Click Here to play or download a podcast of Howie Pyro’s LuxuriaMusic.com “Intoxica” Internet radio show which aired on 1/10/12 and featured me as special guest – with a stack of garage, surf and instro insanity plus a set of  trashy and wild South American 45s spanning the late ’60s through the early ’70s -it was quite a show! To Howie’s dismay, we played a Led Zeppelin cover on the show though Los Commandos did a great job of turning “Moby Dick” (with a riff stolen from Sleepy John Estes)  into a sloppy and inept teen garage instrumental which was further twisted with the infamous Intoxica echo over most of the really sloppy drum solo. Thanks Howie and LuxuriaMusic.com!

Photos: Howie Pyro is very excited to play the record pictured below which I took from www.devildick.blogspot.com as I didn’t have mine handy while putting up this post.

Hey everybody!

Well, it’s been quite a while! But I can tell you 2011 was a very busy year for us. Since the release of our third album “Meet Redondo Beat” last January we’ve been getting a lot of attention, and have been playing quite a lot. Touring Southern Europe last summer was amazing! People in Spain were crazy about the new album. Radio 3 DJ, El Sotano, opened one of his shows playing three songs back to back, and also listed “Do you wanna have this dance?” in his top 50 songs of the year.  Playing at the Fast Fun and Bizarre festival in Logrono made us once again realize how much we love it down there. Watch out Spain, we’ll be back this May. In the fall, we toured the United States once again, and it was great as always! We started out on the west coast and slowly made our way to the east, spending quite some time in New Orleans, hanging out at the No.1 music festival, the Ponderosa Stomp. Playing with the Preachers Kids again in Oxford, Ms brought back sweet memories and while spending a week in Memphis we even ended up playing at Gonerfest. Good times!

As we made our way up north, we were sobered by the terrible news that our great friend Zoltan Shoubber passed away. We’ve been playing with him a lot in the past 10 years, and you can hear him on some of our records. We instantly included “Tigergirl” by the Tigermen in our set, which was one of Zoltan’s faves. He was way too young and is sadly missed.

In all we had a great time, playing in great cities, with great bands such as the Royal Pendletons, Missing Monuments, and the Party Stompers. Thanks to Van Thompson, Scott Rogers, Gabriel Hammond, Adam Gaither and all the bands we played with. We will be back very soon. Stay tuned!

Roman Aul – Redondo Beat

Photos of Roman and Max by Michael Dominici

Howie Pyro has asked me back to his INTOXICA show for a third time – I’ll be bringing a box of garage, surf, pysch and weirdo 45s with an accent on fabulously trashy South American (mostly Peruvian) records from the ’60s! Listen Live via the Luxuria.com website on your computer and smart-ass phone – sign up to the Luxuria.com website and post your snide, rude and nearly funny remarks in the chat room! OR – download the podcast when ready!

9:00 PM  – luxuriamusic.com

While poking around a closet at the Dionysus office, I came across two sealed boxes of an 1989 Dionysus Records LP release, “Smells Like Fun” by 27 Devils Joking, a guitar dominated psychedelic band from New Mexico. This is a timely find as the cover art is by the late R.K. Sloan whose art is in the current La Luz de Jesus 25th anniversary show. I’ve just put the stock in the Dionysus cart which you can find here. There are also a few copies for sale at Soap Plant / La Luz de Jesus.

IT’S OFFICIAL: THE INMATES HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM AS INDEPENDENT LABEL DISTRIBUTION LAUNCHES WITH INDIE RECORD LABEL OWNERS AT THE HELM

Frontier Records, Beer City and Tribunal Records Take Over Ownership of Physical and Digital Distribution from ILC and Take Control of Their Own Destiny

LOS ANGELES, CA & RICHMOND, VA. (TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011) – Call it punk, call it gangsta or simply call it good business – Independent Label Distribution (www.ildistro.com) announced today the formation of a new indie record label-run company for physical and digital distribution of some of the best-known independent bands and labels in music today.

Independent Label Distribution (ILD) sprang from a need for solid distribution for independent labels – some in business for more than 30 years – which had been perpetually stiffed, left in the lurch, sold to less than reputable companies or left in ruins by their disreputable distributors. ILD’s goal is to provide quick, efficient service to their customers while providing them with top-sounding and top-selling records at a fair price. Labels Frontier Records, Beer City, and Tribunal Records formed a new business model: a record distributor run by a faction of independent label owners.  Faced with the prospect of being stiffed two times in four years, label vets Lisa Fancher, Mike Beer and Matt Rudzinski, took over their failing distributor in Richmond this summer and rebuilt it from the ground up.

“Of all the things I never thought I’d do, taking over my distributor is probably number one on my list,” said Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records and Independent Label Distribution. “Loser distributors have burned me for hundreds of thousands of dollars since Frontier started in 1980, so at this point I know what it takes to make one succeed. Mike Beer from Beer City, Matt Rudzinski from Tribunal Records and I share the same DIY ethic and we’re not just doing this to save ourselves, we’re interested in helping a couple dozen other labels survive after the previous owner was running the company into the ground. If taking his company over to run it ourselves isn’t punk, I don’t know what is!”

Titles currently distributed by Independent Label Distribution (ILD) include Adolescents, D.R.I., Les Baxter, Bouncing Souls, Cannabis Corpse, Larry & his Flask, Kill Whitney Dead, August Burns Red, Circle Jerks, MDC, The Dils, Hole, Naked Raygun, Rocket From The Crypt, Turbonegro, The Weirdos and more. A full list of ILD labels includes Altin Village & Mine Records, Anchorless Records, Beer City Records, Cavity Records, Chunksaah Records, CI Records, Corrosive Recordings, Dionysus Records/Bacchus Archives, Frontier Records, Init Records, No Way Records, Red Scare Industries, Riot Fest Records, Rodent Popsicle Records, Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club/Springman Records, Six Weeks Records, Sympathy For The Record Industry, Tankcrimes and Tribunal Records/Divebomb Records.

With a solid back catalog and a diverse, new roster of current bands and titles expected each month, ILD is poised to provide chains, one-stops and independent stores with superior service. Following a credo that quality counts, ILD is not your typical distributor with an uncertain shelf life – its goal is to offer quick, efficient service to customers while providing them with great fill on top-selling classic catalog and new releases at fair prices, no matter the size of the account.

To contact ILD Sales Reps, please email:
Andy King andy@ildistro.com                     Chris Pease chris@ildistro.com

ABOUT INDEPENDENT LABEL DISTRIBUTION
Independent Label Distribution (ILD) was formed in Richmond, Virginia in Summer 2011 as the first and only American music distribution company run by independent record label owners. Founded by three independent record label veterans, Lisa Fancher of Frontier Records, Mike Beer of Beer City Records and Matt Rudzinski of Tribunal Records, ILD provides quick, efficient service to customers from some of the world’s best catalog and new releases.

Here is a collection of Orchestra Superstring live videos. – Be sure to check out their new Dionysus release, “Easy” on CD from the Dionysus cart or on digital via iTunes , eMusic or Amazon.com

REDONDO BEAT 2011 USA DATES

(more to be added please come back to the post for updates!)

Sept. 9th – Oakland, CA
Stork Club
With: The Touch-Me-Nots
Talky Tina
City, USA

Sept. 10th – Las Vegas, NV
Double Down Saloon
With: Wreckin’ Katz
The Spoofs
Schoenberg Knife Fight Ensemble
The Scoundrels
The Mutineers

Sept. 11th – Los Angeles, CA
Redwood Bar & Grill

Sep.13th – Austin, TX
Beerland
With: John Wesley Coleman III
Suede Uppers
Shivery Shakes

Sept. 14th – Denton, TX
TBA

Sept. 15th – New Orleans
Siberia
With: King Louie’s Missing Monuments

Sept. 19th – Jackson, MS
Hal and Mal’s
With: the Wild Emotions

Sept. 21st – Oxford, MS
Blind Pig
With: The Apostles

Sept. 24th – Memphis, TN
Gonerfest after party!!!
Buccaneer
With: The Royal Pendletons

Sept. 27th – Memphis, TN
Hi-Tone
With: The Burning Sands

Sept. 28th – Nashville, TN
Foobar
With: Mystery Twins

Sept. 29th – TBA

Sept. 30th – West Ashville, NC
The Get Down

Oct. 1st – Athens, OH
The Union

Oct. 4th – Toledo, OH
Woodchucks

Oct. 5th – Columbus, OH
Café Bourbon St.

Oct. 6th – Milwaukee, WI
Quarters
With: The Fairweather Friends
Phylums

Oct. 7th – Detroit, MI
MOCAD – Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
With: Jojjon
Outrageous Cherry
AFTER PARTY AT DONOVAN’S PUB!!!

Oct. 8th – Lafayette, IN
Black Sparrow Pub
With: Eric & the Happy Thoughts
The Gestalts

Our friends Creepxotica serenade or invade the Tiki Oasis 11 (Crowne Plaza Hotel, San Diego) Room Crawl on Saturday August 20, Mariachi  / Dia de los Muerto style  – as room crawlers exit and board the glass elevators (which also had live music.)

Another Tiki Oasis has come and gone.

Having been to all 11 Tiki Oasis weekenders, I can without a doubt say that this year’s event was in many ways better than the previous 10, and that my friends is not an easy accomplishment. For instance, Tiki Oasis’ musical line-ups have always been magical but this one was that much more over-the-top. Some of the musical highlights from Tiki Oasis 11 include the legendary “Mr. Bongo,” Jack Costanzo‘s superb Latin Jazz ensemble who just freakin’ NAILED it, tight and tough instrumental insanity from Los Straightjackets who were joined by our pal Big Sandy for a round of rock ‘n’ roll songs en Espanol, an excellent set of Herb Albert tunes from the tribute group Herb, exotic and percussive Latin Jazz sounds from Orchestra Superstring featuring some truly amaazing play between the percussionists as well as DJ Bonebrake’s brilliant performance on the vibes, and the spooky exotic meets surf sounds of our own Creepxotica who played poolside, at the art show and wandered around the event dressed as Dia De Los Muertos mariachis with portable pig-nose amplifiers strapped to their outfits. To cap it all off, for the first time, Tiki Oasis extended through Sunday Night with a most entertaining show including two perfectly paced sets from exotica legends Don Tiki who filled the stage with exceptional musicians on their very first performance in California.  As stated, these were highlights for me – the rest of the music? Two thumbs up!

I’d have to write over a thousand words to truly cover the event from start to finish, so instead of going into detail about how great the symposiums, art,  debaucherous room crawls,  LuxuriaMusic.com and poolside DJs, the fabulous King Kukulele and Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid, marketplace, Otto’s muschache and Baby Doe’s circle skirt were, I’ll just load up this post with Tiki Oasis videos from our friends at Lost in Paradise and other various sources on YouTube so you can see for yourself the color and fun that this event represents and gives to its attendees. Don’t miss Tiki Oasis 12… Stay tuned for the scoop!

I shot a video of Creepxotica playing outside the elevators as the room crawl action was going full steam with my iPod Touch – will post as soon as I upload and edit as I’m still catching up on work here. As more Tiki Oasis 11 videos pop up on YouTube I’ll put those up as well.

Lee
(Photo: Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid –  by Scott Evanskey)

Tiki Oasis Flicker Photo Group

Tiki Oasis Facebook Group

Lost in Paradise videos

Jack Costanzo

Tiki Oasis 11 Car Show with Crazy Al Evans, Perk, SHAG, and the Hula Girls

Burlesque

These new Dionysus releases will be available in advance of street date at Surf Guitar 101, Tiki Oasis 11 and the Dionysus Records cart

Creepxotica four-song 7″
Creepxotica: {Kreep-za-ti-ka}, noun or adjective; having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear combined with the relaxing exotic sounds of the South-Pacific. Creepxotica takes you on an exotic ride through time to the sun bleached sands of the Mexican Riviera, and to the cool ocean waters of the Polynesian Islands. The soothing sounds of the vibes will calm your savage soul, while the reverberating guitar will hearken a time of lazy Saturday afternoons. The percussive musings will melt your inhibitions, as low, melodious, bass driven tones will cool your head. So sit back and relax as you embark on a Tiki paradise with the new lounge sensation from Dionysus Records, Creepxotica!

(Shhh – don’t tell anyone that Creepxotica is actually garage punk surf pranksters – The Creepy Creeps. This limited edition four-song red vinyl 7″ comes with a digital download code – it’s got a big hole too! Click to purchase

The Exotic Sounds of Jerry Sun LP
Numbered edition of 500, red vinyl LP with digital download code
We’ve exotica expert Jeff Chenault to thank for this one!  Avid listeners of Exotica music will undoubtedly be familiar with the primitive sounds of Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Robert Drasnin but very few people today have ever heard of Jerry Sun, a professional vibe player whose versatility and unique blending of jazz and tropical melodies would often compare him to Arthur Lyman. Jerry was a big fan of Denny, and Lyman and would often visit them while in Hawaii or when they would tour stateside.  While Exotica was his forte, his biggest influence would come from the Latin-Jazz sound of Cal Tjader. Click to purchase

This album was recorded in 1962 at Audio Recording studios by famous Northwest recording engineer Kearney Barton who recorded The Sonics, The Wailers and The Kingsmen (the hit version of “Louie Louie”.)  Somehow five reels of Jerry’s music ended up in the hands of record store in Tacoma. This album is one of those tapes, unreleased until now! These recordings have been transferred and edited entirely in the ANALOG realm – no digital processing was used in the preparation or cutting of this record.