chertok@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Grady Toss) (10/24/85)
_Behind the Garage Door Volume 1: An Anthology_ A friend of mine in the band _84 Rooms_ gave me this cassette compilation of people and songs he'd worked with and on (not necessarily in that order) from 1979 through 1982. I think the tape was released two or three years ago. If it's still obtainable (and it likely is), it's from Rackit Records, Box 113, 2440 16th St., San Francisco, CA 94103. I latched onto this after hearing _84 Rooms_ debut EP (also on Rackit), and writing to see if there was any more material available. One of the 84 Rooms, Tracy Santa sent me this cassette which compiles lots of different "groups" out of a pool of 19 Bay Area musicians (none of whom I'm familiar with from any other local bands). The tape features a wide array of musical styles, from Tuxedomoon like synth pieces to (sorry Doug Alan) honest-to-gosh Rock 'n' Roll. Lots of interesting covers, including The Melon Colony doing Billy Joe Royal's _Down in the Boondocks_; Master Cylinder doing a demented medley of Glen Campbell's Witchita Lineman_ and Smokey Robinson's _Tears of a Clown_; Flatt Top doing Bill Monroe's _Blue Moon of Kentucky_ with a vocal harmony and synthesized percussion arrangement; Little Carl Day covering the Elvis hit _Little Sister_; East Wind Rain doing a nice synth instrumental rendition of Tony Hatch's _Call Me_. Many good originals: Tracy Santa as The Little Big Men doing an 84 Rooms like track titled _Message to His People_. Great pop from the Poison Ivy League (I believe this name is a pun on the English vocal group, The Ivy League, who sang the background vocals on The Who's _Can't Explain_). Great pop-rock 'n' roll from The Exploding Pintos (_Van Gogh's Ear_), and a number of interesting instrumentals, including Mighty Dog's _Mighty Dog vs. Jah Flea_, a synth piece with reggae undertones. Plus lots lots more--17 action packed tracks in all. Every time I take this tape out and carry it around in my Personal Potable I realize how great the cassette-only music world really is. ... gt (ebm%ingres@ucbvax.ARPA -or- ucbvax!ucbingres!ebm)
andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers) (10/25/85)
In article <10778@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> ebm%ingres@ucbvax.ARPA (Grady Toss) writes: >_Behind the Garage Door Volume 1: An Anthology_ >... The tape features a wide array of musical styles, from Tuxedomoon like >synth pieces to honest-to-gosh Rock 'n' Roll. Lots of interesting >covers, including The Melon Colony doing Billy Joe Royal's _Down in the >Boondocks_; Master Cylinder doing a demented medley of Glen Campbell's >Wichita Lineman_ and Smokey Robinson's _Tears of a Clown_... Sounds like it's right up my alley! (Wish I still had a tape of me and a drummer friend doing a Ramones-like devastation of Helen Reddy's "You And Me Against The World"... you should hear what a D#m7-5/A chord sounds like when played through a Chiquita practice amp miked from an Angstrom away!) >Little Carl Day covering the Elvis hit _Little Sister_... Hell, everyone from Marshall Crenshaw to Ry Cooder's covered that one! I wanna hear "Do The Clam"!!! >Great pop from the Poison Ivy League (I believe this name is a pun on the >English vocal group, The Ivy League... Possible, although they might have borrowed it from the Elvis tune of the same title (cf. _Book of Rock Lists_). >who sang the background vocals on The Who's _Can't Explain_). Richard Butler's _Maximum R&B_ credits the Ivy League with background vocals on "Can't Explain"; however, Pete Townshend's self-review of "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy" (in Rolling Stone) credits the Beverley Sisters. Any idea which is correct? (I'd guess the latter.) The Ivy League is not to be confused with the Ivy Three (who had a hit with "Yogi" inthe early 60's, and whose members included future Lovin' Spoonful producers Charles Koppelman and Don Rubin), or with the well-known athletic conference. :-) *This* Ivy League was a British group who had a number of UK hits, some of which were released Stateside on Cameo (who, BTW, released the first US single by the Kinks!). Of these, only "Tossing And Turning" (not the Bobby Lewis tune) made any impact here, barely squeaking into the Hot 100 in 1965 - which, coincidentally, was about as well as "I Can't Explain" did here! >...Plus lots lots more--17 action packed tracks in all. Every time I take >this tape out and carry it around in my Personal Potable I realize how great >the cassette-only music world really is. I could use a Personal Potable myself... the water's not very good around here! :-) AWR