BLOG TO COMM

Well, here I go once again rereRE-hashing the same old 'n tired beyond belief diatribes and daggers complete with the usual hagiographical droolathons (or cruel and meaningless dismissals depending on what's playin' at the time) that I have been tossin' at'cha for the last XXXXsome years. Shee-yucks (or "it" if you prefer), but I'm also rereRE-hashing my rereRE-hashing opening line which might go to show you just how much this blong has been runnin' on bowel gas fumes! Whadja expect anyway given that I've milked myself dry and it ain't like I can be Ogden Nash witty all the time!

And to alla that I have nothing to say but GOOD THING because like, despite my seemingly terminal rut-ness who ELSE is out there in notice-me-land who is even slightly attempting to revive the Golden Age of Fanzine Snark and General CREEM (really!)-inspired seething that has been sadly missing from not only rock screeding but rock 'n roll (and a whole load of other musical styles that have gone from mayhem to moosh) for way too long? Be thankful that I am up and about in the here and now, for if it weren't for me and this very blog all that you'd read'll be...well, I don't want to traipse into the personal destruction of those I happen to loathe the way they would successfully destroy whatever I tried to build up lo these many years.

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Of course there's nothing totally new 'n refreshing to talk about (remember, this is the year 2025). In fact the only reason that I'm unleashing this post on you today is to not only clue you in on a number of items that I got and you don't (nyaah!) but to print the timely AI creation you can see directly below. But don't worry true believers (all three of you), for I'm working up some real doozies that I know you will be most anxious to ignore just you do everything else that I've been dishing out for years on end.

I tried to get AI to make me a pic of the Easter Bunny murdering children with an axe at an egg roll, but this is the best they could come up with. Yet another contribution of mine to the FUNZIE New World that suburban slobs like myself have been hoping for lo these many years!

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A bit of interesting if mostly ignorable happenstance---while looking through the folks' pile of albums containing a slew of WEST SIDE STORY soundtracks, operas, scratchy Voice of Firestone Christmas efforts and budget re-dos of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, I found a cover-less copy of MEATY BEATY BIG AND BOUNCY (VG+ condition stored in a flat stationary store styled paper bag with the title of the album printed in pencil) if you can believe that! I don't recall ever buying this (well, maybe I do have some extremely faint recollection of picking it up at a flea market during my teenbo days but I'm not 100% certain) but in fact if this record was part of their album collection I gotta say they were a whole lot hipper 'n I ever gave 'em credit for being!

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And now for the female (and back door boy) portion of our audience:

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Once again I try to take up the baton that was dropped by way too many a rock scribbler long ago and lay down some opinions I would say are really not worthwhile considering what has gone down back when the giants roamed the earth. I still think you'll get a kick outta what's in store. Paul McGarry and Robert Forward...well, you know what their place is in the BLOG TO COMM universe is already so I'll dispense with the usual golly gush thank you's at least this time.
 

The Pink Fairies-AT THE BBC 1970-1972 LP (1960s Records, England)

You don't care 'n hey, even I will admit that there are more pressing things to worry about in this life other than that the entirety of the Pink Fairies' BBC seshs have finally been slapped together onto one beaut of a longplayer. But since we're talking BLOG TO COMM and you know the shallowness that is oft associated with the things that I write about so why shouldn't I come out and say that this is one mighty fine package.

The cover is of a thick 'n sturdy high quality (if you care about that stuff but then again I don't mind at least a little CLASS in my life once in a blue moon), sporting a snap of the band I never saw before and boy is it a doozy what with them smack dab in front of some church as some old crone walks by! And hey, there are even some liner notes on the back (you won't learn anything new but eh!) and if you're into such things the sound quality has been boosted from all of those other Pink Fairies sesh sources that have been flying around for quite a long time. That early 'un with their version of the Jefferson Airplane's "3/5th of a Mile in Ten Seconds" (and a better one than those hippoids did) still sounds somewhat muddy what with the middle part all distorted but eh, that distortion sounds clear so if you like your garbledness Hi-Fi 'n all boy are you in luck!

Heck, there are even some new entries I've never heard like a particularly driving "Walk, Don't Run" which even outdoes the one on WHAT A BUNCH OF SWEETIES as far as somewhat keeping the spirit of the psychedelic era alive. If you're a Pink Fairies fan well, I suggest that you engage in a quick and immediate snatch-up from the on-line dealer of your very own choice! 

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Golem-ORION AWAKES CD (Lion Productions Records)

OK,  I fell for it. Not the first time I thought some recently released effort was an archival dig up from the sainted sixties or savage seventies but sheesh, for being fakes ya just gotta give Genesis P. Orridge and the rest of 'em all a whole load of credit for putting out something that is as authentic sounding as this 'un.  What it is, is definitely Teutonic space rock jamz that sound like one of them Connie Plank (or was it Dieter Dierks?) things that came out as the Cosmic Jokers without anyone who participated knowing that they were ever gonna be released --- if I had only heard those albums in the first place that is! Sometime funky, sometimes orbiting Jupiter, sometimes meandering. But whatever it is this is one of those platters that's good for a once in a lifetime spin and if you think I'm never gonna dig this out for future reference well --- you just might be right.

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Steve Reich-OCTET/MUSIC FOR A LARGE ENSEMBLE/VIOLIN PHASE CD-r burn (originally on ECM Records) 

A good hunk of this sounds like Philip Glass before the accolades and hanging out with the Dalai Lama and various other chi-chi cause types went to his head (and composing abilities), while some of it even gets close to a Mother Mallard/krautrock electronic growl you paid heavily inflated prices for back in the late-seventies (when this 'un came out!). A better than even I would have thought effort from one of those avgarde classical composers who, had he only grown his hair real long and got signed to some hip "progressive" label like Harvest or Vertigo, coulda passed his sounds off as "rock" and made a whole pile of money in the process. Eh, that didn't work for Karlheinz Stockhausen and it probably wouldn't have worked for Reich either so what'm I say'n anyway.

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Big Sandy and his Flyrite Boys-WHAT A DREAM IT'S BEEN CD-r burn (originally on Cow Island Records)

Remember when Big Sandy was first thrust upon the retro-fifties rock (as in real exciting music and not nostalgic moosh) scene such as it was way back inna eighties? Like, who knew the guy would have such lasting power and make it big at least in the rockabilly consciousness --- not me, but it ain't like I'm up on what you young'uns think is hotcha or not these days. 

Not being a front line aficionado of his music like I believe many of you readers would be, I ain't gonna be spinning this with the same frequency I do various 60/70s cusp cataclysm sounds that seem to be occupying my time. But boy, is this downright entertaining and real life flesh and blood music that sounds authentic and inspirational at a time in man's destiny when the concept of being inspired in the first place seems quite verboten. For those of you who (like me) loathe that seventies HAPPY DAYS concept of the fifties as some whitebread ginchy gooey time this'll snuggle up to you pretty snat-like.

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ARTFUL DODGER CD-r burn (originally on Columbia Records)

Way back when, in fact on this very blog, I reviewed the Dodgers' then-recent live collection thinking it was just too much commercial (in a way that woulda gotten your average AOR fan all moist in the BVD's) pop slop. Funny, but this '75 debut sounds closer to the hard pop AM hitmaker matter of it all than that other 'un did. 

Practically downright enjoyable for those of you who loved the Raspberries and their various pop brethren of the day and, sadly enough, a sound that we sure coulda used a whole lot more of way back when considering how AM pop was dying a slow death with the better aspects of the form being replaced by disco and singer/songwriter snoozerama. 

OK, it does get somewhat over-testosteroned in spots (sorta echoing various eighties AM atrocities like "Eye of the Tiger" even!) but otherwise I give these guys all the huzzahs that a whole load of AM pop purveyors at the time sure 'nuff did a good fifty years back.

Guess I'll have to dig up that live disque for another eval. Sheesh, I mean I should have loved the dickens outta stuff like this but given the horrible time I was having in life when I heard that 'un it's no wonder why I tossed it off in favor of some soothing industrial music! Gotta stop letting reality get in the way of enjoying life.

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Sun Ra-THE CYMBALS CD-r burn (originally on Modern Harmonics Records)

Catch up I must, and THE CYMBALS is at least one good and once rare Sun Ra album of which there are so many that only the millionarest of you readers could enjoy 'em all.  In order to save a li'l space just re-ponder the past dozen or so Ra reviews that have appeared on this blog because well, I don't want to get TOO redundant which is something I've been guilty of while spewing considerable froth re. various musical legacies which have affected me for ages.  

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Various Artists-VOLCANIC TONGUE - A TIME TRAVELLING EVANGELIST'S GUIDE TO LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY UNDERGROUND MUSIC CD-r burn (originally on VT Records, Scotland)

Anyone who tuned into the early days of this blog knows just how much the Volcanic Tongue m.o. biz was essential in filling in a whole load of gaps not only in my music collection but the musical knowledge in my mind. And keeping the stories about ripoffs and other bad business practices out of the equation its sure nice to hear that they're still in some sorta existence as the presence of this compilation would attest to. 

This actually is a nice batch of wide-ranging tracks that feature music that was once part and parcel to the VT catalog, ranging from "post-punk" gunk (but fun gunk --- Scrotum Poles) followed by the late-sixties psychedelic folk rock of the Bachs which in turn's followed by Fil Que Mousse's abstract whatchamacallit and well, this ain't no NUGGETS but it sure makes for a swell listening experience as it shifts from one mode to another catching your lobes by surprise. 

I for one wish they woulda programmed the music played on my local FM station way back when this way. Pretty good, even if that Simon Finn track sounds like warmed over Donovan and the original guy was bad enough. Anyway, I now know what alla that music that VT were sellin' that I passed on sounds like!

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PAPER JAYS CD-r burn (originally on ESP-disk Records)

The revived ESP's still up and runnin' and not only that but they've supplied us with this new act. Paper Jays is a duo who play their acoustic guitars like John Fahey and Robbie Basho fighting each other for steel string supremacy, and doing a good job of it with some added percussives here/there giving the proceedings an additional air of Eastern Spells. You may call it World Music but this music's too good for a term that has been used to describe a whole load of fluff that I imagine only some timid soul trying to stretch out beyond "Mairzy Doats" would like. Sheesh, a whole lot of this even reminds me of Sonny Sharrock's "Blind Willie" which is one thing that definitely keeps this 'un out of the don't scoot it off to Brad Kohler pile.  Who knew that listenable music could have been made in the mid-twenties? Not I!

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XTC-ORANGES AND LEMONS CD-r burn (originally on Virgin Records)

If Paul McGarry were to have sent this to me back when in came out '89 way I'd probably bop the guy inna beezer. Nowadays I'd just write him a nasty letter. Not offensive tho...if I can make my way through some of the other late-seventies new unto gnu wave efforts that have passed my turntable I can make my way through this somewhat interesting rehash of late-sixties English pop. Another one of those (maybe only) one-spin items to occupy whatever's left of my measly existence.

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If you missed out on the salad bar days of BLACK TO COMM you should be getting your just desserts! However, these available back issues should make for a quite appetizing change of course from the usual sub zero rock writing you've had to put up with ever since the great switch from gonz to hypesheet cut and paste occurred way back in the eighties. C'mon, you could do worse and if you've read any of the competition you have!