MERRY CHRISTMAS, PUDS!

Since this will be the last post before the biggun (12/25) hits the skids lemme be the last but most certainly least to wish all three of you rabid BLOG TO COMM readers a very Merry Christmas (forget the "Happy New Year" for now since I will be seein' y'all before that!) and here's hoping that all you menna good will out there get all the Vac-U-Forms, Thing Makers and Corgi Toys (albeit I still have a hankerin' for Dinkys since they put out a whole lot more Studebaker models!) you never got when you wuz a kid! As Liberace once said, Christmas is such a special time of the year, so special that you don't hafta be a Christer (old TEENAGE WASTELAND GAZETTE/Richard Meltzer term whose Jewish counterpart I prefer not to mention on this brotherly love-oriented blog!) to like the thing! In fact, it doesn't even HELP to be a Christian or any associated belief for that matter to enjoy Christmas so hey, all I gotta say is whoever you are and no matter whatever trash heap you worship at a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL (the people I think deserve to be wished "Merry Christmas" that is!) and don't get too drunk before attending the Midnight Mass either!

As far as Christmas presents to me go, right now I'm feeling smug and superior enough to tell you readers that I already got my biggie last night, and that was none other than a phonecall from guitar master and all around great human being LOU RONE!!!! And we had a really great gab as well, talking about a whole lotta things both happy and sad but what really knocked my socks off was when Rone was cranking out some venerable Von Lmo-era riffs on his guitar while discussing the difference between the band when he and Kip Kuba were in it and afterwards, sayin' how he personally felt the Lmo group went from being a prime heavy metal aggregate to something more in a Devo style (!) after he handed over the guitar reins to a number of other players. The subject of how a lotta the early Lmo numbers were refurbishes of "Communication Breakdown" and "Whole Lotta Love" was brought up, as well as how Rone thought that the Shanghai Side Show was nowhere near as good as what those same guys were doing while in the Geofrey Crozier-fronted Kongress a few years earlier! Actually, Rone thought that Crozier was still acting wild enough onstage, but he says that the band was out of tune and that guitarist Robert Crash (pre-Rone Kongressman) looked funny playing the guitar with his teeth like Jimi Hendrix, whose riffs Crash was also "appropriating"! Between the Lmo-riffs and tales of how the audience was booing the guy at the ill-fated 1981 Palladium gig (!) all I can say is...what kinda phonecalls did all of my much-loathed enemies get this Holiday Season...greetings from their Aunt Flabbies?

Here're a few more from the recent supermarket sweep that I thought you might wanna read about before the big day hits and you wanna email Santy with some last-minute gimmes. It certainly is an interesting and varied selection of hot stuff if I do say so myself, and as usual you can trust me and my opinions 100% because frankly, have I ever led any of you readers down the wrong path, at least with regards to how you should spend you hard-earned moolah and what kinda hard-scronk to spend it on, eh???

The Jacks-VACANT WORLD/SUPER SESSION CD (Shagadelic Japan)

Although I must admit to being uninspired by this Japanese folk rock group's SUPERSESSIONS and ECHOES IN THE RADIO reissues from a few years back. I should say that I remember liking THE JACKS SHOW, or at least I think I did and I wouldn't mind reaquainting myself with the disc if I could only find it in amidst the various piles of vinyl that passes for my collection these days. However, given all of the rabid hubbub regarding the primero Jacks elpee VACANT WORLD that was spouted off via Julian Cope's JAPROCKSAMPLER not to mention a certain Swedish prick who was selling a bootleg of some heard-way-too-many-times Les Rallizes Denudes tracks a few years back, maybe by attention was piqued enough to latch onto this reissue, which in this case was coupled with their commercial showtimey offering SUPERSESSION which like I said I already had but I figured getting the thing again was a bargain even if I had about as much love for it as I do Jay Hinman!

But as for VACANT WORLD...well, it is pretty good though not the Japanese rendition of a classic Amerigan rock album like I was hoping it would be. Not anything really eyeball-gouging, but not instant douse either. The hit "Marianne" is wild...I mean, who else would think of merging 1967 folk rock with free jazz drums other than the Jacks do on this wild tale about some sea siren who drags the unassuming singer down to the bottom of the sea? And that equally free lead guitar being played over a repeato riff drone! How this one ever went over in olden Nippon I'll never know!

Most of the rest of this doesn't quite reach the same heights as "Marianne"...the vibraphone-laden "Stop the Clock" once again shows hefty Kyu Sakamoto Japanese pop emote, while the rest seems pretty much lower-groove musings with those selfsame Japanese pop sensibilities taken into good West Coast pop and blooze styleings which really doesn't offend ya, but it ain't like this is Denudes Redux either!

The title track does have the same downer-groove folk style as some of the softer numbers cranked out by Les Rallizes Denudes, and you can see how the Denudes guys swiped a few moves from the Jacks. But if you think that the same swirl of Japanese feedback and metallic marching moon mice sound of Les Rallizes Denudes can be found here then...well lookee again!

Bonus tracks tagged at the end are an uplift esp. after listening to SUPERSESSION get into the horn rock to the point of nausea. But still this is only for the ultra-serious six-oh Japrock fan to study under the the microscope like that guy in WOMAN OF THE DUNES studied obscure desert insects. That was yet another ref. to sixties Japan not quite knowing how to handle itself and its relationship to the rest of the world, and that's really no occident, Jack! (Heeeee, ze professor muz have heez leetle joke...).

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Terry Riley-MUSIC FOR THE GIFT CD (Elision Fields)

Dunno if this 'un is still in print because Elision Fields have dropped all reference to it on their website, so if you're looking for a copy of this nice slice of pre-IN C Terry Riley your best bet is to score on through ebay, and be prepared to pay a lot more than the $14.99 Brad Kohler paid for this. Yes, this very disc is a Christmas present to me from this longtime BLACK TO COMM supporter (and I don't mean as in a "sports supporter" either!), and although I usually don't open my gifts unto that fateful day arrives in this case I felt I just hadda even though I will refrain from playing the DVD of THE CORPSE GRINDERS he also sent me just like I will avoid the UNTOUCHABLES discs that other faithful companion Tonto, I mean Lou Rone gave me for that day of days coming atcha sooner than you expect!

Whaddeva, this ain't anything like those Terry Riley platters all you prog rockers dug the grooves outta back in the seventies. Naw, this is strictly "grey label" material (a ref. to Columbia's classical line appearing with a grey label 'stead of the usual red 'un for all you post-vinyl dummies out there!) featuring Riley not at his rock-si-chord or soprano sax but looping, echoing and generally mutilating a variety of sounds, mostly some late-fifties cool jazz with Chet Baker (!) that ends up sounding a lot more avant garde'n some of the avant garde that was coming out at the time (1963) this French play was being performed! Hearing Baker's muted trumpet going into repeato riff distortion ad infinitum does make for a splended bitta free jazz and I'm thankful that Kohler sent this thingie my way because...it sure makes up for that Thoth Trio snoozer I got from his last go 'round!

"Bird of Paradise" is pretty much tape mangipulation that actually bears some resemblance to the John Cale mid-sixties experiments that came out a few years back, only without the Velvet Underground madness those tracks exuded. (There!, I got my first Velvet Underground mention in for today!) In some ways it sounds like the noisy squeal that I would make when I would yank and pull the reel-to-reel cheapie tape recorder we had (Christmas present 1964) because I used to see those computer reels going in all sorts of strange, counterclockwise directions while watching them on TV not realizing that they were spinning freely and in opposite directions of each other because the TV flickers at 30 frames per second! (Y'know, the same effect where the tires are turning backwards but the car goes forward!) I got belted for my experiments, but Riley gets his pressed up on CD!

Of course by the time "Mescalin Mix" (a tape piece similar to the various John Cage "Williams/Fontana/Bridge Mixes" that were part of his blue period) hits the boards you're ready to head straight for the ibuprophyn and hopefully it will kick in in time for "Concert For Two Pianos and Five Tape Recorders" performed by Riley in conjunction with Lamonte Young. Taken from a 1960 radio broadcast emanating from (where else but) the University of California at Berkeley, the announcer gives an interesting talk on the piece about to be heard even after the number has started! Funny, the exact same thing happened to the Red Krayola when they appeared on TV July 4 1967, also at Berkeley!

Confused commentators aside, this Riley disque really will hep sate the longtime fan or even guys like me who have borne a passing fancy to the likes ofRiley ad other new composers for nigh on thirty-plus years awlready! And you don't have to be a snooty prog rock geek to enjoy this blare either!

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Daevid Allen and Euterpe-GOOD MORNING! CD (Esoteric Recordings)

And speaking of prog rock geeks, here's one I remember getting a lotta MELODY MAKER hype when it came out way back in 1976. Y'see, Daevid Allen, he of Soft Machine (pre-first album only) and Gong fame had just left the latter group and somehow ended up living on the tiny isle of Majorca off the Spanish coast. There he discovered a progressive rock group called Euterpe which would spend their off hours doing things like performing "Thick as a Brick" for whomever would traipse past their humble home. I guess there's not much else to do in Majorca, but anyway Allen went and hitched up with this unassuming drummer-less group and recorded the GOOD MORNING! album, a disc that I guess made whatever waves could be made in progressive rock circles at the time. And yeah, GOOD MORNING!'s a surprisingly entertaining psychedelic album that's once again available on CD after a good fifteen or so years so to all of those people who paid upwards of 75 bucks dollars for your early-nineties edition...tough turds, sweetie!

But whether you paid little or maximo for GOOD MORNING! it's still a good enough diversion. Allen never sounded as Syddish as he does here, and Euterpe are more than a fitting band to back him up with their acoustic/electronic makeup (mandolins and string bass meet Arp synths!) adding a whole load to the overall whimsy that Allen had been incorporating into his moozik for a good seven or so years already. The lack of drums don't deter just like it didn't with the Electric Eels, although on a couple numbers Pierre Moerlin and Mike Howlett do help out with drums and other things in case you're missing the more complex side of the Daevid Allen sound!

Even if you hate progressive rock this has more to do with the psychedelic leftovers anyway, so don't think I've gone off the same edge that Yes were so close to in praising this. Like the rest of the Gong and related Allen output, GOOD MORNING! still has enough of the pothead pixie edge to keep this from becoming another 1001 keyboards extravaganza showoffy thing for people too ashamed to say they like Bacn and Beethoven. And even the droneathon synth strings "bonus track" entitled "Euterpe Gratitude Piece" will excite...when the live Gong overdubs and munchkin chatter get overlaid onto the thing turning it into a psychonutzo extravaganza, that is!

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Stackwaddy-BUGGER OFF! CD (Cherry Red)

Not only do I have the 1986 very-limited vinyl reissue (see issue #4 for a review, if you're unlucky enough to have that particularly cruddy-'zine in your possession!), but I also have two CD versions of BUGGER OFF! wasting away in my abode, one on a twofer of both Stackwaddy albums with "Girl From Ipanema" omitted, the other the entire disc plus a bonus track just so's people who have the first one would buy the second edition as welll! So why did I, who already has three takes of this British blues obscurity, buy this most-recent CD reissue? A John Peel session's the reason, that's why!

No need to tell you just how great Stackwaddy were especially if you've heard their two albums and read the story of their too-late-for-the-Eel-Pie-boom and too-early-for-the-mid-seventies-punk-blues-trip saga. Stackwaddy were tops in their (at the time extremely limited) field, and these tracks lay testament to their greatness as a heavy-duty blues rock group that fortunately had the grime and stamina most white musicians seemed to check in the cloak room. The previously lost Peel Session is a great bonus, one of those '71/2 vintage live in front of a studio audience affairs opening for Dion (!!!!) showing that Stackwaddy could do twice as well live as what they could do on vinyl. Bill Shute doesn't like 'em but I find Stackwaddy as fantastic now as I did twennysome years back when I first got hold of their platters!

Oh, and the insert sleeve is, in typical British reissue fashion, very informative to the point where you don't have to rely on any of those new four-color rock history mags anymore to get yer Stackwaddy information 'cuz it's all here! The foldout that gets neatly slid into the front plastic part of the case's got the usual expected esoterica including not only the standard who/what/wherefores of where the group "stood" at this juncture in their career but believe-it-or-don't a Charles Shaar Murray review that always sets my rock scribe fandom light a'blinkin'! And with rock writing thrills getting harder to find as all the greats are either underrepresented or totally ignored its the little things like this that top off my day. And the first person to write in saying "Get a Life" will get an all-star right inna groin. savvy?

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Les Rallizes Denudes-LE FESTIVAL DE FLEUR COMPLETE 8 AVRIL 1975 GOTENBA CD (Ignuitas)

Given the here today/gone forever status of these Les Rallizes recordings it's not like I can afford to grab up every last one of 'em. However, I will snatch up some of these obscurities when they do pass by, especially if they date from the group's best years which for me were the late-sixties. However, since recordings from those days seem to be rarer than humility in this very blog I usually end up settling for the group's second best era, mainly the early-to-mid-seventies which were pretty good years for high energy underground jamz all over the boards if one would look hard enough, right???

Here's one of the more recent Denudes CDs to come out on the Ignitus label, which like Univive seems to be releasing whatever they can from the vast array of surviving Denudes tapes in small quantities. This one seems to have been recorded live at what translates as a flower festival in April of '75, certainly a choice time in the Denudes chronology and this recording does prove so despite the usually iffy sound. The usual familiar numbers pop up, though thankfully there are some great feedback moments and a few re-arranged variations that will please even the most stringent fans of these Japanese National Treasures. The general rawness does tend to help too...don't let the sissified cover of an outta focus flower (which looks like something that shoulda been stuck onto the TWENTY-FIVE MOST UNFORGETTABLE CLASSICAL MUSIC MOMENTS FOR PEOPLE WHO WANNA SNEAK A LITTLE CULTURE INTO THEIR OTHERWISE DRAB HOUSEHOLDS ten-LP set that Sebastian Cabot used to hawk on tee-vee) fool you. This is high energy rock & roll personified and in a past world we used to call it heavy metal but I don't wanna throw too many people off the track thirtysome years later!

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The Deviants-DR. CROW CD (Captain Trip, Japan)

Dunno why I have been shunning these latterday Deviants disques as of late...true they're not the same Deviants that recorded those three oh-so-fine albums in the late-sixties, but then again the Deviants that sprung forth from the London underground back in '66 was a much different group than the one that recorded PTOOFF!, and for that matter the group that recorded DISPOSABLE and DEVIANTS III weren't quite the same as the '67 variety either! So why should I get all discombobulated because Mick Farren is the only constant in the group's on/off forty year history anyway? As Linus used to say in the mid-fifties (and best period of) PEANUTS. "Five-hundred years from now who will know the difference?"

And yeah, I gotta admit that these new Deviants are pretty snat themselves. Not only is Mick Farren still a prime frontman (though his voice is way too ragged at times, probably from years of marijuana abuse but then again he sounds just like what you'd expact a 60+-year-old rocker to sound like!) and Andy Colquhoun a fine guitarist in the Sid Bishop/Paul Rudolph/Larry Wallis vein. And the choice of material is fantastic enough from the warped re-do of "Strawberry Fields Forever" to the British folk singalong "The Murdering Officer" which comes off like the early folk rants I'm sure the Deviants were doing before they got louder equipment. An all-together album that true, ain't anything like PTOOFF!, but it's still solid enough. As the sage once said, its to have a ball to.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF VELVET UNDERGROUND BOOTLEGS REDUX!

Yeah. You're wondering just where are all of those 1965 Falling Spikes and Warlocks rehearsals are rotting away as well as the '66 EPI shows with and without Reed, not forgetting all of those "Sister Ray"s parts two, three... that Lou said would take days to play if they were all strung together. Or how about that show where Doug Yule played a violin during that very selfsame "Sister Ray" that only Mike Kostek seems to remember and is still vainly trying to find a tape of??? Well, I'm wondering where all those shows are being stashed away as well, and until those tapes do eventually pop up (and they will, right around the time you all go deaf due to some ultramodernest new strain of syphilis bound to hit you upsides the head when it comes around in another ten or so years!) I guess we'll have to settle on just listening to all of them old Velvets boot LPs and disques we've been acquiring for years, or at least since the days when even the grittiest nth-generation Velvets tape was like aural manna fron You-Know-Where. At for a guy like me who admittedly does have a few gaps in the ol' Velvet Underground bootology these platters of both an analog and digital variety sure know how to "fill-the-bill" when it comes to satiating that intense hungerin' craving I had (still have!) for the Velvets ever since my mid-to-late teenage days when thankfully the sway of CREEM began to overcome my interest in things more...attuned to the hearts and mind of the other kids, and if I was gonna be an outcast I better do it on my own terms and with the Velvets beside me, savvy?

One of the nicer packages to hit the boot boards as of late is A SYMPHONY OF SOUND, a high-quality LP recording taken from the Warhol film of the same name where the Velvets and Nico create that wonderful din while Ari romps throughout the Factory and the cops come in and close the place down. You remember the film...you've wanted to see it for ages after reading some Warhol filmography and probably thought the sole existing reel was going to be locked up for good so why bother losing sleep over it! Well, thankfully the thing did survive and can be seen on DVD and heard on a number of earlier boots. But you never heard it as clear as you will on this pristine platter which, unlike the bootlegs of the old insert-sleeve seventies days doesn't sound like it was pressed up on old Buick floormats. In fact, I'm surprised at how clean this album looks and feels as well as sounds, certainly a lot better looking than those old-timey bootlegs and definitely an aural improvement over those audience-recording tapes that have been flying around which leads me to believe that whoever did this spared no expense mastering the platter straight from the film souce, or DVD for that matter. (The cover gives a Japanese origin and for once I believe it considering how high the quality is especially with that crisp photo outtake [taken from a DVD? Wherever it came from, it looks as good as classic sixties photo stock!] on the obverse not forgetting the fine line early-Warholesque drawing on the reverse which does have the same sparkling quality of many independant Japanese vinyl offerings available these days.) It's a bee-youtiful all 'round affair not only with the crisp sound (and hey, is there some additional music missing from all other bootlegs appearing at the beginning? Some of this does sound fresh to the ears of the one called me!) to the professional cover, and it even comes equipped with some inserts, one consisting of shots taken from the video (though of exemplary quality) as well as a reprint of Lou Reed's "A View From the Bandstand" taken from the Warhol ish of ASPEN which once again goes to show you that Lou was capable of some pretty smart writing which makes me kinda wish he also spent a good hunkering portion of his life as a rock scribe. Not necessarily rock "critic", but as an aloof, detached observer sort of like Jonathan Richman was during his late-sixties writing days for VIRBATIONS (where he was also art editor!) or better yet Wayne McGuire.

Jumping three years into '69, the four-CD BOSTON TEA PARTY set showcases the group at one of their favorite watering holes in one of the more receptive cities playing their hearts out to the same kinda people who would be, within the span of a few years, taking the Velvets drone and blare and making it Boston's own even more than Cleveland did. Mainly because whereas the Cle bands that grabbed the Velvets spirit by the fibula were more or less tossed off as easy-to-dismiss jokes at least Boston sure knew how to crank out the VU plasma and make the local populace notice! But anyway, this is also a great package that once again honors the Velvets, this time from the Japanese Scorpio label who did some good stuff in the past but this 'un from the great cover reproduction to the picture discs pretty much tops a lotta those scuzzy CD-Rs of now outta-print boots that unfortunately take up too much bootleg space in my Cee-Dee collection! Is it any wonder that both this and the SYMPHONY OF SOUND album came from the great Land of the Rising Feedback, because between these albums and some of the newer aficionados of the form Japan seems to be the last great frontier when it comes to carrying on the Velvet Underground mystique without turning it into yet more alternative geek quap like it has been ever since the feral seventies clocked into the tepid eighties (and never mind the nineties, or TODAY for that sad matter!).

And what's more, the sound on these disques is unbelievably clear especially for audience cassette recordings, much better'n those TDK C-90s you paid $9.99 for back in '80 which gave you these same shows sounding all the muddier and/or large hall vibrato-y for your troubles! I dunno how Scorpio got hold of first generation tapes, or perhaps mastering and techniques for cleaning up the sound has improved in the quarter-century since stereo fanatics got into equalizers and all that now-forgotten STEREO REVIEW hi-fi gimmickry. But whaddeva, these four platters are filled with some of the better examples of where the early Doug Yule-period Velvets could go, and if you're one of those people like me who miss John Cale and the viola, well it ain't like ya wanna kill Yule or anything like that because he fits in fine and could you imagine what they woulda sounded like if they got Jackson Browne in there???

And y'know what, it ain't like I hate the guy. Not that I ever did, but I gotta admit he looked cool enough to be a Velvet plus he fits in the band like a proverbial glove on these platters which, as Jonathan Richman said in his brilliant-like c/o THE VELVET UNDERGROUND article, still showed enough of the early/Cale-era in their DNA as Yule didn't yet have the chance to put his imprint on the group. But don't worry because even though the tension-inducing Cale was outta the VU a good four months when disc #1 (1/10/69) was recorded the avant garde was still firmly stamped into the Velvets' overall sound and on more than one occasion you can hear them entering into that fabled "cloud" that Reed mentioned in that mystical interview which appeared in the ALL YESTERDAY'S PARTIES collection a few years back!

But hey, no fretting's allowed because the best of the 1969 Boston gigs are all here, including that infamous guitar mix tape from the March 15th show and it's all overpowering high-energy Velvets at their best. Ultimately it goes to show you just how lame all these bands who claim to cling to the Velvets' chic mystique these days really are, and true that may sound like old-hat redundancy on my part (but should go to show you just how much ire I have for bands who take a good thing and bring it down to their putrid, narcissic level) but one thing's for sure, and that's this music ain't old-hat or redundant one bit and in fact sounds just as alive and as gnawing at the inner core of your being as it did some 37 years back! Y'know, back in the days when these sounds were first being laid down for the high-class and flotsam who flocked to the Boston Tea Party to see these shows which have been forever preserved on these neat li'l disques for us and hopefully for future generations to enjoy long after the rest falls into the abyss. But you knew that already, and I'm sure anybody with the BRAINS to tune into this blog already knows plenty about the healing force of the Velvet Underground and just how important their music remains after all those other puny little bands have passed into the ozone so why not just quit reading this and SCAM a copy for yourself!

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Before I go, I just wanted to share with you another strange bit of Velvet Underground myth-making that I have come across via the internet, mainly a poster for some imaginary Max's Kansas City show that appears on the left. Strange because this item is obviously a latterday creation of some slightly astute-yet-morally bankrupt person's twisted imagination (probably the same moax who created a B-52's live at Max's poster advertising a late-'77 gig using a pic of that band swiped from the front cover of their debut LP!) who for some odd reason actually thinks diehard Velvets fans will be fooled by a modern-looking poster advertising a December 196X gig that most of us would realize never took place! Now I'll 'fess up to the fact that I kinda chortle at the poster myself and feel like I too am part of the joke being pulled on novice Velvet Underground fans who, like all of us at one time in the past, probably don't know enough to see through the scam. And frankly, I feel pretty much honored that my obscure cult faves (or at least they would seem that way here in Western Pee-YAY!) are worthy enough to be used as fodder for this prankster's idea of creating a poster in an obviously 90's/00's fashion and passing it off as a sixties artyfact! But then again the saner side of me is slapping my psyche around silly only to make me wonder all the more...was this trip really necessary?????

Smegma-33 1/3 CD (Important); NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY CD (Harbinger Sound, UK)

Ju Suk Reet Meate-1978 + 1979 CD (Destijl...all three of these CDs are available through Forced Exposure)

Wow, was it really an entire year since I last reviewed a bunch of these Smegma disques just brimming with exciting aural innovations of both an old and new variety? Why, it seems like just like a mere 365 days ago! But what better way to get into the Christmas Spirit than with these recent Smegplatters that are also brimming with tasty soundsplats that teeter-totter between pure punkism and addled mindless noise guaranteed to piss off all of those seventies fanablas you used to come across who only discovered Zappa after he went fusion and never really did cozy up to the more atonal aspects of the quest.

No Meltzer here, but that don't mean this trio of puerile popsterisms is a total waste of time, energy and moolah! Far from it...in fact, I'd rate all three as prime echelon Smegma even if The Master is not present in any way shape or form. And if you were one of those late-seventies specialty shop boppers on the hunt for the likes of these Smegs and a whole passel of ripe underground scronkage, well this batch will take you back to those long gone and sainted days of "hey kid, are you just looking around or did you come here to buy somethin'???"

33 1/3 (that how long they've been togedder!) is the latest Smegma studio extravaganza which spots a neat sleeve featuring one of those old-timey "make-your-own-record" discs that you still come across in Goodwill shops and flea markets nationwide (I was always tempted to pick one of those up thinking there might be some rare garage band treat in store but more likely some doof in the armed services sending his mother a personal plea for more moolah!). Such cheapazoid nostalgia all mangled up for cynical seventies consumption has always been an integral part of the Smegma makeup (remember all those ventriloquist dummy heads and babydoll body parts cluttering up their post-Cal Schenkel album covers???) and you kinda get the drift that even this far down the ol' timey line the Smegsters still get into that great cheap basement gulcher with alla them crazy voice crackups taken from 1950s educational films and the like. The rest is, as the sticker sez, a "tribute to their 20th century avant-garde and out jazz influences" and who can argue with that even if this would just sound like another batch of kids clanking the kitchen pots and pans when played for a "serious" jazzbo, ifyaknowaddamean... Not as thick as GLAMOUR GIRL 1941 but it will do especially after hearing some of that new blare that passes for what used to pass for brave and innovative music. Unfortunately I couldn't dig out the embedded visuals from this disque but if I ever do, I will let you know what I doth encountered.

I was hoping that NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY was going to be a tribute to BLOG TO COMM fave Spiro Agnew but other'n the title there's no ref to the former vice-prez anywhere here. Not even a sound clip which you gotta admit woulda come off great amidst the usual Smegma carnage extant. Well, all I gotta say is SO WHAT because no matter how you slice this one up and down NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY is a great dunce winner that originally came out back in the dark days of '87, but don't kick yourself too bad if you're only getting it now like I am. Loads of sound as pure non-structure here along with some interesting musique-concrete asides, some free jazz mooshings and other typical Smegdonia...I was particularly struck by the one track which I believe is called "Spring Flowers", where a baby's sighs and gurgles and the like were re-edited into actually coherent free melody while the band played on! This also comes with the MORASS 12-inch EP from a year later with more of the Smeg rarities being served up for your displeasure, more of the typical LAFMS sound as it was being laid out for you on a whole slew of limited-edition wares only now getting the reissue red carpet.

If you still aren't smegged out by the above offerings you might wanan try this solo release that originally came out way back inna day by longtime member Ju Suk Reet Meate. On 1978 + 1979 Meate plays it the solo route, complete with hot guitar riffing and various horn and tape mangipulations tossed into an obvious cassette-quality bedroom recording release. True it may only sound like one layer of the Smegma onion but the thing does offer some insight into the inner tickings of the band by studying one of the principal members doing his own masturbatory thing rather'n alla 'em doing it at once! Needless to say, one of those must-haves for followers of the seventies El Lay underground scene amongst other noise-masochists out there.

Mike Heron-SMILING MEN WITH BAD REPUTATIONS CD (Fledg'ling, England)

Here's one more from my latest buying binge, a not-so-recent yet obscure reissue of Incredible String Band member Mike Heron's first solo disc that originally came out way back in '71 on Island over England way and Elektra here in the Salt Mines. And I'll bet yer wonderin' why I even picked this 'un up because y'see, I wouldn't necessarily call myself an ISB fan by any stretch of the imagination and heck, I can't even recall hearing 'em other'n the time I took one of their albums outta the local library back in my high school days and I don't even remember what any of the music on that 'un sounded like! Well, the only reason I snatched SMILING MEN... up was because of the review of the single this was culled from that appeared in the last and most gigundo issue of JAMZ fanzine of all places. It popped up in the section where various rock writer heavies like Greg Shaw and Richard Meltzer got the blab on about their favorite singles, most if not all of them obscurities that might have ended up on various PEBBLES-styled anthologies a few years later if lucky. (This is the piece where Meltzer reviewed the sole Titfield Thunderbolt ["the MC5 of Virginia", pre-Bomis Prendin] single that I've been anxious to hear for nigh over twennysome years already!) One of the writers, either Charles Beasley or (I believe his first name is...) Charles Fleury or one of those close Alan Betrock associates who had a big hand in pushing Sparks' career over here in the states was going on about how great the "Warm Heart Pastry"/"Lady Wonder" single of Heron's was, calling it "metaphysical punk rock" of all things! And hey, even at that stage in the game I was on the hunt for MORE AND MORE seventies punk rock even if some acoustic English hippy was dishing it out, because frankly the eighties variation on the form really was starting to bore me to bits and you know I'm always looking for a hook.

Naturally I bought the album and naturally most of it got on my nerves, because frankly SMILING MEN... wasn't quite the punk rocker that I (and probably the other thousand kidz reading that review) was hoping for. Expecting punk rock on progressive terms a la NADIR'S BIG CHANCE or better yet HERE COME THE WARM JETS, Heron's not-that-far-off-the-Stonehenge-path effort did leave me cold with its usual English folk rock whimsy, not forgetting the obligatory Indian sitar drone-a-thon that I'm sure made more'n a few people wanna shove a veena down George Harrison's throat sideways. But just when I was ready to snatch the rec outta my machine and chuck it through the window came "Warm Heart Pastry" (the a-side of the aforementioned single) which was incredible with "Tommy and his Bijoux" and John Cale on viola providing the musical accompaniment. Y'know, at first I thought that these Bijoux were some strange English under-the-covers type of band sorta like the Nikki Kool and the Koolaids and Randi and the Pyramids who used to help Brian Eno out, but I had since learned that these guys were actually the Who, or actually the trio of Townshend, Moon and Ronnie Lane on bass which does tend to ruin the illusion a tiny bit, and y'know sometimes I think these illusions are just as, and in fact even more important than the real thing! Or at least I tend to think so when I do come across the real thing, but still this is one hot group backing Heron up. The song is punk, or more closely late-sixties Amerigan garage rock-styled with only the femme backing vocals giving any hint of this numbuh's English early-seventies origins. Otherwise, if you told me that this was some obscure studio recording by some long-gone 1969 upstarts I probably would believe ya!

Two bonus tracks appear as well, including non-LP b-side "Lady Wonder" where Jimmy Page and a couple Fairport Conventioneers get the backup honors. Not as p-rock in approach or sound, though Page's slide guitar is killer enough to have made me glad that I finally did get to hear this. And hey, the entire album does have enough of a ear-pleasing lilt to it to make at least good backdrop to late-night readings of old and forgotten fanzines and Max's Kansas City clippings, so it's not like SMILING MEN...'s gonna be one of those twice-a-lifetime spins for you, unnerstan'?

BLOG TO COMM "BREAK THE BANK AND SCAM ALL OF THE RECORDS YOU'VE WANTED FOR AGES" POST NUMBER THREE!!!

Before I begin with today's rigamarole I thought I should warn you honest and abiding readers that I'm not going to post my letter to Santy this year, and in fact I ain't gonna send the ol' bub any notes whether via email or even the good ol' fashioned way! Since I pretty got much of what I asked for the previous Christmas, I don't wanna tax Santa any more than I have to considering he has his job cut out for him trying to find anyone who was good this year. Of course, as far as I know that San Francisco simp J. Neo Marvin is still alive (you might remember I was wanting his strangulation via guitar string, something that would benefit the whole of mankind who wouldn't have to put up with that puerile pap of his that he calls music), and not only that but performing who knows what with his silver-spoon-wrapped tongue, but given that the "man" does live in SF you know his lifespan has automatically been shortened by at least thirty years. Hey Neo, I know you read this...all I'm sayin' is to expect Gabriel to come blowing...his trumpet, that is and be prepared to meet thy maker. No, not that stage door Johnny of yours!

Anyhoo, this is installment #3 of my latest record/CD run (and I didn't even get to the vinyl yet!) along with an actual FREEBIE sent my way which only goes to prove that...after twenty-seven years of scribbling some of the most etapoint and cutting commentary to see the light of day in an age of what seems like terminal anti-Bangs/Meltzer/McGuire- isms in rock writing, SOMEBODY still thinks this entire shebang has some worth and meaning to it! Now only if his tribe would increase!!!!

And as for today's specialties of the house...

Sirone/Bang Ensemble-CONFIGURATION CD (Silkheart, Sweden)

Tried linking this review up to the Silkheart website address that is mentioned on the back cover but it looks as if it's down...perhaps for good because although back in the nineties hipster m.o. bizzes like Forced Exposure were selling a whole langload of this Swedish jazz label's wares, as of late finding Silkheart-issued booty has been harder than finding funny jokes in an entire series of M*A*S*H reruns. (And hey, I used to like that show...go figure!) But I guess if you search hard enough you'll be able to find Silkheart's pretty contemporary free jazz wares including this 'un featuring not only violinist extrapolateordinaire Billy Bang, but former Cecil Taylor/Revolutionary Ensemble bassist Sirone, famed homeless shelter legend Charles Gayle on saxes and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, one of the new breed of performers nobody's ever heard of because the jazz press establishment is too busy rehashing old boring cocktail music 'stead of rehashing this old exciting avant garde stuff that sounds just as up-to-date now as it did back when Ornette hit his first sour note!

Comparisons to Sirone's old Revolutionary Ensemble, without the AACM-inspired small instruments and gongs, will come easily to mind. After all, Bang himself studied with the late Leroy Jenkins and, although Bang has developed a rather different arco-style on his fid' there are still enough similarities in atonality and extrapolating on normal jazz forms linking the both of 'em. (Though I do consider Bang a more expressive musician IMHO, perhaps because of his willingness to take his jazz roots into rock via Material amongst other interesting vistas.) But this grouping does have more'n a few ref. pts. with the old Revolutionary Ensemble whether it be those quiet, almost classical passages or Sirone's own arco bass playing which could also be heard on a number of much-needed (by you) Noah Howard issues. Of course Gayle's presence on alto and tenor with its Ayler influence steady and sure gives this sesh an even more "loft jazz" sound and approach that's probably gonna have me heading back to my WILDFLOWERS collection as soon as I put this post to beddy-bye. And put 'em all together (with Sorey's expressive drumming which doesn't recall any bigtime free players offhand, and perhaps is the better because of it!) and you got a disque that, while not a total knock-upsides-the-head free splat did manage to keep me interested enough in it the two times I've given it a spin since receiving it three days ago. As they say, a definite keeper.

An additional note...the show from whence this Cee-Dee came was recorded live at the old CBGB Lounge November 9 2004, back during the great Freestyle Jazz run curated by Dee Pop oft mentioned on this blog and perhaps a few other places as well. Those cybercasted gigs were definitely major events in my life, and this 'un sure digs up old memories of those gigs where the old hands and the new upstarts intermingled to take jazz deep into the 21st century. All I can say is that I hope a whole load more of these gigs were not only recorded but will be issued shortly because frankly, it was stuff like this as well as all those great under-the-counterculture bands that I remember best about CBGB, not that rather cute and calculated alternative muzak that began to overtake the "scene" sometime in the eighties only to ruin the entire punk game for eons on end!

***

Weasel Walter Double Quartet and Double Trio-FIRESTORM CD (ugEXPLODE)

Here's the freebie sent to me by Weasel Walter, a man who previously thrilled us with his REVOLT MUSIC disque earlier this year. Y'know, I really don't know much about this Weasel Walter guy...and really, from what I do know well...I dunno! For example, the pic of him I scammed in SIGNAL TO NOISE with the warpaint on didn't quite evoke any no wave feelings of old while anyone who'd perform a song with a title like "Slit the Catholic Throat" only goes to prove to you that some ethnic/religious cleansings are more equal than others and for reason we all know just don't register on the enlightened minds emote-o-meter like others do (see Elizabethan England, 1936 Spain or Northern Ireland for an example, Walt!). But we're talking music here, and just like all those self-consciously guilt-riddled whiteboy rock critics would just bleep over the reverse racism in rap or usually misperceived racialist commentary in white rock back inna eighties I'll just put my own personal feelings on the side and say that this guy can really put out a killer diller of an avant garde jazz platter that doesn't sound like it was recorded by some caucasian no wave revivalist, one whom I'm sure some woulda fallen smack dab into the "I wanna be black" syndrome oh so common back inna seventies! FIRESTORM actually has some backbone and balls to it, and hey, if this were an actual release from thirty years back and sold via the New Music Distribution Service who knows, maybe DOWN BEAT would've reviewed it, though with only three stars given how square some of their critics could be!

Of course drummer Walter hadda surround himself with a variety of Chicago-area jazz musicians to pull off this powerful recording which even a cursory listen will show is clearly in the Brotzmann tradition of strength through busted bloodvessels. In fact Walter even got Sun Ra reg. Marshall Allen on a few tracks which certainly does help Walter's own stature out quite a bit, and I'm not just talking about the "prestige" of having Allen play on it if only for the sake of the big name drawing power. And there's no let-up in sight as these groupings careen in and out of their power-play for 74 nonstop minutes of total eruption.

Now be forewarned (that is, if such things frighten you off!): there is a bitta the eighties avant jazz splurge here thanks to some electronic tomfoolery courtesy Mario Rechtern, but I'm sure that a good time will be had by all. That is if your idea of a good time is atonal free spew being played at 250 m.p.h. by punks which is probably one reason why you ain't gonna hear about it via any of the legit jazz trades! Frankly it's a pretty good idea of where free jazz stands here inna late oh-ohs, the style and attitude being caried on by the same white guys who pretty much kept this music afloat throughout the seventies drawing ideas and influences from it while everyone else was more concerned with Chick Corea's insipid attempts to make jazz more "palatable" to Emerson Lake and Palmer fans.

***

Ai Aso-CHAMOMILE POOL CD (Pedal, Japan); Suishoi No Fune-THE SHINING STAR-LIVE CD (Important, both are available through Volcanic Tongue)

Two of the more-recent Japanese CDs that I got because I thought they'd have some cohesive connection to the early-Velvet Underground intensity grope that way too many groups over here jettisoned in favor of a soft touch and a Matador recording contract. Ai Aso were a totally new 'un to me...and actually, Aso is the femme singer who pretty much moves and shapes this session with her high-pitched voice which makes Kate Bush sound like she just hit menopause. Band follows her amply enough but still this one's guaranteed to induce instant diabetes.

Suishoi No Fune sound better on their latest (recorded live in Japan anna U.S. of Whoa) than I thought they were on their debut with more of a total energy flow approach rather similar to their chief inspiration Les Rallizes Denudes, at least more so than anything else I've heard outta Japan (even LSD March and Up-Tight!) as of late. And I think this 'un's an Amerigan, or at least "western" release! How about that!

***

Les Rallizes Denudes-CABLE HOGUE SOUNDTRACK 2-CD set (Univive Japan); MIZUTANI WITH ASSOCIATION LOVE SONGS 3-CD set (Univive Japan); ARE YOU RALLIZED 2-CD set (Ignuitas); YODO-GO-A-GO-GO CD (10th Avenue Freeze Out)

And speaking of Les Rallizes Denudes, what better way to follow up the previous review than with mentions of four of the Denudists' latest offerings that, like many of these disques, are bound to be here today and gone tomorrow. Like I might have said, some of these Denudes platters (especially those on the Univive label) seem to sell out faster than gerbil tubes in San Francisco so if you do manage to latch onto any of 'em whether they be silver-pressings or CD-Rs consider yourself one lucky obsessive-compulsive high-energy music fan custom-made for a blog such as this!

It's kinda funny that CABLE HOGUE SOUNDTRACK is named after one of Sam Peckinpah's early-seventies westerns which gained some notoriety for being the first one to feature any nudity. (Actually Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH had a boobie scene in it so I dunno what Hy Gardner was blabbing about when he labeled THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE as the first nudie western!) Anyway, I still recall with fond confustion that poster where Stella Stevens and Jason Robards are giving each other rub-a-dubs (and to me, well it did send tingle thrills throughout my pre-pubescent form proving that maybe I was on to something),
but back to this newie from the Denudes archives...CABLE HOGUE SOUNDTRACK is I guess taken from the legendary Ethan Mousike "documentary" (which I never saw) that was filmed in the early-eighties, or at least Mousike's name is on the cover so who knows. My guess is, judging from the wide array of Denudies who are listed on the cover, that these rather soundboard-y recordings were taken from various times in the Denudes lifespan, most likely mid-seventies to early-eighties. Disc one is pretty standard live stuff complete with an extended "The Last One" closing the affair (meaning: if you have it on ten or more of those other Denudes box sets this might be a bit redundant) but #2 has some new-to-mine-ears numbers including this nice extended instrumental passage to a song with a Japanese title so I can't name it for ya, but it was so pleasing to the ears that all sorts of hot-flash comparisons were hitting my brain while it spun, only to be immediately forgotten as the followup number shocked me back to heavy metal reality.

Of course the strangest thing I encountered here was that ending of "Night of the Assassins" with that saxophone, an instrument ne'er before heard by my ears in the Denudes canon, at the end being played in a fashion that would not sound out-of-place on KILL CITY! What gives with that anyways (sounds like an overdub perhaps slipped on w/o the group's knowledge, and I'm sure they would know better)???

I would say that MIZUTANI WITH ASSOCIATION LOVE SONGS might also be a pass-on for those with most of the Denudes CDs yet not enough of the long green. After all, a lot of this is redundant with disc one scamming much from the group's early/mid-seventies days while #2's an '80 gig that doesn't reveal any new or deep insight into the overall Denudes mystique. However, there were some strange bizarroid sounds in here that surprised even me especially on disque #3, where not only can one hear some one-finger organ being played on "Improvisation" but there's another track with nothing but organ music sounding like some skewered soundtrack to a silent film! And what do you know...more saxophones!!! Like on CABLE HOGUE, the sound is pretty spiffy though the occasional tape mangles and splices will shock you back to seventies technological glitches that we all recall, perhaps not so fondly.

Another Denudes newie is the strangely-titled ARE YOU RALLIZED? which claims to be taken from a 1974 gig at the Shizouka Stupa, a name that seems to sound more Polish than Japanese which kinda makes me wonder what would have happened if Mizutani and gang decided to ape their intellectual and political makeup from Poles instead of stuffy Frog intellectuals! Could you imagine a Japanese rock group called "The Empty Pirogies"???? The show's good though nothing out of the ordinaire, but if you're low on Denudes stock maybe this will fill in that big heaping hunking gap in your record collection! Once again, don't let the lousy cheap cover w/o any real information, exciting snaps or detailed (if any) liner notes throw you off.

And finally, here's one for the beginner as well as the Denudes fan in the know, a collection of tracks spanning '67 to '82 under the not-so-strange title of YODO-GO-A-GO-GO! Of course that's in reference to the Yodo-Go hijacking which involved original Denudes bassist Wakabayashi, and for those of you historically inclined there's a snap taken at the scene of the crime resplendently poised on the front inlay card! The music captured herein is equally inspiring, with not only some tracks from the must-have '67-'69 STUDIO ET LIVE (worthy of its own release, which I hope is more forthcoming than any of us would hope), but various numbuhs from the group's seventies heyday including the usual showstoppers like "Ice Fire" and "Field of Artificial Flowers". Even the manic "Smokin' Cigarette Blues" from the live debut appears although for some reason it's vu-metered way down to the point where you really have to crank it up to get any volume out of it. I dunno why, since the take on my burn of '67 ET LIVE is perfectly presented without any distortion or hiss other'n from the original live recording, but eh, if you ain't got it on YODO-GO-A-GO-GO you probably ain't got it at all so why complain. Just turn up the volume and if you get blasted outta your seat by the next track may it be all for the better!

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The Blue Humans-LIVE IN LONDON 1994 CD (Blast First England)

No, this is not part of the recent grab-it-up buying spree I've been telling you about but a platter that's been in the collection for quite awhile that I only snatched up (after about an hour of combing through dozens of boxes of CDs scattered about) if only because of Charles Gayle's appearance as one of the drummers in this edition of the long-running Rudolph Grey performing group. Yes, that Billy Bang/Sirone CD mentioned above really got my juices flowing as far as Gayle's other performances go, and y'know, since he's the only Human pictured on the outer sleeve of this thing you get the idea that Rudolph Grey himself has just as high a regard for Gayle's talents as do most of the new avant garde jazz following which made the man a star (in retrospect, but a star anyway) in a movement that one must sadly say is limited only to higher minds like ours. Recorded o'er the course of two days at various outta-the-way venues (including the old Rough Trade shop which I guess was still operating as late as these '94 dates), Grey whips up a pretty hefty guitar wail backed by two drummers, one being longtime associate Tom Surgal while the other's the aforementioned Gayle who only proves that he's just as good whamming it out on free drums as he is attempting other non-sax instruments such as violin and piano! Too bad this 'un never got around, and its also too bad that other recordings by this version of the Humans remain in the vaults because I personally wouldn't mind hearing just about every note that this particular trio plunked, scronked, ka-cymballed and feedbacked! And while I'm at it, I wonder where those tapes of the original Blue Humans where Grey was joined by Arto Lindsay and Alan Vega at Max's Kansas City back in early '79 are rotting away at this very moment? (Actually, I KNOW where they are...what I want to know is WHY?????) If there ever was a no wave classic worthy of our ears it's that one, but please no breath holding unless we all turn blue, humans!

BLOG TO COMM "BREAK THE BANK AND SCAM ALL OF THE RECORDS YOU'VE WANTED FOR AGES" POST NUMBER TWO!

Just a few of the items glommed from my latest supermarket sweeps win.

JAPROCKSAMPLER by Julian Cope (Bloomsbury, 2007)

I can see it now, some typical mid-aged potbelly 'mercun strawman of the hip-de-la-creme obsessive-elitists gettin' an eyefulla the cover onna left..."Hey Gladys, didja see that??? A whole buncha Japs on motorcycles and they's cruisin' around like that buck nekkid 'n right out in daylight where everyone can sees 'em!!! Not a stitch onna whole bunch...a nekkid Jap motorcycle gang, can ya believe that Gladys???? Well, I hope they remember to SCRUB THEM SEATS when they're through...after all, who wants to ride a motorcycle with a seat fulla skidmarks!"

Yeah, the cover of JAPROCKSAMPLER showin' the Flower Travellin' Band as they popped up on their primo album (not countin' the one they did as just plain "The Flowers" which even showed cheek as well as their femme Grace Slick imitator inna buff as well!) is a proverbial doozy, and it only goes to show ya just how whacked out the entire Japanese rock scene was back in those wild and wooly early-seventies days. And, as far as a history of the Japanese rock scene goes JAPROCKSAMPLER delivers part of the goods but not all, but then again since this was yet another Julian "KRAUTROCKSAMPLER" Cope outing were you exactly expecting an objective look at the rock/roll scene over in old Nippon, hmmmmm?

I guess that this newie purports to be some sorta skewered history of the Japanese under-the-ground more or less scene, and if you've known and loved Cope's previous entry into the realm of import bin rockism you'll probably love this one as well. And yeah, I really dug KRAUTROCKSAMPLER to the core especially in the way Cope explained how the style (at its peak) was the perfect mooshing together of late-sixties Amerigan garage band forms and English snoot rock experimentation, but sheesh, I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't have whatcha might call SERIOUS RESERVATIONS about not only this book but the well-known and perhaps well-loved author of the thing!

Not that it ain't kinda fun reading Cope weave in and out as he sorta ties together the entire history of post-Perry Japan and its gobbling up of just about everything Western and churning out its own interesting variation of the form. And yeah, that's stuff you can find in just about any book on Japan, but having it told to you in pure hippypunkspeak by some guy who, like most post-Marxist "New Men" tends to make you wanna do a little upchucking yourself, ain't exactly my idea of high energy rock & roll scribing on any sorta esoteric level. It just ain't as good as if this all-important saga was being relayed to you by a rock & roll fan sans any of the pretension and righteousness that Cope just oozes with his flower-punk oration, so mind the whole Politically Correct-speak if you so wish because between the Neo-Pagan spew maybe there is something here to dig into and perhaps even enjoy.

Now I gotta admit that Cope sure had his work cut out for him in concentrating on the meat and eliminating the gristle from the body of work. But there seems to be way too many pieces missing from the puzzle and a whole lotta blank spaces making one wanna know more about certain groups who only seem to be mentioned in passing. Not forgetting the ones that weren't even mentional at all. Even Cope would admit to the huge hunks of missing histoire in this book, but where the heck were the Sadistic Mika Band? I mean, if there was any Japanese group to attempt making commerical inroads into western record collections it was these pagoda-proggers! And yeah, Cope had the good sense to dispense with mentioning some of the eighties also-rans like Yellow Magic Orchestra, but if you ask me (and why else are you tuning into this blog anyway?) JAPROCKSAMPLER reads like a big hop skip and jump through various sixties/seventies garage band and underground rock concerns trying to connect them all without any really strong cohesiveness, and its all wrapped up in this boring European leftspeak that I would've hoped was washed away by the fall of the Soviet Union way back inna early-nineties but seems to linger on with an even stronger stench to the nostrils especially these days!

But got it I did, and the main reason I snatched this sucker up was for the chapter on Les Rallizes Denudes. If ever there was a Japanese group to make me wanna blow entire paychecks on the myriad asst. of legit and "grey area" reissues now swarming the market it's this bunch, and Cope thankfully does a pretty snat job telling us all about the whys and wherefores of group leader Takeshi Mizutani and his various "refuseniks", including original bassist Moriyasu Wakabayashi who took part in the "infamous" (as they say) Yodo-Go hijacking of a Boeing 727 to North Korea where not surprisingly Wakabayashi has spent the past 38 years as a guest of the state. The group's fixation with the Gallic language and chic set is explained enough for you to get a handle on how it affected their music, and I can't see how anyone who gets excited over their various offerings wouldn't buy JAPROCKSAMPLER if only for the chapter on this fantastic grouping that pretty much aped the Velvet Underground's entire dark-rock style in the late-sixties the same way groups like the Deviants did in London, or the Seventh Seal in Detroit not forgetting Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show in Dayton!

But still, Cope slips up in his Denudes piece, perhaps letting the hagiography get the best of him which I can't fault him for considering I've fallen into the same trap plenty of times myself. Saying that Mizutani spent a vast portion of the seventies "in suspended animation" a la Von Lmo sure belies the vast array of Denudes disques spanning that decade which reside in my abode, plus I don't know what evidence Cope has that Mizutani has ever been to France, other than via this dubiously-titled bootleg of what supposedly is a session recorded in Paris with Maureen Tucker if you can "dig" that! OK, you can expect the usual slip-ups and mistakes here/there (I counted a few which I will probably remember about one minute after posting this), but something along the lines of an error of these magnitudes should have been edited out upon first draft dontcha think? Oh well, considering some of the Helen Kellers they have as proofreaders these days...

And yeah, it can be hard to stomach a good portion of the uppercrust-snoot hipster attitude (and all of the destructive leftist pose that goes with that!) this book was marinated in! And double yeah, I really can't stand Cope's oh-so-smart broadsides against the same establishment that allows for his patented revolutionary raveups. But I didn't buy this to read Cope's conjuring up the long-gone spirit of '68 but for the rock & roll! And twixt the chapters on the Flower Travellin' Band (see last post for my writeup on their second disque), the Taj Mahal Travellers and of course our dear sainted Denudes maybe you to can find some nice li'l gems amidst the counterkultural goop. I particularly liked the little bits on the old "group sound" acts like the Spiders, Mops and other NUGGETS aficionados as well as the primo undergrounder group the Jacks (not forgetting the page on the Japanese electric guitar industry) so you could say JAPROCKSAMPLER wasn't a total, or even a half-washout. But still, the brief mentions of some of the groups more attuned to the BLOG TO COMM sense of suburban punkitude like the aforementioned Jacks, redski rabblerousers/teen heart throbs Zuno Keisatsu and especially the pre-Teenage Jesus/Contortions 3/3 only makes one hunger for more garage and less speculation, which come to think of it is always what the best rock reads do!

ONE MORE grave error on Cope's part...why no mention of any of the great post-Rallizes garage bands like Up Tight, LSD March or Doodles even if they are way outside some imaginary "timeline"? The purposeful omission of these and many other new Japanese groups of varying qualities only adds to a certain lack of cohesiveness that doesn't help this book out any.

And hey, why (once again) the hefty price tag on this hardcover? Cope, if you're so big on the whole prole/anti-capitalism game you have no right selling your writings (which, in effect, belong to da people!) at such exorbitant costs! Why should I buy something from a person out to make a (shudder!!!) profit, especially one who claims to have solidarity with us braceros??? Oh, for shame!

***

SUNNY MURRAY CD (ESP-disk`)

Having the cheapazoid Italian Base reissue of this groundbreaking '66 sesh on iffy-pressed vinyl already, I passed on the early-'90's ZYX Cee-Dee reissue of Murray's legendary debut as a leader back in the day fearing too many overlaps in my LP/digital collection. Well, I gotta admit that maybe this 'un was worth the additional space in my already-overcrowded pile o' platters so here I am, a good quarter-century after getting the album version and a good fifteen years after ignoring the reissued CD finally getting the thang via the latest incarnation of the classy ESP label. Of course they hadda replace the boffo original sleeve with one of a horn-rimmed and suited up Murray, but who cares since the music is still there with Murray's frenetic free drumspew accompanied by such greats as Byard Lancaster, Alan Silva, BYG reg. Jacques Coursil and the mysterious Jack Graham.

One li'l beef...the inclusion of a recorded interview with Murray that opens up and closes out this disque which seems obtrusive especially since it woulda been better printed up as a booklet or somethin'! Not that it ain't hot listening to Murray talk smart about his own history and his involvement with the free music via the likes of Cecil Taylor et. al., but for some reason a brief snippet of someone discussing this album pops up right after track #1 ("Phase 1,2,3,4") ruining the entire ambience of this disc! I mean, if you wanna you can always program the original monologue beginning and ending this disque out (it's only good for a single spin anyways), but intersplicing it with the sounds extant is a gaffe that makes me wanna lead a peasant's revolt to have all interview material excised from future pressings, and to have ESP give everyone who got stuck with this one a freebie sans any aural historical ramalama! Awww, but rilly why should I do any complainin' with music as free-form inpressionisticly spazz as this?

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Coloured Balls-BALL POWER CD (Aztec, Australia)

Still tryin' to get more metal in my mainline and hoped that this debut Coloured Balls Cee-Dee would fill the proverbial bill. (Click here for a review of followup offering HEAVY METAL KID...and only I could get things bassackwards by buying and reviewing the second disque before the first!) And it does, with Lobby and Co. doing their wang-dang-doodlest to please us not only with their powerful take on early heavy metal but by tossing in a tad bitta English-styled proggisms (that synth on "That's What Momma Said" sounds straight outta the 1971 ELP playbook!) and some hot glam pop t' boot. But don't be led to believe that this disque is an aerie faerie electronic pranceathon for even with the synth and the glitter BALL POWER still rocks out like nothing heard at least until the second great age of metal in the mid-eighties! And it's so powerful and pure in that classic early-seventies way that you KNOW it shoulda gotten the late-seventies punk reissue treatment (after all, the guys at Stiff recs showed interest in these old tracks so maybe Loyde coulda been another Mickey Jupp for all we know)! And it all comes down with the massive "G. O. D." ("Guitar Overdose") which if you ask me is GOD, and in a more insane world would have been the LAST WORD in metal music dontcha think???

BLOG TO COMM "BREAK THE BANK AND SCAM ALL OF THE RECORDS YOU'VE WANTED FOR AGES" POST NUMBER ONE!

See the fellow on the right (well, I'm sure you have stumbled across his visage somewhere before, eh???). Well, truth be known that this unfortunate broken-down bum is none other than memeME, and the reason for the empty pockets routine being displayed is that I've been spending (some may say "tossing down a rathole") a whole lotta moolah, way more'n I should, albeit on things that are certainly useful to my existence such as albums of both the vinyl and aluminium kind not to mention some reading material that I thought would accompany my moozikal listening hours in the evening (and all day Sundays!) a lot better'n if I just stared at the patterns on my wall for the duration. And yes, the hefty order from Volcanic Tongue did arrive, while my Forced Exposure one is due to show up this Monday and believe-it-or-leave-it but both of these events in my rather uneventful life are making me happier than George Maharis and Johnny Ray in a San Francisco men's room on shore leave day! Not only that but I splurged some dough for other items (which will remain TOP SECRET as of this writing!) as well as pilfered a few measly yet meaningful goodies from ebay that certainly will make for good future post fodder, and although I'm certainly in the Holiday Mood with a whole buncha material items either safely in the confines of my abode or arriving within the span of a few days let's just say that I'm the ONLY one around who's gonna be in the Christmas Spirit! Frankly, due to my impulsive ways I can't afford to buy any presents for friends and family, something which I'm sure will earn me terminal folding table status at all future family get togethers and who can blame 'em?

So, let's just say that I probably won't be dishing out the big bucks for quite awhile, but on the bright side I'll have a whole buncha goodies up for review for the next month or two so it's not like a total loss! Yes, sometimes "big spender" me has to learn to pull in the reigns and taper off on all of that spur of the moment buying (usually done late at night on the computer in the middle of a caffeine burnout), but at least you (the humble reader who I bend over backwards to please on totally rocksim terms) are in store for some mighty writeups on this blog in the weeks ahead so let's just say that my loss of cash is your gain, in reading some of the best rockfan-oriented critiquing and otherwise scab-picking writeups to be seen on the pixel'd screen, savvy?

Here's what I was able to devour and digest since the packages started a'rollin' in. Some items will be held back in order for multi-review gangbang article-length posts and are right now ruminating in the fertile valley of my psyche, so don't expect EVERYTHING all at once. This is just a tidbit appetizer before the ten-course dinner more or less, so don't gorge yourself...at least not yet!

Lul-INSIDE LITTLE ORAL ANNIE LP (Eksakt, the Netherlands)

I'm sure that a lotta you beyond-obsessive music fans have had jags where you just HADDA hear some group...it coulda been because of various critical reports or just because their name sounded rocking enough for that matter...and after years of toil and search you finally latch onto a tape or perhaps even officially released disc by said group only to be disappointed to find out that all of your preconceptions that were built up by the self-hype and your over-active imagination were hardly if at all met by this once-elusive wundergroup. Well, if you're expecting me to say that I was let down by this particular album which you KNOW I have been on the lookout for for twenny years well, you're wrong again, oh presumptuous one!

Yes, you could say that Lul's INSIDE LITTLE ORAL ANNIE longplayer was well worth the wait but it wasn't. Actually I would have been much better off had my still flavor-bud mind been exposed to this underappreciated classic back when it came out but who could fault me for not being able to latch onto one way back in the day when its IMPACT would have been much greater? It wasn't like the Eksakt label (probably best known for their logo, a cartoon image of a dog taking a dump) really gave that much a hoot about getting their product out to the public, or at least those in the square who wanted to hear their rather tempting catalog. And in the mad rush of late-eighties indie releases coming out from all corners of the globe it was more'n obvious that an album such as this was going to be buried under the weight of all of the big name underground rock offerings that were bound to get all of that all-umportant 'zinespace. But it's still too sad that something the high quality of this would get shoved aside by goobers whose poor li'l ol' hearts were palpatatin' to the grimy beat of all of those rather zilch-par tossouts that certain "competetive" blogs like to harp about until the cows come home even if their salability past the year 1990 was rather dubious at best.

OK, it has an unsuspicious looking cover and the group snap on the back looks even twee-er than the rank and file alternative/indie bands of the nineties. And am I missing an insert? I thought there was one which listed Lul's favorite and most influential acts a la the Aural Fit CD (names I recall that were supposed to be on the list included Wire, MX-80 Sound, Metallica, and Chic???). I guess I have less to rely on than my own ears here, but what INSIDE LITTLE ORAL ANNIE's got is one hegguva raw power putsch that doesn't give up one bit, a really classy pile of throttle that probably didn't make it out to the punkazoid public at large because it was too good to get out there and influence a new generation into making better and more intense music in their garages. And I guess we are all the sadder for it, really!

Like the best punk rock, Lul takes the time and effort to borrow from all sorts of expressive sounds with heavy metal, pop and even art rock making its way into the tight Ramones structures in a fashion that I'm sure even Wire never would have dreamed of. Speaking of Wire, there is quite a noticable influence of that group detected here as is the presence of the mid-eighties even-newer generation of metal bands that seemed like such a saving grace at the time. Of course you have to toss in the "cultured" Dutch vocalese which actually reminds me of David Bowie more'n anything as well as the mid-eighties underground outlook that fortunately only suckered me until the early-nineties, but put 'em all together and they spell a nice, perhaps even moving ("oh!" I hear you say!) slab of high energy rock & roll which I can't decide is the death knell for the early-eighties brand of hard-rock hijinx or perhaps the harbinger of a new era of underground rock that never really came to fruitation?

Two decades of hindsight later even a usually nonplussed sort as I's gotta say that INSIDE LITTLE ORAL ANNIE's a guaranteed BLOG TO COMM whaddeva-happened-to? winner, and it's way too bad that not only their old label hadda suppress it, but their NEW one which has just reissued this as well as their followup and other flotsam on one Cee-Dee is doing the same thing as well! And maybe they should know better, but until then be like Sammy Davis Jr. and keep an eye out for this in any format you may choose. At least it survives to prove that not all underground/punk records released in the late-eighties were mere shadows of what had gone before even though I tended to think so at the time (and now as well, come to think of it!).

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The Squirrels-"Smoke"/"Hey You" 45 rpm (Orange)

Y'know, but I've been on my New York rock jag obsession for years now and even after all this time and all of the interesting groups I have uncovered there's no lettin' up on it! I'm probably the only person in the world who can claim to having this malady, but sheesh I pretty much would like to hear just about every rock group that played on the En Why See underground rock circuit not only during those "Golden Years" but those immediately preceeding them and a few after as well! Not too interested in the more "punk" acts that were spawned in the immediate aftermath of Sex Pistoldom though, but those with that sorta sense that "they hadda do what they hadda do" sans any impetus from England or elsewhere mind you. Punky perhaps, but not "punque". You know, the everyday suburbanite bands that were flocking to CBGB and Max's Kansas City reveling more in mid-sixties tomfoolery or late-sixties experimentation for that matter, and thankfully the internet has exposed some of these groups to me so far (after all, there are probably more'n a few aging guys whose careers went zilchville and in order to rectify something in their lives wanna put up their own Myspace pages to say that yeah, they played CBGB way back when too!) but there are still more that have sorta fell between the cracks of rock history just WAITING to be dug up and exhibited like King Tut's leathery corpse. I mean, where are all you guys who used to be in bands like Master Radio Canaries and Junior Birdmen anyways? (I know you guys are scouring the search engines hoping for even a tiny little mention of past endeavors somewhere out there in the great blogosphere!) Anybody involved with these or many other oft-ignored groupings care to drop a line and make all that hard work you did thirtysome years back PAY OFF for once??? If you're gonna waste your fifteen minutes of fame, you might as well waste it on me!

So thankfully I once in awhile do come across some item that did (miracles of miracles) make it out back in the day, but not to the extent that a distributor like Bomp or even Systematic would've picked up their wares up for the good of all men! Like this 'un by the ne'er-to'be heralded New York group the Squirrels. I remember seeing their name splattered across the entire CBGB/Max's scene during the very-late seventies usually on the same bill with the Ants, a trio of Puerto Rican origin led by the brother/sister team of Jaime and Nilda Canabis (!) which had originally popped up on the original mid-seventies scene as Antenna before Von Lmo and Otto von Ruggins copped that nom-de-no wave. At the time I figured that the Squirrels were just another one of those flash rarities that were here one day and gone the next, though after finding out that none other than former Lennon protege David Peel had signed them to his Orange label I really was more'n curious to at least find out a little more about this "porn rock" group that you could bet wasn't gonna be getting much promo space in the latest NEW YORK ROCKER,

No porn here, but the two sides of this probably only Squirrels release is pretty hitcha between the eyes quap, even as far as these "killed by death" as they say indie singles went. Don't let the early-seventies glam looks fool you, the Squirrels have little if anything to do with that era in rock which already seemed antiquated by the time the late-seventies rolled around. Believe-you-me, if the Squirrels owe anything to the past it's the MID-SIXTIES, or maybe even earlier as the a-side to this 'un, "Smoke", seems to owe more than a "passing" resemblance to the Bell-Notes' "I've Had It"! Only the typically modern guitar solo jolts you back to '79, but otherwise this could have passed for a proto-garage bopper from two whopping decades prior if you only squinted your ears a bit. Flipster "Hey You" does tred up the rock evolutionary ladder a wee bit, this time to the mid-sixties British Invasion sound, and the Squirrels come even closer to that than all of those moptop imitators of the day with moves straight outta the '64 Beatles! Who knows, maybe that's why Peel picked up on 'em!

Both side were recorded live in front of a sparse and nonchalant audience sounding like one of those garage band singles that was recorded in a roller rink in '62 by the group's manager and slapped onto a single to sell at future shows. There is a certain rec room ambience because of it. And those of you who are expecting porn will certainly be let down, but late-seventies archaeologists should have fun dusting off the grooves in order to piece together a bit more New York rock history. And besides, shortly afterwards Peel took the fledgling G.G. Allin under his wing...can't get anymore porn than that!

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Flower Travellin' Band-SATORI CD (Phoenix)

Here's the premier bitta booty from my Volcanic Tongue order to get the royal treatment, the first in hopefully a long line of blog reviews to emanate from that megapackage hopefully stretching out within the span of at least three months! And yeah, I gotta say that I had high hopes for this second offering from the legendary Flower Travellin' Band...y'see, I often don't get enough heavy metal into my bloodstream like I should (pardon moi if I've used that expression at least fifty times in my ***ahem!*** "writing career") and given the notoriety surrounding this Japanese classic that actually managed to get international distribution thanks to Atlantic how could I resist?

Well, if that's the case I guess I better do some more heavy duty resisting lest my bank account empty to an all-time low because I was hopin' for a more feral approach to the metallic idiom more akin to the entire classic '71-era CREEM-approved madness that pretty much helped to set the stage for HM shenaniganzas for the next five years or so. Oh, I gotta say that I do like the thing, but it's "like" as in the way I like cheap imitations of the real stuff, like the way I like TWO VIRGINS because of how it apes everything from John Cage to Harry Partch or the way I like Count Five because of their obvious Yardbird rehashing into a Southern Californian state of rockism affairs. As for SATORI, it does remind me of a Toyota...remember the way that venerable auto corporation (as well as other Japanese concerns like Prince and Mitsubishi) would take styling ideas straight from Detroit and sorta fudge around with 'em coming out with their own strange Earth-Three-styled variations on old reliable Mustang and Chevrolet models? Better yet remember the early-sixties Chrysler/Dodge front ends with the diagonal headlights that were affixed to mid-sixties pickup bodies??? Well, the Flower Travellers do the same thing with the then-popular Western hard rock, with Zep and Sab riffs galore plus a traditional Japanese melody wailed in there to bring things back to their prospective roots. If you ever wanted to hear what a Japanese rock version of a 1971 Celica sounded like, here's your chance!