The Fringe Factory's Top Fringin Faves of 2015!

Happy New Year Groovers!!! It's time to name the Fringe Factory Fringin' Faves of 2015!! All the best new psychedelic and garage songs newly released and played on the show the past year! Listen to the show with DJ Vikki Vaden and view the playlist/comments on wfmu.org right here http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/64372

and as an added treat; here's a link to a mix for you I made of just the songs with a few bonus tracks:
https://www.mixcloud.com/TheFringeFactory/the-fringe-factorys-2015-fringin-faves-mixtape/

Enjoy! - Vikki V

WOOLY GIRLY with the Sham-ettes and all the other ettes, on Crayons to Perfume! at 7pm Eastern, 4pm Pacific!

1-2-3 ... ETTES! Today on Crayons To Perfume! it's girl groups with the suffix "ettes" on their name, and the Sham-ettes are our girls of the week! A full hour of Fab-u-l-ette-s girl groups! https://wfmu.org/playlists/CE

Whig Your Way...TODAY! WHIG OUT! 8pm EST, 5pm Pacific!

Whig Your Way...from the 60's into the 80's with Richard and Glynis on the Whig Out, right after The Real Nitty Gritty! We've got 60's garage bands covering other 60's garage bands and 80's garage bands covering other 80's garage bands ... so grooveth your gourd, and flip your Whig tonight with the Fringe Factory! 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific!

God Save Stevie Wright

Sad news has come to pass with the legendary Stevie Wright dying this week at age 68.

Stevie was the unstoppable, frantic, and fabulous singer of Aussie legends The Easybeats.

The Easybeats WERE THEE band of the 1960s in Australia. They put that country on the map as a competitor of the British Invasion and the American scene. Featuring 2 Britons, 2 Dutch, and 1 Scotsman. They were simply one of the most rocking and original bands of the entire rock 'n' roll canon. Inventive riffs, humor, soul, and heart-stopping performances.

A lot of this was due to Stevie Wright who co-wrote most of their early hits with George Young, including "She's So Fine."

Just watch this insane performance of  another Wright/Young song "Sorry." Stevie is a man possessed by the power of teenage lust and rock 'n' roll.

Hit after hit followed for the boys until it was time for them to do what many Aussie bands did, which is find their fortune in England. Boy did they ever!

Teaming up with legendary producer Shel Talmy, the AMAZING "Friday On My Mind" album came of this collaboration, featuring the worldwide hit "Friday On My Mind." Which even made the top charts in the U.S.A.

Also from that album is my favorite version of "River Deep, Mountain High." Proving Stevie could pack a punch in the face of soul for such a small face.

Stevie will not be forgotten and left an incredible legacy of records, all worth searching out, if you haven't already!

The Real Nitty Gritty: Fying Saucers Rock n Roll tonight at 7

Tune in tonight to The Real Nitty Gritty for Flying Saucers Rock n Roll -- savage R&B, greasy rockabilly, gutbucket blues, gruesome garage, sweaty soul, sleazy instrotrash --
7pm on the WFMU Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban stream http://www.wfmu.org/

Meet The Dave Clark Five

Psychotronic Movie of the Week: Home For The Holidays (1972)

When the topic of holiday horrors comes up, most people mention Black Christmas (1974), Christmas Evil (1980), and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), but Home For The Holidays (1972) seems to have been largely forgotten. A made for TV thriller from back when made for TV movies could really pack a punch, Home For The Holidays is a taut, pre-slasher gem with Sally Field just fresh out of her role in The Flying Nun. She plays the youngest of four sisters (her siblings are played by Elanor Parker, Jessica Walter, and Jill Hayworth) who come home to visit their dying father (Walter Brennan) on Christmas. He gathers them together, tells them that his second wife (Julie Harris) is slowly poisoning him, and that he wants them to murder her. Tensions and suspicions are high in the large home as a torrential rainstorm comes down outside with large crashes of thunder every few minutes. A killer in a yellow raincoat starts taking people out one at a time. Is wife #2 the one wearing it? You'll have to watch to find out. 

Debbie Does WFMU

Tonight!  7-8 PM.  Join me here on the playlist.  For *adult enthusiasts* only.

Instrumental 45 of the Week!

SIDEWINDER! (listen/download)

It's the Fringe Factory's 8th Annual Rock-n-Psych-Mas! Dec 23rd, 2015

Happy Holidays Groovers...it's that time of year again! Celebrate the season with while I spin The Fringe Factory's Fave Garage-N-Psych Holiday hits from the likes of The Woggles, Bob Seger and the Last Heard, The Gruesomes, The Sonics ,The Cosmonauts, Wildebeests, Fleshtones, Psychic Ills, The Who and more! -Vikki V
  Listen to the show here!  (originally aired Dec 23, 2015)

Vashti Bunyan and Winter Girls tonight at 7 on Crayons to Perfume!

Vashti, Carol & Cheryl, Francoise Hardy, Irma Thomas and The Eighth Day ... all the girls of winter, tonite at 7 here: https://wfmu.org/playlists/CE

Book Report: Riot On Sunset Strip by Domenic Priore

The New Orleans of the West Coast!

That is what I thought after reading the fantastic "Riot On Sunset Strip" by Domenic Priore. A revised edition with a fantastic cover, pictures of the action and a story like no other.

The 1960s music scene in Los Angeles is prefaced with an old wild west tale of mobsters being run out of town, prohibition and fast money. This leaves the Sunset Strip area ready to be cared for by the burgeoning jazz and R&B scenes.

Famed vocalist Billy Eckstein broke the barriers of segregation at the clubs and the musician's union leading to hep cat jazz joints and the small club scene to flourish. Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and a host of other cool jazz and bebop swingers all made the strip home. Louis Prima and Keely Smith brought their hot New Orleans inspired swing to the Sunset Strip that led to crowds coming to dance and swing.

Also incredibly key to the scene, is the folk movement. The explosion of the folk scene is largely as a result of the R&B and rock 'n' roll scenes being destroyed by payola, death and racism. Protest and anger was to found in the words and music of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. With the recent blacklist, oppressive racism, sexism and the Civil Rights movement about the explode, the time had come today.

The Strip catered to the surf scene and the R&B movement at the clubs. Many of the exciting hits came from Los Angeles during 1960-1963 era with The Beach Boys, The Pyramids, Thee Midnighters, The Platters and Sam Cooke all emerging from this early club scene.

Five lads enter the picture in 1964 and by 1965 they take the Strip to the world. The Byrds had the genius combination of Beatlesque tunes, protest courtesy of Seeger and Dylan, the jazz cool, and a ringing 12-string guitar that are bells of euphoria. The band achieved number 1 on the charts with "Mr. Tambourine Man," which led to an explosion of similar folk-rock and garage-punk bands. The Leaves, The Turtles, The Doors, The Standells, The Seeds, Buffalo Springfield and most importantly Love all appear on the Strip.


The Strip is presented as a place where ideas are shared, bands are of relative equal footing, people dance together and the world is changing for the better. Folk-pop of the Mamas and Papas and Sonny and Cher sit right along explosive Stax revues with the Mar-Keys and the Thomas' and everybody digs. The art world, television and radio all explode with the sounds of Ravi Shankar, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, productions by Jack Nitzsche and Phil Spector.

Trouble begins just as The Byrds hit number one with the Watts Riots in 1965, a result of neglect and racism from the city at large. This leads to a fearful and ridiculously paranoid city. Their policy appears to be wanting to stamp out any sign of integration or change. With the extremely rich Beverly Hills right next to the Strip, it was only a matter of time for the city to make changes. One way they begin to stamp out the scene is by  attempting to close the clubs and build skyscrapers. The next stage is in 1966 to reenact old cabaret policies of dancing and curfews, leading to a sharp decline in the club's ability to draw crowds and maintain the momentum. This results in the riots on the Sunset Strip, which common to all riots, is caused mainly by police officers looking for trouble and dirt by instigating and escalating situations.

By 1967 the death knell is all but rung with the Monterey Pop Festival occurring in Northern California. Although largely the result of the excitement of the Strip, it leads to San Francisco to becoming the new center of action. With only Sly and the Family Stone reminiscent of the older Strip days of fun, dancing and togetherness. The rest of the scene is largely inward looking and snooty.  Rolling Stone magazine rewrote history to change the perspective of what it means to be a musician and a consumer of records.

All these changes happen at the same time as the escalation of the Vietnam War, the wholesale of radio and television to bigger corporations, the slow collapse of the power of the union, and a renewed evangelical conservatism.

This was a fantastic read and a definite recommendation to anyone with any interest in the 1960s music scene and how the Sunset Strip was truly a revolutionary force of art and positive change. I was left feeling that this same story could be told today in the 2010s with the collapse of music venues, the snark of Vice, still blatant racism and xenophobia, NIMBYs and the rise of skyscraper living.

Read this book and get inspired to keep on keepin' on!

Happy Winter Soul-stice!

Gray Georgia

Please enjoy the annual Winter Soul-stice celebration with yours truly and the one and only Gaylord Fields!

Rock'n'Roll Santa, bring me some records this year please...

California Christmas with the Whig Out! at 8 pm

Sunshine and Surf... it's Christmas California style on the Whig Out! Lotsa surf, garage 'n a bit of psych on today's show and just a drop or two of holiday cheer! Check it out! https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/WT

Shake your soul, honey -- The Real Nitty Gritty tonight at 7:00

Tonight at 7:00 on Ichiban The Real Nitty Gritty's got a stack of greasy platters to play for you. Shake your soul, honey!

Instrumental 45 of the Week!

SCORPION! (Listen/download)

Psychotronic Movie of the Week: The Dirty Outlaws (1967)

The Dirty Outlaws is a classic lesser known spaghetti western from 1967. It's filthy. Most of the people are deplorable, the towns are all mud, dust, and scum. The plot is based around an outlaw who comes across a dying Confederate and assumes his identity to try and get his hands on a stash of money being kept by the soldier's blind father. Franco Rossetti was a film critic who started writing screenplays, and this was his directorial debut. As you might hope, The Dirty Outlaws has some very cinematic moments that only a film fanatic would concoct, a great screenplay, and is described by the Spaghetti Western Movie Database as "an atmospheric, mean, brutal, and sinister film." What makes this a great spaghetti western is that it's full of style but with lots of plot, archetypal but still full of surprises.

Hold Tight with the Fringe Factory! (Dec 16th, 2015)

 The Fringe Factory Hangs Loose and Holds Tight!  View the playlist and listen to the broadcast or the archive  right here!

Keep Blondes Happy, Listen to the Whig Out! 8pm Sunday

Strawberry blondes, dirty blondes, brunettes, redheads ... they'll all be happy listening to the Whig Out! This Sunday at 8 with Richard Whig and Glynis djgirlgroupgirl Ward! We say goodbye to Atlanta with 60's and modern Atlanta garage groups, and hear a bit more about the DC scene from Marti - Richard's Mom! Listen Here: https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/WT and check out all our older shows, including past fill-ins, here: http://whiggedout.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to tune in again next week after The Real Nitty Gritty when we celebrate the holidays West Coast Style from our new studios in San Diego!

The Real Nitty Gritty Got Sumpin' for You -- Tonight at 7:00

The Real Nitty Gritty Got sumpin' for you: savage R&B, greasy rockabilly, gutbucket blues, gruesome garage, sweaty soul, sleazy instrotrash -- tonight at 7:00 on WFMU's Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban http://www.wfmu.org/

Gettin' all Ready Eddy for the holidays!

Instrumental 45 of the Week!

FLING! (listen/download)

Tune In Today!

The Fringe Factory Plugs Your HEAD IN!

Things are getting weird at the Fringe Factory while Vikki spins 60s mind-melters and silly songs and Pietro from the Midnight Larks pops in again to visit! Show and playlist here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/64027

Psychotronic Movie of the Week: I Drink Your Blood (1970)

"Let it be known sons and daughters, that Satan was an acid head. Drink from his cup. pledge yourselves, and together we'll all freak out."

One of the most infamous psychotronic films of all time, I Drink Your Blood is one of those rare gems that just delivers and delivers and delivers, from the very first frame right up until the very last. There's just so much going on in this Satanic cult, post-Manson hippie gore exploitation movie that it would take an essay to fill you in on everything which awaits you. But I'm posting this for those who haven't seen it yet, I don't want to ruin one moment of it, so I'll resist the temptation to list all of the inanity that's packed into these 83 batshit crazy minutes. 

There's really nothing else quite like it. It was released by Jerry Gross' Cinemation Industries and paired up with I Eat Your Skin, an obscure 1964 voodoo zombie film, for the double feature circuit. The result was an ad campaign for the ages. 

There are some stellar performances here, most notably from Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, who plays Horace Bones, the leader of the cult, Jadin Wong as Sue-Lin, and George Patterson as Rollo. Lynn Lowry (The Crazies, Shivers, Score) says nothing but looks beautiful throughout in her film debut. It's really well made, written and directed by David Dunston, who had a brief and otherwise nondescript career in the movies, but what he gave us here is something very special, one of a handful of the greatest psychotronic/grindhouse/drive-in movies of all-time. 

A definitive special edition DVD of I Drink Your Blood was issued by Grindhouse Releasing in the early 2000s which is now out of print, grab it if you can. Until then, dig this DVD rip which is currently residing on YouTube. 

 

French Swinging Mademoiselles special on Crayons to Perfume

Thanks to DJ GirlGroupGirl for inviting me to present my perspectives on the French Swinging Mademoiselles during two episodes of Crayons to Perfume, a weekly show featuring girl group sounds 1960-69 !!!



My show is called the Atomic Jukebox. Below are the texts that I read at the beginning of the shows, just for the record. The shows will appear live on the Ichiban stream, and then be archived. I will put links to the archives below when they are available. The archive pages include a full setlist. Thanks for listening !

Show 1 archive

Show 2 archive

I'm going to spotlight French 60s music. Its history is long and complicated, and its problems are numerous, so I am going to summarize. If you want the full story, buy me a drink some time.

You might hope I'm gonna do a show with some great 60s soul, R&B and garage from France. But I can't, because basically there isn't any. While Americans, and to a limited extent the British, were turning out tens of thousands of incredible records in the 60s, the French simply were not.

The explanations are long but boil down to, on one hand, control of the artists, media and record labels by a handful of people and corporations seeking to exploit a lame and uninformed public, and keep them that way, and on the other hand, a cultural impediment to rock n roll. Can you imagine Frank Sinatra doing a convincing reggae record ? No. Well, culturally speaking, and with a few exceptions, the French can't do rock n roll.

However, there was one thing they did do well, a certain category of female vocal music now known as the "Swinging Mademoiselle" style (with various spellings), a term coined by a certain Sasha Monett who put out a series of outstanding compilations with that name. At its best, this style is comparable to what would be called "pop music" in America, like Nancy Sinatra or Tom Jones, featuring a vocalist rather than a group, often with sappy orchestral accompaniment, often a bit precious or with a novelty angle, and very far from garage, soul or r&b. There is a lot of mediocre material, but a few remarkable records as well, and a very few that really stand out.

Thanks, in particular, to several excellent compilations, you have probably heard the handful of really brilliant pop hits that came out of France in the 60s. I'm going to go a little deeper today, in the Swinging Mademoiselle style, and I have some cool songs to play. But I'll be a little critical again and say that, while you may get excited and imagine that these songs are the tip of a fantastic iceberg of thousands of groovy tunes, I would say that's not the case. There are some more good ones, but not a whole lot.



In the last episode I talked about some of the problems that affected French music in the 60s : cultural impediments, centralized control of the industry and the attraction of adapting Anglo-saxon hits rather than writing their own.

I mentioned that there are some excellent compilations available that feature the best of what the French produced in the 60s. The Swinging Mademoiselle series (3 volumes) is, of course, indispensable. Other compilations that feature the Swinging Mademoiselle sound you're hearing today include :
Girls in the Garage vol 10, 12
Pop à Paris vol 5
Ultra Chicks
Femmes de Paris
Ace C'est Chic! series (3 volumes)

If you are interested in other French 60s music, you can also check out
Gentlemen de Paris
Psychegaelic
Ils Sont Fous Ces Gaulois
Wizzz
Pop à Paris

And sorry if I came off as negative or sarcastic about the limited amount of good French 60s music, but it's simply the truth. There are perhaps 30 good compilations of French 60s music out there (counting both male and female vocals). My friends, who are literally the experts in the field, all agree that there is basically no good stuff left that's not on a compilation.

Another part of the French story is the Scopitone, a sort of jukebox that projected 16mm sound films that what we now realize were the precursor to video clips. This unreliable gadget came and went in 10 years, but they happened to be the right 10 years. With the imperative to fill the machines, the company filmed many of the French artists of the 60s. You can see them now on YouTube, and the 16mm reels have become collectible.

Bloodstains on the Wall: The Real Nitty Gritty tonight at 7

Bloodstains On The Wall: The Real Nitty Gritty BLUES (& rhythm) Edition - with a guest set by Erin from Down to the Crossroads- tonight at 7:00 on WFMU's Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/63974?dm=1449446893

Whig Out with Brian Poust, dj Agent 45, and Georgia Garage 'n Soul!

Brian Poust is probably best known for his Georgia Soul website where he writes about his favorite Georgia soul sides, and his adventures in record collecting. Although recently re-locating to San Antonio Texas, Brian is still working his Georgia angle, and has a feature article in Oxford America Magazines' Georgia Music Issue 'Atlanta's Sweet Auburn Soul' coming out in mid-December. Brian talks about the artists he spotlights in his article, plays some of his favorite Atlanta Garage 45's and gives us the low down on some of his best Georgia finds. Join us at 8pm, right after the Real Nitty Gritty. Tune in here! -> https://wfmu.org/playlists/WT

Instrumental 45 of the Week!

BOSS! (listen/download)

Psychotronic Movie of the Week: Johnny Cash in Five Minutes To Live (1961)

Five Minutes To Live (aka Door to Door Maniac) was a 1961 thriller starring Johnny Cash and Vic Tayback. They hatch a scheme to rob a bank by taking the branch vice president's wife hostage and giving him five minutes to hand over the money or she'll get it. Only hitch? He was about to ask her for a divorce, throwing a monkey wrench into the plan. It's a well paced, fast little potboiler, and Cash is great in his first acting role as a cold blooded killer with a guitar. He performs the title song and is shown pickin' and singin' a few times in the film. 

Tayback is suitably sleazy as his partner in crime, and the movie also stars Donald Woods as the bank executive and Cay Forester, who also wrote the screenplay, as his wife. Director Bill Karn previously did a lot of tv work, most notably Gang Busters, and also helmed Ma Barker's Killer Brood the previous year. Sutton Pictures handled the original 1961 release, but AIP got a hold of it in '66 and gave it the Door to Door Maniac title. 

Timi Yuro & the girls at 7 tonite!

Timi Yuro is our Girl of the Week! She sings along with the Shangri-Las, Anna King, The Jewels, Judi & The Affections and Patti Drew! Listen Here! https://wfmu.org/playlists/CE

and make sure you tune in the next two weeks as the Atomic Jukebox fills in for Crayons to Perfume! Jon Von Zelowitz will bring you the best in French 60's girl pop, swingin' Mademoiselles, Ultra Chicks .... ye ye girls! Ohh, la la! I'll be back again on the 23rd of December...but the fun doesn't stop there! The Real Nitty Gritty Tania is going to help kick of the Crayons to Perfume! new year in style so keep your dial tuned to WFMU's Rock'n'Soul Ichiban!