Eh, fergit the gab about weather or other sundry things that would seem somewhat "suitable" to open up this post. Got a lot to deliver this time so why mess it up with alla that extraneous jive...shee-yucks, but I even axed my original introduction mentioning things like the current political situation and various local to-dos figurin' why bore you considering how none of you care one whit what I think of anything even if you people somehow find a reason to tune in. Deleted it all with a number of paragraph highlights and clicks, but lemme tell you I sure had some fine and on-target things to say that really would have blistered a whole slew of you readers who just can't face the bare-faced truth that I repeatedly deliver. Oh well, maybe some other time-----but not TODAY. Lucky for you, Sweetie!
For once in quite some time, things aren't as hyper pressure packed as they
usually tend to get even during this stage in my life when I should be relegated to an existence of Malt O Meal and Ensure. Oh, I've been having a nice enough time watching the absolute loonybins around me (as
Ernie Bushmiller once said, you don't have to go to the carnival to see the
freaks these days) as well as engaging in the usual vices of music, top notch rockscreed
reading via old fanzines and seventies rock "journalism" copped offa ROCK'S BACK PAGES. Did I mention my penchance for pouring over a slew of comic strip reprints like milk on your cornflakes? When it comes to glomming
the kinda funnies that I stuntedly grew up with I must say that it's sure amazing
what one can find when one looks in the right places.
And there's plenty of it out there for the pickin'...f'rinstance, my main
source for classic Bob Montana-era ARCHIE strips these days are
the examples put up by various peddlers via ebay. I actually remember reading
some of these up for sale items during my single-digit days recalling just how
much fun and joy I got outta 'em, something which led to a life-long
ARCHIE fixation that I never could shake off even when I grew into "adulthood" and felt kinda creepy about it.
I am still trying
to locate a particularly laugh-ripping Sunday where Archie and Jughead concoct a
"smell-o-vision" to impress Veronica, but the one where Mr. Lodge
freezes to death after being locked out of the swimming pool enclosure at some ski
resort has been, after a few decades of searching, finally located
much to the joy of my inner brat. Man that 'un sure aroused a whole load of
funtime feelings in this suburban slob who can sure remember the
mind twist I got from the punch line even after all these years. Who knows, perhaps this
was the very strip that is responsible for my sadistic sense of humor which almost got me set up for some downright serious mental scrutinizin'!
I
never knew that there were heated swimming pools in glass enclosures without
roofs making me wonder how much energy has to be used to keep all the swimmers
warm 'n toasty when it's 0 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but if they really do exist I'd sure like to know a whole lot more about 'em:
Best thing about these ebay offerings is that you're not obliged to buy any of
these items so its safe to stare all you want without fear of getting one of
those public shame shames from some tight-sphinctered department store salesman which, for all of you biographers out
there, reminds me of a true story from when I was about ten or eleven. Y'see , me and a
number of kids were at the local Mason's hanging out at a bookrack looking
through some old
s like kids tended to do back then, when some guy
started yelling at us to get away and that if we wanted to read books we should
all go to the library. The other kids ran but I stayed right where I was saying
that they don't have these books at the library which certainly didn't make the
guy change his mind one bit, and even though I eventually fled myself I did feel proud in standing up to the hothead! After all these years all I can hope is that he
died a slow and painful death and although I wasn't there to laugh in his face
as he gasped his last at least I'd be glad that the guy got his own belated
comeuppance!
A HOMAGE TO PEBBLES, THE SERIES THAT PROVED A WHOLE LOAD OF
"ROCK EXPERTS" WHO SAID THAT PUNK HAD NO ROOTS WRONGER THAN MOST OF
THE WRONGHEADED THINGS THEY ALL HAVE WRITTEN OVER THE YEARS!
Punk was nothing you really coulda called "new" 'cept if you had your head squarely up
Robert Christgau's ass for a good twennysome years. There were punks then
(mid/late-sixties up through the seventies) and they were pretty much like
the rest of the herd, buying the same Beatles and Stones platters in the middle and even later portion of the decade, watching the groups that frequently popped up on the tee-vee screen, and naturally playing
around with the usual array of mental stimulants that were making themselves
known in high school parking lots 'round three in the afternoon. The
deciding factor was that the punks were heading for the outer reaches of sonic and even mental integrity while the herd stayed firmly in place. These punks were pouring their money down ratholes snatching up Velvets/Stooges and other under-the-underground albums as they went instant cutout while steering away from a lot
of the more sunshine-y sounds that were beginning to speak to the inner
sensitivity youth kumbaya mindset. By this point in time the punks were favoring the beats and Warhol's death mirror. Unfortunately the vast majority of the 18–34-year-old record buying public gravitated towards "One Tin Soldier" and BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN as the concept of teenage music went Catatonic Stevens to the point where a living zombie like James Taylor was considered the pinnacle of alienated youth expression, or something like that.
The dichotomy's as simple as
NOVA EXPRESS versus CRAIG AND JOAN : TWO LIVES FOR PEACE. CREEM versus ROLLING STONE. Sad thing is that nowadays (actually for the past forty years!) it is the punques who are the ones reviving the teenage headband hippie emote of the same exact era that helped create the social/sonic zeitgeist (a word I hate as much as "iconic" but I couldn't think of any other) that gave way to the concept of punkitude as a noticeable form of teenbo expression in the first place. Today, almost all punques are hippies with short hair and piercings that they think make a statement and shock the lumpen proles, all of who are yawning away like anything.
It's hard to imagine for you younger turds amongst us that in these days
where everything and everybody can instantly (and in many cases
unfortunately) be found within the tap of a few keys, that at one time the
PEBBLES series of local scene garage band obscurities and not
so's was a definite BOON to the molding and development of many
a music-hungry suburban slob. T'was back during the cusp from seventies high
energy rock success to eighties glitzed out
piddle, days which were for the most part the best (pure unadulterated
fruits of prior sonic breakthroughs laid right in front of you) and the
worst (just
try hearing any
of it on the radio or even your mother's turntable!) of times. Would I want
to live through those days again? Yeah, only if I were rich beyond my
wildest dreams, handsome like anything, a pure genius who could shut my enemies up like snap and had a head of hair
that would make Jimi Hendrix jealous!
For many of us kiddies gnawing away at the reams of releases that were coming out from all directions, it was records like these
(as well as, of course, NUGGETS and later on the
PSYCHEDELIC UNKNOWNS and BOULDERS series) that
showed us that punk rock was not the up from nowhere flash in the pan that lesser minds believed it to be. Despite what most blabbermouths out there were
telling us more on the ball record purchasers who were supposed to gobble up everything we were
told as if it were gospel truth, punk rock was something that actually had a
history that stretched back well until the very beginning of that sound we
used to call rock 'n roll. And hey, although many would deny it punk was a
prominent "movement" that was struttin' about right under our very noses way back when, only it didn't really have a name or image until later when smart writers like Meltzer himself started pining away for lost punkitude in the pages of a whole slew of pertinent publications one could even buy on the newsstand.
Best thing about it is that this early punk rock was
the exact same music many of us grew to love thanks to a more adventurous
top forty as well as a buncha local bands that never knew that their
adolescent hijinks were going to eventually turn out to be the stuff of
legend. Sheesh, next to the local singles that were being made during the mid-sixties a whole load of efforts that were coming out of the
underground rock scene of the early-eighties (and beyond) both legit and under-the-covers just sounded as staid and
uninspired as the nimnuls who were writing about it!
And hey, I'm sure more'n just a few of you readers remember the
heart-throbbing anticipation you had thumbing through the latest
BOMP! mail-order catalog discovering that there was a new batch
of these compilations up for sale thus making you skip a few lunches or
better yet snatch money outta mom's purse in order to sate your oft-starved
rock 'n roll desires. I sure know since I was one of them, actually nibbling
away at my life's savings (which at the time totaled a whopping ninety
dollars!) for records such as these and ya know what? I don't regret any of
it one bit!
And so, as if you didn't need it, here's my take on these records which certainly got me all hot and bothered back when I
couldn't tell a Bobby Fuller from a Bobby Kennedy. I get the
idea the situation was exactly the same for you!
And, since I'm feeling
sorta Luddite at the moment, I'm only reviewing the good ol' original vinyl
versions of these, beautiful pieces of rock music history complete with all the mastering goofs and skips. They seemed so quaint yet meaningful at the time, recordings that would make any state of the art stereo
system sound like one of those kiddie portables like my cousins had when me
and one of 'em would stick on "Washington Square" and just walk around the
room because we couldn't dance like they did on BANDSTAND. And, come
to think of it, they
do have all the
low-fidelity grit that only makes these records sound good which is why I
prefer this series (not to mention BOULDERS) to the cleaner sounding
eq-'d outta existence updates and reissues that came out in their wake.
I'm also forgoing the various HIGHS IN THE MID-SIXTIES offshoots
and most of the other PEBBLES-related releases. Gotta put some
sort of a limit on this article and besides (due to depression-era wages and
pity for my bank account), I don't even own 'em all! But from what I do
have I can tell you that they're really worth the time and effort to latch
onto, and if someone out there has the entire kit 'n kaboodle why dont'cha do your own blog
review of these for the benefit of the unwary like myself? I'm sure someone
out there has...it ain't like I'm the only village idiot for rock 'n roll
out there!
***
Here's the first one,
not the original Mastercharge issue going
for loads of bitcoin these days but the first of the BFD pressings all the way from the wilds of Australia. Nice package as you can see as well, plus the liner notes from the
legendary fanzine editor Nigel Strange from
WEB OF SOUND sure
bring back memories of them days when the acts that appeared on this effort
seemed oh-so-exotic when in reality they were about as down home suburban slob
as your next door neighbor who, who knows, might have even been in one of the
groups who appear in this series.
Starts off swell too what with the Litter (Minneapolis' answer to the MC5 or
so I've read somewhere) commencing the series with the total eruption of "Action
Woman" (complete with skip) giving way to a whole load of lower caste rock
wonders I sure wish were up and about in the minds of rockists world-wide. Wonders do abound from
the likes of the Soup Greens "Louie Louie"-ing "Like a Rolling Stone" in a
fashion that I'm sure would have offended the more "serious" members of the
teenbo phony intellectual crowd, to the Wild Knights with their double
entendre "Beaver Patrol" that might fool your Aunt Mabel but it won't fool
me!
Gee, some familiar names pop up here as well from the infamous Kim Fowley
(who for years I believed was the man with the knitting needles bald wig
appearing on the front cover but then again this guy's jaw's not square enough so
it couldn't be) to the Shadows of Knight freebee "Potato Chip", later
covered so eloquently by Mykal Board's early-eighties group Art. The
Haunted, Montreal's favorite exponent of the real deal teen beat, appear
with their "1-2-5" which I'm sure sated a whole load of curious types who
first read about it in the pages of
DENIM DELINQUENT #3. And one of Miriam Linna's faves, none other than
Floyd Dakil (or so a certain Spin Turlock has told me) shows up with an
early-sixties bouncer entitled "Dance Franny Dance"...I hope she never finds
out that a good decade or so after this was recorded Dakil eventually found
his true calling...Vegas.
***
PEBBLES VOLUME TWO was a more than apt follow-up with the same
basic low-fidelity cover scheme as well as some boffo liner notes that were
perhaps one of the better R. Meltzer (as A. Seltzer) swipes seen to date. (I
should know because I copped a whole lot of my own writing skills from this
very piece which, like any real deal Meltzer effort, sure stands the test of
time.) Like the debut, this has a good smattering of sounds from acts both
known and unknowns making for a quite adventurous trip back into a time when
the lines most certainly were drawn and we all knew where these bands stood
(along with the rest of the anti-AOR raging snoozathon sounds out there), eh?
The flybynight production will upset some of the more serious, er,
"audiophiles" out there, that is if any of them are still around (haven't
been near a STEREO REVIEW in years), but I gotta say I love it
all from the distant AM station sound to even the slightly sped up masters that were
probably taken off a cheap assembled in Mexico cassette. If you get uptight
about such sundry matters as "quality" you better get over 'em if you want
to enjoy the true basement cheapness of these records. And I do mean it!
Some downright classics here like the Satans predating "Sympathy For The
Devil" a good two or so years with their "Makin' Deals", Jagger "can you
guess my name" snarl and all. The platter proceeds in a quite raucous
fashion what with the likes of the Choir, Bobby Fuller before the Four and the Electric Prunes (promoting the Vox Wah-Wah Pedal)
providing us with some well-needed rarities that weren't exactly easy to
find at the time. The best part is that, like I said a few paragraphs above,
the big name acts are all mixed in with some pretty sore losers in a rock 'n
roll world that was probably over-saturated with such well-meaning yet
unlucky teenage groups who probably wore mop top haircuts if only to hide
their pimples.
But even those "failures" proved they could do swell, what with the Moving Sidewalks, Zachary
Thaks and Randy Alvey emanating the same transparent radiation that the
Thirteenth Floor Elevators were just oozing all over Texas, to the Squires
doing the Byrds' own schtick to the point where I woulda thought that they'd get sued had they not been so chemically addled themselves. And to top
off an already exemplary collection this 'un ends with an even outdoes the
Yardbirds version of "I'm a Man" done up by the Litter making a much
appreciated second appearance in this series.
Interesting aside, the back cover lists all of the other albums that are
available on the BFD label, most of them custom made for the Australian
market natch although I sure wouldn't mind hearing one that was actually
laid down by the guy who used to turn up just about EVERYWHERE Kim Fowley, and if anyone out there has a copy of
THE LEGENDARY DOG PUKE SESSIONS they want to give away I would appreciate you sending it out my way.
***
Of the original gush of
PEBBLES releases I gotta admit that the
third one's my top notch no doubt about it fave. "The Acid Gallery" they call
it, and what it purports to contain is damaged psychedelia done up by crazed
teens who were hanging out in each others' fart encrusted suburban ranch house
bedrooms 'stead of the gritty streets that eventually would be filled with
dazed casualties of all sorts. The general gist of this volume is more or less
typified by Teddy and His Patches' "Suzy Creamcheese", a garage band gagger
that starts off with a Frank Zappa reference then gets into yet another "Louie Louie"
groove before heading into a pretty freaked raveup that would have Jeff Beck
running home cryin' to mama.
Not all of this is what I would call total punkazoid free form freak out
considering that the BOMP! article this album was based on was
somewhat tongue in cheek. There are tracks by deejays as well as outright
novelty numbers intermingled with actual garage band efforts, but even those
are good such as with Dave Diamond and the Higher Elevation's "The Diamond
Mine" which has the Colorado-based record spinner doing one mighty flipped
out stream-of-consciousness recitation with the backing laid down by some
local punks who also lent the exact same backdrop to the Monocles' "Spider
and the Fly". Even El Lay deejay Godfrey does fine with his rendition
of the Kim Fowley classic "The Trip" (see volume one) as "Let's Take a Trip"
with radically redone lyrics yet an equally boff backing. Kinda neat, what
with the guy's nasal voice that reminds me of onetime Cleveland neo-shock
jock John Lanigan played over that repeato riff straight out of something that just might have ended up in RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP!
Yeah, the Jefferson Handkerchief were strictly for laughs if you could call
it that and why Mike Condello's "Those Were The Days" re-write "Soggy
Cereal" made the cut I do not know, but there are plenty of freaked out
faves here from the Calico Wall's tribute to William Shatner's famed
airplane ride into
THE TWILIGHT ZONE ("Flight Reaction") to the Driving Stupid playing a
straight blues tune with lyrics about tiny green lobsters throwing spiders
eggs (and for years I always thought my pressing just happened to leave off
their "Horror Asparagus Stories" which was undoubtedly present on some other edition). There are
even some legendary in the punk rock pantheon names like the Chocolate
Watchband (as the Hogs) with their Zappified rewrite of "Gossamer Wings"
complete with the skip that had more'n a few of us thinking there was a
booger stuck in the grooves somewhere. Well, with the poor pressing (which
only gives this more of that cheap glow of wonderment) who could tell?
And what review of this 'un shouldn't mention the Bees' "Voices Green and
Purple" which kinda makes me wish I actually dished out for the reissue of
that single complete with a LAFMS-looking picture sleeve when it was being
offered a few decades back!
But still, with a whacked out track like the Lea Riders' theme to the
Swedish moom pitcher DOM KALLAR OSS MODS (another one of
those I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW) kinda films that were comin'
out of that perverted place at the time) who cares about the hokey Bob
Dylan spoof "Like a Dribblin' Fram" anyway? And what the heck was that
"bonus track" featuring some snippet of Indian mysticism that sounds like it
was done up by one of the many charlatans roaming the streets at the time?
Cheezy in a way that it sorta fits in with the rest of the cheeziness you'll hear here true, but still cringeworthy in its own way.
If you like this volume let me suggest you pick
BEYOND THE CALICO WALL on AIP records. It's pretty much Acid
Gallery Part Two and will make you wonder just how so many of these rather
innocent suburban slobs who were jerking around with their $29.95 guitars only a few years
earlier could have their minds so warped what with the introduction of
certain pharmaceuticals into their lives. Or more likely the advent of
airplane glue and Bactine.
***
The switch from punk to surf might have caught a few off guard, but this
fourth volume does fit into the entire canon a whole lot more than some would
have thunk. 'stead of rare p-rock trackage we get rare surf toons, some if not
all that were written up previously in the pages of
BOMP! making
one believe that none other than Greg Shaw had a hand in this effort. And if
he did maybe he shoulda gotten a hodad of the year award because these
inclusions are boff, oozing the feelings of early/mid-sixties California surf
culture for alla us landlocked lubbers who could only experience the magic of
this teenbo culture via old AIP and
GIDGET films.
Although Lloyd Thaxton's recitation does reek of quickie cash-in rob the
rubes greedyism some honest-to-gosh winners appear here from the Beach Boys
in disguise Four Speeds' "RPM" to comparatively unknown numbers by such
familiar faces as the Pyramids, the Trashmen, the Rivieras (two midwest surf
acts there but wha' th' hey) and a pre-Beach Boys/pre-Manson respectively
Bruce and Terry. Future bigtime producer Gary Usher also slips his way into
the grooves and sheesh, even Dave Edmunds puts in a brand spanking new
version of "New York's a Lonely Town" switching the NYC to London! It sounds
perfect-o in this stew of sounds from a subculture that shoulda hung around
a little longer only Southern California went from well scrubbed beauties
and muscle beach Adonises to burned-out hippiedom ruining things for
seemingly all eternity.
This time the bonus track has Jan and Dean doing one of those Coca-Cola ads
done up when it was still OK for hotcha musical stars to hawk everything
from mod suits to canned corn. Of course these days recordings such as this one not to mention a whole bunch of the rest of those sixties rocker radio
commercials are practically embedded into our grey matter, but back when
this came out boy, it was kinda like finding the sound version of a moon
rock or something!
***
Number Five (and the first of the "new batch" in the series featuring the
circular center illustration cover scheme) seems somewhat of a letdown
compared with the high energy quotient of the earlier punkified efforts but
eh, it's got its moments of which there are plenty. Some tracks that would
eventually become legendary amongst the sixties fans and frolickers appear
like the Trees' "No Good Woman", and it does have some downright screamers
from the likes of the Durty Wurds as well as Little Phil and the Nightshadows
only a few years away from their all time classic
SQUARE ROOT OF TWO (an album which should have earned them an
inclusion on #3!).
One track that I once believed way out of place (and loathed for just that
reason) is the Magi's "You Don't Know Me" which came out in '71 thus
somewhat out of the scope of this series. At first I thought it to be more
heavy than punk (I was thinking Sugarloaf which isn't a thought that often
comes through my mind) but eh, considering that "Brand New Key" and "Peace
Train" came out around the same time this sure sounds swell in comparison!
Good enough in a puffed chest sorta way.
Like I said, not the best collection when it comes to the original ten but
still, it has that swivel and it definitely worth spinning when the
batteries seem to be going dead.
***
Number six's "Roots of Mod" effort collects once-rare mid-sixties British
sides that one would have had to have paid a good bazillion dollars for at
one time, but thanks to the efforts of a few collectors now you don't have
to!
If you like the Downliners Sect you will probably like this one, what with
the doofiest of teenbo practitioners taking the Amerigan blues style and
molding them sounds into their own pip-pip and cheerio way while doing it
so admirably at that. The Fairies with the infamous Twink on drums show us just how much the spirit of his future employers the Pretty Things was
embedded into their sound, while various surprises such as a track from
Belfast's Wheels (the same Wheels whose "Bad Little Woman" got mentioned
in this blog a few months back) has the spirit of Them just oozing out of
each and every pore. Yeesh, there's even a Joe Meek produced version of
"Singin' The Blues" that's kinetic beyond belief!
Crack up of the disc is the set closer "Young Love" done up a way Sonny
James never would have thought up in a millyun years! And to put the
frosting on the cake this recording was made by none other than the
Rolling Stones as a goof, not as good a goof as "Andrew's Blues" but still
high-larious enough for those of you who couldn't stand the group since
GOAT'S HEAD SOUP! According to the liner notes it is rumored
that not only Gene Pitney but Kim Fowley were out and about on this which
really, if true, would give this 'un an even added dimension of weirdness.
Just don't tell me exactly what kind of dimension but still it's one I
sure woulda wished there was more of back in those good ol' days of a
world for, by, and about teenbos!
***
Next in our lineup of second-generation
PEBBLES is the
seventh, another downright classic that kept up the good work of the
previous efforts. With a high-larious cartoon cover featuring none other
than the Barbarians' Moulty being mainlined Romilar to the etapoint liner
notes spoofing the Tony Parsons/Julie Burchill gagger
THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY (here entitled "The Boy Looked at Roky") you
know this isn't gonna be one of those quickie tossouts that Midnight Records
would sell at $25 a pop a good five or so years later!
'n it has a rather stellar selection of topper-than-top sixties wowzers
what with the Chocolate Watchband presenting their non-LP classic "Sweet
Young Thing" which I'm sure put quite a few smiles on the faces of those
fiends who could not find their non-LP singles until the Moxie label
eventually released 'em. The spirit of the Byrds also lives on via a
number of perhaps not-so-humble wannabes like the Four Fifths, who
actually sound more like the Flamin' Groovies during their
SHAKE SOME ACTION days than they do the original influence!
Other highlights include the Human Beings swiping from the Monkees' "Last
Train to Clarksville" on "You're Bad News", the Edge swiping from the Left
Banke on "Seen Through The Eyes" and Silver Fleet's swiping from a whole
load of acts with their "Gloria"-influenced "Look Out World". The famous
albeit twenty years too late to do any real good for their career
Floridians We The People also pop up with "When I Arrive", a worthy choice
but in no way in the same class as their ultimate fuzzed out scruncher
"You Burn Me Up And Down".
Another highlight's the Dovers' "White Ship", a toon which I originally
assumed was about the wreck of that famed vessel which led to the
"anarchy" in England during the Middle Ages! Given the lyrics about
knights fighting dragons, I was pretty sure that the tune was about alla
that but hey, what sorta punks paid that much attention in history class
anyway?
My personal fave is the Craig's "I Must Be Mad" which is notable not only
because it was an English release (which actually made it to the US) but because the group's excellent drummer was none other than
prog rock hero Carl Palmer! I know it's hard to imagine that the
fourteen-year-old Palmer, who shines brightly on this manic slab of
intensity, would go on to megafame in Emerson Lake and..., but weirder
things have happened since the group Bodast contained not only Yesman
Steve Howe but ex-Deviants guitarist Clive Maldoon and you also gotta
remember that fellow Yester Chris Squire actually (as I said oh so long
ago) auditioned for the Deviants and didn't make the grade because they
thought he sucked! It's kinda fun to know, since the song the Deviants
used for auditions was "Waiting For My Man", that a guy who would be well
known for being part and parcel to the whole dinosaur rock movement of the
seventies actually performed a Velvet Underground number! I guess
boundaries were rather blurred back in those somewhat hazed times.
***
Following up on #7's greatness is the equally stellar 8 which not only
continues on the generation gap theme espoused via the cartoon depicted on
the previous cover (this time with the "MC3" as marionettes being
manipulated by an unscrupulous marijuana hazed John Sinclair amidst a
backdrop of college campus rioting) but contains part two of
THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY satire which makes some rather valid
points regarding the youth rebellion of the day while namedropping a few
groups who should have been namedropped more often. I mean, this is probably
one of the first places
ever where I've seen the
Fendermen mentioned outside of some rock history book (and as a footnote at
that), alongside the Wailers and Beach Boys!
Onto the actual music which I must say really does keep on the high
quality of intensity this music is supposed to be known for. The Lollipop
Shoppe's "You Must Be a Witch" starts this thing off on a particularly
high energy level and well, I guess what
better way to begin a collection of
ancient punk purified! All time faves ? and the Mysterians even show up
with one of their bubblegum shoulda beens, as we even get some talent
that's pretty much local to the environs from whence I am writing, mainly
Youngstown Ohio with the Human Beinz of "Nobody But Me" fame and the Sound
Barrier out of Salem whose "(My) Baby's Gone" really tried to live up to
the group's name.
Other top notch ravers appear from the Caravelles doing the then-popular
Yardbirds schtick with "Lovin' Just My Style" (it was rumored that Alice
Cooper drummer Neil Smith appears here which has eventually been
debunked---drat!), the Cindermen with the uncensored version of
"Don't Do It Some More" that leaves the blood curdling screams in,
Mississippi's Gants rewriting the Beatles "In My Life" and some downright
classics that alla them eighties revival bands covered until that scene
eventually got run into the ground! Definitely one for the top of the
stack given its genuine power-packedness.
***
I don't think
PEBBLES VOLUME 9's any slouch either considering the
once again exemplary song selection what with the ultra-hyper "Project Blue"
by the Banshees (almost achieves "I Must Be Mad" levels) to the Gestures'
Beatle-ish "Run Run Run" which actually was lined up for the ne'er to be
second volume of
NUGGETS. The outright idea swipes continue what with
the Bugs' also Beatlesque "Little Girl" (funny how this now well-documented
act was totally unknown at the time Strange wrote these liner notes ---
kinda reminds me of the time when Greg Shaw was pondering whether or not the
Sonics were a Texas band) and the Knaves with their outright Byrdsian
imitation. Sheesh, I wonder why Dino Valenti never sued given how so many
groups just decided to do their own version of "Gloria" with new lyrics but
take bits and pieces of it and toss it into an entirely different ball of
wax (as the Bold did on "Gotta Get Some") --- woulda made him rich enough to
bribe himself outta jail!
Some big names pop up here as well such as the Outsiders of "Time Won't
Let Me" fame doing an even better song, namely "I'm Not Trying
to Hurt You", to a pre MOR New Colony Six actually performing a track that
sounds a whole dang lot like "Mystic Eyes". And of course one of my current faves,
It's All Meat, pop up with "Feel It" which is somewhat out of place like
the Magi were on #5 but with their hard roar of a sound you'll
wish/hope/pray that they woulda caught on and joined the Stooges, MC5,
Flamin' Groovies, Alice Cooper and Hackamore Brick in the 60s/70s cusp
punk rock hall of fame and James Taylor album bonfire!
***
Closing out the original
PEBBLES run's volume #10 and what a
fine cap it was. The entire album has a great early (as in 1965) San
Francisco vibe, with a whole load of Texas garage rumblings tossed in
t'boot. It holds up pretty swell what with a whole load of familiar names
joining an equal load of relatively obscure acts, or at least they were
obscure before this platter hit the mailboxes of the very late-seventies tru
blu rock mavens out there (of which I was one, braggart that I was am and
shall remain).
Of the familiar ones, the Groupies (promising upstarts from En Why See who
were even covered in the pages of THE ROCK MARKETPLACE and even compared to the Stooges in the accompanying article [bonus hotcha brownie point credits on
their part!]),
Toronto's Ugly Ducklings, the Five Americans of "Western Union" fame and
even a pre horn-y Ides of March clock in with promising efforts that still
pack that wallop a good sixty years later when music was for, by and about
the kids who were listening to it.
As far as the obscuros go they're (as if you wouldn't have expected it)
pretty apex themselves what with not only a strong emphasis on the effects
the Yardbirds had on many a mind but the more regal side of lush pop
that proves that the Left Banke weren't exactly that teenybopper group
"for girls" that many of you testosterone-laden readers have been thinking
all these years. Heck, there's even a track that was more or less a demo
for a Jackie De Shannon composition that never did make it out as far as I
can tell.
Not having heard this one in like
eons it's just
like experiencing an all new adventure for the first time. That's what the
benefit of a sieve-like mind is for someone like myself who
doesn't have the dough to splurge on everything (and a short-term memory)
he'd like so's records like these are almost like an epiphany.
***
Since I recall an old
BOMP! mail order catalog entry describe
EAR PIERCING PUNK as the eleventh volume in the
PEBBLES saga (the line seemed for all intent purposes dead by this time) I find it right and proper to include it in my writeup given it,
well,
woulda made for
a fine addition to this sainted series. Great track listing anyway from
then-rarities by the Trashmen ("Ubangi Stomp") to the Bohemian Vendetta as
well as the Groupies' flipside to "Primitive" "I'm a Hog For You", all of
which make for just one reason as to why many of us picked just enough
pennies off the street when this came out. There are plenty of
other fine onetime rarer than hen's arms efforts as well, like the Northwest
Sonics-esque rant of Keith Kessler's "Don't Bug Me" not forgetting the
rewrite of "Milk Cow Blues" as "Nonstop Blues" by a group who just happened
to call themselves Outlaw Blues! With a name like that I envisioned a bunch
who would have gotten into the long hair and shag country look and had the
same swerve and style that Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings would
popularize only a few short years later!
Other highlights include a refurbishing of "Little Black Egg" with horns,
future gospel singer Dean Carter's over-the-hill rendition of "Jailhouse
Rock" and the Sparkles' by now infamous in the annals of local trash rock
glory "Ain't No Friend of Mine". Coulda used a standard
PEBBLES-type
cover 'stead of the one with the punquette snitched from some fanzine, not
to mention the usual liner notes that gave us some idea of just exactly who
some of these acts were, but I'm no ingrate so I'll just shut up!
***
Now for a return to
PEBBLES proper with the first one to hit the
boards in quite some time, mainly the
real volume 11! A
lot had gone down the pike since #10 hit the mailbox what with a growing
"garage band" scene featuring loads of people both old and young aping the
look and feel of sixties youth culture (the good stuff mind you) complete
with mop tops that would have made the Hullabaloos jealous and Beatle boots
that woulda made their feet ache. Not only that but these records now
appeared on the AIP label having been licensed for repro by BFD making for
somewhat inexpensive releases over here. For cheapskates like myself this
was certainly a swell change of affairs!
I was somewhat disappointed upon its arrival thinking the selection
to be rather piddling in contrast with the first ten, but as usual my
opinions have changed somewhat for the better. Danged if there aren't some
real classics here such as the three tracks by some guy named Milan the
Leather Boy who had the audacity to let a whole buncha roaring motorcycles
into the studio while he was recording. And what you got in the earlier
ones you get here from the lo-fi mangled "Louie Louie" chords of the
Barking Spyders' "I Want Your Love" to the Von Rudens' version of the
Rolling Stones' "Spider and the Fly" which, thanks to the muddy sound and
warm drone, actually comes off somewhat like an early Velvet Underground
number! Ooh there I go mentioning that group in terms of comparison which
every dingbat guy writing about this kinda music (myself included) has
done without thinking for the past fortysome years! That's so
EIGHTIES...
***
PEBBLES VOLUME 12 also tended to let me down a tad upon first
spin, but the years have proved it to have been a solid entry into the
annals of true blue punkitude. Some quite interesting inclusions on this
'un, from a group called the Teddy Boys who do their own version of the
Diddley fave "Mona", only is that lead instrument I hear throughout this
number a wooden flute or maybe a recorder? An ocarina??? The Jam do a pretty
good remake/remodel of the Rascals' "Groovin'" cuddled up in a lush pop
lather on their "Something's Gone", and the Pawnee Drive track from '69/'70
way woulda sounded great on the cheapo radios blarin' across the
neighborhood stuck right after "Quick Joey Small" (that being a song I
couldn't stand but next to anything today it
IS "Sister Ray"
for all intent purposes).
As far as big names go, the Vejtables appear with the Diddley beat albeit
with a nice dose of raga rock thrown in. And if you think that Richard and
the Young Lions were a big name act as well, here's one of their other
non-"Open Up Your Door" efforts which utilizes some orchestra chimes in
yet another inspired idea of tone coloration that woulda made
THE AESTHETICS OF ROCK had R. Meltzer only been hip to the
fact! (Who knows, maybe he was --- 's been so long since I picked that 'un
up and it sure is due for a re-eyeballin'.)
***
The next one's the first of two to feature cover art by R.K. Sloane, a guy
who really got around if all of those album covers he cranked out were any
indication. And it's a fair enough effort as well which doesn't make you
wanna stand up and holler, but it still comes off way better'n you
remembered it back when the thing came out and your musical tastes were more
formed by the groups covered in
KICKS rather'n those in
BLITZ (a mag I subscribed to on the basis of a few excellent
late-seventies/early-eighties issues I chanced upon but by the time 1983
hit, boy did it change!).
Maybe this 13's unlucky because I frankly thought the selection here to be
rather piddling, especially in light of what was going on with the
BACK FROM THE GRAVE series at just about the same time. Not
that this isn't without worth for it does have a version of "Diddy Wah
Diddy" (actually called Didi-Wa-Didi"!) by Boston's "The Ones" that sounds
just as good as the renditions that the Remains and Captain Beefheart were
releasing around the same time. This act calling itself the Cat's Meow
were just what their name lives up to what with their spry garage
band rouser which actually features downright Beach Boys harmonies.
Otherwise it isn't exactly up to the kind of teenage sit around the house
in your stocking feel and goof off music that I sure thought it would be
but eh!
***
The fourteenth
PEBBLES still has somewhat of a feeling that the
entire concept of this series is being run into the ground, but a few tracks
of stellar quality make this one that you might want to keep at the front of
the pile. It even has a few downright classics that redeem any
barrel-scraping tendencies these teen-numbered
PEBBLES tend to
have. The Customs' "Let's Go In 69" was probably recorded in '65 so why the
futuristic date anyhow? Can any of you readers out there enlighten me by any
chance??? Maybe they were thinking about how great the music would be in a
few years what with the likes of the MC5, Black Pearl and other beyond-"heavy" groups putting out
records, and this track does have a Stoogeian primitiveness to it that makes
it quite the toe tapper if I do say so myself!
Also up there is this middle-eastern raga raver from some act called the
Luv Bandits who take Cher's "Bang Bang" and twists it into something I'm
sure your folks woulda thought even more disgusting! And I get the idea
that Japan's Golden Cups got hold of a whole mess of effect boxes (as well
as some Blues Magoos albums) and decided to use 'em to the max after
giving their version of "Hey Joe" a spin! My personal fave's this Toronto
act called Three To One who showed excellent taste with their rendition of
Pink Floyd's fresh off the press "See Emily Play", producing a record that
actually matches the original in Beardsleyan beauty making me want to know
more about this here today gone tomorrow act.
Still there are the downers here like an entry from some Jefferson
Airplane wannabes who called themselves Group Image not to mention some
just plain pedestrian acts like the Baker Street Irregulars, but the good
sounds sorta block 'em all out so's they don't get under your flesh 'r
anything like that.
And perhaps the boffo-est thing about this 'un's the closing "Bonus
Track", a buncha teenaged jeeters high on LSD joking around in one of
those old make your own record booths with one especially tripping
specimen telling of her horniness for the stuff! Really top choice
har-dee-har-har here, and it woulda made for a much better surprise
offering on Volume 3 than that phony mystico sitar jive that was so bad
that they even left it off the CD reissue!
***
And then along came
PEBBLES #15, a change of pace considering that
this 'un actually contains nothing but rare tracks that were laid down in
Holland, something which might have surprised many people out there who
probably still thought that the land of fingers in dikes was still
stuck in the age of Rembrandt'r sumpthin'. Not that this doesn't have any of
the sterile features that I found in many of these Pretty Things wannabes,
but it's a good enough slap together of rarities that you'll get way more
enjoyment outta had you plunked your last pennies down on the latest hype to
come out of the eighties, castrated
CREEM.
This initial entry into the "Continent Lashes Back" series is rather
subdued when compared with the rambunctiousness heard elsewhere but it'll
do, what with the Jay Jays doing a cruncher of an instrumental
and I do like how the Dream capture the spirit of 1967 with a good enough
Beatles/Move feel. Dragonfly's track is more late-sixties fuzztone hard
rock but still listenable in a 60s/70s punk cusp sorta way, and even the
new version of the Grass Roots hit "Let's Live For Today" as "Be Mine
Again" by the Skopes is pleasant enough at least for my lobes. But sheesh,
If you can stay awake through Johnny Kendall and the Heralds' take on "St.
James Infirmary" you might be able to sit through me telling you what I
ate for my last five meals, dinner mints and all!
***
With this 'un (#16) it's back to the original scheme of things and by that I
mean the scheme that was going down on those later-on
PEBBLES which pretty much translates into two or three wild
tracks and the rest well---eh! In this cast the goodies include Jimmy
Curtiss doing a purty on-target Monkees bubble-gum cum punk thingie that I'm
sure the snobs woulda up nosed back then before claiming to having liked
even a good three or so years later. Also tops is the Ron Wray Light Show
adding a certain Hendrixian (in a good way) dimension to what otherwise
would have been a standard local release of the day. Also hot were the Scary
Knaves who could have been contenders for
BACK FROM THE GRAVE and Just Luv's "Valley of Hate", a downer
groove neo-folk rock grinder with protest lyrics that would unnerve Joan
Baez enough to the point where she'd even take a bath!
***
Hot on the heels of #16 came this particularly pertinent item and a rather
good 'un at that. Starting off with a '63 vintage Midwest mauler from the
Statesmen entitled "Ruh-Buh-Doo-Buh-Doo" (A frenetic rocker featuring a
piccolo or maybe even fife as a lead instrument --- coulda been another
"Surfin' Bird" with a little luck!), this 'un takes off with a whole load of
fun-filled surprises from the Novas of "The Crusher" fame doing a pretty
spiff instrumental to some Seeds swipes (the 4th Dimension's '"Always Blue")
which only prove that Sky and his friends were way more popular that most
up-nosed rock connoisseurs out there woulda believed. One of about a
thousand Rogues also score high with "Wanted Dead or Alive" which sounds
just like "Hey Joe" only with a "Psychotic Reaction" mid-section thrown
in...great!
Of special note---the Donnybrooks re-shuffling/re-titling of "We Gotta Get
Out Of This Place" as well as Butch Engel's Styx (OBVIOUSLY not the castrati Styx of "Lady" fame) reaping the glories of pre-acid head
San Francisco with all of their feet still planted firmly on terra.
***
#18 "European Rock Part Two" gets back to the old country and once again
goes to prove that I was really wrong as a kid thinking that the place was
all one big farmland with peasants playing accordions and dancing in weirdo
costumes. As usual the English beat/blues acts of the day, particularly the
Pretty Things, seem to be the template with that unique twisto-changeo of
various Amerigan blues stylings done up for white moptops who probably never
even saw an actual black person. This 'un's even got some big in collectors'
circles names like Q65, the Outsiders and the Tages. Big surprises here are
the appearances of the Kentuckys with "The Old Hangman is Dead" (and anybody
who read about their fartscapades and pukeathons in the pages of
GORILLA BEAT will be glad to finally lend ear to these guys!)
and the Primitives with their grittier than anyone would expect re-do of the
Rascals' "Ain't Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore" as "Yeaaaaaah"!
PEBBLES VOLUME 19, THE CONTINENT LASHES BACK has more of those Europeon once-obscurities that were so out of orbit
that I'm sure they made Strange empty a whole lot into his BVD's when he
first discovered these records that hardly anyone outside of the area even
knew existed. Of course this 'un's once again steeped in the post-Pretty
Things r/b mindset that most of these groups seemed to wallow in which is
finer'n fine to me, although I will admit that this effort seems to show
signs of what I most definitely would call
strain. Or was I just
starting to get
jaded (my money's on the latter).
Of special interest are the Lollipops, the original Gary and the Hornets
prepubesprout group who spent the decade going from Connie Francis covers to
neo-prog without batting an eye. The most interesting (and bizarre) entry
into this one is Denmark's Mad Sound, whose "Hey Joe" swipe "To Masturbate"
shows just what sorta sickos they have over there. Considering that this 'un
originally appeared on the Jack's Sound label maybe that particular companu should have
changed its name to "Jackoff Sound" considering the subject matter (of
course I can't pass up the opportunity to slip my own cornball joke into the
thing!).
***
Gaah! I now find out that there were 28 of these original
PEBBLES and I don't possess any of the later ones! Does this
stark fact show my ineptitude and lack of "discographical" continuity? No,
it shows my abject
poverty.
However, to top this all off here's the
GET PRIMITIVE --- THE BEST OF PEBBLES album that came out via
Ubik in England, an album I assume was especially made for the furriners who
I guess couldn't latch on to the real thing and hadda settle for this. For a
garage band compilation they sure went all the way to make this a really
attractive item too, not only with the fancy cover art courtesy Rudi
Protrudi of the Fuzztones but the upkick in sound quality which is explained
to ya via the chipmunk chatter opening the album telling us all about things
like equalizers, background noise reduction and other technological goo-goo
that I always say never really did matter to me that much. I guess quite a
few of you are that finicky about such quality and if so well, this is the
record for
you.
Most of this is old hat if you've been on the sixties reissue game, but
there are even a few newies (as far as I know) added to the familiar
PEBBLES faves of yore. It's always groovesome to give
additional listens to old standbys like "Voices Green and Purple", and the
smattering of sounds collected are programmed well enough that I don't
cringe over the fact that most of the tracks are dupes. Just found out
that there's a "Best of" #2 out there and if you think I'm gonna splurge
on it you're even stoopider than I thought!
Gawrsh was this article a piece of you-know-what and a half!
If you read through it then you're even stupider than me writing the
thing! But I'm sure glad I did it because hey, this blog deserves a switch
from the same old hackneyed groove into an entirely
NEW hackneyed groove that's for sure.
************************
'n now for a couple of real deal actual reviews of other items that have
been gracing the waxed up earholes as of late.
Wally Shoup/Toshi Makihara/Brent Arnold-COMFLUXUS CD-r burn (originally on
Leo Records, England)
Another from the recently-deceased (and definitely under-the-radar as well
as under the ground) Shoup leading a trio consisting of Toshi Makihara and
Brent Arnold and yeah, I don't think I've heard about those two before
either! Arnold actually plays Cello which does give this a more Abdul
Wadud-sorta seventies free tone colorizing feel. Gets into some beautiful metallic sub-sound
scrape at times, and like if you enjoyed the guy's more recent
CHEMICAL LANGUAGE effort I reviewed back June way do I need to
have to tell you the rest?
ESSENTIAL TREMORS (WYPR-FM BALTIMORE)---STEVE REICH/THRUSTON MOORE CD-r
burn
I have avoided going near any form of listener-supported radio for ages if
only because I could handle fluffy political and musical talk only so much.
And although ESSENTIAL TREMORS ain't exactly gonna make me
donate my pittance to NPR any day soon this show was, at least judging from
these two half-hour episodes, something I sure wish was up and about back
when the seventies were starting to squeeze into the eighties. You remember
them dayze, that was an era when even these once-cheerleaders for the new
and innovative in sound (like WKSU-FM) dropped everything and went the whole
grain new age route instead.
The first 'un with Steve Reich helped out at least on my behalf (not as
familiar with his works as I shoulda been all these years) what with him
telling about the music that put hair on his chest. And it was some pretty
hotcha music in itself, ranging from THE RITES OF SPRING to
AFRICA BRASS...a way beyond "satisfactory" selection if I do say so
myself.
Thurston Moore's faveraves were equally inspirational if somewhat expected,
but then again talking about records like "Louie Louie" and Patti Smith's
"Hey Joe" is something that's always welcome no matter who's talkin' 'bout
'em (well,
almost). Sheesh, where was
ESSENTIAL TREMORS back in 1983 when I
really could
used it 'stead of all those gnu age shows that were poppin' up on the
college radio dials!
***
Razorlegs-DARAGADA LP (get it here)
Dang I wish that Fadensonnen had printed a nice 'n flat pic of the cover
on his site, otherwise I wouldn't have to used this off-kilter example
that he sure 'nuff did! Nice enough tho...if you blur your eyes
somewhat it kinda reminds me of John Cale's
ANIMAL JUSTICE although I doubt any chickens were killed in
the process of its recording.
The label reminds me of the ones that appeared on Eno's old Obscure series
of experimental sounds that nobody would have known about had he not been involved.
The music is naturally brilliant, as top notch as the various other
RAzoRLEGS and Faddensonen efforts that have been making themselves known
to readers of thin blog and a few others for quite some time. Sonic
reduction to the max with a blast that (as the promo slip suggests)
channels Damon Edge somewhat with a few sidesteps towards various feedback
cantinas including those of 1968-era Dead and likewise Zappa without the acid damage of the former nor the big
ego pose of the latter. I enjoyed side two immensely what with the way the
guitar not only recalls Guru Guru on their UFO album but
John Lennon's angular spazz that graced the YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND spinner which has thankfully received its proper huzzahs a good
fiftysome years after it shoulda!
You won't see this one hitting any charts other'n
MINE soon.
Latch onto one before all of the smarter mooks tuning in do thus leaving
you to sniffle boo hoo over yet another lost gem you held out for thinking
it's be around forever and a day. Oh well, I'm sure the download'll be
available forever and a day...
***
I once believed that my "mental instability", which I have suffered through
most if not all of my born days, would have been an asset to the scribings
that I had pumped into my
fanzine and sundry other items o'er the course of my illustrious career.
Turns out I was wrong, so if you wanna read some really nutso and incoherent
mindfarts passing as rock critique you know where to send your monies to.
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