BLOG TO COMM

Sorry that there ain't no local catastrophes to report on (well, frankly I would call the murder and dismemberment of a transboy to be more of a cause for celebration!) like with the last two biggie posts, but that won't stop me from giving you the goods like a nice li'l blogger should. Not much to report on personally (unless you wanna know about getting rained outta a few outdoor flea market type events), but there sure are a whole lotta good platters to talk about and I do get the feeling that most of you are probably champing at the bit to read my opinions re. a variety of efforts that most people for the life of them could care less about. But you are made of better stuff now, aren't you?

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Here's a comic that has been often enough talked about in rockism circles but rarely seen, at least until now that is:

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RIP PEGGY MOFFITT, owner of the first pair of bared suckems I ever saw on tee-vee thanks to Mel Torme's summer replacement nostalgic cash-in series IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR. T'was the episode regarding 1964 which included coverage of fashion guru (Don Fellman would say woman hater) Rudi Genrich's monokini and yeah, seeing that pair right there out in the open sure did come as a surprise to me and my pre-pubesprout mind. A few years later I woulda known how to appreciate it all but those orbs were pretty hoo-boy to a kid like me who didn't know a breast pump from a Play-Dough Factory! Good thing my parents were not around or else it woulda been a precursor to the MONTY PYTHON "Full Frontal Nudity" cartoon that got me marched outta the room.

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Here's one I'm passing on to you if only for the segment dealing with Nico (the article really ain't that enticing given nobody from the writer to the commenters even considered mentioning Genesis P-Orridge, one guy who topped 'em all as far as Nazism in theory and practice go). Gotta say that I was totally unaware of the alleged rape of a teenbo Nico by an Amerigan soldier of African descent, but given her views on the definitely non-Aryan kind that she has spouted off o'er the years I am not surprised a bit about anything that has been conjured or mentioned about everybody's favorite Ice Goddess even this far down the line.

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I dunno Fred, maybe a kick in the pants would have been preferrable! Now that I got my infantile and predictable response outta the way here's what has passed through my bean as of the past few weeks, all courtesy of Misters McGarry, Mueller and Forward. Me too.

Peter Brotzmann - Milford Graves - William Parker-HISTORIC MUSIC PAST TENSE FUTURE 2-LP set (Black Editions Archive Records, England)

I sure do remember when this set was laid down at the CB's 313 Gallery back when that space was willing to give the newer than new thing in jazz the time of day in between various Joni Mitchell wannabes and groups fighting it out in an attempt to be the next in a long line of REMs. I believe I actually caught a bit of it via the cybercast and I think I have some of this show preserved on a burnt DVD that's wallowing somewhere in the pile. My memory is pretty shot these days so maybe YOU can tell me.

Whatever, it looked as if a fun time was had by all what with Peter Brotzmann playing in a pure post-Ayler (maybe even post-Mitchell) blare of sonic supremacy while Milford Graves pounds a free splat that would have made Sunny Murray jealous (he also danced, but I couldn't hear any of that). To his credit William Parker manages to keep it all together as much as can be expected which is pretty swell if I do say so myself. It all reminded me of just how hopping the Gallery as well as the CBGB Lounge were back then what with Dee Pop's Freestyle Series proving to naysayers like myself that the New Thing wasn't totally dead and that there was still more'n just a little life left in the form even though you wouldn't have known it from reading most of the music rags out there in snobbier-than-thou land. 

And if you (like me) were curious about this new breed in jazz after reading too many mentions of Coltrane, Coleman, Braxton, the Art Ensemble and many more in the pages of those rock mags you used to espy at the newsstands during the earlier days of your life maybe you'll appreciate hearing these longtime trailblazers take it all and wrap it around your skull during the later days of your very own pitiful existence!

Fave part --- the last side where Brotzmann plays some Middle Eastern call to war while Parker strums on something called a "doussh 'goundi" (tried Googling it but all I came up with was "dachshund") as Graves does his best not to "keep time" like them kids in the stool band were supposed to do.  I sure hope that the cybercast of this 'un survives, along with all of the other rarities by those come and go groups (of varying genres and abilities) who had something good to say but got washed over in the tide of mediocrity --- there were a few of 'em out there that I remember were rather tasty.

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THE JAZZ COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA - CECIL TAYLOR - DON CHERRY - ROSWELL RUDD - PHAROAH SANDERS - LARRY CORYELL - GATO BARBIERI, CONDUCTED BY MICHAEL MANTLER 2-LP set (JCOA Records)

The only reason I can think of as to why it took me so long to snatch this 'un up was because I hated ESCALATOR OVER THE HILL and stupidly enough thought that this was gonna be more of the same. For once in my life I was wrong because this double-duty box set's the tops as far as these late-sixties new thing jazz albums can get. 

Taylor's the star and he sounds like he's got a real mad-on leading his big band through territory that is totally alien to people who think of the forties-styled whitebread orchestras when they hear the term. Talk about total eruption almost equaled by Alan Silva's triple disc live effort on BYG.

Great line up too with some of the bigger hitters of the day like Pharoah Sanders, Andrew Cyrille and a way-pre LAST TANGO IN PARIS Gato Barbieri, but for the life of me I can't hear Larry Coryell anywhere in the mix which must prove what an overpowering session that must've been! Anyone with ears out there care to tell me where he is --- those pix in the booklet showing his emitting feedback outta his amp sure look swell!

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David Bowie-EARLY ON 1964-1966 CD-r burn (originally on Rhino Records)

There's an un-signed (as they originally were) "Rock-A-Rama" review in a '73 vintage CREEM where David Bowie's by-then ancient "Can't Help Thinking About Me" single was given the boot with the anonymous scribe writing something along the lines of about how at the same time Lou Reed was recording songs with cutting and artful lyrics Bowie was cranking out lines like "Remember when we used to go to church on Sunday/I'd lie awake at night, terrified of school on Monday/My girl calls my name --- hi Dave". Well yeah, next to "Heroin" that does come off floppier than your mother's tits but ya gotta admit that the music that the then-Mr. Jones was recording in the mid-sixties wasn't anything to sneeze at. In fact it was good enough that it could have been in the forefront of the charts if it had only gotten out a little more and had that push that coulda made the guy a bigger name in the music industry a good five years before he finally reached mega-stardom. But as the old saying goes number two happens and as my own personal story goes, it sure gets all over the place!

Yeah, some of the tracks that pop up on EARLY ON are cookie cutter mid-sixties popstar wannabe pallid, but a good portion of this does have a wimp factor moptop appeal that woulda made those chubby girls with pimpled thighs take these records to heart, or at least have 'em scattered on the bedroom floor for kid brother to step all over 'em. 

They ain't limpoid like Peter and Gordon's homage to string-laden Buddy Holly, and they have a pop drive and appeal that doesn't grate on your definitely cultured nerves. It won't make you want to go out and murder anyone, but it sure ain't dullsville teenbo crank out made to appeal to the worst aspects of youthdom like way too much trackage created these past eightysome years has (as if Kay Kyser was ever on the same sainted big band level as Duke Ellington as I get the impression my own folk believed, or maybe they thought Kyser was superior to Ellington for all I know!).

Some interesting asides here/there, like the pre-"Space Oddity" astronaut epic "Take a Trip" which ends up a whole lot better'n Bowie's uncanny prediction of Apollo 13. I was disappointed that "I Want My Baby Back" wasn't the Jimmy Cross novelty creeper (it ain't even Stevie Wonder's!) but there are worse things to get all discombobulated about. And hey, "Can't Help Thinking About Me" ain't the pop disaster that CREEM made it out to be so maybe you should drop all of those irritating memories of Bowie as the seventies' answer to the equally chameleonesque Bobby Darin and enjoy this for the mid-sixties romp through some fairly good music that sure doesn't irritate you like some of those mid-seventies atrocities of his.

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Ronnie Self- MR. FRANTIC IS BOPPIN' THE BLUES CD-r burn (originally on Hydra Records, Germany)

Former BLACK TO COMM interviewee Self is duly presented in live and studio performances with up and down sound quality as if that really mattered to you. Wish I could find out more 'bout these numbers (the web's whatcha'd call "mum") but even with the lack of background who out there couldn't enjoy these early screeches of rock 'n roll that stood staunchly against the bulwark of terminal cubedom that unfortunately infested more'n a few suburban slob upbringings (and I should know!). Rockabilly and real deal country aplenty's what's in store and if you don't care for it well, it ain't exactly my go-to for resensifying sounds either but it sure beats 99.999...% of the offal that I've heard passing for music for most of my born days!

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Curtis Mayfield-ROOTS CD-r burn (originally on Curtom Records)

Way back during my just into the double-digit days I gotta admit that Curtis Mayfield irritated me...dunno if it was his high pitched and somewhat whiny voice, his social commentary (we were INUNDATED with that stuff back then!) or the frequent spins of "Freddie's Dead" heard on AM radio, but Mayfield just wasn't one of my fave singers to tune into back during them days when perhaps I did know better. 

The smog has cleared in my jellied head and well, I sure find ROOTS a whole lot more downright entertaining than I would have guessed. Even a song with knock-me-over-the-head-with-a-sledgehammer relevancy as "We Got to Have Peace" has this refreshing prance to it that sure sounds downright driving especially after a good fortysome years of disco and its bastard offspring mewl ruining mankind for seemingly forever. 

Personal fave: "Now You're Gone", a throwback to early-sixties r/b tension that the world was surely in need of at the time.

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Thee Headcoats-ELEMENTARY HEADCOATS 2-CD-r burn (originally on Damaged Goods Records, England)

Billy Childish's weirdo goodbye to thee 'coats with the guy dredging up a good portion of the better sixties English beat moments (Kinks, Downliners Sect [of course]...) turning it all into something that's far more'n just THE GOLDEN HOUR OF THEE HEADCOATS. It's a beauteous primitive thud, the kind that used to get the local FM deejays all upset because of its definite anti-slickness, such as were the views of this local yokel on WHOT-FM named Thomas Meister/John who hated punk rock because it reminded him of the early Who! How he even got near a microphone in the first place is beyond me!!! 

First disque is devoted to punk of the sixties, the second punk of the seventies, at least until Childish unleashes his Sonics-fied "Louie Louie" followed by an even twistier "sequel" of sorts (and where does that leave their version of the Seeds' "No Escape"?).  Boffo points given for not only the Johnny Moped cover but the Snagglepuss impression that precedes "Shouldn't Happen to a Dog". Really long, so take it in piecemeal. 

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John Cage-MUSIC FOR FIVE CD-r burn (originally on Hat Hut Records, Switzerland)

I can't find any info telling me exactly what these compositions entailed and when they were written, and yeah it is kinda bugging me like that little piece of bran that I missed getting while wiping myself this morning. In fact, I ASSUME that the cover repro'd on the left is the one that houses the original recording that Mr. Forward burned for me, but until then I guess I'll have to take a good guess as to exactly what does transpire on this thingie here.

First track has some guy talking a millyun miles an hour in some indecipherable language while piano and strings pluck on in a fashion that somehow reminds me of some Anton Webern composition I've heard o'er the years, at least before it heads into random free splat dada that was too much even for a guy like Webern to have cranked out (if he had lived he mighta).

Second one seems to continue in the same sound toss game without the guy talking. The prominence of the flute has me thinking Anthony Braxton during some of his more classical moments what with the flute intermingling with the piano and occasional percussion bringing to mind recordings with those brainy geometrical titles that the guy was well known for. Slides in and out of its moody groove rather Vaseline-like. Not a bad way to spend some holed up in your room day listening to while pouring through your pile of long-ignored and now-loathed fanzines.

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John Lennon and Yoko Ono-UNFINISHED MUSIC NO. 4 CD-r burn  (geddit here)

You didn't know it and I sure as shootin' didn't, but there was a fourth album in the Lennon/Ono "Unfinished Music" franchise that didn't make it out like I know most of you readers sure wish woulda (hah!). After the snoozeathon otherwise known as THE WEDDING ALBUM this prospective followup roars on --- first off there's a good fifteen or so minutes of a whole load of laughing, hoo-hah, gabbing and screams of "why" and "why not" (words foreshadowing the first two tracks on the YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND album) with claves keeping time and distortion/phasing adding a particularly energetic edge, turning it into an instrumental piece more or less. Sorta like BRAIN SOUND with a sense of humor.

Then we get to hear J&Y muttering words I could not decipher with effects bouncing up and down the speakers. If I were a crafty sorta fellow I'd get this along with Ono's soundtracks to such early-sixties cinematic crazies as AI and Yoshi Kuri's AOS (not forgetting that whacked out "Make Love to the End" flexidisc allegedly recorded with chimpanzees!) and bootleg it all with a really hotcha glossy cover, maybe with that pic taken during the TWO VIRGINS photo shoot with the pair sitting on the floor and John sticking up in the air. I won't sell any records but boy won't the stack of 'em look hotcha piled up in my bedroom!

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MONDAY MORNING HANGOVER 7/25/2011 radio show CD-r burn

Funzie enough radio program on KWVA (hosted by some guy called Chris Behan 'r something equally everyday average) that sounds good 'nuff at any time of the day and in any mental state one might be in. This particular program is definitely on an electronic bent what with Terry Riley, Can ca. FUTURE DAYS, some Norwegian band I know nothing about, a guy from Sweden called Jose Gonzalez (???) with a band I think is called "Judith" who works in a rather Can/Faust-ish style, NEU!, Reutzack (might be wrong on this), Love, Love Sculpture, Amy Winehouse, Bowie, Dolly Parton and some crackpot version of "Cracklin' Rosie" that wasn't identified. Woulda sounded better if R. Meltzer and some special guests were spinnin' 'em complete with snide and uncouth commentary on HEPCATS FROM HELL..

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The Fall-HEX ENDUCTION HOUR 2 CD-r set butn (originally on Castle Records, England)

For a Fall hater (maybe that is a slightly too strong word) like myself I found this 'un somewhat fun, at least when listened through in a TROUT MASK REPLICA sorta frame of ears. Otherwise this is, like most of the Fall recordings that I have heard, nothing but one-beat music that never did gel despite me being told over and over about this group's innate beauty and greatness. At least I didn't want to chuck it out the window like I wanted to do with a good portion of their output.

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The Dum Dum Boys-HYPNOVISTA CD-r burn (no label info, sorry)

These are the French, not the New Zealand Dum Dum Boys. Poppier, moodier and friendlier sounding than the NZ ones too.  There's hardly anything here that I would call exceptional given how the same ideas and riffs have been reshaped and rehashed over the past fiftysome years, but it's still way beyond the typical schmooze that has passed to rock 'n roll (or just plain "rock" or even "pop") ever since I grew outta my britches. Special attention must be given to a track called "White Jazz" which pretty much lives up to its title.

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Various Artists-BACK FROM THE GARAGE (COMPIL 45T ET EP BLAM BLAM) (INTERNATIONAL R'N'R GARAGE 1982-2015)

"They've" been predicting these 80s/90s/00s...) PEBBLES-styled compilations of retro six-oh rumblings for ages already and sure as shootin' this ain't the first of 'em! But this home-made "mixtape" sorta thingie is fair enough as far as getting a whole load of somewhat rare items that I suppose should be listened to under one roof. 

Of course a whole load of the tracks from these retro acts pales next to the original thrust that was part and parcel of a sixties teenbo existence just as much as black and white tee-vee and Shake-A-Puddin'.  However it sure pointed a better direction for the youth of the eighties who took this music to their hearts and thus were the REAL rebels 'stead of the pallid one-dimensional happyhappy jerks out there who unfortunately ruined the concept of true rebellion for many a year afterwards. As if the new breed of radical rousers are any sorta relief from the machine they claim to be against. 

Not that I was actually anticipating lending ear to it, but I finally got to hear that Seeds reunion version of the Stones' "Singer Not the Song" which is sorta sad given Sky Saxon's warbling out-of-tune phone-in vocalizing, but better a worn Saxon than a up and at ''em Ye, 'r somethin' like that.

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You might remember BLACK TO COMM. It was a fanzine of little if any repute that at the least made a little blip on the radar screen of eighties/nineties rock fandom expression. Still got a load of old issues to dump on a not-so suspecting public and if you're part of that very same entity well, click on the highlighted title above and see what your spare change can do to enlighten you, at least to how a fanzine should not be made! But, as it should be, you be the judge!