BLOG TO COMM

Eh, the November weather really does something to one's spirit and I gotta admit that I really do like this time of planetary tilt 'n position in our solar system. Now that most of the trees have shed all of those disgusting leaves we have to mulch and rake there are more'n just a few opportunities for goofing off, at least until we gotta drag out the snow shovels and risk major coronary harm keeping our driveways clear. IN OTHER WORDS...this is the perfect time of the year to kick up your footsies and read old comic books and fanzines, listen to hard-hitting sounds and catch up on all of those WAGON TRAIN reruns I (and maybe you) have been unfortunate enough to miss out on. Naturally like marijuana smokers and serious boozehounds you can turn just about ANYTHING into a good excuse to indulge in your favorite pastimes so it ain't like I'm the only fanabla out there who can do my best to find a halfway decent reason to be my natural do nothing no good self! 

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Well, the most important election in our lifetimes (at least since the one four years ago) is finally over. And, as you already know and either went joybells over or (knowing you readers) are freaking out to the point of self-immolation, Donald Trump did a Grover Cleveland and has become the second prez ever in the Untied State of Ameriga to be elected to two terms separated by a four-year interim. Well, that's a pretty good trick for him to have pulled especially when you consider all of the throb thrills amongst many of you out there who were all excited over voting for a black Indian woman without a gag reflex but anyway... Yeah I do know that the prospect of a prez of assumedly the femme gender's something that might have been peachy keen for you but as far as I'm concerned well...for me even the slightest thought of Ms. Harris in the Oval Orifice really woulda been akin to having to endure a four year massive rectal probe done by a cackling harridan assisted by creatures of indeterminable gender who make me wish that the futures that Huxley or most fifties-on Sci-Fi types wrote about would have come true because those dystopias sure seems a whole load more palatable. 

Eh, there were a few nauseating things about the evening of November 5th that didn't quite appease me such as Delaware electing a she-male to Congress. Maybe if this thing was a hard-right anarcho-capitalist type who reads Lew Rockwell I could stomach it, but given the general mental loonybin-esque conditions of these people (never saw any with their heads screwed on all that tight...if their heads were would they be trans in the first place?) all I gotta say is that I hope the Capitol has enough Risperidone on hand.  

(But back to where I started...) in all honesty (right!) I am surprised that many of you reg'lar readers weren't in the Trump corner if only because he's the only one around (really!) who has at least a scintilla of potential to "smash the state" as many a rock-thrower used to put it during them early-seventies days of rage. I sure believe, as maybe you do, that statism is something that should have been destroyed (or at least made irrelevant) long ago but eh, better now than fifty years from now when things get really metastasized. Oh wait, now that you rabble-rousing types ARE for all intent purposes worshippers of that very same state you used to loathe you know where your bread's buttered...why would you want to destroy it given how much milking I'm sure more'n a few of you grifters out there have been doing for years! I just KNOW that most of you reg'lar tuner-inners are all for what is now known as either "clown world" or "globohomo" so I guess what was, and what may be in store as far as the second Trump term goes is just the KIND of "state" you're game for wreaking havoc on, eh?

Well, put it that way...

To tell the truth in typical Bud Collyer fashion I don't think that Trump's ability to do any serious state smashing will be all that great...after all, even though the man seemed to give it the ol' college or at least junior high school try during term #1 he sure didn't live up to what I earnestly thought was his full potential at tearing anything that couldn't stand alone down as Mel Lyman would have put it. Eight years back my hopes were way up there thinking the guy was going to be another Marine LePen or Viktor Orban which unfortunately was just another pipe dream---sheesh, once you take a good look at the record in typical Al Smith fashion Trump's pretty much on the level of that Meloni lady in Italy who sure seemed to come from the same mold of nationalist identity but went center a whole lot more than I care to think about. I just hope #47's smart enough not to (re)hire all of those neocon types like he originally did such as the one with the John Holmes mustache, not forgetting many others who never were faithful to the boss in the first place and were just reg'lar republicans with all of negative connotations that definitely implies.

So, to be more up front than Chesty Morgan, it should be extremely obvious to even the more pamphleteering types amongst you that Trump's re-election is not exactly the save-all many people out there are delusional enough to swallow. T'is nothing but yet another "speed bump" on that road towards the dictatorship of the mal-adjusted sexually-confused pampered pooch of a poor example of human being who seems to be getting more and more outre to the point where even the people who champion what we used to call perverted behavior are gonna be startled at what's down the line a good fiftysome years from now (or at least around the time we discover that animals can consent). Well, at least one definitely bright result of this election's the undeniable fact that the political establishments of both the republican and democratic parties seem to be totally shattered, for now that is. And hopefully they will be for a long time given how George Wallace made a lotta sense with his dime worths of difference comment way back when.

Aw c'mon, any response to this 'un's  WAY too easy! Well, maybe a teeny weeny cliff would suffice.

My own personal pleasure while experiencing the return of Trumpism is having a good laugh at the hoards of Tik Tok women who are so distraught over the prospect of seeing things happen to them that never did during the first Trump term making their already unattractive selves even more homely by shaving their heads in disgust or...better yet...going on sex strikes for the next four years as if they precious little man-in-the-boats and highways to Hersheys could stand not being wiggle jiggled for that long a spell. Well, that's one way to lessen the bastard problem that's been plaguing us the last number of decades!

When all's said and done all I gotta say is that when they start building all of the internment illegal alien/forced pregnancy/rump-wrangler and shrub scout camps for Trump's enemies like way too many have been predicting even back when the man was making his initial run...can I get a job in construction? I better watch myself...I originally had a rather "questionable" joke I was going to include that really woulda gotten me in dutch with alla ya readers and at the rate you're leaving this sinking ship of a blog I need all you guys that I can get!

Oh, before I get into other interesting things to discuss...Mr. Soon To Be President, if you're tuning into this blog here are some wise words I really do hope you will heed.

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The airchecks that Robert Forward was smarter 'n smart enough to donate to the "cause" were certainly a help, but exactly what they did help does escape me. Maybe a curiosity as to what radio used to be for good or bad back when rock 'n roll was still a vital force in our lives, although you never would have known it if you paid attention to what was being plugged in I guess what you could call the "legacy" rock press. The WMMS 'check with a smattering of early-seventies trackage and the between song patter and a radical youth bent newsbreak was interesting in a purely historical fashion. HOWEVER, in no way were the tracks presented a mix of the mundane and innovative that I hoped they woulda been given how much I heard about the station's playlist policy from the late-sixties to mid-seventies. Maybe Peter Laughner wasn't listening in at the time and fuming mad enough to phone in a request for the Stooges. 

Big surprise was for the first time ever hearing Ellen McIlwaine and actually liking her effort in the same detached yet intriguing way that I like what I've heard from Myra Gendron or the long-gone Amy Winehouse, or at least what I've heard of her so far (one track). Not inspirational enough for me to go out and splurge on any of McIlwaine's releases, but the toon still put all of those superficial "I'm My Own Woman" femme singer/songwriters that have been gagging strong souls like myself for years to shame.

WNEW's Pete Fornatale's a waste, nothing more than your typical budding hippie FM dee-jay type who sounds about as orbiting Mars as I assume most of his listenership was. He's everything I thought he would be after reading a brief mention of him in the second issue of FLASH where the man is quoted about the then-latest John Denver album and its role in the "revolution". Somehow I can't see Denver on the same political plateau as all of those early-seventies radicals, though I sure wish that he had undergone the Diana Oughton treatment (or crashed his plane a good twennysome years earlier) just so's we would have been spared his aw-shucks and custom-made for the mid-seventies L7 amongst act that probably did hide his deep down loathing for all humanity. 

Tom Donahue, as I said once before, was the kind of professional relate-to-you record spinner I sure wish there were more of, a surprise since the brilliantines at ROLLING STONE seemed to think highly of him and we all know what assholes those guys could be. His old styled DJ approach to some rather cringe-inducing sounds make you at least want to listen through the songs in order to hear him again, though a good hotcha r/b bouncer is usually in store to clear both the air and your mind. And hey, at one point in the show the guy even promised to slip a John Cage track into the mix although it didn't turn up on this burn---drat! (Or did it and it went by way too fast for me to even notice?)

And as for the Mad Daddy...what else can you say about a deejay that pretty much EPITOMIZED everything that a late-fifties rock 'n roll record spinner should have taken to the outer reaches? I sure would have loved to have shackled a whole load of those seventies hipster FM dee-jays like WHOT-FM's Thomas John and Bob Popa to a loudspeaker and forced them to listen to the daddy until they got the idea of what rock 'n roll radio is really about! Then finish it off with a few HEPCATS FROM HELL if only to drive the message in a little more.

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I've been checking out some blogs/sites that are run by people I call "the opposition", doing some reconnaissance just to see what I am up against. The results: Chuck Eddy's "Eliminated for Reasons of Space" is, to put in in one word, "snoozy". Extremely dry writing which perhaps is suitable for the mostly paper-thin musical acts (well, I would assume so) that he is writing about. Really does come off like what you would expect from an eighties-bred rock critic stranded in the here and now, long after all of the sonic destruction has passed but he still wants to pretend that everything is just as exciting and soul-fulfilling as it used to be (sorta like me only I'm daydreaming on a sixties/seventies level). Eddy also gets to write about his other passions from politics (the usual squawk--s'peck no surprises here) to (now get this!) nature. A regular Eden Ahbez for the 21st century. Robert Christgau....yeah, he's still alive and doing his consumer's guide lo all these many years later! (Stand by for a more than obvious and predictable wittijissom...) Beyonce gets an "A". I give him an "F". Frank Kogan --- I used to like him but grew increasingly irritated with his cliquish inside group behavior, perhaps because I wasn't part of that clique. He made a good cassette tho which I reviewed on this blog ages back. I was hoping this would have been up my rather expansive alley but felt like I was stranded in the middle of the Mojave after only five minutes. Sometimes I wish I stayed on good terms with him then reality overcomes me. Metal Mike Saunders on Reddit---not now or ever was a member of the opposition but someone who I would consider a very good friend if I only knew him in person, I doubt it would be the other way around but what else is new. Pretty good shit here to the point where I thought it was so good that I linked it up on the left. I really must admit that it does stymie me to know that people are still talking about Warrant, but that's Saunders, who never did me no wrong so I won't say nada bad on him no way! Gerard Cosloy's "Can't Stop the Bleeding"---the man seems to have toned down since his rabid chip-on-the-shoulder "go back across the room and stick Eddie Flowers' dick back into your mouth" adolescent routine of the eighties/nineties. Yeah, I know that his penchant for build 'em up and tear 'em down personal destruction is one thing that kept me from succeeding in ways that would have been helpful to magazine sales, but sheesh if I am jealous because he accomplished things (ruination of enemies real or imagined) that I couldn't get away with in a millyun years. Unfortunately what the man does write about has nothing to do with my own reason for being so ignore him I will. Simon Reynolds' "Blissblog"---must admit that I never really cozied up to this guy, perhaps because his eighties-bred style of rock critique stood firmly against the seventies snark splatter that helped make me the man that I am. Besides music there's also a load on politics, the latter even of the Amerigan variety. You can guess the rest as Bryan Ferry once sang.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any Richard Riegel pages...that woulda been something fun to tear into given the guy's...er...self-congratulatory virtue-signaling nature.

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You're lucky that I managed to crank out this buncha reviews given how I am still enamored with Paul McGarry's recent parcel filled with loads of vibes I never thought I would ever give a hammer and stirrup to no matter how long I stuck around on God's Green Earth. That Ruby and the Rednecks show from the Coventry has been a particular fave as of late, resensifying me with alla that fun and energy that this music gave me during the dark ages of mentally maturing and finding my place in this wobbly sphere they call the world. The Leather Secrets also get hefty spins these days which only goes to show you something, though exactly what that is I really can't tell you out in public.

I would like to review a whole load more'n what you're in store for today, but unfortunately the ultra-high price tags placed on some items I would love to spin, like the Lou Reed WHY DON'T YOU SMILE collection of his Pickwick label efforts plunked into one tidy package, are astronomically expensive probably for yourselves as well as me (getting a copy via ebay would set me back eighty-plus smackers which would be more useful going towards my next rectal examination). Other seemingly enticing goodies tend to cost more'n just an arm and a leg---perhaps some gizzards and bodily fluids as well, and it ain't like I want to squander a load of hard-begged on items that I just might loathe. I guess I'll just have to suck it up (no, not that you silly!) and make do with what I have considering that...well I already own enough records, tapes and other forms of musical stimulation (with reading material to accompany it all) to last a good two centuries or so and like why pour money down a rathole as my father used to say?

Paul McGarry is a man I greatly appreciate. So is Wade Oberlin and so is Robert Forward as well. You wanna be appreciated too? I didn't think so.

CBGB COUNTRY SUNDAY WITH THE LAUGHING DOGS AND WAYNE KRAMER CD-r burn

Sheesh, I didn't know that the Laughing Dogs were still around when this "Country Sunday" show was laid down sometime in the dank and dark eighties. But they sure as shootin' were and you can hear 'em countrify the Beatles' "I've Just Seen a Face" and "What Goes On" (which were basically folk rock and thus already countrified to some extent) while getting some local yokels to do some authentic downhome hoot with 'em. It's broken up (some guy interrupts the proceedings on/off with his own personal opines) but you get the idea regarding the funbo time all involved had. Special guest appearance by none other'n Wayne Kramer who is toned down compared to the MC5 days but thankfully still up and about, at least here (no more!). Watch it from the safety of your own home (see below) so's nobody'll beat your sissy ass up.

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PEYOTE QUEEN SOUNDTRACK CD-r burn

Whacked out music accompanying the Storm De Hirsch underground film that got special mention in the Parker Tyler book. Starts out with interesting percussive moves before going into early-sixties lounge-a-roonie neo-jazz that sounds like the kinda music your great-grandfather used to get drunk to. Then the tribal beat returns and the you're smack dab right in the middle of what sounds like a pagan circumcision ritual and it's your Vienna sausage that's on the chopping block. The whole schmeer's available for you below, and if you just happen to be game for watching one of De Hirsch's suckems in kaleidoscope mode then this is the film for you!

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THE STORY OF...ELECTRIC JIMMY & HIS SKYROCKETS CD (Rarity Records, Holland)

Unlike most all of you self-conscious what-will-people-think-of-me types out there in readerland, I am not ashamed of promoting and doing some downright cheerleading for various musical acts or cultural happenings that might not be considered "cool" and "with it" in the hipster hotcha rock 'n roll realm. That includes a smattering of sounds that came out of the post-Elvis/pre-Beatles era which I get the feeling quite a few Greils and Daves out there would definitely find counter to their own sense of sociopolitical elegance (and for good reason, at least for them). As far as the instrumental vibrations of the early-sixties go I'm game for the relatively tame tinklings of an act such as the String-a-Longs, nor will I say anything bad about these Indorockers led by a guy named Jimmy who just happened to be an electrician hence his name! While not exactly another Tielman Brothers the Skyrockets still created some pleasing enough (and Latin-tinged!) soundscapades that sure give more credence to the early-sixties being rather hotcha as far as rock 'n roll went than any of those "Bobby" acts ever could have.

Twenty-eight tracks bound to nauseate more'n a few snobs posing as rough and tumble rock appreciators out there. But eh, most all who've chanced upon this blog should know better. This might be a good 'un to spin after hearing the bigger names in the Indorock biz and wanting more.

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Vic Godard & Subway Sect-WHAT'S THE MATTER BOY? CD-r burn (originally on MCA Records England)

After being bored gourd-less after recently listening to their double disque I wasn't exactly champing at the bit to give this early-eighties effort by the once-rather punkified Sect a hear-see. Tell ya what, WHAT'S THE MATTER BOY? surprisingly enough isn't the early-eighties retro-pose put on I thought it was going to be. Not that it's gonna top any charts 'round these parts but that sense of "wha' 'app'd?" I got when the new wave went gnu just wasn't present during this particular play. Yeah it's almost as well-packaged and produced for uppercrust snoots the way that Dexy's Midnight Runners and Culture Club were but I've yet to puke.

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AC/DC-STIFF UPPER LIP CD-r burn (originally on Elektra Records)

Sent by primo AC/DC camp follower Paul McGarry, this effort was a mild surprise. Y'see, I like quite a few AC/DC sides, especially the earliest ones which show more than just a glimmer of punk rock promise. However, when Bon Scott glugged himself to death and they got that guy from Geordie to do the warbling it was PANDER TO THE WORST ASPECTS OF STONER YOUTHDOM extant and well, by then you could tell that the eighties were in full downer gear anyway. 

But this rec's different, with Brian Johnson's whine fitting in swell with the overall racket, the Free influence prominent and not even annoying, and best of all there ain't any of that anthemic heavy metal sludge that made the entire eighties hard rock scene (well, 'cept for the truly high energy stuff) so nauseating. Primitive in the way this type of growl was always supposed to be, and whatever you do don't let those FM-bred dolts whose still believe that rock should have finesse and quality, spouting about it all with musical tastes that equals their grandfolk who preferred Kay Kyser over Count Basie (true), tell you any different!

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Vivian Goldman-RESOLUTIONARY (SONGS 1979-1982) CD (Staubgold Records E.U.)

I sure wish I was as rich as alla you readers out there if only so's I coulda afforded to gobble up not only all of the records I wanted but all of the publications of worth that were coming out throughout the seventies and even into the early eighties. Then I wouldn't have had to wait so long to appreciate the writings of the creme de la Golden Age scribes for the various English Weeklies (those overseas subs were atrociously costly and like, even the individual issues woulda cost me a few limbs). I mean, imagine me all these years missing out on the smart scribblings of such people as Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Kent, Giovanni Dadomo, Jonh Ingham, Jane Suck and today's subject at hand Vivian Goldman. 

Goldman's a lass who ranks pretty high as far as not only the staff of SOUNDS went but one who certainly held her own with any of the great rock writers as fans back when I looked upon these scribes as "one of us". Or more accurately "one of me". An' I'm talking Richard Meltzer and Lenny Kaye way on down the line so you know that this woman wasn't just another one of those embarrassing female rock critics you used to see (and still do!) who seemed to be put women's lip or Erma Bombeck twaddle above telling us all about the whys and wherefores of the music at hand.

Hmmm, way better'n I woulda expected considering that this was all being done in the early-eighties of shifting underground concerns (and not always in the right direction as the Culture Club and Dexy's Midnight Runners proved) . Not anywhere as good as Dadomo's Sniveling Shits effort but really listenable early-eighties art puff. I am somewhat shocked that I like this since I usually loathe this brand of gruel which (at least for me) signaled the death of seventies grit passing as sound into the antiseptic art pose that the eighties were rather well known for. Def. "post punk" neo reggae electrono beatbox stuff true, only done up with enough avgarde momentum that kinda makes me wish more of these 12-inch single efforts from various punks who "grew up" (with all the bad connotations that term implies) put out things along these lines. Or am I only cozying up to this because of Goldman's writing expertise which made her stand out from the rest of them "I am my own woman" affirmative action hires who were more menstrual show than relate to the music at hand w/o the usual ulterior motives garnered from whatever was picked up at the latest feminist workshop?

Not only that but she really does gotta pleasant voice that weaves in and out of the electronic clang without singeing your ears. Well, it is a nice, light and downright airy music that is definitely worth losing your brain in, and even her Flying Lizards efforts that also pop up here sound smarter'n I remember that group to have ever been. Good enough that it reminds me of the misery and lost feelings in life (feelings which only got worse as time progressed) that I had back when these tracks were first released! 

The Cee-Dee ends with an interview with Goldman whose thick English accent makes this one pretty indecipherable to my Amerigan ears. I did hear her say something about a "male controlled press" somewhere in the mix, so maybe it's BETTER that I don't understand what she's talking about!

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Odyssey the Band-BACK IN TIME CD (Pi Records)

I bought this 'un strictly on Goldman's recommendation via some NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (I think she skedaddled SOUNDS by that time and started to freelance) article on James "Blood" Ulmer, only I goofed since this isn't the original Odyssey the band but a mid-00's reunion! Well, it's the same group and it's still a FANTASTIC listen-to, as the trio of Ulmer, fiddler Charles Burnham and drummer Warren Benbow lay down a great repeato-riff almost drone-a-thon that at least on one track could pass as neo-Velvet Underground rock 'n roll (no crappin' on ya here...just listen to "Channel One" which reminds me of Amon Duul I's "Love is Peace" filtered through "Sweet Sister Ray"). More of that punk funk that was all the under-the-underground rage a good fortysome years ago and will continue to turn a whole load of heads as long as there are things called ears. 

The blues unto jazz tackle is pretty much in-groove with most of the BTC (anti)aesthetics, and if you went whole hog for a guitar jazz extravaganza like Sonny Sharrock's ASK THE AGES there's no reason why you shouldn't love this 'un. And although the original OSYSSEY record is now out of my spending range well, I just might skip a few meals and bills in order to snatch me up a copy sometimes!

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Horace Tapscott conducting the Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra-THE CALL CD-r burn (originally on UGMAA Records)

Mr. Oberlin sent this 'un my way...wotta guy! Tapscott leads his own arkestra sounding almost exactly like the mid-fifties Ra ensemble with a surprisingly Coltrane-ish AFRICA BRASS feel, or am I once again showing my ignorance of jazz? Eh so what, I (thankfully) am no Leonard Feather with all of the negative connotations that conjures up in your head!  

Incredible piano playing and hits-you-square energy that we all could use a whole lot more of in our ever-sagging lives. A downright sounds bouncing left and right at'cha recording that should appeal to the spiritual jazz types amongst you readers who I have the feeling are anything BUT spiritual!

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Jah Wobble-DEEP SPACE CD-r burn (originally on 30 Hertz Records)

Never ever ever gave a whit about Jah Wobble other'n METAL BOX ...after all, any guy who would hold a knife to Nick Kent while Sid Vicious bashed him with a bike chain doesn't seem to be on the same spiritual plateau as I am. But this '99 release is OK. Reminds me of those early-eighties Conny Plank-related electronic recs he did with members of Cluster --- records that might have predicted some of the gloss we were in store for as the years rolled on but back then it wasn't anything to get alarmed over...yet. Coulda spent the time listening to this in a more productive fashion, but probably woulda in worser ways nomesame? 

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S.W.A.T.-DEEP INSIDE A COP'S MIND CD-r burn (originally on Amphetamine Reptile Records)

Wow, the best comedy album I've heard since MY NAME...JOSE JIMENEZ! Jim Goad, with the help of Adam Parfrey, released this cop concept platter way back in the darker 'n dark nineties and, as anyone familiar with the two would have guessed, the law enforcer snark and general loopiness such misanthropes would inflict onto a slab on vinyl is pretty har-har-har-de-har-har in typical Ralph Kramden fashion. Tee-vee police music meets Johnny Cash c/w and MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Not like any of the other Amphetamine Reptile platters I've heard, that's for sure!

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Prices might not be going up, but my dander sure is over the fact that not enough of these BLACK TO COMM back issues ain't flyin' outta the abode like they should be. If you don't have 'em all and want to fill up the gaps in your collection well, now's the time before I get really mad and make 'em totally unaffordable to the reams of layabout no-good pox upon the face of humanity types who seem to be cluttering up the place as of late. People like YOU...