back in the mid-60’s, there was a huge monster fad. there were two general categories of monsters sold – movie monsters and hot rod monsters. the economic king of the hot rod monsters was ed ‘big daddy’ roth, who promoted a character named “Rat Fink” and a whole family of other assorted ”fink’ monsters.
one thing that BOTH general monster ‘camps’ did was release really awful records. they were sound affects, stories, ‘halloween’ stuff and soundtracks and the like – all of them pushing ‘monster’ themes along with killer record cover artwork (like this ‘surfink’ cover by ed roth).
some of the more inventive ones would try to actually release “MUSIC” with a monster theme. my personal favorite was “frankie stein & his ghouls“, who were apparently a guy with a bunch of LA studio musician pals who put together a series of 5 ‘party records’ full of cheesy sax-driven high energy rock and roll with monster sound effect peppered throughout. it’s great stuff and it helps a lot that the band is obviously having a great time making it.
but, usually, these records that actually tried to record ‘new’ music especially for the project were, well… AWFUL. this one is awful, too. but, the ONE thing that saves this from the trash heap of the past is NOT that amazing cover art (lot’s of records had FINKS on their covers, actually), but the strange fact that the band “Mr. Gasser and The Weirdos” was none other than Ed “Big Daddy” Roth HIMSELF singing with a back-up band of hired musicians. yup, old ‘golden throated’ ed roth sings (sorta).
that makes this thing very very special.
https://youtu.be/8PUr3UgQAl4
