Here comes the tambourine and you know what I mean!

As you’ll have worked out by now, I’m a pretty easy bloke to please. Bit of music, bit of rugby, a few beers. It’s not rocket science.

But to make me ridiculously happy you have to be running your own small Indie label or a member of a band giving me unsolicited freebies, and generally pandering to one or other of my hopelessly out of control obsessions. Fortunately for everyone, this is exactly what Charles at Happy Parts Recordings has done.

It does help, also, if the music I’m being sent is pretty good, and lo and behold the Dilettantes record that Charles sent me is indeed pretty good. A bit of a snorter, in fact.

The Dilettantes

The Dilettantes are from California, and are the vehicle of Joel Gion, who played the tambourine in the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and is, I gather, a bit of a cult figure. It seems to me that the BJM have not really travelled that well, being largely under-appreciated this side of the water (and, I’ll furtively raise my own hand at this point.

Anyway, time to make a gesture towards righting this wrong. Have a look at this, it’s one side of the Dilettantes single, “Ready to go”.










I can think of friends of mine who will hate this! But I rather like the posturing of Gion, it makes me smile - it takes a certain something to carry off sideburns quite like that… I guess it’s all pretty standard sixties freak beat, not a lot new there, but, as we’ve established I’m an easy sort to please.

Charles at Happy Parts, has sent me the whole "101 Tambourines"album, which is a lot of fun, and I’m posting a couple of tracks from it.

Like Crazy

What Were You Thinking?

But I reckon you should get hold of the "Ready To Go/Subterranean Bazaar" single, too – it’s pretty heady stuff!