Donna Fargo – Brotherly Love

Donna Fargo has a good voice that carries some of the golden age of country music forward. Brotherly Love is the prerequisite gospel album that all C/W artists must make. It has a few gospel standards and a few new songs. Not a bad listen.

Marianne Faithful – Broken English

Wow. Yeah, revisiting this album was a joy, and I think I will listen to it again in a couple of days. This listening was like hearing Broken English for the first time. I heard words that I had previously missed or glossed over. I heard social commentaries that I didn’t know were there. And I listened to the emotion in Marianne Faithful as she belted out songs like Why D’Ya Do It. It made me stop and allow that emotion to speak to me. Every song on this album came alive for me. I’ll hear it again in a few days and update you on what happened. It was more subdued on the second listen but still a powerful album.

LOW-RES – Därför & Varför

Some new post-punk is coming out of Sweden, a hot place for new music this year.

Maynard Ferguson – Conquistador

Courtesy of Wikipedia: Conquistador was the most successful album of Ferguson’s career, earning him his first and only gold record and a Grammy nomination (Best Pop Instrumental Performance) for “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from “Rocky”).” Boosted by the popularity of the single, Conquistador not only went to number one on the Jazz charts, but it became the first big band album to appear on the pop charts in decades, sparking a revival of interest in big band music.

When Conquistador rose to number 22 on the pop album charts, Los Angeles Times music critic Leonard Feather noted, “Conquistador earned Ferguson a unique place in the big band world: he alone was able to crack the pop charts.”

Fleetwood Mac – Kiln House

Kiln House was Fleetwood Mac’s fifth album, and Rumours was still seven years and seven more albums away. Unfortunately, many can only name one or two Fleetwood Mac albums, usually Rumours and Tusk. There is a lot more to their credit than that. This album is an excellent highlight of their blues influence. So many good British bands got their start playing the blues.This would be one of my island records, depending on how many I could take with me.

Adrian Norén: Spår av Addeyee

More Swedish music. I love it and wish I could speak it.

The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama – Oh, Lord-Stand By Me

The Original Five Blind Boys Of Alabama – Marching Up To Zion

I know they are not singing about it, but driving through Zion National Park is close to walking through the Holy Land.

Tropical Fuck Storm – Goody Goody Gumdrops

Although it is not my usual listening, I couldn’t ignore this band with that moniker.

Aukai – Aukai 

This album is pleasant, laid-back listening.

Townes Van Zandt – Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas

This album is a good sampler that shows Townes at his best.

Rev. Billy Simmons & William Simmons – Rollscanhardly

I wasn’t familiar with these guys, but the Rev. part of his handle sucked me in.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away

I have been a fan of Nick Cave for a long time, and I spun this album three or four times over the last month.

July 1 was Canada Day, so here is a short list of songs and recording artists celebrating this great land; I live above the 49th. I only listened to the singles for this list.

Wheat Kings – The Tragically Hip These guys are Canadian royalty. Sadly we lost Gord, but they did one hell of a farewell tour.

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald & Canadian Railroad Trilogy – Gordon Lightfoot

We said farewell to Gordon Lightfoot on May 1, 2023. He was a patriotic citizen who sang about Canada frequently. For my friends and family south of the 49th, on July 4, 1995, the 91-kilogram bronze bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald was recovered from the ship’s wreckage. The ore carrier sank on Nov. 10, 1975, in Lake Superior, and 29 people died. The bell is now on display in Whitefish Point, Mich.

Oh … Canada – Classified

Get a little rap going.

Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon – The Guess Who Canadian rock and roll heroes. American Woman is one of their biggest hits.

Canadian Dream – Sam Roberts

Yes, Canada is a socialist country. Free medical care is the star of that parade. I feel that socialism is frequently misunderstood; it is not as evil as it is often perceived.

Four Strong Winds 

This  a song written by Ian Tyson and covered by Neil Young, a transplanted Canadian.

Song For Canada – Bob Dylan’s backing band, aka The Band, was 4/5 Canadian. I listened to The Basement Tapes today.

Ed Evanko – I Dedicate This Song To You – LP – 1979 I dedicate this listen to Ukraine.

Everly Brothers – Roots – LP – 2014 This was a Record Store Day pick.

XTC – Drums and Wires – Streaming – 1979 A blast from the past, I love it. Making plans for Nigel is a standout track on an overall solid album.

Bill Evans Trio – Waltz For Debby – LP – 1961 A solid listen start to finish.

Bill Evans – Conversations With Myself – LP – 1963 Recording with Glenn Gould’s piano, CD 318, at studio sessions on February 6 and 9, and May 20, 1963, Evans used the method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for each song. It was unusual when it was recorded due to this being a solo album with overdubbing, something not used much back in 1963.

Bill Evans – Sunday At The Village Vanguard – LP – 1961 An amazing album that continues to amaze me every time I listen to it.

The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldier – Streaming – 2006 I hadn’t listened to The Raconteurs for a while, and it was good to hear them again—great music for mowing the lawn or long drives on the highway. I did both this week and got in two listens to this album start to finish.

Modest Mouse – Building Nothing Out Of Something – Streaming – 2000 This is another great album from a band that keeps pumping out good music.

Habitat Canada – Lunar Spectrum – Streaming – 2023 Some fresh music I will blog on eventually.

Farrell and Farrell – Portrait of Us All – LP – 1979 A long time ago, I was into Christianity and listened to Christian music like all good little Christians. It hurts my ears to relisten to this album.

Mark Farner – Isn’t It Amazing – LP – 1988 From Grand Funk Railroad to being another Christian who’s music I listened to. Not as bad as some CCM but is falls short of what he did with GFR.

Popsicko – Off To A Bad Start – Streaming – 2023 Some more new music.

 SPARKLE*JETS U.K.

Writing something about this double album has been quite the project. Best Of Friends is a double album with 19 excellent tunes that run for one hour and six minutes. That’s longer than most albums and thus took more listening time. Another factor that made this longer than my average blog is that I had never heard of them before, so I had to listen to their back catalogue to hear where they came from. And to top that, I was unfamiliar with the artists that sparkle*jets u.k. were paying tribute to, so I also had to listen to their material. All of these factors meant that I was busy getting around to blogging Best Of Friends.

SPARKLE*JETS U.K., beloved icons of the Turn-of-the-Century Southern California guitar pop scene, are most assuredly back. BIG STIR RECORDS is proud to announce not only the June 30 release of the band’s first album in over 20 years, Best Of Friends, on 2-LP Vinyl and CD in record stores everywhere and streaming worldwide but a veritable multimedia renaissance for the band throughout 2023. Bringing back not just the vibes of the scene that birthed them but the songs as well, SPARKLE*JETS U.K.’s jaw-dropping new double album is both a love letter and a tribute to the artists with whom they shared stages and a thrilling revelation of those lost sounds to those who missed them the first time around. People like me!

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Track List and Original Artists: 

1. Hold On Tight (Clevenger)

  Originally recorded by Walter Clevenger & The Dairy Kings

2. He’s Coming Out (D’Amico / Mychols)

  Originally recorded by The Masticators

 3. No One Rides For Free (Anderson)

  Originally recorded by The Andersons

 4. One Summer Sunday (Chicoine)

  Originally recorded by Kompost

 5. Are We There Yet? (Bartnof)

  Originally recorded by Cosmo Topper

 6. Ludlow 6:18 (Marsland)

  Originally recorded by Cockeyed Ghost

 7. Battle Song (Daniel)

  Originally recorded by Adam Daniel

 8. I Want A Pony (Jenio / McGough / Sessa / Woods)

Originally performed by Candypants

 9. Till We Meet Again (Magill)

  Originally recorded by The Dons

 10. Come Down Now (Rodewald / Stewart)

  Originally recorded by The Negro Problem

 11. Automatic (Hromadka)

  Originally recorded by Double Naught Spies

 12. Who Really Can Know? (Flora)

  Originally recorded by Florapop

 13. Sunshine Tonight (Rotenberry)

  Originally recorded by The Shazam 

It’s a full-circle return for the Long Beach-based trio, consisting now as then of vocalist-guitarist Susan West, bassist Jamie Knight, and singer/multi-instrumentalist Michael Simmons, who also takes most drumming duties for the current edition of sparkle*jets u.k. (with Joel Valder sitting in on three tracks). The band has hardly been dormant for the decades since releasing their two widely admired albums, In, Through And Beyond in 1998 and 2001’s Bamboo Lounge, nor have they ever gone their separate ways. In addition to Michael Simmons’s continuing output as a solo artist (the acclaimed 2018 album First Days Of Summer) and with Popdudes, sparkle*jets u.k. joined the Big Stir Records family in 2019 for a special 7″ tribute to Big Star recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Jody Stephens on board. And all three ‘jets have been a part of creating the extraordinary (and very much pop-rock-oriented) music program at Huntington Beach High School. The band’s 2023 renaissance is something more significant, and this new collection is just the start, with an entire album of sparkle*jets u.k. ‘s originals already completed for release next year.

But we’re here to talk about BEST OF FRIENDS, whose mission is right there in the double meaning of its title: it consists of songs by sparkle*jets u.k. ‘s friends from the late ’90s and early 2000s in the L.A. pop scene, and it serves as a veritable “Best Of” collection for those unfamiliar with that era’s delights. Destined to have a reach beyond its impact as a superb pop-rock record, BEST OF FRIENDS is more of a multimedia event than a simple album release. Along with the singles and their inevitable companion music videos, the album’s publicity campaign incorporates a weekly podcast (also entitled BEST OF FRIENDS) which captures sparkle*jets u.k. in a candid conversation with the artists covered on the album, bridging the gap between the fondly remembered adventures and recordings of yesteryear and the fresh, bracing versions on the new L.P.

https://sparklejetsuk.bandcamp.com/album/bamboo-lounge

BEST OF FRIENDS is just the beginning of a new lease on the musical life for sparkle*jets u.k., and they can still write them just as well as they can play them. For now, though, turn it up loud as sparkle*jets u.k. prepares for blastoff, shattering the sound barrier between yesterday and tomorrow and paying loving tribute to their BEST OF FRIENDS.

Album Credits: 

Michael Simmons: Lead and Backing Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Drums. Bass on Are We There Yet 

Susan West: Lead and Backing Vocals

Jamie Knight: Electric Bass, 12-String Acoustic Guitar on Are We There Yet? & Hold On Tight

Joel Valder: Drums on I Want a Pony, In and Around Greg Lake, & Fantastic Pantsuit 

Tisha Boonyawatana: Vocals and Keyboard on Fantastic Pantsuit

Anthony Grisham: Lead Guitars on Hold on Tight & The Right Idea

Blake Martin: Horns on Are We There Yet?

Nick Frater: Some handclaps

Michael Simmons produced and engineered it, 08/21-03/22 at Crab-Apple-On-Sea, Long Beach, CA. except for Fantastic Pantsuit, recorded 10/05 at Crab Apple West, Fullerton, CA. 

Graphic design by Michael Simmons

Photographs courtesy of bands, and a few stolen from http://www.perry.com. Back cover painting by Rene Rodriguez 

Thanks to: every artist represented here, most of whom elected to waive their royalties to allow this project to progress. We cannot thank you enough for your friendship and general awesomeness. Thanks to Christina and Rex at BIG STIR RECORDS for all they do. Thanks to our families, all the sparkle*jets u.k. past and present, all the D.J.’s, journalists, and John B.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PQn8mTl1Q4
I

I am watching their video on YouTube as I type this, good stuff. The more I listen to BEST OF FRIENDS the more I like it and the more I listen to sparkle*jets u.k. the more I appreciate them.

BIG STIR RECORDS

Burbank, CA / Croydon, South London, UK / Wherever Pop Music Is Made

Copyright © 2021 Big Stir Records

All Rights Reserved.

Design © Big Stir Records

Greasy Makeup

Here I stand

before you

with my greasy makeup 

asking for you to fix

oh what’s needed

here I go

And here I go with lack of balance 

cuz you touch me like something’s just missing, 

like I’m not qualified for a competition 

Comparing the silk and the velvet here I go

Cover up oh oh I’m mad

fulfilled but I’m not stupid 

I know you’d strike back even harder 

I’m mad and fulfilled, 

but I’m not stupid 

not stupid 

Cover up oh 

Here I stand

before you 

in my reason to wake up 

asking for you to push

oh this fear of where I go 

And here I go with lack of angels 

cuz acting like something’s forgiven 

like I’m apologized for an intuition 

Preparing the wings that I’ve taken 

To cover up, oh oh I’m mad, fulfilled but I’m not stupid 

I know you’d strike back even harder 

I’m mad and fulfilled,

but I’m not stupid 

not stupid 

cover up oh 

cover up oh 

cover up oh 

cover up oh 

cover up oh

Lyrics by KÅRP

KÅRP: Anna-Maria Lychou · Anders Lychou · Jonas Källstrand · Tobias Müller

Photos by Ellika Henrikson

I have been sitting on the gem for far too long. May 17th, to be precise. It caught my ear the first time I heard it, and I told KÅRP that I would be glad to do a blog about this single, Greasy Makeup.

The lyrics are thought-provoking. What is the storyline here? Is this a woman arriving home, cleaning the makeup off her face, and being confronted by an adversarial partner? 

As the touching and striking suggest, is this a case of domestic violence?

Is this person covering up from the blows? Could the makeup be hiding that from the sight of others?

This person seems so madly in love with their partner that she is willing to cover up, but she is not stupid.

She is ready to push back and go. She has wings that she has prepared and taken to go with a lack of angels. She is mad but not stupid. She has some out-of-balance sense of fulfilment, but she is not stupid. She has covered up over and over again. And she continues that ad nauseam. Willing to live with madness. Willing to take the blows. Willing to feel fulfilled even when the fulfilment comes from being mad.

cover up oh 

cover up oh 

cover up oh 

cover up oh 

cover up oh

Gothenburg, Sweden – The electro band KÅRP is back with their new single “Greasy Makeup,” a solid punch of knuckles greased with equal parts electro, synth-pop, and techno. It is the first single from the concluding EP in KÅRP‘s apocalyptic trilogy. Whether the title alludes to faces painted for battle, faces painted to hide something, or if it’s simply what is visible when one gazes into the mirror.

Quote from the band:

“This is the beginning of the end of the beginning. We are living in a time where it feels like the world has abandoned us. I mean, us humans. Everyone reacts differently to being abandoned; some arm themselves for battle, while others go out in the rain and let tears run down their cheeks. Whichever you prefer, we recommend that you do it to the sounds of Greasy Makeup.

I enjoyed this single with its bouncing synth tones and pulsed percussion. Easy to dance to, easy to listen to, easy to remember. It is easy to find on the streaming source of your choice, I listened on Apple Music. Sit back and listen and let’s see what you hear. It is also available on YouTube.

I enjoyed this single with its bouncing synth tones and pulsed percussion. Easy to dance to, easy to listen to, easy to remember. It is easy to find on the streaming source of your choice, I listened on Apple Music and watched on YouTube.

musicbykarp@gmail.com

https://www.instagram.com/karp_archives/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/MUSICBYKARP/

Preteretrospective

Preteretrospective

Yeah, I spelled it correctly. Preteretrospective.

It’s the new album from The Noise Who Runs.

Who are they? Have you listened to them before? No, I hadn’t listened to them before this album landed in my inbox. 

So, following my typical trajectory, when I encountered an artist I wasn’t familiar with, I became acquainted with them. I start by listening to their back catalogue.

The Noise Who Runs released an EP in 2022, High Time in Lo-Fi, which reminded me of Blow At High Dough by The Tragically Hip. Aliteravely only. My brain makes all kinds of crazy connections when it gets going. Hang on, folks. This ride might turn into a Crazy Train.

Next is the music queue is the second EP from The Noise Who Runs, These Will Be Your Gods—a nifty transition from Aslan to this EP. The Noise Who Runs turned the volume down and smoothed their sound for a more radio-friendly soundscape. It’s still good, but a different kind of good.

And now we get to our feature album, Preteretrospective. Save me some space in this long blog; Google that word yourself, and tell me what it means in 20 words or less in the comments box.

I have no idea why, but after listening to this album, I kept getting Lord of the Flies popping up in my brain. It’s a great novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. It was made into a movie in 1963 that I thought treated the book admirably. It was made into a film again in 1990, and it was not so hot, in my opinion. I’m still unsure why I thought Lord of the Flies had anything to do with this recording. I may have to give this some time and revisit it.

I asked Joel what came to mind for him after a short listen of Beautiful Perhaps. He heard some Peter Gabriel, especially the song Intruder from Peter Gabriel #3, Melting Face. So I listened to that and then went back to Beautiful Perhaps. Yeah, there is some overlap there. I can hear where Joel got that connection. He also touched on Roxy’s Music, In Every Dream Home A Heartache; I didn’t hear that myself. But that’s the beauty of music; it’s never the same thing twice, and there are different notes for different folks and no wrong answers.

I heard Flash And The Pan, no song in particular. I think it’s the voice, the modulated, distorted, synthesized voice. But that’s just me. I also liked the bass lines. Well, that’s it for the first track and the back catalogue. Onward Ho!

Onward Ho! Have you heard that exclamation before now? Do you know what it means? Or are you like me and utter it when moving on to a new task without considering why we say Onward Ho!? Here’s some musing on moving on.

“When faced with life’s difficulties and challenges, one must keep going, not with despair but with a sense of hope. More than just moving on and moving forward, “Onward Ho!” conveys a sense of new adventures and uncharted territory in a positive, better or more advanced sense.”

I like that. Positive and better, that’s my goal through these meandering blogs. Onward Ho! And I think Preteretrospective works on that level as well.

The above chatter took me deeper, someplace between truth, fiction, fantasy and theology. My mind kept wanting to make connections. I like that because it keeps my brain busy and jumping all over my music library (most of it between my ears from decades of listening). Lyrically my neurons touched on Narnia. Consider these words from C.S. Lewis.

“Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

He isn’t safe, but he’s good. (perhaps?)

The truth isn’t pretty, but it is beautiful, perhaps.

In the 6th song of this album, there is a portion that jumped out at me. It wasn’t so much because of its originality, although it is original, but because of its familiarity.

“I don’t want much as such, just more than never enough. After rent and bills, we scrape for food all month.

Try to juggle with what’s not even up in the air

We start from flat on the floor and descend from there 

So good it’s free, so good it’s free So good it’s free, so good it’s free.”

I have been in these places throughout my life experience. I didn’t want to be rich; I just wanted enough to buy food and pay the bills. I love the line where we start at the bottom and go down from there. Brilliant writing, that is.

A bit further along in the album, we get the song 2poor2die. I’ll be honest here. I’m not fond of lousy grammar, including using numbers as letters. The name of this song is “two poor two die.” Glad to get that off my chest, now onward to the content of this song. The lyrics tell us that they are “too poor to die.” I have known men who received a paupers grave because they were too poor to die. I have stood at the graves of men so poor that the only people at his graveside were the men lowering the casket, myself, another pastor, and the guy with the machine to fill in the hole. There is more than one way to be poor. We can be morally bankrupt. We can be financially destitute. We can be in poor health. And we can be too poor to die.

Have you ever had days like this? “Don’t want to change the world today, maybe just hide away.” I do.

Have you ever wondered how some people always seem to be cheerful? The song Smile, Smile, Smile takes on those two ideals.

The album closes with four songs headlined by their latest single, ‘New York To L.A. In 2-And-A-Half Minutes‘. This synth-happy music has enough existential lyrics to keep you searching through your psychology textbooks or Wikipedia for days. Fortunately, the album is engaging enough that listening repeatedly and searching for meaning in the lyrics is not a chore.

Released April 21, 2023

The Noise Who Runs are Ian Pickering, and Felipe Goes. 

All songs written by Ian Pickering 

All songs recorded, engineered and produced by The Noise Who Runs 

Drums, additional recording and production by Julien Guyot

Additional production by Colin C at The Cell Studio (thecellstudio.com) except Beautiful Perhaps, recorded and produced by Claudio Meza, aka ‘Spural’ at Mauco Records, Chile. 

All songs were mixed and mastered by Colin C at The Cell Studio.

All rights reserved

Artist photos by Théo Valenduc

Keep up with The Noise Who Runs

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I was about to do a blog about the new singles from Graham Parker while I had a song on repeat in my brain, otherwise known as an earworm. The song was Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, and that song reminded me of a conversation that Joel and I had the other day. We were lamenting the lack of funny, witty, silly, comedy or nonsense novelty songs. We don’t get They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! by Napoleon XIV these days, although there are moments when I wish they would take me away. One thing turned into another, and an earworm became a quest for novelty/comedy songs, and there is no shortage of novelty/comedy songs.

Starting at my original task, Graham Parker. A new album is in production with a September release. Let’s begin with him setting the stage for Them Bugs and its wonderfully playful sound. “It’s about time I released a gimmick single,” says Parker. “Still, it’s the funkiest gimmick single ever, pulsing with skanky heat and the cool croon of The Lady Bugs on backup vocals. It was written after the 4th of July fireworks with my son when Them Bugs were indeed biting in ‘the places you never should get bit.’ Lighten up – get jiggy with it.” Parker’s uniquely soulful singing unfolds the tale over a tasty reggae-infected groove – a move that will remind longtime fans that he was immersed in the form long before the punks caught on, as far back as his 1976 debut album Howlin’ Wind and the classic cut Don’t Ask Me Questions. Them Bugs is more laid back but no less true to its roots and a pure summertime delight. 

Of the B-side, Graham says: “One day I had to write The Ologist Song. Damn straight I did. A non-album track featuring pulsing horns, those sweet soul singing Lady Bugs again, and The Goldtops with the horns punctuating their intense swing.” The Goldtops – Simon Edwards (bass), Jim Russell (drums) and Martin Belmont (guitar) – loom large on the forthcoming album and will be backing Parker on his U.K. tour dates this fall, and fans will be thrilled that horns are very much in the mix on the new material. But at the forefront of The Ologist Song is Parker’s universally lauded gift for wit and wordplay. And it is indeed a sign of the depth of his new songs that this instantly lovable tune is not among the thirteen tracks that will make up the new album, remaining exclusive to this single release. 

Graham Parker gets us off to a fast and hot start for mining the genre of novelty songs. And where there is heat, there will be fire, and where there is fire, there is smoke. And when we follow the smoke, we get to Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen and their version of the classic song, Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette), which hit the charts in 1973. The song is much older than that; it was written in 1947.

Novelty songs have a long and rich history. Comedy and novelty songs can be traced as far back as the first century in ancient Greece and Rome, where poets and playwrights entertained with double entenders, puns and playing with words.

The use of comedy continued in the late 19th century, where it flourished with everything from tin pan ally to vaudeville entertainers of the early 20th century adding lyrics to musical numbers. In 1923, one of the first comedy music hits, Yes! We Have No Bananas, sung by Eddie Cantor, was released. In 1924 Billy Rose asked, “Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?”. In 1958 the song was rereleased as, Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?” by Lonnie Donegan, the King of Skiffle. Moving our attention forward, we find that radio was still popular into the 1950s, and a new form of entertainment was gaining popularity: records. Novelty music flourished with artists such as Roger Miller, who, Dang Me, told us that You Can’t Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd. In The Summertime, there are many things to fill our days with. You can send your kids to camp, and perhaps they will write home, Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp) by Allan Sherman. Among the more far-out songs of this genre were the two released in 1956 by Nervous Norvus, Transfusion and Ape Call.

During the heady days of novelty songs, there were many songs recorded that may be too risque for our present politically correct ears to hear. Songs such as Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and The Girl On The Billboard by The Road Hammers. A bit of fun trivia follows. What song was Chuck Berry’s only number-one single in the United States? The answer is My Ding-a-Ling, a novelty song written and recorded by Dave Bartholomew. It was covered by Chuck Berry in 1972 and became his only number-one Billboard Hot 100 single in the United States. I must be careful that the girl in the Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini & The Girl On The Billboard don’t ring My Ding-a-Ling. 

Ray Stevens, a popular recording artist who was no stranger to comedy and novelty music, was known for such novelty hits as Ahab the Arab, Gitarzan, Mississippi Squirrel Revival and his #1 hit, The Streak. Butterfingers Irving — The 142nd Fastest Gun in the West is a favourite of mine. It was first released on the Bob Booker and George Foster comedy album When You’re in Love the Whole World Is Jewish and “sung” by Frank Gallop.

The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of numerous comedy music artists whose careers went on for decades. These artists include Allan Sherman, Tiny Tim, and Randy Newman. In 1970, the radio host Barret Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento, played tracks sent in by amateur artists, including 16-year-old Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al released his first album in 1983, and for over four decades, he released multiple hit parodies and originals, which made him a significant player in the genre of comedy music and the counterculture associated with it. Weird Al Yankovic would emerge as one of the most prolific parody acts of all time in the 1980s, with a career that would span four decades; he would join Cliff Richard in being one of the few acts to have at least one top-40 hit in the U.S. in four consecutive decades (1950s through the 1980s for Richard, 1980s to 2010s for Yankovic).

Novelty songs were popular on U.S. radio throughout the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where it was not uncommon for novelty songs to break into the top 40. Freeform and album-oriented rock stations used novelty songs; some of the best-known work from progressive rocker Frank Zappa, for instance, is his extensive body of mostly adult-oriented novelty music. Zappa’s Bobby Brown (Goes Down) was a smash hit in Europe despite its sexually explicit storyline, and Valley Girl was a Top 40 hit in the U.S., while Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow and Dancin’ Fool reached the top 100 of the radio charts in his native United States. Dr. Demento’s nationally syndicated radio show gave novelty songs an outlet for much of the country; this lasted through the mid-2000s when the show (mirroring trends in the genre) faded in popularity until its cancellation in June 2010.

The list of comedy, novelty and off-beat songs is too long to include in this blog. I suggest a search on Wikipedia if you want to learn more. Below are some notable songs, writers and performers of novelty music, including some of my favourites.

They Might Be Giants have been a prolific source of novelty, comedic music, and lyrics, with 23 studio albums to their credit.

Shel Silverstein was a source of wit and wisdom through his songs, often recorded by others. Sloppy Seconds was the second album from the country rock band Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Shel Silverstein wrote every song on this album. It featured Dr. Hook’s most famous songs, including Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball and The Cover of Rolling Stone. It was noted in popular media for its “crude sense of humour.” Nevertheless, it was still humour and is included in our tribute.

Johnny Cash with A Boy Named Sue.

Junk Food Junkie by Larry Groce

Bad Indigestion by The Lost Dogs

30,000 Pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin

Yes! We Have No Bananas by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn

No more food songs! There are hundreds of them!

Arthur Fhardys Yodelling Party by The Swirling Eddies 

King of the Road by Roger Miller is mentioned numerous times, which only scratches the surface of his output.

Love Potion #9 by The Searchers, I think I was one out of millions of teenage boys who wished they had a sample of Love Potion #9.

I hope you enjoyed this list of humorous songs; if you are so inclined, leave a comment telling me your favourite comedy/novelty song.

Nowhere I’d Rather Be by Gregory Jones, a singer and songwriter from Oxford (UK), is a pleasant summer, sipping a cool one on the deck type of album. With influences such as Simon & Garfunkel, George Harrison, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach, Gregory’s timeless sound and ability to tell a story will pick you up and drop you back down in places that feel familiar, but you’ve not been to before.

Nowhere I’d Rather Be is the title track from Gregory Jones’ debut solo album, released on 15 May 2023 on the Italian label Other Eyes Records, butIt’s not his first release by any means. It follows three successful singles as a solo artist and a critically acclaimed catalogue of work as a guitarist in the Bristol-based band Modesty Blaise. 

Bristol is where the music all began for Gregory. Raised in a household of musicians, he played every orchestral instrument he could lay his hands on until he discovered the guitar and three chords to a Kinks song, setting him on a different trajectory.

Then came a meeting with Modesty Blaise’s front-man and songwriter, Jonny Collins, who taught him everything there is and isn’t worth knowing about rock ‘n’ roll. Jonny Collins also introduced him to his friend and namesake, Edwyn Collins (of Orange Juice fame), and a new world of music opened up before him.

Two tours of Germany and Spain followed as Gregory honed his stagecraft and tolerance for long journeys in transit vans and hanging around a studio drinking tea. Countless hours in the control room, learning from the best, shaped him into a highly accomplished engineer and producer.

Fast forward to Oxford 2023, another hotbed of indie music, and we find Gregory’s Nowhere I’d Rather Be. His first long-player, packed full of harmony-laden, melodic indie-pop tunes, with a generous helping of folk-rock and Americana for good measure!

It’s not a typical first album – not an eclectic creaming-off of the best songs he’s written. Instead, it’s more of a tricky second album, written with a beginning, middle and end, with a narrative that weaves its way from heartache to homecoming. It’s also an LP in the traditional sense, with two sides. An outbound and a homeward-bound journey through the experiences life throws our way. Sometimes uplifting and other times downright melancholy, there’s sure to be something we can all relate to in this story.

With influences such as Simon & Garfunkel, George Harrison, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach, Gregory’s timeless sound and ability to tell a story will pick you up and drop you back down in places that feel familiar, but you’ve not been to before. 

Nowhere I’d Rather Be was released on 15 May 2023 on Other Eyes Records and is available on CD, digital platforms and online at othereyesrecords.com/shop. 

For press and other inquiries, please get in touch with other@othereyesrecords.com or @iamgregoryjones

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b0ka, or etymologically correct, boka, is “the book” in English, my language of choice. I wish I were fluent in Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish. I will use Google Translate instead of learning them at this point in my life. Never mind my rant. This blog is about a band named b0ka and the infectious pop music on their debut album, Forever, My Friend.

Pop music and top ten radio often get a bad rap due to the formulaic nature of the songs. Some websites are devoted to making a pop song, and they walk a person through creating your own top 10 radio hit song. 

They start by picking the topic, which usually revolves around three main themes, love found, being in love, and love lost—songs that tug at our heartstrings, which most of us can relate to. The remainder of the process builds on this and adds catchy melodies for the lyrics to be delivered. Most pop music is in the three to three and one half minute range. And with all of that and some good promoters, a hit pop song might emerge.

Is making pop music terrible? Is listening to pop music wrong? Do I have an agenda against pop music?

No, No, No, Norman. No, no, no is an excellent start to your million-dollar hit pop song. A gazillion songs revolve around “no, no, no.” There are a lot fewer when you add Norman. The closest I found was, Oh No, Norman, on Office Politics, the twelfth studio album by Northern Irish chamber pop band the Divine Comedy, released on 7 June 2019 by Divine Comedy Records.

This blog is not about that. This blog is about b0ka, a band that has made an excellent pop album. Sure, they say “Oh No” several times and repeat some choruses, but that is about as close as they get to being a formula band. They also don’t mention Norman, not even once.

The album opens with the tender ballad Oh Baby. Gentle lyrics are more spoken than sung, making for an interesting opener. If I were cruising for songs to play, which I frequently do and sampled Oh Baby, I might have rejected it because it sounded like it would be a soft rock ballad album. It isn’t.

Listening to the next track, Stone Cold Girl, we get an uptempo track with plenty of synths, sampling and digital drums. The vocals are more vigorous, and there are background singers. These assets bring the music to a pleasant pitch contrasting the darker lyrics. Falling apart, rain on holidays, heartbreak, worlds of empty colours, sadness. Yeah, these are not uplifting lyrics, unlike the catchy instruments. There are two parts to Stone Cold Girl; the second is less energetic. Both use repetition extensively.

When You Touch Me repeats, “I said I didn’t like it when you touched me,” 19 times. A bit repetitive, but in the context of an R&B, Soul, Jazz & Funk track, it works. It is also hilarious, and I hope they meant the song to be humorous because that is how I received it. I won’t bother trying to tell you what it is about. Listen to it and draw your conclusion.

The title track, Forever My Friend, alternates between English and Norwegian. I am not fluent in either, but I know significantly more English.

Want Me To has the focal character sitting on the fence and saying, Can’t make up my mind about you. The music don’t feel like it did when I was with you. Music is a powerful medium that can add memories, hold memories associated with certain songs and drag our emotions up or down. Want Me To is neutral.

I will fast-track over a couple of songs and jump into the groove of Fjompin’ 67. I had to look up what Fjompin’ was. It is a jerk, goof, silly or idiotic person. “Do you like the beat?

Yeah, I like the beat.

Drink beer, and listen to house music.”

I don’t drink beer and seldom listen to house music, but I like music with a strong beat. Fjompin’ 67 isn’t heavy on house music, but it is an excellent introduction to the next song, Last Night (On Earth), which does have a strong beat.

The album closes with the song, Life With Me, a softer synth-driven track about falling in love, being in love and the questions.

Is it wonderful?

Can I enjoy it?

Can I control it?

I like the final line that closes the album, “I can’t choose who I love, but I choose you.”

I can see myself looking into my wife’s eyes and telling her, “I choose you.”

Final word? Yeah, this is radio-friendly pop music. It has been an excellent introduction for me to the world of Norwegian pop music. Easy to listen to, soft synth music over the eternal human topic, love.

‘Forever, My Friend’ will be available to stream from the 12th May 2023 via Beatservice Records with vinyl release to follow on 9th June 2023.

ARTIST WEBSITE/SOCIAL MEDIA:
https://www.facebook.com/b0karec
https://www.instagram.com/bokarecordings/

For press enquiries, please contact james@barkpr.co.uk

våra liv is the album that I have been patiently waiting for ever since I wrote about Sole Gipp Ossler‘s single that was released in February. I did a favourable report back then, and I have only good things to say about våra liv.

Photo credit to Ulf Zetterlund

I don’t understand the Swedish language, but I do understand good music. Maybe not your definition of good music, but it certainly ensconced itself in my ear. The music is powerful. It wanders about in different styles that go from gentle ballads to epic movements. Never a dull moment. This album kept me glued to the speakers as I engaged with what I heard.

I like what I hear, as a matter of fact, I am listening to våra liv as I type this out. It makes the writing emerge slowly because I keep getting interrupted by songs and passages that I must stop and engage with. It’s all good. For example Sven is an ambient track that moves from gentle waves lapping at the shore to breakers crashing all about and take the song to another level of intensity—well done, Sole.

“du jag tiden” opens with gentle piano notes, a quiet guitar someplace behind the piano slips into the soundscape, and an equally subtle synth joins them. And then SOLE starts singing in a delicate, rhythmic pattern that builds along with the music, rising and rising with percussion driving them all forward. SOLE’s voice soon changes into a plaintive call, and the music continues to build higher and higher and faster and faster. It gets frantic. The distortion is all-encompassing. I am out of breath from trying to keep up with the pace of “du jag tiden.” And then it stops with her gentle voice reclaiming the focus only to lose it in the distortion that gives the impression of a steam locomotive braking hard to stop at the station. Steel grinds on steel, and then they all fade to nothing. I hit repeat. “du jag tiden” opens with…etc.

våra liv is a passionate album. SOLE shares:

“The main idea behind the album was to turn outwards, instead of inwards like on the debut album. This time, I involved more people in the creation process, both musicians and songwriters, to see what happens when there is a meeting between two lives, two expressions. Suddenly, it becomes a shared space, no longer just my own. So, it’s important for me to emphasize that this album couldn’t have been possible without these individuals. Everyone has had an essential part in the creation.”

våra liv and Sole have given me another reason to visit Sweden, apart from visiting my cousins the live there. Until that happens I will be content with hitting the repeat button, listening to våra live again and waiting for SOLE‘s next album.

Telenovela is Sofia Monroy‘s debut EP, released independently on May 12th. During her upbringing in Luleå, far up north in Sweden, Telenovelas were repeatedly shown on TV due to her family’s Mexican origins. A telenovela is a type of television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines tele (for “television”) and novela (meaning “novel”).

Cover Art photo credit: Caroline Hägg

Sofia’s own Telenovela contains the artist’s own stories and experiences, but just like an honest Latin American Telenovela, her Telenovela contains, among other things, drama, jealousy, comedy and sadness. The last few years have been decisive for the artist’s musical expression, increasingly experimenting with Spanish and English. At the same time, the Scandinavian melodies are heard through, set to music in a soulful way. The lyrics contain a mixture of English with a touch of Spanish – something that describes the artist’s identity and background.

Sofia Monroy‘s latest single ‘Control‘ was picked up on rotation on Swedish national radio P3 and mentioned by Per Sinding-Larsen in Sweden’s second biggest morning show SVT Morgonstudion, as well as giving her interviews both on Swedish national radio and an extensive interview and music video premiere in SVT Play. She also did an extensive interview in Mexico’s setlist.me and was covered by many other music blogs worldwide. Since Sofia Monroy debuted as a solo artist in 2019 with the single’ Cautious,’ she has gained attention worldwide for her impressive live performances, beautiful visuals and bilingual and fenceless and fearless lyrics.

Telenovela is an EP of infectious music guaranteed to get you bobbing your head and wanting to hear more. Put Sofia Monroy‘s music on repeat and give yourself a soundtrack for the summer.