Bloggin' For Democracy
As I was flipping through a box of old singles the picture sleeve of Faith Brother's "Country of the Blind" (Select) caught my eye. The cover by artist Conny Jude, depicts the planet earth shooting itself in the mouth. Combine this image with the song and you have a message that is still relevant today. We can't be blind during the coming U.S. presidential election. It could be one of the most important elections of our lives. The music blogging community has banded together to remind you that you need to get ready to vote. Find out where your polling place is. Tell your friends to vote. VOTE! Not a U.S. citizen? Then call or email your American friends and make sure they plan on voting. Need help sorting through the rhetoric? Here are some links:
MoveOn.org
Rock The Vote.com
John Kerry.com
George W. Bush.com
Music For America.org
Declare Yourself
Just Vote
My Polling Place
Get Educated
Let's Not Be Blind - Get Out And Vote On November 2nd.
But I digress. Faith Brothers, led by Bill Franks, wrote some politically charged songs back in the mid 80's and released a couple of albums. Faith Brothers were Billy Franks - guitar, vocals; Lee Hirons - bass; Mark Hirons - guitar; Steve Howlett - drums; Will Tipper - trumpet; Henry Trezise - keyboards; Mark Waterman - saxophone.
Thanks to Billy Franks for allowing me to post his music. Billy continues to make music and also has appeared in a couple of films.
Go to the download page to get Faith Brothers "Country of The Blind"
and also to hear a little PSA from Chris Stamey w/Yo La Tengo called "V.O.T.E."
This site was inspired by a New Wave message board posting entitle "More Obscure Than Obscure". I was going to use that as the title to this blog but what's obscure to one person is common to another. I think it would be tough to argue that San Francisco's kookie all-girl-band Inflatable Boy Clams are more obscure than obscure. They released a double 7" containing 5 songs on Subterranean Records in 1981. That's it. They got a lot of airplay around Halloween, particularly from 
The Comateens formed in 1980 in New York City. They played bouncy dance rock rooted in chintzy '60s Farfisa organ pop and spooky horror-movie soundtrack music. They first gained recognition in 1979 with a self-produced single that featured a stripped-down version of Bowie's "TVC 15" which they re-recorded for their first LP in 1981 on the Cachalot label. The album became an underground favorite and contained this remake of “The Munsters Theme". They released two more LPs – 1983's Pictures on a String and 1984's Deal With It. The Comateens gained a large following in Europe but despite being signed to Mercury Records remained a cult band in the U.S. and split up in 1985. The Comateens were Ramona Jan - guitar, Nik North -bass, vocals, and later Lyn Byrd - synthesizer, vocals and Oliver North -guitar, vocals.
Just in time for Halloween is the Pandoras spooky, surf guitar instrumental "Haunted Beach Party" (Voxx). The all-girl Pandoras formed in Hollywood, CA in 1984 and went through many line-up changes. The ensuing fights led to the forming of two bands fighting over and the original name and playing around L.A. as the Pandoras at the same time. When the dust settled a band led by Paula Pierce emerged and continued to record great psychedelic garage rock for Rhino and Restless Records. Sadly Paula Pierce died of an aneurysm while exercising on August 10, 1991. She was 31 years-old.
After watching the recent U.S. presidential debates and finally seeing 
A couple of weeks ago I posted a Higsons Track. In the copy of the post, I mentioned a Robyn Hitchcock song and linked it to an mp3 of the track. 34 people discovered and download the Hitchcock track versus 391 downloads of the Higson's mp3. I realize that regular visitors may bookmark my download page and skip the blog page altogether, but I also think that many people don't even bother to read the copy and just skip to the download. As other bloggers know, it takes time to write these things and while I am more of an information "regurgitator" than a writer, that regurgitation takes time to research and write. I'm thinking about cutting back on the background info going forward.
The members of Australia's Soul/R&B/Funk band the Dynamic Hepnotics were a who's who of Australian music. Here's a list of who was in the band and the bands they played in: Original line-up: Continental Robert Susz (vocals, harmonic; Rugcutters, Humdinger Dogs, The Mighty Reapers (of Vengeance), Andrew Silver (guitar; Big Town Playboys, Wild Blue Yonder), Tim Martin (sax; Friends), Manuel Patty (bass), Richard Ruhle (drums). Later, Bruce Allen (sax; Jeff St John Band, Ol'55, Ross Wilson's Rockhouse, the Fabulous Zarzoff Brothers, The Eddys), Allen Britton (bass; Mangrove Boogie Kings, The Foreday Riders, The Bondi Cigars), Robert Souter (drums; Lizard, Gulliver's Travels, Living Legends), Mike Gubb (keyboards; Rough Justice, Mental as Anything, The Layabouts, Dog Trumpet, The Headhunters). Later still, Mark Simmonds (sax), Dave Brewer (Elks), Peter Bishop (trumpet), Duncan Archibald (drums), Chris Pascoe (keyboards) and Lloyd Swanton (bass; Benders).
