I dunno if any of you readers out there pray, but if you do or at least want a good reason to be sure to offer up a few of 'em (or even a goat sacrifice if you so desire) for none other than Billy Miller. Yes, the venerable co-head (along with lovely wife Miriam) of the Norton Records empire is, sad to say, suffering from Multiple Myeloma as well as various complications from it which, compounded with Billy's ongoing diabetes, ain't exactly doin' the guy a bit of good health wise. The situation has gotten so bad that the man hadda have his left leg cut off last week, and one thing's for sure and that is he'll be looking forward to chemotherapy as well as a possible kidney transplant before he'll be even close to getting outta the woods. Right now it's crossed fingers and a lotta hope, and I know that all of you who are tuned into the blog are gonna wish the guy a whole lotta good luck with regards to his health and well being because well heck, like the man deserves our best at this point in his life!

You're probably wondering why a hate-filled humanity-loathing type of guy like myself is oh-so-concerned about Miller given my warped (mostly by the words of others) reputation for a longer time than any of us could imagine. Well sheesh, it ain't like Miller or his better half deserve any loathing on my part. I mean hey, Billy is a guy who I would call top notch and totally with it on all BLOG TO COMM levels, he not only being an upper-echelon rock "writer" (as opposed to "critic") for THE NEW YORK ROCKER and at a time when their coverage ranged from gnu wave silliness to boffo fifties/sixties accomplishment, but the man who co-edited seven energy-pumping issues of  the decidedly against-the-grain KICKS fanzine which I believe holds up a whole lot more than another fanzine we all know and hate! And I'm not done yet...Mr. Miller also heads up the entire Norton Records empire of records, books and other tasty treats which has proudly released, reissued and generally thrust upon us a whole slew of platters we either never even knew about or have only dreamed about hearing for years on end. And tell me, what have you done lately?

Of course add to that his tenure as the frontman for the great Zantees and later the A-Bones who have undoubtedly rocked out more in one second than you or I have in an entire lifetime and if my mathematics are correct. But if you were too busy spending 1982 searching out Bow Wow Wow albums I don't blame you if you never heard of 'em.

And another thing---in a rock 'n roll world where a turdburger such as myself has come up against nothing but brick walls and a whole lotta (maybe not undeserved, but so what!) derision, Billy was a guy who actually treated me like an actual bonafide human being. None of that build up and knock down jive like Gerard Cosloy and his brother in butt Patrick Amory (as well as some others in their scene) so cheerfully pulled on me, Billy actually was a nice guy in our dealings and had class which the aforementioned twats most certainly never did. Yeah Billy once razzed me via the US Mail (along with my order for KICKS #1) about things like appreciating the finer aspects of Von Lmo and could have done some serious asshole-drilling on me if he wanted to, but Billy ain't the kind of guy who had a hard-edged anger directed at those whose tastes veered from his. Heck, he even treated the great Tim Stegall with class even after Stegall told him that his fave rave rock 'n roll act of all times was the Sex Pistols! Miller merely shrugged that definitely anti-Norton bitta personal tastes off saying that well, it was better'n alla those Marillon fans he's come across as of late (this being the late-eighties or so!). If only Chuck Eddy had been as nice as Miller maybe we'd be exchanging Christmas cards today!

Yeah, Multpile Myeloma and diabetes ain't exactly fun things that liven up your life to its fullest potential (and sheesh, with my recent coming in contact with people who are either undergoing cancer treatments or are so far beyond it [or dead for that case] it seems like the malady is growing 'stead of coming to a grind like I'm sure we all hoped it would have at this stage in time) but really, in all honesty (remember that word?) Billy is not the kinda guy who deserves this sorta fate. Cosloy and Amory definitely do, as do Jay Hinman, David Lang and all of those jerks who threw their lot in with them 'stead of me. But Billy? No way in heck. Anyway here's hoping for the best for you Billy, and as for you Miriam...well, I'll be thinking of you through these troubled times as well. And as for the rest of you BTC followers, howzbout dropping 'em a line and showin' 'em a li'l bitta support. I know they'll appreciate it, and but good!

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Otherwise I must admit that things are going rather swimmingly around here at the ol' BTC orafices. Still working through a whole buncha platters that I either bought or obtained from the great likes of P.D. Fadensonnen, Bill Shute and Paul McGarry, and you can bet that I'm happier than a burro in a Mexican nightclub every time I get a parcel from one of the aforementioned or even someone else for that matter! Yes, people out there do love me and that makes me feel and nice 'n toasty inside, and besides that it sure is nice for me SAVING A WHOLE LOTTA CASH this way.

For the sake of being up-to-date and all maybe I should mention that there are some new and hotcha releases that have just been released like yet another Mars live album on Feeding Tube (featuring tracks from their first ever gig as China which are reportedly straight-ahead rockers in the mid-seventies NYC scene style) but that'll have to wait until I get some scratch together. But as for now, I think the following selection of recordings will suffice until I dish out more big bucks for beauteous recorded booty:

The Cramps-1976 DEMO SESSION W/ GIRL DRUMMER MIRIAM LP (no label, available via Forced Exposure)

Not sure if this is an actual bootleg, a grey area offering or perhaps a "fan club" spinner for that matter, but if the Tiny Tim CONCERT IN FAIRYLAND album can be called a bootleg and those crazy budget platters by Dylan, the Stones and Led Zep on the Joker label can be called bootlegs then this 'un dang sure can be called a boot as well! But since it's so current and in fact can be purchased first hand even to this day I think I'll blab about it now rather'n wait a good year or so before the next BOOTLEG BRAGGADOCIO entry comes out. Really, like time, this one can't wait!

These early rehearsal-quality recordings of numbers better known by you from a variety of eighties releases are what I'd call custom made for the average Cramps fan, only this comes off a whole lot more rec room sounding circa. 1959 as in old issues of COLLIERS lying around than anything the seventies or eighties coulda come up with. Sounds like you're sitting in on some teenage band rehearsal done up by some of the big kids from down the street right before they all got drafted, shipped off to Ol' Miss and had beer cans thrown at 'em. The guitar tag team of Ivy Rorschach and Bryan Gregory do their best stealing riffs from various late-fifties instrumental singles (such as the Frantics' Northwest classic "Werewolf") while Lux Interor worries at the crossroads of life wondering whether he should turn onto Rockabilly Drive or Garage Band Way.  And of course Miriam Linna does her best to emulate Honey Langtree and Maureen Tucker all in one big ball of premenstrual angst...the Cramps really lost something (and Nervus Rex gained something) when Linna broke outta the corral for vastly different pastures that's for sure! If you're only going to buy ONE Cramps record this year, you must be poorer than me!

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CLEAR LIGHT CD (Leemoon, available via Forced Exposure)

Remember Dallas Taylor? He was that guy who used to help out Crosby Shits and Turds on albums such as DEJA POO and a few others that the iron-haired gals in school used to bring to class if only to show the other gals that they actually owned the album and thus were complete human beings. Howzbout Cliff De Young? He was this actor who was best known for starring in that all-time weepie SUNSHINE, the tee-vee moom pitcher and short-lived series about this young laid back sensitive jamoke who was trying to raise his young son as a perfect specimen of pure hippoidism despite all of the neighbors around him coming off like the oldsters in BILLY JACK. Betcha the same iron-haired gals who brought them CS&T albums to school were front and center for that 'un as well.

But if those same classmates knew that the two of 'em were in this group they'd probably toss all of their folky-rocky records inna garbage disposal and start watching THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW because these very same guys, cogs in that great early-seventies drive towards laid back whole grain world peace and stuff, were involved in this particularly wild slice of late-sixties psychedelic rock that wasn't quite yin-yang with the whole anti-punk mileau of the Nixon era. Yes, CLEAR LIGHT (and Clear Light) were a rather hard-edged bunch doing what I would call a post-Doors/Love-styled Electra psych pop rock with clear garage band echoes, and in no way could I see that Art Class A-plusser in your junior high spinning this while doing impressionistic abstracts the way she undoubtedly could listening to James Taylor do his introspective junkie routine!

I wouldn't call lead vocalist De Young a screamer by any stretch of the ol' turkey, but for this kinda smart-pop lysergic drive he does pretty good. And that's even when he's affixing this neo-English accent to the album's obligatory by act of congress token "avant garde" track entitled "Mr. Blue". The group fits into that late-sixties Electra groove doing their El Lay Byrdsy thing at one moment before skedaddling into some jazz-tinged moves that I thought sounded so phonus when the Doors pulled 'em off but seem kinda bright here. A mixed bag true, but if you like those equally jumbled efforts from the likes of the rest of the post-sunshine psych brigades (and that even includes the Seeds, dummy!) you might enjoy this on a middling level.

Certainly not anything that sears the top echelons of late-sixties accomplishment true, but a better buy'n some of the offal passing as pseudo-intellectual perception that was comin' out at the time.

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Fadensonnen-PD7 CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions, see link on left if you really wanna get it, and you do!)

Seems as if Bill Shute got the smarts to release some of these Fadensonnen soundscapades on his own KSE imprint, and just for that he gets the HE-MAN OF THE YEAR award and not from TIME magazine that's for sure! Two tracks totaling a little over a half-hour, and what's more but Mr. F played all of the instruments on this one himself just like Todd Rundgren used to do! The first one ("Feedbacker") is in the standard Fadensonnen style which is akin to what Chrome used to come up with only without the melodies, while the flip actually reminded me of some of those late-eighties Controlled Bleeding tracks that were getting quite a few people hot under the collar. This might be one of those blink and you'll miss it affairs, so if you value your judgement better send them checks off today!

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Various Artists-ACID VISIONS CD (Spalax France)

I don't think this particular volume of ACID VISIONS is gonna go down with you like Linda Lovelace did, what with all of the late-sixties doom-laden psychedelic tracks that pop up here. Sure there are some winners out and about like the Mayo Thompson/Rick Barthelme helmed Saddlesore single-side "Pig Ankle Strut", Johndavid Bartlett's "Tree Frog Lady" as well as underground cartoonist Gilbert Sheltons' ESP-released "Hell's Angel", but a lot of the tracks that show up here more or less typify the post-psychedelic trip descent into darker regions.

Not that such a plunge was something to dread, but only a few of the tracks present have that early Black Sabbath sense of tension and abyss-staring that stood STARKLY in contrast to the Cat Stevens Piss Train that was chug-chug-chuggin' throughout the speakers of many a transistor. They're mostly the typical bloozy/hard rock style that wasn't exactly scarce (with some proggy turns), all done up with that distinct Texas accent that wasn't anything to sneer at. Not horrible or anything 'long those lines, but quite boring especially for those who would have loved to have come across a Texas Stooges.

And one more thing---how did the Legionnaires Disease Band and their "Rather See You Dead Than With Wool On Your Head" slip into this mix???

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Johnny Clarke-DREADER DREAD 1976-1978 CD-r burn (originally on Blood & Fire)

Yeah I know that a whole load of this ray-gay stuff ain't exactly the sorta music I built my knotty pine rec room existence on, but I actually got a bitta toe-tappin' fun outta this particular platter featuring longtime biz name Clarke if ya can believe that! Nothing earth-shattering true, but its still way more melodic and gripping than a good portion of the gunk that was being pushed on me as new and exciting back inna late-eighties. But sheesh, did this Clarke guy swipe from a whole loada talent...I can hear the strains of everyone from the Clash, Pop Group, Slits and even Lee Perry reverberating through each and every echoed track to be found!

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Lost and Found-EVERYBODY'S HERE CD (Charly England)

This 'un's the FOREVER LASTING PLASTIC WORDS album under a new title and with a number of additional tracks you might enjoy if you're up to enjoying the rest of this. Actually I had some qualms about buying EVERYBODY'S HERE considering how some of those later International Artists albums weren't quite up to BLOG TO COMM-approved listenability snuff (Endle St. Cloud comes to mind)...turns out my fears were unfounded because Lost and Found weren't the doped out hippie band I kinda thought they woulda been. They were in fact kinda like a Southern Californian folk rock act a la the Byrds or Love with a load of that Texas lysergic reaction that was so prevalent at the time tossed in for good teenbo measure. A cover of the Elevators' "Don't Fall Down" will attest to that, and if you were the type of fanabla who would save up to $35 for an International Artists original back in the mid-seventies (or $35 for an International Artists pirate back in 1988) I can see you dishing $15 or so out for this today!

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THE WORST OF MONTE CAZAZZA CD-r burn (originally on The Grey Area)

I just gotta dock this one a few notches if only for the tres passe title which was already trite enough when the Jefferson Airplane and Mothers used it, and considering the gnu wave-y offal that pops up maybe I should dock it even some more. Not the atonal hardass screech that I hoped it would be, though not without its own charm such as that track about kiddie killer Mary Bell done in conjunction with Cosey Fanny Brice or whatever her name is playing a toy piano and singing along with some other dames kinda like on one of those tracks from the second Red Krayola album. The rest is eh!, but if you like casiotone beat box bedroom recordings man will this one be up your rather expanded alley!

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Various Artists-STARKIST MAMBO AUTHORITY THEMES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

A nice start to a week that I thought is gonna be about as rewarding (as well as expansive) as a proctology checkup in your standard maximum security prison. There's lotsa fun old-tymey commercial clips (courtesy Charley the Tuna and Felix and Oscar from THE ODD COUPLE) buffered with loads of fun finds that Bill Shute got while skitzying around the internet, and thank you Bill for doing the kinda work that Americans just won't do anymore!

Some of this like the Taylor Tops tracks are standard no-gowhere early soul that shoulda gone-somewhere other'n the local St. Vincent de Paul, while others like Magic Lantern is good enough though still too "FM 101" classic rock for my tastes. Highlights for me include the Phoenix Authority doing the old Amboy Dukes hit late-sixties brass-style (kinda reminds me of something I would hear in a cabana while swimming at some fambly resort), Croatian composer Milko Keleman's rather abstract and Stockhausenish piece entitled "Homage a Heinrich Schultz" (woulda prefered a "Homage a Sergeant Schultz" myself!) and the Mystified's strange and hypnotic "Detective Theme" which I understand actually was used in a real private eye moom!

Also of worth...Stan Kenton's smartime Big Band jazz, the Skyscrapers' even smarter early-sixties instrumental rock, Billy Childish pretending to be a deep south black sharecropper (and succeeding!) as well as the new singing/guitar sensation Ignatz, who has a few well bricks of musical amazement aimed your way!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! EXECUTIONER OF VENICE STARRING LEX BARKER AND GUY MADISON (1963)

Boy is this film a turdburger! And I'm talking poo-pee-doo as in twelve-thirty inna morn on THE HOULIHAN AND BIG CHUCK SHOW on channel 8 in Cleveland any time inna mid-to-late seventies when the station would run some douchebag of a flick and the hosts would feel all uptight about it (but not as phony as the time they coyly apologized when the previous week's foreign film contained a brief bit of tit rubbing). But EXECUTIONER OF VENICE is a stinking bad one that bored me sillier 'n GIDGET GOES NEUTER featuring Bryan Ferry as a swinging neurosurgeon and that's really saying something!

Hokay, Lex Barker and Guy Madison have seen better days and you could say that better they be in a film like this 'stead of SALO. But sheesh, this 'un combines the usual action 'n intrigue to disgustingly low levels that are so snoozeworthy that I found myself fast-forwarding through the swordfights and gazing out the window during the slow and draggy moments (which were pretty much indistinguishable from the action scenes). The entire plot is dredge-up historical mishmosh and even the cheezoid Eyetalian direction and backlot look couldn't help the thing.

Yeah, a perfect 197X Sunday afternoon moom to watch onna tee-vee to yank you back to your glory days of suburban slob laziness. Watch on a Naugahyde chair for added perspiration stickage, only don't hope that the station will interrupt the broadcast for a more exciting tornado warning because hey, the only place you're gonna see this woofer's on Dee-Vee-Dee!

Rare video time here. Nobody out there (well, two who shall now and forever remain nameless) has commented on my ongoing interest in the long-gone and all but forgotten Boston-area rock group Orchestra Luna, and I'm sure many of you who might espy the clips featured below might wanna join in on the pile on once they get an eye/earfulla the group going through what might seem some rather twee/fru-fru musical moments complete with choreographed moves and high school theatrics. But sheesh, I have, will, and will continue to stick up for this group because not only did they have what I would call a real "cool" moniker but they created some still interesting/entertaining even forty-plus years later mid-seventies-styled deca-pop not quite in the same vein but vaguely similar to Roxy/Sparks/Deaf School/Jet etc's concurrent efforts (mebbe mixed with some Manhattan Transfer but since they were also of the Max's Kansas City/Club 82 generation maybe I'll cut 'em some slack this time!).  And although many would disagree, OL were one of the better second/third-string acts that were fortunate enough to pop up right smack dab inna middle of the great mid-seventies underground upheaval that manifested itself all across the globe. Guess that li'l fact also dumps a few more loads of credentials upon their corpse and not only that but this bunch were more than adept musically as some of the definitely searing instrumental passages to be found will certainly attest to:

Orchestra Luna (Live @ CBGB's) FISHBOWL 1975 from Rick Berlin on Vimeo.


BOY SCOUT CAMP from Rick Berlin on Vimeo.

And so what if a good portion of the males in the band probably woulda made good candidates for the front of any three-dollar bill of your choice! Gotta say that it's sure swell that some of these Metropolis Videos shot at CBGB are finally being made available to the public, and if we cross our tootsies maybe the ones done up of the Marbles and Joe and Blake will finally hit surface for all to see. Don't care about the ones done up by the Ramones or Blondie that much...I mean we've been inundated by their visages for years already and like, maybe something rare and outta the ordinary is more in line with what we gotta get into our craniums before it all goes down...

But if you'd really like to know about it, I'm more in the mood right now for something like this:



Kinda sums up my own current opinions re. life and humanity, and you know it's true!

And before I really get in trouble by spouting off what I REALLY think about the human race in general, here's just a bitta what I have been listening to these past VII...

Long John Hunter-OOH WEE PRETTY BABY! CD (Norton)

Fer me the mere mention of "da blooze" conjures up images of late-seventies white college boys listening to other late-seventies college boys playing old Howlin' Wolf songs filtered through stacks of Marshalls as well as stacks of white British blues platters for that matter. That's why it's always tops hearing this sorta sound as it was originally meant to be. Hardass r&b here thanks to the guy who just about single-handedly influenced the late-fifties Western Texas rock 'n roll era with his Juarez-based act that sounds to me (in no way a humongous fan) a whole lot more energetic than even jaded I would have guessed. Miriam Linna's liner notes would get her an "A+" if I were here English teach, and the interview conducted by John Morthland really did surprise me because I thought that Hunter was a guy who had sorta vanished into the nada of deepest Mexico ne'er to be heard from again!

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The Kinks-HAVING A RHYTHM & BLUES SESSION WITH THE KINKS CD-r burn (courtesy Bill Shute)

Dunno the exact whys/wherefores of this 'un and most if not all is available on other Kinkslegs founds within the vast reaches of my collection, but (again) it's nice to hear these old broadcast recordings even though the quality sounds like they were taped right off the same cheapo portable you got for Christmas 1964...y'know, the same one that your mom used to record opera crap offa whenever Beverly Whatzername would pop up on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW. BBC, SHINDIG, Swedish tee-vee etc...when Jymn Parret dies and goes to his final reward this is probably all he's gonna be hearing, in between the Stooges, Beefheart, Mott, Seeds...

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Various Artists-THUNDER; BORDER TOWN ROCK N' ROLL 1958-1962 CD (Norton)

Definite stars of this fourth volume in Norton's El Paso Rock series are Bob Taylor and the Counts, the same band that not only featured future Bobby Fuller member Jim Reese but the presence of group leader
Taylor, a guy who was wearing his hair long and greasy long before the Beatles or even Che Guevara for that matter. Too bad there's no photographic evidence in the package to prove it, but I take the word of Billy and Miriam to heart and until some snaps do make their way to mine eyes I will not disagree faithful pooch that I am. The Counts do perfect late-fifties instrumental rock ("Taylor's Rock") as well as some down home Elvis-styled pounders that come off rather creepy in some strange inexplicable way, and a full album of their material would be a rather tasty experience so start digging into your drawers guys! The rest might be too country/rockabilly/late-fifties instrumental jive for your tastes, but then again you like listening to Beyonce so why should I expect you to think otherwise?

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Silverhead-SHOW ME EVERYTHING CD (Captain Trip, Japan)

Mostly audience recordings taken from a Japanese show that sound about a "C" rating if you go by those tape lists that were floating around back inna early-eighties. Nothing unlistenable mind ya, but kinda straining onna ears. Still it does relay some of the definitely non-laidback energy that Michael Des Barres' old group were able to unleash on an audience. and if you miss the post-Stones excitement of many a rock act that sorta got lost inna shuffle of way too many releases back in those rather funzie days of yore then well hey, you might cherish this one about as much as you do your membership in Europe's Only Iggy Pop Fan Club.

By the way, I oughta tell ya that I was stuck in someone's car enduring a rather nervously keyed-up ride, and since the radio in the car has Sirius innit I spun it to channel 21 and the "Underground Garage". Fortunately that well-draped turd Little Steven Van Zant was nowhere to be found, but Des Barres was so I settled down and listened to his show 'stead of the all-Grateful Dead marathon. Turns out that Des Barres was a halfway decent host with his stories and insight, but really this "Underground Garage" station has little if anything to do with garage band rock or ideals! All I got were rare b-sides, familiar singles of the sixties and seventies that had NADA to do with any sorta garage band "aesthetic" I was hoping for (I mean...Aretha Franklin???) and while I was hoping that rare tapes of some 1969 group down the street's rehearsals would pop up all I got was the same old Beach Boys and Easybeats that, while good enough for my ears, could be heard on the "sixties" channel. Sheesh, what a waste of time as well as a hot opportunity to really deliver the punk goods even if it is forty years too late, and if I had only known that the Nostalgia Channel was playing FIBBER McGEE AND MOLLY at the exact same time...

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Various Artists-A PERFUMED GARDEN. VOL. 3 (courtesy Bill Shute)

Sheesh, I didn't even know there was a third volume of this. If you liked the British psychedelic pop of the first two this one will also sate (didn't know there were so many of these groups wallowing around in Britain at the time) what with the likes of T. S. McPhee's Groundhogs and Herbal Mixture laying down some pretty intense psych workouts as well as fave raves from groups with names like Shyster and Reign. Heck, even the track by Andwella's Dream was flowery erotic pop rock and I was sworn off them ever since Lester Bangs peed all over 'em for name alone (they got it in a dream, and if I followed Andwella's advice my ne'er to be rock group would probably be named Prolapsed Hinman!).

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Johndavid Bartlett-FALLING THROUGH THE UNIVERSE CD (Snapper, England)

It's really too dang bad that Bartlett's Mayo Thompson-produced MOTHER'S MILK album on International Artists is lost and gone forever in classic darling Clementine fashion, and although this smattering of numbers both old and recently-recreated doesn't make up for it the thing is still swell. Acoustic run throughs of old 13th Floor Elevators numbers and basic folk rock hankerings, the results coming off like the spirit of Roky infiltrating the corpse of Tim Buckley with Syd Barrett wafting through somewhere. Not all of this sparks (in fact, parts come off typical seventies post-hippoid mature enough to have earned Bartlett a spot on AUSTIN CITY LIMITS) but overall it's a grand slice of late-sixties Texas underground music that fits into the whole equation just as much as that psychedelic poster you've been starin' at these past ten hours...

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Crawlspace-BLINK ONCE FOR YES CD (Gulcher)

This one marks the grande return to classic rock structures for the revised version of this legendary group and the end results are rather akin to those early Crawlspace offerings that got our heads spinning (because they were so superior to the usual self-pitying mush) way back inna late-eighties. Featuring the roaring lead guitar of one Grady Runyan of Monoshock fame which is one good reason you saw Eddie Flowers praising him and his band up and down the page in the latest BULL TONGUE REVIEW. Sounds like the Lollipop Shoppe with a hernia complete with great Mumbles-styled vocals and for something I would assume was recorded half-serious like it sure does measure up as a high energy affair of the highest order!

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Iggy Pop-PSYCHOPHONIC MEDICINE 2-CD-r burn set (originally on Cleopatra)

Alternative versions and mixes etc. from the early/mid-eighties sound fair enough in that sorta lost decade way, while the live numbers sorta typify the sameness that Iggy's career was during those rather turgid times. Nothing to rave about especially after all of the archival Stooges recordings that have pleasured my ears for quite a long time. Sheesh, Iggy's entire Stooges to solo career move was kinda like if Houdini had quit doing those death-defying stunts he was best known for and settled back on wowing the rubes with nothing but old timey card tricks such as that all-time fave, 52 Card Pickup!

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Various Artists-FAR-OUT RAIDERS SEARCHING FOR JONES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

And finally (as if you didn't expect it) the obligatory Bill burn of the week, and it's a fairly good one if I do say so mineself. Not as hotcha tippy top as the past few were, but then again I think this is an old one that sorta got buried under the collection before Bill began slipping old ads and other fun suburban slob tracks into the mix. It's also got a hefty mix of Amerigan garage, some hipster soul, a good English folk-rocky acetate from Angel Pavement and some weird things that I never would have expected from Bill. There's even some female soul courtesy "Diane & Carol & The Whatcha Ma Callits" (sounds like a dudster 1972-era drive in moom pitcher feature!). Biggest slurprise of the batch's gotta be Pepe Fernandez 'n Orchestra's "Having Fun" which is a typical latin/soul platter that probably won't be of interest to you, but the pure fact that Fernandez co-wrote this one with a certain "L. Reed" is bound to arouse some interest. Oh yeah, and the Thor of "You're My Cream" who close this out ain't the famed blond-haired heavy metal guy but a late-sixties-styled pop group that might have gotten a writeup in an old issue of THE ROCK MARKETPLACE had this only gotten out.

CRUCIALLY NEEDED BY YOU MAGAZINE REVIEW! BULL TONGUE REVIEW #3 (available via Forced Exposure in case ya didn't know!)

Byron Coley sez that this issue of BTR is late (and I don't mean like your sister was even though she came home from school on time)...funny but I didn't notice the lapse between issues, but it sure is swell knowing that some periodical publishers are conscious enough to try 'n get their wares out on a timely fashion! And man what a good issue this 'un is, what with the same breed of writers we've adored for ages (Meltzer, Gregg Turner and of course Coley) intermingled with some new on the horizon types who actually prove that the Golden Age of Rock Writing did not die in the late-seventies---it just smells funny as Frank Zappa (who should have known about smelling funny) would have said.

The Coley/Thurston Moore introductory schpiel is blessed of course if only because it's one good place where you can find out about what's new and about in that same sorta underground sphere you were wallowing in a good thirty/forty years ago. Only now you can afford to buy these wares and you couldn't find 'em in a millyun years even if you wanted to!  Not too much reviewed here that I would wanna part kopecks with, but it's kinda nice seeing exactly what there is to get hold of just in case you're interested in learning about the kinda sound patterns that UGLY THINGS doesn't dare write about!

The what's up and about with the rock under-the-intelligentsia section is what really gets me dribbling, whether it be a brief segment from the likes of Meltzer on the Byrds or Chris D's moom pitcher reviews and of course Donna Lethal doing her youtube thingie three issues inna row. Some of the anecdotal  incidents work, some don't, and of course I find it a whole lot better reading about ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN here than I would hearing about it from your ten-year-old cousin when he saw it back 75 way. Again I gotta say that jaded me wasn't exactly champing at the bit to dish out the $$$ for most of the items that did get a royal review (which would figure considering that most of these scribbling hadda do with non-tangible matters), though the news of a Hampton Grease Band bootleg really has gotten me all hot and bothered to the point where I have been scouring the web for a copy, of course to no avail.

Pretty good magazine ya got there Coley...hope you're really on schedule with the next one because like, I gotta time my seasonal showers by SOMETHING, y'know?

In order to be current and uppa date and all that, here are a few things inna news that I'd like to comment on if only to disprove to my myriad assortment of enemas that I'm stuck in this weird Twiblight Zone of fifties kultur focused through sixties tee-vee and seventies underground rock concerns. And no Beaver, I ain't using that "The Indians predict a severe winter" old standby either.

Lessee, who should I start with...howzbout Cecil the Lion? Yeah, howzbout him?!?!?!? Really, I haven't heard this much of an uproar over a dead pussy since Savannah died! Sheesh, I dunno why anybody cares about that 86'd cat anyway...I mean the guy who shot him wasn't as much at fault as the guide who said it was hokay to fire away at this protected specimen and really, don't you think it's ridiculous seeing all of these aminal lovers boo-hooing over this not-that-tragic event while they wouldn't dare sniffle one gob o' goo over alla those kids who got sick on macaroni and cheese last year??? Now if Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent was offed I'd be wearing my underpants at half mast, but some dumbass lion? No way Chollie!

What else inna news has caught my eyeballs? Well, not the prez hoopla or normalization of relations with Cuba or any of that other brainy stuff you can read about all over the place. However, the saga about that feminist who ran the London Marathon while having her period but without a cuntplug did inspire me...to fits of outright disgusto pukeo rage that is. Dunno what this (probable) carpet muncher (with ketchup!) was trying to prove, but when I first heard about this 'un you can bet I saw red! I hope you appreciate me italicizing and using bold for the word "red" lest you not get the gag...after all, I get the impression some of you reg'lar readers do need a li'l help ifyaknowaddamean...

Of course almost as bad is that new trend amongst our "moral and intellectual superiors" (mainly radical college kidz!) for the female of the species to dye their pit hair different colors for some occult political reason or another! I dunno if I'd want to dwell further into this phenomenon because hey, it's not like I'm gonna (or wanna for that matter) do any personal checking myself! C'mon, don't ya know that these womyn have an aversion to deodorants or body washes of any kind which would certainly keep my nostrils away from their bodily functions at all costs! Interferes with their feminist mystink, or something like that. So all I gotta say is...if you see some young women's lib type wearing a tank top shirt and wanna rob her, whatever you do don't say "STICK 'EM UP!" lest you get an eyefulla pit brillos you'll wish you had never seen.

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But enough of the cornballus humor that I and only I seem to enjoy these days. As far as the following writeups go well,  I sure liked doin' 'em up...don't care about what you think about 'em as usual! The reason for my own personal merriment is...well...I finally am getting into a batch of recently-received recordings that have been stimulating me as of late meaning I don't have to scour the bottom of my collection to find some platter that just happened to be lingering there since 1978 at the latest. And really, hearing these sounds whether fresh or not does stimulate the ol' suburban slob glands in me to the point where I feel like walking around in my stockings all day and eating liverwurst straight from the cold cut drawer! That's how good these are!

A big hefty thanks to Mr. Bill Shute,.Mr. Bob Richert, Mr. Hozac and the equally important to the BTC scheme of things Mr. Fadensonnen for the contributions. Between them, me and the ever-growing pile of platters in my bedroom you can bet that there's gonna be a whole lotta fresh material hitting this blog for at least the next three weeks! And while you're at it, pray for more records (archival and by new acts of worth) to come out with an alarming frequency. Well if you're gonna pray for something, why waste it on world peace?


The Jazz Destroyers-LIVE @ JB's, Kent Ohio, 9-4-1981 CD-r burn (courtesy PD Fadensonnen)

This one has been floating around in Soundcloud format for a few months already but it's sure great hearing it all in one place and in one package. The infamous Dave E's equally infamous early-eighties group the Jazz Destroyers never did make it as big as they shoulda, but at least they left that ol' timey impression on those who were lucky enough to see 'em while they were around (which didn't include me despite various tries). Sparkling originals the likes of "Have a Nice Day" and "Bagful of Garbage" intermingle with not only TWO Ramones covers ("Sheena" and "Here Today Gone Tomorrow", both perfect for Dave E's particular form of tonsilizing) but a slewfulla Electric Eels faves I'm sure many people thought they would never get to hear again. In all, this performance somehow seem to signal the end of the Great Cleveland era of Underground Rock (1974-1981) even more than the great exodus of local talent to New York did. The backing band is quite copasetic to Mr. E's vocal abilities and there's nary a sour note to be heard literally or figuratively. If this had only gotten out a lot sooner than it did maybe we wouldn't've had to spend the earlier portion of that decade so bummed out over the loss of seventies underground aesthetics like I most certainly was.

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England's Glory-"City of Fun"/"Shattered Illusions" 45 rpm (Hozac)

Of course you long-time fans of Peter Perrett's pre-Only Ones outfit have the a-side adorning the group's sole album and have cherished it for years, but feast your ears on the flipside, a previously-unreleased number that somehow or other missed being on the album but deserves all of the fan adoration that has been dumped on the rest of this group's output for years. Still can't see how Nick Kent coulda been duped (even for a minute or two before he caught on) that he was actually listening to some rare Velvet Underground demos when these tracks were played for him, but I gotta say that Perrett and band did have a good go at emulating that hard to copy that specific quality Lou Reed used to have in the sixties! Nice imitation Europeon-styled picture sleeve too!

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Bob Taylor and the Counts-"Taylor's Rock"/"Thunder" 45 rpm; Bob Taylor and the Counts-"Don't Be Unfair"/Bobby Fuller-"Say Honey" 45 rpm (Norton, see link on left for ordering instructions)

While waiting for the opportunity to tear into my El Paso Rock platters (inspired by the beaut of a Bobby Fuller bio written by Miriam Linna in conjunction with Fuller's brother Randell) I thought I'd give these two singles a spin in order to "whet" my appetite, or my pants for that matter. And what pant whetters (sic!) they are, for the Bob Taylor and the Count numbuhs are total pounding late-fifties fun, the kinda garage band sides you've always trusted Norton to put out (or at least sell ya!). No wonder this group had been denounced by a few local pulpits what with the hard-drive band crankout these guys did...if you go for similar late-fifties releases by the likes of the Jokers, Crazy Teens and a variety of local downhome bands that were fortunate enough to release a record or two before petering out into the greasepit of eternal rockist happiness you'll go for this. Pick up the "Taylor's Rock" single as soon as you can get your mitts on some hard-begged.

The "Don't Be Unfair" side is tame in comparison, but maybe that's because it's a vocal track that doesn't have the overdrive scream mode of a Sonics or Iggy for that matter. Still a good spinner, as is the flipster featuring some early Bobby Fuller recording done during that strange grey area time in rock history that was supposed to have been all Bobbys and Frankies until the brave and decisive rock of Melanie came to rescue us all. And even though these probably can be found on other records Norton or not it's sure nice playing these singles in the exact same portable teenage turntable fashion that you did when you were a mere five, though please take more care of these'n you did those yellow Peter Pan platters you still can't give away at the flea market no matter how hard you've tried.

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All of Thus-1966 cd-r burn (courtesy Bill Shute)

Haw wotta buncha teenage turdburgers! Betcha the gals at school hated 'em until they grew their hair long, took up instruments and started making recordings featuring hotcha covers of the Byrds and Dionne Warwick. Then it was THEIR turn to put the gals down...dontcha like happy endings like that???

But for a buncha nowhere guys with long hair All of Thus were a really top notch teenage bunch in that mid-Amerigan garage band tradition that still seems to resonate even fifty years down the line. Quality is AM flat but that only helps the music out, and the performances are rather professional to the point where the low-fidelity studio these guys used doesn't ruin 'em at all. The originals are as boffo as anything else that was coming outta Nuggetsville at the time and the downturn negativity really does reflect a more Long Island (or New England) than NYC approach but I ain't knockin' it one bit. Nothing to sneeze at...in fact All of Thus had the 1966 folk/punk ethos down pat and for that they should get some personal award from Lenny Kaye and I do mean yesterday!

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The Gizmos-WORLD TOUR 2014 CD (Gulcher)

Aww chee...MORE aged guys getting back together to play forty-year-old rock et roll. Ain't that GREAT???, because if it weren't for old guys playing rock et roll these days there would be NO rock et roll!!! The crusty core of the originals (Highland, Flowers, Niemec, Coffee) show up here doing the same Gizmos racket of yore with additional goodies like a spirited "Black to Comm" and it all settles just as well inside your CREEM-reading mind as it did way back when every fanzine was touting the Gizmos line as if it were the only line to be touted. Also features a certain Craig Willis Bell on bass guitar, and boy must that guy be busy what with his playing not only with these guys but Rocket From The Tombs, Ex-Blank-Ex and who knows who else!!! You can go home again, and frankly if you decide to pass this true rock artyfact up may you once and forever be banished to Camp Penis!

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Daevid Allen and Euterpe-STUDIO REHEARSAL TAPES 1977 CD (Voiceprint UK)

Better'n the actual GOOD MORNING album if you really wanna know my humble opine. Backing band Euterpe really bring out the nutziness in Allen (who's never sounded more Barrett-ish than he does here) with a folk-y approach that is kinda progressive rock in the standard sense but not overbearing as in 2000 keyboards powered by the sun. Gilli Smyth is also onhand with her space whispering, and the overall results should satiate not only the standard Gong aficionado but reg'lar rubes looking for a little more kick in their listening experiences. If you were one of those fanablas (like myself) whose mainline to the British Isles was MELODY MAKER (forget SOUNDS and NME which were like impossible to find) and you were keeping an eye on the import bins for the latest post-psychedelic flash, this might strike a chord with you.

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The Moving Sidewalks-THE COMPLETE COLLECTION 2-CD set (RockBeat)

There's gonna be a lotta Texas psychedelic rumblings in these thar pages the next few weeks, for right now I'm on a rather hunkerin' huge jag for the same sorta screech that was birthed from the mind of Roky Erickson and sorta went off on some strange tangent once the seventies began to get in gear. And hey, what better place to start'n with this collection of EVERYTHING (even the early Coachmen stuff!) by Billy Gibbons' pre-Z.Z. Top act the Moving Sidewalks, a group that seemed too embarrassing for the standard set of seventies FM-bred music listeners but heck, we knew better alla time!

Disque #1 contains the entire FLASH album, a platter that I never did cozy up to that much upon first listen way back when but here in 2015 it sure sounds a whole lot better'n the stuff that replaced this! Which replaced some other stuff which replaced a whole slew of things which some ignoramus deemed was good enough for us while this hard psychedelic blooze sure wasn't. Not being that big of a fan of the whole white blues guitar stud thing I probably shouldn't like it, but when mixed with that Texas lysergic style and a healthy Amerigan garage band aesthetic I can't see but not grooving to the neo-Elevators ebb and flow the Sidewalks ooze. Even the obligatory freak out track ("Reclipse") echoes a strong Greek Fountains via Red Krayola sense of mental breakdown that I certainly can't complain about considering this kinda music is definitely what my own nervous system sounds like!

The other un's got the rarities from the infamous "99th Floor" single to a bunch of discarded takes that were never meant for us to hear, and (as you'd guess) even those early Coachmen sides show the roots of all of this psychedelic madness that was up and about even before it was called psychedelic! It's all here, and though it would be unwise to toss out all of those sixties garage band compilations (and overpriced pirate copies) you've clung to these past thirtysome years let's just say you have it all in one lump and in one place. Saves you the time of sifting through piles of platters to find that Moxie EP with the old car on the front cover and pic this up!

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Tony Williams Lifetime-TURN IT OVER REDUX, MIX TRANSLATION BY BILL LASWELL CD-r burn

Dunno the whys and wherefores of this particular Fadensonnen-bred burn, but between you, me and the parole officer dontcha think that the idea of noted bassist/producer Bill Laswell remixing the classic Lifetime album (and including a few newies in the batch) is one of the most brilliant things imagined in quite some time? True some of the tracks here sound very similar to the ones that popped up on that boffo fusion platter, but others come off totally different so it's like you're listening to an entirely different offering from this legendary fusion group whose members never did equal the action they put forth here once they left for greener (money) pastures. Well, Larry Young and Love Cry Want excepted. Fans of the McLaughlin/Young-era band better be sure to find this one wherever on the vast webosphere it may be wallowing.

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Various Artists-GOOD RED IMPERIALIST STEW CD-r burn (courtesy Bill Shute)

This week's selection of Bill burns contains some interesting snatches of snoot radicalism past such as John Ashbery's not-so-funny but rather pertinent for someone poem regarding Amerigan imperialism and Admiral Dewey. The Henry Flynt group the Insurrectionists have been covered in these "pages" before, but it is sure nice having an excuse to hear them via their I DON'T WANNA Cee-Dee again. Also fun is the Moza Khamis middle-eastern-oriented "Athabtni Ya Asmar" (probably heard more in England than "God Save the Queen" these days) not to mention these krauts doing some songs in krautese that we all would have been hearing these days had Eisenhower not dropped the bomb on Curtis LeMay or something like that. Craziest of the batch includes Cerrito the Italian Cowboy doing the old Carole King cum Herman's Hermits classic "I'm Into Something Good" as well as this contest competition for the English "Cherry B" wine corporation where the discerning glugger of the stuff has to choose which "Cherry B" song is the best of the batch. There are five choices, all in that early-sixties cornballus-yet-fun English pop mode to choose from, and if you really are in the market for a Sunbeam Alpine tough turds, because this contest competition was over a good fifty-four years ago!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! DOUBLE CONFESSION STARRING DEREK FARR AND PETER LORRE (1950)

Boy are these English moom pitchers bohr-ring! But hey, I guess that before 1961 it was furrin films like this that we Amerigans had nothing else but to see moom pitcher wize on tee-vee so why not settle back and pretend that you're some bored fanabla watching this onna toob back '57 way thinkin' it was either this or Mantovani on the other channel.

Actually s'not that bad even if the kultured air of mid-twentieth-century England permeates this particular pelicula. Set at a seaside carnival resort (and if you really wanna see boring people having fun there's no place like mid-twentieth-century England!), a strange tale of murder and revenge weaves itself after the mysterious deaths of two people at a cottage as well as a stranger rumbling into town. Stranger's out to get the big guy who was more or less responsible for the murder of his estranged wife who just happened to be one of the folk offed, and along the way he meets up with this plain jane type who does exude an air of something, while Mr. Big's henchman played by Peter Lorre tries to run over the troublemaker with a speedboat. Along the way there's this doofy English guy who keeps trying to sail his boat inna ocean which I guess was somebody's idea of comedy relief, and this policeman who smokes a pipe and tails the suspects while playing stare-down with a li'l girl.

Overall it's just typical English entertainment of the day which always lacked a certain ram-bunk-shuh that films from other countries just oozed from their skin. Nothing bad (Lorre saves this from being yet another Sunday afternoon PBS offering) but sheesh, some of us like more outta our cheap moom pitcher recreation time, y'know?

Well, with life just creeping along like it is, what better thing could any self-respecting fanabla like myself do but hunker down in my once fun-thrilled abode and listen to all of the boffo platters one (mainly myself) could get my pasta-pickin' hands on as of late. And thanks to some extra cash lyin' around (as well as a strange urge to "dump it down a rathole" as my father would say) I decided to do a li'l splurging myself hence the reviews of some platters one could actually say are "current releases" and not some old collection delving finds. Of course the freebee stuff courtesy of Bill Shute helps out, and you know it would.

So w/o any further a-doo-doo, here's what I've been listening to this past seven or so days. And you???

The Electric Eels-DIE ELECTRIC EELS LP (Superior Viaduct); "Accident"/"Wreck And Roll" 45 rpm (HoZac)

It's always great seeing MY FAVORITE ROCK 'N ROLL GROUP (next to a few million more, but who's counting) done up like they are here with great looking sleeves, liner notes (for the album) and a general respect that this act certainly did not get during its surprisingly short lifetime. The Superior Viaduct album collects a whole buncha the Eels' biggies including the hit "Agitated", and I must admit that this 'un makes for one of those boffo rock 'n roll listening experiences that really gets you all hot and bothered like it should. I really do wish this one got around back in the late-seventies so's I coulda enjoyed playing it during one of my rock jags along with the Flamin' Groovies and Alice Cooper. The HoZac single contains even more from those '75 sessions and it really tears into you like nothing since side two of FUNHOUSE. Again, this woulda been one of those real attention grabbers had it somehow ended up on Stiff Records and was available in a whole slew of commercial record shops on yellow vinyl! They shoulda let John Morton do the cover tho', but I guess these days he costs too much!

But still I wonder, with all of the unreleased stuff there must be why not some fresh booty for once in our lives? It sure would be boffo to hear the legendary track "Razor Blade", and I do know that the Eclectic Eels rehearsals from autumn '76 are out and about so why not let us hear Dave E tear his tonsils into things like the Sonics' "Strychnine" and John Morton do his TROUT MASK REPLICA-inspired vocal track "In a Pig's Eye"??? I mean, """"""""""I"""""""""" have this stuff on tape somewhere in my vast collection and if I were a stinking non-royalty paying kinda guy I could put it out myself, but I won't and hey, maybe it's time we raided the John Morton vaults to see what's REALLY in there because I think he's holding back on us and with a vengeance! Paul Marotta too...c'mon, this material is "Now More Than Ever" and in even more of a sense than Richard Nixon ever woulda dared dream!

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Fury-"Flying"/"100 Proof" 45 rpm single; Liquid Diamonds-"Aw Ma"/"Long Ago" 45 rpm single (HoZac)

I'm not familiar one iota with Sonny Vincent or his Testors days, but this particular slice of En Why rock past certainly does whet my appetite for early-seventies punk rock or early-seventies heavy metal, at least the way the writers at CREEM used to make it out to be. Fury was Vincent's earlier act and they were a pretty good hard-rock scortching sorta bunch kinda in the mid-seventies El Lay HM vein before the hair really started to get out of control. Somehow I'm reminded of that Killer Kane Band single with Blackie Lawless in that I get the feeling that this one would really alienate the standard mid-eighties hardcore crowd, but those who still remembered the seventies would understand.

Liquid Diamonds were even looser in their approach to hard rock trio sounds giving me the impression that they probably sounded like a whole slew of those under-the-radar acts that popped up on various CBGB and Max's listings but were so outta the gnu wave loop that THE NEW YORK ROCKER wouldn't've written about 'em in a millyun years. If so, would someone please get more of this New York obscurity music out and about??? Nice packaging on both, including a boffo Club 82 ad on the back of the Diamonds one featuring that grand reopening show under new management when Lou Reed played host, and that would figure considering how he performed his only solo-era show in a NYC underground club at the ol' 82, even if the gig was one of those "unannounced" (hint hint) ones.

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The Monks-THE EARLY YEARS 1964-1965 CD (Light in the Attic)

Some love 'em and some loathe 'em, and so what else is new? But for those who do think of the Monks as the ultimo mid-sixties freak-idea outfit this by-now ancient collection (which I passed on for quite a long time because hey, I only have so much lucre in the ol' Porky) is whatcha'd call a holy grail of the greasiest kind.

THE EARLY YEARS consists of some early demos done in the days back when these guys' hair length was actually giving the Rolling Stones a run for the moolah and their hard churn act was just being gestated. Surprisingly loose sound (with a decidedly European approach right outta the oompah-rock of the day) and a boon for those of you who like to track musical developments like I used to do with NANCY comics styling details. The performance does have that tinge of Euro slickness, but I blame that on the production which was probably done by some old kraut who's previous job was coaching Eva Braun how to forcefully thrust out a convincing version of  "Ist Das Ist Der Schnitzelbonk?"

Contains their version of "Hold That Tiger" (here known as "Hushie Pushie") which is bound to drive someone in your family to murder you. Closes out with the rare Five Torquays single from '64 that really connects the sleek Monks sound with the early sludge from whence they rose, and oh what a sludge it was!

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The VIP's-LIVE AT THE TWEN CLUB 1966 CD-r burn (originally on Document Records, Austria)

I didn't think I was gonna enjoy this act one bit given how mid-European copycat they looked to me, but this platter does prove that the VIP's were able to crank out some rather stick-around-in-your-mind rock et roll. True some of the material here isn't up to BLOG TO COMM standards coming off like something one would have heard in some of the most lavish Holiday Inn lounges on the continent, but these cheese lovers can rock out in a pretty decent fashion when they wanted to. Pretty passable covers mingle with some hot originals, and for a buncha nth-stringers they come off better'n most of that music that passes for rock you hear in loads of mid-sixties foreign features. Nice enough for moi, and perhaps for thoi.

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FOSSILS WITH BRIAN RURYK CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions)

These guys (now about as defunct as anything) are back with yet another KSE release, one that's even wackier'n the previous Fossils platter reviewed a few months back. More chop and slop with sounds prefab or not, making for one of the wildest rides heard since I decided to smear one of those Longines Symphonette flexi discs with peanut butter and spin it at 16 rpm. Musique Concrete for the teens even if it does have roots stretching all the way back to your dada (and mama as well).

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Pig Rider-THE ROBINSON SCRATCH THEORY 2-CD set (Guerrson Spain---I woulda linked this review up to the Forced Exposure sight but they were "down" when I was typing this review)

It really is too bad that a whole load of this eighties English DIY stuff has remained so under the blankets because some of it was pretty solid rock music that shoulda been noted by more'n a few maniacal fans. Take these Pig Rider guys f'rinstance...like hardly anybody knew they even existed let alone who they wuz, and now there's a spiffy double-Cee-Dee set consisting of a good portion of their tape releaseage out that really tops a whole lotta "professional" sputum that had been inundating us at the very same moment these guys were struggling to get their hands on a Cetron 90-minute tape assembled in Mexico!

For a buncha nobodies doin' this in the privacy of their bedroom without the prying eyes of the law tellin' 'em it was immoral or somethin', the Riders sure did their music up they way I'm sure most of us BLOG TO COMM readers wouldn't mind it. They remind me of the Tall Dwarfs in that they really do hearken back to their Limey roots (Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers), yet there is also a noticeable amount of pre-bloat Beatles and Harvest-era Move tossed into the mix. Something tells me that Brian Sands would really go for this one if he could only gets his mitts on it. And Pig Rider take their English pop music a whole lot more serious than most...heck, these guys even mutilate Yusef Islam's very own "Moonshadow" for their "Just Can't Dance", speeding it up and chopping it up to the point where it doesn't sound like some dippy music to lay some sensitive girl to anymore!

And oh the injustice of it all, Pig Rider being all but ignored while untalented boobs like Madonna raked in the millyuns appealing to the basest instincts of music listeners worldwide! Kinda makes me wonder if there was anything else happening in the bedrooms of Britain during those rather unexciting days, other'n that disgusting stuff the British are well known for doing if Archie Bunker is to be believed.

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Larry Martin Factory-EARLY DOWN FLYERS AND ELECTRIC KIDS CD-r burn (originally on Isadora, Italy)

Remember that ol' line that was goin' around inna seventies about how the French couldn't play rock 'n roll? Gotta say that it was a whole lotta hooey not only given all of those French Flamin' Groovies and Iggy imports clogging up the bins of the late-seventies but that nation's love for the Lou Reed/Patti Smith swing of things! But given an album like this I can see how the rumor got started. Michel Polnareff comes off like Sky Saxon next to this Larry Martin fellow who dribbles off a seventies schmooze rock that comes off like the worst aspects of what I remember of Nelson Slater's WILD ANGEL (worthy of a reappraisal more sooner than later) with enough Mike Post-ish synth to remind you of the theme of some late-seventies detective series that never even existed. Somebody's chortling over the cheap juxtaposition of watered down sixties moves, muffled vocals and lackluster arrangements, and it sure ain't me!

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Alien Planetscapes-IRON MAN OF VENUS CD-r (Galactus, available via Richard Orlando)

Yet another nice entry into the Doug Walker Hall of Space Creeps. A 2003 studio session featuring Walker in a straight-ahead rock 'n roll version of the group (Richard Orlando on guitar and synth, Chris Altenhof on bass guitar and Rob Benson on drums) sounding like that bastardized version of Hawkwind Nick Turner never got around to forming. Or maybe early Kongress, Chrome, or that 1969 punk rock band you remember from down the street only those guys couldn't afford a stylophone let alone a synthesizer. After all if early Kongress (or Chrome or early krautrock for that matter) sounded like anything it was that 1969 punk rock band you remember from down the street. Soar the sonic heights of your mind (or at least your fart-encrusted bedroom) with these straight ahead rhythmic shards of cosmic drone that kinda makes you wish that electronic snorkles like this caught on way back when 'stead of Keith Emerson monkeying around with his Moog feeling so self-assured that he has wowed the rubes with at least five new electronic cantatas played with his nose.

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Various Artists-EXPLODING GREEN HONKYTONK PEANUTS CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Mr. B must be in a jazzy r 'n b mood what with these bloozy (mostly) instrumental sides that come off as if they popped straight outta Chuck Shadowski's collection. Names like Jimmy McGriff (he of Ghoulardi trib "Turn Blue"  fame), the Jazz Crusaders and Ace Cannon might be known by more'n a few casual listeners, but you might be surprised to find the likes of Elvin Jones and Richard Davis (together!) doing some down-groove jazzy blooze not to mention legendary jazzman Illinois Jacquet. For a surprising change of somethingorother Bill even threw in some latin jazz courtesy of Jack Constanzo that sounds like something Fidel Castro and Che Guevara woulda swung to in between caving skulls in with shovels (gotta do something to break up the monotony!). It's stuff like this that spelled it all out regarding the black experience when I was but a mere single-digiter and even though I wasn't exactly a whole hog fan of this stuff it's sure nice hearing a good selection of it all in one place. And it's a place where I wouldn't be afraid to go after dark, ifyaknowaddamean...

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! THE TINGLER STARRING VINCENT PRICE (Columbia 1959)

Howdja like to have a large caterpillar-cum-clawless lobster growing on YOUR spine? Well, that's just what ol' Vince Price discovers while doing some research into fear along with Dobie Gillis' brother in this late-fifties moom thriller that I remember the older (read: second grade) boys in school dribbling over back when it was shown on channel 21's SHOWTIME (hosted by Marc Howard, soon to be a Philly tee-vee bigwig). Of course back then first-grader me was more engrossed with more kiddie-oriented entertainment and still felt that horror films along these lines were more or less horrid nightmare bait. No TINGLER for me considering that the YOU ASKED FOR IT reruns on the other station had me front and center for such wholesome entertainment as armless ladies and the guy who milked snake venom to make into medicine.

Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to appreciate films like THE TINGLER they had been replaced by adult melodramas and unfunny game shows which only goes to show ya that I indeed was born too late to enjoy life, especially when "life" had become relevant hippie moralizing and unfunny lectures passing as cutting edge humor.

But this William Castle flick is just what any self-respecting seven-year-old proto-delinquent would wanna rush home from school to watch. Good ebb/flow of tension and cheap shock throughout this 'un, which won't make you puke or anything but still delivers the goods what with the scene where this deaf mute is scared to death by faucets flowing blood and a crazy monster coming at her with a knife (which may be an illusion but in a film like this who can tell?) not to mention the one where the Tingler itself gets loose in a silent moom revival theatre (that happens to be showing the Richard Barthelmess classic TOL'ABLE DAVID) and starts creeping up the legs of the patrons! The part where the screen goes black and Price intones to the audience to scream must've been a hoot, especially for a lotta male dates who wanted to do a li'l sneak tit squeezing on their frightened-to-death dates!

No chair buzzers when I watched this 'un, but it still gave me alla them adolescent thrills I most certainly didn't get back then because films like this had become verboten around the time I hit the double digits. But for those of you who are hitting the age of retirement and are opting out for a second teendom 'stead of childhood THE TINGLER would be a much better bet to osmose those model car and monster days of yore 'stead of some Joan Baez album, y'know?