Well, happy St. Patrick's Day to youse and yourse, this being a day that really isn't turning out too hot for me ever since I woke up about three in the morning to turn the crock pot with the corned beef and cabbage on then, after waking up for good much later, discovered that the outlet I plugged the pot into wasn't working one bit! Well, I guess we'll have to wait until midnight to get to our vittles but eh, them's the breaks. Well, I still am keeping in tradition with this ever-popular day since I'm turning GREEN thanks to the extra-powerful laxative I took yesterday which seems to not wanna stop working, which was another reason I was up half the night with a case of the dam about to break right into my shorts unless I got to the nearest forest preserve outpost and like pronto! Yes, sometimes the expected nudge does turn into a grand PUSH, ifyaknowaddamean... Fortunately no skiddage has occurred meaning that I didn't have to throw my undies into the wash and wear 'em out even more than they are. Gotta be extra-thrifty these days lest I miss out on the next boffo recording to make its way to Forced Exposure Mailorder.
I HATE TO BREAK THE BAD NEWS TO YOU, but in my capacity as the town crier for the suburban slob stuck in the electronic age set I feel it's my doody to let you know that, for all intent purposes the infamous and BTC-approved comic strip NANCY IS NO MORE!!! Not that the thing really has been anything hotcha since the demise of creator Ernie Bushmiller back '82 way (or at least since the days when his health began catching up to him in the late-seventies), but from now on United Features or whatever name the syndicate is now using will be sending old strips to your local newspaper in the same manner that PEANUTS, HENRY, ARCHIE, THE KRAUTSARESCRAMMIN KIDS and other long-gone faves have been recycled for a much longer time than any of us can imagine. In many ways this might be akin to you hearing that Aunt Margaret who's been hooked up to machines for the past thirty years has finally passed on, but still it does bring upon a certain PANG (and I don't mean May) seeing that the suburban slob past that I've been so desperately trying to cling to for ages is once again falling apart rapidly before my clouded up eyeballs. That's something I just don't NEED to in these edgier than thou times I'll tell ya, but alas it is all too true.
NOW will you consider me the complete man with tastes more impeccable than thou???
Ernesto Diaz-Infante-THE LOVERS ESCAPE/LOS AMANTES ESCAPAN CD-r (Kendra Steiner Editions)
Odd strains of nylon guitar plucks, strums and chords, seemingly played in a random fashion without any rhyme or reason I can find. Actually the resultant sounds are quite nerve-soothing, sorta in the same way herbal dolts throughout the eighties slipped on the once-infamous Windham Hill label after a hard day at the commune. In fact I feel like slipping into a coma right about now... Definitely nothing that your typical Michael Hedges fan would want to cozy up with but hey, we're not exactly the kind of people who would even think of spinning that guy's musical moosh in the first place, comprende?
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SO WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING THESE PAST SEVEN OR SO EARTHSPINS ANYWAY... Well, for one thing I've been trying to have THE TIME OF MY LIFE, but then again I'm always trying to do that. Lessee what else??? Howzbout goin' on line and trying to download every decent looking seventies-era rock 'n roll fanzine I can find posted, that's what! As you all know, the quality of fan-oriented/gonzo rock screeding was at such a HIGH back in those so-called "halcyon" times, or at least compared with the garbage one finds in print or on the web these days, that even the cheapest "crudzine" of them dayze seemed to have so much more energy, excitement and va-VOOM packed into it than most of the mewls one comes across in print or on-line in the here and now. And man do I mean it...even my own scuzz falls short in comparison and I am ashamed if I do say so myself!
Anyhoo I've been strolling through Tumbir and various blogs looking for old fanzines and I am glad to say that I've found quite a few good 'un's including the first issue of SIDEBURNS (later the long-running STRANGLED) and UP + COMING, a nice low-fi crankout dedicated to the idea that punk rock was just as much Lew Lewis and the Darts as it was the Jam and Eddie and the Hot Rods (there's even a plug for Charles Gillett's country, rockabilly and blues radio program in these pages!). I even managed to print up a copy of AWAY FROM THE NUMBERS, Brian BAM BALAAM Hogg's "new wave" fanzine which lasted about the span of a flea just like most of these early and proud efforts. Pretty good reading which really does make for a welcome change from the sterile, academic and positively dour opinions that one has found in the everyday hypesheet copying rock critic-ing world for the past fortysome years.
Anyhoo I've been strolling through Tumbir and various blogs looking for old fanzines and I am glad to say that I've found quite a few good 'un's including the first issue of SIDEBURNS (later the long-running STRANGLED) and UP + COMING, a nice low-fi crankout dedicated to the idea that punk rock was just as much Lew Lewis and the Darts as it was the Jam and Eddie and the Hot Rods (there's even a plug for Charles Gillett's country, rockabilly and blues radio program in these pages!). I even managed to print up a copy of AWAY FROM THE NUMBERS, Brian BAM BALAAM Hogg's "new wave" fanzine which lasted about the span of a flea just like most of these early and proud efforts. Pretty good reading which really does make for a welcome change from the sterile, academic and positively dour opinions that one has found in the everyday hypesheet copying rock critic-ing world for the past fortysome years.
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| NANCY bondage pic, dedicated to Don Fellman. |
***R.I.P. TO ELEKTRAH LOEBEL, the early Falling Spikes/pre-Velvet Underground member who passed on last year but I just found out. Also one to Stephen Hawking though in this case how could they tell??? Oh yeah, his nurse probably discovered that his diaper hadn't been soiled in the last three weeks. (I know, I should talk given my own gaseous eruptions these past twennysome hours!!!)
***RECORDINGS OF NOTE (AND NOT) THAT I SPUN THIS WEEK INCLUDE---THE NIGHT GALLERY (Various Artists, Alchemy Records Japan) which proves that the Japanese were always good at imitating Western Accomplishment (in this case the Velvet Underground) though in this case they manage to rise above the myth that their emulation is hollow copy and come up with some of the better Velvets cops in sound and feeling heard since at least the late-seventies, WOODY'S TRUCK STOP (who cares if the only reason they're remembered is because Todd Rundgren was a member for a short spell!), Bile Svetlo-DELNICI BILEHO SVETLA, otherwise known as STRICTLY PERSONAL, PRAGUE-STYLE, THE ROCKETS (the White Whale guys who "evolved" into Crazy Horse), Throbbing Gristle-THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT (surprisingly calming to my weary and battered senses...and along with the NIGHT GALLERY people above more of my idea of what the spawn of the Velvet Underground shoulda sounded like instead of...I dunno, REM???), Lord Buckley-A MOST IMMACULATELY HIP ARISTOCRAT (I should hate it considering the people out there who like Buckley, but...) and Ornette Coleman's DANCING IN YOUR HEAD (harmelodic funk jazz that set the stage for some really interesting early-eighties efforts that came from sidemen Ronald Shannon Jackson and Bern Nix). Sheesh, I guess my week does beat your minute, or something like that (duh!).
NOW will you consider me the complete man with tastes more impeccable than thou???
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Odd strains of nylon guitar plucks, strums and chords, seemingly played in a random fashion without any rhyme or reason I can find. Actually the resultant sounds are quite nerve-soothing, sorta in the same way herbal dolts throughout the eighties slipped on the once-infamous Windham Hill label after a hard day at the commune. In fact I feel like slipping into a coma right about now... Definitely nothing that your typical Michael Hedges fan would want to cozy up with but hey, we're not exactly the kind of people who would even think of spinning that guy's musical moosh in the first place, comprende?
***
Yeah there was a lotta dross goin' around in the underground rock world of the eighties and nineties, but sometimes I forget that there was a lotta high-energy, upper-echelon music to contend with as well. Dead Moon were definitely part of the latter batch and this live album (in front of a rather unappreciative audience---t'would figure) is just more proof of the group's utter superiority in a world of "classic" rock and the worst aspects of mind-numbed teendom being pandered to. Dead Moon sound punk rock in the purest fashion possible while they even hit the heavy metal realm if you're game to the classic CREEM definition of the term. In other words, Andy Secher, go take a shit! Your head needs emptying just so's some REAL KNOWLEDGE about the music you claim to champion can enter into the rather sparse cranial capacity. A classic slice of rock 'n roll as tension by an act that never did get the kind of attention or accolades they most certainly deserved. As if they ever would.
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I'm only posting this review in the here and now 'stead of in my year end roundup of "more familiar" albums that I've played throughout the past 365 if only to prove to Bob Forward that I AM NOT AN INGRATE AND YES I DO LISTEN TO THE BURNT CD-R'S THE MAN SENDS ME!!!!! Mr. F, I do hope this proves to you that I'm pure of heart even if I'm still working on the Hy Maya platters (maybe I better get an actual hard copy of this one for pure listening enjoyment, and for the much-needed liner notes as well). Anyway both of these late-sixties efforts are whatcha'd call top notch and pretty much in the standard Coleman catalog of flat out free splurt, and there are some rather exhilarating moments to contend with as well (especially on CRISIS closer "Trouble in the East" where Don Cherry's Indian flute pretty much takes over the entire tensed up shebang!). Heck, I'll even give a pass to noted communist Charlie Haden's "Song For Che" even if the subject at hand was a psychopath who used to shoot children and cave people's heads in with shovels (they only like him because he looked dashing with that long hair 'n all...if he looked like ME do you think anyone would be wearing t-shirts with his picture on it???).
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Are they trying to be the Band or Little Feat? Can't tell right offhand, but despite their early-seventies nauseating hippoid look I will admit that there are a few fairly nice poppers here. Y'know, stuff that, had it appeared alongside some totally crazed hard-edged rockers woulda made this a top notch flea market find of yore. Otherwise this comes off like more Boone's Farm Apple Wine guzzlin' music for the folk sittin' around on the front porch at the commune trying to absorb the meaning of somethingorother, usually while under the influence of somethingorother come to think of it. Awwwww...you may like it.
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For a change of pace, here's that "older generation" star who could teach the hippoids a two or thing as far as decadent behavior goes. Obviously some sorta bootleg featuring the gloppier of Sinatra's recorded output, this li'l spinner sure does have most everything recorded after say, 1985, beat all hollow. However, why is it when I listen to Sinatra's booming baritone on these definitive "suckem squeezers" I have the urge to beat someone up, or slash some rare painting in a total rage, or have a bacon and eggs breakfast using some bare-chested young lass for a blue plate special that eventually turns red? Ya got me bub.
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Who woulda known that Dayton Ohio could be such an exciting place! Well, judging from these acts who popped up on the local Alco record label the burgh really did have its share of high-energy rockin' and rollin' back in them mid-sixties days. Sonny Flaherty and his Young Americans go total British Invasion scream (at least filtered through mid-Amerigan sensibilities) on a rather radical version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" while Tom and the Tempests are goin' into overdrive with their double header "It's Over Now"/"Play It Cool". The Jaguars are almost hitting the same strata (but kinda dip a bit) on their "Wonder Why"/"The Metropolitan" sides (the flip is a rather straight ahead instrumental that's well...not up to the usual BTC standards but wha' th' hey?) and as for Private Eddie Lloyd and his post-Elvis "Walk It Off" all I gotta say is...NO MORE LATRINE DUTY FOR YOU!!!!!
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Remember Tony Joe White? He's the guy who hit big with "Polk Salad Annie" and the blacks bought his record up thinking he was of the same complexion only to find out he was white thus dropping him like a hot potato! Don't worry Tony Joe, the same thing happened to Frankie Laine!
But eh, this is a better than you woulda thought platter with some of that Deep South hoodoo music coupled with the usual slow schmoozers and an overall gruffness, thanks to White's growl-y vocalese no doubt. If you liked the swamp styled soul of "Polk Salad" you'll probably enjoy the variety of tunes to be found on this 1972 offering. Just don't let the occasional strings slip you into a diabetic coma.
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Various Artist-SHINING WITH THE THIN DELICACY OF A PEARL CD-r burn (Bill Shute)Another "Virtual Thrift Store" item (which I guess is better than a "Virtue Signalling" one) to cherish and behold. Other'n an interesting r 'n b single I know nada about this disque contains a whole slew of not only radio ads but some spot announcements by Gary Owens from LAUGH IN that I gotta admit were funnier than the actual show itself! The ads, mostly for gas stations and beer, really do bring back those late-sixties/early-seventies days before the energy crisis when your local Esso or Gulf seemed like such a fun place to fill 'er up, while the ads for Miller and other adult imbibibations recall those days of youth when I (and many others I would guess) just couldn't wait to grow up and try some of that stuff thinking it was like super soda pop 'r something along those lines! And remember the look on our faces when we finally tried some? Well at least Hoppin' Gator was a good place to start! Oh yeah, and there's an ad where Gary Puckett and the Union Gap endorse Pepsa Cola which only reminds me that Coke might have cost more, but at least they didn't have Gary Puckett pluggin' 'em!
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IN CLOSING, here's a picture I copped off NICHOLAS STIX UNCENSORED that I thought was so funny it deserved additional circulation. I guess there is hope for the suburban slobs of this world of ours if our chillun can think up somethin' like this. Makes me feel good in the bread basket, y'know?
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