Ready for the long holiday weekend? Well, I sure am kinda/sorta given that I have a free Memorial Day to do some additional goofing off not to mention another golden opportunity to write up some items for this blog which I know you steady readers will simply just adore. And who knows, I might just be able to slip a few hot dogs into my digestive tract during all of the fun gala activities I'm bound to be in for tomorrow! (Yeah right...in all honesty I'll probably be holed up in my room writing the usual flotsam that gets posted here in between mandatory tee-vee viewings of PETER GUNN and the same old...who'm I kiddin'?)
Mazoma-STARK JOY LP (Feeding Tube Records)
Believe it or not but some of these loner/stoner types of solo acoustic psycho folk albums do make for some pretty advanced listening. Get years of sensitive singer/songwriter James Taylor/Melanie mewl outta your system with Mazoma (also known as Mike Tucker) as he mindlessly noodles his guitar while moaning some of the more esowhatziz lyrics heard within the loner/stoner folkie idiom in years. (That is, if you can make out what he's saying...somehow I get the impression that the guy's THOUGHTS were somehow laid to tape.) Occasionally a toy piano or banging door will protrude. This is the next best thing to listening to your brain-damaged psycho friend putzying around on his guitar singing introspective ditties to the ozone, only without the smell of his un-wiped butt permeating the air.
Zendek Farm Orgaztra-DANCE OF THE COZMIC WARRIORS CD-r burn (originally on Kidnez Records)
From Youtube: "Wulf Zendik (1920-1999) called by some the 'Undiscovered Beat', was a full fledged writer, musician, philosopher, whose main tenets were along the lines of: 'Stop the bullshit, stop following the ravaging sick society and transcend from it, if the culture is sick, make a new one!' and thats what he did, he and a group of followers lived for many years on their eco farm/commune, preaching these values... It had some shortcomings, turning somewhat into a cult, but his words are very well worth listening, as well as his music, complete psych rock freakout excess!" Wow, this guy really coulda fooled me! Synthesized drones had me thinking Harmonia for a short spell, but then this Zendek feller starts singing like just about any washed-out late-eighties gnu wave fan and the music starts getting into a downright rock 'n roll beat! Really surprising since this ain't the kinda music one would associate with the cartload of mind-napping cultdaddies as Lester Bangs woulda called 'em but something that does have depth and even (gosh!) meaning once ya get down to it!
The Lyres-LIVE AT THE RUSTY NAIL, SUNDERLAND MA MARCH 29, 1985 CD-r burn
Sometimes it's hard to listen to the Lyres after hearing a whole buncha badder 'n bad stories about their leader Jeff Connolly, but then again I'll bet many of you out there in readerland have a hard time tuning into this blog after all of the things you've heard about me! Keeping all of the negative rumors (and first hand accounts) outta it lemme just say that I thought this soundboard club recording was a boffo experience. The live response was pretty dudsville but the performance for all intent purposes was what I like about many of those "six-oh" acts that were trying their darndest to keep the spirit of pre-hippoid rock 'n roll screech alive in a world that seemingly couldn't care less. Great cheesy organ and screaming vocals...sheesh with a group like the Lyres around it was like alla that bad stuff that had infected rock 'n roll for years never happened!
Eugrom and the Dopes-FRIENDS OF THE GLACIER cassette
Like Greg Shaw, I love it when readers send me their little home made tapes that usually have zil commercial potential but tons of young aw shucks energy and vision. This cassette is but one of 'em featuring what sounds like a standard guitar/bass guitar/drums set up playing a free rock that kinda zooms upwards and onwards into regions that I will admit have been reached before but so what! Far from the usual basement diddling found on many of these tapes, Eugrom etc. perform a particularly lo-fidelity improvised music that thankfully doesn't sink to those self-indulgent levels that the players and players only can secrete any sorta jollies outta. In other words, if you liked those Neu rehearsal tapes that Captain Trip released ages back you should like this 'un as well.
The Fleshtones-BUDGET BUSTERS CD-r burn (originally on Yep Roc Records)
This brand-spanking new Fleshtones record just happens to be a collection of rarities and various b-sides that I'm sure many of you already own in various capacities, but man if it sure ain't grand havin' 'em all in one place! Still sounds pretty good even with the over-produced sound and various tries at commercial acceptability. It's amazing that these guys are still around a good fortysome years after forming, and even though you can bet they're gonna be doin' the Fleshtones game well into their Golden Years I can't fault them for getting hold of a good idea and hanging on with it! Just get the whole "new wave" aspect of the group outta your mind and this should go down better'n Linda Lovelace.
Jesse Allen-ROCKIN' AND ROLLIN' CD-r burn (originally on Imperial Records)
After a particularly grueling day at the salt mines I gotta say that the last thing I probably would have wanted to listen to was Jesse Allen. (On those harder-than-hard days at the orifice I prefer winding down to the soft and dulcet tones of a WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT or some clangy industrial specialty.) However I gotta tell ya that this platter from obscurer than your humility Allen was a fine hum-dinger with some nice deep-fried bluesy rock 'n roll coupled with Allen's gruff guitar playing and growly vocals keepin' my attention span perked up enough. For those of you who swore off the entire blues concept ever since the rise of Robert Cray this might be the thing to bring ya back!
The Flamin' Groovies-LIVE AT THE WHISKY A GO-GO/SIRE RECORDS PRESS PARTY 1978 CD-r burn (the Whisky set originally on Lolita Records)
I'm sure that the Whisky show has been around in many formats that are continuing to wallow around in my collection years after the fact. It's so hard to keep up with it all. Still a good enough live show even if the overabundance of cover material tends to turn 'em into more of a nostalgia act than a seventies exponent of beat music in the blank generation. I'll still take 'em over the plethora of power pop bands that came out in their wake that never really did capture the true spirit of the age. The live tape tagged on at the end sounds pretty good for being an audience thingie and adds to the mop topped thrill of it all even more. Another one from my favorite bargain bin don't pay over 99-cents groups that really helped me through my depression-era wage youth.
LITTLE FREE ROCK CD-r burn (originally on Transatlantic Records, England)
Transatlantic Records never really was my idea of whatcha'd call a boff under-the-underground kinda label (other'n choice Mick Farren/ Deviants platters and Bizarre label reissues) so it's like I really didn't have much if any hope for this particular set. As usual I was right, for LITTLE FREE ROCK contains more or less un-expressive late-sixties hard rock that fails to excite one the way the usual acts of the day with strangulated guitar lines and gut-thudding bass could, even without the benefits of a chemically addled mind. I must admit that I liked "Age of Chivalry" which, at least for me, conjured up memories of the Move at half-mast whimsical, but do we really need a ten minute version of the once-great "Making Time" complete with each member taking the usually indulgent solos that bore more than thrill?
Various Artists-sock it to POTRZEBIE!!! CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Considerin' how this 'un just arrived inna mail I was gonna slip in to the side and write up some moldier Bill burn for this week, but the sight of Moxie Cowznofski's gams sure had me thinkin' otherwise! So sock it to POTRZEBIE gets moved up to prime position if only because of Mr. Shute's smart sense of eye catching cover creations. Waah!
Nice selection again too, starting with one of those grouchy Amerigan guys mad at the Beatles novelty numbers that were all the rage in the mid-sixties, to Judy Carne trying to milk more outta her LAUGH IN fame with "Sock It To Me" (something I hear ex-hubby Burt Reynolds was not too good at leading poor Judy to begin living "a double life" ifyaknowaddamean). There are more surprises here from Alfred E. Newman's "Potrzebie" (which is just a jazzy instrumental...no burps to be heard whatsoever!) to a couple of tracks by the Jazz Crusaders of all people! There are also four good 'un's from Charlie Rich here, he bein' a guy who should be getting more BLOG TO COMM coverage one of these days if I only can get the mustard up to do so.
The rest also fits in with my free time laze about sensibilities from the Moody and the Deltas funk soul groove to Hal Payne and Bill Sherrell's local country rock stomp. Not a duff moment to be heard, though howcum no hotcha old type radio commercials Bill???
***Thomas Edison once said that genius was one-percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent masturbation or something like that. Since I am hardly a person to be inspired other'n by a particularly dark drone-y brand of music and I don't believe in "touching myself" considering how it leads to not only moral impurity but threats to have my weenie chopped off don't expect anything great in this week's particular post. That's right---this is gonna be just like EVERY OTHER one and as far as any insightful, eruditeful or spiteful for that matter pearls of rockist wisdom well...mebbee next week (hah!).
***
 |
| Virtue signalling...done MY way! |
***And...once again thanx be to Bill and Paul (not to mention "Eugrom") but not Bob because his packages sure seem to get buried under tons of old magazines and whatnot...anyway, make do with whatcha get here because otherwise there's nothing but Parke Puterbaugh out there and reading any of that's a fate worse than Christgau!
Believe it or not but some of these loner/stoner types of solo acoustic psycho folk albums do make for some pretty advanced listening. Get years of sensitive singer/songwriter James Taylor/Melanie mewl outta your system with Mazoma (also known as Mike Tucker) as he mindlessly noodles his guitar while moaning some of the more esowhatziz lyrics heard within the loner/stoner folkie idiom in years. (That is, if you can make out what he's saying...somehow I get the impression that the guy's THOUGHTS were somehow laid to tape.) Occasionally a toy piano or banging door will protrude. This is the next best thing to listening to your brain-damaged psycho friend putzying around on his guitar singing introspective ditties to the ozone, only without the smell of his un-wiped butt permeating the air.
***
From Youtube: "Wulf Zendik (1920-1999) called by some the 'Undiscovered Beat', was a full fledged writer, musician, philosopher, whose main tenets were along the lines of: 'Stop the bullshit, stop following the ravaging sick society and transcend from it, if the culture is sick, make a new one!' and thats what he did, he and a group of followers lived for many years on their eco farm/commune, preaching these values... It had some shortcomings, turning somewhat into a cult, but his words are very well worth listening, as well as his music, complete psych rock freakout excess!" Wow, this guy really coulda fooled me! Synthesized drones had me thinking Harmonia for a short spell, but then this Zendek feller starts singing like just about any washed-out late-eighties gnu wave fan and the music starts getting into a downright rock 'n roll beat! Really surprising since this ain't the kinda music one would associate with the cartload of mind-napping cultdaddies as Lester Bangs woulda called 'em but something that does have depth and even (gosh!) meaning once ya get down to it!
***
Sometimes it's hard to listen to the Lyres after hearing a whole buncha badder 'n bad stories about their leader Jeff Connolly, but then again I'll bet many of you out there in readerland have a hard time tuning into this blog after all of the things you've heard about me! Keeping all of the negative rumors (and first hand accounts) outta it lemme just say that I thought this soundboard club recording was a boffo experience. The live response was pretty dudsville but the performance for all intent purposes was what I like about many of those "six-oh" acts that were trying their darndest to keep the spirit of pre-hippoid rock 'n roll screech alive in a world that seemingly couldn't care less. Great cheesy organ and screaming vocals...sheesh with a group like the Lyres around it was like alla that bad stuff that had infected rock 'n roll for years never happened!
***
Like Greg Shaw, I love it when readers send me their little home made tapes that usually have zil commercial potential but tons of young aw shucks energy and vision. This cassette is but one of 'em featuring what sounds like a standard guitar/bass guitar/drums set up playing a free rock that kinda zooms upwards and onwards into regions that I will admit have been reached before but so what! Far from the usual basement diddling found on many of these tapes, Eugrom etc. perform a particularly lo-fidelity improvised music that thankfully doesn't sink to those self-indulgent levels that the players and players only can secrete any sorta jollies outta. In other words, if you liked those Neu rehearsal tapes that Captain Trip released ages back you should like this 'un as well.
***
This brand-spanking new Fleshtones record just happens to be a collection of rarities and various b-sides that I'm sure many of you already own in various capacities, but man if it sure ain't grand havin' 'em all in one place! Still sounds pretty good even with the over-produced sound and various tries at commercial acceptability. It's amazing that these guys are still around a good fortysome years after forming, and even though you can bet they're gonna be doin' the Fleshtones game well into their Golden Years I can't fault them for getting hold of a good idea and hanging on with it! Just get the whole "new wave" aspect of the group outta your mind and this should go down better'n Linda Lovelace.
***
After a particularly grueling day at the salt mines I gotta say that the last thing I probably would have wanted to listen to was Jesse Allen. (On those harder-than-hard days at the orifice I prefer winding down to the soft and dulcet tones of a WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT or some clangy industrial specialty.) However I gotta tell ya that this platter from obscurer than your humility Allen was a fine hum-dinger with some nice deep-fried bluesy rock 'n roll coupled with Allen's gruff guitar playing and growly vocals keepin' my attention span perked up enough. For those of you who swore off the entire blues concept ever since the rise of Robert Cray this might be the thing to bring ya back!
***
The Flamin' Groovies-LIVE AT THE WHISKY A GO-GO/SIRE RECORDS PRESS PARTY 1978 CD-r burn (the Whisky set originally on Lolita Records)I'm sure that the Whisky show has been around in many formats that are continuing to wallow around in my collection years after the fact. It's so hard to keep up with it all. Still a good enough live show even if the overabundance of cover material tends to turn 'em into more of a nostalgia act than a seventies exponent of beat music in the blank generation. I'll still take 'em over the plethora of power pop bands that came out in their wake that never really did capture the true spirit of the age. The live tape tagged on at the end sounds pretty good for being an audience thingie and adds to the mop topped thrill of it all even more. Another one from my favorite bargain bin don't pay over 99-cents groups that really helped me through my depression-era wage youth.
***
Transatlantic Records never really was my idea of whatcha'd call a boff under-the-underground kinda label (other'n choice Mick Farren/ Deviants platters and Bizarre label reissues) so it's like I really didn't have much if any hope for this particular set. As usual I was right, for LITTLE FREE ROCK contains more or less un-expressive late-sixties hard rock that fails to excite one the way the usual acts of the day with strangulated guitar lines and gut-thudding bass could, even without the benefits of a chemically addled mind. I must admit that I liked "Age of Chivalry" which, at least for me, conjured up memories of the Move at half-mast whimsical, but do we really need a ten minute version of the once-great "Making Time" complete with each member taking the usually indulgent solos that bore more than thrill?
***
Considerin' how this 'un just arrived inna mail I was gonna slip in to the side and write up some moldier Bill burn for this week, but the sight of Moxie Cowznofski's gams sure had me thinkin' otherwise! So sock it to POTRZEBIE gets moved up to prime position if only because of Mr. Shute's smart sense of eye catching cover creations. Waah!
Nice selection again too, starting with one of those grouchy Amerigan guys mad at the Beatles novelty numbers that were all the rage in the mid-sixties, to Judy Carne trying to milk more outta her LAUGH IN fame with "Sock It To Me" (something I hear ex-hubby Burt Reynolds was not too good at leading poor Judy to begin living "a double life" ifyaknowaddamean). There are more surprises here from Alfred E. Newman's "Potrzebie" (which is just a jazzy instrumental...no burps to be heard whatsoever!) to a couple of tracks by the Jazz Crusaders of all people! There are also four good 'un's from Charlie Rich here, he bein' a guy who should be getting more BLOG TO COMM coverage one of these days if I only can get the mustard up to do so.
The rest also fits in with my free time laze about sensibilities from the Moody and the Deltas funk soul groove to Hal Payne and Bill Sherrell's local country rock stomp. Not a duff moment to be heard, though howcum no hotcha old type radio commercials Bill???
***Once again I must remind you that if you like the type of spew to be found on this blog there's a whole lot more of it to be read in BLACK TO COMM, the fanablazine that eventually led to the blog which brightens up your life here in the dark dank reaches of the late teens. Got a whole bunch of 'em to unload, and I kinda get the feeling that you would like a few of 'em to scatter across your coffee table in order to impress whatever there is left to impress these days. C'mon, you know you want 'em all---right?
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