Nice finally gettin' back into the ol' SWING OF THINGS after alla that Christmas hullaballoo (only yesterday did I kick the tree down the stairs and yank the wreath off the door!), and for some strange reason I do not feel any of those post-Holiday blahs that I used get way back when. Y'know, the kind that hit during my (and maybe even your own) stoolboy days when ya hadda go back to the salt mines after a good week-plus get away from it all. Maybe that's because Christmas ain't what it used to be what with the dearth of relatives and dearth of TOYS for that matter to bring back those good ol' happy feelings. But hey, at least it's now January and we have a whole year to look forward too, all that snow shoveling and dangerous driving not to mention weather bulletins and then it's TORNADO SEASON... Lotsa thrills and chills in store for us panic-stricken suburban slobs who always hide under the bed when that Conelrad tone goes off, eh??
As for some of the things I've been listening to while putting this particular blog together, the Mahogany Brain albums continue to get frequent bedroom play which wouldn't surprise anyone given bot disques' ability to conjure up the primal ghosts of under-the-counterculture Velvets/Stooges energy w/o succumbing to the ditzy tendencies of various practitioners of the form these past forty or so years. Another current fave o' mine just has to be Brian Eno's DISCREET MUSIC which actually flows around my subconscious nicely while I'm reading old comic book reprint titles during the late hours, not to mention the long-unreleased T. Roth/Another Pretty Face 21st CENTURY ROCK spinner which, although I found it bland upon first play a good decade-plus back, now sounds like a solid slab of glam glitter titters that woulda confused more'n a few tightroping teenage boys had this 'un only gotten out when it shoulda inna first place! Let's just say that when it comes to musical mayhem here at BTC central we're not gonna wile away the hours listening to Guy Lombardo (unless Bill just happens to send a platter of his my way 'n like, what's STOPPING him!).And with that here's this week's bevy, a wondrous asst. if I do say so myself. Thanks to Bill, Paul, PD and myself for the contributions.
Occasional fave o' mine finally gets digitized for those of you who want to hear what this ass end of all-femme neo-Velvets rock was supposed to sound like before feminist indoctrination really turned these artistic womyn types into bitter creatures. The primitive pounce, which at one time might have seemed more or less like total decadent anti-art to some musical types, comes closer (at least in what's left of my mind) to the ultimo end point of the same bared-wire continuum direction that the likes of Mahogany Brain were working in. Also contains the rare live at Venue tape that only a few lucky people were able to latch onto back 1982 way, me included (tho a good three or four years after the fact).
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For those of you who aren't of the tightening sphincter variety this blast of rock unto noise will satisfy more'n a few nodes in the same kinda mind that's been following these under-the-underground styled screechathons for a few more years than you've been alive! Raw sound quality only exacerbates the entire modus of these guys who actually had the nerve to sneak a li'l melody into the mix! This is the starting point where a whole lotta those Japanese groups whose wares popped up in more'n a few hip catalogs got their ideas from, you not-so-honorable one!
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If you were one of those fanablas under the impression that Tower Records was just a subsidiary of Capitol where they dumped the stuff they didn't think was gonna sell much well, there was a whole lot more to 'em 'n just that! Thisgathering of the label's '67 sides does include a whole buncha forgetables that just don't zone me mixed in with the familiar goodies that are always nice to hear again. Good mix of soul (Sam Williams), sap (Keith Gordon's answer record to "A Letter to my Teenage Hippoid"), the welcome (Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play") and the wha'??? (Nino Tempo???) Lotsa goodies here, the best being the Chocolate Watchband's "Are You Gonna Be There" which remains the ultimo punk rock song and don't let any rock historian out there tell you different!
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Downhome pre-snob C/W that goes down my psyche nice-like, at least in small doses. More obscuros sorta make this the PEBBLES of local country pressings. Note are kinda sketchy as to who does what, where and when but if you've been keen on hearing any recordings made by the likes of Frank Sims, Earl Songer, Earl Slone, Johnny Rector, T. Texas Tyler, Tex Grimsley, Jimmie John, Mustard and Gravey, Ray Batts, Wayne Bushy, Ted West, Jimmy Little John or Carl Deacon Moore then man, look no further than here!
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Sound's pretty good considerin' this was recorded off the radio about five or so generations ago and the performance is good enough for someone like me who thought these guys certainly were shudderin' in the shadow of the Dictators. Still I gotta admit that I miss the psychedelic frenzy of those Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group-era recordings that would have made for me the ultimo cutout bin finds of 1976 had they (like Another Pretty Face!) only gotten out back when they shoulda. Can't wait for the SWU recordings that I posted awhile back to get all gussied up and presentable for release, hopefully in a top notch package with liner notes by Meltzer even!
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Smudgy-wudgy live recording that has all of the clarity of the rest of those sludgy-wudgy live tapes we have in our collections! But you don't listen to these things for SOUND QUALITY do you?
Who cares what the fidelity of this is like as long as you're getting that solid mid-sixties-oriented music exactly as you woulda thought the former DMZ and Lyres frontman'd dish it out! Conolly's a guy who, as evidenced by this tape, could still whip up an audience like nothing since Carol Doda, and it's amazing just how long that sixties revival thing that got into swing during the early-eighties has lasted despite the drop in overall quality during the late-eighties!
It's also amazing that the better practitioners of the form like Conolly are still up and about while many of those hanger-on types who mighta had the looks but not the SWING haven't been heard from for a good thirtysome years! I'll bet you wish the same thing could be said about former crudzine editors like me who'll NEVER shut up!
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Just the sorta hotcha gotcha wild rave up that gets a body goin'. Sorta rockabilly but way into overdrive. Yet it ain't of that phonus balonus fake outrage put on pretend energy that too many acts have been wallowing in over the past few decades. The cover of "Nervous Breakdown" kinda had me imagining Sheraton as a reborn Eddie Cochran rarin' to play the 1976 Mont de Marsan punk fest after undergoing a hefty dose of Heartbreakers filtered through the Senders (who weren't around then but so what!). A reminder for those of you who somehow saw the inner light after hearing U2 for the very first time.
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Unlike most of these Bill Shute "Virtual Thrift Store" styled samplers, this one seems to have a solid theme to it. Mainly organ-based soul jazz that used to be performed in the same kind of clubs sycophantic white performers used to go to under heavy guard. Most of this 'un seems to be taken up by tracks by Billy Larkin and the Delegates who do a pretty hotcha job taking the usual dull covers and straightening 'em out a little. Great if you have a hankerin' for menthol cigarettes and Colt 45, or just want something to pass the time before your
chicken and waffles breakfast.
***You're not getting any young and neither am I. Maybe it's time you settled back, kicked up your feet, and bought yourself a nice steamin' stack of BLACK TO COMM back issues to wile away the precious spare time you have left. Remember, you can't take 'em with you down there.
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