BLOG TO COMM

Hope you blasted out of 2020 in a way better wayshapeform than I sure did. The bad news started last Sadturday when, while attempting to scan pix for this very blog, a warning came up saying something along the lines of how my computer failed to recognize the application etc. and so forth which really does put a damper on things around these parts if I do say so myself. Not only that, but my trusted bedside boom box has konked out ("no CD" repeatedly pops up on the display panel which really does gripe me even though this particular player has lasted me three years, a record as far as these built-in obsolescence bred items go) and although I can still listen to music via other household sources it ain't the same as me sitting in my worn out comfy chair late at night spinning some much-needed music whilst I peruse an old collection of comics or some forgotten fanzine of yore. Yes, the blog will continue somewhat and I will do my best to remedy these dire situations (without dishing out too much money of course), but as the English would say this is a sticky wicket!

And naturally, if I'm having this much bad luck during the closing days of 2020 I just DREAD for what's in store with 2021! But you shouldn't for you can depend on me to keep on beating that same dead horses I've chopped into ground round for the past umpteen years while relaying for ya alla my childhood and adolescent traumas while steaming over every slight directed at me ever since I danced myself out the womb, and fortunately it was not a rhumba!

Otherwise things are going fairly swimmingly with enough free Xmas cookies to keep me afloat for a few weeks and some additional spare time for me to crank out these missives to you people who, judging from the comments section, REALLY NEED 'EM!!!!! And here's hoping to a really strong 'n blustery winter so I have more and more excuses to stay to myself and indulge in the pleasures of music, old comic books, fanzines and whatnot that've been keeping me goin' for a longer time'n any of us can imagine.

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IN OTHER NEWS: "Ginger isn't Ginger anymore, she's Mary Ann". And Mary Ann isn't Mary Ann anymore, she's dead. R.I.P. Dawn Wells.

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As far as other niceties go well, thanks be to the people who helped make this blog famous with their donations and sheee-yit. People like Bill Shute, Paul McGarry, Bob Forward and P.D. Fadensonnen (who sent such a great package my way that I actually review three of his gifts this very post!) not to mention my own good taste in purchasing things on my own dime which sure doesn't happen as often as I would like. As far as posts go this ain't as boffo as some of the glories I've been able to crank out ever since 2004 hit the boards, but then again it sure ain't as turdly as I can get sometimes. Awww c'mon and just enjoy the thing!

Various Artists-KRAUT : DIE INNOVATIVEN JAHRE DES KRAUTROCK 1968-1972 TEILES 1 & 2 CD-r burn (originally on Bear Family, Germany)

Kinda strange seeing a krautrock collection on a label best known for fifties Amerigan rockahula sounds, and come to think of it it's even stranger seeing a history of this particular musical form that leaves out all of the major names of them Golden Age of Import Bins days. But after listening through these first two volumes (with two more out there somewhere) and being bereft of the books that came with the originals all I can really say is --- after having been in on the krautgame for a longer time than even I can imagine a whole lotta this music is rather worthless!

From the looks of it the people at Bear Family think that any group that popped outta the nation in the late-sixties and early-seventies was of the "krautrock" genre which is probably why there is a load of blatant Amerigan heavy rock and English progressive moves heard on these collections.  Face it, there's little if any of the more mystical approaches that groups like Can and Kraftwerk were known for, at least known for by the smarter set who tuned into the then-freeform FM stations that would intermingle EGE BAMYASI with the standard hippoid fare.

Not that every act here is total schieseville since some smarter moves from the likes of Annexus Quam and Xhol Caravan pop into the mix, but for the most part these groups are more derivative than they are inspirational. And for a "scene" that cherished the late-sixties Amerigan cataclysm of sound there's nary a Velvets move or Stooge trash drone to be found on any of these four disques. Gives those seventies memories of mine a quite dimmer vision, like of all those album purchase burns of mine wasting a good amt. of that money that I really hadda BEG for!

Just stick with the greats and leave these progressive artistes alone, unless you find some affinity in that section of the art rock cadre whose idea of artsiness was akin to some Da Vinci print hung up inna living room in order to give class to an otherwise dingy living room.

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Kevin Ayers-BANANAMOUR CD (Harvest Records, Japan)

One I missed o'er the years, and come to think of it BANANAMOUR wasn't exactly an easy-to-snatch platter in any of the import bins I used to occupy!  Still it's a good one capturing that early-mid-seventies Kevin Ayers feel that really typified all that was good about that monster that got clumped under the vague term "progressive rock". Typical Ayers whimsy abounds, with two must-to-hears included..."Decadence", a rather etapoint tribute to not only Marlene Dietrich but Nico and the early Velvet Underground, as well as "Oh! Wot a Dream" which woulda been nice had Syd Barrett decided to wrap his tonsils around this one.

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The Chinese Electrical Band-GOES HAWAIIAN/PUMPKINS RULE MY WORLD CD-r burns  (originally on Whitewall Tapes)

Well, if you really wanna know what the guys, or at least one of 'em, was doin' before the glory days of the Crummy Fags look no further. Two strangeties recorded from the bowels of Sandusky featuring Randy Russell and a few names you might not be familiar with (cuz I sure ain't!) blarin' through some rather primitive jungle clang in search of a melody. An' they do find one, many a time in fact! 

Just more of that great beneath the garage rock that I'm sure the seventies were just chock fulla! My burn of GOES HAWAIIAN ends with a hefty chunk of a Arizona-based r 'n b radio show that I gotta say kept my attention span held pretty well, while PUMPKINS RULE THE WORLD  mixes homemade experimental jagovs with primitively-recorded rock workouts backing faux English accented singing. Some of this I heard before (probably off another one of those Whitewall tapes featuring the works of Russell) but most of it is new, and might just be worth your time and effort to seek out. 

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Black Flag-MY WAR CD (SST Records)

Y'know, the money shortage during the mid-eighties really meant that I hadda do without the kinda records 'n mags that I really thought I needed in order to sustain a high-energy rock 'n roll lifestyle. Well, dunno about the magazines since by that time we were in the midst of the post-Bangs era, that tongue unto anal rock criticism style that was really in vogue because we were living in one of the worst musical droughts seen in ages, but there were quite a few recordings that I missed out on because well, the combination of depression-era wages and putting out a crudzine could cause quite havoc with any sorta record collection a fellow like myself could just envy...

This is a fairly good one...tempos slowed down to a nice dirge and the guitarwork's even gnarlier'n one woulda expected after hearing those early Black Flag efforts. Henry Rollins wasn't quite the, er, legend he eventually became so it's easy enough listening without harboring the images of what the man would eventually evolve into once his handlers got to him and he started making flaccid pronouncements about how we should understand women's bodies. Overall the hardness bears down on you fine and maybe for once we'll remember just how important Black Flag were in the face of alla that crap that overtook the eighties which obliterated the hard-edged underground and replaced it with zilch-dimensional quap that never did get washed outta our systems even lo these many years later.

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Roxy Music-WHISKY WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 1972-12-18 CD-r burn

Surprisingly solid show that delivers on the promise that was early Roxy Music. Sound quality's kinda flat but for an audience recording it does capture a rather gritty dimension to the band that the legitimate records always glossed over. "Remake/Remodel" is the highlight of the set delivered to us in a way which lends credence to Richard Williams' claim about its undeniable debt to "Sister Ray". Gotta say that this tape woulda made for a good vinyl bootleg way back when, but then again we'd all hafta hear the roars of indignation over the sound from alla those hi-fi nuts who used to cherish those half-speed mastered albums that were way outta the reach of normal folk like us's pocket books.

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Warsaw Pakt-SEE YOU IN COURT CD-r burn

This is the cassette-only Warsaw Pakt thingie that was available as a download about fifteen years back, and I'm sure that the files for this 'un still exist on my old computer somewhere out there. Not really an album the way ya'd think of it what with the variety of sources giving this a rather untogether sorta feeling, but the high energy and Ladbrook Grove hard rock style is in force giving us a sound that combines the best of the Deviants, Pink Fairies and Motorhead in one little nice compact blast. Some re-dos from NEEDLE TIME as well as a whole buncha things that are new to my ears kept me rockin' n' boppin' from here to New Castle PA and back (really!) and it might just do you some good if you aren't, like way too many prissy rock critic types out there, too afraid to kick some jams out in your life.

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Kevin Ayers and the Whole World-PIKNIK RADIO BROADCAST 1970 CD-r burn

This must be Kevin Ayers week here at BLOG TO COMM what with the BANANAMOUR album above and now this little tasty treat that arrived without any prior warning thanks to the one called P.D. Its a Dutch radio broadcast from '70 with the legendary Whole World band including David Bedford, Lol Coxhill and special guest Robert Wyatt backing up Ayers doing some then-current faves and whatnot sounding rather loose in the process. Horrid engineering might make this one a bit difficult for you to fathom but the spirit and fun of these Harvest-era acts is evident for all you old time import bin hoppers out there. If you've been in on the English rock game for so long, in fact long enough to remember when even WMMS-FM would promote acts like Ayers before succumbing to the Bruce Springsteen mindset then you just might go for the nearest download of this you can find!

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Various Artists-ON THE LUCKY SANTA BREEZE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

A neat surprise here since I always wondered where the original version of Plan 9's "I've Got to Keep on Pushin'" came from (the Human Beinz!) and although I thought that the "Ronnie Byrd" who follows was actually mid-sixties French rocker "Ronnie Bird" I still like this gals' early sixties gal singer romp which was not about Bachman-Turner Overdrive as the sleeve kinda hinted at!

The rest is good in that vacillating Bill Shute sorta way from gal groups (the Vacels) to the Neighborhood, who I thought woulda been the group with the similar name that was up and about in the early-eighties but I was wrong. I thought the neo-country pop of Rene Waters was about as cornballus as this type of music can get though that Dale Allen and the Rousers early-sixties single wasn't quite bad even in its gosh honest wimpiness. 

At least the song poem from Beth Ann Haves ("I Liked The Old Year"/"Dear Santa Claus") and Tich and the Ted Taylor Four's "Santa Bring Me Ringo" were timely especially since I tend to drag these Holiday-oriented Bill-burns outta the pile in the middle of July. Of course nowadays wanting Ringo for Christmas would kinda be akin to me wanting that Vac-U-Form that looked so enticing as a turdler --- after all nowadays both of 'em are not working and busted beyond belief.

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So you have alla that Christmas gift money just layin' around 'n ya wanna know what to do with it! If yer still steamed over Aunt Matilda getting you alla them sox and the lady at Menards won't exchange 'em for cold hard lucre then howzbout getting rid of your inhibitions by buying up a bundle of these BLACK TO COMM back issues! It's the next best thing to relieving those tensions to locking yourself inna john with a stack of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICs, and it's a whole lot more moral, too!