BLOG TO COMM

CARPE CUNNUM!

This week's blog title was created in honor of the current presidential election process. Y'know, this portion of "current events" really does give a new meaning to the phrase "up for grabs" if ya ask me (gotta get my much beloved badgags in early!).

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Of course the real deal news of the week just has to be the plain unadulterated FACT that none other than Bobby Dylan himself has---now get this!---won the NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE, or so it was announced this very past Thursday morn! Sheesh, who amongst us (at least those of us who were alive) woulda ever thunk back '63 way that this smelly whiny folk beatnik type of guy would have been awarded one of those prizes that ya always thought would usually be given to old kinda guys wearing Malcolm X glasses and grey suits. Really, ya just gotta wonder if this guy won this award for his lyrics (I guess that the prize committee never did hear PLANET WAVES) or because he more or less is the last man standing and since he ain't English he can't be knighted like Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger were.

But the real question is---how can this richer'n you'll ever be multimillyunaire get to be a recipient of a prestigious prize and alla the moolah and acclaim attached to is while THIS particular blogger who has blessed the world with reams of fun time and informative rock scribing has to wallow about inna toilet of unappreciated moiling along with the rest of the rock scum that you just can't wipe away like the remnants of a particularly sticky bowel movement. Sure I'm a nobody and Dylan is a rich and famous troubadour for the times, but when you get down to the nitty gritty of it all---I can really use that filthy lucre and he can't!

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In other news, I'm trying to (despite fervid opposition from REAL LIFE) live the perfect suburban slob lifestyle which has been a lot harder to do here in 2016 than it had been even a good fifteen or twenny (let alone fiftysome) years back. Right now I'm going through more and more of those old comic strip reprints via old paperbacks or recent softcover editions, some of which as I've previously stated will undoubtedly be mentioned on this blog as the months roll on. I'm even copping some tee-vee when time permits from my other "activities", usually an old moom pitcher or JACK BENNY whenever I get over the blooze regarding me even being ALIVE in this rather dullsville period in time. But soldier on I must, because who knows, 2017 just might turn out to be just as full and frolicsville as the 1958-1966 tee-vee/comics/moom pitchers/music/food seasons were for a ton of teenbo fanablas and if so, I wanna be first in line to see the remake of TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE which I know will be a real side-splitter!

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Hadda rely solely on handouts this week, so please whatever you do...THANK Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and Bob Forward for their generous givings. Might plop in an order to Forced Exposure one of these days (for the new Mars and MX-80 Sound on Feeding Tube Records along with a few other potential faves) but with moolah being such a scarcity these days well...I guess I'll have to wait until these items hit the cutout racks just like I hadda do when I was a depression-era wages pimplefarm way back when. So until cutout bins do make a comeback dig it, as Jimi Hendrix said to Vin Scelsa in the men's room of the Fillmore East.

THE BANDITOS CD-r burn (originally on Bloodshot Records)

I mean yeah, it's sure good knowin' that the same sorta hotcha hootch rock that started off way back inna fifties and continued on via the Flamin' Groovies and NRBQ is still up and runnin', but as usual don't this stew sound a li'l too thick inna cauldron??? I can see it appealing to fans of the original rockabilly and seventies smart re-do (Graham Parsons comes to mind as well) but the slick production does tend to draw away from what I assume are the Banditos' intended get-down intentions. If you get your mind offa the modern studio sound this will go down a whole lot better...sheesh if only this were recorded at the Wray Shack!

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Sun Ra-THE SHADOWS TOOK SHAPE---THE LOST REEL COLLECTION VOL. 3 2 CD-r set (originally on Transparency)

I woulda thunk that even more and more Sun Ra recordings woulda made their way out this late inna musical game, and as usual I AM RIGHT! Kinda vague information behind these two spinners but they sure have that early-seventies vibe to 'em and are good enough as standard Ra starting points re. what the guy was up to back when even the cubes at DOWN BEAT hadda sit up and take notice. Nothing outta the ordinary here but if you prefer the wilder aspects of his BYG spins this double set might just be the thing to make you wanna set your sights on El Saturn. Judy Jetson would be proud.

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Bernie Schwartz-THE WHEEL CD-r burn (originally on CoBurt/MGM)

Yeah I know this ain't Tony Curtis under his nom-de-birth doin' the singer/songwriter thing. I'm not that much of a stoopid doopid despite what most people say. But whoever this particular Bernie Schwartz may be I gotta admit that he does a good job doing the 60s/70s cusp pop unto rock rigmarole that too many lesser minds have failed at. Unfortunately very little of THE WHEEL really grabs me. Sure the Indian music theme go on the way we all wish that Ravi Chancre himself woulda liked but otherwise this just lacks a whole load of zip that made some of those outta-nowhere late-seventies flea market finds so enticing. Well if I hadda choose between this 'un and a good portion of the 1970 introspects that THE WHEEL hadda compete with, I'd choose gas.

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Bobby Darin-RARE PERFORMANCES CD-r burn (originally on Stash Records)


I could be like some of those "hip" rock critic types who are sooooooooooooooo open to a whole slewwa non-rockist forms to the point where they would badger you about the all-important meaning of every boo-boo-boo-boo Bing Crosby uttered or moan about all of the racism that Bessie Smith hadda endure.

Heck, it's their privilege they being such exalted beings and all, but frankly I would be more concerned with every "do it do it do it" that Lou Reed might have blurted or the racism Stymie was up against. In the long run it's more interesting.

So I am afraid that I will have to give the big thumbs down to Bobby Darin and these live recordings which really don't have much to say other'n remind me of what "grown up music" meant when I was a mere turdler. It was like the old folk went for Darin and Sinatra and the like, the college kids were into folk music and soul (if you can believe that...I always thought soul sounded "mature"!) and the grade/high school kids top forty rock et roll. My set was more attuned to "Mairzy Doats" and the theme to THE DEPUTY DAWG SHOW which I think says all there is to say about just how advanced us kiddoes were in our own suburban slob way. I mean, could you see the oldsters at one of their parties swizzling sticks and drinking martoonies while the theme from SUPERCAR blared onna hi fi? Me neither!

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ELECTRIC JUNKYARD CD-r burn (originally on RCA Records)

Hoo boy, what a turdburger of a selection from the land of Bill Shute burns! This sounds like something Paul Lynde woulda played for some aspiring actor who came over to his place to do some auditioning...really hip 'n withit instrumental horn rock that sounds like it was lifted from one of those early "now" films that look dated once 1971 got into gear. Even contains the music that accompanied the dancing trash can scene in SKIDOO which I guess is way better'n the fact that two numbers from HAIR were included. All I gotta say after hearing these way out 'n mod tracks is that I hope Paul was able to slip some Spanish Fly into the up and comer's drinkie while he wasn't looking. I mean, the evening wouldn't have been a TOTAL waste.

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Arthur Gregory Band-ROCK OPERATION CD-r burn

Mid-seventies Texas bar band rock that ain't that bad really. Just nothing that gets my inner juices flowing like I kinda hoped this self-released under-the-radar item would. Contains a fairly butch version of "Gloria" as well as some neo-hard metal pop things that might have gotten a few guys at BACK DOOR MAN charged up had they chanced upon this one way back when. Mostly mid-level excitement but if hard choogle is your game...

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Various Artists-SUNDOG COPENHAGEN SILVERTONE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Here be a Bill burn that really resonated with my entire reason for being. Whether it be due to the various Amerigan power pop efforts extant (including the Andy Gerome Band single "a-side" which even got airplay on the AOR 'MMS knockoff station in Youngstown for some strange reason only Thomas John knows!) to the hot soul cookers from J. J. Barnes as well as Towanda of the same last name (any relation?) and the infamous ska performer Roland Alphonso, this sorta stew made for one of those great Saturday PM listening sessions that always goes swell when I'm in my bedroom watching everybody else work outside. Wouldn't mind knowing more about such acts as Sundog Summit who do a convincing mid-Amerigan take of "Gudbuy T Jane" or even reggae performer Pluto Shervington, and although I'm too lazy to google their names I get the feeling that they both have interesting histories behind 'em 'n all.

The only thing here that didn't quite get me by the kishkas was this un-titled hippydip thing where some stoned guy is talking about the time he tried to make his plate of spinach look like a map of Antarctica! Not as funny as that bonus cut on PEBBLES VOLUME 16 where some kids are tripping out in one of those make your own record booths, and while we're talkin' 'bout hippies didja know that when I saw that "Herby Hippy" doll pictured on the sleeve for the first time whilst in the toy department of Strouss' store downtown Youngstown I actually got physically ill because I really loathed hippies and loveydovey stuff and the thought of a doll like this really triggered the mid-Amerigan rage in me! Who woulda thought that this "Winking Herbie Hippy" woulda led to an entire generation of narcissistic pampered pseudo-intellectuals continuing to pat themselves on the back because they "ended the war" and made the world safe for whatever it is they made the world safe for! From the vantage point of almost fifty years all I gotta say is that they shoulda made a George Wallace doll, and no jokes about wheelchair accessories from you heathens out there!