Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume Two (remaster)

Well, here's the "remastered" version of Volume 2. I basically just cleaned up the mp3's used for this edition and fixed some quirks that have always bothered me (the way Jennie Lee used to cut off at the last second).

And here's the second of the 2 covers that Slim Gil Deluxe did. As always, thanks to Adam Fitch for his layout work and having the patience to put up with me during this "haunted edition."

Up next will be a new volume that is almost ready. Expect to see it sometime this summer.

Enjoy!

LAIF #2 (REUPLOAD)

Lux Lives Commemorative CD 2012

Lux Lives is an annual celebration of Lux Interior's life that takes place in Scotland. Colin Duff, the curator of the event, plans to make it a yearly gathering of Cramps fans and hopes that events like it spread across the globe in years to come. It is a non-profit event with most proceeds going to charity. There's bands, music, video...all catered towards Cramps fans, put on by Cramps fans.

Every year there is a CD giveaway as part of the event. In past years Next Big Thing fanzine founder and former Cramps fan club curator, Lindsay Hutton did a CD, as well as Ian Johnston, writer of the WILD WILD WORLD OF THE CRAMPS book. This year Colin wanted me to compile a CD and do some liner notes for it as well. He asked me to compile my favorite songs from the Lux and Ivy Favorites series. I kind of felt weird putting "my favorites" stamp on it, so what I did was compile songs with interview bits that I've acquired over the years of Lux and Ivy talking about music, and some movie sound bites from movies that they mentioned in various interviews. There's a track from the next volume of LAIF and I've also included some rare Pete 'Mad Daddy' Myers sound bites from his DJ days in Cleveland and in New York.

This year, there were two events, one was on February 3rd, and the other is tonight, February 18th at the Bar Bloc in Glasgow. If you happen to be in the area, I strongly suggest you attend and celebrate the life of someone who meant so much to a lot of us.

Along with the download are the liner notes and the fantastic artwork by J.R. Williams.

I want to thank Colin for all the work he and his friends put in to doing an event like this, and thanks to J.R. for volunteering his time to put together the amazing artwork.

Lux_Lives!

The Blue Knights

I'm a sucker for moody/creepy instrumentals. Here's a great one I recently stumbled across. This is right up there with the Morgus Creep by the Daringers.

I don't think it's ever been comped, and it doesn't even show up on the usually in depth INSTROMANIA website.

No info as to year, or part of the country it's from!

Madness!

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

LAIF 16 SIDE ONE (REUPLOAD)    

LAIF 16 SIDE TWO (REUPLOAD)

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