Terlu – Big Bingo
3.18.18 by Mike Haley

Happy Harry’s was a chain of drugstores started in Wilmington, DE back in 1962 that was eventually gobbled up by Walgreens. The chain was best known for the cartoon depiction of founder Harry Levin’s head on all of their branded products. A fun thing to do was to draw Harry a body, most likely with his genitals out. Real bad boy stuff, and truly Mr. Levin’s legacy. A lesser known fact about Happy Harry’s is that I worked there for a good seven or eight months back in high school. I once stole a delivery of blue flavored Powerade and drank so much of that chemical mixture my poop turned blue as this tape’s Norelco case. MY legacy.

Terlu is giving me Happy Harry flashbacks. Specifically to the 15 minutes spent cramped in the break room each shift. It was a classic break room, meaning outdated safety posters featuring Randall Cunningham drooped from the wall by yellowed tape, every open surface was slick to the touch from years of spilled milk, and the store radio came through a 5″ intercom speaker propped in the drop ceiling that sounded like it was brushing it’s teeth. “Big Bingo” is full of that. This tape of unreleased 2011 recordings, Not Not Fun‘s 344th (!!!) release, jaunts like an ice cream truck circling a cul de sac. Tervu scoops some straight forward Casio melodies with 1990’s convenience store charm. The absence of interruptions is noticeable, in that I mean you almost expect the music to mute for a moment and the pharmacy to chime in with a ‘prescription filled’ announcement. Moods shift over the dozen tracks, but it’s forever playful and bright, I suppose themes that make people want to spend money??? Like those break room surfaces coated with dairy film, “Big Bingo” is encrusted with a similar amount of tape hiss. Hiss so sharp it’s nearly upgraded to an instrument, all attention grabbing and stained to the music. A pleasant and lo-fi time slide to $1.99 packs of cigarettes and camera film drop offs.

I would suggest hanging a poster of Magic Johnson holding a cardboard box with the caption “Real All Stars Lift With Their Knees!” but I wouldn’t dare hide the beautiful cover art by Britt Brown. If you want a copy of “Big Bingo,” and you should,  grab one of the 50 made here.