Cutting a rug with Lennie LaCour's Magic Touch Records

Numero Group digs deep into the tape vault of Milwaukee-via-Chicago indie soul label Magic Touch for their latest Eccentric Soul series compilation.

Here's the scoop from Numero Group...

Ever hear of cutting a rug? How about how a midwest carpet company used a little Magic Touch to transform itself into one of the region’s longest running indie soul records labels.

The Eccentric Soul Flagship collection continues to expand with the edition of the Magic Touch Label - a stone soul winner partially representing our home-turf of Chicago and nearby favorite Milwaukee. This one has been over 20 years in the making dating back to our earliest encounters and projects with local-ish legend Harvey Scales. Magic Touch Records was named after serial entrepreneur Lennie Lacour’s Magic Touch Carpets business though it would ultimately be the other form of “Cutting A Rug” that would leave the more lasting legacy of its founder.

Magic Touch Records went on to play a vital role in documenting and promoting independent Midwest soul music and dance records for more than 2 decades starting in the mid-60s and lasting through the mid-80s. Founded in Milwaukee-via-Chicago in 1964 by producer, songwriter, singer, and businessman Lennie LaCour, Magic Touch and its affiliated label imprints helped bring the regions emerging R&B and soul scene to a wider audience with a roster of acts including Harvey Scales & The Seven Sounds, Junior & The Classics, Sean Taylor, Marvelle & The Blue Match, and The Comic Books.

Featuring 26 essential cuts from 1964–1980, this collection spans sockin’ R&B, basement beehive soul, hard funk, and group harmony across LaCour’s many imprints, complete with extensive notes, photos, and ephemera. Highlights include Harvey Scales classics “Get Down,” “Broadway Freeze,” and “Love-Itis,” alongside favorites from Junior & The Classics and Marvelle & The Blue Match. The Numero Group exclusive edition also includes a bundled 7” grail: James Monroe’s "Frontiersman Of The Galaxy" b/w "Funky Lady." Listen to both sides along with a few more Magic Touch label classics below. 

While you're waiting for the Magic Touch comp to magically appear, check out Numero's Magic Touch 7" bundle featuring rare tracks by LaJohn & Sheela, Light Touch Band and Andy Crown in snazzy custom Magic Touch "Double Disco" sleeves right here. 

Numero Group knocks out a "soundtrack" for imaginary spy flick

Numero Group needed a hook to hang their most recent random collection of rare recordings and decided on a spy film soundtrack.

 

Here's the scoop from Numero HQ...

The opening act of Louis Wayne Moody’s mid-century spy caper trilogy, 1962’s Call Me Old Fashioned put a tail on Agent Cara Seaworth’s debut undercover operation, fresh out of the Eastern Star Spy Academy for Young Ladies. Her assignment: to pose as songbird and nest, one thrush-like performance at a time, deep under the skin of widower Jack “Frenchy” Hammerli, proprietor of Jack’s Riverside Inn supper club. Her quarry: both an unblemished 1822 American Half Eagle piece—gone AWOL since the Academy’s turbulent Reconstruction-era founding—and Jack’s own beating heart. When the mobbed-up Sauk City, Wisconsin, night spot proves a tough coin to flip, Seaworth’s estranged father and celebrated numismatist “The Man” gets called up to the Not-So-Big Leagues. Will Cara pinch the minted MacGuffin and cooly cash in on a couple dozen missed birthdays, or wind up feeding walleye at the bottom of Mud Lake?

Struck for circulation after 63 years in hock within the Lou-Mood Pictures vault, this previously unissued soundtrack traffics in the high-tone timbre and highball-sipping swoon of pop’s post-war years. Muddling together sugar-lipped divas, barrel-aged big bands, and “zoo be zoo be zoo” zest, with a Latin jazz Luxardo for garnish, Call Me Old Fashioned is a 40-minute stereo-sonic adventure for the 7 & 7 spy-fi fanatic. You can get a copy of Call Me Old Fashioned LP via Bandcamp right here or try the Numero Group site over here. 

Call Me Old Fashioned

1. Pony Sherrell - Don't Do Anything Til You've Heard From Me 

2. Margo Guryan - More Understanding Than a Man 

3. Charleen Houston - Just Like a Fool 

4. Dolores White - Lovers Paradise 

5. Charlene Knight - If My Dreams Come True 

6. Darla Hood - Un Momento Mas 

7. Manny Lopez - Terra Bella (Que Bonita Es Mi Tierra) 

8. Nun Plus - Walk About The Craters Of The Moon 

9. Arnie & Chise' Trio - Three Cherries 

10. Carmen - Ukulele Mambo 

11. Jeanne Hatfield - Time 

12. Doris Drew - Aba Da Aba Du 

13. April Yen - If and When It Happens 

14. Birdlegs and Pauline - Mist of a Dream 

Nigeria's Lijadu Sisters' rare Urede album being reissued

The 1974 "Urede" album from Nigerian twin sisters Kehinde & Taiwo Lijadu is being recirculated by Numero Group. Check out "Fasiribo (Apala)" below.  

Here's the scoop...

After decades of mystery and anticipation, The Lijadu Sisters' ultra-rare 1974 album Urede, is finally resurfacing. A true gem that has eluded even the most dedicated collectors, this album offers a long-awaited opportunity to experience the very beginning of the sister's recorded musical journey - an electrifying fusion of Afropop, Funk, and Jazz that began to define their legendary sound. Check out "Fasiribo (Apala)" off the Urede album below. 

Listen to the previously unissued Margo Guryan recording "Hurry On Home"

Margo Guryan's 1966 recording of "Hurry On Home" appears on the new Words & Music 3LP comp from Numero Group.

Numero Group returns to the soul side of Wisconsin's Cuca label

Numero Group's 26-track double vinyl compilation Eccentric Soul: The Cuca Label is out July 12th. 

Here's the scoop...

Late night '60s R&B caught on tape at Jim Kirchstein's jack-of-all genres Cuca studio. Released on minuscule pressings into the Wisconsin wilderness, these 26 sasquatch-rare tracks – many of which previously appeared on Numero Group's digital comp Eccentric R&B: The Cuca Label back in 2020 and still available here – uncover the soulful paths between the Chicago, Milwaukee and Rockford scenes. Featuring Harvey Scales, Step By Step, Betty Moorer, Seven Sounds, Twilighters, Birdlegs & Pauline, Esquires, Artie & The Pharaohs, and Fantastic Six, this 2xLP tells an alternate history of soul music that could only happen in the Hinterlands on Highway 12. 

You can pre-order a copy of Eccentric Soul: The Cuca Label right here. Check the preview clip, Betty Moorer's "The Long Hot Summer" (originally released under the name "Betty Moore" on Cuca's Badger A Go Go comp), Birdlegs & Pauline's "Too Much At Stake," Harvey Scales' "Independency" and Rex Swanigan & the Fabulous Troubadores' cover of "Hey Joe" issued as "Tribute To Jimi Hendrix" followed by the track listing below. 

Eccentric Soul: The Cuca Label

1. Twiliters - Restless Love / 2. Harvey Scales - Glamour Girl / 3. The Devilettes - I'll Say "Yes" / 4. Little Artie & The Pharaohs - It Puzzles Me / 5. Birdlegs & Pauline - Too Much At Stake / 6. Betty Moorer - The Long Hot Summer / 7. The Esquires - You Don't Care / 8. Supreme Four - I Lost My Job (And I've Got To Find Another) / 9. Harvey Scales - Ten Thousand Years / 10. Betty Moorer - One More Time / 11. The Devilettes - I'm Leaving You / 12. Supreme Four - I Love You, Patricia / 13. Twiliters - We Three / 14. The Devils & The Devilettes - Tell Me / 15. Step By Step - Time After Time / 16. Harvey Scales - Independency / 17. Betty Moorer - My Man Lives / 18. Twiliters - Can't You Stay A Little Longer / 19. The Devils & The Devilettes - Love And Understanding / 20. Step By Step - She's Gone / 21. Harvey Scales - Every Step Of The Way / 22. Twiliters - Girl Of My Dreams / 23. Fantastic Six - I Never Knew Love / 24. Artie & The Pharaohs - I'll Take Care Of You /  25. Birdlegs & Pauline - Mist Of A Dream / 26. The Fabulous Troubadores - Tribute To Jimi Hendrix

Margo Guryan 'Words and Music' 3LP box due from Numero Group on June 7th

Numero Group's career-spanning Margo Guryan 3LP box boasts 46 tracks with 16 unissued songs. Listen to "Moon Ride"

Here's the scoop from Numero Group HQ...

We've been teasing out new discoveries and unreleased Margo Guryan tracks for the last year or so and now it's time to let the cat out of the bag. We're beyond stoked to present Margo Guryan's Words And Music 3xLP Boxset.

Witness to revolutions in jazz and pop, Margo Guryan earned her place in the songwriting pantheon and then some. That she was largely unknown for decades is not the stuff of crushed dreams, but a result of her own choices and priorities. From humble beginnings to the peaks of her 1968 baroque pop masterpiece Take a Picture and the collected Demos to the recent viral ubiquity of “Why Do I Cry”, Words and Music captures the entirety of Guryan’s career, featuring 16 previously unreleased recordings and a 32-page booklet telling the whole story.

Guryan released just one album in her heyday: 1968’s Take A Picture. But, as Margo was disinterested in performing, touring, and promoting the work, the album went barely noticed at the time. Nevertheless, by the 1990s, the record had become a highly sought after cult favorite. Then, a new generation of listeners came to learn about her work when Take A Picture was reissued in 2000, followed shortly thereafter by the collected 27 Demos, supervised by Margo herself, an incredible compilation of unearthed alternate takes and new-to-the-public songs. Guryan’s life in the intervening years remained filled with music; she became a music teacher, kept writing songs, and cultivated friendships with a growing circle of acolytes.

Her early tunes were recorded by bebop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie, bossa nova icon Astrud Gilberto, the famed South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba, and folk hero Harry Belafonte. Jazz singers Anita O'Day and Carmen McRae all released takes on her material, as did pop singer Claudine Longet and folk-rock icon Mama Cass Elliot. "Sunday Morning," Margo's biggest hit, was first popularized by soft-rockers Spanky & Our Gang, followed by recordings from torch singer Julie London and country royalty Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry. In 1967, Billboard called Margo "one of the most sought-after writing talents in the music business."

Born in 1937 in New York City, Guryan began learning piano at age six before eventually enrolling at Boston University to study music. She spent much of her early career immersed in the jazz world, including working for Impulse! founder Creed Taylor, writing for jazz artists, and attending Lenox School of Jazz in Western Massachusetts, where she worked in an ensemble alongside fellow students Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. Her peers were, at that very moment, exploding the consciousness of jazz. Margo, a then-recent graduate in composition, had once been told that the highest mode of education is perception. So she mostly lingered and listened. It was at Lenox where Margo became friends with her teacher, Max Roach, who in 1961 even asked Margo to pen the liner notes for his first Impulse! album.

The story of Margo Guryan is one of a woman who dug deep from an early age and was never afraid to change. With her keen feel for tone, phrasings, tension, presence, and lyrics that cut, her name today is synonymous with sophisticated songcraft and inimitable 1960s cool.Her ingenuity and technique set her in the tradition of chamber-pop icons like Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach while the bittersweet candor in her depictions of womanhood suggest a middleground between Carole King's pop-factory and singer-songwriter eras. But the understated rigor of Margo's artistic voice is all her own.

You can pre-order the Margo Guryan "Words and Music" 3LP box directly from Numero Group right here. Early bird mail-order copies via the Numerogroup.com site will be on exclusive "Sunday Morning Sun" colour vinyl including bonus Chopsticks Variation 10" vinyl limited to 500 copies. Listen to "Moon Ride" below. 

 

Rare 60s recordings by Edmonton's Chieftones uncovered by Numero Group

The Chieftones were led by guitarists Vincent "Billy ThunderKloud" Clifford and brother Barry Clifford. Check their tunes below.

Here's the scoop from Numero Group...

Billed as “Canada’s All Indian Band,” the Tsimshian Nation garage band The Chieftones stormed the U.S. in the mid-’60s with their own brand of native rock n’ roll. Led by guitarists Billy Thunderkloud and Albert Canadien, the band was filled out with Jack Wolf on lead guitar, Barry Clifford on bass, and Richard Douse on drums. Their repertoire was a heady mix of guitar instrumentals; Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Duane Eddy, and Brazil’s Los Indios Tabajaras, but through the lens of the American sock hop.

After a brief stint at Edmonton’s Alberta College, The Chieftones hit the road, eventually setting up a home base in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they reportedly worked as ranch hands in between tours. “From Sheboygan we made our way to Madison, Wisconsin, La Crosse, Cedar Rapids and on over to down south, like that. Indianapolis, Peoria, Illinois, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Indiana back to Chicago,” Canadien told Pat Braden. “We had a circuit like that. We played two weeks here, one week there, like that. And finally after a year of doing that, we weren’t going anywhere.” It was in this nascent state that they tracked a single and an album’s worth of material with Jim Kirchstein.

More Buddy Holly than Link Wray, The Chieftones lone Cuca single—1966’s “Do Lord” b/w “I Shouldn’t Have Did What I Done”—expressed the group’s radio-friendly ambitions. The rest of their Cuca recordings, however, explore their indigenous roots. Tribal drums keep time under a wash of surf-y guitars. Ceremonial dance numbers are reimagined for the Elvis generation. When the single failed to light up the phones, the album was shelved, discovered only recently by Numero’s crack team of magnetic tape sleuths.

The New Smooth and Different Sound collects 12 unreleased demos and their sought after Cuca single, all recorded at the Sauk City recording mecca. The group’s time in the Dairy State was short-lived—they set off on a decade-long road run shortly after. Performing in their traditional regalia—white buckskin outfits and head gear—The Chieftones dumbed nothing down for The Beach Boys’ screaming fans at various sports arenas on the east coast. “After a while we got to speak in our own language, like when we started the show,” Canadien said. “I would just speak to them in Slavey and then we’d start our playing. The boys I had talked in Gitsan and Nisgaa, they spoke these languages from northern B.C., that’s what they spoke. They introduced themselves in their own language so that people understood that we were for real.” 

Get a copy of The Chieftones album The New Smooth and Different Sound via Numero Group right here. Listen to a few of their recordings below. 

R&B great Jackie Shane gets a Heritage Toronto plaque

Black trans trailblazer Jackie Shane is getting a plaque near the site of the Sapphire Tavern at Richmond & Victoria at 9:30 am. 

Celebrating Jackie Shane with a commemorative plaque

Jackie Shane with Frank Motley

It's long overdue, but the groundbreaking work of black transgender R&B belter Jackie Shane is finally being acknowledged in Toronto on Friday (June 23) with a Heritage Toronto plaque near the site of the old Sapphire Tavern. Formerly housed on the ground floor of the Confederation Life building on the north west corner Richmond & Victoria, The Sapphire Tavern is where the classic Jackie Shane Live album was recorded with twin trumpet-blowing bandleader Frank Motley along with pianist Curley Bridges and released in 1967. Jackie Shane left Toronto and left the music business in 1971 to care for her ailing mother in Nashville. 

While Jackie Shane's electrifying performances and house-rockin' 45s were well-known within the record collecting community all through the 80s and 90s, whether the hugely popular Toronto entertainer was still alive wasn't clear. I'd heard rumours that Jackie was dead while others insisted she was now  living a quite life in the southern U.S. but there were no solid leads. In 2009, when I interviewed Curley Bridges – who convinced Frank Motley to hire the singer for the Motley Crew after seeing a spellbinding Montreal performance – he had fond memories of working with Jackie but had zero contact for decades   (read a brief excerpt from the interview here). The CBC audio-documentary I Got Mine: The Jackie Shane Story (listen to it here) produced and presented by Elaine Banks in 2010 got  more of the general public wondering "what happened to this amazing performer I've never heard of?" 

The Jackie Shane Live album was recirculated on CD as Live At The Sapphire Tavern in 2011. Then, in 2015, the Polaris Music Prize instituted their Heritage Award to recognize historically important Canadian album releases and the Jackie Shane Live album was surprisingly shortlisted for the honour. As you might expect, it didn't make the grade. Perhaps 2025 then? But as interest in Jackie Shane seemed to be building it wasn't clear where the singer was, if indeed she was still alive. With a good bit of detective work, Douglas McGowan, an A&R rep from Chicago's Numero Group, eventually found her still residing in Nashville which led to the first artist-sanctioned release of a career-spanning retrospective in 2017. The double LP/CD collection Jackie Shane – Any Other Way (check it out right here) received wide critical acclaim and was even nominated for a 2019 Grammy in the "Best Historical Album" category. Of course, that went to the Voices of Mississippi anthology instead.

Just as the captivating comeback tale of the forgotten trailblazer returning from the depths of obscurity was reaching the general public while trans-related issues were making headlines around the globe, sadly, Jackie Shane passed away at the age 78 at her Nashville home where she lived with her cat Sweetie. But the incredible story of Jackie Shane didn't end with a funeral in February, 2019. 

In 2022, a new Heritage Minute was also created to celebrate the Nashville-born singer whose electrifying performances were a main attraction on the emerging Toronto R&B club scene of the early 60s. A new documentary film, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is also currently in the works with plans for a theatrical release in 2024. Hopefully it will include more Jackie Shane performance footage than just the one known 1965 clip of "Walking The Dog" from Night Train. Now would be a good time to conduct a more rigorous search of the tape archives held by CBC-TV in Toronto and Montreal as well as Hamilton's CHCH-TV to find any footage of Jackie Shane in action with the Motley Crew during the 60s. The creative team behind the movie is led by producer Amanda Burt of Toronto's Banger Films who launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise funds towards the creation of a plaque honouring Jackie Shane in Toronto. 

 

Well-timed to coincide with this weekend's Pride Toronto celebrations, we're happy to report that thanks in part to Amanda Burt's advocacy, Friday (June 23) will be proclaimed Jackie Shane Day in Toronto and a Heritage Toronto plaque will be erected at Richmond and Victoria! The plaque commemoration ceremony begins on site at 9 am EST and will be streamed on Instagram starting at 9:30 am right here: https://www.instagram.com/thejackieshaneplaque/ 

DJ Nico spoke to Amanda Burt and Toronto-based music historian Rob Bowman – who penned the extensive liner notes accompanying the Numero Group anthology – about Jackie Shane for her Girl About Town show on  Totally Wired Radio which is archived right here.

Check out Jackie Shane's Heritage Minute along with an interview with Ravyn Wingz who portrays Jackie Shane followed by the 1965 performance of "Walking The Dog" from Night Train and Jackie Shane's Live album below. 

Here's the Jackie Shane plaque at the corner of Richmond and Victoria in Toronto.

Ad Spotting: KFC employs Greenflow's "I Gotcha"

KFC's "First Bite" spot uses Greenflow's "I Gotcha" off their 1977 Solutions LP which Numero Group comped in 2012.

Greenflow's track "I Gotcha" appeared on the WTNG 89.9 FM: Solid Bronze comp available here.

Whaddya mean you don't know Branko Mataja

The 70s recordings of guitarist Branko Mataja is getting a re-evaluation thanks in part to Numero Group.  

Here's the scoop...

Recalling Ennio Morricone spaghetti westerns, the electrified belly dance music of Omar Khorshid, and ’90s bedroom psychedelia at once, the music of Branko Mataja is from its own epoch. Snatched from the streets of Belgrade as a teenager, Mataja spent World War 2 in a German work camp, escaping the insanity of post-war Europe to settle in North Hollywood to live out the American Dream to its fullest. Crafting handmade music on homemade guitars throughout the 1970s, Mataja taught himself to play in order to pay homage to his ancestral home of Yugoslavia, a place he would never return to except through these guitar meditations. Have a listen below. 
 

R.I.P. Lou Ragland, 1942-2020

Sadly, Cleveland soul singer/songwriter and sound engineer Lou Ragland has passed away. He'll be greatly missed. 

 

 

Whaddya mean you don't know Charlie Megira

Check out the clip for Charlie Megira's "Alligator Man" and check out Numero Group's fab Tomorrow's Gone comp. 

Charlie Megira - Tomorrow's Gone

Even in this age of near-total Internet accessibility, Charlie Megira is a modern mystery. A casual search turns up little aside from a few cryptic articles. His brief career unfolded during a changing of the guard in the music industry, opening on the death of the compact disc and ending just prior to Spotify’s IPO. For an artist like Megira, living far away from a major music outpost, there was more chaos than structure for his recordings to exist and find an audience. This collection is the first attempt at putting the pieces together, compiling a life’s work of an artist whose spark almost shined unto the world. 

His was a music both familiar and entirely alien at once. It touches on corners of darkness, an isolation both lonely and sweet, all wrapped in a cold glow that draws the listener into each note, each melancholy melody triggering unrecorded experiences. His various projects put out music which began as a junction point between Link Wray’s surf guitar and the theatrical psychobilly of The Cramps, took a turn towards goth-inflected post-punk, and towards the end of his career would sojourn back into his earlier musical fascination with late 1950s and early 1960s rock ‘n’ roll. 

The Israeli guitarist recorded seven albums worth of material in 15 years during his all-too-brief 44 trips around the sun. Numero Group's career-spanning compilation Tomorrow’s Gone collects 24 of these tracks for a double album journey across his career, accompanied by a lavish booklet that documents his tragic existence (currently sold out on vinyl). Armed with only an Eko guitar, a black tuxedo, and his signature wrap-around shades, Charlie Megira was a mold-breaking artist who disintegrated while we were all staring at our phones. Get it digitally right here. 

Watch the video for "Alligator Man" by Charlie Megira shot by Brendan Casey, Dan Schmatz and Kyle Day below. 

 

Whaddya mean you don't know "D" & The Sugar Cane Factory

Here's a fab psych/exotica gem masterminded by Aki Aleong & Dun "D" Uchimura which has just turned up on a Numero comp Louis Wayne Moody High. 

Happy Birthday Catherine Howe!

Raising a glass to West Yorkshire singer/songwriter Catherine Howe on her 70th birthday!  Here are a couple of Catherine's timeless recordings.

Happy 70th Birthday Renaldo Domino!

Raising a glass to the Windy City soul great on his birthday with a string-enhanced performance of his Twinight classic "Not Too Cool To Cry" 

Whaddya mean you don't know Cheryle Thompson

"Black Night" by Las Vegas showgirl Cheryle Thompson is a standout track on Numero Group's "You're Not From Around Here" compilation.

You're Not From Around Here (Numero Group)
Gene Sikora A Song For Mary
Cheryl Thompson Black Night
Bailey’s Nervous Kats First Love
Don McGinnis Good Luck to You
Attila & The Huns The Lonely Huns
Dick Campbell Like the Wind That's Long
Eddy Bailes & the Cadillacs Dark Side of the Moon
The Jades Lost Train
Hayden Thompson 16.88
Slim Martin Haunted After Midnight
Shelley Duncan Somewhere Down the Line
Alvie Self Lonely Walk
The Expressos Wandering
Nicky Roberts Spacewalk
Buzz Clifford Wouldn’t It Be Nice (To Have Wings and Fly)
Houston & Dorsey Ebb Tide
Charlie Megira Tomorrow’s Gone

Renaldo Domino single release @ Chicago's Hideout Inn, Saturday

Veteran Windy City soul swinger Renaldo Domino launches his new single at Chicago's Hideout Inn with The Heavy Sounds on January 4th.

Renaldo Domino Hits The Hideout

Renaldo Domino's rare Arnell single now goes for $800!

Chicago soul great Renaldo Domino (born Renaldo Jones) hails from “The Valley” around 49th & Forestville. He got his name because his voice was sweet like Domino-brand sugar. The uptempo "Don't Go Away" – the B-side of his 1967 single for Smash Records – was followed by a re-release of the sweet soul groover "I'm Hip To Your Game" which appeared on the flipside of his exceedingly rare debut for the tiny Arnell Records label.

Hooking up with Syl Johnson's legendary Twinight label in 1969, Renaldo knocked out a string of gems over the next couple of years including his masterpiece, the string-enhanced "Not Too Cool To Cry" (listen below) which were reissued in 2007 as part of the anthology Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation put out by Chicago's Numero Group and features a snazzy vintage cover photo of the sharp suited Renaldo working his magic on stage at his peak.

During the 70s – up until the disco boom prompted a career change into insurance sales and TV cable installation – Renaldo performed exclusively at Chicago's South Side venues so his upcoming appearance in the North Branch Industrial Corridor with The Heavy Sounds at the venerable Hideout Inn (run by Chicagoans of the Year, Tim & Katie Tuten, check the Chicago Tribune story right here)  is a rare event which should be celebrated with Old Styles raised high.

The 69 year-old crooner, making the most of his unlikely resurgence, will be launching his latest single for Ohio's Colemine Records this weekend,  pairing two songs he wrote back in the 80s, "No Laggin' and Draggin'" b/w "Give Up The Love" which comes backed with that familiar Daptone-inspired sound so popular with the younger crowd that makes up most of Renaldo's current audience. You can pre-order a limited edition copy of Renaldo's new single on gold vinyl (while supplies last) right here. Listen to "No Laggin' and Draggin'" following a couple of Renaldo's classics below.

Renaldo Domino w/ The Heavy Sounds
at The Hideout Inn (1354 W. Wabansia Ave), Chicago
Saturday (January 4), 8 PM doors, 9 PM show. $10.00

Hamlet Minassian vs. Pino Massara

Hamlett Minassian's "Al Elnim" – a cover of Pino Massara's "Margherita" – is on his LP reissued by Numero Group.  

You can order a copy of Hamlet Minassian's Armenian Pop Music LP right here. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Chasman

Chasman's overlooked 1989 gem Synth-E-Fuge is being reissued on vinyl by Numero Group. 

Numero explores wild world of exotica with Technicolor Paradise anthology

 Numero Group's 3 LP or 3 CD cocktail companion documenting the short-lived 50s exotica scare is due May 25.  

It was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with an alluring female on the album jacket for best results. Exotica! The soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, tiki torch-wielding armchair safariers. Be it mosquito-bitten torch singers, landlocked surf quartets, fad-chasing jazz combos, mad genius band leaders, D-list actors, or a middle aged loner programming bird calls into a Hammond, Exotica was always more concerned with what geography might sound like over who was conducting. Numero Group's Technicolor Paradise set, subtitled Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights, presents three albums – or three compact discs – containing 48 (or 54) curious examples of the short-lived genre’s reach, each summoning their own sonic visions of Shangri La, bringing their versions of the Pacific, Africa, and the Orient to the hinterlands of America. Technicolor Paradise is where one makes it, after all. Check out the track list following the preview clip.


Daiquiri Dirges
Chuck “Big Guitar” Ernest with the Satellite Band: “Blue Oasis”
The Sound Breakers: “Marooned”
The Wailers: “Driftwood”
Lenny & the Thundertones: “The Moon of Manakoora”
Biscaynes with Co-Encidentals: “Midnight In Montevideo”
Red Garrison & His Zodiacs: “Chant of the Jungle”
The Palatons: “Jungle Guitar”
Chayns: “Live With the Moon”
Bailey’s Nervous Kats featuring James Mills: “Cobra”
The Blazers: “Sound of Mecca”
The Crew: “Jaguar Hunt” *
The Gems: “Slave Girl”
Jerry & the Catalinas: “The Arabian Knight”
The Jaguars: “Night Walker”
The Voodoos: “The Voodoo Walk” *
The Shelltones: “Blue Castaway”
The Blue Bells: “Atlantis”
Bill & Jean Bradway: “Paradise Isle”



Rhum Rhapsodies
The Melody Mates: “Enchantment”
Don Reed featuring the Voice of Love: “Nature Boy”
The Baton of Andre Brummer: “Tumba”
Darla Hood: “Silent Island”
Martha Raye with Phil Moore Orchestra: “Lotus Land”
Baha’i Victory Chorus: “Nightingale of Paradise”
Carmen: “Isle of Love”
The Monzas: “Forever Walks A Drifter”
Akim: “Voodoo Drums”
Fred Darian with Bill Loose Orchestra: “Magic Voodoo Moon” *
Don Sargent & his Buddies: “Voodoo Kiss”
Joan Joyce Trio: “Captured”
Pony Sherrell: “Tobago”
Darla Hood: “My Quiet Village” *
Jerry Warren & the Valids: “Enchantress”
The Centuries: “Polynesian Paradise”
The Potted Palm: “My House of Grass”
The Castiles: “Enchantment”




Mai Tai Mambos
Five Glow Tones: “Quiet Village”
Modesto Duran & Orchestra: “Silent Island”
Ross Anderson Chorus & Orchestra: “Tambu Theme”
Bobby Christian: “Caravan”
Bruce Norman Quintet: “Arabian Rhythm”
The Slaves: “Hari’s Harem”
Arnie Derksen & Chise: “Similou”
Three Bars featuring Nicky Roberts: “Caribbean Cruise”
Robert Drasnin: “Chant of the Moon”
Blue Jeans: “Moon Mist”
Artie Barsamian: “The Enchanting Melody”
Eddie Kochak & Hakki Obidia: “Jazz In Port Said”
Gene Sikora & the Irrationals: “Tanganyika”
Bobby Paris: “Dark Continent”
Walter Bolen: “Lion Hunt” *
Jimmy McGriff: “Jungle Cat” *
Chico Jose: “Locura (Madness)”
Clyde Derby: “Lost Island”
* – CD only tracks