Lost in the Grooves now offers full-service sub-publishing
Bands/labels – are you missing out on overseas (or domestic) royalties? If you can answer yes to the following questions, we may be able to help you. We have skilled sub-publishers in every part of the world who are very experienced in claiming lost monies owed for live performances (also called Neighboring Rights), record sales and any licensing done outside the US.
If these facts are true for you, please drop a line to Kim c/o this site to find out what we can do for you and/or your artists
1) Does the band/label have no other publishing deal?
2) Has (or will) the band / label release or distribute CD/LPs in any part of the world?
3) Has the band played shows in Europe or Japan?
4) Has the band/label had a song in a major motion picture or TV series released overseas?
5) Has the above happened within the past five years?
6) Can you provide writer/publisher information and (for tours), dates and venues?
If so, we can collect overseas royalties and account semi-annually. We can also collect for the US/Canada on request. The fee is a flat 25% for all foreign collections, 20% in the USA, and your first royalty payments will usually be received within nine months to one year of registration.
So shocked to hear that songwriter Grant McLennan died in his sleep yesterday. The loss of a great artist and gentleman is always sad, but when it’s an artist whose creative life was so thoroughly meshed with another’s, it’s doubly tragic.
In memory of Grant, I’ve posted the Go-Betweens interview from Scram #14 (2000) on the Scram website.
Our thoughts are with Robert, Adele, Glenn and Grant’s family.
It is a banner day: I just got back from picking up Scram 22 from the printer, and I’m dizzy with ink fumes.
The new issue of the journal of unpopular culture includes a feature comprised of the interviews that informed the Ruston section of my 33 1/3 book about Neutral Millk Hotel. Robert Schneider, Laura Carter, Julian Koster and Scott Spillane all speak at greater length than they did in the book about E6 pre-Athens, and Robert shares some live photos from 1996 that I think have not been published previously.
Also in this issue: nature-loving folkie Vashti Bunyan, gay glam-punk Paul "Baby Bones" Vanase, private librarian and African literary scholar Kurt Thometz, Chicago bluesman Nick Gravenites and session piano cat Lincoln Mayorga, plus scads of reviews.
GQ has asked various notables to recommend their favorite Unsung Musical Heroes. New Pornographers’ leaders A.C. Newman selected Lost in the Grooves own Sex Clark 5, and a clip of their earwormy "Faith" is on the GQ website.
To learn more about this magical Alabama pop outfit, hear samples or buy some music, please click here.
This month’s DUMB ANGEL blog features a mish-mash of cool happenings, groovy releases we’ve deemed worthy of (cyber) ink and a tad more of that lost coolness that we’ve dug up from the far corners of SoCal’s beach towns.
LET US TURN YOU ON . . .
Dig a few new releases that we felt were worthy of special attention…
A Review of Mama Guitar Holiday
In a world where so-called “rockers” often can’t name four Chuck Berry songs, an all-girl trio from Japan has found the Chuck Berry-meets-surf tone that absorbed the entirety of the Beach Boys’ 1963 garage-band opus, Surfin’ U.S.A. One listen to Mama Guitar’s “Ready to Go” from their newest EP, Mama Guitar Holiday, and you’ll realize that their sound is no mistake. “After Dark” is a breezy, summer-night instrumental, replete with Mama Guitar’s gentle ‘la-la-la’ harmonies, akin to Brian Wilson’s blissed-out “Passing By” (from the 1968 Friends album). In keeping the vibe of 1963 real, during the break of Holiday’s “When We Put Our Bikinis On,” lead singer Jun asks, “Am I so cute?” To which the chorus of Iris (bassist) and Yoko (drums) scream, “Yeah!” Jun retorts, “But I don’t wanna go!” Chorus: “Why not?” Jun: “Because I’m fat!” Oh no… this is all by design, friends. The lyrics and music only gets groovier from there. Dig these lunar lyrics to “Tomorrow’s Sea”:
It’s time to leave here, We’re in the sea breeze.
Somewhere else we’ll go, Anywhere you want, Dreaming of tomorrow’s sea.
White sand, moon, stars and you, Only that moment, all of them are mine.
Mama Guitar’s Holiday
Dumb Angel co-editor Brian Chidester sat down with Mama Guitar for a little Q&A.
Who are your biggest musical influences? Jun (Guitar/Vocals/Songwriter): Brian Wilson, King & Goffin, Greenwich & Barry, Phil Spector Iris (Bass/Vocals): Shangri-La’s and more. Yoko (Drums): The Beatles!
What inspired you to do MAMA GUITAR HOLIDAY? Iris: It’s a secret! Yoko: Peaceful days. Jun: We just put together some summer songs we already had been playing, and added a few more new songs.
If you could play anywhere in the world, at any venue, where would it be? Yoko: California’s beach or big grasslands somewhere. Iris: I want to go to anywhere we can go!
Do you have a boyfriend? Jun: No . . . Iris: It’s a secret. Yoko: I’m married!
What kind of boys do you like? Jun: I like people who are kind, friendly and funny. Iris: Gentle, and who has nice smile person! Yoko: A gentle and bright person.
Favorite thing to do on a date? Iris: Lunch in the park.
Mama Guitar, Hamburg Tour
Favorite bands? Jun: The Beach Boys, the Zombies, the Hollies, the Beatles, the Monkees, Four Seasons. Yoko: Sly and the Family Stone, the Kinks, the Beatles, the Zombies, the Hollies. Iris: Shangri-La’s, Kinks, Serge Gainesbourg.
Favorite singers? Jun: Annette, Robin Ward, Shelley Fabares, Ronnie Spector, Claudine Longet, Yui Asaka, Brian Wilson, Colin Blunstone Yoko: Colin Blunstone, Ronnie Spector, Carol King, James Brown, Bob Dylan.
Favorite album? Jun: The Beach Boys Today! Iris: Anna. Yoko: The Beatles’ Rubber Soul.
Your hobbies? Yoko: Collecting dolls and cute things, and shopping. Iris: Making sweets, sewing and frogs… I’m keeping many little frogs! Jun: Taking naps.
Favorite movie? Jun: The Trouble with Harry Iris: Anna, Betty Blue. Yoko: Toto the Hero, Times and Honors, Buffalo 66.
Favorite TV show? Yoko: Animation of the Beatles! Jun: Sukeban Deka, Little House on the Prairie
If you were trapped on a deserted island with one person, who would that person be? Jun: Msama. Iris: My darling. Yoko: My husband.
Favorite Sanrio character/animal? Jun: Pigs, hippos and elephants. Iris: FROG! Yoko: I’m not interested in Sanrio character, but I love Monchicchi! It’s a monkey baby’s doll.
Personal plans for the future? Jun: I don’t have any yet. Iris: For now, I want to lose my weight! Yoko: I want to be an owner of a little shop and I want to be a tender mother!
Are hippies ever cool? Jun: It’s not really my kind of style, so I don’t have an opinion. Yoko: I think so!
Do you like what Gwen Stefani is doing with pop culture today? Jun: I don’t know her, sorry. Iris: Sorry, don’t know her.
—Brian Chidester
Mama Guitar’s Holiday EP
A Review of Jan & Dean’s Popsicle (CD Reissue by Sundazed Records)
This is as good a place to get started with Jan & Dean as any. It’s pure 1966 marketing, which in itself is an enlightened thing. The Popsicle album was released by Liberty Records that year after Jan Berry’s accident, and the Sunshine Pop single climbed immediately up the charts… the last real Jan & Dean hit, in sequence. But… get this… “Popsicle Truck” (as it was originally titled) had been released on the Drag City album in 1963. That’s the beauty of Popsicle; Liberty found a bunch of album tracks of ambient merit for 1966, and just pumped ’em out there. One can immediately recognize the quality of Jan & Dean’s work, that is, stuff lyin’ around on their albums that coulda been singles, or that worked in another time zone. It actually becomes a collection of their most interesting material outside of the obvious hits, and therefore a new listener can come to the group with the whole thing being a fresh experience.
Jan & Dean’s Popsicle LP Cover, 1966
These great tracks are also sequenced in a groovy manner that makes for cool and casual listening. Side two runs through a vibe so lucid, it includes a Jill Gibson song, a Brian Wilson song, a Brian Wilson song, then another Jill Gibson song… all collaborations with Jan Berry (with pals Roger Christian and Don Altfeld pitchin’ in on occasion).
Once the side kicks off with a very, very Psyhedelic Surf Pastiche Washout version of the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” (love it when Jan Berry emulates and eventually uses sitars, like later on “Fan Tan,” “Mullholland” and others from the still-unreleased Carnival of Sound album from 1968), it goes to the Jill Gibson/Jan Berry duet “A Surfer’s Dream.” For my money, this is the most idyllic song of the whole surf shebang. Jill shows up again on the Brian Wilson/Jan Berry chillout “Surf Route 101”, this time doin’ the sexy voice of the girl who tags along for a surfari . . . Jill intones “I dig your Woody, lover, let’s disappear.” Next we cut to a brilliant, generally unheard Berry/Wilson rocker, “Surfin’ Wild,” where Jan finally figures it out; “Well I know what I want, yeh, got it all planned, gonna surf all day then sleep in the sand.” Sounds good to me.
The expansive Jill Gibson number “Waimea Bay” follows, showing Jan Berry already capable of arrangements on the level of what Brian Wilson would achieve by the time of Pet Sounds. This earlier production fits in with the 1966 feel perfectly.
Closing side two’s sequence is a nod to the fashion controversy of the decade, Rudi Gernreich’s topless bathing suit. That’s another beauty about this LP. Jan & Dean got this wired during 1964 with “One Piece Topless Bathing Suit,” which made for an even better environment on Popsicle, due to the growing promiscuity 1966 seemed to envelop. The greens and yellows so prominent in clothing and album covers that year are nothing more than a shift toward sunlight and lovers lyin’ around in the tall grass with marigolds all around them. “One Piece Topless Bathing Suit,” the grand dandy of ’em all, makes for an optimistic closer, a good vibe, a good feeling, evocative of graphic design where sunlight through her tan hair became a stock, indelible image always harking back to that very 1966.
Jan & Dean’s tour booklet, designed by Dean Torrence in graphics class at USC, 1965
Then you get side one, too. After the joyous vibraphone and nonsense backing vocals of “Popsicle” comes “The Restless Surfer,” kicking in the feel of wanderlust right away. This Gary Zekley tune title is what I plucked as a non-de-plume when I wrote the liner notes for those Surfer’s Mood albums way back in the early ’90s (another golden decade, for people who loathe hessians, like me). Dean’s falsetto on the end of “The Restless Surfer” may also rank among the top yearning vocal moments in rock ’n’ roll, fully encompassing desire in the heart of the protagonist.
Next up is another boss, neglected Brian Wilson/Jan Berry number “She’s My Summer Girl,” originally the flip side of “Surf City” — the first in a series of Berry/Wilson hits including “Drag City,” “Dead Man’s Curve,” “The New Girl in School” and “Ride the Wild Surf”… (which you may already have somewhere). “Down at Malibu Beach” is a casual Chuck Berry workout; guitarist Billy Strange gets to pull a few hot licks, and that’s followed by another Malibu callout on “Summer Means Fun.”
Without a doubt, this a cooler version of “Summer Means Fun” than the hit by Bruce & Terry, or the Fantastic Baggys’ fine version (which shares the same backing track as J&D). Jan Berry’s lead vocal just seems to capture the meaning of the lyric better, and in this respect, he’s in league with early Elvis Presley or Chuck Berry… again, having a real feel for rock ’n’ roll at its source. “Tennessee” closes, and at first it seems out of 1966 feel, but it’s great to go back to this 1962 track and hear Plas Johnson’s “Surfer’s Stomp”-like saxophone solo. It’s a hark back to R&B vocal times in a way similar to what the Mothers of Invention would achieve when they recorded Cruisin’ with Ruben & the Jets in 1968. Already, the psychedelic world was ready for a throwback.
The only cut that seems to be missing from this slapdash affair is Jill Gibson’s “It’s As Easy As 1, 2, 3.” But we won’t spend time second-guessing the uncredited Liberty Records employee who had the good sense to sequence this thing brilliantly otherwise. A year later, Paul Williams would write a review for The ByrdsGreatest Hits in Crawdaddy! (later available in his book Outlaw Blues) describing the packaging and sequencing of this particular greatest hits package as an art form in itself. Popsicle manages that same artfullness for a collection of songs that, by Jan & Dean standards, would be their “underground” selections.
That packaging matched the gorgeous Watts Tower photographs of the 1966 Jan & Dean tour program designed by Dean Torrence — a precursor to his Kittyhawk Graphics work. In a year’s time, Dean would be designing for the Turtles and did a similar tour program for the Mamas & the Papas. Jill Gibson also wound up in the Mamas & the Papas for a while (singing on the hit “Look Through My Window,” and on plenty of the group’s second album). Popsicle, as packaging, can be seen as leaning in that direction, a sojourn both Jan and Dean would find on their own when recording the Psychedelic Surf Pastiche Washout masterworks Carnival of Sound and Save for a Rainy Day respectively. Popsicle, as music, shows that they had these expansive instincts with them during what may be considered, to some, as a more primitive juncture in their career. A time, however, that was high in both creativity and success.
If only their 1966 TV show pilot Jan and Dean on the Run would have been able to continue… a special nod here to “Time and Space” and “Capitol City” from that ready for Psych-Surf-Pastiche project. Oh well…
—Domenic Priore (with Mark A. Moore)
Jan & Dean at Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers
RECURRING BALBOA THEME
The editors at DUMB ANGEL have dug up more goodies from the seemingly endless well of coolness that has come out of Balboa. In a now-recurring theme of this blog site, we present you with a pair of reviews, a batch of film glossies and a summary of DUMB ANGEL’s April 2nd gig, in the Newport/Balboa area (at Sid’s Blue Beet).
From the Balboa segment of Lord Love A Duck
Lord Love a Duck (1965)
United Artists, B&W, 105 Minutes George Axelrod (Producer/Director) George Axelrod and Larry H. Johnson (Screenplay) Based on the Novel by Al Hine
Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld . . . punks in the classroom
The dark side, inner-workings of Beach Party-era star-making is just one of many social phenomena satired and deconstructed in the opulent, punk-spirited Lord Love a Duck. The hypocrisy and wasted time inherent to religion, the education system, psychoanalysis and used car sales are all equated; nothing is taboo. Roddy McDowall is a Dada-meets-Go Go version of the somnambulist in Fritz Lang’sThe Cabinet of Dr. Calgari, one step ahead of everyone in his world. Tuesday Weld plays his foil, a High School vamp who is part and parcel to McDowall’s schemes. Harvey Korman (Blazing Saddles, The Carol Burnett Show) is typically despicable as the school principal. Students look bad-ass wearing sunglasses in class. Weld graduates from the lame rules of the Cashmere Sweater Club in school, and becomes a beach flick movie star, getting everything she wants through McDowall’s wise-guy maneuvers. On a trip to Balboa Island for Spring Break, the director of “15 beach movies” spots Weld and eventually turns her into a 16-year-old version of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. There is much twisting, hully-gully-ing and watusi during the Balboa segment, and punk music is soundtracked by both Neil Hefti (“Batman” theme) and the Wild Ones, a New York City combo who were then house band at Arthur (they also made a great appearance in The Fat Spy with Jayne Mansfield, played the After Hours shows at Hullabaloo on Sunset in ’66, and at the L.A. version of Arthur when it opened at 666 N. La Cienega Boulevard in 1968).
—Domenic Priore
New York Go Go in a Hollywood way, 1965
Tuesday Weld, mid-’60s
Back to Balboa, by the Stan Kenton Orchestra (1958)
In 1958, Stan Kenton organized his latest version of the Stan Kenton Orchestra and took them back to where Kenton Mach One broke in 1941… the town of Balboa (and more specifically, the Rendezvous Ballroom). Back to Balboa was recorded live during the Kenton Orchestra’s last residence at the Rendezvous in 1957-58, and features a bevy of placid Lennie Niehaus sax solos, adding to the album’s overall lounginess. Label this another seaside tone-poem to be included in DUMB ANGEL’s ever-growing pantheon of Balboa LPs and singles. Several cuts feature the word “blue” in the title (a locale-description later employed by Joe Saraceno for his moody Mar-Kets hit “Balboa Blue”), while “Rendezvous at Sunset” wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the seasonal ’50s flick A Summer Place. The symphonic trumpet blasts that open the song (in classic Kenton pomp) quickly give way to a mellow moodiness rarely found in ’40s or ’50s Kenton. The dawn of “Champagne Music” had arrived.
The Orange County Launch Party for Dumb Angel #4: All Summer Long… Featuring the Ghastly Ones, the Boardwalkers and special guest Billy Hinsche, Sunday, April 2
Last night’s show at Sid’s Blue Beet in Newport Beach went off like a charm. The Boardwalkers kicked open the bill and impressed everyone with their fine-tailored surf instrumental skill. Billy Hinsche followed, providing the folk enlightenment for the evening. He performed “Two in the Afternoon,” “Tell Someone You Love Them,” “Lady Love” and “Thru Spray-Colored Glass” (the theme song from 1969’s surf movie soundtrack, Follow Me), plus songs from his career retrospective Mixed Messages. The show was closed with an absolute punk-out by the Ghastly Ones, who brought the house down with their organ-drenched, garage-fuzztone. Tunes from the Ventures’ psychotic Wild Things! album were performed (“Fuzzy and Wild”). Celebrities in the audience included Rockin’ Jelly Bean (from Jackie & the Cedrics), Darian Sahanaja (of the Wondermints and Brian Wilson’s band), 1976 World Surfing Champ Peter Townsend (who doubled for William Katt in Big Wednesday) and Jim Frias (from the original 1964 Santa Ana surf band, the Nocturnes… also a short-term member of the Chantays and the Trademarks). Here’s a few pictures from Sid’s, we’ll have more next month.
The Orange County Launch Party for Dumb Angel #4: All Summer Long
Featuring the Ghastly Ones, the Boardwalkers, and special guest Billy Hinsche, who will be performing songs from the 1968 psychedelic surf film soundtrack for Follow Me — Sunday, April 2 — 6:00 p.m. to Midnight.
Do you smell it? The fresh salt water, the smell of seaweed crashing up against the pier barnacles, and the whiff of fresh seafood coming out from behind basin doors at the Dory Fleet?
There’ll be plenty of places to park right along the pier and oceanside, April 2nd, for the show at Sid’s Blue Beet
The Dory Fleet boats bring in fresh fish. Sid’s Blue Beet is in the alley between the brick buildings at the center of this photo.
Can you see it? There’s Charlie’s Chili, and next to it is the Sea Shell Shop . . . they have stuffed models of huge Alaskan crabs and Sand Sharks. You walk along the beach, there’s a ledge to sit on and watch the sunset. There’s plenty of waffle cones, corn dogs and strips to be eaten. And then you can get up and make your way to the end of the pier . . . just another wide-angle view at the end of the earth. You can look down the coast and see where others watch land’s end. Piers each way; to the North, Huntington Beach Pier, to the South, Balboa Pier, and you’re in the middle at the Newport Beach Pier in Newport Beach, California.
Beneath the Newport Beach Pier
Do you hear it, or will you hear it? Phil & the Flakes pounding out crunch-chords at Sid’s Blue Beet, a brick cabaret open since 1912, but more recently (1950s/1960s) a Beatnik Folk club hosting Flamenco guitarists, Bebop Jazz, Bluegrass and Folk music. Folk festival performers such as Jess Boggess would sing, or Chuck McCabe – real drop out kind-of shit . . . he was inspired by a girl he met at a clothing-optional resort. And when you walk out the beat goes on, via the angry young man pounding his bongos on the beach. All around, beach-side, angular apartments are rented by Surfer teens looking for girls or guys over the verandas, while the carry-all record player inside blasts out the Beach Boys’ Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!!) album. This is how it was in 1965.
Let’s Eat! D.I.Y. dining cultivation at the Newport Beach Pier, 1960s
When you drive up to the pier area, the overwhelming scent of good food, and the ocean, hits you right in the face. There’s a fancy, Victorian-looking steak restaurant, Pizza joints, the smell of Bay seasoning at the Crab Cooker, Fish and Chips at Woody’s Wharf, Mexican food aura everywhere . . . and the tar of the salt water . . . this smells like California.
The environment around the Newport Beach Pier, 1960s
What we’re trying to do here on Sunday, April 2nd is bring actual Surf instrumental music back to the area, back to a place long-forgotten even in Los Angles, a locale purely “local” in recent years. In bygone times, the whole of the Greater Los Angeles area shook to phenoms from Balboa – the Stan Kenton Orchestra (’40s) and Dick Dale & his Del-Tones (’60s). This year, 2006, we’re bringing two of the finest Surf instrumental combos on the planet – The Ghastly Ones and the Boardwalkers – to Sid’s Blue Beet. On top of that, an acoustic set by Billy Hinsche (formerly of Dino, Desi & Billy, who also recorded great versions of “Mony Mony” and “Honkin’ Down the Highway” with the Beach Boys during the ’70s). Billy will be performing songs in support of his new CD, Mixed Messages, along with Beach Boy related songs written with Brian Wilson and performed by Carl Wilson. A few Dino, Desi & Billy gems will be thrown in for good measure. Don’t miss it! The sound will dwell into the deep pumice underneath our coastline existence. Go Go dancers will quake and shiver above the equatorial splendor of sounds right out of The Munsters theme. You just have to be there.
By BRIAN CHIDESTER and DOMENIC PRIORE
SID’S BLUE BEET – 107 21st Place, Newport Beach, California – Sunday, April 2nd from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The Ghastly Ones, The Boardwalkers, Go Go dancers Kari French (etc.) and DJs Penelope Pitstop, Domenic Priore, and Brian Chidester – editors of Dumb Angel #4: All Summer Long. Plenty of parking next to the pier on Sunday nights.
Directions to Sid’s Blue Beet:
From the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) or the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405), go to the NewportFreeway (55) and head West toward Newport Beach . . . all the way to the end. This becomes Newport Boulevard. As the road splits, bear to the right (Balboa Boulevard). Finally, make a right on West Oceanfront. Park in the lot next to the Newport Pier, which can be seen in postcard #2 from the ’40s on this blog. Sid’s Blue Beet is in the first alley in the brick-walled business district seen in that same postcard.
Domenic’s suggestion: Spend the afternoon seeing the Balboa Fun Zone, have an early dinner in the Newport Pier area, or head to the Blue Beet at 6:00 when the Boardwalkers start playing. Sid’s Blue Beet serves burgers, fish ‘n’ chips and a bunch of other stuff.
This is what it will look like at Sid’s Blue Beet on Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. Don’t be late!
Billy Hinsche, formerly of Dino, Desi, & Billy . . . with the cover of the soundtrack for Follow Me
Newport’s own version of Don the Beachcomber
The Modernism of Newport-Balboa Savings, 1960s
NEWPORT PHOTO TRAVELOGUE BY DUMB ANGEL #4 CO-EDITORS BRIAN CHIDESTER & DOMENIC PRIORE:
Dig the resemblance between the Charlie’s menu art and Michael Dormer’s classic boho mural during the credits of Muscle Beach Party
Charlie’s Chili (established 1967)
Dory Fishing Fleet (established 1891)
“To live in an old shack by the sea, and breath the sweet salt air. To live with the dawn and the dusk, the new moon, and the full moon, the tides, the wind and the rain, and know the thrill of lonliness, to lose all sense of time… and be free.” – eden ahbez
Collecting shells and sea creatures of this size is a competitive tradition amongst locals of Newport Beach
Oceanic book shelf of Terry Beattie (a.k.a. the Shell Guy)
21 Oceanfront Restaurant boasts a sleek Victorian dining room akin to a high-class New York City steakhouse. The paintings on the wall here are inspired by 18th Century Rococo whimsy, with hints of exotic oceana.
This painting sits above the side exit at 21 Oceanfront . . . the door dumps you out onto the pier area, with an incredible view of the ocean.
Established 1963 . . . just in time for the reign of Eddie & the Showmen
Newport Beach is home to one of the last beachside stands that offers strips . . . thee classic snack treat of surfers and beach-dwellers from the ’60s.
1960s postcard drawing from the Crab Cooker. Many locals did great Beat drawings of restaurants and cafes . . . The best of these artists was Earl Newman, who drew such classic venues as Shelly’s Manne Hole, the Insomniac Café and Pacific Ocean Park . . . L.A. artist Frank Holmes employed a similar style for the front cover of Brian Wilson’s 1966 Smile album. The artist signature on this postcard is Hart Lawrence. Other artworks unknown.
The Crab Cooker (established 1951) — not the Whisky a Go Go corner, but an incredible simulation . . . and much cooler these days, for sure.
A great example of the California Crazy signage genre.
Woody’s old boat sits on top o’ the restaurant. All other fish & chips plates must kneel before Woody’s Wharf
Mermaid tiki carving along the wall of the entrance to Woody’s Wharf. Inside you can have dinner right on the Bay waters
We had a great reaction for the ’60s Stuft Shirt photo from last month’s blog about Balboa. So, for all those out there clamoring for more . . . here’s a color shot of the building taken in March, 2006. The restaurant is long closed, but water reflection still dances beneath the shell-curves of the cantilever roof.
Ed “Kookie” Byrnes takes his date to the Stuft Shirt building (here designated the Captain’s Grotto) in a mid-’60s issue of the 77 Sunset Strip comic book
Dream Lake Ukulele Band is a Lost in the Grooves exclusive. Click to sample the music or purchase.
Dream Lake Ukulele Band Dream Lake Ukulele Band (Crest, 1976)
What do you get when you cross twenty-seven ukuleles, a Little Marcy record, and the Langley Schools Music Project? The result is a bizarre hybrid called the Dream Lake Ukulele Band, a Florida school group whose performances are documented on Crest Records, a New York vanity label. The back cover shows twenty-seven grade school aged students, all wearing white shirts and red vests, the boys also wearing neckties. Sound boring? Not when every kid is smiling and holding a ukulele.
The lead-off, “There’s So Many, Many Ways,” is one of the more charming Christian songs around, but I’m sure my opinion is altered by the sheer innocent joy of twenty-seven children’s voices singing in harmony while strumming their ukuleles. That spirit changes a bit though, when the songs veer off into the Bicentennial patriotic songs that fill the rest of Side 1. Such lyrics as "My Sunday school teacher loves me when I am never late" preceded by "God loves when I learn to shoot the gun" makes one wish that the band director would have been cool enough to be teaching the kids David Bowie songs.
Fortunately, Side 2 has the perfect antidote, for that is where the children present and sing their own original compositions. Compiled under headings such as "Wish Songs," "Name Songs," and "Music Songs," each features a progression of five to ten kids strumming and singing solo. These aren’t loud bratty kids singing "Tomorrow" at the top of their lungs, but more often small waif-like girls singing with very timid voices. My heart melts whenever I hear one girl who sings, "I am Mary, I like to play the ukulele" or another girl whose verse starts by saying her parents are always busy, and then proceeds with "Daddy is a band director, Mommy is a piano teacher, I love them." This record is listed as being Volume Seven, which definitely makes me wish that I also had volumes One through Six. (Vern Stolz, from the book Lost in the Grooves)
Are you a member of the Dream Lake Ukelele Band? If so, please contact us!
Best of Suckdog (a compilation of tracks from Drugs are Nice/Rape GG) is a Lost in the Groove exclusive. Click to sample the music or purchase.
Suckdog Drugs are Nice (self-released, 1989)
Forget the hilarious GTOs. Forget even the mighty Shaggs. Suckdog (which isn’t really a band on this record, just a gathering of drug-addled friends conducted like an alley-cat orchestra by Lisa “Suckdog” Carver and her friend Rachel Johnson) captures adolescent female adrenaline-fueled angst and aggression like no recording artist I’ve heard before or since.
This is not a record for the squeamish; in fact, I have used it myself (in one of my most prankish moments) to disturb and annoy random passersby by shooting its screams and hoots down to street level from a safe rooftop perch (dare I say “sonic terrorism”?). If you want to hear the raw, primal energy of raging puberty, you won’t get any closer than this LP. It manages to create a sonic landscape which is scary, funny, outrageous, and poignant all at the same time, much as Ms. Carver’s later output in the small press world (which includes Rollerderby magazine and several underappreciated books) did with words and images.
It is not by mere happenstance that Spin magazine proclaimed this record “one of the top hundred records of the eighties.” Drugs are Nice certainly changed my life, as did seeing Ms. Carver perform a semi-nude roller skating opera with minimalist indie-rocker Bill “Smog” Callahan and French noise guru Costes in 1990. What makes the world of Suckdog work so well is that it never descends into pretension, or anything other than pure geeky life in its most frightening, silly, ridiculous extremes. And that, for me, is the best kind of art. (Russ Forster)
Costes’ End of the Trail is a Lost in the Grooves exclusive. Click to sample the music or purchase.
Costes End of the Trail (Self-released, 1992)
Costes is the ultimate DIY rocker of the French Underground. He’s vile, prolific, poignant, crazy, unlistenable, pop. End of the Trail is the seventh of his releases and his third album to be recorded in English. While some would argue that Lung Farts is an equal masterpiece, End is a nineteen-song homage to his breakup with indie icon Lisa Suckdog Carver, and a more moving love letter has never been recorded. Splatters of filth and sonic mess hide the sentimentality, but the beauty shines through, triumphantly sad beneath layers of disgust and ugly noise. A classical sonnet will dissolve into layered muddle punctuated by overblown vocals, only to be reduced a moment later to a vulnerable whimper as a multitude of schizophrenic emotions battle for dominance. Costes plays, sings, manipulates, produces and destroys every track in utter solitude, shining through on borderline narcissistic tracks like “King of Rock’N Roll, Sort Of” and “I Don’t Want to Be a Souvenir on a CD Player.” His music is from necessity; he cannot help himself. It is the document of modern humanity as representative of his era’s id as Gainsbourg was of his.
Lauded by the likes of Thurston Moore and the odd rock journalist, Costes remains virtually unknown, even in his own country, a special gem without genre. (Costes has claimed Daniel Johnston and GG Allin as musical kin, though he resembles neither.) He has been shunned, sued and attacked for his uncompromisingly viscous aesthetic. Still, at the time of this writing he has over thirty recordings to his credit and he shows no signs of slowing. (Bengala)
