U.S. Girls

Artist: U.S. Girls

LP: Half Free

Song: "Sororal Feelings"
[ listen ]

Thank the lord for U.S. Girls. It had been a rough Monday at work before I walked up the street that evening to see Meg Remy and her band put on a most invigorating show in the heart of Ballard at the gritty little Sunset Tavern. Meg admittedly looks a little frumpy here on the cover of her 2015 "Half Free" LP, but she was 50 Shades of Cool on the stage Monday night, and plenty glamorous too in her metallic golden half-shirt thing. It was one of the most thrilling shows I've ever seen. And I've seen a dozen. Aside from their fantastic music and alluring stage presence, these are some of the things I liked about the show: 

• U.S. Girls didn't try to make friends with everyone in the audience by engaging in witty banter before or after their songs. They just, you know, did their songs.
• They didn't yell "Hello Seattle!" before, during, or after their show to make everybody scream as if we were excited and grateful that they had heard of our city.
• U.S. Girls didn't say "thank you" when the audience applauded, as if they hadn't expected it and so it moved them emotionally.
• Meg danced her way through the groovin' sold-out crowd during a funky instrumental stretch in one of the songs. This way we could tell she wasn't aloof or stuck up even though she never talked to us and didn't say "thank you" or grin at us when we clapped.
• Making her way back up onto the stage from the dance floor, Meg bumped into a microphone stand and nearly knocked it over. This somehow made her seem more...human.

The brand new U.S. Girls LP, "In a Poem Unlimited," is worth checking out too. You can read about U.S. Girls here and go here to visit their website.

[ Meg Remy — U.S. Girls ]

Freddie Bell & Roberta Linn with the Bell Boys

Artist: Freddie Bell & Roberta Linn with the Bell Boys

LP: Get Yourself a College Girl

Song: "Talkin' About Love"
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There's a new record store in town! Fat Cat Records, located in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood, is about midway between Golden Oldies, which is just down the hill by Dick's Drive-In, and Daybreak Records over in Fremont. Fat Cat has only been open a little over a month, but it's already starting to get that comfortable, kinda' messy, lived-in feel of a joint that's been there for ages. 

I dropped by after getting my taxes done at the United Way Free Tax Preparation site up the street (I recommend the service, if you haven't already done your taxes) and found a couple of gems, including this dazzling 'various artists' soundtrack to the hip and happy 1964 cinematic oddity GET YOURSELF A COLLEGE GIRL. It's got Nancy Sinatra in it!

Roberta Linn was born in a scrappy little Iowa town called Gravity in 1931 (when the population was 465, but today it's just 187). She graduated from her days as a Lawrence Welk "Champagne Lady" in the 1950s and teamed up with early-rock-n-roll musician Freddie Bell in 1961. They had a show together at the Sands and other Vegas casinos for a few years but divorced in 1972 after Bell began hitting the bottle. He passed away in 2008 at age 76. I'm delighted to see Roberta still going strong, performing with the Sun City Singers in Palm Desert, CA just last week! You can read more about the lovely Ms. Linn here and here and visit her website here.

 

[ Freddie Bell & Roberta Linn w/ the Bell Boys ]

[ Fat Cat Records — Seattle, WA ]

Ruby Murray

Artist: Ruby Murray

LP: Irish (And Proud Of It)

Song: "Cockles and Mussels"
[ listen ] 

Song: "Miss O'Leary's Irish Fruit Cake"
[ listen ]

Song: "Forty Shades of Green"
[ listen ]

Happy St. Patrick's Day from me and Ruby Murray! Born in Belfast in 1935, Ruby was an Irish national treasure, reaching her peak popularity in the mid-to-late 1950s. She seems to have delighted in sharing her talent with others, even performing for nursing home staff in her final years, before succumbing to cancer in 1996 at the age of 61. You can read more about the lovely Miss Murray here and here. Ruby's rendition of "Forty Shades of Green," it's safe to assume, was the inspiration for this more modern tale of romance developed years later and set in the Pacific Northwest.

[ Ruby Murray: March 29, 1935 — December 17, 1996 ]

Tiny Tim

Artist: Tiny Tim

LP: For All My Little Friends

Song: "They Always Pick On Me"
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Song: "Chickery Chick"
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If you're a genuine Greenwich Village super-hipster, then you probably know this popular musician by one of his earlier monikers: Dary Dover, Judas K. Foxglove, Emmett Swink, Vernon Castle, or maybe Sir Timothy Timms, Texarcana Tex or Larry Love, the Singing Canary. But to the rest of us, he's just Tiny Tim. Nowadays all the cool bands have a ukulele in their midst, but where was that moral support back in 1969? A trail-blazer is Tiny Tim.

On the way home from work tonight I suddenly had a hankering for a burrito at Gorditos. I hadn't been there in years (and years). The two gals behind me in line were discussing Tiny Tim, how there's the Charles Dickens one, and then the other one, the singer. One of the gals broke into mini performance of Tim's hit single "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." When she finished I asked her to do it again. She would not, but it still made my night. The burrito helped too. Damn their burritos are good. You can read all about Judas K. Foxglove on Wikipedia here.

[ Tiny Tim: April 12, 1932 — November 30, 1996 ]

Pat & Lolly Vegas

Artist: Pat & Lolly Vegas

LP: Pat & Lolly Vegas at the Haunted House

Song: "Here I Go (Falling In Love Again)"
[ listen ] 

Song: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
[ listen ]

This 1965 LP by the Vegas brothers is another one of the treasures I picked up at Daybreak Records a few weeks ago. After being persuaded by Jimi Hendrix to embrace their native roots, Pat & Lolly went on to form Redbone in 1969...and the rest, as they say, is Wikipedia entry. I've just gone and picked up a truckload of foam rubber, six gallons of red food coloring, 24 white party hats and a fog machine. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend re-creating that fantastic Haunted House bandstand in the bedroom of my apartment!

[ Pat & Lolly Vegas ]

The Reds

Artist: The Reds

LP: The Reds

Song: "Whatcha' Doin' to Me" / "Not You"
[ listen ]

I'm running out of room again. I keep thinking maybe I'll get rid of some of my late-'70s post punk LPs since lots of them kinda' sound the same...but then they're all so damn good! Like this debut from The Reds on A&M Records. It was evidently a flop when it came out, since A&M dropped them like a red hot potato. Yet the music of The Reds holds up today more than just about anything that went zooming to the top of the charts in 1979. Of course The Reds released their record on green vinyl. You can read a bit about the group here and here. This one's a keeper.

[ The Reds ]

Medium Medium

Artist: Medium Medium

LP: The Glitterhouse

Song: "Mice or Monsters"
[ listen ]

So I went to my second ever vinyl Meet Up group gathering two Saturdays ago. It was once again organized by the friendly guy from West Seattle named Ryan (he organized the first one a few months ago where we went to two record stores in Ballard), but this time we were heading to a double-dipping record dig in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. First we'd go to Daybreak Records, followed by Jive Time Records down the street. According to the website, Ryan and I were to be joined by a pretty brunette gal and some guy named John. John showed up, but he didn't stay long, because he only dropped by in hopes of getting to know the beautiful brunette, since not that many gorgeous women are into records. That what he said, anyway. But she failed to appear. I don't think she was real. I don't think that many gorgeous women are into records.

Anyway, I hadn't ever been to Daybreak Records before, not officially. There was that one time when I popped my head in for two minutes when I was with my niece. I was taking her to get fancy hamburgers at Uneeda Burger next door after we toured the Theo Chocolate factory down the road. But let me tell you, Daybreak Records is aptly named. It's like the sun coming over the hills! I don't seem to be able to keep my car from going there and have already passed through their doorway three more times over the past seven days. Here's a Medium Medium rare record from 1981 that I picked up this evening on my way home from work. You can read about the group here. While trying to find photos of the band I found this guy named Ryhs Lewis who says he wants to be my man. Yes, please.

[ Medium Medium ] 

[ Daybreak Records — Seattle, WA ]