'tis a smaller 'n usual weak-end post but don' worry, I will make up for it next time (and I promise!). Don't do any despairin', because I got a few goodies to share wit'cha this time and I kinda get the feeling you'll be rushin' to your bank account once you finish with today's read or at least go start cashin' in cans and sellin' plasma so you can buy a few of these beauts. As usual, these items come courtesy of not only Feeding Records but Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and no Bob, I didn't get to any of yours this go 'round! Maybe if you decorated 'em with fancy cover artwork and slipped 'em into hi-quality sleeves...
Muchos gracias this week goes to BRAD KOHLER for shipping my way a few items that I never woulda expected to have graced my mailbox in an entire lifetime (a lifetime of a flea, but who's counting?). Remember that CREEM reader's poll I printed like two or so weeks back? Well, Brad sent me more from that cache he was given by a galpal of his (found stashed in an old suitcase of all things!) and like, you could say that I was surprised beyond belief. In the package was two tattered issues of PHONOGRAPH RECORD MAGAZINE (the Pittsburgh edition!) which were as you would guess filled with loads of great writing and other fun things, the biggest thing sticking out in my mind being Alan Betrock's review of the first Dictators album which goes to show us that there were "Critics Bands" (Christgau, Emerson...) and there were "CRITICS BANDS" (Bangs, Meltzer...) and if any of you two think the twain will meet well then you certainly have another thought comin' to ya!
Brad also sent me (from the same batch as above) a mid-seventies issue of Marvel Management Group MAD-swipe CRAZY and like well, if the guy was sick enough to send me a copy of SICK a good five years back you know he's crazy enough to send me CRAZY! Nothing I'd care to write up in any future HIGH SIX I might be thinkin' about doin', but good enough to remind me that when MAD could get infantile at times, the competition could get even worse if you can imagine that! Funny, I remember the early CRAZY being kinda like MAD attempting to do NATIONAL LAMPOON-styled comedy only stopping just short of extreme bad taste, but by 1975 I don't think that the folk at Marvel could give a hoot anymore and just tossed this out to kids thinking they were picking up MAD but were too stupid to notice. Well, it worked for all those other Stan Lee swipes like PETER THE LITTLE PEST, HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST and of course GEORGIE!
And now, without further a doo-doo...
Dial-NOISE OPERA LP (Feeding Tube Records, available via Forced Exposure)
Yeh, most operas rock or not are usually just noise to me, but this thing is different. Dial is a trio led by former Ut guitarist Jacqui Ham, and she along with an electronic drummer/guitar feedbacker and a bass guitarist/synth player has created a huge hunkerin' wall of total rockist destruction spanning two sides of udder chaos. True it's "noise" but it's GOOD noise, the same sorta all-out racket that you heard on DAILY DANCE or even METAL MACHINE MUSIC with raging electronic sounds and guitar screech intermingling with buried, haunting vocals courtesy Ham. I enjoyed the thing a whole lot despite the fact I thought this was going to be another one of those futile attempts to reclaim past sonic glories in an age where it ALL seems futile. Gee, I never knew that I could be so wrong!
Various Artists-THE GIRL GROUPS OF "HIT" RECORDS CD-r burn
Bill Shute knows all about the logistics and whyfores regarding the cheap imitation vs. the real deal thing, and as you might have noticed I sure know about it too given the 99-cent MARY POPPINS and IF I HAD A HAMMER albums that I grew up with (and still linger in the collection somewhere). But here's a cheap-o deal that really did pay off, for these Hit Records sounalikes come VERY close to the real meal deal! I can see most lower-class types cherishing these cheap knockoffs more'n anything given that the teen gals who got hold of these platters probably didn't have two-cents to rub together to buy fresh feminine napkins. Yes, for 39 measly pennies one could listen to everyone from the Dacrons to Clara and the Cleftones belt out the gal group numbers of the day, and quite convincingly as well. As for myself I do feel like I got a bargain outta the deal since I didn't have to pay ONE THIN DIME for the entire shebang! That's what I get for being a mooch, and maybe you can too!
THE PSYCH JAZZY BEAT OF I MARC 4 CD-r burn (originally on Black Cat Records)
Dunno if this was sent to me as a joke or because my learned knowledge re. music as a consciousness razing affair was to be tested. Neo-jazzy instrumentals that come close (but with a cigar!) to a variety of mid-to-late-sixties incidental sounds of an English telly/moom pitcher variety making me wonder if I were in the middle of some old swinging London commercial or a lost episode of THE AVENGERS. Couldn't stand to sit through the entire platter, not with GILLIGAN'S ISLAND on the other station.
Muchos gracias this week goes to BRAD KOHLER for shipping my way a few items that I never woulda expected to have graced my mailbox in an entire lifetime (a lifetime of a flea, but who's counting?). Remember that CREEM reader's poll I printed like two or so weeks back? Well, Brad sent me more from that cache he was given by a galpal of his (found stashed in an old suitcase of all things!) and like, you could say that I was surprised beyond belief. In the package was two tattered issues of PHONOGRAPH RECORD MAGAZINE (the Pittsburgh edition!) which were as you would guess filled with loads of great writing and other fun things, the biggest thing sticking out in my mind being Alan Betrock's review of the first Dictators album which goes to show us that there were "Critics Bands" (Christgau, Emerson...) and there were "CRITICS BANDS" (Bangs, Meltzer...) and if any of you two think the twain will meet well then you certainly have another thought comin' to ya!
Brad also sent me (from the same batch as above) a mid-seventies issue of Marvel Management Group MAD-swipe CRAZY and like well, if the guy was sick enough to send me a copy of SICK a good five years back you know he's crazy enough to send me CRAZY! Nothing I'd care to write up in any future HIGH SIX I might be thinkin' about doin', but good enough to remind me that when MAD could get infantile at times, the competition could get even worse if you can imagine that! Funny, I remember the early CRAZY being kinda like MAD attempting to do NATIONAL LAMPOON-styled comedy only stopping just short of extreme bad taste, but by 1975 I don't think that the folk at Marvel could give a hoot anymore and just tossed this out to kids thinking they were picking up MAD but were too stupid to notice. Well, it worked for all those other Stan Lee swipes like PETER THE LITTLE PEST, HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST and of course GEORGIE!
And now, without further a doo-doo...
Yeh, most operas rock or not are usually just noise to me, but this thing is different. Dial is a trio led by former Ut guitarist Jacqui Ham, and she along with an electronic drummer/guitar feedbacker and a bass guitarist/synth player has created a huge hunkerin' wall of total rockist destruction spanning two sides of udder chaos. True it's "noise" but it's GOOD noise, the same sorta all-out racket that you heard on DAILY DANCE or even METAL MACHINE MUSIC with raging electronic sounds and guitar screech intermingling with buried, haunting vocals courtesy Ham. I enjoyed the thing a whole lot despite the fact I thought this was going to be another one of those futile attempts to reclaim past sonic glories in an age where it ALL seems futile. Gee, I never knew that I could be so wrong!
***
Bill Shute knows all about the logistics and whyfores regarding the cheap imitation vs. the real deal thing, and as you might have noticed I sure know about it too given the 99-cent MARY POPPINS and IF I HAD A HAMMER albums that I grew up with (and still linger in the collection somewhere). But here's a cheap-o deal that really did pay off, for these Hit Records sounalikes come VERY close to the real meal deal! I can see most lower-class types cherishing these cheap knockoffs more'n anything given that the teen gals who got hold of these platters probably didn't have two-cents to rub together to buy fresh feminine napkins. Yes, for 39 measly pennies one could listen to everyone from the Dacrons to Clara and the Cleftones belt out the gal group numbers of the day, and quite convincingly as well. As for myself I do feel like I got a bargain outta the deal since I didn't have to pay ONE THIN DIME for the entire shebang! That's what I get for being a mooch, and maybe you can too!
***
Dunno if this was sent to me as a joke or because my learned knowledge re. music as a consciousness razing affair was to be tested. Neo-jazzy instrumentals that come close (but with a cigar!) to a variety of mid-to-late-sixties incidental sounds of an English telly/moom pitcher variety making me wonder if I were in the middle of some old swinging London commercial or a lost episode of THE AVENGERS. Couldn't stand to sit through the entire platter, not with GILLIGAN'S ISLAND on the other station.
***
If you thought the English and Amerigan groups ruined rock 'n roll back in the early-seventies you shoulda heard what this South African act was up to. Yep, these Invaders gave the world, or at least South Africa, the same blend of watered down Stones-y groove (this even includes a cover of "You Can't Always Get What You Want") with the pertinent rise above the man lyrics that seemed suspicious even then unless you were a rock critic or somethin'. Really washed out rock music here...I wouldn't be surprised if original copies are goin' for four-plus digits these days. Only the album closer, a faithful enough cover of Creation's "Painter Man" manages to elicit any sorta inner joy from me, but something tells me this was recorded a good five years earlier, it's that fresh and innocent.
***
This is actually some rather potent straight ahead rock 'n roll from one of those guys who I think I'm supposed to hate. (Though I will hold off on it until I read his autobiography which I doubt I ever will.) The bulk of this contains an '82 show that I thought was rough enough to pass even the stringent roughness tests of the day while Cee- Dee compiler Paul McGarry even slapped on the old Ork EP and some '92-vintage material that I thought had all of the rock 'n roll appeal of an era in music that I thought was extremely snat. Stuff like that sure brings back memories, and good ones of a time when rock as an active, motivational force in one's life wasn't just a memory of early/mid-sixties teenage hijinx.
***
I guess if Nelson Riddle could so could Tinsley Orchestral crank out a tee-vee show theme album 'n cash in on the mid-sixties boob tube zeitgeist that was keeping many a suburban slob glued to their sets! Most of the themes are of English programs that never made their way over here (other'n THUNDERBIRDS, which come to think of it was never picked up by any local television stations in the tri-state area either), but a few familiar tunes like THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and THE VIRGINIAN are intermingled amidst the likes of such unfamiliar to be efforts such as THE RATCATCHERS (cool name) and SATURDAY NIGHT BEAT. Interesting collection that reminds me of an old MONTY PYTHON skit for some strange reason.
***
Dunno much if ANYTHING about this particular label but one thing can be said...Bamboo Records was yet another one of those outta-nowhere companies that might not have hit it big time, but they sure left a lotta weirdities in their path ifyaknowaddamean... Amidst the expected tackiness one would expect from an early-sixties label like this (boy singers, gal singers, instrumentals with occasional vocal intrusions...) are a few strange items that really get me even more HANKERIN' to hitch up with Peabody and Sherman for a trip into the past.
The Four-Stars sides have enough cheap lounge credo in 'em to make me wanna order a shrimp cocktail, while "Kicks" also tread well as far as early-sixties instro cool may take any of us a good sixty years after the fact! But the weirdest tracks just HAFTA be by Gary "Spider" Webb, whose "The Cave" (Parts One and Two) ranks as one of the crazier sides to have been heard in almost any era as Webb searches for his lost gal in a dark cave, and over two sides of 45 as well! Since both sides of the single were shallIsay "abbreviated" here I hope the two have met up after those two long days even if I'll bet they sure smelled bad!
***
Various Artists-WALKING CRAWLING HOOSIER ROGUES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Nice (ad)mixture of various floor scrapings or something like that from Bill, and a pretty decent batch at that. The usual garage band-y things pop up here to get me in a more dour than usual mood (though it is nice to know that, at one time, people on this earth were miserable just like they are now ) though the neu-psych of the Underneath really didn't work on me and has little lasting power like many of the late-eighties self-produced singles that continue to rot in my collection.
The big kahuna here, at least for me (you will beg to differ) were the two tracks by Clark-Hutchinson, a late-sixties act I was under the impression were progressive types but who, at least here, come off like a pretty wild 1969-vintage punk rock group what with the Bernie "BB" Fielding-like screaming vocals and the primitive thud backing. Definitely will be looking into some of their wares (they were on Decca, so I assume Repertoire re-released 'em on Cee-Dee) soon.
If you liked this spew you will definitely want to look into getting hold of the various issues of BLACK TO COMM that are not only still available but cheaper than a vasectomy! And I'm sure these mags are even more effective than a vasectomy because hey, if any gal sees you with a copy she probably wouldn't want to be anywhere near you! Do your part to halt overpopulation TODAY!***
1 comment:
What would John M Harris have to say about Crawling Hoosier Rogues?
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