The Kitchen Cinq
Listen/Download – The Kitchen Cinq – Codine
Greetings all.
The tune I bring you today is the product of oneof those semi blind purchases, i.e. a band/record that is only vaguely familiar, contains most of the mid-60s/garage signifiers (cool cover versions etc) and part of a very interesting label.
The band in question is the Kitchen Cinq.
Hailing from Texas, and having morphed into their 66/67 recording outfit from a few earlier bands, they managed to find their way to California and into the clutches of the storied Lee Hazlewood, producer Suzi Jane Hokom and LHI records.
I had never seen a copy of the record until I was down spinning soul 45s at the Washington DC record fair and my man DJ Birdman (with whom I share garage revival roots) pulled the LP out of his sale box and waved it under my nose.
I took all of the aforementioned evidence into account, unfurled my bankroll and took the disc home.
When I finally managed to slip it under the needle I was pleased by the mixture of folky-garage-isms, leanings toward more commercial pop and a couple of cover versions that I’d pick up no matter who was recording them (i.e. I Can’t Let Go etc).
The tune I bring you today is my favorite cut from the album, the band’s cover of Buffy Ste Marie’s ‘Codine’.
Though the song was covered many, many times, the version I always find myself going back to is the plodding and exceptionally groovy take by the Charlatans.
The Kitchen Cinq take a more propulsive approach to the song, adding a nice helping of fuzz guitar as well.
Of all the tracks on the album, ‘Codine’ comes the closest to having that ‘garage 45′ feel.
The Kitchen Cinq managed not only their album but a number of non-LP 45s for LHI, which like just about everything else on the label is fairly hard to come by. None of their material has been reissued either.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.
Peace
Larry
PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.
1 Comment(s)
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The song isn’t bad but the production was gawd awful. It might be interesting to hear this re recorded in a current recording environment with a different producer. The spelling of the word is codeine, BTW.