A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S WEE

Nothing but a bunch of Cee-Dee reviews this go 'round. With the week being as busy as it was for me there just wasn't any time to get out and do some down-home autobiographical goo as to what I've been up to as of late, unless you wanna hear about my trek to Oil City not to mention the status of my home-styled finger fungus cure. But the reviews should be hotcha enough to get your heart palpatatin' and mouth drooling like a senile bulldog's so it ain't an entire loss...

Once again, thanks to Bill Shute and Paul McGarry for the burns of various items they thought I should give a listen to even though stingy me would never have thought of buying any of these goodies in a millyun years. It's always grand to give a listen to something that I just don't know what to expect of, and in Bill and Paul's case who knows what wonders are apt to appear when I gaze eyes upon their various parcels! Thank you guys, you've done a whole lot more for me'n any of those "people's record labels" who wouldn't dare send me their wares back in the "repressed" and "shameful" eighties!

And so like, here goes...

Nico, John Cale, Brian Eno-BERLIN NATIONALGALLERIE 5.10.1974 CD (Pickwick Music bootleg, probably of European origin)

Here's a recording I never heard of, a live in Berlin show from Nico and John Cale with Eno tossing a few of his blurps and blips into the mix. And if you're the kind of stroon who still fingers through your mid-seventies Island Records collection this might be the one for you. Despite a few intergalactic rumbles the sound quality is akin to that recording the piano teacher made of sissie's recital, and the performance is standard Nico and Cale harmonium and viola with some piano toss-in and Eno being himself when the moment arises. Audience is particularly rabid on this one with loads of cheers, a few audible boos, and a gosh darn near riot happening during Nico's heart-rendering version of "Das Lied Der Deutschen". Hear the closest thing to Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch the seventies were able to muster up unraveling right before your very ears!

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BIRDLAND CD (Radioactive)

It may surprise you to hear it from my very keyboard, but Birdland were one of the more hotcha Brit Weekly-supported underground groups to make their way outta the poophole otherwise known as the early-nineties music scene, and perhaps the last one for that matter. With a style that came off early-nineties contempo filtered through late-seventies New York club rock filtered through early-seventies proto-spasms which could have been construed as the last gasps of mid-sixties punk epiphany,  Birdland came on like two pairs of Paley Brothers with a rockin' pop sound that you KNOW woulda earned 'em a special spot at Max's Kansas City! And not only on the second floor stage but in the back room where I'm sure each 'n every one of 'em would have been more'n on the alert to watch who was going after his seat. Y'see, sometimes they didn't have enough chairs in the place.

This half-hour release doesn't have quite the same oomph as the full-length album even though one of its better tracks, "Sleep With Me," makes an appearance here not only in its original form but in an acoustic rendition. But that ain't anything to snivel over because the enclosed tunes come off more or less like a modern-day equivalent of non-LP b-sides...y'know, something to listen to after you've heard everything else. A nice supplement to the full-length album which I gotta admit is probably not only the last great cutout of a major label release with sturdy connections to past 60s/70s accomplishment, but perhaps the last great major label release period. At least until the next great 70s/80s find to slip past my claws these past few decades or so, that is.

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James Brown-LOVE POWER PEACE (Live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971) CD-R burn (originally released on Polydor)

Given me being saddled with Depression-era wages my whole life it ain't like I've been able to plunge into the wealth of James Brown releases like many of you reg'lar readers have. So when I do get something by him flung my way you know it's an occasion to toss the cornflakes like confetti and dance the secret ritual of the god of short-lived funzies OOAAOO. I missed out on this when Polydor first issued it a good two decades back, but the energy still roars on as Brown and band thrill a whole concertfulla frogs with his funkified soul stage show which, although not as sixties superb as LIVE AT THE APOLLO VOL. WHATEVER, still manages to get the adrenalin pumping. I personally thought he sloshed through some of the hits a li'l too much for my liking but hey, since I got this 'un free it ain't like I'm gonna write a letter to Polydor complainin'!

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The Jam-AT THE 100 CLUB 1977 CD-R (no label)

The Jam were never whatcha'd call big potatoes with me even though I owned (and continue to own) IN THE CITY and remember loving it like a fifty-year-old ex-con loves his live-in gal's six-year-old daughter. However that's where my love ends...never did buy any more Jam records thinking that, like a stick of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum or breakfast at Aunt Mabel's, one of 'em lasted quite a long while. By the time of the Style Council I was kinda feeling embarrassed that I even thought of following 'em inna first place, but by 1982 I had pretty much shied away from most of the acts that went from "punk rock" to "new wave" to "gnu wave" (copyright 1983 Bill Shute) within the span of a good five years at which time they shoulda knowed better!

This live show captures the Jam at the beginning before their British snoot caught up with 'em, and it's OK even if it is far from enthralling. The guitars buzz with proper NME-approved aplomb of course, and the performance balances between sixties art flash and seventies punk rock rather evenly. But still there's more'n a little monodrone here that just doesn't grab me the same way the Planets or some other Who-inspired (Fast? Raspberries??) seventies act might have, at least during those many times my hard-edged overdrive rock guard was let down enough to enjoy the more "commercial" aspects of seventies pop. Next to them this sounds rather flaccid, soul-less and nothing much to rave about. Next punk rock bubble burst please!

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Various Artists-LIVING HIGH WITH GENE VINCENT IN FRANCE CD-R (compiled by Bill Shute)

Gotta say that the c&w/pop bread sandwiching this meaty slab of Gene Vincent live didn't do very much for me, but the Vincent portion (recorded live in Sens, France 10/13/67) is a good heart-thumper that gets me up and dancin' and looking like a total asshole (best to listen in the privvy of your room). It's almost as good as the time I spun "Hound Dog" repeatedly in my aunt's basement (age 11) and did spastic interpretive dances to it. Sound quality is typical flub-a-dub, but the energy pours through and the performance is surprisingly up-to-date rather'n some oldies pander to the leftover greaser in us all. Gene's also in top form whether he's doing a backwoods crooner or a proto-punkin' "Bird Doggin'" and it's a shame that the guy was wallowin' in the shadows at the same time goofs like Jim Morrison were rippin' off his act and coming off like divine creation 'r somethin'! Dunno what your personal tastes may entail, but I found this 'un as exciting an example of fifties rockers merging into the "new" rock thing with ease as I did some of those late-sixties/early-seventies Link Wray sides that seemed to get lost in the societal shuffle of the time.

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Sprills of Ore-TIME MIRRORS CD (Kendra Steiner Editions, see blogroll on left for more info)

I sure as shootin' don't know what "Sprills of Ore" means, but whatever it is it is the performing/artistically creating moniker of an Eva Kelly, who recorded this slab of avant craziness just this past autumn. Some of this half-hour excursion is electronic white noise blur while some actually has discernible melody that reminds me of an electronic part that was left off "In the Court of the Crimson King." Even more might bring back memories of those reviews of similar KSE wares which I thought sounded like some suburban slobs monkeying around with dad's hi-fi set back in 1967 which really should get you old time troublemakers interested in latching onto this recordings faster'n you can say "gimme a Ford Foundation grant!"

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Barney Wilen-AUTO JAZZ. THE TRAGIC DEATH OF LORENZO BANDINI CD-R burn (originally on MPS, Germany)

Here's an outta nowhere wowzer, a concept album about the racing life and ultimate death by crash of Italian driver Lorenzo Bandini recorded by Franch jazzer Wilen, a man who also happened to be a race car enthusiast. The playing fits in swell with the late-sixties new thing romping into even more distorted vistas, and given that Wilen has noted French players Francois Tusques (don't ever pass up an opportunity to listen to his incredible INTERCOMMUNAL MUSIC) and BYG reg Beb Guerin in his band does help things out gnarlingly. Wilen also used tapes from the same Grand Prix (which I always pronounced as "Grand Pricks" when I was a kid, causing a lotta giggles I for the life of me didn't understand) where Bandini crashed on this album giving us the same kinda feeling that final track on the Bob James ESP album had, and if you went for that rarity from the soon-to-be mainstream schmoozer you probably will go for this 'un as well!