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Given the massive size (683 pages) and the diligence and detail thrown into it, I just wonder how jam-packed with information the other three volumes (and upcoming ones) in this series covering the various local (national and elsewhere) underground rock scenes of the seventies are. Sheesh, after even a few pages of this effort your head's gonna be swimmin' from all of the information to the point where it'll swell even more than Yacoub's --- it's that ratta-tat-tat machine gun firing off the facts and anecdotes which'll even give the most devout of seventies-era Underground Rock fans more'n just a mere run for the rock history money.
It is quite worth whatever cranial crunch your mind will go through for Steven Gardner of NOISE FOR HEROES fame has written an extremely exhaustive overview of just what was going on in that scene they used to call punk (somewhere before it turned into punque) and various related hangers on and offshoots resulting in this particularly informative if exhausting (but a good exhausting) read. In this particular volume of the ANOTHER TUNELESS RACKET series Gardner sets his etapoint aim on the eastern seaboard and inland regional underground rock scenes that was transpiring throughout the Golden Age, going up and down the coast giving more than just an overview of the goings on that went on during a time in music that (I assume) captured more'n just a few of you readers' hearts but most likely minds. With a passion for diligence and detail rarely seen in rockscribing (at least these days), Gardner roars on like Sherman to the sea going from New York during the height of CBGB/Max's Kansas City madness upwards to Boston's fertile stomp and then over to Ohio where I understand a few musical movements of interest were happening. After that its way down yonder, Gardner writing up the movers and shakers of these scenes and doing so even to the point where you almost feel as if you were right there at some leaky urinal at the club of your choice emptying your bladder right next to Lux Interior or Willie Alexander.
IT'S THAT DETAILED AND THOROUGH cramming more information into one mere paragraph than you're bound to find in a whole year or two of this here blog and yeah, although Gardner's telling us all about a time in music which was pretty much DOA thanks to everything from local media censorship to titanic ego clashes and changing "tastes" etc. it sure is grand that the stories are once again coming out and have been recorded before all of the minds who were involved frazzle off into the realm of dementia ne'er to be recollected again.
You get the once in a blue moon gaffes for the immature amongst us to feel superior to, plus a few of Gardner's views and omissions might not quite jab with your own but so what. I mean yeah, true the guy couldn't list EACH AND EVERY musical act of worth and note and although I sure think that Von Lmo and some of the other less-visible no wave acts cluttering up NYC during them days deserved some space here he obviously didn't, and so what. Brian Sands with his various projects which did amount to more'n what any of the Cleveland chattering class types of the day would have led you to believe would have made the Ohio chapter somewhat more "fulfilling" but Gardner didn't bother give mention...won't fault him one bit because for every under-the-underground snub made in this book you get a whole slew of info on some of the groups, second or third tiered at that, who didn't get their share of the much-needed press back then even if they sure deserved it. Sure is swell to see some of the less-noticed acts in New York (Speedies, Poppees) and Boston (Third Rail) finally get more'n just a few footnotes considering how lesser talents were getting the bigtime coverage from a rock "press" that frankly didn't know up from down let alone an X-Blank-X from an Insanity and the Killers (for you who don't know, Cleveland underground rock at its finest versus a corporation made idea of what a new wave musical entity should have been like...just ask Anastasia Pantsios).
Yeah. I could get nitpicky 'bout various personal disagreements with the author's opinions and "asides" to be found within but why spoil what would otherwise be a pretty positive and straightforward writeup with such inanities. The head's still doing orbits given all of the information that has been crammed into my head reading this, and if the rest of it (more volumes are planned) is as detailed and (hopefully) as accurate as this entry then Gardner should be up for some serious book awards...that is if this were a world where rockist screed is treated with the same kindly kid gloves as the usual cut 'n paste hack. Other volumes just might be up my expansive alley and who knows, I might even BUY those on my lonesome (this copy came courtesy Jim Ellis to whom a big thank you has been issued).
4 comments:
hes done yeomans work. i just wish he actually liked tuneless rackets. i got a few issues of noise for heroes back in the day and found his tastes didnt extend much beyond something as sugar coated as the undertones teenage kicks. nothing wrong with that but it means no way is von lmo getting a nod. he has hipped me to some acts i wouldnt have investigated like ohios wild giraffes who i mistakenly had lumped in with gnu wave fizzlers like the adults.
Yep, I purchased Noise For Heroes issues when they came out and found alot of pretty cool and exciting music I wouldn't have otherwise heard. So to have these compendiums available now is truly wondrous, and a deleriously welcome throwback to those times. The info is great and places it mostly into context of the time. A great reminder and an encyclopaedia of stuff you need to find out about.
Good call on the Brian Sands omission in the Ohio chapter. Although Brian was pretty obscure he had been around with Milk and even did some gigs, and was participating with various artistic ideas through his Bizart record label, he wasn't very well known outside the CLE scene. Dave E from the Electric Eels also had two later bands ... The Cool Marriage Counsellors and the Jazz Destroyers.
I'm surprised you haven't posted a David Thomas tribute...
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