BLOG TO COMM

As those punk rock faves Emerson Lake and Palmer once said, welcome back my friends to the bore that never ends! But eh, if you like to read my re-fighting of old rock 'n roll wars and personal grudges again people who you thought I woulda forgotten about ages ago you certainly have come to the right place. Yeah I do know that I tend to beat that same ol' horse until it can be sold for ground chuck at the local supermarket but sheesh, not only is ranting about past indiscretions committed against my own personal being as well as other wrongs I hadda do so cathartic, but ya gotta admit that it sure makes for some great reading --- real deep down and personalist soul wrenching that, in a better world, woulda won me a whole slew of awards as well as maybe my own chair at the university of my choice! But eh, this is the REAL WORLD so what else should I expect?

However, for the sake of taste I'm gonna forego any tales regarding various past indignities because eh, recalling past humiliations etc. can even get to me thus ruining what coulda been a rather splendid day I had in store.

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Gotta purty nice selection of platters to rant about this week, and I gotta tell ya that if it weren't for Paul McGarry, Jakob Boysen and Bill Shute the only thing you'd be readin' this week would be Cee-Dees of New York handicapped gay rappers that were sent to me a good twennysome years back! You won't believe some of the promos I used to get and thought I threw away upon arrival back during the days of my not-so-sainted crudzine!  Otherwise I think we got a winner here --- after all I gotta say that the Suicide demos have become a popular evening chairside spin and the Kalabah effort written about directly below is something I've been anxious to give a spin to for quite a long time. One for the archives as they used to say.

KABALAH FUCKEN SYRINGE CD-r burn (available here)

I've mentioned (over 'n over again!) how, while searching out the various live streams that were emanating from the stages of CBGB during the earlier part of this century, coming across this act called Kleiner's Kabalah Syringe that certainly piqued my interests. Not only did the act look like some whacked throwback to the mid-sixties mop top era filtered through the mid-seventies with three-piece suits and a balding skinny guy with seventies-styled wire rimmed glasses who looked more like an junior accountant than a rock 'n roll singer fronting the thing, but the music had hefty connective tissue attached to the seventies rock take on various late-sixties accomplishments rolled into a nice and downright original ball of rock 'n roll pleasure. I sure wish I could have somehow recorded all of their cybercasts for future enjoyment I'll tell ya, but the lack of technology coupled with a paucity of braincells prevented me from doing so.

Turns out that the act is (presumably) still up and about in some form or another, only now going under the name Kabalah Fucken Syringe, and they're as rockin' and as energetic that I can remember 'em being during those 313 Gallery shows which sure rocked hard but man. if only their lead singer didn't swear so much!. 

That aforementioned lead singer guy certainly has a voice well-suited for the hard rock the Syringe plays --- dark 'n guttural with elements of everyone from Jim Dandy Mangrum to Von Lmo in his vocal cords and delivery, while the band does it great recalling not only those aforementioned 60s/70s cusp under-the-radar acts we all know and love but such past successes as Radio Birdman and down home Rolling Stones when the mood seems to fit. Maybe even some early Groovies can be discerned, but despite the suits not that of the mid-seventies Sire-era band. More or less their TEENAGE HEAD take, or at least a more gritty, urban take, on all matters that rock which as you know is fine enough by me!

I kinda get the impression that Kleiner might be one of yer dirtier sorta fellows given the subject matter of many of his numbers (I mean, you gals ain't gonna go on any "Mustache Ride" at Cedar Point unless yer snuggled in the bushes somewhere) but eh, the hard rockin' drive and at times downhome grit will suit even the more prudish types such as myself. And although it might seem to drag on somewhat you don't have to listen to it all in one take! If edited down to the length of a typically just over half hour 33 rpm platter boy would this have made a great flea market find circa 1981!

I thought that the download price was kinda too big bucks-y for the average Joe Blow's wallet, but when it comes to music like this it's definitely worth raiding yer wife's purse! Just watch out for them swinging rolling pins (ouch!) and latch onto some gravel-level rock 'n roll that you thought woulda been outlawed for being too primal ages ago!

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Dale Jenkins-UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS CD (Guerssen Records, Spain)

For bein' an eighties DIY type of guy, Jenkins comes off as a fairly good singer/songwriter in the old time sense. Even though his then-timely lyrics tend to date the proceedings at hand he sure had a good sense of melodic fortitude and instrumental whiz considerin' he was doin' everything from the moody solo folkie to garage band rattlin' by himself. 

A seventies vibe does intrude but it's of a good seventies bent --- that of the various local basement-level acts that were trying to revive the better portions of the sixties and usually creating their own language in the interim. 

Considering the way these eighties-era self-produced efforts tended to take the more horrid aspects the MTV/silly hair music and do it all even worse this really does sound like the refreshing improvement we all could have used...wish it was way more available back when it came out because it very well might have rated a review in an early issue of my own crudzine, or maybe even yours!

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Roscoe Mitchell Quartet-LIVE AT "A SPACE" 1975 CD (Sackville/Delmark Records)

Not as engaging as the Sackville Mitchell/Braxton effort from last go' round but still enveloping enough as far as these even more outre 'n outre AACM albums tend to go. Mostly featuring Mitchell and band in duo or solo settings, this effort could annoy some of the more petunia-esque amongst us but I personally find it the logical conclusion to them various sixties experiments that sure made me wild eyed back during my late teens. With AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams on piano, future hotshot trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Spencer Barefield, a name I must admit I never heard of before this particular effort although given my sieve-like mind I probably encountered his work many-a-time. Dunno who played the power drill, but that's sure a sound device that John Morton ripped off now, eh?

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DEEP REDUCTION 2 CD-r burn (originally on Get Hip Records)

Sheesh it woulda figured that Get Hip'd dump me offa their promo list right around the time this heavy duty Australian-tinged LP came out 2001 way! Oh well, it's not like I'm one of those well-respected and revered rock critics who used to write for Big City newspapers before the big crunch came but whatever, this is a record alla you Detroit-rock freaks would most certainly go for. Deniz Tek fronts this effort which delivers that hard shock sounds better'n many of the post-eighties bands that had been comin' outta that continent, and you too might be able to ooze as many old Alice/Iggy/Five throb thrills outta this effort as I did 'n with relative ease as well. Contains a version of "City Kids" that ain't as good as either the Pink Fairies or Motorhead takes but wha' th' hey...

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The New "Luna Band"-LIVE AT THE CBGB THEATER 12/27/77 CD-r burn

A li'l birdie tipped me off to this as well as a radio broadcast of Orchestra Luna doing the well-remembered "Teenage Punk", but although Paul McGarry couldn't dupe that 'un at least he was able to get the former for me. The cavernous sound of the former Anderson Theater does detract somewhat, but strain the ears a little and you can enjoy Richard Kinscherf's post-OL effort which I must say sounds a whole lot better'n what the critics were makin' it out to be. A bit more import bin proggy than one would imagine with influences ranging from Sparks and Queen to Roxy Music, but the performance is good enough that even the overlong track which closes out the thing will kinda remind you of what you hoped a Yes without the aerie faerie and with some rock 'n roll gumption woulda come off like.

Closing out the recording are some Luna demos which have the right sorta energy mixed with some stellar yet not technoglop playing (I really liked "Prima Donna" which reminded me of Boston's Third Rail!), culminating in a version of the old OL standby "Johnny Guitar" which sure makes me wish I had downloaded the original back when I had the chance but not the brains how to do it.

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Suicide-1977 DEMOS CD-r burn

I'm always in the market for more of that early Suicide sound before the synths and Barry Manilow got the better of 'em. Nice dry sound to these efforts that equal the first LP as far as capturing that whole NYC aura of decadrive, and if that version of "Frankie Teardrop wasn't the exact same one plunked on that 10-inch Vega 70th birthday release then it sure was an amazingly exact copy! Unfortunately the Martin Rev track that ends this comes close enough to the aforementioned songschmoozer so I just turn the thing off right after "Teardrop" and let the vibrations from that 'un just settle in.

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Pharoah Sanders and Sonny Sharrock-FRANKFURT 1992 2 CD-r burn

Yeah it ain't as overwhelming as TAUHID let alone the entire bulk of late-sixties/early-seventies Sanders spinners, but it sure beats the crap outta those eighties/nineties disques of his that were of such a cringeworthy nature. I guess that's due to Sharrock's sheer power and forcefield of sound which would undoubtedly make any musician sound all the better. And the best thing about this 'un is that Bobby McFerrin is nowhere to be found! 

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The Lone Ranger-ON THE OTHER SIDE OF DUB CD-r burn (originally on Studio One Masters)

Titty bum titty bum titty bum bum bummm! Oh wait, it ain't that Lone Ranger, it's one of those Jamaican dub guys that some of you readers really go all fanabla about even though I never for the life of me could get into that music. It's cheery enough on those tracks which somehow recall various early-sixties Top Forty hits that coulda been, while the instrumentals make for fine backdrop to doing your household doodies along with other wile away the house activities. Otherwise I really can't find anything soul searing in these sounds that might be just a li'l too rastahappy for this down 'n outer. Of worth for those of you who have been in on the reggae bandwagon for ages and can even tell a Maytal from an Upsetter.

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Various Artists-UNDERBEATS AND OVERBITES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Unlike the last go 'round a total killer diller winner. Nothing but old single sides, some scratchy and some not, recorded by acts some famous and some not. It's got some winners like the Cryan' Shames' "Ben Franklin's Almanac" and Chad 'n Jeremy's "Teenage Failure" as well as the usual batches of fun 'n jamz one can expect from these Bill burns. Like Lena Horne doin' a "Rocky Raccoon" that's suitable enough with her vocalese and all but not up to the version Rich Little did on one of those Dora Hall specials, or the Jazz Crusaders tacklin' "Eleanor Rigby" showing us, along with Horne's own Beatle take, that black people can take from white people who were takin' from black people inna first place!  A nice surprising batch which gives me the same kinda thrills as had I snuck into some relative's attic and begun playin' alla them old recs that were stashed up there since at least 1968.

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Rock mags may come and rock mags may go, but as far as I'm concerned these back issues of BLACK TO COMM ain't goin' nowhere! Complete what little you have of 'em in your collection today with these should be award winning mags that only seem to disappoint the weak-kneed and maladjusted amongst us. And of course I don't mean you...