COMIC BOOK REVIEW! LI'L RASCAL TWINS #16 (August 1959) (available via
Golden Age Reprints)

DOGGONE THAT BILL SHUTE! An' I mean it too! Y'see, here I am tryin' to scrimp and save for that big day when I'll be retirin' and will hopefully have more moolah to rely on than the pittance of a pension and Social Security payment I'll be in for, and here the guy goes and gets me re-interesting in comic books to the point where I'm buyin' 'em up old and new just like I was back when I was a good twelve-years-old and mainly had an excuse (stupidity) to do just that! Sheesh Bill, how do you think I'm gonna stay afloat with me dumping all of this money in order to buy some reprint of a crime comic that I coulda got at a local flea market back 1972 way for a mere dime??? All I gotta say is I hope you're gonna take good care of me when """""I""""" get old because hey, it's either some financial backing from you or sharin' a bed with some pocked opiate-addled smelloid at the poor house!

But with all these comic books at hand at least I won't spend my declining years being bored, and if I have to "pour any of my money down a rathole" I'll pour it down one that'll get me some classic comic book reading in return! And the titles offered by Golden Age Reprints really do supply the goods in these definitely anti-comics (have you actually read a recent comic book these past thirtysome years? Me neither!) days.

Being in a humorous mood, I decided to splurge on some funny kiddie titles which mostly came out of the Archie stable from way back in those days that I'm even sure the Archie people would like us to forget. Those books include an issue of WILBUR (Archie's own ARCHIE swipe!) and a few GINGERs which I will write about perhaps in the not-so-distant future. But for now I thought I'd pass a li'l gas on THE LI'L RASCAL TWINS, Charlton Comics' dive into the anarchic kiddie market which I guess everybody was cashing in on considering the reams of DENNIS THE MENACE swipes from Archie's own PAT THE BRAT to Marvel's PETER THE LITTLE PEST that were hittin' the rotatin' comic book rack at the time.

But LI'L RASCAL TWINS ain't exactly as direct a steal as the other miscreant titles...sure "Li'l Genius" sports a Dennis cowlick and bushy brow and seems (but necessarily isn't) prone for trouble but you'll never see him runnin' into the house holding a skull. His friend "Li'l Tomboy" ain't even a Tomboy and in fact the two aren't even related so how could they be "twins" inna first place? And that title...LI'L RASCAL TWINS??? At the time this magazine was being published the LITTLE RASCALS were hot stuff on tee-vee and I'm sure every kid in Ameriga knew about 'em, so yeah it's more'n OBVIOUS why Charlton slapped this particular title on the cover! And you don't have to be Brainiac to know the reason why.

I'm sure that the ol' sucker born every minute line applied like it did a whole load of times in and around the whole comic book sphere, and if some dumboid kid didn't snatch thin 'un off the stands thinkin' he was gonna be reading about Alfalfa and Darla I guess he deserved to be crestfallen once his boo-boo was discovered. Ditto some unwary mother or ignorant aunt who snatched a copy thinking it the real fanabla only to get cussed out by sick li'l Junior once she got home from the store. I've fallen for the ruse many a time in my life and if you say you never did you're just plain lyin'.

So you're probably thinkin' that we're goin' in with a whole lotta negative mock it to all heck fun and jamz regarding this title...but are we??? After all, this is just a cheap kid comic book and it looks fine enough what with the nice humorous artwork well-derived from various Mort Walker, Hank Ketchum and Roy Doty prototypes. And it is an easy to read, nice to look at comic as well. I remember when, during a long and tiring outdoor antique show/flea market when the crowds were beginning to thin but there were still a few more hours until closing, I'd buy some early-seventies Marvel reprint title featuring their fifties-era kids roster and read the thing if only to exude some cheap chuckles outta it, then pass it on to my cyster for her enjoyment while I copped an eyefulla yet another cheap crank-out. The stories in LI'L RASCAL TWINS are very much in that whole uncontrollable children's comic vein, containing a slew of mildly humorous guffaws that are worth not only the newsstand price you woulda hadda pay back then but the used copy price of fifty cents you'd pay at a flea market years later. And believe-you-me, any kid, even if he didn't know enough that this was indeed a downright imitation (as if he really cared), could get more'n his moolah back with all of the jokes, gags and funtime art to be found inside. Just ask Bill Shute, but don't complain if he gets you hooked too!

The stories in LI'L RASCAL TWINS speak to that suburban slob kiddoid feeling that I'm sure any single-digit son of the ranch house suburbs could have related to, and for quite a good many years as well. Here's a brief rundown of each story done up just like Bill Shute does...in "That's Show Business" the "twins", after being rudely rousted from the nearby circus because they're broke, start their own "free" one (worthy of any that have been seen in two decades worth of OUR GANG shorts) which drives customers away from the legit deal! In "Jungle Jaunt" the kids go to South Ameriga with their sportsman "Uncle Ben" where they inadvertently start a tribal war when Li'l Tomboy starts bangin' away freestyle on the drums. In "Hi Flyer" the pair babysit the turdler son of an airplane pilot who takes the kids themselves into heights unreached when the kid escapes from a trap door on the roof and climbs up a steel bridge post, and in "Scream Quietly, Please" the Rascals get all gung ho after hearing the mayor's anti-noise speech and try to quite things up with disastrous effects!

There's also a Li'l Genius solo saga which makes a joke outta some flat tire and tough meat, and the usual two-page text which only Bill Shute likes to read. And don't forget the "Just Give Me a Name" contest where participants are encouraged to give this strange creature who looks like an elderly man in a fancy suit and top hat sporting elephant ears, a pig's snout and a kangaroo tail some sort of handy moniker. First prize is your very own Buster Crabbe swimming pool and followups aren't that bad either, though I would personally have preferred that Carvel Ice Cream gave out an endless supply of their goodies 'stead of savings bonds!

In 1959 I don't think any self-respecting suburban slob coulda done much better with his dime unless it went towards another top notch comic book or some well-loved toy once he got another few cents his way. I personally had more fun looking through LI'L RASCAL TWINS than I had doing many things this past week, and thankfully this comic will give me more chuckles once I dig it out again in the future for a further go-at. Golden Age Reprints are to be commended for making this one widely available. However, the $12.99 price tag might be considered a little steep, especially considering how you can buy an original LI'L RASCAL TWINS issue for a whole lot less not only via ebay but perhaps your local flea market if you only look hard enough! But what's money in an era when a million bucks can't buy you an honest laugh from the reams of scolding "comedians" out there...for a real chortle get hold of this title and beware the local comedy club!                                              

BOOK REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! WAR ON CRIME by Rex Collier (Comic Ventures)

Say what you will about longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover....the man certainly knew the importance of popular culture (movies, magazines, radio shows, comics, etc.) in people’s daily lives, and he put a good amount of effort into attempting to influence (or as they would say in today’s jargon, “to control the narrative of”) popular culture’s depiction of the FBI and to create the mythology of the G-Man. He also wanted to steer the focus of crime comics/stories/radio shows/films away from the glorifying of the criminal....which happened either through depicting him as some misunderstood and brooding loner, or as some larger-than-life figure who drove expensive and flashy cars, dined in the best restaurants, tipped waiters with hundred-dollar bills, and was surrounded by beautiful women. During the depression, this lifestyle could have seemed an appealing alternative to unemployment and low-wage basic survival. Hoover wanted to depict criminals in the manner he saw them: crude, violent thugs who cared nothing for the lives of others and who would kill you, the reader, without a second thought. Yes, they may have had a certain ingenuity to pull off some heist, but as actor Gerald Mohr barked out authoritatively at the beginning of each episode of the Adventures of Phillip Marlowe crime radio show, “Get this and get it straight: crime is a sucker's road, and those who travel it end up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave..." Or, to use the title of the long-running MGM series of hard-boiled true-crime short subjects, CRIME DOES NOT PAY.

The WAR ON CRIME comic strip ran from May 1936 through January 1938. It was syndicated by the Philadelphia Public Ledger (not exactly a major comics syndicate) and, according to Comic Book Plus, ran in 45 newspapers. Some of the strips reproduced in the book collection under review came from the Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune. It seemed to be a six-day-a-week (Mon-Sat) comic without a Sunday version--some of the stories were later reprinted in FAMOUS FUNNIES comic books, where they appeared in color. I’m assuming these were colorized by the re-printers and not the original artists (who worked in black and white), though that is an assumption and I welcome correction on that point.

J. Edgar Hoover’s choice for writing the strip was Rex Collier, successful newspaper crime reporter, who’d earned Hoover’s respect from his previous work on cases with which the FBI was involved. Collier’s background was both his strong point and his weak point--strong because he brought a knowledge of how crime really works and what criminals are really like to the strip, making it a breath of fresh air in the clichéd cops and robbers field; weak because he did not really know the ins and outs of comic strip writing, the conventions of comic strip characterization and storytelling. Collier is the sole credited name on the strip, but the artwork was handled by at least two people (according to some sources, three) during the strip’s run: Kemp Sterrett and Jimmy Thompson.

During the strip’s run, ten story arcs were featured, the first being the story of the founding of the FBI and the origin of the G-Man. After that, a number of high-profile cases were featured: John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Weyerhauser kidnapping, etc. People would have already been familiar with these cases through news coverage, so the strip would have had the added value of being the “inside story” from the private files of the FBI and the testimony of those who were there. The later stories in the run were not as famous, and some have speculated that the strip eventually died because the novelty had worn off and readers no longer cared about the just-the-facts retelling of stories they weren’t familiar with. Also, the strip had no heroic and dynamic character with which the readers could bond--there was no Dick Tracy or Buck Rogers here.

That being said, to me WAR ON CRIME is a bold and exciting comic strip. It’s very much like a comic strip version of the hard-boiled CRIME DOES NOT PAY film shorts, but here, the names are NOT changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty), and it also echoes the crime coverage in the newsreels of the day. So it’s got the best of both of those worlds combined in the daily comic strip format. The artwork has a matter-of-fact kind of realism to it, mixed with the grim, sober imagery from B-crime films. In a sense the strips DO have a protagonist/hero, and that’s J. Edgar Hoover himself, who is depicted every once in a
while--in the early strips, in the field, hard at work chasing criminals, and in the later strips, in his office, coordinating the strategy of the investigation. These occasional but not regular appearances by Hoover make him a kind of Wizard of Oz of crime-fighting, the man behind the curtain in charge of it all. I’d even say that the strip is animated by his implied presence throughout....which I’m sure is exactly the way that Hoover wanted it.

And Hoover was VERY MUCH involved with the strip, directly or indirectly vetting the content. Various books I stumbled across online while researching the strip told of how Collier would change the focus or the details of various stories to make Hoover happy. Some of the actual internal newspaper records depicting the nature of the changes--what was originally planned as opposed to what Hoover lobbied to have changed--do survive and make for interesting reading.

The over-sized 2007 hardcover book from Comic Preserves reprinting the strip’s entire run, with each panel presented in a size larger than the originals, and contained in an old-fashioned library quality thick hardcover format that looks like it would survive a nuclear attack (the old-style library hardcover with the title and author STAMPED INTO the cover and spine!) is, unfortunately, long out of print. It was a private collectors printing back in the day, so good luck in finding a copy today. However, the good news is that as these strips are in the public domain, they are available online, and you can read the entire run for free at the following link (which conveniently divides the content up into the ten story arcs).

WAR ON CRIME is well worth tracking down if you are a fan of 30’s crime B-movies, crime comics, hard-boiled Depression-era crime pulp fiction, etc. Collier’s fast-paced, matter-of-fact crime reporter writing style along with the sharp, hard-edged realism of the artwork, and with the addition of the unique angle of the “behind the scenes true story from FBI files” make this an exciting, one-of-a-kind comic strip, and it’s a shame it ran for less than two years. Had I been around then, I would have been a regular reader, waiting for my parents to finish the newspaper each day so I could get the latest installment of both Dick Tracy’s fictional crime fighting and then War On Crime’s account of whatever G-Man was hunting down the most-wanted real-life criminals of the day.

Sorry it took longer for me to get this weekend edition of BLOG TO COMM  out than it took John Holmes to pee, but as usual "things" got in the way of me producing my doody in a nice 'n timely fashion. (And no, it wasn't the Super Bowl...as if I'd ever turn in to watch a buncha oafs make more money in one night than we all will in our lifetimes!) Well, it ain't like I'm Crimea River because of my turdiness especially since for the most part 99.999...% of you could care less, but for those who DO be thankful that this 'un came out at all! I mean, what better way to spend the dwindling hours of your weekend than reading BLOG TO COMM 'stead of searching through your sock drawer for those supp hoses that you oh so definitely need!

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I may have (purposely) ignored the death of Mark Smith last week if only because I am one of (perhaps many) who never did "get into" the Fall's "universe" the way all smart and trend-driven under-the-underground music listeners are SUPPOSED to ifyaknowaddamean. However, the passing of BEETLE BAILEY creator Mort Walker is something that struck me a whole lot harder. Not as hard as losing someone you personally knew, but bad enough as in losing a familiar name who was responsible for creating a familiar image that has been burned into your mind ever since the days of your earliest memories. Like when Ernie Bushmiller died way back '82 way, I feel like something that had meant a WHOLE LOT TO ME has vanished even though Walker probably was not involved with BEETLE for quite some time and in fact the comic wasn't that hot once the eighties started to wind down. But neither were you or me come to think about it.

An old fave of mine, for obvious reasons.

I always believed that the real starting point of the BAILEY decline began when General Halftrack, instigator of some of the best horny old man sexy gags in BAILEY (especially after the addition of Miss Buxley to the cast turning the entire series into one big double entendre), went to a "sensitivity training seminar" and came out a totally new eunuch, but further research via cheap discarded paperbacks (which I have written up to great detail in past posts) point to yet an earlier drop in quality. I kind of blame it on Amerigan kultur in general getting rather mooshy during the late-seventies (after an increase in comic strip and general mass media entertainment quality mind you!) which is one reason why comics like PEANUTS began flopping about and those sitcoms we used to chortle to became downright grim. At least BAILEY seemed to weather this general miasma for a few additional years, but evidently it too succumbed to new mores, new ways, and A WHOLE LOT LESS YUCKS!!!!

But blame Walker for giving in to the modern day equivalent of the old Reform League types or not, at one time BEETLE BAILEY was a pretty hotcha on-target reflection of life (at least life filtered through the regimens of the military) which as Bill Shute said could also reflect upon just about every aspect of modern day associations no matter how non-regimental they may be. After all, how many of you went to school or worked alongside some Beetle, Killer or Zero or had to take orders from a Lt. Fuzz whom you wouldn't even pay to shovel what the guy's feeding you all the time? The BEETLE of today may bear little in common to the strip at its height, but man do those reprints reflect just about everything we've all had to endure during our journey through a life that really had very little good to expect from it!

As far as Walker's collaboration with Dik Browne's HI AND LOIS goes...never could cozy up to it that strip much perhaps due to the fact that it was way more domesticated than I could possibly stand. BONER'S ARK was even more disappointing than Browne's HAGAR THE HORRIBLE while SAM'S STRIP was pretty tiring in an eighties fashion (slapdash, uninspiring and surprisingly self-conscious) even if it did originate a good twenty years earlier. But BEETLE...that's something that helped make my suburban slob kiddie days a lot more exciting way back when things like funny pages and tee-vee reruns really helped combat the drudgery of school, civics and real life blahs!

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Nice batch of recordings we got here this week. Edgar Breau sent me his latest along with a nice letter (which I should have framed and hung in my room right next to my Barney Bean drawing!) while Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and NO ONE ELSE (sorry Fadensonnen and Bob F., but I'm saving yours for the lean late winter months!) sent me a few niceties that I thought worthy enough. And you better feel the exact same way you ungrateful louts! And so, as the grave robbers used to say, "dig in".

EDGAR BREAU CD (Flying Inn Recordings, Canada)

It's gonna be hard to review this one impartial-like because I consider Edgar Breau a close friend (which I might have said before but given your sieve like minds I just better say again).  But man, does he continues to stymie and amaze with each and every new recording that is emitted from his clams.

This self-titled wowzer is no exception---here the man reminds me of someone...dunno if its Tim Hardin or Syd Barrett, but whoever it is he does recall what we get is a good if comparatively toned down 'un that captures the folk-unto-rock movement circa 1966. You know, long before the dip into Rocky Mountain Mung that post-tension Ameriga (and Canada obviously) dribbled into sometime in the early-seventies. Maybe Tim Buckley too. Not so much Raccoon Records...maybe Rounder. Perhaps a little too spry but whatever it sure wipes out a lotta the early-seventies moosh that this acoustic folk music often gets dumped in with.

(And was that really a tad of ERICA POMERANCE I heard on "A Penny Fare to Babylon" or was it just the sitar??? If you have any insight you are free to write in.)

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More Ease-STARING AT A STATUE OF PAINT CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions, see blogroll on left)

This reminds me of some of that very early computer music that was being made at universities back in the sixties if not earlier...y'know, the kinda sound produced by punched out computer cards which were submitted into a machine and out came the latest in a new line of self-generated music. Nice, patterned and engaging even to the young snoot who first heard about alla this newfangled tintinnabulations while perusing the library like I did as a curious mid-teen.

The music on STARING AT A STATUE OF PAINT is just like that...downright relaxing yet it makes my brain perk up when some new repeated sound pattern emerges, which is often. If you've been in on the New Music game ever since you got your first NMDS catalog way back when then I can't see why you wouldn't like More Ease. After all, this is what that was only a few decades evolved!

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Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band-MY FATHER'S PLACE, ROSLYN, '78 2-CD set (Keyhole Records, England, available via FORCED EXPOSURE)

God bless the Keyhole Record Company (and all who sail with it!) for releasing these rare FM broadcasts of famed names of the past (and maybe even present!) for us unwashed types, even if these albums might not exactly be on the legal up-and-up!

And this Captain Beefheart effort is no different. After a few years of releasing a couple albums that had the old fans puzzled while redeeming himself in part as a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers during the BONGO FURY tour, Don Van Vliet was back in the saddle for '78's SHINY BEAST (BAT CHAIN PULLER) and hittin' the road to let everyone out there know it. And it's a good show that was captured here via FM broadcast, what with songs from throughout Beefheart's career intermingling in a fashion that really showed the rubes that yes, one of their sixties heroes was still up and about and thankfully had not gone the route of all of those other sixties heroes who were surprisingly getting the major huzzahs while cranking out vastly inferior tuneage.

Great sound (if ya care, I don't) and performance (I do!) captures the essence of these gigs the way I like to hear 'em. If that doesn't settle well with you then you DESERVED to have been puked upon by an overdosing pre-teen at a Van Halen stadium gig just around the same time these sainted strains were being uttered, you "real rock fan" you!

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Various Artists-DESPERATE ROCK AND ROLL VOLUME 1 CD-r burn (originally on Flame Records)

There have been so many of these fifties rockabilly/r&b compilations comin' out ever since the eighties that I'm sure only the most serious of collectors could keep up with 'em all! But as far as compilations go DESPERATE ROCK AND ROLL VOLUME 1 is as good as any SIN CITY or Blue Label rarity I've happened to come across, not that I've been looking for 'em with any great regularity.

Great mix of rockabilly and even straight rock 'n roll/bloozey stuff done up by names either well known like Piano Red and Screamin' Joe Neal, though most likely the acts poppin' up here are whatcha'd call obscuro to the hilt. Some things here are straight ahead, others on the comical side and if you want a real laff just listen to Johnny Candles spew out "Johnny B. Goode" proving that English must've been his "third" language (and I wonder about what the first two were)!

Not only that but it all ends with the "modern day" Readymen doin' a cookin' cover of "Shortnin' Bread" that's even better'n the Bell-Notes! A must to find if you're looking for an antidote to what's passing for popular music these days, and who reading this isn't (or should I not be so presumptuous?).

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The The-RARITIES VOLUMES 1 & 2 CDs (SB Records)

Remember just how much you were let down (and ultimately HATED) all of those new wave heroes of the late-seventies who seemed just so properly righteous and focused in their tastes and approach to sonic reduction yet entered into the eighties as boringly staid as just about every other flounder on the radio band? Y'know, people like Matt Johnson who put out an ad in the NME back '78 way looking for fellow travelers to form a Velvets/Syd-inspired act yet all that came outta it was "The The". Not the New York punk rockers with the exact same moniker mind you, but an act (actually Johnson plus whomever) that I once remembered reading were close enough to Wire for comfort but, as these platters prove, were yet another in that slick wave that contributed to the great miasma that eighties rock was no matter how much rock critics and mirror-gazing "aficionados" might tell you otherwise.

Bought the first volume if only to hear the debut "Controversial Subject", a side which I must admit still had enough of that late-seventies sense of underground small-label flash to make this purchase worthwhile (especially since an original copy woulda cost me beaucoup more). Surprisingly enough even the rest of these early tracks hold some promise which is really saying something about these recordings that came out of the 4AD stable (sorry if you liked those acts, but this is not THE OFFENSE NEWSLETTER---no "offense" to them implied---in fact I liked 'em!). Meaning---I didn't rip the fanabla off the turntable in utter angst like I usually do when I'm within a few inches of a spinner that I'm not exactly appreciative of. And that is saying something now that I'm older and much crotchety-er.

HOWEVER once I get to Cee-Dee #2 (which was added to my order due to a tie up...some consolation, eh?) just oozes that whole MTV ideal of new-well-into-GNU-wave (copyright 1982 Bill Shute) for me to digest. And couple that all with that tiresome English pity-me-here-in-the-age-of-Thatcher (you whining leeches over there DESERVED HER!) social commentary (more specifically in that one track having something to do with the ol' what if Jesus was up and about in the here and now, or something like that since something about Jesus being killed by the CIA is brought up) you got some sounds that date more than the hunk of cheese that got lost in the back of your refrigerator. Total flash flub worthy of the Human League and the rest of those acts that were being touted as such hot promise in '79 and boy did we get flummoxed once those hits began a'comin'! Well, it only made the Electric Eels and the rest of the seventies under-the-underground rock brigades sound even better than we ever could have believed, and that was a whole lot awlready!

If there are any strict Anglophiles out there, this is for you only even though Matt and whoever was involved in these were bound to create even more Anglphobes than even I would dare admit! Maybe if them guys from Nurse With Wound had answered that ad...

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Various Artists-SELECTIONS FROM PALACE RECORDS (Philadelphia) CD-r burn

Being from Philadelphia (home of Chancellor Records and their stable) you probably would think that the acts popping up on the Palace label would be rather "gingerbread-y" and Avalonesque as they used to say. Well not really even though a good portion of the tracks on this disque ain't exactly whatcha'd call rock 'n roll. Lotsa late-fifties-styled pop raves that coulda pleased pop show up here and danged if each and every one of these perfectly cornballus slabs of teenage slobdom coulda fit in your cousin Ethel's record collection circa 1961! Of special interest to Patti Smith fans is the Satelites' "We Love Birdland" which will unlock yet another secret door to rock 'n roll's intertwining clues and pathways to further sonic sources years after the fact!

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The Heartbreakers-CBGB - NEW YORK 25th July 1975, 7th September 1975 CD-r burn

The Richard Hell-era Heartbreakers are undoubtedly my favorite version of the group so it's really grand that I got two sets by them on this nice li'l piece o' aluminum. First 'un's from the famed "Summer Rock Festival" at CBGB and packs a potent wallop what with the tag team of Johnny Thunders and Hell creating that neat tension that made the original Television lineup so boffo until nobody could stand it anymore. The one from September 7th doesn't sound quite as good and is sped up a bit, but the trashy mid-seventies feeling still applies. It's not surprising that this particular brand of rock 'n roll thud still mystifies me as much now as it did way back when...must prove I'm of a "stunted development", eh?

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Moby Grape-FALL ON AMSTERDAM CD-r burn

I scrapped my original review of this which was beginning to span four paragraphs and was filled to the hilt with all sorts of pseudo-inscrutable ravings regarding the ever-staying power of this late-sixties "second string" as I like to call it rock 'n roll. Gotta be brief and exciting and all even if I have trouble doin' just that (see "The The" review), so lemme just say that this '69 show is the Grape on all cylinders just cranking out a pure high energy rock that thankfully had little to do with the encroaching hucksterism that was overtaking the music world at just about the same time. Hot streak music, and even the bloozier moments and the truck driver stomper spark forth in total eruption. And when you listen to "Omaha" work its way into pure rave-up man, will you be glad you were born with ears!

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Various Artists-LONELY MELODY DOLLSTONES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

It's an old one from the pile (no, not that pile as in what Rock Hudson knew about Gomer's!) so I dunno if Bill even remembers sending this one my way oh-so long ago. But as far as these Bill burns go it's yet another swell one. Gotta say that I like the lope of this particular platter, what with the Fugitives (the Indiana group with that name, not the Detroit ones) doing a good version of Charlie Rich's "Lonely Weekend" and a Norm Burns coming close to "song poem" fun and gags with his "Shanghai Blues". The rest varies from mildly pleasant pop crank out to an extended doll commercial to the Zeros doing some of that punk rock stuff that got a load of kids all huffy puff against it even though they never heard a note of it in their lives. Bill even stuck some good ol' hokum gospel twang on here for some reason. I guess he thinks stuff like that is "camp" but hey one thing I've learned about Bill all these years is that YOU CAN NEVER GUESS WHAT HE'S GONNA DO NEXT!!! Well, I have the feeling he ain't gonna be showin' up at an Iwo Jima reunion wearin' leotards and a tutu any day soon (well, he better not!).

COMIC BOOK REVIEW! AIR-SUB DX BY CARL BURGOS (Gawandaland Comics, available here)

Eh, whaz zo special about an air sub anyway? I mean, when I was a kid I thrilled to the adventures of SUPERCAR which was all that 'n more, and heck in 1916 Ignatz the mouse from the KRAZY KAT comic strip had an airplane/submarine he once used in an attempt to escape from that fag cat only the Krazy Katbirds in the air and the Krazy Katfish in the sea wouldn't leave him alone! So like, why should I get all excited over this short-lived 1939 series that originally appeared in Centaur Comics's AMAZING MYSTERY FUNNIES anyway?

Maybe it's because these stories were written and drawn by Carl Burgos of HUMAN TORCH fame, or maybe it's because these stories have that great sense of pre-Code justice where the bad boys are really evil and not good/evil and always get their comeuppance in the grisliest ways possible. Actually AIR-SUB DX wasn't anything hotcha when compared with a whole lot of the competition what with the comparatively primitive art and the storylines which had almost as much continuity as a non-sequitur spouting three-year-old, but I still like it because it IS cheap and has little in it to take it from one episode to another! Otherwise these things just might turn into art and we don't want that now, do we?

Only a few of these stories escaped into the realm of depression-era kiddiedom before the series got axed, but the ones that did really do pack a good portion of action what with Captain Tim (sporting long hair even before Eden Ahbez!), sexy Rita and Rita's dad Professor Grey trying to keep the Prof's new flying sub invention out of the hands of evil powers who really could put it to nefarious use! And considering the futuristic world these three live in those evil forces are naturally everywhere to be seen---I mean, what else would you expect from a society where nothing is true and everything permitted, a future of Ozzie and Harriets?

Things can get quite confusing in the first episode (which, surprisingly enough, lacks any back-history or origin for that matter) where forces led by a "Curley" as you'd expect fail miserably in their attempts to steal the invention. Even crazier is the fact that the followup story entitled "Invasion" doesn't even appear nor does Curley for that matter, making me wonder just how truthful Gawandaland's claims of this book containing the complete series really are. Maybe the folk at Centaur lost the saga or better yet believed their readers were too stupid to notice, but the story that does turn up having to do with a scientist who has discovered the secret of "accelerated evolution" sure does continue on the bared-wire thread of cheapo intensity the best Golden Age adventure comics are famous for!

Of course they're cornballus and unsophisticated and all that, but as I've said that's why I like 'em! Sure the real deal FLASH GORDON is boffo enough but AIR-SUB DX comes off like something that coulda popped outta the mind of your by-now ancient Uncle Ernie back when he was only eight-years-old! And let me tell you nonbelievers that even the cheapest of mass-produced entertainment a good eighty-years-back could beat todays high-budget effects galore effort all hollow! At least the people who were creating those HEROES (remember that word?) didn't exactly go out and flaunt all that was bad and anti-human about themselves via their characters for all to see, as if the kids in Peoria would ever go for such clay-based avengers to admire in the first place. And the stories here make a whole lot more sense too even if for some strange reason Gawandaland reprinted the accelerated evolution saga twice. Maybe because it was so good but hey, if you wanted to read it again and didn't feel like turning back the page here's your chance!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! MR. RICCO (1975) STARRING DEAN MARTIN!

MR. RICCO was Dean Martin’s final starring role (he had only guest star roles after this) in a feature film, and it came and went very quickly. I remember it appearing out of the blue and seeing a newspaper ad for it, but by the time I was able to arrange seeing it, it had vanished from all screens in the Denver area, and I don’t remember it re-appearing later on the bottom of the bill at any local drive-ins. At most, it was out for a week in January 1975.

Of course, Dean Martin would not be the first name one would think of as the star of an urban crime film, which is essentially what this is, although Martin is an attorney, not a cop. You need a jittery, edgy presence, which is why Sinatra could do that kind of cop role well in his later years. Director Paul Bogart had previously directed CANCEL MY RESERVATION, the 1972 swan song of Bob Hope, which did get a theatrical release but seemed to be a network Movie Of The Week within months, so maybe some studio official thought he had a proven track record with past-their-prime household names. The big difference between that and Mr. Ricco is that in the Hope film, Bob was just doing the same old routine and running it into the ground. In Mr. Ricco, Martin is definitely playing against type--there’s no boozing or womanizing or double-entendre dialogue. Martin is playing a real character and not just a variation on his persona. The character is awkward, lonely, suffering from the health problems that come with age, and has a vulnerability that is moving. Of course, Martin had done diverse dramatic roles successfully a number of times before (THE YOUNG LIONS, for instance, with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift) in the post-Martin and Lewis era, but with the success of his weekly TV variety show, where the Dino persona--with a drink in one hand and a scantily-clad blonde on the other arm--was branded permanently into the consciousness of the average American, it was hard to think of him as anything else. This film came after his variety show went off the air but before he took the same boozy persona and brought it to a long series of celebrity roast TV specials, which are still being played on cable TV and sold on DVD today. The 70’s was a Golden Age of urban crime films, and even John Wayne made two of them in the 1974-75 period, MC Q and BRANNIGAN. The makers of this film wisely did not make Martin a cop--he doesn’t seem to have the energy for that--instead, they put him into the world of police and criminals as an attorney, and a burned-out, second-string attorney.

MR. RICCO looks and plays a lot like a TV movie (in fact, Martin’s daughter Deana refers to it as a TV show “that did not last very long” in her book about her father, so even she had it confused with a TV movie!), though with a bit more violence and darker, moodier photography than one would find on TV. Much of the plot revolves around Black characters (with Martin as a kind of outsider to their world) and a Black militant played by Thalmus Rasulala (well-remembered from COOL BREEZE and BLACULA), and the cast also includes Denise Nicholas (from ROOM 222) and the young Philip Michael Thomas, pre-MIAMI VICE. In Nick Tosches’ book on Dean Martin, Rasulala is quoted as describing Martin as detached and somewhat out of it during the film’s shoot, keeping to himself and being polite but not really connecting with the cast. If you were not a Martin fan, you could say he was phoning it in. He was also in the midst of a painful divorce, but he was always the professional and he always made it look effortless. If you decide to watch the film a second time but forget about the “plot” and concentrate entirely on Martin’s performance and characterization, tuning everything else out, as I once did, you’ll probably rate the film much higher and find a lot to contemplate.

The plot introduces many different and interesting elements in its 98 minutes, never really going all the way with or developing any of them but dropping them here and there, which oddly works here since that’s probably how the average police investigation or the average week in someone’s life would seem while you were living it, but the “whodunit” climax is an outrageous cheat and makes me wonder if this project was just finished (maybe I should say “finished off”) because it was contracted and a job needed to be done. I can’t imagine anyone involved in the production thinking that a film with such a ludicrous resolution could ever get a good review. MGM/UA’s dumping of the film onto the market with little fanfare or promotion would also lead one to that conclusion--it was a product that had a contractual obligation to be released, and they released it....and quickly moved on.

San Francisco is always a good setting for a crime film, and the locations are fresh and unfamiliar. The supporting cast, those mentioned above plus Eugene Roche (for years known by all as the dishwasher character selling Ajax Dishwashing Detergent, but also a man with a long string of stage credits, and memorable appearances in everything from SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE to ALL IN THE FAMILY) as the burned-out cop that Martin’s Mr. Ricco tangles with, all do a great job (no doubt thinking it was a good break to get cast in an MGM film starring Dean Martin!). And Dean Martin, although looking tired and detached, creates an interesting character, and those qualities actually help make Ricco seem real. Martin plays him as if he’s not starring in a movie but maybe forced to do jury duty, and having to do it during a week when he’d hoped to be doing something else, yet somehow that approach fits.

Fans of Dean Martin or of lesser-known 70’s urban crime films will want to check this out, and except for the ending, you should find your 98 minutes to be well spent. It’s no classic, but just imagine it as a pilot for an entry in the NBC MYSTERY MOVIE anthology series, except with Dean Martin. I would have watched such a show religiously back in the day. Dean Martin certainly finished off his days of film stardom in a much more classy and successful way with MR. RICCO than Bob Hope did with CANCEL MY RESERVATION, although that’s not much of a compliment.

Nothin' much to report on this week, that is unless you want me to spew reams of intricate details regarding my typical winter sniffles or various underwear surprises. Which I suspect you don't, so let's just get on with the rekkid reviewz and leave the personalist aspects of this blog to future posts, hokay???

Pandit Pran Nath-SINGS RAGAS BHEEMPALASI & PURIYAA DHANAASHREE 2-LP set (Sri Moonshine Records)

If you thought that rock music (at its purest) was just one big drone and liked it just give this man a listen. Live recordings of historical significance guaranteed to snuggle into your subconscious while you're up to other things and like the best music ,whether it pretends to or not, it doesn't hinder and in fact accentuates your daily duties without obliterating it all to heck. This guy gave loads of lessons to the New York avant garde music makers of the early-sixties, so if you're keen on the kind of ramalama that Terry Riley, Lamonte Young and Henry Flynt were making at the time you're probably already in gear for Pandit Pran  Nath and like need I say any more???

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The Fruit Eating Bears-THE LOST 1977 PUNK RECORDINGS CD-r burn

Lotsa REAL punks used to pee on these guys but I think they got more energy and grit to 'em than a thousand hippoids trying to fool every with their spiky attire. Led by former Slowload frontman Neville Crozier (they of "Big Boobs Boogie" fame) the Bears crash about with a primal, clanky fury that I gotta say rose about the usual poses that most enemies of the form seem to remember. Hotcha originals mingle with pertinent six-oh garage band classics proving that it really was all one continuum even if more'n a few nabobs were more'n willing to say otherwise.

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Dirty Songs-PLAY DIRTY SONGS CD (Audio Records, England)

Wow, a concept album, all having something (extremely) vaguely to do with hidden obscenities in pop records or some other similar heady subject like that which probably matters only to executive producer Maxime Rossi and nobody else. The execution of the entire project might not quite convey what Rossi had intended to say (which I find difficult to digest in my single-digit IQ mind), but musically this succeeds thanks to the presence of a group that consists of some heavy players on the English avant garde like Steve Beresford, Evan Parker, Phil Minton and David Toop.

Together, they as Dirty Songs kinda sound like what AMM woulda had they been into rock 'n roll. Given how the late-sixties English had a hungerin' for the likes of the Velvet Underground which occasionally manifested itself in various sound expressions, it's no mistake that some of these tracks have a not-so-strange Velvets cum Hawkwind drone that recalls what was goin' on over there right when it was all starting to "come together" as far as the avant garde and the rock world standing up and shaking hands. Other numbers with affected if buried vocals (such as the one where the lyrics to "Louie Louie" are slowed down to a growl) or total avant blast blares of the abstract persuasion may be too heady or even over-the-edge for your tastes. But overall this surprisingly has some great energetic rock moments on it which shows that there surprisingly is still fresh music being made in the "avant rock" realm other than the usual Fadensonnen and Kendra Steiner Editions release, which seems so strange especially here in the post-post-music days of 2018

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Craig Bell-AKA DARWIN LAYNE CD-r burn (originally on Ever Never Records, available here)

Why it took so long to get I don't know (actually I do know...y'see I thought Bell himself was gonna send me a copy!) but now that I have it I can enjoy repeated spins of this Cleveland underground first-waver's brighter moments even if I'm confused as to the origins and whys and wherefores of it all. Great tracks old (like "Sea Chains" and a whole bunch that originated during Bell's Mirrors sojourn) and new (which in this case means Saucers onward) are perfect for those of you who've been in on that whole late-sixties sophisticado rock cum pop as the Universal Musical Language for the past fortysome years...and don't regret it one bit. Good straight-ahead sounds here even if it does lack the WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT meets FUNHOUSE atonality that Rocket From The Tombs were infamous for way back in those rather blurry memory days.

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Various Artists-TOOTH AND NAIL CD-r burn (originally on Upsetter Records)

Yeah, I know that I'm supposed to hate this album on principal given how the guy who was responsible for it is one of those demigods who is worshiped by people I wouldn't pay to shovel the shit that you have to take from those who give it to you all day. But dang it I just don't if only for the punk purity of the thing, what with the Controllers easing into late-seventies attitude while still holding onto an early-seventies approach, the Flesh Eaters (and Germs) practically inventing El Lay hardcore even though the pupils eventually got it all wrong, U.X.A. doing yet another Amerigan take on X Ray Spex (and better if I do say so myself) and both Negative Trend and the Middle Class not fresh enough to really qualify as anything out of the original. But gosh darn if I still love 'em as much as I do the rest. I have the actual vinyl copy of this somewhere in this heap I call a home, but this burn (available via ebay) is handier even if it, like my original, lacks the lyric sheet (I wonder why???---at least regarding the one missing from my original, eh Brad?!?!).

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The Good Rats-LIVE AT LAST CD-r burn (originally on Rat City Records)

Didn't think it coulda happened (well maybe I did), bu at one time the Good Rats actually put out a hot and pumping-on-all-cylinders live album that not only contains an over-the-speed limit performance but doesn't sound all slick and FM trebley! True at times these Rats might come off too professional for anyone's benefit, but they play hard and mean and can deliver on those high energy jamz about as much as any of the other hard-blare acts of the late seventies (the Dictators come to mind). Good slab of straight ahead rock and even some fusion jamz to make you do a double look and when you're done you too will wonder why these guys never really went anywhere.

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Stefan Jaworzyn/Thursty Moore/Rudolph Grey-LIVE @ THE COOLER NYC 1996 CD-r burn

When you get three musical miscreants like this together you KNOW you're gonna be in for one mighty hunking roar of electronic sound. And that's exactly what turns up on this short but sweet live show featuring Skullflower/Ascension guitarist Jaworzyn teamed up with the infamous Thurston Moore and perhaps even more infamouster Rudolph Grey, each sounding like they're engaged in a wrestling cage match with their guitars winner-take-all! If you're still keen on those early just-post no wave mass of electric guitar wail sounds that came off sooooo exciting and liberating and all at the time (early/mid-eighties), an internet search just might come in handy.

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The Dum Dum Boys-LET THERE BE NOISE CD-r burn

These New Zealand Iggyphiles were a whole lot better'n a load of their brethren on the snot circuit if only because THEY KNEW HOW TO STEAL FROM THEIR IDOLS WITH SUAVENESS AND VERVE! Nobody really could capture the whole late-sixties Amerigan ideal to crisp crackling perfection, but the Boys really can get into the whole gestalt of it all in a way that only Rocket From The Tombs and perhaps a smattering of others could succeed with. Especially dug the slowed down remash of "Sister Ray" on "Something to Say" which does reveal some grey matter activation. Sure sounds great, especially when played up against the kind of music that followed!

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Various Artists-UNIQUE HORIZON WRITING SHARK CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Boy does this one start off  crapezoid what with three hippoid rock tracks that remind me of nothing but early-seventies feel sorry for me, I have long hair music. Fortunately things start cooking with the English big beat of the Baroques and (I think) Jack and the Beanstalks. From there on it's a roller coaster ride of cornball moom pitcher themes, teenage British Invasion imitations, sunshine-y pop and grownup lounge music that reminds me of family trips and frequent Holiday Inn stops. Some of the instrumentals that close this thing out have a nice snap to 'em. Unfortunately Bill hadda end it all with yet another 1971-vintage hippie rock thing complete with lyrics that just HAFTA BE fraught with deep introspective meaning and alla that comfy cozy hokum that was so big back then. As if the audience really cared...after all even Nick Tosches said in one of the best things he ever wrote that the folks who went to Madison Square Garden were only there to see George Harrison's nifty hair.

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OOPSIES---I forgot to thank the fine folk who sent me material for this week's post, mainly Bill Shute, P.D. Fadensonnen and Bob Forward! Paul McGarry...sorry sport, but maybe next time!

BOOK REVIEW! THE COMPLETE DICK TRACY VOLUME 23 BY CHESTER GOULD (IDW 2017)

I thought that this strip would have been petering out into late-sixties "War on Crime" jingoism and duller-than-you storylines by now...after all, that's what the "experts" have been saying had happened to DICK TRACY once Chester Gould got on his moon trip and science fiction angle. But gosh if DICK TRACY just doesn't still seem to be cooking on all hotplates just like it had been a good twenty-to-thirty years earlier. The freaky villains, the scientific gadgets, the senseless violence...it's all here and let me tell you it must have looked just as good to the standard spread out onna parlor floor kiddoid suburban slob of 1967 as it did to the same species back during those World War II days when TRACY was even more popular than you ever will b, and I should know because I in fact was that suburban slob aficionado!

There are some great scenes to behold in this vol., like the one where Mr. Bribery and his cyster Ugly Christine (who really ain't ugly and is kinda sexy with that long black hair) kill a pair of renegade scientists by shooting one in the left eye and penetrating the other right through the skull with Christine's high heel! Then of course there's the panel which reveals just how "Haf-N-Haf" got the way he did (you think that Gould would have been aware of the extremely similar "Two-Face" character in BATMAN...maybe he was getting back at Bob Kane et. al. for swiping ideas from DICK TRACY lo these many years!) showing him lying unconscious while semi-submerged in a pool of acid! Grisly yet oh-so-appropriate for a strip such as this which never did shy away from the distasteful. Even weirder is the thread where Kora Steele, the now blind old lady who knew Haf as a child, is hiding the mummified remains of her husband in his bedroom and her bloodhound, after years of faithfully guarding the bedroom door, enters with the cops and licks the wrinkled and grinning face of his former master! YECH with a capital "Y" if you ask me, but somehow I find something that makes DICK TRACY all the more hard-hitting and (dare-I-say) REAL LIFE????? I mean, you should have seen some of the things my dog used to lick!

If the concerned mothers of Ameriga types were so up in arms about the violence in children's entertainment (not realizing that their hubbies were probably just as gung ho on this form of funzies as the kidz!) I'd like to see just what they'd think of these particular happenings that could easily be found in the pages of Anypaper USA! Funny how things have changed...I mean I can't think of anything more downhome wholesome than TRACY with all its violence and gore while the same kinda moms of the past have transformed into a new variation on the old "Reform League" types, only they're out there pushing such vague ideals as "equality of outcome" and "identity politics" rather than shuddering at the thought that Batman and Robin might be engaging in the love that won't shut up anymore. But they're still the same shrieking harpies they were back when D.W. Griffith was poking fun at 'em, and they're still about as welcome around here as a knife juggler would be in a nudist colony!

Can't complain a bit about anything (even Gould's frequent and weirdo proclamations about magnetism vs. rocketry!), and the upcoming volume looks even temptier what with the addition of these two young (and married) lookalike criminals, both former employees of Diet Smith Enterprises who were hired by a now-free Mr. Bribery (he having broke outta the hoosegow) to help him get hold of the hundred thou he accidentally left stranded in orbit. After retrieving the moolah in a large mesh trap strapped to the front of a space coupe they actually drop Bribery's drunken carcass back at the prison where the guy escaped---and he goes right through the roof! (These sorta endings always make me feel happy inside!) What's surprising about this particular arc is that the married badskis look conspicuously 2018 what with their flashy hairstyles, bizarroid earrings and both sporting stylish pointy beards. And considering how close alike they look they mighta even been twins...talk about adding a a daring incest angle to an otherwise every day kiddo comic strip! Wow, who woulda thought that Gould woulda predicted the who ambi/unisexual transgender sibling love hipster movement a good fifty years back??? Yes, his "The Nation That Controls Magnetism Controls The World!" canard turned out to be a big flop but when it came to the weirdos like we have now boy could Gould call 'em!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! TALES OF ROBIN HOOD STARRING ROBERT CLARKE (1951)

TALES OF ROBIN HOOD was a collaboration between two budget-minded producers, Robert Lippert (best known for Lippert Pictures and later the B-unit at Fox--we reviewed his WILDFIRE here a while back) and Hal Roach Jr. Both had experimented with “streamlined” features running in the 40-55 minute range, and Roach was a pioneer of early television (which was essentially even more “streamlined” 25 minute B-movies), responsible for such classics as RACKET SQUAD, DUFFY’S TAVERN, MY LITTLE MARGIE, and THE STU ERWIN SHOW. Lippert had also experimented with hour-long films in two parts so they could be separated for easy television showings after a token theatrical run (he did three excellent features in this vein with Hugh Beaumont as detective Denny O’Brien in 1951). Therefore, the two were natural allies when it came to creating a Robin Hood TV pilot that might also have theatrical exhibition possibilities on the side (the opening credits read R&L PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS, meaning Roach and Lippert)...and one that could be made quickly and inexpensively.

Roach had access to sets from the 1948 film JOAN OF ARC (an RKO release, which starred Ingrid Bergman and Jose Ferrer), which are used A LOT in the film, so all that was needed was minimal outdoor shooting and some faux-outdoor sets (for instance, the fight between Little John and Robin Hood, when they first meet and do not know each other’s identity, where they both wind up falling into a small pond, was clearly shot at a studio pool, dressed with some brush around it). The end result is quite impressive visually, especially for a low-budget film. The many and varied scenes on large castle sets give the film a “big” feel and a convincing atmosphere.

It’s amazing how much of the Robin Hood backstory and legend are crammed into a one-hour film, but rarely does it seem that characters are mouthing exposition in their dialogue, and when it does, it still seems natural to the scene. You could be from Mars and never have heard of this Robin Hood fellow, and in an hour you’d know his personal history as Robin of Locksley, how he evolved into his role as doer-of-good and righter-of-wrong, how he assembled his group of Merry Men, how the major members of his group joined the band, how Maid Marian came into his life, etc. etc. And all of this is provided in addition to an exciting plot involving kidnapping, an archery contest, the quest to win Maid Marian’s hand away from the evil man to whom she’s been promised, and the quest to topple Sir Guy of Clement, who had Robin’s father killed and who has been abusing the locals.

Robert Clarke, who plays Robin, devoted a few pages to this film in his excellent autobiography TO “B” OR NOT TO “B”, and it seems the principal photography was done in FOUR DAYS! With that kind of schedule, the production needed professionals who could work quickly with no re-takes, and you’ve got a lot of them here. Clarke, who later became known for low budget sci-fi and horror films, had been a contract player at RKO and worked with many greats there, and he starred in two of the prestigious indie films directed by Ida Lupino a year or so before this film. He’s handsome, athletic, projects an upbeat vibe throughout the film, and his fencing does not seem to have required a double. In addition you’ve got the urbane Brit Paul Cavanagh, a man with 162 IMDB credits, as the evil Sir Guy; comedic movie gangster and BTC favorite Ben Welden (a man with a devoted following because of his 8 guest appearances on the 50’s Superman TV show) as Friar Tuck; and Whit Bissell (the doctor in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) as Will. Low budget filmmaking requires talented character actors who can command your attention, and either charm you or make you hate them, and these pros (among many in the cast) do that very well. Four days isn’t even a full work week, and the next week these folks would be in some other film or TV episode, and giving THAT the same efficient professionalism, probably at or near SAG/AFTRA scale.

Had I stumbled in to see this film at my local neighborhood or small-town theater in 1951 at the end of a long work week dealing with cranky customers and a cranky boss, I would have been totally entertained. Also, because the film was shot for TV exhibition, it has a lot of medium shots and close-ups (except for when they want to show of that gigantic Joan of Arc set, and then the camera pulls back, and yes, it IS impressive), so you really get to know the actors, as they are, literally, in your face a lot.

For me, characters like Robin Hood or Tarzan or Hercules (or ANY character from comics!) belong in “B” movies, not in bloated studio epics. There were no spoiled diva stars in this film....to get that many scenes done in four days, you had to be quick and professional, and that speed gives a kind of breathless feel to the film’s pace and performances, and if you think about it, Robin Hood had to be in a relatively breathless state to get done all the derring-do necessary to defeat the evil ruler, save Maid Marian, and re-claim his rightful place as Robin of Locksley....and especially to get it all done IN ONE HOUR. We should be giving an award to this cast and crew who could put together such an exciting and good-looking low-budget film....actually, a TV pilot that was not picked up....so efficiently. If you ever needed an example of old-fashioned American ingenuity using the modest materials at hand, TALES OF ROBIN HOOD is it. If I had a sword, I’d raise it in honor of Robin Hood and Robert Clarke....since I don’t, I’ll raise a tankard of ale instead!

So, how are you holding out against the January blahs anyway? Me, I've been around the block so many times that seasonal mood changes don't even matter anymore, but even if they did I'd be getting by swell enough what with my digging out of the usual grump-bustin' sounds and tee-vee viewing (via Dee-Vee-Dee natch...series like THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO never wear thin with me no matter how many times throughout my life I see 'em) and of course the beauteous bevy of music that has been playin' the soundtrack to my life for longer than anyone other than my enemies can remember.  I'm survivin' the snow 'n all even if I am having a whole lotta trouble awaiting the release of albums that I don't think ever will come within my ears (no, I don't mean that!) as well as listening to more modern efforts trying to somehow tie 'em in even in the most tangential way that they have the same kind of meaning as those classics of yore. Of course spot readings of THE AESTHETICS OF ROCK does tend to sort out much of the internal chaos.

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The fanzine front (at least as far as finding any old faves or discovering new classics) hasn't been that snazzoid as of late, so I've been tryin' to find my self-publication thrills through other means. One way I have tried to sate my amateur press passions has been by printing out and pouring over some of the free "punk rock" fanzines that have been available for download via various sites (check blogroll on left for a link or two), but even the fanzines that are available for free aren't enough to get me all hot and bothered like a newly found issue of DENIM DELINQUENT might have oh-so long ago. As ya all (should) know, when it comes to fanzines there are more subjects than rock 'n roll to peruse, and given how my interest in such publications exceeds the usual rock 'n roll fodder I'm happy enough to have come across a site which has provided for us all each and every issue of Bruce Townley's OBLONG, a fanzine which has made for a rather interesting evening of settle back kick up yer feet reading that's for sure!

Some of you rock fanzine types might remember Townley from his days contributing to the should-be ever-popular HYPERION where not only did he contribute a column entitled "Almost Another" (dealing solely with Science Fiction fanzines) but earned the (friendly?) ire of editor Mark Jenkins for his love of the Firesign Theatre universe of albums, books etc. However, while HYPE went under during the early months of '75 and Jenkins found his fortune in the legitimate rockscreeding world, Townley kept true to his fanzine roots not only with his contributions (artwork or otherwise) to a range of Sci-Fi and Fantasy reads but a few titles of his own like PHIZ! and of course today's exercise in self-expression which, while reflective of the late slick professional-looking fanzine look that I don't particularly care for, still reeks of that wonderful self-ist way of laying down those personal inner-feelings and foibles for that matter which always made the best in fanzine writing Sci-Fi, rock 'n roll or otherwise.

As far as these personalist rags go, OBLONG probably couldn't get any more reflective of the Townley persona. There seems to be a lack of rock 'n roll related musings true, and considering what a turdburget general kultur has been since the early-eighties if not before something like rock woulda been a welcome addition to this mag. But Townley makes even the drabbest of drab look spiffy what with his general outlook and ability to make even the mundane look like its ready for STAND UP AND CHEER. Pieces on everything from film noir to Lynda Barry (?????-sheesh) to old POPULAR SCIENCE/MECHANICS and others in that mag bracket scope (including a bit from a 1965 SCIENCE AND MECHANICS entitled "Amazing Electronic Cures for Sexual Inadequacy" which is definitely one I've missed all these years) make these mags a must-download. Biggest surprise is that onetime BLACK TO COMM contributor Mike Huegen contributed some artwork...small world as they say in Lackawanna Township.

OBLONG is anything but oblong/obtuse as far as fanzine thrills go. And hey Brice, if you are reading this would you be so KIND as to put some of those old issues of HYPERION that you said you have on-line for us rock fanzine freaks who really could use some high energy rockscribing these sad 'n sorry days???

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So like, what am I listening to for chock-fulla-vitamins pure life-reaffirming wholesomeness these past few days? To give it a specific category I would call it "LATE-SIXTIES/EARLY-SEVENTIES ICONOCLASTIC AND/OR APOCALYPTIC SOUND RE-ASSESSMENT" for wont of a better term. Blame the acquisition of THE MIRROR MAN SESSIONS (reviewed below) for starting it all but danged if most if not all of my favorite kick-up-your-feet-and-relax spins this week haven't been from the '67-'70 era of atonal and fug-it-all soundcrunch, the kind that had wanderlust hippoids rush back to the comfy coziness of their suburban squats it was that ear canal churning. On the list besides the aforementioned MM...the Velvet Underground's WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (which isn't a repeato-play here like you might think it would be...it's too sacred for that!), Can's MONSTER MOVIE (which I guess ain't as sacred considering how often I spin it), Guru Guru's UFO, YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND, John Coltrane's ASCENSION (first take---a little outta the timescope but wha' th' hey), John Coltrane's ASCENSION (second take---ditto) and not much else! I dunno about you but music like this is quite exhilarating, sorta like giving my soul a startling cold shower to revive it after a day of everyday life grinding the dadburned thing right into the mud.

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As if I hadda tell ya, here's this week's batch of newies to grace my lobes, a few of which classify as total eruption classics that I think will last more than the one spin I tend to give recordings these sad 'n sorry days (mainly the Xterip album and don't say their name backwards or else you'll be sent to the dimension from whence you came!).

Xterip-THE FRISBEE SESSIONS CD-r (Kendra Steiner Editions, see link on left for more information)

And for the DO WAH CLASSIC OF THE YEAR AWARD, my ballot goes to Xterip for this particularly pungent slab of freefrom freakout that would make Mayo Thompson wanna join the Dominicans. It's hard to pin down exactly where this group is coming from (and no, I can't hear either LaMonte Young or the Seventh Sons in this) but the total freak jam vibe is something that is pretty much part and parcel to the whole Kendra Steiner sorta sound twistarama we at BLOG TO COMM have become accustomed to these past few years. If anything, this seems like to end line (at least for now) in the whole electronic/drone side of music that such luminaries as the Velvet Underground and AMM have dabbled in on and off for years, and I gotta say that it was a pretty invigorating experience making my way through these four tracks. And believe-you-me, I sure wish there were more.

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THE BEST OF THE CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND CD-r burn (originally on Rhino Records)

Maybe this one is too obvious to appear here and should have been placed in the usual year-end roundup of more "familiar" platters that I have yet to post for the 2017 season, but then again perhaps THE BEST OF THE CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND is just an outta-the-way "collection" that'll fit in just anywhere I put it! If you have the original albums and Moxie EP this is really nothing new, but for those who don't it makes for a pretty snazzy introduction to one of the many outta-the-loop bands of the late-sixties who shoulda made it bigger even if those later albums wouldn't have exactly been SNOWFLAKES FALLING ON THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE ifyaknowaddamean. There seems to be a paucity of later-on Watchband tracks, but as far as the early and punkier songs go this is probably the only place where you can get the best of 'em all under one roof.

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John Cage-SONATAS AND INTERLUDES (Susan Svrcek, piano) CD (Centaur Records, available via Forced Exposure)

I seem to be slipping back into my late-teenbo days what with my purchasing and incessant spinning of not only various Captain Beefheart recordings but these John Cage and various other "avant garde classical" platters that were so elusive back during my depression-era wage youth! A nicety if I do say so myself, what with the prepared piano tunes and melodies wafting around in such an introspective way. Made for beautiful late-night backdrop while I was reading the usual comic strip collections although I get the feeling that this was probably not the intention Cage had while composing these pieces. Let's just say that whatever it can be used for, it can be adapted swell enough for your own personal comforts as if you've used airplane glue for its own intended purpose!

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Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band-THE MIRROR MAN SESSIONS CD (Buddha/BMG)

Wonder how this re-creation of the classic MIRROR MAN platter escaped my maws for the past few years! Yes, it's the same album we've known and loved for eons (released at the height of Beefheartmania by Buddha who didn't know a good thing until they lost it for good) only with MORE (but not all, you have to get the SAFE AS MILK reissue for those). An' y'know what, this just might be my fave of the pre-Straight Beefheart efforts the way the free drone play fits right into my brain the way the best repeato-riff rock of the era most certainly did. Saying any more about this 'un'll just be rehashing old Nick Tosches tales for people who probably couldn't stand to hear the same incessant praise over and over. Of course this edition costs way more'n the 99 pennies one could plunk down for it back '76 way but that's the price of progress, or so I'm told every time I dish out more moolah for yet another edition of an old fave o' mine!

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EIN PRODUKT DER DEUTSCH ANERIKANISCHEN FREUNDSHAFT CD (Bureau B Records, Germany)

Along with the above a perfect nerve-shredder even if it does fall outside the sixties/seventies rock 'n roll as pure atonality cusp. Melodies start up and fade out just when they're getting tantalizing and the whole electronic approach still appeals at this point. Done up by kids who spent the entire seventies gathering up their sixties-bred Velvets cum Stooges cum kraut cum over-the-top freakdom and reshaping it for a new era. Too bad this act, like way too many eighties leftovers, rotted on the vine when they could have been cooking high intensity but at least we still have this particular crank to appreciate.

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S.Y.P.H.-AM RHEIN CD (Ata Tak Records Germany, available through Forced Exposure)

Bought this 'un along with the above in order to brush up a bit on some of those post-krauty offerings that passed me by because at the time they originally came out I wasn't gonna be that adventurous with my depression-era wages. Years later a group like this seemed like a good place to pick up and discover just what was going on over in Merkeland during those rather confused musical times. Why this particular group was chosen I don't know, but I did it and well...

Now I must admit that I originally thought S.Y.P.H. woulda been the kinda act who'd've been roaring about in a Can-styled drive into inner space regions as yet uncharted. Not quite, though at times they do have a rather gnarled approach to adequate distortion that appeals slightly. But howcum I am reminded of nothing but early/mid-eighties "new wave" triumph of the airwaves (and cable stations) when I give some of these more pop-oriented tracks a listening???

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Lee Curtis and the All-Stars-IT'S LEE! CD-r burn (originally on Star-Club Records, Germany)

Sheesh, do you remember when the mere mention of "Liverpool" was enough to move product like anything since Bing Crosby? I mean, everything from Liverpool Ice Cream to Liverpool suppositories were flyin' off the shelf due to the merest of Beatle-relations and although it sure seems strange these days it sure meant a whole lot to teenage gals with too much moolah who probably didn't even know what suppositories were supposed to be used for!

And if you were one of those rock 'n roll groups from the burgh who played the Cavern Club and all well...welcome to a recording contract no matter how turdsville you guys mighta been! Lee and his All-Stars certainly fit the Liverpool cash-in mode with this effort featuring the guy in full phlegm voice doin' the hits of the day his way'n don't let anyone tell you different! Tell you what, I got a whole lot more thrills outta the Mustangs doin' the Beatles platter way back when I was but a mere fifteen than I could with this showoffy entertainer who just doesn't do his place of birth any sorta civic justice I'll tell ya!

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Various Artists-VOLUNTEERS AT THE VIRTUAL THRIFT STORE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

OK, Little Gigi does it good tryin' to muscle in on the early-sixties Negro gal singer market with a track that coulda gone somewhere onna charts, but what's the deal with Sagram tryin' his best to capture the Ravi Chancre market and missing by a mile?!? Los Flecos do a good Spanish-language thumper that must've gotten a few dancefloors filled up way back when, while country singler Jim Fullen must certainly be waiting for puberty to come his way more sooner 'n later. Song Poesy from Gena Genova and Bill Joy sound rather up-to-date what with the synth-y sounds (well...maybe 1975 Ford-era "duh"-y ifyaknowaddamean), though the Tim Berne track "Sequel X" really surprises me because it is a solo acoustic guitar piece and I always thought Berne was a saxophonist! Dominic Lash and Nate Wooley are an improv bass/trumpet act (that wouldn't go anywhere at the Palace) but fans of the ol' AACM sound would like it while the Spanish take on the Beatles' "I Feel Fine" by Alex y Los Finders is faithful enough even without the cool feedback intro. Fats Domino's "Oh What a Price" is almost as good as Link Wray's and that "White House Party" by Hank Marr sounds more like a party at the Playboy Mansion if you ask me! And the Toys (of "A Lover's Concerto" fame) doing ? and the Mysterians (I know...don't write in) was a bigger gas'n a case of the farts! And closing it out the Lafayette Afro Rock Band do some hot seventies-ish jazzy r/b that actually doesn't dredge up bad radio memories one bit!

Yeah this writeup is kinda like a patch-together of brief impressions but considering that the disque is just that I figured why not? Besides, these days I'm beginning to feel like I've been patched together myself so why not go with the flow as the Governor of California said we should all do oh so long ago?