Greetings once again friends and followers! Although being somewhat busy (as usual), I've made a concerted effort to try getting this blog out at least twice a month. Hoarding records is great, but if you don't listen to the darned things they're completely useless, that is unless you get a box full of Perry Como records, then you don't know what to do with them. I have at times bought records in bulk, and they've been disappointments for the most part, but my dear friends Tim & Rox, who scour estate sales and auctions look out for me from time to time and when there's a cheap bundle of 45s they'll buy them and pass them along to me. Great friends they are and I have found some pretty decent finds in all that vinyl, but most of them miss the mark for this blog. Good items for the collection though. Perhaps I'll include them in "Dan's Leftovers", a blog that is completely neglected by yours truly mainly because I haven't been able to decide on a definitive format, and I'm looking for a file sharing service that will let me embed one file into the post but not be a "fly by night" affair like Div Share which I was using but now they are kaput. Cest la vie. I did use box.net for a couple of posts, but they're rather expensive, and I can see myself racking up huge Internet costs for uploading one song at a time. If anyone out there has a suggestion let me know. I'd love to get that thing going full throttle. For now, dig on this latest offering. As I stated in my last post, Windows Live Writer continues to stonewall and not allow me to upload my posts to blogger.com. This is really pissing me off and as of yet I have come up with no solution. The last post was somewhat of a debacle because I used the old time blogger app which is OK, but I made one wrong keystroke and sections of it came up messed up or altogether unreadable.Sorry. I shall do better :) In the meantime, enjoy this set of "nuggets". I'm sure they will pique your interest.
Tigers - I See The Light / She Calls Me Baby (1965)
The same band that released "Jingle Jump" on Raynard which was featured on IDG #19. This one is certainly better and definitely more "garage" that the previous effort with some great bashing drums and cool guitar. From Milwuakee, WI.
Fugitives - Sticks And Stones / Lonely Weekends (1965)
A completely unknown group, but some evidence says they are from Bloomington, IN. On this two sider they tackle Ike Turner's classic "Sticks & Stones", on the flip we get Charlie Rich's "Lonely Weekends". Both are great!
Lady-Bugs - How Do You Do It (1964)
According to "Fuzz, Acid, & Flowers", this was a girl garage band from Norfolk, VA that had some connection to Kim Fowley. Go figure. What we have here is definitely a bunch of adolescent girls whooping it up with Gerry & The Pacemakers' big hit and doing a rather spirited job of it if I might say.
Spats - She Kissed Me Last Night / There's A Party In The Pad Down Below (1964)
Typical frat rock goodness from the Spats, this being the follow up to "Gator Tails And Monkey Ribs".
Blue Things - I Must Be Doing Something Wrong / La Do Da Da (1965)
From Hays, KS this was the first 45 this legendary Midwest band would release on RCA Victor records and it's a pretty good one. The A side definitely has a pop feel to it with some extra orchestration added, but the B side is a solid Gene Vincent cover that rocks nicely.
Brute Force - Toys For Tots / Brute's Party (1967)
The second Brute Force 45, this one being somewhat anti-war, but kooky nonetheless. The B side I believe was not on his LP "Confections Of Love".
Blues Project - Lost In The Shuffle / Gentle Dreams (1967)
This one is tough to pin down date-wise, but I believe this was the last 45 released by The Blues Project before (or possibly after) Danny Kalb and Al Kooper left the band and Andy Kulberg and Roy Blumenfeld continued on and released "Planned Obsolescence" which was basically the pilot LP for the band Seatrain.
Stained Glass - A Scene In Between / Mediocre Me (1967)
The last 45 to be released on RCA by this fantastic group out of San Jose. This one is quite possibly their best
Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Kites / Like The Sun, Like The Fire (1967)
Simon Dupree & The Big Sound were actually the stepping stone for Derek, Ray, & Phil Shulman who would go on to form the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. During their tenure as Simon Dupree they lamented the "progressive" style of this particular 45 as they saw themselves more of a "tough" R&B type band, which is a head scratcher to me because this is closer to Gentle Giant than any R&B they might have been doing at the time. Oh well, I was never a fan of Gentle Giant anyway but this 45, which they thought was crap, is kinda cool. It is rumored that Elton John auditioned for Gentle Giant but was turned down. Sucks for those guys because I think E.J. got the better end of the deal. Such is fate.
Fruit Machine - The Wall (1969)
A mostly unknown outfit from the UK that I believe had several other songs released in their homeland but had this one off 45 released in the US only. No matter. This is a terrific late 60s psych number which I'm pretty sure made it to one of the "Rubble" comps.
Sugar Shoppe - Save The Country (1969)
A Canadian Sunshine Pop group that had an LP released on Capitol and this one off (I believe) 45 o Epic where they cover Laura Nyro's "Save The Country". I know this is real "poppy", but I love Laura Nyro songs so I included it.
Yellow Payges - I'm A Man / Home Again (1970)
A pretty good band that had a slew of 45s in many diverse styles. Although this one was released in 1970, "I'm A Man" comes off as something three years too late, or maybe they were way ahead of their time as the vocals eerily remind me of every Billy Childish record (and his clones) I've ever heard. Great stuff on both sides here.
Goliath - Come With Me (To My World) / Cross Roads (1969)
A pretty good psych group that reminds me of a cross between Vanilla Fudge and The Graham Bond Organization. I believe these guys were from Philadelphia.....
Gun - Hobo / Don't Look Back (1969)
A British group that I have very little info on except for the fact that they released one LP on Epic and at least this one 45.
Scott - Peachnut Brandy / Miss America (1970)
A duo from Hollywood that had this one 45 that was strangely issued on Kent records, home of such garage/psych greats as Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King. Just joking. Scott Passen and Scott Crane played all the instruments on this rather excellent bubblegum flavored 45 and it even came with a picture sleeve as well. I don't have the actual sleeve but here's a scan I found on the web....
Lance - Working Overtime (1976)
In my never ending search for cool records I often am baited by Ebay listings that describe a record as 'garage". About 30% of the time it's nothing near garage-like and 5% of those outright suck completely (i try not to bid over $1 or $2 for these types of things. Sometimes, the "non-garage" items are a pleasant surprise as in the case of "Lance", a band who most likely came from Iowa, but since IGL Studios served a great deal of the upper Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota) I really can't pinpoint the exact origin of this one. Being from 1976 the A side is pretty much what you'd expect. It sounds a lot like "Bread" or some other soft rock band from the mid-70s, but on the flip they let loose with a surprisingly decent simple rock & roll tune that isn't over the top hard rock as you 'd think you might get from a band of this era. I really like this one and since it was only $.99, I'm loving it even more!!!!!!!
