Monthly Archive for September, 2008

The Damon Show, Part Five

In the early fall of 1996, my friend Bruce Sandig and I traveled down to Tucson to appear in a video for my brother’s cable television show. I guess Damon must have been desperate to fill time on his November episode. Why else would he invite Today’s Sounds on his show?

Any doubt I might have had that Bruce would balk at having to perform “Let’s Turkey Trot” dressed up like a pilgrim was quickly laid to rest. He jumped at the opportunity to appear on television. So, we visited the local party store for some paper hats and scored some shirts and vests from Goodwill. We completed the ridiculous ensemble with some black biker shorts from Wall Mart. Then we drove down to Tucson to meet up with my brother. I tortured Bruce during the drive with my off-key demos of songs that didn’t make it on the record.

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Things I Should Throw Out: “True Romances” Magazine

Here’s one I should seriously throw out. This coverless 1947 edition of “True Romance” was already in tatters when I found it in the back of a dusty gift shop in Oatman. But I fell in love with the magazine’s beautiful postwar art direction, as well as its haplessly out-of-date take on feminine empowerment — that is to say, landing a man. The advertisements were especially poignant, offering guidance on how to manage such typically tragic social disasters as halitosis, menstruation and “borderline anemia.” And the advice doesn’t stop at the altar. The helpful hints for homemakers are equally plentiful. No doubt, many of our own grandmothers used Drano to combat humiliating “sewer germs,” treated “childhood constipation” with Fletcher’s Castoria and curbed “spousal indifference” by douching regularly with Lysol brand disinfectant.

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Hazy Osterwald Jet Set

I found this album as I did most of my records — for a buck at a thrift store down in Phoenix somewhere. But I had no idea how dear it was until recently when one of my fellow deejays at LuxuriaMusic told me he’d give his life for it. Seems its lead off track, “Swinging London,” was included on the second volume of “The In-Kraut,” a popular series of groovy German pop obscurities from the sixties and seventies. Oddly enough, this album doesn’t appear to have found its way onto any of the share sites on my short list. Either nobody else has it, or the blogosphere has issued a collective thumbs down on this album. Either way, I quickly passed it along to my friend, and his life was spared. And since the links are still good, I figured I pass them along to everyone here.

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