Hope for Agoldensummer "Hallelujah"

Uh, oh! You either don't have the Flash plug-in installed, or you have it disabled.
Otherwise, there'd be a cute lil' streaming audio player on the left, rather than this message.

Hope for Agoldensummer
Super Secret Compilation
CDR
(self-released, 2007)

In these troubling economic times, a lot of bands and record companies now give fans the option of purchasing new releases in advance, in order to raise the funds to make said release. Actually, it's not that new of an idea; Recommended Records was doing it back in the late 1970s, and others may have done so before them.

When Athens, GA folky rockers Hope for Agoldensummer (HFags, for short) came to record their second album, Ariadne Thread, they did one of these pre-order dealies. I and the other participants ponyed up $15 and, as a thank you, got a CDR of outtakes, live songs, etc. along with the album proper. Today's absolutely gorgeous song comes from it, and does not appear on any of their other releases. Well, they have a new album, Life Inside The Body, coming out on May 1st, and I cannot guarantee it does not appear there. As always, please, no lawsuits.

NOTA BENE: Though she doesn't play it on this tune, co-leader/founder Claire Campbell is a master of one of my absolute favorite musical instruments, the singing saw. She's in good company, as quite possibly the sexiest woman to ever walk the face of the Earth*, Marlene Dietrich, was also a practitioner.

---

*Of course, me being a gay man, my idea of a sexy woman might not be in sync with that of most people.

Fraser & DeBolt "Don't Let Me Down"

Fraser & DeBolt
Fraser & DeBolt (with Ian Guenther)
LP
(Columbia Records, 1971)

I remember listening to today's song for the first time, and thinking, That's a Beatles song! By the time it was done, however, I started to doubt myself. I checked the songwriting credits on the label, and, indeed, it was the Lenny Mac half of the Fab Four. Sure, it was just a b-side, but it's a pretty great song, nonetheless. This interpretation, however, replaces the electric-rock-quartet-plus-guest-keyboardist backing with two acoustic guitars and a fiddle, played by guest Ian Guenther. It also boasts a rather different arrangement (surprise!). It's the final track on Fraser & DeBolt's stunning debut album, and is a beautiful closer. The whole album is an impressive mélange of acoustic, folk rock and atonal, avant garde experimentation. I can honestly say I've heard little else similar to it, as their second album, With Pleasure, was recorded with a full backing band and a reigning in of atonality (it's still a wonderful album).

When I bought my first device for burning CDRs from my stereo ('twas a stereo component CD player/recorder), the very first things I burnt were the two Fraser & DeBolt albums and the first two Hanatarash albums. Fallout Records released a pirate version of the first album on CD and LP a few years back, if you want to find a relatively inexpensive copy. I was all excited when it came out 'cause I thought it was legit. It arrived in the mail and looked suspicious to me, and my suspicions were confirmed when the first song on side two was preceded by a very loud needle drop. Great quality control there, bozos; you should be crushed. Fallout was the successor to Radioactive Records, after they got busted. I guess Fallout got busted, too, as they now release stuff under the name Phoenix Records.

---

*I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone cover Genesis, come to think of it. On the other hand, the lone time I saw Axehandle they did a devastatingly heavy and acrimonious cover of Phil Collins' I Don't Care Anymore. I was bummed that it didn't end up on their sole album. Or their soul album, which does not exist.

Today's selection gets the friend recommendation tag as my friend Marlo Donahue suggested I check them out when I told her 15 years or so ago that I was getting heavily into Tim Buckley. I kept my eyes peeled and came across a copy of With Pleasure a year or two later, and loved it.

Thin Lizzy "Mama and Papa"

Thin Lizzy The Lost Recordings CD EP (HotPress, 2006)

Well, Decca finally got off their asses and issued the deluxe remasters of Thin Lizzy's first three albums: Thin Lizzy, Shades of a Blue Orphanage, and Vagabonds of the Western World. Back in those days (the very early 1970s) they were a trio with Eric Bell on guitar, rather than the twin guitar attack of Scott Gorham plus another guy (there were several of 'em over the years). These darn things were initially announced as forthcoming close to a decade ago, so it's about darn time! Today's song, therefore, is a tune that predates those records, even.