Jimmy Smith Oddity

Picked this up online last month. I went through a real Jimmy Smith LP completest phase that was a little on the OCD side so I have steered clear of his records for a while. But then I started buying tons of BlueNote 45s. Stopped before it got out of hand, but saw this during that period. "Verve Celebrity Scene" 45 box set "special disc jockey record" 5 45s Mostly parts 1 and 2 versions of Verve classics like "hoochie coochie man" and "walk on the wild side".
Not sure who the target audience was for these sets. If it was DJs, why the box? Who knows. There was another set like this for Wes Montgomery that I didn't get.
I got out of the bluenote 45 phase pretty quick, because so many of them are one song given the part one/part two treatment which isn't that fun from a listener perspective.

Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones was a bad motherfucker. How he ended up in this trippy hippie western is beyond me. But the hippies are lucky he didn't shoot everyone. I guess the acid was pretty good cause how else do you go from Coltrane to a metallic silver vest and a six shooter?
Elvins Jones. RIP. I can only hope I am this energetic when I am his age.

Wheedle's Groove Update Documentary!!

I reviewed an amazing comp of Seattle funk called Wheedle's Groove on this blog. It is a great record. Stumbled on this today. They are working on a documentary about the Seattle scene. Awesome.

I can't wait for this to come out.

Movie Trailer 45s

Last year I picked up two "American International Pictures" 45s that had 60 and 30 second spots for movies. In this case "the brute and the beast" and "the young, the evil, and the savage".
Hard to imagine this was a cost effective way to promote B-movies, but I am glad they exist and obviously make for great sampling opportunities.
I checked a site that has an "American International Records" discography that put out full soundtracks to some pretty crazy and some classic b-movies
The Beast and the Brute is a dubbed over Fulci Western about a crew of villians who "carry their hate in their holsters and a name on every bullet in their belt". Tough Stuff which might have done better with a literal translation of it's original Italian title "Massacre Time".
"they live, they love, they die!" is the tag line for a depraved boarding shcool movie called "the young,the evil and, the savage" Your heart will stop beating!
One thing I love about digging for records is how you continue to discover odd genres and records. It especially fun when you stumble onto records like this for a couple of bucks.

Lucas Brunelle Productions

This guy has put out a bunch of killer shot on the bike videos, that are straight adrenaline. He has a DVD coming out soon. Suport that.
If this doesn't make you want to go out and play in traffic, you are already dead

2 unrelated 45s about Boston

Pastrami Melted "hello boston" How a record like this got made even in the 70s is beyond me. Described as "pop psych" The singer warbles about leaving SF on a motorbike and somehow ends up in boston. I would hope, he got attacked once he got here especially after declaring "hello boston, I'm Johnny Appleseed" and working in a rhyme with "tangerine" later. Maybe that helped pave the way for the Flaming Lips song 30 years later.... The music is reminiscnet of what you would hear in a Dirty Harry or Deathwish movie when the Bronson/Eastwood rolled, disgusted, into the hippie bar and a bunch of stoned hippie actors were wailinga away on stage pretending to be a band. I always hope "psych" records will sound like blue cheer or the 13th floor elevators. Unfortunately, they often sound like this. Metromedia records

Next up Alvin Cash and the Registars on Mar-V-lous covering "Boston Monkey" (by Otis Redding? at least he had a more popular version) Upbeat with a JR Walker style sax. Lyrically, this is my kind of song. Nothing over a 3rd grade reading level. Andre Williams played a part in the early days at Mar-v-Lous where he spent time when on the outs with Berry Gordy. Small World. Killer single. I think J.Geils covered it on a live record, but don't let that scare you away.

Somedays when your out buying records themes start to appear, you find a bunch of records on folkways, or a bunch of reords from one city, or in the case 45s about Boston. Though outside of the word Boston in the title, they don't have much in common.

trance syndictate records

It is hard to make a living playing in a band and just as hard to make your rent running a record label. So it is impressive that King Coffey from the Butthole Surfers decided to start a label back in the 90s. But either way the trance syndicate was born. With the SLA logo stolen for their own you could tell you where in for some fucked up shit from Texas.
I am not a fan or everything they put out but two bands stood out at the time and have stood the test of time for me -the cherubs and johnboy


Cherubs. Although they seemed as fucked up as the Buttholes, the music pushed the whole Drunktank/Unsane sound to a more brutal level. Icing was the 1st record and the one that made me take notice of Trance Syndicate. The music was pretty standard noise rock, but the vocalist set it apart. Real high pitched odd voice. This band could clear a room fast. Loud and abrasive. Heroinman the 2nd lp started and ended with the sound of an off the hook phone that summed up what they were shooting for grating repetitive rock. They nailed it on this record. They were pretty much fucking perfect.
They had a couple singles, splits, and comp appearances. Faded away before they could suck too bad. Trance released a comp that compiled all the singles and odd tracks. The rumor mill brought me a story that the guys had a lowrider bike club. Nice. Cooler than the fixed gear zomibe armies rolling around the bean.
Also fitting into the sorta NYC influenced noise aesthetic was Johnboy, but unlike the cherubs these guys brought it a little more fast and furious. If the Cherubs wanted to rub salt in your wounds, Johnboy wanted to blow your fucking head off. They had more of a bastro or hammerhead type influence. No joke. Power. Pistolswing was the 16th trancesyndicate release and a in tie for my favorite release from them with Heroinman(Heroinman gets the edge due to the cover) This record had all the time changes and sick parts that would crop up on later "tech" style metal and hardcore records. Vocals were a helmety type bark and howl. Saw them play once at the Penalty Box down by North Station. Maybe like 10 people there? Probably with Kudgel and maybe Today is the Day???( I remember seeing them there and the drummer had a headphone mike -ouch. Looked cool on tommy lee) They fucking blew everyone off the stage. Claim Dedications was their 2nd LP and it was good, but not quite pistolswing, but still better than a lot of its competition back in the mid-90s.
Fianlly Trance Syndicate gets a big thank you, for putting out a Roky Erikson record "all who may do my rhyme" and the hit single "we are never talking". Awesome record that kept Roky in the public eye.
So for that I offer a hearty salute to the Trance Syndicate