Silvestre Mendez, El Rey del Canto Afro-Cubano y Su Orquesta

Artist: Silvestre Mendez, El Rey del Canto Afro Cubano y Su Orquesta

LP: Oriza (Afro-Cuban Rhythms)

Song: "Nueva Oriza"

 [ listen ] 

Song: "Laye Laye"
[ listen ]
Song: "Malambo"
[ listen ]

The other day after work I was in serious need of some vinyl retail therapy, so I stopped by Daybreak Records on my way home. This spectacular collection of Afro-Cuban rhythms from Silvestre (Mendez), the King of Afro-Cuban Singers (or Rhythms, or both!) and His Orchestra is one of the things I found. According to the online Seeco Album Discography, this LP (catalog #CELP-426/4260) was the label's final release of 1959. I've got the stereo version, which turned out kinda' crappy on my rinky-dink mp3 converter turntable. The horns and Sylvestre's lead vocals shine, but the backing vocals and cowbell (on "Laye Laye") aren't done justice here. You'll just have to come over to listen on my Gemini turntable instead. According to what I've found here, Silvestre Mednez was born in the Jesús Maria neighborhood of Havana in 1921. He left Cuba for Mexico in 1945 and never went back.

 [ Silvestre Mendez: December 31, 1921 — 1997 ]

Baby Called My Name

Elliott Bay Public House and Brewery on Lake City Way, Friday, June 22, 2018 at around 7:15pm: Darla Helen O'Connor called me "Uncle Alex" (well, "Unk Alks") for the very first time. I floated away on air!

side one:
01. Baby, Oh No - Bow Wow Wow
02. Give Me Your Love - Frank Duval
03. Sweetness and Tenderness - The Rentals
04. She's My Girl - Bearz
05. Meu Delicado Drama - Evaldo Braga
06. Treasure Hiding - Cocteau Twins
07. The Last One to Be Loved - Burt Bacharach
08. I See a Star - Mouth & MacNeal
09. Love Is What We Need - Back In Time
10. My Life Will Be Sweeter - The Dixie Hummingbirds
11. Mon Amour - BZN
12. Here - Richard Cocciante
13. Girl - Jay and the Americans
[ listen ]

side two:
01. Why Are Babies So Wise? - Bow Wow Wow
02. King of Your Castle - Echo & the Bunnymen
03. Surrender to Your Kings - The Amboy Dukes
04. It Didn't Have to Be this Way - Hidden Strength
05. Black Wings - His Name Is Alive
06. It's Snowing - Linda Yamamoto
07. I'm Alive - Electric Light Orchestra
08. One More Time - Biky
09. Love Is All I Can Hear - Music Go Music
10. A Smile Is Diamond - A Band Called "O"
11. We Put a Pearl In the Ground - St. Vincent
12. Room For the Life - Kate Bush
13. I Melt With You - Modern English
[ listen ]

M

Artist: M

LP: 7" single

Song: "Official Secrets"
[ listen ]

A genuine one-hit-wonder in the USA, M was the talk of the town when "Pop Muzik" zinged all the way to #1 in 1979. But none of M's other singles even cracked the Top 100. "Official Secrets," released a year later, crept its way to #64 on the singles charts in the UK, where M comes from. You can read more about all that here. I shut my eyes and randomly plucked this one from my singles bins for posting this evening.

[ M — aka. Robin Scott ]

Diamond Reo

Artist: Diamond Reo

LP: Diamond Reo

Song: "Rock and Roll Till I Die"
[ listen ] 
Song: "Ain't That Peculiar"
[ listen ]
Song: "I'm Movin' On"
[ listen ]

Here's some good old fashioned 1970s American rock and roll from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (I found this 1975 Diamond Reo debut LP a few months ago at Vortex Music & Movies in Kirkland, WA, which is probably the least rock-and-roll city in my county, not counting Medina and Yarrow Point.) Diamond Reo doesn't have a page on Wikipedia (but the Christian country music group Diamond Rio certainly does) so I had to scrounge around online a bit to find out who these fellas are. The first thing folks need to understand is that Diamond Reo are in no way related to Reo Speedwagon, since they are, of course, a wagon, whereas Diamond Reo are a truck. 

From what I can gather, Diamond Reo formed from the ashes of late-'60s blue-eyed soul band The Igniters, which featured future Reo members Frank Czuri and Bob McKeag. The Igniters were briefly signed to Atlantic Records and had a semi-hit single in the late '60s on the local Pittsburgh airwaves. In the early '70s, Frank and Bob were joined by drummer Robbie Johns and bassist Norm Nardini and Diamond Reo was born. Warren King is credited as playing lead and slide guitar on their debut LP, but he doesn't seem to have been an official member of the group when the record was released. My guess is that he joined soon after, replacing Bob McKeag who had gone on to pursue a solo career. (Warren is the blonde on the left in the black and white band photo at the end of the post.) Diamond Reo produced some snappy, straight-forward rock and roll, touring with the likes of KISS, Aerosmith, Frank Zappa, Blue Oyster Cult and Canned Heat. They released three LPs.

Anyway, as I gazed upon the members of Diamond Reo on the cover of my record, I couldn't help but daydream which of them I would have wanted to take me to prom if I had been of prom-going age in 1975 and if all four of them had been interested in spending a romantic evening with me. They're all pretty glamorous in their own way, you must admit. But I've made my decisions—based on a combination of factors, including hairstyle, wardrobe, facial expression, ability to accessorize, and footwear. My rankings are included below.

[ #4: Frank Czuri ]

I think Frank is probably one of those people who's actually a lot more 
attractive in person. Here he looks kinda' like the mom that always 
shows up to the PTA meetings either drunk or with a really 
bad hangover. Plus, you can't see his shoes.

[ #3: Rob Johns ]

It takes both daring and finesse to attempt the wearing of a plastic pink sport coat.

But not only does Rob pull it off swimmingly, he even tosses in

a pair of knee-high black leather boots...to boot!

[ #2: Bob McKeag ]

The shades, the 'stache, the hairy chest (subtly exposed), the semi-casual 

ketchup-colored aerobic-instructor evening wear featuring sour-cream piping, 

button-down pockets and a braided belt. There's really nothing more that 

needs to be said about Rob. Except maybe "holy cow," and "Yes!"

[ #1: Norm Nardini ]

 

  It's always exciting when, after you've initially dismissed some handsome 
fellow as a boring, macho, bro-dude type, you suddenly notice there's 
something a little peculiar going on. There's a strange sort 
of sheen to his pants. Is that black silk? And Dude! 

You're wearing jungle-red heels, paired 
with sparkly metallic socks of gold! 
You sexy devil, you. 
Take me to prom!

[ Diamond Reo ]

Lea Laven

Artist: Lea Laven

LP: Chanson Laven

Song: "Kesämieli"
[ listen ] 
Song: "Ei Syytä Huoleen"
[ listen ]

Here's a bit of Scandi-disco from Finnish pop princess Lea Laven. Born June 19, 1948 in Haukipudas, on the Northwestern Finnish coast. Lea worked in Swedish hotels and nursing homes before the northern wind set her vocal chords a-fluttering, sending her sailing to stardom on a cloud of snowy white. As she shot her way to fame, she worked a desk day job at the Helsinki office of EMI-Columbia Records. You can read more about Lea Laven's life and career in Finnish here or in English here. This is one of the things I picked up at Green Grass Records last year on my trip to Helsinki.

 [ Lea Laven ]

The Past Seven Days

Artist: The Past Seven Days

LP: 7" single

Song: "Raindance"
[ listen ]

As I've probably mentioned before, in 1986, after first hearing This Mortal Coil's "It'll End In Tears" LP, released in 1984 and featuring a bunch of musicians recording on 4AD at the time, I became obsessed with the label and its music and began collecting every 4AD release I could get my hands on. Their 1987 "Lonely Is An Eyesore" compilation LP included a list of all label releases up to that point, indicating which ones had already gone out of print.

I've found quite a few of them over the years, even some of the hard-to-find out-of-print ones from 1980 and 1981, when the label was first getting started. It's always exciting to be thumbing through a bin of 45s when my eyes, like lasers, suddenly zero in on a rare 4AD release that they've never gazed upon before! 

But after over 30 years of hunting and collecting, there are still about 20 out-of-print 4AD releases from 1980-1983 that I've simply never come across in all my rummaging. So I've decided to employ the miracle of the internet to obtain copies of these missing pieces, one by one, from around the world and have them delivered to my doorstep. I am determined to complete my 1980-1988 4AD vinyl collection before being placed, contently, in my grave. 

This 1981 single by The Past Seven Days (not to be confused with the current Seven Days) was the first of the 4AD rarities to arrive. It had evidently been lurking in the dusty bins at Yesterday and Today Records in Olney, Maryland (I assume dusty based on their web design.) The copy arrived in great shape and plays just fine on my real turntable, but the needle got stuck twice on the rinky-dink USB turntable I use to make a digital copy, so when that happened I had to give a bit of a nudge. On the bright side, it made the song last longer.

The Past Seven Days never made any other records, and their All Music biography says it's uncertain who was even actually in the group. But as we can all tell from reading below, it was Trevor Dooley, Colin Gaynor, John Hanlon, and Max...with remix duties handled by Kevin Bacon!

[ The Past Seven Days ]

7th Wonder

Artist: 7th Wonder

LP: Thunder

Song: "The Tilt"
[ listen ]

A friend and colleague from work left on vacation to the Middle East this week. She'll be stopping by Egypt to see The Great Pyramid of Giza—the only one of The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World still in existence today! According to Wikipedia, The Great Giza Pyramid is actually Ancient Wonder #2 though, and not the 7th one as this 1980 funk LP would have us believe. 

With all the other six Wonders wiped off the face of the planet (earthquakes, you know), it makes sense from a tourism standpoint to assemble a new list of Wonders that people can actually still visit to buy t-shirts, key chains, and other souvenirs. In November of 2006, USA Today and Good Morning America did just that, unveiling a revised list of Seven Wonders selected by a panel of six judges, with an Eighth Wonder tacked on a while later based on viewer feedback. Inspired, I've thrown together my own list of things that make me Wonder. The group photo from the back of this LP ended up at number five.

[ 7th Wonder ]

Tin Tin

Artist: Tin Tin

LP: 12" single

Song: "Hold It"
[ listen ]

Stephen Duffy evidently only released two singles (and no LPs) with his group Tin Tin, and "Hold It" was one of them. It went to #55 on the charts in England in 1983, when Duffy was just 23 years old. (The other Tin Tin single was "Kiss Me," which, according to my sources, was released no fewer than four times! But it was released no more than four times either. In fact, it was released four times. One of those, in 1985, actually produced a top ten hit.) Mr. Duffy recorded under a number of other names too—Holy Tin Tin, Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy, Duffy, The Subterranean Hawks, The Hawks, Obviously Five Believers, The Lilac Time, Dr. Calculus, Me Me Me, The Devils—and was one of the founding members of Duran Duran, but he left the group in 1979, just before they became famous.

[ Tin Tin ]

Juliette Greco

Artist: Juliette Gréco

LP: No. 7 [10" EP]

Song: "On N'oublie Rien"
[ listen ]

I was excited to find this 1960 Juliette Gréco 10" EP at Georgetown Records a few weeks ago. The only downside, really, is that it's called "No. 7," which seems to indicate that there's probably a No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 that I still don't have in my collection. You can read about the fabulous Ms. Grego, who turned 91 earlier this year, on Wikipedia here and go here to read a career retrospective assembled by The Guardian on the occasion of her 90th birthday.  

[ Juliette Gréco ]