The Doors - Alive, She Cried - 1983

So usually the year an album is released has something to do with how good an album is, or at least, if I know nothing about an album, I do a year check, and that gives some insight to where the artist was in their musical development. Alive, She Cried was released in 1983. Ummm, this must be a greatest hits live album from The Doors....blah. Au contraire, this live album is a compilation from performances recorded from 1968-1970, which vanished in the 70s and was considered to be lost forever. That is until a videotape of a Copenhagen performance surfaced and yielded "Texas Radio and the Big Beat" (full of Jim Morrison's spoken poetry) and "Love Me Two Times". The rest of the live recorded tapes from these years were found in an undocumented shipment at an LA storage facility that longtime Doors producer, James Rothchild, used in the rest of this album. Rothchild notes that in the making of this live compilation album, he would not repeat any titles from Absolutely Live, no matter how different the recordings were, making this album chock full of totally unique live recordings. Thank you to the Black Cat's Record Fair where we scored this one.

The story behind the making of this album is intriguing, but I have yet to mention how good the music is. For live recordings, the fidelity is as good as any studio album. The album opens with a version of Van Morrison's "Gloria" as recorded in the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood as a trial run in a series of future upcoming shows. The harmony of the band is unparalleled and you can tell they are having a great time playing for the crowd. A shoutout to Krieger for his sweet waaah wah waaah on the bottleneck guitar on "Moonlight Drive." "Little Red Rooster" is in full glory in this recording with an appearance from John Sebastian of The Lovin Spoonful, and easily sounds as if they were having a blues jam with Taj Mahal or Buddy Guy. The whole disc is infused with a ramshackle stuttering blues swing.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal - The debut album from this legendary blues artist was a lucky find and pick-up at the CD Game-Exchange in Takoma Park. There was a hunch that this fella was a mean music maker, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Well, about twenty spins later the proof is in the playing. Side A is full of classic sounds, several of which remind me of Hendrix blues of the same era. These are the blues that make you want to get up and dance, while he really gets the sad jazzy, county blues on Side B. Taj Mahal (aka Henry Saint Clair Fredericks) studdied animal husbandry in school, but for some reason decided to rock out instead. Good choice Taj.

Of note on this album is his rendition of "Statesboro Blues", which in my opinion is better than the later to come Allman Brothers version. "Diving Duck Blues" is reminiscent of what The Doors were doing with funky blues and soul. A dimly lit bar and whiskey on the rocks is what comes to mind with "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues" and I wouldn't be offended if someone put this track on repeat on the jukebox all night. In fact, this album should definitely be a staple in the jukebox of a good bar.

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - 1970

All hail the birth of heavy metal. Iommi, Butler, Ward, and Osbourne. What happened that winter of 69/70 that led to this perfect storm of music, and created an entirely new revolution in rock and roll? Well it probably had to do with a good deal of drug, drink, and reading sci-fi/fantasy stories. Happily picked this up at Joe's Record Paradise in Silver Spring and it has been on heavy repeat ever since. Its quite hard to concentrate on anything but the music when its playing. Ozzy and the gang demand your attention - and its an incredibly impressive debut. Others may sing the praises of their follow up album "Paranoid" as the quintessential Black Sabbath album, but this self titled debut has plenty of aces up the sleeve (wicked pun...nice!). Many riffs died to bring this album to life, as well, the improvisational vibe is strong.

Side A features such nasty tunes as "Black Sabbath", "The Wizard", and "NIB". None of these cuts is weak in any way. It's pure evil all the way. A little silly in the lyric department at times, but if you're on board, which I know you will be, all will be well. It's side B which really might catch you off guard. If not for side B the entire affair could just get shelved as a never was rock episode but side B shows off the band as real powers. It could easily be written off as a blues imitation were it not for the guys in the band crushing it with savage and soulful justice. They key things down so it's just as heavy and full of sludge as can be. Total meltdown.

By the way, who names a band BLACK SABBATH in 1960's? That alone was so opposite of what was happening in music. Music inspired to make you feel like you were watching a horror movie! Brilliant and way ahead of the curve. Of course the 60's had plenty of war, rioting, and general hellfire going around to inspire a lot of dark tunes. These guys just happened to do it first and best.

Also, guitarist Iommi was briefly in Jethro Tull, a few years before "Aqualung". Curious, but true. Glad he decided to return to the Sabbath fold to make this classic.

The record that I just can't get rid of because it doesn't suck that much. That is all I have to say.

Human Highway...

So, we went out of our way to rent the stupidly hard to find, and notoriously bad "Human Highway", a film by Neil Young, featuring Devo. Once again I will state that Vinyl Vagabonds is a vinyl records blog, but occasionally it happens that a certain vinyl purchase or two will send us venturing away from the vinyl medium to experience something... other. A vagabond of a film like "Human Highway" is something other alright. Not available on DVD and hard to track down on VHS (thank you for coming through Potomac Video), we gave this 80's trash monsterpiece a viewing. Can I recommend it? Not really. The centerpiece of the film is a completely psyched out performance of "Hey, Hey, My, My" by Neil and played with Devo. A rarer performance would be hard to imagine. The film itself has barely a shred of redeeming script, acting, or visuals. Neil does play the role of a the gas station simpleton very well and if you want to have a chuckle, that's probably where you will find it.

The story revolves around residents of a small town in the dessert of the west dealing with tough economic times whilst ne'er do wells from the local nuclear plant plot to dump nuclear waste into the nearby land. Dennis Hopper is a complete freak-out in this, Also there is a large nuclear missile, but I really have no idea where that comes from.

Oh, I almost forgot. The film features great music! That's why we sought it out in the first place. It has cuts from "Trans" by Neil. A great album of techno/rock wizardry before anybody but Kraftwork was even doing that sort of thing. Also featured are several great tracks from Devo of the early 80's, the best type of Devo for sure (unless you have had a chance to check out the new album "Something for Everybody", which from what I've heard so far is going to be a return to greatness).

Kurtis Blow, 1980

I've been waiting on writing about Kurtis Blow's self titled 1980 album because I wasn't sure where to take it after this, it could go to his second album Deuce, Run DMC, or the Fat Boys.... So now that I've given a preview of upcoming reviews.... THESE ARE THE BREAKS!

The Good: "Rappin Blow (Part 2)", "The Breaks", and "Way Out West", which is all of Side A. Blow's lyrics encouraging the listeners to interact with the music is kinda revolutionary. This might be the first time we hear "Throw your hands in the air, and wave em like you just don't care", "Somebody scream!", and "Just do it just do it just do it do it do it." The single, "The Breaks" is epic, especially with the drum solos, which I'm pretty sure is actually someone playing the buckets. You really cannot listen to Side A and not get up and dance.

The Bad: SIDE B. Its really not good. In fact, you really have to ask what he was thinking recording "All I Want in this World." The lyrics are ridiculous: "A cute one, a shy one, a slim one, a sly one, a big one, a small one, a real off the wall one, all I want in this world is to find that girl." I don't believe I actually just listened to this song twice to write these lyrics down. His cover to "Takin Care of Business" is a clear display that he should stick to rapping. It's fucking horrendous! It's kind of great awful, but you should probably not be sober for it.

The Ugly: Back Cover. Do not look at it. In fact hold it very far away from your face when trying to read the track titles. Pretty sure Kurtis Blow's face is larger than life size, unless he is a giant. Not attractive.

This album is really a bridge between funky 70's disco and 80's rap and hippity hop. The catchy flows and sweet lyrics really make this album, whether they are good or bad (mostly good). He seems like he's not really all that interested in making any particular type of album, he's experimenting a lot. Dangerously bad results ensue on side B, but the good stuff cannot be ignored and is pretty damn funky. Although Blow's "The Breaks" is often mentioned with Sugar Hill Gang's "Rappers Delight" it's sort of amazing that Blow laid the track as a solo rapper instead of a group. These singles are cited as being the birth of modern hip-hop. Pretty boogaloo awesome.

Dum Dum Girls

Through the influence of a good write up in the Washington Post we went to check out these LA ladies at DC9 a few weeks back. They were opening for a group never heard of and not worth naming for this blog. Dum Dum Girls played a short, tight set. Maybe ten songs... they opened up with Rolling Stones cover "Play With Fire". A retro choice for a retro girl group with a modern goth drone wall of sound.

So why talk about the concert on a vinyl site you ask? It's because the full album was not available on iTunes so I picked it up on vinyl at the show for $15 bucks (probably the most I have ever spent on a vinyl record). A lot of the fun of this "vinyl thing" has been in seeking out unusual and lost discs at random record repositories and getting them DIRT CHEAP. Well, this is the first brand new full length record that I have purchased since the vinyl fascination began in earnest and it's solid.

The record was concocted from lead lady Dee Dee, with some minor assistance from Yeah Yeah Yeah's guitarist Nick Zinner and Crocodiles singer Brandon Welchez. The album is produced by Richard Gottehrer a veteran of 60's girl-pop, 80's new wave punk, and several recent stabs into the new indie world.

Listen to this album when you are in need of an antidote to your hip-shaking doldrums. Other than one slow burn ballad, the whole album shimmies like a be-sequined flapper.

Vagabonds

In the attempt of searching out new and wonderful tunes, we've made some missteps. Here are several that we gave a brief home to, but ultimately passed back into the record stores of DC.

No explanation needed. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

A Eulogy for Records in the Streets

Biking down to Petworth the other day we happened upon the wreckage of a record collection, strewn and smashed down 8th Street, NW, literally in the street.

Most of the records we did not recognize. They mostly seemed of the R & B, Funk, and Disco variety, with cheap looking generic paper sleeves promising a "Disco Hit" or something. No big names come to mind. A strange final resting place for a vinyl collection. Did they get thrown out in a rage? Were they a DJ's bread and butter? Did these platters get thrown out of a moving car or tossed up high in the sky via tornado? What exactly went wrong?

In homage to these outcast records, a eulogy to bad records, lost records, scratched records, and especially misunderstood records. May they serve a better purpose to someone at some future time. Though their dense grooves will likely not be needle warmed again, the music continues in vinyl press, in thrift shops, an on turntables around the world. Whether it be for 15¢ or 15$, spin, spin, spin.

Yazz Flute

What is it about buying crusty looking records for a dollar or less? Well, it isn't always about the actual record I can tell you that.

Example: Harry Belafonte - Live at Carnegie Hall. Double album purchased for $1 in downtown Silver Spring. The album itself is a total dud. Sure, the music is fine, and Belafonte does what he does with skill. It's just incredibly dated and goofy as hell. So why mention any of this? Well, in a lucky stumble of good fortune, tucked inside said double album was an added bonus. A pristine disc full of the most amazing jazz flute ever! The disc: Herbie Mann - Live at the Whiskey a Go-Go. circa 1969

"Mr. Burgundy, we would be honored if you play some yazz flute for us tonight."

Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flautist during the 60's. He's accompanied by a crew of pros and the record gives them all a chance to show off their chops. It swings, it really swings. The connection to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is only an added, albeit hilarious bonus.

Are We Not Men?

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo! - Devo - 1978

There is so much I want to write about this album, found in a thrift shop in Langley Park, but I really have no idea where to start. Any ideas VVer #2?

Yea Yea YeaYeaYeayayayayaaa!!

Sorry busy with the uncontrollable singing.... wow that was corny, but so is this song!

So everyone knows Devo as that silly band wearing red plastic hats and yellow jumpsuits but did you know they were on the tail end of the first wave of American PUNK?! That puts them in the same ranks as Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones, Velvet Underground, Television, Patti Smith, and New York Dolls! This album (Q&A) has all the hallmarks of a great punk album from this era, its fun, noisy, creative, and oddball. Songs you should check out immediately are "Uncontrollable Urge", "Jocko Homo", "Mongoloid"... David Bowie and Iggy Pop were directly responsible for DEVO getting a record deal with Warner Brothers. Nice to have famous fans.

I think its appropriate to add that the VVs recently checked out a band called the Polysics play at the Rock N' Roll Hotel in DC. The Polysics are a Japanese band that get their name from a brand of synthesizer the Korg Polysix, and are heavily influenced by DEVO. Think Devo, heavy synth, in Japanese, plus extra punk, plus LOTS of jumping around, oh, and dressed in Devo-esque jumpsuits. Pretty awesome.

The hunt for further Devo vinyl has proven rather difficult. Only their most recent super synth records are in the bin. Still, a copy of "Freedom of Choice" is probably out there somewhere, in some forgotten pile of some dusty thrift shop...

Business As Usual

Men at Work - Business As Usual - 1981

And then there was our Men At Work debut album that the cheesy 80’s loving VV sneaks into the record player at least once a week … Yeah, yeah, everyone knows “Down Under” and “Who Can it Be Now?” but do they know the insanely catchy “Be Good Johnny” or “Underground”? Not only does this album have fun Australian accents, but it also has reggae undertones and lots of synthesizers … perfect for the 80s dance-party in your household. But really, this is one of those records that you can just let play from beginning to end and not want to skip a song - which is my prerequisite to be a contender in the VV album catalog. It's also one of those rare records that Side B is far superior to Side A, at least in my opinion. Highlight to the album is that the inside sleeve gives credits to one of the band members, Russell Deppeler, on the Telephone and Calculator. Oh, music instruments of the 80s, how you never cease to entertain me....

Folk of the 80's

Men Without Hats - Folk of the 80's 1980

I know I mentioned a Devo album as the next review, but this one has been stuck in my head lately and it's a true winner. We picked this up at a record fair at the Black Cat on Valentine's Day, so romantic. I think we both were hesitant about picking this album up. This four song EP, their first ever release, has four songs, one of which (Antarctica) is on the bands full length album "Rhythm of Youth" (A great album). So why drop five bucks for three songs that could be total crap? We were likely propelled by the fact that "Rhythm of Youth" was such a good album, but really I have no idea why we bought it. The first song, "Modern(e) Dancing" is such an ear-worm that it's been locked in my head from listen one. It has goofy bleeps and bloops, an extremely catchy chorus, and some strange yelps from singer Ivan Doroschuck. The band is French Canadian, known as great yelpers... did you not know that? "Modern(e) Dancing" also features the line "with 60's hairdo's and 90's eyes", which seems incredibly futuristic for an EP put out in 1980. The other three songs; "Utter Space", "Antarctica", and "Security (Everybody Feels Better With)" are strong, memorable, and worth serious repeats.

"So where can I get one?" Turns out this is another hard to find album. Strangely, only "Antarctica" shows up on compilations and the other three songs are impossible to locate. I suppose people heard "The Safety Dance" and just assumed that anything else these guys put out was ignorable. Well,however you track this record down, it'll be worth it. At $1.25 per song in the current digital age of music, I feel we got a great deal.

TRANS

Neil Young - Trans 1982

We were recommended this record by reliable source, Rob of Smash records. He was working a record fair at Comet Ping Pong and noticed me eyeballing this oddball album. I'd be told that Neil Young went on several uncelebrated musical tangents in the 80's and that his foray into electronica was the most odd. My assumption was that Neil was tired of being a country rock music darling and wanted to expand his musical horizons. Either that or he was really, really freakin' high.

Before I say any more about this album, I feel it's important to note that Neil Young has been a favorite of mine since my undergrad years. I got sucked into the image of him as "The Godfather of Grunge" that the music press of the early 90's billed him. Hey, the music was good and some of it did sound pretty grungy... those reporters must be onto something! Well, it was a little longer till I started actually listening to Neil's larger catalogue. This guy had pretty wide range and tastes. Slow folky ramblings, rocking souther style epics, and everything in-between. Still, I was warned to stay away from the early 80's stuff. Neil went weird...

Trans is a weird album. Very weird. The first song on the album is generic southern, folk rock, and cheesy too. It could easily throw anyone off the idea that Neil was experimenting sonically. Everything else on the album is pure electronic synth odd freakout pleasure. I'm pretty sure he liked to dance the robot while writing this album. On record he makes frequent use of the robotronic voice altering microphone device, the vocoder. Think "auto tune" but not shitty. So what possessed Mr. Young to go from tunes like "Needle and the Damage Done", "Old Man", "Harvest Moon", "Southern Man", "Ohio", etc. to this type of computerized strangeness? Turns out that using the vocoder around his son (who has cerebral palsey) elicited an improved response in communication. Pretty nice, eh? Finding a better way to communicate with your ailing child is a much better story than being really, really high. Ultimately, none of that matters if it sounds like hell, which it absolutely does not. It sounds amazing. It's catchy, well written and has a good deal of surprises. He even says "yippee ki yi yay" several time in full on robot talk. Pure gold. Standout tracks; "Like an Inca", "Computer Cowboy", "We R in Control"

Seems the only way you're getting this album is on an import CD or a bootleg rip. We got lucky and found the vinyl version. Love it so much that the album sleeve is framed and adorns the top of our stairwell. Beauty. Also, it should be mentioned that portions of some of the songs appear in the movie "Human Highway", that Young directed. It's a comedy that he made with New Wave band Devo... It's purported to be incredibly bad and also, it's impossible to find. Maybe we review a Devo album next...

Are We Not Blogging? We Are Vinyl Vagabonds!

Herbie Hancock - Monster - 1980

This LP is a blaring mix of disco, funk, metal, and funk (yes, I wrote funk twice). It inspired us to start blogging about our recent re-discovery of vinyl as the preferred way to enjoy new and old favorites. It also inspired some pretty ludacris dance moves and getting-on-down type behaviors in the kitchen whilst prepping what turned out to be one of the most incendiary veggie curries ever.

When we moved in together just north of Washington, DC in January we only plugged in the record player as "the" hi-fi system of the house, mostly because it was all we had. The record player was a part of one of those crummy all-in-one stereos of the 80's, a hand me down from who knows where, with a radio, dual cassette player, and of course the phono. Quickly we noticed how much warmer the sound was when spinning the small collection of records we had, and how many more sounds we were actually hearing. All of this on a relatively beat-up and dilapidated system. This revelation quickly led to the purchase of a new record player, and Audio Technica LP60, that is USB ready. The assumption we made was that we were going to want to transfer all of this music into the digital realm so that it could travel with us on our commutes. The belief that these funky and oddball records that we were starting to accumulate together would get more action on our ipods was completely wrong. As nice a technology is the portable mp3 player, it does not hold a candle to the sound that gets pumped through the record itself. CD doesn't even come close to the texture and depth of vinyl. I know this must seem pretty snobby, but it's just the plain truth.

So here is a blog about vinyl. All sorts of vinyl. Platters found at Roadhouse Records, SMASH, Value Village, Salvation Army, Joe's Record Paradise, the CD/Game Exchange, Wagging Tails Thrift, as well as a parents dusty living room cabinet. The plan from here is to highlight the fun oddball records that we are finding and rocking out to. MAYBE we'll even turn you onto music you just can't get enough of.......a few come to mind right away...(stay tuned)