Visit funkster's nice html page, instead of this one. He did a lovely job.

Visit funkster's nice html page.

The Underappreciated Music Listening Society

f o r e w a r d

a b o u t :: t h e :: u m l s

Back when I had a job, I used to maintain an internal-only website for favored coworkers called The Underappreciated Music Society. There were two incarnations; the first, at HearMe, featured one song a day, four days a week, with loads of biographical data. That plumb wore me out. So the second time I started it up, at Yaga, I only updated it once a week, but with a couple songs that showcased a single artist. Most of the tracks here were featured on the UMLS at least once.

The goal of the UMLS was the same as Pogo's goal—to expose other people to music which I felt had been unfairly passed over. My rule was, if I felt the music was not as appreciated as it should be, then it was fair game. My hope was to infect other people with the same music that I loved—I wanted them to listen, and enjoy, and eventually buy some. I hope you do too.

a b o u t :: t h e :: s e l e c t i o n s

I came to terms with my musical tastes a long time ago. For the most part, I feel like I've got a "sweet ear" (think "sweet tooth"); I often like bright, accessible, catchy stuff. But you can't live on sugar alone. The tracks here also had staying power; every one of these songs has mesmerized me, at one age or another, and I've listened to all of them incessantly... still do. Sometimes even over and over, five times in a row or more.

Picking only an hour's worth (egad! only an hour!) of songs to submit to this CD was tough. I could have easily gone for two or even three hours. But after several passes, I feel I've picked a nice catalog of songs. I feel every single one is far more obscure than it deserves to be. The tracks represent a varied selection of musical styles, moods, instruments, production, everything. And I think it hangs together nicely as a single playlist. (It's hard for me to judge... these songs have all been worn deep into the grooves of my brain.)

One last note. I've sprinkled the page liberally with links to online retailers where you can buy the albums mentioned. In particular, all the pictures of the album covers are such links. You can use 'em to listen to other tracks, or (I hope) to buy your own copy.

Enjoy!

larry

p.s.: I'm twelve seconds over budget. Please forgive me.

[[EDIT:  Oh...OKAY!!  --Signed, the two-minutes-over  Pogo.  (..who has fly producer cred.)  -ed.]]

t r a c k :: 1

S-scape

5:47

 by Synergy

from their 1976 album

Sequencer

Synergy is one man: Larry Fast. Mr. Fast was perhaps not one of the first all-electronic artists out there, nor the first to find wide commercial success. But he is widely held as one of the early pioneers of all-electronic music, and is familiar to lazerium showgoers the world over. Mr. Fast was also a member of Peter Gabriel's ensemble for six or seven years, appearing on PG's second (untitled, referred to as "Scratch") through fourth (Security) albums. Mr. Fast's unique synthesizer timbres emerge mostly in their later songs together, particularly Shock The Monkey, Lay Your Hands On Me, and Games Without Frontiers.

This is the lead track to Synergy's second album Sequencer. I love the whole album, but this song in particular... I've been listening to this song over and over since it came out (when I was about eight years old). It was so inspirational to me that I used to "play synthesizer"... I had this endlessly confusing board game, something like Battleship but with three or four levels and lots of little pegs. I ignored the game, and instead pretended to be twisting knobs and making cool sounds.

All of Synergy went out of print in the late 80s, as Jem/Passport went completely under. Jem took the masters with them, and apparently held them for ransom for years. But I already had 'em all on CD, so I didn't worry. And then, when I was living at Echo Street in 1993, someone broke into my car and stole my stereo and some CDs. My only copy of Sequencer was stolen and never recovered. I was heartbroken. When CD copying became more prevalent, I made a duplicate from a friend's non-stolen copy and the music returned. And then in the late 90s, Mr. Fast got his masters back, and cleaned 'em up and re-released 'em on CD. Ahhh, better better better...

I saw Synergy live mid-last year in Holland. He performed S-scape live... you should have heard my contented sigh. You can see a picture of me shaking hands with Mr. Fast after the show right here. Note the dissatisfied Dutchman in the background, giving me the evil eye!

If you like this track, you'll like the whole album, and probably Synergy's first and fifth albums as well. The rest is debatable; Cords is darker, Games is more experimental (though Delta Two is really good and Delta One is flat-out great—like early techno). Metropolitan Suite was written after a six-year break, during which time great advances in synthesis had been made; the result is that to me it doesn't really "fit in" with the rest of the albums, either stylistically or timbrally. And his soundtrack for an unreleased film The Jupiter Menace is really only for ardent fans or completists, as much of it is rehashings of other Synergy works (analogous to the Birdy soundtrack by Peter Gabriel).

t r a c k :: 2

Pink Parakeet

4:58

 by Stan Ridgway

from his 1995 album

Black Diamond

Anybody who knows me knows that I like Stan Ridgway. I mean, I even run a fan site for him. So I figured I might as well get his entry out of the way.

Stan rose to success in the early 80s with his band Wall Of Voodoo with a quirky pop hit that was in the right place at the right time: Mexican Radio. (Which I just heard while standing in line at Wendy's the other night...!) He left in 1983, just after playing with WOV at the Us Festival, and has gone on to an interesting and varied solo career.

I like most of Stan's work, so picking one song to put here was rough. But I figured with its accessible beat and dark hypnotic lyrics that Pink Parakeet would be the most likely to win you over. If you like it... well, just listen to more Stan Ridgway. He doesn't repeat himself stylistically very often; he's on a constant voyage of exploration. So give a bunch of it a listen and see what sticks, eh?

And, yes, I can call him Stan. I bet you could too—he's a hell of a nice guy.

t r a c k :: 3

TongaSat

5:09

 by Flying Monkey Orchestra

from their 1995 album

Mango Theory

Rob Mounsey is one of those dark, shadowy figures behind the music. He's a New York studio musician/producer, and He has a list of performance and production credits a mile long. One you might be familiar with: he wrote "the famous horn arrangement" for Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al. He's very popular with the "smooth jazz" set, and also gets a lot of work producing East Coast pop artists like James Taylor and Gloria Estefan.

If I read his credits correctly, looks like he got his start working as a studio musician in about 1980, appearing on albums by Spyro Gyra and David Sanborn. He quickly diversified, producing Michael Franks's 1982 album Skin Dive (also performing on and producing the only really listenable Michael Franks songs ever, The Camera Never Lies). Finally he put out his first album in 1985 (under the name Joe Cool, only available in Japan).

Most of his personal projects to date go under the name Flying Monkey Orchestra... which makes him seem not so dark or shadowy after all. In fact, he seems like a pretty lighthearted guy. The FMO logo is a abstract cartoon monkey head, and the lyrics attest to a sincere and warped sense of humor.

TongaSat was the original inspiration for The Underappreciated Music Listening Society, and was the first song featured in both instantiations. I was listening to it one day, over and over, and I thought to myself What a shame that so few other people will ever hear this song! And here we are.

If you like this song, you'll probably like a lot of Rob Mounsey's work. Most of the work he releases under the name Flying Monkey Orchestra is lighthearted like this; another fun track on Mango Theory is the track Yo Brada-o Mimani (try saying this out loud: Yo brada-o mimani, tellamon a paymi!). About half of it is instrumental, becoming merey lightweight super-accessible jazz. Anyway, it's out of print... the links above go to Second Spin which has it in stock (as of this writing).

t r a c k :: 4

Bright Eyes

5:26

 by Jeff Sova

from his 1998 album

Body Language

My brother discovered this track by roaming around on MP3.com. I don't really know much about Jeff Sova, other than that he's part of the Detroit techno scene, and he has an album. If you like this song, hey, me too! You could give the rest of the album a shot, but in all honesty you've heard the best track. (Which is available from MP3.com anyway, so it's not like you're really ripping anybody off too badly.)

t r a c k :: 5

Astroboy

(And The Proles On Parade)

4:41

 by The Buggles

from their 1980 album

The Age Of Plastic

Surely you've heard of The Buggles. They're the answer to the popular trivia question "Who was the first band played on MTV?" The song was Video Killed The Radio Star, a song that has been dreadfully overplayed. A pity, too—through all that repetition, most people have forgotten that it really was (and is) a wonderful song.

It's less likely you've heard of Trevor Horn. Mr. Horn is a skilled bass player, and an appealing (if unskilled) vocalist... but he is a masterful producer. Astroboy is an early example of Trevor Horn's exacting production skill, and already it's marvelous.

You've surely heard Trevor Horn's work, even if you haven't heard of the man himself. He produced, among other things:

Crazy by Seal

Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

the album 90125 by Yes, including Owner Of A Lonely Heart

the early albums by The Art Of Noise (which he co-founded)

I remember reading a review of a Frankie Goes To Hollywood album (I think it was their second) that said the singing wasn't great, the songs were average... "but the production is amazing!" Trevor Horn hs gone on to a wide and varied career in pop music production, and remains very much active and in-demand to this day.

If you like this track, you'll like most of the album. And probably much of their other album, though that's only available as an expensive import from Japan.

t r a c k :: 6

One Was Johnny

2:09

 by Carole King

from her 1975 album

Really Rosie

Really Rosie was a 1975 made-for-TV special, taking a book by Maurice Sendak and turning it into an animated musical. Carole King provided the voice of the main character Really Rosie, and wrote all the music and sang all the songs. (The words were Maurice Sendak's.) I remember watching the animated special when it came out, and my mom got us the soundtrack and we basically wore it through to the other side.

Carole King is best known for her 1971 vocal album Tapestry, with the song It's Too Late (which I'm sure you've heard a thousand times). I've never branched out to other works by Carole King... which I probably should, as I like her vocal style. Pay attention to the catchy rhythmic way she sings

Seven, the blackbird, flew off to Havana

Six was the monkey who stole a banana

If you like this track, you'll probably like the whole album. Alligators All Around and Chicken Soup With Rice are the other favorites.

t r a c k :: 7

Postcard From The Volcano

5:01

 by Group 87

from their 1984 album

A Career In Dada Processing

Group 87 was an early collaboration between proto-"New Age" artists Mark Isham and Peter Mannu. It's sort of mid-80s instrumental progressive rock, if that makes any sense to you. When it came out, it was pretty unique; this was before techno, before new-age, and it didn't really fit into any of the prevalent categories of the time ("space"? "progressive"?).

The thing that cements this song in the heavenly firmament for me is the end, starting at 3:29, where the two main themes from the song are brought together and counterpoint each other. Man I love that kind of stuff.

This album inspired a friend of mine to buy basically everything Mark Isham released for more than ten years, trying to find more of the goods. He didn't find any, and wound up enourmously frustrated. Don't follow his example.

If you like this, you'd definitely like the fourth track on the album (The Apple Bites Back), and maybe the rest. But alas! this CD is well and truly out of print, and totally unavailable. I looked high and low, and no dice. Their eponymous first album is still available, but I don't like it nearly as well.

t r a c k :: 8

East Virginia Blues

2:45

 by Roger McGuinn, Jeff Tweady and Jay Bennett

from the 1999 album

The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute

For those of you cats and kittens who are hip to the old school, you'll no doubt have heard of Harry Smith. In the 1950s, Mr. Smith released the landmark collection Anthology Of American Folk Music, culled from his personal collection of old 78s. It went on to inspire generation after generation of artists.

This album is actually from a 1999 concert put on by The Smithsonian Institute, to celebrate their re-release of the original Anthology. I find this performance particularly compelling for some reason... something about Mr. McGuinn's vocals, their easygoingness in adding extra measures here and there, the suspenseful, dramatic arrangement of the chord progression, and that fast-pickin' banjo.

t r a c k :: 9

Dreaming In Colour

6:42

 by The Art Of Noise

from their 1999 album

The Seduction Of Claude Debussy

Here we find ourselves with Mr. Trevor Horn again. Most of twenty years later, and with a lot of production work under his belt, Mr. Horn brought the long-disbanded Art Of Noise back together for a new album. The Art Of Noise was always at its best when it was pretentious, and by golly they are pretentious here—laughably so at times—but also artistic enough to carry it off.

I just can't say enough about this album. I gave out four copies for Christmas 1999, and all four people were enthralled by it... just as I was. And still am. I have never heard a more exactingly produced album in my life. I've heard overproduced, and underproduced, but every iota of this album is 100% dead-on accurate exactly perfectly produced. Listen to this track on headphones. Over and over. (And over.)

If you like this track, Jesus Mary and Joseph will you love the whole album. Buy it now—the future is uncertain!

t r a c k :: 1 0

I Love Onions

2:34

 by Susan Christie

from her 1966 single

This is a "novelty song", and has been a family favorite since its release in the 60s. It was a fixture on the Minneapolis area children's show Casey's Roundhouse. And it's been adopted by a second generation of Hastingses... in fact, it's now my niece Ruth's favorite song ever.

My favorite line:

I don't like shoes that pinch your toes / Or people who squirt you with a garden hose

After years of searching, I finally found it on CD. You can only buy it directly from Collector's Choice Music. Susan Christie only ever released one other song I know of, so if you want more stuff like this... I dunno, go listen to Doctor Demento I guess.

t r a c k :: 1 1

 Little Linda

4:25

 by Spyro Gyra

from their 1979 album

Morning Dance

Long before the term "smooth jazz" was coined, Spyro Gyra was out there creating it. I don't know how you feel about smooth jazz, but trust me, this is a nice little song... Spyro Gyra even on a bad day is still better than a drawer full of anybody else on KKSF.

I saw Spyro Gyra live in the early 90s in a little club in Monterey, and at one point during the show their (new) bass player was hanging out at the bar and I struck up a conversation with him. I mentioned that I was hoping they'd play Little Linda, and he said naw, they weren't... but that they should, it was a great song, and in fact when he first joined the band that was one of the first songs he learned.

Pay particular attention to Tom Schumann's tasty piano solo, starting at 1:08 in.

If you like the song, you'll like the album too, and much of their body of work. My other favorites are Rites Of Summer, Three Wishes, and Breakout.

t r a c k :: 1 2

I Have The Password To Your Shell Account

3:03

 by Barcelona

from their 2000 album

Zero One Infinity

Ah, Barcelona. Founded by four geeks in the Washington DC area, they sang songs about Commodore 64s and robots and playing indoors on rainy days. Sadly they've disbanded, though hopefully to go on to other musical projects.

I find the singer's off-key singing charming, as if she was really trying. Their other singer, who performs backup on this song, isn't much better, but I love his "ba, ba, bop-bop" contributions to the chorus. And they create a nice thick wall of sound on this track, including some phone noises buried deep in the background.

If you like this, you'll probably like the whole album. Their other two albums, Transhuman Revolution and Simon Basic, are good too, but Zero One Infinity is the standout of the bunch. They're a bit of an "outsider" (read: unskilled) band, so expect to hear a lot of similar chord progressions and melodies. You should also definitely check out the online-download-only Space Guy Blues (Alien Mix), available on their downloads page. (This song is on there too... but my MP3 is of higher quality.)

t r a c k :: 1 3

Livin' In The Sunlight, Lovin' In The Moonlight

2:14

 by Tiny Tim

from his 1968 album

God Bless Tiny Tim

Surely you've heard of Tiny Tim. His fifteen minutes of fame were in the late 60s, with the success of Tiptoe Through The Tulips and his getting married on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Most people didn't take Tiny Tim seriously, I guess. But he took himself and his music seriously, and he was quite a credible musicologist, knowing a lot about music from the early part of the 20th century.

I heard this song in the background of the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon Help Wanted (the pilot cartoon), and fell in love with it immediately. The best part is, as one friend put it, "those Rudy Vallee horns".

Not sure if I can really recommend the whole album. I bought it (expensive! import!), but it mostly failed to grow on me. Anyway, it's out of print and really hard-to-find. Plus, Mr. Tim died several years ago, so you wouldn't really be helping him out a lot even if you could buy it. Hrm.

t r a c k :: 1 4

Sunbelt

Mulher Rendeira

(Weaver Woman)

5:18

 by Herbie Mann

from his 1979 album

Sunbelt

Finally, we close with an easygoing jazz flute track by Herbie Mann. Another favorite from my childhood, from my dad who liked a lot of latin-style jazz (Cal Tjader, Sergio Mendez, Vince Guaraldi, to name just a few). This is technically from Herbie Mann's frequently derided "disco phase"; but it's closer in spirit to pop than his straight-ahead jazz albums (even including an instrumental cover of Al Green's Let's Stay Together), and it's not particularly disco.

My favorite track from this album is definitely the laid-back groovy cover of Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man, but this is a very close second indeed, and it makes a nice, mellow way of closing out my setlist.

If you like this track, give the rest of the album a try. But be warned: some of it sound really dated. I've been listening to it since the days when it wasn't, and I still wince at times.

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The Underappreciated Music Listening Society / Larry Hastings / larry@hastings.org

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