Exercising Executive Editing

Sooooo, as endless as the well for great garage-psych-pop bands may often seem it is almost guaranteed that a retrospective of their recordings is going to be bogged down with covers, demos and weak weak honkey r&b jive to work as completest padding again the real savory stuff that made So and The Wyld So & So’s so interesting in the fyrst place. So what i have to offer today is personally edited down albums from two real riteous groups of varying obscurity with what i consider to be the essential parts for you to hear. I’m tired of wasting hard drive space being a completest, so if you feel the same, here’s our time to rejoice.

First is Powder from San Jose, who were real big fans of the Who, and Action types doing that freakbeat mod stuff. Sounds kinda like a dull derivative, i know but man, Powder had some truly amazing songs that could have easily been big hits if put in the right hands. They also had a slight downer and moody vibe that added its own season to the soup. Powder’s records are also real rare but they just got a boot/reissue treatment recently so i highly recommend tracking that down before it’s lost to depths of ebay.

Download : Powder – Biff! Bang! Powder!

The Eyes were immortalized on the nuggets 2 comp with their smash hit “I’m Rowed Out”, and while it was a blatant swipe from the Who’s “Can’t Explain” (Thanks J!) it pounds the Who’s original into the ground. Sorry Pete. Luckily for the world they had more tricks up their sleeve and wrote a handful more smashes before turning out a super limp dick album of stones covers and changing their name to The Pupils. I saw the record once and wanted to smash it, what a greedy, dumb and boring decision for a band to quit writing rad songs to be a sad tribute band. Tribute bands are for people without talent, everybody!

Download : The Eyes – The Arrival of The Eyes

Never Take Reality Over a Dream

Toot Toot! Boring List, Dead Ahead!

favs of the year…

1. Hunches – Exit Dreams

I’ve always been a huge Hunches fan and I really couldn’t have asked for much more in a swan song. This record is unmatched in its ability to mix ferocity, brains and creativity. Listen to it with some good headphones to fully appreciate the amount of craft and ingenuity that went into this record. I wish there was a quadraphonic version. Exit Dreams should make boring “lo-fi” bands like No Age obsolete.

2. Eat Skull – Wild & Inside

The leap from Sick To Death to this was pretty crazy. This album runs a perfect gamut from big giant pop songs to moody introvert downers all perfectly sequenced for seemless enjoyment. The cool thing is how immediate a lot of the album was and how many layers could be found after more listens. I can’t believe two of my favorite records of the year came from Portland.

2. Fresh & Onlys – Grey Eyed Girls

Great dudes, killer band, amazing album. The pop record of the year. Being the worlds most productive band, it’s not too surprising they were able to cull together such a wonderful group of songs, but damn if it doesn’t still make for an exciting and crazy.sexy.cool record. Grey Eyed Girls plays like a singles comp with a constant slew of A sides barreling at you. It all fits together fine but many songs have their own feel to them and stand out in their own individual ways which makes the album very adaptable to whatever mood you’re in. Thanks for being so accommodating fellas.

4. Kurt Vile – Constant Hit Maker/ God is Saying This To You/ Hunchback E.P/ Childish Prodigy

The most popular man on the internet after that WaAaAaAaAaAaAwes fellow, and certainly the more deserving of the time and energy. Childish Prodigy didn’t blow me away liked i hoped it would but it was still great and plenty ambitious. He might not ever be able to top “Freeway”, and that’s ok. I thought the Hunchback E.P. was a real dominator and God Is Saying This To You has a special place in my heart too. Kurt rules, thank goodness someone is throwing gobs of money at him.

5. Blues Control – Local Flavour

The first song on the album sounds like Kraftwerk covering Hawkwind! I didn’t think that was too possible either, but then it moves on to some real dreamy drone piece and back for a track that sounds like Fela Kuti conducting Joe Meeks electronic Arkestra on Jupiter. Errr, something like that. I’m a big fan of this record, you should be as well.

Honorable Mentions: Grass Widow – S/T, Hunches – Home Alone 5, Ganglians – Monster Head Room, Mantles – S/T, Sonny & The Sunsets – Tomorrow Is Alright, Tim Cohen – The Two Sides of Tim Cohen

Killer Singles – Grass Widow – Lulu’s Lips 12″, Bitters – Warrior 12″, Little Claw – Race To The Bottom, El jesus De Magico – Unclean Ghost, Blues Control – Paul’s Winter Solstice, Nodzzz – True to Life, Rough Kids – Why So Serious?, Mantles – Don’t Lie, R. Stevie Moore – U R True, Real Estate – Fake Blues, Surf City -S/T E.P, Sic Alps – L Mansion, Wounded Lion – Friendly?

2009 was a weird year, but to the best of my recollection i had a good time. It was certainly more exciting than other years i’ve had with lots of good ups and draggin downs, which is always a positive sign if you ask me. Those type of things mean you’re going for it, and hopefully coming out on top and if not at least you’re trying. Here’s to a productive 2010. Thanks for reading this thing.

It’s getting cold and that’s ok

Jesus is obviously jealous of Brian

This is actually kinda hard to watch, lucky it’s sooooooooooo fucking rediculous the humor isn’t totally lost. Here’s a little bit of evil to cheer everyone up after watching the one above.

A Whiz Kid With His Head Full of Drugs

Van Dyke Parks’ first album is a wild and ambitious attempt at modernizing all kinds of classic American musical styles in the context of modern pop music, the perfect making for an utterly bizarre and beautiful album. Having grown up in the South, studying music in the North and then heading out West to make a career for himself he’s able to cover a lot of ground rather seamlessly but the goal of this album was not sheer regurgitation and faithful interpretation. This becomes clear within the first song were put his album title Song Cycle to quick work moving from style or genre every few minutes. The filter through which all this nostalgia is funneling through is a young genius with an appetite for psychedelics and plenty of resources from big contracts from big labels. The kid’s got the world at his finger tips and he’s going for the gusto. The album came out in 1968, not long after he ended his collaboration with our ol buddy Brian Wilson, with whom he was helping flesh out some ideas for Brian’s big opus, Smile. I’ve heard rumors Mr. Parks was not much help with Brian’s drug problem, they must have none the less ended on good terms as the reconnected to finish up Smile in 2004. Also, if you ever have the chance to jam this album while driving through some dusty southern california town, i recommend it highly.

Download: Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle

Some sample lyrics as well…

What’s up Laurel canyon, hay.

What is up in Laurel Canyon the seat of the beat to greet and eat at the heart of their companion way.

That’s up Laurel Canyon.

And what is up the Canyon will even eventually come down.

also this silly video:

Secrets of the Kinks

I don’t think i’ve ever expressed my love for the kinks on this thing before, so i think it’s time to make up for that. I really love the Kinks. Like, have days more and more where they’re all i really want to listen to. I’ll usually start at Kontroversy though, because i do get tired of the honky R&B shenanigans, but that goes across the board. Kinks got songs i can’t get tired of and am always finding new favorites or ones that hit me harder than they used to. There’s no other band that does this to me, with maybe the exception of John Fahey. Either way picking a favorite Kinks song or album is impossible and useless. I refuse to field such a question. People always ask each other, “beatles or stones, dude?” and there’s nothing wrong with that question but if i had a third option, i know very well what i would chose. Having spent so much time with the core albums it’s real nice to hear something new from their peak period that escaped making it onto their usual albums. The two i offer up today are The Great Lost Kinks Album and Dave Davies never fully released album that got canned for whatever reason, most likely canned with a little help from older, wiser and much more dickish bro, Ray.

The Great Lost Kinks Album came out in 1973 but has been way out of print since then which has always kept it a low profile trajectory. This is a true shame because some of the songs on here are really fantastic. Culled from leftovers mostly around Village Green era as well as really rare b-sides and movie soundtrack songs, the collage-d nature of the album doesn’t seem as it is.  That is to say, it passes very easily as cohesive effort.

On to poor old confused and belittled Dave’s big opus that never was. Word around the block goes, after Dave hit the target with “Death of a Clown” everyone started to either prop him up or knock him down, up from the record company and down from his big brother who was not interested in sharing any of the band’s reigns. The album was none the less planned and slowly worked on for a while but eventually got splintered into solo Dave singles, Kinks album tracks and some of it totally shelved. Poor kid. Anywho, i’m sure all that is behind him these days being that he has more important things to worry about such as recovering from a nasty stroke, but this album pretty much brings together every kinks song Dave wrote and sang prior to 1969, as well as a few more tracks from the would be album. These latter tunes are what you came here for and these are the real gems of the group. “Creepin’ Jean” and “Hold My Hand” just two of these rarities that make you understand why a total ego case like Ray would be very nervous that songwriting genetics weren’t solely his to express.

Download: Kinks – Great Lost Kinks Album

Dave Davies – The Album That Never Was

Sorry all these videos are pretty terrible, gotta do it for the tunes.

Crowd Boogie Across The USA

The trip ruled (It was THE insane) and we have a mostly very pretty country but San Francisco is the prettiest. Glad to be back. I’ll put some real shit up real soon.

No Posts For a Spell

Hi, i’m hitting the road playing drums for Ty Segall and will hopefully be far far away from a computer for a month. So, needless to say there ain’t gonna be a whole lot going on around these parts. But since i have nothing better to do i’m going to post a group of good stuff. If any of you bozoz are coming to one of the shows you should say hello.

Blues Control – Local Flavor (2009)

One of my favorite records of the year. Ground zero for psychedelia in 2009.

The Electric Banana – S/T (1967-68)

The Pretty Things recording under a fake name to try and make some money in the movie biz. The concept doesn’t make sense to me either, but the songs still rip.

The Moon – S/T & Without Earth (1967 & 1968)

Former Beach Boy david Marks sets out on his own and creates two really grandiose and dramtic psych/rock records.

Hawkwind – Hall of the Moutain Grill (1974)

A total ripper and a space oddesy. An overlooked gem in the crucial world of Hawkwind.

Opal – Early Recordings (1989)

Some of the dreamiest and pretty folk? pop? i’ve ever heard. Special music for special times

Moondog – More (1956)

Fantastic and slightly magical percussion based compositions and field recordings from one the coolest people to have ever walked the earth.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti – Live On WFMU (2008)

The first thing i’ve heard from these yahoos that i thought lived up to the hype. Good weird stuff.

The Trojan Records hoard

Dank

Serge Gainsbourg Entire Discography

Drunk

 

Jet : Glam’s First Super Group

Combining members from Sparks, Roxy Music, Jook, and John’s Children and pairing them with Gary Glitter’s TAILOR isn’t enough to constitute a super group well then what hope does Chicken Foot have? Funny thing is despite how totally stacked Jet was yet they folded less than two years after forming completely unsuccessful. Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am indeed. They played a really ambitious spaced out glam style that was a pretty great mix between Sparks and Roxy Music. If you can imagine what it would sound like if Sparks had written Virginia Plain it would probably sound something like Jet. Having said that, this album really rules and the fact it was a total flop is a pretty tough one to figure out. These songs are undeniably catchy and pretty epic little pop songs that get stretched out and turned around for few minutes before finally ending and the next one comes barreling at you. Maybe British music fans just couldn’t take yet another band after Sparks, Roxy Music, Bowie etc. that wanted to be ambitious and fabulously Glam. That’s a pretty crappy theory but it is true that their peers were truly receiving big accolades while everyone just made fun of Jet’s album cover. The cover by my own admission sucks pretty bad, but god damn the tunes still rule! Don’t make the same mistake our ancestors made, check out Jet!

Download: Jet – S/T