Saturday, September 12, 2020

Really gotta apologize for this 'un. Fer the life of me I just don't feel like causing any big stir by offending your deeply-held beliefs (and lord knows what a contrary opinion will do to some of you!), and even if I did have some tasty ammo to use I just don't have the energy to launch such potently offensive guided missiles at ya anyway. I guess the cancel culture campaign that's being directed against me (yawn!) will have to wait yet another week while I get my internal juices flowin' again, but until then just lay back 'n enjoy the goodies I do have in store for ya!
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REST IN PEACE SIMEON COXE OF THE SILVER APPLES, whose demise might have been brought upon after him reading my August 22nd review of the original Silver Apples albums which are now available in neat digipacks with boosted sound 'n class all over. Considering all of the other "coincidental" deaths that have occurred shortly after these postings of my recent reviews I have been wondering...do ya think I should review some J. Neo Marvin efforts just to prove my theory???
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Thanks to Paul McGarry for pointing this one out! Sheesh, I thought I'd never get to see it as long as I lived!:



I discovered this one myself:


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Feeding Tube Records, Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and Bob Forward contributed the freebees, all of which are appreciated somewhat (I aint no ingrate!). Bob sent a pretty good packet of which only one of his wares I managed to get to this week, but next time ya better watch out! ( (Watch out exactly for what I ain't too sure of, but I'm sure it will be something way more exciting than SUPERMARKET SWEEP...)


Wednesday Knudsen and Willie Lane-LONG TIME 'TIL TOMORROW LP (Feeding Tube Records)

Y'know, when I first pulled this 'un outta the cardboard I really wanted to hate the thing. No, make that LOATHE it! Not for any personal reasons ming you but only to prove to you usually dense reg'lar tuner-inners that I shouldn't give good reviews to every Feeding Tube platter that I have passed on to me because I'm my own man and think for myself instead of follow the hipster lead like most all of you readers do!

From the kinda sweetie pie cover to the plain unadulterated fact that this duo features a guitarist playing with a woodwind blower I thought gee, now I have the chance to be all brave inside an' show alla ya obtuser than thou types that I kin dish it out as good as the rest of 'em! An' you all think I'm nothing but a punk poseur because I don't share the same sorta views as the heads of every woke conglomeration on the planet!

Well, the first few strains of guitar and flute almost had me thinkin' up some really wikkid putdowns worthy of my ire at the mid-eighties Windham Hill craze that was sweeping the more tendertoes part of this nation, but as the record progressed I felt myself whistling a rather different tune. Aural images of some of the more "chamber" krautrock moments (and more chamber jazz moments for that matter) started penetrating my beanie while the echoplexed woodwinds started flashing TERRY RILEY in beaming letters as Lane's electric guitar playing recalled Loren Connors along with a few other contemporaries whose names you just don't see splattered around as much as they should be. Well, I guess LONG TIME 'TIL TOMORROW just ain't the Feeding Tube platter to toss off ever so savagely after all---in fact ranking along with the Eddie Flowers effort as one of this year's tippy-top best!

Maybe the next one guys, but for now this Wednesday Knudsen/Willie Lane effort is one that really ranks high as far as outer-reaches neo-folk avgarde freeform workouts go. As usual its limited, and when they're all gone you CAN'T have my copy...nyaaaah!
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The Fundamentalists-CRACKED EGG CD-r burn (Walls Flowing Tapes)

If Bob Forward thinks he's Lamonte Young well...the first of these "Three Fissures" does come rather close to that famed composer' "forte" what with the repeating of a machine-like rhythm with some delicate phasing ever-so-slightly noticeable. The rest of this sounds like Forward had 'em record his last colonoscopy with the removal of at least ten polyps. Thankfully none of 'em were cancerous, so Bob will be doin' a whole lot less worrying even if he will be upping the Metamucil usage from now on.
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James Blood Ulmer-ARE YOU GLAD TO BE IN AMERICA? CD (DIW Records, Japan)

It's been a good fortysome years since punk funk was first bein' spotted in a variety of New York clubs, and lo these many years later all I gotta say is that a whole lotta it never lost any of its initial catch you by surprise impact and deeply satisfying catharsis one gets from either punk rock, hard funk or freer than usual jazz.

This platter, which turned more'n just the heads of THE NEW YORK ROCKER cadre when it was released way back when, is no different. Ulmer plays it less free-splat yet funkier than Sonny Sharrock and really gets into the whole dissonance and blues mode started in part by former boss Ornette Coleman. In the process he's wrapped up the previous 80 + years of jazz and spewed out this tight li'l masterpiece that was so omnitonal that even geeks who bought FEAR OF MUSIC could get into it! Part of the last of the great hard drive that unfortunately petered out once the eighties got into gear and the entire under-the-underground musical mode seemed to change along with it. 'n considering the glop that came after, ARE YOU GLAD TO BE IN AMERICA? comes off all the better for it.
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Rustix-BEDLAM CD-r burn (originally on Rare Earth Records)

The first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Rare Earth Records, Motown's white music subsidiary, is of course the hit group of the same name as well as the SF SORROW and PARACHUTE-era Pretty Things. That "Indiana Wants Me" guy was on Rare Earth too. These Rustixs are clearly in the Rare Earth the band category what with their white guy soul that sure doesn't cut it next to the performance and production of the original Motown hits that these guys were obviously copying. I guess Motown were tryin' to get to the white kids who couldn't take the original stuff with this, at times succeeding musically but not financially.
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THEM - BELFAST GYPSIES CD-r burn (originally on Cherry Red Records, England)

Another bring back 'em old memories 'un that reminds me of when I would stare at that import copy of this with the Brian Hogg liner notes wishin' I had enough dinero to buy the thing! Trouble was that it was goin' for a whoppin' SEVEN-NINETY-NINE and what depression-era wages kid could afford that? Since I didn't even hafta pay for this Cee-Dee-Are burn all I gotta say is that I'm sure glad I saved the money to get this inna first place, albeit I hadda wait well over forty years for it. But save money I did and ya gotta credit me for being thrifty now, don'tcha?

Not that I haven't heard a good portion of this awlready but it's sure nice havin' it all in one place. And of course the thing is up there with alla the Them and Them spinoffs you can keep up with featuring the famed if once ultra-obscure original album as well as the French EP with the different mix if your ears are attuned to such things. 

Why would I complain about these boff tracks (produced by Kim Fowley if that'll give this any underground cred) which deliver on everything rock 'n roll was supposed to promise us in the mid-sixties? It's so straight ahead in its approach to THE BIG BEAT that even the tubbiest of pimple-thighed fat gals with that acidic body odor knew just as much about its power and message as the rest of us "D" average students! 'n if yer the same gal all grown up, you'll still get it unless years of sudzy muzak and Whoppers have washed it all outta your system!
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Various Artists-RICH SOUNDS OF THE SIXTIES VOLUME 2 CD-r burn (originally on Forum Records)

Nothing crucial, but still hot enough sampler of mid-sixties local rock mania in the tradition of NUGGETS and a hundred other emulators. Some big names appear alongside the usual wannabes who never did get their fill of teenage gals like you woulda thought with their Beatle wigs and Japanese guitars. A few familiar tracks appear in between the new-to-my-ears efforts, but in all RICH SOUNDS OF THE SIXTIES VOLUME 2 is another reminder as to the wealth of homegrown rock 'n roll that was pretty snat, at least until the San Francisco sophisticados and English art rockers hadda go and change a whole lotta teenbo mind to the point of lysergic brain damage.
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Various Artists-ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK DENNIS HOPPER - THE AMERICAN DREAMER CD- r burn (originally on Mediarts Records)

You mighta thought EASY RIDER was the ultimate statement regarding the death of the sixties and THE LAST MOVIE one of the bigger dares in seventies motion picture history. That might be true but as far as soundtrack albums go I find the one to EASY RIDER way superior to the one that sprung forth from this Dennis Hopper documentary filmed during one of his more successful period in cinematic thrills.

While the former was gritty as well as aimed at the wallets of the contemporary youth consciousness this one's loaded with that post-Woodstock frizzle and burn wholesome acoustic patchouli of sound---y'know, that ironed-haired sensitivity girl style that was so popular at the time that teachers actually had kids singing James Taylor songs in music class in order to help bridge that ever growin' generation gap. You might like acoustic diddle daddles with titles like "Sun, Moon and Stars" because they give you some whole wheat goodness nostalgia for acoustic days gone by, but tinkletunes like these remind me of an adolescence I'd just as soon like to forget (well, at least the sappier portions which were so in vogue).

This rec only kicks up when the Abby Road Singers at least show some neo country blues guts on "The Other Side of This Life" but after that, the record's over and so may be your sanity for all I know.
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Various Artists-WATERMELON STATE REALIZATIONS CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

As usual, Bill titillates and delivers. Like the Moby Grape radio ad not to mention a pre-"Raindrops" B.J. Thomas and the Triumphs doin' a fairly good Bobby Fuller imitation. Even that old jerk Steve Allen shows up tryin' to be cool playin' "Watermelon Man" 'n all! I thought the Trans-Atlantic Rage was just another art project put to record because...why not?...but at least Bill put that Canadian underground single by the Government entitled "Hemingway Hated Disco Music backed with "I Only Drive My Car At Night" and that saved me the money I would have spent buying it at collectors' prices (it ain't that great so thanks for the inclusion, Bill!) Ditto for the all gal dago punk of the Kande Going Gang who play it good without getting too feminista on ya. I can go on, about two versions of a song called "Space Flight" back-to-back (the first one sounds like a "song poem" while the second is more or less the backing track), the tape mangipulation of "Buy a Toyota" or the country tribute to Ralph Nader but why bother when you can search the internet and find out for yourself!
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There are days when I just ponder whether there are still some sane, honest and brave men in this world. Prove me wrong and buy a buncha these BLACK TO COMM back issues now, willya?

8 comments:

Alvin Bishop said...

RIP, Simeone!

"Blood" Ulmer was a little too thick for my, erm, blood, me being more of a Mahavishnu man.

Diggin' some Oregon today! ECM's finest.

Cheers!

MoeLarryAndJesus said...

How can you be canceled when you've never been?

debbie downer said...

lol the remains couldn't even play their instruments lol guess that's why they had zero hit records lol next time try the police lol

HHH said...

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• James Brown

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Pops O'Reilly said...

That Remains clip is "real american rock n' roll"....actually playing their instruments!!!....you just don't get it lady??

debbie said...

lol tone deaf much? they cannot even play their own instruments lol how did they ever get on tv? lol have you heard the police or prince or the eagles? they could play their instruments! that's why they had hit records and the remains did not lol you are an idiot lol have a nice life, loooooozzzrrr! lol

Pops O'Reilly said...

Eagles...Police...OMG...I was right, you don't have a clue!!!

debbie said...

lol yeah, talent is a bad thing lol retard!