It's not every day you run into disco versions of children's stories, especially South Asian ones. And one made eight years after disco fizzled out in America. But this cassette really exists.
Listen Here
History's Dumpster = GLORIOUS trash! Kitsch, music, fashion, food, history, ephemera, and other memorable and forgotten, famous and infamous pop culture junk and oddities of yesterday and today. Saved from the landfill of time...
Showing posts with label Cassettes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cassettes. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Children's Disco Musical Stories (Venus, 1988)
It's not every day you run into disco versions of children's stories, especially South Asian ones. And one made eight years after disco fizzled out in America. But this cassette really exists.
Listen Here
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Outsider Music
Ahhh....Another peaceful Sunday morning. Time to put on some nice, relaxing easy going music. Right?
Well I'm having none of it. It's time to crank it up full blast and wake up the neighbours with some truly awesome music. The stuff you just won't hear on the radio. Anywhere.
Outsider musicians are those folks who simply make music the only way they know how. With very little to no musical training whatsoever. The conventional requisites of stardom are simply unheard of among outsider musicians.
This is not American Idol. There is no competition. Or critiquing. Or even practicing and rehearsals. What you hear is what you get.
They simply don't care about commercial success. Or any musical conventionality even amateur musicians adhere strictly to. They make their music on their own whims and for the sheer sake of their own personal enjoyment. Even if the only one enjoying it is themselves, they wouldn't care.
It also differs from vanity acts. Vanity acts actively look for a commercial breakthrough and exposure to the masses. Most outsider acts would never be heard at all were it not for certain friends and associates encouraging them to take a leap of faith and record their material.
Sometimes a major label finds them, but that's usually a by-product of local press buzz or through chance contacts. The labels never seek outsider musicians and outsider musicians never seek the labels. If planets align, they align. But that's very rare if they do. The major labels want something that delivers a massive return on whatever investment they make. And that's something no outsider act has ever really done.
Outsider music isn't even a conscientious rebellion against mainstream rock and pop's status quo, which usually drives most hardcore independent lo-fi punk bands. They truly believe in what they are doing in spite of what anyone thinks. They simply let their dim lights shine.
But what may sound like tone-deaf psychiatric patients (some, but not all outsider musicians suffer from some sort of severe mental illness) to the rest of us is technically a sub-sub genre of Alternative rock. It's not even a "new" thing ("Wild Man" Fischer, whom Frank Zappa discovered in the late 1960s, is a pioneer. So is David Peel, whom John Lennon discovered and released a few albums of his on the Beatles' Apple label in the early '70s, The Shaggs and to some extent, even Charles Manson.)
Today, we're going head first into the most obscure of obscure music genres. But like most of my posts here, I don't disclose everything. I like to leave some of it out for you, the reader, to explore on your own. I just merely set up the launch pad for your own journey (it might be one-way.) So this is not a complete list. Not by far. But it's enough to give a basic insight into this strange genre. Google "Outsider music", if you're really curious.
Bingo Gazingo
Bingo Gazingo (Murray Wachs, 1924-2010) was an elderly New York City outsider musician and poet with perhaps more punk rock authenticity than any band that ever played at CBGB's. And I mean all of them. He was, perhaps literally, the grandfather of punk.
With song titles like "Oh Madonna, You Stole My Pants", "Up Your Jurassic Park" and "I Love You So Fucking Much, I Can't Shit", you pretty much get the idea this was no ordinary retired postal worker from Queens.
He released an album through WFMU Radio in 1996 and this song, "You're Out of The Computer" was a collaboration with techno artist My Robot Friend (Howard Rigberg) from My Robot Friend's 2004 CD Hot Action! It also appears on the Songs in The Key of Z compilation of outsider music.
Tragically, Bingo Gazingo was struck down by a cab on his way to a performance at the Bowery Poetry Club where he appeared weekly every Monday night in November of 2009. He died of his injuries on New Year's Day, 2010. He was 85.
Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis (1963-2003) could be the most famous of outsider musicians, even garnering some airplay on mainstream alternative rock radio in the 1990s.
His story began as one of ten children born in a dysfunctional family (having so many siblings can throw even the most stable family off - think the Duggars) in the housing projects of Chicago. He spent most of his life going from foster home to foster home with two older brothers as their parents had a violent relationship and split up when Wesley was a child.
In spite of this horrific background, Wesley seemed to be a bright and fairly normal young man. However on October 21, 1989 (there are people who remember this specific date), he began to hear voices in his head, which he called "demons" and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
About this time, he also began making music. Mostly as an outlet to escape the turmoil inside his head. He also made artwork and was discovered by members of Chicago's alternative rock scene, who encouraged his musical pursuits. This led to a collaboration called The Wesley Willis Fiasco and he actually became a sensation in the Chicago alternative underground, gaining attention from major label American Recordings, which was distributed by Warner Bros.
His favourite greeting wasn't a handshake or a hug. It was a headbutt to the forehead. I am not making that up. This left a permanent bruise on his forehead.
His music was crude, rambling and often profane. One unique characteristic of Wesley Willis is no matter what song he's performing, they all sound identical to each other. They mostly are songs about things that he had personally identified with in his life. Such as his local McDonald's, bands and stars such as Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Kurt Cobain and whatever else figured.
Here's a sample of what that sounded like
He eventually recorded 50 albums from 1994 until his untimely death in 2003 from leukemia. He was 40.
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston, like Wesley Willis, also suffers from schizophrenia and like Willis, also uses music as a way to cope with it. Johnston is also a visual artist as well. However Johnston is different in the sense that his music is more introspective and melodic than either Wesley Willis or Bingo Gazingo. He's been called a "fractured genius" and "the indie Brian Wilson". He quite possibly could have achieved mainstream stardom and in fact, he came quite close to it.
Daniel Johnston began recording music as a teenager on a boombox at home in the late '70s. By the early '80s, he was self releasing his own material. He moved to Austin and appeared on MTV in 1985, which gained him further exposure. He went on to make more recordings, including collaborations with Sonic Youth, Half Japanese and other indie acts, who became fans of his.
But his schizophrenia was also worsening. In 1990, on the way to West Virginia on a small, private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a manic psychotic episode believing he was Casper the Friendly Ghost and removed the key from the plane's ignition and threw it out of the plane. His father, a former Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane, even though "there was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.
In the early '90s, Kurt Cobain was often seen wearing a t-shirt with the cover image of Johnston's 1983 album Hi, How Are You? on it.
Which lead to even more interest in Daniel Johnston. Even while involuntarily committed at the mental hospital, Warner Music label Elektra Records was interested in signing him, but he refused the deal as Elektra then was also the label home of Metallica, whom Johnston thought worshipped Satan.
Eventually he signed with Warner co-owned Atlantic Records, which released his only major label LP Fun in 1995. The album flopped commercially and Atlantic ended his contract in 1996.
In 2005, a full length documentary DVD on Daniel Johnston's life The Devil and Daniel Johnston was released.
Johnston is still active in music.
Jandek
To say Jandek is merely an outsider musician just doesn't quite cut it. In fact, he's been described as "The Rock N' Roll J.D. Salinger". Because he's perhaps the most reclusive of all the outsider musicians.
Yet he has released over 70 albums on the mail order Corwood Industries label. A label that while Jandek maintains a certain distance from professionally, has only issued Jandek material. And he has a surprisingly loyal and solid worldwide fan base. With almost no radio airplay or any promotion of any kind.
Most Jandek albums feature a young man on the covers in random photo shots and when you lay them out, you realize they are the same person - Jandek himself? Possibly.
But nothing has been directly confirmed by Jandek - he's only done a few interviews. But in rare recent pictures of Jandek, you do see a very strong, even uncanny resemblance.
Jandek's actual name has never been confirmed directly either, but he's believed to be Sterling Smith and he was born in 1945. Other than that, very little else is known about him. And that's how he likes it.
His music is a sort of psychedelic country-blues. But even that description isn't quite accurate. Jandek is a genre all to himself.
Jandek is an enigma even by outsider music standards. And that's saying something. In 2003, he released Jandek on Corwood, a documentary DVD that doesn't answer even the most basic questions of his life his fans always wanted to know. But then again, that mystique is still a part of his attraction.
He's still active, releasing an album or two a year and occasionally touring.
More:
Curly Toes
Wing Over America
Florence Foster Jenkins
"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" Tiny Tim (1982)
Well I'm having none of it. It's time to crank it up full blast and wake up the neighbours with some truly awesome music. The stuff you just won't hear on the radio. Anywhere.
Outsider musicians are those folks who simply make music the only way they know how. With very little to no musical training whatsoever. The conventional requisites of stardom are simply unheard of among outsider musicians.
This is not American Idol. There is no competition. Or critiquing. Or even practicing and rehearsals. What you hear is what you get.
They simply don't care about commercial success. Or any musical conventionality even amateur musicians adhere strictly to. They make their music on their own whims and for the sheer sake of their own personal enjoyment. Even if the only one enjoying it is themselves, they wouldn't care.
It also differs from vanity acts. Vanity acts actively look for a commercial breakthrough and exposure to the masses. Most outsider acts would never be heard at all were it not for certain friends and associates encouraging them to take a leap of faith and record their material.
Sometimes a major label finds them, but that's usually a by-product of local press buzz or through chance contacts. The labels never seek outsider musicians and outsider musicians never seek the labels. If planets align, they align. But that's very rare if they do. The major labels want something that delivers a massive return on whatever investment they make. And that's something no outsider act has ever really done.
Outsider music isn't even a conscientious rebellion against mainstream rock and pop's status quo, which usually drives most hardcore independent lo-fi punk bands. They truly believe in what they are doing in spite of what anyone thinks. They simply let their dim lights shine.
But what may sound like tone-deaf psychiatric patients (some, but not all outsider musicians suffer from some sort of severe mental illness) to the rest of us is technically a sub-sub genre of Alternative rock. It's not even a "new" thing ("Wild Man" Fischer, whom Frank Zappa discovered in the late 1960s, is a pioneer. So is David Peel, whom John Lennon discovered and released a few albums of his on the Beatles' Apple label in the early '70s, The Shaggs and to some extent, even Charles Manson.)
Today, we're going head first into the most obscure of obscure music genres. But like most of my posts here, I don't disclose everything. I like to leave some of it out for you, the reader, to explore on your own. I just merely set up the launch pad for your own journey (it might be one-way.) So this is not a complete list. Not by far. But it's enough to give a basic insight into this strange genre. Google "Outsider music", if you're really curious.
Bingo Gazingo
 |
| Sweet dreams, ladies..... |
With song titles like "Oh Madonna, You Stole My Pants", "Up Your Jurassic Park" and "I Love You So Fucking Much, I Can't Shit", you pretty much get the idea this was no ordinary retired postal worker from Queens.
He released an album through WFMU Radio in 1996 and this song, "You're Out of The Computer" was a collaboration with techno artist My Robot Friend (Howard Rigberg) from My Robot Friend's 2004 CD Hot Action! It also appears on the Songs in The Key of Z compilation of outsider music.
Tragically, Bingo Gazingo was struck down by a cab on his way to a performance at the Bowery Poetry Club where he appeared weekly every Monday night in November of 2009. He died of his injuries on New Year's Day, 2010. He was 85.
Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis (1963-2003) could be the most famous of outsider musicians, even garnering some airplay on mainstream alternative rock radio in the 1990s.
His story began as one of ten children born in a dysfunctional family (having so many siblings can throw even the most stable family off - think the Duggars) in the housing projects of Chicago. He spent most of his life going from foster home to foster home with two older brothers as their parents had a violent relationship and split up when Wesley was a child.
In spite of this horrific background, Wesley seemed to be a bright and fairly normal young man. However on October 21, 1989 (there are people who remember this specific date), he began to hear voices in his head, which he called "demons" and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
About this time, he also began making music. Mostly as an outlet to escape the turmoil inside his head. He also made artwork and was discovered by members of Chicago's alternative rock scene, who encouraged his musical pursuits. This led to a collaboration called The Wesley Willis Fiasco and he actually became a sensation in the Chicago alternative underground, gaining attention from major label American Recordings, which was distributed by Warner Bros.
His favourite greeting wasn't a handshake or a hug. It was a headbutt to the forehead. I am not making that up. This left a permanent bruise on his forehead.
His music was crude, rambling and often profane. One unique characteristic of Wesley Willis is no matter what song he's performing, they all sound identical to each other. They mostly are songs about things that he had personally identified with in his life. Such as his local McDonald's, bands and stars such as Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Kurt Cobain and whatever else figured.
Here's a sample of what that sounded like
He eventually recorded 50 albums from 1994 until his untimely death in 2003 from leukemia. He was 40.
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston, like Wesley Willis, also suffers from schizophrenia and like Willis, also uses music as a way to cope with it. Johnston is also a visual artist as well. However Johnston is different in the sense that his music is more introspective and melodic than either Wesley Willis or Bingo Gazingo. He's been called a "fractured genius" and "the indie Brian Wilson". He quite possibly could have achieved mainstream stardom and in fact, he came quite close to it.
Daniel Johnston began recording music as a teenager on a boombox at home in the late '70s. By the early '80s, he was self releasing his own material. He moved to Austin and appeared on MTV in 1985, which gained him further exposure. He went on to make more recordings, including collaborations with Sonic Youth, Half Japanese and other indie acts, who became fans of his.
But his schizophrenia was also worsening. In 1990, on the way to West Virginia on a small, private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a manic psychotic episode believing he was Casper the Friendly Ghost and removed the key from the plane's ignition and threw it out of the plane. His father, a former Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane, even though "there was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.
In the early '90s, Kurt Cobain was often seen wearing a t-shirt with the cover image of Johnston's 1983 album Hi, How Are You? on it.
Which lead to even more interest in Daniel Johnston. Even while involuntarily committed at the mental hospital, Warner Music label Elektra Records was interested in signing him, but he refused the deal as Elektra then was also the label home of Metallica, whom Johnston thought worshipped Satan.
Eventually he signed with Warner co-owned Atlantic Records, which released his only major label LP Fun in 1995. The album flopped commercially and Atlantic ended his contract in 1996.
In 2005, a full length documentary DVD on Daniel Johnston's life The Devil and Daniel Johnston was released.
Johnston is still active in music.
Jandek
To say Jandek is merely an outsider musician just doesn't quite cut it. In fact, he's been described as "The Rock N' Roll J.D. Salinger". Because he's perhaps the most reclusive of all the outsider musicians.
Yet he has released over 70 albums on the mail order Corwood Industries label. A label that while Jandek maintains a certain distance from professionally, has only issued Jandek material. And he has a surprisingly loyal and solid worldwide fan base. With almost no radio airplay or any promotion of any kind.
Most Jandek albums feature a young man on the covers in random photo shots and when you lay them out, you realize they are the same person - Jandek himself? Possibly.
But nothing has been directly confirmed by Jandek - he's only done a few interviews. But in rare recent pictures of Jandek, you do see a very strong, even uncanny resemblance.
Jandek's actual name has never been confirmed directly either, but he's believed to be Sterling Smith and he was born in 1945. Other than that, very little else is known about him. And that's how he likes it.
His music is a sort of psychedelic country-blues. But even that description isn't quite accurate. Jandek is a genre all to himself.
Jandek is an enigma even by outsider music standards. And that's saying something. In 2003, he released Jandek on Corwood, a documentary DVD that doesn't answer even the most basic questions of his life his fans always wanted to know. But then again, that mystique is still a part of his attraction.
He's still active, releasing an album or two a year and occasionally touring.
More:
Curly Toes
Wing Over America
Florence Foster Jenkins
"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" Tiny Tim (1982)
Monday, October 12, 2015
Attention Kmart Shoppers
Until around 1992, the cassettes were rotated monthly. Then, they were replaced weekly. Finally sometime around 1993, satellite programming was introduced which eliminated the need for these tapes altogether.
The older tapes contain canned elevator music with instrumental renditions of songs. Then, the songs became completely mainstream around 1991. All of them have advertisements every few songs.
The monthly tapes are very, very, worn and rippled. That's because they ran for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week on auto-reverse. If you do the math assuming that each tape is 30 minutes per side, that's over 800 passes over a tape head each month.
Finally, one tape in the collection was from the Kmart 30th anniversary celebration on 3/1/92. This was a special day at the store where employees spent all night setting up for special promotions and extra excitement. It was a real fun day, the store was packed wall to wall, and I recall that the stores were asked to play the music at a much higher volume. The tape contains oldies and all sorts of fun facts from 1962. This may have been one of the last days where Kmart was in their heyday - really!
One last thing for you techies, the stores built in the early 1970's (such as Naperville, IL Ogden Mall Kmart #3066, Harwood Heights, IL #3503 and Bridgeview, IL #4381) orignally had Altec-Lansing amplifiers with high quality speakers throughout the store. When you applied a higher quality sounding source, the audio was extremely good. Later stores had cheaper speakers and eventually the amps were switched out with different ones usually lacking bass and treble controls." - Mark Davis
Listen Here
Also see S.S. Kresge for information and links to recordings of background music from Kmart predecessor, Kresge. And The Seeburg 1000, an earlier store background music system. More on Kmart: Vintage Kmart Memories and Kmart Brand Products.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Six Star Factory Outlet Stores
Hello Dumpster Divers,
Sorry for the lack of action, I'm caring for a terminally ill kitty right now. Mr. Smokey Gato has feline cancer and it's advanced. He is getting weaker and thinner. And this kitty has been my buddy, always there for me. So I'm paying a lot more attention to him. Because I don't know how long I will have him.
I recently made a list of vanished retail chains, mostly in Puget Sound, I had a few requests to post about some chains. But it's not easy to find information on most of them. There are a few chains that have simply no hard information I could research on them and others I have memories of shopping at, but little else overall to go on.
One of those is Six Star Factory Retail Outlets (best known as Six Star) Six Star was a discount store from 1987 to 2009 that also specialized in craft supply merchandise. Six Star was once a rising chain in the Western America, mostly in suburban areas as far east as Colorado. My local Six Star was in Lynnwood, WA
Six Star was mostly a dollar store, with some items going as high as $6. But no higher for most merchandise. Some products, such as an aluminium cookware set were available for $6, plus the balance in "Bonus Bucks" coupons, which for each $5 of things you buy, you got one Bonus Buck coupon.
Six Star also expanded full tilt into craft merchandise in the early '90s by opening Super Star locations (there was one in Lynnwood across the parking lot from the Six Star), which offered craft supplies only. These were meant to offer all craft supplies and an employee there once told me they were planning to transition the craft supplies out of the Six Star stores and into the nearby Super Star locations, freeing up shelves for even more general merchandise in Six Star locations.
But there was one thing I looked for specifically at Six Star and it were these.
On the cashier counter, there sat a rack of compilation cassettes, mostly of the cornball country/religious crud that Gusto Records specializes in as well as warmed over mini-compilation cassettes from any given major label's special products division. But amongst them were Canadian compilations from Quality Records. They sold for $4.00 each
They were K-Tel like and offered a pretty good mix of pop tunes. Including at least 3 Canadian tracks. OK, so Zappacosta, Frozen Ghost and The Parachute Club aren't exactly the first names that jump off American tongues when you bring up '80s pop music. But they were a pretty good deal for the money. And I could only find them at Six Star.
The last store closed in 2009 in Poulsbo, WA.
 |
| My kitty, Mr. Smokey Gato |
I recently made a list of vanished retail chains, mostly in Puget Sound, I had a few requests to post about some chains. But it's not easy to find information on most of them. There are a few chains that have simply no hard information I could research on them and others I have memories of shopping at, but little else overall to go on.
One of those is Six Star Factory Retail Outlets (best known as Six Star) Six Star was a discount store from 1987 to 2009 that also specialized in craft supply merchandise. Six Star was once a rising chain in the Western America, mostly in suburban areas as far east as Colorado. My local Six Star was in Lynnwood, WA
Six Star was mostly a dollar store, with some items going as high as $6. But no higher for most merchandise. Some products, such as an aluminium cookware set were available for $6, plus the balance in "Bonus Bucks" coupons, which for each $5 of things you buy, you got one Bonus Buck coupon.
Six Star also expanded full tilt into craft merchandise in the early '90s by opening Super Star locations (there was one in Lynnwood across the parking lot from the Six Star), which offered craft supplies only. These were meant to offer all craft supplies and an employee there once told me they were planning to transition the craft supplies out of the Six Star stores and into the nearby Super Star locations, freeing up shelves for even more general merchandise in Six Star locations.
But there was one thing I looked for specifically at Six Star and it were these.
They were K-Tel like and offered a pretty good mix of pop tunes. Including at least 3 Canadian tracks. OK, so Zappacosta, Frozen Ghost and The Parachute Club aren't exactly the first names that jump off American tongues when you bring up '80s pop music. But they were a pretty good deal for the money. And I could only find them at Six Star.
The last store closed in 2009 in Poulsbo, WA.
Sunday, February 01, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Some Weird DAT I Have: Is It YOURS?
Sometime in early 2002, a friend of mine gave me a box of loose cassettes.
They were mostly mixtapes by random people with no labels. I played a few of them out of curiosity. I still like doing that sometimes whenever I run across an old used blank cassette. I can still do that because I still have not just a cassette deck, but a full blown audio component system. Hey, I was "hipster" before they even had a name for them.
Some were stuff recorded off the radio, others were full albums. Babylon And On from Squeeze and Tango In The Night from Fleetwood Mac was on one of them. Another cassette had The Division Bell from Pink Floyd recorded on one side, The Spice Girls on the other.
But nothing in my life prepared me for one mixtape that was the craziest one I have ever heard in my life. Side One started out with "Somewhere" Barbara Streisand.
Genteel, I know. But I let it play as I was writing an article on vintage record label designs for a friend's web site. I figured it was probably a Babs tape. Or a mix of something of the "Lite Adult Contemporary" ilk.
I suddenly spit out my sip of Jim Beam & 7-Up all over my keyboard when I heard the next song - a GG Allin song.
WTF? (And if you don't know who or what a GG Allin is, here. But let's say he's just not the kind of guy they play on "K-Lite".) And FYI, that wasn't the actual song on the tape. Just the only one in his repertoire clean enough to play on a fairly PG-13 blog. You can look up YouTube for the rest. But make sure grandma is out of the room.
The tape continued with The Dazz Band, Waylon Jennings, unknown ragtime music, Motley Crue, Ed Ames, The Buzzcocks, Rita Coolidge, Yngwie Malmsteen, Sylvester, Mercyful Fate, Gordon Lightfoot, Millie Jackson, The Mentors, Parliament, Dan Fogelberg, Scritti Politti and so forth.
In that order.
I had to put the whiskey away and finish the article the next day (with a more stable soundtrack.) My brain just couldn't process the mental whiplash of everything.
And I am NOT making any of that up. I still have that cassette.
But to the point of the matter.
At the bottom of this box, next to a dead spider, was a DAT (Digital Audio Tape)
DATs were a short lived digital format in the early '90s that was popular with amateur/developing musicians. Mostly for mastering demos, as this tape is.
The problem is I can't tell you what it really is because I don't have a DAT player. The group (or solo project) is called Innervision and I'm not sure what it is musically, but from the song titles, it would appear to be some kind of progressive rock act.
The track listing:
1. Someone To Love Me
2. The Goblin
3. Deja Blue
4. Dark Days
It's an audio mystery in fading pencil writing on the J-card. And most importantly, (which the scan did NOT read) was "MASTER". This means whoever did this recording must've put some serious dedication into this.
All I want is for this DAT to come back to it's rightful owner. It's been here long enough. Maybe I should just scoop up an old DAT machine somewhere and hear what it sounds like. But I know musicians and they tend to be picky about things. So out of courtesy and respect, I will hold on to it. Someone knows somebody. And a chance look through Google. That sort of thing. I don't know if it's a priceless, one of a kind demo. But I have it.
Let me know, wherever you are.
They were mostly mixtapes by random people with no labels. I played a few of them out of curiosity. I still like doing that sometimes whenever I run across an old used blank cassette. I can still do that because I still have not just a cassette deck, but a full blown audio component system. Hey, I was "hipster" before they even had a name for them.
Some were stuff recorded off the radio, others were full albums. Babylon And On from Squeeze and Tango In The Night from Fleetwood Mac was on one of them. Another cassette had The Division Bell from Pink Floyd recorded on one side, The Spice Girls on the other.
But nothing in my life prepared me for one mixtape that was the craziest one I have ever heard in my life. Side One started out with "Somewhere" Barbara Streisand.
Genteel, I know. But I let it play as I was writing an article on vintage record label designs for a friend's web site. I figured it was probably a Babs tape. Or a mix of something of the "Lite Adult Contemporary" ilk.
I suddenly spit out my sip of Jim Beam & 7-Up all over my keyboard when I heard the next song - a GG Allin song.
WTF? (And if you don't know who or what a GG Allin is, here. But let's say he's just not the kind of guy they play on "K-Lite".) And FYI, that wasn't the actual song on the tape. Just the only one in his repertoire clean enough to play on a fairly PG-13 blog. You can look up YouTube for the rest. But make sure grandma is out of the room.
The tape continued with The Dazz Band, Waylon Jennings, unknown ragtime music, Motley Crue, Ed Ames, The Buzzcocks, Rita Coolidge, Yngwie Malmsteen, Sylvester, Mercyful Fate, Gordon Lightfoot, Millie Jackson, The Mentors, Parliament, Dan Fogelberg, Scritti Politti and so forth.
In that order.
I had to put the whiskey away and finish the article the next day (with a more stable soundtrack.) My brain just couldn't process the mental whiplash of everything.
And I am NOT making any of that up. I still have that cassette.
But to the point of the matter.
At the bottom of this box, next to a dead spider, was a DAT (Digital Audio Tape)
DATs were a short lived digital format in the early '90s that was popular with amateur/developing musicians. Mostly for mastering demos, as this tape is.
The problem is I can't tell you what it really is because I don't have a DAT player. The group (or solo project) is called Innervision and I'm not sure what it is musically, but from the song titles, it would appear to be some kind of progressive rock act.
The track listing:
1. Someone To Love Me
2. The Goblin
3. Deja Blue
4. Dark Days
It's an audio mystery in fading pencil writing on the J-card. And most importantly, (which the scan did NOT read) was "MASTER". This means whoever did this recording must've put some serious dedication into this.
All I want is for this DAT to come back to it's rightful owner. It's been here long enough. Maybe I should just scoop up an old DAT machine somewhere and hear what it sounds like. But I know musicians and they tend to be picky about things. So out of courtesy and respect, I will hold on to it. Someone knows somebody. And a chance look through Google. That sort of thing. I don't know if it's a priceless, one of a kind demo. But I have it.
Let me know, wherever you are.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Pierre Cardin Electronics, circa 1980s
From that strange time Pierre Cardin was into cheap, Chinese made electronics....
Also see Reader's Digest......Electronics?
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Sony Music Pops Cassettes
1985 was the year cassette players got colourful. The Sharp QT-50 was a hot item, neon and pastel colours got a comeback.
So as Warner/Reprise dumped the old staid white or beige cassette shell for the sleek clear shells of their then-new commercially released cassette tapes and Teac unveiled their reel to reel look, Sony gave us the Music Pops cassettes.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Bernie Sanders' Lost Folk Album
You know Bernie Sanders as America's Senator, the lovable underdog determined to take on the Koch brothers, corporate greed mongers and corrupt government policy.
But did you know he has a musical side?
Bernie released this cassette album in 1987, Side One is a mix of traditional folk covers, Side Two is a recorded conversation with Bernie.
Enjoy.
More details + Audio here
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Radio Disney
On August 13th, Disney announced it would be ending it's Radio Disney network on nearly all of it's mostly AM radio stations and selling the stations to concentrate on the network's digital platforms, such as online and satellite.
The stations affected are:
98.3 WRDZ-FM Plainfield/Indianapolis (their only FM station.)
590 WDWD Atlanta
620 KMKI Plano/Dallas
640 WWJZ Mount Holly
NJ/Philadelphia
910 WFDF Farmington Hills/Detroit
990 WMYM Miami
990
WDYZ Orlando
1250 KKDZ Seattle (See below for more info on KKDZ)
1250 WDDZ Pittsburgh
1260 WWMK
Cleveland
1260 WSDZ Belleville IL/St. Louis
1260 WMKI Boston
1300
WRDZ La Grange/Chicago
1310 KMKY San Francisco
1380 WWMI St.
Petersburg
1440 KDIZ Golden Valley/Minneapolis
1470 KIID Sacramento
1480 WGFY Charlotte
1560 WQEW New York
1580 KMIK Tempe/Phoenix
1590
KMIC Houston
1640 KDZR Lake Oswego/Portland
1690 KDDZ Arvada/Denver
The stations will leave the air until they are sold. It's currently unknown if there will be a single buyer of all or if stations will be sold one by one. But one thing is guaranteed; the formats will change.
Radio Disney however is keeping it's flagship station, 1110 KDIS Los Angeles, but the rest are to be sold.
This brings to an end to the longest running AM children's radio network chain. Radio Disney was one of many networks started in the 1980s, '90s and 2000s to rescue failing 2nd tier, mostly AM radio stations with unique programming unavailable on most FM radio stations (such as hard rock, LGBT programming, personal motivation, progressive talk, business talk and others.) In Disney's case, programming for pre-teens.
However, they weren't the first network to cater to children. There were earlier networks, such as Radio AAHS (pronounced "Radio Oz", founded in 1990 and based at 1280 WWTC Minneapolis - now a conservative talk station.) Radio AAHS also offered a monthly magazine with a CD or cassette tape.
Radio AAHS entered into a early deal with Disney which quickly turned
sour, as Disney was quietly preparing it's own radio network
(unbeknownst to Radio AAHS.) It's been said the only reason Disney entered into the deal was to learn all they could about Radio AAHS's successful children's radio programming model. And then use it to their advantage and shutting out it's benefactor.
Seattle based KidStar was an aspiring competitor to Radio AAHS. Founded in 1993 and based at 1250 KKDZ Seattle, KidStar offered similar programming to Radio AAHS, but KidStar was a bit edgier, offering more rock based music selections than the mostly kiddie-tune Radio AAHS. There were plans to expand into a full network, like Radio AAHS, but they were quickly dashed as Disney began flexing it's muscles with Radio AAHS.
Both the Radio AAHS network and KidStar relied on advertising from giants of kid marketing, such as Disney, Warner Bros., Mattel and General Mills. However as Disney became more powerful in the children's radio format at an alarming rate, these accounts quickly dried up by the time Radio Disney was launched in 1996 and there was no way tiny KidStar could compete with the Disney empire. KidStar had no other option than to sell it's one and only station, KKDZ Seattle to Radio Disney in 1997.
Radio Disney is scheduled to end programming on their affiliate stations around September 26th.
(UPDATE: Radio Disney will continue to operate on all it's current stations until each are sold. - L.W.)
(UPDATE: Radio Disney will continue to operate on all it's current stations until each are sold. - L.W.)
98.3 WRDZ-FM Plainfield/Indianapolis
590 WDWD Atlanta
620 KMKI Plano/Dallas
640 WWJZ Mount Holly NJ/Philadelphia
910 WFDF Farmington Hills/Detroit
990 WMYM Miami
990 WDYZ Orlando
1250 KKDZ Seattle
1250 WDDZ Pittsburgh
1260 WWMK Cleveland
1260 WSDZ Belleville IL/St. Louis
1260 WMKI Boston
1300 WRDZ La Grange/Chicago
1310 KMKY San Francisco
1380 WWMI St. Petersburg
1440 KDIZ Golden Valley/Minneapolis
1470 KIID Sacramento
1480 WGFY Charlotte
1560 WQEW New York
1580 KMIK Tempe/Phoenix
1590 KMIC Houston
1640 KDZR Lake Oswego/Portland
1690 KDDZ Arvada/Denver
Read more at: http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/89717/radio-disney-to-sell-all-but-one-station/
Read more at: http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/89717/radio-disney-to-sell-all-but-one-station/
98.3 WRDZ-FM Plainfield/Indianapolis
590 WDWD Atlanta
620 KMKI Plano/Dallas
640 WWJZ Mount Holly NJ/Philadelphia
910 WFDF Farmington Hills/Detroit
990 WMYM Miami
990 WDYZ Orlando
1250 KKDZ Seattle
1250 WDDZ Pittsburgh
1260 WWMK Cleveland
1260 WSDZ Belleville IL/St. Louis
1260 WMKI Boston
1300 WRDZ La Grange/Chicago
1310 KMKY San Francisco
1380 WWMI St. Petersburg
1440 KDIZ Golden Valley/Minneapolis
1470 KIID Sacramento
1480 WGFY Charlotte
1560 WQEW New York
1580 KMIK Tempe/Phoenix
1590 KMIC Houston
1640 KDZR Lake Oswego/Portland
1690 KDDZ Arvada/Denver
Read more at: http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/89717/radio-disney-to-sell-all-but-one-sta
Read more at: http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/89717/radio-disney-to-sell-all-but-one-sta
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