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Article 4

May 18, 2014, 6:24 am
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Well, after the week we've all been through here in the tri-county area (nightly thunderstorms and other inclement forms of weather among other real-life hoohahs) I'm surprised that I was even able to crank out this much of a post! Let's just say that if last week's post was thinner than an English sex manual, this one's thinner than a Scottish book on how to spend a lotta money and have a real good time! (OK, howzbout it's thinner'n an Irish book called I HATE POTATOES? Or an Italian one called WARS IN WHICH WE HAVEN'T SURRENDERED?????) Awww, c'mon 'n read 'em now, willya???


MX-80 Sound-HARD ATTACK 2-CD set (Superior Viaduct, PO Box 193563, San Francisco, CA 94119)

Like, uh, what else could get me to dish out even more ever-scarce shekels to hear material I've had via vinyl, disque and tape for years on end??? A bonus platter of unreleased tuneage, that's what and that's exactly what we get on this recent reissue of the debut MX-80 Sound album which has stuck around so long in the pantheon of underground goodies that it's even considered as being of legendary status! Well, at least it has for people who've been collecting locally-produced hard crank for years on end and have been snatching these midwestern screechers up as soon as someone wrote about 'em in the pages of  THE MUSIC GIG back '76 way.

This smattering of live, rehearsal and outtakes recorded around the same time those early platters were sparking the nodes of everybody from Howard Thompson to Caroline Coon (!) really are as ear-opening as the Ralph material was the first time I gave it all a spin, and if tracks like "Diaphanous Ginger" (not to mention the twisted ode to the Statue of Liberty) don't immediately wiggle their way into your groove spot then may I tell you that I pity you to the end.

Of course there's the original HARD ATTACK album to also contend with, and of course it remains an all-time hard-cranker. Maybe not as heavy metalloid as OUT OF THE TUNNEL or as post-fusion as CROWD CONTROL, but it still hits the target even if you think that Rich Stim's deadpan humor and yours don't just quite line up the way you'd have liked 'em to. Well, at least this made for a good excuse to give it a listen after a few years of my other Cee-Dee copy being buried somewhere deep in the leaning tower of disques here in this fart-encrusted retreat of mine I call a bedroom.

Oh yeah, and Byron Coley did some nice liners that are included in the rare snap-infested booklet. And how often have you been reading any good rockscapading these days anyway?
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John Lacey, John Gunni Busck, Coum Transmissions-MUSIC FOR STOCKING TOP, SWING AND STAIRCASE LP + CD (Other Ideas)

You may remember my Coum Transmissions elpee review from earlier in the year. Well, given how much that 'un got me interested in the inner workings of the pre-Throbbing Gristle Genesis P'Orridge with or without the Breyer "art collective", I decided to snatch this particular pair of platters up that feature English freakout scene hanger on John Lacey working in tandem with this rather sickoid bunch recorded at some live installation, or something roughly to that effect.

Actually the music heard here is nothing as occult-like as you might have been led to believe, mainly electronic oscillating sounds moving up and down in interesting patterns that recall a few thousand other efforts also being made in the mid-seventies. Throw in some cheap chord organ and broken down beat box sounds and you got something that sounds like your cousin Ned trying to play "Telstar" on your newly-acquired 1962 Christmas present and failing miserably. True your kid brother coulda done this by manipulating the tone arm on the hi-fi set, but he didn't and that only proves he's a dunce!

Besides the album, the entire performance recording on Cee-Dee is included which makes me wonder...why did they bother pressing it up on vinyl inna first place?
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The Fleshtones-WHEEL OF TALENT CD-r burn (originally on Yep Rock)

Paul McGarry burned this one for me, and in doing so told me that WHEEL OF TALENT was definitely NOT one of his favorite 'tones platters! This fact of life kinda made me wonder why he made a copy for me inna first place if it wasn't up to snuff but hey, stranger things have happened, and one of the strangest things happening right now is that I really enjoy this particular platter even though it was made by a band who has been together for thirty-five years who are now hitting the sexagenarian mark and never had any real shard of financial or charttopping success in all the years they've been together. But like I am wont to say...so what!

The Fleshtones prove that they can still put out those teenage sixties-like albums that have something to tell us, and that rock 'n roll of a garage/suburban slob variety can survive here in the beyond jaded present w/o having to succumb to any of the mishaps of modern existence like hippydippy moral values and the lack of MR. ED reruns. If McGarry thinks this 'un's not 100% rock 'n roll might, I'd sure like to hear the albums he thinks are!
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The Red Rippers-OVER THERE...AND OVER HERE CD-r burn (originally on Bachelors of Paradise) 

 I know whatcha thinkin'...yet another one of those home-made albums by some shellshocked Vietnam vets who still don't know that the war is over and who hit the deck every time a car backfires. Well like hey, maybe yes and maybe no, but this particular concept album is one that's sure got all other Vietnam concept albums beat all hollow, that is I would say so had I heard at least another one of these platters so I could compare it with this. Nice delivery on this 'un, sorta like eighties country punk with some late-seventies AM guitar pop moves tossed in and the results ain't as awkward or as cloying as you might want to believe. Once available via an ad in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE!
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Bo Anders Persson-LOVE IS HERE TO STAY CD-r burn (originally on Subliminal Sounds)

The future Parson Sound/International Harvester/Trad Gas Och Stenar member in the mid-sixties doing the avant garde classical thing, probably just a few nanoseconds before someone told him that rock 'n roll was in fact the new avant garde and it wasn't hip to snub the stuff anymore. Maybe not, but whatever this brew is it's good enough primitive experimental jagoff sound not that dissimilar to the stuff John Cale was doing in his loft when the Falling Spikes were falling deep into the collective veins of the group in question. The flutier stuff recalls those once-rare mid-sixties Sun Ra excursions that are only now getting the post-mortem examination, while one of the tracks with an ethereal femme vocal sounds like music for a spy flick of continental origin! I guess addled minds do run in the same direction, especially when wallowing in the sewer of sixties expression, eh?
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Cathal Rodgers-INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions)

The latest from KSE's no slouch either, what with this outside-the-"outsider" musician alternating between deep soundscapading and guitar solos that are vaguely reminiscent of Loren Connors. And the best part about is you don't have to pay an arm and a leg (yet) to hear the thing! For those of you who believe that the drone is the best thing that's happened to music since the invention of the wheel, and that music really didn't start until Marcel Duchamp presented his very own fountain at the 1913 Armory Show or something like that.
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Kaoru Abe/Sabu Toyozumi-OVERHANG PARTY/SENSEI CD-r burn (originally on Qbico)

More sax/drums improvisational duetting from the late-seventies, a must for those of you who think that Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano are the only ones performing in 2014 with the loft ideals of 1976 firmly in place. True it ain't as feral as those Rashied Ali/Frank Lowe tracks that popped up on DUO EXCHANGE, but they're rather inspiring in themselves if you know how the Japanese are apt to take various Amerigan (and other) forms of expression and do 'em up their own way. Made for good inspirational playing while reading an article on JIMMY SAVILE of all people!
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Jooklo Duo-LIVE 2012 AT OCCII-AMSTERDAM CD-r burn (the original was released for their 2014 US tour)

Wow, what is this sound??? Reminds me a whole lot of Roscoe Mitchell's "Chant" off the last side of the infamous WILDFLOWERS loft jazz series what with the crazed circular breathing (or is it my ears?) stylings courtesy of Virginia Genta while David Vanzan handles not only the drums but tambourine and castanets (yes, I thought the Cee-Dee was skipping when I first put it on too!). I just can't express how energetic and downright pleasing (in that late-seventies form of expression that was so out-there that only THE VILLAGE VOICE would dare cover it outside of their usual persecution complex hijinx) and let's just say that if you liked alla that AACM stuff before it became too backwoodsy primitive complete with bone firmly inserted in nose ethnic you might just cozy up to this one with a special pre-jaded glee!
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Various Artists-NO FISHING ON THE RAILROAD CD-r burn (courtesy of Bill Shute)

Starts off like a late-fifties top-forty rock 'n roll station playing the obscuros in between the big hitsters of the day (the Kittens, Joey Vann, Ezra and the Iveys!) before Bill gets back into his old timey country and western waxings that send you deep South faster 'n Sherman's march through Georgia. Some entertaining tidbits here, what with eleven-year-old Nita Eubanks (any relation to Bus?) sounding as if she's ripe plum pickins for a mountain marriage and Emry Arthur and Della Hatfield doing some sweet harmonizin' that I'm sure'd stymie anybody tuning into contemporary country radio these days. Another nice Sunday afternoon slice of forgotten musical might that sure fit in with my standard catch-up on classic comic book perusin'.
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Article 3

May 21, 2014, 3:55 am
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COMIC BOOK REVIEW! KICKSVILLE CONFIDENTIAL #1 (Kicks Books, 2011)

Dunno how this obscurity got lost in the vast array of CREATURES ON THE LOOSE and LITTLE LOTTAs that clutter up my bedroom, but better late'n never for this high priced (five bucks!) info/entertainment-packed comic book that's bound to be one of the best reads between 32 and 100 pages around. And what's more, there ain't any ads for finishing high school or selling GRIT to be found anywhere in its pages, (though the ads that do exist expired November 9, 1963 which I know must have been a grand day in my life even if I can't remember how many times I moved my bowels that very day).

Yep, it's the whole KICKS/NORTON RECORDS story done up comic style and pretty nattily at that which would figure since hey, why not do a comic book about the real prime movers and shakers in rockism while those other hippie rock comic book types re-tell the Beatles story for the zillionth time? And really, isn't it wonderful that a comic book version of the whole KICKS story with Billy Miller and Miriam Linna along with their many pals even exists in the first place? You gotta admit that things really are getting strange around here when such underneath-the-underground pillars of pure rockist desire (distilled into nice flashy vinyl and even Cee-Dees at times!) as these two become the subject of their own comic book...its almost as if they're acting as the Crypt Keeper and Old Witch for the music set now, ain't it?

But whatever the ghastly case may be, the book is done in whatcha'd call an "underground" fashion (frankly I woulda preferred something more befitting, like the mid-sixties DC house style) by an Ari Spivak who's pretty good even if his Ricky Nelson and Richard Nixon don't look anything like the real deal. But hey, who cares since the rock tales (all true!) that are being spewed forth in the comic are just as exciting and as nerve-tingling as it was reading the old KICKS fanzine or listening to the myriad asst. of Norton platters, or settling down in front of your tee-vee to watch REAL McCOYS reruns while everybody else was shaking their rump to the funk 'n like, you knew you were the avant garde one even when you were fourteen and you didn't even know what avant garde was!

Nice seeing a lotta the long-bantered about stories that B&M have been spewing for ages get visualized, like the one about the time Billy and famed flaming voolah Esquirita met up with none other'n Al Sharpton and the latter two got in a heated argument as to who knew James Brown best! (Again Spivak's Sharpton ain't the bulbous butter-haired eighties figure who was always standing next to Tawana Brawley on the evening nooze, but maybe he didn't wanna tear open old race-baiting wounds or something.) Folks we've first read about in KICKS  come alive right before your floater-filled eyes as the sagas are once again trotted out for those of us who thought that it was no later than '68 when the big beat died for sure, and not a second later!

Really, all of your faveraves who made the Norton roster in one way or another are here from Iggy and Johnny Thunders in their peen-age pre-fame combos, to those once-obscure rockabilly guys whom you probably thought Ron Weiser had invented in the fertle reaches of his awopbopaloola mind. Even some surprise sagas pop up such as the one recounted in Kim Fowley's LORD OF GARBAGE where none other'n Sky Saxon snuck up behind a dancing Fowley at some Las Vegas sixties a-go-go romp and knocked him silly before jumping on-stage with the A Bones to rant some timely Christmas poesy! Gene Vincent even gets a whole page to himself, while Jack Starr rates two whole panels! Roky Erickson one!!! Screamin' Jay Hawkins's fatherhood fables are even trotted out again and the tally now reads up to 75 siblings spawned by the Father of the Century which only proves that the man was a walking billboard for Vigero!

And like, what's keeping you from snatching this 'un up like right now??? (Last time I looked Norton was stocking 'em albeit at an even higher price'n you woulda hadda pay a good four years ago!) You gonna wait until they reprint 'em in an 80 Page Giant'r somethin'?

I just hope there's gonna be a second ish to this one, since I gotta see just how Spivak's gonna handle such not-so-delicate subject matter as the time the Zantees asked to open for Robert Gordon only he wanted them to supply him with some special stimulation for the honors, or better yet the infamous Miriam meets Robert Christgau back-and-forth which I oh-so-dearly wanted to publish verbatim in one of the final issues of my not-so-saintly crudzine! Well I guess they couldn't publish that because it's be too wild to earn a seal of approval from the Comics Code Authority what with all of that violence, but just thinking about it sure gives me the hot tingles all over! Just as long as they leave the Louis Prima, Keely Smith and some Vegas blackjack dealer saga that Nick Tosches recounted in one of the later issues out, since that one really ruined any appreciation I may have had of the former two and ruined it for good (eck!).
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Article 2

May 25, 2014, 3:06 am
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AND if you thought last week's post was thinner than a book on Frenchmen who don't mind if you mangle their mother tongue, wait 'til you see THIS one! Well, it is what I would call "hokay" given that I got hold of some pretty spicy slabs to write about this week, but then again I'd sure like to unleash something a li'l meatier on you, like one of my top notch interviews with somebody who only means something to me and his mother alone, or maybe one of my specials regarding rare fanzines, bootlegs, television series and other forgotten forms of long-gone fun 'n jamz. I will admit that I do have some funtime fanablaisms in the works, but they're still in whatcha'd call the "gestation" stage and at this point in time who knows whether they're gonna make it to fruition or get the partial-birth treatment! Keep your fingers and any other pertinent digits crossed for some neet surprises down the line, but for now it's gonna be rekkid reviews and rekkid reviews ONLY!!!

Armand Schaubroeck Steals-GOD MADE THE BLUES TO KILL ME 10-inch 33 rpm single + CD (Mirror Records)

Gee, I didn't know what to expect. I mean, although I really dig those early/mid-sixties singles Schaubroeck did I gotta 'fess up to the fact that I really never could make my way through those seventies albums of his (or at least the one I latched onto) with any ease, especially that one where he goes to prison 'n all. But this thing is incredible especially when you consider it was recorded by a septuagenarian who still sounds like he's a horny sixteen year old hoping to score on the basis of this very disque!

Both sides are the same (albeit with different mixes if that matters to you) but boy what sides they are, with Schaubroeck rattling off this Vietnam odyssey filtered through frayed nerve sixties conscious that makes "American Pie" sound like MAD magazine, and to a hard whiteguy blues riff at that! The best thing about it is that for once this doesn't sound like it was being cranked by the usual leather-fringed droopy mustached types you usually hear doin' the blues these days.

Pretty downright intense crank that'll get more'n the hair on your neck standin' on end, and a solid driver that (both musically and lyrically) maybe goes to show ya that there still is some mighty intense bluesy music being made today if you only know where to snoop it all out. Even comes with a Cee Dee of the exact same rattle in case you're one of them modern snob types who hates vinyl.
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Various Artists-PUNK 45 (SICK ON YOU! ONE WAY SPIT!) CD (Soul Jazz England)

Even though they're mostly money wasters, I gotta admit that I really like these punk collections that have been coming out faster'n a scab outbreak on a lint-headed mid-South inbred these past few years. Sure ya already have most if not all of the material available on 'em in one form or another (and had it for YEARS), but these platters are programmed just right for a nightly spin to go along with your inspirational readings of  RICHIE RICH, and no matter how many times I give these once-obscuros a spin I gotta admit they sound just as fresh and as life-reaffirming as the time I first gave 'em a whirl back when I was younger, and therefore more apt to be taken in by just about anything that passed by my suburban slob fun 'n games detector.

This volume of Soul Jazz's recent punk-era 45 collections is no exception. Concentrating on the "proto punk" years (meaning the days when those acts that were getting corralled into the p-rock genre long before the hippoids at ROLLING STONE were forced to notice 'n act like they were in on the game all along), ONE WAY SPIT's got some of the choicest trackage of the era available within 77 minutes of run time. From the opening track on the wowzer Debris album to the Electric Eels, Mirrors, George Brigman (!), Jack Ruby (!!!) and other Amerigan under-the-counterculture wonders, just about every reason for your being swooned and swayed by the oncoming high energy bandwagon of the seventies can be found on this mere shiny pancake of a compact disque!

There are even some English (and other) faves to be found like the Count Bishops and 101'ers, and yeah the Hollywood Brats, Death and Hammersmith Gorillas inclusions have appeared on a whole lotta other punk rock outings but hey, if the song's good I don't care even if the space coulda been used to promulgate the punk credo of some other mid-seventies worthies like Umela Hmota or Stud Leather who could use the notoriety and the $$$ for that matter.

Noted fru fru Jon Savage did the booklet notes and they read about as good as you would expect from just about any ex-eighties UK weekly writer, and even if the info divulged ain't exactly hot off the press it ain't like you're gonna be throwing the booklet away any day soon. So what'll it be tonight, PUNK 45 or turning on the tee-vee to watch Ellen Degeneris pretend she can dance???
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Rockpile-LIVE AT ROCKPALAST CD-r burn (originally on Repertoire, Germany)

Sheesh, do I remember when the whole Dave Edmunds/Nick Lowe circuit of post-pub rockabloozy was considered too far out for the typical AM/FM-bred teenage boxboy/burnout/"rock music" fans of the late-seventies to handle! Fuh-knee, because at the time the likes of Nick Lowe 'n Elvis Costello were shocking the hippie sensibilities out there I was more or less wont to spend my evening hours spinning everything from the likes of Pere Ubu's THE MODERN DANCE to Xenakis'ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MUSIC, sounds that you'd think woulda made the entire Stiff Records catalog sound rather radio-dolt friendly in comparison! But whatever, listening to these rather smooth yet toe-tappin' tracks by the old Rockpile band does bring back memories of the old me vs. them battles as to what was rockism proper, and we all know who won out in the long run, right? THEM, because hey---did anything even remotely high-energy either of a rock, jazz or avant garde mentality ever make it either in the commercial or aesthetic sense here in the Pantsios-riddled North Coast area, even in the slightest? Ya gotta remember, back when the Styrene Money Band hadda walk home after one of their under-attended gigs doofs like the Wild Horses were getting alla the choice gigs and hefty coverage in the local music press. And thirtysome years later we know whose music holds up much better now, don't we?????

So give a listen to what the smarter goombahs were listening to while everyone else was phoning into WMMS to hear the umpteenth playing of "Almost Cut My Hair". Smooth and commercial true, yet gnarly enough to get the usual laid backs all in a huff about that wicked punk stuff. Familiar stuff like Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts" and "I Knew the Bride" intermingle with oldies and rehashes, and when you think back as to what there was out there that was supposed to speak for you as a member of the Now Generation maybe it wasn't as staid as you eventually kidded yourself that it was, at least until the whole era fizzled out into MTV gush a few years later.
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The Soda Pop Kids-TEEN BOP DREAM CD-r burn (originally on Full Breach Kicks)

Hey, a moderne-day group that sounds like one of the many New York Dolls knockoffs that were bopping about back inna mid-to-late seventies! Only the Soda Pop Kids sound less decadent than the Frenchies, and straighter than Wayne County, and healthier than the Magic Tramps, and more hygienic than the Hollywood Brats and Teenage Lust combined! If someone were to tell me that this one got played at Rodney's English Disco on a regular rotation I'd believe it! Tough guy lead vocals a la Johansen backed by tough glam rock pout pounce in the best Sweet/Slade tradition (not to mention some darn good girly background vocals straight outta the Shangri Las school of pouty emote) and the fact that this was born and bred in the twenty-first century certainly does give me some hope for the future of this dreary thing we call a planet. And the strangest thing of all is that I don't think Kim Fowley had a thing to do with it at all!
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Craig Leon-NOMMOS CD-r burn (originally on Takoma, then Superior Viaduct records)

Bizarro platter from famous new wave producer Leon, here sounding like the missing link between Suicide and Philip Glass or better yet the mid-seventies synthesizer sounds that were suddenly beginning to invade the sanctity of our living rooms after Walter (now Wendy) Carlos popularized electronics via SWITCHED ON BACH. It's a surprise that John Fahey's Takoma label would have released this '81 platter given just how un-Faheyesque it may be, but I'm sure stranger things have happened considering the alleged mental instability of the famed guitarist.

Actually the strangest thing that happened to me while listening to this 'un was that, during the non-beat-box dominated tracks that start NOMMOS off, I was reminded as to how I'd spend these ennui-laden nights watching none other than AVIATION WEATHER and the CAPTIONED ABC NEWS on late-night PBS soaking up the electronic sounds that would play during the commercial breaks on the latter, wondering whether or not to check out the late movie on channel 17 (usually some mid-thirties British import) or hit the hay feeling extremely passed over by life as well as by my benefactors who really didn't know any better even though I do think they tried. But maybe it was the diet Shasta that did it. Whatever, thanks for the warm 'n fuzzy memories Craig!
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Deniz Tek-DETROIT CD-r (originally on Citadel, Australia)

Yeah it ain't as good as them mid-eighties Tek-related singles (which gave me about as much hope for a rockism future as those mid-seventies singles did!), but the man sure can pump out the rock 'n roll a whole lot harder'n most anyone else these days. A bit commercial in spots, but still evocative of past triumphs enough to make me realize exactly why more'n a few turdburgers were scraping up hard-begged for an Au Go Go order back when those Detroit by the way of Sydney platters were capturing the imaginations of more'n a few rock fans who were kinda upset that the 1964-1981 underground seasons hadda end on such a sour note as they did! And if you can come up with a better run on sentence filled with such a heartbreaking panache as that please email it to me immediately!
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Various Artists-SUNSHINE, SHADOW AND SEAWEED Cd-r burn (compiled by Bill Shute)

It's definitely old acetates at home week here at BLOG TO COMM, what with Bill sending me this disque of mostly unreleased rarities of an easily worn down status not to mention some other items that just might have stayed stuck in the pre-release mode'n never made it to the direct-to-garage sale market. Some of the things here are whatcha'd call fairly recognizable among serious collectors of the form (ain't Jimmy Campbell the same guy who had a pregnant clown on the cover of his oft-espied Vertigo album entitled HALF BAKED?) while acts like Schibbinz and Five Steps Beyond display a nice late-sixties sorta Beatle-pop that shoulda gotten out to a wider array of listeners than their family and friends! The Elite Boys were good enough white soul, while the Orange Seaweed sound like something you'd've known that yer typical Britophile would have upped toffee nose at for the upcoming Yes album, or something like that...they're that good!

The rest is palatable enough for this lazy Sunday afternoon 'n all, but Bill, I'm surprised at you! No honky tonk deep fried Southern hillbilly twang to be heard at all! Whazzamaddawitchaboy?
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Article 1

May 29, 2014, 3:55 am
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MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! 79 AD starring Brad Harris (1962)

Not as snoozaroonie as I thought it was gonna be, but sheesh when I was watching it didn't I once again flash back to the seventies watching some Sunday afternoon moom pitcher slot not only outta boredom, but to keep in touch with the latest on that tornado that was spotted in New Castle, known in these parts as tornado alley.

Musclebound expat Brad Harris stars in this dago feature that has something to do with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Or something like that because the infamous mount doesn't do the spurt-spurt until the final five or so minutes in this film and like, ya kinda wonder whar took it so long in typical Aunt Jemima fashion! The rest of the thing has to do a lot with local governmental intrigue, warring factions fighting for and against the emperor and the rise of Christianity alongside things that I might have missed out on during the weather updates . Actually it's kind of a hodgepodge of a film, but it does keep up the pace with an occasional fight of some kind, lotsa stabbings and Beaver will be happy to know that there are hardly any slobbering scenes in it at all.

Nice ebb and tide at least to the point where you can go take a leak during a slower part in the film and not miss much. Also's got a great chemistry between the actors (some may poo-poo the thespian abilities of the people involved, but then again they never saw the fourth grade play we wee-peens hadda put on!) and nothing that'll make ya wanna upchuck like CALIGULA did. There's even a mass crucifixion scene that doesn't have everybody singing "Look on the Bright Side of Life" although you wonder why its taking so long for everyone to die.

However I know that if (dredging up anudder BEAVER fave) Eddie Haskell saw it, that student of history would be checking the thing out for inaccuracies all over the place! And yeah, I know you coulda done better watching CHAMPIONSHIP BOWLING on the other station, but that channel never was that good with the alarming weather break-ins now, were they???

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Article 0

May 31, 2014, 10:17 am
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Yeah, another week another post, and I gotta admit that it sure seems strange watching the days whiz on here at BLOG TO COMM central. Sheesh, it feels as if only a few short weeks ago we were suffering under the spell of one of the lousiest winters since 1977 (which wasn't that lousy since we gotta miss a whole lotta school because of it!) and now summertime is peeking at us from just around the corner just ready to shed some hot sunrays and humid day tornado warnings on us just like they did when we wuz all kids! As Shemp Howard said when he busted that guy's watch at the baseball game "how time flies", and when you get older and crotchety-er like me it sure flies by faster and faster until the point where life becomes nothing but one big blur that only ends once you hit the Big Jackpot, probably due to the fact that some guy at the Old Fogy's Home you'll undoubtedly be staying at hitched up a bag of Root Beer syrup to your dripper by mistake. I do get the feeling that in a relatively short time I'm gonna be devoting posts to changing colostomy bags, but for now we'll keep it nice'n non-geriatric, OK?
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BLOG TO COMM HERO OF THE YEAR---ELLIOT RODGER!!! No need to wait until the end of the year to announce this 'un, and yeah I know what you're thinking, like wotta loser richkid spoiled brat who couldn't get any action even though his father was a hotshot Hollyweird director with all of the socially gosharoonie benefits that go along with that! 'n yup, I know that Rodger was a guy who had to get his thrills stabbing and shooting and running over people in his BMW while making even more rambling than a BLOG TO COMM post bizzaroid threats for all the world to see posthumously, but REALLY, how can alla you outer'n the outkid types in yer schooldayze not empathize with a guy who was so pent up with that infamous teenbo disease testicallus bleuballus to the point where he went out and done just what the rest of you sure woulda liked to have done during your young 'n tender years! I can see it in your eyes (and your correspondence, and your general attitudes towards the so-called "weaker" (hah!) sex...you too would've wanted to brutally off all 'em blonde sluts in typing class who wouldn't give you the mouth organ treatment even when they were blitzed outta their minds at those high school get together they used to call parties! And frankly, I can empathize with you because hey, it's always been a rough goin' for us front 'n center rockists out there who always seemed to have an incurable BO of the spiritual kind, and I only hope that the actions of Rodger spurs you readers on to even greater heights of give 'em hell mayhem!

Hey, them modern day wymyn types (the kind that shut Rodger, and probably YOU, down) really do deserve all the bloody justice they deserve what with the way they ruined male/femme relationships for what seems like good with their feminist-approved sluttiness! And besides, it's sure fun watching the usual watchdog types use these tragedies to pump up their favorite causes whether it be regarding the kultur's inherent misogyny or gun control or even the fact that Rodger is the resultant spew of miscegenation even if he does look more like your typical Eastern European Slav type the kind you see working at the local pirogy palace! Whatever, here's to you Mr. Rodger, and I'd have a plaque for you to pick up only I won't have one ready, because how in heaven's name are you gonna be able to pick it up?
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AND WHILE I'M AT IT---r.i.p. Maya Angelou, who proved that all you hadda do to get your dull and lifeless poetry noticed was change your name to somethin' foreign sounding and the snob types who read THE NEW YORKER'll beat a path to your door faster'n you can say "We shall overcome!" Still marveling at her deeply moving Clinton inauguration poem "River, Rock, Tree"...or was that "Paper, Rock, Scissors"??? Well, it wasn't anything like my all-time fave "Milk, Milk, Lemonade"that's for sure!
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Anyhow, here are the writeups for this weekend which I know you will adore not only because of the selection of engaging and emotion-packed produce I picked outta my garden of musical delights, but because some of these platters were not given to me gratis...meaning I actually PAID for them mothers and in a way boy am I glad I did it! Now, I sure do appreciate the burns that the likes of Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and Tom Gilmore have been floating my way, but when I actually send some of my hard-begged to either Forced Exposure Mailorder or an ebay dealer for some soon-to-be-rare piece of plastic I must say that I do have this potent pride burning in my system, like I accomplished something good with my money 'stead of spend it on unnecessary things like food or taxes. Anyway, the following items are what more or less have been tingling my inner workings as of this past week, and who knows, maybe they have been doing the same for you too!

Kenneth Anger/Brian Butler-TECHNICOLOR SKULL one-sided LP (The ANJA Offensive)

Really, I didn't know what to expect from legendary underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger's new audio/visual product, but this one's surprisingly good especially for a disque recorded by someone who's old enough to be your (great) grandfather! Along with the talents of former Von Lmo collaborator Brian Butler, Anger has created a wild electronic music that merges old technology (the theremin) with the new (samplers) making for a sound that is as terrifying as it is inspiring with its sine wave sonatas interrupted by the crashing of mad drums, otherworldly shards of sheet metal storms and other ethereal vibrations that conjure everything from Pere Ubu's "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" to METAL MACHINE MUSIC in its beautiful terror.

Listen for a bit of Jagger's DEMON BROTHER soundtrack at the start which naturally gets your ready for what's in store within these red-vinyled grooves. As far as any recent electronic music I've heard being made in the here and now goes, this one leaves the competition (even the stuff I LOVE!) far behind in its deep intensity and ability to conjure up various 20th Century accomplishments as a template for what I hope the next hundred years will bring to fruition music-wise (but I doubt it). A must-find, though hurry up because supplies are limited.
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Various Artists-GLAMSTAINS ACROSS EUROPE VOLUME 1, TEENAGE RAMPAGE LP (Two Sevens Clash)

True the presence of Dana Gillespie, Thundermug and Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters might point to the fact that this sampler of early-seventies glam rockers ain't as obscuro as one might wish, but this album's worth of (mostly) European single sides sure does make for a fine sit-down listening experience in the GLITTERBEST tradition. And hey, the familiar acts do fit in swell with the various obscurities by the likes of Gumbo and Nils to the point where it all has the same effect on you that it would have on some dumpy high school chubboid of a gal who'd be listening to these numbers in between reading copies of ROCK SCENE and pricking bloody boils that have popped up on her thighs. If you've been reading about acts like Bearded Lady, Mabel and Heart (not the Wilson sisters!) online and wanted to know what they sounded like, do I need to tell you any more???
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Loose Heart-"Alone"/"Hot As The Sun"/"1000 Dreams" 7-inch 45 rpm EP (Danger Records, France)

After reading the "punk rock" issue of ROCK NEWS once again I was spurred on to see if there were any recordings by the long forgotten French group Strike Up available for mass consumption. Haven't been able to find anything by that group yet but I was able to latch onto this spin-off which not only features Strike Up's guitarist Pierre Goddard but once and future Angel Face bassist Pascal Regoli and Herve Zenouda (he being ex-Strike Up, Angel Face and future Stinky Toys) on drums.

It's every bit as violent as you woulda guessed what with the manic FUN HOUSE-period Stooges pace and the hard-edged super-intense performance that reflects more of that down 'n drivin' French punk attitude than it does the comparatively restrained and copycat English vision. Think Skydog Records and you'll be on the right rue de excitement. Its archival digs like this that make me feel like I'm forty again!
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 Natural Child-DANCIN' WITH WOLVES CD-r burn (originally on Burger)

A McGarry send that had me wond'rin'...why would the guy wanna even listen to an act with the name Natural Child inna first place? Judging from this choice undoubtedly Paul must've been spendin' a li'l too much time on Boone's Farm if you know what I mean. But really, these guys are good, sounding like top-notch late-sixties/early-seventies country rock done good (meaning more Gram Parsons and less Eagles) with maybe a tad bit of Kama Sutra-period Flamin' Groovies tossed in for good measure. Good choice of disques you got here Paul, though with a cover like that I was thinkin' this was gonna be another seventies-styled NEW ZOO REVUE knockoff!
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John Coltrane-COLTRANE LIVE AT BIRDLAND CD-r burn (originally on Impulse)

Yeah it ain't as life-reaffirming as Ornette nor as psychotic as Ayler or as free splat as the early Art Ensemble of Chicago, but this live sesh (not to mention the additional studio tracks which were added on for whatever reason) does hold its own in a field of Coltrane platters that were comin' out at almost as fast a rate as those Miles Davis ones. Downright introspective at times, though lacking the fire that Coltrane would eventually unleash on his mid-sixties platters. If you're new to the man, hit ASCENSION first and save this for those well-honed moments.
***
John Cage-EARLY ELECTRONIC AND TAPE MUSIC CD (Sub Rosa)

I was gonna review this 'un along with a whole batch of recently reaped Cage-and-related platters that I happened to get via Forced Exposure. I was but hey, right now I am not inna mood to peck out any long-winded writeups based on a gaggle of similar-minded spinners if only for the fact that---well, it reminds me too much of "school" and this being the time of year when school lets out for the summer why exert myself? Besides, I already did a term paper on electronic music during my sophomoric days in high stool and you know just how much I'm still smarting over that 'un...y'know, the "Sien Ra"'stead of "Sun Ra" goof up that was the resultof my sister transcribing my scribbles to type and I'll bet that stuff never happened to Nick Kent no matter how drug-induced his penmanship might have gotten during the throes of opiate addiction!

These are all-new renditions which really don't have the same aura those original recordings did, but if you don't have the Mainstream albums and can't get hold of Cathy Berberian wrapping her tonsils around "Fontana Mix with Aria" this effort will do. Some new to my ears tracks such as "Imaginary Landscape No. 5" show up, and this 'un even has the premier recording of the long-forgotten "WBAI" (named after the infamous Pacifica station in En Why See where Cage first realized what I always thought was a tape) which I know you'll wanna hear at least once. Vibrant enough to joggle those oft-dormant memories of a teendom where experimental free sound like this was considered a mighty appealing form of artzy expression, at least to this ADD-riddled specimen!
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THE VISITORS CD-r burn (originally on Chinese Takeaway, Australia)

Haven't spun this 'un in an age or two, so it was plumb nice that Paul McGarry'd send me a burn of this late-eighties post-Birdman spinoff just to remind me of what all the hubbub was about a good thirtysome years ago. At its worst just anudder Doors ripoff the kind that's been heard from here to Montana and back, but at its best pretty catchy hard rock that sounds like it came straight off the table of a 1979 flea market stack o' platters, and for a mere quarter at that. Pick of the platter: elpee closer "Disperse" which actually takes elements of Rocket From The Tombs'"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and Roxy Music's "The Pride and the Pain" and makes 'em work without you wanting to puke your guts out.
***
Telly Savalas-WHO LOVES YA BABY? CD-r burn (originally on MCA)

This 'un was obviously recorded back when men still had balls, because frankly in today's harpie-run emasculated kultur who'd dare release an album like this? Savalas and his masculine crooning's actually a refreshing change from the usual pop slop even with the occasional dated disco drek because hey, has there been any proud 'n upfront celebration of the male gender complete with some nifty e-z listening schmoozers made these past three or so decades??? True the guy ain't no Tony Rolletti and he shoulda taken a few more lessons before hitting the recording studio, but gosh if I didn't get that same fifties fun and jamz feeling from listening to "The Men in my Little Girl's Life" which really does evoke a time and place that's never gonna come back no matter how much Hai Karate you splash on yourself. A nice reminder of the good ol' male/female relationship before those Andrea Dworkin types began telling us "up" is "down" and most of us guys have been "down" ever since, if you know what I mean...
***
Various Artists-SASSY SUNNYDAY DELUSION CD-r (courtesy Bill Shute)

Unlike most if not all of Bill's previous collections, this one at least attempts a thematic form, this 'un being late-sixties psychedelic pop of both an Amerigan and English bent. These tracks are best exemplified by the inclusions of worthy if definitely non-Norton approved numbers by the likes of Masters of Stonehenge, the Fruit Machine and  PERFUMED GARDEN faves Mandrake Paddle Streamer. (I have a particular hankerin' for Felius Andromeda's "Cheaple Heath Delusions".) But when you're getting settled into the multicolored lava lamp sounds therein all of a sudden Bill switches gears on ya and tosses in interesting soul s tirrers like the Percells'"Hully Gully Guitar" or Roscoe Weathers'"Penny Whistle Montuna". A typically good in the Shute tradition selection of long-ignored rarities, even if it made me wanna don one of those kerchiefs like Fred used to wear on the Scooby Doo show.
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June 3, 2014, 11:27 pm
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DVD REVIEW! JOE McDOAKES COLLECTION, starring George O'Hanlon (Warner Brothers)

I was laughing my scabs off over these classic 40s/50s JOE McDOAKES Warner Brother short subjects way back during my early VCR days (just grab any issue of BLACK TO COMM twixt #s 18 and 25 to read about 'em all up front and natural-like), and now that we've entered the age of Dee-Vee-Dee I finally have the opportunity to watch the entire run of this long-forgotten series in the very privacy of my own boudoir. Yes, in an age where comedy has become synonymous with one big bad-rapping by a buncha dykes who are still mad at their daddies so they dragged some black guy on 'em and had a kid and shouted LOOK AT WHAT I DUMPED ON YOU, SOCIETY!!!, these shorts come off even funnier than the time I substituted my neighbor's birth control pills with thalidomide! And really, if I have laughed this year at all it was because of this set which helps out during those moments when I realize that life is just a joke and I just happen to be the punchline!

George O'Hanlon as Joe is of course perfect in the lead role as the hapless hero who comes off part Dagwood Bumstead and Ralph Kramden at his get rich quick best---can't think of anyone else who coulda done the role better'n this long-forgotten fanabla who, other'n his voice work for THE JETSONS as well as the MR. ED United States Savings Bonds film is hardly ever seen these sorry days. The supporting cast is boffo as well, with Phyllis Coates tying it with Jane Frazee to see who makes the best Alice while Rodney Bell as neighbor Marvin and former Little Rascals Carleton Young (later Jackson Wheeler) as Joe's best friend Homer really make these shorts work swell. Of course the other talent in front of the camera from Fred Kelsey (sometimes not playing a cop!) to Lyle Talbot, Douglas Fowley, Joi Lansing, Frank "YEEEEEESSSS????" Nelson and even Arthur Q. Bryan doing his Elmer Fudd impersonation really add the bop to these already funny comedies which have everything going for 'em.

And rilly, who could forget the directorial talents of none other than Richard Bare. You remember him of those snarkier TWILIGHT ZONE episodes (TO SERVE MAN and the one where William Demerast cheats on Joan Blondell with Sandra Gould!) as well as the entire (but one, the debut) GREEN ACRES run which really should clack up the goodie points for all of you kids who knew enough to watch old tee-vee reruns inna afternoon when you shoulda been doing your homework!

Flashback scene from SO YOU WANT TO BE A BACHELOR
Not just a "self help" series, SO YOU WANT... really tackles the absurdities of everyworkaday living with a humorous side that comes off rather tragic in quite a few ways but don't worry, because you'll be laughing at Joe rather'n with him! And like all of the other kids have known since Kindergarten that's a whole lot better'n laughing WITH someone, so while you're cringing with Joe when he pops into the boss's office with a big faked grin right when the boss is announcing his wife's death or suffering along with him while Bud from FATHER KNOWS BEST inflicts him with a whole comic book fulla wartime atrocities you'll be feeling superior to it all knowing that he's nothing but a stoopid schmuck unlike you are! And really, when was the last time you felt superior to those rather demented and downright disturbing beings known to you as friends and family?

A great way to get your boss forties/fifties fulfillment, and although Warners coulda done a better job packaging this 'un (what, no booklet???) at least you're getting a good round of fantastic and at-times downright subversive comedy that sure beats all of that stand around and talk styled "humor" we're constantly inundated with. Well, at least that's the impression that I get from watching those ads for current produce popped in front of me during the commercial breaks on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.

One quickie aside---yes, that is Tor Johnson playing a wrestler getting beat up by some waist-length haired assailant during SO YOU WANT TO BUY A TELEVISION SET!

If you want to know more about the McDoakes series just click on the SO YOU WANT A JOE McDOAKES WEBSITE? link found in the left hand column. Interest and informative true, but unfortunately filled with that modern-day sense of superiority that all but ruins them old time fun 'n jamz for us, with pious pontificating about how women were treated then and how this kind of humor is oh-so-demeaning...sheesh, that shit was bad enough when we were getting alla that "kumbaya" stuff crammed into our skulls when we were in grade school, but when it's even penetrated the sacred realm of moom pitcher history it 's practically unbearable! And what good does it do, since all you feel like doing after being inundated with this preachy shaming is be even more of a racist misogynist type if only outta spite! But if you "men" who happen to be reading this don't mind having your balls lopped off and hatchecked at the "More Better Than You'll Ever Be" Club by all means feel free to grovel.

Still not satisfied with my ramble on? Well just view this all time fave from '55 and just SEE
how right your Unca Chris has been about these forgotten mooms all these years! And if you run outta underwear due to their rampant moistening, don't bother sending me your laundry bills!

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June 7, 2014, 9:23 am
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Sheesh, another week, another rather skimpy roundup of what I've been listening to these past seven spins. Maybe you can make some sorta sense out of it all, but right now I have more important things to worry about than what you think of this mess...stuff like what's for supper or whether or not I'm gonna be able to get hold of that ultra-elusive Fellini's Hideous Mutations single I've been wanting for oh so long---really important things if you do care to know. So have fun reading my usual spew, and like Greg Prevost used to say "these are only opinions ha ha ha!" (Once again, hefty thanks to Bill Shute, Thomas Gilmore and Paul Whatzizname for the burnt offerings they've sent my way...I mean, it ain't like you'd want to read about EVERYTHING that I've bought for myself now, would you???)


FUSHITSUSHA MEETS PETER BROTZMANN 3-CD burn set (originally on Utech Records)

The famed (at least among people who pay attention to these sorts of things) Japanese noise group Fushisusha recorded live in Japan '96 with special guest Peter Brotzmann adding his own post-Ayler spin on their already beyond the ken of Pantsios comprehension avant rock. Needless to say the results are extremely engaging even if you (like me) don't really cozy up to that newer Japanese experimental rock that was all the rage in the hipster fanzines a good twenty-five years back.

The band does put out some interesting (at least for me) electronic syntho-drone and guitar scramble, while Brotzmann once again shows us that these six-oh survivors are sure a whole lot more meaningful to the entire hard-scronk game than many of the players who came in their wake. A huge tip of the skull to Mr. Thomas Gilmore for jetting this one my way, and right at the time I was becoming too jaundiced by repeated playing of J Neo Marvin records (a purification ritual gone awry) to care about living any longer!
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The Art Attacks-OUTRAGE AND HORROR CD (Overground England)

Savage Pencil's punkoid aggro were a cut above most of the 2nd rung English groups if only because there weren't any glam slips or psychedelic remnants to peg 'em as a bunch of "poseurs" (a "poseur" word if I ever heard one). Like the best of these under-the-rug bands, there was more'n an inkling of primal genius that set the Attacks apart from much of the competition mixed in with their calculated if perfecto duncitude, and although to the more haute members of "the scene" they might have seemed like the usual clinger-ons I can appreciate their zilch-chord rampages a whole lot more'n I can some of the eighties acts that popped up in their wake. Sorta like the Sex Pistols with a sense of humor and a suburban slob upbringing (an interview in NEGATIVE REACTION mentioned Pencil's undying admiration for various Gerry Anderson productions as well as Marvel Comics and R. Crumb making me wonder---why isn't the guy an Amerigan like you woulda thought he'd be given these stellar doofus credentials???). A must-get for those of you still enamored by the underground electricity of it all.
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Got this obv. English flea market cheapo crank out if only to remind myself about all of the hubbub revolving around the original three-piece Talking Heads long before they became poster children for nth-dimensional new wave funksters who danced even worse'n Ellen Degenital. Believe it if you will, but this is actually a nice slab of stripped down post-garage Velvets rock (filtered through hefty ROCK SCENE ranch house and moms on speed teen appeal...see Elliot Murphy for more info) with nary a hint of the art school pretension that dogged the band for ages. Sounds honest enough that you probably wish that your older brother's basement band circa 1973 sounded this snappy! Sorta like the missing link between the early-seventies suburban ruminations of Hackamore Brick/Modern Lovers and the late-seventies avant-punk deconstruction of Mars, DNA and the rest., but how'n the hell did anybody know what was going to happen back in them days!
***
Max Neuhaus-THE NEW YORK SCHOOL CD, ZYKLUS CD (both of 'em are on Plana-N Records)



 When it came to solo percussion "realizations" of contemporary avant garde music Max Neuhaus was either a crazed genius or a bigger phony than Harry Crosby and Salvador Dali combined. Really, don't you kinda think that his version of John Cage's "Fontana Mix" (created for magnetic tape but adaptable to other sound sources) was just a bunch of jagoff experimental percussion with electronic feedback that had nothing to do with Cage's original manuscript? I mean, who could make sense from that score anyway---I get the feeling that all Neuhaus did was record some free splat noise and attribute the resultant spew to his own personal "reading" and "application" of Cage's various patterns, and the dorito-munching beret-heads all nodded in humbled approval while Neuhaus was giggling away behind their backs!

Those of you who've had and held Neuhaus' Columbia album from which his version of "Fontana Mix" appeared will certainly like these two recent dig-ups, the first being a selection of recordings of "New York School" (Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown...) compositions done live 'n studio in the mid-to-late sixties while the other features four takes on Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Zyklus" done up around the same time. The first ranges from sheets of mad cymbals to quiet tinkling passages that remind me of Michael Nyman's Obscure album, while the second is yet another recorded version of the "seminal" composition (another take of which I reviewed here) that just might get your suspicions up because hey, maybe all Neuhaus really did was just go 'n record some percussion shards of his own whim and pass it off as the Real McDeal.

To be quite honest about it, I actually do believe that the realizations executed by Neuhaus are honest and bonafeed readings of the original scores and done very close to the composers' undoubtedly aleatory directions, but if you wanna scoff at the entire history of twentieth century avant screech nobody's stopping you, you lowbrow you!
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Jerry J. Nixon-GENTLEMAN OF ROCK N' ROLL CD-r burn (originally on Voodoo Rhythm)

Paul McGarry OBVIOUSLY did not read his old issues of BLACK TO COMM or else he woulda realized that I reviewed this very same platter in the very last issue of my not-so-sainted crudzine! That's one against ya Paul, and for your punishment you must listen to every Edward Bear album ever made and don't frown! But really, it was sure nice givin' these sides a listen to again what with their Texas sixties sounds right outta the we miss Buddy Holly playbook coupled with a Doug Sahm styled madness w/o the baseball stats. Paul probably didn't know it and neither did I at the time, but these tracks were recorded inna 21st century and Jerry J. as we thought we knew him didn't even exist! Talk about fakeout recordings that actually sound archival enough to pass as the down-to-home truth! But its authentic sounding enough to get even the staunchest rockabilly fan up and roarin', so more power to whoever this really is!
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JACKSON BECK AS PHILO VANCE (two episodes) CD-r burn (courtesy of Bill Shute)

If you're a sucker for a good radio drama of the old time variety you might wanna scour the archives of the internet for an episode or two of PHILO VANCE. The famed detective puts his mind to work solving two cases on this platter Bill sent, the first dealing with the meanest man alive who, after berating his maid, kicking his niece outta the house and blackmailing a business rival, staggers into a police station saying he was murdered before keeling over in front of the puzzled coppers! The second one has not only a suave man-about-town murdered, but the wopadago organ grinder he was with the very next day as well which really stymies Our Hero because everybody liked the ol' guinea! Can you match wits with Vance and figure out who dood it? C'mon, don't be stoop...of course you can't ya 'tardo you!
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Various Artists-______________ (courtesy of Bill Shute)

This week's Shute compilation does NOT have a title which certainly does make things confusing around here, but then again did Bill ever say that life was fair? Not a standard Shute disque at that, what with a whole slew of old soundtracks to lost mooms permeating the slab including some tasty rarities entitled ELSTREE CALLING not to mention THE RADIO AND TELEVISION REVIEW, both which start off this collection. Also appearing are soundtracks for some lost musical called WORDS AND MUSIC not to mention the trailer disc for Sophie Tucker's HONKY TONK which I've written about plenty here, along with various old-timey 78 tracks that sorta send me right back to a turdlerhood stuck at some grandparent's house. In some ways a tear-inducer because it reminds me of days and people that'll never come back, but then again the entire production put a big smile on my face which only proves what a crazy mixed-up stroon I have been, am, and shall remain! The next best thing to strolling an antique shop with your ninety-nine-year-old aunt!
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June 11, 2014, 4:16 am
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BOOK REVIEW! THERE GOES GRAVITY (a life in rock and roll) by Lisa Robinson (Riverhead books, 2014)

Unlike the Nick Kent autobiography-cum-seventies rock history tome from a few years back, I wasn't that interested in reading about Lisa Robinson's own excursion into the front lines of rock criticism. After all, next to the likes of Kent as well as the rest of what unfortunately in sanctimonious retrospect has become known as the "noise boys", Robinson never was that much of a big rockscribe deal, she having come from a disgustingly upper class New York background more or less "falling" into the bigtime rock scribing game after she met her husband David (a greater talent and subject for a bio in my humble opinion). It wasn't like she was a dogged-down junkie like Kent nor a boozo white trash schlub like Lester Bangs, nor was she a slummoid dabbler in the performance realm like R. Meltzer. All Robinson seemed was a bigtime bigcity glorified groupie who was "in" on the new trends and got to go to hep places with alla them big stars, and most of all got to write about it in a whole slew of magazines and talk about it on radio and tee-vee just so's us suburban slobs could bask in her jetset glory. Imagine if Christopher Reeve was a rockcrit and change the sex, and you'd get Lisa Robinson no bout a doubt it.

But then again it wasn't like Robinson, even for all of her Studio 54 chicness and atrocious penchant for namedropping just the right names at the most opportune time, was just a higher-class rock snob lording it over us midclass doofuses. She hit the nail on the thumb more'n a few times with and with addled grace, what with her "Eleganza" column (which Charlotte Pressler gracefully swiped as her own with "Pizzaz" in Cleveland's ZEPPELIN) giving the lowdown on not only what the biggies were wearing, but the tough strut stylings of alla them Iggy types which is something you wouldn't have seen in ROLLING STONE for quite some time. In fact, Robinson's article on the new breed of mid-seventies rock to be found in New York (entitled "The New Velvet Underground") was one of those pieces that I'm sure got more'n a few of us ranch house kiddies all set to head out to that burgh in order to get in on some of that punk action ourselves! And true, Lisa's mug was often espied smack dab next to Mick Jagger's, Robert Plant's and Clive Davis' at least once per issue of the tres boffo ROCK SCENE, but then again she could also be seen with David Johansen, Lenny Kaye and Iggy Pop with just about the same regularity so it ain't like I wanna off her like I wanna do with Anastasia Pantsios and the rest of the sixties flower child peace through pop brigades who have overrun the music biz to the point of ipecac-inducing nausea.

Like I said, hubby Richard woulda made for a better subject matter (I remember that thrill watching him do his illusionist schtick on DON KIRSHNER'S ROCK CONCERT back in the late-seventies thinking "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT---HE'S THE GUY WHO PRODUCED THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES!!!!") as would fellow ROCK SCENE scribe and Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye (who I always wished I coulda look as cool as...and that's even as much these days as I did inna seventies!), but this is Lisa's book and I guess it'll have to do until either one of 'em decides to pick up pen and let their recollections be known to one and all. And hey, even I gotta admit that it's not a bad book at all. Well I gotta admit that it ain't perfect because frankly the book is only as good as its subject matter (which varies from interesting to downright dull), but it sure coulda been a whole lot worse and thankfully it wasn't and given that I dished out the hard-begged $$$ for this "uncorrected advance proof" I'm sure glad I got my moolah back not only in info but downright entertainment value

Being a seventies-sorta rock 'n roll enthusiast (meaning that I'm intelligent to know that the more powerful years for the form were from 1964 until 1981, at which point you could smell the death rot of all that was underground and deadly in the music), its the chapters on the Stones, Zep and New York punk rock that grab me the most. Not that Robinson divulges any downright salacious or addled information that we didn't already know (as if you could possibly say anything that would shame the legacy of Keith Richards this far down the line) but it is as they say "refreshing" to read Robinson's take on these groups' backstage antics and personal up-front feelings in a gossipy fashion that woulda driven Hedda to jealousy-induced tears. And although there ain't anything which I would call "revealing" here, it's at least fun to read about those days which sure sounded swell back when I was stuck inna middle of Zilchville wishing I could be in En Why See having fun every night instead of trying to find interesting and suggestive images in the tile on the bathroom floor.

Considering how snoozaroonie the eighties were (only to be topped by the nineties and oh-ohs right up until this very second!) the chapters on the likes of Lady Caga and U2,who Robinson makes into the logical 80s/90s end result in the Velvet Underground evolutionary scale, don't exactly tickle any ribs around here! However, I surprisingly was able to sit through the one on Michael Jackson, though I'm not quite sure if that was because of the grotesque nature of the subject at hand or Robinson's ability to give some dimension to a performer who always used his P.T. Barnum autobiography as a career guide. Actually liked that 'un, though maybe I liked it the same way I used to like looking at fresh roadkill with their intestines glistening in the warm summer sun.

So hey, this is actually a good 'un worth it for the breezy style and hipster patter sprinkled throughout. However I must admit that I have a few "reservations" if they could be called that...like why so little on hubby of fortysome years and spiritual guide Richard not to mention his production chores for the Flamin' Groovies, Andy Zwerling and Hackamore Brick? Where's all of the hot scoop on Lenny Kaye and the inside lowdown on getting those issues of ROCK SCENE out? And nary a mention of Man Ray, the Robinson/Kaye grouping that Lisa was so eager to namedrop for being some precursor to the entire Patti Smith/Television catharsis as early as 1969??? That's the kind of hot flash I was looking for, not the umpteenth saga regarding the groupie life of Jimmy Page or the dental disasters of the entire English rock scene!!! Before this one gets published for real, would someone please edit 'em all in!!!!
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June 15, 2014, 4:50 am
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Well, if you wanted a weekend post featuring writeups of all of the new recordings I got hold of these past seven days, you GOT one...

Daina and the Tribe-SOUNDSCAPE WITH JEREMY STEIG AND CBGB'S POWER TRIO CD (available via CD Baby)

As you all know I'm always willing to give a listen to some of these old En Why See acts that would frequent the clubs and go practically nadaswhere despite all of their hard efforts. In fact the more atypical of what these local acts were "supposed" to sound like the better in my book, and to this day I'd sure like to give a listen to some of those real obscure acts that used to play CBGB if only because they were usually so "outside" the loop, so they must've been good if you dare to use my own sense of twisted rockism logic!

Daina and the Tribe figure into this somehow, with an act that featured a belly dancing singer backed by what you would call a standard rock backing (at times consisting of flutist Jeremy Steig) who produced a music that wasn't quite in tune with the underground flavor of the day yet wasn't gonna hit the WNEW playlist any day soon. Daina has a smooth enough voice while the music backing is slightly jazzy yet straightforward enough in a non-offending way that came off rather exhilarating in the ennui-riddled early-eighties when these numbers were recorded. And the way I look at it, if Essra Mohawk could get a gig at CBGB there's no reason why Daina couldn't have as well!
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Stu Gilliam-AT THE BASIN STREET WEST CD-r burn (originally on Fax)

Pretty funny stuff from this Gilliam guy who delivers the laffs w/o stooping to the standard cheapshot vulgar obscenity that these days permeates the work of many a standup both black 'n white. Yeah there are a whole slew of hells'n'damns and even a few double entendres that Gilliam had the good sense not to deliver through with, but next to those pious and preachy types who always pop up on Comedy Central thinking they've just as much a right to defame and shame as Bill Moyers the man comes off quite refreshing! Gilliam undoubtedly gets a "G" rating in my book and who knows, he might even in yours despite the occasional lapses into subject matter that future "funnymen" took to their most disgusting if obvious conclusions.
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GENE NORMAN PRESENTS THE CHASE AND THE STEEPLECHASE STARRING WARDELL GRAY AND DEXTER GORDON CD-r burn (originally on Decca)

I forget if I'm supposed to HATE Dexter Gordon for his incessant DOWN BEAT hype not to mention that Clint Eastwood-produced film he was in (gotta think of my gnarlier than thou credentials, y'know), but I'll just let my worse nature get the better of me and say that I enjoyed these early bop sides that the famed tenor saxophonist recorded with Wardell Gray. Nice li'l tenor sax battle they got goin' on here that does't bore and in fact sounds like the natural precursor to the even newer thing that was gonna hit the jazz world in a few years. Downright exciting if you ask me, and it was all given to you by the same guy who unleashed the Seeds on the world a good thirteen years later!
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Sweet Madness-MADE IN SPOKANE 1978-1981 CD-r burn (originally on Light in the Attic)

Didn't think I was gonna like this, but Sweet Madness actually transcend the usual gnu wave-y pratfalls that plagued many a band in the past with this collection that owes just as much to Sparks and Roxy Music as it does to Devo (who themselves owed a lot to Sparks and Roxy Music!). Recorded back when even the straightest of new wave was considered evil by the brain-dead scions of Pantsiosism, Sweet Madness do have that quirky irritability at times, but seem built of stronger stuff'n most of the electronic nerdoids of the day and could even produce some strains that might have been considered "progressive" in the best Roxy sense. Quite imaginative in fact. If you shy away from the giddier music of the late-seventies you'll probably want to skip this one, but even an old fanabla like I will admit that this is a cut above a whole lotta squall that was being passed off as speaking for your generation back in those rather overload days.
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Various Artist-SIN ALLEY VOL. 4 CD-r burn (originally on Crypt)

Thanks to Paul McGarry I again get to hear this classic slab of late-fifties/early-sixties rockabilly musings that never did get that much circulation outside of the KICKS magazine cadre. Great sleazy self-produced low-fi rock 'n roll that seems catered to the kind of kids who (unitentionally) made parenthood a priority when they were but fifteen years old. If you're a bastard born between the years 1957 and 1964 there's a good chance you were conceived to the music on this platter. Additional trackage added to the Cee-Dee version a def. boon, and I think it was boffo of the compilers to pair up Jackie Morningstar's "Rockin' in the Graveyard" with Tarantula Ghoul & Her Gravediggers'"Graveyard Rock" next to each other, which was also done with the two remarkably different tracks (well, not really) called "Werewolf" done by Garry Warren and Carl Bonafede respectively.
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DADDY-O PRESENTS MJT + 3 CD-r burn (originally on Argo)

The presence of AACM stalwart Muhal Richard Abrams might get you believin' that this is gonna be one of those free-form sound-squalls that came off so adventurous and cathartic back when you first got an earfull of the likes of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Anthony Braxton during your young and impressionable years, but when this was recorded that stuff was about a good decade away. Naw, on this '57 album Abrams and band swing in that hard-bop style that sorta predated, and eventually was washed away by, the new thing in jazz that seemed to have caught everyone by surprise. BLOG TO COMM sticklers for the atonal and antisocial in their style will probably upchuck noses at it, but if you like the early sounds that Sun Ra and his guys were cranking out at just about the same time I can't see why you'd not want to give this one the occasional run through. Another introspective moody moment piece for those long, paranoiac nights.
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Various Artists-UNEASY BEATNIK FORMICA WINDMILLS CD-r burn (thanks be to Bill Shute)

Some strangities here true from a 1964 World's Fair souvenir record to a cover of Charlie Daniels'"Uneasy Rider" done by a fellow named Jack Daniels (not to mention a funny exercise disc from a JD Feelgood), but the bulk of this 'un's nothing but sixties cheezoid music for the Silent Majority crowd to talk about hippies 'n blacks to! Nothing the likes of my father or mother woulda gone for, but the kinda stuff that reminds me of what I woulda been hearing on some family vacation while we were checking into a Butte Montana Holiday Inn, the kind where they had that room with a tinted black glass door that said "Adults Only" and I'd wonder what nefarious happenings were going on in there to the point where I was taking a li'l extra time with my evening shower, ifyaknowaddamean...

Some of it is standard cornballus like Cara Stewart's song-poems while things like Michael Hill's "Beatnik Boogie" sound pretty much like what my pop'd imagine what beatnik music was supposed to sound like. Of course the Doyle and Leilani moosh-together of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and Dee Clark's "Raindrops" comes off like it coulda been performed live at the Honolulu Holiday Inn right around the moment Wo Fat was there on the hunt for a little nookie to relieve some of that underhanded subterfuge tension. And yeah, the furrin' stuff on this is potent enough to send you straight to the ethnic shop of your choice in Pittsburgh's Strip District wonderin' whether or not you wanna look at the fish heads at Wholey's or check out the excitement at one of the Asian or Italian supermarkets. I will say that this 'un does go down swell with a plato spaghetti and best about it is you don't have to smell your grandmother's garlic aroma!
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June 18, 2014, 5:38 am
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MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! VALLEY OF THE DOOMED a.k.a. LA STRADA DEI GIGANTI a.k.a. RUTA DE TITANES starring Don Megowan

Nize li'l western here, only it ain't a western but is set in the Alps of all places. 'n it was probably filmed there too, because this 'un definitely is a dagoland production starring the Gill Man himself Dan Megowan as some Amerigan guy who's building a railroad through the mountains for the Parma Government and I don't mean Parma as in PARMA PLACE either! The Austrians are having a big turdly logjam over this railroad being completed so not only do they send a couple of guys out to sabotage the job, but they gets this sexoid countess to woo Megowan while doing some durty underhanded dealings behind his manly back.  She even does a sexy dance in a body stocking to try to get Megowan's attention, but as we know these tough guys are made of stronger stuff! Well, either that or they're eyeballing the new busboy on the job.

Of course things develop to their logical conclusions and the Countess eventually falls for Megowan and he for her while the dastardly doings get even dastardlier, and it all comes to a head with the gal seeing the error of her ways and joining Megowan in his quest to get the job done. Good thing for her, because if she stayed true to the Austrian govt. I kinda get the feeling that Megowan woulda been prone to give her a few good hard whaps on her bare behind. Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing something like that, at least if it's done in a comical way!

Like you probably know by now, this is basically a wop-a-western complete with a saloon fulla dancing girl types, grubby tunnel diggers 'stead of miners, and of course a great barroom brawl and shootout only with the Austrian arny 'stead of Mexicans. So once you get over the locale this is one good settle back and get over that Saturday hangover kinda film you used to watch on Sunday afternoons on many a lowly UHF station in the tri-county area. Settle back, enjoy the Alka-Seltzer, and please don't crunch them potato chips too loud!
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June 21, 2014, 10:59 am
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Yeah it's summertime, but the livin' sure ain't easy around here what with the specter of real life (y'know, the salt mines 'n all that) breathing heavily down my ever breathed down neck right to the point of insanity!. Sheesh how I envy you professional workers out there, what with your two week of vacation and lounge chairs in the back yard to go along with all of that iced tea you're drinking, not to mention the barbeque blasting away while you roast weenies 'n burgers on it next to the swimming pool where the kids are holding cousin Euclid under to see how long he can last until drowning. Can't ever hope to compete with a summer like that, mainly because all I ever do during the summer anymore is reminisce about the fun summers I used to enjoy which now seem about as distant as the Magna Carta!

Now when I was a kid summertime really meant a whole lot to this suburban slob of a guy even if the folks were always lining up work to keep me occupied (well, it was cheaper'n camp and besides, I always got the feeling that they felt that if they sent me to one I'd get raped within a few short days), but nowadays all summer is to me is just another season where I do the same old (and more!) only it's warmer out! The only thing that differentiates summer from the other three seasons is that I only feel more guilty about hanging around in my bedroom while the aforementioned folks toil out in the yard, but I eventually get over it by consoling myself with the truism that "well, SOMEBODY'S gotta trim the curb and pull weeds, so why should it be me???? Besides, they gotta pay me back for not sending me to camp, though if they were so concerned about the status of my sphincter they could have at least gotten a steel shank buttplug for protection.

Sheesh, Mick Jagger was right as rain when he said what a drag it is getting old, and just one look at him these days'll prove to you the truth of his own wordage! But gee, if we could just have one of them good ol' time summers that entailed days at the swimming pool 'n pilling the kids into the station wagon to take 'em out for ice cream and other great turdly ranch house-styled fun 'n jamz like the good ol' days wouldn't it be just ducky??? But as that old comic strip song said "those days are gone forever!" and you know it's true.
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Anyhoo, I think you'll dig this latest collection of writeups of both recently-received and one old-time faves that have crossed my laser launching pad these past few days. Nothing what I'd call SPECTACULAR has passed my ears true, but then again I've come to expect that from an era in music that certainly does not have the same instant energy and spark that the musics of the first, second and third generation of rock 'n roll did (I'm basically talking about rock music BEFORE it has been glorified and "praised" by definitely anti-rock hippies and other zealots who wouldn't know a good Velvet Underground song if it bit them on their butterfly-tattooed asses.) Oh yeah, there are some good platters of music both old and new being produced out there as anyone who's heard of Fadensonnen, Dark Sunny Land or One Hand Records can tell you off the bat, but for every top notch effort that is being released today you can bet that there are at least a hundred loused up logjams being made by people who, ironically enough, think that they're doing a pretty wonderful job imitating and emulating the power and accomplishment of the first three generations of rock 'n roll music combined, and then some!

Sometimes I'd just love to shove these new prissy rock acts into a big room, pump nothing but high energy music (rock and otherwise) and scatter the room with classic rock writings and even some videos of extant past glory, and maybe something'll sink into these braindead bozos' minds so at least I can live the last few years of my putrid existence secure in the fact that maybe rock 'n roll will STAND after all.
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RIP CASEY KASEM---phone in a dedication to your dead dog in his memory.
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Here's an extremely powerful, affecting, and insert your favorite golly gee descriptive adverb here bit of rock writing courtesy the underrated Jonh Ingham that certainly got me all hot and bothered like it would have had I read it back when he actually writ the thing! Thanks Jonh, I needed that 'un to get me over the fact that, for all practical purposes, rock 'n roll writing (let alone rock 'n roll) has been doornail dead for the past thirtysome years! Along with the music of course, but if you've read the fourth and fifth paragraphs written above you would have known that already.
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So like uh---where was I??? Oh yeah, here be the reviews...

DARMSTADT AURAL DOCUMENTS BOX 2-JOHN CAGE COMMUNICATION CD (Neos, Germany)

This 'un'll probably mean about as much to you as wiping up after a bowel movement does to a resident of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia), but given how I've spent the year of 1978 searching out (mostly in vain) for any sign of Cagean musical intuition it sure means a whole lot to me! Mister Cage may sound faggier'n usual in his various "communications" but he sure does make you "think"...about exactly what is another question but I'm sure there are some interesting pearls to be found in his various commentaries regarding the state of music and the late-fifties avant garde. David Tudor performs some current piano pieces from the likes of Christian Wolff and Bo Nilsson before doing a duet with Cage on his "Variations 1" for pianos and radio sets which really gets the audience snickering even more'n when Hans 'n Fritz gave Der Captain a TNT enema. If you still got your beret 'n stale doritos handy, this is a good 'un to spin while you're putting on even artzier'n usual airs.
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Acoustic Trauma-A NIGHT AT THE TRAUMA HOUSE CD + DVD set (available via CD Baby)

My search regarding progressive rockers playing on CBGB/Max's Kansas City turf in the mid/late-seventies has turned up a gigundo goose egg (unless you wanna count TV Toy), but maybe this current act from upstate En Why could be considered a modern-day variation on those perhaps thankfully elusive acts. I originally caught about a minute or two of an Acoustic Trauma set via a CBGB cybercast and pegged them as some classical are rock group that was going nowhere, but this live set shows that this oft-tagged prog group actually could rock out pretty snat-like. And not only that, but for being classified as such a group they sure are more interesting and chance-taking than those other prog acts of the past who cluttered up the seventies with images of fiery dragons and blond-haired damsels with enough cleavage that you could hide an entire family of Cambodian refugees in 'em..

You might not cozy up to the use of acoustic guitars, mandolin and violin immediate-like, but this trio makes what would seem like music for a progressive rock posefest work. Leader Paul Nunzio Maceli's performances on these stringed instruments fits in swell whether he's strumming his guitbox or playing gypsy violin, and you could at least be thankful he didn't drag a mellotron into the act like he mighta had Acoustic Trauma had been around a good thirty-seven years back. Musically these guys owe plenty to the mid-late seventies prog slog scene but don't hold it against them, for Acoustic Trauma transcends the usual post-Crimson pratfalls and more or less keep your attention chugging for a far longer time than the likes of Curved Air or even UK ever did. And who knows, maybe someday I'll even watch the DVD that came with this! Nothing that tops my charts, but much better'n any of us woulda given 'em credit for.
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John Coltrane-THE BETHLEHEM YEARS 2-CD-r burn set (originally on Bethlehem)

Pretty pleasing enough fifties bop with Coltrane mostly on the sidelines, though you readers who are more attuned to the nastier side of new thing histrionics will probably up nose at it as you atonal advocates are wont to do. It's your penny true, but personally I find it rather invigorating (even when Coltrane is paired up with guys like Al Cohn who I always thought were nothing but holdovers from the previous bowtie 'n tux jazz generation) and a smart enough indicator of the direction jazz was heading in back '57 way. Just get the fact that more'n a few bowtied doofs listen to this music outta your mind and yes, it will go down a whole lot better!
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Jimmy Forrest/Miles Davis-LIVE AT THE BARREL CD-r burn (originally on Prestige)

Speaking of bowtied doofs I'm sure there were a few in the audience back '52 way when this sesh was laid down live at St. Louis' Barrel, but them guys were sure in for a good show no matter how hot on the trail for tail they might have been. No "Night Train" here, but tenorist Forrest swings in that bop kinda way that seemed so adventurous inna early fifties even if it was gonna be wiped out by the tide of Taylor and Ornette a good decade later. And Miles Davis plays away so smoothly that you just have to get the fact that this guy was a pain-riddled psychopath outta your mind. The sound quality may be feh, but that never stopped you from listening to METALLIC KO so if you can find this 'un and download it for nada but the cost of a blank aluminum tea coaster more power to ya.
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Daina and the Tribe-ON A JUNGLE BOAT RIDE CD (via CD Baby)

Last week's spin got me interested in finding out more about this gal who has a number of tea coasters available via CD Baby, so I decided to pick up this 'un which was recorded about the same time as that 'un and happens to have that early-eighties En Why ennui about it that perfectly captures the time 'n place well. Some surprising jazz musician inclusions here (Joe Chambers, Ray Mantilla and once again Jeremy Steig among others) give these tracks a boppish feelthat comes off like that weird three-way meeting point between jazz, fusion and New York underground rock you would have hoped woulda happened a whole lot more'n it did. Ain't gonna be spending any more $$$ of Daina's other platters (yet), but this is a mildly pleasing one that's gonna get a return spin more sooner 'n later.
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Various Artists-CUCA RECORDS ROCK 'N' ROLL STORY CD (Classics, Sweden)

Sometimes I just hafta dig deep into the collection not only to give a listen to something different for a change, but to reacquaint myself with a lotta those old favorites that once made up the soundtrack for my existence but got lost somewhere in the shuffle of life. And what better a disque to give another go 'n this collection of rarities that came out on the legendary Cuca label, the same company that not only introduced the world to the Fendermen's boffo bash "Mule Skinner Blues" but was originally called SWASTIKA until label owner Jim Kirchstein decided that maybe that geometric figure wasn't as lucky as people in ancient times were led to believe. Especially with a smattering of special interest groups breathing heavily down your neck.

Besides the original recorded version "Mule Skinner",  this collection's got a whole slew of Minneapolis-area platters recorded for the entire Cuca family of labels which also included the likes of Sara, Fan and Sunderland. Most of the inclusions show the strong influence of the Fendermen pretty much in the same way the Wailers lit up the entire Northwest area for a good seven or so years, what with all of the "Mule Skinner" cops and swipes to be heard from the likes of Bob Mattice and the Phaetons not forgetting the Fendermen themselves in a variety of post-fame aggregations (including Phil Humphrey's Fendermen, the same ones who put out the definitely latterday POISON IVY album on Koala). It certainly is a rock et roll education listening to the strong Fendermen influence which you thought woulda petered out once their hit record got shoved to the back of the collection around the time the new Bobby Vinton single came out.

Besides the various Fendermen spinoffs and other local cashers-in-ons, you get a few decent imitations of the other big names of the day (Rick Nelson, Dion...) as well as some outta nowhere surprises like Kenny King's 1962 "I'm Gonna Love You", a surprise given that this song sounds more 1965 mid-Amerigan garage band than early-sixties country rock. And yeah, you probably heard a lot of this on those White Label albums that were popping themselves into the fifties collectors market back inna eighties, but they're all here in one nice glop so's you don't have to change platters so often during those late night rock jags.
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Various Artists-FRIDAY NIGHT RAIN SCRATCH TROUBLE CD-r burn (via Bill Shute)

Another nice-o selection ranging from  the familiar (Mick Farren) to obscure (Outer Spacists). Speaking of the Spacists, they're one of them newfangled groups who do it up oldfangled-style, and they do a pretty good job aping past accomplishments to the point where you're kinda confused as to whether or not they're an old band or a new band doing an old thing in a kinda new-old way (got all that?). Bill had the good sense to put some late-sixties garage band cum psychedelia on here (The Ferguson Tractor) as well as some strange novelty goo from Billy Barty and Spike Jones, and in no way can I even begin to categorize Mister Murray's "Down Came the Rain" which comes off like something Johnny Ray mighta emitted while sharing an overnight lockup with some Turkish sailors.

There's even some rare exploito emulation from Pakistan (the Savages), e-z listening glop from Charles Magnante ("The Girl From Ipanema" done up on accordion) and an act called the Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments who somehow ring a distant bell in my ever-hazy memory. All in all the inclusions on this Shutestacular are custom made for those who would agree that trying to find rarities such as these is pretty much in the same realm as trying to find a toilet in India!
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June 25, 2014, 5:47 am
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MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! DEATH RACE 2000 starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone (1975)

Gawrsh how I love these feel good movies! And if there was any moom pitcher out there to make you want to stand up 'n salute the flag 'n cherry bomb a few chickens while yer at it it's a film like this 'un. Yez, the exact same DEATH RACE 2000 that Paul Marotta drove Mike Weldon to the drive in to see because Mike didn't have a car, and they were the only ones inna place who were watching the danged screen 'stead of what was inside their honey's underwear ifyaknowaddamean...

Post-apocalyptic dysfunctional stories whether they be in comic or film form usually do capture my fancy, and this 'un certainly does especially since it's being played for the sick guffaws as much as it is for the cathartic violence. In the year 2000 (which looks like a modernistic mid-seventies the same way THE JETSONS just reeked a space age future with all of the accoutrements of 1962), the national sport is not Rollerball but a cross-country race with the team who racks up the most kills getting the additional points. Frankenstein's the two time winner longing for number three while Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, Frankenstein's bitter rival, is just itching at the bit to take the #1 spot and off Frankenstein in the process. The rest of these real-life Wacky Racers (and racists, can't forget the aryan chick whose sidekick's none other'n future senator Fred Grandy from THE LOVE BOAT) are pretty unique in themselves, the most memorable 'un being the sexoid Mary Woronov as Calamity Jane who's so vicious you'd think (hope?) she'd bring back the old Gerard Malanga whip dance 'n do it on some of her rivals but good!

Giving us the ol' play-by-play are this Rona Barrett clone who calls everyone her dear friend and a grizzled old coot loosely based on all of those old evening newscasters who peppered the screen for years, not to mention legendary deejay Don Steele as the over-rambunctious announcer who breaks into programming with glee whenever one of the racers "scores" by offing anyone from a road construction worker to some little kid who happens to be crossing the street by himself for the first time.

But don't worry, because other'n one brief skullcrush the violence in DEATH RACE 2000 is relatively tame and always played up for laughs, so when you see alla 'em old folks lined up onna street just waiting for Frankenstein to run 'em over he does the unexpected and drives through the hospital entrance tossing the entire medical staff inna air! And you'll be up 'n cheering too feeling just like you did when you heard about that kid in school who got back at that bully by blowing his head off with daddy's rifle when you see the cars going neck and neck heading for that next target which could either be another easy sixty points or perhaps that great pathway to Valhalla (y'see, there are sinister elements out to stop the race, something which figures very heavily into the overall plot which I dare not reveal because I ain't one of those film critics you used to read in TIME magazine!).

Yeah, I gotta admit that there are some slow moments (like the typical slobberin' scenes) and I sure coulda used a whole lot more bloody violence to get my adrenalin pumping because man, I was sure hoping that one kid rolling the tire down the road woulda gotten splattered (and while I'm onna roll, howzbout some good ol' fashioned controversy like different points for different races which really woulda gotten the fights starting in your favorite urban palace!), but nothing since HENRY, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER's got me up and cheering in the ol' John Wayne tradition like this! One that not only woulda been worth sneakin' outta the house (age 12) to peek at while stationed in the woods in back of the drive in theater (don't forget the binoculars!), but worth the whallopin' you were gonna get once you came home late!
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June 28, 2014, 2:26 pm
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I'll  bet you were wondering what I was doing to occupy myself during my ever-dwindling free time this past week, other than doing mirco-blackhead popping surgery on my nostrils and losing my ever-loving battle with finger fungus that is. Well oh snarky one, I have been putting my free time to good use ever since I got in touch with this neet blog that gives us fanzine-crazed fanatics what we've wanted for years, mainly access to a whole slew of self-produced reads that we normally would have to bid upwards to $68.43 a bop to get our li'l ol' hand on. Yeah you have to supply the paper, the printer and the patience to get the paper outta the machine w/o crinkling, but otherwise ESSENTIAL EPHEMERA's a site that has a few of the 70s/80s English fanzines you've missed out on the first time available up and available for download, and on demand too in case you're one of those impatient women's libber types who I read about inna newspapers alla time.

There are quite a few goodies that I got hold of via this sight, like the first issue of NEGATIVE REACTION (more on that title in a future FANZINE FANABLA)  as well as the first two issues of VOICE OF BUDDHA (the second with a Mayo Thompson interview that'll have you thinking twice about his claims of being a political conservative) as well as Jonh Ingham's Clash paen LONDON'S BURNING which obviously set the stage for just about every other English punkzine that wasn't influenced by the NME's gunslingers to come out for the next ten years. If you wanna save a few pennies and fix yourself up with some really boffo night-time reading look no further'n this site, though if your copies don't seem as readable as the originals (which many times were nearly impossible to eyeball what with the lousy print jobs and other glitches I certainly can tell you about) don't say you didn't get what you paid for!

In other news, the BIG event of the week was undoubtedly  the arrival of my latest Forced Exposure order which maybe ain't that much to crow about in your neck o' the woods but around here's about as important a happening as gran'ma getting a new tractor in some old Soviet feature film! At least its stuff like this that keeps me off the streets and out of trouble, and besides that the thrill 'n anticipation of gettin' a boxfulla platters shipped to my doorstop really does bring up them ol' single-digit memories of sending away the boxtops for some outta-this-world offer and waiting a good three weeks in agony for the "cheap plastic junk" automobile model or Disneykins for that matter to arrive (still got Looie and the remnants of Goofy and the Ringmaster moiling about in a corrugated cardboard container somewhere inna basement!). The contents of my entire order can be read below but please, don't thank me----thank all of the labels who had the foresight and wherewithal to release these platters thus saving us all from a future of having to listen to all of those Violent Femmes albums again trying to convince ourselves that they really are every bit as good as the Velvet Underground and Modern Lovers were no matter how much those inner instincts tell us otherwise.

And with that note, onto the same old...


Jack Ruby-HIT AND RUN 2-CD set (St Cecilia Knows, available via Forced Exposure )

They LIE! This package is being touted as containing "the collected recordings" of the infamous in their own obscurity no wave group Jack Ruby when I know for a fact that there is one glaring OMISSION!!!! There's a cover of Hawkwind's boffoid "Brainstorm" flopping about out there somewhere, but is it on this double-disque collection? Not at all boobala, and if you don't think that makes me a rather upset li'l anal retentive you certainly don't know your blogschpielers! Maybe it's on that new Feeding Tube collection, but until I know for sure I ain't gettin' that 'un nosireebob! (Last minute note---it ain't!)

If you have the ugEXPLODE collection great, but HIT AND RUNdoes have more and besides, there's an additional disque here which has some rather out-of-kilter sound experiments that I will admit sound akin to the kids in the knotty pine basement goofing around with daddy's stereo system circa 1965, but it should appeal to the John Cage if not the Karlheinz Stockhausen in us all. But no matter how you slice and dice it, Jack Ruby were a fantastic act that certainly jumped a whole buncha guns with their soundcapading and hey, if you like the entire concept of seventies underground rock of a garage or however you wanna put it punkism strata than this should be yet another one custom made for your already expanded alley. Comes in a top notch, high quality package which not only includes a larger'n usual book cum history, but a poster of the front cover which'll look especially revolutionary next to your Che 'n Mao (you can just tell that I have a good portion of my readers out there pegged just right!).
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Sun Ra and his Band from Outer Space-SPACE AURA 10-inch 45 rpm EP/mini-album (Art Yard England, available through Forced Exposure)

Even though there ain't any revealing moments on this segment of a 1966 Ra 'n Co. 66 live recording, it still makes for yet another tangy excursion into the realm of Great Black Music as it was flowering back in the days when even STEREO REVIEW couldn't ignore its existence. Ra on piano and clavioline and the rest of the familiar faces on the usual soundmakers doing their bestt to make Leonard Feather's existence a little less pleasant. If your first taste of Ra was the HELIOCENTRIC WORLDS series and you flipped head over teenage heels for the thing this'll zone you right back to the original thrust of it all.
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Orchid Spangiafora-FLEE PAST'S APE ELF 2-LP set (Feeding Tube, Forced Exposure should have it because that's where I got my copy!)

Legendary and oft talked about reissue of these fantastical late-seventies sides of edited aural mayhem that sounds like a sold week of 1977 television programming chopped up and stir-fried in the Chinese restaurant of your mind. Also features some rather bizarroid electronic mangle that is highly reminiscent of the soundtrack to at least five PBS public affairs programs of the day as performed through the robot on LOST IN SPACE's sphincter. Incredibly amazing artyfact of where the new electronic/smash-up sound of the day was heading----imagine Smegma without the squeak bats not to mention the Space Negroes and some Residential goo and you'll only be halfway there with this "wondrous melage" as the fru frus might call it.

Comes with a nice li'l booklet of information which not only features group confederate Byron Coley's take on the whole Orchid Spangiafora saga, but a slew of honest-to-gosh fan mail including one from the king of cut ups hisself William Burroughs! A boffo package that no true fan of cranial confusion would dare be without, no matter how much plasma 'n worn out tit mags you'll have to sell in order to afford it!
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Herbie Nichols-THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE RECORDINGS -CD-r burn set (originally on Blue Note)

Bill always sends me these bop-era jazz platters perhaps in order to shame me into listening to something that ain't of a free/avant garde vein. This triple set's but one of 'em, and it's a bouncy thing if there ever was one. Pianist Nichols' complete Blue Note output recorded with the likes of either Art Blakey or Max Roach on the traps, two guys who certainly became humongous names inna canon of DOWN BEAT derived jazz saintliness while Nichols remained a passing paragraph for far too long. Beatific bop not that different from what Theolonius was laying down around the same time, and definitely a direction pointer at the way things would eventually turn in that wide wonderful world of jazz. Song title of the century (this or any other you can think of): "Cro-Magnon Nights".
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THE FANTASTIC DEE-JAYS CD (Guerrson Spain, available via Forced Exposure)

It sure is a blast listening to this mid-sixties Pittsburgh-area(Glassport to be precise) platter via a source that doesn't sound like it just barely survived a night lodged in Patrick Amory's rectum, but howcum Guerrson didn't slam on alla them single sides like they shoulda (and Eva Records did)? Nonetheless, this remains a boffo slab of teenage suburban slob rock that not only has the covers down pat (Golliwogs, Beatles, Stones...) but a whole mess of originals that match if not surpass the more familiar trackage. Yeah, a few of these songs like "Mr. Sad" hearken back to the soft schlubby sounds of the early-sixties (w/o the redeeming doofnuess that might have saved a Bobby Vee or Fabian song), but once you sweat your way through those its smooth sailing ahead!
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Edward Graham Lewis-ALL OVER CD (Editions Mego, and of course you can get it from Forced Exposure)

Back when I was an inexperienced lad (as opposed to being an inexperienced old turd) I must admit that I did harbor an interest in the works of groups such as Wire (as well as their spinoff Dome) even though the word of mouth blab regarding them did make me feel a tad wary of parting with any precious pukka shells for their platters. By the time I was able to afford to buy enough Wire albums to keep Colin Newman in touch with his spiritual adviser for ages, the spell of the whole Rough Trade/"post-punk" breed of art rock had long worn off in favor of six-oh garage band reissues and various industrial noise bleat as anyone who tuned into an early issue of my crudzine would be able to tell you. But now that we're heading into the middle portion of the 'teens and this breed of music seems almost "quaint" in its own spacial if "dated" way well---maybe it's time to give some of these acts yet another go at it, which is one reason I added this recent offering from Wire's very own Edward Graham Lewis to my recent order (and no, I'm not going to tell you the other reasons for doing so you inquisitive little buttslobberers you!).

Not bad at all really---kinda like those Eno-era Bowie tracks in spots with a definite early eighties pre-new unto gnu wave snoot appeal to it. In fact, these electro-drones really fit in swell with the batch of them early-eighties fanzines mentioned in the opening schpiel so you know they're locked in a time that we can all agree on were the best/worst of times in classic Dickensian fashion. Perhaps a tad arty, but the numbers on ALL OVER really do conjure up more'n a few of the interesting repeato-riff electro drone sounds that filled up quite a few Rough Trade orders in the early-eighties. Y'know, I thought I eschewed it all a good thirtysome years back I gotta say that this is..........uniquely adequate.
***
Various Artists-EVERYTHING YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT 60'S MIND EXPANSIVE PUNKADELIC GARAGE ROCK INSTRUMENTALS BUT WERE AFRAIN TO ASK CD (Arf Arf)

This week's dive into the long forgotten grooveyard of platters long stashed just happens to be an old 'n unfortunately forgotten one consisting of nada but crazeoid instrumental splatters recorded during the golden age of teenbo hard-edged punkoid gnarlism! More wah-wah toneism straight from the goshest parts of the mid-Amerigan knottiest pine basements than you can stand, and then right at the point where it all reaches a fever pitch---mom comes in with a glass of iced tea for everyone! Some of the sitar musings might not be suitable for more impressionable minds while the likes of 1001 Strings are about as garage band as the Jan Garber Orchestra, but I can take it with more'n enough grains of salt. Just imagine the whole thing as a NUGGETS for the Marcel Marceau crowd and it'll go down just fine!
***
Various Artists-WALTER'S FEELGOOD WOBBLE TRAIN CD-r burn (and "you-know-who" is responsible for me getting it!)

Interesting concentration on a late-sixties garage-pop sorta thing, what with the likes of Urban, the Chants and Barons putting out this smooth pop that almost reminds me of Hackamore Brick in that late-sixties/early-seventies sorta punk rock way. Jimmy Driftwood breaks up the pop-psych with his country jive while the sitar-laden numbers by the Punjabs and the Love Sitars (doing "Paint It Black"???) kinda make me wanna hit the Tiger Shop at Sears for one of them Carnaby Street hats with the big buckles! But in all this is a rather solid selection of late-sixties obscurities that mighta even worked sweller had they all been collected on some long-playing album and sold for $50 a pop via Midnight Records (ech!). English prog thumpers would most certainly be interested in the inclusion of an instrumental by "Beautiful", who just happen to be the Soft Machine once again under the production of the legendary Kim Fowley.
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July 2, 2014, 1:15 am
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MAGAZINE REVIEW! UGLY THINGS #37!

Now that UNDERWEAR SKIDMARKS ILLUSTRATED has ceased publication, the only magazine that I wait with baited breath to read these days is UGLY THINGS! Yes it really is a momentous occasion here at BLOG TO COMM central when the latest issue of this magazine hits the racks (or in my case the mailbox), because really, in these rockism-starved days is anyone out there tooting the horn of the Big Beat the way that Mike Stax and his cronies have for a way longer time'n any of us can imagine? I mean, who else here in the 'teens really even cares that such a thing as rock 'n roll (as that noisy suburban slob soundtrack for our mere existences) is still out 'n about and no, your claims of Anastasia Pantsios to the contrary will not be recognized you sarcastic little twats you!

Needless to say this is yet another tip-top issue (#37, which should be a record for boffo rockmag longevity) and even if I ended the review right here and now you'd know enough to get a fresh copy, right? But I won't, because not only is there a load of pertinent information emanating from these pages that I feel compelled to comment on (anal retentive y'know), but there's a whole lotta space I gotta fill and better it be about UGLY THINGS than my latest nasal hemorrhage, even if I'd probably make the latter sound even more adventurous than a typical episode of MUTUAL OF OMAHA'S WILD KINGDOM.

Again considering the thickness of this effort it would be impossible for me to comment on everything about this wondrous issue that I would like to, so I'll just do the usual skimeroo and give you the cream of the crud highlights. Such as the crazeoid Phil May interview conducted by UT cheezewhiz Stax which really reveals a whole slew of heretofore unknown historical background regarding the longtime Pretty Things singer which make your own teenage problems look like FATHER KNOWS BREASTS (that's an old comedy routine I will do on request) outtakes. The piece on Carl "Kung Fu Fighting" Douglas was a hoot as were all of those complete histories of various punk rock bands of the seventies that never did make their way outta the local garage intact (Hitmakers, the Gears). The Rainy Daze "Acapulco Gold" saga complete with sidesteps into Dave Diamond and the Higher Elevation as well as the Monocles was also fab for us early-eighties Moxie/BFD aficionados who thought as highly of those obscure garage bands as we did Pere Ubu, while even the interviews with Ian McLagen and Steve Marriott were OK even if I still associate them with late-seventies ROLLING STONE-styled rockcrit filler. But I do get that way sometimes...

Of course my favorite items tend to be the reviews because after reading 'em I know the proper way to part with my moolah. Ain't gonna be parting with much of it because frankly, there ain't that much really eyeball grabbing enough to tear me away from my hard-begged, but it still in grand reading about what is coming out these days just in case I do wanna spend some cash.And yeah, all of your favorite UGLY THINGS regulars are up and front writing about these slabs, though (unfortunately) Jymn Parrett only clocks in with one review, this being of the Fleetwood Mac THEN PLAY ON album. Sheesh you'd think there'd be some Iggy Pop reissue out and about for him to peck on about!

And not only that, but there's even a nice recap/reappraisal on the infamous CAN'T BUY A THRILL fanzine which is even as good as this one in my own humble opinion. The interview with PUNK mag's John Holmstrom was pretty boffo as well. I hope that the mag continues locating old time fanzine and other writers to dig up their histories for all eternity because hey, I can't do it all myself and frankly, I DON'T WANT TO!!!

As for my my favorite part of this ish, it's just gotta be the third installment of eternal Flamin' Groovie Cyril Jordan's memoirs of his rock 'n roll upbringing, this time concentrating on San Francisco in that tragic year of 1967 when rock 'n roll started to take quite a few dreaded turns for the worse! But that's not bothering Cyril as he blabs on about all of the groups he saw and all of the fun he was having to the point where he was taking so much acid that even SGT. PEPPER sounded like a momentous album to him! You can tell that Cyril was in a good mood when he wrote this because he talks about the time the Groovies got to open for Cream, and he doesn't even go on a tangent about the way Jerry Garcia eventually treated him with a giant snub after cozying up to him backstage at the Fillmore! (For more information, find that issue of CREAM PUFF WAR with the entire rage-filled rant that Jordan directed at the digit-less one.)

So what do you say pod'ner...is your next ten smackers gonna go toward this or the next issue of Dave Mush's hippydippy white guilt newsletter? Of course, knowing some of you trolls out there this might be a question I dare not ask!
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July 5, 2014, 10:11 am
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Didja make it through the Glorious Fourth intact? I managed to, even though having to appear as King George III during the fambly Independence Day Pageant for the 35th straight year in a row was yet another downer---if only cousin Clyde would kick off maybe I could be Nathan Hale, a role I could really get choked up over! But besides all that well, things went rather swimmingly to say the least, having gone to the Mesopotamia Ox Roast and flea market which yielded some good comic buys in the past (a LITTLE LULU paperback in 1975, the SUPERMAN FROM THE THIRTIES TO THE SEVENTIES hardcover in '92, and a BEETLE BAILEY collection not forgetting some old MAD"Super Specials" in '97) but nada this time. Well, I will admit that it was fun walking around looking at the dogs and the fat tattooed women, not necessarily at the same time.

At least I managed to get a good enough's night sleep considering the neighborhood kids didn't attempt to re-create the Battle of Lexington and Concord in the middle of the night like they did one year. Anyway, enough patriotic prattle and for those of you who were expecting it, here are the reviews...


KONRAD CD-r burn of LP (originally on Ethereal Sequence, available from Forced Exposure)

When I first saw this 'un listed on the Forced Exposure website a week or so back, visions of outsider loserisms danced in my head than any sugarplum fairy ever could. Really, take one look at the cover 'n dontcha just see some early-eighties wannabe hopin' to take over the world with his new music dancebeat thud custom made for the rest of the kids in his remedial butt wiping class? But hey, maybe Bo Diddley was wrong when he said you can't just a book by looking at its cover (and in his own personal situation, can't judge a porn video by looking at its clam-shell case) because KONRAD the album (and Konrad the artist) is a pretty interesting bit of self-produced low-budged music that satisfies on a variety of levels, and both as music to guffaw at and as real interesting stuff that you'll probably be scrutinizing just as much as ditzy dames combed the lyrics of "American Pie" for deep meanings back in the early-seventies days of high school relevantism.

Some of it has a quirky new wave sound while other parts come off a little too close to disco beat for my tastes (and one track sounds like Cat Stevens trying to cash in on the late-seventies underground rock trend), but however you look at it KONRADhas just enough of a spark of imagination and interest to keep you holding on, even through that pseudo reggae anti-police cum plea for cooperation track which is really saying something.

At least it holds up enough against various similar-minded outta-nowhere efforts such as Gary Wilson's YOU THINK YOU REALLY KNOW ME or the Paul Vanase and Baby Bones albums (two strikingly different platters that KONRAD seems to owe at least some allegiance to) to rate a huge huzzah, and although the $24 price tag might seem a tad high maybe you can find someone to burn a copy like I did!

And yeah, I know that you'll probably dismiss KONRAD (and Konrad) as a phonus balonus gnu wave casher-in-on who couldn't rock 'n roll his way outta a Bobby Rydell album sleeve but frankly, I'd HATE to hear what your home-recorded experimental fraught-with-meaning self-released album would sound like in comparison, you li'l oneupmanship self-absorbed nothing you!
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Urkas-STAMEN AND PISTIL CD (Kendra Steiner Editions, see link on left)

Typical of the KSE limited edition offerings with a heavy industrial musique concrete sound (which, as my dad once said, was performed by people who had concrete blocks dumped on 'em) that reminds one of Stockhausen getting his 'nads lopped off. To be honest about it I wouldn't say that there was anything remarkable about it to differentiate if from a variety of KSE offerings that have graced my laser launch pad these past few years, though surprisingly enough Cee-Dee closer "Avoid Liars" recalls early Harmonia sodomizing their audio generators making this one a shoulda oughta get for you longtime krautrock maniacs out there. A surprising winner that should get sold out (only 99 made!) before you get up the courage to buy a copy.
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John Coltrane-SELFLESSNESS featuring MY FAVORITE THINGS CD-r burn (originally on Impulse)

Yeah, this was the first bit of Coltrane I ever listened to (age sixteen) and it didn't impress me at all, at least to the point where I shied away from listening to anything else by the guy until I got heavily into an avant garde music jag a couple of years later and just had to give in. Playing this 'un again after all these years I can see that perhaps SELFLESSNESS wasn't exactly the best place to start for a young neophyte suburban slob such as myself. Heck, it was a posthumous cash-in anyway (as were INTERSTELLAR SPACE and AUM even though they would've been far better introductions) so like how was I to know? But tell that to the local library 'n not me!

Still, even the cover of Rodgers and Hammerstein ain't as bowtie clunky as I remembered it to be. Actually nice if middling but nothing that would capture the imagination of THIS teenbo music maniac that's for sure! "I Want to Talk About You" fares better, if only for Cotlrane's tenor solo which oddly enough reminds me of Eric Dolphy's bass clarinet solos with less of a vibrating feeling inside your musical psyche. The title track comes closer to the Coltrane I was hoping to know 'n love at the time,  complete with a double drum set up as well as the presence of Pharoah Sanders at his creative peak. Surprised that 'un didn't affect me in a positive, life-reaffirming way during those young 'n impressionable days but then again, what do scab-laden teenage losers know about this sorta jazz, y'know?
***
The Hammersmith Gorillas-GORILLA GOT ME CD-r burn (originally on Big Beat, England)

A pox upon thee again Paul McGarry, because if you read your musty old mags you woulda known that I reviewed this 'un a loooong time ago. But thanks for bringing it to my attention again, because GORILLA GOT ME is about as good as these seventies English punk rockers got. The logical extension of Crushed Butler and the rest of those wild Jesse Hector bands, this one is filled with good hard thud rock that still has a lot of the previous English punk rock sound in it (talking everything from Stud Leather to Spunky Spider and all of those other GLITTERBEST bands that got people like Charles Shaar Murray all agog over the punk credo long before you even knew lambchop sideburns existed!). Not only that, but the entire proceedings go down so smooth that you don't care that Hector was a grizzled veteran (first recording age 12 in 1959!) by the time these tracks were laid down. A longplayer's worth of studio slam here, and for those of you who can't get enough there's the live set from the 1976 Mont de Marsan punkfest which makes me wonder---where in heck's the Pink Fairies set from the same gig???
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STAND BY FOR CRIME! starring Glenn Langan and Adele Jergens CD-r burn

Somehow listening to these early-fifties radio programs on a hot Saturday evening reminded me of my barely-into-the-double-digits days when I would listen to this old horror radio show on WPIC-FM which, back in them days, operated as a free-form rock station when it wasn't airing long-forgotten radio shows as part of a nostalgia kick. Considering that I still enjoy many of the things now that I did then, you could say that I'm either a suburban slob old-timey fun kinda guy at heart or mentally stuck at age ten. Most likely both, but then again it ain't like we didn't know that already!

These shows ain't horror-oriented though, but firmly in the fifties detective category in which I can imagine more'n a few Byron Folger types had matched wits with the leading man in order to solve the situation at hand. STAND BY FOR CRIME features Glenn Langan as crusading radio announcer Chuck Morgan who workds for a big El Lay station along with his sexoid secretary (played by Adele Jergens) and his boss, Pappy Somethingorother who more or less functions as the show's Perry White. Naw, Morgan doesn't get yelled at for calling him "Chief" but he is suckered into posing as a communist under the flimsiest pretenses (after all, if the mad ten-thousand to one plot to catch the real villains failed it wasn't like he was gonna get his job or reputation back!) in the first episode and tries to find out who poisoned a successful boxer in the second, and if you like everything from DRAGNET to I LED THREE LIVES on the tee-vee this is just more of the same only w/o a picture tube. I thought that the relationship between Langan and Jergens coulda been a bit sexier given it seems like they're head over heels in lust with each other but hey, this ain't Mickey Spillane!
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Bob Hastings as ARCHIE ANDREWS (NBC radio series, 1946) CD-r burn

While I'm listening to old ray-dee-yo programs might as well slap this classic series on the laser launching pad. After the immediate success of the ARCHIE comic book line a branch out into radio was inevitable, and judging from these two episodes the series was just as anarcho-teenage fun as the comic book and and eventually the strip turned out.

Bob Hastings (who surprisingly enough passed away the VERY DAY I played this disque for the first time...hope that had nothing to do with it) is about as good an Archie as anyone coulda gotten who wasn't Henry Aldrich, while Harlan Stone as Jughead at least comes off better'n the guy who played him in that sixties sitcom pilot with Patty Duke's father as Mr. Andrews! The rest of the cast is passable I guess, though I thought the voice of Archie's pop would've been more suited for Mr. Lodge (his deep voice comes too way too authoritative...none of that sitcom daddy muddledness I've been used to all these years) but for old timey radio I guess it's good enough.

Speaking of sitcom hijinx I guess these two episodes are boss enough considering how both of 'em milk those time-honored plots to the comical max, what with Archie getting his rotten egg smelling tonic, glue, bubble bath soap and Wildroot all mixed up in the first 'un and then spoiling Pop's plan for an evening bath in the second. Yeah, I can already hear you readers sayin' that it's all mere kitty litter next to the meaningful and relevant comedies you see today, but lemme tell you that while listening to these I laughed even harder 'n the time the cripple across the street did a mean splat tryin' to escape from his burning house! These programs will probably do nil for all of you sophisticados, but then again it's a suburban slob thing, so you wouldn't understand.

What I found most surprising about these shows is that it's more'n obvious that Filmation based the voices they would use for their late-sixties/seventies Saturday morning ARCHIE cartoons on the radio program, right down to Veronica's Southern accent which ain't as squeaking as it was in the cartoon but still packed with quite a few "y'all"s in the drawl! I always felt it strange that Veronica would have such an accent because not only is the ARCHIE universe supposed to be based on ARCHIE creator Bob Montana's own Haverhill MA upbringing, but she never really came off as the Southern belle type to me. Maybe Veronica would look the part if she wore one of those flowing gowns with the wide-brimmed hats like the young ladies used to back in 'em antebellum days, but otherwise its Boston Brahmins all the way, and you can't really argue otherwise!
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Various Artists-FLUXUS ANTHOLOGY CD (Anthology Records, Italy)

Considering just how free splat the entire Fluxus structure was (is?) you would expect a recorded anthology of Fluxus-related pieces to be rather varied if still rooted in that mad mid-sixties musical frame. And this 'un is no different than anything else you would have expected from these artists who made their mark either tossing out brilliant conceptual art or pulling one of the biggest jokes on the art world to date. Some of it is what you would call standard sound pieces from John Cage's 1956 "Radio Music" to Yoko Ono's "Toilette Piece" (straight offa FLY), while others feature spoken word/singing and sound manipulation that sound just as battily brilliant now as they did back when you first discovered this stuff when it was a whole lot fresher'n it is now. The biggest surprise of all is the contribution from the deformed conceptualist Joseph Beuys who sings an early-eighties new wave-y number ostensibly about Ronald Reagan! Buy it, and supply your own beret and stale doritos.
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13th Floor Elevators-LIVE EVOLUTION 2-CD burn (originally on Charly, England)

Hmmmmm, here's an item that I was actually contemplating buying, only none other'n Paul McGarry beat me to the punch and dared burn the set up for my own personal pleasure! Good choice here Paul, because this live set by the infamous in a time of their own Elevators is one of the better dig ups of classic new-to-my-ears sixties psychedelic punk music heard in quite some time.

Really top-notch on all fronts, from the cover art (I assume the actual packaging is really high quality as well!) to the soundboard quality and best of all the performance from Roky and crew, who are thankfully so addled that they don't realize that the mode of the rock is definitely changing against their favor. First disc is a mad drive through various first and second LP tracks done up even more exciting than they were on the actual platters, while the second features some incredible jams on familiar tuneage that at times feature guest musicians on flute and what sounds like a melodica (don't have the actual package so find out who is where for yourself!).

In all a royal treatment for a band that deserved their fame and notoriety a long ago yet only got it after they were long dead and buried, and its a good thing I didn't hear this back in '78 during the beginnings of my Roky mania or else I would have plumb keeled over (like I know you all woulda wished I did long ago!)
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Brian Jonestown Massacre-REVELATION CD-r burn (originally on A Records)

Although it may seem like blasphemy to some of you modern day fans of the Big Beat, I never did care for Brian Jonestown Massacre that much. Maybe I "did" give them a good writeup at one time and I believe that I dismissed one of the Cee Dees at another time,.frankly I can't remember, but it wasn't like I was the kinda guy to rah-rah 'em like way too many others out there in "notice me!" land seem to have. Well, sheepishly enough I gotta say that with the release of this disque my opinion of the band has changed, and for the better at that which I am not ashamed to say even though maybe I should be..

On REVELATION the group strut their post-underground values rather well reminding me not only of Roxy Music before the first big break but even some of the Ballroom-era San Franciscan bands when they would get on one of their long drug-induced psychedelic jags. If you wanna, add a little bit of English melancholia to the mix for a dandy neo-psychedelic effect! Surprisingly remarkable spinner here that shows that maybe there is some good music being produced long after it all seemed to slide into the big abyss we call "youth culture".
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Various Artists-DRIFTIN' QUADRANGLE KIKO BEAT CD-r burn (this week's contribution to the cause from Bill Shute)

Dunno why Mary Astor and Ricardo Cortez appear on the front of it, but I won't be such a stickler for ACCURACY what with this selection of rarities Bill Shute copped off the web when none of us wuz lookin'. Quite a selection of  different musical forms here too from the early-sixties Minneapolis instrumental din of the Poor Boys to the new bop thing of Jackie McLean (not forgetting Sonny Stitt's bloozey schmooze and Jimmy McGriff's r&b instro guaranteed to bring out the Soulman in us all). The Bandits do Pet Clark's "Downtown" just as El Lay session as you would imagine, while Bill once again hadda sneak on a whole lotta that country and twang he so desires (best of the batch---Jim Adams'"Ballad of T. Eugene", a "topical" tale of a murder plot gone awry I would guess) Some moments like Los Angeles del Paraguay's "Guantanamera" get me in the mood for playing with my dinky, though I dunno why Bill would include the Surfaris'"Beat '65" since I got that 'un already...sheesh, you think he woulda known better'n that now, eh?
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July 10, 2014, 1:42 am
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BOOK REVIEW! ARCHIE, THE SWINGING SIXTIES VOLUME TWO: 1963-1965 by Bob Montana (IDW, 2014)

That ARCHIE ANDREWS radio show Bill sent me sure put me in the mood for some fresh comic strip reads, and you can bet that I sure was glad that I didn't have to wait a good three years for this'un to turn up on my doorstep!

Heading into the mid-sixties, ARCHIE is still sparking on all cylinders what with Bob Montana's whacked out sense of humor (and ability to take the best cornballus jokes and add a refreshing twist to 'em) as well as keen artwork which always did put the standard ARCHIE comic book artists to shame what with the fine inking and liberal use of alla that glued-on checks and shading which always lent the strip a certain quality you just don't see anymore. 'n best of all you certainly don't see such feminine pulchritude being paraded about like you do when Betty and Veronica (as only Montana can draw 'em) show up in their bikinis at times even exposing a belly button or two---one look at them and you'll know why Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem got on the Women's Lib shrew patrol making the world safe for millions of bowzers out there!

Nice time-warp between the standard teenage age ARCHIE hijinx and the soon-to-come late-sixties upheaval, what with the strips here almost exact carbon copies of the ones Montana had been cranking out for a good two decades by already. Lotsa good gaggers here too including some neat mid-sixties mop top ones that certainly fit in with the teenage high energy point of view, not to mention a certain one on page thirty that'll really get both Bill Shute and Brad Kohler laughing their hi-q heads off. One thing about ARCHIE you can't say about today's strips is that it really was tuned into the mid-Amerigan doof-thud existence that seems to have been taken over by brain-dead philosophies and puerile propaganda that you're still seeing even this late in history when people frankly should know better!

Unfortunately the book's forward is, like many of these ARCHIE collections o'er the years, a little too apologetic about the whitebread wholesomeness of the entire Archie Series corporation with a tone that almost says that "HEY, WE'RE REALLY HIP ONLY WE CAN'T BE TOO HIP ABOUT CERTAIN THINGS". Perhaps this was all done in order to deflect a whole lotta criticism for MLJ head John Goldwater's help in the creation of the Comics Code Authority, but if you ask me it only makes the Archie line's "squareness" (which wasn't anything that we felt offensive or anything) seem even more obvious! Hey, if Archie and the gang started dealing in storylines regarding every breed of social/political injustice it would have seen tres out of place, almost as bad as is Nancy and Aunt Fritzi started discussing female genital mutilation, and frankly do we need any more social relevance and modern day boredom reflected in our funny pages the way they are now? I should say not, Glenda!

But one interesting turdbit did happen to find its way into this schpiel, and that was in the portion which mentioned how rock 'n roll music was shaping the musical vocab with the bright and spiffy new sounds of everyone from the Iron Butterfly and Jefferson Airplane to the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and "Lou Reed's Velvet Underground"!!! The inclusion of the last bunch really did perk my Uncle Martin antennas up, especially when you consider just how VERBOTEN anything remotely high energy or punky was edited out of the musical vocabulary with a Stalin-like efficiency once the hippoids got into political power way back in the mid-seventies. I mean, who in a million years woulda thought that the preface to an ARCHIE collection would even mention the Velvets, even in passing? Back in the old days that woulda been cause for celebration and in many ways it still is (even if they were lumped in with a bunch of mostly tired old turdburgers) and hey, listening to the Velvets really went along smoothly while reading this batch of strips too! You should try it, or at least try something in a similar vein which does mesh well with the suburban teenage gags being presented for your ranch house entertainment!
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July 12, 2014, 11:36 am
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Not really in the mood to blab on in my usual diarrhea mouth fashion about the usual things I usually open up these review-laden posts with. Life has become too nauseating to complain about the realities of mere existence without coming off even crankier than I tend to be. Even the prospect of doing something entertaining and fun in life, like watching an old television show or dining out once in awhile, doesn't have the same slam bang thrill it once did to the point where I still fondly remember the times I was ever served a salad with croutons on it and thought it was the wildest thing to happen to vegetables since gooey sauce! But then again, I think I gave up living a good decade or so and now merely exist, and frankly I find that a whole lot better'n the alternative I sure wish more'n a few people out there were now experiencing, ifyagetmydrift...

Maybe I should talk about something HAPPIER such as...well, I did want to bring up the fact that the final Ramone, none other'n Tommy, has died making the original act totally kaputsky. But I'm sure you all knew that (btw I thought it was funny that AOL used Marky's snap on their front page come-on, a mistake I'm sure they fixed once the comments started pouring in!). Charlie Haden also died though I never could get worked up over that, not only because he was a hardcore leftoid who came off as such a pussy in some DOWN BEAT interviews to the point of nausea, but because he had spent some time at Synanon where I'm sure he was involved in a whole slew of nefarious mindscrewing practices as well as raising snakes and stuffing them in mail boxes! I always preferred David Izenzon's playing with Ornette anyway. Well, gotta say that two more influential musicians have gone to their bigtime reward, and you know that when two oldtimes pass on a whole slew of talentless subsputum are gonna rise in their place and pollute the world with even more tepid art as the years roll by.

So, on that happy note...


Amon Duul II-MADE IN GERMANY CD (Revisited Records, Germany)

After finding HIJACK a bit of a disappointment upon listening to it a good thirty-eight years back, I must admit that I did have some trepidation regarding any prospective purchase of this followup by krautrock biggies Amon Duul II a good thirty-nine years after reading a rather interesting review of it in CREEM. Well, maybe I shouldn't have waited that long before snatching it up because MADE IN GERMANY is rather/fairly/iffy good despite the usual mid-seventies pratfalls and attempts to be hip 'n updated. Surprisingly potent poppy music that was still too good for the AM dial (or too good for the FM as well) mixed with the residue of the late-sixties psychedelic afterbirth, and it's even a concept album about German history that'll make you wanna goosestep your way into the Poland of your own imagination! Maybe it does drag in spots, but it's still a good play for the Roxy Music/Eno crowd who had that Teutonic streak in their mid-seventies listening habits. Biggest surprise, the whacked-out Top 40 dee-jay interview with famed kraut drummer A. Hitler, and I believe that any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is merely coincidental!
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THE WORLD OF CECIL TAYLOR LP (Candid)
Given this early Cecil Taylor album's 1960 date, it's pretty surprising hearing just how advanced Taylor and his band were next to the schmoozy tux 'n tails sounds that were grabbing the jazz world at the same time this monster was unleashed! Extremely high energy and intense outing here with Taylor sounding as fresh and as atonal as ever backed by original bassist Buell Nedlinger and drummer Denis (here "Dennis") Charles and, on two tracks only, Archie Shepp making an early recorded appearance. Really, there ain't much more I can say that you longtime Taylor aficionados don't already know, but this is a wild killer of a platter that you really do need to hear especially if you've only heard about this "new thing" recently and wanna give it a try.

And in case you wonder YES, I still am steamed over the shabby treatment that Taylor got in that Ken Burns Jazz documentary series where, thanks to Branford Marsalis, he is the ONLY participant in that rather wretched television spectacular who was allowed to have something negative said about him while many lesser "talents" in the world of jazz got away scott free!
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Sun Ra-CONTINUATION 2-CD-r burn set (originally on Saturn)

Boy do these Sun Ra rarities just keep gettin' pumped out at a rate that not even the most serious Ra enthusiast could afford to keep up with! And yeah, this is another one of those once rare beyond your wildest dreams albums that you probably sent away for and never got, and it's just too bad that these Saturn disques didn't get the push they so needed back then because, as you've already expected, CONTINUATION's a pretty out-there affair that rivals all those Ra platters that got you hot and heavy back when cutout bins were just brimmin' full of 'em.

If you too were weaned on the likes of the HELIOCENTRIC WORLDS albums as well as various mid-sixties releases on Impulse and smaller jazz labels you'll know what kind of hot flash to expect, though you will probably be surprised to find out that these sides were laid down in 1963 thus predating the whole freak scene by a good two or so years.

However there's one thing on my mind  that I really wanna know, and that is what were those freaky tracks Bob tagged on after the second Ra disque anyway, the ones with some woman singing over what sounded like a bunch of stringed instruments being strummed almost randomly (the very last cut right after those two I don't particularly wanna know about given how it sounds so typical of standard underground art rock affairs as heard by this man o'er the past twenty or so years!).
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The Zombies-LIVE AT THE BBC CD-r burn (originally on Repertoire, England)

Not being as avid a Zombie fan as Don Fellman, I certainly welcomed the addition of this collection of Kenny Everett SATURDAY CLUB tracks courtesy of Paul McGarry into my abode. The familiar tunes sound unique enough what with Rod Argent using an organ 'stead of electric piano on "She's Not There" (!), while the r 'n b covers and tracks not known by me were moving enough in that mid-sixties English rock way. Good enough that I almost flashed back to those kiddoid days when you couldn't escape the Big Beat no matter what show you watched other'n LAMP UNTO MY TOOTSIES. The banter between Everett and the group recounting their impressions of Ameriga and touring add a nice time capsule bit of background to it all (good thing they didn't discuss the Philippines after Chris White's remarks about the girly action there!). In all, a grand bit of rock 'n roll timewarp giving us yet another slim taste of what top forty rock was like twixt early-sixties innovation and late-sixties pop glop.
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SKIN DEEP sound-discs from 1929 lost feature CD-r

Unlike the Sophie Tucker HONKY TONK disque reviewed awhile back, this 'un merely features musical fragments from a lost 1929 Vitaphone feature starring Monte Blue and Betty Compson and is totally bereft of dialogue so I can't tell you what this was all about. Judging from the surviving scratchy soundtrack this was probably a jazz-age melodrama a little too late for FILMS OF THE GATSBY ERA yet too early for those thirties Warner Brothers films that sure socked this adolescent pudgeball on the lookout for the best in tee-vee thrills. Actually, this sounds a little advanced next to some of the early talkie features I've seen which tried to go as far as they could by hamming up the sound effects and laying low on the musical interludes. If they ever do find the film this might be the one to cure your 3:00 AM insomnia.
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The Split Squad-NOW HERE THIS CD-r burn (CD Baby)

Heh, this is pretty good modern-day pop rock reminiscent of the sorta new wave that enlightened an entire generation of rock fanatics to dump their Ted Nugent albums. Or something like that, those days were soooo long ago. And really, this group does have a good reason for sounding like the best and brightest of the late-seventies "new thing" in pop because each and every member had put in a good deal of time playing in the likes of the Plimsouls, Fleshtones, Blondie and a variety of other acts that made Van Halen fans sneer with their usual indignant elitism fully intact. Nothing that I would care to buy for myself given my penchant for making the Abe Lincolns on my pennies wince (Paul McGarry sent me this 'un gratis), but it's all pretty good rock 'n roll (in the classic, purest sense) that sure sounds better'n most of the quap that I've heard that passes as "rock" o'er the past forty or so years.
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Vibracathedral Orchestra-THE QUEEN OF GUESS CD (Revolver USA)

As you know, many of these newfangled musical acts rock or not, experimental or not, precociously self-conscious or not, don't really jive with my own personal ideas of what high energy music (or at least a music that is in the raw stages of transformation) is supposed to be all about. Yeah, that  sounds rather phony-intellectual to me too, but I know you get the drift. As I've said many a times it seems as if few things these days (or these past three or so decades) really affects me like similar-minded efforts did back when I was a stoopid kid, and yeah I know that times change and the mode of the music usually does along with 'em but for me there was that certain spark, charm and grace that lent itself to a whole load of musical efforts in the sixties and seventies (fifties too!) that just seemed to get washed away once rock matured to the point it should be receiving Social Security payments. And y'know, hardly anybody out there these days can convince me that they would even want to be the new Velvet Underground, or new Mirrors or even new Syd Barrett for that matter, and given how lifeless and soulless the world has become once it jettisoned spirit for chic gratification why would anyone out there WANT to be any one of 'em?

Anyway these Vibracathedral guys've been touted as being part of some new vanguard of Next Generation musical wisdom for quite some time, and as usual the mere hype had turned my stomach more'n Sherwood's head on THE BARNEY BEAN SHOW. But, brave soul always on the lookout for a new hook to sink my teeth into, I purchased this particular platter (I do have another one lost in the collection and maybe a vinyl offering once reviewed somewhere as well!) and thought it was pretty snat in its own experimental rock way. Shades of a lotta things here from Lamonte Young to Controlled Bleeding can be discerned, and I must have a whole lotta Harmonia on the mind because I can even hear echoes of them via their debut play as well! Not bad at all, even if there seems to be this dinge of postmodern stringency that keeps this from being on par with the groups that the Vibracathedral people obviously draw more'n a little inspiration from.
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Various Artists-LAUGHING GHOSTS ON THE BLUE RIVER CD-r burn (courtesy the hard work and mindful diligence of Bill Shute)

Bus Eubanks would be really proud of Bill for this collection of early 78 sides by some of the snappier stars of the twenties jazz age available via the click of a mouse. Pretty hotcha selection here too with only one pre-jazzer here (Billy Murray's 1904 creeper "The Ghost That Never Walked"), and even that one fits in with the crackles and clicks yer gonna get (and enjoy) with this hot sesh. All the biggies are here and they really know how to send you to the Malt Shop in your mind with such wonders as "Toot Toot Tootsie", "Laugh Clown Laugh" (a real tear-jerker) and even the French Vichy lover Maurice Chevalier doing one of the two versions of "Sweeping the Clouds Away" that pop up (there are lotsa diff. takes from diff. artists here, including  not only Al Jolson's but Sophie Tucker's versions of "Blue River"). Goes well with yer old silent moom pitchers that don't have soundtracks, and as Dudley Dooright once said "that's real toe-tapping music!" Who am I to argue?
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July 15, 2014, 11:10 pm
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BOOK REVIEW! ESSENTIAL MAN-THING VOL. 1 (Marvel 2006)

's funny, but back when Marvel was thrusting themselves full-force into the Bronze Age with a slew of new storylines rotating around a cartload of pseudo if not anti heroes like Dracula, Ghost Rider and Werewolf by Night, I was more intent on keeping up with Marvel's Silver Age survivors like the Fantastic Four and Hulk. Well, I will admit that I was also a humongous fan of their scifi and horror reprints via the likes of MONSTERS ON THE PROWL and CREATURES ON THE LOOSE. Even the occasional ARCHIE or kiddie comics swipe being reprinted was fine by moi, but the new 'uns were just too weirdoid for this thirteen-year-old even if they were delineated in that classoid Marvel style that tried so desperately to ape past Jack Kirby accomplishments. Just didn't jibe with my own sense of tee-vee rerun fun ranch house kultur which, even at that stage in the game, were firmly rooted in late-fifties/early-sixties fun 'n jamz which were still lingering around the ranch houses and tee-vee playrooms I occupied!

I mean, who wanted to read about guys on motorcycles with flamin' skulls or big lumps of humanoid vegetation when they could read about green muscular men and messed up teenagers who could burst into flames, y'know??? That seemed more in line with my way of thinking, and a dozen subscriptions to TEENAGER BY DAY, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT couldn't make me think one iota` otherwise!

But being the kinda guy who certainly wonders what he was missing out on when he missed out on these early-seventies titles, I decided to snatch up this repackaging of the early Man-Thing stories considering how the guy was actually a reincarnation (more or less!) of the Golden Age great the Heap, who in fact was a precursor to the Hulk even if the trajectory on that series certainly went off in a quite different direction!

The collection starts off with a good enough origin story from the infamous SAVAGE TALES (the first comic magazines rated "M"!) complete with a conniving if sexoid see-through nightie and more cleavage than a 600-pound Italian, and after that its on to various early appearances where the thing happens to wander about the swamplands without a semblance of intellect (he being driven by emotion and repulsed by fear!) getting into various adventures with everyone from the local redneck townfolk to some wandering hippoids (and guess where the sympathies lie!) in a way that reflects the old Heap stories updated. (Well, at least updated for the new youth clientele who used to stare at single panels from Dr. Strange under the influence of whatever psychedelics they could get their mitts on.)

And with all of the references to the environment to energy crisis you can bet these stories are just as quaint as those Marvel sagas from ten years earlier with their Cold War and space exploration themes, but as usual you readers couldn't care one bit what with the boss art and that Marvel style that was so revolutionary that it took DC about eight years to even remotely copy it.

Some bad foreshadowing of future Marvel trends that shied me away from the comic book form but good (such as the original appearance of Howard the Duck, Marvel's shark-jumping moment if I do say so myself) and there were times where I had to grab a self-produced Steve Ditko comic if only to cleanse my system after the standard anti-capitalism rant being spewed forth from an arm of the Kinney Corporation. But at least the Marvel style hadn't devolved to the point where you needed a scorecard to figure out who was what with all of the crossovers and character transfiguration going on, and maybe if you slip some Yes on the turntable, do a li'l "something" and settle back you too can emulate the early/mid-seventies teenbo experience at least before your mind turns to polenta, and hold the tomato sauce willya?
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July 19, 2014, 2:10 am
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IN PRAISE OF PIP


Pip Proud-A FRAYING SPACE CD (EM Japan, available via Forced Exposure)

Yeah I know. I said I wasn't gonna get it. But a feller can change his mind, right? And I have every right to change my mind about buying something as I have regarding liking then hating (or vice versa) records, groups, people or entire nations if I so desire. And although I did say that I didn't think I was gonna cozy up to an entire long-playing Cee-Dee by this Australian "outsider" nutjob (the Australian Syd Barrett they call him) I decided that maybe that $20 I had in my pocket would be put to better use buying this than, say, the latest big slapdash to come out on the Lexicon Devil imprimatur and who in their right mind could argue with that?

The Barrett comparisons hold up only a tad, especially when you realize that Pip's debut spinner predated THE MADCAP LAUGHS and that you probably could easily enough draw adequate enough parallels to Donovan or even Charles Manson just as much as you can ol' Syd. One toon, I believe "They Took Us All So Kindly", even comes off like Mahogany brain the way the two guitars seem to be playing completely different numbers.And don't forget "Purple Gang Boy" (from whence the single was taken), which had quite a few discombobulated ears crying Velvet Underground.

Frankly I can find more in common with the early-eighties English cassette culture/underground musings that could be heard on that one MESSTHETICS collection of bedroom ditties done up by extremely introverted royal subjects. And compared to the timid and lonesome musings of Proud many of those feeble-soul'd strummers even come off like Ted Nugent!

I'd find it hard to believe that Proud graduated to the COWBOY BOB BOOK OF GUITAR PLAYING VOLUME TWO the way he cranks out the basic chords and sings along mostly if suitably out of tune. He reminds me of Granny on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES playing her autoharp with a quill. Of course that adds to the charm and, considering the mental anguish Proud must have been going through throughout his life, gives the entire proceedings an added dimension---of exactly what dimension that would be I do not know, but it sure is fun trying to figure the man's mental makeup out!

Can't find a duff moment or sour track here even if the notes can go south more'n a few times asifyoucared. But it all ends up going through your nervous system so smoothly, even more than it did with Daniel Johnston and the rest of those recent loner types who found some sort of niche now that people claim to have ears a whole lot more open then they were back when Proud was first starting up his illustrious career. Can't find a single fault with it (unless you want me to get into some extreme nitpicks, which of course I would never do), and as somebody or someone else said quite awhile back, "highly recommended".
***
Eric Dolphy-OTHER ASPECTS CD-r burn (originally on Blue Note)

For being a posthumous platter that came ouy a good twenny-three years after Dolphy kicked the bucket because he wasn't a junkie, these are some pretty tasty leftovers dontchathink? Captures the more particularly creepy aspects of the early-sixties jazz avant garde that didn't always translate well to record, with a drive and sublime nerve-shattering drive that would have fit in well on the early ESP-disk roster. (Thanks to the presence of a pre-cocktail schmooze Bob James on track #1 no doubt.) Not only that, but the early usage of Indian raga sounds were laid down just around the same time Sandy Bull was doing his "Blend"-ing of east 'n west and, as they did there, the twains do meet. Wonder why it took so long for this masterpiece to make its way not only to the record racks, but to my dear ears ) other'n my own ignorance natch!)?
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X-----X-CD-r burn of forthcoming album on Ektro Records)

If you think I "censored" the cover shown onna left you are correct! In no way do I want to inflict on this already over-inflicted world any sorta art that might be considered explicitly s-xual or homoerotic, so I did what I felt should be done and adapted the cover artwork to appeal to the more "worker friendly" types amongst us. But keeping the homophobia (or is it homophilia?) on the right side of your brain you'll wanna get this 'un no matter how sickoid the cover art may be, for this is (finally!) a collection of recordings made by John Morton's infamous post-Electric Eels grouping Ex-Blank-Ex aka X-blank-X aka X-----X or even "Ex-Mommy-X" and like the old ESP-disk record ad usedta say "you never heard such sounds in your life" and boy will you be glad you cared!

With a late-seventies anger and no wave fury that permeate these tracks that have about as much to do with Chris Burden as they do the Velvet Underground, Morton and band (even including Electric Eels warbler Dave E on one track) screech their way through the familiar single sides (at least three of 'em), live tuneage and rehearsal try outs reconstructing old  faves as well as new numbers you undoubtedly ain't ever heard before. Heck, "Agitated" even comes in for a deconstruction (I guess) and it's all performed right in step with that '77 attitude and feel to the point where you can just hear Anastasia Pantsios groaning over the fact that these guys are warranting a recent release and the Balzer Brothers most certainly ain't!

Biggest surprise is the group's rendition of the Johnny and the Dicks classic "I'm So Fucked Up" which ain't the Laughner song nor the rumored song from the early Velvets days, but one that definitely ranks in the canon of Cle crazed consciousness. A real inspiring toe-tapper if I do say so myself.

Dunno much about the actual release, whether it's been released or is still in gestation, but you might wanna know that there are only 500 of these things getting pressed up, 350 on black vinyl and, keeping with the late-seventies groove of it all, 150 on red. Since I got this 'un in my possession I won't be needing any actual plastic to keep me happy, so that's one more that's gonna be available for you music-starved unrepentant punk types out there. When I get more info as the the exact status of this I'll let you know, unless I forget or get tired with it all in my usual inimitable fashion.
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John Mayall-A SPECIAL LIFE CD-r burn (originally on Forty Below)

I have the feeling that Paul McGarry sent this 'un to be thinking I wuz gonna piss all over the thing! Well guess what Paul---you're WRONG again boyo! Not that I find a good portion of these nuevo blooze played by white Englishmen quite...uh...white sounding 'n custom made for a buncha lowlives who still wear their leather jackets 'n smoke Kools down to the nubs, but I will give decent musicianship and the ability to not make me wanna slit my throat credit when it is due.

Of course listening to this makes me wanna go to some late-night bar on a Sunday and listen to the local whiteguy variant before leaving at 2:30 AM only to get shot to death in the parking lot, but if I hadda listen to something before being robbed of my fifty-seven cents in spare change I'd rather it be this than Robert Cray.
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THE GOLDING INSTITUTE PRESENTS SOUNDS OF THE AMERICAN FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS CD-r burn (originally on Planet Pimp)

Haw, I actually fell for it, then I saw the name Greg Turkington onna cover and knew what a crafty slice of comic surrealism that I was subjected to! Yez, the ambient sounds of your favorite fast food hangouts and their subtle if remarkable differences presented for you as if you were right there listening to the doof himself ordering up a chocolate milkshake at a friendly local Burger King. Typically nice, hygienic and wholesome behavior and sounds ooze their way into the sanctity of your fart-encrusted bedroom which only proves one thing---none of these recordings were made in any Italian neighborhood joints that's for sure!
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Reigning Sound-SHATTERED CD-r burn (available through Merge)

For a group that was led by a guy who made his way through a whole slew of nineties groups I could care less about, Reigning Sound are a pretty hot current day act that reminds me of a whole load of seventies high spots (w/o the slick feeling that permeated music since the early-eighties). Think Elliot Murphy and Big Star channeling electric Dylan and slapping it onto a small label album destined for the flea market circuit within a few short years. Only this was released this very year and you'll have to wait a pretty long time before it hits the VFW Grange Hall sale near you! Between stuff like this and the Mirrors reunion (ain't gonna see 'em live but thank goodniz for youtube which is such a boon for this shut in!) maybe its better that I withdraw my name from that volunteer euthanasia list and like pronto!
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Various Artists-MAGIC SUPER TWILIGHT RELAY CITY CD-r burn (need I say his name???)

When Bill burns these platters up who can tell what weirdo marvels he's liable to slap on 'em for my listening pleasure (or listening disgust for that matter!). This entry into the archives is yet another strangity with material I never even knew existed, what with three swipes of the Tornados'"Telstar" to contend with (the Double IV's "Magic Star" being a vocal version while the Astronomers'"answer" record fairs only slightly---however the Vulcanes'"Twilight City" coulda been an actual Joe Meek only it's as Amerigan as racial violence but don't let that bother you). Link Wray pops up amid the smattering of country and soul (speaking of which, Jimmie Willis'"Soul Power 1 & 2" is a good low-budget mover that shoulda at least gotten some local late-sixties chart action but probably didn't), and really I can't find fault with any of it from the Tykes' romp through of "Let's Dance" to the mysterioso Sound of Imker! The foreign language stuff though...kinda sounds like Sunday AM radio around here which obviously caters to the overseas portion of the local community, at least before they get deported ifyaknowaddamean...

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July 23, 2014, 3:33 am
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MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! HELL RAIDERS starring John Agar (1968)


It's always a hoot watching old films and tee-vee shows about World War II done up a good twenny or so years after the fact, because that was the time when the guys who fought the war were now in their forties and you can bet that most of 'em were looking back on those days wonderin' just how the hell they ever made it out alive (from what I can tell, most of 'em didn't even seem worried about getting offed while they were actually living through the thing!). And most of these shows and films were just chock fulla entertainment and lotsa pow energy without the sap and touchy-feely that would eventually seep into such once-manly thing as blood 'n guts war films. Sure as shit smells it ain't like you're gonna see a whole buncha overly sensitive soldiers gettin' tucked in and kissed goodnight in these mooms like you did on M*A*S*H, and while you're at it you sure ain't gonna see any of that sicky-sappy "human side" of soldiers like in this one SGT. ROCK comic I once read where the guys of "Easy Company" were rip-roarin' it up while being entertained by a (now get this!) ventriloquist and his dummy! Yeah, like I can see hardened combat survivors laughing their assess off over a grade school assembly-level ventriloquist routine, right before they get their milk and cookies and go beddy-bye that is! And don't forget the bed time story, Sarge!

If you still envision World War II vets as the kinda guys who have hair on their chests and read men's adventure mags with titles like GUTS AND GLORY, you can bet the whole lot of 'em are watching mooms like HELL RAIDERS 'stead of the puerile pablum that has been passing for tension-packed war entertainment these past three or so decades. A late-sixties Larry Buchanan effort with all of the charm 'n budget cuts that entails, this 'un might be short as far as high quality explosives go but is pretty long on the entertainment, at least when you get over the slow scenes where the men whoop it up at some whorehouse and ponder the fact that the female lead is in this film for absolutely no reason at all.

John Agar and Richard Webb head up a bunch of mine diggers on a special mission to get rid of some incriminating papers in their former HQ now in the hands of the Nazis. Not as easy as it sounds though, and of course the burden falls heavily on the stock company complete with a grizzled old vet and the kid from Brooklyn who never had a chance to get it done and like right now!

If you're lookin' for deep philosophical meanings and various Pauline Kael-esque insight you better stick with some of the aforementioned quap I mentioned. But for a good sit down and soak it all in action film, you can't really do much better even when the breaks in the plot make for ample potty poopy time.

One surprising fact about this 'un is that HELL RAIDERS was filmed entirely in Texas! Now you know why the whorehouse looks more like a Mexican restaurant than a standard dago brothel!
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