Beat at Cinecitta Series

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The Beat At Cinecitta series, issued by the utterly fantastic label Crippled Dick Hot Wax, is a collection of Italian soundtrack sounds from the sexier, steamier side of Italian cinema. There are three editions of Beat At Cinecitta, both on vinyl and CD. Volume three was limited to 3000 vinyl copies so if you find one, scoop it up fast.

These sounds are addictive–once you start, if your ear is so inclined, you won’t be able to stop collecting them. For me, the gateway drug was a CD called Women In Lounge, which features the same kinds of sounds you’ll get from the Beat At Cinecitta collections…naturally I couldn’t stop there!

To whet your appetite, have a listen to some of these clips–they truly are amazing. Lounge-y, groove-a-delic, with a surreal tinge at times that makes you wonder who spiked the punch at the go-go club. All three of the Beat At Cinecitta releases are essential.

–Joe Wallace


The second clip takes a moment to get started, but it’s worth the wait.

The third track is much more lounge-driven…short, sweet, and should be listened to whilst in a swanky airport departure lounge sipping cappuccino.

WTF Records: Pink Panther, Frankenberry Disco and Paul Klee

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by Joe Wallace

I am a rabid fan of bad album art, but I am also a collector of weirdness on vinyl. Sometimes weirdness manifests itself by goofy juxtapositions of style and content–the Ethel Merman disco album or the Lord of the Rings Disco Theme are two great examples. And then there are the vinyl record projects that are so brain-crushingly odd they defy reason.

For example, why did the artists choose to create an album where they musically interpret the work of abstract painter Paul Klee? That’s exactly what The National Gallery decided to do on the record titled “Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee”.

What’s more, it’s going for upwards of $65!! Apparently Chuck Mangione–famous in the 70s for being a horn blower in the same way Kenny G was famous in the 90s for saxophone warbling–wrote some of this. What I want to know is WTF exactly was going through their heads (acid?) when they decided the project should be committed to vinyl. Maybe it sounds awesome–I have no idea, but as a CONCEPT it’s amazingly left-of-center. Bravo.

What would you say if you were sitting in your record executive’s office and someone approached you about releasing a vinyl LP, presumably aimed at the kiddies, featuring a then-famous cartoon character? Good idea, right?

But there’s just one problem with Pink Panther Country as a concept–the Pink Panther character in those original cartoons NEVER SPOKE. And on top of that, the music the show was known for was a very jazzy, hepcat sort of sound–not country. Regardless, somebody saw fit to issue this little nuttiness on vinyl–as a picture disc to boot!

And finally, there’s my favorite of the bunch in this post–something which now seems so wrong-headed and insane that I can’t imagine it ever looking like a good idea unless you were in the middle of a bag of blow.

In the 70s, when disco exploded and everybody and their grandma dropped ‘ludes and wore silver lame, some marketing genius thought it would be a good idea to get the KIDS emulating their drugged-out parents in some fashion, no doubt pretending the local Rotary Club was Studio 54. If only they had thought to combine quaaludes with breakfast cereal, this might have actually made sense in a sort of Doctor Evil context:

The breakfast cereal monsters snort coke off naked hookers! The breakfast cereal monsters crash a car into a concrete pillar on the highway after too many highballs and spliffs in the men’s room! The breakfast cereal monsters hallucinate spiders crawling all over them after taking one too many toots from a bag of cocaine laced with angel dust! So none of that actually happens on this record–but it SHOULD have.

I do not own ANY of these records…yet. I am now on a mission to locate them so I can report more fully on the contents. This nonsense deserves to be heard. Credit where credit is due–I discovered ALL this insanity at the super-awesome FrankLaRosa.com vinyl gallery, which is fearsomely impressive. My mind has been permanently damaged by his collection of amazingly weird records. I highly recommend a visit.

 

Are You Going to Cinema Wasteland?

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The mighty horror convention Cinema Wasteland is rapidly approaching, and Turntabling marks its second show as a vendor there. I have to say, CW organizers Ken and Pam are completely awesome, always put on a hell of a show, and even manage to find time to chat a bit while going in six directions at once.

I can’t say enough great things about this show–the guest list is always stellar, the movies play non-stop on film and DVD projection, and the hardest of the hardcore horror fan set is out in force twice a year in Strongsville Ohio. This show is minutes from downtown Cleveland.
Right off the Ohio Turnpike (I-80/90) & I-71.

Turntabling is bringing more amazing vinyl than ever–this will be the most vinyl I’ve ever taken to a show to sell, hands down. The Chicago-based Flashback show was a great one, but I have even MORE vinyl on hand for Wasteland. If you want to see a very small sampling of the goodies I’ll bring with me, have a look at my for-sale list of vinyl and CDs at Discogs.com.

I only have about 200 albums and discs listed for sale there at present, I’m working on that…I bring MUCH MORE to the shows these days. How much more? How about ten milk crates or so full?

That’s right–the Turntabling stock has increased exponentially since my last appearance at Cinema Wasteland and I am ALWAYS looking for more. If you need to unload a large pile of albums, by all means get in touch with me at jwallace@turntabling (dotnet).

Please consider coming out for Cinema Wasteland–my vinyl titles aside, the show is a hell of a lot of fun and there is so much great stuff going on that weekend I can’t even begin to describe them all.

Have a look at the CW site to learn the full line-up, which includes William Forsythe, Davide Emge from the original Dawn of the Dead, Frank “Basket Case” Henenlotter, Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame, Kyra “I ate mommy in Night of the Living Dead” Schon, and too many other awesome names to list here.

WTF Album Covers: Amazing Grace

WTF?

by Joe Wallace

For reasons I’ll never understand, gospel records are a particular type of awful. The covers do a GREAT job at communicating that you really, really, REALLY don’t want to listen to what’s on the record, don’t they? I mean, LOOK at this crap. For people who are all ate up about sarrrvan tha lawwwourd, they don’t pay ANY attention to how they’re presenting the message they want to get across. Behold, my bretheren, the warped nonsense of gospel album cover hell…

…partners in an INTELLECTUAL SUICIDE PACT.

An amazing BUMMER. Put this one on the next time you desperately need to clear out a room. That party going on too long? Whip this little beauty onto the stereo and watch your friends FLEE IN TERROR.

Camp Meeting Resurrection? Seriously? Are you telling me there’s someone out there who takes one look at this album cover and ISN’T looking for the purple Kool-Aid? Cuz this has Jonestown written all over it. As in, you’ll be PLEADING for the Kool-Aid after listening to this for five seconds.

Ever notice that all these album covers that are shrieking about Jesus always have somebody ELSE’S FACE on them? It’s easy to understand why some people might get confused into thinking Jimmy Swaggart is God–the album titles are all about the Jesus, but it’s Jimmy’s hambone face. LOOK at this guy–I definitely would NOT buy a hot dog from him.