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***Like clockwork or at least tax time, an issue of FAUX WOOD PANELING has once again made its way to our doors. Or at least mine but anyway what else can I say about perhaps the bestest of best fanzines being produced today, at least as far as I know of considering that I'm not exactly raking in the mags these days. Custom made for the Meltzer type of aesthetic, FAUX WOOD PANELING's latest has an interview with Gregg Turner, a quite interesting piece on Dion (with a Meltzer twist!), Pittsburgh's I think they're supposed to be legendary the Puke, Cecil Taylor (!), Lisa "Suckdog" Carver (?), River Trash Records and even reviews of a couple of Japanese anime things that might be hentai but I'm not askin'! There's loadsa stuff in this thick issue that'll satisfy the hidden brat that lingers within all of us, and I don't hafta tell you how to get it now, do I? (Hint hint hint---look at the column on the left under "Faux Wood Paneling" and who knows, the answers to at least some of your prayers just might come true!).
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Brinsley Schwarz-IT'S ALL OVER NOW CD-r burn (originally on Mega Dodo Records)
I guess this is the final and long-unreleased until 2017 Brinsley Schwarz album, one that was thankfully recorded with commercial success in mind thus lacking in some of the more hippified moments of the group's earlier pump-outs. Too bad this remained hidden for so long because any number of tracks here just might have made good mid-seventies summertime AM transistor radio little boys watching neighborhood girls sunbathe in skimp swim suits hit material.
I could envision not only Greg Shaw yelling "it's all coming back" over and over after giving this a spin but the fluttering of hearts of all of those pimple thighed gals who usually bought Bo Donaldson singles. Sheesh, but the title track coulda been one of those hit seventies re-dos like the kind Donny Osmond and David Cassidy usedta rake in the bucks with!
Only a few clunkers here...overall a platter that brightened my day only now I just gotta slip on some Throbbing Gristle to DARKEN it!
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The Queers-GROW UP CD-r burn (originally on Lookout Records)
I usedta believe that the whole neo-Ramonesian influence on punk pre-punque fizzled out with the advent of hardcore, but I've made a few slight misjudgments in this vein some time in my long and unstoried life. Then again, maybe I wasn't thinking given the heaps of local singles coming out well into the mid-eighties that still bore the melodic hard pop of the Ramones if any cursory listen to some of my old Max R/R radio show tapes are any indication. If these guys weren't part and parcel to any of those shows then I guess Tim Yohannon had worse tastes in music than any of his naysays would have ever believed. Whaddava, it's sure grand listening to some punk rock recorded in the eighties that wasn't all rebranded hippie politix. I should have paid more attention, really. I should have had an unlimited amount of money, reallyreallyREALLY...
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Maria Minerva-TALLIAN AT DAWN CD-r burn (originally a cassette on what I assume is on the artiste's own label and of Estonian extraction)
One of the many sent me by Mr. Oberlin and I gotta say that this is one electronic dance whatever effort that I really couldn't wrap around that thing they used to call a psyche. Heard enough (if you put it all end-to-end about a good ten year's hunk outta my life) electronic mix stuff to give me a good idea of what detention woulda been like in Estonia, where this recording emanated from. Some nice swirl here/there but mostly snoozeroonie if you ask me.
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Mike Shank-SONGS I KNOW CD-r burn (originally on the artist's label, meaning none in particular)
Know nada about this guy other than he was in some indie moom pitcher entitled AN AMERICAN FILM which I hope wasn't this nation's answer to A SERBIAN FILM! But whatever the case may be, Shank put out a pretty good album before croaking awhile back. Starts off with some pretty nice acoustic thingies sounding like John Fahey before he got it all down pat, then the vocals come in and you get to hear the guy's gruff groan with a primitive romp to it considering the guy's singing and playing and well, it is hard to do both at the same time. The vocals are somewhat guttural and semi squonked which I guess only adds to the overall gunchiness of it all. The final track which sows a hard rock group romping through some instrumental might not be part of the original program, but only Shank and dubber Wade Oberlin will be able to tell me. And one's dead and the other prob'ly mum's da woid so I'll have to go to my shallow grave never knowing the truth!
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T. Rex-BOLAN BOOGIE CD (Castle Classics Records, England)
Every so often I dig out my Tyrannosaurus/T. Rex platters and reintro-ooze myself to the genius that was this group. Here's one (of many) T. Rex items that I missed out on the first time 'round, this one being a once-familiar import bin stuffer featuring the best of Marc 'n the rest during their Fly Records period. It was released right around the time when T. Rextasy was getting into full swing even though over here in the US of Duh it seemed as if I was the only one in the area who cared, and who'd listen to a pre-pubesprout tub like me inna first place?
It has them tracks whitcha'd expect would've appeared like "Bang a Gong" and "Ride a White Swan" as well as the usual rarities and b-sides they use to pad these things out with. Thankfully there are even a few morsels here that never managed to pass my ears so I'm all the better for it. Each 'n every one of these tunes is a beaut and gathering 'em all in one place really does make for yet another long-playing T. Rex effort that holds up even more'n John Holmes' truss.
Y'know, after all these years I still wonder how these guys ever did make it big...I mean, they're too good to have had 14-year-old girls with pimples on their inner thighs screamin' their lungs out over music as hard-edged as these 55-year-old winners remain long after the fact!
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Mohammed "Jimmy" Mohammed-TAKKABEL CD-r burn (originally on Terp Records, Holland)
Those of you who miss the heyday of blind black singers will definitely go for this guy. Hokay, Mohammed ain't exactly of the Negro persuasion since he's Ethiopian but I guess he's close enough for us dumb Amerigans. The guy plays what sounds like an electric clavinet while his band strum along on an Ethiopian harp and percussive things making for one of those world music hotcha items that got phony intellectuals all excited ever since the days ot the MUSIC OF BULGARIA album. Kinda jive jazzy music that might fit in with your own assuring of your One World Brotherliness 'n all, but I'll take Group Inerane over this guy anyway.
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Various Somethingorothers-NOW MIX 1, 2, and 3 CD-r burns
A Wade Oberlin collection containing a buncha Joe Carducci-approved trackage of kraut origin that ranges from somewhat good to what was THAT??? Oberlin gives the lowdown between tracks just like they do on college radio stations only the guy's voice is sped up to chipmunkese making it about as hard for me to understand as I'm sure it was for David Seville. It's a jumble of things that are somewhat listenable even if I doubt I'll be playing any of this again. Sheesh, Germany used to be known for some nerve-grating and bared-wire music---wha' app'd?
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Amon Duul I and II-VARIOUS THINGIES CD-r burn
Speaking of krauts, maybe they shoulda won the war if only so's that the USA woulda been INUNDATED with this kind of music! Here're a few Amon Duul thingies copped off Youtube including the clip seen above not to mention "Eye Shaking King" and "Surrounded by the Stars" taken from Kraut tee-vee. I'd say that all of these tracks are pretty snat even if the later one from '75 shows plenty (not so good) signs of the group's punk rock loose ends tightening up. Topping it off is a brief yet potent excerpt from the 1968 Essen gig that I embedded on this blog sometime back. It has some (well, at least me) begging for more, at least to the point where I actually played this track on "repeat" for a good sixty minutes straight its that repeato riff good. A Youtube comment on that 'un simply reads "German Velvet" and I'm not gonna argue with the man one bit! Another quipped "the poor man's Velvet Underground" which might come in for a little tete a tete...
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The Rolling Stones-BRIDGES TO BABYLON CD-r burn (originally on Virgin Records)
Yeah I know, why do people still care. But there are some respected souls whose opinions I cherish who say that the Rolling Degenerates still cranked it out years after most braincell-packed people like myself dismissed them so like, why not give this the ol' go anyway. Frankly it's not bad, but it's not good either what with Mick sounding nothing like his old spiritually blackface self and the musical backing being smooth to the point where you can appreciate those early BBC sides in their raw state all the more. I thought the bonus jam echoed the old and bluesy Stones somewhat but eh, these guys shoulda scrambooched to the old folks home long ago!
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Dusty Springfield-"DUSTY" THE SILVER COLLECTION CD-r burn (originally on Philips Records)
She's one of them singers that I grew up thinking was for the older kids (I was but a zygote at the time) so I never paid her no mind. I will admit that the big 'uns of hers (the hits that is) were OK enough to the point where it wasn't worth the time and effort to get up and change the station. I still have that "grown up music" attitude towards her but only a dyed in the wool former rock critic would deny that each and every track here beats any of that slutty gal singer stuff that's been crammed down more'n a few throats for so long I've stopped counting.
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The Clash-THE CLASH ; GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE CD-r burns (originally on Epic Records)
Wouldja believe that I never reviewed a Clash album in lo my born days (Big Audio Dynamite don't count)? Well, to make up for it here are not just one but two of 'em, mainly the group's first coupla longplaying efforts done back when music like this was considered downright evil next to the usual swill that was overcoming the teenbo minds of this here nation (and given how them kids turned out it's no wonder that the various Generations X, Y and Z think the Boomers are nothing but a buncha self-centered myopic turds! And y'know what...I feel that way too).
THE CLASH just don't cut it with me. Well, the singles work because I get them brief spurt of Clashdom which quickly sate but when it's gathered all in one place I'm bogged down by it all. Anyway when you compare this spinner next to a good portion of the music falling under the "vague rubric of new wave" (copyright 1986 Robert Christgau) around the same time this just doesn't rate next to the likes of the things that various other acts on either a big label, a self-produced single or even nothing at all to document 'em were able to crank out.
GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE fares much better, perhaps because Sandy Pearlman's presence makes me think Dictators 'r something. Harder and fuller than the first, although knowing that Greil Marcus went whole hog for this does damper any enthusiasm I might have quite a bit. Anyway, when you boil everything down to the bones does this music really mean that much when (once again) compared with a good hunk of the competition? I'll take the 101ers over this any day of the week.
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Y'know, sometimes I get these sad and downright curl up 'n die feelings knowing that my fanzine, something which at one point of my life was my pride, joy and sole reason for existing, has never gotten its well-deserved dues. Nor has it been praised (either at the time or in retrospect) for the fine work it was with all of the diligence and scrutiny (despite the primitive equipment at hand to rely on, the lack of funds making me resort to some extreme penny-pinching and scrap selling, and lack of facts having to rely on the fuzzy memories of the subjects at hand and even downright lying and rumors). Then there were the general hassles regarding distribution and "the conspiracy of silence" while lesser efforts unfortunately got the bigtime huzzahs. Then I take some medication and, thankfully enough, the feeling goes away. You might want to see what all of the fuss really was about way back when things like home-produced (on the kitchen table!) efforts were like in those pre-technowhiz days, and if you are the kind of person who really does want to find out you know what to do now, eh? Outside the USA, ferget it since if you're reading this you certainly cannot be rich.