Television - Double Exposure (Live '74-'75)

I love Television. I don't like Adventure. So all I've got is Marquee Moon and this; Double Exposure having been recorded several years before their debut, making these songs sort of demo versions. These tracks are rife with Tom Verlaine and the boys' particular sonic genius and cliche as it may be, this really makes me wish I'd been there. Amazing to hear Verlaine's signature breed of guitar-ism translated live.



Double Exposure

Amon Düül II - Wolf City (1973)

My favorite Amon Düül II. It lies cozily between their improv freakout jams and their more accessible material, giving it the perfect edge on which to dance ecstatically, gloriously celebrating all that is Kraut. I'm led to believe that there are a lot of people who still listen to this stuff, but do I know more than one or two?

Wolf City

Leland - This Is My World (1972)

Heavy, paranoid seventies guitar-driven outsider psych. Leland played around San Francisco, taking out advertisements depicting himself in a pair of tights and a cape with just the name "Leland" in big letters. Nothing else. Did that type of stuff work back then?

This Is My World

Michael and the Mumbles (1966)

I'm not gonna get into much description on this one. It's Michael Yonkers, if you're into him. Before he went on to record absolute batshit genius solo records he had this little garage band that I think is an obelisk of pop greatness. If you get around to downloading this and think I just gave you a shitty transfer, you need to know that this is how the original recording sounds. Apparently they didn't have much money to throw at production quality.

Mumbles

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963)

Johnny Hartman was apparently the only jazz vocalist whom Coltrane would work with. I'm still only in "baby's first wobbly steps" mode as far as experience with jazz ballads go, but I feel pretty safe in saying that this is amazing. Upon release it became an instant jazz classic, several tracks on the album being considered the definitive versions. Apparently the whole thing was recorded in one take in one afternoon excepting the track "You Are Too Beautiful" which required two takes due to a dropped drumstick by Elvin Jones.

Coltrane and Hartman

Billy Swan - I Can Help (1974)

Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge gave Billy Swan an electric organ as a wedding present. Billy Swan plays that organ on this album. Y'all know the title cut, but the rest of the album is eminently bitchin as well. Swan gets the "Definitive Version Award" for his cover of The King's "Don't Be Cruel."

Swan

Eddy Senay - Step By Step (1972)

Detroit guitarist who only put out a couple'a records in the early seventies. Amazing guitarist is Eddy and this album is entirely instrumental. Pure groove heavy funk and R&B, extremely relaxed and smooth. The keyboard operator, Rudy Robinson, is just as talented and praiseworthy as Senay, to the point that he should be more credited on the album, seeing as how the two riff off each other the entire time. A classic album.

Step By Step

Peaking Lights - 936

This may be something most of you are already hip to? I don't know, but I like it, I endorse it. They refer to themselves as "post-reggae" and "groove-wave." Unfortunate monikers if you ask me. It's dreamy psych electronic meanderings from a couple in Madison, Wisconsin. "Achingly beautiful melodies float over immersive and occasionally seedy dubbed-out grooves; beats rise out of a hazed jungle underworld, at times sounding like primitive machines. And the effect is nothing short of transcendent. 936 is a refreshingly original and somewhat unexpected blend of classic dub and acid-soaked, female-fronted psychedelia that emerged seemingly out of nowhere to become one of the year's most compelling and replayable jams."


936

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray Bootlegs 1968-70

Four amazing recordings of 'Sister Ray.' Each between 17 and 28 minutes in length. Each one is singular in comparison to each other and the studio version, showing off the versatility of everyone's favorite art-rock forbears. Whip it on.

Part 1
Part 2

Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion (2011)

Lo-fi garage with cavernous vocals and equally cavernous, echo-laden overtones. One track it'll be twilight on earth, the next it'll be out to space, but doesn't get boring or sound so curmudgeonly a la "pop a buncha Nyquil-dowsed Valium and forget it all" depression that I, for one, can't get my head around. More or less, it's one of those bands that reminds me not to hate a genre just because I hate most of the bands within it.

In Love With Oblivion

Lord Newborn and The Magic Skulls - S/T (2009)

Best instrumental album I've heard recently. A collaboration betwixt three musicians I know nothing about: Shawn Lee, Money Mark and Tommy Guerrero, who have produced the cleanest mess of musical soup I readily know of. Psychedelic and deeply rhythm-laden, it's not failed so far to pique the interest of anyone I've played it for. Elements of the best musical styles find their way in here without feeling awkward or forced.

Lord Newborn and The Magic Skulls

Clap - Have You Reached Yet? (1972)

If there's one thing I can't get enough of musically, it's the ahead of it's time mystique of proto-punk. Clap delivers in plenty. Heavy Stones-meets-Stooges vibe that has been on repeat through my speakers of late. Timeless in it's pure teenage energy.

Have You Reached Yet?

Diminished Men - Shadow Instrumentals (2009)

Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls says: "If current instrumental music was always as majestic and compelling as this, I'd hang up my Retro-Italian Soundtrack collector's boots for good. From the explosive drum rolls on the opening track, the only cover on the record, L'appel du Vere, from Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" (music by Phillipe Sarde), to the darkly exotic finale, "A Housewife's Dream", this album is a superbly crafted mosaic of whipcracking vengeance, speakeasy hallucinations and haunted geography. Besides the Italian Western overtones, the carnival-esque freakshow backdrops, Khorshid-Egyptian guitar passages, and flipped-out electronic space-psych, are perhaps the best surf-inspired tracks I've heard in years. It's spine-chilling how producer Randall Dunn managed to make this record the ultimate mid-60's Surf-Vampire-Western revival soundtrack. Elements of Joe Meek's best Moontrekkers productions cross with a dash of Badalamenti murder blues drums of Dave Abramson to leave their indelible stains across this 41-minute epic journey."


I concur. Excepting the fact that I hate when things are described as "epic." Other than that, I stand by these statements.


Shadow Instrumentals

Wild Billy Childish - 1982 Cassettes

One of the most prolific artists this side of the Renaissance. He's published over 40 collections of poetry, produced over 2000 paintings and recorded over 100 full length albums with bands of the most intriguing monikers: The Buff Medways, Thee Headcoats, The Pop Rivets, Mighty Caesars, Milkshakes, Holly Golightly, etc. These are homemade recordings magnetized in '82 and released in '88, featuring just Billy and his guitar.

Profligate