IT'S BOOTLEG BRAGADOCCIO TIME ONCE AGIN FER ALL YOU OLDE TYME BEAT UP RECORD STORE AND HIPPIE HEAD SHOP BACK ROOM PROWLERS YOU!

Never thought I'd scrounge together enough platters to fill up another one of these trips back in time into the age of alla that illicit vinyl that seemed so mystical and contraband to the point where I usedta hide mine inna pile just so's some cops peeking into my windows wouldn't bust me. Anyway you're allowed to share in my decades-old fascination with these charming in their own special way spinners that has clung to my musical whooziz ever since my teenbo days. Days I wouldn't mind re-living, albeit with a whole lot more money stuffed in my wallet mind you! 

***

In honor on hizzoner's big Eight-Oh I decided to latch onto this old Dylan boot, a double-disc effort on Kornyfone entitled PASSED OVER AND ROLLING THUNDER which I'm sure a few of you remember seeing in the record shops of the day.' n hey, what a better way to celebrate ol' Mr. Die-lan (as I usedta pronounce his surname before none other'n MY FATHER [who wouldn't know a folk singer from Ish Kabbibble] corrected me!) and his trip into the octogenarian realm than to spin an effort of his that is good! Well, at least not one of those LIVE AT BUDOKAN quick crank outs that seemed to mar a whole load of his career to the point where we eventually came to expect irregularity from that ol' contrarian ball of confusion.

Yeah, like I said there are TWO platters here chock fulla some pretty good music in excellent quality, and although the entire shebang seems sped up just a tiny bit it still has a rage and urgency to it. That's perhaps because it now sounds more rushed, and thus more urgent, in its overall attack.

The infamous 1975 Newport Folk Fest with Dylan joining Butterfield on "Maggie's Farm" ain't exactly new but still sounds like the perfect backdrop for late-springtime lazing about while the flip featuring the infamous SOUNDSTAGE show I sure recall cozying up to way back when sounds a whole loads better in its stripped down intimacy. Believe me, Dylan and band come off as if they coulda been some wayward folk aggregate stuck on a CBGB poetry night from exactly the same timespan they're so non-slick a way you sure wish most acts back then coulda been. 

Never thought I'd say this, but Scarlet Rivera shoulda been the new John Cale what with her careening violin adding an additional nerve-fray to the music --- heck, if she only she had made a few better career choices*. Even the extremely overwrought "Hurricane" sounds swell without the studio glitz to the point where tryin' to follow the lyrics takes second place to enjoying the more driving and subliminally intense music that was broadcast nationwide during them Second Golden Age of Tee-Vee days! 

The BLOOD ON THE TRACKS outtakes sure struck me as bein' much better'n the official release what with these minimalist excursions which kinda make me think that the powers that be were trying to update Dylan to a more decadent Elliot Murphy stature flopping about in the process!

Topping it all off's a side of the Rolling Thunder Review in Providence Rhode Island and thankfully this belated wake for the sixties (well, more or less) sure doesn't conjure up memories of flailing about hippoids still trying to live the kumbaya dream as much as it does a pretty straightforward folk rock excursion that surprisingly doesn't let its guard down. A guy like moi who spins HARD RAIN on occasion was sated to the point where a whole load of curiosity regarding what else I've been missing regarding Dylan has popped to the surface like a whitehead --- perhaps a look at those other mid-seventies performances would do this body a whole lot more good'n this corpse woulda thought way back in those penny-pinching days when records like this were first up and about?

So hey, a happy birthday to you ya ol' fanabla you! 'n yeah, yer so big you got away with just about every stoopid move you coulda made these past fortysome years but eh, at least you got a real good bootleg outta this 'un. Next time --- JOAQUIN ANTIQUE???

***

Sometimes the recent reissuing of old 'n notoriously famous bootlegs (complete with the original artwork or a cheap facsimile thereof) works, most of the time it just plain don't. However, I just can't help but to snuggle up to this recent exhumation of the classic Siouxsie and the Banshees LOVE IN A VOID boot not only because it does stand as a testimonial to the power of the entire bootleg idiom (having been released before any legitimate Siouxsie efforts had come out) but because it surpasses what we eventually got when THE SCREAM was released and, although that Polydor effort was a classic effort to the end, it just couldn't compete with this collection of radio and whatnot efforts that present the act in the raw, primal state that I prefer my music to wallow in.

The flat AM-ish reproduction does bring back memories of various "intentional" (of which I assume this wasn't) efforts to re-create the WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT sway and style, while the pre-major label performances recall not only the original Siouxsie and company's early approach to their instruments but thankfully brings them all to the forefront atonal spirals and all. The definite home made approach of this makes LOVE IN A VOID as much of a classic representation of ROCK AS A FERAL, TANTRIC SOUND as the variety of acts that were poured into the Siouxsie mode (Velvets, Stooges, Can if you do believe Nick Kent and why not?) and for that reason it should be considered a definite wanna get for any record collection that dares to reflect the primal blare of the sixties and seventies. 

Get those memories of eighties and beyond Siouxsie outta your system and latch onto this particular godsend to the cult of recorded plastic or, if you can spare the extra change, try to find an original at a halfway decent price which of course is rather impossible in these collectors consciousness times.

***

I remember espying the Roxy Music BETTER THAN FOOD bootleg when I was browsing the bins at White Wing Records in Niles Ohio way back inna mid-seventies, tho I certainly recall an entirely different cover on it! The one that continues to ricochet in my brain had an insert sleeve picturing a buncha what looked like prepubescent gals in full frontal mode smiling away, something which kinda disgusted my teenbo self since I, not being of the Brazilian persuasion, certainly liked fuzz on the peaches I've seen and for that matter still do! (As far as I'm concerned, a gal without the fuzzies is like a rabbit without a fluffy tail!) Maybe that particular version of BETTER THAN FOOD was a knockoff that was taken off the market for obvious reasons or maybe my memory is faultier than usual...I mean I do have some pretty creepy memories of a past that I sure hope I didn't have to live through!

This take on BETTER THAN FOOD has an actual cover with a neat Jay Kinney drawing and the expectedly inaccurate credits on the back. Most of it was taken from various BBC broadcasts and non-LP single sides with the sound quality getting kinda mooshed in the process, but as far as these old bootleg artifacts go man, does it sure look good stuffed in the ol' collection.

You probably already have the double Cee-Dee FIRST KISS somewhere in the house and that's got all this 'n more (a real budget deal!), but if you (like me) sure have a hankerin' for old vinyl as well as that whole mid-seventies Roxy mystique that gave us some pretty much against the grain music then man, you know what to do! Its recs like this which make me wanna turn the house into something resembling an old beat up record shop with sawdust on the floor, and come to think of it I wouldn't have to do that much in the way of interior decorating!

And speaking of Roxy Music album covers...get a load outta this one! Hot stuff, hunh?  But after ya slip yer eyeballs back into yer sockets just plop the two enclosed platters on and getcherself into some pretty into the groove (needle that is) listening!

This early-eighties edition of CHAMPAGNE AND NOVOCAINE is a gotta have not only for the cover, but for the fact that the first platter was lifted from a great sounding NYC live show recorded around the time SIREN was starting to hit the shops. It's a soundboard one too where Brawn Fairy of course mentions that it was being reviewed for a legitimate live effort and the crowd of course yaps it up like nothing since the days when someone would mention "Brooklyn" on some by-now ancient radio show!

As you might have expected, the second album in this set's a reissue of the original mid-seventies bootleg perennial CHAMPAGNE AND NOVOCAINE. Those of you in-the-know are aware that this particular Roxy boot's the most infamous of these seventies not-so-under-the-counter platters given its ability to turn up even in high-end shopping mall record stores where you normally wouldn't expect bootlegs to be peddled. The bootleggers didn't even bother to re-process this 'un in the right speed so it's all a tad slow, but it still sounds as good as the original plus the additional live show will have you tearing into that old pile of albums to spin those Roxy and offshoot platters that took up more than just a little of your teenbo hipster wannabe time. 'n so what if you (like me) have multiple copies of these recordings in your collection...that cover's gonna keep you lonely baldoids occupied for quite some time ifyaknowaddamean...

***

My "recent" dream of listening to HORSES in an automobile as a high stooler had me digging the Patti Smith SUPERBUNNY bootleg outta the stack, and as you can guess the subliminal suggestion sure did a world of good for my own sense of rockism. The quality is definitely audience but the performance is tippy top what with Patti and crew careening through such classics as "Free Money" and "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game" not forgetting that tearjerker version of "Pale Blue Eyes" that was part of their 1975 set. You have to strain yer ears to listen to Patti's between-song patter but its worth it, as well as it is to listen to the ever-changing narrative that is thrown into her live renditions of "Horses" where Johnny travels through all sortsa weird neo-Burroughsian concepts that change and intertwine almost like a good thirties serial.  And to think that people were actually buying up her platters back inna seventies with even the more nerdoid amongst us talkin' 'bout her with unbridled pangs of lust in between the usual mindless America and James Taylor droolathons...from this jaded era we call 2021 and years of seeing rock 'n roll reduced to sham MTV graphics and meaningless sizzle that does seem like an eon away.

***

I was rather (dare I say) "enthralled" by last brouhaha entry ROCK 'N ROLL ANIMAL that I decided to snatch up yet another Lou Reed offering, this time the STIFF ON HIS LEGEND outing. Nice package here what with a snap of bleached blonde Lou on the cover and liner notes swiped from who-knows-where onna back, and the sound ain't that bad as well. Too bad this is taken from the '74 SALLY CAN'T DANCE days back when Lou hired some rhumba band to back him and the re-arrangements of old faves along with them new efforts just don't quite cut the mustard like ya kinda hoped they woulda. Not that it's atrocious, but it just doesn't rev up them Lou Reed memories they way you sure woulda liked 'em to have been revved up. If you can latch onto the original edition of this (entitled WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DICK AND STEVE?) bully for you, but alla you hard rocksters who grew up on the RCA version of ANIMAL (Lou loved the Skydog album so much that he decided to bootleg the name for himself!) just might be just a tad li'l let down.

***

Seems as if boots of the original late-sixties version of the Mothers of Invention are still coming out at a rather snat pace, and although I sure woulda liked to have heard these way back 1976 way at least I got to hear 'em now. And considering the fine packaging and color vinyl and other cheapazoid collectors come ons these newer efforts are jambus packtus with I am sure glad I got hold of a few of these recent releases that woulda done me swell had they been released in the mid-seventies even if I woulda been too poor to buy 'em all. 

WE MAY PLAY SOME THINGS THAT MIGHT SOUND STRANGE was taken from two consecutive nights on the Fall '67 Scandinavian tour --- sound is kinda audience wobbly but still strong enough for any mother listening in with an overall effect that'll zoom you back to those days when stuff like this really did seem exciting. I wouldn't call it mandatory 'r anything along those lines, but the performance is fair enough and the early Mothers' musicianship thankfully do detract from Zappa's often condescending stage patter. Besides, this kinda humor did seem kinda refreshing at one point in the lives of many a record purchaser and in some ways that late-sixties sense of satire does remain, if only in a purely nostalgic sense.  As with many of these original Mothers of Invention-period live shows there's a lotta stuff you HAVE heard before, but the things new to yer lobes'll have you washing "Valley Girl" outta yer system for good!

Way back when things like shopping malls were one way to connect with what was going on in life, I thought that the cover to THE FRANK ZAPPA SONGBOOK VOL. 1 woulda looked boffo on a bootleg. Turns out that not only one, but two enterprising bootleggers took my advice, one of 'em being the folks who released A TOKEN OF MY EXTREME way back during the seventies Golden Age of Zappa bootlegs. Unfortunately it was reproduced in black and white when the original color would have been more appealing, but thanks be that my psychic recommendations got to these ne'erdowells inna first place even if the results were monochromatic.

Again, this "Zapped" reissue is on colored vinyl and again the sound leaves a little to be desired. It perhaps is a tad fast (not benefitting the overall effects unlike the Dylan effort mentioned above) and it is definitely of an audience source, but this '75 show has Captain Beefheart in the band and he does shine not only on them familiar BONGO FURY efforts but a newie entiled "Why Doesn't Somebody Get Him A Pepsi" which, from my ears, sounds like an early version of "The Torture Never Stops". But it's better since Beefheart could save the Albanian National Anthem with his mere tonsils...if he wanted to that is and for some reason I don't think he woulda wanted to but if he did it sure woulda sounded sweller'n "Jewish Princess".

Actually the rest of the Mothers do well enough even if the group was becoming more and more fusion-y as time went on. But at least they can create some driving intense melodies that keep Zappa's ooga booga in check, and even with the usual bootleg shortcomings this does prove to be a record that got me up and bouncing at a time when it seems that being up and bouncing could develop into a serious crime if the Powers That Be have their way.

The problem with IF YOU GET A HEADACHE is that there is so little Captain Beefheart on it, and he's only on the first side of this '75 live effort which has that cavernous sound that forces you to stick your head right up to the speakers in order to make any real sense outta the thing! Still that first side kicks off fine with a blistering version of "Apostrophe" as well as a halfway decent "Stinkfoot" which I gotta admit used to make me crack up back during my high stool days. Once you get down to the whole matter of it all IF YOU GET A HEADACHE is just another documentation of Zappa during his even steeper slide into self-indulgent hoo-hahs which started a few years earlier, even if we all knew he was as big a jerk as Jerry Lewis even as far back as those original Mothers of Invention days.

***

As with the last brouhaha I'm wrapping this 'un up with a sidestep into the realm of jazz bootlegs, an area which deserves its own separate study considering their own unique history and overall adaptation to the jazz as opposed to rock frame of absorption. 

Now these bootlegs, as with classical music or Broadway show platters of a non-legit variety, ain't exactly part of the same realm as rock boots given their more authentic if budget-y look. Not only that but they sure go for much less because well, there probably ain't as much of a demand for jazz boots as there are rock ones. But who can argue that these albums aren't worthy of their own scrutiny what with the wide variety of 'em that are available and at cheapo prices at that!

There are a few worthwhile jazz bootlegs out and about, and although I've yet to see any boots devoted to some of the more Fire Music-oriented in the jazz genre there have been some Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler ones that really made my record collection more'n just one to bemusedly thumb through. As if I'd let any of you even near my less bountiful than it should be stacks o' wax you thievin' scoundrels you! 

STATING THE CASE is one Coleman boot that I only came across recently, a good 'un from a French label called "Jazz Anthology" that, according to the discography listed on the back cover, has a pretty hefty line of wares to offer from various John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy efforts to early Louis Armstrong live gigs that may not have been released legitimately even if you would think such an audience existed for it. But this Coleman album's pretty boffo, perhaps even improved by the reel-to-reel in the audience live sound that adds a certain feral element to the performance, and a good one it most certainly is.

Credits are sketchy ("early sixties" is given as the recording date, the venue unknown and the band lineup nonexistent) and the song listing ("Ornette's Suite" parts one and two) totally inaccurate as these efforts and themes have appeared on a variety of Coleman releases. But when ya plunk the needle down ya get a good fifty-five-plus minutes of music that really does stretch out into the clogged corners of your mind. I even get the idea that you'll wonder just how you managed to spend your entire life without this, it's that much a part of the Coleman "canon" as his legit efforts. 

And although I am pretty sure STATING THE CASE has been legitimately released in the interim ya just can't help but thank Jazz Anthology for making the thing available at a time when jazz was starting to regain some of its feeling after years of bloated DOWN BEAT inertia dragging everything down to a Wynton Marsalis level of bowties and flowery flamingo sounds. Worth a search and come to think of it, a definitive jazz bootleg article would be welcome on this (or any other) blog. Any takers out there?

If any of you happen to come across Coleman's BROADCASTS on the J For Jazz label pick it up as well. It's got a snat cover with iffy liner notes from a Harris Venuti whoever he is. It also has THE EXACT SAME MUSIC that appears on STATING THE CASE and with equally dubious credits! But hey, I know you guys out there want everything you can get by Coleman and I'm not crying over the dupe so why should you?

After buying, digesting and ultimately filing away the above albums I found two outta three Charles Mingus bootlegs that really have filled my bill so-to-speak, Released on the Eyetalian Ingo lable, three volumes of this April '64 show were released --- managed to get the second and third 'un's and although the first volume entitled HOPE SO, ERIC remains outta my grasp at press time the other two, FABLES OF FAUBUS and PARKERIANA are firmly entrenched within and I gotta say that I feel lucky enough that even those have been obtained by me in the ol' here and now even if I should have had 'em in the there and then.

Sound's usual bootleg flat (though would still be rated an "excellent" by HOT WACKS) but is fine enough for a hard-edged fanatic who'll listen through virtual blizzards of distortion to get to the meat of the matter. And really, what sorta new thing jazzbo type wouldn't want to hear an entire album featuring the classic ode to the Arkansas segregationist (who I remember tried to make a comeback in the mid-eighties all apologetic about his political past making me wonder if he ever heard this composition!) complete with some great piano from Jacki Byard and reed-destruction courtesy Eric Dolphy who was only a couple of months away from that big gig inna sky. 

The side longs on Volume Three are as memorable a part of the Mingus/Dolphy legend as such mindwowzers as THE BLACK SAINT AND SINNER LADY (really!), especially on "Meditations" which gets into one of those clouds of sound that foreshadows various Art Ensemble of Chicago moodgropes that were maybe not-so-clearly on the horizon. Both are much needed even in your own nascent jazz collection and for bootleg hounds like myself well, wow-whee!

***

If you have any semblance of a soul left you'll want 'em all, just like you want a whole slew of bootlegs that I will probably be fillin' ya in on once the next "Bootleg Bragadoccio" hits the screens a whole lot sooner than you'll care but wha' th' hey? Until then, count your pennies and who knows, maybe that old dusty head shop or "alternative" book store with the back room is still in business lo these many years later and like, they're probably still too stoned to know that there are a few dozen uncracked crates from TMOQ just moiling in between the unsold Anais Nin porn and Paul Ehrich Chicken Little rewrites one's bound to find in these shops lo these many years later!

___________________________________________________

*'s funny, because I recall hating her playing way back when the gal was up and about...musta been the budding anti-folkie in me.

COMIC BOOK REVIEW! IVAN TORS' GENTLE BEN #4 (DELL COMICS)

This 'un reminds me of that old joke that was goin' 'round a few years back, the one about that old tee-vee show where a Jewish family adopted a Christian bear---GENTILE BEN! Hokay, only someone with a cornballus sense of hummus such as myself can appreciate a gag such as that, but I do recall watching this Sunday night program back during my single digit days an' fer the life of me I can't recall appreciating the thing one darn bit! At least when Walt Disney was filling up the Sunday night cathode connection there might be a cartoon in it but all ya got here was Ronny Howard's little brother walking around with some bear and his father used to be on GUNSMOKE and we all wonder why he left it because his career sure didn't seem so hot until he starred in McCLOUD 'n by that time he was startin' to look old anyway. 

Well at least GENTLE BEN spawned a comic series from Dell from their later-on days after Western Printing decided to form Gold Key thus leaving 'em inna lurch, and this comic echoed every bit of mundane triteness the series had successfully transferring it to the comic book medium without one beat being skipped. 

I dunno, maybe I have such a feh opinion of the series because for me Sunday night only meant Monday morning school which is why everything from ED SULLIVAN to BONANZA holds creepy kidhood memories for me. All these centuries later I still have weirditie feelings about GENTLE BEN, like this was supposed to be the kinda show I was supposed to watch so I watched it if only to placate the oldsters in my life plus I hadda look forward to another week of degradation thinkin' about it all while plopped in front of the boob tube...yech! The nature angle was way too dull for a ranch house suburban slob such as me as well, though next to an outright turdster like LINCOLN VALE OF THE EVERGLADES it was kinda sturdy sorta as Beaver woulda put it.

The sagas in his particular ish are as blanded out the tee-vee show what with youth identification character Mark and pet bear Ben getting set adrift on an old beat up houseboat and being accused of swiping a purse from some stuck up city lady and things like that. I think that the best of these stories is the final one where some mean kid is shooting arrows at the preserve and taunts Mark for being such a hick, until he gets into a pickle himself and has to be rescued by Ben. It's good if only for the appearance of the Eddie Haskell-ish antagonist (who doesn't have the admirable negativity of Our Hero but is still irritable enough), though if I were to write the story I woulda left that bigmouth stranded in the middle of the lake to rot if only to teach him a lesson! Hey, Dell didn't subscribe to the Comics Code so maybe they woulda gotten away with that even if for the most part they were more timid'n even Harvey!

Artwork's typically post-Gold Key Dell dull and the stories coulda used some more paprika in 'em. But eh, how else are you gonna relive those laze-about summer afternoon days without a book like this! Sure brought back some youthful memories of times that coulda been better but wha' th' hey, as well as make me wonder why Dennis Weaver left GUNSMOKE inna first place because like the show wasn't the same without him and Festus seemed like a total slob in comparison. And come to think of it, by that time that other Sunday night perennial LASSIE wasn't so hot either without some kid onna farm to get into adventures with but eh, alla that great fifties/early-sixties kid action and adventure tee-vee wasn't quite the same once the hippoids started stinkin' up the place so what else was new?

Like dogs with especially cold noses, these weekend posts can really sneak up on ya! An' why should any of ya complain since well, it's one way for your pooch to say howdy to ya and besides they're really good at tellin' when some female acquaintance is gonna have that special monthly visitor we all know about and fear (that's when doggie starts running away with that high pitched yip-like warning!). Yes, maybe we should have plenty more dogs around us to make sure we know when to herd the missus into the special padded cell for a few days of misery on her part but peace and quiet on ours!

Anyway, welcome to another edition of BLOG TO COMM and although I would like to say that this is a very special entry into the canon it obviously ain't! But as far as being fair to middling well, I won't complain about that --- pretty pedestrian if you ask me. Spent my ever-dwindling free time searching out old faves to play amidst the newies, having zilch luck trying to find a few that I was interested in re-spinning such as MESSTHETICS GREATEST HISS (having the "Greatest Hits" one nearby does help a bit considering how the Puritan Guitars are perhaps my faverave group of the week), but as R. Meltzer once said "wha' th' hey". At least what I have been listening to continues to reaffirm not only my life being but general will to go on, and if you wanna blame anyone for my will to survive blame the music f'r once! 

***

As usual, gotta give thanx to those who thanxed me with these goodies, most namely Bill Shute, Bob Forward and Paul McGarry. No special thanx goes to an EX friend of the blog who, probably in a fit of self-righteous flakeitude, disowned having even known me he having decided to side with the eternal enemies of not only me but what I stand for which may not be "popular" or "cool" but certainly are not destined for that ash heap of history ol Barack O used to talk about. Eh, the pickings were slim and anyway I ain't gonna mention this turncoat's name lest I sully up this blog QUITE A BIT. Smarter folk out there will know who I'm referring to, obviously.

Sun Ra and his Mythic Science Arkestra-THE PARIS TAPES 2-CD-r set burn (originally on Kindred Spirits Records)

Never could catch up with these Sun Ra releases and this live effort from '71 (although released in 2010) is but another good one to have and to hold.  I gotta say that these early-seventies Sun Ra albums seem to be some of my favorites and this live effort is no different, what with a heavier than usual percussive bent to it which really does get me into a particularly deep NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC mood. Not quite enough John Gilmore or Marshall Allen for my tastes, but the early analog synth squalls and overall tension always seemed to do this body well and continues to even thought I've grown up since the days my cyster ruined my high stool electronic music term paper what with the "Sien Ra" typo 'n all. As if I'll ever forget her and forget it for that matter, right Brad?

***

John Cale/Tony Conrad/Angus Maclise/LaMonte Young/Marian Zazeela-INSIDE THE DREAM SYNDICATE VOLUME  1: DAY OF NIAGARA (1965) CD (Table of the Elements Records)

Upon first spin a good decade or two back I just wasn't in the mood. But that drone sure didn't seem so monotonal once I settled back, picked up an old TV GUIDE to peruse, and sorta let the sounds settle into me. Worked swell. The original Theatre of Eternal Music more or less trying to make even John Cage come off sounding normil. Roots of everything from the Velvet Underground and Stooges to alla those boring performance artists of the eighties can be discerned even without tweaking your parameters in order to "get it".

***

Various Artists-TOKYO FLASHBACK VOL. 5 CD (Modern Music/P.S.F. Records Japan)

It's always good getting a dose of this Japanese neu-psychedelic hard rock into my system, especially at a time when such music seems to be rather sparse if not outright banned! Yeah, this collection contains even more of that hard nova sound which, when not heading into the pure realm of atonal cut up,  always came off like the best the closing moments of the sixties hadda offer! Some familiar names here such as White Heaven, Overhang Party and Suisho No Fune (coulda used some Les Rallizes Denudes but we can't have nearly everything in our lives) are intermingled with acts that have slipped through my typically sieve-like mind and well, if this cold steel shank of aural indulgence just doesn't stab you in your musical psyche like it SHOULD I guess there is no help for you, sweetie!

***

Ya Ho Wa 13-PENETRATION, AN AQUARIAN SYMPHONY CD-r burn (originally on Higher Key Records)

Didn't care for it that much back when I first heard it, but thirtysome years later I actually got a bitta a kick outta this crazed fambly outing worthy of Manson or at least Amon Duul I. Now it ain't that freakazoid communal, but PENETRATION does have its share of whacked out repeato-riff rock that kept my attention while the third portion of this "symphony" had this nice squeaky violin added to the hard thud beat that kinda reminded me of some doofoid English teenbos in the late-seventies tryin' their best to ape certain Velvets moves and press it up complete with a home-made sleeve. I'll probably never listen to this again but will admit that my opinion has, er, changed some o'er the years.

***

DMZ CD-r burn (originally on Sire Records)

This McGarry burn popped up inna pile and kinda made me feel guilty o'er not playing either my vinyl or Cee-Dee proper version for quite some time. 's too bad that this platter, like fellow Bostonian efforts from the Sidewinders, Reddy Teddy and other worthies, hadda get shoved to the side during the Golden Age of Seventies Record Bin Plunging while lesser efforts clogged up the charts and subsequent flea market pules. Like those other Boston-area efforts this holds up really well, enough that I can see just how these guys got a bigtime deal at a time when it wasn't like the major labels were that eager to bank their bucks on rock 'n roll. Interesting fact --- according to producers Flo and Eddie, the porcine former Turtles were the ones who taught DMZ the Wailers Classic "Out Of Our Tree", a song the duo first heard when playing a bill with the legendary Northwest group and eventually performed during their Reprise records day! Wow!

***

Various Artists-IN THE NAME OF THUNDERBALL CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Mixie-moshier than usual, but still funzie-wunzie. Some big names like Johnny Nash and 3/4ths of the Monkees in different guises pop up and we do get some strangeties like a soppoid version of "Fools Rush In" produced by famous shower taker Huey Meaux. And yeah, it all makes for a good diversion from this boring thing we call life. A couple PEBBLES/BOULDERS things in the guise of the Gentlemen and Basooties pop up, the latter doing their version of Zappa's "You Didn't Try To Call Me" that might make more'n a few Mother Peoples' ears pop up. And for all you cheezoids out there, this thing ends with Billy Strange's very own rendition of the theme from the infamous moom pitcher none of us were allowed to see when it made it to tee-vee, namely THUNDERBALL.

***

Still have a buncha these back issues of BLACK TO COMM to unload on you unsuspecting menials who probably think that ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY is the last word in haute spare time activity wasting. Hey, if you wanna waste your time you can't do better'n these, so like what is keeping you fools and your monies from being soon parted anyway?

COMIC BOOK REVIEW! BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #69, APRIL 1977 ISSUE (Western Publishing)

When I was just clocking my way into the double digits you can bet your kajoobies that BELIEVE IT OR NOT was one of my fave-rave reads! Well, it was along with NANCY, DENNIS THE MENACE and of course those magazines which they always hadda put higher up onna racks only us kids were tall enough to peek into 'em anyway. My kiddoid mind was really wowed by the various (and true!) items that were presented within the pages of those easy-to-find paperback collections what with the strange historical facts to be found therein as well as the various bits of scientific facts that we all grew up with like peanuts are neither peas nor nuts, moths have no mouths and eat too much asparagus and you'll really have a hard time making the bathroom smell nice and dainty!

Of course my favorite BELIEVE IT OR NOT factoids where the ones which tended to get rather extreme in their efforts so-to-speak. Like the one that went something like "John Jehoshaphat, a career criminal, was sentenced to be executed in 1300, however when the executioner failed to show he was pardoned! A fellow inmate at the prison volunteered to do the head chopping, and it took him fifty-nine swings before the head finally came off!" Sure I exaggerate a bit, but when yer a pre-teenbo suburban slob ranch house kiddie things like this really do strike a nice 'n ghoulish inner chord with ya!

But when I read my first BELIEVE IT OR NOT! comic book which I scored in an early-seventies flea market/garage sale sweep one Sunday afternoon you could say that I was not pleased. The artwork was definitely not of the standard comic page variety and the stories were --- shall we say --- more comic book-y in that Gold Key style that I didn't quite care for. Worse yet there was nada of that blood and dismemberment that really appealed to my finer sense of being. 

Yeah, I know that Gold Key (later on Western) did not subscribe to the Comics Code, but still their stories were so pedestrian making me wonder just how could a kid who was digging those old Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko pre-superhero reprints really get absorbed into 'em? Sheesh, I'll take any of those DC and Marvel ARCHIE swipes with the Stan Goldberg faux-Dan DeCarlo artwork and definitely in need of a few creative writing classes stories over these grade-z turdsville sagas I'll tell ya!

Now that I have an older and hopefully have a more developed brain than I did during my adlo days I find BELIEVE IT OR NOT! a bit more entertaining. The definitely non-Ripley art is still comparatively tame next to the competition but I now find the stories at least readable and entertaining. Unfortunately there ain't no decapitations or poisonous rabbits to contend with here but we can't have everything I guess.

Maybe I should tell you that the subtitle of BELIEVE IT OR NOT! is "True Ghost Stories" so that's undoubtedly why none of the good grisly stuff is to be found here. But if you like a good enough ghost story and not the kind they mention in "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" you might find yourself eking some youthful fun 'n jamz outta these comics! Even if the conclusions are telegraphed pages in advance and with a subtitle like that just how far can one go without getting quite redundant anyway.

"When Hands Reach Out" takes place in 1434 England when Lord Berry was plagued by a pair of ghostly hands threatening him alla the time. An' if you don't think that some past misdeed of Berry was the cause of this supernatural travail you would certainly be in the wrong as usual. "The Tortured Spirit" tells of a 19th century case of possession in China when an evil force overtakes the body of a young man who, after being possessed, suddenly becomes a rather neat kinda guy if ya ask me! 

And then there's "Death Leap" a true-to-life saga from mid-nineteenth century India where an English Lieutenant sees a Captain race on his horse over a cliff only to disappear. Turns out the ol' Cap died a year earlier and given that the horse left no footprints it's obvious that a little ghost play was in store for whatever occult reason this soldier must repeatedly jump the cliff.

Hmmmm, the last story in this ish has a nice bit of tension to it. "The Day You Die" is the saga of a pampered pooch of a rich kid in 1631 England who consults a conjurer of some sorts to find out when his rich daddy was gonna check into the big castle inna sky, only the mystic summons up the spirit of a recently deceased man who sure doesn't take kindly to being disturbed even if he was only buried that morning! I mean, maybe if he was dead a hundred years I can understand, but sheesh he didn't even have the time to spoil!

So yeah, even with the predictability of it all these BELIEVE IT OR NOT! comics did have the right sorta suburban slob entertainment value to 'em. Of course I woulda preferred reading about that one bad guy who was cut up into six pieces and hanged on six different gallows, but I guess back then they had enough taste not to do anything that outrageous. Drat!

IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE, LET'S PUKE!

All set for another weekend round of BLOG TO COMM now, eh? Didn't think so, but yer stuck with a post anyway ya sissies!

As usual I will try to do my best despite my inherent triteness and general grouchiness with regards to this world of ours, something which at times seeps into the mix whether I want it to or not. Bought a newie, popped open an oldie that was still sealed, and got a few from Paul 'n Bill who really know who to kowtow to!

Mebbee I should mention some uppa date things in order to look hip and with it. Not that I have to look so since everybody out there with a noggin knows that I am, but whadevva...  Like, howzbout that prez we have there...like, wotta guy! And that Mideast situation...wow! And as far as the Chinese Gongo thingie is progressing...mahvelous!!! Who sez this blogmeister is stuck in some self-imposed fantasy world where his horseblindered state of cranial connectivity is far beneath the ken of your average nu-hippie radical who probably got his radical cred watching POTEMKIN on PBS!

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Hokay that dint quite work out so swell. Howzbout I relate one of my rock 'n roll dreams, or one rather mish-moshy one that not only had me buying items  that were being sold by Miriam Linna at some record fair (!!!!!- got a good mid-seventies single rarity outta the deal) but one where the theme, time frame and entire mode changed within the very realm of my subconscious making for a saga that woulda even stymied Robert Cornell! 

I am old, I am thin but then again I'm young and fat then once again thin with greasy hair down my back looking kinda like a hood, though I think that maybe I wasn't back to being thin by this time. It keeps changing. I'm in a rock club, or am I watching a video of a group? Who knows, but they're a very good act playing a straight-ahead rock beat led by a lead singer who for all intent purposes looks a whole lot like Phil Silvers! Or at least your standard midaged bald guy with horn-rimmed spectacles only he's wearing wire rims, singing away and swaying as his backing act put out a heavy drone worthy of any of your hard rock 60s/70s cusp faves. The whole group is dressed in old man suits as well, and then suddenly I see an earlier edition of the group where the singer is now drumming and singing --- on guitar is his brother who looks equally midaged bald but they're still pretty entertaining at that. And then all of a sudden the scene switches to the group hanging out in CAMBODIA a whopping four decades back, and the singer/drummer is seen looking about the same age only with a slightly receding hairline (top portion greased back) as the five-piece group is clumped up oceanside in some exotic locale having a good time judging from their laughs. Sure is weird enough even for my strained psyche, but not as strange as the one Brad Kohler had where he is visited by a number of Jews collecting for some cause and they're all dressed up like Nazis because, well, we shouldn't forget the past. Only a few of the faux Nazis were sporting Throbbing Gristle lightning bolts 'stead of swastikas for some strange reason...

John Cale-VINTAGE VIOLENCE CD (Columbia Legacy Records)

Remember reading the above ad and wanting to hear this album soooo bad? I sure do. And remember actually giving VINTAGE VIOLENCE a twirl and being quite disappointed? Ditto here.

But then again that was long before my frontal lobes (talkin' brain, not boobs!) were fully developed and I was still thinking like the spiritual turdler that I was and in many ways remain. Nowadays I find VINTAGE VIOLENCE to be a pretty good effort 'n the kind we should have expected from John Cale even after all that carnage he spewed on those Velvet Underground and Nico albums. Heck, I find this one as good as PARIS 1919 and even FEAR and much better'n those subsequent Island efforts that never seemed to deliver on just what a whole load of us wanted from this bonafeed genius,. Naturally I am not using that word too lightly unlike many of you overzealous rockcrit types usedta (and maybe still do f'r all I know).

Ya might consider VINTAGE VIOLENCE just more of that early-seventies singer/songwriter jive, the kind that alla those iron-haired gals in high stool used to drool over and you agreed with 'em if only to get some trim as Don Fellman still puts it! Naw, this ain't the James Taylor sorta junkied up emote that was part and parcel to many a record collection at the time but a solid, mature and downright intense in its own intimate way album that, while not the braindrill I was expecting way back when, still sounds a hefty lot better'n the rest of the cry over a broken flower types who were singin' 'bout fire 'n rain making destitute teenage gals with deadly diseases feel sorry for 'em.

Best thing of all is that you don't have to hide your emotions while listening to these straightforward sounds which seem to hit me a whole lot more on-target than many of the aforementioned types of bazillionaire minstrels with sorry eyes and needled up arms. C'mon, you can sniffle a bit when absorbing the acoustic guitar strains of "Amsterdam" and chill to "Ghost Story" which would go well with a reading of any classic late-sixties Marvel gothic horror comic you can think of, one hopefully delineated by Jim Steranko.  These toons may not be as hard-on as WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT but they sure come off as early-seventies straight ahead as the Flamin' Groovies!

The bonus tracks on the Cee-Dee will make you old fogeys with the original still proudly displayed in your collections dish out for a new 'un, what with an alternative of the barrelhouse rockin' "Fairweather Friend" as well as an all new track called "Wall", a gaggle of overdubbed viola that sounds as if it coulda been a backing track on THE MARBLE INDEX. And like, considering some of the things Lou Reed spewed out as his legend got bigger 'n bigger this might as well have been WL/WH for all I care!

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John Cale-HOBOSAPIENS CD (EMI Records)

Well Brad, I finally opened it and like well, it ain't as bad a platter as I woulda thunk it to be. But sheesh, it sure sounds exactly like what you expected these sixties/seventies geniuses to sound like once the eighties got in gear and like, it does have that air of syntho-gloss that never did figure in well with those art rock efforts that became so laughable once 1980 rolled around. Trouble is, I'm not exactly laughing at the more technoglitzy tracks. Kinda instrospective and even kinda boring, but I gotta admit that HOBOSAPIENS does have a tad of the spirit and verve that made some of those seventies albums worth playing over and over again. Unlike what I'm gonna do with this 'un but wha' th' hey...

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Rob Brown Trio-BREATH RHYME CD-r burn (originally on Silkheart Records)

Sometimes I happen to wander past some jazz radio station and cringe at the kinda bowties 'n nosh music that gets played on 'em. Then I go home and slap something like BREATH RHYME  on and the entire mystery of jazz as that flowing ooze of rhythm and cries from the deepest cracks of the brain just come roaring back. Highly reminiscent of some of the post-retirement Blue Note-era Ornette albums, and with sidemen like bassist William Parker and drummer Dennis Charles let's just say this ain't gonna sound like any of those "jazz" thingies you hear on late-night comedy talk shows!

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Stan Ridgeway-THE DRYWALL INCIDENT 2-CD-r set (originally on TWA Records)

For being a soundtrack to a "short" film these two platters sure pack a lotta music into them. But since I never was a fan of either Stan nor his various aggregations I can't say that I really enjoyed this brand of neo-wave electronic sound as much as I'm sure Paul McGarry woulda liked given he sent this burn to me way back when.  I get the feeling that the average type of warm blooded (I think) creature who would enjoy these synthesized sonatas still has the entire IRS records catalog firmly intact in his/her/its collection and, if previous happenstances in my life are to be believed, a body odor that could ream even the most clogged of sinuses around. 

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Various Artists-CAZUMBI --- AFRICAN SIXTIES GARAGE, VOL. 1 Cd-r burn (originally on No Smoke Records)

Once again Paul McGarry was NOT PAYING ATTENTION when he sent me a burn of this collection of African Nuggets since I reviewed an actual vinyl copy of this 'un when it came out way back 2008 way. Eh, the thing was staring me inna face as I was cleaning out the bedroom so I figured another evaluation of it might just be the thing and y'know --- it WAS!

As any Arthur Lee fan can tell you, listening to black guys imitating white guys imitating black guys really can be an experience and these bands really do get the sixties madness down pat. Like, this dude called Dr. Nico coulda been some wildass singer who coulda made an appearance on BACK FROM THE GRAVE while Conjunto De Oliveira Muga's "Sospesa Ad Un Filo" is as teenbo addled as the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" it was obviously taken from! And hey, I had no idea that one of those freak "Them" spinoffs ended up in Africa, but their "I Want To Be Rich Again" is just as bloozy rockin' as anything the original Them with Van (or some of those immediate offspring) could get!

Most of it ain't as over-the-top as these tracks unless you prefer the more folky, commercial pop aspects of late-sixties radio. However, ya gotta admit they do one swell in the way they capture various English and Amerigan styles and echo 'em for a local clientele that I'm sure was way more sophisticated than any of those NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC types woulda ever guessed. 'n so, if you missed out on this when it came out I guess you can latch onto a copy, maybe even a free download, with a little expert duckduckgoin'. Proof that alla that jungle music you used to hear in Tarzan movies was the beginning of even greater things to come.

('n for ya vinyl freaks, this just might be worth the additional $$$ if only for the bonus tracks!)

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The New Colony Six-AT THE RIVER'S EDGE CD (Sundazed Records)

An oldie I dragged outta the collection in order to boost this post up a li'l. An' a good choice too considering how these guys were a pretty solid pop/garage band before heading for late-sixties Top 40 gloppiness that I still find kinda pleasant in its own way. Hints of the latterday group can be picked outta the pile even this early inna game, but the general twang guitar sounds and teenage Chicago style ('n I'm talkin' the city of 1966, not the overladen group of the same name!) recall the teenage days of slot cars and campy tee-vee shows a whole lot more than it does the late-sixties of mind-blown miasma. Best bet yet : the title track which was one of those PEBBLES tracks that really stuck in my cranium these past fortysome years!

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Various Artists-FOXY TWILIGHT CARNIVAL THUNDER CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

The plethora of sixties instrumental rock certainly got my head a'spinnin', and between those and the down groove garage band weepers Bill seems to admire so much (and why not?) this made for a great backdrop to some day-off room cleaning. The appearance of some rare English psychedelic popsters with a strong Syd Barrett bent to 'em also got my attention (didn't know Blossom Toes were so against the grain of the usual floppy peacenlove scam sounds of the time and with a name like THAT...). I didn't find the long lost in the rubble item I was looking for, but I did find myself in for a good piece of musical stimulation that helps me get over my general disappointment!

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Don't worry --- with the upcoming nice 'n warm weather we're bound to get you can still think up original ideas in order to stay in your cramped boudoir and read back issues of BLACK TO COMM. C'mon, if you can use your grey matter to think up interesting ways to cheat on your taxes and placate your guilty conscience you can conjure up good enough reasons to buy one or all of the copies oft is legendary (for all the wrong reasons) fanzines that are still left. Sheesh, I am disgusted with ya an' I do mean it!

COMIC BOOK REVIEW! CHAMBER OF CHILLS #23, JULY 1976 ISSUE (Marvel Comics  Group)

I sure as dickens used to like those seventies-era Marvel Kirby/Ditko/Ayers reprint titles as anyone who's read issue #22 of my crudzine could tell you. So it was with delight that I accepted from none other than Bill Shute this issue of CHAMBER OF CHILLS, one of the later-on titles that unlike the Monsters and Creatures on the Prowl or Roaming or whatever titles actually ran a few of the pre-code horror comics after the code was relaxed somewhat.

So no "Groon" or "Googam" here but you'll still get your thrills beginning with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's "Where Lurks the Ghost!" from TALES TO ASTONISH #25, a mag which surprisingly came out the exact same month as the first issue of FANTASTIC FOUR. It's a strangeoid mystery tale that of course you can figure out by merely reading the first few panels but it's always great for me to espy Ditko's work which was always eye-catching in its definitely non-megalopian way whether Ditko was presenting some supernatural thriller or Mr. A. refusing to rescue some wrongdoer dangling off a precipice. 

"Bat's Tale" dates from the pre-code Atlas days and features artwork from the infamous Russ Heath of NATIONAL LAMPOON fame though you know him better for drawing "Plastic Sam" in an early issue of MAD. A tale of a roving band of vampires who look more or less like Man Bat types, these bloodsucking creatures meet their match when their most recent prey turns out to be more'n the chubboid midaged fanabla he looks like.

Longtime DAREDEVIL artist Gene Colan drew "The Men in the Morgue" which deals with some gangsters who commit murder and decide to hide out in a morgue where they take the mortician's dog as hostage! It's a good enough one even with the various holes one tends to find in tales such as this.

However the cover saga "Gorilla Man" has NADA to do with the updated artwork featured on the cover which will give Brad Kohler even more conniptions as to when these stories really originated! Just look at the cover tho because the story really ain't as hotcha as one woulda expected with a man having nightmares about a half human/half beast and his ultimate confrontation with such a flub-a-dub in the wilds of darker than usual Africa. Not that hotcha a way to end a comic title such as this but eh, I guess Marvel couldn't get away with reprinting some of the more out-there pre-code titles that many fans sure wished they coulda (though were the Atlas titles as over-the-top as the EC's they drew some of their inspiration from? Never did read a pre-code Atlas horror story that wasn't reprinted in one of these seventies mags!).

Another proud addendum to the BLOG TO COMM comic book collection which I hope Dr. Wertham would not approve of, though I'm sure that during his addled later days he woulda found it all just fine 'cept for the ARCADEs with S. Clay Wilson 'r sum'thin'.

Yeah this was a weirditie of a week. Did any of you 'round here see the snow shower we got on Mother's Day, the time of year which usually signals to me that school vacation can't be that far around the corner? Then it got all nice and sunny reminding me of those times when I was but a mere turdler and I'd get to pick out some toy at the department store and play with it to my heart's content for the rest of the day. Sometimes seeing the way the sun shines on those beautiful ranch houses sure oozes out those great growing up memories that sure resonate in me even lo these many years down the line. I guess once you get as old as I am that's all you really have anymore are them memories because as we all know THEM DAYZE ARE GONE FOREVER AND YA KNOW IT!

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Given how sluggish the week has been I decided to spend my ever-dwindling free time  re-re-RE-reading some of my old fave mags which have fallen by the wayside or got stuck into manila envelopes in a vain attempt to preserve them somewhat. In the course of trying to get all of my issues of CREEM in one place for easy ref I managed to dredge up their special edition Summer 1981 heavy metal issue which I gotta say (against my better judgement) was perhaps that mag's wailing swan song to just about everything that those ozobs stood for the previous decade or so. Yes it is a good with the usual crud acts mentioned on the cover (yes, people would actually buy a mag if Van Halen were plastered front and center) but amid the Pat Benetar and Ted Nugent wretching there are some pretty hefty moments that are still relevant to the BLOG TO COMM philosophy which is only a step or two removed from the Playboy one, but oh what a step! (Let's just say that instead of using Nietzsche as our basis Joe Besser would do just fine.)

David DiMartino was always my idea of what was wrong with the post-Bangs CREEM which devoted itself to trying in the vaguest of ways to keep the gonz spirit alive while felching the big record companies at the expense of fresh music and ideas for that matter, but here he actually does himself a body good with his metal history which prominently features the likes of the Detroit histrionics specialists and Lou amid various acts supposed heavy metal expert Andy Secher never heard of. Gotta give DiMartino his due for including such faveraves as the Pink Fairies and Moby Grape in his list, plus even remotely trying to link up everyone from Amon Duul I to Big Brother and the Holding Company's "Oh Sweet Mary" to the metallic lexicon should earn him some sorta major no prize. (And mentioning METAL MACHINE MUSIC as an important statement in HM history sure does make me wonder what the average HIT PARADER aficionado would have thought had they come upon this special issue way back when!) 

Sure DiMartino had the audacity to tie in the slick smarm music of Van Halen with the brutal truth of Iggy and the Stooges but eh, at least he name dropped the kinda acts that do, and perhaps in a few cases should, adorn the collections of each and every doofus who tunes into this blog. Some jerk out there was reading this and took plenty of notes, ifyaknowaddamean...  

But whadevva, this is one mag that brought back vivid memories of reading this very issue at the stands way back when, a time when dishing out $2.95 for this quickeroo was something that would really have set this depression-era wages fanabla back quite a bit.

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If it weren't for Paul McGarry, Bob Forward and Bill Shute well, the world would be an entirely different place. And if any of you say for the better you can be I'll be comin' 'round to knock your block off! Instead of being oh so smug about things why don't you read the following reviews and enlighten yourself in ways the Maharaj Ji never even thought of!

Herbie Hancock-TAKIN' OFF CD-r burn (originally on Blue Note Records) 

Long before he went funky and not-so long before he recorded some avgarde platters that have been highly recommended to me, Herbie Hancock was playing some pretty straightforward bop that might have even made the bowtie on Leonard Feather do a few twirls. You strict free splatter types will probably think TAKIN' OFF sounds really martinis and nosh but I personally find it a solid slab o' good enough early-sixties music not as striking as Coltrane or Dolphy but better'n some of the fluff that era was known to spew. Features some names you might be familiar with...Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard and Billy Higgins (I'm not too fam. with Butch Warren tho I get the impression Bill Shute will enlighten me real soon...).

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The Fundamentalists-THE CIVILIZED HORSE CD-r burn (Walls Flowing Records)

Bob Forward proves he's just as backwards as some of these bedroom avgarde practitioners I've come across tend to be, but only in a forward way. A mix of various sound kadiddles that might sound leaden and (dare I say) "masturabatory" to some, but the guitar scrawls did remind me somewhat of Loren Conners playing with a dozen electrode attached to him during the middle of an electrical storm while the percussion tracks sounded like something Andrew Cyrille might have worked out after a serious bout of rigor mortis. As far as the sound collages go --- just try presenting those in some junior college music appreciation class and see what happens to YOU, Bob!

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Human Arts Ensemble-UNDER THE SUN CD (Freedom Records, Japan)

T'was awful neat of Freedom to release this one on disque but why not WHISPER OF DHARMA? Woulda made a great twofa-type collection for those of us into the whole BAG mode. Hefty mid-Eastern rhythms mix with a true funk punk demeanor kinda giving you the impression that you're somewhere in Mecca trying to score heroin. Not as good as the FUNKY DONKEY album which still gets a bit of play 'round here but solid enough for those of you who like the way the HAE mixed up their free jazz with some pretty good hard-urban sound-grooves. Features the usual BAG gang....Oliver Lake, James and Carol Marshall, Charles Bobo Shaw, Marty Ehrlich etc., as well as a surprise appearance from Lester Bowie.

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THE FRANK POPP ENSEMBLE CD-r burn (originally on U.M.T.V. Records)

Rehash of various sixties soul moves that might dredge up a few rheumy memories of somethingorother inside your brain. For me it's pretty on-target if rather standardized tamebo listening that doesn't stir up any unbridled emotions of pure rage like music should. Somehow I get the feeling that you just might find you tapping toe to it when your guard's let down. Better watch it before your chic-er than thou enemies find out --- boy will they razz you from here to Bizoo and back!

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White Fence-FOR THE RECENTLY FOUND INNOCENT CD-r burn (originally on Drag City Records)

A retro psych-pop effort from the snazzily named Tim Presley that oozes more originality than put on paens to long gone bargain bin thrills. It has a particularly English bent to it which should appeal to the CHOCOLATE SOUP FOR DIABETICS/RUBBLE fans and followers, and it's so on-target that even the English accents don't sound phonus balonus to me. Sure it ain't Syd Barrett but then again what is these days?

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Alan Sondheim-RITUAL-ALL-7-70 CD (ESP disk/ZYX Records, Germany)

Pulled this one outta the heap if only so's I could bolster this week's review total, and what a choice I made! I never did understand exactly where the music of Sondheim during those days (two platters on ESP, one on Riverboat) was coming from but given the use of horns I'd assume it was the new jazz thing. And you get plenty of that on this side which free bops around in the kinda fashion you woulda thunk Maynard G. Krebs woulda under the effect of nutmeg. Thirteen (mostly) brief cantinas of soundsplurge that I'm sure most of you reg'lar readers are familiar with, or have I pegged you guys wrong again (and yeah, one thing you guys need is a good pegging!).

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Various Artists-CHILLY SCENES OF ROACHES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Bill delves into his usual obsessions from pre-Mandrell country music to weird audio esoterica that only a well-developed mind as Bill's can comprehend. Some of it will make ya puke like the tribute to famed spoiled brat rich kid "John John" Kennedy to the faux soul that makes me wanna wear one of those scarves that Fred on SCOOBY DOO had affixed to his neck for years. If you're a fan of obscure instrumental sides, teen idol wannabes, stoopid seventies Slurpee ads and local country twangs (I think Lucille Bassett is the closest anyone female's come to the Peter Stampfel singing style even if he stole it from Grandpa Jones) you'll find this an even better soundtrack for that fart-encrusted party you'll be holding in your boudoir this very evening!

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Are you ready for some real solid rock journalism the kind that ROLLING STONE made their moolah with emptying the coffers of many a smarter than their parents kiddoids way back inna early seventies? Well if so, DON'T buy any of these back issues of BLACK TO COMM but if you really do wanna spend your shekels I can't think of a better place for your cash to go towards, if you get my drift.

COMIC BOOK REVIEW! O.G. WHIZ #3, AUGUST 1971 ISSUE (Gold Key Comics)

Boy does this comic book dredge up the ol' memories. And by that I mean memories of NOT reading this particular title if you can believe it! Y'see, thanks to the iron fist of parental demand during my adolescent suburban slob days there were words that my cyster and I were definitely not permitted to use, and other than the actual hard breaking the second commandment and various excremental/sexual words oft used by careless elders and those bad kids in the neighborhood the various cheap knockoffs of said words were strictly verboten! That included such seemingly innocent terms like "gosh darn", "cripes", "gol ding ya", "sheesh" maybe and the ever popular "gee whiz"! Sure they sounded rather tame next to the original takes (tho the folk never did catch onto the true meaning of "hot stuff"!) but the utterance of even these rather innocuous exclamations was bound to get either of us the ol' beady eyed look!

So that's why I never did pick up a copy of O.G.WHIZ back when it was up 'n about at the Dimoff's comic book rack way back inna early-seventies. For some reason or another I woulda thought mom 'n dad woulda been more pleased to see an issue of ZAP! than this Gold Key comic with the controversial title lyin' on the bed. And judging from the covers I had espied of O.G. WHIZ I thought this kinda comic woulda been exactlly the thing the elders woulda wanted me to be reading --- funny innocuous cartoons made for kids about kids with lotsa fun gags 'n adventures to be had. Not that you couldn't find any adventures kids woulda liked inna pages of ZAP!...

The title character's a kid who happens to be president of a large toy company and bereft of an origin story I don't know how he acquired such a lofty position. However, a mean grownup appropriately named Mr. Thutnose is doing his underhanded best to have Whiz gone so he can rule the Tikkletoy company naturally flopping about badly as he usually snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. Thankfully there is a grownup on Whiz's side, a Miss Trinket who is young and cute and, like yer very own kindergarten teacher, would definitely win the hearts of any lovesick Wheezer or Chubsy Ubsy who woulda laid eyes on her. She's probably a bitch when off panel but at least it's nice to look at a li'l feminine pulchritude as the days get even more butchier than usual.

The stories are pretty good even if they are worked over themes from the past ninetysome years of highlarious kiddie fodder. "The King and I" reworks the old Prince/Pauper switcheroo as Whiz and Neuresthenia switch identities by wrapping themselves up mummy-like in bandages to see how the other half lives. "The Curse of Tut-Tut-Tut" has the Tikkletoy Company making copies of a prized medallion to make money for flood victims only the real deal one gets mixed in with the bogus efforts. "Love Thy Labor" deals with relations between management and the proles at the company and since labor relations are something that never does come up in kiddie comics this does make for a keen change o' pace. And closing out this particular ish is "The Toy Boy Scout" where Whiz thinks the other kids in his troup are playing up to him because he owns a toy company, and he's right!

Hey, it was a fun comic that went swell on a Saturday afternoon which could have been spent doing something creative. Well, who sez this particular review ain't, but anyhow I will admit I really would have appreciated this comic had I read it while it was fresh rather'n get it handed down to me by Bill Shute. And come to think of it, do you think my parents woulda approved had they found a copy of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF JESUS in my fart-encrusted bedroom?