DJ Colonel has been honing his skills way out in Bend OR. He sent me a batch of his shows, and of the ones that I have had a chance to review, his Dub Special was my fave.
Here is the tracklist:
01 Banana Walk Dub Specialist 02 Don't follow Babylon(Blood and Fire Meets Wai Wan Remix Dub Shop Stylee) Twilight Sound System and Ranking Joe 03 Rasta Dub Horace Andy 04 Dub Out Oku Onuora 05 Drive By Dub Dub trio 06 Since I Dub Aggrovators 07 Fist Of Fury Prince Jammy 08 Buck Rogers in The Black Hole Roots Radics 09 Red Shift Scientist 10 African Jumper Tommy McCook 11 Reggae Train Cornell Campbell 12 King Tubby The Dub Ruler King Tubby 13 One Armed Boxer Lee Perry 14 DJ's Choice Dennis Alcapone 15 Dub Organiser Dillinger 16 Reggae-mylitis Peter Tosh
So here is the Raleigh Twenty that I rescued a while back. I removed much of the house paint but there is still a fair amount of it left on the bike-call it patina.
I removed the rack on the back and rattle canned it a black glossy coat of Krylon, it looks much better than the half assed house paint that wa on it before. I also had a trunk bag that I got from Nashbar a while back, it seems to fit nicely.
I replaced the tubes, rim tape and tires (with Schwalbes). I also replaced the seat post with an alloy one with an integrated clamp. I repurposed an old mountain bike saddle that I had in the parts bin.
I took the bike on its' first trip this past weekend to Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. I used it to venture around the paddock, and see all of the vintage race cars.
The bike did well although the clearance between the the front tire and the mudguard stay is pretty tight. I also need to replace the grips as the originals look like they could split at any point and they really don't help reduce road shock.
I took a road trip to Wisconsin today as we are having record rains, 7 inches yesterday(!) There was a record show at my favorite haunt and I was able to scare up some great 45s.
Here is what I came up with after an hour or so of digging:
Moulty The Barbarians /Laurie This is the track where Moulty tells the story of losing his hand, this guy had prosthetic hands!!!
Inside and Out Dave Clark 5 /Epic DC5 must have been pschedelicized, because this mint disc is awesome- bordering on freak beat. Totally not what I would expect.
Hold Your Horses Jimmy Soul Clark /Moira I am sucker for anything on Moira, this one is growing on me.
Don't Tread On Me Kit and The Outlaws /Philips A recommendation from a dealer. This has two guitar breaks. Kit et al just beat a basic riff into submission.
Better Man Than I Terry Knight & The Pack /Lucky 11 I have read about Terry Knight and his escapades but have never seen a 45 for a reasonable price. I think this was was $3. A great version of this song, it also features a great break.
I'm Leaving Here The K-otics /Bang Another garage treasure, described as Kinks worshippers to me, I am not so sure.
Wade In the Water Willie Mitchell / Hi My first Willie Mitchell find. I have only listened to this side and it is an awesome instro.
Tell It Like It Is Aaron Neville /Par Lo This one was kind of weak, at least on one side, I need to bend my ears a bit more. Cool label from NOLA that I have not seen before up close.
I Can't Seem To Make You Mine The Seeds /GNP Sky Saxon, no more needs to be said.
Double o Soul Sonny Stitt /Wingate This sounds to me like the basic instro tracks used for the Edwin Starr track subsitituting Stitt's horn for Starr's vocal. The back singers also sound familiar. Songs runs on both sides.
You're Gonna Miss Me 13th Floor Elevators / International Artists The 'Vators are pictured above. I am embarrassed to say that I could not find this 45 in my record cave. At least I have a copy that I can find now- essential for anyone with ears. I read somewher that the guy behind IA is/was Leland Rogers, brother to Kenny "No when to fold 'em" Rogers. Odd that.
Come On Back The Wild Ones /Sears these dudes were on the Sears Roebuck label and have that distinctive Chi town cheesy garage sound. I had never seen this one before. It was $2.50.
He's Bad Bad Bad Betty Wright /Alston Come one a Betty Wright single in mint, I had to get it.
The Damage $50.
Since I picked up more garage records this time, I had to pay the piper. I think that I still made out OK. Some great tracks here.
Any one who knows me, knows that garage is one of my fave record genres. The records are hard to find in the wild, so getting original, at least in this neck of the woods is much more of a challenge.
All of the records in this set are original 45s that I have found in garage sales, dusty junk shops, the occasional record show, or in one particular case via a mail order trade.
The sub genres are pretty well represented as well, as punk, folk, moody, bubblegum and even some borderline mod are in the mix.
Hope you dig it.
Cratedigger in The Garage Tracklist
01 I Lie Awake New Colony Six Centaur 1202 02 Try It The Ohio Express Cameo Parkway 2001 03 Believe Me The Guess Who Scepter 12131 04 Sunny Day The Stillroven Roulette 4748 05 I Told Those Little White Lies The Painted Ship Mercury 72662 06 Leavin' Here The Rationals Cameo Parkway 481 DJ Copy 07 I Cannot Stop You The Cherry Slush USA 2032 08 A Question of Temperature The Balloon Farm Laurie 3405 09 She Left Me All Alone Tidal Waves HBR 482 10 No Correspondence The Beckett Quintet Gemcor 5003
Some notes: New Colony Six are one of the biggest, most well known 66 Chitown punks, but in my opinion overstayed their welcome as they continued to issue 45s they sounded weaker and weaker. This is one of my favorite NC6 sides, the flip is also a winner- At the River's Edge. I can picture people grooving to this 45 at Gulliver's Pizza or something back in the day.
Moving over to the harder, more fuzzy side of garage, studio phantoms, Ohio Express do a version of Try It that is actually quite good. This has to one of the toughest sounds from Kastenetz and Katz' Super K Productions. How could you not like that fuzztone? Bubblegum was more often their sound-- Yummy Yummy and Chewy Chewy, are the more likely 45s that a digger will find in the wild. Look for this one, though. I think I paid buck for it.
66 Garage from our northern neighbor, Winipeg Manitoba, Canada, makes an appearance with Believe Me by The Guess Who. The Randy Bachman guitar work on this side will keep you coming back for more. Dig the break followed by excessive organ abuse. Yes, it is the same band that later issued the classic rock staple, American Woman. This one cost me a but at a record show.
A little more folky sound is exemplified by The Stilroven's Sunny Day, the flip to their take on Hey Joe. There is a bit of a lilt to the sound and there is a modicum of jangle, so I will say that it is sort of folky. All the way from Minneapolis. This shouldn't be too hard to find, at least here in the mighty Midwest.
Next up, is one of my all time favorite garage tracks, I told Those Little White Lies. It also has to be on any garageiste's top put down snotty punk sinlges as well. I had to pay a bit for this one, maybe $30, but it was worth every penny. It looks like these gents might have been from Vancouver, BC. You may have heard the flip, Frustration on Pebbles 7...
What can be said about the Rationals? Underrated, underappreciated??? Certainly. When I hear their take on Leavin' Here, I hear a backing vocal style that other Michiganders would co-opt into their sound, especially the Motor City 5... Great vocal harmonies and arrangement by Jeep Holland on this Holland-Dozier-Holland number. I heard that there is a proper Rats' reissue coming out, I would recommend that all reading this missive go check out.
I Cannot Stop You by The Cherry Slush is an odd duck. A killer track that has sort of a downer feel due to the lyrics and some of the sounds and effects utilized on it. I would say that in total it is less garage, but more in a mod type zone soundwise. It has a wavy guitar break. Maybe that is why it is such a DJ hit in Norway and Sweden. A Norske DJ told me that it was "wary waluable" in his homeland when he was spinning it a few years back in prep for a mod chicago set. They were from Saginaw MI, and released this on the Chicago USA label. I got my copy from Mop Top Mike a few years back. Might cost a bit more now.
Back into the fuzz with A Question of Temperature by The Balloon Farm. This track made it into the Billboard Top 40 in 68. Apparently my 45 is the original pressing since there is a typo "Tempature" is how the track is spelled on the label. Nice sound effect usage here. Don't really know much about it other than the song rips and I got it for $.25.
She Left Me All Alone is an excellent example of a moody garage song. This one is on the Hanna Barbara label. I wrote about these guys a while back, and made some wrong assumptions, which were duly corrected by others in the blogosphere. The Beckett Quintet round it all out with a pretty common 45. I think I spent a few bucks on this one, but it is in mint.
Hope you all enjoy these tunes as much as I do. It is great to find these gems out there, hope I expanded some ears out there.
The pic above, even though it gives me a headache to look at, sorry about camera phone pics in advance, shows that my shipment finally came.
I received 2 Schwalbe tires in 1.75x2, two new tubes, and an aluminium seat post with an integral seat clamp. The post should help the little bike shed a couple of pounds as the current steel post is kind of heavy as is the clamp. This post is also a little longer.
I have been a huge fan of the Ugly Things fanzine for 15+ years. Mike Stax puts out a great publication that still feels zine like- though it is over 200 pages and the writing keeps getting better and better.
This issue is no slouch, as it includes a feature on the 68 tour of The Who and the Small Faces Down Under.
California garage band, the Spats get the complete UT treatment with a complete history, that includes many old photos and record label scans.
One of my favorite parts of UT is working through the huge selection of reissue reviews.
In fact, due to the proliferation of blogs, I would have to say that UT is the only zine that I continue to read with regularity. Order this now!
DJ Colonel has been honing his skills way out in Bend OR. He sent me a batch of his shows, and of the ones that I have had a chance to review, his Dub Special was my fave.
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