Izza "Chinese Gongo" shutdown beginnin' to get you down? Not me...I figure this is probably gonna be the closest thing to SUMMER VACATION I'm gonna get until I retire or croak, at which point I'm not gonna be in any shape to do anything anyway so might as well enjoy myself now. Yeah I know that some people are champin' at the bit to get things back to "normal" but hey, there have always been over-achievers and do-gooders who want to keep busy and help humanity and other disturbing things along those lines and unfortunately THEY ARE NOT GOING AWAY NO MATTER HOW HARD I PRAY! I guess we'll have to put up with such reprobates for as long as there's an Earth to live on, but that doesn't me we have to go along with their sickening mentalities. So readers, just say home, live it up and creep outside only if you need them bare essentials like canned tamales and laxatives.
ME-262/Trans 262-1979-1982 LP (Buttercup Records, Australia)
When it comes to legendary yet obscure under-the-underground seventies-era Australian hard rock groups nobody can beat Trans Love Energies for legendary chaotic status. However, ME-262 do come in a hefty second, and this group finally gets their just desserts splattered all over 'em on this relatively recent so-seventies blue-vinyl SPECIAL EDITION release which, besides having a real boffo high quality cover, features a whole load of goodies enclosed which is one reason this thing'll set you back a whole lotta moolah!
The performances from both incarnations of this important Antipodean outlet (including follow up Trans 262 and I hope "Trans" doesn't mean what I think it does!) are hard rock quality enough and even sound BETTER when they're not mimicking Radio Birdman. Thankfully both sides retain that raw demo sound that always came off better'n the actual polished results unless you're a HI-FI FREAK or something equally cubesville. Comes with a flexidisc you will not want to play, at least too often (it's sealed, and busting it would almost be akin to deflowering a sweet innocent gal!), a poster, and a booklet detaining the whole sordid mess.
Meercaz is a name from the past that I thought I'd never hear again, but it turns out that this very man (under his real name) has released a pretty interesting solo platter that I think a few of you reg'lar readers just might be interested in. Mr. Herione's voice ain't exactly whatcha'd call "cultured" but he hits the notes alla time and if you could get used to Neil Young you can get used to this as well! The music enclosed should be right up your expansive alley, sounding like quite good 'n cultured seventies-era pop at times and even Suicide-electronic drive at others. At even others maybe it comes off as if Mr. Heroine is singing to some pre-recorded generic backing but wha' th' hey... Maybe it's an acquired taste but somehow I coulda heard some of this on AM radio in '77 in between a lotta the bad stuff that was goin' down then.
Don't believe me? Take a listen to TMYLTL yourself and see if the magic of Heroine just doesn't affect you in a deep down positive way (tho I suggest you get the LP because the labels used are something that would really satisfy some of you lonely readers ifyaknowaddamean...tho you might just ruin the thing by scratching it up with your fingernails as you hold the thing with one hand and gooin' the grooves up with...well, the other!). (Thanks be to Clayton Silva for the offering---maybe he can tell us how to get an actual flesh and blood copy since there's no address on the sleeve and I tossed out the package it arrived in!)
John Cage-LOLLIPOPS 3-CD set (Cherry Red Records, England)
Three shiny disques that collect a whole lotta Cage which satisfies a guy like myself who kept running up against brick wall after another tryin' to find these things inna late seventies.
First platter contains the entire 25-year retrospective box set that George Avakian released way back when (I have a letter from him re. this box set somewhere), an entertaining enough slice of Cage's earliest chamber compositions and percussion/tape workouts which, like the Columbia two-LP set of early piano numbers, shows the genesis of a composer who continues to shock even people who I think would like him.
The second continues on with the retro with a wild bang what with "Concert For Piano and Orchestra" garnering about as much hostility from the audience as METALLIC KO. Also on #2 is the "Double Music" percussion piece he did with Lou Harrison in the early '40s as well as the first two sides of INDETERMINACY, the Folkways double set which had Cage reciting one-minute shaggy dog stories while blips and other sounds from "Fontana Mix" appear randomly. Some of 'em are good and others well...I guess you'd have to be deep into Eastern Philosophy to really understand the underlying nature before some monk whacks you on the head!
The last 'un finishes up INDETERMINACY (you oughta hear Cage do his Joe Jitsu impression!) then delivers on "Cartridge Music" which has Cage and David Tudor making the worst sorta racket by rubbing stereo cartridges affixed with pipe cleaners over a whole slew of objects. You may have the Time and/or Mainstream albums that this and the original unexpurgated "Fontana Mix" which follows originally appeared on but if those just happened to fly right past ya like they did me well, now ya have a second chance albeit a good fortysome years after they woulda impacted your teenbo-expanding mind the way they were supposed to!
MOTT THE HOOPLE CD (Angel Air Records, England)
Never having heard this particular 'un before I decided like wha' th' hey? And to tell ya the truth the thing really CREEPED ME OUT! Not sure exactly how I can explain to you how and why it did, but I was sure made to feel uneasy what with the blatant Dylan swipes merged with a late-sixties English rock air of decadence that sure conjured up a whole load of bad moves in rock developmental history to me. And still I like the thing BECAUSE it sounds so tight and repressive! Even the bonus cover of Crosby Stills Nash and that other guy's "Ohio" went by my ears easily enough without flashing me back to loads of contemporary kiddies with patches on jeans and armchair political views plastered all over 'em! By the way can you believe it's been fifty years since that atrocity happened, the song not the actual event.
Spontaneous Music Ensemble-BARE ESSENTIALS 1972-3 2-CD set (Emanem Records)
This 'un's John Stevens in duo settings with soprano sax player Trevor Watts, so don't expect that full ensemble improv sound this act was usually known for. Most of the time Watts seems to be playing mere bleats without any florid tonal development while Stevens plays one of the smallest trap drum kits since the late-seventies Modern Lovers. Stevens even adds some cornet making for a duo that I gotta say kinda drove me bonkers after a hard day of batch testing at the dildo factory. It has that English approach to the New Sound that many in Ameriga didn't quite attempt, so if you're interested in that breed of free play this is one place you might want to stop at for a particularly satisfying treatment of ear masochism!
Fossils-ASSASSIN POEMS CD-r burn (originally on Middle James Co. Records, Canada)
Yes, these are the same Fossils who recorded on the late grate Kendra Steiner Editions label, only now they're out on their own and makin' just as wild a sound as they had inna past! I actually could discern a beat which is highly reminiscent of various early excursions in sound as aural sculpture that can be traced in part to the guy honored two reviews up (even if that mere fact has become a cliche these past fortysome years). I do hear some slight similarities to "Cartridge Music" and "Fontana Mix" so maybe I can get away with saying the obvious once again. Still a nice blare of music to settle into once you kinda the the idea into your mind that maybe we're all in on the oblivion ride as present events unfold. I mean, what better soundtrack than this?
TOOL SHED CD-r burn (originally on Sauce-on-a-Joint Productions Records)
Kinda hippydippy in that early-seventies eat your acoustic guitar for roughage sorta way, but it at least TOOL SHED's got a coupla nice psychedelic pop rockers that reminded me a bit of something off the Soft White Underbelly album. The rest of this kinda comes off real strange, mixing early-seventies BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN touchyfeel goo acoustic guitar music with a James Taylor bent and strange Indian chants and random retard screaming that'll remind you as to why the Stooges were so important in the light of all this That one piano ballad did sound halfway good in a John Cale way, at least before that singer affects one of the worst falsettos heard in history. I think the guys who recorded TOOL SHED should have been taken too the tool shed!
Various Artists-BLACK-BOTTOM PIPELINE DETECTIVE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Again, a lotsa winners here, from Anita Louise's pretty exact-o cover of "Jim Dandy" (and who would have expected such from the rather famous and reserved Hollywood star of the Golden Era?) to some early-sixties instrumentals that are bound to get the ol' testosterone rollin' in yer average teenbo, 'specially when them french horns start blowin'! Of course the addition of seven Zoogz Rift tracks should make many of us who were bombarded with all sorta under-the-underground music back inna eighties remember what a stellar talent the man was. Of course the Ramones doin' Dylan is surprisingly inspired, and even the stranger-than-me Satanic Puppeteers Orchestra who have a robot for a lead singer are fine, though the Puppeteers shoulda known that Donny and Marie had 'em beat years ago! Ya gotcha self another winner here Bill, and if you could only bottle it you'd make yourself a fortune that would put Sorcerer Records to shame!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM BACK ISSUES ARE STILL AVAILABLE!
(are you beginning to get the drift?)
***RIP THE STRANGLERS' KEYBOARDIST DAVE GREENFIELD, something I better not mention considering just how much Supreme Leader Lindsay Hutton hates that band after some altercation at a Stranglers' show way back in the gory days of 1977. I think it was JJ Burnel who was the aggravating force against Hutton, but hate by association probably still rules to this day. Anyway, so long to that guy who really knew how to swipe various Daryl Hooper and Ray Manzarak moves and pass 'em off as the fresh new thing to a load of kids who didn't know any better! AND IN THE SAME WEEK goodbye to Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider who proved to us that you can be just as punk savvy as the guy next to ya yet still make boring music! Or at least boring music after you hit the big time! All kidding aside, a fond farewell to both of you boo hoo waah waah!
***BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR...DEPT.: Hey, can any of you avid olde tymey tee-vee viewers help me find info on or (shudder) even locate a certain television special that's SO OBSCURE that even IMDB doesn't list it? It's called THE TENDER GRASS and was presented for Passover way back on the boob tube 1963 way. As far as I can tell it stars Sam Wannamaker who plays some fanabla who, as a child, committed the cruel act of tearing the tongues out of some baby birds and for his punishment he, or actually his wife, bore seven sons who were unable to speak! Sounds good already eh, perhaps the pilot for an old comedy series called MY SEVEN MUTES! But the fact that the actor playing the young version of Wannamaker is none other than former child star PETER LAZER is what really has grabbed my attention about this thing! If any of you were up and about in front of the television way back when and saw this, howzbout lettin' me in on the deal?!?!?! I mean, who wouldn't want to watch Peter Lazer rip the tongues outta baby birds anyway!
***If ya want it great, but hurry up!
***Enough stallin'. Onto the nitty gritty dirty bandy stuff we call da REVOOOZ! I think I got a purty good batch of 'em up and about for this week's go at it, and as usual thanks go to the people who donated the wares for review like Bill Shute (nothing from Paul McGarry this time, though not through any fault of his) and especially Clayton Silva who sent the George Heroine platter, a spinner that I'm still trying to fit my third ear through and that's really hard to do because that spindle is so tiny! And if these reviews don't want to make you hop onna scooter and head on out to the nearest record shop to buy one or all of these efforts well...I don't blame you if you get mad because what record shop even within a 500 mile radius of where you live would have anything like the following up for sale?
When it comes to legendary yet obscure under-the-underground seventies-era Australian hard rock groups nobody can beat Trans Love Energies for legendary chaotic status. However, ME-262 do come in a hefty second, and this group finally gets their just desserts splattered all over 'em on this relatively recent so-seventies blue-vinyl SPECIAL EDITION release which, besides having a real boffo high quality cover, features a whole load of goodies enclosed which is one reason this thing'll set you back a whole lotta moolah!
The performances from both incarnations of this important Antipodean outlet (including follow up Trans 262 and I hope "Trans" doesn't mean what I think it does!) are hard rock quality enough and even sound BETTER when they're not mimicking Radio Birdman. Thankfully both sides retain that raw demo sound that always came off better'n the actual polished results unless you're a HI-FI FREAK or something equally cubesville. Comes with a flexidisc you will not want to play, at least too often (it's sealed, and busting it would almost be akin to deflowering a sweet innocent gal!), a poster, and a booklet detaining the whole sordid mess.
***George Heroine-TMYLTL LP (Love Anthem Records)
Meercaz is a name from the past that I thought I'd never hear again, but it turns out that this very man (under his real name) has released a pretty interesting solo platter that I think a few of you reg'lar readers just might be interested in. Mr. Herione's voice ain't exactly whatcha'd call "cultured" but he hits the notes alla time and if you could get used to Neil Young you can get used to this as well! The music enclosed should be right up your expansive alley, sounding like quite good 'n cultured seventies-era pop at times and even Suicide-electronic drive at others. At even others maybe it comes off as if Mr. Heroine is singing to some pre-recorded generic backing but wha' th' hey... Maybe it's an acquired taste but somehow I coulda heard some of this on AM radio in '77 in between a lotta the bad stuff that was goin' down then.
Don't believe me? Take a listen to TMYLTL yourself and see if the magic of Heroine just doesn't affect you in a deep down positive way (tho I suggest you get the LP because the labels used are something that would really satisfy some of you lonely readers ifyaknowaddamean...tho you might just ruin the thing by scratching it up with your fingernails as you hold the thing with one hand and gooin' the grooves up with...well, the other!). (Thanks be to Clayton Silva for the offering---maybe he can tell us how to get an actual flesh and blood copy since there's no address on the sleeve and I tossed out the package it arrived in!)
***
Three shiny disques that collect a whole lotta Cage which satisfies a guy like myself who kept running up against brick wall after another tryin' to find these things inna late seventies.
First platter contains the entire 25-year retrospective box set that George Avakian released way back when (I have a letter from him re. this box set somewhere), an entertaining enough slice of Cage's earliest chamber compositions and percussion/tape workouts which, like the Columbia two-LP set of early piano numbers, shows the genesis of a composer who continues to shock even people who I think would like him.
The second continues on with the retro with a wild bang what with "Concert For Piano and Orchestra" garnering about as much hostility from the audience as METALLIC KO. Also on #2 is the "Double Music" percussion piece he did with Lou Harrison in the early '40s as well as the first two sides of INDETERMINACY, the Folkways double set which had Cage reciting one-minute shaggy dog stories while blips and other sounds from "Fontana Mix" appear randomly. Some of 'em are good and others well...I guess you'd have to be deep into Eastern Philosophy to really understand the underlying nature before some monk whacks you on the head!
The last 'un finishes up INDETERMINACY (you oughta hear Cage do his Joe Jitsu impression!) then delivers on "Cartridge Music" which has Cage and David Tudor making the worst sorta racket by rubbing stereo cartridges affixed with pipe cleaners over a whole slew of objects. You may have the Time and/or Mainstream albums that this and the original unexpurgated "Fontana Mix" which follows originally appeared on but if those just happened to fly right past ya like they did me well, now ya have a second chance albeit a good fortysome years after they woulda impacted your teenbo-expanding mind the way they were supposed to!
***
Never having heard this particular 'un before I decided like wha' th' hey? And to tell ya the truth the thing really CREEPED ME OUT! Not sure exactly how I can explain to you how and why it did, but I was sure made to feel uneasy what with the blatant Dylan swipes merged with a late-sixties English rock air of decadence that sure conjured up a whole load of bad moves in rock developmental history to me. And still I like the thing BECAUSE it sounds so tight and repressive! Even the bonus cover of Crosby Stills Nash and that other guy's "Ohio" went by my ears easily enough without flashing me back to loads of contemporary kiddies with patches on jeans and armchair political views plastered all over 'em! By the way can you believe it's been fifty years since that atrocity happened, the song not the actual event.
***
This 'un's John Stevens in duo settings with soprano sax player Trevor Watts, so don't expect that full ensemble improv sound this act was usually known for. Most of the time Watts seems to be playing mere bleats without any florid tonal development while Stevens plays one of the smallest trap drum kits since the late-seventies Modern Lovers. Stevens even adds some cornet making for a duo that I gotta say kinda drove me bonkers after a hard day of batch testing at the dildo factory. It has that English approach to the New Sound that many in Ameriga didn't quite attempt, so if you're interested in that breed of free play this is one place you might want to stop at for a particularly satisfying treatment of ear masochism!
***
Yes, these are the same Fossils who recorded on the late grate Kendra Steiner Editions label, only now they're out on their own and makin' just as wild a sound as they had inna past! I actually could discern a beat which is highly reminiscent of various early excursions in sound as aural sculpture that can be traced in part to the guy honored two reviews up (even if that mere fact has become a cliche these past fortysome years). I do hear some slight similarities to "Cartridge Music" and "Fontana Mix" so maybe I can get away with saying the obvious once again. Still a nice blare of music to settle into once you kinda the the idea into your mind that maybe we're all in on the oblivion ride as present events unfold. I mean, what better soundtrack than this?
***
Kinda hippydippy in that early-seventies eat your acoustic guitar for roughage sorta way, but it at least TOOL SHED's got a coupla nice psychedelic pop rockers that reminded me a bit of something off the Soft White Underbelly album. The rest of this kinda comes off real strange, mixing early-seventies BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN touchyfeel goo acoustic guitar music with a James Taylor bent and strange Indian chants and random retard screaming that'll remind you as to why the Stooges were so important in the light of all this That one piano ballad did sound halfway good in a John Cale way, at least before that singer affects one of the worst falsettos heard in history. I think the guys who recorded TOOL SHED should have been taken too the tool shed!
***
Various Artists-BLACK-BOTTOM PIPELINE DETECTIVE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)Again, a lotsa winners here, from Anita Louise's pretty exact-o cover of "Jim Dandy" (and who would have expected such from the rather famous and reserved Hollywood star of the Golden Era?) to some early-sixties instrumentals that are bound to get the ol' testosterone rollin' in yer average teenbo, 'specially when them french horns start blowin'! Of course the addition of seven Zoogz Rift tracks should make many of us who were bombarded with all sorta under-the-underground music back inna eighties remember what a stellar talent the man was. Of course the Ramones doin' Dylan is surprisingly inspired, and even the stranger-than-me Satanic Puppeteers Orchestra who have a robot for a lead singer are fine, though the Puppeteers shoulda known that Donny and Marie had 'em beat years ago! Ya gotcha self another winner here Bill, and if you could only bottle it you'd make yourself a fortune that would put Sorcerer Records to shame!
***BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM back issues are still available!
BLACK TO COMM BACK ISSUES ARE STILL AVAILABLE!
(are you beginning to get the drift?)
Chris, I highly rate that Mott album! Proto-punk, my friend. Thee missing lynk twixt Mouse & The Traps and Mink DeVille! That said, I've got the first Ten Years After LP on the stereo, volume up! Cheers! Alvin Bishop
ReplyDeleteDo you have the 10 CD box set of Cage? Yuh, 10 blank CDs. (I know. Ya saw that one comin'!)
ReplyDeleteRubbing his hands, (((Shlomo Stigglestein))) sez, "Plz, the back issues you should buy. Shekels I need."
ReplyDeleteAnon., better watch it or you will get the MoeLarryandJesus ala MorehairythanJesus treatment...sheesh, can't a guy even TRY to break even??? Never got the 10-CD Cage set, tho I did get an Erik Satie CD that was blank and the people I bought it from even accepted a return!
ReplyDeleteTHIS is the thanks I get for having a complete run of PUD/BlackToCumm? The noive of some people.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little puzzled by the Zoogz Rift praise since you're not fooling anyone. Zoogz Rift = Chris Stigliano back when he was young and hairy. Your secret is out.
Thanks for the George Heroine write up, Mr. Stig. Anyone looking for physical copies can check https://meercazworldwide.bandcamp.com/releases or email meercazworldwide@gmail.com direct.
ReplyDeletelol chinese gongo? lol racist much? lol
ReplyDeleteWeren't The Stranglers a bunch of homos?
ReplyDelete