Takoma's one-offs and obscurities

we should have a "takoma one-offs and obscurities" thread; so many weird things on that label. i'm partial to joseph byrd's "yankee transcendoodle."

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:51 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

I'm surprised there's not a thread for this. Here's their complete discography
http://www.wirz.de/music/takomfrm.htm

I've been loving these, but I know there's more out there looking through their back catalog
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7430/thefloatinghouseband.jpg
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/8272/coyotesdream.jpg

and Homegas, man that record is something else.

What about the Mike Bloomfield records or any of the 80's stuff?

Larry McNeely's "Live At McCabe's" is pretty good... also Charlie Nothing to thread!

That Robert Pete Williams album is one of my favourite blues records ever.

Laser Pace - Granfalloon (Takoma - 1974) Wow!

i'm partial to joseph byrd's "yankee transcendoodle."

Is that the United States of America guy?

^ yes!

Wasn't expecting to see all that UK folk rock stuff in the later releases

yes! see also the LP he did with the Field Hippies.

xp

the Homegas record is one of my faves.. an incredible piece of wax. Also a fan of the Floating House Band, Granfaloon, the Tony Thomas record (traditional texas style fiddle! with fahey on gtr on a few tracks.), Norman Blake's Takoma LP (is there only one?)

Not so into the Rabindra record on the Devi sublabel. The One-String Jones LP is decent, but sort of a novelty.. I bought a sealed covpy and it's got a skip! Pressing defect?

hmm those Phil Yost recs look interesting too... anyone heard them?

Phil Yost record are great!! My friend Otto played one for me a few years back. I always get outbid on ebay for them.

I regret not buying a sealed orig charlie nothing record for $20 about 7 years ago...

that first george winston album is rilly good. that rick ruskin album is not so good.

The Contemporary Guitar comp is ace too. with Max Ochs, Harry Taussig, Fahey, Basho and Bukka White.

i like all the dobro bluegrass rekkerds on takoma.. mike auldridge and stuff like that. but that norman blake record! loving it the past week or so.

bola sete good too.

rick ruskin was to takoma what bill horwitz was to esp.

tut taylor good too.

oh yeah, rick ruskin, not great. tut taylor! i don't know if i have anything by him on takoma..

also not super into the Randy Brook album on devi/takoma.
Janet Smith's "The Unicorn" is a cool record too. Mellow, fairly traditional folk.

post-fahey, the roulettes album is pretty bad and i like all kinds of bad power pop records.

I like that T-Bone Burnette album--"Boomerang"!

My cousin told me that back in '79 in Austin you could buy that Fab T-birds lp (their debut, which got picked up by Chrysalis) at Conan's Pizza parlours.

I'd like to hear Rita Weill record.

the Chris Darrow record on Takoma is not good, it pains me to say.

Was wondering about that one, I *love* Kaleidoscope but have never investigated any of those guys subsequent stuff.

Xp to Scott: I have that Phil Host Bent City record and it's pretty good. Gets filed near my Basho records. I bought it off my friend Kate when she was moving, and I think later she regretted selling it.

I know Yankee transcendoodle has been talked about here before. I kind of like that record, but maybe it's because I like the source material. The bass is really heavy on it. The copy I bought was sealed ($1), and I wonder if that's not common, as if it was a record no one cared for or bought and so ended up stored unopened in the boxes they came in from the record pressing plant?

Yost! Yost! Autocorrect.

I've got that Rabindra (Danks) LP. It's weird.

man, i know almost none of these! someone make me a comp of takoma's greatest mixes, plzzz?

NickB -- there are other, really good Chris Darrow records... check the s/t on United Artists and "Artist-Proof" on Fantasy; I am a big supporter of those albums. I like them better than most Kaleidoscope stuff.

Craig Leon's Nommos is fantastic.

I've only heard the self titled Chris Darrow record and I love it. I've been looking for the Janet Smith and Rita Weill records but ebay and musicstack turns up nothing. This thread will surely keep me on ebay for awhile.

Ian, I will definitely check those - thanks for the tip!

Did Fahey at some point sell Takoma or release his reins?

sold to Chrysalis at some point...

ok so is that tony thomas thing actually what it purports to be -- recording of an old-timer fiddler -- or is it actually what i think it is, recordings by the younger, african-african fiddler whose name happens to be tony thomas (and who is a prolific reviewer on amazon these days)? knowing fahey i wouldn't be surprised if he's up to more of his tricks.

btw when did fahey's involvement w/ takoma end?

also what about maria muldaur stuff? i have never investigated that.

Pretty sure the Tony Thomas record is not a ruse; seems too elaborate. The record is good. Info inside indicates it's just what it says it is.

wiki re: Takoma sale:

In 1979, Fahey sold Takoma to Chrysalis Records, owned by Terry Ellis and Chris Wright, which had artists such as Blondie, Pat Benatar, and Huey Lewis.[3] Jon Monday continued as General Manager of the label for Chrysalis until 1982 when Chrysalis sold the Takoma catalog. During the Chrysalis years, Takoma released albums by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Maria Muldaur, Canned Heat, Mike Bloomfield, and T-Bone Burnett. The catalog was purchased in 1995 by Fantasy Records,[1] which in 2004 was taken over by the Concord Music Group. Fantasy has a handful of the Takoma recordings on the market as CDs as of this writing in 2007.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92JQlOQEEE

http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/Swamp-Dogg-Im-Not-Selling-Out-Im-Buying-In/446775-2993708?ev=bp_titl

^^ don't think i've ever seen this one.

I love Jerry Williams or Little Jerry Williams. I have most of his Swamp Dog records. My favorite is 'Cuffed, Collared & Tagged.' I've never seen 'I'm Not Selling I'm Buying In' on vinyl though. I have it on cd. Westside records rereleased most of his albums on cd in the early 00's.

Yeah, I'm a swamp dogg fan! It surprises me that I never knew he had a record on takoma. my faves of his are cuffed, collared..., rat on, and gag a maggot. but i like them all for at least a few killer tracks... so far anyway. steered clear of disco-era material. just not ready yet.

His cover of Sam Stone sounds so natural that I think it surpasses Prine's original.

I have a dumb question: Is it pronounced Home Gas or like H+Omegas?

I love the Floating House Band LP.

uh, i pronounce is Home Gas but who knows?

I would think more people would like Lawrence Hammond's 'Coyotes Dream'? He was the singer in the Mad River, which their last record hinted at the sound he would have. It's pure country gold! Their are only three very short reviews on his RYM page, all in italian.

I think I've seen that record but never listened to it? I was never a huge Mad River fan tbh.

after you posted abt it i went to look in the country & folk bins at the store, but it must have sold.

instead of ppl moaning abt too many polls or what kind of polls or who should be polled or not or whatnot they cld be reading and getting edumacated by this great thread, thank you jacob for starting it

i wish i cld contribute, but you just never really see this stuff in the uk, don't suppose most of it ever got propertly distribbed outside the usa. in fact thinking abt it, ian and scott pl collaborate on a bk abt this shit, you have one britishes buyer and eager reader, here.

I rarely find Takoma records in my digging around flea markets, thrift stores and estate sales. I keep an eye on ebay and good record stores like Antones in Austin,TX. I did find Lawrence Hammond for very cheap in a crate of sealed records that were all priced for 10 dollars. I'm not sure how good Takoma distribution was in it's day, or how many copies of each record was pressed. I've read online that Leo Kottke was their biggest seller. If only fantasy was released a few of these obscurities......

there are certain takoma records that i see all the time. which is sort of disappointing since there are others i never see. the sentimental songs of the late 19th c. or whatever it's called is good. honestly though the takoma discography is pretty up and down.

need to hear this homegas stuff.

the homegas record is this kind of bluegrass/country blues inflected sad-sack psych-folk album... i love it to bits. "maine" is the best cut imo -- "you know i never really loved a sled dog, til you kissed me on the floor."

looking up takoma stuff on popsike and my past hyperbole is saved for the ages:

John Fahey - Death Chants Break Downs & Military Waltzes (Takoma) Nice early original Takoma pressing. Cover is VG+ with some ring wear/age wear and some edge wear. Nothing too horrible though. Looks nice! Booklet is in great shape. Vinyl is clean VG+. Sounds amazing! That guitar of his will hit you in the head!

hahaha. you seem like a good, honest ebay seller.

i made so much fahey money that month. i felt a little guilty. john fahey paid for my german history of house music box set that month too. thanks, john! (traded some fahey to josh at mystery train. always wanted that box set. chuck was the only person i ever knew who had one.)

gonna block off at least half an hour this tuesday on my radio show to spotlight some of the lesser known Takoma titles; will also play some fahey and basho and probably even some kottke..

Hey Ian, how can I listen to your show online?

it steams on eastvillageradio.com; it's the academy records show tuesday nights from 10-12. you can listen to it on itunes too under radio->eclectic. past shows are all archived on thee website.

Thanks I'll start listening in. My favorite basho is by far 'Song of the Stallion', I like his singing especially when it comes out of nowhere like on A North American Raga.

LOL "even some kottke" :)

i love leo, don't get me wrong!

Never heard any Kottke past the first album, but that one is just dandy imo.

here's what i ended up playing:

Edward Hazleton   	 Mocking The Train, Mocking The Dogs  	 One-String Blues  	 Takoma  	  Jun 21
Bukka White 	Old Man Walking Blues 	Contemporary Guitar 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Homegas 	Maine 	Homegas 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Maddy Prior & June Tabor 	My Husband's Got No Courage In Him 	Silly Sisters 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Tony Thomas 	The Wednesday Night Waltz 	Old Style Texas & Oklahoma Fiddling 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Norman Blake 	Blue Ridge Mountain Blues 	Directions 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Janet Smith 	Wayfaring Stranger 	The Unicorn 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Floating House Band 	Song For Martha Lee 	The Floating House Band 	Takoma 	Jun 21
Mike Auldridge 	Killing Me Softly With His Song 	Blues & Bluegrass 	Takoma 

hey dudes. i saw a (i think) sealed copy of Swamp Dogg's 'buying in' record like 2 weeks ago for like $6. i was skeptical because of the date on it, so downloaded it later. it wasn't very good. if you're at all interested or a completist, lemme know and i can go looking for it again.

picked up bernie krause's 'citadels of mystery' this weekend for a buck in the new age section. not at all what i was expecting. i thought it was gonna be some synth record but it was actually upbeat world jazz with some nice drums. pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYR1Ch5eGKY

I've been listening to Mike Bloomfield's Analine. It's a beautiful low key bluesy record that has impressed me. Has anyone heard his other 3 Takoma records? I just read the poor guy was found dead in his car from a heroin overdose.

Also the Richard Ruskin record is maybe the most boring folk record I have heard.

http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/Swamp-Dogg-Im-Not-Selling-Out-Im-Buying-In/446775-2993708?ev=bp_titl
^^ don't think i've ever seen this one.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Thursday, June 16, 2011 2:16 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

i bought this a couple years ago at yr store!

man i love craig leon's NOMMOS so much. definitely my #1 here. i have that joe byrd record too, but im not completely sold on it. definitely gotta check out homegas too...

that swamp dogg record on takoma is pretty subpar

i had a dream a few nights ago in which i found a seam split/cat scratched Floating House Band at the thrift store.

Hey Ian what didn't you like about Rabindra Danks? I was thinking about buying it, but I don't know what to expect.

Jacob, I only v v recently saw yr email regarding this thread and yr blog, thanks for both, still digging yr work here

Getting TOM AKSTENS Original & Traditional Music soon, very excited!

Oh, hey Jacob, I thought the Rabindra record was.. maybe too sincere? or cheesy or something? these are not necc. bad qualities in music, but there was something about the record that was lacking to me. sure, pick it up for a buck or two but i wouldn't pay much..

I've gotten a few Takoma obscurites recently, Rita Weill's Sings Ballads and Folksongs, Janet Smith's The Unicorn, and Tut Taylor's Dobrolic Plectral Society. All very good, and very different. I like the cover of Rabindra record and figured it was groovy xian folk.

i love the tut taylor (& mike auldridge) dobro records on takoma. nice sound. been looking for the rita weill myself for a while!

Tom Akstens Original & Traditional Music is sort of a misleading titled knowing Takoma's roster. I figured it was going to be another guitar record. Instead it's very laid back rural folk rock. Produced by Artie Traum and recorded at Bearsville Sound with Jay Ungar, Neil Rossi, Billy Mundi,and Dick Fegy. I imagine it sounds like other Art Traum records, which are on my list of things to get. I really like the idea that John Fahey rubbed shoulders with the guys. The more of these Takoma one offs, I get like Homegas and Lawrence Hammond, the more I view Fahey differently. More relaxed I guess?

Also got mind of burned on The Possum Hunters record I was hoping to buy on ebay. The guy listed it at 29.99 or buy it now at 70.00. I missed the auction but saw no one bought it so I messaged the guy and asked him to relist it. He did for 70.00 buy it now.

Don't know if the Chris Darrow twofer reissue is still available, but here's how me and my coffee responded to it:
imported from Rolling Country 2009 (our discussion of early frontrunners of Country etc Top Ten:
Chris Darrow's twofer, s/t with Under My Own Disguise. from the early 70s, post- or late-psychedelic folk/country rock I'd say: he reaps the whirlwind, under inpenterable cloud cover, but re-orientation is no prob: dense but clear, as xgau said of Meltzer's best writing, And no up-in-lights oh wow factor, cause no lights. Lots of stuff going on, but mainly what gets me is voice-keyboards-bass-drums in the pocket, like on Fotheringay 2, Jessi Colter's Out Of The Ashes, Tell Tale Signs (and some other Dylan tracks, much older than Tell Tale Signs' outtakes, like "Ballad of a Thin Man"/"Dear Landlord"/"Down Along The Cove"/"If Dogs Run Free"/"Dirge") Vocally, a bit like Michael Nesmith, but this guy can hold a note as long as he wants to, and flex it too (might be some of that Middle Eastern in his alma mater, Kaleidoscope, but he always sounds like a cowboy, incl in UK with maybe some of the same people on Fotheringay 2, come to think of it-- although some of the "UK" vibe turns out to be from the L.A. sessions, and vice versa)
-dow

This was the CD, also a vinyl double, but expensive

Also, yall ever hear this? I haven't, but nice cover
http://image.bayimg.com/dacpmaadd.jpg

http://image.bayimg.com/dacpmaadd.jpg

What thu?? Never happened before--anyway, Peter Lang's the non-big name on there, but pretty good in a Fahey-esque way, on the albums I have heard--could say Fahey-wannabee, but got the spirit as well as the chops (without pretending he's got the mystic twin of JF), and I kinda prefer him to Kottke.

http://image.bayimg.com/dacpmaadd.jpg

http://mauivents.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/MAUIVENTS.jpg

look out now!
http://img2.wantitall.co.za/images/ShowImage.aspx?ImageId=Robbie-Basho-Seal-of-the-Blue-Lotus%7C61v2j91ioIL.jpg

love gets kinda crazy with a spooky little girl lak you
http://blog.wfmu.org/.a/6a00d83451c29169e2013488a45455970c-320wi

speaking of spooky, I've been wondering about this--anybody heard it??
http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/1%C2%AA.jpeg

also wonder how this is
http://www.soundfinder.jp/img/products/102080/1318777200/4e9c16c6-73e4-45be-bb5d-512bcbb7dc63/592670.jpg

Anyone heard Scott MacDonald's Solitude? Is it new age?

man, i know almost none of these! someone make me a comp of takoma's greatest hits, plzzz?

i do have the fahey box set -- it's fab! some of it is the kinda thing you won't listen to more than once, but there are some things that are as good as anything he ever did. and some of the curiosities (like the session with flute) are surprisingly successful.

Yeah, and I may have missed it on this teeming thread, but have you linked yr re-post of the Fahey live at U of Washington tape yet?

no, i haven't -- get it here!
http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/2012/02/john-fahey-university-of-washington.html?spref=tw
seriously pretty amazing show. fahey goes deeeeep.

oh and he just posted two more fahey shows -- one at carnegie hall, of all places.
http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/2012/02/john-fahey-live-at-swarthmore-college.html

I'll can make a Takoma mix, give me a day to find the cord for my mixer.

my whimpering pays off! that'd be awesome, jacob.

ghostcapital.blogspot.com/2012/03/phil-yost-bent-city-takoma-records-c.html
yost up for DL. i assume this is out of print/never released on CD?

tyler my laptop had a coffee incident and I've had to put the takoma mix on hold, sorry. I do like that Phil Yost, Great beatnik folkie jazz, you see it on ebay sometimes. I wish I could find his second record.

ha, i'm on that parenting thread, i know you have bigger/better things to be doing with your time!

i have bent city.. it's fog hat ramble i really need! i like phil yost, his music is really awesome.

yeah, i'm liking it a lot thus far.

I never see Fog Hat Ramble, and I'm dying to know if he expands on the Bent City sounds or something else? Little info exist on him.

really digging Peter Lang lately! guy plays small cafe and club shows here in Mpls on the regular, i need to go see him...

also my friend took lessons from him, which WOW how cool would that be?

not takoma, but related: here's peter lang's brother mark! i like this record a lot.

ooh yeah, he's got a track on the numero group guitar soli release -- nice stuff. is that record available anywhere?
love peter lang. he's more flamenco-y these days, no?

from people that have seen some recent gigs i guess he's actually doing lots of stuff from his older takoma albums, i kinda wonder if he's realized there's more of a market for that stuff now than he thought there was

here's a more recent clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZBm7f6bALA

that particular piece i have on this Takoma record that's a 12 inch split 3 ways between Lang, Kottke and Fahey

but it's super bad that i haven't gone to see him, it's like seeing a guy on the level of leo or fahey for like $10 cover at a bar

that sounds nice. i'd go see him! sweet shirt too.

yeah my friend bought six small group (like 6/7 ppl) lessons w/Lang and said it was really great, he's a great teacher and ....brace yourself...a really nice eccentric older gentleman

love love love the "Sunflower River Blues" on that Fahey/Kottke/Lang LP

is that LP the most common Takoma LP? i got it for a buck, but never see any of the other Takoma stuff. Not that I'm a deep crate-digger or anything.

i just picked that up on vinyl (been hella copies of that floating around minneapolis -- and sealed too! someone must've found a box of them), really just an amazing folk record all around....

xpost - huh weird they must've over pressed that one or something, thought it was just specific to minneapolis...but yeah i got a sealed copy for $7

i bet it's more common because when it was released kottke was already a "star" or at least a star in takoma terms.

hey M@tt i got a copy of kottke live at the scholar today in a trade!

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb391/ElliotGKnapp/Album%20Art/thethingatthenurseryroomwindow.jpg

gah i had that in MY HAND the other day, brought the lil' one to a record store, got up to the counter and realized in all the fuss of getting the toddler ready to go on an outing, i had forgot my wallet :( hope it's there when i get back

Now what is that artist's name? Can't quite make out his signature.

hey M@tt i got a copy of kottke live at the scholar today in a trade!

― one dis leads to another (ian), Tuesday, March 27, 2012 1:45 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh awesome! that's JJusten's dad's place! i think they have a bunch of tapes they were trying to get digitized

that lang album looks incredible, haven't heard that one! is it on CD?
also, how can i get live kottke tapes please.

yes http://www.amazon.com/Thing-at-Nursery-Room-Window/dp/B00004X0RF

lol nevermind, i am confusing peter walker with peter lang. peter!

Oh man, what a nice record cover!

ooh yeah, he's got a track on the numero group guitar soli release -- nice stuff. is that record available anywhere?
love peter lang. he's more flamenco-y these days, no?

― tylerw, Tuesday, March 27, 2012 6:16 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

first one i found i traded with ian, second one i kept, third one is yours!

(as soon as i find it)

also, how can i get live kottke tapes please.

― tylerw, Tuesday, March 27, 2012 2:00 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you should talk to JJ but it sounds like their tape archives were like epic and unreal classic folk & blues artists, believe they were working to maybe see them released officially

sounds neat -- the scholar is where kottke recorded his first album, right?

think so? from what jj told me that place got like the "who's who" of american folk & blues coming through in the 60s

Who ever did the art for the early Takoma records was onto something. They are very fitting for the music and I'd even like large framed ones of a few, if that existed...

Anyone heard 'Last Chance on the Merry Go Round" by Lost Gonzo Band? Also recently found Stone Mountain Boys self titled, nice newgrass record, been playing it a lot.

is this the Fahey-Lang-Kottke you guys were talking about? I've seen one with a different cover than this.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ECWC-H-dL._SS500_.jpg

that's the one i have. i had it out today and my 2 1/2 year old saw and was like: "whoooooa what is THAT."

your kid = good aesthetic taste

Show him the post of the cover of Thing In The Nursery Window--maybe when he's a little older?

ha, i think she'd be into that cover right now.

Anybody heard this?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61MFMNP2RKL._SS500_.jpg

dow the fahey/lang/leo thing you posted is the one i have, really great stuff

it's kinda funny cuz the dudes are soo stylistically similar at that point it's kinda hard to tell them apart

hiow do you guys feel about norman blake? i like his takoma studio record more than the takoma live LP; it's his rounder & flying fish LPs that really kill me sometimes...

i've only heard whiskey before breakfast, but i like it a lot. is that on rounder? can't remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-6alHEC12I

that is one i don't have! sounds great though..
i'm listening to "back home in sulphur springs" (on rounder) atm and it's so great. i also rate "blackberry blossom" and "the fields of november" highly. i think they're on flying fish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEkVkJax2Co

yeah i'm kind of in love with "slow train to georgia" but I don't actually own that record, a friend played it for me. he seems great, though, need to check him out further.

his records are not rare and usually pretty cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NORMAN-BLAKE-Home-In-Sulphur-Springs-LP-Rounder-0012-VG-Folk-Vinyl-Album-/250980879405?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item3a6fa04c2d

http://www.steveearle.net/homeincludes/chapter.htm

^^ norman blake interview/article

guess it's kind of a steve earle article too!

wonderful cover

http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/b420/spin13/Spin13%20ALBUM%202/R-1627515-1243325868-1.jpg

lycurgus is a dope record.

I really love Blackberry Blossom by Norman Blake, actually I've liked everything I gotten on Flying Fish. Recently I found
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jBE532ZwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
which was released on Hogeye records but reissued on Flying Fish, really nice country folk record. I need more flying fish, there ought to be a thread....

Back in the 70s, we were having a plastic suburban house party, playing the first three Aerosmith albums over and over and over, 'til I finally freaked out and flipped on the TV. There was Norman, just picking away: not speedy and flashy, but cutting across, unstoppable. We were the ones who stopped, looked, and even listened. My first Norman Blake experience, unless you count my already having had whiskey before breakfast. You can also find a number of situations involving Norman (and sometimes Nancy) on The Steam-Powered Preservation Society's download/stream site, http://thespps.org However! They don't have a search function, so you gotta scroll down and read the descriptions of the sets, and even so, let your finger linger on the download link, while you write it down, cos when you get into the archive you'll see a whole dizzying tower of links, not nec near yr target. Or you can just do a control + F search for a name you're looking for in there, and hit info under a promising label, sometimes get a pretty thorough commentary that way. Being of the jazzier-grass tendency, I also searched for and found clements & friends (Vassar w Grisman etc), Tony Trischka, Peter Rowan (w a line-up incl Trischka & Statman), Country Gazette etc. Blake plays w Tut Taylor alot, so check their Tut stash. Oh yeah, they also work as a duo at the Marin County Bluegrass Festival of 1974, which also involves Garcia and Grisman in various line-ups, plus Doc & Merle, Jim & Jesse, Frank Wakefield, and a monster Nitty Gritty Dirt Band set folding in several of the above and more. Can find that w no trouble at
http://smadacounty.blogspot.com He's also got lots of Garcia, w Dead and others, Townes, etc etc. See the reposts link in left rail for complete list.

hey y'all takoma buffs

do you think there would be enough interest if someone were to try to do a kickstarter (fairly modest in scope, like maybe 3-5Kish) to have peter lang do a recording of 12 string instrumentals at a nice studio (for limited vinyl release + maybe CD plus whatever extras?)

would any of you be into that personally?

yeahhh, i'd support that!

I'm down!

if it got going, i'd try to get the word out via my blog. also, this one would be good: http://delta-slider.blogspot.com ... I think it's pretty much ground zero for american primitive guitar bloggin'. i know the guy and I'm sure he'd want to promote it.

cool yeah just had a convo last nite w/someone close to lang and i was like that sound like a cool idea

do dudes in europe probably know lang too you think?

probably... that lang/fahey/kottke must have made it over there?

i'd support such a kickstarter at whatever level was necc to get a nice record in the mail whenever it was ready.

also, tyler, that blog is great! never seen it before, but i'm not much of a blog reader or downloader. but i like records.

yeah, it's a nice one, lots of good stuff.
i'm sure Lang is at least a little bit known in europe -- i mean, probably as much as in the USA.

i just bought a record on ebay cuz of that blog.
will probably buy many more in the weeks to come.

sweet! this thing is pretty excellent actually: http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/2012/04/rc-johnston-fahey-project.html

just got a promo of Digging in the Dust : Home Recordings 1976 by Mark Fosson, out next month on Tomkins Sq. Drag City put out his "Lost Takoma Sessions" a few years back. A little crossover w/ that, but this might actually sound better, despite being home demos. Really a great 12-string player, in the Kottke mode. you can stream it over yonder: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/audio/mark-fosson-digging-dust-exclusive-stream

:D thanks for the tip tyler.

it's pretty beautiful! amazing 12-string tone.

wow! great find!

speaking of which, anything come of that peter lang kickstarter campaign?

nah i keep meaning to call my friend, it was more talk over beers but we should!

those fosson demos sound GREAT, thank you

Listening to the Fosson collection now -- indeed, really spectacular listen and just beautifully recorded for home demos as well. It all sounds very un-1976, somehow.

Thanks Tyler I hadn't heard of this. Hey Ian, has any progress been made on the Homegas reissue you're friends were working on?

I don't think so, Jacob, nothing that I've heard. Keegan has been wrapped up doing the F.J. McMahon reissue. I think he wants to do a Tucker Zimmerman record next; he actually hasn't mentioned the Homegas project in a while.

Really stoked about a F.J. McMahon reissue!

:D it's a good record, and this is gonna sound better than the boot. i have heard the test pressing.

Is the boot you're referring to the UK CD on Revola?

i.e. this: http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=2112

I have not heard the CD.. there was an LP bootleg from maybe 10 years ago or so. Paste-on cover, no label info, mediocre sound.

GUYS!

GUESS WHO'S WIFE GOT HIM 6 GUITAR LESSONS WITH PETER LANG FOR FATHER'S DAY???
XD

wife otm

result!

pretty excited, i just need to call the west bank school of music to schedule

that is cool, i wanted to take lessons with a takoma-style dude who lived around here, but he moved away. keep us posted on how it goes! when is Transfiguration of the Upper Mississippi Shakedown scheduled to be released, anyway?

!!! awesome matt.

haha yeah i don't know when i'm going to schedule them, i almost feel like i'm too shitty to take lessons from him now

but at the end of the day just even being able to geek out and be in the same room, watch him play stuff etc

my friend that took lessons from him had a bunch of handouts from him like tabbed out sheet music for "in christ there is no east or west" by fahey and stuff like that :)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_I2cHuaRju4M/S4S576UqMBI/AAAAAAAAAEs/Q0IOHNNs0JA/s400/p000.jpg
full scans of this book over here: http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/2010/02/best-of-john-fahey-guitar-tab.html

that is really exciting, matt!

not takoma, but this is great. only heard one other track by this dude previously.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jYLDKDXUoNo/T-qbT9WISHI/AAAAAAAAEcM/xD7rSjqwaRo/s1600/conflower+front.jpg
http://ghostcapital.blogspot.com/2012/06/suni-mcgrath-cornflower-suite-1969.html

dl link seems to be down for the moment tho :/

That Mark Fosson record is sounding great today, thanks for posting that. Stream posted upthread still works btw. Pretty amazing sound for a home recorded set of tunes.

yeah i've been listening to that a ton.

It's sequenced/recorded as almost one continuous performance, or at least the mix and consistency of the performance makes it seem so. Can picture the guy (who looks super-young in the picture) sitting down and banging them out in one take, which would be pretty astounding. Considering he was renting the mic he recorded with, that just may be the case.

That Fosson record is incredible! Cosmic Hiccup is transcendent. And to whomever is getting the lessons from Peter Lang: how I envy and am saving up for what you're doing... as a wannabe fingerpicker, you'll have to let me/us know how it goes. I feel like it's something I should jump on once I get the cash, as it doesn't seem like an opportunity to be missed and one that won't be around forever...

Will keep you guys posted on how it goes....btw I don't think it's super expensive for the lessons, but I guess if you were traveling that could get expensive

I live in MPLS, but I live below a poverty wage at the moment so we'll see on that. I never even considered looking him up for lessons until you mentioned it, though, so thanks! Holy shit man.

He teaches through the west bank school of music if you want to inquire, but yeah a friend did it and had a lot of fun and said it really helped

hey i just downloaded that Fahey tab book.

ayo...um...did any of you guys, like, read some of the essay stuff he wrote at the beginning of the book o_O

like especially the "Homosexual Guitar" section is over the line in parts.

i guess i don't know that much about fahey as a dude, was he like super crazy?

he was kinda nuts, had some lame opinions/ideas. he probably just enjoyed pushing people's buttons too.

i haven't read that essay, though. was he saying that some male guitars like to have sex with other male guitars?

um...i wish...

can't C&P but here's a sampling:

"Those who fear their guitars are essentially cowardly faggots who have allowed themselves to be conquered by perverse tendencies. They are unable to sit anywhere for six hours under any circumstances. Their span of attention is short, but what is much worse is that they don't care....They have constituted themselves essentially as hatred, opposition - pure negativity. Homosexual guitar playing is an imitative gesture of the non-essential (i.e. temporary) characteristics of women - bitchiness, frivolity, flightiness, and super-sensitivity."

that's just a sampling

eek! would be interesting to ask Lang about that particular theory. provided he doesn't start your first lesson by calling you a "cowardly faggot."

i get the sense lang is a little more "normal" than fahey was

I'd heard quotes about how weird Fahey was in person and read him described as 'practiced at being obnoxious'. I'd say that type of writing up there is kind of a logical extension of his insane ramblings that made up his liner notes and his counter-counter-culture tendencies. Ever wonder where the title "Revolt of the Dyke Brigade" came from? In the Return of the Repressed liner notes he said that it was written 'around the time of women's lib, i was scared and insecure' or something similar. I feel like he reigned it in near the end, In 'How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life' he writes a quite sympathetic chapter about his gay friend that died and who couldn't be visited by his SO. I dunno.

Doesn't hurt/help that you can tell how hammered he was in a lot of his live cuts (and on record! the slurring voice on the song 'Days Have Gone By' is Fahey)

78 Collectors: Why are they so weird?

whoa holy shit @ that fahey excerpt

Not only is that passage willfully offensive, it doesn't really make any sense at all.

Hmm, not to defend J. Fahey too much, as certainly I haven't read this passage, but I imagine that the "(not) really making any sense at all" part of the equation should be weighed heavily. Guy struggled with a lot, but I don't think he was really a bigot in any way.

i shouldn't characterize the whole this like that, like from what i've read some of it is really good....it's just, i dunno, lots of stuff in that era (like lester and nick tosches as skot mentioned in another thread) were a little too free with the f- and n-words in their kinda jive writing

but that particularly line of though is pretty stupid macho bullshit, continued:

"Mastering a guitar is very similar to conquering a woman, and when you fail to master it, like when you fail to master a woman, you have the same feelings of humiliation and violence."

but honestly for there's tons of great stuff too!

"And you can win -- with any guitar. Sit there with it for six hours. No guitar can withstand the creative spirit that is in every human being. Anyone who calls his guitar a "box" does not understand. Anyone who calls his guitar an "axe" cannot play it very well."

<3

like you should just download the thing and read it, i feel a bit bad for calling that part out but goddamn some of it IS just offensive no other way around it.

uhm, that suni mcgrath record is great. all his records are great but that's my fave.
fahey is a very complicated individual. i would suggest reading his books before judging him as a bigot

i wasn't saying he was a bigot! that part just kinda jumped out at me and i didn't really know much about the dude tbh!

i mean large font headers called "Homosexual Guitar Playing" and "Guitar Angst" are sort of eye-grabbing

oh oh oh i know you weren't!! just advising anyone against making knee jerk assumptions abt the guy. there is a lot of sexual abuse/trauma in his past that he spent large chunks of his life dealing with.

plus his house was his car and it smelled like hamburgers

there's a bootleg from the mid 70s where Fahey suggests that everyone (including himself) commit mass suicide.
"We could all go to sleep. Why don't we all go home and - why don't we go out back and have a joint suicide? Let's all go out back and commit suicide. Every one of us. The neat thing would be when the newspapers come they won't know what happened. Nobody will be able to figure it out."

huh!

Lang's musical career was postponed in the 1980s, to allow him to pursue a career in animation and special effects production.

there's a bootleg from the mid 70s where Fahey suggests that everyone (including himself) commit mass suicide.
"We could all go to sleep. Why don't we all go home and - why don't we go out back and have a joint suicide? Let's all go out back and commit suicide. Every one of us. The neat thing would be when the newspapers come they won't know what happened. Nobody will be able to figure it out."

― tylerw, Friday, June 29, 2012 3:30 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa, which one was this? i've been just getting into some of the bootlegs on delta slider. some heavy stuff in there, musically, that is. most of his banter thus far has been lightly amusing. nothing like this.

delta-slider.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-fahey-as-jim-jones.html

Wow, that's pretty disturbing stuff, dude must've been more wrecked than I ever thought.

hey we all have our nights, don't we? ok, maybe not.

This older lady, a folksinger, was telling me about being backstage at a festival in the late 60s or early 70s, when a limo came cruising through the mud, and people were saying, "Yeah, Fahey's here!" A guy who looked like a Texas Ranger got out, so impressive--followed by "a little ol' snakehead in a t-shirt." The Texas Ranger type was Fahey's bodyguard, the folksinger was told. "Like a cult leader, bad vibes, and lame. He played well, of course." But also, he was known early on for a warped sense of humor, and wouldn't be surprised if this scene fit that description. Later, in his more typical econo-mode, a Creem writer saw him onstage with a 12-pack and a rented guitar (both required in the contract), watching a little portable TV while he played (again, no complaints about the playing). But he also spent a lot of time talking about his favorite shows (re-runs of Green Acres, Adam-12, etc) and the Creem writer liked some of those shows too, but wanted a little more music. Still, it was okay. Glenn Jones had some good recollections in liner notes for Red Cross, which I think was the last album Fahey finished before he died, it was pretty good. But the up close and personal memoir that really gets me is Andy Beta's (Andy used to post around here)
http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-01-24/music/looking-for-blind-joe-death/

thanks for the link, good article

yeah that's great
Other times, he would play his mixes: collages of Nazi rallies, Balinese gamelan, and recent Chicago blues licks with their verses and choruses mischievously lopped off, rearranging their 12- bar logic.
wonder if any of these still exist?

The Mark Fosson is great.

another good one is the john jeremiah sullivan essay, which features fahey a bit: http://essayist.tumblr.com/post/8424884997/unknown-bards-the-blues-becomes-transparent-about

just got a promo of a new (!) harry taussig album!
http://www.musicdirect.com/images/product/medium/94959.jpg

:D
wwant

Ha, I came here to post that press sheet, so anyway here tos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tompkins Square Releases American Primitive Guitar Pioneer Harry Taussig's First Album in 47 Years
'Fate Is Only Twice' Available on CD/LP/DL August 21, 2012
HT
Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, 'Fate Is Only Once' has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The album presages the broader movement. Acoustic musicians were still largely stuck in a rigid "Folk" mindset in 1965, and there are just not that many other examples of the exploratory guitar sounds found on 'Fate' during this time period. Alternating between haunting originals and jaunty blues-based traditional numbers, this absurdly rare LP was reissued by Tompkins Square in 2006. Taussig's only other recorded works appear on the long out-of-print Takoma compilation 'Contemporary Guitar Spring '67' alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Max Ochs and Bukka White. Taussig spent years as an educator, published instructional guitar books, and traveled extensively to photograph weird museums.

Amazingly, he returns with his first album in 47 years, appropriately titled 'Fate Is Only Twice'. The same stark, smoldering playing is evident, all the humor and inventiveness intact.

Available on LP (TSQ2738), CD (TSQ2745) and DL on August 21, 2012.
Tompkins Square is distributed by INgrooves/ Fontana in the US, Cargo UK for Europe, FUSE for Australia/NZ.

Here's a track from it, with other Tompkins Square posts linked in the lower right-hand rail
http://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/rondo-in-d-on-southern-themes

haw "traveled extensively to photograph weird museums"

Aaaaaah! Starting my lessons with Peter Lang today!

Sitting here sipping a coffee to "Transfiguration of..." and thinking pretty much everything is going to turn out alright. How could it not, with music like this in the world?

good luck!

sweet! i haven't set mine up yet....let me know how it is

here's to the new generation of homosexual guitar players!

Tyler's link to that John Jeremiah Sullivan excursion re and with Fahey leads to fine fine things, check it out thx tyler

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs106/1101382621048/img/116.jpg

Which is the cover for this:
Since 2005, Tompkins Square label's 'Imaginational Anthem' compilations have featured some of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world, with recordings spanning five decades. More than mere samplers, these albums have served as state-of-the-art dispatches from the front lines of the art form. The first three volumes, available as a low-priced box set, intermingled generations of American Primitive players - lost, forgotten masters next to contemporary players. Volume 4 saw a departure from that formula, featuring only new jack players.

Volume 5, available November 13, also features the current crop of younger players, but with a twist. This is the first volume not compiled by Tompkins Square's Josh Rosenthal. Instead, he recruited guitarist Sam Moss. Josh explains, "I felt I'd exhausted most of the older guys I wanted to dig up, and I wasn't hearing that much new guitar that I really liked. I sensed that Sam knew what was going on."

The result is a gorgeous panoramic view of contemporary guitar, full of agile finger-style, and a few jagged detours.

'Imaginational Anthem vol. 5' will also be available as part of the 6-CD box set, 'Imaginational Anthem vols. 1-5', (TSQ2790) out November 23 (Black Friday). The limited edition box (only 999 units) features all five volumes in their original packaging, plus an exclusive live disc from William Tyler (Lambchop), entitled 'Elvis Was A Capricorn.'

Imaginational Anthem vol. 5 track listing :

1. Temple Walk - Steve Gunn
2. I Think We'll Be Happy Here- Jordan Fuller
3. Lookout Point- Danny Paul Grody
4. There Is A Place In This Old Town- Nick Schillace
5. Hemet Pine Singer- Will Stratton
6. John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can- Bill Orcutt
7. Confederate Rose- Daniel Bachman
8. Through A House Of Violet Abandon- Eric Carbonara
9. Her Unmediated Eyes- Tom Lecky
10. Standing At The Entrance Of A Hidden City- Alexander Turnquist
11. Modern Man In Search Of A Song- Cam Deas
12. Rivers Gone Badly Wrong- Yair Yona

this series is always great.
seeing bill orcutt on here is making me happy, a step towards the weird & abrasive most artists in this series wld be afraid to touch

also: steve gunn is the best

yeah these comps are always a pleasure. love orcutt's song title. anyone heard daniel bachman's new one on tompkins sq. jack rose fans will love it.

I forgot who was wanting it, Evan maybe, but there's a copy of Homegas up for sale on ebay right now! I haven't seen one for sale since last year.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOLK-PSYCH-LP-HOMEGAS-S-T-TACOMA-LABEL-PRODUCED-BY-JOHN-FAHEY-/170925089715?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item27cbede3b3

tyler listening to that george cromarty - grassroots guitar albums you sent me
soooo goood.

also playing phone tag with peter lang! i have his number in my phone which is kinda cool. i spoke w/him briefly but have a message out now about lessons.

globaltetrahedron - did you ever do the lessons?

if yr still on ilm that is

cool, glad you're digging the cromarty.
root blog put it up over here http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=7596 along with his kids album (which is ehhhh) http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=7614

also: steve gunn is the best
he really is! i've really been listening to him a lot this year.

Oh my god, Craig Leon "Nommos" rules, what a strange and beautiful record this is

This is really the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5KRsRdFYA

This is the latest dispatch from my buddy John W., with intriguing links re Fahey and raga. Start from the top or scroll down:

For decades, Don Cherry's "Malkauns" was a favorite track of mine before I learned that the title is taken from a well-known and widely performed Indian raga; and therefore the entire piece is essentially a performance of the raga just the way any other track called "Raga Malkauns" by an Indian classical musician is. But now that I now this, I don't like the piece any less.

samples here:
http://www.amazon.com/Malkauns/dp/B001NU6EVK
and here:
http://www.last.fm/music/Don+Cherry/_/Malkauns
You're on your own as to locating and downloading an mp3 that has the whole thing.

So today I went over to the fabulous multimedia lending library to try to locate versions of the raga as done by Indian musicians -- ideally, to try to find one that sounds like what might have inspired Don Cherry and Charlie Haden so that I could hear the connection, how they got from A to B and came up with what they did.

As you can see at this link to the library's online catalogue, they have many recordings of the raga, but most of them are in the archive/storage and weren't available out in the bins:
http://www.lamediatheque.be/med/rech_n.php?intervenant=&morceau=&titre=malkauns&ref=

I did however find 4 recordings of Raga Malkauns on the premises (one of them included in the apparently encyclopedic "The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustanis Ragas", a book accompanied by 4 CDs). To my Occidental ear, none of the versions seem to bear any relation to each other or to the Don Cherry track -- except of course that they happen to use the same scale.

There's one exception however: the version by Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and his brother Zia Fariduddin Dagar, which lasts SIXTY-NINE MINUTES and is available on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W_AYI0n_Kg

If you listen to this all the way through, by the time you get to the end you can hypothesize that the drone that one of them often uses in the lowest register might have provided the original impetus for what Charlie Haden does on the bass on the Don Cherry version. And also by the end, the notes of the scale are ingrained enough in your brain that you also have a sense of how Don Cherry came up with the trumpet part. For instance, if you play the notes of the scale in your brain, and imagine them played on trumpet, you can produce an inferior but similar version of Don Cherry's improvising.

btw, my discovering Z.M. Dagar is something of a revelation -- this is seriously trippy stuff. When he's playing both with his brother and with other people, he's not accompanied by any percussion, and each of his CDs includes a performance of only one raga. 70 minutes' worth of the same raga, the same drone. And therefore, often the first 40 minutes (the opening "Alap" section) is nothing but drone with ornamentation, and then finally he introduces a pulse (in the concluding Jor and Jhala sections) -- except that the pulse is conveyed only via string instruments (the vina and accompanying tamburas).

I'm sorry to say this, but once you hear Z.M. Dagar's stuff, you hear how avant-garde minimalist guys like Phill Niblock and Glenn Branca have a long way to go, and Jim O'Rourke and Loren Mazzacane Connors should just pack it in altogether. On the other hand, the stuff that John Fahey was doing at the end of his career really is as good as Z.M. Dagar (e.g. check out the samples of the first four tracks of this:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/sea-changes-and-coelacanths-a-young-persons-guide-to-john-fahey-mw0000566552

If I understand the Indian musical system correctly, a raga is a scale (not necessarily the same notes ascending as those descending), the musician improvises on the scale, and then the resulting "piece" is simply given the title of the raga. So that in the end, any pieces called "Raga Yaman" might not sound any more similar to each other than, among Western composers, any two pieces called "String Quartet in C major" do.

But still, this seems very strange to me when I read liner notes of Indian music CDs and then attempt a cultural transposition and come up with examples like these:

1. "Beethoven's 5th Symphony is surely the most compelling and insistent performance of C minor in recorded musical history."

2. "John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' stands as what is likely the most moving rendition of the Dorian mode, especially in D."

3. "Charlie Parker's compositions 'Constellation' and 'Anthropology' belong to the harmonic system known as 'Rhythm Changes', whose pieces are traditionally performed in the milieu of urban clubs late at night, between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m."

snagged an original pressing of
peter lang - the thing at the nursery room window
last nite! :) :)

(it's the one pictured upthread with the amazing sphinx art!!! love it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du7O8pF5ddU

Jesus, when oh WHEN will someone reissue this fucking album?? It's one of the greatest folk albums ever made, and one of about five records I can think of that I'd easily drop $100 on without even thinking about it. Grrrr.

I'm desperate to find a copy as well. That particular song sounds kind of Leonard Cohen-y to me btw.

http://ghostcapital.org/phil-yost-fog-hat-ramble-takoma-1968/

i need a copy of fog hat ramble.. i have the other two yost records and love them.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/clt/3892820791.html

that's a bit spendy!

interested in this:

IN SEARCH OF BLIND JOE DEATH: THE SAGA OF FAHEY . . ..A Documentary by James Cullingham

tangentially related: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0985302801/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_asp_wTEmF.1DXF9ZB

I know this guy was pretty involved in the 'Your Past...' box set, dunno if it's a retread of some of that or like an expanded Fahey Files kinda thing, sorta curious, but tight on $ right now, so I'm not about to find out.

I mean like:
"Each record is presented with all its known issues and variations."

sounds too much for even me. 476 pages! and that's just volume 1. ah, who am I kidding, I'll buy it eventually.

i bought it.

Taking one for the team. Interested to hear how that is btw.

Craig Leon's Nommos appears to be about to be properly reissued. I'm delighted by this after just discovering it upthread.

http://www.superiorviaduct.com/products/craig-leon-nommos

fahey book sounds great. too bad it looks like this! come on, design a cover, dudes!
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xDUHh2siL._SY300_.jpg

also kind of amazing that the list price is $57 and amazon is selling it for $13? guess i should buy it quick.

Yeah, it's ugly. And the supposed inflated price is exactly why I snapped it up when I did! I 'll report back on what it exactly is once it comes...

i ordered it too! BOOK CLUB!

Ordered. Looks great. Can't beat the price, either. Let's meet back here in two weeks and discuss!

for those interested -- my friend who is working on the Homegas reissue has been in touch with all the surviving members, has gotten some awesome rare photos, and is going to continue working towards getting it reissued. This is the same dude who did the F.J. McMahon record so you know it'll be high quality.

(also just ordered that book, lol saving money.)

Now I will quit bumming out that I lost a bid on a clean copy of that Homegas LP last week (went for over $150). One up now that looks OK - cover's trashed but the vinyl looks fine - already over $50. Can't swing it, not with this ridiculous free jazz list up right now. Err, perhaps I've said too much.

Ian, please keep me posted re: this reissue. Holy grail record for me, one of three or four LPs I'd drop $100 on if I saw it

yeah what's the label?

circadian press. small one man operation.

Welp, my "Fahey handbook" came, it appears to be a combination of truly useless arcanum (a family tree of Fahey's great grandfather?, truly obsessive levels of categorizing of each and every pressing of every single Fonotone issue and reissue) combined with quite interesting-seeming biographical and songwriting details I haven't seen yet scattered throughout. Glad I bought it, but glad i didn't drop 50 bucks on it also. I suppose the maniacal level of detail is useful for collectors and whatnot, but I don't know if this is a book you can exactly 'read' per se

how the hell did the Sir Douglas Quintet's "Best Of" LP come out on this label?? at first I thought it had the wrong inner sleeve. such a non sequitur.

Prob contract filler after SDQ's Border Wave, also on Takoma (and Takoma-Crysalis), in 1981. Here's my fave track---a Kinks kover, but fits their sound perfectly, which was the orig premise of the deal (Hey Kids! Yall like that skinny tie, skinny organ New Wave sound---here's Border Wave! Of course the original Sir Douglas premise, w "She's About A Mover" etc. was also re Southwestern influences on Brit Invasion)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WcinP-YgyM#t=24

I haven't seen any mention of this record which is nice 12 string with xylophone
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8454/7994234850_fa6aa6a34e_z.jpg

test imbed (Fahey live, full show)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCOQr7o8A4

Maybe it'll show a frame if I spell it rite?
test embed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCOQr7o8A4

fug---one more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCOQr7o8A4

[url] doesn't help either.

really loving this!

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20080506/270235271611.jpg

one side has just two long a cappella songs. trance-inducing.

dow - to embed you need to delete the s in https

that J.B. Smith is great.

Similar vibe to Bukka White's "Sky Songs."

Can anyone speak about sq differences between the Rvng, Intl reissue of Craig Leon's Nommos and the Superior Viaduct reissue? I've heard that the Rvng, along with adding Visiting and using entirely different cover art, is a noisy pressing, but I also recall reading a piece in The Wire in which Leon himself disapproved of the Superior Viaduct edition for whatever reason. Providing one is unable to procure an og Takoma pressing, which reissue is preferable?

Also, is it weird that this was reissued by two different labels less than a year apart?

I'm so excited to finally have found a copy of Homegas, and the disc itself looks near mint.