Smed’s Music Club

REVISED 10/25/09! THANKS TO ALL CONTRIBUTORS!

I’m a geek, and a resourceful geek. I have an excel spreadsheet with a huge list of my musical ‘needs’, both upcoming releases, bands I need to check out, albums that I need to either buy or complete, and songs that I need to get my hands on. Thanks to some recent reading material I have exploded my ‘needs’ to cover a whole host of rock-and-roll history. I have mostly kept up with the demand, thanks to the Hennepin County Public Library system, a Polish web site where I can buy tracks for .09 each (I use this service for already wealthy bands for the most part), Amazon, iTunes and eMusic, plus some google searching where I can stumble across mp3 and rar files (for stuff totally out of print digitally), I’ve assembled quite a collection.

But still, there are those songs and bands that are elusive. I have basically no CDs in the house, so I am loath to buy even a used CD just to rip a few tracks and sell back. So while there may be CDs available, the following is a list of items that I have not been able to locate legitimately on the web (at least in stores that will sell to folks in the US of A).

Can you help a tune geek out? Can ya?

Bands:

• Shellac – Early singles plus the first couple of albums aren’t digital. I especially would like the early 45′s.

Albums:

• The 77′s – The 77′s. I found a great live CD, but want the studio. The album was released in the mid-80′s on Island.
• Bad Religion - Into The Unknown. Was this ever released on CD?
• Dust – Dust and Hard Attack. I have located a lot of proto-metal 70′s band, but not this one. The future Marky Ramone was the drummer.
• El Chicano – El Chicano. Back in the 70′s, my sister had some tapes that I purloined and this was one of them. It had the hit “Tell Her She’s Lovely”, which was much anthologized, but the rest of the album was great,too. Especially “Enchanted Forest.”
• Scruffy The Cat – High Octane Revival. I found their first LP on the ‘net, but I can’t seem to get a good feed of their EP.

Songs Needed:

• Artists United Against Aparthied – Sun City.
• Beastie Boys – Rock Hard. (The whole EP would be groovy).
• Big Black – Il Duce and In My House. 45s only.
• Cheetah – Bang Bang. Scuzzy chick-led hard rock band from the early 80′s. You can get the ringtone.
• Crow – Evil Woman.
• Denise LaSalle – Trapped By A Thing Called Love. I found remakes but not the original.
• DFX2 – Maureen.
• Dion -  Daddy Rollin’. B-side to “Abraham, Martin & John”.
• The Gants – Crackin’ Up.
• The Gap Band – Oops Upside Your Head.
• The Gentrys – Keep On Dancin’. All I have found are remakes.
• Howard Tate – Ain’t Nobody Home.
• The Jarmels – A Little Bit Of Soap.
• Jim Stafford – Wildwood Weed and I Got Stoned And I Missed It. There is no earthly reason why these tracks aren’t online while the other hits are, unless someone is anti-pot. Geez.
• Leon Payne – Psycho. I don’t know who did the original. I do know Elvis Costello did a great cover. Did Payne do it first? Any country music historians out there?
• Mel Tillis – Send Me Down To Tuscon. I have found a live version. Don’t know if that’s the only one.
• Otis Clay – Trying To Live My Life Without You.
• The Parliaments – Testify. Yes, this is Clinton’s first group. You can buy a used reissue of their singles for big bucks.
• The Trade Winds – New York’s A Lonely Town.
• The Trampps - Hold Back The Night.

This list will be updated, especially if I find more ‘remakes’ of tunes that I buy unwittingly. Thanks for what you can do, and I can help you out too!