Sunday, December 14, 2014

Virginia Stumbough: YWCA "Y-Teens", 6/24/1947

In 1947 my grandmother, Virginia Stumbough, a writer with a degree in journalism, was living in Evanston, Illinois with her husband and children. She wrote this 15-minute infomercial for the Evanston Council of Social Services for broadcast on June 24: “Y-Teens”, advertising the local Sheman Avenue YWCA’s summer day camp aimed at eighth grade girls looking for something to do and a chance to mix with older girls before entering high school in the Fall. The name of the station isn’t written on the label of this Recordio disc, but Kindly Professor Internet suggests it was WEAW-FM 105.1.

Did Mom catch you listening to Perry Como’s “Chi-Baba Chi-Baba” and blurt out the oh-so-inevitable “What’s that racket”? Are you too young to get a driver’s license? Is it still too cold to swim? Never fear! The YWCA’s “Y-Teens” summer program is perfect for the girl with time on her hands this Summer. Tour a candy factory! Tour a harp factory! Eat lunch at Hull House! Shop the Maxwell Street markets! Visit Riverview Park! Do some knitting! And learn to cook fudge without ruining the pan! It’s charming and brutally expositional, presenting a particular challenge for the one of the child actors in this mostly school-age voice cast who slogs through one word-cluster at a time with poignant determination.

NOTE TO WOULD-BE ARCHIVISTS: Records from the DIY era of home recording by definition meet very few of the criteria of professionally-produced discs, such as a generous amount of silent lead-in at the beginning and end of a side. This record has, on either side, no lead-ins whatsoever. There’s the edge of the record, and one nanometer later there’s “Y-Teens”. So that little bit of sound information at the beginning that you usually have no trouble hearing on other records here is hidden so close to the abyss that you’d need superhuman aim to put the needle down at precisely the right time and space. In cases like this, if you have a turntable with reverse drive, one solution is to put the needle down near the beginning, play it in reverse, and let it play until the needle runs off the record; then reverse that audio digitally. If you use this method, BE SURE to carefully hold the height lever in place so that the needle won't land on the slipmat when it runs off the edge of the record. And put another another, bigger record – or a mirror – underneath your record just in case. In completely unrelated news, an Ortofon OM 78 phono cartridge costs about $100. (You bet I screamed. LOUD.)

10" record audio (side 1 + 2 combined)

David Griffin Recording Studio: Altar Boy Responses

It’s embarrassing! It turns out all this time I’ve been using incorrect Roman usage! Talk about mea maxima culpa!!! From the Teaching Aid Department of the David Griffin Recording Studio, San Antonio, Texas, comes this 1942 10” record to teach us correct MORE ROMANO pronunciation as recommended by Popes Pius X and XI. The whole record was slathered in 60hz AC hum, which I’ve attenuated as much as possible, but it's still pretty crunchy. Also the last track sounds like it was re-recorded from another 78rpm record.

Speaker and Altar Boy
Speaker Only
Church Bells


DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Hartz Mountain: Parakeet Training Record

Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby! Hello baby!

Introduction
Hello Baby
Hello Baby, Want a Kiss?
After Your Parakeet Has Learned These Phrases
Happy Days Sweetheart
Good Morning, Wanna Eat
How a Real Parakeet Should Sound


DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Rube Ruben: Shmendrick


A rare and gloriously skeevy 7” on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label from 1991, featuring the musical stylings of Tim Hensley and the vocal/comedy prowess of Rube Ruben, aka Charles Schneider. Further background on this Dan Clowes-illustrated gem can be read at Mrowster's excellent Pig State Recon blog.

Shmendrick
The Ballad of the Terlet
Adult Comedy Monologue


DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Roger Ruskin Spear: Unusual

The second (and, to date, last) solo LP from one of the founding members of the Bonzo Dog Band. I prefer his 1972 full-length Electric Shocks (available on a nice CD reissue with his 1971 EP Rebel Trouser), but take any opportunity to hear “When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba Down in Cuba”, I say. Plus there’s a contrabass sax here. As Dune’s Baron Harkonnen so aptly observed, “He who controls the contrabass saxophone controls the universe!” Well, at least until someone with a Tubax shows up.

Pinball Wizard
On Her Doorstep Last Night
Trouble With My Trousers
Shove Off Shostakovich
I Love To Bumpity-Bump (On a Bumpy Road with You)
When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba Down in Cuba
Frank the Ripper
Morecambe and Wise
Heartbreak Hotel
My Goodness How (Or The Revolutionary New Concrete Mixer Show)
Unusual


DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.