Well, time is marching on. Again.
Here in Monkeyland we continue to expect the unexpected and sometimes the expected. Let’s start with the former.
Mud Shack. What is it? Besides super-great? We don’t know. It just showed up at the PO box on cassette one day with a hand-drawn picture of guitars and drums and keys and a 4-track cassette recorder. And a recluse spider. And a murder hornet. WTF. Everything used to make this tape is depicted in the drawing. It has songs about last year’s police station takedown on Capitol Hill in Seattle, Hempfest and Steven King’s glasses. It was recorded on an ancient Tascam Portastudio 4-track cassette deck and mixed to a cheap cassette. No noise reduction. Oodles of tape hiss. No credits except drums on a couple songs. No contact info. Fuck yeah! Though I have no idea who did this, I have been told of a quote from a Mr. K. Philips: “unlistenable!”
I digitized this cassette for you, including all the tape noise and all the stop and start punch-click thingies. Exactly as received. It is the right thing to do. To make this even more ridiculous, we have a SUPER LIMITED edition cassette available to you created from the original master by the artist, whoever that is. How many? Five. That’s it. Buy one and you get the hand-labeled cassette (no case) and a beautiful 11×17 reproduction of the artwork I personally received. How much? $39.95 + shipping and handling, do not delay, operators are standing by! Our first cassette release since 1991! We guarantee GMR will not make anymore (no guarantees about what the artist will do). Total collector’s item. And totally super-great. What more do you need to know?
Next.
Band of Certainty’s new single “Sand”. ”Sand” is the lost step-child of Band of Certainty’s Twist and Sway EP. When that sweet slab of ones and zeros was going down, something was just not right with “Sand”.” OUCH. Mr. Scott Kaplan said to the reject pile it went, never to be seen again. WAIT WAIT WAIT A MINUTE. The cape is flung aside and Scott slowly rises. Mashed potatoes. Mic slap. Splits. We have now added a dose of hot sauce and a twist of lime and everything is ALRIGHT! Bodacious! If that ain’t enuff we have now stripped it down to the guitar-slinging essentials/excesses for the flip-side instrumental version. BOOM. This one is digital only, but you are welcome to pay $39.95 for it if you must. Gitcher groove on, baby!
Pajamaland.
Next month we will have the first new Green Pajamas album in three years. Sunlight Might Weigh Even More. While Jeff said another PJ album was never in question, me, I thought it was. Sunlight is really delicious; in theory it harkens back to the blessed Strung Behind The Sun. Jeff Kelly: “I wanted to go back to that whimsy, psychedelia and experimentation, and freshness of spirit.” Excellent! We already have a preview track out you can check out, “Art School Blues 1979”. Jeff is hard at work on a video for the first single “Hello, Hello”. In other Pajama news, we just finished remastering a new 2 LP version of the 1997 Indian Winter singles comp to be released on Sugarbush in England later this year, with a pile of rare tracks not included on the original CD. Hopefully it will be out before Xmas – we will of course have copies for sale at GMR.
The True Olympians Report.
As you know, we have basically reached the halfway mark on the Olympia album, wrassling 16 tracks together thru internet covid craziness. We are now actually rehearsing in the same room again getting ready to record our next batch of songs – IN A STUDIO! Further, Lisa Ceazan has consented to do lead vox on a couple tunes which will spice things up for sure. To pique your interest, I include the lyrics to one of the yet-unrecorded songs, “Olympia Oysters.”
Olympia Oysters 120 bpm
(4/4) Chorus: A- A♭-G♭ -E O-Y-S T-E-R-S x4
A-E-A A-E-A A- D♭m-A
Olympia Oysters, Olympia Oysters
Proudest native species in the USA
Olympia Oysters, Olympia Oysters
Put ‘em on your plate and watch ‘em go away
Verse: D- E
Ostrea lurida is a tasty little bivalve
Proudly calling the Pacific Coast its home
Fed the native population for a very long time
White folks came and nearly made them none
Chorus
In the California Gold Rush
1850’s – 1 buck each
Shipping oysters by the sack load
Sad the walrus as he feasts
Bridge: G♭m – E-
Oyster populations went to decline
G♭m – Bm- D♭m
Japanese Pacific Oysters were brought in
D –A –
Pollution from the mills and boats just made it worse
D♭m – D
People feared that they would become extinct
Solo (3/4):
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭mGA
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭mE
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭mGA
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭mB E
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭mGA
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m B E
G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭m23 G♭mGA
B-D♭
Olympia Oysters populations are improving
Restoration projects in the Puget Sound are on
Oyster farms now grow ‘em and leave alone the natives
You can get ‘em raw or fried at Olympia Oyster House
Chorus
End with extended A – D♭ x3 end on A♭
I think that is everything you must know for this month. Carry on.
td Aug 2021