Well, I went to the polling place Wednesday and nobody was there!!! Guess I got the day wrong, but before you call me a stoop at least give me credit for calling Prez Obama the winner in the presidential election as well as predicting that he would retain the office by a narrow popular vote and perhaps even a substantial one in the electoral college*. Also slap me five for predicting that the congressional numbers won't change enough to make up much of a difference, meaning we're gonna be headed for even more gridlock at least for the next two years! Frankly that makes me happy to no end (things will not get worse!) unless the loyal opposition loses its testosterone and caves in like it most probably will. If you must know, I can't and in fact won't say that I'm sad to see Mitt Romney take a tailspin the way he did considering his own wishy washy political nature (not to mention the abysmal way he and the rest of his party hacks gave the Ron Paul delegates such a hard time at that showpiece they called a convention), but then again I'm not quite so sure that I want to see the US of Whoa going the way of Greece even if I think we'd be headed in the same direction no matter who's finger's gonna be pressin' the button! Let's just say that it's gonna be a wild second term for Obama and really, I don't care who's callin' the shots but whoever it is I WANT TO SEE HIM FAIL MISERABLY!!! (Unless it is a politician of substance and worth who's going to do the most noble thing possible and dismantle the government to the point where it would be totally irrelevant to all of us, but at least we can dream!)

Looking out the window I can see it's overcast in that sublime way that can only spell late autumn, and the lack of leaves on the trees certainly does give it a rather stark, perhaps even foreboding look that can only mean winter's on its way (as you can see, it pays to save your old sixth-grade essays!).  I gotta admit that I'm soaking it all in if only because the dark grey skies and barren landscape can't help but conjure up memories of my youth, or at least a time when the change from warm to cold weather didn't irritate me unless spring was taking its good ol' time to arrive and I was sick of sitting around doin' nothin', and I saw it as a natural change in the cycle of life just like the television seasons or your first blackheads for that matter. I guess only a hopeless romantic such as I could really find anything positive or beneficial in reminiscing about dark skies and how the change back to Standard Time meant that the evening hours were going to be pitch black but sheesh, when I look out the window and see those low-hanging clouds about to sputter snow I just can't help flashing back to an adolescence that was being pumped by AM radio at its '71-'73 best, or a massive comic book obsession that only got shook up 'round '73 when the stories began to suck, or how great is was to have two days off in a row where you can do all of the comic book reading and tee-vee watching you wanted in between all of the mandatory household doodies just about every ten-year-old was subjugated to. Heck, even during the early winter days when the sky is clear and the evening sun begins to go down I can't help but reflect about how I loved to look at the purple sky in the east and  how that royal color would reflect on the snow looking almost as dream-like as a full moon shining on the same snow making my bedroom bright in this strange mystical way.

Enough of the milk-curdling sentimentality...let's just say that these gloomy days of Autumn are pretty much conduit to me grabbing a buncha old comic books/strip collections and holing up in my room while various early-seventies standbys (ELECTRIC WARRIOR works wonders) spin on a technology that wasn't even around when I was enjoying these musical and visual masterpieces for the first time ever. Dunno if any of you readers can even remotely feel the way I do, but as for me let's just say that I actually am looking forward to the upcoming cold weather and dreary days (hope there's lotsa slush!) if only because that means there's more time for me to cuddle up in my comfy chair and dig into old funnies (and of course my collection of classic CREEMs before Bangs 1506 Nix Nix'd the place) with the long dark and hopefully frigid nights awaiting us here in the Western Pennsylvania area.

Considering just how slo mo this week has been as far as rockist kultur goes I thought I'd rerun the concept I presented for you last week and briefly detail the various recordings that I've lent ear to since these past seven rotations. Mostly oldies true, but some things that didn't make either the blog or the fanzine do pop up thanks to a combing of the collection brought on by a Sunday afternoon of boredom. Like I always say it's sure nice revisiting these old friends every so often, and considering some of the "humans" I've been in contact with throughout my life these sounds surely are true friends that never turn their back on you and treat you like the hideous scum you most truly are! Like last week's selection these are pretty much reviewed in the order in which I listened to them beginning last Sunday PM and ending this Sunday AM, and if you're stymied at the dearth of recordings (or live under the delusion that I spin at least 1000 hot recordings within the span of a day) all I gotta ask you is...don't you think I need to come up for air at least once in awhile???


Crawlspace-ROCK GENERATION, VOLUME FEBRUARY AND VOLUME MARCH CD-Rs (Slippytown)

Interesting enuff limited edition (twenty each!) burns of avant garde rock sound Eddie Flowers was giving away free to those willing to buy a few tidbits from his Slippytown mailorder enterprise a good ten years back. Considering how by this time Crawlspace were more or less a concept in the Plastic Ono Band tradition ("You are Crawlspace!") there's very little of the early Crawlspace straight-ahead underground rock style here...this is more or less free sound ranging from industrial slosh to what sounds like a dryer with a bunch of thumb pianos tossed in, interspersed with cheapo guitar repeato riff chords and other aural stimulators vaguely resembling fractured rock structures. If anything these disques come closer to the Smegma/LAFMS concept of music than that of the Gulcher/fanzine mafia, but considering how Flowers was champing at the bit to sing the praises of everyone from Yoko Ono to Can to Coltrane as being of the same music listening caliber as Iggy and Aerosmith maybe you could conjure up in your mind these disques being the "middle ground" 'tween what many would consider two strikingly opposite poles (but we know better now, do we?).


Rashied Ali and Le Roy Jenkins Duo-SWIFT ARE THE WINDS OF LIFE; Rashied Ali and Frank Lowe-DUO EXCHANGE CDs (Survival/Knitting Factory)

Considering just how rare the originals were it was sure a blasting in disguise that the Knitting Factory label re-released the various Rashied Ali/Survival albums for modern day enjoyment. Legendary for their all-out high energy sounds, Survival featured the former John Coltrane drummer not only with his own groupings but alongside various free jazz legends in duo settings which in many ways were reminiscent of the classic INTERSTELLAR SPACE duos the man did with Coltrane right before the latter freedomed his way to the other side. Not quite sure of which other Survival releases feature Ali in duo settings (too lazy to google so early in the morn) but these recordings have just enough jam-packed energy to keep any of you rock 'n roll fans dabbling in the jazz realm fine and dandy! Frankly, this type of music was just as important to the whole sixties/seventies hard-blare as all of that hard-crunch under-the-underground music you've spent your life listening to, and if you're ignoring jazz because all you can think of when you hear the word is horrid bowtie supper club schmooze man you will have another think comin' when you hear these!

Jenkins was always a rather angular, nerve-wracking stylist (which of course worked to his advantage considering his tool was not a horn) and on SWIFT ARE THE WINDS OF LIFE he plays with all of the style and verve that he did in the Revolutionary Ensemble as well as with Anthony Braxton/the Creative Construction Company and a variety of other settings...in other words, the guy totally wrecks. And with the lack of AACM "small instruments" or African throwbacks he gets to concentrate on his playing which is upfront and strained enough to knock the unsuspecting listener outta his comfy bean bag chair. Ali is, as usual, a particularly powerful percussionist and his free splatter compliments Jenkins' violin to the fullest extent as it weaves in and out of a beat like a light onna feet boxer trying to dodge the slugs. Being a fan of both for quite some time I gotta say that this was perhaps one of the better team ups I've encountered since Jack Kirby's pencils were being inked by Dick Ayers during the early days of Marvel!

Naw, I take that back because the Ali/Frank Lowe offering is just as brutal a spin as the above. Lowe was never the kinda guy who held back with his own sax stylings (at least until he read that review of BLACK BEINGS which accused him of "overblowing") and here he sticks true to early form as he delivers his lines like somebody was grinding his 'nads up for McDonalds burgers. The interplay between the two is so powerful, intense and bowl you over like a rabid dog going for a six-year-old girl's buttocks that it even makes the glorious INTERSTELLAR SPACE sound like George Shearing outtakes! Naturally, a must have along with THE FLAM not forgetting the rest of the early Lowe catalog which better stay in print lest we lose an entire generation of jazz listeners to the horrid strains of that stuff I always hear on the "lite jazz" channel! A natural must-have for the true blue BLOG TO COMM reader, and I'm sure Paul McGarry is searching the web for a free download right this very moment unless there's an ALL IN THE FAMILY rerun popping up on the tube that is! Sheesh, what a meathead!

Philip Glass-MUSIC WITH CHANGING PARTS CD (Elektra Nonesuch)

Can't really complain considering how this 'un was originally recorded and released way back '71 way before Glass became the chic artzy drool over person to listen to during the eighties, and I must admit that I find his early Ensemble recordings just as entertaining on those lonely weekday nights as I do a side by Can or the Art Ensemble of Chicago for that matter. Nice droning rhythm shifts and drive, not that different than what a good portion of the krautscapaders were up to around the same time, and who knows but perhaps the sainted Velvet Underground themselves would have come up with something like this had John Cale not been given the heave-ho during that fateful day in 1968. (But I doubt it.) Added bonus points if you have the original 2-LP set on Chatham Square. Even more if you bought your copy directly from New Music Distribution Service way back in 1975 before the Glass name became synonymous with dead-eyed beret wearing artistes roaming the lofts of New York in search of a piece of artwork they can relate to and a stale dorito for nourishment.

Les Rallizes Denudes-LIVE & STUDIO 1975-1978, Up-Tight-LIVE 2003, SWEET SISTER 1994-2003 CD-R's

Three shining examples of Japanese underground rock courtesy some enterprising soul who was out and about releasing these and many other slim-case platters a good decade or so back. Though these are probably now available in "legit" form it's sure nice having these platters in my collection not only because I got to hear 'em a good decade or so before anyone else, but I sure as shootin' ain't gonna pay to listen to this stuff again even if it's available on "real" Cee-Dees complete with informative liner notes and recently discovered snaps to boot.

The Raillizes one's pretty hotcha capturing the group at perhaps their peak of perfection, romping through the old chestnuts in between delivering on some great improvisation just laden in guitar feedback. Sound quality is OK, though with a recording like this I kinda wonder if you really need ears. After all, the vibrations would be enough to kill even a Helen Keller with their arrhythmic atonality that (thankfully) never did show any mercy in a world that's just brimming full of it to the point of nausea.

Up-Tight are more or less a Les Rallizes Denudes Jr., or "acolytes" as some prefer to call them. This by now decade old live collection goes to show that if any group should have laid claim to continuing in the fine tradition of the Rallizes guys its these young(er) upstarts, even if their later recordings were quite pale compared with the drone-blare they created during their first ten or so years of existence. They have it all down pat from the feedback guitar lines to the slow, dirge-like ballads that come so close to the Rallizes original that I kinda wonder why Rallizes leader Mizutani didn't sue!

Anyhoo, the LIVE 2003 collection's packed with a stellar selection of various live trackage from '03 recorded across the Aoki/Ogata/Shirahata area (which I guess in Japan is akin to the Mercer/Lawrence/Crawford County axis) in excellent sound featuring old standbys and tuneage I've forgotten about, all topped off with a version of "Sweet Sister" (approximately the band's traditional closer in the same manner that Rallizes ended their shows with "The Last One")  which I sometimes wonder was performed to help clear the concert halls of an audience the same way vaudeville shows would round out their bills with some doof playing a musical saw after the big draw did their thing!

Their SWEET SISTER disque also shines brightly with some even wilder live numbers that must have cooked more than a few amplifiers before ending with the title track, a version which is even more feral than the take one can hear on the legendary NIGHT GALLERY set. According to the insert, this 'un is "dedicated to Duck & Sally, Miss Rayon and Cecil"...somehow I am not surprised. Definitely one of the better groups to have come out of the post-Rallizes Japanese underground even though I still find their later releases to be lacking in the warmth and soul that only a group devoted to heavy duty distortion and a lack of sweetness and light can have.

Guru Guru-LIVE 1972/Uli Trepte-CONNY PLANK'S SESSIONS 1974 CD (Spalax France)

Yeah, I know that these Guru Guru live sets can start runnin' into each other and sounding the same once you get to listenin' to a whole buncha 'em at once, but I still think these two extended live tracks (originally issued on the United Dairies label) are total pounders that really come off as much of a late-sixties punk rock extravaganza the same way that Can and even Amon Duul I circa PARDIESWARTS DUUL do. Kinda sounds like the only local group in a hundred mile radius who listened to the Stooges and had a guitarist who fancied himself the white Jimi Hendrix (hah!). The solo Trepte demos from a good two years later are hardly as experimental, or entertaining, as the Guru tracks which I guess is why the compilers stuck 'em at the end of the platter.

The Moonlighters-DREAMLAND (c/o the Moonlighters, 51 MacDougall St., Suite #116, New York, New York 10012)

With a cover like that you'd probably think the Moonlighters were one of those oochy woochy alternative bands who've been cutesying up the music scene for a longer time than anyone can imagine...as usual, you couldn't be further from the truth. Although the Moonlighters were a mixed-sex young'n upcoming fashionable looking act that frequently played such amerindie-friendly places as the CBGB 313 Gallery, they were not an act of the light pop/"twee" variety but a ukelele/steel guitar bunch that incorporated a whole lotta classioid Tin Can Alley numbers in their repertoire  Not to mention their originals that really did ape the classic style I might add. The strangest thing about 'em is that in their ranks was none other than Henry Bogdan, a chap whose previous claim to fame was as a member of Prong, a group that in many ways could not be further from the aesthetics and practices of the Moonlighters! Their pleasant, Hawaiian-styled music really does help ease you outta the jangled nerves and into beddy bye time, and the only thing that I don't like about it is that the sound's too clear! That flat, 78 rpm quality really woulda lent this 'un some class you just can't find on disque anymore, and if there's any way you can do some eq-ing to get rid of the highs and lows (plus add some crackles and hiss) you really got yourself some kinda rekkid here!!!

The Velvet Underground-LIVE AT MAX'S KANSAS CITY 2-CD set (Atlantic/Rhino)

An old favorite here that sounds a whole lot better once the gloss and slick technowhiz has been slopped on giving it a more than "official bootleg" sound. The additional numbers help to more than pad the thing out; I especially liked the extended take of "Some Kinda Love" that got into some nice in-and-out weaving improv stuff you just didn't associate with the group during their final days. Often ignored, frequently dismissed, but as fine a live document as all of those bootleg tracks of yore that are gonna get the red carpet treatment one of these days.

The Troggs-PREHISTORIC SOUNDS CD (Tendolar bootleg, country of origin unknown)

What the world needs is a good Troggs bootleg, and since this is the only Troggs bootleg I know of why should anyone complain. The early BBC sessions (taken from some Troggs radio special complete with a Reg Presley interview) for once don't sound like distant waves from Belgium and it's always great hearin' things like "Wild Thing" performed with an acoustic guitar, not to mention a "Love Is All Around" with a different if annoying chord progression. It's also a kick giving a listen to Presley wrap his vocal cords around "Little Green Apples" which kinda makes me wonder if he was aping his namesake during the Vegas years perhaps a little too much! The rare b-sides are mostly throwaways which I guess is why they never did get the legit reissue treatment, but don't let that discourage you because closing out the platter are some pretty hot live at Max's tracks that come off particularly power-packed even  with some of the technical goof ups. As far as bootlegs go this is a topper, but what potentially great Troggs boot would've been complete without some of their commercial material stuck on! I haven't had the opportunity to give a listen to their take on the Miller's High Life theme and hey, I've been waiting three whole decades to hear Presley croon the infamous words "When it's time to relax..."

Ton Steine Scherben-WARUM GEHT ES MIR SO DRECKIG? CD (David Volksmund Produktion, Germany)

First and best of these krautsters' long line of agitprop proto punk platters that might have seemed rather hippoid over there in Bratwurstland but sound rather refreshing these ways. True, parts do sound rather 1970 commercial rock as in AM Top Forty pop funk bell bottoms and headbands, but the overall effect is kinda like Kama Sutra/Richard Robinson-produced Flamin' Groovies/Hackamore Brick album that went straight from the "new releases" section to the 99-cent bin. And if the axis won World War II you can bet this (along with the Zuno Keisatsu album reviewed last week) would be proudly displayed in the cutout stack at your local bund!


BEFORE I GO, I was wondering if any of you readers have been following the BBC Jimmy Savile underage gal (and boy) sex scandal that's been plaguing the long-running British network for the past few months or so? Nothing there that would really be of interest to the regular BLOG TO COMM reader true, but considering that now longtime BBC disc jockey John Peel's corpse has been dragged into the fray maybe some of you will now feign interest. Perhaps you've read about the revelations of his romance and knocking up of a fourteen-year-old (OK, maybe she was fifteen!) child suddenly coming to light, which just goes to show you how sick in the head some of our "heroes" could be! I guess that's one reason I always say that you should "SEPARATE THE MUSIC FROM THE RECORDING ARTIST!", or in this case separate the public entertainment figure from his private persona and personal "tastes" which you might have agreed upon at some time in your life even if the guy was as sick and as wanton as one could imagine. Well, another thing I will say before shutting my trap for the next few days is that the term "John Peel Session" will certainly have a new and extremely different meaning from now on, and if you have any equally witty one-liners regarding the current controversy please do send them in!

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*not my exact prediction but close enough, sunshine!

BOOK REVIEW! AL CAPP (a Life to the Contrary) by Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen (Bloomsbury, 2013 [it ain't in stores yet!])

When I heard that a biography of LI'L ABNER creator, political/social satirist and blustery personality/shameless self-promoter Al Capp was about to hit the book racks you can bet that I was more or less shuddering at the mere thought of it. After all we are living in the 'teens when the "tell all" biography and overt "anti-establishment" (for wont of a better term) bias rule the publishing and broadcast world, and even the inkling that all the inside dirt regarding Capp's once private and eventually public life was going to be bandied about like overstuffed jock straps at a gay pride parade just didn't settle well with my stomach. True, just about everyone by now knows about the back-stabs, peccadilloes and other disturbing facts surrounding the Capp legend, but with all of the heretofore unknown nauseating embellishments and in-depth bunghole-diving that was going to be dished out I didn't know if I was going to walk away from this one an abject loather of the man, or if I was going to feel sorry for him despite even more of the disturbing revelations that are finally been aired in public. You better believe me when I tell you that I thought this 'un was gonna give me more creeps than an entire bound collection of SWELLSVILLE magazines with a few TOO FUN TOO HUGE issues tossed in for good measure!

After all, the infamous cartoonist and satirist of everything that moved Al Capp still looms as a controversial figure even though the guy has been planted in the ground a good thirtysome years. And, although Capp's certainly no threat to anybody these days, you can't say that he didn't make more'n a few enemies on his way up and down the fabled ladder of success to warrant a whole lotta hatred and "get back" directed at the memory. Dunno if it's obvious (at least to you), but I sure get the feeling that there are many still willing to drag his corpse about the same way that Nixon's and Agnew's have been if only as a warning to similar-minded miscreants who dare cross the (post-hippie) powers that be, and nothing can be worse than watching members of the baby boomer generation who've been running things for the past quarter century re-fighting the battles of the sainted sixties with their smug, self-important credos firmly in place! It's particulary painful especially when the same people who made excuses for the disturbing behavior of the likes of, say, Bill Clinton go about ruining the reputation of some Older Generation icon (or political/social/religious figure) who gets in their way just so's they can go about popping off about the "hypocrisy" of their elders, in between patting themselves on the back for all of those wondrous world-saving deeds of theirs that seem all the more hollow as the years roll on. I do generalize a tad, but the overabundant sanctimony of the anti-war generation (despite their misguided if good intentions) is enough to irritate me to no end.

Not that Capp wasn't responsible for his own early-seventies decline into the dungheap, but hearing about it from the likes of some extremely partisan and embittered (ex)-hippies setting him up as an example of the inherent evil of the older generation sure isn't something to cherish. And yeah, I still remember Capp the controversialist from my own tattered youth and how he used to harangue on the entire younger generation whether they be the hippies or spoiled TV-bred brats my own age (although this spoiled kid surely did not get the heaping amount of toys and games the other brats were getting from all quarters, and perhaps turned out the worse for it!). I also remember the guy being all over the durn place whether it be on the boob tube or in magazines as if he were a star the status of a Tiny Tim or Tommy Smothers to the point where you wonder where he ever got the time to draw his comic strip. Heck, the way Capp was getting around you would have thought he was a big name politician 'stead of a guy who'd been doing ABNER since the depression era (which, judging from the way the old folks talked, might as well have happened only yesterday!), and the amount of feathers this guy rankled was something that I'm positive made his name verboten in more'n a few circles that wouldn't give a second thought to praising the efforts of the likes of...Che Guevara???

And although the following memories are rather sketchy (perhaps because I wasn't reading the rest of the newspaper the same way I did the comics) I vaguely recall Capp's fast fall from grace when his womanizing (or shall we say attempted rapes) finally caught up with him and pretty much knocked the beloved cartoonist from his lofty perch as Ameriga's loudest comic strip voice. A guy who was one of the most popular cartoonists for almost four decades yet who by the early-seventies had seen ABNER dropped by newspaper after newspaper as his popularity plummeted, ending up as another shamed older generation relic to be held up for ridicule just like Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. A whipping boy for the New Left, absolute proof of the downright evil of those who dared take on the strong arm of what was once called the Youth Movement who ended up getting yanked down mighty hard for his efforts.

I'm sure it was hard for many to witness...after all, here was a man whose strip was the one to guffaw over and discuss with your acquaintances but which by the mid-seventies had turned into such a pale shadow of its former self that when Capp announced his retirement and ABNER's imminent demise back '77 way the general response was akin to hearing crickets on an Autumn evening. (The book begs to differ regarding this point but I sure remember the many funny page fans who regarded the strip's eventual end as a mercy killing!) And what was really sad about it all was that here was a guy who rose from nothing and created a tsunami of a phenomenon, a strip that was once read by the likes of everyone from Hugh Hefner to Queen Elizabeth and if somebody was the subject of Capp's acerbic wit you knew they had arrived! Of course by the early-seventies I'm sure ABNER was the last place any upward-spiraling figure would want to be lampooned, not that the same smart set was still reading the thing since Capp's perhaps unavoidable turn into neo-conservatism some time in the mid-sixties.

Well, after reading this all the way through twice I've come to the conclusion that AL CAPP (a Life to the Contrary) is a well-researched and thorough enough book despite quite a few shall we say "reservations" that I harbor about the thing. Yeah, the authors' (which include underground comix pioneer and former ABNER publisher Denis Kitchen, a friend of the strip but no friend of the right) prejudices do seep in, especially during the parts dealing with Capp's 180 degree switch on politics and the late-sixties antiwar movement*...OK, it's their book after all and they're certainly entitled to push their various point of views 'n peeves...but for the most part this bio's about as well-written and complimentary to Capp as the artist (though not the left-baiter) as a read such as this should be. Authors Schumacher and Kitchen pretty much give you the facts and, although they can get grating when they do slip into their hippoid ways jumping to conclusions and uttering such inanities as to how ABNER paved the way for the likes of DOONESBURY (which is akin to saying that the Velvet Underground should at least be honored for influencing X-Tal) I'm sure you can easily brush them aside as typical pseudo-intellectual duds that were fired by people who, despite their love of the subject matter, just can't get beyond the whole sickening altruistic demeanor of their general upbringing and sociopolitical formation.

And yeah, it's pretty much all here unless there was even more dirt that didn't get scraped up which is hiding out there somewhere in the bushes. The feud with cartoonist Ham Fisher is detailed with both Capp and the famed JOE PALOOKA creator coming off as if they were having a contest to see who could be the bigger asshole, while the sexual assaults are presented in such detail (with a few more incidents I never knew about tossed in) that I hadda take a bath after reading about how an aroused Capp once forced the head of a married coed between his legs. It's not like I wanted to know about all of the bad things that Capp did throughout his sexual lifespan but of course I had to, and although the image of a naked, one-legged Capp hopping around after some unsuspecting student or aspiring actress wasn't exactly one I'd like burned into my grey matter for all eternity shielding us from such distasteful subject matter would have only made this book a fannish puffjob of which we've had way too many over the past few years.

But despite the fact that Capp was a horny womanizer and that his political beliefs cost him friends and painted a bulls-eye on his back, the message that the man was a fantastic artist who created one of the better strips to have come out during the boffo pre-war era of funnies is undeniable. Sometimes I wonder if even the authors realize it, but only the most hidebound Capp-hater would deny that Capp via LI'L ABNER brought a style and verve to the comics page that hasn't been seen since the days of the early HAPPY HOOLIGANs and LITTLE NEMO. Nor would they doubt that, at least until his personal life caught up with him, Capp was putting out a high quality comic that couldn't get past the starting gate in an era such as ours where strips have been shrunken to the size of postage stamps and the artwork looks so infantile that even Capp's criticism of PEANUTS in the late-sixties seems unfair next to some of the newer offerings which make that much-loved creation look like...well. LI'L ABNER. (Not that I thought Capp's critique of Schulz's talents was correct any more than I think that NANCY was created using a series of rubber stamps, but what passes for standard comic artwork in the here and now is so dismal that even the most slapdash comic of the past comes off like PRINCE VALIANT, a notable if boring exception to today's rule. With comic strips like these no wonder newspapers are losing readers!)

Anyway, it's all here from Capp as a nine-year-old Alfred Caplin and the tragedy he encountered losing his left leg in a trolley car accident, up through the years of bitter struggle and of course his hitting the jackpot, riding high and falling fast into a bitter and depressing conclusion. And it's enveloping reading even when the sneaky editorializing and personal comments which don't always jibe with my own personal ideals do get slipped into the mix**. It's a must for any Capp fan whether he's an old Silent Majority survivor or a hippoid who grew up with ABNER and begrudgingly championed Capp even when he was laying into the great unwashed, and though I get the feeling that more than a few readers will do some wincing when reading about Capp's sexual antics (not to mention some of the conclusions drawn by the authors) I think they can handle it at least in small doses.

If I have any qualms it is probably regarding the illustrations, or lack thereof, of some items that deserved to enhance the already juicy text. Like f'rinstance where are the legendary drawings of Capp's old teacher Miss Mandelbaum, a hot potato who Capp drew nudes of (for the slim sum of 25 cents) for fellow classmates? Maybe none of those survive but the Ham Fisher doctored ABNER panels which purported to show erect penises where mushrooms shoulda been are probably stashed away somewhere. Or for that matter the drawings of various ABNER characters gettin' in on in the all together that Fisher anonymously sent to the FCC when Capp was applying for joint ownership of a television station. Things like these would've not only been indispensable in enhancing the story but might even give some of you more lonely BLOG TO COMM reader an excuse for an extended bathroom visit! Maybe they'll pop up in the next edition, but don't let that stop you from reading AL CAPP (a Life to the Contrary) even if it will cut into your usual, uh, "free time."

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*a point which I believe I must sneak in some additional commentary that I so wanted to avoid in this already saturated review if only to counter some of the personal opines that were relayed here. One case in point is the authors' contention that nobody won the Al Capp/John Lennon and Yoko Ono go 'round at the Montreal Bed In, a conclusion that I fear could only have been drawn by people who still harbor hard feelings about the generation gap battles of the day and refuse to admit the major fallacies of many of its adherents who were involved. It isn't only my contention but that of others that I've spoken to that Capp was clearly the winner of that bout, making Lennon and Ono look positively foolish in their Fluxus-inspired plan to bring attention to world peace. As you know, I like not only Capp but Lennon and Ono (in varying degrees I might add) but can impartially see that Capp lambasted the couple in front of the entire world with Lennon looking like a whipped dog who could only resort to angry mewls when confronted with some hard truth about his and Ono's rather fainthearted antics that seemed rather misguided and silly not only then but years later.

Schumacher and Kitchen also downplay Capp's popularity during these years which naturally shows a strong bias, especially when you consider how Capp was still popping on all cylinders during the late-sixties and early-seventies with his various lampoons of not only the peace movement but Johnny Carson and Twiggy amongst other big names of the day. A brief dismissal was also given to Capp's various writings which appeared in THE HARDHAT'S BEDTIME STORY BOOK stating that this volume had little to offer anyone, a strange opinion as you can tell by my review where I mentioned that the book was just bursting with Capp's acerbic witticisms that would be enough to drive any tweed jacket with patches on elbows-type college professor type to suicide. I frankly find it hard for anybody to deny that Capp was perhaps at his best when writing about everything from Jane Fonda to Elliot Gould nude scenes (complete with an illustration!), but if the authors actually consider DOONESBURY a powerful, important socio-political statement especially these days well...

I'm sure the throngs of Capp fans who somehow thought that things were getting out of hand when protesters began shitting on the American flag felt the same way as Capp did (and presumably the authors didn't). Maybe Schumacher and Kitchen just can't realize that Capp, like (I shall reluctanly say) Archie Bunker, was a hero to many of the same heartland types who believed in what he was saying despite being set up as figures of mockery, something which bewildered Norman Lear for ages and which might perplex the authors for a longer time than any of them could imagine. But like I ultimately said, it's their book.

**I know that attention has to be made towards what goes into and is left out of reads such as this, but the authors really expurgated a lotta the explanations outta statements that were made by Capp which, when presented prima facie, only tended to make him look idiotic and foolish on purpose. Take the mention of an article entitled "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" which ran in the January 1973 issue of none other than PENTHOUSE, where Capp was given the opportunity to spout some admirable views regarding various establishment figures of the day both conservative, neo-conservative and fellow travelers. One of those Capp championed amongst the likes of J. Edgar Hoover and Ronald Reagan included George Wallace, a man who Capp wrote was "more of a friend to blacks than John Lindsay or LeRoi Jones." True these sentiments seem odd considering Wallace's pre-wheelchair days of segregation, but I'm sure the very text that the authors lifted this quote from would explain to us just what Capp meant. Of course presenting this line and leaving us with an obvious Wallace was no friend of African-Americans comment was an easy way to push their own agenda, but wouldn't the pair be doing us a service as to presenting the entire quote or at least trying to figure out what Capp was trying to say rather than dismiss him offhand? I guess in these days when the judge, jury and executioner is a billion dollar industry manned by the most politically pious snoots extant the answer to that 'un's a firm 'n steady "nein!"

Thought I'd do something a li'l bit (but not grossly) diff this week amidst all of the hustle bustle of work and the Frankenstorm which is just starting to hit the tri-county area as I type this, and that is present for you a running tally (more or less in chronological order) of just about everything I've listened to (not including incidental music from the radio or tee-vee or things forced upon me against my will) from the time I clicked the "publish" tab on last weekend's post and this 'un, whenever THAT'LL be (most likely Sunday afternoon or thereabouts). After all, the format in which I'm presenting for you all of these wondrous reviews of items you just won't read about elsewhere is known as a "blog" which is short for "weblog," and what better "web log" is there than for me to tell you about everything that's goin' on in my moozical life as it happened and in the correct chronology for that matter? Well, it sure was a better idea'n the blog I originally had in mind having to do with my top ten list of movies I hope never get made (SEXUAL PRACTICES IN CORAOPOLIS boldly holding the #1 spot with 120 DAYS OF FREDONIA taking a close #2).

But before I get into the meaty potatoes of what has been spinning on the decks, perhaps a word of political/kultural significance. Next Wednesday is the BIG day for alla you Amerigans out there who are called upon to do their doody and go 'n vote! All kidding aside, talk about the worship of jackals by jackasses which really fits in with this particular election cycle especially when you consider the two major candidates (known around these parts as duds) who are heading up their party's respective tickets. I'll say one thing about this election and that is that this is the first one I can remember where people are totally flabbergasted by the choice they have to make, hating just about everything about both Prez Obama and Mitt Romney all aghast at the choice of having to vote for one or the other and hinting around that neither will get their support come voting booth time. (And finally coming to the logical conclusion that "voting for the lesser of two evils" still includes an "evil" in the quotient.) All I can say to these people stuck in such a quandary is..."wha' th' hell TOOK YOU SO LONG????????"

My own personal prediction is that Obama's gonna hang onto the presidency by a one/two point margin at the best and a popular vote loss but electoral college win at the very worst. I don't see any major changes in the house or senate races enough to change the status quo, but despite all of the victories and defeats this Wednesday I get the feeling that the final four years for Obama will be those of quagmire, quicksand, quandaries and perhaps a little quackery to keep my usage of words beginning with the letters "qu" on a roll. Who knows, by 2016 I get the feeling that maybe the guy'd wish he didn't make the effort to extend his job an additional term but naturally we'll see what happens when we get there.

Either way it's gonna be a trip, though if Romney does pull a fast one and captures the presidency it's gonna be a gas watching all of the riots, name calling, charges of fraud, personal attacks and (best of all) the even Newer Left than the New Left of yore crying and flaring nostrils with a particularly hardened vengeance! I mean, if these people were unsettled and volatile before you should see 'em when their candidates lose! And of course if Obama wins you're gonna see that mainstream right wing types (who lost their cred around the time William F. Buckley decided to be nicer just so's people would like him which you knew they never would) do a slow burn routine to make Edgar Kennedy proud...nothing wrong with that only they sure don't know how to flare up the way they used to back inna sixties when the LBJ types were runnin' roughshod all over 'em to the point where many of the pseudo-conservatives like Nixon began acting like East Coast progressive snoots! But other than that, remember this Wednesday to head on down to your local polling booth and express how you feel, just as long as you don't mess things up with any bodily fluids.

Well, after that PSA here's the juicy stuff that you've been waiting for a good four paragraphs ago.

ELECTRIC DEATH CD (available via. CD Baby )

This is one of those New York groups I decided to give a try considering all of the ones from the nineties I missed because I thought it all went to crap by that time. Naturally I was wrong, because although the New York Scene (and elsewhere) began to fill up with loads of groups imitating jamz and styles that were mere imitations of earlier endeavors, there were some acts that had that refreshing approach and appearance that seemed to hearken back to the innovations of the seventies instead of the xeroxes of the eighties. Electric Death were but one of those refreshing bands that intermingled with the usual alternative waveoid crap and post-hardcore memorex that clubs had booked since the death of the seventies underground groundswell, and these Puerto Rican roughshods play a pretty good if potentially commercial hard rock that's part heavy metal, part punk rock and slightly reminiscent of the BOC/Dictators school of tuff En Why musical display. Nothing that'll eke superlatives of utter rockist grandeur outt my pipes, but a surprisingly sharp release from a group I never heard mentioned before in my life and probably never will read about outside of this very review.

The Grateful Dead-MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON CD bootleg (click here to read my original review of not only this but a number of other Grateful Dead bootlegs)

I must be turning into an old hippoid because I actually prefer listening to this than Grand Funk Railroad! The oldies material sounds about as rockin' as if some definitely non-San Fran local group was churning 'em out in the privacy of their own garage and even the meandering weave in and outta a whole bunch of Dead chestnuts didn't bore me like they're supposed to. Maybe I'd like these guys more if they got their hair cut, didn't do mind-"expanding" hallucinogens, weren't into esoteric hucksterism, wiped after they took a dump...

Ainigma-DILUVIUM CD (Garden of Delights, Germany---read my original on-line review here)

Not bad at all, especially in the way these teenagers mixed oh-so-precious progressive rock leanings with late-sixties mid-Amerigan punk rock credo making for a record that sounds like it can't decide whether it wants to be Triumvrat or It's All Meat (yeah they were Canadian, but you're smart enough to get the message, I think). Talk about the stormfront collision of two warring factions in the great seventies battle for the minds of the stoner teens of the world! Perhaps the biggest intrusion of prog on punk turf at least until groups like Amber Waves and Elixir began getting gigs at Max's Kansas City.

JOHN CAGE SHOCK 2-LP set (EM Japan, available through Forced Exposure)

Biggo surprise that arrived just in time for Daddy Cage's 100th birthday bash last September. The long-rumored 1962 Japanese live tapes recorded during Cage's tour of the nation with David Tudor and Toshi Ichiyanagi in tow.  Totally aleatory (that means these toons take a chance and things just happen, sorta like in your own bedroom) with loads of screeches, random sounds and even a few surprises such as the appearance of the soon-to-be former Mrs. Ichiyanagi Yoko Ono doin' some hot warbles, phlegm launchers and even some Japanese wordspeak. I'd've loved to've heard the take on "Fontana Mix" she did during this period which future hubby John Lennon once hinted was going to see the light of day, but maybe that appears on one of the three Cee-Dees that EM has simultaneously issued which most definitely are on my watch list...are they on yours???

Ascension-DETROIT, 9/20/73 CD-R burn

Dunno why this boffo live show (or any other recordings for that matter) never got released considering just how high energy and orbiting Saturn this short-live MC5 spinoff was. Somehow slipping within the cracks of Detroit history being too late for the late-sixties movement and too early for the late-seventies, Ascension took the best moments of what was to be (Sonic's, New Order, Destroy All Monsters...) and charged 'em up in the best hard-driving avant-rock way possible for an audience who would much prefer to hear Led Zep covers (no foolin'!). There's even a turn down the amps request from the owner of the venue and (best of all) a whole buncha tracks that have never been heard before or since for that matter making this a must have if you've ever sworn allegiance to the Detroit epiphany. And to sweeten the pot so-to-speak the guy who burned this for me (wouldja believe Mike Kolesar of CHEESE READER fame?) added the MC5 contributions to the GOLD soundtrack at the end which really brings back alla those memories of what sorta promise these guys had for us at least until it all came down rather hard 'round '72 time!

JACKIE GLEASON PRESENTS MUSIC, MARTINIS AND MEMORIES CDR-burn (originally on Capitol)

What a nice 'un to slip on the ol' box after a hard day at the salt mines! Those Gleason albums cluttering up the flea market and antique shop bins for the past four decades were actually beneficial when it came to easin' the old tired nerves for the fifties workaday slob masqueradin' as a hi-fi nut, and not only that they made good background music for gettin' inna mood with a gal wearin' one of those torpedo bras and Toni home perms. Feelin' tired, romantic or just wanna long-deserved break from the horrid drek passing as twenty-first century entertainment? Then place this on the ol' launching pad and reminisce about the days when being masculine (or feminine if you are of the lady persuasion), hard-driving and just plain straight wasn't the crime it most surely is today!

INNER MYSTIQUE RADIO #14 CD-R

Another edition of the long-running Bill Shute radio program emanating from his old digs in Catawba Virginia and proudly broadcast on CFMU radio for some reason or another. Great selection (as usual) from Bill's bountiful collection including a whole slew of live pre-laurel-resting Van Morrison tracks where he's backed by Cuby and the Blizzards (!) as well as some Hasil Adkins insanity and Blue Things rarities including a strangeoid late-sixties take on the thirties nostalgia trip, the kind that used to get my mother oh-so-mad! There are even three tracks by Carmaig DeForest (remember him?), a guy who sure vanished w/o a trace just after the time he recorded a couple albums which seemed to get boffo raves but were ignored by the general populace (mainly you!). Special guest host this week was none other than Bill's son Eric who, judging by his performance that evening, sure as shootin'  proved that he had a great future in drive time shock radio.

MOBY GRAPE LIVE (Sundazed)

I wrote a rambling review of this back 2010 way, and I guess that if I have to ramble on any more about this live collection better do so now'n to forever hold my piece. The sounds of a group poised for big things that never made it out the gate bungled by poor commercial judgement and underage gals, all ending in the magnificent extended live take of "Dark Magic" which certainly knows how to weave its San Franciscan (as in what the place was for a spell and should have been by the late-sixties 'stead of what the place eventually became) spell. Can't get any less rambling that that now, can we?

Tuesday's Children-STRANGE LIGHT FROM THE EAST: COMPLETE RECORDINGS 1966-1969 CD-R (originally on Rev-Ola)

After the ass-reaming day I experienced at work this pop-psych muck's the last thing inna world I want to listen to! Dunno why I picked it outta the pile o' platters that Bill Shute recently sent but I did and boy am I the worse off for it. This English group sounds like one of many in the Beatle soundalike ripoff sweepstakes that were proliferating the scene back in the perhaps not-so wild 'n woolly late-sixties, and while they did have their "charm" it ain't exactly like this music's gonna soothe my nerves after today's travails the way METAL MACHINE MUSIC most certainly can. Maybe when I'm in a much better mood you say? After today I will forever associate Tuesday's Children with today's utter torment the same way the Flesheaters have been on my "never again!" list ever since a certain fellow ruined their appeal for me a good nine years back! (Yeah I know, as Paul McGarry told me I'm letting other people rule me, but then again I sure do have my scruples, and as you all can tell they're tossing and turning in eternal torment!)

David Bowie-LOW CD (Ryko)

You might have written Bowie off as a shuck and jive chameleon who went from mod to folkie to glamster to afro to avant gardist (after that I lost track) within the span of a good ten years, and so have I! But gosh, if I don't like slipping this one on if only because it brings back hefty memories of high school obsessions and when life could be enjoyed to the fullest on one level and feared to the utmost on the other (this being long before I discovered that perhaps I too could use fear as a weapon the same way others used it on me). Anyway, the hype about LOW being Bowie's avant trip in the same fashion that Tim Buckley's STARSAILOR and George Harrison's ELECTRONIC SOUND were their outlets for non-commercial ideas still holds up, with Bowie doing some rather kraut-y moderne pop things with Iggy guesting on vocals (his IDIOT's gonna be the next platter to come in for a 35-year-later re-eval one-a-these-days) before sliding into some excellent moody "tone poems" that sound almost as good as the real thing Columbia used to put on the grey label. Believe-you-moi, LOW made this 'umble reviewer who was into Terry Riley and Philip Glass the same way some femme philosophy major was into est and macrame such a fan that he hadda spin it nightly  in order to soothe his troubled brow after a hard day at school gettin' hassled by shithead teachers and cornholed pupils alike. Not that I'm nostalgic for that, but I sure am for laying in bed and listening to music as if it had some strong narcotic power to sate my angst and erotic (in the Jonathan Richman sense) yearnings. Can you believe that? You better, bub!

SUISHOU NO FUNE CD (click here for my original review)

At the time I didn't think this Japanese psychedelic underground act (with a bonafeed ex-Les Rallizes Denudes member in the ranks to give 'em a li'l more credo) was anything that I would want to spin on a daily basis, but the dreamy soundscapes and harsh atonal nightmare extant reminded me of just how varied the post-Rallizes scene could be over in the Land of the Rising Yen. And yeah, I will admit that that Suishou No Fune have more meaning (in the post-sixties/seventies underground rock fashion birthed by the Velvets and nurtured throughout the late-sixties) than a good portion of today's post-"underground" acts, and if you catch me during a rather depressed time in my life I will tell you that yeah, this was probably the final true gulp of it all..

THIRD EAR BAND CD (BGO England)

First album by the famed English hippiefest regulars who began life as avant garde jazzers Hydrogen Jukebox before flipping back to the seventeenth century. Funny, but at first I thought the Third Ears were proto-punks considering how they used to plop up on gigs alongside the MC5 and Pink Fairies but they were pretty much acoustic traversers who were more part 'n parcel to the joss stick crowd than the high energy maniacs. However, judging from recordings like this they didn't need electric instruments to create a beaut of a droning sound that took elements of East and West and re-shaped it all in a way that could appeal to the underground hardcore fan as well as the flower child! Slip it in between a spin of any of your fave seventies all-outs and don't tell me the Third Ear Band ain't warbling on the same wavelength even if the style fits more into the Harvest Records groove than it does Skydog!

The Tony Williams Lifetime-TURN IT OVER CD (Verve)

The typical rockcrit line on this being a cross between Ornette Coleman and the Velvets doesn't quite hold up in true Maidenform fashion, but TURN IT OVER sure stands its ground in typical George Zimmerman fashion! And yeah, you can easily consider it (as well as predecessor EMERGENCY) as a platter that can drive with the best of the late-sixties punk rock excursions extant while paving the way for some of the more technogeeked seventies mishaps to plague the once untamed world of jazz. Even the addition of Jack Bruce on bass guitar doesn't turn this into a classic rock rubfest (though his vocals on the bonus track are about as Woodstock as can be) and if only John McLaughlin coulda continued on the fine path he blazed here 'stead of gone the Mahavishnu route we wouldn't've hadda put up with all of that Sri Chinmoy jive he was handing us throughout the seventies. Maybe it's not to late to slip a li'l the white stuff his way so he could at least go out in style, though as James Taylor (and Lester Bangs) taught us the use of opiates and the "creative process" do not necessarily go hand in hand.

Patti Smith-A WING AND A PRAYER CD-R bootleg (Head)

Patti just about the time you discovered her, live on tee-vee in England (OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST) and in San Fran and at some New York college where she undoubtedly gained a number of new wave advocates in the process. Considering most of this was recorded right before Patti lost her initial spark it's a definite keeper with the boffo live take of "Radio Ethiopia," the entire shebang concluding with a karaoke-esque version of "White Christmas." Sparks are still flying pretty fast here, making the likes of me wonder "wha' 'appn'd???

Zuno Keisatsu-2ND ALBUM CD (Invitation/Victor Japan)

Last on this week's sweep through the galleys of my collection is this obscuro, a re-release of T(yrannosaurus) Rex obsessives Zuno Keisatsu's second album, considered by some an important "proto punk" document. Like their main influence, Zuno Keisatsu went from an acoustic duo to a full-fledged group (with bongos blasting away natch) on this outing producing everything from all-out rockers to Dylanesque drivers with a whole lotta weird stops in-between. As you'd expect there are Bolanesque "bopping elf" styled tracks, commercial pop rockers and even the dips into Kyu Sakamoto-esque sentimental Japanese schmoozers which, judging from these items, seems to be par for the course! Nothing that I'd wanna kill you for, but this one does snuggle neatly into your early-seventies punk collection amid the likes of TEENAGE HEAD and even THE SIDEWINDERS if you can imagine that!


Well, that's if for this week. And you patriotic Amerigans, remember to head out to the polls this Wednesday and do your doody! And when I say "doody" I mean it!!!!

BOOK REVIEW! EERIE'S GREATEST HITS (Harris Publications, 1994)

When I was a lad of fourteen, I was really gung ho on getting hold of alla the EC horror/sci-fi/adventure/humor reprints that I could lay my grubby little paws on. Strangely enough, I really couldn't care one whit about the line of horror comic magazines that Warren Publications was churning out even if they were pretty much feasting on the carrion that was left by the Werthamites and assorted do-gooders a good  two decade or so back. Now, I gotta give credit to to HELP! publisher James Warren for doing the obvious and recreating the spirit of fifties horror comics as sixties comic magazines thus circumventing the Comics Code once and for all, but they never did gel well in my brain...for me, the fifties were the cool times with the cool comics and cool tee-vee shows and cool automobiles while the present day was only good for scavenging fifties remnants via garage sales and afternoon viewings of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER reruns.  If I only knew about the underground rock spasms that were being birthed by the likes of the Stooges and Dolls at the time maybe my tastes in something concurrent woulda been brewin', but for me  the likes of CREEPY and EERIE were just too new and hot off the press for me to even remotely take seriously. As far as I was concerned it was 1963 and nothing LATER (unless it was something birthed from a hot fifties/early-sixties ideal that was ruminating around this late in the game, and within my ape-like mind these horror comics just didn't fill the bill!).

Maybe I was too hard on the Warren horror comics, though I gotta admit that the EERIE'S GREATEST HITS collection didn't cut to any quicks or affect me the way those EC comics had during my disformative years. Yeah, I know that this title was practically an EC knockoff (I've read COMIX too, bub!) and that Warren was tryin' like the dickens to recreate the fifties EC style for the mid-sixties comic club, but things (as usual) tend to get lost in the translation and the original potency always seems to be left in the men's room at the diner on that long road trip to comic book fruition. The stories don't quite strike you the way they should and the art just comes off too sixties to conjure boffo fifties memories, and even the fact that Warren was able to pull off a coup by getting old EC regulars like Johnny Craig (who'd lost his Milton Caniff-y style by this time) and Wallace Wood to work for 'em couldn't help me forget the fact that these comics were from the mid/late-sixties and came housed in mags with garish covers painted by Frank Frazetta with grotesque monsters abusing ample maidens with loads of double-D boobies fiting into B-cups and cleavage galore and inward navels perfectly placed within smoothly terrained bellies that...hey,  forget about what I said...these comics are a gas!!!!

Well, at least the covers were boffo, and even a curmudgeon turdball such as I will admit so were some of the stories. Nothing as engaging as the Warren comics which appeared in the aforementioned Les Daniels comic book history tome is here, but there are a few surprises such as Angelo Torres' "Soul of Horror" (with a telegraphed ending true, but it's nice reading getting there) and Johnny Craig's "Trial By Fire" (with art that looks more like I'm sure his commercial work at the time did). Speaking of EC regs, Al Williamson's "The Lighthouse" is yet another hit-me-over-the-head obvious story with fantastic art, and even personal fave Steve Ditko pops up with a nice horror saga that naturally doesn't rank up there with his Marvel work let alone MR. A. or THE QUESTION but still sates enough esp. if you were one (like me) to gobble up every WHERE MONSTERS DWELL for his early-sixties reprints. Best of the batch in my humble opinion's Alex Toth's "The Monument" which again has you knowing the ending well into panel #3 but when you finally get there boy will you be surprised at how wrong (in the right way?) you were!!!

I understand the Warren titles have been reprinted (again) recently, but this'll make a good toe tinkler before you decide to take the plunge into the hardcovered editions that'll fit fine in your own personal library situated in your own personal den as you wear your own personal smoking jacket and smoke your own personal cigar taken from your own personal humidor just like you always thought you would do this stage in your life. If you've read 'em before and wish you never sold 'em off at the family garage sale this might be the one for you...if you were the kind who just stood around at newsstands and read 'em for free this might also alleviate your guilt for being such a penny pinching tightwad. And if you were a kid birthed in the forties, fifties and first half of the sixties who missed out on a lotta hotcha teenage antix because your parents were afraid for you and kept you locked up with nothing but Maypo and JACK AND JILL this might be a good chance to check in on just one of a thousand neatly subversive and entertaining teenbo things you missed out on the first time around. It's never too late to start acting fourteen again, and in fact judging from kids today it's sure be nice if they acted fourteen in the cool, baby boomin' fun way 'stead of the "young adults" they most certainly tend to be anymore. Heh, get some EERIEs for your Dilton Doiley of a nephew and if they don't turn him into Eddie Haskell I'm afraid the brat's gone for good!

Yes, that's actually a snap of me, clumsily cropped so you didn't have to see anybody else who was snuck in this pic that was obviously taken w/o my permission oh so long ago. Thought I'd share 'em if only to prove that yes, I indeed had a youth as well as a pair of spectacles that had a very hard time staying on my face as you can not only see from the above snap but from this pic taken a few years later (circa issue #9 or so) which I've had the decency to post directly below:

Boy, wasn't I the skinny minny back then! Same slipping specs natch and the 'stache and beard an obvious tribute to the writer most near and dear to my heart, Byron Coley! Actually, looking back on those days all I can say is I'm sure glad that I don't have to re-live 'em, though I sure as shit wish that I had even more moolah to spread around considering the hike in price a hefty portion of the records I wanted back then have taken on the ebay circuit!

And, in order to get even with her, here are a couple snaps of Jillery from the same batch. Sheesh, there must be something wrong with gene pools if a fine specimen such as I could be even remotely related to someone of her stature!

OK, now that we've had our laugh here are just a few of the platters that I've been spinning this past week. Again I ain't been feeling up to writing what'cha'd call essay length reviews in the fine Russell Desmond/CAN'T BUY A THRILL tradition (guess the longwindedness has gotten outta me with my last major gastritis attack) but hopefully they're short 'n succinct enough to make an impact with you!  Thanks to Bill Shute for whatever burns may appear below, and while I'm at it thanks to CD Baby for making the recordings of nth-string New York acts of the 80s/90s/00s available no matter how forgotten or loathed by the same snides who would have championed these acts in the 70s they may be!

***

Maurice McIntyre-HUMILITY IN THE LIGHT OF THE CREATOR LP (Delmark)

It seems as if my jass leanings have been tilting towards the AACM sorta thing these past few months, and this oft-forgotten album helped out during a fine afternoon display of basement box rummaging this past Sunday. McIntyre, along with the rest of the original AACM stable, really had his Ayler feelers working on optimum and this sesh is no exception. A-side's got a number of rather primal short numbers punctuated not only by McIntyre's playing but a chap by the name of George Hines who emits some of the most guttural Heimlich Maneuver vocalizing I've heard since those eighties John Cage recordings, while the flip's an extended workout not as free sounding as the Art Ensemble yet not as classical as Anthony Braxton could get when he was perhaps paying too close attention. If you like the rest of the AACM Delmark releases, especially Joseph Jarman's amazing output as a leader, this should fit snugly inside your own personal discomfort zone just fine.

***

Devo-BE STIFF 12-inch EP (Stiff, England)

Can't believe it, but this collection of pre-first elpee single sides 'n whatnot doesn't sound that bad at all in the light of the future which we all hadda do duty now for back inna early-eighties. True I don't really cozy up to "Jocko Homo" or their choppy take of "Satisfaction" in any form, but when Devo were trying to sound more like Roxy Music and Sparks than their college bred pseudointellectual selves at least the futuristic jumble can be set aside if just this once. A comparison spin twixt this and the group's tres-Hollywood output of just a few years later makes for a fine lesson in comparison between the original blueprint and too many cooks' hands making light work out of spoiled broth. Or something like that.

***

Streetkidz-LOOKING FOR A THRILL LP (Rave Up)

Dunno how this particular act bypassed me for so long but I guess now is the only time in my life that matters. Streetkidz were one of the many En Why-area rock groups who sprung up on the club scene in the seventies, and judging from this selection they really had the concept of what was goin' on punkwize down pat. Hotcha straight-ahead rocking here, sometimes in a Ramones blur and others a Motorhead screech. But whatever they do you can be sure the results are pretty energetic w/o the gnu wave smarm that would overtake just about everything in a good three year's time. If you like the early Rubber City Rebels tracks on that split album they did with the Bizarros back when they were still leather-jacketed scum attempting to osmose into the new direction in rock you'll probably love it. And it's perhaps enhanced by the fact that the people at Rave Up learned how to have their records pressed up the same way that Dave Gibson at Moxie did his and that's no joke!

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Various Artists-Kyoto Jazz Massive presents SUCCESSION OF SPIRIT CD-R burn (originally on Impulse Japan)

Dunno exactly who the Kyoto Jazz Massives are, but one thing's for sure and that's they sure know how to put together a jazz comp! SUCCESSION OF SPIRIT collects a number of appropriate rarities from the Impulse vaults, and although this is far from being an Impulse "Greatest Hits" package it sure knows how to pack an avant garde wallop aimed right at your most starry-eyed and youthful recollections of just what this music was supposed to be after reading about it in CREEM. Two Pharoah Sanders tracks from his pre-sellout days make this one for those who can't afford the entire Sanders Impulse catalog (which was for the most part top notch even with Lonnie Liston Smith aboard) while (if you can believe it) Alice Coltrane doesn't make me wanna run for cover even with the tamboura drone. For me the best track here's from Albert Ayler's oft-loathed MUSIC IS THE HEALING FORCE OF THE UNIVERSE (which probably ain't the heaping comedown it's made out to be even though I've been frightened away from it 'n NEW GRASS on word of mouth alone!) though why in heck were two John Klemmer numbers stuck on??? Talk about bringing the property value down with these two turdbombs, but considering how I got it free maybe I shouldn't act like the spoiled brat ingrate that I've come to be known as lo these many years. But I will.

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THE GREAT LOST KNICKERBOCKERS ALBUM CD-R burn (originally on Sundazed)

The "Lies" guys never were what I would've called "prime" NUGGETS material and in fact seemed more "show-bizzy"' than the other groups on that collection of prime mid-six-oh Amerigana. Standells included. However who other'n the most hidebound big city "rock critic" breastfed on late-sixties hippie screeds could deny that these guys were one of the more powerful local acts around to the point where they even made Johnny Ramone hang up his guitar strap for a few years in utter desperation! The always boffo Sundazed label should be commended for getting this particular collection out consisting of ne'er before released tunage that shows the group at their more "professional," "commercial" and of course exciting. Ups and downs abound, but you gotta admit that the Knicks at their lowest was much higher'n most groups at their tippy top and I ain't complainin' one bit! Best of the batch includes disque closer "My Feet Are Off The Ground" which has a fantastico churn to it that reminds me of something that woulda made a good Standells b-side 'n hokay, maybe you are turned off by the group's more 1963 hair and dress but as Bill Shute constantly tells me sometimes "get over it!"

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Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs-THE MGM SINGLES CD-R burn (originally on Sundazed)

Sheesh, didn't know Sam the Sham released so many singles for MGM but I guess he did, and if you can believe the cover they're all collected on this nice shiny platter (or pitch black one in this case). Fourteen single sides here including the biggies, not to mention the flopsters and the legendary one that I'm surprised didn't make a bigger splash with the already over-rocked teenage crowd of the day. As with the Knickerbockers collection there are plenty of niceties and a few that don't quite light my fart, but I'll take this entire ring dang doo over Santana anyday, even the disque closer (as just "Sam the Sham") "Fate"/"Oh Lo" which really gets into the late-sixties proto-lowrider sound that seemed to permeate the early-seventies AM dial with a vengeance!

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Transcendental Psychology-REDEFINITION CD (Chromium, also available from CD Baby)

Y'know, I had my doubts about an act that considered both Rick James and the Art Ensemble of Chicago major influences, but once I gave this 'un a spin I thought well... Transcendental Psychology are a rawther decent outfit despite their alleged love for hip hop and watered down eighties funk, and if more acts could work out such disparate influences and come up with something like this its best I dump my preconceived notions in the trashbin and start listening to other kinds of music like Eddie Flowers told me to do a good twenny-five years back. I figure "OK" to that, just as long as I don't have to surrender to myself.

Pretty straight ahead at times whilst intricately avant garde at others. Nothing that different than the various new free jazz groups that have sprung up o'er the past few decades but still in-groove enough to satiate my own personal listening patterns during those frequently introverted moments which I encounter more and more these winter days of my life. Grab a bottle of Geritol and encounter your own New Year's Eve with this under-the-radar classic!

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Pinups-ALL THAT WE WANTED CD (Poptown Music, PO Box 52, Lincolndale, NY 10540 or try CD Baby)

Here's another one of those obscure late-seventies NYC groups that actually put something out back inna nineties, making me wonder how they managed to make it through the eighties considering how their music  was about as outta place as an Isetta at a Rolls Royce collector's club meet. Pinups played what I guess you could call a punk pop style with heavy paens to commercial (non) rock, and although a whole lot of this was I guess you'd say "halfway decent" it's nothing that really connected with me the way similar popsters gone the punkster route back inna seventies could. Probably needs a few more spins to sink in like a good rainfall on my hard-as-earth mind but prima facie-like it's a take or leave situation.

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The Rousers-PLAYING THE ROCK AND ROLL FOR YOU CD (Rocktime, available through CD Baby)

Oh no, not more aging seventies survivors getting back together to record their old songs in order to get over their mid/late-life crises or re-live some of their misspent youth or something like that. Anyway, I always got the Rousers confused with the Rudies (aka Day Old Bread or the Jupiter Jets) which is an easy thing to do considering both groups were more or less pop rock power trios playing the same turf with similar names, but whatever it's sure nice to have these guys back even if they could spare to split a bottle of Grecian Formula between 'em. Too poppy for my tastes true, but if you were the kinda guy whose NYC listening parameters came closer to the Heats and aforementioned Pinups as opposed to the harder and angrier sort you'll probably love this 'un up to the rafters and I don't blame you!