BLOG TO COMM

Well it's been a nice 'un...work load lite (and for that matter so is my paycheck) so I got some more free time to myself especially for the long Labor Day Weekend. Finally got hold of my TERRAPIN fanzines and have been immensely enjoying myself with 'em. I gotta admit that these TERRAPINs could have been beefier, but I alway fall for a good seventies rock fanzine when I come across one.  Not only that but the article lifted from some Amerigan mag which states that if it weren't for Syd Barrett where would Iggy, Emerson Lake and Palmer, the Soft Machine, the Moody Blues, the Deviants, King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator, Bowie, Alice and of course Pink Floyd themselves be today is a real hoot if you ask me! (I might have mentioned this piece the last time I brought TERRAPIN up on this blog...and wouldn't be surprised considering my sieve-like mind.)

Also been spinning lotsa mind-rearranging music (usually in conjunction with classic rock 'n roll reading) with my current faves right now being those early Hawkwind live shows that sound as if they were recorded on smuggled in portable cassette players. Gotta wonder why few people mention Hawkwind's strong Velvet Underground influences which is a fact that didn't go past a whole lotta people who were writing' about 'em back when THE SPACE RITUAL was blazing on in full force. A few souls I know hear a Black Sabbath groove while hardly anything else...go figure.

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He may not be as cute as Greta, but he sure knows how to
put his message across!

Seems as if I created a li'l stir last week with my praise of Kyle Rittenhouse, the BRAVE teenager who defended himself from three uber-left thugs who were out to inflict grave bodily harm upon him whilst dispatching two of 'em to a rather warm climate and landing the third (the one with the gun) into the hospital where he has been bitching and moaning about how he regrets he didn't off that seventeen-year-old TRUE BELIEVER (in things that seem to matter more to me as the years roll on)! Sure makes me wish that I had an AR15 myself to do a li'l cleansin' 'round these parts, that's how inspirational Mr. Rittenhouse and his actions are ifyaknowaddamean... And yeah, I know a few of you would disagree with someone blowing away people intent on killing him, but when all's said and done its kids like Rittenhouse, along with the Covington Catholics and scant few others, who really do give me hope that maybe the younger generation really is on the right track after all! Now if they'd only create a music that can turn their actions into pure sound...

Or, to use the same reasoning used by those wags who were so upset that I would dare criticize David Hogg and Emma Gonzales in the wake of that Florida school shooting a few years back....Kyle Rittenhouse's political opinions are still forming at his early age and since he is under 18 we should handle him a whole lot differently than we would had he been a legal adult! Naw, I didn't think that would work!

Meanwhile, here's one I really hope upsets that 99.999...% of people (yawn!) who really love my musical opinions but shudder when I get all socio-political because...well...in their entire lives they've never heard a contrary view to their own secure worldvision and it kinda scares 'em a bit. Ya better run to the safety of mom's boobies after clickin' on this sweeties, cuz it's potent (and much needed especially during these sad 'n sorry because of world-savers like YOU days!).

Thanks be to Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and Feeding Tube for the donations. Everyone else can get lost, unless they decide to donate as well!

Mordecai-LIBRARY MUSIC LP (Feeding Tube Records)

Comin' at'cha this September 25th's this album from a Butte Montana band that proves that alla the primitive teenbo hoedown music of the late-seventies onward has, after over forty years, finally filtered down into the hinterlands and goody good good for that! It's a real soundsquall of total rockist fun too, especially for those of you who have struggled through years of intentionally primitive college dorm bangaroos and trashoid garage crank outs and thought they sure beat album-oriented-rock schlock hands down. Sorta starts off in a Half-Japanese way and gets early Pavement-ish at one point before it all gets wooshed over into an area of total incomprehension and tribal chants to the suburban slob god Oooaaaooo. Sure there are many of these outta-the-basement "noise rock" acts up and about, but only one of them is named Mordecai.

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Frank Zappa-THE GRAND WAZOO/WAKA/JAWAKA CDs (Rykodisc Records)

Here're two Zappa items that I surprisingly did not buy during my teenbo discovery of the Mothers of Invention catalog for some strange reason or another. Well, actually I did tape one of these from a borrowed album way back when, and since Bill Shute's semi-autobiographical stories make for such great reading maybe I should tell you one from my own sordid past which, more or less, was brought back to me thanks to the arrival of this Cee-Dee not so long ago! Only this one ain't "semi" or even "demi", but the out and out truth!

During my high stool days we had this music teacher who we all thought kinda cool, a young 'n just outta college type guy who actually treated people like me rather nice and even struck up conversations with me about music after finding out about my whole keenness for the Mothers of Invention platters that I was buying up with regularity at the time. (In fact, I recall seeing him at the local mall where he showed me his latest record buy, a copy of OVERNIGHT SENSATION.) Anyway this music teacher was so nice and copasetic with me to the point where he even let me use his stereo cassette recorder in the music room during study hall to tape various borrowed booty I'd obtain from a certain student who had similar musical tastes. Not only that, but Mr. X lent me his very copy of THE GRAND WAZOO to dub for my own personal pleasure! I had the run of the music room so-to-speak, just as long as I didn't slam the lid down on the cabinet which would knock all the knobs off the front of the stereo amplifier, something I was very aware and careful of when using his property.

That all ended one day when I was confronted by this teacher in the gym when he accused me of slamming down the cabinet thus ruining his stereo component! Naturally I believed myself innocent and that some other miscreant would have done the dastardly deed, but still he was fussing and fuming about the damage I've done and even though I offered to pay for the repairs he refused, he more content to vent his anger on me and treat me like total trash from that day on. I guess it didn't help when I asked if I could bring my own budget cassette recorder in order to tape albums because boy did he rip into me for naively believing that he ever would consent to that! Talk about youthful innocence stupidity!

The guy was not of a forgive and forget nature either. I got a "C" in his music class on some stupid technicality and graduating from those not-so-hallowed halls didn't even stop him from harboring ill will against me! A year or two later I was in a car with some older female cousins who wanted to briefly visit their galpal, who believe-it-or-not was now MARRIED to the very same teacher and living their early connubial lives in some run down house on the ranky side of town. Anyway, former teach just happened to come out to the car with his new wife, and while the gals were chattin' it up he just looked at me and scowled, perhaps angry that I was seated in the back and well out of his reach! Ah, the guy was an asshole anyway.

So that's what I think of when I hear THE GRAND WAZOO, and despite the sour feelings behind it I find the record fairly OK. Mainly since Zappa and band play a straight-ahead sort of fusion that, while failing to reach any early Mothers brand of crank, does please these ears on occasion. Still WAZOO points the way towards future Zappa snooze-a-thons which jettisoned the old hungry freaks style for DOWN BEAT snazz that might not rock out as much, but sure sold beaucoup.

While the more engaging portions actually do captivate me to a small extent, the pedestrian moves which are scattered about tend to drag the listener back into "what's on TV" or "stare out the window and watch the tree limbs sway" stature. You might like it better'n the Flo and Eddie era of Zappadom (an era of Zappadom I tended to enjoy more than most of you readers), but I find it not so potent when compared with the plethora of late-sixties (and even early/mid-seventies) live shows that have come out either legally or bootleg-style these past few decades.

The same pretty much goes for WAKA/JAWAKA which for years I though was gonna be a straight ahead hard jazz/blues effort a la the HOT RATS namedrop onna cover but treads the same smart moves followed by standard feh moves as WAZOO. Although there are times like, on the title track, where Zappa and band come pretty close to the English New Jazz of the Seventies fusion feel there are the failed attempts at trying something new such as on "It Just Might Be a One Shot Deal" which features a bevy of slide string work that I thought would inspire, but even that unique idea doesn't go anywhere like it should've just wallowing about even with a nice solo from the infamous Sneaky Pete Keinlow. I guess after this period in his post-leg break career Zappa was up inna air about which was to go to prove to all he was still a genius, and maybe that's why he went the slick FM route with such upcoming faves as "Dinah Moe Humm" and "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" which guaranteed him more radio cred as the years rolled on.

I wonder if I should appeal that "C" grade. It could lead to something big, like the move to get Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals back or England begging for forgiveness from Ireland for their role in the potato famine, the Riley character on FAWLTY TOWERS and for looking better than anyone else on the isles. Sure I might earn that more deserved grade long after I'm croaked, but in these days it's the heartfelt thought and appreciation that goes into things even if I'll be wormfood by the time the school board makes their final decision.

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Various Artists-SON OF GUTBUCKET CD-r burn (originally on Liberty Records, England)

The Europeans always knew how to put out some rather good compilation albums and this one is no exception. And Liberty Records in England sure did a fine job with this 'un, mixing up the big name acts with the obscuros who needed a li'l push with their back catalog. SON OF GUTBUCKET's not only got the familiar acts such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Canned Heat and a pre-Columbia Johnny Winter but loads of rather under-the-radar blues, jugband and downright countrified sounds that's make a good backdrop for any youth gathering of the day. The kind that's usually in conjunction with pharmaceuticals. Personal fave's the Groundhogs' "Mean Mistreater" which some of you might remember famed English anarcho-punks the Apostles recording on one of their cassette releases way back when.

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The Rumblers-RUMBLIN' AND RARE CD-r burn (originally on Ace Records)

These guys are the exact same Rumblers who put out that rave BOSS album that I reviewed in the pages of my crudzine a good thirty or so years back, and even this far down the ol' trail of tumult we call life these guys sound way fresher'n anything that's now pounding the airwaves ever did. Consisting of some mighty fine early-sixties-styled instrumental rock which fans of that time and era have probably gobbled up ages back (with two vocals thrown in for good measure), these Downey Record sides say way more about what teenbodom meant than all the Ann Landers books on sex combined did. If you (like me) have a soft spot for the last of the truly innocent and primal times for NORMAL people to live through you might have a great appreciation for the Rumblers' straighforward multi-faceted (surf, instrumental, r 'n b) recordings.

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Various Artists-BACK TO PERU - THE MOST COMPLETE COLLECTION OF PERUVIAN UNDERGROUND 64-74 CD-r burn (originally on Vampi Soul Records)

Whenever I think of Peru I think of that Paul Simon song that all the gals usedta go crazy over when I was a kid..."El Condor Pasta" or something like that which is obviously about an Italian dish using carrion-eating birds. Hokay, I also think about THE LAST MOVIE, especially that scene where Dennis Hopper and that sexy local do the do right inna dirt while little schoolkids unobtrusively walk by. But as far as rock 'n roll go well, Peru doesn't exactly stick well in my mind unless yer talkin' 'bout those South Amerigan Beatles wannabes the Shakers...were they Peruvian or Uruguayan? I don't seem to remember if they were but they were CLOSE ENOUGH!

Nice collection of Peruvian rarities from early instrumental and British Invasion knockoffs to cheap psychedelia and equally crazed takes on the big guns. 'n it ain't just carbon copy rote rock as the Hot Butter's Sound's "Pa Pa Pa" or even the "Purple Haze" "tribute" might lead you to believe. Sure it ain't anything special especially if you were one to tried avoiding the late-sixties AM dial because it was heavy on the bleat, but these Peruvian platters are worth at least sifting through for the tasty bits here and there.

'n waddaya know but an actual "El Condor Pasta" swipe (which gets kinda hoedown-y at the end!) entitled "Mi Cuerva" which loosely translates into either "My Female Beer" or "My Cervix" appears which means that once again the originals are swiping back from those evil Caucasians who stole everythin' from 'em inna first place! All this instrumental really needs are some heartfelt early-seventies contempo lyrics like "I'd rather be a pickle than a duck..." C'mon, you try it!

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Various Artists-BOSSANOVA DEMOCRAT MUTANT TORCH CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

An especially long one here featuring all sortsa strange goodies from nineties-era Arkansas Radio Network news to some off the wall guitar, electro 'n vocals neo-wavey things from "Songs From a Random House", whatever that is! Also included : unintentionally high-larious covers of Pink Floyd by a "B. Bruno" as well as a definitely put-on version of "Little Egypt", some good rockabilly and a few moments that were about as exciting as the last MERCER COUNTY EROTIC FILM FESTIVAL ("Barnyard Buggeroo", a tale of animal husbandry, came in at #3 so you know how bad it was!). A much better way to spend seventy minutes of your life than running down the street with your clothes on fire, and a whole lot more pleasurable for that matter.

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Ya wanna know somethin'? These BLACK TO COMM back issues ain't "rare" or "scarce" or anything of the kind! In fact they're about as common as chancres on a whore---just take a peek into my cyster's basement and see for yourself just how many of these mags are up 'n about lookin' fer a new home! Well, I do wanna be honest, and all these years of me tellin' ya just how rare and precious these things are has been tuggin' at my conscious. Howz'bout buyin' some---at least that will ease my guilty feelin's somewhat...