Hello gentle listeners! It's me, Your Old Pal Will. I hope this episode of Vinyl-O-Matic finds you safe and sane. Once again, we continue our journey through albums that begin with the letter B as in Bravo. We have 2 songs and one album that contain the word "blind", which got me to thinking that this week's Listener Challenge would be Top 3 Songs about Sight (or lack thereof). A full audio-visual experience if you will, like "Sound and Vision" by David Bowie, "Stop Her on Sight" by Edwin Starr or "Beginning to See the Light" by The Velvet Underground. Leave a comment in the show notes, which can be found by pointing your browser in the direction of vinylomatic(dot)com(slash)s05e09. Let's start things off with some fictional psych-rock from 1970.

Big Time indeed. We just heard from Björk and the Fluke minimix of her solo debut single Big Time Sensuality. Before that, we had Bongwater with an excellent Ann Magnuson tune called "Love Song" from their final outing on Shimmy Disc entitled The Big Sell-Out from 1992. From 1989, we heard Fuzzbox and their cover of Yoko Ono's "Walking on Ice" on Geffen Records. In general, I like Fuzzbox, but it's so hard to get past that late 80s production sound. Starting the show off we had the fictional band Carrie Nations with "Sweet Talkin' Candy Man" from the Russ Meyers extravaganza Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, featuring real-life blue-eyed soulstress Lynn Carey on vocals. There are also some fun tracks by The Sandpipers and The Strawberry Alarm Clock on the soundtrack.
Next up, I double dare ya.

Welcome back to Vinyl-O-Matic. If you cast your minds back to the top of that last set, you will recall that we heard from the all-mighty Bikini Kill with their killer lead-off track "Double Dare Ya" from their eponymous EP on Kill Rock Stars released in 1992. That's KRS-204 for those of you playing along at home. We heard Billie Holiday with her rendition of "Everything I Have Is Yours", a song composed for the Crawford/Gable pre-Code musical Dancing Lady. After Billie, we heard "Bills, Bills, Bills" by none other than Destiny's Child. This was their first number 1 single on the Hot 100. Interested parties can also find a pretty fun cover by They Might Be Giants floating around on the interwebs. Finally, we heard one of the less-wankery songs from the very popular 1973 jazz fusion album Birds of Fire by Mahavishnu Orchestra. The track, "Miles Beyond", is saved by some solid grooves laid down by Billy Cobham and Rick Laird, plus a Rhodes assist by Jan Hammer to make the experience more palatable.
And now for some atmospheric doom folk.

Now that is some tasty power pop. That was King Tuff with "Headbanger" from the super rad 2014 Sub Pop release Black Moon Spell, SP1080 for those of you playing along at home. This copy happens to be on glow-in-the-dark splatter vinyl. Prior to that, we had a very Bond-esque sounding piece for a very sci-fi film. No, I'm not talking about the Moonraker original soundtrack, but the soundtrack to Disney's The Black Hole and a track called "Six Robots". Before that, Depeche Mode brought us "But Not Tonight" from their 1986 moody synth-pop classic Black Celebration. At the top of the set, we heard from Chelsea Wolfe and her song "Deranged for Rock & Roll" from one of my favorite albums from 2019. I'm talking about Birth of Violence on Sargent House, featuring some very doomy red/black galaxy vinyl.
Now for a little trip uptown, and a little heads up for those of you who may not be that into the heavier stuff... there is a grindcore track coming up in the next set but don't worry, it's only 51 seconds long. You can handle it, I know you can!

Hey friends, up at the beginning of that last set we had The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds with their instrumental version of Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" from a collection called The Black Motion Picture Experience released by Buddah Records in 1973. We heard a somewhat pointless extended remix of Talking Heads "Blind", a single from their 1988 album Naked. As forewarned, we heard from vegan grindcore masters Dead in the Dirt with a song called "Suffer" taken from their 2013 clear vinyl release on Southern Lord Records. Finally, we rounded things out with an extended version of Thomas Dolby's "Blinded by Science". The bass synthesizer on this classic is played by Matthew Seligman, who passed away just recently. Seligman was also a founding member of The Soft Boys.
That rounds things out for this episode of Vinyl-O-Matic. You can find show notes, archived episodes, signup for the Vinyl-O-Matic Amplifier newsletter, and all that kind of fun stuff at vinylomatic(dot)com. In our next adventure together we will continue down the river of albums that begin with the letter B as in Bravo. Join me, won't you?