 
1: Highlighters - "Poppin' Popcorn" / "Funky 16 Corners"
(Stones Throw1)
Believe it or not the Highlighters Poppin' Popcorn / Funky 16 Corners
released by Egon's Stones Throw Records was the disc that first
introduced me to funk and northern soul from Indianapolis. One day
I wandered into our local Hip Hop record store, Rockin' Billys and
ask local Mudkids MC Rusty Redenbacker if anything interesting had
come in that week. He pointed to a slim stack of the reissue picture
sleeve in a glass case. Half an hour later I was freaking out in
my living room calling people and playing it to them over the phone.
Nobody could believe this band was from Indianapolis.
Eddie Bo - "Check Your Bucket" (Bo Sound)
Interestingly, I heard this cut before I heard
Hook and Sling and I still like it better. With it's sexual entendre
and singing chorus it's more of a real song than hook and sling's
drums-heavy composition. About the same time my room-mate of two
years moved to New Orleans to take up graduate school work in ceramics.
Whenever I listen to the song I think of her. I still haven't been
able to find the time to visit, and everytime we speak on the phone
I ask her if she's seen Eddie Bo yet!
Soul Relation Band - "Mongo Strut" (Beetle Records)
- When I first started collecting Indiana
soul records it was a sideproject to my already well-established
collection of local indie-rock 7s from the 90s. So I basically started
collecting based on lists and discographies other people provided
me. The Soul Relation Band was my first big discovery of something
that none of the major collectors seemed to knowanything about.
Hamilton Movement - "She's Gone" (Look-Out)
Probably Indianapolis' finest moment in crossover
modern soul. In Indianapolis there is really nothing that compares
to this masterpiece of modern soul.
It turned me on to a more modern soulful approach to music and helped
me break my own pre-conceived notions of what was good soul. Turns
out my intuition on this song was right. It seems to be a big hit
in England.
Dow Jones and the Industrials - "Indeterminism" (Hardly
Music)
This is the greatest punk/new wave single
ever to be released from Indiana. With its plodding and hypnotic
chop-guitars and wild feedback-driven guitar solo, it's hard to
believe "Indeterminism" was recorded in the early 80s.
Somehow it still sounds fresh. Better than the Zero Boys in my opinion.
I looked for this record for years before I found one in the local
record shop. I found a second copy a year later and gave it to my
friend for his birthday.
Sardina - "Me and My Arrow"
(Hit It!)
I was living in Virginia when my friends released
this single on Hit It! Records. The company folded and the tiny
release vanished by the time I moved back to Indianapolis. I spent
three years looking for this record. Finally one of the band members
confessed that he had two copies -- one with the green cover and
another with the pink cover. It took me another year to convince
him to give me the green one. Sardina's CD "Presents"
is one of the most underrated indie rock cds of the early 90s.
Turner Brothers - "ACT 1"
I bought the Turner Brothers self-released
"Act 1" reissue at Missing Link Records here in Indianapolis.
A few weeks later at the Jazz Fest I was talking to a local dealer
and ask him if he had found anything interesting locally. He mentioned
he had found the Turner Brothers LP. I was lucky enough to have
a 45 that the dealer had played drums on back in the late 60s. The
next day the Minty fresh Turner Brothers LP was mine! I had all
but abandoned hope of finding one of these. I even spent several
days milling about Anderson in the vain hope of finding one in a
thrift store. No such luck.
Tikis - Show You Love(Fujimo)
The Tikis were a garage band that hailed from
Syracuse Indiana. (population 4,000.) I wouldn't have even know
where Syracuse was had my family not come from the nearby town of
Milford (Population 1,200). My mother and her friends used to drive
to the Tippy Ballroom on Lake Tippecanoe just outside Syracuse every
weekend. They saw killer bands like Shadows of Knight and the Del-Vetts.
They also got to see the Tikis, the Dukes and other northern Indiana
bands that were released on the miserably obscure FUJIMO label out
of Elkhart Indiana. My mother's best friend dated the drummer of
the Tikis for some time and when they broke up she tore the Tiki-ring
off her finger and flung it into the sands of the shoreline. You
don't really "find" a record like this. You get it from
a dealer and I was lucky enough to get it for $50.
Feebee and the Ragweed Patch "Monkey Man" (Ben Records)
I heard this on a mixed tape of Indiana garage
records a few months ago and it's haunted me ever since. Wicked
fuzz, sickening lyrics about addiction to drugs like LSD. Who would
believe this came out of New Haven Indiana. I have never seen a
copy for sale! It's killing me! Please help me find it!
Eugene Blacknell - "We've got to live together" (Seaside)
In a few days I'm moving to San Francisco
to be with my girlfriend who recently took up a residence position
at the city hospital. It's been hard to leave Indiana, since I am
so involved in the music here -- both in terms of finding and catagorizing
the soul and funk records as well as writing for our local alternative
newspaper, NUVO Newsweekly. I traded a few Indiana soul records
for this Eugene Blacknell record a week ago to prepare myself for
California soul and funk. it's really the first big piece I've owned
from outside of Indiana. Goodbye, Indiana!
city you live in?
San Francisco
how long you have been collecting?
3 Years
most heart stopping find on a digging session?
Billy Wooten's Wooden Glass, Roy Meriwether's
Nubian Lady and Caesar Frazier's Hail Caesar all in a row.
top spots for record hunting?
San Francisco, white ghetto's of Indianapolis
ebay. good or evil?
good
motown or stax?
stax
sneakers or shoes?
shoes
creole or gumbo?
gumbo
favourite tipple?
coffee, preferably by the gallon
where can people see/hear you play?
In my living room.
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