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Gotta admit that Mother's Day never was one of my fave holidays, and it ain't because I'm not a mother unless you're talkin' in a common seventies sitcom usage of the term. It was just too fruity 'n feminine for me what with alla 'em flowers and cards, and what was worst about it was that there wasn't anything for us kids innit! Same thing goes for Father's Day (well, it wasn't feminine, but it was still too stodgy for me) w/o the flowers but with the cards and of course the obligatory tie. I guess the only reason I paid attention to it at all is because I was guilted into doing so by teachers and the like...y'know, "your mother does all these things for you so maybe you should show your appreciation by buying her a scarf or making her dinner and being extra nice this day..." Well, better to take her out rather'n subject her to any of my cooking and a box of chocolates is better'n a scarf, but what really got my gall about Mother's and Father's day was when I'd ask "why don't they have Kid's Day 'n my mom'd reply "EVERY day is Kid's Day"!!!! Yeah, tell me another one, willya??? Sheesh!

Not much else to blab about this week. Things're rather creepy-crawl 'round here, with loads of work and an ever-dwindling amt. of free time to just goof off in time-honored LEAVE IT TO BEAVER fashion. Managed to uncover a few boxes of old comic-related paperbacks from my youth (and beyond) that'll probably provide fodder for a few mid-week postings not to mention some old fanzines that I totally forgot I had (ditto). Also dug out my old photocopied NEXT BIG THINGs which really have provided me with hours (OK...minutes) of funtime reading pleasure. Sure wish that Lindsay Hutton would write like he did then in the here and now...I mean nowadays he comes off all nice 'n pleasant but back then he could get nasty which is the way things should be (unless that nastiness is directed against me, natch!). C'mon Lindsay, I know you still have it in you to tear a few extra assholes into people!

Following are reviews of some items I've lent ear to this week, a few items courtesy Bill Shute, one thanks to Paul McGarry, another thanks to Feeding Tube Records and yet another one thanks to none other'n Bob Forward which was rather nice of him. The rest I actually bought myself which is saying somethin' in these days when money seems to be rarer'n gay people at an Anita Bryant record signing (you can see I'm really digging deep into the joke book for these gems!), so let's just say that as far as fresh music to mine lobes go I'm doin' kinda hokay! And maybe if you read on you'll actually learn something, like just how pale and one-dimensional most rock "criticism" comes off next to the fannish and from-the-head (not "heart") rantings that I've been pleasuring you with for a longer time'n any of us could imagine...

Iggy and the Stooges-READY TO DIE CD-R burn (originally on Fat Possum)

Yeah I still kinda cozy up to the idea of an Iggy 'n the Stooges in the here and now (sheesh, it's one of the few connections with the boffo past we still have), and I also thought the original reunion platter THE WEIRDNESS was better'n most wonks out there sputtering with abject indignation believed it to be. But eh, if this 'un doesn't sound about as half-there as any Iggy solo platter that got unleashed during the eighties no matter how hard we listened to 'em and deluded to ourselves that he still had it before even that became too embarrassing to do. I don't think that even a dozen or so re-listens to this'll get me to change my mind...if it's new Stooges you want stick with those poppin'-on-all-cylinders Skydog releases from quite a few years back 'n listen to this only if you're that hard up. Which I hope you ain't.

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International Harvester-SOV GOTT ROSE-MARIE CD-R burn (originally on Love Records, Finland then Silence Records Sweden, or something along those lines)

Bob Forward forwarded me this 'un as well as a burn of the pre IH Parson Sound double CD set, obviously unaware of the rave review I gave that 'un in the latest issue of my very own crudzine. (Don't worry, I'll undoubtedly give it a re-appraisal in an upcoming post!) Gotta say that I wasn't exactly cozying up to listening to this considering just how much those Trad Gras Och Stenar platters I reviewed back '05 way just sounded like hippies on the farm guzzling Boone's Farm but this '68 effort is quite the excitable one. On one hand SOV GOTT ROSE-MARIE comes off like the perfect eurock group we've all been waiting for (with the proper balance of art and rock with neither side overpowering each other) and on the other just as late-sixties mid-Amerigan punk rock as both Can and Amon Duul (I & II) did at their addled best. One of the better distillations of European classicism and straightforward smart rock almost on par with early Savage Rose, and I won't even mention the spiritual presence of that ever-droning group that seems to permeate these continental aggregates with about as much of a vengeance as they did with various late-seventies local yokels. Not that I'm doing you a favor'r anything, unless you're sick and tired of me tying in everything good that happened in rock 1967-1980 to this particular act no matter how true my opines may be.

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Various Artists-CHIPMUNK BOOTHEELS A-WANDERIN' CD-R burn (compiled by Bill Shute)

This one might be the secret code to us all that Bill Shute is a-flounderin'. Starts off good enough with the "Mexican Hat Dance" as sung by Sherry Sue (fits in fine since I'm listenin' to this on the Cinco de Mayo!) as well as a rare Johnny and the Hurricanes single side, but then we get to hear such weirdities as the Chipmunks doing "Mr. Tambourine Man" (well, their version is better'n William Shatner's) and some of those "Celebrities at their worst" outtakes, this time courtesy Colonel Sanders, Jack Palance and of course Martin and Lewis with those infamous outtakes from THE CADDY commercial ("It'll make ya shit!"). Then it starts getting back into musical gear with the Meters and a mambo'd up version of "The James Bond Theme" before...whaz' zis, Frank Sinatra Jr. doing GUMBY, Julie London "Louie Louie" and Mel Torme "Send in the Clowns"??? Well, these weird mish moshes and oldsters trying to keep up with the new trends were always good for a few laffs!

The whole mess ends up kinda mish-moshy with Joe Piscopo floundering around doing that Sinatra impression somebody out there thought was great but just reminds me of what a dunce he was in the early-eighties trying to keep the SNL boat afloat. At least the Geezinslaw Brothers had a li'l country corn fun in their spoof of Kenny Rogers and the Redd Foxx tracks were dirty enough but not him as his dirtiest. And it all closes up with Flip Wilson trying to be hip 'n funny at the same time while broadening his appeal to a white clientele, or at least that's the impression I got!

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DISSIPATED FACE WITH DANIEL CARTER EP (Roaratorio)

Don't let the Raymond Pettibon cover fool you---this ain't exactly some SST discard that cluttered up the amerindie record collections of the late-eighties! Dissipated Face, although they could have made it as a fringe signing to that infamous label, are a tad different'n the reams of collegeboy experimental bleats that were getting a whole lotta hosannas from cloistered clods like myself. As if you actually knew, Dissipated Face were a hot trio that was romping through the post-fun era of NYC rock back when they laid these sides down at CBGB on July 31st of 1986, and their mix of everything from free jazz and late-seventies avant-prog to punk rock made for some of the wildest mergings of the form since Red Transistor. Nothing as out-there as that group, but better'n many a similar-minded excursion into freedom aesthetics. What's best is that none other'n noted avant saxist himself Daniel Carter sat in giving a particularly Albert Ayler-ish air to these excursions, so if you were a fan of this guy's various endeavors on the stage of the CBGB Lounge during the final days of Hilly you'll be glad to know that he was in on the punk jazz game for a longer time'n you could've dreamed!

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Various Artists-EVERYTHING'S FIRE, EXCEPT WHAT ISN'T CD-R burn (compiled by you-know-who!)

Another bastoid collection here which starts off superfine enough (with the Raves, the Downliners Sect and even an early Barry White number recorded back when he could actually see his dick) before gettin' a li'l corballus with the gospel'n all before riveting back into gear with Lightnin' Slim and a McDonalds commercial jingle (?!?!?!). It even ends with one of those Archie cutout records you used to get on the backs of cereal boxes, which only goes to show you that Bill was eating a well-balanced breakfast before any of us fanablas even thought of it!

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Fat Creeps/Zebu! split 12-inch 45 rpm EP (Feeding Tube)

This week's pick from the Feeding Tube pile of ever-growing promos comes this interesting foot-long extended play reminiscent of indie produce of the past. Fat Creeps are also reminiscent of past self-produced product, two gals and a guy making rather typical mid-eighties pop-wave for a good quarter-century later. Sprite and up-to-it, Fat Creeps could have earned a good page or two in any self-respecting amerindie fanzine of the eighties and that's no lie! On the other hand Zebu! might have rated at least two whole pages, as these guys (a duo utilizing a whole lotta help) seem to take the same eighties pop aesthetic only they add a lotta atonal avant garde stylings here and there making for a rather cacophonous if artistic statement. Not bad in teeny-weeny doses.

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Androids of Mu-BLOOD ROBOTS LP (Water Wing, available through Forced Exposure)

Like the Mob and the Astronauts, the Androids of Mu were one of those anarchopunk groups comin' outta England who I gotta say sounded too good for the movement they pledged their allegiances to. Not that they didn't have the anarchist credo firmly emblazoned on all of their innermost organs, but their music sounded like something from an earlier and perhaps even freer era, the times which born and bred such decidedly punkoid aggregations as the Deviants, Pink Fairies and Hawkwind 'stead of the late-seventies local scene which had seemingly been rudderless ever since the Sex Pistols splattered out in a blaze of somethingorother, 'n it sure wasn't glory.

An all-gal aggregate, the Androids of Mu didn't flaunt their good looks nor did they ugly themselves up to "prove a point" and, like the aforementioned  anarchobands, they certainly weren't peppering their repertoire with blabbermouth assaults against the powers that be complete with obscene attacks spewed to bolster their rad cred with da masses. Naw, they were nice 'n sublime about it to the point where even their drudgery of marriage track wasn't an Eve Libertine pukeout nor a Deadly Nightshade "woe is me" MS. mag mutual ruboff.

Of course, the best thing about the Androids of Mu is that their music came straight outta the sorta-punk stratum where acts like the Daevid Allen-era Gong and brother band Here and Now were floating about, only with a cheaper guitar, synthesizer and choppier musical abilities. Makes for a pretty good time, and in fact the combination of late-sixties sensibilities merged with a smarter late-seventies punk appeal and an appreciation of subtle political discourse makes for a pretty hotcha effort that I sure wish had gotten out a whole lot more back then.

More stuff is out there just beggin' to be heard (at least by me). The elusive TRIBUTE TO BERT WEEDON tape with the Mob is one must-have as are any of the zillion cassette-only comps 'n whatever these lasses most surely appeared on. And of course any input from you would be appreciated (as if I would ever get any from you snobs, not that I would particularly want any from some stuck up self-proclaimed anarchist who's probably mad that the govt. has cut off his Social Security checks!).

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Brain Sound-AN ATTEMPT TO RECORD COINCIDENCE LP (Not On Label, available via Forced Exposure)

And to close out this weekend's parade of pusillanimous platters we've got this strange affair, the reissue of an Austrian accapella group recorded live in Newport Beach California in 1972 making some of the strangest mewls and howls I've heard since the infamous salmonella outbreak in the school cafeteria back when I was eight. Some guy trying to push this platter attempted to make a krautrock connection (even though they're Austrians, and thus kraut by association) while another said Penderecki, but the first thing that came to mind when I heard this was the Scratch Orchestra so if you're game for some long-forgotten avant garde soundage and the local library is closed this might be your best bet. Nothing earth-shaking here, but strange enough to get your electronic music hating pop to throw a fit about the state of this world if he ever got an earfulla it!

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And so, as the old saying goes sayonara until next time, and if you can stand it don't forget to check up on some of the recommended blogs that I've linked up on the left. You may be bored silly readin' some, but at least it'll keep you away from DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND.