Swedish Pop Music Break

Are you craving more cowbell in your songs? Just listen to more Swedish pop music.

Album Cover Gallery: The Mod Squad

This cover make you wonder whether "A Dedicated Follower of Fashion" is really a satiric song.

What could be more mod than playing a sitar while riding a moped and chatting up a chick in a bucket hat? Nothing, that's what.

This cover makes you appreciate the restraint of the costume designers for the Austin Powers flicks.

The Tremeloes dressed to do battle with Sgt. Pepper's band. May the grooviest uniforms win.

The late sixties was the only time in modern history when it was socially acceptable to wear a vest sans shirt. This album cover almost makes it seem all right.

Swedish Pop Music Break

A day with Swedish pop music is a better day, especially if it's a Swedish all-girl band.
Sahara Hotnights - Visit to Vienna

Recent Acquisitions II: 5/30/09

The rest of the May haul outside of the Record Man parking lot sale:

Sammy Davis, Jr., Sammy Steps Out (Reprise, white label promo, $5). Bought for all the wrong reasons.

Carl and the Passions, So Tough (Brother/Reprise, 2-LP, $12). This is actually a Beach Boys album under a pseudonym. The second album is a mono pressing of Pet Sounds, which after several listens, I've concluded is the first chamber pop, twee album.

Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career (4AD, US pressing with mp3 download, new, $14). I loved the title of this album until I realized it was to be taken seriously. This album has none of the self-deprecating humor that made their previous albums so enjoyable. Not a line in it that comes close to "I should be suspended from class/I can't tell my elbow from my arse."

Sigur Ros, Agaetis byrjun (Fat Cat, UK DMM pressing, new, ???). This is a limited edition reissue that for some reason isn't available in the U.S. I had to order it from a record store in London. It cost 24 pounds plus 4 pounds for shipping. Expensive, but it's the one SR album I didn't have on vinyl. I think the title refers to a place in Middle Earth inhabited by overly earnest gay dwarves.

The Fall, Totally Wired: The Rough Trade Anthology (Earmark, Italian pressing, 3-LP, new $33). This album just goes to show you that Pavement is really a Fall tribute band. 

Sonic Youth, Goo (Geffen, German pressing, new, $20).

Dexter Gordon, Go (Blue Note/Analogue Productions, 45rpm, 180 gm pressing, 2-LP, new, $50). There's a series of classic Blue Note titles being remastered by the top remastering engineers in the business (Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray) from the original master tapes. Rudy Van Gelder reportedly rolled off the highs and lows of the recordings for the original pressings for playback on the stereo equipment of the era, which couldn't handle the frequency extremes of the master tapes. These new reissues are supposed to be more faithful to the master tapes. The sonic advantages of a 45 rpm pressing also contribute to make these the definitive pressings of these Blue Note albums. Each title is limited to 2,500 copies.

Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (Blue Note/Analogue Productions, 45 rpm, 180 gm pressing, 2-LP, new, $50).

Hank Mobley, Hank Mobley (Blue Note 1568/Music Matters, 45 rpm, 180 gm pressing, 2-LP, new, $50). I think the first three albums Hank Mobley recorded for Blue Note are all titled Hank Mobley. And they don't have cool nicknames like the "Scratch" album.

The Vince Guaraldi-Conte Candoli Quartet, s/t (Premier, $5).  Safe, enjoyable jazz--not to be confused with smooth jazz.

John Coltrane, Om (Impulse!, orange-and-black label, Capitol Club edition, $15). I'm convinced this isn't music. I'm still figuring out what it is. I don't know how Coltrane can make a saxophone sound like a refrigerator sliding on a tile floor. 

Randy California

While digging through information about the band Spirit, I was struck by the incredible biography of the band's lead guitarist. On the two Spirit albums I've heard, California's songs seem the strongest.

Swedish Pop Music Break

Won't you celebrate life with Swedish pop music?

News for the lone follower of this blog

The next record show in Minneapolis is June 6. Happy hunting!