***Recorded in 1970 and 1971, after a difficult spinal surgery following a severe warehouse accident. “…the basic home fidelity, with vocals recorded in a bathroom for echoing ambience, adds to the strangeness, the tunes also sounding on occasion like holiday carols by and for celebrants not quite certain they'll live to see another Christmas. Though not every fan of rare psychedelia will agree with this assessment, it sounds immeasurably better than Microminiature Love, as the songwriting is substantially superior; the melodies far more varied and affecting; and the vision far more likably personal.” —Richie Unterberger, AllMusic. Released in 1974 and rescued from deep inside Yonks’ storage space/weirdo museum. While they last!
LP $31.50
01/20/2017
***Recorded in 1968 (not 1969, as previously reported), not terribly long after the material eventually released as "Microminiature Love", Grimwood sounds like it emanates from another universe entirely. Straightforward on the one hand, yet fascinatingly and psychedelically abstruse on the other, Grimwood remains an essential "outsider” acid-folk document that sits comfortably (and irreplaceably) alongside Spence, Grudzien, Tweddle, and a few select others. “ Released in 1974 and rescued from deep inside Yonks’ storage space/weirdo museum. While they last!
LP $31.50
01/20/2017
***Self-recorded in 1971 & ’72, 'Michael Lee Yonkers' has often been referred to as Michael's "country” album. It is many folks’ favorite of his early works, and is likely the weirdest. The roughhewn quality of these recordings has caused listeners to make comparisons with other “real people” outsiders like Grudzien and the Holy Modal Rounders, but there are more obvious, well-known comparisons (Townes Van Zandt) that are at least as appropriate. There are clear references to various classic country stylings in these songs, even as Michael's unique distillation of their influence lends a delightfully skewed mischievousness to the proceedings. Released in 1974 and rescued from deep inside Yonks’ storage space/weirdo museum. While they last!
LP $31.50
01/20/2017
***Currently out of print on CD, MICHAEL YONKERS’ Grimwood finally receives its long-overdue vinyl re-release on Nero’s Neptune. Yonkers’ first 4 LPs were released simultaneously in 1973, but it is Grimwood, Michael’s first, which regular commands the biggest bucks on the collector scum market. Recorded in 1969, less than a couple years after the material eventually released as Microminiature Love, Grimwood sounds like it emanates from another universe entirely. Straightforward on the one hand, yet fascinatingly and psychedelically abstruse on the other, Grimwood remains an essential “outsider” document that sits comfortably (and irreplaceably) alongside Spence, Grudzien, Tweddle and a few select others. “It would seem that Yonkers followed a trail that psychologically parallels the sun life highway, and his private flight took place in a presumably small hut, nestled on a lemonade lake, and from his chimney wafted rainbow smoke, in the fantastical haven of the mystical, mythical grimwood town for which the rec is named, as he attempted to allow light / space into areas of his psyche that hadn’t seen enough of either in some time”—Karl Ikola
LP $17.75
09/04/2015
***There’s yet another musical color revealed on the uber-rare private press, Michael Lee Yonkers, which was home-recorded in 1971–72, while MICHAEL YONKERS was working in an unheated, hundred year-old warehouse. He ran the forklift and drove the truck for the company, hauling extremely heavy loads of industrial surplus and scrap metal. His co-workers almost exclusively listened to country and western music, which inspired him to create and perform an oddly countrified set on weekends, when he would play in coffeehouses and at house parties. Yonkers would do an acoustic set of original “country” and “rock” music for the first part, then he would get out an “electronic music machine” that he had built himself and play “electronic music” (quotes all added by Michael himself). Michael Lee Yonkers is a recording of some of the “country” songs he was doing at the time, as well as a few songs he wrote for the children at the house parties (like “Mrs. Jennings Fruit Fly Farm,” recorded live, where you can hear the kids going nuts). The tracks were recorded on a variety of tube-type, reel-to-reel tape machines, which give them a unique analogue sound that begs comparisons to outsider hillbillies like Peter Grudzien, Holy Modal Rounders and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, as well as beloved longhair outlaws like Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson (ok, even one St. Johnny Cash too). The original art and labels have been faithfully reproduced and, with a discreet remastering touch, the tracks sound better than ever.
LP $20.85
01/21/2014