BLOG TO COMM

Sheesh, I should be typing this year-end summary while wearing my smoking jacket in front of a roaring fire, ruminating about all of the good 'n bad that has befallen us these past 366 being all holiday warmy and toasty about our place here in this universe we have been so ungraciously plunked down into. Too bad I'm actually pecking away (no, not that you thilly thing!) while wearing my sweat clothes in my room where all I have to warm me up is a portable heater! Certainly not as dignified as I would have liked our final meeting for the year to be though it could have been worse. I mean, I could have been typing this in the nude...

Bur trudge on I will whether dressed or bare, and hope that the next rotation around the sun makes for a better go of life what with alla the good things that I'm sure will appear to tingle my nerve nodes which really do deserve quite more of a tingle as the years progress.

Eh, why should I complain given how 2020 has come up with quite a few winners. The Feeding Tube label has been cranking out some mighty driving albums never letting up (even their folkier efforts have stirred my stirrups and that's sayin' somethin' I perhaps don't wanna get into right at this time) while the reissues and various Cee-Dee-Are burns that have turned up have also brightened whatever's left of those late-night spin-a-thons that continue to take place here at Ground Zero. And of course there are the typical on/off obsessions I do have with groups that have pleased me for quite some time, usually spurred on by a mention or two in some of the better scraps of writing that continue to pass mine eyes even years after the greats of the past first set their astute thought to newsprint.

Anyhoo...this is what 2020 was in my own soggy memory and who knows, my year might have even topped your minute ot something like that. Read on if you must, but as usual check your preconceived notions and political pose at the door because frankly, I'm getting tired of putting many of you readers in your deserved place!


ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-EDDIE FLOWERS AND THE WAX LIP SWAMP DUB (Feeding Tube Records)-Down home Deep South swamp music, if you happen to live in that town where those two mutated hillbillies from NAKED LUNCH live!

AVANT GARDE FOLK MUSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-Wednesday Knudsen and Willie Lane's LONG TIME 'TIL TOMORROW (Feeding Tube)-Reminds me of CHURCH OF ANTHRAX, or at least I haven't felt this way since I first heard that classic effort oh so long ago.

TWO-RECORD SET WITH ARCHIVAL AND PREVIOUSLY-ISSUED MATERIAL SET OF THE YEAR!: Wurm's EXHUMED. Heavy metal's last real chance? Whadda you think!

IMPORT ALBUM YOU SURE WISHED WOULDA BEEN IN THE IMPORT BINS OF THE MID-SEVENTIES AWARD!-CALCIUM.

LIVE RELEASE OF THE YEAR!: The Stooges' LIVE AT GOOSE LAKE AUGUST 8TH, 1970.

CASSETTE WITH ALL NEW MATERIAL OF THE YEAR!: Fadensonnen's DEKADE 1 and 2 double tape collection

ALBUM REISSUE OF A CASSETTE OF THE YEAR!-Hopital de la Conception's ELECTRIC ROCKING CHAIR. The tantric beat lives on!

BOX SET OF THE YEAR!-the JAC BERROCAL one.

ARCHIVAL SINGLE OF THE YEAR!-the Cleveland Wrecking Company's "Say There's a Reason"/"Hat Full of Dreams". Thankfully San Francisco didn't fall into the ocean until after groups like this were passed over in favor of post-psychedelic schmalz.

RE-ISSUED SINGLE OF THE YEAR!-Attrix's "Lost Lenore"/"Hard Times" on Spain's Munster label. This is what a Velvet Underground "homage" should sound like as opposed to those "Sweet Jane" covers Brad Kohler used to see in bars on off nights.

BOOK OF THE YEAR (rock 'n roll division)-PETER AND THE WOLVES---a must on Elliot Murphy's rock history class of 2074's required reading list.

BOOK OF THE YEAR (secular division)!-the FUN WITH A MENACE gathering of the earliest funny book appearances of a comic character who obviously has been given too much Ritalin o'er the years.

ROCK READING OF THE YEAR!-the reams (no, not that Dave) of articles and such copied during my three month subscription to ROCKS BACKPAGES. Sheesh, why should I bother with the opines of some internet turd when I can pour through tons of Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray, Jonh Ingham, Giovanni Dadomo etc. pieces that speak to my soul a whole lot more'n Ann Powers could? Plus the rare Lester Bangs pieces sure add a little whip cream to the rockism sundae if you dare ask me! (Howcum no R. Meltzer tho?)

TEE-VEE SHOW OF THE YEAR!-the early half-hour GUNSMOKE reruns, tho they just ain't the same with the original openings and without the old MARSHAL DILLON ones seen not only on prime-time but in syndication for years on end.

MOOM PITCHER OF THE YEAR!-as if I went to a theater anytime in these past thirtysome years! The moom that affected me the most these past 366 was naturally an oldie, Laurel and Hardy's 1934 classic BABES IN TOYLAND, as if anything created since those sainted H-wood days would have anything relevant to do with my mere existence! 

FANZINE OF THE YEAR!-whatever the latest UGLY THINGS was, as if there was much if any competition but with a mag like that you know its gonna bury any competition that comes up against it.

BLOG OF THE YEAR!-BLAZING CAT FUR, the first place I go for my daily news!

SPOKESMAN OF THE YEAR!-Nick Fuentes.

HERO OF THE YEAR!-Kyle Rittenhouse, who did what a whole lotta us frothing at the mouth normal people fed up with those pampered pooch protesters wished we coulda done!

BUMMER OF THE YEAR!-too many to mention right now, though the dearth of hotcha archival digs just ain't what it used to, or should be.

DEATH OF THE YEAR!-  EDDIE HASKELL. In other words, OUR HERO WHO ART IN HEAVEN.