So the world is on fire in like every way imaginable but the need for shameless self-promotion lives on!

I have a podcast now! I’ve teamed up with Retronaut Jeremy Parish and fellow music geek Elliot Long to work on Alexander’s Ragtime Band – a podcast all about prog rock (the one true music genre). You can listen to the first episode for free over at our Patreon page and if you like it, toss a few bucks our way so we make even more episodes about songs that have 20 minute keyboard solos.

But if you don’t like prog (for some strange reason) and would rather me ramble on about lubriciously obscure music, don’t worry this blog isn’t going anywhere.

Transmission
Telstar
Happy Holland
This is the second version of “Telstar” that I’ve shared on this blog. The first was by Japanese prog/jazz keyboardist Yutaka Mogi. That was quite an obscure track. This one even moreso. I don’t think that this has ever been shared online ever. Damn shame. It’s dope.

This is by the Dutch artist Transmission, also known as Martin Agterberg. This is his only release as Transmission, and was a single that he put out in 1977. I bought it because I recently discovered the first two solo albums that Agterberg put out under his own name, Flyer and Synshine, and dug them quite a bit. The dude has a vibe to his work, sometimes reminiscent of the Berlin School but other times really bombastic and over-the-top. I’ll probably end up sharing some of it in the future.

I really, really love this version of “Telstar.” It’s probably my favorite to date aside from the original by The Tornados. “Telstar” is a song that screams “give me a drum machine and a sequencer so I can truly come alive” and Agterberg obliges, delivering one of the most purely electronic versions of the song that had been released to date (the drumming might be acoustic, hard to say). Aside from the nearly 100% electronic production, it doesn’t vary all that much from the classic original, because why fuck with something that doesn’t need to be fucked with?

The b-side, “Happy Holland,” is…well…less good. It feels like the theme song to a 1970s Dutch game show, or the background music to a particularly unfunny Benny Hill sketch or something. Music shouldn’t be allowed to be this bouncy. This is criminal bounciness. I kind of hate it and I kind of love it.

Jim O’Rourke
Thanks But No Thanks (Sparks Cover)
I recently picked up an obscure compilation from 1999 called Drive From 2000. On the obi strip it advertises itself as a collection of Japanese electric pop music – so of course it opens with American Jim O’Rourke covering fellow Americans Sparks’ glam rock classic “Thanks, But No Thanks.”

At least the liner notes by the album’s producer explain the odd inclusion. Apparently the producer saw O’Rourke DJing in Japan (O’Rourke has lived here since 2000 or so), found out that he loved Japanese new wave music, and asked him to contribute a track. When he found out that O’Rourke loved Sparks, he asked him to perform a Sparks cover because he liked Sparks too. Kind of a cute story.

I wanted to see if this cover by Jim had made its way to other compilations or releases, and it seems that it’s still exclusive to this release. However, in doing my research, I found that Jim has, on multiple occasions, made his love for this track abundantly clear. Here’s a 2011 Tumblr post where he declares that “Thanks But No Thanks” might have one of the best guitar breaks ever written, and here’s a video of him performing the track on stage kind of half-live/half-karaoke style.

I get a big Jack White in High Fidelity vibe there. Love it. Anyways, this cover is FUCKING RAD. He absolutely nails the frantic energy of the original and it’s clear that the dude is having just as much of a blast singing it in the studio as he was on stage in that clip.

I haven’t fully digested the rest of this album yet, but I hope to share more of it in the future.