The Delusionaires - Destination Poon

I don't really remember how I found the Delusionaires, but it was clear what I liked about them: these is crass, lo-fi surf & greasy instrumentals.  They have an outdated website but their material is currently unavailable. Note that they sell just as many panties as they do T-Shirts, clearly a good indicator.

I e-mailed the site to see if I could get a legit copy of their album. No, but I was told it's been posted on a French blog with their blessing. So what's another one

http://www.4shared.com/file/105638035/9eac8d9a/The_Delusionaires_-_Destination_Poon.html

Apparently they just recently reformed and played a show somewhere on Thursday. Keep an eye out

Whoops I didn't notice

This blog has existed for over a year! Since you're already disappointed that this post isn't really a download, I'll be quick: thanks to everybody that's ever dropped a comment, thanks to all the blogs that have linked back to me (Brandonio of Rock is Dead R.I.P. has been especially cool), thanks for all the kind words. This whole thing has been a very rewarding experience and has given me a lot of ideas, one of which might be something really big one day...

I didn't really think about what I wanted to do for this, so have an archive of my past surf shows (more thanks due to Steve)

Or maybe this playlist of songs on youtube I've been making when I see something cool

Rene Hall's Orchestra - Twitchy \ Flippin'

EDIT: I've been beaten timewise and (unsurprisingly) info-wise on this one. Check out the Houndblog 

You know what, let's dispense with the hooplah: I have zero reservations about calling Twitchy one of the best Rock & Roll instrumentals of all time. I'm not even going to talk about it just yet, I'm going to post this link and within 5 seconds you'll probably agree that it's a candidate

Twitchy
(this is not my recording. It's made its way onto a few compilation CDs that don't appear to be easily purchased. I have my own recording in the same folder if for some reason you'd prefer record noise)

So what's his deal? Thankfully, Wikipedia's on the ball with this one but if you can't be bothered to open a new window, Born in Morgan City, Louisiana, was a session musician, talent scout and even is credited with arranging Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" and Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On". And of particular interest to instrumental enthusiasts, worked with B. Bumble and the Stingers (who I have a 45 of if anybody would like to see it up here)

So to sum it up further: Louisiana born musical bad-ass and NEVER let the word "Orchestra" scare you away from a good rock & roll 45. 

So what's the B-Side like? Excellent actually. It's not nearly as unique-sounding as Twitchy but it's a great sassy 50's-style rock & roll instrumental that I would probably put on here even if Twitchy weren't on the same 45

Flippin'

Quick Bobby Fuller doc

Only about 6 minutes long but with cool footage and a little history. No good excuse not to watch this

The Gospelaires - Remember Me, Jesus \ Never Turn Back

A lot of friends complemented me on my big gospel post from earlier, and that's good because I ain't done yet. While I'll return to Louisiana eventually, I've been really enjoying this 45 from the Dayton, Ohio group the Gospelaires. They're sorta still around, but like so many Gospel groups they're happy to keep the name with the completely different lineup.

Both sides of this are a blast. The A-Side falls a little on the sermony side, but as you'll see, this guy doesn't hold back.Note the lack of question mark. I keep reading this in my head as a snappy action hero catchphrase.
Remember Me, Jesus
There's a strange surprise in there. I have no idea what the deal is, but I'll let you hear it for yourself. I thought I'd left some sort of creepy video game open in the background on first listen.

Never Turn back doesn't really rely on gimmick and is pretty much exactly what pops into your head when you hear Gospel, at least in the good ways. Just as high energy vocal-wise but with one hell of a hip-shakin' backing.
Never Turn Back

Now if you're thinking to yourself "oh my crap, I need to see this in person", thanks to modern Youtube technology you can replicate the next closest thing: watching them from the perspective of somebody watching it on TV during an earthquake.


And lastly, note the Peacock label. It's all Gospel and has some of the most legendary gospel groups on it.

Ray Fournia with the Rocking Rebels - You Done Me Wrong \ Settle Down

Google seems to have one single piece of information on this guy (and it helps): these are not the "Wild Weekend" Rocking Rebels.

So I have another mystery that maybe Google might one day solve: is Ray from New Orleans? Along the sides it mentions that Diamond Studios is of New Orleans and Biloxi...

Regardless, this is a 45 I've always wanted to put up but was never able to get a clean enough recording. While this is far from that, I got what I wanted. That is the B-Side without skipping.

The A-Side is the slow one, "You Done Me Wrong". Ray's vocals are good and strong throughout, but there's not too much going on here exciting I think.... so I just went ahead and kept the skipping towards the end.
Ray Fournia - You Done Me Wrong

THE B-SIDE HOWEVER... is not particularly inspired either, it's just different words to Money (That's what I want), but the vocals are great! It's not like we listen to Rock & Roll for originality anyway.
Ray Fournia - Settle Down

I wanna see you dance

If I haven't made this clear enough already, a lot of the stuff on this blog is way past my era,  so while I love songs that tell me to do the watussi etc., I wouldn't know a watussi if I saw it. I spent a lot of time scrutinizing details of the surfer's stomp to no avail, I need a visual representation.

My friend's dad (and music enthusiast) reminded me that this is why youtube exists

but even then there's a lot of misinformation with lots of little girls dancing the mashed potato they saw in the Hairspray movie

The Mashed Potato is pretty basic (and DeeDee Sharp provided a video as well, though there are backup dancers that might confuse as to what the dance really is). But what about The Jerk? The Watussi? The Surfer's Stomp? 

James Brown tries to show off a few, but ends up really just showing off with no room for education

What I'm saying here is that if you know this stuff and want to go stick it on youtube,  you've done us all a service and you might achieve internet celebrity status! I know, that may not sound horribly attractive, but if you're not going to do it, who will?

---

If you demand more complicated dances than these provide, I came across something the other day that's pretty cool. A local thrift store was selling 45s in little plastic grab bags, 5 for 5. You could only see what was on the outside, but I noticed a Champs single I didn't have on one side, so I bought it. Turns out San Juan \ Jalisco is a pretty boring single from later in their career, turning a little more Latin than rock & roll with less-than-exciting results. It's since been put on one of their compilations, so here's that version
The Champs - San Juan

But more excitingly, it came with somebody's instructions for what looks like a pretty complicated dance. I doubt any of you would go through the effort of performing this, but it's a cool little artifact.

click for the readable version (I'll get a scanner one day)

Buchannan & Ansel - (Meet) The Creature

Today's post is stupid: a semi-sci-fi sample-ridden comedy track from Bill Buchanan & Bob Ancell. This isn't a whole lot different than his earlier "Flying Saucer"



but anything on a label called Flying Saucer records is welcome here in my book. I'll admit, it's genuinely funny too.

Both sides have been spliced together because it makes more sense that way.

Buchannan & Ancell - (Meet) The Creature

no, Sam the Sham had nothing to do with this post

Quick bits of Louisiana Gospel

So I've been sorta hinting at how I want to break into Gospel a bit. I haven't really ever considered myself Christian except by birth as it clashed with my preteen love of dinosaurs, but I find it hard to take issue with the passionate hollerin' that comes out of (black) gospel music. 

So for a class I decided to a do a presentation on it for my final project. I'm not exactly an expert now, but I found some pretty stomp-worthy stuff. And I'm about to give you a real quick tour. Most of this stuff is actually pretty basic and blogged about in plenty of places, but I'm willing to guess that a lot of y'all are just as dumb as I was about this stuff. I'm not attempting a full-on history lesson here, just sharing some stuff that y'all might like.

Booker records = hot: It was mostly a one-man operation, started out as rhythm and blues but went gospel after just a few. I've got a pretty good 45 of normal semi-musical sermoning off there but the real hot thing is Rev. Charlie Jackson. Think male Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I know, that's no more appealing than female SRT, but more Tharpe in any form is welcome in my book.

God's Got It
Wrapped Up And Tangled Up In Jesus

Apparently learned guitar from a cousin growing up in Alabama. His mom told him he can't play blues during the week and church music on the weekends, and in a move so un-rock&roll it's rock & roll, he listened to his mother, played only religious music and became a minister. Later he went to Louisiana and headed up a church in Amite LA.

So while he was hangin' out over there he met Elder Utah Smith. Utah's only barely Louisiana related, as he ran around touring all over the country and eventually ran his whole operation out of New Jersey. But who cares, because again Think Male Sister Rosetta Tharpe

This song is sort of his theme song because he would perform with two big ol' wings on his back. And if you couldn't tell, he liked to play LOUD. So when he would come around to middle-a-nowhere towns with no power, he would plug his amp into a car battery and perform that way.

So Mahalia Jackson is probably one of the first names you'll hear of in gospel, so I'm not going to bother finding her funkiest track. But I will prove to you that she's funky, despite how clean people try to keep her image. According to a book I was reading, she started up a fried chicken chain in competition to KFC (pure New Orleans) and was quoted saying "The Colonal says his chicken is finger lickin' good... well I think mine is tongue-lickin' good". Personally, this new light on the New Orleans gospel queen got her records back on my platter lickety-split.

And in case you've never heard of her, there's another New Orleans queen of soul.

Really, gospel is a strange genre to follow, as a lot of good albums were very locally circulated, often just among church members, and there's no real cohesive history (a good thing I think, since most rock&roll histories are incomplete and biased (though it would impossible to tell it right)). But what this means is that blind purchases really aren't such a bad thing. One such blind purchase that paid off is this weirdo.

So while this album is purchaseable purely by diner rules (i.e. if it looks that ugly, the food/album must be great), it's also worth noting the names Milton Battiste, Dejean's Olympia Brass Band, and Frank Minyard MD. (coroner!). Unfortunately, in the few weeks that I've had this album I've been irresponsible and there's a big old scratch on Frank Minyard's part and a few others, so I'll hold off on the whole album, but the best two songs are doin' fine.
Jesus What A Wonderful Child
(I Found Out It Was) the Holy Ghost
This is sitting in a strange middle ground between foot-stompin' big choral gospel, second-line music, and occasionally funk. It's fun.

I could throw a few more in there but this is already one of my longer posts and at the rate I've been making new posts I need to save material. And don't worry, I'll give you some straight rock & roll before I drop another gospel on ya. And if you want more right now, here's a youtube playlist I hastily made a few weeks ago.

Further recommendations are always ok, and hopefully I'll clean this up post-July 4th.