There’s no cause to doubt the title and beach party cover art: Rudnick’s disc is packed with sleepy, summery retro sounds that neatly split the difference between classy ’80s pop (M. Crenshaw, dB’s, Smithereens) and later, lusher Beach Boys. The tunes, arrangements and boyishly nasal harmonies (partly courtesy the Rubinoos) are tasteful, catchy and only sometimes silly. Bonus tracks include a couple vocals-only takes, and lovingly realized demos of the Beatles’ “Yes It Is” and Beach Boys’ “Til I Die.” Sweet stuff that power popsters will want to hear.
Ten years before recording this 1969 orchestral pop disc in Toronto, east coast folkie Dobson wrote “Morning Dew” in a fit of nuclear angst, then watched as half the singers on the scene made it their own. She revisits her standard here, alongside several similarly moody originals and covers of “Get Together,” “Everybody’s Talkin'” and lesser-known offerings like arranger Ben McPeek’s Indian-tinged “Bird in Space.” Dobson has a seductive, jazzy quality that works best on the more subdued tunes like the sweet, Francophone “Pendant Que,” but which gets lost in shrillness whenever the strings get too hyperactive. A pleasant offering, if over-produced and less personal than a songwriter’s self-titled album should have been.
Self-exiled to NYC in 1967, the surf/pop chameleon sunk into the Village folk scene and built a relationship with Atlantic Records that he hoped would eclipse his professionally successful, personally painful, history with Dunhill. Unfortunately, after five years of nonstop songwriting for hire, the muse fell silent, so the week Sloan flew down to Mussel Shoals to record with the house rhythm section and producer Tom Dowd, he had to force ten songs. Sweet but slight and largely absent the usual Sloan hooks—though "New Design" is a low key knockout—the album works a loose and soulful Hardinesque groove, with Sloan sounding alternately hopeful and exhausted. High points include "And the Boundaries Inbetween" with its subtle psychedelic tinge, and the abstract kiss off of "(What Did She Mean When She Said) Good Luck," but this is definitely one for die-hard fans. Maybe with the renewed interest in Sloan and his terrific new Sailover CD, someone will reissue 1972’s Raised On Records next.
Yesterday, walking along Flatbush, I passed a gentleman who had just emerged from McDonalds and who, by his dress, had hopefully seen better times. He looked as if, at some point in his life, he had tried in his way to be free. The man didn’t look at me but above me, towards the source of several throaty graaas and skveets. (I must confess that, at the time, I didn’t realize what I was hearing were graaas and skveets; but the reference materials I’ve since read assure me that’s indeed what I heard.) After I passed the man, I heard him crying out excitedly behind me, and turned to find him looking skyward. Pointing to the top of the telephone pole that stood between us, he approached me and said, “Peruvian parrots! I heard about them a year ago, but this is the first time I’ve seen them!” I looked up and, to be sure, several bright green birds sat on the telephone wire or fluttered in and out of the stick nest they had crafted around the transformer.
“They’re the only parrots that make their nests like that,” I told him. “Other parrots just use a hole in a tree.” The birds often breed colonially in their single large nests, with separate entrances for each couple. Known as Monk Parakeets, or Quaker Parrots, the birds belong to a species of parrots that originally hailed from Brazil and Argentina. Legend has it that in 1967 or 1968, a large shipment of the birds, destined for sale at New York City pet shops, escaped at JFK. Over the prevailing decades, the birds established their domain and now, throughout Brooklyn, their nests are commonplace atop telephone poles, created around the warmth of the transformers (which apparently sometimes overheat and catch fire).
According to the experts, the birds are highly intelligent and social creatures. Those kept as pets routinely develop large vocabularies. The in-the-wild Brooklyn variety, however, are only known to say “Oy vey!” and “Fuhgeddaboudit!”
Yesterday, the man, still mesmerized by the site of the brightly colored wildlife, an unexpected gift outside the golden arches, reached over and touched my arm as he said, “They’re a blessing.”
Andy Warhol’s “Tarzan and Jane Regained . . . Sort Of “
Wallace Berman’s “Aleph”
With respect to my father’s exhibition (Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and his Circle) that is taking place at the Berkeley Museum, there will be some cool films along with the show. My father’s film “Aleph” will be shown as well as the rare Andy Warhol film starring the great Taylor Mead as well as my father and yours truly playing “Boy.” I know…. Don’t ask!
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 21 7:30 Beat Films Hailed in its time as a harbinger of a new film movement that prized spontaneity and lived experience, Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie’s Pull My Daisy (1959) is perhaps the ultimate Beat film, narrated by Jack Kerouac and featuring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Peter Orlovsky. Plus: Aleph (Wallace Berman, 1956-66); Breakaway (Bruce Conner, 1966); The End (Christopher Maclaine, 1953); A Movie (Bruce Conner, 1958).
SUNDAY DECEMBER 3 2:00 Tarzan and Jane Regained . . . Sort Of Andy Warhol (1963) Wallace Berman, Taylor Mead, Claes Oldenburg, and other art stars appear in an Andy Warhol romp through 1963 L.A., including Berman’s backyard. With Lawrence Jordan’s Triptych in Four Parts (1958), featuring Berman, Michael McClure and John Reed.
PFA Theater: 2575 Bancroft Way at Bowditch, Berkeley, CA Info: (510) 642-1124 Advance Tickets: (510) 642-5249
Finally, something so earth-shatteringly good that I break my vow of silence…
This is a vintage audition tape sent to Stanley Kubrick for Full Metal Jacket. I alway liked Modine in that movie, but now I’m starting to wonder if Kubrick picked the wrong guy.
The songlist down below was presented to an audience on October 29, 2006. I made 20 CD copies to give out to the audience for free. This of course was in conjunction with the Semina Culture exhibition that is taking place at the Berkeley Museum.
Lush Head Woman Jimmy Witherspoon & Wallace Berman Bebop Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker BeHop Wardell Gray Yardbird Suite (-4) Charlie Parker Night In Tunisia (-5) Charlie Parker A Night In Tunisia Dexter Gordon Cheers Charlie Parker Cheers Wardell Gray Hot House Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker Hot House Wardell Gray The Chase Wardell Gray
CD, someone will reissue 1972’s Raised On Records next. 
