BLOG TO COMM

Happy Easter greedings to alla ya (well, at least some of ya) BLOG TO COMM readers! Hope things are goin' fine on what I know will be a nice Spring-y day your way, and altho Easter was never whatcha'd call a hugeoid holiday here at BTC central it always meant a few days off from school and maybe a chocolate egg or two that wasn't filled with that ikky fruit and nut stuff. Us kids were so conditioned into liking the famous name chocolates anyway and hated the local brands which were too thick and hard onna teeth...and usually loaded with paraffin to the point where our bowel movements felt likeour intestines had turned into a candle making facility! Eh, we mighta also gotten a turkey dinner outta the thing but as far as the ham 'n scalloped potatoes go --- ewwww!

Big big BIGGIE Easter thanx goes to the usual contributors to the rev'lution, folk like Paul McGarry, Bob Forward, Bill Shute and who knows...your name might appear here if you were so kind enough to slip something worthy of this blog my way. As the old sages (and big guys in the prison shower) say, it is better to give than to receive and I'm hoping deep in my heart that some of you guys out there WILL GIVE ME THE WORKS! Now onto our program...

Various Artists-OSCULUM INFAME 1 CD-r (originally on M.T.T. Records, Italy)

I followed Bill's advice and skipped the last track on what was the first side of this cassette-only venture released back '86 way, and heavens to Betsy I sure am curious as to what I have missed! I mean, what can be so bad about a track called "Kbenzo.....Happy" as done up by an act called De Fabriek, whose "Drono III" seemed goody good enough to my ears!  

Gotta say it's bugging me to no end as to what this "Kbenzo" thing is all about --- maybe the frequencies are strong enough to make one go mad or ruin my bedside boom box, or perhaps the message that the track relates is one not fit for my rather timid constitution. Maybe it just plain out stinks, but otherwise I kinda feel like a feline more'n anxious to use up eight of my nine lives in order to see what's so verboten about the thing!

Otherwise OSCULUM INFAME works swell enough as a mid-eighties electronic/industrial effort. Some of the oscillating whirl reminds me of a track that coulda been snuck onto TWO VIRGINS while other efforts come off like a garage band Controlled Bleeding. Vox Populi's "Be Hedayat II" even has shades of MARBLE INDEX to it. OSCULUM INFAME does have that academic yet crazoid Italian avgarde sense to it like the Futurists before, 'n compared to some of the jagoff home made electro-free sounds out there this does have a degree of satisfactory soundage to it! 

But sheesh, I wonder what's the big ta-do about that last cut onna first side! This is gonna drive me batty until I lay in my shallow grave...

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Jack Wilson-EASTERLY WINDS CD-r burn (originally on Blue Note Records)

It ain't experimental free form, but this effort from one of the lesser-remembered on the jazz scene did make for find settle down time here at the orifice. Names both big and not-so help out on these driving tracks featuring pianist Wilson who ain't no Cecil Taylor but sure can hit the notes better than any six-year-old sweetie at a piano recital. Might be worth a try if you wanna know where the free splat so prevalent in your record collection grew from. 

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Al Terry-HICKORY'S CAJUN HILLBILLY CD-r burn (originally on Ace Records, England)

Bein' inna mood for something that was --- shall we say --- a bit harder'n usual it wasn't like I exactly felt like giving this collection a spin. Despite all that, I do find these fifties country unto swing unto rockabilly efforts to be snizzling enough moving you in a straightforward fashion that doesn't let you down tracks that won't offend your uncultured aesthetics. If you want a switch from the usual brain-churn these Terry-Tunes would be a fun thing to zone you back to them pre-glitz country days when country wasn't cool, but then again it wasn't Babs Mandrell. Now where did I put my Kleiner's Kabalah Syringe burn?

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The Civics-PEACH CD-r burn (Walls Flowing Records)

There's nothing peachy about this tapework which I think was made not by Walls Flowing mastermind Bob Forward but the robot on FIREBALL XL-5 after Zoonie accidently short-circuited it. Hard electronic buzz backs vocal manipulations that kinda remind me of the tail end of "Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All Over The City", although I fear that this ain't gonna sell as many platters as YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND did. As usual it's your call, though even the most casual of observers has just gotta admit that this is pretty ruff stuff.

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Various Artists-BOOM BOOM CD-r burn

The krauts always caught up with trends from other spheres and made it their own as anyone who has taken amphetamines can tell you. Of course they did a splendid job with rock 'n roll, and when it came to aping mid-sixties English brats aping mid-fifties urban blues well, it certainly is hard to tell a Hans and Fritz from a Jagger and Richard most of the time. 

There's nothing here that boasts of Aryan superiority but you'll still get a kick outta such acts as the Kentuckys managing to make it through a song without farting into the microphones or the Candidates being one outta many to mangle the chords to "Louie Louie". An' t' think that in only a few short years these guys'd be smellin' up the atmosphere even worse not only with their body odor but lousy takes on yet more Amerigan/English soundscapadings!

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Dave Bixby-ODE TO QUETZALCOATL CD-r burn (available via Guerssen Records if you want it)

Not bad at all freako/Christian/drug folk psych from '69 which is more balls out'n a good portion of the high fiber strummers of the day ever could be. It has a drug haze to it that guarantees a disapproval from the local Council of Churches (the Jesus angle here does seem kinda fishy in light of the aforementioned doper moves coupled with a sly occult feel) while the overall atmosphere's acidic enough to ward off the local Donovan wannabes who were into it only as an avenue to screwing impressionable girls. The closest thing I can compare this to is the MIJ album on ESP.  If this had gotten out and Joni Mitchell didn't the world might be a better place today.

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Jeff Chandler in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL SHAYNE CD-r burn

Olde tyme radio shows just right for those nostalgia-fueled Sunday afternoons .Sure there are no more flea markets around chock fulla old comics 'n rex t' pick up at depression-era wages but at least I can spin some classic radio dramas to bring back some of those memories of a time when entertainment was FUN. Chandler plays Shayne slow 'n cool in these episodes dealing with a guy who wants Shayne to murder him as well as one where an escaped con forces our hero to tag along as he looks for the real badski who sent him to prison inna first place. Great job from not only Chandler but the supporting actors including Raymond Burr and Jack Webb playing the annoying police inspector who always seems to be snapping at Shayne's butt like an hungry chihuahua.

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Various Artists-IMAGINATION FOUNTAIN EMBLEM CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Yikes, agin I  snatch out some X-mas oriented disque months after the thing's supposed to do its holiday doody on me! Oh well, it was worth it if only to hear Walter Brennan do one of those hokey Yuletide heartwormers  not to mention some guy called Cal Stewart give some proto-Charlie Weaver haw haw about playing Santa on a 1907 recording! 

The rest ain't that much Christmas-oriented what with everything from a hokum version of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" to Pete Fountain's version of "Music To Watch Girls By" which has about all the excitement of watching the kinda gals who parade about in Coraopollis. Some interesting and not-so gnu wave courtesy Marth Truthe and the Liars not to mention Lethal Weapon shows up while the usual single-side rarities from various sixties efforts are sprinkled about. 

Best track here is not the Angus Maclise done-on that closes this thing but some home recording made by some goofball doing animal impressions! 'n I'll take it over alla the platters reviewed in MAXIMUM ROCK 'N' ROLL, or at least alla the issues after #3 or so (maybe).

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You know what's comin' --- another come on in order to get ridda alla these back issues of BLACK TO COMM  that I desperately need to turn into hard green in order to survive. Yeah, I know you think I'm a Richie Rich type with loads of moolah and I am, but those extra bucks mean all the difference between canned ravioli and filet mignon for supper and you don't want me to go 'round UNDERNOURISHED now, do ya?