As you can see from the extensive length of this post, I have been busy spinnin' (but not necessarily grinnin') o'er a variety of records 'n such I played this past week. I guess with the holiday weekend 'n all I had a li'l more 'n usual suburban slob goof off time on my hands, and rather'n lock myself in the bathroom with wartime atrocity photos I figured eh, why not write about alla those platters that Bill, Paul and Feeding Tube have sent yer way. Be GRACIOUS for once in your life, ya little stroonad you! And so's I plowed through a fairly nice batch if I do say so myself even if one or two don't exactly come up to BLOG TO COMM heights of total eruption bliss!
...and now that we got the REALLY GOOD STUFF outta the way...
THE AMAZING CHARLATANS CD (Big Beat Records, England)
Sheesh I thought I gave this group a tremendous rah-rah on this blog quite awhile ago, but my searching has turned up nil. Funny, because given just how important the Charlatans were as far as meaningful rock n' roll history of a San Francisco nature goes (and I ain't talkin' the history of the music as seen through the sickening eyes of the major magazines and other assorted "classic rock" media) they should have rated something in these "pages" ages back!. But fear not, since these guys obv. do not need my imprimatur to let anyone know just how good they were especially in the face of their San Francisco "offspring" a good four or so years after the fact. Countrified hard rock that's so together even the campy stuff seems to hold up better than I would have expected.
Bryan Gillig-LIMITED GRACE LP (Feeding Tube Records, available via Forced Exposure)
Well, I gotta say that I was certainly disgusted after giving elpee opening "Nashville Flash" a listen, but the rest of this ain't really gonna make you dislodge that clot from your lung in abject disgust. Yeah, Gillig is about as "singer/songwriter" as they used to come down Laurel Canyon way, but some of these tracks have what I would call a boffo mid-sixties folk-unto-rock drive that...hey...might have even gotten Gillig some hefty under-the-counterculture points from yours and my favorite rock "critics" had this made its way out a good fiftysome-years earlier. No, this ain't narcoleptic James Taylor feel sorry for me music, but astute ramblings from a man who very well could be to today what Biff Rose was to the early-seventies. Or somethin' like that!
The Challengers-CALIFORNIA KICKS CD-r burn (originally on GNP Crescendo Records)
By the time this '66 effort was makin' its rounds the surf scene was slowly but surely evolving into the Sunshine Pop era. But that didn't stop Richard Delvy and company from last gasping the Big Wave the best way they could with this effort. Affable (and maybe even eff-able!) covers of the latest hits 'n themes get the surf treatment, and they don't sound bad in the translation. It's for those of you who like the cheezier side of sixties rock entertainment, and for those who don't maybe you can scour a flea market for a scratched copy of Carole King's TAPESTRY or something equally suitable to your obviously advanced tastes!
Why didn't any of your fanablas out there tell me that the NANCY strip is indeed being continued??? Not that this new version by Olivia Jaimes is anything to do any crowin' about, but the knowledge that it hasn't gone the way of too many old faves is kinda/sorta nice despite the new heights in vapidity. As for me there's always the original to keep me well and happy.***
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| See, it's funny---get it??? A real laff riot! Wow, with humor like this we'll forget Bushmiller in no time flat!!! |
I've enclosed the meme below if only because some of you do need to be offended---and given most of the readers I got you most certainly WILL be!:***
And while I'm in an offensive mood---THE FEELGOOD VIDEO OF THE WEEK, at least for all you cat haters out there. Dunno about you, but things like this really bring out the adolescent in me a whole lot more'n a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC hula girl issue ever could...***
...and now that we got the REALLY GOOD STUFF outta the way...
THE AMAZING CHARLATANS CD (Big Beat Records, England)Sheesh I thought I gave this group a tremendous rah-rah on this blog quite awhile ago, but my searching has turned up nil. Funny, because given just how important the Charlatans were as far as meaningful rock n' roll history of a San Francisco nature goes (and I ain't talkin' the history of the music as seen through the sickening eyes of the major magazines and other assorted "classic rock" media) they should have rated something in these "pages" ages back!. But fear not, since these guys obv. do not need my imprimatur to let anyone know just how good they were especially in the face of their San Francisco "offspring" a good four or so years after the fact. Countrified hard rock that's so together even the campy stuff seems to hold up better than I would have expected.
***
Well, I gotta say that I was certainly disgusted after giving elpee opening "Nashville Flash" a listen, but the rest of this ain't really gonna make you dislodge that clot from your lung in abject disgust. Yeah, Gillig is about as "singer/songwriter" as they used to come down Laurel Canyon way, but some of these tracks have what I would call a boffo mid-sixties folk-unto-rock drive that...hey...might have even gotten Gillig some hefty under-the-counterculture points from yours and my favorite rock "critics" had this made its way out a good fiftysome-years earlier. No, this ain't narcoleptic James Taylor feel sorry for me music, but astute ramblings from a man who very well could be to today what Biff Rose was to the early-seventies. Or somethin' like that!
***
By the time this '66 effort was makin' its rounds the surf scene was slowly but surely evolving into the Sunshine Pop era. But that didn't stop Richard Delvy and company from last gasping the Big Wave the best way they could with this effort. Affable (and maybe even eff-able!) covers of the latest hits 'n themes get the surf treatment, and they don't sound bad in the translation. It's for those of you who like the cheezier side of sixties rock entertainment, and for those who don't maybe you can scour a flea market for a scratched copy of Carole King's TAPESTRY or something equally suitable to your obviously advanced tastes!
***
These white blues bands have always been a chance-y affair---I might have said that before---and way too many of 'em just seemed to wallow in a certain miasma that really didn't transcend anything if the original intent of it all. Can't say that much about these boogie busters other'n they do hit a few jam heights here and there and they really aren't as hippydippy offensive as some of these acts could get. Still, you do have to sit through the less-enthusiastic moments of this performance before those bright spots do hit, so I don't blame you for taking a tinkle break during the drum solo. And it is better to give Canned Heat a listen to via these discs rather'n be in their close proximity where you could smell 'em!
***
A whole lotta our six-oh heroes never did make it into the seventies intact. I mean, how many times have YOU dumped a good ten bux on an album by some ex-NOOGIES favorite only to find out the thing was either an introspective singer/songwriter schmoozer or a Doobie Brothers get-it-all-together-and-throw-it-in-the-trash affair?
This effort with ex-Standell Dick Dodd fares slightly better'n quite a few of the former punks make BAD records I've had the displeasure of hearing these past few decades, but maybe that ain't really saying much.
You ain't gonna like it (neither do I) but at least it ain't reek-o/narc-o "I'm so sensitive I cry when I see a broken flower" emote or hashish hoopla you can certainly do without. In fact, its nothing but a buncha rock music standards done up with an under-the-covers studio band and produced by Ed Cobb who wasn't exactly riding the charts at the time either.
Overall it ain't terrible 'r anything, but you'd be better off spending your last few kopecks on a used copy of KILL CITY if you really want to inject a really good mid-seventies El Lay drugout ambiance into your otherwise drab existence.
***
The ultimate prom band! If somebody had asked me to the prom maybe I would have had the chance to hear an act like this go through their versions of today's hits, though somehow I get the feeling I'd probably be spending most of my time puking in the bushes to really get into their thingie.
To be truthful about it, the Sound of the Reign were a better than expected local teenage cover band doin' up the likes of Hendrix, Supremes via. Vanilla Fudge and a slow unto fast "Hey Joe" that woulda gotten those bratskis up and dancin' like anything! Not bad, but nothing that you'd care to grace your record collection.
Kinda makes me wonder tho...do they still have proms, and if they do well, I am available...
***
I always (even as an up and coming rock analyser) considered the Walker Brothers to be a "grown up" kinda act....y'know, something just ginchy-gooshy RIGHT for the gals once they graduated and got real life jobs and went hunting for doctors to marry. Maybe I wasn't as "spot on" as they say, but I gotta admit that the string slush of these tracks really does affect me in a positive way. Hot pop goo that woulda had your mid-sixties date doin' the topless cha-cha-cha as you tried to handle the situation in the best way possible. It has the hits plus a whole lotta covers that should remind you of the sloppier side of top forty before it really became formulated.
***
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The Sonics might have been able to beat these guys to a pulp at a battle of the bands, but so what! Even if they ain't the screamin' kind of sixties rock 'n rollers we all like the Raymarks were a pretty hefty Northwest-area batch who had that hard-edged pounce to their music which set the groups in the Washington/Oregon/Idaho area apart from the rest of the US of Whoa. Enough pseudo-"Louie Louie" riffage here to drive more'n a few nonagenarian relatives to an additional two weeks at the Abundant Life Retirement Apartments, and if that platter closer just ain't too close to the Sonics' own "Stop" for comfort...
***
A little bit of Billy Childish can go a long way, and frankly I had my fill back around 1990 or so. Nothing here gives me those extraterrestrial wild-eyed throb thrills that should be part and parcel to the kind of music I like...y'know, the sounds that give you that deep gut adrenaline rush that makes you wanna go out and murder people you just can't stand. Still, ya can't deny that this and the works of Mr. Childish stand as a testimonial to the wide and swaying effects of anti-"Classic FM Rock" doldrums, but it needs something to make it through that Jonathan Richman "made it" line but fast!
***
If I was some hotshot kinda loudmouth troublemaker kinda guy I'd say that this one proves that Bill Shute has turned into a power pop turd! But I'm not that kinda guy, Bill is not a turd and I really enjoyed the selection of early-eighties and before/after pop rockers that appear on this effort.
Menlo Park return with more typical of the upstart pop rock movement goodies as do Cleveland's Lucky Pierre (not as hard as they could get but punch-packed nonetheless), the Bit (whoever they are!) and even some older sixties things from the likes out the Outside-In and the not who you think they are Back Street Boys. Goes to show you there was more to new unto "gnu" wave innovation inna early eighties other'n bandwagon-jumping Go-Gos freaks.
The rest ain't bad either and hey...now I know where that music they used for the "blackout" gags on THE SOUPY SALES SHOW comes from because that's none other than Ray Bryant doin' "Little Suzie" and you can just see Soupy and co. acting out some badgag chuckle while this music plays!
***You know what...if somebody doesn't buy some back issues of BLACK TO COMM from me I'm gonna kill myself! Actually, if somebody BUYS some back issue offa me I will kill myself! Hope that threat really gets the ball rollin'!
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