Hi-de-ho y'all. I must admit that I delivered on a hotcha post this week if I so say so myself, blush blush! Even managed to sneak in a review of an item I actually bought, which as I told you is probably going to be a rarity here in the money-starved year of 2016 considerin' that I have to save my moolah up for the important things in life like Metamucil. And for a buncha cast offs, the platters I was able to osmose were of a pretty good quality, so thanks be to Paul and Bill Whazernames for sending 'em all inna first place.

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RIP DAVID BOWIE, dead at age 69. His teeth were 40. Can't think of anything else to say right now, though did you know that on December 25 1979 Bowie and John Lennon took a stage right front seat table at Max's Kansas City to see Von Lmo, staying for the entire set with blank (e)motionless faces before leaving after the gig was over??? Hope that one makes it into whatever "day by day" book on either Bowie or Lennon that'll be coming out in the near future.

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IMPORTANT VELVET UNDERGROUND UPDATE! It wasn't the "Transcendental Simulematic Orchestra" after all, but the Cineola Transcendental Orchestra! Click on the link and discover some recently unearthed Velvets history that's certainly got me all hot 'n bothered!

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And with that particular bit of esoterica gurgling in your brains let's now get to the beefy heart of it all, the reviews!

Mike Barrett/Tom Crean-CASUAL LUDDITES CD-r burn (Kendra Steiner Editions)

Crean (of FACEBOOK WHILE DRIVING fame) is joined by electronics specialist Mike Barrett on this ltd. ed. KSE offering that I will admit got lost in the leaning tower of Cee-Dees stored in my bedroom for the past three months. As far as these affairs go it was more'n just passable, what with Crean's guitar and banjo sounds (as spaced and soaring as they can be) working well in consort with Barrett's bubbling and burping synthetics. At points it reminds me of some of the more erratic sounds that used to emanate from Dee Pop's Freestyle Series at the old CBGB Lounge, while at others it kinda comes off like a duet between a freaked out Robbie Basho having a nervous breakdown and the La Brea Tar Pits. Mad genius or inspired outsiders? Take your pick.

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George Gobel-IN PERSON "AT THE SANDS" CD-r burn (originally on Decca)

This guy has always been about as funny as a turd sandwich (I'm tempted to say a "dirty turd sandwich"), and not quite as appetizing. I never understood how Gobel got to be as big and famous as he was, and come to think of it I don't understand how the audience could laugh at any of his dull and humorous jokes which wouldn't even turn on the attendees at a testimonial dinner for Karen Quinlan. Tell you what, for more insightful gags and awkward personal reminiscences go visit yer Unca Ferd at the old fogies home and spend 45 minutes listening to him ramble on about the trip he took to Utica New York back in '49.

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Moms Mabley-AT THE PLAYBOY CLUB and BREAKS UP THE NETWORKS CD-r burn (originally on Chess)

Sheesh, I can still remember Moms Mabley crackin' the fambly up during all of those late-sixties tee-vee appearances, and this particular platter (actually culled from a Kip Nesterhoff broadcast!) sure's got those memories a'rushin' back faster'n diarrhea. It's too bad that I can't understand about half of what she's saying (you'd think that with all of her money she could afford relines) but she sure does deliver on that har-hars in the best black comedy way and without the dirty words too! Not only that, but her vocalese on such hits as "Sunny" and "Abraham, Martin and John" (where she does a few appropriate choke-stifles) fit in well with the funny stuff and please me a whole lot better'n the original hits did! And be thankful that the folks at the Playboy Club didn't approach her for a pictorial. Spin this 'un for your typical Bill Maher fan and watch the self-indignant attitude bubble over right before your very eyes.

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Rodney Dangerfield-D.A.R. CONSTITUTION HALL WASHINGTON DC 10 MARCH 1984, early show CD-r burn

The thirdest (and lastest of the Cee-Dee-Are comedy burns Bill sent me has Dangerfield firing off at his bluest doin' all of those kinda jokes that woulda made yer dad see red had he sat in for the sesh thinkin' it was gonna be all nice 'n just a slight bit edgy like on THE TONIGHT SHOW. Dangerfield never was known for his dirty stuff but he sure dishes the naughty jokes out here making you crack up like nothing since "milk, milk, lemonade"! Not only that but he sure does a good job providing the kinda banter that'll really make you a big hit when the cousins come to visit and you wanna show off a bit. And hey, if you gotta hear the dirty stuff better it be from a hotcha pro like Dangerfield than one of those modern day scolds who think they're so "above" you because they're up on the stage and you aren't!

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Lou Reed-CLAIM TO FAME CD-r burn

This ain't my favorite Lou Reed period (kinda sounds gynecological, don't it?) but it's good enough for a spin or three. Live at the Roxy Dec. 1 '76, Lou and his patented (meaning no troublemakers like John Cale in here!) backing band are joined by Don Cherry who adds a few interesting blurts throughout the set. Otherwise this is Lou during his lounge act period back when he thought he had his audience's tastes pegged, and I ain't gonna make any obvious joke regarding the use of that word! Jazzy enough that your own folks might even take a shine to it while gulping down their martinis before hitting the PTA meeting, at least until they find out that the guy singing here's the same one from those horrid Velvet Underground albums you drive 'em crazy with at which point it's TERMINAL GROUNDED for you and you know it!

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Terry Riley and Don Cherry-KOLN CONCERT, 1975 CD-r burn

Boy that Don Cherry really got around...just last night I was listening to him sitting in with the Mothers of Invention via the PIGS AND REPUGNANT bootleg, and of course he makes a grand appearance on the Lou Reed platter reviewed directly above. And NOW here he is showing up with none other than the famed modern day composer Terry Riley adding his appropriate trumpet styling working his way into the entire Riley riff drone rather fittingly. Riley's (and Cherry's) particular brand of new music does fit in swell during these long winter nights, and not only that but the quality of this is good enough that I'm surprised that the entire gig didn't show up on either Shandar or the Columbia Masterworks label. Brings back those days when my parents would complain about this sorta racket and I'd tell 'em it's classical music!!!

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Various Artists-$300 FINE CD-r burn (originally on Expo 67)

One of the better recent compilations of garage band esowhooziz out there in buy me land featuring names both blabbed about (Bad Seeds, Choir, Wailers...) and not. Some of these tracks have been heard to death already, but that really doesn't matter much considering they're in the company of a whole slew of acts that I've never heard of before and probably won't hear about after filing this particular 'un away after the requisite ten-thousand spins. Good enough that even the songs you think are gonna stink to high heaven (like the Flower Children's "Mini Skirt Blues") sound really hot in that 1966 listening to the radio sorta way that none of us'll ever experience again no matter how long we do the old mortal coil thing. Read more about it here if yer inna mood for osmosing your heritage, and why not? Bonus tracks include (along with the way-too-obvious inclusion of the Choir's "It's Cold Outside") a good folk rock-y version of the Kenny Rogers smasheroo "Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" done by some anonymous bunch who really shouldn't remain so!

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Laurie Anderson-RADIO STATION-ONLY PROMO LP FOR HOME OF THE BRAVE CD-r burn (originally on Warner Brothers)

Sheesh, were the eighties that long ago??? Given the load of lousy music, tee-vee and general gulcher that decade exuded I'm sure glad they were, and its little tidbits of drizzle from them days like this that keep reminding me as to just how loathsome those days were next to the deviant seventies. Laurie Anderson's work never did gel with me true, and to be upfront like Jayne Mansfield about it I find the music that pops up on this soundtrack album to be art project spew that somehow forgot to rock out (an important thing in case you didn't know). However Anderson's commentaries are informative and downright entertaining at times (especially when she's discussing pertinent artyfacts re. Bauhaus and Burroughs) and make for a better way to spend your time listening to this particular spinner than trying to enjoy the rather pretentious synth sounds that permeate this thing.

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The Frowning Clouds-LISTEN CLOSLIER CD-r burn (originally on Saturno Records)

These six-oh retro recording acts haven't been doin' me the ol' do since the eighties closed up shop and I gotta admit this particular item (released in 2010) is no different. It's good stuff though with that original PEBBLES sense of beneath-the-suburban slob mentality to it which made those outta-nowhere platters so great. Not only that but being from Australia these guys have an Easybeats sense of antipodean madness to their musical approach that doesn't make Stevie Wright's passing as painful as it should be. Good enough for a spin which you will enjoy (like I certainly have), but I can't see me playin' this one at the old fogies home once 2045 rolls around nohow. Y'see, alla the Bee Gees fans'll be hogging the neural implant manipulators and do you think they'll even let me near the thing with this???

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The Nomads-STAGGER IN THE SNOW 2-LP set (Bang! Records Spain, available via Forced Exposure)

Now when I think of sixties garage revival acts that packed more'n their share of pounce I think of guys like the Nomads, the Droogs, DMZ and quite a few other purveyors of power who ebbed and flowed throughout that dismal decade we called the eighties. And although they did slack off a bit by the time those ten years clocked out for good at least the Nomads started them out with some real hard-edged, action-packed music that was just as powerful and as meaningful to my ranch house spirit of life as the Sonics and Seeds. Releases like WHERE THE WOLF BANE BLOOMS and this 'un were items that definitely stood strong in the face of the tepid pop of the day, and even this far down the ol' time chute STAGGER IN THE SNOW says a whole lot more about rock 'n roll as a force for fun 'n jamz than alla the hair bands you could stack up against 'em, and throw a li'l Mad Donna into the mix to make 'em look even better.

Originally a cassette-only release that was probably heard more via dubs'n the real thing, STAGGER IN THE SNOW does retain that quick slapdash quality that makes these tracks all the more digestible. The live cuts are undoubtedly straight from cassette player and thankfully have that raw quality to 'em, while the outtakes give even more insight into the music that did manage to come out and catch a whole load of six-oh aficionados (like myself) by surprise. The rare single sides are a blessing for jamokes like myself who couldn't afford them, the covers are faithful enough yet ain't carbon copy cheap varying from Northwest pounce to psychedelic duncitude, and that ain't even mentioning the one where they back up the gal group "Kissettes" on a spry cover of the Supremes' "Come See About Me" that won't win 'em any girl group converts but...wha' th' hey...

It's like what Imants Krumins wrote way back when about these guys being the perfect distillation of Sonics pounce and Link Wray rock-a-guitar, and it's too bad that they couldn't have continued on that fine path what with their later releases having a more, er, professional approach to their reason for being. But for the earliest (and best) years stick with STAGGER IN THE SNOW, brought to you by the same people who gave us Van Morrison and Neil Diamond---Bang Records! (Wait, this particular Bang is a totally different organization, right?)

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BLUE BEARD CD-r burn (originally on Derium, Italy)

I dunno what possessed Bill to burn this particular platter for me, but if he thought I would be the kinda guy who'd enjoy it he'd probably also think that I'd enjoy a nice heaping bowl of spaghetti with pus sauce. Typical early-seventies all-over-the-place hippoid rock that lacks any of the inspiration and gut attack that some of those smelly types had before the granola washed it outta 'em. The only reason anybody seems to remember this (undoubtedly) studio-only act is due to the presence of future Fleetwood Mac/AM hitmaker Bob Welch in its ranks but whatever you do, get "Sentimental Lady" (a turdster which sounds good in the presence of this mess) outta your mind...BLUE BEARD ain't even fit for the supermarket record bins of the early-seventies and you know what losers those tended to be stocked with!

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Various Artists-ODOR SHADOW PAIN-TROLL CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

The last seven tracks would have made for a boffoer-than-usual garage band compilation in the mid-eighties (I especially dig that Alpha Hydrae attempt at mangling various Brian Jones sitar modes), but the first nine numbers here ain't bad in themselves. Odor Baby contribute a good piece of abstract music that ain't good enough for the snobs in New York but suits people like me fine enough, while Dave Pike's r 'n b sounds little like anything I would have expected from a former Ornette sideman. Especially interesting is "Little B" from none other than the Shadows, a band that never piqued my prongs by any stretch of the imagination. Brownie points are definitely earned on that 'un if only for the inclusion of a Big Band drum solo. Still won't buy any of their records but considering I got this 'un free I ain't complainin'!

BOOK REVIEW! THE COMPLETE DICK TRACY VOL. 19:1959-1961 (IDW, 2015)

Is DICK TRACY getting better or izzit my imagination goin' whacko again??? I'd definitely say the former, for Vol, 19 in this long-running series of the original Chester Gould strip is tip top on just about every level one can imagine from grosser villains, disturbing story lines, sicker art and just about everything custom-made for your standard suburban slob who eats this stuff up for breakfast and poops it out right before taking a bath. Of course it helps that by this time in history we were well on that great slide into postwar/prehippie fun 'n jamz that was beneficial to anyone with a level head whether it be via tee-vee, music or food for that matter, and that ride was goin' on for a good seven or so years before it all fizzled out into a faint shadow of its former self but you know that already.

The Rhodent story finally comes to an end which is good considering the part where the Rat-faced badboy's '59 Ford gets hitched to the back of a train and dragged a good ten or so miles before the car bursts into flames, while the Fifth/Flyface saga's even cooler what with us thinking that the guys were captured and imprisoned only they break out in time for the next storyline dealing with a strange mystery a-brewin' in the latest and hula-est state ever to enter the union, Hawaii. Even after Fifth and Flyface (one of the better sickos Chester Gould came up with in the post-forties era) are bludgeoned to death in a tsunami the Hawaiian adventure continues with the appearance of a li'l wahini who just happens to be heir to a huge fortune and well---uh...

That's where Spots and Ogden come in, the former a weirdo guy with spots in front of where the eyes should be who kinda looks like that baby from ERASERHEAD grown up who pals around with this poet obviously named after the great Ogden Nash. Even these two manage to make their way into the next storyline having to do with the abandonment of Little Boy Beard, an infant with a goatee and the strength of at least ten average comic strip babies including Swee Pea and Trixie and throw a few Bunkys in for good measure.

Beautifully strange and somehow totally in groove with the swinging mood of the day, you can't put these comics down no matter how hard you try and reading 'em over and over while sweet sounds blare from my bedroom boom box has made the past few days a rather enjoyable way to slip myself into slumberland. The only bad thing I can say about it is that #19's definitely a slimmer'n the rest volume, though I wonder if that's not just for the typical greedy reasons and only because IDW wants to categorize this series prudently before TRACY gets into the Sci-Fi moon stories and law and order-based strips nobody seems to like. Dunno about you, but I'll be tuning in for those even if you won't!

Oh, and one more thing...last time I reviewed the entry in this series I made some comments about former TRACY author Max Collins' opening pep talks regarding the stories to follow, perhaps being a tad too harsh on the man which did elicit some critical if puzzled responses from him. So I guess you're wond'rin what I think about Collins' forward to this edition, right? Well, in typical BLOG TO COMM fashion I decided to do the only honorable thing that I should given how I don't want to rankle the ire of anyone who I don't have a fight with and certainly don't want to get fired from any gainful employment.

I simply just didn't read it.

Don't worry---I'll be back with a real-deal post next weekend! But until then I thought I'd share with you some reviews of various items that a) I haven't heard until the year 2015 yet were just too obvious to stick in a reg'lar "column" or b) I've had and cherished for many a year yet I thought too obvious-er to include in said columns as well. Which of these recordings are "new" or not to mine ears in 2015 is yours to judge...like I gotta go out and tell you EVERYTHING???

 The Stranglers-RATTUS NORVEGICUS/BLACK AND WHITE 2-CD set (Capitol England)

This '03 entry in EMI's series of United Artists-bred twofas really is a top notch help in reminding this particular fanabla as to just how good these guys were, even if their bassist was rude to Lindsay Hutton and he swore out a vendetta against the group once and for all. Their anti-feminist stance is so refreshing this far down the suffragette line while their overall punkian nastiness is something that more'n a few practitioners of the modern rock form should take to heart. And for being associated with the likes of Johnny Sid and the rest I must say that they knew enough not to succumb to various new trends, keeping the best of the late-sixties punk push at the forefront even if stuff like that only appealed to the Amerigans who were in on the fanzine game for some time. This is what those later Roxy Music albums shoulda sounded like if Bryan F. woulda only gotten his fingernails dirty, but he didn't and we're all for the worse because of it.

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The Seeds-A WEB OF SOUND 2-CD set (GNP Crescendo/Big Beat England)

Last year I treated myself to the boffo RAW AND ALIVE two-Cee-Dee collection, this year it's the WEB OF SOUND expanded edition for me. Gotta say that I loved the dickens outta this one ever since I snatched this one up from a two-buck cassette bin back in the late-seventies, and may I be so gosh-it-all but the high energy feelings that I had for that one back then linger on even this far down the suburban slob line. I mean, what else can you say about a platter that delivers on the hot punk rock drive and fervor (without the overly conscious precepts that plagued many an eighties follower of the fashion) and comes off teenybopper on one hand and mad evil genius on the other???

You get a mono and stereo version if that means anything to you, and not only that but each platter is filled out with alternate takes of the familiar faves (disque 1) and the infamous Sky Saxon Blues Band SPOON FULL OF SEEDY BLUES on the second. Yeah, that one never did figure well with many Seeds fans but I find Sky and co.'s trek into bloozy territory fascinating and a whole lot more authentic than some of the scuzz that has passed for blues these past few decades. And really, who would you prefer to hear singing the blues, Sky Saxon or some potbellied greyhair who think's he in for the big 'n nasty from the comfy confines of his roll-a-sage chair?

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THE VERY BEST OF BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS 3-CD set (Not Now England), THE GREAT BUDDY HOLLY CD (MCA)

Izzit safe to listen to Buddy Holly now? I mean it always was, but things were rather shaky about doing so during the late-seventies what with all of those Linda Whatzername with the Parkinsons' Laurel Canyonized covers and those fifties/sixties biopics that made everybody front and center fans of the bespectacled one. Sheesh, when I first heard "Peggy Sue" as some duncified ten-year-old long before the Holly craze got into full gear I thought I was listening to some nice straight-ahead rhythmic music that settled well inside my ranch house sensibilities. Only a few years later did it seem as if everybody was in on the Holly game, and lemme tell ya it's sure hard being a fan of the guy when the guy who hates you the most in class (and vice versa) thinks he's the top turd on the pile because now he likes Buddy instead of Starcastle!

These platters do sate my Holly brainbuds even if, after all is said and done, he was the idol of many a late-seventies turdball who somehow tied Holly's entire reason for existence in with Jackson Browne. Think of it this way, Holly was also the inspiration for Bobby Fuller and Roky Erickson and that should be the ONLY thing that counts when thinking about the legacy the man fortunately did leave us. So all of you laid back hippies and one-dimensional rock followers out there...take a hike, willya???

THE VERY BEST OF BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS is from what I understand a collection of the three Buddy/Crickets albums and maybe a few solo Buddy things as well. I'm not as well versed in the whole Brunswick/Coral situation like I am the Parliament/Funkadelic thing and other similar group/solo/backing band recording set ups, but whatever it's a boffo gathering of the greats for those of us who want the most for our money and aren't ready to dabble in the world of bootlegs at this time. These numbers only prove just how in-tune Buddy and the Crickets were, what with their straight-on country/blues/rock 'n roll sound that sure led the way for a slew of boffo sixties grooves that would be popping up on a whole number of single sides at least until the late-sixties became too dribbly that even a thing as a Buddy Holly influence could not possibly exist. And these songs prove that Holly was good at just about everything he did, even to the point where all of those symphony schmoozers like "Moondreams" sure sound beautiful after getting a load of what passes for top forty these days!

THE GREAT BUDDY HOLLY's that '67 Vocalion album that's been in print in one form or another for years. Basically a '56 sesh that lacks all of the polish and verve of the "real" stuff, I find these tracks to capture a whole load of what made fifties/sixties rock so good at least before it got tossed into the money-go-round. This is the kinda Buddy Holly there shoulda been more of, with the kinda sound that has all of the raw integrity of your standard garage band single which would turn off most of the nuevo Hollyites who discovered the chap via the likes of Paul McCartney. True most if not all of this can be had on other Holly compilations but gee, I like the great sixties-styled cover more suited for a Big Band reissue that sorta flies in the face of alla that psychedelic dribble that was being force fed us at the time.

Both of these are monsters, and yeah it is safe to listen again. Just be sure to leave your turquoise and 'ludes at home next time you venture out to the Cee-Dee Emporium to pick yourself up copies of these.

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Ornette Coleman-THE GREAT LONDON CONCERT two CD-r burn (originally on Arista/Freedom)

Like the ESP TOWN HALL CONCERT, this blink and you missed it 1975 Arista/Freedom live set's got the proverbial pounce down pat. Instead of a string quartet bowing away this has a woodwind quintet taking up a whole side giving us Coleman distilled to a more highbrow "this jazz ain't just more of dat dumbo music" attitude. The trio of Coleman/Izenzon/Moffett retain the original approach to the new jazz while stretching out into mid/late-decade shapes of sounds to come. Early violin and trumpet extrapolations pave the way for the various AACM and related splurges to hit the collections of all kinda tightass spiritual college boy record collectors for years to come, one of whom might even be....ME?????

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THE SADISTA SISTERS LP (Transatlantic, England)

Well, I was warned. But sheesh, the idea of hot punkoid theatre rock with a mass o' musical variations tossed in did appeal to me so what's a good thirtysome years of ruminating about it? Unfortunately THE SADISTA SISTERS LP is just more of that overproduced cabaret schmooze done up with some snappy lyrics and perhaps a few good pop rock melodies that don't quite offend even our more refined tastes. But is that really enough??? This is better'n the oft-hyped mid-seventies feminist pootenanny group the Deadly Nightshade, but that's kinda like saying rectal itch is better than groin pull.

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The Grateful Dead-ANTHEM OF THE SUN (expanded edition) CD-r burn (originally on Warner Brothers/Seven Arts/Rhino)

I will admit that I harbored a tad bitta interest in this after looking at the instrumental line up on the back and seeing the use of a prepared piano (this was during my John Cage appreciation days) and later on reading a writeup of this in BAM BALAM drawing comparisons to the Red Crayola (this was during my Red Crayola appreciation days), but now that I've finally heard ANTHEM well... The dumboid rock kids playing avant garde schtick is interesting yet so shallow sounding next to more punkified practitioners like the Stooges, while the psychedelic imagery really flops about next to the real deal of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and just about every other lysergic lingerers who weren't lucky enough to appear on PLAYBOY AFTER DARK. And when they get into that twango-neo-funk groove it's pretty much time to forget the entire enchilada. "Love in your heart, acid in your veins and ANTHEM OF THE SUN on your turntable" indeed!

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Nico-THE END CD (Island)

Here's Nico during her brief stay at Island right before she blabbed herself off the label during one of her more lucid moments. The mid-seventies deca-smarm that Island was wallowing in at the time certainly did help what with the appearance of Eno and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanara (playing a fitting enough neo-Reedian solo on "The End") not to mention former Velvetite John Cale who surprisingly enough was also basking in the glory of an Island Records contract. The usual dark ethereal musings with just enough avant garde to lift it outta the Middle Ages, capped off with a stellar reading of "Das Lied Der Deutchen"...be the hit of your sleeper cell with this album which has enough Teutonic trounce to last until the thousand years are up.

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The Soft Boys-A CAN OF BEES CD (Ryko); RAW CUTS CD (Overground England); UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT 2-CD set (Matador)

The Soft Boys were probably my favorite seventies retro-dig of the year and I do mean it! Like all of my favorite rock groups from the era (take Mirrors f'rinstance), the Boys took the best moments of sixties rock 'n roll and shaped it for a seventies consciousness, and in this case they actually managed to get people to sit up and take notice which I guess was easier to do in the rock-active clime of seventies England than it was in Cleveland. Really, nothing has made me a happier camper than this group which, although totally ignored by your standard "FM rock"-bred fan who is now gumming his mush to Journey, are still remembered by smart rockers and amerindie turdbombs alike meaning that...these guys have influenced a whole lotta weak-kneed floppers out there and you better believe it!!!!


RAW CUTS contains what I believe is everything these guys recorded (if not released) for the infamous Raw Records label. As with most of the Raw catalog this rumble has much to do with various sixties innovations as it does with late-seventies punkdom, and the primal baseness of these tracks (featuring early versions of such downright hits as "Give it to the Soft Boys" and "Wading Through a Ventilator") really do drive home the ol' FACT about just what this p-rock thingie was all about before it along with heavy metal got slammed about and fitted into a form that was more or less easier for geekoid kids to identify with. Or something like that. Anyway, I sure wish that the group's Radar Records single got popped into the mix but, considering that was for a different company we're outta luck on that one.

A CAN OF BEES was one record that I really would have loved to have picked up back when I first espied it at the old Record Revolution (now an extremely mere shell of its former self) when it hit the racks back '80 way, but considering just how scarce moolah was at the time I really hadda choose my record purchases wisely (TRANSLATION---twas better to hit the used records available in the basement and pick up now extremely rare spins for mere pennies at that). Too bad I didn't slip this one under my purposefully baggy jacket because A CAN OF BEES is the kinda album that I was most definitely looking for at the time and it really would have fit in swell with all of the Pere Ubu/Velvet Underground/New York rock that was taking up a good portion of my shoulda been studying time. Again, all of those late-sixties English psychedelic moves meets mid-sixties Amerigan punk rock filtered through mid/late seventies fanzine consciousness rolled into one mighty ball of well-produced psychopop sounds can be found here, and if you had told me that these were unreleased Syd Barrett track back in 1973 I wouldn't have said a word, mainly because in 1973 I had never even heard of, let alone heard Syd Barrett! But yeah, I can say that I got about as excited about this one as I did when I first heard PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN.

UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT seems to be another balla wax entirely though, sounding well overproduced and professional almost in a major label scoopup and polish sorta way. Maybe a few more spins'll have it growing on me like those weird skin blebs on my eyelids, but for now all of those roots of REM and eighties wuss alternative sounds are kinda making me wish that I had gone deaf around 1983. This double set is what I'd call a pretty good package for the fan and follower of this band and David Fricke's liner notes and good enough (and jambus packtus enough) to get any real aficionado of the form frothing at the mouth, but between you and me let me tell you that this 'un does sound how-shall-I-say too refined next to the group's earlier efforts. But if you're into refined eighties indie rock and still find solo Hitchcock enticing you probably have this one already and don't give two hoots what I think about it, right?

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The Lollipop Shoppe-JUST COLOUR CD (Revola England)

When I first heard this a looooong time ago I thought it was a mess of good intentions that sorta got gobbled up along the way. Nowadays I find this sole Lollipop Shoppe platter a little more...cohesive???? Well, it STILL doesn't seem to hold up as a solid whole for solid holes like myself, but nowadays I can't help but noting all of the boffo West Coast reference points that make this a definite keeper. Traces of Love, early Alice Cooper circa. PRETTIES FOR YOU and of course the Seeds can be discerned, and even when Fred Cole and company seem to be going off on a wild goose tangent you can appreciate the whacked out approach even if you kinda think it's screwed. The rare post-LP single on Shamley is also included, but that's a real sickie (or so Erik Lindgren once said) which is why the stuck it on at the end.

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Phil Ochs-CHORDS OF FAME 2-LP set (A&M)

I s'pose I should hate Ochs if only because this comsymp was the idol of more'n a few of my grade and high school teachers (the young just outta-college gal types who would lambaste us third graders for not caring about the problems and troubles in this world), but like I always do I thought I'd give the guy a chance with this '76 double set that was pushed out to cash in on the guy's recent deep-sixing.

And here's da verdict----although I find most all of his solo acoustic folkie material too derivative of the more earthier Dylan folk grumblings, Och's electric (read: commercial) trackage is rather pleasing. In fact at times it could be quite invigorating. But the message-laden preciousness of it all tends to wear thin to the point where I loathe all of those teachers even MORE for adhering to this feelygood wash and trying to jam it all down our eight-year-old suburban slob throats.

Liner notes by the Fugs' Ed Sanders attempt (and mostly fail) to keep the revolutionary spirit alive at a time when nobody seemed to care anymore, while at least one live track was recorded during Och's stay at Max's Kansas City when Patti Smith was making her professional debut as the opening act. (And you dear reader can make up your own sweet and poignant closing line to this review considering what I was about to say was telegraphed a good ten miles in advance and it would just be too OBVIOUS for me to blurt it out myself!)  Overall it's nothing but something that reminds me of somethings that remind me of just what a struggle it was being a ranch house kiddie forced to deal with world savers.

***

Country Joe and the Fish-ELECTRIC MUSIC FOR THE MIND AND BODY CD-r burn (originally on Vanguard)

While we're on the subject of how the sixties mighty protesters have fallen, gotta say that ELECTRIC MUSIC still don't sound as revolutionary as more than a few snoots have suggested. Even with the psychedelic organ swirls I find the whole shebang rather tame compared with the sustenance we call sixties garage band rock, and although it is more'n easy to see why some up-and-front sixties rock ranters swear by them all I can discern's the entire collapse of hard-edged protest rock into the miasma of late-sixties peacenlove happy-happy. Nothing to sneer at, mind you, but nothing that'll speak to my 1966 sense of rock 'n roll purity the way Sky Saxon does.

***

Moby Grape-20 GRANITE CREEK CD-r burn (originally on Reprise)

I must admit that I did have an aversion to listening to any of the post-Columbia-era Moby Grape albums if only due to rumor, but 20 GRANITE CREEK ain't nearly as bad as some of the schmucks out there made it out to be. The group still do the blooze/country/rock thing as precisely as they used to, and although there is quite a bit of that bloat-on gruff 'n tumble snarl that ruined many a platter for me extant it ain't like I'm gonna wanna rip this particular spinner off the way I so many of the early-seventies overwrought specimens of West Coast over-rambunctiousness. The re-emergence of Skip Spence in the band was a benefit, but why is he limited to only one composition, the surprisingly strong instrumental "Chinese Song"???

***

Screamin' Jay Hawkins-I PUT A SPELL ON YOU CD (Black Tulip, try Norton records)

I've been in the market for a neato collection of Hawkins' more scabrous tracks throughout the years, and I guess this one comes closest to what I've been looking for. Nothing otherworldly special about it (and in fact kinda supermarket/budget store worthy what with the lack of liner notes and tons of rare pix we all adore), but its packed with most of the better known Hawkins treasures as well as a number of rarities that pad these collections out so well.  And don't you think it was coincidental that I was listening to none other than "Constipation Blues" while suffering from the very same affliction, and whilst on the pot as well? I don't...sheesh, it seems like I'm ALWAYS suffering from not being able to dump the rock collection into the porcelain pool!

***

The Red Crayola-PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND 2-CD set (Charly/Snapper England), GOD BLESS THE RED KRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT CD (Charly/Snapper England)

Dunno how I passed up on these professionally-packaged and sourced from the masters reissues of the first two Red Crayola platters all these years (actually only four of 'em!), but I'm sure glad they have appeared in the presence of my bedside boom box at least this late in the underground psychedelic game. No need to tell you just how vital, essential, ahead of the game and downright FUN these releases are, and the detailed notes with rare information and even rarer snaps (the photo of the Familiar Ugly in the studio makes 'em out to look just like that teenage crime gang Audie Fulton and the Mod Squad who popped up in an episode of DRAGNET!) are enough to make us long-time under-the-underground types gush with pure addled record bin hopping glee! The sound's good (if that matters) and the overall care and love that was put into these projects is enough to make me wanna run down the street nude screaming in unbridled joy so until streaking makes a comeback MAKE MINE CRAYOLA!!!

***

Slade-BEGINNINGS/PLAY IT LOUD CD (Salvo England), WALL OF HITS CD (Polydor)

Whatever happened to Slade indeed! I mean, here was this group who was pretty hot property back inna early/mid-seventies to the point where I'm sure more'n a few frazzled fanatical followers of the form were thinkin' they were the next Rolling Stones if not MC5 (though some had Black Oak Arkansas pegged as just that!). By the time 1976 had rolled in the hits they were having in ol' Blighty and elsewhere (not the US of Whoa!) had just dried up. I mean it was almost like they didn't even exist in the first place and nobody out there even seemed to remember them or even wanted to admit they ever existed for that matter!

And it was a shame too because although Slade weren't exactly a perfect group they delivered a good whalloping style of rock 'n roll that was part British pop and heavy metal with a little bitta punk in the ol' 1972 CREEM magazine definition thrown in for good magick. And these two platters which are an obvious attempt to cash in on the seventies recovered memory crowd only prove just what a fantab bunch these guys were along with the Sweet and the rest of those English acts that alla the snobs sneered at, but only distant Amerigan fanzine types could see as something beyond the teenybop curse that was laid on 'em by jealous progressive rock ditzes.

The Salvo release features the first two Ambrose Slade-era platters and as far as first tries go these guys did pretty otay. Slick true, but slick in that top-notch well produced way that sounded good enough to me back when I was twelve and the likes of T. Rex would pop up on the radio. Not always at Slade's best, but the tough pop sound, no matter how much it's aimed at the same geeky gal who sat next to you in school and smelled like stale gym socks, still manages to exude that tough nerve-rattle which might as well have been taken straight offa BACK IN THE USA! And if their cover of "Shape of Things to Come" ain't just that maybe I should find a better way to waste my time like salvaging gloves from the wastebaskets of proctologists county-wide.

The Polydor "Greatest Hits" package is cheezy looking enough but as usual that's part of the fun. Alla the big hits are here including that thing that Quiet Riot wrecked a good ten years later as well as that one where Jimmy Lea plays some tasteful violin, and for having everything all in one neat pile you can't do better. Unfortunately you can hear the group's downfall as they're somehow manipulated into mere product and at a time when we sure coulda used more high energy, but as the famous philosopher Heinrich Schtunk once said "dem's der breaks". But hey, even Slade at their cornballiest like on "Merry Christmas Everybody" sounds fresh enough that if I had seen this 'un in the import singles racks way back when well, I wouldn't buy the thing but I might pick it up to glance at the picture sleeve.

A band that should have experienced a full blown revival long ago, and as far as reeducating yourself these might come in handy, along with the live in Poland platter which I still think somebody just made up as a sick ethnic joke.

***

THE GOOD RATS CD (Repertoire. Germany)

Not quite better'n the MC5 and Stooges as some guy wrote in a letter to Lester Bangs that was printed in in some early-seventies issue of CREEM, but if I dare say so it's darn close. Well, not "close" but if you like late-sixties outta nowhere carnage in your music---y'know, the stuff that stood in stark contrast to the whole grain folk music that was beginning to make a comeback at the time---this should sate. True the horns and strings tend to irritate more than accentuate while you just WONDER why the producers get more pic space in the gatefold sleeve than the band (who ain't even mentioned by name!), but this album is prime post-Rascals white soul cum garage band pounce that still sounds great even fortysome years down the line. The Dictators done up by dagos five years before the fact? Maybe.

***

Patty Waters-SINGS CD; COLLEGE TOUR CD (ESP-Disk)

Two olde  tyme classics that I finally stooped to picking up digital-wize despite owning three vinyl copies of the former. SINGS remains the warped mid-sixties wonder it was even when Lester Bangs was drawing comparisons twixt Waters' moanings on "Black is the Color" to Yoko Ono's extraterrestrial experiments, and like Ono's early-sixties Cagean works (as well as her solo extrapolations) there is a heavy and dark En Why See feeling that just reeks of the gritty ennui those "filmed on location" bits of cinema made in the burgh always heaped up on me. COLLEGE TOUR is even more avant in approach thanks to the touring ESP stable backing her up, and both of these do make for a nice bitta free sound to play 1965 college pseudointellectual to! Well, at least before you discover the life-reaffirming strains of Grace Slick or something like that. No nude photos, alas.

***

BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS 3-CD set (Real Gone Rock & Roll); ROCKIN' BUDDY HOLLY CD (Ting-A-Ling)

Stop da presses time here, for BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS has just about everything that the guy laid onto wax within its four silver dollar sides from all of his album and single cuts, session work of varying interest as well as the 1960 Crickets effort that gave us the original "I Fought the Law"! The package may be sterile considering the lack of a slam-bam informative booklet, but if you go on line and weed out alla that nauseating fan dribble ("Oh Buddy how we miss you and there's nothing else in this world for me to do now that you've been dead for over fifty-five years boo hoo slobber slobber!!!") maybe something of interest on the man will pop up. Though I kinda doubt it. You might want to also know that ROCKIN' BUDDY HOLLY has a few repeats from any and/or all of the above on it, but the alternate takes and newies that do show up'll make you feel a whole lot more complete in your Hollyphilia than you already are. But all I wanna know is...did someone tape the time Buddy and his folks got into a heated argument because they wouldn't let Little Richard stay for supper??? That would make for a great disc at any cost!

***

Lol Coxhill-FLEAS IN CUSTARD LP (Caroline England)

A legendary one (well, at least it was one if you used to read MELODY MAKER's jazz coverage in the seventies), but not as maddening "out there" as I would have hoped. Side A's duet with electric guitarist G. F. Fitzgerald ain't what you'd call out-there AACM atonal catharsis, but it is a slightly intriguing slice of chamber jazz that goes off on its own proper tangents. Closer to the English "new jazz" thing than to the Amerigan urban variety, but I'm sure most discerning listeners have come to that conclusion long ago. The flip has Coxhill talking about a variety of jobs he had held (including one where he tossed cow heads into a crusher) as well as engaging in various solo saxophone excursions usually filtered through some type of electronic gadgetry. Slightly liberating, but then again there's that whole dinge of cultured proper behaviour that seems to permeate most aspects of British Isles jazz approach whether it be trad or avant. Maybe if he had only moved to France, 'cause at least those guys knew how to blare out!

***

Juicy Groove-FIRST TASTE picture disc LP (Payola)

For years I've passed on this one if only out of fear (of losing money if not a good forty minutes outta my life), but Greg Shaw's review of the Rainbow Stardust "Two Shy"/"Starry Ride" single in an old BOMP certainly opened up my orbs! That's on here as well as other downright punk rock-y tracks from this neo-Seeds related groupage that not only featured guitarist/singer Stardust but former Steppenwolf somethingorother Mars Bonfire and Zappa/Beefheart crony Elliot Ingber. Don't let the hippie looks fool ya, this is great repeato-riff post-sixties garage band-styled rock 'n roll that true, does have a tinge of that love and beads commune-sorta bent to it, but it still sounds so out of time that it could have been late-sixties leftovers on one hand and Rodney Bingenheimer English Disco fodder on the other.

***

Giorgio-SON OF MY FATHER CD (Repertoire, Germany)

The single was hotcha enough, but a whole album from this pre-Donna Summer masterwhiz??? Sure why not, especially after reading Gene Sculatti's review of it in FUSION where he dropped hints about a Seeds influence which of course would get my waxy ear canals in an uproar! Nothing as crucial as Sky Saxon and Co. here true, but if ya like that cheap seventies Europop cheap that never did seem to appeal to anyone over fourteen (at least in my circle) you too will agree that the synthesizer does perk things up quite a bit! And so do the downright electronic pop numbers that sorta bridge the gap between the 1971 AM charts and...Abba???

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! REVENGE OF IVANHOE starring Clyde Rogers (Italy, 1965)

Like Eddie Haskell, I am a stickler for historical inaccuracies in film. But hey, with a nice Sunday PM UHF TV ca 1975 wonder like this why should I give a hoot? Ivanhoe (Clyde Rogers aka Rik Van Nutter) has just come back from the Crusades but his problems are only beginning what with the local populace being terrorized by the local rulers led by the evil father/son team of Bertrand and Cedric of Hastings who are aided and abetted by Lockheel, a guy who looks way too much like Sugar Coated Andy Hernandez of August Darnell fame to the point where you'd think there'd be a lawsuit somewhere down the line.

Along the way Ivanhoe gets into more'n the usual hassles resulting in a whole slew of sword fights and other bash crash action scenes that are guaranteed to keep the ten-year-old stocking feet tee-vee viewer in you activated at least for a few minutes. Good enough that you don't even notice the overt Robin Hood references here including a comedy relief holyman in the Friar Tuck role (and there is a member of Ivanhoe's gang named Tuck, so maybe this is one of those bizzaroid distorted references to the Hood legend that mirrors the whole LEAVE IT TO BEAVER Mayfield = Cleveland comparisons for sheer strange coincidental effect).

Surprisingly good action/swashbuckler here that you should get hold of. For maximum effect watch this on a sunny afternoon when you should be playing either outside or in a knotty pine rec room filled with your toys and games as well as a few old sweatshirts strewn around. It wouldn't hurt if you can watch this on an old Philco, though you'll have to conjure up your own roll-a-sage chair commercials for the times you wanna sneak into the kitchen to get yerself a glass of Kool Ade.

Sheesh, I still find it hard to cram into the ol' cranium the sad 'n sorry fact that it's now the Year Of Our Lord "Common Era" of 2016 that we're all now residing in. Another year has gone by and here I am entering into yet another rotation where (if you can believe it, and why not?) I feel older than ever to the point where I'm thinking about stocking up on Ensure here in the old abode (vanilla only---chocolate tastes ecch!).

And I have a good enough reason to feel downright ANCIENT as well, considering that a good portion of my uncles and aunts were born around or before 1916 and when I was but a mere teenbo they were at the age that I am now (do the math yourself!). And really, back then I thought they were as old as the hills growing up during the twenties and having fought in/lived through World War II and all that (which in many ways was like recent history the way they were still talking about it!). From my lofty perch in the enlightened twenny-first century this passage of time on one hand seems so monumental given all that has happened since those rather hopped up days (most of it downright disgusting), though in others it seems pretty current given how much I still enjoy old silent movies as well as long-forgotten comic strips that sure pack a whole lot more punch (and eye-pleasing detailed art) than the downright unfunny offering that parade themselves on the funny pages nowadays! I can see just why my relatives held fun memories of those days despite their obvious hardships while loathing the seventies I hadda come to teenbo age in, and frankly next to the world I hadda live in back then I wouldn't have minded joining 'em!

If I hadda choose between now and a hunnerd years ago I'd take the hunnerd years...true there were influenza outbreaks, World Wars and snooty WASP types to put up with, but at least we didn't have the phony concept of "equality" being pushed, the one that has made that sicko guy in the roadside rest men's room every bit of an upstanding citizen as the most righteous beings to have ever walked this planet of ours.

But anyhoo here we are in 2016 and maybe I should try to make the best of it. Exactly how is something else, but I guess it's definitely a case of living in the here and now because the obvious ALTERNATIVE to all this has got me rather scared if I do say so myself!

***

How'd did you spend your final day of 2015 anyway? For me it was about as uneventful as they usually can get during this stage in my life, what with me spending a good portion of my time in my room (making it out for only one TWILIGHT ZONE episode on "ScyFy", the one with John Hoyt as a scientist who created an army of servants to do his and his wife's bidding much to the dismay of his uppity daughter) and closing out the final hours by listening to THE MARBLE INDEX which, in many ways, was a fitting cap to this rather cyborg solar rotation I've had to endure. Not that this particular bit of information matters much if at all, but just think of how interesting this turdbit of information's gonna look a thousand years from now when somebody's doing my biography (and you know that will happen more later'n sooner!).

But trudge on I will, and in fact I've even made a list of NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS that I am going to at least make a serious attempt to keep, including not only losing weight and not kicking neighborhood cats but NOT SAYING ANYTHING NASTY OR UNKIND ABOUT MY SO-CALLED "BETTERS" ON THIS VERY BLOG OR ANYWHERE ELSE OTHER'N PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS!!! A tough one for sure, and here's hoping I can keep that particular one these next 364 as well as I did the first two days of the year! Wish moi luck.

***

BAD NEWS DEPARTMENT: Given my rather pathetic financial straits, looming retirement (hopefully just around the corner cuz I just can't get enough goofing off into my life) and other big-time moolah concerns the pickings this year are, sad to say, gonna be even slimmer than the previous one which was a rather austere year if I do say so myself. Not that there's gonna be any great mad rush to buy a whole lotta material here in the post-post-rock age, but let's just say that for the unforeseeable future BLOG TO COMM will feature even less brand-spanking-new items and more old standbys from the collection, not forgetting various items that I hope to BEG off certain individuals. Fortunately I still have a huge pile of Bill Shute and Paul McGarry burns to go through and I am certainly thankful for that, plus the bevy of goodies that Fadensonnen gave me last X-mas will help pad these posts out if only a tad. But otherwise expect me to be sifting through the old stack of vinyl looking for some elusive spinner that I haven't touched in twenty years if only for blog fodder. As the old saying goes, "them's the breaks".

But for now here are some items that have had me ringing in the New Year, and for that matter have had my ears ringing all on their lonesome. Dig my reality!

X-The Jazz Destroyers-X-ALBERT AYLER'S GHOSTS LIVE AT THE YELLOW GHETTO CD-r burn (originally on Smog Veil)

Gotta admit just how AMAZED I am with this band's ability to STILL adhere to the v. late-seventies art zeitgeist long after that particular spurt dribbled over into postpunk miasma. Particularly in the way John Morton and Co. wallop the no wave ("non wave" in Cle) aesthetic into something that was out and about in the burgh at the time yet never was properly documented anywhere even to this day (paging Paul Marotta...make those HARLAN AND THE WHIPS recordings available and in the here and now!). Highlights include Andrew Klymek's boff Dave E. impersonations, a cover of Klymek's "Felt Hammer" which sports the exact same opening bass riff as the Gizmos' "Pumping to Playboy" (which would figure since Craig Bell plays bass guitar in both the reunited X-X and Gizmos) and an all-too abbreviated version of that all-time classic "Tool Jazz".

***

Various Artists-T.M.I. 018 CD-r burn (originally on T.M.I. Productions)

Sometimes a little bit of that early-eighties new wave goes a long way. Sometimes not, but surprisingly enough this compilation of tracks from the Pittsburgh-area T.M.I. label (most famed to you for the incredible Todd Clark album) doesn't send you back to new as gnu wave spasms of unbridled irritation. Even when the acts do veer off into the patented sound patterns so prevalent those days they're kept to a bare minimum and you ain't exactly flashing back to when people were pushing the first U2 album on ya. Contains some familiar faces like the Dancing Cigarettes, Tripod Jimmie (ex-Pere Ubu) and Carsickness, an act that played plenty of times at the Cedars Lounge in Youngstown only I never even thought of checking 'em out even once.

***

Ducks Deluxe-JOHN PEEL SESSIONS CD-r burn

I remember these guys getting more'n enough under-the-radar circulation back inna seventies to the point where people who you never thought woulda heard of Ducks Deluxe were hailing and hosannaing over 'em like there was no tomorrow. It's rather easy to see why considering not only the Ducks' neo-Groovian approach to retro-sound but the competition out there, but in many ways it was strange hearing about these guys from a classmate or associate who you never thought woulda known about this act in a millyun years. These BBC sessions are custom made for those kinda guys, for they lack the studio techwhiz that can sometimes drag these rockin' affairs down and present the group in a straighter-ahead fashion that probably was the next best thing to hearin' 'em live. A pretty good set of rockers that I somehow get the impression are what Bruce Springsteen fans thought they were experiencing from their hero back in those rather confusing (and many times disgusting) days.

***

Motorhead-FIRST CONCERT-1975 CD-r burn

Do you think that it's a mere coincidence that I not only receive this burnt offering on Lemmy 70th big one, but that the guy ups and DIES a good four days later? Or is it of your mind that my receiving and listening of this particular platter has some strange sorta evil hoodoo goin' on about it??? Let me know what you think, because in many ways the entire idea has made me extremely SCARED!!!!

This is the legendary Roundhouse debut from July of 1975 with Larry Wallis and future Warsaw Pakt/Bedrooms of Europe drummer Lucas Fox in the fold playin' it particularly low-fi and LOUD, sounding more post-Hawkwind than pre-speedmetal. In my humble opine Wallis makes this 'un a success with his fluid neo-MC5 guitar playing which never was replicated in the act, and for those of you who remember Motorhead to be the only heavy metal band to matter this will fit into your own preconceived prejudices nice and snuggly. Contains all of the biggies from "City Kids", "Silver Machine" and "Lost Johnny" as well as a knockout version of "Waiting For My Man" that's just as cranked as every other English band who'd been doing it for the previous ten years.

***

Miles Davis-LIVE AT HILL AUDITORIUM UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, FEBRUARY 21, 1970 CD-r burn

Featuring John McLaughlin on "smack guitar", Miles and the rest zone out as much as they do on all of those live albums the guy seemed to be releasing every other month back when his name could push about any product on the market. 's funny, but throughout my late-seventies gotta know more about jazz phase Davis came off (at least to me) like some sorta established bigwig who was so removed from the experimental sounds that I was more'n apt to listen to at the time. But listening to these particular plows into atonal fury has me wond'rin' just how stupid even a level-headed guy like myself coulda gotten because this one does trail and blare on in that atonal if funky "avant garde" way that really made my ears perk up! And here Miles was knocking Ornette 'n Cecil all to hell at the same time which really does confuse my at-times ordered mind! Quality ain't up to the usual Sony standards but hey, just keep tellin' yourself "this is HISTORICAL!!!" and it'll go down smoother'n quadrophonic.

***

Folk Blues Inc.-CORN STREET CD-r burn (originally on Pep, Sweden)

Ten years after the big folk blues boom got into gear comes this Swedish album by an equally Swedish group which goes to show you just how long the prewar blues held its spell on white people who were about as disconnected to the real down-for-the-struggleness of it all as they could be. For a fellow who is also disconnected as can be I gotta admit that this album does sound a whole lot more authentic'n some of those white guy blooze-y recordings (both acoustic and electric) that had been coming out for a longer time'n any of us could imagine. And for a guy who is not a connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination I must admit that I played this in its entirety twice and didn't frown one bit. It'll probably turn some of you whiter types who like your sounds bleached off 'n all, but I guess that's your choice.

***

Sun Ra Arkestra-COSMOS CD-r burn (originally on Inner City)

I was kinda surprised that this particular platter emanated from the mid-to-late-seventies, for COSMOS really seems to capture the early-to-mid-sixties Arkestra ebb 'n flow more than it does any seventies sorta jazz cataclysm. Laid back yet burning intense astral vibrations that echo back to those days when finding a smattering of Sun Ra albums in the jazz and import bins was just as much of a record shopping thrill as alla those Patti Smith import singles you wanted to buy so bad. And to think that within a good three or so years the bloom would be off the avant garde rose with alla the attention being directed towards the Al DeMeola bowtie and schmooze wing of the movement. Yech!

***

John Lennon-COMPLETE "CLOCK" SOUNDTRACK CD-r burn

Purportedly the soundtrack to a clock being filmed for an hour, Lennon seems to be having a whale of a time romping through a bevy of oldies on his acoustic while the phone rings and we hear Yoko talking in the background. It's an interesting peek into a world which has pretty much been on display whether we wanted to see it or not, but I couldn't help but being bored silly by it all having heard these fly-on-the-wall type of recordings for years on end. For diehard Lennon fans only, or at least those who could see beyond the peace 'n love jive that the famed duo had been dishing out at us for a sizable period of their career.

***

The Wailers-"Mashi"/"On The Rocks" 45 rpm single (Night Club, Germany)

One of those "inessentials" that I just hadda have because it looks so old tymey 'n all. Side one's the same hotcha instrumental (unless you count Kent Morrill's strangulated screams) that appeared on 1961's WAILERS AND COMPANY which continues to drive ya nuts even fifty-five years after the fact, while the flip's actually the re-do of the Wailers' '59 smash "Tall Cool One" that itself did a little charting somewhere down the line (though not as much as the original from what I can tell). These two numbers certainly are a nice way to remember just what kinda fun and energy rock 'n roll music had for millions of teenagers world-wide, at least until it all hadda turn into introspective goo a good ten years later (and Morrill would certainly know since his early-seventies solo album DREAM MAKER reportedly gives James Taylor a run for the persecuted sensitive singer-songwriter money!).

***

Various Artists-ZERO UTRECHT FASHION MIND CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

This Bill burn is different from the others in that it pretty much is thematically solid. Well, except for a few outbreaks of punk rock in a more decidedly eighties vein courtesy the Ignerents and Lullabies (and a soul-stirring orchestrated number), but the rest is pretty much straight sixties garage band and as you know there is a direct line from sixties local rock sounds to eighties self-produced sputum so in some ways it all fits together.

Nothing punk-y here, but it's still hefty good sixties music that has a nice drive to it. Mostly ballads but entertaining enough, though the Zero End's "Blow Your Mind" could have been good enough San Francisco ballroom fodder and Yesterday's Children relied on the old Rolling Stones ripoff mode so common of sixties bands (in this case "Paint It, Black") for their "To Be Or Not To Be".

In all, good mid-energy music that didn't upset me especially in these out to upset you times. Could use some more of it, which is why I think I'll be digging into my collection for that one Norton album with the liner notes by Ernie Douglas on the back. Plenty of ranch house adolescent musings on that!

2015---THE YEAR IN DISARRAY

Well, here's another year on the highway of life that I'm sure glad I'm getting on the exit ramp offa given all of the bad deals that life dished out during them past 365. Now that it's over and done with all I gotta say is (other'n having to survive [almost] solely on the accomplishment of music, tee-vee and general funtime entertainment past) wasn't 2015 one big turdball of a year what with all of those molly-coddled "Social Justice Warrior" types becoming even bolder in their Satan-giving ways telling hard-working and definitely against-the-grain people like myself how to live and breathe. And of course I'm not forgetting the general dankness covering each and every one of us that pretty much permeates what used to pass as everyday suburban slob living now all but gone. Sad to say, those Mike Stivic types you used to see way back inna seventies have taken over with a vengeance, and just about every bit of their kumbaya kultur has metastasized itself into what used to be a rather enjoyable life of fast foods and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO reruns.

I'll tell you, the wolf ain't at the door ready to overcome you and your downhome living arrangements anymore...he's inside sitting in your favorite comfy chair in front of the idiot box screen, and he's using your moolah to order up all the cable tee-vee porn he can!

Given just how sanctimonious and self-anointed our "betters" are and how they've gotten control over just about everything that once made life all the more meaningful (like tee-vee, music and other flaccid forms of beyond numbing forms of "expression") maybe I should be so irked that during the past year I have not come across not one acknowledgement or celebration or what-have-you over the 100th anniversary of the release of the D.W. Griffith extravaganza THE BIRTH OF A NATION (at least fifty years ago there were thoughtful analyses discussing the film's pros and cons without any hefty heaping sanctimony some might have expected given its er, controversy). Lord knows the high tower people will be making a big fit over next year's centennial of INTOLERANCE (in my opinion an inferior film), but that's only because it's a...well, cooler moom than its predecessor and it says things we like and all, y'know. Speaking of INTOLERANCE, I am kinda surprised that none of the Hollywood bigshot types had given thought to making a SPECIAL 100th ANNIVERSARY EDITION remake of Griffith's "sun play of the ages" only updated for current tastes with the intermingling story lines consisting of pagans struggling against Christian oppression in fourth century Rome, cruelly-treated black slaves in the antebellum South, the persecution of gay lovers in 1950's Ameriga and a trans kindergarten boy being denied the gal's room in today's saga. C'mon Schpielberg, maybe it ain't too late to get this one out to your begging public, because if they've bought into your last few films you know THEY'LL BUY INTO ANYTHING!!!

Excuse the sour turds being popped out from the anus of my mind here, for I must admit that despite the raw deals that 2015 has forced upon me the music that had come out (or at least the music I've heard) this past year was pretty hotcha even if a good portion of it was recorded long before you were even a glimmer in your milkman's eye.


ALBUM(S) OF THE YEAR!: Many great sounds have passed my lobes in '15, but the greatest of them just hadda've been THIS IS THE SONICS (a fantastic comeback from a group we've been beggin' to make a comeback for years!), WIRE (who woulda thunk they woulda been relevant in 2015?),  Elliot Murphy's AQUASHOW revision and (would you believe) Rocket From The Tombs' BLACK RECORD? And (of course), anything by FADENSONNEN is fine by me!

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SINGLE OF THE YEAR!: Not too many because hey, it ain't like singles are comin' out like they were back when you prowled the top 40 rack as a kid. Best one by far---Kim Fowley's "The Trip"/"Underground Lady" on (what else?) Norton.

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BOOK OF THE YEAR (ROCK 'N ROLL DIVISION)!: I FOUGHT THE LAW by Miriam Linna and Randell Fuller, a read which, once you get through the thing, you'll think shoulda really been entitled I FOUGHT THE MOB AND THE MOB WON! Close second: SNAKES! GUILLOTINES! ELECTRIC CHAIRS!

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BOOK OF THE YEAR (SECULAR DIVISION)!: THE COMPLETE DICK TRACY VOLUME 18.

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REISSUE(S) OF THE YEAR!: Francis the Great's RAVISSANTE BABY, a deep-groove throbber from the third into the second world. Tied for second...Mahogany Brain and Red Noise.

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JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR!: Weasel Walter/Chris Pitsiokos' DRAWN AND QUARTERED (One Hand)

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ARCHIVAL DIG UP OF THE YEAR! Definitely the CHINA TO MARS album on Feeding Tube, something we shoulda heard back '79 way but well, why should we complain 'long as we have ears? Also worthy of note...Gary Wilson's MUSIC FOR PIANO (also on Feeding Tube), a real avant garde wowzer that holds up after even 2000 listens---dunno about 2001 but I'll give it a try!

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OUTTA NOWHERE SURPRISE OF THE YEAR!: Doug Brockie's Infinity's THE HIGH COUNCIL OF INTERGALACTIC BLUES, a surprisingly good mid-seventies-sounding hard rock jazz blues thingie that for once doesn't remind me of any of the ginchy-gooshie guitar god grumbles of them days! Says something, and that something is probably something you DON'T want to hear, right?

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LIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR!: THE JAZZ DESTROYERS LIVE @ JB's, KENT which you can pick up FREE onna web with the mere flick of a wrist, and you know what I mean you silly you! And as far as real and not downloadable things go, the Flamin' Groovies' IN THE USA.

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MOOM PITCHER OF THE YEAR!-ZOTZ!

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MAG(S) OF THE YEAR!: UGLY THINGS (rock division), LURID LITTLE NIGHTMARE MAKERS (secular division).

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THE "I WANNA HEAR MORE!" AWARD!: The Panacea Society. And while we're at it...

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FAKE OF THE YEAR???: The Panacea Society. Sure sounds legit, but somehow I get the idea that these late-sixties Velvet Underground/Seeds/Thirteenth Floor Elevators wannabes ain't exactly as vintage as I would have hoped. If they aren't legit they're still boffo in the way they revisit 1968 accomplishment, but sheeesh, whatever happened to TRUTH IN ADVERTISING?????

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POST OF THE YEAR!: Most were just snoozeville-y rec revs true, but this particular one I held near and dear to my heart. No, maybe it was this one.

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BLOG OF THE YEAR!: Once again...YOWP.

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EVENT OF THE YEAR!: Getting those little blebs of skin removed from my eyes (lids included). Painful but satisfying.

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DEATH(S) OF THE YEAR!: Kim Fowley (his passing kinda made me wish that I did take up Bill Shute's offer for him to transcribe that phone call he had with the man and run it as an interview in one of the early issues of my crudzine), Josef Vondruska (even though he died last December), Ornette Coleman and Steve Mackay (a guy's kinda guy as you'll read in my obit if you'll only click on the link like ya never do!) All votes for Holly Woodlawn may be considered.

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ATHLETE OF THE YEAR!: Tyson Fury

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FAG OF THE YEAR!: Milo Yiannopolous

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BLOG TO COMM READER OF THE YEAR!: My secret admirer in Mountain View California who keeps trafficking this blog when he/she/it should be busy working in the heart of Silicon Valley...mister/sister, you must be a devoted fan to keep tuning in alla the time like this!


Anyway, a happy 2016 to you and yours, although we all know that just won't happen! But we can always dream now, can't we?