As I've come to expect having lived so long and learned so little, reality tends to step in more often than not and make existence so dry and run of the mill to the point where these days everything seems just like one big blurry picture. So like, don't expect much this time because I know that you sure don't want to hear every sordid detail of my daily sideways-turd excruciating bowel doodies or cootie infestation now, do you? Yes, after over a month of letting these jam-packed mega blog posts go by the wayside life has become so dull (if that was imaginably possible) to the point where I can't even mention something different and unique that has happened in this humdrum wonderful world of mine in a lame attempt to go one up on you all. 'n go ahead, break out your world's tiniest violins and see if I care!
The only real new and downright exciting thing that I can say this time is that my new favorite snack is a hunk of Swiss cheese with a hot and spicy (stone-ground preferred) mustard spread/squirted on it which may explain my toilet troubles, and while I'm at it try to avoid the limited edition A&W Root Beer Float flavor. Now it is somewhat good in a Boston Cooler/milkshake with loads of vanilla ice cream dumped in but on its own the stuff's overpowering with a strange flavor that for some reason reminds me of those sweet perfumes women use that really know how to draw in the fruit flies. Otherwise it would be accurate to say that Karen Quinlan's day probably beats my life but eh, 's better'n nothin'...
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This Lester Bangs episode in the ROCK 'N ROLL MYSTERIES series might be a watch that's right up your alley, but then again there's no way I can read any of you regular tuner inners. Whatever, why don't you give it a try:
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Anyone out there have any information/pix/recordings of the Texxas Tyrants, a heavy metal cowpoke trio who played San Antonio in the early eighties? I guess these guys were that long-lost group I saw an ad for in a September 1981 VOICE announcing their appearances at a by-then dying Max's Kansas City one night and a CBGB audition the next. From what little information I have on hand I'd gander that the Tyrants came off like the kind of hard rock act that I'd more than love to immerse myself in given the rather unique nature of their music. Hope you San Antonio types can help me out here but eh, I know none of you would dare lift a finger to help me so why should I bother asking you ingrates in the first place!
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I've got more than what one would call a lovely bunch of coconuts this time. Some of the items up for scrutiny just might lean a tad little on the "proggy" side (well, perhaps the first four or so), but I do find a fair amt. of punkitude being presented on these efforts, especially on the Cheval Fou album which has become a somewhat frequent spin 'round these parts. Still you will enjoy reading and perhaps even pilfering some of these records because I know you just like I know the back of my back. Kudos to Paul McGarry whose big box of goodies is bound to keep me occupied for ages and Robert Forward for the Ash Ra. Even PD Fadensonnen managed to send his latest and hey, where else are you going to read about the guy anyway?
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I know how a fairly good hunk of you readers all hate my droolathon wind-laden reviews filled with hype for obscure recordings by groups none of you would give a wang-dang-doodle about in a million years. Too bad, because I just chanced upon an album that I can really sink my entire being into and I'm gonna spend all the space I want to tell you about the thing. So there and nyah on you!
And after a good spell of musical Helen Kellerisms this album is something that you could say is more than welcome around my parts. Sheesh, but I think I actually came upon a platter that could reach into my inner workings and do a fine rearranging on 'em the way that such past items as THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO, FUNHOUSE, MONSTER MOVIE, ORIGINAL NORTHWEST PUNK and even REHEATED CHOCOLATE TANGOES have during a fairly long portion of my existence. In reality I sincerely doubt it but eh, at least this is a spinner that threw some sunshine into my otherwise eclipsed existence.
Yes, this very limited edition album by an early-seventies French rock group really had captured my attention proving that there still is some unheard rabble to have come out of early-seventies mainland Europe just waiting to be uncovered. Cheval Fou do a finer than fine job encapsulating all of the things that drove more than just a few passerbys (like me for example) to this breed of music in the first place.
These Cheval Fou guys (two guitarists, one also playing sax, plus a drummer), along with Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies, did a pretty good job of keeping the psychedelic era going a few years after many thought it had pretty much flopped over and played postmortem. They also have a good punk rock-y (in the best BTC sense) edge to their sound that reminds me of a stripped down PHALLUS DEI-period Amon Duul II with some MONSTER MOVIE thrown in. You can toss a number of other acts of your own liking into the mix as well and I'm sure some of your all-time faves will turn up in the Cheval Fou musical makeup.
The trio do get some help here/there, but it's mostly its Fou playing their experimental music and doing it in a way that would still appeal to the European proggy freaks while satiating the more fringe amongst us. Some future shock is to be found as well...take "La Fin de la Vie" what with certain parts evoking a weird early-period Cabaret Voltaire negative groove with the beat and outer space haze of mid-seventies Suicide, and do I hear more than just a bit of Dr. Mix floating about somewhere?
But the psychedelic guitar line on "Hannibal" does flash this album back to the early proto and thus superior punk seventies from whence it came. And keep both ears open for LP closer "Meteorites" which could be an "LA Blues"/"Black to Comm" homage to match Umela Hmota 3's "I'd Rather be Made Out of Stone"...wouldn't slip it past my mind.
Comes in a nice fold-out poster package with splatter vinyl for those of you who still live in the ginchiness ot the late-seventies. An album worth seeking out, and since only 300 of these got pressed well, you better do your own searching and do it HARD!
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These guys get lumped in with Cheval Fou, Dagon, Red Noise and a few others as far as being part of some sort of early-seventies French experimental rock that even the punks got into. And yes these Delirium guys are somewhat dangling their tootsies in the waters of under-the-underground rock, but unlike Cheval Fou and the rest they undoubtedly place their musical abilities and drug-consuming credo well before their general punkitude. In fact at times Crium Delirium can get somewhat "import bin rock-y", and not exactly in a European Expressionism Rock sorta way.
Still, if you're a fan of Gong you'll probably love this gathering of early/mid-seventies pothead pixie music. One track that popped my pimple is "Les 'Road-Managers'" which bears an uncanny resemblance to "Silver Machine". If it is any consolation to the more "hip and with it" readers of this blog the liner 'thank you"'s lists the likes of Lou Reed, John Cale, Brian Eno and Patti Smith.
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It downright stymies me that at one time a major record company (in this case Philips) would have even thought about releasing a beyond-the-fringe triple record set like this one! But hey, those were the times when even the biggies were willing to take wild chances, and if Philips would actually back such an effort as this "three movement" musique concrete concept album you must say that they were on the same brainwave length as ESP back when the Cromagnon album hit the bins of the very late-sixties. Nowhere as chaotic though, but still...
First movement-random electronic noise/feedback turning into warbly soft waltz-time femme vocals singing a slowed down late-sixties pop riff with oscillating jibber jabber. Then more electro-grunts and organ drones with some woman talking kraut in-between show up. Slip some old dance music overlayed with oscillating flange and I think there's yet another jab at the older generation going down somewhere in there.
Second movement --- flanged tape garble moves into furry Pict gab and Mel Blanc trumpet burp before mangled found sound meets kraut kindergarten recitation. Then one of the kids plays around with a squeezebox while another bangs a square peg into a round hole. The accordion goofer-offer ultimately grabs a child's toy flute to toot on before aimlessly strumming open chords on a guitar. Of course there's also the old German music thrown into the mix with more of that clanging going on, which I think is a commentary of that nation's part military as well as political history. Sort of "Seig Heil Cool Cats!"
And for being such a good boy you also get to hear Zweistein's non-LP single entitled "I'm a Melody Maker"/"A Very Simple Song"...both sides structured albeit with more of those toy flutes aimlessly playing on. You might like it, because I do in my own downhome cornball way.
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Who would have thought that an Ash Ra Tempel bootleg would ever see the light of day, and one that sounds as clear as this particular effort! Actually this is nothing new since half of it turned up on parts of the long-gone collection entitled THE PRIVATE TAPES while the rest is actually the entirety of the SEVEN UP album which was done with noted acid doof Timothy Leary thus giving it the hipster credo a record like that most certainly deserved. Hardcore Ash Ra Tempel fans already have this stuff but if you're one of the many who I assume never did get into the essentials well...ya wanna hear it?
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Most of you know that I never did pay Cabaret Voltaire no mind back when they were first up and about, only "getting into them" during the early-eighties when their records could be obtained at rather inexpensive prices. It wasn't until it dawned on me like a meteor from Rockismland that these ozobs were bred from the same best of the sixties (Velvets/Seeds/Shadows of Knight...) and the seventies (Can/Hawkwind...) which was supposed to give way to a bright and beautiful eighties just like their contemporaries Pere Ubu and Swell Maps were doing at the same nanosecond. Unfortunately the eighties solution didn't quite pan out the way I sure wished but still, you gotta give credit to Cabaret Voltaire for screeching about in that glorious, positive way back when we actually thought this music was going to blast out into the fanablasphere and brighten up the feral side of youth culture for years to come. HAH!
This triple set's for the fans. First two disques mostly feature early electronic soundscapades and short experiments that will probably turn off the novice, though if you liked the 74-76 cassette that came out way back when you will cozy up. The third one features early Rough Trade-period Volts and in fact these may be the exact same tracks we've heard for years and I would be sure if I were only able to do a side-by-side analysis. If only the booklet notes were readable I'd be positive about it. Whatever, highly recommended for all of you longtime fans of this breed of blare.
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After a rather long silence (one that really felt like a silence), PD Fadnesonnen and band are back, this time live with former Borbetomagus saxist Jim Sauter proving that all of those avgarde neo-jazz noisecranks didn't die out with the mags that used to cover them. Sound quality is surprisingly 1980s portable cassette but that's all to the better, emphasizing the fact that Razorlegs and Sauter ain't exactly the kind of people who cater to the HI FIDELITY magazine sense of technowhiz "quality". People who have been in on not only the Borbetomagus but the Fadensonnen game since the start should be honed to this sound already. Available in a few days so beat the rush and click on the above link.
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Sure I've had most all of this and have had it a good long while, but it's always right and proper to give these guys one of those once in more than just a blue moon listens. I hardly spin the Styrenes the way I usedta so wha' th' hey...this effort just reminds me of why they were one of the top echelon groups to play out in Cleveland during the Dark Ages of Pantsiosdom (though she actually claimed that she liked Mirrors...even if they were "cannon fodder").
This 'un has most of the singles, a lot of the album and even a few new things unheard by my ears. A fine document of a group that you should all have known about and cherished way back when, but why once again why was the alternate (and not as good) version of "Radial Arm Saws" rather than the single take used???
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This isn't OUTRAGEOUS or outrageous for that matter, but I find listening to Kim Fowley records a whole load more engaging than being subjected to most of the sounds passing for rock 'n roll that have been created these past sixty or so years. This '94 release contains music that would have fit in swell on Fowley's last six or so albums as well as some interesting surprises, interesting in the fact that the songs with an acoustic guitar player backing Fowley sound a whole lot like Peter Laughner's various bedroom endeavors. Who never said that Fowley wasn't in tune with the real pulsebeat of the under-the-underground anyway?
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Like Fowley, the Groovies kept going on and on until they just couldn't, and although I really tend to despise these old "tribute" sets that began proliferating the bins of the late-eighties onwards I find this one up and at 'em just like the Stooges and Troggs ones from a good thirty-plus years back. A whole bunch of groups I never paid attention to (or heard of for that matter) do the Flamin' bit as good as anyone could imagine, paying homage to their heroes 'stead of using 'em as a platform to preen and prance to their own amerindie desires as was wont the case with more than a few Velvet Underground efforts of a similar vein. Sure nice listening to these tracks again and who knows, maybe this will spur me on to digging out my old 99-cent Kama Sutra-era platters that have been left alone for maybe way too long!
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Too much has been written about this group to warrant even one more semicolon, so you know what to do already and just get it! If your knowledge of the Stones begins with "Angie" then get it even SOONER!!!
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Did you know that there are back issues of BLACK TO COMM still waiting to be plucked up and somewhat indecent prices for your educational benefit? Of course not considering the trouble I have moving these albatrosses. Wise up for once in your life, hunh?
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