Ultra Swank - Retro Adventures

Music • compilation

7 Must-Have Christmas Albums of the 1950s

Each decade brings its unique cultural atmosphere, and the 1960s and 1970s left an indelible mark on holiday music. Renowned artists such as Nat King Cole and Dean Martin graced the 1960s with seasonal classics, while the 1970s witnessed a resurgence of legacy musicians. However, it’s the 1950s that may be credited with initiating the era of classic holiday music. In the vast landscape of...

Lounge Gothic – A New Music Genre Begins to Emerge

In the Atomic Age retro scene, there have always been folk with a taste for the gothic. You can thank The Cramps. One of the first punk acts to use the word “gothic” to promote themselves in the 1970s, The Cramps went on to influence what would eventually become the post-punk Goth scene. However, unlike Siouxsie and The Banshees, Bauhaus, and other Goth scene progenitors,...

Appreciating Exotica Jazz
Written by Jessie Desmond in Music

Appreciating Exotica Jazz

Exotica jazz is no longer well-known to the average joe. It’s a genre of jazz that is based on exotic locales and sounds that emerged after WWII, predominately within the span of the 1950s to mid-1960s. The music was influenced heavily by Asian, tropical islands, South American, and African sounds, whether native beats or sounds of nature. Many men and women musicians emerged after the...

Let Robert Drasnin Inspire You to Collect Vinyl Again

People still dig vinyl records. Of course, you, as a swinging Lounge Revivalist, knew that already. A big deal was made this year when Jack White cut a live version of the title track to his album Lazaretto, rushed it to press, and had the vinyl in-store for sale the same day. And fans, and a lot of the media, acted like they’d never heard...

The Beatles Fifty Years Later
Written by Patricia Greenwood in Music

The Beatles Fifty Years Later

With the 50th Anniversary of the British invasion of America via the Beatles upon us, I thought it apropos to take a walk down Memory Lane, remembering the highlights of Beatlemania in my own life. When the Beatles hit the Mainland in 1964, I had just turned six years old and my whole world was getting through 1st grade without getting my knuckles rapped by...

Bossa Nova – Embodying the Idea of Cool

Brazil in the 1960’s: a paradise of cool and suave. The nonchalant sentiment of an age typified by effortless class took musical form in Bossa Nova. Characterized by its smooth beats, cool sensibility, a slight off-tune rhythm, Bossa Nova created a whole culture which valued nothing at all, but simple existence. Singers like Astrud Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim created a form of expression where...

A Revision of Italian Pop of the 1950s & 1960s

If you are familiar with Faith No More, then you probably know exactly who Mike Patton, the lead singer, is. Since the 1990s, Patton has worked on a multitude of projects and solo albums, including his 2010 release Mondo Cane. Mondo Cane is Patton’s version of Italian pop from the 1950s and 1960s, but with his own twist to the music. Patton was inspired by...

Get all the goods straight to your inbox