BLOG TO COMM

I still get fan mail, and if I do say so myself the above letter is whatcha'd call a real deal doozie! I wonder if this above fan is any relation to that Polish guy who wrote into Jay Hinman's blog wondering whether or not Sharon was some place "near a burning tyre pit" 'r something as equally ridiculous as that! Still nice to know that there are some people out there who do care about the BLOG TO COMM way of living which is something not exactly in vogue here as we dig further into that anal cavity also known as the 21st century.

Of course the BIG soo-prize this week was the arrival of a nize li'l package courtesy of Obedient Servant noted fan Paul McGarry who sent a number of burns my way including some previously-requested items which you can read about below. Good stuff there too including some rarities which I never in my born days thought I would EVER get to hear. It's not like I can die now that I have heard this material because there's a whole lot more items I need to drill into my brain before I do depart for purer shores, but maybe now I can just get sick a little, ifyaknowaddamean...

Also thanks to Feeding Tube Records and Bill Shute, whose deliveries from a good decade back are still filling up a hefty portion of this blog which only goes to show you that them burns definitely are the musical answer to K-Rations! 

Dead Sea Apes-NIGHTLAND LP (Feeding Tube Records in conjunction with Cardinal Fuzz)

A splendid way to start off a gnu year. Electronic tones which recall various early/mid-seventies import bin albums --- the expensive ones at that (Kluster, Klaus Schultze etc.) with an ambient drone that makes alla those Eno-related albums of the very-late seventies sound absolutely Charmin. At times this gets into some good repeato-riff music while at others it just oozes all over you like kayopectate on a prone teenage runaway. It's hard to imagine that music as deep, as intense and as reminiscent of past accomplishments as this can be made, but obviously it has!

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Gravelroad-PSYCHEDELTA CD-r burn (originally on Knick Knack Records)

These backwoods bloozey efforts usually don't (even the Stones) make my head do Charlie McCarthys but Gravelroad have that rural underground rock 'n roll feeling down pat! Lotsa slide dobro trash effort put into this 2012 effort which sure evokes the more fresh air portions of this nation of ours than the current batch of bumpkins ever did. If you like those hard blues rock platters that were pourin' outta England in the late-sixties and early-seventies, the rawer ones by the likes of Killing Floor and Stackwaddy that is, you should really go for PSYCHEDELTA like Roman Polanski goes for Camp Fire Girls!

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Kraftwerk-3D THE CATALOGUE CD-r burn (originally on Parlophone Records)

The opening track wit the various languages counting way up to the number eight was rather interesting what with the sound flourishes and interesting music editing. The rest of these latterday Kraftwerk tracks are just more of that eighties casiotone cantata murk that made me dread having even given these guys a listen to in the first place. Anyone who would be nostalgic for the eighties better read every issue of my noted crudzine backwards and forwards before being allowed within range of anyone who claims a connection with the human spirit.

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HAMPTON GREASE BAND CD-r burn

Various beauts that were lifted off line including an early "Hendon" which even out-raves the MUSIC TO EAT version (and includes the theme from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW just like the Atlanta Pop Festival 'un did!) even if it does tend to get all improv-y like the 1968 Grateful Dead towards the end. It also has a number of long psychedelic instrumentals showing a heavy Allmans bent which of course would figure given the proximity of it all. Definitely worth the time and effort to track down for your own late-night introspective moments.

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ALAIN KAN CD-r burn

This guy has just as much of a French punk rock back history as JP Kalfon and what more has a larger discography to back it up. Seventies-era Kan sounds like the Gallic reincarnation of David Bowie without the chameleonesque qualities. Of course that didn't stop him from doing a cover of "Suffragette City"...only going to show that you can take the frog away from the fag but you can't take the fag away from the frog...or something like that. More is definitely needed (hint hint).

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THE STARVING BRAINEATERS CD-r burn

This was Harold Kelling's post-HGB group and what a group they were! Why these efforts never got the royal release job I do not know for they're not only professionally slick enough for the STEREO REVIEW set to enjoy, but they still have a wild anarchistic bent that will make a few of you reg'lar readers do banana flips. At first it reminded me of the Dixie Dregs which would figure given the general mindwave drive, but then it gets somehow deeper into more whatcha woulda've expected from the guy almost sounding like Kelling's own take on former guitar mate Glenn Phillips' LOST AT SEA. A LOST AT SEA with even more bite that is. It even includes a new version of "Six" which is mostly instrumental 'cept for the part where Kelling did his various mutters! If I were you I'd head straight for DuckDuckGo even as we speak!

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Various Artists-THE BAD VIBRATIONS CD-r burn (originally on Akarma Records, Italy)

Yeah I know, at least ONE "well-known" rock critic of relative fame out there would dismiss BAD VIBRATIONS offhand because of the plethora of down-mood groove garage band cryers that seem to make up the bulk of this collection. Yeah, the guy might have a point but personally I can go for a whole lot more rejected teenbo rompers from the sixties than I could the collected ramblings of David Crosby on everything from the Grateful Dead to migrant grape pickers, with some music thrown in for good measure. 

Pretty good stuff actuallly from the likes of Jim Dovall to a hokum "Light My Fire to a whole number of teenage throbbers that I recall a few folks thought was wholesome rock 'n roll unaware of the bestial undercurrent of it all. The Distant Sounds' folk rocker "It Reminds Me" also struck a somber chord in my six-oh soul and man, if you still have a soul these moody wonders will affect it like nothing since INSIGHT reruns!

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Various Artists-PLEASE, PLEASE MRS. ROBINSON CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Hokay, so I thought that Sinatra's take on S&G was even hokier'n I originally thought it would be but the Valiants doing Link Wray was the perfect distillation of hard-drinkin' cheap bar rock grit as done up by a buncha kids who were hurrying it up because POPEYE was gonna be on inna few minutes. The rest flops about from low-fi country to a synthesized version of "The Entertainer" which has a hard time staying in synch, and is all entertaining in its own fanabla sorta way.

I was kinda keen on the Hunters' advanced instrumental entitled "Tally Ho" but the four Beatles novelties really made my day, one being from failed teenage actor Brad Berwick and another entitled "I Wanna Be a Beatle" from future Rascal Gene Cornish who come to think of it eventually did become one of the next best things.

Other goodies...some Jook tracks we've heard for ages but so what, early Genya Raven during her Goldie and the Gingerbreads days and yet another one of those fun cornballus song poems that intellectual punques like to make fun of.

'n hey, the theme from CAMP RUNAMUCK sure brought back a lotta memories. Bad ones that is, because I remember tuning into the show as a young 'un thinkin' it was gonna be a youth-oriented series that concentrated itself on the kids who went to the summer camp with 'em gettin' into all sortsa kid type adventures with the right amount of comedy thrown it for kiddoid laffs.  Turns it was focused on the grownups who were workin' at the place an' boy were they dullsville! Talk about a ruined opportunity...no wonder it got cancelled! 

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As usual, I am polishing off this rather inspirational and life-reaffirming post with yet another plug for the thousands of BLACK TO COMM back issues that are cluttering up my cyster's basement even as we speak. Some mighty good stuff in them pages if I do say so and anyway, when was the last time you knew of any good mags being stored in a basement? And ya gotta admit that it sure is a step up from sixty-year-old issues of BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS!