The Georgia Satellites: Keep the Faith

I Was a Groover in a Basement!

Nowadays the Buckhead area of Atlanta is covered up with national chains and big ugly discos and a whole lot of uninteresting crap. Back in the 70s and 80s, though, it was a bit more bearable. And if you were down in a basement the chances were pretty good that it was downright excellent.

I say that because I only ever knew of a single bar in Buckhead that was in a basement. It wasn't even there for very long, but I used to hang out there some on the weekends because there was this really great band that played there. I don't know the whole story (and what I do know may be complete bull), but I do know that the bar closed down and the band disappeared. The story, as I heard it, goes that the fellow who had been managing the band went back home to England and took the band's demo tape with him. One day, after a few months, one of the members of the band received a telephone call from England informing him that the band needed to get back together because they had a record out and that a great big contract was in the works.

If that is the truth, then this six song EP is, actually, The Satellites' demo tape. "Georgia" was added to the band's name because there was already a band in England called The Satellites when this record was released on Making Waves Records, of London, in 1985.

Right on the back of the record cover it says: This Record is Dedicated to The Memory of "Hedgens Rock 'n' Roll Tavern," Atlanta, Georgia. Staff and Groovers.....R.I.P.

The Georgia Satellites: Keep the Faith

1. Tell My Fortune
2. Red Light
3. Six Years Gone
4. Keep Your Hands to Yourself
5. Crazy
6. The Race is On

The Brains: The Brains

The Smartest Band in the Whole World!!!

The Brains were one of Atlanta's early New Wave bands, and certainly one of the best. Tom Gray's strong songwriting really pushed them out in front of many of the other bands in the region at the time, and Rick Price's flashy guitar slingin' was a wonder to behold.

This is their first album, released in 1980 on Mercury Records. Strangely, The Brains are about the only band I'm aware of whose sound was tamed (diminished, as a matter of fact) by the production of Steve Lillywhite, who was an incredibly hot producer at the time and who is well known for having produced some really powerful records. Still, the energy that was the The Brains' is apparent in much of this disc and it's a tremendous chunk of rock.

Download it. Listen to it. Use it.

The song "Money Changes Everything" was a hit for Cindy Lauper. Rick Price went on to great success playing bass with The Georgia Satellites.

The Brains: The Brains

1. Treason
2. See Me
3. Raeline
4. Girl I Wanna
5. In the Night
6. Money Changes Everything
7. Scared Kid
8. Sweethearts
9. Girl in a Magazine
10. Gold Dust Kids

The Melachrino Strings and Orchestra: Music & More Music for Dining

I Sure Hope You're Hungry!

George Melachrino never was quite as bold and brassy as those of his contemporaries who tend to be featured in collections of Lounge or Space-Age Pop music. His records are much more tame and, perhaps, stuffy than most by such as Nelson Riddle and George Shearing.

When I was a kid there was a radio station in our market that broadcast music such as this. They would play Perry Como but not Dean Martin, 101 Strings but not The Hollyridge Strings, and Roger Miller but not Jimmy Smith. Station personnel didn't use words like Swing, Hot or Cool on the air. What they played never strayed from a very narrow path. What they played they called Beautiful Music.

And that's exactly what this is. Lush, lovely and wholly unoffensive, this music is where Easy Listening's reputation as "Background" or "Elevator" music came from. These days, though, I find it soothing, nostalgic, and even unusual in that there is nothing exactly like it still being produced. Sometimes I don't want my music to be too exciting or too challenging. Sometimes I just wanna sit down and eat dinner and be made to feel comfortable. That's what Beautiful Music does best.

How to enjoy these records:

Prepare your favorite tuna salad. Spread over split English muffins or
two slices of bread. Top with slices of cheese, and place on tray in broiler until cheese melts.

Prepare a beverage of your choice.

Start music.

Sit down.

Shut up.

Eat and Enjoy.

The Melachrino Strings and Orchestra: Music for Dining

1. Diane (I'm in Heaven When I See You Smile)
2. Too Young
3. September Song
4. Chopin Clopant
5. Warsaw Concerto
6. Domino
7. Tenderly
8. Charmaine
9. Faithfully Yours
10. Chansonette
11. Dark Secret
12. Legend of the Glass Mountain

The Melachrino Strings and Orchestra: More Music for Dining

1. Dream / Melody in F
2. You Are Too Beautiful
3. Ruby
4. Ramona
   
5. Blue Moon
6. L'Amour Toulours L'Amour (Love Everlasting)
7. Easy to Love
8. Musetta's Waltz Song
9. Gigi
10. Stars in My Eyes
11. These Foolish Things
12. Always

These were from a series of albums by The Melachrino Strings and Orchestra called "Moods in Music." Others included Music for Relaxation, Music for Reading, Music for Courage and Confidence, Music to Help You Sleep, Music for Two People Alone, Music for Daydreaming and Music to Work or Study By.

By the way... I actually found that Tuna Melt recipe on a Recipe Website.

The Swimming Pool Q's: The Firing Squad for God

What is this? The He-Man Woman Hater's Club?

Nope. It's just The Swimming Pool Q's after Anne Richmond Boston left. Without her around the guys seemed to feel as if there was no need to include a "pretty" song on this record. Heck! There were only 5 songs on it in the first place. And so "The Firing Squad for God" 5-Song Maxi-Single comes across as a bit more of a Hard Rockin' Guy Record than the previous Q's records, but don't think that means it's not strange and wonderful.

Heck… Jeff Calder's still writing the songs, Bill Burton's still smackin' the skins, J.E. Garnett is still the bass player and the Lead Guitar is still in the capable hands of Bob Elsey. As a matter of fact, Anne is actually playing pedal steel on "Working in the Nut Plant" and she designed the record jacket, so it's still the same band.

In other words… This is a Great Record.

The Swimming Pool Q's: The Firing Squad for God

1. The Firing Squad for God
2. El Presidenté
3. Working in the Nut Plant
4. Hip-Hype
5. Reprisidenté

The Swimming Pool Q's: Blue Tomorrow

Today was, what… ORANGE!?!

I don't know how many copies of this record sold. I don't know how many radio stations played any of the songs on it. I don't know how many people thought Anne Richmond Boston's was the Most Beautiful Voice on the Face of the Planet in 1986. Or that Bob Elsey was the Greatest Guitar Player in the Universe. Or that Jeff Calder was, well… Jeff Calder, for that matter. All I know is that they were all correct.

"Blue Tomorrow" was the second and final record that The Swimming Pool Q's had come out on A&M Records. I could waste about 12 paragraphs telling you how good this record and this band are. Better that you just download it to your computer and upload it to your earhole. Do it.

The Swimming Pool Q's: Blue Tomorrow

1. Now I'm Talking About Now
2. She's Lookin' Real Good (When She's Lookin')
3. Pretty on the Inside
4. Laredo Radio
5. Wreck Around
6. More Than One Heaven
7. Corruption
8. Blue Tomorrow
9. Dream in Gray
10. Big Fat Tractor

The Swimming Pool Q's: The Swimming Pool Q's

Sacrifice Yourself at the Alter of Love

I think the All Music Guide description of the band, written by Mark Demming, is probably better than anything I could come up with:
"Atlanta's Swimming Pool Q's were one of the first Southern new wave bands to gain nationwide recognition in the early '80s after the breakthrough of The B-52s made folks aware that there was more to Southern rock than what Q's leader Jeff Calder called "the Boogie Establishment." However, while most of their Georgia brethren were famous for serving up light, off-kilter pop, Swimming Pool Q's music had a darker and more challenging undercurrent, balancing twisted guitar patterns against lyrics that played on Southern Gothic archetypes in a manner that was often witty, and sometimes ominous."

Read the entire biography at http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:di5zefukhgf1%7ET1.

This is the band's first major label release. While it's a bit more commercial than the album they had put out previously, on Atlanta's db recs label, I still find it strange and exciting. In fact, a few of the songs are just flat-out spooky or disturbing, while the records overall feel is peaceful and pretty. If you're not already familiar with them, this is your chance.

The Swimming Pool Q's: The Swimming Pool Q's

1. The Bells Ring
2. Pull Back My String
3. Purple Rivers
4. The Knave
5. Some New Highway
6. Just Property
7. Silver Slippers
8. She's Bringing Down the Poison
9. Celestion
10. Sacrificial Alter

Last Roundup: Twister!

They Were alt.country when alt.country Wasn't Cool

Everything in Popular Culture, of course, happens in waves. Things that are hugely popular one minute are tossed to the dust bin the next and left there for several years only to become hugely popular once again when discovered by a new audience. While Country Music remains popular with it's own core audience it slips in and out of acceptance with the Rock 'n' Roll crowd about once each decade.

In the 50s it was Rock 'n' Roll's Country Cousin - Rockabilly.

The 60s saw the youth of America embrace Folk Music, most of which was just Old Time Country Music.

Rock fans of the 70s were reintroduced to Country by the likes of Country Joe McDonald, Gram Parsons and Albert Lee. The stuff they played was called Country Rock, but it was just plain Country when it came right down to it.

In the 80s we had a handful of leftover hippies who moved over to the Country stations, but the real Country-Rock Connection of the Post Punk era was known as Cowpunk and was played by bands like Jason and the Nashville Scorchers, Dash Riprock, Rank & File and The Knitters.

The 90s gave us alt.country, with Uncle Tupelo paving the way for BR5-49, The Lonesome Brothers, The Gourds, The Bottle Rockets and a pile of others.

This record came out somewhere between Cowpunk and alt.country. In 1987 there weren't even Country bands who played music that sounded this much like, well, Country Music. And although there were bands who were tossed into the Cowpunk category who played softer sounds than the Punk designation would suggest, there were very few that played a sound as simple and retro as this one. NOBODY on Country Radio was playing anything that sounded anything like this by 1987, and neither have they since.

Last Roundup is made up of Angel Dean singing lead vocals, Amy McMahon Rigby playing guitar and harmonizing, her brother Michael McMahon playing Guitar, Lap Steel and Fiddle, and Garth Powell. The songs were written by the McMahon siblings and you may recognize Amy as she of "Diary of a Mod Housewife" fame a decade later. Angel Dean had a great alt.country band called Angel Dean & The Zephyrs who had a couple of songs on the Rig Rock Deluxe series by Deisel Only Records. She released a record with Sue Garner, who had preceeded her as vocalist for Last Roundup, in 2004.

Last Roundup: Twister!

1. Cast Iron Girl
2. Playin' the Fool
3. To Paint the Town Red (You Need a Bucketful of Green)
4. Mama's Last Stand
5. Don't Wake Me Up
6. River of Red
7. At the Well
8. (A Matter of) Satisfaction
9. Walk in a Straight Line
10. Just a Little is Enough
11. Mary Beth Edwards