Le Beat Bespoke 3

As mentioned a while back, upon my last visit to NYC, I made my customary stop at Rockit Scientist.

One of the items that I picked up was Le Beat Bespoke 3. I have seen the prior installments over the years, but this is the first volume that I have heard, (and purchased.)

The 20 song set starts out with "Abba" by The Paragons, which is a garage nugget that I have been familiar with for years. It is an awesome track, but seemed a tad out of place here. Seems most of the tracks are British or Continental in origin...

The good stuff that kicks it into action is track 3 "Love Me When I'm Down" by Soul Inc. The vibe continues with the very next song by the Neon Express with "Flashback." The guitar is fuzzy enough that friends of the Dick Taylor trashy sound will not be disappointed. The horns and stuff kind of kill it, but there you go.

The Ro-d-ys from Nederlands kick it with the track Looking for Something Better." Nederbiet with soaring harmonies. Not the Outsiders, but this is an airy track that has a break down that has smashing Moonesque drums accompanied by skronkity sax and smashing and gnashing of the the relatively clean guitar.

"Flipping" the disc over to the back side, Douuglas busts some craziness in the Francophonic "Si Je Buvais Moins." The guitar is nearly silenced by the level of distortion foisted upon it. the call and respinse of the organ and the guitar are excellente. Freak beat from Belgium? Oui.

Overall the juxtaposition on some of these tracks that contain both horns and symphonic elements matched with fuzz guitar is a bit shocking, but with repeated listens, I find it to be less jarring.

Some of the sonic quality is a bit specious here. "Is It Off Is It On" is an example of a very crunchy disc trying to make the transition to the digital realm. Seriously for US$30, I would expect perfectly sounding discs. Not suggesting for a moment to engage in "digital mastering" fuckery...

Still, I recommend that you find this one and crank it up on your hifi with a glass of Louis Jadot 2006 Beaujolais Nouveau. I know I did.

Here is a recent Morgan sighting in Northern IL, a rad British car to go with some rad moderne sounds.

NYC a week or so back

Greetings from fog encased IL...

As my blogging comrade, Vincent at FuFuStew, likes to say sometimes real life gets in the way, and that is definitely the case in my situation.

Hope you had a chance to listen to DJ Colonel and his set at the dub controls that I recently posted.

I went to NYC over a week ago and had some interesting adventures, some of which I will share here. First of all off the plane, I hopped into a standard issue NYC cab. I directed the driver to take me to 110 Fifth Ave (between 16th and 17th.) I spoke very clearly and the hack said that he understood. I then got deeply invloved in both email and phone calls.

A few minutes later I realized that I was not in the MidTown Tunnel and I looked out the window to see that I was on 116th Street! Quite a distance from the desired destination of the environs of Union Square!

Of course the hack said that he thought I meant 5th Ave between 115th and 116th! I corrected him, told him to turn off the meter and get on the FDR. Luckily, I sort of know my way around, otherwise this could have been a serious cluster... Welcome to NYC.

While in Gotham on unrelated matters, I was able to get over to my fave place in the East Village Rockit Scientist. As usual, John was in a talkative mood and we chatted about business, NYC and of course music. I spent some serious coin on 2 CDs, but they were worth it. I picked up the s/t Air reissue as well as Le Beat Bespoke 3. I will spill some digital ink on more in depth reviews of both soon as I am able to bust some of my work back load.

The very next night I headed out to Botanica (the former Knitting Factory) on the south side of Houston. I was able to catch Mr. Finewine's first set and that of a laptop wrangling soul slinger as well. I was able to speak with Mr. Finewine as well and I am proud to say he has visited this humble blog.
Did I mention that Botanica has reasonably priced Duvel as well?

Sorry about the pics, they were taken on my phone.

DJ Colonel in the Cratedigger Dubzone

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


I hope that you dig Colonel at The Controls.

Download DJ Colonel Dub Radio Spectacle HERE

The Twenty is done for now

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.

Pretty psyched how it turned out so far.

The Digging And The Damage Done Take 4

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.

A New Mix-- Cratedigger in The Garage

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

Download here.


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.

got the new parts...

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.

Developing...