Toothsome Kendra Smith on electric microphone, hunky Steve Wynn on electric guitar, moody Steve Suchilon on electric bass, flamboyant Russ Tolman on electric guitar, and pusillanimous Gavin Blair on electrically amplified drums. Together they are The Suspects, and this is what they sounded like in 1979, probably. You should know who these dudes are, but here's some screed what I stole from discogs® to clue in the clueless:
"Even before the Los Angeles-based Paisley Underground took shape, the Sacramento/Davis area of Northern California was an early focus of Paisley Underground bands and musicians, some of whom later moved to Los Angeles. The Suspects were a Davis-based predecessor to Dream Syndicate, formed in 1979 by guitarist Steve Wynn and bassist Kendra Smith (who were both disc jockeys at college radio station KDVS at the time), with Russ Tolman on rhythm guitar and Gavin Blair on drums. They released one single in 1979, and performed in the Davis area through 1981. When Wynn and Smith left for Los Angeles in 1981 and formed Dream Syndicate, Tolman and Blair remained in Davis and started up True West."
There's, like, a total of like, literally, like, literally thirteen minutes of music here. It's fun and it's bowel-crimpingly rare and I'm betting you don't gots!
This post funded in part by Dave's Famous Old Guy Underpants© out of Pismo Beach, CA. "Cut slack and high waisted, the way you like 'em! Now available in these five popular colorways - Off-Off-White, Damp Sack, Marine Mold, Yellowish, and classic Nose Paste. Ask to see our Pre-Stain™ range for the doubly incontinent!"
To get yer palsied claws on these collectable collectibles, arrange these three groups to represent your personal preference (your favourite at #1 seems a no-brainer, but you do you).
ReplyDeleteHerb Alpert's Tijuana Brass
Helen Reddy
GWAR
Herb Alpert whom for some reason I always want to pronounce as Albert. Many record collectors, like myself always check thrift stores for rare vinyl (I once picked up a pristine copy of Bird’s Savoy 78 "Barbados" / "Parker's Mood" at a Salvation Army sale), and without fail you will Always see a copy of Herb’s "Whipped Cream & Other Delights".
ReplyDeleteHelen Ready I always confuse her songs with Ann Murray’s. They both had the same hairstyle as each other and wore sensible shoes. What’s the descriptor I’m looking for…oh there it is, vanilla.
GWAR (God What an Awful Racket?) Purveyors of schlock - I mean shock rock with their tongues firmly implanted in their cheeks.
Maybe I made it too easy by putting them in the right order? Anyway, you win the Grand Prize, which I'll upload tomorrow (my time). Just to keep the party vibe alive, here's another question: what's the best non-jazz album by a recognised mainstream jazz artist? No conferring.
DeleteBTW - I left you a REO Speedwagon link over on my blog
DeleteI'd rather go deaf than have to listen to Reddy or Gwar (and with just one functioning ear, its getting close). Best non jazz lp by a jazz artist? The classical music works done by either Wynton or Branford Marsalis.
ReplyDeleteOscar Peterson’s ‘My Favorite Instrument’ a pop album.
ReplyDeleteBest non-jazz album by a recognised mainstream jazz artist? these probably don’t count, but when I bought Agharta by Miles Davis, I had heard very little of his music, so when I got home and listened it blew my tiny mind. A similar thing happened with a cassette of Mike Westbrook - Metropolis that I played for months in my car in the 80’s. Both are very heavy albums with most of the jazz removed, but not all though.
ReplyDeleteMy parents played a lot of different music, with a preponderance of Baroque classical, but other kinds, too. I think my dad being a young teen in the "Kanteen Kiddies" of the USO's Hollywood Canteen had something to do with his catholic tastes. Anyway, I somehow got into Herb Alpert and the TJB in the mid-Sixties (so, before I turned 10) and my parents were tolerant of it. This came on the heels of my interest in show tunes/soundtracks, and I've often thought that the quality of the arrangements on TJB albums had a lot to do with my enjoyment of them.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather listen to Helen Reddy than GWAR, but I agree with Babs that there's real humor in what the latter was trying for ... even if it's disgusting.
I bought a recording of Mr. Marsalis playing a Mozart Horn concerto for my parents, and it now has come back to me. So that's an easy answer for the second question.
I'm really looking forward to hearing the rare "Suspects" recording! If there's interest, maybe I can convince my buddy from "The Love Marines" to allow their recordings to leak out! (That's from five or six years later, and involves completely different musicians ...but the same scene.)
D in California
Here yer goes, Mr. D!
Deletehttps://www.imagenetz.de/v6xGb
Thanks to the new algorithm driving the FMF© digital AI interface, only you, Mr. D, can see this link, where everyone else will see just an empty line space!
Thank you kindly!
DeleteD
I agree: it is fun music!
DeleteI can state with arrogance that the "University of California" is specifically on the Davis campus (there were plenty of other campuses in 1979!) and possibly in The Coffeehouse. That's been torn up and rebuilt, but the institution still exists, run by the Associated Students in the student union. It is famous as a small concert venue for having hosted shows in 1979 by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and The Police. A few years later, I saw shows there by David Lindley and El Rayo-X, and Al Stewart with his touring band.
Of course, the live tracks could've been recorded in KDVS Studio B, which could've fit five crowd members in with the band.
Russ Tolman was doing a radio show on a Davis low-power radio station (KDRT.org), but I think he might have dropped it to concentrate on putting out a new album (looking at his FB existence).
D in California
Hancock's "Rockit" took the world by surprize.
ReplyDeleteGWAR goes top and Alpert's Lazy Day brings a breeze.
Mrs Reddy singing with GWAR may do a good 3rd place
Bat
Answering my own question - Charlie Parker With Strings (?). I love this album, but I don't think anyone in his or her right mind would call it jazz.
ReplyDeleteMany people mistakenly believe that Norman Granz conceived the idea for ‘Charlie Parker with Strings.’ However, these recordings were actually Bird’s desire to create a “love letter” to classical modernists Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky, whom he loved, blending bebop improvisation with an orchestral backdrop.
DeleteIt wuz a great idea, but in the execution, I miss something that I find in other Parker recordings. Here is another great idea, and I find Bird's contributions are well-served by the accompaniment. What do you think?
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/10162738-Bird-Bird-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack
D in California
"In 1988, thirteen years after the release of the Douglas-produced Crash Landing, producer Lennie Niehaus stripped off all the original backing tracks to the soundtrack to Clint Eastwood’s Charlie Parker bio-pic Bird, leaving only Parker’s solos, and overdubbed new parts played by contemporary musicians, recorded in stereo. The album was lauded for being a “technological miracle that sublimated Bird’s performances without any sacrifice of his original sound. If Bird was with us today, this is unquestionably the way he’d want to sound.” The sleevenotes to the critically-acclaimed and Cannes award-winning soundtrack album boast that it “has no parallel in recording history.”
Deletedeadhendrix.blogspot.com
... but Alan Douglas was given a good kicking (and continues to be hated over at Hoffman) for using the exact same techniques over a decade earlier. Fans, huh?
Love Bird W/Strings, live, studio, whatever. In regular rotation around here. Thanks FT3sticks
ReplyDeleteAlpert, Reddy, GWAR. Alpert wins for Casino Royale but beyond that i doubt I give any of them much of a thought......
ReplyDelete