Agony Shorthand
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Friday, December 31, 2004
AGONY SHORTHAND'S BEST OF 2004......
For the past 5-6 years I've been unable to make a Top 10 year-end list of music, mostly because I haven't heard enough new material pleasing enough to enshrine it on a public list for all eternity. That's a bitter, overly cautious curmudgeon for you. But if you throw in reissues -- well jeez, even I can squeeze out a list that includes those. Here's what I liked the best in 2004, potential hipster credentials be damned:
1. FIERY FURNACES : "BLUEBERRY BOAT" (new) -- Simply put, one of the craziest and most satisying new bands I've heard in ages. "Blueberry Boat" is a pop experimentalist's dream record, full of soaring nooks and perplexing crannies to get lost in, with a dozen new things to discover every time I play it. It does not introduce itself gently, and thus this band turns off many before they'd had a chance to really dig in deep. Here's what I recommend, since this is precisely how I got hooked on the band this year: Download track #2 from this CD, "Straight Street", as an introduction. It's 99 cents at the "iTunes store". If you think that this schizoid Velvets-meet-Patti-meets "A Quick One While He's Away" technoid number is to your liking, proceed gently into their first CD "Gallowsbird's Bark". If ya like that, well then you're hooked, pal. You'll then be calling their second CD your favorite record of 2004, like I just did.
2. VETIVER : "VETIVER" (new) -- We said on November 30th, "...stupendous, often jaw-droppingly gorgeous moderne folk music...His debut offering arrives fully formed and supremely confident, like he'd been writing sad, lyrical near-masterpieces for decades. Awash in cello and gently-plucked guitar, Vetiver's debut sounds like something Townes Van Zandt might've come up with in his darkest hours...."
3. FLESH EATERS reissues -- Both "No Questions Asked" and "Hard Road To Follow" made it to CD this year, loaded with extra tracks and helping many to realize why this punk/roots/metal/voodoo-conuring band might've been the single best rock band the late 70s/early 80s had to offer.
4. DAVIE ALLEN & THE ARROWS : "DEVIL'S RUMBLE" (reissue) -- We said on June 21st: "....the missing link between heavy-reverb surf music, early garage punk and psychedelic acid rock. This is all by virtue of one incredible set of fuzz pedals and a guitarist who at times was able to out-Link Wray LINK WRAY as he strode for new sonic vistas in heavy, loud, parent-scaring instrumental sounds..."
5. MONOSHOCK : "RUNNIN' APE-LIKE FROM THE BACKWARDS SUPERMAN" (reissue) -- We opined on September 14th about this fuzz-monster reissue of early 90s 45s and rare tracks, "...This CD conveys their unrestrained powers far more cohesively than even most of their live gigs did, and with a far better mix than any of the vinyl that preceded it. It’s one that’s worth playing repeatedly and which’ll deservedly make them a whole lot more friends in the afterlife than they garnered in the here and now..."
6. MIDNIGHT CIRCUS : "RICHARD, RODNEY, RASTUS, RAOUL, RODERICK, RANDY, RUPERT" (reissue) -- We had this to say on December 22nd regarding this great reissue of 1980-83 cassette & EP recordings : "....(Midnight Circus were) way tuned in to the rhythm & the motion of the times: recording on the dirt cheap, pushing ahead with boundary-breaking rock music despite a lack of native talent, sending out homemade cassettes of their practices & 4-track sessions to fellow travelers for the price of a blank, plugging into the most primitive synths imaginable, and firing off multiple attacking rounds of very aggressive, choppy guitar..."
7. REIGNING SOUND : "TOO MUCH GUITAR" (new) -- We said on July 9th: "....This is a lineup that you stealthily head to the world series with – not stacked up with the big boppers, just a bunch of .275-hitting grinders. And when I say multifaceted, I mean you get 60s teen rock anthem sounds (“Your Love is a Fine Thing”), you get harder-edged & croaking punkers like the hot opener “We Repel Each Other” and “You Got Me Hummin’” and some partytime sock hop boogie in the mix to boot. And even a couple of “tear in my beer” near-weepers, too...."
8. CAMERA OBSCURA : "UNDERACHIEVERS PLEASE TRY HARDER" (new) -- We said on September 1st: "....full of clever lyrical puzzles on love and the human condition...their singer Tracy-Anne Campbell delivers her lines with a shy and even kinda sexy set of nuances, winks and smiles. What could easily come off as wimpy and foppish instead delivers the sensitive strum-pop goods like nothing since those first few tracks on MAZZY STAR's great 1989 debut....."
9. JOANNA NEWSOM : "THE MILK-EYED MENDER" (new) -- We said on May 18th: "...I’m totally fascinated by this woman’s beguiling blend of baby-voiced vocals, fantastic/poetic wordplay, and off-kilter harp strumming and piano plinking. That’s harp as in HARP, the big golden thing that you sit down to play while wearing dark flowing robes....Newsom comes across as a classically-trained, well-read, wide-eyed naïf who loves spinning grandiose, big-hearted shanties and romantic tales of kooks and old-timers..."
10. THE SILVER : "DO YOU WANNA DANCE / POPPER" 45 (bootleg reissue)-- We said on April 21st: "....It’s nice to hear something so perplexingly and genuinely wacked for a change. “Do You Wanna Dance” is a foaming-at-the-mouth, ultra-homemade take on the Beach Boys/Ramones “classic”, with what sounds like children being horribly crucified at the end. In fact I’d swear one of the two vocalists here is an 11-year old girl. Poor lamb! The feel is not unlike the pleasurable discomfort produced by Florida’s TEDDY & THE FRAT GIRLS a few years later – and if you don’t like it as first, you’ll learn to love it...."
For the past 5-6 years I've been unable to make a Top 10 year-end list of music, mostly because I haven't heard enough new material pleasing enough to enshrine it on a public list for all eternity. That's a bitter, overly cautious curmudgeon for you. But if you throw in reissues -- well jeez, even I can squeeze out a list that includes those. Here's what I liked the best in 2004, potential hipster credentials be damned:
1. FIERY FURNACES : "BLUEBERRY BOAT" (new) -- Simply put, one of the craziest and most satisying new bands I've heard in ages. "Blueberry Boat" is a pop experimentalist's dream record, full of soaring nooks and perplexing crannies to get lost in, with a dozen new things to discover every time I play it. It does not introduce itself gently, and thus this band turns off many before they'd had a chance to really dig in deep. Here's what I recommend, since this is precisely how I got hooked on the band this year: Download track #2 from this CD, "Straight Street", as an introduction. It's 99 cents at the "iTunes store". If you think that this schizoid Velvets-meet-Patti-meets "A Quick One While He's Away" technoid number is to your liking, proceed gently into their first CD "Gallowsbird's Bark". If ya like that, well then you're hooked, pal. You'll then be calling their second CD your favorite record of 2004, like I just did.
2. VETIVER : "VETIVER" (new) -- We said on November 30th, "...stupendous, often jaw-droppingly gorgeous moderne folk music...His debut offering arrives fully formed and supremely confident, like he'd been writing sad, lyrical near-masterpieces for decades. Awash in cello and gently-plucked guitar, Vetiver's debut sounds like something Townes Van Zandt might've come up with in his darkest hours...."
3. FLESH EATERS reissues -- Both "No Questions Asked" and "Hard Road To Follow" made it to CD this year, loaded with extra tracks and helping many to realize why this punk/roots/metal/voodoo-conuring band might've been the single best rock band the late 70s/early 80s had to offer.
4. DAVIE ALLEN & THE ARROWS : "DEVIL'S RUMBLE" (reissue) -- We said on June 21st: "....the missing link between heavy-reverb surf music, early garage punk and psychedelic acid rock. This is all by virtue of one incredible set of fuzz pedals and a guitarist who at times was able to out-Link Wray LINK WRAY as he strode for new sonic vistas in heavy, loud, parent-scaring instrumental sounds..."
5. MONOSHOCK : "RUNNIN' APE-LIKE FROM THE BACKWARDS SUPERMAN" (reissue) -- We opined on September 14th about this fuzz-monster reissue of early 90s 45s and rare tracks, "...This CD conveys their unrestrained powers far more cohesively than even most of their live gigs did, and with a far better mix than any of the vinyl that preceded it. It’s one that’s worth playing repeatedly and which’ll deservedly make them a whole lot more friends in the afterlife than they garnered in the here and now..."
6. MIDNIGHT CIRCUS : "RICHARD, RODNEY, RASTUS, RAOUL, RODERICK, RANDY, RUPERT" (reissue) -- We had this to say on December 22nd regarding this great reissue of 1980-83 cassette & EP recordings : "....(Midnight Circus were) way tuned in to the rhythm & the motion of the times: recording on the dirt cheap, pushing ahead with boundary-breaking rock music despite a lack of native talent, sending out homemade cassettes of their practices & 4-track sessions to fellow travelers for the price of a blank, plugging into the most primitive synths imaginable, and firing off multiple attacking rounds of very aggressive, choppy guitar..."
7. REIGNING SOUND : "TOO MUCH GUITAR" (new) -- We said on July 9th: "....This is a lineup that you stealthily head to the world series with – not stacked up with the big boppers, just a bunch of .275-hitting grinders. And when I say multifaceted, I mean you get 60s teen rock anthem sounds (“Your Love is a Fine Thing”), you get harder-edged & croaking punkers like the hot opener “We Repel Each Other” and “You Got Me Hummin’” and some partytime sock hop boogie in the mix to boot. And even a couple of “tear in my beer” near-weepers, too...."
8. CAMERA OBSCURA : "UNDERACHIEVERS PLEASE TRY HARDER" (new) -- We said on September 1st: "....full of clever lyrical puzzles on love and the human condition...their singer Tracy-Anne Campbell delivers her lines with a shy and even kinda sexy set of nuances, winks and smiles. What could easily come off as wimpy and foppish instead delivers the sensitive strum-pop goods like nothing since those first few tracks on MAZZY STAR's great 1989 debut....."
9. JOANNA NEWSOM : "THE MILK-EYED MENDER" (new) -- We said on May 18th: "...I’m totally fascinated by this woman’s beguiling blend of baby-voiced vocals, fantastic/poetic wordplay, and off-kilter harp strumming and piano plinking. That’s harp as in HARP, the big golden thing that you sit down to play while wearing dark flowing robes....Newsom comes across as a classically-trained, well-read, wide-eyed naïf who loves spinning grandiose, big-hearted shanties and romantic tales of kooks and old-timers..."
10. THE SILVER : "DO YOU WANNA DANCE / POPPER" 45 (bootleg reissue)-- We said on April 21st: "....It’s nice to hear something so perplexingly and genuinely wacked for a change. “Do You Wanna Dance” is a foaming-at-the-mouth, ultra-homemade take on the Beach Boys/Ramones “classic”, with what sounds like children being horribly crucified at the end. In fact I’d swear one of the two vocalists here is an 11-year old girl. Poor lamb! The feel is not unlike the pleasurable discomfort produced by Florida’s TEDDY & THE FRAT GIRLS a few years later – and if you don’t like it as first, you’ll learn to love it...."
Thursday, December 30, 2004
CHRIS D. AND THE DIVINE HORSEMEN : "TIME STANDS STILL" CD......
Another notch in the FLESH EATERS / CHRIS D. reputation rehabilitation underway over at Atavistic, and we're all indebted for their selfless servitude. After the Flesh Eaters made their final bow in 1983, Chris took a little siesta from ear-shattering rock and roll and settled in to write a nice cozy batch of folk songs. He gathered up a large collection of heavyweights from the multi-sharded Los Angeles punk/roots scene, many of whom were denizens of a late-night, hard-drinking, music-worshipping scene of their very own. Chris was something of a high priest within this group, as were Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Dan Stuart, Dave Alvin, John Doe, and relative newcomer Texacala Jones of TEX AND THE HORSEHEADS. All lent a hand on 1984's "Time Stands Still", and none went on to play in any live version of this band, for a live version of this band never existed. The purpose was solely to put music to Chris' words, and to create a landscape that fit in with some of Chris' favorite things: Mexico, drinking, Catholic guilt, sin and redemption, prayer books, drinking, and the love of a good woman. It also marked the debut of Chris' then-good woman, Julie Christensen, and although Julie's "I'm a lovely honky tonk angel" voice sometimes grates on me, here she provided an able foil to his various yips & yelps and guttural growls.
The album very deliberately stands in marked contrast to the overpowering Flesh Eaters records that preceded it. Here you have unabashed sentimentality worn on the sleeve of a man who's already starting to realize he's seen it all in the past 8 years. When Chris fires up his pipes for the great title track or for the jaw-dropping "Little Sister", you hear a weariness not present in any previous recordings, and it totally suits the languid, laid-back feel of the music just fine. "Lilly White Hands" has been a favorite of mine for years, and it provides something of a downer contrast to the preceding track, "When The Rain Comes Down", which is a light and airy salsa number for a scorching Ensenada evening. After this one came out to general indifference in '84, Chris and Julie reconstituted the band into a real touring unit, known to many and to all as the DIVINE HORSEMEN. This is the band I saw live in 1986, and they were superb. Those SST Records of theirs and the Flesh Eaters' masterpiece "Forever Came Today" are really the only Chris items remaining to be unleashed onto CD (I can take or leave "Snake Handler", but "Devil's River" should be next on the list), and that's a welcome spot I'm happy to find the discerning music world in at the end of 2004.
Another notch in the FLESH EATERS / CHRIS D. reputation rehabilitation underway over at Atavistic, and we're all indebted for their selfless servitude. After the Flesh Eaters made their final bow in 1983, Chris took a little siesta from ear-shattering rock and roll and settled in to write a nice cozy batch of folk songs. He gathered up a large collection of heavyweights from the multi-sharded Los Angeles punk/roots scene, many of whom were denizens of a late-night, hard-drinking, music-worshipping scene of their very own. Chris was something of a high priest within this group, as were Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Dan Stuart, Dave Alvin, John Doe, and relative newcomer Texacala Jones of TEX AND THE HORSEHEADS. All lent a hand on 1984's "Time Stands Still", and none went on to play in any live version of this band, for a live version of this band never existed. The purpose was solely to put music to Chris' words, and to create a landscape that fit in with some of Chris' favorite things: Mexico, drinking, Catholic guilt, sin and redemption, prayer books, drinking, and the love of a good woman. It also marked the debut of Chris' then-good woman, Julie Christensen, and although Julie's "I'm a lovely honky tonk angel" voice sometimes grates on me, here she provided an able foil to his various yips & yelps and guttural growls.
The album very deliberately stands in marked contrast to the overpowering Flesh Eaters records that preceded it. Here you have unabashed sentimentality worn on the sleeve of a man who's already starting to realize he's seen it all in the past 8 years. When Chris fires up his pipes for the great title track or for the jaw-dropping "Little Sister", you hear a weariness not present in any previous recordings, and it totally suits the languid, laid-back feel of the music just fine. "Lilly White Hands" has been a favorite of mine for years, and it provides something of a downer contrast to the preceding track, "When The Rain Comes Down", which is a light and airy salsa number for a scorching Ensenada evening. After this one came out to general indifference in '84, Chris and Julie reconstituted the band into a real touring unit, known to many and to all as the DIVINE HORSEMEN. This is the band I saw live in 1986, and they were superb. Those SST Records of theirs and the Flesh Eaters' masterpiece "Forever Came Today" are really the only Chris items remaining to be unleashed onto CD (I can take or leave "Snake Handler", but "Devil's River" should be next on the list), and that's a welcome spot I'm happy to find the discerning music world in at the end of 2004.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
DARN THAT KUGELBERG!......
Another piece in the new issue of UGLY THINGS that got my mojo all hopped up was this Johan Kugleberg two-pager on "Primitive Shit Music". Kugelberg makes a well-argued case for creating a defined sub-genre of raw rock and roll called Primitive Shit Music, or PSM for short. As I understand it, PSM is the crudest, most willfully inept rock music of all time -- not necessarily "lo-fi" (though that helps), but in pure posession of a certain je ne sais quoi that renders its releases stark, beatifully raw and nakedly flailing and full of chaotic noise. He then lists 10 records, all 45s, that he feels are the high-water marks of the genre, but are far more likely records that he owns that he'd now like to rub in your face. I've never heard nine of the ten -- only the DISTORTED LEVELS have ever shown up in my collection, and the screaming Stoogified rawness of that record is a fine benchmark for the genre, lending the rest of his list some credibility:
1. DANGEROUS RHYTHM -- Stray Cat (Blues)
2. OPUS -- The Atrocity / Good Procedures
3. KESSLER JUGEND -- Scoot 'Zem/Vastri Hoyre
4. TAMPAX -- O'Dio
5. DIRTSHIT -- Exit
6. REAL TRAITORS -- It's a Waste
7. DEATH TRIP -- We're Gonna Die Tonight
8. DISTORTED LEVELS -- Hey Mister
9. PANTANO BOAS -- Jesus, John Lee Hooker and Me
10. THE DOOTZ -- A.C.N.E. I've Got ACNE
So since the guy achieved his aim -- anyone know where we can find mp3s of this stuff? DEATH TRIP I remember from Bad Vugum's heydey, but I never bought that 45 and nestled with my LIIMANARINA instead. But the rest? I wanna hear 'em. Kugelberg then goes on to list ten "Pre-Punk Potentates of Primitive", containing some of the true masterpieces of 20th Century Popular Culture:
1. ELECTRIC EELS -- Agitated (band is pictured above)
2. CREME SODA -- I'm Chewing Gum
3. THE SNAILS -- Love Theme From The Snails
4. RANDY ALVEY & GREEN FUZ -- Green Fuz
5. CHURCH MICE -- Baby We're Not a Part of Society
6. CRAMPS -- I'm Cramped (bootleg)
7. MAD MIKE & THE MANIACS -- The Hunch
8. THE RATS -- The Rats Revenge
9. JERRY McCAIN -- I'm a Ding-Dong Daddy From Rock and Roll City
10. HASIL ADKINS -- She Said
Finally, he goes on to to list another 20-25 records that fit into the genre, ranging from killers like the SOLGER EP to the FUCKIN' FLYIN' A-HEADS single to the "Weird Noise" EP and the like. Nice work. One horrible, dreadful ommission that I would've put at #2 on the list above is an incredible 1966 single from THE MODDS called "Leave My House". This made it to numerous bootlegs before settling on Crypt's "Teenage Shutdown: I'm Gonna Stay" CD a few years ago. It is everything you'd ever want in a PSM record: what sounds like an acre of fur on the needle, raw and fuzz-laden guitar, drums in a closet two rooms removed from the studio (studio??), misanthropic lyrics, and snotty-assed vocals. I'd call it "60s punk" but it really doesn't fit because it's so out of time and bizarre -- why, some might call it Primitive Shit Music!
Another piece in the new issue of UGLY THINGS that got my mojo all hopped up was this Johan Kugleberg two-pager on "Primitive Shit Music". Kugelberg makes a well-argued case for creating a defined sub-genre of raw rock and roll called Primitive Shit Music, or PSM for short. As I understand it, PSM is the crudest, most willfully inept rock music of all time -- not necessarily "lo-fi" (though that helps), but in pure posession of a certain je ne sais quoi that renders its releases stark, beatifully raw and nakedly flailing and full of chaotic noise. He then lists 10 records, all 45s, that he feels are the high-water marks of the genre, but are far more likely records that he owns that he'd now like to rub in your face. I've never heard nine of the ten -- only the DISTORTED LEVELS have ever shown up in my collection, and the screaming Stoogified rawness of that record is a fine benchmark for the genre, lending the rest of his list some credibility:
1. DANGEROUS RHYTHM -- Stray Cat (Blues)
2. OPUS -- The Atrocity / Good Procedures
3. KESSLER JUGEND -- Scoot 'Zem/Vastri Hoyre
4. TAMPAX -- O'Dio
5. DIRTSHIT -- Exit
6. REAL TRAITORS -- It's a Waste
7. DEATH TRIP -- We're Gonna Die Tonight
8. DISTORTED LEVELS -- Hey Mister
9. PANTANO BOAS -- Jesus, John Lee Hooker and Me
10. THE DOOTZ -- A.C.N.E. I've Got ACNE
So since the guy achieved his aim -- anyone know where we can find mp3s of this stuff? DEATH TRIP I remember from Bad Vugum's heydey, but I never bought that 45 and nestled with my LIIMANARINA instead. But the rest? I wanna hear 'em. Kugelberg then goes on to list ten "Pre-Punk Potentates of Primitive", containing some of the true masterpieces of 20th Century Popular Culture:
1. ELECTRIC EELS -- Agitated (band is pictured above)
2. CREME SODA -- I'm Chewing Gum
3. THE SNAILS -- Love Theme From The Snails
4. RANDY ALVEY & GREEN FUZ -- Green Fuz
5. CHURCH MICE -- Baby We're Not a Part of Society
6. CRAMPS -- I'm Cramped (bootleg)
7. MAD MIKE & THE MANIACS -- The Hunch
8. THE RATS -- The Rats Revenge
9. JERRY McCAIN -- I'm a Ding-Dong Daddy From Rock and Roll City
10. HASIL ADKINS -- She Said
Finally, he goes on to to list another 20-25 records that fit into the genre, ranging from killers like the SOLGER EP to the FUCKIN' FLYIN' A-HEADS single to the "Weird Noise" EP and the like. Nice work. One horrible, dreadful ommission that I would've put at #2 on the list above is an incredible 1966 single from THE MODDS called "Leave My House". This made it to numerous bootlegs before settling on Crypt's "Teenage Shutdown: I'm Gonna Stay" CD a few years ago. It is everything you'd ever want in a PSM record: what sounds like an acre of fur on the needle, raw and fuzz-laden guitar, drums in a closet two rooms removed from the studio (studio??), misanthropic lyrics, and snotty-assed vocals. I'd call it "60s punk" but it really doesn't fit because it's so out of time and bizarre -- why, some might call it Primitive Shit Music!
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
AIN'T THAT JUST THE DICKENS.....
Last night, while perusing the latest issue of UGLY THINGS, I read one of the funniest single articles I've come across in some time. First I had to hire someone to flip through the umpteenth Misunderstood article for me, but once they were done and I'd paid them their $59, I found myself cackling over this Phil Milstein-penned appreciation of this bombastic fake hard rock band comprised of NRBQ roadies (not unlike the bombastic fake misogynist punk/metal of Black Flag's roadies NIG HEIST) called THE DICKENS. Just like you and your friends probably did over a case of beer back in the day, NRBQ concocted this inane idea for a fake band with stupid names and dumb song titles, but their concept was so laugh-out-loud ridiculous that they actually pulled it off and recorded a 45 for a major label (!). Here's Milstein relating the band's concepts for their stage shows:
"...Another Dickens concept had the band entering from above, suspended on cables like Peter Pan, while, according to Placco, "big theatrical fans would blow us out over the audience, and would blow the audience out of the theatre." Shows were to be brief: "Half a song, or one song, or just no song at all," he continues. "We might blow up the equipment before the audience even got there."
So I thought I'd encourage you to get Ugly Things to check it out (which you should do anyway), but as it turns out, the article is right here, from a Phil Spector site called Spectropop. Enjoy. (And by the way, can someone get working on a Milstein writings anthology?).
Last night, while perusing the latest issue of UGLY THINGS, I read one of the funniest single articles I've come across in some time. First I had to hire someone to flip through the umpteenth Misunderstood article for me, but once they were done and I'd paid them their $59, I found myself cackling over this Phil Milstein-penned appreciation of this bombastic fake hard rock band comprised of NRBQ roadies (not unlike the bombastic fake misogynist punk/metal of Black Flag's roadies NIG HEIST) called THE DICKENS. Just like you and your friends probably did over a case of beer back in the day, NRBQ concocted this inane idea for a fake band with stupid names and dumb song titles, but their concept was so laugh-out-loud ridiculous that they actually pulled it off and recorded a 45 for a major label (!). Here's Milstein relating the band's concepts for their stage shows:
"...Another Dickens concept had the band entering from above, suspended on cables like Peter Pan, while, according to Placco, "big theatrical fans would blow us out over the audience, and would blow the audience out of the theatre." Shows were to be brief: "Half a song, or one song, or just no song at all," he continues. "We might blow up the equipment before the audience even got there."
So I thought I'd encourage you to get Ugly Things to check it out (which you should do anyway), but as it turns out, the article is right here, from a Phil Spector site called Spectropop. Enjoy. (And by the way, can someone get working on a Milstein writings anthology?).
THE GIZMOS : "ROCK AND ROLL DON'T COME FROM NEW YORK" CD.....
The udder of GIZMOS recordings began to run cold about 10 tracks into that first compilation CD "1976/77: The Studio Recordings", but that hasn't stopped Gulcher from depressing the shaft on this particular punk rock milking machine. How do you get over the fact that this 1979-82 version of the GIZMOS contained no original members, and sounded almost nothing like the Indiana band that recorded "Human Garbage Disposal" and "Amerika First"? You don't -- you just keep an open mind and hope that the name carried a little magic with it. I mean, this very, very long collection of power pop slop and buzzsaw UK-sounding punk is all right, like a surprisingly quick doctor's visit or a good sandwich for lunch is all right. There's nothing really funny about it -- though I know they were having loads of fun with tracks like "Melinda is a Lesbian" and the bold statement of a title track -- and there's really nothing particularly offensive. Or bad. But you've got to be a pretty dedicated Hoosier hometowner to lead any cheers for it, and if anyone's really listening to it more than twice all the way through, then my chapeau is off to ya. For a counterpoint view, check out this review by Dan over at Traumatic Harmony.
The udder of GIZMOS recordings began to run cold about 10 tracks into that first compilation CD "1976/77: The Studio Recordings", but that hasn't stopped Gulcher from depressing the shaft on this particular punk rock milking machine. How do you get over the fact that this 1979-82 version of the GIZMOS contained no original members, and sounded almost nothing like the Indiana band that recorded "Human Garbage Disposal" and "Amerika First"? You don't -- you just keep an open mind and hope that the name carried a little magic with it. I mean, this very, very long collection of power pop slop and buzzsaw UK-sounding punk is all right, like a surprisingly quick doctor's visit or a good sandwich for lunch is all right. There's nothing really funny about it -- though I know they were having loads of fun with tracks like "Melinda is a Lesbian" and the bold statement of a title track -- and there's really nothing particularly offensive. Or bad. But you've got to be a pretty dedicated Hoosier hometowner to lead any cheers for it, and if anyone's really listening to it more than twice all the way through, then my chapeau is off to ya. For a counterpoint view, check out this review by Dan over at Traumatic Harmony.
Monday, December 27, 2004
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN" CD.....
This 2004 compilation of magickal modern folksters was put out by the annoying hippie broadsheet ARTHUR, and more specifically, chosen and cobbled together by modern hippie and compilation participant DEVENDRA BANHART. I've got no quarrel at all with Mr. Banhart; the more I hear from and read about him, the more I get comfortable with his freak-flag-flying shamanistic shtick. He's also got a pretty good ear for what makes an ear-pleasing folk song. The ratio of hits to misses on this compilation is pretty strong, and proves that there's something brewing out there that's causing young people to look inward, kick off their shoes and go acoustic. Not surprisingly, my favorites are the talented San Francisco triad of VETIVER, JOANNA NEWSOM and Devendra himself, who actually brings lost 1970s UK folkie VASHTI BUNYAN back from the outer Hebrides to duet with him on "Rejoicing In The Hands" (all three contribute album tracks, so if you're got their records then you've heard these numbers already). There's one other stunner in the top tier: JOSEPHINE FOSTER and her "Little Life", which is a real back-porch tearjerker, channeling both the Kentucky woods and Stonehenge to create something pretty friggin' special. This isn't the folk music my mom used to have lying around (Joan Baez and whatnot) -- this is as deep and as intricate as a loom, and about as anachronistic. And that's cool.
What else is good. Even though WHITE MAGIC's singer sounds like she's trying to start a Minnie Ripperton revival, their track ("Don't Need" -- sorry, not the Deep Wound song) is weirdly loopy and strung-out acoustic psych. There's this band TROLL who I once saw middle between NUMBERS and ERASE ERRATA (!) who sound like a Byrds-infused Mamas & The Papas (they're also the only ones who go electric on this CD -- Judas!!). Can you imagine actually enjoying music made by someone named SCOUT NIBLETT? You'd think with a name like that she'd be a scrappy lil' tomboy with dirty elbows, trying to show the big kids she can hold her own, and on this comp she sure does with a ghostly number called "Wet Road". What about the bad? Oh, there's a few: I'm sorry, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE sounds like the sort of fumble-fingered poseur/dilettante fanzine people might pretend to rave about if the guy was also in a well-loved rocknroll band. This one's in Comets On Fire, and I can picture him waking up in a nervous sweat after a fantasy dream of John Fahey @ the Freight & Salvage, 1967. But then again, "San Francisco mornings can be so hazy/Everybody waking up drunk and lazy" is a pretty cool chorus, hunh? What about "ANTONY"'s closing rennaissance pleasure faire-meets-Bryan Ferry "The Lake"? Can you hang in there for all 4:48? I couldn't. But picking the bitter fruit off such a compilation is easy, fish in a barrel activity. Far more difficult is to curate a well-put together collection of modern folk-based oddballs, and Banhart's done a splendid job here. Send your money directly to Arthur Magazine, and make sure to tell them you don't want any of your cash routed to the goddamn war machine!
This 2004 compilation of magickal modern folksters was put out by the annoying hippie broadsheet ARTHUR, and more specifically, chosen and cobbled together by modern hippie and compilation participant DEVENDRA BANHART. I've got no quarrel at all with Mr. Banhart; the more I hear from and read about him, the more I get comfortable with his freak-flag-flying shamanistic shtick. He's also got a pretty good ear for what makes an ear-pleasing folk song. The ratio of hits to misses on this compilation is pretty strong, and proves that there's something brewing out there that's causing young people to look inward, kick off their shoes and go acoustic. Not surprisingly, my favorites are the talented San Francisco triad of VETIVER, JOANNA NEWSOM and Devendra himself, who actually brings lost 1970s UK folkie VASHTI BUNYAN back from the outer Hebrides to duet with him on "Rejoicing In The Hands" (all three contribute album tracks, so if you're got their records then you've heard these numbers already). There's one other stunner in the top tier: JOSEPHINE FOSTER and her "Little Life", which is a real back-porch tearjerker, channeling both the Kentucky woods and Stonehenge to create something pretty friggin' special. This isn't the folk music my mom used to have lying around (Joan Baez and whatnot) -- this is as deep and as intricate as a loom, and about as anachronistic. And that's cool.
What else is good. Even though WHITE MAGIC's singer sounds like she's trying to start a Minnie Ripperton revival, their track ("Don't Need" -- sorry, not the Deep Wound song) is weirdly loopy and strung-out acoustic psych. There's this band TROLL who I once saw middle between NUMBERS and ERASE ERRATA (!) who sound like a Byrds-infused Mamas & The Papas (they're also the only ones who go electric on this CD -- Judas!!). Can you imagine actually enjoying music made by someone named SCOUT NIBLETT? You'd think with a name like that she'd be a scrappy lil' tomboy with dirty elbows, trying to show the big kids she can hold her own, and on this comp she sure does with a ghostly number called "Wet Road". What about the bad? Oh, there's a few: I'm sorry, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE sounds like the sort of fumble-fingered poseur/dilettante fanzine people might pretend to rave about if the guy was also in a well-loved rocknroll band. This one's in Comets On Fire, and I can picture him waking up in a nervous sweat after a fantasy dream of John Fahey @ the Freight & Salvage, 1967. But then again, "San Francisco mornings can be so hazy/Everybody waking up drunk and lazy" is a pretty cool chorus, hunh? What about "ANTONY"'s closing rennaissance pleasure faire-meets-Bryan Ferry "The Lake"? Can you hang in there for all 4:48? I couldn't. But picking the bitter fruit off such a compilation is easy, fish in a barrel activity. Far more difficult is to curate a well-put together collection of modern folk-based oddballs, and Banhart's done a splendid job here. Send your money directly to Arthur Magazine, and make sure to tell them you don't want any of your cash routed to the goddamn war machine!
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
MIDNIGHT CIRCUS : "RICHARD, RODNEY, RASTUS, RAOUL, RODERICK, RANDY, RUPERT" CD......
This arrived in my inbox just in time to hit the north half of my best reissues of 2004 list. Had you ever heard of the MIDNIGHT CIRCUS? Only if you're a dedicated deep delver into ultra-obscure early 80s English DIY -- deep enough to have bought or heard the "Angst In My Pants" EP from 1980, or to have been trading micro-release cassette tapes in the UK around the same time period. In other words, this CD will be your introduction to the band, and I'm predicting you're gonna like 'em. The Midnight Circus took their name from a Pretty Things song & even at a very young age were way tuned in to the rhythm & the motion of the times: recording on the dirt cheap, pushing ahead with boundary-breaking rock music despite a lack of native talent, sending out homemade cassettes of their practices & 4-track sessions to fellow travelers for the price of a blank, plugging into the most primitive synths imaginable, and firing off multiple attacking rounds of very aggressive, choppy guitar. They were so nervous about the reaction they'd engender with this downscale approach that they never even played live. 1980 vintage FALL almost come off as classically-trained prog-rockers by comparison. Reference points include first-45 Mekons; other DIY linchpins like the Instant Automatons and Desperate Bicycles; anything on Fuck Off records; and, later, in their brief career (1983), all the UK bands who pumped up their sound with intense synthesizer layering and bizarre blurps without going whole hog into the gravy train of the "new wave".
The CD's presented chronologically, starting with recordings from their very first cassette. The loud-ass kick-off "Leather & Lace" is "primitive shit rock" to the nth, and will likely make any subsequent lists that seek to detail some of the cooler ultra-raw 4-track sputterings of the era. Later tracks burrow a hole into what I commonly think of as classic obscuro English DIY -- first-take recordings that sound distant and vague while cutting through the murk with hot fuzz and screeching keytones. Top picks are "The Hedonist Jive" (which comes from their only vinyl effort -- the "Angst in My Pants" comp -- and which'd make a great title for someone's blog or 'zine), the weird noise of "Pop Song", and the later "Obsession & Guilt", which almost sounds like something a real band might put out, if you know what I'm saying. I like the whole package far better than the retrospectives by the INSTANT AUTOMATONS, NATIVE HIPSTERS and THE DOOR AND THE WINDOW, perhaps because in three short years the Midnight Circus' sound grew & fiercely evolved without hitting a bum note that wasn't already meant to be bum. It's the best thing I've heard yet from the 80s cassette culture & I encourage you to get a quick multiple-item order in to Hyped2Death for the whole family -- only 3 shopping days left.
This arrived in my inbox just in time to hit the north half of my best reissues of 2004 list. Had you ever heard of the MIDNIGHT CIRCUS? Only if you're a dedicated deep delver into ultra-obscure early 80s English DIY -- deep enough to have bought or heard the "Angst In My Pants" EP from 1980, or to have been trading micro-release cassette tapes in the UK around the same time period. In other words, this CD will be your introduction to the band, and I'm predicting you're gonna like 'em. The Midnight Circus took their name from a Pretty Things song & even at a very young age were way tuned in to the rhythm & the motion of the times: recording on the dirt cheap, pushing ahead with boundary-breaking rock music despite a lack of native talent, sending out homemade cassettes of their practices & 4-track sessions to fellow travelers for the price of a blank, plugging into the most primitive synths imaginable, and firing off multiple attacking rounds of very aggressive, choppy guitar. They were so nervous about the reaction they'd engender with this downscale approach that they never even played live. 1980 vintage FALL almost come off as classically-trained prog-rockers by comparison. Reference points include first-45 Mekons; other DIY linchpins like the Instant Automatons and Desperate Bicycles; anything on Fuck Off records; and, later, in their brief career (1983), all the UK bands who pumped up their sound with intense synthesizer layering and bizarre blurps without going whole hog into the gravy train of the "new wave".
The CD's presented chronologically, starting with recordings from their very first cassette. The loud-ass kick-off "Leather & Lace" is "primitive shit rock" to the nth, and will likely make any subsequent lists that seek to detail some of the cooler ultra-raw 4-track sputterings of the era. Later tracks burrow a hole into what I commonly think of as classic obscuro English DIY -- first-take recordings that sound distant and vague while cutting through the murk with hot fuzz and screeching keytones. Top picks are "The Hedonist Jive" (which comes from their only vinyl effort -- the "Angst in My Pants" comp -- and which'd make a great title for someone's blog or 'zine), the weird noise of "Pop Song", and the later "Obsession & Guilt", which almost sounds like something a real band might put out, if you know what I'm saying. I like the whole package far better than the retrospectives by the INSTANT AUTOMATONS, NATIVE HIPSTERS and THE DOOR AND THE WINDOW, perhaps because in three short years the Midnight Circus' sound grew & fiercely evolved without hitting a bum note that wasn't already meant to be bum. It's the best thing I've heard yet from the 80s cassette culture & I encourage you to get a quick multiple-item order in to Hyped2Death for the whole family -- only 3 shopping days left.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
BOOKER T & THE MG'S / MAR-KEYS : "STAX INSTRUMENTALS" CD.....
One instrumental compilation I reach for before almost all the others for mood enhancement & moderate toe tapping is this 2003 collection from 1960s Stax instrumental stalwarts BOOKER T. & THE MG'S and the MAR-KEYS. It's rather ingeniously entitled "Stax Instumentals". It's nothing that'll shake the foundations nor rattle the core of your being, but its thick grooves and bold hooks are FUN with a captal PH. If I'm not mistaken, the CD is all unreleased tracks as well, which is pretty stunning because the MG's stuff is as good as anything I've heard on their official releases -- and no Beatles BS either! An admission: I'd never heard the MAR-KEYS until I got this CD and obviously have a little crate-digging to do. Their rollicking, organ-driven pounder "Made In Memphis" instantly went to the top of my 60s instrumental list; in fact both acts were 2 of the best ivory-tinkling organ grinders of all time, with more soul and heft in a single track than most bands manage in a lifetime. AND, as I've found out, you can not only play it for the ladies, for your record-nerd pals, but even when the parents or in-laws are around too! How many in your teeming multitude of discs & vinyl can you say that about?
One instrumental compilation I reach for before almost all the others for mood enhancement & moderate toe tapping is this 2003 collection from 1960s Stax instrumental stalwarts BOOKER T. & THE MG'S and the MAR-KEYS. It's rather ingeniously entitled "Stax Instumentals". It's nothing that'll shake the foundations nor rattle the core of your being, but its thick grooves and bold hooks are FUN with a captal PH. If I'm not mistaken, the CD is all unreleased tracks as well, which is pretty stunning because the MG's stuff is as good as anything I've heard on their official releases -- and no Beatles BS either! An admission: I'd never heard the MAR-KEYS until I got this CD and obviously have a little crate-digging to do. Their rollicking, organ-driven pounder "Made In Memphis" instantly went to the top of my 60s instrumental list; in fact both acts were 2 of the best ivory-tinkling organ grinders of all time, with more soul and heft in a single track than most bands manage in a lifetime. AND, as I've found out, you can not only play it for the ladies, for your record-nerd pals, but even when the parents or in-laws are around too! How many in your teeming multitude of discs & vinyl can you say that about?
Monday, December 20, 2004
RADIO BEATS 45......
I'm a longtime sucker for all-guns-blazing sound barrier-piercing garage punk, the kind practiced at inhuman speeds just fast enough to blur the vocals and guitars into an overloaded, eardrum-busting fog. The first two ZODIAC KILLERS, BRIDES, TEENGENERATE, first BASEBALL FURIES single -- I'm all over that stuff. The public servants over at Something I Learned Today mp3 blog turned me onto a great moderne practictioner of the sound, the RADIO BEATS. They sound like the Radiators From Space all beaned up on adrenaline-multiplying goofballs. Download "Backseat Learnin'" from their new 7"EP and prepare to be pinned to the wall in record time.
I'm a longtime sucker for all-guns-blazing sound barrier-piercing garage punk, the kind practiced at inhuman speeds just fast enough to blur the vocals and guitars into an overloaded, eardrum-busting fog. The first two ZODIAC KILLERS, BRIDES, TEENGENERATE, first BASEBALL FURIES single -- I'm all over that stuff. The public servants over at Something I Learned Today mp3 blog turned me onto a great moderne practictioner of the sound, the RADIO BEATS. They sound like the Radiators From Space all beaned up on adrenaline-multiplying goofballs. Download "Backseat Learnin'" from their new 7"EP and prepare to be pinned to the wall in record time.
Friday, December 17, 2004
JOHNNY PAYCHECK : "THE SOUL & THE EDGE" CD......
JOHHNY PAYCHECK, as I'm sure he's all too happy to tell you, is a guy who not only sang about it, he lived it. Lived it as in: shot a man, spent time in prison, committed multiple minor blue-collar crimes ranging from fraud to fistfights, drank a near-hole into his liver, sniffed a bucketful of cocaine, etc. And he was/is a little fella, too! There's a picture of him in the booklet that comes with the recent "Soul & the Edge" CD, standing next to George Jones -- why it's practically Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues in this shot, with the rootin' tootin' pepperpot Paycheck trying to clamber up the microphone and harmonize with Big Daddy Jones. I bought the CD because I was floored by last year's "The Real Mr. Heartache" collection of his 1960s hits -- this one takes us into the 1970s and (gasp) 80s, and naturally includes the big kahuna, "Take This Job and Shove It", right up front at Track #1. Paycheck in the 1970s was a slightly different animal than in the decade before, a little more calculated and perhaps a little less authentic, whatever that means. Let it be said that while I truly dig this collection and recommend it, I'll include the caveat that Paycheck had obviously ingested a bit too much of his own bullshit by the late 70s, and therefore you've got to put up with a well-crafted "outlaw" persona on this CD that often comes off no better than a dirty dancing, hard-drinking songwriter's marionette. You're saying, "If Johnny Paycheck can't put on an outlaw persona, who the hell can?". I respond with: Sure, you're right, but recognize how often the words in these songs are arranged into a well-timed call, designed expressly to provoke a huge "wooooooooooo-hoooooooooooo!" response from belligerantly drunk crowds in Fort Worth, Abilene and Tulsa. It's called hitmaking, and in 1970s Nashville, Johnny Paycheck was one of the very best.
My taste on this one trend toward the mid-70s material, which is a little more bitter and raw, and rougher than the dulled edges of his post-"Take This Job" material. Paycheck was one of the ultimate practitioners of hard, middle-finger Deep South country, which was played in a real loose, "who cares" fashion, bundled with a sense of anger and disgust at the high-society world outside of blue collar America. When it works ("When I Had a Home To Go To", "Barstool Mountain"), it works real well. When it descends into barroom balladry with syrupy strings & overly lovelorn lyrics, it doesn't. Some of the 1978-85 stuff has this godawful funky bass that is just grating. And "Old Violin", with its lush synthesizer washes, sounds like fuckin' "Do They Know It's Christmas"! The collection and the one before it are good tracking devices for the heydey and overall decline of country music from its 1950s-60s peaks, through the 1970s "Urban Cowboy" slide into cartoonish rock-and-roll-infused country, into whatever it was 1980s country music stood for (pure pop music, shorn of any vestige of its rural, rough-hewn roots). Paycheck's way better than all that and has a set of lungs to beat the band, but this 60% great collection proves even the little man wasn't immune from the Decline & Fall.
JOHHNY PAYCHECK, as I'm sure he's all too happy to tell you, is a guy who not only sang about it, he lived it. Lived it as in: shot a man, spent time in prison, committed multiple minor blue-collar crimes ranging from fraud to fistfights, drank a near-hole into his liver, sniffed a bucketful of cocaine, etc. And he was/is a little fella, too! There's a picture of him in the booklet that comes with the recent "Soul & the Edge" CD, standing next to George Jones -- why it's practically Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues in this shot, with the rootin' tootin' pepperpot Paycheck trying to clamber up the microphone and harmonize with Big Daddy Jones. I bought the CD because I was floored by last year's "The Real Mr. Heartache" collection of his 1960s hits -- this one takes us into the 1970s and (gasp) 80s, and naturally includes the big kahuna, "Take This Job and Shove It", right up front at Track #1. Paycheck in the 1970s was a slightly different animal than in the decade before, a little more calculated and perhaps a little less authentic, whatever that means. Let it be said that while I truly dig this collection and recommend it, I'll include the caveat that Paycheck had obviously ingested a bit too much of his own bullshit by the late 70s, and therefore you've got to put up with a well-crafted "outlaw" persona on this CD that often comes off no better than a dirty dancing, hard-drinking songwriter's marionette. You're saying, "If Johnny Paycheck can't put on an outlaw persona, who the hell can?". I respond with: Sure, you're right, but recognize how often the words in these songs are arranged into a well-timed call, designed expressly to provoke a huge "wooooooooooo-hoooooooooooo!" response from belligerantly drunk crowds in Fort Worth, Abilene and Tulsa. It's called hitmaking, and in 1970s Nashville, Johnny Paycheck was one of the very best.
My taste on this one trend toward the mid-70s material, which is a little more bitter and raw, and rougher than the dulled edges of his post-"Take This Job" material. Paycheck was one of the ultimate practitioners of hard, middle-finger Deep South country, which was played in a real loose, "who cares" fashion, bundled with a sense of anger and disgust at the high-society world outside of blue collar America. When it works ("When I Had a Home To Go To", "Barstool Mountain"), it works real well. When it descends into barroom balladry with syrupy strings & overly lovelorn lyrics, it doesn't. Some of the 1978-85 stuff has this godawful funky bass that is just grating. And "Old Violin", with its lush synthesizer washes, sounds like fuckin' "Do They Know It's Christmas"! The collection and the one before it are good tracking devices for the heydey and overall decline of country music from its 1950s-60s peaks, through the 1970s "Urban Cowboy" slide into cartoonish rock-and-roll-infused country, into whatever it was 1980s country music stood for (pure pop music, shorn of any vestige of its rural, rough-hewn roots). Paycheck's way better than all that and has a set of lungs to beat the band, but this 60% great collection proves even the little man wasn't immune from the Decline & Fall.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
HAMPTON GREASE BAND : "MUSIC TO EAT" 2xCD......
A long Econoline van trip around North America with the members of CLAW HAMMER in 1993 introduced me to this little slice of dixie-fried American rock and roll lunacy, and I've pretty much been the better for it ever since. "Music To Eat"'s stature grows every year as more and more up-and-comers hear it, ingest its influences, write things about it being the worst-selling major label LP ever (not quite accurate, but close), compare it to the MAGIC BAND (right) and LITTLE FEAT (maybe), and then sell it back to the used CD store after roasting up the couple of good tracks. The Claw Hammer guys, they flat-out loved this thing, and their screaming cover of "Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song" put the Hampton Grease Band on a few hipsters' lips for a couple of months around 1989. But let's not kid ourselves -- 1971's "Music To Eat" is no masterpiece, nor is it something I'd recommend to everybody, nor is it listenable in its entirety without great swatches of frustration, anxiety and bemusement. For years I've held onto the notion that the 2-LP/2-CD set really only had two for-the-ages classics: "Halifax" and "Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song", and the rest were a little too self-consciously daffy or trending toward what we now like to call "jam band bullshit". It's a hard notion to let go of, based on the evidence I reviewed the past couple of weeks, but the Grease Band at their best still ranked as one of the more clever and musically inventive early 70s hard rock bands, particularly from the South (Atlanta in this case).
"Music To Eat" starts off with what might just be the single best 19 minute, 42 second song ever created. Ostensibly about the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, rumor has it that the band selected it based on the old blindfolded pin-into-the-map trick. The lyrics read like a combination Canadian travel brochure/history lesson created over a bongload of really good weed, and they're delivered in the exceptionally bent jester/pirate/mad scientist voice of Bruce Hampton. Song cycle-loving Johnny- and Jill-come-latelys such as my favorites the FIERY FURNACES are still learning from the twists and turns this number takes. It's a good 7 or 8 killer songs wrapped up in one, full of frantic fretboard runs, an outrageous stop-start guitar solo, loads of homegrown Beefheartisms, and a heartbreaking melody at its start and finish. It's a frostbitten sea shanty for the ages, and I'll play it every 3 months on my headphones until I die. The problem lies in the other three megasongs on this collection, the fusion-filled 19:31 "Six", the decent but too laborious 12:28 "Evans" and the 20:10 "Hendon", which also has some crazy moments and some great playing, but man, if you can stick with this all the way through you're a better woman than I. 20 minutes! I mean "Halifax" is long but it isn't 20 minutes, you know what I mean? That's 52 minutes of filler, and that's a little hard to stomach. Thankfully there's one more reward if you hang in through this & keep your patience up.
"Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song" is what will bring you in for good, and make your happy feet take off in diametrically opposed directions. It's a straight-up 45-friendly 3:22 rocker, nearly perfect in every regard, and wacked-out enough to sound like nothing else. It's really dirty, raw, messy and yet joyous Southern boogie rock, minus the boogie. It's another of my favorite rock songs, ever. I'll rack and stack it next to HACKAMORE BRICK's "Oh! Those Sweet Bananas", the STOOGES' "Down On The Street" and the VELVET UNDERGROUND's "Rock and Roll" for early 70s 45rpm-friendly classics, though I honestly don't know if it ever actually made it onto a single, and if it did, I do know that no one bought it nor played it. So there you have it: two killers and a lot of strong moments spread out through a bunch of mediocre and maddening middlework. I hope you find a way to hear these two tracks immediately if not sooner, and perhaps you'll discover something in the remainder that I'm still out there looking to find.
A long Econoline van trip around North America with the members of CLAW HAMMER in 1993 introduced me to this little slice of dixie-fried American rock and roll lunacy, and I've pretty much been the better for it ever since. "Music To Eat"'s stature grows every year as more and more up-and-comers hear it, ingest its influences, write things about it being the worst-selling major label LP ever (not quite accurate, but close), compare it to the MAGIC BAND (right) and LITTLE FEAT (maybe), and then sell it back to the used CD store after roasting up the couple of good tracks. The Claw Hammer guys, they flat-out loved this thing, and their screaming cover of "Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song" put the Hampton Grease Band on a few hipsters' lips for a couple of months around 1989. But let's not kid ourselves -- 1971's "Music To Eat" is no masterpiece, nor is it something I'd recommend to everybody, nor is it listenable in its entirety without great swatches of frustration, anxiety and bemusement. For years I've held onto the notion that the 2-LP/2-CD set really only had two for-the-ages classics: "Halifax" and "Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song", and the rest were a little too self-consciously daffy or trending toward what we now like to call "jam band bullshit". It's a hard notion to let go of, based on the evidence I reviewed the past couple of weeks, but the Grease Band at their best still ranked as one of the more clever and musically inventive early 70s hard rock bands, particularly from the South (Atlanta in this case).
"Music To Eat" starts off with what might just be the single best 19 minute, 42 second song ever created. Ostensibly about the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, rumor has it that the band selected it based on the old blindfolded pin-into-the-map trick. The lyrics read like a combination Canadian travel brochure/history lesson created over a bongload of really good weed, and they're delivered in the exceptionally bent jester/pirate/mad scientist voice of Bruce Hampton. Song cycle-loving Johnny- and Jill-come-latelys such as my favorites the FIERY FURNACES are still learning from the twists and turns this number takes. It's a good 7 or 8 killer songs wrapped up in one, full of frantic fretboard runs, an outrageous stop-start guitar solo, loads of homegrown Beefheartisms, and a heartbreaking melody at its start and finish. It's a frostbitten sea shanty for the ages, and I'll play it every 3 months on my headphones until I die. The problem lies in the other three megasongs on this collection, the fusion-filled 19:31 "Six", the decent but too laborious 12:28 "Evans" and the 20:10 "Hendon", which also has some crazy moments and some great playing, but man, if you can stick with this all the way through you're a better woman than I. 20 minutes! I mean "Halifax" is long but it isn't 20 minutes, you know what I mean? That's 52 minutes of filler, and that's a little hard to stomach. Thankfully there's one more reward if you hang in through this & keep your patience up.
"Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song" is what will bring you in for good, and make your happy feet take off in diametrically opposed directions. It's a straight-up 45-friendly 3:22 rocker, nearly perfect in every regard, and wacked-out enough to sound like nothing else. It's really dirty, raw, messy and yet joyous Southern boogie rock, minus the boogie. It's another of my favorite rock songs, ever. I'll rack and stack it next to HACKAMORE BRICK's "Oh! Those Sweet Bananas", the STOOGES' "Down On The Street" and the VELVET UNDERGROUND's "Rock and Roll" for early 70s 45rpm-friendly classics, though I honestly don't know if it ever actually made it onto a single, and if it did, I do know that no one bought it nor played it. So there you have it: two killers and a lot of strong moments spread out through a bunch of mediocre and maddening middlework. I hope you find a way to hear these two tracks immediately if not sooner, and perhaps you'll discover something in the remainder that I'm still out there looking to find.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
MISSION OF BURMA : "SNAPSHOT" EP.....
After an experiment buying my first virtual LP/CD a couple weeks ago, it was only mere days later before I had to try it again. The reconstructed MISSION OF BURMA have decided to give a hefty boost to the nascent "Internet" industry by releasing an online-only EP called "Snapshot", and despite the general feeling I had that it might be something akin to a fan club throwaway, let me assure you that it is not. The cyberdisc's got eight super cranked-up live-to-studio versions of bold tracks spanning their career ("Max Ernst" to the new record's great "Absent Mind"), mostly early, recorded better than a radio broadcast should really sound. Burma are flat-out one of the tip-top live rock bands of their time, full of tape-loop screech and hardcore feedback & whine, and while I didn't see these gallant tunesmiths during their first go-round, the bootleg and file-sharing evidence continues to pile high.
This one has them taking on THE WIPERS' "Youth of America" and narrowly beating the original for tight chops & overall sonic power (I always thought the post-first LP Wipers were pretty overrated anyway). It seems to be part of a nostalgic west coast punk trilogy these guys are pushing now, along with live covers I've witnessed of "Class War" and "The American In Me". Not too shabby, hunh? Of the remaining 7, the knockouts are the kickoff 8-minute-+ "Tremelo", which you may remember from their live LP (this one's better) and a wild "Mica", which I'll argue is their best pop song, hands down. For seven bucks or whatever this was, it's a pretty satisfying set of packets. And keep your eye on a flood of these iTunes-only records in the months to come. Anyone know of any other good ones?
After an experiment buying my first virtual LP/CD a couple weeks ago, it was only mere days later before I had to try it again. The reconstructed MISSION OF BURMA have decided to give a hefty boost to the nascent "Internet" industry by releasing an online-only EP called "Snapshot", and despite the general feeling I had that it might be something akin to a fan club throwaway, let me assure you that it is not. The cyberdisc's got eight super cranked-up live-to-studio versions of bold tracks spanning their career ("Max Ernst" to the new record's great "Absent Mind"), mostly early, recorded better than a radio broadcast should really sound. Burma are flat-out one of the tip-top live rock bands of their time, full of tape-loop screech and hardcore feedback & whine, and while I didn't see these gallant tunesmiths during their first go-round, the bootleg and file-sharing evidence continues to pile high.
This one has them taking on THE WIPERS' "Youth of America" and narrowly beating the original for tight chops & overall sonic power (I always thought the post-first LP Wipers were pretty overrated anyway). It seems to be part of a nostalgic west coast punk trilogy these guys are pushing now, along with live covers I've witnessed of "Class War" and "The American In Me". Not too shabby, hunh? Of the remaining 7, the knockouts are the kickoff 8-minute-+ "Tremelo", which you may remember from their live LP (this one's better) and a wild "Mica", which I'll argue is their best pop song, hands down. For seven bucks or whatever this was, it's a pretty satisfying set of packets. And keep your eye on a flood of these iTunes-only records in the months to come. Anyone know of any other good ones?
Monday, December 13, 2004
STRANGE NOTES, 12/13/04.....Hola, amigos. Been a long time since I rapped at ya. A few things on my mind....After all the excitement I spilled over those first two FIERY FURNACES discs, they were bound to take it down a notch with a mediocre release, and that's just what the latest 45/CD-EP "Single Again / Evergreen" is. Relentlessly mediocre MERSH, I might add -- lovely melodies and singing, sure, but nothing that 110 other indie rock bands can't pull off with aplomb, not the bizarre blood-rush of creativity and harmonic garage pop of their two full-lengths. I'll still stick around in the front row with my big #1 foam finger, cheering them on for the next one....Another disc I'm a little piqued about is that DR. ALIMANTADO "BEST DRESSED CHICKEN IN TOWN" thing. Years of others' hype preceded my ultimate purchase of it; then I heard the great "I Killed The Barber" with the loopy "Ali Baba" sample and insanely deep dub, and I took the plunge. The CD's not bad by any means, but it's woefully uneven from track to track -- at times wacked-out & bent beyond belief, other times smooth lovers' reggae/soul that you can hear in any California dorm room if you listen closely enough.
One thing I'm totally enjoying is the CD of "GIRLS IN THE GARAGE, VOL. 2", which has more sunshine 60s punk and under-produced, ham-handed AM radio wannabes than you can likely handle in a single sitting. Some crap, of course, but even better than the first CD collection, with the inclusion this time of some 60s ye-ye classics as well....Got a CD in the mail from the good folks at GULCHER by a lost 1982 Indiana college rock band called RED GLANCE ("Swirls Away"). At times it's got a terrific prototypical nervous Midwest underground pop vibe, like THE EMBARRASSMENT, MORTAL MICRONOTZ or non-Midwesterners EXPANDO BRAIN from a few years later, but I'd be lying if I told you I can easily digest those horribly out-of-tune vocals. They really do rain hard on an otherwise solid parade of above-average lite psychedelia....Finally, let it be said that I listened to your feedback on MILES DAVIS' "On The Corner", and thanks to a CD-R made by Good American DP, I'm now part of your ranks, the "On The Corner" partisans. That first side, the continuous track with 5 different titles, is just a monster afro-funk skronker, with a set of complex polyrhythms that, while not in the least impenetrable, is certainly not made for your dancin' shoes. I think that's why it was compared to "Ege Bamyasi" -- I sure see the connection, even if those krazy krauts and mean Miles never got wind of each other's latest adventuresome happenings. That's all for now, keep your feet on the ground etc.!!
One thing I'm totally enjoying is the CD of "GIRLS IN THE GARAGE, VOL. 2", which has more sunshine 60s punk and under-produced, ham-handed AM radio wannabes than you can likely handle in a single sitting. Some crap, of course, but even better than the first CD collection, with the inclusion this time of some 60s ye-ye classics as well....Got a CD in the mail from the good folks at GULCHER by a lost 1982 Indiana college rock band called RED GLANCE ("Swirls Away"). At times it's got a terrific prototypical nervous Midwest underground pop vibe, like THE EMBARRASSMENT, MORTAL MICRONOTZ or non-Midwesterners EXPANDO BRAIN from a few years later, but I'd be lying if I told you I can easily digest those horribly out-of-tune vocals. They really do rain hard on an otherwise solid parade of above-average lite psychedelia....Finally, let it be said that I listened to your feedback on MILES DAVIS' "On The Corner", and thanks to a CD-R made by Good American DP, I'm now part of your ranks, the "On The Corner" partisans. That first side, the continuous track with 5 different titles, is just a monster afro-funk skronker, with a set of complex polyrhythms that, while not in the least impenetrable, is certainly not made for your dancin' shoes. I think that's why it was compared to "Ege Bamyasi" -- I sure see the connection, even if those krazy krauts and mean Miles never got wind of each other's latest adventuresome happenings. That's all for now, keep your feet on the ground etc.!!
Sunday, December 12, 2004
YESTERDAY'S PAPERS : THE COMPILATIONS.....In an effort to broaden the content choices available to the consumer, here's a batch of recycled reviews from the past two years of Agony Shorthand. Comps only! :
CHAINS & BLACK EXHAUST
N.Y. NO WAVE
GHANA SOUNDZ
DRINK UP & GO HOME - SUN COUNTRY VOL. 2
FRISCO STYLES
DOWN IN THE BASEMENT
ONLY IN AMERICA, VOL. 2
HOT WOMEN – WOMEN SINGERS FROM THE TORRID REGIONS OF THE WORLD
BUTTSHAKERS, VOl. 3
REMBETIKA – SONGS OF THE GREEK UNDERGROUND 1925-1947
CUMSTAINS OVER MY RECORD COLLECTION
FLOWERS IN THE WILDWOOD – WOMEN IN EARLY COUNTRY MUSIC 1923-1939
HOMEWORK #9
NEW YORK NOISE – DANCE MUSIC FROM THE NEW YORK UNDERGROUND 1978-1982
TROJAN UPSETTER BOX SET
MONEY NO BE SAND: 1960s AFRO-LYPSO, PIDGIN HIGHLIFE, AFRO-SOUL, AFRO-ROCK
...AND THE ANSWER IS...
GIRLS IN THE GARAGE, VOLUME ONE
WILD AND FRANTIC
VIOLIN, SING THE BLUES FOR ME : AFRICAN-AMERICAN FIDDLERS 1926-1949
SONGS THE CRAMPS TAUGHT US, VOL. 1
CHAINS & BLACK EXHAUST
N.Y. NO WAVE
GHANA SOUNDZ
DRINK UP & GO HOME - SUN COUNTRY VOL. 2
FRISCO STYLES
DOWN IN THE BASEMENT
ONLY IN AMERICA, VOL. 2
HOT WOMEN – WOMEN SINGERS FROM THE TORRID REGIONS OF THE WORLD
BUTTSHAKERS, VOl. 3
REMBETIKA – SONGS OF THE GREEK UNDERGROUND 1925-1947
CUMSTAINS OVER MY RECORD COLLECTION
FLOWERS IN THE WILDWOOD – WOMEN IN EARLY COUNTRY MUSIC 1923-1939
HOMEWORK #9
NEW YORK NOISE – DANCE MUSIC FROM THE NEW YORK UNDERGROUND 1978-1982
TROJAN UPSETTER BOX SET
MONEY NO BE SAND: 1960s AFRO-LYPSO, PIDGIN HIGHLIFE, AFRO-SOUL, AFRO-ROCK
...AND THE ANSWER IS...
GIRLS IN THE GARAGE, VOLUME ONE
WILD AND FRANTIC
VIOLIN, SING THE BLUES FOR ME : AFRICAN-AMERICAN FIDDLERS 1926-1949
SONGS THE CRAMPS TAUGHT US, VOL. 1
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
SYD BARRETT & PINK FLOYD : "HAVE YOU GOT IT YET, VOL. 1" CD-R.....
If someone pops off and tells you that there's no good 1967 PINK FLOYD/SYD bootlegs out there, like I almost did a few weeks ago, you can just tell that person to go and pound sand. Almost milliseconds after I wrote a review of the halfway-decent Floyd boot "Lost In Space", I received a telegram informing me of this free mega-volume series of CD-Rs put out by true public servants over "the Internet" called "Have You Got It Yet". At that time there were 10 CDs, just a few weeks ago I'm talking, and since then at least 9 (!) more have been added -- all prime-era "See Emily Play"/"Arnold Layne"/"Piper at the Gates of Dawn" Pink Floyd, with a ton of Syd studio and live oddities to match. It makes one marvel. Just a few years ago I was paying $25 for a single bootleg CD or LP; today I'm paying $0 for 10 CDs of the stuff, an embarrassment of riches so vast that I can't even listen to it all yet. In fact, of the 10 I've got, I've only explored #1 and #2. "Have You Got It Yet, Volume 1" is a real collector's trick bag, containing incredible finds like a 5-16-67 BBC version of "Astronomy Domine" that's just stunning warp-factor psychedelia, along with "acetate" versions of bent masterpieces like "Arnold Layne" and "Candy and a Currant Bun" (which sound like over-modulated, groove-bursting versions of the 45s). There are also radio show recordings that appear to have been recorded 20 feet from a transistor with a child's Fisher-Price tape machine, but there are completists and obsessive-compulsive archivists involved here, so let us not begrudge them their buried treasure. There's also a cool "stereo-enhanced" version of one of mankind's greatest rock and roll songs ever, "See Emily Play". I haven't heard the stereo version before, just the mono, you know what I'm saying? 4 big versions of "Interstellar Overdrive", too. And only 18 more volumes to tackle! We live in some pretty far-fuckin'-out times, hunh?
If someone pops off and tells you that there's no good 1967 PINK FLOYD/SYD bootlegs out there, like I almost did a few weeks ago, you can just tell that person to go and pound sand. Almost milliseconds after I wrote a review of the halfway-decent Floyd boot "Lost In Space", I received a telegram informing me of this free mega-volume series of CD-Rs put out by true public servants over "the Internet" called "Have You Got It Yet". At that time there were 10 CDs, just a few weeks ago I'm talking, and since then at least 9 (!) more have been added -- all prime-era "See Emily Play"/"Arnold Layne"/"Piper at the Gates of Dawn" Pink Floyd, with a ton of Syd studio and live oddities to match. It makes one marvel. Just a few years ago I was paying $25 for a single bootleg CD or LP; today I'm paying $0 for 10 CDs of the stuff, an embarrassment of riches so vast that I can't even listen to it all yet. In fact, of the 10 I've got, I've only explored #1 and #2. "Have You Got It Yet, Volume 1" is a real collector's trick bag, containing incredible finds like a 5-16-67 BBC version of "Astronomy Domine" that's just stunning warp-factor psychedelia, along with "acetate" versions of bent masterpieces like "Arnold Layne" and "Candy and a Currant Bun" (which sound like over-modulated, groove-bursting versions of the 45s). There are also radio show recordings that appear to have been recorded 20 feet from a transistor with a child's Fisher-Price tape machine, but there are completists and obsessive-compulsive archivists involved here, so let us not begrudge them their buried treasure. There's also a cool "stereo-enhanced" version of one of mankind's greatest rock and roll songs ever, "See Emily Play". I haven't heard the stereo version before, just the mono, you know what I'm saying? 4 big versions of "Interstellar Overdrive", too. And only 18 more volumes to tackle! We live in some pretty far-fuckin'-out times, hunh?
Monday, December 06, 2004
SIGHTINGS : "ARRIVED IN GOLD" CD....
This SIGHTINGS trio is a real odd duck. I had them pegged last year for an over-the-top, free-form experimental version of BLACK FLAG or first-LP MEAT PUPPETS, and then they throw this thing out there and confound me all to heck. Since none of the 8 tracks had much to do with any of the others, let me tell you what you'll discover instead: wildly divergent soundscaping and tonebending, some formed (as opposed to formless) noise, a weird Eastern guitar pattern on "Sugar Sediment" that slithers and creeps real nicely, and a heavy-hitting trio of rock songs around tracks 5-6-7, one of which sounds like those super-clanging early 80s UK funk/noise bands like MAXIMUM JOY and PIGBAG. And not a Ginn riff in the bunch. I'm not going to tell you this will be in heavy rotation on the shower CD tunemaster the next few weeks, but SIGHTINGS are one of the more agile & deft purveyors of the dark, shape-shifting noise arts I've heard in a good long while, and for three CDs in a row they've made me sit up & take notation. I'll bet there's some real talented and well-versed musical poindexters peeking out behind the chaos, what do you think?
This SIGHTINGS trio is a real odd duck. I had them pegged last year for an over-the-top, free-form experimental version of BLACK FLAG or first-LP MEAT PUPPETS, and then they throw this thing out there and confound me all to heck. Since none of the 8 tracks had much to do with any of the others, let me tell you what you'll discover instead: wildly divergent soundscaping and tonebending, some formed (as opposed to formless) noise, a weird Eastern guitar pattern on "Sugar Sediment" that slithers and creeps real nicely, and a heavy-hitting trio of rock songs around tracks 5-6-7, one of which sounds like those super-clanging early 80s UK funk/noise bands like MAXIMUM JOY and PIGBAG. And not a Ginn riff in the bunch. I'm not going to tell you this will be in heavy rotation on the shower CD tunemaster the next few weeks, but SIGHTINGS are one of the more agile & deft purveyors of the dark, shape-shifting noise arts I've heard in a good long while, and for three CDs in a row they've made me sit up & take notation. I'll bet there's some real talented and well-versed musical poindexters peeking out behind the chaos, what do you think?
BURMESE : "MEN" CD.....
Just found out over the weekend that this is the best band in San Francisco, according to one SF Bay Guardian tastemaker. God help us all. The sort of all-shlock/no action noise BURMESE and their pals must think is pretty far out & dangerous is the same numbskull, junior league hate rock that Peter Davis was flogging in Your Flesh aeons ago. Any nihilistic nitwit can string together the words "cunt", "rape" and "ass" and scream about it over an unthinking din, but it takes the least bit of soul or subtlety to make it even remotely interesting. Burmese have neither -- it's just pummel, pummel, pummel, and that godawful high-pitched, muffled male screaming that was passe & played out 20-some-odd years ago. I'd rather go on a weeklong road trip with a busload of Christian kids than be forced to watch these dangerous alterna-rockers grimace, mug & writhe all over a tiny stage. Who's really falling for this shit? Not you?
Just found out over the weekend that this is the best band in San Francisco, according to one SF Bay Guardian tastemaker. God help us all. The sort of all-shlock/no action noise BURMESE and their pals must think is pretty far out & dangerous is the same numbskull, junior league hate rock that Peter Davis was flogging in Your Flesh aeons ago. Any nihilistic nitwit can string together the words "cunt", "rape" and "ass" and scream about it over an unthinking din, but it takes the least bit of soul or subtlety to make it even remotely interesting. Burmese have neither -- it's just pummel, pummel, pummel, and that godawful high-pitched, muffled male screaming that was passe & played out 20-some-odd years ago. I'd rather go on a weeklong road trip with a busload of Christian kids than be forced to watch these dangerous alterna-rockers grimace, mug & writhe all over a tiny stage. Who's really falling for this shit? Not you?
Saturday, December 04, 2004
"LOST IN THE GROOVES" BOOK NOW AVAILABLE.....
A couple of years ago KIM COOPER asked me to contribute to a book she was putting together highlighting underground LPs and other musical ephemera that had slipped through the cracks of consciousness. I've known Kim since 1988; she contributed to the fanzine I did in the early 90s until, (in her words) I commanded her to go and start her own 'zine. So she did, and now she's a book publishing maven as well. Go look in your old Forced Exposures and you'll find a great letter from Kim to Byron & Jimmy, lambasting them for their puerile and adolescent Lydia Lunch/Nick Cave 1-act plays, among other things -- written when Kim was an adolescent herself. Nice work. Anyway, I have but two meek reviews in her new collection "LOST IN THE GROOVES", yet the book looks like a blast, one I'm angling to read on a long plane trip on Monday. Contributors include MAX HECHTER, CHAS GLYNN, RICHARD MELTZER, DAVE THOMPSON, MIKE APPLESTEIN and a heaping helping of other players. I chose to highlight records by the GIBSON BROS and FLESH EATERS, cynically cribbing for the latter review from something I'd already penned on the band. Here's what I came up with -- now go buy the book! :
GIBSON BROS : "BIG PINE BOOGIE" LP......
The debut 1987 record from Columbus, OH blues and country archivists the GIBSON BROS arrived at the height of indie rock’s fascination with noise, “scumrock” and SST/Homestead/Touch & Go heavy punk rock. Somehow this roots-reverent band was quickly grasped to the bosom of budding - mostly east coast - scenesters , likely due to “Big Pine Boogie”’s loose-limbed Cramps-style primitivism and heavily reverbed, cranked-up guitars. The record has been seemingly lost to time, and criminally remains out of print and unavailable on CD. “Big Pine Boogie” has a fantastic front porch feel to it, like no one’s taking the whole thing particularly seriously, and there’s a big bucket of beers beckoning nearby for consumption when the set’s wrapped up. Guitarists Don Howland, Jeff Evans and Dan Dow and drummer Ellen Hoover took their cues from the pantheon of rough-hewn American genius, from shambling Bo Diddley thumping, deep-South country a la Charlie Feathers, and pre-WWII delta blues giants like Skip James and Charley Patton.
The thoroughly reworked cover of Furry Lewis’ “Kassie Jones” that kicks off the record is worth the admission price alone – in the grand tradition of their forebears, the band borrowed admirably and liberally from the aforementioned pantheon, and reworked it for a 1980s punk rock mentality. There’s also a muted sense of cornpone comedy in all this, from Evans’ ludicrously faux hillbilly accent to forced “rhyming” couplets like “He’s the cat that wrote ‘I’m A Man’ / Ate a whole bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken” (from “Bo Diddley Pulled a Boner”). Trouser Press generously called it “intentional amateurism”, which perhaps bestows musical abilities on the band they hadn’t yet earned. But you won’t care. There hasn’t been a muted roar quite like “Big Pine Boogie” since, and it’s high time this bandwagon got rolling again.
FLESH EATERS : "A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE" LP/CD.....
After a handful of years spent slogging around the exploding Los Angeles punk rock scene circa 1977-80 as a Slash magazine editor and the leader of a revolving series of Flesh Eaters lineups, Chris Desjardins (hereafter known an Chris D.) gave birth to the all-star roots/voodoo punk combo of 1981’s "A Minute to Pray, A Second To Die". In so doing, he created a schizoid masterwork of raw, netherworld blues and marimba & sax-led garage punk stomp. Joining vocalist/howler Chris D. in this ultimate Flesh Eaters configuration were John Doe & DJ Bonebrake from the by-now nationally recognized X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman from The Blasters (guitar and drums respectively) and sax player Steve Berlin, a year or two shy of joining Los Lobos. Though the "on loan" status of the musicians involved did not bode well for anything more than a one-off project, what these gentlemen created together was a landmark of brooding, often metal-tinged roots rock ramalama. Think about what you may know of the best work of X and The Blasters of the time, add Chris D. at the absolute top of his game, and some out-of-this-world arrangements that harken to some unholy trinity of the Stones, Stooges and Seeds, and you’ve got quite a goddamn record.
One could argue – no, I will argue – that this record is the premier calling card for the transformation of punk rock snottiness into a more literate, musically complex – dare I say MATURE – rock and roll beast. What reputation the FLESH EATERS still have left in the early ‘80s history books and with the Ameripunk cognoscenti is likely due to this album, which seems to be slowly gaining subsequent critical steam as an unequalled 80s masterpiece.
A couple of years ago KIM COOPER asked me to contribute to a book she was putting together highlighting underground LPs and other musical ephemera that had slipped through the cracks of consciousness. I've known Kim since 1988; she contributed to the fanzine I did in the early 90s until, (in her words) I commanded her to go and start her own 'zine. So she did, and now she's a book publishing maven as well. Go look in your old Forced Exposures and you'll find a great letter from Kim to Byron & Jimmy, lambasting them for their puerile and adolescent Lydia Lunch/Nick Cave 1-act plays, among other things -- written when Kim was an adolescent herself. Nice work. Anyway, I have but two meek reviews in her new collection "LOST IN THE GROOVES", yet the book looks like a blast, one I'm angling to read on a long plane trip on Monday. Contributors include MAX HECHTER, CHAS GLYNN, RICHARD MELTZER, DAVE THOMPSON, MIKE APPLESTEIN and a heaping helping of other players. I chose to highlight records by the GIBSON BROS and FLESH EATERS, cynically cribbing for the latter review from something I'd already penned on the band. Here's what I came up with -- now go buy the book! :
GIBSON BROS : "BIG PINE BOOGIE" LP......
The debut 1987 record from Columbus, OH blues and country archivists the GIBSON BROS arrived at the height of indie rock’s fascination with noise, “scumrock” and SST/Homestead/Touch & Go heavy punk rock. Somehow this roots-reverent band was quickly grasped to the bosom of budding - mostly east coast - scenesters , likely due to “Big Pine Boogie”’s loose-limbed Cramps-style primitivism and heavily reverbed, cranked-up guitars. The record has been seemingly lost to time, and criminally remains out of print and unavailable on CD. “Big Pine Boogie” has a fantastic front porch feel to it, like no one’s taking the whole thing particularly seriously, and there’s a big bucket of beers beckoning nearby for consumption when the set’s wrapped up. Guitarists Don Howland, Jeff Evans and Dan Dow and drummer Ellen Hoover took their cues from the pantheon of rough-hewn American genius, from shambling Bo Diddley thumping, deep-South country a la Charlie Feathers, and pre-WWII delta blues giants like Skip James and Charley Patton.
The thoroughly reworked cover of Furry Lewis’ “Kassie Jones” that kicks off the record is worth the admission price alone – in the grand tradition of their forebears, the band borrowed admirably and liberally from the aforementioned pantheon, and reworked it for a 1980s punk rock mentality. There’s also a muted sense of cornpone comedy in all this, from Evans’ ludicrously faux hillbilly accent to forced “rhyming” couplets like “He’s the cat that wrote ‘I’m A Man’ / Ate a whole bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken” (from “Bo Diddley Pulled a Boner”). Trouser Press generously called it “intentional amateurism”, which perhaps bestows musical abilities on the band they hadn’t yet earned. But you won’t care. There hasn’t been a muted roar quite like “Big Pine Boogie” since, and it’s high time this bandwagon got rolling again.
FLESH EATERS : "A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE" LP/CD.....
After a handful of years spent slogging around the exploding Los Angeles punk rock scene circa 1977-80 as a Slash magazine editor and the leader of a revolving series of Flesh Eaters lineups, Chris Desjardins (hereafter known an Chris D.) gave birth to the all-star roots/voodoo punk combo of 1981’s "A Minute to Pray, A Second To Die". In so doing, he created a schizoid masterwork of raw, netherworld blues and marimba & sax-led garage punk stomp. Joining vocalist/howler Chris D. in this ultimate Flesh Eaters configuration were John Doe & DJ Bonebrake from the by-now nationally recognized X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman from The Blasters (guitar and drums respectively) and sax player Steve Berlin, a year or two shy of joining Los Lobos. Though the "on loan" status of the musicians involved did not bode well for anything more than a one-off project, what these gentlemen created together was a landmark of brooding, often metal-tinged roots rock ramalama. Think about what you may know of the best work of X and The Blasters of the time, add Chris D. at the absolute top of his game, and some out-of-this-world arrangements that harken to some unholy trinity of the Stones, Stooges and Seeds, and you’ve got quite a goddamn record.
One could argue – no, I will argue – that this record is the premier calling card for the transformation of punk rock snottiness into a more literate, musically complex – dare I say MATURE – rock and roll beast. What reputation the FLESH EATERS still have left in the early ‘80s history books and with the Ameripunk cognoscenti is likely due to this album, which seems to be slowly gaining subsequent critical steam as an unequalled 80s masterpiece.
Friday, December 03, 2004
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "PLANET PUNK, VOLUME 3" CD.....
I missed the first wave of HYPED2DEATH CD releases and was altogether unaware of them until a pal roasted up everything that they'd put out up to that point, appx. late 2000. Those "Messthetics" CDs sent me reeling on a serious late 70s/early 80s English DIY bender for a couple of years (Animals & Men, Beyond The Implode, Desperate Bicycles, on and on); helped me go berzerk over some older US punk I'd never heard and didn't own (Rubber City Rebels, Vores, VKTMS), and introduced a whole new category of American 1975-83 underground classics on the "Homework" series (True Believers, Screaming Sneakers, Zoomers, X-X, Radio Free Europe, Stroke Band, tons more). Lost in all this running over of the cup were two worldwide punk CDs called -- wait for it -- "Planet Punk". I emailed Chuck Warner at Hyped2Death this week, and he tells me that he only put out CDs of #3 and #4, and #1 and #2 were cassette-only releases from the days when these things were used as advertisements for his retail catalog, not retail items in and of themselves. They're long gone now, I'm afraid. I pulled out my roast of #3 the other day and gave it a good twice-over. It's got some European punk curios you just have to hear to truly consider your life complete.
My key picks are a French synth-punk band called WARUM JOE from 1981 -- "Tchang" off the "Dans le Blizzard" EP is supercharged pogo-til-you-puke electro percussive punk, with an unyielding drum machine and upside-down riffage that's really something to behold. I need to know more about these guys, whom my French connection tells me are still active to this day (!). The other heavy hitter is "Intoxication" by RANCID X, who I believe are Italian & who would slot in nicely with the 1975 LA proto-punk contingent of The Dogs, Weasels, Imperial Dogs and their beer-besotted ilk. It's a real balls-out bruiser, but with killer hooks and a grinnin' vibe. For straight-up 1982 Italian 'core, it's hard to beat S.I.B., am I right? And even KLEENEX (pictured above) make an appearance, though it's with the ultra-repetitive "Hitch-Hike" that to these ears was a lesser moment in these Swiss chicks' fine oevre. Why do you think Chuck's keeping these Planet Punks away from the kids? It's miles better than most Bloodstains or KBDs that venture off of American shores and onto foreign lawns.
I missed the first wave of HYPED2DEATH CD releases and was altogether unaware of them until a pal roasted up everything that they'd put out up to that point, appx. late 2000. Those "Messthetics" CDs sent me reeling on a serious late 70s/early 80s English DIY bender for a couple of years (Animals & Men, Beyond The Implode, Desperate Bicycles, on and on); helped me go berzerk over some older US punk I'd never heard and didn't own (Rubber City Rebels, Vores, VKTMS), and introduced a whole new category of American 1975-83 underground classics on the "Homework" series (True Believers, Screaming Sneakers, Zoomers, X-X, Radio Free Europe, Stroke Band, tons more). Lost in all this running over of the cup were two worldwide punk CDs called -- wait for it -- "Planet Punk". I emailed Chuck Warner at Hyped2Death this week, and he tells me that he only put out CDs of #3 and #4, and #1 and #2 were cassette-only releases from the days when these things were used as advertisements for his retail catalog, not retail items in and of themselves. They're long gone now, I'm afraid. I pulled out my roast of #3 the other day and gave it a good twice-over. It's got some European punk curios you just have to hear to truly consider your life complete.
My key picks are a French synth-punk band called WARUM JOE from 1981 -- "Tchang" off the "Dans le Blizzard" EP is supercharged pogo-til-you-puke electro percussive punk, with an unyielding drum machine and upside-down riffage that's really something to behold. I need to know more about these guys, whom my French connection tells me are still active to this day (!). The other heavy hitter is "Intoxication" by RANCID X, who I believe are Italian & who would slot in nicely with the 1975 LA proto-punk contingent of The Dogs, Weasels, Imperial Dogs and their beer-besotted ilk. It's a real balls-out bruiser, but with killer hooks and a grinnin' vibe. For straight-up 1982 Italian 'core, it's hard to beat S.I.B., am I right? And even KLEENEX (pictured above) make an appearance, though it's with the ultra-repetitive "Hitch-Hike" that to these ears was a lesser moment in these Swiss chicks' fine oevre. Why do you think Chuck's keeping these Planet Punks away from the kids? It's miles better than most Bloodstains or KBDs that venture off of American shores and onto foreign lawns.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
VETIVER : "VETIVER" CD.....
This "disc" is not only stupendous, often jaw-droppingly gorgeous moderne folk music, it marks the first time I've actually bought a record in non-tangible form. Rather than hoof out the door and get the physical CD, I downloaded the thing via iTunes and paid real cash money to deliver it to my PC and therefore my, ahem, "iPod" (what a dork!). I figured I'd support the locals and all, given that VETIVER are/is a San Francisco band/dude named Andy Cabic. I just hope the titans of industry over at Apple cut him his check, pronto. So now I've got the man's creations constantly buzzing through my headphones, and I have to say I'm really, really impressed. His debut offering arrives fully formed and supremely confident, like he'd been writing sad, lyrical near-masterpieces for decades. Awash in cello and gently-plucked guitar, Vetiver's debut sounds like something TOWNES VAN ZANDT might've come up with in his darkest hours, minus any nods toward "country" at all. Cabic not only has a terrific set of pipes, he's able to arrange songs like "Oh Papa", "Luna Sea" and "Without a Song" to extract the maximum amount of sorrow and loss from every chord. I suppose it's not fair to peg the CD as a total downer, because it isn't -- there are a few moderate uppers, too, one sung in Spanish. The sound is very majestic and large, too, given that so much of it is underwritten by this knockout cellist who hovers like a phantom and squeaks softly through Cabic's words. If this hasn't been knocking them dead over on college radio then I'm a-gonna have to rassle me a college kid. Fantastic disc, or shall I say, a terrific collection of zeros and ones that's well worth your attention.
This "disc" is not only stupendous, often jaw-droppingly gorgeous moderne folk music, it marks the first time I've actually bought a record in non-tangible form. Rather than hoof out the door and get the physical CD, I downloaded the thing via iTunes and paid real cash money to deliver it to my PC and therefore my, ahem, "iPod" (what a dork!). I figured I'd support the locals and all, given that VETIVER are/is a San Francisco band/dude named Andy Cabic. I just hope the titans of industry over at Apple cut him his check, pronto. So now I've got the man's creations constantly buzzing through my headphones, and I have to say I'm really, really impressed. His debut offering arrives fully formed and supremely confident, like he'd been writing sad, lyrical near-masterpieces for decades. Awash in cello and gently-plucked guitar, Vetiver's debut sounds like something TOWNES VAN ZANDT might've come up with in his darkest hours, minus any nods toward "country" at all. Cabic not only has a terrific set of pipes, he's able to arrange songs like "Oh Papa", "Luna Sea" and "Without a Song" to extract the maximum amount of sorrow and loss from every chord. I suppose it's not fair to peg the CD as a total downer, because it isn't -- there are a few moderate uppers, too, one sung in Spanish. The sound is very majestic and large, too, given that so much of it is underwritten by this knockout cellist who hovers like a phantom and squeaks softly through Cabic's words. If this hasn't been knocking them dead over on college radio then I'm a-gonna have to rassle me a college kid. Fantastic disc, or shall I say, a terrific collection of zeros and ones that's well worth your attention.
Monday, November 29, 2004
100 FLOWERS : "100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE" CD......
I still marvel at the clean break this band made from their original sputtering, spastic sound simply by changing their name. I'm speaking, of course, of the immediate 180-degree transformation from the URINALS (1978-81) into 100 FLOWERS (1981-84), with all 3 original members still in tow. I'm sure I once knew why they made the switch; probably a rejection of the punk rock rootz in favor of the more wink-nod cultural revolution moniker 100 FLOWERS. And not like The Urinals had a real high profile when they were around, but my sources tell me 100 Flowers barely registered in and around LA the three years they were existent, despite high-profile comp appearances on punker collections "Hell Comes To Your House" and "Keats Rides a Harley". When this near-compleat compilation came out almost 15 years ago in the early days of CDs, somehow it ended up remaindered and priced to move in a hurry, so my cousin gobbled up a couple dozen of them and handed them out like aspirin to anyone who'd take one. I took one.
Though it is certainly not without its meandering moments and some misfired art-funk overreach, "100 Years of Pulchritude" is one of those great lost essential CDs that needs to be added to your collection ASAP. 100 Flowers were a real unique & strange animal. Three UCLA grad students/professors, who were sworn to punk brevity and form but were also quite resistant to all its manifest trappings. They created a minimalist stew of buzzing chop-chop-chop guitar, way upfront funk bass and a skittering percussion that kept the beat and took it off course as well. If they weren't "post-punk" I'm not sure who were. Their M.O. was likely to keep it as real as possible, which meant pleasing themselves foremost & hoping a few others might get wise to their charms. Their debut LP featured one member, John Talley-Jones I believe, lounging completely nude, dangling his participle for all the world to comment on (only the Don Bolles weenie-wagging on that VOX POP EP comes close). If I had to pick a favorite of these 28 kinetic, wildly different set of tunes, it would have to be the bonzai "Motorboat to Hell" from their one and only LP, as well as that record's closer "California's Falling Into The Ocean". Both have the crazed, attacking drive of the second two Urinals 45s, but add a dollop of breaks and quick jumps that show not only more instrumental proficiency, but a real attempt to branch out and paint with a new artful & brainy pallatte.
By the time they put out their final EP "Drawing Fire", they were headed in a more atmospheric & dense direction ("Triage" and "Contributions") that was getting mighty boring mighty fast, which might be why they scattered & went on to new projects. Still, those tracks (and the omission of the fantastic "Salmonella" from "Keats Rides a Harley") don't mar anything -- the CD is one of those overviews that duly unwraps a band's hidden charms, and gives them their due way past what they likely reckoned to be their shelf life at the time. Track this down if your interest is at all piqued; at the least it might be a kick trying to locate a CD that's been unavailable for years, right? (Or you can order it right now directly from the artist -- not quite as fun but so much more spiritually fulfilling).
I still marvel at the clean break this band made from their original sputtering, spastic sound simply by changing their name. I'm speaking, of course, of the immediate 180-degree transformation from the URINALS (1978-81) into 100 FLOWERS (1981-84), with all 3 original members still in tow. I'm sure I once knew why they made the switch; probably a rejection of the punk rock rootz in favor of the more wink-nod cultural revolution moniker 100 FLOWERS. And not like The Urinals had a real high profile when they were around, but my sources tell me 100 Flowers barely registered in and around LA the three years they were existent, despite high-profile comp appearances on punker collections "Hell Comes To Your House" and "Keats Rides a Harley". When this near-compleat compilation came out almost 15 years ago in the early days of CDs, somehow it ended up remaindered and priced to move in a hurry, so my cousin gobbled up a couple dozen of them and handed them out like aspirin to anyone who'd take one. I took one.
Though it is certainly not without its meandering moments and some misfired art-funk overreach, "100 Years of Pulchritude" is one of those great lost essential CDs that needs to be added to your collection ASAP. 100 Flowers were a real unique & strange animal. Three UCLA grad students/professors, who were sworn to punk brevity and form but were also quite resistant to all its manifest trappings. They created a minimalist stew of buzzing chop-chop-chop guitar, way upfront funk bass and a skittering percussion that kept the beat and took it off course as well. If they weren't "post-punk" I'm not sure who were. Their M.O. was likely to keep it as real as possible, which meant pleasing themselves foremost & hoping a few others might get wise to their charms. Their debut LP featured one member, John Talley-Jones I believe, lounging completely nude, dangling his participle for all the world to comment on (only the Don Bolles weenie-wagging on that VOX POP EP comes close). If I had to pick a favorite of these 28 kinetic, wildly different set of tunes, it would have to be the bonzai "Motorboat to Hell" from their one and only LP, as well as that record's closer "California's Falling Into The Ocean". Both have the crazed, attacking drive of the second two Urinals 45s, but add a dollop of breaks and quick jumps that show not only more instrumental proficiency, but a real attempt to branch out and paint with a new artful & brainy pallatte.
By the time they put out their final EP "Drawing Fire", they were headed in a more atmospheric & dense direction ("Triage" and "Contributions") that was getting mighty boring mighty fast, which might be why they scattered & went on to new projects. Still, those tracks (and the omission of the fantastic "Salmonella" from "Keats Rides a Harley") don't mar anything -- the CD is one of those overviews that duly unwraps a band's hidden charms, and gives them their due way past what they likely reckoned to be their shelf life at the time. Track this down if your interest is at all piqued; at the least it might be a kick trying to locate a CD that's been unavailable for years, right? (Or you can order it right now directly from the artist -- not quite as fun but so much more spiritually fulfilling).
Sunday, November 28, 2004
200 LB. UNDERGROUND, ISSUE #4.....Partisans of the old SILTBREEZE magazine, or hell, the old 200 LB. UNDERGROUND 'zine, will be pleased as punch to find this new micro-edition of the latter. Like the original recipe late 80s Siltbreeze, the focus of this 8-page color xerox is reviews of absurdly underground slices of noise, avant-punk splatter and experimental weirdness (with some folkie drone thrown in so all of microscenia can be duly represented). I think there's at least a 20% chance that a couple of the CD-R-creating and Finnish 45 artists might be something editor Tony Rettman invented for a guffaw. But I'll be looking for those LAUHKEAT LAMPAAT and DEMARS records just the same. Includes a brief 1-page MAGICK MARKERS tour diary with a 1-page introduction (that's 25% of your mag right there) and a very, VERY tuff hardcore quiz on the back cover. Like #18, "Name the unreleased X-Claim release" (uh, Lemonheads?) and whew, #19, "What cover song was the final song SSD ever performed live?" (uhhh, "Beach Blanket Bongout"?). No address listed to order the thing but if you drop a line to trettman@hotmail.com you can certainly find out how to procure one. Seal of approval! Do it!
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
SAVAGING THE FAKE SAVAGES.......Some pretty harsh reality poured on Estrus Records and in particular, preening posuers THE MAKERS over at a new site called LETTERS HAVE NO ARMS, written by one Phil Honolulu. I like his moves and I like his style. He tears the erstwhile retro-garage label a new one, a pretty fat target to be sure, and one that I'm now so far removed from that I asked someone the other day if they were still around. I guess they are. Now, let it be said that I have no beef with Estrus or its management, so this is more for giggles and titters than anything else. The Makers, though -- open season. I love their one S/T record (1995? '96?) with the middle finger extended, no matter what Honolulu has to say, but everything before that was boring 1980s-style 60s garage revisionism, and that which came after that, good lord. I lived in Seattle for a couple years, and the main prancer used to strut around town with a cane (despite no noticeable leg or hip ailments), wore dark sunglasses even when it was 40 degrees and raining (which in Seattle is to say, all the fucking time), and sauntered around like the most obvious preen-in-front-of-the-mirror rock star imaginable. And then named an album "Rock Star God", presumably about themselves. From screaming garage punk lords to absurb prancing AOR bores in two years flat. Take a gander at what Phil says and have a big larf with me & him.
Monday, November 22, 2004
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "THE SECRET MUSEUM OF MANKIND -- NORTH AFRICA" CD.....
This eye-opening and ear-popping series of rare ethnic 78s from the pre-WWII era has been cranking along for about a half-dozen years now, created with loving care by Pat Conte, a ethnomusicologist Harry Smith/Alan Lomax for our times. He once had a show on WFMU devoted to playing his immense collection of old 78s from around the world, sadly now off the air. Each of the original five volumes, released on Yazoo, contains a globetrotting overview of various regions' heavy hitters -- from snake-charming Bulgarian gypsies to hot-tempered, maraca-wielding Bolivians to folk music from the Arctic plains of Northern Sweden. Being a world music dilettante yet an unabashed fan of scratchy, distant-sounding 78rpm records, it's been a great introduction for me to the musical cultures of various lands. And admittedly, not something that gets cranked up that often. I've got to really work to get my head in a space where I can enjoy a babbling foreign tongue and instrumentation created by hand in a village ruled by a tribal elder, rather than on an assembly line. Sometimes I'll get 3-4 songs in and throw in the towel, but when it's really clicking for me, there are two global regions that have really stood out for me: the Bulgarians, also well-captured on a great Yazoo collection called "Songs of the Crooked Dance", and just about anything from North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya etc.). Thus seeing this one in a CD bin the other day made purchase of it a no-brainer.
Conte has dug deeply into the region and come up with an ethereal, haunting collection of nearly impenetrable folk music. It sounds like it could have just as easily been from 200 years ago, rather than 75. What little I know about the region's music is summed up in three letters: Rai. Rai is a Moroccan musical form that's really caught on in recent years in Europe, and has been combined with modern dance music to create a club favorite all over the planet. These recordings are clearly the roots of this form, and at times they even have this stark, sparse, otherworldly connection to American delta blues. At other times some of the recordings sound like war chants or calls to prayer, even the one from Timbuktu (the place really exists!). I'm not going to get too wrapped around the axle about how mystical and goddess-like this stuff is; I mean, World Music dorks can be quite annoying. (Santa Cruz, California, where I now own a home, may possibly be the world music dork capital of the USA). Still, you hear wonderful tracks like MLLE. DALILA TALIANA's "E' Rebbi Lech Hakka", with its sweet vocals curling and twisting around the most unique and ancient instrumentation imaginable, and you're easily reeled in. You're instantly transported to the desert tents and mile-long hookahs of "The Sheltering Sky"; this CD could be the soundtrack for that fine (North African-set) novel. Conte has also released "Secret Museum" CDs encompassing the music of East Africa (hmm) and Central Asia (hmmmmm); anyone got the good word on those??
This eye-opening and ear-popping series of rare ethnic 78s from the pre-WWII era has been cranking along for about a half-dozen years now, created with loving care by Pat Conte, a ethnomusicologist Harry Smith/Alan Lomax for our times. He once had a show on WFMU devoted to playing his immense collection of old 78s from around the world, sadly now off the air. Each of the original five volumes, released on Yazoo, contains a globetrotting overview of various regions' heavy hitters -- from snake-charming Bulgarian gypsies to hot-tempered, maraca-wielding Bolivians to folk music from the Arctic plains of Northern Sweden. Being a world music dilettante yet an unabashed fan of scratchy, distant-sounding 78rpm records, it's been a great introduction for me to the musical cultures of various lands. And admittedly, not something that gets cranked up that often. I've got to really work to get my head in a space where I can enjoy a babbling foreign tongue and instrumentation created by hand in a village ruled by a tribal elder, rather than on an assembly line. Sometimes I'll get 3-4 songs in and throw in the towel, but when it's really clicking for me, there are two global regions that have really stood out for me: the Bulgarians, also well-captured on a great Yazoo collection called "Songs of the Crooked Dance", and just about anything from North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya etc.). Thus seeing this one in a CD bin the other day made purchase of it a no-brainer.
Conte has dug deeply into the region and come up with an ethereal, haunting collection of nearly impenetrable folk music. It sounds like it could have just as easily been from 200 years ago, rather than 75. What little I know about the region's music is summed up in three letters: Rai. Rai is a Moroccan musical form that's really caught on in recent years in Europe, and has been combined with modern dance music to create a club favorite all over the planet. These recordings are clearly the roots of this form, and at times they even have this stark, sparse, otherworldly connection to American delta blues. At other times some of the recordings sound like war chants or calls to prayer, even the one from Timbuktu (the place really exists!). I'm not going to get too wrapped around the axle about how mystical and goddess-like this stuff is; I mean, World Music dorks can be quite annoying. (Santa Cruz, California, where I now own a home, may possibly be the world music dork capital of the USA). Still, you hear wonderful tracks like MLLE. DALILA TALIANA's "E' Rebbi Lech Hakka", with its sweet vocals curling and twisting around the most unique and ancient instrumentation imaginable, and you're easily reeled in. You're instantly transported to the desert tents and mile-long hookahs of "The Sheltering Sky"; this CD could be the soundtrack for that fine (North African-set) novel. Conte has also released "Secret Museum" CDs encompassing the music of East Africa (hmm) and Central Asia (hmmmmm); anyone got the good word on those??
Friday, November 19, 2004
DADAMAH : "THIS IS NOT A DREAM" CD.....
Wow, this is something I hadn't played in years and that's more than held up in the interim. Hearing it for the first time in the 21st Century, it plays as some of the finest hypnotic, dreamlike, Velvets-inspired rock and roll created in the 20th. DADAMAH were a very short-lived Christchurch, New Zealand-based foursome who recorded two singles and an EP for the Seattle underground label MAJORA around 1992-93 and then called it a day. All these records were quickly collected into this CD by Kranky Records. I interviewed the band in 1993 for the fanzine I was doing then, done the "old school" analog way: I sent a list of questions and a blank cassette tape, and then the band sat around a tape recorder chatting back their answers. I guess I hadn't pegged them to be New Zealand's posthumous breakout group from that exceptionally fertile time period (Terminals, Olla, Dissolve, Chris Heazelwood, Trash, Dead C, many more), but I can't think of a single band right now that comes even close. They're probably the single best and most direct descendent of BILL DIREEN & THE BILDERS, one of the most supremely underrated NZ acts of the 80s. Let me elaborate.
If you're at all familiar with Dadamah, it may be due to the presence of the deep-voiced guitarist ROY MONTGOMERY, who I have it on good word is affectionately known as "Roy Division" in his native land (Ian Curtis was a mincing falsetto compared to this guy). Montgomery's been in some superb bands and put out some solid solo records in the US, and I once had a nice long backyard gab with him about music over a keg. He was a super friendly fella. While he's the minority vocalist on this one (Kim Pieters handles most of the vocals with lo-fi diva aplomb), his handprints are all over the CD: strange, often-barren soundscapes, drone-filled buzzing and humming guitar, and a relentless VU backbeat which'll sound like home to those who've heard his other stuff. I mention BILL DIREEN because Dadamah also employed very similar ringing, snake-like keyboard tones as Direen did, which saunter and wind through all sorts of noisy & quiet patches and add a layer of density that sounds real fine. "Limbo Swing", for instance, is like a warped version of The Clean's "Tally Ho", run off the rails due to a drunken keyboard operator. While the terrific 1993 EP comprises the first 6 tracks on here, the two Majora 45s that preceeded it are easily as great -- a little more experimentally weird and certainly less heavy, especially the "Nicotine / High Time" 45 that really made me a believer back then. I was sort of taken aback, however, at just how propulsive and rocking Dadamah sound in 2004. This disc needs a lot more converts than it's received, so let me clang the bell now and give it a push. It's one of the 1990s' best hidden treats.
Wow, this is something I hadn't played in years and that's more than held up in the interim. Hearing it for the first time in the 21st Century, it plays as some of the finest hypnotic, dreamlike, Velvets-inspired rock and roll created in the 20th. DADAMAH were a very short-lived Christchurch, New Zealand-based foursome who recorded two singles and an EP for the Seattle underground label MAJORA around 1992-93 and then called it a day. All these records were quickly collected into this CD by Kranky Records. I interviewed the band in 1993 for the fanzine I was doing then, done the "old school" analog way: I sent a list of questions and a blank cassette tape, and then the band sat around a tape recorder chatting back their answers. I guess I hadn't pegged them to be New Zealand's posthumous breakout group from that exceptionally fertile time period (Terminals, Olla, Dissolve, Chris Heazelwood, Trash, Dead C, many more), but I can't think of a single band right now that comes even close. They're probably the single best and most direct descendent of BILL DIREEN & THE BILDERS, one of the most supremely underrated NZ acts of the 80s. Let me elaborate.
If you're at all familiar with Dadamah, it may be due to the presence of the deep-voiced guitarist ROY MONTGOMERY, who I have it on good word is affectionately known as "Roy Division" in his native land (Ian Curtis was a mincing falsetto compared to this guy). Montgomery's been in some superb bands and put out some solid solo records in the US, and I once had a nice long backyard gab with him about music over a keg. He was a super friendly fella. While he's the minority vocalist on this one (Kim Pieters handles most of the vocals with lo-fi diva aplomb), his handprints are all over the CD: strange, often-barren soundscapes, drone-filled buzzing and humming guitar, and a relentless VU backbeat which'll sound like home to those who've heard his other stuff. I mention BILL DIREEN because Dadamah also employed very similar ringing, snake-like keyboard tones as Direen did, which saunter and wind through all sorts of noisy & quiet patches and add a layer of density that sounds real fine. "Limbo Swing", for instance, is like a warped version of The Clean's "Tally Ho", run off the rails due to a drunken keyboard operator. While the terrific 1993 EP comprises the first 6 tracks on here, the two Majora 45s that preceeded it are easily as great -- a little more experimentally weird and certainly less heavy, especially the "Nicotine / High Time" 45 that really made me a believer back then. I was sort of taken aback, however, at just how propulsive and rocking Dadamah sound in 2004. This disc needs a lot more converts than it's received, so let me clang the bell now and give it a push. It's one of the 1990s' best hidden treats.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
PERFECT SOUND FOREVER REDESIGN....I hadn't clicked over to Perfect Sound Forever in a month or more, but did so today to find that longtime editor Jason Gross has turned the reigns over to a guy named Chris Ott, and that the thing's been radically redesigned (not necessarily for the worse). New domain name as well -- change your links to www.perfectsoundforever.com. It looks like it'll be updated more frequently, in sort of the same running fashion as Blastitude, and retain the focus on the obscure and under-championed in all corners of music. Jason allowed me to get some writing chops going again a few years back & published pieces I wrote on the FLESH EATERS, SIMPLY SAUCER, GUN CLUB, and recently, MISSION OF BURMA. Until I created this site, those pieces were the only things I'd written about music post-1998, and PSF didn't edit, tinker or toy with them one jot or iota, which I really appreciated. I've learned a ton from the site & highly recommend it in both its old and new incarnations. Jason's going to continue to contribute, which is great, & it looks like PSF will be an online player for some years to come.
YESTERDAY'S PAPERS, PART DEUX......In case you've got a hankering for some buried Agony Shorthand reviews from 2/2003 through 11/2004, here's a small list of links to critical dust-ups and regrettable utterances from the recent past:
PERE UBU
DUST DEVILS
SWA
NATIVE HIPSTERS
GIRLS AT OUR BEST!
NAUTICAL ALMANAC
LOVE CHILD
WILLIE BROWN
BLACK FLAG
THE NUBS
REVILLOS
LIGHTNING BOLT
DELTA 5
GORIES
DIAMANDA GALAS
ZOOMERS
LAZY COWGIRLS
VINCEBUS ERUPTUM
AISLERS SET
PUSSY GALORE
THE KIWI ANIMAL
THE SONICS
KRONOS QUARTET
PERE UBU
DUST DEVILS
SWA
NATIVE HIPSTERS
GIRLS AT OUR BEST!
NAUTICAL ALMANAC
LOVE CHILD
WILLIE BROWN
BLACK FLAG
THE NUBS
REVILLOS
LIGHTNING BOLT
DELTA 5
GORIES
DIAMANDA GALAS
ZOOMERS
LAZY COWGIRLS
VINCEBUS ERUPTUM
AISLERS SET
PUSSY GALORE
THE KIWI ANIMAL
THE SONICS
KRONOS QUARTET
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
VARIOUS ARTISTS : "CHARRED REMAINS" cassette......
I used to buy Maximum Rock and Roll during hardcore punk's golden years (1981-83) and marveled at the huge array of "scenes" all over the USA and globe. It was almost downright hippie in the way loving attention was slathered on how "the kids" would organically come together in places like Milwaukee and Fresno to create awful punk music and fight the fuckin' pigs. All it took to file a scene report was to file one -- that is, write up what bands formed in your town, who was putting out 45s this month, which crazy punks got stinking drunk at which parties, detail any police harassment at the VA Hall and add a few parting words on how Reagan was about to murder us all, and your scene report was ready to go. Chequering all this exciting banter were cool advertisements for micro-releases from around the world. MRR kept their ad rates low enough that a 15-year-old kid with a pressing-of-200 45 could get out his glue sick and a thick pen and have a quick ad in there for maybe $10. It was just such an ad that I remember seeing for this 1981 cassette-only release called "CHARRED REMAINS", which (retrospectively) is sort of a who's-who of hardcore, both good and horrible. I'd never heard the tape until last week but had long wanted to, but noooo, I ordered the Wisconsin scene overview "America's Dairyland" tape instead back then. Someone threw a clean copy of this tape up on Soulseek and I pulled it down, making sure to earmark some royalties directly to SIN 34 and THE MISGUIDED, of course.
Based on what I could track down on the World Wide Web, this tape was put out by a guy named Bob Moore who ran a 'zine called NOISE and later a record label called Version Sound. DIE KREUZEN fans, of which I am a big one, will remember this label as the one behind the "Cows and Beer" 7"EP and subsequent "Master Tape" LP comp, which featured super lo-fi versions of the tracks that eventually made up the single greatest US hardcore punk album of all time, the self-titled debut Die Kreuzen record on Touch & Go. Their tracks are pretty much the best on "Charred Remains", but there are a few other corkers I'd never heard before. Best is "Crime Watch-Block Parents" by DOGS OF WAR, a real spinner from back in the days when crime was out of control in the US and each suburb had "block parents" that kids could run to if some vile creep offered them a ride. It's got great vocals and reminds me of a faster AUTHORITIES ("Radiation Masterbation" and "I Hate Cops" -- you know you love 'em). I'll still stand by LA's SIN 34 even though they've a longtime butt of wasn't-hardcore-awful jokes; they've got two relatively strong tracks on here, and another surprise was VIOLENT APATHY from the Midwest. You might know these strapping young fellas from "I Can't Take It" on the "Process of Elimination" EP (famous for also including Negative Approach, The Necros and The Fix), but they've got 3 red-blooded meathooks on this, served up fast-n-loud. There are also two from VOID, who just plain ruled (though their non-Dischord stuff like this is incredibly tame compared to their godhead side of the split LP). On the down side? Well, how about ARTICLES OF FAITH? What a crap band -- each track is way too long, too involved, too English to merit even a first listen. Ditto for the TOXIC REASONS, who were a living parody of a bunch of American kids trying to be Discharge or GBH, complete with horrendous British accent. Rounding out the pile are HUSKER DU (a track lifted from "Land Speed Record"), UXB, PERSONALITY CRISIS (Canadians! Guy had monstrous vocals here and elsewhere, but the band was pretty weak), Sacramento's REBEL TRUTH (horrid) and a handful of nonentities. A total nostalgia trip even if you weren't there (and I wasn't), yet one you might not ever want to listen to more than once a decade.
I used to buy Maximum Rock and Roll during hardcore punk's golden years (1981-83) and marveled at the huge array of "scenes" all over the USA and globe. It was almost downright hippie in the way loving attention was slathered on how "the kids" would organically come together in places like Milwaukee and Fresno to create awful punk music and fight the fuckin' pigs. All it took to file a scene report was to file one -- that is, write up what bands formed in your town, who was putting out 45s this month, which crazy punks got stinking drunk at which parties, detail any police harassment at the VA Hall and add a few parting words on how Reagan was about to murder us all, and your scene report was ready to go. Chequering all this exciting banter were cool advertisements for micro-releases from around the world. MRR kept their ad rates low enough that a 15-year-old kid with a pressing-of-200 45 could get out his glue sick and a thick pen and have a quick ad in there for maybe $10. It was just such an ad that I remember seeing for this 1981 cassette-only release called "CHARRED REMAINS", which (retrospectively) is sort of a who's-who of hardcore, both good and horrible. I'd never heard the tape until last week but had long wanted to, but noooo, I ordered the Wisconsin scene overview "America's Dairyland" tape instead back then. Someone threw a clean copy of this tape up on Soulseek and I pulled it down, making sure to earmark some royalties directly to SIN 34 and THE MISGUIDED, of course.
Based on what I could track down on the World Wide Web, this tape was put out by a guy named Bob Moore who ran a 'zine called NOISE and later a record label called Version Sound. DIE KREUZEN fans, of which I am a big one, will remember this label as the one behind the "Cows and Beer" 7"EP and subsequent "Master Tape" LP comp, which featured super lo-fi versions of the tracks that eventually made up the single greatest US hardcore punk album of all time, the self-titled debut Die Kreuzen record on Touch & Go. Their tracks are pretty much the best on "Charred Remains", but there are a few other corkers I'd never heard before. Best is "Crime Watch-Block Parents" by DOGS OF WAR, a real spinner from back in the days when crime was out of control in the US and each suburb had "block parents" that kids could run to if some vile creep offered them a ride. It's got great vocals and reminds me of a faster AUTHORITIES ("Radiation Masterbation" and "I Hate Cops" -- you know you love 'em). I'll still stand by LA's SIN 34 even though they've a longtime butt of wasn't-hardcore-awful jokes; they've got two relatively strong tracks on here, and another surprise was VIOLENT APATHY from the Midwest. You might know these strapping young fellas from "I Can't Take It" on the "Process of Elimination" EP (famous for also including Negative Approach, The Necros and The Fix), but they've got 3 red-blooded meathooks on this, served up fast-n-loud. There are also two from VOID, who just plain ruled (though their non-Dischord stuff like this is incredibly tame compared to their godhead side of the split LP). On the down side? Well, how about ARTICLES OF FAITH? What a crap band -- each track is way too long, too involved, too English to merit even a first listen. Ditto for the TOXIC REASONS, who were a living parody of a bunch of American kids trying to be Discharge or GBH, complete with horrendous British accent. Rounding out the pile are HUSKER DU (a track lifted from "Land Speed Record"), UXB, PERSONALITY CRISIS (Canadians! Guy had monstrous vocals here and elsewhere, but the band was pretty weak), Sacramento's REBEL TRUTH (horrid) and a handful of nonentities. A total nostalgia trip even if you weren't there (and I wasn't), yet one you might not ever want to listen to more than once a decade.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
CAN : "EGE BAMYASI" LP/CD.....
I'm not sure if this is the best of CAN's many fine LPs (I'd go with "Soundtracks" or "Tago Mago"), but I'm pretty solid on 1972's "Ege Bamyasi" being the most consistent. Aside from about 5 minutes of pointless wankitude at the back half of "Soup", the record's a terrific mix of propulsive, percussion-heavy Krautrock, lightly experimental noise and (most surprisingly) a sort of proto-disco that was at least two years ahead of its time. The first track is a real understated, quiet rhythm monster called "Pinch", all 9:31 of it. Vocalist Damo Suzuki mutters in some alien non-German/English/Japanese tongue over super-frantic percussive dancefloor stomp. Except dancing to it is almost completely out of the question, as the track is just a bit off-time and arranged so loosely & randomly that most coke-sniffing rump-shakers would likely be back in the bathroom waiting for the Gloria Gaynor or Thelma Houston to spin. 180 degrees and one track later is "Sing Swan Song", a gently unfolding ballad of sorts, with more muttering and the faintest hint of an unhinged, screeching guitar in the background. Hell, they're all great, even the overtly disco "I'm So Green" that ended up as a 45. I mean, was anyone making music even remotely like this anywhere else in 1972? Maybe ROXY MUSIC, but they were just getting off the ground and were more of a straight-up rock band to boot -- CAN already had 4 great, weirdly hypnotic records under their collective belt. One guy called this record a "definitive statement on merging jazz ideology with the surging menace of rock & roll" and compared it favorably to MILES DAVIS' "On The Corner". I cannot concur, having not heard the Miles record, but it's hard to argue that there's not a real experimental jazz current running through this, despite the fact that it hangs on sturdy, rock and roll-based shoulders. I'll argue that this is the CAN to get if you can get just one, but if you go without any of their pre-1973 material you're missing some of the most creative and aurally pleasing rock music of our time. Don't let it happen to you!
I'm not sure if this is the best of CAN's many fine LPs (I'd go with "Soundtracks" or "Tago Mago"), but I'm pretty solid on 1972's "Ege Bamyasi" being the most consistent. Aside from about 5 minutes of pointless wankitude at the back half of "Soup", the record's a terrific mix of propulsive, percussion-heavy Krautrock, lightly experimental noise and (most surprisingly) a sort of proto-disco that was at least two years ahead of its time. The first track is a real understated, quiet rhythm monster called "Pinch", all 9:31 of it. Vocalist Damo Suzuki mutters in some alien non-German/English/Japanese tongue over super-frantic percussive dancefloor stomp. Except dancing to it is almost completely out of the question, as the track is just a bit off-time and arranged so loosely & randomly that most coke-sniffing rump-shakers would likely be back in the bathroom waiting for the Gloria Gaynor or Thelma Houston to spin. 180 degrees and one track later is "Sing Swan Song", a gently unfolding ballad of sorts, with more muttering and the faintest hint of an unhinged, screeching guitar in the background. Hell, they're all great, even the overtly disco "I'm So Green" that ended up as a 45. I mean, was anyone making music even remotely like this anywhere else in 1972? Maybe ROXY MUSIC, but they were just getting off the ground and were more of a straight-up rock band to boot -- CAN already had 4 great, weirdly hypnotic records under their collective belt. One guy called this record a "definitive statement on merging jazz ideology with the surging menace of rock & roll" and compared it favorably to MILES DAVIS' "On The Corner". I cannot concur, having not heard the Miles record, but it's hard to argue that there's not a real experimental jazz current running through this, despite the fact that it hangs on sturdy, rock and roll-based shoulders. I'll argue that this is the CAN to get if you can get just one, but if you go without any of their pre-1973 material you're missing some of the most creative and aurally pleasing rock music of our time. Don't let it happen to you!
Friday, November 12, 2004
TALES OF TERROR : "TALES OF TERROR" LP.....
Time marches, bellies extend, joints stiffen and responsibilities mount, but one thing remains constant: that 1984 TALES OF TERROR LP is one fucking incredible long-haired punk rock & roll record! These alcoholic Sacramento-rooted bastard sons of ELVIS, THE STOOGES and BLACK SABBATH have aged very well with the passage of the years, and when I plopped on their one and only LP this past week for a couple of spins, it blew me away -- again, as it always has. GREEN RIVER? Loved 'em, but their bombastic guitar & drum roaring never held a candle to this revved-up record, as even Mark Arm would likely admit (they covered this record's "Ozzy" on their "Dry As A Bone" EP in homage). This record almost perfectly arrives at the nexus of early 80s hardcore punk and heavy 70s glam, adding a small dollop of 45 GRAVE or MISFITS-style horror imagery which thankfully doesn't mess up the sound one bit. 45 Grave and The Misfits, bless them both, unfortunately let the spooky goth-vibes seep into their music, employing creepy echoes, ridiculous "ghastly voices from the beyond" and annoying witch-like cackling far too often. Both bands ruled, but it's hard to listen without switching a judgmental, BS-detecting, post-teenage portion of the brain completely off. Not so with these guys. I used to see "Tales of Terror" spray-painted in men's bathrooms across the San Francisco Bay Area (especially in bars as I got older), but the dumb-ass mohawk punks in my high school -- the ones who regularly made it up to SF for shows, unlike me -- just hated them, almost as much as they hated FLIPPER. Loved by the drunks, loathed by the Dead Kennedys-loving high school alternajerks. Draw your own conclusions.
Out of the gates this record is fast, loose and full of swaggering, liquid courage. Two lead guitarists, neither of whom shies from firing off a "fiery" but non-obnoxious lead from time to time, usually over a near-hardcore tempo ("13" and "Deathryder"). The track that everyone loved at my college radio station was "Over Elvis Worship", about how the spirit of Elvis inhabits singer Rat's Ass thanks to a well-placed tatoo of the King "down on (his) cock". As if. But that track -- and all of Side 2 -- is just incredible raw, blazing and bleary-eyed fun rock and roll. I've always been partial to "Romance", the lead track on Side 2, which is to me the template song for my made-up category of long-haired punk. Some great fake names for these guys, too -- well, "Rat's Ass" and "Dusty Coffin" aren't that hot, but what about "Captain Trip Mender" and "Thopper Jaw"? Whoa. There are rumors circulating that CD Presents, who originally put out this LP, are thinking about gathering the tracks and throwing them out there again on compact disc. This is an exciting event, but tempered by the fact that I've never read a thing about CD Presents that didn't present the guy behind the label as an out-and-out crook, loathed by just about every band who ever recorded for him. I know there are some peeps in the audience who saw this band a bunch, and I hope you'll weigh in posthaste on the majesty that was Tales of Terror.
Time marches, bellies extend, joints stiffen and responsibilities mount, but one thing remains constant: that 1984 TALES OF TERROR LP is one fucking incredible long-haired punk rock & roll record! These alcoholic Sacramento-rooted bastard sons of ELVIS, THE STOOGES and BLACK SABBATH have aged very well with the passage of the years, and when I plopped on their one and only LP this past week for a couple of spins, it blew me away -- again, as it always has. GREEN RIVER? Loved 'em, but their bombastic guitar & drum roaring never held a candle to this revved-up record, as even Mark Arm would likely admit (they covered this record's "Ozzy" on their "Dry As A Bone" EP in homage). This record almost perfectly arrives at the nexus of early 80s hardcore punk and heavy 70s glam, adding a small dollop of 45 GRAVE or MISFITS-style horror imagery which thankfully doesn't mess up the sound one bit. 45 Grave and The Misfits, bless them both, unfortunately let the spooky goth-vibes seep into their music, employing creepy echoes, ridiculous "ghastly voices from the beyond" and annoying witch-like cackling far too often. Both bands ruled, but it's hard to listen without switching a judgmental, BS-detecting, post-teenage portion of the brain completely off. Not so with these guys. I used to see "Tales of Terror" spray-painted in men's bathrooms across the San Francisco Bay Area (especially in bars as I got older), but the dumb-ass mohawk punks in my high school -- the ones who regularly made it up to SF for shows, unlike me -- just hated them, almost as much as they hated FLIPPER. Loved by the drunks, loathed by the Dead Kennedys-loving high school alternajerks. Draw your own conclusions.
Out of the gates this record is fast, loose and full of swaggering, liquid courage. Two lead guitarists, neither of whom shies from firing off a "fiery" but non-obnoxious lead from time to time, usually over a near-hardcore tempo ("13" and "Deathryder"). The track that everyone loved at my college radio station was "Over Elvis Worship", about how the spirit of Elvis inhabits singer Rat's Ass thanks to a well-placed tatoo of the King "down on (his) cock". As if. But that track -- and all of Side 2 -- is just incredible raw, blazing and bleary-eyed fun rock and roll. I've always been partial to "Romance", the lead track on Side 2, which is to me the template song for my made-up category of long-haired punk. Some great fake names for these guys, too -- well, "Rat's Ass" and "Dusty Coffin" aren't that hot, but what about "Captain Trip Mender" and "Thopper Jaw"? Whoa. There are rumors circulating that CD Presents, who originally put out this LP, are thinking about gathering the tracks and throwing them out there again on compact disc. This is an exciting event, but tempered by the fact that I've never read a thing about CD Presents that didn't present the guy behind the label as an out-and-out crook, loathed by just about every band who ever recorded for him. I know there are some peeps in the audience who saw this band a bunch, and I hope you'll weigh in posthaste on the majesty that was Tales of Terror.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
"SCIENTIST MEETS THE ROOTS RADICS" CD.....
The ROOTS RADICS were one of the most-used and most-prolific backing bands during the post-"Rockers" period of dub, roughly starting around 1978 and going up through the early 80s. Their groove-laden, bottom-end elemental heaviness is among the best dub you'll ever hear, and compares exceptionally well to earlier masters THE REVOLUTIONARIES and their early/mid-70s ilk. Teaming up on this fantastic platter is young mixmaster SCIENTIST, who strips an already quiet set of grooves down to their most raw, basic and primer-coated core, leaving echoey guitar, shattering percussion, intensely deep bass and virtually no vocals whatsoever. I always used to wonder how reggae-philes could routinely characterize music so stark & spread out into different rhythmic spectums as "heavy" -- to me, heavy meant and has always meant "loud and ear-shredding". Make no mistake, this is an incredibly heavy set of dubs, as in the rumbling, dense aural weight it packs on. Few songs are instantly distinguishable from each other -- it's more like one long, stoned riff that is overwhelmingly disorienting and thick with musical haze. I have long heard the rap on Scientist that he was just a twentysomething KING TUBBY acolyte who hung around the Channel One studio all day & night waiting for his shot at mixing glory, but on the evidence presented here I have to give the man my eternal respect. Agony Shorthand's growing dub collection has a new one to file in the upper fifth. Highly recommended.
The ROOTS RADICS were one of the most-used and most-prolific backing bands during the post-"Rockers" period of dub, roughly starting around 1978 and going up through the early 80s. Their groove-laden, bottom-end elemental heaviness is among the best dub you'll ever hear, and compares exceptionally well to earlier masters THE REVOLUTIONARIES and their early/mid-70s ilk. Teaming up on this fantastic platter is young mixmaster SCIENTIST, who strips an already quiet set of grooves down to their most raw, basic and primer-coated core, leaving echoey guitar, shattering percussion, intensely deep bass and virtually no vocals whatsoever. I always used to wonder how reggae-philes could routinely characterize music so stark & spread out into different rhythmic spectums as "heavy" -- to me, heavy meant and has always meant "loud and ear-shredding". Make no mistake, this is an incredibly heavy set of dubs, as in the rumbling, dense aural weight it packs on. Few songs are instantly distinguishable from each other -- it's more like one long, stoned riff that is overwhelmingly disorienting and thick with musical haze. I have long heard the rap on Scientist that he was just a twentysomething KING TUBBY acolyte who hung around the Channel One studio all day & night waiting for his shot at mixing glory, but on the evidence presented here I have to give the man my eternal respect. Agony Shorthand's growing dub collection has a new one to file in the upper fifth. Highly recommended.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
PORTER WAGONER : "THE ESSENTIAL PORTER WAGONER" CD.....
Fans of 1950s-60s barstool Country and bloodthirsty revenge-on-cheatin' wives Western have long held PORTER WAGONER as an existential hero, as the guy had a track record of down-and-outer "story songs" that nearly beat all comers and peers (JOHNNY PAYCHECK and MERLE HAGGARD excepted). I've loved the classic murder ballad "The Cold Hard Facts of Life" for years, but did you know that Wagoner is also the guy responsible for the incredible, so-cornball-it-has-to-be-real "What Would You Do (If Jesus Came to Your House)"? Right, the song that was on one of those "Wavy Gravy" novelty compilations years ago, a song that posits that you'd have some real straightening up to do if the Holy Host actually dropped by with no warning. Out go the Hustlers, the bag of Munchos, the Electric Eels CD and the Horizontal Action 'zines. Waggoner had already thought this one through back in the 50s. Anyway, "The Essential Porter Wagoner" has instantly become one of my favorite "greatest hits" country collections. It's a gavel-to-gavel overview of his career, from his Hank Williams-worshipping 50s material through his redneck 70s stuff, stopping for a long interlude in the 60s, when he was at the peak of his songwriting and singing powers. It skips all of his equally worthy duet material with DOLLY PARTON, but I encourage you to seek out that greatest hits CD as well. For drunk-lyric aficionados, you can't do much better than a single line from "Sorrow On The Rocks": "...my eyes look like a road map of Georgia...". This track is near-perfect, as is "I'll Go Down Swinging", and both ended up among his biggest country radio hits. I'd never heard "Skid Row Joe" before, but it's a real great weeper, and it's hard to reconcile its huge popularity in 1965 with all the crazy rock and roll going down at the time. These Nashville and Bakersfield pioneers truly existed in a world unto themselves. There's a few weird ones, too, like "The Carroll County Accident" -- a mystery wrapped inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma! Ms. Parton shows up in the backing chorus of some of the later numbers -- there's certainly no mistaking that voice. I guess these two were a happening couple for a while -- Wagoner with his custom-tailored Nudie suit, Parton with her impressive hairdo & rack. Now that I've got this I can't imagine a truly representative country collection being without it, and I resolve to now dig deeper into Wagoner's catalog to see what other degenerate pleasures lie obscured.
Fans of 1950s-60s barstool Country and bloodthirsty revenge-on-cheatin' wives Western have long held PORTER WAGONER as an existential hero, as the guy had a track record of down-and-outer "story songs" that nearly beat all comers and peers (JOHNNY PAYCHECK and MERLE HAGGARD excepted). I've loved the classic murder ballad "The Cold Hard Facts of Life" for years, but did you know that Wagoner is also the guy responsible for the incredible, so-cornball-it-has-to-be-real "What Would You Do (If Jesus Came to Your House)"? Right, the song that was on one of those "Wavy Gravy" novelty compilations years ago, a song that posits that you'd have some real straightening up to do if the Holy Host actually dropped by with no warning. Out go the Hustlers, the bag of Munchos, the Electric Eels CD and the Horizontal Action 'zines. Waggoner had already thought this one through back in the 50s. Anyway, "The Essential Porter Wagoner" has instantly become one of my favorite "greatest hits" country collections. It's a gavel-to-gavel overview of his career, from his Hank Williams-worshipping 50s material through his redneck 70s stuff, stopping for a long interlude in the 60s, when he was at the peak of his songwriting and singing powers. It skips all of his equally worthy duet material with DOLLY PARTON, but I encourage you to seek out that greatest hits CD as well. For drunk-lyric aficionados, you can't do much better than a single line from "Sorrow On The Rocks": "...my eyes look like a road map of Georgia...". This track is near-perfect, as is "I'll Go Down Swinging", and both ended up among his biggest country radio hits. I'd never heard "Skid Row Joe" before, but it's a real great weeper, and it's hard to reconcile its huge popularity in 1965 with all the crazy rock and roll going down at the time. These Nashville and Bakersfield pioneers truly existed in a world unto themselves. There's a few weird ones, too, like "The Carroll County Accident" -- a mystery wrapped inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma! Ms. Parton shows up in the backing chorus of some of the later numbers -- there's certainly no mistaking that voice. I guess these two were a happening couple for a while -- Wagoner with his custom-tailored Nudie suit, Parton with her impressive hairdo & rack. Now that I've got this I can't imagine a truly representative country collection being without it, and I resolve to now dig deeper into Wagoner's catalog to see what other degenerate pleasures lie obscured.
Monday, November 08, 2004
ROLLING STONES : "STICKY FINGERS" LP/CD......
For years an error of chronology gave me a very convenient but dead-wrong theory: that the ROLLING STONES reached their peak around the incredible, best-50-LPs-ever trifecta of "Beggar's Banquet", "Let It Bleed" and "Exile On Main Street", only to have their career begin the inevitable slide into irrelevance and mediocrity with "Sticky Fingers". I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that one. Thing is, 1971's "Sticky Fingers" slotted right between 1969's "Let It Bleed" and 1972's "Exile On Main Street", so that's a theory of mine that's subsequently been discarded. I'm searching for another one to explain why "Sticky Fingers" just doesn't have the gusto and the knock-you-flat timelessness of those other three. Perhaps it's the 2 good, 1 bad, 1 good theory? No, that pattern doesn't work, because immediately preceeding "Beggar's Banquet" is "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" -- good, but not face-of-rock-changing good. The fact of the matter is that most of "Sticky Fingers" was a big step backwards into album-oriented rock and maudlin, syrupy sentimental schlock. It sounds like a spirtual cousin to clunkers like "Black and Blue" and "Goat's Head Soup" rather than "Exile", but millions upon millions will disagree with this sentiment -- so please allow me to elaborate.
First, you know is it isn't all bad when it kicks off in fine style with a killer bar-rock stomper like "Brown Sugar", which deservedly ranks up among their most-played & -worshipped tracks. I'm wondering if there's a bootleg version out there of the track when it was called, ahem, "Black Pussy". The next best track is #2, the wine-besotted lament "Sway". After that, the quality quotient drops severely and never returns to this level. In the difficult listening category comes "Wild Horses", a total lite rock staple, the sort of tune your Mom totally goes for, as well as my annoying co-workers. And girls named Staci or Traci who draw unicorns on their Pee-Chees. Even worse is "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", which not only carries on forever, but is Exhibit A for the AOR Stones that broke so many hearts a few years later (as is the woeful "Bitch"). After that are some decent junkie ballads like "Sister Morphine", "I Got The Blues" and "Moonlight Mile", but so below the late 60s standard these guys had set you gotta wonder how badly the smack really was interfering with the creative process. Well, the ship was righted for one last double-LP go the next year, and I may be going out on a big limb here (are you sitting down?), but "Exile" was probably their best ever. I just got the CD version of "Sticky Fingers" a couple weeks ago, and I'm afraid to report that digital reproduction still isn't able to right the many wrongs committed here.
For years an error of chronology gave me a very convenient but dead-wrong theory: that the ROLLING STONES reached their peak around the incredible, best-50-LPs-ever trifecta of "Beggar's Banquet", "Let It Bleed" and "Exile On Main Street", only to have their career begin the inevitable slide into irrelevance and mediocrity with "Sticky Fingers". I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that one. Thing is, 1971's "Sticky Fingers" slotted right between 1969's "Let It Bleed" and 1972's "Exile On Main Street", so that's a theory of mine that's subsequently been discarded. I'm searching for another one to explain why "Sticky Fingers" just doesn't have the gusto and the knock-you-flat timelessness of those other three. Perhaps it's the 2 good, 1 bad, 1 good theory? No, that pattern doesn't work, because immediately preceeding "Beggar's Banquet" is "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" -- good, but not face-of-rock-changing good. The fact of the matter is that most of "Sticky Fingers" was a big step backwards into album-oriented rock and maudlin, syrupy sentimental schlock. It sounds like a spirtual cousin to clunkers like "Black and Blue" and "Goat's Head Soup" rather than "Exile", but millions upon millions will disagree with this sentiment -- so please allow me to elaborate.
First, you know is it isn't all bad when it kicks off in fine style with a killer bar-rock stomper like "Brown Sugar", which deservedly ranks up among their most-played & -worshipped tracks. I'm wondering if there's a bootleg version out there of the track when it was called, ahem, "Black Pussy". The next best track is #2, the wine-besotted lament "Sway". After that, the quality quotient drops severely and never returns to this level. In the difficult listening category comes "Wild Horses", a total lite rock staple, the sort of tune your Mom totally goes for, as well as my annoying co-workers. And girls named Staci or Traci who draw unicorns on their Pee-Chees. Even worse is "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", which not only carries on forever, but is Exhibit A for the AOR Stones that broke so many hearts a few years later (as is the woeful "Bitch"). After that are some decent junkie ballads like "Sister Morphine", "I Got The Blues" and "Moonlight Mile", but so below the late 60s standard these guys had set you gotta wonder how badly the smack really was interfering with the creative process. Well, the ship was righted for one last double-LP go the next year, and I may be going out on a big limb here (are you sitting down?), but "Exile" was probably their best ever. I just got the CD version of "Sticky Fingers" a couple weeks ago, and I'm afraid to report that digital reproduction still isn't able to right the many wrongs committed here.
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