Great Moments In Flexi-Disc History

While searching for the Kendra Smith flexi-disc, I came across this one, given away with a different issue of The BOB Magazine. I had totally forgotten I had this, but it's a good one.

The A-side "I'll Meet You Halfway" by Redd Kross is an outtake from 1993's Phaseshifter. It sounds to me like the boys were going for a kind of Neil Diamond vibe here (quite sucessfully, I might add). This also appeared on the B-side of "The Lady In The Front Row" 7" single (but not on the 10" EP that I own, go figure).

Side two has a then 48 year-old Moe Tucker performing "Teenager In Love" accompanied by her daughter Kate on violin and sax. Like everything else Moe touches, the results are completely charming.

The other B-side track, "So So Sick" appeared in a slightly different version (titled "So Sick") on Unrest's fantastic 1992 album Perfect Teeth. I believe this version also appeared on a limited edition Teenbeat 7" box set of the album. It's criminal that Perfect Teeth, one of the best albums of the 90s, has fallen out-of-print. It's not even available as a download, although a compilation of some of the better tracks and rarities from the same period, B.P.M. (1991-1994), is available at iTunes. "So So Sick" (possibly the same version as this one) is also available there, presumably sans flexi-disc induced distortion. Once again, I've done my best to clean up the sound without negatively impacting the music, I hope you enjoy the results.

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Maureen Tucker - Playin' Possum

Unfortunately, my fellow music bloggers have not followed my selfless, high-minded lead, and have refused to suspend their blogging activities until the financial crisis is solved. My friends, these bloggers have betrayed the public trust. Their selfishness and hatred for all things good and decent has forced me to continue blogging. Just remember, if we plunge into an economic depression, it's their fault, not mine.

Is there is a musician less pretentious than Mo Tucker? I can't think of any. Mo was the heart and soul of the Velvet Underground. Even when their music leaned hard toward the experimental and the avant-garde, Mo's drumming was always simple and direct, preventing the music from becoming academic and tedious. It's not surprising then that her solo work would be so primitive and nakedly honest.

Released in 1982, a full twenty ten years after she last performed with the Velvet Underground, Playin' Possum was Mo's first solo album. After the sad, unnecessarily protracted, implosion of the Velvet Underground, Mo had kept a low profile musically. She got married, moved to Phoenix and raised a family. But she wasn't dead musically, she had only been playing possum, as this delightful album makes clear. Playin' Possum was a real one woman show, Mo recorded it at home and played all the instruments herself. Here's how she describes the album:

I'm very proud of this record!! I recorded it alone-in my living room-on a four track. I spent months on it since at that point I had 5 kids, four of them under 6 and one brand new. So I like to say that I recorded this between diaper changes. And its true! One of my favorite reviews described "I'll be your baby tonight" as -- Maureen performs radical surgery on I'll etc. without benefit of anesthesia!!! I loved that and as you can see, still remember it word for word. I love my sax solo on Louie, Louie. I don't know how to play sax so I learned the 3 or 4 notes that would go with the chords and just blasted off! All in all, I think it's a real fun album.

It is a real fun album, and in many ways truer to the spirit of the Velvet Underground than any of Lou Reed's solo work. Mo's cover of "Bo Diddley" is so raw and primitive it makes the original sound like progressive rock.

Original copies of this album are very difficult to find, and it has never been reissued on CD, but if you send her $8 Mo will send you a cassette copy of the album ($7 if you send her a cassette). She'll even autograph it for you if you ask. How cool is that?