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   November 18, 2009  
       
   
 
 


  For the month of November, Other Music is offering FREE DOMESTIC* SHIPPING on any order over $50.00, excluding sales tax.

*Sorry, international orders are not eligible at this time.




 
   
       
   
     
 
 
FEATURED NEW RELEASES
Animal Collective (10" - Retail Exclusive)
Matthew Halsall
Real Estate
Washed Out (Limited LP)
Mayfair Set
Sun Ra (3 Reissues)
Xeno & Oaklander
Circuit Rider
Love
Annie
 

Dubstep Allstars Volume 7 (2CD Mix)
Kim Fowley
Shindig! Annual Number 2 (Book)
Smokey Hormel
DOOM

ALSO AVAILABLE
Edan
Ryan Trevor
R. Stevie Moore


All of this week's new arrivals.

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/othermusic

 
         
   
       
   
 
 



 
   
   
   
       
   
 
 
NOV Sun 22 Mon 23 Tues 24 Wed 25 Thurs 26 Fri 27 Sat 28
DEC Sun 29 Mon 30 Tues 01 Wed 02 Thurs 03 Fri 04 Sat 05




  UPCOMING INSTORE PERFORMANCES
CAMERA OBSCURA: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 7PM
We're excited to be welcoming Glasgow's Camera Obscura to Other Music this Sunday, who will be stopping by the shop to play a rare acoustic set before their show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg later that evening. Free admission, limited capacity.

IAN MCCULLOCH FROM ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (ACOUSTIC SESSION): THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 @ 9PM
To guarantee a spot for this rare acoustic performance, be one of the first 25 customers to purchase Echo & the Bunnymen's new album, The Fountain, from Other Music. The remaining tickets will be issued first-come, first-served, free of charge at the store on the night of the performance.

 
   
   
 
 
NOV Sun 22 Mon 23 Tues 24 Wed 25 Thurs 26 Fri 27 Sat 28


  WIN TICKETS TO TALK NORMAL & SONIC YOUTH
Brooklyn art-punk duo Talk Normal will be sharing the bill with another group that knows a thing or two about art-punk, when they open for Sonic Youth next Tuesday, November 24th at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Talk Normal's label, Rare Book Room, has given Other Music a pair of tickets for us to offer to our Update readers. To enter, send an email to tickets@othermusic.com. We'll notify the winner on Friday, November 20th.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24
MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG: 66 North Sixth Street Williamsburg, Brooklyn

 
   
   
 
 
NOV Sun 22 Mon 23 Tues 24 Wed 25 Thurs 26 Fri 27 Sat 28


  TICKET GIVE AWAY TO AUDION (MATTHEW DEAR)
Matthew Dear's darker guise, Audion, will be performing a live set at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Saturday, November 28th. While his performances have always been thrilling, Dear is going even deeper into his Audion world with this new live show, fusing man and machine into an indistinguishable unit, with custom video from Will Calcutt and Eno Henze. Opening the night will be Clark Warner, one of Detroit's most exciting and original DJs. To enter for tickets, send an email to giveaway@othermusic.com. We'll pick two winners on Monday, November 23rd.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28
(LE) POISSON ROUGE: 158 Bleeker Street NYC

 
   
   
 
 
DEC Sun 29 Mon 30 Tues 01 Wed 02 Thurs 03 Fri 04 Sat 05


  WIN TICKETS TO THE BIG PINK
On Thursday, December 3rd, British noise-pop duo the Big Pink will be performing at the Bowery Ballroom supporting their breakthrough album, A Brief History of Love, out now on 4AD. As an added bonus, LA's Crystal Antlers will be rounding out the bill with their raw, organ-driven psych-rock sounds. Enter for tickets by emailing contest@othermusic.com. We'll notify the winner on Monday, November 23rd.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3
BOWERY BALLROOM: 6 Delancey Street NYC

 
   
   
   
       
   

 

 

     
 

$5.99
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  ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Brother Sport
(Domino)

We have a retail exclusive on this new single from our brothers Animal Collective, a vinyl-only 10" that includes Merriweather Post Pavillion's "Brother Sport" on the A-side, backed with "Bleeding," a stellar live version of a new song "Bleed" from the forthcoming Fall Be Kind EP due out December 15. Limited quantities, get 'em while you can!

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  MATTHEW HALSALL
Colour Yes
(Gondwana)

Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store

Outrageously good new jazz album from Matthew Halsall, a 25-year-old trumpeter from Manchester who has impossibly managed to create an entire album that just feels totally timeless. Halsall beautifully combines the modal jazz and spiritual lyricalness of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, with the stately grandeur of an earlier generation of British improvisers and composers like Stan Tracey, Keith Tippet, and John Surman. Obviously, just about every jazz musician alive is influenced by John Coltrane, but on this album Halsall and his cohorts absolutely nail some ineffable quality that remains out of reach for the vast majority of his peers, and even elders. Completely haunting and tender ballads filled with evocative pauses and ample space that somehow manage to steer clear of bland uniformity, while a judicious use of harp to provide soft accents and rhythmic counterpoint enriches the proceedings greatly. Halsall's star will undoubtedly be on the rise, as this is honestly a near perfect album, easily the best jazz LP I've heard in ages, and in my opinion one of the year's best in any genre to boot. [MK]

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  REAL ESTATE
Real Estate
(Woodsist)

"Fake Blues"
"Green River"

Nondescript in both name and appearance, New Jersey's Real Estate have been kicking around for a short while, issuing a handful of singles and tracks that document their shimmering brand of near-ethereal suburban ennui and thoroughly of-the-moment lo-fi psychedelic pop. Seemingly consumed by a quest for their own endless summer, the bands' tracks serve as blissful, unassuming paeans to things like the Jersey shore, swimming, and even refreshing drinks, all soaked in lazy rhythms and gently intertwining guitars. Familiar though it may be, the approach and unassuming demeanor add up to make Real Estate, the foursome's debut full-length, supremely comforting, especially as the mercury starts to drop.

Though some of Real Estate's members do time in more abstract and experimental projects like Predator Vision and Ducktails (Etienne Duguay and Matt Mondanile, respectively), there's a breezy simplicity to the ten songs gathered here. Channeling bits and pieces of the Feelies and Galaxie 500, songs like "Beach Comber" and "Black Lake" drape themselves in generous layers of reverb, allowing the chiming guitars and gently insistent drums to almost float away on sly melodies. With nary a minute of filler to be found amongst the whole album, other songs like the instrumental "Atlantic City" and the outstanding "Snow Days" (which, despite its title remains one of the sunniest pieces here) find Real Estate continuing to bask in an iridescent glow of a series of quiet, unassuming hooks. A surprisingly great debut, Real Estate is sure to help you through those cold winter months, with plenty of mileage left for next summer's blistering heat. [MC]

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  WASHED OUT
Life of Leisure
(Mexican Summer)

There's been a good deal of buzz surrounding Ernest Green's Washed Out project, and deservedly so. In the humble opinion of this listener, Green is responsible for what is one of the most effortlessly refreshing, infectious records of the year. Back in August, Mexican Summer released Life of Leisure solely in the digital format -- not surprisingly, catching the attention of the hyperactive blog community -- and the EP is now available on vinyl (albeit a limited pressing), a format that nicely suits its contents.

Much has been made of Green's music; Pitchfork described it as "bedroom synthpop that sounds blurred and woozily evocative, like someone smeared Vaseline all over an early OMD demo tape," and that's not far off. Another way to sum up tracks like "New Theory" and "Hold Out" might be to say this is what Cut Copy might sound like if they intended to soundtrack 5AM instead of 1AM. Some tracks wallow in a sweet teen nostalgia, a John Hughes movie feeling that you'll always be safe, protected in a cocoon of hazy, high daydreams and good friends, while the world outside your window is for nothing if not benign mischief, all night adventures and romantic discovery. Ultimately, it all inevitably leads to watching the sun come up over a bright and smoggy LA morning. Yes, Washed Out is evocative of such a world.

"New Theory" is a make-out jam for the ages, and will fit snugly on the crush mixtape of my mind with "Crimson & Clover" and Martin Rev's "Mari." "You'll See It" is, like many tracks here, somehow able to be epic in under three minutes, sounding like Panda Bear collaborating with the Dial or Kompakt guys. Meanwhile, though it's clear Green has an ear for hip-hop -- "Get Up" might appeal to fans of Flying Lotus or J Dilla, and his low-fi approach to recording/sampling is not worlds away from Madlib -- and equally has an ear for leftfield dance tracks, he doesn't pick style over song. Sure, there are traces of classic electronic pop, Hacienda-era club jams, '80s movie theme atmospherics and wonky hip-hop, but he doesn't let genre dictate. Which is part of what makes Life of Leisure such a perfect listen, and such a lovely narcotic. Here's hoping there's much more where this came from. [AG]

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  MAYFAIR SET
Young Ones
(Woodsist)

"Already Warm"
"Desert Fun"

This CD collects the debut 7" single and 12" EP by the bi-coastal bedroom recording behemoth that brings the minds behind Blank Dogs and the Dum Dum Girls together in one of the more inspired pairings of the past few years. The overall sound is closer to the gauzy, cough-syrup haze of the Blank Dogs than the buzz-saw pop of the Dum Dum Girls, but Dee Dee's voice lends a more human and alluring (dare I say sexy?) aura to the proceedings. It makes the "bedroom goth" tag that I've seen bandied about into one of the more apt descriptions in recent memory. The two songs from the 7" single lead things off and they are great, but the six tracks from the EP are even better, in particular, the exquisite "Dark House," which is full of drama and in my opinion even rivals prime-era Siouxsie and the Banshees. The song just begs repeated listens and gets better with each one. [DMa]

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SUN RA
Interplanetary Melodies
(Norton)

"Daddy's Gonna Tell You No Lie" Cosmic Rays
"If Only I Hadn't Sinned" Qualities


SUN RA
The Second Stop Is Jupiter
(Norton)

"Dreaming" Cosmic Rays
"I'm So Glad You Love Me" Juanita Rogers


SUN RA
Rocket Ship Rock
(Norton)

"Tell Her to Come on Home" Little Mack
"The Sun Man Speaks" Yochanan

A few years back, Evidence released a two-CD set of Singles by Sun Ra and crew, which was an amazing collection of some of Ra's earliest, most thrilling (and unexpected) tracks, featuring doo-wop singers, male crooners, and wailing, high-spirited R&B vocalists. Now, some ten-plus years later, Norton Records goes even deeper, reissuing three separate CDs/LPs that focus on Ra's late-'50s musings for small vocal groups and various singers. Each of these volumes not only features the actual single version from the Saturn Records catalogue, but also includes previously un-issued home, studio and rehearsal recordings.

The first two discs contain some of my favorite tracks from Ra's extensive output, highlighting his vocal work with the Cosmic Rays, Nu Sounds, Qualities and Juanita Rogers. Tracks like the Cosmic Rays' "Dreaming," "Somebody's in Love," and "Daddy's Gonna Tell You No Lie" (which Jamie Lidell covered for his Muddlin Gear album) are all great examples of the vision and beauty of Ra's productions, as well as his ear for a silky smooth, yet quite otherworldly male vocal. That said, volume three is where things get all funky and freaky, but I won't spoil the back-story, since all of these discs have great liner notes that detail the whole behind-the-scenes adventures. Here, the spotlight is turned on the soloists that Ra took under his wing, and his choices are so on point it's scary. Singers like Little Mack, Lacy Gibson, Ebah, Don (Dino) Dean and Yochanan (whose fevered renditions of "I Am Gonna Unmask the Batman" and "Hot Skillet Mama" are almost too good to believe) bring to mind a mix of Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Li'l Wayne (yeah, that's right) and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

Although these three discs pre-date Sun Ra's intergalactic journey into a future of his own design, they are often stunning examples of his great vocals, spacey melodies and leftfield approach, and they show the groundbreaking artist's roots to great effect, and are an excellent starting point for understanding his music. If, on the other hand, you are well into Ra's lengthy discography, these will probably be the missing links of your collection, and are necessary. Collectively, these three volumes get my vote for reissue of the year, not to mention that all are available on vinyl for the first time since the original singles. Great stuff not to be slept on! [DG]

Interplanetary Melodies
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The Second Stop Is Jupiter
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Rocket Ship Rock

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  XENO & OAKLANDER
Sentinelle
(Wierd)

Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store

After several self-released CD-Rs, compilation appearances and countless live shows, Wierd label vets Miss Liz Wendlebo (Xeno and Staccato) and Sean McBride (Martial Canterel, Three to Forgotten) have finally unleashed their much-anticipated "official" debut album. Years in the making and done entirely live in the studio on nothing but authentic vintage analog equipment, Sentinelle is marked by a spine-tingling collision of extreme analog synth-wave beat structures and coldly romantic, dramatic melodies, sheathed in sheets of raw sound. If you've heard previous Xeno and Martial Canterel releases you might be happy to know that although the dark OMD and Xymox qualities are still there (see the soaring "Saracen" and the beautiful "Shadow World"), there is also a French coldwave-meets-Kraftwerk element in tracks like "Werke," "Toho Picture" and the cavernous "Another," which has a vibe similar to Death in June's "All Alone in Her Nirvana." There's also a touch of dark, macabre romance in the powerful title track, the slow, epic "Rendezvouz D'or" and the beautiful, icy album closer "Vagabond," while the excellent vocal trades between Wendlebo and McBride throughout the album (singing both in English and French) gives a newfound edge to their sound. The time and effort put into this record really comes through; it is surprising and wonderful to hear such complexity and power from a project that was in need of so few improvements! Still pure. Still raw. Still cold. Excellent work. [SM]

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  CIRCUIT RIDER
Circuit Rider
(The Bookworm)

OK, we are about to embark on a long, dark, strange trip right here and now. I don't know what one packs for this sort of trek except a cigarette lighter, plenty of gasoline and a pocket-sized photo of Jim Morrison...not that it'll matter in end 'cause we're inevitably gonna fly right off the black cliffs of Hades and straight into oblivion. Biker dudes Circuit Rider's sole LP was privately released in 1980 in a circulation of some 300 copies (give or take a hundred), and it's quite possibly the most out of time record I've ever heard. 1971 sounds more like it, with vocalist Thorn Oehrig spewing out deranged but strangely poetic Morrison-isms about freedom, death, tripping, and riding that hog, while the band is jamming a subterranean, psychedelic blues. It's not "psych" as such but the vibe definitely is. Like David Allan Coe living it up with Nicodemus and Ya Ho Wa. And yeah, the Doors at their most mystical and f*cked up. It's pretty amazing how high the bar was set for a bunch of biker burnouts, and, oh brother, do they succeed. I'll be ridin' this one for years and years, and thus I give it six Paul Major's out of six. Limited to 800, with a nice, heavy cardboard sleeve, so you know what to do... [AK]

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  LOVE
Love Lost
(Sundazed)

"I Can't Find It"
"Good & Evil"

Arthur Lee is simply the man. Not as in "The Man" we Negroes fear and loathe -- but as the last true rock star. The depth of his stature and claim to such a title was emphatically demonstrated over and again during the last few years of the erstwhile Love-man's life, when this eternal fan caught his act several times in New York and Los Angeles. Whether swelled with Swedish strings or stripped down to punk essentials courtesy of Baby Lemonade (and once, on the Strip, Johnny Echols!), those performances of Love's 1967 landmark (and Sgt. Pepper riposte) Forever Changes re-situated Arthur Lee as the final great link to the pantheon of singing-guitar mavericks of the genre including the Elder Utah Smith, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley. Lee was deemed eccentric because he didn't reserve his rock & roll finery for the stage, controversial because -- as Bam-Bam's presidency is showing -- the world is still scared of a genius colored boy. A unique, feral power emanated undiminished unto the end from the Memphis native who was self-anointed as the "first so-called black hippie" and founded the psych-rock cult of Love in Los Angeles in 1965. Yet pain and internal strife was often Lee's lot, long before he expired from myeloid leukemia in 2006.

After the iconic prelude to suicide that was Forever Changes, the newly excavated Sundazed release of Love Lost, originally recorded in 1971 for Columbia, illustrates the complicated transition of the precocious young artist who survived the end times he had foreseen. Gone is the baroque and bravura of Changes, swept away to present a soul stripped down to the barest twang and blue note hallmarks of his southern cultural heritage. It's somehow fitting that Love Lost comes from the rock & roller and metallic connector whose masterpiece was slated to be produced by Neil Young and who claimed to be the key mentor-progenitor of Jimi Hendrix. (Would that this collection were the hypothetical super-session that should have been consummated by Lee and Young). Reframing the portrait of 1970s Arthur Lee, Love Lost throws down in the barn with Young's proto-grunge of the same period and also -- not just because he covers the Voodoo Chile's "Ezy Ryder" and invokes his style on cuts like "I Can't Find It" and the majestic "Product of the Times" -- seems to serve as a sonic exorcism in the vein of Tonight's the Night. Love Lost could be viewed as the Singing Cowboy mourning not just the then-recent loss of his fellow Afro-freaky-deak lone ranger but of his own relative golden era sourced between Clark and Hilldale. This is essential listening to ken the dark heart of a wholly original artist who, despite his early laurels and legend, outlived his initial cultural moment and genre to suffer the albatross of becoming as lost to time as this long-player from the vaults. [KCH]

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  ANNIE
Don't Stop
(Smalltown Supersound)

"My Love Is Better"
"I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me"

After a few years of label drama, leaked tracks, and constant revision, the follow-up to Norwegian electro-pop princess Annie's 2004 debut album, Anniemal, has finally dropped, and hot damn -- I'm surprised to say that it's going to top my personal best of the year list. Annie's first album was a sweet, funky mélange of '80s synth-pop, house- and electro-inspired club beats, and some of the catchiest pop hooks I'd heard in a long time from an artist working in such sounds. There was a reason that one of the record's most popular songs was called "Chewing Gum;" the tunes stuck to the bottom of both your brain and your shoe while you danced yourself into a sweat.

Annie got signed to Island Records sometime in 2007, and her next album was originally set to come out the following year. She had a few singles released, made videos, and tried to work the major-label machinery. It never clicked, the record was delayed countless times, and before a full-length ever emerged, Annie left Island, taking her masters with her. She recorded a handful of new songs, dropped a few of the old ones (including ALL of the singles which Island issued -- though those are included on the bonus disc of the 2CD version of the album), and tweaked the mixes on what remained from the old version of the record. In all honesty, this new version of the album is a vast improvement over the original, from the cover art to the sequence to the tunes themselves, which are filled with confidence and bold, brash pop moves. And you get the impression listening to this record that Annie knows that she's hanging on by the seat of her pants in terms of expectations and reception in a total fly or die scenario, yet at the same time she seems in absolute control of her powers. The songs here are bouncy and club-ready, yet there's a dark undercurrent hiding beneath many of them that illustrates more explicitly her failed liaison with the bigwigs, and perhaps as a result illustrates the ingredient that was missing from the earlier version of the album.

Then there are the songs themselves. Don't Stop plays like an album of the vinyl era, at a nice and tidy 45 minutes, with side 1 top-loaded with many of the hit-potential singles and club bangers, while side 2 gets introspective, dubby, and at times, gleefully bonkers. Opener "Hey Annie" bursts out of the gate with a mix of Bow Wow Wow and Kylie Minogue, all tribal drums, laser-guided synths, and stadium cheers, while Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos adds guitar moves to the sassy club-rock tunes "My Love Is Better" and "Loco." The assured glee in which she tells a lukewarmly talented lover "I Don't Like Your Band" is pure witty delight. In it, she instructs her indie-rock man to ditch his influences and start listening to Kraftwerk and Moroder, explicitly stating, "It's not you, it's your tunes." She then illustrates precisely what she's talking about on the album's next song and arguable high point, "Songs Remind Me of You," perhaps her biggest pop move so far, and one of her most striking tunes yet, combining pulsating robotics straight out of a Moroder/Italo jam with her sensual laments of an old producer ex whose sound has struck gold.

As I've stated earlier, this album is overtly, unashamedly POP. There's a sheen and polish on everything that may turn some people away, but the tracks are filled with little off-kilter production oddities that may equally turn off the pure pop fans. Annie has always been savvy and intelligent enough to want and be able to balance those two sides of her dichotomy quite effectively. I'll say this -- releasing a record that can appeal to both a seasoned record dork like myself as well as my teenage Gossip Girl-loving sisters is as close to true artistic success as a pop singer can get these days. We're a long way from that golden age of MTV personality and the "danger" we as youth felt while being wrapped up in its exploits, but this record actually makes me believe that pop's not quite at the vapid depths that Kanye and Lady Gaga et al. will convince you it has reached. Highest recommendation, seriously. [IQ]

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  VARIOUS ARTISTS
Dubstep Allstars Volume 7: Mixed by Chef and Ramadanman
(Tempa)

"Tell Me (Distance Remix)" Mr. Lager feat. Alys Be
"I Can't Stop This Feeling (Pangaea Remix)" Untold

Volume seven in the Dubstep Allstars series is a double-header with two different and very distinctive DJs steering each disc. On CD-one, Chef serves up a tight mix of tracks from Skream, Benga, Distance and LD, among others, with several exclusive dub and special VIP re-workings adding an excitedly fresh angle to a few of the more familiar cuts. But where Chef sticks to the basics in a sense, his selection being unmistakably "dubstep," Ramadanman takes things into the future with his mix on CD-two. Highlights include Martyn, Scuba, Peverelist, RSD, as well as some of his own tracks, and for my money Ramadanman's disc is undoubtedly the winner of the two, thanks to a progressive ear for artists and sounds. But both CDs are super-hyped-up excursions that showcase the varying sides and styles within the dubstep genre, Chef and Ramadanman offering two of the most exciting sets that I've heard in a while, making this an essential excursion. [DG]

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  KIM FOWLEY
One Man's Garbage: Lost Treasures from the Vaults 1959 to 1969 Vol 1
(Norton)

"Underground Lady"
"Bodacious" The Underground Rockets


KIM FOWLEY
Another Man's Gold: Lost Treasures from the Vaults 1959 to 1969 Vol 2
(Norton)

"Geronimo" The Renegades
"Gone but Not Forgotten" The Cover Girls

"Who is Kim Fowley?" "Kim who?" "Did you say Kim...that's a guy?" These are some of the questions I've been getting over the past few months while trying to pour Fowley's genius down people's throats. Kim Fowley is everything that everyone who's ever picked up a guitar, signed a record contract, twiddled a knob in a studio, or had dreams of rock and roll stardom wants to be. There isn't a thing the guy hasn't done, whether it's eating fried chicken with Muddy Waters in pre-'65 riots Watts, producing number one hits and unforgettable oddities from artists of all stripes, penning songs for everyone from Cat Stevens to Soft Machine, the Beach Boys to Kiss, creating the Runaways (who is playing Kim in the movie??) or recording some of the most whacked-out, ahead of their time, proto-everything solo albums.

Norton, always ahead of the curve (and usually behind the times), just released two beautifully packaged gatefold compilations of Fowley's early productions: One Man's Garbage (vol. 1) and Another Man's Gold (vol. 2). These records focus on the rarely heard side to Fowley's early work (he had certifiable smashes in this era with songs like "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" and "Alley Oop" and the Raider's first hit "Long Hair"), and contain everything from girl groups jams, teen-beat ditties, surf rock, "oldies but goodies," bizarre spoken word high school revenge narratives and doo-wop influenced early rock n' roll and California pop. Although a lot of these tracks were hastily written and recorded (some of them in a few hours!), they are important documents of an era when people weren't crafting songs to make a full-length album, but were doing it to get on the radio and to get famous! It's Hollywood, baby, and that's where you found Kim in the late '50s/early '60s. He was literally pulling some of these people off the street, auditioning them on the spot and throwing them in the studio to record. Think of him as the alternative Phil Spector, more street level, dirtier, and underground. These tracks are part of the canon of American music that hasn't survived the filter of Oldies Radio, and they are just a few of the thousands upon thousands of songs he cranked out, pressed up on small labels with names like Rubbish and Last Chance, that have vanished into obscurity.

One's Man's Garbage has a great, great track called "This Is Paradise" by the Rituals that's full of banging tambourine, minimal drumming, and jangly guitar work (think the current wave of lo-fi Brooklyn bands), while side 2 is full of bangers, including oddball novelty tracks like "The Yo-Yo Song" which features a guy named Mo singing about a yo-yo over piano, drums and all kinds of out-there analog effects, the Dick Dale-ish "Inferno" by Johnny C. and the Blazes, and Fowley himself freaking out about music being the magic ("Music Is Magic")! Things start to become really unhinged when we get to "Worst Record Ever Made" by Althea and the Memories. The track features Fowley on vocals chronicling the history of rock n' roll ("have you ever heard of Roy Orbison or the Crystaaaaaals, are you gonna stop rhythm and blues?"), as Althea and the Memories scream and talk while singing "Louie Louie" in the background. In the amazingly detailed liner notes, he refers to them as a bunch of ghetto girls he met at a hot dog stand. He recorded them in one take, they pressed 100 copies, started a record label to release the track, and in 1963, had a hit. There you have it in a nutshell -- the genius of Kim Fowley. [CS]

One Man's Garbage
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Another Man's Gold
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  SHINDG!
Annual Number 2 Book
(Shindig)

The second installment of the Shindig! Annual collects articles from out of print issues of the magazine, including interviews and features on the Sonics, Youngbloods, Moby Grape, T. Rex, Gary Walker & the Rain, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Dukes of Stratosphear, Charlatans, and a long expose on the 1965-67 San Francisco scene. The great thing about the Annual is that many of the articles are overhauled and expanded, with additional rare photographs, and the whole thing is beautifully designed in Shindig!'s eye-popping pop art/psychedelic style. Hardcover, 112 pages...and fully endorsed by yours truly! [AK]

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  SMOKEY HORMEL
Smokey's Secret Family
(Afro Sambas)

"Cheri Ami Ngai"
"Banaketwe"

Guitarist Smokey Hormel has played with a huge list of top-shelf musicians and songwriters over the years, including Beck, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Miho Hatori, Tom Waits, and many more. Over the years he's dabbled in blues, bossa nova, samba, and rock; on his newest album, he tries his hand at African dance band music from the 1950s and '60s (inspired in no small part, I think, by some treks through Other Music's own international section). With a band of top-notch players including David Byrne sideman and Forro in the Dark leader Mauro Refosco, downtown NYC reedsman Doug Wieselman, and Vinicius Cantuaria, among others, the group tackles excellent tunes by Franco, Luiz Gonzaga, and a host of others with a beautiful sound that's heavy on the Afro-Latin vibes of Congolese rhumba and soukous music, overflowing with horns, small percussion, and of course, killer guitar licks. The arrangements are gorgeous, filled with plenty of funk yet retaining the subtle, relaxed vibes of its origins. Recommended! [IQ]

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  DOOM
Unexpected Guests
(Gold Dust)

"My Favourite Ladies"
"E.N.Y. House"

In an effort to tide us over while Doom and Madlib finish their next installment in the Madvillian saga, the man behind the mask selects and compiles a career-spanning retrospective of his collaborations and tacks on some exclusive cuts including "Sorcerers" from his early KMD days. Doom has always been open to drop a verse or produce a track for other like-minded rappers, and here we find him paired with Talib Kweli, Vast Aire, Masta Killa, Ghostface, Scienz of Life, Count Bass D, and J-Dilla. As you would expect, this is a funny, funky collection with the usual amount of double entendres, animated storytelling and lyrical lunacy. These tracks could have easily slipped by the casual Doom fan had they not been compiled here, and quite honestly, this plays very much like a Doom full-length, just with a lot of great guests. [DG]

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  EDAN
Echo Party
(Five Day Weekend)




Producer extraordinaire Edan brings you Echo Party, a 29-minute behemoth replete with manipulated samples, crunchy beats and swirling psychedelia. Culled from Traffic Entertainment Group's incredible catalog of soul, disco, hip-hop, and more, the samples herein are of the authentic, esoteric, and infectious variety; the bass grooves alone make this record worth your time and then some.

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  RYAN TREVOR
Introducing
(Galactic Zoo)

Drag City/Galactic Zoo have dug up one of those rare private press albums that actually deserve to be unearthed. There is not much info out there about Ryan Trevor, and what is known seems somewhat irrelevant in light of the music on his lone 1977 LP. Aching, haunting, lovely and lysergic pop, from a time when a self-released record this good could slip by unnoticed. Vinyl only, now and forever.

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  R STEVIE MOORE
Phonography
(ReR Megacorp)

"Showing Shadows"
"I Want You in My Life"

Hard to believe this one is just now being reissued, but it was worth the wait. R. Stevie Moore's debut, recorded all by his lonesome in the living room just before punk bloomed, is a gem any way it comes to you. We stumbled across a charming contemporary Trouser Press review by Ira Robbins that compared it to Thunderclap Newman, Todd Rundgren, and the Bonzo Dog Band, and there you have it. Lo-fi power-pop for the terminally weird.

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  All of this week's new arrivals.

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THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS

[MC] Michael Crumsho
[AGe] Alexis Georgopoulos
[DG] Daniel Givens
[KCH] Kandia Crazy Horse
[IQ] Mikey IQ Jones
[AK] Andreas Knutsen
[MK] Michael Klausman
[DMa] Dave Martin
[SM] Scott Mou
[CS] Christian Schaal







THANKS FOR READING
- all of us at Other Music

 
         
   
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