Various L.A. Artists - Radio Tokyo Tapes, Vol. III

I was 18 when a friend who turned me onto loads of good music recorded some of this LP on a mix tape for me. I got him to copy the whole album for me. I listened to the cassette a lot with this really cool girl I used to hang out with. Finally 2 or so years later I got one of the cute guys that worked at Amoeba Records to look for when a used copy came in and save it for me to buy. It never got pressed on CD so I took the LP and paid someone $50 to make me a CD of it so I could bring the music with me to work. That was about 14 years ago. The guy didn't even get the tracks right and cut off the last track in the middle of the song. For a long time I was hoping that someone else would post this LP on a blog so I could download it or maybe they would release it on CD but, since no one else has posted it and it's obvious it's never getting repressed, I had to go track by track and fix each song so that the songs start and stop at the beginning and at the end, and lucky me found the last track as part of an archived radio show so I am able to present the complete album.

This was a really hard post to create. My browser crashed while I was writing this and uploading the file to rapidshare so I had to start all over. I searched for a decent image of the cover since my LP's are literally on the other side of the planet and it was really hard to find a big enough image. Finally I found one but I had to edit it as well, that with all the editing of all the tracks, the whole thing took me much longer than I want to admit. I really do love this compilation I guess or I wouldn't have put so much effort into posting it. Even if the Rollins spoken word thing sucks, all the other songs are great especially the Cohen cover and the Minutemen. Actually, I can't try to pick my favorites because this album has lasted so long as something I enjoy listening to my favorites change every time. I have no idea if the band Alisa ever put out anything else or went on to do other projects, I wish I knew cause I like them a lot. The Revolver song is not the same band as Revolver the band from London, but I like them too.

a1. Wild Side of Life - The Knitters (X side project)

a2. Red Umbrella - The Balancing Act
a3. Love Is Not Gold - Kerry McBride
a4. Where You Goin'? - Revolver
a5. Damn, I wish I Was A Man - Cindy Lee Berry Hill
a6. All Those Things - Divine Horsemen (Chris D. formerly of The Flesh Eaters)
a7. Suzanne (Leonard Cohen) - Alisa
b1. Ancient Art - Pop Art
b2. Never Go Back - Sandy Bull
b3. Al Jolson's Bedroom - Henry Rollins
b4. He Is Here - The Beef Sisters
b5. Blank Verses - Carmaig de Forest
b6. No Holds Barred - Linda Albertano
b7. Time - The Minutemen
b8. The Strange Death of Mary Hooley - Phranc
b9. Jillionair's Blues - Drew Steele (formerly of Surf Punks)

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Baby Bird - Fatherhood

I used to shop several times a week in Amoeba Records and Rasputin Music on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley. One of those times I was upstairs at Rasputin and flipping through the LP's and I ran across this gem. I hadn't heard him, or of him, but I collected pictures of pregnant women and the cover was enough of a reason to shell out $8.99. It turned out to be a pretty good album and lasted as a regular on my turntable for about 5 months.

I think I remember reading in the liner notes that the whole thing was done in his bedroom on his 4-track. It's simple Lofi pop music. I think the second track on side B is what hooked me (a perfect track to play at the bar if I get stuck working on Christmas) but it easily could have been 4th track (Bad Blood) or the 8th track (Goodnight) on side A, the whole album is full of his very personal lyrics and clever rhymes. I was never able to find anything else by Baby Bird until I came to Tel Aviv and heard some later work of his being played on the air, but they'll play anything on the radio in this country..

a1 No Children a2 Cooling Towers a3 Cool & Crazy Things To Do a4 Bad Blood a5 Neil Armstrong a6 I was Never Here a7 Saturday a8 Goodnight a9 I Didn't Want To Wake You Up a10 Iceberg b1 Aluminum Beach b2 G-d**** It, You're A Kid b3 Daisies b4 Failed Old Singer b5 Fatherhood b6 Dustbin Liner b7 Not About A Girl b8 Good Weather b9 But Love b10 May We Here

The Residents - Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible

I had seen The Residents a year before they released this album when they played at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Halloween. I went with my dearly departed friend and lover Jay (They had booked 4 shows in a row). We went in full costume and so did everyone else. The environment at the Fillmore was electric, in spite of their being 4 shows booked it was so crowded you could barely standup (I'm sure it was sold out and probably the other 3 shows were as well). People were anxious and excited and you could feel it in the air, seriously. Needless to say it was a great show so when I got a chance to see them again the next year I took my then Christian boyfriend who was trying really hard (but unsuccessfully) to get "into" the counter-culture of San Francisco. The entire performance was The Residents playing out the stories from the bible. I didn't realize that he would be offended by their renditions of the bible stories, but I guess he was because it seemed like the shock lasted for several weeks. The show the year before is one of the best shows I ever attended, the show for this albums was pretty amazing as well. The Christian never loosened up and a year later he left me for a girl who worked at a record label whom "his friends liked better".

The Residents are performance artists in a way that you cannot even come close to imagining the entire conceptual art by listening to their albums alone, but the albums are still pretty good.

This is the track listing from wikipedia

1. "In the Beginning" - (2:57) is about the creation of the Earth and is entirely instrumental.
2. "Fire Fall" - (3:34) is about Lot escaping from Sodom and watching his wife turn to salt.
3. "They Are The Meat" - (2:40) is about Ezekiel's visions whilst he is forced to eat only bread and sleep on his side.
4. "Melancholy Clumps" - (1:48) is about Noah building the Ark.
5. "How To Get A Head" - (4:05) tells us the tale of Salome requesting the head of John the Baptist.
6. "Cain And Abel" - (3:34) tells us the story of the jealous Cain killing his brother.
7. "Mr. Misery" - (2:19) is about Jeremiah and his suffering.
8. "Tent Peg In the Temple" - (2:54) is about the killing of Sisera.
9. "G-d's Magic Finger" - (2:41) is about the story of King Belshazzar.
10. "Spilling The Seed" - (2:44) is about the story of Onan.
11. "Dinah and the Unclean Skin" - (2:52) is about the story of Dinah.
12. "Bathsheba Bathes" - (2:52) is about King David and Bathsheba.
13. "Bridegroom of Blood" - (4:57) is about Moses being attacked by G-d and the wife of Moses intervening by performing circumcision on their baby.
14. "Hanging by His Hair" - (2:33) tells us the story of Absalom and his death.
15. "The Seven Ugly Cows" - (2:34) is about Joseph and his visions.
16. "Burn Baby Burn" - (2:59) tells us the story of Jephthah sacrificing his daughter.
17. "KILL HIM!" - (2:39) is the story of G-d telling Abraham to sacrifice his son and gives us an insight into his possible thoughts.
18. "I Hate Heaven" - (2:50) is based on the Song of Solomon.
19. "Judas Saves" - (3:55) is told from the point of view of Judas Iscariot. This song proposes that Judas's betrayal of Jesus was necessary so that people could have their sins forgiven. It also proposes that Judas had been told by G-d to do so. (Compare the theories put forth by the protagonist of Jorge Luis Borges' short story "Three Versions of Judas".)
20. "Revelation" - (5:38) is an instrumental inspired by the Book of Revelation, chapters 4-22.

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Camper Van Beethoven - Vampire Can Mating Oven

About 9 years ago I was casually seeing this guy, he wanted to give me some music so he gave me this EP on cassette. I already had Camper Van Beethoven's album Key Lime Pie which I loved and I loved this EP just as much. I listened to it for about 3 months straight. I thought it was so sweet that he had chosen this to gift to me. The sweet sentimental catchy love songs may have been the reason I fell in love with him, they certainly were a great soundtrack for the affair in any case. Later (after he changed his number and stopped speaking to me), I realized that he didn't really put much thought into what music to give me, he just wanted to give me something and this was the best choice because, of the music he had that I was familiar with and liked, he would miss this one the least.

It's a secret that after 9 years I'm still in love with him. That's the reason I can't listen to this EP anymore.

These tracks all appear on Camper Vantiquities as well as the 1988 CD reissue of The Third Album. This EP came with really silly liner notes, I don't know if the liner notes were included with Vantiquities or The Third Album, this EP is not really representative of their sound, certainly not The Key Lime Pie album that hooked me to begin with, it's not all that rare or special, just special to me.

1. Heart
2. Never Go Back
3. Seven Languages
4. Ice Cream Everyday
5. Processional
6. Photograph

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