Hey, twas a nice week at that even if I mostly hadda rely on freebee handouts (courtesy Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and the above and beyond the call of doody P. D. Fadensonnen) to make it through the past seven days of drudgery. Still ain't that many new wonders headin' my way, but that doesn't matter what with the disques that I'm working my way through, most of which I would consider pretty up-and-at'cha if I do say so myself. I still could use a whole lot more 1964-1981 (years I would consider the prime cut of rock et roll even if the last fourteen or so of those days weren't exactly BLOG TO COMM-friendly) sounds in my cranium but for now let's just say that I'm biding my time a whole lot better'n I thought. Still if there are any underground reissue/exhumation labels who just happen to be reading this, if you are sitting on loads of tapes by obscure early punk metallic scrapers pleasepleasePLEASE make these items available to us or at least to ME. After all, they do fit in swimmingly with the wake I've been holding for rock 'n roll daily (and for the past thirtysome years) in the comfy confines of my own bedroom.
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INTERSYSTEMS 3-CD set (Alga Marghen, available via Forced Exposure)
I've had this triple-disque collection of alla the Intersystems albums released that were released (twixt '67-'68 if you're keeping track) since Christmastime, but it's taken my this long to digest the entire kitten caboodle which really must be sayin' something about either this particular collection or my own musical threshold. Imagine Wilbur from MR ED narrating stories about plastic people (literally plastic, not necessarily phony) to Moog blurps and bleeps and yes, you've got one MASSIVE LATE-SIXTIES ART PROJECT ON YOUR HANDS now, don't ya!
Actually it's not as bad as that may seem given the pretentiousness and dated nature these projects can just ooze (ya know, let's cram in every flowery neo-psychological pseudo-intellectual bitta drool into this 'un!). But Intersystems, with their spoken word and musique concrete (called so according to my dad because the musicians playing this music look as if they were hit with a huge pile of concrete!) can get kinda draggy, especially if you listen to it all in one sitting. Still a better'n usual document of early mixed-media electronic hoo-hah than I would have expected, and if I had only mentioned these guys in my sophomoric high school term paper on electronic music well...I'd hate to see how my cyster woulda mangled their moniker!
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Free Action Inc.-PLAYS EDDY KORSCHE--ROCK AND BLUES CD-r burn (originally on Help Records, Italy)
Europe has been known for its cheapo crankout records as much as it has for the slew of import albums of serious rock quality that have made their way to these shores. And now---thanks to INTERNET---we can hear them just as easily as if we had walked into some Eyetalian supermarket and snatched 'em up in between those Joker International albums that we so desired.
Free Action Inc., despite having a name that would lead one to think they were an avant garde improvisational collective, were but one of the many overseas acts probably of a studio nature...may be wrong on that! This particular album really knows how to lay on the early-seventies cheeziness of a provolone variety what with all of the patented Peter Max hipster stylings and lovebead pukka shell posturing to be found therein. And frankly, this one is even more boring than the collected speeches of Mussolini blared at you in living stereo. If yer grammamamama from dagoland came over for a visit and presented you with a copy of LE STELLE DE MARIO SHIFANO for a gift you'd kiss the living bejabbers outta her for doing so. If the ol' fanabla gave you a copy of this'un why, you'd slap ol' garlic breath like silly and send her straight back to Abruzzi and like, who wouldn't?????
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Various Artists-GOLDEN STATE PSYCHEDELIA CD-r burn (originally on Big Beat England)
Yeah I know...a lotta these collections of late-sixties psychedelic rock really do bite the royal root, but at least this 'un's got some interesting pop moves that are of a decidedly non-Slick/Garcia vein. There is a sameness to the tracks here that might lead one to believe they were done by the same band, but at least these tracks are solid and show nary a trace of the dismal Woodstock influence that sorta made the years 1970-1972 unbearable for a suburban slob kinda comic book reading 1950's loving kid like me. Everyone shoulda been a hit (even Magician's "F..k For Peace") but obviously went nowhere and (as usual) we're all the lesser for it. One thing tho...I always thought the Gants were from Mississippi, not California!
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COOKIN' WITH THE SPATS CD-r burn (originally on ABC/Paramount)
These NUGGETS noogies never did get the same sorta post-sixties adulation that the rest of those local lunkheads we all love did, and I guess one look on the cover'll give you the reason WHY!!! I mean just take a gander at these guys with their 1963 haircuts and matching suits...not a shrunken head or swastika in the batch! No wonder teenage Ameriga turned on 'em with a vengeance in favor of all of those new 'n enlightened acts that really spoke to their soul, or sense of self-importance, or something equally akin to the entire late-sixties zeitwhatziz that was goin' on in many a ranch house suburban-wide.
Still the Spats spat out some good hackers on this platter (and that's not even including the bonus tracks Bill slapped on at the end) showing their mid-sixties wholesome sound off rather well. As far as the whole garage band aesthetics of these things go the Spats had the more mid-south style and a bit of a laid-back approach to their whole existence (with a few sidesteps into West Coast surf/bike/rod appreciation) down pretty good. When they toughened up (like they did on the all-time growler "She Done Moved") the Spats could rank up there with the best of the mid-sixties class of tough alienation rockers whose hair just happened to be longer and thus more tuned in to the entire adolescent teenage gal population, white division. A surprise that I get the feeling was passed up more than a few times during the Golden Age of flea market record stacks ca. 1972-1979.
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BACKGROUNDS OF JAZZ VOL. 1: THE JUG BANDS CD-r (originally on "X" Records)
Good...actually pretty hotcha slice of late-twenties jug band blues that actually made the major label cut if you can believe it! Nice selection too, featuring the Dixieland Jug Blowers and the Memphis Jug Band playing this particularly twangy brand o' definitely non-local whiteguy trying to look tough music! On one hand this could fit in swell backing some old Grapevine Video silent comedy yet on another it's so outta-kilter primitive that it could make R. Meltzer dribble in his shorts. Utter downhome spasm music done on the sole basis of jugs, kazoos and some of the most outta-tune guitar heard since CS&N at Woodstock. Rather exhilarating post-work resensifier you got there Bill!
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Hampton Grease Band-ATLANTA POP FESTIVAL 1970 CD-r burn
Finally (after a great length of internet searching---though it was P. D. Fadensonnen who finally made it through) I get to hear the legendary live Hampton Grease Band tape from the Atlanta Pop Festival. Y'know, the show where they actually got signed to Columbia which obviously was a label that was always on the lookout for talent that wouldn't sell squat if only to make their big sellers look even better, or something like that.
Those of you longtime fans who were expecting more of the MUSIC TO EAT sprawled-out neo-Quicksilver jams will be disappointed, for other'n some interesting neo-fusion workouts, a version of "Maria" and a fragment of "Lawton" (or was it "Hendon"?) there's nada but some fun if outta-place goofs on a variety of big time hits ranging from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW theme to "Wolverton Mountain" to "I Go Crazy" and "Treat Her Right", all ending with the perennial show stopper "Rock Around the Clock"!
I myself found the whole thing rather interesting, a peek into the inner workings of a cult band that just wasn't revealed on their legit offering and if you can find the LP version of this you definitely do get extra bonus points for being able to do something I couldn't do even given my own rabid interest in this legendary under-the-cult band!
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NEW MOVIETONE FOLLIES OF 1930 soundtrack
Unfortunately way too many old moom pitchers have disintegrated into nada, but fortunately a few of the soundtrack records that accompanied these films have survived giving us at least a little nibble of what these mooms were like in the first place. And judging from the rah-rah on NEW MOVIETONE FOLLIES OF 1930 the film woulda been one great late-night moom pitcher on your fave UHF station circa 1975 had it only survived the ravages of time. A hotcha mix of high-larious dialogue (mostly courtesy of famed Swedish actor El Brendel, a man who went on to make some mighty funny comedies at Columbia during the forties) and snappy musical numbers, held together by a plot of sorts having to do with some young lovers and a benefit for old soldiers or something like that. Like radio, you really gotta use your imagination to make sense outta it and in fact even a whole lot more, though I find the musical interludes a whole lot more exciting than anything I've heard onna hit parade for years on end. Why Brendel never pursued a singing career after this tour de tonsils I'll never know!
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Dave Pell-JAZZ VOICES IN VIDEO CD-r burn (originally on Liberty)
Wow, another hotcha hi-fi stereo nut album the kind that many a bespectacled office worker type came home to back 1962 way and spun in their knotty pic rec rooms in order to get their minds off Kruschev. Jazzed up versions of everything from the Chevrolet ad to the themes from Steve Allen and Red Skelton done up nice 'n ranch house style just perfect for those who remember what life used to be like before alla them hippies and their spawn hadda go and tell us that we were evil because...well, we were or something like that. The next best thing to settling down in the back yard in a reclining lawn chair with a glass of ice tea, something I get the feeling NOBODY does anymore!
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Don Ralke-THE SAVAGE AND THE SENSUOUS CD-r burn (originally on Warner Brothers)
Like the above, here's another one just custom made for your swinging early-sixties hi-fi nut with a knotty pine recreation room and a late-model Studebaker in the garage! Saucy moody instrumental sounds (well, there is something that comes off akin to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara having a chat on the second track!) heavy on the percussion with enough bongos added to the mix that would give the entire Amon Duul commune a collective hard on. Perfect for the pre-AOR/classic/freeform FM listener who's emptied his coffers on the likes of Esquival and Les Baxter. With a platter like this you don't have to use the "come up and see my etchings" line ever again!
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Various Artists-REMEMBER GINGER NASSAU STREAM CD-r burn (via Bill Shute)
I know Bill will be furious, but I gotta say that this particular platter didn't steam my clams the way it oyster to. In fact I felt scalloped by the whole thing, but that's what I get for having a mussel bound head. (And yes, watching SOUPY SALES can do this to you too!) This 'un contains a whole lotta locally-released singles of a particularly pop and soul nature dating back to about the late-sixties, some of it good (like the Jet Stream sides) yet nothing that would have ever made it big had these somehow gotten into the national market. I believe that the side by the Montanas is of English origin (or at least it sounds it!) but the rest is strictly Amerigan, not that it particularly says anything good about Ameriga in itself. Best parts were the li'l local ads (mostly from the mid-south Tennessee area) for radio station WKYE-FM as well as various local hotspots, not to mention some lass who keeps muffing the Christmas ad for a local business due to its hard-to-pronounce name! (And really, I don't think she even got it right on the take they eventually used!)
***CARTOON OF THE WEEK!; this li'l slice of early Japanese animation where an evil and nude Mickey Mouse (who I take is a symbol of imperialist Amerigan somethingorother) along with his pterodactyl army attacks a small South Seas island (which is supposed to be Japan???) where Felix the Cat amongst a whole slew of thirties-ish cartoony characters just happen to reside! Heroes of Japan's folkloric past show up to help fight against the onslaught and you can just GUESS who wins this 'un! Sheesh, if the Disney Corporation was so adamant about the use of their characters in less than flattering ways over the years (MICKEY RODENT, AIR PIRATES etc...) ya kinda wonder why they didn't go after this particular excursion! Maybe the copyright laws were really lax back then.
***SHEESH, NANCY REAGAN IS DEAD (actually I thought she died a loooong time ago), and I can't think of any good blowjob jokes to mark the occasion! Hokay, howzbout this overworn oldie that I truly believe that I've used a few times before on this blog...Frank Sinatra enters an elevator, sees Nancy, and says..."Going down?" If you have any, feel free to leave 'em in the comment section, or better yet let 'em rot in your own wonderfully diseased mind!
***And now for what you've all been waiting for, and I don't mean for the young lady across the street to forget to pull the shade down...
I've had this triple-disque collection of alla the Intersystems albums released that were released (twixt '67-'68 if you're keeping track) since Christmastime, but it's taken my this long to digest the entire kitten caboodle which really must be sayin' something about either this particular collection or my own musical threshold. Imagine Wilbur from MR ED narrating stories about plastic people (literally plastic, not necessarily phony) to Moog blurps and bleeps and yes, you've got one MASSIVE LATE-SIXTIES ART PROJECT ON YOUR HANDS now, don't ya!
Actually it's not as bad as that may seem given the pretentiousness and dated nature these projects can just ooze (ya know, let's cram in every flowery neo-psychological pseudo-intellectual bitta drool into this 'un!). But Intersystems, with their spoken word and musique concrete (called so according to my dad because the musicians playing this music look as if they were hit with a huge pile of concrete!) can get kinda draggy, especially if you listen to it all in one sitting. Still a better'n usual document of early mixed-media electronic hoo-hah than I would have expected, and if I had only mentioned these guys in my sophomoric high school term paper on electronic music well...I'd hate to see how my cyster woulda mangled their moniker!
***
Europe has been known for its cheapo crankout records as much as it has for the slew of import albums of serious rock quality that have made their way to these shores. And now---thanks to INTERNET---we can hear them just as easily as if we had walked into some Eyetalian supermarket and snatched 'em up in between those Joker International albums that we so desired.
Free Action Inc., despite having a name that would lead one to think they were an avant garde improvisational collective, were but one of the many overseas acts probably of a studio nature...may be wrong on that! This particular album really knows how to lay on the early-seventies cheeziness of a provolone variety what with all of the patented Peter Max hipster stylings and lovebead pukka shell posturing to be found therein. And frankly, this one is even more boring than the collected speeches of Mussolini blared at you in living stereo. If yer grammamamama from dagoland came over for a visit and presented you with a copy of LE STELLE DE MARIO SHIFANO for a gift you'd kiss the living bejabbers outta her for doing so. If the ol' fanabla gave you a copy of this'un why, you'd slap ol' garlic breath like silly and send her straight back to Abruzzi and like, who wouldn't?????
***
Yeah I know...a lotta these collections of late-sixties psychedelic rock really do bite the royal root, but at least this 'un's got some interesting pop moves that are of a decidedly non-Slick/Garcia vein. There is a sameness to the tracks here that might lead one to believe they were done by the same band, but at least these tracks are solid and show nary a trace of the dismal Woodstock influence that sorta made the years 1970-1972 unbearable for a suburban slob kinda comic book reading 1950's loving kid like me. Everyone shoulda been a hit (even Magician's "F..k For Peace") but obviously went nowhere and (as usual) we're all the lesser for it. One thing tho...I always thought the Gants were from Mississippi, not California!
***
These NUGGETS noogies never did get the same sorta post-sixties adulation that the rest of those local lunkheads we all love did, and I guess one look on the cover'll give you the reason WHY!!! I mean just take a gander at these guys with their 1963 haircuts and matching suits...not a shrunken head or swastika in the batch! No wonder teenage Ameriga turned on 'em with a vengeance in favor of all of those new 'n enlightened acts that really spoke to their soul, or sense of self-importance, or something equally akin to the entire late-sixties zeitwhatziz that was goin' on in many a ranch house suburban-wide.
Still the Spats spat out some good hackers on this platter (and that's not even including the bonus tracks Bill slapped on at the end) showing their mid-sixties wholesome sound off rather well. As far as the whole garage band aesthetics of these things go the Spats had the more mid-south style and a bit of a laid-back approach to their whole existence (with a few sidesteps into West Coast surf/bike/rod appreciation) down pretty good. When they toughened up (like they did on the all-time growler "She Done Moved") the Spats could rank up there with the best of the mid-sixties class of tough alienation rockers whose hair just happened to be longer and thus more tuned in to the entire adolescent teenage gal population, white division. A surprise that I get the feeling was passed up more than a few times during the Golden Age of flea market record stacks ca. 1972-1979.
***
Good...actually pretty hotcha slice of late-twenties jug band blues that actually made the major label cut if you can believe it! Nice selection too, featuring the Dixieland Jug Blowers and the Memphis Jug Band playing this particularly twangy brand o' definitely non-local whiteguy trying to look tough music! On one hand this could fit in swell backing some old Grapevine Video silent comedy yet on another it's so outta-kilter primitive that it could make R. Meltzer dribble in his shorts. Utter downhome spasm music done on the sole basis of jugs, kazoos and some of the most outta-tune guitar heard since CS&N at Woodstock. Rather exhilarating post-work resensifier you got there Bill!
***
Finally (after a great length of internet searching---though it was P. D. Fadensonnen who finally made it through) I get to hear the legendary live Hampton Grease Band tape from the Atlanta Pop Festival. Y'know, the show where they actually got signed to Columbia which obviously was a label that was always on the lookout for talent that wouldn't sell squat if only to make their big sellers look even better, or something like that.
Those of you longtime fans who were expecting more of the MUSIC TO EAT sprawled-out neo-Quicksilver jams will be disappointed, for other'n some interesting neo-fusion workouts, a version of "Maria" and a fragment of "Lawton" (or was it "Hendon"?) there's nada but some fun if outta-place goofs on a variety of big time hits ranging from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW theme to "Wolverton Mountain" to "I Go Crazy" and "Treat Her Right", all ending with the perennial show stopper "Rock Around the Clock"!
I myself found the whole thing rather interesting, a peek into the inner workings of a cult band that just wasn't revealed on their legit offering and if you can find the LP version of this you definitely do get extra bonus points for being able to do something I couldn't do even given my own rabid interest in this legendary under-the-cult band!
***
Unfortunately way too many old moom pitchers have disintegrated into nada, but fortunately a few of the soundtrack records that accompanied these films have survived giving us at least a little nibble of what these mooms were like in the first place. And judging from the rah-rah on NEW MOVIETONE FOLLIES OF 1930 the film woulda been one great late-night moom pitcher on your fave UHF station circa 1975 had it only survived the ravages of time. A hotcha mix of high-larious dialogue (mostly courtesy of famed Swedish actor El Brendel, a man who went on to make some mighty funny comedies at Columbia during the forties) and snappy musical numbers, held together by a plot of sorts having to do with some young lovers and a benefit for old soldiers or something like that. Like radio, you really gotta use your imagination to make sense outta it and in fact even a whole lot more, though I find the musical interludes a whole lot more exciting than anything I've heard onna hit parade for years on end. Why Brendel never pursued a singing career after this tour de tonsils I'll never know!
***
Wow, another hotcha hi-fi stereo nut album the kind that many a bespectacled office worker type came home to back 1962 way and spun in their knotty pic rec rooms in order to get their minds off Kruschev. Jazzed up versions of everything from the Chevrolet ad to the themes from Steve Allen and Red Skelton done up nice 'n ranch house style just perfect for those who remember what life used to be like before alla them hippies and their spawn hadda go and tell us that we were evil because...well, we were or something like that. The next best thing to settling down in the back yard in a reclining lawn chair with a glass of ice tea, something I get the feeling NOBODY does anymore!
***
Like the above, here's another one just custom made for your swinging early-sixties hi-fi nut with a knotty pine recreation room and a late-model Studebaker in the garage! Saucy moody instrumental sounds (well, there is something that comes off akin to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara having a chat on the second track!) heavy on the percussion with enough bongos added to the mix that would give the entire Amon Duul commune a collective hard on. Perfect for the pre-AOR/classic/freeform FM listener who's emptied his coffers on the likes of Esquival and Les Baxter. With a platter like this you don't have to use the "come up and see my etchings" line ever again!
***
I know Bill will be furious, but I gotta say that this particular platter didn't steam my clams the way it oyster to. In fact I felt scalloped by the whole thing, but that's what I get for having a mussel bound head. (And yes, watching SOUPY SALES can do this to you too!) This 'un contains a whole lotta locally-released singles of a particularly pop and soul nature dating back to about the late-sixties, some of it good (like the Jet Stream sides) yet nothing that would have ever made it big had these somehow gotten into the national market. I believe that the side by the Montanas is of English origin (or at least it sounds it!) but the rest is strictly Amerigan, not that it particularly says anything good about Ameriga in itself. Best parts were the li'l local ads (mostly from the mid-south Tennessee area) for radio station WKYE-FM as well as various local hotspots, not to mention some lass who keeps muffing the Christmas ad for a local business due to its hard-to-pronounce name! (And really, I don't think she even got it right on the take they eventually used!)