Dirt Fisherman Tattoo 7"

Dirt Fisherman - Tattoo 7"
1991

Side A
Tattoo Rock
Sonic Goo

Side B
Lessons Learned
Hole Song


Dirt Fisherman was from Boise but I saw them play at least a couple times in Spokane and was really into them as a "semi-local" band at the time. I found this at Everyday Music here in portland many years after seeing them. I used to have two of their albums on cassette. Vena Cava and something else... uh... don't remember. Both those albums were released on the epic C/Z label.

inserts:

front

back


stickers:

Waterman's Hollow

Waterman's Hollow - s/t CD 1993

So Far So Good
Scott's Song
Mine Own
Soul Searchin'
Thunder
Chicken Soup
Happy Green Ribbon
Those Scenes
In My Garden
I Do Recall
Volumes On Volumes
Watchglass
Goin' Drivin'
Meadow
If I'm Blind

Bonnie Blue, but not the flag.

2000 - Bonnie "Blue" Billy
"Little Boy Blue" 7-inch

Side A - little boy blue I (George Jones)

blue boy (Boudleaux Bryant)

Side B - little boy blue II (Bobbie "Blue" Bland)

I bought this record directly from whoever was distributing it back in 2000 when it came out. I had just gotten into the whole Palace action thing and the listing for the 7-inch in the catalog said it had a limit of two copies per store. That meant it was gonna be pretty severely limited. Plus it was a UK import (released only for the UK by Western Vinyl out of texas??). Plus it was on blue and grey marbled vinyl.
Ahhh yes, the truly depraved vinyl fetishists out there are with me. How can you let that slide past you when you see it coming?
So yeah, I bought it the day it arrived from the distributor and I'm sure I threw it on and listened to it as soon as I skated or biked home to the house I was living in up in the Hollywood District back then.
So what's going on on this thing? None of these songs appear on any other Will Oldham release that I am aware of, and, in fact, none of them are even songs written by him. A 7" of covers. Apparently grouped together because of a common thread of having the words "blue" and "boy" in them.
OK, fair enough. This is exactly the kind of exercise that low-print-run import 7"s are for. The single doesn't slack on quality though. The covers are all given really nice, thoughtful treatments and somehow the title theme actually does seem to make the whole thing come together into a cohesive mood.
When you hit Side B though you'll find the heart of this seven inch. Will Oldham is in a pretty distinctly different place with this cover and you can hear it. He sounds intimate with the song. This is hard to do. Lots of people feel like they can own certain covers, but really? No. No they can't. This is one of the rare occassions for me where I feel like the performer of the cover really could have written the song. It's pretty awesome. I would even go as far as to guess that he came up with the whole concept for this 7" just to release this song. It would perfectly explain why he uses the moniker Bonnie "Blue" Billy as the song was written by none other than Bobby "Blue" Bland. (credited as "b. bland" on the sticker)
I've listened to this 7" many many many times over the 9 years since I first bought it, and you'll be able to tell by the slightly scritchyness on side B.
Sorry.
I don't know anyone else who has a copy, so this is what you get. :)
Enjoy!

The dream of what love could be...

1970 - Band Of Gold

I think almost everyone knows the song 'Band Of Gold'. You could easily argue that it's one of the greatest soul songs of all time. If you don't find yourself singing along with this song like you fucking wrote it yourself, choking on every lyric, then you are a cold, dead husk and I hope there's a way to fix you, you Scrooge. :(
Also, there's something sick about the drummer on this song. Not sick like a guy in a Mountain Dew commercial would describe his "brah's" snowboard trick. No. Sick like, someone make sure that guy's doing ok. Is he about to snap?
Jesus.
Talk about single-minded, relentless drive... It's almost maddening.
Anyway, alot of you already know this.
However, NOT many of you have listened to the rest of this record.
You totally should.
This album is smoldering hot.


Freda is fucking amazing on every one of these songs. She totally owns it. The whole damn thing is a classic and everyone deserves to have this music in their lives.
Of interest also, is the fact that many of these songs were co-written with Ron Dunbar who later went on to help create the Parliament and Funkadelic worlds.
You can't get this on CD. Never was such a thing made in this country. You can either dish out a bunch of cash for an original vinyl copy, or order a fucking ridiculously expensive CD from Germany.
Oh, and there used to be a ridiculously expensive Japanese version of the CD. It's out of print though.
This is a tragedy I cannot abide by.
Rock this record.
Rock it damnit.

Check this bad-ass woman's website as well:
"Whatever! It's all good..."

oh sweet starjob...

1997 - Star Job EP


I love this record... SO much. This is Chicago area freak cult band the Frogs, all dressed up for a hot, slick rock show.
Gone(!) are the trademark, ultra lo-fi jabs. In with the ultra-slick production and rock wild guitar heroics!!
The Frogs do not let go of their urges to make broad, infantile and intentionally wildly offensive jabs at everything in their path though, for which, I thank them.This is a crystal perfect beheading of the era of the rock star, written in the language of big ROCK.
The album is produced by Billy Corgan under the pseudonym 'Billy Goat' and certainly features some of his guitar playing. Probably a lot actually.
But wait.. isn't Billy Corgan a HUGE rock star?
yes. yes he is.
The Frogs gladly handjob him right onto the record with commendable shamelessness and even drop his name with a wink wink nudge nudge.
Did I mention I love this record?God damn. Yes I do.
It might not even be my favorite Frogs record though...
I dunno.

(A really nice thing that you could do is buy this album (plus TEN bonus tracks!) directly from the band!)


I love it so much that shortly before I left Tea For Julie, I played in a Frogs tribute band. Not just a Frogs tribute, we were a tribute to specifically this EP. We called ourselves 'Starjob'. What else?
I was playing bass and keyboards. Michael from TFJ was on guitar and vocals. Kenny Erlick was playing guitar as well, and our friend Flapjack who formerly drummed for Icanlickanysonofabitchinthehouse was behind the kit. Practice consisted of... well... mostly it was an excuse to drink retarded amounts of tequila and smash our way through a cover of the EP. We did these practices... six, maybe seven times(?) and I did all kinds of wild damage to the physical structure of my bass and found out that the two ten Ampeg cabinet I have actually lights up if you push it too far into feedback! Who knew?! When I quit TFJ I pretty much quit this band by default, but we were gonna be awesome man...
totally rad...

Googley Moog-ley!

1969 - The Age Of Electronicus

60's pop, funk and soul hits played by Dick Hyman, on the Moog? What isn't fucking awesome about that? If you don't find something to like about this record you probably like to see baby kitties and puppies die.


A track list is in order, so you might be further enticed into this weird bubble!

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Give It Up Or Turn It Loose
Blackbird
Aquarius
Green Onions
Kolumbo
Time Is Tight
Alfie
Both Sides Now

Enjoy!

A pleasant summery memory for our day of snow

1999 - Let's Start A Family 7"
Sub Pop Singles Club June

I was never in the Sub Pop Singles Club. I have moved too often for such things. I did however, get onto the Sub Pop website back in spring of 2002 and order myself a copy of the vinyl reissue of Mudhoney's 'Superfuzz Bigmuff'. I'm from Washington state and that record is like mother's milk to me, so... I can't help myself.
I had really enjoyed the Bonnie Billy album 'Ease On Down The Road'. I should do a blog for that one. It's the dirtiest little lullabye of a record you're likely to hear.
Sorry. I'll stop with the tangents.
So...Sub Pop website. While perusing the website I saw this seven inch for sale. I figured it was worth dropping a few extra bucks to hear it.
I had moved out to Beaverton (which ended up sucking crazy amounts of ass) to live alone in a one-bedroom apartment. However, that first couple months was a pleasant summer retreat from the everyone-ness of living in Portland. I kinda forgot about ordering it. Not that it took an incredibly long time or anything. The day this showed up was a pleasant surprise upon returning from an early day of working. It's always nice to get something that isn't a bill from the postman. The songs are perfectly summery, mellow, and calm and always bring me back to sitting on my second floor back patio in that apartment, smoking a cigarette in an anonymous, cookie-cutter apartment complex in the burbs. No one around. Just me and my records. A pile of books to read, and a new (used) leather armchair. I didn't run into anyone I knew when I went out to buy groceries. Ever. It was ecstatic and cathartic. Immediately, the sound of these two songs became the anthem for that little slice of time.

The streets of Harlem in the early 80's

1984 - Crash Crew

The Crash Crew came together in the Lincoln projects in Harlem back in 1977, the year after I was born.
While this record was released in 1984, what we really have here is a document of the first few Crash Crew 12" singles, which were released between 1980 and 1983 on vanity labels and also, on the famous Sugar Hill label, which issued this LP.
That's all I got in me right this second. I'll add some meat to this post later. Good night! :)

...and it only took 12 years to find it!

1986 - Girl In The Sweater / I Heard Her Call My Name 7"

Back in 1993 or 1994 I was a junior in high school and dating this girl whose mother was an exchange teacher from Australia. She had some mix-tapes that her friend back in Woolongong had made for her that we listened to together bunches of times. Apparently she had forgotten to pack one or something because she was always looking for a tape that had this elusive song called "Girl In The Sweater" which she wanted to play for me.The song was by a band called the Hard-Ons, who were a very popular old-school punk band back in Australia. Many times she frantically tried to find that cassette and many times she made me promise that I would continue to look for this song for the rest of my life or until I found it, whichever should come first.
I can honestly say that probably because of her manic insistence, or perhaps because of how much other great music she had turned me on to, I did in fact search for it. And search, and search, and search...
I had no problems finding material by the Hard-Ons. They are pretty well known in Australia, and the UK, and aren't completely unknown these days in the states among serious punk collectors and enthusiasts. This song though... God damnit. I could have sworn that she made that shit up!! No fucking trace of any such song, even after working for years in used record stores, where I got to see and listen to pretty much every weird, obscure record that ever existed.
Nothing.
Then, one day, about three years ago, I was just kind of wandering around the Clinton neighborhood, waiting to meet a friend at Dot's and decided to pop in to this really great little record store called Green Noise. I browsed around and found a great old record of early Roy Orbison recordings and was close to leaving when I thought, "Oh, I should look for Hard-Ons" (yeah, haha) I went to the "H" lps and there it was. Right in front. A yellow covered record by the Hard-Ons. Self-titled. I had never seen or even heard of such a thing. I flipped it to the back, and there it was, 'Girl In The Sweater'. I flipped it back over.
$80
*erkkkkkkkkkkk*
That wasn't going to happen. :( However, the owner of the store was nice enough to let me put the record on a turntable and listen to it in headphones. Finally.
A few months later somebody from London via the interweb traded me a copy of the 7" version for a 7" I had of green day.
Sucker.
Sarah and I still keep in touch. She's busy back in Sydney being a bad-ass teacher/art-curator/musician and though I talk to her relatively regularly, I don't think I ever told her that I found that goddamned song.
She is getting married in March or something and I won't be able to go, but in honor of her engagement I dedicate this post to her. Congratulations Sarah! May your marriage be even lovelier than chips!

Thurston was hiding out in St John's

1995 - Cindy (Rotten Tanx) 7"

This seven inch was released as a promotional item for the 1995 record 'Psychic Hearts'. I could go on and on and on about that record and it definitely belongs in my Top Ten Records Of All Time list, but this post is only related to that album by proxy, and I'm pretty sure that you can easily find a copy of that one if you want to.

I found this little gem hiding in a pile of otherwise totally uninteresting 7"s out at a tiny little record store in St Johns at the far north end of Portland. This same trip to this record store yielded up a Deftones promotional 7" for '7 Words' as well, which people have offered me all kinds of crazy things to trade for including first-born children. Oh, those wacky Deftones fans...
Anyway, this little record has the album track Cindy (Rotten Tanx), a super fucking tough bad-ass of a song that grinds like a night driving in the city, high on youth energy and a joint you snuck past your parents. Doesn't make sense? Listen and maybe it will. The lyrics have something to do with a guy who is rapturing in the idea of wrapping himself up in all the things that are amazing about females, but get a little lost in all the revved up guitar slithering.
The B-Side is the otherwise unreleased track 'Teenage Buddhist Daydream', a gentle, lo-fi, songlette which is interrupted in several spots by seemingly random clips of audio, probably dubbed off a TV. Considering the heft of 'Psychic Hearts' it makes sense that it wasn't included on the record. It isn't a total throw away though, and if you like the album you'll probably want to hear this.

I found this CD on the ground

1997 - 70 Minutes Of Happy: Bulb In Bulbophonic


Yes, I literally found it on the ground. Right in the middle of the street near NE Sandy, close to a nice little townhouse apartment I used to live in with my friend Keira.
It was summer and I had had a crap day at work and it was about a millions degrees outside. I rode my skateboard all the way from the record store I worked at on NE Sandy and 20th to our apartment, which was on like 54th or something. If you are familiar with that patch of Sandy Blvd circa 2000 - 2001, you know that it IS NOT skateboard friendly. 100% uphill and riddled with vicious potholes, shitty, smashed up sidewalks and weird intersections.
Anyway, I had turned up Sacramento to the kind of back approach to the apartment complex, and stopped to sit on the sidewalk and rest before I crawled up the last couple blocks. And there it was. Sitting right in the middle of the street. I picked it up and looked at it. A cdr with a printed disc in a little plastic sleeve with what looked like a photocopied piece of bright pink paper for a cover.
(the scan above I found on the internet. It sucks I know, but I can't find the cd right now...)
I assumed it was for some local band but saw that it was on a label called Bulb, out of Osaka, Japan. I fucking LOVE Osaka! Favorite place ever! I recognized something else as well. A name. Incapacitants. I had never heard these "Incapacitants" but I had heard of them. Infamous japanese godfathers of the Osaka noise scene, and older contemporaries of Hanatarash. This I was excited to hear. I decided to just go ahead and listen to the whole thing from the beginning and I had a discman with me. In it goes. It sounded a little like...
"SSSSSSSSSSSKKKKRR
RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Auh-
GUHH-g-g-g-g-g--g-g-G-G
-g-gkschkreeeeeeeegk... gk...
gk gkgkgk!!!! DOOM".
This stuff isn't for everyone. Hardcore NOISE. Right at that moment though, it was like a perfect reflection of my mood. I was hot, and wanted to crawl out of my body. 15 million annoying reminders of people being rotten and aggressive were wrestling each other in the front of my brain. My skateboard fighting against the jagged, toothy sidewalks and complaining audibly. Surrounded by pushy, careless automobiles with faceless automatonic drivers. Only sounds like these could push them far enough away from me that I'd be able to maybe catch my breath and assemble my thoughts reasonably. It sounded perfect.

The cover is cryptic and the track list spotty. Some tracks don't even list an artist, or just say "???" When I find the CD, I'll make sure and put up an accurate transcription of the track listing as it is listed on the cover. Til then, you can listen. :)
As far as I can tell this thing is very very uncommon and out of print. The label doesn't even seem to have a website anymore. Anyone have any more info on this thing?

1990 drops knowledge

1990 - Holy Intellect

Another request, and another totally out of print album. This is for my good friend Jon down in Nashville, fighting the consumer hoards, and making the streets safe for the children. Poor Righteous Teachers. The name really takes you right there all by itself, doesn't it? 1990. Oh, 1990... I bet the first time I heard this I was rocking a pair of bright red denim shorts, a cross colours or Malcolm X hat: and a giant t-shirt with a Loony Toons character on it. Maybe someone said to me, "Hey man, is that the new 'Black Sheep' cassette? Shit.. you should check out these cats PRT!" and I was probably like "Wow man, these guys are fresh!" And I was right.

*
1 Luv 2 tha Nation of Gods and Earths son!
*
"It's only like 5% out of a hundred..."

honey bliss light melt

2002 - Kali Yug Express

This one is just plain gorgeous and in it's own nice little place. A separate slice of what the Sonik were up to while delving into one of my favorite discs, 'Murray Street'. As far as I can tell this little EP is out of print.

Sweet sweet exorcist...

1974 - Sweet Exorcist

I don't think that this particular album has ever been put onto CD and made available for mass consumption, which is a damned dirty shame. If you know Curtis already, be prepared to be shocked that this album isn't held up in the same light as 'Curtis' , 'Roots' and 'Superfly'. The track "Kung-Fu" alone will kick your ass. There are a few more Curtis Mayfield records like this one that have just kinda disappeared into the void. I'll put more of them up as I get to it.

Pharoah I

For my first post I wanted to share some albums from one of my absolute favorite tenor saxophonists, Pharoah Sanders. This isn't by any means a complete collection of the massive body of incredible work this man has produced, but it's a damn fine place to start. This guy plays his horn as though his life depended on it. His playing is a fantastic example of how viscerally human a saxophone can sound.

1966 - Tauhid

I always get the sense that he's feeling a little cautious on this record considering what he blasts out over the next few years. Still, it's a beautiful record and I think his first on Impulse out of the shadow of the Col-train.

1969 - Izipho Zam

The first time I heard this must have been in about 1999 and I didn't really know Pharoah Sanders work very well. I was at work (crate crawling) in the warehouse-like record store I spent my time in back then and someone put this on. Probably Grover, or Scott... I don't remember. Anyway, at the time it didn't catch my attention much until the title track itself started. This has to be my first time hearing Sonny Sharrock as well... Anyway, musically, the kinds of things that happen in this song are exactly what makes out jazz madness so fucking compelling. This is definitely taking things out on a long, long limb, but the whole time it never stops sounding... lyrical? Whatever it is, you never lose the sensation of being in the middle of a SONG. The math is heavy, but it never disconnects and becomes mechanical. For me, the first of many "whoa" moments I've had listening to this guy play on various sessions. You can't get a CD of this one here in the US. I guess Impulse doesn't care for this one too much? I however, totally dig it.





1969 - Karma

This one just absolutely kills it. I've listened to this album so many times I couldn't begin to count. Descriptions don't do it justice. Just listen.




1971 - Village Of The Pharoahs

This one used to be pretty hard to track down. For a long time it was only released as a Japanese import on CD. I was excited when I found it but a little surprised when I heard it. This is a soooper mellow record. Smoky room music for sure.






1972 - Live At The East

Impulse has yet to release this album on CD. Why? I guess no one over there realizes that they are sitting on such a fucking gem of a record. Lucky for you, I have vinyl! :)