What A Rip Day 89 – Lido Deck Edition!

Esquire All-American Jazz Concert

(We have a room in our house we call the Lido Deck. It was at one time a porch, we think, but the previous owners sort of sealed it up to make a room. As was their way, they did a bad job of it. The windows have the screens on the inside, rather than the outside, but that doesn’t even matter, because they don’t actually open anyway. But we weren’t sure what to call it, since it’s a not a porch or a bedroom or anything, so we went with Lido Deck. Not because of anything to do with cruise ships, but because we listen to the Lido Shuffle by Boz Scaggs in there constantly. Just kidding! He’s terrible. Anyway, this CD was in the CD player on the Lido Deck. I once heard a song off it on the radio and went out at lunch and searched for the CD. It’s a two disc set of a who’s who of  jazz at the time it was recorded. Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, and Billie Holiday are a few of the names attached to this. So that’s cool. But the best part about this is how I can put it on, and my son immediately stops what he’s doing and boogies like you’ve never seen. It’s amazing, and therefore I had this in the CD player at the ready in case he went near it.)

Folder Size: 305.11GB

What A Rip - Day 88 - Odds, Ends, and Oddities

They Might Be Giants 3” CD Singles – They’ll Need A Crane, (She Was A) Hotel Detective, Don’t Let’s Start

(These are really cool, and I will probably not put them in storage, because they are neat to look at, as well as weird relics. One even has a hilarious message left by some old people who were listening to Dial-A-Song, and couldn’t seem to figure it out.)

Frank Zappa 3” CD Single – Montana (Whipping Floss)

(Dude yells out for Whipping Post when they were about to do Montana, so they meet him halfway.)

The Nits – In The Dutch Mountains

(My friend Bill lived across the hall from me one year, and he was a bit of a Dutchophile. He got me into these guys, who are obviously from the Netherlands. One of these songs has a rooster sound in it, and the first time I heard it I didn’t realize it was on the record, and I was freaked out about where a rooster could be hiding on campus.)

Paul Weller – Wild Wood

(I have a trip-hop version of the song Wild Wood on a mix tape, but this CD was given to us by our friend Sam Glicksman, Providence’s best real estate agent. Our street name was Wildwood, so he busted this out.)

Folder Size:  304.56GB 

What A Rip - Day 87

This is the last of the CDs that were in some sort of organized form. There are some that need to be located (empty cases) and possibly some hidden in unexpected spots. I also have some mini CD singles somewhere I need to dig out. No one remembers those. The cassingle of CDs!

Uncle Tupelo – March 16-20, 1992

(Looks like a bootleg, I am told it is not. Took a long time to figure out what CD went in this case because there’s no writing on the CD itself. MYSTERY!)

Thomas “Fats” Waller – Ain’t Misbehavin’ – Sixteen Great Piano Solos, 1929-1941

(With the current obesity epidemic, “Fats” may come back as a musician nickname.)

Tom Waits – Bone Machine

(Perhaps confusingly, unrelated to anything to do with the Pixies.)

Pipeline! Live Boston Rock on WMBR

(Pretty amazing Boston musical time capsule.)

The Weak Moments –S/T

(I don’t know anything about this, and when I looked it up, the person who put it out stopped hearing from the band shortly before this was released. Nobody knows anything about them!)

The Waxwings – Low To The Ground

(The title is a reference to a famous LBJ phone call about getting fitted for pants.)

Wavves – Wavves

(I think we won this somehow or something. I think my ears are too old to hear this.)

Sacred Hearts and Fallen Angels – The Gram Parsons Anthology

(In case we didn’t have enough, two more CDs worth.)

Whiskeytown – Faithless Street

(You see, the country singers like to drink whiskey.)

Barry White’s Greatest Hits

(One of the many things ruined by Ally McBeal.)

Weezer – Pinkerton

(I do not get the obsessiveness of Weezer fans. I do, however, enjoy making fun of Rivers Cuomo, so it evens out.)

Weeping In Fits And Starts – This Wreck Is Goin’ Down

(Collin was in this band, but not on this record. I hope she’s not responsible for the wreck.)

The Wedding Present – Singles 1995-97, Saturnalia

(The Boy Gedge, and his catchy numbers.)

Gary Young – Hospital

(PLANT MAN! BLUGGUDA BLUGGUDA BLUGGUDA BLUGGUDA.)

Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth

(This band is like H.P. Lovecraft to me, in that it’s something I kept hearing about being amazing, and I finally manage, after a lot of effort, to track some down, and it all gets reissued like a week later.)

Neil Young – Decade

(The best thing about Neil Young was him saying hi to his dog on some talk show once, and his dog’s name was Carl.)

Frank Zappa (and/or The Mothers of Invention) – You Can’t Do That On The Radio Anymore, Freak Out!, Apostrophe/Overnite Sensation, We’re Only In It For The Money/Lumpy Gravy

(If you don’t like Frank Zappa, try another record. There’s something for everyone.)

The Zombies – Odessey and Oracle

(We have another Zombie CD that is missing in action, so this will have to do in the meantime. And the misspelling in the title is intentional on their part. Settle down.)

The John Zorn Radio Hour

(“Downtown Jazz” artist plays songs he likes, as well as some Naked City tracks. I think “downtown jazz” should be used to describe whatever it is doctors do when they examine people’s nether regions.)

Folder Size: 303.7GB

What A Rip - Day 86

The Verve – Urban Hymns

(It will come as no surprise that I never get tired of singing “Bittersweet Symphony” as “Bittersweet Chimpanzee.)

Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

(Way less doo-wop than that other Four Seasons.)

Tom Waits – The Early Years (Vol.2), The Black Rider, Nighthawks At The Diner, Rain Dogs, Frank’s Wild Years

(My favorite personal anecdote about Tom Waits was when a friend asked me about The Black Rider, and I described it as “sounding like Tom Waits wrote the music for some weird German play.” He got mad and thought I was being a jerk. Then he bought it and found I was not lying. It is actually a weird German play that Tom Waits wrote the music for.)

Velo-Deluxe – Superelastic

(A John Strohm band that is not the Blake Babies.)

The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat

(A friend of a friend allegedly transcribed “The Gift” and turned it in as his creative writing assignment, and got a B. He then wrote a song about this.)

Gary Wilson – Mary Had Brown Hair

(Gary saw Linda last night, kissing Frank Roma. He was sad. Years later he apparently let Frank play sax in his band.)

Wire – Pink Flag

(Rick Santorum does not approve of this flag.)

X – Wild Gift/Los Angeles

(I’ve often wondered how they got Ray Manzarek to stop talking about himself long enough to produce these records.)

XTC – Upsy Daisy Assortment

(The Bob The Builder theme borrows heavily from Senses Working Overtime, or at least is just close enough to get it in my head every time.)

Yacht – Mega

(I think someone gave me this because they thought I would like it better than they did. Now this band seems like kind of a big deal. Circle of life.)

Dwight Yoakam – There Was A Way

(When he’s not busy getting a lawnmower blade to the head courtesy of Billy Bob Thornton, he makes records.)

Yo La Tengo – Fakebook, Painful, President Yo La Tengo/New Wave Hot Dogs, Tom Courtenay, Autumn Sweater, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, Nuclear War, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo, Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo, Strange But True (with Jad Fair), Selections From

(Holy crap, that’s a lot of Yo La Tengo. Now we have to figure out a way to determine if we have more Yo La Tengo or J.R.R. Tolkien, and which of them would win in a fight.)

Folder Size: 294.55GB

What A Rip - Day 85

Versus – The Stars Are Insane, Let’s Electrify!

(I used to love these guys back in the day, but they’re another band that I think lost some intensity on record. Live, they were amazing.)

The Velvet Underground – S/T, The Velvet Underground and Nico

(I think it’s the law to have these.)

Velocity Girl - ¡Simpatico!, Copacetic, Sorry Again, S/T

(The high point of being on the indiepop list was having an off-list discussion with Archie Moore, and having him tell me he liked my band – unsolicited!)

The Vaselines – The Way Of The Vaselines

(Rich now because Nirvana covered them. Just like the Meat Puppets.)

Van Dyke Parks – Discover America

(I need to listen to this again, but my memory of it is that everything was super quiet, and weirdly calypso.)

Lucinda Williams – Sweet Old World, World Without Tears, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

(I knew about her, but never really checked her out until I heard “Overtime” on WMBR and thought it was an old song. It was not, but it got me very interested.)

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Mermaid Avenue (with Billy Bragg), Being There, Summerteeth, A.M.

(Many records, many styles. I would say all of these were successful experiments, though some of the later ones not listed here I’m not so sold on.)

The White Stripes – De Stijl, White Blood Cells

(I didn’t pay much attention to them until I heard “Why Can’t You Be Nicer To Me?” which was too Zeppelin to be ignored.)

Folder Size: 286.06GB

What A Rip - Day 84

Unrest – Cath Carroll, Malcolm X Park, B.P.M. [1991-1994], Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation, Isabel Bishop, Perfect Teeth, Imperial f.f.r.r.

(Yeah, I kind of like Unrest. This doesn’t count what I have on vinyl, either. 7”s aplenty.)

Twin Peaks Soundtrack

(I remember getting this and thinking the donut on the disc itself was a nice touch.)

Uncle Tupelo – No Depression, Anodyne, Still Feel Gone

(Your favorite uncle.)

Tsunami – Deep End

(Seeing the note on the sleeve to send a stamp for a catalog makes me super nostalgic.)

Trampoline – Dormer

(I have absolutely no idea about this. It’s on Spin Art, though, so I’ll give it a listen.)

Trembling Blue Stars – Broken By Whispers

(That title pretty much sums it up.)

Trio – Da Da Da

(My roommate in college had this, and it was one of those things that I had always meant to get, but never remembered. Then they used Da Da Da in a Volkswagen ad, and it was easy to remember, but then I felt like everyone would think I was a Johnny Come Lately.)

Tones On Tail – S/T

(Bauhaus guitarist’s post-Bauhaus pre-Love And Rockets band.)

Toog – 6633

(The French Momus. Same label and everything.)

Tindersticks – S/T, Curtains

(This is a band that people describe as “cinematic,” and I agree with that assessment. Very moody, would be perfect in movies. Any movie. Even weird fetish ones.)

Folder Size: 280.34GB

What A Rip - Day 83

Captain Beefheart – Trout Mask Replica

(My son thinks this CD cover is hilarious. Fish guy!)

Sally Timms – Cowboy Sally

(Far superior to Mustang Sally.)

3Ds – Fish Tales/Swarthy Songs For Swabs, The Venus Trail, Hellzapoppin

(Flying Nun, the best label ever.)

They Might Be Giants – Lincoln, Istanbul Not Constantinople (EP), Istanbul Not Constantinople (radio promo), Twisting (single)

(I actually learned about these guys from People magazine, of all places, and even before they had a record deal. For some reason People ran a bit on them, and it sounded awesome. Not that much later, I came across their first album in a record store, and boy did I like the crap out of that thing.)

13th Floor Elevators – The Psychedelic Sounds Of

(The liner notes of this are near impossible to read, since I think they just scanned the vinyl record sleeve.)

Television Personalities – Part Time Punks, And Don’t The Kids Just Love It, They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles

(Delightful pop from a dude REALLY into Syd Barrett.)

Richard and Linda Thompson – Shoot Out The Lights

(This is a record where the songs are great, but the production sounds really dated. That’s the 80s for you. Some day the wife and I may remake a song off here for our imaginary album in which we save good songs from bad production choices of bygone days.)

10,000 Maniacs – Hope Chest

(Their early recordings, which I tend to like better than their later stuff. Not as preachy, or at least less obvious about it.)

Television – Marquee Moon

(Hope you like guitar, kid.)

Teenage Fanclub – Songs From Northern Britain, Norman 3, Bandwagonesque

(See, I told you we had more. The alphabet must have been playing tricks on me again.)

Folder size: 274.58GB

What A Rip - Day 82

Teenage Fanclub – A Catholic Education

(The other whole mess of Teenage Fanclub records we have must still be saying their penance.)

Tuscadero – Step Into My Wiggle Room, The Pink Album

(I used to love this band, but their live show was always more energetic than the recordings.)

Tegan and Sarah – So Jealous

(I remember getting this CD and then posting something about it somewhere, and some Canadian guy got all bent out of shape because in Canada it was way overplayed, but I had had a hard time finding it. Also, angry Canadians are very dangerous.)

Tiny Tim and Brave Combo – Girl

(This is an amazing record. Really. I played the version of Stairway To Heaven on here for my dad, and he replied that he liked it better than the original.)

The Tardy – The Tardy

(Shumai played with them a bunch back in the day, and they always seemed fairly on time.)

Talulah Gosh – Backwash 

(Concept album about that one time in college that I picked up what I thought was my beer but it totally was not.)

Tall Dwarfs – Weeville

(I have met a tall dwarf, but he was not in this band.)

The Best of Sweet

(Contains a tale about a boy named William who has some sort of shortcoming, in addition to overstaying his welcome.)

Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World

(For a long time, when a song off here came on shuffle, we always thought it was something off some weird Elvis Costello record we were unfamiliar with.)

Superchunk – No Pocky For Kitty, Foolish, Tossing Seeds

(So many good memories of Superchunk shows over the years, but the memory that stands out is the annoying time I was next to some chump yelling “PLAY SOME SEBADOH” in between every song.)

The Sundays – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

(This holds up better than you might think. Or better than I thought, I think.)

John P. Strohm and the Hello Strangers – Caledonia

(Member of the Blake Babies who lived in an apartment after my wife moved out of it, and the roof fell in on him.)

Folder Size: 270.48GB 

What A Rip - Day 81

Stereo Total – S/T, Musique Automatique

(Juke Box Alarm is an empty case! I’ll find it. Don’t panic.)

Stereolab – Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, Dots and Loops, Mars Audiac Quintet, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Refried Ectoplasm, Lo-Fi, Turn On, Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements

(Maybe I had a bit of a Stereolab problem. Turn On isn’t a Stereolab record per se, but it has enough of them on it that I count it. Better than Radiolab.)

Squeeze – Singles 45’s and Under

(I never thought it would happen with me and the girl from Clapham. Which is good, because it didn’t. Low expectations win.)

Sugar – Copper Blue

(Bob Mould has been on a weird ride. I never thought he’d go from here to the WWF.)

Tobin Sprout – Moonflower Plastic

(This was the Jolly Green Giant’s sidekick.)

Sprites – Starling, Spider, Tiger and Sprites, Bionic Hands

(I just now noticed they didn’t use the Oxford Comma. And I thought they were my friends.)

Spoilsport – They All Want Cake

(Let your sweet tooth take you to the Candy Station.)

Folder Size: 265.94GB

What A Rip - Day 80

Spacemen 3 – The Singles

(John Glenn got kicked out before they made it big.)

Sonic Youth – Sister, EVOL, Goo

(Why are there no dissonant gangsta rappers called Chronic Youth? Or is there? I could look it up, but I don’t really care, I just needed something to say here.)

The Softies – Holiday In Rhode Island

(This is what happens when you take such a holiday.)

The Soft Boys – Invisible Hits

(I bet someone out there refers to their “fruit bowl” as “The Soft Boys.” That is no indication of this band’s quality, however.)

Sodastream – The Hill For Company

(I told you we had another one.)

Slumber Party – Psychedelicate

(What has always struck me as weird about this record is that in the liner photos, one of them is always seated. I don’t know why, but it has always stood out to me as a weird mystery.)

Sloan – One Chord To Another

(Oh hey, another one by these guys too.)

Spiritualized – Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

(I remember seeing them on some late-night show, and J. Spaceman didn’t shake the host’s hand at the end. At the time, I thought that was shitty. But if it was Leno, it was probably o.k.)

The Spinanes – Manos, Strand, Imp Years

(I wish Manos were actually a sountrack they made for Manos, The Hands of Fate. It is not, but I still like it.)

Space Ghost’s Surf & Turf

(What this lacks in “I Love Beans” it makes up for in the Italian lessons, especially the one where Brak teaches you how to say “You look beautiful in the candlelight, buddy.”)

Folder Size: 260.79GB