BLOG TO COMM

Now that spring has sprung all over the place and the prospect of a good seven months of grass cuttin' and other outside activities has reared its ugly head, let's just say well, now I have a good excuse for not givin' ya the kinda It's All Meat no filler added posts you expect from such a high quality blog as this. Actually it ain't like I've been spending a good portion of my time doin' alla that tedious yardwork but sheesh, can't a guy just sit around and immerse himself in the finer things in life like music and old battered rock mags without worrying about such extracurricular activity as curb trimmin'????

It ain't like I've been doin' the ol' household doodies the entire week. Naw, in fact I've been putting the pittance once known as my free time to good use spinning some of my fave disques 'n such! In fact, my current fave rave just has to he the Kleiner's Kabalah Syringe effort reviewed a few weeks back, a platter that has really overtaken my rock 'n roll spirit and memories of what the future of rock was supposed to be way back when to the point of no return. It's really a crime that these totally high-energy guys got ignored by the rockist powers that be in favor of the usually dull puke that passes for wild and uninhibited sounds these days. Gee, did anyone out there document this group;s innermost thoughts like they usedta do in them gal teen magazines??? SOMEONE shoulda!

Credits for this week's freebee train go to Bob Forward, Paul McGarry 'n Bill Shute. Addresses will be provided upon request (boy, will that get 'em all head-scratchin' as to the implications o'er that particular aside!).

 The Fundamentalists-INDUSTRIAL SWEETHEART CD-r burn (Walls Flowing Records)

This is s'posed to be a reish of an earlier cassette that I probably know nada about but am too lazy to find out whether or not I did hear this during some previous incarnation in my life. oh well, it does follow on the same path as those other fundamentalist efforts, with loads of sound both electronic and found mixed up in a way that you thought nobody but Schlitzie could conjure up. I'm sure that Bob, if he puts his mind to it, can think of some way of milking the National endowment For The Arts outta thousands with these bard-knocked sounds. The ghost of William Proxmire must be puking at the mere thought...

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Satan's Pilgrims-SATAN'S PILGRIMS/PSYCHSPLIOTATION CD-r burn (originally on Musick Recordings and Raucous Records respectively)

I kinda thunk that these Satan's Pilgrims guys woulda been some occult rockers heavily into that whole doom 'n death subgenre but they sure as Sam smells ain't! This group is strictly into the Golden Age of sixties instrumental rock as these two efforts, recorded an entire decade apart, will attest to.

SATAN'S PILGRIMS channels the mid-sixties style as exemplified by a number of all-out rock groups of the day, the Ventures and Davie Allen and the Arrows most likely. Some mid-eastern Dick Dale can be espied on the aptly-named "Casbah" and mostly high reverb-y late-period surf is to be had here all sounding so authentic that visions of the 1975 BOMP! surf issue will just come bobbin' right inside your head. Well, it did in mine, and there's a lotta room there for this music to ricochet all around!

Ten years does not that much of a difference make. PSYCHSPLOITATION's a steady instro effort just like the self-named spinner from a decade earlier. maybe it's a bit slicker but this follow up sure delivers on that pre-hippoid sense of ranch house thrilldom that I sure wish was present in the ranch house I grew up in! A bitta the psychedelic ooze does pop up but it's a good psychedelic...y'know, like GNP Crescendo. Ya wouldn't expect Jefferson Airplane to record anything as close to the suburban slob mentality as this, wouldja? 

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Pointed Sticks-K97 FM, EDMONTON ALBERTA 1980 CD-r burn

Yuh know, for years I was under the impression that this group was one of those early hardcore-styled punquesters that used to get plenty of precious coverage in the big timey fanzine of your choice. Pointed Sticks sure ain't like that, they're more in that hard power pop sorta vein, the kind that sorta wooshed those light weight groups down into the sewer where they belonged! Contains a number of down-to-earth sixties nuggets if you duggits as well as these originals that still hold up long after anyone on earth thought they woulda. A lotta the pop-oriented punques that got big inna nineties shoulda taken a few notes from Pointed Sticks 'in if they only did then maybe we wouldn't've hadda put up with a whole lotta offal that passed itself off as rock 'n roll these past umpteen years!

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Larry Young-OF LOVE AND PEACE CD-r burn (originally on Blue Note Records)

Here's one I haven't seen up and about that much which is too bad considering what a wowzer the thing is. Young's organ gives a nice soul feeling to a rather Coltrane-esque excursion into free sound that's pretty powerful even for a mid-sixties "new wave of jazz" offering. Can't find a thing wrong with it. Avbop for the ages --- if you go for things along the line of Wayne Shorter's SUPERNOVA you'll probably do more shorts wettin' 'n usual o'er this 'un.

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Sir Douglas Quintet-LIVE FROM AUSTIN TX CD-r burn (originally on New West Records)

Yeah, given that this was taken from an AUSTIN CITY LIMITS broadcast there is that sterile tee-vee approach to the presentation that does detract from the true nature of what Doug Sahm and the rest meant for a whole slew of people. Thankfully that doesn't make this Sir Douglas Quintet live platter any less vital as the guys romp through a set that comes off just as mid-sixties boff as we all woulda hoped. The classic originals mixed with the Nuggets brings the whole Texas  rock 'n roll experience straight into your own fart-encrusted bedroom giving it even more thrills'n the time you uncrated a slew of long-forgotten NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICs!

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The Senders-BACK TO SENDER REVISITED CD-r burn (originally on Skydog Records, France)

Eh, this ain't as good as their earlier platters but it's good enough. Pretty much in the seventies-onward neo-retro fifties rock vein ('n speakin' of vein, didja know that Nancy Spungen actually approached Senders leader Phillip Marcade for tips on how to properly shoot heroin?), these guys do have the proper spark and swerve needed to get to the root of the rock 'n roll matter w/o comin' off like one in a millyun Bruce Springsteen bar band imitations. If you spent the seventies stocking up on Dr. Feelgood and Stiff Records, here's one that wouldn't be outta place.

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Various Artists-A HARD DAY'S PEYTON PLACE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Another keeper, as if I'd throw any of these Bill burns away. The avgarde material which opens and closes this is far better'n some of the more beret and stale doritos material out there types could think up. I was especially bowled over by the Ghost Project effort of which I could find nada about onna web. The rest fits in swell from some rare Doug Sahm to Ramsey Lewis playing the Beatles in his own lounge jazz way. Yeah Timothy Leary is his usual phony self and I personally haven't had a Domino's pizza in my life (why get one when the local stores are more attuned to the suburban slob ranch house kiddies mindset I grew up with?) but otherwise I'd call this collection a must to have as far as future spins go.

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When was the last time you really had a hankerin' for some solid no-holds-barred rock 'n roll reading! Y'know, that sloppy gonzoid style that was pretty popular at least until the Powers That Be banished its likes from their pages in favor of some pretty tepid cut 'n paste. Well, you might just get your fill of that hard-edged expression within the pages of these back issues of BLACK TO COMM. But then again, you might not. I'm sick and tired of second-guessing you readers but hey, if you want a change from the usual tawdry tidings of megalolopian miasma you couldn't do any worse.