SpaceAce Sunday | Julie London with The Bud Shank Quintet – All Through The Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (1965, US)

The next album submitted to the project by SpaceAce aka J, our dearly missed friend, is number 1052 on The List.

This is pin-up model-turned actress-turned singer Julie London’s 24th of 29 studio albums. J had a handful of Julie’s albums, so it’s not a bad idea to listen to another one or two of her albums after this one. Not bad at all.

Want to read more? See the full spotlight: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/03/30/spaceace-sunday-julie-london-with-the-bud-shank-quintet-all-through-the-night-julie-london-sings-the-choicest-of-cole-porter-1965-us/

Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/ca/i/716276170

Thanks, J. 🙏

#JulieLondon #BudShank #ColePorter #jazz #VocalJazz #CoolJazz #1960s #SpaceAceSunday #music #1001OtherAlbums

SpaceAce Sunday | The Shangri-Las – Golden Hits of The Shangri-Las (1966, US)

The next album SpaceAce – aka J, our dearly missed friend – submitted to the project is number 1051 on The List.

As previously mentioned in a previous SpaceAce Sunday spotlight, the last few albums J submitted are all from 1966, due to me pointing out that we had no albums from that year on The List at that point and wondering what was up with that. So, that explains why this compilation is here…or does it? While The Shangri-Las did have a couple studio albums (both released in 1965), the name of the game at that time in American pop music was more about hit singles, so I wonder if this compilation – released while the band was still at the height of their popularity – was perhaps their most popular album. I mean, I’m totally guessing here without J’s insight, but I find it curious that this compilation has a volume in the excellent 33 1/3 book series. As far as I know, there aren’t other compilations given the 33 1/3 treatment (other than a soundtrack and a tribute album), so it seems like this one is a special case?

Anyway, I digress! …but, also, now I really want to read the 33 1/3 book, by Ada Wolin. I mean, here’s the blurb on it – don’t you want to read it now too?

Of the many girl-groups that came out of the 1960s, none is more idiosyncratic and influential than the Shangri-Las. They were together only five years, but within that time they subverted pop standards and foreshadowed a generation of tough women in music. Critically, they are not lauded in the way of the Ronettes, and they are certainly not a household name like the Supremes. They were a little too low-brow with an uncouth flair for theatrics that has placed them just left of the girl-group canon.

This book examines the still-elusive validation of 1960s girl-groups as a whole, but also paradoxically aims to free the Shangri-Las from that category, viewing them instead with the sort of individuality traditionally afforded to rock groups. They were somehow able to challenge the status quo under the guise of sticky-sweet pop, a feat not many pop groups can achieve, but which they do fleetingly but not insubstantially in Golden Hits of the Shangri-Las.

For every other 1001 Other Albums spotlight, I’ve listened to the album at least once, either prior to posting or the day of. But, full disclosure: I haven’t yet listened to this album in its entirety because I kind of want to read this book beforehand. The description of The Shangri-Las having a “tough girl” persona doesn’t compute with the bubblegum album cover and the couple of tracks I have heard – and they’re cited as influencing a lot of musicians I respect (e.g., Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Amy Winehouse) – so I sort of want some context first. Am I overthinking it? Yep! But that’s what I do.

Anyway, thanks J for adding another book to be TBR pile, I’m rather looking forward to listening to this one.

• I can’t find a Songlink for this one, so either try the YT link, or check out the 1996 compilation linked below which has all of the same songs (in a different order) plus a couple extras:
  • Youtube: The Shangri-Las – Golden Hits of The Shangri-Las
  • Songlink: The Shangri-Las – The Best of the Shangri-Las
• Discogs: The Shangri-Las – Golden Hits of The Shangri-Las

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #popMusic #SpaceAceSunday #TheShangriLas

#RecordOfTheDay

Neil Young - Comes a Time

Got this last Friday at my local, Turn It Up! Brattleboro #Vermont. I’d been keeping an eye out for this since J left this comment on my post on the blog about Harvest Moon.

I miss these sorts of casual insights that J used to drop. #SpaceAceSunday

#vinyl #vinylCollection

Hey for those following the #SpaceAceSunday series for #1001OtherAlbums - we only have 6 more albums that J submitted, and I don't want to get through them any time soon, so I'm going to switch to doing those spotlights once a month or every other month, rather than every week. :ablobcatheartsqueeze:

Frost and Fire, Part 1 – SpaceAce Sunday Edition

When I sat down to search for a streaming link for our next SpaceAce Sunday, I realized that we, in fact, have two albums on The List with the title Frost and Fire: The Watersons’ 1965 folk debut, and Cirith Ungol’s 1981 proto-doom/heavy metal debut. Given that (a) The Watersons’ album contains a few Xmas/Xmas-adjacent songs, and (b) I, like many of you, am rather ambivalent towards the holiday season at best, I wanted to offer up both albums at this time of year as if they were both Xmas albums, even if one is only partially an Xmas album and the other can essentially only be considered an Xmas album due to proximity, or, say, in the sense that Die Hard is an Xmas movie because it takes place on December 24.[1] In doing so, we can each choose for ourselves what level of holiday music we want to expose our ears to. And, because SpaceAce Sundays are clearly limited to Sundays, we will first spotlight SpaceAce’s Frost and Fire, i.e., The Watersons’ album, and then, on December 24, we will spotlight Cirith Ungol’s take on the title.

The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)[3] (1965, UK)

And so, today we go back to one of the first albums SpaceAce submitted to this project, number 481 in The List.

I think it’s fair to say that SpaceAce must’ve loved this band/family, seeing as this is the third album of theirs we’re looking at thanks to him. As noted in the liner notes by A. L. Lloyd[2] (who we met in a previous SpaceAce Sunday), this album collects traditional ceremonial songs, not just from around the winter solstice but from each season:

Seasons of anxiety, seasons of joy. The common people had their rites of propitiation and triumph, older than the rituals of the Church and closer bound to their daily lives. This record takes us through a year’s calendar, displaying songs that accompanied these ceremonies, season by season…

When the Christian church arose, it ranged itself against the beliefs and customs of the old nature worship, and prudently annexed many of the seasonal ceremonies. Thus the critical time of the winter solstice, a rich period for pagan ritual, became the season of the Nativity of the new god. The season of the great spring ceremonies became the time of his slaughter and resurrection. So it happens that in many songs on this record pagan and Christian elements are inextricably tangled…it’s necessary to recall that behind most of these calendar customs and the songs attached to them lies nothing more mysterious, nothing less realistic, than the yearly round of work carried out in the fields…For it’s due to their relation with economic life, not to any mystical connection, that the song-customs have persisted right up to our own time.

That’s the sort of Xmas songs I can get behind.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and, if you wish to listen to this Frost and Fire, let’s take a listen together. Otherwise, let’s meet back here Tuesday for a more metal take.

• Songlink: The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)
• Discogs: The Watersons – Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs)

[1]To be clear, Die Hard is most definitely an Xmas movie. I will not be taking any questions at this time.
[2]The liner notes are reproduced in full here.
[3]Note the cover of the US pressing that I’ve included here doesn’t include the subtitle found on the original UK cover, but this one is so much cooler looking (and, I believe, is the version SpaceAce owned).

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #BritishFolk #ChristmasMusic #folk #folkMusic #holidayMusic #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #SpaceAceSunday #TheWatersons

SpaceAce Sunday | The Watersons – The Watersons (1966, UK)

The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1050 on The List.

I forgot to explain in our last SpaceAce Sunday that that album marked the first of the last group of SpaceAce’s contributions. From there until we reach the end of our SpaceAce Sundays (with the exception of next week), you may notice that each album was released in 1966. This isn’t an odd coincidence. When I had finished indexing the entirety of The List, I discovered something odd: of the roughly 1035 albums we had gathered up to that point, none of them had been released in 1966, the only entry for that year being a compilation that included some singles released in ’66. Granted, there was also no albums for 1962 (again, just a compilation with some ’62 singles) and then one or none for any year earlier than 1955, but the bare spot for 1966 seemed to really stand out to me, given the number of albums we had in the few years before and after.

And so, me being me, I tooted “was no one pressing records in 1966?”…and some lovely Mastodonians promptly provided evidence that, in fact, ALL of the records were pressed in 1966, lol, and we ended up adding 16 albums from that year to The List. SpaceAce is responsible for most of those, as he took a look at his gigantic vinyl collection on Discogs, sorted by year, and made a list of 10 albums from 1966 that were worthy of The List.

And so, here we are. If The Watersons sounds familiar in this context, it’s because we’ve already had a SpaceAce Sunday looking at this family, in particular the duo of siblings Lal and Mike. As mentioned in that previous spotlight, The Watersons consisted of Lal (or Elaine, as billed on the cover of this album) and Mike, their other sibling Norma, and cousin John Harrison. The album here is their second. Next weekend we’ll be taking a look at their previous album from 1965, the first album in fact that SpaceAce had contributed to The List – it’s a holiday-ish affair, so we had saved it for the holiday season. That said, for me at least, the a cappella tunes on this album already remind me of Christmas carols, so guess I’m getting an early start.

Happy listening, all. And thank you, J.

• Songlink: The Watersons – Early Days
  • Note: I can’t find a streaming link to just the 1966 album, but it is included in its entirety (and with tracks in the same order) in this 1994 compilation (tracks 7 to 17) that also features the same cover photo.
• This Die or DIY blog post has a download link (.rar format), if you’re into that sort of thing.
• Discogs: The Watersons – The Watersons

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #BritishFolk #folkMusic #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #SpaceAceSunday #TheWatersons

I can't remember exactly how but this Xmas (better, "yule") album was introduced to me by #SpaceAce and is now set to be a permanent winter fixture here.
The Holly Bears the Crown by The Young Tradition
https://listenbrainz.org/player/release/1f8608a8-9f67-4e83-aea4-48cbc7858617
#SpaceAceSunday

SpaceAce Sunday | Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc (1966, France)

The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1047 on The List.

As mentioned in our spotlight last week on Mission of Burma, I recently started a new listening project of going through entire discographies (well, studio albums) of artists, particularly those other Mastodonians have recommended. After Mission of Burma I went through Roxy Music’s discography, and then, as I was craving a different vibe from either of those two bands and wanted to listen to someone I wasn’t familiar with at all, I decided to start in on Françoise Hardy’s studio albums. All 32 of them. Wowzers. After listening to about 10 albums (and falling in love with Hardy), I started reading the Wikipedia entries on Hardy and each album, and realized that she had been married to Jacques Dutronc, whose self-titled 1966 album just happened to be our next SpaceAce pick. Funny how things go.

So, Jacques Dutronc, husband of Françoise Hardy. I would so have loved if SpaceAce had written this spotlight, I’d have loved to hear what he had to say about this dynamic duo. Like, the two met the year after this album, Dutronc’s first of many, came out, and Hardy was already 8 or 9 albums in. Can you imagine the amount of music flowing through that house?

Anyway, we’ll revisit Hardy in another spotlight as we have her self-titled 1971 album on The List. For now, I hope you’ll give this album a spin because it is fucking fantastic. Like Hardy, Dutronc was an important figure in the yé-yé movement, with this album being in the beat/garage rock genres (I think?), with maybe a touch of mod (think Bob Dylan meets the Beatles, but, you know, in French), plus whatever wonderful nonsense is going on in the second-last track “La compapade”. So nice, I listened to it twice.

Thanks, dear SpaceAce, for leading us towards such a great rabbit hole. I may even figure out what exactly yé-yé is soon.

• Songlink: Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc
  • Note on the album title: Similar to Hardy’s albums, the majority of Dutronc’s albums were released being self-titled, and then came to be known under the title of one of the singles or most popular songs on the album. This one might be titled Et moi, et moi, et moi (as the Songlink has it), Les play boys, or Les Cactus, depending on where you get your albums from.
• Discogs: Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #FrançoiseHardy #France #FrenchRock #garageRock #JacquesDutronc #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #SpaceAceSunday #YéYé

SpaceAce Sunday | The Auteurs – After Murder Park (1996, UK)

Welcome back to SpaceAce Sundays. The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1035 on The List.

…And, unfortunately, that’s pretty much about all I can tell you about After Murder Park, lol. Though The Auteurs put out four studio albums and a handful of EPs, I can only access two of their releases, not including this one. And since the work of the late great Steve Albini apparently made the band sound unrecognizable on this album, commenting on the albums I can hear wouldn’t tell us much. At any rate, with Albini’s name on it and SpaceAce’s tip of the hat, it’s safe to say it must be worth the spin.

If you’ve heard this record, please go ahead and tell the class all about it, and/or drop a streaming link for non-Canadian folks below [edit: there is now a – limited-time only! – WeTransfer link as well as a couple non-Canadian streaming links in the comments!]. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, have a read-through of SpaceAce’s tribute to Steve Albini, up on the excellent Digital LoFi blog. (And, remember kids, don’t rely on streaming services to preserve your favorite albums – long-live physical media!!!)

• Discogs: The Auteurs – After Murder Park

#1001OtherAlbums #1990s #Britpop #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #Musodon #rock #SpaceAceSunday #SteveAlbini #TheAuteurs

#SpaceAceSunday

For what may be my final #SpaceAceSunday (forever? for a while?), I am publishing the massive post on my memories of the 80s Boston post punk scene that I was working on when J died. As I speak to in my Author's Note, the Digital LoFi blog had become in a lot of ways a conversation between J and I. Not surprisingly, when he died I put aside the post, not sure if I would finish it. And when I picked it up I found I just wanted to address J directly. So I did. To say I'm bummed he didn't stick around long enough for me to share it with is an understatement. But I know he would have been excited to read it and had lots of thoughts.

"Not saying he would’ve liked all the bands, records I’m writing about, but he loved to talk shop."

This one is for J.

https://digitallofi.com/blog/2024/11-november/notes-on-my-boston-rock-scene

#blog #music #postPunk #SpaceAce

#SpaceAceSunday Just discovered this in an Apple Note—the preview links back to the non-existent original post so I took a screenshot:

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project – and the 100th (!) album we are spotlighting – is number 1029 in The List.

I would’ve loved to hear why SpaceAce picked this particular album, given the history of the band. Prior to forming this electropop duo, Elli Medeiros and Denis Quilliard (a.k.a. Jacno) were both in what is credited as France’s first punk band, Stinky Toys, with Elli on vocals and Jacno on rhythm guitar. Interestingly, all the lyrics were in English, possibly as Elli, originally from Uruguay, spoke English as her second language (Spanish as her first). Stinky Toys released only two albums (both self-titled), in 1977 and 1979, but apparently left an impression on such people as Andy Warhol, Malcolm McLaren, and Blondie.1

Once Stinky Toys broke up, Jacno released his first solo album in 1979, a minimal, ambient pre-electro self-titled album, featuring Elli on one of the songs. Soon after, as a duo, Elli & Jacno put out three albums, starting with the one we’re looking at here. And then, after the duo called it quits, both went on to have solo careers, with Elli also working in film.

I can only assume SpaceAce had/was familiar with all of these projects,2 but it’s up to us to do our own deep dive now.

Thanks, friend, for pointing us in the right direction.

• Songlink: Elli & Jacno – Tout va sauter
• Discogs: Elli & Jacno – Tout va sauter

PSA: As mentioned on my Mastodon, I’ll be taking a break in November from writing 1001 Other Albums spotlights, so we’ll regroup in December to continue going through SpaceAce’s contributions to The List.

1As per this article in The Guardian, “Cult heroes: Jacno – the oddball luminary who delivered punk to Paris“.
2Edit: As Puffer points out in the comments, he sure was! Check out SpaceAce’s amazing 3-part series from last year on the Digital Lo-Fi blog, starting here.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/27/spaceace-sunday-elli-jacno-tout-va-sauter-1980-france-uruguay/

#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #DenisQuilliard #electropop #ElliAndJacno #ElliEtJacno #ElliMedeiros #France #Jacno #rockFrançais #SpaceAceSunday #StinkyToys #synthpop #Uruguay

#SpaceAceSunday Part II

#vinyl #nowPlaying

Been a few weeks since I've done a #SpaceAceSunday.

Part I

Every time I catch myself about to yell at my cats I remember our friend J.'s toot where he said exactly NOT to do that. #spaceacesunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is number 1028 in The List.

As mentioned last SpaceAce Sunday, Felt was Lawrence Hayward’s band prior to Denim. That said, The Splendour of Fear, Felt’s second album, sounds absolutely nothing like Denim. Instead of being chock full of satirical/silly lyrics, this album is primarily instrumental. Instead of being fun pop rock, this album is in the broodier dream/jangle pop category with a foot firmly in the realm of post-punk (indeed, at least a couple of times it made me think of Joy Division). Instead of having a colorful band logo as artwork, the cover of this album features barely edited art taken directly from a poster for Andy Warhol’s film Chelsea Girls. And, instead of the band being short-lived due to Princess Di’s death, Felt went on to put out another eight albums. That said, the band didn’t make it as big as they should’ve, apparently because John Peel didn’t like them (f— that guy).

Thank you, SpaceAce, for adding this album to The List. It’s a gem.

• Songlink: Felt – The Splendour of Fear
• Discogs: Felt – The Splendour of Fear

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/20/spaceace-sunday-felt-the-splendour-of-fear-1984-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #AndyWarhol #dreamPop #Felt #janglePop #LawrenceHayward #postpunk #SpaceAceSunday

As we began our in memoriam series with number 1026 in The List, today we look at the next next album SpaceAce submitted to this project, number 1027.

Denim was formed by English singer/songwriter/guitarist Lawrence Hayward, following the break-up of his band Felt (who we’ll meet next SpaceAce Sunday). I had never heard of either band before but, listening to this album, it makes total sense why SpaceAce loved this album, their first. The mix of great pop rock with satirical/not-so-serious lyrics echoes the tone of SpaceAce’s own bands (at least those I’ve heard), and it’s just good fun. My favorite bit on this album is the final track “I’m Against the Eighties”, particularly the background lyrics that cut to the very heart of the problem, i.e., calling out every individual year in the 80s. Listening to that song, I can imagine a sea of 30- and 40-something-year-olds at a Denim concert cheering when their year of birth comes up (or, perhaps, booing).

Denim released only one more studio album and a B-side compilation after this. Apparently what was to be the single on a third studio album to be released in September 1997, “Summer Smash“, was pulled because of Princess Diana’s death, and then the whole album release was cancelled altogether…and that was it for Denim. Not only is that, umm, weird, but on this day (October 11, when I am writing this) in 1997, Elton John’s tribute to Princess Di, “Candle in the Wind 1997”, topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts. That’s sort of a lot of unexpected Princess Di-adjacent content for an album spotlight here, if you ask me. On a better day/timeline we could maybe make some sort of joke about the untimely demise of Denim using Candle in the Wind lyrics, but I’m gonna cut myself off there.

Thanks SpaceAce for this bit of Britpop fun. You are missed, friend.

• Songlink: Denim – Back In Denim
• Discogs: Denim – Back In Denim

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/13/spaceace-sunday-denim-back-in-denim-1992-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1990s #Britpop #Denim #glamRock #LawrenceHayward #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is number 1025 in The List.

You might notice that, compared to the number for the previous SpaceAce Sunday, this one comes in quite farther down The List. SpaceAce’s intent with his original submissions for the project was largely to bring us all up to speed on what was going on in UK folk/folk rock in the 60s and 70s. While we still have a couple more from this area coming up in future SpaceAce Sundays, most of his later additions were trying to fill other gaps in The List that still remained after the dust had settled a bit.

I can’t remember the exact context,* but one day while chatting on Mastodon we were both shocked/appalled to realize that no one had yet added a Hüsker Dü album to The List – a Bob Mould album, but no Hüsker Dü. I could’ve picked one myself but SpaceAce volunteered as tribute. Turns out, he picked the same one I would’ve.

Zen Arcade is the second album from Hüsker Dü, and is both a double album and a concept album, a hardcore opera, if you will. If you’re new to this band or just wanting to relisten to something of theirs, you really can’t go wrong choosing an album, they’re all the correct choice. But, thanks to SpaceAce, the choice is made for us today.

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Songlink: Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
• Discogs: Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade

*Isn’t it ironic (don’t you think), seeing as “husker du” apparently means “do you remember”.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/06/spaceace-sunday-husker-du-zen-arcade-1984-us/

#1001OtherAlbums #conceptAlbum #hardcorePunk #HuskerDu #posthardcore #SpaceAce #SpaceAceSunday

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is the second studio album from Scottish psychedelic folk band The Incredible String Band, number 487 in The List.

For those who have seen my toots particularly around January, you may know that I’m a huge David Bowie fan. Around when he left us, I came across the list of 25 of Bowie’s favorite albums (as told to Vanity Fair in 2003), saved the list on my desktop, and added a few of the albums to my playlist/collection. However, after having to retire the ol’ laptop, I sort of forgot about that list, at least until yesterday, when I randomly put on Tucker Zimmerman’s wonderful Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman. And then, when I sat down today to take a listen to SpaceAce’s next submission, lo and behold, within a couple clicks around to look it up, there that list was again.

While I’d have loved to hear SpaceAce’s comments on this album, we’ll have to make do with Bowie’s:

O.K., here’s the album with the trippiest cover. Color’s all over the place on this one, a real eye dazzler. Probably executed by the art group known as “the Fool.” Pretty much locked into a time capsule for many years—it’s uplifting to find that this strange assortment of Middle Eastern and Celtic folk-mystic stuff stands up remarkably well now. A summer-festival “must” in the 60s, myself and T. Rexer Marc Bolan both being huge fans.

We’ll listen to the debut album of this band later down the road, as it’s also in The List. But, for now, in memory of our dearly missed friend (and Bowie), let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Songlink: The Incredible String Band – The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
• Discogs: The Incredible String Band – The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/09/29/spaceace-sunday-the-incredible-string-band-the-5000-spirits-or-the-layers-of-the-onion-1967-scotland/

#1001OtherAlbums #1960s #folk #folkMusic #psychedelic #psychedelicFolk #Scotland #SpaceAce #SpaceAceSunday #TheIncredibleStringBand