Welcome to the March AotM.
For those of you in the know, you might say, hey, it’s fucking April already, dude. And you would not be wrong. Let’s just say a series of small but unfortunate details (blunders) slowed this release down a couple weeks but now it is here and it is time for refreshing enjoyment.
So what is it? It’s THE DEANS – Live December 31, 1981 66 Bell. Who dey, you ask? Well by now you should know that we at the Green Monkey Mind Meld are big on the sounds of Mr. Al Bloch, who rocks with puresomeness. We have been releasing his brand newest sounds and his brand oldest and are honored to do so!
The Deans fall in the latter category. They are third in the line of Al-ness. First, The Cheaters, whose complete works were released a couple years ago on No Threes The Cheaters – See You Next Year, Fuckbrains (2015, Blue Translucent, Vinyl) | Discogs (and featured as GMR AotM Jan 2016), next Wenis The Donut House, Seattle 1980, and now, it’s The Deans. The Deans were Al’s band around 80-82. They were the band Al had when I first encountered him, playing a show with The Deans and The Colorplates at WREX back when. Besides Al, The Deans had the late Scott Dittman (the singer of The Cheaters who mixed it up on stage with Al leading to that band’s demise) on vox, Pam Lillig on guitar, and Andy Fortier on drums. The Deans would not last long, Al would move on to forming Bombardiers (Bombardiers | Discography | Discogs).
Recently a crazy unearthing happened. An unveiling, a discovery of buried treasure. Brother Kurt Bloch, pulled an eleven-song live cassette out of his rabbit hat. Al knew not of its existence. Kurt had recorded this here show you can hear right here at a New Year’s Eve party at The Enemy’s Belltown rehearsal place. He stuck the cassette in a safe place and forgot about it for forty years. Mr. KB has been a busy boy during the Kovid scene, including finding some old Fastbacks treasures hidden away in his vaults, shining them up and letting them fly. And he found this. He mastered it. He made a cover. And here we are. Basic rock action, 100% live. A couple of Al’s tunes would be redone by Bombardiers, but the first versions are here. We made 50 pretty CDrs of this so if you want one, jump in line quick.
In sad news, our old friend and occasional GMR artist Rich Hinklin has left the earthlings. Rich was a fine fellow. In 1986, he released a cassette of his home 4-track recordings on Green Monkey (GM024), titled Contradiction, featuring sampled recordings of the Iran-Contra hearings. In honor of our departed brother, we have digitized that cassette and made it available for free on the GMR bandcamp site. Contradiction | Rich Hinklin | Green Monkey Records (bandcamp.com) Fly on Richard.
Shawn Line, bass player for Sigourney Reverb, has also left the building. He departed peacefully in his sleep. Says Sigourney main-man Eric Paget, “Regal as possible.” Sigourney Reverb released their excellent Bees in Your Bed Bad in 2011. They’ve never officially broken up.
Steve Trettevik has a new video for “Jake the Alligator Man” from his excellent Faded Champion album. Directed and edited by GMR Senior VP of Video, Howie Wahlen, this mini-masterpiece straddles the thin line between deep, but subjective admiration and abject terror. Footage for this video was provided by film-makers all across the world and includes a moving, but scantily-clad, tribute to Jake on his 75th birthday. You won’t want to miss 1 minute of it! https://youtu.be/7ZWZ8rSP1F0
Boise’s Cabeza has released their first GMR single, the pandemic inspired, “The Social Distance” b/w “Loops,” their first on GMR. This is their third single/EP, plus they have contributed multiple times to the annual Green Monkey Christmas Charity album. Read more here!
Next month (in two weeks) we will be reissuing Jon Strongbow’s Something Different album that we originally put out in 1988 since remixed with three bonus tracks and recently remastered by the fabulous Mssr. Steve Turnidge of UltraViolet Studios, Seattle. Take it from me – it is very groovy.
The month after that we are digging deep within our Super Pop Archives to reissue 1988’s ultracatchy raspberry by Glass Penguins. More on that soon.
The Peter Barnes Express is lining up at the station and taking on passengers.
The Green Pajamas are hard at work on a new album. Susanne snapped this one of Jeff listening to rough mixes for the new record. Hoping for a vinyl/CD mid-summer release!
And of course The True Olympians relentlessly battle on to finish the Olympia album!
Now go frolic in the fresh spring air!
td 4-2-21