I also have no idea whether this featured Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine or any Wrecking Crew members. I do know that it's produced by Joe Saraceno and Superbird is written by Larry Duncan, like the old Routers, which is why I don't think this is a separate group. But it is a complete break to a very funk sound.
Superbird is the better of the two. Does this surprise you? They named their album after it!
Sack of Woe is a Cannonball Adderly cover, right? Well here it is, slow and funky
RE-UPPED! And since writing this article I HAVE heard a cover of the Champs' Lowdown: by the Surfin' Gorillas (great album too!)
Probably not going to re-up those other songs, but the album link has been updated
This post is going to be easy. While I'm not going to kid myself, most people checking out this blog have some interest in the forgotten art of Rock & Roll and have some sort of savvy, often more than I do, but I explain the albums all the same. The Champs, however.... I think anybody can sing along to Tequila.
This here's a split LP, though you can hardly tell by the cover. And honestly, the cover is sort of correct in doing so; The Cyclones side is far less fun, but we'll get to that later. Aside from Too Much Tequila, which got a proper 45 single treatment and was on their album Tequila these songs don't really appear anywhere else except for a rarities collection called Wing Ding (in the case of the last three songs) and a Greatest Hits collection which features Streamliner. However, these are excellent tracks, all with the signature Champs sound and with a healthy dose of humor. Club House was the immediate standout to me, and it apparently had some affect on Quintron as well since he did a loose cover on his album "These Hands of Mine". Quintron, why are you so great?
I haven't heard a direct cover of Lowdown myself, but it's got a great slow and dirty vibe to it that reminds me of this Eddie Angel song that I'd might as well throw on here
As for the Fabulous Cyclones, whose name got an even smaller typeface than their song titles on the cover, they're up against some hard competition but the LP is still worth flipping over. It's simple rock & roll instrumentals, reminding me of Joe Houston. If you wanna dance, The Cyclones will provide and you'll have a great time, but if you want something to whistle while walking down the street I'd stick with the A side. The real disappointment here is that the song Moon Journey has no sci-fi tone to it, because with the Quintron mention I would have another rare post fulfilling the Louisiana, Rock & Roll, Sci-fi trifecta in this blog's mission statement.
this album isn't the cleanest one I've got but the songs are about 97% listenable, the only pops that I found were as one song faded out. Otherwise there's sort of a fuzz going on, but the music prevails. I don't have a back cover included since it says nothign about the album, just other albums on the label. The tracklist looks like:
My love of Alvin Cash is already documented and while these may have slight deviations from what's seen there, each 45 has all of the requirements for an Alvin classic
*High on danceability *Moronic lyrical content *Showcasing a stupid dance *Alvin sounds like a happy dude! *"Oooh-Wee!" *"Awwww but you're lookin' good baby!" *"Awwwwwww have mercy!"
and of course, the Twine still gets nods.
The earlier 45 (1965): the Penguin (Tuxedo Bird)/Un-Wind the Twine is especially close to the content of the twine time LP. Sometimes I think he just goes to the zoo and comes back with all sorts of inspiration
Alvin Cash - The Penguin (Tuxedo Bird)
Unwind the Twine is of course his umpteenth reference to his favorite dance. What rules about this track is that it seems to have a neat little marimba in the background!
Alvin Cash - Unwind the Twine
1967's Doin' the Ali Shuffle / Feel So Good is two years later but does show a little bit of a change. Ali Shuffle (MUCH different from his 1976 Dakar records release) is the more familiar of the two. Still a goofy (but killer) dance, with some of his goofiest lyrics like "I want you to float like a butterfly, baby, and I want you to sting like a bee" duhhhhh
The B-Side instrumental "Feel So Good" honestly doesn't feel so good with me. I like a lot of his earlier instrumentals but this is a little too smooth saxxy. Though I think it demonstrates a pretty good bridge to his later career (he is, after all, now with the Registers when he used to be with the Crawlers, a comment on his age)
It's worth noting that both of these were different producers than his Twine Time days (which means no more Andre Williams). Penguin and Un-Wind the Twine have Hayes, Burrage and J. Jones despite being released around the same time as songs like BARRACUDA. Ali Shuffle and Feel So Good are both produced by Eddie Silvers. I don't know much about either of these guys and I'm so close to hitting "publish post" that I think I might take care of that later.
Actually, October 2010 sounds much more recent than I thought my last post was. Well I've been feeling motivated lately and I feel like posting again. And maybe even fixing all those broken links since my home fileserver went down. Maybe even re-ripping a few of the requested reups
The music made available on this blog has been posted in hopes of helping the popuarity of culture that I enjoy and in almost all cases I try to post things that are out of print. If your music is featured here and don't like it, please contact me and I will remove it immediately. If you do like it, please drop some knowledge because I tend to be missing some.
I used to run this off my home fileserver. I can't anymore. So a TON of these links are broken. Your best hope for getting them back is to comment!
