Eh---another week for me and you, but another week with plenty to do! Like watch old tee-vee shows, listen to high energy soundspurts, read up on that life-reaffirming, soul-searching scripture that bolsters the soul and make us one with all that is good and righteous (this week it's R. Meltzer's GULCHER) and other things that might not even require locking the bathroom door. Gotta say that I'm really in gear for more and more of this High Life not only with the stacks of fanzines and whatnot that have cluttered up my room but the overall SPIRIT OF THE TIMES which somehow has made alla those sunsets and musical modes come off all the more gnarlier. I know none of you out there think the same way I do, but man is it good to be alive as long as I'm watching some old tee-vee program, reading NANCY or spinning a current playlist fave like Dredd Foole and the Din...not to mention seeing the hoi polloi rend their garments in throes of agony over every little perceived infraction upon their sainted dignity.
In a move that I'm sure surprised nobody out there in realityland, the Anti Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith have designated a number of images and such, some that were believed to be rather innocuous and innocent only a few weeks ago, as downright unacceptable hate speech that only the crudest of non-cocktail party gatherers would dare utter! Included amid the "Happy Merchant" drawing created by A. Wyatt Mann are such other sundries such as the old McDonalds "Moon Man" character and the "OK" sign which all these years actually stood for "White Power" only the throngs of people who made a circle with their thumb and index finger while letting the remaining three digits stick way up didn't realize it. (Just goes to show ya just how serious some more-righteous-than-thou types will take a 4chan hoax to heart!) Also slapped onto the no-no list is the bowl haircut, which has been popularized by centuries of young boys getting their heads trimmed at home who, once again, didn't know they were propagating such a hateful symbol that drives many a soul into deep throes of sheer agony! Sheesh, one guy with a bowl cut shoots up a church and now ALL with the once-popular hairdo are to be corralled in with the sap! Talk about collective guilt, or is that collective bad coiffures! Who knew that for all these years Dwayne Dibbley was a white supremacist (and where doe that leave Moe Howard?)!
Razorlegs-SKIP SKOOL cassette (Razorlegs.bandcamp,com)
I kinda wonder if side "a"'s "Transistor Lover" is a tribute to none other'n the sainted no wave band of yore Red Transistor. I kinda think so given the all out heavy tone thug approach to it. This has a rock 'n roll approach not seen since WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT and its various adherents, buffered by a whole lotta electronics that even the likes of Chrome or Throbbing Gristle never woulda dreamed of. And if they did... My fave of the new batch of toys just has to be the Transmitter Interference Electric Choir which kinda sounds like a radio being clicked on and off repeatedly while the New Christy Minstrels were being played...and it just might be that although I tend to think it's some sorta newfangled electronic device that was perhaps created by group member P.D. Fandensonnen! The best controlled chaos (I think) release this week. Total eruption, 'n that ain't no rockcrit hyperbole the kind that you get just about everywhere else.
Iggy Pop-FREE CD-r burn (originally on Caroline International Records)
Ya can't blame him. He's 72 and his best years are far far behind him. At least the Stooges reunions were pulled off with class. This is to the present what Bing Crosby's SEASONS was to the late-seventies, only Pop hasn't croaked on a golf course yet. The voice is down a few octaves from those early days and the spoken prose really doesn't do much for you at all. At least when Arthur Godfrey was speaking about some little boy you kinda got a whiff of that Dennis the Menace's kiddoid charm. Here is all sounds like a bleak despair. Who knows what's next...maybe orange juice ads?
Arrington de Dionyso-SHOUTING OVER DEEP WATER BLUES LP (Feeding Tube Records)
Just when I thought that the "new"/"free"/"avant garde" jazz thingie had forever been wooshed away due to its better practitioners being a buncha guys holed up in their own small enclaves playing their own personal takes on past accomplishments! Outta seemingly nowhere comes this album to the rescue, a record made by a guy who is just about as cloistered as the rest of the free play survivors but THERE THE DIFFERENCE ENDS!
de Dionyso makes his music with the Bromiophone (see illustration at upper left) which might turn out to be an ever bigger marvel of the age than Supercar! For although it is mostly made up of old PVC tubes the sounds which emanate are perfect for the kind of new thing jazz we can sure use a lot more of all these years later.
Coming off a bit like Anthony Braxton on those old contrabass clarinet solo excursions, the Bromiophone sounds a lot like that famed who knew it existed before Braxton played the thing instrument with a vibrato and resonance that recalls the old Stritchaphone (or was it the Manzello...always got 'em mixed up) if that was done up as a bass instrument. However, the range and limits of the Bromiophone are wider what with some of the sounds de Dionyso comes up with on this, at one point where it sounds as if the man himself is moaning and all of a sudden that cry seems to have transformed itself into the instrument itself making your ears do a double take like nothing since that YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND album when you actually thought that her voice had suddenly transformed itself into John's angular guitar playing. Too bad this guy wasn't around during the Fluxus days or else Ms. L mighta invited him to perform on FLY...who knows?
These outta-nowhere surprises always catch me off guard. Mucho kudos to FT for releasing this in the first place, and for de Dionyso for existing in the firster than first place for that matter.
THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE CD-r burn (originally on A Recordings)
A lotta these guys' earlier efforts really didn't zap my o-mind the way I sorta hoped they would, but this effort really seems to capture a lotta the things I think the Brian Jonestown Massacre needed to capture all these years but didn't or couldn't. Some of this doesn't quite get off the ground and into the high energy ozone true, but a lot of it sure seems to owe some sorta allegiance to alla them past endeavors that I really have cherished lo these many years. A tad bit of the same area that La Femme have traipsed upon seems to show up as well...not that bad if you're really hungry for a true rock 'n roll effort that's straight ahead and lacks the typical shortcuts often found in most of the subpar sputum around.
The Corporation-GET ON OUR SWING plus HASSELS IN MY MIND CD-r burn (originally on Ace/Big Beat Records, England)
Milwaukee late-sixties psych group's second and third spinners on the Cuca Records subsidiary "Age of Aquarius" records. Don't let that scare ya off because these guys were rather good in the West Coast jazz/rock vein with all of the right moves and twists one would expect from a good portion of '69 wares from the Doors to Alice Cooper and beyond. Only trouble is that the sameness kinda gets boring about halfway through and you're startin' to look at your player's display pad wondering just how much more of this you have to endure. For seriously mindblown types only.
Bobby Bradford and the Mo'tet-LIVE AT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM CD-r burn (originally on Waterboy Records)
Hmmmmm.... Mighty fine neo-bop jazz here that doesn't come off all bowtie and tails DOWN BEAT fodder. Leonard Feather would undoubtedly approve, and so do I given how Bradford and Mo'tet really knew how to beef up the fifties jazz stream without gumming up the works. Best number is the closer "She", a ten-minute mood poem that reminds me of Byard Lancaster's "John's Children". It ain't free jazz, but you will probably love it as well as you do all of those sixties sound-wreckers.
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS - THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK CD-r burn
Hah! Between the gloppoid opening theme song and incidental music that reminds me of the stuff I would hear at the mall while forced into buying a new suit lies some actually DIGESTIBLE rock. Maybe it is too horn-bent in spots but considerin' that the guys who went to see this moom pitcher weren't exactly interested in the music as much as the suckems on display ya gotta say that a whole lot more was put into every aspect of the production than would have been expected. Well, look at it this way---if the moom pitcher came out ten years later could you IMAGINE what this rekkid would sound like? Feh! Ya gotcha some solid rock 'n roll to go with the even numbered sets that Russ Meyer made his moolah with here, kid!
Various Artists-TAKIN' OUT THE TRASH -- A TRIBUTE TO THE TRASHMEN CD-r burn (originally on Double Crown Records)
I gotta break my personal animus towards tribute platters with this Trash Bash containing covers of that famed Minnesota surf group. Thankfully the songs remain faithful to the originals (well, mosta the time!) without comin' out cheapo carbon copy or slushy gush the way TINY BUBBLES, A TRIBUTE TO DON HO did. The creme de la six-oh revivalists of the latter portion of the previous decade do their best to bring back alla that funtime record spinnin' to the point where you may think you're back in your cyster's bedroom crankin' out "Surfin' Bird" itself before she comes in and wails ya! Heck, maybe you ARE still spinnin' "Surfin' Bird" in her room much to her dismay! Well, at least now you can beat her up...can't ya?
Various Artists-SURFSIDE PARADISE DONUT PUSH CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Bill goes GNU wave on this set of early-eighties era self-produced single sides I don't think anyone outside of their mothers knew about. But as far as this kinda music goes Bill sure picked a creamier than usual crop. I kinda liked Pete Bite's neo-El Lay Sparks cum Roxy cum all over your face deca chic sounds while Shrinking Men were kinda doin' the whiteguy take on reggae and succeeding at it for once. Even the Beevers handle a mid-sixties folk rock taken to exciting variations a whole lot better'n most of the phony mods of the day. Gee, even when Bill tries to FAIL (the early-eighties new pop wave scene wasn't exactly anything I or he for that matter remembers fondly) he succeeds! Maybe I shoulda tried that particular method while preparing for my science tests!
***
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| "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for buck-toothed bowl haircut dorks worldwide." |
***So what else is up 'n about? Not much other'n that I am sad to see the summer months turn autumn even tho the upcoming winter months mean less yardwork and more of an excuse to stay inside and goof off, or work on the blog for that matter (same thing).It's the preparation for them cold days that I'm worried about tho. After all, it is a long long while from May to December, and the weeks grow short when you're outside raking up leavers 'stead of in your room doing what your suburban slob heart most desires. Anyhoo, here are this week's splatters up for dissection, and as usual the likes of P.D.Fadensonnen, Bill Shute, Feeding Tube Records and Paul McWhazizname are to be commended for their contributions to DA REVOLUCION!
I kinda wonder if side "a"'s "Transistor Lover" is a tribute to none other'n the sainted no wave band of yore Red Transistor. I kinda think so given the all out heavy tone thug approach to it. This has a rock 'n roll approach not seen since WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT and its various adherents, buffered by a whole lotta electronics that even the likes of Chrome or Throbbing Gristle never woulda dreamed of. And if they did... My fave of the new batch of toys just has to be the Transmitter Interference Electric Choir which kinda sounds like a radio being clicked on and off repeatedly while the New Christy Minstrels were being played...and it just might be that although I tend to think it's some sorta newfangled electronic device that was perhaps created by group member P.D. Fandensonnen! The best controlled chaos (I think) release this week. Total eruption, 'n that ain't no rockcrit hyperbole the kind that you get just about everywhere else.
***
Ya can't blame him. He's 72 and his best years are far far behind him. At least the Stooges reunions were pulled off with class. This is to the present what Bing Crosby's SEASONS was to the late-seventies, only Pop hasn't croaked on a golf course yet. The voice is down a few octaves from those early days and the spoken prose really doesn't do much for you at all. At least when Arthur Godfrey was speaking about some little boy you kinda got a whiff of that Dennis the Menace's kiddoid charm. Here is all sounds like a bleak despair. Who knows what's next...maybe orange juice ads?
***
Just when I thought that the "new"/"free"/"avant garde" jazz thingie had forever been wooshed away due to its better practitioners being a buncha guys holed up in their own small enclaves playing their own personal takes on past accomplishments! Outta seemingly nowhere comes this album to the rescue, a record made by a guy who is just about as cloistered as the rest of the free play survivors but THERE THE DIFFERENCE ENDS!
Coming off a bit like Anthony Braxton on those old contrabass clarinet solo excursions, the Bromiophone sounds a lot like that famed who knew it existed before Braxton played the thing instrument with a vibrato and resonance that recalls the old Stritchaphone (or was it the Manzello...always got 'em mixed up) if that was done up as a bass instrument. However, the range and limits of the Bromiophone are wider what with some of the sounds de Dionyso comes up with on this, at one point where it sounds as if the man himself is moaning and all of a sudden that cry seems to have transformed itself into the instrument itself making your ears do a double take like nothing since that YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND album when you actually thought that her voice had suddenly transformed itself into John's angular guitar playing. Too bad this guy wasn't around during the Fluxus days or else Ms. L mighta invited him to perform on FLY...who knows?
These outta-nowhere surprises always catch me off guard. Mucho kudos to FT for releasing this in the first place, and for de Dionyso for existing in the firster than first place for that matter.
***
A lotta these guys' earlier efforts really didn't zap my o-mind the way I sorta hoped they would, but this effort really seems to capture a lotta the things I think the Brian Jonestown Massacre needed to capture all these years but didn't or couldn't. Some of this doesn't quite get off the ground and into the high energy ozone true, but a lot of it sure seems to owe some sorta allegiance to alla them past endeavors that I really have cherished lo these many years. A tad bit of the same area that La Femme have traipsed upon seems to show up as well...not that bad if you're really hungry for a true rock 'n roll effort that's straight ahead and lacks the typical shortcuts often found in most of the subpar sputum around.
***
Milwaukee late-sixties psych group's second and third spinners on the Cuca Records subsidiary "Age of Aquarius" records. Don't let that scare ya off because these guys were rather good in the West Coast jazz/rock vein with all of the right moves and twists one would expect from a good portion of '69 wares from the Doors to Alice Cooper and beyond. Only trouble is that the sameness kinda gets boring about halfway through and you're startin' to look at your player's display pad wondering just how much more of this you have to endure. For seriously mindblown types only.
***
Hmmmmm.... Mighty fine neo-bop jazz here that doesn't come off all bowtie and tails DOWN BEAT fodder. Leonard Feather would undoubtedly approve, and so do I given how Bradford and Mo'tet really knew how to beef up the fifties jazz stream without gumming up the works. Best number is the closer "She", a ten-minute mood poem that reminds me of Byard Lancaster's "John's Children". It ain't free jazz, but you will probably love it as well as you do all of those sixties sound-wreckers.
***
Hah! Between the gloppoid opening theme song and incidental music that reminds me of the stuff I would hear at the mall while forced into buying a new suit lies some actually DIGESTIBLE rock. Maybe it is too horn-bent in spots but considerin' that the guys who went to see this moom pitcher weren't exactly interested in the music as much as the suckems on display ya gotta say that a whole lot more was put into every aspect of the production than would have been expected. Well, look at it this way---if the moom pitcher came out ten years later could you IMAGINE what this rekkid would sound like? Feh! Ya gotcha some solid rock 'n roll to go with the even numbered sets that Russ Meyer made his moolah with here, kid!
***
I gotta break my personal animus towards tribute platters with this Trash Bash containing covers of that famed Minnesota surf group. Thankfully the songs remain faithful to the originals (well, mosta the time!) without comin' out cheapo carbon copy or slushy gush the way TINY BUBBLES, A TRIBUTE TO DON HO did. The creme de la six-oh revivalists of the latter portion of the previous decade do their best to bring back alla that funtime record spinnin' to the point where you may think you're back in your cyster's bedroom crankin' out "Surfin' Bird" itself before she comes in and wails ya! Heck, maybe you ARE still spinnin' "Surfin' Bird" in her room much to her dismay! Well, at least now you can beat her up...can't ya?
***
Various Artists-SURFSIDE PARADISE DONUT PUSH CD-r burn (Bill Shute)Bill goes GNU wave on this set of early-eighties era self-produced single sides I don't think anyone outside of their mothers knew about. But as far as this kinda music goes Bill sure picked a creamier than usual crop. I kinda liked Pete Bite's neo-El Lay Sparks cum Roxy cum all over your face deca chic sounds while Shrinking Men were kinda doin' the whiteguy take on reggae and succeeding at it for once. Even the Beevers handle a mid-sixties folk rock taken to exciting variations a whole lot better'n most of the phony mods of the day. Gee, even when Bill tries to FAIL (the early-eighties new pop wave scene wasn't exactly anything I or he for that matter remembers fondly) he succeeds! Maybe I shoulda tried that particular method while preparing for my science tests!
***When you were a little kid I know y'all wanted to have EVERY FANZINE IN THE SHOP! Well, since I am offering these BLACK TO COMM back issues fer sale I'm sure you all have those by-now ancient thrills just rushing back to ya! Hey, it ain't too late to fulfill childhood hopes of the past...c'mon, satiate those old craving before it's too late (boy am I runnin' thin on these post-blog entry come ons for my long-deceased crudzine---c'mon and buy some willya????)!
I think a rogue comma has crept into the Razorlegs hyperlink...
ReplyDeleteDunno what happ'd here. Try googling until I can fix things up, which I doubt I can.
ReplyDelete(((Moe Howard)))
ReplyDeleteDigging the Razorlegs, thanks for the tip.
ReplyDelete