Jan201030

1

Boss Radio: Flipped Out’s “The Subterranean Jungle”!

Back when I was a wee little kid (cough), I used to listen to this crazy radio show on Montreal’s CKUT radio (McGill’s campus station) called “The Subterranean Jungle”, a fixture of Montreal airwaves for nearly 15 years, from 1985 to 1999. The show was an hommage to the crazy, delirious radio personalities of American AM radio of the 60s, such as the Mad Daddy or Howlin’ Wolf, and to the wild and cool 60s garage punk sounds of those days.

But the impressive thing about the show was its host, Flipped Out Phil. Besides his ability to talk at the speed of light and transform his voice into any character, Flipped Out Phil would interject in rhymes in between each set of songs.

Flipped Out impressed whoever listened, regardless of their musical tastes. I remember a few years back a very serious jazz music host from CKUT telling me that it took him 5 years to realise the show was broadcast *live* and was not, in fact, a rehearsed or edited tape.

The show influenced a great number or people, myself included, and musicians, most of whom later formed Montreal’s flourishing garage scene of the 90s.

Well behold: “The Subterranean Jungle” is now archived, finally!

Flipped Out is one of my best friends in the world, and I’m very happy this project has finally been brought to life, as we had talked about digitising his shows for many years now. What seemed like an overwhelming task (15 years of weekly shows!) has now been seen through, thanks to friends who stepped in to help. Now, with this wonderful invention called the Internet, the rest of the world can finally hear this great staple of Montreal radio.

His wife, cartoonist Sophie Cossette (mentioned before on this site), designed his website and voilà! Blast your ears off:

http://www.flippedoutphil.com/

Flipped Out



Jan201009

1

Amy Winehouse, eat your heart out

*photo taken from Last FM*

The first time I heard Amy Winehouse, I was immediately reminded of this 45 I had of a female duo called “Barbara and Brenda”. Her voice, singing style and even her songs were all similar to (and not as good as) this record.

Barbara and Brenda were a niece & aunt duo consisting of Barbara and Brenda Gaskins (although they are also sometimes referred to as cousins). They recorded a string of singles on Heidi and Dynamo Records, and this one, according to Mr. Google, was their first release (on Avanti). And what a song! This record has followed me to every DJ night I’ve played at in the last 15 years and has always consistently been a hit on the dance floor, even though it’s most certainly not in mint condition. And I am not lying when I say that I’ve been asked now and again by some confused young’uns which Amy Winehouse single this was.

Brenda quit the music biz early on but Barbara later married, changed her name to Barbara Roy and became the singer and songwriter for Roulette label’s soul band Ecstasy, Passion and Pain.

In 1986, the lovely lady had a dance hit called “Gotta See you Tonight“.

And of course, this was the single’s cover photo:

Enjoy!

Barbara and Brenda – Let’s Get Together (1963, Avanti)



Dec200931

2

Bonne année! Happy New Year!


Bonne année à tous les lecteurs de à la carte !
Happy New Year to all à la carte readers!

While I have your attention, I suggest you take the time in the next month to dig all the music you can grab on this blog, because I will be taking down all the MP3s as of February 1st, 2010. From now on, all posts will offer links to downloads, like most other music blogs do. If you are scared of missing a post, please feel free to subscribe to my feeds (at the right corner of this page) or follow my blog on Facebook’s Networked Blogs (scroll down this page for the link). This is for obvious reasons, but also because a lot of the songs featured on this blog will soon be made available on a CD comp, which I will tell you more about when the appropriate time comes.

Happy New Year to everyone, and if you drink, don’t drive!! C’est pas prudent!

Go Michèle!

Michèle Richard – C’est pas prudent!



Dec200924

1

Les Anges dans nos blogues

Ah yes, Christmas! For the last two years now, I have been offering my wonderful readers a special little X-Mas offering. I already consider it a sort of twisteuse tradition. Remember this one?

I hereby offer you the angels of French pop: Les Anges.

One of their songs, “Une fille mais qu’est-ce que c’est?” (my fave of theirs), has already been featured on the comp “Gentlemen de Paris“. They were very poppy and saccharine, and took most of their inspiration from American “barber shop” pop such as Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, which I am a big fan of. In fact, they do a cover of The Four Seasons’ “Girl Come Running” (“Aimons”) on this EP. Les Anges’ harmonies are right on the money, too.

Their title song, “Les Anges”, makes me smile every time I hear it. Especially near the end, when the final chorus kicks in with more harmonies. I love it! I have no clue who these guys were or what their story was, but they make me happy, and I thought I’d share the happiness.

To top it off, and oddly enough, the musical direction of this EP was by none other than Tony Meehan of The Shadows! If anyone has any details on that collaboration, I would love to know more!

Joyeux Noël!!

Les Anges – Les Anges



Oct200931

8

Halloween Treat #3: Montreal’s Condition

condition

Here’s a band that is so fantastically creepy, they made one of my high school girlfriends cry tears of horror when I played it for her one dark and stormy night. Back to her safety net of Richard Marx, she went, but not before telling everyone I was a Satan worshipper.

The band in question was Condition, Montreal masters of ghoulish psychobilly, horror hops and creepy dance jives. Montreal in the 90s and especially the 80s was well known for its garage and psychobilly scenes, and for some reason Condition never really stood out, at least not to my knowledge, something I fail to understand given their amazing material and, of course, singer. To this day, I have rarely met anyone in Montreal who has heard of them. They recorded three albums throughout their career, all very hard to find, and the album featured here is “Swamp Walk”, their 3rd and last one.

There is no doubt that Julia Gilmore, lead singer, was the main force behind the band. Her voice was unique and her vocal techniques hinted towards Jazz more than pop. She moved to Montreal in the 80s from New Hampshire to study art at Concordia University, and today is an accomplished painter. Other band members were Slim Lanthier and Vinny Vezina.

I first saw Condition on television at the age of 15 or 16, when I lived with my parents in St-Clin-Clin des Moeux-Moeux, PQ. My very impressionable young self was suddenly glued to my television set as I saw a creepy but beautiful Julia Gilmore sing the dramatic and, let’s face it, scary as fuck Beat my Daddy to the Grave on primetime Quebec TV, a surreal moment if there ever was one. If I remember correctly, she wore a thorned vintage dress and had fake blood dripping from her mouth as she sang.

Condition were my first taste of Montreal’s bubbling underground scene and later when I got my first radio show on CISM, I played the living daylights out of this record (which I’m sure you can tell from the very used record cover in the above photo). The album even appealed to my mother, who enjoyed their covers of “Runaway” and “Caravan”. Despite the dark undertones, some of these tracks are simply gorgeous, such as Ghost Train or the title track Swamp Walk. The album was recorded at Beat Studio, in Berlin.

For those of you who would like to discover more forgotten Montréal/Québec underground music, I would urge you to visit my friend Sébastien’s wonderful blog “Patrimoine PQ” for his series on forgotten Québec underground music.

Happy Halloween, kiddies!

Condition – Beat my Daddy to the Grave
Condition – Ghost Train
Condition – Swamp Walk
Condition – Bop or Drop



Oct200930

0

Halloween Treat #2: Spooky Sounds & Scary Tales from Winchell’s Donuts

Winchells_Front

I was going to post something completely different for today’s 2nd Halloween audio freebie, but then I spotted *this* little gem lying around in our music room and decided this would be a lot more fun! I love all the screaming, novelty goofball Halloween 60s tracks as much as anyone else, but product music oddities such as this one also entertain me to no end. I can’t say I’m very familiar with Winchell’s Donuts as I don’t think they ever crossed the border to Canada, but I’m sure I haven’t missed out on much.

This record, I should point out, is brought to you today by the man with whom I share, among many other things, a record collection: Mr. Otis Fodder. Even the more special, Otis still remembers going to Winchell’s Donuts as a child around Halloween time with his mom, getting the record with a box of donuts, bringing it home and listening to it. Which is quite amazing, because all the records I had as a child have certainly not been subject to the same, attentive care as this one!

Otis also included the track in his infamous 2 volume Halloween CD-series called “Ghouls With Attitude“, a compilation that has travelled all over the Internet since its release in 2004. Shockingly, Otis never kept a copy, and while trying to find a copy online today we came across a blogger who recently posted both volumes, which I’m happy to report you can download here and here).

The record, in a nutshell, has a Vincent Price-like voice actor telling a “scary” story to children (who don’t seem the least bit scared or impressed). Mr Creepy voice actor makes it very difficult not to cringe or laugh at his not-so-subtle product placement at the end of the story, when he tells the children that “Winchell’s Donuts does magic things to your mouth”.
:
Winchells_Back

Note to self: start using words like “flame retardant” more in conversations.

Waaaaatch oooout for ghooooooosts!!

Winchell’s Donuts Spooky Sounds & Scary Tales MP3



Oct200929

2

Halloween treat #1: Wilfrid Du Pont de la Carpe

wilfrid

In an effort to be original, I decided to offer a few Halloween treats to the world, every day until this Saturday! Cue applause!

I love every freak singer that Halloween has ever produced! From John Zacherley to everyone’s hero Screaming Lord Sutch, it seems that putting on a cape and causing hilarious mayhem has become a lost art.

Our first weirdo du jour hails from France. I bet you didn’t know France had it’s very own caped freak, huh? Fear not, neither did anyone else!

My many efforts to find out who this Wilfrid Du Pont de la Carpe is have been fruitless. The only hint the record gives us is that both songs have been written and adapted by Frank Gérald, who famously wrote songs with Pierre Delanoë, including a lot of stuff from Les Parisiennes, Françoise Hardy (Le premier bonheur du jour) and countless French classics. Could it be that Wilfrid is Frank, and vice-versa? Is life really that simple?

Another enigma that I hope someone will be able to help with concerns the song I am featuring today: “L’arrière petit-fils de Frankenstein” (Frankenstein’s great grandson). The record suggests that this is a French adaptation. Does anyone know what the original is and who sang it? The single is from 1975.

As someone who grew up watching French TV and cartoons, Wilfrid’s voice sounds very familiar, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he was a voice actor, like Monique Thubert.

Wilfrid’s ultimate tactics to scare the beejeezus out of you, besides the fact that he’s Frankenstein’s great grandson, are exagerated, outlandish uses of “Moooaaa-aaa-aaa-aaa” and “Eee-eee-haaa-aaaaaa”.

Sleep tight!

Wilfrid Du Pont de la Carpe – L’arrière petit-fils de Frankenstein



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