As the Monkees once said (actually Mike Nesmith)...so how's by you? As for how's by me well, I'm havin' a fun time here at BLOG TO COMM central listenin' to loads of music and generally engaging in tons of sinful pleasure, which for me is plowing through old BEETLE BAILEY paperbacks (the same box of 'em I got a few months back!) not to forget the occasional MAD collection of yore. You may think it's nothing but evil sloth that I'm engagin' in, but I say it's just me living up to my calling as a proud suburban slob and you better believe that I'm doing the best to honor my heritage!
Since this was a slow week, and you don't want to hear about the, uh, grittier aspects of what was goin' on like the insidious toilet float caper or my befuddlement over the instructions for the new paper shredder, let's just get down to the true reason for the treason, mainly the following record and cee-dee reviews!
This Gregory Raimo fellow's come up with another hot top notch winner with this album featuring nothing but music performed by him and him alone! I know what you're thinking, that this is probably one of those jagoffs where some guy struts out alla his classical edjucashum and shows it off for all to see, but Raimo ain't one of those post-hip Todd Rundgren types at all for this record is (really!) a hard-edged "experimental" rock album that won't let you down one bit!
Some of the tracks sound like those old Bruce Anderson solo tapes he was pittin' out back inna eighties, while others have a bit of the This Heat late-seventies experimental electronic feel that really knew how to fray them nerve endings. But no matter if GR's doing the hard-rock instrumental or avant garde trips he's doin' 'em well, and I can't think of many (if any) down sides to this particular outing which thankfully retains that home-production flat sound that sounds oh-so great in these digital doodle days.
If you're still enthralled by some of those better cassette culture home-cooked offerings that were so prevalent in the eighties this might bring back a few fond memories of tape jams and dropouts. Only I somehow doubt it because well...it's good ol' vinyl here and all you'll have to worry about are skips!
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Wally Tax-LOVE IN CD-r burn (originally on Philips, the Netherlands)Would you have ever thought that the (Dutch) Outsiders' lead singer Wally Tax would have done a soft rock middle-of-the-somethingorother album that certainly would have not appealed to the hard rockin' Pretty Things kinda guys who made up his fan base? Me neither, but he, just like Sonny Geraci who sang with the Amerigan group with the same moniker, went slo-mo teenage gals and middle aged men tryin' t' be hip on this particular album that sounds like it was recorded with Bert Kaempfert rejects during their off hours from the local army base club. Lousy late-sixties cling onto alla the tropes available music here with Tax doin' his vocalizin' through a megaphone (or so it sounds), but one thing I would REALLY like to know is...does Tax actually sing "your teats can make a grown man cry" or something very similar on track #2, "Let's Forget What I Said"???
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The title's kinda misleadin' since a good portion of these platters really don't fall into the "rockabilly" category, but if you're a fan of the late-fifties/early-sixties rock instrumental like I am this one should do ya just fine. Of course a good portion of bonafeed chart toppers like "Rumble", "Red River Rock", "Last Date" and "Green Mosquito" show up and for the love of me I never even heard of Rex Qual or Dorothy Donegal (and to be really nit-picky about it, how in the world does an instrumental version of "When a Man Loves a Woman" get classified as "rockabilly"???), but the track selection is top notch for those of you who don't look your noses down at those "backwards" days when women/African Americans/gays/left-handed herniated Hopi Indians were being oppressed from here to Bizoo and back (don't laff---some wag actually accused me of lovin' them days just because of that!). If this happened to be some 1981 flea market find stuck in the old album racks you'd bet I'd be snatching this 'un up faster'n that woman who broke some nylon zipper on a pair of pants skedaddled after the peddler caught her.
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Dunno any other whys.wherefores of this particular album, but as far as free jazz rarities go this might be one of the tippy tip top of the iceberg. Alto saxist Kazutoki "Kappo" Umezu and pianist/bass clarinetist Yorituki Harada are joined by some of the hottest loft/free players from the En Why See scene on this '75 session that once again proves the fruitility
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Sure he ain't Bob Bailey, but Mandell Kramer does a really good Johnny Dollar on these early-sixties radio dramas which rank amongst the last of this particular breed, not counting various revivals which were more nostalgic rehash'n anything. It's kinda strange to think that these kinda shows were still goin' on as late as '62 but they were, and if that is the case this series helped bring the genre to a hotcha end with two great episodes, one dealing with the pilfering of a rare painting and the other these two lookalike guys who years after the fact are kinda/sorta involved in a new insurance payoff scheme, one involuntarily. As they used to say, your mind is the only visual theatre to contend with, and hopefully the stage hands won't go out on strike!
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These are the same guys who later on became the Five Man Electrical Band and had a socially relevant chart topper called "Signs" back '71 way. But back inna sixties these Staccatos weren't into the hip youth plight groove yet, preferring to crank out soft rock that was too raucous for the old folks but too tame for the Rolling Stones crowd. And they sure did a good job of it producing material that some could call "wimp rock" yet doing a good enough job with their chosen style to the point where you don't feel like flicking it off. Sunshine-y pop numbers abound, including a cover of Steve Stills via the Mojo Men's "Sit Down I Think I Love You" slushed up for maximum adolescent girl schmooze effect.
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I mean, WHO ELSE but #1 Lex Barker fan inna world Bill Shute would even think of compiling various brief soundclips of Barker dialogue and slapping it on a disque totaling a little over six minutes anyway??? You try to guess which moom pitchers these dialog snips come from while the whiz by you faster'n Bill himself trailing down the street after an old issue of Charlton's DR. GRAVES that blew outta his mitts, and be surprised if you actually do recognize one or two of 'em! As for me, I think this woulda sounded grand if some noise-cut up act like Smegma got hold of it and added their variety of squeaky toys and oscillating whoops to the entire thing, but don't tell Bill I said that.
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Various Artists-MIRROR FATTY SPINACH JUNGLE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)This one has been moiling in the CD-r stack for quite some time so I thought it the right and proper thing to give the thing its proper spin before ignoring it for all eternity. As usual this is a super collection of rarities including (besides an obscure Wilson Pickett track) a great early-sixties garage thumpin' instrumental from the Pastels, good 'n fruity slush pop from Pinkerton's Assorted Colours, creepy cheap "song poems" from Johnny Williams, hot 'n lowbrow blues jazz from the Three Sounds and a whole load of things I'll think up about once I get to hear this (I am typing while the platter is playing, time saver I am and shall remain!). I doubt that the Spades here are """thee""" Spades of Roky fame (I also doubt they're the NYC group goin' under that name inna eighties!) but they sure play good late-fifties instrumental rock as do Shoestring, the Beas and of course Dick Dale. Pretty good selection ya got there Bill...do you take requests by any chance???
I'll take requests if they are Lex Barker-related!
ReplyDeleteAt first glance I thought that read "Les Baxter."
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