Re Search #14: Incredibly Strange Music, Volume I (Re Search ; 14)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 208 pages
• Published by: Re/Search Publications September 3, 1993
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0940642220
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0940642225
• Book Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
Skip the editors' gee-whiz introduction that justifies their mania for kitschy LP records of the '50s, '60s and '70s, and go right into the 14 amusing interviews with collectors and practitioners of the music. Many of the sounds talked about here really aren't "incredibly strange" but simply of their time: Martin Denny's faux-Hawaiian exotica, Gershon Kingsley's Moog synthesizer hits, and surf and stripper music. It's not the artistry (a suspect word to the Re/Search people) that went into making these records but rather the collector's enthusiasm for the object and its meaning that is the leitmotif here. No matter whether it's Mickey McGowan, proprietor of the Unknown Museum in Mill Valley, Calif., getting hot about bird recordings or women's studies academic Lynn Peril speaking with cautious avidity about her sexploitation-music collection, these people transmit heat and light about a hunk of American ephemera which nonetheless retains cosmic significance for them. It's hard to guess why Eartha Kitt is one of the 14, but otherwise Re/Search editors Vale and Juno pick the perfect cross-section representatives of the dying vinyl culture. Volume 2 available in early 1994.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
This is the second volume of the publisher's very popular Incredibly Strange Music series (LJ 3/15/93). Editors Vale and Juno's interview format allows the collectors to discuss their favorite strange records and how they found these treasures. Several of the interviewees are the performers who produced the "strange music," notably Yma Sumac and Ken Nordine. Robert Moog's History of electronic music is particularly interesting. Jello Biafra, a performer, collector, and freedom of information activist, details many facets of his collection, including exotica, strange country, apocalyptic, and international music. The first volume is not a prerequisite for the current edition. Like most titles from RE/Search, this will appeal to the Generation X crowd who may feel disenfranchised by traditional publishers. Recommended for public libraries with interesting patrons.
A. Arro Smith, San Marcos P.L., Tex.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This is the definitive book on thrift store music finds. Of course, because of its publication it's become increasingly difficult to make good thrift scores since it's opened up the field to many more collectors. But at least we've still got ebay! If the Velvet Underground can lay claim to launching 1000 bands, then the "Incredibly Strange Music" series is responsible for launching thousands of record collections. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)