The Jackson 5 - Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969)

"Nobody" by The Jackson 5

Bobby Shad had only one original composition for his Bad Men to perform. The rest were arrangements of some of the more eclectic hits of the sixties. "I Want You Back" was the highlight of Bobby Shad's 65-piece rock orchestra album just as it was the highlight four years earlier on Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, the 1969 debut album by The Jackson 5 released on Motown Records.

Berry Gordy knew he had a sure hit if he could get The Jackson 5 off on the right foot. A dynamite 11 year old lead singer amidst a family of talented young boys might not have the longest shelf life in the music business, and their 1969 sessions consisting of backwards-facing soul covers wouldn't cut the lacquer for popular audiences—no matter how many string arrangements adorned their harmonies. Motown's West Coast studio crew The Corporation took over the recording of the boy band's debut and gave the 5 what would become their first single and a No. 1, at that.

"I Want You Back" lays down a great funk arrangement, groundwork for a star-making performance from a young Michael Jackson pushed to the edge of his vocal powers to spectacular results . But it proves hard to match as Michael does his best to elevate the rest of the album's cover songs. His maximal effort occasionally turns to strain in handling dubious material choices and dealing with inconsistent production quality. When other Jacksons get their shot at leading, the songs pale even more. But the talent is evident and exciting even if it is inexperienced and tilted too far onto the youngest Jackson's shoulders.

Here is the discography surrounding The Jackson 5's debut album:

Big Boy (1968 single)

I Want You Back (1969 single)

Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5

We Don't Have to Be Over 21 (To Fall in Love) (1970 single)

"I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5

"Who's Loving You" by The Jackson 5

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Bobby Shad and The Bad Men - A 65-Piece Workshop (1973)

"I Want You Back" by Bobby Shad and The Bad Men

Before they were Skip & Flip, Clyde Battin and Gary Paxton played as The Pledges and then Gary and Clyde. It was when they were signed to Bob Shad's Brent Records that they got the moniker that stuck. Bob Shad was a producer and small label boss who worked across genres. He organized A 65-Piece Workshop, a Big Band Rock album as Bobby Shad and The Bad Men and released it in 1973 on his own Mainstream Records label.

Great song choices constitute an album of luxuriant covers played as big as the 65 orchestra pieces portend. Shad's comfort with an array of genres (jazz, blues, rock and roll, orchestral) and the arrangements by Ron Frangipane work together to keep the songs fresh and playful, if not nimble, as they are engorged with brass and strings, interludes and slick solos by some outstanding session players. The bass, about as heavy as the rest of the band put together (despite the brass's best efforts,) sets the album in contemporary funk and prevents the various sections from floating the album's conceit too far away from its rock and roll roots.

Here is Bobby Shad and The Bad Men's discography:

Bobby Shad and The Bad Men

"Pinball Wizard by Bobby Shad and The Bad Men

"Up on Cripple Creek" by Bobby Shad and The Bad Men

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Skip & Flip - It Was I: The Very Best of Skip & Flip (1961)

"Fancy Nancy" by Skip & Flip

The major labels all passed on Bobby Pickett's novelty single, so it took the young production phenom Gary S. Paxton to shepherd it along and release it on his own label, Garpax Records. Paxton previously performed under the moniker Flip with his college pal Clyde Battin, aka Skip. Skip & Flip were a short-lived duo with a handful of hit singles during their run. These recordings are collected in It Was I - The Very Best of Skip & Flip, the contents of which were all released between 1959 and 1961.

Lo-fi and rudimentary rock 'n roll make up the body of Skip & Flip's output. Full of "Na Na Nas" and "Whoa-ohs," their songs, subsequent to their debut "It Was I," echo previous radio hits across rock song forms (ballad, dance craze, story song,...) with only "Fancy Nancy" having any verve. The rest lack inspiration and fail to push them out of the shadows of less tame Rock & Roll duos.

Note: Another compilation means another year listing that represents when the material was first released, and not when the actual compilation album came out.  That would be 1998.

Here is the discography for Skip & Flip:

Betty Jean (1958 single as The Pledges)

Why Not Confess (1958 single as Gary and Clyde)

One Hundred Baby (1959 single as Chuck and Chuckles)

It Was I (1959 single)

Fancy Nancy (1959 single)

Cherry Pie (1960 single)

Green Door (1960 single)

Hully Gully Cha Cha Cha (1960 single)

Searching for Linda (1960 single by Skip)

Tami's Dance (1960 single by Clyde Gary & His Orchestra)

Betty Jean (1961 single)

In the Soup (1961 single by Skip & The Hustlers)

Twister (1961 single by Clyde Battin)

Strange as It Seems (1961 single by Leonard Brothers with The Pledges)

It Was I: The Very Best of Skip & Flip

Over the Mountain (1962 single)

"It Was I" by Skip & Flip

"Lunch Hour" by Skip & Flip

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Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers - The Original Monster Mash (1962)

"Rabian - The Fiendage Idol" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds

(Wa-ooh) Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds

(Wa-wa-ooh) The Coffin Bangers were about to arrive

(Wa-ooh) With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five

Bobby Pickett released his Halloween classic single "Monster Mash" in 1962 and its album The Original Monster Mash the same year on Garpax Records.

The album starts with the "Monster Mash" and builds upon the world established in it. Bobby Pickett's Dr. Frankenstein-like "Boris," henchman Igor, pop idol-aspirant Wolfman and rival "Drac" all return to pad the album with their own dance craze hits and graveyard skits. At its best, Bobby Pickett and his producers hit a Frank Zappa (for kids) level of satire, but that sense of wit is short-lived as the songs feel ever longer and tiresome and the interest in spoofing loses ground to world-building. After a few non-hit singles as just Bobby Pickett, "Boris" and the gang would return to recording every now and then either to spoof the latest trend (Woodstock, Rap) or advocate for social issues like the environment and anti-smoking.

Here is the discography surrounding Bobby Pickett's debut album:

The International Twist (1962 single with The Cordials)

Monster Mash (1962 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers)

The Original Monster Mash

Monsters' Holiday (1962 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers)

Graduation Day (1963 single)

Simon the Sensible Surfer (1963 single)

The Monster Swim (1964 single as Bobby Pickett and The Rolling Bones)

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) (1964 single as Bobby Pickett and The Filter-Tip Kickers)

Blood Bank Blues (1965 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Wake Up My Mind (1965 single)

Monster Concert (1970 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Monster Man Jam (1970 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Me and My Mummy (1973 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Monster Rap (1984 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

"Monster Mash" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" by Bobby Pickett and The Filter-Tip Kickers

"Monster Concert" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett

"Monster Rap" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett

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Crypt Kicker Five - Crypt Kicker Five (1986)

"4th Hole" by Crypt Kicker Five

Jack Endino produced Afghan Whigs's label debut.  It wasn't a very big or successful or necessarily well-organized label, but at the time, Sub Pop was a step up from the Whigs's self-released debut.  Endino, whilst producing, also played in a handful of bands throughout the late eighties, and his debut recording was on the 1986 self-released, self-titled Crypt Kicker Five (often shortened to Crypt Kicker 5 for... space reasons?)

While a lot of the music Jack Endino produced, and produced, favored hard rock and heavy metal influences, Crypt Kicker Five prefers surf rock and post-punk.  The allure of the band is in the interwoven guitar and bass and in the unique keys and tunings used to build songs that can sound at times oriental or aquatic or horror punk.  The lyrics are unintelligible without any liner notes (though they hardly seem necessary,) and Jaime Caffery's voice in the mix unfortunately doesn't have the force it needs to anchor the meandering compositions as Endino's drums do.  The album is one of two sides and Side B shows off the band in a live context: energetic, humorous, improvisational and imperfect.  Not much would be gained from the addition but for filler in a shoestring production if not for Side A which hypnotizes with its complexity and texture.  In turn, Side B becomes a fascinating microhistory of a band that could have been so much more.

Here is the Crypt Kicker Five discography:

Ya Ya Love Song (1984 song on The Sound of Young Seattle compilation album)

Crypt Kicker Five

Shoot to Kill (1988 song on Secretions compilation album)

Mecca (1988 song on Bands That Will Make Money, Too compilation album)

4th Hole (1990 single)

Shoot to Kill (1993 song on A Far Cry compilation album)

4th Hole/Bedouin Stomp (2011 song on C/Z Records Unreleased Singles 1987-1993 compilation album)

"Shoot to Kill" by Crypt Kicker Five

Crypt Kicker Five by Crypt Kicker Five

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Afghan Whigs - Up In It (1990)

"Amphetamines and Coffee" by Afghan Whigs

Shellac the Bozak claimed Ultrasuede-002.  There was no -003.  Ultrasuede-001 belonged to a release we've visited before: Big Top Halloween by Afghan Whigs; appropriate, as the Whigs's John Curley created the Ultrasuede "label" and studio.  As such, we return to Afghan Whigs and their second album Up In It released in 1990 on Sub Pop Records.

The Afghan Whigs got an indie label and grunge producer and it led to a step in more focused musical direction.  They now had a sound and lyrical themes to match, an evolution of metal and punk that dwells in the seedy minds of addicts, deviants and abusers.  The band brings to life, not the internal psychoses and obsessions of each song's character, but the world those characters live in... or at least they try to.  When it's not working, sometimes you just have to plod through it with guitars on loud.

Here is the discography surrounding Afghan Whigs's second album:

Jugula (1989 demo)

I Am the Sticks (1989 single)

Up In It

Sister Brother (1990 single)

Retarded (1990 single)

Up In It (1990 album CD version)

"Sister Brother" by Afghan Whigs

Afghan Whigs Live at The Middle East Cafe

"Hey Cuz" by Afghan Whigs

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Liquid Hippos - Shellac the Bozak (1988)

"Rosetta Stone" by Liquid Hippos

John Curley owned and operated Ultrasuede Studio where Lizard 99 recorded their debut (which he also engineered.)  A further extension of his DIY ethos had Curley creating his own label, also called Ultrasuede, that released the only album by Liquid Hippos, Shellac the Bozak, in 1988.

It's often amazing how deep and powerful rock and roll can be despite and because of how young the musicians are.  Even immaturity can find resonance and beauty in the zeitgeist... or it can be produce some of the stupidest lyrics put to wax.  Shellac the Bozak is an obscure album (with only one song available online) and there's not much use in bringing it up for rediscovery.  Although the band is musically adept and their sound dances the line between 80s alternative and indie music, everything about the album, from production to lyrics, sounds like a practice run for putting out a record without any intention of it leaving the safety of the Cleveland music scene.

The lyrics are the bane of the album: confused when hiding in nonsense and laughable when they make sense.  Every song seems to have a line meant to surprise for its sheer absurdity but those lyrics stand apart, aren't funny and do the songs no favors.  The liner notes chronicle each song but one, the closing song "Unicorn Hop" which gives it the feel of a "hidden track."  Where all the other songs carry an air of seriousness, this one was meant to be a lark.  For posterity, I will go out of my way to chronicle one stanza from the song:

This old man he played one, he played knick knack on my thumb!

This old man he played two, he played knick knack on my shoe!

This old man he played three, he played knick knack on my knee!

This old man he played four; he played knick knack on my BOOTY!!!

Miraculous.

I'm still shocked that line exists, but sometimes youthful creativity takes you to some truly stupid places.

Here is the Liquid Hippos discography:

Shellac the Bozak

Pass the Headphones!!