But to be about as honest as Don Fellman about it as I can get which ain't much, let me say
that life is, as anyone would expect, pretty much the same old same old as if
any of you would expect me to be living a fulfilling existence, the kind that
you undoubtedly are in your (assumedly) palatial digs and parties filled with our (or even your) d'oeurves and drinkies and chit-chat galore. Believe-you-me, it's
still scrounge about here just like it has been my whole existence (can't call
it a life) wondering why I can't have good things like all you readers,
then looking in the mirror to see the sad realization of it all.
While pouring through my old fanzines I did notice a few things that had previously spurted past me (or else I just
plum forgot)...do you remember my review of a single by Shackle, a group who
Eddie Flowers said featured a Meltzer-inspired rockscribe name Graham Carlton
in its ranks? After quite a long time of searching I finally noticed some of
his writings popping up in the Chicago-area fanzine
INTERPHASE which I gabbed about a few eons back. Yes, Carlton's
style does bear some resemblance to Prince Pudding's in the way he
tackles such unfitting of his talents subject matter as Barry White and Joni
Mitchell with the same wit and wisdom as the original. Not quite stylistically
but still entertaining enough in that aw gosh look at what I got
stuck reviewing attitude! Too bad the guy never made it into the big time while lesser talents, and we all know who they are, most surely have much to the detriment of rockscreeding as a form of sticking it to the cubes (and that includes all of the FM-bred "hipster" dolts who still ruin our lives with their "classic rock" dribble --- today's answer to the thirties/forties older generation nostalgia of 1970 that's for sure).
So whenever the travails of everyday hoohah get to me, and they often do, I just
pull out some classic (or even not so) music-related magazine and reminiscence
about the days when things like punk rock (in all of its best permutations), avgarde classical/jazz and various
rougher than usual sound-modes were more or less hideous voodoo spells aimed
at the jerkier aspects of existence. Yes I'm a real old-fogy amongst
old-fogies, only I'm one who osmoses the greatness of the eternal drone 'stead
of Van Halen's aural equivalent of processed cheese like way too many so-called rock "critics" of the past most surely did. (Forgive the mention, but
I have been going through a back-and-forth regarding that particular act as of
late and sheesh, some things just stick in my craw anymore! Give me some
credit for beating the same ol' drum for decades now, willya?)
|
|
Just in time for Labor Day...a pic of Jerry Lewis about to strangle
some children at a Muscular Dystrophy Telethon!
|
***
In case you were expecting me to share my thoughts regarding the latest school (actually church) shooting well, I know that you're all happy about it given your misguided hatred of anything that would remotely be sniffed out at being even remotely anti-trans (or whatever Magnus Hershfeld sorta drivel you all subscribe to). So like why bother because like hey, I know a good portion of you readers are undoubtedly SMILING about what happened (y'know, the right people once again being killed 'stead of our own). Boy, can I read you people like a book, mainly PHILOSPHY IN THE BEDROOM!
***
I've also been spinning items that really aren't up for a major review yet shouldn't go unpunished so-to-squawk. Robert Forward sent me more Cee-Dee-Ares, some of which I've actually played during long automobile trips since listening to Ben Shapiro for even a minute can be rather trying. Right now I'm working my way through these broadcasts from WCSB radio in Cleveland, the series on Akron's under-the-underground Clone Records label in particular which is pretty interesting given that I've missed out on some of the releases that they popped out during their short lifetime. A nice trip down Memory Lane Detour true, but frankly I must say that hearing this slice of NE Ohio underground music go from seventies innovation into eighties new unto gnu wave identigeek was a reminder of just how quick things went wrong from a music genre I thought would have known enough not to fall into the same ditches that the previous "rock" music generation did. Nice 'un anyway at least for those Bizarros and old Tin Huey tracks, and what was that "CVS" stuff you also slapped on them spinners anyway Bob? Some of it was pretty good but other tracks were total ecchsville!
***
A&W's new "Ice Cream Sundae" limited edition flavor is nothing but a watered-down chocolate soda, which is not bad if you like watered down chocolate soda. I will admit that this so-called sundae flavor is somewhat better than the now-discontinued diet pop that I think either Faygo or Shasta used to peddle back in the seventies (which I loved to drink while downing entire bags of sour cream and onion potato chips during my mid-teenbo days when I really decided to PACK IT ON! Thought maybe the fact that this was a zilch-calorie drink would help me in my battle against the girth or something like that).
***
OBIT TIME-Bye bye to Loni Anderson, a not-that hot looking actress
who was on one of the unfunniest and most insulting sitcoms to flourish in
the late-seventies. It was shows like
WKRP that
really helped wean me
off prime time television I'll tell ya so you can bet that I'm not exactly boo-hooin'
over her passing!
***
The fodder for this blogpost's reviews comes from the likes of Paul McGarry, the aforementioned Mr. Forward and unnaturally enough my own purchases! Strange for a skinflint
such as I, but I have been feeling rather non-Scottish as of late which
ain't exactly good for my financial situation but hey, how long do you really think
I have left on this here planet? Might as well have some fun because I don't
wanna leave anything to anybody when I step outta this mortal ka-boing, and the way I feel right now all of my personal possessions are gonna head for the nearest landfill if not my grave (I'm really gonna take it with me!) and don't you try snatching anything or my ghost'll getcha!
Pink Floyd-SISYPHUS: LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM 1970 2-CD set (Eye of the Storm
Records)
This actually sounds pretty good because the muddy audience tape quality
roughs the performance up somewhat. If someone told me this was a recording by an
early-seventies German garage band I probably would believe it. That
is, before David Gilmour's guitar doodling brings this 'un back down to
earth where all of the rest of those seventies snoozo Pink Floyd
performances lie.
By the way, I picked this one up in the hope that the
title track sounded close enough to the one of the same name heard on
UMMAGUMMA but there is only a slight resemblance twixt the
two.
If you're a fan of that famed double disc set you might wanna skip this. Still, a nice enough effort, but only you harder than hardcore seventies-era
Floyd fans should pick this up. Are there any of you out there who actually
READ this blog?
***
Flipper-GENERIC FLIPPER CD/SEX BOMB BABY CD (American Records/Infinite
Zero Records respectively)
Did I hear GENERIC FLIPPER loooooong ago? Of course not! I never owned the
thing and (once again given my financial straits) I never found it
important enough to seek out in the way I would try to latch up some of the other gotta
haves during those living nightmare days they called the eighties. At this
point my brain must be about as sharp as one of those plastic knives that
you usually find at the condiment counter.
Naturally you already know that I'm going to be looking at both of these releases through my
60's/70's-oriented sense of musical appreciation as opposed to
(presumably) your own ordered and focused frame of mind. Y'know, the one
that was molded by years of subpar rock writing and music to match. And
what
spurred me on to re-educating myself re. the Flipper mystique was a review
of LP #1 GENERIC FLIPPER (my opines regarding it to be
discussed shortly) that one Gregg Turner whipped out for the
by-that-time flaccid beyond belief (to get even more flaccid if one can
imagine that!) CREEM which was reprinted by Wade Oberlin on
his Meltzer site! Once in a blue moon I get triggered in the
RIGHT way and that combined with my out-of-control OCD often does lead to me searching out some mighty fine listening experiences!
Yes, all of my favorite late-sixties/early-seventies cataclysm music faves
can be heard in the pantheon of Flipper influences. No need to list 'em
all by name since you know 'em by heart, but all of the hallmarks of
what makes a good group/song/ideal are here from the repeato-riffs to an
atonal approach "in the tradition" (and a good tradition for
once).
There are some indications, at least from the insert section with lyrics
etc. that this is going to be another pseudophilosophical rant from a
generation that shoulda known better, but thankfully the music makes one
feel comfortable despite the fact that you knew that Jello Biafra liked 'em
(but then again I have to take Brad Kohler's advice to heart when he told me
that I didn't have to hate the Marx Brothers just because Dick Cavett liked 'em which ain't the case but I know what he means). Still the ghosts of
snide West Coast hipster political and social morality creeps in here/there,
or at least I get the impression considering the reprint of a Wilhelm Reich
quote within the enclosure. I guess some people will champion anyone as long
as he advocates jacking off babies.
It's a great 'un, perhaps not as over-the-hills-and-far-away-from-the
scourge of what we now know as "Classic Rock" as Flipper's singles and compilation cuts were,
but this definitely is a rec that ranks with the best of '81 from
A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE to
FUTURE LANGUAGE and all points in-between.
GENERIC FLIPPER is waywayWAY up in the early-eighties rock LP rankings considering all of the
aforementioned taking from the past and re-mashing it in the present for a
(hopefully) brighter future that went into the thing. And hey, it was a different from
the rest type of hard-rage blare that otherwise was California punk in the
way it did the slow burn hard-drone sound that thankfully left a good mark
on various other 80s Amerigan efforts whether it be Kilslug or the
Dehumanizers.
SEX BOMB BABY's got all of those cuts that ended up on everything from
LET THEM EAT JELLYBEANS to the
TAKE IT! flexidisc
not forgetting them early singles that go for beaucoup these days, and for
being a collection from various disparate sources this does work as a
cohesive whole as if it were an intended album produced with one creative
ideal in mind.
The intensity, spirit and drive behind what made Flipper so outre way back
makes this one much preferable to the actual debut longplayer! Its got the
raw-edged throwaway anti-production perfectly needed for a music such as
this, and besides I find things like "Brainwash" with its start/stop
repetition an example of total brilliancy in a genre of music (mainly "rock") that was sure lacking in it! Who else do
YOU know who
could turn that "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" thing (even adding a few
stanzas) and magnify it in power and general intensity in a way Judy Collins
never could! It's varied as much as a group like Flipper could possibly be,
and there's a nice "variety is the spice of life" feeling from the slow
grind to the faster frolics with a nice array of hot subject matters to choose
from. Sheesh, there's even an antiwar song for people who are antiwar until
there's a war that they don't mind teenagers dying in!
And maybe I should say that it is Ted Falconi whose guitar holds it all
together, and this guy should be classified at least with Ron Asheton,
Michael Karoli, Sonny Sharrock and even James Gurley as one of the better 'uns to have
picked up that very instrument.
Hey, if there is anyone who tunes into this blog who is of what I would call the just-post pubesprout years and is interested in these by-now ancient under-the-underground
musings that were being cranked out against all odds let me tell you that it
would be best for you to start with acts like Flipper (as well as the
various beyond the usual fringes musical entities mentioned positively on this blog) before you tackle the rest.
Only then will see the errors of the past few decades regarding what is
purportedly "rebel" music and what is the real thing that they've tried to
suppress for years. Hey who knows...YOU just might be the one who saves the concept of rock 'n roll as a
TRULY MOTIVATING FORCE from the forces of fifty years of FM brainwashing and people will love you for
it! Doesn't that just make you feel all nice and tingly inside?
Anyway, two releases of historical importance that proves that opiates and
the creative process could still work hand in hand even this late in the
annals of rock 'n roll even if James Taylor would have led you to believe
otherwise.
***
Alien Planetscapes-LIFE ON EARTH CD (Galactus/AP Music, 191-32 116th
Ave., St. Albans, NY 11412)
Another one of many Alien Planetscapes releases that I coulda just swore I
possessed but eh, even if I did it's sure neat to give this one a (re)
try. It's a fantastic set from this member-fluid ('cept for leader
Doug Walker) group who (as usual) tackled the more frightening aspects of
electronic music turning the "space rock" genre into something more or
less a cosmic nightmare. Hefty references to krautrock can be heard (such
as on "Lucky 13" which I woulda sworn was a cover version of Guru Guru's
"UFO") not to mention Chrome at their deadliest long before their sound began
taking on aspects of normality. For jazz aficionados the presence of one
Blaise Siwula (on alto/soprano saxophones, CB radio and effects) should
perk your parameters somewhat. Yet another one from an act that sure
shoulda gotten more notoriety in this so-called "rock underground", only
you turds were too busy listening to the latest flash in the alternative
'zine pan (whatever that was/is/or will be for that matter) to care.
***
Tangerine Dream-AUSTRIA 1971/ESSNER 1 & 2, 1968,
1969,/Eruption-"Elevator", "Metal"/Kluster-"Eruption"/the Velvet
Underground-"Guess I'm Falling in Love" CD-r burn
A gathering of goodies sent by Paul McGarry which do have a common theme
in either krautrock or one of its influences. Read on and you will see...
First up's Tangerine Dream live right around the time they decided to
become an aural amoeba. It sure sounds brain-tweaking enough the way
the voices and electronics drone in and out of each other but it ain't
rock 'n roll...categorize it with the rest of that rock music that was
trying to be serious avgarde but nobody in the avgarde gave it the time of
day because the people making it looked like rock musicians. (FLASH! I hear that Steve Reich was
thinking about suin' 'em for one reason or another [strange since I see little in common between his and Tangerine Dream's music] which would have made for an interesting court
case if you ask me!)
ESSENER SONTAGE was supposedly recorded at that big kraut fest
where Zappa headlined, but this sure doesn't sound like early Tangerine
Dream. This is supposed to have Edgar Froese, Klause Schulze and Amon Duul
II's Chris Karrer and John Weinzerl in the ranks, but given the totally
non-percussive flow and freer that you woulda expected in '68 sound I
assume this is ZEIT period.
The following tracks do sound closer to the '68 frame of underground rock
experimentation with the odd choir voice and distorted flute. The '69 live
snippet seemingly comes closer to the fact of the matter what with Froese
and company getting into a "Set the Controls For The Heart of the Sun"
mode.
Conrad Schnitzler's experiments with Eruption and Kluster follow with two
tracks featuring Schnitzler along with former Ton Steine Scherben member
Wolfgang Seidel getting closer to a way less proto-gnu agey wall of moosh
into some definite nervegrind complete with electric guitar (feedback and
all) and percussion wallowing around the organ careens. Amorphous rampages
that are powerful (maybe overbearing) for those of us who enjoy the more
outre aspects of space rock. Yeah this sounds typically seventies
experimental music the kind that brainy college grads were making, only
they got grants and stuff because they went to school and the others were
just rock 'n roll latchers ons or something like that so piddle on them.
The shebang ends with the Velvet Underground from UPBEAT!, and
considering just how much of an influence these guys were on the whole
German underground it fits in great. Only I gotta say that those teenbo
gal screams that were heard after this spryer than usual version of "Guess I'm Falling In Love" were
definitely dubbed in. What would you expect...I mean, could
YOU
see your average pimple-thighed chubby frosh with Gary Puckett posters on
her bedroom wall going nuts over this group? Of
COURSE you
can!
***
Sun Ra-UNCHARTED PASSAGES : NEW YORK SOLLILOQUIES CD-r burn (originally
on Modern Harmonic Records)
This is a burn of a just-released Sun Ra 2-LP set, a nice addition since I
passed on the Improvising Artists albums that contained most if not all of
these tracks way back when. This is Ra pretty much left to
his own devices and a plain ol' piano proving that the guy didn't need all
of those fancy electronic instruments to get his interplanetary message
across. Material ranges from deep and atonally retrospective to straight
out boogie woogie done Ra's way. There's an unexpected guest appearance by June Tyson
on some of the old Ra favorites.
***
Jet Red-"Not The Only One" promotional CD (Relativity Records)
Caught these guys' name on some old CBGB listing and, hoping to find
another forgotten fave, picked this 'un up foolishly thinking it was an
entire album. It was only a one-song promo which certainly is tough turds
for me! I better read the descriptions a little more carefully next time
lest my inability to comprehend ebay listings gets way out of hand.
Turns out these Jet Red people were what they used to call "Hair Metal" but don't
let that scare you off...much that is. "Not The Only One"'s fair enough
power pop, the kind that was in short supply back in the nineties when we
sure coulda used more'n just a little of it. Somewhat twee but it sure sounds
better'n what the competition was cookin' up at the time. Wouldn't mind hearing an entire album of 'em.
***
Mordecai-VARIOUS YOUTUBE ITEMS CD-r burn
Since I can't locate my Mordecai Cee-Dee this new one comes in quite handy
dandy. They're the only thing that I know of rockwise (or anywise
for that matter) to have come out of Butte Montana which I guess is good
for the city considering some of the people who live there, and since I
forgot just what kind of a hanger-on to the essentials kinda group these
guys are this 'un was particularly pleasing to my ears. Name your favorite
60s/70s underground rock ideal and it's here. Mordecai sounds like a
direct transposition of early-seventies mid-Amerigan trash rock unto modern-day post rock as fun 'n jamz aesthetics, and they sure do beat
the pampered pooches we've had to put up with for years on end straight
into the pumice! Don't miss the late-seventies era Jonathan Richman
homages if you could call 'em that. This
IS Mordecai,
innit? Maybe McGarry's trying to pull a fast one on me!
***
CHESTNUT STATION CD (Drag City Records)
I got it on good authority (mainly a review from an ancient issue of
ROCK MAG...see above) that Chestnut Station were in fact a
straight-ahead no frills rock 'n roll group in the tradition of those
60s/70s cusp acts that were pretty much ignored until time caught with 'em
a good five/ten/fifteen or even more years later. They had the look and an
album cover that seems as if it could have come straight out of a
mid-seventies cut-out bin, something which I gotta say is pretty good
considering just how shabbily some rock 'n roll records have been packaged these
last fortysome years. But did they have the sound?
Actually they do, albeit the influence of lamer than usual eighties-on
amerindie pop modes can most certainly be heard. Chestnut Station
certainly ain't the new Hackamore Brick, Sidewinders or even Mirrors but
they did put out a mighty good spinner that is melodic and typically
teenage without coming off total twee. If they had only ditched the more
modern trappings of production and amerindie tendencies and stuck to the sixties sense of teenage pop this would
have been a five-star effort. I'll give it a three...good but it won't
make you in awe the way all of your favorite blasts from the Age of
Aquarius (the ones kicked outta the kingdom for being too raw that is)
did.
Interesting concept...the five songs that appear on this effort are named
after actual moom pictures playing at one of those multi-theatre cement
boxes that you still see here and there! Nice idea in case you ever did
want to hear a song entitled "101 Dalmatians"!
***
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