BLOG TO COMM

Boy ain't this been a week! Are ya still biting your nails while sitting on needles and pins over how the election's gonna turn out 'n all like I am??? Sheesh, I haven't been this gut-wrenching nervous since my mother was cleaning up my room and I forgot to hide my NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICs! Whatever, it sure is making me queasy thinking of how this particular contest will go ('n probably for months!), and of course you all know who I'm rooting for as if a return to the political ways of yore (four more years? more like four more EONS) is anything that would particularly suit my fancy!

Sheesh, at this point in time I don't know what the future holds in store---though the fact of four years of the self-conscious and oh-so-virtuous rabble seen today with all of the modern day equivalents of the Social Planners and Old Scolds of yore once again wielding even more power than they every should have been given doesn't do exactly too much good for my tummy. If Biden does get in you can say goodbye to the Peace President as well as a guy who, for all intent purposes, was the closest thing we'll ever get to a real life John Galt, or much better yet Rex Grainge. Someone who stands up against whatever that monolith (NWO/Deep State/the dictatorship of the pampered midclass pout with daddy issues...) that unfortunately too many of you see as the keystone to a healthy utopia where we can all throw frisbees in the park without being hassled by the man. 

Back to the same old...Democrats and Republicans you can't tell apart and even more rabble out on the street rending garments to every perceived slight in this world which only makes me beg the question...whatever happened to "Shoot To Kill" orders anyway?

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Yet all things seem good enough to warrant what just might be a positive future, at least for myself that is.  However it ain't due to the influx of much new and interesting music...I mean if it weren't for the offerings of Bob Forward, Bill Shute, Paul McGarry and myself there wouldn't be that much to write about this week, eh? Let's face it, rock 'n roll as we knew and loved it has been dead for a good four-plus decades and its come to the point where even the leftover tidbits are drying up more than an Ethiopian mother's teat. Of course there are plenty of good recordings waiting to be unearthed and presented, but the flow sure ain't as powerful as it was back when things like music really were the soundtrack for more'n a few sprouting teenbos' (and before, and beyond) way of existence. Now that's a dry spell I certainly can do without...

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I JUST KNOW HOW HELPFUL YOU BLOG TO COMM READERS ARE, so maybe you can give me just a little assist with this particular issue that has been bugging me inna head for quite some time. Quite awhile back I came across an ebay listing for a group called the Velvets, not "thee" doo wop group of fame or any variations thereof but an early-seventies garage band who put a single out on yet another one of those small labels whose name escapes me which makes my trek to find out about 'em all the more difficult. The auction listing erroneously mentioned that this record was by what was left of none other than our faves the Velvet Underground which at the time was something that did pique my interest in this act if only in the slightest. I managed to locate a Youtube link to the single's a-side which has since seemed to vanish plus I recall a brief mention of the rec online somewhere that brought up the fact they were comped (an' of course the name of this platter has also slipped away from my sieve-like mind). With so little to go on all I gotta ask is...any of you loyal COMM-sters out there able to tell me just who these particular Velvets were and perhaps give me the name(s) of whatever collections these sides might appear? I know some of you readers haven't done your "good deed" ALL YEAR so now might be the time to make up for your past selfish indiscretions! 'n with that note...

Alternative T.V.-VIVA LA ROCK 'N' ROLL 3-CD set (Cherry Red Records, England)

Although I find more'n just a "little" bitta worth in the entire run of the legendary SNIFFIN' GLUE fanzine I gotta admit that it pales next to the wide variety of competing home-made efforts both British (THE NEXT BIG THING, JUNGLELAND...) and elsewhere (as if you didn't already know by reading my fanzine rundown two weeks back!). To me GLUE editor/published Mark Perry's best claim to any sorta seventies punk-as-trash mantle is better served by his work with Alternative T.V. and the Good Missionaries, acts which really put the avant into punk rock and gave more'n a few pretentious late-teens an excuse to be both cool 'n to explore their inner sense of artistic appreciation or such other drivel that we used to justify our sometimes wobbly tastes in sound. 

This box's got all three of the ATV/Missionaries longplayers plus the Perry "solo" 'un along with the rare single and outtakes that they always pack these long-after-the-fact reissues with. It's a good job and a good buy as well, cheap enough especially for alla us who hadda pay out the ol schnoz for imports forty years back but can now get everything we dreamed of seventies underground-wise for a mere bagatelle. 

Of course as we stand in history these days we are more or less the modern day equivalent of those oldsters back when I was a budding puber who would buy those big band collections the Longines Symphonette would hawk via Helen O'Connell on tee-vee. Only we still can't afford to head out to the local classy restaurant each and every Saturday night like yer unca and aunt usedta for years on end...go figure.

The ATV/Missionaries 'uns are nice 'n loose...good enough altho failing to reach the inner core of one's being and other hippie jargon unlike the wide assortment of ATV live platters from the same strata. I chalk it up to the discordance of these live/studio mash-ups which just don't keep your attention the way great atonal drone is supposed to. Still some better'n average surprises like the original "Love Lies Limp" which is some of the better phony reggae punk to emanate from these Angloid dodos' minds.

I prefer LP #2 VIBING UP THE SENILE MAN which shows not only the strong influence of various proto-industrial and free flap recordings but has the perfect aura to send one into total warp minded duncitude. The perfect backdrop (along with THE MARBLE INDEX 'n a few of the more "out" Lol Coxhill and/or Henry Cow-related efforts lingering about) for an evening of body modification. The great "The Force is Blind' single (which introduced me to this group way back '79 way 'n purchased on A MERE WHIM...the proggoid record clerk could give me no information on 'em whatsoever) sure brings back memories of a simpler, more doofoid time in my life while the Peel stuff is also fun to compare to the real deal, and at times can be infinitely better as well! 

SNAPPY TURNS is about as much a solo Mark Perry platter as those Frank Zappa albums were solo what with all those Mothers backing him up. But it sure has a more skewered outlook with those offkey vocals revealing unrequited somethingorother (can't be love) along with the diddling music created by squeaky violins and clarinets and faux angular funk backing which in some ways sounds more or less like a spoof of what had become of punk-unto-punque once the eighties rolled about. I'll bet it was the comedy hit of the season.

Doubt it'll be getting hefty repeato spin time 'round here but VIVA LA ROCK 'N' ROLL just might make thee backdrop to your next art project or trip to the transvestite botique nearest you. And although Perry's SNIFFIN' GLUE really didn't hold a candle to Mike Scott's JUNGLELAND at least you can say his music sure beat Oasis and the Waterboys all hollow.

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The Fundamentalists-A SLUG OF THE TRUTH DRUG CD-r burn (Walls Flowing, write ubgun12@yahoo.com if ya wanna get hold of the thing)

Hah, some guitar work gives me the impression that these Fundamentalists are trying to ape the opioid gutter sounds of Mahogany Brain. But then there's a whole lotta that sound and tape mangipulation that brings back the earlier musique concrete side of this ongoing project. It does keep you goin' more'n Ex-lax and did make for a good backdrop to some Sunday afternoon free time reading so like, why should I complain?

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SILVERTONE TREMELO E.P. CD-r burn (Walls Burning, see above for more info)

A shortie (13 + minutes) but still kinda/sorta memorable effort from the same guy who gave you all of those other Walls Burning Cee-Dee-Ares to split your nerve endings to. Slow mo drone with a beat which for some reasons reminds me of something Nurse With Would woulda whipped up somewhere down the line. At one point it kinda sounds like a fetus fiddling around with a Stylophone and another the same blob goofing off with an electric guitar (a Silvertone no less) on tremelo, though I wonder how any of those woulda gotten up there??? Ow!

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Spykes and Parashi-EMPTY ROADS IN STAGNANT SPEECH CD-r burn 

I reviewed these guys' single back March 21st of this year and now I happen to come across a Cee-Dee-Are of 'em that Bob Forward definitely DID send me because his standard style of printing is all over the gol-durn thing! As I woulda expected there's more of that neo-avgarde improve cum jazz sound on these that I must say I still find rather exhilarating in a METAL MACHINE MUSIC sorta way. Electronic sound bubbling about as various woodwinds and what I'll swear is a musical saw weave in and out of the blare 'n it comes off better'n what a usually skeptical type like I woulda expected. All I gotta say is, if yer paw or da gals call you a weirdo for listening to this, then man you have SUCCEEDED!!!!!

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The Cramps-ROCKINNREELININAUCKLANDNEWZEALAND Cd-r burn (originally on Vengeance Records)

It's been around fo-revver, but not being able to snatch up every shard of musical mayhem that I woulda likd to've back in them days it's nice hearin' it at my advanced age. It's what I woulda expected from these guys at that stage in their career, straight-ahead punkabilly with the usual sidesteps into suburban ranch house rockola circa 1963 thrown in for good measure. It also has this really glossy hi-fi sound that woulda gotten your stereo nut daddy all agog had he heard it in his knotty pine den way back when. The music woulda offended him deeply, but the sound...whew!

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Various Artists-FIFTH ROGUE RING ZOMBIE-FIED CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

One-a-those Bill Shute burns that really keeps me goin' through one of those days off in which I try to recover from the past five days of treacherous labor. The surprises always abound, from the weirdo mystery early-sixties gal singer platter to some more of that weepy lonely teenbo garage rock Bill seems so fond of, not to mention a rare Zombies side and THE BILL RING SHOW, a ray-dee-oh program which presents more of that western swing that is bound to alienate more'n a few BLOG TO COMM readers who happened to tune in thinking they were gonna read a complete list of Laura Nyro neuroses coupled with some Joni Mitchell oracular mysteries revealed. Closing out this efforts' what seems like a COMPLETE ALBUM from Columbus's Fifth Order, an act that I assume has gone under the radar of even the more astute Ohio six-oh rock historians. Well, considering how good they were with their brittle yet forceful appearance here I can see why the usual AOR doofs would ignore 'em like the weird green pus comin' outta their genitals.

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A hundred years from now (or actually fifty-four) when Elliot Murphy's rock 'n roll history class is in full session you can bet that the mandatory student reading list will include back issues of BLACK TO COMM! Of course by that time I'm sure to be wormfood and will not be basking in the glory of my fame. Until then maybe you can purchase some of these not-so-legendary rags just so's I can at least bask in some monetary glory before I check into that big cheap record shop with sawdust onna floor up there in the sky.