Volume 23 - Spring 2018

1 2 3, on your marks, get set, DIE!!!

Welcome to yet another set of swinging, banging, and clanging instrumentals to dig as the Earth heads towards its demise--as we all dig our graves. I collected this set rather quickly, finishing it up a lot sooner than expected. I've been busy though, kinda in a last-days-hedonism phase for the past several weeks. Fortunately, this spat of time has allowed tracks on volume 24 to add up, which is just around the corner.

I'm going to dispense with any preliminary mumbo jumbo and off-the-bat declare the Sidemen Band Name of the Month contest winner, which is from the lead off track: The Wheels (with Rolls Royce) doing a number called 1 2 Many. We've all been there haven't we? Just perhaps not at the start of the party. Nonetheless, global catastrophe is nigh so, bottoms up!

You all know Baghdad Rock by the Sheikh's from Jungle Exotica, but do you know Part 2 even existed? I didn't. So, one more chapter to close. At least as far as two-part instrumental craziness goes. Allah Akbar, you infidels!

Blue Blazer is another fun tune to follow the jihadists. It reminds me of Danger is My Beer by the fantastic Reverend Fred Lane. While the Reverend’s instrumental is from the 70's or 80's, this tune also carries some of that generic crime theme, rolling tempo sound. You picture underneath that blue blazer is a .38 ready to be swiftly clutched by your sweaty palm and discharged to vanquish the Communist spy that's been on your tail for a fort-nite. The fact that the artist is unknown adds to the unsolved mystery of your end.
[side note: If any segment of you likes Fred Lane, be sure and catch up with his other (mostly) vocal and instro work. Buy the Shimmy Discs if you can. He's like the bastard cousin of Frank Sinatra & Sun Ra. Great stuff indeed-o!]

Oh Lord, what can be said about Dangerous Lips by The Drivers! The peril and pain, with intense longing for a connection of two moist slabs of flesh despite the inevitable outcome of pain, is an apt metaphor of my life--our lives, dear reader--of this tragic story we all live today.

The Pride of D-Boys

If you're not listening listening closely enough you may miss the quiet beauty and moodiness of Moon Over Harlan Kentucky. Not Harlem, New York. We're talkin' Bluegrass Country. And don't ask me why the song is performed by The Pride of Detroit. Maybe the dudes in Motor City were dreaming of another place that's not involving a internal combustion engine, nor contributing to greenhouse gases.

Francis is thinking, "I smell damp fur."

Speaking of ecology, the next song to follow, Nature Boy is one of my favorite songs for many reasons. One: the freak that penned this song was most certainly an anomaly from the 1940s. Eden Ahbez was the proto-hippie long before there ever was a psychedelic gleam in the eye of Tim Leary. Second: Nature Boy was covered by countless people during the mid-twentieth century. From Exotica stalwarts to John Coltrane--one of the greatest blowers that ever lived and died too young. Finally: the song touches my corazón, because I'm a tree huggin’-son-of-hippie parents, and a believer in the one thing that could probably save this godforsaken rock: L-O-V-E.

Onto more morbidity. Lenny Davis gives us another installment of devil-themed songs. We’ve had a few recently entries. Satan’s Got You (By the Hand) is, in actuality, not so great. It’s just a mediocre love-lost song. I honestly threw it in here because, you know, Satan. [Insert joke how Mr. Fallen Angel has us all by the cojones.]

Rye & a Nat Sherman for my last meal.

The Night People close us out with Zazerac. This is a rye whiskey cocktail (often spelled Sazerac). I guess this is their version of Tequila, with a random Joe calling out the name, after the break. A little pouring sound and hiccup effects can never hurt.


Clink here to the end of ends!