Had another one of those.....well.....average everyday sorta weeks that only I can appreciate. Got an MRI done on my thumper (that's heart, not the other thing that goes thump inna night!) and everything's OK even though the docs were previously trying to scare me with a whole buncha talk about aneurysms and enlarged aortas that might have shortened my stay on this planet quite a bit. I also got a few choice seventies-era rock 'n roll items I'll be tellin' ya all about one of these days just like some little kid who gets to bring a Christmas toy to school and tell his classmates all about it for Show and Tell, plus this Thursday evening managed to have some good taco meat and doritos (that weren't stale!) covered in cheese, sliced olives, chopped tomatoes and lettuce with taco sauce and table cream drizzled all over it for din din. Even managed to get enough free time inna evenings to watch some episodes of SGT. BILKO and sorta meet up with a whole buncha old frenz, ifyaknowaddamean...
And to top that all off on Thursday night (thanks to the taco concoction?) I even had one of those repeating (sorta) GILLIGAN'S ISLAND dreams where I'm once again watching what is supposed to be a revival of that blessed series made in the mid/late-eighties featuring in this case the original cast including Tina Louise who doesn't look as made over as she surely did by that period in time. The Skipper was pretty much the same ol' Skipper only with long-ish hair like he had in THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN while The Professor did not sport a ponytail as he did in a previous dream but had an unkempt mop of hair on the top! Mary Ann looked as fresh as ever tho...sure gotta kick outta this particular episode which I could gather according to the dream featured the cast back on the island and pretty content being oh so far away from civilization and all of its worries!
Peter Evans/Weasel Walter-POISONOUS CD (ugEXPLODE Records)
I will admit that it's getting more and more difficult to review these new music unto jazz unto rock platters that seem to be getting freer and freer as time goes by. This crazed platter being no exception, featuring the duo of trumpeter Peter Evans and percussionist Weasel Walter doing their best to shred the atmosphere as if it were a hunk of cheese ready for that taco meat I told you about earlier. Of course the usual comparisons do pop up...somehow Evans reminds me of Lester Bowie on some of those early-eighties endeavors when we thought he was going to be committed at any second, while WW is just as mad as any genius with a drum kit can be these days. I even heard shards of late-sixties Sun Ra sneaking into "Destroying Angel" what with the overdubbed (I think) trumpets blaring like Gabriel at a natural disaster. Sure woulda loved to have heard the UNEXPURGATED take of this, but I guess I gotta be satisfied with what I got!
Olson/Case/Hardiman-MARCH OF THE MUTILATED, VOL. 1 CD-r burn (originally on Tape Drift Records)
With a title like that I thought MARCH OF THE MUTILATED was gonna be one of those homebrew basement cheapo toss off recordings made by a buncha pseudointellectual kiddies trying to make the same art statement that's been made the past fiftysome years. Don't let things like that distract ya, for this effort is a rather hotcha slice of modern-day experimental soundscapading that should fit in with not only your personal sense of being but your very own record collection. Sounds come closer to various sixties-vintage Sun Ra electronic keyboard cantatas and ESP-disk woodwind romps as the trio of John Olson, Jeff Case and Eric Hardiman conjure up spirits that seem to have been lost at least since the demise of Dee Pop's Freestyle Series in the mid-oughts. As with the Kendra Steiner Editions series and the ugEXPLODE label, it's sure nice to see that unbridled scronk lives on even this far down the de-evolution line.
THE NAZGOL CD (Mental Experience Records Spain, available via Guerssen Records)
I never knew that the likes of Tangerine Dream and Cluster had that much of a hold on the German rock mindset. These Nazgul guys create the same type of atmospheric ambiance that those acts laid upon many a hippoid stoner back in those foggy minded seventies, and if you're of the same mindset (chemically enhanced or not) you too might go for their spacious sounds that conjure up ancient tales that were probably created by even more ancient races that were so primitive they probably thought toilet paper was a great technological advancement. Electronic whizzes and whirls compliment eerie drones...it really ain't bad stuff if you (like me) still have some sort of fond remembrances of various import bin Teutonic workouts that seemed oh so esoteric to your once-barren sense of music appreciation.
NOTE TO MENTAL EXPERIENCE: the copy of PYRAMID that you sent me turned out to be an unplayable dud which is the obvious reason why I didn't review the thing! If you have another one you'd like to send off my way well...feel free to do so!
Zach Phillips-HOW TO SLIP AWAY LP (Feeding Tube Records, available via Forced Exposure)
Another total weirdie from Feeding Tube, this time featuring a slew of home-done spry jazzy pop tunes sung by a variety of people one of whom might actually be Zach Phillips of album title fame. Some of the vocals are done by females, and in fact on the ones where a group of gals chime together I got the feeling that those singers from GOD BLESS THE RED KRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT were back in the music biz. It's short, snappy and to the point just like their stuff was on that now fiftysome-year-old platter. Not only that, but the tracks are back-announced just like they do on alla those college radio shows I'm sure you still tune in to. Starts off fine enough, but I gotta admit that about halfway through side two I felt like ripping this 'un offa the turntable and running for the hills while screaming at the top of my lungs.
The Woolly Bushmen-ARDUINO CD-r burn (originally on Pig Baby Records)
Like a lotta those newer than new sixties "revivalist" groups you occasionally hear on such things as the Underground Garage, there seems to be a whole lot lacking in the Woolly Bushmen's entire reason for existing in the first place. I chalk it up to the lack of pure sixties suburban slob culture these youngsters were surely denied. After all, you can't understand the true nature of rock 'n roll if you haven't grown up on a stead diet of fifties/sixties tee-vee whether first run or weekday afternoons/early-evenings. Or classic junk food and greasy drive ins 'stead of soymeal and organic tomatoes. Give the Bushmen a two week vacation to some backwoods area with loads of hamburger stands and force feed 'em nothin' but b&w reruns and I'll betcha they'll come up with a real winner next time!
DAKOTA CD (Radioactive Records)
Believe me, I wouldn't have bought this Tiger Lily album reissued on the usually above par Radioactive label if it weren't for the fact that these guys actually opened for John Cale during his first ever appearance at CBGB. Other'n that historical aside I can't say that there's that much about Dakota that I can rah rah about what with their neo-West Coast stoner unto pop rock style that's lessened by the iffy sound quality that doesn't do justice to all the work and polish that went into the songs. Oh these guys were digestible when they were doing their late-sixties pop paens to various Beatle moves, but otherwise tag this one with the Movies, City Lights and other local attempts at commercial rock that just didn't reach the thrill chill levels that made a whole lot of records for us back in those penny-pinching times. One not-so-odd thing about this...the songs listed on the cover have nada to do with the contents to be found therein as if Tiger Lily woulda paid attention to such detail in the first place.
Various Artists-BLUE BUMPIN RABBIT SWEAT CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Wow, an all rhythm 'n blooze "Virtual Thrift Store" from Bill Shute filled with nothin' but down 'n gritty vocal and instrumental tracks laid down back when black music meant something more'n either ranting chants backed by a heavy thump or cocktail schmooziness drenched in synthesizers. Not all of the artists here are of the black persuasion, but the feeling, the sound and the energy directly descend from the postwar stirrings that began popping outta various inner city confines way back when you or maybe even I were but a mere tadpole. It's great listening when I'm in one of those settle down get to the matter of it (the matter being cooling off!) moments, but why do I have the sudden urge to join the Urban League???
And to top that all off on Thursday night (thanks to the taco concoction?) I even had one of those repeating (sorta) GILLIGAN'S ISLAND dreams where I'm once again watching what is supposed to be a revival of that blessed series made in the mid/late-eighties featuring in this case the original cast including Tina Louise who doesn't look as made over as she surely did by that period in time. The Skipper was pretty much the same ol' Skipper only with long-ish hair like he had in THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN while The Professor did not sport a ponytail as he did in a previous dream but had an unkempt mop of hair on the top! Mary Ann looked as fresh as ever tho...sure gotta kick outta this particular episode which I could gather according to the dream featured the cast back on the island and pretty content being oh so far away from civilization and all of its worries!
***So whaddeva else do ya wanna talk about....howzbout Roseanne? Howzbout who cares! I mean that bitch had been stirring up more than Nestles chocolate milk the past twennysome years with her at times extremely controversial comments (or maybe not so controversial considering they were being directed at the usual safe targets---I mean where was the outrage when she was going after workaday American types in general throughout the years???), only now she goes after that new breed of above us all thou shalt not even look at 'em sideways untouchables regarding any sort of criticism no matter how trivial and her show gets canned! So what! Yeah, her comment was rather "cheeky" as they say in England (tho I really do doubt the claim that Ms. Barr didn't know Valerie Jarrett was black!), but frankly was it as bad as anything heard from your typical late night shill who's still keeping his comfy little job? I've seen a lot funnier and even "rayciss" if you must admit things in the old underground comix not to mention NATIONAL LAMPOON...two avenues of comedy I didn't see getting tarred and feathered back in those pretty laid back 'n get down seventies, and although the likes of R. Crumb and P.J. O'Rourke did come in for a little bit of snick snick, it wasn't like anyone was calling for their balls to be lopped off and hung in the Daughters of Belitis recreation hall. Face it, I hated Roseanne then, I hate her now and I'm sure glad that one of the pompous mighty has been tossed off her throne even if it was by members of an even more pompous aristocracy. Watching these people eat each other (calm down you fags!) sure can be fun watching at times, just as long as I don't get used as a toothpick.
***Nothing much else I wanna gab about so like hey, here are the writeups for this week. Of course Bill, Paul, Mental Experience and Weasel Walter are to once again be thanked for the contributions to The Revolution (in how you hear and appreciated music). This week ain't as meaty as I would have liked it to be, but I do think that the selections that did show up should be boffo enough to make you want to head to your nearest internet site and order up a batch or two. But before we get to the main body of this weeks work...
 |
| Anyone out there who can translate the above for me? Anyone out there who can find a RECORDING for me??? |
I will admit that it's getting more and more difficult to review these new music unto jazz unto rock platters that seem to be getting freer and freer as time goes by. This crazed platter being no exception, featuring the duo of trumpeter Peter Evans and percussionist Weasel Walter doing their best to shred the atmosphere as if it were a hunk of cheese ready for that taco meat I told you about earlier. Of course the usual comparisons do pop up...somehow Evans reminds me of Lester Bowie on some of those early-eighties endeavors when we thought he was going to be committed at any second, while WW is just as mad as any genius with a drum kit can be these days. I even heard shards of late-sixties Sun Ra sneaking into "Destroying Angel" what with the overdubbed (I think) trumpets blaring like Gabriel at a natural disaster. Sure woulda loved to have heard the UNEXPURGATED take of this, but I guess I gotta be satisfied with what I got!
***
With a title like that I thought MARCH OF THE MUTILATED was gonna be one of those homebrew basement cheapo toss off recordings made by a buncha pseudointellectual kiddies trying to make the same art statement that's been made the past fiftysome years. Don't let things like that distract ya, for this effort is a rather hotcha slice of modern-day experimental soundscapading that should fit in with not only your personal sense of being but your very own record collection. Sounds come closer to various sixties-vintage Sun Ra electronic keyboard cantatas and ESP-disk woodwind romps as the trio of John Olson, Jeff Case and Eric Hardiman conjure up spirits that seem to have been lost at least since the demise of Dee Pop's Freestyle Series in the mid-oughts. As with the Kendra Steiner Editions series and the ugEXPLODE label, it's sure nice to see that unbridled scronk lives on even this far down the de-evolution line.
***
I never knew that the likes of Tangerine Dream and Cluster had that much of a hold on the German rock mindset. These Nazgul guys create the same type of atmospheric ambiance that those acts laid upon many a hippoid stoner back in those foggy minded seventies, and if you're of the same mindset (chemically enhanced or not) you too might go for their spacious sounds that conjure up ancient tales that were probably created by even more ancient races that were so primitive they probably thought toilet paper was a great technological advancement. Electronic whizzes and whirls compliment eerie drones...it really ain't bad stuff if you (like me) still have some sort of fond remembrances of various import bin Teutonic workouts that seemed oh so esoteric to your once-barren sense of music appreciation.
NOTE TO MENTAL EXPERIENCE: the copy of PYRAMID that you sent me turned out to be an unplayable dud which is the obvious reason why I didn't review the thing! If you have another one you'd like to send off my way well...feel free to do so!
***
Another total weirdie from Feeding Tube, this time featuring a slew of home-done spry jazzy pop tunes sung by a variety of people one of whom might actually be Zach Phillips of album title fame. Some of the vocals are done by females, and in fact on the ones where a group of gals chime together I got the feeling that those singers from GOD BLESS THE RED KRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT were back in the music biz. It's short, snappy and to the point just like their stuff was on that now fiftysome-year-old platter. Not only that, but the tracks are back-announced just like they do on alla those college radio shows I'm sure you still tune in to. Starts off fine enough, but I gotta admit that about halfway through side two I felt like ripping this 'un offa the turntable and running for the hills while screaming at the top of my lungs.
***
Like a lotta those newer than new sixties "revivalist" groups you occasionally hear on such things as the Underground Garage, there seems to be a whole lot lacking in the Woolly Bushmen's entire reason for existing in the first place. I chalk it up to the lack of pure sixties suburban slob culture these youngsters were surely denied. After all, you can't understand the true nature of rock 'n roll if you haven't grown up on a stead diet of fifties/sixties tee-vee whether first run or weekday afternoons/early-evenings. Or classic junk food and greasy drive ins 'stead of soymeal and organic tomatoes. Give the Bushmen a two week vacation to some backwoods area with loads of hamburger stands and force feed 'em nothin' but b&w reruns and I'll betcha they'll come up with a real winner next time!
***
Believe me, I wouldn't have bought this Tiger Lily album reissued on the usually above par Radioactive label if it weren't for the fact that these guys actually opened for John Cale during his first ever appearance at CBGB. Other'n that historical aside I can't say that there's that much about Dakota that I can rah rah about what with their neo-West Coast stoner unto pop rock style that's lessened by the iffy sound quality that doesn't do justice to all the work and polish that went into the songs. Oh these guys were digestible when they were doing their late-sixties pop paens to various Beatle moves, but otherwise tag this one with the Movies, City Lights and other local attempts at commercial rock that just didn't reach the thrill chill levels that made a whole lot of records for us back in those penny-pinching times. One not-so-odd thing about this...the songs listed on the cover have nada to do with the contents to be found therein as if Tiger Lily woulda paid attention to such detail in the first place.
***
Wow, an all rhythm 'n blooze "Virtual Thrift Store" from Bill Shute filled with nothin' but down 'n gritty vocal and instrumental tracks laid down back when black music meant something more'n either ranting chants backed by a heavy thump or cocktail schmooziness drenched in synthesizers. Not all of the artists here are of the black persuasion, but the feeling, the sound and the energy directly descend from the postwar stirrings that began popping outta various inner city confines way back when you or maybe even I were but a mere tadpole. It's great listening when I'm in one of those settle down get to the matter of it (the matter being cooling off!) moments, but why do I have the sudden urge to join the Urban League???
***Like this blog and want to read more? Then why not drop a few buckeroos and get hold of the variety of BACK ISSUES of my once-and-forever crucial crudzine BLACK TO COMM and get in on even more funzies! I do have my own needs you know, and one of them is called MONEY which has been in rather short supply as of these past few years and like...I'd sure like to afford nice clothing and shoes and maybe eat taco meat more than once in a blue moon. And if that heart-tugger doesn't make you wanna un-tighten the ol' purse strings and "share the wealth" and alla those other things you were taught in Sunday Stool and send a little my way, I dunno what will! (And howzat for a mindless emotional come on that's bound to soften the innards of your typical altruistic save-the-world kinda guy more'n Ex-Lax ever could!)
Not 100% sure what that French gabbing means but note that the references to Strike Up don't mention prime danger man and possible guitar genius Pierre Goddard. However, a short while back a new 6-track live Loose Heart platter did ease it's way into existence. That's good news. The bad news is that it doesn't quite pack the same wallop as the 7" single from a few years back. By my reckoning there are still 6 unreleased Loose Heart songs (including a Deviants cover) in Pascal Rigoli's vault from the 1976 half-hour rehearsal session that produced the 7".
ReplyDeletehttps://memoireneuve.bandcamp.com/album/loose-heart
tf
Hello Chris
ReplyDeleteWell, let's try...
" EUROPEAN SON was born in june after STRIKE-UP split .After a jam session with Patti Smith, Hermann(on guitar) decide to form a band with 2 guitars. the other guitar player is Richard buster. There will be no drums, no bass, but maybe a third guitar -nancy's one(Strike-up)_a wall of distorted sounds which keep on pushing - a neurotic music with a calm voice which freaks out and tells senseless stories. themes based on 2 chords, 20 minutes songs with a really good version of "Sister ray".
A product of schizophrenics totally unlistenable for any normal person and totally inadapted for any person (?) . European son will transcend VU's fans."
There's a book on Metal Urbain which was published a few years ago in France ( editions camion blanc). You can see pictures of European son
inside.
By the way, Have you heard the 6 song mini lp By LOOSE HEART ? it was published on Cameleon records a few months ago. The 6 songs were recorded in front of an audience in 1976 in Fresnes.Amazing stuff!!
Well , always a pleasure to read your blog.
Bye
Thierry
European Son was born from the split of STRIKE UP.
ReplyDeleteAfter a jam with Patti Smith, Herman (guitar) decides to form a two guitar band. The other guitarist is Richard Buster. There won't be any drums or bass, maybe a third guitar, Nancy's (Strike Up) - a wall of distorded sounds that keep moving forward - a neurotic music with a calm, délirious voice that tells crazy stories - themes with one or two chords, 20-minute pieces with a really good version of Sister Ray - a product of schyzophrenics completely unlistenable for any normally balanced person and completely unbalanceable for anyone normally unheard [sic] - will trescend fans of the Velvet Underground -
Thanks for the translations and information on the Loose Heart mini-LP (and Metal Urbain book!). Will have to save my buckskins up for those items!
ReplyDelete