WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Can We Have a Do-Over? (MP3's)

I 'm just kicking myself that I didn't come across this record prior to the elections last week, because I think this record could have turned the tide and resulted in something much better than what ended up happening last Tuesday. 

This is a record out of Rockford, Illinois, apparently dating from 1968. This date is based on the introduction on side one of the single, by Samuel Shapiro, who introduces himself as the Governor of Illinois, a position he held for just under eight months, nearly all of that term in 1968.

The performer is Pete Quinto, and he certainly is gung-ho in his get-out-the-vote performance, particularly in the last chorus, when both he and the trombone player behind him get quite stirred up and exuberant.

I've also included the flip side, which is lacking the spoken introduction, and which appears to be an instrumental, until that final chorus, when the vocal comes in again.

Pete Quinto: Mister Democrat (With Spoken Introduction) (MP3)

Pete Quinto: Mister Democrat (Largely Instrumental Version) (MP3)

A-side Record Label (JPG)  | B-side Record Label (JPG)

Comments remain closed for some reason, but can be sent to [email protected]

An Advertising Sample Reel from the Mid-'70's (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 58) (MP3)

Here's a nice little five inch reel of tape, containing some of the work by the William D. Cunningham & Associates, Inc., Company, whose promo reel for voice talent I featured four years ago. The dates for these various ads, based on some of the products featured (and the presence of a Bicentennial ad) would appear to be in the 1974-1977 range. 

In many places, this reel has the ads literally back to back, with one starting as the previous one ends, so I haven't attempted to separate them out - you can hear them below as they were intended to be presented - a blast of 18 examples of the "Producer's Music Service" (as it's called on the box), in just under 15 minutes.

Some ads are just music beds, others have introductory and closing vocals with music beds in between, and others are full singing ads. Some are brief, others don't conform to the typical 60-minutes-at-most rule (the Jet Ski ad runs over 90 seconds).

The individual tracks are listed in the scan to the right. 

Producer's Music Service - 18 Ads (MP3)

Tape Box Front Cover (JPG)  |  Tape Box Back Cover (JPG)

I wish I could get some of that Carbonated Kool-Aid. 

Comments can be sent to [email protected]

Sounds of Senn High School, 1960 (MP3's)

Senn High School, in the Edgewater Community of Chicago, is an imposing building that looks every moment of its 101 years old. As you drive through the surrounding area, which is filled with apartments and condos seemingly filling every available space, coming to an intersection and seeing this huge school come into sight for the first time can be quite an experience, something akin to drving through ten blocks of nearly identical bungalows, turning a corner, and finding yourself in front of the White House.

For the 1959-1960, a group of students - perhaps those involved in the Yearbook, put together an audio documentary of the school year. Other schools were, of course, starting to do the same thing around this time, and I own several of these, most of which were on 10" LP's - by the mid '60's, they tended to be full 12" LP's. But the folks at Senn limited themselves (or were limited for other reasons) to a seven inch, 33 1/3 RPM release, with five-plus minutes on one side, and seven minutes on the other. 

The record hits most of the high points featured on those longer versions produced by other schools, just in more abridged fashion - the sports teams (team final records not mentioned), band performances, prom, graduation, and, in this case, the talent show. Listening to the Talent Show highlights, it's not clear to me why they didn't, instead, just mount a full production of "West Side Story". 

Travel back in time with me now, to the school year of 1959-1960 at Senn High School!

Sounds of Senn, 1960, Side One (MP3)

Sounds of Senn, 1960, Side Two (MP3)

Record Label A-side (JPG)  | Record Label B-side (JPG)

Comments remain disabled, but are welcomed at [email protected]

A Pair of Fun Female Vocal Demo Reels (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 56) (MP3's)

Somewhere along the collecting path, I managed to acquire a stack of tapes labeled "JW", and containing a variety of singing performances by a woman who presumably has (or had) those initials. 

These are a bit unusual in the world of demo tapes. Virtually all demo reels I've heard have a single purpose, usually one of three. They are either to display someone's singing talent, perhaps to sell him or her as a performer worthy of signing or hiring to perform live, to demonstrate the songs themselves for someone who might want to perform them, or to market the commercial voice-over (or singing) potential of the performer, in order to seel him or her as a commercial voice artist. 

The JW tapes seem to combine the first and third of these purposes, with song excerpts alternating with full commercials  that the singer had done (the selling of the songs themselves seems unlikely, given that no complete songs are heard, and that at least one of these is a very familiar (former hit) song). 

The songs are generally nothing to get worked up about, although a few of them have promise. My guess is that it is the commercials here (most of which are complete) which will be the attraction. A lot of them are quite fun. One thing that's interesting to me about the commercials selected is that "JW" is not always a solo start on them, or even clearly discernible from other vocalists. 

The first of the two tapes heard here is labeled circa 1967, runs about six minutes, and contains the following tracks, as labeled on the box: 

1.) Must Be Love (song excerpt)  

2.) Out of Love (song excerpt)  

3.) Junket (ad for Fudge)

4.) WELM (38 second Elmira station ID jingle) 

5.) 'Cause I Was Mad (song excerpt - my favorite one on either tape - love the echo!)

6.) Polka Dot Pigs (Crispy Critters cereal ad)

7.) I Hear a Melody (song excerpt)

8.) Losin' Heart (song excerpt)

9.) KLRD ("here's the time" radio jingle)

JW - JW Sing Reel Circa 1967 (MP3)

JW 1967 Sing Reel Tape Box (JPG)

The second tape is labeled 1975, runs about 9 1/2 minutes, and contains the following tracks, as labeled on the box: 

1 & 2.) Cougar (two ads: A. Final, and B. Fever (i.e. in the style of the song "Fever"))

3.) Hunts (sauce ad)

4.) Oo La La (Air France ad? - can't make out if that's what she says or not!)

5.) Little Blue Star (song excerpt)

6.) I Knew (song excerpt)

7.) Wedding Bell Blues (song excerpt)

8.) Please Stay (song excerpt)

9.) Pokla Dot Pigs (same track as on the 1967 tape)

10.) (Title is Illegible on Box) (song excerpt)

11.) Sky Bar (candy bar ad - and it's great to hear an ad for the mighty Sky Bar - haven't had one in YEARS!)

12.) When I Am With You (song excerpt)

13.) Munch (Post Toasties ad)

14.) Sugar Pops (cereal ad)

15.) Are You Early (the same jingle identified as "KLRD" on the earlier tape, minus the final stinger)

JW - JW Sing Reel Circa 1975 (MP3)

JW 1975 Sing Reel Tape Box (JPG)

Incidentally, I do have more of these tapes - these are labeled # 2 and # 6. If there is interest, I can post them. Assuming, that is, that I can find them in the catacombs - these two got separated from the bunch, and I'm not sure where the others are. 

Comments are still disabled - feel free to contact me with any clarifications, corrections, thoughts or requests for more at [email protected]

The Most Repulsive Album I've Ever Heard (MP3's)

Here’s an album with virtually no redeeming qualities. I say “virtually” because there is a argument to be made for making this sort of thing known, in an historical context, the same way we can use the written and filmed records of prior atrocities to be more aware of similar threats in our midst going forward.

Without that – or even with that “value” taken into consideration – this album is simply repugnant and vile. It came to its original owner, who lived in the deep south, in the early 1960’s, when it was produced. The people behind it called themselves the “Christian Votes and Buyers League”, but most people buying the album would likely have known that this was a front for the Ku Klux Klan.

 

Essentially, the first side of the record is a twenty minute screed, telling listeners how Kosher rules cause the price of your grocery items to become more expensive, and how to make sure to avoid these products and grocers. Along the way, you’ll hear that Dr. King’s activities were being directed behind the scenes by a Jewish cabal, among other obnoxious lies, the rest of which I’ll let you hear for yourself – although please be aware of just how creepy this entire endeavor is.

 

The album is narrated by Wally Butterworth, who was at one time a well known radio announcer and quiz show host. According to the brief outline on his Wikipedia page, it would appear that, like so many others, when things didn’t go his way (he lost a lawsuit and his radio platform) he seems to have made a hard turn to the right wing and joined organizations that supported his (and many other people’s) ideas that everything was someone else’s fault, especially the fault of those who didn’t look or think like him.

 

I’d like to think that this sort of thinking – and the more general group mindset behind it that led to these albums (and much more) would be behind us as a country, but sadly, that’s clearly not the case. 

 

Rather than repeat anything else Wally has to say, I'll let him speak for himself: 

 

Wally Butterworth - Kosher Food Blackmail of American Housewives (MP3)

 

Record Label

 

That folksy “Goodbye, all” at the end, following nearly twenty minutes of hate, is, in context, among the creepiest things on the album.

 

I’m admittedly not as familiar with the issues that Butterworth gets into on the flip side of this album, but a quick web search indicates that it was about the move towards “one man, one vote”, in that era. Essentially, small towns and rural areas, at least in the south, were getting far more representation in Congress than the number of residents should have allowed. Some congressional districts had literally just hundreds of votes, while those in big cities might have had in the tens of thousands, meaning that the issues of the rural votes had much more pull than all of those other people in the big cities. Around the time of this album, some court decisions had resulted in that imbalanced system having been thrown out.

 

Now, it seems to me that changing extremely unbalanced representation into something approaching equal representation would be a no-brainer, but Wally Butterworth and his pals seem to see it as an assault on Apple Pie, Mom, Baseball, and the very center of their way of life. At one point, he makes it clear what the concern was: all of those minorities (racial and religious) that live in the cities would suddenly have electoral power that had been denied them, due to the God-given rights of the Rural White Protestants.

 

Nearly the sum and total of his “solution” seems to be for local jurisdictions to refuse to follow the courts’ decrees, and a cry to his fellow white southern men to rise up and resist the Gum’int’s evil plans to make sure everyone has an equal vote. Sheesh. 

 

Again, here's Wally:

 

Wally Butterworth - How to Deliver the Knockout Punch to Federal Judges (MP3)

Record Label

The record sleeve that the album came in is a piece of work, too: 

Record Sleeve

Comments seem to be closed again, for some reason, so I'll accept comments at [email protected]

Lucky Lager: The 1964 Radio Ad Campaign (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 55) (MP3's)

Hot on the heels of the three-part series of Bob Hahn radio jingles from earlier this year, here's another reel full of fun ads. Produced by one of the most famous advertising agencies in the world, Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - better known as BBDO, it's a series of ten ads (well, maybe just eight) for Lucky Lager, dating to March of 1964. 

To my ears, the first two ads ("Hootenanny - Regular") are identical, and the box suggests this, as well. The last two ads ("Hootenanny - Northwest") also seem to be identical. In addition, these two sets of ads only differ from each other in that a couple of lines are changed near the end of the respective ads. This is why, although I have ten tracks posted, I'm pretty sure there are only eight ads here. But in case I'm wrong, I've included all of them.

And all of the ads are based on the same music, and, with one exception (the "Lift Top" ad), on the same basic lyric. There is ad heard in Spanish, but it still seems to contain essentially the same text, albeit in another language. There are also two ads featuring famed bluesman Jimmy Witherspoon. One features his own take on the material, at the standard 60 seconds. The other, though (track 8), while the other is, surprisingly, two minutes and 45 seconds long (the tape box claims it's four minutes long!). It's not clear to me where this would have been aired or under what circumstances. 

Also of interest is the "Roaring Twenties" ad, which does a particularly bad job, in my hearing, of capturing the sound and feel of that era, and "Lift Top", which appears to describe a very early attempt to get around the problem of sharp pull tabs. 

1.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Hootenanny Regular Ad 1 (MP3)

2.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Hootenanny Regular Ad 2 (MP3)

3.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Roaring Twenties Ad (MP3)

4.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Twist Ad (MP3)

5.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Witherspoon Ad (MP3)

6.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Spanish Ad (MP3)

7.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Lift Top Ad (MP3)

8.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Jimmys Jam Ad (MP3)

9.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Hootenanny Northwest Ad 1 (MP3)

10.) Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn - Lucky Lager Hootenanny Northwest Ad 2 (MP3)

Lucky Lager Tape Box (JPG)

Pretzel Bill in a Witch's Blood Sauce...; Grasshopper on My Castle of Quiet, 28th May 2014

Ah, Grasshopper! A mainstay of My Castle of Quiet playlists from the very beginning. This Brooklyn duo has traversed the most-eerie of improvised / otherworldly territories, and come out the other end, as outstanding soloists and collaborators, in many projects outside of Ghop. Their musicianship remains expert, the sheer quality of them "knowing what they're doing," and choosing to do THIS, is one of the great charms / inspirations of Grasshopper, still very much the "mothership" for Josh and Jesse.

Fans will find the band largely in familiar territory here, painting a slow-burn garden of creeping dread and pulsation, cradled by ethereal long tones. "Witch's Blood in a Sauce" finds them especially "on," adding unanticipated horror-dressing to their usual array of mesmerizing sound evolution. Always good, and always at home on MCoQ.

Grasshopper have new work out or coming soon, on various formats / labels. The new, full-length Grasshopper LP (their third 12" on vinyl), Dark Sabbath: Symbols of Evil is coming soon on Hausu Mountain. Jesse and Josh also have a solo / split tape, Josh Millrod / Shingles, also on Hausu, there's a full Shingles cassette, First God Planted a Garden (2AM Tapes) ,and a Josh Millrod solo cassette, Seeking the Millenary Kingdom, on Solid Melts. (MCoQ archive links: Josh | Shingles)

Grasshopper on My Castle of Quiet, v.1 (2009; our second live-musical guests, ever!)

Thanks as always to audio engineer Juan Aboites, for his professionalism and talent, and to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, for continuing to immortalize my crappy iPhone band captures. (This one is especially good, recalling the hippie-photo-collage covers of Amon Düül and their ilk.)

"Placenta Preview", with The Green County Boys (MP3's)

Back in April of 2007, during the second 365 project, The ToD was nice enough to share an interesting album by a group of doctors from the Ozarks, who called themselves The Greene County Boys. Some time later, I was able to acquire copies of the two other albums by this group. One of them, titled "Borborygmi", was also part of 365 days, by the equally nice Mr. Fab, and that can be found here. To round out the set, I thought I'd let everyone in on the wonders of the Green County Boys album "Placenta Preview". 

Everything I know about this album, which isn't much, comes from the paper insert which was included in the sleeve (a scan is below). The sleeve itself (also scanned, below), is just a generic blue through and through, and the album label has nothing more than the album title and side markings. 

The songs, by the way, run virtually right into the next track in most cases. This is why most tracks stop abruptly, with very little time for empty surface noise before the next track (a la "Sgt. Pepper", an album this collection will never again be compared with). And a few tracks (such as "Halitosis") seem to start mid-phrase from the pianist.

To my ears, the album is hit and miss, more miss than hit, with a few truly cringeworthy bits of singing, as well. For example, although I am pleased to have been introduced to the term "Aciphidity Bag" (also known as an Acifidity Bag), the last note sung on that song is amazingly awful. My favorite here, by a wide margin - most likely because of the peppy calypso setting - is "Pass-a No Gas". 

1.) The Greene County Boys – A Toast to the Doctors (MP3)

2.) The Greene County Boys – A Doctor Ain’t Got a Friend (MP3)

3.) The Greene County Boys – It Must Be a Virus (MP3)

4.) The Greene County Boys – Thanks for the Referral (MP3)

5.) The Greene County Boys – AFL-CIO-AMA (MP3)

6.) The Greene County Boys – T he Doctors’ PR Man (MP3)

7.) The Greene County Boys – I Married an Aciphidity Bag (MP3)

8.) The Greene County Boys – Halitosis Beats No Breath At All (MP3)

9.) The Greene County Boys – Pass-a No Gas (MP3)

10.) The Greene County Boys – A Doctor Needs a Wife (MP3)

11.) The Greene County Boys – Here’s to the Doctor (MP3)

Album Cover (JPG)  |  Album Label (JPG)  |  Album Insert (JPG)

Dow Brewery, Brewers of Dow Ale: Bob Hahn Radio Commercial Presentation Reel # 4 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 54) (MP3's)

Over the past two months, I have shared the contents of two tapes, from a group of four reel to reel tapes I recently purchased, sampler reels of the work of Canadian ad-man Bob Hahn. Volume Three of the tapes contains just two ads, in multiple minor variations, and one of those two ads is represented on Tape Four, so aside from two versions of one track, I've skipped over the third reel. Today, the fourth and final reel. There are seven ads and five other fragments on this tape, and all but the last of those twelve tracks are for the products of the Dow Brewery. 

The Dow Brewery did not survive with its good name intact for much longer after these 1961 ads, as you can read about here. 

The tracks on this tape are divided into similar ads for different markets. First there is a square dance track, one for Canadian stations and one for American stations. Aside from minor cosmetic differences, these two mainly differ in that in Canada, "Dow Brings Out the Best in Cheer", while in America, "Dow Brings Out the Best in Beer". There's a sociological research paper waiting to be written within the decision to alter those words for the differing market.There is also an isolation track of the advertising tag line. 

This is followed by two ads featuring harmonica orchestras. Both are heard with vocals in English, then in French versions (which amount to the instrumental harmonica tracks, with voiceover in French at the end. The moment at about 18 seconds into the second ad (in both languages' ads) is one of the weirder things I've heard in an ad from this era. In the English ad, it's startling; in the French ad, it makes no sense whatsoever. 

These are followed by more excerpted sections of the square dance ads - I'm not clear on the use of the two short end pieces which I've grouped together as the 9th item here (the "wild tag" listed as the 11th track is identical to the 8th track, and is not included). Finally comes the only non-Dow ad of the reel, which is for Parliament Cigarettes.  

At the end, I've included the only ads which were unique to reel three. These are American and Canadian versions of an ad for Kingsbeer. The differences here are all in the second verse - the American version focuses on the brewing and the taste of the beer, while the Canadian version repeats the first verse heard in both versions. 

Here, dear readers and listeners, the Bob Hahn Presentation Reel, Volume 4: 

TRACKS REMOVED AT REQUEST OF COPYRIGHT HOLDER

Over Before You Know It: Two Remarkably Short 45 RPM Sides (MP3's)

Back in the days when the 45 RPM record was the dominent method of selling music, it wasn't all that unusual (particularly in the '60's) to find a b-side, or sometimes even an a-side, which was under 100 seconds long. In fact, a few 45's from that era timing out at 80 seconds or less managed to make Billboard's hot 100, including the 60 second release "Little Boxes" by The Womenfolk. 

Today, two far less well known records than "Little Boxes", each of which runs under a minute. First up is Dick Boyell and his Orchestra, featuring singer Don Shelton. This appears to me to be a vanity label, and the short song involved is the A-side, with the catchy title "Oh Sweet Bubbles, You Make Me Feel So Good". As you'll hear, this lyric would have qualified as a shaggy dog story, were the story long enough to grow shaggy hair. The label reads one minute - played at exactly 45 RPM, the song lasts about two seconds less, and shows up at 0:59 here to allow for a bit of run-off at the end. 

Dick Boyell and Orchestra, with  vocal by Don Shelton - Oh Sweet Bubbles, You Make Me Feel So Good (MP3)

Dick Boyell Record Label (JPG)

From another universe altogether comes a piece of insanity which has been in my collection since early childhood. No surprise - it's from the world of Children's Records, and more specifically from the intersection of Little Golden Records and Hanna-Barbera. 

The record is credited to Don Elliott and the Cartoon Cowboys with Jimmy Carroll Orchestra, and is titled "Ooch, Ooch, Ouch!". It appears that this is the same Don Elliott who is primarily known as a jazz trumpet player, but who is also listed as a vocal talent in some searches, and was one of the hipsters behind the Chipmunks-meet-Bebop project "The Nutty Squirrels", in late 1959. Here, he is doing the voice of Quick Draw McGraw, who was voiced in the series of cartoons by Daws Butler - who most certainly would have been available to the Hanna-Barbera people, so what is Elliott doing as the voice here?:

This record always seemed weird to me. Several of my childhood records seemed at least moderately strange, but this was weirder than most of the others. For one thing, it's FIFTY THREE SECONDS LONG!!! It's the whole side of the single, and it times out at well under a minute! I can literally see the spaces between the groove as it moves towards the center of the record.

Just as odd is the performance of the song. First, there is the fact that (to me, at least), it sounds like we join the song in progress, almost in mid-breath of the singer, and certainly after some sort of music has already been played.

Then there is the deeply weird lead vocal, the overly peppy chorus, singing in such jolly spirits about being conked on the head (I particularly like the happy way they sing "He's a grouch", which is repeated three times), and the wacky sound effects. Not unheard of in kids records, but the feel of this one is sort of different, and the sudden ending just makes it weirder.

Don Elliott and the Cartoon Cowboys with Jimmy Carroll Orchestra - Ooch, Ooch, Ouch! (MP3)

Record Label (JPG)

There actually is a postscript to the Don Elliot record. After I posted this song to my own blog, several years ago, my brother did some searching, and found out that, yes indeed, this is a crudely excerpted set of segments, edited into those 53 seconds, from a longer piece (nearly 3 1/2 minutes), one which appeared on a Hanna-Barbera album.

The longer has a weirdness of its own, but is at least fairly cohesive, and the segments pulled out for the 45 work within the confines of the full track. Plus you get to hear ridiculous lyrics such as "floor-de-floor-de-floor-de-floor", which would have made me crack up at age six, had they bothered to put the whole song on the 45. 

Don Elliott and the Cartoon Cowboys with Jimmy Carroll Orchestra - Ooch, Ooch, Ouch! (Album Version) (MP3)

The mystery remains, though - why edit down a song for a 45, to roughly 1/4th of its original length, removing all context from the song, making terrible edits and slapping it on a 45 that could easily have handled the original length without those edits? Who was it that listened to the edited version and said something along the lines of, "yup, that's perfect - that'll be GREAT for our next kids' 45"?

Please feel free to send comments to [email protected] - I will add those comments to this post. 

Cigarettes and Beer: Bob Hahn Radio Commercial Presentation Reel # 2 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 52) (MP3's)

Last month, I offered up the contents of the first in a group of reel to reel tapes I recently purchased, sampler reels of the work of Canadian ad-man Bob Hahn. Today, volume two of those tapes. All but two of the 12 ads on this tape are for or cigarettes (two ads) or beer (eight ads).

The most interesting aspects here, to me, are in the five Molson ads, with their varying focuses on what people in different fields would consider to be two things which go together perfectly - I wonder at what point advertising would cease making reference to Minstrel shows. Also of interest is that these ads are each 70 seconds long, a length which I've not generally seen in the hundreds of ads I own.

I also get a kick out of the slogan at the focus of the two ads for Dominion stores: "It's Mainly Because of the Meat!" I'm sure those of you who play with sound can use those cliips. I know I will. 

As with the previous set, these are dated October, 1961. Without further ado, the Bob Hahn Presentation Reel, Volume 2: 

Comments can be sent to [email protected]

TRACKS REMOVED AT REQUEST OF COPYRIGHT HOLDER

Coffin Nail Kickout; Through Thorn and Brier LIVE on My Castle of Quiet, 5.7.2014

WFMU, among a great many other things, is about community, i.e., presenting and promoting local musicians / artists / humorists, in addition the great International performers we present. My Castle of Quiet has always been about the business of seeking out exceptional local musicians, and it doesn't get too much more local for us than Through Thorn and Brier, their craft honed in our shared County of Hudson, NJ. At one time, WFMU's staff was chock-full of NJ-bred radio personalities, many of whom lived and or passed through nearby Bayonne, including late-great broadcasters and good friends of mine, Terry Folger and Frank "Vanilla Bean" Balesteri, both of them taken from us way too soon. Bayonne borders directly on WFMU's home town of Jersey City, and offers great pizza, good bars and a decent standard of living for a largish NJ city. All that considered, if you told me that Bayonne had bred a strong, talented, one-of-a-kind punk / metal band, I still might have doubted the veracity of your claim, not sure why though. That is, right up until the first time I heard Through Thorn and Brier.

Originally stumbling upon their songs on bandcamp, in a position I now often find myself in, checking out a band that I missed live for no good reason except that I generally like to stay home. Sporting twin brothers on vocals and guitar, amidst a mighty, accomplished lineup, TTAB play a threatening, driven brand of metal-infused punk music, with arcing guitar melodies, swinging, thudding riffs, and ominous, almost tribal beats; add roaring vocals and a general mood of rolling with reckless abandon. If punk-metal hybrid bands can be "catchy," TTAB certainly ARE, their riffs immediately inspiring head swirling; one of those physically motivating bands that make me wish that I had long, straight, flowing hair to swing in time. 

Every Through Thorn and Brier song is something like a mini-suite, blasting through multiple inspiring riffs and you-must-pay-attention time signatures in a matter of minutes, taking you on a ride you can't fully absorb the first time, and isn't that the way? Shouldn't a band's numbers be such that new pleasures reveal each time you listen?

Call them screamo (don't!), call them hardcore, or metal—all those genre labels quickly dissolve in the hands of the best of bands—and TTAB's songs cover a wild breadth of punk and metal styles with purpose and ease, such that the hops are never gratuitous and always contribute quite naturally to the sum of their parts.

I was very pleased to present this excellent band, well-deserving of more widespread notoriety, as evidenced here. (Note: Where songs were played without a complete stop in between, they are presented here as such, i.e., tracks 1 and 3 consist of three songs apiece.)

Thanks and much appreciation must go to engineer Juan Aboites, for working his ass off, and making everything sound full and ferocious. Thanks too, to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, who for maybe the 100th time, pieced together a handsome band portrait from my miserable iPhone captures.

You can hear the Good Grief EP and Failure Prone MLP (both worth owning) and purchase hard copy of the same at Through Thorn and Brier's bandcamp page. There, you'll also see their use of non-typical, decidedly un-metal imagery, a move well appreciated by this DJ / writer. Also visit ttabhc.com for more up-to-date band info.

The New Sound of VARITONE by Selmer (MP3's)

The Varitone was an effects unit marketed for Sax, Flute and Clarinet use, starting in 1967. I'd never heard of it until picking up this seven inch, 33 1/3 RPM demonstration record a short while ago. I was underwhelmed by the sound of the thing, and was surprised to find that it was fairly well known in its day, looked fairly goofy attached to the side of an instrument, and proved popular with a number of musicians. 

But all of that was presumably in the future when the Selmer company produced this promotional record, which I would guess came out at the same time as the product itself. Sorry about the beat-up quality of the record - it came to me in that condition...

Please enjoy the Varitone!

The New Sound of Varitone, Side One (Description of Varitone Sounds) (MP3)
The New Sound of Varitone, Side Two ("September Song" & "Walkin'") (MP3)
Record Label, Side One (JPG)  |  Record Label, Side Two (JPG)

Comments can be sent to [email protected]

 

Bob Hahn Radio Commercial Presentation Reel # 1 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 51) (MP3's)

I recently acquired four rather wonderful production reels, the product of someone named Bob Hahn, featuring works created for the Canadian Radio market. These seem to have been sampler reels, and like many of the commercials I've been lucky enough to come across from the '50's and early '60's, they are all really nice, and quite magical in places. Today, the tape labeled as the first of the four: This particular reel is dated October 9, 1961, which (and this is entirely unrelated) was also John Lennon's 21st birthday.

I've grouped them together where there were ads for the same product, unless those ads included full minute ads, which I've largely separated out into their own files. A few are no more than music beds, and many contain instrumental passages meant for voiceovers. In all, there are 20 ads heard within the 11 tracks below. 

A few notes on the tracks:

Track three is interesting in that it contains the voices of some Canadian radio personalities, including Gordon Sinclair, who would become more well known in the US over a decade later, when he wrote and recorded the original version of the spoken word hit "The Americans". I don't know what "Big 8" was (featured in track 5) - there is a soft drink company by that name in Canada, but it only seems to have existed for the last 30 years or so. Tracks 8 & 9 sound identical to me, but were separate on the list and the tape, so both are included. And although track 11 does not metnion the Dow company (at least, I don't hear it) in the lyrics, this ad is referred to on the "take sheet" (reproduced below) as "Dow Square Dance". 

Enjoy! There are more where these came from!

Comments can be sent to [email protected] - I will try to add any received to this post. 

TRACKS REMOVED AT REQUEST OF COPYRIGHT HOLDER

Selling Your Savings and Loan, 1950's Style (MP3)

Here's a keen little seven inch 78, which I'm guessing, based on the musical styles, is from the mid to late 1950's. It came to use from "Adverising Division, Inc.", in Chicago, and is the third in a series. 

As the salesman says in opening this little two minute wonder, "You can't sell 'em, until you tell 'em!", and what he wants to help you sell is your savings and loan operation. 

There follow two examples from a total of nine available commercials in the package. It's not clear to me how buying these ads would make them "yours exclusively" - what if two savings and loans bought the package in the same market? 

Regardless of all that, the ads are two wonderful examples of the bouncy, peppy and positive-sounding ads of the day, and the second one also has the benefit of all that great reverb which was such a hallmark of the era. As I always seem to say when I share commercials from that era, I wish radio still sounded like this. 

Advertising Division, Inc. - 3rd Series Singing Commericial Service (MP3)

Record Label (JPG)

As comments continue to be closed, please feel free to send any comments to [email protected]

The Rapture, in Several Shades of Orange; Future Death Toll LIVE on My Castle of Quiet, 4.9.2014

The concentrated joy of this set by Future Death Toll is its own reward. Fresh off of tour, the band sounded a-frickin'-mazing, and I was immediately confronted with a familiar feeling, of "O, Lucky Man!" ...I dig deep into the underground, bobbing for those most-artistic of apples, and this time came up with the outstanding sounds of FUTURE DEATH TOLL. Indeed, I am fortunate, to have this incredible outlet wherein I can extend invitations to artists such as these, and they just show up and play! ...Sit in that Studio B chair sometime, and you'll begin to understand how good the years of MCoQ weekly broadcasts have been to me, and in general to my colleagues at the station, and to WFMU's devoted listeners of course. The kiss of WFMU is golden, and I need to remember to utilize this opportunity at every possible turn, in order to bestow upon all who care the rareified talents of artists of similarly high caliber.

Based on a barely labeled cassette tape I had received a long time ago, different from this set (more "home studio," obviously), I knew Future Death Toll would make good use of the opportunity for a live radio set, and I was not disappointed. Though the tape is generally "lighter," as might be expected, as well as more song-oriented, F-DT do a lot of different things, and as with Slasher Risk before them (see this set from 2010), the variety of their capabilities just meant that playing live on the radio revealed another layer. They were noisy, dense and intense, but not entirely free-form, with themes that arose, dominated and then dissipated, as you will hear.

Though I did not have a pile of hard releases to muse over and absorb, there's quite a lot posted online, both at the band's Web site, and their YouTube page, and I've been at this long enough that I knew for certain that F-DT's radio set would not disappoint, and it went far beyond that, into dazzling territory, rousing a hearty, enthusiastic response from Castleheads via the playlist comments.

So sit back, listen and enjoy. Massive props to engineer Juan Aboites for applying his considerable and diverse talents to making Future Death Toll radio-ready; whatever I throw at him, he makes the very best of it, rising to every challenge. Thanks also to Tracy Widdess for again making excellent, memorable photo art from my on-the-quick iPhone band captures.

Future Death Toll on bandcamp, including this set, broken down into two parts.

Audio Letters From An Army Doctor in Korea, 1954, Part Three (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 50) (MP3's)

I've had a few requests for more tapes from the Army Doctor in Korea, a set of recordings from 1954 from which I've previously shared, in random order, two reels in a post from 2011, and two more in another post, about a year ago. At the moment, I can only put my hands on one more of these tapes, although I know there are several more in my catacombs, somewhere, and I will continue to share these if the interest continues. 

This tape was made two days after one of the tapes shared a year ago, and the doctor's big news is his upcoming move to a new location within Korea, which doesn't appear to have been by his choice, and which he sounds decidedly unhappy about. Also of note is the story related at the start of side two of the tape, recounting why someone he knew sent him an actual U.S. dollar bill, and why such an item was not supposed to be among his possessions, a story which also touches on the religious practices of the locals in that time.

Comments appear to still be stuck on "closed" on this site, so if you have anything to say, feel free to write me at [email protected], and I'll update this posting with those comments. 

Audio Letter from Korea, 5/27/54, Part One (MP3)

Audio Letter from Korea, 5/27/54, Part Two (MP3)

His Holiness, Mar Eshai Shimun, Patriarch of the East and of the Assyrians, Speaks on WGN, Chicago, 10/27/46

Quite some time ago, I picked up a large batch of acetates from some online seller. They were the usual mish-mash of home recordings, audio letters, recordings off the radio, etc.

But two of the records, one recorded on both sides, the other on one side, contained a curious recording of a radio program which aired on the legendary WGN on October 27, 1946, as part of a 15 minute series called "Distinguished Guest", sponsored by one of the Department Store giants of the Chicago area, then and now, Carson, Pirie Scott and Company.

The episode I have is primarily given over to a speech by "His Holiness, Patriarch of the East and of the Assyrians", Mar Eshai Shimun. Reading up on Shimun, beyond his brief Wikipedia entry, provided quite an education, and I encourage those interested to do so, as well. He took over his position at age 11, and saw his people and their lands go through extensive changes and upheavals during his lifetime. By the time of his recording, it appears that he was living in Chicago. He seems to have been viewed as a great man by some of his people, and nothing short of evil by others, at least by the point of his assassination, nearly 30 years after this recording was made. Reading up on him gives a bit of background to what is already (to me, at least) a very interesting speech heard here. 

As interesting as this recording is, I do wish I had a copy of the speech from the following week, by Arkansas' then-Governor, Ellis Arnall, who seems to have been just as interesting a character.   

His Holiness on WGN, Part One (MP3)

His Holiness on WGN, Part Two (MP3)

His Holiness on WGN, Part Three (MP3)

Comments are welcome at [email protected] 

A Grind Apart: Ubasute LIVE on My Castle of Quiet, 5 Feb 2014

The grind I like, I really love, perhaps because as a genre, there is rampant saminess; so I sit back and let bands like Psychic Limb, Ubasute, Agathocles, Cattle Decapitation and Pig Destroyer rise to the top by way of their own virtues.

Alex Caprio's distinctive and unpredictable shriek, Mike Marciano's artful, intricate Rickenbacker bass virtousity, and Jeremy Suria's guitar work (equal parts technical, Steve Howe-midrangery, and thick, power-chord glue) all work thorughly together to make the band a cut above the raging pack. Upon even deeper observation, Ubasute's lyrical content, and carefully chosen graphic imagery foil the more-easily-attained / co-opted genre conventions.

Just listen, really listen, to this outstanding set, marking the MCoQ show's return to live music in February, and you'll hear and feel the urgency, raw emotion, and world-attrition in the band's musical mainfesto.

Many thanks must go to engineer Ernie Indradat, whose talents are ready seemingly for whatever musical challenges confront him, and to Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting, who once again, wove my slap-dash band capture into an excellent portrait of Ubasute, right down to the apropos color-palette for the band's carefully (and unpretentiously) crafted graphic universe.

ATTENTION: UBASUTE ARE CURRENTLY AUDITIONING FOR A NEW DRUMMER; IT'S A LABOR OF GREAT HONOR, KIND OF LIKE A SAMURAI. IF YOU LIVE IN THE NJ/NY AREA, AND ARE GENUINELY INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT: [email protected]

The Amazing Backstory to "The Most Unusual Voice on an Audio Letter" (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 49) (MP3's)

Today, a follow-up. Two weeks ago, I wrote an entry about "The Most Unusual Voice I've Ever Heard on an Audio Letter"

Being currently unable to accept comments to this site, I invited comments about these mysterious tapes to my own e-mail address, and was happy to hear from more than a half-dozen commenters. 

Many suggested that the person speaking had undergone a tracheostomy. I was previously only familiar with the machine used by people with this impairment, which makes sort of a burping, low toned vocal sound, but I guess the sound on these recordings is an earlier method of assisting someone who has had this procedure to be able to speak. 

I also got a least five suggestions as to the language being spoken. The correct answer appears to be Estonian (explained in a moment)

But one intrepid writer went much further, and by searching for the return address on the tapes, and then for the name that site turned up, found something truly amazing, and equally horrifying. 

Remember that the sender of the tapes, and presumably the primary person talking, was listed as A. Mere at 180 Mere Rd. in Leicester, England. Using that information, this led my researching correspondent to a site which indicates that the person at that address, Mr. Ain Mere, was an Estonian who retired to England, and who was a collaborator with the SS during World War II. Here is the first site found.

That led both my correspondent and me to check Wikipedia, and we came up with even more information - which you can see here - that after retiring to England he was accused and convicted of war crimes, by a Russian court, and sentenced to death. As the page goes on to say, due to lack of evidence, English authorities refused to extradite him.

Several writers, intrigued by what is on these tapes, have asked where I got them. While I don't keep close records of where I've come to own most of the myriad tapes in my collection, there is really only one place I would have acquired a large collection of tapes sent from one person to another, and that is eBay. When and from where the seller was located, at this point I haven't a clue.

But this is just another reminder that you literally can never know exactly what's going to come out of the speakers on the next reel of tape you spool up. And why I'll be continuing to explore this amazing world of sound for the rest of my days. 

And now, for your dining and dancing pleasure, here's another one of Ain Mere's tapes, featuring the dulcet tones of Mr. Mere. On this tape, the other person who appears on these tapes (a younger woman, I'm guessing) speaks about as much as the sender does, which is unusual for these tapes. She even briefly lapses into English a couple of times. 

This tape only features two songs, but what numbers they are, first an early number by The Beatles (I think I hear him say "Beatles" in the comments just after the song ends), and the other a lovely yodeling tune - She Taught Me to Yodel - as sung by Friank Ifield, whose version was memorably lip-synched by Craig Ferguson (although my favorite version is by Rod Erickson). (The hiccup heard during the song on this tape is from a splice in the tape.) 

What occurred to me, while digitizing this tape, is that there are few things that have less in common with the allegations against Ain Mere than the do either the joyful sound of the early Beatles or the good cheer found in "She Taught Me to Yodel". 

Ain Mere - Greetings From England, Side One (MP3)

Ain Mere - Greetings From England, Side Two (MP3)

Tape Box Front (JPG)  |  Tape Box Back (JPG)

Thanks to all who wrote, and many, many thanks to GM in cyberspace for filling in the blanks!

Comments still appear to be disabled, so if you'd like to say something, please write to me at the address you can find on this page, and I'll try to add some of those comments to this post, when I get a chance.