Tuesday, December 31, 2019

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"

Saturday, December 28, 2019

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!!!!

Friday, December 27, 2019

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

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!

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

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!!!

Saturday, December 14, 2019

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!

Thursday, December 5, 2019

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!

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.

Monday, December 2, 2019

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!

Saturday, November 30, 2019

GLEN ARMSTRONG AND THE DIRTY CLERGY - "Bring Me The Head Of The Saxophone Player" (1987)

 Here's an early X-Mas present!
Glen Armstrong is one of my favourite musicians I never met, and this cassette is just another reason why! I also still have a tee shirt with this same picture on it.

This tape was titled "Bring Me The Head Of The Saxophone Player," and isn't really meant to be listened to by mere mortals! It's that good!
For a more recent version of Glen's music, you can still get his CD or a digital download of "Sounds Of The Czars" from 2003 on Amazon!

Friday, November 29, 2019

NOISE EAST INDIES - "Meat Powder & Click Clack" (1984)

 I always really liked the look of this cover, and it's one of my favourites, but every time I try and listen to the tape itself, I get a headache, like right now! 
I'd feel bad about saying that, but I think it was their intention!

Here's are the credits!
 All sound construction is done by Mark Fink, Bill McCandless, and Bo Parker!
There are no song titles, so here's one of the shorter pieces! 
If you like noise,  then this just might be your favourite tape!

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

LEE RUDE - "Ju Ju Hand" (1986)

I don't remember much about this tape by Lee Rude, except that most of it was unlistenable cover tunes!

I think he was from either Blue Ball or Celeryville, Ohio, but I can't remember which!

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

SLIMZANOS - "Leave Me Alone" (1990)

 Here's some music that has never seen the light of day before, or been heard by anybody except those involved! As Hermanos Guzanos, we'd be playing in my garage and once in a while other people like Slim Dewayne would drop by and join the festivities!
Slim led a rough life of his own choosing, but we always had a lot of fun together!

I found this tape with all my other stuff of a session (If you want to call it that) when Slim, who would later start calling himself Slim The Drifter, showed up and played a few tunes with us. The good songs ended up on two of our tapes "UFO Excecutives," and "Country Fried Worms," but here's a real short thing that we never included on any tape before!
 So while we're on the subject, here's one of the songs Slim sang on our "Country Fried Worms" cassette!

 HERMANOS GUZANOS - "Hey"

Saturday, November 16, 2019

LAWRENCE SALVATORE - "I Love You (Say It With Bricks)" (1985)

 Lawrence Salvatore was from Joliet, Illinois. He was a pioneer in home taping!
I told the story of how we met before in these pages, because one of his other tapes titled "My Leg In Love With Your Leg" was one of the first ones I featured on this blog back in 2013.

I tried to find some current information on him, but came up with zilch.

Lawrence is a unique and fascinating musician!

 
As you can see, Lawrence did everything himself!
 He sang on many of his songs, but here's a quite fine instrumental featuring his keyboard skills, and I love the title!