Volume 17 - Summertime Giant Party! 2016

I'm jumping out of order here to post my latest volume, 17. It has some fantastic tracks that I had originally found when the world was ending in 2012. The Hell Raisers, Shubert's Rock, and Crawlin' came my way back then, or even earlier. I couldn't wait any longer to share them with King Bloodstone's beloved listeners.

Syd Dale's transcendent *&%#ing tune takes the swinging Brit mod scene of the early '60s and shoves it into the noir blender hole that was the '50s trying to forget about the horrors of WWII. First heard Hell Raisers, of course, as the score to our web slinging buddy's Saturday morning cartoon. The episodes were already in reruns by the early '70s, but the sounds and visions planted themselves firmly into Prince Bloodstone's nascent psyche.

 

If anyone can name the track of the opening number--not the theme song--of the above episode I'd love to know it. I've looked at the available KPM (The British music library used in most of the Spidey toons) tracks, but could never locate this brilliant gem. Getting back to The Hell Raisers, Something Weird used it for the Ed Wood outtake video that Frankie Fink and I drooled over back in our Vipers days. Later, I learned of its true origins.

Speaking of movies, we have Jack Nitzsche giving us a summertime soundtrack to a colossal teen party big enough to rock the wax off your Yater stick. The Last Race is well known--heard on QT's short four-wheeled romp and on Kogar's Lux & Ivy Vol. 6. This version, taken from it's original 1965 source, Village of the Giants. Never saw it and Beau Bridges probably hopes it stays that way.

The winning back-up band name this time around goes to the Irrationals. Tanganyika doesn't even make sense anyway! Check out the Noble "Thin" Watts tunes, along with Ghost Town and get yer fill of Stroganoff!

Happy summer! Here's volume 17, your soundtrack to the world-ending possibility at the stubby hands of our next elected official! I'll be back soon to return us to the past, with number 9.

Volume 8 - Fall 2014

I know the Dark Knight here is giving the Boy Wonder a hard lesson in surf, but most of this volume's tunes falls into the exotic category. I think I chose the cover because of my inclusion of Miserlou by Ray Maxwell (a pretty straight forward take (eh, Dick Dale rip off) on the instro standard. Hell, Sammy Kaye's Night Walker has more reverb to get your super hero juices flowin'!
At any rate, lots and lots of great tracks on this one. They're all damn good for the vigilante in ya!

And speaking of rip offs, the Marketts seem to pilfer their own catalog (i.e. Out of Limits) on Cobra. And then we have Green Onions...I mean Night Prowl, by the Del-Rays. Somebody told them to just call it Scallions, but it didn't sound nearly cool enough as Night Prowl.

Top track here is Enchantment by the Melody Mates. Give me an ethereal female wordless vocal element to your instro and I'm GONE! Add in an Eden Abez proto-hippie narration (more rip offs--this time of Full Moon) and you've got an instant Instro to End the World By!

Don Ralke---a King Bloodstone favorite---gives us another amazing track for our collections, Zooba! The other two tracks were on previous volumes, which means there's a fourth side out there somewhere! As I dug deeper into investigating artists like Ralke, Rene Hall, et al I would usually find success in getting the A and B sides of their 45s.

Please leave a comment if you dig what I"m laying down on the interweblogs for you!

Get lost here, Nature Boys and Girls!

Volume 7 - Summer 2014

I'm been trying to figure out why I originally chose this cover a few years back...

I was doing image searches with key words related to song titles, plus dates like 1961, 1959, etc. It's from a French film poster for Hitchcock's The Ghost, but in this volume there's only a few otherworldly titles like "Panic," "Possessed," "Ghost Train," and the fabulous "Take Me to Your Leader" (thanks to Howie Pyro). So I don't really know how I tried to wedge it into some theme.

At any rate, be sure to give a special listen to the above ones and also "Arabian Blues" and "Sebastian" which are sublime exotic ditties sure to twist your...

Dig nombre sept here!

Volume 6 - Spring 2014

This volume finds us with some tracks I added at the time in 2014, but in listening through in order to trim the fat before posting, some tracks weren't up to snuff for King Bloodstone. Many R&B rompers are good--probably would've sounded better live, especially to see and hear the screamin' horn player walk the bar. However, I often find they aren't unusual, transcendent, exotic or tinged with enough dark, post-war blues to merit keeping. Just your standard R&B instro.

That said, I decided to keep some in, like Jay McNeely's "3-D," a Cozy Cole tune, and Ike Turner's "The Rooster." The borderline racist "Chinese Twist," by the Popcorns almost got tossed into the compost bin as well, but I kept it for, um, historical purposes.

There are many greats tracks here, folks, so don't despair. "Summertime," gets its dark and stormy (literally) treatment by the Rocketeers. "Boomerang" by the Spinners is a fun alternative to "The Lion," by Duke Mitchell's spoken word safari about gettin' burned by a lying feline--first heard by yours truly on the Wowsville! comp.

Speaking of compilations, I can't seem to find which instro comp had  The Castaways' "Vibarations." I thought it was Swing for a Crime, but I know I heard it early on in my forays into Instroville.
"Jungle Rhythm" has the one and only rebel with out a bongo cashing in on the exotica craze of the '50s. The quality is pretty poor, but let's say it's another one for the history books...

 A nod to Office Naps for some of the moody, ethereal vocal tunes on this one!

Get caught in the queen bee's nest right here!

Volume 5 - 2013

What would an end of the world collection of instros be without a little horror?

This volume has plenty of creepy crawly tunes replete with screams and howls. Merv Griffin likely wished "House of Horrors" stayed with the other skeletons in his closet once he became the '70s daytime TV staple--although he was the mysterious elevator killer! (Sorry, that was a spoiler.)

Thanks to Frankie Fink for turning me onto what should be the real theme song to Walking Dead, "Cha Cha with the Zombies!" This, among many other Hallow'een themed tunes, can be found on the barely living podcast, Forbidden City.

And speaking of the undead, the well known and covered "Ghost Riders in the Sky" gets the Spanish psychedelic treatment from Los Babys. Who knows what the hell they were thinking. Maybe it truly was a bunch of infants someone handed six strings to.

Somebody also killed PJ's saxophone on "Wounded Camel." OUCH!

Finally, to end this post, we get to kill ourselves or live trying with a game of "Russian Roulette" by the Zanies. The Zanies are the crazy folks to bring us the wonderful novelty songs, "Mad Scientist," and  "The Blob."

Dig (Six Feet Under) Here for Vol. 5!

Volume 4

Welcome to Volume 4! Gonna shoot for two posts a month to try and catch up to the current volumes. The image for this cover is from a '50s flooring ad--the dart board is awfully close to that dame's head!

Some good gems on this one. Sadly, an amazing tune that belonged on this volume by Tommy O' and the Ding Dongs' (I wanna back-up band called the Ding Dongs!) Shubert's Rock, was taken from a slowed down version. I had to remove it and put it into volume 17 (don't ask why I do this).

Some instros still sound tasty at less than 45 revs per minute, but I generally try and go by the time stamp on the label. "Espresso" by the Chrystals is surely a bit slow despite any help from its caffeinated title.

"Sabada" by Johnny Williams is quintessential swinging '60s sugar. A dozen or so years later Mr. Williams will undoubtedly have moved to his space age pad in a galaxy far far away. And speaking of things foreign and "Exotic," Jim Waller and the Deltas bring us a great one to take you away from post war boredom in the USA. A dose of The Hustlers' "Migraine" might also ease the pain due to the off-gassing of toxic fumes from your new synthetic floor.

Finally, "Swinging Ghosts" can be heard "spun binary-style" by yours truly on the Forbidden City Halloween hoe down podcast. Celebrate the day of the dead early this year!

Dig volume 4 here!

Volume 3

Here's additional madness to add to your psychically sonic palate! I thought the volumes stayed at around 30 tracks, but I actually trimmed this one down (got rid of moderate clunkers or bad quality--to add to later volumes).

Some stand out tunes are Cleo by Rene Hall, whom I first encountered on a Frolic Diner disc with "Fright Night."  Mr. Hall was a monster arranger in the instro genre. "Turf" is another of his I found after digging through the interwebs. There may even be another later on.

"Tough" by the Bill Smith combo is a great one. The mid-song blast of eternal sax is a sure fire way to make you gone! Bill Smith did the moody noir beast, "Anastasia" from Vegas Grind.

One final great track is "Nightmare" by Klaus Ogerman. Arty Shaw's big band tune gets the European swingin' sixties treatment by Herr O. Yeah, baby!

I have volume 4 lined right up. Look for it soon!

Dig Vol. 3 here!