.  Also, my interests wax and wane like the moon, so I’ll have some records that I’ve just purchased and my interest in that genera of music will fall by the wayside, the record filed to be stumbled upon when my interest in that music reawakens.  I guess the solution is to make it a point to try and not acquire anything new.  Don’t worry, readers, I’ll have plenty of stuff to write about.

For some reason, last night I actually went through my CDs and pulled out a huge pile and pretty much froze because it was late, past midnight, and I wanted to listen to everything, but I didn’t want to be up till sunrise.  I’ve been getting back into rock and roll, from jazz fusion and soul and funk.  I had also just hooked my DVD player up through my stereo, so I wanted to be able to watch a bit of something before I went to bed, so I had to make a tough decision, but I sure as hell made the right choice.

Starship, The MC5 at the Sturgis Armory June 27, 1968 is, in my mind, the best document of the MC5 live.  Don’t get me wrong, Kick Out the Jams is a hell of a record, but it doesn’t necessarily represent the 5 accurately with regards to their live show at the time.  They knew that they were going to make a record and had to trim parts of the set, like Black to Comm and various jazz and soul medleys from their set to make a digestible product for the masses (I’m not saying they sold out to the man or anything, they do say ‘motherfucker’ in the first five minutes, before their most commercial song).  The sound on Starship is obviously from someone in the crowd, so this is how it pretty much sounded if you were standing in the Sturgis Armory.  A lot of people don’t realize that soundboard recordings aren’t necessarily the shit because they just capture the sound that’s pumped through the system and not what comes out of it. 

Where is Sturgis you ask?  It’s in southwest Michigan, not far at all from where I, and Cousin Justin, grew up.  The area now is probably a ghost town, but back in the day when muscle cars were king the place was probably still out of the way.  This show catches the 5 playing their set in all its glory in a small town and displays perfectly their mettle.  They didn’t care where they were playing or who to; when they stepped on the stage it was all over; they were going to destroy any other band that dared share that stage, no matter who it was, Cream or Led Zeppelin.

I had to put the headphones on for this one as it was late and I needed volume, so I recommend that you do the same.  Find your headphones and brace yourself…

Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa:

James Brown’s Cold Sweat:  Dig Dennis Thompson’s drumming on this track.

PS:  In my opinion the only other live performace by the 5 that rivals this is Thunder Express, a live set in a European studio.  Go figure, Cub Coda gave it two stars in AMG, haha.

by Cousin Geoff

I’ve talked before about Detroit psych/funk artist Fugi, and his unreleased 1968 Chess LP that was reissued on Tuff City.  As what usually happens when we’re digging something, more stuff sort of turns up.  So I wasn’t too suprised when his promo copy of Red Moon Part 1 and 2 on Grand Junction came out of recent collection, but I was excited.

Fugi is backed by Detroit funk-rock group Black Merda (play on black murder) on these cuts.  The history of the connection between Fugi (real name Ellington Jordan) and Black Merda is shakey.  Some people say that they were a part of the same band, others say that Fugi was the front man on this and the other 45s he put out, which were backed by Merda.  Others say that Fugi wanted to join Black Merda but they turned him down but backed him on the stuff he wrote.  I’ve also heard that Fugi was a promoter for Chess and helped sign other Detroit talent, and this may have played a factor in Fugi getting them to play with him.  Whatever the relationship was, it was Fugi who wrote this psychadelic brand of funk-rock that was considered too out-there at the time to sell to the masses.

Fugi had problems with drugs and legend has it that he wrote the song Red Moon as he drove around Detroit at night while high.  Max described Fugi’s music as “dark, doom funk.” In Detroit in the late 60s, with all that was going on, it’s no wonder that music was produced like this.  It’s quite the opposite from the happy, feel-good Motown sound, but it’s perhaps a more accurate picture of the gritty, grimy, racially tense city.

Red Moon, Part 1:

Part 2:

 By Max Conroy

This past week has been one of the most eventful/busy of my entire life.  In seven days I saw Jandek, wrote about it, interviewed Donita Sparks, saw Blind Mellon in Flint, crashing that night in East Lansing, saw Solomon Burke in Detroit and motored immediately after to Grand Rapids to hang out with Uncle Fucker.  I got back to Ann Arbor last night around midnight.  I had a real good time, but I’m glad to be convalescing here on this beautiful Memorial Day.  In my travels to East Lansing and Grand Rapids, I picked up some great records at some great shops.  If you’re anywhere even close to Grand Rapids and like records at all, you have to go to the Corner Record Shop, just outside of GR.  It rivals Encore and is about to become an entirely analog recording studio and venue as well!  Another surprise is that Uncle Fucker dusted off the Telecaster this weekend in a moment of clarity, and I recorded some of it for you.  I have also edited some of what I recorded at the Solomon Burke show.  Featured here are Lay My Burdon Down, performed by the choir before he went on, and Diamond in Your Mind, the song that Tom Waites wrote for him on his first comeback album.  The choir provides an accurate representation of the enthusiasm of the crowd, along with a healthy dose of ecstatic joy in loving Jesus.  Diamonds is just a great song and was recorded by Burke recently, so it captures his sound now.  The third track is Uncle Fucker shredding All Down the Line, the Stones song.

Lay My Burdon Down:

Diamond in Your Mind:

All Down the Line:

Stay tuned for the Donita Sparks and the Stellar Moments review and interview.

By Max Conroy

The deacon Solomon Burke played a free show in Detroit last night (refer to the previous post).  It was a fantastic show and one that I’ll remember forever.  He’s still got it to be sure.  A gospel choir performed Lay My Burden Down before he went on.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay for the entire show, but I saw a little over an hour of his set and caught a lot of classics: Cry to Me, If You Need Me, Down In The Valley, the Tom Waites penned Keep a Diamond in Your Mind, Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay, and many others.  I recorded some audio of the show and will work on getting that posted.

Soul legend Solomon Burke will play a free show tomorrow at Campus Martius park on Woodward In Detroit. Call 313-962-0101 for more details.

Freep.com had a great mini-interview with Burke, with the 68 year old discussing his love for Detroit, his time spent working with Aretha, and his upcoming album, where he performed songs written for him by various artists including Cousin Geoff favorite Ben Harper:

Q: Your collaboration with Ben Harper, “A Minute to Rest and a Second to Pray,” is easily one of the best moments on the new album. What was it like working with him?

A: The first time I met him was right in the studio, and I was intrigued and excited. Ben said, “I’ve only got the first verse done. I ain’t finished with it yet.” So I told him to finish the song right now and then we immediately recorded it. As we speak right now, some folks don’t even have a home. In the last 48 hours, how many people have (only) a minute to rest and a second to pray?

Read the rest of the intereview here.

Check out some Solomon 45s we have in the store here.  We did come across a copy of his hard to find Rock and Soul LP a few years ago, and we regrettably sold it as Justin and I could not hustle the other into letting one of us have it!

Another LP found on Ypsilanti’s Pathway label.

PLP 184, The Pleasant Valley Boys Sing The Fields Have Turned Brown.  Featuring: Roy Derringer, Rhythm Guitar (Wayne); Donald Clay, Lead Singer (Ypsilanti); Tom Rains, Mandolin (South Lyon); Eddie Carrol, Lead Guitar (Brighton).  With special guest Sonny Nelson, Five String Banjo (Detroit).

Wow.  Totally blown away by this one.  Judging by the rawness of the other Pathways I have, I didn’t know what to expect, but this record is unbelievable.  A very, very, solid traditional bluegrass record, all done in the sacred style that is Pathway.  I was so excited that I actually called the numbers on the back of this late 60s record, hoping to get ahold of Donald or Roy.  It DID say “If you would like to have the Pleasant Valley Boys in your neighborhood, phone…”  I was hoping I’d get an 80 year old former member and would just make his day by asking questions about the Pleasant Valley Boys, and then I’d invite them to play in my backyard in Ypsi in front of a campfire and record it or something.  But, sadly, both numbers were disconnected. 

This record is no joke; it’s very similar to a Stanley Brothers record, and all songs are excellent and the singing and musicianship are also very good.  It’s by far the best Pathway I’ve heard, and it’s different in that it’s more traditional and professional and not as wacky/weird sounding as the others.  Whether that’s a good thing I have no idea.

It’s funny that this turned up, but this is often the case.  We’ll get to thinking about something or getting into something and then it’ll turn up on cue. 

Listen to “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”:

For Sale 

I like this one a lot, so much that I haven’t really decided if I want to sell it.  The Six O’Clock News were formed by Rockabilly hall-of-famer and Detroit native James Wayne Boyer.  He originally formed the band Jimmy Boyer and The Newports, who were a top local band in Detroit and Windsor in the early to mid 60s.  Around ‘68 or ‘69, he formed the Six O’Clock News, who recorded only one 45, Train Ride Down Jasper Way / Working On The Road, in 1969 on Novi based label Adell.  After the Six O’Clock News broke up following their brief time together, Boyer went on to play in a few more local bands before touring nationally with a Nashville based group called the Billy Swan Band. 

The A side to this promo copy, Train Ride, is a great song.  Jimmy’s rough and gruff voice give emotion to a hard working railroad love song, backed by a Dennis Coffee-esque funkabilly band.  It’s a fairly rare 45, but it’s unlike many small label Michigan garagers that we come across, the song writing is actually good (and original).  If CCR put this out, it could have been a national smash hit.  As it was with a relatively unheard-of Detroit band in 1969, they produced about 1,000 or so promo copies, sent them out to as many radio stations as they could, and probably received little if any airplay. The records then sat for years, with a few surfacing here and there.  This one came out of a collection we bought recently that was the remnants of a local radio station’s backstock, hundreds of discarded 45s, deemed not popular enough to be worth a damn, forgotten for almost 40 years, until they landed with us to revive them again. NOW FOR SALE

Listen to Train Ride Down Jasper Way:

Note: The B Side on this, the pop-pysch Working On The Road, was featured on the comp “Voyages Into Pop-Psych Vol. II”, and also on the internet radio station/website Technicolor Web of Sound.

UK’s Ace records will soon be releasing a comp of 60s Ann Arbor label A-Squared rarities.  I guess this has been 10 years in the making and Scott Morgan of The Rationals, who still lives in Ann Arbor, has been working with Ace.  This should be a very cool comp, although from what I read it is only available on CD.  We’ve come across some of these sides, but I’m sure some of these are ones that just don’t surface at all. 

From mlive.com:

“A-Square (Of Course): The Story Of Michigan’s Legendary A-Square Records,” which will be available only as an import CD from Ace Records, includes tracks from The Scot Richard Case, MC5 (the rare “Looking at You”), The Prime Movers (featuring a young Iggy Pop on drums and lead vocals, circa 1966), The Thyme, The Up and more.

The disc draws on the vaults of A-Square Records, founded by Hugh “Jeep” Holland, a University of Michigan student who was captivated by the mid-’60s rock music explosion. While running Discount Records on State Street, he threw himself into the local scene as an agent, manager, producer and supporter of area bands and musicians, including Discount stock boy Jim Osterberg, who later became Iggy Pop. The storied music lineups at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom were overseen by Holland, who died in 1998.

read the rest of the article

by Cousin Geoff

This record was an early, early find for me in my record hunting hobby that has now grown into our mighty Cousins empire.  I can remember it like it was yesterday.  I was out garage sailing, and it was getting late, almost 11:00 AM.  I had been at it since early in the morning, driving around, newspaper close by, digging and scouting and hunting.  In those days, going garage sailing was our main way of finding records.  This was before Cousin Justin and I were even partners. We would just sell under the same name and then get the money for our records. 

So I was out driving, way south of Ypsi, almost to Milan, about to go home and call it quits, but I decided to stop by one last sale and check it out, a total country bumpkin sale and I found this record somehow.  I almost sold it, because it goes for good money, but I liked it so much I had to keep it.  Turns out, it’s still one of my favorite records, especially because of the song I’ve Never Found a Girl.

There’s not much other vocals on the album besides this song, but it’s Marvin and his Uptights blowing feel-good 1969 San Francisco psych-funk until your toes curl.  It’s loud Saturday music, it’s getting ready to have a party at your house music, it’s happy Dragon-Monster Soul music.

Check out the liner notes from the back of the album:

I always said if I ever had the chance to write liner notes for an artist-I would have a ball doing it-I have read a lot of album backs and it seems there is always something interesting to say and use the most in descriptive words from?-funk-and I’d say yeah!  Well now it’s my turn and I do have someone I can testify for-Marv & The Uptights, able to raise a suave, sophisticated, mellow gathering to a high fever pitch-rocking with much Boss Soul-not being sacrilegious, but for those who missed church, this album will take you-giving you that head nodding, toe tappin’, hip shakin’, finger poppin’, soulful feeling-just let yourself go-Marv & The Uptights is mighty funky and how do you really decribe that.  It’s like when you, well you how it is when-uhhhhh-coming up on the-let’s see-I know what it is but I just can’t uhhh, how about funky as barrels of hot asphalt-I think you get the picture-check ‘em out-Marv & The Uptights-and you’ll dig much Infinity.

-Bob White KDIA Oakland, Calif.

Yeah, Bob!  Were you high by any chance when you wrote those notes? 

Check out the song, I’ve Never Found a Girl.  If you like it as much as I do, note that AL Green also does a great version on his Let’s Stay Together album.