{"id":748,"date":"2007-08-02T17:55:46","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T21:55:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T22:40:10","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T22:40:10","slug":"title-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/title-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrifty Music, Vol. 7: Tip Of the Iceberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings, fellow seekers —<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s been too long. My contemplative journey<\/strong> through the bins and baskets of our Capital’s thrift stores has taken me to places unseen, unearthing treasures that have left even my vinyl guru, E. Pluribus Gergley<\/strong>, scratching his head in wonderment. In truth, my recent aimless wanderings have resulted in far more interesting music than I could reasonably post in one collection; hence, I am dividing the lot, in no particular order of style or quality, in batches of five songs apiece. I hope you enjoy them. Please remember, as always, that the value of the Thrifty Music<\/strong> experience has less to do with obscurity, or even quality, than you might think. The Thrifty Music experience is meant to open our eyes to new sounds, discovered at random, in the garbage cans of our civilization.<\/p>\n

Here, then, is this week’s collection:<\/p>\n

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“Your Little Sister”, The Marvelows<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of a number of simple pleasures found in a 25-cent box at the local Goodwill, this number has a lot going for it: a jaunty groove, a sly lyric, a great studio sound (I love the hugeness of the bongo roll at the top of the tune), and that irrepressibly catchy falsetto refrain. Lovers of trivia might be interested to know that The Marvelows were the same bunch that recorded the doo-wop smash “I Do”, popularized for my generation by the J. Geils Band<\/strong>. Plus, their lead singer had an eye-patch!<\/p>\n

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“I Need Somebody”, ? and the Mysterians<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s a band that just exudes rock and roll guts<\/em>. Or maybe the word I’m looking for is confidence<\/em>. Or maybe naivete<\/em>. Idiocy?<\/strong> Either way, they’ve got no reservations about taking a dorky organ riff, serving it up about 500 times, adding some very effective yelping from lead weirdo “?,” and leaving you, the listener, to figure it out. Some things I really like about this song (the follow-up to “96 Tears”): the fact that there’s no rhythmic foundation to the segues between verses. The band just hits three descending chords, then waits for the keyboard player — who was obviously in a hurry — to get back to that riff<\/strong>, then, boom! They come back in. I also like the major bass flub about two thirds of the way through. T.B. Player is obviously “in the zone” and doesn’t realize the band has stopped again.
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“Shimmy Shimmy Watusi”, The Buttons<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gosh, I love this song! I think right off the bat, there’s a downright lovable lack of sophistication in the vocal performance. It’s amateurish in a really good way, like we’re finally hearing a “girl group” actually comprised of “girls.” I mean, just listen to that almost tuneless introduction: “weeee went to a paaaarty… everybody was theeerrrre…”<\/em> — and then the band kicks in with a humpin’ groove, as The Buttons start to shake their rumps and jostle their poofy 1961 hairdos, singing “they… did… the… SHIMMY-SHIMMY-SHIMMY-WATUSSSSI!”<\/em> Brilliant! And I ell-oh-vee-ee LOVE<\/strong> that strange “yeah-ee, yeah-ee”<\/em> that they throw in after the second refrain in each chorus. Wonderful. I could listen to this song all day.<\/p>\n

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“Too Hurt to Cry”, Candi Staton<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

If I were to choose the most important “discovery” I’ve made over the last year and a half of thrifting for music, it would probably be Candi Staton. Like most everybody else, I’d heard her one giant disco-era single, “Young Hearts” (though I probably couldn’t have told you who sang it), but darn it, every single 45 I turn up, from every era of this lady’s career, is a winner<\/strong>. The last time E. Pluribus sat me down for a hard dose of vinyl reality, he leaned over, stared at me contemptuously through his monocle, jabbed his cigarette at my chest and said, “Here’s some hard truth, BOY; see if you can get this through your thick skull: most bands never had more than one decent song in them! That’s why these singles are so important! You may an idiot savant at finding them, but don’t be fooled — most of what’s out there is CRAP!” … and then he was off, his silk dragon robe<\/strong> fluttering down the hallway to his dark, opium-stained study. Well, far be it from me to doubt E Pluribus’ word, but Candi puts the lie to his “wisdom.” What a voice! And the songs written for her — all of them, it seems — were just dynamite.<\/p>\n

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“Finders Keepers”, Chairmen Of the Board<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Another winner<\/strong> from this band. There’s a lot to like here — for starters, the fawnky clavinet; and the horns; and the weird theremin\/trombone solo — but for me, the icing on the cake is the percussion that kicks in after each chorus. But what the heck is it? What are they playing? It sounds like they’re just beating on shit with sticks, or stomping their feet on the ground, or something. And what kind of groove is that, anyway? It’s like a funkyfried zydeco<\/strong> or something. So cool!<\/p>\n

Anyhow, as always, I leave you with a few questions<\/strong>, for which you may find answers in the tunes I’ve supplied. Please ponder the following:<\/p>\n

1. In general, are you a falsetto-friendly<\/strong> rock and roller? Can you yourself do the falsetto thang? Have you ever tried, only to be met with slack-jawed stares, hooting, or jeering from your friends and\/or bandmates?<\/p>\n

2. What’s the downright “dumbest”<\/strong> song you’ll go to the mat for?<\/p>\n

3. Leaving The Supremes<\/strong> out of the running, are there any “girl groups” that you’d consider buying an album from? Weren’t they all the single-iest of the “singles bands”?<\/p>\n

4. Are you more of a Northern or Southern soul<\/strong> guy or gal when it comes to chick singers? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. Would you actually cut a rug<\/strong> to this Chairmen of the Board single? Assuming you tight-asses were actually lubed up sufficiently with booze or your drug of choice, I mean. Do you find it “danceable”?<\/p>\n

I look forward to your responses.<\/p>\n

HVB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greetings, fellow seekers — It’s been too long. My contemplative journey through the bins and baskets of our Capital’s thrift stores has taken me to places unseen, unearthing treasures that have left even my vinyl guru, E. Pluribus Gergley, scratching his head in wonderment. In truth, my recent aimless wanderings have resulted in far more […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}