Well, after the week we've all been through here in the tri-county area (nightly thunderstorms and other inclement forms of weather among other real-life hoohahs) I'm surprised that I was even able to crank out this much of a post! Let's just say that if last week's post was thinner than an English sex manual, this one's thinner than a Scottish book on how to spend a lotta money and have a real good time! (OK, howzbout it's thinner'n an Irish book called I HATE POTATOES? Or an Italian one called WARS IN WHICH WE HAVEN'T SURRENDERED?????) Awww, c'mon 'n read 'em now, willya???
MX-80 Sound-HARD ATTACK 2-CD set (Superior Viaduct, PO Box 193563, San Francisco, CA 94119)
Like, uh, what else could get me to dish out even more ever-scarce shekels to hear material I've had via vinyl, disque and tape for years on end??? A bonus platter of unreleased tuneage, that's what and that's exactly what we get on this recent reissue of the debut MX-80 Sound album which has stuck around so long in the pantheon of underground goodies that it's even considered as being of legendary status! Well, at least it has for people who've been collecting locally-produced hard crank for years on end and have been snatching these midwestern screechers up as soon as someone wrote about 'em in the pages of THE MUSIC GIG back '76 way.
This smattering of live, rehearsal and outtakes recorded around the same time those early platters were sparking the nodes of everybody from Howard Thompson to Caroline Coon (!) really are as ear-opening as the Ralph material was the first time I gave it all a spin, and if tracks like "Diaphanous Ginger" (not to mention the twisted ode to the Statue of Liberty) don't immediately wiggle their way into your groove spot then may I tell you that I pity you to the end.
Of course there's the original HARD ATTACK album to also contend with, and of course it remains an all-time hard-cranker. Maybe not as heavy metalloid as OUT OF THE TUNNEL or as post-fusion as CROWD CONTROL, but it still hits the target even if you think that Rich Stim's deadpan humor and yours don't just quite line up the way you'd have liked 'em to. Well, at least this made for a good excuse to give it a listen after a few years of my other Cee-Dee copy being buried somewhere deep in the leaning tower of disques here in this fart-encrusted retreat of mine I call a bedroom.
Oh yeah, and Byron Coley did some nice liners that are included in the rare snap-infested booklet. And how often have you been reading any good rockscapading these days anyway?
John Lacey, John Gunni Busck, Coum Transmissions-MUSIC FOR STOCKING TOP, SWING AND STAIRCASE LP + CD (Other Ideas)
You may remember my Coum Transmissions elpee review from earlier in the year. Well, given how much that 'un got me interested in the inner workings of the pre-Throbbing Gristle Genesis P'Orridge with or without the Breyer "art collective", I decided to snatch this particular pair of platters up that feature English freakout scene hanger on John Lacey working in tandem with this rather sickoid bunch recorded at some live installation, or something roughly to that effect.
Actually the music heard here is nothing as occult-like as you might have been led to believe, mainly electronic oscillating sounds moving up and down in interesting patterns that recall a few thousand other efforts also being made in the mid-seventies. Throw in some cheap chord organ and broken down beat box sounds and you got something that sounds like your cousin Ned trying to play "Telstar" on your newly-acquired 1962 Christmas present and failing miserably. True your kid brother coulda done this by manipulating the tone arm on the hi-fi set, but he didn't and that only proves he's a dunce!
Besides the album, the entire performance recording on Cee-Dee is included which makes me wonder...why did they bother pressing it up on vinyl inna first place?
The Fleshtones-WHEEL OF TALENT CD-r burn (originally on Yep Rock)
Paul McGarry burned this one for me, and in doing so told me that WHEEL OF TALENT was definitely NOT one of his favorite 'tones platters! This fact of life kinda made me wonder why he made a copy for me inna first place if it wasn't up to snuff but hey, stranger things have happened, and one of the strangest things happening right now is that I really enjoy this particular platter even though it was made by a band who has been together for thirty-five years who are now hitting the sexagenarian mark and never had any real shard of financial or charttopping success in all the years they've been together. But like I am wont to say...so what!
The Fleshtones prove that they can still put out those teenage sixties-like albums that have something to tell us, and that rock 'n roll of a garage/suburban slob variety can survive here in the beyond jaded present w/o having to succumb to any of the mishaps of modern existence like hippydippy moral values and the lack of MR. ED reruns. If McGarry thinks this 'un's not 100% rock 'n roll might, I'd sure like to hear the albums he thinks are!
The Red Rippers-OVER THERE...AND OVER HERE CD-r burn (originally on Bachelors of Paradise)
I know whatcha thinkin'...yet another one of those home-made albums by some shellshocked Vietnam vets who still don't know that the war is over and who hit the deck every time a car backfires. Well like hey, maybe yes and maybe no, but this particular concept album is one that's sure got all other Vietnam concept albums beat all hollow, that is I would say so had I heard at least another one of these platters so I could compare it with this. Nice delivery on this 'un, sorta like eighties country punk with some late-seventies AM guitar pop moves tossed in and the results ain't as awkward or as cloying as you might want to believe. Once available via an ad in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE!
Bo Anders Persson-LOVE IS HERE TO STAY CD-r burn (originally on Subliminal Sounds)
The future Parson Sound/International Harvester/Trad Gas Och Stenar member in the mid-sixties doing the avant garde classical thing, probably just a few nanoseconds before someone told him that rock 'n roll was in fact the new avant garde and it wasn't hip to snub the stuff anymore. Maybe not, but whatever this brew is it's good enough primitive experimental jagoff sound not that dissimilar to the stuff John Cale was doing in his loft when the Falling Spikes were falling deep into the collective veins of the group in question. The flutier stuff recalls those once-rare mid-sixties Sun Ra excursions that are only now getting the post-mortem examination, while one of the tracks with an ethereal femme vocal sounds like music for a spy flick of continental origin! I guess addled minds do run in the same direction, especially when wallowing in the sewer of sixties expression, eh?
Cathal Rodgers-INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions)
The latest from KSE's no slouch either, what with this outside-the-"outsider" musician alternating between deep soundscapading and guitar solos that are vaguely reminiscent of Loren Connors. And the best part about is you don't have to pay an arm and a leg (yet) to hear the thing! For those of you who believe that the drone is the best thing that's happened to music since the invention of the wheel, and that music really didn't start until Marcel Duchamp presented his very own fountain at the 1913 Armory Show or something like that.
Kaoru Abe/Sabu Toyozumi-OVERHANG PARTY/SENSEI CD-r burn (originally on Qbico)
More sax/drums improvisational duetting from the late-seventies, a must for those of you who think that Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano are the only ones performing in 2014 with the loft ideals of 1976 firmly in place. True it ain't as feral as those Rashied Ali/Frank Lowe tracks that popped up on DUO EXCHANGE, but they're rather inspiring in themselves if you know how the Japanese are apt to take various Amerigan (and other) forms of expression and do 'em up their own way. Made for good inspirational playing while reading an article on JIMMY SAVILE of all people!
Jooklo Duo-LIVE 2012 AT OCCII-AMSTERDAM CD-r burn (the original was released for their 2014 US tour)
Wow, what is this sound??? Reminds me a whole lot of Roscoe Mitchell's "Chant" off the last side of the infamous WILDFLOWERS loft jazz series what with the crazed circular breathing (or is it my ears?) stylings courtesy of Virginia Genta while David Vanzan handles not only the drums but tambourine and castanets (yes, I thought the Cee-Dee was skipping when I first put it on too!). I just can't express how energetic and downright pleasing (in that late-seventies form of expression that was so out-there that only THE VILLAGE VOICE would dare cover it outside of their usual persecution complex hijinx) and let's just say that if you liked alla that AACM stuff before it became too backwoodsy primitive complete with bone firmly inserted in nose ethnic you might just cozy up to this one with a special pre-jaded glee!
Various Artists-NO FISHING ON THE RAILROAD CD-r burn (courtesy of Bill Shute)
Starts off like a late-fifties top-forty rock 'n roll station playing the obscuros in between the big hitsters of the day (the Kittens, Joey Vann, Ezra and the Iveys!) before Bill gets back into his old timey country and western waxings that send you deep South faster 'n Sherman's march through Georgia. Some entertaining tidbits here, what with eleven-year-old Nita Eubanks (any relation to Bus?) sounding as if she's ripe plum pickins for a mountain marriage and Emry Arthur and Della Hatfield doing some sweet harmonizin' that I'm sure'd stymie anybody tuning into contemporary country radio these days. Another nice Sunday afternoon slice of forgotten musical might that sure fit in with my standard catch-up on classic comic book perusin'.
Like, uh, what else could get me to dish out even more ever-scarce shekels to hear material I've had via vinyl, disque and tape for years on end??? A bonus platter of unreleased tuneage, that's what and that's exactly what we get on this recent reissue of the debut MX-80 Sound album which has stuck around so long in the pantheon of underground goodies that it's even considered as being of legendary status! Well, at least it has for people who've been collecting locally-produced hard crank for years on end and have been snatching these midwestern screechers up as soon as someone wrote about 'em in the pages of THE MUSIC GIG back '76 way.
This smattering of live, rehearsal and outtakes recorded around the same time those early platters were sparking the nodes of everybody from Howard Thompson to Caroline Coon (!) really are as ear-opening as the Ralph material was the first time I gave it all a spin, and if tracks like "Diaphanous Ginger" (not to mention the twisted ode to the Statue of Liberty) don't immediately wiggle their way into your groove spot then may I tell you that I pity you to the end.
Of course there's the original HARD ATTACK album to also contend with, and of course it remains an all-time hard-cranker. Maybe not as heavy metalloid as OUT OF THE TUNNEL or as post-fusion as CROWD CONTROL, but it still hits the target even if you think that Rich Stim's deadpan humor and yours don't just quite line up the way you'd have liked 'em to. Well, at least this made for a good excuse to give it a listen after a few years of my other Cee-Dee copy being buried somewhere deep in the leaning tower of disques here in this fart-encrusted retreat of mine I call a bedroom.
Oh yeah, and Byron Coley did some nice liners that are included in the rare snap-infested booklet. And how often have you been reading any good rockscapading these days anyway?
***
You may remember my Coum Transmissions elpee review from earlier in the year. Well, given how much that 'un got me interested in the inner workings of the pre-Throbbing Gristle Genesis P'Orridge with or without the Breyer "art collective", I decided to snatch this particular pair of platters up that feature English freakout scene hanger on John Lacey working in tandem with this rather sickoid bunch recorded at some live installation, or something roughly to that effect.
Actually the music heard here is nothing as occult-like as you might have been led to believe, mainly electronic oscillating sounds moving up and down in interesting patterns that recall a few thousand other efforts also being made in the mid-seventies. Throw in some cheap chord organ and broken down beat box sounds and you got something that sounds like your cousin Ned trying to play "Telstar" on your newly-acquired 1962 Christmas present and failing miserably. True your kid brother coulda done this by manipulating the tone arm on the hi-fi set, but he didn't and that only proves he's a dunce!
Besides the album, the entire performance recording on Cee-Dee is included which makes me wonder...why did they bother pressing it up on vinyl inna first place?
***
Paul McGarry burned this one for me, and in doing so told me that WHEEL OF TALENT was definitely NOT one of his favorite 'tones platters! This fact of life kinda made me wonder why he made a copy for me inna first place if it wasn't up to snuff but hey, stranger things have happened, and one of the strangest things happening right now is that I really enjoy this particular platter even though it was made by a band who has been together for thirty-five years who are now hitting the sexagenarian mark and never had any real shard of financial or charttopping success in all the years they've been together. But like I am wont to say...so what!
The Fleshtones prove that they can still put out those teenage sixties-like albums that have something to tell us, and that rock 'n roll of a garage/suburban slob variety can survive here in the beyond jaded present w/o having to succumb to any of the mishaps of modern existence like hippydippy moral values and the lack of MR. ED reruns. If McGarry thinks this 'un's not 100% rock 'n roll might, I'd sure like to hear the albums he thinks are!
***
I know whatcha thinkin'...yet another one of those home-made albums by some shellshocked Vietnam vets who still don't know that the war is over and who hit the deck every time a car backfires. Well like hey, maybe yes and maybe no, but this particular concept album is one that's sure got all other Vietnam concept albums beat all hollow, that is I would say so had I heard at least another one of these platters so I could compare it with this. Nice delivery on this 'un, sorta like eighties country punk with some late-seventies AM guitar pop moves tossed in and the results ain't as awkward or as cloying as you might want to believe. Once available via an ad in SOLDIER OF FORTUNE!
***
Bo Anders Persson-LOVE IS HERE TO STAY CD-r burn (originally on Subliminal Sounds)
The future Parson Sound/International Harvester/Trad Gas Och Stenar member in the mid-sixties doing the avant garde classical thing, probably just a few nanoseconds before someone told him that rock 'n roll was in fact the new avant garde and it wasn't hip to snub the stuff anymore. Maybe not, but whatever this brew is it's good enough primitive experimental jagoff sound not that dissimilar to the stuff John Cale was doing in his loft when the Falling Spikes were falling deep into the collective veins of the group in question. The flutier stuff recalls those once-rare mid-sixties Sun Ra excursions that are only now getting the post-mortem examination, while one of the tracks with an ethereal femme vocal sounds like music for a spy flick of continental origin! I guess addled minds do run in the same direction, especially when wallowing in the sewer of sixties expression, eh?
***
The latest from KSE's no slouch either, what with this outside-the-"outsider" musician alternating between deep soundscapading and guitar solos that are vaguely reminiscent of Loren Connors. And the best part about is you don't have to pay an arm and a leg (yet) to hear the thing! For those of you who believe that the drone is the best thing that's happened to music since the invention of the wheel, and that music really didn't start until Marcel Duchamp presented his very own fountain at the 1913 Armory Show or something like that.
***
More sax/drums improvisational duetting from the late-seventies, a must for those of you who think that Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano are the only ones performing in 2014 with the loft ideals of 1976 firmly in place. True it ain't as feral as those Rashied Ali/Frank Lowe tracks that popped up on DUO EXCHANGE, but they're rather inspiring in themselves if you know how the Japanese are apt to take various Amerigan (and other) forms of expression and do 'em up their own way. Made for good inspirational playing while reading an article on JIMMY SAVILE of all people!
***
Jooklo Duo-LIVE 2012 AT OCCII-AMSTERDAM CD-r burn (the original was released for their 2014 US tour)Wow, what is this sound??? Reminds me a whole lot of Roscoe Mitchell's "Chant" off the last side of the infamous WILDFLOWERS loft jazz series what with the crazed circular breathing (or is it my ears?) stylings courtesy of Virginia Genta while David Vanzan handles not only the drums but tambourine and castanets (yes, I thought the Cee-Dee was skipping when I first put it on too!). I just can't express how energetic and downright pleasing (in that late-seventies form of expression that was so out-there that only THE VILLAGE VOICE would dare cover it outside of their usual persecution complex hijinx) and let's just say that if you liked alla that AACM stuff before it became too backwoodsy primitive complete with bone firmly inserted in nose ethnic you might just cozy up to this one with a special pre-jaded glee!
***
Starts off like a late-fifties top-forty rock 'n roll station playing the obscuros in between the big hitsters of the day (the Kittens, Joey Vann, Ezra and the Iveys!) before Bill gets back into his old timey country and western waxings that send you deep South faster 'n Sherman's march through Georgia. Some entertaining tidbits here, what with eleven-year-old Nita Eubanks (any relation to Bus?) sounding as if she's ripe plum pickins for a mountain marriage and Emry Arthur and Della Hatfield doing some sweet harmonizin' that I'm sure'd stymie anybody tuning into contemporary country radio these days. Another nice Sunday afternoon slice of forgotten musical might that sure fit in with my standard catch-up on classic comic book perusin'.
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