Organs & Bongos

As some of you may know, I put out my own rock n' roll fanzine called Life In A Bungalo Digest. But I also collect all sorts of fanzines from around the world.

This past week I found the greatest fanzine ever. It's called "Organs & Bongos: A Periodical Guide To Today's Cocktail Culture." It's from 1999 (issue #13) and it's awesome.

It features interviews with Brother Cleve on the death of Swing. Articles on swizzle sticks by Bosko and even a short history of the cabaret.

The whole zine is dedicated to lounge culture and it's all fantastic.

Does anyone know about this magazine? Any TCers work or edit it? I want to read more, but I'm afraid it might have gone the way of most print Zines...

-g-

I have a few issues. It came out of Vancouver. Some issues have tiki related stuff. One issue has some photos of home bars.

My old pal Russ put that mag out, it is indeed a lounge landmark. I have no idea what happened to him or the mag, though. Any issues you find are highly coveted collector's items. If I track him down I'll post any contact info he has to offer here. We have many mutual friends (some of which surf this site) so he should pop up eventually.

ooooh, I think I got one or two gatherin dust somewhere.

I collect old zines as well. In my collection I have quite a few from the 1980s San Diego music scene like:

Bamboo Head
Quasi Substitute
Snare
Away From The Numbers
Be My Friend
Noise For Heroes
Ugly Things - my personal favorite and still going strong after 20 years!

I'll always cherish the issue of Flipside that has my picture in it. As well as these old music zines from different cities:

Zig Zag
Bam Balam
Trouser Press
New York Rocker
Slash
Kicks - the best!
99th Floor
Blue Suede News

I also have a few others that aren't just music related like:

Thrift Score
Kutie
The Bettie Pages
Hollywood Highball
Lost Highways - vintage trailer zine
Tiki News of course
Barracuda
Gearhead
Modern Drunkard

Anyone else have favorites?

On 2003-12-01 16:42, thejab wrote:
Anyone else have favorites?

I don't really collect zines, but my favorites include:

Genetic Disorder
Murder can be Fun
Beer Frame
Bust

Does Adbusters count?

Organs and Bongos is/was a Seattle publication. Russ still resides here in Seattle, and Lushy played at his most recent Blue Flamingo party. I credit Russ as a major influence to me and others into the world of cocktail culture and vintage appreciation. A man way ahead of his time.

On 2003-12-01 16:42, thejab wrote:
Anyone else have favorites?

God, I have a stack of old punk/noise zines around here somewhere. I actually gave most away (Flipside, MRR) when I last moved. I took 'em to a record store and said I hope someone can get some use from these.

I think Noise for Heroes Music for Zeroes was an Aussie zine, not sure though. I think those Gearhead zines are worth some moolah nowadays. I wish I'd kept mine in nicer shape instead of just tossing them in a pile. I'll have to dig out my zine collection sometime soon. One kind of cool non-music zine that may still be around is World Explorer. It was kind of a fake National Geographic that was all about the old school pulpish exploring exotic lands looking for weirdness type vibe. They compiled the first few issues into a book found here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/093281347X/qid=1070327850/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4534029-1255260?v=glance&s=books

I think my fave zine was Forced Exposure.

On 2003-12-01 18:20, Kono wrote:
I think Noise for Heroes Music for Zeroes was an Aussie zine, not sure though.

It started in San Diego, and as the author Steve Gardner started discovering Australian bands in the mid 80s it became more focused on Australian bands.

Here's the web site:

http://www.nkvdrecords.com/

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[ Edited by: thejab on 2003-12-01 18:34 ]

On 2003-12-01 18:34, thejab wrote:

It started in San Diego, and as the author Steve Gardner started discovering Australian bands in the mid 80s it became more focused on Australian bands.

Yeah, that makes sense. I seem to remember he really liked Rocket from the Crypt. I think that Noise for Heroes turned me on to Reptiles at Dawn, a great band that was birthed Down Under and picked up and moved to France of all places when it got old enough to be on it's own. If there's a Tiki Biker Bar in Heaven then I'm pretty sure that Reptiles at Dawn will be the nightly headliner. :D

Snare & Modern Hippie from San Diego. Slash and NOMAG from L.A.

There were many zines that touched on exotica in the mid to late 90's ... Cool and Strange Music, Lounge, Organs and Bongos, The Continental, ... even my own zine had a few articles on Martin Denny. Here's a website that is a historical snapshot of what was available around the 1997/98 timeframe ... click on the left column links to see them all.

http://www.chaoskitty.com/t_chaos/reading/feature.html

One of the first zines that mentioned Martin Denny and exotica music (way back in 1986) was Candi Strecker's 'Sidney Suppey's Quarterly and Confused Pet Monthly.' This was way before any of Denny's music was available on CD.

I still have many of my favorite zines, and even old issues of Factsheet Five from the early 90's. Some of my favorites were (not including those in the above link) ...

• Rollerderby
• Processed World
• Dishwasher
• Ladies Fetish and Taboo Society
• Permafrost
• Mystery Date
• Pills-A-Go-Go
• Eight Track Mind
• Ballast
• and many others which only came out with one or two issues.

I miss those days of zines, when much more fun stuff appeared regularly in my P.O. box, before the days when the internet made everything so accessible.

Vern

mmmh,love zines.new york rocker,flipside,slash,nomag.i think the best ever was KICKS,put out by billy and miriam linna of norton records.the writing for that mag has yet to be equaled imho.my picture appears in the cool and strange mag w/sam butera(the one w/ weird al on the cover)
btw i have organ and bongo mags-summer 96 and winter95/96------dave from jersey

I also bought some of those organ and bongos in Vancouver...great fanzine
The number ten features sven kirsten and Bosko party reviews and lots of tikis...great number

On 2003-12-01 15:24, liabungalo wrote:
It features interviews with Brother Cleve on the death of Swing.

I dunno who Brother Cleve is, but swing is very much alive. Just avoid anything played on the radio.

:)
em.

On 2003-12-02 11:02, emspace wrote:

On 2003-12-01 15:24, liabungalo wrote:
It features interviews with Brother Cleve on the death of Swing.

I dunno who Brother Cleve is, but swing is very much alive. Just avoid anything played on the radio.

:)
em.

Brother Cleve Duncan is currently touring keyboardist for Combustible Edison, not to be confused with Cleveland "Cleve" Duncan of the Doo-Wop group the Penguins. Brother Cleve was a member of the Del Fuegos in the mid '80s, Djs at clubs around Boston, is working on a movie on the life of Esquevel, & is active in the Church of the Subgenius. I think Brother Cleve currently lives around Cambridge, Ma.

I recently discovered Organ & Bongos and fell in love with it. I assume it is no longer in publication?

i have the Winter 95/96 and Issue #6 (published in 97) ~ with pictures of an event at the Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver BC.

i have no need for these, so message me, if you'd like to trade for something more Tiki!

On 2003-12-01 15:24, liabungalo wrote:
Any TCers work or edit it? I -g-

Terrance Gunn was interviewed in the issue i have from Winter 95/96.

I have a few issues of Organ & Bongos in my collection. It was a very cool zine back in the day and I still drag 'em out about once a year to take a look at 'em. I still publish The Continental, about once per year, although the focus is more on surf/instro rock n' roll. The last issue featured Satan's Pilgrims and The Beat Tornados, and the new issue, due out next month, will have Southern Culture on the Skids and The Barbary Coasters.

Thanks,

Sean
Double Crown Records / The Continental Magazine
http://www.dblcrown.com
http://doublecrown.blogspot.com

[ Edited by: Double Crown 2006-05-08 15:09 ]