{"id":804,"date":"2007-08-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-15T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T22:39:27","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T22:39:27","slug":"thrifty-music-vol-minus-one-unbelievable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/thrifty-music-vol-minus-one-unbelievable\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrifty Music, Vol. Minus One: Unbelievable Shite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Moderator is nothing if not zealous in his efforts to protect the hallowed Halls of Rock from assholishness. [Mod. – Hey, some days I think I promote just that!<\/em>] One of Moddie’s first defensive bulwarks in this effort is an understandable reluctance to let folks post images and sounds without extensive monitoring and assistance. [Mod. – Ugh!<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Well, folks, after much lobbying and assuaging of doubts, I finally managed to convince our Moderator that it would be in the Hall’s best interest to at least allow me to post my Thrifty Music<\/strong> series without requiring extensive interactive assistance from Mod and The Back Office. [Mod. – Bravo!<\/em>] (Posting a Thrifty Music comp actually takes a lot of time and quite a bit of work, people… y’all bettah recognize!)<\/p>\n

Anyhow, my first order of business upon being granted these limited powers of postage has been to make sure I know what the hell I’m doing before setting about finally delivering Volume 8 of the Thrifty Music series. So, naturally, I thought I’d share a couple of the most heinous rejects<\/strong> from my bin-scouring efforts. If this experimental post makes it through the ether successfully, I shall undertake to bring you the next couple of Thrifty Music comps quickly and with meticulous attention to quality.<\/p>\n

IN THE MEANTIME…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
The Whatnauts — and “Ray” — will erase away your pain<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Whatnauts, “I’ll Erase Away Your Pain”<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

First up in this experimental collection: “I”ll Erase Away Your Pain,” by Baltimore’s The Whatnauts<\/strong>. When I first slapped this grimy 45 onto the turntable, I was quite taken aback by the sheer weirdness of the song. Who greenlighted this project?! I mean, to achieve some measure of success in popular music, don’t you need to at least offer a hummable melody, or a catchy hook, or something<\/em>? This song is structured so strangely that even the skip\/scratch at the top of the number seems to make no difference to its melodic “flow.” Note also that — while I try to refrain from simply regurgitating intelligence I gather from the InterWeb on my Thrifty Music subjects — I have to share something I found on a site called musthear.com<\/a>, describing the band’s line-up: “Obscure beyond reason, the Whatnauts were comprised of Garnett Jones, Billy Herndon, Gerald “Chunky” Pinckney, and a guy identified only as Ray<\/strong>, who disappeared after this album.” More power to ya, Ray! The next best thing to The Oneders’ T.B. Player!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
50 gold piasters to the man who can find me a photo of the Jalopy Five!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Jalopy Five, “Nowhere Man”<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

Secondly, as a heartfelt “thank you” to all the RTHers who wasted our time so admirably on that embarassingly geeky “What if the Beatles were food?” thread, I offer an interesting take on “Nowhere Man” by HIT! Records’ own Jalopy Five<\/strong>. Pay careful attention to the dulcet tones of the Jalopies’ backup harmonies, and their guitarist’s effort to reproduce Harrison’s lead in the middle. Ahhh… the ’60s. A glorious era of pop music genius!<\/p>\n

So, even for this experimental post, now is the time ask my usual probing questions of you, the listener.<\/strong> They follow below:<\/p>\n

1. Poor “Ray” — his contributions to the Whatnauts are sadly lost in the mists of rock time. But was he the Whatnauts’ Stu Sutcliffe<\/strong> or just their Pete Best<\/strong>? And while I’m asking questions around here…Which long-lost “original band member” from a fave band of yours do you wish would make a triumphant return?<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. I’m still laughing at that Jalopy Five cover — but now I’m chortling at the fake Liverpool accents the band adopts for maximum Beatle-riffic effect. Question: Other than fake American and British accents, can you think of any other fake ethno-linguistic affectations in the world of rock?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Moderator is nothing if not zealous in his efforts to protect the hallowed Halls of Rock from assholishness. [Mod. – Hey, some days I think I promote just that!] One of Moddie’s first defensive bulwarks in this effort is an understandable reluctance to let folks post images and sounds without extensive monitoring and assistance. […]<\/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\/804"}],"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=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}