Found another tape I’ve been on the hunt for many years, this is Yma Sumac’s Miracles. I would have loved to find her Mambo tape but I’m not sure it exists and while that is better musically this one is more surreal. Miracles teamed up the Inca princess (Although many believe her name is really Amy Camus which is Yma Sumac spelled backwards, I think if she says Amy Camus she’ll be transported back to Brooklyn just like Mr. Mxyzptlk of Superman.) with exotica composer Les Baxter and what we get is fuzz guitars and psychedelic rock that neither of them have any business doing but to their credit it is very listenable. Yma doesn’t sing any words but mostly goes up and down her 5 octave scale saying “woo woo woo”, and Les Baxter uses her as a groovy theremin. I bet if John Lennon met her instead of Yoko they’d be right up there with the Beatles.

Now if only I could find The Velvet Underground & Nico or PIL Second Edition I’d be nearly done with my Ka-chunk list.

Posted by gregg-n at 4:49 PM PST

Updated: Friday, 21 December 2012 4:51 PM PST

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^{This is a fun one, next time you see an infomercial or a regular commercial pushing some artist you’ve never heard of like the pan flute styles of Zamfir you can thank this guy- Peter Lemongello.  He was the first person to sell a million copies of his lp all through TV marketing playing the ad for Love 76 (It’s on YouTube and was even parodied on an early Saturday Night Live episode.) up to 100 times a week in New York City.  Today he’s one of the stars of Branson Missouri that would be a good place to set up an 8 track tape store. This tape is his second album that was picked up on the Private Stock Label that was also the home of such 70’s K-tel staple artists as Starbuck, Austin Roberts, and Samantha Sang. Musically he is poured out of the same mold as Englebert Humperdinck, with a dusting of Wayne Newton.}
 

Posted by gregg-n at 6:42 PM PST

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^{Walmart has taken a beating this year dragging in their workers in on Thanksgiving and them demand a working wage with a good deal of full time workers on food stamps.  All good reasons to hate the company which makes me wonder if this year’s Walmart Christmas village entry was them playing it down and pining for the good old days when Sam Walton ran it and paid a decent wage.  It’s based on the first store in Bentonville, Arkansas that still stands. I applaud them going vintage instead of the usually variation on the same theme and hope this marks a trend where each year they try something new. Next year I hope they have a future store where all the workers are imported from sweat shops and live in it after their shifts.}

Posted by gregg-n at 8:33 AM PST

Updated: Sunday, 9 December 2012 8:35 AM PST

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^{This week I scored one of the 8 track tapes I’ve been hunting for a while- Frank Zappa’s Where Only in it For The Money. I  can’t tell you how many times I’ve been outbid on this one and probably would have lost this auction too if the seller wasn’t vague in the title and listed it as a cassette.  But he was even too muddy in the description for me. The photo looked just like an 8 track but when it arrived I saw that I was the proud owner of a 4 track, if only this was the Lumpy Gravy 4 track I’d be moving into a larger house about now. So I went into my 8 track tool box and found one of those detachable rollers that pop in the slot and it works like a charm. I haven’t played a 4 track for a while forgot that it doesn’t have a metal splice to change tracks so this one will be Ka-Chunk free.}

Posted by gregg-n at 8:59 AM PST

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I found a few 8 tracks from what I think is a very anal retentive person. These tapes were found placed in a cardboard box that itself was a sight to behold with its lavender color and handicrafted perfection. Once I got the tapes home and examined them I saw that they had most of the cellophane on them and one of the sides was split to remove and replace them on the same corner. All of them were wound to the splice and to add to the mystery they all had the original price tags and in the case of 3 the receipts were still on them. They’re sort of unpleasant to play since they conjure up memories of when I was a kid and my mother told me to stay out of the back room since I would mess it up.
 

Posted by gregg-n at 11:26 AM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 4 November 2012 11:27 AM PDT

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Here’s something I found fun yesterday, for anyone in high school in the 70s and 80’s it was mandatory to have one of these cheaply made Pee Chee folders with the clip art sports scenes on them. The best thing about them is when you got bored in class and customized the pictures to make them more interesting, my thing was to replace the heads with monkey heads (I was a big Planet of The Apes follower). Anyway while digging threw a box I spied what looks like a Pee Chee cash in put out by the company Pow Chee that are an obvious “boot” of those folders. It made me feel sorry for the poor kid who got teased by classmate because he was too poor for an official Pee Chee portfolio.
 

Posted by gregg-n at 8:47 AM PDT

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Talk about an October surprise, last week I got a strange message on the answering machine that told me I had an early invite to and estate sale 2 days before it started. Now I feel that I have arrived and got some kind of back stage pass. Then I discovered it was in a gated community with streets with names like Independence Dr, Patriot Way, and Liberty Ave.  I was hoping for a fun extremist sale featuring things like a lifetime supply of canned peas or a shelter full of guns and infra red scopes but it was mostly Christmas and kitchen items.  But in one of the crates was a large collection of tapes (Every fricken Dean Martin cartridge) and at the bottom was this fun bluish portable player by Roman that splits at the seams for full separation. Most of these kinds of portables sound worse than transistor Am radios but this one has amazing sound for its size and even has a jack for car trips. I’m thinking of taking a page from those car buffs that you meet in parking lots and are so quick to pop the trunk to show off their hi tech CD players or speakers with 40 pound magnets and install this baby in the back.
 

Posted by gregg-n at 9:39 AM PDT

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Ah fall, with nothing but golden leaves and memories of yard sales that could have been. It hasn’t rained in 2 months and for the Pacific Northwest that’s like a being able to sunbath in the Arctic Circle. Last week was one of the so called estate sales where everything crappy is on a table in the living room and anything interesting is roped off in a corner with a “not for sale” sign by it taunting you. Since tapes have been as dry as the weather I was happy to find a case full of mostly easy listening music for the Neil Diamond set but in the pile found a Fleetwood Mac cart I didn’t have and a groovy boot of the broken up “simulated” Beatles with a sampling of them on their solo albums. It’s a fun tape because in the real copywriten world this would never get released because all the lawyers would want a piece of the pie. Ringo is a little too well represented in it with a lion share of the cuts and history has not been kind to him.

Also winter is around the corner and since I’ve always wanted a real fireplace instead of baseboard heating I found this gem that the owner said I could have it for $50 after 2pm I set the alarm and am now the proud owner of this domed hearth in the tiki room. It goes well with Weltron and Aquaton players and a glass of Tang. Now Finally I have a place to chuck those painful to hear easy listening orchestra group’s tapes like Andre Kostelanetz and Percy Faith.

Posted by gregg-n at 8:04 AM PDT

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Although not 8 track this is still a fun find from around the same time frame that tips the scales at about 40 pounds, it’s a Teac Esoteric Series AL-700 Elcaset tape Deck.  I understand it was an attempt to combine the high tech sound of a Reel to Reel payer with the convenience of a cassette cartridge. The tapes are about twice the size of normal cassettes and it came with 3 of them that sound like a home version of K-tel tapes from the late 70s with pretty decent sound. This format was introduced by Sony and short lived and ironically Sony went gangbusters with the Walkman a few years later that was the exact opposite concept with everything miniaturized. The guy who sold it to me also gave me another consol for parts with the original box. I hear in 1980 they shipped off the remaining stock to Finland and hope there is an Elcaset cult there carrying on the tradition, if nothing else it’s fun to take a picture of yourself holding one of the giant tapes and tell everyone you’re a dwarf.

Posted by gregg-n at 1:15 PM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 12 August 2012 2:32 PM PDT

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Sales are in full swing and when they say No Early Bird I take it as before the sun rises, so 5:30 am is acceptable.  This week my philosophy was destroyed when I went to those usually disappointing “help send my kid to camp” church sales and instead of children’s toys I found a mother lode of fun mid century junk and now am marveling how this house is become increasingly plastic. First semi 8 track related is this still with the box battery charger that features a Panasonic pump player as an example of what to charge.  Those players do burn through a lot of batteries.

Next is something that can be categorized into the mid century or Ikea pile is this groovy orange wine caddy made in Italy by Luigi Coloni and called the Sulo. Why have one bottle of wine when you can lug around 5? Of course I’m a gross American and may have to load it up with Mountain Dew and cans of aerosol cheese.

Posted by gregg-n at 3:13 PM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 8 July 2012 4:55 PM PDT

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