Hello and welcome to another episode of Vinyl-O-Matic. I am Your Old Pal Will. At long last, we conclude our journey down the river of albums with titles that begin with the letter C as in Charlie. Our listener challenge for this time around is... Top 3 songs about communication... speaking, yelling, calling. Let me know by leaving a note in the show notes, which you can find at vinylomatic(dot)com(slash)s05e18. We'll get things under way with a version of my favorite Harlan Howard song, as performed by Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero.

Bawk bawk bawk. That was the inimitable Spike Jones with his crazy interpretation of "Holiday for Strings" from a 1977 box set entitled The Craziest Show on Earth. Speaking of box sets, we heard "O Valencia" from the 10th Anniversary release of The Crane Wife with 4 lovely slabs of red translucent vinyl worth of material from 2016. Lawrence Welk and co brought us a snappy rendition of "Slow Poke" from the 1966 album Country Music's Great Hits on Dot Records. I like how it's "just" great, not greatest. Maybe they were planning a couple of follow ups. Everything started off with a sort of Guy Lombardo-esque version of "Heartaches by the Number" as performed by Connie Francis from her 1962 MGM album Country Music, Connie Style. I think if they replaced those horns with some fiddles, that version could have been elevated a good deal. But who am I? Just some crazy dude with a bunch of records. Speaking of crazy, here's Pylon.

Weren't expecting that one, were you? We'll get to that selection in a moment right after we visit the top part of that last set. We heard the title track from Pylon's 12" single Crazy on DB Records from 1981. Pylon was a bit of an intriguing mystery to me as an REM fan in the 80s. Once I saw Athens GA: Inside Out however, I was hooked! I am hoping that the Pylon Reenactment Society will still be around once live shows are a thing again in the After Times. Speaking of outstanding live bands that I hope to see perform in the After Times, we heard "Manna" by King Woman from the 2017 album Created in the Image of Suffering on Relapse Records. And yes, Pat Benatar brought us her cover of Kate Bush's classic "Wuthering Heights" from the 1980 multi-platinum album Crimes of Passion. Let us keep things moving along with some positive words from The Partridge Family.

Welcome back. That last one sort of reminded me of elements of The Smiths mixed in with elements of The The, and to pretty good effect too. "Bloc Bloc Bloc" is the name of the song by Orchestral Manœuvres in the Dark off of their 1985 album Crush. Before that we had some excellent Bay Area garage rock from The Bobbyteens fronted by Tina Lucchesi with Russell Quan on drums. The track we heard was "Jenny" from their 2004 album Cruisin' for a Bruisin' on Screaming Apple Records. Bananrama reminded us that it is indeed a Cruel Summer from their 1984 12" single. Getting that set started, we had some late-period Partridge Family and a number called "One Day at a Time" from their 1973 Bell Records album Crossword Puzzle. The original owner of this album helpfully filled in the crossword puzzle on the cover, which is good because I would definitely struggle with a number of those clues. And now for the sound of 2006.

Well that was mighty fine. If you cast your minds back to the top of that set, you will recall that we heard from Canseides Ser Sexy aka CSS with their 2006 number "Alala" from their self-title release on Sub Pop Records (SP 717 for those of you playing along at home). We had another song from 2006, "Cursed Sleep" by Bonnie Prince Billy from an EP of the same name on Drag City (DC316 for those of you playing along at home). We heard from guitarist Wymond Miles with "Passion Plays" from his 2013 solo album Cut Yourself Free on Sacred Bones Records. Neatly rounding out the show, we heard from Mitch Easter, Faye Hunter and Sara Romweber better known as Let's Active and a song from their 1984 IRS release Cypress entitled "Waters Part". This concludes our broadcast. If you have any questions or comments about what you have heard, drop me a line: will(at)vinylomatic(dot)com. Archived episodes, show notes and podcast platform links can all be found by pointing your browser in the direction of vinylomatic(dot)com. When next we meet, we embark upon albums with titles that begin with the letter D as in Delta. Join me, won't you?