Not quite sure that the dry spell of almost a year has ended, but we’ve put a dent into it over the last couple of weeks.
Record Store Day was two Saturdays ago.
There’s usually not much for me among RSD releases, and I’m not one to wait in line or fight the crowds early in the day. This year, though, there was one RSD release I really wanted. I figured all the cool kids would snap it up and leave me looking in vain as in past Record Store Days.
But there it was at UFO Museum Gift Shop and Records, the relatively new record store run by my friends Timebomb Tom and Pierre. Not only was it there, five copies of it were there. Gotta say, Green Bay, you’re sleeping on this.
“The Monument Singles Collection: 1964-1968,” this compilation of Dolly Parton’s girl group-influenced pop singles and earliest country singles on the Monument label, is highly recommended.
The Green Bay Record Convention was yesterday, on Saturday.
I helped set up and collected $15 from the earlybirds — the professional diggers — until the doors officially opened at 10 a.m. That left me about an hour and a half to dig for myself, before I had to leave for a wedding.
The gent wearing a brown cap and flannel shirt at upper right, keeping an eye on shoppers from inside the tables, is my friend Dave. Not long after this picture was taken, the crowds poured in, drawn like bugs to a light to Dave’s always solid records. I didn’t get a chance to look through Dave’s records. Another time.
But I did get to look through the records Rich brought up from Milwaukee. He always has interesting records at his Atomic Records table. Clive was at the next table over, and I went though his new arrivals. Bought these from those gents:
“Bedlam,” Rustix, 1969. Looked interesting. Another white band signed to a Motown label. Signed before Rare Earth, in fact, and to Rare Earth Records before that label had a name, if Wikipedia is to believed. A blue-eyed soul group out of Rochester, N.Y.
Looked interesting. Produced by R. Dean Taylor. Wasn’t all that interesting. So it goes. Described on YouTube as psychedelic rock and funk. Ahhh, no. Blue-eyed to be sure, but not sure it was soul, either. As always, you be the judge.
“Celebration,” El Chicano, 1972. The third LP from this Latin soul band out of L.A.
Much better. Right out of the gate, they revisit their hit “Viva Tirado” and get right down to cooking.
The most fun record I found was this $1 record.
“The Power of Brass,” Al Caiola, 1968. In which the well-known solo and studio guitarist, while vacationing in Miami, hears a 10-man group made up of University of Miami music students playing in the lounge at the Crossway Airport Inn, digs their sound and decides to make this record with them.
The Power of Brass is the name of their group. For the record, they are Wallace E. McMurray Jr. (trumpet), Doug Smith and George Doukas (trumpet, fluegelhorn), Ed Bevil (bass trombone), Val Houston (tenor trombone), Mark Bruce Hurwitz (sax, clarinet, flute, oboe), Steve Wittmack (piano), Kenneth D. Conklin (bass), Tony Vino (guitar) and Richard Docen (drums).
The Crossway Airport Inn, long gone, is said to have been “a true IN place on the mainland of Miami’s celebrity crowded nightlife.” It was next to Miami International Airport.
Imagine, if you will, Felix Unger and Oscar Madison as spies.
“The Odd Couple,” Al Caiola, from “The Power of Brass,” 1968.
Then savor the sheer joy of sunny ’60s pop with this song from the British comedy film “Prudence and the Pill.”
“The Morning After,” Al Caiola, from “The Power of Brass,” 1968.
Here’s the whole thing for those seeking more of that sunny ’60s pop groove.
AM, Then FM 
I’d heard the name Rustix in Rochester but never actually heard their music until now.
I suspect every good-sized American city had a band or two that could work out on “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” but didn’t have much of its own to say, and I suspect that might be the case here.