Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Music Babblings: Troggs, Ramones, Bintangs, LSD Connection, Nazca and Nucleus!!!

Music Babblings

The Troggs: Archaeology disc 1 of 2 - man, the incredible proto punk metal "I Want You" - later covered very effectively by MC5, but this version smokes even that - has an incredible, barely contained, intensity and Presley's (Reg) vocals suit the song perfectly and makes it fucking ominous.
Incredibly underrated! I'm just on disc 1, and it sounds like side 2 may get weaker
BUT
the first disc fucking rocks...[aside: just as I type this, "Any Way That You Want Me" slows things down a lot - yet - this is also rocks in a way, and i'm a sucker for the cello]...oh yeh..."I Can Only Give You Everything" is another stone cold classic. It reminds me of one of my fav Kinks songs - "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", which is classic punk done 1965 style.
1-2-3-4!! we're the fucking Ramones!!!
Listening to The Ramones: "All the Stuff and More, vol. 1" reminded me of what a brilliant vocalist Joey Ramone was. The Ramones were awesome, and I highly recommend the dvd: "End of the Century: The Story of The Ramones" which I own and cherish and need to rewatch very soon.

I have a fondness for The Bintangs. To these ears, they epitomize what I think a good original bar band should sound like. These Dutch rockers have been around since 1961, and I just finished listening to "Alright" from 1991 - not expecting much...ya know, albums from 60s artists in the 90s don't usually yield too many positive results (Ian Hunter excepted), but this album was great...catchy, rockin', decent lyrics, 2 different style singers - one gruff, one smooth...short, economical songs that get right to the point. Man, these guys are great!!

For some reason, I've been enjoying Nazareth and Status Quo lately. I'm regressing back to grade 10...that's alright, isn't it?

Various: LSD Connection, vol. 7 (60s-70s released 2005) I already wrote about this series, and this is one of it's finest volumes. One heavy classic after another! Epizootic...Crank...Terry Brooks & Strange...Orion's Beethoven...one after another...classic after classic...I'm going to look up each of these guys. Here's the lineup:
Intro
Who's This Man - Utopia
Sinbad - Epizootic
Don't Push Me Away - Crank
Ruler of the Universe - Terry Brooks and Strange
El Nino del Tercer Milenio - Orion's Beethoven
Pain - Jenghiz Khan
Scarboro Fair - Ugly Custard
I Saw a Killin' - Josefus -
Demon and Eleven Children - Blues Creation
Children of the Universe - Banchee
Enjoy Yourself - Dragonfly
Stealer - Corporal Gander's Fire Dog Brigade
Gente - The (St. Thomas) Pepper Smelter
Whisky - Whisky David
Out of the Shadows - Clap

Man, Blues Creation!!! Awesome!!! Josefus...yeh, that was a fantastic song as well! A series I can't recommend enough...here's that damn link...here. Try any of them.

Nazca were quite the awesome band from the mid 80s. Very jazz experimental, with classical elements...always interesting...fascinating. From Mexico, releasing 2 albums in their too-brief lifetime. Nazca (1985) Estacion de Sombra (1986) and a live one released in 1988, but not sure when recorded.

The Pebbles series is even more brilliant than I expected!

I finally heard Ian Carr's Nucleus, and thought "We'll Talk About It Later" (1971) was great rockin' jazz. Harder than I expected. Definitely worth hearing more Nucleus albums. You can find Ian Carr's discography at Catasto Music Rarities.

[aside: man, I'm still digging The Troggs! "My Lady" just finished and I loved it! Another classic!!]
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Additional info on Les Rallizes Denudes

Hey bud....

keep it quiet, but if you're interested in hearing Les Rallizes Denudes: Volcanic Performance (4 cds with material from 1975-1979) or Double Heads (6 cds with material from 1980-1981), you may want to head over to this very cool blog.

L'ombre du son (Shadow of Sounds)

Don't forget to say: "Thanks dude!!"
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Monday, June 15, 2009

Les Rallizes Denudes, Mott the Hoople, Sand & 3 youtubes of Les Rallizes!!!

This and That about MUSIC

Les Rallizes Denudes: I just re-read the chapter on them in Julian Cope's "Japrocksampler", and these guys blow my mind! Mizutani is a complete original - master conceptual artist - guitar hero - visionary...all I can say is that if you haven't listened to Les Rallizes then do a blog search and find some (any) of their albums, crank up the volume, and take a mind-blowing trip through the galaxy and you will come out the other side a BETTER person.
Hijackings, reclusiveness, stubborn refusal to sell-out, politics, noise assaults...it's all part of their history! I've gots to find the Ethan Mousike DVD on Les Rallizes!!!!
Check out:
1)
Unofficial home page of Les Rallizes Denudes - in Japanese! Oh well...
2)
Get some, hear some, change your fucking life by clicking this motherfucking link to the incredible We Have No Zen, and grab yourself some Les Rallizes and LISTEN!!!
3)
Julian Cope presents Japrocksampler.com for Les Rallizes and other great Japanese "refusenik" (to use Julian's terminology) bands.

Are there any more irritating fans than those of the "jam" bands like Widespread Panic or Phish? Just listen to one of their live albums (well - you don't have to - that's my job) and hear the fans mindlessly cheer farts from the stage.

Sand: Golem (1974) but get the 2 cd
Ultrasonic Seraphim instead. Vulture II really stood out to me. Fantastic krautrock. My concise notes from May 29th: "wild wild shit!" Sometimes my perceptions and descriptions amaze me...sheesh!!!

The May 2009 issue of MOJO has a great article on Mott the Hoople. The original Mott are reuniting this October. It's just a few live dates, so it should be fun - but, I kinda doubt they'll be coming to Haida Gwaii. Is Ian Hunter the world's coolest 70 year old rock star ever? If you can, definitely check out the MOJO article. Some cool pics and some interesting tidbits. The most interesting to me was that Benazir Bhutto was a fan! She was Seadiver 262 (Mott's fan club) and her fav Mott song was "All the Way From Memphis". Wild...
Ian Hunter's great official web site.

Did you know that Paul Hoffert from Lighthouse fame actually produced the Flower Travellin' Band's: Made in Japan (1972)!!

Feast your eyes on some Les Rallizes Denudes awesomeness...thanks notcatfish



and even more sensory assault!!!! thanks ashtrayheart23


why stop now!!! thanks notcatfish

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Friday, June 12, 2009

The High are Highs, the Lows are Low...

What an up and down day yesterday!

The Good

Our Charksi O'Shea, who stays over at our place some weekends, made the local paper as the Happiest Grad. She was over the top happy and it showed in her pictures. Char Char the Superstar!!

The Sad

One of my closest clients passed away yesterday. He was 55 and his health was poor, BUT...it still came in out of the blue. Died in his sleep. He and another client were the 2 that helped me the most when I first started the ol' Life Skill career. He was very personable and friendly, easy to talk to, and had a great sense of humour. He will be missed!! Don't forget to tell them that Angelo Mosca sent ya RJ!!!
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Poetry: All Lost at the Supermarket

All Lost at the Supermarket
aka/ White Boy on Reserve I

deep crease
thick skin
sun-soaked
facial features

stare
across the aisle
into my
startled eyes

at the supermarket

we both seem
stuck
in the moment

i nervous
puzzled
- obviously depressed
…scared??

he impassive
stoic
…confident

i realize…
i have let my guard down
…backed up a step
lost the upper hand

slowly>>>
he turns away

continues
his shopping

i pause for
a moment
to reflect:

white boy on reserve lost another one.
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by John Harvey 05/14/09

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Back on the Rock and Music Listening habits disclosed...am I weird???

Back on the Rock

Back from a stressful car buying trip to Prince Rupert & Terrace. Both our cars died, but buying 2 at once is a little too much man.

Weed ain't free...

2 bicycles = exercise & +++ for the environment!!!
ya don't spend much while on the island
but
when you go mainland
you gotta shop shop shop
til you wanna drop

guru's course got cancelled...so we came back early, and I still got some holidays left and am taking it easy man...
the weather is cool...i mean hot
and bring out any number of 70s rock cliches and apply to me - the booze but + the friends and "in the summertime" and the "livin' is easy" ya gotta "roll on down the highway"
yowza!!!
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Musical Ramblings

OK...is this weird? My listening habits --

  • print up a "listening list" of about 5-6 pages by elimination from my "music collection list". Done in Word 2003.
  • listen to my mp3 player the majority of the time.
  • always keep the mp3 player as close to 1 gb as possible.
  • make selections from my "listening list".
  • listen to the mp3 alphabetically based on cd title.
  • delete off mp3 when listened to.
  • cross off the album from my "listening list".
  • i choose the cds sometimes by 1) randomly pointing at the list or 2) choosing based on what artist has the most "outstanding" cds to listen to or 3) the 2nd cd of a 2 cd set (gotta listen to them close together!) or 4) occasionally just pick something from the list i feel like listening to! dammit!!
  • and to prove i'm wild and unpredictable, i'll even pull out an lp - and there's NO "lp listening list"!! i'm so fucking rad...

Why did I go on about that? oh yeh...Feist and Cat Power were on the mp3, and I like Cat Power better, but certainly don't mind Feist, but I doubt I'd ever non-randomly put on Feist, but I could listen to Cat Power...and, I was surprised that both were on my mp3 player so close together, when neither is really my fav kind of music. I had to, ya know, justify this to myself or something.

Yeh, I guess I am weird.
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Mungo Jerry doing the classic "In the Summertime" 1970. thanks blechdackel


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