BLOG TO COMM

Yeah I know, another weekend BLOG TO COMM post and like, who really cares! Anyway, hope you're in on the fun and jamz like you should be with this post which, while not up there in the Top Ten of blogposts 'r anything even remotely like that sure beats the competition (whatever there is left of it) all hollow with its total eruptive nature. Y'know, that thing which just ain't allowed to be revealed in polite company these sad 'n sorry times lest we offend some pantywaist with a sopping dishrag for a conscience. But who ever said that I was one to kowtow to the current trends just because it's the right and proper thing to do? Heck, if anything I've been wont to go against the grain because, well, if anyone needs to be irritated out there it's alla those prim and proper progressive snob conscientious objector do-gooders that Steve Ditko warned us about who've been calling people like me living horse manure these past upteen or so decades just because we do our best to fight that mindless brain rot which can be found metastasized into every facet of what we used to call All Amerigan Wholesome Livin'! Drat!!! But screw them with a broken toilet plunger handle like them New York cops did to that drug dealer a few decades back --- we're here to get to the hard matter of things at hand (the matter being music) and if you don't like it you've probably already abandoned this blog in abject shame a good ten years back!

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As you woulda expected the pickins are kinda skinny this week, as they have been pretty much this whole year let along decade let alone past fiftysome or so. It's something that I would have expected anyway given how --- well --- we are all getting older and frankly the music that we crave, that hard-edged, take-no-prisoners kinda total eruption rock 'n roll, is being held in less and less regard as the years creep on. You shoulda all seen it coming and those of you dumping your record collections probably have, because for all intent purposes the high energy music that pretty much drove the sixties and seventies (at least if you all-out rockers knew the right places where to look) is about as "relevant" and "meaningful" to the whole concept of music at large as the Moms and Dads were hawking their platters on pre-primetime tee-vee back '71 way. Don't see any major improvement in the situation either, although I do get the feeling that in fifteen years time there's gonna be a major upswing in the concept of sound that I here at BLOG TO COMM cherish and that teenbos of a better O-minded breed are gonna just gush over the old records and such made by those aforementioned sound explorers who pretty much have been puked upon by lesser souls throughout their lives. Sheesh, I even get the feeling that dear old ME will become a major icon of the ramped up printed word the same way a whole lotta hipsters were lookin' up to Carl Sandburg back when I was a beansprout! Hope I'm alive to soak it all in because, well, maybe I do deserve something positive to happen to me in my otherwise blandoid existence!

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I know you all did your durndest in helping me find out just exactly what the name of that Sunday AM religious show with the half-man/half-woman creature was a coupla weeks back (still wondering that age-old question, like what was between its legs?!?!?!), so I'm sure you'll be champing at the bit to help me find out more about whoever it was back inna eighties who would rent kiddie-oriented VCR tapes, record themselves doing disgusting things right inna middle of 'em then return the things to the store where some unsuspecting family would get an eyefulla something they just weren't expectin'! I recall Don Howland doing a story about one sorta fellow who did just this which got printed in an old issue of FORCED EXPOSURE which doesn't exactly point any fingers of guilt at him but who knows, while a relative of mine mentioned the time his boss's mother held a neighborhood party for these Korean orphans she had adopted, and while the adults were gulping coffee inna kitchen the young brats were watching a rented Disney film in the other room. When the grownups noticed that things were gettin' kinda rowdy in the parlor they went to check only to find the little ones goin' crazy watching this guy with nothing on who called himself "Mr. Happy" marching around to some Sousa oompah before taking a dump and rolling around in it. The youthful partygoers were quite into the scatology of it all, yelling "poopie" and words to that effect while laughing their little turdler (and in this case I do mean "turdler") heads off. The cops were called and the kids were given some psychiatric evals to see if the sight of number two popping outta a grown man's rear end had affected their psyches, but I've been told all went well and each and every one of 'em got a clean bill of health in the brain department. Do any of you have any interesting stories regarding such happenings, or better yet were any of you involved???

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One word of advice to alla my Canadian readers --- BERNIER! 

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Paul, PD and Bill, thanks a millyun! The rest of ya...ptooey!

Len Price 3-KENTISH LONGTAILS CD-r burn (originally on MRL Records)

I reviewed a few of these guys' platters o'er the years so I guess that I might know just an eentsy-weentsy more about 'em than you. Maybe not, but this 'un seems to be in the same vein as the others with a sixties beat that's filtered through seventies power pop on and on up until the present which, in the end, makes for a music that's kinda like the original but souped up for present tastes kinda like those new Thunderbirds. Stuff that really ain't that bad although far from the kinda grog that makes up my personal throb thrill listening experiences. Still, a fairly good smattering of moptop-era rock 'n roll and Troggs-y moves with some steps into Pistol-y punk pre-punque, and it will probably sound a whole lot fresher in twenty than you will smell.

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The Pretty Things-THE BBC SESSIONS 2-CD-r burn set (originally on Repertoire Records, England)

Wow, I'm thinkin' how I woulda killed (hopefully someone I hate) for a set like this back inna early-eighties, and thankfully this double disc wowzer has appeared in my life to make it a li'l better'n had I not heard it. Starts off with the group working their way through the heavy duty r 'n b sounds right into Byrdsian psychedelia and heavy metal before gettin' into that later-on sound that's a bit tamer but still way superior to some of the gunk that was comin' up against 'em. It's not only got great crystal clear quality but the original deejay intros and outros really make you feel like you're listenin' in as it's happenin'! Plus, for you heavy duty rockers out there, there's a great raw urgency to these renditions that seems to be subdued on the legitimate releases. Top Gear and live inna studio, and a pretty good piece of rock 'n roll evolution that doesn't end up sounding all prog slog.

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Frank Lowe-DOCTOR TOO-MUCH CD-r burn (originally on Kharma Records)

Mebbee somebody can tell me whether or not this was recorded before or after Lowe read that review about his "overblowing" which changed his overall style, supposedly for the worse but that can be argued. I don't think this '77 document ain't that bad, but Lowe does seem quite subdued when compared to that overt nail-scrape sound he got on the likes of DUO EXCHANGE not forgetting that all-time grinder BLACK BEINGS. Still, a find example of that mid-seventies loft styled sound that went off on the proper tangents to the point were even the quieter moments seem rather startling. Features Fred Williams on bass and either Olu Dara or Leo Smith on trumpet as well as fellow brother in needle Philip Wilson in the drum seat.

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Guru Guru-HINTEN CD-r burn (originally on Ohr Records, Germany)

Of course I've had it in my collection for ages and've written it up way way back! But sheesh, this Bill burn's cover was, er, staring me in the face and I thought that it was time to give Guru Guru's second effort another listen to after a good few years of neglect. 'n besides, with the inflow of fresh music at a standstill better I write this 'un up 'n rage on even more about those twennysome people out there I'd like to see dispatched with stainless steel knives wielded by an off-duty chef at Benihana's.

As a lotta these freaked out German efforts tend to get, HINTEN stands up swell even a good fifty years later from that asinine sleeve which typifies alla those bad-taste krautrock covers that promised a lot in the grooves and sometimes delivered on in the music, which really captures all of the high energy madness that the late-sixties/early-seventies cusp gave us with a seemingly relative ease. Psychedelia lived on a good three or so years after the fact with this 'un which, I must admit, does moosh the sarcastic humor of Country Joe and the Fish with the power and energy of the Stooges or whatever it was that heinie rock critic wrote. Plus they put just about alla those tiresome power trios of the sixties and seventies to abject shame.

After the fourth Guru Guru effort you better forget it, but the ones for Ohr and Brain well...those are must to have's in any real deal fan of this blog's record collection!

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Jimmy Ley with Robert Junior Lockwood-WMMS COFFEE BREAK CONCERT July 19 1972 CD-r burn

Surprisingly clear sounding early Coffee Break Concert with Jimmy Ley doin' a great one-man band sorta crash/thud pumping out a rumble that puts Jerry Van Dyke backing up that hootchie kootchie dancer on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW to shame. Local legend Robert Junior Lockwood then joins in and now it's serious non-George Thorogood-ish real down home blues fan time. I can imagine whatever heads there were out there listenin' to this 'un scratchin' their beans hopin' that someone would kick these guys outta the studio and slip "Layla" on before nod out time. Glad the thing survived in such pristine condition, sure wish some of those other WMMS concerts (Rocket From The Tombs etc.) had.

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Augustus Pablo-EAST OF THE RIVER NILE CD-r burn (originally on Message Records, Jamaica)

Given that I really never did cozy up to that Jah-Rastasnorie reggae music this particular platter does resonate somewhat within my thinned-out beanie. Melodica-laden instrumental sounds make for rather good backdrop to not only me reading but writing this particular slop that many people out there seen to either love or hate. Strangely enough it doesn't offend any of my sensibilities, that is what few of them I have retained over the years. Give it a try and who knows, maybe you'll dust off that melodica you got for your seventh birthday and try to squeak out some tunes that closely approximate the music heard on this rather entertaining disque.

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Various Artists-SNAKEHIP PEPPERGRINDER MILKMAN CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Some surprises mixed in with the typical Bill Shute esoterica including the original version of the Evil's "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" with alla the feedback left intact and the Swamprats' take on the Rolling Stones obscuro "It's Not Easy". The new to mine ears efforts such as the Roosters' folk rock overdrivin' "One of the Days" was enough to make my day a little brighter than it woulda listenin' to the usual homo propaganda passin' itself off as respectable entertainment. The rest, from some sides by the JuJus and the same Nightcrawlers who I assume are the "Little Black Egg" guys, make for a finer'n fine collection. But sheesh, if Germany had won the war the only thing we'd be listening to is Gervase singing "Peppergrind" --- ach du fanabla!!!! 

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There was a time when people were quite literate, well informed and generally knowledgeable about music, the arts, politics and the world around them. Then came BLACK TO COMM tossing alla that phony pretext into the commode with its generally snarky, socially un-pious demeanor and loathing for all that is phony and detrimental to the high energy way of living. Buy some back issues and see just why this mag has earned the scorn of people from New York City to Los Angeles, with a few equally non-intelligent points in between.