It's that time of the week again, which is surely a whole lot better than THAT TIME OF THE MONTH which I don't have to tell you about if you have a cyster. But I gotta give myself credit for making it through intact (somewhat), ready willing and able to enjoy a nice weekend of cutting the grass and acting like my typical suburban slob self pouring through a good fiftysome years of old books, music and whatnot that I just don't get enough of during the weekdays. Some people think that it doesn't take much to get my inner turdler goin' and with the bevy of things I've collected o'er the years you couldn't pry me outta my bedroom given all the things I got to keep me well and happy. Well, that is unless I have to take a dump 'r sumpin'.
***Otherwise it sure hasn't been a top notch week for a suburban slob such as I. First there was the cancellation of ROUTE 66 reruns and now I find out that the all-important YOWP blog is no more! YOWP was a beautifully laid out and written blog that was (mostly) dedicated to the early Hanna-Barbera tee-vee cartoons that most of us grew up with at least until they were unceremoniously removed from television screens in order to air more "meaningful" and "deep" programs like THE VIEW (c'mon, if YOGI'S GANG wasn't over-the-top socially conscious television then what is?), and its demise sure has me cryin' a whole lotta boo hoo's and the like because hey, even though this is the internet and everyone in the world can have a look-see at whatever it is that flutters their putter there really ain't that much funzie stuff for our own dining and dancing enjoyment available on it! I mean, other than BLOG TO COMM who else is out there pounding out the praise for THE BIG BEAT???? Believe me readers, I will never abandon you in this sorta way and will continue bloggin' until I just can't, even it I'm 120 and all I can peck out is "ooog fa dirnwom!" But it won't be like I'll announce that BLOG TO COMM is no more because, in actuality that is impossible! (I'm sure some sap out there will continue with it once I'm wormfood---I mean this blog is on a roll and I ain't talkin' Kaiser!) BTC will survive in some form or another, and despite the adversarial forces and general apathy it will....hey, who'm I KIDDING?????
***BILL SHUTE WAS RIGHT! Just got hold of a Patti LaBelle "Good Life' mini-sweet potato pie at the loco K-Mart and boy was it good! Really sweet, buttery and tangy with just the right spices tossed in to give you that mid-morning sugar rush you oh so desire. So good I actually ate two of 'em for lunch this past Wednesday! Bill, I will never doubt you and your gizzard-lovin' gullet again!
***Did any of you turn into TCM Wednesday evening to see that 1919 all-time tragedy BROKEN BLOSSOMS? Y'know, that classic DW Griffith feature starring Lillian Gish that sorta signaled the end of the Victorian Age, at least as far as moom pitchers and Griffith's own Golden Age of Directing go? I sure was gonna do just that, but when I heard that simpy modern-day musical score that was laid upon it boy did I tune out faster'n Speedy Gonzaga...why is it that every time TCM gets their hands on a silent film they have to get some moderne-day schlockmeister to add a new soundtrack, one which had none of the emotion or vigor of the original which (in some cases) has survived the passage of time! I should know because the previous times I've seen this one broadcast, first in the mid-seventies via PBS's THE SILENT YEARS and then in 1990 when GREAT PERFORMANCES aired it the original score was rendered and rendered well, first in a transcribed to piano version which retained the beauty of the original and later on in a fully orchestrated manner which is the way I presume the audiences got to experience it a hundred years ago. Dunno why TCM, which is "supposed" to known better considering all of those allegedly brainy hosts they have telling us about these mooms, has the audacity to change things around for whatever occult reason these bright minds might have. If you ask me, they're just trying to bring down the overall quality of old moom pitchers to suit the dulled out present, an age in which I sometimes think entire nervous systems have been removed from people considering the comparatively passion-less and utterly cyborg entertainment and general LIVING that many supposedly normal people feel oh so complacent about.
***In order to both pad this post out and try to look all superior to you what with my massive musical collection and all I decided to list some if not all of my extracurricular playlist faves heard during the execution of this blogpost---Ornette Coleman-TOWN HALL 1962 CD (ESP-ZYX version), Red Noise-SCARCELLES - LOCHERES Cee-Dee-Are burned for me by Brad Kohler's ex-communist friend (can't find my real life one on Mellow Records, and this tends to pause on occasion!), Art Ensemble of Chicago-CERTAIN BLACKS LP, Syd Barrett-MAGNESIUM PROVERBS CD bootleg, Iggy Pop and James Williamson-JESUS LOVES THE STOOGES CD EP (the one with the 3-D cover), ZYKLUS --- KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN --- FOUR REALIZATIONS BY MAX NEUHAUS CD, MC5-ICE PICK SLIM CD, Deviants/Pink Fairies/UFO CD-r Fadensonnen made for me, Freedomland-AMUSEMENT PARK and YIA YIA'S SONG CD-r's (Rent Control), The Fleshtones-BLAST OFF CD (Danceteria), Ornette Coleman-THE GREAT LONDON CONCERT 2-LP set (Arista/Freedom), Max Neuhaus-THE NEW YORK SCHOOL - NINE REALIZATIONS OF CAGE, FELDMAN, BROWN CD, Can-UNLIMITED EDITION CD on Mute, and other stuff that I don't think will add anything to my image as being a well-rounded, totallyl unique sorta blogster here in the final days of a decade that really didn't come off as gangbusters as we all woulda hoped!
***And now, the goodies! Thanks to Bill, Paul and Bob which, contrary to popular opinion, isn't some early sixties folk singing group!
This disque begins like something outta Bob Forward's Fundamentalists with weird affected voices taken from a broadcast treated and modulated until it turns into total gibberish. Sorta like talkin' to real people these days but its done on purpose! The appearance of random chord organ notes to the squealing of electronics (with some sort of beat thrown in) really starts to make it sound interesting, and THEN an electric guitar hops on board and the thing kinda comes off like an unreleased track from the DAILY DANCE sessions! For a buncha unknowns outta some place near Tempe Arizona I'd commend them, but isn't it dangerous for neophytes to be monkeying around with such a potent sound chemistry?
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Side one's almost-half-hour piano solo isn't quite as fluid as Cecil Taylor but it traverses pretty much the same neo-classical realm. So if you were one to spend the seventies spinning those Freedom sides like SILENT TONGUES you might be able to eke out some appreciation of this. The flip with band (including Henry Threadgill on sax and Leo Smith on brass) pretty much hovers around the same kinda territory that those other AACM group efforts from the Art Ensemble of Chicago to the Creative Construction Company made their DOWN BEAT stars with. But don't hold it against 'em. A fine encapsulation as to what was going on in the under-the-underground Chicago jazz scene of the day, and I decided to pick it up after reading Leonard Hootkin MD's review in an old issue of THE NEW HAVEN ROCK PRESS!
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At first I thought these Brats were the Brats who were a club fixture on the New York rock scene in the mid-seventies, but they ain't. These guys are from Copenhagen and probably never heard of the group who had the Brat name long before they even thought about gettin' together, but that's no reason for name snobs like myself to hate 'em. The reason to hate 'em would be the fact that these Brats are just one of a million punk rock copycat hanger ons, probably the kinda guys who you would think found out about punk rock from some old ROCK SCENE and decided to try it out themselves. Even if that were the case at least their brand of raunch sure beats a thousand other similar efforts that really don't stand the test of time like all good rock music does. Hard and powerful...you might get an extremely energetic kick outta it if you're as true to the BTC sense of anti-aesthetics like I sure hope you are!
***
After years of seein' Webb as the stone-faced "Just the facks ma'am" cop Joe Friday it was sure a surpise hearin' him play Pat Novak, a cheapo errand boy who takes the strangest kinda jobs handed out to him which usually gets him in dutch with the law (played by Raymond Burr, who comes off as the more irritable law enforcement agent imaginable---makes some of the gendarmes around come off like Mister Rogers!) Webb's kinda mealy-mouthed rat-like himself here making him about as lovable as the usual jerks he comes in contact with, but that's part of the overall appeal. No sparkly Dover Boy types around here nohow! First episode has Novak picking up his laundry which turns out to have been mixed with another order then finding out the recipient of his package ain't exactly fun and games, the second find him being paid $50 to deliver a geranium to this wheezing woman who just happens not to be there when the cops bust into the apartment and find a murdered man. If your mind can take all the convolutions in these stories and keep things straight as to who was doing what and where and when for that matter I do kneel before you in honest awe.
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Sheesh, another early-fifties radio program that I'm sure not as many people heard considering just how much tee-vee was creeping into the suburban slob mindset. Still, considerin' just how few television sets were up and about at the tiime and the fact that anybody who owned a set probably wouldn't invite you over to watch it radio was perhaps your best bet for broadcast dramas such as this 'un. Inspector Thorne, along with his sidekick Sgt. Muggins, solve murders of prominent people with a slew of suspects to contend with, all who seem so creepy themselves that you'd kinda wish that they'd ALL get the chair. The people who get offed ain't that angelic themselves so's you also get the idea that the world is much better off without 'em so why bother finding out who did it inna first place! Unless it's to give 'em a medal for ridding the world of such a fanabla. If you have any wits, match 'em with Thorne and end up losing.
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"Yah Hanz, dis iss der real Cherman musik uff der sixties!" "Uff course Frits, vhat vith der likes uff der Cherman Bonds, der Cops und Robbers und Herr Achim Reichel playing der big beat mit all uff der bold energy uff un svift panzer diffision!" "I must admit dot eeffen some uff der Amerikanner und English svine ve copped diss musik frum sound rather pale vhen stacked up to der Teutonic might und vill uff der superior sounds that VE make!" Yah Frits, midt musik like dis on our side how could ve haff effer lost der var?" "Yah Hanz...I mean, ve are so PERFECT!" "Hanz, lett uss go to der beergarten und drown our Aryan sorrows in sum brau...perhaps dey vill haff sum Johnnie Cliff Five on der musikautomat!"
***
Not exactly a "Virtual Floor Sweeping" or your usual Bill Shute collection, this contains what I would term really under-the-wire overseas rock 'n roll tuneage that I assume is so off-the-beaten-track that even Mike Stax doesn't know about it! I sure don't know anything about it either but that's to be expected considerin' how outta the loop I am. Maybe the Dave Berry of Dave Berry and the Cruisers is the same one who became a record producer, or maybe it's the Dave Berry who was taken under the tutelage of Joe Meek and later replaced Trevor Bannister on ARE YOU BEING SERVED? Maybe neither, and maybe that Chants group who pops up on this ain't one same as Chants R&B who were from Australia 'r somethin'. Not that I am gonna any serious searchin' to find out --- I gave up doin' these school report kinda things when I was seventeen!
Actually this ain't anything to crow about and in fact comes off quite wimpoid what with the pallid covers of well-established rockers not to mention the rather insipid originals which certainly wouldn't have done any self-respecting transistor radio any good back in them pumped up rock 'n roll days. I can say that many of the tracks here do have their "charm", but the potency of such talismans leave much to be desired. Back to the stack, Jack!
***After reading through a hefty portion of fanzines (both rock 'n roll oriented and not) that have been produced from the mid-eighties onward I can safely say that BLACK TO COMM is perhaps the bestest one of a batch both inspired or not. This may be your last chance to latch onto some of the still available issues that can be had at prices less than what I've seen goin' on ebay. Well it's either that or bid some ridiculous price on a SWELLSVILLE that has nothing to offer for it but extremely extroverted angst!
3 comments:
Chris,
While the hundreds of Virtual Thrift Store CDR's you've written about each weekend for the last few years have been compiled, programmed and designed by me, the BEAT WUNDERBAR-- UN-LOST TOMMYKNOCKERS collection is not my work (although it's fine, so I'd love to claim it). I labelled it "internet compilation" because I took it as a whole from a website. There are a few dozen TOMMYKNOCKERS BEAT CLUB internet-albums available--just Google the term--which are great collections of very obscure UK and Continental Beat bands. Kind of like a more off-the-wall and random version of BEATFREAK, although these TOMMYKNOCKERS BEAT CLUB comps pre-date the BEATFREAK albums. Anyone who loves super-obscure UK beat records, and gets excited about some unheard raw-but-low wattage cover of a Larry Williams song or album track from the first Stones album should start downloading the available volumes of TOMMYKNOCKERS as soon as possible.
BILL S.
That Dave Berry on that comp is the same guy who had a hit in the UK w/the original version of "The Crying Game" & had an European hit w/ Ray Davies' "This Strange Effect". He also did a cover version of BJ Thomas' "Mama"
I really like Dave Berry. I first heard him was on the old LIVE AT THE CAVERN comp. He has an instantly recognizable style, where he is intentionally just a hair behind the beat (Ray Davies does this sometimes too) and a hair flat, which really pulls the listener in. The first time I heard him doing R&B covers on that Cavern album, I was a bit put off, but with multiple plays, he won me over and now I'm a huge Dave Berry fan and love his R&B covers. There are two great 2-cd comps out in the UK which contain pretty much everything from his 60's and early 70's career. BILL S.
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