Capitol released on Ultra Lounge Wild, Cool & Swingin' a magnificent collection of the first three Mrs. Miller lp's. Those were all Capitol lp's. But there is a fourth lp on Amaret: Mrs. Miller Does her thing. This is never (officially) released on cd.

"After three albums, Mrs. Miller was dropped from Capitol Records, only to be picked up by the small Amaret label. On her forth album, 'Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing' the reality of Elva Miller was even further distorted. On the cover she is pictured in a psychedelic hippie dress, with an outreached plate of green brownies. The album included songs such as Mary Jane, Green Tambourine, Green Thumb, Renaissance of Smut, and the infamous Granny Bopper.
Elva was completely unaware of the drug symbolism until the album was already in stores. The song 'Mary Jane' became the theme for a feature film of the same name, which featured pop star Fabian as high school teacher fighting a marijuana gang.
Record executives had transformed the image of Mrs. Miller into an aspiring late sixties drug icon. Whereas Elva was happy to join in on the joke before, here is when the joke began to betray her."
from The Elva Miller Historical Society Comprehensive Biography.



Like any aspiring singer, Mrs. Elva Miller has had to struggle to be heard. In her case, though, the struggle has been going on for most of her 58 years. When she was a child, people were forever telling her to knock off the singing and please go skip rope or something. But she persevered, joined the high school glee club and the church choir, later studied voice for seven years at Pomona College.
Her husband felt that everyone should have an outlet, so he underwrote the cost of her first record-cutting sessions. It was during one of her recording sessions at Capitol Records studio in Hollywood that Mrs. Miller was discovered and introduced to a company producer who immediately signed her to a contract.
'The record certainly wasn't my idea,' explains Mrs. Miller. 'I'd never attempted popular songs, the studio men just popped the music in my hands- sorta sneaky like- and I started.'
from www.mrsmillersworld.com.

In 1967 Mrs. Miller had a role as herself in The Cool Ones, you can see here part on YouTube.

Side one:
1 Renaissance of Smut
2 Up Up and Away
3 Anything Goes
4 Green Tambourine
5 Tiptoe Through The Tulips

Side two:
1 Green Thumb
2 The Roach
3 I Sleep Easier Now
4 My Pet
5 Mary Jane
6 Granny Bopper

[Listen low quality fragments]
[Download high quality]

Most of this album consists of radio recordings from Radiohus Studio, Stockholm, Sweden, 9/5/67. The last two songs are recorded live at the Konserthus, Stockhom, 1/9/69. Wizardo WRMB 333.
The record is a bit scratchy.



Jimi Hendrix - guitar
Noel Redding - bass
Mitch Mitchell - drums



Side one:
1 - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [1:45]
2 - Hey Joe [4:08]
3 - I Don't Live Today [4:22]
4 - The Wind Cries Mary [3:37]
5 - Foxy Lady [3:37]
6 - Fire [2:59]

Side two:
1 - Burning of the Midnight Lamp [4:06]
2 - Purple Haze [5:13]
3 - Sunshine of Your Love [7:51]
4 - Voodoo Child (Slight Return) [7:56]

[Listen low quality fragments]
[Download high quality]

24 One minute library melodies plus short tags of Roger Roger on Mondiophone MON-18.



Side one:
01 Rigamarole (Laughing Mania)
02 Les Joyeux Marteaux (Merry Hammers)
03 Valse pas Serieuse (Merry Waltz)
04 Piano Western
05 Galop des Galopins (Kids Race)
06 Ariette des Jouets (Toys Arietta)
07 Vadrouillard 1 (Rambler 1)
08 Vadrouillard 2 (Rambler 2)
09 Vadrouillard 3 (Rambler 3)
10 Souk souk (Arabian)
11 Percussionnades (Percussions)
12 Tob' Toboggan

Side two:
01 Musique por Rire (Music for Fun)
02 Joyeux Palmipedes (The Merry Ducks)
03 Defile Junior (Junior Parade)
04 Alkotest
05 Citron Mechanique (Lemon Taste)
06 Eresipele (Erysipele)
07 Kek'tu Dis (Whatcha Say)
08 Julienas Street (French Wine Street)
09 Tunnel 26
10 Baladeur (The Stroller)
11 Bidule de L'espace (The Thing from Space)
12 Un Pastiche (Parody)

Not shared anymore.

W.A.T. (from World According To) were a Dutch trio based on sequencers, slide guitar and a thin female voice.
Ad van Meurs: guitar, voice
Ankie Keultjes: synthesizer, voice
Frank Van Nieuwenhof: bass guitar



They played on Pandora's Music Box, a new wave festival in de Doelen in Rotterdam, 2-3-4 September 1983. A lot of new wave acts played there and a lot is broadcasted on Dutch public radio
(and I taped it):
Siouxsie & Banshees, W.A.T., Durutti Column, Die Haut (& Nick Cave), Howard Devoto, S.P.K., The Box, Peter Hammill, Skeleton Crew, Jah Wobble, Spear of Destiny, Clock DVA, Armoury Show, Kowalsky, Danse Society, Fad Gadget, TC Matic.

In 1984 the festival was organized again. I don't have recordings of that edition.


De Doelen, Rotterdam

1 - Art Lovers [4:52]
2 - Defreeze [4:01]

[Listen low quality fragments]
[Download high quality]

Between Josef K and his solo career, Pail Haig made two singles with Stephen Harrison under the name Rhythm of Life. To confuse us, Paul named his second solo album also Rhythm of Life.
The 7" I have is 1 and A sided, both simple pop songs.



A - Soon [3:00]
1 - Summertime [3:19]

[Listen low quality fragments]
[Download high quality]

ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC FILMS WEILAND, BRUYNÈL, BADINGS
LUISTEREN! in Kikker Cinemuze/Krachtstroom
Theater Kikker, Ganzenmarkt 14, 3512 GD Utrecht
Thursday January 25, 20h30
an evening with films and a lecture by Frits Weiland

Ton Bruynèl/Bert Schierbeek/Fred van Dijk - video opera "Non sono un uccello", on the history of flying, 1998

James Whitney/Henk Badings - "Yantra", an abstract film with music from Badings' "Kaïn en Abel", 1957

Frits Weiland will give a lecture on the history of the Institute of Sonology and on his own films, followed by a screening of recently digitised versions of his films:
Frits Weiland - Begleitsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene (inspired by Arnold Schönberg) 1975
Frits Weiland - Filmproject 1 (on the relation of sound and image) 1969
Frits Weiland - Filmproject 2 (on the relation of sound and image) 1975

This program came about with the help of NEAR and Donemus' media library.

For more information and reservations:
http://www.theaterkikker.nl
http://www.theaterkikker.nl/muziekagenda.php

http://www.donemus.nl/near/nieuws.php#item488



Ton Bruynèl:
http://www.donemus.nl/componist.php?zkn ... mp;lang=EN

Henk Badings:
http://www.donemus.nl/componist.php?id= ... mp;lang=EN
http://www.bastamusic.com/productDetail ... aaijmakers

Institute of Sonology:
http://www.sonology.org/



Non sono un uccello and Filmproject 2 were very good.

I hereby share two soundtracks: Non sono un uccello (part of 6 cd box Ton Bruynèl - Looking ears complete) and Kain en Abel (Henk Badings, part of 4 cd box Popular Electronics). Available at NEAR/Donemus and Basta.

[Listen low quality fragments]
[Download high quality]

There are two versions of Fashion. This is the first version with singer/guitarist Luke James. The music at this time is a kind of scarce art rock. A synthesizer is used, but not to create a wall of sound as the later Fashion did. Luke's voice is unique.

And there are two versions of this lp. The second version included the single Steady Eddie/Killing Time, but is without Burning Down. And some titles were in French (vẽŗỳ şŧÿłîšħ). I made a combination of the two and added a song from the I.R.S. greatest hits vols.2+3 sampler I had on a cassette tape.

For years I was on the lookout for a cd of the early Fashion, I only found The Height of Fashion, from the later version. No hope it ever comes, I made it myself.

UPDATE:
Luke James mailed me telling that an official re-release on cd can be bought from his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/fashionlukesky, only $10 + $2.50 shipping. A rare tracks cd has soon to be followed, as a cd with brand new songs will.


version 1

Single:
1 Steady Eddie [3:26]
2 Killing Time [2:36]

LP side one:
1 Product Perfect [3:51]
2 Die in the West [4:10]
3 Red, Green & Gold [4:41]
4 Burning Down [3:31]
5 Big John - Hanoi Annoys me - the Innocent [7:25]

LP side two:
1 Citinite [5:15]
2 Don't touch me [2:57]
3 Bike Boys [5:06]
4 Fashion [3:30]
5 Technofascist [3:35]

I.R.S. greatest hits vols.2+3:
24 Sodium Pentathol Negative [1:55]

What is missing is Wastelife, the b-side of the Citinite 7" and the Silver Blades single. Anyone?


version 2

[Listen low quality fragments]
[Download high quality]

update:
The Citinite/Wastelife single can be found at The Record Robot.