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I still hold humanity and most of its values and beliefs in utter contempt but yeah, I do feel somewhat better now than I did last week at the same time. Gotta stop having little things like seeing the name of someone trigger me into waves of utter revulsion (I should be embarrassed by this infantile train of thought but I don't care anymore) and although I DO NOT take back anything I said last go 'round and don't feel any remorse for coming off like such a self-centered pantywaist I must say that even a good hour or two after pecking out that rant on I felt quite shallIsay "chipper" and kinda wonder why I was making such a fuss over it all in the first place. Things like my failure in life (at least as far as smiting the people I loathe go) usually doesn't affect me much and then, one second LATER...

But hey, I'll try to keep all of my pent up inner angst over not being as handsome or as famous as Jay Hinman deep down in the guts, at least until next time. And until that fateful day arrives I'm going to do my best to be the closest anyone on this planet can get to being Casper the Friendly Ghost and act about as happy and as pleasant as a 13-year-old boy locked in a porn shop overnight. Maybe not as pulse pounding, but still you have nothing to worry about with regard to me lashing out at the same ol' demons that have been pestering me since at least the dawn of first grade.

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OK --- howzbout some more of that AI generated nonsense that I've been monkeying around with! And boy did I come up with some doozies!!! The first illustration on today's itinerary is supposed to be John Cage and it does look somewhat like him, but what is he doing? Either playing a musical instrument of his own creation (perhaps a "prepared switchboard") or engaging in a little foosball.

Here's another badass rocker who's so cool that he even has a guitar neck protruding from his left arm! And hey, would you want to take a ride in any of those automobiles seen in the distance? Not me, bub!

The following two pictures are supposed to be Norman Rockwell's impressions of a race riot although (contrary to the text I typed in) there are no white people being butchered, children hung from lampposts, looting or, for that matter, policemen just standing around doing nothing. Given the "rioters'" body contortions, you could look upon these as being Rockwell paintings filtered through Robert Longo. I'm sure a few of you readers could come up with some really interesting takes on these two!

And now for something a little easier on the eyes. This AI-induced lass is (really!) supposed to be none other than Yoko Ono during the recording of (I believe) her PLASTIC ONO BAND album, or was it TWO VIRGINS judging from the abundance of anatomy on display?! All I gotta say is this in fact is Yoko then maybe I should "give PIECE a chance"!

Okay, eyeballs back into sockets. The following picture is what I got when I typed in "Nazis beating up first graders with soggy broccoli"...

This is supposed to be Eddie Haskell doing malicious bodily harm to Beaver while his friends watch approvingly. I think I better be more descriptive while typing these AI requests out, though given the word "beaver" I'm glad something we'd all call scurrilous didn't appear.

And this is supposed to be Jerry Lewis walloping his son Gary because Gary didn't refer to his father as "Your Majesty"! Nice belt Gary, and while I'm at it nice tie dad!

I decided to create a few comic strip-oriented images. First off I asked for AI to conjure up a pic of Charlie Brown beating up Lucy and Peppermint Patty while Linus and Snoopy look on in shock. Kinda makes me wonder what an AI-created PEANUTS comic strip would look like.

And this "ARCHIEE" image is (naturally) nothing at all what I asked for! And I assume that is Jughead in the necktie --- didn't know he was such a masculine figure! I sure like the way the characters are walking and kneeling on water, and what is that roast chicken (I think) doing floating in the lower left portion of the panel? And if you can tell me what that scribbly thing is on the redhead's thigh (never mind describing her footwear or the strange legwork on the blonde in the polka dot swimsuit) you too can win a no prize!

This is supposed to be Nancy and "Siluung" robbing a candy store. I guess Siluung (who actually stuffed some lollipops in his cap) wants Nancy's take of the heist.

OBVIOUSLY AI never heard of BEETLE BAILEY because I requested a picture of Beetle, Killer, Zero and Sgt. Snorkel bayoneting babies in the jungles of Vietnam.

And this is a party with R. Crumb characters Mr. Natural, Angelfood McSpade and the Snoids with S. Clay Wilson's Checkered Demon as well as Nard 'n Pat. Well, at least they got SOMEWHAT of a Crumbian aura in this result.

OK, I'll refrain from any more of these for now, which is too bad for you because I conjured up some goodies like the cast of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND gone mad with hunger butchering each other up with machetes and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln playing strip poker with Betsy Ross and Louisa Mae Alcott with George and Abraham winning. Of course nothing came out looking like anything I described, but if I get a good one referring to a group or album cover I don't have that would look rather swell next to one of my mini reviews maybe --- just MAYBE --- that'll show up. But in general I'd call AI, at least from the results I've been gettin', less BRAVE NEW WORLD and more HEAVE NEW WORLD!

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Hey, the JUCIKA "X" page has been terminated which is a dang shame given how I've come to look forward to seeing the Hungarian comic strip gal in various stages of tight-fitting outfits as part of my daily decompression. Perhaps this title was just too much for the prudes at "X" who run things to handle, except that the prudes haven't been running anything in years unless you count the NEW prudes out there, of which I have the feeling many of you readers out there just happen to be! Too bad --- gonna miss them squeezies on her.

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I believe I have already told you about this, but if not  I'm sure you Golden Age of Rock Fanzine types will sure want to know this! Digital copies of the infamous GULCHER can be snatched up on-line, so if you want #0 or maybe even #4 and see where I swiped a whole lot of my ideas from well then, GO DOG GO!!!

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Whenever I look through my record, tape and whatever else produces music collection I think about how blessed I am to have such a vast array of music (as well as boffo album art) at my fingertips. Sure's better'n having flesh 'n blood friends if you ask me but anyhoo --- given the rush job this post has turned out to be don't expect the usual --- er --- genius that usually goes into these crucial to the cause of Western Civilization missives. Perhaps I'd call this 'un "sub-genius" but I don't wanna get sued by any religion out there. Paul McGarry and Thierry Muller provided the goods that went into this one.

Roky Erickson-MAD DOG CD-r burn (originally on Swordfish Records)

With all of the Roky and Elevators reissues and samplers that have been floating around for ages it's understandable that a cheapskate like myself would never be able to keep up with it all. In fact I don't even recall having heard about this particular collection which has been out on the under-the-underground market since 1992, something which is way too bad for me because that means I missed out on thirty years of the opportunity to give this particular effort a listen. And as we all would have hoped, this is a pretty solid set of rare Roky not only featuring him with a couple of his famed backing bands but some hot solo acoustic ravers that have the electricity baked smack dab right into 'em. Baked in solid like any good rock 'n roll effort that is, and I gotta admit that I find it amazing that a guy with Roky's mental shakeupiness could have ever create such straight-ahead and deep growl efforts. Kinda proves that Kenneth Anger was right when he wrote that genius and madness go hand in hand.

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Lolitas-FUSEE D'AMOUR CD-r burn (originally on New Rose Records, France)

Not just yer anyday gal group playing up the butts 'n bullseyes angle, these femmes have the same deep drive and under-the-underground seriousness of all those other Gallic greats that France seemed to proliferate in ever since the glory days of Open Market and PARAPULIE magazine. Eschewing the giddy gal play-up of many of the weaker (hah!) sex, these Lolitias just might be the best all-female musical act since Dangerous Birds. Neet version of "Little Queenie" renditioned in a style that I would tend to term "Skydog" if you get my drift. A surprisingly solid and driving effort, even if we all know that boys are better than girls (yech!). (Weird note --- a day after writing the above I discovered that these gals're from Berlin which really surprises me since it was Thierry who sent this 'un to me and like, they don't have any sorta Teutonic steel bra and braided hair sensibility to 'em!)

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Freddie King-LET'S HIDE AWAY AND DANCE AWAY CD-r burn (originally on King Records)

King's r/b really fits in with the rest of them instrumental biggies of the late-fifties/early-sixties instro heyday, and there's no real reason why one couldn't rank these pretty rockin' in their own way efforts up there with the Ventures or Johnny and the Hurricanes for that matter. Solid sounds that hold up just as well as any of those trashy garage bands that were cranking out a similar sound at cheapo hall dances, at least until the second strata of rock set in a few measly years later put an emphasis on fake English accents.

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Various Artists-MAD ABOUT YOU CD-r burn

I wonder why Thierry named this mixdisque after one of those lousy sitcoms I purposefully missed way back when but he did and well, this MAD ABOUT YOU (a more solid that you'd expect collection of French under-the-underground rarites of the eighties) has nothing to do with that one so there's nothing to fret your little minds over this time. 

Disque starts off with some '83 vintage French group that went by the same name as them Amerigan reggae punks. Yes, there were two Bad Brains out there but this bunch sound more punk rock 1976 here as opposed to the blare the other guys with the same name made their rasta known with around the same time. Really liked the way they de/reconstructed the old "Milk Cow Blues" via the Chocolate Watchband's "Don't Need Your Lovin'"! Mighty good --- dunno how I missed out on the original Closer records issue and I am sad that I did even though my wallet is all the happier for it.

Hate to (once again) show my more'n obvious ignorance but I must since I know practically nada 'bout the Rhythmeurs and worse off can't locate any solid info on the web in order not to look as doofus as I already do regarding the group's very existence. They do have that Gallic sound and sway that reminds me of some of those groups that Skydog plopped onto an unsuspecting audience 'round '77 way like Asphalt Jungle. 

Kid Pharaon and the Lonely Ones come closer to that mid-eighties sense of underground pop modes. Pretty melodic and well-produced, great sounding and the riffs do remind me of that shard of hope I had that the mode and feel of the seventies would live on into the next decade (this was right when I was stuck smack dab inna middle of it!).

"Someone To Talk To" by the Shifters doesn't have the extracurricular sputum to make it anything I would call soul-stabbing or out of the ordinary while the Batmen's "Las Vegas" is a fairly entertaining re-write of "Shout". And hey, I've heard of Les Thugs before but my opinion regarding them really isn't that much different than the one I have for the Shifters. But thankfully this group did their best to ramp up on the usual energy levels that were lacking in a whole slew of acts purporting to be "rock & roll" at the time, hardcore adherents included.

Hey, there's some more LOLITAS for my perusal, and I'm not buying the German thing with 'em one bit since they're singing en francais and do a pretty good Berlitz-y job of it as well! I feel like Vinnie Barbarino --- so confused...

Les Coronados --- "fair". Closer to the old "six-oh" revivalists in many ways and perhaps lacking in the swerve that most of the earlier groups in that movement oozed making it one fine antidote to all of the anti-rock hijinx that were happening at the time.

As far as Les Gloires Locales go, they approach trash punk aesthetics with some sixties input like all good (and trad rad) punks were tending to do during those days.

Closing it all out are two tracks by the French Dogs, a band who really got a lotta fanzine press during the eighties perhaps because there wasn't really that much else going on to write about. Their contribs don't seem as forceful as their early trackage but these Chiens really did give us true bleu rock 'n rollers some hope that it wasn't all gonna be blanded out into unrecognizable pus. A good enough cap on a collection of French goodies that I think shoulda gotten more'n just a honorable mention on this side of the aisle, ifyaknowaddamean...  

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LES GRYS-GRYS CD-r burn (originally on Groovie Records)

A modern-day "six-oh" revival group that, like the better groups from that long-lived genre, actually sounds authentic from the recording quality to the overtly-Pretty Things-esque performance. With some early Who thrown because, why not? Ain't been goin' googie over these kinda groups for awhile (or at least until the bands that inspired 'em started to get reissued) but somehow les Grys-Grys has me flashing back to the v. early-eighties when money was scarce and Creation singles even scarcer. I still kept all my old Systematic and Rough Trade catalogs, so this 'un should resonate in me somewhat. 

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The Feelies-SOME KINDA LOVE CD-r burn (originally on BarNone Records)

Y'all know that I never was anywhere near being a Feelies fanatic the way many people out there who shoulda known better've been for nigh on forty-five years. So it would be startling to you to read that I find these tunes taken from a show consisting of nothing but Velvet Underground covers (which is a bad idea in itself, or at least it was for the past fifty years) faithful enough, and perhaps even downright enjoyable. Of course it ain't as beautifully and clandestinely subversive as that all-VU Plastic People of the Universe live show that they snuck under the auspices of the Communists by turning it into a lecture but still, it's great enough for my own sense of what's prim 'n proper.

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These fanzines have been getting a bad rap for ages already, and if you really are that curious to find out why then, as the old cliche goes, what's stopping you??? Buy 'em by the bag and have a good time wallowing in your usual self-important indignation while maybe learning a thing or two about your favorite musical act that has probably been disproven over the years.