Quincy Jones’ excellent pop-jazz LP Gula Matari (1970, CTI; issued on CD in 1999, but now apparently scarcer than innovative-thinking major-label execs) is selling for $80-$100 on amazon.com. Last week I bought a copy (in good shape) at Jive Time (Capitol Hill) for 99 cents.

Um, WTF?

Karen Dalton’s cover of the Band’s “In a Station”

You may go broke trying to keep up with these archival releases, but your soul will be immeasurably richer for the expenditure.

Tip: Brian Go.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey - "Gbeti Madjro"

Who remembers the Telescopes? They put out some sweet psychedelic 12s for Creation Records in the 80s/90s, and then faded out, only to return to action to little fanfare about a decade later. Now the Mind Expansion label (run by Randall Niemann of Füxa) is going to issue Singles Compilation 1989-1991, which contains their finest material—and which will probably ruin all your plans to make a fortune selling the original vinyl releases on eBay.

The Telescopes kind of paled in comparison to contemporaries like Spacemen 3 and Loop, but they possessed some brilliant melodic charms of their own. This collection is a timepiece from an era that many bands are still trying to emulate (nu-gaze, anyone?).

The Telescopes’ “Flying” [see video below] embodies that much-used formula of the time: Beach Boys vocal harmonies + Byrds guitar jangle + UK twist on the “Funky Drummer” beat = first wave of British shoegazer rock (to grossly generalize). (For info on how to order the comp, see Niemann's MySpace bulletin after the cut.)

The Exciters - Blowin' Up My Mind (RCA)

And a bonus (LOVE THIS ONE!) Major Lance...You Don't Want Me No More (Okeh)

^{Cover art by Roger Dean, dude.}

The perfunctory video below is a dud, but the music itself is quintessential psychedelia from an unlikely source; it's hard to imagine a less psychedelic moniker than Gun. Further, "Sunshine" was an anomaly among the heavier proto-metal fare that predominates Gun, making its glistening, filigreed levity all the sweeter. There’s something so archetypically late-’60s about this tune, as if Gun had tapped into the era’s collective unconscious and plucked this song out of the pot-intensive, incense-laden air.

Trivia: Gun members Adrian and Paul Gurvitz went on to join Cream drummer Ginger Baker in the Baker Gurvitz Army, of whom I've only heard this unappealing song.

One thing about the old Croc that received universal hate was that big, obtrusive post that ruined many a fan’s view of the stage. We sincerely hope that reports of the pillar’s demise are true. Which begs the question: What to do with that columnar monstrosity once it’s excised like the tumor it is? We—Megan Seling and I—have some ideas. Let us know yours in the comments.

* Use it as firewood to warm the crackies in the 'hood during those cruel winter months.
* Make fliers out of it—millions and millions of ’em, for struggling, up-and-coming local bands.
* Shove it up Dick Cheney’s ass.
* Toothpicks.
* Surely somewhere out there, a blue whale could use it as a dildo.
* Carve several guitars out of it for Peter Buck.
* Let Bill Gates and Paul Allen whittle something cute out of it.
* Give it to Sarah Palin's daughter as a baby gift.
* Donate it to the EMP|SFM.
* Auction it off on eBay.
* Let the Dead Baby Bikers build some kind of monster bike with it.
* Keep it, but wrap it with that recently invented invisibility fabric.
* Convert it into a lifetime’s supply of toilet paper for the reopened club.

Tip: Kathy Fennessy

A hater:

for the love of god you're a 15 year old suburban white-boy, not some ghetto
gangbanger. I hope this website is a joke because if it isn't than you need
to 1) look in the mirror and realize you're not black 2) stop with the lame
"gang signs" 3) pawn some of that jewelry and buy yourself a bike cuz that's
all your 15 yr old ass can drive 4) realize that you're not hardcore or
intimidating in the slightest bit 5) learn how to spell 6) stop with the
dumbass nick names.
for the record i think that you're in the middle of some terrible identity
crisis, and you should go to the ghetto and try "pimpin" with some real
gangsters and see how long you live.

sometimes the truth hurts

So it's only natural that they would gravitate towards a cover version of Irving Berlin's widely criticized homage to Native Americans "I'm An Indian Too" from Annie Get Your Gun. By twisting the lyrics of a white girl ("Annie") trying to become an "Injun", sung by a black woman singing for the white disco scene, the song transcends it's original meaning and heads into the metasphere. With it's themes of inter-racial sex and "hilarious" name calling (could i be more dripping with sarcasm) the original was ripe for the Darnell/Hernandez treatment.

Just like Battle Axe, Hatchet Face, Eagle Nose
I'm and Indian too!
With my chief in his teepee
We'll raise an Indian family
And I'll be busy night and day
Looking like a flour sack
With two papooses on my back
And three papooses on the way

So maligned is the song nowadays, that it was completely left out of the 1999 revival (starring Bernadette Peters) due to its "insensitivity".

And that's just the way Darnell, Hernandez and "Don" Armando Bonilla liked it! Don Armando's 2nd Ave Rhumba Band was a one-off that members of Dr. Buzzard's Original Savanah Band put out as a sort of "cowboys and indians/old west" meets disco theme. Singular in that oeuvre, the albums pastiche is laid on a bit thick, and as such, it suffers from a bit of tongue-in-chic overload.

It's no wonder that, even though it wasn't the promoted single from the album (that prize inexplicably went to the just O.K. "Deputy Of Love") it has become the song of choice for disco loving DJ's the world over.

Singer Fonda Rae and the rest of the Rhumba Band even donned indian outfits to record the track, that on the album sits at around three and a half minutes, but in it's full 12" glory comes in at nearly eight.

To sample the track go here.

PS. The original version of the song "I'm An Indian Too" was sung by the incomparable Ethel Merman, who revived her original roll on broadway 20 years after her debut in it.

There is no good quality Youtube video of Betty Hutton from the movie singing the huge show-stopping song and dance number that is "I'm An Inidan Too", so may I suggest you go out and rent the movie to get the full impact of the song.

If you can't do that there are two different low quality Youtube videos of Judy Garland performing the number before she was eventually pulled from the project due to "ill health."

Now... can you see why the gays might dig this song?

Adriano Celentano's "Prisencolinensinainciusol" is rap before there was rap. Disco before there was disco. Italo before there was italo. Fosse, well, fosse was around, but I'm not sure he would have ever seen or heard this track.

One word: AMAZING.

The internets are abuzz right now with the discovery of this incredible video from Italian TV circa 1973.

British DJ savant Greg Wilson has released (or should I say re-released, since his original edit of this track was made in the '80's) his re-edit, and holy fuck did he turn up the bass!

Anyways, enjoy the above video, the likes of which you'll never hear anywhere else.

Ciao!

I’m pretty sure they have hooked up, or they want to hook up. They look at each other all the time while we’re playing. I know something is up. It totally messes with my headspace and my singing. I’ve been dating the girl for eight months. The band got the bass player through an audition about two months ago. I guess we’ve become friends (the bass player and I). But this is a deal breaker.

The bass player is a Ned's Atomic Dustbin fan. Before he was in the band, I remember my girlfriend saying she hated Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. The other day, she got a “Best of” Ned’s Atomic Dustbin CD from Amazon and has been listening to it all the time. I’m so sick of this. It stinks because I really like the girl. What should I do?

This singer should:

Also, I have yet to read Aniruddh Patel's Music, Language, and the Brain, but this filmed lecture is interesting if you can tolerate the dorky library music intro.

Finally, is anyone besides me experimenting with YouTube mixing? It's nice to hear and see these cats playing a theremin - once. If you've got the bandwidth, play 'em at the same time or stagger the play buttons here or open in multiple tabs and just as Roy Clark used to say for his TV ads for the Big Note guitar, "Just give a little strum and hey! You're making music!" (or at least something very strange).