Friday, October 23, 2026

I guess now that the hyperbusy summer months are well behind my own expansive behind I do have a little more time to spend by the portable sound-spinner and smack dab in front of the computer keyboard doing the things I like to do most, other'n just eat and goof off in typical LEAVE IT TO BEAVER fashion that is. And thus, a megapost a good three or so weeks after the previous one! Cherish it well, because it might be the last one in what I would call a longer'n even usual long time.
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Hokay, it's time for another round of elections to engage in if only so's I don't miss out on one and have to re-register in case I happen to want to vote again. So this time which echo do I cast my decision for anyway? What level of assholitry am I willing to accept??? I gotta admit that as far as the stateside situation goes I loathe the governor so much that I'd even prefer to see Sluggo working for us out there in Harrisburg. Thus I will definitely vote for whoever it is that is running against Shapiro even if it is a female veteran who'll probably be a slave to her cycles...and like I said even Sluggo'd be a welcome change since he at least has that working class (OL, criminal class) aura about him unlike the definitely elitist chi-chi cause and hate the right kind of people Shapiro, a guy who I really do suspect never met an everyday working kinda guy he didn't loathe despite all of those bragging political ads showing him elbow to elbow with the proles. I know Shapiro's gonna win because of his huge big city cocktails and noshes support 'n all but sheesh, why am I supposed to smile politely while suffering because of what other people voted for, something I've been supposed to do for quite a long while?

As for my current opines regarding the national scene, just gander at the meme directly below which sums up some of my concerns...yeesh! Of course the good news is that enough people are so pissed off that they're going to vote against the GOP outta spite in order to teach them a lesson they'll never forget (right)...the bad news is that that means the Evil Party as Sam Francis so succinctly put it will be pushing their usual gaytard late-term crossdressing social experiments on us at least until the next big upheaval. Dilemmas dilemmas...as Snagglepuss might have said ain't it the truth, the modern choice of putting democracy into action (hah!) only makes voting more akin to having to choose between death or uggabugga as I've probably already said a million times already. If you want to survive it better be Carlson/Owens '28 or perhaps Massie's "Everything Trump Promised in '16 But Didn't Deliver On" Party if he were so deemed to proceed with such a much-needed task:

Swiped from The Babylon Bibi

And things do look rather dim on the international front...Alberta voted to stay with Canada which is a major setback for The Big Destruction of super governmental control over vast areas that are being taken advantage of that is so needed these uber nationalistic days. I was hoping we'd have a new nation on our hands but the majority of dolts there undoubtedly think that Mark Carney's teats are way tastier than being yur own independent self. And someone once made a statement about people who would take security over freedom deserving neither, a situation which should be a lesson for the people there as well as everyone else on the globe. And hey France, how're you guys who were damning THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS (never read it but read a whole load of vitriol about it) way back when doin' these days? Oh yeah, you didn't want to look racist which I know is a major concern with many of you out there in real life who want to project your progressive brownie points. Well, at least Marine LePen just might make it this time because of it. And a lotta you guys had the nerve to up your noses and point your digits at the United States for many a year because of the racial tumult going on 'round these parts too! I'm sure any apologies will be accepted.
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PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON IT TIME: Given my technological inferiority I was just wond'rin'...any of you out there willing to burn these Mirrors rarities for me? I'd do the same for you, if I could that is. 

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A special Halloween treat! A Von Lmo flier from 46 years ago!

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And now for something I think you just might be interested in. Thanks to Paul McGarry, Robert Forward and a record swiped from my cyster's collection (three guesses as to which one it was and the first two don't count!):

 

Jean-Francois Pauvros and Gaby Bizen-PAYS NOIRS LP (Souffle Contineau Records, France)

Guitar/percussion duo from these French freedom fanatics that show promise but fail to live up to the atonal glory of similar squonks along the lines of Ascension or Doug Snyder and Bob Thompson's DAILY DANCE. Closer to the splattered sparseness of Derek Bailey if I do say so myself 'stead of the more rockist approach that I was hoping for after giving the Catalogue album a review last megapost. 

Other side has a nice li'l engraving that reminds me of the one on the flip of Lee Ranaldo's FROM HERE TO INFINITY which does drop hefty hints that I better drag that one out for yet another go at, that is if I can locate it within the stacks of uncategorized longplayers that reside in the abode (like I ever could categorize my collection even to my own personal liking!).
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Can-EMPIRE THEATRE 3/23/1973 (or 8/25/1973 according to my own research) CD-r burn

Don't think I heard this one before. Clear sound actually enhances that old dolby hi-fi gooshiness I had back during my cassette days in the mid-seventies plus some songs I can't identify show up which is swell enough on my part. Overall it sounds like one of those Can shows where they were doing what they do, only without the more shocking sonic accruements that made up some of their more stunning live material. If you can find it, get it, but there's a whole lot of better Can material out there.
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The Children-REBIRTH CD (Gear Fab Records)

The Steve Nagel aircheck mentioned last post stoked my curiosity about San Antonio's Children, but man their original LP on Atco's bound to set one back a mighty hunk of money! Thankfully there's this recent enough reissue and it will do. Fine re-packaging album with early proto-bands (including the Mind's Eye stringed-up "Help, I'm Lost" from the ultra-expensive TEXAS FLASHBACKS series) to other rarities that help fill out the Children story a whole lot better'n had they been left off which I guess is an obvious enough point. 

As for the album itself well...I find it way too laden in orchestral gloss that doesn't let the group's whole "persona" or whatever the hippoids call it come to fruition. With Lelan Rogers producing I was thinking this would sound more like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators or a lost International Artists album, but then again I find more than just a few moments pretty darn near enveloping, especially the piano closing to "Sitting on a Flower". Hefty points must go to these Children for including "Waiting For My Man" in their live set.
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John Cage-IN A LANDSCAPE CD (Catalyst Records)

Never can go on throughout this life with some new to my lobes John Cage recordings to stimulate whatever there is in me that needs stimulating. Most of these tracks have already been laid to vinyl but a fresh interpretation of these old familiarities done up by a chap names Stephen Drury does tingle the old nerve-endings. Not only that but this features the first ever recoded appearance of a more recent (1983) Cage composition entitled "Souvenir" which is performed on an actual organ and reminds me a teeny-weeny tiny bit of those Olivier Messiaen pieces that he recorded at Notre Dame. Could be a good one to snatch up if you (like me) have been in on the Cage game for longer than anyone could care and still want to hear those obscurities mentioned in the discography that appears in the back of Richard Kostelanetz's book. (By the way, did you know that Kostelanetz appeared at a CBGB poetry reading sometime late 1975 along with Fluxus mainstay Dick Higgins?)  Another interesting bit of diversion for a phony intellectual such as myself, and maybe even you.
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The Moody Blues-THE BEGINNING VOL. 1 LP (Decca Records, England)

Here's one of those mid-seventies vintage overseas bargain albums that cost the same as any other import here in the US of Suckers. But this being a collection of the pre-Justin Hayward and John Lodge Moodies well, it sure does fare better'n most of what that group's eventual output managed to deliver to a whole generation of sensitive potheads and serious-minded kids too embarrassed to listen to the real hard-edged stuff. 

Actually most of these songs do have a dark if smooth enough appeal in that this was happening before that whole snootification of rock music thanks to the likes of the Beatles and their more sunshine-oriented material. And I can even enjoy a fruity popper like "Rue de la Madeline" the same way I can most sixties classical/pop flub-a-dubs from the Fugs to the Left Banke. Just watch out for their rather dippy interpretation of James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy" and while I'm at it, an early Moody Blues collection without "Go Now"??? C'mon!
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John Fahey-RED CROSS DISCIPLE OF CHRIST TODAY CD-r burn (originally on Revenant Records)

I might have heard this one before but if I did well, eh what's another review! Fahey's final offering isn't what I'd call the kind of platter that envelops my soul to be hippoid about it, but the thing sure is a fitting farewell. Good slab of typical Fahey fingerpicking with the usual surprises that at least perk my ears up somewhat. Interesting covers of "Summertime" and "Motherless Child" intermingle with the same kind of originals that got not only the underground hipsters but the college dorm '69 hippies and chi-chi STEREO REVIEW types' hearts all a'flutter. Stick around for the buried track.
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Led Zeppelin-GONZAGA 12/30/68 and 1970 OUTTAKES VOL. 1 2-CD-r set (the Gonzaga one is available via the Capricorn bootleg label which I doubt has anything to do with the southern rock label and as far as the other material well...you can probably find it on Archies.org)

The very early Zep live material shows 'em still (thankfully) firmly planted feet-wise in late-period Yardbirds tension mode putting up quite the same ol' racket that one can still hear on a wide variety of bootlegs along the lines of the boff LAST RAVE UP IN LA. Believe it or not from the lips of an affirmed sludge stoner box boy metal hater like myself, but this set's actually good despite (because of?) the low-fidelity hand-held cassette rawness to it. 

The outtake portion actually spreads from '68 until '71 and feature fragments, goof offs  and instrumental tracks that I'm sure that the serious fan will probably enjoy. You won't, but the obsessives surely will the same way I'll spin some decrepit Velvet Underground gem that would have rated a "Poor Mono" in the old HOT WACKS catalog. The decay had yet to set in and these are good on their own terms, but really how could Zep even hope to compare with the punk rawness of Mick Bolton-era UFO or just about any group coming out of the Ladbroke Grove 'round the very same time?
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Interested in picking up any of these BLACK TO COMM back issues for your reading pleasure, or displeasure as it usually seems to be with you regular tuner inners? Well, press the blue link right above and read the instructions since I'm tired of getting comments from people who express an interest in buying mags asking for info that is already available but never follow up!

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