records

Heard To Find: Lazarus – “Stay with Me”

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Artist: Lazarus
Track: “Stay With Me”
Release: Stay With Me (7″)
Year: 1965
Duration: 2:30

Steve McNicol is the pen behind this single. This is also the second version of the song he recorded, with the first one laid down by his previous group, The Rugbys. The Rugbys, featuring Glen Howerton on drums (no not that Glenn Howerton), released two singles in 1968, with “Stay With Me”. The B-side to “Stay With Me” ended up being The Rugbys biggest hit ever, “You, I”.

Before we learn about Steve, though, we should go back a bit further to a man named Shelby Sumpter Singleton. According to the Wikipedia page entry for The Rugbys, Shelby is partially (albeit heavily accused of being) responsible for the demise of the group and lack of success due to not conforming to the trending FM radio styles of the late 1960s. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but I get it. Shelby started out at Mercury Records doing promo and production work in the 1950s. By 1960, he had produced his first big hit, Brook Benton’s “The Boll Weevil Song”.

Shelby worked for Smash Records for 9 years, producing more minor hits, and then in 1962 purchased the master recording of “Hey Paula”. Releasing that single provided him even more clout in the music scene. Four years later, in 1966, he would resign from Mercury to form some of his own labels; including Plantation Records and Amazon Records. Plantation would release the smash single “Harper Valley P.T.A.” by Jeannie C. Riley. This move now made Shelby a big player in the industry. In 1969, Shelby bought Sun Records from Sam Phillips and began reissuing many of the old hits from that catalog throughout the 70s.

Elvis Presley was one of the most famous Sun artists and Shelby knew that. Shelby was the guy behind the infamous Orion, the masked Elvis lookalike claiming to be the King-reborn. Well, sort of claiming. People just drew those conclusions themselves and Shelby ran with it.

So now that we know who Shelby is, let’s dig in to “Stay With Me” a bit. This recording is the Lazarus version, which from what I can tell is not quite the same band as The Rugbys but must share some similar personnel. The re-recording is almost identical to the original one, other than the splash of acid that’s been laid over the top of it. The original has that mid-sixties garage band sound, and the later version is a bit more psyched out, which a guitar solo and horns added.

The B-side to “Stay With Me” is…”Stay With Me”. I cannot tell the difference between the two recordings, so I’ll assume they are the same track. According to Discogs, it is the same recording.

In 2007, Garage Hangover did a write up of The Rugbys that talked about their history as a band, starting out as The Oxfords. Rugbys/Lazarus lead guitarist and songwriter Steve McNicol actually dropped into the blog to respond and provide some more info. A handful of people close to him and the Louisville ’60s scene also dropped in to add to the thread. Steve died in 2018, but his niece added her thoughts on the group’s legacy to that same thread afterward.

In honor of McNicols and Shelby Singleton, let’s give “Stay With Me” one more spin. Thanks for reading!

Malachi Krunch / Sold On Murder – Split

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Completely random find. As I was parsing through the various Commodores and Jim Reeves albums at the local antique mall, suddenly this black and white, somewhat DIY-press-looking thing popped out at me. It was literally between a Poco record and a Christmas compilation. What the hell?

So, of course I start looking it over, trying to find some information on it. It’s a split album, one side per band. Malachi Krunch and Sold On Murder. The Malachi Krunch side has some text that implies their EP is titled American Realities along with a picture of two people in hats, glasses, handkerchief masks and holding guns. Its kind of intimidating.

Flipping it over shows the artwork for Sold On Murder’s side. A longhorn skull with a bunch of symbols behind it and what appears to be an interpolated gas mask is staring back at me. Alright, it’s time to hear what this stuff is like.

Side one; Malachi Krunch.

It’s fast. Its loud. Its hardcore. Yep, that’s kinda what I was expecting here. This isn’t music for a Sunday morning brunch. This is Saturday night, punch a cop, piss in a gutter, debauchery straight outta Connecticut.

Now for what I’ve been able to find. Malachi Krunch was the first band of New Haven, Connecticut punk Jim Martin. Jim would go on to front the band Broken, and later Chem-Trails. As I page through the insert a bit and read some of the lyrics, its clear to me that this band’s message is right up my alley. Cutouts of “STOP THE WAR ON THE POOR” and “Resist Amerikkan Genocide AND Drug War” are plastered betwixt lyric sheets. Yes! Song topics range from Puerto Rican revolt due to lack of representation, resistance, homelessness, pollution, and and ode to Dan Quayle’s wife Marilyn.

Jim’s still fronting hardcore crust acts today and leads the group Chem-Trails. Here he is performing with them in 2018.

Further digging yielded this basement performance recording of Malachi Krunch and Seizure in 1989. That’s Jim there with the long hair and sideburns, a completely different image from his more well-known shaved head aesthetic. His look matched the picture of him in the insert. I wonder if the pic was taken at this show?

Now for side two. Sold On Murder is muuuuch more difficult to find information about. I found this interview with Kris Keyes, a frontman for the band Dive Bomber in Los Angeles. He talks about how he first started painting himself in the music world while working with a band called Sold On Murder in New Haven, Connecticut. This checks out, too, because in the liner notes it thanks Kris Keyes for help on “Open Mind/Mind Decay” and “An Insanity Plea”.

According to a comment on this news story about a murder victim in New Haven in 2008, one of the members of Sold On Murder was, in fact…murdered. John Evers Robinson played bass and sang vocals for Sold On Murder, but was killed before the album was released. This was confirmed after I started looking through the inserts that came with the record.

One side of the lyric sheet is a memorial to John that also includes some pictures of Dan Quayle and his contradiction quotes. The lyrics are wild, in the sense that topics range from eating the world, drinking blood, sex, anti-capitalism, mental illness, and police brutality. Rad.

The music itself is hardcore. Fast, uptempo, brutal vocals, messy guitars, blazing solos. Its peak late 80s hardcore, like Bad Brains mixed with Living Colour (both of which are mentioned in the “thank yous”. This was absolutely worth the buy and a very fun trip into history. Its a real shame that John was murdered, the message behind his art is poignant 30 some years later. I’ll leave you with his quote from the insert.

Thanks for reading!

The Little Red Rooster Band – Shufflin’, Hoppin’ and Fingerpoppin’ (Live At The Cabooze Bar In Minneapolis, MN)

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Bought for a quarter in central Minnesota by my mother-in-law, this record’s artwork was enough to pique my interest. But then I see, “Minneapolis”!

On my last spin session, I discussed the work of Robert “One-Man” Johnson and his induction into the Central Iowa Blues Hall of Fame. Well, here’s another inductee!

The harmonica player on this album is Iowa legend Bobby Keith Dorr, or Bob Dorr as he’s known these days. Bob had quite the career in the music industry, first performing with local Iowa bands, then Little Red Rooster Band, then onto a long tenure with the Blue Band, all while maintaining a voice at Iowa Public Radio.

Something about this private pressing seems…better. It was issued by Crow For A Day Records in 1980; the sleeve is high quality cardboard and textured. Also, I’m going to have a soft spot for this record in my heart due to it being recorded at one of Minneapolis’ famous venue The Cabooze. I’d sometimes stop there after hanging out at legendary punk haunt The Triple Rock Social Club, as it was just under Highway 94 to get to the Cabooze.

This was recorded live in Minneapolis in 1979. All but two of the tracks on this album are blues standard covers. The originals are “Dance, Dance, Dance” , which is not a cover of the Steve Miller Band song, nor the Beach Boys’ song. The other original is “3 A.M. Back Door Lady” which can be heard below.

Whomever uploaded this video to YouTube mislabeled it as “Sweet Sadie”, the opposite side’s first track. Perhaps the labels on their record were reversed? Regardless, this original track is great! The harp playing from Bob gives the blues/funk crossover a perfect swagger and entrance for the rest of the song.

Its a shame the band didn’t put anything to studio, but this LP is a great addition to any collection for a blues harmonica/guitar fan. The musicianship is tight and unique, while the recording captures a room full of rowdy Midwesterners on the verge of an 80s digital music revolution. This keeps it simple. The covers are great, too. “Shake Your Moneymaker” blows the doors off the exits on a night even this sleepy dude wishes he was in attendance.

Thanks for reading!

Heard To Find: Zap – “Football Stomp”

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Artist: Zap
Track:“Football Stomp”
Release: Don’t Wanna Play / Football Stomp (7″)
Year: 1975
Duration: 3:14

Side B: “Football Stomp”

Back in 1975, Walter Kahn was riding the success of his Grammy-winning production of the single “Love Me Like A Rock” by The Dixie Hummingbirds. The Dixie Hummingbirds had recorded the Paul Simon-penned track with Paul at Muscle Shoals in 1973, but wanted to record their own version. Shortly after recording the original with Paul, they did just that. The Hummingbirds’ version won them a Grammy for Best Gospel Performance in 1974, with Walter getting an award for producing it. In 1975, Walter wrote, arranged, and produced a few singles for Grand Prix Records featuring studio musicians under fake band names like QVRS and Zap. A couple of these singles were sports themed, including the disco dance novelty tune “Phillies Fever” featuring 5 players of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise, Larry Bowa, Mike Schmidt, David Cash, Greg Luzinski and Garry Maddox. Another single, “Don’t Wanna Play”, was backed with the sporty B-side “Football Stomp”. That single flopped, but had very minor success in the Philadelphia area.

Later in Kahn’s career, he hit #1 on the Billboard Top Dance Singles chart with his production of The Movement’s 1992 Jock Jams-destined hit “Jump!“.

Continuing on with the hip-hop/dance inspired work, he would end up earning another Grammy nomination in 1995 for producing rapper Skee-Lo’s single “I Wish“.

Back to the “Stomp”, though. The song is a power pop ode to the NFL and that’s about as much as you can squeeze out of it. Towards the end of the song, Zap sings aloud all of the current NFL teams at the time, many of which sound like made up teams considering all of the expansion and city-hopping the league has done over the years. The Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers would arrive the following year in 1976, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens, and Houston Texans in the years to come, but this 1975 snapshot serves a nostalgic glimpse into the days of yesteryear.

Side A: “Don’t Wanna Play”

The A-side, “Don’t Wanna Play” is a standard mid-70s pop rock song and isn’t nearly as remarkable as “Football Stomp”. There’s pretty much no way to market “Football Stomp” as a single, though, so it’s understandable.

Regardless of my or your opinion of the songs, I’d like to thank Walter and the rest of the production crew for putting this out. It was well worth the listen!

One-Man Johnson – ’54 Chevrolet Panel Truck Blues

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Just looking at this cover brings forth memories of a Northern Winter I’ve never experienced. It’s not that I haven’t experienced Winter in Minnesota or Wisconsin (I have, I live in MN), but the Winter pictured on this LP is clearly before my time.

The needle drops and resonator guitar sounds start bouncing through the speakers followed soon by a high-hat and some weird type of bass sounding thing. After turning the cover over, I start to unravel what it is I’m listening to.

I knew this would be a Midwestern artist just from the LP cover, which also features a Wisconsin license plate, but turning it over confirmed that suspicion. There isn’t a concrete description of where this was recorded, but two towns are listed after production credits; Chippewa Falls, WI and Cushing, MN. I’ll assume it was recorded at one of those towns and as the cover states it was recorded live with no overdubs.

That bass sounding thing is a 13 string acoustic foot piano; whatever the hell that is. I’m guessing Robert made it himself in order to give his one man band act depth. He simultaneously plays guitar, harmonica, kazoo, a high-hat cymbal, and the foot piano. Not bad, Bob!

The actual music is great. Resonator slide guitar blues, ragtime jingles, songs about pot, what’s there not to like? While the album is packed with catchy blues tunes, I have to imagine this act was more fun to watch live than listen to on record.

I don’t want to discredit any of the work put into this album, though. As simple as the recording may have been, that is what makes most recordings stand out. Overproduction ruins so many otherwise great songs, there’s just no need for it. A couple of mics and a mixer and we’ve got ourselves gold!

After scouring the internet for more information, I’ve learned that Robert recorded at least 10 albums over his career as a solo one man band. He was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame in 2014, and below is a performance celebrating that in 2015.

One-Man Johnson is still active and plays live music, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to catch a post-pandemic blues party at some point. Here’s a video of him performing in 2019 in Sutliff, Iowa. You can learn more about him at House Dog Music, his own record label used to release his albums.

Spotify has Robert One-Man Johnson’ ’54 Chevrolet Panel Truck Blues album available for streaming, check it out below.

Thanks for reading!

Heard To Find: The Jon-Lee Group – “Pork Chops”

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Artist: The Jon-Lee Group
Track:“Pork Chops”
Release: Bring It Down Front / Pork Chops (7″)
Year: 1967
Duration: 2:10

I found this buried in a box of beat up and thrown out 7″ records from a former coworker of mine. Most of the records he gave me were part of a lot sold on eBay from an old diner in California coupled with some books. The coworker wanted the books, the records came with them. So, naturally, he gave the wax to his record-loving pal; yours truly. 

Now for a little backstory on the band.

John Finley would seem like just another revolving member of The Checkmates by the time he met with the band in 1964. The Checkmates formed as Lee Jackson & The Checkmates in 1962, before experiencing a few lineup changes throughout the next few years. As Jon and Lee & The Checkmates, the band would snag some mild local scene success and even score a few huge opportunities to perform for national audiences (opening for the Rolling Stones and some ABC TV slots), but both chances fell apart. By 1967, now evolved into The Jon-Lee Group, the band would record 4 songs, two of which made it to wax. The instrumental B-side from the debut single, “Pork Chops” is the featured track today. 

The track has a down-up-down strum pattern similar to a sped up version of Otis Redding & Carla Thomas’ “Tramp“, “Good Stuff” from The B-52s’ 1992 LP of the same name,  and among many others, another Paul Rothchild connection – The Doors’ “The Changeling”. Rothchild was one of the first to offer the Jon-Lee Group a contract with his “indie” label, Elektra Records. The band declined and would shortly thereafter break up. John Finley and Paul Rothchild would continue their relationship, though, with Paul recruiting John and fellow Checkmate Michael Fonfora to form his new super-group Rhinoceros.  

As far as I know, this cut and it’s A-side companion, “Bring It Down Front”, never saw a re-release, even after The Checkmates reformed in 1999. Even though it’s a bit obscure, maybe someday a repress will happen. With it being distributed by a large label like ABC Records, there could be hope. It’s not like this was just some small private pressing, someone knows where those tapes are! In the meantime, all we have are some hard-to-find 7″ records (which I luckily landed a copy of) and the glorious YouTube rips from vinyl heads across the world. Enjoy the “Pork Chops”, bon appetit!

Check out a full bio and history of the band as well as some insight into Rhinoceros at http://www.rhinoceros-group.com/checkmates.html!

Kathy Dalton – Boogie Bands & One Night Stands

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The album cover of this pressing reminds me of an old-timey diner, but that might be the ketchup-red lettering and mustard-yellow background. Of course, when you reprint something just to slap one extra song on it you might end up with something as basic as this. That being said, yeah I dig it.

The instrumentation grabs me right away in a familiar way, like an old Colorado sunset. Something about this sounds so familiar, yet I just can’t figure out why. I turned the sleeve over to peruse the back credits only to find that this repress doesn’t list them. Naturally, I head to Discogs to look for liner notes and musician credits. I found the original release, which was titled Amazing. Sure enough, there it is. As I read the picture of the back of the jacket I focus my eyes on a group whose (nearly) entire wax discography sits right there on my shelf. “Co-Starring” The Amazing Little Feat.

I’ve collected all of Little Feat’s Lowell George-era LPs, including Lowell’s solo effort Thanks I’ll Eat It Here. Something about his presence made this group better. The post-George days just don’t do it for me. Conversely, though, his daughter Inara is fairly well represented on my shelf with her ventures in The Bird And The Bee. Check her electropop group out sometime; great melodies and harmonies.

Back to Kathy. The new song, the title track, is probably my least liked song on the album. It is just a such boring track. I’m sorry Kathy. The rest of the album is much better though. If this started off with “Pour Your Wine”, it’d have taken off much more smoothly. “Gypsy Dancer” encompasses the title with a wailing yelp from Kathy during the intro. It almost sounds like Diva Plavalaguna, the blue opera singer from The Fifth Element. Paging: Chris Tucker.

“Cannibal Forest” shares that same moonlight wail lying in the background of the instrumentation. The chorus spouts “Danger/We’re lost in the cannibal forest/Stranger/Caught in the cannibal forest”. Those backup singers chanting “danger” every few bars provide an eerie backdrop for a fairly standard funk-ified tune. It also gives me slight reminiscence of “Danger! High Voltage!” by Electric Six. “Danger, danger!”

All in all, a decent album if you’re a fan of Little Feat. It was released by Discreet Records, Frank Zappa’s label. You might recall that Lowell George was originally apart of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention before heading out on his own. The “family feel” of Little Feat/Frank Zappa/Robert Palmer and others slots this album into a predetermined category, but it resides there in great company.

Kathy’s career ended when Discreet closed their doors, but outside of this album she recorded with at least two other bands; The Gas Co. and Daughters of Albion. The Gas Co. were a run of the mill 60s garage pop group, though the tunes were decent. “Blow Your Mind” was produced by Jack Nitzsche and released by Mirwood Records in 1965.

Later, before going solo, Kathy would team up with Greg Dempsey to form Daughters of Albion. Daughters of Albion leaned more on the psychedelic side of things and would be as far out there as Kathy’s music would reach. This was when she was still going by Kathy Yesse. DoA released just one self titled album, led by the single “Well Wired”. The single fell flat.

Spotify has Kathy’s solo album available for streaming, check it out below.

Thanks for reading!