MARCH WRAP-IT-UP AND TAKE IT!

Be thankful you're getting these two reviews (and that's that!) this weekend, not only because I'm so tired after a six-day work week that's zapped all of my precious juices but because other'n the Stooges box set reviewed last time there really ain't that much to gab about. (You may THINK I spend all my money on every hip rock and jazz disque I can get my mitts on, to which I shall reply I sure wish you were right!) But don't worry, I have some hot tricks up my short sleeves in the works for next time (a come-on I hope will keep all of you prospective bungholes tuned in!).

Ray Russell-LIVE AT THE I.C.A./RETROSPECTIVE 2-CD set (Moikai, PO Box 470168, Chicago IL 60647)

I've been told that none other than underground hero Rudolph Grey is a big fan of British avant garde guitarist Ray Russell which is precisely why I bought this deluxe 2-Cee-Dee reissue of some allegedly classic seventies sides including those actually released on RCA back in the day! Well, at least the hoity liner notes say that Grey's a fan, but actually the noted guitarist and former Von Lmo sparring partner is much more than that. Just play Russell's studio version of "Stained Angel Morning" (disque 2, track 1) next to the Blue Humans' "Implosion '74" single and you'll realize that Grey was more or less a plagiarizer of Russell (but one who did it with love) if anything!

British jazz never really did excite me. Well, I gotta admit that I haven't heard as much of the stuff as I should (I always wanted to lend ear to that Ivor Cutler longplayer on Regal Zonophone that I read about in some jazz book ages ago where a big band consisting of all the hot UK jazzbos backed the "eccentric" [as the critics always say] Scottish poet), but for some reason a lotta the avant jazz that came off the offshore island didn't seem to have the same "zung" as classic sides created by authentic Amerigan blacks whether still inna States or expatriates in Europe recording albums they never would get paid for. I could say the same about this one despite the presence of some "heavy" players the likes of Harry Beckett and Gary Windo (he of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and Pam Windo and the Shades fame)...true Russell is a great experimental guitarist who can play with some fire and verve but some of the material seems to be not that much on par with what you should expect with regards to seventies nova music.

Still Russell and band do tend to amaze even this jaded fanabla at times, not only on the studio version of "Stained Angel" (the live one's no slouch either) but on such relative winners as "All Week Tomorrow" which has this cool seventies synth sound that reminds me of when I was a li'l one and used to go "ooh" over them things. Good enough backing too from the likes of Beckett, Windo and other English flybynights. But still the entire proceeding has this strange English coating to it (must be the same one that coats everybody over there's teeth a nice green) which will undoubtedly keep me from spinning this one as much as I do that classic slice of "music from Purgatory" MONKEY POCKIE BOO. Nice but I was expecting much more after all them years of fan drool.

Karl Berger and Edward Blackwell-JUST PLAY CD (Emanem)

Do any of you out there happen to own Berger's ESP alhum? I never was able to find it myself. Somehow that one got passed over when all those reissues started coming out back in the eighties. Nevertheless the guy was more than handy as a sideman on a whole slew of recording gigs for ESP and others...I mean, who could forget his work alongsides Sonny Sharrock on the Marzette Watts disc, or on about a hundred other great 60s/70s avant boppers that I hope to get to more sooner than later! And even today the guy's still sticking around and making himself relevant to a newer search for sonic freedom. I dunno about you, but I did catch the guy on a crowded CBGB Lounge stage as part of Earth People, and maybe that's the closest to what I will ever experience of the man in any sorta two-dimensional fashion so maybe those teenage chills can affect me now just like they did then!

On this '76 side Berger does the duet thing with former Ornette drummer Edward (no longer just "Ed"...he never did like the shortened version) Blackwell getting into that seventies percussion groove that seemed popular enough with the various members of the AACM not to mention hundreds of watered-down acolytes. With Berger playing vibraphone (with the motor off giving it a less full sound), balafon and darbuka (trad African drum) and Blackwell on drums and "osi-drum" (a "slit" drum which sure sounds durty to me!), this platter contains a whole lotta percussive thump that doesn't come off that much outta place amidst all those other avant/drum percussion romps that you used t come across during the day. The balafon-dominated pieces remind me of some Jerome Cooper (former Revolutionary Ensemble percussionist/pianist) solo album I've had for quite some time, and after this one's over I'm gonna hafta refer to that one to see how good my aging memories of long-unheard percussive throb really is!

Always engrossing, never raucous and pleasant enough especially those paranoid evening hours, JUST PLAY might be a nice one to slip into an already overcrowded free jazz collection...nothing essential, but invigorating in its own way nonetheless.

And, because you DIDN'T ask for it, one more review just to pad things out a bit!!!

Erica Pomerance-YOU USED TO THINK CD (ESP/ZYX Germany)

An oldie that got tossed into the "current playlist" here at BLOG TO COMM central. 'n yeah, before all those ESP CD reissues started comin' out I too wondered exactly who this Pomerance chick was...turns out she's one of them braless Canadian freedom-loving types but don't let that turn you off to this platter which, despite the undersurging hippie current, has enough smart-sass credo to it that'll certainly knock your socks off, to coin a phrase. Think Tim Buckley (ex-folkie does her own avant garde jazz trip) and you'll be there as Pomerance bleats cool jive whine vocals while time signatures get stranger and former folk friends look on with utter contempt. Subject matters range from the French Revolution ('89 and '68) to Leonard Cohen, and I can't see the serious ESP fan or collector, or even people who scour blogs like this to latch onto some new trip being without it.

The Stooges-HEAVY LIQUID 6-CD set (Easy Action UK, available through Forced Exposure)

Gee, summa youse people really irk me! I mean, here the Stooges, and I mean thee Stooges as in Iggy and have reformed and are a HERE AND NOW PROPOSITION, and a whole lotta you "shoulda known better" types are spending alla your precious free time putting down their latest (but not necessarily greatest) album entitled THE WEIRDNESS as if it were the worst thing to hit the world of rock & roll since David Crosby's involuntary pants crap at the Betty Ford Clinic or somethin'! Yeah, even honest and goodness I will concede that the thing certainly ain't no RAW POWER (as if every rekkid out there has to be!) but I'd place THE WEIRDNESS head and shoulders above a whole great hunkerin' portion of the mire released during the Ig's solo career not to mention an even bigger portion of what passes for rock & roll proper these rotten days let alone the past thirty-five or so years of "classic" rock and pill-pukin' arena tribal meets! OK, maybe you don't think lines like "My idea of fun is killin' everyone" are any great shakes but I sure find 'em a lot more refreshing and downright entertaining than the entire Dead Kennedys oeuvre! Wait, that's too easy (gotta admit "California Uber Alles" hadda fine anti-West Coast fruit 'n nut liberal appeal to it)...how about anything Lou Reed wrote post-1985 'r so?

Whatever your spin on THE WEIRDNESS may be, I'm 100% positive that you Stooges fans out there will agree on something and that's this '05 six-cee-dee collection straight outta England consisting of classy RAW POWER-eon Stooges '72-'74 is the ritz as opposed to the pits! And it is a fine example, document, and living time capsule for that matter or better yet the undeniably tippy-top pinnacle of the Stooges' ever-lovin' career back when the band was trying to break on through Jonathan Richman's fabled "made it" line only to burn out worse than Icarus. Only it was scag rather'n wax wings that did it, but anyway the results were pretty wild as you'd know from all those bootlegs and French EPs you've bought over the past twennysome years (not to mention the mythmaking that went on during those days and ever since thanks to everyone from such bright minds as Lester Bangs and Lenny Kaye to Danny Fields and Richard Robinson) so thank goodness for small favors and big pushers who have made the Stooges what they remain to this day, at least as far as fabled rock performances that remain nonpariel go.

Anyway, this new six-CD set of the Stooges during their RAW POWER days is as big a trip as you can find lo these many moons...I mean, who in their right mind '73 woulda expected that someday a six-ANYTHING-set Stooge collection woulda made it out. And not only that, but one with two booklets (one containing some great Stooge sagas and the other rare Mick Rock photos!) and a coupla stickers at that! Even those parcels from "Europe's Only Iggy Pop Fan Club" with the "Iggy is KOMING!" patches and fanzines doesn't quite measure up to this one!

Yeah, I'm sure you have most of this stuff in your well-aged collection already, but it's sure nice having it all in one place. And it's also fantab hearing such newies as the only studio recording of their "Louie Louie" cover (not as wild as the one on METALLIC KO but who's caring?) plus even more takes on such once-obscuros as "Rubber Legs" which sorta hit you right inna middle of your breadbasket with their undying surge and pow'r. And of course there are some new sources here that you'll absolutely die for, like the rehearsals for the Max's Kansas City show (followed by set one first night @ Max's!) as well as the original London rehearsals from whence the whole RAW POWER trip began!

And like the best seventies bands the Stooges knew enough to get the cream of the sixties and update it in a fit of heavy metal bravado. Which probably made them even greater since even the Dolls could not hit these heights of atonal madness. There's a whole lotta garage punk in the Stooges even at this late date, not only the mad drone of the Velvet Underground but the snarl of Sky Saxon and the Seeds, the thud of the Troggs and even a classic like "Wet My Bed" reminds me a whole lot of Paul Revere and the Raiders especially the way Scott Thurston's piano rinky-dinks around sorta like Revere's own did on those great early sides. Makes me wonder what kinda skit the Raiders woulda thought up miming to this one on WHERE THE ACTION IS!

And speaking of the Raiders, the CD closes out (after selections from the San Francisco set at Bimbo's) with excerpts of an unbelievable interview with the Ig conducted by none other than Dick Clark (!), who seems to be coming off more like a concerned member of the elder generation than a teenager of any age with his pointed questions about Iggy, transvestitism (as if Iggy was a proponent!), open homosexuality onstage (ditto!) and "decadence"!!!! (Says Iggy, "decadence is decomposition"! Later on, when asked about "moral decadence" he responds "I have no morals"!?!?!?) Whatever your attempt is to make sense outta this interview, it sure makes a fine cap on a great selection of rarities and faves documenting one of the most bared-wire (everyone to follow never got weaned from momma's boobies as Lester Bangs might've said!) rock acts to hit the boards in quite a long time.

And while we're talking Stooge box sets, can anyone out there point me towards the Destroy All Monsters/Dark Carnival collection that's being discussed in hushed tones these days?

BLOG TO COMM'S OFFICIAL ENDORSEMENT FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (click here and read why!)

Now, admit that it's a much better choice than Guiliani!

CEE-DEE REVIEWS (and other musical expressions for uncompromising gormandizers)

Nada much happening (as usual), or at least nothing that would concern you, so without further adoo-doo...

The Star Spangles-DIRTY BOMB CD (Tic, available via CD Baby)

I was wonderin' what happened to this rather bright foursome ever since their debut LP, er, cee-dee hit the boards thanks to the surprisingly good grace of Capitol Records ("Home of the Beatles" as Nat King Cole learned to his disgust!) a coupla years back. Well, according to the hypesheet it looks as if EMI in general and Capitol in particular ain't selling these hotcakes as fast as they'd like and thus are in the process of doing a little bitta downsizing themselves! Rumor has it that it was either ax the Star Spangles or Jerry Vale and guess who got ingloriously excised from the company's rosters??? Well, it ain't ol' Jer I'll tell ya that!

But whatever, the second album by these outta nowhere galoots is finally available and it's a pretty good 'un too...not as good as their debut splatter but so what! It's still a bigger treat than listening to one of those waxed-up zombies you see on AMERICAN IDOL with that sorta Fab Four meets the Heartbreakers sound tossed about with that eighties/nineties thingie to it that doesn't quite sound on the ultra-pura (I just made that term up...snazzy eh?) but it sure goes down smoother'n most of the outta nowhere garbanzos you come across today who made the entire idea of recording in your garage and putting your mewlings to public scrutiny a total travesty!

Tommy Volume is still in the band as is Ian Wilson, but the other two fled for safer havens probably due to the trauma of having EMI ignore their rather noble efforts. Anyway, they're not pictured anywhere on the album or the promo snap and they've been replaced anyway which might lead one to think that there is some animosity either on their or the still-remaining Spangles' part, or better yet both. I dunno, but it sure looks like the Spangles are still a working entity, and to make things even more tasty they actually got famed somethingorother Ian McLaglen and MX-80 saxophonist Rich Stim to do some session work oh this! Sounds great, eh? I wonder how Volume and Wilson managed to pull a stunning trick such as that off!

Frankly, the really best part of the entire enchilada (at least for this blogger) is not the music (which is nice enough, but perhaps a one-spin only affair for at least the rest of the decade) but Richard Meltzer's fantastic promo notes which shows that the guy can still run rings around dweebus dolts one-third this octogenarian's age! Not only do these great notes (which explain the mystery of the departed Spangles with Valentine splitting for the likes of the Angry Samoans and bassist Pud Resnifoff dying after a television set fell on him) are what someone like myself would call hi-larious and after a good thirty-plus years of reading him I gotta admit that I still groove to the way Meltzer can mix up past references (ie. his fabled INTERNATIONAL SOUP MUSEUM which not only features in its "Late Great Wing" such longtime favorite flavors as "Prenatal Tabby" and "Tiparillo 'n' Bloodworm" but that infamous tummy-tickler Nebraska Style Clam Chowder ["made not with a tomato or dairy stock but --how genius-- turpentine"] all of which should be rather tasty as part of a healthy lunch or dinner accompanied by a sarsap of your choice!!!) which he does in the segment on the consciousness-razing movement known as GARAGE ROCKERS FOR STATEHOOD whose common goal is to make Vermont the 49th state! Along with the Spangles in tow (considering how TWO count-'em Spangles have hailed from that state-to-be, most notable Wilson from Rutland and Volume from Onan, a suburb of Burlington) we can also expect such other well-known garage bands the likes of Prostitusion (no sic), Aquafish, the Ratsqueezers, Taming Power the Great and more to take to the cause so that Vermonters can enjoy the same rights and privileges as normal Amerigans like you and me. What's really funny about this whole screed on Meltzer's part is that one of these bands, the Ratsqueezers, were FOR REAL and in fact on one of Meltzer's old KPFK HEPCATS FROM HELL radio shows (with Eddie Flowers, Rich Coffee and Coffee's girlfriend as guests) Meltzer played a track from a reel-to-reel by these 'squeezers whom he met at a Stooges concert and whose arms Meltzer autographed! The un-named track sounded really spiffy, like early-seventies punk rock with a sorta Peter Laughner plays Crazy Horse verve to it with Stooge-influx to make it all the more a fine period-piece. How do I know? Well, at one time I was planning on BOOTLEGGING the track myself as part of an elpee of early/mid-seventies punk rarities that were moiling away in my collection and needed to become a part of yours. Naturally my good sense prevailed and the project was hodgepodged into the disque that came with each and every copy of my own dear BLACK TO COMM #22 (totally LEGAL mind ya!) which is my gain but our loss in case you didn't know!

George Brigman-RAGS IN SKULL CD (Bona Fide)

Scary cover, eh? Well, if you ask me the entire recording is pretty scary! Good scary mind you...not that goblins and ghosts stuff that used to give you so many nightmares back in the single-digit days. Anyway, this is Brigman's latest where the once missing-in-action guitar hero on Pee-YAY notoriety explores more of that Groundhogs-derived great white heavy metal blues warpage coming off like the long-forgotten early-eighties flea market find you passed on, though Rick Noll was smart enough to snatch up for mere pennies at that! Tasteful guitar playing that sounds good but not overly-self conscious. Think Zappa after taking a bath or Glenn Phillips without the soft introspection and maybe you'll get the drift. Kinda reminds me of one of those "new album of the week" plays your local free-form/pre-"classic" rock stations used to spin Saturday nights with budget-conscious listeners taping away, never to be heard on that station again!

The Screamin' Mee-Mees and Hot Scott Fischer-WARP SESSIONS 1972/1973 2-CD set (Gulcher)

Y'know, I'm kinda surprised that the two Slippytown CD-Rs of this material have finally made it out on silver platters for your dining and dancing pleasure because, like it took Eddie Flowers a good three years for him to sell the original presses of these classic freakout rock sides featuring noted garage band the Screamin' Mee-Mees making a racket with famed "gonzo" rock scribe Hot Scott Fischer (of classic-CREEM, PHONOGRAPH RECORD MAGAZINE, BLACK TO COMM and EUROCK fame) helping out. As far as I was concerned, it was only a testimonial to the sad state of current rockism affairs where such wild improv rock that people woulda gobbled up only a decade or two back (during the Golden Age of Gotta Hear EVERYTHING Underground!) would nary make a ripple in these here jaded Oh-Ohs! Well, let's just say you now have a second chance to hear these early-seventies spazzmodial sides with the duo of Cole and Ashline cranking away on the cheapest instruments imaginable as special guest artist Fischer helps out on vocals and various string-driven things and if you were me you woulda bought it the first chance you got but thank goodniz for small favors.

Low-fidelity and low-mentality playing permeate on this one, where you can hear some of the best bleed-through and distortion to hit the boards in a pretty long time. Makes Mike Rep sound like Mantovani! And oh those liner notes! I wish I could have printed something like that (wait...I did!!!).

PUNK #20 (a magazine ya dummy!)


Keeping up with not only the times but with the primal punk past, the latest issue of PUNK's got not only loads of punkism past, but the present as well. This current ish features a bounty of such goodies as a Ron Asheton interview (not as good as the first one I ran back in the late-eighties but fine nonetheless), rare Iggy photos from Max's, loads on Sid and Nancy (once again shedding new light on what might or might not have happened...like the George Reeves saga, you be the judge!) and stuff on a new punk band called the Rats who sound a lot more promising than a lotta the flybynight nobodies you've seen and heard for the past few decades! And this stuff alone makes PUNK a top winner in the reading dept. for 2007, especially since no new issue of BLACK TO COMM is ready to see the light of day at this time!

One big negative regarding this issue just has to be the Jayne County interview! Now, I gotta admit that I like County's music at least some of the time, but man does she come off like a shrill old-time lefty in this one! I mean, not only is County interviewed by some flaming (and now dead) sycophant who still seems to buy into that old MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL hippie line (not that there's anything wrong with being a fan of your interview subject, but there IS something evil in the entire communist/hippie credo that I thought the seventies punks stood squarely against!) but even at this late date County shameless trots out all the old ultra-leftoid propaganda you've heard directed at yourself over and over again to the point of nausea making you wonder what year this is anyway! (But wait, aren't the late-oh-ohs becoming the early-seventies all over again???) Now I've been told that PUNK editor John Holmstrom's a staunch right winger (even more'n me on a few ishes), but why he'd publish in his once-staunchly anti-PC pages a County interview is beyond me since I was under the impression he hated the glammier aspects of punk proper and the likes of Jayne County in particular (Holmstron being firmly ensconsed in the Dictators mode of things). And you just gotta wonder what someone the intelligent caliber of pal J. D. King would think about Holmstrom's seemingly 180-degree turnaround anyway??? Was it just Holmstrom playing up to a dying contributor's wishes, or someone's idea as how to go about "broadening" PUNK's scope, or (shudder!) maybe the guy, in an attempt to be "liked" by the vast majority of thumbscrew leftist freaks out there in musicland, actually did an Arianna Huffington/David Brock and went lefty for the sake of making nicey-nice with the new Stalins who rule our entertainment and publication industries! I most certainly hope it was not the latter, because when the mode of political matters once again swings back to the right boy is Holmstrom gonna look silly! Oh well, it was a change in direction, but heading towards the nearest bathhouse is not quite the direction I wanna go in!

Sandy Bull-INVENTIONS CD (Vanguard/Akarma Italy); VEHICLES CD (Timeless Recording Society)

Are you the kinda guy who likes to play hunches??? I sure am...well, not as much as I used to during my thankfully-brief racetrack days in the early-eighties when I'd trek on over to nearby horse hangouts Waterford and Thistledown with my uncle (who used to send me to the window to collect his winnings because he knew I was too cheap to tip) and I'd plunk down huge amts. (even as much as a whopping fiver!) on horses with such bizzaroid tags as "Wad" and "Marsha's Honey" actually thinking I had a great chance of winning just because of their strange double-entendre monikers! Not that following my inner sense of quick buck seeking actually worked...let's just say that I'm lucky I left the track with my shirt intact (though at least I could look forward to a free dinner that evening on Uncle's bill!) but even though I "should have" known better let's just say that sometimes I tend to do certain things on pure instinct which only proves that, given that animals work on instinct alone sans any shard of reason, I probably wouldn't last a day in the ol' jungle were I a lowly garter snake!

But instinct and hunches can sure work to one's benefit when hunting for a great recording to snatch up, hold and keep for your very own. Which, in case you haven't guessed, is exactly how I scarfed up the two recordings in question for today. Y'see, just a few weeks ago I was scouring through a buncha old boxes of magazines and whatnot that were wallowing away in the ol' abode, and amidst such long-missing items as my copies of UGLY THINGS #'s 1-6 (incredible rarities worth way up in the triple digits that I may just sell if poverty gets any more povertier around here!) and an order, complete with six actual smackers still folded in the note, from Philly blues/punk guitarist Mr. Guy requesting PHFUDD #8 (which, if I haven't already, I will send Mr. G. if he's reading this and leaves a current address in the comments box which I won't publish in order to protect his privacy...this offer not good anywhere else on the planet) I came across an old (spring/summer '77) listing for CBGB that just happened to be wallowing there between the pages so to speak. Anyway, one act that was listed on that clipping amidst the likes of the Ramones and various other acts you've never heard of before and probably never will hear of again was none other than today's artist-in-question, noted guitar-strummer Sandy Bull! As George Takeanappus said in that great Joe Cook comedy short entitled THE WHITE HOPE, "Boy what a hunch!", and so with this in mind (and the fact that I really dug the bejabbers outta Bull's ST. VALENTINE'S DAY disc reviewed here ) I did some crafty ebay finagling and came up with these two platters at hand which I would say was a wiser thing for me to do than bet two-fifty on a horse with the name "Fanabla"!

INVENTIONS is a classic side from Bull...don't let the cover showing him with his patented mid-sixties teenage Joe Palooka haircut and Jan-Michael Vincent good boy looks fool you, this man was a total talent when it came to string things (he being the master of just about everything from guitars and banjo to even the oud) and it all sounds so great and classy with that proper touch of sixties smarts that always separated the men from the Mr. Peepers. The side-long (using el-pee terminology here) number "Blend II" is a trip, Bull's paen to the then-current Eastern Music modes that thankfully forgets the tren-DEE aspects of Indian sitar wailings with him raga-rocking away on an acoustic guitar (even throwing a bitta "Wabash Cannonball" into the mix!) while Ornette drummer Billy Higgins tries to keep up on his trap set making for a more'n adequate free-play substitution for tablas. Nat Hentoff, who before becoming THE VILLAGE VOICE's resident somethingorother was writing liner notes for albums by the likes of Bull, Dylan and Cecil Taylor, actually hears a bitta Coleman's influence on this side and yeah, that does figure in and Higgins sure helps the mental straining along if you ask me! A wonderful song, as are the rest which range from two takes of Johann Sebastian Whatzizname's "Gavotte" (the first with a deeply enveloping cavernous feel akin to the live take on ST. VALENTINE'S DAY) and some samba and more classical gas ending with a spirited electric version of "Memphis Tennessee" once again featuring Higgins on traps. This one really is a grabber far from the usual "World Music" and "New Age" reference-dropping that beginners seem to tag onto both John Fahey and Robbie Basho's music! There ain't a drop of hippie credo to be found anywhere and it ain't hard to see just how Bull could have garnered the hefty cult following he did lo these many years despite the rumored drug use and mental breakdowns that are usually associated with "genius" (well, how about talent???) such as this. An outta nowhere winner.

VEHICLES is a late offering from the late Bull, recorded in '91 with backing musicians the caliber of the Brecker Brothers (hint: a tip off as to what you could expect esp. for late-seventies album browsers who should know better) and a sound that, although showing many tendencies relating to nineties music-as-commodity gush, still manages to stir up a few juices in the corpus duncitudus. On this one Bull sneaks more of his string-bent talent our ways with not only some country steel guitar showoffisms but blues, subdued spacial acoustic jungle ventures and even another Bach rehash! Not the best place to start, but it's nice enough as an afterthought and I wouldn't beat the tar outta ya if you happen to enjoy spinning it during those introspective evening hours like I do.

Oh, and case you'd actually like to read top Bullpenner Patti Smith's review of one of his gigs at Max's Kansas City, all you need to do is click here to be taken to it! Don't go 'round sayin' I don't do anything good for ya!

Iggy and the Stooges-THE WEIRDNESS CD (Virgin)

I was wonderin' what Tim Ellison meant when he wrote "awaiting your Stooges review" in the previous post's comment box! Turns out that yeah, the Stooges DO have a new album out, something which usually wouldn't excite me that much after all of the reunion burns that I've encountered over the years but somehow I had the feeling that Iggy and crew would still have the testosterone to pull it off with elan. After all, that Skydog live disque I reviewed a few months back was the proverbial mofo, so why shouldn't this one be as well even though it has the taint of major label hijinx attached to it? Tim's own blog points the way to where one can hear a free download of the thing (which is, to be polite about it, titled THE WEIRDNESS) and in order to save yourself a trip over to his site which is certainly worth hitting after you read mine, I thought I'd link it up for your own pleasure right here so maybe you can listen to it as well and tell me where I'm wrong.

And, as I sorta half-hearted expected, the Stooges turned out another good one. Yeah I was worried, especially after Iggy went through just about as many ch-ch-ch-ch-changes as mentor Bowie to the point where he was Mister Clean during the antiseptic eighties and wasted grungefather in the fecal nineties, but thankfully the Asheton Brothers were able to harness the original Ig Power back to its purest form and what we've got for it is a pretty fun (and fun like it's 1973 and you're a teenager on the PROWL!) record. Now it ain't prime cut Stooges like those classic '69-'73 sides were, but it's sure a lot better'n solo Iggy embarrassing himself (and everyone who stuck up for him) with lackluster-to-downright-horrid material and a general toss off style that, come to think of it, was about as shallow as all of those nineties geeks who were emulating the Ig inna first place were!

Smart playing (Ron Asheton having lost none of his chops despite playing in a series of nowhere bands post-Destroy All Monsters), smart lyrics (I kinda likes that surprise line on opener "Trollin'" where Iggy compares a certain appendage of his to a tree, something which I doubt has been done in the history of said appendage comparisons) and especially smart music make THE WEIRDNESS a true-blue winner that even I'm surprised could've been created by a buncha guys I never thought woulda made it outta the mid-seventies alive! All of the hot chic flash of ROCK SCENE and heavy metal madness of CREEM coupled with the rebirth of the back room at Max's Kansas City can be heard on this album, and it's especially potent in the here-and-now considering there's no more high-energy rock press to bolster our cravings or even a back room at Max's to appear bohemian snat. Heck, there ain't even a CBGB left so what's a fellow to do when he wants to come off decadent in an age when even the faggots wanna act like THE BRADY BUNCH!!!

Like Elliot Murphy, I ain't gonna give this a track-by-track rundown even though I'm positive a good portion of you readers were top notch students when it came to better living through chemistry. But take it from Uncle Chris...just about every number here is pretty hot, in varying increments mind ya but hotsy-totsy nonetheless. The ones I especially grooved on were the title track (which is to "Harlem Nocturne" [or was it "I Only Have Eyes For You"???] what "I Need Somebody" was to "St. James Infirmary"), "Mexican Guy" (a neat-o reminiscence of El Lay '74 complete with refs to Iggy spotting Chuck Berry, Frank Zappa ["eating a lowly hot dog"!!!!] and the Troggs that captures the essence of the place and era so well that you kinda'd expect Don Waller or Kim Fowley to figure into it somehow!) and "Free and Freaky" (the Dictators' "I Stand Tall" for the oh-oh's!). The others might vary in energy quotients but it ain't like they're duffers...in fact there ain't one in the batch and you can tell that by the song titles which are some of the wildest since the first Budgie album. I mean, how can you lose with tuneage going under such slick monikers as "I'm Fried," "Passing Cloud," "ATM" (the Stooges are one band that keeps up with current technological trends...it ain't like they've been in a Vietnamese re-education camp these past thirtysome years!) and "She Took My Money" anyway? Or even a numbuh with the provocative title of "The End of Christianity" and I dunno what it's about despite three spins so maybe you Jesus Freaks out there'll get into it like I did!

And it is pretty smart like I mentioned earlier. The playing is excellent, the sound hot nerve-scrape, and even Steve Mackay or a good imitator gets a few sax licks in here 'n there! And with the miracle of modern internet you don't even have to buy yourself a copy! Just download it and save yourself the moolah even though Ig and crew will hafta stay macrobiotic in the process. Well, just think of their health for once!

STRAIGHT OFF THE PRESSES...

...and into your ears come these two new splatters from Norton records (see link at left for quick and easy access to their web-page) that are SO hot and SO great that I just hadda scoop all those other internet imbeciles by being the first on the blog, er, block to tell you all about these two brand spanking new disques before you hear it from some creep. So here they are, the latest from the fine folks at Norton that are bound to capture your imagination and save your soul...unless you're one of those intellectual "post-rock" theoreticians so "above it all" that I've read about somewhere before.

First up on the blogging chop's the latest offering from one Mary Weiss, whom I'm sure you'll better know as the blond frontgal for the infamous Shangri Las. And who out there reading this thing wouldn't remember these rough 'n tough missies who turned teen angst into a pure art form with a whole passel of hotcha singles back during the mid-sixties Golden Age of Emote! A lot has gone down the line since those comparatively innocent days not only with phony Shangri Las taking to the stages of many a supper club but an actual one-off reunion at CBGB thanks to the timeless efforts of ex-Sidewinder Andy Paley but whaddeva, Weiss is back for an all-new romp going under the title DANGEROUS GAME and it's all courtesy of Norton in specific...and Billy Miller in particular? I mean, he was the one who was writing about his unmanageable hots for Weiss inna pages of KICKS with such fine detail that I woulda assumed better half Miriam Linna had been tossing a few frying pans his way during the recording of this album (which, by the way, he produced)! Anyway, I gotta admit that a Weiss Cee-Dee at this late stage is a pretty mind-boggling experience. Or maybe we ain't as old as we think we are, but coming across a disc like this in the post-blitz coldness of the late oh-ohs is a pretty big surprise for this jaded rockism maniac!

Dunno how old Mary is, but she sure looks nice and well-preserved for an old folk, and surprisingly enough her pipes are still smooth-sounding and typically gal group seductive forty-plus years on. Perhaps a bit more mature than before but she ain't no kid so whaddya expect, and it's sure wunnerful hearing Weiss singing some pretty pleasing to the lobes reshaped sixties pop that still has the power to swoon you even in these coarse times when most people out there are seemingly so "beyond it all" that all they can care about are the private lives of rappers and dead models with big bazooms who never did humanity a lick of good, unlike Weiss and her Shangri Las, I might add.

Maybe DANGEROUS GAME is a 100% success because this disque comes off more like some imaginary late-seventies recording that we shoulda heard back then custom made for the new breed of punk revivalists who were coming outta the woodwork (it does have the '78 Sire new-pop feel, perhaps courtesy backing band Reigning Sound), and for that alone (plus the fact that this woulda been top dribble material for the likes of Greg Shaw and Gary Sperrazza to praise to the rafters during the great "Power Pop" hype of the day) maybe it should earn a premature award for BEST OF '07! Well, we'll see. But listening to this 'un sure takes me back to my single-digit days when I'd be pestering Jillery to read me a story while something like "Heaven Only Knows" (a true melter as you know already) played on the transistor!

Also included in the fine Norton package was an outta-nowhere wowzer, mainly BUSY BODY!!! which is a beyond-spiffy collection of ne'er before heard live material courtesy of one of the bestest punk rock screamers of all time, the Sonics! A lot has happened to these guys image-wise ever since they hung up their guitar straps (and leader Andy Parypa sold the Sonics name to a series of pretenders who dragged it through the mud for a good many years) way back when, mainly their deification as one of the first true punk rock groups who were lucky enough to get their names dropped by everyone from Ray Davies and Brooce Springsteen to Johnny Lydon as the years rolled on. Of course Gerry Roslie and company can't eat accolades like this, but maybe with this new live disc on the boards they can get enough lucre together for a coupla trips to the local Chinese buffet 'n stave off hunger for a good few weeks at the least.

Anyway these tapes were taken from live-on-the-radio recordings made at a couple local nightspots in '64 , and although the fidelity is flat and the vocals buried they still sound hot enough to keep your adrenalin rushing for the entire spin (added volume helps)! At this time the Sonics, like a good portion of the Washington/Oregon garage bands of the day, were still heavily into their Wailers trip with the hefty r&b groove taken into even stranger suburban white knotty pine vistas which somewhere down the line would create an entire industry of maladjusted teenage anger. Besides the raveups on classic '59-vintage Wailers numbers a whole bunch of r&b standards of the day get the special Sonics treatment, and as you'd expect the disque ends with their then-top selling ode to Vee-Dee "The Witch" which sounds about as wound up as you'd expect a teenage punk band playing for a buncha rowdy delinquents at some cheap dive in 1964 to be! As far as hefty Northwest rock goes you can't get any heftier and for a classic slab of punk Amerigana this might fill the bill at least until the next archival dig, so whaddya waiting for, a personal engraved invitation from Chuck Eddy telling all his VILLAGE VOICE sycophants the OBVIOUS????

Both of these discs are available via Norton and RIGHT NOW, LIKE THIS VERY MOMENT (I even checked their website to see if this was so, and man are you in luck!), and for a cynical and downright curmudgeonly rockism-bred blogger I gotta say that Mary Weiss reduced me to a bowlfulla simpering jelly while the Sonics revived me into a hairy and braying MAMMAL once again. And for that maybe BOTH OF 'EM should get the Academy Award for "Best Performance By Musical Acts That Kinda Came Outta Nowhere To Surprise Us All." Or something like that...I'm no stickler.

POSTSCRIPT: I just remembered this, but didn't the Sonics once back the Shangri Las during a Seattle live show sometime during the Golden Age? ( There's a snap in a not-so-recent Cee-Dee reissue on Etiquette to prove it!) So there just might be some integral connection between the two platters in question making them all the more IMPORTANT, dontcha think???

LOOK WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO MY BLOG, MAW!

Remember yesterday's post? So do I, and I also remember editing the dadburned thing this morning only to lose the entire writeup into the proverbial ether once I hit the "publish" button which certainly didn't do my stomach any good! Well, now I hope I have this and most all of the other problems that were plaguing this blog (and blogmeister) under control, and if I do say so myself a great deal of thanks must go to a certain Mister Joe Dolson for helping this internet pinhead out with the obvious. Dolton's most definitely a guy who was more'n eager to give me a much-needed hand (responding to my queries rather quickly at that!) while the fine folks at Blogger couldn't care one way or the other about my plight and CONTINUE to ignore my emails weeks after the first problems with my compose page started popping up. A tip of the hat must go to thee Mr. Dolson, and I'll even try to link you up on the sidebar once I struggle through getting this post up on the web, whenever that'll be!

For those of you unlucky enough to get an eyefulla yesterday's post don't worry. There wasn't much on it anyway other'n a solitary review and some other musings which will get reshaped for current-day consumption once I get this opening schpiel over with. Not that it was exactly a slow week here at BLOG TO COMM central---far from it in fact but the thing is that a lotta the items that were received for my own personal pleasure will be written up at a later date as part of larger theme-based posts rather'n be reviewed on their lonesome. Anyway, what I have heard as of the past few days which doesn't seem to fit into any of my planned posts just might interest you, so as Gregory Peck once said "Let's run him up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes!"

Various Artists-THE WARRIOR HEART OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND 2-CD set (Another Rolling Stone Records, Japan)

The world needs another Velvet Underground "tribute" Cee-Dee just about as much as Genesis P-Orridge needs another body piercing, but lo and behold up pops another one of these fannish rah-rahs dedicated to the ol' Vee-You, and it's a twofa at that which besides featuring Velvets covers and homages from a mostly-unknown bunch of Japanese upstarts is dedicated to none other than the late Sterling Morrison! Now if I got him right (at least from the few interviews I have read o'er the years), wasn't Sterling the kinda guy who most certainly wouldn't have appreciated this collection of pretentious twaddle in the name of perhaps thee most outre of late-sixties experimentalists? After all, he seemed extremely wary of a lotta the late-seventies new wave acts out there a la Elvis Costello, and if he didn't care for the eyeglassed one's patented form of angst you kinda think he really woulda had it in for these Far East hits and mostly misses even more! Anyway, it's sure great to know that keen minds like ours THINK ALIKE which is a feather inna cap for this much-berated blogster, dontcha think???

It's not that I didn't get a kick outta hearing Japanese voices sing classic VU numbers phonetically knowing nada about what they were singing, or that the Up-Tight (the only group on this platter with any past credentials worth their weight in tempura) "cover" of "Melody Laughter" sounded like an original which only made this brilliant number stink just as much in the company of the rest of this offal. (Nor did I mind that fourteen-minute "title track" which was a short guitar riff snatched from "Move Right In" which reminded me of some R. Meltzer readymade using a Hendrix feedback loop back in '67.) But sheesh, call me a horse-blindered old fanabla if you disagree but acoustic re-dos of "Sister Ray" and Japanese voices talking over each other sans music passing for "The Murder Mystery" just ain't my idea of a high-energy rock & roll album! And yeah, I know that music doesn't always have to be "high energy" to succeed but it sure can be exciting, thought-provoking, jamz-inducing and generally pleasure-point probing unlike most of the pretentious and narcissic sounds to be found on these discs!

It's so funny...I remember Lester Bangs writing about that line of bared-wire intensity that shot itself down from Brando and James Dean to Elvis and the Beatles and Stones through garage rock and the Velvets and Stooges, only to end up with the "ersatz jive" as Bangs called it of Suicide and the late-seventies New York punk scene. Funny, I woulda thought that Suicide, at least as they stood in '77, was part of that same fine continuum that continues to thrill me to this day, but really if anyone can hear even a shard of electricity in most of this boring musical jagoffism then they certainly must have eardrums of iron. And the fact that all this stench is derived from one of those musical acts that made 1969 a year worth living in only rubs more of the ol Morton's inna wound dontcha think??? As Meltzer shoulda said, "NO LATER THAN EIGHTY!!!"

IN OTHER NEWS> Got a copy of none other'n the second season of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN courtesy none other than Lou Rone and man is this package the surprise hit of the year and it's only March! You've undoubtedly read all of my previous raves about this series (def. top ten placer as far as all-time best tee-vee series go!) before, and after all these years I gotta say that watching SUPERMAN is an even bigger trip mostly because all of the tee-vee programming they're coming up with these days is such junk (in the most impure sense) that programs like this only shine on the more. By this time Noel Neill has taken over the Lois Lane role from Phyllis Coates and yeah, Neill is better at it...less frightening to not only a six year old boob but even old types, and more motherly like you would've expected her to be! Jack Larson as Jimmy is still cool sorta like the older brother I never had while Clark/Superman woulda made a great dad even though I woulda blabbed his secret to all the kids at school. And Perry White...wouldn't the old "gruff-but-lovable" guy have made a fine grandfather even though he wouldn't've been plying you with toys every time he visited??? Yes, you can't get any more nuclear family than THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, a program which would've made a boffo switch from alla that alternative lifestyle family drivel one tends to see nowadays.

Only got to eyeball about six of these episodes so far but they're all top notch as I assume the rest will be once I get a chance to do some more viewing these next few weeks. Tops to bop include "The Boy Who Hated Superman" (an early fave) where this cool Gabe Dell kinda guy rooms with Clark and Jimmy in order to grab hold of some helpful information that'll spring his jailed uncle, not forgetting "The Clown Who Cried" which AIN'T that infamous Jerry Lewis deathcamp romp but a saga about some clown who robs the Metropolis Telethon hosted by Clark Kent! Hmmmm, maybe they shoulda got old greasehair in that one! The show hadn't become more geared towards the kiddie crowd just yet so a lotta these SUPERMANs come off like those great early-fifties detective and newspaper shows (HEART OF THE CITY obviously comes to mind) only with this costumed guy in it who flies around and appears just in the nick of time to ward off disaster. I dunno, but things like THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN tend to make me a little happier once evening rolls around and I don't have to put up with the evils of modern day living...give yourself a break and buy a few copies for yourself and even your significant other if you so desire! Your bastard child will love you for it!

BACK WITH A BUNG!

While I got my "compose page" working (and my composure together for that matter) I thought I'd better peck out (and peck out fast!) that Wednesday Evening Post I promised yesterday. Yes, even after a hard day at the salt mines and fighting off the ever-approaching Sandman I still feel it's my blog-bound DUTY to deliver a fresh and information-bubbling post your way! True it may read like a book report of THE THREE MUSKETEERS written by Beaver Cleaver done after watching the movie version with Don Ameche and the Ritz Brothers on tee-vee finished at four in the morning, but after this goes through my cursory ten revisions to clean up awkward passages and occasional mis-spellings it'll merely look rancid! Well, what were you expecting, THE AESTHETICS OF ROCK???

Various Artists-MESSTHETICS---D.I.Y. 78-81 LONDON #'s 101 and 102 CDs (Hyped2Death)

In my ever-reaching attempts to seek out just about every decent application of the Velvet Underground credo from late-sixties innovation up through early-eighties capitulation I search far and wide for even the minutest of unknown groupings that seemed to have wooshed past the radarscope of even the most diligent of collectors. And as far as such wooshings go the groups on these two MESSTHETICS volumes sure seemed to miss the big English indie sweepstakes targets because except for a few fave-raves like the Homosexuals and Astronauts I don't think ANY of the bands here got their wares peddled in either the Rough Trade, Small Wonder or Systematic catalogs that were winging their way to my door back during those best/worst of times early-eighties.

And yeah, this British brand of punk (or [ech!] "post"-punk if you so desire) ain't exactly my cup of tea, or let's just say that it hasn't been that strong a force in my life ever since I began seeing the once-interesting groups on the Rough Trade label sink slower and slower into the eighties mire or better yet after I got hold of my first issue of KICKS magazine, but I always like to check in on these obscuros once in awhile just to see if I remembered this stuff as the brilliant garage rock it was or the cloying art project it became.

After listening to these two sides a number of times I gotta come to the conclusion that British (post)-punk was both smart garage rock and boring art pop depending on the group and the time and just how "socialist" the band members were feeling at the time. Much of this MESSTHETICS stuff has that entertaining sense of on-target BLOG TO COMM-approved suburban-slob appeal (do they have suburbs in England, or at least trashy ones like they do here?)...I really enjoyed Metrophase (with Swell Maps involvement, and that used to mean something twenny-five years back!) and their Velvets-drone sound not to mention the previously-unreleased Syrups track which reminds me of latterday MX-80 of all groups with that Stim-like sax sound. And if you like everything from not only the Velvets but Stooges, Hawkwind, the Heartbreakers and "quirky English pop" you'll bound to be happy with a nice portion of these platters. However, I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I could hear the roots of a lotta that sappy AM-pop "new wave" of the '82/'83-era here which certainly didn't do my tummy any good either then or now, and at times whole passages just zoom by me just like all those strident anti-BLACK/BLOG TO COMM attacks o'er the years and that's really saying something! Still, like its Amerigan cousin HOMEWORK, not to mention about a thousand similar-intent samplers that have been getting pushed on us threadbare punques the past two decades, it's a better'n usual place to snatch up rarities you were too stupid to snarf back in the early-eighties when they were going for mere pennies!

David Peel-LIVE AT CBGB CD (Captain Trip Japan)

I remember seeing this guy's wares in the record bins of the early-seventies figuring he was some radical agitating hippie type you read about in MAD and left it at that. Later on when I'd pour over volumes of magazoons rock and otherwise searching for about as much punk background as I could find with my limited resources I discovered that David Peel not only used to play Max's Kansas City (hip hangout of the stars, or at least ROCK SCENE said so!) back in those very same album bin browsing days but took to the stage of not only that club but friendly rival CBGB's during the punk-active latter portion of that decade! Guess what...on those mere credentials Peel became a punk icon par excellence!!! Well, it sure seemed like the SANE thing to think even back then...

Even long after the high-energy days of the late-seventies when Peel was trying to pass himself off as a bona-fide punk with his band Death and a not-so-subtle play for local supremacy with an album entitled KING OF PUNK (title track name-dropped everyone from the Dolls to the Ramones, Talking Heads and Shirts!) he could be seen either at CB's proper or one of their sister stages next door. (I caught him and some acoustic guitarist during a benefit show at the CB's 313 Gallery on the first anniversary of September 11th starting off with a very nice and even moving number ending with impassioned cries of "God bless America" before tearing into Peel's "Peanut Butter"-inspired anthem "I Like Marijuana" and I was really impressed as if I were some thirteen-year-old hearing it all for the first time in my life!) This disc was recorded at CBGB's sometime in '98 and features not only the latest incarnation of "The Lower East Side" but all of the same well-roasted chestnuts Peel's been doing for the past four decades with that same wonderfully doltish primitivism that had Ken Barnes call THE POPE SMOKES DOPE an album sans any redeeming social value. Peel and his band crank out the familiar riffs while a whole choir helps in the chanting, and even though Peel still proudly proclaims himself a hippie you know he's punk rock alla way. He even did his rare late-seventies indie punk single side "Junk Rock" here plus Joey Ramone's pictured on the front cover standing right next to a peace-sign flashing Peel! I know that everyone from Robert Christgau to Lester Bangs have written about the strange twains of hippiedom and punks meeting, but maybe it all boils down to this one picture!

I WANNA BE YOUR DOG #4 (French punk fanzine from 1977)

In the tradition of ROCK NEWS came I WANNA BE YOUR DOG, a proud Gallic fanzine dedicated to all of those great also-ran punk rock bands not only local, but English and Amerigan as well. The French, contrary to public opinion usually spouted off by vengeful Amerigans, always had a good ear for the high-energy sounds and besides appreciating the finer aspects of garage music produced a fine crop of their own as a slew of Skydog samplers would lead one to believe.

This here #4's all in French (there was an edition published in the Amerigan language that came outta El Lay with various BACK DOOR MAN contributors helping out), and besides featuring stuff on the usual fanzine fodder of the day (like the Stooges and Patti Smith) IWBYD'd also slip pertinent bits of info in on big stars like Todd Rundgren, Frank Zappa and David Bowie just like a lotta their Amerigan cousins making this mag the logical extension of DENIM DELINQUENT! Kinda wish I could read the text which seems to be filled with the same manic zeal of the great US gonzo reads like DD, and while I'm at it I wish I could hear some of the French punk bands mentioned in these pages like European Son and Pain Head who seem to have that great Velvets wide-eyed wonder that I've been on the hunt for lo these many years. Heck, it even says here that Pain Head used to cover "Sweet Bonnie Brown" which is one Velvets song nobody even dare talk about let alone cover which only adds to even more punk credibility on their part! And for the prurient amongst us there is, accompanying a Patti Smith interview, a negative of a nude photo of her and I gotta say she looks better this way!

As you probably would expect this far down the line, these trips down memory lane are even more inspirational than a sermon by William Burroughs because they not only bring back all of those fond recollections of the power that garage rock had for more'n THIS overweight pimplefarm, but they serve to remind me as to just how weak and ineffectual the groups that came in the wake of the seventies punks actually are. You don't have to know the French language to enjoy IWBYD (and I doubt that it would even help!)...just stare lovingly at the pictures and text while spinning your classic '77 sides of a wide variety of acts both major label and not, and you too will see just how lame and predictable rock writing in any language has become lo these many years!

MARCH GOES IN AN OUT LIKE A LION ON A LAMB!

And right now I just know how the hindquarters of that lamb feel after struggling with this ever-decaying blog for the past few days! Anyway, I hope that you ever-diligent readers out there are grateful enough to the fact that I am so dedicated to my blogging career to the point where I'll actually stay up all hours of the night to find out exactly why I couldn't post anything for you eager beavers since last Sunday! It was (oh boo-hoo!) horrible not only with the so-called "toolbar" on the compose page (that's where I write these things!) failing to show up but me losing TWO (count 'em!) of my typically gigundo posts last Sunday PM which, especially after writing a particularly hot review or two, can lead one straight to the nearest cliff in the finest lemming tradition! Lemme tell you, it was quite a frustrating experience after having spent hours writing another of my typical blogpost masterpieces only to see it dispached into ether, not only because of the pains I took to write the things but because (believe-it-or-not) writing about a great piece of music or an old classic tee-vee show amongst other moving concerns out there in this big bloated world of ours sure is a wonderful creative experience for me, akin to the times when I was a kid drawing RATS REAGAN cartoons in the tee-vee room while BARNEY BEAN was blasting away on the box. But now I guess the problem is solved so's once again I can express myself through pixel, and although all of you humble readers have missed out on my typical Sunday Cee-Dee rundown have no fear, because I hope to do the same for you, albeit a few days late, once tomorrow rolls around.

Actually the previously-planned post wasn't anything to sneeze at with mostly a whole slew of typically curmudgeonly comments about the sad state of things these days and only two actual disques coming up for review, but I think I had enough vim, vigor, moxie and even Coca-Cola to pull off one of my more decent provoking tirades to the point where I'm sure none of you would have noticed anything missing. However, in my free time between trying to figure out exactly what went wrong I did seem fit to include a new links section on my sidebar as you can plainly see. Actually this column was more or less created for my own benefit a la Wayne McGuire's long-gone page from back in the nineties...of course it was also created so's I wouldn't have to continually link up certain oft-referred to sites regarding various BLOG TO COMM-relevant groups, scenes or music sources, as well as to hip some of the clueless out there towards political/societal places for information that always seemed to be ignored on purpose by a number of powerful media outlets perhaps because of their so-called "extremism." Such as this particular British political movement I have become interested in called The Third Way which was formed by a number of ex-National Front guys who, after being swayed by the should-be infamous (though he has his faults...I won't pick on him though) Rabbi Mayer Schiller, thankfully dropped the odious anti-black/Semitic rants that have unfortunately plagued a lot of the old European Right while keeping hold of the good stuff (mainly the anti-Communism). I don't buy these guys' line 100%...after all, the head of the Northern Irish branch David Kerr is still really big on local Prod "Culture" (y'know, like Protestant Orange marchers tramping through Catholic neighborhoods which to me comes off like bad guys trying to impose their will on good ones in the name of "tradition"), though to his credit he does seem cross-cultural enough to wanna reach out to the other side in some way which will probably be his downfall at the hands of EVERYONE. But then again, I gotta say that I hate the idea of "culture" more and more as the days go by and more or less accept Paul Johnson's concept of civilization as the true righteous ways. Culture is Nazi art and groupthink ideas and ethnic pride crammed into the minds of kids by overly protective parents. Civilization on the other hand is the trek towards new ideas, new medicines and technology and other ways to make life more pleasurable and beneficial for all who wish to see things as they really are. Still, these Third Way people like the Birchers seem to have something on the ball...maybe I'm wrong but I'm not going to totally write them off just like I won't condemn others with interesting if at-times unfathomable (at least to me) ideas like E. F. Schumacher and his Distributist policies.

Anyway, I hope to be fit as a fiddle for a nice rundown tomorrow's eve. Right now I'm just happy enough that I got this compose page to start working again, and I can only hope that I don't lost this particular post after hitting the "publish" button. See you tomorrow, perhaps real late but stay tuned anyway.