Category Archive

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.

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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

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:

FOR SALE

This is the first of the Psych 45s I chose to Highlight because it is one kick ass tune.  Great story of the band here.  “Sing For You” almost has a Hip Hop type flow to it. 

Sing For You

R.I.P.

A very Large group of over 200 rare promo 45s, again from 1970.  This is a continuation of the collection of radio promo 45s that end today.  Some of the highlights of this auction are another copy of Jupiters’ Children, Gracious!, Maypole, Avatar, Iota, Mike Wallace, The Flame, Broken Arrow, Rod Evans, Novelty, Freada Wallace, Loose, Danny & The Mexicans, Pastor Brothers, Jimmy Chapel, Sean McLeod, and Kiss Inc.  There are also a couple more soul 45s missed last week including Chic Walker.  This batch has some real rare stuff that is on the side of unknown, so as always please ask to hear some sound clips ad I will get them up.   

FOR SALE 

I just came across this, and put it up for sale.  There is no info on this record that I can find.  It’s Jupiters’ Children: 1970 weird spaced out garage psych on private label Triple O that I would guess came from Michigan but I’ll have to look into it more to find out for sure.  It’s very possible this came out of Ypsilanti, as this is where I found it.  Pretty interesting stuff and an exciting find, especially if this turns out to be an relatively unknown 45.

Listen to Check Yourself:

Listen to This Is All I Ask:

by Cousin Geoff 

I wrote about this album about two years ago, but I didn’t include a picture or audio.  I forgot I wrote about it when I was thinking about what to post tonight, but I took the picture and recorded a sample of Gone With Yesterday.  Rather than write about it again, you can just read what I wrote before and listen to the cut.

 by Max Conroy

I first heard about the Third Power on this site a long time ago when the Cousins did a write up about their bass player Jem Targal in response to finding a signed copy of his rare solo album Luckey Guy.  I downloaded Believe, the only album released by the Third Power and didn’t feel too bad about it because of the album’s obscurity; I believe that it isn’t too hard to track down on CD though.  The download that I got was ripped from a record and the guy recorded the second side first, which I didn’t realize till finding the vinyl a few weeks ago.  It doesn’t get much better than this if you’re looking for an aggressive, Grande-era Detroit power trio.  I’ve scoped this record every now and then for the past few years on EBay and it seems like every copy that I’ve seen was in Europe, which is odd since it only sold about 16,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area.

Like the record itself, information regarding the band is pretty rare.  For the most part everything out there is very basic and states that the band formed in Detroit in the late 60s, were very loud, had a cult following, released one record, it flopped, they went their separate ways, the guitarist Drew Abbott went to play lead for Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, and Jem recorded Luckey Guy in the late 70s.  I did find an early biography of Jem Targal, their lead singer and bassist, on someone’s personal website.  The biography reads a bit strange, almost like it’s Targal speaking in the third person (pardon the pun).  According to the site, Targal was born in Ann Arbor, his father studied and taught at the University of Michigan, and when he was young his father accepted a position at the American University of Istanbul and moved his entire family there: ”There were seven families, all related, living in the house together.  Targal’s grandfather, a retired general, was there.  So, too, was Targal’s uncles.  One had been the head of NATO forces for seveal years; the other uncle was a professional wrestler.”  Sounds like a trip, man.  His family moved back to the Detroit area in 1951 and eventually many years later he met Abbott at Oakland Community College in a speed reading class.  Abbott taught Targal the bass and they formed several groups, met their drummer Jim Craig, a solid powerful drummer, and came up with the name the Third Power in the van on the way to their first show together at a club called the Fifth Dimension (a popular venue that had featured Hendrix and the Yardbirds).  Power trio…trio…third…third…power…like to the third power, man…get it?  The band moved into a farmhouse on Haggarty road, between 12 and 13 mile roads.  They were known for having massive parties at their place where rock icons like Rod Stewart and Badfinger would hang out.  The band kept playing around and became very popular in the Detroit area, playing shows with local acts like the Rationals, Seger, and the MC 5.  They signed with Vanguard, who also featured another Detroit act of the era the Frost, in 1969.  The album was produced by poet and blues scholar Sam Charters and came out in 1970.

I almost shit my pants when I saw it in the stack at Encore.  They pile up their new arrivals on the floor against the bins, in front of the register.  I was in there a few days prior to finding it and noticed that they had a massive pile of new arrivals and quickly paid for whatever I had gone in there to find, so as not to be tempted by whatever was in the new stacks.  A few days later I was walking in the neighborhood and decided to go back to see what was left in that pile, and there it was, perfect, in the shrink, bronze Vanguard label.  I bought that and Grant Green’s Alive! for $30 and the dude working there said bye to me using my name off of my credit card.  Respect, mon.  Irie!  I got it for $20; the price guide says $30 mint, but Popsike lists anywhere from $50 to $250 previously on EBay. 

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by Cousin Geoff

Reissues are generally not my thing, I’d rather search for the original.  It kind of feels like cheating, and it’s nowhere near the thrill of playing the real deal.  That being said, there is no original album for Fugi’s Mary, Don’t Take Me On No Bad Trip.  Tough City reissued this unreleased acid-funk record in 1996 from Detroiter Ellington Jordan, AKA Fugi, originally meant to be put out by Chess’s Cadet label in 1968, but deemed too trippy for them.  When I came across this, not only was I put off by the fact that it was a reissue, but the cover was terrible.  It looked like a late 1990s Cash Money rap album.  But the writing on the cover was more than enough to convice me:

“From The Vaults of CHESS RECORDS…The legendary unreleased album by the blackballed acid-funkateer.”  OK - sold.

When I put it on, I was absolutely floored.  This is exactly the type of music I seek out.  And this was, dare I say, better than the Detroit funk I had been listening to - early 70s Funkadelic and Temptations, even Dennis Coffee.  The genre of funk that is uniquely Detroit - psychadelic, rootsy, Hendrix-like, but funk at it’s core.  The first Funkadelic record can’t be touched, but this, if it had come out as planned, might be better.  The thing is, I don’t understand why Cadet didn’t release this in 1968.  Fugi was not some ordinary stoned funk musician trying to peddle an album to a top label.  He was an extremely talented song writer who was good friends with Temptation Eddie Kendrix.  In 1968, in addition to messing around with his own stuff while being backed by the band Black Merda, he wrote songs for Chess.  Fugi rubbed shoulders on a daily with Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Donny Hathaway, Jimmy Hendrix and Etta James.  In fact, Fugi wrote the song “I’d Rather Go Blind” (his own version is on this album) for Etta James who turned it into a worldwide hit number one hit, selling 8 million copies.

Fugi did release a few 45s, but it is still puzzling why this album was never put out.  I’m fully convinced that he could have become a star, with more albums following this one, plus tours and the whole shot.  As for the excuse that I’ve heard that it was too trippy, Detroit psych-soul-funk was what was hot a few years later, around 1969-1970, with the pair of Westbound Funkadelic albums, and The Temptations Psychedelic Shack album, among others.  And even if that was the case (which it’s not - it’s perfectly put together and more soul-based funk than psych-rock funk), what about the Cadet Concept label?  This was created and put together by Marshall Chess, son of Chess records co-founder Leonard Chess, for the sole purpose of “concept” albums.  Rotary Connection is maybe the closest and best known example, and they were way more out-there and, in my opinion, not nearly as good as Fugi.  This would have been the perfect album to put on this label, and they flat out blew it.

It’s a crying shame that I had never even heard of Fugi until I stumbled upon this album, although I’m sure the crowd of more seasoned deep funk and soul seekers have known about him even before this was released in ’96.  You can pick this up for like 8 bucks at Tuff City, in fact here is their ebay link for this album.  Tuff City has lots more reissues, they’re based out of New York and are definitely worth checking out.

As for the record, it’s just amazingly good.  I would say it’s worth it to invest the $8 to see for yourself.  I’m just sort of pissed that I won’t be able to search for the original, but as long as I have the music, that’s the most important thing!

listen to “Mary, Don’t Take Me On No Bad Trip”:

listen to “I’d Rather Be a Blind Man”

by Max Conroy:

The Go’s latest album Howl On the Haunted Beat You Ride is a fantastic record that doesn’t seem to get much credit, and I live in the land where it was made.  Shamefully, until I moved to back to Michigan this past August I’d never heard of them and the way that I heard of them was from a magazine published in the UK, Mojo.  Mojo gave the record a four star review and the write up was good; garage, overlooked band, Detroit, etc.  There was also a picture of the record’s cover accompanying the review that pretty much guaranteed that I’d look for it.  It’s perfectly psychedelic: two huge hipster faces with lifeless hipster expressions, flanking the jacket; the entire band arranged vertically in the center of it, all wearing black or stripes; their far out logo in the upper left; a brown and orange, early mid 60s to early 70s, color motif; all of this on a hazy blanket of stars.  I know being interested in a record because of its packaging might be a bit careless, but this record is so cool looking and feeling that I’d be happy to own it even if the music sucked, which it most certainly doesn’t.  It’s on Cass records (Cass is a street/area in Detroit for all you non-local readers), which I’ve never heard of, but they totally knocked the ball out of the park on this one.  It’s a gatefold with super heavy boards, it feels like it’s a record made in the 50s, and has great graphics pasted inside along with the lyrics. 

The Go formed in Detroit in 1998.  Jack White was an early member of the band and is featured on their debut Whatcha Doin’, playing lead guitar and singing back up.  I had read somewhere that they kicked Jack White out of the band, which would be one to tell the grandchildren: Yeah, I was in a band back in the day…and we kicked Jack White out of the group…We could have been rich!  I’m pretty sure that he just left the band because he didn’t want to be a sideman.  I have no idea if there is any bad blood as a result of the split, but the Go wasn’t on the White compiled fantastic comp. Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit.  There is footage the Go out there playing live during the JW era on an obscure movie called the Detroit Rock Movie, which also has footage of JW jamming Stop Breakin’ Down in his tiny Detroit apartment.  If any of you out there have a copy of this movie, I’d be happy to receive one; please respond to this post.  Anyway, Whatcha Doin’ was released on Sub Pop and is a great debut record on the noisy side of the garage.  They made a follow up for Sub Pop called Free Electricity that was never released because it was allegedly too heavy, which has to be bull shit…too heavy for Sub Pop?  I found a copy of it on Soulseek and it’s definitely worth finding.  I think there were other reasons Sub Pop shelved it though; one song starts with the lyric, “Big cock angel”.  They were ultimately dropped from Sub Pop and put out a more focused rehashing of 60s garage and 70s glam on Lizard King, called The Go.  The group then waited four years to put out another record, the brilliant Howl on the Haunted On the Haunted Beat You Ride, which AMG has listed as coming out in April of 2007, but I’m pretty sure it was more like late summer and they still haven’t reviewed it.

Howl On the Haunted Beat You Ride represents the Go fully coming into their own.  The music is derivative of 60s psych and 70s glam to be sure, but they certainly make it theirs.  The production on this record is simply amazing and it was produced by Bobby Harlow, their front man, in Detroit.  The album utilizes clean tones, trippy imagery, and classic CSN-like harmonies with great effect (and I really dislike CSN).  The bizarro-poetic title comes from the song Yer Stoned Italian Cowboy, a romp about an irresitible character that “shoots directly from the Id”.  Fucking brilliant!  In my opinion, there’s only one bum track on this record and that’s the lead off song called You Go Bangin’ On, which was released as a single, so I might be missing something.  But don’t listen to the first thirty seconds of this record and file it away.  I bought this record seven months ago and the Go haven’t played around here since to my knowledge, until this past Saturday where they played at Gold: a fund raiser for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

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Justin has just posted a smallish but nice collection of what I dub the Happy Hippie LP Batch.  Condition looks to be excellent on them.  Mention “Happy Hippie” to Justin and get a discount on shipping.

Today I will be uploading 100 Rock and Roll 45’s.  This collection is a real mixed-bag.  I pulled out five interesting ones to highlight here! 

First Up Is G.C. Woodrow & The Woodsmen.  This record appears on OJ Records.  The look of the label resembles that of the OJ or Old Judge Records from Memphis.  The only stuff I could really find about this label is stuff from the late 50’s with thier discography ending in 1959.  One of the more interesting people to record on this label is Wink Martindale.  The singer and songwriter is listed as Mike Wood on both sides.  My theory on this is that it is early 60’s RnR from Memphis.  The B-side of this record is my favorite.  You can bid on the record here. 

G.C. Woodrow & The Woodsmen-Another Time Another Place

G.C. Woodrow & The Woodsmen-Runnin’ Around

Next up is Team 23 on Race Records. The songs are Whatever Moves You/Move Into The Rhythm.  This 45 is UK Ska Punk from 1981.  The group evolved from the X-Certs, (a guy who knows more than me writes about it here).  I really dig both tracks on this one.  Bid on it here.

Team 23-Move Into The Rhythm

Team 23-Whatever Moves You

Now for Storm Going Going Gone/Sweet Happiness on Suflower Records.  This I believe is Larry Weiss as a “band”.  It is pure pop goodness. Bid here NOW!

Storm-Going Going Gone

Storm-Sweet Happiness

Next Is Home, the songs are Time Traveler/What’s The Use.  The songwriter is Jerry Brown on both tracks.  Beyond that I do not know much else. BID BID BID

Home-Time Traveler

Home-What’s The Use

Last, but not least is Joe Morton’s Lover, Lover, Be My Cover/Polly Newspaper Dolly.  Lots of actors have put out vanity albums that are pure garbage, see Bruce Willis.  Here, stage and screen star Joe Morton does a pretty good job over recording material written by Dory Previn on Lover and Danny Cohen on polly. PLEASE BID

Joe Morton-Lover Lover Be My Cover

Joe Morton-Polly Newspaper Dolly

The first thing that interested me about this 45 was that it was on Mira Records home of the garage band, The Leaves.  This dosen’t have the same sound, but I could not immediatley find any info on it, which always intrigues me. After trying to research the songwriters I tried to learn more about the producers Clancy Grass & Bob Mahoney.  I stumbled upon a website from Gary Brandts.  Gary appears to be a producer himself and owner of some interesting credits.  His site lists the members of the group as Himself Guitar-Vocals, John Gulack-Drums, Denny Shaw-Guitar, David Holeman-Keys, Brian Coffey-Bass.  At the bottom of the page is a great article of his experience in a battle of the bands right after the Beatles came out.  You can bid on the 45 HERE

I See You

THE LIFE YOU LEAD

posted by Max Conroy: 

For my birthday this year, I’m getting a subscription to Mojo from my girlfriend.  She’s in grad. school so she promised a modest gift.  A subscription to Mojo isn’t that modest at $9.50 per issue; this one may have been more expensive due to the CD pertaining to the Stones-theme of this month’s issue.  I’m about to illustrate why this magazine is the coolest gift ever to a person who will practically sniff the print to find out about a cool band they haven’t ever heard of.  I’m also about to illustrate obsessive-compulsive behavior.

I clutched the magazine in my greedy hands on the morning celebrating my twenty-eighth year on this earth and began flipping pages, doing some recon…Piper at the Gates of Dawn reissue, expensive…Keith Richards interview, sweet…Def Leppard, blah…Stevie Nicks, puke.  I stopped on a photo of a fleshy, bearded man with his face painted.  He looked like he could be King Diamond’s psychedelic uncle.  My girlfriend asked who the freak was.  After reading a bit, I learned that it was Roy Wood, founding member of The Move and ELO.  Never heard of him.  I liked ELO as a casual guilty pleasure and had heard of The Move mostly through reference to other groups like Hendrix and Pink Floyd, seeing them basically on old concert posters sharing the bill with these titans.  I read the single page interview with some interest, gathering that The Move’s albums are acclaimed, he was only in ELO briefly, formed a group named Wizzard after leaving the latter band, and is bitter about ELO continuing without him and The Move touring now under that name, also without him.  The impetus of the interview is the reissue of the first two Move albums and a solo album of his from ‘73 (recorded in ‘69).  I soon forgot about what I’d read and tried my hardest to erase it for good that night with plenty of free booze supplied by some gracious friends. 

The next day I found myself in the best local record shop, perhaps the best in the state, wandering aimlessly.  I’d found a record-size Goat’s Head Soup poster picturing a severed goat’s head floating in a bubbling cauldron for $3, which I knew my girlfriend would never ever allow my to hang anywhere.  The record store in my home town had this same picture hanging up near it’s cash register for years and it used to perplex me when I was much younger…I couldn’t understand the concept of Goat’s Head Soup.  I kept browsing to find something else to buy with the morbid picture so as not to seem weird and noticed that the record that they were playing was good.  I found a record to buy, but I wasn’t entirely sure about it.  The record they were playing kept getting better and better.  I wanted that record, but pride kept me from asking who it was.  Then it hit me, this could be The Move, obviously English, right era.  I walked by the counter and overheard one of the geeks explaining to a young co-worker that Roy Wood was the founding member and that they were really great, one of the other geeks was singing to the record while sorting new merchandise.  I made a bee line to the M’s and found a Move record, a cheap English compilation that would have to do.  Can you walk up to the counter and demand to buy what they’re playing?  I took the record home and was surprised by how good it sounded, but not surprised that I had to put the picture of the goat’s head in with the album and filed away, seldom to be seen.  I also attempted to find their first two albums online, which proved to be a pain in the ass: there were only a few people out there that had them and they had several hundred people in line waiting do download. 

Back at the record store a few days later, looking for something totally unrelated to Roy Wood, an ingenious thought occurred to me, maybe they restocked the record after spinning it.  Sure as shit.  Shazam!  $9. Ok.

Stay tuned for a review of this gem…for now, listen to Move: