AND YOU THOUGHT MY OTHER SINGLES COLUMNS WERE STROONAD-Y!
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An early garage sale grab up which only proves that I had some knowledge about rock 'n roll in its purest state at age thirteen after all! A more'n obvious choice for this column true, but still a worthwhile one what with the Kinks not quite yet into their "older kid music" mode, here doing that twenties/thirties nostalgia trip that my mother always hated because she thought the kids were making fun of their elders. They were, but don't ever tell me it wasn't ever the other way around.
Did you know that I originally thought that Ray Davies was singing "sipping at my high school beer" which is almost as good a mis-hearing as "she's a muscular boy"?!? For years I actually wondered what a high school beer was...3.2?
The equally hit-sized flip's yet another lay it all down as to the true alienation that most all of us youth went (and in many ways continue to go) through even if the parents thought we were living the best years of our lives and the rest of that altruistic shit that got shoved down at least my throat. I like the Chocolate Watchband's version better, but maybe because they were punks and the Kinks were getting well respected by this time'n all.
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Here's some mid-90s effort I totally forgot about which, thanks to my sieve-like brain, almost makes this like a new effort to osmose to as if I had just plunked it outta the envelope!
Despite their gruff moniker Buttsteak were not a "new era" aggregation into angular Amphetamine Reptile-styled decadence with loads of heavy metal passion thrown in. They actually came off pretty straightforward in their rock 'n roll approach, punky but not punque and in many ways came closer to the Los Angeles rock attack of the late-seventies before the hardcore set in. Buttsteak were quite high energy what with their pumping the big beat out with some great piercing female backing vocals squealed as the male singer does his best (and succeeds) in a surprisingly straightforward delivery I thought was shunned by these denizens of do-it-yourselfland.
And it really does have an El Lay feel what with the last cut on the first side sounding like a late-eighties Droogs effort and...now get this...this 'un's got "liner notes" by none other'n Kim Fowley that are about as phony as you. Hmmmm, maybe they did fall for the Fowley line 'bout making 'em stars for whatever the price woulda been at the time and this record was the result!
Los Angeles??? Naw, Buttsteak were from Norfolk Virginia and these kids were smart! I guess they figured that if they didn't have their own "scene" and places to hang out and depraved aura to exist in they'd create 'em themselves!
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This all-gal rock 'n roll group placed snazz over gash coming up with an effort that no real fan of the form should be without. The hit side's a great, somewhat moody yet expressive romp that reminds me of the Dimensions' "She's Boss". Flip it over and you get an instrumental version of the old Vic Damoaner hit that definitely was made to appease the parents who were undoubtedly irritated by the other side. A mighty good example of what the female of the species can do once they get alla that silly talk about suffrage outta their pretty little heads.
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Who amongst you'd deny that Smokey looked cool in those pics that appeared in an old ish of VIBRATIONS (or was it CRAWDADDY?), kinda like a tough punkass mix of Al Kooper and Wayne Kramer ready to run you in with a broken beer bottle. And the fact that the guy got signed before even performing live was an interesting enough (but not life-shattering 'r anything like that) turdbit to me but sheesh, Smokey sounds so soggy toast here to the point where even Donovan comes off like GG Allin in comparison. Not only that but his songs are so aerie faerie folk strum even when compared to all those other singing duos who were cluttering up the record bins way back when (his cyst is cute in that mid-sixties pre-bra burning way tho). How this 'un ever rated a possible inclusion on NUGGETS is way beyond me!
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Between you me and the pillory, I felt that a whole lotta those "new era" groups that were such a hope in the late-80s pretty much burned themselves into gulcheral oblivion once the nineties rolled in. However when groups like Halo of Flies and their various "acolytes" were originally up and about they sure were saying and doing something that late-eighties Ameriga (and the world) needed in order to fight the battle against the mundaneness that was overcoming the world, evident especially in the music that was being tossed into the trough of young Amerigan pig-dom.
Tar's "Solution 8" is one good example of new era at its best what with it combining elements of early-seventies punk rock with various hard rock movements both then and later making for a lo-fi romp that should have been the background beat for many a stoner box boy who wanted a little aural stimulation during his doob time. The Pere Ubu cover on the flipster might not settle well with fans of THE MODERN DANCE but I find it more than just humble homage.
Best thing about it is that this 'un came out on the Amphetamine Reptile label, the company that started the whole new era shebang a-rollin'! Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to Tom Hazelmyer, and sometimes I don't but he should be remembered by all of us fondly.
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Do any of you remember the rash of groups who were comin' out in the mid-eighties doing their best to capture the glorious decadence that was 1973 Stooges? Australia was full of 'em as were some other neato hotspots, and if it weren't for these groups well, this very magazine might not even've existed in the first place!
Here's a Swedish bunch who do the legacy of Iggy and Co. swell. There's nothing out-there or over the edge like Harem Scarem on "Figurehead" but its still neat enough. Too bad groups like these (which really could have affected the power-crazed, frothing youth of the day) hadda be buried by a whole lotta music that I would have considered "controlled opposition" ifyaknowaddamean...
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Here're the Albin Bros. + whoever this time (mainly 1993) proving that there still was some life in Los Angeles-area rock 'n roll despite the best efforts of various media and tastemonger attempts to suppress it. Hard rock in that eighties Droogs fashion which takes various late-sixties and seventies local attempts (and successes) at high energy bash and pretty much runs with the ball while lesser people run for cover. These guys have been doing the real deal rock 'n roll blast (think El Lay as in Imperial Dogs and not Van Halen) for ages now and I don't think they've ever dropped a sonic turd on us. Gonna make the effort to dig out their collection of early seventies Sonics and Shadows of Knight covers more sooner than later.
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Some fellow (who I thought was rather knowledgable) told me that this group was in fact the spawn of infamous no wave "chainsaw art rockers" Red Transistor and, like the fanabla that I am, I reported it as such! Shows you just how much people like me had to rely on rumor and shady memories to try and get straight down to the facts, and why sometimes the rumors and shady memories are much more preferable to the truth because they seem so far-fetched and somewhat appealing!
All kidding aside, Red Decade were an early-eighties post-somethingorother group that released this dandy 12-incher on Glenn Branca's Neutral record label. As you would expect the music is somewhat similar to the various symphonies that Branca was recording at the time with forceful guitar/horn thrust and enough repeato riff to have given Philip Glass a headache. Arty in that chic boho style true, but still quite enjoyable (and even intense) especially if you miss that late-seventies/early-eighties NYC art rock scene that gave us quite a few free jazz/classical avgarde/rock efforts from a whole load of people who I assume are still as stuck up as ever.
You punk rockers might want to know that none other than ex and future Pagan Brian Hudson sits in on the drums here, something which does add a little bitta something if you suffer from anal retention like I do.
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Babylonian Tiles-"Windows on the Wall"/"Scott Morgan Group-"Stick to your Guns"; Mutant Pres-"Dream Machine"/"Pants on Fire" (Saint Thomas Records, PO Box 7427, Orange CA 92863)
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If you are really up to the task you can thank none other than Michele Saint Thomas for not only these releases but a few others, such as the records by the obscure Detroit late-sixties aggregation Wilson Mower Pursuit that do seem like a good reason for me to lose some of my hard-begged. Write to her at the address above and see what wonders will await you, if you send the correct amount of moolah her way that is.
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Pre hittin'-the-surf J&D taking the previous generation's music, making it their own and probably gettin' a whole load of scorn from the elders for doin' just that. Well, maybe not as much as the loathing my mother used to dish out at the late-sixties capitalizers on olde tymey tunes because well...Jan and Dean looked so WHOLESOME. My kind of early rock 'n roll because it fits in with the ol' living room, tee-vee and teenbo clientele of the day so perfectly. I thought the other side was too mushy for my own tastes, and I get the feeling you'll feel the same way once you give it an earful. And Linda Bailey, if you want your record back I'll be glad to place is smack dab on top of your grave.
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Rockabilly label pioneer (Moon Records) Cordell Jackson certainly was given the royal treatment right before she did the big 86, and this spinner with retro-rockers George Reinecke and the Mud Bugs was but one of the (I assume) myriad assortment of soundscapades the lady fortunately left behind during her Golden Years.
The instrumental on the a-side sounds uncannily like a number of cheap garage band tracks that made their way out of the very late-fifties only to be discovered years later by degenerates like ourselves, while the vocal track by Reinecke on the flipster has that same feeling that kinda reminds me of a buncha suburban slob teenbos of the day crankin' it out in the parlor before headin' to the tee-vee to watch BANDSTAND. Believe it or not, but kids used to do stuff exactly like that.
A better than many would expect approximation of the early and rough days of rock 'n roll, though I woulda preferred this actually was recorded in some spinster aunt's living room using her outta tune upright piano on the cheapest reel-to-reel them kids coulda laid their hands on.
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I'm surprised that many of my old flexi freebees have survived the years, and this one seems to be somewhat special as far as my own personal music development goes. Y'see, besides collecting a whole batch of snippets from one of their nostalgic-based collections and combining 'em sorta like those old "Stars of 45" records only without the cohesiveness, this Longines Symphonette spinner is relevant to my entire being for being the VERY FIRST PLACE where I heard any Buddy Holly or Bill Haley for that matter! Yeah, without this 'un having entered into my life via the junk mail who knows how long it woulda been before "Peggy Sue" and "Rock Around The Clock", truncated at that, would have graced my ears. I dunno about you, but I sorta think I should have this 'un framed and hung on the wall it's that important to the development and wellbeing of this very writer!
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Wha'? Actual melodies, somewhat in an early-seventies hard rock vein, can be discerned on the latest blast from the ever-mysterious Fadensonnen . "Nitroglycerin" even approached a sorta early-seventies boogie woogie rock approach with an overload psychedelic guitar onslaught that'll not only blast you (in a good way) but blast those old Ted Nugent fans you used to see all over the place (in a bad way). Vocals are there, but buried deeper than Abraham Lincoln. Other side starts off with what sounds like a harpsichord before heading into even more boogie blast mad romp. Inner sleeve says "PLAY LOUD" and do so at the mercy of your ears. All I can say is that if your cyster has any left over tampons maybe you'll need a couple for your ears after this rec's done because they may bleed.
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Yep, the famous rocker from PEBBLES VOL. 9 has finally been reissued on its lonesome for those of you who never did get hold of the thing all the other times it was available for beaucoup bucks. The flip appears on their recently reissued album, and somehow I get the idea that this just might be an alternate take which would make the thing a must-get if you're a fan of this Toronto group. Whether you have this or not one thing can't be denied and that is this single is a real fine example of sixties/seventies cusp punk rockism that never did get its due just like all of those other flashes from the bargain bin, and maybe these guys'll get some much needed ego buildup if you only buy one or three of these platters!
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Eighties-vintage boot EP all done up live, with the a-side containing a version of "Poor Circulation" from one of the very last Television shows. On the other side a solo Verlaine gets back to his roots to prove just how much the bridge between the punk rock of the sixties and the breed that came a good decade later was a whole lot shorter'n many people thought. A nice collectable for old turds like myself who tend to still get excited over this music even though I should have "progressed" onto more serious endeavors in life by now. Thank goodness I'm a stunted individual.
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Nice splatter vinyl hosts some pretty decent (even exhilarating) power-pop punkiness that owes more than a little debt to the Ramones. Heck, the singer even sports a phony English accent showing just how much the addled rockism of the Ramones had infiltrated a good portion of the local bands of the seventies and beyond. At this late date (1991) it's sure heartening to know that some semblance of pure punkitude had lasted into the form long after the hippie communists decided to re-brand themselves as anarchists in order to sucker a few million unaware upper-middle class snooty kids into their cause.
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Eric Lindgren reduces the entire side-long version of the Iron Butterfly "classic" into a good three or so minutes, saving you from having to sit through the entire thing in case you ever had the hankerin' to do just that. Listening to the original version isn't quite my idea of a fun time (even though Lester Bangs gave the original huge hoorahs and considered it a heavy metal breakthrough) but if you think it is you probably also think it's fun sticking needles into your rectum. I'll take Lindgren's version over this any day of the week.
The flip has what sounds like short mid-seventies-era radio jingle backdrop music which does bring back some vivid memories of what those post-Nixon/pre-Carter days were like as far as the broadcast medium went. All these tracks need is some announcer giving us an anti-VD Public Service schpiel and alla those old time feelings will just come rushin' back at'cha!
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There haven't been any supergroups on the Cleveland Underground that I know of before this one-off came out, but with both Pagan Mike Hudson and Styrene Paul Marotta in the ranks how can anyone say this ain't a great meeting of the minds? The Electric Eels classic is done up on the "a" and a good job of it it is, close enough to the original with alla that wit and vigor that the Eels oozed just reachin' at'cha. Flipster has a tribute to the by-then actually dead Dead Boy and I guess is fitting enough in its own flippant way, but what I wanna know is how in heck did Marotta have anything to do with this one after the guy lambasted Bators for swiping everything he knew from Dave E! Oh well, this is the perfect sorta tribute for those of you who still cling to those memories of the Cle underground and throw darts at pictures of Anastasia Pantsios even this late in the game. And for that I SALUTE you!
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Heavy Metal Yardbirds and I don't mean Led Zeppelin! These new era scronkers even approach the mania of the MC5 circa "I Just Don't Know"! I sure wish that the Amphetamine Reptile label would have crawled on a little more'n it did so's we coulda heard more of this hard rock energy burst before the entire movement sorta fizzed out in front of all of our eyes.
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Bootleggers sure have it easy these days. 'stead of dealing in clandestine tape producing methods all they have to do is go online and snatch up some once-obscure recording to press up and distribute amongst the more rabid of us denizens of rockfandomland. And that's just what the people behind this 'un did by getting hold of those ne'er before known about Velvet Underground tracks that were recorded in Morgantown West Virginia back '66 way and pressing the 'em up on clear vinyl complete with a picture sleeve containing a snap from that very show! Hotcha!
Sound quality is strictly Pleistocene and both sides are cut off well before their conclusion, but who of you out there even knew that the Velvet Underground were performing that track later to appear on CHELSEA GIRL before this recently slipped into the musical consciousness? Sure it's raw but the historical significance coupled with the revealing performance (loved Maureen Tucker's drum rolls) make this a must have for unrepentant Velvet freaks, some of you who've been in on the cult for nigh on sixty years!
Flipster's another version of that song heard on the Gymnasium album, and although this 'un ain't that hot-sounding either it doesn't hurt that another version of this also once-obscurity is floating around.
Hey bootleggers! with the miracle of AI you can do wonders with these old recordings making them sound as crystal clear as those old half-mastered platters you paid exorbitant amounts for back in the hi-fi nut eighties. Some guy actually made an album of nothing but Maureen Tucker's drums from WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT and called it MOE LIGHT/MOE HEAT, but with a little imagination some enterprising soul could do wonders with the Velvet Under-The-Underground catalog. Both of these tracks could not only be made to sound pristine but finished off to their natural conclusion, while an especially keen sorta entrepreneur could do something worthwhile like remove the television chatter from "Noise" on the EAST VILLAGE OTHER track or better yet Ondine's inane prattle and audience guffaws, bottle clinks and applause from the CHELSEA GIRLS recording. Even bring out all of the fine nuances at that. So hop to it all of you budding TMOQs and get striking while the iron is hot!
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