Mrs. Miller - Does her thing (1968, US, novelty) 
Friday, February 2, 2007, 07:32 PM - Music, - US, English
Capitol released on Ultra Lounge Wild, Cool & Swingin' a magnificent collection of the first three Mrs. Miller lp's. Those were all Capitol lp's. But there is a fourth lp on Amaret: Mrs. Miller Does her thing. This is never (officially) released on cd.

"After three albums, Mrs. Miller was dropped from Capitol Records, only to be picked up by the small Amaret label. On her forth album, 'Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing' the reality of Elva Miller was even further distorted. On the cover she is pictured in a psychedelic hippie dress, with an outreached plate of green brownies. The album included songs such as Mary Jane, Green Tambourine, Green Thumb, Renaissance of Smut, and the infamous Granny Bopper.
Elva was completely unaware of the drug symbolism until the album was already in stores. The song 'Mary Jane' became the theme for a feature film of the same name, which featured pop star Fabian as high school teacher fighting a marijuana gang.
Record executives had transformed the image of Mrs. Miller into an aspiring late sixties drug icon. Whereas Elva was happy to join in on the joke before, here is when the joke began to betray her."
from The Elva Miller Historical Society Comprehensive Biography.



Like any aspiring singer, Mrs. Elva Miller has had to struggle to be heard. In her case, though, the struggle has been going on for most of her 58 years. When she was a child, people were forever telling her to knock off the singing and please go skip rope or something. But she persevered, joined the high school glee club and the church choir, later studied voice for seven years at Pomona College.
Her husband felt that everyone should have an outlet, so he underwrote the cost of her first record-cutting sessions. It was during one of her recording sessions at Capitol Records studio in Hollywood that Mrs. Miller was discovered and introduced to a company producer who immediately signed her to a contract.
'The record certainly wasn't my idea,' explains Mrs. Miller. 'I'd never attempted popular songs, the studio men just popped the music in my hands- sorta sneaky like- and I started.'
from www.mrsmillersworld.com.

In 1967 Mrs. Miller had a role as herself in The Cool Ones, you can see here part on YouTube.

Side one:
1 Renaissance of Smut
2 Up Up and Away
3 Anything Goes
4 Green Tambourine
5 Tiptoe Through The Tulips

Side two:
1 Green Thumb
2 The Roach
3 I Sleep Easier Now
4 My Pet
5 Mary Jane
6 Granny Bopper

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Jimi Hendrix - Live in Stockholm (1967-1969, US, jimi hendrix) 
Tuesday, January 30, 2007, 11:20 PM - Music, - US, English
Most of this album consists of radio recordings from Radiohus Studio, Stockholm, Sweden, 9/5/67. The last two songs are recorded live at the Konserthus, Stockhom, 1/9/69. Wizardo WRMB 333.
The record is a bit scratchy.



Jimi Hendrix - guitar
Noel Redding - bass
Mitch Mitchell - drums



Side one:
1 - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [1:45]
2 - Hey Joe [4:08]
3 - I Don't Live Today [4:22]
4 - The Wind Cries Mary [3:37]
5 - Foxy Lady [3:37]
6 - Fire [2:59]

Side two:
1 - Burning of the Midnight Lamp [4:06]
2 - Purple Haze [5:13]
3 - Sunshine of Your Love [7:51]
4 - Voodoo Child (Slight Return) [7:56]

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Bakersfield Boogie Boys - Okie from Muskogee (1980, US, new wave/weird) 
Wednesday, January 3, 2007, 06:36 PM - Music, - US, Fun, English
On this 12" the Bakersfield Boogie Boys covered the red neck Merle Haggard song Okie from Muskogee in a way Devo did with (I can't get no) Satisfaction.
Get off my cloud (Rolling Stones) and I get around (Beach Boys) got a more Flying Lizards like treatment, not at least caused by the flat voice of Shari Famous. Flying Tigers is an original song with wah-wah guitar and Jack Bruce bass, so it occasionally sounds like Cream, but it's not Ginger Baker who is drumming.
Okie from Muskogee first appeared on Devotees, a tribute-album before that word existed. It later appeared on the sampler Tales from the Rhino 2.

1 - Okie from Muskogee [2:01]
2 - Get off my cloud [2:22]
3 - I get around [2:16]
4 - Flying Tigers [3:30]



From the back sleeve text:
The Bakersfield Boogie Boys originally appeared on the Devotees album (composed of bands sounding like Devo) performing a strange, Devo-like version of "Okie From Muskogee." Many, like Los Angeles New Wave deejay Rodney Bingenheimer, thought the group was Devo in disguise. Rumors to the contrary, the Bakersfield Boogie Boys are in actual fact three young men from Bakersfield, California.
Citing influences of Devo, the Vanilla Fudge, early Frank Zappa and late Marianne Faithful, the BBB consider themselves slightly out-of-place with the country and western confines of their hometown. "We're a rarity for Bakersfield," says bassist Billy Joe Conrad, "because none of us know anyone related to Buck Owens."
By day Conrad works at a library, guitarist Jimmie Lee Grabert at a paint store, and drummer Gary Hoffman at Der Wienerschnitzel. The band has been rehearsing for almost a year, but live performances so far have been limited to a few appearances in their area. The members hope to make enough money from the sale of this record to purchase a synthesizer, and perhaps move to the Van Nuys area, granting them access to Los Angeles' flourishing club scene.

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The Mad Mystery Sound - It's a Super-Spectacular Day (1979, US, weird) 
Saturday, December 23, 2006, 11:25 PM - Music, - US, Fun, Personal
According to Wikipedia this is a multisided record. Strange name, it is only playable on one side, but it has at least seven grooves. Each groove has it's own version of the same song. They all start the same but the ends are different. Which version you hear depends on where the stylus of your turntable starts. The flexi disc was included in an American edition of Mad magazine in 1980. I digitised the seven versions of the song I could discover on this record.



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And a Merry Critmas from Tortelvis 
Tuesday, December 12, 2006, 06:21 PM - Music, - US, Fun, English


A Christmas Record (1981, US, miscellaneous styles) 
Sunday, December 10, 2006, 06:40 PM - Music, - US, English
Not Christmas tunes done in a different style, but original songs.
Most happy melodies (except of course the ones by Suicide/Alan Vega), not always happy lyrics.
A sampler of ZE Records. Strange mixture but all very American Big City sounds.



Again available on cd.

Side one:
1 Material with Nona Hendryx - It's a Holiday [7:12]
2 August Darnell - Christmas on Riverside Drive [5:03]
3 Charlélie Couture - Christmas Fever [4:48]
4 Suicide - Hey Lord [3:25]

Side two:
1 Cristina - Things Fall Apart [4:34]
2 The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping [5:21]
3 Was (Not Was) - Christmas Time in the Motor City [2:55]
4 Alan Vega - No More Christmas Blues 3:13]
5 Davitt Sigerson - It's a Big Country [2:51]

In the same year I bought another sampler Chantons Noël, Ghost of Christmas Past on the Belgium Les Disques Du Crepuscule label. I lost it. Who has a copy?

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The Dickies - Silent Night (1978, US, punk) 
Saturday, December 9, 2006, 06:18 PM - Music, - US, Fun, English
Nice heavy Christmas song from the Dickies.
On the back side The Sound of Silence (*NOT*) of Simon & Garfunkel.



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