I've been busier than an abortionist in a NYC ghetto as of late which is why I
haven't scooted this 'un out to you a lot sooner 'n now. Well, it ain't like
I'm exactly buried up to my britches in work but I still need more time to
devote to kicking up my feet and goofing off while listening to music
sans attempting to tell you just how I feel about it from the vast
reaches of my soul, or brain, or something like that. I do try my best, but
you all know what a failure I've been in life thus the delays in these
writeups. You're gonna get what'cha expect, which might be blow-hardy at times
so take it piece by piece like you should do all these megaposts.
Tedium seems to be the order of the day but by this time in life I've learned
to love it. There is something about monotony that seems to benefit my spirit
in the same way that the better rock 'n roll groups of the sixties and
seventies used repeato riffs to create a warm blanket of sonic reduction that
entices rather than bores. Who knows, maybe that's why I've been playing some
of my pre-chitchat with the Dalai Lama-era Philip Glass albums as of late but
whatever, I sure can't wait for the days when I can do nothing but hang around
the house just like I did when I was a budding suburban slob and I preferred
staying in my room 'stead of going out and associating with humanity. Sorta
like today only I'll be able to do it 24 hours nonstop!
***
Stale old news but still...r.i.p. to Lou Christie, a name in sixties music
that many associate with the rash of rumors surrounding
his...er..."private" (parts) affairs. You want to know the
REAL reason why the
gypsy cried??? Then there's Connie Francis, and I'm not gonna make any obvious
jokes about her because the last time I did I got into some hot water with a
certain person and I do want to avoid controversy on this
blog (BTW my mother, who at first thought Connie was swell probably because
they shared the same ethnic background, went 180 against her after Connie's
misfortune at a certain NYC-area motel...I mean, Connie was clearly the victim
in this case but my mother though she was TAINTED by the incident and it was nothing but disgust from thereon
in!). Bobby Sherman also finally bit the dust---well, at least he lived
long enough to enjoy the passing of David Cassidy who certainly stole
Sherman's teen idol thunder and heavy duty like at that. And of course a shout
out to Mick Ralphs who should be fondly remembered for his role in Mott the
Hoople (an act that I find 50/50 myself to be honest about it), though
co-founding Bad Company's something that he's really gonna hafta answer to St.
Peter for.
***
Big thank you to Robert Forward for the old Tom Donahue radio show from May 2
of 1967 with none other than Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh sittin' in spinnin'
the records and talkin' things up just like I'm sure they woulda back at their
pad on Haight. By this time the Dead really had fizzled out and but good (but
then again the only GD I will do the rah-rahs for are those 1965 demos
straight out of PEBBLESville...dunno if SEASTONES counts)
but as you'd guess their tastes in music were better'n their ability to take
such tastes and do something good with 'em. Thus the listener that particular
night would have been subjected to a whole slew of surprisingly interesting
tracks from Charles Mingus to Blind Willie Johnson up through James Brown
which only goes to prove that Gene Sculatti was right in labeling the early
Dead as intellectual punk rock supremos before the press releases and
chemicals really got to their heads.
The two do come off
somewhat phony intellectual (after all, wasn't that MUSIC OF BULGARIA album [a track of which pops up on this show or else I wouldn't be
mentioning it] considered some sort of total hipster gotta have and gotta love
possession for every true smarter than their parents type back then? I mean,
if Paul Simon loved it I kinda get the idea that every ironed hair freedom
rider gal out there did as well!). However, I can see how Nick Kent thought
they actually came off like Amerigan college boy types with an honest interest
in European culture back when he interviewed 'em for
FRIENDS 'round '72 way...they are kinda gosh darn
sincere 'n all. Sheesh, after all of this maybe I should give these bozos
another go at it --- perhaps if I could separate the group from their
FANS somehow...
***
Current tee-vee jollies include weeknight perusals of
JONNY QUEST, a
program that I went totally nutzo for during my turdler years though when I
caught up with reruns in the eighties I thought they were somewhat unexciting
and even quite stale. In my advanced age I gotta say that this 'un's got
everything that was custom-made for the sixties-vintage ranch house lardass
plopped right in front of the idiot box kinda guy...there's the fine comic
book-styled artwork and storylines (sorta like a cross 'twixt the tales one got
during the 12-cent era and a smattering of post-WW II action strips borrowing
more than a few ideas from Milton Caniff) to the finest animation I've seen
broadcast outside of some snoozy cartoon television special that boasted top
notch efforts but total boredom. Hoyt Curtin's theme song and incidental music
ain't no slouch either what with that jazzy roaring brass all over the place
helping to pump up the visuals even more. In many ways
JONNY QUEST was one of the last gasps of boffo and real-deal Golden
Age of Television considering that in a few short years the whole kit 'n
kaboodle would (temporarily) lose a lot of the bared-wire intensity it had for
the previous ten or so years what with the old line programs starting to lose
their direction and the new efforts just not as potent as what had been dished
out at Mr. and Mrs. Front Porch only a short time earlier.
One program I decided to catch if only to satiate my morbid curiosity was the
mid-eighties revival of an early-sixties classic and I don't mean that
hippified
TWILIGHT ZONE either (a show which I admittedly liked even
if I tuned out after awhile). I'm talkin'
THE JETSONS, Hanna-Barbera's
one-season wonder that flopped in the ratings because it was stacked up against
Disney but grew in popularity due to incessant reruns that ya just couldn't
avoid if you were living in a house with a pack of preteen turdburgers. Earlier
in my lifecycle I caught a few minutes of these new 'un's here/there and didn't
care for the animation much (too eighties-ish Hanna-Barbera crankout that
probably took three times as many people to create as it did the superior
originals) but decided to give them another go at it out of something a little
less than morbid curiosity.
The revived JETSONS really ain't "that" bad, that is
if you tweak your own personal tastemeters to suit your suburban slob outlook
on tee-vee jollies. It's boff that the original voice actors were brought in
before they all croaked, but it sure is tough listening to the likes of Daws
Butler struggling to hit that high Elroy voice (and, come to think of it,
George "Jetson" O'Hanlon was suffering from some heavy duty health issues
'round the same time even though it really didn't affect his vocal
cords...maybe his
lungs). Like I said the animation's rather television uninspired but I guess it
could have been loads worse, and judging from some of the Hanna Barbera
programs from the same time it sure was an improvement. And the storylines
were actually OK even if the creeping tendency of eighties blanditude does
date these in the same way that the original series is dated only in a good
early-sixties fashion. Overall I'm glad these cartoons weren't botched by
mid-eighties retroscuzz, but if you think I'm gonna stay up past snoozetime to
watch any more of these you got another think comin'.
***
It's infantile but it's fun! No, I don't mean grabbin' the weenie like you
boys did from age two onward (and I
do mean onward!)
but more AI chicanery, this time of what are supposed to be the actual covers
of that sixties-vintage Marvel Comics Group title THE SUBPAR SEVEN!
Yeah the very concept's quite immature in a thirteen-year-old way or at least
a bad idea that would have popped up in some mid-sixties comic book crudzine
but eh, if I were a pre-pubesprout and I had this technology to work with I
sure woulda been gung ho on creating such covers as these! The results look
more 80s and beyond and definitely post-Kirby but anyway, these results are
loads better'n anything any of the big and even small comic book companies
have been able to cook up for quite a long time):
***
After alla that cereal filler well, here be the reviews. Thanks to Paul, Bob,
Fadensonnen, Thierry Muller and no one else (forgot who sent me the Destroyed
CD, but whoever it was well...sorry it got lost in the rubble otherwise known
as my bedroom).
If it means a heck of a lot of difference to you, drummer Bert Switzer has a
rather amazing pedigree not only having been influenced by Keith Moon
and
the Remains but having gathered up a certain number of friends who just could
have been instrumental in making the guy a household name. That never happened
but it didn't stop Bert who kept churnin' out his own breed of basement rock
including some recordings by this Boston group called the Destroyed, a name
that seems somewhat familiar in the back reaches of my cavernous
cranium.
This release begins with a Destroyed reunion of sorts with Bert bashing away
behind guitarist and singer JD Jackson producing a roar that reminds me of
various home-produced efforts from Metal Mike Saunders' Rockin' Blewz to those
pre-Gizmo Kenne Highland tapes that circulated amongst the creepier of fanzine
freaks back in the eighties. Like a lot of late-seventies punk rock, these
guys rehash old heavy metal riffs in a way that would offend the more petunia
readers of this blog to which I say
OKAY!!!
Onetime big name in underground circles Henry Kaiser appears on a few tracks
laying some of his experimental leads which sure sound good in this stew
(never was a fan of the guy who always seemed to come off perfectly
constructed to jigsaw into the tastes the people who would listen to him ---
nothing wrong with that but I felt his presence a little too
howshallIsay "obvious"). Sheesh. these remind me a whole lot of
DAILY DANCE so I really do have to give the man a huge
reconsideration!
Filling out the disque are some actual real deal late-seventies recordings by
the group. They come off just like you would have expect them to with the
bargain basement cassette quality improving the overall intensity just like it
did with all of those other classic definitely lo-fi seventies recordings that
continue to stand up to half-mastered virgin vinyl efforts the kind that alla
them
STEREO REVIEW nuts used to skid shorts over. Overall, a really
interesting effort from these guys who I'll bet hardly any of you knew about
and wouldn't care to know about, but that's not gonna stop me from
educating you random clump of cells out there.
***
By Any Means-LIVE AT CRESCENDO 2-CD-r set (originally on Ayler Records,
Sweden)
Not much is known (at least by me) 'bout this late-00's configuration with new
thing biggies Charles Gayle, Rashied Ali and William Parker, but the trio
swing swell here in a fashion that brings back to me some of the more
gnarllier moments of the old Sam Rivers-thrusted loft jazz scene
documented on the you should have had 'em for years
already WILDFLOWERS albums.
Gayle in general brings up (at least in my rather hollow mindset)
everyone from Henry Threadgill to even Roscoe Mitchell and a number of other
seventies players I'm too stupid to know about but will discover in a good
twenty or so years should I live so long. Parker's versatile enough to the
point where you don't even feel like snoozing during his bass solo and like,
what else can be said about Rashied Ali who ranked as one of the better
out-of-the-groove drummers during the early prominence of the new jazz way
back in the total eruption days of the late-sixties.
There are so many of these avgarde jazz things to choose from and if you're a
person who is conscious of where your hard begged goes I know you will be
cautious before considering an effort like this. Heaven only knows how much
$$$ I've squandered merely on hunch. But you might go for this 'un if you are
a devoted follower of the form and still have the same fervor for the free
sound that you did when you were a teenbo and you read somewhere where Frank
Zappa mentioned Cecil Taylor 'r something along those lines. Not bad
really...in fact a tip topper effort from three players, two who are no longer
around to be ignored like they were most all of their lives.
***
Marion Brown-LIVE AT CLUB LABRATORIUM CD-r burn
This came out as a bootleg cassette a good five or so years back, something I
find a bit strange considering that no legit label devoted to the New Thing
was conscious enough to release it legal-like. Sound is flat (though a pro
company could make it sound really spiffy) but the performance is just what
you'd hope a jazz act would have come up with during the cataclysmic 60s/70s
cusp.
This has Brown and trumpeter Leo Smith playing with a buncha krauts (including
Teutonic jazz bigwig Manfred Eicher on bass) doing it slow and bared-wire
intense recalling some of Brown's then-contemp. albums, the one on ECM with
Braxton and Chick Corea coming to mind. Perhaps Smith's presence does lend
somewhat of an AACM approach which is heightened by the heavy use of "small
instruments" of a percussive variety.
A nice slow burn play that reminds me of PEOPLE IN SORROW which
would figure given the time and locale (Europe during the days of the great
afro-jazz expat).
***
Drew Gardner-THE RETURN CD-r burn (originally on Astral Spirits Records)
While we're on a jazz jag...well I can't say that this '95 session breaks any
new ground, but it sure is a fine harkening back to the late-sixties burst of
creativity that was so noticeable that even a few suburban slob kids were
paying attention (yeah, a rehash of thought first delivered in the By Any
Means review but like, I wrote these up a good two months apart so stow the
snide!). Stellar lineup including the shoulda/oughta be legendary John Tchicai
who most of you will probably remember from his appearance with John Stevens
on the live portion of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono LIFE WITH THE LIONS spinner...that's him getting particularly squonky right when the song
unfortunately fades out. This sesh ain't as nerve grating as the Lennon/Ono
show but eh, some of you will go for it.
***
The Equals-EQUALS SUPREME/SENSATIONAL EQUALS CD-e burn (originally on
Repertoire Records, Germany)
"Baby Come Back" ain't on here (unless you got a special burn made for me by
Paul McGarry), so superficial fanablas'll probably want to skip on this given
their inherent shallowness. And considering how the Equals were pretty hit or
miss, with some pretty on-target island-tinged pop songs intermingled with
comparatively pallid efforts, you might want to skip on the thing as well.
Features the talents of one Eddy Grant, the first black artist to pop up on
the MTV screens (this during the days of rock music finally tumbling deep into
the abyss) even though superficial wonks like to say it was Michael Jackson
all along.
***
PSYCHIC PIGS CD-r burn (originally on Slovenly Records, England)
It sure is nice hearing a punk rock group in the here and now that hasn't
succumbed to the prevailing hippie tide of pink hair 'n protest! This duo
creates a great straight-ahead roaring breed of rock 'n roll that brings back
memories of some of those early/mid-eighties outfits who were too smart to
believe alla that kultured dribble regarding punk rock being dead yet were too
smart to dive whole hog into that radical left warmed over hippie drool that
was nothing but them kids from BILLY JACK in Doc Martens once
you get down to it. Today, like fortysome years back, the roar of real punk
rock 'n roll is here to fight off the precocious strains of pampered pooch
piousness!
***
Wire-SEND CD-r burn (originally on Pinkflag Records, England)
Gotta say that I find a lot of these later-on Wire LPs (wha' th' heck---maybe
even some of the earlier ones as well) not that bad. Hit or miss as far as
some go perhaps, and this 'un 's quite the same what with the roar coming off
potent in spots yet sounding like the same old heard them avgarde musical
moves many times before in others. But hey, I'll take this over just 'bout any
of the other late-seventies survivors of the English punk brigades who were
still up and about when this offering was made. But then again I find a good
portion of it more of the usual blare...a good blare mind you
but y'know, nothing I'd care to spin when stacked up against the Electric
Eels'r somethin'.
***
Pascal Comelade-LES LIMINANAS TRAITE DE GUITARRES TRIOLECTIQUES CD-r burn
(originally on Because Records, France)
This guy has a discography longer than anyone you know's arm, but I never did come
across any of Comelade's music during my many-a-years of listening (not that I
was looking...). The man plays what sounds like electronic takes on
late-sixties instrumentals, sorta like Kim Fowley's
BORN TO BE WILD without any of the gals on the cover 'r somethin'
like that. Needs a low-budget German film from the seventies to go along. "A
Wall of Perrukes" kinda reminds me of Cluster during their
ZUKERZEIT days or even La Dusseldorf once the late-seventies began
rolling in. And by the way track #8 "Green Fuz" is not the Randy Alvey song
made popular by its appearance on PEBBLES.
***
And if you were stoopid enough to make your way through this post then you're
just the kind of person who is just ready-made for a whole slew of
BLACK TO COMM back issues! Get some, shit some!