FILTHY FRIDAYS: Kay Martin And Her Body Guards

Speaking of Rodney Bingenheimer, had a very lovely request to re-up our hypothetical, theoretical "Rodney On The ROQ Vol 4" comp. Judging by the number of hits it has received, it appears to be one of this blog's most popular posts. (Don't forget, there's also a Vol 5.)  And now to continue our exploration of The Golden Age of Sleaze, witness this 1958 album:


Kay Martin was not only a topless model, but a lounge performer. The perfect woman?! 
Dig the kooky cover of "Blue Moon" a la The Champs' "Tequila," the rockabilly rumbler (with unexpected three-part harmonies towards the end) "I Ain't Mad At 'Chu," and a version of Gershwin's "Summertime" that sports the new-and-improved lyrics: "Your daddy's a flip and your mommy's a gasser."  If you were expecting something more Rusty Warren-ish and ribald, you may be surprised by such dark, weird, atmospheric gems as "The Heel," "Johnny Guitar" and the self-explanatory "Swamp Girl."  When she tries to play it straight on standards like "Sentimental Journey," it isn't too interesting - she sings  better than you'd expect, but not that well. Her enthusiastic Body Guards (rock that accordion!) chime in from time to time.

Kay Martin And Her Body Guards

A1	Fever
A2	Blue Moon
A3	Big Mamou
A4	Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
A5	Sentimental Journey
A6	I Ain't Mad At 'Chu
B1	The Heel
B2	Summertime
B3	Swamp Girl
B4	I Got It Bad
B5	Johnny Guitar
B6	Baby, Did You Hear Two of her other albums are available elsewhere on the intar-webs, one on WFMU's Beware of the Blog, and her christmas album is out there somewhere, don't remember where.

Ronald Vaughan IS Isadore Ivy, Spaceman At Large

There's something a bit...off about Ronald Vaughan. Just look at him, standing to the left of legendary Los Angeles radio D.J. Rodney Bingenheimer. He is apparently an old pal of Rodney, and can be seen in the documentary film "The Mayor Of The Sunset Strip" performing a bit of his song "Jennifer Love Hewitt." I read somewhere that he actually got in legal trouble for stalking famous actress Hewitt, tho I can't find confirmation of that now. I wouldn't be too surprised tho, judging by the weird, creepy feel of his music. Still, it's often a funny, even somewhat catchy weird, creepy feel. He often performs live in a silver spacesuit.

This is most of his low-budget pop album, replete with naive, clunky lyrics, and distracting vocal effects on nearly every celebrity-obsessed song. The 58 second "Uri Geller's Bending The World" swipes the melody of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", just as the song "Paula Abdul" rewrites "Louie Louie" as "Paula Abdul - Whoopee! - You are so cool." "I Live For That Song" ends at the one minute mark, just as it seems that he's on to something. "See ya!" sets new lyrics to a vaguely familiar '70s hit (Fleetwood Mac? Tom Petty?). But it's not a Weird Al-style parody. Perhaps he just couldn't be bothered to come up with his own music. And whose version of "You Only Live Twice" is more sexy: Nancy Sinatra's original, or Ronald's?

Let's all give a big thankyouverymuch to James, C. for this one, the M4M superhero whose previous gift to us all was the "Brain in A Box" set.

Ronald Vaughan IS Isadore Ivy, Spaceman At Large

The H.L. Twist 
You Only Live Twice
Uri Geller's Bending The World
Paula Abdul
Stargate SG-1
How Important Can It Be?
I Live For That Song
Girls Before Swine
See-Ya!
Man!
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Three Starlets
Boris Karloff Didn't Meet The Runaways


A number of tracks from this album have been left off due to terrible sound. But not to worry: they're mostly unnecessary alternate/instrumental versions. The last two tracks are vocal numbers that I've included despite the sound, because, well, one's called "Boris Karloff Didn't Meet The Runaways." And it's only 1:40 long.

FILTHY FRIDAYS: "Shakin' Fit"

Squares beware!  We're in week 3 of our salute to the most tasteful of mid-century tastelessness. And here's another album that probably makes the most amount of sense at a party where everyone's stoopid drunk. A really great compilation, released in 1992, of '50s/'60s r'n'b, and if you think that means the same, tame Motown, Drifters, Platters, etc., well, check this action, daddy-o. We're talkin' way gone, wild, crazy screamin' novelty tunes and failed dance crazes by unknowns, with songs like "The Chicken Astronaut," "Mo Gorilla" and "The Boss With The Hot Sauce" that are at least as good as their titles, maybe even better. This is the "Nuggets" of soul, and should be as famous. Fans of the Specials will recognize the original version of 'Sock It to 'em J.B.,' but otherwise this stuff is criminally obscure. Compiled by Todd-o-Phonic Todd from WFMU?

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE SOUND: This entire album appears to be panned somewhat to the left. I can't find another copy on-line, and the used copies on Amazon are pretty expensive and who knows if they're any better.  You can't correct panning on iTunes (good job, Mr. Jobs!), so check your computer output. It's something like: Control Panel/Sound/Playback/Speakers/ Properties/Levels/Audio Output/Balance and turn the left way down.  Or just crank it thru speakers real loud after everyone's had a few.

 "Shakin' Fit"

1. Nervous - The Fabulous Playboys

2. Love-Itis - Harvey Scales & The 7 Sounds

3. The Chicken Astronaut - The Five Du-Tones

4. Standin' On The Corner - Dorothy Berry

5. I Live The Life I Love - Willie Parker

6. Whiplash - The Shells

7. Mo Gorilla - The Ideals

8. What's The Matter - The Gardenias

9. Welfare Cheese - Emanual Laskey

10. The Dog - Junior And The Classics

11. The Chicken Scratch - J.C. Davis

12. The Wallop - The Tabs

13. The Frog - Sir Guy

14. Skin The Cat - Jimmy Merchant

15. Shakin' Fit - The Pyramids

16. My Baby Likes To Boogaloo - Don Gardner

17. Ain't That Bad - Pancho Villa & The Bandits

18. Damper Down - Bobby Davis

19. Sock It To 'Em J.B. - Part 1 - Rex Garvin & The Mighty Cravers

20. Grandma Bird - Four Holidays

21. Gotta Change - Kitty Love

22. Wang Dang Dula - Donald & The Delighters

23. Whip It On Me - Sonny Raye

24. Hey Sah-Lo-Ney - Mickey Lee Lane

25. Boss With The Hot Sauce - Davis Jones & The Fenders

26. Sticky Pig Feet - R.T. & The Pot Lickers

27. The Cow - Bill Robinson

28. Heartattack - Don & Dewey

29. Get Down - Harvey Scales & The 7 Sounds

Ambient-Abstract-Noise

For those moments when you need to get away from the idea of music as, y'know, tunes, what with all those distracting rhythms, melodies, lyrics and other fancy accouterments, and you just want to, as Cage said, let music be itself: tracks from recommended new(ish)* releases that soothe body and soul in a colorful sonic bath. And by "soothe" of course I mean that this ain't no New Age audio wallpaper, but can get rather dark and weird at times.

27 minutes of: ambientabstractnoise




1. Philip Jeck "1986 Frank Was 70 Years Old" (from "Surf") - Turntableism as ambient sound collage; guest vox from Woody Woodpecker.

2. Back Magic "Future Graves" (from "Chorus Line To Hell") - Duo's guitar/drum lo-fi racket sometimes resembles actual rock music, and quite nice rock music at that; then we get to this chilling instro, based on a keyboard and air-raid siren sound effects; the apocalypse has never sounded so appealing.

3. Carolina Eyck & Christopher Tarnow "10,000 Bells" (from the as yet unreleased "Improvisations for Theremin and Piano, Vol 1") - Another duo, but they're German, and have had music lessons. Eyck in fact, studied under Lydia Kavina, Leon Theremin's grand-niece and former member of Messer Chups.

4. Allen Ravenstine & Robert Wheeler "Nocturne" (from "City Desk") - YES!! The once and future synth wizards of the mighty Pere Ubu have teamed up for two albums ("City Desk" and "Farm Report") of pure unadulterated analogue electro improv sci-fi soundscape loveliness. "At points one or the other musician would leave the room, letting the antique synthesizer fill in his parts until he returned." 

5. Chris Campbell / Grant Cutler "Song 2" (from "Schooldays Over") - The all-too-brief album is a meditation on Ewan MacColl's 1961 Irish folk ballad about kids moving straight from school to backbreaking labor; the song is teased apart and beautifully reconstructed on such self-descriptive tracks as "Pump Organ, Gongs, Balloon Bassoons." Marimbas, glockenspiels and kotos also join the keyboards in beautiful melancholy.

6. Chris Campbell "Water Mirror" (from "Things You Already Know") - Campbell's really been hittin' it lately, what with his work for the crucial Innova label, and not one but two excellent recent albums. On this one, a fairly large cast perform both on standard stuff and on invented instruments and oddities like propane tanks, psaltrys, and singing bowls for something in between ambient, minimalism, and freak rock. So nice.

I also quite liked THIS. 

* Except for the Philip Jeck which came out in 1998 but I only just discovered it.

FILTHY FRIDAYS: A 40-Minute Long Twist Song

Five years before The Velvet Underground recorded "Sister Ray," the utterly unknown Paul Livert & The Lions recorded two sides of non-stop primal rock'n'roll madness. There were many records released to cash in on the Twist dance craze, and most of them get pretty boring after a while. But this one could ignite any alcohol-drenched evening of debauchery - it's all instrumental (in the ever-reliable 12 bar blues form), all raunchy honkin' sax, wacky slide guitar, fat organ, and relentlessly pounding drums. The momentum builds until the final minutes of side one sounds like everything's about to fly out of control. Side 2 is a little more relaxed (maybe they burned themselves out) but those nutty Hawaiian guitar solos are almost cartoonish. And the sax player is always on.  

Paul Livert & The Lions: "Chicken Twist" (1962) side 1 and 2

Despite the "Vol. 2" tag, there apparently was no Vol. 1 - they're "lion" to us (har har!).

We kicked off our new weekly "Filthy Friday" series last week because I've been pondering: is 'cool' dead? A number of events coincided recently: an article (in Slate I think?) asking: what does cool even mean nowadays?; the Smithsonian Institute photo exhibit "American Cool" currently on display thru Sept (doesn't something have to be dead, stuffed and mounted before it's in a museum?); reading a lowbrow art zine complaining about how the 'nerds and squares' have taken over; and being stuck in traffic in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center hosting an anime convention and being dumbstruck by the sheer volume of nerdliness on display. 

I don't hate nerds, as I'm sure everyone has a little nerd in them somewhere, but it has occurred to me that with the recent deaths of Lou Reed and the last surviving original Ramone, there are precious few cool icons left. Any young Miles Davis or Johnny Cash sorts coming up today, or just pale imitations? Meanwhile, the rise of internet culture, political correctness, ComicCon-type stuff, etc is all making mid-century culture look increasingly alien...and to some of us, attractive.  No wonder "Mad Men" is such a popular show. 

On a musical level, few rock critics even bother with the pre-Beatles/Dylan era. Sure, they give props to Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc., but for the most part, the lower-income, chemical-fueled, sleazy aura of early rock (like its cultural contemporaries burlesque/strip clubs, exotica, nightclub comics) doesn't get much respect and is something that's rarely examined. It doesn't fit in with the Rolling Stone/Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame-approved view of history. Like how jazz, born in brothels and for years primarily a dance music, has somehow become 'America's Classical Music.' All of this takes the fun out of it. And is bad history to boot. Much of the music I'll be featuring here was found in the 99 cent bin, has never been digitally reissued, and as I have been unable to find much info about these artists, is apparently forgotten.

I believe cool developed as a way for at-risk people to deal with a cruel world. You could either curl up on the ground whimpering in fear, or put on your shades, act like you're above all this nonsense, and have a ball. But life in the Western world is generally getting easier (I emphasize 'generally'), so cool, like an evolutionary adaption that is no longer needed, atrophies. Bad-ass '50s actor Robert Mitchum actually served time on a chain gang. Today's Tom Cruise-types have only served time in acting classes. Which is probably why the hip-hop world and it's aura of street authenticity has so successfully moved into acting. (Ice T? Coolest guy on TV.)

Of course, there will always be poor and oppressed people, so maybe cool will take new forms. But til then, we're hosting an Irish-style wake for cool, inviting over all the hepcats 'n' flipped chicks, beatniks, hot-rodders, greasers, strippers, lowlifes, drunks, comedians who 'work blue', and JDs, breaking out the booze, watching 'B' movies, and whoopin' it up here every week til I run out of bargain-bin vile vinyl. We gonna party like it's 1959.

FILTHY FRIDAYS: Lowbrow vol.1 Sweet Beat

For a variety of reasons that I'll get into next week, I felt that the world needed more musical Sin! Sleaze! and Vice! So every Friday, I will endeavor to provide you hep cats 'n' flipped chicks with all manner of mid-century garage, surf/hot-rod, burlesque, novelty, rhythm 'n' blues, soul, lounge, b-movie ads and soundbites, and any other audio effluvia that can lead to the moral degradation of this once-great land of ours. Basically, if you can imagine Lux and Ivy spinning these platters in their leopard-skin draped den, sipping lethal cocktails, then baby, it's in. Let the weekend begin!

I realize that this is not new territory, so I'll try not to feature anything that has already appeared on compilation series like "Nuggets," "Back From The Grave," "Wavy Gravy," "Las Vegas Grind," "Jungle Exotica," "Songs The Cramps Taught Us," "Lux and Ivy's Favorites," and rare surf collections. To increase the level of difficulty, I'm also trying to avoid songs /albums that are currently being featured by such music blog compadres as Office Naps, Surfadelic, The Devil's Music, and Titty-Shakers. That still leaves plenty, as I delve into regions other trash collectors might overlook - comedy albums that might have one good dirty song amidst the stand-up stuff, film soundtracks (see the Kenyon Hopkins track below) or easy-listening albums (e.g.: Enoch Light, Lester Lanin) that throw in one sleazy rocker, international releases that have only recently hit our shores, even recording off video for film songs never released on record. And there are still 45s that have not yet been comped. This collection is a sampler, a little taste of some of the varia-tease of sleazy-listening musics that we'll be exploring in the coming weeks and months. Aren't you happy that there really was a band called the Four Finks?

The name of this collection and the artwork come from an old nudie magazine spread (if you'll pardon the term, boom-tish!) featuring model/singer Bonnie Logan.

Lowbrow vol.1: Sweet Beat

Alternate Link (courtesy of super-swell reader Soylent White Trash)

1. Official Warning (from "Blood Feast")
2 Rusty Warren - Do It Now [song extracted from a track-less comedy album by that "Bounce Your Boobies" gal]
3 Billy Mure - Supersonic
4 from "Porno Holocaust"
5 Willie Tomlin - Stroke My Yoke [I am fairly certain that this naughty R'n'B singer was not related to Lily Tomlin]
6 De Maskers - The Saint [mid-'60s Dutch band]
7 "Triple Terror Show" ad
8 The Four Finks - Rock-o-Nails
9 Ron Haydock and the Boppers - Rat Pfink [from the soundtrack to "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" by the great Z-movie director Ray Dennis Steckler; this really is one of my favorite rockabilly songs]
10 The Deuce Coupes - Starter's Nightmare [anonymous studio cats on a "budget" label album; you'll be hearing plenty of those]
11 Scatman Crothers - Transfusion [Oh! happy day, when I found this 45 in a Las Vegas thrift store - the great comic actor covered the classic Nervous Norvous car-crash novelty song?! Wow, who knew - I probably skipped merrily about the shop holding it up: "look what I got!"]
12 Bill Black's Combo - The Wheel [Black was Elvis' original bassist]
13 "Mark of the Devil" ad
14 Lester Lanin - Guitar Boogie Twist
15 "fourteen Baby"
16 Enoch Light - The Gang at the Green Grotto
17 "Superchick" ad
18 Barbara Stanwyck - Take It Off The E String [predating our post-WWII time frame for this one, recorded off the video of the film "Lady of Burlesque"]
19 Ricky Vale And His Surfers - Soul Full of Surfin
20 B. Brock and the Sultans - 30 Lb. Beetle [another budget label mystery; one of a few mp3s found on this collection that I've had on a hard-drive for ages; I might be able to get a better quality - maybe - were I to try digitizing the album with my latest music software; it really is excellent trad-surf, despite the ridiculous Beatles cash-in angle]
21 "Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde" ad
22 Los Saicos - Demolicion [teen garage-punk from Peru (!?) from an excellent recent reissue]
23 Sil Austin - Fallout
Lookit!  The song titles are now telling a story:
24 Jerry Colonna - Hey Barmaid!!
25 Don Carson and the Casuals - Yes Master
26 The Daddy Os - Got a Match
27 Lonnie Duvall - Cigarettes [this short-lived soul singer was backed by Booker T & The MGs, no less, on this 45]
28 The Three Suns - Tequila
29 The Vagabonds - Walkin' And Talkin
30 Billy Mure - Drums of India [exotic rock remake of the old standard "Song of India"]
31 Brother Theodore - Horror of the Blood Monsters
32 Kenyon Hopkins - Let Me Out [from the soundtrack to "The Fugitive Kind" 1960; is that Pere Ubu's David Thomas on vox?]
33 The Vox Poppers - The Last Drag

Thanks to Count Otto Black for the international nuggets - plenty more of those to come.

Christian Marclay ‎– "More Encores"

I don't recall hearing the word "turntablism" back in 1989 when this album was released, but that's what this is. Needless to say, this ain't no "wiki-wiki-scratch" type stuff. I saw Marclay in performance with Tom Recchion and Toshio Kajiwara in 2003 and it was quite a sight to see records being so creatively abused, e.g.: 8 'tables all playing copies of the same record, with stickers placed on the vinyl so the records would skip at certain points. I wanna do that! 

The performance was part of an exhibit of his visual art, which is quite spectacular as well. Witness his giant, useless accordion, or his album cover collages (but what's the middle album in this one, the one in between Michael Jackson and Roxy Music?). 

From the liners:

Each piece is composed entirely of records by the artist after whom it is titled.
"John Cage" is a recording of a collage made by cutting slices from several records and gluing them back into a single disc.
In all other pieces the records were mixed and manipulated on multiple turntables and recorded analog with the use of overdubbing.
A hand-crank gramophone was used in "Louis Armstrong". 

Christian Marclay ‎– "More Encores"