Mix: Nocturnal Plant Life

Here's an oddball 80s mix I fooled around with recently, and decided to stick out there... Strange intersection of harder wave edges and ambient new age textures. May be the first in a small series of mixes on this theme. There are a few artists included here, who'd I'd love to write about at greater length as time allows, on the blog. In the meantime, enjoy...

The Jugs - First Batch

I've always complained to no end that the state of Vermont never reached it's quota of truly fried private press hippie rockers in the seven-ought-tees, a disgrace considering the plethora of granola osmosis the state endured from '69 onward. The Philo label sucked up a lot of local talent, and while impressive in their scope and professional flair, most of those LPs lack the grit and gristle that drives me wild... Having grown up in the Green Mountain state I can count a mere handful of actually home-made longhair releases I would go to bat for, so resigned I've been for the most part on anything new coming to light on this... though one can always dream! It seemingly took forever, then, for this slab of teenage Deadhead litanies to surface on the collector scene - a whole long player's worth of rural jamming w/ properly zonked shit-kicker attitude and a few ace original tunes, the perfect antidote to the last time you actually forced yourself to sit through a Mark Winokur LP. "First Batch" was issued in 1981 on the custom press imprint at Green Mountain Records, the band consisting of 5 students from the Vershire School in southern Vermont who had recently returned from a class trip to Mexico where the bulk of the songs were written. The small private school was closed several years later, due to various tawdry reasons which seem in keeping with the existence of "First Batch" as a musical reminder of the place and time it came to be. I can't proclaim this some kind of masterpiece that will appeal to everyone, as it's a true paen to late 70s Deadhead mores and moves, but for me the thing just oozes summer charm, and many stony vibes close to the heart of this olde Vermonter... so jump for joy!

Latitudes: 1974

This compilation from Montgomery Community College has been known about for years, but I had mistakenly slept on it for as long as I've been buying private press stuff, and now thanks to a good friend who recently gave one to me - all of that has been changed. I figured since I had already posted the volume from '75 I would give this one a post too, and was doubly motivated to do so because one song on here just kind of worked its way into being something of a summer anthem for me, the deliriously glammy, lite-Rush melodic power-pop gush of the band Y and their alternate-universe hit "Silver Screen Betty" - so go figure! Several of the groups here, including Y just nail that dreamland private press sound, and I would take even a half-hearted (or baked) full-length from any of them. Particular stunners include the stoned basement art-rock of the Tubular Chamber Ensemble, the immaculate hard-prog of Puddleduck, the singularly bizarre folk-rock lyrical mash-up of Donna Pretsch, and a superb folk-psych cut from the Shack People. Even the seemingly goofy hick outfit, the Ambler Ramblers who receive two slots on the billing, at turns deliver a gorgeous piece of instrumental psychedelia called "High Harbor." I owe Brennan in VT a big thanks for swapping this out to me, and if anyone has further info on these bands or anything else they did, drop me a line. I'm interested, too, as to if there are any LPs in this series from before 1973... Here's a link to the full LP, and below a sample for those just curious... rock on, Betty!


Silver Screen Betty

Tyger on Tiger Records

Well, with summer vacation now winding it's way down I will be back in some capacity for the duration of the hot weather and peak annual beer consumption. The above record is something I only found out about recently - and is a total mystery to me. Found in a thrift store in Arizona, none of the usual sources seem to know it at all, and but for a stunning home-made sleeve and limited info on the labels I can't even verify the band name - etc. But what there is, is an album's worth of very nice folk rock that reminds me at times of Wilcox, Sullivan, Wilcox though a bit more amped and AM ready. Tasteful violin playing gives it an edge like Jackdaw or Canada's Mantra but this might be all more a factor of my own personal mind garden, and you may just hear some charmingly low-key longhair vibrations not altogether that distant from America or (gasp) James Taylor. I think it's a real nice LP and worth a few spins at least, especially in all those dusky twilight summer moods I'm sure you're kicking up out there... Big thanks to Bruce in California for sharing this, and hoping this post may shed some kind of light on who or what this release actually is. I've posted label scans below, and here's a track-list too, for good measure. Any info can go here, and otherwise enjoy!

1. Wendy's Song
2. I Need You to Give
3. Manna
4. Where Do You Get Your Ideas
5. June Brown Wheat
6. Tell Your Lies
7. Your Eyes
8. Rented Room
9. Think About the Music
10. Sunday in the Country

Dennis Harte on Roundtable

A few years ago, right around this time I found a copy of a bizarre and great kids-play-rock LP by a duo known simply as Donnie and Joe. Their long-player debut, "Dreamin' Wild," totally bowled me over when I brought it home from an antique store in Eastern Washington. Hazy, heartfelt crooning that seemed to project out of this really lonely but familiar place - backed by slightly off kilter instrumentation - it became a quick favorite with me, and as the word spread, with many others too. They had such a peculiarly singular sound that I was truly surprised to find something that I thought matched it in the *wow* department, but also that the 45 in question just sounded uncannily like it could be those same two kids casting off a 7" ... albeit from across the country and culturally as far from Spokane Valley farm-land as you could get. I know very little about Dennis Harte or the Roundtable label out of New York City, but he and his brother cut at least 3 7"s, one of which I'm missing (unfortunately). The best cut of the bunch is this utterly powerful slab of teener summer sneer that just buzzes and hisses it's way across the thick Manhattan haze, an intense wall of sound backing the pleas of Dennis as he extrapolates his heart-ache. I've listened to this song 50 times since picking up the 7" and still can't get over how much this sounds like Donnie and Joe... total goosebumps! I'm not as in love with the flip but it's worth checking out nonetheless.


Summer's Over


Treat Me Like a Man




Let's Get Out of the City


I Don't Need Anymore

Anyways, the other 45 I have to share is nowhere near as epic or mind-melting as "Summer's Over" - but it's worth posting up as it has kind of a quirky lo-fi dork-rock charm of it's own. Sounds to me like it's an older brother singing on these songs... there's some great wah and a mildly psychedelic edge on the flip, too, which may be the stronger song of the two. If anybody has further info on the Roundtable label or the Harte boys - please let me know. Would love to hear more from these guys!

Al Huskey in Tennessee

Here is an absolutely exquisite home-made country LP from Illinois. I have been dumpster diving through stuff like this for years and can honestly think of but a handful that I like this much. It's tough to say why so many private country records are weak, but it may have something to do with the singles oriented format for the genre. It also just seems to be a grouping where you get a lot of cover material filling out a record with one or two songs aimed as a hit, making LPs full of original material just plain rare. Al Huskey’s “In Tennessee” is one of these, and somehow he wrote 12 songs that capture a depth of moods and expression that are personal, beautiful, and just wonderfully quirky - soulful, occasionally bizarre. In the best tradition of self-released music the LP presents a cross-section of genuine talent and slightly unconventional production. The whole thing glows, foremost with Al’s unmistakably original voice, as he moves from tales of blind men making it to heaven, to debunking the color lines, to bemoaning lost loves and discussing the peculiar otherworldly nature of an echoing voice. It’s a 70s record, but the production is warm, earthy, almost hit’s a “rock” stride on a few trax, and ultimately it's all about the songs - several of these I would love to hear dusted off for cover. “Whipping Boy” for example has that perfect moment of soaring honky-tonk denouement every country-hit yearns for - the point where the minor-key verse changes gears into a massive open chorus - and the narrator gets to finally stand on stage and deliver judgment for the abuses he has suffered. For me the highlights are the moody almost country-rock flavored late night tumblers… “I Won’t Cry” and “Echoes” both just completely wreck me. Al is still active in music today, and can be reached via his MySpace page. This is a pretty easy LP to find if you’re looking for the vinyl, and is usually pretty cheap. Really a great record, and recommended even if you’re not usually keen on this kind of thing. Talk soon, JDF

Suzanne on Birchmount

I was alerted to this groovy Quebecois femme-pop LP recently by an old Paul Major radio broadcast that was circulating amongst some friends. The set closed out with two magical tracks from this obscure LP released on the Birchmount label with about half the songs penned by Greg Hambleton of A Passing Fancy. These two songs have been on constant rotation the past few weeks, and I hope will captivate your imagination as well. "Shendah" is a love song written to a horse, and is just totally heartbreaking - in only the way that it could be! "Island" is a ballad of teenage alienation couched in gushy organ fills and a subtle marching drum-beat. You could make a killer 7" out of these two! Check 'em out... and I'll see you next week.


Shendah


Island

Suzanne