The Pop-Ups - Lurking/Candy Rock

HBR is a hilariously decent label, considering it stands for "Hanna-Barbera Records". Even the cartoon cash-ins (Flintstones records etc) were extremely competent rock & roll records. WFMU's blog has a cool post about it and Spectropop has a page that includes this single, though not listenable.

This here Pop-Ups record is a double instrumental, the better of the two (I think) being the slinking shaker "Lurking", which has a Revels-ish boogie to it, including an organ solo and some honkin' sax


"Candy Rock" sounds a little more like the Routers with marching band instrumentation over a Bo Diddley beat. Fun but probably not going to make you hit eBay.


and a link to the other HBR record I posted, one of my absolute favorites

The Unnaturals live on Storm Surge of Reverb

This has been on the backburner for a while, kinda like the blog itself. I've had the Unnaturals on my show before, but wasn't able to make myself a copy. Well here they are again, a New Orleans surf & instrumental band, playing live on my radio show on August 22nd. Sound quality is rough and I can't say it was my best editing job either, but still sounds great!

7 songs:
Attack of the 50 Foot Betty
Miedo
Rumblebee
Holiday in Cambodia
Unnatural Progressions
Whiskey Surf / Misirlou
Unnatural Progressions

Also, here's the full show

Rickey and the Rockets - Wrong End / Every Minute of the Day

I love when I buy a 45 for a side that explicitly is not the side they want you to hear. So mad am I in my lust for instrumentals that I didn't get around to listening to the A-Side until I ripped it just now.

My mediocre detective work points to this likely being a Louisiana group, perhaps even Lafayette. I base this theory on other people on the Jador label, the dealer I bought it from being from Lafayette, and the possibility that this is just a confused release from Randy and the Rockets. I have a Randy 45 here and I don't see any similar names, but I can't find squat on Ricky.

Anyway, Wrong End, LABELLED Harmonica Instrumental, which I personally think is an underrated and surprisingly common form of instrumental, is a fun stompin' tune. Listen for the hidden piano back there, makes it even more fun!


The other side is a swamp pop ballad with cheesy effects on it that make me question when this was made. After all, Swamp Pop hasn't really changed much over the years, and I think a lot of swamp pop musicians would be happy to say that.

The Satellites - Bodacious / El San Juan (1967)

Bodacious screams Joe Meek and all the spacey connotations that come with that, but oddly enough if you take a look at that cover you'll see that it's produced by Bobby Vinton of all people. Apparently one of the members was friends with Bobby. In any case, a killer instrumental, one of the best I've posted on here

El San Juan is a sleepy latin-tinged surf dreamer, great in it's own right but way less Joe Meek.

Mody-Vation - Brother Monkey / Friends

So one of my favorite 45s I've picked up recently was Mody-Vation's "Ghetto Kung-Fu" on Phil LA of Soul, a sort of dreamy, idiotic rip-off of Kung-Fu Fighting. I wanted more, and I found that there was ONE more Mody-Vation recording out there. Way out there in Germany on the Hansa label. Well, with a cover this stupid, I had to spring.

I don't know if I can say whether they quite match Ghetto Kung-Fu musically but they're fun enough. Friends might actually be my favorite of the two, reminding me of that Ween EP that came out in 2007 or so.

Brother Monkey.

and Friends

The Continentals - Pussy Cat

This has gotta be the best thing I've pulled in a long time. Greasy instrumentals from Lafayette, Louisiana, covered in loud fake cat meows. As evidenced by the Crazy Cajun music (and this site here), this was a Huey Meaux joint, and from a little more internet digging it seems they're entirely separate from the Fabulous Continentals found on the Las Vegas Grind compilations, despite fitting right in.

Pussy Cat Part 1:

And Part 2:

The Casino Royales - East Coast

Plain ol' 90s surf, fast and fun. I can't find a single thing about this band other than what the liner notes say, which are included so I won't say all that much more. It's off a split 7" with The Dimitri Gurevitch Quintette, which I deemed to be less of interest.

Escape to Bikini Island (strikes me as a terrible place to escape to)

Infiltration

Rendezvous in Red Bank

(pssst I got a scanner and a new sound card, this blog's posts may be rarer than they once were, but higher quality!)