I had sorta forgot about my deal w/NoVo (or whoever's signin the checks) about them Joseph D'Angelo articles till I got an email the other day from Taters that read simply WHAT THE FUCK"? I shook off the cobwebs & got to writin. With all the construction & general hubbub that's been goin on around here, I just spaced on the followup. I had more pressin concerns, you know? So I'll get right to the point, no filibusterin, pontificatin or long winded stories about how I come to connect x to y to z. Just some hard facts & speculative opinionatin. I think it was that roly-poly ass bag William Howard Taft who said "Fun can kiss my ass!" Right? If not, it was some rotund barrister of yore. That much I DO know.
Okay, well, the 1st part of this series about the Departmentstore Santas was a success I reckon. Got lot's of mail from collectors & fans alike. Seems everyone whose ever found a copy come across it in a similar way; yard sale, reduced/dollar bins or just piqued by the cover art. And I didn't encounter nobody who said they felt gypped either. It's a deep & persuasive record. And seein as how Will Soderberg ponied up w/his helpful Joseph D'Angelo website(www.white-rose.net/dss/)
you can get a peek at what followed by Guy Goode & His Decentone Orchestra enititled' There Are No Clean People'. Released in 1985, evidently this lp's distro was nil as I never seen nor heard a peep about it till a few yrs back w/I turned up a copy. Not a jarring surprise, I mean in couldn't really ride on the waves of the DSS album which was then languishing undiscovered in record shops & chapter 11 warehouses. The fella I got it from knew it had connections to DSS but couldn't recall how're who. The cover art was hardly revelatory & the insert gave up nothing. Listenin to it though, it did possess a similar lyrical aesthetic & the vocals sounded familiar. However, the emphasis was leaning more towards horns, woodwinds, a sort've mash of diy, psych 'n big band w/a running narrative that assumed the m.o. of a corny, two-bit lounge act. I wouldn't say I was thrown off, if anything, I was just as mystified by this lp has I had been w/the DSS. Lookin at this thing it had A/V Club written all over it, certainly not the image I had conjured up in my brain. But hey, whatever, the other record I had w/supposed DSS connections by Friends Of Ghost seemed just as illogical so I just took it in stride. Someone tried to con me & say it was a David Lowery/Camper Van Beethoven side project but I didn't buy it. That just solidified the need to know & track down any info I could to put all these ducks in a row.
Which is exactly what happened just about a year ago. We was down in Playa Del Carmen on the Mexican Rivera, drinkin & havin a relaxin vacation when we befriended this backpackin fella what asked us for a beer. He was right nice, told us all about the ruins & local lore, wasn't pushy, didn't seem like a smacked ass, so we broke out some more suds as well as a bottle of mescal we'd picked up earlier in the day. Soon we was off to the races fillin each other's in w/bio's'n backstories. Our man of mystery said he was originally from outside San Diego, Ca. I told him I'd been to Santee once in the early 80's & damn if that wasn't where he'd growed up! I said I'd seen a Fear show when I was there (which he remembered) & we got off on hardcore & the SD scene, blahblahblah. Then I mentioned DSS & he shot me this shocked look, like I'd mentioned the answer to some long-lost riddle. He asked me how I knew about'em & got to actin all secretive but after a few more snorts of cactus juice admitted that he had been pals w/those guys way back when. Said that lp was one of his favorites of all time, but that the followup record, the one by Guy Goode & The Decentones (!) was even better. I couldn't fuckin believe it! Suddenly, sittin around a fire on a beach in Mexico the mystery of DSS/Guy Goode was being unraveled. Basically what he told me that night follows-almost to the letter-the info on Soderberg's site. The main thing for me was findin out where the record fit in the discography & Mr. X-I never did get the fella's name-said it was right after the Santas one. He told about shows, how funny the Brashers brothers was, laughed w/distain at the Camper Van notion, it was mind bogglin. I asked about how come it was such a hard lp to track down but he just shrugged his shoulders & smiled, as if to say that's how it was meant to be. With that he strapped on his backpack, thanked us for the hospitality 'n reminiscin & was on his way. Then after the DSS blog, the White Rose site confirmed it all. I'll be a monkey's uncle. So there you have it. And it is a goddamn GOOD record too. Sure it don't have the detached, higher-key psychedelic ache as the Santas lp, but it is a cool customer of sideways swing nonetheless. And I gotta side up w/Mr. X, I think I might even like this Guy Goode lp even more than DSS one. So does that make me elitist? If that means I got it & you don't, I guess the answer is yes. Somethin tells me they's out there. Where I couldn't say & if anybody's got any leads, drop a line. This is one that definitely need's more ears.
So much for my non story tellin. Sorry folks, it couldn't be helped. Next up is Friends Of Ghost. All's I'll say right now is...what happened?
1 comment:
This one isn't as pricey as the DSS record - it's shown up a few times on ebay in the past couple of years and I got mine for 10 bucks. Or maybe no one knew about it and you've just ruined it. I prefer the DSS by a mile but it's probably just that the horns bug me in spots.
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