Well, """""I""""" made it! Dunno about you, but I'm sure glad about it even if the thought of living in the year 2019 does seem mighty creepazoid if you ask me. Maybe even creep-ier than it should considering how this fragile soul can still remember being around in the sixties and seventies and what fun times they were compared with what came after, not talkin' about school or grown ups or things like that (yeeeesh!). But although there was a good share of misery during those years there sure was a lotta FUN if you knew just where to find the kind of music that ignites your mental synapses and helps you become the MAN OF THE YEAR you always wanted to be and still could be if only you added a little oomph to YOUR life! And if you fell for that dribble may I interest you in a used fanzine?
But '18 did me no harm even if I managed to become a year older in the process. I had my fun, starting new projects and abandoning them almost immediately amongst other travails. After all, this was the year of a few extremely quick flashes in my mind like the one I had in January when I conceived and discarded within the course of a day and a half the idea for my Richard Meltzer tribute fanzine which was to be called either OUTER PUMICE or STILLBORN KITTENS IN JELLO (in the tradition of the old fanboy fanzines a la WHITE STUFF and SLADE PARADER). But other bright thoughts are still germinating in the fertile poop-laden field I call my brain, and you might be thrilled to see some of the surprises that are bound to be in store for '19.
And so, on this most solemn of occasions, here are my faves and not-so's for 2018 (hokay, some of the items may be of strict 2017 or even older vintage but remember, we're talking BTCT {Blog To Comm Time]). Despite my aging and financial straits and general mental miasma I managed to find more than a few good things that have erupted o'er the past 365, and although I have the feeling that you will disagree with me I figure what else is old???
CEE-DEE ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-Gaea's FUTURE UNIVERSE. Seventies electronics done up the way you wish more seventies electronic rock albums were made...with SWING! Kudos to Otto von Ruggins for the tip!
But '18 did me no harm even if I managed to become a year older in the process. I had my fun, starting new projects and abandoning them almost immediately amongst other travails. After all, this was the year of a few extremely quick flashes in my mind like the one I had in January when I conceived and discarded within the course of a day and a half the idea for my Richard Meltzer tribute fanzine which was to be called either OUTER PUMICE or STILLBORN KITTENS IN JELLO (in the tradition of the old fanboy fanzines a la WHITE STUFF and SLADE PARADER). But other bright thoughts are still germinating in the fertile poop-laden field I call my brain, and you might be thrilled to see some of the surprises that are bound to be in store for '19.
And so, on this most solemn of occasions, here are my faves and not-so's for 2018 (hokay, some of the items may be of strict 2017 or even older vintage but remember, we're talking BTCT {Blog To Comm Time]). Despite my aging and financial straits and general mental miasma I managed to find more than a few good things that have erupted o'er the past 365, and although I have the feeling that you will disagree with me I figure what else is old???
CEE-DEE ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-Gaea's FUTURE UNIVERSE. Seventies electronics done up the way you wish more seventies electronic rock albums were made...with SWING! Kudos to Otto von Ruggins for the tip!
***VINYL ALBUM(S) OF THE YEAR!-Smegma's ABACUS INCOGNITO AND LOOKIN' FOR YA which only goes to show ya that ABSTRACT MUSIC IS STILL THE ONLY WAY TO GO if ya wanna be truly timeless and play for the ages instead of for the same few dolts who never did get their third eyes pried wide open.
***SINGLE OF THE YEAR!-F.U.K.'s "Road Kill"/"I Got a Head", a great reminder of just how much undiscovered hard rock is wasting away in dresser drawers and attic boxes just waiting to be unleashed on us total eruption listeners! Naw, let's make that the Endless Boogie/Sorcerers' "Acknowledgements"/Dog's Life" one that came in the FEEL THE MUSIC book---total eruption! Awwww-they're BOTH #1!
***BOX SET OF THE YEAR!-International Harvester's REMAINS (Silence Records)--- five platters of total repeato riff bliss! It's also the REISSUE OF THE YEAR which doesn't surprise me one bit!
***LIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-the Remains LIVE 1969 (Sundazed Records) like, who woulda thought that the mid-sixties woulda had such a long lasting power, other'n maybe Greg Shaw that is!
***JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-Milford Graves' BABI MUSIC---makes me glad that I had enough ears to catch some of this during the end of the avant garde era before it became the french word for mer de bouef.
***INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR!-TWEN MOODS
***CASSETTE RELEASE OF THE YEAR!-HOPITAL DE LA CONCEPTION which is one good reason that I'm glad I didn't off myself when all of my "associates" were begging me to! If this came out on vinyl it woulda been LP of the year but we can't have everything!
***LIVE SHOW OF THE YEAR!-the Zombies!
***BLOG OF THE YEAR!-this one
***DOO WAH-CLASSIC OF THE YEAR!-Xterip's THE FRISBEE SESSIONS which you probably missed out on and if you did that's your tough luck! Total free play music that's so edgy it makes those Can rehearsals sound like Mantovani!
***BOOK OF THE YEAR (MUSIC DIVISION)!-The Paul Major tome for the times FEEL THE MUSIC---part biography, part rare record collecting homage and part rare catalogs you threw away but are now worth up to twenny bucks each!!!
***BOOK OF THE YEAR (SECULAR DIVISION)!-GAG ON THIS by Charles Rodrigues. So funny it even makes me forget Henry Lee Lucas!
***FANZINE OF THE YEAR!-VULCHER #4
***MOOM PITCHER OF THE YEAR!-FRAMED
***POST OF THE YEAR!-Interview with OTTO VON RUGGINS. Close second...my anti-gun control one
where I deservedly puked all over David "Camera" Hogg and the new Curly Howard Emma Gonzales and get hell for it from some more "open minded" readers! Thankfully I survived their spewing some of the worst cases for those two that I've heard since coming up against all those sanctimonious self-virtuous teachers and students in high school...tell it to your circle jerk pals, not me!
***HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR!-talking to Jeff Roth on the telephone. Wotta guy!
***TRAITOR OF THE YEAR!-Milo Yiannopolous
***DEATH OF THE YEAR!: Brian Sands
***And that is it---I hope the new year's good for those of you I like and treacherous for those of you I hate, though I got the feeling it's gonna be somewhere in between the two, as usual. PREDICTIONS FOR 2019!---my writing will get even worse (if that's humanly possible!) and my computer will get even slower! That's all---sheesh, ya want me to go out on a limb and predict nuclear wars and cures for hemorrhoids like Jeanne Dixon used to do?
Sheesh.
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