Thursday, December 30, 2010

Various Artists - "Sock It To 'Em Soul" (Warner, 2004)

What was the last time you bought a compilation that hails from a major label and worth utterly its money? Not lately, right? And that's sad cause most majors are sitting on countless masters of well known or for better, forgotten jewels! All they ever wanted was the easy money. Well, this one here's thankfully a shining exception. Not again one of the many under the term "Northern Soul" with a dubious stature. In fact, not "Northern" at all! A KILLER set of 60s Soul tracks from the vaults of Atlantic, Stax, Atco, Loma, Reprise and Warners! Gritty, tough & groovy, up-tempo dancers perfectly suited for every party!
New Year's eve's always a good reason for having a party! Put it on, tire out your bodies and have a good time remembering the bubble of John Belushi on "I Don't Know":
"I said Baby, You know when you bend over I see every bit of Christmas, and when you bend back I'm looking right into the new year! She said Honey, honey  you know I gave up cigarettes for my new year's resolution... But I didn't give up smooooking!!! I said,  Woman!, woman you gonna walk a mile for a Camel, or are you gonna make like Mr Chesterfield and satisfy? ....She said, That all depends on what your packing.... Regular or Kingsize!  Then she pulled out my Jim Beam, and to her surprise it was every bit as hard as my Canadian Club! I said,  What now you gotta say baaaaaabeee? She said, Umm... I don't know!"

Hope all friends of this blog ll found in 2011 all they ever wanted! See ya next year guys and gals and...oh! Have a drink on me.
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Funky Street! 

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Rudy Ray Moore - "This Ain't No White Christmas" (Norton, 2001 - original release 1971)

I don't like "holiday" music. It's fuckin' boring. There are few exceptions though. Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift For You", remains arguably thee best! The "Wall of Sound" in its full MONO glory and through the ethereal voices of the Ronettes, the Crystals and Darlene Love, still makes a misanthropic creature like me to borrow something of the silly snow dust of the Christmas interlude. I said "thee best" and not "my favorite", OK? Well, my fave is a Chess forty five by Chuck Berry. I'm sure you all know that I'm talking about "Run Rudolph, Run" single. And I'm sure you all guys and gals involved with rock & roll music, just adore this toon! In every version of it and not only the original. From Keef to Dave Edmunds and Lemmy, "Rudolph" just has the right licks for someone to like a "holiday" record. And what we got here it's the funniest, the raunchiest and the dirtiest! From Dolemite with love and a lot of "X" behind it. Mr. Blaxploitation himself, delivers 30 cm of pure lust and I'm sure all you know what I'm talking about... Capitol reissued this platter on CD for the first time in 1996 and guess what, in a very short time dissapeared from the face of earth. The same thing happened by Norton who picked up on this in 2001. If you check their website, there's a comic sad face telling us that's out of stock for both formats, vinyl and CD.
Merry Christmas to ya all and send kids to bed, Santa's cuming!
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Merry XXX-Mas! 

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Sound Explosion - "Hangover Baby" BW/ "Some Other Guy" (Pegasus,1993)

It was the early 90s and i was a full blown, acne faced and very much a common teenager of the era. Even though i had already on my record collection rock & roll and soul  jewels, i couldn't keep myself outside of the main trends. OK, i wasn't into crappy MTV stuff never, but i was chasing like maniac releases by Mudhoney, the Supergrass or the Happy Mondays for instance. I still like those bands. I still like Oasis giving you an example and I'm not ashamed of this. I have seen countless bands live, both, huge names and dudes that never make it outside of their neighborhood and i still rank the Oasis Greece gig as one of my faves. Anyway, as i told you i was on garage from that early age. From the little information a kid from the province then could catch, i was hooked on the Fuzztones and the Chesterfield Kings. When the 'tones finally arrived in Athens, i took the bus and came to my grandmother who lived here. I was anxious and overexcited for this and all i did til time came and pass through the Rodon club doors (if i remember right...), was to fantasize how this gig might be. The opening act was the Sound Explosion. A name not so well known. Loco guys and vintage dressed teens just a little older than me. "Not bad" I'm sure should have think but i was still there just to hear & see  Rudi Protrudi and Mad Mike Czekaj... Less an hour after Sound Exlposion's gang got onstage, i was totally blown away by their sound and attitude and all i wondered now was "how in the hell these Fuzztones would jump over this performance"? Of course they couldn't. It was the beginning of my never ending love for them! I was painting their logo on my school books (see pic further down) and i was preaching for them on my radio show. They were WYLD! I often refresh my memory with their singles and their one and only record on Music Maniac and I still remember fondly how their friends from the first lines of the crowd shouted their requests!
That's their first on Pegasus. A collector's item by now, exchanging hands on HIGH prices. Pity, cause every home should have this two-sider and all in general Sound Explosion singles. I mean never anyone think of a proper release with all the singles' sides of the Sound Explosion? I don't think so... I never asked John. I'm afraid of the answer i might get, so leave it as it is. But again, it's a FUCKIN' SHAME! That's the best 60s punk played by a band in the 90s! 
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Hangover Baby! 


 

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Julian Cope's N.M.E. article, December 3 -1983 'bout Garage and Psychedelia

I guess everyone knows who saint Julian is, right? Even if you're an admirer of his work or not (I am), Julian Cope is a person who has a deep knowledge for music (and i mean DEEP) and especially what many of us referred to as "psychedelic".  And we're not talking about hippy crap here sir. His webspace is known widely as "Head Heritage" and if you're not a regular already there, then you must start now (there's a link on the right pane of this blog, just click on it and you're going to have a bad trip assuredly!). 
Twenty seven Decembers back, Julian wrote a piece about garage punk and psychedelia on the N.M.E. paper. This piece turned over the years as an influential essay on what we called today "garage revival". Remember this, this article pre-dated all the Fuzztones and the Chesterfield Kings of this world. And it wasn't written by a Rudi Protrudi or a Greg Prevost but by the singer of the Teardrop Explodes! There was no internet and downloads. There was no plethora of bootlegged 45s in compilations and in the end, there was a huge blur of what was actually 'garage' and what wasn't. Many did the same mistakes as many now-days do again. Embroil psychedelia with the hippies. I wasn't able to read this by the time got out. I was just 5 years old, how could i besides? I found it re-printed in an old 'zine and that was it, my life changed! Then came Tim Warren and all things for me found its way. 
Now's time to do the same with the hope to attract as many new blokes as i can. And as Julian said, "Don't turn Hippy on me!"
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"The Dog-star rages! Nay 'tis past a doubt, All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out." - Alexander Pope

WHEN I TELL YOU about psychedelia, you can forget all the Peace-Love-Dove shit. You can forget about all the hippies you ever hated. You can forget about the understanding and the answer. Cast your mind back to the question.
Cast you mind back 5-10-20 years to the first time you ever thought about sex. When a penis, a vagina, were new words in a book.
They fit together, you say? One gets hard and one gets soft? That's repulsive, I'm going to be sick. Never think about it. Do my parents do it? Why did they invent it? Will I ever do it? Why did they invent it? I hate everything.
Your first psychedelic experience. The ship goes down with all your sanity.
So here we are - Psychedelia, when the question gets bigger and bigger, and the answer fades out obsolete.
Forget Timothy Leary and forget about the Tom Wolfe stories. When LSD hit the world, the intellectuals thought about it and the rest freaked out.
It's the rest we're interested in.
It's the rest who made the music. Not The Grateful Dead, not Quicksilver Messenger Service, not the Moody Blues. The ones we should be interested in are the 17-year-old kids from Birmingham to Albuquerque who took acid and tried to play old Van Morrison/Stones riffs. Suddenly they were something very new. True they couldn't play very well and the singer didn't know the words, but we all mean it don't we? So we could be bigger than anyone.

"Look out, I'm gonna get my seven Cadillacs, And maybe I'll drive around the World" - The Silver Fleet

THE SINGER in every great psychedelic group was 5' 10". He stooped because his friends were small and he felt like a spaz. He sung about being himself, his ideal self, which was really Mick Jagger.
His real life was a dry-wank.
This is psychedelia.
Garage-music overproduced in four track studios. Musicians who wanted to be so famous. fuck, I'd sell out if I know how to! People who were too nihilistic to ever get it together.
Say yes to - Ed Cobb, Sky Saxon, Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Eddie Phillips, Arthur Lee, Moulty, Mouse, Dave Aguilar, and all the others who never could.
In their hunchbacked Twilight Zone, they made the best, most formidable sound ever. Rock powered emotion in all kinds of music. Arthur Lee? you say. Wimp music! Sky Saxon? A spoilt rat-faced child!
Then fuck you I say. Fuck your lack of compassion, your world concern, and for forgetting the individual, the small want-to-be-big individual who tore out great handfuls of his soul for a promise of a no-meaning 15 minutes of fame.
I love them. I love their misery. I see their parallels strewn out in front of me: Patti Smith, with baby, in some Midwest Hicksville, thinking she is at peace. Marc Almond hysterical and praying for fame with an on-off switch. John Cale's waking dream of one daytime radio play. Peter Hammill seeing his reflection in Mega-Bowie, Mega-Gabriel, Mega-Marillion. They are many. And I love them too.
So forget the Hippy.
We're talking of pre-Hippy, when even the quietest music had an intent that could not be ruffled.
A three chord riff, delicate voice and; "Oh, the snot has caked against my pants," - Arthur Lee 1967
THIS IS psychedelia. One album, almost alone, inspired new love and attitude to the music.
"I just hope you have as much fun letting it spin as I did putting it together." - Lenny Kaye, on 'Nuggets', 1972.
For the time being, I shall presume that everyone has a copy of 'Nuggets'. If you know nothing else about psychedelia, you should know this. If not, put the paper down and go and listen to all the basics: The first Pink Floyd, 'Revolver', Traffic, The 13th Floor Elevators, 'Sgt. Pepper', 'A Web of Sound', 'Forever Changes', etc.
'Nuggets' was and still is the basic introduction. It gave us groups that were then so obscure but now, to a mass of people, are favourite listening. It introduced us to The Seeds, Chocolate Watchband, Elevators, Remains, Standells, Electric Prunes and so many others who had classic but unknown songs released. By now we know that had also recorded classic LP's.
But during the '70's, these LP's were sold next to garbage like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Josephus, Blue Cheer, Bubble Puppy, anything on International Artists. You had to listen to all the I.A. catalogue to find out that the only things necessary were the 13th Floor Elevators LP's.
Psychedelia was being sold as hippy music by charlatans who thought any journey-thru-my-inner-mind-man nonsense was hip.
But the influence of 'Nuggets' was deep-rooted. This supposed 2nd Division music was the real psychedelia.
"Between thought and expression lies a lifetime" - Lou Reed
SO HERE we are in 1967. The Beatles have already previewed what's going to happen with 'Revolver'. The Rolling Stones are about to give psychedelia a bad name with a piece of 90% trash called 'Their Satanic Majesties Request'. The Yardbirds are featured in Blow-Up, a far-out forerunner of Zabriskie Point where Jeff Beck destroys his guitar during 'Train Kept A Rollin'.
In the US the vanguard was being led by Grace Slick, Jerry Garcia, John Cipollina and more mid-twenties graduates intent on rationalising the scene. The Doors had signed to Elektra, successfully promoting previous Elektra biggie Arthur Lee into Total Paranoiac.
And then came the group who drew the line between the hippies and the rest.
They were The Mothers of Invention. They had been signed as a blues band by an acid raving A&R man who committed suicide by self-immolation when the bill for their first masterpiece, 'Freak Out', came to over $20,000. The Mothers were unsafe and unsanitary; unhealthy leaders of the real underground.
Frank Zappa was shrewd enough (and old enough) to laugh at the very scene which bought his records. His songs were anything but the anthems-of-togetherness adored in Haight Ashbury. They were vile attacks on both straights and weirdos. Songs like 'Plastic People', 'Flower Punk' and 'Trouble Every Day' were vicious. Yes, you could laugh, but how did we know he wasn't laughing at you?
The Mothers sound even influenced the suburban punk groups. Teddy and His Patches, from San Jose, did a mind-blowing cover of 'Suzy Creamcheese', available on 'Pebbles III'. Psychedelia Piss-takes continued with 'I'm Allergic To Flowers' by Jefferson Handkerchief. The punks were becoming yippies, long haired peace-haters. It even swept to Britain with the Mothers-influenced Deviants.
In 1967, Frank Zappa produced 'Loose Lip Sync Ship', an instrumental 45 by The Hogs. The Hogs were really The Chocolate Watchband, a collage of musicians like by Ed Cobb, writer of 'Tainted Love' and producer of millions. Until 'Nuggets', The Chocolate Watchband were unrecognised. Now three LP's are re-released and there is even a new 'Best Of' compilation.
A raw diverse R&B group, they were the true psychedelic incarnation of The Rolling Stones. Clattering Bo Diddley beats, zinging guitars, their singer Dave Agular genuinely believed that Mick Jagger was ripping him off. At a time when the right place at the right time counted for so much, The Chocolate Watchband were horrendously mistimed.
Their only hit, 'Let's Talk About Girls', was recorded in such a rush that Dave Agular was not even there to sing it. Don Bennett, a writer and a friend of Ed Cobb, was asked to sing and it started a long relationship. Bennett also wrote some Standells songs and created a precedent for Ed Cobb: the producer used The Chocolate Watchband as a pallet for weird ideas. On the first and second albums the group playing is often utterly different from the supposed line-up. 'Gone And Passes By', the very best song they ever recorded, is a subterranean Stones, played like Brian Jones was actually getting his own way for once. Zing, electric sitar over zombie bone dance, cavernous recording and voodoo-Dr John, 'Walk On Gilded Splinters' into Beefheart's 'Kandykorn'.
Yes they hit low, but when they were up, they left everyone else wanking.
Richard Marsh was an image weasel, sucking on lemons and waiting for fame. In early 1966 as Sky Saxon, 'Pushing Too Hard' made his group The Seeds massive. On front covers of teen mags all over the US, Sky Saxon and his three suede cohorts stared out, eyes wrinkled and blinking, anxious to get back to their nocturnal two-chord world. The follow-up to 'Pushing Too Hard' was 'No Escape'. In all ways, it was the same song. Sky Saxon felt his one emotion very intensely.
You can make a commercial success of almost anybody. Lassie was massive and even Noele Gordon had her day. But in Sky Saxon, we have to draw the line. His ideas imploded and whole albums were devoted to the worship of the E and D chords. The other Seeds were his wanton disciples. Organist Daryl Hooper used the same solo in at least 10 songs. In one uncharacteristically different song, 'Nobody Spoil My Fun', the group has to shift completely during Hooper's solo, so intent is he on playing his regular part.
For the Seeds , success was an uncomfortable bonus. How could Sky Saxon maintain his role as the world's whipping post when they sold records? Titles like 'You Can't Be Trusted', 'It's A Hard Life', 'Can't Seem To Make You Mine'. 'Two Fingers Pointing At You', all sung by a 10-year-old hysterical brat, were to have limited appeal. Their LPs became primeval classics and Saxon held the banner for all punk singers. After three studio and one brilliantly fake live album, his focus became hazier and hazier. A change of style for a terrible blues LP and later a change of name to Sky Sunlight. The backyard and the world became one place. A bit like Roky Erickson.
The 13th Floor Elevators were the Texas group. On International Artists of Austin/Dallas/Houston, they had a massive hit with Erickson's 'You're Gonna Miss Me'. This had already been a local hit for Roky's early group, The Spades, in 1965. By 1967 he was eating peyote, the psychedelic desert drug, and turning on all the local groups who spent the previous months lamenting Texas' lack of surf.
There is now a brilliant six LP set called 'Flashbacks' available which includes covers of such Elevators classics as 'Splash 1' and 'Reverberation'. Tom Verlaine talked wildly of Televisions debt to the Elevators and songs like 'See No Evil' from 'Marquee Moon' are inspiring proof. Television even opened with a cover of 'Fire Engine' from the 'Psychedelic Sound of...' album and their live 'Arrow' LP includes a brilliant version.
Groups like Rising Storm and Mystic Tide took the brutal sound for themselves and even Iggy Pop was enmeshed for a while. 'Flashbacks III' includes an unsafe and magnificent 'I Can Only Give You Everything' by the Iguanas. With a young Jimmy Osterberg on drums and singing, the song nightmares along over cattle crossings and iron bridges. With a familiar Elevators screech-siren sound, the whole song begins and ends in the tunnel.
"I am from Mars," claimed Roky Erickson in an interview. The journalist wondered, had he any proof?
"I call my mother Ma," he replied.
After the first LP Erikson went into an asylum. The second album was written mainly by the other , more coherent members of the group. The only other weirdo was John St. Powell who changed his name to Powell St. John. Erikson repaired, came out of the asylum to record 'Easter Everywhere', the new album. After that he freaked out again and went back to the asylum.
There were no real weirdos in The Electric Prunes. They formed one maniac intent on destruction. All their early recordings are so raw, they are almost unplayable. On 'You've Never Had It Better', from the 'Everywhere Chainsaw' compilation, they are singing from purgatory to a world with no ears. Their manager, a TV personality called Ben Willow, was intent on making them huge. A deal with Reprise and a tab of acid for the in-house writers.
In Hey Presto time, Nancy Tucker and Mary Mantz gave them 'I Had Too Much Too Dream Last Night' plus a follow-up 'Get Me To The World On Time'. Both singles were classically produced psychedelic punk, fake far-eastern organ and ratty vocals. The songs were hits but the LP was a real bore. They didn't seem to have much control and it was mainly wimpish slush.
'Underground was their second LP and is still available. It was their classic. More in control, they start with the brilliant 45 'Great Banana Hoax', Bo Diddley rhythm and squealing Farfisa. The whole LP was massive with its scythe guitar sound and Pete De Freitas clatter. On 'Hideaway', the drums go crazy and the guitar shrieks. On 'Children Of Rain' the organ phases in a familiar funfair avalanche. On 'Antique Doll' the bass is treacherous, the voices sweeter than need. It's their only consistently great moment. After this they gave over power to a writer/arranger called Dave Axelrod. He is guilty of producing two of the weakest ever albums; 'Mass In F Minor' and 'Kyrie Eylson'. These are bogies up the nose of a great group. Amen.
THE BASICS of British psychedelia are far better known. We've all heard 'See Emily Play', 'All You Need Is Love', 'Paper Sun', 'Hole In My Shoe', but it's hard to separate the good from the shit. Psychedelia here became as style. Every group had a rainbow-abstract-world-in-my-head sleeve. Even Vince Hill and Noel Harrison had 'weird' hits. If they were noticing it, it must be selling.
But what about the others? What about the failures?
The biggest losers were The Creation. They were so close to making it. Pete Townshend asked their guitarist, Eddie Phillips, to join The Who. He wouldn't so Townshend joined The Creation fan club.
Because of their lack of success, Creation fans tend to over-rate them now, so intent on telling us what should have been. True their songs are pretty great. 'Painter Man' and 'Life Is Just Beginning' are so like nursery rhymes, so hummable. When Boney M had a hit with 'Painter Man', it was no shock.
Onstage The Creation were pop-art; Kenny Pickett would stop singing and spray-paint a canvas behind him. Eddie Phillips used a violin bow before anyone, and on all their records, his guitar is so barely controlled that it often feeds back during verses. Edsel have released 'How Does It Feel To Feel'. It's a put together LP and it's great.
But even more manic were The Misunderstood. Like some blues version of the Pop Group, plundering both The Yardbirds and Bo Diddley, and ending up like Captain Beefheart; all crescendos and screeching steel guitar.
Until last year their recordings were rare, rare. Then Cherry Red put out the 'Before The Dream Faded' LP. Get it, it's good. I used to hate 'Who Do You Love', but their version made me rethink, it's like a different song, even delicate in parts. Of course they weren't successful, but they did leave California and live on chips for a year while they tried to make it.
For most of the American groups the major influence was obviously The Rolling Stones. But look further and you'll see the other main groups were The Pretty Things and Van Morrison's early group. Them.
Listen to any US compilation and Them feature everywhere in both songs and attitude. Versions of 'Gloria', 'I Can Only Give You Everything' and 'Baby Please Don't Go' are found throughout. Other songs such as 'Mystic Eyes' were a perfect blue-print for the plundering US garage groups. Listen to The Rising Storm, the Mystic Tide duo, and The Moonrakers.
The Shadows of Knight hit big with their version of 'Gloria' and took Them's style for 'Oh Yeah' and 'Light Bulb Blues'.
Ironically, early Them singles featured session men backing Van Morrison. Decca, in their usual three-piece suit attitude, had no faith in the group.
Eventually, Them split from Morrison and went to Texas, the place which had always loved them so much. They recorded some of their best songs there, such as 'Dirty Old Man' on the 'Moxie' no. 2 EP.
'NUGGETS' INSTIGATED a whole new genre: The Psychedelic Compilation. In 1979, two sets of these albums appeared called 'Pebbles' and 'Boulders'. Both were influenced by Lenny Kaye's 'Nuggets' idea but on a far more wanton and amateur scale. Tracks were often so obscure that no tapes were available and the original scratchy single had to be used as the master.
For a while, these two were essential. They gave a glimpse of previously unknown groups. They have also built into hefty sets. 'Pebbles' now has twelve LPs and 'Boulders' nine.
I've never been a fan of the 'Boulders' series. The sound quality is poor and the tracks are available on many of the newer compilations. But 'Pebbles' still has many essential volumes in Numbers 1,2,3 and 5.
Volume 3 is pure garbled garage psychedelia. Some of it is just plain terrifying.
On 'Spider And The Fly' by The Monocles, the singer is a ten-year-old whose body is turning into a spider. He cries "Help me, help me" as he devours his mother, thinking she's a fly.
Of 'Flight Reaction' by The Calico Wall, it is impossible to print a description. If you don't have this album then buy it. Is it essential? Is the moon made of cheese? Songs with titles like 'Horror Asparagus Stories', 'The Reality Of (Air) Fried Borsk' and 'Suicidal Flowers' are essential to any collection.
The volume you have to have is No. 5, the Punk Masterpiece. Every song has the same theme:
singer meets girl, girl bogs off
singer loves girl, girl screws singer's arch rival
singer loves girl, girl is unaware of singer's existence
On 'No Good Woman' by The Tree, the singer berates his girlfriend, "You're ugly and you're fat, and you've got no teeth". Why does he stay? He sings the whole song with his finger pointed at her throat. "I bought you two Mustangs, and a Cadillac".
The album treats women as though they were a tank regiment, to be beaten down into submission.
Unfortunately the latest compilations now make 'Pebbles' and 'Boulders' seem pale in comparison. While these two have wandered into boring areas, the new US and British albums are getting rawer and more far out than ever.
THE HEIR to the 'Pebbles' throne must be the 'Psychedelic Unknowns' LPs. At first just a two EP set, five albums have now been issued. These include real classics: most obviously 'In The Past' by We The People. 'In The Past' also covered by The Chocolate Watchband, is one of the most beautiful psychedelic songs ever, with a high balalaika guitar sound and raga rhythm. At the time, We The People were complete unknowns but the Eva label, from Paris, has issued their 'Declaration Of Independence' album which is raw and beautiful.
The Calico Wall, refugees from 'Pebbles', turn up with a death wail called 'I'm A Living Sickness', a kind of walking pace Doors. Other names from 'Pebbles' included The Squires and The Split Ends, and there's a double speed cover of Love's 'My Flash On You' by The Sixpence.
I've talked about the 'Texas Flashback' series before. They really are necessary but are now very hard to get. Easier to find is the 'Mindrocker' series, again on Eva. You may find you have doubles of certain songs but it's justified because they are all so good. Volume 4 is easily the best. Based on an old bootleg called 'Acid Visions', Eva has added four Moving Sidewalks tracks and created a new LP. The sound is better than the earlier album and cheaper, but you don't get the wonderful one-off sleeve.
I won't spend vast amounts of time on each compilation, but there are certain vital ones and 'Back From The Grave' is a biggie. The guy who has released its two volumes is a maniac. Into the music at 12, he is now 25 and spends his time driving a hired car the mid-west of America in search of gems. These albums are worth it for the sleeve notes alone.
The groups on these albums are true danger. Long hair? No Faggot Way!! The Malibus, The Brigands, Ralph Neilson & The Chancellors. You'd never get names like that in a psychedelic revival. And at the top of the pile is The Nova's version of 'The Crusher'. Sung by a 200lb. redneck, it devours the Bananmen version.
The same attitude reigns for 'What A Way To Die', a new US compilation and probably the best so far. Subtitled "Forgotten Losers From The Mid-60's", it is incredible, so violent and fucked-up.
From Chicago, and probably with Lou Reed writing, are The Beechnuts with 'My Iconoclastic Life'. As the sleeve says, it is one of the scariest records ever.
"My life is nil, I just take pills
sit for hours just watching the flowers".
Richard And The Young Lions are another one-off classic with the amassed guitars and tubular bells on the start of 'You Can Make It'. They're featured on the sleeve and look like members of five different groups. Other big features are the Human Beinz before they wimped-out and the first ever Standells recording. Whoopee!
Others to look out for are 'Psychedelic Sixties' volumes and the two 'Off The Wall' albums. These are very much garage psychedelia.
For out and out wierdos, look for 'Mindblowers'. The sleeve is a bit cosmic in orange and yellow swirls but the music is faultless, with an early 13th Floor Elevators recording of 'Tried To Hide'.
But the true find is 'Go Insane' by The Doors. It's one of three acetates left and is a blues-rant of song later to become 'Celebration Of The Lizard'. I love it. Morrison sounds so young, unformed voice and no chest beating. For Doors freaks , it's on White Rabbit Records.
The final US essential is 'Psychedelic Moose And The Soul Searchers', an album of magnum opuses ranging from Mouse and The Traps wail of Jeremiah's 'No Sense Nonsense' to The Blue Things 'Orange Rooftop Of Your Mind', a kind of Yardbirds thing, Actually, The Blue Things appear on about seven different compilations and each track is incredible. And there we leave America.
THE BRITISH COMPILATION scene is very restrained compared with its US partner. Albums like 'Not Just Beat Music' have been around for a while but the brain damage was only really started with 'Chocolate Soup For Diabetics'. Now running at three volumes, 'Chocolate Soup' is out-and-out classic.
Volume 1 opens with 'Train To Disaster' by The Voice. Like waiting for a late night tube, it comes screaming out of a tunnel and pummels you in the head. Typical end-of-the-world lyrics and snotty, sneering vocals. It ends in a pandemonium of guitars and treads your face into the ground.
The Misunderstood are featured but even they are upstaged by the mania of The Craigs' 'I Must Be Mad'. It's 'I Can See For Miles' at breakout speed, a commando raid of guitars, the drummer frantically over-playing to make up for his lack of time-keeping.
On The Tickle's 'Smokey Pokey World', the melodies are bright and the acid-guitar line is so pure and simple. One real weird-out is a group called One In A Million. Both of their featured songs are The Jam if they hadn't "Souled-Out". Gruff Weller voice, identical Foxton harmonies, how I wished they'd gone in this direction.
Chocolate Soup has a companion album of psychotic R&B called 'The Demention Of Sound'. Far more raw, it features The Bow Street Runners and The Sorrows, both raw and unmanageable. If you like Cherry Red's Misunderstood LP then you'll love this. Syn, who are on 'Chocolate Soup', are featured here as their blues incarnation, The Syndicates. 'Crawdaddy Simone' is a blues 'European Son', surging across the Russian Steppes.
The man behind Chocolate Soup is Sean Gregory. I've no idea who he is but I love him for his records and for his sleevenotes.
Chocolate Soup also has a two-volume brother in 'Electric Sugar Cube Flashback'. Pressed in the US it features many of the Chocolate Soup bands plus other oddities such as 'Jabberwocky' by Boeing Duveen & the Beautiful Soup and 'Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens', an early Family song when Roger Chapman still sounded like Fergal Sharkey. Best track is 'Gong With The Luminous Nose' by the ubiquitous Fleur De Lys. They have tracks on many compilations, each one a Who/Yardbirds dream of a song.
"Nine times the colour red
Explodes like heated blood" - The Zodiac
That colourful piece of doggerel is included to warn you. There may be many great new LPs around but some of the compilers are obviously intent on flooding a brilliant market with Hippy crap.
For example, if you buy 'Perfume Garden I' you get a brilliant shot of charged punk psychedelia. You get The Eyes, The Birds, and a whole load of riches. But beware if you buy Volume II, you get a whole bunch of hippy and pre-heavy metal with a couple of classics thrown in. I read a 4_ star review in Sounds and smelled an incense burner reviewing it.
The Psycho label which releases 'Perfumed Garden' is a weird conglomerate of classic and bad. Similarly, 'Endless Journey I' on Psycho is dirty and brilliantly fucked up whilst 'Volume II' is failed Mellotron groups who would have killed for a Roger Dean sleeve.
Anyway, enough slagging good intentions. The final album deserving of a mention should really go in a "miscellaneous" category. It's 'Ugly Things', a compilation of Australian psychedelia. I included it here because of its British sound; very Yardbirds, very Pretty Things. They promised Volume II about three years ago. But while that has never surfaced, the rest just keep coming.
IF ANYONE is wondering "where's the Byrds section?" and "what about Buffalo Springfield?" forget it. Yes, they were great too, but everybody knows about them. Everybody should know about these groups, too. I hope in 1996, there are articles about Aztec Camera, Flipper, The Undertones, Alan Vega, Pere Ubu. Everyone remembers them now. But everyone should remember them always.
If anyone is wondering where to buy these albums, them you'll just have to look. The best shops are Vinyl Solution in London, Midnight and Venus Records in New York and maybe G.I. Records in Edinburgh. You can find them everywhere if you try.
I hate revivals of any kind so I hope the Psychedelic Revival has finally died down. But one group that has to be mentioned is The Chesterfield Kinds. Their LP could be from 1967, so close is it to the original. They only record the most obscure classics and are pure Chocolate Watchband.
I hope loads of people can be moved by this music but I have one savage plea:
Don't Turn Hippy On Me.


DISCOGRAPHY (Some have no record label)
Nuggets (Elektra)
Chocolate Soup For Diabetics, Vols. 1, 2, 3. (Relics Records)
Pebbles Vols. 1-12 (BFD)
Boulders 1-9 (Moxie)
Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks 1 & 2 (A.I.P.)
Back From The Grave 1 & 2 (Crypt)
What A Way To Die (Satan)
Mindblowers (White Rabbit)
Psychotic Moose & The Soul Searchers (P. Moose)
Texas Flashbacks 1-6 (Flashback)
Ugly Things (Raven)
Off The Wall 1 & 2 (Wreckord Wrack)
Psychedelic Sixties 1 & 2 (Cicadelic)
Acid Dreams
A Gathering of the Tribes (and Son of...) (Bona Fide)
Mindrocker 1-8 (Line)
Demention of Sound (Feedback)
Perfumed Garden I (Psycho)
Endless Journey I (Psycho)
Glimpses 1 & 2 (Wellington)
The Chosen Few (A Go Go)
Psychedelic Unknowns 105 (Calico)
Magic Cube (10")
New England Teen Scene (Moulty)
Everywhere Chainsaw
Relics (dB)
Oil Stains (dB)
Burghers
Texas Punk Groups (Eva)
Sound of the Sixties (Eva)
High in the Mid-Sixties
Hipsville 29 B.C.

BEWARE OF...

Perfumed Garden II
Endless Journey II
Glimpses III
Pennsylvania Unknowns
Houston Hallucinations
Echoes In Time

Julian's piece copied from here

Thursday, December 9, 2010

The 5.6.7.8's - "Teenage Mojo Workout" (Sweet Nothing, 2002)

I know i know, i gave a quick look before start begin to write this piece and a good 95% of what i found on the net for the 5.6.7.8's, mention the words "Tarantino" and 'Woo Hoo"! Not bad credits to go with, but hey, these gals have a lot more for someone to check or say than these two.
The 5.6.7.8's of course aren't new on the game. Their cat-ish primitive amalgam of garage rock n' roll-a-billy attracted a loyal fan base early on an with the right moves and some dose of luck, hit (quite) big. I must admit that even myself and because of the gals here, gave the attention deserved to the Rock-A-Teens... They were right in front of me, KICKS crew had covered their story but all i wanted was three little devil driven Japanese chicks to kick my ass! Yoshiko's my favorite! A cute little lynx that playing the guitar on a Link Wray level while screaming on microphone words that sometimes needs you to check on the lyrics (if these exist somewhere...) or the original version if it's a cover tune, to understand what she says! But who cares? She's for sure the "Fujiyama Mama" that legendary Wanda Jackson sang some decades ago. Her sis Fujii Sachiko behind the traps tries to keep steady their train, a for sure of far East Miriam Linna and the tall (at least of the three...) Yoshiko Yamaguchi, playing the bass somewhere in between of the Dee Dee Ramone and the Sun records hillbilly cats. "Teenage Mojo Workout" it's for me their best record. It worth's his price alone just for their version on "Hanky Panky"! I mean, listen to the filth that's produced from Ronnie's guitar (especially in the beginning) and go tell me if I'm wrong anywhere here! They cover also Bo, Booker T & the MG's, Ike & Tina or Bob & Earl proving the best way their intentions and their gusto! All in all, a FUN three chord rock & roll CD best served hot for your next party. Imagine the Ronettes playing with their own instruments The Sonics, Bo Diddley and Wanda Jackson and you're closer than ever to the 5.6.7.8's wild and cute world!
320 Kbps

Teenage Mojo Workout 

Friday, December 3, 2010

New Lost In Tyme Records releases! Check out the Basements & thee Martian Boyfriends, NOW!

Lost In Tyme records is not new on the market. OK they 're not veterans but in the garage circles they already make sense with their stuff. The Royal Hangmen, The Way-Outs and The Mean Things filth-ed the early steps and now's time (or better...tyme) for some new kicks!  The Basements from Thessaloniki Greece and Thee Martian Boyfriends from Belgium have trusted at label bosses hands, Peris (Lost In Tyme zine) and John (the Sound Explosion) their brand new blasts and be prepared to piss off your neighbors once again! Read carefully the press releases and have a ball with 'em!
For any further info click here, here or here!


The Basements - "Heart of Stone EP"  (7")
Yeah!! This is it!!
We had so many years to listen to a band like this here in Greece. THE BASEMENTS are a five piece combo coming from Salonika and as real Caveteens, they produce a primitive sound that is really missing so much in nowadays!
If you are into the new trendy alternative noisy Garage sound, or into the menopause progressive sound of the 70’s, then forget about it… this is not for you….
But if you are digging the sound that THE CHESTERFIELD KINGS, THE CRIMSON SHADOWS, THE CYNICS, taught us, then this golden piece of vinyl is for you!
Four original garage punk stompers full of fuzz guitars, screams & wyld organ sound. We are taking about real GARAGE PUNK SOUND… just like those days were Wyld & Primitive… but most of all played in a BASEMENT!! 

Thee Martian Boyfriends - "Thee Martian Boyfriends" (CD)
Out of the Red Planet (That is Mars, for you Morons!) come 4 little green men with a huge organ named Thee MARTIAN BOYFRIENDS!
When their flying saucer crashed somewhere in New Mexico, they were horrified by the ugly sounds they heard on the radio.
So they decided to teach the earthlings a lesson in good taste and stepped in the nearest pawnshop. All they could find was an old Farfisa organ, a 1964 Fender Jaguar and a fuzz box but they thought this old shit was good enough.
Once they turned up the volume all hell broke loose….the songs were drenched with fuzzed out guitar and cheesy organ sounds.
So people of the Blue Planet, you better run for cover or learn how to dance the Martian BOOGALOO because these new kings of FUZZ are here to conquer the world and NO HUMAN WILL GET OUT ALIVE....

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Cramps featuring Miriam Linna on drums (Excerpt from "How to Make a Monster", Vengeance - 2004)

OK, I'm bored to death to repeat my self even though i do this thing constantly. Well, is there anyone of you guys out-there that you don't already know who Miriam Linna is? OK, if you 're a newcomer on this blog I'll give some tags to google a little and find out for yourself her brilliancy! These are : KICKS magazine, Norton Records, Flamin' Groovies Monthly, The Zantees, The A-Bones and... The Cramps!
Many mistake Miriam as the original drummer of our beloved and mighty cannibals, but... actually the first was Pam Ballam (whatta a great nick was that!). But she was the first the Cramps did a recording with. Officially some of them found its way to the public through 2004's "How to Make a Monster" Cramps CD compilation with lotsa previously unreleased tracks of the band and with various line ups included. If my memory serves me well, that brought some tension between Lux, Ivy and Linna, cause the first two never get permission from the last to release this stuff; but the sad loss of Lux made the ones that left behind to bury the hatchet. It's obvious on Miriam's blog entrances about her early days with the Cramps. If you didn't already read and save on you HDDs these pieces, do it swiftly here, here and here! That's history, written in the unique "KICKS" way and essentially given to the fans with great pictures and stuff! I have made pdf files of every post so far Miriam uploaded on Kicksville 66, as a letter of administration to my children when they grow up and must catch on the right chapters of rock & roll! I advise you to do the same, before it's too late...
So, these recordings here not the complete with Miriam behind the traps but sure are the better sounding! I use most times, the Wang Dang Dula site for a deeper knowledge on things i like and i found some boots with more or less, most of the tracks they did together. The one i really need to catch is the "1976 Demo Session" produced by the Flamin' Groovies soundman Richard Robinson!... Any of you guys got it? If yes, please share and I'll be an eternally grateful bastard! 
320Kbps

Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk! 


Tracks:
- Live at Max's, Kansas City, on January 14, 1977 -
Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk / I Was A Teenage Werewolf / Sunglasses After Dark / Jungle Hop / Domino / Love Me / Strychnine / TV Set / I'm Cramped
- Studio, October 1976 produced by Richard Robinson -
I Was A Teenage Werewolf / I Can't Hardly Stand It




 

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Downliners Sect - "Nite In Gt. Newport Street" EP (Contrast Sound RBC SP 001, 1964)

The Downliners Sect had no common ground with all the other British R&B bands of the era. Although many puts 'em in the same can with the Rolling Stones or the Yardbirds, the Sect were rawer and punkier. The only band could match them, were the early Pretty Things. They had obvious similarities. Both bands were edgy. Both bands were punky in sound and attitude. Both bands blew them all cause they were too filthy to be superstars and both bands understood exactly what Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry were trying to say with their unique sound! The parents and the tabloids of the era complaining about the Stones and the Beatles long hair... C'mon, are kidding me?! Mick and Paul were too cute and pretty and in a big way even though their fans deny it, much of their impact on gals wasn't for their music. Don't get me wrong here. I'm a huge Stones fanatic and i respect Beatles melodies and harmonies brilliancy like not much other things in the world, but hey, Don Craine or Phil May never going to be everyone's darlings! And that's the reason why i rated them so high in my mind's hierarchy! And their sound...Gosh that CRUDENESS! I mean, those two gangs were the only from the entire British empire that could easily put their selves in the garage punk intelligentsia!
The "Nite In Gt. Newport Street" EP was the Sect's first release. They had previously recorded on studio Bo & Chuck's "Cadillac" & "Roll Over Beethoven", but for some strange reason this took turn on 1965 if I'm right. Penniman's people have it on the streets again, and i tell you, especially on Bo's tune they kick some serious asses. I strongly believe that this along with the Liverbirds version of "Mona", are the best ever approaches by white people, if not any, on Big Bad Bo (even though i remember clearly John from the Sound Explosion disagree with this opinion, cheers mate)! So, this EP was a self financed release on the large amount of...400 copies. And it worth's a fortune today. If you don't picked up already Penniman's 1000 copies reissue, i guess you'll have to wait for another one pick it up and make it available again in all its crude and raw excellence! Oh, i forgot to tell you that this shit, recorded live in the street's club Studio 51 and i guess you might guess what's happening in here, right?! As the front cover warning, the Downliners Sect PREACHING Rhythm 'N Blues! The hard way i must add... But don't expect something less from people with such bad behavior and their name taken from a Jerry Lee Lewis song... 
This is the most primitive record came outta England, and that's enough reason to pay some respect to its savageness!
320Kbps
                                                          Nite In gt. Newport Street


Sunday, November 21, 2010

Jerry McCain - "Turn Your Dumper Down With..." (Black & Allright LP - 001, 1996)

Jerry McCain is for harmonica just what he's for guitar Link Wray and for piano Esquerita! A wildman. If you'll ever have a chance to meet an alien and this green lamp headed creature ask you the one million dollars question, "What's Rock & Roll you back-warded scum?" you should say, "Jerry McCain, Link Wray and Esquerita"! That's right. OK you should add next Bo, Chuck & Little Richard but we 're flapping our mouths now. Anyway, if you ever wondered by whom barfed the wildest sides and then putted on vinyl plastic, that's the unholy trinity!
Jerry "Boogie" McCain is a key figure for this devil's music. He speed-ed up the blues in a way that make them instantly and without knowing it, punk! On  the well known label of Excello created mayhem. The same thing happened and a little earlier for the Trumpet. And what I'm offering here it's a whirlwind bash. Raw as hell and bad to the bone. Don't know if the young Rolling Stones or Pretty Things have known then, Jerry. I'm pretty sure though that even if they knew him, they wouldn't want to touch their hands on. Cause he's DIRTY!
I used the word "punk" somewhere. That happened not only for the attitude of his music. McCain purchased and cut by himself with a cheap record machine (remember, we're talking about the 50s, OK?) his earlier tracks like the one that sent to Trumpet Records, Little Walter's "Crazy 'Bout You Baby". He took Uncle John's side on "Run, Uncle John, Run!" as an answer to Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" ("Gonna tell aunt Mary, about uncle John..."), recorded a session with the Shindings (better known now as Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs!) and to this day along with Kid Thomas, are the coolest cult figures of Rhythm & Blues and the punks of the idiom. D'ya really need more?
320 Kbps

Run, Uncle John, Run! 

Friday, November 19, 2010

Various Artists - "Ugly Things, the CD" (Raven, 1992)

On the last UGLY THINGS magazine (issue #30 - Summer 2010), have placed a cool article by Johan Kugelberg on great (at least) and influential 60s punk compilations that grew up generations of misfits (here's another one) which makes a passing through the "Back From The Grave" series of Crypt, "the Chosen Few" volumes (by A-Go-Go), the "Garage Punk Unknowns" Volumes by Stone Age (Hmmm, OK - Crypt) or the small "Nuggets" brother, the "Pebbles". Of course there are (thank God!) millions out there and with all these blogspots around, day by day become zillions. Sure the article has "missings" but hey, this guy wrote his favorites. Everybody got some. More or less i agree with all the selections that Johan made, but I'm still wondering why he'd left out an obvious choice... The one that has the same name with the magazine that extends hospitality on the aforementioned piece. The one that turned our heads to Australia and had inside his grooves all the bastard kids of the Pretty Things (don't forget what the pretties did there...). And I'm talking about Raven's "Ugly Things" series! Originally on LP format (4 volumes) with the first one (and the best of them all) on the streets back in 1980 and the last in 1989. Here's the "best of" CD version of the four; and believe me the one you really need to chase. From here have started my obsession with the Missing Links, the Chants R&B and the Purple Hearts. 26 over the top R&B savage punkers, the way Phil May and Dick Taylor taught 'em. Dirty riffs, pounding drums and walking screams in a 70 minutes full throttle mayhem!
Many thanks to the original ripper of this (at first a torrent), I owe him a lot.You NEED this album!
320 Kbps

Ugly Things!


Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Crossfires - "Out Of Control" (Sundazed, 1995)

I fuckin' hate the Turtles! I can't stand the hippies anyway - so imagine if these hippies were fat stoned singing altogether with "pom-pom-poms" and shit,  "So haaaaappy togeeetheeeerrrr!"... Grrrrrrr!!! I need an uzi and a clip of bullets!
Ain't life full of contradictions? The Crossfires were one of these repugnant things. I mean, take a serious look on these photos here. OK, did you check them carefully? Awright, then give a listen to these fuckers recordings. I tell you people and before you can take a judge for yourself, the Crossfires were a bunch of strolling savage teenagers! One of the USA's most killer surf-instro combos! And actually were the first incarnation of the...Turtles for fuck's sake. As a one track mind i am there was no chance to give a shot on this CD if i knew first who got involved. I know, I'm a sucker but at least respect my honesty. That's another out of print compilation and don't know why these good folks at Sundazed HQ didn't re-reissue yet, gems like this one (preferable format this time, vinyl).  From the known surf hymns of "Fiberglass Jungle", 'Chunky","Inferno" and "Silver Bullet" to inspired rockenrollers like Buddy Holly's "That 'll be the Day", "Justine" and the mean lean "One potato two potato", the 'fires just sets dance-halls on (what else?) fire! All these sides along with the Flo & Eddie produced DMZ Sire LP, gives you some reasons to respect something of the Turtles history and proves that none was born a square, he becomes one later! 
320Kbps

Fiberglass Jungle! 



Friday, November 12, 2010

Los Saicos - "Wild Teen-Punk from Peru 1965" (Electro Harmonix, 1999)

Much hype lately for the psychos from Peru under the same name due to the great compilation got out by Munster. And not without a reason. They were a killer punk combo, probably the best 'round the world in its era (leave outside for obvious reasons, US and England). Of course they never came close to monsters like the Sonics or the Trashmen, and please don't bite the bate I've seen often lately that they were equal of the above, but... They sure were A grade ass kickers!
I bought this some years ago from Norton. I saw it on their catalog and when you're reading something like this,
"Title tells the whole loco tale! Mere words cannot begin to describe the sheer insanity of the 12 brutal bashings on this ten inch LP!" you just can't help yourself to not place an order! Their cult hit 'Demolicion" it's the evil twin of the Trashmen's "Surfin Bird"! Yes, that good! On rave-ups like "Intensamente", "Fugitivo de Alcatraz"or "Salvaje", Los Saicos sound like a street gang menacing people on the hood's corner and even when they "mellow" a little a bit on tracks like "Te Amo" or "Ana", their love words sounds like threats and not like promises! Their guitars snarling at every turn, and the drums have a pure deep and evil cannibalistic tribalism that makes most surf combos sound like fags!
Don't be fooled, if you're looking for real 60s Punk don't try find it on the Seeds or the Music Machine... Here's the real deal!
320 Kbps

TATATA...YA,YA,YA!