BLOG TO COMM

IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE, LET'S PUKE!

All set for another weekend round of BLOG TO COMM now, eh? Didn't think so, but yer stuck with a post anyway ya sissies!

As usual I will try to do my best despite my inherent triteness and general grouchiness with regards to this world of ours, something which at times seeps into the mix whether I want it to or not. Bought a newie, popped open an oldie that was still sealed, and got a few from Paul 'n Bill who really know who to kowtow to!

Mebbee I should mention some uppa date things in order to look hip and with it. Not that I have to look so since everybody out there with a noggin knows that I am, but whadevva...  Like, howzbout that prez we have there...like, wotta guy! And that Mideast situation...wow! And as far as the Chinese Gongo thingie is progressing...mahvelous!!! Who sez this blogmeister is stuck in some self-imposed fantasy world where his horseblindered state of cranial connectivity is far beneath the ken of your average nu-hippie radical who probably got his radical cred watching POTEMKIN on PBS!

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Hokay that dint quite work out so swell. Howzbout I relate one of my rock 'n roll dreams, or one rather mish-moshy one that not only had me buying items  that were being sold by Miriam Linna at some record fair (!!!!!- got a good mid-seventies single rarity outta the deal) but one where the theme, time frame and entire mode changed within the very realm of my subconscious making for a saga that woulda even stymied Robert Cornell! 

I am old, I am thin but then again I'm young and fat then once again thin with greasy hair down my back looking kinda like a hood, though I think that maybe I wasn't back to being thin by this time. It keeps changing. I'm in a rock club, or am I watching a video of a group? Who knows, but they're a very good act playing a straight-ahead rock beat led by a lead singer who for all intent purposes looks a whole lot like Phil Silvers! Or at least your standard midaged bald guy with horn-rimmed spectacles only he's wearing wire rims, singing away and swaying as his backing act put out a heavy drone worthy of any of your hard rock 60s/70s cusp faves. The whole group is dressed in old man suits as well, and then suddenly I see an earlier edition of the group where the singer is now drumming and singing --- on guitar is his brother who looks equally midaged bald but they're still pretty entertaining at that. And then all of a sudden the scene switches to the group hanging out in CAMBODIA a whopping four decades back, and the singer/drummer is seen looking about the same age only with a slightly receding hairline (top portion greased back) as the five-piece group is clumped up oceanside in some exotic locale having a good time judging from their laughs. Sure is weird enough even for my strained psyche, but not as strange as the one Brad Kohler had where he is visited by a number of Jews collecting for some cause and they're all dressed up like Nazis because, well, we shouldn't forget the past. Only a few of the faux Nazis were sporting Throbbing Gristle lightning bolts 'stead of swastikas for some strange reason...

John Cale-VINTAGE VIOLENCE CD (Columbia Legacy Records)

Remember reading the above ad and wanting to hear this album soooo bad? I sure do. And remember actually giving VINTAGE VIOLENCE a twirl and being quite disappointed? Ditto here.

But then again that was long before my frontal lobes (talkin' brain, not boobs!) were fully developed and I was still thinking like the spiritual turdler that I was and in many ways remain. Nowadays I find VINTAGE VIOLENCE to be a pretty good effort 'n the kind we should have expected from John Cale even after all that carnage he spewed on those Velvet Underground and Nico albums. Heck, I find this one as good as PARIS 1919 and even FEAR and much better'n those subsequent Island efforts that never seemed to deliver on just what a whole load of us wanted from this bonafeed genius,. Naturally I am not using that word too lightly unlike many of you overzealous rockcrit types usedta (and maybe still do f'r all I know).

Ya might consider VINTAGE VIOLENCE just more of that early-seventies singer/songwriter jive, the kind that alla those iron-haired gals in high stool used to drool over and you agreed with 'em if only to get some trim as Don Fellman still puts it! Naw, this ain't the James Taylor sorta junkied up emote that was part and parcel to many a record collection at the time but a solid, mature and downright intense in its own intimate way album that, while not the braindrill I was expecting way back when, still sounds a hefty lot better'n the rest of the cry over a broken flower types who were singin' 'bout fire 'n rain making destitute teenage gals with deadly diseases feel sorry for 'em.

Best thing of all is that you don't have to hide your emotions while listening to these straightforward sounds which seem to hit me a whole lot more on-target than many of the aforementioned types of bazillionaire minstrels with sorry eyes and needled up arms. C'mon, you can sniffle a bit when absorbing the acoustic guitar strains of "Amsterdam" and chill to "Ghost Story" which would go well with a reading of any classic late-sixties Marvel gothic horror comic you can think of, one hopefully delineated by Jim Steranko.  These toons may not be as hard-on as WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT but they sure come off as early-seventies straight ahead as the Flamin' Groovies!

The bonus tracks on the Cee-Dee will make you old fogeys with the original still proudly displayed in your collections dish out for a new 'un, what with an alternative of the barrelhouse rockin' "Fairweather Friend" as well as an all new track called "Wall", a gaggle of overdubbed viola that sounds as if it coulda been a backing track on THE MARBLE INDEX. And like, considering some of the things Lou Reed spewed out as his legend got bigger 'n bigger this might as well have been WL/WH for all I care!

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John Cale-HOBOSAPIENS CD (EMI Records)

Well Brad, I finally opened it and like well, it ain't as bad a platter as I woulda thunk it to be. But sheesh, it sure sounds exactly like what you expected these sixties/seventies geniuses to sound like once the eighties got in gear and like, it does have that air of syntho-gloss that never did figure in well with those art rock efforts that became so laughable once 1980 rolled around. Trouble is, I'm not exactly laughing at the more technoglitzy tracks. Kinda instrospective and even kinda boring, but I gotta admit that HOBOSAPIENS does have a tad of the spirit and verve that made some of those seventies albums worth playing over and over again. Unlike what I'm gonna do with this 'un but wha' th' hey...

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Rob Brown Trio-BREATH RHYME CD-r burn (originally on Silkheart Records)

Sometimes I happen to wander past some jazz radio station and cringe at the kinda bowties 'n nosh music that gets played on 'em. Then I go home and slap something like BREATH RHYME  on and the entire mystery of jazz as that flowing ooze of rhythm and cries from the deepest cracks of the brain just come roaring back. Highly reminiscent of some of the post-retirement Blue Note-era Ornette albums, and with sidemen like bassist William Parker and drummer Dennis Charles let's just say this ain't gonna sound like any of those "jazz" thingies you hear on late-night comedy talk shows!

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Stan Ridgeway-THE DRYWALL INCIDENT 2-CD-r set (originally on TWA Records)

For being a soundtrack to a "short" film these two platters sure pack a lotta music into them. But since I never was a fan of either Stan nor his various aggregations I can't say that I really enjoyed this brand of neo-wave electronic sound as much as I'm sure Paul McGarry woulda liked given he sent this burn to me way back when.  I get the feeling that the average type of warm blooded (I think) creature who would enjoy these synthesized sonatas still has the entire IRS records catalog firmly intact in his/her/its collection and, if previous happenstances in my life are to be believed, a body odor that could ream even the most clogged of sinuses around. 

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Various Artists-CAZUMBI --- AFRICAN SIXTIES GARAGE, VOL. 1 Cd-r burn (originally on No Smoke Records)

Once again Paul McGarry was NOT PAYING ATTENTION when he sent me a burn of this collection of African Nuggets since I reviewed an actual vinyl copy of this 'un when it came out way back 2008 way. Eh, the thing was staring me inna face as I was cleaning out the bedroom so I figured another evaluation of it might just be the thing and y'know --- it WAS!

As any Arthur Lee fan can tell you, listening to black guys imitating white guys imitating black guys really can be an experience and these bands really do get the sixties madness down pat. Like, this dude called Dr. Nico coulda been some wildass singer who coulda made an appearance on BACK FROM THE GRAVE while Conjunto De Oliveira Muga's "Sospesa Ad Un Filo" is as teenbo addled as the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" it was obviously taken from! And hey, I had no idea that one of those freak "Them" spinoffs ended up in Africa, but their "I Want To Be Rich Again" is just as bloozy rockin' as anything the original Them with Van (or some of those immediate offspring) could get!

Most of it ain't as over-the-top as these tracks unless you prefer the more folky, commercial pop aspects of late-sixties radio. However, ya gotta admit they do one swell in the way they capture various English and Amerigan styles and echo 'em for a local clientele that I'm sure was way more sophisticated than any of those NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC types woulda ever guessed. 'n so, if you missed out on this when it came out I guess you can latch onto a copy, maybe even a free download, with a little expert duckduckgoin'. Proof that alla that jungle music you used to hear in Tarzan movies was the beginning of even greater things to come.

('n for ya vinyl freaks, this just might be worth the additional $$$ if only for the bonus tracks!)

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The New Colony Six-AT THE RIVER'S EDGE CD (Sundazed Records)

An oldie I dragged outta the collection in order to boost this post up a li'l. An' a good choice too considering how these guys were a pretty solid pop/garage band before heading for late-sixties Top 40 gloppiness that I still find kinda pleasant in its own way. Hints of the latterday group can be picked outta the pile even this early inna game, but the general twang guitar sounds and teenage Chicago style ('n I'm talkin' the city of 1966, not the overladen group of the same name!) recall the teenage days of slot cars and campy tee-vee shows a whole lot more than it does the late-sixties of mind-blown miasma. Best bet yet : the title track which was one of those PEBBLES tracks that really stuck in my cranium these past fortysome years!

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Various Artists-FOXY TWILIGHT CARNIVAL THUNDER CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

The plethora of sixties instrumental rock certainly got my head a'spinnin', and between those and the down groove garage band weepers Bill seems to admire so much (and why not?) this made for a great backdrop to some day-off room cleaning. The appearance of some rare English psychedelic popsters with a strong Syd Barrett bent to 'em also got my attention (didn't know Blossom Toes were so against the grain of the usual floppy peacenlove scam sounds of the time and with a name like THAT...). I didn't find the long lost in the rubble item I was looking for, but I did find myself in for a good piece of musical stimulation that helps me get over my general disappointment!

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Don't worry --- with the upcoming nice 'n warm weather we're bound to get you can still think up original ideas in order to stay in your cramped boudoir and read back issues of BLACK TO COMM. C'mon, if you can use your grey matter to think up interesting ways to cheat on your taxes and placate your guilty conscience you can conjure up good enough reasons to buy one or all of the copies oft is legendary (for all the wrong reasons) fanzines that are still left. Sheesh, I am disgusted with ya an' I do mean it!