BLOG TO COMM

So here I am at the tripewriter with a dish of mint chocolate chip ice cream in front of me and a platter to be reviewed next week spinnin' away, welcoming you to yet another one of these weekend BLOG TO COMM posts. I must admit, at this late stage of the game, that writing these missives is one of the few things that really keeps me goin' while everything else regarding my existence seems like a total waste. Well, if music that really affects your raw state of being is what makes it worth stickin' around all I gotta say is great, even though I could use more of that aural stimulation around here in order to keep my inner juices flowin'. Still I will search, scrape together whatever moolah I have for orders, and trudge on because eh, why not?

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THESE COLORS DO RUN: "It was twenty years ago today..."  as the ol' song goes, and like I said awhile back twenty years later that war is for all intent purposes over and done with. 'n notice how that big defeat for the USA ('n maybe for the concept of empire at large) has all but vanished from the news cycle as if it wasn't that great a deal, hmmmmmm? As you can tell, definitely hefty mixed feelings about the whole thing here...the imperialistic factor lingers on true, but then again losing to those scurvies??? Sheesh!

A late addition to this post, but I thought it was pertinent enough to
include given how I know it's bound to irritate somebody out there.

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And, frankly, if it hasn't already happened, are you too expecting a special twentieth anniversary surprise that will equal the one many of us got a good two decades back??? Or would something like that be way too obvious even for goat-tending jihadists to come up with. Better stick around for anniversary twenny-five --- that should really promise some fireworks!

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Otherwise nothing much new under, or over the sun for that matter. I find existence getting increasingly hard to make my way through given how I am getting older, but my desires are still stuck in that era of youth when rejection, loathing, downright hatred and other things that parents, relatives, teachers and students used against me made my existence a total disaster. But at least I had my obsessions to guide me like fifties/sixties vintage and then-new television programs not to mention music, old NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC pearl diver issues and the faint hope that some time soon I actually would have my day, or better yet my life, in that same sun in which nothing new is under or over for that matter. HAH! The only way I could possibly "have my day" would be to pack some heat and wipe out a whole load of the folk who made it their duty to make my life as miserable as possible! Of course if I did that what kind of future would I have...I mean as far as I can tell do they still have pizza nights at Torrance?

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Well maybe there is something a li'l brighter to gab (which I am on, only with one post to my name and an old picture at that!) about. Spent Labor Day watching a load of good ol' tee-vee, the kind I like, which did help lift the spirits somewhat even if it made me feel older'n Methuselah thinkin' that the world and aura these shows reflected are long dead 'n buried. The FETV network has been running some winners in the AM, notably LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (which never does get tiring no matter how many times a Whole Human Being tunes in!) as well as THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES which was pretty good in its early days when characters like Jethrine and William Devane as Jazzbo Depew were part of the cast. However, watching THE PATTY DUKE SHOW which I had not seen since I was in knee pants really was a revelation! Naw, I still can't stand Duke (the memory of her all confused 'n outta it at the daytime Emmys still lingers on) and she as the prissier beyond belief cousin Cathy makes me wanna do some serious upchuckin', but the rest of the cast is fine enough to pass muster. I especially dig the younger and perfectly nerdoid brother Ross who not only seems like the typical future BLOG TO COMM reader but a guy who woulda been doin' some heavy duty drugs while stationed in Vietnam a few years later not to mention Richie, the goofoid boypal of Patty who's an even bigger jerkoff than I was at his age which is cool because we just don't have enough jerkoff role models for people like us anymore. We sure need more real deal people like these onna tube, and if you're unemployed or laid up real bad these kinda shows are what you need in your system 'stead of the usual butt wranglin' sputum passing as "entertainment" that seems to have taken over every aspect of life as we know it.

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Anyway, here are some more rocknjazznbloozeblatherin' that's sure to wipe out all that loogiepresse hackdom that has infested the form ever since Robert Christgau got his first Tom Thumb typewriter for Christmas age 3 and immediately wrote his first review (WALT DISNEY FROZEN STIFF LIVE AT TOMORROWLAND) giving it a "C-". Paul and Bill sent 'em, and if there would be others who'd do the exact same thing all I gotta say is...whoopee!

CHARLES MINGUS PRESENTS CHARLES MINGUS CD-r burn (originally on Candid Records)

It's sure great hearin' this 'un given just how hard-to-find albums like these were for depression-era wages types like myself miles away from any really decent record shops back inna late-seventies. 

Glad to have heard it while I still have ears, because this faux-live sesh really cooks in that early-new thing way what with that great mix of jazz and gospel with a lotta straight-ahead bluesiness tossed in to give it an extra-special place in one's oft-rotted soul. Of course the backup talent including Dannie Richmond, Ted Curson and the shoulda stuck around a whole lot longer Eric Dolphy really helped move this one down the trachea of your mind a whole lot smoother. Contains the so controversial that only Nat Hentoff's Candid label would let him record it this way "Original Faubus Fables" in which Eric Dolphy's saxophone solo drove my dad into a rage when I played this 'un back '78 way. 

Another brilliant one from one of the more eruptive exponents of violence and sick sex to ever pop up in the jazz world.

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Jimmy Ley and the Coosa River Band-AGORA CLEVELAND SEPT. 3/74 CD-r burn

Many people in-the-Cleveland-underground-know have been searching for this particular live on WMMS-FM broadcast for years, and lo and behold the thing turns up smack dab on youtube years after the fact! Aural proof that alla the talk about how Ley and the Coosa River Band were the tops in Cle-area white r 'n b turned out to be true after all! 

Not as out-there as 15-60-75 but loads better'n the rest of that new blooze thing black or white that was makin' a ruckus back inna late-'80s...y'know, all that Stevie Ray and Cray slicked up schmooze custom made for bubble boys. Sheesh, Ley and band prove that they had the proper amts. of verve and drive to the point where they could take a thud song like "Some Kind of Wonderful" and turn it into such a driving force the same way Grand Funk turned it into pure duh! 

This is a testimonial not only to the fact that white people can black it up a bit and still look good, but a reminder of a time when the planets where aligned in ways in which a cool being like staunch Ley supporter Peter Laughner and the soon-to-be whored out powers as 'MMS were pretty much bouncing around on the same wavelength. 

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The Stranglers-AGORA CLEVE APR 3/78 WMMS FM CD-r burn

Chaotic mess of a sound that's too top heavy with the singing not as up 'n front as I woulda liked it. Still it's a good enough capture of the Stranglers reason for being which I gotta admit sure sounds good here in these days of post-post-everything sorta anti-rock or whatever that irrelevant roar is being called in the here and now. Nothing fantastic mind you, but a fair addition to the Stranglers canon and they're way more exciting than their major influence the Doors ever were! 

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The Selector-TOO MUCH PRESSURE (Chrysalis)/BIRMINGHAM 1980 CD-r burn

Even when these ska revival records were first comin' out I was peggin' alla those Specials/Madness groups as more of that ethnic music created especially for gnu wave kiddies to get down with the brothers over. 'n to me the Selector sound to me more like post-fame Blondie with an even stronger island beat added to the usual hijinx which is probably why this 'un went over so well back in those times-they-are-a-changin' (for the worse) days. 

Not totally bad (actually caught myself tappin' toe to "Three Minute Hero" which did make me feel somewhat ashamed) but next to the likes of Chrome, the Contortions and other acts that were drillin' holes through my eardrums at the time it's nothing that really conjures up the happier moments of those rather dire (at least for me) times.

The live 'un is taken from some FM radio broadcast and has the usual early-eighties gloss of these endeavors. Still not enough to draw me to the group's raw state of becoming or whatever the snoots would call it. If you made it through the official platter and thought it was snat enough you should enjoy this just as much but for me-----eh!

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Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society-STREET PRIEST CD-r burn (originally on Moers Music, Germany)

Haven't spun this 'un in quite awhile so the burn Paul made sure does come in handy (don't have the time to pour through my voluminous collection to find the not-so handy dandy vinyl version!). 

I'm surprised that the Decoding Society never did make their way to a major label considering the beefed up power behind 'em, but Jackson and company sure do swell on this debut effort for the German free jazz oriented Moers Music. I mean, this effort sure reflects a good portion of what the early-eighties funk punk no jazz thing meant to a whole load of doofus suburban slobs like myself who were big on the underground rock and jazz thingie that was goin' round, all experienced within the safety of our fart-encrusted bedrooms 'stead of some club filled with people your mother never wanted you to get too close to. 

Features a few of the creme de la mid-eighties Black Rock Coalition players including Vernon Reid, soon to be a member of the infamous Living Colour who were one group that made the v. late eighties somewhat interesting before the MTV-ized slick up got to 'em.

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Various Artists-COLLEGE HOP CD-r burn (originally on White Label Records, Holland)

These White Label releases really did do their durndest to scrape through the nitty gritty of late-fifties local releases and this 'un's no different. A collection of early rock 'n roll, some with country and others with r 'n b twinges to 'em, and although I wouldn't say there were many over-the-top winners on this spinner each and every one of the tracks that appear have a certain pounce that makes 'em so special in their own local release sorta way. The best of the batch, at least for me, is LP closer "Bamboo Baby" by Johnny Carlton which reflects that certain appreciation I have for members of the Far Eastern femme contingent. It's sure glad to know that other males have taste in the gold is bold crowd who have it all beat over the white sows that we have to choose from over here in order to "procreate" even more white sows 'r something like that.

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Various Artists-HIPDROP CHACHA TOOTENANNY CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Defecto disque can't stop me from givin' this Bill burn a decent goin' through. It ain't as over-the-top wowzy as some of the others, but things like Della Reese singing a relevant soul rouser about a long haired hippie "troublemaker" and weirdo European throwaways like Lars Gullin who only the Swedes could understand, or something like that, do rouse things up if only a little. Awww sheesh, the thing died out on me right inna middle of "Be Careful" so I won't be able to hear the Jiminy Cricket number. Well, I never did like that cross-dresser Disney that much anyway...

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Some people they like to go out dancing, and other people, they have to work. And there's even some evil mothers who will tell you that back issues of BLACK TO COMM are dirt. (......ewwww.......) Don't mind the naysays and nincompoops who haven't been relevant in thirty years while I keep pumpin' out the rockscreed oil to gush capacity and buy a bunch for you and your mom, OK?