HELP ME IDENTIFY THIS CRAZY REGGAE BOOTLEG SINGLE: “IT’S IMPOSSIBLE” BY LEROY SMART

This was part of a bulk purchase from a Brooklyn, NY record shop that went out of business in the ’80s, which featured a cool collection of soul and reggae 45 singles that I’ve been selling on eBay in recent years. This particular title is unsellable, but I’m really curious as to its provenance as a former record shop person! Sound quality is just OK and the singer sounds like a very young LeRoy Smart, not the wonderful voice you’ll hear on YouTube or Spotify or the streamer of your choice. Shazam worked really hard (coughed & sputtered) to identified the singer & title, in fact I was surprised at the legitimate result, thus spiking my curiosity. Typical rough edges for Jamaican pressings of that era with absolutely no identification front or back, on any of the 50 examples that were included in the sale. Among the 3,000 plus 45s I picked up and frankly forgot about while in storage, this was the most bizarre title, if you can call it that since it does not have a printed title. Believe me I know about bootleg records and knew many bootleggers back in the day, although I avoided record counterfeiters (there’s a difference) like the plague. Please help me figure out who pressed this record and why? How was it marketed and was this a typical ploy to get around licensing issues!?

Hard-to-find 45 single THE DISTRACTIONS “TWENTY-FOUR HOURS” b/w “GHOST OF A CHANCE/LOVE IS NOT FOR ME”

Wishing The Distractions good luck in meeting their finance goal on Pledge Music and releasing their vinyl record / re-mastered CD / book project in the near future. They’ve almost reached their goal, so head on over and pledge at least $15 to download their 10 song sampler immediately and/or pre-order a version of their book-set collection, hand numbered and possibly autographed. http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/thedistractions

This project comprises 1 x vinyl + 3 x CDs housed in a 100+ page 12” hardback book, which includes virtually all of #1 Distractions music unavailable for decades (99% of it has never been digitized). That’s all sorted now, they’v gone back to the original analog reels and found the first generation masters as well as outtakes / alternative mixes / demos and some long-forgotten tracks as well. Only 500 copies of the Parabolically Yours book-set will be made available, a seriously limited edition that you’re not going to find anywhere other than Pledge Music (for pre-ordering) or if any left at HiddenMasters.net, meaning it won’t be possible to order via any other entity (eg Amazon or similar). By including more recent studio and live recordings, this will bring The Distractions story up to date. A goodly portion of everything collected for this project has never been heard before. A collector’s edition? It will be for me. http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/thedistractions

And my commercial for the much sought after but unavailable…“AND THEN THERE’S… THE DISTRACTIONS”

Original and unplayed, New Old Stock vinyl in near mint condition
Import 45rpm single (small hole)

“Twenty Four Hours”
b/w
“Ghost Of A Chance/Love Is Not For Me”

THAT1
Distributed by Rough Trade / Pinnacle
British Import 1981
7” 45rpm Single (small hole)

A recently found warehouse discovery of a few unplayed and very collectible copies of The DISTRACTIONS single on That Records.

US$ 13.99 + shipping

To buy this 7″ 45: http://ebay.to/1J0BBiW

The Distractions – one of the great ‘lost’ Manchester bands of the late 70s and early 80s; sharing stages with the likes of The Buzzcocks, Magazine and Joy Division. Their debut EP, You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That, released in 1979, led to a deal with Factory Records, who released the follow-up, Time Goes By So Slow. And then they went on to sign with Island Records.

As I plagarize from Wikipedia, what can I say about The Distractions: this fantastic band was originally formed in 1975 by college friends Mike Finney (vocals) and Steve Perrin (guitar), alongside Lawrence Tickle (bass) and Tony Trappe (drums).

The band changed tack with the advent of punk in 1977 and Finney and Perrin recruited a new line-up of Pip Nicholls (bass), Adrian Wright (guitar), and Alec Sidebottom (drums, formerly of The Purple Gang), mixing punk rock with sixties influences.

In a 1979 newsletter, Tony Wilson described the band: “Reminds the management of AustinTexas 66, but take your choice”. The band had already signed a deal with Island Records in September 1979, before the Factory single was released, according to Wilson “due to irresistible desire to play the game”. Two further singles were issued – It Doesn’t Bother Me and Boys Cry before the release of Nobody’s Perfect, the groups first album that, ultimately, received significantly more media plaudits than it achieved sales.

Shortly after the album’s release Perrin quit the band to be replaced by former Ludus guitarist, Arthur Kadmon. The group continued to tour (including playing shows in New York) but eventually disbanded in 1981. Before their end, the band included another latter member, Debbie Shure.

After the band imploded, Finney went on to work with the Secret Seven and the Art of Noise; Kadmon played briefly with The Fall and later went to work in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, who released a single in 1987; Pip Nicholls went to play drums in Glass Animals, alongside Miaow singer Cath, while Sidebottom founded and continues to lead the Republic of Swing samba band.

During early 2010, Finney and Perrin revisited material that had been recorded during a brief reunion in the late ’90s (when they also played selected shows in Manchester and Liverpool) resulting in their Black Velvet EP which was released via Occultation Recordings.

Perrin and Finney were back in the studio in June 2010 to record new material – this time for a 12″ vinyl EP, Come Home featuring “Lost”, “Nicole” and “Oil Painting”. The session was recorded at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool and engineered by Rich Turvey of The Wild Swans, who also played guitar and keyboards. Stuart Mann played drums on the recording, which was issued by Occultation in November 2010.

The following summer, and following some geographically-challenged songwriting, Perrin and Finney alongside Arash Torabi together with producer Nick Halliwell (The Granite Shore) entered a studio in Exeter. Four days later, they’d cut the basic tracks for a new Distractions album; at that time simply entitled 2.

The Distractions’ second album, The End Of The Pier was released by Occultation in August 2012. At the same point, the group played their only UK dates of the year – two sell-out shows in Salford.

“AND THEN THERE’S… THE DISTRACTIONS”

“Twenty Four Hours”
b/w
“Ghost Of A Chance/Love Is Not For Me”

Original and unplayed, New Old Stock vinyl in near mint condition
Import 45rpm single (small hole)

US$ 13.99 + shipping

To buy this 7″ 45: http://ebay.to/1J0BBiW
Or any of Sunsync’s other 45’s being offered on eBay: http://ebay.to/18XHjpC

CONDITION:New Old Stock (NOS) – UNPLAYED
Record: NM; Picture Sleeve: NM

HEADPHONE SCULPTURE

EARPHONIA AND ART… 

The confluence of portable music AND headphones as a fashion statement AND high resolution music files AND HD streaming services AND the surprising resurgence of vinyl record albums AND turntables AND affordable audiophile equipment AND DIY vacuum tube rolling have coalesced into a music equipment trend hard to name. Call it personal audio or computer audiophile or desktop stereo or cutting edge portable – whether you take it with you, keep it in your office or connect it to your home system – it boils down to people hearing quality sound revealing layer upon layer of music they never truly heard before. The result is a quickly expanding market for headphones: over-ear, on-ear, in-ear, wireless bluetooth,  high-end planars, all of which need a place to rest when you’re not using them. You don’t let a $200, $500, $12oo or $5000 piece of equipment sit on a shelf getting scratched or lopsided or worn, so you need a place to store them when you’re not using them. Many digital audiophiles own multiple headphones and are already paying decent money to keep them organized.

…not to mention this market is on the cutting edge of new retail models beyond Amazon or brick/mortar stores:

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/edge-headphone-stand

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/woo-audio-adjustable-headphone-stand

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/sieveking-omega-headphone-stand

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/firestone-audio-headphone-stand

and the venerable Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=headphone%20stands

Plus the Silverstones: http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=490&area=en

UPDATE: Bayou Corne is the biggest ongoing ecological disaster in the United States you never heard of

One night in August 2012, after months of unexplained seismic activity and mysterious bubbling on the bayou, a sinkhole opened up on a plot of land leased by the petrochemical company Texas Brine, forcing an immediate evacuation of Bayou Corne’s 350 residents—an exodus that still has no end in sight. The sinkhole initially spanned about an acre. Today it covers more than 24 acres and is an estimated 750 feet deep. It subsists on a diet of swamp life and cypress trees, which it occasionally swallows whole.

It celebrated its first birthday recently, and like most one-year-olds, it is both growing and prone to uncontrollable burps, in which a noxious brew of crude oil and rotten debris bubbles to the surface. But the biggest danger is invisible; the collapse unlocked tens of millions of cubic feet of explosive gases, which have seeped into the aquifer and wafted up to the community.

Texas Brine’s operation sits atop a three-mile-wide, mile-plus-deep salt deposit known as the Napoleonville Dome, which is sheathed by a layer of oil and natural gas, a common feature of the salt domes prevalent in Gulf Coast states. The company specializes in a process known as injection mining, and it had sunk a series of wells deep into the salt dome, flushing them out with high-pressure streams of freshwater and pumping the resulting saltwater to the surface. From there, the brine is piped and trucked to refineries along the Mississippi River and broken down into sodium hydroxide and chlorine for use in manufacturing everything from paper to medical supplies.

What happened in Bayou Corne, as near as anyone can tell, is that one of the salt caverns Texas Brine hollowed out—a mine dubbed Oxy3—collapsed. The town blames the regulators. The regulators blame Texas Brine. Texas Brine blames some other company, or maybe the regulators, or maybe just God.

http://www.motherjones.com/print/230531

(SOLD) Boat for Sale: 2003 SeaSwirl Striper 2101 Dual Console 200HP Outboard

SORRY SOLD – SOME VERY HAPPY PERSON JUST BOUGHT AN INCREDIBLE BOAT!!

2003 SeaSwirl Striper 2101 Dual Console
200HP Evinrude outboard with approx 100 hours

Excellent condition, well maintained
E-Z Loader single axle trailer

Located close to US95; 1 hr North of Philadelphia   

Description:
-Garmin GPSMAP 3010C (10” color GPS)
-Garmin GSD 20 sounder module
-full instrumentation w/ compass
-locking cabin door w/ porta potti
-deck washdown
-30 gallon aerated live/bait well
-huge in-deck storage locker w/ pump
-two 16 gallon fish boxes w/ drains
-tackle drawer
-full set of bow cushions
-Sunbrella full canvas
-105 gal fuel tank
-dual batteries
-dual aft jump seats
-dual storage compartments for fishing rods
-rod holders
-anchor locker
-pull up cleats for bumpers
-auto bilge
-boat cover
-no bottom paint

Original Owner
Extremely well maintained
Motor flushed after each use
New plugs and tune prior to winter storage
Stored high & and dry during H. Sandy
Currently shrink wrapped
Shows extremely well

Versatile Boat: A very robust and seaworthy ocean capable 2003 SEASWIRL STRIPER 2101 DUAL CONSOLE, powered by 200 HP Evinrude two stroke, fuel injected outboard motor, with unsurpassed flexibility combining the best features of a fishing boat and a very comfortable family bow rider for up to 8-people. Having been used only a few times each summer since new for cruising, it has approximately 100 hours on the engine and is in excellent condition.

$28,500.00 [sold – thank you Striper Owner’s Forum]

http://seastriper.com

Touring Charlie Churchman’s TeleCine Engineering Wonderland

Thanks Charlie and Ed for a fun and informative visit, and especially for the great work. The transfers of my 50-60 year old 3″ 8mm home movie reels were a kick to watch, so I’m especially thanking you for my sisters in advance of them watching their young selves on DVD. But that’s child’s play compared to Ed syncing the sound to my circa 1970 16mm film of DC’s Lloyd McNeill and the group Love, Cry, Want – that was really well done. Video archeology at it’s best.

It’s kind of hard to fathom how much modern and antique equipment you fit in your studios. I realize the barn is pretty large, but the amount of equipment could fill a building fourfold bigger. Just breathtaking… It’s a good thing there is an elevator to move the new machines to the production studio on the second floor not to mention the heavy cartons full of reels that move between floors. Who would think any of this is contained in what from the outside simply looks like an old barn? And what barn has a diesel backup power generator and an elevator??

I cannot even begin to count all of the machines on hand: several Thompson Spirit DataCines (now DFT), half a dozen 2″-video Quadraplex telecines, Scream, Lipsner Smith ultra sonic film cleaner, ovens, monitors, every kind of broadcast video deck.  Watching Charlie demonstrate the grain reduction, color correction and emulsion scratch eliminator blew my mind – so impressive. Restoring 2″ broadcast video tape from the 60’s and 70’s – amazing.

Then there’s the equipment graveyard. Providing parts to the industry, repairing your own equipment, hacking your machines to do what the manufacturer says they cannot do, even hot rodding your jukeboxes, incredible fun. You could fill a museum with this collection.

I can see why broadcast studios and companies like HBO drop big loads of old film and 2″ video reels for you to process. What a unique and interesting profession you’ve chosen to do for 30+ years.

http://www.telecineservice.com/

So for my friends, here’s a brief tour of the joint located just outside of Philly, taken with my handy iPhone:

STARDUST

Mischa Rozema’s gorgeous imagination of unmanned spacecraft, Voyager 1 (launched in 1977), traveling through the outer solar system. The probe is the furthest man-made object from the sun and witnesses unimaginable beauty and destruction, not at all scientifically correct but instead a purely artistic interpretation of such events..

Bayou Corne: One of the Most Under Reported Ecological Disasters in the USA

Down in Southern Louisiana, the salt dome under Bayou Corne has collapsed creating a massive sinkhole, which effectively and progressively is destroying the bayou itself, the neighborhoods and miles of forest surrounding it. Only a few bloggers and local newspapers seem to be following the events as they unravel, and the emergency repair work seems to be futile. Remember this folks, this is going to become a huge story in the not too distant future. People, who bought homes unaware of the dangerous storage facilities that were hollowed out under their land, have been evacuated from their homes and face the possibility of losing them through no fault of their own. Insurance companies won’t renew their insurance, while the mortgage companies insist the homes must be insured. And they cannot even live in their own homes. Beyond the human toll, the effect on the environment is immeasurable as diesel, methane and other large quantities of toxic materials continue to migrate through the waterways. Just looking at the videos and pictures doesn’t begin to show the devastation below the surface. This sinkhole demonstrates the careless practices of the companies that manage and profit from the U.S energy economy; their total disregard for people and our environment. No surprise, we’re just here to feed their coffers.

http://www.MrCometWatch.com  provides succinct and revealing commentary:

To learn more, follow this blog: http://assumptionla.wordpress.com

FYI from the official Assumption Parish website:   On May 31st of this year, parish officials were notified of areas of bubbling spots in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou waterways. Early on, it was determined that the bubbling was caused by a release of natural gas and not “swamp gas”. Monitoring for carbon monoxide, H2Sm and Lower Explosive Levels (LEL) at the bubbling spots began on June 22, 2012. During this monitoring, no dangerous levels were detected. Residents within the community experienced and reported tremors and the parish requested the assistance of USGS in determining the locations and probable cause(s) for this seismic activity. USGS immediately detected seismic activity through their monitors and began recording this data; however, no probable cause was able to be detected.

Early in the morning on Friday, August 3, 2012, Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Director John Boudreaux was notified by local industry that a sinkhole had formed overnight in the swamp in the area. The hole was discovered after a strong diesel smell was experienced in the proximity of the sinkhole. On that same day, parish officials called for a mandatory evacuation of residents in the community and parish officials requested the assistance of state agencies in the activities involved in this emergency.

Nuggets: Proto-Handbook for ’70s Punk Revolution

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a groundbreaking compilation album of American garage rock singles released in the mid-to-late 1960s. It was assembled byJac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records, and Lenny Kaye, later lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. The original double album was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term “punk rock“. It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976 and more recently as an expanded four-CD box set in 1998.

Jon Savage, in his history of the UK punk rock scene, England’s Dreaming, cites Nuggets as a major influence on punk bands and includes it in his essential punk discography, alongsideIggy and the Stooges‘ Raw Power.

Many other compilation albums took their cue from Nuggets, including the Pebbles, Rubble – 20 volumes of mainly UK psychedelia released in the 1980s – and Back From the Grave series.Nuggets spawned an entire cottage industry of small record labels dedicated to unearthing and releasing obscure but worthy garage and psychedelic rock music from the 1960s.

In 1998 Rhino brought the original LP to CD, reproducing the original song sequence and liner notes. However, rather than releasing a single-disc release of the original LP, Rhino put the original disc in a box set with three other discs, an extra 91 songs in total that were not on the original LP. Contrary to popular belief, many of the songs were American Top 40 hits: more than a third of the original Nuggets would fall into that category, while Rhino’s expanded set featured such smash hits as “Incense and Peppermints” by Strawberry Alarm Clock (#1), “Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen (#2), “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (#2), “Little Bit o’ Soul” by The Music Explosion (#2), and “Time Won’t Let Me” by The Outsiders (#5). “Louie, Louie” and “Farmer John” are the only recordings that fall outside the set’s stated time frame of 1965-1968; one having been released in 1963 and the latter having been released in 1964.

In 2006 in Europe (and again in 2012 worldwide), Rhino released a remastered version of the original album on a single compact disc in a miniaturized replica of the original gatefold sleeve. This version was also released (in 2012) in double album LP and digital formats. The 2012 version included updated release notes from Kaye and Jac Holzman.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 196 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[3]

In the mid-to-late 1980s, Rhino released a series of fifteen albums that bore the Nuggets name. The first twelve of these albums each focused on either a specific garage-rock subgenre or location, while the last three took a more global approach. This series provided much of the source material for the box set.

In 2001, Rhino released Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969, a four-CD box set. While the original Nuggets focused on the American scene, the second compilation shifted its focus to the rest of the world, collecting cuts from the United Kingdom (such as the Pretty Things and Small Faces), Australia (The Easybeats), New Zealand (The La De Das), Canada (The Guess Who and The Haunted), Japan (The Mops), Iceland(Thor’s Hammer), Peru (We All Together) and Brazil (Os Mutantes).

In 2004, Rhino released two more compilations using the Nuggets title, Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults and Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults. Both discs were released through Rhino’s internet-only label Rhino Handmade in limited pressings of 7500 each.

Rhino also released a four-CD set of recordings by bands influenced by the original Nuggets, titled, Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era, 1976-1995, in late 2005.

India’s Rice Revolution Beats Out GMO & Herbicides

India’s Rice Revolution beats out GMO, herbicides and other destructive agriculture systems

The “super yields” are entirely down to a method of growing crops called System of Rice (or root) Intensification (SRI). It has dramatically increased yields with wheat, potatoes, sugar cane, yams, tomatoes, garlic, aubergine and many other crops and is being hailed as one of the most significant developments of the past 50 years for the world’s 500 million small-scale farms.

Using only farmyard manure and without any herbicides – an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice was grown on one hectare of land. This was big news with rice the staple food of more than half the world’s population of seven billion ~ big news.

India innovates common sense solutions, while the West believes it can engineer itself out of anything… that is a flaw that may well prove fatal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/16/india-rice-farmers-revolution