BOOK REVIEW! OCTOBRIANA - DER ERSTCOMIC-STRIP AUS DEM UdSSR-UNDERGROUND BY PETR SADECKY (und Melzer Verlag GMBH, 1972)

The whole thing is in Kraut so I don't understand nary a word as much as if this were in French which I can somehow absorb in my rather dimbulb chrome-dome. Still, after all these years or at least since I first heard Kevin Dunn's flipside to his "Nadine" single I did have somewhat of a curiosity about this particular comic heroine. The entire concept of a cult-level freaked out femme revolutionary with a red star tattoo'd on her forehead did seem somewhat tasty, and although other things have taken precedence over getting hold of any Octobriana in any wayshapeform over the years at least I do get to finally find out what all of the fuss surrounding this character is about, even if I probably am the last person on this planet to do so.

OCTOBRIANA isn't a comic strip in the standard sense of the word, and frankly I was under the impression that these stories would be in standard adventure strip panel form like a lefty STEVE CANYON 'r somethin'. This book is more or less like an illustrated tale complete with art that I will say is slightly enticing and shows a saga that does seem worthy of any comic fan's reading time, but this sure isn't what I was expecting (or even hoping for) lo these many years.

Octobriana's definitely the ULTIMATE Soviet Superheroine, a blond big tittied gal with liver lips dressed in an extremely scanty outfit that some might consider teetering across the line of good taste. She has this frightening aura about her and I get the feeling she also smells funny as well, like she forgot to wipe. Real sinus reaming stuff. The artwork by the Czech cartoonist Petr Sadecky is what one would hope for in an adventure story with some beautifully framed action panels but not knowing the language I can only take this 'un in on the art alone.

OCTOBRIANA is what perhaps a few of you readers would deem "out-there-in-orbit" what with the phallic symbols and surreal settings. I can't detect any of the time-traveling oft described in her stories and the Klansmen featured on the cover are nowhere to be seen (neither is Stalin) but you can tell the gal gets around a whole lot, appearing in China one story and the Arctic another and well, if someone does have an English translation I would be somewhat interested.

Best thing about OCTOBRIANA is that, in the spirit of socialist share and share alike, the character has always been public domain so anyone can (and has) do with the gal whatever they want. I've seen a few bits here/there and none of them seem to match the original but I was thinking...since OCTOBRIANA is anyone's for the taking how about someone doing a comic with her fighting against all of those creeds and such that the gal has defended all of these clenched fist years. Now wouldn't that be something to get all of her longtime fans just RILED??? Sure hope so since I haven't had a good laugh in ages!

BOOK REVIEW! SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES SCRAPBOOK 1976-1980

For a longer time that perhaps you even existed I wasn't what you would call anywhere close to being fan and follower of Siouxsie and her crew. At first listen THE SCREAM left me more bothered and confused and what I heard afterwards wasn't that much reassuring. You could say that I still am not what you would call "front and center" for her, but after reading a few articles by some writers who opinions I do cozy up to over the past XXX years my nodes did somewhat perk up. Yes, I still do get that way sometimes. The group's early demos and live recordings also brought me closer to the Siouxsie groove not only because of their abashed low fidelity bringing out the more feral aspects of the music but because these tracks presented Siouxsie and crew as part of the same kind of rock 'n roll fanbase who were part of the Velvet Underground/Stooges/T. Rex/krautrock cults of the earlier portion of the seventies in the same fashion that many of you older readers were and presumable still are.

These clippings from the early days of Bansheedom are particularly helpful if you (like me) struggled to latch onto all of the ultra-expensive British Weaklies that all the rich kids could afford but not a depression-era waged suburban slob such as I. You get a nice smattering from the likes of NME and SOUNDS not to mention the also-rans like RECORD MIRROR and yes, some of your favorite scribes (well, actually MY favorites like Vivien Goldman, Nick Kent and Jane Suck) are here to make their Siouxsie opines known. Surprisingly enough to me is the fact that the lost to time writers who worked for them aforementioned second-string papers were also pretty good in making their critiques known in a nice, forthright manner. Too bad these people never made it like the big names but crueler things in life have happened to people in the rock writing rat race

I just know that many of you regular tuner-inners go big time for the seventies explosion of cataclysmic music (and cataclysmic rock writing), and you'd do well snatching this collection up. Even if you're not exactly in the Banshee camp well, the sway and swivel that the authors of these missives deliver are way better than anything you read these days, and that includes the nth rate drivel you're reading right now.

No, I have unfortunately NOT been deported (wouldn't mind being sent to Tahiti I'll tell ya)! I'm just taking a breather, being lazy as usual, suffering under the lack of mental stimulation and of course there's REAL LIFE to contend with which is taking precedence to doing such things as writing a blog for you somewhat eager beaver types out there who I s'pose have nothing better to do than to read what I think about certain things in this world of ours. 'n after all that so howz things with you??? 

In other news let's just say that life is chomping me up, down and all around what with the warm summer months just around the corner dumping upon me more yardwork not to mention the outdoor antiques show/flea market wake up at three and on the go until six in the evening grind and well...it ain't like I'm no spring chicken anymore! Talk about taking up what should be my settle back and listen to music while reading a whole lotta fun things time, and since I'm not gettin' any younger who knows how much goof off time is left for me on this planet of ours. Believe-you-me, thoughts of outdoor storms raging on while I put my life on the line protecting the wares that are up for sale is worthy of the best of nightmares, and if I had a choice I'd rather be writing blog posts that arguing with old ladies who want items with ten-dollar price tags reduced to a buck.

In other news the political situation is fun to watch what with Donald Trump playing weird 20-dimensional chess flipping off the entire world the way he does best, stymieing even me with those weird AI-generated paintings with Jesus Christ himself acting as his number one advisor! Very creepy true, but I kind of take it as yet another way to irritate the usual variety of turdburgers who NEED to be "deeply offended" that I see up and about these sad and sorry days. He must be doing a good job of it because at times the ol' stroonada irritates me as well! 

Well, it sure is an improvement over watching Joe Biden and his tranny freakshow even if for all intent purposes I sure do miss the antiwar neocon-hating Trumpenstein of yore...y'know the one who wouldn't even go NEAR an outright Republican Party Hack with a big "H" like Lindsay Graham in a million years but now pumps the likes of him up while kicking his old supporters right inna rump! I guess that with Trump 2.0 it's now "The Art of the Squeal"!!! Talk about letting down all those people who helped build up the Trump brand a good ten years back by reneging on a whole load of promises that we all know sure needed to be kept, but never thought that he or anyone on this planet could!

In all actuality the New Model Trump is about as much Swamp as you can get these days, in fact just as much a marsh maven as those comic book faves the Heap, the Swamp Thing and the Man Thing all sludged together! Frankly, if there really is any hope for this nation of ours it most certainly is Carlson/Owens '28, or maybe even Nick Fuentes for ambassador to Israel! Well, either him or Norman Finkelstein (don't write in, I slipped the last two in, or at least Fuentes, just for some sick yucks this world can really use, and some downright offensiveness you all do really deserve!).

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This week's AI creation...a sixties/seventies-era children's television host who has had
enough and is chasing kids around the set with axe in hand.

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On a tastier note well...I've been wanting to see this FEARLESS FOSDICK marionette series, originally broadcast on CBS back 1952 way (thought lost and gone forever Clementine style), for YEARS! Sure glad that I lived so long...:

Howzbout another?:

And because you've been such a good boy just one more (that guy with the mustache must have been Parker before his Lady Penelope days):

This I never knew about! Somehow I get the feeling that Al Capp Enterprises had nothing to do with the thing since Fosdick ain't pushing no Wildroot Cream Oil, Charlie!:

And now, the Nazi Abbot and Costello, and after seeing more than a few of these I get the feeling that the Helle character was really an Allied asset given his somewhat humorous trajectories from the Aryan way of thinking:

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My boob tube viewing tends to have run into the same old same old rut lately, what with me in the evening tuning in the usual smattering of Warner Brothers cartoons they've been showing on Boomerang for years on end (and I sure could use some Sniffles and maybe a Bosko or two). Then I switch over to INSP for HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL which I will admit can be a little too cerebral for my overworked beddy-bye brain to handle. Well, when my mind is "winding down" after a long day at the dildo factory it does get somewhat needlessly stimulated watching Paladin quoting the philosopher Erroneous and indulging in his love of fine wine and sexy girls in between engaging in a slew of ultraviolent acts. But eh, I like it especially knowing that the harridans of old who were so concerned about violence on TV were probably clutching more than just pearls because of the over-the-hill gunplay and regular slugfests found in this still somewhat legendary television series. And y'know, I get the feeling that the harridans of today, just like the ones of old only now with blue hair and enough metal piercings to sway the magnetic field wouldn't think highly of "Paladin" as well, but then again they complain about everything from the weather to what sex the new baby wants to be these days. All this naturally makes me want to tune it in all the more, spiteful person I am and shall remain! If I'm up to it then there's some old GUNSMOKE I've seen repeatedly these past ten years, but better an old GUNSMOKE than a new TRACKER.

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It would figure that Brad Kohler would get his latest issue (#5) of DUMB AND READY PIGMEAT out within the same span of time as it would take me to change a lightbulb with a number of people of Polish extraction, but at least the guy produces an effort that certainly is way beyond the cudzine limitations Kohler claims to put into his creations. This one is a Japanese surprise issue for those of you who (like me) like Japanese surprises what with a cover article on Reck (I assume the other figure on the cover is none other than former bandmate Lydia Lunch) and a number of decidedly Far Eastern favorites of the past you probably forgot about because I have. This cover does have the look of a 1950s science fiction fanzine if I do say so myself, something that catches the eye of a person obsessed with fanzine history like...well...myself. Again, a nice bit of somethingorother available from 802 Crystal St., Ames (that should be pronounced "a mess") Iowa 50010 USA and like, don't you wish he was doing this back when fanzines really mattered?

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I haven't been buying much if anything on my own these days, but Robert Forward's parcels and a few Paul McGarry stragglers have been helping to keep the review section afloat. Not to say that there aren't recordings both old and new that I wouldn't mind listening to like (for one measly example) the Chinas Comidas collection that just got unleashed but I figure it out this way...I am an old turd and, like I said in the opening schpiel, who knows how long I have being up and functioning. Why should I dish out the moolah for something that might give me only a few months if not days of fun and jamz? At least the stuff I've had since time immemorial has pleased me enough to the point where I really got my money's worth outta my youthful acquisitions!

Scots Pirates-REVOLUTIONARY MEANS CD-r burn (originally on Schoolkids Records)

Those early-to-mid nineties Scott Morgan Cee-Dees don't get any play around here no more given that they really don't live up to the whole Detroit promise that these guys had a good hand creating a good fiftysome years back. However, this post-Sonics Rendezvous bunch did a good enough job on this '95 effort that brings back all of the good things that early-seventies rock gave us while leaving the lamebrain aspects out of the proceedings. 

Yeah, with a song sporting a title like "Marijuana Wine" and a with few overworked seventies riffage moves heard for ages you'd think that these Pirates should have stayed down on the farm with the rest of those White Panther hasbeens. Considering what that song sounds like you wish they had. Otherwise, Morgan and company rev it up in a way that you feel as if you're at some 1972 end the war event which you probably attended if only to hear hot stuff like this.

Nothing I'd part with the silver for but otherwise in a word or two...pleasant enough.

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TOM SURGAL "FIRE MUSIC" INTERVIEW ON WKCR-FM NEW YORK CITY; Chik White-QUARANTUNES N. 56 CD-r burn

Former Blue Human, Thurston Moore and Arthur Doyle (amongst many others) collaborator Surgal gets interviewed about his 2021 documentary where he gabs on about the seemingly humongous task of presenting a history of the jazz avgarde without coming off like a Ken Burns gnome. The resultant FIRE MUSIC film sounds like a pretty tasty endeavor which is available on Criterion VOD but you think that I could afford that? Maybe it will pop up on Youtube one of these days  after all of you Rollo the Rich Kid types have seen, digested and crapped it out. 

But still, for a suburban slob like me who read about all of this strom via its tangential rock 'n roll connections, the mere idea of a documentary such as this sure jets me back to my own teenbo days snatching up the Cecil Taylor's NEFERTITI reissue on Arista/Freedom trotting back to the car just to read Nat Hentoff's liner notes. Not to mention spin a library copy of Mingus's "Original Faubus Fables" getting Dad more upset than even Xenakis did when Eric Dolphy let loose with that by-now legendary solo. Gee, ain't I a sentimental slob!

Chik White makes whacky and gurgling sounds using a variety of implements including his own voice. If I were to be a cynical crank about it I'd say that there's probably nothing else to do in Nova Scotia but still, I can ooze myself into the various glub glubs and whistles that the man makes, presumably through his own snout before he breaks out the nasal spray. I particularly liked the part where he does a pretty good Tasmanian Devil impression right at the end, assumedly not on purpose but I dig it anyway.

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Moonlove-MAY NEVER HAPPEN CD-r burn (originally on Concrete Circles Records

Here's some pre-Ghosts Before Breakfast groupage from Kent Ohio who originally released this in a limited cassette edition way back in '85 when I wasn't looking. Moonlove have that jingle jangle sound that can be heard even this late in the evolution of man, and considering the date it was recorded and what other forms of music it was up against even I have to admit that this is exemplary soundage. 

However, as some of you might know I never was one to cozy up to a lot of that post-seventies underground rock pop, and to be more honest than Brad Kohler about it the connective nodes between what Moonlove is trying to express and my own taste meters just don't quite collide. I do get the feeling that some of you regular readers might be up for a group such as this and well, it's not like this group is dire or anything. They just wander quite outside the admittedly limited parameters of what I'm extremely obsessed with these sad and sorry days. And that's probably more my fault than theirs!

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Delaney & Bonnie & Friends-ON TOUR WITH ERIC CLAPTON CD-r burn (originally on Atco Records

Sheesh Paul, what did I deserve to have you send this to me? Did I do anything bad to you, or your family or anything like that to have you jet this piece of early-seventies hokey hippie music my way? Talk about everything that was wrong about the early-seventies (including the lamer-than-lameass Little Richard homage) rolled up into one big obnoxious ball of sound, and considering that Eric Clapton was involved with this I wouldn't exactly call him God. Not even close, unless your idea of a deity is Cthulhu. Worst part about it is...Bonnie's still alive and I'm sure shrieking today just as she was on this 55-plus-year-old tribute to controlled opposition music passed off as the latest in hipster shuck for kids who fell for Woodstock hook line and ticketron. Elvis Costello was right.

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Taste-LIVE TASTE CD-r burn (originally on Polydor Records)

I better be careful with this one. Y'see, Paul also sent this my way and like, Rory Gallagher is his favorite guitarist so if I say anything bad about him McGarry is going to personally flatten my bean because well, he is one who is loyal to his idols unlike me who will turn on a fave at the drop of a hat. Any of you readers able to help me break the news about what I really feel about this album without arousing the ire of McGarry? If so, please leave your comments below.

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Dr. John-LOCKED DOWN CD-r burn (originally on Nonesuch Records)

Didn't think that the ol' fanabla would have had it in him this late (2012) in the game but hey, Dr. John put out a record that sounds as if it coulda come from the cooler moments of mid-seventies still-had-it-in-him blues rockism. For a minute I thought the guy woulda been sneaking a whole load of then-current trendy moves into his sound, but this comes off as good as something that woulda gotten them STEREO REVIEW rock critics all hot and bothered and, come to think of it, even normal people like us too. As I often say these days I wouldn't buy this one in a million years but then again it ain't something that I'd call worthless. You might even like the thing, who knows?

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Fille Qui Mousse-TRIXIE STAPLETON 291 D (Spalax Records, France)

I should have read them French underground rock books a whole lot closer, because for the life of me I thought that the Fille Qui Mousse TRIXIE STAPLETON 291 D platter was a somewhat different monster than the SE TAIRE POUR UN FEMME TROPPE BELLE release on Futura which I wrote up a good six years ago. Turns out they're one and the same, but since I can't find the latter one this'll do me just swell. French musique concrete gone rock 'n roll and like, if this isn't the real punk rock that I've been gabbing about for my entire "career" then anything I've written really was all for naught. And I do believe it so!

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Charlie Rich-BEHIND CLOSED DOORS LP (Epic Records)

When I was a pubesproutnig adolescent some kid in the neighborhood came up to be and yelled right into my face "Hey Chris, what do fags do behind closed doors?" My immediate reaction was to start singing the chorus of the then current Charlie Rich hit "Behind Closed Doors" which I thought would give me a humorous pass, but I still got beat up anyway.

But still, when I listen to that 'un and Rich's next big hit "The Most Beautiful Girl" (which also appears here), I must admit that I get deep into the sudzy groove. This stuff ain't necessarily housewife fodder to scrub out them skidmarks to, but sly, calculated yet target-hitting country and western pop that will reduce you to custard especially on one of those kick back and relax days I certainly do cherish. Sure there's nothing straightforward and downright rockin' like "Lonely Weekends" or "Mohair Sam" here, but this one helped do a little desensification after being subjected to perhaps way too much resensification these past few weeks.

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John Inzane Olson-ART BOOK TWO, LITTER, TRAINING YOU CD-r burn

Olson must have a lot of free time on his hands and GOOD FOR HIM! I mean, how else are any of us going to get to hear this fine electronic crash 'em up that recalls everything from Can's "Cutaway" off of UNLIMITED EDITION to kids jacking around with dad's expensive stereo system circa 1965 anyway? It really is a good (and non-self indulgent) blast of electronic zoom that I would compare to various ethereal efforts of the same strata. Now if I only knew how to tell you where you can get your own copy.

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Hey, if you haven't picked up all of those back issues of BLACK TO COMM that have eluded you for years maybe it's time that you checked out the highlighted link and did some catching up! One of these days this offer is not going to be here and well, you better get these now before you have to do some landfill scouring in the probably not too distant future.