Hokay, here's another column. Nothing much to ponder about it...as anyone with two stem cells to rub together can tell this is nothing more'n just a bunch of mental dribbles that I decided to put together to express my love of music that's rattled inside me ever since I was a mere turdler, if not even before. That's all. And hey, in no way is this or any of my writings gonna change the world for the better. In fact, I doubt that a vast majority of the inhabitants of this planet would care one whit about the sounds I'm expressing such deep devotion to. But at least you guys are here which proves one thing that all of the experts and shot callers will never attest to. And that is that you have some pretty hotcha tastes in sound and for that I salute ya (I think)!!!!
First off, here's a tidbit from SCENE regarding the final Rocket From The Tombs shows. Big trouble with this one is that they got the month wrong.
Right across from that particular plug was a short piece on original Rocket bassist and future country and western comedian Charlie Wiener.
In fact, here's an ad for an early solo Wiener performance at Loose!, which I believe was the former Clockwork Orange.
And howzbout this one for THE BIG NIGHT!!!!
Wonder what this concoction was like? Actually, I'd be afraid to ask!!!
A pre-Rocket-era review from Crocus.
And another good one!
And in closing, howzbout these rare Great Bow Wah Death Band snaps taken a month before the creation of Rocket From The Tombs???
Now please don't go 'round sayin' I don't do anything good for you!
Frank Lowe-OUT LOUD 2-LP set (Triple Point Records)
It's expensive true ($94 plus postage!) but I wasn't buying ANYTHING ELSE this month, not even bare necessities like Ny Quil or baby aspirin so like, maybe I could splurge whatever I had left on a double-LP set like this and forget any other trivialities at least until the next paycheck, eh?
But was it worth the grandiose amount of moolah I dumped for it?
Well, that might be something I can best answer in twenny years time when I'll really be poor and wasted, but for now I gotta say that this effort seems pretty much the kind of hardcore energy that I was expecting from it and well worth the buckskins spent. So yeah, I think I made a smart move getting hold of this one even if it means starvation for the next X or so weeks.
This previously-unreleased 1974 sesh features Lowe, his sand-blasted tenor and various "small instruments" backed by a pretty copasetic group including Joseph Bowie on trombone, Steve Reid on drums and William Parker on bass. And this quartet soar like nothing since BLACK BEINGS or better yet the infamous EXCHANGE with Rashied Ali (who engineered this 'un) and like, if you thought Lowe was strata on those (as well as next year's FRESH) he sure puts up a mighty wail on these four sides.
I mean, can you stand it? I barely could myself what with Lowe firmly in the post-sixties bag now conjuring up solid shards of atonal madness that might have seemed "unbrotherly" even a good three years earlier. The band is wired and that tension sure can bounce from instrument to instrument as the quartet performs (with Ahmed Abdullah appears on trumpet on the Studio Rivbea live side) some of the more scathing sounds in jazz heard throughout the already tensed over seventies. Really, the energy levels provided here are above and beyond the call of whatever it was in jazz Chick Corea said he was offering us peons when he went all twinky twirly.
Solid gatefold cover with a nice booklet insert...it's a good investment, for your own jazz being as well as for when you're ancient and wanna sell the thing at a grande profit. Not that you would...will this 'un to me, willya?***POLITICAL CORNER: my personal opinion regarding President Trump's signing the new budget...boy did he step in it this time! Maybe it's part of some strange endgame rouse he's cooking up but frankly after keeping us all in suspense first saying he would veto it then changing his mind all I gotta say is that he's coming off more like Gerald Ford than he does Andrew Jackson. Not as funny as Ford true, but if he keeps this up he's prob'ly gonna be remembered by his base in pretty much the same way! Too bad because like, who else is there who can really change the gears of the world---other'n maybe Pat Buchanan but he had his chance! And I don't think that Rand Paul 2020 is gonna happen either not that I think that is gonna be any magic cure-all we all so desperately NEED these sad and sorry time!
***THINGS FOUND WHILE LOOKING FOR OTHER THINGS DEPT.: mostly loads of pertinent CLE-related gunch, that's what! Read on and see for yourself just what kind of boffo surprises I came across that you most likely will be eternally grateful to me for showing you thus enriching your otherwise drab existences!
First off, here's a tidbit from SCENE regarding the final Rocket From The Tombs shows. Big trouble with this one is that they got the month wrong.
Right across from that particular plug was a short piece on original Rocket bassist and future country and western comedian Charlie Wiener.
In fact, here's an ad for an early solo Wiener performance at Loose!, which I believe was the former Clockwork Orange.
And howzbout this one for THE BIG NIGHT!!!!
Wonder what this concoction was like? Actually, I'd be afraid to ask!!!
A pre-Rocket-era review from Crocus.
And another good one!
And in closing, howzbout these rare Great Bow Wah Death Band snaps taken a month before the creation of Rocket From The Tombs???
Now please don't go 'round sayin' I don't do anything good for you!
***ITEMS LISTENED TO (BUT NOT NECESSARILY ENDORSED) THIS WEEK-WE'RE THE BANANA SPLITS (Decca), Deep Purple-FIREBALL (Harvest), Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band-UNCONDITIONALLY GUARANTEED (Virgin), Hawkwind-ASTOUNDING SOUNDS, AMAZING MUSIC (Charisma), Velvet Underground-CHELSEA GIRLS SOUNDTRACK one-sided bootleg LP, Can KOLN RADIO tape, and really not much else.
***Anyway, here's the latest batch of recorded mayhem, all but the first one being donations from the likes of Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and NOBODY ELSE!!!! Yeah, you might think these are slim pickins but I'll bet your mother that one word of schpiel from me beats the entire collection of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY music criticisms ever since the creation of that infamous pooty wiper oh so long ago. Beg to differ?
It's expensive true ($94 plus postage!) but I wasn't buying ANYTHING ELSE this month, not even bare necessities like Ny Quil or baby aspirin so like, maybe I could splurge whatever I had left on a double-LP set like this and forget any other trivialities at least until the next paycheck, eh?
But was it worth the grandiose amount of moolah I dumped for it?
Well, that might be something I can best answer in twenny years time when I'll really be poor and wasted, but for now I gotta say that this effort seems pretty much the kind of hardcore energy that I was expecting from it and well worth the buckskins spent. So yeah, I think I made a smart move getting hold of this one even if it means starvation for the next X or so weeks.
This previously-unreleased 1974 sesh features Lowe, his sand-blasted tenor and various "small instruments" backed by a pretty copasetic group including Joseph Bowie on trombone, Steve Reid on drums and William Parker on bass. And this quartet soar like nothing since BLACK BEINGS or better yet the infamous EXCHANGE with Rashied Ali (who engineered this 'un) and like, if you thought Lowe was strata on those (as well as next year's FRESH) he sure puts up a mighty wail on these four sides.
I mean, can you stand it? I barely could myself what with Lowe firmly in the post-sixties bag now conjuring up solid shards of atonal madness that might have seemed "unbrotherly" even a good three years earlier. The band is wired and that tension sure can bounce from instrument to instrument as the quartet performs (with Ahmed Abdullah appears on trumpet on the Studio Rivbea live side) some of the more scathing sounds in jazz heard throughout the already tensed over seventies. Really, the energy levels provided here are above and beyond the call of whatever it was in jazz Chick Corea said he was offering us peons when he went all twinky twirly.
***
Another remnant of that brief Big Star reunion back in the early-nineties, this one featuring all of their famous numbers the group made themselves known to a few aficionados with as well as a few nice surprises that I'm sure brought out the early-seventies fandom in more than a few old turds out there. Y'know, it's too bad that these guys got stuck on a small label like Ardent who really couldn't give 'em the grand push they most certainly needed, but at least we have this fine act to stash into our collection next to other outta-nowhere bright hopes of the day who unfortunately floundered about while Paul McCartney was trying to fool everyone that Wings were the new Beatles. Y'know, acts like the Sidewinders, Jump, Hackamore Brick and Zuno Keisatsu. Look for the expanded edition if you dare.
***
As you know I'm not much of a straight-on blues booster, perhaps because I don't have enough hair to let it be long and greasy plus I don't even own a leather jacket or tattered jeans for that matter. But man, I gotta say that listening to the likes of Waters as well as many of the original wave of blooze chooze does help sooth the savage boobies around these parts. Anywah, here's a boffo slab of none other than Muddy Waters live at the Newport Folk Festival in 1960 (or was it the Jazz one?) rolling through his classics as well as a few lesser knowns and for not being a full-fledged fan of the form all I gotta say is...this sure's got most of the eighties/nineties "new music" that I hadda sweat my way through beat all hollow!
***
If you like exploito psychedelic records created by folk who got their lysergic knowledge through repeated viewings of DRAGNET, boy will you go for this! Everything from "Theme From Exodus" and Mussorgsky to "A Night on Bald Mountain" done up on a Hammond B-3 and Roger Williams-esque piano trills with all of the appropriate sound effects thrown in for that proper bohemian mood. It sure would have made waves with your typical David Susskind audience member. 's funny, but although this platter was aimed at the typical father and mother of us suburban slob types way back when you KNOW they woulda thought of it as nothing more than that disgusting and smelly hippie music no matter how much it was gussied up to their particular musical parameters of taste!
***
Here's an early-eighties Liverpool group that sounds nothing like the Teardrop Explodes. In fact they sound like nothing of what you thought the Liverpool groups of the late-seventies onward were supposed to sound like. These Moderates in fact kinda come off rooted in mid-sixties British pop moves filtered through early-seventies decadence all tumbled up into that big heap of compost known as alternative music. But they're intelligent and quite conscious of their pop moves enough to make this rather pleasant and not just another art project. Lyrics have a certain sexual charge to 'em and the performance is clean yet still obnoxious enough to pry the average underground rock fan of his precious pences with male/female tradeoff vocals dominating the proceedings. Not bad like a whole bunch of the new unto gnu wave (copyright 1982 Bill Shute) could get at the time.
***
Like with the mid-sixties Amerigan local band phenomenon, there have been countless collections of rare English hard pop rockers that never did accrue the the attention that all of the big names in the biz were getting left and right. Here's but one volume of one of these efforts, and it's a fairly good sampling of some of the under-the-bubbling that was going on over there a good fiftysome years back. Some familiar names pop up, but for the most part this 'un's total obscuro and for a buncha nobodies these guys sure put out some pretty good efforts that, while not exactly earth-shattering, sure make for a better time than Crosby Stills and Gnash ever did. As an added bonus this set ends with a number of recordings by the Crying Shames, produced by Joe Meek no less, who really do some hot numbers including a Dylan cop that really must have rankled the strictly anti-mop top Meek to no end!
***
Given alla the down and out woe is me teenage thumpers that appear on CLASS OF '66, ya kinda wonder why the entire adolescent population of the United States and possessions for that matter weren't undergoing daily doses of Paxil like I sure think they shoulda. Well at least these bozos were able to transform their depression into some hotcha recordings that expressed their sorry state in life, and for the most part the resultant singles they managed to inflict upon their home rooms reflect well upon their abilities to communicate utter woe. These tracks are mostly done up by the usual one-shot flopabouts we all like but a few familiar names pop into the selection such as Rochester New York's Young Tyrants and Tony and the Tigers of Soupy Sales' very own kids fame! Sheesh, what did they have to get all bummed out about with such a rich and famous (and funny) dad as he???
***
Former Stan Kenton sideman (and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER music director during its final season) Rugolo does snat with this heavy duty percussion record. Naw, this ain't anything like "Ionization" or any of those Imaginary Landcape things but boffo home hi-fi-styled jazzy workouts that (like I always say) really woulda been a fave of that stereo nut kinda guy you knew when you were growing up. Ya know, the guy who looked like Dennis the Menace's dad and had a den with one of those ultra-expensive set ups he'd never let you go near. For a taste of an old, and much BETTER time, slap this on the ol' Victrola and kick up your feet while the kids are fighting over whether to watch YOGI BEAR or SUPERCAR in the next room.
***
Soul jazz instrumentals that might do a certain thingie for you but I frankly find this more of the same old. Of course it's better than anything being promulgated on the radio and tee-vee during these sad 'n sorry times, but for the most part I find myself yearning for the strains of Nurse With Wound for some strange reason. Probably would have made for a fine flea market find during the summer of 1979, a time which copped me more than my fair share of platters and at depression-era wages as well!
***
Various Artists-WATERMELON SELFISH PITTMAN BALL CD-r burn (Bill Shute)This 'un's got some goodies from Mae "Betty Boop" Questel's rendition of "The Codfish Ball" (made famous by endless reruns of old Shirley Temple mooms) to a touching father's day number courtesy Groucho Marx (his "Funniest Song in the World" sure ain't tho...) not to mention this crazed a-Capella comedy number from the Julius Monk Revue regarding Con Ed that comes off real late-sixties/early-seventies New Yawk to these ears. There's also an abundance of jazzy soul stuff from Johny Lewis to Della Reese that helps perk up the ear canals a bit. Personal faves include Jerry Colonna's rendition of "Ebb Tide" not to mention these three tracks from a typing instruction record which has you peck out the pertinent keys to a twenties-era instrumental! Maybe I should take the course just so's I can get these posts out a whole lot quicker'n I am doing now!
Rand Paul 2020, ya cuck!
ReplyDeleteGood ol' Blog to Cuck! Or the latest ish of National Review? Stig in a pushcart race with JPod! Who can get to Jerusalem first?! Merkel will give ya both sudge a nyze big huggie!
ReplyDelete"B-but muh Lew Rockwell Muh Austrian School!"
The article about Left End messing with the Dolls is priceless.
ReplyDeleteI think I finally sold my LEFT END Polydor album a few years ago.
I have the feeling they might have been a band whose records
(at least that one) did not capture the energy and presence
they had on stage.