When 3-year old Shalini Chatterjee discovered the cartoon “Josie and the Pussycats” on Scottish TV, this brought on a fascination with music and performance. These interests developed into a lifestyle when she immersed herself in the indie rock scene around the University of Wisconsin in the ‘80s. Later, a relationship with Game Theory main-man Scott Miller led to her meeting Mitch Easter – Let’s Active mastermind and producer of early R.E.M. and many other college radio luminaries in the heyday of ‘80s indie rock; she and Easter are now married, play on each other’s records, and live in North Carolina. After releasing two albums while fronting the band Vinyl Devotion, Shalini (current band name) released her/their masterpiece (thus far) in 2004; Metal Corner is an album of spellbinding Power Pop – something like Cheap Trick if they had a cool girl singer. In late 2007 Shalini’s second album, The Surface and the Shine, appeared and continued to explore the terrain of catchy, ‘80s-influenced pop songs driven by ‘70s-style power chord riffs. Shalini, currently busy organizing a 5-day film and music festival which will take place this summer, recently took time out to have the following e-conversation with me:

*You seem to have had an interesting upbringing, being born in India and spending your early years in Scotland. Can you tell me about your family, what you all were doing in India and what prompted the move to Scotland? When, where, and why did you first move to the States? Where did you spend your teen years?

My dad is Indian. He's from an old Calcutta family. The big family house still exists. He had a job as a country doctor of sorts in rural Northern India, which is why they were living there when I was born. The place was really beautiful and green and peaceful. It's called Digboi, near Margarita, near Assam, where the tea comes from.

My parents decided to move to the USA for various reasons. They were attracted to Los Angeles, and my dad was offered a job at UCLA, so after living in Edinburgh for 4 years, we packed up and landed in LA in 1973. I had never heard an American accent. Everything seemed big and either deluxe or rundown. In Edinburgh, things were on smaller scale but were kept up. No crappy buildings. We moved around a few times in LA, living in Amherst, then South Pasadena (it was a pokey cute place back then not the crowded overpriced spot it has become, although the nice small Norton Simon art museum still exists), then Rancho Palos Verdes on the peninsula.

Then they decided to move to Northern California, which was kind of a bummer for everyone. We all liked Los Angeles. We moved to nearby Davis, California. I had a great elementary school- Pioneer Elementary - with awesome 5th and 6th grade teachers, a lot of nice friends and an excellent Girl Scout troop. I loved singing with the other girls, going on nature walks, and camping. I earned every badge I could until my sash was full. Teen years were spent going to high school in Sacramento. Black years, nothing much to say except I was immersed in bands and music.

There were a lot of great bands in Davis back in the 80s. I was often too young to go to the shows but snuck in house parties to see the early Camper Van Beethoven shows, stuff like that. I read the news on KDVS - I was in high school so they wouldn't let me DJ - and I worked at the local records store in town called Barney's where some band people worked. People assumed I was older than 16 and 17. I moved out of the house when I was 17 to attend the University of Wisconsin and joined my first band in the first week there. I had taken four bass lessons that summer, so thought maybe I was passable, ha-ha. Obviously, I am a self-taught rock musician.

*Do you have siblings?

Yes. I have an older sister named Sharmila. She became a doctor and has a Master's in Public Health from Harvard. I am not sure if she practices medicine any more - doesn't seem to want to talk about her job, ever - all I know is she is on staff at Boston University. She's a couple years older. My brother Arun is 4 years and 4 days younger than I am. He is a teacher and lives in Sacramento. That's everyone.

*Were/are any of your family members interested in music or other arts? Did any of them have anything to do with you deciding to become a musician and performer? Did you have any other early influences that may have guided you into having creative ambitions?

Sharmila liked bands and the indie scene. I snuck out of the house and hitched a ride with her to see my first live band, the Bangles in 1983 playing at a small club called Club Minimal (apt name) in Sacramento. No one in my family is musical and they don't seem interested in art at all. I can't really relate to anyone in my family. It feels like Them and Me.

I really got inspiration from things I heard; I always had my ears open and was mesmerized by music, obsessed with songs I thought were good and recordings that seemed so powerful. There were three singles my dad had that influenced me: “Baby Love” by the Supremes, “From Me to You” by the Beatles and “Rock a Hula Baby” (awesome drums!!!) by Elvis.

And of course there was Josie and the Pussycats which looked like the ideal existence to me when I was 3 and watched it Tuesday nights in Edinburgh. I loved the colors, the action, and the music. And their costumes! And I thought Josie was such a cool name, and the fact she was the band leader was just the center of the universe.

*You started playing the bass at age 17. When did you start playing with other people? When did you start writing your own songs?

I started playing with other people in the dorm at UW-Madison, out of our state dorm called Princeton House. We had a semi-joke punk band called Phlegm. My stage name was Phlegm Fatale. We played our first gig at a birthday party in the dorm in September 1986. My knees were shaking, I was so nervous to be standing in front of people Playing in a Band! I started trying to write songs in 1987. It was harder than I thought it would be. I co-wrote with Ryan Jerving of Kissyfish. He was more of a proper musician, had played in jazz bands and was a really, really good guitar player.

*How did playing with Kissyfish and the other bands lead to you forming Vinyl Devotion, then Shalini?

Phlegm split into two bands that became Madison mainstays in the late eighties: My Cousin Kenny, and Kissyfish. I was the bass player and singer in Kissyfish. We played with Otis Ball some in the late 80s, who tried to get Bar None interested in us, and eventually wrote some really good songs, but the guys wouldn't give up this corny vaudeville posturing, so I wasn't totally sorry when the band split up in 1990 when we graduated. I wanted to be in the Pixies, playing rock music, not some frat band with accordians. Ow. We made recordings on 4 tracks and sold cassettes. I still get requests for them over the internet.

When I moved to San Francisco in 1990, I didn't know what to do. I really wanted to play in my boyfriend Scott Miller's band Game Theory. They needed a bass player, and never really had a cool one after Suzi Zielger left in 1985. I had a lot of experience playing by then, and had become a real bar rat in my years in Kissyfish. I could have handled the transition to a more grown up band easily and was as good as Suzi in 1990. However, Scott was adamant about not wanting his girlfriend in his band after 2 psycho girlfriend experiences. I thought that was pretty lame, because I was way more responsible and sane than those other girls could ever be, but I wasn't going to beg!

So I just played with two or three bands that weren't going anywhere for a while. I had my own vision for a band, so started Vinyl Devotion by recording a single in 1992, produced by Scott and recorded at Paul Wieneke's home studio for $15 an hour! Paul was super nice and played keyboards on my cover of "Nobody Told Me." Scott contributed his really excellent background vocals. I played guitar and bass. I was seriously working on my songwriting all the time by then.

I established my own record label called Mitochondria Records and got distribution by making a zillion phone calls. It was fun and easy to do the single; the hard part was putting a band together. I killed myself looking, placing ads and holding auditions. As soon as I had some stability, someone quit. Booking was so hard in SF. It was all extremely difficult. A highlight was the band in 1994. Our first EP (out on CD! Can you imagine that being a big deal now? But this was 14 years ago! World was a different place) got great attention. I got letters (typed!) of interest and met with A & M records in NYC in 1995. Sadly, they wanted another Courtney Love. There is probably no one less like me on earth than her! I couldn't pretend to be an aggressive drug addict.

*Do you find it easier to work with male band-mates than with other women?

Yes. The girls are flakey and/or psycho, the ones I've ever worked with, except a couple in all these years. They don't work on their musicianship and are not generally reliable.

*Describe the relationship you have had with the two labels you’ve recorded for, Parasol and Dalloway. Why are you moving away from Dalloway with this next album?

Parasol was great! Friendly, opened some doors, had other good bands. Some people who work there are musicians, notably the awesome Angie Heaton and Paul Chastain. Dalloway was run by two women I could really relate to on a musical level. They liked the 80s and especially 90s girl-led bands a lot, that I could identify with, like the Breeders, Veruca Salt, Throwing Muses, Garbage, and the Lovelies from the 2000-era.

A lot of the indie purists around here sniff at some of the music I like the best. None of it has a country twinge, maybe that's why. NC indie musicians are prone to going country. I don't even own an acoustic guitar and I wouldn't be seen in overalls unless I was pitching hay.

Eve and Christina were interested in being urban and stylish. They moved to Boston and had trouble keeping their label afloat. They had probably lost quite a bit of money on Metal Corner. I had the chance to go with Electric Devil/125 Records so I took it. I still keep in touch with the Dalloways, and if we're ever in Boston we'll hook up.

*You play bass in the studio and guitar live – which, if either (both?) do you write songs on?

I write songs on electric guitar.

*Where and when did you first meet husband/band-mate Mitch Easter? Did the romance form before or after the musical kinship developed, or was it all wrapped up in one?

I first met Mitch in July, 1991 when Scott and I went to see him play in Marshall Crenshaw's touring band. Mitch and I got together in 1995 or 1996, after I had split up with Scott, contrary to negative gossip about "overlapping". I lived alone in a SF apartment for a couple years and Mitch and I were long distance. I moved here Christmas Eve 1996. Mitch and I didn't play music together regularly for a long time. He was super busy in the studio in the late nineties. I started playing with him and Eric Marshall in 1999. They were such pros. After all the many, many years slogging through practices with bad musicians, it felt like flying, playing with these guys. They were fun band-mates. We had really good synergy for a while and ended up playing together for 7 years. I play live with another drummer now, Chris Garges of Charlotte.

*What other interests do you have besides music?

Reading, walking, dogs, animal protection, environmental causes, and film. I started a film festival called the Revolve Film and Music Festival, the state's only regional Triad-to-Triangle festival with monthly screenings revolving around a 5-day core festival in June. I used to work at another film festival but just had a lot of other more positive programming ideas involving art and music and style. They screen some films I find questionable and do not use violence warnings.

*Write out the index of what would be a Shalini desert island mixtape – 10-20 of your favorite all-time songs.

Of course, this changes all the time but here's a rough mish-mash list that isn't thought out, just off the top of my head:

The Real World, Bangles; Surrender/anything from In Color, Cheap Trick; Shayla, Union City Blues, Blondie; 25, Get Back, The Speed of Candy, Veruca Salt; Don't Let Me Down, Nina Gordon; Remember You, Chris White (Zombies); Friend of Mine, Jealousy, Supernova, Cinco de Mayo, Liz Phair; No Aloha, Breeders; Easy Does, Room with a View, Let's Active (really all of Cypress); 24 (all of Real Nighttime), Together Now Very Minor, Dripping with Looks, Game Theory; Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever, Slit My Wrists, Loud Family; Phonograph, Stateside; White Leather, the Lovelies; West of the Fields/We Walk/Shaking Through/Perfect Circle - R.E.M.; Our Lips are Sealed/How Much More/Fading Fast/I'm With you/Mercenary - Go-Go's, who were underrated songwriters; Nina Nastasia - I like her as an artist but can't name her song titles; Blue Spark/Los Angeles/+ many others - X

*How do you like living in North Carolina, as compared to the other parts of the U.S. and the world that you have lived in?

I like it. It's a great place to have a band! People have pretty much space, it's low crime, and there are a lot of talented musicians.

Here are the highlights of my listening, watching, and reading year:

New Stuff:

• Southern Culture on the Skids-Countrypolitan Favorites: ‘Skids covers album, songs by Wanda Jackson, Kinks, CCR, et al

• Mitch Easter-Dynamico: Could be a new Let’s Active album, minus the female vocals and plus more power chords

• Mick Harvey-Two of Diamonds: Dark balladry by Bad Seeds member

• High Llamas-Can Cladders: More Brian Wilson meets Bossa Nova – the ‘Llamas best since Hawaii

• Brant Bjork & the Bros.-Somero Sol: Stoner rock from surfers

• Junior Senior-Hey Hey My My Yo Yo: B52s meets 60s bubblegum meets contemporary dance; every track is a little party

• His Name is Alive-Xmmer: Left-of-center pop by longstanding indie rockers

• Mum-Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy: Boards of Canada with more hooks 

*Woodjen Ships-Woodjen Ships: Like early Deep Purple with Spacemen 3 sitting in. 

Reissues, Compilations, Etc

• Anne Briggs-The Time Has Come: Breathtaking folk from 1971

• The Shoes-Double Exposure: Demos from Shoes albums Present Tense and Tongue Twister; some of the best Power Pop ever made

• Dwight Twilley Band-Sincerely/Twilley Don’t Mind: More of the best Power Pop ever made; Twilley Band’s first two albums, plus 4 excellent bonus tracks

• The Zombies-Into the Afterlife: Recordings made by Zombies members shortly after Odyssey and Oracle – a must-have for Zombies fans

• Neil Young-Live at Massey Hall: Solo Neil, on guitar and piano

• True West-Hollywood Holiday Revisited: Debut EP + first LP by Paisley Undergrounders – like Television from the West Coast

• Pylon-Gyrate +: Surf guitar meets art rock meets the Athens sound

• Gene Clark with Carla Olson-Live in Concert: Original Byrd and granddaddy of alt.country Gene playing live, near the end of his career and life

• The Bongos-Drums Along the Hudson: The bonus material is stupid, but it’s great to have the main album on CD

• Gram Parsons-GP Archives, Volume 1: Flying Burrito Bros. playing live as the opening act for Grateful Dead over two nights in San Francisco, 1969

Best Music DVD:

• All My Loving: British-made documentary from late 60s which makes the argument that the day’s pop stars were changing the world for the better. A little heavy-handed, but great live clips and interview segments of Donovan, Who, Hendrix, et al

Best Music Book:

• Riot on Sunset Strip by Domenic Priore: Contends that the music that came out of LA in the mid-to-late 60s was actually much better than what came out of San Francisco during those years, contrary to what critics and SF snobs have always said. Really gives a lasting impression of the scene on the Strip during its Mod/psychedelic heyday.

Best Non-Music DVD(s)

• Cult Camp Classics, Vol 1-4 (Sci-Fi Thrillers, Women in Peril, Terrorized Travelers, Historical Epics): Great cinematic camp fun, spread over 4 box sets containing 3 movies each. Joan Crawford plays a scientist trying to housebreak a cave creature; Lana Turner’s stepdaughter’s boyfriend slips her a hit of acid; a nerve-wracked family gets terrorized on the highway by a group of delinquents; the movie being parodied by Airplane!

Best Non-Music Book(s)

• Hard Case Crime series by Dorchester Publishing: Ongoing series of high-quality pulp novels, some from the 40s-70s, others by current writers. 5% are no good, 70% are good reads if not memorable, 25% are outstanding.

    Like my entry on the writer Ted Lewis, I am going to write about somebody who is not a musician but is definitely rock and roll. Mimsy Farmer is my favorite actress, and the mere fact that she had a prominent role in the film Riot On Sunset Strip makes her Lost in the Grooves worthy. Here's my take on the wild-eyed girl from Chicago:

    Mimsy Farmer has led a charmed life as an actress. At age 22, the native Chicagoan scored a part in Riot on Sunset Strip, one of the hippest films made in the Summer of Love. Moreover, she got what was arguably the most dramatic moment in the movie, playing the victim of a bad trip in the obligatory acid freakout scene. Then, when the 60’s were over, rather than stooping to taking roles in schmaltzy 70’s films or just fading into obscurity, she got in with the European set, moved to Italy and spent the next two decades starring in a slew of cult Euro horror and crime films, directed by Dario Argento and the like.

    As much hipster credibility and critical acclaim Riot and all the horror flicks might have gotten her, though, none of these films were among the ones which defined Mimsy as an actress. She had a Great Trilogy, three films which represent the nadir of her acting life.

Mimsy Farmer is a danger girl. Her natural beauty calls attention to her, and once you get a close look you see that there is something volatile lurking behind the pretty eyes and inside the head covered by the cute page-boy haircut. Film directors clearly recognized this unstable facet of Mimsy’s being, as they were always casting her in peril-filled, if not outright violent, roles and scenes. Sometimes she was the victim and other times the perpetrator, but in either case there was just always trouble surrounding her.

    Hot Rods to Hell, the first in the Great Mimsy Triolgy, came out in 1967, the same year as Riot on Sunset Strip, but had a decidedly 50’s-ish feel to it. Dana Andrews plays a Ward Cleaver type who experiences trauma as he, his wife and teenage daughter move to a new town, where they are terrorized by a trio of young delinquents. Mimsy portrays Gloria, the mercurial moll of the little gang. In the most memorable scene of the film, Mimsy, her boyfriend and his best friend are sitting in a parked car at a Lover’s Lane kind of locale. Mimsy’s boyfriend, after having an argument with her, gets out of the car and goes over to talk to Andrews’s pretty teenage daughter, who is sitting by herself near some water and looking pensive. Mimsy responds to this by first slamming her fists on the steering wheel, then biting her own finger. Next, just when you think she’s going to start crying or maybe go after her boyfriend, a psychotic smile suddenly spreads across her face. She reaches over and starts pulling her boyfriend’s friend’s hair, and when he cries uncle she lays a passionate kiss on him. After that he’s hers. The best bit of dialogue in the film comes across when Mimsy talks to her former boyfriend about what might have been possible for them if they’d been able to stay together, bringing out his response, “What’d we ever have that wasn’t gonna wind up in Splitsville?”

    More (1969), Barbet Schroeder’s (Barfly, Reversal of Fortune, Single White Female) directorial debut, and the middle piece of the Great Mimsy Trilogy, has become a cinematic footnote for the fact that it features a soundtrack by Pink Floyd. But this a great, under-appreciated film which was looking a few years ahead of its time in depicting the downfall of 60’s hipster drug culture. Stefan is a German student who’s just finished his studies and is looking to spend some time tramping around Europe, experiencing life and enjoying his freedom. While at a party in Paris he locks eyes with a pretty blonde (Mimsy, of course). They share a round of margaritas in the kitchen, and from there he is stuck on her and about to be led into a downward-spiraling adventure which will take him through drug addiction, sexual depravity, petty crime and general personality deterioration. Stefan’s friend in Paris tries to warn him off Mimsy, telling him she’s a junkie and a thief who has already seen several guys like Stefan to their decay, but the dangerous Mimsy is irresistible to the hapless student. This film is worth watching if not just for the beautiful shots of Ibiza, where Mimsy flees, giving Stefan an out to avoid the hazards she knows she will bring him; he doesn’t take the offer and follows her there, setting up the film’s tragic climax.

    The third and final title in the Great Mimsy Trilogy is the best film she ever acted in. The blurry, existential, voice-over happy Road to Salina (1971) is another overlooked mini-classic. Robert Walker, Jr. (Walker, Sr. portrayed the creepy Bruno in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train) plays a drifting hippy who’s wandering along a quiet West Coast town when he spots a house with a water well out in front of it. Thirsty and in need of a washing, Walker indulges himself, not knowing that this is the house that will change his life. As he’s splashing water on his face, he is confronted by the matron of the house, a clearly unbalanced woman (played by Rita Hayworth, who sadly foreshadows her real-life future here – she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, becoming a confused shadow of her former self in her latter years) who takes him to be her long-lost son, Rocky. Walker recognizes that this is a precarious set-up, but finds that he can’t turn down the promise of a hot meal and a bed to take a nap in. And when he wakes up he starts to think that maybe it’s not such a bad thing that the batty marm thinks he’s her son. It seems that all she wants from him is his help in pumping gas and serving lunch and beer to the locals (the house is also a business, a kind of combo gas station/weekend café). The rest of the time he’s free to eat and sleep and shower and go to the beach. And all he has to do is pretend to be her son and let her dote on him. If all of that doesn’t totally sell him on the house, his “sister” does. Mimsy, once again playing a wild-eyed femme fatale, eventually shows up at the house and is introduced to Walker as his sibling. But this is a weird kind of sister: one who likes to let her brother see her naked and who takes naps with him and sleeps with him under a tent on the beach. Walker’s head-trip is magnified immensely as he tries to determine whether Mimsy really believes he’s her brother of if she’s fucking with him – and he’s trying to sort all of this out as he’s falling in love with her. Pop this film in on a rainy Sunday afternoon and you won’t walk away from it. Plus, you’ll get to see Hayworth and the senior Ed Begley do the frug.

    Between Riot on Sunset Strip and More, Mimsy Farmer temporarily got out of acting and became involved in something called “psychedelic therapy,” a fringe school of psychological treatment where the “counselors” apparently dosed old drunks in hopes of getting them off the sauce. Mimsy seems to have regarded this experiment as a failure, but the acid appears to have inspired her; having already tuned in and turned on, she dropped out of her native country, citing the moneyed shallowness prevalent in American life. She met and married a European man and never looked back. That’s a set of circumstances that could be the makings of an interesting film, one starring a daring, tempestuous, willful woman – a part perfectly suited for an actress like Mimsy Farmer.

    Mimsy’s present whereabouts and doings are unknown. In her bio on the Hot Rods to Hell website, for current residence it simply says, “Europe.” A 1997 feature article on her in Fuz magazine reported that, since 1989 (the year of her last known film role) she’d been living in semi-retirement in France, with a new husband and new daughter, and suffering from some sort of health problem. That’s all vague and maybe a little sad, but there’s also something triumphant in the way that Mimsy has let herself fade from the public eye quietly and gracefully; a good actress knows when it’s time to tone things down.

Some friends and I were recently talking music (what else is new?), one of us mentioned Power Pop, and someone else not familiar with that genre asked what that was. I muttered something about the combination of sweet vocal melodies and barre chords, somebody else starting dropping names of bands who played in the style . . . But if we really wanted to make our friend understand Power Pop, we should have just played him some songs by The Shoes. Better yet, we should have directed him to buy Double Exposure, the new 2-CD collection of Shoes demos. The 30 tracks are workbook recordings of songs that would appear on the band's two seminal albums from the late 70s/early 80s, Present Tense and Tongue Twister. The Shoes had every right to be as popular as Cheap Trick, the Cars, et al, but somehow they never scored any hits (at least, to my knowledge). Their melodies are sing-songy but with just enough of an edge to them - and the backing tracks are all power chords and sharp hooks. It's like Cheap Trick but more introspective, the Cars but not as slick - four shy and nondescript guys from the Midwest who had a love of melodic music and a knack for creating great pop songs. It had been a long time since I'd listened to The Shoes (prior to getting this set), and I have been listening to a lot of Guided by Voices of late; hearing these demos tells me that Robert Pollard studied this band closely when forming his melodic sensibilities and his band's sound. The Shoes songs make me feel like I'm at the roller rink on a Friday night, slow dancing with my new girl, both of us with feathered hair and me with a comb in my back pocket. But this is not novelty music; it is some of the best Power Pop you'll ever hear. These demos, while not vastly different than the versions of the songs that appeared on the official records, are just raw enough to make them worth hearing for a Shoes fan. Double Exposure in on the Black Vinyl label, and despite being a new release is pretty hard to get your hands on. Make the effort.

Dear Friends: Sorry to have been away so long. I'm back and am here to tell you about Anne Briggs. I don't care about the British Folk Revival, the phenomenon that gets mentioned in every Mojo issue about 20 times, the thing that you have to hear about every time a new Devendra Banhart (sp?) or Joanna Newson record comes out. But Anne Briggs, while a British folkie to be sure, is a something else altogether, somebody too original and sublime to be cast in that pot. She is a field hippy with a punk attitude, like a PJ Harvey singing ancient folk ballads. She prefers to sing a cappella, and has never been crazy about being recorded. She dislikes being photographed, and when caught on film she generally looks like she needs a bath and a hairbrush, and like she might be considering punching the photographer. Her 1971 album The Time Has Come was reissued this year, and this record is what I'm really writing about here. On this record Briggs allowed herself to be accompanied by some light guitar playing, and on the two instrumental tracks she plays some rare stringed instrument herself. This is a spellbinding album, and something that should be known as one of the great folk records of all time, instead of an album only a select few have heard. The guitar playing is similar to that of the acoustic work on Led Zeppelin III, and Anne's vocals are something that can't really be described - they just need to be heard. This is Nick Drake meets Judee Sill, it's acoustic Led Zeppelin with a female vocalist, it's timeless music performed by an extraordinary artist, it's Anne Briggs . . . and it's the reissue of the year, as far as I'm concerned. Also highly worthwhile is the Anne Briggs compilation, A Collection, which compiles much of her best a cappella material. The one I would skip is Sing a Song For You, on which Briggs is backed by the band Ragged Robin - just not the same caliber of material as is found on Time Has Come and A Collection.

I have read the lengthy booklet that comes with Sundazed's reissue of The Yellow Balloon's self-titled album two times now, and I'm still not really sure I understand the band's story. But here's what I think it is:

Gary Zekley, - a songwriter, producer and sometimes band member on the West Coast pop circuit of the 1960s - wrote a song, called "The Yellow Balloon," and handed it off to Jan and Dean. Knowing the song was going to be a hit, Zekley threw together a band and recorded a version of his own, hoping to beat Jan and Dean to the studio finish line. One member of the band Zekley assembled was Don Grady, who played Robbie Douglas on the hit TV show "My Three Sons," and who had already been moonlighting as a rock 'n' rooler, most recently in a folk-rock band called The Palace Guard. Zekley's motley band wound up naming itself after the song they were assembled to record, scored a minor hit with their version of "Balloon," and went on to make a full-length album.

I may or may not have all of that right, and I may have missed some important points of the band's brief story. But here's the real gist of what I want to say in this space: the album, The Yellow Balloon, is a minor treasure of sun-soaked California psychedelic pop. Part Byrds, part Beach Boys, part Turtles, part Left Banke . . . but the 60s band the Balloon most sounds like is the good-timey Lovin' Spoonful. The songs are happy and bouncy, they boast excellent melodies and just enough acid flavor to let you know what era they were recorded in. That studio pros like Jim Gordon and Carole Kaye played many of the instruments on the record is something we'll overlook for the moment - the band The Yellow Balloon (with Grady wearing a wig and shades so as not to be recognized) did tour to support the record, and played some of the instruments on the album, and their lead singer, Alex Valdez, sang most of the songs (Grady sings others).

The bonus tracks Sundazed added to the set include some songs Grady recorded as a solo artist and as leader of an outfit called The Windupwatchband. There is also an interview with Zekley, who died in the late 90s. Some of Grady's solo stuff is as good as, maybe better than, the material on the main album.

The Yellow Balloon were not a great band. But they managed to make one record which nicely captures the time and place of California in the mid-to-late 1960s. The Gary Zekley mystique and the Don "Robbie Douglas" connection only add to their allure.

I am going to write about a writer here, but I think I can make the case that Ted Lewis has some rock & roll-ness about him. For one thing, he was once an illustrator who did some of that work on The Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie. For another, he wrote the book, Jack's Return Home, which was made into the film, Get Carter, which has one of the best soundtracks ever (done by Roy Budd). Also, Lewis is always mentioning bands in his crime novels - in Jack's Return Home, he keeps talking about young guys with "Walker Brothers haircuts."

I have read six Ted Lewis novels in a row now, and the one I just finished, Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH), has left me breathless. I won't disparage other crime fiction writers I like in praising this book - I hate the way Mojo magazine writers are always knocking artists and bands they have previously raved about, when raving about somebody else - but I just don't know how I will feel about a book by Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, or Jim Thompson after reading GBH. It is more suspenseful than any of theirs, more convincingly hard-edged than any of theirs, and I am having a level of reaction to it that I can't remember having to any book in a long, long time.

Lewis seems to have been an interesting guy. Born in Manchester, England, in 1940. Attended art school, then worked in advertising before turning to animation and getting the Yellow Submarine gig. Wrote an autobiographical novel (which is impossible to find now - all of his books are hard to come by, but copies of this one just don't seem to exist; it's called All the Way Home and All The Night Through) in 1965. Then turned to writing crime novels, the first of which was Jack's Return Home, which was published in 1970. Within two years, there would be two films made from this novel: Get Carter, which stars Michael Caine as Carter, and which is now considered to be one of the finest British films of all time, and The Hit Man, a blaxploitation take on the story, featuring Pam Grier. Went on to write six more crime novels, none of which seems to have been as well received, critically or commercially, as Jack's Return Home. Also did some writing for a British TV show called "Z Cars." Then died in 1982, only 42 years old, and the details of his death are as hard to come by as copies of his first novel.

Besides music, these things always come into play in Ted Lewis's crime novels:

*Pornogrpahy

*Revenge

*Homosexuality

*Violence

*Drinking (people never stop drinking, at all times of day and night)

*Car Names

*Hideouts

*People taking baths while cooling out after a big crime 

Something else that makes Lewis's books stand out is that there are generally no characters in them that are likeable. With Chandler and Macdonald you've got their narrators/consciences Marlowe and Archer, with Jim Thompson you are usually cheering for somebody who has been taking guff from bad people for too long and is now out to get his. But in the novels of Ted Lewis, everybody is rotten. You might root for Jack Carter as he sets about getting revenge on the people who killed his innocent brother, but you don't really like Carter, because you know that if you got in his way he would simply pop your head off. Somehow the lack of a hero in these books gives them a deeper dimension than what you get in the stories with heroes, even if they are anti-heroes.

I could go on for days about Lewis and these books, but since I've said GBH may be the best crime novel ever written (or if I didn't say that before, I'm saying it now), let me just tell you a little more about that one, then I'll shut up. Published in 1980, GBH is narrated (for the most part) by George Fowler, who runs a far-reaching and highly successful blue movie ring. All is going well until Fowler and his wife discover that some of the agents working for them are cheating from them, taking extra money and not reporting it. When the Fowlers start investigating this, they are sent into a downward-spiralling adventure, and soon come to find that they can trust nobody, including the few people they have always been able to trust before. Half of the chapters are titled The Smoke (the city), and these are in the past tense, as Fowler is telling you about the invesigation and all the wild and violent things that happened as a result of it. The other chapters are titled The Sea, these are in the present, and here Fowler is writing from a seaside hideout he has had to retreat to after all the bloodshed and intrigue that came about as a result of his investigations. Every word of every chapter had every nerve in my system standing on end, and by the last few chapters I was shaking as I read. The book is that suspensful, and that good.

One warning before I go: In GBH, as in pretty much all of Ted Lewis's novels, there are seriously violent passages. While these passages are not gratuitous, they can be quite disturbing. If you decide to read some of these novels (you'll have to find used copies - the only one that's in print is Jack's Return Home, renamed Get Carter after the film), proceed with caution if extreme violence gets to you. Personally I am no fan of exteme violence, either in films or books, but I don't hold those moments against these books, because they are in keeping with the tone and content of the stories.

Happy reading.

I have heard lots of complaints about the Collectors Choice label, about the sound quality of their CDs, and the cheapness of the packaging. But I love this label, because they reissue all kinds of obscure music, from various decades and genres, that nobody else would. My latest Collectors Choice find is the album Will You Be Staying After Sunday, by the late 60s Baltimore soft rock band Peppermint Rainbow. This is Spanky and Our Gang meets The Lemon Pipers, and is 30 minutes of pure pyschedelic bubblegum bliss. The title track, which seems to be referencing Spanky's "Sunday Will Never Be the Same," is rich with soaring harmonies and vocal hooks. "Pink Lemonade" picks right up from there, with its candy-coated acid vibe. And although those are the best two songs on the 11-track album, it is all pleasant and there is nothing on the record that you mind hearing again. I love the photo of the band on the back cover of the CD almost as much as the music inside. All five members (three guys/two sisters, one of the sisters married to one of the guys) look out of place in the gaudy hippy clothing they're wearing, the men with sky blue ascots and the women in matching-colored dresses and white go-go boots; they look like a pack of hillbillies who got invited to a party at a drug house and went to the hippy boutique and asked what they should wear. But when they play and sing there's no confusion at all. They are masters of melodic soft rock and this album goes on my all-time list of greats in that style, alongside records by people like The Sandpipers, Lemon Pipers, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Merry-Go-Round, Cowsills, etc.

I bought 50 albums that came out in 2006, if you include reissues and compilations. Following is a list of the 15 or so I enjoyed the most. It was also a big DVD year for me. I have been buying movies - mostly double feature B-movie packages distributed by Something Weird Video - like a fiend, so I am including a short list of video favorites which came out this year. My main reading kick has been the crime novels of British writer Ted Lewis, who wrote the book the film Get Carter was based on, as well as seven other tough guy novels that are both harder and better-written than much of what is considered to be great pulp fiction. Early 2007 album releases I am looking forward to are the new one by Lee Hazlewood, Cake or Death, and The Go-Go Music of The Mark Wirtz Orchestra & Chorus, both of which are due to come in late January.

New Records

*His Name is Alive-Detrola: After releasing two criminally underappreciated soul albums, the diverse Michiganders return to left-of-center pop, with a little jazz thrown in. Think of the more indie rock stuff on Ft. Lake.

*Sid ‘n’ Susie-Under the Covers, Vol. 1: Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet record a jukebox of cover versions of their favorite 60s songs. When “Susie” hits the crescendo on the Stone Poneys’ “Different Drum” every hair on my arms stands on its end.

*Gnarls Barkley-St. Elsewhere- Uncategorizable, genre-bending mini-masterpiece from Cee-Lo Green and Danger Mouse. Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Rock and Roll, Power Pop, Psych Rock – they do it all, and it all comes off with energy and urgency.

*Sonic Youth-Rather Ripped: Everything that’s good about Sonic Youth bottled up in one long-player. Somehow perfectly accessible and dissonant at the same time. Both Kim and Thurston are on here.

*Of Montreal-The Sunlandic Twins: Precocious psychedelia with hooks around every curve.

*Neko Case-Fox Confessor Brings the Flood: By many accounts she is a prima donna. So don’t have her over for dinner, but the power of her voice is undeniable.

*Persephone’s Bees-Notes From the Underworld: Girl-fronted, Euro-sounding power pop, that has both a 60s and 80s feel. Kinda like The Primitives/Darling Buds (but better than them) meets Shocking Blue (but not as good as them – nobody is).

*Grandaddy-Just Like the Fambly Cat: Jason Lyte & Co.’s swan song is their best album. Gorgeous melodies that make your head feel funny in a pleasant way.

*The Essex Green-Cannibal Sea: A notch below their previous record, the excellent The Long Goodbye, but any album with a song as catchy as “Don’t Know Why (You Stay)” needs to be on this list. They still sound like the Go-Betweens with a girl singing half the songs.

*The Tyde-Three’s Co.: Ditto what I said about Essex Green. This doesn’t match the band’s last album, Twice, but if you took the four or five best songs, you’d have a fine EP. Sun-drenched surfer boy rock with some Britpop spliced in.

Reissued Records and Compilations

*The Hoodoo Gurus-Stoneage Romeos: The Aussie psych-rockers got more pastoral on their second album, but this debut was all fuzz blasts and tribal chants.

*Various Artists-Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited: Most tribute albums are crap, but this one rises above. The highlights are versions by Jarvis Cocker/Kid Loco and Marianne Faithful.

*Buck Owens-21 #1 Hits: What to say? Buck was the coolest guy around, without ever trying to be cool. His songs are so simple, yet they hit at a deep place.

*Delaney & Bonnie-Home: The white Ike & Tina, with Booker T. the MGs backing them. This is like Exile on Main St. meets Otis Redding’s Greatest Hits.

*The dB’s-Like This: When Chris Stamey left the dB’s they got less spastic and more a straight-ahead power pop outfit; both versions of the band were excellent. This is Peter Holsapple peaking as a songwriter and frontman.

*Various Artists-The In-Kraut Vol. 2; Hip Shaking Grooves Made in Germany 1967-74- The subtitle says it all. Beat Club, psychedelia, soundtrack sounds . . . Includes a track by an early version of what would become Can.

Best DVDs Released in ‘06

*The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: Punk Icons: The whole two-disc set is worth the price, if not just for the opening segment, where the quirky Snyder discusses “this new punk rock thing” with an uptight Bill Graham, an exuberant Kim Fowley, and a professorial rock critic. Throw in memorable performances by, and interviews with, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, The Ramones, et al, and you’ve got a party.

*Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel: A documentary on GP that doesn’t mind pointing to his foibles while shining a light on his greatness. The first time I’ve heard his wife and family members talk about how hurtful it was to them when Phil Kaufman famously stole Gram’s dead body and took it out the desert.

*The Last American Hero aka Hard Driver: Compelling 1973 race-car drama. Jeff Bridges is convincing as a North Carolina boy from a moonshining family who decides to become a champion driver. Able supporting cast includes Ned Beatty, Gary Busey, and Valerie Perrine. Two-Lane Blacktop meets Rebel Without a Cause.

*Alley Tramp/Over 18 & Ready: Drive-in double feature from Something Weird is on this list for Alley Tramp. The scene where the rebellious teenage girl hysterically tells her parents they can no longer control her features some of the most delightfully horrid acting ever committed to film.

*The New York Dolls: All Dolled Up: The Dolls in their heyday, being followed around by a crude camera. See them drunkenly carry on backstage, take Hollywood by storm, and play their rears off in cool-looking clubs.

*Red Lips Double Feature: Two Undercover Angels/Kiss Me Monster: Two of Jess Franco’s best films. A team of hottie detectiives solve art-related crimes in exotic locales. Lots of great clothes, great music, and one of the most riveting cage-dance scenes ever. Plot-lines? Who needs ‘em?

In the mid-1960s Graham Gouldman was a one-man Goffin/King or Boyce & Hart. The British musician and songwriter wrote perfect pop songs that were totally of their time, and which were popularized by other, better-known acts. Gouldman penned the two best songs The Hollies ever recorded ("Bus Stop" and "Look Through Any Window") two of the better tracks done by The Yardbirds ("For Your Love" and "Heart Full of Soul") and also provided material for Herman's Hermits, P.J. Proby, Wayne Fontana . . .

In '68 Gouldman - who had previously been part of two different bands, both of them flops - decided it was time to put his own versions of some of his songs on record. John Paul Jones (Francoise Hardy's playmate, and later bassist of Led Zeppelin) was brought on board as arranger and co-producer. Some top-of-the-line sessions musicians took up instruments. And Gouldman sat down and cobbled together a workbook of songs that had been hits for other artists, as well as some new and previously unrecorded material.

What came out is a record that should be generally regarded as a Mod-era classic, right alongside The Beatles' Rubber Soul, The Kinks' Face to Face, and early recordings by The Who, as well as the afore-mentioned Hollies and Yardbirds. But the album wasn't even released in Gouldman's native land, and only managed to hit the lower reaches of the Billboard Top 100 in the U.S.

The artist/band Gouldman most sounds like on this record is Emitt Rhodes and The Merry-Go-Round. Gouldman the vocalist has a lisp, and he sings in that almost girlish way that Rhodes does. The arrangements and the production of the material on The G.G. Thing are bubblegumy poppy, a la The Merry-Go-Round - that kind of bubblegum where Pure Pop meets Mod Cool.

Gouldman later become a member of The Mindbenders, before the 70s saw him and another Mindbender form 10CC. Later into the 70s he did the soundtrack to the Farrah Fawcett movie, Sunburn.

In 2004 BMG reissued The Graham Gouldman Thing, and anybody who's into 60's Mod pop should thank them. It is one of the best records of its kind.