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.
The leader of this track with cymbal crashes, jangle guitar and organ really builds into the vocal.
The bass underneath produces some nice rumble on the speakers as well. Seems that the bassist is running up and down the neck.
"Tonight I am going to have to say goodbye... Set Me Free"
The drum outro provides an excellent coda.
The flip "You'd Be Surprised" is more of a jangler, also worth seeking out.
I am excited to make some tube upgrades to the reference system to hear tracks like this one in even greater fidelity.
Many thanks to bosshoss for sharing this masterpiece.
