Dunno what you think (nor do I care) but it sure seems autumn outside, and inside too considering how I keep tracking leaves into the house alla time. But eh, it's just another time of the year (as opposed to time of the month which I understand some of you female readers out there are actually trying to enjoy) that dredges them old memories from the base of my beanie rising 'em up to the top like scum on a swimming hole. Oddly enough some of these memories are actually of enjoyable past pleasures, though frankly most if not all of them don't involve any actual human intercourse (you know what I mean!) which only will attest to my own antisocial nature which I will admit that I am proud of, in my own typical suburban slob cornballus way.
Nothing much to report on, unless you wanna hear about my usual daily travails or latest cootie infestation. Been spending my ever-valuable free time settling back watching SUPERCAR and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (season two) not to mention a few things bound to be reviewed on this blog in the upcoming eons. And, of course, I've been working on not only this but other weeks' blogposts even though I know that not one of you readers are truly appreciative of my hard efforts to bring you the best in fanzoid gonzo rockscreeding! And this goes especially at a time when such rockism has been all but buried by the eighties-bred hypesheet hackers whose main claim to rock "criticism" fame is their ability to paste from a variety of websites and do a li' altercation to make the whole thing look original even if in the slightest.
And so, here's what I've been experiencing this past week...not much, but I kinda like the selection in my own doofus way. Hope that we can all share in the general weltshmerz of it all (or at least some of it)...
Shanghai Quintet-SHANGSHAN/STONE AGE MUSIC CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions, see link on left for ordering information)
And I thought there wasn't any mo' good original and searing music being made these days, other'n the boffo material I write about on this blog. KSE proves me wrong with this release from a Chinese act called Shanghai Quintet who, with the aid of legendary reedman Alfred 23 Harth, create one of the wildest bits of freedom music heard in quite some time.
The Cee Dee starts off slow enough sorta like an electronic storm brewing in a discarded cheap keyboard system then gets into a nice hard-blowing horn session you would have heard on some mid-seventies BAG platter before ending up as a quieter synth/horn workout that reminds me a bit of those Anthony Braxon/Richard Teitelbaum thingies that never did gel that well with me. But this one is OK enough that I wouldn't quite slip this one to the bottom of the pile.
If you're longing for the Stone Age to return just as much as I am maybe this is the platter that'll help get things rolling more'n that wheel which appears on the front cover!
Chik White-STRANGERS CALL TO LAND LP (Feeding Tube Records. available from Forced Exposure)
You can call it a Jaw Harp, a Jew's Harp or a Mouthbow, but it only means one thing to me and that is TOOTHCRACKER!!! Yes, I had one of these cheapo musical monstrosities when I was a kid and during a really wild whacking session with it I actually chipped my lower front teeth and like bad! For years it was extremely painful to listen to this instrument in any context, and even the Malachi HOLY MUSIC platter had been a tough one to make my way through but NO MO'! Y'see, this Chik White guy has redeemed the Jaw Harp in my sorry eyes to the point where I can now listen to the thing w/o any fears of dental pain promulgating my pea-brain as it had lo these many years.
This recording consists of tracks taken from White's various cassette-only releases (plus a few originals) and if you think you just can't get much sound outta them thingies well you're wrong again! White plays in his own unique way using his epiglottis and interesting mic placements in order to give us a new view on this venerable old instrument. He even "prepares" the thing to give it an even different vibe, and if you think this is all fidaddle just give this a listen to. Byron Coley's liner notes help out some but just barely prepare you for the interesting listening excursion you're in store for once you get your ears attuned to this particular effort!
And they say there is no avant garde anymore. There is, but the stale doritos and berets have been left by the wayside. Here's the new sounds of world unknown right atcha, and I hope you do get the message for once.
(BTW...note to Feeding Tube...my copy of the Lords of Thyme LP came up M-T in the vinyl department, so if you have a spare spinner you can send my way I certainly would appreciate it!)
The Newbeats-BREAD AND BUTTER CD-r burn (originally on Hickory Records)
This 'un really does bring back the memories of my pre-stool days when I'd be watching WHERE THE ACTION IS watching this vocal trio go full tilt fanabla complete with that wild screeching falsetto that made the song the monster hit it was. You can bet that I was imitating it like anything, and you can also bet that everyone around me was telling me to shut my trap! Ah, memories...anyhoo here's the entire album and for being a typical slap-together and toss out it's sure boss, what with Larry Henley's high pitch permeating both sides while old standbys like "Bye Bye Love" and "Ain't That Loving You Baby" are re-done and (at least in the case of the latter) re-"Bread and Butter"-ized into something remarkably different from the original. Sheesh, I can almost forgive the guy for co-writing that Bette Midler hit from the late-eighties.
Blackberry Smoke-BAD LUCK AIN'T NO CRIME CD-r burn (originally on Galgano Music Records)
I've stayed away from these newer than new country kinda rock bands if only because I ain't exactly the kinda guy who cozies up to these acts doin' nth-hand imitations of early-seventies Rolling Stones numbers. Not that Blackberry Smoke will make you wanna vom "it"...but I sure didn't find much enjoyment in this particular expression of hard Southern Rock that I thought went out with the likes of Capricorn Records. I'll just stick with those old Black Oak Arkansas albums and the Hampton Grease Band for my Deep South thrills and if you want Blackberry Smoke instead well, in the words of Imants Krumins "that's your problem!"
Elysian Spring-GLASS FLOWERS CD-r burn (originally on Despa Records)
Judging from the cover I thought this was gonna be another one of those flea market bin religious records I've come across many-a-time o'er the past few decades, But once again I was (shudder!) wrong. Elysian Spring were actually this New Thing jazz act that, although performing in the late-sixties, had more of an late-fifties/early-sixties sound that might have seem quite outta place then but comes off fairly nice in the here and now. Quiet and introspective neo-cool jazz for those moody times we all have, and for you sticklers the Spring sometimes bounce into a poppy rock mode that ain't as scary as it sounds. Worth the time it would take to download from some blog out there.
Horton-DANCEHALL FOR MIDGETS CD-r burn (originally on Horton Records)
No doubt about it, Horton heard the Who. I actually like a whole bunch of these home-produced blues rock albums---I mean the Doug Brockie's Infinity spinner remains a hard-drive seventies excursion in these parts---and this platter by a William F. Horton cuts the seventies slow burn mustard just like I thought it should. Not only is DANCEHALL FOR MIDGETS a good enough blues rock album by a white guy done up without the intermingling of big label machinations but he can play a good enough guitar that won't make you puke. If you like George Brigman or the Groundhogs (or even some of those early Johnny Winter albums) this might help you out quite a bit.
Alice's Orb-INDELIBLE WITCH CREAM CD-r burn
Dunno much about this thing other'n it was undoubtedly a mid-nineties home-made/produced affair which is probably why the thing is so listenable. Nothing that will zone you into all those weird dimensions that will enlighten your beanie beyond repair (sheesh, I get more enlightenment outta PLANET PATROL than I do Krishna Murphy) but it is psychedelic enough for your next Day Glo Monster Poster Party. Mostly in a post-eighties appropriation of the psych term (think various eighties applications a la Dementia 13) but straightforward and lysergic enough to make you forget your Moody Blues albums.
The Dynatones-THE FIFE PIPER CD-r burn (originally on HBR Records)
Nothin' but cheezy instrumental takes on current hits and other fluffery that'll dredge up memories of years of seventies (and eighties, and nineties...) flea market record bin hunting. Of course you know the reason why this 'un was marketed in the first place, and it ain't for the music. C'mon, one glance at the cover'll show ya. I mean, what balding mid-aged white-collar office worker who has nothing to come home to 'cept Rover wouldn't want an album like this what with the sexy gal nekked to the world for all we know holding a fife and yeah they cut the pic off right at the bullseyes but hey, they hadda get around the local obscenity laws somehow! Now you know why your Unca Ferd had a copy of this 'un stashed in between the leftover Mozarts and Beethovens, and now you know why the thing looked as if it never had been played because it HADN'T!!!
The Higher State-DARKER BY THE DAY CD-r burn (originally on 13 O'Clock Records)
Another in what probably is a long line of post-psychedelic psychedelic rock, the Higher State take various Byrdsian principles and proceed to reshape 'em into a newer mode which doesn't sound that bad to me! Not that I'd ditch any classic psych sides in favor of the Higher Ones but eh, these guys do know their outerworldly cues now, don't they? A long way to go before they're admitted to Rusk State Hospital, but if you're comfy with the newer-than-new psych you'll probably already have this one by now.
THE WILD AND FRANTIC LITTLE RICHARD CD-r burn (originally on Modern Records)
Mid-sixties recordings which'll probably irk the dyed inna wool fans who like their Richard Specialty and Specialty only! Perhaps I am being too harsh, but I get the suspicious feeling that the then-contemporary recording techniques and presentation just won't settle well with some. Still a particularly potent slab of Richard featuring a re-recording of "Good Golly Miss Molly", what I assume is the original version of "Directly From My Heart To You" (see WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH) and a pretty on-target Kingfish impression on a song entitled what else by "Holy Mackeral" (no Andy).
Various Artists-SOME MUSTANG MOONDREAMS CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Interesting theme to this one had the Young Rascals tracks been obliterated...something like PRE-BEATLES ENGLISH MOOSH or something along those lines. Now the Rascals are probably at their best on these three numbers (they are a band that should be in for a re-evaluation now that it's 2017 and those uninteresting post-Rascals albums are but a memory) and Eddy Mitchell is French, or at least he sings in that language, but the Tornados, Jet Harris and Shadows do date this to an early-sixties when I'm sure most Amerigans thought that England was exactly the same as it was then as it was in those old Sherlock Holmes moom pitchers.
Can't say enough good about the Tornados and the three tracks here, although familiar to fans like myself, exemplify perfectly that 1963 futuristic look that I'm sure we all thought the present was gonna be like but unfortunately wasn't. As for Jet Harris and the Shadows well...talk about wimpoid music that brings up memories of a buncha well-behaved English types having a spot of tea. If any of you readers from England or Scotland or whatever is left of it read this please tell me that Great Britain and perhaps even Ireland (a nation which has gone down the poop-shoot so why should I care!) aren't as squarezy-warezy as these records make 'em out to be! If not let me just end this post with pip pip, cheerio and drat all that, savvy?
Nothing much to report on, unless you wanna hear about my usual daily travails or latest cootie infestation. Been spending my ever-valuable free time settling back watching SUPERCAR and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (season two) not to mention a few things bound to be reviewed on this blog in the upcoming eons. And, of course, I've been working on not only this but other weeks' blogposts even though I know that not one of you readers are truly appreciative of my hard efforts to bring you the best in fanzoid gonzo rockscreeding! And this goes especially at a time when such rockism has been all but buried by the eighties-bred hypesheet hackers whose main claim to rock "criticism" fame is their ability to paste from a variety of websites and do a li' altercation to make the whole thing look original even if in the slightest.
And so, here's what I've been experiencing this past week...not much, but I kinda like the selection in my own doofus way. Hope that we can all share in the general weltshmerz of it all (or at least some of it)...
And I thought there wasn't any mo' good original and searing music being made these days, other'n the boffo material I write about on this blog. KSE proves me wrong with this release from a Chinese act called Shanghai Quintet who, with the aid of legendary reedman Alfred 23 Harth, create one of the wildest bits of freedom music heard in quite some time.
The Cee Dee starts off slow enough sorta like an electronic storm brewing in a discarded cheap keyboard system then gets into a nice hard-blowing horn session you would have heard on some mid-seventies BAG platter before ending up as a quieter synth/horn workout that reminds me a bit of those Anthony Braxon/Richard Teitelbaum thingies that never did gel that well with me. But this one is OK enough that I wouldn't quite slip this one to the bottom of the pile.
If you're longing for the Stone Age to return just as much as I am maybe this is the platter that'll help get things rolling more'n that wheel which appears on the front cover!
***
You can call it a Jaw Harp, a Jew's Harp or a Mouthbow, but it only means one thing to me and that is TOOTHCRACKER!!! Yes, I had one of these cheapo musical monstrosities when I was a kid and during a really wild whacking session with it I actually chipped my lower front teeth and like bad! For years it was extremely painful to listen to this instrument in any context, and even the Malachi HOLY MUSIC platter had been a tough one to make my way through but NO MO'! Y'see, this Chik White guy has redeemed the Jaw Harp in my sorry eyes to the point where I can now listen to the thing w/o any fears of dental pain promulgating my pea-brain as it had lo these many years.
This recording consists of tracks taken from White's various cassette-only releases (plus a few originals) and if you think you just can't get much sound outta them thingies well you're wrong again! White plays in his own unique way using his epiglottis and interesting mic placements in order to give us a new view on this venerable old instrument. He even "prepares" the thing to give it an even different vibe, and if you think this is all fidaddle just give this a listen to. Byron Coley's liner notes help out some but just barely prepare you for the interesting listening excursion you're in store for once you get your ears attuned to this particular effort!
And they say there is no avant garde anymore. There is, but the stale doritos and berets have been left by the wayside. Here's the new sounds of world unknown right atcha, and I hope you do get the message for once.
(BTW...note to Feeding Tube...my copy of the Lords of Thyme LP came up M-T in the vinyl department, so if you have a spare spinner you can send my way I certainly would appreciate it!)
***
This 'un really does bring back the memories of my pre-stool days when I'd be watching WHERE THE ACTION IS watching this vocal trio go full tilt fanabla complete with that wild screeching falsetto that made the song the monster hit it was. You can bet that I was imitating it like anything, and you can also bet that everyone around me was telling me to shut my trap! Ah, memories...anyhoo here's the entire album and for being a typical slap-together and toss out it's sure boss, what with Larry Henley's high pitch permeating both sides while old standbys like "Bye Bye Love" and "Ain't That Loving You Baby" are re-done and (at least in the case of the latter) re-"Bread and Butter"-ized into something remarkably different from the original. Sheesh, I can almost forgive the guy for co-writing that Bette Midler hit from the late-eighties.
***
I've stayed away from these newer than new country kinda rock bands if only because I ain't exactly the kinda guy who cozies up to these acts doin' nth-hand imitations of early-seventies Rolling Stones numbers. Not that Blackberry Smoke will make you wanna vom "it"...but I sure didn't find much enjoyment in this particular expression of hard Southern Rock that I thought went out with the likes of Capricorn Records. I'll just stick with those old Black Oak Arkansas albums and the Hampton Grease Band for my Deep South thrills and if you want Blackberry Smoke instead well, in the words of Imants Krumins "that's your problem!"
***
Judging from the cover I thought this was gonna be another one of those flea market bin religious records I've come across many-a-time o'er the past few decades, But once again I was (shudder!) wrong. Elysian Spring were actually this New Thing jazz act that, although performing in the late-sixties, had more of an late-fifties/early-sixties sound that might have seem quite outta place then but comes off fairly nice in the here and now. Quiet and introspective neo-cool jazz for those moody times we all have, and for you sticklers the Spring sometimes bounce into a poppy rock mode that ain't as scary as it sounds. Worth the time it would take to download from some blog out there.
***
No doubt about it, Horton heard the Who. I actually like a whole bunch of these home-produced blues rock albums---I mean the Doug Brockie's Infinity spinner remains a hard-drive seventies excursion in these parts---and this platter by a William F. Horton cuts the seventies slow burn mustard just like I thought it should. Not only is DANCEHALL FOR MIDGETS a good enough blues rock album by a white guy done up without the intermingling of big label machinations but he can play a good enough guitar that won't make you puke. If you like George Brigman or the Groundhogs (or even some of those early Johnny Winter albums) this might help you out quite a bit.
***
Dunno much about this thing other'n it was undoubtedly a mid-nineties home-made/produced affair which is probably why the thing is so listenable. Nothing that will zone you into all those weird dimensions that will enlighten your beanie beyond repair (sheesh, I get more enlightenment outta PLANET PATROL than I do Krishna Murphy) but it is psychedelic enough for your next Day Glo Monster Poster Party. Mostly in a post-eighties appropriation of the psych term (think various eighties applications a la Dementia 13) but straightforward and lysergic enough to make you forget your Moody Blues albums.
***
Nothin' but cheezy instrumental takes on current hits and other fluffery that'll dredge up memories of years of seventies (and eighties, and nineties...) flea market record bin hunting. Of course you know the reason why this 'un was marketed in the first place, and it ain't for the music. C'mon, one glance at the cover'll show ya. I mean, what balding mid-aged white-collar office worker who has nothing to come home to 'cept Rover wouldn't want an album like this what with the sexy gal nekked to the world for all we know holding a fife and yeah they cut the pic off right at the bullseyes but hey, they hadda get around the local obscenity laws somehow! Now you know why your Unca Ferd had a copy of this 'un stashed in between the leftover Mozarts and Beethovens, and now you know why the thing looked as if it never had been played because it HADN'T!!!
***
Another in what probably is a long line of post-psychedelic psychedelic rock, the Higher State take various Byrdsian principles and proceed to reshape 'em into a newer mode which doesn't sound that bad to me! Not that I'd ditch any classic psych sides in favor of the Higher Ones but eh, these guys do know their outerworldly cues now, don't they? A long way to go before they're admitted to Rusk State Hospital, but if you're comfy with the newer-than-new psych you'll probably already have this one by now.
***
THE WILD AND FRANTIC LITTLE RICHARD CD-r burn (originally on Modern Records)Mid-sixties recordings which'll probably irk the dyed inna wool fans who like their Richard Specialty and Specialty only! Perhaps I am being too harsh, but I get the suspicious feeling that the then-contemporary recording techniques and presentation just won't settle well with some. Still a particularly potent slab of Richard featuring a re-recording of "Good Golly Miss Molly", what I assume is the original version of "Directly From My Heart To You" (see WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH) and a pretty on-target Kingfish impression on a song entitled what else by "Holy Mackeral" (no Andy).
***
Interesting theme to this one had the Young Rascals tracks been obliterated...something like PRE-BEATLES ENGLISH MOOSH or something along those lines. Now the Rascals are probably at their best on these three numbers (they are a band that should be in for a re-evaluation now that it's 2017 and those uninteresting post-Rascals albums are but a memory) and Eddy Mitchell is French, or at least he sings in that language, but the Tornados, Jet Harris and Shadows do date this to an early-sixties when I'm sure most Amerigans thought that England was exactly the same as it was then as it was in those old Sherlock Holmes moom pitchers.
Can't say enough good about the Tornados and the three tracks here, although familiar to fans like myself, exemplify perfectly that 1963 futuristic look that I'm sure we all thought the present was gonna be like but unfortunately wasn't. As for Jet Harris and the Shadows well...talk about wimpoid music that brings up memories of a buncha well-behaved English types having a spot of tea. If any of you readers from England or Scotland or whatever is left of it read this please tell me that Great Britain and perhaps even Ireland (a nation which has gone down the poop-shoot so why should I care!) aren't as squarezy-warezy as these records make 'em out to be! If not let me just end this post with pip pip, cheerio and drat all that, savvy?
Lords of Thyme LP doesn't get released until December 1st. If they sent you an empty sleeve it was just for protecting other records. They do this every time I order from them.
ReplyDeleteEither that or they're in on the Great Libtard Conspiracy to get you.
Talk about projection...
ReplyDelete