When it comes to 80s music, there is NOTHING stranger than born again Christian new wave. Some artists in this genre were out-and-out hypocritical, writing albums with heavy gay bashing lyrics  AND songs complaining of discrimination against born-againers. Steve Taylor was the worst of this lot, singing out of both sides of his mouth with "Whatever Happened To Sin?" ("I heard the reverend say/gay/is probably normal in the good Lord's sight...I'm no morality nut/but/the reverend may be a little confused") and "Meat The Press" (A Christian can't get equal time/unless he's a loony/committing a crime"). To be fair, I'm guessing (hoping?) Taylor wishes he could take back the worst of his 80s excesses... On the opposite side of the fence is the band responsible for the album cover pictured here. Daniel Amos never indulged in the sort of nonsense some of their contemporaries did in attacking "non-believers". Quite the opposite, Daniel Amos reserved their poison pens for members of their own movement. Here is a band that took aim at televangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker long before it became popular to do so on daytime television back in the late 80s. The real genius of Daniel Amos--especially this album, Fearful Symmetry--is edgy ...

I have no idea how this one passed me by in June, but the new vinyl by Stereolab, Chemical Chords is being hailed as one of their best. The album, MP3 download or CD, your choice. I'm always a bit skeptical of some new music that is recorded digitally then put on vinyl, but Stereolab has always had great analog textures to their music. Much like Chris Joss--a musician who uses recording techniques firmly rooted in the 21st century but still has a dedication to audio fidelity and actual honest-to-god instruments--Stereolab is always going to sound warm, interesting and perfectly suited for vinyl. I don't have this one as I've just now been hipped to it, but it's being added to the collection with haste.

Many moons ago I posted about my old band mates, Pink Filth and the vinyl-only 17 Bubblegum Smashes. I'd forgotten that before I came into the fold, the Pink Filth crew put out this vinyl album, Sugar Shock. You can hear the title track in all its glory, but this one really is a lot more fun in its original format on the turntable. This album is sadly out of print. Another one that is out of print is one I have been dying to hear ever since the days I played with the group on stage, The Minnesota Fats Domino Theory Of Relativity 7-inch on pink vinyl. Oh, and you just have NOT lived unless you've seen Pink Filth doing Dancing Queen live...those days are gone forever, but the memories live on. You can see what some of the old Filthers are up to these days at Socket Sounds, home of Hyperbubble. I also stumbled across this review of the old 17 Bubblegum Smashes LP, at a blog called Crud Crud and while the review itself is older than dirt, this blog is still in existence, I am happy to say. Its aesthetics mirror my own in many ways. I ...

While I do love a bit of the old vintage George Clinton, that's not the reason I bought this piece of vinyl. Instead, I bought it because the whole thing is massive "borrowing" (with appropriate thanks in the liner notes) of Church of the SubGenius schtick. The center graphic, with Clinton's face over the legend "Inspired madman or complete jackass?" is classic Ivan Stang. I have yet to listen to this, the graphics were enough to make me get it...as with many of my vinyl purchases, when you're flipping through the bargain used bin, any strange thing that grabs your eye is enough to justify buying. That's how I got Pop Against Pope, which I will have to review and post MP3s for next week, once I've relocated it in the stacks. It's also how I discovered 4 Out of 5 Doctors, Pictures on a String, Comateens, and the much reviled Lung Overcoat This George Clinton album gets high ratings by some fans, so I am hoping it's a roof-shaker. Of course, I'm the guy who can listen to Funkadelic's "DooDoo Chasers" more than once, so maybe in this case my judgement is a bit faulty. How can you NOT be ...

Pricey pleasures are the ones you know you SHOULDN'T purchase, but there you are, reaching for your wallet anyway. Today's winner comes courtest of Eli.com, who at the time this is written have only one single, solitary copy of The Orb's three-song 12-inch single for A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld. This would be the 1990 UK reissue 3-track 12" vinyl single including Loving You Orbital Mix, Bucket & Spade Mix & Why Is Six Scared Of Seven. Final price for this tasty bit of Orb fun? More than $40 worthless US dollars after shipping. My, oh, MY! That's well above ten dollars per song. Granted, it's an all-time favorite, but this is one instance where common sense seems to be winning out over my vinyl fetish. Besides, for about the same money I can pick up a Joy Division double album set of Martin Hannett's personal mixes on 180 gram blue vinyl. Mmmmm, tasty.

Tender Loving Empire recently announced Boy Eats Drum Machine's next album, Booomboxxx, due out on vinyl and disc on 10/28. I got an advance copy in the post today and I am happy to report this album is full of sonic treats--especially for those who love their headphone candy. Sure, you could listen to this on the speakers (or studio monitors like I do), but I strongly suggest using a nice pair of headphones to enjoy this one as here is much fun to be had with those sounds up close and personal. Horns, nice soulful vox (without sounding like some kind of Sam Cooke knockoff I might add), plenty of sonic goodness. Boy Eats Drum Machine is Portland's Jon Ragel with some kickass guest drummers including Danny Seim from Menomena and several others. Ragel really grabbed my ears with the track "I'm Alive Don't Bury Me" which instantly made me think of Serpent And The Rainbow, the creepy Wes Craven movie. This album is packed with great, herky-jerky beats and scratches and a nice deep dark analogue synth groove that, on proper equipment, can be felt in your STERNUM. Nice one, BEDM. Enjoy an advance sampling of five tracks from this ...

While out shopping for vinyl tonight I ran across these two delicious finds.I have a huge weakness for anything so wonderfully perverse as Switched-On Rock/The Moog Machine's old hippie classics re-worked into Moog-synthesized mini-masterpieces. You thought your stereo was broken when you listened to Nine Inch Nails The Fragile, try the super-freaked out synth patches on "You Just Keep Me Hangin' On". I actually checked the monitors to make sure I hadn't lost the tweeters. Hah! With stuff like this, first you listen cuz it's cheesy fun. After a few go rounds with it, you actually start hearing how it...could...be...good somehow. This stuff is brilliant. Like eating a brick of jalapeno Velveeta. You know you shouldn't, but you can't stop yourself. My favorite part of this two-dollar purchase is actually the liner notes, by "Album conceiver and macrobopper" Russ Barnard. Check out this hilariously dated bit: "One thing must be stressed: This album is virtually 100% Moog--only two instruments are live. One is the drum set; Moog drums are possible, but in this stage of the art, sound kind of mechanical and ricky-tick." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! That's 1967 thinking for you... The Isaac Hayes Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak) is just as great in its own way. ...

Before Bjork started caterwauling about UFOs, before the Sugarcubes was upping the weirdo factor on MTV's 120 Minutes with Dave Kendall (whatever happend to THAT guy?) Iceland was growing a great indie music scene that went totally unappreciated in America...except by Enigma Records. Geyser is an anthology released on vinyl in 1987 featuring a nice lineup of talented groups from the land of the midnight sun. Iceland's indie scene is even more fascinating today with blokes like Bardi Johannsson (aka Bang Gang), but before Bardi, there was Kukl, Hoh, Bubbi Morthens and Das Kapital tearing things up. This album covers all the bases from techno throb to the great, Crass-like screaming about "the man on the cross" on Kukl's stellar track. Mickey Dean and De Vunderfoolz give some new wave/Billy Idol thrills with "Citified"...there simply isn't a bad cut on this album. I have no idea why Enigma released this in 1987, but I am so grateful they did...it gave me a lot to look for when I finally made to Iceland for two years in 1999. Icelandic indie lovers should also search high and low for a two-CD soundtrack to the film Rokk i Reykjavik, a concert film roughly equivalent to ...

One of my favorite vinyl collecting quirks is picking up soundtrack records from odd, obscure or surreal-seeming movies that I've never seen-it becomes a challenge to find the damn movie! At times the soundtracks are better than the films, but the search and discovery is fun anyway. For some reason the Italians and the French put really excellent sounds into their skin flicks, erotic movies and left-of-center romance/thrillers. If you go to my favorite record store, Dusty Groove America, you will find this particular sexy Italian soundtrack out of stock as I managed to grab it up before it even had a chance to collect dust. Or was that the Le Beat Bespoke disc I found the same day? I can't remember which was new or not...but this one is everything I hoped it would be. If you like Morricone, you should invest some coin in some Piero Umilliani. Well worth the cash for anyone who owns more than one of the Maestro's 60s and 70s soundtracks.

I love vintage album covers. My favorites include any of the misguidedly cheesy "erotic" album covers by Mystic Moods Orchestra or any of the swinging bachelor pad album covers. Now I have stumbled across this book, The Vixens of Vinyl, and I have to say, it is essential coffee table reading for anyone who shares my strange fixation on vinyl album covers, people in outdated sexy costumes with too much eye makeup. In this book, Benjamin Darling collects the finest array of decidedly pre-feminist album art from Esquivel, Martin Denny and other vintage bachelor pad artistes. This one's 132 pages worth of raging hormones, nonstop racy artwork featuring models with too much hairspray.