Hello All. Welcome to Fat CityCigar Lounge. Please pardon our dust -- we are still under construction and will be much more polished in the next few weeks. I'm your proprietor, DaBoss and I hope you enjoy your visit. Fat City Cigar Lounge is the place to come to relax and have a cocktail or favorite drink, grab a great smoke chosen from the world's best cigars and mainly revel in some of the coolest music around. We feature a wide variety of music that will thrill and entertain you, hand selected from artists that span the decades, mostly instrumental, ranging from old timey roots music, the blues, jazz, all kinds of rock, surf, coctail lounge, modern lounge, and electronic/experimental genres.
The selections are arranged around a theme (at least apparent to me), and like any lounge will vary in intensity from day time to night time in the lounge. You'll see as time goes on.
This first group is an exception. It is a special surprise thank you for all of you who have supported me with your comments to my comments and posts on others blogs and to those bloggers who inspired me to get off my Duff and set up shop.
The first blog I was exposed to was Sandy's SurfSpot -- now reupped as Endless Summer. http://endlssummer.blogspot.com/ I found out about it at Phil Dirt's Reverb Central http://reverbcentral.com/ but by the time I got there, all the music links were gone. However, to my pleasant surprise, the blog links worked and the first one I went to was RYP's Twilghtzone! http://rideyourpony-twighlightzone.blogspot.com/. Wow! People who liked the same suff I do. Who knew? Yes, I was pretty ignorant then -that's still up for debate now, and that's what got me hooked.
So, as a thank you for the continuing great music at RYP's -- here's my tribute to RYP -- Fat City style.
What's a party with out a little Burt Bacharach? Especially this kind ---
That's New Pussycat Surf Tribute to Burt Bacharach
This isn't the first instrumental treatment of Burt Bacharach's songs. There have been several, including an album of Moog synthesizer arrangments entitled (what else?) Switched On Bacharach. Nor is this the first tribute to Bacharach by various artists. But this IS, as far as I know, the first tribute to Bacharach by instrumental surf and garage bands. The idea of surf and garage bands paying homage to arch-hodad Burt Bacharach is, of course, crazy. MUCHO Loco. John Barry, okay, but Burt Bacharach? In the 1960s, when surf pioneer Dick Dale was down at the Southern California beach blasting out raucous dance music for Gidget and Moondoggie, Burt Bacharach (ten years Dale's senior) was up in Hollywood writing sophisticated pop tunes for their parents.
My , how times have changed.
When surf music made a comeback in the 1990s, Bacharach was collaborating with Elvis Costello. Still, nobody can deny the catchiness of Bacharach's melodies. And it's not crazy, but actually a clever idea, to remove those melodies from Hal David's cloying lyrics (you know, like: "Pussycat, pussycat, I love you. Yes I do" or: "LA is a great big freeway. Put a hundred down and buy a car"). Hey, you know, without Tom Jones or Dionne Warwick singing, those songs are actually kinda cool! The rough vocals and surf/garage attitude give some of them a whole new meaning for the 07's. That is new, pussycat!
You might think that Bacharach's quirky melodies would be a challenge for the bands participating here. Surf and garage music aren't known for their exact mastery of syncopation. The standard surf beat is a straight 'double on the two, single on the four'. Bacharach, on the other hand, is all about odd syncopation. And yet, listen for yourself: almost everybody pulls it off, and some even do so brilliantly. Burt to shag to.
1 24 Hours From Tulsa – Apeman
2. The Blob – Aqualads
3. Trains & Boats & Planes – Baronics
4. Casino Royale Theme - Big Ray & Futuras
5. Baby It's You - Bradipos Four
6. God Give Me Strenght – Chubbies
7. The Look of Love - Cosmonauti
8. Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head – Deadbolt
9. The Windows of the World - Fabulous Planktones
10. Italian Fuzz - Fifty Foot Combo
11. Baby It's You - Hi-Fi Ramblers
12. Walk On By - Mill Valley Taters
13. Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head - Mummy The Peepshow
14. This Guy's in Love With You - Noseriders
15. Baby It's You - Petty Booka
16. I Saw a Little Prayer - Pollo Del Mar
17. Do You Know the Way to San José - Seks Bomba 18. Close to You - Squid Vicious
19. Bond Street - Surfones
20. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Susan & Surftones
21. What's New Pussycat? - Tiki Tones
22. Anyone Who Had a Heart - Richie Venus
23. (there's) Always Something to Remind Me - Voodoo Court
24. Downhill & Shady – Waistcoats25. Trains & Boats & Planes - Wrong Corpses
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What goes with Burt? My fave -- a classic Manhattan
Here's how it's done ---
Drink – Manhattan – (Classic)
2 fluid ounces whiskey (lighter use Woodford Reserve, heavier use Knob Creek)
1/2 fluid ounce sweet vermouth
1 dash bitters (optional)
1 cup ice cubes
1 maraschino cherry for garnish
Place ice in a mixing glass. Pour in vermouth, then whiskey, and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass. Add a dash of bitters if desired, and garnish with a cherry.
To make a Dry Manhattan
Use the same recipe, but substitute dry vermouth for the sweet, and garnish with a twist of lemon peel instead of a cherry.
A good smoke to accompany your drink and swanky music is the classic Upmann Cameroon.
For decades since departing Cuba for the Dominican Republic, Upmann has been the cigar that sets the standard for Dominicans. Now, taking advantage of the availability of a quantity of some outstandingly aged four year old African Cameroon wrapper, Upmann cigars ascend to the next level. The Cameroon provides the perfect complement to Upmann’s inspired blend of Dominican Piloto and Nicaraguan and Peruvian long fillers. The combination is spectacular. To preserve and protect the taste of the Cameroon wrapper, each cigar iis wrapped a cedar sheath. Each Upmann, nestled in a protective sleeve of cedar, continues its slow aging process. As a way of enhancing the process even more, an additional cedar lining between the layers of cigars. When you taste the cedar aged Upmann Cameroon, you would swear you are smoking its Cuban namesake.
The aroma is inviting and mellow. The taste is full-bodied, slightly spicy smooth and moderately mild. The perfect choice to compliment the smoky sweetness of a well made Manhattan.
Time is my enemy now, will continue in the next few days. Please come back and let me know what you think!
DaBoss
