.png)
Gosh how I used to marvel over import singles such as this 'un when I would traipse around in some Cleveland record shop espying a whole load of sound recordings that just weren't available in the tri-county area. Non-LP b-sides and interesting pic sleeves ne'er before seen by these eyes were to be found, and although I was subsisting on depression-era wages at the time at least it was grand just to pour through the racks before heading to the cheapo cassette cutout bin which was more up my financial alley.
At the time I never woulda guessed that I'd ever be in possession of this 'un, but I have and for well over thirtysome years at that! On the hit single side Patti and group tear through a track from their underrated RADIO ETHIOPIA platter, sounding commercial yet exciting enough in a way that woulda dragged in a few metallic music fans to the Smith cause (and I guess a few did cross over if the pages of BACK DOOR MAN and RAW POWER are to be trusted).
The live in France flip has Patti tackling the old Stones "chestnut" as they say doing a more'n adequate job of it for a crowd that was part and parcel of the whole ROCK NEWS/Open Market/Skydog fan base. 's funny, but for years people said that France was a horrible place for rock music but in fact the place was hepper'n hep to the Big Beat more'n any locale 'round here could ever be. And if you don't get chills at the end when Patti proudly bursts out "The MC5!" well, I guess you don't get chills.
***
.png)
Throughout the eighties there were more'n just a few of these "sixties garage revival bands" popping up all over the globe, and although you never would have known it if you got all your musical news from the by then-gelded CREEM they were sure making their presence known in more'n just a few hidden locales.
These Swedes were but one of the thousands of young upstarts who were doing their best to bring back the high energy in a world that was doused beyond belief. Thankfully enough they sure did a pretty good job of keeping the rhythm goin' on. More'n just "adequate" covers of the Doors, Sonics and Seeds appear here, and they sure come off a whole lot gutsier'n many of those groups did once the movement began petering out and fans began looking for another underground trend to latch onto.
A fairly good 'un that reminds me of just how important the Disques du Monde catalog was in my life, at least before I began emptying my bank account to zilch for records such as these.
***
.png)
Y'know, I do feel kinda sorry for the turdlers today who aren't subject to these old kiddie tales that thrilled a generation of diaper dumpers. As always its their (grand)parents' fault. After all, the children who were told these fables and given some of the best toys on the market and didn't have to beg for the bare necessities of life were the same ones who became radical revolutionaries and hippie malcontents who have made life for all purposes worse for alla the younguns that followed! The last generation that really had it good, and they just hadda go and ruin it for everyone else and for reasons that were totally anti-human at that.
A funzie, typically portable kiddie turntable kinda spin here with the Cricketeers singing nice, single-digit ditties based on a coupla olde tymey tales that stood the test of time. Well they did at least until Mother Goose hadda be replaced by Big Mother watching YOU! and you know how al that turned out. Educational too, because I never was told the Billy Goats Gruff saga so it was almost like I was once again crawlin' 'round in my overalls (mom put 'em on so I wouldn't touch myself) listening to this rec for the first time before headin' for the set to glom some real deal suburban slob cartoon entertainment.
***
Alice was the big time king of the freak rock roost when this 'un came out, and "Billion Dollar Babies" sounds even better (even with the intrusion of the otherwise excretable Donovan) a good fifty year down the line. It should sound better because well, have you heard most of the music that has been made since? Heavy metal never had it so good, even if records like this were its last gasps until the advent of Von Lmo.
The big surprise is the flipster featuring the entirety of "Halo of Flies off the KILLER album, and all eight plus minutes of it at that! I didn't know that you could fit a song that long on a seven-inch 45 but I guess it has been done (with minimal if any loss in quality) and if I were a suburban slob ranch house kid back then who saved my pennies up for this 'un well, I sure woulda gotten my moolah's worth now, wouldn't I?
***
.png)
Back when "rock music" (both of an underground and increasingly banal mainstream variety) was going down the poop-chute to Hall of Fame nausea this group was one of a scant that delivered on some mighty straight-ahead and emotional (without the self-reflective pout) music that sure brightened up my oft dismal days. Even now I can hear what the appeal was with this act given their late-seventies influenced drive that reflected more of a suburban Velvet Underground affectation (seventies style) than it did artzy boho chi-chi snob attitude that seemed to be oh-so prevalent back then. But then again in the seventies that artzy bohoness and ranch house musical attitudes often did run in the same directions before boundaries were eventually drawn up. Big kudos for the b-side which uncannily sounds like late-seventies Simply Saucer.
***
.png)
This much-praised bunch of seventies San Franciscan punks sound rather pedestrian compared with others of their ilk but that doesn't mean you should dismiss 'em. After all, their appearance on TOOTH AND NAIL was solid enough for anyone's (or at least my own) sense of rockist supremacy. A more'n just "accurate" Amerigan takes on various English moves which were swiped from Amerigans swiping from the green-toothed ones anyway, and it went back 'n forth for quite a long time. High rating for the kinda lyrics that shoulda been heard in a rock 'n roll setting 'stead of all that "I wandered lonely as a cloud" twaddle that usually appeared.
***
.png)
Hell does fine enough in this version of the Voidoids (the one with ex-Eels Jerry Garcia goin' under the nom de somethingorother of Xavier Sessive on the bass guitar) delivering on his emotive whine to some sold backing which should be expected considering the musicians involved. The Neon Boys roar on beautifully in that primitive basement demo sorta way coming off uncannily similar in approach and sound quality to those pre-Dolls Actress demos, Television's Eno tape and not surprisingly the Primitives/Roughneck/Beachnuts tracks that Lou Reed laid down before hittin' the big time. Sheesh, I sure remember when it was stuff like this that made me glad that I was an OCD rabid music madman who wanted to hear everything that was pertinent to a hard-edged high energy sound...whadda I mean WAS????
***
.png)
We're talkin' really early Cramps here when Peter Crowley gave these guys ample stage time at Max's Kansas City supporting acts ranging from Suicide and the Brats to Jango Edwards and the Friends Band. And all that time these guys/gals were accruing such a cult that even Hilly Kristel hadda relent and book 'em at CBGB's even after they failed their audition there.
It's sure funny thinking that such a low-fi act as the Cramps actually covered the Red Crayola but they obviously did, and they did so in typical early pre-chops primitive style at that. You can hear the roots of their rockabilly passion on "I'm Cramped" which thuds on as if humongous gallstones grew inside Eddie Cochran. Another 'un that reminds me of the freshness and creativity of the seventies, and just like with disturbing pornography you could find itif you just knew where to look.
***
.png)
I tossed these gals' album out because I thought it was tepid at best (or so I faintly recall), but this early single (featuring NEXT BIG THING heartthrob Amy Rigby) is a better than you would expect bit of acoustic countryified folk that sure sounds waywayWAY better than some of the music that has passed for both country and folk this past half-century. Surprisingly sweet and melodic with pleasing harmonies, a surprise since the Shams came outta NYC and we all know what a turdhole that place turned out to be. If this act played it right they coulda been the McGuire Sisters of the eighties.
***
.png)
The Mortal Micronotz-"I'm Too Good"; "So Fine"; "It's Alive"/"Cleo",
"Dean's Lead" 7-inch 3 rpm EP (Fresh Sounds Records)
If you (like me) miss the sound of hardcore punk rock before the entire concept became hippified beyond belief (the spiritual predecessors to the reams of messed up mental midgies ruining things these days) then you should enjoy the Micronotz. Avid mid-eighties under-the-underground mag readers might remember this group that had been getting some notoriety thanks to not only their legendary neo-Stoogeian approach to sonic bombardment but their label being able to afford plenty of ad space in just about every under-the-underground read in the world 'cept this one. The low fidelity helps as this group screeches through a variety of hotcha trackage that at times even sounds like hoary old sixties garage riffs being thrust into the early-seventies of thud heavy metal.
Y'know, on one hand I imagined the city of Lawrence to be some sorta college snob town filled with hipper-than-anyone types, the Austin Texas of Kansas in fact. But if the locals were always as wired and hard-edged as these guys well, it's no wonder that Bloody Bill Anderson and his crew leveled the place!
***
.png)
It seemed like a fun idea fortysome years back.
Krishnacore mighta been good for a laff or two, but what did that style of punk unto punque get us anyway? Nothing but splintered off utter nonsense like queercore, christiancore, moslemcore, femcore on down the line, and it was ALL nothing but hippiedippie antijamz set to a moo'ment that had lost any semblance of its original meaning long ago. You know that when mags like NEWSWEEK started to write glowing articles on groups such as these that the jig was up. As Jim Goad said, the concept of punk (in any wayshapeform you can think of) was the antithesis of the wholegrain we are all one people and culture save the world headband and trinkets dreck the survivors of the "revolution" had become in the seventies, but thanks to the likes of Tim Yohannon and Al/Hudley etc. punk became exactly what it set out to destroy---weepy heartfelt cozycomfy feelings that sure make me yearn for the '80/'81 days of hedonistic neo-fascistic (in a good and positive way) high energy!
Nice enough roar tho.
***
.png)
Haw is this a hoot! Seattle sludgemeisters the Dehumanizers tear down local newsblabber and Dixie Lee Ray cohort Lou Guzzo after the fanabla gave an anti-punk rock editorial on local tee-vee back late-eighties way! This record actually resulted in some threatened legal action (probably due to the fact that Guzzo's own daughter was allegedly punkified herself and thus got an honorable mention in the lyrics) but, like with pornographers or even AK47 whose "The Badge Means You Suck" earned the ire of the Houston fuzz, it's kinda tricky to pinpoint exactly who to sue even if you're lucky enough to find out the brains behind the entire outfit!
As far as reactions to the anti-punk hysteria that prevailed throughout the eighties go, "Kill Lou Guzzo" hits the target not only because of the subject matter at hand (I mean, how many times did you [OK---ME] want to beat the living daylights outta some prissy purebred anti-punk progenitor like Anastasia Pantsios anyway?) but because of the great hardgrind metallic punk energy not only this song but the entire EP (filled with perfecto snide in itself) produces. Thankfully this 'un was recorded loooong before alla that ______core (see review directly above) was run into the ground and the concept of "punk" went "punque" making you have to look far and wide for the real deal meal.
Records like this just might have been one of punk rock's last gasps of greatness. The snarkiness of the title track sure is a refreshing relief from those comparatively subdued strums that came out much later, songs that had none of the motion, energy and spark that drew kids to the form in the first place. Music that in many cases was just downright droopy. Maybe you remember way back when a well-to-do preppy jock type murdered some punk kid and got a slap on the wrist, and all that the p-rockers could manage to do was write boo-hoo odes about it all with titles such as "Tears From Heaven" that had oh what an injustice how we miss you sniff blubber lyrics. Sheesh, this modern day William Zanzinger should've been subjected to the Guzzo treatment complete with aspersions upon his ethnicity and beliefs complete with a good doxxing 'stead of all of those crybaby sensitive odes recorded in the poor punk's memory!
***
.png)
How'd THIS turdburger get into my collection? Gotta think of which cousin out there was doof enough to snatch this 'un up inna first place but eh, if I can review scratched beyond belief old kiddie records and flexidiscs hyping Helen O'Connell-plugged Big Band compilations why not this.
Not much to say about it, only that even compared to Perry Como Boone comes off like Karen Quinlan, and at this point in time I think I'd prefer listening to her respirator than this slick stuff custom made for the timid of souls amongst us (yesterday's version of the past forty years of pop music pandering to the LCD of Amerigan youth).
By the way, did you know that (hate to bring her name up again but...) Anastasia Pantsios used to correlate the underground punk rock movers and shaker fans of the 70s/80s cusp with the stodgy old fogey parent types of the fifties who thought people such as Pat were perfect for their progeny while the FM-bred-dolts who were prevalent were clearly the then-present day version of the Elvis Presley-listenin' leather jackets and sideburns kinda cool cats who were up rockin' and boppin'?!?!? Shows that some people should have been kept away from any sort of printing or broadcast media (and placed on a variety of meds that prob'ly weren't around back then) while the true visionaries like myself shoulda been given free range to do all the town crier spreading of the BIG BEAT news that always needed a push given the proliferation of anti-high energy types in this world of ours. Maybe if that had happened we wouldn't have to put up with Ann Powers.
***
.png)
This group sure went through their own long and strange journey considering what they sounded like only a good two years earlier.
The a-side's perhaps too "progressive" for a buncha punks such as these, maybe due to the femme singer and the synth drone coming off like a beauteous mash up of Slapp Happy and Jimmy Page's soundtrack to LUCIFER RISING.
As for "Lost in Room" it reminds me more or less of all that English "post-punque" musique that might have seemed interesting and artistic when it first came out but just developed into an even more ball-less mess of eighties miasma as time rolled on. Man that breed of sound sure made me almost as ill as all that pseudo heavy metal and ginchy gooch MTV pop that the dolts were gobbling up back during one of the worst times for music ever. Well, at least it was the worst time until the next decade and the one after that on and on and onanism. But since this was done up in 1979 its fine if only because well, who woulda guessed?
***
.png)
The Child Molesters certainly owed a whole lot more to the earlier punk rock generation of the late-sixties/early-seventies variety than they did to the late-seventies variation on the form. Their music was hard-edged pounce, recorded in the same style of glorious lo-fi as the Titfield Thunderbolt and Neon Boys and definitely way closer to the Captain Beefheart/Pink Fairies/Alice Cooper taproot than it was the Sex Pistols. Then again, the Pistols were also way way close to that same source of seventies energy so what'm I talking about?
A-side capitalization on local tragedy fits in swell with a solid neo-Stooge ca. RAW POWER approach that sure made me glad that I was up, about and had a heart full of hate (still do). The other side showcases a fine slab of 60s/70s cusp cataclysm music originally performed by Yoko Ono back when she had the makings of a true rocker and didn't yet head out for the sensitive singer-songwriter mode (as if people were gonna like her for any better for that!). I find this 'un badass enough to clump in with various other pre-Clash-era punk spunk recordings for kids who didn't need (once again --- brace yourself!) Anastasia Pantsios to tell 'em what was hip and with it!
***
.png)
Gotta pity these guys for comin' 'round too late for the sixties Detroit hard rock scene. They might have made somewhat of a dent if they were around during the early-seventies or so, at least as big a one as the Motor City Mutants (BTW...there was a live Mutants recording from '72 floating around quite awhile back---if anyone out there has a copy couldja make a dub for me PLEEEEZZZZEEEE???). Yeah this is definitely a product of the late-seventies breed of punk rock but the hard gnash and general roots are firmly a good decade earlier. Might be somewhat more Dead Boys than Stooges but I don't mind. Raving cover of the Dave Clark Five's "Anyway You Want It"...or was it Journey's???
***
.png)
I haven't played any of them eighties vintage "new era" groups as of late so this Surgery effort was like a big return to those worser than worse days and the hope that somehow the rock 'n roll spirit woulda made itself rather known in a sea of musical mediocrity. It sure didn't but at least records like this gave a good go of it.
This Surgery single sure brought a whole lotta good memories back (as well as bad ones since like, well, that wasn't exactly the best of times for this pampered pooch of a sensitive soul) with its over-the-top brand of hard rock without the big label slick. Thankfully the rock "underground" hadn't devolved as speedily as it did when this effort had hit the mailboxes, what with these hefty metallic shards of energy (which puts alla that Pantsios-hyped examples of cleaned up tinklings that the kids really wanted to utter shame!) drilling holes into a whole lot more than your eardrums.
Lock Andy Secher in a room with this and he'll be crawling up the walls just begging for his Van Halen albums if only to soothe them shattered nerves!
***
.png)
This goombah made a huge splash in underground hard rock circles during the eighties/nineties what with his Jeff Dahl Group and SONIC IGUANA fanzine (he even got himself a nice and long-windy feature in the 11th issue of my own rag), but on this '77 effort courtesy of White Boy's Mr. Ott Dahl's hair is short and is sporting a denim jacket, looking threatening enough to the point where this sissy feels like hiding under the bed upon once glance of the sleeve!
This reminds me somewhat of those Nick Kent tracks that appeared on the PUNKS FROM THE UNDERGROUND album as well as various then-contemp tries at a neo-Velvet Underground approach to personal concerns. For some odd reason this even dredges up memories of that Stalingrad Symphony release of late-70s recordings by Eddie Flowers' friend Billy McCarter if only because these minds seem to be dribbling in the same Velvet-y direction. Many people have been trying to do what Dahl has for years with not even half of the success, so maybe trying to give a listen (this should be somewhere in the vast reaches of the internet) would be in at least a few of you readers' best interests.
Hey, while I got you on the line can anyone give me any information on Dahl's seventies fanzine CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT which I assumed was music related although I have seen a horror mag with that title up and about? Of course you won't.
***
.png)
Ya gotta give credit to Willie Alexander for having stuck it out in the rock 'n roll arena for as long as as he has, remaining meaningful in that under-the-underground punkified sorta way only the real deal types every could. Here he is at the beginning of that long journey fronting Boston legends the Lost doing a grand enough maracas-shakin' job on the Diddley a-side while oozing that refined '66 Boston-styled smooth rock a la the Rockin' Ramrods/Teddy and the Pandas etc. (it wasn't rough, but it wasn't glop) on the flip. If you want something a little different than the usual (and much necessary) hard-edged sixties rock you've teethed on since your very own beginning you'll probably ooze over this.
***
.png)
Yep, these (no doubt about it!) are the original 1958 demos by the act that many "rock historians" claim to be the original garage rock band (something I will deny given earlier chart appearances by the likes of the Royal Teens and Rhythm Rockers)! Recorded around a year before their debut LP, the Wailers actually manage to sound even more primitive than they would on their album with a clankier version of "Tall Cool One" (the original title offending the more Carrie Nation types amongst us) while the rest just oozes everything that was hotcha about the Golden Age of teenbo instrumental rock right around the times the music was beginning to get somewhat slicked up. The sole vocal track "Dirty Robber" with pianist Kent Morrill handling the pipes is the definite beginning point in the vocal as scream method that would later be well used by the likes of Gerry Roslie, Iggy Pop and Greg Prevost. Betcha they never taught you stuff like that in any of them Rolling Stone mag histories now, have they?
2 comments:
this list would not only make for a killer comp it would bring serious jack on the marketplace. you could pull an eddie haskell buy out the candy store and give it to the poor. better yet keep it to yourself and grin through the bellyache.
Dang-- now that is a start, middle AND finish to a post!
Post a Comment