Hymie's Vintage Records

The Crooked Saws performing here at Hymie’s tomorrow!

April 13, 2013 in Events, Lists, Songs | 2 comments

This week we’ve been trying to come up with a complete list of all the artists who have performed here in the new record shop (well, not so new anymore – this month marks three full years since we settled in here in the big blue building). The idea was that we’re coming up on the 100th event – it may have even already happened without fanfare.

Tomorrow the Crooked Saws will be performing here at the usual Sunday afternoon music time (3pm), and it may well be the 100th in-store performance. They’re an awesome blues-based duo whose album reminds us a lot of the Porch Knights disc, Barrel Housin’, that’s been a favorite here for a long time (we streamed some tracks from that one here). Crooked Saws take a little more measured pace, and are a little rootsier. Jesse Damien Revel’s have the same awesome primal drive we love about another favorite local band, the Fuck Knights.

If you click on their name up above the internet will rush you right to the Crooked Saws’ Bandcamp page and you can hear for yourself, the album, Mo’Fi, has lots of raw, Stooge-y garage/blues tracks, but also some straight blues songs like the soulful “Miracle of Loss.” Another track is remixed to include sampled surface noise and dialogue, and Revel’s guitar riff has the hypnotic drive of classic hip hop. And even though you’re hearing it digitally through the internet (which is, probably, the worst possible way to listen to music in terms of sound quality), Mo’Fi has a more expansive, warm sound than many records these days because it an analog recording – Revel and drummer Matthew Marshall recorded it on 1/4″ reel to reel!

Check ‘em out, and if you enjoy it you should come by the shop tomorrow afternoon – not only are these guys going to play a set here, they’re going to give away some copies of their disc!

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“Break me Down Master”

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“Get Up Again”

And while we’re at it, here’s the list of in-store performances here at Hymie’s we’ve been compiling. We’re not sure it’s complete yet, but it’s getting there. Maybe you were here for some of these, or maybe you are one of the artists. Either way, thanks! It’s been a lot of fun – dare we say it’s been a “long, strange trip” – and we hope we’ve turned a few people on to some of these awesome local musicians.

11/11/10 Ben Weaver
12/14/10 Martin Devaney
4/16/11 RSD #1
6/8/11 Whitey Morgan & the 78s
6/20/11 The Taxpayers and the Annanadale Cardinals
7/10/11 The Brian Just Band
7/20/11 Santana’s b-day party with Bitter Roots
7/24/11 Swallows
7/30/11 Dragons Power Up! and White Whales
7/31/11 JazZen
8/7/11 The Knotwells
8/12/11 Juvie and Hot Rash
8/21/11 Jezebel Jones & her Wicked Ways
8/28/11 Tom Harris
9/11/11 Tyler Haag vs. Bucket Day
9/16/11 CLAPS and the Funeral & the Twilight
9/25/11 Whiskey Jeff & the Beer Back Band
10/4/11 The Cactus Blossoms
10/9/11 The Lonesome Polecats of Pocahontas County
10/16/11 The Ericksons
10/23/11 The Flying Dorito Brothers
10/30/11 Jennifer Markery & the Tennessee Snowpants
11/6/11 The Broken Bicycles and I’m Not Dead/I’m Not a Robot
11/13/11 Wizards are Real
11/20/11 Sleeping in the Aviary
11/17/11 Is/Is and the Chambermaids
11/27/11 Wind-up bird and the Nelson Villians
12/2/11 Lydia Loveless
12/4/11 As it Is
12/11/11 Ghost Test
1/8/12 Garbagemen and Up Jumped the Devil
1/15/12 Bombay Sweets and the Prissy Clerks
1/22/12 Caitlin Robertson
1/29/12 Mages
2/12/12 The White Whales and Aldine
2/19/12 Jack Klatt & the Cat Swingers
2/26/12 Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band
3/4/12 Caitlin Robertson & the Dusty Hearts
3/11/12 National Bird
3/18/12 The Brief Candles and CLAPS
3/25/12 Sleep Tight
4/20/12 The Greatest Lakes
4/21/12 RSD #2
4/29/12 Whiskey Jeff & the Beer Back Band
5/6/12 The Parlour Suite
5/11/12 Panoramic and True
5/13/12 Pennyroyal
5/17/12 El Le Faunt & his Traveling Circus and Fletcher Magellan
5/20/12 Robert Coates
6/3/12 Anchor Windlass
6/10/12 Panther Ray
6/17/12 Devon McClive
6/24/12 The Broken Bicycles
7/1/12 The Roe Family Singers
7/15/12 Dakota Dave Hull
7/15/12 The Taxpayers and Tyler Haag
7/29/12 Walker Fields
8/5/12 Pete Hofmann & the Measured Doses
8/12/12 Very Small Animal
8/19/12 HOT AUGUST NIGHT with Neil Dynamite & the Heartlites
8/25/12 Tyler Haag
8/26/12 Fletcher Magellan & the Great Lakes
9/16/12 Porch Knights and Kalispell
9/30/12 Tim Schumann
10/7/12 Pleasure Horse and Fletcher Magellan & the Great Lakes
10/14/12 Caitlin Robertson and Whiskey Jeff & the Beer Back Band
10/21/12 Bootstrap Family Band and Pocahontas County
10/28/12 Tree Party and Jack Klatt & the Cat Swingers
10/30/12 Southside Desire
11/4/12 Max Corcoran Trio
11/11/12 Ben Weaver
11/18/12 The Lazy Kids
11/25/12 Murder by Death
12/16/12 Tyler Haag and Jake Manders
1/6/13 The Sunny Era
1/13/13 The White Whales and Panther Ray
1/18/13 Kittyhawk and the Please & Thank Yous
1/20/13 Story of the Sea
1/27/13 Sex Sounds & Braver
2/10/13 The Ericksons
2/17/13 Up Jumped the Devil
2/24/13 Distant Sound Collective
2/22/13 Brian Laidlaw & the Family Trade
3/3/13 Narco States
3/10/13 The Degenerate Music Club
3/9/13 Nate Lodgson and Brookes Strause
3/24/13 Daddy Squeeze

“American Buffalo 2″ – a free compilation LP from Noiseland available only on Record Store Day

April 11, 2013 in Awesome-ness!, Events, Songs | No comments

For the second year in a row the folks at Noiseland Industries have produced a free compilation LP that features tracks from some of the many albums they’ve pressed for local artists. American Buffalo 2 will be available at several shops in town on Record Store Day, including ours.

They’re pressing so much good stuff up there it’s hard to keep track – We just noticed that one of the Record Store Day releases we’re hoping to hear, the first Yonder Mountain String Band vinyl release, was pressed by Noiseland (maybe the lucky customer who gets a copy will loan it to us sometime after the block party). And that new Charlie Parr album, Barnswallow, which we’ve been spinning almost every day in the shop? Also made by Noiseland. Not surprising that several of our favorite records and CDs last year (no less than four albums on the “top ten” list we posted in December!) were pressed by Noiseland. And our review for two of them – Swallows’ Witching & Divining and Big Cats’ For my Mother – specifically note how great they sound on vinyl!

So we’re pretty excited to be giving out copies of American Buffalo 2 with any purchase of a new local LP on Record Store Day, courtesy of Noiseland Industries. Each participating store will be given one copy of the album autographed by all of the bands included, but we haven’t figured out how to give that awesome gem away yet (and we’re open to suggestions).

In the meantime, here’s a sampling of tracks from the compilation which haven’t been posted on the Hymie’s blog before. Also on the compilation are tracks from Big Cats, Gay Witch Abortion, Haley Bonar, Greg Grease, Fathom Lane, Mixed Blood Majority, bloodnstuff, A.Wolf & Her Claws, The Pines and Gospel Gossip!

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“Live On” by Dan Israel

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“Nice Flight” by Solid Gold

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“Vibrant” by BNLX

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“Bird Song” by the Murder of Crows

Minnesota’s garage rock legacy, a little follow up

April 10, 2013 in Songs | No comments

Our recent post about Minnesota garage records in anticipation of Narco State’s in-store performance last month led to a lot of conversations around here about favorite local bands from the 60s. You can check out their new EP here, by the way. Their set here at Hymie’s was loud, rockin’ and awesome, and we’ll be sure followers of the Hymie’s facebook page know about some of their upcoming shows so you can get a chance to hear ‘em for yourself (they’re working on a show at Hell’s Kitchen for late May that would pair them up with the Goondas).

Most of the records in that post have long since passed through the shop, some only once! That copy of the C.A. Quintet’s Trip Through Hell was a lot of fun to have around, and a few people have asked about the Sundazed Records reissue. It is currently out of print, but we talked to the good folks at Sundazed while we were putting in our Record Store Day orders about it and there’s a plan to press the album again! You can bet we’ll have it in stock when it’s available!

There are a couple cool Sundazed reissues of Minnesota music in print right now, which we have in stock. One is a three-volume set compiling some of the rockin’-est singles on Soma Records – that includes some of the tracks you heard in our recent blog post. Another thing they have reissued is the Trashmen’s Surfin Bird album and their “Great Lost Album,” and one that is a little bluesier is the Fendermen’s Mule Skinner Blues. All have the usual awesome packaging and sound we’ve come to expect from a Sundazed release.

We’re continuing to record most of the local records that pass through the shop, and when we have a new selection of garage singles and albums to share we’ll post them – plus we’re going to share a few country, psych rock and jazz records we’ve recorded for the blog. In the mean time we wanted to tell you about this awesome single that Brandon Allday from Big Quarters told us about – it’s a band that his uncle, Rick Aguilar, played in who recorded a single that was released by Bangar Records in 1964 or 1965. This link will take you to hear it on the Last of the Record Buyers blog (which is an awesome thing to check out when you’re web-browsing anyways). Brandon quotes his uncle’s story about the single’s history on the LRB blog. Enjoy, and if you see a copy of the Jay Mars’ single hold onto it!

Captain Video thwarted by science!

April 8, 2013 in Photos, Storytime | No comments

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Totally riveting adventure, until our five-year-old ruined it by pointing out that Captain Video can’t land on Jupiter because it’s all gas.

Maybe they didn’t know that in 1953.

Listening to lost cartoons

April 7, 2013 in Awesome-ness!, Inspirational, Photos | No comments

Here, friends, are some really interesting records we have recently found. Each 12″ disc is made of shellac like the 78s of yore, but plays at 33rpm. Even more interesting is these one-side discs are inside-start record (you put the needle at what is usually the ‘end’ of the side and it plays towards the ‘beginning’). On the back of each is the RCA/Victor imprint (at left) you have probably seen on one-sided 78s before, even though the label of each says “Columbia Pictures Corporation.”

And that leads to the most interesting thing about these records: each is the soundtrack to a cartoon from 1935. Here is Scrappy’s Ghost Story, the cartoon for which a theater would play the disc in the first picture above.

Sadly, some of the cartoons for this stack of a half dozen records are lost. Nobody has a copy anymore. One lost cartoon is Monkey Love, which is about a boy monkey who meets a girl monkey in the jungle. He serenades her, wins her heart and takes her home. Then he is confronted by a jealous gorilla, who is new sweetheart clobbers. It must be awesome.

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(Soundtrack to Monkey Love, 1935)

And we couldn’t figure out if you can still see this next one or not – nobody has posted it on Youtube, which is of course where we found Scrappy’s Ghost Story. It’s a Krazy Kat.

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(Soundtrack to Peace Conference, 1935)

In this cartoon a League of Nations-type conference is slicing up a map of the world, while up on Mars the god of war eagerly anticipates the carnage. Enter Krazy Kat with a ray gun that shoots American pop music (song titles include “Jazz Band” and “Hot Music”), bringing about peace to the chagrin of the Martian god. It must have been the best cartoon ever!

Musical allusions to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony

April 6, 2013 in Uncategorized | No comments

Although the story is likely apocryphal, it is often suggested the running time of the first commercial compact discs – 74 minutes and 33 seconds – was chosen to accommodate the slowest, and thereby longest to date, recording of the Symphony (conducted by Wilhelm Furtwanger in 1951).

Bruckner

The Austrian composer Anton Bruckner remains a polarizing figure to students of the late Romantic period. His symphonies are characterized by their length and repetition, and by the composer’s own misgivings (several were published in multiple revised editions giving rise to what has been called “the Bruckner” problem, or an uncertainty as to what represents the definitive score). Maligned in their time, his symphonies found new life in the era of the long-playing record and have entered the standard repertoire. Although celebrated by the Nazi’s for representation of the German ‘volk’ or ‘zeitgeist’ traditon, Bruckner has not been condemned by the Israeli Philharmonic the way Wagner has, for instance.

His distinctive and expressive symphonies commonly contain references to the first movement of Beethoven’s 9th – this occurs in the opening of his fourth, seventh, eight and ninth symphonies. The last of these, unfinished at the time of his death, was in the same key as Beethoven’s 9th (D minor) and in early sketches was to also climb to a triumphant C major (as Beethoven did in the second movement of his 9th). The symphony, dedicated “to God the Beloved”, lacked a finished finale, and its three completed movements were not performed until 1903, seven years after the composer’s death.

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Opening of the first movement of Anton Bruckner’s 9th Symphony in D minor

(Performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Daniel Barenboim)

Dvorak

Antonin Dvorak paid tribute to the great masterpiece in his own famous 9th Symphony in E Minor (the “New World Symphony”) with a play on Beethoven’s scherzo. Listen for the tympanis at the opening of the third movement.

He had composed a more explicit tribute to Beethoven’s 9th some fifteen years earlier, not long after developing a friendship with Johannes Brahms, probably Beethoven’s greatest of all admirers (might we “superfan”?). The second movement of his String Quartet no 9 in D Minor is a described as a “stylized polka” in Nancy Miller’s fine notes to this 1986 recording by the American String Quartet. It’s begins in a major key and drops into a relative minor, taking on a mournful quality although it is based on Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” chorus. It is followed by a heartbreaking Adagio that is among the most moving melodic work Dvorak composed.

Dvorak’s mournful Stabat Mater is well-known to have been influenced by the death of his third child, Josefa, in infancy, while the Adagio from the Quartet no 9 – which follows his unusual Alla Polka allusion to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – is a less famous expression of mourning. In the fall on 1877 his two remaining children died – his daughter Ruzena accidentally ingested poison in August, and just a few weeks later his son Otakar died of smallpox.

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Dvorak String Quartet no 9 in D Minor Alla Polka: Allegretto Scherzando

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Dvorak String Quartet no 9 in D Minor Adagio

(performed by the American String Quartet in 1986)

The juxtaposition of life and death – of Beethoven’s celebration of universal brotherhood and of the mounful, mesured Adagio that is as much in Schubert’s shadow as Beethoven’s – is unique in Dvorak’s work. His Quartet no 9 is scarcely as famous as his last Quartets, so much more in the thralls of the Beethoven spell, but is one of the most personal, moving tributes to the maestro.

Brahms

Of course the most famous allusion to Beethoven’s 9th symphony is Brahms 1st Symphony in C Minor, completed in 1876, and often nicknamed “Beethoven’s 10th.”

An integral melody in the Allegro non Troppo of Brahms’ 1st is a thinly veiled rephrasing of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” chorus. It his heard most prominently at the beginning of this track here (which is a couple minutes into the Allegro) and then returns in various forms throughout the remainder of the symphony.

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Excerpt from Brahms’ Symphony no 1 in C Minor, Allegro non Troppo

(Performed by the New York Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Bernstein)

The composers response when confronted with the similarity – “Any ass can see that” – as almost as famous as the allusions itself. He felt remarks about the allusion, and about similarities between his 1st Symphony and Beethoven’s 5th (Both being in C Minor with a slow-building C Major conclusion) alleged plagiarism, where the work was intended as a tribute to the composer under whose bust he composed, and in whose shadow he had work all his life.

Nipples sell records

April 4, 2013 in Photos | 1 comment

A good way to start the day

April 3, 2013 in Songs | No comments

I like to sing, even though I’m not very good at it. When I was a kid I was soooo jealous of the guys who lived down the street – they lived in a sweet basement and in it the bathroom had a CD player. Not just a radio but a CD player. It was the first (and only) luxury feature I added to my first apartment and ever since shower-time is sing-a-long time.

For years I sang along with whatever was on the radio, so a lot of classic rock. I just made a disc of songs I’ve been singing or thinking about for a friend who has moved away, and when I was done picking some good songs I realized they were all songs from here in the Twin Cities. I still like to listen to music when I get ready in the morning and here are some favorites. Yep, one of them doesn’t even have any words.

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“Unicorn” by Story of the Sea

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“Islands” by the White Whales

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“Burn that Fire” by Pennyroyal

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“Goldie” by the Porch Knights

Planet of the Hoojibs

April 3, 2013 in Photos, Storytime | No comments

Many of our favorite records can be heard in the more than 1000 posts here on the Hymie’s blog. Some of our favorites are the Buena Vista Star Wars book & record sets, which feature an amateur cast in the familiar roles of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and, of course, Darth Vader.

You can hear highlights from them here and here.

But the good people at Buena Vista didn’t stop with the original trilogy, so let’s raid the record collection of our Star Wars-loving kids and discover the further adventures of the amateur cast. Today we present Princess Leia and Chewbacca’s adventure on the Planet of the Hoojibs.

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“SEE the pictures, HEAR the record, READ the book”! Also in Buena Vista’s adventure series is a book & record of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Can you imagine how awesome that must be?! We wonder if they get the same actor that played Han Solo in their Star Wars records!

Drinking Friends

April 1, 2013 in Songs | No comments

Last week when Dan Newton was performing here for his CD release show, one of his friends – and a Hymie’s regular – pointed out a copy of this album, which we had for sale. That’s Dan himself, right about the middle of the line of guys at the bar. He played piano and accordion on Pete Kozak’s 1984 album, Drinking Friends, recorded back in Dan’s home state, Nebraska.

Awesome that we had a copy of that record, and that one of Dan’s friends was one of our customers, and that he remembered we had it!

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“Drinking Friends” by Pete Kozak

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