Great thorough article on Jet Set Planet Radio Show.
Quote from Rake Magzine:

Higher than Fi
Spinning the sounds of thrift store vinyl, Jet Set Planet sends radio into a new orbit.by John ErvinDecember 12, 2007The European sun shines on James Coburn, his lean frame in a white Mod jacket with red turtleneck. Putting on enormous sunglasses and flashing his classic chops, he sidles out of the palm-tree fringed villa, where he has just spent the night with Monica Vitti, and slips into his silver Ferrari. Bound for another criminal adventure involving diamonds, art, or cold hard cash, he speeds onto a cliff-side road, which just happens to overlook an endless body of crashing blue water.
…

Read all at Higher than Fi | The Rake Magazine

I found this blog by accidents – looking for the publisher of a Chubby Checker song. The first time I stumbled across a great blog by someone I know personally and I didn’t know he was doing it!

Berlin Beatet Bestes is where Andreas Michalke presents his odd vinyl findings. I think it’s just 7”s. He has a talent for finding incredible stuff of all kinds (and not just records). Often with great sleeves – being a comic book artist he wouldn’t let a nice artwork illustration pass by. It took a while until I gathered how to listen to his samples in the stream player on the right sidebar. Maybe this would be a good plug-in for his WordPress? He could have the sound where the article is – and not alphabetically crammed into a small box. Anyway, I totally dig this. Check out the thorough descriptions he writes for the records. He loves vinyl oddities. If you’re similarly adjusted have a look and a listen.

…if I could have it my way.

I created this picture in the dressing room at offset-guitars.com.

Structure
I would have a Jazzmaster body made from mahagony with maple-top.
A Mosrite/Gretsch scale, set neck, maple with ebony fretboard (Mosrite radius).
The neck-profile copied from my e-sitar.
Neck-binding, zero-fret and the smallest frets available (Framus NOS?)
I probably would have a Bigsby instead of the jm-vibrato, but the jm-bridge.
These appointments are based mostly on one of my all-time favorite guitars, the 1975 Gretsch Country Rok, which I sold long ago.

Electronics
For pick-ups I would have three Novak Fender XII replicas.
Jaguar style three on/off switches (rather than the Stratocaster switch in the pic)
The rhythm circuit to give additional pu-combinations, since the 3 pups have two coils each. Maybe like this: upper-bout switch turns on north of bridge, south of neck, but not breaking the main selector circuit. The outside coils should be humcancelling and hollow like a Jazzmaster.
I just love the sound of the Fender XII, which I used on Wild Action (Modern Sounds of The Looney Tunes Band). The pick-ups are not as thin as DeArmond single coils, and not as fat as Supertrons. More like Jaguar ones, but hum-cancelling.

Cosmetics
Color: ocean turquoise with matching headstock and gold hardware, Kluson-style tuners. Pickguard either gold-aluminium or vintage white. I wanted a gold guard guitar ever since I got The Wildest Guitar by Mickey Baker.
I never had a blue-ish guitar before. It looks so green because I chose the aged look in the dressing room. The finish is bluer when new.
It looks fancy, I see that. But it’s supposed to be a custom, they have to look fancy!

I knew about this big back-catalogue re-issue being planned before, but I somehow never could view the web-page until now.

Arthur Lyman died a couple of years ago, and it was a great loss to the people into Exotica and Tiki as he was still performing. He used to play with Martin Denny before he ventured out with his own group. Both artists released similar styled albums, but Lyman kept more Hawai’i in his music as the sixties went on, being hawaiian might be a reason. He had some of the deepest, most atmospheric and soulful Exotica recordings, combining authentic ethnic instrumentation with modern jazz. Another interesting point of note are humorous tunes he often selected to appear towards the end of his LPs. He may not have had a Sandy Warner on the covers, but many are very beautiful, classic Exotica designs. Taboo 2 had an authentic shrunken head on the front, until it was repackaged with a shot from the Pele roll of film.

Kevin Crossman writes on the Exotica list:

Collectors has released 18 Lyman albums in their entirety as 9 two-fer CDs.
…
Don’t be fooled by lame, generic cover art. each release has the cover of both LPs printed in full color. All you have to do is take the front booklet out and fold it backwards to show the cool orig Lp cover art! The CD also contains a reprint of one of the Lp back covers
…
Look for the double titles separated by a slash. Steer clear of the Greatest Hits package – it is not bad but I’m sure you would rather have the full experience of a Lyman lp in its original format
…

go to Collectors’ Choice Music

Jeff Chenault on the Exotica Mailing List writes about his upcoming appearance at this year’s Tiki Oasis. Quote:

Aloha Exoticats,

It hasn’t been formally announced yet but I will be presenting a seminar on Exotica Music at the Tiki Oasis event in San Diego this year. The dates are August 14th-17th 2008. More info can be found at www.tikioasis.com

Below is a brief description of my presentation…….

Jeff Chenault presents Sounds for Sophisticated Savages

Exotica researcher Jeff Chenault has become a well-known figure in the Exotica world. His extensive research comes from a lifetime love affair with music and his consummate passion for unusual sounds. For the past two years he has presented his Exotica seminars to enthusiastic crowds at the Hukilau event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His ultimate goal is to share, educate and enlighten people with this extraordinary and fascinating form of music.

This year Jeff will present an ever-expanding version of his music seminar. The show will include an introductory overview of Exotica pioneers Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Arthur Lyman, and also chronicle more obscure artists such as Eden Ahbez and Jimmy Namaro. As an added bonus Jeff will highlight the career of Hollywood film composer Robert Drasnin. Bob’s quintessential first album Voodoo is considered by many to be a masterpiece of the genre. Bob will also be making a special guest appearance.

Join us for an entertaining and educational journey into the world of Exotica.

Cheers and Mahalo,

Jeff

I would go and have a good listen!!

I checked this book out a while back and I confirm it’s a must have. Here’s a quote from the New York Times.

The cool was born in New York. It was in Manhattan that Miles Davis and the nine-piece group he convened in the late 1940s forged a tightly understated alternative to the hot expressionism of bebop and recorded the hugely influential tracks later collected in the album “Birth of the Cool.” But it was in California in the 1950s that cool jazz and cool art in general took root and flourished.

The story is well told in “Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury,” an exhibition here at the Addison Gallery of American Art. Organized by Elizabeth Armstrong, chief curator at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, Calif., where it originated, the show examines cool style of the ’50s in several disciplines, including painting, furniture design, architecture, film and photography.

The multidisciplinary approach could be confusing, but it all hangs together in ways both entertaining and thought provoking. What emerges is not just a style but a spirit and an ethos that are in many ways diametrically opposite those of East Coast Abstract Expressionism. Angst-free, not monumental, anti-grandiose:
California cool is laid back yet cleanly articulated, impersonal yet intimate, strict yet hedonistic, and seriously playful. …

Birth of the Cool – California – Art – Review – New York Times

Thanks to Lou Smith.

From Domenic Priore:

Friday on Volcanic Action you’ll hear music from the surfing movie soundtracks to Blue Surf-Ari, Strictly Hot, Gone With The Wave, The Golden Breed, Follow Me, The Fantastic Plastic Machine, Getting Back to Nothing and the Waimea Bay epic Ride The Wild Surf. Plus plenty of Exotica, Surf Instrumentals, West Coast Jazz, Bossa Nova, Hawaiian and Surf vocal tunes too.

11 p.m. London

6 p.m. New York City

3 p.m. Los Angeles

Noon in Honolulu

Luxuriamusic.com

Wow! A website dedicated to bringing back dynamics into modern recordings. I applied there with Tiki Traveling. Hopefully they accept that recording. I will do my best to support the project. I recorded TTWKK in the consciousness of making an anti-loudness record. Being mainly for soundtrack use, I could more easily fight the temptation of being competitive with music recorded for radio, music-tv or a teenager’s music collection, but aimed for the late fifties/early sixties hifi stereo sound instead. Think Command LPs with Bauhaus covers (Enoch Light’s label). I mixed and mastered for a good, enduring listening experience.

These records say: Turn me up! Your stereo deserves being turned up as much as your guitar amp or vehicle. Simply sounds better. Dials are more precise up the scale, too.

I wrote about the so called loudness wars earlier on this blog.

Quote from Turn Me Up!

Turn Me Up!™ is a non-profit music industry organization
campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records. To be clear, it’s not our goal to discourage loud records; they are, of course, a valid choice for many artists. We simply want to make the choice for a more dynamic record an option for artists. …

Turn Me Up! | Bringing Dynamics Back To Music

Here’s another link to an article on over-compression of music.

Now I know which movie this tune is referring to in the Making Out At the Movies album by The Boss Guitars.
I think it’s a Vinnie Bell composition, going back to the Whistle Stop album. There’s also a 45 with a Fink reference in the band name, that’s yet another version.
The track’s title Bazooki refers to Vincent Bell’s invention, the Danelectro Bellzouki. This was the first electric twelve string guitar. And was developed because the greek bouzouki was becoming requested after the soundtrack to Never On A Sunday became such a hit.

Rat Pfink A Boo-Boo at YouTube

What I like about this is the spirit and performance. They obviously got the hang of surf instrumentals – great sound, especially the Fender Jazzmaster guitar. The songwriting is focused and quite enjoyable (maybe even more so on this track). They are young and play pretty tight and avoid approaching any sloppy pseudo guitar/drum/bass hero antics. The purity really comes across well. This music is meant to be played in a cool way, with a good punch. And let me tell you, three piece instrumental bands act under a big magnifying glass. You can really hear all the details – I can only second the comment somebody else made about them: Good Job!