Mr. Tube & The Flying Objects
Listen Up! (Cargo Records)

Listen up, reject planet, don’t go comatose. This is planet stomping music for the planet stomping troopers -- sounds from the galactic junkyard, sounds of horns that drift through the back alleys of our ghettos, pulsing and pumping sounds from the trunks of lowriders. Like stories from the last living tree in this concrete jungle, stories from the elders delivered by a new generation. Polish your wheels, rub it out through the sounds, souls and hearts of the youth. Mr. Tube’s story must be told.  

It was the summer of 2002 when Paulo Zappoli (from The Black Heart Procession) was having trouble with his television. It was the winter of 2003 when he took it to an old run down shop he had seen in National City, California – Tube Heaven. Upon delivering his television, seeing all the equipment, tools and random Antarctic memorabilia, a conversation ensued with Freddie Dillinger, a.k.a. Mr. Tube. Within a couple of years, Paulo got to know Freddie. . . and learned some interesting history.

Between 1956 and 1960 Mr. Tube sold carpet in Toledo while writing and recording songs. No one knows why. Upon questioning, Mr. Tube has only said, “Mexican beer, and plenty of it.” In the 60’s and 70’s, Freddie Dillinger lead a band called Freddie Feelgood and the Real Good Feelings. This later morphed into Mr. Tube and his Flying Objects…all this time having written hundreds of songs and yet never releasing a single album. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Freddie was everything from an undertaker at a mortuary to a janitor at a zoo, then he finally settled in National City with his wife where they opened Tube Heaven.

Eventually, Paulo heard some live recordings of Freddie’s and gradually persuaded him into the idea of recording some of these golden nuggets from years past -- Collector’s Classics. Paulo agreed to reform a band that could do Mr. Tube’s song’s justice. Mr. Tube would write, arrange, record, and produce the ten songs at Paulo’s Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories (SDRL Unlimited) using old and new equipment to capture the sound. Pulling resources -- Jovi Butts on bass, Chris Wassell and Scott Mercado on drums and many others in the southern Californian area -- they all worked with respect for the elder sounds, planet stomping music. It’s 2006 and these songs were written between 1956 and 2004 -- lost classics and current chart breakers. These sounds carry on through the generations creating new astral planes like galactic poison floating in between the 68 planets. Undiscovered, undisturbed, undenied, unattainable, unheard, is now unveiled. Hold strong and listen up!

The Flying Objects plan on touring for this record and will bring these sounds to your local slum pit soon. Leave your weapons at the door and your hearts in the gutter. Life is science fiction – punching planets with rubber fists – this universe is like a pinball machine and Mr. Tube is the music – all you have to do is put a quarter in and push play.

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