NEW HIPPIES VOL.1 - " Various Artists" (1991)

 "New Hippies" Vol. 1 came out in 1991. It was a Red Neon Tapes release from Belgium, # R N 7.

My pal Gary Wray did the freakin' awesome cover art, and was the contact on this tape, so I don't have a lot of exterior information. What I do know, I had to find on Discogs myself.

 Here's your year end super extra bonus, an original pencil drawing by Gary Wray in a letter he wrote me! Nobody has ever seen it, and he probably doesn't even remember it!

Gary also did the artwork for "New Hippies Vol. 2"

Hermanos Guzanos had two songs on this tape, and we weren't even close to being the weirdest ones, no matter how hard we tried!

The most interesting song from this tape is by a German group called L'Edarps A Moth. I believe that some day, this is going to be a big hit as long as nobody translates the title or lyrics!
L'EDARPS A MOTH - "Ich Onaniere Täglich"

DONALD CAMPAU - "Mixed Messages" (1991)

 So while we're on the subject of Don Campau, "Mixed Messages" was a pretty cool collaboration tape he released in 1991 as Donald Campau!
I'm just guessing, but this is probably like the 44th of some 6000 tapes and CDs he's put out!

 "Mixed Messages" has got some great tunes on it, and it was really difficult for me to choose just one!

I'm almost 100% sure these songs were put together via mail. The cassette medium lends itself very well to doing projects like this. The people collaborating with Don on the various songs are all very talented, and included the likes of Eric Muhs, Peter Hinds, Lord Litter, Peggy Martinez, Greg Gray and Dino Dimuro.

 The song with Peter Hinds playing the drums and Don playing all the other instruments and vocals, is produced by Peter's brother John Hinds, and is a real powerhouse, so that's the one I'm giving you here! Turn it way up and just TRY and sit still!!!!

DONALD CAMPAU - "No One Knows"

DON CAMPAU - "No Pigeonholes #104" (1987)

 After 40 years, Don Campau has decided to stop doing his "No Piegonholes" radio show!

 Just like Tom Frost was the guy who influenced me to write blogs, Don Campau was a major inspiration to me back in the 80's in the whole scene of networking and tape trading!

I was going to list all the artists on this tape, but as you can see, Don already hand wrote all their names on the inner sleeve, and saved me the trouble.

Oddly enough, the song I chose to play was number 3 on the first side, and from what Don has written, I'm assuming it's by Tib Van Dyke, but when Don reads back the credits of who did what, he skips Tib, and goes straight from Jeff Van Auken to Hermanos Guzanos.

SO.....I tried to look up Tib Van Dyke, and found a 45 on Discogs from 1987 described as funk or soul, so maybe this song is either "Melanie" or more likely, "Can You  Move?" but maybe not.

I could be completely wrong, but either way, it's some cool and smooth jazz, so here's

 TIB VAN DYKE - "?"

This particular radio show, number 104 aired in 1987.
Just in case you're curious how big this tape scene really was, I'll just say, I personally only had  contact with two or three of the artist's on this tape.

Back in the 80's, I was working 50 hours a week, driving to work 9 hours a week, had a family, and was trying to have fun making music at the same time. 

Compared to how busy Don Campau was, I was just a chump!

For instance, there were 30 artists on this edition of "No Pigeonholes," and Don would not only put the radio show together, he would send copies in the mail on cassette to each artist involved.

Not only does that take a lot of time, it was also a considerable expense for blank tapes and postage, and he was busy making his own music at the same time.
Another song from this show that I liked was....
SUBLIME WEDGE - "Sublimation"

Thanks to some research by our crack team (Lord Litter), I found out more information about Sublime Wedge!

 Sublime Wedge was one of the earlier projects of  the very talented "Toy Pop" musician Frank Pahl who played Keyboards and Guitar on "Sublimation. Over the years Frank has collaborated with Eugene Chadbourne, and others to create music, and more music! You can read all about it on his website called "Frank Pahl," and while you're there, buy some of his stuff!

A CHRISTMAS CARD FROM MOE TUCKER (Early 1990's)

 Out of all this tape trading and stuff, one of the coolest things was to get a Christmas card from Maureen Tucker, the drummer of The Velvet Underground!

When we started doing the public access TV show, I wrote Moe Tucker and asked her if she had any videos we could show, and she wrote me back and was going to send me something, but the show disintegrated before it ever happened. The good news was that I was on her mailing list after that and then got this Christmas card!

The Velvet Underground was one of my favorite 60's bands, so it was a real thrill for me!

Merry Christmas Moe, Hope You're Still Around and Around For Many Years To Come!!!

THE REAL ACID CATS - "Not Some Phoney Black-Light Poster" (Mid 90's)

*C16 H16 N2 O2* 

THE REAL ACID CATS - "Jesus Of Las Vegas"

THEATRE OF ICE - "Creature" (1992)

That's Right! This Is It!!

Indeed!

  Theatre of Ice were from Arizona!
They do things different there! It's the heat!

 In the early 90's, we decided to try our hand at public access TV. We put together a show called "Offbeat,"and showcased Indie music videos and other stuff, so we got cool VHS submissions from bands like Theatre Of Ice.

 This is a shot from the episode #4 of "Offbeat" that showed this video!

 Here's a couple of screen shots from the Theatre of Ice video.
I never got a cassette from them, so I got this song from the video they sent!
THEATRE OF ICE - "Creature" 

Here's some more flyers I found!

CALIFORNIA'S GOT IT #2 - The Tomboys (1988)

We were lucky enough to participate on a number of various artist's compilations from around the world, including this "California's Got It" series which, if I remember correctly was put together by a guy on the east coast! Very Basic and Very Good!
This was mostly a punk music tape, but our old guy music was just grungy enough that the punks would find a place to wedge us in somewhere!
There were some good bands on here including Labeled Victims, Nuisance, Point Of Conception, Horace Deloris, All Systems Gone, Mis Led, Vomit Launch, Acid Bath, S D T, and Inner Strength, but my fave here was a smokin' hot band from Van Nuys, California, and here they are..
THE TOMBOYS - "I Want To Go To Heaven 'Fore I Die"

 After spending a couple of hours trying to find more info on The Tomboys, I finally found this on Discogs. The members were Debbie Liekkio on Drums, Karen Sleyton on keyboards, Sally Horton Vocals and Bass, and Stephanie Leevan doing vocals and playing guitar!

The Tomboys put out this 45 in 1984 called "Say You Need Me," and the flipside was called "Persistance."

This five song tape called "Sand Monsters" was released in 1986!

 In 1988, The Tomboys came out with this 4 song cassette called "Raggedy an' Ready," from which the song "I Want To Go To Heaven 'Fore I Die" came from!

Thanks Discogs!!!

For the life of me, I can't figure out why these gals never made it big!

If anybody has either of these tapes or this 45 they want to give away, please feel free to contact me!

 

July 25th, 2022 update! I just found this cool little mini-flyer that I forgot I had.

RAY CARMEN & KEN CLINGER - "Snow Day" (1995)

I've been waiting for the weather to change to present you with this collaboration tape by Ray Carmen and Ken Clinger, so now the time has come, and here it is!

They switched around on who was doing what, but on this particular classic, Ken is doing all the vocals and instruments! I have to admit, not a lot of people made holiday tapes of any kind, so this was a pretty rare moment!

RAY CARMEN & KEN CLINGER "Let It Snow"