YOU think this post is rather skimpy? So do I. Naturally I have a good reason (don't know if its good enough for you but I'll give it a try) for the small stature of today's post not to mention my rather limpazoid writing, and that's REAL LIFE. You should try living in it sometime, it'll do you wonders especially when you have to work extra hard to get one thing done only to see another problem crop up and spoil your chances for some much-needed goof off time. Or better yet when you see your life savings dwindling down to nada after having to dish out $40 copay to some specialist who only tells you a few things you've already known (like you're fat 'n ugly) but now tell you ya got high blood pressure and if you don't get it under control your kidneys are gonna go kablooey! Like I need kidneys in the first place...at the rate I pee I get the feeling the soda I drink goes right from my throat into my stomach and bladder faster'n you can say fanabla!
Not that there's hardly anything of worth that I'd care to buy which is comin' out these days. Frankly there hasn't been anything I'd really like to purchase (or get as a freebee!) other'n a few Forced Exposure Mailorder thingies here and a few CD Baby self-released goodies there. Let's face it, this ain't the seventies when tons of new and stirrup-stirring platters that dished out the best that the sixties hadda offer with seventies jadedness were coming out on a daily basis, and although I sure wish I could just do a hop skip and jump to an old timey record shop and spend a few weeks pay on loads of platters that have escaped my clams these past few decades that old song entitled "Them Days Are Gone Forever" just keeps playin' through my head like an eternal tapeloop. It's funny, now that I could afford all of those great sixties/seventies albums I used to lust over at seventies prices they've pretty much vanished from sight (only to go for jacked up prices via ebay "Buy It Now" auctions)...next thing I know I won't be able to eat all the foods I'd like even though I can now buy out the entire restaurant and give it to the poor!
Anyway here's pretty much what I've spun this past week during the evening hours when I thankfully had some time to myself (which usually lasts about an hour before Mr. Sandman knocks me out like a brain damaged palooka in the first round). Nothing to write home about true, but I do say it's a humbly spiffy selection indeed. What's more, I tried to keep everything rather concise since I really didn't have that much energy left in me to be as blowhardy as I usually am, and I know that more'n a few of you readers are thankful for that.
Maybe if I get enough scratch together to buy a few orders or beg certain people to do some downloading for me (there are a few interesting turdbits via youtube that I wouldn't mind having transcribed to disque) there'll be some more interesting if not downright entertaining things to educate ya in a "Gee I didn't know about that sorta way. But knowing just how stubborn you readers are, maybe not. Until then all I gotta say is, that's all I gotta say.
THE LARRY WILLIAMS SHOW featuring Johnny "Guitar" Watson and the Stormville Shakers CD-R burn (originally on Decca UK)
I think this was recorded live, though with the lack of audience reaction it's kinda hard to tell. Anyhoo, this is one of a couple albums Larry "Bonie Maronie" Williams made in England in the mid-sixties in an obvious attempt to cash in on the second generation rumbling goin' on in Green Teeth Land, and although he dragged Johnny "Guitar" Watson and band along you know that there was gonna be new and uncharted land being traversed on these sides. A cover of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" is more'n just a subtle tipoff, and even though Williams' classic "Slow Down" is once again brought up for your approval the entire shebang comes off as the kind a rock 'n roll originator trying to come to terms with the British Invasion would naturally make. Well, at least this wasn't 1967 with Williams wearing flowers in his hair and love in his heart, but it's still a good cooker. A blast from a man who was such a genius he could actually shoot himself in the head with his hands cuffed behind his back!
TRACTOR; SPECIAL 30th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION CD (Ozit Records, England)
Although I've never been whatcha'd call a big fan of this group I like to listen to Tractor at least once in a blue ball because 1) they were a pet group of John Peel's, who sure had a knack for picking out good groups to rah-rah about and 2) Tractor had a weirdo career careening between heavy metal adoration and brazen punkitude which always made for an interesting intersection between two rather big cult concerns in my book! Not only that, but their bedroom recordings sure came off a whole lot more fun 'n engaging'n all of the subsequent ones recorded by halfwit amerindie types who probably still haven't made their way outta their boudoirs whether they be fart-encrusted or not.
The debut album heard here's a sublime balancing act between early metallic concerns and neo-prog ideas that for once don't make me wanna puke, while even the acoustic demos done by guitarist/singer Jim Milne have an intense ting to 'em that don't make me wanna dredge up cringe-worth images of Codger Rotters during his eighties Floyd sojourn. There's something on this platter that'll appeal to just about every reg'lar BLOG TO COMM reader, and the appearance of special guest Nik Turner only raises the property values which doesn't surprise me considering how Tractor are sorta like a tinkertoy Hawkwind once you think about it.
Various Artists-THE SOULFUL SIDE OF TUFF RECORDS CD-R burn ("unofficial" release using the "Tuff" imprimatur)
When I was a kid I always thought that soul music was something for the big kids. Or at least kids who were in high school 'n college who by that time maybe weren't "kids," but I sure didn't think they were grownups either. If I recall correctly, the schoolchums who were my age were still into "Mairzy Doats" and of course a good bubblegum single or two while the tuff fifth graders swung with the Beatles and Stones not to mention the various other fellow travelers who were mopping up the place with their hair. Of course with the bonafeed grownups it was strictly "Shoo Bee Doo Bee Doo, " but before anybody got to that stage they sorta hadda pass from Mick Jagger through the Temptations before they hit the stage where they listened to the kinda music the oldsters (anybody over 25 or so) liked. To me, soul was something the big white kids who might have known one black kid from school listened to even if for the most part they seemed to hate blacks in general. Funny how I digested things in my mind back then even if my observations were probably more accurate than I'm willing to give myself credit for.
Anyhoo this collection of questionable legality features nothing but soul on the "legendary" Tuff label, a good selection featuring material by many aping to be the next big urban AM spin but most likely became disco fodder in the next decade. (Well, Van McCoy was a Tuff bigwig producer and recording star [Fantastic Vantastics] in his own right.) Brings back fond memories of evenings listening to the transistor waiting for the next playing of "Simon Says" as well as Saturday afternoon car cleaning doodies while the radio blared 'stead of the drudgery of school and cooperation, and that's a good sign.
Graham Parker and the Rumour-THE PARKERILLA cassette (Vertigo England)
You all know that I ain't that keen on Parker and a whole lotta that English pub rock music of the mid-seventies onward, but I just hadda get this for the cool cover snap! Other'n that I will 'fess up to the fact that this live set is halfway-decent Van Morrison cum Brooce-styled rehash that doesn't offend and perhaps recalls the likes of Mink DeVille and various other "street rock" types at their very best. In other words, music that was CUSTOM MADE for alla those aviator shaded jean jacketed short'n curly hair five o'clock shadow'd college kids you used to see during your mid-seventies junior and high school days, and you just KNOW that none of 'em have changed one iota o'er the past four decades other'n they're now a whole lot more wrinklier and worse for wear.
The Who-A QUICK ONE CD (MCA)
Yez, here's another example of ol' Chrissie buying up more of those albums he wished he coulda afforded to have bought back when he was prowling the record bins age twelve but he gets 'em long after the original excitement and energy has come to a standstill. Like hell...listening to A QUICK ONE's just as boffo exciting and even (pre) adolescent fun and games now as it woulda been for any well-congested sinusbrat who managed to finagle a copy of this on its day of release! Yeah it ain't as full-thrust as MY GENERATION, but the platter holds you throughout even when the group does tread into questionable areas such as the rock opera title track, not a bad number per se, but not as punky as the group should have always strived to be. The additional tracks from the READY STEADY WHO EP and various b-sides 'n outtakes sweeten the pot but it ain't like I'm gonna sell my copy of WHO'S ZOO any time soon even if it is the 1981 reissue with the paper insert 'stead of the full color sleeve.
Janet Hamill and Moving Star-FLYING NOWHERE (available via CD Baby)
Here's one I wrote up in the last issue of my very sainted hagiozine, but since that 'un was cranked out a good nine years back and I haven't listened to it since maybe it's time to give the ol' platter another perusal if only to pad this post out a li'l bit. As you might know Hamill was a college chum of Patti Smith, but instead of goin' the hotcha rockscribe punk poetess route Hamill became a school teacher and stayed far away from the limelight, at least until she decided to publish her own writings and tried the rock goes poetry game herself. This is the resultantalbum CEE-DEE which I found out about only after noticing a gig by the gal and her band at the ol' CB's 313 Gallery, and for a guy who was then (and still is) looking for the last shards of seventies rockist credo in a new millennium boy was I all choked up over this more'n Sammy the Snake was while Peter Cottontail slowly but surely slid right down ol' Sammy's gullet.
Hamill reminds me of a Maureen Tucker type more than Patti...I mean there's not a foul sound to be heard from the gal as she talk-sings her rather inspired if heard-it-before-somewhere poesy, while Moving Star are basic enough as they provide fitting accompaniment to Hamill's neo-Smithian visions. If anything, this group come off pretty much like the kind we would've expected some astute early-seventies critic to have enthusiastically compared to the early-Velvet Underground in their stark appeal, kinda the same way acts such as the Magic Tramps, early-seventies Link Wray (really!) and even Patti's old Lenny Kaye/DNV Sohl duo would be considered the ultimate end trip in a decade-long evolution into raw and exciting visions that would eventually tumble into the abyss of giddy college rock musings and various absessive tonalities.
Really, this is another lost fave that's been wooshed over by loads of subpar sputum passing as innovation, and if you're yet another oldster who was weaned on sixties top 40 lowbudget spins and grew muscles to late-sixties epiphanies (almost giving up on rock 'n roll until the mid-seventies revival) I believe you will understand perfectly. If not, maybe you could understand the concept of beat poetry being recited to hotcha 1965-era NUGGETS riffs which I guess makes more sense than bongo bops, and if there's anything out there that can excite both the old fogie and young upstart BLOG TO COMM readers it's a spin like this but I assume that you've known that already...
Not that there's hardly anything of worth that I'd care to buy which is comin' out these days. Frankly there hasn't been anything I'd really like to purchase (or get as a freebee!) other'n a few Forced Exposure Mailorder thingies here and a few CD Baby self-released goodies there. Let's face it, this ain't the seventies when tons of new and stirrup-stirring platters that dished out the best that the sixties hadda offer with seventies jadedness were coming out on a daily basis, and although I sure wish I could just do a hop skip and jump to an old timey record shop and spend a few weeks pay on loads of platters that have escaped my clams these past few decades that old song entitled "Them Days Are Gone Forever" just keeps playin' through my head like an eternal tapeloop. It's funny, now that I could afford all of those great sixties/seventies albums I used to lust over at seventies prices they've pretty much vanished from sight (only to go for jacked up prices via ebay "Buy It Now" auctions)...next thing I know I won't be able to eat all the foods I'd like even though I can now buy out the entire restaurant and give it to the poor!
Anyway here's pretty much what I've spun this past week during the evening hours when I thankfully had some time to myself (which usually lasts about an hour before Mr. Sandman knocks me out like a brain damaged palooka in the first round). Nothing to write home about true, but I do say it's a humbly spiffy selection indeed. What's more, I tried to keep everything rather concise since I really didn't have that much energy left in me to be as blowhardy as I usually am, and I know that more'n a few of you readers are thankful for that.
Maybe if I get enough scratch together to buy a few orders or beg certain people to do some downloading for me (there are a few interesting turdbits via youtube that I wouldn't mind having transcribed to disque) there'll be some more interesting if not downright entertaining things to educate ya in a "Gee I didn't know about that sorta way. But knowing just how stubborn you readers are, maybe not. Until then all I gotta say is, that's all I gotta say.
I think this was recorded live, though with the lack of audience reaction it's kinda hard to tell. Anyhoo, this is one of a couple albums Larry "Bonie Maronie" Williams made in England in the mid-sixties in an obvious attempt to cash in on the second generation rumbling goin' on in Green Teeth Land, and although he dragged Johnny "Guitar" Watson and band along you know that there was gonna be new and uncharted land being traversed on these sides. A cover of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" is more'n just a subtle tipoff, and even though Williams' classic "Slow Down" is once again brought up for your approval the entire shebang comes off as the kind a rock 'n roll originator trying to come to terms with the British Invasion would naturally make. Well, at least this wasn't 1967 with Williams wearing flowers in his hair and love in his heart, but it's still a good cooker. A blast from a man who was such a genius he could actually shoot himself in the head with his hands cuffed behind his back!
***
Although I've never been whatcha'd call a big fan of this group I like to listen to Tractor at least once in a blue ball because 1) they were a pet group of John Peel's, who sure had a knack for picking out good groups to rah-rah about and 2) Tractor had a weirdo career careening between heavy metal adoration and brazen punkitude which always made for an interesting intersection between two rather big cult concerns in my book! Not only that, but their bedroom recordings sure came off a whole lot more fun 'n engaging'n all of the subsequent ones recorded by halfwit amerindie types who probably still haven't made their way outta their boudoirs whether they be fart-encrusted or not.
The debut album heard here's a sublime balancing act between early metallic concerns and neo-prog ideas that for once don't make me wanna puke, while even the acoustic demos done by guitarist/singer Jim Milne have an intense ting to 'em that don't make me wanna dredge up cringe-worth images of Codger Rotters during his eighties Floyd sojourn. There's something on this platter that'll appeal to just about every reg'lar BLOG TO COMM reader, and the appearance of special guest Nik Turner only raises the property values which doesn't surprise me considering how Tractor are sorta like a tinkertoy Hawkwind once you think about it.
***
When I was a kid I always thought that soul music was something for the big kids. Or at least kids who were in high school 'n college who by that time maybe weren't "kids," but I sure didn't think they were grownups either. If I recall correctly, the schoolchums who were my age were still into "Mairzy Doats" and of course a good bubblegum single or two while the tuff fifth graders swung with the Beatles and Stones not to mention the various other fellow travelers who were mopping up the place with their hair. Of course with the bonafeed grownups it was strictly "Shoo Bee Doo Bee Doo, " but before anybody got to that stage they sorta hadda pass from Mick Jagger through the Temptations before they hit the stage where they listened to the kinda music the oldsters (anybody over 25 or so) liked. To me, soul was something the big white kids who might have known one black kid from school listened to even if for the most part they seemed to hate blacks in general. Funny how I digested things in my mind back then even if my observations were probably more accurate than I'm willing to give myself credit for.
Anyhoo this collection of questionable legality features nothing but soul on the "legendary" Tuff label, a good selection featuring material by many aping to be the next big urban AM spin but most likely became disco fodder in the next decade. (Well, Van McCoy was a Tuff bigwig producer and recording star [Fantastic Vantastics] in his own right.) Brings back fond memories of evenings listening to the transistor waiting for the next playing of "Simon Says" as well as Saturday afternoon car cleaning doodies while the radio blared 'stead of the drudgery of school and cooperation, and that's a good sign.
***
You all know that I ain't that keen on Parker and a whole lotta that English pub rock music of the mid-seventies onward, but I just hadda get this for the cool cover snap! Other'n that I will 'fess up to the fact that this live set is halfway-decent Van Morrison cum Brooce-styled rehash that doesn't offend and perhaps recalls the likes of Mink DeVille and various other "street rock" types at their very best. In other words, music that was CUSTOM MADE for alla those aviator shaded jean jacketed short'n curly hair five o'clock shadow'd college kids you used to see during your mid-seventies junior and high school days, and you just KNOW that none of 'em have changed one iota o'er the past four decades other'n they're now a whole lot more wrinklier and worse for wear.
***
Yez, here's another example of ol' Chrissie buying up more of those albums he wished he coulda afforded to have bought back when he was prowling the record bins age twelve but he gets 'em long after the original excitement and energy has come to a standstill. Like hell...listening to A QUICK ONE's just as boffo exciting and even (pre) adolescent fun and games now as it woulda been for any well-congested sinusbrat who managed to finagle a copy of this on its day of release! Yeah it ain't as full-thrust as MY GENERATION, but the platter holds you throughout even when the group does tread into questionable areas such as the rock opera title track, not a bad number per se, but not as punky as the group should have always strived to be. The additional tracks from the READY STEADY WHO EP and various b-sides 'n outtakes sweeten the pot but it ain't like I'm gonna sell my copy of WHO'S ZOO any time soon even if it is the 1981 reissue with the paper insert 'stead of the full color sleeve.
***
Janet Hamill and Moving Star-FLYING NOWHERE (available via CD Baby)Here's one I wrote up in the last issue of my very sainted hagiozine, but since that 'un was cranked out a good nine years back and I haven't listened to it since maybe it's time to give the ol' platter another perusal if only to pad this post out a li'l bit. As you might know Hamill was a college chum of Patti Smith, but instead of goin' the hotcha rockscribe punk poetess route Hamill became a school teacher and stayed far away from the limelight, at least until she decided to publish her own writings and tried the rock goes poetry game herself. This is the resultant
Hamill reminds me of a Maureen Tucker type more than Patti...I mean there's not a foul sound to be heard from the gal as she talk-sings her rather inspired if heard-it-before-somewhere poesy, while Moving Star are basic enough as they provide fitting accompaniment to Hamill's neo-Smithian visions. If anything, this group come off pretty much like the kind we would've expected some astute early-seventies critic to have enthusiastically compared to the early-Velvet Underground in their stark appeal, kinda the same way acts such as the Magic Tramps, early-seventies Link Wray (really!) and even Patti's old Lenny Kaye/DNV Sohl duo would be considered the ultimate end trip in a decade-long evolution into raw and exciting visions that would eventually tumble into the abyss of giddy college rock musings and various absessive tonalities.
Really, this is another lost fave that's been wooshed over by loads of subpar sputum passing as innovation, and if you're yet another oldster who was weaned on sixties top 40 lowbudget spins and grew muscles to late-sixties epiphanies (almost giving up on rock 'n roll until the mid-seventies revival) I believe you will understand perfectly. If not, maybe you could understand the concept of beat poetry being recited to hotcha 1965-era NUGGETS riffs which I guess makes more sense than bongo bops, and if there's anything out there that can excite both the old fogie and young upstart BLOG TO COMM readers it's a spin like this but I assume that you've known that already...
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