BLOG TO COMM

One of the best things I like about these late autumn days we're experiencin' is the way the sky looks when the sun's going down (no, not that you thilly thing), the deep blue darkness that lends a rather somber feeling to your existence and stirs up a passionate and mystical aura that makes listening to THE MARBLE INDEX an even more potent endeavor. Absorbing the emotional tugs while  watching the skies getting darker and darker can be an even more stirring experience, once again making me re-live old turdler-era deep-seated wonders that made existing such a pleasurable thing back when you really could say the world was a better place to exist on all counts. Anyhoo, enough of that over-emotional yet personalist goo and welcome to this week's edition of BLOG TO COMM, the blog that does for rock fandom what Josef Mengele did for grade school Science Fair experiments. Hope you like this 'un, but the again if you press me hard enough I gotta say I could hardly care a whit about what you think. 

(oh, already mentioned the deep and ennui-riddled late-autumn skies already)...its' a fairly good selection of music to be blabbed about this time, and Bill Shute, Paul McGarry, Bob Forward and nobody else should be congratulated for the vast array of wares they've sent...UNSOLICITED...which is great if only that I don't hafta sort through over 45 years of collected records and other recorded spizz to fill this post up. Oddly enough nothing personally purchased by me myself 'n I has made it to this week's roster, but some rather enticing turdbits are being awaited via Mr. Mailman so maybe next week...

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Coming up next week, a piece on the ten worst articles written about the ten worst movies of all time! (Note the Don Fellman influence on that 'un!) 

 

The Yardbirds-ROGER THE ENGINEER {EXPANDED EDITION} CD-r burn (originally on Demon Records, England)

Way back inna Not So Golden Age of Eighties Rock Fandom one Tim Warren of BACK FROM THE GRAVE notoriety brought up the interesting and perhaps not so off-the-wall mention that the Yardbirds' legendary ROGER THE ENGINEER album, originally recorded and released in that top notch rock 'n roll year of 1966, was indeed...now get this!...PROGRESSIVE ROCK!!!!! Now I think Mr. Warren is one rock 'n roll savvy sorta guy whose records are listened to by me even a good well-over thirty years after they were released but sheesh...progressive rock? The rock's "coming of age" moo-ment that gave us ponderous music and lyrics coupled with strange science fiction and fantasy imagery that related to Tolkien and H.G. Welles more than it did "Clouds" by the Spacemen? Well, all I gotta say is that if this is indeed "progressive rock" then give me a shag cut, a copy of CLOSE TO THE EDGE and set the controls for the heart of the import bin!

All kidding aside, ROGER THE ENGINEER is merely the Yardbirds continuing on their experimental explorations while remaining a top notch group that knew how to extrapolate on things while remaining close to the blues source. Extraterrestrial true, but with both feet firmly planted on terra ferma. 

Warren might have thought "Hot House of Omagarashid" was prog but to me it sounds more like an early sixties Joe Meek outer space epic without the soundboard switcherooing. "Turn Into Earth" remains a fave from this effort even tho I prefer the Derby-Hatville's version with the organ playing the main theme that popped up on some old Texas volume of HIGHS IN THE MID-SIXTIES long back. 'n alla the expected extras including single sides and alternate takes are just what you need to make this expanded ish a goodie for either the old turd or the young poop-out!

By the way, a complete rundown of the recent BACK FROM THE GRAVE series is being readied for publication, but the only thing that's keeping it from fruition is my inability to find the volumes 5 and 6 collection which for some reason seems to have vanished from the face of this orb. Anyone out there know what the heck happ'd to the thing anyway?

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The Fundamentalists-THE RENAISSANCE CD-r burn (Walls Flowing Records, via Ubgun12@yahoo.com)

More of that stuff they usedta call Musique Concrete made from found readymade material and quite creatively slopped onto a disque for your pleasure or ire depending on what kinda mood yer in today. I understand that Richard Meltzer usedta do loads of tape mangipulations like these back inna late-sixties which would be the aural equivalent to those boxing films of his that you could have rented via the Anthology Film Archives, but since this is Bob Forward doin' 'em 'n not Meltzer you probably won't care about this one iota. Oddly enough I don't either, but I'm sure glad I got to hear this anyway.

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The Depressions-THE PUNK COLLECTION CD-r burn (originally on Captain Oi Records, England)

I thought I was gonna be depressed hearing even more of that nth generation punk rock but these guys are pretty good. As usual it's nothing that seems to stick to any of my playing units the way certain decayed forms of late-sixties mania tend to these days, but as far as punk goes it ain't punque  'n as we all know that's a purty good thing onna ears (and spirit). 

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John Du Cann-THE WORLD'S NOT BIG ENOUGH CD-r burn (originally on Air Angel Records)

Ex-Atomic Rooster guitarist does swell with this long-withheld late-seventies effort which sounds like T. Rex, Sweet, Slade and Sparks mixed with a load of mid-seventies glitter punk a la Another Pretty Face or the Fast. Dunno why this one was held back for so long because frankly the contents of this is what used to be known as HIT MATERIAL that woulda had the boys swooning and the girls forming rock bands way back when. Music for foxy babes as well as guys who wanted to dress like foxy babes, and even normal people like presumably you and me could get a huge kick outta the big glam stomp of it aa well!

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CHRISTMAS WITH "BIG" TINY LITTLE CD-r burn (originally on Coral Records)

Haw, for once in my life I pull a Bill burn outta the pile that's, howshallwesay, copasetic with the whatever it is that passes for the holiday spirit these days. At least it recalls somewhat the sense of a holiday spirit like it used to be when I was a kid and the entire Christmas Season brouhohoho was something to look forward to.  Tiny and his rinkydink piano do the Christmas break (called so because all your toys got smashed to bits before you had the chance to get back to school) swell with the olde tymey arrangements and presentation, but I gotta say that it'll never replace our old scratchy album with the Four Aces singing "Silent Night" in four part early-fifties singing group harmony!

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GERALD MOHR IN THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP MARLOWE CD-r burn

Two 1951 episodes. "Nether Nether Land" deals with a gal named Carolyn with a figure that could stop an orgy who, after being followed and sheltered by Marlowe, mysteriously goes missing. You'll go nuts along with Marlowe trying to find out just who abducted her and why and if the thing just ain't one weird diversion from the truth which of course finally comes out when the horns emit those tones of doom. "Heir For G-String" features the connection between heir and skid row denizen Buff Ryan and a stripper which, again, has a sorta fishy air about the whole thing, At least the horns end this 'un up on a more upbeat blast!

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Aaron Dilloway-FEAR SWEPTHTE POOLSIDES CD-r burn

You probably know way more'n me about the whys and wherefores of this 'un. Loads of pretty snat noise mangipulations caused by affecting various soundsources to the point of madness while even Jim Morrison's not spared from being treated (actually, he sounds a lot like R. Meltzer here!) in more of Dilloway's maddening experiments. You've heard it all before re. various "cassette culture" styled cut ups etc., and you might as well hear it again wherever you can find this thing!

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Various Artists-BIG NEWS ON THE GOLD COAST CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Not really a "Virtual Floor Sweeping" but a sampling of what Bill calls "Airwick-scented vintage lounge appetizers". 

The early-sixties ambience (with a few charges into late-sixties attempts at hipsterism) really does send this writer back to his early turdler times when there was that electrical thrill even to the more poppier platters that were gettin' spinned, and although things like Bill Justis's take on Ray Barretto's "El Watusi" certainly sound watered down next to the real deal they sure zap me into that world I just didn't get enough of back when I was living concurrently with POST WORLD WAR TWO CIVILIZATION AT ITS GREATEST. 

Still a whole lot of this does remind me of some rainy dark evening when my dad 'n me would be stashed away in the car on a rainy dark evening for whatever reason and music such as the kind here would be playing through the static 'n all I could wish for was to be home away from alla this nature that was goin' on! Funny, when I was but that mere pre-pubesprout I thought that music like this was grown up stuff, and here I am (more or less) a grown up and I'm listening to it just like I thought I would have way back when. Boy was I prophetic even then or what!

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I know that many of ya aren't exactly enthralled with entire fanzine concept as people like Fredric Wertham were and people like myself are, but if you do collect such things may I suggest a real good deal you just can't live without???