IF YOU CAN FIND ANY SINGLES STROONADIER THAN THESE I'D LIKE YA TA SHOW 'EM TO ME!
...an I mean it! Here's just some of the seven-inchers I've been finding in the vast BLOG TO COMM vaults (along with a newie here and there) these past few months, and considerin' how alla ya readers who tune in here are probably as wired for the kinda music I've been preachin' about for a looooong time maybe YOU TOO can osmose to the critical vibrations being spewed forth here! I'll even bet that this post will inspire y'all to be inspired by this 'un to the point where you'll be pouring through boxes of your own scratchy platters spinnin' 'em just like you did when you were five and you snuck into your cyster's bedroom when she wasn't lookin'---to play records that is, not peek into her underwear drawer! Hey, that's how R. Meltzer got started! Best thing about it is that your cyst is now living in Dubuque and has forgotten about all them records she left in your care, so no more inter-sibling fights for you! I mean, cyst sure could pack a mean wallop now, couldn't she???
The Afflicted-"All Right Boy"/"Who Can Tell" (Bonk Records, England)
Well whaddaya know! An Afflicted single that never did get its chance to makes its way into my paws, an' after all these years I finally got a copy for my very own to love and cherish and call it George! A-side rocks on in typical Steve Hall fashion complete with those hefty guitar lines taken (and modified) from the various guitar virtuososo's of the sixties, while the flipster is a slow dirge that reminds me of the song about sniffing glue on the first Afflicted Man album. A rarity from a man who had spent a good portion of the punk rock era in England hanging on the fringe and hey record labels, while we're at it how about a reissue of the Accursed platters which have wallowed in obscurity for way too long!
The Who-"Summertime Blues"/"Heaven and Hell" (Decca Records)
Another deep dig into the boxes! Who can fault the Who for wanting to cover this Eddie Cochran classic back at a time when the world sure needed some more of that vintage finery, but although the Who did a splendid job of updating the original for hard rock consumption could anyone top Blue Cheer's version? "Heaven and Hell" woulda been a better side to plug what with its forcefulness and and standard Who power-churn. Then again maybe it woulda gotten into some trouble considering the title. I mean, I can still hear the shrieks of horror that came about when the Kingston Trio said that naughty word in "Greenback Dollar"!
Rancid Hell Spawn-FESTERING PUS EP (Wrench Records, England)
Punk rock (at least the punk rock of a hard-edged, non-sissified kind) makes one last roaring go at it with this one-note grind out that---yeah, I know---your little brother and his friends coulda cranked out in the rec room one Saturday afternoon which begs me to retort "SO WHY DIDN'T THEY?!?!?!?!" Three faster than you can say "Jack Robinson" bursts of rock 'n roll mania recorded with those $19.99 factory closeout guitars you used to see advertised in comic books, along with a drum set won by selling FIFTY boxes of greeting cards and an old chord organ to boot (won by selling only twenty-five boxes). This record was probably financed by the SELLING of such instrumentation at a garage sale directly afterwards.
Johnny and the Jumper Cables-"Death Squad of the Mind"/"Landmine" (Stanton Park Records)
Kenne Highland's early-eighties aggregation (not counting the psychedelic beyond belief Hopelessly Obscure) used to get loads of press in the pages of TAKE IT! and nary elsewhere, undoubtedly because Highland was a contributor to that much-missed Boston rag 'n like, who else would care other'n us rabid seventies underground rock fans anyways? It's a great thing that Stanton Park released this platter which was supposed to have been a teaser for an upcoming Jumper Cables album, even if that never did show up in whatever stores would stock such things.
Plug side has Highland getting into the 1967 state o' rock music affairs as he sings about taking a journey to the center of your mind. Only when you get there it ain't all primrose 'n communal goody goods but a firing squad aimed right at the fleshier part of your brain! The other side's an ode to Kenne's own father (pictured on sleeve) who died in Vietnam after an encounter with a landmine. It seems strange that Highland would sing about a tragedy in such a relatively flippant way...perhaps he was trying to chase out the demons by composing and singing this song, but no matter the sick situation of it all I like it. Reminds me of the Rocket From the Tombs rarity "Maelstrom", an unrecorded until a few years back rarity from the original days of the band that I would like to hear in its 1975 form one of these eons. I hope that Smog Veil is listening in, even though when I squawk people do turn off!
I get the feeling that Aram Heller at Stanton Park has more'n enough of these to get rid of, so if you'd like a copy why don't you write him at PO Box 58 in Newtonville MA 02160 and don't tell him I sent you. I think he's mad enough at me for buying a Cee-Dee player at a time when vinyl was really struggling to stay afloat, long before the recent vinyl resurgence which thankfully has made the format popular among the same sorta snoots who poo-poo'd it way back when.
Cruel-"Candle on the Water"/"Tarba" (no label)
Here's one I've been searchin' out for some time and lo and behold didn't it just pop up right when I was about to give up all hope! This forgotten effort courtesy a Madison Wisconsin band from 1987 really hit on all cylinders when it was released to no fanfare during one of the more dismal times in rock music, and that's a dad-burned shame considering just what a power-packed slam both sides of this platter were and remain for that matter.
The a-side plays at 33 and is straight ahead heavy metal in the late-seventies good stuff sorta vein. Reminds me a lot of that Sorcerers song entitled "A Dog's Life" that ended up in the Paul Major book a few years back---total hard rock abandon without the phony glitz and precious poses that practically ruined the entire metal genre for more'n a few total lunkheads like myself.
The flip plays 45 and is even gnarlier in a not-quite speedmetal but still hard enough to kill off the Andy Secher rock snob crowd within ten paces. Yeah, the singer might be a little too "squealy" for you and maybe he is, but this record is what I think of when I think of heavy metal as that early-seventies bred source of sonic manifestation!
I heard that the rest of this group's material was rather fehsville and I hope I'm wrong. Cruel sound like a band that could have made a big indent on the late-eighties rock scene if they only got that big break a lotta groups can only creemdreem of!
The Miracles-"Mickey's Monkey"/"Whatever makes You Happy" (Tamla)
Another find from deep in the bowels of my collection...my record collection that is! Perhaps this 'un's just too much of a hit to warrant any commentary from me but since I took all of that effort to pull this out and play it I better not waste any of my energies by ignoring it. I gotta say that it's a fairly decent breed of pop that, while not earth-shattering and life-changing as many of my seventies faves were and shall remain, still makes for a more listenable two 'n a half minutes than anything that blond gal who sticks things between her legs on tee-vee ever did! The flip's just a throwaway that will whiz right through your cranium but like, back then many of these flipsters were expected to be turds so why quibble this far down the line?
The Last Sons of Krypton-"Teenage Trash", "Break My Heart"/"Jack the Ripper", "Screaming" (Kryptonite Records, 827 Lincoln Blvd., Manitowoc, WI 54220)
Don't let the cover fool ya...this 'un really does contain four 'stead of two songs. I guess the covers were made in advance and the people at Kryptonite were too cheap to make up a new one. Whatever the case may be this is a rec any real fan of rock 'n roll as that HEAD-SPLITTING, MIND DESTROYING FORCE that seems to have been in rather short supply these past fortysome years should want. You might wanna call this almost hardcore about three steps away from actually being it, but then again tracks like "Jack the Ripper" (the Screaming Lord Sutch one, not Link Wray's) have that BACK FROM THE GRAVE sense of mid-sixties teenage suburban trash 'n greasy onion rings attitude down pat! I get the feeling that many of these may still be readily available, and if you write to the address listed above (and send a SASE or at least some bucks) who knows what you might get in exchange!
Fats Domino-"The Fat Man"/"Hey La Bas Boogie"
As you can see this is not whatcha'd call a "proper" release. It ain't even a release per se...at first I thought it was an acetate of some sort but after many years of speculation I decided that this actually was one of those home-made recordings that relatively few technologically-advanced types could create on their own record-maker, the kind that Archie would use to make a "Larry Lumpet and his Trumpet" record for Veronica while trying to pass it off as an original. The sound quality, flat and low, would attest to this, but if someone wanted to hear a rare Fats Domino record in 1969 and could only get one this way, what other choices would the jamoke have anyway?
I didn't dare play the flip due to some foreign matter like fifty-year-old snot or something stuck in the grooves with my attempts to scrape it out resulting in eating away at at! Oh well, I'm sure it woulda been a winner even if a good spin woulda set my stylus back a good hundred years.
Bo Diddley-"You Can't Judge a Book By The Cover"/"I Can Tell" (Checker Records)
Another originator gets the BLOG TO COMM treatment, and although Diddley was wrong to say that you can't judge a book by looking at the cover (I've judged many a record by that and that alone), you can't fault him for making this boffo rock 'n roll statement which sure drives its sound and general gnarl home a whole lot more'n just about any record released these past few eons. Flipster's pretty good itself making me wanna dig even more into the Diddley mystique. Hey, can anyone direct me to that Diddley bootleg from the late-eighties or so (which was reviewed in KICKS) which features a cover of Diddley and crew dressed in space outfits showing off their Stonehenge-like teeth?
The Midnighters-"Work With Me Annie"/"Until I Die" (Federal Records)
Land's sakes, but I still wonder just how a DURTY rekkid like this made its way into my collection! The "work" part well...that can be taken various ways. But when the singer asks Annie to "give me all my meat" I just about hit the floor. An' don't tell me THAT can be taken two ways, cuz it can't unless Hank Ballard was singing about the post-World War II beef shortage! Sheesh, if they only toned the thing down like maybe change "work" to "dance" and "Annie" to "Henry" and got some woman to sing it...I can see that hittin' the charts with a whole lot more ease now, can you? Face it, it's records like this which are the reason YOU were born!
John's Children-"Go Go Girl", "Jagged Time Lapse"/"Come and Play With Me in the Garden". "Sara, Crazy Child" EP (Action Records, England)
Long before various under-the-radar kinda labels were doin' it we hadda rely on records like this in order to give a listen to some of the obscurities that had lapsed into oblivion a long time ago. Actually this Action Records outfit did a good job of mastering the original singles and placing them upon vinyl without much sound quality loss, and I'll give a listen to John's Children in just about any wayshapeform because they rated a listen no matter the source. From the group's heyday back when Marc Bolan was strummin' the Gibson to rather amazing effect.
THE CHOIR EP (Bomp Records)
Before those glitzy packaged collections with remastered sound and detailed liner notes began comin' out this was the one that Clepop fans went to for their mid-sixties thrills. Here are the early rough acetate-sourced numbers that the likes of Sundazed sure gussied up good awhile back and although the originals sure do sound like they were used for hockey pucks all I gotta say is that when yer really hungry for rock 'n roll you'll take 'em...to borrow from one of the song titles here...anyway you can! Liner notes are by none other than Anastasia Pantsios done up back during the time she was trying to cozy up to the Bomp empire by not only doing a Greg Shaw feature for THE PLAIN DEALER (complete with a personally done pen and ink portrait taken from a promo pic!) but a piece on the Cleveland pop scene for Shaw's very mag which I gotta say rates as one of the less exciting things they decided to print. Gee, if Eric Carmen had only succumbed to her advances (or so Stiv Bators said) maybe we wouldn't have hadda put up with her starry-eyed aging flower child musings lo these many years.
The Pink Holes-"Billy Monster", "Frustration Factor"/"Under the Covers", "Love, You Bet!" 7-inch 33 rpm EP (Smog Veil Records)
I was a tad disappointed that "Billy Monster" was not a cover of the Deviants classic. No, actually I was GLAD that is wasn't because these covers of classic underground ephemera usually end up sounding like the doggiest doo you can come across in Paul McGarry's back yard. Actually whatcha get on this pink vinyl EP is some pretty hot punk rock the way ya remembered in almost fifty years back when the form was more attuned to the suburban slob side of one 'stead of the socially conscious hold hands kumbaya it eventually became. Four hard-drive total overload tracks that I'm sure will stir your stirrups and although it ain't the Electric Eels well, what is?
The Beau Brummels-"Don't Talk to Strangers"/"In Good Time" (Autumn Records)
Man do those folk rock chords continue to resonate in my brain just as much as they did when I was a mere turdler and music like this was packing up the airwaves much to the dismay of many a straight-laced biddy! "Strangers" shoulda been a bigger hit than it was but it's still a NUGGETS-worthy winner, and the upbeat flip which takes itself into various pre-SF scene goodtime modes ain't bad in itself either. A great example as to how, at least for a fleeting few years, rock 'n roll really was riding a peak of energetic accomplishment that sadly would fizzle out slowly but surely as the years lurched towards the hippoid doldrums.
Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band-"Promises"/"She Belongs To Me" (Decca Records)
Anyone who still thinks that Rick Nelson, the irrepressible one of tee-vee fame, was a cheap copycat who just happened to make it big because he was on a popular sitcom better do some heavy reconnoitering after giving these sides a spin. "Promises" even has the rougher parts of the early-seventies country rock idiom down pretty good (an' I ain't talkin' those weepy Laurel Canyon types either) which makes me lament the fact that this 'un went zilchwhere, while the Dylan cover is about as much a distillation of anything that guy was doin' at the same time only without those lesser aspects of Bob that tend to drive me up the wall. If Ozzie was as proud of his son's music career as he made it seem like, he had a better handling on the movement and form of rock 'n roll than any of us would have ever realized!
Aged in Soul-"Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)"/"Not Enough Love to Satisfy" (Hot Wax Records)
Off brand soul sometimes has a nice 'n cheap lower tier appeal to it, and Aged in Soul is no diff'n some of the acts that mighta made it but never really had the opportunity. Too rough for the usual soul merchants of the day, these guys do have that bargain basement groove that lacks a lotta the glop that could be applied to recs such as this. A surprisingly hot and jumpy single that, although a bit heavy on the funky horns, does deliver with an energetic approach and delivery that even gets an at-times nonchalant listener such as I perked up. This 'un didn't make it as big as "Who's Been Sleeping" but I'm sure it still livened up many of the parties that the likes of Lester Bangs instigated during those late-night CREEM deadline crunchers.
Alberto y los Trios Paranoias-SNUFF ROCK EP (Stiff Records, England)
Alberto and crew take time off from their Transatlantic contract to record this punk rock spoof for Stiff Records. Along the way they do such a good job of it that, like in the case of Kim Fowley, the music that they are digging at is just as good as the original real deal (thank you Bill Shute!). The added comedic touch doesn't hurt any, plus even an unaware type of listener could give this one a spin thinking that it's all on the up and up its that realistic to the original p-rock intent of it all! Actually a pretty good artyfact of those years even if it was nothing but a big if ACCURATE send up!
Detroit Energy Asylum-"Stay There"/"Changing Fractions" (Jukebox Records)
Back inna eighties high energy Detroit-styled rock 'n roll was mighty hard to come by, so when a record by someone like Scott Morgan or this local doozy popped into my radarscope you can just bet that it was yum yum eat 'em up time! Nowadays the Detroit Energy Asylum record doesn't seem to be anything that out of the hard rock ordinary what with their toned down light metal sound and of course that "I'm My Own Woman" tough bitch female lead singer that was so common at the time. But back in '86 when this came out...wow! Actually it still holds up as a good hard rock single by a group that never did make it as far as they deserved to have. Might be worth an internet search to give this act a few more minutes of fame than they originally got over thirty years back.
Charlie Rich-"Mohair Sam"/"I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water" (Smash Rrcords)
Actually this single, nor "Lonely Weekend" nor his 1973 wowzers "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" for that matter was Charlie Rich's best moment.
For me Rich's career apex was the time he was announcing the winner of the most popular male country star at the Country Music Awards (who was---believe it or don't---JOHN DENVER???) while stoned and set the envelope on fire (see below)! Can you think of a better tribute to drug and alcohol consumption than this? Hey, if Henry Rollins ever did something like that he sure woulda come off looking rather infantile and as much a part of the whole alternative music problem of the eighties as anyone else on the planet, not that it would be hard. But not Charlie Rich! Cooler than Robert Mitchum even!
Anyway this classic slab's no slouch either, a boffo rollin' piano hit that deserved its Top 40 success (reminds me of Paul Revere and the Raiders in their Northwest days) coupled with another wonderful effort featuring that neo-Elvis-ish voice that I'll bet had more gals wanting their guys to squeeze their suckems'n even Johnny Mathis's could! In other words, a crossover hit that can cross over into my listening parameters anytime!...an I mean it! Here's just some of the seven-inchers I've been finding in the vast BLOG TO COMM vaults (along with a newie here and there) these past few months, and considerin' how alla ya readers who tune in here are probably as wired for the kinda music I've been preachin' about for a looooong time maybe YOU TOO can osmose to the critical vibrations being spewed forth here! I'll even bet that this post will inspire y'all to be inspired by this 'un to the point where you'll be pouring through boxes of your own scratchy platters spinnin' 'em just like you did when you were five and you snuck into your cyster's bedroom when she wasn't lookin'---to play records that is, not peek into her underwear drawer! Hey, that's how R. Meltzer got started! Best thing about it is that your cyst is now living in Dubuque and has forgotten about all them records she left in your care, so no more inter-sibling fights for you! I mean, cyst sure could pack a mean wallop now, couldn't she???
Well whaddaya know! An Afflicted single that never did get its chance to makes its way into my paws, an' after all these years I finally got a copy for my very own to love and cherish and call it George! A-side rocks on in typical Steve Hall fashion complete with those hefty guitar lines taken (and modified) from the various guitar virtuososo's of the sixties, while the flipster is a slow dirge that reminds me of the song about sniffing glue on the first Afflicted Man album. A rarity from a man who had spent a good portion of the punk rock era in England hanging on the fringe and hey record labels, while we're at it how about a reissue of the Accursed platters which have wallowed in obscurity for way too long!
***
Another deep dig into the boxes! Who can fault the Who for wanting to cover this Eddie Cochran classic back at a time when the world sure needed some more of that vintage finery, but although the Who did a splendid job of updating the original for hard rock consumption could anyone top Blue Cheer's version? "Heaven and Hell" woulda been a better side to plug what with its forcefulness and and standard Who power-churn. Then again maybe it woulda gotten into some trouble considering the title. I mean, I can still hear the shrieks of horror that came about when the Kingston Trio said that naughty word in "Greenback Dollar"!
***
Punk rock (at least the punk rock of a hard-edged, non-sissified kind) makes one last roaring go at it with this one-note grind out that---yeah, I know---your little brother and his friends coulda cranked out in the rec room one Saturday afternoon which begs me to retort "SO WHY DIDN'T THEY?!?!?!?!" Three faster than you can say "Jack Robinson" bursts of rock 'n roll mania recorded with those $19.99 factory closeout guitars you used to see advertised in comic books, along with a drum set won by selling FIFTY boxes of greeting cards and an old chord organ to boot (won by selling only twenty-five boxes). This record was probably financed by the SELLING of such instrumentation at a garage sale directly afterwards.
***
Kenne Highland's early-eighties aggregation (not counting the psychedelic beyond belief Hopelessly Obscure) used to get loads of press in the pages of TAKE IT! and nary elsewhere, undoubtedly because Highland was a contributor to that much-missed Boston rag 'n like, who else would care other'n us rabid seventies underground rock fans anyways? It's a great thing that Stanton Park released this platter which was supposed to have been a teaser for an upcoming Jumper Cables album, even if that never did show up in whatever stores would stock such things.
Plug side has Highland getting into the 1967 state o' rock music affairs as he sings about taking a journey to the center of your mind. Only when you get there it ain't all primrose 'n communal goody goods but a firing squad aimed right at the fleshier part of your brain! The other side's an ode to Kenne's own father (pictured on sleeve) who died in Vietnam after an encounter with a landmine. It seems strange that Highland would sing about a tragedy in such a relatively flippant way...perhaps he was trying to chase out the demons by composing and singing this song, but no matter the sick situation of it all I like it. Reminds me of the Rocket From the Tombs rarity "Maelstrom", an unrecorded until a few years back rarity from the original days of the band that I would like to hear in its 1975 form one of these eons. I hope that Smog Veil is listening in, even though when I squawk people do turn off!
I get the feeling that Aram Heller at Stanton Park has more'n enough of these to get rid of, so if you'd like a copy why don't you write him at PO Box 58 in Newtonville MA 02160 and don't tell him I sent you. I think he's mad enough at me for buying a Cee-Dee player at a time when vinyl was really struggling to stay afloat, long before the recent vinyl resurgence which thankfully has made the format popular among the same sorta snoots who poo-poo'd it way back when.
***
Here's one I've been searchin' out for some time and lo and behold didn't it just pop up right when I was about to give up all hope! This forgotten effort courtesy a Madison Wisconsin band from 1987 really hit on all cylinders when it was released to no fanfare during one of the more dismal times in rock music, and that's a dad-burned shame considering just what a power-packed slam both sides of this platter were and remain for that matter.
The a-side plays at 33 and is straight ahead heavy metal in the late-seventies good stuff sorta vein. Reminds me a lot of that Sorcerers song entitled "A Dog's Life" that ended up in the Paul Major book a few years back---total hard rock abandon without the phony glitz and precious poses that practically ruined the entire metal genre for more'n a few total lunkheads like myself.
The flip plays 45 and is even gnarlier in a not-quite speedmetal but still hard enough to kill off the Andy Secher rock snob crowd within ten paces. Yeah, the singer might be a little too "squealy" for you and maybe he is, but this record is what I think of when I think of heavy metal as that early-seventies bred source of sonic manifestation!
I heard that the rest of this group's material was rather fehsville and I hope I'm wrong. Cruel sound like a band that could have made a big indent on the late-eighties rock scene if they only got that big break a lotta groups can only creemdreem of!
***
Another find from deep in the bowels of my collection...my record collection that is! Perhaps this 'un's just too much of a hit to warrant any commentary from me but since I took all of that effort to pull this out and play it I better not waste any of my energies by ignoring it. I gotta say that it's a fairly decent breed of pop that, while not earth-shattering and life-changing as many of my seventies faves were and shall remain, still makes for a more listenable two 'n a half minutes than anything that blond gal who sticks things between her legs on tee-vee ever did! The flip's just a throwaway that will whiz right through your cranium but like, back then many of these flipsters were expected to be turds so why quibble this far down the line?
***
Don't let the cover fool ya...this 'un really does contain four 'stead of two songs. I guess the covers were made in advance and the people at Kryptonite were too cheap to make up a new one. Whatever the case may be this is a rec any real fan of rock 'n roll as that HEAD-SPLITTING, MIND DESTROYING FORCE that seems to have been in rather short supply these past fortysome years should want. You might wanna call this almost hardcore about three steps away from actually being it, but then again tracks like "Jack the Ripper" (the Screaming Lord Sutch one, not Link Wray's) have that BACK FROM THE GRAVE sense of mid-sixties teenage suburban trash 'n greasy onion rings attitude down pat! I get the feeling that many of these may still be readily available, and if you write to the address listed above (and send a SASE or at least some bucks) who knows what you might get in exchange!
***
As you can see this is not whatcha'd call a "proper" release. It ain't even a release per se...at first I thought it was an acetate of some sort but after many years of speculation I decided that this actually was one of those home-made recordings that relatively few technologically-advanced types could create on their own record-maker, the kind that Archie would use to make a "Larry Lumpet and his Trumpet" record for Veronica while trying to pass it off as an original. The sound quality, flat and low, would attest to this, but if someone wanted to hear a rare Fats Domino record in 1969 and could only get one this way, what other choices would the jamoke have anyway?
I didn't dare play the flip due to some foreign matter like fifty-year-old snot or something stuck in the grooves with my attempts to scrape it out resulting in eating away at at! Oh well, I'm sure it woulda been a winner even if a good spin woulda set my stylus back a good hundred years.
***
Another originator gets the BLOG TO COMM treatment, and although Diddley was wrong to say that you can't judge a book by looking at the cover (I've judged many a record by that and that alone), you can't fault him for making this boffo rock 'n roll statement which sure drives its sound and general gnarl home a whole lot more'n just about any record released these past few eons. Flipster's pretty good itself making me wanna dig even more into the Diddley mystique. Hey, can anyone direct me to that Diddley bootleg from the late-eighties or so (which was reviewed in KICKS) which features a cover of Diddley and crew dressed in space outfits showing off their Stonehenge-like teeth?
***
Land's sakes, but I still wonder just how a DURTY rekkid like this made its way into my collection! The "work" part well...that can be taken various ways. But when the singer asks Annie to "give me all my meat" I just about hit the floor. An' don't tell me THAT can be taken two ways, cuz it can't unless Hank Ballard was singing about the post-World War II beef shortage! Sheesh, if they only toned the thing down like maybe change "work" to "dance" and "Annie" to "Henry" and got some woman to sing it...I can see that hittin' the charts with a whole lot more ease now, can you? Face it, it's records like this which are the reason YOU were born!
***
Long before various under-the-radar kinda labels were doin' it we hadda rely on records like this in order to give a listen to some of the obscurities that had lapsed into oblivion a long time ago. Actually this Action Records outfit did a good job of mastering the original singles and placing them upon vinyl without much sound quality loss, and I'll give a listen to John's Children in just about any wayshapeform because they rated a listen no matter the source. From the group's heyday back when Marc Bolan was strummin' the Gibson to rather amazing effect.
***
THE CHOIR EP (Bomp Records)
Before those glitzy packaged collections with remastered sound and detailed liner notes began comin' out this was the one that Clepop fans went to for their mid-sixties thrills. Here are the early rough acetate-sourced numbers that the likes of Sundazed sure gussied up good awhile back and although the originals sure do sound like they were used for hockey pucks all I gotta say is that when yer really hungry for rock 'n roll you'll take 'em...to borrow from one of the song titles here...anyway you can! Liner notes are by none other than Anastasia Pantsios done up back during the time she was trying to cozy up to the Bomp empire by not only doing a Greg Shaw feature for THE PLAIN DEALER (complete with a personally done pen and ink portrait taken from a promo pic!) but a piece on the Cleveland pop scene for Shaw's very mag which I gotta say rates as one of the less exciting things they decided to print. Gee, if Eric Carmen had only succumbed to her advances (or so Stiv Bators said) maybe we wouldn't have hadda put up with her starry-eyed aging flower child musings lo these many years.
***
I was a tad disappointed that "Billy Monster" was not a cover of the Deviants classic. No, actually I was GLAD that is wasn't because these covers of classic underground ephemera usually end up sounding like the doggiest doo you can come across in Paul McGarry's back yard. Actually whatcha get on this pink vinyl EP is some pretty hot punk rock the way ya remembered in almost fifty years back when the form was more attuned to the suburban slob side of one 'stead of the socially conscious hold hands kumbaya it eventually became. Four hard-drive total overload tracks that I'm sure will stir your stirrups and although it ain't the Electric Eels well, what is?
***
Man do those folk rock chords continue to resonate in my brain just as much as they did when I was a mere turdler and music like this was packing up the airwaves much to the dismay of many a straight-laced biddy! "Strangers" shoulda been a bigger hit than it was but it's still a NUGGETS-worthy winner, and the upbeat flip which takes itself into various pre-SF scene goodtime modes ain't bad in itself either. A great example as to how, at least for a fleeting few years, rock 'n roll really was riding a peak of energetic accomplishment that sadly would fizzle out slowly but surely as the years lurched towards the hippoid doldrums.
***
Anyone who still thinks that Rick Nelson, the irrepressible one of tee-vee fame, was a cheap copycat who just happened to make it big because he was on a popular sitcom better do some heavy reconnoitering after giving these sides a spin. "Promises" even has the rougher parts of the early-seventies country rock idiom down pretty good (an' I ain't talkin' those weepy Laurel Canyon types either) which makes me lament the fact that this 'un went zilchwhere, while the Dylan cover is about as much a distillation of anything that guy was doin' at the same time only without those lesser aspects of Bob that tend to drive me up the wall. If Ozzie was as proud of his son's music career as he made it seem like, he had a better handling on the movement and form of rock 'n roll than any of us would have ever realized!
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Off brand soul sometimes has a nice 'n cheap lower tier appeal to it, and Aged in Soul is no diff'n some of the acts that mighta made it but never really had the opportunity. Too rough for the usual soul merchants of the day, these guys do have that bargain basement groove that lacks a lotta the glop that could be applied to recs such as this. A surprisingly hot and jumpy single that, although a bit heavy on the funky horns, does deliver with an energetic approach and delivery that even gets an at-times nonchalant listener such as I perked up. This 'un didn't make it as big as "Who's Been Sleeping" but I'm sure it still livened up many of the parties that the likes of Lester Bangs instigated during those late-night CREEM deadline crunchers.
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Alberto and crew take time off from their Transatlantic contract to record this punk rock spoof for Stiff Records. Along the way they do such a good job of it that, like in the case of Kim Fowley, the music that they are digging at is just as good as the original real deal (thank you Bill Shute!). The added comedic touch doesn't hurt any, plus even an unaware type of listener could give this one a spin thinking that it's all on the up and up its that realistic to the original p-rock intent of it all! Actually a pretty good artyfact of those years even if it was nothing but a big if ACCURATE send up!
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Back inna eighties high energy Detroit-styled rock 'n roll was mighty hard to come by, so when a record by someone like Scott Morgan or this local doozy popped into my radarscope you can just bet that it was yum yum eat 'em up time! Nowadays the Detroit Energy Asylum record doesn't seem to be anything that out of the hard rock ordinary what with their toned down light metal sound and of course that "I'm My Own Woman" tough bitch female lead singer that was so common at the time. But back in '86 when this came out...wow! Actually it still holds up as a good hard rock single by a group that never did make it as far as they deserved to have. Might be worth an internet search to give this act a few more minutes of fame than they originally got over thirty years back.
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Actually this single, nor "Lonely Weekend" nor his 1973 wowzers "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" for that matter was Charlie Rich's best moment.
For me Rich's career apex was the time he was announcing the winner of the most popular male country star at the Country Music Awards (who was---believe it or don't---JOHN DENVER???) while stoned and set the envelope on fire (see below)! Can you think of a better tribute to drug and alcohol consumption than this? Hey, if Henry Rollins ever did something like that he sure woulda come off looking rather infantile and as much a part of the whole alternative music problem of the eighties as anyone else on the planet, not that it would be hard. But not Charlie Rich! Cooler than Robert Mitchum even!
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Yeah this 'un's been on more Pagans re-re-reissues than I can count, but there's just SOMETHING manly about gettin' hold of an original 45 and plunking it down on your Flinstones turntable! Cleveland punk rock (using that 1977 SLASH mag version of the term for once!) tearing it up on a coupla hotcha sides that sure sound invigorating and life re-affirming a good fortysome years after these bloody scrapes passing themselves off as music were laid down. Sure takes me back...to times I'd more or less like to forget but then again anything after turdler age is off limits as far as happy memories go so what'm I crabbin' about anyway?
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The mix of crass and stoopid makes this EP from former Penetrators member Kagan a really under-the-radar early-eighties release that proves that it didn't all die once the closing of Max's Kansas City and the death of Lester Bangs signaled the end of an era that never did get a chance to live up to its fullest potential. Definite home-styled recording and production (not to mention performance) gives this EP an especially mid-sixties garage band sound while the more "modern" tunes show an influence of the better moments of what was getting played on FM radio before that capitulated into AOR decay. Sorta like the end point from the beginning point that began with the Gizmos a good seven or so years before this one made its way onto vinyl.
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Splitsville EP featuring two of the more whonked out acts to ever crawl outta Wisconsin. No cheeziness here what with both the Last Sons of Krypton and the Creatures dealing out that old-styled hardcore punk (long before it "punqued" out thanks to the infiltration of many a sagged out hippie into the ranks) that reminds me of the old Bad Trip Vox Pop/Angry Samoans style that certainly caught me by the ear back inna mid-eighties. Cover snaps were taken during a Daughters of Belitas meeting when guest speaker Ann Powers decided to interpret the Unknown Tongue Pressure in her own special way!
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This record does capture the mid-eighties Australian sound a whole lot more than I'm sure many would dare admit. Of course it ain't as hit-ya as the Deniz Tek or Minuteman ones but it serves its purpose, what with a keen "96 Tears" cop on the a-side and a neo-bubblegum chewer on the flip. I kinda go more for the pre-blandout groups that were up and about down there but this one, as they say, does serve its purpose. While I'm on the subject, are their any recordings by ME 262 available other'n via the HARD TO BEAT Stooges tribute?
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The patented Harvest Records Sound (Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers, Move...) really didn't last that far into the seventies even if that company did have the smarts to pick up such groups as Soft Machine and Be-Bop Deluxe who sorta carried on the banner before it all went down the crapper. However, the appearance of Cliff Richard on that most esoteric of major label offshoots is quite stymieing considering just what a joke that guy's career became in the post-British Invasion era.
Honestly, Richard actually pulls off a good one with the self-penned a-side which not only captures a bit of the power pop mania of the day but throws in some religious references that otherwise would seem out of place. The flip is about as housewife sudzy as anyone can imagine, as if housewives were even that sudzy after the eighties. Hey, did he ever get off (no, I don't mean that!) after those child molestation accusations from a good ten or so years back? Sheesh, between him and Gary Glitter...
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I don't think that Roger McGuinn woulda been losing any sleep after hearing these definitely Byrdsian folk rockers, but ya gotta admit that the kids who recorded these records did a pretty good job of capturing that 1966 El Lay sound even if they mighta originated in Albuquerque. This 'un's got some oft-comped faves like Boo Boo & Bunkie's Sonny Bono meets Dylan-styled "Turn Around" and long-forgotten groups like Beer, the Bats and the Bees (not the ones of "Voices Green and Purple" fame) doing tracks that were bound to get most iron-haired gals of the day just bursting with over-emote! It's all enhanced by that patented one-dimensional Moxie Records sound, an' it comes on yellow vinyl which will remind you of those days when things like yellow vinyl records meant something to people who liked records for all the wrong reasons.
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I think Wayne McGuire was wrong when he wrote about Creedence's monotony not being a "manifestation of genius" like the Stooges' was. Both of these acts sure knew how to use the repeato-riff to their own advantage, and Creedence did put out singles that sure sounded great in the face of some of the atrocities that were being passed off on transistor kiddies during the very late-sixties. A double sided hit which shows that you coulda had all the shaggy hippie hair in the world, but if you could pound out THE BIG BEAT it really didn't matter even if you did look like you came straight outta Dogpatch.
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This is the Byrds I like to think about, not the later-on group who looked way too hippified for any self-respecting suburban slob's record collection. Even the horns can't ruin "Lady Friend" which keeps its classic folk rock style in the face of changing musical modes (mostly for the worst that is) while "Old John Robertson", ostensibly about some film director I have nada knowledge about, remains one of the better efforts of this soon-to-topple outfit. With this tale of an Old West remnant stranded in a world he never made I'm kinda reminded of one of those old half-hour GUNSMOKEs I enjoy watching these evenings. And to think that it was only two or so years until David Crosby's shilling the rubes ploy via WOODSTOCK made him the spokesman for a generation that shoulda shut up a long time ago.
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I decided to pull this 'un out in honor of the late Mr. Loney, and considering that I have multiple copies of almost all of the early Groovies albums in my collection (save SUPERSNAZZ which I was ALWAYS afraid to snatch up even if Lester Bangs gave it a boff review in STONE) I believe that I made a pretty good choice. It sure was a great idea teaming up the former Teenage Head himself with the A-Bones, and the whole bunch of 'em sure put up a wild wail on a whole buncha covers that really hearken back to those great 99-cent bargain bin days when things like TEENAGE HEAD could be snatched up even if you were earning those depression-era wages like I was. Loney's (and Danny Mihm's) passing is just one more example as to all of us getting older and more decrepit as the days roll on, but somehow this kinda music seems all the more fresher for one maybe not-so-strange reason or another.
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It's funny...Tom Hazelmeyer and his Amphetamine Reptile label made up a hefty portion of infoomation fodder during the early days of my crudzine, yet as soon as the nineties clocked in the entire AR stable (and the groups they influenced) seemed to fizzle out into either nothingness or more of that New Metal that might or might not have been outside of my crud's focal point. So keeping that all in mind it was sure nice to give this Halo of Flies side project a spin. "Lederhosen"'s got this repeato-riff heavy metal chording and vocals which sound as if they were sung by a German angry about how World War II turned out. Perfect for your next Bock Beer festival! The flip's a keen cover of the famed tee-vee show theme complete with little kids and pervy-sounding muppets. Kinda gives "Tickle Me Elmo" an entirely new meaning.
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Another mid-eighties fave that I've seemed to have neglected for a way longer time than I should have. Jeff Dahl and band do their best to absorb not only the Angry Samoans but the entire early speedmetal scene with this effort that seemed to get some hoo-hah during its day, but not quite enough. Kinda reminds me of what alla that bad music that came outta the late-eighties and nineties sounded like, but way before it sounded bad ifyaknowaddamean...
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Every so often I need a Sweet fix, and this shoulda been a hit in Ameriga single is just the right thing to get me outta these modern day doldrums. As far as "I'm a Man" swipes go "Block Buster"'s even got "Jean Genie" beat (maybe not "Muckraker" but that wasn't even written when this rec came out!) and still kicks up a good punk rock roar even fortysome years later. The flip gets into early heavy metal raunch yet doesn't take itself seriously which only makes it all the more better. A record that goes to show you that your teenybopper older cyster maybe did have better musical tastes than you ever would have reckoned.
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Remember when a whole buncha libber types were touting the entire "Women in Rock" movement as if it were a new and definitely post-male chauvinism moo-ment? One that never woulda happened had those angry dames not burned their bras back during a time when being a woman really meant something to boys who were just starting to notice things like suckems on girls? I mean, have you ever seen a bra-less dyke??? Yeeeeeesh! Well, as the GIRLS IN THE GARAGE series of albums proved the all-female rock groups did not begin with those ugly buglies wearin' Gloria Steinem glasses...in fact there were plenny of gal bands out there who were pretty good and didn't need to play up on the T&A aspects to get guys listenin'. Not that it woulda necessarily helped the Continental Co-ets...I mean from one look of it they all sure coulda used the Mark Eden Course ifyaknowaddamean...
But the Co-ets really can put out (no, not that) as the a-side proves."Let's Live For The Present" is a good twisto on "Let's Live For Today" with a definite garage band outlook that kinda reminds me of the Pleasure Seekers. That naturally would figure, but way better them than the Go-Go's or Bangles who took the gals with instruments motif and slicked it up for the MTV generation!
I will refrain from the obvious GREEN ACRES jokes regarding "Ebb Tide", but this hearty old chestnut is an obvious throwaway for the older generation who went for the slow dance schmoozers. It ain't that hotcha in my own humble opinion, but the slick hair 'n saddle shoes geek that resides within you might just go for the thing.
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And for our final foray into stroonad-y singles...I might have mentioned this 'un onna blog before but who'd wanna read through sixteen years of blather to find out exactly where I mentioned this early-eighties high energy Australian group's single before. But Minuteman didn't exactly sound like something that fans were expecting outta that continent at the time---its got little of the neo-Detroit sounds of the Radio Birdman cadre, but it's still great rockin' what with its definitely spooky rhythms and Santeria-styled pounce that recalls the heights of the early eighties right before it wooshed away into a slew of hippie influences and meaningless fragments. At least the Big Beat continued on for a few more years down there.
Not surprisingly, Minuteman does remind me of what surprises and general thrills there were obtaining these rare and usually scorned by the general populace records at a time when even the most innocuous power pop single was considered a punk rock evil by most of the record buying populace. But we didn't care now did we, once the stylus hit the vinyl and years of slick commercial anti-rock was finally washed outta our systems for good! Maybe your system could use a good cleaning out and I don't mean your lower intestines...get a copy of this 'un an' remember that most important of truths...that you were RIGHT about it all (music, television, film, proper O-Mind applications...) all along.
CCR! The Who! Two of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteIMHO, The Who's version far exceeds Blue Cheers. Blue Cheer was a one hit wonder. One and done! Not in the league of The Who, Cream, Hendrix, Ten Years After, etc. The latter had musicianship, IMHO. That said, keep 'em coming, Chris! Cheers! Alvin Bishop
An lp with ME262/TRANS262 was released by aussie label Buttercup Records some years ago.Includes a flexi and other goodies! Also interview written by David Laing.300 copies made.
ReplyDeleteAND!!! - listen to The Teenage Graves!!!/// Rolf the Swede
Chris can't have any Laing liner notes in the house... It is still too soon after their acrimonious split.
ReplyDeleteKenne Highland is a rock god.
What split? Never had a beef with Mr. Laing, or if I have it's been looooong forgotten. You must be thinking of that other Melbournian with a similar last name. Maybe he had a split with me but if so I am not aware of it. Money for ME262 should be heading to Buttercup more sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was the wrong Laing. Be warned, though, only half of the record is ME262. The other half is by Trans 262. So you won't be able to play it when Pat Buchanan comes over for brunch.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I'm sure Andrew Anglin won't mind!
ReplyDeleteAndrew Anglin did nothing wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt might have been a joke, and I might be being played, but was there ever an answer to who was the group in that photo last week? An inquiring mind wants to know.
ReplyDeleteDead End Kids/Bowery Boys, Drunkie. Come on, Huntz Hall had one of the most recognizable faces ever.
ReplyDelete