Tiny Music Reviews 1
A couple weeks ago I ended up ransacking the $1 bin at Criminal Records, picking up everything that looked like a sampler or had really good graphic design on the jacket. This was brought on by discovering that a sampler I picked up over a year ago (and forgot about) was constructed from purest awesomtanium.
In case you’d like a copy of that one yourself, it was Parasol Records’s Sweet Sixteen Volume 6.
I didn’t find anything that good, but I did find some interesting stuff. And some not-so-good stuff. First up, the winners, in no particular order.
Clarence Fountain, Sam Butler, and the Boys: Stepping Up & Stepping Out
Black people can do a lot of things well that white people can’t. Dance. Wear purple. Be funky. Sing about Jesus without whining and wishing to be dead. This album is a really good example of that last one, from two of the men who were part of the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Chain and the Gang: Down with Liberty…Up with Chains!
I only bought this one because it was put out by “Secretly Canadian Distribution”, and because the CD itself says “A Rock and Roll Comintern Production”. The music turned out to be on the weird-artsy side and uneven, but interesting and not bad. Gooder when it rocked more.
The Joneses: Criminals/Tits and Champagne
This is 2 EPs on one CD. From the names (band and albums) I was expecting something laughably pretentious and horrible and emo. From the pics of the band on the back, I was expecting something douchey. What I got was some pretty good punk/psychobilly. Interestingly, the three covers (Crocodile Rock, Your Cheatin’ Heart, and Route 66) are the weakest tracks on the disc. Oh, and it turns out the EPs were recorded in 1983 and 1987.
Baby Shakes
This is another one that made it because of the screening on the CD itself. “STEREO: PLAY LOUD” says one side. The catalog number is given as DMR025, for “Douchemaster” records. It turned out to be an all-girl punk/rockabilly group, laying down some pretty decent tracks. Very Shonen Knife, only without singing about sumo wrestling and reading books and god knows what. Oh, and it turns out they really are on Douchemaster Records.
More later.
