As any one who has ever been to Groove Merchant knows, if Cool Chris puts a label on the cover to highlight a song, you should always check out that song. This collection from 1976, created by LA radio station KWST (which later on would become Power 106) as a fundraiser for public radio, features a number of LA bands that seemingly never amounted to much, and whose music I frankly don’t find particularly noteworthy…Except that is for this song, which is definitely appealing to these Hip-Hop ears, and was the brainchild of then 20 year old, Jed Gould.
While none of the others on this “locals only” collection seem to have made a name for themselves, Jed Gould is perhaps better known as Jed The Fish, the afternoon drive time host for 30+ years on KROQ. I don’t know how much music Jed actually recorded, but he packs a whole lot into the 85 seconds “LACA Perv” assaults your senses. There are dueling vocals split on both sides, banging drums, fuzzy bass or guitar, punchy synth lines and even a kazoo solo. I can’t really make out much about the lyrics, other than something both Goulds say about being “vagina oriented,” and when Jed on the right calls himself a pervert and then Jed in the other ear agrees and says “of course you are.”
I have no clue what the LACA in “LACA Perv” stands for. “Los Angeles County” is a solid guess for the first three letters, but it’s the “A” that I can’t sort out. Perhaps someone who knew LA in the 1970s can chime in, maybe “LACA” was a public spot where pervy things went down, maybe it was a fairly perverse section of LA government…No idea. But, the track is a weird, freakout and even though that album cover is certainly eye catching, I’m not sure I would have had the patience to needle drop through all of the songs, without Cool Chris’ always helpful note. But that patience to check out all of the music, and let you know what the best track is, is exactly what makes Groove Merchant such a mecca for us folks.