I'll tell ya, given the kinda life I hafta lead doing this blog is one of the few real pleasures I do have remaining.
I really do mean it...what with the way work's goin' and the drudgery of modern day living (and worst of all very little tee-vee to watch during the evening hours when I'd like to wind down a bit) it's certainly a FUN THING for me to just settle back with a new disque or two, kick my feet up, grab some light reading material and listen to said recording while I (as Meltzer said) "get into its uh, universe". Then write up said opines of the aforementioned recording directly onto my compose page and do some fine tuning before sending it all out your way. Some people like to go out dancing and other people they gotta work, but for me having a downright fun time of it here in the post-fun and games 21st Century is settling back with some deeply involving and perhaps moving music, feeling rather pleased about the experience, then telling you all about it in my own inimitable and perhaps to showoffy way.
And if you think that I'm more or less acting just like the kinda fanablas who spend their hours hobbying away with HO train sets or collecting gas station memorabilia from the thirties you're RIGHT! Only difference is I like those kinda people and their everyday tastes and you, being such a conceited nose-upper, don't! In fact I get the feeling you probably LOATHE us because y'know, we're different! But deep down when all the cards are laid out on the table and the truth be known I kinda get the feeling that it's suburban slobs like us who are having the most fun with out hobbies and collecting and music and generally having a good time reliving the best moments the past has given us...unless your idea of "fun" means passing out leaflets regarding the sad situation in whatever socially relevant hot spot there is today inna world with that perpetually dour look on your face. To each his own...I think.
In other words---BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YEZ GET!!!, so w/o further somethingorother...
The Batboys-BATMAN THEME CD-r burn (originally on Design Records)
If your Aunt Flabby got you one of those cheap-o Beatle knockoff LPs for Christmas in 1964 she sure and shootin' bought you something like this for '66! Things really were goin' bat guano for many a suburban slob during that year and of course the Batman knockoffs were bound to fill the bins of supermarkets nationwide just anxious to sucker the unaware consumer outta a hard-earned buck.
Undoubtedly this little gem managed to find its way beneath the X-mas trees of more'n a few budding pimplefarms, that is in between the toy Batmobiles and Batgames and other Bat-necessities that were just custom made for us ranch house kiddies. Too bad its such a snoozer what with these Batboys performing a lackluster version of the Marketts hit take as well as wrecking a buncha classical numbers with titles slapped on 'em that have nothing to do with the tee-vee series at all!
Funny thing is there's a souped-up version of Rimsky-Whatzizname's "Flight of the Bumble Bee" on this 'un which must mean that THE GREEN HORNET was onna air by the time this 'un got out or that the folks at Design just lucked out in the best way possible! Well, I guess this was a better present 'n the Bobby Sherman album Flab got ya in '70 but whatever you do, don't act unappreciative!
The Bob Seger System-NOAH CD-r burn (originally on Capitol)
Even after getting years of bearded schmaltz outta my mind I still can't manage to stomach any of Bob Seger's overwrought music. And while these tracks ain't exactly the ballads that Seger made his moolah with NOAH is still a rather pedestrian effort that stands still next to the kinda sounds that the rest of the Detroit area was making at the time. It wasn't that far from the socially relevant sounds of "Johnson, Lennie" to those late-seventies weepies that got all the puff-haired gals a'crying, though if you're that desperate to hear the roots of it all you probably couldn't find a better place. As was the fashion in the late-sixties there's the obligatory avant garde track this time entitled "Cat", a work out that reminds me of the percussion backing Seger himself contributed to on the MC5 tune "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)". "Cat" woulda sounded better anywhere but on NOAH but then again. maybe not.
Mal Waldron & Terumasa Hino-REMINISCENCE SUITE CD-r burn (originally on JVC-Victor Japan)
Remember reading about all of those Japanese-only jazz records that were all but impossible to come by o'er here in Ameriga? And man did a whole buncha 'em sound really tasty from those rare Anthony Braxton sides to the one with the Fowler Brothers of Zappa/Beefheart fame, but even if you could get hold of 'em they were sure to go for beaucoup bucks. Fortunately a whole buncha those once-impossible to latch onto platters are now available via download, so if you were the kinda kid who sold plasma and collected pop bottles for rarities such as this back inna seventies well, you coulda saved all of the time and effort if you only waited a good fortysome years!
I'm really not that familiar with Mal Waldron compared with the other free players of the days, but he sure sounds rather driving what with his minor key cantatas sprawling about all over the place. Hino is fine enough playing more in a Ted Curson rather than Lester Bowie sorta way, while the rhythm section is so glued to the major form (for what it is) that you woulda thought they came straight outta Studio Rivbea. Nothing that's totally out-there AACM free splurge and perhaps a tad restrained, but still slow burn drive in that British avant garde sorta matter which really is all right with me.
Better later'n whatever with these once rarities that definitely shoulda gotten around a whole lot more'n they did back then.
ZZ Top-LIVE PENSACOLA 1970 CD-r burn
Not having been much of a ZZ Top fan (even during their Roky Erickson-inspired early-eighties "new wave" era) it wasn't like I was exactly looking "forward" to listening to this live platter recorded early on. But eh, it's good enough even if you thought the worst part of the Moving Sidewalks oeuvre was the blues moves that didn't sound as good as the actual stuff that was still being made by the originators. Sound quality is typical hand-held cassette but it only exacerbates the dingy club feeling of it all, and while the playing can get a li'l too noodling for my tastes it ain't like I'm exactly offended by it all the way I am some of the patchouli and tinklebell sounds being made around the same time. Nothing I'm gonna spin that much, but if yer tastes veer into early-seventies post-garage heavy blues rock you'll probably have this 'un somewhere in the ol' trailer, eh?
Fuzz-FUZZ II CD-r burn (originally on In the Red)
Haw, can't believe that after XXX years of flitzy glitz heavy metal the original hard-gnarled edgy stuff would still be alive and kickin'! Fuzz do live up to their moniker what with their definitely early-seventies hotcha HM approach that seemed to peter out once '73 started rolling in and Metal Mike Saunders penned that eulogy to the form which passed as a review of Led Zep's HOUSES OF THE HOLY. This is not the kinda metal that everyone from the likes of Von Lmo and MX-80 Sound to the Stooges and DMZ practiced let alone "Sister Ray" as the ultimate experience in blissful blast, but it's good enough in its early Sabs meets Budgie sorta way that sure woulda sounded good on an FM radio 'round '72 way in between the umpteeth plays of "Suite Judy Blue Eyes". Great Iommiesque leads and a vocalist in the trad crazed whiner mode makes for a great experience, and the sonic overload complete with those tricky Indian-styled modal moves that will bring out the bongster in you!
Various Artists-DIAMOND JOE-THE SOUND OF MEEKVILLE CD-r burn (originally on ACe, England)
It's been almost fifty years since his tragic swan song but like John Brown's body (or was it his "soul"?), Joe Meek keeps marching on. A whole slewwa rarities from the famed producer are stacked up on this platter showing that (considering some of these acts weren't quite uppa snuff using universal BLOG TO COMM standards) the man coulda gotten hold of a tape of me farting in the bathtub and made that sound good. Not that the likes of Ray Dexter or "Joy and Dave" were exactly grade-z turdsville, but they sure didn't have the vim and vigor that the Tornados or the Syndicats could muster up without any effort. The rock group tracks fare a lot better with the Saints (no, not them) doing a version of "Parade of the Tin Soldiers" that sounds as if it coulda been an outtake from the Blue Men I HEAR A NEW WORLD album (their version of "Happy Talk" from SOUTH PACIFIC was boffo what with the chattering space voices at the end), not to mention the Moontrekkers doing a coupla rocked up public domain hummers including what else but the Civil War fave "John Brown's Body" (which is exactly why I mentioned it in the opening sentence---originality has never been one of my better efforts!). A good 'un even with the more "grown up" stuff that wouldn't have appealed to my group sound tastes, or something like that.
Hank Mobley-HANK CD-r burn (originally on Blue Note Records)
'57 sesh showing off all the bop power that the jazz world was capable of at the time. Nothing that's really my cup of Sleepy Time Tea but still engaging not only with a batch of sidemen who were well known in such circles (Donald Byrd, Bobby Timmins, Philly Joe Jones...) but them ol' bowtie 'n tux standards jazzed up to the point where we can actually listen to 'em without wincing. Naturally the bared-wire intensity that was the hallmark of the new thing jazz only a few years later just ain't here, but this might get you excited enough to dwell more into the pre-Ornette era of jazz that in many was was just as cataclysmic as the kinda brew that was gonna be cooked up in a rather short period of time.
Various Artists-UGLIEST MALFUNCTION MUTINY CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
With a name like "Art Brut" I was expecting "art damage" ifyaknowaddamean... And I was RIGHT but oh what art damage it is...real freaking free jazz-styled play done by guys who wouldn't've made it in the real jazz world but they sure sound decomposed enough in an early-eighties Systematic catalog sorta way. Does Blurt come to mind? You tell me! The Leer Brothers Band's "Mystery of Love" which immediately follows sounds totally staid in comparison even if it is a fairly steady enough single that coulda been punk rock with some more guts added to it. The Bombs are standard early-eighties punk from the just post-Pistols phase in the music. Kinda power-poppy yet still hard, not that different from the Cleveland groups of the day who did their durndest despite the evil efforts of Anastasia Pantsios. "Fortune and Fame" even has some cheep organ synth added for good measure. Gene Marshall's song poems sound pro enough even with the duff rhymes he has to turn to music. Back to the art damage with the Viking Suicide Orchestra who channel the spirit of Jimi and Sonny via Rudolph and Bruce and don't come out sounding like total idjits for it either. Are the Fifth Estate heard here the same one who did "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" by any chance? Sounds like it and "Lost Generation" is yet another one of those boff late-sixties nostalgia trips that got my mom all aflame. Roach Motel...haven't gone for much of this "hardcore" growl in a few decades but this reminds me of the better efforts complete with Greg Ginn-influenced guitar solos! West once again show that Bob Dylan covers can be just as inept as Bob Dylan himself could have gotten. Song Poem vocalist Norm Burns tries to do soul on "Baby You're So Fine" while Rick Wilson's attempt at the same gig flops even on hokum country levels. Rowdies sound like Johnny Rotten singing with a sixties 'stead of seventies punk act and the Plastic Pianos are anything but...sorta like cheap casio keyboards doing a Soft Machine-styled jazz workout. Closing everything out is Peter Piper's "Magic Book" which kinda sounds like the theme for some early-seventies Saturday Morning neo-educational kinda cartoon, the kind fanablas such as I were sure to miss...on purpose. Oh, and the radio ads in between were killer, especially the ones for the Leaves and Kaleidoscope.
I'll betcha didn't know that I listened to this one through and types my opines down as the music spun. Had no idea I did that eh? Shame on ya.
I really do mean it...what with the way work's goin' and the drudgery of modern day living (and worst of all very little tee-vee to watch during the evening hours when I'd like to wind down a bit) it's certainly a FUN THING for me to just settle back with a new disque or two, kick my feet up, grab some light reading material and listen to said recording while I (as Meltzer said) "get into its uh, universe". Then write up said opines of the aforementioned recording directly onto my compose page and do some fine tuning before sending it all out your way. Some people like to go out dancing and other people they gotta work, but for me having a downright fun time of it here in the post-fun and games 21st Century is settling back with some deeply involving and perhaps moving music, feeling rather pleased about the experience, then telling you all about it in my own inimitable and perhaps to showoffy way.
And if you think that I'm more or less acting just like the kinda fanablas who spend their hours hobbying away with HO train sets or collecting gas station memorabilia from the thirties you're RIGHT! Only difference is I like those kinda people and their everyday tastes and you, being such a conceited nose-upper, don't! In fact I get the feeling you probably LOATHE us because y'know, we're different! But deep down when all the cards are laid out on the table and the truth be known I kinda get the feeling that it's suburban slobs like us who are having the most fun with out hobbies and collecting and music and generally having a good time reliving the best moments the past has given us...unless your idea of "fun" means passing out leaflets regarding the sad situation in whatever socially relevant hot spot there is today inna world with that perpetually dour look on your face. To each his own...I think.
In this year of living frugally I once again must thank the persons who donated their wares to "da cause", or whatever it's supposed to be called these days. Big heaping hugs to Bill Shute for his various contributions as well as Paul McGarry for the Fuzz thing I found snuggled in between some other burns. As for Hozac Records don't worry, I'll get to your latest package once I have the opportunity to make a trip down to the dungeon where the old hand-cranked Victrola resides. And who knows, maybe I'll get lucky enough and be able to score something on my own this upcoming week, though considering the recordings that would pass our sensitive tastes I kinda do doubt that.***
In other words---BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YEZ GET!!!, so w/o further somethingorother...
If your Aunt Flabby got you one of those cheap-o Beatle knockoff LPs for Christmas in 1964 she sure and shootin' bought you something like this for '66! Things really were goin' bat guano for many a suburban slob during that year and of course the Batman knockoffs were bound to fill the bins of supermarkets nationwide just anxious to sucker the unaware consumer outta a hard-earned buck.
Undoubtedly this little gem managed to find its way beneath the X-mas trees of more'n a few budding pimplefarms, that is in between the toy Batmobiles and Batgames and other Bat-necessities that were just custom made for us ranch house kiddies. Too bad its such a snoozer what with these Batboys performing a lackluster version of the Marketts hit take as well as wrecking a buncha classical numbers with titles slapped on 'em that have nothing to do with the tee-vee series at all!
Funny thing is there's a souped-up version of Rimsky-Whatzizname's "Flight of the Bumble Bee" on this 'un which must mean that THE GREEN HORNET was onna air by the time this 'un got out or that the folks at Design just lucked out in the best way possible! Well, I guess this was a better present 'n the Bobby Sherman album Flab got ya in '70 but whatever you do, don't act unappreciative!
***
Even after getting years of bearded schmaltz outta my mind I still can't manage to stomach any of Bob Seger's overwrought music. And while these tracks ain't exactly the ballads that Seger made his moolah with NOAH is still a rather pedestrian effort that stands still next to the kinda sounds that the rest of the Detroit area was making at the time. It wasn't that far from the socially relevant sounds of "Johnson, Lennie" to those late-seventies weepies that got all the puff-haired gals a'crying, though if you're that desperate to hear the roots of it all you probably couldn't find a better place. As was the fashion in the late-sixties there's the obligatory avant garde track this time entitled "Cat", a work out that reminds me of the percussion backing Seger himself contributed to on the MC5 tune "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)". "Cat" woulda sounded better anywhere but on NOAH but then again. maybe not.
***
Remember reading about all of those Japanese-only jazz records that were all but impossible to come by o'er here in Ameriga? And man did a whole buncha 'em sound really tasty from those rare Anthony Braxton sides to the one with the Fowler Brothers of Zappa/Beefheart fame, but even if you could get hold of 'em they were sure to go for beaucoup bucks. Fortunately a whole buncha those once-impossible to latch onto platters are now available via download, so if you were the kinda kid who sold plasma and collected pop bottles for rarities such as this back inna seventies well, you coulda saved all of the time and effort if you only waited a good fortysome years!
I'm really not that familiar with Mal Waldron compared with the other free players of the days, but he sure sounds rather driving what with his minor key cantatas sprawling about all over the place. Hino is fine enough playing more in a Ted Curson rather than Lester Bowie sorta way, while the rhythm section is so glued to the major form (for what it is) that you woulda thought they came straight outta Studio Rivbea. Nothing that's totally out-there AACM free splurge and perhaps a tad restrained, but still slow burn drive in that British avant garde sorta matter which really is all right with me.
Better later'n whatever with these once rarities that definitely shoulda gotten around a whole lot more'n they did back then.
***
Not having been much of a ZZ Top fan (even during their Roky Erickson-inspired early-eighties "new wave" era) it wasn't like I was exactly looking "forward" to listening to this live platter recorded early on. But eh, it's good enough even if you thought the worst part of the Moving Sidewalks oeuvre was the blues moves that didn't sound as good as the actual stuff that was still being made by the originators. Sound quality is typical hand-held cassette but it only exacerbates the dingy club feeling of it all, and while the playing can get a li'l too noodling for my tastes it ain't like I'm exactly offended by it all the way I am some of the patchouli and tinklebell sounds being made around the same time. Nothing I'm gonna spin that much, but if yer tastes veer into early-seventies post-garage heavy blues rock you'll probably have this 'un somewhere in the ol' trailer, eh?
***
Fuzz-FUZZ II CD-r burn (originally on In the Red)Haw, can't believe that after XXX years of flitzy glitz heavy metal the original hard-gnarled edgy stuff would still be alive and kickin'! Fuzz do live up to their moniker what with their definitely early-seventies hotcha HM approach that seemed to peter out once '73 started rolling in and Metal Mike Saunders penned that eulogy to the form which passed as a review of Led Zep's HOUSES OF THE HOLY. This is not the kinda metal that everyone from the likes of Von Lmo and MX-80 Sound to the Stooges and DMZ practiced let alone "Sister Ray" as the ultimate experience in blissful blast, but it's good enough in its early Sabs meets Budgie sorta way that sure woulda sounded good on an FM radio 'round '72 way in between the umpteeth plays of "Suite Judy Blue Eyes". Great Iommiesque leads and a vocalist in the trad crazed whiner mode makes for a great experience, and the sonic overload complete with those tricky Indian-styled modal moves that will bring out the bongster in you!
***
It's been almost fifty years since his tragic swan song but like John Brown's body (or was it his "soul"?), Joe Meek keeps marching on. A whole slewwa rarities from the famed producer are stacked up on this platter showing that (considering some of these acts weren't quite uppa snuff using universal BLOG TO COMM standards) the man coulda gotten hold of a tape of me farting in the bathtub and made that sound good. Not that the likes of Ray Dexter or "Joy and Dave" were exactly grade-z turdsville, but they sure didn't have the vim and vigor that the Tornados or the Syndicats could muster up without any effort. The rock group tracks fare a lot better with the Saints (no, not them) doing a version of "Parade of the Tin Soldiers" that sounds as if it coulda been an outtake from the Blue Men I HEAR A NEW WORLD album (their version of "Happy Talk" from SOUTH PACIFIC was boffo what with the chattering space voices at the end), not to mention the Moontrekkers doing a coupla rocked up public domain hummers including what else but the Civil War fave "John Brown's Body" (which is exactly why I mentioned it in the opening sentence---originality has never been one of my better efforts!). A good 'un even with the more "grown up" stuff that wouldn't have appealed to my group sound tastes, or something like that.
***
'57 sesh showing off all the bop power that the jazz world was capable of at the time. Nothing that's really my cup of Sleepy Time Tea but still engaging not only with a batch of sidemen who were well known in such circles (Donald Byrd, Bobby Timmins, Philly Joe Jones...) but them ol' bowtie 'n tux standards jazzed up to the point where we can actually listen to 'em without wincing. Naturally the bared-wire intensity that was the hallmark of the new thing jazz only a few years later just ain't here, but this might get you excited enough to dwell more into the pre-Ornette era of jazz that in many was was just as cataclysmic as the kinda brew that was gonna be cooked up in a rather short period of time.
***
With a name like "Art Brut" I was expecting "art damage" ifyaknowaddamean... And I was RIGHT but oh what art damage it is...real freaking free jazz-styled play done by guys who wouldn't've made it in the real jazz world but they sure sound decomposed enough in an early-eighties Systematic catalog sorta way. Does Blurt come to mind? You tell me! The Leer Brothers Band's "Mystery of Love" which immediately follows sounds totally staid in comparison even if it is a fairly steady enough single that coulda been punk rock with some more guts added to it. The Bombs are standard early-eighties punk from the just post-Pistols phase in the music. Kinda power-poppy yet still hard, not that different from the Cleveland groups of the day who did their durndest despite the evil efforts of Anastasia Pantsios. "Fortune and Fame" even has some cheep organ synth added for good measure. Gene Marshall's song poems sound pro enough even with the duff rhymes he has to turn to music. Back to the art damage with the Viking Suicide Orchestra who channel the spirit of Jimi and Sonny via Rudolph and Bruce and don't come out sounding like total idjits for it either. Are the Fifth Estate heard here the same one who did "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" by any chance? Sounds like it and "Lost Generation" is yet another one of those boff late-sixties nostalgia trips that got my mom all aflame. Roach Motel...haven't gone for much of this "hardcore" growl in a few decades but this reminds me of the better efforts complete with Greg Ginn-influenced guitar solos! West once again show that Bob Dylan covers can be just as inept as Bob Dylan himself could have gotten. Song Poem vocalist Norm Burns tries to do soul on "Baby You're So Fine" while Rick Wilson's attempt at the same gig flops even on hokum country levels. Rowdies sound like Johnny Rotten singing with a sixties 'stead of seventies punk act and the Plastic Pianos are anything but...sorta like cheap casio keyboards doing a Soft Machine-styled jazz workout. Closing everything out is Peter Piper's "Magic Book" which kinda sounds like the theme for some early-seventies Saturday Morning neo-educational kinda cartoon, the kind fanablas such as I were sure to miss...on purpose. Oh, and the radio ads in between were killer, especially the ones for the Leaves and Kaleidoscope.
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