Why The Sorrows Weren’t As Huge As The Stones Baffles The Hell Out Of Me

Im just saying… 

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You can either hope to hell one of these shows up on ebay and expect to pay bazillions of samoleans (Angry Samoleans?) or pony up a few bucks (AU or US) for this nifty reissue of the Thought Criminals Hilton Bomber 7″. Or… you could just cyber-mosey on down to the Thought Criminals web site and get these 4 tracks as mp3s (plus about 40 others!!!). While you’re there check out the videos of their recent show and do not miss the clip of them doing Bored Teenagers with T.V. Smith of the Adverts. And if you’re interested, they have a few other releases available as well as some newly recorded stuff. This re-ish was mastered from the original vinyl with psycho-surgical precision and sounds great.

Track List

1. Hilton Bomber
2. I Won’t Pay
3. Fun
4. O Bleak T.V.

That’s Three Exclamation Points and Don’t You Forget It Wiseguy!!!

Sometimes you just know it. Long before the needle drops into the groove, way before the CD gets sucked into the player. You know that the album, CD or single is going to be great. Sure sometimes your expectations bite you in the ass and you wind up listening to an aural dud, but as I stated, sometimes you just know it.

Remember kiddies, the devil is in the details. First off, this here comperoo is a follow-up to the excellent Ikon Records Story, again focusing on the Sacramento area in the mid 60s. Secondly, the packaging is top notch complete with plenty of unearthed photos, posters, labels and biz cards (ya gotta dig the ephemera!) to entice the eyes. You even get your choice of covers, just flip the liner booklet around. The liner notes, penned by Ace (and I mean Ace as in expert as well as the label he compiles for) compiler Alec Paleo, who also did the tape transfers and mastering, and layed out by compiler and label chief Joey D, are very well researched and written. If this much time, care and attention to detail went into this shindig then odds are the music’s going to reflect it as well.

If the first seven fuzz-drenched notes of this killer comp don’t floor you then I’d start checking yourself for a pulse. The Marauders lead off this comp with their killer cut Our Big Chance. With a monster like that leading the pack out of the gate you’d think the comp would quickly bog down. Not so, So Cold!!! is an astoundingly excellent collection of mid sixties garage and definitely bears repeated spins all the way through. From flat out killers like the aforementioned cut, Since I Met You(two versions), also by The Marauders, The Squires I Want You and Plague Ltd’s Doin’ What I Wanna Do to cool moodier numbers such as I Don’t Mind You by City Limits, Plague Ltd’s They’re No Better and the title track. My only hesitation was when I saw that track 25 was an eight and a half minute Little Richard medley. I don’t know if it was that it was eight and a half minutes long or just my aversion to all things medley but I wasn’t looking forward to sitting through it. My hesitancy was unfounded as the , ok ok I’ll type it again, medley is pretty damned rocking.

Track List

1. Our BigChance – The Marauders
2. Ball of Twine – Gear One
3. Dirty Books – The Sel-Sync
4. Blowin’ My Mind – The Fugitives
5. Empty Heart – The Mods
6. Doin’ What I Wanna Do – Plague, LTD.
7. I Don’t Mind You – City Limits
8. I Want You – The Squires
9. The One In The Middle – Group One
10. Since I Met You – The Marauders
11. There’s No Better – Plague, Ltd.
12. We’ll Talk About Sunshine – New Generation
13. Woman – The Mods
14. Feel A Groove – Gear One
15. Little Miss Sad – The Heard
16. Why Did You Lie – Opposite Six
17. You Don’t Have To Bring Your Toys – The Squires
18. Come On Now -The Fugitives
19. Woke Up This Morning – Gear One
20. I Don’t Believe You – The Heard
21. I’m In Misery – The Brimstones
22. Little Girl – Pilferage Humor
23. Since I Met You (2nd Version) – The Marauders
24. So Cold – Plague, LTD.
25. Little Richard Medley – Gear One
26. Route 66 – The Marauders
27. Alimony – Gear One
28. Cold Hearted Woman – The Brimstones
29. She’s A Mod – The Mods
30. For Your Love – Unknown Band

So Cold is a great snapshot of Sacramento’s mid 60s garage scene. I highly recommend it. It’s available from:

• Bomp Mailorder
• Forced Exposure
• Freak Emporium (UK)

The Acid Archives

Focusing purely on LPs, The Acid Archives, an extension of lysergia.com , is a 298 page book featuring information and reviews of over 4,000 albums, the vast majority of which are non-major label pressings.

Don’t let the title of the book fool you, while there is a good bit of psyche covered, the musical range is quite wide. A glance at the Acid Archive’s glossary reveals both the familiar (Garage, Freakbeat, Psychedelic, Folkrock, Teenbeat) and the more obscure (Acid Folk, Real-People, Busker-Folk, Incredibly Strange Music). What’s great about this book is that no matter how much you know about music, how long you’ve been flipping through stacks of records or how large a collection you have, there is bound to be tons of records written about within The Acid Archive’s pages that are unfamiliar to you. And therein lies a lot of the fun of this collection. It’s one of those books that’s great to flip through for 20 minutes or so at a time. As enjoyable a read as it is a valuable reference. Authors Patrick Lundborg, Aaron Milenski and Ron Moore along with a gaggle of contributors have written a truly unique volume. And while the meat surely lies within the A – Z Acid Archives, don’t short yourself by skipping Patrick Lundborg’s explanatory Introduction or any of the the appendices. You wouldn’t want to walk through the rest of your life not knowing the 10 most out-there records in The Acid Archives, would you?

It’s A Beautiful Thing

A rather shitty day was turned around by the appearance of the latest issue of Ugly Things magazine in my mailbox yesterday. I haven’t read a single article within its covers yet but I’m enjoying the growing anticipation based on past issues. Weighing in at 224 pages I don’t feel that you can rightfulyl call it a magazine. It’s a book, a tome, a heavyweight compendium of sonic scribeitude. Now I get to look forward to slowly picking apart the issue article by article, review by review. I truly dig Ugly Things and like to make it last.

 

This latest issue features The Music Machine, The Namelosers (You ever hear That’s Alright?), Part 3 of Will Shade’s series on Mike and The Ravens, an interview with Radio Birdman‘s Rob Younger, The Dirty Wurds, PJ Proby, The Rubber City Rebels, The Attack and a ton more, plus more reviews than could possibly be good for me (or my music budget). Go grab a copy, meanwhile I’ll be savoring mine.

My New Best Friend

A generous birthday gift consisting of an online gift certificate led to the purchase of an ARTcessories USB Phono Plus. A great little USB audio interface with pre-amp that sports, among other features, phono/line inputs and a ground screw. Turntable -> USB Phono Plus – Computer plus some audio recording software (I’m pretty pleased with Audacity) and biff, bang, pow I was recording vinyl to my computer in no time… or should I say in real time… I’m not an audiophile and wouldn’t know the difference between Frequency Response and Input Impedance if they came up and bit me on the turntable, but I’ve been damned happy with the results.

V/A – Wild Things – Wyld Kiwi Garage 1966 – 1969

I can semi-honestly state that of the approximately 1,000,000,000,000 sixties comps that have been released since… well since the sixties,
that this one is my absolute favorite of all the comps that cover New Zealand and sport a day-glo op-art pattern emanating from a drawing of said country. Oh yeah, it’s also an excellent record. Released in 1990 on New Zealand’s Flying Nun label , Wild Things contains 16 tracks of sixties NZ Beat and Garage with nary a dud in the bunch. Highlights include How is the Air Up There by the La De Da’s, Come See Me by Sandy Edmonds, The Smoke‘s psyche-guitar tinged No More Now, The Bluestars‘ Social End Product and Tomorrow’s Love’s respectable take of the Love classic 7 And 7 Is. If you spot a copy in the wild I suggest snapping it up. Wyld indeed!

Tracklist

1. The La De Da’s – Don’t You Stand In My Way
2. The La De Da’s – How Is The Air Up There
3. The Smoke – No More Now
4. Sandy Edmonds – Come See Me
5. The Cresendos – Now She’s Mine
6. The Action – I Can’t Make A Friend
7. Tom Thuimb – You’re Gonna Miss Me
8. Tom Thumb – I Need You
9. The Bluestars – Social End Product
10. The Challenge – The Crunch
11. The Principals – I Can’t Stop
12. The Pleazers – Hurtin’ All Over
13. Chants R+B – I Want Her
14. Chants R+B – I’m Your Witchdoctor
15. Chants R+B – Neighbor, Neighbor