What’s Missing from the Taxon?

One of the great releases this year is the Tortoise boxset of singles and other non-album releases called A Lazarus Taxon. I’ve been a fan of Tortoise since just before TNT came out in 1998. A guy I used to work with was into a lot of the same bands I was, and recommended that I listen to Tortoise and The Sea and Cake. He lent me Tortoise’s eponymous debut CD. It was that CD and TNT that would be released later that summer that clinched Tortoise as a band that I wanted to follow. At the time, I hadn’t heard anything like them and the bookish progressive nature of the instrumentals opened the world of what is sometimes called Post Rock to me. It was exciting to discover what seemed to be a new genre of rock, and I spent a lot of time that summer looking into the bands that fell into that category– The Sea and Cake, Fridge, Couch, To Rococo Rot, Godspeed You Black Emperor! and others.

One of the difficulties I encountered was that by the time I wanted to start getting all of their releases a bunch of non-album stuff went out of print. Over time I managed to pick up some of the older releases and made sure that I bought anything new that came out.

So, when I heard that Tortoise was going to have a box set with the rare and import-only tracks I was really happy! The first rumor about this release was that Tortoise was going to re-release the impossibly rare Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters. Then it was announced that this would be the centerpiece to a larger boxset.

Pitchfork gave this release a glowing 9.2. Some of the other reviews I read at the time of the release said that this was a good primer for people who wanted to know about Tortoise. This release is kind of the sibling to the Stereolab box set Oscillations from the Anti-Sun, which is also an odds ‘n’ sods collection with a DVD. While this release is a blessing for anyone who wants to collect Tortoise– it is missing some tracks. For those completists out there, I’m going to do a rundown of the missing tracks. I’ve been keeping track as I’m going to make a CD of these “outtakes” for myself. This is somewhat inspired by a posting of mp3’s that showed up in Usenet News called “An Unofficial Lazarus Companion” that also wasn’t complete!

“Mosquito” (US 7″ Torsion Music, B17-003-7″, 1993) The first release from Tortoise. Tortoise’s original moniker was “Mosquito” which is where this track gets its name. This track is now a bonus track on the Japanese re-release of their eponymous debut.

“Gooseneck” (US 7″ Torsion Music, B17-003-7″, 1993) One of the other tracks on the debut single. Today this shows up on the Japanese A Digest Compendium of the Tortoise’s World. “Onions Wrapped In Rubber” from this single was eventually released on the first album.

“Lonesome Sound” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 006, 1993) The first release on Thrill Jockey. This is a cover of a Freakwater song. Tortoise vocals grace this song. This song also showed up on something called “Brainblo” which was evidently a collection of three 7″ singles. This record was briefly back in print during the 1998 TNT tour.

“Reservoir” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 006, 1993) Also on the “Lonesome Sound” 7″. Available on the Japanese Digest release.

“Sheets” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 006, 1993) Also on the “Lonesome Sound” 7″. Not available anywhere else.

“Madison Ave.” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 057, 1998) The single this is from is also referred to as “Tour 1998.” The flipside of this single is remix of this song “Madison Area” and shows up on the Taxon box.

“D’s Winter Crazy Dub” (US 12″ Thrill Jockey, 12.10, 1998) This was yet another release from 1998– sort of a companion release to the Autechre remixes of “Ten-Day Interval” from TNT. Derrick Carter remixes “In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Women and Men.” Possibly this was left off because in retrospect it isn’t as good as the prior remixes.

“D’s Winter Outtake” (US 12″ Thrill Jockey, 12.10, 1998) The flipside to the Derrick Carter remix.

“In A Thimble” (Hefty014, Hefty Records, 1999) This song was recorded for the soundtrack to “Reach the Rock” which is an album of mostly songs from John McEntire as well as Sea and Cake and Bundy K. Brown.

“Beautiful Love” (US CD Hollywood 2061-62471, 2004) This was a song recorded for the documentary about the late Bob Moog titled “Moog.” An interesting song– sounds very different from other Tortoise releases.

Remixed (US CD Thrill Jockey, 12.9, 1998) Originally a Japanese release in 1996, this is a compilation of the 4 12″ releases of tracks from Millions. In 1998 the rest of the world was treated to a limited tour-only release. At that time the Japanese version was re-released with the Autechre remix “Adverse Camber” added as a bonus. These tracks were possibly not included as they were released as one album? Tracks:

“Djed (Bruise Blood mix by U.N.K.L.E.)”, “Tjed (remix by John McEntire)”, “Bubble Economy (remix by Marcus Popp)”, “Learning Curve (remix by Marcus Popp)”, “Galapagos [version one] (remix by Springheel Jack)“, “Reference Resistance Gate (remix by Jim O’Rourke)”, “Taut & Tame (remix by Luke Vibert)”, “Find the One (remix by Bundy K. Brown)”

“Omnichord” (unreleased) I include this song on the list since it has been played on tour since the release of It’s All Around You. Evidently an outtake song. According to reports on the trts.com board at the time, this song may show up later as a b-side or bonus track. Tortoise recorded this on their “Morning Becomes Eclectic” set back in November of 2005.

Quite a list of songs– enough to have made another CD or two for the set! But, what fun would that have been?

Omnichord Live on KCRW


Tortoise - A Lazarus Taxon Get The Lazarus Taxon from iTunes

Sources:

My collection of Tortoise releases

The Brainwashed Tortoise Page– the most complete discography out there for Tortoise.

Official Tortoise Page

B-Sides in the Bins – #3 eBay Edition

Here are some things that have come in recently from eBay.

The first auction I won was a bargain! I got It’s All Around You and Standards from Tortoise on vinyl and the debut release from Brokeback which was a 7″ called “Brokeback Returns to the Orange Grove”— all in unplayed condition for $16.00 with shipping! I’m going to start trying to get the Tortoise catalog on vinyl.

The next auction was for a new Calexico and Beirut split single on the UK label City Slang as part of their very limited “Mini Slang” singles collection. Side A is a cover of the Clash song “The Guns of Brixton” by Calexico that sounds like the same version that was recently released as an iTunes-only EP. Calexico added this cover to their recent tour– typically as a segue from “Crystal Frontier.” Side AA is “Interior of a Dutch House” by Beirut. According to the label it is from the album Pompeii which must be the name of his next album although I can’t find any other reference to it. This track used to be available for download from the Beirut website and has since been taken down. I got this for the Buy It Now price of US$7.83 with shipping. There are still copies of this available on eBay– get them while they are still available.

The third auction was for a CD of the Black Sessions that Tortoise did in 1998 during the TNT tour. The Black Sessions are like a French version of the Peel Sessions on BBC. The band comes in and records a show specifically for broadcast. There is a bunch of controversy about these releases done by Sangatte Records and whether they are a bootleg or an official release. The catalog number is SANG 021 CD, but I found a Moloko Black Sessions with exactly the same catalog number and with a 2006 release. So, who knows? I paid $27.00 with shipping.

The last auction was for a tour-only Calexico CD called Scraping which was made for their 2002 tour. Scraping is made up of live tracks mostly from their January 2002 show in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall and one song from the Roskilde Festival in 2000 and two tracks from the Temple of Music and Arts in 2001. I paid $12.90 with shipping for it. Since this release is still available from the official Calexico site, my goal here was to pay less than the $16.00. I also bid on a copy of the Aerocalexico tour-only release, but lost it– this is the last one I need to get to have a full collection of these great tour-only releases. I think it’s great that Calexico caters to their fans with these releases.

Calexico - Live Session - EP Click Here to get the great Calexico iTunes EP (for US iTunes Customers).

Calexico - Live Session - EP Click here to get the Calexico EP if you are in the EU.

B-Sides in the Bins – #2 – Iowa City 11/10/06

Hello, and welcome to another episode of B-Sides in the Bins where the author deals with the eternal battle of collecting records versus managing a personal budget.

My wife had a doctor’s appointment in Iowa City that Friday, so I took the opportunity to make a run to the Record Collector. It was pouring down rain so that was kind of a bummer, but I set out to make the best of it. I had an hour’s worth of change for the parking meter.

The Record Collector has a prominent used CD table in the middle of the store, so that is usually where I start, and then move to the racks around the sides where the new CD’s and vinyl are. A small haul this time, but some gems, I think.

Aphrodisiac – Andre Williams with The Diplomats of Solid Sound (CD Pravda PR 6383, 2006) ($7.00) This was in the “Recent” section of the used bin. I hadn’t had a chance to hear this record, yet. I know that the guys in the Diplomats have been playing shows with Andre recently. A pretty fun CD, really. Reminds me a lot of RL Burnside. Andre evidently has the distinction of being the earliest recorded rapper with his hit single “Bacon Fat.” He’s had a career that spans 50 years in recording, writing and producing. It’s great that he’s still recording at 70.

“Do You Remember?” b/w “Prove It To Me” – Andre Williams and the Diplomats of Solid Sound ( 7″ VampiSoul 45032, 2006) ($4.00) I had actually not noticed the Andre Williams CD in the bins until I found this 7″ in the singles section of the store. I really like this VampiSoul collection. The Diplomats released a single last year on that label. The label calls it their “jukebox series” so I guess that means they don’t need to have cool sleeve art. No matter it is still cool to get these singles. These two tracks are on the Aphrodisiac CD, no rare b-side, here– too bad. It might have been cool to even get a 2006 version of Andre’s “Bacon Fat” with the Diplomats backing him.

“Hayloft Stomp” b/w “Can Your Frug Do The Boogaloo” – The Monroes split single with The Diplomats of Solid Sound (7″ Speed! Nebraska Records, Speed A-300, 2006) ($4.00) The boys in the Diplomats had been busy in 2006! More 7″ fun. I haven’t had a chance to throw this one on the turntable, yet. Nifty classic purple-on-silver screening on the label. The A side says “Punk!” and the B side says “Funk!”

Manna – Bread (LP Elektra EKS-74086, 1971) ($1.00) While the guys in Bread made their big hits with soft-rock songs like Manna’s “If”, and “Guitar Man, “Make It With You” and “Baby I’m-A Want You” they actually fancied themselves a more edgy rock band than AM Radio would ever have given them credit for. You can tell that the band has a rift in it as the big singles are the ballads penned by vocalist David Gates, and the more uptempo rock songs are written by the partnership of James Griffen and Robb Royer.

This was an album that got a lot of play at the Roeder house in 1972. We had just moved back to my mom and dad’s hometown and into a new house. Both sets of my grandparents lived there and I had a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins there. After a big gap in my dad’s record collection starting around when he was in college in the mid-60’s, he started buying records again and this was one of the first ones he got. This record reminds me of those times and in retrospect it was a new life for our family and a more optimistic time. The track “If” really is still as schmaltzy as it has been– but the great tunes on this record are the uptempo tracks “Let Your Love Go,” “Take Comfort,” and “Truckin’ (not the Grateful Dead song).” Beautiful harmonies layer through the soaring “Too Much Love.” This album was out of print for a long time. In the early 90’s there was a Japanese release on CD. I bought a copy for myself and one for my dad as a gift– complete with OBI strip. In 1995 Elektra released the entire Bread catalog including Manna and it has since fallen back out of print in the US. Apparently a new pressing of Manna occurred in the UK in August.

Download “Let Your Love Go” from Manna

Days to Come – Bonobo (2 CD Ninja Tune ZENCD119, 2006) ($15.00) This was playing in the store and I really liked it. I paid full price for it! I’d heard of Bonobo, but really hadn’t heard anything from him. I would categorize this album as Drum and Bass or maybe Trip Hop. Not to sound all-1997 or anything. The album reminds me of Roni Size and Reprazent’s landmark Newforms album or Morcheeba. The vocals of Bajka have have that lazy, lispy quality that Bahamadia brought to Newforms and a little like Skye the original singer for Morcheeba. I knew that my wife would really like this one, so I picked it up. One of the reviewers on Amazon says that this release– while great– will fall through the cracks of the releases of 2006. I certainly hadn’t heard much about it.

Download Nightlite (featuring Bajka) from Days To Come

What I put back : Pyramids by Pit Er Pat– brand new release, I hadn’t had a chance to hear anything from this, so I held off. In retrospect, I should have grabbed this one. Sherry and I saw Pit Er Pat open for Tortoise on their Minneapolis stop in 2004. Sherry thought the lead singer sounded like Bjork. The couple of tracks I sampled on the Thrill Jockey site sounded like they have matured. Songs and Other Things from Tom Verlaine– another relatively new release on Thrill Jockey. He released two new albums this year– one with vocals and one without. This one is the vocal release.

Trip to Philly / Spaceboy Music Closing

I was in Philadelphia last week for business and managed to take a rare trip downtown. It seems that although I’m in the Philly area frequently for work, I don’t seem to venture outside of King of Prussia enough. So, last week between the thunderstorms I went downtown with a couple of guys from work. I wanted to do some record shopping. We really wanted to see some live music, but there wasn’t much going on that we wanted to see.

I have been downtown a dozen times or so since 2002 for varying reasons– mostly to find some place to eat other than the restarants that are part of the King of Prussia Mall area. I’ve only been record shopping one other time and that was two or three years ago. My method for going downtown involves locating South Street and just parking some place and walking around. So, that was the method we used this time. We found a pretty cheap parking area off South around 4th Street for about $7 for the whole night. It was after 7PM by the time we got down there so we decided to hit some record shops before finding some place to eat.

The first place we stopped was Noise Pollution (619 South 4th Street). This is a typical small used record store with a good stock of vinyl and a particularly good selection of 45’s. On this trip I was looking for rare Calexico singles or vinyl, rare Tortoise singles or vinyl. That is really the approach that I recommend when you don’t have time to scour a store. I found a 12″ of Calexico’s Black Heart EP for $15, but that was more than I wanted to pay for it consideing the condition of the cover. This is still in print, anyway. The price sticker said it had been in their bins for a couple of years. The guy behind the counter was pretty helpful, but spent most of his time on the phone. One noteworthy thing I saw was a cardboard box near the front door full of VHS tapes that appeared to have live concerts or appearances taped from TV. I saw a Neil Young tape that looked pretty cool, but I wondered if they were dubs of another tape, which might have made the quality questionable. Somewhere around my house is a tape of Neil Young appearances from three Farm Aids, a couple of SNL appearances, MTV Music Awards with Pearl Jam doing Rockin’ in the Free World, and the live performance of “Philadelphia” from the Academy Awards.

The next place we went was Repo Records (538 South Street), which we saw online and looked promising and they have a basement dedicated to vinyl. We were very disappointed to find that the downstairs was closed temporarily. So, I flipped through the little bit of vinyl they had and we headed for Spaceboy Music up the street.

Spaceboy Music (704 South Street) is one of the stores I visted when I was shopping down here last time. I was impressed by it’s selection of music. Unfortunately, this time they are having a 20% off all inventory going out of business sale. Most of their vinyl was stacked in cardboard boxes in the middle of the room and was pretty well picked over. They still had a very good CD selection available and it looked like they had just received an order from one of their distributers judging by the pile of new CD’s behind the counter. I found a couple of interesting things in vinyl. One item was an REM fanclub 7″ of “Ghost Reindeer in the Sky” b/w the Gershwin classic “Summertime.” This was the Christmas single from 1990. They wanted $29 list, but that was more than I wanted to spend on that. I also found an opened “Freeze” 2 LP from DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. Unfortunately, it was used and had quite a bit of surface scratches on it.

I hit the CD’s and found three CD’s I wanted. The first find was a promo for the re-release of the two Manitoba albums under the new Caribou moniker: Start Breaking My Heart and Up In Flames. The official releases are 2 CD affairs and the second disc includes singles and remixes released around the same time as the original albums. This is a single disc sampler of the four CDs. It’s pretty cool, and makes me want to go get those releases. $6.40.

The next CD I got was in their “discount used” section in the middle of the store. That section didn’t have much, but I picked up Thrill Jockey band Town and Country’s 2003 release 5. I hadn’t heard anything from Town and Country, so I picked that up. Upon first listen it is very mellow atmospheric acoustic music similar to some of Tortoise’s music, or a little like Pullman. $3.99

I also picked up Eleventh Dream Day’s new CD Zeroes and Ones. I had a chance to hear this at Tower Records in Chicago at one of their listening stations. This is also on Thrill Jockey, and includes Tortoise bass player Doug McCombs. I like this album, it reminds me of pre-Grunge period bands in the late 80’s early 90’s. Sounds a little like Sonic Youth.

While we were walking around we saw a couple of other record stores that seem interesting. One I want to visit next, and when I have some time is The Philadelphia Record Exchange. They seem to have a huge vinyl selection.

After Spaceboy, we ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant called La Fourno Trattoria. They have fantastic Pizzas.

So, it’s sad to see yet another music store going out of business. I’m not sure what is going to help these stores stick around. I think that used CD’s and vinyl is part of the equasion. There is more mark up in a used CD or record than there is in new, so that helps, I think. Earlier this year, Des Moines lost one of the big indie record stores in Iowa known as Peeples Music after 30 years in business. In an article in the Des Moines Register, owner Mike Enloe stated that he needed 25 customers per day just to keep the doors open. The value of an independent record retailer is hopefully the knowledge that the typically passionate people who work there have. A lot of the important purchases I have made over the years came from the advice of a trusted employee of one of these stores.

I Won Something!

Stage Hymns had a contest last week where he was asking for suggestions about what cover song Tapes ‘n Tapes should cover– if they took suggestions for covers. Yours truly won by suggesting that they should cover the seminal Television song “Marquee Moon.” Per Joe, the keeper of Stage Hymns, “‘Marquee Moon’… is an amazing song, and an obvious precursor to much of the music that influenced Tapes ‘N Tapes.” The prize is an autographed 7″ single of “Insistor”/”Crazy Eights” that Joe got at the show he just attended. Joe says that he’ll be posting some versions of “Marquee Moon” in the near future.
So, big up to Joe and his nifty music blog… I’ll be adding it to my blog roll.

Now, if only Tapes ‘n Tapes would take the suggestion of that cover song…

Recent Purchases in Boston

As stated earlier, I had been in Boston twice in three weeks. Unlike previous trips to Boston, I got some shopping in. I hit record stores and book stores.

Trip #1:

I managed to hit Newbury Comics while the group was waiting for our table at the fantastic Capital Grille, which was just down the street. Newbury is one of the great record stores and I would recommend hitting it if possible. Plus it is down the street from one of the best ice cream places I have been to. It seems this was my vinyl trip.

Cat Power : The Greatest on 180 Gram vinyl (!) Thank goodness for Matador Records and their devotion to the preservation of vinyl. This pressing allegedly has “an extra track not on the regular version of the CD.” That said, I can’t find a version of this on CD that has less tracks on it.

Cat Power : “The Greatest” b/w “Hate” 7″. Sticker says “Pay No More Than .99” and damned if I didn’t!

Stereolab : “Whisper Pitch” b/w “Widow Wierdo”

Stereolab : “Eye of the Volcano” b/w “Vodiak”

Stereolab : “Excursions into ‘oh, a-oh'” b/w “Get A Shot of The Refrigerator” These last three singles complete the set of singles released last year. All of these tracks are compiled on the economy-priced Fab Four Suture collection. I’ve been building a collection of Stereolab releases since last year. Stereolab are very prolific and have a tendency to release great songs on one-off tour releases or on limited-pressing singles. Attracts the collector in me, unfortunately.

A good run, but a pain in the arse to bring back on the airplane!

Trip #2

This is the LinuxWorld trip last week when I went to the Blackalicious show. Hit a number of stores this time.

Newbury Comics:

Athens, GA Inside-Out (DVD) Finally! One of my favorite music documentaries from the late 80’s. I owned this on VHS. The OOP soundtrack came out on IRS at the same time and is one I listened to a lot at the time. The rare R.E.M. acoustic tracks “Swan Swan H” and “Dream (All I Have to do is)” eventually came out as extra tracks on the UK import release of Life’s Rich Pageant. This movie made me a fan of Love Tractor and Pylon.

I didn’t find anything else I was really interested in.

Virgin Records on Newbury:

(If) I’m A Ham, You’re A Sausage: The Don Dixon Collection. Frankly, the big find as far as I’m concerned. This is a drilled cut-out that I found in their discount bin. The only copy! Very Out-of-Print. Unfortunately, Don is one of those lost great Pop Rock guys. He produced some of the greatest records from the 80’s including the first two R.E.M. albums and two Game Theory albums in addition to most of his wife Marti Jones’s albums. He had a notable solo career as well. Mostly known for his song “Praying Mantis” that got some airplay on 120 Minutes back in the day. His best works were on the Restless label– home to the Smithereens (who he worked with), Game Theory, and Poison. Capital ended up buying Restless– I suspect for Poison. Most of the catalog from Restless is OOP. After retiring from music for a big stretch, Don has a new album due out in June on 125 Records titled The Entire Combustible World In One Small Room. I plan to try and get all of his back catalog.

Looney Toons:

Looney Toons is a great old record store with vinyl stacked to the ceilings in moving boxes! Next time I’m in Boston I plan to dedicate some serious time in here digging. They had Dark Side of the Moon on the original Harvest pressing with stickers and poster for $24. I just about bought it, but I didn’t like the cover condition. I think I’ll hold out. I did get some CDs:

Calexico : Convict Pool EP Has their great version of Love’s “Alone Again Or” which is pretty much a live staple for them. Includes a Cartoon Shorty from the Cartoon Network titled “El Kabong Rides Again.”

Calexico : Even My Sure Things Fall Through EP This one has some videos on it as well. I haven’t listened to this one, yet.

Calexico : Feast of Wire. So this is the real beginning of my Calexico collection…

Fargo Rock City Chuck Klosterman (Book). I picked this up at a book store/cafe on Newbury in their cheap book section. This is Chuck’s thoughts about Heavy Metal and growing up in a small town in North Dakota. I like this book quite a bit. Before I discovered REM in 1985, I was a Heavy Metal fan, so this book rings true for me. It seems that Chuck held on to Metal a bit longer than I did, but I remember most of the stuff he’s talking about.

Radio Shack:

Sony MDR-NC11 Noise Cancelling Headphones. This was a bit of an impulse buy. We stopped in the Radio Shack and I saw these headphones on sale for $79, but the sale had passed. So, the manager of the store offered to sell these to me for the sale price, which was $20 off. I already have a pair of Philips noise cancelling ‘phones, but these work better as they seal in the ear canal, so that helps keep the noise out.

Imperial March on the 1 and 2

I’m sure the blogs will pick this up pretty quickly, but I had to post this when I saw it. This should be the example to show when people doubt that turntablism is an art. Here is a blog entry about it.

Here is the YouTube version.

The best part about it is the facial expression on the guy standing next to him. He must have been the guy he was battling!

It’s the Tone! The Diplomats of Solid Sound @ Martini’s in Iowa City

Yesterday was Sherry’s and my Six-Year Anniversary, so I planned a dinner at Joseph’s Steakhouse in Iowa City after some shopping. I was looking at some other things on-line and happened to notice that The Diplomats of Solid Sound were playing at Martini’s, which is in the Ped Mall as well. I also noticed that there was a 7″ that I was missing from my collection: “Grease Monkey” b/w “Loaf and Jug.” It is a Spanish import on a label called VampiSoul. So I shot Doug from DOSS a quick e-mail asking if I’d be able to get one from him. He promptly replied and said he’d have some there. Bonus!

Some History: The Diplomats of Solid Sound is the latest project for longtime Iowa City musician Doug Roberson. Doug has been in a number of bands in Iowa City over the years. The first time I ever saw him in a band was in the Dangtrippers. This was in the late ’80’s. The Dangtrippers were signed to DogGone Records which was started by the then-manager of REM Jefferson Holt. Unfortunately, the label collapsed soon afterwords. Doug was in another band called Head Candy. Head Candy won a battle of the bands which gave them a record deal with Link Records, which was distributed by Hollywood/Elektra/Warner. This band had Jim Viner from Dubuque, IA, who is the current drummer for the Diplomats as well as Mike Sangster who came from the band The Hollowmen who had a couple of records out in the late 80’s. This band sounded a lot to me like some of the shoegazer bands like My Bloody Valentine due to its use of layered guitars and unique tunings. The resulting album Starcaster (released 1991) is an album I still consider to be one of the better efforts of this period. I still pull it out to give it a listen. Doug told me once that I might be the only person still listening to it. At the time there was a lot of speculation that Iowa City was going to blow up like another Athens or Seattle. Head Candy even had a video shown on MTV’s 120 Minutes (I think it was “Part of the Earth”). Jim and Doug resurrected the South/East Records label and started working on a compilation of Eastern Iowa bands as a vehicle to showcase the regions talent. I was in a band called Gust at this time and submitted a tape for consideration. I think that we were on the short list to be included for a while, but ultimately didn’t make it. The criticism we got back was that we needed a drummer. Some of the other artists that made it to The Third Times a Charm would go on to some notariety– Tripmaster Monkey from the Quad Cities got a major label signing and released a couple of albums. The scene never really achieved the recognition that I had hoped it would. Head Candy put out a couple of other songs on some compilations including one for an Alex Chilton tribute that I’d like to find some day. Mike Sangster left Iowa City for Minneapolis. Doug formed another band called The Bent Scepters that was a period-type band like the Diplomats. The Scepters were more in the vein of ’60’s Nuggets/garage type rock like the Kingsmen. A fun band, I saw them play the Silver Dollar in Dubuque on Holloween one year. The Diplomats were started in 1998 as a side project to the Scepters. The Scepters broke up in 1999 after member Patrick White move to France, and the Diplomats are Doug’s primary music gig today. White moved back to the US in 2001 and the Bent Scepters have played some reunion shows since. I have seen Dangtrippers reunion shows advertised in recent years, too.

I’ve got to hand it to my wife, she’s really patient when it comes to my music obsession! The show was supposed to start at 9:30, and we finished dinner around 7:30. So, we decided to hit Martini’s early. The upshot to that was that we got in before the cover charge took effect. The downside was that the place was packed with “Mother and Daughter Weekend” people wearing the same teeshirts– some sorority deal, I guess. Once the band came in and set up, most of them cleared out, thankfully. The band got a late start, but kicked things off with what looked to be some kind of jam that they were working out the chord changes on stage. They moved into some of their normal stuff like “Holdin’ The Money” and another song that seemed to be called “Do the Bacon.” Typical decent B-3 fueled R&B instrumentals like the Meters or Booker T & The MG’s. At one point Jim Viner got up from behind the drum kit to announce that one of their songs “Who’s Got the Grady?” from their 2003 release Let’s Cool One was used on the MTV show “There and Back” during a scene and that everyone in the band made $37 for it. They then played that song. Most of the crowd except me and another guy were ignoring the band. It surprises me that Iowa City can have a band the caliber of DOSS, and it surprises me even more that people don’t realize it! I really like this style of jazz/R&B. I grew up with Booker T & the MG’s– “Green Onions” is one of the best instrumentals ever next to “Walk, Don’t Run” or “Classical Gas.” I became interested in this type of music when I picked up the “Lost Grooves” series on Blue Note records which is based on the late 60’s Funky B-3 sound that a few of their artists had.

I’ve seen the Diplomats a half a dozen times or so over the years. This was the first time I’ve seen the lineup with Dave Basinger their new Sax player. Dave is the brother of Nate the keyboardist. By the time the set was over the bar was starting to fill up, and we needed to get home to the dogs who’d been in their kennel all day. I walked up and introduced myself to Doug with “Nice Tone!.” He remembered who I was from the other times we’d talked in the past. He replied with “That’s what is important!” We chit-chatted for a bit about Joseph’s and his guitar for a minute and he went out to get the 7″ for me. $5! Whatta deal! I left wishing I could stay a bit longer, but I’ll have to catch them later. They will be opening for Wilco at their Des Moines show– maybe I’ll see them there.

Update: The Bent Scepters will be playing Gabe’s Oasis on March 17, 2006.

Download Holdin’ The Money from Destination… Get Down!