Turid-Bilder

Part of me is just posting this because I love this cover. I know exactly how this girl feels. Kind of weird because she resembles an ex who hates me. But really things have been pretty eclectic here today (viz. too lazy to come up with any thematic principle) so why not some pretty Swedish songs. I believe Turid is one lone woman and not a band, at least that's my understanding. But what she does over the course of this album is amazing. Some songs feature bird field recordings and her haunting-yet-pretty voice. There's piano ballads. Turid also isn't afraid to bring in the psych too. I assume this has a pretty devoted following, I just haven't ever talked to anyone who knows about this.

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Don Letts, Stratetime Keith, Steel Leg & Jah Wobble-Steel Leg v Electric Dread

Keith Levine is the best guitar player of all time. Really, it is that simple. I can't think of any other guitarist that can play in his style. And if you don't like Public Image (at least through Flowers of Romance) then I don't like you. If you do like them, you'll probably want to hear this if you haven't already. Jah Wobble is obviously Jah Wobble. Stratetime Keith is Keith Levine. Don Letts is Don Letts (though I always thought of him as a dj and film director). And Steel Leg acts in horrible reality tv shows and does commercials for butter. The first song might have you thinking this is just going to be a loose P.I.L. jam session, stick with it and you find it's much more dubbed out and reggaefied.

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Sir Douglas Quintet-Mendocino

But maybe the cold isn't your thing and you actually prefer this bullshit weather. Perhaps you seek to not only warm your cockles but to burn the fuckers straight off. Nothing to me says hot summer day like this band and ugly shirtless dudes. You probably already know the title track, but have you ever considered that it sounds oddly enough like a lot of the kiwi shit that came a few decades later. Is it the farfisa? Who knows. But to my ears it sounds like some people in the Southern Hemisphere were digging this (arrows pointing towards the Clean).

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Skepticism-Aes

Things have gotten a little light around here. And while no one ever downloads any of my metal posts, I figure I going to post one anyways. I mean, what is more egotistical then writing a fucking blog. It's super fucking humid here, and an album like this can really ice the marrow. This behemoth is one sloooooow, chilling track that I find utterly relaxing. Not unlike a comforting drone album, I can put this on and feel the arctic blast hit my already too cold heart.

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Devo-Hardcore Vol. 1 74-77

Oh no! Devo! Why are you attempting another comeback? Haven't you learned you lesson already? While the first Eno-produced record still rules, there was a pretty fair quality degrade soon after. Sure, there's some solid songs on following albums, but really this is a case of first work best work. The earliest stuff has an almost Residents-like quality to it. Its simple and lo fi and awesome. But bands please, lets end this comeback shit. Once you're done it's over. Get the fuck back in the grave. And I promise, I'll always remember you like this, and not that corpulent, balding, thing you've become. And who is this lovely lady that graces this cover. My word.

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A Cry From the Earth: Music of the North American Indians

In my eternal quest to find more tribal thud in the mode of Amon Duul, one hip guy at a record store in some nowheresville burgh in Illinois, suggested I give this a listen. Sure shit like this can have some ethical questions for some people. But I don't care about them. So if I say there's a brilliant primitivism going on here, i don't need to here some bullshit about imposing European aesthetics onto another culture or any other of that fooey. Anyways, to me, thjis has an almost psychedelic feel to it. So cultural relevatism aside, this is a fine record.

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Screamers-Demos 77-78

For cryin' bones (thanks grandpa for that phrase (I still have no idea what it means)), but I surely do love the Screamers. Their synth punk (no guitars) was so far ahead of their time, people are still trying to crack the recipe. Too bad it ain't gonna happen. This shit is really one of a kind. Okay, Never Gender & Beelzebub Youth are kind close and also super awesome, but I think the Screamers win the battle. It's hot as shit here today, and walking around I noticed some asshead wearing those weird Juggalo black pants, and full length duster, but no shirt. Not a good look, but it did provide hours of mirth for me, just like this album does.

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Poison Girls-Chappaquiddick Bridge

I have this recurring fantasy that from the dark recesses of my closet some gothy seductress will materialize and sing "Be my Tender Lover" to me. Then we'll rob a bank. Flee to Budapest and eventually I'll die. And at that moment it will be revealed that it was all some beautiful fantasy and that I actually choked to death on a gobstopper while laying in bed. So this is another one from the NWW list. I assume that will get at least a few people to download it.

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The Bob Seger System-Ramblin' Gamblin' Man

I know, most of you would rather get raped than listen to the king of dad rock. I would have agreed with you if we were discussing the Silver Bullet Band (how fucking corny). But before Seger was workin' on his night moves, he was once actually pretty rad. Back in Detroit, Seger would have been around the Stooges, MC5s, Frost, SRC, etc. And it must have rubbed off since his early discs were solid hard rock with funk & psych flourishes. Much better than you think it's going to be. Really.

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The Monkees-Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones LTD.

Scoff if you wish, but you'd be a pretty dumb asshole for doing so. I hear a lot of shit talked about the Monkees due to their business model, teen target, construction. But who really cares about that? That has, is, and will continue to be the nature of pop music. You think your beloved Beatles would be nearly as successful if they were some slope-headed, cromags? I'm doubtful. And here's another band that I would rank higher than the Beatles. I loved their show as a kid. I loved their movie Head as an adult. And I've continued to love-particularly this one-for as long as I can remember. These guys still aren't getting their proper dues.

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Pink Fairies-Kings of Oblivion

What a mistake I have made. Several posts mention this great band, and for some reason I thought I had already posted this. Time to make up for that error. This is their last album, and if you're more familiar with their earlier psych work outs, then this proto punk, hard rock, early metal monster might be a bit of a surprise. At this point the line up had changed around a bit, but adding Larry Wallis (later in Motorhead) is always a smart move.

And for those of you lucky enough to inhabit the Morgantown area, there's some rumors that I will be djing down at Jay's this Thursday. I'm not sure if this is actually going to happen but if you want to see some old bastard play sad shit then I have a night planned for you. Unfortunately, my prog rock fantasy night that I've been threatening my friends with will have to wait for another day.

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Remko Scha-Machine Guitars

Taking the human element out of things typically leads to improvements, as you no longer have to spend time dealing with more idiots than necessary. If only life could be lived through vending machines and weird interconnected pneumatic tubes, then I would be a happy man. Not sure if that's how Scha feels, but there has to be some misanthropic sensibilities at play. The idea is pretty simple but the execution seems pretty difficult. Scha basically constructed a bunch of robots that would then play his guitar compositions. So if your a robot lover like myself (and where are those German sexbots I heard rumors about) this is something worth a listen. On a weird side note, I once had a dream about hanging out with this guy. Even though I have never seen him and his name was never mentioned, I somehow knew it was him. Ugh...even my dreams are starting to get dull.

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Strahler

Not going to lie this time. I don't know anything about this band. They're from France (I think) and put this out in the (early?) 80s. Sometimes they sing in English. Sometimes they sing in German. Sometimes their arms bend back. Who knows?

On a separate note: It's come to my attention that not only have some of my posts been pulled, but several of my mediafire uploads have been deleted. I'm probably npt going to fuck around with reposting things unless I get a pretty strong demand for something. Just to let you know, love.

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The Rutles

This album came up in a recent discussion with some friends so I figure I might as well post it. As I've ranted on before, I really could care less about the Beatles' over rated asses. For that reason, this album is such a treat. In a proto-Spinal Tap mockumentary, these former members of Monty Python, Bonzo Dog Band, the Beach Boys, etc constructed some classic songs that out Beatle the Beatles. I would rather play this over any Beatles record at any time. And the movie's hilarious to boot.

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Rashied Ali & Leroy Jenkins-Swift are the Winds of Life

Has anyone else found this summer to be intolerably dull? Aside from the disgusting heat, there has been almost nothing of note. The highlights for me have been playing trivia at a local tavern and making my cat's legs swing like a pendulum. That's how pointless my life is. But in these times of crushing boredom it's nice to have a little violin free jass action to pass the time with. I picked this one up some years ago off a friend and have always found the novelty of the drum/violin duo an interesting context to explore the limits of jazz structure. Being that I love the violin, this has always been a fun listen for me. Add to that Coltrane's former drummer and you've got yourself a pretty great disc.

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Portsmouth Sinfonia-Plays the Popular Classics

This one goes out to the Eno lovers out there. Of that guy's rather deep catalog, this is one that often goes unnoticed. Gavin Bryars fans may also participate in appreciating this album, as I believe he was one of the primary architects of this non-musician/musicians plays unfamiliar instruments orchestra. They really do play the popular classics, as the title explains, but it almost makes you question if a few mongoloids weren't dicking around in a room some where and attached some names of worth to the product. It sounds pretty half assed, but that's what makes this so much fun. And who wants to hear some stuffy interpretation of shit you've heard ten thousand times before. Fuck that academic sterility.

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Megadeth-Killing is my Business...And Business is Good!

Anyone else notice that once Megadeth stopped using ellipsis in their titles they started to suck? I don't believe this one requires any write up.

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The Deviants-Ptooff!

Something strange is afoot. Typically, on my short jaunt downtown I would get called a faggot by passing cars. However, something has changed. The last two consecutive days, rather than the typical epithet, I have carfulls of idiots who just laugh at me. Two days ago, this happened three times in the fifteen minutes this walk takes. Yesterday, only twice. I don't know what all this means, and I'm not sure if this is an improvement or not, but it is curious. And speaking of curiosities, this curio of bygone times still has the allure of an ancient artifact that continues to be relevant. In many ways, this album is like a rosetta stone, capable of transcribing British 60s counterculture for modern times. It might, in fact, be the most important Limey psych record of all time. This ain't some bullshit about riding purple elephants over Saturn's rings or anything. It's much more slimey and dark. It has a dirty hippy stink, but mixed with blood and spunk. Punk still owes these dudes.

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Electronic Hole

Some of you might already have the awesome psych rock album by Beat of the Earth. And probably less of you have the Dead-like country/psych/folk/rock album by Relatively Clean Rivers. But all of you should have both because they demonstrate just how great Phil Perlman (now mostly known for having a terrorist son) was at constructing odd psych records that prefigured sounds that would later become de rigueur. Droney, almost VU-like tones contained in bizarre, sitar-laced song suites. Just a swell record.

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Emil-S.St.Stammer

Oh, it must be the weather because all I can think about right now is icing up some nipples and burning down a pizza joint. Lately, people seem to be acting more idiotically than ever before. And it's been smelling like worms around here. So, as you might expect, I am not in a good mood right now. But here's a pretty unheralded cassette only release that does give me some summer cheer. A bit fey, but not some cry baby wimp fest. Nice pop tunes for summer days when you wish there was a bomb big enough to wipe out all the people who need to just disappear. Unfortunately, there isn't a bomb capable of killing off that many dummies. I think I might start researching black matter or something.

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Rudimentary Peni-Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric

They Live is on tv, and everyone knows how great that is. So rather than write more bullshit, I think I'll watch some Rowdy Roddy Piper kick some alien ass. And this one doesn't require much of a write up. Continuing my series of bringing you the complete Rudi P works, comes this e.p. Now, I might, might, claim this as my favorite work of theirs, but that's almost near impossible to do, so don't ask me to do such things. This is the one that really divides people. There's a repeated loop that runs through every track. I think it works and really gives this album a psycho-edge (I think Blinko was in the nut house when he wrote most of this). Some will disagree with me and find it really annoying. But you can't please everyone. "You, you're okay. This one: real fuckin' ugly." See, even Roddy knew, you formaldehyde face.

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Abgas

I can't really figure out what's going on on the cover of this album, but I can tell I don't like what ever it is. Okay, I see that a few people class this as punk, and I guess it kinda is, but this would be punk with some shouted German lyrics, a flatulent, out of tune guitar (or sometimes just a bass though), and a tambourine/paper drums. Really, some songs are that simple and stripped down. This is punk like you might consider The Fall to be punk. It's super primitive and homemade sounding. But really, really fun. It's like one of those lo-fi, loner/weirdo records that all you kids love. My German is shit, but from what i can piece together this whole thing seems pretty ridiculous.

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Lou Harrison-Double Concerto for Violin and Cello

This weekend, some of my buddies and I were discussing our favorite instruments. All the usual suspects appeared--kazoo, piece of paper and comb, clogs, etc. This whole talk go me thinking of this album, as the cello is probably my favorite instrument of all time. I love violins too. And gamelan? That might just be my 3 favorites (sitar is sneaking around there too). Harrison was a student of both Cowell & Schoenberg but doesn't really sound like either. There's much global fusioning going on here but it doesn't sound touristic or forced. Just a really pretty record. And look at those beards.

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Hubble Bubble

I'm sure the band name and album cover might lead some to expect a saccharine sweet bubble gum dross. For sure, there's some strong, pure pop elements to be found, but there's much more of a buzzy punk feel than something slick and sanitized for the 80s. Plastic Bertrand later gained some success with "Ça Plan Pour Moi" (which you most likely know from its over appearances in commercials over the last few years), but I'll take this instead. Be forewarned, a track or two does incorporate some whistling, but it's not nearly as annoying as it almost always is. Perfect for these days where the temp is pushing 100.

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Burning Star Core-Let's Play Like Wildcats Do

C. Spencer Yeh has been representing the Cincinnati experimental music scene for some time. And really, I can't think of another person doing much from that area. But good news for Southern Buckeyes that they can claim this guy. He's got a million releases and they have a pretty broad music pallette, but this is the one that I currently dig. It might even be his most accessible work (and that doesn't mean it's his worst, mind you). There's still plenty of drone, but Yeh definitely was into some Kraut grooves when recording some of this, as there's some almost funky moments (in a Can sorta way). Droney, but never boring. And that can be a tricky thing to pull off. So do.

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