Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Record Round-up

Hello, it's been awhile. Thanks so much to Brian for his post of the Pancho Villa disc, one of my favorite record finds of the year. I thought it might be fun to do some mini reviews of other recent finds. These records are from last month's St. Louis record show and my recent trip to California.

Mike Evans: "Gruesome" I found this and several others at an outdoor flea market in Nipomo, CA. The take that day was pretty decent, especially for the money and included a Remains 45. This one was purchased blind, based mainly on the song title. What we have here is a nice slab of garage rock, indeed a novel take-off on "Gloria". I'm pretty certain this was nothing more than a throw-away b-side but it's a winner and I love the overall sound of this record.






The Kin-Tels: "The Dodge" Here we have a curious record put out by the Kin-Tel Corp. (thus the group name) that sounds like it was intended for an ad campaign. It's a nice pop ditty about Dodge automobiles, with a little cool guitar thrown in. I'd love to get the scoop on this. To me, it sounds like it's from about 1965. There's a different version on each side, although they sound the same to me.







Joe Brown: "The Mustang, Part 1" Yet another record that was totally unknown to me. This one is an r&b dance number that owes more than a debt of gratitude to Alvin Cash. Joe Brown even name checks the Twine and Barracuda, among several other dance steps. Central to it all, of course, is the Mustang. The flip side is more of the same.







We Believe: "Breathalyser" Still more proof that you never know what you'll find on the b-side of an otherwise forgettable disc. The top side of this is lame pop and then we have this nifty Hammond B3 driven instro, with some good guitar, on the flip. Every once in awhile, the music slows down so some poor guy can blow into a breathalyser, as the title implies. An unexpected winner.

5 comments:

Boursin said...

"Breathalyser" is the exact same track released in Britain credited to The Cocktail Cabinet. I've loved it for years, but had no idea about the Dunhill release!

Todd Lucas said...

Thanks for the info.

Unknown said...

I've no idea who Mike Evans is but
you might know producer Jerry Samuels under his alter-ego Napoleon XIV of "They're Coming To
Take Me Away, Ha Ha" fame.

Davie

Todd Lucas said...

David, nice catch. Thanks for that.

YankeeBoy said...

Jerry Samuels aka Napoleon X1V also wrote "The Shelter of Your Arms" which was a big hit for Sammy Davis Jr.