Arbutus Volunteer Fire Hall 5200 Southwestern Boulevard, Arbutus MD 21277 Every 3rd Sunday of the Month, 9 am-3 pm
All music lovers become record lovers and many record lovers become collectors. Records approximate Malraux’s museum without walls, offering an inexpensive way to pursue not only masterworks and favorites, but also oddities that fill the side galleries where dilettantes rarely venture. - Gary Giddons, Weather Bird (2004)
(Sunday, February 16, 2025) - Another Sunday, another trip to the ATM, another Arbutus Record & CD Show haul of new and used CDs, vinyl, DVDs, videos, and assorted odds and ends. My wife Amy and I have only been going to the Arbutus Record Show for the last couple of years, but we love the people - both attendees and vendors - we have come to know there.
The 2025 schedule
Today was the 2nd show of the year and the rain and the fact that there were no more football games to watch meant that the Presidents Day weekend edition of the Arbutus Record Show was absolutely teeming with collectors and vendors. All of our favorite regulars (Scott D'Ambrossio, Snackie Hillman, Joe Vaccarino, Charlie Stinchcomb - only Zay Sewell was MIA) and vendors (Bill Martin, Ed from Kensington, James Dean, The God Guy, Dollar Bin Guy) were there, with the exception of Dave "Microdotman" Hoffer and Kelly Groff. Sometimes we even see Trax On Wax hosting a table, but not the last few shows.
Our gracious hosts, Frank & Janet Ruehl
The Arbutus Record Show: It Ruehls!
Thanks go out once again to hosts Frank and Janet Ruehl, who have been organizing these shows at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Hall for well over three decades now! (If you are interested in being a vendor or to reserve a table, please call Frank and Janet Ruehl at 410.242.4649 or email: arbutusrecshow@gmail.com for more information.)
And while the show is still dominated by what my friend (and sometime vendor there) Scott Wallace Brown jokingly refers to as "smelly old white guys," in recent years there has been an uptick in young hipsters and the occasional female sighting (where were you today, Cody Brownson-Katz?)
"Where all my sisters at?" muses Amy Warner
"What do you mean about the dearth of women here? Chicks obviously dig my table!" says vendor Scott Wallace Brown
Though all are welcome, Arbutus show is mostly for serious record crate-diggers. If you're looking for a hip venue to chat up single women, while quaffing a beer and grabbing grub from a food truck, try the Baltimore Record Bazaar's bi-monthly pop-ups at the Peabody Heights Brewery in Waverly.
Amy and I are still learning about the various vendors there, whose bins we are familiar with, if not all their full names.
There's "Neil" the Philadelphia Eagles fan in the far left corner from the entrance, who always has a good selection of 80's Pop, Punk, Post-punk, and New Wave vinyl. If you ever listened to WHFS and Weasel, this guy's collection is a virtual playlist of tunes from that time. (He even had some Tommy Keene LPs - always a good sign!).
Right across from Neil is "Joe," who has a little bit of everything, especially for bargain-priced old school video tapes and 8-tracks!
Then there's Mr. Category, a young guy on the far left wall near Dave Hoffer's table who labels his bins with helpful and clever genre signs (Spies, Electronic, Space-Age Bachelor, Psychedelic, Stag) that always please this librarian's love of classifications. I've been picking up his reasonably-priced ($2-$5) early Jazz and R&B anthologies released on New World Records, a well-curated, hard-to-find vinyl-only label.
Don't know much about The Doll Lady, except that she's usually one of the only one or two female vendors at the record show and spends her time combing the hair of various dolls. I see mostly Elvis and Bobby Sherman records and novelty 45s in her bins, but was pleasantly surprised to see the stereo demonstration record MAGOO IN HI-FI there today for a mere $2! (I wish I had paid that price!).
And, of course, there's The Dollar Bin Guy, who is always here, as well as at the bi-monthly Baltimore Record Bazaar. There's a lot of dross to sort through, but for those with the patience to flip through his bins, there's always at least one bargain score to be found (in my case, Dan Hicks' It Happened One Bite, Gruppo Sportivo's Mistakes, Best of the Cowsills with a cover by MAD Magazine artist Jack Davis!). And, needless to say, the price is right and well worth the gambit!
That said, following is a partial field spotter's guide to some more of the more familiar vendors and regulars we've seen over the years at the record show:
Janet Ruehl: Hostess with the Most-ess
Amy Warner and Janet Ruehl compliment each other on their stylish eyewear
Janet emcees every show, manning the mic to spotlight vendors and make announcements ("We have someone looking for Ricky Nelson records, so please pull whatever you have for..."). She says hello to everyone, personally thanks each vendor for being a part of the show, collects table fees and verifies attendance for upcoming shows, and even provides pizza (and sometimes birthday cakes) for the regular vendors. On occasion she even has musicians play live at the show. A positive soul and someone who clearly enjoys what she does.
Janet exemplifies the spirit of community involvement here. As Tim Kubura wrote in his Bruiser magazine blog about his 2024 Return to the Arbutus Record Show, "I find these pockets of the world harder and harder to find, places and events of enduring community. They keep keepin’ on, awaiting the next generation to catch this stain of the “gentle madness” and stop on by. They are often connected to Volunteer Fire Departments and Community Centers." Yes, a gathering of like-minded members of the music-loving tribe.
Bill Martin
Bill Martin: The Man in the Black Leather Hat
Bill Martin is a prog & rock lover's dream and his table is our first stop at every Arbutus Record Show, where Bill chats with customers while his grandson acts as cashier and tallies the accounts. There isn't a prog band Bill doesn't know, while his personal faves (among hundreds!) include Caravan, Strawbs, Iain Matthews and any band Dave Bainbridge (Iona, Lifesigns, Celestial Fire and, of course, Strawbs) is in. But to be fair, Bill carries just about every genre (folk, bluegrass, jazz, fusion, etc.) except Dixieland and Hip-Hop (which we both detest!). The Nottingham, MD, native's business is called Thought You Couldn't Find It, and if you can't find it - or can't make it to the record show - send your want list to him at billhatman@gmail.com. Billhatman (he always wears a distinctive black leather hat) is also his ID on Discogs.com.
Ed from Kensington
Ed will write you a 'script for good tunes!
Ed from Kensington we call him, because he has a long, Germanic name we can't remember. A retired pharmacist, Ed has a fantastic collection of the Killer B's (Beatles, Byrds, Bee Gees) on both vinyl and CD. His Beatles, Byrds and Stones boots are extensive and impressive! He's usually playing music from the Byrds Family Tree (McGuinn, Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, et al) throughout the day. I keep eyeing his Bee Gees Odessa (original red felt cover!) and To Whom It May Concern stand-up gatefold albums...hmmm, perhaps someday!
Stones' SOME GIRLS outtakes bootleg, CLAUDINE, on "Dead Spider Records" (get it?)
Bee Gees' TO WHOM IT MY CONCERN gatefold LP
James Dean of The James Gang
Long-haired James & Short-haired James Dean
Short-haired James Dean on right (yes that's his real name, but he's A Rebel WITH a Cause - vinyl!) mans a table with his good buddy, Long-haired James. Nobody's records are in better condition (usually in slip cases) or at a better price than Dean's - and he has the best, most instantaneously recognizable laugh in the world! It is the sound of pure, unadulterated joy! Each month, James Dean makes the trek north from his home in Hamilton, Loudoun County VA (where my Warner family has Leesburg roots, by the way) and though he doesn't have a business card, he'll write his address down and invite you down to his homestead to look through his collection anytime you're in the neighborhood.
Most of these LPs are from JD's $1 Big Band/Jazz Sale
What I love about James Dean is, besides his pleasant demeanor, he always varies his wares. And they are priced to move! One month it's all Big Band and Jazz records for $1, the next month it's all Comedy LPs for $1. His comedy collection is amazingly extensive - where else are you going to find rare records by Moms Mabley, Martin Mull, Tom Lehrer, Jonathan Winters, Duck's Breath Theater, and virtually every Firesign Theatre album? (I actually bought a 2nd copy of FT's The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumutra because JD's copy had its original Korvettes price tag on it! Nostalgia!). I think that distinctive laugh of his was cultivated by years of listening to these comedy records!
Jonathan Winters LP with MAD MAD MAD MAD cover art by MAD Magazine artist Jack Davis
Jack the God Guy
Thank you Jack! Jack gets feted on his birthday by Janet Ruehl
The vendor known as Jack (who we call the God Guy) has pious aphorisms adorning his bins, which cover most genres but are especial strong in Jazz and Big Band. He's a very nice, soft-spoken man and good on him for looking out for our souls while we commit the sin of coveting each other's record collections! But his low-budget sticker prices tempt customers to break the 8th Commandment - for at these prices ($2 or $3 bucks a platter) Thou Shalt Steal from this vendor!
Jack is an OG vendor at the record show, a nonagenarian who dates back decades. He originally had nine tables, but is currently down to just three - and here's the most impressive thing about this 90-something music lover: he still unloads and packs up his wares without any assistance. He's such a beloved regular that the Ruehl's even made him a birthday cake last year! (See video here.)
Dave Hoffer
Dave Hoffer has many stocking stuffers for Brave New Weirdos!
Parkville native Dave "Microdotman" Hoffer's business card says he specializes in the "bizarre and stupid," and that's an apt a description of the items on offer at his table, everything from obscure electronic records and old pulp magazines to VHS copies of C.H.U.D. (Cannabalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) and instructional embalming videos.
"Please do not eat this card, it will only make you sick."
In other words, a little bit of everything cool and unusual. It's all the counterculture memorabilia (posters, pins, CDs, records, sheet music, etc) you simply can't live without! Devo, Eno, Zappa, Punk, OHO, Van der Graaf Generator, Hawkwind...the list goes on. And, safe to say, nobody has a more extensive collection of goodies by San Francisco's underground music mysterians The Residents.
We just had to buy Ultravox!'s 2nd LP from Dave because - Ha! Ha! Ha! - it was previously owned by the late great David Wilcox (aka Steptoe T. Magnificent), Dave Hoffer's former bandmate in Baltimore's legendary cult punk band Pooba.Even has his old address label on it - proof of provenance!
Kelly Groff
Kelly Groff carries on her husband's music collecting legacy
Kelly Groff is the widow of DJ/entrepreneur Skip Groff, who passed away from a heart attack in 2019, and whose Yesterday & Today Records in Rockville, MD was the go-to destination for Washington, DC's punk and alternative music lovers from 1977 until the store's closing in 2002. (Before that, Skip ran the Kensington, MD record shop Hit and Run with partner Al Ercolani.) Besides his store, Skip also founded a record label, Limp Records, that produced most of DC's leading punk/indie bands (The Slickee Boys, The Razz, Tommy Keene, Velvet Monkeys, The Nurses, Black Market Baby, Minor Threat).
Y&T had roughly a million 7-inch 45s, thousands of new and used LPs, CDs and cassettes, music magazines, and other memorabilia and now Kelly helps dispense the Y&T collection (including the aforementioned Limp Records artists) online at Yesterday & Today Records, Discogs, and at record shows like Arbutus and the Baltimore Record Bazaar. As she writes on her Y&T web site, "In February 2019, Skip passed, but the records remain. I have decided to continue selling on Discogs and to travel to shows. There are currently over 8000 listings and plenty more records and cds in various genres that will be listed in the future."
Her Punk/New Wave 45s are Kelly's particular collection strength. Luckily, when I lost my 1978 Ebeneezer and the Bludgeons Peer Pressure EP, Kelly Groff came to the rescue with a reissued copy. (Full disclosure: I have since lost this replacement copy! Is the third-time purchase the charm?)
And who else would have a yellow flexi-disc of "Diamond Head" by The Plastics, the Japanese New Wavers who sang "Top Secret Man" on SCTV? One of my wife Amy's all--time favorite scores was finding a Japanese ska collection, Land of the Rising Ska, for $2, sealed! The same day she bought a rare Bill Nelson Orchestra Arcana CD, Optimism, from Kelly.
Nippon Ska Dansu!
More hard-to-find 7-inchers purchased from Kelly Groff
These are just a few of the many vendors on hand at any given show. Hopefully we'll get to know even more on our next trek to Arbutus. Most of these people are really nice and engaging, but punters beware: there is always at least one pushy guy (and it's always a dude) at any record show anywhere who has really crappy merchandise (e.g. scratchy, warped or moldy records; "smooth jazz"; Kenny G and Michael Bolton product) but who plies you with the hard-sell. "Hey don't miss out on this, you gotta buy my records, this is the best stuff, look at this!" I always try to avoid eye contact with these vendors who are either on the spectrum or never learned social skills, but if polite disengagement fails, there's always, "I really have to go to the bathroom right now, but I'll be back!"
And if you know us at all, we will indeed be back!
Some Regular Attendees
Joe Vaccarino and I may be the only two humans who covet the MAGOO IN HI-FI album. The few. The Proud!
Look what the cat dragged in from the rain: BALTIMORE SOUNDS author/archivist Joe Vaccarino and the Mayor of Annapolis Radio, Charlie Stinchcomb (host of WKHS 90.5 FM's Tuesday Night Twofer broadcast "Voices from the Hallway" doo-wop 6-8 pm & the psychedelic/garage "Psyched Out" 8-10 pm) compare their vinyl scores
We love a man in uniform, Snackie Hillman!
"Have turntable, will travel!" says Scott D'Ambrossio, a vinyl completist who brings his own player to sample the goods
Charlie Stinchcomb with yours truly
Whaddya say, Zay? Zay Zewell scores some Bubblegum Pop
Lou Frisino is in the house!
Some incredibly strange novelty records seen at the show
The price was slashed on this!
See is believing, but hearing is leering!
A fun Father's Day gift idea?
Mickey Katz's meaty MISH MOSH platter
Nancy Walker hates men and that voodoo that they do!
Some Past Purchases
Local Heroes: Baltimore's Sunday Cannons (Ed Neenan & Mike Lane's '80s band)!
2023 was a year I couldn't wait to get past because, for the most part, it was a shit-burger with a side of dies. Too many friends shuffled off their mortal coil in this deadly year - Ross Haupt (aka "Adolf Kowalski," the leader of my college punk band), Mark O'Connor (another TSU college pal - a brilliant musician, and one of the funniest people I've ever known), Chris "Da Plumber" Jensen ("Plumber to the Stars" of Charles Village, musician, artist, Atomic TV cameraman and all-around lovable loon), Keith Worz (my neighbor and a veritable speedball of manic artistic and verbal energy) - to name but a few. Closer to home, I found yours truly suffering from chronic sinusitis, asthma and opthalmic migraines (a scary temporary loss of vision in which one sees only flashing lights). And, despite all the shots and precautions, my wife Amy and I both got Covid. That said, we tried to find solace in some of the following distractions that brought us joy over the past 365 days.
Sports:
2023 was a banner year for Charm City ornithophiles. The long-suffering Orioles had the best record in the American League, winning 101 games on their way to being crowned champions of the toughest division in Major League Baseball, the American League East. Sure, they got burned in the post-season - albeit by the eventual World Champions, the Texas Rangers - but what a ride it was, and the league and pundits agreed as Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson won 2023 American League Silver Slugger Awards, Gunnar won AL Rookie of the Year, Felix Bautista won the Mariano Rivera Award as the top relief pitcher in the AL, Brandon Hyde won AL Manager of the Year and Mike Elias won MLB Executive of the Year. But for me, nothing topped being at Camden Yards for all four games of a four-game series against the Rays on September 14-17. Amy and I cancelled our plans to go to the beach, sensing that this would be a crucial series, and it sure was - starting off bad with two tough losses, but ending with the Birds clinching a playoff spot after beating the Rays in the 11th inning, 5-4, on September 17. And nothing brought more joy than attending the September 15 Adam Jones Retirement Night at Oriole Park. Sure, we lost in a laugher of a game (lone mitigating factor: witnessing rookie Heston Kjerstad's first MLB hit - a 418-foot home run to right field!), but nothing beat seeing the smile on Adam Jones face as our favorite Oriole got his due from the team and the fans. #10, legend!
And now it looks like the Ravens might go the O's one better, hopefully winning the Super Bowl and another MVP award for Lamar "Action" Jackson? They capped the year off by destroying the Miami Dolphins at home, guaranteeing themselves a post-season bye, one week after they destroyed the NFC's best team, the San Francisco 49ers. I'm not a football fan, but I love the joy they bring the city (we certainly can use it). Maryland may be Blue politically, but on the gridiron, we're a solid Purple State.
Movies:
Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMERand Yorgos Lanthimos' POOR THINGS were the two best films I saw and by rights Cillian Murphy as quantum physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer and Emma Stone as beastly beauty Bella Baxter should get Best Actor awards for their performances. I didn't see KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON - the 3 1/2-hour running time scared my bladder off (and believe me, POOR THINGS was long enough! Tell me again, whatever happened to brevity being the soul of wit?) - but if it doesn't win Best Picture, then surely OPPENHEIMER will? It's based, and skews closely to, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's 2005 book American Prometheus, which is also highly recommended.
POOR THINGS is also based on a book, Alisdair Gray's Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless, M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer (1992). I must say that while the "diabolical fuckfest of a puzzle" that is POOR THINGS (as quoted by New Yorker critic Anthony Lane, himself quoting Mark Ruffalo's wonderfully caddish character Duncan Wedderburn's take on Bella) engaged Amy and I throughout its 2 hours and 21 minutes runtime, my bladder was slightly less amused. There were some unnecessary "woke" side-stories that added nothing to the overall story - a horny, feminist riff on the Frankenstein myth and a steam-punk skewering of both Romanticism and the age of Enlightenment - and had me checking my watch at the 2-hour mark. To wit: Jerrod Carmichael's cynical philosopher Harry Astley taking Bella to Alexandria to show her the plight of the poor and afflicted, and Suzy Bemba's socialist prostitute Toinette showing her, what, agit-clit sisterhood? These scenes could have easily been edited out.
Needless to say, the big takeaways from the film besides Emma Stone's tour-de-force acting props (and Willem Dafoe's performance as her Dr Frankenstein-styled creator Dr. "God"win Baxter, and Mark Ruffalo's delightful romp as the louche Wedderburn) will be its ruminations on the meaning of life (and its symbiotic companion, death), its questioning of prevailing social orders and why we even bother with them, and Lathimos' grand visuals and outlandish costumes. Oh, and my new favorite word for sex, coined by an enthusiastic Bella: "Furious Jumping." "Why do people not do this all the time?" she asks. Why indeed, Bella.
Best Movie Runner-ups: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO (I cried! So did Amy!) and Miyazaki's latest (but not last, apparently) THE BOY AND THE HERON- the latter of which, like all Miyazaki films, bears repeated viewings in order to take in and understand the surfeit of images and concepts absorbed. Of course Amy and I saw the subbed version, it goes without saying (why are Americans so linquistically lazy?). And it inspired us to read the 1937 book How Do You Live? by Genzabuo Yoshino - in the film it's the book left to young protagonist Mahito Maki by his late mother, and apparently it greatly influenced Miyazaki and other young men of his generation when it first appeared in pre-war Japan.
GODZILLA MINUS ONE is not just another title in the Gojira canon, it's also an incredibly moving Japanese post-war drama. Action fans will love it for the action, Godzilla fans will love it for the amazing design of This Year's Model, but there's also plenty on offer here for everyone's tastes, even, say, Ozu lovers. Because it's a real story, with real meaty content and character arcs, and not just mindless shooting and explosions (we saw enough of that in the 30 minutes of trailers for American action movies that preceded the movie at the Towson Cinemark; mental note: always arrive half an hour after listed start time to avoid the interminable Cinemark/Amazon/SUV/Paramount+/etc ads and mindless franchise movie trailers). And thank god it was subbed and not dubbed.
Most Honorable Mention: I also liked Todd Haynes' quiet drama MAY DECEMBER. At the risk of sounding pretentious, it reminded me of an Ingmar Bergman film in the way it examined the complexity of relationships below the skin-deep surface. The film was loosely based on the real-life tabloid story of American teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who had a sexual relationship with her sixth-grade student and later married him. Like Bergman's PERSONA, it featured two strong female protagonists - Natalie Portman (is there a more beautiful woman on Earth? No wonder she's Thor's GF!) and the always brilliant Julianne Moore - psychologically probing one another, looking for chinks in one another's body armor, but it was Charles Melton as the "May" husband to Moore's complex "December" who truly stood out in the acting chops. Truly a sleeper star in the making, and no doubt worthy of a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
And forget the first half of the BARBIEHEIMER phenomenon. Amy and I saw BARBIE (it was hard not to given the hype) and were underwhelmed - sure, it was fun but total fluff and the 2nd half was overly preachy and hokey-wokey (a fat Barbie? Where was that ever in the Barbie-verse? Sure, there was a "Curvy" Barbie in 2016, but it was more Kardashian of figure than Lizzo-esque) and Will Ferrell's "comic antics" were painful to endure. And we had no interest in ASTEROID CITY. We’ve seen enough self-indulgent movies about nothing and lasted a mere 10 minutes before clicking the remote. I like a lot of early Wes Anderson movies, but ever since THE FRENCH DISPATCH I find myself agreeing with critic Roger Moore that Anderson's oeuvre has metastasized from cleverly-linked bits & bobs into oxygen-free stylish twee.
TV:
We mostly caught up on old series we hadn't seen before (SUCCESSION, WESTWORLD, THE TERROR, the "Running Up That Hill" 4th season of STRANGER THINGS, etc.), but of the new offerings, Amy and I loved:
Aussie comedy FISK (Netflix). Kitty Flanagan is Helen Tudor-Fisk, a former high-end lawyer forced to slum it at an estate planning firm where, in her floppy “festival of brown” pant suits, she endures humiliation on a daily basis. I think I love Helen most because she's no-nonsense when it comes to coffee, preferring cheap convenience store java (I'm a RoFo man myself!) to the outlandishly pricey lattes served up at curated coffee cafes. Her put-downs of pretentious barristas and smoothie-dispensing snowflakes ("Hi, I'm Malcolm, pronounced 'Melcome, like welcome!'") warm the cockles of my overly-caffeinated heart.
Season 6 of BLACK MIRRORon Netflix was a welcome return after pandemic-induced limbo. Besides showing the dark side of technology and social media (“Joan Is Awful,” “Beyond the Sea”), the series branched out into horror and true crime spoofs. Especially satisfying was the Scottish serial killer episode “Loch Henry” in which the old John Nettles detective series BERGERAC and VHS tapes figured prominently (and hilariously!).
We also enjoyed the 2nd season of Acorn's SHORT FILM SHOWCASE (also on Amazon Prime and others), which seemed to feature all Irish shorts (Erin go bragh!). They were all good, but the standout for us was the romantic CROSSWORD, which thankfully you can also see for free on YouTube. "On a significant day in her life a lonely woman, who finds solace in the daily crossword, discovers that the answers to the clues are all around her. Is it magic, coincidence, or something else entirely?"
The neo-operatic WHITE LOTUS Season 2(Max) may not have been as good as Season 1, but it still had the marvelous Jennifer Coolidge unpacking her anxieties in a lush Neapolitan setting, and added the always-stellar Aubrey Plaza, F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hollander (The Rev!) to the cast, not to mention the extremely sexy Napoli native Simona Tabasco as a calculating working girl. And a great soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer (see also: the UK Utopia)!
We also loved BEEF(Netflix), my gateway drug into the comedic genius of Ali Wong. I subsequently binged on all her Netflix stand-up specials. And Steven Yeung (Minari, Nope, Burning) was a revelation, showing that his acting chops were wasted killing zombies all those years on The Walking Dead.
Where's the Beef? Steve Yeung and Ali Wong
And while it's an old series (later remade in a US version, begging the question: why?) the original 2014 UK version ofUTOPIA(Britbox, Amazon Prime)was one of the most brilliant - and, given the pandemic, topical - dystopian British TV series I've ever seen. A total mindfuck with a stellar cast of unknowns (at least on these shores, saving James Fox and Stephen Rea, of course), a villain named Mr. Rabbit, an on-the-spectrum killer addicted to Raisinets, and probably the most unrepentantly graphic scenes of violence (school children massacred!) and torture (eye-gouging, eww!) I ever recall seeing on the boob tube. But I couldn’t look away! Watch it and you too will be asking, "Where is Jessica Hyde?" Between this series and Jeffrey Epstein's "suicide," I'm all in on Conspiracy Theories now! There were 2 seasons, but hope springs eternal that there will be a reboot somewhere down the line. And the outstanding series theme music? Cristobal Tapia de Veer (White Lotus)!
This just in...LETTERKENNY's final season - Season 12 - just dropped on Hulu on December 26. Amy immediately gave herself a post-Christmas gift by re-subscribing to Hulu just for this. Even though we haven't had a chance to binge it all, consider it top of this list. Oh, and as part of Hulu, we finally got to see FARGO Season 5 (FX), which we just started binging. All I can say is two words: Juno Temple. Sure, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jon Hamm (who's having a "Go Ham" year, showing his comedic chops in the otherwise lame GOOD OMENS 2) are great, too, but this is basically a one-woman play, as the TED LASSO (which I've still never seen!) English star nails the Minnesota accent and kicks Rambo-ass as Midwest hausfrau-cum-Tiger Mom Dorothy "Dot" Lyon.
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Books:
LET'S DO IT by Bob Stanley. This was Stanley's prequel to his outstanding capsule history of rock ‘n’ roll (YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!), wherein he writes with flair about both the famous (Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Gershwin, Ellington, Armstrong) and the forgotten (Mystic Moods Orchestra, Jeri Southern, Whispering Jack Smith, Annette Hanshaw) of the pre-war era. And Stanley gets Sinatra. Really gets him. "Frank Sinatra is the fulcrum of this book. He understood and assimilated much of what happened in the past, he dictated what would happen in the immediate future, and the various phases of his career - pin-up boy vocalist, album-oriented adult singer, late-period duets - are still a blueprint for artists in the twenty-first century...Technically - his pitch, his fluid phrasing - he could out-sing pretty much everyone, though it was when the flaws crept into his singing in the mid-1950s that things got really interesting." Spot on!
MONICA, the latest graphic head-scratcher novel from the always fascinating Daniel Clowes, America’s reigning cartoonist. Like the best of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films, Clowes' comics warrant return visits to unravel the many layers of meaning and detail in each panel..
Quentin Tarantino’s CINEMA SPECULATION. I’m not a Tarantino fanatic by any means, but I gotta give props to his film writing, especially about ‘70s cineplex fare. He was blessed with a boho mom and his mom’s cool Black boyfriend who took him to not-for-kids movies, everything from Euro arthouse and indie American features to Blaxploitation and Kung-Fu flicks. The influence on his subsequent hipster-populist career is telling.
Peter Biskind's PANDORA'S BOX: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV. Biskind is the master guide to the golden age of American independent filmmaking (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls; Down and Dirty Pictures) and in PANDORA’S BOX he turns his attention to the golden age of “Prestige/Peak Television” and its unfortunate demise into today’s fodder: a return of cable and streaming platforms to commercial network TV’s “standards and procedures”, i.e., a dearth of freedom and imagination. Peak TV is now merely peaked: pale, wan and emaciated.
THIS WAS HOLLYWOOD by Carla Valderrama. I love all the TCM film books that have come out recently and this one presents the most fascinating stories about the legends and forgotten stars of Hollywood (like Puzzums, "the cat who clawed his way to silver screen fame" and the only feline ever to sign a Hollywood contract), from its birth through its Golden Age. The LA-based Valderrama's prose is as slick as the photographs and imaginative layout that accompany it, and her jacket photo - showing her sporting heart-shaped glasses and a leopard-skin blouse - indicates she is trying to carry on the spirit of Hollywood glamour from its mythic-glory days.
Music:
The Monuments' first-ever CD, Supreme(which is available to stream or purchase on CD from Bandcamp) was my favorite record of the year. Originally hailing from the Baltimore/Annapolis area, The Monuments have been working off and on for more than 40 years, but surprisingly, these are their first trax on wax. Though a number of players have come and gone over the years, the nucleus remains frontwoman Cindy Borchardt (Bobby Sox, The Beaters, Silver Birches) on vocals, William Sutherland (Judie's Fixation) on guitar and vocals, Russel Stone on guitar and vocals, and Jay Turner (Judie's Fixation, Tom Principato Band, Leah Simmons) on bass, with Richard King now providing the rock-steady beat on drums.
As the title suggests, the single features two Supremes covers, "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "My World Is Empty," both written by Motown's hit songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Many groups have covered the Motown songbook and countless female singers have tackled Diana Ross' vocal stylings, but Cindy Borchardt's pipes are more than up to the task. But what really makes The Monuments' covers a Supreme achievement is the arrangements. They retain Holland-Dozier-Holland's soulfulness, while the twin guitar attack of Stone and Sutherland add a hard-edged punk vibe to the classic soul melodies. But don't take my word for it, check them out for yourself at their Bandcamp page: monumentz.bandcamp.com (Yes, it's Monumentz spelled with a "z" because there are other bands using that name! Same deal with their email, it's TheMonumentz@gmail.com.)
It’s not new, but the SITA SINGS THE BLUES soundtrack (the movie is streaming on Kanopy) was my favorite musical discovery of the year, an unlikely but successful mix of Indian and 1920s jazz music. This film itself is about The Ramayana, an important text in Hindu mythology, and primarily focuses on Sita, an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi, who is married to Rama, an avatar of Vishnu.
I discovered this amazing film after Amy came across an old 78 rpm record at her parent’s house by a “Miss Annette Hanshaw,” who apparently was famous for always ending her songs with her signature, “That’s all!” Curious, we Googled the name and immediately came across this movie directed, produced and animated by artist Nina Paley that cleverly juxtaposes Indian mythology and iconography with Annette Hanshaw's flapper-era blues songs. The art, story and soundtrack were an imaginative mix of East and West and how, now, ever the twain shall meet. Including Hanshaw's music led to copyright snafus, making this a hard soundtrack to come by. Oh, and Nina Paley was later "cancelled" for "cultural appropriation" (which is why she now labels herself: "Animator. Director. Artist. Scapegoat."). Tough biscuit, that. Regardless, click here to hear Annette Hanshaw's music.
Amy and I also really loved The Routes’ REVERBERATION ADDICT, wherein the Kyushu, Japan-based Anglo-Japanese garage band reimagined Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady With Surf-Rock. Yes, twangy guitar versions of punk classics! The Routes also covered Kraftwerk’s canon - of all things! - quite successfully on THE TWANG MACHINE. Check 'em out at Bandcamp.
Sonny Stitt - BOPPIN' IN BALTIMORE. Sonny Stitt was one of my dad's favorite sax players and this 2023 release by Zev Feldman for his Jazz Detective label shows why. Presented by the Left Bank Jazz Society, this two-disc set was recorded live on November 11, 1973 at The Famous Ballroom on North Charles Street at what is now The Charles Theater. Stitt never got his due compared to the "other Sonny" (Sonny Rollins), but here, backed by the stellar trio of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Louis Hayes, he more than makes his case that he is one of the greatest hard-bop stylists of all time.
Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs' Ace Records compilations. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs are not just members of the UK indie-pop group St. Etienne, but also avid record collectors, DJs, pub pop-quiz curators and, notably in Stanley's case, authors. And, thankfully, their tastes are exquisite. I especially liked their '80s synth-pop THE TEARS OF TECHNOLOGY compilation. As they write in the liner notes, "Like mellotrons before them, synthesizers could project a strange and deep emotion - something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy. Previous generations had often disparaged synths as dehumanising machines but, at the turn of the '80s, a new crop of musicians appeared who could coax them into creating modern and decidely moving music. It was almost as if these groups had set out to prove the doubters wrong." Well said, lads!
Standouts tracks here include the lovely cascading synths on China Crisis' opener "Jean Walks in Fresh Field," Turquoise Days' "Grey Skies," Oppenheimer (him again!) Analysis' "Behind the Shades," and, as always John Foxx, the synth-pop pioneer himself, with "An Evening in the Rain" from 1981's The Garden. Oh, and I discovered Electronic Circus, the band formed by former Tubeway Army synth-player (and co-writer of Visage's "Fade To Grey") Chris Payne. Their lone single "Direct Lines" features the lovely Siouxsie Sioux-styled vocals of Penny Heathcote (ex-The Corvettes; see her "Love To Hate You" single). These artists rub elbows with the usual (and more familiar) suspects here: The Human League, OMD, Simple Minds, Soft Cell and even your friendly neighborhood folk-punk with a synth, Patrik Fitzgerald.
And I also really dug the boys' FELL FROM THE SUN, which gathers the best of the 98bpm records that sound-tracked the summer of 1990. As the authors explain, "1990 and '91 brought a host of records that were made to accompany the sunrise; they slowed the pace on the dancefloor itself, right down to 98bpm. Woozy and hypnotic, this was the perfect post-club soundtrack." Well, I never was a raver, so this is an introduction to me of what I missed. It's pretty chill, the note-perfect soothing accompaniment for my nerve-wracking commutes to work on the Jones Falls Expressway. Highlights include Primal Scream's "Higher Than the Sun," Q-Tee & History's "Africa" (Ya-Ya!), The Grid's "Floating," and The Aloof's "Never Get Out of the Boat" (Flying Mix) with its Martin Sheen/Apocalypse Now sample, which goes all the way (absolutely goddamn right!).
But wait, there's STILL more! I'd be remiss not to mention my wunnerful Christmas gift from Amy, which is a hybrid of text, images and sounds:
The Art of Punk & New-Wave Covers: It's a flip calendar that lets you scan Spotify codes to play each album displayed! My birthday is the first, self-titled Psychedelic Furs album, and Amy's is the Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food.
Radio:
Our favorite jock, the legendary Weasel, was canned, so we tuned out WTMD (though we still like old-timer Bob the Paper Guy and Don "Donzo" Gold's playlists) and turned in mourning to internet radio for salvation:
Robbie White’s “Forbidden Alliance” Sunday mornings 9 am-12pm on WOWD (94.3 FM) features the best shout-outs to the heritage of local heroes from the Balto-Washington area, especially The Slickee Boys and their spin-off bands. Robbie's special guests are equally outstanding, like his interview with Jeff Krulik about old music venues like Adam Morgan's Ambassador Theater (Jimi Hendrix played there in 1967!) and DC's heralded lineage of guitar greats like Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan and Roy Clark. And, as always, his year-end Christmas Special with Chick Veditz (and sometimes LesLee Anderson!) is something we Marble Bar alumni always look forward to.
Robbie White (middle) flanked by Slickee Kim Kane, Chick Veditz, LesLee Anderson and Weasel!
Skizz Cyzyk’s “Point Me At the Sky” every other Tuesday morning 9-12 on Radio Plastique (download the app now!). Skizz has heard it all, owns it all, and plays it all. I discovered he was a Neil Young fan thanks to one of his eclectic playlists (I never knew!). And, naturally, he already knew all about The Routes and played the heck outta 'em on his show!
OK, it's regular old transmission radio, but I have to mention another Tuesday show that tickled my toes in 2023, Charlie Stinchcombe's "Psyched Out" Sixties-psych-garageprogram 8-10 pm on WKHS (90.5 FM). WKHS' strong signal broadcasts all the way over the Bay from Kent County High School ("The Voice of the KCHS Trojans") in Worton, MD, where Charlie also hosts a Doo-Wop show from 6-8 pm every Tuesday night. With tens of thousands of rare records in his arsenal, Charlie is truly the Gandalf of the Grooves, and every week I discover a new obscure '60s band or song I've never heard of before.
Charlie Stinchcombe, host of "Psyched Out"
Thrift Stores:
The Goodwill Super Store, 7928 Eastern Avenue in Dundalk brought me more joy than any other second-hand store I visited in 2023. Amy found several stylish outfits there, while I scored some hidden treasure of my own. I never owned ANY Crack the Sky albums until I spotted CRACK ADDICT: THE BEST OF CRACK THE SKY there for $2. It's the perfect intro for a Tommy-come-lately neophyte like me, and it's been on heavy rotation on the car stereo ever since. Nothin' but the best, later for the rest!
The next week I picked up the CARTOONS THAT TIME FORGOT: FROM THE VAN BEUREN STUDIO for $2, a DVD that lists for up to $138 used on Amazon! While far from great, these early pre-Code 'toons, featuring Molly Moo-Cow, Toonnerville Trolley, and other unknowns, are seldom seen today (though to his credit, Pee-Wee Herman used to feature them regularly on his Saturday morning TV show) but are a real kick to a cinephile like me. New York's Van Beuren Studios were rivals to Walt Disney back in the day, mainly thanks to animator Paul Terry (Mighty Mouse, Heck & Jeckyl)'s "Aesop Fables" series, and it's fun to watch these early forays into animation before the studios found their legs and their brand.
Record Shows:
Amy and I enjoyed the two big Baltimore record shows throughout the year: the bi-monthly Baltimore Record Bazaar held at Peabody Heights Brewery in Waverly and the Arbutus Record Show, held on the third Sunday of each month at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Dept. Hall.
They're both fun, but we tend to find better wares at the Arbutus record show, where our favorite dealer is prog-meister Bill "Thought You Couldn't Find It" Martin (billhatman@gmail.com, discogs id: billhatman - send him your want list!). His CDs and LPs aren't cheap, but they are reasonable given their hard-to-find nature and, after all, you gets what you pays for! Sign of quality? He had a lot of Gong (which I never see ANYWHERE!), NRBQ, Krautrock and (personal faves) rare Byrds CDs, like the wonderful Gene Clark import AMERICAN DREAMER.
Dealer Bill Martin: The Man in the Hat
That said, we did find some good wares at the Baltimore Record Bazaar, too. For example, Amy scored an ultra-rare copy of Kraftwerk's ELECTRIC CAFE CD for a song. Thanks to Ralf Hutter's obsessive revisionism that seeks to erase their analog catalog years, old Kraftwerk albums are extremely hard to find these days and, while this one is considered a low-water mark in the Dusseldorf boys discography, ELECTRIC CAFE is easily our favorite (and funniest - if you can imagine Kraftwerk being humorous) album.
Meanwhile, at a March Peabody Heights BRB, I spotted 2 Katatonix LPs, ALL SOLD OUT (1988) and this ultra rare signed-by-the-band copy of the long out-of-print DIVINE MISSION (1984). I had the original, so I passed on the $75 sticker price, but it was fun to look at the doodles on the sleeve.
Amy also found yet another Mark Harp 12-inch there that day ("Boring Holes") and the dealer asked her if she knew Mark: "Know him? I was married to him!"
And at a May Peabody Heights record show, I got a great deal on some SoulJazz Punk 45 CDs from an Everton FC fan who kept me clued to the day's EPL Championship Sunday scores. Next door at Normal's Books & Music, the day's scores continued when I found Eric Idle and Neil Innes' Rutland Times LP, plus Malcolm McLaren's Madam Butterfly 12-incher (featuring Towson High grad Genie Vincent on the cover!), another rare Gruppo Sportivo record (albeit not as great as Mistakes), and a coveted (for Rundgren record runts like me) used copy of Paul Myers' A Wizard A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio.
Postcards:
Amy got me involved with Postcrossings, wherein one sends and receives postcards to postcard lovers arund the world. While I'm nowhere near her tallies, I did receive some really cool postcards, especially from Japan! These were two of my favorites:
The guy who sent this card loves Blade Runner, Ozu & Queen - a kindred soul!
This card was from a fellow Astroboy fan!
And I'd be remiss not to mention the wonderful Viv Stanshall postcard I received from Amy for my birthday!:
Digital Music:
Nothing made me happier in 2023 than this unexpected treasure I received from Robyn Webb at Thanksgiving: all the tunes and spoken word tales a Bonzo Dog Band and Vivian Stanshall fan could ask for on one thumb drive! Thanks are given, Robyn!
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