Two biggies in the under-the-underground passed on this week and since maybe you didn't know why not find out from a creep like me. Warhol photog and Lou Reed lover Billy Name being one, he best known for doing the snaps for the cover of the third Velvet Underground LP if anything to most of you reg'lar BLOG TO COMM readers. The other being none other'n Alan Suicide Vega, the vocal half of the infamous punk music mass duo who said about as much about the gritty epicenter of o-mind living in En Why See as the Velvets and all of those no wave groups that seemed so "last word in rock" back then. True a lotta the music that the likes of Vega as well as all of the "save-the-world" bands of the previous five or so years took a deep nosedive once the reality of the eighties set in, but at the time Suicide's better half and his various projects were pretty much the EPITOME of what New York street music was supposed to aspire to. And really, I am still kinda shocked to hear that the man actually shaved an entire decade off his life and was much older'n any of us woulda even thunk, he seeming like the perennial teenage punk to me 'n all!
Alfred 23 Harth-KEPLER 452b Edition CD-r (Kendra Steiner Edition)
Gonna be tough writing about this latest in the loooooong line of KSE releases without mentioning various post-Cagean or AACM ref. pts. which I always seem to rely on when dealing with tough guy music like this.
There are 29 of these tracks (izzit hokay to bring up Lol Coxhill?) that range from cheap-o cassette sound horn workouts to total electronic scrunch 'n crunch, and for familiar followers of the form I guess they all fit in nice 'n snug-like. I mean, what are you expecting from KSE anyway...Jan Garber tributes??? (Howzbout Roscoe Mitchell???) Whatever the case may be, if you're the kinda caga who is immersed into the atonal soundscapading set and loves music for the plain sound atonalism of it, you must be familiar with Harth already, eh? (Maybe Marcel Duchamp does figure in somewhere...)
I AM BILLY CHILDISH 2 Cd-r set (originally on Sub Pop)
Who else but Paul McGarry can sit through fifty straight Billy Childish tracks and not frown? ME that's who, and this collection of various Childish and related platters really had me up and hoppin' like nothin' since the days when I was a kid and I used to get these brain rushes of pure ooze joy that had me doin' cartwheels inna bedroom until I'd bump into something and get bruised up to no end! From the early-sixties trash aesthetics of the Milkshakes to the neo-Kinksian blooze chooze of thee Mighty Caesars 'n Headcoats (not to mention the Del Monas who I suspect were Childish's "feminine" side) this collection covers a good hunk if not THE entire Billy Childish oeuvre and there's nary a snooze to be found within. A good hunk of primitive rock 'n roll that really knocks me for that ol' proverbial loop. I guess the late-eighties weren't as bad as I remember 'em to be, though I'm sure that a retro spin of Harm Farm'll get all of those evil thoughts just rushin' back into my mind!
Bob McFadden-FAST FAST FAST RELIEF FOR TV COMMERCIALS CD-r burn (originally on Audio Fidelity)
Hoo boy. This record's got spoofs of various sixties tee-vee commercials that are so limp that they would have been rejected by even THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW let alone THE GLEN CAMPBELL GOODTIME HOUR. I guess some people might have found these brief vignettes rather funny, and maybe some of them are in a sixties MAD magazine sort of way, but there is none of the gotcha haw haw funniness to these that there might have been to some of the other humor-related spuzz that was coming out around the same time. Sheesh, I can't even imagine the usual college pseudointellectual types who used to act all hip with their PLAYBOY mags and pipes coming off worse than Robbie Douglas on a mid-sixties episode of MY THREE SONS liking this swill! Maybe McFadden's SONGS MY MUMMY TAUGHT US platter on Brunswick was better, but it ain't like I'm that anxious to find out!
Roy Loney-FAST AND LOOSE CD-r burn (originally on Double Dare)
A lotta our seventies fave rockers were making turdsville platters once the eighties rolled around, but at least Roy Loney bucked the trend with this particular spinner. Yeah it ain't no FLAMINGO, but FAST AND LOOSE is still a boffo selection of rockers done in that fifties tradition yet pepped up quite a bit in order to snuggle closely into that whole "new wave" thing that was still eking money outta confused college kids at the time. Kinda slick in spots but still powerful, FAST AND LOOSE takes the rockabilly roots of Loney and extrapolates on 'em with yet another twennysome years of high energy expertise that makes this 'un quite passable. There's a cover of "Teenage Head" along with one or two other old tymey faves, and the originals are hotcha too which makes me wonder what the big deal about Cyril Jordan kicking him outta the Groovies was in the first place! James Taylor wouldn't sing any of these songs!
Roy Loney and the Phantom Movers-ACTION SHOTS CD-r burn (originally on Marilyn)
Wunna why Paul McGarry sent me this 'un because he shoulda knowed that I already had a real life copy of this and in fact reviewed it in some long-gone crudzine of mine ages back. I guess he wanted to remind me of just what a good thumper this live disc featuring the same guy from the above review was. And it is a wild rocker that you just won't hear anymore from just about anybody because well, like it's "old fashioned" 'n all.
But it still holds up more than one of Adrienne Barbeau's old bras, and as far as live platters go ACTION SHOTS is a real killer featuring Roy Loney going through a buncha old Flamin' Groovies and newer solo-era numbers that don't get sogged down like Jean La Foot's old FOOTSIES cereal did in an old Cap'n Crunch commercial. I know that most of you reg'lar BLOG TO COMM readers have been in on the Groovies game for quite some time, but if you missed on this little nugget you really don't have the whole scope in mind.
Probably available for a mere pittance these days, and if you have any good excuses not to get it let me know so I can adapt a few of 'em to try and get out of that experimental pile surgery I have unfortunately scheduled for next week.
Various Artists-ELECTRIC MONSTER ROCK SHOW CD-r burn (originally on Liberty, Germany)
So many of these rock samplers have proliferated the teenbo buying market for a good portion of the late-sixties to mid-seventies that there was nary a flea market in the years afterwards where a batch of these usually budget-priced platters were not available in some stack snuggled between WEST SIDE STORY soundtracks.
This particular United Artists collection is pretty much typical of what these collections had in store, from Amerigan hippie mewls like Canned Heat to English country downhome protopub (Brinsley Schwarz) and even some krautrock tossed in for good underground measure since this was sold in Germany after all. The material in between wasn't bad either, and in fact I thought the numbers from Krokodil and Improved Sound Ltd. had a certain entertaining zing to 'em I wouldn't have expected from such under-the-radar acts. And heck, I finally get to hear a track from that perennial import bin stuffer otherwise known as the Jean-Luc Ponty all-Zappa album which was one of the few early MOI-era Zappa-related platters I didn't pick up during my Motherhood.
Sheesh, it's sure nice to know that German kids were just as music-starved cheapskates who hadda get their music nice 'n cheap just like us Amerigans!
Destruction Unit-LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO CD-r burn (originally on Castle Face)
Hard industrial crunch might not be your cup of pee, but I find the experience exhilarating on more than a few occasions. This reminds me of a number of the noisier rock act that came outta the mid-eighties under-the-underground who spread their sound via the long-mocked (and in some ways deservedly so) "cassette culture" idiom complete with those Hawkwind-inspired psychedelic warrior touches that I'm sure perked up more than a few adolescent hipster wannabes at the time. As usual this is nothing that I'd wanna immerse myself in like I do various neo-seventies soundscapades available these day, but I get the feeling that you just might want to do that with Destruction Unit and frankly, who can blame you?
Various Artists-SELECTIONS FROM AIR RECORDS (Florida) CD-r burn
Most of this is what I would call "swinging country"..."country rock" might be a better term although when I hear that I keep being reminded of seventies shag-jacket musical acts consisting of bearded gents and women who look as if they might need an immediate introduction to the Massengill line of feminine daintiness products. Fortunately these very-late-fifties and early-sixties recordings don't reflect the hippification of country or whatever it was that happened in the seventies, but straightforward rockers with enough country twang to 'em that just might have soothed the souls of old timers who just couldn't cozy up to the use of the term "rock 'n roll" in these songs' lyrics. Personal fave of the bunch just has to be two sides of the Hasil Adkins classic single "Chicken Walk"/"She's Mine" which continues to hold up after fifty-four year a whole lot better than Lady Caga has in five.
Various Artists-PAUPER ANTHONY KYND KIT CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
The appearance of a 1959 Studebaker Lark (a vehicle that seems to represent the zeitgeist of my turdler days more'n any other) prompted me to snatch this spinner out of the pile, and for once I'm glad that my inner gyroscope was spinnin' in the correct direction for once! This 'un's got a slew of strong tracks that keep you movin' in the way Ex Lax intended what with a pretty strong selection of garage band thumpers (including a tippy top notch "Louie Louie" swipe by Mark Markham and the Jesters called "Marlboro Country"!), two teenage-appeal tracks (including a cover of Bobby Freeman's "Do The Swim") from big band legend Ray Anthony (!!) and even a jazzed up Irish jig thing from East of Eden which doesn't come off all PBS on ya. Heck, there are even two songs inna row entitled "Mary Jane" which are about as thinly-veiled drug double entendre as you can get!!! Oddly enough, my personal fave just happens to be these two tracks from a group called DV8 who do the early-eighties indie-released single bit a whole lot better'n other acts of the time sure could! Kinda sound like some of the Cleveland underground bands circa the same time with a tad bit of El Lay thrown in...too bad acts like these fell by the wayside in the rush to get to the latest Red Rockers album.
***Had another duff week which I hope doesn't start to be a trend around here. Between the duffness I managed to get some listening in and concocted up the following writeups of platters that, shall I say, are relatively new to my ears if not listening parameters (but then again, I get the feeling that I'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE...right!). We all know who to thank for these freebees, eh???
Gonna be tough writing about this latest in the loooooong line of KSE releases without mentioning various post-Cagean or AACM ref. pts. which I always seem to rely on when dealing with tough guy music like this.
There are 29 of these tracks (izzit hokay to bring up Lol Coxhill?) that range from cheap-o cassette sound horn workouts to total electronic scrunch 'n crunch, and for familiar followers of the form I guess they all fit in nice 'n snug-like. I mean, what are you expecting from KSE anyway...Jan Garber tributes??? (Howzbout Roscoe Mitchell???) Whatever the case may be, if you're the kinda caga who is immersed into the atonal soundscapading set and loves music for the plain sound atonalism of it, you must be familiar with Harth already, eh? (Maybe Marcel Duchamp does figure in somewhere...)
***
Who else but Paul McGarry can sit through fifty straight Billy Childish tracks and not frown? ME that's who, and this collection of various Childish and related platters really had me up and hoppin' like nothin' since the days when I was a kid and I used to get these brain rushes of pure ooze joy that had me doin' cartwheels inna bedroom until I'd bump into something and get bruised up to no end! From the early-sixties trash aesthetics of the Milkshakes to the neo-Kinksian blooze chooze of thee Mighty Caesars 'n Headcoats (not to mention the Del Monas who I suspect were Childish's "feminine" side) this collection covers a good hunk if not THE entire Billy Childish oeuvre and there's nary a snooze to be found within. A good hunk of primitive rock 'n roll that really knocks me for that ol' proverbial loop. I guess the late-eighties weren't as bad as I remember 'em to be, though I'm sure that a retro spin of Harm Farm'll get all of those evil thoughts just rushin' back into my mind!
***
Hoo boy. This record's got spoofs of various sixties tee-vee commercials that are so limp that they would have been rejected by even THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW let alone THE GLEN CAMPBELL GOODTIME HOUR. I guess some people might have found these brief vignettes rather funny, and maybe some of them are in a sixties MAD magazine sort of way, but there is none of the gotcha haw haw funniness to these that there might have been to some of the other humor-related spuzz that was coming out around the same time. Sheesh, I can't even imagine the usual college pseudointellectual types who used to act all hip with their PLAYBOY mags and pipes coming off worse than Robbie Douglas on a mid-sixties episode of MY THREE SONS liking this swill! Maybe McFadden's SONGS MY MUMMY TAUGHT US platter on Brunswick was better, but it ain't like I'm that anxious to find out!
***
Roy Loney-FAST AND LOOSE CD-r burn (originally on Double Dare)A lotta our seventies fave rockers were making turdsville platters once the eighties rolled around, but at least Roy Loney bucked the trend with this particular spinner. Yeah it ain't no FLAMINGO, but FAST AND LOOSE is still a boffo selection of rockers done in that fifties tradition yet pepped up quite a bit in order to snuggle closely into that whole "new wave" thing that was still eking money outta confused college kids at the time. Kinda slick in spots but still powerful, FAST AND LOOSE takes the rockabilly roots of Loney and extrapolates on 'em with yet another twennysome years of high energy expertise that makes this 'un quite passable. There's a cover of "Teenage Head" along with one or two other old tymey faves, and the originals are hotcha too which makes me wonder what the big deal about Cyril Jordan kicking him outta the Groovies was in the first place! James Taylor wouldn't sing any of these songs!
***
Wunna why Paul McGarry sent me this 'un because he shoulda knowed that I already had a real life copy of this and in fact reviewed it in some long-gone crudzine of mine ages back. I guess he wanted to remind me of just what a good thumper this live disc featuring the same guy from the above review was. And it is a wild rocker that you just won't hear anymore from just about anybody because well, like it's "old fashioned" 'n all.
But it still holds up more than one of Adrienne Barbeau's old bras, and as far as live platters go ACTION SHOTS is a real killer featuring Roy Loney going through a buncha old Flamin' Groovies and newer solo-era numbers that don't get sogged down like Jean La Foot's old FOOTSIES cereal did in an old Cap'n Crunch commercial. I know that most of you reg'lar BLOG TO COMM readers have been in on the Groovies game for quite some time, but if you missed on this little nugget you really don't have the whole scope in mind.
Probably available for a mere pittance these days, and if you have any good excuses not to get it let me know so I can adapt a few of 'em to try and get out of that experimental pile surgery I have unfortunately scheduled for next week.
***
So many of these rock samplers have proliferated the teenbo buying market for a good portion of the late-sixties to mid-seventies that there was nary a flea market in the years afterwards where a batch of these usually budget-priced platters were not available in some stack snuggled between WEST SIDE STORY soundtracks.
This particular United Artists collection is pretty much typical of what these collections had in store, from Amerigan hippie mewls like Canned Heat to English country downhome protopub (Brinsley Schwarz) and even some krautrock tossed in for good underground measure since this was sold in Germany after all. The material in between wasn't bad either, and in fact I thought the numbers from Krokodil and Improved Sound Ltd. had a certain entertaining zing to 'em I wouldn't have expected from such under-the-radar acts. And heck, I finally get to hear a track from that perennial import bin stuffer otherwise known as the Jean-Luc Ponty all-Zappa album which was one of the few early MOI-era Zappa-related platters I didn't pick up during my Motherhood.
Sheesh, it's sure nice to know that German kids were just as music-starved cheapskates who hadda get their music nice 'n cheap just like us Amerigans!
***
Hard industrial crunch might not be your cup of pee, but I find the experience exhilarating on more than a few occasions. This reminds me of a number of the noisier rock act that came outta the mid-eighties under-the-underground who spread their sound via the long-mocked (and in some ways deservedly so) "cassette culture" idiom complete with those Hawkwind-inspired psychedelic warrior touches that I'm sure perked up more than a few adolescent hipster wannabes at the time. As usual this is nothing that I'd wanna immerse myself in like I do various neo-seventies soundscapades available these day, but I get the feeling that you just might want to do that with Destruction Unit and frankly, who can blame you?
***
Most of this is what I would call "swinging country"..."country rock" might be a better term although when I hear that I keep being reminded of seventies shag-jacket musical acts consisting of bearded gents and women who look as if they might need an immediate introduction to the Massengill line of feminine daintiness products. Fortunately these very-late-fifties and early-sixties recordings don't reflect the hippification of country or whatever it was that happened in the seventies, but straightforward rockers with enough country twang to 'em that just might have soothed the souls of old timers who just couldn't cozy up to the use of the term "rock 'n roll" in these songs' lyrics. Personal fave of the bunch just has to be two sides of the Hasil Adkins classic single "Chicken Walk"/"She's Mine" which continues to hold up after fifty-four year a whole lot better than Lady Caga has in five.
***
The appearance of a 1959 Studebaker Lark (a vehicle that seems to represent the zeitgeist of my turdler days more'n any other) prompted me to snatch this spinner out of the pile, and for once I'm glad that my inner gyroscope was spinnin' in the correct direction for once! This 'un's got a slew of strong tracks that keep you movin' in the way Ex Lax intended what with a pretty strong selection of garage band thumpers (including a tippy top notch "Louie Louie" swipe by Mark Markham and the Jesters called "Marlboro Country"!), two teenage-appeal tracks (including a cover of Bobby Freeman's "Do The Swim") from big band legend Ray Anthony (!!) and even a jazzed up Irish jig thing from East of Eden which doesn't come off all PBS on ya. Heck, there are even two songs inna row entitled "Mary Jane" which are about as thinly-veiled drug double entendre as you can get!!! Oddly enough, my personal fave just happens to be these two tracks from a group called DV8 who do the early-eighties indie-released single bit a whole lot better'n other acts of the time sure could! Kinda sound like some of the Cleveland underground bands circa the same time with a tad bit of El Lay thrown in...too bad acts like these fell by the wayside in the rush to get to the latest Red Rockers album.
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