So how'd'ja like the past seven days or so anyhow? For me they were just another seven days to trudge through, but at least a few nice things managed to happen such as the arrival of a few packages of worth just like my fortune cookie said! And hey, if you can't trust fortune cookies what can you trust? And so, rather than fill out this post with a number of tiresome anecdotes about my cootie infestation or humorous bowel movement memories here's what been spinnin on the ol' bedside boom box since we last spake.
RAZORLEGS cassette (available from razorlegs.bandcamp.com)
Just when I resign myself to the sordid fact that wild recordings and high energy rockist sounds are no more, things like this come into my life and give me hope for at least a short spell before I go back into my misery. The due of P.D. Fadensonnen and Andrew Hurst plow into some mighty heavy waters on these recorded live sides, on the first (entitled "Journal of Eyes") sounding like what that German critic heard in Guru Guru that reminded him of the Stooges while on the flip ("The Slithering Embassy") Fadensonnen lays down a pretty nice wall of guitar that's trying to dredge up comparisons in the mind yet nothing seems to be coming across. The psychedelic revival lives on, only not in ways that I'm sure most would have envisioned. A guaranteed topper during a week that had more than a few high points, as you will see below.
TV EYE CD (Seventeen/Easy Action Records, available via Forced Exposure)
It's been forty years since the concept (no matter how loose it might have been and would become) of punk rock began to growed like Topsy, so it's fathomable that a whole slew of anniversary cash-ins are bound to hit the internet sites more sooner than later. Some I'm sure are indispensable, others feh, but this one's a pretty good effort that deserves your attention and spare change. TV Eye were a bonafide Birmingham England punk rock act that not only had the smarts to name themselves after a Stooges song before things like that became hackneyed but to record a number of hot, high energy records that have remained buried until now. And these Eyes were a pretty hot band too, sorta punk in that bridge between early-seventies flash and late-seventies style not sounding like either in particular but whew! They kinda come off more like just-post-Loney Flamin' Groovies back when that band was lifting more than a few Stoogian moves, not to mention some early Heartbreakers too! There must be thousands of these lost, unheralded bands out there for us all to discover and I only hope this is the first of a bursting floodgate full of equally tasty offerings guaranteed to make us all feel even more pissed off than we were were these recordings were being made!
Chris Carter-THE SPACE BETWEEN CD-r burn (originally on Industrial Records, England)
You've heard this electronic dance repeato riff music before, but maybe that "before" was when ex-Throbbing Gristle member Chris Carter did it on this 1980 cassette which means that if you heard it here you probably heard it being done one of the first times ever! Kinda mesmerizing in that mid-seventies hor summer day way when you had the tee-vee tuned in to some PBS public service program and were too tired to switch the station because MONTY PYTHON was going to come on eventually and the incidental music on said PBS show was all synth-y like this and somehow it fit in well with the mental state you were in and your anticipation regarding watching MONTY PYTHON inna first place. If you like seventies electronic sounds and that whole ramalama you might just like this!
John Coltrane-COMPLETE 1961 VILLAGE VANGUARD RECORDINGS 4-CD-r set (originally on Impulse Records)
Well it ain't like I got the entire thing since I can only find the first two disques of this here and nothing but! That's fine enough by me what with the classic quartet-plus's entire recordings from the famed gig(s) being made available like they are here. I'm sure the actual item looks hotcha what with the booklet that undoubtedly came with it and the hi-gloss case too. Music like this sure goes to show ya just why pretentious pseudo-intellectual types used to drool all over Coltrane to the point where they were incorporating various melodies and chords of his into their various hippie cantatas for years on end. Listen to it with your Wayne McGuire 'stead of Grace Slick ears firmly in place and maybe you will understand the true nature of it all.
The Stanley Brothers-COMPLETE COLUMBIA COLLECTION CD-r burn
Sounds like the kinda music that upper-crust rock critic types listen to just so's they can claim to be down and dirty with the same kinda rural folk that deep down inside they hate with a vendetta. Still pretty good deep-dish country twang from them pre-flash days, a precursor to a whole lotta sixties folk from the Holy Modal Rounders on down which is where I guess the whole bohemian angle re. this music fits in. Since I'm not in a folk mood as I type this (current passion include mid-seventies hard rock proto-punk of a comparatively ignored variety, more of which I will spew forth upon in future posts) it's not exactly prickling my pear but I get the feeling that when the broken tooth country folk feeling returns I'll be spinnin' this more'n just a few times a day I'll tell ya!
Rudy Rosa-A MUSICAL CLIMAX CD-r burn
The hits of the seventies done up on a customized Hammond organ with synthesizer built in. I get the feeling that this album was given away free with every purchase of one of those strange contraptions at your fave local mall. Everything that was irritating about seventies music (other than prog rock, disco, AM teeny slurp, dud metal...) served up for your parents and relatives who would still find this quite outrageous. So sudsy that you could put your dishes next to the speaker and they'll sparkle in no time. The only other thing I can tell you is that this Rosa guy sure made all of those punk rock platters of them days that I have sound even better!
THE FORUM QUORUM CD-r burn (originally on Decca Records)
This group was in for a fair share of hard knocks back when their album hit the stores and even after, but frankly I can't see why since THE FORUM QUORUM was a pretty solid rock platter by a pretty solid rock pop bunch with (true) all of the expected classical music touches to keep your mind active. If you like the David's ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LIFETIME and various other late-sixties offerings that were heavy on the pop yet light on the hippydippy you'll probably like the way these guys used harmony vocals along with intricate arrangements and made them actually listenable 'stead of mere decorative glop. Not bad at all even if saying so just might get me thrown outta the Lester Bangs fan club.
Unseen Terror-THE PEEL SESSIONS 12-inch EP CD-r burn (originally on Strange Fruit, England
There was a time when this kinda grind/sleazecore music captivated my addled-like mid-eighties imagination. Not so much anymore considering that I'm a lot older, don't have that much time left on this planet and would rather spend whatever time I do have listening to music that really speaks to my inner being or something as equally dippoid as that. But it still does fire up my old-time feelings back when I was young and a whole slew of sounds made up my fanzine-bred existence. If you feel the same way about eighties total rampage and total musical oblivion well, maybe you'll be captivated by this as much as I haven't!
Ray Stinnett-A FIRE SOMEWHERE CD-r burn (originally on Light in the Attic)
I don't know why this '71 album made by a former member of Sam the Sham's Pharaohs didn't get the release treatment back in those days. After all, the likes of Cat Stevens, James Taylor and the rest of those mellowed out deep-thinking introspective types were just milking the record buying populace outta tons of dinero with their soft paens to peace trains and mental breakdowns. I guess it was the fashion then even if T. Rex could manage a hit album right at the exact same time doing the exact same OPPOSITE! Shelter Records coulda made a mint with this guy considering all of the near-suicidal gals there were back then, and if they coulda sold this album with a dose of Narcan boy, would that have been a gimmick even the most sensitive of teen angst peddlers couldn't come up with!
Just when I resign myself to the sordid fact that wild recordings and high energy rockist sounds are no more, things like this come into my life and give me hope for at least a short spell before I go back into my misery. The due of P.D. Fadensonnen and Andrew Hurst plow into some mighty heavy waters on these recorded live sides, on the first (entitled "Journal of Eyes") sounding like what that German critic heard in Guru Guru that reminded him of the Stooges while on the flip ("The Slithering Embassy") Fadensonnen lays down a pretty nice wall of guitar that's trying to dredge up comparisons in the mind yet nothing seems to be coming across. The psychedelic revival lives on, only not in ways that I'm sure most would have envisioned. A guaranteed topper during a week that had more than a few high points, as you will see below.
***
It's been forty years since the concept (no matter how loose it might have been and would become) of punk rock began to growed like Topsy, so it's fathomable that a whole slew of anniversary cash-ins are bound to hit the internet sites more sooner than later. Some I'm sure are indispensable, others feh, but this one's a pretty good effort that deserves your attention and spare change. TV Eye were a bonafide Birmingham England punk rock act that not only had the smarts to name themselves after a Stooges song before things like that became hackneyed but to record a number of hot, high energy records that have remained buried until now. And these Eyes were a pretty hot band too, sorta punk in that bridge between early-seventies flash and late-seventies style not sounding like either in particular but whew! They kinda come off more like just-post-Loney Flamin' Groovies back when that band was lifting more than a few Stoogian moves, not to mention some early Heartbreakers too! There must be thousands of these lost, unheralded bands out there for us all to discover and I only hope this is the first of a bursting floodgate full of equally tasty offerings guaranteed to make us all feel even more pissed off than we were were these recordings were being made!
***
You've heard this electronic dance repeato riff music before, but maybe that "before" was when ex-Throbbing Gristle member Chris Carter did it on this 1980 cassette which means that if you heard it here you probably heard it being done one of the first times ever! Kinda mesmerizing in that mid-seventies hor summer day way when you had the tee-vee tuned in to some PBS public service program and were too tired to switch the station because MONTY PYTHON was going to come on eventually and the incidental music on said PBS show was all synth-y like this and somehow it fit in well with the mental state you were in and your anticipation regarding watching MONTY PYTHON inna first place. If you like seventies electronic sounds and that whole ramalama you might just like this!
***
Well it ain't like I got the entire thing since I can only find the first two disques of this here and nothing but! That's fine enough by me what with the classic quartet-plus's entire recordings from the famed gig(s) being made available like they are here. I'm sure the actual item looks hotcha what with the booklet that undoubtedly came with it and the hi-gloss case too. Music like this sure goes to show ya just why pretentious pseudo-intellectual types used to drool all over Coltrane to the point where they were incorporating various melodies and chords of his into their various hippie cantatas for years on end. Listen to it with your Wayne McGuire 'stead of Grace Slick ears firmly in place and maybe you will understand the true nature of it all.
***
Sounds like the kinda music that upper-crust rock critic types listen to just so's they can claim to be down and dirty with the same kinda rural folk that deep down inside they hate with a vendetta. Still pretty good deep-dish country twang from them pre-flash days, a precursor to a whole lotta sixties folk from the Holy Modal Rounders on down which is where I guess the whole bohemian angle re. this music fits in. Since I'm not in a folk mood as I type this (current passion include mid-seventies hard rock proto-punk of a comparatively ignored variety, more of which I will spew forth upon in future posts) it's not exactly prickling my pear but I get the feeling that when the broken tooth country folk feeling returns I'll be spinnin' this more'n just a few times a day I'll tell ya!
***
The hits of the seventies done up on a customized Hammond organ with synthesizer built in. I get the feeling that this album was given away free with every purchase of one of those strange contraptions at your fave local mall. Everything that was irritating about seventies music (other than prog rock, disco, AM teeny slurp, dud metal...) served up for your parents and relatives who would still find this quite outrageous. So sudsy that you could put your dishes next to the speaker and they'll sparkle in no time. The only other thing I can tell you is that this Rosa guy sure made all of those punk rock platters of them days that I have sound even better!
***
This group was in for a fair share of hard knocks back when their album hit the stores and even after, but frankly I can't see why since THE FORUM QUORUM was a pretty solid rock platter by a pretty solid rock pop bunch with (true) all of the expected classical music touches to keep your mind active. If you like the David's ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LIFETIME and various other late-sixties offerings that were heavy on the pop yet light on the hippydippy you'll probably like the way these guys used harmony vocals along with intricate arrangements and made them actually listenable 'stead of mere decorative glop. Not bad at all even if saying so just might get me thrown outta the Lester Bangs fan club.
***
There was a time when this kinda grind/sleazecore music captivated my addled-like mid-eighties imagination. Not so much anymore considering that I'm a lot older, don't have that much time left on this planet and would rather spend whatever time I do have listening to music that really speaks to my inner being or something as equally dippoid as that. But it still does fire up my old-time feelings back when I was young and a whole slew of sounds made up my fanzine-bred existence. If you feel the same way about eighties total rampage and total musical oblivion well, maybe you'll be captivated by this as much as I haven't!
***
I don't know why this '71 album made by a former member of Sam the Sham's Pharaohs didn't get the release treatment back in those days. After all, the likes of Cat Stevens, James Taylor and the rest of those mellowed out deep-thinking introspective types were just milking the record buying populace outta tons of dinero with their soft paens to peace trains and mental breakdowns. I guess it was the fashion then even if T. Rex could manage a hit album right at the exact same time doing the exact same OPPOSITE! Shelter Records coulda made a mint with this guy considering all of the near-suicidal gals there were back then, and if they coulda sold this album with a dose of Narcan boy, would that have been a gimmick even the most sensitive of teen angst peddlers couldn't come up with!
***
Various Artists-UNSPEAKABLE AVENUE REDCOATS CD-r burn (Bill Shute)I know you look forward to reading my reviews of these Bill burns that cap off most of these posts as much as I do listening and writing about 'em. This particular entry is no exception to the usually high quality line of rarities that pop up on these outta-left-field thangs. Once again this 'un's got a nice selection of forgotten sixties garage band wowzers from the likes of the Shags and Shaprels (what the heck is a shaprel???) to bouncy rockabilly and neo country I guess you'd call it, to some weird avant garde things that only go to show you that there' still an avant garde even this late in the shockaroonie game. As far as the avant stuff goes The Unspeakable Practices (I'll betcha you can tell what orientation they are from there mere name!) present a wild and muffled sorta free jazzy thing that's buried somewhere in the muck, while "The Bush Organ" by Dada La isn't the dirty double "e" I thought it was! Good selection, I even liked the weird country bright unto white funky "Burning Mountain" by Happiness?!?!?
Thanks for the Razorlegs tip off. I'm in.
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