Saturday, June 02, 2012

I know, you're all tired of readin' 'bout my financial straits and just how I don't have the right amount of moolah to buy out the record store like I wish I coulda back when I was fifteen 'n all that! I'm even getting tired of writin' 'bout it myself, but facts iz facts and frankly given just how iffy the economy is it ain't like I'm gonna be wallowin' in new booty the way I sure wish I could. Of course I can console myself knowing that there frankly just ain't that much good, hard, high-energy and all-out rockin' material being flung at us these days like there was back when rock 'n roll seemed to be that one unifying drive that separated the geeky kids who wanted to be part of the "inner circle" (like me natch!) and the real "inner circle" that wouldn't have anything to do with us no matter how hard we tried flashing our rock 'n roll credentials all over the place! It don't do any good, but I can still console myself instead of beat my head against the wall like I'm wont to do!

But as luck would have it I've just received a number of new items that might make this blog look a whole lot more tastier'n me just ramblin' on about old finds at flea markets and what I had for supper the day I first got to hear UNCLE MEAT before giving my dog Sam his daily share of noogies. The fine folk at Feeding Tube records have shipped off some of their fine wares (which will take some time for me to make it through 'em all...see next week) plus a few stragglers and ebay wins were lucky enough to find themselves in today's soiree, so let's just admit that this post ain't as much of a total loss as some of you less scrupulous people would like it to be. But sheesh, do I miss the days (which even include the oft-loathed seventies!) when weekly trips to the record shop were akin to some 1900's kid with dime in hand torn between buying the latest issue of some adventurous looking pulp novel and a bag of cheapo candy. Only it was me handlin' the hard-begged $3.50 trying to figure out just how I could swing the latest CREEM and of course the cutout gem of my choice with maybe just enough left over for a jaw breaker. The most comforting thing about those days is that, had all else failed, I could always go home and drown my sorrows in a GREEN ACRES rerun.

So these are just a few of this week's highlights mate, just a few, but still I think I got my share of pounce and wallop outta each and every feedback screech and sour blurt that emanated from my boom box speakers situated next to my comfy chair. Hope you can squeeze just a tad outta it because, frankly at this point in time I'm just coasting!



Les Rallizes Denudes-MARS STUDIO 1980 4-CD set (Phoenix)

Financial constraints (as usual) prohibited me from passing out loot for the original Univive edition of this box set a few years back. Thankfully the fine somethingorothers at Phoenix have made this Les Rallizes Denudes rarity available for myself and the rest of you Johnny-Cum-Latelies out there who wouldn't touch a recording unless you heard about it from one of those enlightened bloggers who I tend to avoid like bars with petunia wallpaper. An exemplary selection of Denudes studio rarities, sometimes fragmented, that presents the group in a setting where you can finally hear something beyond the amp whiz and atonal screeches (not that it ever mattered). MARS STUDIO also features the usage of additional instruments not usually heard in Denudes circles such as hammond organ and what I would assume was a tinkly celeste or a warped music box! New to my ears tracks like the four takes of "White Waking" (which comes off like a mutated "Enter the Mirror") appear, plus the mind-searing 24-minute  Davie Allen-esque instrumental "Guitar Jam" (which some unworthies had previous passed off as the live '68 "Smokin' Cigarette Blues" number which can be heard on 67/69 STUDIO ET LIVE) starts off disque three to most stellar effect. Its one to compliment the rest of your Japanese post-psych platters to the utmost, but when are we gonna get to hear some fresh romps anyway? If there was any time to open the vaults wide open, it would be in the here and now 'stead of thirty years from now when I don't think any of us will have ears left!!!
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Gong-CONTINENTAL CIRCUS CD (Flawed Gem, Sweden)

I guess this is gonna be another one of those albums I'm gonna hafta cozy up to. Not that the idea of noted French psychedelic progsters Gong playing whacked-out "Blues Theme" riffs with Syd Barrett mindsets wasn't a snat one to begin with, but their soundtrack to a dirt bike documentary doesn't quite grab me by mine the way it probably doesn't quite grab you by yours. Even the bonus tracks including a rare single side and some French television appearances don't excite me like they would have in the late-seventies when my tastes were certainly careening from one end of the import bin to the other end of the cutout one.

Of course the big question is...is it the music that's getting old, or is it me????  That certainly is one to ponder, though from what I can tell it looks as if the two of us are having some manic race to see which of us can hit oblivion first! I'll have to see what kinda odds Brad Kohler'll give on this 'un!
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Art Taylor-TAYLOR'S TENORS CD-R burn (New Jazz)


Sheesh, what did I do to deserve yet another package from Paul McGarry anyway??? Anyway there's a good selection in this one (even though I probably wouldn't have boughten any of 'em had I the dinero to do so!) beginning with this '59 side from a guy who turned up doing some mighty rhythm log playing on Archie Shepp's YASMINA album a good decade or so later. Nothing explosive here, just some good bop that almost approaches hard but still's worthy enough if you're the kinda guy who thinks that the early Ornette sides are close but still to tonal for your obviously over-spiced listening parameters! If you're feeling adventurous, go for it!
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TRIZO 50 CD-R burn (World in Sound)

Another McGarry find, this time of an obscure early/mid-seventies Missouri group who actually released their own album long before the whole DIY "ethos" encouraged kids who had little if anything to say to put their ineffectual mewlings to plastic! Actually this oddly-monikered group's pretty good...again nothing I'd want to spend my ever-dwindling monetary supply on but hotcha enough mid-Amerigan "power pop" that woulda done swell if it had only made it to the attention of Greg Shaw back when Trizo 50 were romping this planet of ours. Sometimes Beatle-esque and at other times typical midwestern Shoes/Scruffs-styled tough guy pounce, I can only wonder why these guys never made it to the pages of BOMP! back when they really coulda used the publicity!
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Sonic Liberation Front-MEETS SUNNY MURRAY CD-R (High Two)

I've written up this avant collective before in these "pages," but little did I know that these "mainstays" from the CBGB Lounge "Freestyle" series were not only still together but have recorded a platter with none other than free jazz pioneer Sunny Murray! Those of you who still mourn the passing of the sixties/seventies bare-wire intensity of the stalwarts will most definitely want to hear this 'un, which surprisingly enough recalls everything that the late-sixties had to offer which we all thought went down the crapper somtime around the end of the loft jazz scene. The performance and playing's pretty angular and has a hefty BYG as opposed to ESP vibe, and whoever's playing sax comes about as close to Roscoe Mitchell in guttural performance and intensity as anybody I've heard in quite some time. The African percussion vibe also brings back fond memories of early Art Ensemble endeavors, and of course having a hand like Murray on board only exemplifies things ifyaknowaddamean...  Paul, I think you did a good deed by shipping this 'un my way!
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Hawkwind-ONWARD CD-R burn (Eastworld)

If it wasn't for this 'un I never woulda even know'd that Hawkwind were still around. But they are, and hey I gotta admit that they sound about as good as they did during the QUARK STRANGENESS AND CHARM days. Electronic space rock with some new wave-y punk moves with the right amount of oscillation to differentiate it from the reams of cum latelies who've been doin' the Hawkwind trip for the last umpteen years. Even features a re-do of "Aerospace Age Inferno" from CAPTAIN LOCKHEED AND THE STARFIGHTERS, a real "classic rock" platter if I ever heard one!

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