calling rich la bonte... rich la bonte... rich...

a few posts back i mentioned rich la bonte's early 80's psych/weird LP called Mayan Canals, and the fact that the author had posted some of his old recordings from the 70s and 80s on his website with a wealth of newer recordings, which didn't interest me as much as the stuff from days yon past. the reason being la bonte covered alot of interesting ground back in those days... ranging from at times sounding like a cross between Bobb Trimble and Todd Tamanend Clark, to writing great catchy glam-psych ditties, and folksy ballads with punk flavorings (read ala velvets) + an electro-punk-wave song dedicated to Irwin Chusid of WFMU fame1 the guy was a renaissance man... and i do not lie, this stuff is really good! i'm saying he deserves a compilation of this seminal stuff as much as clark or trimble, or any other 70s under the table wizard... i've taken the liberty to post these songs here, because they are already posted for free over at la bonte's site. rich, if you want them taken down post a comment and maybe bestow upon us more unreleased material too. i, at least, am quite impressed.

shanghai express - great velvets/beatles (ya go figger... but lsiten) ala 70s transmorgification... phased vocals, great melody, beautiful song.
from the author: "Written on learning that Marlene Deitrich had fallen and broken her leg (seriously!)" from 1972

deep beneath - great 70s-style psych that would ooze nicely off any private press landmark.... great lyrics over mean fuzz and wha wha and fucking GREAT songwriting.
author says: "Written in the West Village while playing Godspell in the 1970s."

dreamin' - the kind of little ditty lennon and mccartney would put on the white album, but with phased strumming guitar, small talk off to the side like how the beatles always snuck those purposeful bits of conversational detritus onto songs. recorded in hollywood 1980.

murder - weird punky bit of the wave... vocoder-ized assessments of society over noodle guitar and distortion. purdy cool. sometimes sounds like lou reed. written in 1981, hollywood.

NJ Blues - another great song! POPS right off the bat with great hookiness and echoey vocals. recorded in 1974.

she want no alibis - great fuggin' punk-synth twerp whine with flexi beat and a back to 50s via the beatles breakdown. GODDAM FANTASTIC. recorded in 1983, written in hollywood.

sonia's song - soft ballad, harmony vocals. rather beautiful actually, and well-written, but may not appeal to many.

bright yellow star - great glammy slip 'n' slide... rundgrenisms slip in once in a while beautifully. 1st song on mayan canals lp from 1981.

postcard - other than the vocals for the main part of the song which are purposefully froggy, this song is the most Trimble-esque of all those provided here. really could pass for Trimble no questions asked on the in-between parts where he sings up high. really great song rooted in a beatles dynamic, just like Trimble's 60s-itis. also from mayan canals.

drums along the maple wood - funny song written for mr. chusid. mentions the residents, eno, john cage, how people used to always request peter frampton, etc. nice soundbit of irwin at the end.