Waiting for the long-anticipated snow storm to hit. Hope it's a proverbial biggun just so's I can have an excuse to stay inside and enjoy my books and music more, not forgetting some ol' ROY ROGERS that might pop up on FETV or Dee-Vee-Dee that's been lyin' around just beggin' to be played. Had a good week of it anyway finding that Red Noise Cee-Dee (or at least the early Cee-Dee-Are of it I had burned for me before getting the actual deal) that I've been looking for and getting the latest DICK TRACY collection, both of which occupied a good portion of my evening hours these past few days! Expect a review of the TRACY book more sooner than later. Just hope that I will be snowed in for a good week so I can catch up on some of that FUN that I have been denied lo these many years due to school and work and other sundry things that always detracted from THE IMPORTANT STUFF!
THINGS FOUND WHILE LOOKING FOR THINGS I CAN'T FIND DEPARTMENT!: I've been looking through about forty-five or so many years of books, records, magazines and other important facets of a healthy suburban slob lifestyle while on the search for a few rather important things guaranteed to keep my well and happy. Unfortunately, I have yet to find those old French fanzines which collected (en Francais) some pertinent articles on the likes of Mahogany Brain, Red Noise and Dagon, but surprises of surprise I did come across an old New Music Distribution Service catalog that I originally managed to latch onto during my high stool days! And yes, you can bet the memories of me discovering even more new sounds to expand my parameters (a process that is continuing TO THIS VERY DAY as if you didn't know) has popped up giving me some GOOD reminiscences of days that could have been tragic at times but were glorious at others. And these memories are made even BETTER because these were the types of sounds that I was seeking out which made up the better part of my musical existence and no nightmarish reminiscences of irksome classmates or strung out teachers can take THAT away from me.
What makes this catalog even more hotcha in my own humble opine is that I actually checked off the various records that I was interested in purchasing at the time. Nothing that strange about highlighting the items that appealed to me at the time, but in the fortysome years since latching onto this 'un how did I do with regards to delivering on my musical wants of the day. Well, as Baby Judy once said, "come and see".
On the New Music side of the catalog the first item circled is Philip Glass' MUSIC IN FIFTHS/SIMILAR MOTION on Chatham Square 1003. Got that one probably with the very first order to NMDS, though I traded off my copy in the 80s considering just how much of a douse Glass had become what with his New Age inclinations and taking photos with the Dalai Lama and other stoopid things like that. Bought another copy in the '00s after I remembered that by the eighties EVERYONE was making lousy records but that doesn't mean we have to ignore their earlier efforts which had a whole lotta different effect on us during those whole lotta different times. Not only that but around that time I read that Glass was influenced by the Velvet Underground and like, if I gotta hear a Velvet drone in my music it best be made before their entire schtick was taken up by geeky gals with tattoos and pierced nostrils with shiny balls that look like atomic whiteheads. Good choice for a kid 'n in fact I was listening to the Cee-Dee reissue of this just this past night!
Turning to the next column we find Finnedar 9017, an album which has percussionist Donal Knaack performing John Cage's "27'19.553" not to mention Marcel Duchamp's "The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even Erratum"...bought this one too but I don't think it was with my first NMDS order. Still have it in the ol' vinola collection and might drag it out for a re-play once I get the chance in between searching for those early-seventies punk relix o' mine that somehow got lost in the shuffle.
Next recording to be circled...Folkways FTS3704 John Cage and David Tudor' INTERMINACY: 90 STORIES AND CONCERTO. Didn't get this one until the mid-eighties or so and when I heard it (even though I was prepared for what would lie within them grooves) I wasn't too shattered. Maybe a jadedness against the new era of art was settling in, even if I still thought that art in general did begin with Duchamp. Another one deserving a second/third/nth chance.
Flipping the sheet over and what do we find but the jazz records. First item circled (with a question mark beside it) is The 360 Degree Music Experience's SANITY on Black Saint Records. I think I was wary of this due to it being a double-platter set and thus more expensive, but I could be wrong. Might be time for me to snatch this 'un up given this collective was led by ace drummer Beaver Harris, along with pianist Dave Burrell who's hokay at least some of the time (even if some of his efforts don't have the same pounce as the late Cecil Taylor's did---not his fault rilly). Also circled...Henry Cow's CONCERTS on Compendium also gets noted which doesn't surprise me even if to this day I've never heard a Henry Cow album proper (unless you count DESPERATE STRAIGHTS) as well as the IOWA EAR MUSIC set of improvisations on Cornpride which seemed interesting enough after I read about it in DOWN BEAT though I passed it up every time I saw it in the dollar bin in Cle throughout the eighties. Ebay now has it for $100 which makes me think that maybe I did pass on a bargain...stoopid me!
And that's it for items that I sure as shootin' wanted to grace my record collection a good era or two back, and for some strange reason those old coals inside me have been stoked and like, maybe I wouldn't mind giving the chosen for consideration platters a spin here in my advanced state of mental hoo-hahness. Well, it's memories of things like this that really perk up my inner suburban slob and like, if you can't revert to your teenage crazed obsessions once in awhile why do you even bother existing in the first place???
The Jooklo Trio-LIVE @ STROMRAUN, STUTTGART 12/6/2018 CD-r burn
Pretty powerful sax/electric bass/drums aggregation here that might seem to some like a vast update on the old collective improv/jazz acts of the seventies. The performance is rather ferocious as is a whole lot of this post-New European freedom music, and although it might not exactly be unique to the form it really does serve its purpose exorcising the daemons from your frayed nerves. Oddly enough I thought I heard some rather Sharrock-esque guitar sprawl during the opening number but maybe that was just my ears playing a trick on me once again.
Stan Kenton-CITY OF GLASS CD (Capitol Records)
A whole lotta this Third Stream Jazz stuff never really went down my gullet like it might have yours. P'haps it just seemed too high falutin' for a genre that could also produce the likes of Sonny Sharrock or Roscoe Mitchell. And come to thing of it, the mere existence of Gunther Schuller didn't help any. Thankfully some class does permeate CITY OF GLASS what with the soaring sound sculpture tones that actually do dredge up those well-lit downtown images that you see on the cover. Kinda reminiscent of Ornette's SKIES OF AMERICA and certain George Russell arrangements ("A Bird in Igor's Yard" comes to mind), not to mention various similar excursions into that realm which treated jazz as a serious art that upper crust snobs could get into. You just might be able to ooze yourself into this 'un's "universe" the way it managed to make its way into mine.
BILL DAWG AND THE DIRT ROAD ROCKERS CD (Electro Records)
Interesting what you'll find when you look under tables, beds and the like. Shoulda reviewed this Bill Dag 'un when I writing about the other Alan "Snake" Globekar-related releases a month or so back, but thankfully I got this better later than never, or something like that. Mostly straight ahead country-tinged rock or rock-tinged country music for that matter which I gotta admit really doesn't light my soul the way various other musical forms do, but there is some slight pop influx that makes a few tracks such as "Hot Desert Nights" rather pleasing even in a non-condescending way. Try it, these guys might just be able to wiggle into some previously-uninhabited portion of your brain!
Mrs. Peacock-MY BRAIN AND ITS HEADLIGHTS CD-r burn
NadanilNOTHING I could find out about Mrs. Peacock even via the miracle of internet. Judging from the cover I thought this was going to be another late-sixties outta nowhere (in this case Gloucester MA) post-garage surprise but I guess they're one of those mid-eighties vintage amerindie acts with more of a Doors bent. As opposed to Velvets bent albeit with the same post-rock direction that marked many of the groups of that particular strata. Not quite my brand of gruel but if you were one of those types who clinged onto the new wave as opposed to punk credo as that decade creaked on I'll bet you already HAVE this one in your collection!
Peter Laughner and Friction-PIRATE'S COVER CD-r burn
This McGarry burn's good enough to warm me up for the Peter Laughner box set that's finally due to make its way out sometime this year. It's the November 1976 Pirate's Cove gig that's been flying around for some time, only it sounds a whole lot clearer'n the previous 'un's so now you can hear Laughner's vocals as well as his Bob Dylan/Jimmy Carter putdown as they were meant to be heard. Of course the performance is exemplary what with Sue Schmidt's electric violin careening to heights that add such a passionate turn to the music while Laughner himself has never been as forthright as this in a group setting. Almost brings a tear to my eye and reminds me of the (should be) famous Mick Farren comment re. the Rolling Thunder Revue sounding like a rural Velvet Underground running on folk mythology 'stead of urban grime. (Not anywhere near the exact quote but good enough for this setting.) With the arrival of the box set maybe Laughner will get all of that true fan adulation that's eluded him during his lifetime and a whole lot more.
The Fabulous Jokers-GUITARS EXTRAORDINARY CD-r burn (originally on Monument Records)
As the old television commercial once said, your dog might be getting enough cheese but are you? The Fabulous Jokers remedy that situation with this album chock fulla some of the cheesier instrumental takes on tunes familiar to all of us done in a way you only thought the Scandinavians could. Twangy guitar churnouts that bring back loads of memories of just what the standards for everyday mainstream commercial sound living was like in those distant pre-relevance times. You could just imagine any one of these songs backing up your favorite local furniture store commercial on the local mom and pop AM. Part of a world that went out with side-window vents on cars and roll-y UHF dials on tee-vee sets, and for some not-so-strange reason I am sad.
Paul Messis-SONGS OF OUR TIMES CD-r burn (originally on 13 O'Clock Records)
Typical emotive singer/songwriter neo-garage band rock that didn't do a thing foe me other'n during a brief neo-Indian instrumental segment. You might go for this brand of music and if so go to it, but as for me it only made me want to yearn more for the sweet strains of some Throbbing Gristle moiling away in the collection.
Various Artists-CHILLY DARTELL SLURPEE GAMBLE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Kinda uneven but still has its charm. Things that stuck out like the nightgowns in the Army ward back when the nurses wore miniskirts include two JFK-related novelty disques, one a thirties-styled Big Band number that urges John John to take up where his now-dead dad left off and the other with JFK getting into the new "Klak Stik" craze that I sure as heck don't remember! Sheesh, I thought it was Jackie who was the fad minded one in the family! Along with the C/W and blooze rarities there's also a promo record pushing 7-Eleven Slurpees (the kidz used to laugh about slurpees because it rhymes with HERPES!!!!), a nice cornballus version of "Turkey in the Straw" which must date back to the 1890's judging from the sound quality, and some hillbilly singer named Lucille Bassett who...really...I thought was a high-pitched guy singer!!!!! I guess gender confusion ain't such a new thing after all...
***
THINGS FOUND WHILE LOOKING FOR THINGS I CAN'T FIND DEPARTMENT!: I've been looking through about forty-five or so many years of books, records, magazines and other important facets of a healthy suburban slob lifestyle while on the search for a few rather important things guaranteed to keep my well and happy. Unfortunately, I have yet to find those old French fanzines which collected (en Francais) some pertinent articles on the likes of Mahogany Brain, Red Noise and Dagon, but surprises of surprise I did come across an old New Music Distribution Service catalog that I originally managed to latch onto during my high stool days! And yes, you can bet the memories of me discovering even more new sounds to expand my parameters (a process that is continuing TO THIS VERY DAY as if you didn't know) has popped up giving me some GOOD reminiscences of days that could have been tragic at times but were glorious at others. And these memories are made even BETTER because these were the types of sounds that I was seeking out which made up the better part of my musical existence and no nightmarish reminiscences of irksome classmates or strung out teachers can take THAT away from me.
What makes this catalog even more hotcha in my own humble opine is that I actually checked off the various records that I was interested in purchasing at the time. Nothing that strange about highlighting the items that appealed to me at the time, but in the fortysome years since latching onto this 'un how did I do with regards to delivering on my musical wants of the day. Well, as Baby Judy once said, "come and see".
On the New Music side of the catalog the first item circled is Philip Glass' MUSIC IN FIFTHS/SIMILAR MOTION on Chatham Square 1003. Got that one probably with the very first order to NMDS, though I traded off my copy in the 80s considering just how much of a douse Glass had become what with his New Age inclinations and taking photos with the Dalai Lama and other stoopid things like that. Bought another copy in the '00s after I remembered that by the eighties EVERYONE was making lousy records but that doesn't mean we have to ignore their earlier efforts which had a whole lotta different effect on us during those whole lotta different times. Not only that but around that time I read that Glass was influenced by the Velvet Underground and like, if I gotta hear a Velvet drone in my music it best be made before their entire schtick was taken up by geeky gals with tattoos and pierced nostrils with shiny balls that look like atomic whiteheads. Good choice for a kid 'n in fact I was listening to the Cee-Dee reissue of this just this past night!
Turning to the next column we find Finnedar 9017, an album which has percussionist Donal Knaack performing John Cage's "27'19.553" not to mention Marcel Duchamp's "The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even Erratum"...bought this one too but I don't think it was with my first NMDS order. Still have it in the ol' vinola collection and might drag it out for a re-play once I get the chance in between searching for those early-seventies punk relix o' mine that somehow got lost in the shuffle.
Next recording to be circled...Folkways FTS3704 John Cage and David Tudor' INTERMINACY: 90 STORIES AND CONCERTO. Didn't get this one until the mid-eighties or so and when I heard it (even though I was prepared for what would lie within them grooves) I wasn't too shattered. Maybe a jadedness against the new era of art was settling in, even if I still thought that art in general did begin with Duchamp. Another one deserving a second/third/nth chance.
Flipping the sheet over and what do we find but the jazz records. First item circled (with a question mark beside it) is The 360 Degree Music Experience's SANITY on Black Saint Records. I think I was wary of this due to it being a double-platter set and thus more expensive, but I could be wrong. Might be time for me to snatch this 'un up given this collective was led by ace drummer Beaver Harris, along with pianist Dave Burrell who's hokay at least some of the time (even if some of his efforts don't have the same pounce as the late Cecil Taylor's did---not his fault rilly). Also circled...Henry Cow's CONCERTS on Compendium also gets noted which doesn't surprise me even if to this day I've never heard a Henry Cow album proper (unless you count DESPERATE STRAIGHTS) as well as the IOWA EAR MUSIC set of improvisations on Cornpride which seemed interesting enough after I read about it in DOWN BEAT though I passed it up every time I saw it in the dollar bin in Cle throughout the eighties. Ebay now has it for $100 which makes me think that maybe I did pass on a bargain...stoopid me!
And that's it for items that I sure as shootin' wanted to grace my record collection a good era or two back, and for some strange reason those old coals inside me have been stoked and like, maybe I wouldn't mind giving the chosen for consideration platters a spin here in my advanced state of mental hoo-hahness. Well, it's memories of things like this that really perk up my inner suburban slob and like, if you can't revert to your teenage crazed obsessions once in awhile why do you even bother existing in the first place???
***OK, I know you can't wait. Here they is...
Pretty powerful sax/electric bass/drums aggregation here that might seem to some like a vast update on the old collective improv/jazz acts of the seventies. The performance is rather ferocious as is a whole lot of this post-New European freedom music, and although it might not exactly be unique to the form it really does serve its purpose exorcising the daemons from your frayed nerves. Oddly enough I thought I heard some rather Sharrock-esque guitar sprawl during the opening number but maybe that was just my ears playing a trick on me once again.
***
A whole lotta this Third Stream Jazz stuff never really went down my gullet like it might have yours. P'haps it just seemed too high falutin' for a genre that could also produce the likes of Sonny Sharrock or Roscoe Mitchell. And come to thing of it, the mere existence of Gunther Schuller didn't help any. Thankfully some class does permeate CITY OF GLASS what with the soaring sound sculpture tones that actually do dredge up those well-lit downtown images that you see on the cover. Kinda reminiscent of Ornette's SKIES OF AMERICA and certain George Russell arrangements ("A Bird in Igor's Yard" comes to mind), not to mention various similar excursions into that realm which treated jazz as a serious art that upper crust snobs could get into. You just might be able to ooze yourself into this 'un's "universe" the way it managed to make its way into mine.
***
Interesting what you'll find when you look under tables, beds and the like. Shoulda reviewed this Bill Dag 'un when I writing about the other Alan "Snake" Globekar-related releases a month or so back, but thankfully I got this better later than never, or something like that. Mostly straight ahead country-tinged rock or rock-tinged country music for that matter which I gotta admit really doesn't light my soul the way various other musical forms do, but there is some slight pop influx that makes a few tracks such as "Hot Desert Nights" rather pleasing even in a non-condescending way. Try it, these guys might just be able to wiggle into some previously-uninhabited portion of your brain!
***
NadanilNOTHING I could find out about Mrs. Peacock even via the miracle of internet. Judging from the cover I thought this was going to be another late-sixties outta nowhere (in this case Gloucester MA) post-garage surprise but I guess they're one of those mid-eighties vintage amerindie acts with more of a Doors bent. As opposed to Velvets bent albeit with the same post-rock direction that marked many of the groups of that particular strata. Not quite my brand of gruel but if you were one of those types who clinged onto the new wave as opposed to punk credo as that decade creaked on I'll bet you already HAVE this one in your collection!
***
This McGarry burn's good enough to warm me up for the Peter Laughner box set that's finally due to make its way out sometime this year. It's the November 1976 Pirate's Cove gig that's been flying around for some time, only it sounds a whole lot clearer'n the previous 'un's so now you can hear Laughner's vocals as well as his Bob Dylan/Jimmy Carter putdown as they were meant to be heard. Of course the performance is exemplary what with Sue Schmidt's electric violin careening to heights that add such a passionate turn to the music while Laughner himself has never been as forthright as this in a group setting. Almost brings a tear to my eye and reminds me of the (should be) famous Mick Farren comment re. the Rolling Thunder Revue sounding like a rural Velvet Underground running on folk mythology 'stead of urban grime. (Not anywhere near the exact quote but good enough for this setting.) With the arrival of the box set maybe Laughner will get all of that true fan adulation that's eluded him during his lifetime and a whole lot more.
***
As the old television commercial once said, your dog might be getting enough cheese but are you? The Fabulous Jokers remedy that situation with this album chock fulla some of the cheesier instrumental takes on tunes familiar to all of us done in a way you only thought the Scandinavians could. Twangy guitar churnouts that bring back loads of memories of just what the standards for everyday mainstream commercial sound living was like in those distant pre-relevance times. You could just imagine any one of these songs backing up your favorite local furniture store commercial on the local mom and pop AM. Part of a world that went out with side-window vents on cars and roll-y UHF dials on tee-vee sets, and for some not-so-strange reason I am sad.
***
Typical emotive singer/songwriter neo-garage band rock that didn't do a thing foe me other'n during a brief neo-Indian instrumental segment. You might go for this brand of music and if so go to it, but as for me it only made me want to yearn more for the sweet strains of some Throbbing Gristle moiling away in the collection.
***
Kinda uneven but still has its charm. Things that stuck out like the nightgowns in the Army ward back when the nurses wore miniskirts include two JFK-related novelty disques, one a thirties-styled Big Band number that urges John John to take up where his now-dead dad left off and the other with JFK getting into the new "Klak Stik" craze that I sure as heck don't remember! Sheesh, I thought it was Jackie who was the fad minded one in the family! Along with the C/W and blooze rarities there's also a promo record pushing 7-Eleven Slurpees (the kidz used to laugh about slurpees because it rhymes with HERPES!!!!), a nice cornballus version of "Turkey in the Straw" which must date back to the 1890's judging from the sound quality, and some hillbilly singer named Lucille Bassett who...really...I thought was a high-pitched guy singer!!!!! I guess gender confusion ain't such a new thing after all...
***How about if I put it this way...if you don't buy any of these BLACK TO COMM back issues I'm gonna hold YOUR breath! With two hands firmly placed around your neck! Need any more nudges, Gertrude?
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