Well, OK, I made it to the Big Car Show today as I have for every year of its existence, excepting last year when Johnny Law had some other ideas related to my personal hot rodding endeavors.
According to Iowahawk, the big show had 895 cars last year. So enough of that and on with the show...
I became familiar with this most crushing track through the excellent Pass The Caviar comp from the GaragePunk site. This forum comp was compiled by Mark Taylor.
That said, the guitar tone is absolutely searing. The moaning vocals were effective in their plantiveness. "I walk the streets alone every night."
The fuzz starts at the beginning of this acetate from Philadelphia, probably from sometime in the mid to late 60s.
The guitar break busts a fuzz capped crescendo through my old tweeters. Strong, build into the back up vocal, "Ah Ah Ah Ah, Please come back to me!" The back up vox lend a haunting tone to the song, while the punk posture of the sneer "Come Back!" brings my ears back to earth.
The coda blasts into oblivian. All fans of 60s killers, take note.
Clickin through some links led me to the helpful and informational Garage Hanover site.
http://www.garagehangover.com/
Chas Kit has posted some very cool info and some streaming mp3 files as well. Check out his write up and listen to the Sloths' excellent version of "Makin' Love."
Since the Crate Digger reference system is back in action, it has been time to get back to the vaults. I did a bit of digging in one of the record rooms and came up with the Swamp Rats reissue from 2003.
The fidelity is quite speaker shattering as well as neighbor awakening. The chosen time to blast this cd was about 5:30 PM. It was somewat entertaining to see the neighbors go inside once the dbs hit a certain level. Cranking last year's Funhouse reissue, before this might have had something to do with it.
If you are not familiar with the Swamp Rats' version of "Louie Louie," now is the time to get acquainted. Really, The Rats evoke quite a pre Stooge and MC5 feeling with the heaviness of the 66 and 67 sides included on this collection. Anyone that can cover the Sparkles should also be held in high regard.
The bass is quite deep and filled the house with the low end. The treble and the screech should peel your paint as well. Pour yourself a lager and let er rip.
| A Norsk lite version of Einsruzende Neubauten? Obviously minus the Blixa Bargeld X factor. A bit on the long side. | |
The Pas 2 Pre Amp is back in effect. The issues that I was having were related to the power supply which Mike Del Valle at DelTronics rectified.
All was well until, I put some garage tunes on this past Saturday. The unit failed to get power. Needless to say, my Saturday listening session was crushed.
Tonight after a couple of beers (Delerium Tremens and Triple Carmelite) at the HopLeaf, we paid another visit to Mike. He looked at the unit (not at me) and asked, "whatsamatter?"
To which I answered, "The unit is not getting any power."
Mike shuffled off and in 10 minutes came back and said, "You're all set. I replaced the power cord."
I am having a cup of tea and cranking the most excellent Noreaster 2 comp. All is well chez Cratedigger.
| Here is a video of the August 2006 Chicago Critical Mass Ride. Supposedly there were 2000 riders. I find that hard to believe. It is supposed to rain tonight. It will be interesting to see the turnout. | |
Despite the name sounding like the latest fad in weight loss, I scored the Beogram RX2 pictured above at a recent estate sale. I will say that this was really an "estate" sale as I felt that I was on set for a British murder mystery production, as I meandered to the secluded address for the sale the other day.
This adventure included, hand drawn no parking signs (I was on foot), yelling/agitated domestic help, barking guard dogs and finely clipped bent grass. But back to our story...
The turntable was a great deal. The features of this piece are pretty incredible. There is a hidden button on the lower right of the unit marked "Play." Put the vinyl disc on the platter and press play. Guess what? The unit also pulls the tone arm off the vinyl when it hits the lock groove on the disk. Folks that saying playing vinyl is too labor intensive, should really check out an old B&O.
Most interesting about the unit is the spindle of the deck. There is a spring acutated large hole 45 spindle, which automatically sinks when a 12 inch (small spindle hole) vinyl LP disk is placed on the platter. It appears to also select the correct speed (45/33) at the same time. I have not started digging through the crates for some 45s to test the auto speed select, though.
Sonically the stylus and cartridge seem to rock as well. Tom Waits Foreign Affairs, moans quite effectively through. I have also listened to Coltrane, The Buzzcocks and Back From The Grave vol 4.
Like every good deal, there has to be a catch...
Since B&O seems to only make audio accessories and other fad related products, they are no longer in the turntable biz. The most excellent sounding MMC3 cartridge is no longer produced. Of course the secondary market has options- upgrade to a more high end new old stock (NOS) cartridge, or look for a rebuilt stylus. Everything sounds good for now, fortunately.
I will just keep my eye out for a replacement stylus in the meantime.
Just a little trip. Yeah, in a 66 Mustang to see gassers burn Hoosier tires and lift front ends off the ground. Paradise? Cheap beer helps, too.
Mr. Jalopy has the single page pdf pictured above available for $1.00. The title is Mister Jalopy's Pocket Guide to Living and Dying with Modest Automobiles.
It has to be the most practical advice that I have seen in one compact place, when one may be considering joining the ranks of the old used car set.
Having a 40 year old muscle car has had its challenges. Getting stranded and confused has become a larger part of my life. I think that I need to take his advice and move over to the Pertronics electronic ignition. Spark is everything in an old V8.
I have noticed quite an improvement in my ride since I upgraded to an Interstate battery, and an electronic trickle charger. The car starts with the first turn of the starter now.
One area that that he doesn't into too much is tires. I was running some 80s looking bucket head tires on my Stang, and stopping/turning/unintentional burnouts was always a challenge. Now with some new BFGs, blackwalls of course to make it fit the car stylewise, I can turn and stop with nary an issue, burnouts are another issue.
Seriously this is a great read, entertaining and instructional. If I ever have kid, this will be required reading.
Order it here.
Gentle readers may note that I recently upgraded to a 1962 Dynaco tube preamp for the reference system.
Over the last weekend, as I was listening, OK, cranking an LP, I think it was a $.10 Temptations Greatest Hits v.1 in "Stereo," a major hum appeared like a flying saucer over a Nebraska corn field. Not a 60 cycle hum, either. The hum was untenable in the phono stage, but was not as apparent in the extra selector position, into which I have my cd player plugged in.
So I did what anyone music freak would do, I listened to more JBs, via a CDR. Specifically "Funky Monorail." What a funk work out, but that is another story.
After 60 minutes or so of cone bending excitement, our friend, the saucer like hum appeared in the extra position. The Dynaco PAS-2 was now grounded.
Send in the Reinforcements
Being a junk hound and a garage sale addict, I recently came across the following:
It is a 1973 CR-500 Yamaha Receiver. I am no fan of receivers, excepting late 60s Marantz models, but this one was in near mint condition, and it powered up when I plugged it into a wall outlet (the blue Marantz-esque lights glowed omniously when I switched the unit on).
I was able to bargain down to $9.00. Yes, that's right, $9.00. I got it home and plugged it in, and turned up some 1966 Guess Who sides. It jams.
So now that the Dyanaco needs some medical attention, I grabbed a cold one, the Yamaha, and my trusty back up loudspeakers- a pair of AR 2AXs from 1966.
The Reference system has undergone a severe change:
Notice the Biblical back lighting provided by my window on a sunny day. Also notice the Rath's Lard bucket/ cd rack. My frustrated dog is at the bottom.
Anyway, now I have the Rega 3 turn table and the AMC CD8 plugged into the Yamaha, which is now plugged into the ARs. I set the AMC 3050a integrated and the Monitor Audio Silver Series loudspeakers to the side.
For testing purposes, I got out my Mingus In Europe CD, and turned the receiver up to 5 and let her rip.
My, how the lows and mids came alive on that CD. The loudspeakers are phenomenal. Loud with enough low and mid on Mingus' bass to make screens move in my basement windows.
I couldn't stop listening to music...
The Dyna is in the hospital at Deltronics. That is another post in and of itself.
But the plan now, to to get some upgraded interconnect cables, and plug the Dyna PAS 2 into the main in input on the Yamaha, while I scrounge for a cooler vintage power amp. I know that will sound even better when I need to hear some loud 45s.
Anyone know where I can get an old McIntosh for cheap?
Wow, I can't say that The Godfather of Soul was totally coherent with his 90 minutes onstage at the Genessee, but when he shakes his thang, it is obvious that he still has something. I am really glad that I finally got a chance to see him, especially in the newly restored Gennessee Theatre. It is a classic joint that has both balconies and box seats. It is a real theatre, not your typical barn that puts on shows.
His best quote (that I could make out from his garbled, jive ramblings) was a command to the house lighting person. "Make the light blue, This is JAMES BROWN, not Jimi Hendrix!" I found that pretty entertaining and quite indicative of his commanding persona, according to stories that I have heard about working for him. (RIP Spider, may there be a permanent percussion jam out there for you.) Of course, somehow, some way, JB got his blue light with the disco ball turned on.
He started the set out with "Living in America" and ended with "Sex Machine." The band was alive, sounded pretty good, but it was interesting to note that everyone was at least 3o years younger than James excepting the familiar sounding MC.
"Machine" was a good 15 minute or so jam that abrupted ended with the house lights coming on. There was no attempt at an encore.
In the middle of the set, he did an interesting move with a large back up singer chick who came to spotlight to belt out 'Retha's "Respect." JB cut her off at the end and went into "It's a Man's World." All of the other hits were at least referenced with at least a few bars. One of the other more memorable tunes was the version of "Hot Pants" which was suitably hot.
There was quite a bit of men's room bitching about the length of the set. JB could have easily stretched it out by taking a breather and letting the band play, but he opted to stay onstage for the entire set, taking a breather by sitting at a small keyboard and banging out some chords.
There was a preponderance of hat-wearing pimp alikes at the concert. My favorite was the dude in his late '50s whom was pretty obviously packing under his white linen suit. He had a contrasting red shirt, red boots, red tie and pimp hat. He also opted for the Budweiser in the red aluminum bottle so he had everthing matching. He was smoking at the bar (this is now a non smoking building.) He was asked by the bartender to put out his smoke, to which he laughed and dimissively said that he knew that and that he was in a bar...
I then saw him drop a pill of some sort into someone else's beer glass. It was really hard to believe. He then got into a yelling match with some security guy, where he starting pointing and getting very mad. I thought the pistol was going to be drawn... Instead, he just put his butt into the beer glass, where he had put the pill mere moments before.
Taking the train was an adventure as was the local tavern, where they were so excited to see some fresh blood that they comped me a Modelo or two. The rap was deafening but was also inexplicably followed by Billy Joel's "Pressure." Weird could not even begin to explain the scene there with wheel chair bound alcoholics and over weight prostitutes.
James Brown really high
Brown... James Brown
In honor of the first annual Cratedigger James Brown Day.
Here he is, the hardest working man in show business, obviously under the influence of something. He is a very happy inebriated state.
I love it when he says he is "Out on Love," to the reporter's question as to whether he is out on bail due to domestic violence charges. (See the above post.)
Let's hope that he is a bit more with it tonite at the Genessee Theatre in scenic Waukegan, IL.
I hope that I can find some videos of the prime James Browns Funky People show from the early 70s at some point...
Stay Free JB!
Today, I headed north and scored some more garage winners.
There is a guy up north that always has the solution for a garage jones.
Here are the spoils of battle:
Buckinghams "Don't Want to Cry" USA Baby, yes, the killer. The best 45 on USA Records, the second best being The Cherry Slush. Just think, I saw a reconstituted (horrible) version of this band for the Glenview, Il Centennial. They now play a bland Chicago blue-eyed soul style replete with horns. Eons away in the musically perfect world of 1966, the fuzz and the break combined with the organ on "Cry" will make any garage fan want to break household items. Also these guys were known for a tv spot for the famous Mr. Norm. He was a famous Mopar Chicago car dealer back in the 60s that I am sure Iowahawk has written about. Check out the altered pic above. The Bucks also were the house band for Mr. Norm's dances and socials that he hosted for promotional purposes. Imagine Mopar freaks rocking to this single. The flip is "I'll Go Crazy" by James Brown. I have not gotten around to listening to that side yet.
Guess Who "Believe Me" Scepter Si, that Guess Who. I was exposed to this track on the mostest excellent Wyld Canada comp. (Please boycott the boots on ePay!)
Viva '66. Smoking loud and in your face. Dig the break here, too. Groove to a young Randy Bachman. F BTO!
Trolls "Everyday and Every night" ABC Calling this Chicago area single a killer might be a stretch but solid, along the lines of an inclusion on Coloured Sights and Sounds volume.
Rationals "Leavin' Here" Cameo This DJ copy is pretty hammered, probably VG in quality. Yes, this is the Holland Dozier Holland ditty popularized by the Who and made definitive by Ronnie Wood's Birds. The Rationals give the track a solid reading. Who couldn't dig the 3 chords here?
Above is a show car called the 6T6 or something. I am not a fan of street rods or weak pro touring machines, but with a mild amount of bolt ons, one can easily obtain 300 rwhp with an 05/06 GT.
Smoking!
Here are some custom Mosrites striped by Von Dutch. They were given to Incense and Peppermints players the Strawberry Alarm Clock (formerly Thee Sixpence, of much more interest to me, music-wise.) they played these axes in a film, which must have been Beyond The Valley of The Dolls (Ebert's claim to fame-- working with Russ Meyer!!!).
The guitars were returned and now they are on eBay.
This article at City of Sound discusses how all relevance and relationships between sound, style and artistry are lost with the commodification of music through digital retailers such as Itunes music store.
The reduction (or elimination) of physical product associated with music is driving this change.
While the article is based on Jazz, I feel that it holds true for any sort of music. Without album art and correct discographical info, much relevance is lost. The article posits that at some point all info on Jazz may be held by a few archeologists. In the past, listeners could read the album jacket and learn about session date, relaease date, composition credits, session players, etc. Now with itunes, the info seems to focus on the reissue, not the original release date. This makes it hard for driven music fans to search out other releases due to connections they may learn about on record covers or liner notes.
I enjoy getting an old record from a record show, garage sale or wherever and reading about the details related to the music.
In the digital age, it is so much more about quantity of music and not quality of experience. I think I am the only person that I know that ditched his ipod. I felt that the negatives far outweighed the positives of the experience.
If I were a recording artist, I think that I would be mourning the faceless world that we are creating with mp3s and filesharing et al. Music has just become another piece of software.
My buddy over at Iowahawk, recently posted some cool video clips. The ran the gamut of frat/garage/pop, but did not really hit the freakbeat mark as advertised in his blog heading. I did some searching on YouTube and came up with some videos and sent them along.
The term freakbeat has fallen from favor as of late amongst the bearded, bespectacled record collecting set, but generally refers to the brief instance of British/UK/The Continental pop music where mod added feedback, more fuzz on the guitar breaks, but before Hendrix, The Cream et al went the hippie route.
This music is R&B/Blues based, but with a heavy layer of fuzz box finery added to the hip mini skirt/ squared heeled boot style. In a word, the HEIGHT of musical coolness.
Please find some YouTube based videos below:
The Smoke - My Friend Jack
The Smoke were a UK band that had this 67 #1 Deutschland hit, but the track was
banned in the UK. Could it have been, the line, "My Friend Jack eats sugarlumps?"
Notably they were managed by Chris Blackwell, the guy who formed Island Records and bored the world with the corrected version of reggae.
The Creation Live 1966
The Creation are arguably the posterchildren for the term freakbeak.
Watch Kenny Pickett (deceased, former Led Zep Roadie) in his mod finery belt
out I'm A Man. Check Eddie Phillips on the Es335(?) at 1:20 bust into a
break, where he pulls out the violin bow, most notably before M. Page.
Stay tuned for Makin' Time, @ 7:11 the bow comes out on the break, for
a full on shredding, and then accompaniment for the rest of the track.
Small Faces - Tin Soldier
For obvious reasons, I have included Tinsoldier by the Small Faces. Dig
the tuff guitar line into the mod stomping "take me like I am." But
wait
until 1:30 where Austin TX' very own Ian McLagan busts the organ out,
and
the stomping of Kenney Jones gives Keith Moon a run for the freak beat
drumming honors. Was Mitch Mitchell taking notes? I also dig Steve
Marriott's axe, which appears to be a vintage sunburst encrusted
telecaster.
This is crazy, apparently many bootleg records (78s?) were copied using Xray film in Communist era Russia. These inventive sound junkies utilized used Xray film to carve copies of recordings from the West for their listening pleasure.
Laws were passed in the Soviet Union to make the production and distribution of these one sider acetate-like recordings, and this era of sound enjoyment was effectively over in 1959.
Here on Street Use the whole story is told.
I finally made it to a Chicago Critical Mass last Friday. I think the turnout must have been around 600-800 cyclists. The turnout was insane.
I bumped into the long lost Quisp. I have not seen him for almost 20 years, in fact the last time I saw him, he was on Oprah, yelling at her in the early 90s when I resided in AZ.
The first two pictures give an idea to what it like to be in a procession of hundreds of bikes in Chicago's Loop at the end of August at around 6 PM.
The third picture from the top gives a poor idea of what a tall bike looks like (the guy with the beret to the right of the guy with the back pack in the center), but there were quite a few on this ride.
The last two pics show the gathering before the ride.
One of the most memorable events was when a scruffy tall bike rider, parked in front of a CTA bus and just leaned up against the windshield. The bus driver looked like he was going to pitch a fit, but luckily for him a Chicago Police Officer showed up and honked his siren and floashed his lights. The tall biker, ran into the mass of cyclists and took off. The officer gave no chase.
I ended up losing a PlanetBike tail light and a Bell helmet. It was an awesome time.
This article is pretty amazing, tho, creating the hydrogen takes a lot of energy to accomplish. In this case they are using natural gas to lessen dependence on the Grid.
Nice back up plan, but it would be optimal if we could harness renewable energy for this purpose... Solar, wave or wind power.
Check out the map above of the Amsterdam Beijing Race. 10,000 miles in Classic Cars!
From the website:
Although cars play a principal part, this is certainly not the only thing that the event is about. “Competition, culture, camaraderie and adventure are central”, Vermeer says. “The rally leads to countries and regions where it seems as if time has stood still. The route follows parts of the classic Silk route and crosses areas with breathtaking panoramas: from narrow mountain roads in East Turkey to the vast and sandy Gobi desert in China. En route we will pass impressive structures and locations, among which the Chinese Wall and the Yellow River. Classic cars add an extra dimension to this. However, it is going to be above all a rally that will tax everything and everyone who participates in it to the limit. Unique, exciting and memorable, those are the keywords for this event.”
The site goes on to say that the newest car is from the Bicentennial Year of 1976 and the oldest car is from '34. Dig the Monte Carlo Mustang above.
I received a comp in the mail yesterday. There are a number of garage killers on it, but the standout is definitely "I'm Moving On" by The Evil from Florida. It has everything that defines killer garage punk, urgent vocals, stomping tempo, tough guitar buzz and even the requisite Back From The Grave style scream. This particular track was never released back in 1966.
Here is the story from JeffMiami, the source of the track:
"The Evil acetate came from a band member. The first time I heard it, I nearly passed out. It's that amazing. It was used on the Evil/Montells comp on Corduroy, but in "cleaned up sound". That same master was passed along to Norton. This is its first appearance direct from the vinyl demo, with no enhancement.
In 1966, Evil won the Dade County Youth Fair Battle of the Bands, and as a result they won time at Bobby Dukoff Studios (the same place where the Nightcrawlers album was cut). The band had very little time, so they pretty much did four songs in one take. Much of "I'm Movin' On" was worked out on the spot.
The four songs were "I'm Movin' On", "I Know I'll Die" (heard on "Jeff's Moody Monsters"), "From A Curbstone", and "Always Runnin' Around". None of the songs came out at the time. A few months later, the band (with a few new members) went into Criteria Studios and recorded "Whatcha Gonna Do About It". Unlike the one-take Dukoff sessions, the band spent many hours working on "WGDAI, and didn't get to record a B-side. No problem. "Always Runnin' Around" was placed on the flip, even though it featured a different rhythm guitarist, bass player, and drummer.
The band broke up and no one thought much about the acetates. A couple of decades later, when I was researching my book, one of the band members found "I'm Movin' On" b/w "I Know I'll Die", and graciously gave it to me. As for how I felt when I first heard it... disbelief! Nothing could be that great, could it? Both sides!"
I have been cranking this in the car as well as on the reference system. It is the best garage track I've heard yet this month.
I mentioned this awesome car in passing in my Gasser post a while back, but finally got around to posting some pics. This '33 is running a Nailhead, possibly one of my fave engines, next to a SBF 289 cu. The engine looks especially cool jammed into the firewall. The iron cross on the moon tank in front of the grill shell did nothing to hurt the looks either, in my book.
The '70s brown vinyl on the running boards and in the roof, was kind of hard to look at though. I guess the '70s were all about the earth tones.
The lettering on the door says 1974 AHRA C/MP Class Winner. I don't recall the exact et this car ran, but I think it was a high 10 second car. These old cars are so much cooler than carbon fiber, hemi destroying modern NHRA machines. I can't get enough.
This post from boingboing seems really surreal, espcially in Portland OR.
I thought that Portland was one of the more bike friendly cities...
This multi media, presentation, (requires free registration) tells the story, The Safari, if you will of a barrel of oil across the world to a Marathon gas station in Elgin, IL.
The technology for this video is pretty cool, even if the topic is scary.
Iowahawk gives the dish on the Blastolene special, another crazy vehicle that The Leno A Tor recently acquired.
It seems that Jay Leno is all over custom cars now. I seem to remember that he used to not be into customized or hot rodded cars.
That flew out the window with the Toronado that they built for him last year.
It is the hottest day all summer. Instead of staying cooped up in the HQ, I was determined to have some fun outdoors after the difficult lawn cutting experience this am, where the Lawn Boy died and I had to borrow another sickly mower to get the job done.
First I got out the Mustang and went to some fruitless house sales. Not one record was even for sale!
Then my delivery from Nashbar came, and I had a new project. Last week, I splurged and got a set of clipless pedals for the Raleigh, since they were $19.95. Nice!
From Nashbar, I ordered a set of Zefal mountain bike mudguards as they were only $16.99.
Putting the pedals on was as simple as getting my pedal wrench out of the toolbox and removing the extant pedals and then putting a bit of grease from my grease gun on the spindles of the new ones and twisting them on the shiny, chromed, cottered cranks.
The mudguards were a bit of a project however. It required that I mock everything up before I starting cutting up the mudguards and their hardware, because in the past, I have had to cut bait on a project and return items as no amount of "modification" will sometimes allow a fit.
The front fender basically fit after I jammed it between the fork legs. The lower legs of the mudguard supports appeared to be too long however. I moved on to the rears to see if I could make the mountain bike fenders fit on the Raleigh Sports.
The rears were a much closer perfect fit. I used all of the enclosed hardware. The only mod I made was where I attached the front of the mudguard to the bottom bracket area with a zip tie instead of a series of bolts, washers, brackets and nuts. I am sure that the hardware would be much more of a situtation where it would rattle loose and cause havoc, (like the stock mudguards on the recent LATE Ride.)
After I ascertained that the mudguards would indeed work on my bike, I started tightening everything down. The fronts still looked weird. I opted to get some powerful hedge trimmers, that I call "The Toecutter," to lop a 1/2 inch or so off of each of the lower support legs. That seemed to do the trick.
As for my grocery getter cart, I recently scored a Burley Delite trailer at a house sale for $35. I found the platform for the trailer in the garbage in front of a mansion. The board was roughly the correct size to fit on the top of the Burley after the sides were folded down. I cut the 1/4 inch plywood board down to size. I then proceeded to drill 16 holes around the edge to fasten the deck to the trailer frame.
I found a can of primer in the garage, so I hand sanded and filed the board to remove any bad splinters, I then applied 2 coats of primer to seal the deck. I then found a can of shiny black spray paint and added 2 coats to the top of the deck.
Then I got some 14 inch zipties from the hardware store for $2 to put throgh the holes and secure to the trailer frame. I just attached the four corners to see if I liked how it worked.
I just took a test ride. The vehicle seems pretty tight. Although the board added a few pounds, while the mudguards took a pound or so off. I have a feeling it is a matter of time until I cut all of the nylon sides and bottom off the Burley to save some weight.
Gassers Rule! As per the continued coverage in mainstream magazines like Hot Rod, as well as more fringe car mags like The Rodder's Journal, it is obvious that people are getting into 60's styled straight axles (and otherwise old timey) drag racing set ups.
For once I feel fortunate to live in the Midwest as it is the home of the Mid West Gasser Association.
Over the past weekend at Great Lakes Dragaway, there was a Mopar event, but more importantly there was a huge appearance by the MGA. There was only one Willys in attendance (for Sale!), but there were plenty of other cool gassers- '33 Chevy Coupe, '46 Ford Coupe, a Vette and a couple of Chevy IIs.
If the above pic can tell you anymore than the fact that I need to get a scanner...
Anyway, along with the recent Dynaco preamp addition, I have scored some nice discs to ripple the plaster around CDHQ.
The Del Vetts "Last time Around" Dunwich 125 has it all. Chicago 1966 teen punk angst, complete with plainative vocal, loads of fuzz. It has a guitar break that makes my loudspeakers quake.
I think that I am going to hook up my AR 2 AX speakers to the system, so I can go louder!
The Dyanaco PAS 3 from the early 60s is now a part of my reference system.
This tube preamp was known as the giant killer back then when it was sold as a kit. The guy that I bought it from had some Sylvania nos 7025 tubes, so he installed them. The phonograph stage on this pre amp is known to beat a lot of more expensive units.
So far, I am pretty impressed soundwise. It looks like a 40+ year old unit, though.
Here is how I have it set up: Rega Planar 3 turntable with a stock tone arm and an Audio Technica cartridge, and AMC cd 8b player, running to the Dynaco, then I bridged the pre amp in my AMC 3050b integrated solid state amplifier. This is all put out to a pair of Monitor Audio silver series loudspeakers.
The next obvious upgrade is to get some real interconnects for the cd player and the pre amp sound path.
I listened to a mint stereo copy of Donovans Greatest Hits on the old set up and compared it with the new set up. The phono stage in the mighty Dyna certainly made a big difference. the sounds were ultimately more clear and the fuzz break on "Season of The Witch" was without compare.
I think I will go find some of my old Miles LPs.
I cannot seem to find the budget '80s reissue LP that I got years back, as it must heve either gotten lost in one of my moves, or liberated by a houseguest at some point.
My interest in Mr. Leitch did not come through his song, "Mellow Yellow," but rather via his best track "Season of The Witch." I remember hearing "Season" after my high school prom as I launched my 1981 Mazda over an especially perilous RR Xing. I got at least 2 inches under all four doughnuts as Donovan yelped, "It must be the Season of The Witch." Truly memorable.
The lp contains other songs that I like like "Mellow Yellow" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man." The compilers neglected to include the other great member of his canon, "Atlantis." Gentle Reader may remember the use of this song on the soundtrack to "Goodfellas," when Henry "Rat" Hill is driving in fear of black helicopters. "All Hail Atlantis." Hippy and yes Dippy, but somehow, I have always liked that song.
Wikipedia (linked above) gives the full dope on Donovan. I found the tale of his late '66 drug bust to be interesting as it seemed to be part of the process that the press used in sharing info with the Bobbies that led to the famous bust of Keef Richard later in 1967.
Since this past week has been an unofficial Bike Week here at Cratedigger HQ, I have been spending as much time as possible using human powered vehicles.
Following my penchant for garage saleing, this morning, I came across this Burley trailer that you see pictured at the right.
I had to hoist the pooch into the Chariot, but after we got up to cruising speed-- 5-8MPH, it was all smiles from my four legged friend.
It looks like, I finally have a car replacement, as I can easily put groceries and other goodies in the cart as well. I noticed that petrol is around US$3.25 per gallon today. I will make a point to drive even less now.
One Less Car!!!
I was out beating the throttle on the '66 Mustang this morning, when I decided to pop an old cassette into the player.
I was on a more "open" road that has a posted 50MPH limit and there were few other cars around.
The song that started playing at the stop sign was "You Don't Love Me," by 1966 stalwarts, The Little Boy Blues. What a killer garage track. Tuff is the operative word here, and as I mentioned more than a few years back, Jimmy Page definitely learned something from the guitar break in this track.
As I clunked the top loader into 4th, and jammed the gas pedal, the song kicked into the guitar break. I took the turn fast. The car thanked me on this sweeper for the new black walls that I bought earlier this year. A nice smooth turn a bit above the posted limit.
On the way back to HQ, some Mom-looking person tried to stop light drag me in an Acura. She didn't beat me, and wouldn't any other day while I am blasting the garage behind the controls of an old Ford.
Get out there and feel some horsepower while cranking some tunes from 1966!
This past Saturday, I rode shotgun with Mr. Burge from Iowa Hawk, to help with some vintage motor and transmission harvesting.
The story goes a little like this. A 1949 Cadillac Club Coupe appeared in Sycamore, IL for the astonishing price of $120. Now granted, this car was heavily rusted and had been sitting since 1959, so you have to view this as "you get what you pay for." But still it seems like a smokin' deal.
Most importantly, 1949 was the first year of a mass produced overhead valve V-8. So while Henry Ford would be turning out variants of his Flathead V-8, which was originally offered in 1932, for another 4 years, Cadillac was already entering the future of overhead valve technology with their 331 powerplant.
A Cadillac 331 sure could provide motivation for a little '30s Ford... Perhaps that was the motivation for Iowa Hawk's purchase of the Caddy. This model even has a four speed auto tranny...
So back to our story, I stopped by the Burge Compound for some early morning coffee and of course I carried a stash of some recent garage music finds. (We needed a soundtrack for the hour plus drive to Sycamore.) We headed out and had an unventful journey during the midst of a holiday weekend, punctuated by the tough and/or moody sounds of 1966.
When we arrived at Marty's and Sons, the Caddy was displayed in all its glory in the lot as in the digital image above. The first step was to hoist the car with a hydraulic jack off the ground so that we could get some jack stands under the front axle. Then the hood, fenders, and the remains needed to be liberated with the "blue wrench." In one of the pics above you can see Andy's hand as he skillfully cuts at the Cadillac carcass to remove parts in the way for a clean engine and trans removal.
After that, it was under the car to remove the drive shaft and the exhaust. Since this is Iowa Hawk's car, I gladly let him fight that battle. Soon, Dave, another hot rod enthusiast, showed up and started pitching in. He is a fan of the blue wrench and helped cut away the motor mounts and the exhaust manifold. Notice the flames engulfing the passenger side motor mount in the pic above.
Once that was cut, Iowa Hawk severed the drive shaft with the blue wrench under the car and then it was a three way tug of war and creative use of levers to extracate the power plant from the 57 year old car.
This was the first time that I was around to "help" or witness directly the removal of a car engine, this will certainly not be the last time. This was a blast of a day.
