Goatless

Tag: Lowell MA

  • 13th Floor Elevators, Flivver, 1988 on World Productions of Compact Music

    13th Floor Elevators, Flivver, 1988 on World Productions of Compact Music

    I first heard Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators on fourth or fifth generation tape copies from friends in the 80s, but didn’t really come to appreciate them fully until much later. This record, on a bootleg Italian label with releases in the late 80s and early 90s, gathers live performances from The Avalon…

  • Koerner Ray & Glover, The Return of Koerner Ray & Glover, 1965 on Elektra

    Koerner Ray & Glover, The Return of Koerner Ray & Glover, 1965 on Elektra

    “Spider” John Koerner, Dave “Snaker” Ray, and Tony “Little Sun” Glover were a Minneapolis blues/folk trio who met at the University of Minnesota and played frequently in Dinkytown and the West Bank. This was their third release on Elektra and the the last before a seven year gap – capturing their early folk/blues approach. Produced…

  • Daryl Hall and John Oates, Private Eyes, 1981 on RCA

    Daryl Hall and John Oates, Private Eyes, 1981 on RCA

    I thought of this as an early Hall & Oates record, until I checked out their discography, which goes back to 1972’s Whole Oats. Turns out it is their 10th full length studio record! It was the source of the hit singles “Private Eyes” and “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do).” The album…

  • Various Artists, Big Hits of Mid-America Volume Three, 1980 on Twin/Tone

    Various Artists, Big Hits of Mid-America Volume Three, 1980 on Twin/Tone

    Technically the first version of this 2xLP set came out in 1979, but my pressing is from 1980. Twin/Tone was concerned about the Yipes’ track “The Ballad Of Roy Orbison” for legal reasons (copyright clearance) and replaced it with “Specialization” by the New Psychenauts. “SPECIALIZATION” (side four, track two) was recorded at Blackberry Way in…

  • The Cure, Boys Don’t Cry, 1980 on PVC/Fiction

    The Cure, Boys Don’t Cry, 1980 on PVC/Fiction

    Fiction was the UK label, PVC the US label (a sublabel of Passport Records). This was really a compilation album for the US market, drawing eight tracks from Three Imaginary Boys (their UK debut) supplemented with five other tracks from that era. It’s been reissued multiple times with different track order this is the same…

  • Eric Von Schmidt, Eric Sings Von Schmidt, 1965 on Prestige

    Eric Von Schmidt, Eric Sings Von Schmidt, 1965 on Prestige

    I first heard of Eric Von Schmidt via Bob Dylan’s “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” which begins with the intro: I first heard this from Ric von Schmidt. He lives in Cambridge / Ric is a blues guitarplayer. I met him one day on / The green pastures of the Harvard University As someone…

  • The Suburbs, In Combo, 1980 on Twin/Tone

    The Suburbs, In Combo, 1980 on Twin/Tone

    The debut album from Minneapolis band The Suburbs. Twin/Tone’s catalog (in 1984) described it thusly: Inspired, frenetic, sometimes absurb, the Suburbs’ debut LP is a rocker. Considerably more raw and flippant than their latter efforts. In Combo documents phase one. New York Rocker said that the Suburbs “alternate btween clenched teeth acid boogie and cartoon…

  • John Mayall, Blues from Laurel Canyon, 1968 on London Records

    John Mayall, Blues from Laurel Canyon, 1968 on London Records

    Released on Decca in the UK and London Records in the US, this was Mayall’s first LP after the breakup of the Bluesbreakers and his last on Decca before moving to Polydor. Mayall wasn’t yet living in the US when this was released – this was recorded at the Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London.…

  • Bauhaus, Burning From The Inside, 1983 on Beggars Banquet / A&M

    Bauhaus, Burning From The Inside, 1983 on Beggars Banquet / A&M

    Quite a shift from yesterday’s post of Oscar Peterson’s Return Engagement to Bauhaus, but that’s the joy of a diverse collection. I was just a touch too late to find Bauhaus – by the time I was a fan in the mid-eighties they’d already splintered into the many follow-on groups (Tones on Tail, Love &…

  • Jeff Beck, Truth, 1968 on Epic

    Jeff Beck, Truth, 1968 on Epic

    This was Beck’s solo debut, following after time in the Yardbirds, and features Ron Wood, pre-Faces Rod Stewart, Keith Moon (credited as “You Know Who”) and Mick Waller as well as John Paul Jones on Hammond Organ on one track. I came to Jeff Beck late – I knew his work in the Yardbirds but…

  • Tom Tom Club, The Man With The 4-Way Hips (12″ Single), 1983 on Sire

    Tom Tom Club, The Man With The 4-Way Hips (12″ Single), 1983 on Sire

    Tom Tom Club, of course, were Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz from Talking Heads. It started as a side project while Talking Heads were still active, but has kept making music long after the Heads split. The song was on Close to the Bone, Tom Tom Club’s second full length, and was released in the…

  • Parliament, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, 1976 on Casablanca

    Parliament, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, 1976 on Casablanca

    One of my rules of thumb is that any 70s Parliament or Funkadelic vinyl I find that is in reasonable shape and not too expense I just buy. This was the fifth album under the Parliament name and produced hits for “Dr. Funkenstein” and “Do That Stuff.” Love the afrofuturism / science funk of the…

  • The Rolling Stones, Flowers, 1967 on London Records

    The Rolling Stones, Flowers, 1967 on London Records

    This was the second compilation album for the Stones, collecting some studio cuts that had not been released (or released but not on the US versions of albums). My copy, via Vinyl Destination in Lowell MA, has definitely seen better days The black tape seam repair was the work of a previous owner. Nonetheless it…

  • Willie Nelson & Webb Pierce, In the Jailhouse Now, 1982 on Columbia

    Willie Nelson & Webb Pierce, In the Jailhouse Now, 1982 on Columbia

    i love a good Willie Nelson tribute album or duet album: San Antonio Rose with Ray Price, For the Good Times (a tribute to Price), the tribute album to Harlan Howard, the duets collected on Heroes, and the like. This is in the realm of a duet album, while his hero Webb Pierce was still…

  • Bruce Cockburn, Circles in the Stream, 1977 on True North

    Bruce Cockburn, Circles in the Stream, 1977 on True North

    I came to Cockburn through the activist tours of the 80s and his hit “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” from Stealing Fire. But he had a decades long career before that, especially with success in his native Canada. Cockburn is joined by Robert Boucher, Pat Godfrey, and Bill Usher. This album was recorded live…

  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Further Out – Miro Reflections, 1961 on Columbia

    The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Further Out – Miro Reflections, 1961 on Columbia

    While movie science fiction fans celebrate May 4th as Star Wars Day (“May the 4th be with you”), jazz heads know it as Dave Brubeck Day, 5/4 time being the signature of Time Out. Lesser known is that there were three more albums following: Time Further Out, Countown – Time In Outer Space, and Time…

  • The Housemartins, The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death, 1987 on Elektra

    The Housemartins, The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death, 1987 on Elektra

    On this record the Housemartins were Norman Cook, Dave Hemingway, Stan Cullimore, Pete Wingfield, and P.D. (Paul) Heaton. Heaton & Hemingway went on to form The Beautiful South, while Norman Cook went on to form Beats International (and also was Fatboy Slim). The Housemartins were Christian Socialists from Hull (in the UK, not Massachusetts), which…

  • Cowboy Junkies, The Trinity Session, 1988 on RCA

    Cowboy Junkies, The Trinity Session, 1988 on RCA

    I could have (and would have) sworn this album was called The Trinity Sessions, plural, but I would have been wrong: it’s singular. (The session was recorded at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto). Fair, since it truly is a singular (in the sense of unique / one of a kind) album. It…