BLOG TO COMM

YOU'RE REALLY GOING TO GET A HUGE BANG OUTTA THIS EPISODE OF BLOG TO COMM AND I DO MEAN IT!!!!

I'm typing this at night and believe it or leave it but ever since I could remember I loved the dark evening hours. Perhaps because of its overall SPOOKINESS (to be typically turdler about it) nighttime really does affect my inner sump pump a whole lot in a quite mysterious fashion. Hope that don't make me an evil sorta stroon (after all, Satan himself just loves the dickens outta the dark) but I know most all of you readers already think I'm as evil as evil can be and I won't argue with that!

Even after all of these years of existence (and despite a short period of my life having to work IN the dark during my security guard days), I loved the way the outside slowly turned pitch black while inside the lamps gave off a nice golden glow in the rooms like they still do making me glad a few things haven't changed. Of course, way back when during those single-digit turdler days the evening hours were usually reserved for television viewing especially during those long winter nights, sort of a kick-up-your-feet party time with snacks and fun verbal intercourse until beddy-bye. Tee-vee was the thing that united the entire fambly, and I sure liked to be in the room when it was on even if I didn't understand what these programs were about and just fumbled around with my toys as the set roared on. But hey, with all of that shooting and violence that was prevalent on the tube back then boy did life sure look fun! Heck, I couldn't wait to grow up so I could do a li'l shootin' myself! 

Speaking of the dark, I used to think that it was more or less like a gaseous form that just crept up on the world and then dissipated into the light until it was time to come out again! Once I took a jar and left it open in the backyard thinking that some of the darkness would seep into it, then I could cap it and keep some for myself. Boy was I disappointed that my scientific theory did not pan out, but then again like I told you quite a long time ago I used to think that the universe was kept in a box that was stashed somewhere in the police station where DICK TRACY took place. Non sequriturism has been a vital part of my entire life as you undoubtedly already would have known from reading my usual spew.

Music sounds better during the evening hours. In my younger days I'd spend hours upon hours listening to it late at night, a time when everything from Terry Riley to Robbie Basho took on a somewhat feral, even more bared-wire intensity approach. Unfortunately thanks to my current living conditions I'm usually hitting the hay even before it gets pitch black...oh well, the winter days will be coming up shortly and if there's one thing I do like about that season is that when it gets dark I don't have to feel guilty about goofin' off after the supper hours. As if I felt guilty about anything in my life.

Did I ever tell you all of this? Probably in a post that's ten or so years old but given my sieve-like brain (and probably yours too) it's new stuff to us all. Anyway, I do hope that you dig this chapter in the ever-trudging along destiny of BLOG TO COMM even if I do think that there should have been more reviews and well, sometimes my critical acumen does seem to weeble wobble like your childhood friend's bike that you borrowed only to find out the brakes weren't working as you sped down a steep hill.

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As far as this edition's obits go, I really must admit to you that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was something that I wouldn't have expected in a millyun years, and that's even with all of the people out there who certainly had a taste for his blood (and pardon me if you think my AI-generated snap of Donald Duck shooting Mickey Mouse is some sort of commentary on current events but it was created long in advance of this tragedy --- it is somewhat fitting in a rather ghoulish way that fits in swell with the screw you demeanor of this blog). Yeah, even though Kirk was more or less a member of Conservative Inc. ("normies") rather than a full bloom anarcho/paleocon/pseudo-"fascist"-rightist type (in other words he didn't go far enough or even get downright offensive like a good provocateur should) I have to admit that I loved the lion-hearted bravery he exuded in the way that he debated the loonier neo-"communist" college types ("communist" in parentheses because none of 'em would have lasted a day in Stalin's Russia) who would strut up to the podium at one of his gatherings to give him a piece of their minds with all of the self-righteous indignation you would expect from well-off upper-middle-class pampered radicals. I don't think that Kirk was always, perhaps even mostly, successful in his rebuttals (as if he could have ever swayed any of his detractors to his POV) but it was fun to watch him take on some screaming harridan going on about the haute cause of the day, trying to keep his composure while said specimen flung various arguments his way in the same fashion that Cheeta tossed his turds willy-nilly. 

Gotta also say that I also get a kick outta watching alla them TikTok types and others emoting such gleeful howls over Kirk's rather grisly ending which shows you just what kind of a sense of har-de-har-har I have. Well, some of the more haughty ones from the usual septum ring types can get rather nauseating, but these videos do exude a pompous better-than-thouism that would put Lydia Lunch to shame making me glad that that there are still sick people out there and their minions are growing! Well, it is more entertaining than the usual mope and weep over the state of the world that I tend to come across via "Libs of TikTok"! Somehow the celebratory nature of some of these admitted nutcases appeals to my own warped morality even if, for the life of me, it's wiener chopping time whenever I indulge in the same type of nyah-nyah-yer-DEAD type of screech that I get into if only to razz you sissies a bit! I guess that these scions of privilege are allowed to get away with it due to their unbridled and youthful altruism while I get nothing but grief because well, you know the old saying that has been going 'round throughout the underground/amerindie rockcrit sphere for years on end, mainly "edginess for me but not for thee!" 

Call me a sicko, but I'm also getting a kick outta a scant few crawlin' outta the woodwork to tell us that Kirk was such a jerkoff 'stead of the heroic martyr he's being portrayed as in the non-legacy media. Like f'rinstance, some high stool classmate of his says that the guy was the school bully or something along those lines, all of which is naturally portrayed as a shock horror newsflash the same way that Brett Kavanaugh's alleged horny boy past suddenly popped up back when he was up for his Supreme Court gig! Sure glad that I'm not a fellow in the public spotlight lest all of those stories about my uncontrollable dandruff and gaseous explosions during the best years of my life (hah!) come to light!

The fallout is quite interesting. I never saw Jimmy Kimmel nor heard any of his jokes and I assume he is about as trite as the budding young sociopolitical comics that I came across and shunned way back in the nineties, but I gotta say that his suspension or cancellation, whatever it was, at ABC is certainly out of character for that network. I mean, there were people at that network who have said things that were a lot more caustic than Kimmel musing that one Kirk's own followers did the killing, but for some reason or another the guy got the axe and boy are the rest of the late-night types frothing at the mouth! It doesn't matter a hill of turds since, at least for me, late-night tee-vee died out when they stopped running old movies and Carson retired (and Letterman lost his sense of humor), so why is ABC all of a sudden acting like they have some sort of scruples given how they've been cutting off the balls of people like me for years on end and explaining it all away in terms of free speech and moralistic gumbyisms!

But I wish these guys would do a better job of razzing and poking fun at Kirk's widow and kids while building up their own crypto-political stances...I mean they could at least throw some wit into their overall cruelty and anti-capitalistic/pro-sexual deviancy diatribes for once now, eh?

   

I find the passing of Mark Volman a whole loads more important in the overall under-the-counterculture size-of-things than I have most all of the other rock-related deaths that have cropped up recently. From the Turtle days to his and Howard Kaylan's successful attempts to spice up the Mothers of Invention carrying that edition of the group a whole lot more'n Zappa did, Volman was definitely someone who enriched the rock 'n roll form unlike a good slice of those sickening "baby boomer" acts who are still wheelchairing along. Sure he and Kaylan were responsible for the cutesypoo Strawberry Shortcake phenomenon of the early-eighties, but they also added a whole load of dimensional oomph to those classic T. Rex albums, and come to think of it haven't we all (well, 'cept for myself) made ill-informed choices throughout our rather sniveling lives? (Yeah, Strawberry Shortcake was an overall bad career move even if it did fill the pair's coffers, but then again it introduced a whole new generation of five-year-old gals to the music of the pair and probably encouraged 'em all to snatch up a copy of the live at the Fillmore Mothers album! Future Mud Shark groupies in the making if I do say so myself!) If you can, try catching them on that episode of SOUNDSTAGE hosted by Martin Mull.

Did any of you ever hear that story about the time GG Allin saw Volman and Kaylan with their wives at some restaurant and approached them saying how much he was a fan and had all their albums onandonandon...? Allin also inquired if the pair would produce his next record and, when they asked about his music, Allin rattled off the titles and they just started laughing uncontrollably and couldn't stop! Believe-you-me, Volman and Kaylan were in such hysterics that Allin didn't even get an answer --- they were rolling on the floor crying their eyes out that's how crazed they were!

Well, maybe Viv Prince's toodle-oo is as important on the dead rockster meter as Volman's, he being another one of them guys that you swore woulda been dead a good fiftysome years back but just kept going on and on even though far from the limelight. Like Steve Took, he coulda been a punk rocker supremo had he only gotten his musical act together, but then again give him credit for being one of the three people who were in the audience for the MC5's English debut!

As far as Robert Redford goes well, as R. Meltzer once said about someone else his death means about as much to me as Baby Huey's.

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Even with all of the current events hubbub above I must admit that the biggest news of the blog is the downright FACT that the local paper is, for some glorious reason, now reprinting classic Ernie Bushmiller-era NANCY comic strips 'stead of those horrid modern-day ones that are about as much fun as a cactus dildo up the Hershey Highway. Dunno what prompted whoever it is who is involved with what turns up in the funnies section to switch from the current excuse for a comic to the real downright thing I grew up with and continue to honor and praise, but after all of these years I can finally open up a newspaper and anticipate of a good groan! Heck, I'm even cutting these strips out and plan to paste them in a scrapbook just like my grandmother did during the Lindbergh kidnapping case! A good reason for my cyster (you think I'd actually dish out money for their swill passing as news?) not to cancel her subscription to the local fish wrap!

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BAD NEWS...no more FAUX WOOD PANELING magazine. GOOD NEWS !!!!!...Wade Oberlin, in conjunction with Eddie Flowers, is starting a NEW 'un called...now get this...HOMEMADE SHIT!!!!! Yodel-odel-lay-eee-ooo!

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Interesting batch of music up for inspection this time, and not-so-surprisingly enough I would say that most each and every one of these entries is what I would call music that I would have loved to have heard during my late-teenbo days but couldn't afford because --- well --- I was pretty much living on depression-era wages and had an extremely hard time prying any cash for "frivolities" outta my mother and father's wallets. I still remember the old line when I'd ask the folks for some coin so's I could get some of the things the other kids had, and I was sternly told to EARN IT!!!!! Then when I asked if there were any household chores or jobs that they could give me they gave me a stern NO!...sheesh, what was a kid s'posed to do, especially when most all of the filthy lucre I would get for Christmas and my birthday HAD to be deposited into my bank account! Sometimes I get the feeling that the folks were trying their darndest to keep me from being an average teenage kid and envisioned me some bow tied and polite bunsnitch with nicely combed hair who wowed the girls at parties playing the piano as if that was ever gonna get me some you-know-whatie!

All I gotta say is that I'm sure glad that we didn't live near a seaport because well, when the sailors would come into town and spend their money there would have been many ways to earn more'n just a few bucks...and although I'm not "built" like that it could have been the start of a rather disgusting habit!

Can-RECYCLED CD (Eye of the Storm Records)

Don't expect anything special, but if this is the first time around for you budding Can-sters you'll definitely need to snatch this up before it too vanishes into the great lost cluttered up bedroom in the sky. 's got four cuts left off the DELAY 1968 album plus the entirety of "Doko Dae E" not forgetting that weird "Voice Changer" track that sounds pretty good even if it never did make it onto any of the legit or perhaps even illegit Can outtake records (well, not that I know of).  If you don't have these well, I'm sure that if you were smart enough to tune into this blog that you're smart enough to do some googlin' now, eh?

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Terry Riley-THE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS 4-CD set (Sony Classical Records)

Speaking of Terry Riley like I had in the fourth paragraph of this post, I must admit that his music sounds great in the light of day as well! In fact, I listened to this new collection of the guy's Columbia albums during the morning hours and found the entire experience just as exhilarating as it was back when I'd make it a semi-habit of playing PERSIAN SURGURY DERVISHES during the late-late show.

Most of these recs are still fresh memories in my mind considering how I haven't heard a couple of 'em until quite recently in my existence. Not that these records were just jumping outta the bins begging me to take 'em home, but whaddeva it sure is great that Columbia finally collected 'em all in one place and they're all within reach of my sweaty and haired-up palms.

IN C remains the Riley classic, a piece that can be done up by just about any musical entity or entities, and given its Cageian aleatory construction it makes for a rather exciting bit of music that's limited to only two (or is it three?) notes. I sure would like to hear how a polka group would have handled this.

I believe I told you just how much I didn't care for A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR back when I snatched it up way back when only to cozy up to the thing when I recently bought the vinyl reissue. Well, I gotta say that I stand by my more recent assessments. Far from the prog rock stew I originally believed it to be, this one does engage rather than pacify. Elements of early Phil Glass and Steve Reich can be picked out here/ther (old news but you probably heard it here first) but if I told you this was yet another permutation of "Sister Ray" you'd call me a jerk. "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" also has the ability to do more'n just a little testicle scrunching in a steel claw sorta fashion and if I told you it was definitely a precursor to various mid-80s sonic attacks a-la Controlled Bleeding well...

A longtime fave, the CHURCH OF ANTHRAX collab with John Cale's one effort that really brings out the best in what each of these guys were up to back when this was recorded. It's a good 'un for Cale fans showing more of a Velvet Underground drive than anything the guy did at least until "Gun", while Riley's musical manipulations can most certainly be discerned throughout the proceedings. Even with the presence of somewhat in-depth liner notes there's no new light shed on the mysterious track entitled "The Soul of Patrick Lee" which clearly has no Riley input and perhaps even minimal Cale involvement other'n composition and piano. It fits in swell anyway...a definite sixties/seventies cusp straight ahead rocker we shoulda heard Cale warble on VINTAGE VIOLENCE. And hey, did YOU ever notice the strong similarities twixt LP closer "The Protégé" and the Modern Lovers faverave "Pablo Picasso"?

I never even saw a copy of SRI CAMEL let alone heard the thing so this was a nicety-nice surprise for me. Ignore the mystical Alice Coltrane-styled cover and get into the just intonation organ sound weaving all over cavern of your brain in a manner very much similar to PERSIAN SURGERY DERVISHES...the soundtrack to a rather devious silent movie if you ask me. 

Overall, this set's one of those overdue releases that I hope will draw more people to the music of Riley blah blah prattle on as if any of you readers out there would ever think of buying a mandatory to your boring existence package such as this.

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Philip Glass-GLASSWORKS CD (Sony Legacy Records)

At one time I put Riley and Glass on the same level of composers who could pass for "rock", but in the here and now I gotta say that Riley's works hold up swell but Glass' eighties on and compositions do come off rather kitchy, like a man creating avgarde music that the average doof out there could appreciate but failing miserably because what does the average doof care about avgarde music anyway. 

It's still howshallIsay "fair", but the early Ensemble sounded more like a roaring post-Velvets krautrock experiment or maybe even Suicide with six Martin Revs than this orchestral material that remind me more of etudes than though-out well-constructed works. 

If it is any consolation, ex-Contortions Don Christiansen helped engineer the bonus tracks. And while we're on the subject, I heard somewhere a long time ago that the works of Roger Reynolds and Gyorgy Ligeti would fit into the Riley/Glass school of avgarde classical that the brainier listener might appreciate on a rock level...izzat true? And if so any recommendations as if any of you would ever dare answer any of my queries?

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Boy Dirt Car-WINTER/F/i SPLIT LP CD (Childhood Anal Cavity Love Records, Australia)

I dunno why "Just Disgusted" was so surprised when he first heard about the existence of acts like Boy Dirt Car as well as Einsturzende Neubauten given that their musical forebearers dip as far back as Edgard Varese, George Antheil and John Cage. Sheesh, the early Stooges also figure into both of these groups' motives mightily! If Mr. Disgusted had only paid attention to early-sixties Sunday Afternoon tee-vee he surely would've understood the whys and wherefores of industrial music given all of the brainy programs they used to show before prime time kicked in. Maybe not...'s hard to judge the grey-matter patterns being emitted by ANYONE these days (let alone the eighties), but if the man had only devoted even just a small part of his crainial abilities to the ABSTRACT he might have just had a quite different attitude towards this breed of vibration!

For a guy like me who keeps losing, finding then once again losing his Boy Dirt Car cassettes (esp. the one in the li'l cloth pouch) this does help some, at least until this one gets lost somewhere in the rubble. From what I can tell this is a collection of the LP these guys shared with F/i, as well as their first album proper or something like that. It may be an utter shock to the average FM-bred dolt out there, but this,along with hardcore and certain sixties-revisionisms, is thee ultimate eighties rock 'n roll musical statement, and a lotta that high energy beyond the fringe music that Boy Dirt Car blessed us with during those dismal days of the mid/late-eighties (only to be followed by the dismal nineties...) pops up on this release. Ind if you want to hear the glory once again here 'tis. Definitely a Cee-Dee that should be top on your steal (at least from the source) list.

As you've known for nigh on five decades already, this music is really not that far off from the Velvets up through Stooges and Beefheart on to METAL MACHINE MUSIC, and thankfully the concept and consciousness of industrial music never did really pass from this mortal/sonic coil. Unlike Ann Landers who I understand is firmly ensconced a good six or so feet under the ground (and thank goodness considering the pop psychology and cornball solutions she emitted for a good period of time)!

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Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds-SHAPES OF THINGS LP (Springboard Records)

Albums that popped up on the Springboard label used to be easily obtained in the record shops of the seventies and the flea market piles of the eighties, but only until the here and now have I ever purchased any. Got this one partly out of curiosity. Never understood just how Springboard could operate by pirating familiar tuneage for so long but well, I must admit that they sure offered the poorer amongst us albums at way more affordable prices than the usual $5.99 you would have had to part with for a platter of the twelve-inch variety. This one OBVIOUSLY (well, I can't account for some of you readers' stupidity) contains Beck-era Yardbird tracks which were somewhat hard to find at the time, presented with a weird glaze of a sound and running about a half-hour total. In other words this was just the thing for the twelve-year-old picking pennies off the street to latch up. Not bad, at least until one could dig up the dough to get hold of those expensive (for poor kids like me) imports and bootlegs.

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Michael Nyman/London Saxophonic-AN EYE FOR A DIFFEERNCE CD (Tring Records, England)

I was going to mention how this sounded kitschy in the way some of Philip Glass's later work tried to grasp at a more mainstream audience, but as with Glass's LOW SYMPHONY I can enjoy this on a base level, kinda like the way your parents would dig into the classics after they got hold of those collections they used to sell on tee-vee in order to dignify the house a bit. A lot of the bared wire intensity that one would hear in the avgarde of old is missing and if you told me this was the soundtrack music to the kinda films they make today I'd believe it, if only I saw some of the kinda films they make today. I guess it is better to stay home rather'n go out and squander your money on a flicker that has about as much to do with one's existence as The Masked Ginny Lynne.

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Hey, guess what! I sold all of my BLACK TO COMM back issues so I don't have to post any of these end of post hypes anymore! Boy am I lucky that I have such wonderful and devoted followers who have been kind and generous in helping me out with clearing my basement and upping my bank account that had been pretty much depleted by parting with my hard-begged in order to put these out! Boy am I making myself sick thinking the TRUTH about how you skinflints really are when it comes to supporting the underground rock publication world...sheesh, you'd think there'd be enough rabid rockers worldwide who'd just LOVE to snatch these rags up!