• Let's start with elaborating on that enigmatic band I foreshadowed in "record of the day," Caroliner Rainbow Bluembeigh Treason of the Abyss. Try finding anything about them online. The first link that Google gives is, "Help me understand Caroliner Rainbow." Don't click on it–it doesn't really help. Their MySpace page is nearly as incomprehensible, but I also hear their shows consist of sensory overload, like their album covers, a collage and barrage of every technique and material out there (hand coloring xerox, screenprinting) and every possible goodie they could stuff into a record sleeve (Thriller liner notes, leis, SF Metro passes, old newsprint). When I ask record store clerks if they have any handmade records, they always point me toward the new Caroliner Rainbow albums if they have them. They always seem to have "just got them in, and they sell like hotcakes." Lori says they're just a bunch of vegan folks in a commune in the Bay Area who grow their own veggies. Nat from Berkeley and Chris from Austin basically say their live shows rule.
Naturally, I emailed them to get in touch, and a got a half-cryptic response from the cryptically named "Grand Gripplea" simply telling me to check out Art Gnuvo and the Record Exchange. So I did. And tested it on my Weird Shit O-Meter– lo and behold, it checks out for today's post!
• The Amazing Kornyfone Record Label is one example of a bootlegger's label. These guys got a hold of the mother stampers and had a strong enough rapport with the ladies at the pressing plant that they could produce illegal bootlegs of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa to name a few. I haven't been able to find out if the covers were homemade, but the network of people involved in the production seems to be a lot like the network I outlines a few weeks ago, so maybe the covers were done by hand as well.
So here's the story: Ken and Dub created the bootleg label, TMOQ, Trade Mark of Quality in the early 70s. Dub fired Ken a few years later, and in the plagiaristic tradition of bootleggers, Ken named his label, Trade Mark of Quality. Ken had to lay low while the FBI was after him, but then eventually started the Amazing Kornyfone Record Label.
• Speaking of bootlegs, whenever the old-timer guys at record stores show me their collection of homemade covers, they usually pull out some Doors bootleg with sharpie indicating the date and place of recording on it. These are quite possibly the most boring covers ever, but it would be interesting to find out how these guys got vinyl pressed. Darien says that sometimes he'll cut individual records for DJs, so maybe the bootleggers have a connection at a lathe/mastering facility.
• DJs used to use their vinyl as business cards, so to speak for clubs they wanted to spin at. I've seen a few of these, and they usually consist of a black or white commercially produced sleeve with a phone number glued to them. They end up in the used "Dance/Club/Electronic" section of record stores. Darien said DJs produced these with haste during the rave/warehouse party days, but now CDs are easier, faster and cheaper to produce.
• Mix tapes/CDs. Since these are generally not mass-produced, they aren't of much help to me, but they're cool, right? And fun to make for your significant other. If you really want to know more, go get a book on them. Thurston Moore edited "Mix Tape." It's pretty cool.
• I found a homemade cover last fall in Ann Arbor MI that struck me. It's called, "Lipa Kodi Ya City Council" on the Mississippi Records label out of Portland Oregon. The music on it was recorded in the early 70s and features stuff from all over Africa. I bet there's crazy story behind that one–and people on the web seem to really like it.• Elizabeth in Austin showed me a record in which the band didn't include their own music in it! They just put random 45s in the sleeve. Funny.
• Someone told me about a record made in which the unpainted sleeves were placed on the floor of the venue and it was the audience's responsibility to make sure no cover left unpainted. What a lazy band.
• It is generally agreed upon that the "Most 'Metal' homemade cover ever would be made with human flesh." No one has made one yet, so the throne for the most 'Metal' Metal band still sits unoccupied.
• Limited edition lathe cuts. Lathe cut records, as opposed to pressed vinyl, are fragile and can only be played a few dozen times before they completely wear out. Therefore, editions of lathe cut records are extremely valuable and rare. They must be cut in real time, and the special machine for cutting more than one at a time is quite rare. A guy in Australia does lathe cuts and can only be reached my snail mail. Turn-around time is comparable to getting your Italian bicycle sent back to the factory and replaced–or a long time. A guy in Olympia Washington, Peter King, sets up subscription services in which twenty bands (or however many he wants) to contribute a song or two, and over the course of a few years, you and 19 other people are incrementally sent the full edition. Usually the covers are homemade by the artists, too. They fetch a pretty penny on ebay, so look out for those subscriptions!
• Flickr! Lori told me to browse flickr for homemade covers. DUH! And holy Lennon, I stumbled upon the mother of obsessive album covers: Sgt. Peggy's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a beaded mosaic of the classic album cover. A must see.
• Mingering Mike. Here's what his website has to say: "Between 1968 and 1977 Mingering Mike recorded over fifty albums, managed thirty-five of his own record labels, and produced, directed and starred in nine of his own motion pictures. In 1972 alone he released fifteen LPs and over twenty singles, and his traveling revue played for sold out crowds the world over.
How is it that such a prolific musician has gone under the radar for the more than thirty years? The answer is that all took place in Mike's imagination, and in the vast collection of fake cardboard records and acapella home recordings that he made for himself as a teenager in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s."
I'm sure there are more things to talk about here, and If you, dear reader, have stories to share, please do!
With Southern love,
James
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