UGLY THINGS #32 (A WHOPPING GREAT READ)
Considering that I received and reviewed the previous UT a scant few months back, getting hold of the latest 'un fresh off the press is a mind-overloading affair! Really, I hadn't even time to digest the previous ish and now this beaut turns up...sheesh, this reminds me of the good ol' days when so many fanzines and other proper forms of reading material were flinging their way into my life to the point where I felt like that guy who gained all of the knowledge in the world and ended up with a swelled head I saw in some long-ignored episode of THE WILD WILD WEST! So lo 'n behold this new ish, one that's got the same great writers, the relevant to your personal way o' livin' articles and best of all enough interesting and heretofore unknown information/trivia/whatnot that's bound to get your head swelled like the globe in your third grade classroom, esp. when you consider the hefty amts. of pertinent facts the previous thrity-one of 'em have already crammed into your bean!
Some of this I skimmed through, some I dove into schnoz-first, but whatever the situation may be I know that this 'un'll stick around for quite some time serving as pre-beddy bye/toidy reading as well as fodder for one of those rainy Sunday afternoons one comes across during these autumn months that makes ya wanna revert to your adolescent comic book snugglin' sessions complete with stocking'd feet and perhaps the tee-vee on to give ya added company. And if you too are marooned in your own boudoir and wanna do something to get your mind off the terrible stinky foot/encrusted fart smells to be found therein then why not whip this one out and be taken to spaces far beyond the reaches of your rather pallid existence!
Skimmed over the Them piece, but what I read of it is pretty interesting esp. the Rolling Stones putdown which I guess still appeals to my late-seventies sense of SOME GIRLS loathing. Speaking of the Stones, Greg Prevost's piece on Rolling Stone collectables (similar to the Kinks collectors scum piece of last ish) was mildly enjoyable, though I gotta wonder just what kinda guy (especially one like Greg who ain't exactly holding down a FORTUNE 500 kinda job) would have enough of the long green to be able to afford some of the rarities he obviously got long after the fact! (I wonder if he has the same kind of a side business as other record shop clerk-types that brings in the buckskins such as...naw, not Greg!) The Raiders material was also invigorating, especially the Mark Lindsay interview where he talks about everything from Charles Manson to the group's late-sixties output that I'm sure glad has been reissued because I've wanted to hear COLLAGE ever since reading Lenny Kaye's review of it in ROLLING STONE way back in '78 or so and that's a pretty long time! And while on the subject of the Raiders, the Brotherhood piece (regarding the famed Raider mutiny of '67 when Smitty, Drake and Fang struck out on their own) was especially good even if I didn't quite care for 'em back when Mike Stax himself jetted a tape of theirs my way a good decade and a half back. It's sure interesting to see what kind of animosity there was between Paul Revere and the rest of the group considering the lawsuits he was racking up against 'em for splitting the Raiders (not to mention some negative comments directed by Mr. Dick himself against Mark Lindsay!) because hey, I always thought the group got along rather nice and swell-like! Well, that's the impression I got watching WHERE THE ACTION IS when I was but a mere turdler!
Rambling on, the Vibrators article had the good insta-zoneback aura that I always go for in a good piece, while I will prove my eternal cube-ism and admit I liked the $27 Snap On Face story even if Brad Kohler thought they were nothing but hippoids because they used to open with a Grateful Dead song (not exactly a hot-headed thing to do, but it doesn't anger me the same way it would have thirty years back so you know I'm growing senile!). Of course the other pieces from the Limey and the Yanks, Sloths, Wimple Winch and so on were fine even if I am saving them for marriage (wanted to rush this write-up out!), but you know they'll be getting close scrutiny once I'm done staring at pix of Betty and Veronica and need to give mine eyes a rest!
Dunno if I can call this a beef or not, but I thought the review sections (books, recordings, Dee-Vee-Dee's) were way too skimpy. I guess this is because there just ain't as much archival hotcha material worthy of UGLY THINGS stature being churned out these days, and not because the well has run dry but because this material just ain't sellin' up a storm like it used to. Given how up-tapped the seventies underground scene has been I know that there are tons of tapes molderin' away in collections world-wide, but if you readers just sit around trying to protect your assets by saving it for the bare necessities (but what could be barer'n rock et roll?) these reissues and archival digs just won't be comin' out! I suggest that you stimulate the economy, loosen your purse strings and buy up all of the records reviewed in UGLY THINGS that you can thus ensuring a fine and music-laden future not only for all of us, but for me.
Considering that I received and reviewed the previous UT a scant few months back, getting hold of the latest 'un fresh off the press is a mind-overloading affair! Really, I hadn't even time to digest the previous ish and now this beaut turns up...sheesh, this reminds me of the good ol' days when so many fanzines and other proper forms of reading material were flinging their way into my life to the point where I felt like that guy who gained all of the knowledge in the world and ended up with a swelled head I saw in some long-ignored episode of THE WILD WILD WEST! So lo 'n behold this new ish, one that's got the same great writers, the relevant to your personal way o' livin' articles and best of all enough interesting and heretofore unknown information/trivia/whatnot that's bound to get your head swelled like the globe in your third grade classroom, esp. when you consider the hefty amts. of pertinent facts the previous thrity-one of 'em have already crammed into your bean!
Some of this I skimmed through, some I dove into schnoz-first, but whatever the situation may be I know that this 'un'll stick around for quite some time serving as pre-beddy bye/toidy reading as well as fodder for one of those rainy Sunday afternoons one comes across during these autumn months that makes ya wanna revert to your adolescent comic book snugglin' sessions complete with stocking'd feet and perhaps the tee-vee on to give ya added company. And if you too are marooned in your own boudoir and wanna do something to get your mind off the terrible stinky foot/encrusted fart smells to be found therein then why not whip this one out and be taken to spaces far beyond the reaches of your rather pallid existence!
Skimmed over the Them piece, but what I read of it is pretty interesting esp. the Rolling Stones putdown which I guess still appeals to my late-seventies sense of SOME GIRLS loathing. Speaking of the Stones, Greg Prevost's piece on Rolling Stone collectables (similar to the Kinks collectors scum piece of last ish) was mildly enjoyable, though I gotta wonder just what kinda guy (especially one like Greg who ain't exactly holding down a FORTUNE 500 kinda job) would have enough of the long green to be able to afford some of the rarities he obviously got long after the fact! (I wonder if he has the same kind of a side business as other record shop clerk-types that brings in the buckskins such as...naw, not Greg!) The Raiders material was also invigorating, especially the Mark Lindsay interview where he talks about everything from Charles Manson to the group's late-sixties output that I'm sure glad has been reissued because I've wanted to hear COLLAGE ever since reading Lenny Kaye's review of it in ROLLING STONE way back in '78 or so and that's a pretty long time! And while on the subject of the Raiders, the Brotherhood piece (regarding the famed Raider mutiny of '67 when Smitty, Drake and Fang struck out on their own) was especially good even if I didn't quite care for 'em back when Mike Stax himself jetted a tape of theirs my way a good decade and a half back. It's sure interesting to see what kind of animosity there was between Paul Revere and the rest of the group considering the lawsuits he was racking up against 'em for splitting the Raiders (not to mention some negative comments directed by Mr. Dick himself against Mark Lindsay!) because hey, I always thought the group got along rather nice and swell-like! Well, that's the impression I got watching WHERE THE ACTION IS when I was but a mere turdler!
Rambling on, the Vibrators article had the good insta-zoneback aura that I always go for in a good piece, while I will prove my eternal cube-ism and admit I liked the $27 Snap On Face story even if Brad Kohler thought they were nothing but hippoids because they used to open with a Grateful Dead song (not exactly a hot-headed thing to do, but it doesn't anger me the same way it would have thirty years back so you know I'm growing senile!). Of course the other pieces from the Limey and the Yanks, Sloths, Wimple Winch and so on were fine even if I am saving them for marriage (wanted to rush this write-up out!), but you know they'll be getting close scrutiny once I'm done staring at pix of Betty and Veronica and need to give mine eyes a rest!
Dunno if I can call this a beef or not, but I thought the review sections (books, recordings, Dee-Vee-Dee's) were way too skimpy. I guess this is because there just ain't as much archival hotcha material worthy of UGLY THINGS stature being churned out these days, and not because the well has run dry but because this material just ain't sellin' up a storm like it used to. Given how up-tapped the seventies underground scene has been I know that there are tons of tapes molderin' away in collections world-wide, but if you readers just sit around trying to protect your assets by saving it for the bare necessities (but what could be barer'n rock et roll?) these reissues and archival digs just won't be comin' out! I suggest that you stimulate the economy, loosen your purse strings and buy up all of the records reviewed in UGLY THINGS that you can thus ensuring a fine and music-laden future not only for all of us, but for me.
excellent! thx for your post!
ReplyDeleteIn case you'd missed thsi:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/kongressional_hearing_amazing_unknown_punk_band_from_the_70s_kongress
Maybe you could use this as a starting point for another Kongress post - can never have too many of those...