Paul Clark & Friends Good to Be Home Seed 1975

Paul Clark & Friends Good to Be Home Seed Records 1975 CAT# PSR-004

Have you ever seen the Christian rock episode of South Park where Cartman starts a Christian rock band because he can't gain a following doing a regular rock band? That's pretty much what I think about the contemporary Christian music scene...bunch of fairly talented players who couldn't come up with enough originality in their rock band so they took their ideas, inserted the word "Jesus" and throw it at the kids not allowed to watch MTV in the Bible Belt. Whit that same outlook, I put it on the Jesus Music scene of the 70's, just a bunch of washed up dudes selling their tunes to an audience short on culture.

Part of that is probably still true, but the 70's Jesus Music scene was a bit deeper than today's contemporary scene. Jesus was much cooler in the late-60's and 70's than he is now. The music kind of shows that. There are legitimate hit tunes centering around Jesus from the 70's. Today, Kayne West thinks he's special for "Jesus Walks" (and he is, that beat is insane). But beside Kayne, point is, the 70's Jesus Music scene offers some hidden gems, some of which go for a lot of money. Kansas City had a pretty substantial foot-mark on the scene.

Mainly in Paul Clark, but also Phil Keagy. Paul Clark is native to the area and released a ton of albums, many of which can be found in dollar bins across the metro. Keagy, who is featured on this album, was one of the bigger names in the scene, wasn't native to the KC area, but moved to Shawnee to record much of his output.

As far as their music, it typically sounds genuine, these guys were always super-Christian and making music was only going to be about that. It doesn't sound forced, although, if you're not Christian, the albums can get uncomfortable and preachy. But, the music is good, they're good players, it's well recorded, and it fits in line with everything else in the 70's.

Looking at this specific album, Good To Be Home, it looks like you're in some hippie-folk. However, it's more of a soft-rock affair. Similar to singer/songwriter stuff coming out in the 70's. It's got it's moments, musically...it's just all the Jesus stuff throws me off.

FULL ALBUM

The Casket Lottery Moving Mountains Second Nature 2000

The Casket Lottery Moving Mountains Second Nature 2000 CAT #SN018

The pros will tell you this a typical sophomore album. They'll say it doesn't have the same energy as the debut. Or, the band started experimenting to add an edge to their sound, but hadn't fully developed into themselves. You can even read retrospective reviews that claim the follow-up is the one to own, it's the one that put all the pieces together.

Screw that, in 2000, the start/stop emo dynamic was morphing into garbage like Fall Out Boy. Yet, here's this Kansas City band smacking you in the face. Screaming and crying, even heavy metal gurgling at you that this style still had some moments to offer. The band's experimentation was the use of more progressive and metal influences that they threw into their sound. And it works. It works amazingly well. You could call it a little unbalanced compared to the later albums, but you could just as easily say it also adds an element of surprise to the album listening experience.

The kids know. This is a great LP. Regardless of what the "best" Casket Lottery album is, this stands with all their work on equal footing. There's also a great blurb written by Ed Rose about the recording of the album on the inner-sleeve. It's not legendary bathroom reading like the CD liners to Kill Creek's St. Valentine's Garage (if you have the CD, you understand), but it shows, Ed got it, too.

A Dead Dear

Breakups/Sex Offenders Split 7" Wound Up Records 1995

Breakups/Sex Offenders Split 7" Wound Up Records 1995 No Cat#

This is some mid-90's teen punk from the Kansas City area put out by Wound Up Records. The bands, The Sex Offenders and the Breakups, by appearance appear virtually identical, they took a photo in the same place, they kind of look the same, and they recorded at the same place (Red House Studios).

They do manage to separate themselves from each other with their respective sound. For one, the Sex Offenders feature a female singer that can swear with the best of them. The first track on their side, "40oz", manages to drop the F-bomb over a dozen times in what must be less than a minute long track. The Sex Offenders also take a more hardcore approach to their punk rock than the Breakups. They fall somewhere between the 80's suburban punk scene and DC, they'd probably like to be more DC, but they weren't good enough players.

The Breakups take a much more traditional punk approach, almost falling back on a really early Social Distortion sound. They're certainly punk damaged, but the underlying sound is still basic rock n' roll, just speed up and simplified. They aren't trying to break down the walls like the Sex Offenders.

NH band on Wound Up, the Tunnel Rats

But, the key to both bands is that they represent an honest attempt at punk rock. There were two teenage scenes in KC; the snotty suburban kids that took their cues from popular acts like Green Day and the short lived ska-revival and on the opposite side, the suburban kids that desperately wanted to be gutter punks that found Bad Religion and went backwards in time to get to the good stuff. They waved the DIY flag and had their parents never bought them a Honda, they would've liked Crass more. These kids represented that better side. In fact, the Sex Offenders were so punk rock, they went out of their way to give some, "No Thanx To" on their side of the lyric sheet by calling out the lamest teen punk bands in the 90s KC scene, the Gadgets.

The label, Wound Up Records, attempted to make a go at it in the mid-90's releasing multiple 7"s and a
cassette comp. They even attempted to get a roster with out-of-towners (featured to the side, but not discussed, because they're not local...).

The Sex Offenders 

21st Century Sound Movement S/T Gear Fab Records 1968/2012

21st Century Sound Movement S/T Gear Fab Records 1968/2012 CAT# GF262A

This is a bootleg of a mega-rare Kansas City garage record. The original 1968 album was put out by these Kansas City kids when they booked time with Damon Records and paid for some albums to be pressed. Damon Records was a custom label, which would mean the group likely only bought 50 to 100 copies and who knows if they got them all sleeved, they likely used many of them as demo to provide to booking agents and labels.

The label, Gear Fab Records, stated no one had a clue who these kids were, but since 2012 when this was released, they've been featured on a number of high-profile Numero Group comps. Members of the group played around in this band and others, the 21st Century Sound Movement also release a couple 45s if memory serves, one of which is tacked onto this bootleg.

The bootleg is true to the original as far as the packaging, the photo is the same, the non-descriptive backside that doesn't list members, even the label smacked on the colored vinyl is authentic to the original.

The photo is interesting, the statues are actually part of the William Volker Fountain in Kansas City that you can see in Brush Creek. They moved it in the 1990's from Theis Park, which as you can see in the photo, is in front of the Nelson Atkins. Today, the Atkins is thought of as the place with the shuttle cocks out front, but at one time, it had the Volker Fountain featured in the band's photo.

In terms of gargae rock, The 21st Century Sound Movement are pretty good. Which translates to an acquired taste in everybody's else's world. They are little weak on their pop-psych, vocals aren't great and they sound wimpy, but when they break out the guitars, it's a fuzzed out trip. Their heavy versions of "The House on of the Rising Sun" and Hendrix's "Fire" are pretty fun. There's a 7 minute cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", which in all it's amateurishness, is another highlight. The album was all covers apparently and the only original featured here on the bootleg was on the band's 45. Overall, the rarity, as with loads of garage rock, makes the band better than they actually were. There's solid moments, but its not like we're talking about the long lost 13th Floor Elevators here, were talking about some KC kids that bashed out some interesting covers.

The Original LP

The Outpost Family Band A Little Outpost of Heaven Outpost Records 1984

The Outpost Family Band A Little Outpost of Heaven Outpost Records 1984 CAT# NR15302

The Outpost Family Band is a legitimate family band that is still playing bluegrass throughout Kansas. On this 1985 LP, the band was made up of 5 players with additional add-ons from their family members. The wives might sing or play here or there and a number of tracks feature youngsters taking lead vocals. They play country styled gospel and traditional bluegrass.

It sounds like a gimmick and it probably should be, but the band sounds honest and real. They are from Winfield, KS, home of one of the nation's biggest bluegrass festivals, so they can't get all Ozarks, MO on people, it isn't a tourist town. This LP is a pleasant mixture of gospel tunes, traditionals and some decent originals. You can't crap on pleasant, it's a good album.

The liners do give some insight to the members who were very active throughout the 80's in the Kansas and area bluegrass and traditional stringed music scenes. Winning numerous awards throughout Kansas and nearby states.

A Little Outpost of Heaven

Marilyn Maye Step to the Rear RCA 1967

Marilyn Maye Step to the Rear RCA 1967 CAT# LSP 3897

Accidentally bought two copies of this LP, but to my surprise, I ended up with two different variants. One of which would appear to be an original 1967 black label RCA, the other, a later pressing on an orange RCA label. The later pressing would speak volumes to the Kansas City singers popularity, I mean, if they had to repress LPS, apparently there was once a substantial market for the singer.

The differences between these two are minimal, but as you can see in the photo, the original has a green backdrop while the other has a blueish color used in the backdrop. What's also odd is the label on the repress reads, "Make Mine Marilyn Maye" rather than the title, 'Step to the Rear.' The track listing and everything else is the same. Even the stampers in the dead wax read the same. Makes you wonder if perhaps RCA was initially going to repackage the LP as a budget title in a separate cover to capitalize on some television appearance or jump in popularity for the singer, but at the last second, just decided to use the same cover with a slight alteration.

It's not a bad album, in her show tunes style, she covers some hits of the day. "Ode to Billy Joe" is well, groovy. There's also this over-the-top, sultry, version of Bobby Hebb's "Sunny", which is kind of fun.

Step to the Rear

Ottawa University Quartet S/T Audio House 1975

Ottawa University Quartet S/T Audio House 1975 CAT# AHS 176F75

Picking this up, I was thinking it's either going to be either really great or just really boring. The year, 1975 is about right for some killer Gospel sides. However, looking at it, there was no mention of instrumentation, which had me thinking this might not be that great. Unfortunately, it lands on the boring side, it's just the four voices accompanied by a piano, there isn't enough here, although they are good signers. There is a vocal work out on "Do You Know The Way to Jesus?" with some clever harmonies. The first track on Side 2, "I Kept on Serching [Searching] till I Found the King of Kings" gets soulful with just the minimal accompaniment. Other than that, it's really just a lot of Andre Couch covers.

The Ottawa University Quartet put this out on the Audio House label. Ottawa University is about 30 minutes outside of Lawrence, KS and not none for being hip, but hey, they're close enough to Lawrence. This group of singers actually only features one local from Kansas City, KS, two of the singers are from St. Louis and another from Pennsylvania.