When last we heard from this Green Pajamas side project, on 2001’s excellent ghostland, Jeff Kelly and Laura Weller were crafting deliciously spooky songs inspired by the work of pre-Raphaelite poetesses Christina Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal, Poe and Emily Brontë. This album finds them hopping the pond and a century later, with a cycle of moody and emotional tunes inspired by the novels and stories of Joyce Carol Oates. I don’t know her stuff except in passing, but even out of context this is a strong album, delicately wrought but not at all fey, with gorgeous twining vocals, hypnotic melodies and pained themes that cut deep. Literate pop fans will be ensorceled.
[To hear an MP3, or to order directly from the label, go here. Link for buying the previous album below.]
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Diana Darby- The Magdalene Laundries CD (Delmore Recording Society)
Diana Darby’s album is inspired by the Irish social institution of the same name, which is in the long tradition of the Medicant movement founded by Francis of Assisi. In the Laundries women are sentenced to a life of slavery under the supervision of nuns; forced to work six days a week in the laundry of the Church, in an attempt to wash away their sins.
The album was recorded and mixed on a 4-track device in Darby’s home--its malfunctioning was the impetus to end the album. Diana sings in hushed tones, lost among the strings and strums of a muted electric guitar.
The opening ballad, "The Magdalene Laundries," sets the stage. It is a voice we all recognize, the plaintive tones of someone whose soul is naked before god.
"Pretty Flowers" is a lullaby to the women, with their cracked and bleeding hands, calloused elbows dripping soapy water, to give them succor through their long, bitter meditation on the nature of virtue.
A black swan appears in the fourth track, lovely, lonely and terrified that someone will come to her small pool and see just that.
"Kierkegaard" is a track where nothing is what it should be, cat in the trees, birds on the porch a dead girl resting in bed with her book, bringing us to the edge of reason and the leap of faith. This is Kierkegaard’s Choice, which once you realize exists, are left with none but to continue to pound on the doors to the monastery in the pouring rain, already three days at your task. It was this image which Francis choose for his mediation on the true nature of happiness, which brings us to track 10, “there’s no leaving now,” and Ms. Darby’s own words on her composition, “it was me slamming the door on me. Telling myself that I couldn’t escape/run from the feelings and sadness I live with. There comes a point where you have to just sit
down and feel what you’re feeling. I wanted to take my audience with me. I wanted them to know that they can’t run away either. They’re on this ride with me. And there’s no leaving now.” (Richard Schave)
Buy the record.
Bridget St. John reissues
One of the loveliest and scarcest discs celebrated in Lost in the Grooves, Bridget St. John's pastoral Songs for the gentle man (originally released on John Peel's Dandelion imprint), sees reissue next month in the UK, along with another of the lady's albums that I've yet to hear. While pricey, Songs is essential for anyone who treasures the songs of Nick Drake, Nico or Vashti Bunyan, and I suspect Thank You For will be a knock out, too.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Sweetwater: S/T, Just For You, Melon reviews (Collector's Choice)
VH-1's Sweetwater: A True Rock Story, made punters familiar with this L.A. collective's abbreviated career. Rhino Handmade's Cycles: The Reprise Collection provided a nice taste of the act's distinctive sound, but one wonders why their first three albums took this long to be reissued. Well, here they are and the best on them is still good for a long time to come.
Sweetwater grew out of a series of impromptu performances at L.A. City College in 1967, with hippie-chick Nancy Nevins stepping out of the audience to wail an angelic "Motherless Child" over the band's kandy-koated jamming. The crew picked up a rock drummer, put a classical cellist in the lead guitar-player's seat and gigged in Silverlake coffeehouses before hitting the Strip. Reprise, already heavy with Hendrix, The Electric Prunes and The Dead, signed the octet and David Hassinger (the label's acid-rock guru) produced their debut.
Sweetwater (1968) brings to mind the jazzy lighter-than-air feel of early Spirit, but with that act's king-hoodlum Angelino drugginess replaced by a ten-feet-off-the-pavement amiability, as Nevins' high-princess vocals take "Motherless Child" and the superbly creepy "My Silver Spider" into dainty crevasses of inner space. The album also compares to Love's epochal Forever Changes, with Arthur Lee's refined L.A. cynicism shouldered aside by a butterfly wing of elegant L.A. cheeriness.
By late 1968, a drunk driver wiped out Nevins' car on the Ventura freeway and Sweetwater's appearance was being cut out of Woodstock. The lead singer's recovery was prolonged and painful, but the band had built up a large following through touring with the likes of The Doors and Frank Zappa. On Just for You, Nevins' damaged voice doesn't command as before but the jamband sensibility makes a roaring return. The centerpiece is a hippie-tonk rework of the McCann & Harris version of Gene Daniel's "Compared to What;" the stony pessimism transmuted into come-to-Jesus generational boo-yah. Melon, the notes remind us, was the last entry in Sweetwater's "three-album trilogy" and, given the tensions within the group, sounds better than it should. The formerly just-for-fun jam co-op was down to recording instrumental tracks at different intervals. Nevins' voice recedes still further, with "Don't Forget" serving as a clipped dirge for what the group had been. Most of the rest of the album is hippie howzat on degraded par with Delaney & Bonnie. A gnawed scrag-end of one of the more promising debuts on the late 60s, this album is partially redeemed by the dorky good-humor of "Take It From the Splice, Boys" and the overdone hoodoo finale of "Join the Band."
Sweetwater got back together in the late 90s, minus three original members, but plus Ms. Nevins. Late in the day, perhaps, but not entirely futile. (Ron Garmon)
Sweetwater grew out of a series of impromptu performances at L.A. City College in 1967, with hippie-chick Nancy Nevins stepping out of the audience to wail an angelic "Motherless Child" over the band's kandy-koated jamming. The crew picked up a rock drummer, put a classical cellist in the lead guitar-player's seat and gigged in Silverlake coffeehouses before hitting the Strip. Reprise, already heavy with Hendrix, The Electric Prunes and The Dead, signed the octet and David Hassinger (the label's acid-rock guru) produced their debut.
Sweetwater (1968) brings to mind the jazzy lighter-than-air feel of early Spirit, but with that act's king-hoodlum Angelino drugginess replaced by a ten-feet-off-the-pavement amiability, as Nevins' high-princess vocals take "Motherless Child" and the superbly creepy "My Silver Spider" into dainty crevasses of inner space. The album also compares to Love's epochal Forever Changes, with Arthur Lee's refined L.A. cynicism shouldered aside by a butterfly wing of elegant L.A. cheeriness.
By late 1968, a drunk driver wiped out Nevins' car on the Ventura freeway and Sweetwater's appearance was being cut out of Woodstock. The lead singer's recovery was prolonged and painful, but the band had built up a large following through touring with the likes of The Doors and Frank Zappa. On Just for You, Nevins' damaged voice doesn't command as before but the jamband sensibility makes a roaring return. The centerpiece is a hippie-tonk rework of the McCann & Harris version of Gene Daniel's "Compared to What;" the stony pessimism transmuted into come-to-Jesus generational boo-yah. Melon, the notes remind us, was the last entry in Sweetwater's "three-album trilogy" and, given the tensions within the group, sounds better than it should. The formerly just-for-fun jam co-op was down to recording instrumental tracks at different intervals. Nevins' voice recedes still further, with "Don't Forget" serving as a clipped dirge for what the group had been. Most of the rest of the album is hippie howzat on degraded par with Delaney & Bonnie. A gnawed scrag-end of one of the more promising debuts on the late 60s, this album is partially redeemed by the dorky good-humor of "Take It From the Splice, Boys" and the overdone hoodoo finale of "Join the Band."
Sweetwater got back together in the late 90s, minus three original members, but plus Ms. Nevins. Late in the day, perhaps, but not entirely futile. (Ron Garmon)
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Sneak a peak at Vashti Bunyan live on U.K. TV
Click on the little word "later" on the page below to launch a live clip of the legendary runaway folk star playing "Hidden" with orchestral accompaniment. And stay tuned for Scram #22 in early 2006 for a rolicking interview that Brooke Alberts and I conducted with the lady. She's quite the iconoclast, with wonderful stories.
Link
Link
Friday, November 04, 2005
Bubblegumfink!: Kick Out the 'Gum, Motherf***er!!
That Bubblegumfink is such a gent. He's sharing volume one of the celebrated, rare bubblegum comp with the naughty name over on his blog. Tune in for some groovy Lancelot Link, Beagles, Joey Levine and Ohio Express action--32 tracks in all. Link
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Rod McKuen Takes A San Francisco Hippie Trip
Over on the Snow-Day blog, a chance to download the wacky bowdlerized version of Rod's fantabulous Beatsville LP, for which I wrote the reissue liner notes. I love that the sixties version is slightly less raunchy than the original.
Link
Link
Bubblegum documentary gets a New York screening after all!
I only just learned that this Sunday, November 6, the WFMU Record Fair is presenting a screening of Kier-La Janisse's delerious "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth" at noon at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th St., NYC. More info is at http://www.wfmu.org/recfair/
Monday, October 31, 2005
All Summer Long: Dumb Angel Gazette #4
Hawthorne-ologist Domenic Priore has teamed up with publisher Brian Chidester to launch this long-overdue new issue of his perfect-bound west coast history lesson (#3 came out in ’89). While the Beach Boys remain the throbbing heart of the discourse, Priore and his writers take a broader view of what made mid-sixties SoCal such a powerful fulcrum for cultural change. Jan Berry gets a detailed appreciation, as does the impact of modern building on social experience, exotica music’s path through surf, and the design influences that shaped the early surfing magazines. The whole package is absurdly ambitious, a full-color 140+ page collection of scarce pop imagery and rare snapshots rendered most handsomely. Beach Boys fiends will want it for the day-by-day history of the band’s movements from 1964-65, pop genealogists for Pete Frame’s fold-out South Bay surf family tree, design geeks for page upon page of stunning finds. Color Scram impressed.More info from Neptune’s Kingdom Press
Friday, October 28, 2005
Arthur "Killer" Kane film screens in SoCal today
It's called New York Doll, and it sounds quite touching.
Roll yer own Blue Oyster Cult
Over at Head Heritage, Julian Cope programs an imaginary early best of and riffs on the myths and legends of the masterful doofs that are BOC.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Sticky Fingers at Brother Records?
Brother Records, Inc. Claims Stolen Beach Boys Memorabilia on the Block
Los Angeles, CA -- The Beach Boys corporate entity, Brother Records, Inc., has notified London auction house CooperOwen that the 28 lots of memorabilia that are reported to be sold through live auction on October 27, 2005, was actually stolen from The Beach Boys. A criminal investigation has already commenced by the Los Angeles Police Department. The FBI and Interpol may also become involved in that investigation. Brother Records has made it clear that, in addition to the ongoing criminal investigation, it intends to file a civil lawsuit in the U.S. and the U.K. against CooperOwen and the individual seller of the memorabilia, as well as anyone who purchases any of the memorabilia at the auction.
Contact:
Edwin F. McPherson, McPHERSON & KALMANSOHN, LLP
1801 Century Park East, 24th fl., Los Angeles, California 90067
phone: (310) 553-8833 / fax: (310) 553-9233
emcpherson@m-klaw.com
***
The offending items are viewable on the auction house website, starting from lot #146. Cream of the crop here.
Los Angeles, CA -- The Beach Boys corporate entity, Brother Records, Inc., has notified London auction house CooperOwen that the 28 lots of memorabilia that are reported to be sold through live auction on October 27, 2005, was actually stolen from The Beach Boys. A criminal investigation has already commenced by the Los Angeles Police Department. The FBI and Interpol may also become involved in that investigation. Brother Records has made it clear that, in addition to the ongoing criminal investigation, it intends to file a civil lawsuit in the U.S. and the U.K. against CooperOwen and the individual seller of the memorabilia, as well as anyone who purchases any of the memorabilia at the auction.
Contact:
Edwin F. McPherson, McPHERSON & KALMANSOHN, LLP
1801 Century Park East, 24th fl., Los Angeles, California 90067
phone: (310) 553-8833 / fax: (310) 553-9233
emcpherson@m-klaw.com
***
The offending items are viewable on the auction house website, starting from lot #146. Cream of the crop here.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Paula Frazer: Leave the Sad Things Behind CD (Birdman)
This here’s the newest offering from Tarnation’s Paula Frazer. The overall sound conjures up a dreamy k.d.laing cowgirl walking down Carnaby St. with the non-Hot Tuna members of Jefferson Airplane on the way to see a “Spaghetti Western”… or maybe different atomizers of sixties essence spritzed into the air and mingling pleasantly. What a lovely voice this gal has… and she weaves her own cloth! (Brooke Alberts)
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains screening in LA
Marc Edward Hueck says:
Yes, this is another email about another hard-to-see movie that I've managed to get booked for a public screening. This is one of the things I do best, rescuing rarities from the vault. And coming up on Friday, midnight, November 18th, at the Nuart theatre, is a movie you've likely heard me rave about before. It's a movie that is an integral and influential element of my adolescence, a frighteningly relevant satire of rock music despite being made in 1981, and still not yet available on tape or DVD. And if you know me well, any of those criteria should motivate you to check it out.
The movie is Lou Adler's LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS, starring Diane Lane, Laura Dern, and Ray Winstone. It is the bitterly funny story of how a musical trend can be created, find an audience, get diluted by big money, discredited, and become another novelty...all within a week.
Corrine Burns is a rebellious teenager stuck in a dying small town. With her sister and cousin, she starts a band called The Stains, despite the fact none of them know how to play their instruments. They manage to wrangle their way into opening for the British punk group The Looters, and soon their attitude (and see-through wardrobe) helps them become instant stars. But with scandal-hungry TV reporters and sleazy industry types ready to co-opt and corrupt them, they face the danger of seeing their rags-to-riches dream turn to rags once again.
The script is by Oscar-winning writer of COMING HOME and SLAP SHOT Nancy Dowd (under the pseudonym Rob Morton), with creative input from punk fashionista Caroline Coon, and directed by Lou Adler, a music veteran responsible for producing albums for the Mamas and the Papas and Carole King, directing Cheech y Chong in UP IN SMOKE, and even producing the stage and film versions of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. In addition to the leading cast, there are supporting roles for Christine Lahti and actual rock legends Steve Jones and Paul Cook (Sex Pistols), Paul Simonon (The Clash), and Fee Waybill (The Tubes).
Ever since having seen the film on USA network's long-missed weekend late show "NIGHT FLIGHT," I've been devoted to getting more people to see it. I've been able to get it played at the Nuart usually once every other year since 2001, and the turnouts have always been respectable. But word on the street is that the only surviving print is on its last legs, so this could be the last time it will be seen in a theatre. However, if the turnout is really good, Paramount told me that may be enticed to strike a new print. So while naturally a big attendance would not only be good for me and the theatre, but it would be also benefit the film, allowing me to secure for it the visibility that I have been able to resurrect for THE APPLE, TEEN WITCH, and THE CANDY SNATCHERS. And just maybe, I could finally get it the big prize: a DVD release.
And if you'll allow me a moment to shamelessly manipulate your tear ducts, let me introduce you to my friend Sarah Jacobson:
Sarah was a scrappy indie director who took her debut feature, MARY JANE'S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, literally by station wagon from one theatre to the next, garnering raves from John Waters and Roger Ebert in the process. She was easily the biggest fan of THE FABULOUS STAINS, writing about its history for Grand Royal magazine and directing a short expanded documentary segment for the Independent Film Channel. When I got in contact with her, it was an instant friendship even though we never met in person. I marveled at how much more she had done to increase awareness of the film in print and on TV. Her labor and support were indispensible to my own efforts to push the movie.
Sadly, Sarah got taken away in February 2004, claimed by uterine cancer at only 32 years of age. Call it a debt, a wish, a tontine, or whatever, but as the second-biggest fan of her favorite movie, the responsibility of bringing it to the people is mine now.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS screens at midnight, Friday November 18th. The Nuart is located at 11272 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Los Angeles, one block west of the 405 freeway. More information can be obtained at
http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/LosAngeles/LosAngelesNuartInfo.htm
If you don't think you can attend as late a show as this, please forward this on to a friend in the city whom you think can come. And if you can make it, bring as many friends as possible with you. And thanks for supporting me in the ways you always have.
Marc
Corrine Burns is a rebellious teenager stuck in a dying small town. With her sister and cousin, she starts a band called The Stains, despite the fact none of them know how to play their instruments. They manage to wrangle their way into opening for the British punk group The Looters, and soon their attitude (and see-through wardrobe) helps them become instant stars. But with scandal-hungry TV reporters and sleazy industry types ready to co-opt and corrupt them, they face the danger of seeing their rags-to-riches dream turn to rags once again.
The script is by Oscar-winning writer of COMING HOME and SLAP SHOT Nancy Dowd (under the pseudonym Rob Morton), with creative input from punk fashionista Caroline Coon, and directed by Lou Adler, a music veteran responsible for producing albums for the Mamas and the Papas and Carole King, directing Cheech y Chong in UP IN SMOKE, and even producing the stage and film versions of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. In addition to the leading cast, there are supporting roles for Christine Lahti and actual rock legends Steve Jones and Paul Cook (Sex Pistols), Paul Simonon (The Clash), and Fee Waybill (The Tubes).
Ever since having seen the film on USA network's long-missed weekend late show "NIGHT FLIGHT," I've been devoted to getting more people to see it. I've been able to get it played at the Nuart usually once every other year since 2001, and the turnouts have always been respectable. But word on the street is that the only surviving print is on its last legs, so this could be the last time it will be seen in a theatre. However, if the turnout is really good, Paramount told me that may be enticed to strike a new print. So while naturally a big attendance would not only be good for me and the theatre, but it would be also benefit the film, allowing me to secure for it the visibility that I have been able to resurrect for THE APPLE, TEEN WITCH, and THE CANDY SNATCHERS. And just maybe, I could finally get it the big prize: a DVD release.
And if you'll allow me a moment to shamelessly manipulate your tear ducts, let me introduce you to my friend Sarah Jacobson:
Sadly, Sarah got taken away in February 2004, claimed by uterine cancer at only 32 years of age. Call it a debt, a wish, a tontine, or whatever, but as the second-biggest fan of her favorite movie, the responsibility of bringing it to the people is mine now.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS screens at midnight, Friday November 18th. The Nuart is located at 11272 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Los Angeles, one block west of the 405 freeway. More information can be obtained at
http://www.landmarktheatres
If you don't think you can attend as late a show as this, please forward this on to a friend in the city whom you think can come. And if you can make it, bring as many friends as possible with you. And thanks for supporting me in the ways you always have.
Marc
Monday, October 24, 2005
Distro woes hit Punk Planet
Fortunately, Scram is not distributed by BigTop. Our good wishes go out to Punk Planet and the other mags affected by this crisis. Read on for some suggestions of how you can help.
***
Last Thursday, Punk Planet received some distressing news--the kind of news that made our very bones ache when we heard it; the kind of news that felt so significant we simply couldn't function after it sank in.
With a few days time and the ability to process it, we decided it's news worth sharing: It was a letter from the president of the Independent Press Association, the not-for-profit organization that owns the company that distributes the majority of Punk Planet's copies, BigTop Newsstand Services. The letter acknowledged the truth of a rumor that had been running through indie publishing circles for months now: the distributor was having cash flow problems. Payments to publishers for magazines already distributed had been and would continue to be effected for an unknown amount of time. In case you don't operate a magazine, the money coming in from newsstand sales is vital to publishers' bottom line. For a magazine like Punk Planet, where our ad rates remain very low to cater to independent businesses, those distributor payments are even more critical.
This news leaves us in a tight spot: BigTop is the last distributor in the country that specializes in distributing independent press magazines like Punk Planet. When we started 12 years ago, there were close to a half dozen such distributors; each one that has gone belly up dragged a few magazines with it. Because BigTop is owned by the IPA, an organization whose mission is to "amplify" the voice of the independent press, we don't expect that they will go out of business; but we also don't know when we will see the money we are owed.
What does this mean for the future of Punk Planet? The truth is we don't yet know. But we do know there are things you can do that will help us in both the short term and the long term.
1. Please consider subscribing (or resubscribing) and purchasing some merchandise from our webstore today. The new issue’s out now, and it’s awesome! If you have a product, idea, or event to advertise, purchase an ad. An immediate influx of cash will allow us to pay off back debts--to contributors, printers, web hosts, etc--and better enable us to weather any coming storm caused by nonpayment from our distributor. Our annual end-of year subscription sale is just starting now—get a whole year for only $18, or really help us out and buy a couple of them!
2. Please forward this information on to your lists and friends, and specifically ask them to subscribe or buy merchandise from us. In addition to a two-year subscription for only $30, you can pick up any of our amazing books—Joe Meno's Hairstyles of The Damned, Bee Lavender's Lessons In Taxidermy, Mark Anderson's All The Power, or Jay Ryan's brand-new 100 Posters 134 Squirrels now available for pre-order! We've also got Punk Planet T-shirts, hoodies, underpants, and the awesomely cool PPAP: Punk Planet Artists' Prints wearable art series.
3. Consider donating to the Community Supported Journalism Fund. It's a small-fund donations program, made up almost exclusively of donations of less than $20, but it's already allowed us to bring you the amazing End of Radio cover story of PP69: four full articles on different aspects of radio creation and tons of teeny interviews with audio experts. It wouldn't have been
possible without your support!
3. Please continue to support independent print media. The payment issues affecting us are not singular--there are others in the same predicament that need your support as well.
***
Last Thursday, Punk Planet received some distressing news--the kind of news that made our very bones ache when we heard it; the kind of news that felt so significant we simply couldn't function after it sank in.
With a few days time and the ability to process it, we decided it's news worth sharing: It was a letter from the president of the Independent Press Association, the not-for-profit organization that owns the company that distributes the majority of Punk Planet's copies, BigTop Newsstand Services. The letter acknowledged the truth of a rumor that had been running through indie publishing circles for months now: the distributor was having cash flow problems. Payments to publishers for magazines already distributed had been and would continue to be effected for an unknown amount of time. In case you don't operate a magazine, the money coming in from newsstand sales is vital to publishers' bottom line. For a magazine like Punk Planet, where our ad rates remain very low to cater to independent businesses, those distributor payments are even more critical.
This news leaves us in a tight spot: BigTop is the last distributor in the country that specializes in distributing independent press magazines like Punk Planet. When we started 12 years ago, there were close to a half dozen such distributors; each one that has gone belly up dragged a few magazines with it. Because BigTop is owned by the IPA, an organization whose mission is to "amplify" the voice of the independent press, we don't expect that they will go out of business; but we also don't know when we will see the money we are owed.
What does this mean for the future of Punk Planet? The truth is we don't yet know. But we do know there are things you can do that will help us in both the short term and the long term.
1. Please consider subscribing (or resubscribing) and purchasing some merchandise from our webstore today. The new issue’s out now, and it’s awesome! If you have a product, idea, or event to advertise, purchase an ad. An immediate influx of cash will allow us to pay off back debts--to contributors, printers, web hosts, etc--and better enable us to weather any coming storm caused by nonpayment from our distributor. Our annual end-of year subscription sale is just starting now—get a whole year for only $18, or really help us out and buy a couple of them!
2. Please forward this information on to your lists and friends, and specifically ask them to subscribe or buy merchandise from us. In addition to a two-year subscription for only $30, you can pick up any of our amazing books—Joe Meno's Hairstyles of The Damned, Bee Lavender's Lessons In Taxidermy, Mark Anderson's All The Power, or Jay Ryan's brand-new 100 Posters 134 Squirrels now available for pre-order! We've also got Punk Planet T-shirts, hoodies, underpants, and the awesomely cool PPAP: Punk Planet Artists' Prints wearable art series.
3. Consider donating to the Community Supported Journalism Fund. It's a small-fund donations program, made up almost exclusively of donations of less than $20, but it's already allowed us to bring you the amazing End of Radio cover story of PP69: four full articles on different aspects of radio creation and tons of teeny interviews with audio experts. It wouldn't have been
possible without your support!
3. Please continue to support independent print media. The payment issues affecting us are not singular--there are others in the same predicament that need your support as well.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Val Stoecklein's "Grey Life"
"Given everything that happened before and after, it’s tempting to cast "Grey Life" alongside such venerable solo records as Skip Spence’s "Oar" and Syd Barrett’s "The Madcap Laughs"—the final intimate musings of an irreparably fractured mind. But it’s something less spectacular and, in a way, more moving: the major inspiration of a minor talent. It constitutes some kind of quiet, lonely victory—entirely befitting the man for whom simply getting up became, ultimately, too much of a struggle. It’s flawed, beautiful, strange, and just about perfect." (Keven McAlester)
Link
Link
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Catalog of Cool thinks pink
Check out these fresh new digs at Gene Sculatti's web version of the seminal culture bibles Catalog of Cool and Too Cool: Bubblegum Music.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Jim Flora-sized Window of Opportunity
This just in from author Irwin Chusid If you've been trying without success to get your hands on copies of THE MISCHIEVOUS ART OF JIM FLORA, read on.
What it is: http://www.jimflora.com/
Over the past few months, I've heard from friends and acquaintances who tried to purchase the book in stores or online but couldn't obtain copies. The reasons -- as explained by the publisher, Fantagraphics -- have to do with the mystery science of retail allocation. The book isn't out of PRINT, but it's out of STOCK at many retailers. Few copies are in the warehouse of the distributor (Norton Books), Fantagraphics has few on their shelves, and that makes the remaining retail copies in circulation difficult to find. Hell -- I'm the AUTHOR and *I* couldn't get copies. Fantagraphics does not plan to reprint the book any time soon (don't ask!). We are working on a second volume, which Fantagraphics says will occasion a limited reprint of the first -- in late 2006.
Two weeks ago, Fantagraphics located some available copies and I ordered 25 to keep a modest inventory on hand. They mistakenly double-shipped and 50 copies arrived. I planned to return 25 -- but before doing so, figured I'd ask if anyone wants to purchase copies for $25/ea. + shipping. Cash, checks, PayPal OK. But no CC's.
In a week (OCT 18), any excess copies will be returned to Fantagraphics. So here's your big chance before they disappear again. Great gift idea, a little monkey told me. -Irwin
What it is: http://www.jimflora.com/
Over the past few months, I've heard from friends and acquaintances who tried to purchase the book in stores or online but couldn't obtain copies. The reasons -- as explained by the publisher, Fantagraphics -- have to do with the mystery science of retail allocation. The book isn't out of PRINT, but it's out of STOCK at many retailers. Few copies are in the warehouse of the distributor (Norton Books), Fantagraphics has few on their shelves, and that makes the remaining retail copies in circulation difficult to find. Hell -- I'm the AUTHOR and *I* couldn't get copies. Fantagraphics does not plan to reprint the book any time soon (don't ask!). We are working on a second volume, which Fantagraphics says will occasion a limited reprint of the first -- in late 2006.
Two weeks ago, Fantagraphics located some available copies and I ordered 25 to keep a modest inventory on hand. They mistakenly double-shipped and 50 copies arrived. I planned to return 25 -- but before doing so, figured I'd ask if anyone wants to purchase copies for $25/ea. + shipping. Cash, checks, PayPal OK. But no CC's.
In a week (OCT 18), any excess copies will be returned to Fantagraphics. So here's your big chance before they disappear again. Great gift idea, a little monkey told me. -Irwin
Archies Reunion at the Bubblegum Achievement Awards!
Photos are up from Friday night's Gummies, which was a truly astonishing night. Tune in here for the first installment of documentation, with more to come once we get the video transfered.
In addition to the rare singing appearance of Archies stars Toni Wine and Ron Dante, Joey Levine came up and sang "Yummy Yummy Yummy" with a little help from Ron!
In addition to the rare singing appearance of Archies stars Toni Wine and Ron Dante, Joey Levine came up and sang "Yummy Yummy Yummy" with a little help from Ron!
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