Saturday, July 26, 2014

TIN HUEY "Contents Dislodged During Shipment"

 I shall be returning to Radio Misterioso tomorrow (Sunday) night for two hours of maniacal music that hasn't been featured here (at least not yet). "In-depth conversations on the paranormal alternating with weird music. Live on Sundays 8-10 PM PST @ killradio.org" Have I mentioned here before that your host Spacebrother Greg is one of the authors of "Weird California"? That should tell you something.




This Ohio sextet's 1978 debut album was such a commercial disaster that their befuddled label Warner Bothers payed them to not record a follow-up. Which probably explains why I found my copy as a cut-out in the 48 cent bin sometime in the '90s. (I think every copy of this album that I've ever seen has been a bargain-bin cut-out.) Behold! A singular, highly entertaining mix of Bonzo Dog Band dada and Zappa/ Beefheart-style prog, but shot thru with punkish energy and a good-natured anything-goes spirit, leaving no doubt that these guys were from the same fertile fields that produced the likes of Devo and Pere Ubu. Ralph Carney's horns help make it a bit Oingo Boingo-esque.

And what did they do with their bribe to go away? Some of the members, inc. Chris Butler and Carney (both of whose wonderful solo work has been covered here) moved to New York, and with the crucial addition of vocalist Patty Donahue, transmogrified into the far more successful New Wave stars, The Waitresses. Who I liked just fine, but for my money, the one-two punch of "Chinese Circus" into "Puppet Wipes" (featuring the memorable chant: "My car is filled with puppet heads!") is as good as it gets. It would be nice to hear that over the shopping mall sound system every year instead of "Merry Christmas, merry Christmas, couldn't miss just one this year" every now and then, wouldn't it?
(new link:)  
TIN HUEY "Contents Dislodged During Shipment"

15 comments:

Mike O'Donnell said...

Alas, the zip file appears to be wrong. I used exactly the same procedure that I used to open other Maniacal files from Zippyshare, and I downloaded twice just in case. I am running on the latest Ubuntu GNU/Linux, in case some other system behaves differently. I append the error message below.

odonnell@Psammead:~/Archive/Sounds/Music/Performers, ensembles/Tin Huey/Contents Dislodged During Shipment$ unzip *.zip
Archive: TinHuey.zip
End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not
a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.

Anonymous said...

This sounds as though it might be interesting, but the download doesn't appear to work. Did it perhaps upload incompletely? 16 MB seems a bit small for an entire album.

Mike O'Donnell said...

Wait! I just realized that the title of the album describes the problem with the file. Which secret conspiracy is responsible for this spooky truncation?

Unknown said...

Same problem as above.

Mr Fab said...

Ha, yes, apparently the contents were jostled a bit. Don't know what I happened, I did my usual uploading procedure, but I re-up it, so try it again, folks.

I forgot to mention that this albums kicks off with their attempt at commerciality, a cover of the Monkees' "I'm A Believer" based on the Robert Wyatt version. Their way of saying: "See, Warner Brothers, we're tying!"

Mike O'Donnell said...

Evil conspiracy defeeted!

Well, I was really worried that THEY had done us in this time. Surely the initial "Dislodge"ment refers to a Lodge of the _______ secret society. And, the apparent typo in Fab's reply, "See, Warner Brothers, we're tying!" has obvious sinister implications for us all.

But, I downloaded, unzipped, and listened to the first cut with ABSOLUTELY no ill effects. I guarantee that there is no hidden subliminal mind control. Please listen as soon as possible, then join me in sending $20,000 each to the Reverend Easy Pickings at the P.O. Box in Lagos, Nigeria which you will suddenly remember. He will use our contributions to save all of the children in Africa, then return at least 300% profit within 18 months.

Mr Fab said...

Yes, I meant to write "trying." Tin Huey's trying, I'm trying...it's all very trying.

cuorediformaggio said...

I am looking for modern sounds famous songs of hank williams lp.
I see that you posted it a long time ago.
Could please re-up it?
Thanks a lot.
Ciao.

Luca

Mr Fab said...

The acid rock sounds of Hank Williams are back:
http://musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/2010/04/album-du-jour-7-hank-williams-return.html

Anonymous said...

If you think this is good (and it is), you have to hear their EP from the previous year.--Bill

Mr Fab said...

I've looked for and haven't yet found that EP, but I believe that there's a more recent CD that contains its (dislodged) contents. Hope to check that out one day.

Unknown said...

I have "breakfast with the hueys" and the "english rose" 7" singles. You want em'?

Mr Fab said...

I would love them, oh great Unknown commenter!

Mr Fab said...

Great! I thank you, the Maniacs of the world thank you!

Your name should be visible if you click on the right thing under "Choose an identity." Perhaps you're in the Witness Relocation Program?

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately my favorite song ''The Revelations of Dr Modesto'' skip many times, it's because of vinyl scraches or dirts. Then it need being ripped again. So i know it is a lot of work. Thank's for your great blog i wish you have few times to check about that song (no.2 The Revelations of Dr Modesto);-)