Well here I is, bangin' the same drum and rattlin' on about the same old musical cause (the cause being rock 'n roll) that I have been doin' for well over thirtysome years now already! Must seem like a tiresome and perhaps even boring type of existence to oh-so enlightened you, but in actuality I feel just as unbound and free via the music now as I did back in my v. late teen days when everything from the Electric Eels to Troggs and a bazillion points in between played the soundtrack to the kinda existence I sure wish I coulda lived without the trammels of hip youth kultur (talkin' FM radio and the dolts who supported it!) weighing me down.
And, in my own aw-shucks sorta way, I sincerely do hope that my cheerleading of various 60s/70s under-the-underground rock modes here in the late 'teens makes me the modern day version of those olde tymey film buffs of the fifties and sixties who were so agog over Mary Miles Minter long after the sound era wiped her out because hey...I can identify with THEM more than I can some eighties-vintage "rock critic" type who somehow could find much of value and worth in the music of Prince and Madonna while chiding alla us suburban slob sixties salvationists as nothing but a bunch of losers! Y'know what kind of species I'm talkin' about, the same form of primitive life that made its fame extolling all of the worst aspects of pop music in that I'm so hip in that square way that I'm hipper than the hip! Or something along those weird lines. Yeah, the Chuck Eddy fashionistas that ruined the entire rock in print gig more'n Christgau ever could to the point where all of the gonz, the Bangsian energy and reasons we like the music inna first place were banished from the frilly pages of the music press seemingly forever!
And, in case you weren't paying attention, in this life of ours we could sure use a whole lot more Mary Miles Minter these and a whole lot less Chuck Eddy! Sheesh, given my love of the old and forgotten primal rock sounds of yore maybe I should get my own PBS Saturday afternoon show where I just talk about records and show off pieces of my collection for a half hour. Well, it's better'n watching that guy with the dandelion hair and soft toned voice think he can paint!
Eugene Chadbourne-SOLO GUITAR VOLUME 1-1/3 LP (Feeding Tube Records, available via Forced Exposure)
It's about time someone reissued this extremely rare (even though you coulda bought one via NMDS for a mere song a good fortysome years back) and extremely early Eugene Chadbourne solo guitar album! Now I gotta admit that Chadbourne's cassette "schtick" of the late-eighties wore me down so thin that I didn't even finish the big batch of tapes he sent, but this mid-seventies effort has all of the atonal scronk that made the new improv thing of the day so much more exhilarating than some of the things it ultimately led to. Side one has heavy (and I hate to be PREDICTABLE but...) Derek Bailey references while the flip gets even scronkier with the addition of various "found" (I think) tape sources that do manage to creep me out in that mid-teenage way even more than UMMAGUMMA ever did! Remember reading about him and John Zorn in that old issue of DOWN BEAT back when that mag was trying to look hip on one end and trad on the other? If so this might just fill in some lost piece of the growing up and learning more about the even-newer music of the seventies puzzle than you ever would have guessed in the first place.
Smegma-ABACUS INCOGNITO, LOOK'N FOR YA LPs (Alga Marghen Italy, availabe via Forced Exposure [click on title to be taken to the album of yer choice])
Once again a deep dig into the Smegma vaults yields a whole slew of sounds that sure brighten up the drabness that is to be found in modern day life. Abysmal mutterings lead to AACM/BAG-ish "small instrument" play and insane asylum role acting, and somewhere in the midst an ACTUAL ROCK 'N ROLL TUNE doth emerge. Featuring the usual Smegma lineup (including future Dream Syndicate drummer Dennis Duck who contributes a poem on LOOK'N), this is thee place to go not only to hear the pre-electronic soundscape version of the band but a particularly boffo take of Wild Man Fisher singing his own "The Taster" that cuts the Zappa-backed version to pieces.
Billy Lee Riley-IN ACTION CD-r burn (originally on Vogue Records, France)
Yes this is the same guy who did "Flying Saucers Rock n' Roll", only by now it was 1966 and Riley definitely had found a different bag to crawl into! Having forsaken the rockabilly that made him famous to more'n just a few collector geeks, Riley was now into that swingin' El Lay club scene mode doin' the Johnny Rivers bit the best he could, and boy could he do it swell! Now don't go expectin' any "Queenie Wahine's Papaya"-styled swiggle 'n swerve here, though you'll feel like slappin' on some Hai Karate and doin' a li'l bedroom mirror go go dancin' yourself after hearing Riley swing the likes of "Good Night Irene" and "Kaw-Liga", maybe even wearin' one of those neckerchiefs that whatzizname on SCOOBY DO had. Could be just as big at your next down home get-together as the pimento and cheese spread.
Moe Bandy-HONKY TONK AMNESIA CD-r burn (originally on Razor and Tie Records)
Hmmmm, gotta slip into Nick Tosches mode to handle this Paul McGarry burn considerin' that country 'n western never was whatcha'd call my all time fave rave moozik! But hey, this pre-schmoozey CW sure sounds a whole lot better'n the current brand of pudding that gets piped into many a Dollar General these days! Bandy can sing swell (as you punk rockers woulda known from his Uniques days!) while the lyrics to be heard reflect the old love and loss that each and every one of us were lucky enough to be too ugly to go through. Thankfully the sad state of todays' Trashville Sounds is nowhere to be found on these seventies-era platters which still hold much of the old C&W respect and vision that poured out of victrolas for years.
But why do I suddenly get the urge to comb my hair (or whatever's left of it!) into a pompadour and hang out at the coffee shop of my choice while nursing hot java and chain smoking Luckies?
FREE ACTION INC. PLAYS EDDY KORSCHE---ROCK & BLUES CD-r burn (originally on Help Records, Italy)
Help indeed! Talk about a cheezy early-seventies hipster instrumental album, and considering this was made in Italy it's gotta be provolone! Dunno about you, but this platter sure conjured up a whole LOT of early seventies memories---BAD ones that is, but if you're trying to find what a counterpoint to the better moments of those musical days were well this would fit in quite nicely in between Melanie and James Taylor trying to ease the entire world into narcolepsy.
Lonesome Shack-MORE PRIMITIVE CD-r burn (originally on Alive Records)
Hmmmm, here's a surprise! A relatively recent (2014) recording of imitation whiteguy hard-blues that sounds almost as authentic as the original gut bucket black stuff that was all the rage back in the sixties. No cigars emerging tho, but I thought whoever this Lonesome Shack group is they sure have the right approach to how the blues should appear here in the dank last days of the 'teens more'n a whole slew of washed up guys with predictable leather jackets 'n droopy mustaches have. Hokay, they look rather plain and nondescript (just take a gander at the snap of 'em!), but believe me their music has that deep down slide blues approach and feel that (no hypin' it up here!) comes close to those Peter Laughner bedroom recordings that I hope get unleashed on the public rather soon!
Various Artists-MILK MICHELLE KAHUNA GOLDFINGER CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
This 'un starts off with, ends and is filled with some Jesus and Marychain which is great because I need to get some of their drone into my system once in awhile, even if they can sound as same-y as ever. The rest of this does measure up to Bill standards, what with some C&W twang from Wayne and Floyd (sorta like Homer and Jethro without the funnies) and the slush of Sam "The Man" Taylor doing a fifties-era tit rubber called "Flamingo". Even Billy May shows up as does Dick Hyman, whose "Goldfinger" brings back the memories for me! (Mainly how when we were kids we'd go around singing "BROWN-finger---he's the man---who ran out of toi-let paper!!!!!!!!")
The radio ads tickle my pickle, what with one of those Cowsills un's for the Amerigan Dairy Association, Bobby Fuller for KHJ, the Monkees for their latest album and Spencer Davis plugging Great Shakes! And of course the infamous Frank Zappa and Linda Ronstadt for "Remington Electric Razor" which goes to show you something...only I ain't exactly sure what it is!
And, in my own aw-shucks sorta way, I sincerely do hope that my cheerleading of various 60s/70s under-the-underground rock modes here in the late 'teens makes me the modern day version of those olde tymey film buffs of the fifties and sixties who were so agog over Mary Miles Minter long after the sound era wiped her out because hey...I can identify with THEM more than I can some eighties-vintage "rock critic" type who somehow could find much of value and worth in the music of Prince and Madonna while chiding alla us suburban slob sixties salvationists as nothing but a bunch of losers! Y'know what kind of species I'm talkin' about, the same form of primitive life that made its fame extolling all of the worst aspects of pop music in that I'm so hip in that square way that I'm hipper than the hip! Or something along those weird lines. Yeah, the Chuck Eddy fashionistas that ruined the entire rock in print gig more'n Christgau ever could to the point where all of the gonz, the Bangsian energy and reasons we like the music inna first place were banished from the frilly pages of the music press seemingly forever!
And, in case you weren't paying attention, in this life of ours we could sure use a whole lot more Mary Miles Minter these and a whole lot less Chuck Eddy! Sheesh, given my love of the old and forgotten primal rock sounds of yore maybe I should get my own PBS Saturday afternoon show where I just talk about records and show off pieces of my collection for a half hour. Well, it's better'n watching that guy with the dandelion hair and soft toned voice think he can paint!
***A SPECIAL NOTE FOR ALL YOU BILL SHUTE FANS: starting this week Bill's Tuesday posts will appear every other week and it was all planned in advance (and I gave Bill the OK to do so), so it ain't like he's being tardy with his doodies 'r anything like that. This is the way Bill wants to do it from now on and like, who am I to argue even though his posts sure draw in a whole lotta people who otherwise wouldn't go near this blog with a ten foot somethingorother... Just don't go thinkin' there's anything bad goin' on between us because there ain't!
***PERSONAL THROB THRILL CHILL OF THE WEEK! Johnny and the Dicks doing enough art terrorism to give those pamby NEA types skidmarks galore!
***And with that outta the way, maybe we better get onto the reviews!
It's about time someone reissued this extremely rare (even though you coulda bought one via NMDS for a mere song a good fortysome years back) and extremely early Eugene Chadbourne solo guitar album! Now I gotta admit that Chadbourne's cassette "schtick" of the late-eighties wore me down so thin that I didn't even finish the big batch of tapes he sent, but this mid-seventies effort has all of the atonal scronk that made the new improv thing of the day so much more exhilarating than some of the things it ultimately led to. Side one has heavy (and I hate to be PREDICTABLE but...) Derek Bailey references while the flip gets even scronkier with the addition of various "found" (I think) tape sources that do manage to creep me out in that mid-teenage way even more than UMMAGUMMA ever did! Remember reading about him and John Zorn in that old issue of DOWN BEAT back when that mag was trying to look hip on one end and trad on the other? If so this might just fill in some lost piece of the growing up and learning more about the even-newer music of the seventies puzzle than you ever would have guessed in the first place.
***
Smegma-ABACUS INCOGNITO, LOOK'N FOR YA LPs (Alga Marghen Italy, availabe via Forced Exposure [click on title to be taken to the album of yer choice])Once again a deep dig into the Smegma vaults yields a whole slew of sounds that sure brighten up the drabness that is to be found in modern day life. Abysmal mutterings lead to AACM/BAG-ish "small instrument" play and insane asylum role acting, and somewhere in the midst an ACTUAL ROCK 'N ROLL TUNE doth emerge. Featuring the usual Smegma lineup (including future Dream Syndicate drummer Dennis Duck who contributes a poem on LOOK'N), this is thee place to go not only to hear the pre-electronic soundscape version of the band but a particularly boffo take of Wild Man Fisher singing his own "The Taster" that cuts the Zappa-backed version to pieces.
***
Yes this is the same guy who did "Flying Saucers Rock n' Roll", only by now it was 1966 and Riley definitely had found a different bag to crawl into! Having forsaken the rockabilly that made him famous to more'n just a few collector geeks, Riley was now into that swingin' El Lay club scene mode doin' the Johnny Rivers bit the best he could, and boy could he do it swell! Now don't go expectin' any "Queenie Wahine's Papaya"-styled swiggle 'n swerve here, though you'll feel like slappin' on some Hai Karate and doin' a li'l bedroom mirror go go dancin' yourself after hearing Riley swing the likes of "Good Night Irene" and "Kaw-Liga", maybe even wearin' one of those neckerchiefs that whatzizname on SCOOBY DO had. Could be just as big at your next down home get-together as the pimento and cheese spread.
***
Hmmmm, gotta slip into Nick Tosches mode to handle this Paul McGarry burn considerin' that country 'n western never was whatcha'd call my all time fave rave moozik! But hey, this pre-schmoozey CW sure sounds a whole lot better'n the current brand of pudding that gets piped into many a Dollar General these days! Bandy can sing swell (as you punk rockers woulda known from his Uniques days!) while the lyrics to be heard reflect the old love and loss that each and every one of us were lucky enough to be too ugly to go through. Thankfully the sad state of todays' Trashville Sounds is nowhere to be found on these seventies-era platters which still hold much of the old C&W respect and vision that poured out of victrolas for years.
But why do I suddenly get the urge to comb my hair (or whatever's left of it!) into a pompadour and hang out at the coffee shop of my choice while nursing hot java and chain smoking Luckies?
***
Help indeed! Talk about a cheezy early-seventies hipster instrumental album, and considering this was made in Italy it's gotta be provolone! Dunno about you, but this platter sure conjured up a whole LOT of early seventies memories---BAD ones that is, but if you're trying to find what a counterpoint to the better moments of those musical days were well this would fit in quite nicely in between Melanie and James Taylor trying to ease the entire world into narcolepsy.
***
Lonesome Shack-MORE PRIMITIVE CD-r burn (originally on Alive Records)
Hmmmm, here's a surprise! A relatively recent (2014) recording of imitation whiteguy hard-blues that sounds almost as authentic as the original gut bucket black stuff that was all the rage back in the sixties. No cigars emerging tho, but I thought whoever this Lonesome Shack group is they sure have the right approach to how the blues should appear here in the dank last days of the 'teens more'n a whole slew of washed up guys with predictable leather jackets 'n droopy mustaches have. Hokay, they look rather plain and nondescript (just take a gander at the snap of 'em!), but believe me their music has that deep down slide blues approach and feel that (no hypin' it up here!) comes close to those Peter Laughner bedroom recordings that I hope get unleashed on the public rather soon!***
Various Artists-MILK MICHELLE KAHUNA GOLDFINGER CD-r burn (Bill Shute)This 'un starts off with, ends and is filled with some Jesus and Marychain which is great because I need to get some of their drone into my system once in awhile, even if they can sound as same-y as ever. The rest of this does measure up to Bill standards, what with some C&W twang from Wayne and Floyd (sorta like Homer and Jethro without the funnies) and the slush of Sam "The Man" Taylor doing a fifties-era tit rubber called "Flamingo". Even Billy May shows up as does Dick Hyman, whose "Goldfinger" brings back the memories for me! (Mainly how when we were kids we'd go around singing "BROWN-finger---he's the man---who ran out of toi-let paper!!!!!!!!")
The radio ads tickle my pickle, what with one of those Cowsills un's for the Amerigan Dairy Association, Bobby Fuller for KHJ, the Monkees for their latest album and Spencer Davis plugging Great Shakes! And of course the infamous Frank Zappa and Linda Ronstadt for "Remington Electric Razor" which goes to show you something...only I ain't exactly sure what it is!
***If you liked this week's frivolity you just might like the laff-filled frolics that appeared in my long-gone fanzine BLACK TO COMM! As they say, buy some try some, but don't come complaining to me when you go through a pack of Depends in one evening just losing yourself to the mirth and merriment within.
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