BLOG TO COMM

You'll never guess what I found in the mailbox just this past week! A box, and not just any everyday runna the mill box but one that was packed with THREE bottles of that infamous HP Sauce that I mentioned in one of my infamous cooking columns a few weeks back. They came courtesy of a fellow named Top Cat James who often comments on this blog and well, as soon as I check the bottlecaps to see that they haven't been tampered with you can bet I will be using them on my hamburgers and meat pies (still have a pile of 'em I made a few months back that are freezing away inna fridge!) making my meals a little more tasty! Not only that but Top Cat even sent the illustration you can see directly above which, although I should be totally INSULTED by the idea of my crudzine being used to clean away fecal matter (although I did use specially absorbent paper), I do find kinda funny in my own strange fanabalesque sorta way. However, in all honesty I HOPE THE STAPLES REALLY TEAR INTA YA, DENNIS!!!. Once again a big hearty thank ya to Mr. James who sure knows what one can do with alla those back issues wasting away in cyster's basement!

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The general blandness of the week was rippled a bit by a package from Paul McGarry. Thanks Paul! Adding to even more ripples of pure joy was a box that came the following day courtesy of one Bob Forward! A nice gesture altho it is clear Bob is losing his mind...I mean he actually sent me a cassette of a Bernie and the Invisibles/Cramps show (separate, not together) that arrived on these shores a good twennysome years back which was reviewed on this here blog a few years back! I think the high sonic intake has finally gotten to him. But eh. it's free and why should I complain===that much that is,

Also thanks to Bill Shute and Edgar Breau for reasons you will read about almost immediately.

 

Edgar Breau-SHADOWS OF ECSTASY CD (Flying Inn Records) 

Looks like we got a real contender here.

This was ex- and future Simply Saucer Edgar Breau's early-nineties band, an electro-acoustic ensemble that, even with the presence of longtime Saucer bass guitarist Kevin Christoff, sounded not so much as a hard rock enterprise as it did like one of those quieter acts that used to pop up at the ol' CB's 313 Gallery next door.

And Shadows of Ecstasy are sure as non-pretentious straightforward entertaining as I found a fair number of those acts from the Gallery I caught via cybercast to be. Especially the ones that were still stuck in some sorta past musical groove void of the various grotesqueries that have plagued recent rockist moves to the point of total alienation. Now this sound is something I can wrap my psyche around THAT'S for sure!

Thankfully this acoustic-oriented music ain't of the "Kumbaya" variety either! Scads of classic Dylan with various Reedian moves can be discerned and the results sound way fresher'n most alla the various precious petunias moaning about the latest atrocity that I've heard for quite some time. Breau's vocal abilities tend to remind me a bit of those of a certain Jonathan Richman, and the music tends to be a little like Breau's post-nineties efforts with even more classy late-sixties neo-NUGGETS meets HAVE MOICY! moves ('n don't forget Syd B. on "Pony Ride"!) with various pop chart topping cues with slight Association harmonies tossed in. (For more information please consult your copies of BLACK TO COMM #18 which is long out of print.) If you go for that stuff you might like these pretty solid efforts. If you don't you shouldn't be anywhere near this blog!

The lyrical content, for once, is quite sharp and such a relief from the usual introspective mulch that's been so in-vogue as of late to the point of pure nausea. Extremely absorbing and based on truly classical reading and an understanding of current mores too --- I mean who else but Breau would think of writing a sequel to BILLY BUDD ("Handsome Sailor") or dig up that truth about Margaret Sanger that has only recently brought Planned Infanticide to reluctantly disavow their very own Alfred E. Neuman? Wish a lyric sheet was available what wha' th' hey? At least I can make 'em out a whole lot better here'n I could on those live tapes where the quiet music battles it out with local yokels talking about their friends' trip to Florida.

A beautiful effort (with melodies, remember THOSE?) that really reinforces those springtime urges to come to life at least one more time. Maybe someone out there can tell you how to latch onto a copy! No info on the sleeve so I sure as heck can't. 

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Forms of Insanity-AMBIT 1986 CD-r burn (Walls Flowing Records)

Forms of Insanity live in Kent and elsewhere 1986 captured by tapes that would do a body well if they were done up fancy-like.  The performances captured here sound mighty gnarly only with the guitar mixed way back and the vocals obliterating things so you don't get quite the effect that one needs to live vicariously through sound or whatever else hippie jargon you can think of. I believe Forms of Insanity have some solid heavy doody recorded output up 'n about...guess I'll hafta search it out if the spirit would happen to move me. 

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daDadah-RISE UP! CD (Accurate Distortions Records)

I like Kitty Brazelton's Musica Orbis platter (well, 'cept for those two cornballus pop tracks on the second side) and thought that her foray into heavy metal pop group Hide the Babies was a solid combustible musical effort, but daDadah really has me scratching even more hair offa my already shiny scalp. Interesting Orbis-esque pop moves are sandwiched between stationary-sounding experimental numbers and snoozeville Eddie Van Halen-styled guitar solos. It kinda comes off like a weird salad toss of George Crumb rejects and soundtrack music for a dream I once had about being marooned in my third grade classroom totally nude. I must admit that I really like it when the thing gets moving and doesn't sound so art-project-y.

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Luther Thomas Quartet-LEAVE IT TO LUTHER CD (CIMP Records)

Since 11th STREET FIRE SUITE costs too much I decided to get this cheaper Luther Thomas recording that's part of the CIMP "Spirit Room Series" which begat a few quite listenable efforts during its time. Like the rest, LEAVE IT TO LUTHER presents Thomas and band in a nice rather intimate setting where you have to strain your ears to hear the quieter bass solos, only without the cackling of some malcontents at the next table, Nine tracks including some old standby re-dos as well as two using the leader's name ---now how about that!

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Spiral Wave Nomads-FIRST ENCOUNTERS CD-r burn (originally on Twin Lakes Records)

Well whaddaya know! Paul actually sent me a burn of a current release this time 'n not one of those umpteen-year-old thingies that I was too dense to know came out way back when it did! Unlike on their earlier effort, which was a bit too front porch commune-y for me, Spiral Wave Nomads play droneathon freakout rock miasma sounds that remind me of a whole load of those German groups from the early-seventies who were smart enough to know that psychedelia still prevailed and recorded hours long cantatas based on the same druggy riff that carried them through times of no money as well as times of no grass. Its surprising that such freeform sound is continuing to be made even this far down the line. Fans of Amon Duul II should enjoy this quartet of lysergic riffage that conjures up images of dank rehearsal spaces and heavy duty body odor. 

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The Vacant Lots-DAMAGE CONTROL CD-r burn (originally on A Recordings)

Not as exciting as that other one of theirs but it's still good. Might have somewhat of an amerindie alternadrone to it that sounds like a thousand other similar under the covers groups out there but they supersede the average by tossing in a few good sound moves that bolster the sonic presence without coming off pretentious. 'n that's even when they start sounding like just about any late 198X band that you thought was soo-perb back then but have you listened to 'em lately? Keep an ear open for "Land" which sounds like mid-seventies Eno 'n you'll like it! DAMAGE CONTROL just might be worth the opportunity to cop a copy offa youtube 'r somethin' as equally cheap.

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Various Artists-YOURS TRULY, FOUND AND FOOTLOOSE CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

If you think that I was turning cartwheels cross the floor over this 'un in typical Procol Harum fashion you'd be wrong, but then again I wasn't scrooching my face into Maxine Waters gerns either. The JOHNNY DOLLAR program with Edmond O'Brien in the title role wasn't up to sonic standards and kinda wooshed by me while the German radio ads and music had me double taking exactly just WHO won the war. While I'm at it those synthesizer takes on the bit hits o' '70 reminds me of technology watered down to the mentality level of the lounge at the Holiday Inn long after the swimming pool's closed. The Grasshoppers' early sixties instro sound was tasty enough tho, and JP Parks and the Bucktown Six were up there in the standardized blues riffage dept. so no shred machine for THIS definite keepie!

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How you've lived your life alla these years without the benefits of BLACK TO COMM back issues I'll never know. It's not too late to fill up your cracks in the collection, but then again judging from recent sales it won't be too late even in 2900 AD. Take your time... you always have.