MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! 3 BULLETS FOR RINGO (1964), directed by Emimmo Salvi!

These wopadago westerns are always a touch-y and go-ey affair, so it was grand to see that Bill Shute actually sent me one that didn't make me wanna puke like that one with Lionel Stander as Stinky Manure which the man unfortunately forwarded to me a good two decades back! In fact 3 BULLETS FOR RINGO is such a winner that I wouldn't mind being caught dead watching it even with all of the factual/historical errors and usual sixties western faux passes that pop up a whole lot. I like watching these because of the sixties western faux passes, as if 2013 faux passes are something that makes modern day takes on the Old West so historically better'n the past 100+ years of westerns because well, they're so new and all...

Musclemen Gordon Mitchell and Mickey Hargitay are working together to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a local bigwig who I guess is quite the typical Wild West looker because its more than obvious that both Mitchell (Frank) and Hargitay (Ringo) want a piece of her action. Ringo ends up winning the lass for good (after a rather potent fist fight with Frank) while Frank joins the Confederate Army and eventually makes his way back into town where he and his men end up doing a little plundering themselves (all the while wearing light blue uniforms that come off more like something the Dutch army would have had the good sense to dump in the dike, or better yet give to the dykes). Since the war's now over Frank decides to become sheriff and works hand in hand with the local bad guy banker who wants Ringo's mother's deed to the local mine resulting in a whole lot more trouble'n it was rescuing that gorgeous gal from the Mexicans, that's for sure!

The acting here's pretty good as is the direction, and the dubbing for once in mostly in sync even if the voice actors were probably leftovers from SPUNKY AND TADPOLE. Despite a few li'l luls here and there the story does keep you on the edge of your seat 'stead of daydreaming about the exact boob configuration of the leading lady, and although even that might be tough for some of you guys who are actually following the story at least it does lend credence to the funzitude this film exudes. Of course the big question is, was the title of this movie a cheap attempt to get some free moolah out of a very popular name of the day? I mean, Lorne Greene made heap big bucks with his own "Ringo" hit in the very same year of 1964, and although Lorne's Ringo had no connection with the famous mop topped drummer from Liverpool you know that sly and shifty star of BONANZA was merely riding on the coattails of a big phenomenon of the day while chortling all the way to the bank. Maybe the title of this film was created just to lure in all of those mid-aged paunches whose daughters were going Beatlecrazy at the time just so's they could do a li'l fantasizing of their own...after all, I'm sure they all would have liked to have seen Ringo Starr with three bullets in him, right? Like yeah yeah yeah they woulda!!!

GREG PREVOST INTERVIEW!!!

Greg Prevost is a man who needs no introduction.

But I'll give him one anyway. A name of much renown on the "underground" rock scene since the seventies, Greg first came to prominence with the arrival of FUTURE, a fanzine which was one of the wildest romps through the world of rock fandom since the days of TEENAGE WASTELAND GAZETTE, CRETINOUS CRETENTIONS and who could forget that obscure favorite NIX ON PIX! FUTURE was funny, in bad taste, informative, decorative, offensive, scabrous and best of all jam-packed with record reviews, articles and interviews with some surprisingly big names on the recording scene like Captain Beefheart, Willie Alexander and Ray Davies. In many ways FUTURE was a fanzine that ran against the grain of "acceptable" tastes and values that certainly would not be allowed to exist today and, along with the decline of the original NATIONAL LAMPOON and the scourging I've received due to my own crudzine, only proves just how far we've devolved since those halcyon days when anything goes really meant it (and not only with regards to the easy-to-pick-on targets entertainment liberals loathe anyway)!

Greg is also known for an eighties/nineties-era fanzine entitled OUTASITE which continued on the FUTURE path only with a more sixties collector/garage band focus, as well as for being the frontman for the late, lamented Chesterfield Kings, a group who pretty much spearheaded the big garage band revival trend of the eighties which helped make that decade a bit more passable than it was for high-energy aficionados like ourselves. Yes, Greg is a man who has been around and seen it all, and in case you haven't been awake these past few weeks his own website has been up and running and it's a definite must-see, with loads of rare autobiographical information and hot snaps of the man taken throughout his long and illustrious career that will certainly pop more'n a few eyeballs.

Greg graciously agreed to answer a few questions I zinged to him via the miracle of internet. I tried to cover information that wasn't found on his site and if you ask me I think I did a fairly good job of it back-patting jerkoff that I may be. Nothing that would get me an A+ in journalism true, but more than enough to fill in some of the heretofore uncovered gaps in the vast and glorious story behind this mug, er, man.

So, without further ado...

BLOG TO COMM-From the looks of your site you were heavily into collecting records, guitars and rock & roll mags when you were just ten years old. Were your parents actually supportive of your hobbies or did they berate you about them constantly?

GREG PREVOST-Actually no, not supportive at all. My father hated all the stuff I was into and thought I was a retard. I didn't give a shit about school, teachers, anything really. I was into records, playing guitar, reading magazines on stuff I liked: rock n' roll, cars, monsters, sci-fi, baseball. I was going to be like Mickey Mantle, you know, my hero at the time (early 60's). I played on the KPAA (Kodak Park Athletic Association) baseball team for a few years, and in 1967 our team came into second place in the state and it was a big fucking deal for me and all the guys on my street. I also played golf, and in my teens had the idea that I'd go pro. Football, basketball, tennis, bowling, boxing-I was into all that stuff-I still play when I can-golf I am heavy into and play a lot the past few years. I was also into shooting skeet-I had/have a couple of shotguns and I used to love shooting. Then when the Stones came out in the US in '64, I shifted gears into a different mode. I was always at odds with my parents, teachers, authority. It was a struggle. When I was in 6th grade I absolutely fucking hated my teacher and she liked me as much as I liked her. Told my father I was a fucking moron because I told her all this 6th grade crap would be useless when I was like 30 years old. She didn't know how to deal with that so she told my father that I was defiant. He stated that "He'll never amount to anything except a long-haired creep in a leather jacket". The Hell's Angels were always on the news at the time, and locally, a MC club called the Hackers. Surprisingly I got a guitar and amp for Christmas, 1965. I was on a new road. Eventually music dominated over my sports fixations, but I found time for both. What is comical is that these days I play golf with my father all the time. I look more insane than I ever could back then and he thinks nothing of it. Amazing what 40+ years can do to someone's ideals.

BTC-It's pretty obvious from reading FUTURE and OUTASITE that your favorite years for music were definitely the middle sixties. Are there any interesting and pretty much unknown to us anecdotes about those days that you'd care to relate?

GP-My favorite years for music would be between 1960 and 1974--not to forget blues from the 20's up, 50's jazz, 1976 (punk), early 80's (hardcore punk), mid-80's glam-metal ... I also like stuff like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Mancini, Herb Alpert, Martin Denny ... avant-garde jazz (Sun Ra) ...the 60's for me were like a seemingly endless scene-until it suddenly dawned on me that groups like the Music Machine and Count Five no longer existed. As mentioned in my web pages I was drawn to coffee houses and teen clubs where blues and Rock n' Roll bands played. Things that you plan out in these times-like going to see a band or something-you get tickets and that kind of shit-a big planned out production-back then I once went bowling with my father and the Heard were playing. Just unplanned and totally spontaneous. I used to ride on open boxcars to my cousin's house. It was a real trip. I really liked that-just layin' around in a pile of straw watching houses go by. The railroad was across the street from my house and the train would go by about 10-15 miles an hour and I'd throw my bike in, then jump in; jump out near my cousin's house, then when it got dark, rode my bike home. I used to read 'Creepy' magazine and 'Tales From The Crypt' comics. As you know, those were all about ghouls, monsters and stuff like that. Anyway I'd read this one story in 'Creepy' called 'The Damn Thing'-it was about this thing that could turn invisible and would stalk people, then when it tore them apart, it could be seen. I had this notion that when I was going home in the dark that this thing was in the bushes along the railroad tracks and it sort of freaked me out-I'd imagine I could hear rustling in the weeds and it would jump out in front of me. I also remember seeing this movie called 'The Quartermass Experiment', and that fucked my head up too-I think I was like around 7 or 8 years old when I saw it on 'Chiller Theater'. It was about this guy that slowly mutates into this big ball of mold spores or something. I had this delusion that it was happening to me. Totally messed up my mind. I did get over it. 

BTC-Was there a pivotal experience in your life, an epiphany if you will, where you knew that you just had to be a rock & roll singer? If so, could you fill us in on it?

GP- I'd actually have to say there wasn't really an epiphany or anything that sent me in that direction. In 1964, 1965, just like almost every other kid between the age of 10, 11, 12 to 20 or so, when the Beatles and Stones came out, I wanted a guitar. For me it was Brian Jones and Keith Richards. Then as the years closed in on the 70's, music became more diverse. I mean the greatest bands and music came out of the 70's, but there was a larger percentage of lousy music about. 'Horn Rock' like Chicago, Ides Of March et al (I know-the Ides had a great run in the mid-60's-but turned to this mode in the 70's) became popular, Doobie Brothers, etc. Then there was like Genesis, King Crimson, art-rock, prog-rock, not that I don't appreciate and like stuff like that-I was heavy into Fripp and King Crimson, I like early Genesis-all that-but I wanted to do like a Stones-Stooges thing and it would never happen-too many guys on different trips. So I gave up the idea, played guitar by myself, then just decided to be a doctor, or at least take the route of medicine-I was initially into being a surgeon ... anyway, I got into college, I went three semesters-I took Calculus, Physics ...I majored in Chemistry. I was on the Dean's List, you know, I was heavy into that whole trip. In my freshman year in 1973 I saw the Dolls and maybe that was a spark. I commenced with school until I ran short of money and didn't want my father footing the bill by himself as he was paying the majority of my tuition with me working during summer and all that. Anyway, I totally had to work and take off a couple of semesters so I could pay for my part of the tuition. I started working in a music store-House Of Guitars-I sold guitars, records, stuff like that. Then, after being out of the loop for so long, and still not having the proper amount of money to continue my education, I just never was able to return. During that time I met other guys into like the MC5, Stooges, Dolls, Stones, Faces ... then the idea of being in a band, and soon doing a Jagger-Iggy thing came into focus. That was probably in late 1974. I did solo stuff and started a number of bands where I sang and played guitar. The I started the Chesterfield Kings with the Stones as a model-I couldn't find anyone who could sing like Jagger or wanted to do that, so I dropped playing guitar and went that route.

BTC-I've heard stories about Lydia Lunch, sporting overalls, shopping for Sparks records at the House of Guitars...do you remember her?

GP-I remember Lydia. I was working at House Of Guitars as I already mentioned. Lydia and her 2 girlfriends would come in a lot. She was never wearing overalls or anything drab-it was always like a short skirt, lots of makeup, really glammed up. She liked a lot of the same stuff I liked at the time-Sparks, Roxy Music, the Dolls, Stooges. I remember she was once wearing a 'Supertramp' pin and I asked her, 'Why are you wearing that?' and she said something like 'I HATE the band, but LOVE the name.' This is not a quote, its something that I sort of remember her saying from 38 years ago. I think I was at her house once, but I really can't remember. I did go on sort of a 'double-date' with her once if you can fathom the concept. I was with her friend Claire (I think that was her name), and Lydia was with a friend of mine, I don't remember his name, maybe a guy named Keith? Anyway, this was a few months before I met Caroll, who I married and am still with-this was maybe around early 1975 or so. I ran into Lydia a few times over the years either in Rochester or New York. It's been years since I last saw her. 

BTC-I must admit that I really liked those pieces you did on some Rochester-area groups like the Darelycks and Young Tyrants for various fanzines. Were you familiar with these bands when they are playing out at the time?

GP-Honestly, I didn't know the Darelycks at the time of their existence. Young Tyrants I did hear of, but they didn't play around Charlotte where I lived. Being like 10, 11, 12 years old you don't have big options to travel around. I'd take the bus occasionally for 'major' concerts at the Rochester War Memorial, but I generally hung out within the neighborhood. Groups like the Invictas, Heard, Angry Men, Show Stoppers, Trackers, Wee 4 ... these bands were more 'in the mainline', and most had 45's that WSAY played. Hearing the records by these groups also made me aware of them even if they didn't play the Charlotte circuit (The Hi-Tide and Blue Goose teen clubs). The Darelycks I found out about them around 1970 or 1971 when I found their 45 in a used record store, and investigated them later on. Likewise with the Tyrants. I'd only known them as a name until I found their 45 a few years after the fact. Funny thing is, one time I was talking to my friend Marty Duda who was in bands (the Now), a DJ, a good guy (he was the guy who let the C. Kings practice in his father's business warehouse in the late 70's) and he was like "Oh this friend of mine on my softball team, he was the lead singer in the Young Tyrants", that being Louie Grillo who I knew through Marty. The mythical demos the band did that were seemingly 'lost' at the time of the interview I did (I don't remember-70's? 80's?), have since been unearthed. Fantastic stuff. One time the band (C. Kings) were playing in Rochester and I was in the can washing my hands and this guy walked up and said "I like the band. I used to be in this band the Young Tyrants." That was Carl Lundquist, the lead guitar player who wrote their originals. Small world, right?

BTC-Yeah! Speaking of writing...you mentioned on your site that you were doing a FUTURE newsletter a few years before you published the actual fanzine. Were these early attempts at publishing similar to the eventual fanzine?

GP-Sort of ... I knew I wanted to do a 'fanzine' or a magazine of sorts-but knew it would cost money to print-so I'd do these 8 x 11 pages folded over into like a 4-page 'newsletter' with the same sort of stuff I did in the FUTURE magazines; a couple of 'reviews', hype, crude editorial, the usual 21-22 year old kid kinda stuff-or should I say 21-22 year old adult? Ha ha! I know, I got drafted when I was 18 so I guess that made me an adult (I was classified 1-A, #63 in the lottery and passed the physical, which meant I was 'ready to go'. Nixon ended the war shortly after my classification so I didn't get shipped off). I still don't think of myself as an adult. That is really a state of mind, you know. Anyway, I'd go to the library or post office as they has these copiers there and I'd run like 30 or 40 or so copies and send them to guys like Greg Shaw, Robert Hull at Creem, guys I liked or respected or that had similar likes concerning music.

BTC-Yeah FUTURE, one of the all-time great fanzines of all time! But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit...now you were working at the House of Guitars for some time by then which I understand was a rather prestigious job if you wanted to work in a music shop in Rochester. What was that like?

GP-Let's just say working there was a really loose situation-you could look or dress the way you wanted, if you were in a band and had to travel for a shows you could take off. I was given a lot of freedom to order any records, imports, 45's whatever. It was cool in the 70's and 80's, but as music rapidly took a downward spiral (my opinion), and you had all this pop and rap stuff, it just wore me down, and I parted or retired. Working at the store is for the younger set just like it was when I was there in the 70's and could relate to the music and culture that I was part of. Stuff that the majority of youth listened to differed extremely from what I was into. I had to move on. On the plus side I met a lot of cool people over the years.

BTC-Let's talk about the days when you had FUTURE up and running as well as a number of groups with the likes of Cole Springer, Michael Ferrara and Carl Mack. I detect a strong BACK DOOR MAN and PUNK MAGAZINE influence in these...would I be correct in assuming so?

GP-That was a cool time-I suppose it was like figuring out where you're going to a point. Cole Springer! Great guy-one of my best friends-he still lives in Rochester and we stay in touch. One of the coolest guys. Mike Ferrera, another good friend-he died a number of years back. He sort of went off the edge. I don't really know what happened, I sort of do, but for respect of his family I won't talk about it. He was a really insane guy-I remember one time I was over his house and he was fighting with his father at the same time he (Mike) was dying his hair-he had brown hair and wanted to die part of it like a lighter color-so he has all this dye on his hair and he's yelling at his parents or something-put on a snow hat  with the bleach still on-then leaves! Next day I saw him he had like chalk white hair! Pretty funny. I didn't see him for several years and then my wife was like "Mike Ferrera is in the obituaries!!" I sort of expected it as he became very reclusive, but the shock of a guy your age dying ... its kinda cryptic. Carl I haven't heard from in decades-I saw him maybe 20 years ago and he said he was living in New Orleans. Yeah, great guys-fun staff of guys writing all this crazy stuff-had some hilarious times back then. Back to FUTURE-yes, you hit it-I loved BACK DOOR MAN and PUNK was a gas. I knew John Holmstrom. A really cool guy. I ran into Legs McNeil at CBGBs a couple of times but I didn't really know him at all. Yes-these magazines had a profound influence on what I did with FUTURE. Greg Shaw as well-where would we be without BOMP!? Mark Shipper's FLASH magazine was also a major influence. I also loved J.D. King's STOP! magazine. I can read all these NOW and still get floored. Timeless stuff.

BTC-On the cover of the first issue there were a lot of names crossed out. Were these for features that somehow didn't get published or just technical errors? Also, there were loads of words crossed out in the magazine...did certain words get edited out for being too vulgar?

Ha ha! I Think I had something set up and it didn't happen...I sort of remember saying fuck or shit or something and thought it might 'offend' people-Ha ha! After awhile I didn't care about that and most guys that read stuff like that don't give a shit either-right? It was pretty sloppy as you know, but for some bizarre reason I didn't care-ha ha! As time went on I actually went from hand-scrawled to a type-writer!

BTC-One of the wildest features in FUTURE was your surrealistic comic strip DAD'S MUG. I've always wondered what the "inspiration" and perhaps even deep philosophical meaning behind those comics was all about with all of those strange quips about his glorious mug!

GP-Ha ha! No deep philosophical thought behind that-this guy 'Dad' was a REAL GUY. I've known him since around the early 70's. I saw him about a year ago at a restaurant when my parents took us all out for their anniversary. Anyway-this guy was a SCREAM. I made up a lot of the scenarios, but all the characters in it: Dad Vol. 2, Old Man Kaddlehopper, Young Generation Klem, Middle-aged Klem, etc...EVERY guy in the comics was a real guy that made me laugh in real life. Me and Mike Ferrera would always laugh about Dad-Ferrera would get in physical fights with him, he'd go "Oh Dad, your mug is GLORIOUS today!" and Dad would be like "Piss off man, I'll kick your ass" and then it would escalate until an outburst took place. I used to hang out a lot with Ferrera back then and we'd laugh about Dad and his HIDEOUS or GLORIOUS mug. Nonsense, but it was funny. Another funny story about Dad-we used to follow the Kinks back then as you may know, we'd see them like as many times as we could-you know, like the Deadhead guys with the Dead to a degree-anyway-one time we all were charging towards the backstage entrance to catch Ray Davies and Caroll, at the time still my girlfriend, saw Dad running and said "Oh Dad!" and he went "Fuck off with the Dad crap man and WIPE MY ASS!" We STILL laugh about that. He was a crude dude!

BTC-Back to FUTURE, I remember that it always would sell out rather quickly to the point that if anybody waited too long to get a copy they'd be out of luck...it was sold out! What kind of a press run did it have? Also, what was the reaction to it, as I think some of the things you and your writers said would generally get a few people irritated!

GP-I sort of can't remember how many I pressed-I THINK I did runs of 1000, then #3, 4 & 5 I think I did 2000-I remember folding and stapling 1000's of them myself to save money...Reaction was funny-a lot of guys really liked it and a lot of guys HATED ME and IT. I got lots of threats and one serious one I don't want to bring back into the mainstream again. Looking back, it was pretty crude, self-righteous and opinionated, but I was younger and meaner and nastier than I am now-ha ha!

BTC-In issue two you printed a cover story interview with the Residents detailing your visit to the Cryptic Corporation and meeting with the group personally.

GP-Ha ha! That intro was actually directed by Jay of the Cryptic Corporation. I did the interview all cloak & dagger via US mail. I never actually 'spoke' to any of the Residents--the only guy I ever talked to or corresponded with was Jay-he probably WAS the Residents! I really liked their version of "Talk Talk" and "Hanky Panky" on their 'Third Reich & Roll' album. "Satisfaction" was cool too.

BTC-Wow, you really fooled me! Here I thought you actually went to visit them and were privvy to their innermost circle! Another thing that amazes me about FUTURE was your ability to actually land interviews with big names like Captain Beefheart and Ray Davies...how were you able to get them to consent to doing interviews anyway?

GP-Yeah-I suppose I was lucky to get any response from the Residents, and I believe the only reason why was because I was into them from day one-and at the store I ordered heaps of their records and hyped them up. But alas, no, I didn't fly out to Frisco and do the cryptic blindfolded interview! As far as getting to interview big names, back in the 70's, unlike today, there were no boundaries. By that I mean now, people are so overprotected and walled in behind some sort of forcefield, be they bodyguards, managers etc. Back then-Like with Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart), I went to see him. I knew the layout of the club and just went back to where the kitchen was (the Red Creek Inn) and there was Don standing around by himself smoking cigarettes. "Hey Don, would you be into doing an interview?" That's how that went-no arranging, setting up. Likewise with Ray Davies, only that was slightly different. As mentioned we used to follow the Kinks like Jerry & Co. had Deadheads following them. Anyway, one time in 1975 I just barged backstage (the 'Schoolboys In Disgrace' tour) and started talking to Ray-nicest guy ever-and gave him some of the Future Newsletters. I think I got his address and sent him Future #1. Then during the next tour I was looking for him and saw his manager Ken Jones, and Ken was like "Ray loves your magazine. He would love to do an interview." Or something like that. And that happened the next night in Buffalo NY, 1977 or 1978 I think. I can't remember exactly-somehow the late 70's get blurry. I think getting interviews back then were just how determined you were to get them.

BTC-Switching gears a bit...you released the Distorted Levels single around the time the fourth issue of FUTURE came out. What can you tell us about the recording and the group for that matter?

GP-That would be around Fall, 1977 I think when I recorded that-the band was called the Tar Babies before that (this is before 'political correctness' and all that)-I think this guy Zaph (that is all I remember about him-don't know his real name) played bass and I was jamming with this guy Steve who played guitar and looked like Ron Ashton-like 6 foot 4, biker glasses like Ashton's...you get the picture. Anyway, guys left, and I was best friends with Mike Ferrera and he played with us as well. Carl Mack also, who I used to hang out with a lot. Anyway, Mike and Carl were in this prog-rock band Zenith Effluveum. The Tar Babies sort of dismantled and I had a couple of songs ready, those being "Hey Mister" and "Red Swirls". The band ended up being myself on lead yelling and some bad guitar riffs, Mike Ferrera on lead guitar and Carl on drums. It was recorded by this cool guy John Fritsch whom I had known for many years-and he was heavy into Todd Rundgren like I was/still am. Anyway, the session took place in Carl Mack's parents basement where we used to practice and where Zenith Effluveum rehearsed and recorded as well. It was recorded on John's 4-track Crown. Carl used a double-kick Sonar kit, Mike used a Strat, as I did also-through Orange amps. Mike also played bass since Zaph flipped out or something. I THINK he used a Fender Jazz bass. It was spontaneous-I think we did one take on 'Red Swirls' and 2 takes on "Hey Mister". "Hey Mister" was inspired by Bo Diddley's "Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut" and "Red Swirls" I think I sort of lifted part of Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" though that is hard to detect from the chaotic recording. I also didn't really know how to sing-ha ha! Prior to that I was doing kind of folk-Dylan-Donovan-Lou Reed kind of monotone stuff-here I was trying to be Roky Erickson or Little Richard and A.) I didn't know how to control my voice or get where I wanted it to go, and B.) Didn't know my limitations. So it sounds like some hick doing hog calls. Mike McDowell, editor of BLITZ! back then reviewed it and compared my vocal to the vocal on the Legendary Stardust Cowboy's "Paralyzed". I guess that's a pretty good summation of what I sounded like. Like I said, I was clueless how to sing like I wanted. After this I figured out that I sound best doing Jagger/Van Morrison/Lou Reed-trying to do Roky, Janis Joplin, Gerry Roslie-that was not within my range.

BTC-That is an amazing single. Are there any outtakes or rehearsals which might get released in the future?

GP-I think the only out-take was the first version of "Hey Mister". I don't know where that is-I think John ended up with all the old tapes and I haven't seen or talked to him in over ten or fifteen years. He has the masters to the two 'Mr. Electro' albums as well...and lots of other stuff I did with other bands I was in. I have some of that stuff and it will probably get issued by Mean Disposition. I found an instrumental I wrote called "Condemned To Death Blues"-I played lead and Mike Ferrera played fuzz bass on this. Pretty crude.

BTC-It was around this time that you contributed an interview with I believe Dave Bingham from the Ugly Ducklings that appeared in the second issue of KICKS. How did you get in touch with Billy and Miriam and have you any interesting stories about them you'd care to share?

GP-Wow! That was a long time ago! I've been friends with Billy and Miriam since that time-what 35 years?? Wow... Initially I knew Miriam through her association with Pere Ubu-I was heavy into those early 45's they did and I remember contacting her about getting copies for the store or something like that. I don't think she really 'knew' who I was, but that was the first time I heard her name. She was also in the Cramps and sent me some photos and stuff like that, and we'd correspond. Then I remember seeing the first KICKS (which is about to be reissued by Billy & Miriam/Norton) and was pretty much floored by its content and intensity. I sort of knew Miriam and wanted to contribute to KICKS, so I wrote to her and Billy who I didn't know yet-and we totally connected and have been friends since that time. We have played together-both the Zantees & A-Bones and the C. Kings. We did a show in Berlin with the A-Bones in 1988, the day after I got married (Caroll came with me-it was our 'honeymoon'-ha ha!). We had great times over the years. One event that I will always remember-one that I really liked-was at Tim Warren's wedding and both our bands played at it-and Tim's house was really big and stuff. It was pretty insane. Tim was and is a great guy too that I'm still friends with all these years. Everyone was there-I remember hearing this Jerry Lee Lewis piano playing and Rudi from the Fuzztones was playing it...it was a cool lost time. To re-quote Keith Richards, 'Those were the days!'

BTC-Back to FUTURE...how come you folded the magazine after only five issues?

GP-I think I got too involved with the band and we were touring and all that. When I started getting the vibe to do it again I changed the name because I had gotten so many threats and shit. Plus the nucleus of guys I had involved with FUTURE moved on into different directions (Cole Springer moved to NYC-he's in Rochester again now-Mike Ferrera became very reclusive, and Carl Mack moved to New Orleans). So when I started up again I called it OUTASITE.

BTC-I do notice a shift away from "modern" rock towards a more sixties garage band orientation in the last two issues of FUTURE. I take it you were of the opinion that the direction that modern rock was taking just didn't live up to the innovations of the mid-sixties and decided to concentrate more on discovering old classics rather than current trends. Is this true?

GP-Yes ... groups that I really liked like the Clash turned MOR, most of the hip bands like the Pistols, Crime etc all broke up. I was heavy into like Black Flag, really love the DAMAGED album-and SF hardcore bands, also bands like Kraut, Agnostic Front, Red Kross were ALWAYS great-but there were not as many cool bands around so I went back to concentrating on what I always counted on-The Count V, Seeds, Music Machine...you know the rest. To me, for the most part, the 80's was just shit. Girls all started having those wretched French Poodle perms, music was a load of '80's Rock' crap-all these bands with synthesizers, super-clean guitars, just a lousy time. I liked a lot of 80's RNR-some people think its metal-I don't really care what its called-I liked the mid-to late 80's bands like Izzy Stradlin era Guns n' Roses, the Hangmen, Sea Hags, early L.A. Guns, Dog D'Amour, London Quireboys-bands like these that were into a Stones/Faces slant. I obviously liked and respected and was friends with other bands within the same genre as my own band, bands like the Tell-Tale Hearts (great band), Lyres, Fuzztones ... you know. Other than that, the 80's era was a bummer.

BTC-When did the first Chesterfield Kings single make it out? I believe I first heard about it via the Bomp catalog sometimes early 1981.

GP-I THINK it was as you said. Orest joined the band late '80 and the single was recorded in February and released in April of '81. I wish I could find the tapes of the 5-song EP of the '78 C. Kings with Frank Moll on guitar-I remember really liking it, plus I did 2 originals I wrote.

BTC-Switching back to OUTASITE...I've always marveled at the number of rare singles you have been able to pick up over the years. Were these flea market and garage sale finds? It's so funny, because I've been on the lookout for items the kind you seem to find with ease for years and never once found what you would call a really obscure sixties garage band single or album!

GP-I used to get stuff all over the place. In the 60's when records were actually NEW, stuff like the Magic Mushrooms, Heard, Blue Things etc, you know, non-top 100 bands-I'd get them at this place called Jay's Record Ranch or Music Lover's Shop at Northgate Plaza. I used to get a lot of albums at House Of Guitars as well in both the 60's, 70's and 80's. They didn't carry 45's back in the 60's. Jay at Jay's would 'special order' 45's-which is where I got "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the Elevators which I'd heard when they were on 'Where The Action Is'. As far as mega-scarce/rare garage-punk-psych 45's/albums-I just got hooked on that stuff when I was a kid and it escalated as I got older. I knew guys at radio stations, got stuff from places like that, I'd rummage through junk they would throw out and get reel to reel tapes, 45's, albums-stuff they didn't play or want any more. I also hit every junk shop, garage sale, used record store, flea markets and go through auction/set sale lists-like Goldmine and Trouser Press or magazines of that sort. Back in the 70's and early to mid-80's no one really gave a shit about the Chocolate Watchband or Mourning Reign and groups like that, so you could find stuff like that without anyone competing for it. There were other geeks like me who were as obsessed as I was, but that 'mania' if you will, didn't really go into full gear until all the Pebbles and Boulders and later Back From The Grave comps turned guys onto amazingly great and obscure regional bands. I mean like the Chob 'We're Pretty Quick'-you could find something like that for like two or three dollars back in the early 70's, and the same record on Ebay now is like $2000. One amazing thing I remember was when WSAY-the most KILLER radio station went under in the early 80's and I knew a DJ there and he gave me boxes of stuff they were dumping-then all the records were suddenly 'sold off'-I found out who bought them and my wife and I offered to 'help sort' the records in exchange for buying whatever I wanted and it was really like a dream come true for geeks. For instance, Caroll would find some dusty box marked '1966' and it was TAPED SHUT since 1966. I don't even have to tell you my head was spinning. Really a memorable thing for me. That's the kind of stuff me and Caroll did before we got married-ha ha!!

BTC-OK, this may be tough, but could you tell me about how many records (albums and singles) you own? I get the feeling your place must look like a record shop!

GP-A tough question! I had thousand and thousands of singles and albums, but over the years traded stuff, sold stuff off as most of us do. To pinpoint? Maybe a couple of thousand singles, likewise with albums-not as ridiculous as it once was--I have no idea. I have a lot of magazines from the eras I liked (1960 through the 70's, and with obvious great things like UGLY THINGS, SHINDIG! ... you know ...plus I have every Football Digest from the late 70's up to their demise, tons of Golf Magazines-ha ha!)... My other hang-up is TV shows from the 50's, 60's, 70's & up-I have like 40,000 hours of TV, Rock N' Roll, films. That was a real problem when the format was video-I transferred my entire collection to digital over the years-much less space, but still 40,000 hours is a lot of anything no matter how digitized it is!

BTC-What do you attribute to the Chesterfield Kings being such a popular act over the years. I mean, there were other "garage band revival" groups and the like, but few attained such popularity as the Kings to the point where you guys were getting mentioned in mainstream publications.

GP-We were popular? Ha ha! I don't know if I'd go that far. I suppose because we were one of the first and were around a long time...we worked with a lot of cool guys like Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Thunders, Mark Lindsay, Jorma Kaukonen, and other cool guys...maybe that opened the door to other people that may not have known us? Little Steven, as I said, literally took the band out of the gutter and catapulted us into Mainstream America. He is the reason I stayed in the band the last 10 or 12 years we existed. He revitalized my interest in the band. He has done some amazing stuff for Rock n' Roll. I think everyone knows that.

BTC-Well, you were popular enough to get a major feature in THE NEW YORK ROCKER! I've always wondered about your association with Mark Lindsay. How did you two meet up anyway, and do you have any interesting stories you can tell about him?

GP-Well, I guess. New York Rocker wasn't exactly the New Yorker Magazine-ha ha! Mark-Love this guy! One of my all-time favorite singers, songwriters...you know that. First time I met Mark was at Hilton High School, in the Rochester area-he was doing one of those 'oldies' things-this was in the late 80's... then some time/years went by and we re-connected-I think it was because we were both on Bob Irwin's Sundazed label at the same time-and somehow Bob or Tim Livingston of Sundazed hooked us back up-and he remembered us from the Hilton High hop years back. Then we just locked in and became good friends. One of my favorite memories with Mark was when one of the times my wife Caroll and I went to Hawaii (Honolulu-we used to go to the NFL Pro Bowl every/every other year back from the mid-90's up to the early 2000's)-and Mark and his wife Deb lived there on Maui, the next island over. We called him from Honolulu, "Marcus! We're in Honolulu!", and he was like "We'll be RIGHT over!". He and Deb flew over, he rented some boss convertible and we hung out the whole day, had lunch, went to the beach. All the time he had on his Raiders 3-cornered hat-while he was driving-at the beach-all over-and his wife was like "Mark! People are staring because you have that hat on!", and Mark was like, "Who cares! Were in Hawaii!". He is so funny, and a really great guy. I just talked to him about a month ago-he is still playing. Still a powerful singer and solid entertainer. Still one of my heroes, man.

BTC-Y'know, I never figured you to be a fan of the San Francisco scene and the Airplane! I'll bet Billy Miller and Miriam Linna give you grief for this!!! Anyway, what can you tell me about Jorma Kaukonen that the readers of this blog would be interested in hearing about (I think!).

GP-Ha ha! I just LOVE That whole trip-the Airplane, Quicksilver, Big Brother, the Dead-I am heavy into the early Dead-the first bunch of albums-Jerry's riffs are just incredible. I know-some people will laugh-ha ha! Blue Cheer-one of my favorite bands of all time-Sons Of Adam, Randy Holden, Other Half, Stained Glass, Country Joe ... the list goes on. Let's see-Jorma-I don't know-I interviewed him and all the stuff I can think of that was unknown was publicized one way or another. I think he is one of the greatest guitar players ever, and as a guitar player I am totally influenced by what he did. In case people didn't read the interview I did, he told me he was really floored by Zal Yanovsky's Standel amp when he saw the Spoonful early on and went out and got one as a result.

BTC-I'm sure this revelation will come as a surprise to some of your fans! Back to the Chesterfield Kings, if you had to pinpoint a favorite album which one would it be?

GP-I don't know-most guys know I am a heavy Airplane guy-I now do a version of the Dead's "Casey Jones" that sounds like a cross between the Stones "Parachute Woman" and the Heartbreakers (Thunders band) "One Track Mind"... Fave C kings album? "Let's Go Get Stoned"-the band was like on the same wavelength-by that I mean we were all into the same thing-wanted the same thing-no one hated each other-the recording went great-the studio engineer was a great guy and a friend-everything worked the way it should have-I have good memories from that era. I STILL like this album a lot-it stands up to any current stuff in my opinion, yet still has the '67-'72 Stones vibe.

BTC-Back to OUTASITE...After a couple issues you took a hiatus, then you came back with some fantastic looking high-quality magazines. Any reason for the long gap between issues, and how did you manage to put out such a top-gloss fanzine like you did with color covers and big name interviews?

GP-I think I got bogged down with work and touring and all that sort of crap. As you can attest to, having done your own magazine, you know doing a layout, writing, researching etc takes a long time to do it properly (editor's note-I obviously never got the hang of it!), and I think I sort of got tired of trying to keep ahead of things-plus as I mentioned- I was working back then which sucked as I hated working like anyone else, but had to at the time. Reason it looks so nice and slick with color covers is because Bob Irwin at Sundazed backed it and financed it, otherwise they would have been plain issues like the first two. As far as the interviews, I just sort of connected with a lot of people, I was and am totally into film/TV stuff and got to be friends with guys I idolized like Robert Stack, Charlton Heston, Peter Graves, Paul Burke and so on (shit-these guys are all dead now)...you know-guys that were like the coolest guys on films and television that I really respected and had a lot to do with my way of thinking. I mean watching Robert Stack beat the shit out of some guy and then throw him down a stairway on the UNTOUCHABLES, seeing that when you're like a 6 or 7 year old kid, that sticks in your mind. Anyway, I was in touch with a lot of people like this and I was doing a magazine and it seemed logical to get interviews with them.

BTC-One thing I learned from reading OUTASITE is that you are a Fabian fan! Do you get any hassles from fifties types for admitting to liking his music? (Personally I gotta say that I get a kick outta him, though I never did see his wild performance as that crazy killer on BUS STOP!)

GP-Ha ha! No-no hassles-in fact a couple of guys were like 'You like Fabian? Too cool.' I like his stuff-I know-its teen-idol mode, but his vocal is guttural and rather 'punk' compared to say Frankie Avalon or Bobby Rydel. Yeah, he was pretty badazz in BUS STOP. Really a powerful performance. I'm glad you like him too-ha ha!! One thing about him was that he was one of the MOST DIFFICULT guys to interview. I mean his history on both record and screen is pretty intense. Like I'd say "You worked with John Wayne. You did this with him, etc...what was it like, etc." you know, a BIG long question-and his response would be, "Oh, he was a really nice guy." period. I'm on the phone...dead air...more dead air...me, "Uhhh...anything else?" , he'd respond, "No, he was a nice guy." Next question-same thing-sometimes I had to get pushy to make him say more, he just wasn't a man of many words. Very nice guy though.

BTC-How about Connie Stevens...what was it like interviewing her?

GP- She was just a riot to talk to. My idea of a 'hot babe'. I like all her records too-I know-hard to imagine listening to the MC5 and Connie Stevens isn't it? Ha ha! Yeah, I loved her in 'Hawaiian Eye'. Over the years, during all the times I've been to Honolulu my wife and I found all the places where they filmed the show (Hawaii 5-0 too, obviously).

BTC-Going back a bit to the garage band revival of the eighties, what was your impressions of the whole scene, with groups like the Fuzztones and Greg Shaw's Cavern Club.

GP-Being a part of that whole trip was really a gas. Places like NYC, Toronto, LA-it was like a real 'community', you know. You could walk around the Village in NY and go to all these happening stores like Venus Records or Midnight Records. You'd run into all the guys you knew, were friends with. One day you could walk into Venus Records and obviously you'd see Scott Curran, Bruce Planty, major collectors who ran the store, then Billy Miller, Miriam, Todd Abramson of Satan Records, Tim Warren, Rudi from the Fuzztones, Jon from the Vipers, Peter Zaremba, Ognir who was always on the scene ... you know. It was like "Hey man, how are things??" It was a really cool thing while it lasted. Did I like everything from the time? Obviously no, but the positives heavily outweighed the negatives. Greg Shaw-like I said, where would we be without Greg kickstarting Rock n' Roll when it was beginning to fade out. Not to mention-on the West Coast-San Diego's Tell-Tale Hearts. Man I loved these guys. Have been friends with Mike Stax since that time-actually before as we were both on the 'Zine Scene'. Yeah ...where have all the good times gone as Ray Davies put it.

BTC-If you had to list say, five or so favorite groups on the eighties garage band scene who would they be? (You can include your own group as well!)

GP-CRAWDADDYS, TELL-TALE HEARTS, LYRES, FUZZTONES, CYNICS, SLICKEE BOYS...

BTC-Switching gears again...in one of the issues of KICKS, I believe number four, you mentioned how you thought Shemp Howard made for a better Stooge than Curly. Other than me, did you get hassled forhaving that particular point of view?

GP-Yeah-I used to get a lot of slack from that-especially from Jeff Tamarkin who at the time wrote for GOLDMINE. Totally on a funny basis of course-Like he'd see me and go "Hey Shemp ... Curly is the best ... " Some people agreed-keep in mind Shemp STARTED the Stooges-he was the first and oldest brother and LEFT the Stooges to pursue a solo acting career-then when Jerome (Curley) had a stroke and couldn't take the stress of acting (with exception of the occasional cameo) Shemp made a return with many people believing he was merely a weak replacement for Curley. I love Curley too. I even like Joe Besser! I used to send him Christmas Cards!

BTC-Now about the feature film that was promised I believe back in the nineties? What ever happened to that?

GP-The movie "Where Is The Chesterfield King?" was finished in the year 2000. I wrote, directed, scripted and acted in it-it was real low budget trash, really, but it was fun and I am, and was, totally satisfied with the outcome. We actually got it on the big screen at its Premiere at the Eastman House in Rochester. Mark Lindsay did a cameo in it also. Tim Livingston of Sundazed was in the film too. He is a riot in it-he did one of the best things in the movie. Anyway-MVD released it in 2001 (Music Video Distributors, PA), they put out a lot of other cool stuff too like the Dead Boys, Dolls, cool stuff like that. I am not sure but I think its still available.

BTC-Let's talk about your new blues album MISSISSIPPI MURDERER. What inspired you to do a blues album such as this?

GP-Its weird ... the band played its last show in December of 2009. It was pretty terrible in my opinion. The thrill was gone. I was just going through the moves. Boring. 'Oh on this song I throw the mic stand off the stage... next song I jump on the bar...next song I kick a hole in the wall. Just bullshit. Anyway, months went by. Almost two years. It was early 2011 and no one spoke or saw each other. I started the band, I figured it was over, it just fizzled out and I officially split by mid 2011. I'd grown to hate playing music to the point that I ONLY played golf. I used to play delta blues in the early 70's, and in the midst of my golf mode, I began playing guitar again. I was always hung up on Robert Johnson, Son House, Bukka White, you know. An endless list. So I REALLY got into playing guitar and singing on my own. A perfect set up. I was doing what I wanted without whining, arguing, compromising, doing fuck-ass shows, etc. I just decided to learn about 60 or 70 songs by guys I was into-the aforementioned as well as like Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Reverend Robert Wilkins, Sister O.M. Terrell, you know. I got it together. I started using fingerpicks and used capos, alternate tunings, you know, Open D, Open G (with the 6th string dropped), Open E, as well as riffing in standard tuning. I got really into this whole trip. I recorded some songs very crudely on a 70's Philips recorder and sent some stuff to my friend Enric Bosser at Penniman Records in Barcelona as I loved his label and all the releases on it. He is/was in this great band the Meows with whom we did shows with in Barcelona in the 80's and 90's. I was friends with him immediately. Anyway, I sent him a bunch of songs I'd recorded like crude 30's delta blues style. He liked what he heard and released the 45 "Mr. Charlie" b/w "Rolling Stone". It did well. Enric said it reminded him of demos off of like 'Exile On Main Street' and could only imagine if there were electric guitars (I used a semi-acoustic Harmony Meteor on the 45), then it would REALLY sound like Exile On Main Street. This stuck in my mind. I started writing again, inspired by the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and countless others. I took heed in what Enric said, I electrified the guitars and the stuff I was playing acoustically suddenly sounded like late-60's-early 70's Keith Richards crunch, Johnny Thunders, Ron Wood...I hooked up with my friend Zach Koch to play drums on the songs, and this led me to Alex Patrick, the engineer who also co-produced the album with me and also played bass on it. I was originally going to attempt the bass parts but my technique was too close to the way I play guitar. In any case, the music is all rooted in crude blues. I played a lot of electrics but still played acoustics and National steel as well.

BTC-How is the record doing? I get the feeling that a large portion of the Chesterfield Kings fans would love it to death.

GP-Enric said the album doing great. Honestly, this is the first album I've done where I am totally into what I did on the record. I felt the old band or some 'element' of the band tried to keep a 'safe' sound. I wanted this album to be threatening and on the edge-you can hear feedback and over the top volume on the guitars-this was always controlled to a degree on the band's albums.

BTC-Any chance you'll be doing a followup any time soon?

GP-Yes! I plan on doing a LOT of stuff-I have enough material to do another album right now-80% originals and some other favorites that I like playing. Enric is also going to (down the line) do a comp of my early stuff-pre-C. Kings stuff...I'd like to do other stuff like an EP or something like a 'Rolling Stones Songbook', do four or five Stones songs...I know, in a sense I am doomed in that respect. I'll just play songs, riffs, then just fall into playing the Stones. I guess it just happens. Its almost like ingrained in my DNA!

BTC-Any other surprises for us in store?

GP-Like you never know! You may see me on the 'Golf Channel'-ha ha!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW! ZARDOZ (1974),  DIRECTED BY JOHN BOORMAN!


Only once in a lifetime does a film like this come along to take you by your nerve-endings and frazzle you into a mess of spasms. Yes, ZARDOZ is a moom pitcher that you will never be able to rip out of your cranium, one that will stick around with you forever just like every other beyond-feeling flick from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE to DEADBEAT AT DAWN. Something you ain't gonna be able to shake from your psyche until you're about as old and senile as the aged denizens of The Vortex living in abject mayhem flipping out while twenties-vintage dance music is constantly played. Yeah it's one of "those" films, but it's one that will separate the high energy true-believers from the IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE patsies, that's for sure! The feel bad, in a good way, movie a soul like I has been waiting for.

Imagine a meeting of minds between Edgar Rice and William Burroughs and you might get something akin to ZARDOZ. Or howz'bout this...ZARDOZ is a bold move taking the oft-tread Sci-Fi "dystopian utopia" saga and injecting some much-needed life and vision into its sorry carcass! Yeah, that's pretty much what ZARDOZ is, a futuristic thriller that is fortunately void of all of the modern day hangups and restraint that have turned me off to contemporary television and cinema faster than you can say HBO. And it's done with a peak perfection to the point where you actually feel like protagonist Zed (recently retired from James Bond actor Sean Connery) trying to get to the bottom of the mystery regarding the entire meaning and mystery that makes up the god Zardoz, an early-Greek-styled flying stone head that pukes weapons from its gaping mouth for his elect followers to murder reproducing "Brutals" with while his worshipers fill Zardoz with grain that is being planted for reasons that seem quite alien to these barbarians with flashy seventies-styled long hair.

Zed, for reasons that will become painstakingly clear in upcoming flashbacks scattered throughout the film, stows away on the floating head and is transported to the world of The Eternals, an immortal people who live in a society that reminds me of a cross between 14th century England and the hippy-dippiest Southern Californian commune you could find. Thus begins the real mystery regarding this seemingly primitive invader who has trespassed upon the sanctity of an advanced people with neo-psychic powers who have been living on for three centuries and, if anything, long and crave for a nice and painful death if only to break up the stultifying boredom.

The intruder isn't actually taken to kindly by everyone, with the Vortexans not sure of what to do with this decaying and armed primitive. May (played by Sarah Kestleman) wants to study him for scientific purposes which would seem sensible since he is the first peon from the outside world anyone has seen in over three centuries. However Consuela (Charlotte Rampling, an actress who worked wonders in these mid-seventies noir-ish dramas) would like Zed terminated immediately, perhaps after he demonstrates the process of sexual arousal by looking at her instead of the female mud wrestlers being projected on a screen. The tension between Zed and the Eternals, coupled with his own quest to discover just what Zardoz is, leads to a bubbling under intensity that pretty much underlies the entire film adding even more energy (remember that word?)  to a flick that's already packed to the gills with a whole load of mutated Science Fiction ideas and twists I never saw on CAPTAIN VIDEO, that's for sure! And hey, I'm not even talking about the mind-expanding psychedelic interludes with squiggly sperm-like protozoa darting about or the scene where Zed is being crash-coursed in the sciences and arts with text and classical paintings being flashed upon naked torsos!

I won't give any more away, but you should be more'n aptly pleased by the way ZARDOZ progresses with various plot twitches and switches that might take at least four viewings to fully comprehend. But one should be enough for it to give you the full impact. Let me just say that, without ruining things, the entire story ends in a huge violent cataclysmic bang that will undoubtedly leave you stunned, which in turn is followed by perhaps the most extremely somber and strangely moving ending in a film that I've ever seen in my life. Let me tell you that the final two or so minutes of this film had such a strange effect on me, as if it were ripped straight from one of my most feverish, Ny Quil-induced dreams to the point where it seemed as if director John Boorman actually plagiarized  my mind, that's how powerful even for a jaded fanabla such as I it is! (Oddly enough, having been vaguely tipped off to the ending yet vastly unsure of the situations surrounding it I did, prior to viewing ZARDOZ, conjure up a vivid dream where I viewed what I perceived the ending to be, and although what I dreamed was most definitely not in the film the same sad, depressing emotions that I experienced later were already evident in the hidden reaches of my cranium.) A fantastic film...it's too bad it tanked like it did because it really deserves an even larger cult following than the one I assume it has these days.

Stills from the strangely moving closing of ZARDOZ

The passing of art rock pioneer Kevin Ayers last Monday wasn't anything that came like a total surprise to me...I mean the guy was gettin' up there in years and what's an average rock 'n roller's lifespan anyway...twenty-seven? (It may have gone up to 34 in recent years but in 1971 if a rocker made it to thirty it was like pension time for him!) However, once again Ayers' death reminded me of the evil scourge of time and how we're all growing older and although I still envision myself as that pimply prepubescent runnin' around the house in stocking feet I'm now that very same old pudge of an aging baldoid fart who I remember seeing back when I was ten wonderin' just how the hell these blubberfarms were able to exist in the first place! Although Ayers never exactly was a household name especially here in Ameriga he certainly was the toast of the import bin set, what with his appearance on the debut (and for me the best) Soft Machine album not to mention a string of albums throughout the seventies that were recorded for the likes of Harvest and Island where he got to record with everyone from Syd Barrett to Nico and everybody thought he was so great for doing just that! His songs were whimsical, emotive, deep, sometimes hard and intense, but whatever they were Ayers seemed to have epitomized the 1969-1974 "Harvest sound" about as much as Barrett did and perhaps even more than labelmates Pink Floyd or the Move did which was no mere feat.

True Ayers' career was filled with more than a few songs that really didn't thrill anybody with a rock 'n roll set of dissonance, but even a track like "Falling In Love Again" from YES WE HAVE NO MANANAS seemed to fulfill some sorta English quirkiness quotient that was so important to many an artist over there during the early/mid-seventies days. That 'un was recorded right around the time Ayers' career seemed to be taking a downturn and he started putting out albums that I don't think I'd care to listen to in a millyun years, but as far as his earlier output goes well, who could deny that debut JOY OF A TOY was about as 60s/70s cusp maddening psychedelic as most anything else coming out o'er there at the time? Or how about WHATEVERSHEBRINGSWESING which not only had one of those great Harvest gatefold sleeves with the textured cover but the ever popular "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes" where Ayers gets to do his Lou Reed impression. And although many people seem to pass on this 'un, the JUNE 1, 1974 album is an occasional funtime spin for me where Ayers, who had temporarily switched over to Island Records, gets to perform with his faves on that label's roster not surprisingly enough trying to sound more Island than Harvest in the process. However when he does his old songs recorded for his previous and future label he comes off like a strange amalgamation, kind of like an automobile that is part Lincoln Continental and part Cadillac yet still running about as fast as the regular models.

I'd probably be lying if I said I was going to miss Ayers...after all, I've passed on a good portion of the records he has released  and haven't heard anything he's recorded from the late-seventies onward. But I sure will pay tribute to the Ayers who did all of those rather hotcha albums and single sides (most which were gathered on the budget collection ODD DITTIES) as well as helmed the original Soft Machine with that suave yet evil bass voice of his. I mean, it's the least I could do for a guy who provided me with at least some moments of musical merriment, and it's a whole lot more'n I'll ever do for any of those betrayers of the rock 'n roll idiom who pelted us with some of the worst inanities to ever get passed off as music these past thirty years of total rockist depression!

***

Awhile back, I published a piece mentioning how, thanks to the onslaught of rampant feminism and male emasculation, I much prefer the concept of "ladies" (petite and nice-smelling beings that are soft and lumpy) to that of "women" (a generic catch-all phrase meaning men with vaginas). For months (and given the stone silence I received regarding my pertinent opines) I felt as if I was the only person on the face of this planet who felt this way regarding what has happened to the dangerous sex, but it seems as if somebody else has the same sense of where things have gone wrong with the overall pulchritude and general sensibilities regarding the current state of females too! That's why I am linking his article here. A man's gotta beef up his opinions and core beliefs with those from fellow travelers no matter how crutch-y it may look, y'know!

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Here's the brunt of what I've been dealing with auralwise this week. For a change, all of the platters and disques reviewed this week are newies at least to my collection, with some obtained via the sweat of my brow and others received thanks to none other than Bill Shute for which I am forever thankful (and no Bill, you are not getting my first born because frankly I doubt there will ever be one!). I've also been spinning some old forgotten faves that I haven't touched in awhile such as the Anthrax "HyProGlow"/"Got The Time" promotional CD on Elektra as well as MX-80's WE'RE AN AMERICAN BAND, and with an alarming regularity as well! Guess I'm into yet another one of my heavy metalloid phases, perhaps spurred on by a mention via the TROUSER PRESS website regarding MX-80's "post-metal" stature which I will admit has gotten my interests perked up with regards to hearing more groups in this genre such as Isis (the recent group, not the lezbo horn/forn bunch!) and perhaps Cult of Luna. I'm hoping that some of you readers are willing to clue me into any of these groups that, who knows, may even tickle my fancy! I sure could use a li'l ticklin' to break up the boredom around here, y'know, so "pookie pookie" away!

Can-LIVE IN HANNOVER LP (B13, Russian Federation)

It's so great living here inna 'teens, what with all of these rarer 'n tampons in Afghanistan Can live recordings finally being made available. And this 'un (from the usually reliable unless you can't rely on 'em B13 label) is no exception. Naw, this 'un ain't MONSTER MOVIE re-packaged for us dolts who thought we were really gettin' in on a good thing, but an actual live recording from the mid-seventies which features none other than "Magic" Michael Cousins fronting the group! You may have heard the stories about Magic Michael having been a member of Can for about a month before either he left or they shoved, but if you've wanted to hear him with these guys (on a number of classic EGE BAMYASI-themed romps) and wish they had at least laid something down on vinyl well, now's your chance.

After hearing Michael filling in the Suzuki role and rather credibly at that I kinda wonder why there was a parting between the ways. The guy does sing well and even in key, and you get the impression that Michael's stage antics would have been just as maddening as the guy he replaced were. I guess that the members of Can also had to deal with his "mind" which is probably why not only was their relationship so painfully brief, but those Michael had with the English Nirvana and Vertigo Records not to mention Nick Kent were as well. But sheesh, I do have to give credit to Magic Michael for returning to the fold at least for this one performance...after all if I were hired to front Can and got the bum's rush within the span of a few weeks I'd still be holding a deep grudge lo these many years later!

As with most all of these B13 releases, sound quality's really good (lifted offa FM!) and of course in keeping with the label's packaging scheme they slapped it in a clear plastic sleeve and on translucent vinyl. If you have the money and Forced Exposure (or ebay) has it ripe for pickin' I'd say yeah, get hold of one and worry about eating another day!

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Kraftwerk-LIVE 1971 2-LP set (B 13, Russian Federation)

This is the same recording of the Ralf Hutter-less Kraftwerk with Neu! that you can pick up on-line for nada (along with the BEAT CLUB take of "Truckstop Gondolero," also available on the ORGANISATION reissue), but if you crave a vinylized version here is one for you. If you want to read my original writeup just click here but if not, just listen to this and marvel at the fact that the same brains that gave you this as well as those early, driving Kraftwerk albums closed out the decade by recording dance music that was so klutzy that even white kids with palsy could dance to 'em! But here it was like they really were punk rock, and just as punk as Iggy and Marc and all those other teenage throbhearts were as well!

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The Styrenes-ESSENTIAL STYRENES VOLUME ONE 2-EP set (Mustard, available via Forced Exposure)

Yeah it's mostly old stuff that I assume you've owned for more than a few years (with only one newie in the batch), but the packaging (gatefold sleeve!) is boffo and you can stand to have dupes of these classy Styrene sides in your collection. I only have one beef with this particular package though, and that is I sure wish that head Styrene Paul Marotta would have reissued the spiffy "Radial Arm Saw"/"Just Waking" single here instead of these oft-heard if classic tracks. But I guess that's why they're going to have a "Volume Two" of this, I hope.

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Greg "Stackhouse" Prevost-MISSISSIPPI MURDERER LP (Mean Disposition, Spain, available via Forced Esposure)

I must admit that I didn't quite know quite what to expect from Greg Prevost's latest...after all, the man has taken us on many a staggering musical trip through Sonics screams and Chocolate Watchband mysticism, Southern Californian surf raves and psychedelic Stonesianisms...but I decided to gamble my twelve bucks on this and boy am I glad! Glad because this ain't some cheap-o toss out whitebread phony guy with facial hair and leather jacket with Southside Johnny badges splattered all over but something that I can really osmose into not only now, but in a good twenty to thirty year's time before my mind snaps for all practical purposes!

It's more'n obvious that Prevost has "evolved" over the years and has dabbled in a variety of rock-related realms that would stagger an average chump such as I, but whatever the guy does and whoever he does it with you can bet that it a full-force realism to it that really puts alla them late-seventies white college students play the hard blues attempts I've come across to shame. Prevost and band rip through two sides of originals (with titles like "Death Rides With The Morning Sun," "Too Much Junk" and "Downstate New Yawk Blues") mixed with hoary (and perhaps even whore-y) old blues numbers written by Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson and perhaps a few more Johnsons we don't even know about) that comes off like the best 1971 Flamin' Groovies album recorded by the Rolling Stones in Loose Gravel's outhouse. And it's really a believable release as well, nothing like the patented tee-vee/radio blues takes we've been inundated with time after time which I must say turned me off of the form faster than you can say "Robert Cray rhymes with gay!"

I personally (as if that ever did matter) hear an early-seventies vibe to this which is probably why I've dropped the Groovies/Stones/Gravel comparisons, but who but Helen Keller could deny that this platter does have that raw groove to it that seemed to signify the Stones ca. STICKY FINGERS not to mention the entire Kama Sutra reason for the Groovies' entire being*. Prevost growls and snarls in the best post-Jagger filtered through Dave Aguilar's larynx way (maybe with a tad of Sky Saxon or perhaps even some Iggy thrown in) and not only that but the ol' fanabla plays guitar (and not just electric but acoustic and dobro) really snat like! Yeah, we always knew him as an out-front-there singer in the Jagger vein, but the man can really plunk a guit-box in a way that'd make most self-proclaimed hotshots blush! And coupled with the backing of drummer Zachary Koch and bass guitarist Alex Patrick (and a Keenan Bartlett on piano, selected tracks only) Prevost has made way for a front running in the SWEEPSTAKES OF 2013 with this wild messterpiece! I only wish that some mighty name in the business woulda written the liner notes to just so's people would notice it the same way they did when Muddy Waters lent pen to sing the praises of A SPOON FULL OF SEEDY BLUES!!!

And hey, I didn't even mention how Prevost's originals are literally as good as the covers showing a marked maturity in composition and execution of said musical forms (ecch!), or how you KNOW this is gonna be a real mover in the world of blues because all of the aforementioned whiteboy blooze choozers will probably LOATHE it, but whatever can be said only a mentally challenged idiot would deny that MISSISSIPPI MURDERER ain't the first exhilarating, life-reaffirming get up and shed your inhibitions album of the year! And if you don't like it then you can't be my pal...I mean, it's so good that Prevost could take a turdley Donovan number (mainly "Hey Gyp") and kick out jams galore with it, and even the Yardbirds couldn't do that on their LAST RAVE UP IN LA triple-header!

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Various Artists-HOWDY DOODY AND FRIENDS PRESENT OBSCURE 45's AND EP TRACKS CD-R compiled by Bill Shute 

If I thought last week's collection of bizarroid obscurities courtesy Bill Shute was strange, I don't know what kind of words to use to describe this nutley crew! A rather incongruous mix. this 'un starts off with a not-so-ha ha Mike Nichols and Elaine May cut (sheesh, were they ever funny?), which is followed by a number by The Third Rail of NUGGETS fame, in turn followed by a Three Stooges Christmas single which is followed by... Loads of X-mas stuff on this 'un which makes me feel like a doof listenin' to it two months after the holiday, but I still gotta say that it was sure fun giving a listen to Howdy Doody and the whole Doodyville gang celebrate the season not to mention the long-forgotten holiday novelty trackage from the likes of everyone from Eartha Kitt to Lorne Greene! Neat enough to dredge up those kiddie holiday feelings, though why Bill just hadda stick the Gentrys' "Keep On Dancing" right before Jeanne Tanzy singing about wanting a dog for Christmas is a bigger mystery 'n that one holiday season where I woke up about three in the morning and nothing was there then viola...the room was filled with presents but a mere two hours later (and I still don't figure it out because the folks were obviously asleep the first time I peeked and well...I don't wanna ruin anything for you true believers who still happen to be out there!).

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Anthony Braxton-WILLISAU (QUARTET) 1991 CD-R burn of a 4 disc set (originally on Hat Art, Switzerland)

Remember when Anthony Braxton was being primed by Arista Records to be the new John Coltrane? I sure do, with the man (who had been starving everywhere from Paris to Tokyo for the past six years) getting prime publicity in magazines even your mother reads not to mention major kudos from jazz snobs whom only a few years earlier were all aghast at this "new thing in jazz" which they thought was nothing more than jazz's answer to the new cacophony that had infested rock 'n roll (and of course they were right!). Braxton's back catalog was getting reissued, while recordings that nobody every knew about were suddenly popping up on labels like Inner City and Muse and you could even pick 'em up in your local National Record Mart, that's how easy to snatch up these things were!

By '80 or so it was all over, with the major labels cutting back drastically by cutting their free jazz labels and nobody in general really giving two hoots about free jazz even though it was the haute thing a good five years earlier. Thankfully the lack of major label backing (and I'm sure a big fat royalty check) didn't stop Braxton, and true over the years he's done a few things that seem rather uninspired if in fact insipid (like perform with a stand up comedian), but more often than not what I've at least heard of his post-Arista output was of interest, still keeping with his mix of the "New Black Music" with an avant garde classical sensibility that even had the John Cage types attuning their silence-prone ears to Braxton's metahonk!

WILLISAU was recorded a good ten-plus years after Braxton's fall from major scrutiny, and although none of his old AACM mates like Leroy Jenkins or Steve McCall are here to help him out the backing band is more than copasetic. Pianist Marilyn Crispell could be a stand in for Muhal Richard Abrams while percussionist Gerry Hemingway's marimba playing is almost as close to the free style as some of the lines Joseph Jarman was laying down in the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Mark Dresser reminds me of longtime Braxton collaborator Dave Holland as well, so it ain't like Braxton's just messin' around with a buncha upstarts who wouldn't know his work from an Al DeMeola solo!

Overall the playing is fantab in that halfway point between the jazz and classical avant gardes, and even a few themes from those old Braxton albums pop up in case you were getting misty eyed nostalgic for the old days. And sometimes the playing is straight enough that if you know one of those people who hate the seventies avant stuff but still go for the earlier variety you could play it for them and then, after they beam approval and ask who it was, you could say that it was Braxton and watch the look on their face! I'm sure you'll get a good 'n hearty laff outta it, at least until they smack you one real good!

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IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S...BURGESS MEREDITH! CD-R (four tracks from 45s sent by Bill Shute)

The BATMAN craze of the mid-sixties was one that  I gotta admit really did affect me, and even though I never did get that Batmobile model that I wanted nor most any of the other Bat-items that were comin' out other'n some trading cards that I stapled all over my soon-to-be discarded bookbag I was more'n front and center for the program when it was airing twice a week on the same Bat-station that was airing THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN in the afternoons. I think that even in my still-undeveloped pea brain I could see a slight connection between the two, although by the time it all finally congealed and I was more'n anxious to watch both programs with total adolescent gusto they were both banished from local television screens in a move to seem to suggest "HEY KIDS, you don't want to watch these old superhero programs now, do you? How about feasting your eyes on something really meaningful, like BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN!"

Burgess Meredith was no stroon which is why he was willing to cash in on his BATMAN fame by recording a couple of singles bound to at least put a li'l whipped cream 'n cherry on the beauteous hot fudge sundae of a mint he was undoubtedly making at the time. The first of these has him reciting mooshy prose to a cheap backup of "Greensleeves" that I somehow get the feeling would have turned most mid-sixties people off like Raid yet might have appealed to your Aunt Petunia for all I know. The other one has Meredith doing his Penguin character talking about his dastardliness to yet another crank-out backing with gals chiming in "he's the Penguin" every so often. Funny, when Burt Ward did that single with the Mothers of Invention ("Boy Wonder, I Love You" backed with "Orange Colored Sky") it was like he wasn't allowed to mention the words "Batman" or "Robin" because National Periodical/DC would charge him $10,000 every time these words were uttered or something. Here Meredith gets away with the evil deed repeatedly though I wonder, perhaps DC did rush in and put this record on ice faster'n they did with Jan & Dean's BATMAN around the same time! It only goes to show you that you can be one of the nastiest comic book villains extant, but whatever you do don't screw around with National's lawyers!

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Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra-COSMO EARTH FANTASY CD (Art Yard, available via Forced Exposure)

Here's another rarity from the avant garde's most mentally challenged (and if you read any bio of him you'd agree too!) practitioner consisting of even rarer those other rare Saturn sides coupled with some rehearsals that I don't think ever made it into the public realm. Loads of "strange strings" get plucked on the title track while some 1962 numbers show a more traditional bent. It all ends with yet another version of "Space is the Place" that turns into a massive preaching tirade by Ra with his followers chiming in their approval! I must be getting old, because I think I would have appreciated this 'un a lot more back when I was a teenbo 'stead of now considering all of the questionable philosophical quap that I discovered that Ra had disseminated throughout his rather wild ride lifetime. But I get that way sometimes.

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*For some reason I'm also tempted to mention Faces during their period, but that's probably only because Prevost (along with many other proto-punk movers and shakers) were hot to trot on A WINK IS AS GOOD AS A NOD among other entries in that group's catalog. Frankly I never paid that much attention to 'em myself (if only because I thought they were rather ikky!) but who knows, if I get hungry enough...