BOOK REVIEW!!!!! THE THREE STOOGES ; THE KNUCKLEHEADS RETURN (Malibu Graphics, 1989) 

Yeah, just about every tru-blu fanabla who reads this blog is more'n just a bit agog over the Three Stooges. But did any of you ever go for any of those Stooges cartoons that peppered up the television screens for quite a spell back in the sixties and seventies? I mean, the Robotic Stooges might have been good for a one-second laff, but would you want to watch a whole bunch of 'em for an entire hour? At least those Cambria 'toons had them live action wraparunds that had some redeeming Stoogian value. And as far as the comic book realm goes how many of you cherish alla those Little Stooges and Teenage Stooges books that were undoubtedly to be found twixt your copies of ARCHIE AND ME not forgetting ZAP! wallowing away in your own personal fart-encrusted bedrooms? Sheesh, even as a adlo comic rack and flea market comic book searcher I knew enough to avoid dribble such as that!

Face it, just because some sorta  entertainment commodity is a hit in one realm doesn't mean it's gonna translate well into another medium. Sure the Popeye theatrical cartoons were just as good as the original strips and I gotta admit to having liked the old Bugs Bunny comics at least until the art went zilch, but a good portion of the time translating a live action character into a comic book just doesn't cut it the way the producers of such items banked their ill-gotten gain on.

'n I gotta say this collection of Three Stooges sagas that have been reprinted in this not-so timely (right at the tail end of the big Three Stooges revival of the eighties) volume really don't do the Stooge memory any good. Not only is the cover misleading albeit on purpose (no Curly to be found in these pages but really, if a shot with Shemp or Curly Joe were to be used d'ya think it woulda sold any?) but the stories just can't compete with the rill dill as if whomps and baps come off so good on the printed page as they do celluloid. 

Oh yeah, the Norman Mauer etched Shemp-era comics have an eye-appealing swing to 'em and the stories, while far from filmic greatness, do tingle the nerve endings a little. And the Dell-period sagas (some which are comic book representations of then-current Stoogian cinematic fare) ain't as bad as anything you might find from any eighties upstart comic book publisher. But the magic level's particularly low as if any of the action here could compete with watching Vernon Dent getting all flustered or Christine McIntyre slapping Shemp all over the place. 

Well, the adaptations of the Hercules and Around The World films will appeal to those of you wo spent more'n a few Sunday PM's plopped in front of the tee-vee watching these oft-poo-poo'd flickers. 'n hey, even with the iffy results I'd rather read this book than comb through any of that hentai you guys slam your hams to thinkin' it's some sorta expression of your displaced masculinity, if that word still has any meaning these sad 'n sorry days.

BOOK REVIEW --- THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG DR. MASTERS (Gwandanaland Comics)

In all of those years of roaming through stacks of comic books during the Golden Age of my just-pre-pubes years I never recall coming across this short-lived Archie Comics title! Not that I think that YOUNG DR. MASTERS woulda been flying off the shelves at the same rate that those in-demand by me Marvel superhero titles were but hey, who out there would have thought that a comic like this was gonna appeal to the model car skateboard 'n glue sniffin' suburbanite teenbos the same way that the latest Stan Lee creation would. Sheesh, I don't even think that said kiddo's acne-laden ugly cyster holed up in her room with Ringo pics splattered all over the place woulda gone for it so like, where exactly was the market for this particular attempt at combining action, drama and romance or something like that (I'm sure even the folk at the former MLJ were confused!) considering the convolutedness of it all.

Yeah, there's the adventure angle (Masters rushing to save everyone from trapped construction workers to a shady businessman and his companions who survived an airplane crash) to the inner turmoil between Masters and his father (daddy wanting him to concentrate on doctoring while Our Hero's more content diddling with his test tubes) not forgetting the gushy romance angle custom made for the gurls (Masters' fiancée is a bitch while sweet Nurse Redmond worships him from afar --- a new variant on the old Archie Betty 'n Veronica angle). Put 'em all together and whaddaya got but a muddle that was guaranteed not only to last but two issues but one that not even yer typical Saturday Afternoon Barbershop Kid's siblings of the femme persuasion wouldn't wanna pick up on a bet!

In some ways YOUNG DR. MASTERS reminds me a tad bit of M.D., that "New Directions" EC title that lasted a few issues under the tutelage of the Comics Code which saw the entire EC comic book line do a rather undramatic tailspin. Y'know, one of those "toned down" EC entries that featured knights of yore, fearless newspaper editors, heavily edited science-fiction and, as if you hadn't gotten the gist of it, doctors going out of their way to save mankind in the noblest ways possible. Of course M.D. had great art, class and wasn't gonna make you feel creepy the same way I did when my dad caught me reading MILLIE THE MODEL and began casting dispersions about my manhood (I tried to explain to him that these late-sixties MILLIEs were but ARCHIE swipes right down to the Jughead stand-in but that didn't do any convincin'!). But still, if indeed MASTERS was a take on the long-forgotten EC title dontcha think it was kinda funny how Archie Pubs had the perhaps not-so-strange habit of swiping ideas from their arch enemy EC what with titles not only like this 'un but ARCHIE'S MADHOUSE and of course the MAD HOUSE MADS which actually earned the former MLJ a lawsuit from Bill Gaines himself! Boy what these comic book people would do to get each other's goats I'll tell ya!

Well Crappy New Year to youse and your'ins, and if you think I really care how your holiday season went you're even denser than I thought! Thankfully I had some extra free time these past few weeks to crank out a sooner-than-I-expected real deal big time post 'stead of those pitzy book review thingies, and if ya think I am doin' all this for your benefit you got another think comin'! I'm doin' it all for my own personal feel-good-about-myself benefit and besides, my therapist thinks it does a whole lot more good for me than basket weavin' ever did.

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Oh, 'n before I forget, I must thank alla you who got me goodies this year like Bill, Brad, P.D. and of course the fine fine superfine Droogs for their Christmas Card! Of course this past X-mas was nada compared to some of the biggies in my life I have often told you about, but thoughts and actions do count, even in the slightest as alla you people who hate me and the blog undoubtedly know by now!

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Heres' a li'l bitta BLOG TO COMM esoterica I found while rummagin' through the ol' stockpile, a pic of none other'n ME taken during my young and from the looks of it hungry days. Sure look happy there don't I? Of course I don't --- I mean that snap was taken at a time when, besides having little to choose from in eyewear other than birth control glasses, there were plenty of good records out there for the buyin' but I was stuck livin' on depression-era wages and couldn't afford many let alone alla 'em goodies that were up and about! That is, unlike YOU ROLLO THE RICH KID TYPES OUT THERE WHO WERE ABLE TO BUY EVERYTHING YOUR LI'L OL' HEARTS DESIRED AND WHO WOULD HAVE PROBABLY LORDED IT ALL OVER ME HAD WE COME INTO CONTACT BACK THEN IN YOUR TYPICAL UPNOSED FASHION T'BOOT!!!!! Hey, I hadda work hard to be able to afford them 99-cent Flamin' Groovies albums (which I still own and hold near and dear to my boobies) while all you upper crust "pnnks" hadda do was get daddy to foot your bills in order to get alla 'em imports and bootlegs that were poppin' up all over the place! And you wimpass well off snoots still had the nerve to call me a "poseur" (oh boo hoo sniff blubber!) while munching on brie and fine wine for weeks on end, Sheesh why dontcha try workin' a day in your lives and see how hard it is to come by them platters honest-like 'stead of just "asking for it" like I know alla you pious and priggish narsissies have ever since the doctor was thinking about throwing you away while keeping the placenta, which, in retrospect, probably would have been the proper choice to make! Sheee-yit!

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I suppose that I should say something regarding my own personal thoughts and beliefs regarding the usual everyday current events if only to get alla you radical elitist snobs' bile all in an uproar. But then again, alla you pampered petunias have long quit reading this blog in self-righteous moral outrage so why should I even try? But I must because, frankly you kneed to my my own thoughts and opinions a whole lot more'n you do those armchair radicals at DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND. 

For one thing well, I gotta admit that I kinda like it watching the current Prez bumbling about taking the world down this the country with alla his handlers trying to make him look oh-so-presidential falling flat on their faces in the process, and I gotta hand it to the folks not only at the White House but the media at large for even bothering to tackle the Herculean task of making the ol' fanabla look even halfway coherent! naturally not reporting on his gaffes while still deriding Donald Trump as the badski does help, if only in the slightest even if everyting that seems to be thrown at his comes off like a cherry bomb tossed at a thick-hided rhinoceros. If anything, I gotta give credit to Biden for one thing --- he makes former prez Gerald Ford actually come off downright elegant in comparison!

As for slobs like me who live in the sate of Pennsylvania well, it is definitely true that I might have some devious fun watching the changing of the guard in the senate and governorship here just like I would watching the apocalypse from a safe distance. Not that I thought that Josh Shapiro (a man whom I absolutely LOATHE) was a shoe-in considering not only the weakness of his opponent but the chi-chi upper class liberal vote concentrated in the big city areas, but the fact that enough people got off their asses to send that human train wreck John Fetterman to Washington really does make me wonder what weird neurological robotics we're gonna be in store for on C-Span in a few short weeks! Personally I wish that Kathy Barnette had gotten the nod considering how a good portion of the Pennsylvania elite wishes that her mother had her D 'n C'd after the rape that she was conceived in butwhaddeva, a this point in history all I gotta say is that you people got the government you voted for and yer gonna LOVE it. But too bad for us normal folk who go to work and have to foot the bills to suit your socio-political reform whims and fancies, ifyakowaddamean...

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AND NOW, FOR SOME VIEWING THAT SURE AIN'T "CINEMA" BUT JUST SOME GOOD OL' KICK YOUR FEET UP 'N FART AWAY ENTERTAINMENT!

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Again, here's a nice heapin' hunkerin' buncha old, new. borrowed and blues things I've been spinin' since our last soiree. A nice batch if I do say so myself and if thie following reviews don't prompt y'all to head for your nearest record shop to snatch up these sonically speaking efforts well, I guess things are just as usual as they've always been ya knuckleheads! Kudos to Paul, Brad, and my by-now aged vinyl collection for the contributions.

Chrome-THE CHRONICLES !! LP (Dossier Records)

An old classic that Brad Kohler got me for Christmas thinking that, in all these years, I NEVER HEARD THE DAD-BLASTED THING AS IF I WAS SOME SORTA PIMPLE-POPPIN' LOCK THE DOOR AND SPURT AWAY NIMNUL 'R SOMETHIN'! Of course he was right --- actually he was wrong but it sounds funnier if I said he was right --- but it was still nice of the ol' fanabla to give me another excuse to listen to this slice of classic Chrome.  Wall of gnarl complete with a steady drum beat just right for alla you old turds who used to read them fanzines which had Chrome ads plastered all over 'em, and I know you were one of 'em because who else would even go near this blog!

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The Senders-ALL KILLER NO FILLER (1977-2001) 2 CD set (Left For Dead Records)

"Can't O.D. on r 'n b" was this group's slogan, but from what I've heard they sure were O.D.'in' on a whole lot more if them stories about Sid Vicious galpal Nancy Spungen asking Senders frontman Philipe Marcade how to shoot up gives you some sorta inkling. Who knows, maybe it was the pharmaceuticals that got this group up 'n goin' considerin' the highly pulsatin' music that is put forth on this collection of Senders tracks both rare and not-so-unreleased. The live @ CBGB album that came out on Midnight is nowhere to be seen here but the Max's 'un from '80 is, along with a whole slew of tracks that take those fifties tock roots which are amphetamized to a point where many a precursor to the Senders sound like BACK IN THE USA come off reserved in comparison. Speaking of the MC5, none other'n Wayne Kramer drops in as does Johnny Thunders and it's all guaranteed to make your prissy Aunt Matilda's ears bleed like nothing since your cyster's last period. Dunno about YOUR ears, but you have been warned.

By the way, the liner notes to his 'un were scribed by none other'n Tim Stegall, a guy who sure got more than his share of abuse o'er the last thirtysome years and, from what I can tell; NONE OF IT, not even a tiny little eeny meeny bit, was deserved. It sure is nice to see Stegall still writing on in the here and now while al lotta the doofs who were putting him down in their own better-than-thou sophisticado ways are now either scrubbing toilets in some sailor bar or running daddy's business with alla the perks and some hot teenage boys on the side. I admire people who stay TRUE TO THE FORM!!!

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Anthony Braxton-THREE COMPOSITIONS OF THE NEW JAZZ LP (Delmark Records)

Here's Braxton a good eight or so years before he deservedly got the kind of notice that usually eluded the practitioners of the free form making his a reputation amongst the more-inclined jazzbos found on many a college campus. With the basis of the future Creative Construction Company in tow Braxton gets even more further out there than those far out players of the sixties with a surprisingly bold approach that I never could fathom them aforementioned college jazz hipster wannabes even goin' near! 

Think Roscoe Mitchell and the rest of those AACM-ers, only with a European classical approach that even got some of the John Cage groupies noticin'! But, like Mitchell and a good portion of the AACMer's, still a vital part of the Great Black Music which, come to think of it, appropriated a good hunk of white Europeanisms into their style

By the way, did i ever tell you about the time I was spinnin' some Braxton platter in my boudoir and my father saw the cover and thought he was Johnny Mathis??? A few seconds of sound quickly changed his mind!

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The Seeds & Sky Saxon-BAD PART OF TOWN LP (Eva Records, France)

Yeah, most if not alla this has been reissued under the guise of the Bomp! Records Group back inna late-eighties, but at one time this album was the only place most of us could hear these rare sides featuring the Sky King before and after his brief but heady heyday in the mid-to-late sixties! 

Nice Euro-styled sleeve houses not only those rare post-GNP Seeds singles which really do cut a hard psychedelic swath, but some (maybe all?) of the early pre-Seeds Sky spinners which show off a particularly innocent and ballad-y early-sixties side to the man. You might want to pay special attention to "Half Angel" which sure doesn't sound as if Sky is doin ' the warbleizin' --- that's definitely a female in front of the mic and I do suspect it to be Sky's former partner in musical crime and ex-Little Rascal Darla Hood who's doin' the honors! Anyone out there know the true story? If so keep it to yourself like you always seem to do!!!

A great way (if you can't latch onto the Bomp! side) to osmose the extremes in the career of the man otherwise known as dog's best friend.

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Wah y Los Arrrghs!!!-CANTAN EN ESPANOL CD-r burn (originally on Voodoo Rhythm Records)

Since the only Spanish I know is "chinga usted" and "tu mama es una puta" (which I believe respectively translates into "you're a swell guy" and "your mother is nice" or something like that) the lyrics on this 'un go totally right by me. However this wild rocker doesn't need no Berlitz to get its message across. Sixties revival racket 'n roll that thankfully eschews the usual hackneyed ruts many of the mid-eighties revivalists got into with a mid-sixties beat that woulda gotten any teenbo of the past up and hollerin' for more'n Shake-A-Puddin'! That flat Moxie sound really woulda helped these guys out, but then again we can'T have everything even if it's tht anti-audiophile attitude we all know 'n love.

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Various Artists-A SPLASH OF COLOUR LP (WEA Records, England)

It's been awhile since I've given this 'un a play. In fact this has been the FIRST time I played the thing since I got it and I sure know why! 

While this collection of the New British Psychedelia straight outta 1981 revival-land sounded like a nice idea fortysome years back most of the groups presented on A SPLASH OF COLOUR come off more like Duran Duran wannabes tryin' to cash in on the new British Weekly flavo(u)r of the week! 'n frankly, I was wishin' an' hopin' this 'un'd be brimmin' with nothin' but the type of psychopunks who were seen at the time ampin' up for a hotcha  self-produced single. Sheesh, as if they couldn't've gotten Dr. Mix and the Remix to donate a track!  

Only the Times with their "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape" captured any of the stark reasons as to why I was gobblin' this stuff up in lieu of the actual sixties thing being harder to find than Don Fellman in Germantown!

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The Night Shadows-LIVE AT THE SPOT LP (Hottrax Records)

It ain't THE SQUARE ROOT OF TWO but this '69 live set is sure better'n just how some of them sixties garage band purists made it out to be. Good mix of mid-sixties aesthetics, the off color hot dog song and the hipster schmooze and it all comes off like I woulda thought a wild night out would've--- even the cover of "Seasons of the Witch" with Little Phil doin' a Janis Joplin imitation is less hippie and more scronk! Well, lemme tell ya that I rather woulda been at this concert than Woodstock --- at least there would be a relatively clean toilet somewhere nearby and you know just how gassy my bowels can get sometimes!

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Hawkwind-PORT TALBOT MAY '70 CD-r burn 

The horrible sound quality actually adds a whole load of gnarl to this extended rendition of "Be Yourself" from the first Hawkwind spinner. Incredibly intense rendition here that shoulda been bootlegged long ago even if the overall quality certainly wouldn;t have been suitable for some of you HIGH FIGELIT/STEREO REVIEW half-mastered virgin vinyl pressing types out there.

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Hot Lunch-MAX'S KANSAS CITY NOVEMBER 20, 1977 CD-r burn

Better quality than the CBGB 'un reviewed a month or so back, Now you can understand more of what Emilio Cubiero is singing and from what I can make out most (but not all) of it is as disgusting as the bile he was spouting on his DEATH OF AN ASSHOLE platter, that album which got the New York under-the-underground better-than-thou types all agog back when it came out. Good for historical purposes and for those of you who kinda remember punk rock before it mutated into that sissified variation called punque.

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Kikagaku Moyo-AT HERE PRESENT/GREEN SUGAR CD-r burn 

Big thanks to Otto von Ruggins for tipping me off to this now defunct Japanese group that no ifs and and buts about it had the German Expressionist Rock style and approach down pat! Drawing on equal parts Can, Amon Duul II and the motorik beat of Neu!, Kikagaku Moyo sounds so seventies under-the-underground Teutonic to me that upon listening I felt like I was back at some Southern California record shop thumbing through overpriced Ohr imports! A group that really dredges up alla those long-forgotten (sometimes even for me) impulses of the past that usually led to the draining of my hard-begged moolah.

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Now that you got alla that Christmas money just bustin' outta yer wallet what're ya gonna do with it? Yeah yer maw said to put in all inna bank but you know better! Howzbout spendin' the entire wad on back issues of BLACK TO COMM 'n just tell her that you deposited the booty so's you can buy a scarf for her with the 10 cents interest when Mother's Day rolls around! Hey, by the time Mother's Day does pop up onna calendar she probably be senile anyway 'n besides, why waste money ona lady who doesn't even know what day it is when you can blow it all on yourselves! 

BOOK REVIEW! FAT AND SLAT --- THEIR FOUR-ISSUE SERIES AND BONUS STORIES (Gwandanaland Comics)

When Max Gaines sold his slice of DC and skedaddled with PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE to form his own EC line he also snatched up the FAT AND SLAT series created by veteran cartoonist Ed Wheelan of MINUTE MOVIES fame. I gotta admit that I find it rather weird that this obvious MUTT AND JEFF swipe was running in Gaines' "All American" line especially since at the exact same nanosecond Gaines was printing the MUTT AND JEFF stories not only on their own but amid the various Green Lantern and Flash sagas that were raking the bucks in at the time. Almost as strange as when Hulk Hogan and Superstar Billy Graham were both wrestling in the WWF and the same time, but stranger things have gone down in the once-wild and wooly world of comic books.

I sure think that it's sweller'n swell that some if not all of the Pre-Trend EC titles have fallen into the public domain. It ain't like I'm that hot on reading such obvious dogs as ANIMAL FABLES or THE HAPPY HOULIHANS, but EC's early crime titles do lead the way to the highly praised SuspenStories they would eventually make their moolah with and besides, there are a few pre-Trenders that I must admit I had just more'n a little bitta curiosity towards such as FAT AND SLAT. After all, Wheelan's MINUTE MOVIES was such an important part of the development of the comic strip it being the first one to have a continuing storyline but most of all sheesh, am I a real sucker for A GOOD BAD GAG!!!

And FAT AND SLAT was chock fulla 'em! When a bad gag is presented properly is transcends the usual banality of those gags Unca Ferd usedta toss at ya...Ernie Bushmiller and Bob Montana were masters of taking worn and just plain trite groaners and slippin' in a whole lotta  freshness into 'em, along with the eye=pleasing art and sexy gals. As far as Wheelan went well, it wasn't like he could cram a whole lotta sexiness into his panels (though he femmes were cute enough if you go for the Vera Vague look) and I don't think the Surrealists woulda let him into their clique no matter how hard he tried, but his work was more'n just plain satisfactory, especially if you (like me) still harbor your olde tymey Sunday Afternoon settle back 'n read some comic book habit that really held your attention span more'n geometry class ever did. That is, until you discovered a special meaning in old NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC hula girl issues and bathroom door locks.

At times these gags make you do just that, but sometimes the jokes do slap ya when you're not lookin'. Given that Wheelan was still drawing in that fine-pen style even this late in comic art game the game the artwork does come off rather spirited. And that's something which does suit a fanabla like me who thinks comic strips took a wrong turn way back and perhaps we need to revive some of the older ways without looking too homage-driven, that is.

Also on hand is the "Comics McCormick" series featuring Earth's Mightiest Comic Book Fan who, each issue, is seen fantasizing about his own adventures fighting alongside such super-powered specimens as Marvel Maid. Thid feature is actually a whole lot better'n you wags would probably be led to believe even if the ol' "it was only a dream" culmination might be an insult to the brains of some of you more sophisticated types who wouldn't be seen eating pork rinds.

As a bonus you also get some FAT AND SLATs that popped up in a number of other EC titles such as LAND OF THE LOST and MOON GIRL which is certainly a nice thing for Gwandanaland to do in their budget conscious times. So you guys (and I assume gals but wouldn't bet on it) readers don't have any excuses NOT to waste them lazy days doing something constructive like yer parents always bugged you about. Get a hold of FAT AND SLAT and do a good turn for humanity that sure beats you volunteering to work inna soup kitchen I'll tell ya!

MURRAY CHRISTMAS!

You remember him, he's the Jewish guy with the Christian last name! Anyway, I do hope that your holiday season is doing swell enough for you to ooze a little funtime enjoyment outta this particular entry in the ever-lovin' annals to BLOG TO COMMunism. I guess my holiday jeers are goin' 'long hokay enough especially since either alla my relatives are dead or not speaking to me so there's no arguments or petty sniping goin' on this time o' year that's for sure! Of course less relatives means less presents but hey, nowadays I can afford alla the tootsietoys I want so what's the big loss anyway Junior? 

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And (if you IQ zeroes haven't guessed by now), here's the latest in a line of once again staggling BLOG TO COMM posts. As usual the lack of time and energy is once again contributing to my tardiness, although I gotta say that it sure ain't exactly a bowlfulla Cream of Turdburger Soup cranking out these posts for a buncha INGRATES like I know you are! And by that I do mean you readers who could care one whit about these definitely enlightening missives guaranteed to get your rockism revved up like nothing since Geritol. Something of which, considering the average age of the readers of this blog, I'm sure is pumped intravenously into each and everyone of y'all.

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IT'S TIME FOR YOUR AFTERNOON (or morning or evening, wherever you happen to be) MOOM PITCHER INTERLUDE: here's a flicker that I gota say, for being over 110-years-old, really affected me in ways that I don't think anything done within the past four or so decades ever could. And for being an Edison production (they not exactly being known for their groundbreaking filmic efforts the way that the folk at Biograph or even Vitagraph were), THE LAND BEYOND THE SUNSET really does grab you by your psyche and says, in twelve minutes no less, things that multi-kazillion dollar efforts have certainly fallen flatter'n Olive Oyl's chest on. And that ending, even in its ambiguity, is one that really makes one shudder in ways that might seem cornball to you but more down to earth and real life than anything you'll ever admit to given your rather shallow lives: My fascination with this 'un probably says a whole lot more about me than it does you, and in a positive, life-reaffirming way at that.  I'll tell ya, this one got "me" like nothing since those Strother Martin episodes of GUNSMOKE.

Speaking of Mr. Martin, here's a brief sample of why I believe this man was thee downright best CULT performer to hit any medium extant (and you can take your Harry Dean Stantons, James Coburns, Royal Danos and Timothy Careys --- well maybe not Carey--- and do what you're supposed to do with 'em I guess...)

And here's one more that's bound to send you back to the 1975 CBGB Christmas Rock Festival:

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Got some newies here as well as picked a few outta the collection that I haven't played in a skunk's age. There are loads of spinners this time and if I were yoy I wouldn't read the entire writeup in one sitting. Take a break, have a sandwich and then continue on...it's good for your spleen. Thanks to the usual suspects for their contributions 'n all. And thanks to me for having a steady job so's I can afford some of these tasty treats!

MX-80 Sound-BIG HITS AND OTHER BITS LP (Supreme Echo Records)

Sheesh, I have about ten variations on this in my collection so why do I need another! Well, I do and not only for the neat packaging (complete with rare snaps and a history of the original Bar-B-Q issue) but for the additional tracks which, as they all say, are bound to turn your head in ways Charlie McCarthy could only dream of. '76-vintage MX-80 here going through everything from re-dos of Jan & Dean to the Ventures to a variety of efforts previously unheard by my ears. And just wait until you osmose what they did with some of the old Chinaboise numbers cuz frankly you just might not believe it!

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Marc Bolan & T .Rex-RARE, LIVE AND UNRELEASED 3-CD-r set

Anudder dunno the what whys and wherefores about it, but SO WHAT given this is a nice 'n hot slice of T. Rextacy in its pantie wetting prime. Three disques with loads of those great tracks that really serve to remind ya of just what WAS  grand about the early-seventies even though brainy rock knowitalls seem to say otherwise. Well, ya gotta admit that they all are a buncha phony intellectuals anyway because, in quite a few ways, those years mighta been way superior to what eventually was in store! 

If I got this into my paws back when I was twelve I probably wouldn't be here today because hey, the sheer MIGHT of these pulsating paens to energy as god woulda killed me right then and there! I know --- you sure wish they HAD!!!

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Meercaz-QUEEN MARY MILL LP (Love Anthem Records)

Another stangetie from Meercaz, but a GOOD strangetie at that. Side one's a ball of confusion what with the presence of (I assume) Queen Mary Mill(ington) and others gabbing in between various "found sound" in the form of old records etc. A hodgepodge that I must admit I really couldn't discern let alone get into. However I totally went for the flipster which features some mighty hard rockin' from Meercaz that at times evokes the beauty of Detroit metallic shards as well as El Lay sleaze the kind that sorta bubbled under the veneer of showbiz glitz the same way the LA STAR did. Of course you're going to ignore it and let this effort sorta frizzle away into the eternity of records that shoulda gotten their due but never did. And you wanna know why I hate you!

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Fadensonnen-MIRROR/CREEPER LP (Fadensonnen Records)

Fadensonnen once again comes out with an effort that kinda knocks one for a loop even if the one listening isn't the kinda guy who gets knocked out for one. "Mirror" starts off rather melodic-like (!) with an eerie psychedelic presence complete with obvious lines copped from "Sunshine of Your Love" if mutated through a mid-eighties Controlled Bleeding effort. "Creeper" borrows heavily from "Sister Ray" which doesn't surprise me other'n the way people can take that basic riff and do wonders with it like they have the past fifty-five years. Biggest disappointment---side two is left blank.

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Lou  Reed-LIVE AT ST. ANN'S WAREHOUSE, ROOKLYN, NY, DECEMBER 14, 2006 CD-r burn

Hain't played the BERLIN album in a skunk's age so this live re-do by Reed was an interesting re-evaluation. Or something like that, but sheesh I gotta say that I think this 'un's better'n the real deal thing! The original was a bit too overboard, but the new take is stripped down and, in many ways, captures the 1973 deca-rock New York scum just as well as those Elliot Murphy odes to suburban moms speeding on pills while the kids get lost in Lower Manhattan for weeks on end did.  Gee, who knew that Lou still had it in his that late in the game! If anything, try to avoid the encore of "Candy Says" which sounds as if Marvin the Martian's singing it.

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Lou Reed-WORDS AND MUSIC MAY 1965 CD (Light in the Attic Records)

And speaking of Lou, here are those long-promised poor man's copyright tracks which I gotta say really appeal to a guy like me whose only Velvets spinnage these past two or so years have been those July '65 demos. Ain't gonna bore ya in my typical long-winded way about what goes on  but I'm sure they're gonna be ear-openers for the more Velvets-attuned aficionados amongst us. And the earlier folkie tracks are quite enthralling as well. Don't let the thought of Lou singing "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" scare you any for he turns it into a rather rollicking number which I don't think ever coulda been sung 'round some campfire!

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Les Olivensteins-UNAVAILABLE CD (Smap Records, France)

Wow, I didn't know that this French punk (in the purest Skydog sense of the word) had this many records out. 

You can easily enough search this blog for my other Olivensteins reviews but whatever, try to also get hold of this '77 effort which really jolted me back into fantasy after quite a spell of reality. None of that precocious blare trash here or even any really direct copies of all those big names that everybody was copying from lo these many years. These Olivensteins direct your ears back to those days of old, nudging somewhere between the mid-seventies punk stylings with various pop and neo-Stonesy moves that mighta even made them anti-punk assholes you knew (and still do) sit up and take notice. 

Just goes to show you just how much good 'n uncovered music still needs to be heard by monominded doofs such as myself!

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The Satellites-OUTTA HERE CD-r burn (originally on Beluga Records)

An eleven-year-old garageband revive-y thing (which I thought I had previously reviewed in these pages although can't find any evidence I did) which I'm sure will please a few of ou readers who never had the heart to sell your Voxx label LPs. Although I find nothing at all dire about this one all I gotta say is...dontcha think this would sound a whole lot better had it come out in 1981 and was pressed on one of those flat Moxie Records discs that got more'n a few audiophiles out there in an uproar? Me too.

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Sonny Burgess with Dave Alvin-TENNESSEE BORDER CD-r burn (originally on Hightown records)

(Another one I coulda sworn I reviewed way way back but wha' th' hey...) Olde-tymey rockabilly legend teams up with a new-tymey one and the results are --- actually not that bad. Of course all of the markings of "new" and "improved" are splattered all over the thing but it still makes for a kinda/sorta decent listening experience. And not only for  the long time rockabilly fans but alla them gnu wavers who jumped onto the bandwagon inna early-eighties after the Stray Cats perked their attention up quite a bit. To be honest about it this actually does very little for me although I will admit its' a solid and well-crafted effort that should go down in some sorta r-billy pantheon of greatness.

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PARIS 1942 LP (Majora Records)

When I first lent ear to these guys via some live tape sent me by none other than the infamous Philip Milstein I thought it was a total waste of the talents of drummer Maureen Tucker to even go near these attention-seeking and downright irritating on purpose (as in precocious turdler not industrial music brandisher) buncha fanablas However when I snatched this 'un up a good twennysome years or so back I couldn't believe the outright perfection what with these pre-Sun City Girls putting out a roar that reminds me more of those mid-seventies local garage band cassette rehearsal tapes (talkin' Rat Squeeers, Gizmos, Kid Sister...) than anything else. Of course the backbeat sure helps these guys out a whole lot. That's the a-side --- the flip gets into some more developed instrumental bends and turns that's not as grabbing, but still pretty solid and attuned to your very own sense of musical wonderment. I think you can get it off Youtube if you so desire.

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Stan Freberg-FREBERG UNDERGROUND LP (Capitol Records)

It's been awhile since I've spun Freberg's final comedy album and I gotta admit that, even with the man's fifties-styled brand of necktie ha-ha's starting to come off totally irrelevant in the modster sixties, I could get a whole load-a funtime satisfaction outta his Ron Reagan/Batman spoof not to mention his folk songs for the future. It's a whole lot funnier'n anything the likes of Sarah Silverman can croak up that's for sure! June Foray adds her own special magic to this toodle-oo as she did back when "St. George and the Dragonet" was cuttin' 'em up, and Freberg even re-did his famous Lake Michigan filled with hot chocolate with the Royal Canadian Air Force dropping a maraschino cherry on the whipped cream skit t' boot!

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PETER STAMPFEL AND THE BOTTLECAPS LP (Rounder Records)

Does this post (Un)holy Modal Rounders Stampfel platter hold up as much as it did when I presented that feature of 'em in my famed crudzine way back 1988 way?  Sho' does! A classic selection of real Amerigana set to music even you can enjoy, from funk meets hoedown to Jimmy Buffettisms for people who hate Jimmy Buffett! Trust me, it works as much now as it did when I was younger and perhaps not that much stupider.

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The Moogy Klingman Revue with Andy Kaufman-LIVE AT MAX'S KANSAS CITY 1974 CD-r burn

Thanks to Paul McGarry I got a slew of good burn 'em ups just in time for some holiday hijinx, and this one is a surprise given its historical value. Three tracks here (with a spoken intro and outro by noted Utopian Klingman on the whys and wherefores), recorded during his Revue's Max's Kansas City tenure. Two of 'em feature the band while the one stuck inna middle showcases Kaufman's earliest live appearance (I think) where the genesis of that style which continues to irritate a whole load of fanablas even this far down the line can truly be discerned!

The actual Klingman tracks aren't exactly my cuppa tea, the first with special guest Todd Rundgren being of that typical mid-seventies prog rock up 'n down the keyboard style that still has an extremely stale air to it now as it did then. The second, more jazz-fusion one does fare better but I'm sure that the majority of you tuner-inners would want to listen to this about as much as you'd want to sit through an entire run of HAZEL with a few episodes of PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES to wash it down.

The Kaufman stuff sates more, what with him doing this real hippoid peace and love whole earth kinda character urging the audience to go "Ommmmmm" before mutating into a tough New York slob puttin' down the wheat bran schmucks assembled! And it was only a year before the same guy was spinnin Mighty Mouse records on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!

It's online in various formats so like, if you wanna get it it's there for ya as Lou Costello once said.

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Patti Smith-LIVE AT MAX'S KANSAS CITY 1974 CD-r burn

Lotsa action goin' on at Max's then, not only with the above but with these recently discovered tracks from one of Patti's appearances at the famous hangout right when everthing was starting to get super-hot. "Piss Factory" roars on with a ferociousness that just wasn't present on the single while "Paint It Black" is made Patti's own with a tenseness that just wasn't put forth on the Stones original! And the duo of Lenny Kaye and Richard Sohl sound about as electronically attuned as any of the major claimants to the form once known as rock 'n roll...sheesh, these two are perhaps the best Velvets-infused duo to hit the boards since Suicide!

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Hey, why pay exorbitantly high fees for back issues of BLACK TO COMM  elsewhere when you can get 'em for a whole lot less here! Of course you'll have to deal with me, but them's the breaks. 

BOOK REVIEW! BLOODY BILL ANDERSON - THE SHORT, SAVAGE LIFE OF A CIVIL WAR GUERRILLA BY ALBERT CASTEL & TOM GOODRICH (University Press of Kansas, 1998)

Well, it did seem as if it was gonna be an ordinary enough day in Fayette Missouri that September 24th. There was a farmer's market being held about noon and as is expected with such things the locals were out and about not only buying up the local produce but having about as much of a good time as they could amid the carnage around 'em that was known as The War Between the States. During this social gathering a number of men on horseback dressed in Union uniforms rode into town and, perhaps not to everyone's surprise, began a wholesale slaughter on the small city giving credence to the plain ol' fact that these guys weren't exactly on the side of Ol' Glory but Southern sympathizin' Bushwhackers who definitely had more of a taste for pure carnage than they did for the Southern cause. Fortunately a garrison from the local fort were dispatched to quell the violence but not before suffering heavy casualties. The Bushwhackers lost a number of men before retreating, though instead of bein' give proper burials the Union soldiers, nervesplitted by this particularly grisly encounter, decided to line the corpses up on the road and ride their horses over the bunch until the vanquished were nothing but a mass of bloody pulp.

Sheesh, don't ya love it when history comes alive like this?

The Civil War was one big mass of terror 'n cruelty administered by both sides of the conflict, but it was definitely a whole lot worse out in Kansas and Missouri what with the militias going out of their way to inflict total terror upon not only the men in uniform but the populace at large. And when it came to that old cliche of death 'n destruction nobody could really top the Bushwhackers under the leadership of Ohioan (albeit diehard Confederate) James Quantrill who had some rather gnarly reg'lar fellers working with him like "Little Archie" Clement, an aw shucks teenager who happened to like mutilating people while they were still alive. And like, who could forget the legendary even in his own time "Bloody" Bill Anderson, a man who to this day is either viewed as a defender against Northern aggression or a plain ol' maniac which goes to show you how the controversy lives on even to this day.

Anyway this book is a particularly concise and downright explicit saga of one of the more bloodthirsty and ruthless men to pop up in the annals of Amerigan history. And reading through the pages of this biography you really do get the idea of just how much war can turn otherwise everyday decent human beings into madmen who think nothing of committing atrocities before returning to their formerly peaceful live raising a family on a farm as if the past never happened. Only in this case you certainly do get the impression that the likes of Anderson and Clement were, and would have remained had they survived the war, specimens who never had a human bone in their carcasses given the way they likes to play around with their victims before dispatching 'em, cutting their wieners off and stuffing them in their mouths or just plain having a good laugh decapitating their quarry and either mixing the heads and bodies up or placing 'em of their former owner's chest with their dead hands holding 'em in place like something outta Ichabod Crane. Now, that really got Little Archie laughing his own gourd off!

It's all here in detail from Anderson's early days as a horse thief to his first murder of a local judge whose main crime, besides blasting Anderson's dad in the chest with a shotgun, was spurning the guy's sister's hand in marriage, to his days with Quantrill's Raiders (where he worked along sides such future Wild West baddies as the Youngers and James Brothers --- Jesse being particularly fond of the guy). Of course a whole lotta space is given to such antics as the gruesome razing of Lawrence Kansas as revenge for the death of his sister not to mention the train robbery which didn't net much in the way of useful booty but was rich in Union soldiers out on furlough, all of who were lined up, shot and scalped with their luscious glories being attached with the rest of the previously ill gotten hair to their saddles not just as trophies as much as they were warnings.

Y'know, I sure wish this book was around back when I was in grade school...I mean, could you imagine me giving a talk up in front of the class goin' on in detail about Anderson's exploits while the rest of the kids were yappin' on 'bout George Washington's cherry tree? I have the feeling that, although I definitely thought I would've deserved an "A" for my efforts, I probably would have been subjected to a battery of psychological tests being asked all sorts of embarrassing questions about how I spent my free time locked in the bathroom with a copy of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (the hula girl issue). Sheesh, as if Amerigan History was nothin' but Bunker Hill and Iwo Jima and not the good stuff such as this! 

Yeah I know --- you wonder where the fekawi I've been this past month, right? Well now that I'm back aren'tcha glad you stuck around in eager anticipation for today's epistle to you unwashed types? I mean, given the utter blandness of most rock 'n roll blogs which have either gone semi-comatose like THE NEXT BIG THING or are just too bound up in that modern form of politically pious puke that's so in vogue, BLOG TO COMM just might be the only place onna web where one can devour some really potent and (perhaps even) still meaningful rockist writing without having to endure a whole load of socially-conscious filler, or at least the kinda filler I disagree with! And when I'm talkin' rock 'n roll writing I mean the kind that doesn't rot on ya like the last fortysome years of rockscreeding most certainly has in case you still pay attention to the quap that I assume ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY is still pumping out! (I mean who knows what they're up to now, I fortunately enough have not read a single mainstream periodical since I was at Midas Muffler waiting for my new exhaust!)

Hey, just take a look at what passes for "rock criticism" or whatever it's called these days --- a hefty portion of what I've been coming across as of late is totally cringeworthy with nada of the zap or punch of say, a Bangs or Meltzer unless you want to figure the pair's occasional garment-rending virtue signaling into the mix. Horribly wretch-inducing stuff that even makes those contributions to OP I sent 'em way back in '81 look totally readable in comparison and that's pretty bad!

It obviously must be rather hard for these current "rock critic" (yech!) types to separate the rock from the hippydippy right on heart hemorrhaging that goes on these days. And y'know what? In many ways it's really sad to see just how many of my old time favorite writers who used to berate the whole radical right on politicizing of rock 'n roll eventually embracing the exact same lurch leftwards with a passion that would have done even the most starry eyed altruistic teenbo gal with a Che poster in her suburban bedroom proud. 

Just recently I happened upon the website of a certain eighties-vintage rock critic who I must say is a rather loathsome being. That's besides the point, but despite my antagonism towards this particular specimen I must admit that even I never would have thought him to have sunk as low as he has after happening upon this gent's very own website where I espied a recently posted piece on --- now get this--- the Kyle Rittenhouse kerfuffle with an entry which made even the most boo-hoo political punk mewlings of the eighties found in such esteemed periodicals as FLIPSIDE and MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL seem rather solid in comparison! Given the truth about what actually did happen and the eventual trial and outcome I personally felt the case closed and with the right outcome given that a pair of miscreants were attacking a guy with an AR-15 and got what for, but the sappy sobbiness still lingers on, at least in the hearts and minds of those who somehow think that maybe the Shining Path really did have something going for them after all.

I will say that it was a quite a bit of a surprise to find this particular scribe totally down with the "struggle" what with his fists up revolution spew regarding the holy innocence of the thugs who were out to kill Rittenhouse and how My Hero was earlier seen chatting with some policeman (shudder!) who even offered the kid something to drink (egads!) all done up in a way that I'm sure put a smile on Tim Yohannon's ever-putrefying corpse. I woulda called said rock crit many a thing way back during the late-eighties but I NEVER woulda called him a total bleedheart crybaby who would seemingly fall for any sorta radical clarion call hook line and pamphlet or even an "anarchist" fanzine for that matter! Well it now looks as if he now IS everything that I thought even he once stood against and with a good four decades of make up to boot! Good thing I was so disgusted that I didn't read down far enough to glom some of his music critiques, but I assume  that if his social spectacles are skewered the way they are his musical tastes haven't evolved any either!

And man, that is exactly where rock fandom and socially aware one-upmanship stand here in the early days of what is proving to be the bleak twenties. And I really in my heartest of hearts hope the above schpiel will make you APPRECIATE this blog all the more even when I do sound off on those things that probably make a good 99.999...% of you reg'lar readers uncomfortable. Yes, the festooned radicals of today are nothing but a new version of those moral uplifters that D.W. Griffith used to rail against, only those old biddies had a good REASON as to why they smelled bad!

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In other news well, things ain't exactly goin' accordin' to hoyle as far as my own personal universe goes. Naw, it ain't anything GNARLY that I have to contend with at the point in time, but the sit-chew-a-shun around here most certainly could be a whole lot easier on the nervous system. Without mentionin' too much (it's not that I want you to feel sorry for me --- I just don't want you laughing at my misfortune like I would at yours!) let's just say that throughout my life I've hadda down a few reality sandwiches but right now I'm facing a reality hoagie that's gotta be devoured and with relative gusto at that! Thus the reason these blogs have been so far apart, and although I hope to get back to the ol' weekly rigmarole one-a these days such a time will have to wait until who knows when. And if yer hooked up on some machine when the time does arrive don't come cryin' to me!. 

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Hokay, the above does come off quite overwrought and really is an exaggeration of the current state o' affairs, but in the sage words of Eddie Haskell you'd feel the same way too if you were pushed around as much as I've been! But man, the cringe cancer that I've been enduring thanks to everything from precious petunia former rock critics spewing radical treacle to going through the everyday grind of reality can get to ya --- if you let it, that is. And as you can tell I SURE AM!!!!  But actually I'm getting my share of fun time in when I can spare it, like on a Sunday afternoon or in the evening when the moon rises and it's time to put my mind in a sling. My eyeball situation is improving somewhat and I've begun to tackle some books that will probably be written up on this blog in the quite distant future. My toidy-time reading has been devoted to a batch of old HI AND LOIS books I decided to snatch up which is kinda funny because that particular comic strip never was one of my faves, Howevah, I gotta say that HI AND LOIS, like it's "brother" comic BEETLE BAILEY, had a good groove it got into with gags that might not make you laugh out loud but were clever enough to make you wanna sit on the pot a little longer to get to the next few 'uns. And, surprisingly enough, I find the later-on eighties comics to be better'n the earlier ones (both art and writing-wise) which is a surprise given how I think most entertainment has just fizzed out once that dreaded decade settled firmly into place!

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Seems as if Paul McGarry should take the blame for the majority of these contributions but please don't harm him. PD .Fadensonnen sent in the cassette and well, I gotta claim responsible for a couple of these myself. And with that it's time to dig in!!!!
 

Various Artists-THE EARLY SOUNDS OF GARAGE ROCK 2-CD set (Not Now Records)

Well whaddaya know, a NUGGETS for the pre-First Psychedelic Era!  And believe it or leave it but the folk who compiled it did a pretty good job slappin' the thing together! Sure there are some glaring omissions as well as a few inclusions that might seem a bit outta place, but otherwise if you're in the market for a double disc collection of pre-Beatles "nugget if you duggit" platters this does make for a wild time. The only thing that's missing is Lenny Kaye  doin' the liner notes. It just goes to remind ya of just how great rock 'n roll, radio, teenage hijinx and overall funzies were before a buncha National Honor Society types hadda tell us we were all evil for liking cheeseburgers and going to monster movies, being normal  'n stuff like that!

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The Ventures & the Fabulous Wailers-TWO CAR GARAGE CD (EMI Records, Japan)

'n speaking of the pre-First Psychedelic Era here's one that slipped under my radar. And, as you'd expect after all these years, it's an iffy affair what with the updated takes on various past accomplishments done by the original acts who most certainly do not have all of their original members along for the ride. But this 2009 effort is kinda neat, at least if you wanted to know that both the Ventures and Wailers were somewhat up and functioning at the time. I get sloppy sentimental like that sometimes.

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MX-80 Sound-BOARDING HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO 12/3/79 CD-r burn

Here's an outta-somewhere surprise, an FM broadcast from '79 featuring everybody's fave Bloomington Indiana band not counting the Gizmos. Taken from a record release party for the SUBTERANNEAN MODERN album, this set is a must have for those fans of the group who were picking up their debut EP at the same time they were also scarfing up similar efforts by Pere Ubu and Debris. Features trackage mostly heard on the legendary OUT OF THE TUNNEL platter along with at least one new to mine ears effort that will make you seeking this 'un out all the more tingling (hint: try Youtube!). Somewhat rough around the edges but that only adds to the gnarliess of it all.

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Fadensonnen-HERETIC VISION cassette (Fadensonnen Records)

The latest. And a change of pace what with the horror music organ creeping about while various Controlled Bleeding/Nurse With Wound/John Cage ideas slip by complete with some addled femme  (?) vocals. And that's just the "A" side --- flip it over and you get one of the best re-do's of "LA Blues" since "I'd Rather Be Made Out Of Stone" followed by a Loren Connors cop that might fool a few of that man's fans and like good! When they said cassettes were coming back I wasn't thinking of this in particular, but I'm sure glad they're coming back if they're all gonna sound like that!

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Teenage Head-KING ST. TEDDY BOYS CD-r burn 

Dunno much about the whys and wherefores, but this collection of late-seventies Teenage Head live performances is what us old turds used to call a real roof raiser. You already know what to expect here --- high energy hard rock riffage with enough power and might to light up the entire eastern seaboard. It even has a few obvious musical ref's to the album that this group took their moniker from! A fine tribute to Teenage Head's late guitarist Gordon Lewis. Sure makes alla that stuff that got called punk these past fortysome years sound like the inoffensive pablum that it most certainly was.

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The Heartbreakers-YONKERS DEMOS 1976 CD-r burn 

Every time I see the word "Yonkers" I think about that TWILIGHT ZONE episode with William Demarest and Joan Blondell. You know --- "Yonkers Yonkers Yonkers!" Well I won't let that get inna way of enjoying this collection of treats from the original Heartbreakers back when Richard Hell was acting as the tension builder the same way he did with Tom Verlaine. If you've forgotten about just how energetic and fertile the under-the-underground was a good 45 years back here's a neat refresher.

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The Saints-HOPE AND ANCHOR November 26, 1977 CD-r burn

OK but not awe-inspiring performance by these Australian legends who I gotta admit did some pretty whoa stuff during their lifespan but, for some strange reason, never did really awed me out. Then again, I gotta admit that there was a hefty portion of that thing we called late-seventies punk or new wave or gnu wave for that matter that, while bold and pleasing enough to the ears, never did send me into spasms of obsessive/compulsive madness the way that, say, Pere Ubu did. For brainy eighties aspiring rockscribes, the kind that put out those mimeo'd fanzines that only their creators seem to remember this far down the ol' devolvement of rock line. 

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Lou Reed-WERCHTER FESTIVAL HOLLAND, NETHERLANDS JULY 8, 1984 CD-r burn

Yeah it's eighties Lou with alla that glitz and shuffle, but you gotta remember this was done around the time he released that NEW SENSATIONS platter which was a pleasant surprise to those of us who thought Lou had  gone full force into the serious rock artiste realm. And really, dontcha think that this kinda Lou is better'n no Lou at all? Sheesh, what am I SAYING???

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The 101'ers-OUTTAKES AND DEMOS CD-r burn

I might not think that much about Joe Strummer's career post 1978 or so, but his tenure with the 101er's is the kinda rock 'n roll that I tend to go heavy doody for. With more of that pubby-styled punk rock that labels like Stiff made a fortune on, Strummer shows no signs of future musical embarrassments as he and band romp through a variety of Greg Shaw-approved covers and originals that I'm sure woulda alienated his throng of future fans. More proof to the fact that 1975 was perhaps the watershed year for punk rock given the variety of trends that were enveloping the world during that rather spiffy year.

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Joathan Richman-WANT TO VISIT MY INNER HOUSE? CD-r burn (BandCamp)

Fans of ROCK 'N ROLL WITH THE MODERN LOVERS are bound to love this 'un. Ditto those of you who were truly agog over I JONATHAN. Once again, a straightforward acoustic effort from this septuagenarian who sounds just as youthful and as in wonderment of life as he did back when those first albums came out '76 way, with a slight late-sixties jive only equaled by those Shangs platters not to mention Brian Sands' FIXATION. Never woulda expected it.

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Beechwood-SLEEP WITHOUT DREAMING CD-r burn (originally on Alive Records)

Now I don't hate the people who put this 'un out, but I gotta say that SLEEP WITHOUT DREAMING is about as mimeographed as a whole load of other new garage band efforts out there, Y'know the kind that always get called "the coolest song in the world this week" on the Underground Garage but sound just about as commercially slick and antiseptic as just about every other release that hits the earwaves these sad 'n sorry days. Nothing to really bark about here which is kinda bad considerin' how the Alive label was seemingly created to spread the Detroit sixties underground rock aesthetic far and wide.

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The Jam-MAY 23rd, 1981 Memorial Hall, Toronto Ontario CD-r burn 

I forgot how long it took for these guys to go from being a more'n adequate "new wave" band to being a buncha eighties mock soul fopsters, So this live recording sure came in handy --- well, if it's anything to go by you can see the beginnings of what would become a rather dire attempt to remain meaningful in a music scene that would reject all the power and might that the late-seventies had to offer. Can't really blame 'em for things like the Style Council but uh, this does tend to sound totally listless in parts or is it just the audience sound quality?  Face it, when you get down to it this is about as much fun as titty fucking Olive Oyl!       

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Given the utter lack of response I've received in regards to moving these things I'm going to stop mentioning that there are many worthwhile and budget-approved back issues of BLACK TO COMM just begging to fill up the cracks in your fanzine collection. Just kiddin'!