Just a very quick post about tonight’s discs… a couple from one of Portland’s finest groups 3 Leg Torso, some Stray Cats, The Sundays and Smokey and Miho. And these quick notes are about music that I imagine doesn’t get around much.

I imagine just about everyone would recognize at least a couple Stray Cats songs, but if you are into digging around for obscure discs, the actual album releases that the Stray Cats put out are well worth the effort. Nothing against ‘Rock This Town’ and ‘(She’s) Sexy & 17’, which are fine songs, but on the albums you often had long stretches (this means greater then 30 seconds in Stray Cats song terms) of the group really taking off and jamming. Some of Brian Setzer’s finest playing is in these stretches. In the ‘90s, Brian Setzer would do some cool stuff that was heavily involved with lots of the swing music revival going on around the same time, but it is really the sound of him, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim that produced such an exciting and tight sound. ‘Blast Off!’ and ‘Built For Speed’ are in my collection, if anyone happens to have ‘Rant and Rave’, please let me know… One of my earliest memories at Tower in Roseville had to do with walking into the art office where Jude and another guy (covered in tattoos) were listening ‘Built For Speed’ at a pretty high volume, and there was lots of air guitar going on.

Smokey and Miho put out two EPs, available on a one disc compilation as well. The group came together after Miho left Cibo Matto, and she and Smokey Hormel discovered a mutual love of Bossa Nova. The playing on these ten songs is great, and if you like Bossa Nova, this is another disc that I highly recommend trying to track down. One EP is covers, the other is (I think) all originals, and they put together a great group for the project.

3 Leg Torso’s albums are much trickier to find. Released on smaller labels (and at one time distributed by Tower Records, which is how I came across them… we were even lucky enough at Tower Berkeley to have them stop in for a performance), the music is a beautiful mix of Eastern European folk music, jazz, early 20th century classical music and tango. Originally a trio of violin, cello and accordion, the group now tours with a larger ensemble. If you live in the Northwest, keep an eye out for them.