Paradise of Bachelors is proud to release the first-ever anthology of the eclectic, excellent, and highly collectable music of David Lee. Over the course of three decades beginning in the late 1950s, this unheralded songwriter, musician, producer, and entrepreneur released fourteen 45s and two LPs on his Impel, Washington Sound, and SCOP labels, run out of his Washington Sound record shop in Shelby, North Carolina.
Originally released as a digital-only EP, the collection has been reconstituted as a fully realized long playing album that juxtaposes grainy kitchen table gospel and dusted imaginary sci-fi soundtrack pieces. Lord I Love the Rain is the sound of Hiss Golden Messenger after hours.
Louder Than Thou is the 2012 album from underground folk mainstays Elephant Micah, a rotating-member band headed up by one Joseph O’Connell. Bridging the minimalist rock and sonic experimentation of early work, this is their clearest statement yet, nodding to ‘70s songwriter-ism while simultaneously recasting the genre through textural play and ensemble improvisation.
We are delighted to announce our exclusive distribution of Tobacco A-Go-Go: North Carolina Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Sixties, the groundbreaking and speaker-shaking compilation LP of rare 1960s garage, psych, and soul 45s with an Old North State lineage, originally issued in 1984 on the local Blue Mold label.
In honor of Veterans Day–officially today, but observed tomorrow–we’re sharing a stream of the Red Rippers album track “Body Bag,” a devastating song about the disjunction between a “jungle-bound grunt’s” aspirations to aviation and the brutal occasion for him finally getting “his ride” on high.
Paradise of Bachelors is proud to present the first-ever reissue of the previously obscure 1983 LP by the Red Rippers, entitled Over There … and Over Here.
The Bachelors have just returned from a fruitful fieldwork visit to Nashville, Music City, USA, where we had the honor and privilege of spending several days with our friend Chance Martin (aka Alamo Jones, General Chance, the Stoned Ranger, and the Voice in Black), the mastermind, impresario, and visionary songwriter, bandleader, and singer behind the brilliant, unheralded countrydelic 1981 LP In Search, credited simply to Chance and released on his own Macho imprint.
Fall has landed here in North Carolina, and fittingly, Durham’s own Hiss Golden Messenger is on the turntable. Nearly a year ago–on the Day of the Dead, to be exact–we released HGM’s excellent Poor Moon album, and this fall we’re working hard to help prepare their superb follow-up LP, entitled Haw.
Soldier of Fortune magazine ad, 1983. Research, design, and remastering are all done, and PoB-05 is coming this Winter. Gird thy loins for the Red Rippers.
In case you missed the all-star Hiss Golden Messenger performance at Hopscotch this past weekend in Raleigh’s Fletcher Opera Theater–one of six shows M.C. Taylor played!–you’re in for a treat. The fine folks at NYC Taper have posted streams, free downloadable audio files, photos, and an essay documenting the extended set here on their site (they also took these photos.) Thanks, y’all!
