Snakefinger ‎– "The Spot" (Ralph Records 7" ‎– RR7805) 1978

Snakefinger's solo debut single, attractively pressed in Blue vinyl, is his best and most commercial tune. Should have fit right in with the Post-punk flood very nicely,especially in his native UK. Anything in coloured vinyl nailed to the wall of yer local pop emporium got bought pronto, so one imagines that this shifted a few units.
'Meet The Residents' favourite "Smelly Tongues" gets a Lithman overhaul on side B to further add to this 7 incher's cred.

DOWNLOAD on the spot HERE!

Snakefinger ‎– "Manual Of Errors" (Ralph Records ‎– SN 8203) 1982

Not Lithman's best album, but still ahead of the pack by some margin in invention and creepy quirkiness. "You Sliced Up My Wife" is one of Snakefinger's best tunes, and its got classic 1980+ porno graphic's style artwork. So its a thing of great barely fathomable beauty.
After this he went on to do some awful blues stuff,in between guesting for the Residents, leading up to his untimely death in 1987.

Tracklist:
Yeti: What Are You? 4:01
Beatnik Party 3:42
The Garden Of Earthly Delights 3:00
You Sliced Up My Wife 1:59
I Followed George's Dream 5:16
Bring Back Reality 5:06
Shining Faces ("I Am Nino") 2:19
Eva's Warning 4:33
Private Universe / The Life On Nebulov 7:25

DOWNLOAD manually without error HERE!

Snakefinger ‎– "Greener Postures" (Ralph Records ‎– SN-8053-L) 1980

Snakefinger was on a roll ,post 1975, once Chilli Willi had run its course.
His second solo album for Ralph is at least the equal of "Chewing Hides The Sound", with more quirky but strange pop songs. Hummable but creepy, a rare combination indeed.

Tracklist:

Golden Goat
Don't Lie
The Man In The Dark Sedan
I Come From An Island
Jungle Princess
Trashing All The Loves Of History
Save Me From Dali
Living In Vain
The Picture Makers Vs. Children Of The Sea

DOWNLOAD from the greener pastures of the past HERE!

Snakefinger - "Chewing Hides The Sound" (Ralph Records - SNK 7909) 1979

Even though we saw pictures of Snakefinger, and knew he was in abysmally bad pub rock group Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, there was still an aire of mystery about him. Like most artists featured on the official Buy or Die innersleeve that accompanied all Ralph releases up to 1982.
The music is typically inventive and features the trademark harmonised, pitch shifted Snakefinger guitar sound, that adorned most Residents records from that golden period.
Naturally there are many Resident contributions to this fine LP, which is justified as they were heavily  indebted to Phillip 'Snakefinger ' Lithman for his many musicianly interjections on their best recordings. As he could actually play an instrument, he was essential to compliment the Residents masterly,and monophonic, use of 'wrong notes'. They are both greatly missed, as Phil Lithman died (for real) in 1987, and the Residents died Artistically) around 1983-ish. Reside in Peace both of you.

Tracklist:

The Model 3:39
Kill The Great Raven 3:05
Jesus Was A Leprechaun 2:00
Here Comes The Bums 2:51
The Vivian Girls 2:59
Magic And Ecstasy 2:51
Who Is The Culprit And Who Is The Victim? 2:59
What Wilbur? 2:35
Picnic In The Jungle 4:00
Friendly Warning 2:39
I Love Mary 2:33
The Vultures Of Bombay 3:06

DOWNOADing reveals the sound HERE!

Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers ‎– "Bongos Over Balham" (Mooncrest ‎– CREST 21) 1974

What are the odds that two bands can exist with the words Chilli, Red, Hot, and Peppers in their group moniker, and both be so skin crawlingly awful?
This outing by Snakefinger's Pub Rock group isn't as terrible as the debut, less countrified with a hint of something more rocky.....just a hint mind!
They are  now a group, having recruited other musicians, including one Pete Thomas; soon to be one of Elvis Costello's Attractions.
Snakefingers distinctive guitar style can be heard all over this one, which would find a natural home on the Residents classic pre 1983 records.

Tracklist:

Choo Choo Ch' Boogie 3:29
We Get Along 3:01
Desert Island Woman 5:23
All In A Dream 3:54
Fiddle Diddle 2:50
Breathe A Little 2:45
Truck Driving Girl 2:12
Jungle Song 3:61
Midnight Bus 2:18
Just Like The Devil 2:46
9-5 Songwriting Man 3:38

DOWNLOAD some hillbilly music from Balham HERE!

Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers ‎– "Kings Of The Robot Rhythm" (Revelation Enterprises Ltd. ‎– REV 002) 1972

From its slightly racist cover, to the unpleasant hippie photo's on the inner, this music makes me wanna puke! .....but......it bizarrely has a Residents connection in the form of Phillip "Snakefinger" Lithman, who was one of those dirty hippies featured in the photos herein!
After hanging round with the Residents in Frisco, Phillip returned to the UK in time for the early Pub Rock scene ,and formed Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers as a duo, with another hippie. At this time Pub Rock was primarily concerned with trying to be an american redneck, this didn't exist in the UK, as an alternative to the topographic oceans of Prog Rock that were prevalent at the time. After listening to this I was sent scrambling for my copy of "Tales of Topographic Oceans" by Yes, it was that shit! The ironic thing is that this stuff is just as 'muso*' (*a derogatory term for a technically gifted and terminally boring Musician) , as a Rick Wakeman concept album, but less authentic. At least Rick was being himself. Country music is and has always been a crime against Culture, up there with the destruction of Palmyra in Syria.
This casts an uncomfortable shadow over who or what the Residents were in 1971!?
I remember Bill Drummond recounting seeing the Residents 'Mole Show' and spying a tuft of long thick curly hair protruding from the base of the eyeball mask of a Resident. This, quite rightly, destroyed his admiration of said group somewhat. I'm not quite that fickle, but it does take the shine off their peerless work up to that mole show watershed in the Residents career.
Thankfully Pub Rock got a bit more mean and exciting in the years after this, with the rejection of this Bluegrass nonsense and a return to some balls to the wall R'n'R!
Then Snakefinger cut his hair ,shaved off that moustache, and help create some of the most bizarre pop music ever made.

Tracklist:

Living Out My Suitcase
The Ballad Of Chilli Willi
Window Pane
I'll Be Home
Nashville Rag
That's All Right Mamma
Drunken Sunken Red Neck Blues
Get Your Gauge Up Let Your Love Come Down
Happy You/Fiddle Dee
Astrella From The Astral Planet
Paper Mill
A Page In History

DOWNLOAD this to the Hague for crimes against humanity HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Blorp Esette Volume One" (Los Angeles Free Music Society ‎– LAFMS#05) 1977

The Iconic compilation from the abstract world of the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS),complete with faux naive  artwork by none other than Don Van Vliet; that very over-rated painter formerly known as Captain Beefheart, the very under-rated musician.
All the usual combinations of LAFMS members are here,plus an exclusive track from none other than, no not Don Van Vliet, but The Residents, from during the height of their creative summer.
It may have been 1977,but you won't find any Punk Rock on here; having said that, you won't find any Punk Rock as Punk Rock as this either.The boundaries of the definition of music are stretched like the loose elastic of Meat Loafs sweaty underpants. So much so, that when The Residents track appears, they sound like Top Ten material......which of course they should have been?

Track Listing:

A1 - 'Intro' - Unknown Artist
A2 - 'Neil Schneck' - Dr Odd
A3 - 'Her Father's Love' - Electric Willy
A4 - 'Somebody Pooped In Their Pants' - Daniel Stewart
A5 - 'The Lubricated Braggarts Countdown' - Cheezit Ritz
A6 - '(LA(WEBSTER7)0)' - Reet/Craig
A7 - 'Excerpt from "I Smell Smoke" - Smegma
A8 - 'Oktaaves' - Mr. Foon
A9 - 'Whoopy Snorp' - The Residents
A10-'Half magic' - The Patients
A11-'Outro/Wolf Loop' - Unkown Artist

B1 - '2or 3 unclaimed Negros Corpses' - The Professor
B2 - 'Still Life' - D.K.,Reet Meate
B3 - 'Japanese Super Heroes' - Le Forté Four
B4 - 'The return Of The Pyramidal Oinksnovs' - Gods Of The Pits
B5 - 'Ya Gotta Geek The Geeker' - Smegma
B6 - 'HEA/AOS' - ACE=1,c/s-Helena Armand
B7 - 'Reet Solo Real Bass' - Ju Suk Reet Meate
B8 - 'Microphobia' - Mr. Foon's Bandaloon
B9 - 'Just Don't forget,Frank Is The Real Boss' - Frank Bedal

DOWNLOAD one blorp essette HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Recommended Records Sampler" (Recommended Records ‎– RR eight & nine) 1982

One of thee most right angled compilations of the early eighties was 'the Recommended Records Sampler. Released when Post Punk was turning into that 'New Pop' shite, and the even shite-er Goth nonsense. This handmade double album was unashamedly 'Prog' in its outlook, a dirty word, even amongst the obviously 'Prog' section of the Post-Punk brigade. Post-Punk was basically Progressive music,but with different (better) clothes,artwork,and in short song format. It's amusing to note how many intellectually interesting and/or progressive new records were released in 1977 and1978( doesn't include proggers from before punk broke). Probably only Throbbing Gristle,The Residents and Pere Ubu in '77, and Wire,Cabaret Voltaire,and PiL in '78? A Brain was not a obligatory requirement in Punk Rock,and neither was musicianship.All the big Punk Groups of '76 had prog fans as integral members (including Rotten),and some of them became the key players behind the post-punk-prog groups. The avalanche started from 1979 onwards,and continued to mutate up to 1982,when it began to sound as if the preceding five years hadn't happened.

Unknown to the new generation, the old guard of progressive music had carried on regardless,like the Henry Cow lot, and had evolved into the Rock in Opposition bracket; which is another way of saying 'Prog',but with a 'Post-Punk' edge.Like the NWOBHM,they took Punks urgency,and improved the older model for a modern,thinking,audience.

This set was definitely an eye-opener for me, with its glue and glitter sleeve, DIY artwork, and obvious anti-capitalist politics,and I noticed it had The Residents(with their best song),This Heat, and The Homosexuals on it, so it couldn't be Yes or ELP record; worth a punt.

Played this to death,and it helped me rediscover the Progger within,and still am today.

There's hardly a dull track on the four sides of this classic compilation,even the French bands are good?

Can't Recommend (Geddit?) this enough, even 32 years later.

I'll let Chris Cutler the man behind the label explain the reason for releasing this recording:
 "In 1982 Recommended was 4 years old, the catalogue had expanded and the label was firmly established; a sampler seemed an obvious and necessary next step. Compiling extracts from existing releases would have been boring, so I asked the most interesting groups under our umbrella to record something new. Most of them did. All the Rio groups appear, except for ETRON FOU LELOUBLAN who had broken up, and the sharp edge of the new generation of British bands is also well represented(THIS HEAT, THE WORK, THE HOMOSEXUALS, AMOS AND SARAH). But Europeans and Americans still predominate; the Japanese had not arrived yet. This record would have sounded very different 3 years later". "Intended on it's release to be a practical compendium, 25 years on this collection reappears as an indispensable document of the range and musical brilliance of a handful of left-field groups struggling to give shape to new musical vocabularies. The breadth of their imaginations is exemplary. And Inspiring." Chris Cutler, May 2008. 

Track Listing:

Side A:

Vogel: "Flaschenzug"
Faust: "Extract 5 from Faust Party Three: 'The Voice of the Pumpkin' "
Art Bears: "All Hail!"
Stormy Six: "Reparto Novità"
The Homosexuals: "Walk Before Imitate"
Joseph Racaille & Patrick Portella: "On ne Peut Plus Compter sur ses Doigts"
Feliu Gasul: "*"

Side B:

The Black Sheep: "Strangelove"
Univers Zero: "Influences"
Aksak Maboul & The Honeymoon Killers: "Boss de Crosses dans le Doulos"
The Work: "Houdini"
Henry Cow: "Slice"
Henry Cow: "Viva Pa Ubu"
Decibel: "Radio Extract"

Side C:

Art Zoyd: "Simulacres"
The Muffins: "Two Extracts from 'Chronometers' "
Heiner Goebbels: "Berlin Ku-Damm 12 April 1981"
Amos: "Steer Clear of England"
Conventum: "Commerce Nostalgique"
Hector Zazou & ZNR: "Vera C"

Side D:

This Heat: "Pool"
The Residents: "Walter Westinghouse"
R. Stevie Moore: "Pedestrian Hop" & "Copy Me"
Ron Pate: "Fun in the Fundus"
Picchio Dal Pozzo: "Uccelin del Bosco"
Robert Wyatt: "The Internazionale"

a DOWNLOAD is highly recommended so click HERE!

Various Artists - "Frank Johnson's Favorites" (Ralph Records RR8110) 1981

As selected by the Ralph records computer, a certain mr Frank Johnson(Oh those Zany chaps!). Here are his/her/its favourite Ralph Records recordings. Mostly obscure B-sides, and unreleased compositions from Ralph's band of weirdo's from around 1977 to 81. No Chrome on this one, but this is compensated for by a hefty number of Englishmen. San Francisco must have ran out of weirdo's!?

Great tracks by UK pub Rocker, Phillip Lithman, aka Snakefinger; unreleased gibberish from the medical men of Renaldo and the Loaf; a couple of Henry Cow connected numbers from Fred Frith and Art Bears; Swiss art pop from Yello; more MX-80 Sound avant rock riffage; and two decent singles from Tuxedo Moon (when they were still good).

Of course we also get a couple of excellent Residents B-Sides,which, naturally are the best, and weirdest ,of the bunch.

A great compilation to alienate your conformist friends,and to prove that you are an intellectual who can appreciate things from outside of outside the box.

Sleeve Notes:

Compilation of single B-sides and non-LP tracks selected by Frank Johnson, the Ralph Records computer (at that time):

Track A1: released as a single in 1980, never before on any LP,
Track A2: released as the B side to "Dancing In The Street" single (1980),
Track A3: never before released. Thanks to Melvyn for sitting still,
Track A4: released as a single in 1980, never before on any LP,
Track A5: released as the B side of "Satisfaction" single (1976), never before on any LP,
Track A6: released as the B side of "The Spot" single in 1978, never before on any LP,
Track B1: released as the B side of "Bimbo" single (1980), never before on any LP,
Track B2: released as the B side of "Someday You'll Be King" (1980), never before on any LP,
Track B3: released as the B side of "Man In The Dark Sedan" single (1980), never before on any LP,
Track B4: released as the second side of "The Beatles Play The Residents - The Residents Play The Beatles" single (1977), never before on any LP,
Track B5: released as the B side of "Rats And Monkeys" single (1979), never before on any LP,
Track B6: released as the B side of "What Use?" single (1980), never before on any LP.

Tracklist :

A1	–Tuxedomoon	Dark Companion	4:10
A2	–Fred Frith	What A Dilemma	3:12
A3	–Renaldo And The Loaf	Melvyn's Repose	2:05
A4	–MX-80 Sound	O Type	3:36
A5	–Residents, The	Loser = Weed	2:09
A6	–Snakefinger	Smelly Tongues	2:24
B1	–Yello	I.T. Splash	2:37
B2	–MX-80 Sound	White Night	4:17
B3	–Snakefinger	Womb To Worm	3:13
B4	–Residents, The	Flying	3:22
B5	–Art Bears	Collapse (Edited Version)	3:00
B6	–Tuxedomoon	Crash	5:26

DOWNLOAD frank johnson's favorites and make them your own HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Subterranean Modern" (Ralph Records ‎– SM7908) 1979

"Subterranean Modern was Ralph Records' first album involving music from anyone other than The Residents or Snakefinger. The idea was to widen Ralph's appeal by bringing a greater variety of styles into the label. To this end Ralph had four band submit contributions on the theme of "San Francisco". Each was required to include a version of <a href="/artist/Tony+Bennett">Tony Bennett</a>'s I Left My Heart In San Francisco. The four bands chosen were The Residents (of course), Chrome, Tuxedomoon, and MX-80 Sound..." (notes from The Residents website)

Another fantastic compilation with The Residents on it is the near perfect “Subterranean Modern”, which was the first release on Ralph to feature 'other' bands other than The Residents. What a magnificent quartet of examples from the crusty edge of the pop-pie we have here.

The proto-industrial punk of the beyond great Chrome, the proto alt-rock pre-post punk of MX80 Sound, the unclassifiable Residents (sigh!), and Tuxedomoon from when they were good,if not great!

This is the format that best showcases The Residents, like side one of 'Fingerprince; like 'Duck Stab',like 'The Commercial Album',like 'The Tunes of Two Cities'; amongst too few other examples from the eyeball headed ones vast back catalogue, that,quite frankly, after 1984 sucked bad! They were always better,touching on genius with the shorter avant-pop format than the stretched out concepts of, for example, Eskimo.Maybe 'The Big Bubble(part Four of the Mole Trilogy)' was their last good album.Also the over embracing of the 'latest' technology also fucked up the inventiveness......as it does with everyone. Here we have The Residents at their absolute peak of strangeness.

 

Tracklist: 

A1	–Chrome	Anti-Fade	3:52
A2	–Chrome	I Left My Heart In San Francisco	0:27
A3	–Chrome	Meet You In The Subway	5:15
A4	–MX-80 Sound	Lady In Pain	2:49
A5	–MX-80 Sound	I Left My Heart In San Francisco	1:52
A6	–MX-80 Sound	Possessed	4:54
B1	–The Residents	I Left My Heart In San Francisco	2:02
B2	–The Residents	Dumbo, The Clown (Who Loved Christmas)	2:07
B3	–The Residents	Is He Really Bringing Roses? (The Replacement)	2:34
B4	–The Residents	Time's Up	2:54
B5	–Tuxedomoon	I Left My Heart In San Francisco	1:03
B6	–Tuxedomoon	Everything You Want	4:14
B7	–Tuxedomoon	Waterfront Seat	4:28

DOWNLOAD from a modern subterranean paradise from the past HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Miniatures (A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces Edited By Morgan-Fisher)" (Pipe ‎– PIPE 2) 1980

"From the sleevenotes:
In 1979: Morgan-Fisher heard "The Goofing Off Suite"(by Pete Seeger), and got an idea...
In 1980: Invitations were sent out to a highly personal selection of creative artists, asking them to contribute
pieces of not more than one minute's duration, to what has turned out to be this extraordinarily eclectic album. "

This is sort of an 'Avant garde' kind of a compilation. Its full of strange bedfellows, like Kevin Coyne and Steve Miller;Half Japanese, and Michael Nyman;Pete Seeger and Ron Geesin? All squeezed together in several small boxes until they all become One. A conceptualised microcosm of the modern globalised world on one LP; except that 'Minatures' works and globalisation is killing the very thing that it is supposed to be 'helping'; eradicating culture, and creating an homogeneous cash grasping bland out, to benefit the Hyper-Rich uber class that will eventually wipe 'us' out and claim this rock for themselves.....if there's anything left of it?

The concept is that a diaspora of various muso's,from the full rainbow of musiciandom, and beyond. Through the visible spectrum,the infra red and Ultraviolet,into the microwave background. Provide a short tune, or composition, of around a minute in length. Then the compiler edits them together in chunks of approximately five minutes.Making a maxiture from the miniture.Then after the expansion from the minuscule, we get the contraction, after a short spell of silence, of the whole universe into a one minute summary of the whole record.

Any record that starts with a track called “Bum Love” simply has to be great? That ,and appearences from many luminaries of the DIY culture of 1980; David Cuningham,MarkPerry, Metabolist,Half Japanese. Rubbing Shoulders with serious muso's like Gavin Bryers, Nyman, Lol Coxhill,and Fred Frith.George Melly does a Dada sound poem(he was always a pretentious old cunt!),its got the great Andy Partridge on it, and isn't that Martin Chambers,the drummer from The Vacants? All this plus TheResidents,never ones to turn down a healthy concept, playing the best cover version of a Ramones tune ever!This was, after all, a less disciplined version of The Resident's “Commercial Album”,where every song finished at exactly 1.00 minutes on the dot.

Tracklist: 

		Band-1
A1	–Ollie Halsall & John Halsey	Bum Love
A2	–the Residents	We're A Happy Family / Bali Ha'i
A3	–Roger McGough	The Wreck Of The Hesperus
A4	–Morgan-Fisher	Green And Pleasant
A5	–John Otway	Mine Tonight
		Band-2
A6	–Pete Challis & Phil Diplock	My Way
A7	–Robert Wyatt	Rangers In The Night
A8	–Stinky Winkles	Opus
A9	–Mary Longford	Body Language
A10	–Andy Newman	Andy The Dentist
A11	–David Bedford	Wagner's Ring In One Minute
		Band-3
A12	–Fred Frith	The Entire Works Of Henry Cow
A13	–Maggie Nicols	Look Beneath The Surface
A14	–Joseph Racaille	Week-End
A15	–The Work	With Wings Pressed Back
A16	–Neil Innes & Son	Cum On Feel The Noize
		Band-4
A17	–Herbert Distel	Toscany In Blue (Last Minute)
A18	–Lol Coxhill	An End To The Matter
A19	–Ken Ellis	One Minute In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
A20	–Steve Miller	Alice
		Band-5
A21	–Norman Lovett	John Peel Sings The Blues Badly
A22	–Patrick Portella	Serrons Nous Les Coudes
A23	–George Melly	Sounds That Saved My Life (Homage To K.S.)
A24	–Robert Fripp	Miniature
A25	–Andy Partridge	The History Of Rock 'N' Roll
A26	–Phantom Captain	Breather
		-
		Band-1
B1	–Ron Geesin	Enterbrain Exit
B2	–Alejandro Viñao	An Imaginary Orchestrina
B3	–Quentin Crisp	Stop The Music For A Minute
B4	–Simon Desorgher	Tetrad
B5	–Ralph Steadman	Sweetest Love (Lament After A Broken Sashcord On A Theme Of John Donne)
B6	–R.D. Laing & Son	Tipperary
		Band-2
B7	–Trevor Wishart	Beach Double
B8	–John White	Scene De Ballet
B9	–Ivor Cutler	Brooch Boat
B10	–Hector Zazou	Do Tell Us
B11	–Michael Bass & Ellen Tenenbaum	A Miniaturisation Of Bartok's Sonata For 2 Pianos & Percussion (3rd Movement)
		Band-3
B12	–Martin Chambers	A Swift One
B13	–Bob Cobbing & Henri Chopin	Refreshment Break
B14	–Dave Vanian	Night Touch
B15	–Metabolist	Raging Poodles
		Band-4
B16	–Gavin Bryars	After Mendelssohn (137 Years)
B17	–1/2 Japanese	Paint It Black
B18	–Simon Jeffes	Arthur's Treat
B19	–Mark Perry	Talking World War III Blues
B20	–Michael Nyman	89-90-91-92
		Band-5
B21	–David Cunningham	Index Of Ends
B22	–Kevin Coyne	James, Mark & Me (In The Manner Of Tom Waits)
B23	–Etron Fou Leloublan	Hep!
B24	–Neil Oram & Ken Campbell  & Science Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool	The Minute Warp
B25	–Pete Seeger	Chorale From Beethoven's 9th Symphony

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