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In my last staff pick two weeks ago, I wrote about this joker who lured me to an isolated island off the coast of North Carolina with the promise of cool used records, only to vanish when I actually arrived. After the newsletter went out, my friend Shane at Black Water Records in Portland wrote to tell me something very similar had happened to them recently. Once he gave me details, it was clear we had been dealing with the same person… they even sent us the same pictures and videos of the records they were purportedly selling. Then, a few hours later, I learned about this thread on Instagram started by the store Limited to One in New York, who was targeted by the same scammer. I guess this person was using the same M.O. to scam record stores across the US and Canada. Sadly, they succeeded a few times, too. Stay safe out there, folks!
Last week was my annual beach vacation with my family in Nags Head, North Carolina. This year my wife rented a surfboard for the week. I have surfed a few times, but hadn’t tried in many years. I guess I don’t really work my paddling muscles much in daily life, because as soon as I tried to paddle into a wave, I pulled a muscle in my chest. Honestly, it was pretty bad, and for the first day I couldn’t take a deep breath without wincing in pain. It’s still bothering me more than a week later, and while it’s significantly better, sneezing still makes me yelp in pain. So, besides watching out for scammers, please stretch!
Most of my listening time since I last wrote has been taken up with catching up on new releases. There are a lot of great ones! The KOS LP is on constant rotation (well, the digital version… we’re still waiting on the vinyl), the new reissues on General Speech, the Carp, Cel Ray, Beast of Beast, and the Dream World LP on Sorry State have all been getting a lot of time. I’ve also gotten previews of a couple of cool upcoming releases, including the new Rat Cage album we have up for pre-order and the upcoming Kohti Tuhoa album, which is jaw-droppingly good. If only there were more hours in the day to listen to all this great stuff!
In the evenings, I’ve been making my way through the stack of vinyl I bought when I went down to Charlotte last month. At the mighty Lunchbox Records I picked up both volumes of the Tobacco A-Go-Go compilation, but when I listened to the first volume it didn’t make much of an impression, so it took me several weeks to get around to playing Volume 2. This one hit me way harder, and it’s my staff pick for this week:
Various: Tobacco A-Go-Go Vol. II: 60s Carolina Psychedelia LP (Blue Mold, 1987)
I swear these Tobacco A-Go-Go compilations were a staple of North Carolina record store bins for years, so I’m surprised to see on Discogs that the first volume came out in 1984 and the second volume in 1987. Perhaps they were repressed, or maybe someone knew someone who had access to some dead stock, because I swear I recall seeing them in the new bins for 15−20 for years. I never picked them up, always figuring I’d do so next time. Then a couple of years go by without seeing them, they pop up in a used bin for twice the price, and suddenly I find them irresistible. Funny how that works.
A big reason Volume 2 hits harder for me is that it starts with an absolute screamer, “Abba” by Charlotte’s the Paragons. I was familiar with this song thanks to a bootleg of the single that came out a few years ago. We ordered a big stack of that bootleg and almost all our copies were warped beyond playability when they arrived. That stack of warped 7”s sat on my desk for years. I can’t remember what I did with them… maybe threw them away? Anyway, “Abba” is a scorcher, a high-energy garage rocker with a monster singalong chorus. It reminds me of one of my 60s favorites, the Open Mind, but way rawer and nastier. A top-shelf nugget, if you ask me.
The other standout to me is Raleigh’s the Marke V, the only band on the compilation with two tracks. Their 1967 single “Pay” b/w “The Leader” was so good they had to give us both sides. “Pay” smashes the Seeds, the Byrds, and the 13th Floor Elevators together with a great vocal melody, while “The Leader” is an old-fashioned garage stomper with a killer call-and-response chorus and an instrumental break that again makes me think of the Elevators and the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High.” Since this is from right here in Raleigh, I can hold on to a fantasy that one day I’ll stumble across a copy. Who knows, maybe there’s a copy in the dozens of boxes of unsorted 45s I have in our storage space? I would only be slightly surprised.
While the Paragons and the Marke V are the highlights, the comp is a solid listen overall, with the other tracks ranging from syrupy Beatles / Herman’s Hermits-style pop to bluesy proto-hard rock and plenty in between. I like some tracks more than others, but there isn’t anything I’m inclined to skip. These tracks are short and punchy anyway, so even if something doesn’t move you, you’ll be past it and on to the next one in less than three minutes.
That’s what I’m feeling today. Until next week…