Coconut Hotel: Difference between revisions
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=== Testcard #1 === | === Testcard #1 === | ||
September 1995<ref>https://www.testcard.de/titel/186/testcard-1-pop-und-destruktion</ref> | September 1995<ref>https://www.testcard.de/titel/186/testcard-1-pop-und-destruktion</ref> | ||
=== AllMusic === | |||
Richie Unterberger<blockquote>As strange as the Red Krayola's debut album was, their proposed follow-up, Coconut Hotel, was far stranger. This all-instrumental recording was more appropriately classified as twentieth-century avant-garde music than rock, and was rejected by [[International Artists]] for release in 1967, finally seeing the light of day on [[Drag City]] in 1995. All power to the Krayola for doing things their own way, but it's not hard to understand International Artists' reasoning. This has so little commercial potential that it makes Zappa's Lumpy Gravy sound like AM radio fodder. Dissonant exotic plucked strings, spooky organ clusters, 36 (yes, 36) "[[One-Second Piece|One-Second Pieces]]"--these are not tunes that you can hum, by any stretch of the imagination. Some acoustic guitar pieces bear the influence of John Fahey (with whom the Krayola recorded some unreleased material around this time). It's totally uncompromising, and rather wearisome, to be honest. It's like nothing else that nominally "rock" groups were doing in 1967, but it's not nearly as interesting as their official releases from the late '60s, which had at least a few loose ties to conventional song structures.</blockquote> | |||
===The Trouser Press guide to '90s rock=== | ===The Trouser Press guide to '90s rock=== | ||
1997<ref>https://archive.org/details/trouserpressguid00robb_1/page/597/mode/1up</ref><blockquote>Coconut Hotel, however, is pushing it. The all-improvised doodles on various real (guitar, horns, bass, piano, organ) and found instruments (mainly splashing water, handy clangables, shakeables and chalkboard-pleasant scrapeables) was recorded in 1967 by the original Red Crayola (Thompson, Steve Cunningham and Frederick Barthelme) and understandably rejected by [[International Artists]] as the followup to [[The Parable of Arable Land]]. The trio's photo on the back cover is no less unnerving or off-putting than the random contents, which could only serve as a fatal test for hypertension or the soundtrack to something far more squirm-inducing than ''Eraserhead''.</blockquote> | 1997<ref>https://archive.org/details/trouserpressguid00robb_1/page/597/mode/1up</ref><blockquote>[...] Coconut Hotel, however, is pushing it. The all-improvised doodles on various real (guitar, horns, bass, piano, organ) and found instruments (mainly splashing water, handy clangables, shakeables and chalkboard-pleasant scrapeables) was recorded in 1967 by the original Red Crayola (Thompson, Steve Cunningham and Frederick Barthelme) and understandably rejected by [[International Artists]] as the followup to [[The Parable of Arable Land]]. The trio's photo on the back cover is no less unnerving or off-putting than the random contents, which could only serve as a fatal test for hypertension or the soundtrack to something far more squirm-inducing than ''Eraserhead''.</blockquote> | ||
== References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 19:08, 26 March 2023
| Coconut Hotel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| [[File:|center|frameless]] | |
| Studio album by The Red Crayola | |
| Released | 1995 |
| Recorded | 1967 |
| Studio | Walt Andrus Studio
Houston, Texas |
| Label |  Drag City
|
    /   
| |
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Boards" | 6:28 |
| 2. | "Water Pour" | 4:39 |
| 3. | "One-Second Pieces" (36) | 3:24 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Organ Buildup" | 1:05 |
| 2. | "Vocal" | 6:28 |
| 3. | "Free Guitar" | 6:27 |
| 4. | "One-Minute Imposition" | 1:08 |
| 5. | "Piano" | 2:10 |
| 6. | "Guitar" | 1:28 |
| Total length: | 33:21 | |
Background
Recorded 1967
Released 1995
Personnel
The Red Crayola
Technical
- The Red Crayola - producer
- Walt Andrus - engineer
Cover art
The cover photo was taken by Mayo Thompson, likely in 1966, and shows the Coconut Hotel in the Canary Islands[2]. The building is now the Valle Aridane Hotel[3].
The band photo on the back cover is by Les Blank.
Issues
| Release | Format | Label | Cat. No. | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1995 | LP | Drag City | DC62 | |
|
|
1995 | CD | Drag City | DC62CD | |
|
|
2014 | LP | Drag City | DC62 |
Reviews
CMJ New Music Report
July 3, 1995[4]
We casually dismissed initial pre-release announcements of Coconut Hotel, the great "lost" Red Krayola album from 1967, thinking it was merely a joke from those nutty pranksters at Drag City, but lo and behold, here is an unheard curio from the Mayo Thompson archives. Bearing little relation to either the freak-out psychedelia of Parable of Arable Land (1967) or the wonderfully oddball songs of God Bless The Red Crayola And All Who Sail With Her (1968), Coconut Hotel is not a great revelation but a rather interesting oddity: Thompson and Krayola kohorts Rick Barthelme and Steve Cunningham play spare improvisations with a pile of different instruments — occasional plucks, miscellaneous horn bleats, piano tinkling, wandering drones, the sound of pouring water, etc. The highlight is several dozen "One Second Pieces" for trumpet/piano/percussion.
Testcard #1
September 1995[5]
AllMusic
Richie Unterberger
As strange as the Red Krayola's debut album was, their proposed follow-up, Coconut Hotel, was far stranger. This all-instrumental recording was more appropriately classified as twentieth-century avant-garde music than rock, and was rejected by International Artists for release in 1967, finally seeing the light of day on Drag City in 1995. All power to the Krayola for doing things their own way, but it's not hard to understand International Artists' reasoning. This has so little commercial potential that it makes Zappa's Lumpy Gravy sound like AM radio fodder. Dissonant exotic plucked strings, spooky organ clusters, 36 (yes, 36) "One-Second Pieces"--these are not tunes that you can hum, by any stretch of the imagination. Some acoustic guitar pieces bear the influence of John Fahey (with whom the Krayola recorded some unreleased material around this time). It's totally uncompromising, and rather wearisome, to be honest. It's like nothing else that nominally "rock" groups were doing in 1967, but it's not nearly as interesting as their official releases from the late '60s, which had at least a few loose ties to conventional song structures.
The Trouser Press guide to '90s rock
1997[6]
[...] Coconut Hotel, however, is pushing it. The all-improvised doodles on various real (guitar, horns, bass, piano, organ) and found instruments (mainly splashing water, handy clangables, shakeables and chalkboard-pleasant scrapeables) was recorded in 1967 by the original Red Crayola (Thompson, Steve Cunningham and Frederick Barthelme) and understandably rejected by International Artists as the followup to The Parable of Arable Land. The trio's photo on the back cover is no less unnerving or off-putting than the random contents, which could only serve as a fatal test for hypertension or the soundtrack to something far more squirm-inducing than Eraserhead.
References
| Songs |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Related articles | |||||
- ↑ https://twitter.com/emil784/status/1636485661275373572
- ↑ https://twitter.com/emil784/status/1636485661275373572
- ↑ http://www.hotelvallearidane.com/en/thehotel
- ↑ https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/CMJ/1995/CMJ-New-Music-Report-1995-07-03.pdf
- ↑ https://www.testcard.de/titel/186/testcard-1-pop-und-destruktion
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/trouserpressguid00robb_1/page/597/mode/1up