BLOG TO COMM

Since it's been yet another slow and dreary week here at BTC central I'll forgo the usual woe-is-me opening guaranteed to get most readers switching over to the MANUAL RETRACTION OF DONKEY FORESKINS blog more'n anything. Sheesh, sometimes I wish there would be something worthy to talk about in order to give this blog a bitta class, but I don't think that gabbin' 'bout current events or how I feel is always in the best interest of you readers. Neither are the musical reviews to follow even if some of you really might wanna read about some platter that nobody in their right, or wrong mind for that matter, would even care to listen to inna first place. Just bear with me...

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Aw chee, one less watering hole for a good portion of my masochistic (ex) Australian readership to go to!

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Paul and Bill again (along with the fruits of my labor, sweetie!)...sheesh, remember the good ol' days of the big promo gravy train (and all the dross that got me?).
 

Remko Scha-GUITAR MURAL 1 FEATURING THE MACHINES 2-LP set (Black Truffle Records)

Way back in '75 Lester Bangs said that music was being taken over by the Germans and the machines. I think that Remko Scha was Dutch, but this double LP set, originally recorded in 1981 and released on cassette a year later really does prove that Bangs was right about the musical world comin' to a cyborg conclusion, even if the sounds heard on this brand spanking new reissue are way more "human" in approach and groove than some of the computerized piddle that has been making its way outta the electrono-whatziz groove ever since the appearance of "HPSCHD".

Cheap electric guitars mounted and strummed by poking and probing devices might sound like the next step towards that descent into one of those 1950s SciFi dystopian sagas that were such the rage at the time, but the music is way more "positive" in the purest sense of the term than your average doubter would care to think. Not only do they look nice attached to the wall in a modern art chi-chi-ish sort of homage, but the way the machines are programmed to play these flea market finds results in sounds that probably would not have been done that much better had they been strummed by human beings. 

And not only that, but these guitar works can get into some specifically identifiable grooves like they do on side one which as a definitive r 'n b feel brewin' or side three with a repeato-riff accentuated by the percussion of the operating mechanism. At other times the music comes off like a thousand-piece koto band played by geishas who all happen to be on the rag at the same time.

It's an artistic ('n not in the beret 'n stale doritos way either!) endeavor that you can not only look at and listen to in order to appreciate, but one that lacks a whole lotta the self-conscious snoot and pity that has plagued most "art forms" ever since Marcel Duchamp popped onto the scene. And not only that, but you (really!) can dance to it!

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The Chocolate Watchband-GET AWAY CD-r burn (originally on Not On Label Records)

This is one of those platters, usually the kind made by reformed sixties rock legends nobody other'n  us music maniacs seem to remember, that gives one a sense of "deja WHA?" as if we hadn't already been through this ruckus long ago. Sometimes it does get quite confusing as if does here, this being yet another (rec'd 1999) effort from the Chocolate Watchband who most rock snobs don't even know of let along care about. GET AWAY doesn't do much if anything for the legend, but you might be able to eke some enjoyment outta it like I did with one track that reminded me of none other than Roxy Music. It does have one or two moments of worth, enough so that even the sociopolitically pious number entitled "Hope" thankfully got washed outta my system, hopefully for good!

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Edgar Winter's White Trash-ROADWORK CD (Epic Records)

Got this 'un after reading Charles Shaar Murray's writeup which made this 'un seem a bit interesting even if his feelings about this particular early-seventies effort really did come off quite tepid. But eh, given how I thought "Keep Playin' That Rock 'N Roll" was a fairly crunchy single from these guys I decided to give this long-time bin stuffer a go because well, even the better of rockscreeders have been wrong before.

Turns out that Murray was quite correct as far as the fact goes that these guys shoulda been force-fed MC5 records in order to understand and appreciate just what rock 'n roll was all about. The jams quotient just ain't what it shoulda been on this double duty live set.

The brass doesn't help any and just leaden things like they did in just about every other horn band of the day (they certainly don't accentuate the sound like they did in 15-60-75) while the entire performance is about as down pat rehearsed as anything you coulda gotten outta Guy Lombardo at the time. Their take on "Tobacco Road" drags on in a way 180-degrees from the Nashville Teens/Blues Magoos versions ultimately sounding like something that woulda been more fitting for the June Taylor Dancers to spread their gams to. That is, before it gets into a buncha pointless piano soloing and jiveass musings that remind me of the theme to a bad Norman Lear sitcom, as if there were many good ones inna first place 'cept for FERNWOOD TONIGHT.

Even the live rendition of "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" has a telegraphed-in feeling lacking any crunch the single mighta tingled outta ya. And if ya can believe it, elpee closer "Turn On Your Lovelight" featurin' Jerry LaCroix up front actually makes one long for the sturdy and clear-minded version sung by --- Pigpen???

Unfortunately this ain't the punk rock masterpiece that I thought coulda been lurkin' about. There's gotta be a whole load of good and forgotten efforts recorded around the time and of course I'll be searchin' out some of these long-gone players, if only to deaden some of the pain that they call music 2021. I think most alla you readers know what I'm sayin', but if you too are looking for half-century old thrills that have been tossed by the wayside this is one you'd best let slip your grip.

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Fushitsusha-LIVE 1 DISC 2 CD-r burn

Dunno where disc 1 of this double doody ended up but if it's as any good as this 'un well, you can guess the rest!

At first I thought this was a mislabeled Les Rallizes Denudes recording but track two got into some rather definitely non-Denudes territory that evoked more of a Stockhausian groove that Mizutani and company never really got into. Still there is a heavy Rallizian feel to these numbers complete with the same lilting vocals, this time sung by the group's legendary leader Keiji Haino who has had more written about these past umpteen years than you ever will.

In other words, perfect music to absorb into whatever's left of your soul, especially during that ever-dwindling free time that seems to go right past you before it's back to the old drudge. Really would be worthy my while to try'n dig up the first 'un, that is if the guy who gave me this 'un (I'm now on his irreversible no-go list) even sent it in the first place. 

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Mondo Topless-GET READY FOR ACTION CD-r burn (originally on Dionysus Records)

By the time 1989 rolled around a lotta this what we used to call "six-oh" revivalist music seemed to go the way of the Hare Krishnas, but there were still some fairly reliable efforts from the genre that were bein' pumped out. Well, actually a lotta these revival bands did hold up pretty well but I could only take so much at a time, these Mondo Topless guys included. Thirteen hard-pounding rockers with roots set in that portion of the past that people who still sing "Imagine" don't want to remember. Not bad at all, in fact Mondo Topless is the tits!

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The Ray Charles Singers-FOREVER YOURS LP (Longines Symphonette Society Records)

Didja know that when I was a kid I thought that the Ray Charles who was involved with the Ray Charles Singers was THEE Ray Charles? Come to think of it, when I was an adult I thought the exact same thing! Doesn't surprise me a bit because when I was wallowing about in the earlier teenbo portion of my life I thought that Al Kooper WAS Alice Cooper, only he altered his name to get another recording contract sorta like Buddy Holly had two different labels, one for a solo career and another with the Crickets or George Clinton recording the same group as Parliament or Funkadelic with different companies as well! Didn't matter that Kooper and Cooper looked quite different because at the time alla them longhairs looked alike to me!

Anyway, here's a collection featuring the group's 1962 big hit, a pretty good single as that it evokes a lotta the early-sixties teenage LEAVE IT TO BEAVER cum 77 SUNSET STRIP sorta idea of where the young 'n budding adult stood at the dawn of the space age. Nice striking neo-rock 'n roll melody merged with plenty of suckems-squeezin' slush that typifies the times as well. It goes to shows just how boffo those times were when compared with the crass sounds that were comin' out later in the decade.

Too bad the rest of this platter's nothin' but sordid slop that couldn't raise an eyebrow let alone anything else when played alone with your gal inna den when the folks were away. Total blandoid music that I couldn't even qualify as that catch-all "pop", and if anyone could be emotionally aroused by these sounds then I'm sure they're the same kinda guys who blush when they walk past the casabas at the fruit stand. Lotsa pants-tightening action there, just ask Brad.

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Various Artists-MY 45'S VOL. 6 FROM ROCKIN-HOOD.BLOGSPOT.COM CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Never heard of this particular blog 'til recently, and now that I have I've linked it up it's that good a source for those rare sixties local records that continue to spark and incite even a good fiftysome years down the line. Exemplary selection here courtesy Bill Shute featuring some familiar tuneage like the Wig Wags' "I'm On My Way Down The Road" as well as its crazed flipster "The Goofy Google" who was some crazy "gay" feller who lived in a cave. Funny, there was a guy like him around here when I was a kid, and I heard he used to give out candy!

Some of these rarities don't grab ya but you might just listen to 'em for "historical value" sorta like way back during the days when you sat through biology class hoping to learn something about the female anatomy. And yeah, you can do without some of the later-sixties things as if you'd ever need to hear another cover version of either "For What It's Worth" or "Hey Jude" (both done by Harry Zonk on his Thomas organ complete with some tap-dancing straight outta THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW --- wooh!). But it's here maybe as a reminder as to just how dull those years coulda gotten...if you didn't know where to look for the really good rock 'n roll that is.

Thankfully this 'un does end on a good note with two sides of folky downer rock courtesy the Reefers, a group who I guess could get away with their name because hey, who within a good fifty miles of where they lived even knew what reefers were!

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I dunno if I've mentioned this before, but there are back issues of my old fanzine entitled BLACK TO COMM still available. You might have heard about it, the thing was a sure darn good read that was miles ahead of the slog that passed for rockscreeding in the eighties and nineties and well, these things hold up just as well as Jayne Mansfield's bra did even these many years after the fact. C'mon, buy a few and if you tell me they're just pulsating with subpar sputum passing as intelligent and cohesive rock journalism well, you just might be right in your own above-it-all snobbish sorta way.