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From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Category Archives: Miscellaneous Flotsam
Journey into Mellow
A shorter post this week, owing not to lack of enthusiasm but rather to the scarcity of specifics about the subjects, as well as to their somewhat unclassifiable nature. In the late ’60s there seemed to briefly prevail a commercial … Continue reading
The Exotica Project
I’m pleased to announce the Exotica Project, my new 45-related website. The Exotica Project explores a somewhat disparate collection of one hundred exotic-themed 45s through the motifs that unite them. The site approaches “exotica” more as a style, and a … Continue reading
No car, no woman, no money
Whither the hard-luck lounge singer? The dark-lit cocktail lounge at city limits, its few patrons and the décor both well past their prime. The nightclub singer, somewhere between down-on-his-luck and end-of-his-rope, staring pathos in the eye. This week: everything that … Continue reading
Office Naps Winter 2008 Psychedelic Pop mix
The latest version of the psychedelic pop mix, streamlined and scratchier than ever. If anything, people tend to remember the decade for the sitars and sunshine harmonies and fuzzed-out guitars. The reputation is not entirely undeserved. But I am here … Continue reading
Outré refugees
Dig a little below the surface and you’ll find in our cumulative 45 rpm output a discography of the strangest musical impulses. Rare were the financial returns great for the independently pressed 45 record but rare was its overhead, either. … Continue reading
Message from the ghetto
What ties this week’s selections together is not merely their spoken word component (though it’s significant, certainly). Nor is it just their cause of change and greater societal welfare. Awareness-raising ballads, agitprop invective, activist commentary, summons-to-action and subversive parody are … Continue reading
Get rhythm
The drum machine was one of a wave of early mass-produced electronic instruments and studio devices in the ‘60s that expanded, by quantum leaps, the technological and creative bounds of music and recording. Historically speaking, however, early drum machines like … Continue reading
