Volume 14 - Spring 2016

V14 goes all Eastern on ya!
We start off with one of two versions of Bamboo and Rice (one vocal, the other instro). I split them up by adjusting the title, so they wouldn't play back to back. Got hip to this moody tune from one of the sets by the Buzzsaw Joint team of fiends on Mixcloud. I forget which one, but I'll never forget my first bowl of rice.

A-Rab is a fine instro to follow Bill Osborn, and set us up for a dark, shimmering trek across the night desert sands. This may be the only "A-rab" you see or hear for the next four years, so treat it (them) gently.

Cha Cha Cha Au Harem by the Leo Clarens Orchestra has my fave la-la-lady singin' style, but throw in the Eastern horn and you've got me charmed to where I'll shimmy and shuffle as your cobra to your heart's content.

Lest we forget, the world's end IS nigh. Sopping wet reverb starts off Emy Jackson's Crying in a Storm. A deluge of tears, acid rain and spit fill the clouds, to pour down on our screaming Earth for 40 days and 40 nights. Better inflate that air mattress in the spare bedroom, grab one boy or one girl, a cat and dog, 'cause that's all the creatures the Great Bearded one has plans for. Bees, polar bears and bald eagles are on their way out anyhow. Get to know Echo Valley by The Marauders, while you're at it. It'll be a good tune to whistle when you drift out in the middle of the Pacific, headed for the Great Garbage Patch. 

Speaking of large bodies of water, Gitchee Goomee by The Abstracts is named after Lake Superior (spelled Gitche Gumee). I only found this fact when I scoured the interwebs looking for this fabulous instro. I can't recall which I heard first, this or the flipside (The Beard), but after Howie Pyro hipped me to both of these tracks, I searched for many many moons. So long was this hunt, I only recently found The Beard this winter. Look for it on volume 19...

One Love is generally too straight ahead of a Doo-Wop jawn for King Bloodstone to include, but (again, about flipsides) Jimmy Oliver's flipside is the ever-maniacal The Sneak. A classic, found on the Vegas Grind series that started it all for this fool. If someone can please tell me the origin of the suspenseful "sneaking melody" heard across many genres, I'll bequeath my kingdom to ya!

No sidemen band name of the month this time 'round, but we'll give a nod to the Music Men, with Dale McBride for trying their best to bring this volume back to its exotic start on Speak Low. Martin Denny, eat your heart out.

Noble "Thin Man" Watts gives us a wildly swingin' tune with Teen Scene that it almost gives me hope of a future for our little adolescents. Then again, a few tracks later, The Man with the Golden Arm, by Link Eddy, reminds us of the pitfalls, euphoria, and perils to be found in the poppy fields of the East.

Open your eye to Shiva here.