BLOG TO COMM

Hate to hit you up with yet another hackneyed opening mentioning the current weather situation here in Western Pee-YAY, but since I have nada else to help you readers cozy up to this particular episode of BLOG TO COMM with I guess I have little choice. So here's my assessment of the weather outside...boy is it COLD! Well, can you think of any other way for me to keep up my status for being an autistic One Horse Pony zilch-dimensional personality-less blubberfarm who just happens to like music that's in "the raw state of becoming" as Wayne McGuire once wrote?

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I guess more'n just "a few" of you readers have tuned in today to read my musings 'r whatever you'd care to call 'em regarding Wednesday's passing of Rush Limbaugh. I know many of you are happier'n a gay couple at a gerbil ranch over his deep sixingwhile others kinda feel that the whole conservative or whatever's left of it movement is now akin to Howdy Doody without any strings. Well, I for one am gonna mourn the passing of the old fanabla for more'n a few reasons that I know none of you actually care about, but this is my po-dee-yum an' I can whatever I wanna, right???

I remember first tuning into the guy on Bill Shute's advice (my first actual encounter with him being the old Dennis "Credibility Gap" (or was it the Hardly Worth It Players?) Wholey talk show on PBS) and thought his show was an absolute hoot, what with his then-acerbic humor that I really thought would get him into deep if attention-grabbing trouble. (The first show I heard had him encouraging listeners to send Idaho potatoes to then-NOW head Molly Yard for reasons that somewhat escape me.) I actually agreed with some points he was making (I was just crawling outta my commie rat days, prodded on by the leftoid-snobbism that was prevalent in the under-the-underground music scene at the time --- y'know, people who never could do any deep soul-searching self-examination while berating anything they disagree with even in the slightest) and while the guy did irritate with a lot of his pronouncements I found myself listening in whenever I could. Soon I found myself beginning to agree with him even more than I thought I shoulda, that's how much common horse sense the guy was making in a world of horseshit shoveling being done by most everyone who I seemed to be in contact with at the time.

One thing I do regret is never having heard his old AIDS updates when some flaming fashion designer would die from the dread disease and Limbaugh'd make some handy snide comment in an age when people who were succumbing to it were being lionized as "modern day saints"!!! As if the twelve apostles were spending their evenings doing something other than praying, sheesh!

Natch my ever-evolving sociopolitical beliefs got me into hot doody with some people in "The Hive" who seemed to believe that any free-minded rock underground type should ne'er steer one iota from THE TRUTH whatever it may be that week as dictated from the pages of wide selection of punkzines one could choose from.  I made a few reg'lar readers turn on me with a froth-mouthed rage but eh, I couldn't care less given how some of these types were stuck up armchair socialist types who still patted themselves on the back for all that daring do they participated in during the sainted sixties while in fact were nothing but living rejects from some old R. Crumb comic satirizing the inanities of the Now Generation. No room for such myopic narcissus types in my existence, and to be up front and center about it I'm glad they've vacated my life once and for all!

True Limbaugh did have some irritating faults like his clinging on to Conservatism Inc. and whatever it seemed to stand for at the time, and his championing of then tossing aside the likes of Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul while cheerleeding for some of the more irritating neocons out there was nauseating beyond belief. And it was a bit hard to ignore his pension for the whole "eternal war" credo that had overtaken the Republican Party thanks to the infiltration of way too many uberhawks of the John Bolton variety (his praise of General Sherman's dictum for all out land-shearing conflict leaving everybody in its path destroyed was definitely one point of irritation.) But with the rise of Donald Trump and the prez's jettisoning (with some exceptions ie. Bolton) of these warmongers from the ranks of Republicanism Inc. Limbaugh did redeem himself handily and for that I can safely say that the man stepped out on a good note.  A hawk true, but he sure noted and approved of Trump as being thee Peace President of our time which was certainly one big step in what we used to call the right direction!

If only he had stayed away from his beloved cigars maybe we'd still be listening to him give some good insight on today's political situation. At least he gave me a good reason to even turn the radio on if I was driving to who-knows-where on some dreary afternoon. And not-so-strangely enough, it was grand knowing that he was beginning to agree with me more and more as time rolled on. 

And frankly none of those pallid local talk show guys will be able to take his place. Maybe Mark Steyn somewhat with that English accent that all the gals still go wild over but eh, it won't be the same.

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You already know who gets the credit for the freebees but I'll mention 'em anyway...Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and Feeding Tube Records. It's nice to know that some people out there in this world of ours know what the words DUTY means!

Sex Tide-OHIO LP (Feeding Tube Records)

Who woulda thought that anything good would come outta Ohio this late in the rock 'n roll as that International Youth Language game! Sex Tide prove that alla those years of bad Ohio rock both above and under the radar might have just been one big fluke what with this album that has the sonic quality of any good 1962 basement band recorded by an overzealous dad who thought Junior had some talent and buck-making abilities as well. Femme drummer Miss Celine also sings all the lead superseding the usual punque "I'm My Own Chick" stylings coming about as close to a female Iggy as anyone has, while the entire lot of 'em have a primal pounce that, aided by Celine's sub-Maureen Tucker drums, has gotta be the musical statement of this or any other decade! Kinda comes off like an even more primal Siouxsie take on early Can at one point then approaches a sub-garage thud that makes the Stooges sound like Mahavishnu! Needless to say, a must-getter for the tru blu rockist beings who tune into this blog!

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Hawkwind-WEIRD TAPES 1 - DAVE BROCK, SONIC ASSASSINS CD (Hawkwind Records, England)

I for one am so glad to finally get to hear that Christmas ' Eve '77 "Sonic Assassins" show featuring a surprisingly wired Robert Calvert fronting this one-off group, and believe me when I say that these tracks come off about as electropunk as anything Pere Ubu or Tanz Der Youth (not to mention a few thou other Hawkwind-inspired aggregates world-wide) were up to around the same nanosecond this effort was being cranked out in from of an appreciative audience.

Besides another track featuring the Assassins without Calvert this disque consists of Brock solo efforts recorded on his lonesome, and unlike many of these home-studio sonic workouts the results are actually worth your time to listen to they're that invigorating without being leaden or masturbatory, something I'm sure most of you readers are way too familiar with.

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Faust-SOMETHING DIRTY CD (Bureau B Records, EU)

These post-seventies Faust records, despite their overall brainscraping quotient, never did match up to the originals that crowded import bins at exorbitantly high prices. However this 1'1 effort just might match up to those early un's that had more'n a few English rockscribes doing wall crawls of ecstasy. The opening track entitled "Tell That Bitch To Go Home" has a nice cheap organ drive repeato riff that woulda fit in swell on the Polydor platters while the rest, ranging from electro squiggles to repeato loops, has that Varese-with-a-beat style that sure sets the likes of Faust apart from some of the more aerie faerie examples of progressive rock (yech!) that remain on the market these days. Some mighty sub-bedroom guitar to be heard straight outta the Ron Asheton school too! A surprising, and rock 'n rolling in the proper hard-edged fashion effort from these old fanablas.

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Booker T & The MGs-SOUL MEN/PLAY THE HIP HITS CD-r burn (originally on Ace Records, England)

If your idea of a funzie afternoon is spinning a disque featuring the legendary "Green Onions" guys covering the big mid-sixties (and even before!) hits in their own inimitable way you'll probably go for this like Jussie Smollet goes for the KY. 

Not so oddly enough I also would consider a PM spin of this a pretty good way to back up some much-needed goofin' off.

Pretty palatable portrayals of such transistor-tooglin' spinners from people like Stevie Wonder and the Box Tops, and with this accompanied by some chip 'n dip and Dr. Pepper you can have a real swingin' time on your lonesome...who needs people when you have a Booker T. & the MGs record to get down to anyway?

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The Exception-THE EAGLE FLIES ON FRIDAY CD-r burn (originally on RPM Records)

Nothing dire about these late-sixties English popsters, but then again there ain't anything here that'll thrust you into total anarchic sonic-tude. Only noted for featuring future Fairport Conventioneer Dave Pegg, otherwise I dunno if anyone would really be giving two hoots and a holler about this good albeit standard collection which just might hit it big with some of the more Anglophiliac readers of this blog.

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The Tomcats-RUNNING AT SHADOWS, THE SPANISH RECORDINGS 1965-66 CD-r burn (originally on RPM Records, England)

Here's one of those expat English beat groups who headed to --- this time Spain --- in order to be big fish in small ponds so to speak. 

Like alla those Eyetalian-based English acts such as the Rokes and Primitives these Tomcats really knew how to milk the then-fashionable big beat in ways to really wow the locals, and these Spanish-era efforts sound just as boff as those nth-grade English rarities that have made their way onto various platters these past few years. Best of all it has that hard primitive sound that usually got washed out on the bigger hits of the British Invasion days.

Even if you don't have fond memories of the mid-sixties deluge of fine rock 'n roll permeating every aspect of your existence you just might take a liking to this compilation.

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Jesse Malin-OUTSIDERS CD-r burn (originally on One Little Indian Records)

This guy's been around for a long time and a good thing, because Jesse Malin has put out some rather interesting efforts over his thirtysome year career. OUTSIDERS being just one of 'em, a sly 'n gutsy pop rock effort which kinda reminds me of some seventies Elliot Murphy wannabe tryin' to lay off on the Dylan just a tad. Throw some post-Heartbreakers Johnny in there and you're only part way there. Another good 'un (even if it is an old one, from 2015) from this underrated New York fixture who a lotta fanablas don't mind talkin' negative about behind his back, and you should hear what they say behind mine!

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Various Artists-LONELY MELODY DOLLSTONES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Bill really must be a real sentimental fanabla to mixdisque this thing together given the universal zip zam and zooey of the thing. The Charlie Rich cover was a good start to things while the likes of the Boyfriends (who I don't think are the NYC band of late-seventies post-Poppees fame --- might be one of a thou others with the same moniker) are listenable enough power pop but nothing I'd wanna straight diet of. Sure the likes of Norm Burns and Victor and the Trophies are about as exciting as watching Thalidomide babies doing jumping jacks but the Zeros and Fugitives make up for the hokey gospel (but good hokey nonetheless) 'n sappy plopsters (but not that good sappy if you want me to be upfront about it) that also moil about. Tingling enough to save a rather dullsville winter afternoon from being totally Quindlanesque.

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If you think that all rock 'n roll writing is cut 'n paste puff pieces that are nothing but a musical version of the same vapid journalism one can read in everypaper USA then getcherself hold of a few back issues of BLACK TO COMM! Maybe then you'll find out that there is way more to life than alla that post-Christgau goo that you were led to believe was "rock journalism" lo these many years. Some of the best rockfanscribing to be seen can be found in these pages and hey, if you want to know what a world without hackery is like then look no further than these!