Well I'll be fanabla'd! We've actually had some nice 'n dark autumn days here just perfect for stayin' marooned in my bedroom reading old comic book/strip collections and listening to those cool Cee-Dees that Bill, Bob and Paul have sent my way. In udder words I finally got a chance to lean back and do some battery recharging for a change, and boy do I still feel tired!
Sheesh, if nobody was looking I'd even drag alla my old Corgi and Dinky Toys out and make up a city street scene like I used to do back during those funtime turdler days of yore, kinda lookin' over the pretend buildings and cars as if I were none other than God himself while PETE AND GLADYS reruns blared from the boob tube.
(Speaking of PETE AND GLADYS didja know that this DECEMBER BRIDE spinoff is where I first found out at a young and tender age about hypnotism via an episode where Pete [officer Bill Gannon of DRAGNET to you!] either hypnotizes or is hypnotized? Still can remember seeing him swinging that pocket watch back and forth telling his subject that he was getting sleepy asking my mother what the *%#& was going on! It was aired during the mid-late morning hours when CBS was using this by-now canceled show to pad time before the game shows came on, and if anyone out there who is writing a biography of me can find out when this particular episode was rerun you can pinpoint the very same day I discovered this rather occult if fun-looking practice, so get to work all of you budding nitpickers out there!)
As far as the music being reviewed this week goes well...didn't get to the Bob Forward burns quite yet (actually I played one whose title escapes me that begins with a freaky electronic sound reminiscent of Faust, though by the time the latest MX-80 Sound album came on it was stop and go all the way---guess that will be part of my next Forced Exposure order sometime in December!) nor did I get to the freebees that Feeding Tube and Bruit Direct Disques passed my way, but I did get to the following bunch which only goes to prove that one of my weeks probably equals one of your seconds and though you will probably out-live me at least it'll all seem longer in my case!
Rubber City Rebels-RE-TIRED CD-r burn (originally on White Noise Records)
From what I can tell this release's got the Rubber City Rebel side of the Clone album they shared with the Bizarros along with a then-contemporary live show that actually sounds way snatter'n what the cover notes suggest. Either way these recordings prove that the Rebels were not one of those carbon copy punk rock acts that certain wags made 'em out to be but one that in fact took more'n just a "few" cues from the more metallicized punks of the past---y'know, the ones who for some reason weren't that popular with a good portion of the spiky haired gang once 1977 rolled into town even though they made it possible for those kinds of bands to spout up inna first place. Overall a great slice of rock 'n roll music that sure brings back memories, not of actually appreciating this music first-hand but trolling through the used bins of the Cleveland/Akron area looking for items like these tossed off by preppies moving onto even more hip 'n with it sounds once the sublime seventies were moving into the aching eighties.
Frumious Bandersnatch-A YOUNG MAN'S SONG CD-r burn (originally on Ace Records, England)
I always had the inkling that San Francisco's Frumious Bandersnatch woulda been one of those loco groups who came closer to the likes of the Flamin' Groovies and Moby Grape in their approach to West Coast caterwaulings than they would the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Y'know, with more of the good timey yet driving guitar and harmony vocals that both the Dead and Plane might have excelled in at one point but ditched once the acid became a li'l purer than any of us woulda imagined. Turns out that (once again) I was right because this live at the Matrix gig has the Bandersnatch cooking the way you liked the Grape to...with wild lead guitars intertwining along with vocals that haven't yet reached the Whole Grain "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" stage at this time. Pretty exciting music was to be made that night, although I should admit that the gig gets slightly tiring in spots when the music just doesn't adrift the way I woulda liked it to. Maybe that was just my stressed out nerves collapsing after a usually hard day. Still wouldn't mind hearing their legendary if obscure self-produced platter.
Various Artists-SELECTIONS FROM ARCO RECORDS WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA CD-r burn
If ya ask me these tracks really ain't that much different'n a whole lotta the local action music you woulda found in most parts of the US of Whoa during the fifties. In other words, if you're thinking of heading towards Wilkes-Barre Pee-YAY! to cop something different from the usual musical blooze, save the gas money. Most of these single sides are pepped up pop numbers that might give you a tingle (Joe Noto and his Diplomats with Phyllis Ruby and the Rea Sisters' "The Rock 'n Roll Beat" had a strange appeal that might be only rock 'n roll in name but wha' th' hey!) but for the most part music like this just doesn't work over my psyche unless it has something to do with bringing back memories of hygienic and nice looking ladies who served cheeseburgers in long-gone dives. Don Woody's "Not I" has a slight rockabilly romp to it that might appeal to the more serious lovers of the form, but then again as many people have said these past thirtysome years what do I know???
Billy Childish with the Singing Loins-AT THE BRIDGE CD-r burn (originally on Damaged Goods)
If you thought that folk music was more or less performed by a buncha pampered upper-class self-blessed deities who were so ashamed of their standing in life that they just hadda do some spiritual slumming by donning old clothes and yodeling about the plight of those less fortunate than they are (unless they're not that
less fortunate, that is!) well, maybe you are right! However, these supposedly old English folkie classics (yeah, right!) as done up by the legendary Billy Childish along with the Singing Loins kinda put the folk (as in downhome slobs who hack up a whole lotta coal-laden phlegm) back into folk music ifyaknowaddamean. With their guttural English accents and clangy playing, Childish et. al. actually do sound more like some authentic folk music performers rather'n cultured musicologists and even when they slip some standard rock riffs into their work it still comes off down to earth. Best of all, no "Kumbaya" to be heard let alone "Tom Dooley"...put that in your sweat sock and smoke it!
Frank Foster-FEARLESS CD-r burn (originally on Prestige)
Bill Shute knows that I could use more 'n more freedom avant jamz in my musical vocabulary, but these bop sides are a nice diversion from the usual atonal fun. Foster and band drive through mostly a bunch of originals doing the late-fifties jazz groove thing pretty well-behaved and all, and it did make for a good afternoon off reading old comic strips and the like. Though between you me and the bedpost, for music that really grabs me by the psyche and drives me into a whole load of universes only autistic art appreciation minors could conjure up in their feeble minds its the hard drive of BYG, Arista/Freedom and anything even remotely connected for me and (at least I feel like this some of the time) NOTHING ELSE AT ALL!!! I do appreciate Bill's attempt to edjamacate me the same way Veronica would ply Jughead with anchovy paste and cologne to acquaint him with the finer things in life but sheesh, maybe I am too ruff 'n tumble to be tamed!
The Bintangs-BLUES ON THE CEILING CD-r burn (originally on Decca Holland)
Former "indorock" group from the Netherlands that, unlike genre leaders the Blue Diamonds and Tielman Brothers, didn't go the soft adult contemporary path to midaged musings once the Golden Age began to tarnish. In fact if this platter is any indication the Bintangs became a pretty solid r&b group whose output was...shall I say...rather kinetic in attitude and performance even if overall these guys were nothing that special next to the likes of the Pretty Things or Downliners Sect. Nothing punky about 'em true, though if you tend to go for some of the wilder reimagings of old standards done up for the solid body guitar set complete with long locks and psychedelic attachments you just might go for this 'un!
THE EASY CHAIR CD-r burn (originally on Vanco Records)
Jeff Simmons' "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up" was one of the better tracks on the ZAPPED one buck Bizarre/Straight Records sampler of yore and I personally think it was a smart move for Zappa to have tapped him for the Mothers of Invention Mark II even if he didn't last so long. However I can't say too much uppity about Simmons' pre-Mothers Easy Chair, a group that sounds like they might be on the verge of hitting an interesting rock groove but never really follow through the way you would have hoped. Kinda dirge-y music in fact. Maybe I can see why Zappa would foot the bill for two Simmons platters for Straight...after all wasn't that label supposed to be a tax write off (but eh, if I recall correctly those records were rather good---not that I've played them recently!)???
THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET CD-r burn
Yeah we're all familiar with the tee-vee series, but how many of you remember that before those days Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were also the stars of stage, screen and radio? Here are two 1945 vintage episodes of the radio version of THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET that should satiate any red-blooded fan of the television series, the first having to do with David (not played by the actual David Nelson---the real life kids weren't used until TV) selling one of Ozzie's old suit jackets to make some moolah and the other Ozzie's hypnotic abilities having more powers than any real-life hypnotist could dream of! Both are pretty good chuckle-oriented (in fact I believe the first one was re-done for the boob tube) and I was certainly surprised by the presence of Gloria the cook who never did pop up during the program's televised days. She sure sounds like a funny corker with that voice of hers and I'm sure that had she stuck around she really woulda lent some hefty belly laughs to the proceedings!
Richard H. Kirk-DISPOSABLE HALF TRUTHS CD-r burn (originally on Industrial Records)
Cab Volt foremember Kirk does good on the solo schtick, though there seems to be a humongous dimension (perhaps the rock 'n roll osmosis for wont of a better somethingorother) missing without his bandmates adding their guitars and squeals. Still good enough for a taste of the electronic music via punkist concerns thingie that was a real big smash back inna late-seventies, what with the industrial electronics whirring all over the place while strange tape loop voices try to convince you to do things you never thought you would wanna do in a millyun years. Sometimes I think I'd like to clobber these electronic music abstractions for plagiarizing my dreams, but Salvador Dali said the exact same thing about Robert Cornell quite awhile back and maybe if I do have to plagiarize better Dali'n anyone else on this planet!
Various Artists-SUNDAY PINOCHLE RUFFLES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Sheesh, if nobody was looking I'd even drag alla my old Corgi and Dinky Toys out and make up a city street scene like I used to do back during those funtime turdler days of yore, kinda lookin' over the pretend buildings and cars as if I were none other than God himself while PETE AND GLADYS reruns blared from the boob tube.
(Speaking of PETE AND GLADYS didja know that this DECEMBER BRIDE spinoff is where I first found out at a young and tender age about hypnotism via an episode where Pete [officer Bill Gannon of DRAGNET to you!] either hypnotizes or is hypnotized? Still can remember seeing him swinging that pocket watch back and forth telling his subject that he was getting sleepy asking my mother what the *%#& was going on! It was aired during the mid-late morning hours when CBS was using this by-now canceled show to pad time before the game shows came on, and if anyone out there who is writing a biography of me can find out when this particular episode was rerun you can pinpoint the very same day I discovered this rather occult if fun-looking practice, so get to work all of you budding nitpickers out there!)
As far as the music being reviewed this week goes well...didn't get to the Bob Forward burns quite yet (actually I played one whose title escapes me that begins with a freaky electronic sound reminiscent of Faust, though by the time the latest MX-80 Sound album came on it was stop and go all the way---guess that will be part of my next Forced Exposure order sometime in December!) nor did I get to the freebees that Feeding Tube and Bruit Direct Disques passed my way, but I did get to the following bunch which only goes to prove that one of my weeks probably equals one of your seconds and though you will probably out-live me at least it'll all seem longer in my case!
Rubber City Rebels-RE-TIRED CD-r burn (originally on White Noise Records)From what I can tell this release's got the Rubber City Rebel side of the Clone album they shared with the Bizarros along with a then-contemporary live show that actually sounds way snatter'n what the cover notes suggest. Either way these recordings prove that the Rebels were not one of those carbon copy punk rock acts that certain wags made 'em out to be but one that in fact took more'n just a "few" cues from the more metallicized punks of the past---y'know, the ones who for some reason weren't that popular with a good portion of the spiky haired gang once 1977 rolled into town even though they made it possible for those kinds of bands to spout up inna first place. Overall a great slice of rock 'n roll music that sure brings back memories, not of actually appreciating this music first-hand but trolling through the used bins of the Cleveland/Akron area looking for items like these tossed off by preppies moving onto even more hip 'n with it sounds once the sublime seventies were moving into the aching eighties.
***
I always had the inkling that San Francisco's Frumious Bandersnatch woulda been one of those loco groups who came closer to the likes of the Flamin' Groovies and Moby Grape in their approach to West Coast caterwaulings than they would the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Y'know, with more of the good timey yet driving guitar and harmony vocals that both the Dead and Plane might have excelled in at one point but ditched once the acid became a li'l purer than any of us woulda imagined. Turns out that (once again) I was right because this live at the Matrix gig has the Bandersnatch cooking the way you liked the Grape to...with wild lead guitars intertwining along with vocals that haven't yet reached the Whole Grain "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" stage at this time. Pretty exciting music was to be made that night, although I should admit that the gig gets slightly tiring in spots when the music just doesn't adrift the way I woulda liked it to. Maybe that was just my stressed out nerves collapsing after a usually hard day. Still wouldn't mind hearing their legendary if obscure self-produced platter.
***
If ya ask me these tracks really ain't that much different'n a whole lotta the local action music you woulda found in most parts of the US of Whoa during the fifties. In other words, if you're thinking of heading towards Wilkes-Barre Pee-YAY! to cop something different from the usual musical blooze, save the gas money. Most of these single sides are pepped up pop numbers that might give you a tingle (Joe Noto and his Diplomats with Phyllis Ruby and the Rea Sisters' "The Rock 'n Roll Beat" had a strange appeal that might be only rock 'n roll in name but wha' th' hey!) but for the most part music like this just doesn't work over my psyche unless it has something to do with bringing back memories of hygienic and nice looking ladies who served cheeseburgers in long-gone dives. Don Woody's "Not I" has a slight rockabilly romp to it that might appeal to the more serious lovers of the form, but then again as many people have said these past thirtysome years what do I know???
***
If you thought that folk music was more or less performed by a buncha pampered upper-class self-blessed deities who were so ashamed of their standing in life that they just hadda do some spiritual slumming by donning old clothes and yodeling about the plight of those less fortunate than they are (unless they're not that
less fortunate, that is!) well, maybe you are right! However, these supposedly old English folkie classics (yeah, right!) as done up by the legendary Billy Childish along with the Singing Loins kinda put the folk (as in downhome slobs who hack up a whole lotta coal-laden phlegm) back into folk music ifyaknowaddamean. With their guttural English accents and clangy playing, Childish et. al. actually do sound more like some authentic folk music performers rather'n cultured musicologists and even when they slip some standard rock riffs into their work it still comes off down to earth. Best of all, no "Kumbaya" to be heard let alone "Tom Dooley"...put that in your sweat sock and smoke it!
***
Bill Shute knows that I could use more 'n more freedom avant jamz in my musical vocabulary, but these bop sides are a nice diversion from the usual atonal fun. Foster and band drive through mostly a bunch of originals doing the late-fifties jazz groove thing pretty well-behaved and all, and it did make for a good afternoon off reading old comic strips and the like. Though between you me and the bedpost, for music that really grabs me by the psyche and drives me into a whole load of universes only autistic art appreciation minors could conjure up in their feeble minds its the hard drive of BYG, Arista/Freedom and anything even remotely connected for me and (at least I feel like this some of the time) NOTHING ELSE AT ALL!!! I do appreciate Bill's attempt to edjamacate me the same way Veronica would ply Jughead with anchovy paste and cologne to acquaint him with the finer things in life but sheesh, maybe I am too ruff 'n tumble to be tamed!
***
Former "indorock" group from the Netherlands that, unlike genre leaders the Blue Diamonds and Tielman Brothers, didn't go the soft adult contemporary path to midaged musings once the Golden Age began to tarnish. In fact if this platter is any indication the Bintangs became a pretty solid r&b group whose output was...shall I say...rather kinetic in attitude and performance even if overall these guys were nothing that special next to the likes of the Pretty Things or Downliners Sect. Nothing punky about 'em true, though if you tend to go for some of the wilder reimagings of old standards done up for the solid body guitar set complete with long locks and psychedelic attachments you just might go for this 'un!
***
Jeff Simmons' "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up" was one of the better tracks on the ZAPPED one buck Bizarre/Straight Records sampler of yore and I personally think it was a smart move for Zappa to have tapped him for the Mothers of Invention Mark II even if he didn't last so long. However I can't say too much uppity about Simmons' pre-Mothers Easy Chair, a group that sounds like they might be on the verge of hitting an interesting rock groove but never really follow through the way you would have hoped. Kinda dirge-y music in fact. Maybe I can see why Zappa would foot the bill for two Simmons platters for Straight...after all wasn't that label supposed to be a tax write off (but eh, if I recall correctly those records were rather good---not that I've played them recently!)???
***
Yeah we're all familiar with the tee-vee series, but how many of you remember that before those days Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were also the stars of stage, screen and radio? Here are two 1945 vintage episodes of the radio version of THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET that should satiate any red-blooded fan of the television series, the first having to do with David (not played by the actual David Nelson---the real life kids weren't used until TV) selling one of Ozzie's old suit jackets to make some moolah and the other Ozzie's hypnotic abilities having more powers than any real-life hypnotist could dream of! Both are pretty good chuckle-oriented (in fact I believe the first one was re-done for the boob tube) and I was certainly surprised by the presence of Gloria the cook who never did pop up during the program's televised days. She sure sounds like a funny corker with that voice of hers and I'm sure that had she stuck around she really woulda lent some hefty belly laughs to the proceedings!
***
Cab Volt foremember Kirk does good on the solo schtick, though there seems to be a humongous dimension (perhaps the rock 'n roll osmosis for wont of a better somethingorother) missing without his bandmates adding their guitars and squeals. Still good enough for a taste of the electronic music via punkist concerns thingie that was a real big smash back inna late-seventies, what with the industrial electronics whirring all over the place while strange tape loop voices try to convince you to do things you never thought you would wanna do in a millyun years. Sometimes I think I'd like to clobber these electronic music abstractions for plagiarizing my dreams, but Salvador Dali said the exact same thing about Robert Cornell quite awhile back and maybe if I do have to plagiarize better Dali'n anyone else on this planet!
***
Various Artists-SUNDAY PINOCHLE RUFFLES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
There's a nice third world-y tone to this 'un, even though I doubt that the Los Angeles Azules could be considered third world by any stretch of the imagination. Still their "Rita" has this East El Lay sound to it that sorta reminds me of something that Zappa wouldn't have minded ripping off during the early-to-mid-seventies.
The African music suits me better'n a Brooks Brothers special as well, especially the Nigerian guitar playing of Mohamed Karzo whose "C'est La Vie" has a nice mournful tinge to it that kinda fits in with the dour weather we've been having these past few days. (So does Ketty Lester's "Gloomy Sunday", perfect for these overcast autumns that have you digging into the ol' comic book collection.)
On the other end of the spectrum, the "Unknown" group play a kinda snazzy form of progressive rock that ain't all fluff 'n fairies like Yes were, while Lee Morgan and Duke Ellington present some nice jazz soul that actually fits in well with the rest of these spinners. And with the Como Zoo Carousel Calliope and the All Star Trio battling against Steve Lacy, everything but your mind is bound to come up winnin'.
Nice selection that, whatever it has in it, ought to be bottled and sold like Scope.
The African music suits me better'n a Brooks Brothers special as well, especially the Nigerian guitar playing of Mohamed Karzo whose "C'est La Vie" has a nice mournful tinge to it that kinda fits in with the dour weather we've been having these past few days. (So does Ketty Lester's "Gloomy Sunday", perfect for these overcast autumns that have you digging into the ol' comic book collection.)
On the other end of the spectrum, the "Unknown" group play a kinda snazzy form of progressive rock that ain't all fluff 'n fairies like Yes were, while Lee Morgan and Duke Ellington present some nice jazz soul that actually fits in well with the rest of these spinners. And with the Como Zoo Carousel Calliope and the All Star Trio battling against Steve Lacy, everything but your mind is bound to come up winnin'.
Nice selection that, whatever it has in it, ought to be bottled and sold like Scope.
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