As you already know by now, here's another weakened post for y'all to enjoy in whatever masochistic ways you most certainly can. eke outta your obviously under-developed minds A fairly decent one too if only because none other that BOB FORWARD has dumped another package on me and this time I DIDN'T LOSE IT IN THE PILES OF BOOKS, CEE-DEES, FANZINES AND OTHER VARIETIES OF FLOTSAM AND JETSAM PILED UP IN MY ROOM! Thanks be to he, for those recordings he sent really did help beef up this week's output and kept the thing from looking like just another throwaway tossout to you reg'lar types who'll gobble up just about everything that I toss at'cha! Of course the other contributors like Bill and Paul helped keep this from being yet another dragout of long-forgotten faves I've reviewed many-a-time, so maybe they should get just a little smidgie bit of credit as well.
The episode where the pair find themselves at Weekee-Watchee in Ef-El-Lay as Lou Reed woulda put it had a special personal touch to it because around the time this was filmed our whole fambly weny there as part of a Florida trip and I remember being in that auditorium watching the gals swimming around in those mermaid outfits breathing through air hoses! In fact in the brief audience shots there seems to be a turdler who looks just like I did watching the show while sitting on a lady who did not look like my own mother (well, the shot was rather quick!) making me wonder if I made my own network television debut at the mere age of three! Maybe some forensic work with frame enlargements and pertinent records will back me up---dunno where dad 'n cyster were but maybe they were having one of their typical arguments elsewhere.
Sir Douglas Quintet- RIO MEDINA CD-r burn (originally on Sonet Records, Sweden)
At first I thought Sir Doug had flipped his page boy wig what with the overtly-horny sound and the cover of the Police's "Every Breath You Take"...sheesh, was this guy so involved with baseball stats that he would be reduced to such depths as this? Then the platter continued on and the good ol' Quintet sound got back into gear with that great organ and chugga-chugga rhythm...I even started tapping my toe in approval and I only do that during inspirational Throbbing Gristle passages! Yeah it might be over-produced and slick the way I HATE music to be but it still has a kick to it that I've been wanting to hear for ages...sounds great despite all that ROLLING STONE jive coverage Sahm had been bestowed back inna seventies.
The Beatles-BEATLES '66---MUNICH, SAN FRANCISCO CD-r burn
Gotta admit that these live Beatles bootlegs, even the ones that sound as if they were recorded on sandpaper with a mic jammed up your gaseous poopchute, capture the guttural rock 'n roll experience a whole lot more'n those scratchy singles that your big cyster used to spin in her bedroom with her galpals and they wouldn't let you in! The Munich tracks have Lennon talking in mock Kraut while der frauleins scream their li'l ol' Aryan hearts out, and not in jest either! Ol' Adolf woulda been jealous! The San Fran tracks are still good 'n hard '66 intricacy even if the locals in the audience are probably already settling into early-seventies mellow vibes this early in the game an' they don't even know it! Best thing about these boots is that the artists are not getting any moolah outta 'em so's we don't have to contribute to their drug intake, even if John and George are nothing but peat moss these days.
BLIND BEAD EP (Imposter Complex Records)
Boy does thiis one remind me of the early days of my very own crudzine when slowcore grindout music such as the kind performed here was very big on the under-the-underground rock scene! Playable at 33 or 45 and it even comes on puke grey vinyl the same way that all of those self-produced noise merchants did 'em up back inna old days! All of those heavy metal and hardcore moves that were up and comin' duing the mid-eighties can be heard here and appreciated for the feral mess it is...didn't think that there was this much echhiness left in rock, but I guess there is!
The Crummy Fags-POP BOTTLE FOREST DOG DOCTOR DREAM CD-r burn
Shee-yucks! A good portion of those thirty-plus-year-old Crummy Fags tapes slowed down to their proper speed (I never knew...) sounding a whole lot more----real. Now you can appreciate the sloppiness as it was meant to be. It even comes with an interview but it's kinda hard to follow. If you think there were too many acts in the eighties and onward mangling your fave sixties/seventies rock memories beyond recognition wait until you give these guys a listen. The Cramps come off like Jan Garber in comparison. More needs to be made available to the public, especially THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY STORY which is one film soundtrack you won't be snuggling in between MARY POPPINS and WEST SIDE STORY!
Steve Reich-INFORMATION, TRANSMISSION, MODULATION AND NOISE LP (Alternative Fox Records)
This might not be thee one for Reich fans. Side one's "Four Organs" has been issued many times before and the following drum track ain't nuthin' but a field recording of some African percussionists that sounds no different 'n the ones Nonesuch have been issuing for years. Heck, the entirety of side two is taken up by a recording of "Music In Similar Motion" as performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble with Reich on electric harpsichord which doesn't exactly qualify this as being Reich's baby even if Glass and Reich are good buddies and even ran a scrap yard together. Still, if you ain't heard "Four Organs" before this would be one good place to start and the African drummers do get into a hefty groove that one can even sing avant rock cantatas over. Not only that but the early Glass take does have enough of an original flair to it that differentiates it from the more familiar Chatham Square version many of us have embedded in our brains. Good enough that even old turds like myself can still "get into" it!
The Fundamentalists-ANCIENT PAPER cassette (Walls Flowing Records)
Strange blurs and clomps courtesy Bob Forward and company who act as if they're trying out for the next LAFMS sampler with this effort. Actually cool, actually mesmerizing and (unlike many of these bedroom clangathons) this has a beat that you might even be able to dance to. Only 157 made and when they're gone you'll probably be too stoopid to know that they were even made inna first place.
Various Artists-THE RETURN OF THE YOUNG PENNSYLVANIANS CD-r burn (originally on Bona Fide Records)
Even though Rich Noll used to send me alla these Bona Fide records gratis I never got hold of this particular one! Well, after all these years I finally get to hear THE RETURN OF THE YOUNG PENNSYLVANIANS and as I woulda guessed it's a pretty spiffy affair. Lotsa minor-key songs here which give me the impression that these sixties garage band aficionados were of the horn rimmed glasses and pocket protectors Ernie Douglas types the "cool" kids used to sneer at, but they still get their backed up testosterone message out straight and sound even though you can imagine the aforementioned toughies lining up to beat the daylights outta 'em after they're done playing their set. My personal faves include the Centurys of BOULDERS fame whose "Hard Times" remains a tried and true mid-sixties classic.
The Fuzztones-HORNY AS HELL CD-r burn (originally on Electrique Mud Records)
Heh---here's the legendary six-oh "revival" band that Billy Miller actually put down in a mid-eighties issue of KICKS! Nowadays they don't seem quite as cartoonish as some of those groups got, and the usage of horns on this does give these "hoary old chestnuts" a professional sound. Professional as in 1965 Raiders on Columbia mind you, never letting up as it keeps you pumped up and dancing your tootsies off without mercy. If you were the kinda kid who used to smoke cigarettes in the parking lot of your local shopping plaza while old ladies sneered you'll probably love the way this brings back memories.
Various Artists-ROARING BLUE : RETURN OF THE INSTRO-HIPSTERS, VOL. 3 CD-r burn (originally on Psychic Circle Records, England)
Like TWEN MOODS this is Euro-hip-drenched jazzy instrumental music that sound as if they came straight outta some cheezy mid-sixties spy film that used to show up on Sunday afternoon UHF television back in the seventies. Cornballus as all heck, though you do get some surprises like a track from Beatle stand-in Jimmy Nichol to Casey and the Pressure Group's version of the Shocking Blue hit "Venus". And really, Shake Keane actually tackled the Smoke's mini-hit "My Friend Jack" which is abut as back-handed a compliment as you can give an under-the-covers act such as that! Somehow I keep thinking about those Holiday Inns the fambly stayed in furing summer vacations which had music like this piped into the dining area. Still wonder what went on behind that blacked out door that said "Adults Only" tho...after all these years maybe I shoulda peeked!
Various Artists-GREEN POPSICLE MONKEY DUST CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Bill goes Burundi here with an extended tribal pounce filled with threatening voices and electronic gargle. Actually its an act called Black Pus playing live on WFMU radio, and if they ever play in your burgh be sure to get your Tetanus shot before attending. Bill flirts with the weird in other forms as well such as with the moderne garage band approach of the Hentchmen, Count Basie doing his version of "Green Onions" and even some rare Half Japanese live tracks which doesn't get that tinge of eighties amerunderground indie appeal outta my mind, but it does work in its own magical way. Tracks from the likes of Jimbo Easter (sort of a Captain Beefheart redux) and Crawl add to the overall obtuse soundscreed of it all, and the shebang ends with an early-sixties schmoozer from the Talkabouts that might have gotten your gal (if you were good looking enough to get one) all roweled up, and who could blame her?
***I guess one of the bigger cataclysmic earth-shattering happenings in my current existence (at least this week) is the debut of the Glenn Corbett episodes of ROUTE 66 that are now popping up on FETV Saturday and Sunday evenings. And, contrary to what I guess everyone else who has seen this series before believes true to their hearts I actually prefer Corbett's Link Case to George Maharis' Buz Murdoch which might seem like total sacrilege but what else is new! While Maharis played it real ethno-street tough smartwise, Corbett comes off slow burn restrained and perhaps a tad too philosophical even for a brainy "quality" series such as this. But still nice and intense to the point where you think he's gonna raise your blood pressure ten times by extending his fingers around your throat nice 'n tight. Tee-Vee's first introspective, troubled Vietnam War vet! My humble opinion is that the series improved while he was in it, but maybe that was only because the show was heading into '63 by this time and it seemed as if the intensity levels were being notched up quite a bit with series such as this, THE TWILIGHT ZONE and of course that all time fave SAILORBIRD AND SUSIE.
The episode where the pair find themselves at Weekee-Watchee in Ef-El-Lay as Lou Reed woulda put it had a special personal touch to it because around the time this was filmed our whole fambly weny there as part of a Florida trip and I remember being in that auditorium watching the gals swimming around in those mermaid outfits breathing through air hoses! In fact in the brief audience shots there seems to be a turdler who looks just like I did watching the show while sitting on a lady who did not look like my own mother (well, the shot was rather quick!) making me wonder if I made my own network television debut at the mere age of three! Maybe some forensic work with frame enlargements and pertinent records will back me up---dunno where dad 'n cyster were but maybe they were having one of their typical arguments elsewhere.
***A FINAL FAREWELL HOOHAH TO PETER FONDA: well, he did say he knew what it was like to be dead...
At first I thought Sir Doug had flipped his page boy wig what with the overtly-horny sound and the cover of the Police's "Every Breath You Take"...sheesh, was this guy so involved with baseball stats that he would be reduced to such depths as this? Then the platter continued on and the good ol' Quintet sound got back into gear with that great organ and chugga-chugga rhythm...I even started tapping my toe in approval and I only do that during inspirational Throbbing Gristle passages! Yeah it might be over-produced and slick the way I HATE music to be but it still has a kick to it that I've been wanting to hear for ages...sounds great despite all that ROLLING STONE jive coverage Sahm had been bestowed back inna seventies.
***
Gotta admit that these live Beatles bootlegs, even the ones that sound as if they were recorded on sandpaper with a mic jammed up your gaseous poopchute, capture the guttural rock 'n roll experience a whole lot more'n those scratchy singles that your big cyster used to spin in her bedroom with her galpals and they wouldn't let you in! The Munich tracks have Lennon talking in mock Kraut while der frauleins scream their li'l ol' Aryan hearts out, and not in jest either! Ol' Adolf woulda been jealous! The San Fran tracks are still good 'n hard '66 intricacy even if the locals in the audience are probably already settling into early-seventies mellow vibes this early in the game an' they don't even know it! Best thing about these boots is that the artists are not getting any moolah outta 'em so's we don't have to contribute to their drug intake, even if John and George are nothing but peat moss these days.
***
Boy does thiis one remind me of the early days of my very own crudzine when slowcore grindout music such as the kind performed here was very big on the under-the-underground rock scene! Playable at 33 or 45 and it even comes on puke grey vinyl the same way that all of those self-produced noise merchants did 'em up back inna old days! All of those heavy metal and hardcore moves that were up and comin' duing the mid-eighties can be heard here and appreciated for the feral mess it is...didn't think that there was this much echhiness left in rock, but I guess there is!
***
Shee-yucks! A good portion of those thirty-plus-year-old Crummy Fags tapes slowed down to their proper speed (I never knew...) sounding a whole lot more----real. Now you can appreciate the sloppiness as it was meant to be. It even comes with an interview but it's kinda hard to follow. If you think there were too many acts in the eighties and onward mangling your fave sixties/seventies rock memories beyond recognition wait until you give these guys a listen. The Cramps come off like Jan Garber in comparison. More needs to be made available to the public, especially THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY STORY which is one film soundtrack you won't be snuggling in between MARY POPPINS and WEST SIDE STORY!
***
This might not be thee one for Reich fans. Side one's "Four Organs" has been issued many times before and the following drum track ain't nuthin' but a field recording of some African percussionists that sounds no different 'n the ones Nonesuch have been issuing for years. Heck, the entirety of side two is taken up by a recording of "Music In Similar Motion" as performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble with Reich on electric harpsichord which doesn't exactly qualify this as being Reich's baby even if Glass and Reich are good buddies and even ran a scrap yard together. Still, if you ain't heard "Four Organs" before this would be one good place to start and the African drummers do get into a hefty groove that one can even sing avant rock cantatas over. Not only that but the early Glass take does have enough of an original flair to it that differentiates it from the more familiar Chatham Square version many of us have embedded in our brains. Good enough that even old turds like myself can still "get into" it!
***
Strange blurs and clomps courtesy Bob Forward and company who act as if they're trying out for the next LAFMS sampler with this effort. Actually cool, actually mesmerizing and (unlike many of these bedroom clangathons) this has a beat that you might even be able to dance to. Only 157 made and when they're gone you'll probably be too stoopid to know that they were even made inna first place.
***
Even though Rich Noll used to send me alla these Bona Fide records gratis I never got hold of this particular one! Well, after all these years I finally get to hear THE RETURN OF THE YOUNG PENNSYLVANIANS and as I woulda guessed it's a pretty spiffy affair. Lotsa minor-key songs here which give me the impression that these sixties garage band aficionados were of the horn rimmed glasses and pocket protectors Ernie Douglas types the "cool" kids used to sneer at, but they still get their backed up testosterone message out straight and sound even though you can imagine the aforementioned toughies lining up to beat the daylights outta 'em after they're done playing their set. My personal faves include the Centurys of BOULDERS fame whose "Hard Times" remains a tried and true mid-sixties classic.
***
Heh---here's the legendary six-oh "revival" band that Billy Miller actually put down in a mid-eighties issue of KICKS! Nowadays they don't seem quite as cartoonish as some of those groups got, and the usage of horns on this does give these "hoary old chestnuts" a professional sound. Professional as in 1965 Raiders on Columbia mind you, never letting up as it keeps you pumped up and dancing your tootsies off without mercy. If you were the kinda kid who used to smoke cigarettes in the parking lot of your local shopping plaza while old ladies sneered you'll probably love the way this brings back memories.
***
Like TWEN MOODS this is Euro-hip-drenched jazzy instrumental music that sound as if they came straight outta some cheezy mid-sixties spy film that used to show up on Sunday afternoon UHF television back in the seventies. Cornballus as all heck, though you do get some surprises like a track from Beatle stand-in Jimmy Nichol to Casey and the Pressure Group's version of the Shocking Blue hit "Venus". And really, Shake Keane actually tackled the Smoke's mini-hit "My Friend Jack" which is abut as back-handed a compliment as you can give an under-the-covers act such as that! Somehow I keep thinking about those Holiday Inns the fambly stayed in furing summer vacations which had music like this piped into the dining area. Still wonder what went on behind that blacked out door that said "Adults Only" tho...after all these years maybe I shoulda peeked!
***
Bill goes Burundi here with an extended tribal pounce filled with threatening voices and electronic gargle. Actually its an act called Black Pus playing live on WFMU radio, and if they ever play in your burgh be sure to get your Tetanus shot before attending. Bill flirts with the weird in other forms as well such as with the moderne garage band approach of the Hentchmen, Count Basie doing his version of "Green Onions" and even some rare Half Japanese live tracks which doesn't get that tinge of eighties amerunderground indie appeal outta my mind, but it does work in its own magical way. Tracks from the likes of Jimbo Easter (sort of a Captain Beefheart redux) and Crawl add to the overall obtuse soundscreed of it all, and the shebang ends with an early-sixties schmoozer from the Talkabouts that might have gotten your gal (if you were good looking enough to get one) all roweled up, and who could blame her?
***Of course there are many things that you need more than BLACK TO COMM back issues, its just that I can't think of anything offhand. Do yourself a favor and wash decades of Christgau outta your system for once, willya?
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