BLOG TO COMM

WEAK UPDATE!

After shooting my load with the past two posts all I gotta say is that I honestly don't have that much to lay down for you eager beaver BLOG TO COMM followers this Sunday morn. I've been pinching the pennies a little tighter'n usual so I must confess that I don't have any real new offerings to write about in a vain attempt to somehow validify my life to people I don't even know, and I don't think you're actually champing at the bit to read over and over again about some of the oldies but moldies that have been getting spun here at the BLOG TO COMM HQ in the interim, right? (However, at least one of my current faveraves will be sneaking its way into the following postschpiel, dontcha worry!) And not only that, but I never received my copy of STRAW DOGS (a film that has been on my gotta watch list for quite some time) from some shifty ebay dealer and thus have initiated an inquiry into the matter, which is why you won't be seeing a review of that famed explosion of violent frenzy for quite some time. (Though I might just dish out for the Criterion edition of this still-controversial film, at least after I get back some of the moolah spent on producing a load of fanzines back during the days of my misspent youth, that is.)

I will say this, and that is that one thing that has been lighting a fire underneath my buttocks as of this past week has been the Rock's Back Pages site that Lindsay Hutton hipped us all to a short while back. Hutton ain't no mutton, and being a fellow who's starved for the finer things in life (mainly high-energy rockscribe ideasplurt from the fanzine Golden Age as well as classy rockist brainiac musings from the general Golden Age of Rock Criticism, both of which incidentally coincided) I actually dished out fifty smackers for a year's subscription to the site and have not winced yet. Whatcha get here's a load of pertinent (to the BLOG TO COMM mindset) rock writing to choose from and while there's a lot missing (mainly rare fanzine quips and quibbles) and plenty of dross (too much moderne-day wisenheimering you can read for free elsehwere, if you wanted to) you still get enough of the good gunch from classic NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS ranting and ravings (Mick Farren on Hawkwind's '74 US tour, early Roxy Music rah-rahs) to some "how'd I miss that???" obscurities from the likes of Lenny Kaye's review of the first Stooges disque in FUSION and all of those rare Metal Mike Saunders pieces I've been yearning to read for EONS only I hadda go'n pay big bucks for old SHAKIN' STREET GAZETTEs before finding this site! But it's nice to have access to Rock's Back Pages anyway and y'know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna copy all of the articles and reviews that fit in with my own horse-blindered appreciation of what rock & roll music is (mainly writeups of albums and groups utilizing a lotsa Velvet Underground comparisons laid down by longtime BLOG TO COMM approved faves amongst others) and put 'em in a big binder which I will title A HEAPING LOAD OF REVIEWS WITH NEAT INSIDE REFERENCES TO THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND OTHER THINGS THAT AFFIX THEMSELVES TO MY HORSE-BLINDERED VIEW OF WHAT ROCK & ROLL IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALL ABOUT and I'll stick it on the shelf next to TWENTY MINUTE FANDANGOS AND FOREVER CHANGES, THE ROCK REVOLUTION and all those other rockism reads that soothe my senses after being inundated with too many moderne-type blogblurts dealing with "crucial" and "relevant" eighties underground music I long-ditched. But then again, aligning yourself with a total Trotskyite comsymp like Christopher Hitchens (not forgetting that li'l Dutch shite Theo Van Gogh) will do "something" to a fellow's so-called "libertarian" (more like "neocon") outlook on life and music as well as other things, eh Jay? At least you know my head's on straight with my frequent namedropping of the REAL mavericks of today like Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis (rip), Paul Craig Roberts, Justin Raimondo and CHRONICLES magazine...COMRADE!!!

Anyway,the recent arrival of Rock's Back Pages into my life has inadvertently caused me to do at least one surprisingly change-of-rut thing in my life, and that is to re-reevaluate none other than the fourth Amon Duul II album entitled CARNIVAL IN BABYLON (check out this blog...there's a review of it here somewhere...). Being a fellow who pretty much ditched that disque in favor of the following WOLF CITY (which I thought had more of a teutonic putsch to it), I've decided to give the platter yet another turn after reading a review of WOLF CITY by Wayne Robins (a critic whom I could take or leave...he's OK but not gonzoid or anything) in the pages of a '73 issue of CREEM I don't even own (!) and y'know, amidst all of the slick seventies references to kraut porno chainthrills that you would've expected in CREEM at the time came an assessment of the band and the album which, although unfavorable to WOLF CITY, was more or less positive to its predecessor calling it "punk rock Stravinsky." Since such out-there terminologies always seemed to strike me in a positive, rockism-assuring way (especially when spouted from a pre-punk point-of-view as opposed to in a pUnQUe cheapo commercial fashion) I naturally started digging my copy from out and under and y'know what? CARNIVAL IN BABYLON really is a fine and dandy punk rock of an early-seventies variety album that, despite the obvious references to '67 San Francisco pre-noodle, still ranks as a pretty good platter that would've snuggled nicely asides your Stooges and NUGGETS albums, given you were into punkism record collecting at the time! It, as do all the early Amon Duul II records, comes highly recommended for those of you looking for a little switch from the standard grind of things (but just a "little" switch, remember!).

Maybe when something lights a bigger fire in my shorts I'll pop off another post your way. Until then, how about playing one of the great platters mentioned in the previous post of 100 ALBUMS THAT JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE NEVER HEARD OF with none other than me in mind! It would be fitting!