Marbles — Red Lights
b/w Fire and Smoke (1976)
Hey ya’ll… finally back from China! And it’s time to kick the creaky gears of yer darling daily back in motion… with this power pop gem from NYC quartet Marbles. Isn’t this song just perfect in every way? These harmonies are to die for.
(artwork via Necrotrivia)
Charles Sheffield — It’s Your Voodoo Workin’
b/w Rock’n’Roll Train (Excello, 1961)
Spooky single from Charles Sheffield, an R&B singer from Lake Charles, Louisiana who cut a few sides and then disappeared…
Check out Mississippi Records’ House of Broken Hearts Vol. 1 tape if you like this…
Norma Kelly — Siga aquele carro (Follow that car)
b/w A Canção Que a Guitarra Não Tocou (Mocambo 1968)
Lil’ pop gem from Brazil circa 1968. Can’t find much else about Norma Kelly, but this is one groovy little dancefloor ditty.
First heard this on Give the Drummer Some a while back… download link in the comments!
Luxury — Stupidest Thing
from Stupidest Thing b/w What Kind of Question’s That? 7” (Angry Young Records, 1978)
Oh hell yeah. Raging power pop from Des Moines, Iowa’s Luxury, on their debut 7”. Cool fucking band name. Berserk guitar solos. Nice.
B-side is great too, and totally different. Go grab it at Tomorrow Belongs to You.
Garland Green — Jealous Kind of Fella
from Jealous Kind of Fella (1969)
“Hello baby, please don’t be too mad at me, because I punched that guy last night. Well, let me explain before you say anything…”
Great single from Chicago soul singer Garland Green. Here’s what Ayana has to say over at Chicago arts/music site Dark Jive:
Someone who could “never lose” at the South Side Talent Shows that local record execs scoured for fresh talent, Chicago’s own Garland Green made a name for himself in the late sixties as a growling, burgeoning soul star to be reckoned with. Ironically, he wasn’t discovered at a Talent Show, but playing pool. Legend has it that a local Barbecue Magnate named Argia B. Collins overheard Green’s distinctive growl while the singer was playing pool, and that he ultimately funded Garland’s turn at the Chicago Conservatory of Music.
Wow. Thank you Mr. BBQ. You can also listen to interviews with Green and Collins’ daughter there. Might also want to sneak a listen to ‘You Played on a Player.’
Talking Heads — Love → Building on Fire
from Love → Building on Fire 7” b/w ‘New Feeling’ (1977)
Hadn’t heard this before—the first single by Byrne & Co., released in Feb 1977, seven months before their debut LP, Talking Heads: 77. (This track didn’t appear on the LP until the 2005 reissue, whereas the b-side ‘New Feeling’ did get a spot on the original release.)
Characteristically strange and lovely Byrne lyrics. Again, the obsession with buildings!
Been listening to this on repeat lately. Infectious.
It’s not love, which is my face, which is a building, which is on fire.
Greatest weird song ever. Or weirdest great song ever.
Personal & the Pizzas — Bored Out of My Brains
from Diet, Crime & Delinquency 7” (out Nov 22 on Oops Baby Records)
It’s Friday, we can have some fun, right? Awesome album cover, and to match, one of the best band names ever: Personal & the Pizzas. These boys are dishing up some Ramones-style sauce. Get it while it’s hot.
Sly Stone — I Ain’t Got Nobody
from Recorded in San Francisco 1964-67
Killer psychedelic soul track by Sylvester Stewart—aka Sly Stone—recorded in 1967, eventually released as a Sly and the Family Stone single in 1972. The bass & drums break about halfway in is outlandishly good—don’t miss it. The rest of the album is a bizarre collection of spoken word pieces, funky singles like this, and a Herbie Hancock cover, ‘Watermelon Man.’
Sly is reportedly living in a van in LA right now, too paranoid to go into his rented house, but friends say he’s content and recording tunes on a laptop in the van.
Arthur Alexander — Keep Her Guessing (Dot, 1963)
A little love advice from the king of country soul.
Gather round boys let me give you some learning
A little education about a love that’s burning
If you got a girl that you love so true
There’s just one thing you gotta do
Keep her guessing, keep her guessing!
(another great track here)
2 Of Clubs — Heart (1966)
2 of Clubs was Linda Parrish and Patti Valentine, two blondes with singing gigs at the Cincinnati nightclub Guys and Dolls. It wasn’t long before they figured out how harmoniously their voices braid together. That should be enough to lure you in. But then the going gets weird, and the Spector turns into spectacle, with a psychedelic frenzy of key changes. This gets a 10 in the unexpected performance category.
pierreism: ‘Heart’ by 2 Of Clubs Starts off as a Spector-ish ode to everyone’s favourite love-pump, then just when you least expect it, ’60s PSYCHEDELIC PARTY FREAKOUT! Amazing. (via Derek’s Daily 45)
Lefty Frizzell — Give Me More, More More (Of Your Kisses) (1952)
This Country Sunday, a tune by Lefty Frizzell that spent three weeks at the top of the country charts in 1952. Though he’s not as well known these days as Hank Williams, Lefty was really at the top of the heap back then—check out this listing of the best-selling country records from Billboard, January 19, 1952:
Nazz — Hello It’s Me
from Nazz (1968)
Remember ‘If You Want It,’ that sweet golden slice of pop from TV Girl last year? I played that song so many times it was easily the soundtrack to a month’s worth of my life. Well today we’re doing a little musical archeological dig. Studying a song, by dusting off the fossils of forms less evolved.
So here’s ‘Hello It’s Me,’ by Nazz, Todd Rundgren’s dreamy psychedelic garage band before he went solo. This isn’t the version of ‘Hello It’s Me’ sampled in the TV Girl track — that would take 4 years to evolve from the ancestral melody here.
No, this is the earlier, slower version, the first original song Rundgren penned. But it never made much of a splash, which is why Todd himself dusted it off for his 1972 album Something/Anything?, speeding it up, giving it a pop injection, and making it into his biggest single ever.
Craft Spells - After the Moment
Just the kind of poppy 80s beats you need to get through the winter. Definitely channeling Dominant Legs here with the 4-track guitars and looped drum beats. And they’re from Stockton? Awesome.
Tasty new single coming out January 18.
(Via P4k)
