Even these many years after the (bloodied and bruised) fact, the arrival of the month of August does send certain pangs of impending doom into my mentally stunted sense of what passes for reality around here. Of course it all has to do with the oncoming school years and the dire preparation for those days of drudgery, and that includes those horrid "back to school" ads that permeate the tee-vee and papers that still send shivers of terror down my spine. And hey, who out there in readerland doesn't remember yer mom snickering at you that in a good month's time you were gonna be goin' back to the old grind (and that she was gonna be free for the next nine afterwards) haw haw and don't forget that you can't get away with farts in school like you can here! Talk about that sickening pre-back to school ennui all of us suburban slobs endured for years on end!
And considering that this up 'n coming school years marks the fiftieth of when I finally entered the not-so-hallowed halls of first grade well...maybe this is the semi-centennial of a time in my life I would do as well to cut outta my mind! True I'd also be cutting out some of those fun memories of watching tee-vee in my stocking feet (and sometimes nothing else!) that I'd prefer to mull over even on my death bed (or in my case my death easy chair), but maybe it would be worth it even if other'n watching tee-vee and playing with my tootsietoys (amongst other things) them memories deserve to be banished forever! 'n hey, so what if I forget all about how much fun I usedta have watching those old YOU ASKED FOR IT reruns every weekday afternoon and finding about that lady who hadda actually shave her face??? Considering what feminism's become these past fortysome years you know that such gender equality of a magnitude such as this is gonna be the next logical step.
***Yeah this week's post is kinda...how shall we say...abbreviated...but as usual I have enough good excuses as to why that would make Eddie Haskell proud. But I'll skip boring you with each and every one of 'em because I know that you're all interested in reading about the ginchy goodies I've been listening to these past seven. Once again thanks to Bill Shute for his contributions to the cause. which as you know is plenty.. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading these turdbits every bit as much as I had writing 'em, which come to think of it wasn't that much at all...
Blac Dog-BACKWOODS BOOGIE CD-r burn (originally on Crazy Horse)Here's some swampy down-home Southern rock 'n roll for those of you who still mourn the passing of Duane Allman and those guys in Lynryd Skynyrd. I don't particularly mourn any of their passings the way I do Spooky the Ghost's, but then again I never really went for many of these Dixie-type groups unless they had something to offer my own suburban slob leanings. That's why such decidedly Deep South Fried acts like the Elevators, Red Krayola, Debris, Hampton Grease Band, Black Oak Arkansas and others tend to tingle my nodes while the more shall-we-say dippified acts of the area merely elicit a huge yawn.
Nothing bad about this one other'n maybe that one neo-disco cash in track that's so bland that I forgot all about it five minutes after listening to the thing. Has a good primal sound and approach to it that shows an early-seventies Stones influence, and for a buncha outta nowhere guys they do a pretty good jobba stretching those Southern Rock lines into something that doesn't come off rote copy. But still this ain't anything worthy of the self-released brouhaha of the late-seventies, especially when stacked next to those Pere Ubu singles and Chrome albums that were really renovating the minds of more'n a few ranch house rocksters anxious for more'n just a handfulla scraps of reference via ROLLING STONE and the post-Bangs geldarama we knew by the name of CREEM.
Still better'n a lotta the muck that stood for "rock" of an AM or FM variety way back when. Sure to be sold out in all of the flea market bins of the south coast, so better luck next time.
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The latest from KSE takes a u-turn from the usual Musique Concrete leanings of the label and goes into territory that lends itself to a more acoustic vision. Cameron not only bangs away on percussion instruments but handles a lap guitar and some electronics. Diaz-Infante plays a 12-string guitar, and the music these two come up with sounds closer to the likes of Limbus than Cluster to my wax-clogged ears. Like Greg Prevost said about the former act, it sounds like they're playing the spokes of bicycles at one point! I do enjoy the adventuresome nature of this (and not only because it refers to past fun listening nodepoints in my brain), and I gotta admit that I sure get the strong feeling that had this one come out on vinyl back 1972 way it would be about as ignored as it's bound to be forty-three years later! In other words. A TOTAL WINNER!!!!
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Ethereal-TEN ELECTRONIC MUSIC STUDIES CD-r burn; Alien Planetscapes-OFFICIAL BOOTLEG #7 CD-r burn (Galactus, available via Richard Orlando)Ethereal is just another name for electronic musician Richard Orlando who's unleashed this interesting slab of soundscapading upon us unwary listeners. A variety of devices have been used, and the resultant sounds do recall a whole slew of mid/late-seventies endeavors by similar-minded vagabonds that used to get aired on college stations in the middle of the night. A/multi-tonal effects that do bring back a certain nostalgia for the days when music like this was going to overcome everyone like nose blackheads only Madonna hadda arrive into the music industry sinnerama and spoil everything.
The Alien Planetscapes CD features a fairly representative (or so I would get the impression) idea of just what Doug Walker and his various groupings could come up with. Some of this does have a steady rock beat giving this a sound akin to a variety of seventies synthesizer aggregates from Amon Duul II to Kongress (and naturally some mid-seventies Can interstellar explorations tend to fit into the mode), while others come off total induced nightmare sounding like something even 1969-period Pink Floyd would have been afraid to unleash on their audience. In all, this (and Ethereal) are totally adventurous outings into the realm of non-commercial synthetic sound that sure make me long for the days of the old Alien Planetscapes website...after all I could download a whole load of stuff like this there and for FREE too!
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For a cheapo instrumental exploito quickie cash-in custom made for the supermarket bin of your choice this Bunyan Progressive thing ain't half bad. True some of this is typical cheapo music that will get both your hippoid cousin and uptight daddy all apopleptic, but this one really screams (such as on the cover of "Sabre Dance) and come off like Dave Allan on steroids. Who knows, but one listen to this and you'll imagine that you're hanging out at Pandora's Box with Sky Saxon and Kim Fowley, trying to keep 'em from tearin' each other apart! Their cover of "Summertime Blues" straddles Cochran and Blue Cheer as far as doof-addled suburban slob mentalities goes...now that's an accomplishment!
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I never did get around to hearing Sanders' debut as leader for ESP so this one was whatcha'd call a debut not only for him, but for me (sorta). Like the wise man says, it ain't anything as gripping as those platters Sanders was cranking out throughout the late-sixties but it sure beats the caga outta those horrid disco lounge platters I was stoopid enough to buy about ten or so years back. Just look at it as an evolutionary step and you'll probably like it a whole lot more than I would have expected.
The other disques feature some mighty rare early Sanders studio seshes, one with Don Cherry, another with Paul Bley, and two whole live gigs when Sanders took over for John Gilmore in the Sun Ra Arkestra that'll singe the brows to the point where you'll end up looking like Ziggy Stardust. The Cherry and Bley recordings show the early roots of the Sanders style back when he was still getting his grip yet had his allegiances lined up the right way, while the Ra live shows are tip top spinners for fans of both Ra and Sanders who actually worked swell in the company of the Arkestra even this early in his career.
Gotta admit one thing though...ain't disque #3 the exact same one that came out on its lonesome not so long ago??? I think sombody shoulda warned me so I wouldn't've hadda dish out the extra lucre for this dupe in my collection. I mean, it ain't like I got alla the money I want in the world to throw around!
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Bill sure is getting better with these Cee-Dees (are these things the disque equivalent of those "mix tapes" I've heard so much about?). Stubby Kaye opens the proceedings with a not-that-funny song about his wife being a Lili St. Cyr type, though I gotta admit that even this comparatively cornballus kinda guffaw-inducer sure beats all of those SJW-types passing as comedians these days. The mysterioso Black Velvet sound like one of those 60s/70s cusp AM pop groups and thus excite me about as much as nude photos of Andrea Dworkin, though their ode to the sicko clown is about as good as all of those other clown pervo songs and cartoons we've seen throughout the years so why should I complain.
Also in store: Ignatz (the new musical sensation of the underground, not the mouse) doing something strangely mid-eastern to the point where I wanna falafel to a side of an album featuring some ventriloquist dummy doing this really hokey Superman spoof (which is why I LIKE it!) and a whole slewfulla r 'n' b, 60s discotheque and pop country things that just didn't quite make it on the charts but just might in your sound-ravaged mind.
Once again its the li'l thingies in between the tracks that make me sit up and take notice, like the snippet from DRAGNET where Friday and Gannon visit that LSD guru who calls himself Brother William or better yet those nifty radio jingles you just haven't heard since the days of Watergate 'n the braless look. For someone like myself who was marooned in many an automobile waiting for someone-or-other to finish either their shopping or their tuba lessons those radio jingles really do make me yearn...for a new Matchbox car or ice cream sandwich if anything. Best one of all just happens to be this ad that Frank Zappa did endorsing Hagstrom guitars featuring a really interesting bit of music using 35 of 'em! Sure wish this one got around on the bootleg circuit back when I was buyin' 'em like that Remington Electric Razor thing did because well, this sure beats "Dinah Moe Humm" all hollow!
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