Derek’s Dime Museum

It’s been a long time but the long awaited Norton extravaganza - The Big Itch Volume 8 has arrived on the Feral doorstep. It must take years to find tracks that live down to this fine compilation series. I took a listen to the vinyl release. Here’s the review. 9 outta 10 ! This won’t disappoint the rabid trash fiend!

Side 1

Track 1 - Radioactive Flip Flop

Amazing and Great - probably an acetate, could this ever have been a real release?!?

Track 2 - Mayonnaise

Swinging R&B track with a fat beat
Track 3 - King of the Radical Right

Can’t figure out the political leanings of this track. Far right - or a parody? Sounds like a pro Barry Goldwater song - with a garage band beat.

Track 4 - Hairy Lumpty Bump

What if the wall-of-sound girl groups recorded a monster song? Here’s the answer! Imagine the Supremes riffing on the “Monster Mash”. What the hell?! Great!

Track 5 - I’m a Devil

Weird stuff here. 60’s organ garage mixed with a girl group call-and-response and also it’s a laughing record! What could be better? “He’s a booger man? I’m the devil I am.”

Track 6 - Little Lila

Holy crap! Dark dark doowop. Feel your brain fry. Even though the song is kinda pleasant - there’s a bad undercurrent. Best scary doo-wop song since “Three Roses”.

Track 7 - Buzzard

Failed frat dance - and we’re the better for it!

Track 8 - Time Machine

Another exceedingly brilliant track with female backup vocals in the 50’s Decca style - dark rockabilly, probably from 1959. A guy builds a time machine to escape from his girlfriend.

Track 9 - The Lean Hornet

Instro-based parody track sounds like it’s from 1963. That’s a good thing. “Lean Hornet” title was probably coined from fear of a lawsuit. Highheel sneakers reference. Oriental sounding bridge…. superb

Side 2

Track 1 - Doomsday

Holy crap! New favourite! After the bombs drop, after the apocalypse, a guy tries to connect with his dead girlfriend. Or maybe they broke up? You be the judge! Less than 2 minutes. It’s amazing!

Track 2 - Doing the Roach

Do the Roach! Failed dance craze. Kill that roach pretty baby. Like the Rivingtons singing about pest control.

Track 3 - Zoola Zooky

Sort of a Grind-zombie monster type song. The entire song is about how ugly his girlfriend is. She’s hooky spooky! She’d scare a mirror right off of the wall! The vocalist is really trying - in all ways!

Track 4 - Soul Village

Hammering soul beat. Screaming Jay inspired sax instro with some vocals.

Track 5 - A Misfit

This has to be song poem. Norton has finally gone down to this level. But it’s a good one. “I’m human not a toy. ”

Track 6 - Double Chinese

Another group called The Sparks - as seen in Clockwork Orange and of course the brilliant Mael Brothers. Crude frat take on a favorite take-out meal. Lots of nonsense lyrics.

Track 7 - Dill Tickle

R&B sax rave up - this could never have been released, it’s so incredibly crude!!! Incomprehensbile lyrics. Norton saves the best for near the end. The female back-up vocals kind of make sense.

Track 8 - Sunset Rock

What if Ho-Ho Laughing Monster was a hippy sex track? Here is the answer! Amazing!

Track 9 - Yanks are the Champs

Bird is the Word becomes a crude promo chant for the New York Yankees - and they do the Trashmen proud. From the 70’s. Go Yanks!

Killer instro from The Busters - now and forever known as the evolutionary basis of The Cramps - “I’m Cramped”.  Blasts along at full throttle for 2 minutes and 18 seconds.  A brilliant and menacing tune.  I’m not knocking them, but in the early eighties I believed all The Cramps songs were originals.  That was until I started finding 45’s like this and discovered 45’s by Link Wray.  There was a followup single by The Busters that I also have that includes “Pine Tree Hop” but it doesn’t capture the magic of this first release.

Moons - Gammera - Date 2-1545

 Obscure tie-in to the US release of Gammera.  This radio promo sounds like Joe Meek producing a sci-fi tinged version of the Batman Theme.  Bleeps and bubbling sounds abound.  Crunchy guitar.  The A Side is the vocal version - but the only vocals are a girl group chanting Gammera over and over.  Pretty great!

Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers - Emulsified - Okeh 4-7174

 I’m happy to own this promo version of a truly bent tune.  “The Mighty Cravers” could possibly be the best band name of all time.  Rex Garvin just  screams and shouts through the magical 2-and-a-half-minutes that comprises Emulsified.  How could anybody write a tune about two liquids that won’t mix?  Garvin pulls it off.  Are you ready to be emulsified now!?

Donald & the Delighters - Wang Dang Dula - Cortland  C-109

 Another novelty Doo-wop again from the mighty Cortland label.  Issued in 1962.  A lot of these 45’s seemed to surface in the late seventies.  Where did all these Cortland disks come from?  It’s got that lowbrow Norton records sound.  And note the ballpoint pen on this label…  It says, “This is mine, you ain’t gonna steal my 45!”  Another great and greasy doo-wop number.

Eddie and the Showmen - Squad Car - Liberty F55608

 Amazing surf-instro tune complete with siren sounds.  This grinds along at a good pace.  I wonder if an audition version was the same as a promo?  I love the ballpoint pen liner notes on this original 45.  Is it suitable for the Benton Speed Bowl?  Was it good enough for Dean?  I think it was.  Let history be the judge!

The Ideals - The Gorilla - Cortland C-110

 Novelty Doo-wop  tune about dancing apes is really the basis for the Shandells frat-garage killer Go-Go Gorilla.    The Ideals 1962 original features deep bass vocals and a slow delivery.  The Shandells crank it up to 11 and add the requisite screams and some wild guitar.

My name is Derek Grime and I’ve been working in the film industry for 23 years, mostly as an animation director and/or visual effects supervisor.  

I’ve contributed to many productions, from Fight Club to Bride of Chucky.   I’ve worked on over 30 films and hundreds of hours of television.  At the moment I’m supervising season 2 of Monster Warriors.

In my off hours, I’ve taken to painting with acrylics and have returned to cartooning and illustration …which was my first love.   Before I got into the film business, illustration was my first job.  I’ve recently dusted off my old airbrush and even have my vintage Amiga 1000 working again.  It’s talking with a handmade serial cable (very very slowly with my PC).  The attached picture was drawn with a pressure sensitive tablet called the Easyl in 1986.  The Easyl was actually made of wood - which makes it kind of unique as a computer peripheral.  It’s cool for me to see pictures I created over 20 years ago.   Since the eighties style has come back - a lot of my old drawings have sort of a retro-cool feel to them. It’s like it’s 1985 all over again!  Amazingly, they are starting to sell again..

I have a huge collection of music and vintage paper ephemera.   I hope you find stuff you like here,  I’ll post trashy pictures of things that I like…  I hope you like them too.