UPDATED 9/1/2011
September. OK. Here's what's happened since we last spoke:
Starfuckers "Metallic Diseases" LP + download reissue with Tlön Uqbar
Future Shuttle "Water's Edge" 12" with Intercoastal Artists
What's coming up?
Ilya Monosov "Sailor Man" LP - I never knew that Ilya had a creepy Peter Wyngarde-like side to him. And I'm referring to Wyngarde's weird solo LP "When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head" not anything that happened in a bathroom with a trucker...
Swiftumz "Don't Trip" LP - I think Chris likes Michael Jackson too much for me to call him the King of Pop. But he is. A really stunning summer album that will only feel like a summer record in San Francisco because winter is still coming up there.
High Wolf "Atlas Nation" LP - electronic ragas for winter incense.
Upcoming, like, upcoming after later 2012 style?
Aufgehoben LP
White Manna LP
Pink Priest 12" with Intercoastal Artists
PLAYLIST 9/1/2011
Village of Spaces "Alchemy and Trust" LP [Turned Word]—I bought this record because someone told me that it sounded like a bunch of things that I liked but it wound up sounding like completely different things that I liked. This could be the rural follow up to the New Tweedy Brothers album or something. Seriously...
PLAYLIST 10/3/2010
Thomas Dinger "Für Mich" LP [Telefunken]—My NEU! revisits now include La Düsseldorf albums, this and if I'm not careful I might start listening to Klaus' "Neondian."
Sun City Girls "Funeral Machete" LP [Abduction]—It seems like the cards are turned over here and you get big kisses to the Residents, Morricone and Don Cherry. It's growing on me.
Purling Hiss "Hissteria" LP [Ritchie Records]—The Vice piece on Birds of Maya cracked me up about how they play music and sometimes it's in front of other people. Michael is obviously the most social member or the one with the fewest kids. I heard he has another one coming out in a week or so.
Wolfgang Voigt "Freiland Geduld Remix" 12" [Profan]
Dadawah "Peace and Love" [Wild Flower]—Somebody said this was like an OM album and they're not wrong. One of 2010's best reissues.
Circle Pit "Bruised Constellations" LP [Siltbreeze]—I wasn't aware of that band Screaming Trees so much so there were all these things that I was able to enjoy because of it. If someone tells you about the early 90s just ignore them because they're eventually going to chew your ear off talking about the Jesus Lizard or Pavement or something.
Autre ne Veut s/t LP [Olde English Spelling Bee]—When I was in Junior High there was a always a girl and a guy that were really super into Prince but that doesn't even tell you how much into Price they were because they were more into Prince then you would think possible. These guys are really into something like this but I don't want to know what it is because I want to enjoy listening to the LP.
PLAYLIST 3/16/2010
Muruga Booker and James Gurley "It's Big Huge" LP [Qbico]—I pre-ordered this not knowing it would be in an edition of 99 copies and that's kind of a shame because you'd never guess this was a guy who was in a band with Janis Joplin. Even then he was the most ferocious of the ball room players and you get a glimpse of that hear. Well I guess someone does. The cover for this does not give you any indication of how heavy these jams are. I want to say something about "Love Cry Want" or "The Daily Dance" but this will have to simmer in my collection for a few years and then we can open the time capsule.
PLAYLIST 2/18/2010
Moon Duo "Escape" LP [Woodsist]—When I read about hip hop dudes talking about "headz" this is what I think they'd listen to if they weren't under the impression that rock was dead.
Popul Vuh "Das Hohelied Salomos" LP [United Artists]—I was on the phone talking to an old friend of mine who helped me steer through lots of the good bands with bad records and he told me this reminded him of the Rolling Stones. I don't have any idea what he was talking about but if you're a band and sound like this but have a drummer please get in touch because the world needs you.
Ween "The Mollusk" [Plain Recordings]—I never heard this in 1997 when it came out because I was too busy trying to figure out if the Wicked Lady was a real band. While some of this is like bad major label Butthole Surfers a la "Independent Worm Saloon" there are some more than decent psychedelic pop songs on here that I really like for some reason. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Ween is the secret influence on what is being called "hypnagogic pop" because we all know no one has heard the Department Store Santas.
PLAYLIST 2/14/2010
Broadcast & the Focus Group "...Investigate Witchcults of the Radio Age" LP [Warp]—This might be the best record from last year. I'm playing this on a sunny afternoon and I'm not thinking it's a pop record but a well received and well funded library record by The Glands of External Secretion.You don't want it to stop good.
Welton Irie "Ghettoman Corner" [Pantomine]—I need to stop acting like I'm too busy to listen to reggae.
PLAYLIST 2/10/2010
Acid Eater "Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D." LP [Timebomb]—I guess I do miss High Rise.
Ramsey Lewis "Mother Nature's Son" LP [Cadet]—Ramsey Lewis's album of "White Album" covers slays thanks to the god-like genius of Charles Stepney and his killer electronic effects and moog moves.
Mekons "The Quality of Life is Not Strnen" LP [Virgin]—Why isn't this in print? A CD version of this plus the "Teeth" double 7" is on Amazon for like $300.
PLAYLIST 2/4/2010
Acid Eater "Black Fuzz on Wheels" CD [Time Bomb]—This has a fantastic cover of Gert Wilden's "Follow Me" from the "Schulmädchen Report." The rest is fine—it's super noisy and fuzzed out so you can't really listen to it softly. The mastering guy Suda Ippei should be doing remasters of stuff that lacks balls. This should be on In The Red.
Philippe Besombes "Libra" CD [MIO]
Billy Green "Stone OST—25th Anniversary 1974-1999" CD [Ascension]
PLAYLIST 2/2/2010
Von Bingen s/t LP [Amen Absen]—New synthesizer cult from Canada that's not afraid to rock it out and actually does. I got spaced rock and schaffel out of this and the soundtrack to an unmade Octavia Butler book about tentacled aliens. Printed inner sleeve looks a lot like homework but the jams are not.
PLAYLIST 2/1/2010
Kannibal Komix s/t LP [Colossal]
Edan "Echo Party" LP [Five Day Weekend]—I've got to move. I asked for this in stores all over town and they had no idea what I was talking about.
Sonny & The Sunsets "Tomorrow is Alright" LP [Soft Abuse]
V/A "Electric Cambodia: 14 Rare Gems from Cambodia's Past" LP [Minty]—this was "curated" by a band who put their name on the cover.
Jah Wobble "The Legend Lives On...Jah Wobble in 'Betrayal'" LP [Virgin]—You've always got to pick a record that makes people think you're an idiot.
Motörhead "Ace of Spades" LP [Bronze]—I've had this many times over the years but I cannot tell you how nice it is to have it again minus the egregious gatefold and annoyingly thick protective sheath the new reissues on Earmark/Get Back are all plagued with.
PLAYLIST 1/14/2010
Circuit Rider s/t LP [?]—The singer here sounds just like Dave Cloud. I won't add to the hyperbole on this because it's pretty good where it's at.
Love Joys "Lovers Rock" LP [Wackie's]—Six songs, not a moment wasted.
Charlie Nothing "Psychedelic Saxophone" LP [DeStijl]
Faust "IV" LP [Virgin]—I really can't believe that Capitol Records reissued this on vinyl. I'm hoping someone over at Universal decides that LP reissues of "Känguru" and "Malesch" would be a good idea.
PLAYLIST 11/21/2009
Shit and Shine "229 2299 Girls Against Shit" 2LP [Riot Season]—At times I've needed to employ a kid in case I get into something and need to be told it sounds like June of 44 and yet I make fun of people who listen to Puddle of Mud instead of Black Sabbath. If somebody's going to tell me that Shit and Shine are really Strangulated Beatoffs or Butthole Surfers I guess I couldn't fault them—I mean Paul Morley would get it—but the big problem with the whole new hardrockmetaldoom thing is that—and excuse me for sounding like Vince Neil here but what happened to fucking fun?
Kim Fowley "One Man's Garbage" LP [Norton]
"Another Man's Gold" LP [Norton]—Kim Fowley is like that guy who would make up a story about a guy who cried tears of espresso but instead of making everyone believe it he turned it into a joke and made it a part of life via a record. These two volumes contain this kind of thing from the years 1959 to 1969 and are also filled with a lot of great words from the man. Tell him you read the liner notes while sitting on the toilet with the door open and the jams blaring. I bet he's love it.
Spacemen 3 / Wooden Shjips 7" [Great Pop Supplement]—"I Believe It" is a great slithering slowed down Shjips song that sounds like it was recorded at 3 am with Hawkwind roadies holding the band up.
PLAYLIST 8/14/2009
I really should be doing other things but...
Snakefinger "Chewing Hides the Sound" LP [Ralph Records]—The Morricone cover "Magic and Ecstasy" is worth it alone but then there's the cover of "The Model." Etc.
Azoto "Disco Fizz" LP [Azoto]—Italo-disco thing with woman coming out of toothpaste tube cover art.
In Flagranti "Firmly Planted Memories" 12" [Codek]
Amanda Blank "I Love You" 2LP [Downtown Music]—Finally.
PLAYLIST 7/23/2009
Tako s/t LP [Pinakotheca]—If someone can tell me what kind of record this is then you should win a prize. There's a little bit of everything in these grooves—creepy jack-off grunts, bass clarinets and enka, disco-y punk rock, announcers in various foreign languages, backwards stuff and this is ex-Gaseneta which is believable with how the record ends. You could say collage wise this is 1983's Red Krayola or a more varied version of Billy Bond's "Volumen 3". Either way it's early enough and lacking that annoying spaz factor that makes so much genre hopping things suck like a suckity suck.
PLAYLIST 7/15/2009
YaHoWha 13 "Magnificence in the Memory" LP [Drag City]—Nice comp of stuff and it looks like it's on Higher Key too—so respectful. The fractal zone escaped!
Jarvis Cocker "Further Complications" LP [Rough Trade]—When I heard this was coming out I saw a tiny jpeg of the cover and thought there was a lawnmower on the cover! It's not—it's Jarvis Cocker contorted in a way that would make Sly Stone of the cover of "Fresh" look relaxed. I don't know what normal Pulp fans think of this but I think it's like the "Wild Honey" return to stripped down-ness that has needed to happen for the past few years. Because it was recorded by Albini I think a lot of people wanted to believe this was going to sound like a Pixies record or something. Thank god it doesn't.
Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas "II" 4LP+CD [Eskimo]—This is a pleasant listen and what not but am I out of line for thinking some of it sounds a lot like "Axel F"? Makes sense with Faltermeyer being a Moroder protegee. Life is ugly in a great way could we just run these tapes through the sewer so you can smell the foam in Ibizia?
Sir Richard Bishop "The Freak of Araby" LP [Drag City]—These originals and covers of classic Egyptian and Lebanese pop remind me of Mickey Baker's similar work on standards by Cole Porter et al on his classic "Plays Wild Guitar." That's a major compliment.
Dinosaur Jr "Fresh 2LP [Jagjauar]—I have to say I am surprised at how good this is in light of the myth of the "return to form." I half expect Sonic Youth to say that "The Eternal" is "not as good as "Fresh" like they did about "Daydream Nation" and "Bug." Oh yeah—this was $17.98 and "The Eternal" is twice that. Whatever, the Butthole Surfers are on tour and 1985 is back on!
Lula Côrtes "Rosa de Sangue" LP [Time Lag]—Looks like a "troppo" drop out record half way between Jerry Garcia and reggae. Sounds like a hard rock os Mutantes in parts with envelope filtered Garcia lines.
Shin Otowa "Wasregatami" CD [Super Fuji]—Had I never heard stuff like Crosby, Still & Nash I would not know that this is a Japanese version albeit with a Rallizes member. Not the best record of the week and not even close to the worst but there's no way to explain the middle. In English at least....
Brainbombs "Fucking Mess" LP [Lystring]—I can't double click fast enough to get a Mayyors LP so this is my salvation. Did these guys break up or something? "Stalker" is awesome—it's like a harder edged Leonard Cohen wrote it.
Dizastar "Blues Reason to Live" 7" [Fractal]—Really great rock 7" by a band that was called Acid Mothers Temple something or other BUT wasn't the one with that prolific guy. I know—confusing and after hearing this I almost want to check out their other stuff but how would I explain it to my friends?
Träd Gräs och Stenar "Homeless Cats" 2LP [Subliminal Sounds]—I'm kind of surprised that no one has taken it upon themselves to write about this or talk it up a little which is understandable due to "Ain Schvajn Draj" being so out of character with the rest of their records...I love this rhythm section but they sound kind of tight now but at least the plod is back. I really liked most of this a lot in spite of the somewhat factally art. I'll rewrite this and prove something to you.
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Tripical Midbooster" 4CD [Univive]—Two new jams are uncovered in a massive set with a sax player from the winter of 1981. This prefigures Kousokuya and Urabe's "Red Spot" by a lot and reaches out that tiny little deformed "Plastic Surger Disasters" hand to side two of "My Way." Seriously this is awesome and you should try and download it somewhere because 9000 yen for 4 CDs is crazy.
PLAYLIST 5/9/2009
39 Clocks "Zoned" CD [De Stijl]—39 Clocks were a cool German psych/punk group who have records that were kind of hard to get back in the pre-internet day but letters did go back and forth and killer trades were made for stuff you couldn't help but trip over here. The sequencing of this is great—because it end with my favorite song "DNS" with lyrics about Nixon drinking Cuba libres. I love it when someone actually compiles the best of something and this really does that.
High Rise "Psychedelic Speed Freaks" DVD [PSF]—I hate watching videos of bands. I just do. Maybe because I hate the sweaty bootleg video guy who goes to the swaps in SF. Either way I did pick this up because it's as close as a time machine as you're going to get and it has the only High Rise drummer that matters Yuro Ujie. Kinda short at 25 minutes...
Jade Warrior s/t LP [Vertigo]—What a guitar tone! Almost as Ginn-like as T2 for me.
The Inner Space "Agilok & Blubbo" LP [WahWah]—Probably the best soundtrack reissue since the "Saragossa Manuscript" by Penderecki. The jazzy soundtrack parts are great. Not so into the psych band jibber jabber for some reason. It's cool to see this all in one place after waiting for dribs and drabs of it to arrive via those killer krautsploitation comps from the 1990s.
Kryptic Minds "One of Us" 12" [Swamp81]—I don't know what this kind of music is called but I like it.
The George-Edwards Group "38:38" LP [Galactic Zoo/Drag City]—Imagine a better Stone Harbour that rocks sort of like the Italian Electric Frankenstein on Cramps. "Hypertain" rules like the first track from Vox Dei's "La Biblia." It seems to get more experiemental toward the end but not in a boring way with "Some Fun" being a prime Faust-like example. Who knew I needed this? Thanks for the record and keeping me out of the thrift store!
PLAYLIST 4/9/2009
Psychic TV "Force the Hand of Chance" LP [Some Bizarre]—This record is awesome.
v/a "Dama Dam Mast Qalandar" 2LP [Finders Keepers]—This is the excellent "Sound of Wonder" comp of Pakistani film music. What's the difference between Lollywood and Bollywood? My answer would be "Lee Hazlewoodism."
Sparks "Big Beat" LP [Columbia] LP
PLAYLIST 4/6/2009
Jean-Pierre Massiera "Midnight Massiera" LP [Finders Keepers]—This new comp encapsulates everything that is great about the Massiera oeuvre. You've got the yeye, the disco, the exploitation and weird prog/psych stuff. You could say he was like Joe Meek but in terms of freakitude he is more like Kim Fowley with a love for science fiction erotica.
Faust "C'est Com...Com...Compliqué" LP [Bureau B]—Faust in French. A little subdued. I kind of want to check out the NWW collaboration but the art on that makes this look like it's on K.
Super Vacations s/t [SHDWPLY]—Besides "Psychic Powerless Another Man's Sac" and the Four Levels of Existence this is about as close as you're going to get to sounding like a band on International Artists—and these guys aren't even from Texas. And it's more of a surfy Red Crayola than 13th Floor Elevators just to quell the hypes.
RFTO Bandwagon "Dums Will Survive" LP [Dull Knife]—There's a comfiness here that I can't describe. Is it the killer title or the dude on the front who looks like my biology teacher. The falling apart at the seams folk / pop sounding first side should be heard before you get to the opus "Dumbs Will Survive" which dominates side two. Some have said it's a Sunday morning coffee with the VU record. OK—but it's also a separating your receipts at 2:46 am while determining whether or not you need to snap another Aderol in half or take the whole thing. I just want to clarify that.
Music Go Music [Secretly Canadian]—I was telling someone about Clout—the all girl South African Abba and that person told me about these guys. If these people are bringing back this and coke I guess the beaver shots of my youth aren't far behind. "Reach Out" in particular has this awesome Scorpions like guitar breakdown before the Eurodisco returns.
V/A "One Nation Under a Grave—mixed by Andy Votel" CD [Fat City Recordings]—I'm just weirded out by all these people who are into the ridiculoso rare hard rock stuff. Back before anyone thought to say how heavy it all was they were comedy records. Now that every Eastern European rock record with hairy guys and big Magnum mustaches might be good it's nice to have an editor because it's not all Yu Grupa. It's nice that someone is cutting this up in a non lame plunderphonics way for lots of people to enjoy.
Boredoms "Boa Drum 77" 2CD + DVD Book [Commons]—I love that part in Stripes where Harold Ramis is like "Black guys help the white guys." Seriously this must have been something to see. What's up with the guy wearing that lime green suit?
Zeitkratzer & Keiji Haino "Electronics" CD [Zeitkratzer Records]—Whoa! Imagine buying a CD with Keiji Haino on it and there not being a picture of him anywhere on it. I know! Oddly this looks like a Burzum album but if it were grant rocked by Credite Suisse or something. The chains and industrialness of it remind me of Haino's solo album "Nijiumu" which soulds like slammed doors and chains and people from Chicago mumbling something about Dickie Peterson's voice. Extraneous? Probably.
Ursula Bogner "Recordings 1969-1988" LP Faitiche]—Sure the story about Dr. Bogner probably isn't true—the visit to Organon, meeting her son on a flight to Vilnius et al—but this is an entertaining listen and if that's what had to be done to get people to listen to this then let's commend the label for excellent marketing. Sounds great on 45 too.
PLAYLIST 3/20/2009
Up-Tight "The Beginning of the End" LP [8MM]—A real scorcher. I never cottoned to these guys except maybe their track from "The Night Gallery" comp but this is absolutely fantastic. The opening track "Our own portrait" is a hypnotic fuzz/maracas jam that breaks down a few times but never really lets up. The following ballad sounds like something from the underrated Overhang Party 4 album. lt also sounds like something lonely teenagers could hold their cell phones in the air for. It is called "A Song for your pain".... Side two opens up with "The Destruction" which is so heavy and amazing it's like watching those squeegee Gerhard Richter paintings animated with this Axis-era Takayanagi as a soundtrack. The record ends with a bass line that sounds like it's from a scene from an old Star Trek episode where Spock has something on his mind. This is then shaped into a pleasant piece of Japanese space reggae. Cool Gator Rogowski inspired artwork too. I can't tell if my copy's ringwear is intentional or not—like tweaker jeans!
Neil Michael Haggerty s/t LP [Drag City]—Buy this on vinyl and play side two first. It's really weird—it seems like the whole side is about seven minutes long. Then flip it and tell me that side doesn't seem like it's thirty minutes long. "Cosmic Slop" is the same way.
PLAYLIST 3/3/2009
Ata Ebtekar & the Iranian Orchestra for New Music performing Works of Alireza Mashayekhi "Ornamental" 2LP [Isounderscore]—More amazing contemporary Persian electronic music from the duo featured on last year's "Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday and Today 1966-2006."
Boredoms "Superroots 10" CD [Commons]—I like this. There's more dynamics here than last time out as the pitch bend button somehow got re-labelled "lead." I am hoping that the eventual Thrill Jockey domestic version comes as a 2LP. That will show them.
Overhang Party s/t LP [Mutant Music]—Nice reissue of Overhang Party's debut LP from 1993 that features "One's Double" aka "Doppelgänger", one of the must-hear tracks from the whole Tokyo psych / PSF scene.
PLAYLIST 2/5/2009
V/A "Never Ever Land: 83 Texan Nuggets from International Artists Records 1965-1970" 3CD [Charly]—Sort of like "Epitaph for a Legend" but with all the great 7" tracks I've never heard before. Jon Savage's interview with Leland Rogers is back as is Sonny Hall's "Poor Planet Earth." Best micro-label ever!
Raccoo-oo-oon 2LP [Not Not Fun]
Girlschool "Hit and Run" LP [Stiff]
Tropa Macaca "Fiteiras Suadas" LP [Qbico]—I love this band. Eighties style video game sounds slowed down enough to sound like bricks scraping against other bricks. People are saying this this is the weirdest record on Qbico. Do they mean the color of the vinyl? Mine's this washed out blue that I've only seen on Volvos from the Seventies.
Little Joy s/t LP [Rough Trade]—If I were a rock star or some weird Harold Robbins-type hedonist I would blow it going "tropo" as soon as I could. Did anyone see that thing in the food section last week—and this was everywhere—about those guys who braided two pounds of bacon around one and a half pounds of Italian sausage then then grilled it? Imagine that in the hands of a vegetarian. I wanted some slummed down rock with a Brazilian flavor minus the new metal. Instead I got the soundtrack to white people reading about how to make food.
PLAYLIST 2/3/2009
Sanhedrin "Sun Head Ring" CD [Breathing Bass]—The packaging on this looks like you turned the magnification on your dock in the preferences. Really but instead of Safari, Garage Band and Mail it's frogs, typewriters, an SG and the door knocker from that Bob James LP that used to be in the dollar bin and is now on the wall. I thought Sanhedrin's debut on PSF was kind of a nice return to rock by Haino after some stuff that was strictly for completeists. I've never cottoned to the Ruins—the drummer plays way too much but if Haino's going to be the boss then maybe he can school him on some of that "ma" shit. You know, the space between things? According to the packaging this was improvised over two nights in 2007 and much of it has that sound—you know Music Transonic-like rock but more frantic. There's some totally weird off the wall action here even though Yoshida never stops playing including a weird scat jam of Haino talking cosmic baby talk with Yoshida's super annoyingly loud roto-toms that's something to file next to Haino's version of "Suzy Q." If I could have my own rotisserie rock league I would have traded Yoshida for Al Foster. I predicted a union between ZZ Top and Rick Rubin a few months ago and that happened. God, are you listening? The bass player can stay.
Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffalo "Uganda" CD [Tiliqua]—Ever since hearing Love Live Life + 1 I have been a dedicated follower of all things Mizutani Kimio. I remember being incredulous when someone told me that his solo LP was merely OK. In retrospect he was being nice—that record totally fucking sucks. "Song for Janis"? What is up with that? I can't wait until the next era of music technology arrives so I can mix my own instrumental version of "Cheap Thrills" sans ella and with more James Gurley...speaking of remastering, remixing etc. this came out on Shadoks and was pretty disappointing. Turns out it was a quad demo type disc to test your hi-fis out on. Thankfully this version has been remastered for stereo that reveals yet another great Japanese psychsploitation album.
PLAYLIST 10/26/2008
Gore "Mean Man's Dream" 2LP [Southern Lord]
Gore "Hart Gore" 2LP [Southern Lord]—Some people bore me to shit asking me if I like bands. I always try and stick with my stock standard but true answer—"I like the Rolling Stones and the Doors and Island-era Sparks!" because I know they just want to tell me about bands they like. Is there really anything to say about the Replacements? Seriously...After hearing this the other day I felt bad that I haven't been sticking up for Black Flag lately. Where would I be without those guys? I still remember listening to "Slip it In" on the family stereo and for some reason my dad came home during the home stretch of the title track and started making himself a cocktail and when the oh-so accurate fuck groans were over my dad looked at me and said "Finally!" and laughed. Oh my god! Could I have been a doctor or something? One of the most forward psychic sides of music ever is side two of "My War." Would there have been a Melvins without it? Who knows but those jams also have secret connections to the sharpest side of the obsidian blade of Japanese psychedelia. So what about Gore? Gore is like Black Flag practice jams that are jazzy and super sexy—the 2CD version of this is seriously the perfect gift for that stripper who "gets it." Buy some lube too! This shit rocks!
PLAYLIST 9/4/2008
Doronco Gumo "Old Punks" [Dilettante Music] CD—Doronco was the bass player on what is probably one of Les Rallizes Dénudés greatest sides—"OZ Days Live" and he's also played bass with Suishou no Fune. Here he's joined by members of Maher Halal Hash Baz and a Frenchman and an additional female vocalist. There's a decadent 1970s punk aspect to this but there's also the spectre of the Org style pop but these Miura Maki-like shred-dog Shizuka solos rip through it too even while it's all sing-song. "Old Punks" nails down something that I didn't know needed to be nailed down for me.
PLAYLIST 9/1/2008
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Volcanic Performance" [Univive] 4CD—While I'm still behind this label as the supreme distributors of the more excellent Rallizes stuff there are some problems here. On the mostly excellent July 25 show from 1976 a few tracks here suffer through some of the most awful cassette skritch I've ever heard. It makes you wonder if the people saying stuff like "highest possible recommendation" actually listen to these things all the way through.
Miyazawa Shouichi "Jinchukan" CD [Inundow]—I saw this and it referenced Mikami Kan and Onna so I snapped up a copy and what a record! Imagine elements of "Another Man's Sac" combined with the somber rhythm of something like "Flowers of Romance" all yelled over in a ghostly howl.
Tisziji Muñoz "Love Always—Spirit of the Ancient Masters" [Shakajin Record] CD—A great way to find out if a record is good is to find someone who has the opposite taste in music than you and if they really hate something then it's probably worth checking out. And nowhere is this truer than jazz and progressive rock. Sadly—for the sake of this argument—I was unable to find anyone who knew anything about Muñoz except for the empty blurbage I read by Muñoz' most well-known supporter Paul Shaffer. This Japanese release, compiled by Jim O'Rourke and Henry Kaiser has been the perfect introduction for me. A lot of this reminds me of Sonny Sharrock's "Ask the Ages" which is an OK reference point. Would I be missing too many bottles to the head if I said "Highlife"?
PLAYLIST 4/20/2008
J.A. Seazer "Tenjo-Saijiki Music Work Collection" 5CD [Disk Union]—The first two CDs of this collection contain the massively expanded full version of Seazer's heavy theater prog classic "Kokkyo Junreika" that pretty much makes this a must-have. And get this—the rest of this box is also of high quality.
Onna "Katawa" CD [PSF]—Miyanishi Keizou is a manga artist who could have done the cover to the Ramighi album. He was also a huge Rallizes fan. If anyone out there has a copy of his comic "Dear Les Rallizes Denudes" from the March 1981 issue of Heaven please let me know. Onna recorded two of the most amazing songs ever spread over two sides of a 7" on the Cupid and Psyche label. Some time after that Kurihara Michio joined the group and there's a 2CD of that stuff on the Bloody Butterfly label that I used to see. While the 7" flat out glows new wave psychedelic vibes, the 2CD always seemed a little rough to me. Listening to it again now after hearing "Katawa" a few times, I like it but if you can't do Mikami Kan and "Live in the First Year of Heisei"-type stuff then you should probably add the 7" to your want list and pray it comes out again.
PLAYLIST 4/9/2008
Crom "Hot Sumerian Nights" CD [Underdogma]—I had a friend who tried to convince me that Weird Al Yankovic was like Andy Warhol. While I saw where she was coming from I didn't totally agree. That said, Crom has succeeded making another tribute to metal, "Conan the Barbarian" and popular culture circa 1986 and it is edited together in such a way that reminds me of Faust or Xhol Caravan's "Mother Fuckers GMBH" meeting Buckner & Garcia and that riff from "TV Dinners."
Necropolis "Working Man"/"Cocksuckerbastardmotherfucker" 7" [Columbus Discount]—The flip is the gem here. To me it sounds like Fushitsusha's classic "Koko" done up with some Pere Ubu frosting.
v/a ""Obsession" 2LP [Bully Records]—Nice comp of obscure South American psych unknowns, two great hard rock tracks from India's Atomic Forest plus an Erkin Koray track. There's a bunch of stuff I've heard of but never heard here like Peru's Jean Paul "El Troglodita" and La Barra De Chocolate. Thanks!
PLAYLIST 2/21/2008
Dirtbombs "We Have You Surrounded" LP [Ii the Red]
v/a "Local Anesthetic" CD [Smooch]—Sometimes great [Frantix, Bum Kon] comp of Denver Colorado scene from the 1980s. Denver was the home of the grunge diaspora.
Pearl Sisters "Soulful Pearl Sister Hit Album" CD [Shin Joong Hyun MVD]
v/a "Aliens Psychos & Wild Things Volume Fore" CD [Arcania International]—Brent Hosier has always been a astute compiler of 1960s weirdness because he wasn't a garage Nazi, liked fuzz solos and a little bit of exploitation never put him off—and before this all he focused on was the state of Virginia. I would liken his detective skills to a robot wringing out a towel—there's probably nothing left. Now, with the help of others, Hosier's franchise has gone nationwide and hasn't suffered one bit.
AC/DC "Ballbreaker" CD [Epic]
Acnode One 2LP [Poo-Bah Records]—It's weird to live in Portland these days because there are all of these bands and their biggest problem is that they are filled with people who crave acceptance. In 1977 Smegma members Jusuk Reet Meet and Mike Lastra made the cassette reissued here on vinyl and it's so great to know that they really didn't give a shit what people thought. Absolutely beautiful release all the way around!
Horace Andy "In the Light" LP [Blood and Fire]—Thanks to Jeff for pointing out thed psych guitar by Andy Bashford on this.
Bee Gees "Rare, Precious & Beautiful" LP [Atco]
The Everly Brothers "Roots" LP [Warner Brothers]—I've loved the idea of cosmic country ever since I saw the back cover of "Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde." Up there with the First National Band.
Bang LP [Capitol]
Keith Hudson "Brand" LP [Pressure Sounds]
The Better Beatles "Mercy Beat" LP [Hook or Crook]
Tranko "Neko 77" / "Mujam" 7" [The Great Pop Supplement]—Nice trancy Japanese sitar psych jams. Where's the 12"?
Amanaz "Africa" LP [Shadoks]—Fucking Zambia! Who knew that another monster psychedelic record lurked in this land of hippos and copper mines. Right up there with Witch and the Tembo and deserving worldwide acclaim, this is the exotic psych scene I've been dreaming about.
PLAYLIST 1/20/2008
Lebenten Toten "Death Culture Deprivation" 8" [Overthrow Records]—More psychedelic genius from what has to be Portland's best and most underground group. GISM meets Hawkwind.
Sic Alps "Strawberry Guillotine" 7" [Woodsist]—Still one of the best groups around. Can't wait to hear that elusive 12"...
Snares "Sabbath Dubs" 10" [Kriss Records]—I was told this was a "pretty cool novelty record." It's actually an awesome novelty record. Perhaps a second volume is coming—I'd like to hear "Hole in the Sky" done up this way.
Only Ones "Darkness & Light: The Complete BBC Recordings" 2CD [Hux]—I cannot get enough of these guys. Name the band that turned the break from "Miles From Nowhere" into a career.
Ray Russell "Secret Asylum" CD [Reel Recordings]—If you like free jazz guitar LPs like "Monkey Pokie Boo" and "Independence: Tread on Sure Ground" then you should go out and get this right now. Russell's an amazing player who is more rock sounding than Sharrock and Takayanagi but in the context of this kind of record I always thought that was an asset. Check out Moikai's "Live at the ICA/Retrospective" 2CD as well.
Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren "Bomp! Saving the World One Record at a Time" book [AMMO]
Paul Drummond "Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, the Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound" book [Process]
Isis Aquarian with Electricity Aquarian "The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wha 13 and the
Source Family" book [Process]—It's been a rough couple of years trying to find decent reading material about rock'n'roll. These are great and leave no stone unturned. Suzy Shaw mentions the boxes of cookies and a great story about James Williamson, the Elevators book is beyond detailed and the Ya Ho Wha book reveals all including some stuff you'd think they'd have avoided as it seems the Koolaid tastes good. I guess these will suffice until somebody tazers Blastitude and Siltblog back into regular activity.
PLAYLIST 1/7/2008
3/3 s/t 2CD [P-Vine]—3/3 aka Sanban no san are the pre-Friction group who made a test pressing in the early 70s to see if they could get a label deal in Japan. Didn't happen so two of the guys went to NYC and lucked into the nascent no-wave scene and then trucked back to Japan to make some sort of OK major label punk records. This stuff is excellent and let's just say "thank you" to Shadoks for pushing this into the consciousness of the world and making this expanded legit reissue a reality. It's a weird mix of punk sounding hard rock along the lines of Hendrix, the Afflicted Man with some Velvet-y type moments as well.
Aaron Dilloway "Infinite Lucifer" one-sided LP [Hanson]—When dropping the needle on this I was hoping that it just wasn't Bobby's stuff looped and twiddled and it's not. Aaron's spectre is all over this making it far darker than I was expecting it to be. Too bad it's not a sunny day and I can't spill these sounds on those who walk my street.
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Are You Rallizesed?" 2CD [Ignuitas]
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Mizutani 2 with Association Love Songs 3CD [Univive]—Let's get a couple of things out of the way. "Are You Rallizesed?" is hands down one of the ugliest CDs I have ever purchased / owned. I don't know why but Photoshop in the wrong hands can just be so freaking brutal. When are people going to realize that computers are not psychedelic tools? At least with Grateful Dead tapes all you had to contend with was bad handwriting. And the music? Not that compelling a set if you ask me and there's too much compression. "Mizutani 2 with Association Love Songs" has been sold as a reissue of the Mizutani CD from 1992 and that's not the case. All but one of those tracks was from 1970 and largely acoustic and this selection of similar material from 1973-75 has more of an "On the Beach" style intensity and guitar tone. Disc 2 is a different source of the 2CDr boot "December's Black Children" from 1980. I like this condensed version better and if you are a fan you know they always needed editing. Disc 3 is allegedly demo recordings from 1976. The high points are an improvisation with a synth and some tracks have some new wavey horns that pep everything up in a non-annoying way. That said, I hereby pledge my loyalty to Univive releases from here on out.
PLAYLIST 12/8/2007
Alèmayèhu Eshèté "1972-1974 More Vintage!:Ethiopiques 22" CD [Buda]
Tarp "Yurt" 7" [Apostasy Recordings/Breaking World Records]—Great weird synth duo blur with an inspired psychedelic cover that reminds me of what Grux might do if he splurged for the 264 box of colored pencils.
V/A "B-Music Cross Country Record Raid Road Trip" [B-Music]—Had you told me that far out psychedelic rock would be made cool by a bunch of British DJs I'd have laughed you out of the boardroom but it's true. Thank god there are people who will bend down for you and breathe noxious fumes and suffer through things called "car boot sales" to find incredible records that they actually share with you! It's a far cry from the days when psychedelic fatsos might make you a poorly duped cassette with intentional dropouts on them so you couldn't get any bright ideas. Usually they were so stoned they taped the same side twice.
Voice of the Seven Woods LP [Twisted Nerve]—This dark blend of Clarke-Hutchinson Group, the Battered Ornamaent—I know that's s stretch but a good one in terms of "Mantlepiece"—Led Zeppelin "III" and "Stormcock" is about as fine a new release as you're going to hear these days. I hear they have a new 10" too. I need it.
V/A "Waking up Scheherazade" LP [Ali Baba and his 40...records]—I have seen a lot of people go overboard over the years. You know the type—the guy with every Haino CD who likes them all including that Fushitsusha CD on Avant. Then there's the Boredoms people who have every OOIOO, Omoide Hatoba and Hanadensha CD not to mention kooky comps with an Eye penned scribble. I'm not judging because these people are more often than not my friends but sometimes you need to hold off. That being said, I can't take any more Turkish psych. The enormous amount I've already heard seems to be enough. If you bring me another record I'll listen to it but I am not going to go out and buy things just because they're Turkish etc. I was happy to get this because it's from other parts of the Middle East that I want to know more about in terms of rock etc. Listen to side B first and hopefully this will get the ball rolling on some of that Persian stuff that was written about in one of those B-Music zines.
Kousokuya "Ray Night 2006.10.18" CD [Ray Night Music]—Excellent live Kousokuya CD featuring original members Mik and Takahashi doing extended versions of all four songs from the debut—and the CD bonus track—in extended form rounded out with "Yuma no Kage" and the unknown to me "Shiroikubi." Side two of "My War" begat the Melvins and whether you want to admit it or not the really out there Japanese stuff like this and Fushitsusha.
PLAYLIST 10/19/2007
Grateful Dead "Dick's Picks Volume 8" 3CD [Grateful Dead Records]—I love telling people I like the grateful Dead because a lot of them automatically assume that I am stupid immediately afterwards. It's great because then I get to feel like Matlock. Discs two and three of this set are really far out and the guitar playing gets really fried in an almost Sharrock-like level during "Morning Dew." Still the best Dick's Pick ever.
Psychedelic Horseshit "Magic Flowers Droned" LP [Siltbreeze]
Wizzard "Brew" CD [EMI]
Progressiv TM "Dreptul de a visa" CD [Global Recordings]—Double drummer Romanian hard rock with flute in the vein of Phoenix or something from South America like Vox Dei.
Harmonia "Deluxe" CD [Brain/SPV]—I preferred their debut for years but now this one has reclaimed first place.
Hassara "Backyard I-III" CD [Three Lobed]—Wonderful cosmic solo guitar hard rock atmospheric jams that remind me a lot of Lobdell but also hippie / hardrock guys like Lobby Loyde and Randy Holden.
PLAYLIST 9/29/2007
I recently went to a store and bought a bag of rubber bands and some refrigerator magnets. The soundtrack to my twilight years:
Les Rallizes Dénudés "DoubleHeads Live" 6CD [Univive]—Subtitled "Legendary Live Yaneura Shibuya, Tokyo 1980-1981" is a real CD repressing of "Double Heads" and "Black Rainbow." These recordings feature Yamaguchi Fujio [ex-Murahachibu] on second guitar and the slowed way the fuck down rhythmically awkward versions of the six songs they have seriously constitute one of the higher peaks of the Rallizes alps.
Tropa Macaca "Marfim" LP [Ruby Red]—Amazing keyboard/guitar duo from Portugal. Pounding boxy reverb-coated shapes bounce in ways that reminds me of being trapped in Berzerk [the video game] on a humid night—like Wolf Eyes' "Dead Hills" and something like the Wabi Sabi LP on a-musik. Don't let the 300 copy pressing prevent you from getting a copy.
Kousokuya "Echoes from Deep Underground" CD+DVD [Archive]—I still can't really get over the fact that people who get all nutty koo-koo for Japanese underground psychedelic music don't like Kousokuya. They are a far more extreme group than Fushitsusha but also more "rock" based and gin-fueled. Kaneko Jutok is someone I am really happy to say I have seen perform live and is one of the only guitar players that you can call atonal and not mean distorted. And check out the drummer on the DVD—a pure madman!
Glass Candy "Miss Broadway" 12" [Italians Do It Better]—You know the joke about the guy who always puts Funkadelic on at a party? Check this out—girls like it too! An amazing record.
Factums "Alien Native" LP [Siltbreeze]
xNo BBQx "Sunshine of Your Love" LP [Siltbreeze] —I have lots of records to listen to and I have lots of Netflix that don't get watched too. I love it when it's a foreign film and you can play a record and read subtitles. The Factums got me through a good part of "Andrei Rublev" and so did xNo BBQx. I actually listened to xNo BBQx on both 33 and 45 and not only did both work but they helped me make it through the picture.
Selda s/t LP [Finders Keepers]—I knew these guys were onto something back when Fat City released the "FindersKeepers" comp and now they take crate digging to a new not for sampling level. While I wasn't too impressed with the Selda CD on World Psychedelia this is as exceptional a listen as you're ever going to have. What if they discovered Selda back in 1986 instead of Ofra Haza? It's a plausible alternate reality.
Group Inerane :Music of Niger: Guitars from Agadez" LP [Subliminal Sounds]—More killer African guitar jams from Tuareg nomads who were given electric guitars by Qadhafi. In mono!
Panda Bear "Person Pitch" [Paw Tracks]—You know how Faust said "We Love the Beach Boys"? Imagine a record like that instead of one based on the first four bars of "Do it Again."
Madlib "Beat Conducta Vol. 4: India" LP+7" [Stones Throw]
Cut Chemist featuring Hymnal "What's the Altitude" 12" [A Stabel Sound]
DJ Vadim featuring Zion "Got to Rock" 12"[BBE]
PLAYLIST 8/29/2007
Cancel all friendships and slink into the arms of these beauties:
v/a "Psychedelic Phinland: Finnish Hippie & Underground Music 1967-1974" 2CD [Love Records]
v/a "Andergraun Vibrations! Spanish Hard Psych and Beyond, 1970-1978" CD [Hundergrum Records]—Mentioned this on vinyl a few months ago. This is sides one and two of volume one and side one of the second volume. I'll let you know if you're missing anything significant.
The Moving Sidewalks "The Pre-ZZ Houston Roots" CD [Lone Star Records]—A nice fill in the blank disk for those of us who can't get enough Billy Gibbons in the monitor. If ZZ Top did a new version of "99th Floor" they would be SO freaking huge right now. Think about it.
v/a "Thai Pop Spectacular" CD [Sublime Frequncies]—Yes! Music so great it makes you want to break into your local bar's juke box so you can add this so you could actually hang out there. Real party music for fun-lovers everywhere.
Gerard Manset "La Mort D'Orion" CD [EMI France]—What happened? The previous CD from 1968 was killer and this is dull orchestration that Scott Walker wouldn't even think about twice.
Orion's Beethoven "Superangel" CD [Universal Argentina]—Legit version of this Argentine psych mess. Parts of this really sound like a surfy-Chrome and rhythmically they are the Argentine Faust. It doesn't click immediately but it will later on down the road.
Noah Howard "Black Ark" CD [Bo'Weavil]—My LP of this has fried eggs on the label. I always thought that was so cool.
v/a "Papagayo! The Spanish Sunshine Pop & Popsike Collection" 2LP [Toytown Recordings]
PLAYLIST 8/9/2007
Retolt Mandala "SF Munou Koukyoubutsu" CDR [Subjective Spirit Sound]—Greatest noise / rock / scum / collage album released in recent memory. On the always excellent SSS label who seem to have supplied many of the bands on PSF's Tokyo Flash Back 6 and if that isn't saying something then I don't know what is.
Lexie Mountain / Lichens split LP [Hoss Records]—The Lichens side is good but it's all about the Lexie Mountain side as far as I'm concerned. Is it just me or is there anyone else out there who thinks that "Fire" by Arthur Brown craps out after the whole "I am the God of Hell Fire!" intro? Well about three minutes into this record Lexie Mountain goes back and rights the wrongs of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and just lays it all the fuck out with dubbed laffs, requests for more heckling in the monitors and this whole fucked up comedy / noise show vibe that has to be heard to be believed.
PLAYLIST 8/3/2007
(((Vluba))) "Hell Om, Hell Off! Hell You" CDR [Subjective Spirit Sound]—Witchy Argentine group who sound like they're piloting a ghost train full of sharks up into the mountains. You see the various sharks swimming in their tanks and stop thinking about their physicality and once that stops the flutes begin and it's like the third
Blops LP meets Kraftwerk's "Ruckzuck" trying to raise Jack Parsons until you realize the sharks are ghosts too and the water was just an illusion. I wonder what Gilbert Arenas would do?
Boredoms "Superroots 9" CD [Shock City]—As much as I like and "get" this stuff I really think that it would be great if it were slathered in excessive guitar solos or something like that. Think about it—the guitar player can stand on a stool in the middle of the drum circle and have all his moves jammed out by Eye a la Faust's pinball machines. So Faust meets John Williams remixed by Arthur Baker. I said it.
Sapat "Mortise and Tenon" LP [Siltbreeze]—If I could write a book about how much time I have wasted listening to Z-grade psych records then I wouldn't have enough time to listen to very many Z-grade psychedelic records. I am happy to say that this is not a Z-grade LP but a prime example of five star, restaurant quality psychedelic rock. Much more organic and real feeling than most of what I've heard this year. I loved the 7" too and this is again making me reconsider my position on Mighty Baby's "Jug of Love." I can't believe that people aren't making a bigger deal out of this release.
PLAYLIST 8/1/2007
My life just got like 1000% better this week. I learned how to cut mangoes and the sleep timer on the TV remote was explained to me. Who knew?
Rubinho e Mauro Assumpção "Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei" CD [Discos Mariposa]—Brazilian county tinged psychedelic. Look for the cover with two guys crawling out of a tree like they just saw a mapinguari or something.
Raminghi "...Il lungo cammino del Raminghi" CD [M2U Records]—The cover of this is something else. Imagine a drawing by a young girl of a pretty girl's face with not too much of a whoosh of fantasy so it's good but...weird. Add to this a few animals hanging around her face. Look who's not fighting: a long billed white bird, a macaw, a rabbit or some undetermined rodent and a chimp! While this definitely has early / amateurish prog moves it comes off as more of a psych record and it includes one of my all time favorite jams "Buio Mondo Nero e Giallo" a song that combines the genius of Kim Fowley's "Stranger from the Sky" with something in between the Blackbirds and Sound of Imker.
Eroc "Eroc" CD [Brain]—Have you ever wondered what it would be like to eat ice cream in space? Excellent solo album by Grobschnitt drummer. It runs the gamut from liquid synth pop gold a la Harmonia and NEU! to haunted Nordic waltzes that fans of Björn Olsson would tongue clean the floor to hear. And the bonus tracks! Both "Chaotic Reaction" and "Teenage Love '69" are as good or better than anything on the original album. A real pleasant surprise considering the 1976 release date.
PLAYLIST 7/6/2007
Hubble Bubble s/t LP [Radio Heartbeat/Daggerman]—Shane White told me about these guys years ago. What a public service for these labels to have repressed this again. Are they hippies or are they punks? Fuck your box because this only falls into one called "great."
Jorge Reyes "Ek-Tunkul" LP [Kollektiv]—What a baffling record. Reyes had this beautifully packaged CD on Soleilmoon or Staalplat when I worked at Subterranean and some weird prog/industrial guy bought it before I could check it out. Years later I saw this LP with some fantasy Mayan graphics and decided to pull the trigger. Sometimes it's a pre-colonial Mexican Pink Floyd, sometimes it's like a Miami Vice Pink Floyd. Sometimes I think with a clever description and a few references to Heldon or something like that I could make a couple of bucks. For some reason I don't think it's going to happen.
Merrell Fankhauser "The Maui Album" LP [Reckless]—I have a sick addiction to the idea of something that I wish was more wide spread—tropical psychedelic music. I guess it's the untapped potential of the movie Rainbow Bridge that bugs me. Or maybe because it's so hot you won't know you're tripping. But what songs encapsulate this other than Hendrix's "May This Be Love" and "Back to School" by Royal Trux? What about this record's meeting flying saucers at the beach "On Our Way to Hana"? There's a "true believer" vibe to the Jerry Garcia infused jams here that's compelling like the second Mighty Baby minus the Forrest Gump on acid "life is like a Persian rug" introspection. I guess it's time to pull out that MU LP again...
Ugly Things #26 magazine—Andrew Corbin: "It does everything an acid folk record should do: flutes flutter, guitars strum listlessly, percussion rarely outpaces the heartbeat of a coma patient, and the lyrics [...] are metaphysical." Is there anything else?
The Late Severa Wires "Three Minutes a Second" LP [Highmayhem]—Kind of reminds me of old Deerhoof before they started getting into the Who and were a larger group with memebers who liked to say "Bayle" and "Pierre Henry" and maybe even "Parmegianni" every once in a while.
PLAYLIST 6/25/2007
Lebenden Toten "State Laughter" CD [Feral Wars]—Wow! Lebenden Toten is a Discharge/Japanese hardcore obssessed group who have the most psychedelic guitar player in the genre since Randy Uchida or the dude from Confuse. I love this band!
Mighty Baby "A Jug of Love" CD [Sunbeam]—I used to have the Italian Flash CD of this with the band's track from the Glastonbury 3LP on it but I never warmed up to it. I am from California and there's something about these UK wannabe country rock bands that really rubs me the wrong way. Coshise anyone? This time the record sounds better to me. Maybe it was too mellow the first time.
Dinosaur Jr. Beyond" CD [Fat Possum]—Wouldn't it be cool if every band on Fat Possum had to do a Junior Kimbrough cover? Could these guys handle it? I tuned these guys out after gaining a deeper understanding of the Neil Young catalog. This CD makes me feel like "the Green Mind" never happened.
v/a Richard Pinhas: Single Collection 1972-1980 CD [Captain Trip]— This collection of Pinhas rarities has a little bit for everyone: exploito jams, proto-metal, punk disco, Heldon and pure Pinhas. I guess you could say it's the artier brother of the "Têtes Lourdes" comp.
PLAYLIST 5/29/2007
I am in the midst of the biggest musical clean up in twelve years. Imagine cleaning up every unlabeled CDR you have and spending the time to file them or throw them away—actually I've been giving away a lot of this stuff. You haven't heard Kevin Ayers? Now you have...the soundtrack to this not-so-terrible job:
Chubby Checker s/t CD [Underground Masters]—The psychedelic one! I seriously thought about to listening to Donovan after "If the Sun Stopped Shining" finished. How often does that happen? Like never..."Love Tunnel" is awesome too. Don't blame Chubby—blame the Dutch backing band. This is SO much better than I thought it would be. For real.
The Walker Brothers "If You Could Hear Me Now" CD [Columbia]—What is it about a Tom Rush cover in the hands—mouth?—of Scott Walker that makes it cooler? I must be losing my mind because I listened to "We're All Alone" on this twice. OK one time it was skipping in a cool way. Memo to Walker Brothers compilers: would it be too much to note who does each vocal because John Maus b—l—o—w—s.
I also had time to listen to the following:
Yamashirube "Rinjin wa Uchu" 3"CDR [Subjective Spirit Sound]
v/a "Schnäbbls" 7" EP [Yahoo Records]—"Their singer disappeared missteriously [sic] in the late 60's. The band still insists on their statement: In 1966 we've played two gig on Mars."
Hank IV "Dirty Poncho" b/w "Symptomatic" 7" [Plastic Idol]
Platypus "Ninja Monster!" 7" EP [Weird Dreams]
The Fix "Vengeance" b/w "In this Town" 7" [BPT]
Sun Ra "The Magic City" LP [Saturn/Impulse]—both sides!
Square 9 "Tsunami 2. Up" LP [Majora]
PLAYLIST 5/22/2007
LSD-March Tour CDR [White Elephant?]—I looked this up online to see if I could find some song titles. I read a few complaints about this but hey if you want bands to do the same exact thing every time they release something then that's your deal. I like the new direction here especially on the final track "空っぽのルージュ."
PLAYLIST 5/17/2007
Royal Trux "Sweet Sixteen" CD [Charisma]—This is a great allbum. I've said it before and I'll say it again the current gush of great weird music [not that kind!] is due to Royal Trux. Sure there are other bands out there who said they fed and pet the puppy but that's not really what it was really about—and this CD proves it.
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Mars Studio 1980" 4CD [Univive]—Univive's first release and now repressed as a real CD. At this point the band added a second guitar player—the "legendary" Yamaguchi Fuji of the Dynamites and Murahachibu—and went in the studio and re-worked their sound into a slower more turgid sound with nods to Doug Yule era VU. Yamaguchi totally works too even though his sound is more like some variant of early 70s Rolling Stones. There is also a heavy Dylan vibe here too. The 19:24 version of "Enter the Mirror" has these Leslie organ parts that really make the whole thing come together and make you think that Al Kooper was there.
PLAYLIST 5/8/2007
After Life "Cauchemar" LP [Wah Wah Records]—Nice French fuzz rock exploito album produced by Jean-Pierre Massiera. I understand Massiera is about to be the subject of a comp soon. Massiera is the French producer who worked in disco, exploito and prog in France, Quebec and Argentina.
Fish & Sheep "Double Banana" LP [Ruby Red]—Portuguese group that has a song called "Keiji Haino's Haircut." That's why I bought it and it's really much better than I thought it would be. Don't you love it when that happens?
Serge Gainsbourg "Cannabis" LP [Philips]—I got to this via the 3CD box "Musiques de Films 1959-1990: Le Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg" which is spectacularly good. This soundtrack intrigued me due to the participation of Jean Claude Vannier. The title track is amazing. The processed guitar tone is so cheesed out that it sounds like the Fucking Champs covering Badfinger. And then there's the version with Serge mopping a coating of French on top of it that's just as good. How can you not like an LP with a track called "I Want to Feel Crazy"?
PLAYLIST 4/29/2007
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Neu Product Era" 4CD [Univive]
v/a "OZ Days Live" 2CD [OZ]—I have finally heard sides one and two of "OZ Days Live." Did my life change? Nope. Not at all. If you were performing under the name Acid Seven then you better have something more intense to bring to the table than a freaking Beatles cover. Misato Minami who has a solo album with Mizutani on it is a little better but if I wanted to listen to Bob Dylan then I'd listen to Bob Dylan...OK the great stuff that everyone already knows about is still great and sounds even better. Once I had heard the Les Rallizes Dénudés tracks from "OZ Days Live" I for some reason thought that "Live 77" must be the apex of the group's long history. I was wrong. The 1987 studio and live recordings here are great. The studio stuff in particular has a wonderfully lazy shambolic quality to it sort of like a more traditionally psychedelic Chrome.
v/a "Kraut-Bloody-Rageous!" CD [BK]—Bomp! mailorder had this and since they have that convenient and honest option of first class mail I ordered it and another CD. Worth it alone for more Staff Carpenborg & the Electric Corona—which I heard is available now too. I don't even care if a couple of these tracks are made up!
PLAYLIST 4/22/07
v/a "Aundergroun Vibrations!:Spanish Psych and Beyond 1970-1975" LP [Hundergrum Records] v/a "Aundergroun Vibrations Vol. 2:Psychedelic Hard Rock from Spain 1970-1978" [Hundergrum Records] LP—There's nothing better in record world than a comp that fills you in on a zone you never knew existed—we're talking classics like "V-Lips," "Prae-Kraut Pandemonium" and "Exploiting Plastic Inevitable." Thanks to those I know about stuff like Sound of Imker and Los Sirex not to mention Novak's Kapelle! These Spanish comps are full of some great lost psych stuff that manages to bridge the gap between heavy and exploito really well. That reminds me—I need to buy "Kraut-Bloody-Rageous!"
PLAYLIST 4/12/07
Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family "My Ancestors" LP [Chris Editions]—More killer Zambian psych fuzz garage! Killer affordable LP reissue that I got from Bomp! The cover lets on nothing.
Chaka Demus & Pliers "Don't be Cruel" from "All Shook Up: A Reggae Tribute to the King" CD [Trojan]—This track is so good I could use it to kick people out of my house if they didn't like it. Reminds me of a story I heard where REM was kicked out of a party because they said they didn't like Funkadelic. Right on!
Vodka Collins "Tokyo-New York" CD [Man's Ruin]—Japanese glam rock from the early 70s featuring Englishman Alan Merrill who had been in Japan for years as a session player on stuff produced by Yuya Uchida and Miki Curtis along with such "bands" as PYG, Too Much etc. I heard this a long time ago and it never really registered but today it sounds like the best Japanese version of T Rex I could possibly imagine. Available at Amazon "used & new" for $2.81. It must have been a weird day at Man's Ruin the day Frank decided this was coming out.
PLAYLIST 4/2/07
Witch "Lazy Bones!!" LP [Shadoks]—Zambian garage psych in the style of La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata or Four Levels of Existence—definitely not "African" sounding. Killer wah and lots of leads over simple rhythms with a rad "Zuma" meets Link Wray vibe.
Sic Alps "Semi Streets" 7" [Skulltones]—I told you I was going to buy everything after I heard the one with the VW van on the cover.
Los Llamaradas "The Exploding Now" LP [S-S Records]—Best new act of 2007?
Who's Your Favorite Son God "Out of Body Diva" LP [KDVS]—Roland Woodbe told me that these guys sounded like the armadillo tank on the Tarkus LP. He was right!
PLAYLIST 3/24/07
Les Rallizes Dénudés "Naked Dizastar" 3CD [Univive]
Les Rallizes Dénudés "End of Heavy Groove" 2CD [Univive]—"Naked Dizastar" is a comp of tracks from shows that might not have been all-the-way killer enough for a complete Dick's Picks-style release. Here are the fabulous parts minus the burnt ends. Even the stuff from the 1980s is good. Rallizes with sax? I'm still listening..."End of Heavy Groove" is two shows from that greatest of Rallizes years 197666. There's an almost Dead-like version of "導きの天使" [Angel of Guidance] on here that that's so far-freaking out that I'm going to take it with me! Note to interested parties: for these releases [and last year's "Wild Trips" 5CD set] Univive pressed glass packed master CDs NOT CDRS.
Takayanagi Masayuki New Direction for the Arts "Complete 'La Grima'" CD [Doubt Music]—Have you ever thought about spending $900 on a record? I have and it contained about six minutes of this CD. Happily the "Genya" 2LP was reissued on CD and my reputation for having almost Canadian-like common sense is intact. Also check out Tiliqua's reissue of Takayanagi's mandatory "Independence: Tread on Sure Ground."