Yeah I will admit it...this winter is getting me more twisted inna guts what with alla the snow we're havin' as of late (actually, the past two months!) but considering how I can get uptight 'n bothered even during the sunniest days of summer maybe I shouldn't complain.
Then again, if there was something worthwhile to gab about in this opening schpiel maybe I wouldn't have to stoop so low as to bring up such a mundane subject as the weather! Well, maybe I could mention the recent passing of Leslie Gore if I wanted to be current events up to date 'n all about it, but given the fact that all of those rumors Don Fellman told me about her were finally found out to be true I'm sure you once-adolescent boys back 1963 way would be mighty disappointed to discover that the only man she ever kissed really was her daddy! Sometimes its best not to know about the more disgusting things in life though, y'know???
Whaddeva, here are a buncha FRESHER'N YER MOMMY'S RAG things I gotta listen to this week which I believe fit in snug-like as far as BLOG TO COMM ass-thetics go, and if you don't particularly care for this batch o' bile may I suggest a variety of hot and moist orifices that you'd most be comfortable snuggling your more-cultured-than-thou face into?Then again, if there was something worthwhile to gab about in this opening schpiel maybe I wouldn't have to stoop so low as to bring up such a mundane subject as the weather! Well, maybe I could mention the recent passing of Leslie Gore if I wanted to be current events up to date 'n all about it, but given the fact that all of those rumors Don Fellman told me about her were finally found out to be true I'm sure you once-adolescent boys back 1963 way would be mighty disappointed to discover that the only man she ever kissed really was her daddy! Sometimes its best not to know about the more disgusting things in life though, y'know???
It's amazing to me that such a powerful, life-reaffirming release such as this could have been recorded and released during the definitely post-everything year of 2011 but it has, and perhaps it sounds as good as it does because two old hands (Dave Burrell and Henry Grimes) are part of this rather on-edge band. The newer players (reedist Pettinato and drummer Sorey) aren't slouches either, and it's sure great hearing the ghosts of the original free era crash into newer loftier form making for a sound and attitude that you thought would have been BANNED a good thirtysome years back! Coltrane cum Ayler lines collide with Taylor piano sprees, and Grimes' bass playing is even freer than on the stuff he did during his ESP days if you can imagine that. A verifiable ear-opener for those of you who still sniffle uncontrollable tears of despair due to the demise of Dee Pop's Freestyle Series oh so long ago.
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Gee, more new Figures of Light recordings for our rockist regurgitation! These particular tracks were recorded in '07 and consist of the first Figures tracks laid down since the original group capitulated, and although we've heard them numbuhs before and they don't sound much different than the ones that came out on those Norton albums I kinda like the idea of these Figures of Light releases popping up onto the under-the-counterculture landscape faster'n herpes chancres on Madonna's lips. Another one to plop on the pile of teenage mid-Amerigan slop that always seemed to fit in with the Cheetos and MR ED reruns more'n Lady Caga ever could.
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I had a chance to buy an original copy of this back inna eighties and for a pretty durn good price too. I passed. Well, back then I was extremely careful with how much cash I was tossin' around considering that I was not only supporting a modest lifestyle but a failing crudzine at the same time. Greg Shaw's rather iffy review of it in an old issue of BOMP! might have also colored my purchasing direction, and considering how I hung on every word and punctuation mark of the guy what else would you have expected me t' do...plop down the same amt. of spare change for Venus and the Razorblades???
But gosh it all, this Radioactive reish is boss enough to make me regret my twenny-plus-year-old rejection. Not the hippoid Zappa jagoff I had expected it to be, HOT POOP DOES THEIR OWN STUFF! is one of those bril amalgamations of everything right with sixties rock combined into a nice fun package that really does fit in with the rest of your sixties/seventies gems. Echoes of everyone from the early Flamin' Groovies to ? and the Mysterians, Yoko Ono, the Fugs and a whole slew of olde tyme faves can be heard here, and although the insert is slim on info (no track listings even!) you can tell by the mere sub-basement rock feeling (and the fact that one of their tres-Rivieras sounding numbers is titled "Dance to the War") that this is a radical rock album that's certainly NOT made for the Billy Jack peace 'n love crowd who STILL blubber over the People's Park fiasco!
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I wish that the blab about this recently-unearthed Human Arts Ensemble Cee-Dee had gotten out a whole lot sooner'n it did...this thing's been wallowing around in the Cee-Dee ether since 2008! But it was worth the wait even though this isn't exactly one of the more top notch Human Arts Ensemble platters extant...kinda same-y if you ask me. Or maybe its the diarrhea in me talkin', but then again I'll take a talk from my Number Two over that of most rockbloggers anyday!
Not exactly a Human Arts Ensemble release...after all, where is Charles "Bobo" Shaw who I always took as the main constant and leader of the aggregate...but it's free enough for me. Luther Thomas along with Marshall squonks some good saxophone and the band really builds up to an amazing crescendo when they all start wailing away on a bunch of tin flutes, but next to the funkified might of FUNKY DONKEY or any of those Arista/Circle platters this doesn't quite sate the way a good seventies post-new thing free play should. More listens are definitely in order...will keep you updated a la Lester Bangs slamming then praising to the rafters everyone from the MC5 to Amon Duul!
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O'er the years I have come to the agreement along with Crocus Behemoth (see BACK DOOR MAN interview) that punk rock as a viable form of energy distilled into sound pretty much peaked with the Stooges (though I would toss Rocket From The Tombs, the Electric Eels and quite a few mid-seventies post-Stooge aggros into the equation) so maybe a collection of various Indiana-era punk and new unto gnu wave acts wouldn't appeal to me like you thought it would. And in some ways the groups gathered on these two platters don't jive with me the same way any Bangsian-bred mid-seventies rock credo you can come up with does. But a good portion of this does register with my rather discerning sense of rockism, if only slightly. Too many swipes rather than emulations here true, but considering what else there was on the listening frontier these tracks rock out a whole lot more'n the local FM station blasting REO and Journey as if they were making some great rockin' statements to the sopored out amongst us in youth identification land. Best bands, the Gizmos and MX-80 Sound as if you didn't know.
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Yes, one of those groups that nobody liked has released this boffo collection of various live tracks recorded where else but at CBGB. One show's from '77 and the other's an '84 reunion gig, and the band ain't that bad at all. The Dogs perform some rather goody mid/late-70s AM pop rock here (the kind that was in such short supply once disco began overrunning things worse'n Hitler in Poland), and as with many of the group's fellow LIVE AT CBGB's compats you could easily have seen them get a hit or two with a little more expert production and perhaps a few choice appearances on MIKE DOUGLAS. The stabs at humor (THREE STOOGES, WIZARD OF OZ) might seem rather high school-level duncitude to some, but I really liked the part where the Dogs starts riffing on JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND to rather sarcastic effect, and that's complete with Janov-inspired yells and gurgles!
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A few surprisingly seventies retro-pop tracks are smothered by bad neo-oldish cum new country, alternative singer-songwriter schmooze and a way too modern approach that doesn't quite satisfy this oft jaded turd. If this in fact is the end result of the Bakersfield sound I could easily see the spirit of Buck Owens coming back to do some britches burtin' hee-hawin' mulekicks on this Cracker guy's bum. When you get down to it this ain't nothin' but a systematic symptomatic excuse for the continuation of old modes well into an era that in no ways deserves anything the beauty of the oft-loathed past presented ages back. Paul, what's gotten into ya anyway (and don't say Seagrams!).
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Hmmmm, lotsa furrin stuff here. Stuff like the Bounties, Los Dukes, the Medussas, Los Polares and Okay Temiz. Sheesh, with records like this I kinda felt like I was walking around Youngstown's St. Elizabeth's Hospital listening to what alla the doctors there play in between cutting open the guts of octogenarian pensioners. Some of it is good enough mid/late-sixties rock I will admit, but most of it has that same continental reserve that you could find in just about any episode of GUTEN TAG.
Of course there is at least one Anglo-ish bit here for those of you wanting something closer to home, and let me tell you you haven't LIVED until you've heard Anthony Newley singing "Within You Without You"! Almost as heart-wrenching as Twiggy's rendition of "In My Life" or any Olivia Newton-John Beatletune you can think of! Other'n that you'll be transported to the faraway sixties European/Middle Eastern pleasure spot of your mind, and you don't have to worry about anybody withing the proximity of your nostrils not having bathed for nigh on three weeks!
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