Jungle 45's

Here is a Jungle 45 compilation that was originally posted over at WFMU's Ichi Ban Rock n Soul blog. I had been posting the 45's one week at a time, but at some point, I got totally derailed because my vinyl to CD doohicky died on me. After a while I was able to replace said doohicky (thanks again Mucker), but at that point I needed to find a few great cuts to round out the compilation.

So here you go. All cuts taken direct from vinyl with the scratches and pops left in to add to the jungle coolness.

Thanks to J.R. Williams for the awesome cover that he put together (almost a year ago or so?!).

JUNGLE!

Cafe Bohemian

Here is the 2nd in a series of 45 anomalies. Collect records long enough and you stumble across these weird differences between 45's. The first of the series was the 2 different versions of Ward Darby's Safari 45. I think that post was originally over at Ichi Ban Blog.

This one is a real head scratcher. CAFE BOHEMIAN by THE ENCHANTERS. Both 45's look exactly the same and feature the same Orbit release numbers. But there are major differences in the songs themselves.

One version features a piano intro and lots of saxophone. Thru out the song there are a few "cafe bohemian" whispers here and there.

The superior version (in my opinion) features haunting vocals by Garnett Mimms and no piano intro.

The only real way you can tell the difference between the 2 records is by checking out the dead wax. The "sax" version reads this way: R . 532 . A . D 1. The "vocal" version reads: R . 532 . A . D 2. This second version also looks like it has a number scratched out right before the A. You can kind of make it out in the scan above.

Both records date from 1959 as far as I can tell and my guess is that the sax version came first due to the clean matrix number?

So take this in to consideration if shopping for this particular 45! I first found the sax version of this 45 many years ago and although it was cool to find in the wild, I really thought there was only one version of this song, not 2! It then took a few more years of digging to find the vocal version...

Give both a listen below...

Cafe_Bohemian_(sax)

Cafe_Bohemian_(vocal)

Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume Sixteen

Here is Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume 16.

This volume is based entirely upon the track listing for a tape called FLAMEOUT ON THE RANCHO GRANDE. It has become apparent over the years of making these compilations that Lux used to make mix tapes and then title them with a combination of the song titles on the tape (i.e. FORBIDDEN CITY DOGFOOD etc).

This track listing was fascinating in that 99 percent of the tracks were from the easy listening/exotica/incredibly strange music vein. Lux and Ivy talked about this genre quite a bit in the in the Incredibly Strange Music interview, and some of the previous volumes have touched upon this genre, but here you get a complete over dose! This is a nearly vocal-less compilation filled with castanets, mutated harmonicas, wild steel guitar, accordions, a few kaiju themes, some wild jungle drumming, and I think there's a theremin in there somewhere.

This is the first volume taken largely from LP's, so do some digging. Pick up some the LP's these songs were taken from. There will be hours of listening enjoyment ahead (for those of you with brave ears).

The two stand out artists for me are Leo Diamond and Joe Maize. I was somewhat familiar with Leo Diamond from the Skin Diver's Suite LP , but that didn't prepare me for the awesomeness of the couple of tracks that can be heard here. Both tracks are taken from the LP, EXCITING SOUNDS FROM ROMANTIC PLACES. The harmonica sounds he comes up with are wild. Speaking of wild, say hello to Joe Maize! This guy is an amazing steel guitar player. The sounds he gets on some of these tracks are jaw dropping. I highly recommend the LP, PRESENTING JOE MAIZE AND HIS CORDSMEN on Decca. I guess their live shows were a mix of comedy routines and music. If you find the LP and see the cover, you'll get an idea of what their live show must have been like.

A Huge thank you goes out to Hiroshi Sekiguchi for sending me the track listing so I could put this together. And of course, a huge thank you to Adam Fitch for his continuing contributions to the look of the series. Also, thanks to Paul Goff for sending me beauty dragster.

All this wouldn't fit on one CD, there are 2 "sides".

Enjoy

Side_One (link fixed)
Side_Two

If you downloaded before 9:00 PM EST, please download again, you are missing some artwork.

SAKI!

Well, Jungle Juice has been silent for too long. So, here's a recent find that I'm really digging right now. Side one has a great sleazy sax sound, whereas side two dispenses with the sax and adds a great guitar lick.

Some stuff that I'll be posting soon (hopefully); a little overview of the Sparkles, an ode to Moon Dawg, and some never before heard Ronnie Cook!

And big thanks to Mark Mucker for hooking me up with a new usb turntable to facilitate all this nonsense. Oh, and I'll also finish up my Jungle 45 of the Week compilation that was slowly being posted over at the Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban site. The complete compilation (with the JR Williams cover) will be available here as well as over there.

Earl_Craig_and_the_Downbeats_-_Saki_Part_1

Earl_Craig_and_the_Downbeats_-_Saki_Part_2

Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume One (Remaster)

Here is the “remastered” edition of Lux and Ivy’s Favorites Volume One. It’s hard to believe that the Incredibly Strange Music book with the interview with Lux and Ivy came out almost 17 years ago! The details of going thru that interview and compiling this series is sort of old news so I won’t go into it again. But it is kind of crazy to think about how long ago that was.

I think it’s safe to say that this new edition has much better sound. I’ve also cleaned up some nagging things that always bothered me about the original; The spelling error on the Sid King track, the abrupt ending of Jennie Lee, and the overall awfulness of some of the mp3’s. Again, like I’ve said before, the originals (especially the first 2 volumes) were really never meant to be heard outside of a few friends so I didn’t really worry about it all that much.

HUGE thanks go out to Gil DeLuxe of France for his drawing of Lux for the cover. Gil contacted me after I asked if anyone would be interested in doing some art for the covers. My idea was to have Lux on the cover of Volume One and Ivy on Volume Two. I think he finished the artwork over 2 years ago, thanks for your patience Slim! As always, the layout and effects were done by Adam Fitch.

Volume 2 will be up next at some point, maybe within the next few months.

As for the future of LAIF, just as it seems as if the well has run dry, a new vein is struck.

Here is what is on the agenda coming up at some point (some sooner than later).

Volume 16 will be a double CD of Lounge/EZ listening type stuff. I’m guessing some people will love it, and some will be sort of confused. Some of the volumes flirt with a few exotica songs here and there, but this will blow your mind (if you have the right frame); harmonica lounge, monster movie themes, and overall wackiness.

Volume 17 will be what most of us are used to, rockabilly, blues, etc (actually, this volume is almost finished now, but I wanted to do the lounge edition first).

Volume 18 will be another journey into outer space (this may be a double cd as well).

That should take us in to next year and beyond. Also in there may be the remaster of volume 3 (with Ichiban regular J.R. Williams cover) and Volume 5 with another Haunted George cover.

As always no bootlegging, please. Just share this with friends and enjoy!

Volume_One

The Ventures in Space

A friend of mine asked me to recommend a good Ventures album. You can't go wrong with 1964's IN SPACE!

It's a great "space" themed album.

Some songs of note: Man of Astroman cover War of the Satellites. The Bat can be found on the LAIF series. The Fourth Dimension may sound familiar to fans of fellow Dolton label instro kings, The Frantics.

Enjoy...

Ventures_-_In_Space

Human Fly Film Overview

The film opens with a countdown and a placard with: Vengeance Productions Presents a Film by Alex de Laszlo. It immediately cuts to a shot of Ivy walking down the street, transistor radio glued to her ear (The Way I Walk is playing), blowing bubbles and holding a glass bottle coke. Cut to a somber looking Lux in a smoking jacket sitting on what appears to be a leopard print sofa. He’s prepping a huge hypodermic needle by lighting a match and holding it under the needle.

Lux then gathers up some flesh from around his throat and slowly injects himself.



The result is immediate; he begins a transformation!




Again, we see Ivy walking down the street as the film cuts back to Lux as his transformation deepens.



And deepens.



His transformation is complete.



Ivy stumbles and drops her radio down a flight of stairs. She looks down in to the foreboding space and reluctantly goes down them to retrieve her radio. There is one last cut to the Lux monster as he gets up off the couch. Ivy bends down to pick up the radio as the opening riff from Human Fly begins. We follow the camera down the stairs toward Ivy as she screams!



She runs down a hallway (past Nick’s drum kit) into a room with a door. She opens it and out comes Dracula Nick!



As she reacts, there is a jump cut to Bryan smoking. As his head slowly turns you can see that his face is sort of…melted.



Lux lurches into view holding what appears to be a Barbie doll.



He sort of looks around and then throws an evil smile and lurches towards the camera. They way he moves in this shot is really great. It’s kind of hard to describe other than “lurches”.



Ivy is horrified at the monsters around her. Nick, Byran and Lux surround her and drag her to the ground, the Lux Monster drooling and Melt Faced Bryan’s face actually dripping on Ivy. The Lux Monster is swinging his Barbie doll around by the hair, laughing and have a great time.

After a few moments there is a close up of Ivy’s face. As she turns towards the camera we see that she has been transformed into: Skull Faced Ivy!



She slowly gets up as there is a bunch of quick cuts of Dracula Nick smoking, turning on a radio, slowly bopping his head. Monster Lux grabs the transformed Ivy and leads her towards a piece of broken mirror so she can see her new form. She looks at the camera and begins a slow grooving dance with the rest of the monsterous group. The look on her face is great, like she’s excepted her “new look.”

There are more quick cuts of the group having fun as the song ends. Melt Faced Bryan drinking some liquid and “skittering” across a mattress. Monster Lux doing a fly dance, and sucking his thumb over a record player with a 45 on it.



And a final close up of each member.



Then there is a close up of the artwork for the picture sleeve of Human Fly (though only Lux and Ivy are really visable).





Well, that’s it. I think it’s a brilliant piece of Cramps history. Thinking about the time period that this came out, it’s pretty extraordinary. They made this film at a time when something like this wasn’t really logical. It’s not like it was going to air on MTV or something. Jim Marshall chimed in on the last post and said that it had been shown before one of their shows at CBGB’s back in 1979.

So that’s it. I hope it gets a legitimate release someday.

Thanks to Kevin Compton for sending this my way.

The Human Fly Film

In 1978 The Cramps decided to make a short promotional film using their song Human Fly as the back drop. Other than that I really don't know the history of the film at all. The first I heard about it was when the Ian Johnston book about The Cramps that came out in the early 90’s.

The book said that the film was so rare, that The Cramps themselves did not have a copy.

It’s pretty much considered the rarest bit of Cramps ephemera. Many don't even know about it all. It is any serious Cramps fan’s Holy Grail as it were. The Cramps footage that no one seems to have seen.

Since reading about it in the Johnston book, I've always had an eye out for any mention anywhere about the film. Back in the early 90’s, which was pre-Internet for me, the odds of hearing about the film or running across it were pretty slim.

As the Internet began to play a larger roll in my (and everyone else’s) life, I thought surely a mention of the film would pop up at some point. But still there was nothing about it anywhere. When Youtube hit the scene, I figured it would show up over there. Something so rare had to be in the possession of somebody that would upload its grainy b/w goodness so that people could finally see the film that Cramps fans had been talking about for years.

Still there was nothing.

Over a decade after starting the Lux and Ivy’s Favorites series something extraordinary happened. The film turned up!

Here’s how it went down. A friend of mine from Boston had been telling me about a friend of his who was a HUGE Cramps fan. He said that we totally had to meet because we would hit it off immediately, because of our love for The Cramps.

Years went by where this friend of his and I would never meet. During that time he found out about the LAIF series and enjoyed them so much that he emailed me asking if there was anything I was looking for Cramps related. Like a jerk, I pretty much said I had everything readily available (all the releases, tons of bootlegs, etc). He admitted that he was kind of out of the loop regarding any of the newer live recordings that had popped up over the years, but he felt that he needed to thank me for my efforts with the LAIF series. I was humbled that he thought so much of the series that he felt the need to repay me.

The last sentence in his email went something like this; …”Well, I also have this video of The Cramps turning into monsters in some basement….”

This of course elicited a sound from me akin to 96 eyes popping out of 96 eye sockets!

This HAD to be the Human Fly film! That tiny description was like nothing I had ever read about before. Legend had it that it was a film of Lux “turning into a fly” but I think that was an assumption by someone that had not seen the film.

Here’s a short version about how it came into his possession. When he was in high school he made a short film with this other guy. Years later they wanted to have the super 8 film transferred to VHS so they could watch it again without the need of a projector. Somewhere along the line his friend had come into possession of the Human Fly film. All they knew at the time was that it was somehow Cramps related. Since they were both Cramps fans, it ended up on the pile of items to be transferred to VHS.

Details are a little sketchy at this point, apparently his friend knew Alex de Laszlo, the Human Fly director, and de Laszlo had lent the film to this guy. The film itself eventually made its way back to de Laszlo.

So they ended up watching the film, but at the time since there was no outlet to really show this to the world, it ended up kind of being forgotten. Basically, the tape ended up in his attic and forgotten. He had absolutely no idea that the video in his attic was on every crazed Cramps fan’s Halloween wish list.

Flash forward to about a year ago:

In what seemed like a few hours, I was watching something I have no idea how many people have actually seen. I must have watched it a few dozen times, first on my computer monitor and later on my television. The film has more ideas per frame than the average modern horror flick has in its entire running time.

Soon, various friends were swinging by to feast their unbelieving eyes on the film. Everyone that saw it was speechless. Everyone said the same thing: “WHEN ARE YOU PUTTING THIS UP ON YOUTUBE!?!”

Well, sorry to say, I’m not. This isn’t me saying; “Hey, look at me! Look what I have and YOU don’t!” This is me, or more to the point, US saying some things are meant to be seen at the right place and the right time. If Ivy wants this released, she’ll release it. There’s no way we want to get in the way of an eventual release by doing something as callous as uploading it to Youtube, right next to talking babies, football’s to the groin, and various other time killers; This was too special.

But what I will do is write a review of the film, as well as post some screen shots so you can see that the film actually exists in some form.

For those keeping score, the film is no longer lost, according to an interview I read somewhere Lux and Ivy found the film in their attic (an appropriate place) and at some point intend on releasing it (this was of a few years ago). As of this writing there is no news (that I know of) about any official Cramps release on DVD.

End of Part One

Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume Six (remastered)

Sorry for the delay in getting this finished!

Part of the problem was the winter blahs setting in (sadly, the time when I have the most time to do stuff like this is also the time when I really don't feel like doing it!), and the other problem I was running into was finding decent version of the songs (thus the "remastered" part!).

I think this version is a bit better than the version that already exists. There are a few songs with infinitely better sounding files like a pristine copy of Slide Her Under the Door. It almost sounds TOO good. I was so used to the version on the Wavy Gravy LP (which was taken from a cassette tape!), that this new version took some getting used to.

The other thing I'm most proud of is the Psychedelic masterpiece that Michael Deforge came up with for the cover of this edition. There are more ideas per square inch in this piece that I get lost in it every time I look at it. As part of the download, I've also included the original that he sent me so you can really get a good look at it.

For information, or to see more of his artwork check out http://www.kingtrash.com/

As usual, Adam Fitch put everything together art wise. Thanks to him and the people who helped finding some of the better versions of mp3's.

Next up will be volume 1-3 which will have artwork by French artist Slim Gil DeLuxe (1 + 2) and J.R. Williams (3).

LAIF_6

The Cramps - City Gardens 6/26/81

It's 2 years today since the death of Lux (still feels weird to type those words). You can read my thoughts on what Lux and Ivy mean to me earlier on this blog, so I won't go into it again. Plus the fact that I'm battling a crazy severe cold/fever the last few days, so I'm not sure if this is making much sense anyway.

Here is a great sounding show from 1981. The one thing that really stands out for me on this recording is the drumming by Nick. It's ferocious and smooth sounding at the same time. If you ever wanted to take a course on what good drumming can be, I recommend buying a kit and playing to this recording every day.

And now a word about bootlegging. I tracked down my local shaman/witch doctor and had him put a voodoo curse on this recording. Anyone trying to bootleg this, or profit from it in any way will "die a thousand deaths!" Sure, make copies for your friends or enemies, but try and profit from it and see what happens...

Rest in Piece Lux. You are sorely missed by many...

The_Cramps_-_City_Gardens