Moving House

Editrix Kim will be taking her future LITG postings to the new and improved lostinthegrooves.com, currently featuring great lost albums and a couple dozen ace obscure music bloggers.

Users of feed readers can subscribe to Kim's blog here.

Or just pop over to the site* and poke around. 

*Greetings, 21st century readers! We let the lostinthegrooves.com URL lapse, so the links above point to an Internet Archive snapshot. If you'd like to keep up with Kim's activities celebrating Los Angeles cultural history and preservation, visit the Esotouric newsletter or sign up for a walking tour.

First Nick Sylvester, then this

Tis the season for petitions. Chuck Eddy was let go from his music editor position at the Village Voice yesterday. Sign here to urge the new owners to reconsider.
***

To Michael Lacey and Andy Van De Voorde of Village Voice Media:

We the undersigned, consisting of music publicists, music people and Village
Voice readers, hereby request the reinstatement of Chuck Eddy as music
editor of the Village Voice. The official reason given for his termination
was "reasons of taste." Seeing as Chuck did his job and did it with
efficiency, intelligence, character and humor, to say nothing of good taste,
we find the grounds for his dismissal unreasonable bordering on
incomprehensible and ask that he be restored to the position he has occupied
for the last seven years.

Village Voice senior editor and rock critic Robert Christgau said of Eddy,
"There have been many good music editors, but Chuck Eddy was the most
efficient, most professional I worked with. He was fabulous to work with. He
was the only editor who got his sections in not on time, but ahead of time.
He was so easy to work with. He was great."

Since Village Voice Media assumed control of the Voice in November, Chuck is
the 17th employee to leave the paper, either by resignation or termination.
It is clear that the Voice is being made to change in ways that are
rendering it indistinguishable from every other weekly in the country. Chuck
had been writing for the Voice since 1984, it was voices like his that made
it the paper what it was. Their loss is our loss.

Respectfully,

Mark Gorney - Worldisc (www.worldisc.net)
Josh Mills - It's Alive Media (www.itsalivemedia.com)
Regina Joskow - Universal Music (www.umusic.com)

Zines for Amoeba Petition Success!

Just one week after the editors of The Big Takeover, Dumb Angel Gazette, Roctober, Scram and Ugly Things posted an open letter to Amoeba Music seeking to get the store to carry indie zines, and after more than 350 kind folks took the time to sign the attached petition (link below) pledging their support, we were contacted by the management of Amoeba's L.A. store with a gracious email offering to work with us to make a select group of high quality indie music magazines available to their customers. Interested publishers can contact me for more information.

The specifics of the zine section are yet to be determined, and it's not clear which stores beyond LA will be effected, but for now I just wanted to spread the good word. It's great to know that sometimes all it takes to get a timely idea adopted is finding the right way to ask. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to sign the petition or forward it, and stay tuned for Zines at Amoeba!

Kim
Editrix
Scram
http://www.scrammagazine.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/amoeba/petition.html

McDonald's History Tour, April 22 in SoCal

Scramsters are invited to join our pal Chris Nichols as he leads a groovy tour into the secret recesses of fast food history. It's the:

McDonald's History Tour
Saturday, April 22

Join McHistorian Chris Nichols to discover the rich and hidden history of Richard and Maurice McDonald, founders of McDonald's. Travel in a luxury motor coach down Route 66 and into the Inland Empire where you will visit the sites and people that helped form the world's largest restaurant chain.

Tour stops will include a working orange grove, you'll tour a 19th century blacksmith shop where the first automation tools were invented, a visit to the museum on the site of the very first McDonald's. We'll also meet some of the folks who were there at the beginning. From a carhop to the neon man who installed the very first golden arches.

A non-McDonald's lunch will be served at the museum. Snacks and water will be provided. Our story starts when the brothers come to California and ends when Ray Kroc buys McDonald's.


McDonald's History Tour
Saturday, April 22
10am-5pm
$50 all inclusive
Send payment to:

Chris Nichols
c/o Los Angeles magazine
5900 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036

or paypal to : mcdonaldstour@yahoo.com

Questions? Call 213-804-4184
http://mctour.blogspot.com

Amoeba Needs Zines!

Dear friends,

In tandem with my fellow editors of The Big Takeover, Dumb Angel Gazette, Roctober and Ugly Things, I've launched a petition campaign asking Amoeba Music to begin carrying zines in their California stores.

Since Amoeba came to Los Angeles, Rhino and Aron's Records have closed down, leaving us with very few places where independent music zines can be found. Since the management of Amoeba doesn't want to talk with us about carrying zines, we hope we can change their minds by showing them how many music fans would welcome the addition of zines to their stores.

So please, if you are a music fan and a reader of zines, take a moment to click below and tell Amoeba that you'd like to be able to find both in their stores. And spread the word!

http://petitiononline.com/amoeba/petition.html

On behalf of my fellow editors, the artists we review, our printers and folks who like to read in the bathtub, I thank you.

best regards,
Kim
Editrix
Scram

The Cool Die in Sets of Three

You can stop holding your breath now:

Buck Owens
Nikki Sudden
Gene Pitney

Phil Ochs Tribute, Sunday night in Brooklyn

Never mind the moribund Ochs tributes. Occasional Monk Mike Fornatale and pals send Phil's songs out into the ether in a spirit of glee:

Come see us play! Raucous Phil Ochs tribute show!

We will be bashing our way [tenderly] through a brace of our favorite Phil
Ochs songs on the 30th anniversary of his death, April 9 (Sunday) at 8PM.

KEEP READING!

We've been to Phil Ochs tribute shows in the past. (OK, if you haven't, then
just play along.) They tend to be a bit morose. Even dire, sometimes.

Yes, the guy wrote some pretty depressing songs, fair enough. And people who
play these songs at tribute shows tend to dwell on the sad, hopeless aspects
of them -- compounded by the unavoidable fact that, after all, THE GUY KILLED
HIMSELF after his muse melted away.

But to us, Phil's music isn't about depression, it's about redemption.
Besides -- you know us, we don't do "morose." We're raising the bar. ;)

In fact, we're going to raise the entire bar (Magnetic Field, Brooklyn --
where else?) about ten feet in the air, on Sunday April 9, at 8PM, with a
somewhat cheery and rollicking set of Phil Ochs songs played as only we would
play
them -- and go ahead and read into that whatever you like.

So come, if you're a fan. Come if you're NOT a fan -- you will be by the time
we're done with you. And get there on time, dammit, you do not want to miss
the accordion solo. Or the red white and blue Buck Owens guitar, or the orange
Burns 12-string -- that's right, orange. If that's not worth your time then I
don't know what is.

Who? Peter Stuart -- bass, acoustic and electric guitars, echoplex, singing,
Ben Franklin glasses. Mike Fornatale -- acoustic, electric and 12-string
guitars, banjo, singing, accordion (maybe) and soulless yuppie accountant
glasses.
Wendy Fornatale -- keyboards, acoustic and electric guitar, no singing, and
she'll probably be wearing contacts. Mike Sinocchi (of The Insomniacs) making
his first fill-in appearance with us -- drums, no singing, no glasses, and
really cool hair. And Mike O'Neill (whom I haven't even met yet -- hope he
comes to
rehearsal tomorrow) on occasional bass. I don't know if he wears glasses or
not, but I'll let you know soon.

Magnetic Field
97 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Directions: http://www.magneticbrooklyn.com

So we'll see you there, yes?

Go See The Fleagles!! Free! Sunday in L.A.

The Fleagles will be celebrating the release of their new CD "Goodbye to Mars" this Sunday 4/2 at Mr. T's Bowl with a free show. The Fleagles will be playing two sets, and in between DJ Don Waller, Agent 00Soul, will be spinning the platters.

Date: Sunday, April 2
Time: 7pm
Place: Mr. T's Bowl, 5621 1/2 Figueroa, Highland Park, CA, 323-692-3136
Directions: Take the 110 freeway northeast from I-5. Get off on Ave 52 exit, go left. Right on Figueroa. Park in parking lot behind Mr. T's and enter from the back.

Sign Jeff Barry's Birthday Card

If you love those great girl group records, Andy Kim and the Archies, send a little birthday love out to the genius who made them swing when you sign songwriter/producer Jeff Barry's virtual b-day card. Bubblegum webmistress Laura Pinto says: "The big day is next Monday, April 3rd, and I want to do something special for Jeff's 68th so I've set up a QuickTopic message board just like I did for Ron [Dante]'s birthday last August. Here's the link:

http://www.quicktopic.com/36/H/C3bqPbmPeEPt3

Bubblegum Achievement Awards DVD Release

October was International Bubblegum Month, a celebration of the chewy chewy sound that stretched from Europe to Canada to Australia, with the grandest of happenings in Los Angeles: the 2nd Biannual Bubblegum Achievement Awards.

Canned Hamm and the Bubblegum Queen performed live and hosted a night of many delights, including a puppet spectacular by the Bob Baker Marionettes, the L.A. premiere of a documentary based on the book "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth," Abram the Safety Ape's tribute to Lancelot Link, and musical performances from Ron Dante solo and in duets with his fellow Archie (and 2003 Gummy winner) Toni Wine and the Ohio Express' Joey Levine.

Then it was time for the Gummy Awards, with trophies presented to Steve Barri (Lancelot Link, Grass Roots), Ron Dante (Archies), Dr. Demento (radio hero) & Joey Levine (Ohio Express).

Now available: a 71 minute DVD spectacular featuring the highlights from this most pink and magical night, The 2005 Bubblegum achievement Awards Show. Copies are available for $22 postpaid in the USA and for $25 elsewhere. Please send payment in US dollars to Scram, PO Box 31227, LA, CA 90031, or paypal to scram @ scrammagazine . com.

Please note that the documentary is not included in the DVD package, and the puppet show has been heavily edited due to time constraints. Special orders for a second DVD containing the entire puppet show are possible. Email scram @ scrammagazine . com for more info.

I used to have dreams like this...

...only they were always set in basements.

A small town Ohio family record store, frozen in time since 1970, has finally been sold to the highest bidder. The contents will be on view and passed on to new homes at the Austin Record Convention over the weekend. Gaze upon the photos, drool, and dream.

RIP Nikki Sudden

Terribly sad to learn pirate Nikki died over the weekend after a show in NYC.

Scram never got a Nikki interview, though we tried. He liked blondes too much to talk to brownette me and Maggot, but we did speak with his compadres David Kusworth and Marky in a little piece we call Drinkin' with the Jacobites.

Our sympathies go out to Nikki's family and friends.

EMP Pop Conference Takes On The Guilty Pleasure

I like to think that our anthology Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth had a little something to do with giving a bunch of academics and rock critics the nerve to spend a long weekend wallowing in the guiltiest pleasures their devious little minds can devise. It's cheap! Drop by and leave your blush at the door.

For full schedule, click below--

Ain't That a Shame: Loving Music in the Shadow of Doubt
The 2006 Pop Conference at Experience Music Project
Seattle, Washington, April 27 - April 30

Federal Duck S/T CD (Radioactive)

When I get my time machine working, maybe the eighteenth or nineteenth thing I’m gonna do is port back to the studio where the Federal Duck were making their (I assume—it’s on Radioactive, so notes there’s not) sole album, grab hold of the pseudonymous producer’s lapels and hiss, “Listen, bub, you got an ace mournful New England garage pop songwriter in this George Stavis kid—so drop the rest of the repertoire and focus on the band genius and in 35 years fanzine writers will cream all over this disc instead of giving middling reviews that rely on that tired old time travel gimmick.” The Stavis tunes really are strong enough to recommend the whole album, which when not working this haunting, wintery academic sound ala the Rising Storm plays around with neo-Vaudeville, heavy acid rock, old time banjos and a smattering of head humor, all played with sophistication and imaginatively arranged. Surprised I’ve never heard of these ducks before.

Dream Lake Ukelele Band on Lost in the Grooves

Dream Lake Ukulele Band is a Lost in the Grooves exclusive. Click to sample the music or purchase.

Dream Lake Ukulele Band
Dream Lake Ukulele Band
(Crest, 1976)

What do you get when you cross twenty-seven ukuleles, a Little Marcy record, and the Langley Schools Music Project? The result is a bizarre hybrid called the Dream Lake Ukulele Band, a Florida school group whose performances are documented on Crest Records, a New York vanity label. The back cover shows twenty-seven grade school aged students, all wearing white shirts and red vests, the boys also wearing neckties. Sound boring? Not when every kid is smiling and holding a ukulele.

The lead-off, “There’s So Many, Many Ways,” is one of the more charming Christian songs around, but I’m sure my opinion is altered by the sheer innocent joy of twenty-seven children’s voices singing in harmony while strumming their ukuleles. That spirit changes a bit though, when the songs veer off into the Bicentennial patriotic songs that fill the rest of Side 1. Such lyrics as "My Sunday school teacher loves me when I am never late" preceded by "God loves when I learn to shoot the gun" makes one wish that the band director would have been cool enough to be teaching the kids David Bowie songs.

Fortunately, Side 2 has the perfect antidote, for that is where the children present and sing their own original compositions. Compiled under headings such as "Wish Songs," "Name Songs," and "Music Songs," each features a progression of five to ten kids strumming and singing solo. These aren’t loud bratty kids singing "Tomorrow" at the top of their lungs, but more often small waif-like girls singing with very timid voices. My heart melts whenever I hear one girl who sings, "I am Mary, I like to play the ukulele" or another girl whose verse starts by saying her parents are always busy, and then proceeds with "Daddy is a band director, Mommy is a piano teacher, I love them." This record is listed as being Volume Seven, which definitely makes me wish that I also had volumes One through Six. (Vern Stolz, from the book Lost in the Grooves)

Are you a member of the Dream Lake Ukelele Band? If so, please contact us!

The Chamber Strings on Lost in the Grooves

The newest addition to the Lost in the Grooves fold is The Chamber Strings, a Chicago band of the mid-'90s whose soaring orchestral pop art is like the interesection of Bacharach and Tonight's The Night-era Neil Young. Lovely stuff. Sample some tunes or buy a disk when you click here.

John Trubee's Prank Calls CDs, exclusively on Lost in the Grooves

The latest addition to the LITG music store are four of John Trubee's legendary Prank Call CDs, available for sample or download:

Greatest Prank Phone Calls Of All Time Vol. 1
Greatest Prank Phone Calls Of All Time Vol. 2
Greatest Prank Phone Calls Of All Time Vol. 3
Greatest Prank Phone Calls Of All Time Vol. 4

LITG Seeks Bloggers Of Underappreciated Sound

Do you have a blog or website that celebrates great neglected music/culture of the sort we honored in the Lost in the Grooves anthology? Are you interested in reaching a wider audience for your writing? Does your site generate an RSS feed, or are you willing to have a feed created?

If the answer to all of these questions is yes, you might be a candidate to join the Lost in the Grooves syndicate. At our new site, lostinthegrooves.com, we are currently syndicating or hosting the writings of 15 pop fiends. Syndication means we automatically republish their blog postings, with all links and images intact, with a link in every post pointing back to their blog. Hosting means we provide the blogging engine and technical support for the writer's blog.

We already have a terrific slate of blogs--including Andrew Earles, Cult of the Week, Domenic Priore, duck stab, Ed Ward, Gary Pig Gold, Hayden Childs, Ken Rudman, Mark Prindle, Mike Appelstein, Tony Sclafani, Tosh Berman and LITG illustrator Tom Neely--and are eager to add more to the roster. So if you are an offbeat music blogger, or you know and love one, please drop a line to me, Kim Cooper, at amscray@gmail.com for more info.

Introducing The Lost in the Grooves Record Store

I am pleased to announce that after some digital hiccups that derailed
the first attempt at a Lost in the Grooves music store, we've been
taken under the wing of the Maryatt Music Group, and are back online
and in business selling MP3s of individual tracks (99 cents) or full
albums (most are $11.95) for download or as physical CDs. The site is
live at:

http://www.lostinthegrooves.com

I hope you'll stop by to hear samples of tracks by our exclusive
artists, including:

BRUTE FORCE (linguistic trickster and singer of the farest-ever Apple
45)... COSTES (Suckdog's early collaborator, utterly unique Francophone
noise guru) ... FUGU (French one man band orchestral pop majesty)...
THE LEOPARDS (mid-70s Kansas City Kinksy pop legends)... GIBSON BROS
(mid-80s punk-blues visionaries from Ohio)... LIPSTICK KILLERS
(Australian surf-garage heroes, with Radio Birdman connections and
perfect pop sensibilities)... THE ORGONE BOX (one man band from rural
England channeling the most exquisite aspects of 60s pop-psych)... SEX
CLARK 5 (brainy, ultra-catchy Beatlesque pop from Huntsville,
Alabama)... SUCKDOG (post-punk avant-garde opera from the incomparable
Lisa Carver)... JOHN TRUBEE (iconoclastic prankster and deconstructer
of jazz and rock convention). Coming soon, more from JOHN TRUBEE and
discs from THE CHAMBER STRINGS and ROSEHIPS.

LITG music is licensed directly from the artists, and they are paid for
every track sold. And due to our partnership with Maryatt Music Group,
you might even hear some of these tracks on soundtracks or in ads.

We welcome your comments and recommendations, on the LITG site or in
the community forum. We'll be adding new music, plus blogs from artists
and writers, regularly, so stay tuned.

Thanks for your interest in Lost in the Grooves, and for supporting
independent musicians.

-Kim Cooper, Editrix, Lost in the Grooves & Scram Magazine

Eefing on the air

Inspired by Deke Dickerson's article on eefing in the latest Scram, the always intriguing Jennifer Sharpe turned in a neat little exploration of that weirdly American rhythmic wheeze on NPR's Day To Day. It's archived here.