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.

***

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 chortling over a scant few who are 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 a 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 on the former NBC Blue 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.

***

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!

***

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!

***

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?

***

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.

***

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?

***

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)!

***

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.

***

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.

***

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!

AND YOU THOUGHT MY OTHER SINGLES COLUMNS WERE STROONAD-Y!

Until I unleash my bigtime real deal post that'll catch you all up on the pertinent current events going on in these here times, here are some singles that are old (well, I might reviewed a few on this blog years back!), new, borrowed but not "blue".  After all, this is a family blog!

The Kinks-"Sunny Afternoon"/"I'm Not Like Everybody Else" (Reprise Records)

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.

***

BUTTSTEAK 33 rpm EP (Camp Zuma Records)

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!

***

The Continental Co-Ets-"Let's Live for the Present"/"Ebb Tide" (Get Hip Records)

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.

***

Smokey and his Sister-"Creators of Rain"/"In a Dream of Silent Seas" (Columbia Records)

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!

***

Tar-"Solution 8"/"Non-Alignment Pact" (Amphetamine Reptile Records)

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.

***

Iguana Foundation-"Lonesome Travelers"/"Hey Little Girl" (Eternal Love Records, Sweden)

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... 

***

The Droogs-"TV Man"/"Letter to the Times"  (Plug n Socket Records)

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.

***

Jean Baptiste/Red Decade-"Native Dance"/"Red Decade" 12-inch 33 rpm single (Neutral Records)

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.

***

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)

Double-duty review here featuring two records that are heavily into the legacy that once was and shall remain the Detroit underground rock 'n roll scene. On the split single former Amboy Duke Steve Farmer and his group Babylonian Tiles revisit the glory days of 1968 sounding even better'n I remember the Dukes to have, perhaps because the albatross of Ted Nugent and his overbearing presence allows this group to stretch out even more that usual. Scott Morgan and band appear on the flip and of course it all comes off exactly like the Sonics Rendezvous Band which should figure given the appearance of former members Gary Rasmussen and Scott Ashton in the ranks. A pretty hot kick up from what would happen to music once the high energy piddled, very reminiscent of the Pink Fairies' "City Kids" in fact. We could have used a whole lot more Detroit-infused music like this back in the eighties and, frankly, this sounds just as potent even if it more or less is a relic of past huzzahs that for all intent purposes we all thought dead and buried.

The Mutant Press single features a certain Jerome Youngman, a chap who I believe was a founding member of the Motor City Mutants but left long before these guys shortened their moniker to just "the Mutants" and began putting out records. I sure would like to hear what these early Mutants sounded like and I guess this un's gonna be the closest any of us will get until some of those recordings are released to the public. I gottta admit that "Dream Machine" (the "Grande" side) comes off more early-eighties "what're we gonna do now that the music has gone flaccid?" (perhaps because of the synthesizer moans that really dated what was once bold and exciting), but "Pants on Fire" (the "Eastown" side) goes full blast Michigan, sounding like the kind of roar that a few hard-edged rogues could still get away with even during the saccharine beyond belief squeaky clean music scene that the eighties produced. Music like this only makes me want to hear even more, which I do get the feeling is "out there" somewhere...

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.

***

Jan and Dean-"Heart and Soul/"Those Words" (Challenge Records)

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.

***

Cordell Jackson with George Reinecke and the Mud Bugs-"Rockin' Rollin' Eyes"/"Memphis Drag" (Sympathy For The Record Industry Records)

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.

***

THE LONGINES SYMPHONETTE SOCIETY PRESENTS A MEDLEY OF EXCERPTS FROM MILLION DOLLAR HITS OF THE '50s AND '60s seven-inch flexi-disc

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!

***

Fadensonnen-"Nitroglycerin"/"I'm the Knife" 7-inch 33 rpm single (Fadensonnen, try Bandcamp)

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.

***

It's All Meat-"Feel It"/"(I Need Some Kind of Commitment Baby)" (Milkcow Records, Holland)

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!

***

Tom Verlaine-THE TWILIGHT ZONE EP (Eclectic Records bootleg)

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.

***

Those Unknowns-"The 4 of Us", "Go Where the Kids Go"/"Cries of a Nation", "Weekend Nights" 7-inc 33 rpm EL (Headache Records)

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.

***

The Space Negroes-"In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida"/"Smells Fishy Theme and Variations" (Arf Arf Records)

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!

***

The High Rollers-"Cold Meat"/"Bye Bye Stiv Bators Bye Bye" (Bona Fide Records)

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!

***

Gear Jammer-"Two Tons of Chrome"/"(I Saw You) Video" (Amphetamine Reptile Records)

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.

***

The Velvet Underground-"Little Sister"/"I'm Not a Young Man Anymore" bootleg (no label)

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!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! DILLINGER STARRING WARREN OATES, BEN JOHNSON AND CLORIS LEACHMAN, WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JOHN MILIUS (American International, 1973)

Coming out during the height of the second H-wood Golden Age, DILLINGER has all of the finesse and style of the original GA as well as the slam-bam-CRASH of the second. In other words, it plays like a good ol' forties late show feature, only with loads of bloody ultra-violence and second commandment breakin' that woulda given Will Hays a migraine to end all migraines.

Gangster moom pitchers have fascinated many a person ever since THE MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY, maybe because being a bank robber or Cosa Nostra member sure seems like a better profession than being a sheep foreskin cleaner. And cathartic thrills is what anyone's gonna get with this film, a definite cash in on the BONNIE & CLYDE thirties nostalgia boom of a good six years earlier complete with the grittiness that seemed to ooze out of a whole load of films which were reflecting the International Miasma and general fed-upness that made the seventies such a great place to be. If you knew where to look that is.

Like I said in my rather recent GUNSMOKE post, I really never could understand the cults that formed around such actors as Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton (playing John Dillinger and gang member Homer Van Meter resp'd'ly), but they're both here and they play their bank robbing no holds barred criminal roles to the ol' hilt. Heck, they even look close enough to the real life people they're portraying which is a whole loads better'n back in the fifties when some handsome leading man would play the role of Wild Bill Hickock, a guy who eerily enough resembled David Crosby with his finger stuck in an electrical outlet! Ben Johnson as FBI biggie Melvin Purvis is also cool as the egocentric agent who wants Dillinger for himself and the glory that goes with all that. Sheesh, he's such a rootin'-tootin' type of guy that his agents have to light his cigars! Ex-Mama Michelle Phillips is also boff as the slut Dillinger rescues from a future on the Indian Reservation while even Richard Dreyfuss, an actor I really never could stand, comes off perfect as the self-centered "I take no orders form anyone" Baby Face Nelson, perhaps because I see a lot of the actor in Dreyfuss' put-offish "my shit don't smell" performance (I dunno if you will, but I was cheering during that scene that took place in "Little Bohemia" where Dillinger gives Nelson the beating of his life!). Even ol' Phyllis herself Cloris Leachman puts in a fine performance as the "undocumented"(sex) worker and "Lady in Red" Anna Sage who snitches on Dillinger and in exchange is promised not to be kicked outta the country, then gets kicked out!

Historical inaccuracies can be found here and there (so what) and little things may bug the casual viewer (like f'rexample Ben Johnson was way too old to play the Purvis role), but with these kinda films you gotta let your sphincter loosen up a bit and take what's tossed in front of you and have your mind chew a few times before swallowing. What'll go through your cranial system's a heavy duty thrust of entertainment via a nice cathartic release which will have you rooting for the bad guys because well, they're so cool and besides they're doing everything that you wished you could but well...ethics and manners and stuff.

A pretty good enough film (I give it seven outta ten) that's definitely worth the waste of time you'll need to view this 'un. However, what really upsets me about DILLINGER is the plain fact that one important "part" of the legend surrounding the man is left out, mainly, what about his pickled foot-long pee-pee that's preserved in a large mason jar which is stored somewhere in the attic of the Smithsonian Institute? Mention of it is nowhere to be found within these frames, and given the stories surrounding Dillinger's massive hunk of manhood this omission is very much like writing a story about Christmas and leaving out Santa Claus! Maybe they should have brought the subject up somewhere near the tail end where Paul Frees does his J. Edgar Hoover impression (Hoover was originally on board to do an anti-gangster moom pitcher schpiel but croaked before he got the chance). I mean, Dillinger's schlong is about as Amerigan mythological as you can get now, ain't it?

Thankfully (thankfully?) it's time to once again read about my major bitches regarding what I would call my humdrum and definitely more boring than your own existence. As you should know by now REDUNDANCY, TRITENESS AND DOUBLE-DOWN OFFENSIVENESS RULE when it comes to this blog, as well as to my life for that matter so yawn on and see if I care...I do understand. I mean, why else was I excluded from engaging in the great flow of musical information, basically ignored and denied my legitimacy ever since the eighties when I started up my illustrious career (OK---break out the smallest violin you can find)?

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.

I still manage to find the time...no, I MAKE the time to engage in my favorite extracurricular antics, mainly listening to music and reading things pertinent to my very own sense of wellbeing. I'm still prowling through my boxes of fanzines and the assortment of writings that I copped off Rocksbackpages that have been collected since way back when, re-introducing myself to items like the somewhat recent Patti Smith one-off PISSING IN A RIVER fanzine (which I find somewhat a better read now than when I had reviewed it long ago, but not that much...still I wish more issues came out) as well as (MODERN) ROCK MAG(AZINE) which I will admit was a nice beacon of smart-yet-pertinent music dissertations at a time when rock screeding had long gone off the cliff into cut and paste land. 

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). 

Also noticed while thumbing through my copy of LICORICE (#2) that the interview with that feminist rock group who seemed to have all of the sex appeal of Mrs. Khrushchev was conducted by none other than Snakes lead singer and future member of Wire Robert Gotobed! Talk about a dismal task that the editors of that mag dumped on him...I'm sure glad that the people who I wrote for didn't send me their dregs to be dissected while they kept all of the good booty!

One little piece of pertinent information regarding the elusive BILGE fanzine which I mentioned in these "pages" about a year back did appear much to my delight. According to none other than Crescendo Capece from the should-be legendary but isn't mag CRETINOUS CONTENTIONS, the debut issue of Natalie McDonald's Bolanzine ELECTRIC WARRIOR FREE PRESS was supposed to contain segments of that outta nowhere mag in its pages! Since EWFP is scheduled for fanzine fanabla scrutiny sometime in the distant future maybe we all will get to know more about that particularly legendary and unseen publication hyped by none other than Lillian Roxon! But don't count on it.

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 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. But sheesh, I sure wish I did if only the man woulda stepped up and gotten me a job where I really coulda raked in the dough.

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"!

***

You want any BLACK TO COMM back issues? You got 'em. Got any money? You really got 'em!