Witthuser & Westrupp - German progressive psychedelic folk trippiness goodness!!!

Witthuser & Westrupp: Trips und Traume (1971)
This is beautiful beautiful music.
Did I say it was beautiful?

calming the savage in my head
kissing the ravage of
the premature dead
cosmic folk for the weary
set the controls for the heart of your mind
and reside away from the madness
of everyday life
and everyday people
into a life
of pastoral psychedelic peace.

peace.

It's amazing how much hi-quality experimental psychedelic beautiful progressive fucking insane shit came out of Germany in the early 70s. A true source for some incredible music. This album is definitely worth checking out! It struck me while listening to it how much I was enjoying it. It snuck up on me and took me into another dimension.

"if you take lsd in your tea" - "you will feel it in your knees"
It's always fun when Germans break into English! It sounded like at the end, he preferred the joint instead of the lsd..or was that on TOP of the lsd?

Here are youtube sightings of Witthuser & Westrupp. Praise youtube!! I was NOT expecting videos of these guys. Here's an example of the beauty of these guys. From 1969. thanks morrritz.
Here they are in the forest playing for nature.

A nice little folk tune about Dracula. 1970. thanks guanire for the last 2.

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The Saints, Beefheart runs by and AEC rock!

The Saints: Eternally Yours (1978) *****
I remember telling Randy in an email how much I enjoyed The Saints "I'm Stranded". He replied - yeh, but wait until you hear "Eternally Yours".

I am listening to Eternally Yours right now and it is helping to rock away the New Job Depression Blues. The "Product" songs both blast away.

This type of music helped me immensely during my youth (which lasted until my fucking 30s!! - hahaha)...there was nothing else for you when you felt like shit. Put on some blasting rock'n'roll.
high energy
sweat
an exorcism of negativity
and all the shit
they shoot your way

I liked it hard, fast...but...structured. Exactly like this!! [aside: I'm probably more into the "fucked up" stuff these days, but we all need an exorcism now and again!!] Which puzzles me to no end. I mean...I had heard of these guys but never "heard" them...really...how fucking pathetic is that????

I have now rectified this gap in my life. The Saints are now in regular rotation. They'll hit my "listening list" consistently now!

"Run Down" just caught my attention. Every song just rocks along...perfectly. Give this album 5 fucking stars!!!

The Saints home page.
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I think it's good karma to mention Captain Beefheart in the blog once in awhile. The Beefer tells us what it's all about!
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Wow...I'm making a copy of Iggy Pop's "Live in San Francisco 1981" and my dvd player is making some unearthly noises!! I think I'm freaking out!!!
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Here's an awesome Art Ensemble of Chicago performance.

When I lived in Oakville, there was a really cool jazz cd store called Gregorian (i think) and I picked up Art Ensemble of Chicago's "The Pathe Sessions" from the "Americans Swinging in Paris" series. They also looked amazingly cool on the cover! When I heard Fontella Bass belting out cosmic sexual lyrics on "Theme de Yoyo" over a driving bass line...well, I was hooked!

Then "People in Sorrow" came on and I was swept away with it's beauty. awesome awesome music. credit: sky50

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I'm listening to Magazine's "Real Life" (1978) and it's sounding mighty fine!

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The Band

The Guru and I were just having a musical disagreement.

I claim that The Band are great, but over-rated.

The Guru thinks they are one of the greatest bands ever.

My arguments:

1) Robbie Robertson sort of irritates me. I mean..have you seen this guy in interviews? Cock in hand or what!? [The Guru had to agree on this one. Well...I didn't say cock-in-hand during the conversation.]

2) They should have rocked more. [The Guru could understand this, but didn't necessarily agree.]

3) Leonard Cohen was a better lyricist than Robbie Robertson. [The Guru said that was a stupid statement.]

The Guru then made the cogent statement that The Band was also special because they stayed true to their roots (Americana) when everyone else wasn't...and they didn't cross over.

EXACTLY!!!!

This nails it. You see. I like the other side better. The crazy wild experimental shit!

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But don't get me wrong!! I think The Band are great and I've always enjoyed them. They just ain't no Stooges or Can. [aside: when I mentioned Can during the conversation, the Guru complained her stomach was upset.]

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Lots of fun!!!

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Depressed New Job Blues, Mo Tucker is amazing!!! Hawkwind and Humble Pie youtube it!!! CD ratings?!

Depressed New Job Blues

stress intensified
small company with
$$$$$
in their eyes

i'm the fucking guy in the bkgd
trying to scrape by

working in the code factory
oh yes
i'm working in the code factory
a slave to my fears
a slave to my needs

squeezed into a cubicle
like some
depressed dilbert
or dagwood

a character out of a fucking comic strip
is what I've become,

working in the code factory

feel the callous on my wrist

as my back unwinds and twist

working in the code factory

like a ravaged boat

on a stormy sea

Good God I'm working in a

fucking code factory!!
***

shackles are off...
cause really

NOTHING MATTERS ...except the guru bah and trouble
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Maureen Tucker: Life in Exile After Abdication (1989) *****
This album blew me away!!! I figured it would be good, and I was looking forward to listening...BUT...this exceeded my expectations by a mile.
This sounds more VU experimental
than you would imagine.
I love the songs about the reality of work.

Listen to this if you can find it.

What??? Here's a link that may help you.....what do I mean? Oh, click on the blog title and it takes you to rapidshare. What could that possibly be? You may want to check it out.

[aside: did you know that the drummer for one of the MOST legendary groups EVER actually worked at fucking Wal-Mart. Hey, she had to make a living as a single mother in her mid-forties.
Note: These were the days before file sharing.
Note: I just went to amazon and this is her only album available...from $41.00 Cdn (not including shipping from the US - another $15-20)]

Great song after great song....Mo is a goddess and still beats the drums like a motherfucker!!!
***

I'm anti-capitalist
cause that's hoarding
...we should be sharing!!
***

Self-Analysis: I don't share enough.
I'm a fucking capitalist pig!!!
***

Writing about Maureen Tucker prompted me to put on a Velvets boot called "Caught Between the Twisted Stars".

melody laughter
a lullaby about a small girl named melody
who invented a guitar
with no chords

take out logic
...because that makes SENSE.
***

Oh here's a great youtube clip of the almighty Hawkwind with The Lemster telling us about his Silver Machine! Feel the fucking power in the band!!!! philcorr - thanks dude

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For the fuck of it

Here's some albums I've listened to lately with a 5 star rating based on how much I enjoyed it at the time. In other words - ratings are useless, transitory!...but fun.

Humble Pie: Rock On (1971) **** good shit.
Shawn Phillips: Collaboration (1971) ****1/2 i dig this guy...something about his voice...reminds me of Ted Neeley from Jesus Christ Superstar...outrageously talented.
Plastic People of the Universe: Egon Bondy's...(1973-1974) ***** classic
Nick Cave: Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus (2004) ***** his best...at this moment!
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (2006) ***1/2 very good...surprisingly acoustic and melodic
Van Morrison: Days Like This (1995) *** typical Van
Comus: First Utterance (1971) ***** wow!
***

Saw "The Life and Times of Steve Marriott" (2000) [aside: thanks Steve!] and loved it. Not a "dirt" doc, since his substance abuse problems (and weird death) were very much glossed over. That's cool, because they included lots of live clips...and that's what lasts.

Here's a clip of classic Humble Pie (with Peter Frampton!!!) doing an acoustic cover of The Yardbirds "For Your Love". Great stuff! kudos to brainfish...

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Thank you for reading...I'm outta here. Code Factory tomorrow!
***

Plastic People of the Universe, Bruce Palmer rides away, more Beat Club sightings!

Greetings

I've been busy having and preparing for job interviews.
Too Much Fun baby baby BABY
but...it worked!!

I start Monday as a full-time permanent programmer! After getting my diploma 5 years ago, I finally have a full-time computer job. And doing programming, not on a help desk.

Very cool...
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Musical Mumblings

I finally heard Plastic People of the Universe: Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned (1974-1975) and loved it!! I need to listen to this MUCH more....and...purchase some of their catalog. Plastic People of the Universe official web site, and a great article by Richie Unterberger on a bunch of very brave and influential musicians. Check em out!

Bruce Palmer: The Cycle is Complete (1971) Krautrock done by an ex-Buffalo Springfield Canadian??? Yep. It would fit in nicely in the krautrock genre. This is a great album. Blew my mind away. I had heard about this, and was looking forward to it, but couldn't believe how fluid the music is.
fluidity
liquid
warm sounds envelope the brain and Rick James played on this mutha too!! Yep. Rick James of funky crackhead goodness deceased did some vocals and percussion on this. For those unaware, Rick James also played with Neil Young when both were struggling musicians in Toronto during the mid-60s.
Bruce also walked away from the music industry (until he played with Neil for Trans and later on I believe) after this album.
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Here's a couple more youtube sightings from The Beat Club...

Amon Duul 2 - "Eye Shaking King" Beat Club October 1970



Here's one for the freaks!
Edgar Broughton Band -"American Boy Soldier" Beat Club 1970. I love this performance. I'm finally getting into these guys. I love the rawness and the way it hits some kind of weird fucked up inner cerebral tissue part of me...


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Beat Club sightings on YouTube...The Monks and The Ohio Players

The Monks: Monk Chant (1966)

I have read about these guys...the legend is incredible...but have never seen or actually "heard" them. Blew me away! So far ahead of their time. Why would I think of Devo while watching this? I also love when 3 guys play the same guitar. Brilliant!



Ohio Players: Fire (1975)

Another absolute treat. One of my fav songs as a kid. The Guru told me that as a kid she always thought this song was about sex. Really!?!?!? Enjoy and thanks to the uploaders of YouTube! Ohio Players funk up the web.


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An Awesome Blog and Can from 1971 on German television!!!

My friend Randy notified me of a killer blog called FM Shades.

This blog is manna from the heavens!!!

Let the angels sing
obscure unknown
psychedelia
and experimental
sounds and tones
and take copious
amounts of intoxicants
to clear the mind
of its pollution
and become
naked and pure.

The blogger provides info and downloads (including cover art..if available) of great obscure, extremely hard-to-get music.

Samples of what's available

Robbie Basho - The Falconer's Arm I & II (1967-1968) great underrated guitarist with a great eastern feel flowing through the music. Overshadowed by John Fahey who was also on the same label: Takoma.
Bruce Palmer - The Cycle is Complete (1971) The great Bruce Palmer from Neil Young legend (he and Neil ran into Stephen Stills in a traffic jam in LA and proceeded to form Buffalo Springfield) who put out this album as a final fuck-you to the music industry. Rick James guests!!! Need to listen to this more!!!!
SRC - SRC (1968) From the Detroit rock scene with MC5 and Iggy. Needless to say, these guys didn't make quite the splash those 2 did, but that doesn't make it any less vital!!
Kraftwerk - K4 (1971) Early Kraftwerk with Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger from Neu! as early members.

Check it out!! What the fuck are you waiting for?????
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Here's an awesome video of Can performing "Paper House" in 1971 on The Beat Club. Can's official website.


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Kevin Coyne on YouTube!!! Pure GENIUS!!

Kevin Coyne Bonanza

When I first started going to YouTube, Kevin Coyne was one of the first musicians I plugged into the old search engine...and nothing came up. * sigh * I checked again today, and there is now some Kevin Coyne material on YouTube!!! Much rejoicing and dancing!!! Check out Kevin Coyne's official web site and this great discography web page.

Here's "Amsterdam" from the Rockpalast in Germany, 1979.



Here's "Eastbourne Ladies" live 1979 at an unknown festival. Awesome!!



"Sunday Morning Sunrise" live in Berlin, Germany 1982. Beautiful....



Here's a link to "Strange Locomotion" live at the Rainbow 1975 with "Whispering" Bob Harris doing the intros.

Thank you to the people who put these amazing videos online!
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Live concert report: Tragically Hip in Prince George, BC!!

The Tragically Hip
Friday January 12th, 2007
CN Centre
Prince George, BC
attendance: 3,000

History of Harv and the Hip:
I've seen The Tragically Hip once previously. At Bannister's in Hamilton, Ontario around 1987 in front of 90 people. Bannister's is usually a strip club. The Hated Uncles even played there! So, Gord Downie and I may have sweated into the same microphone! How exciting!!

They were awesome that night. They were rockin' and Gord Downie had rock'n'roll long hair then, and he sweated up a storm and wouldn't stop moving.

Great great bar band from Kingston, Ontario.

Then they became famous and Canada's #1 rock band. They deserved it. The albums were excellent, Gord Downie is a charismatic frontman, he writes good Candiancentric lyrics and the band rocks solidly.

I stopped getting the albums after the 1st 4. They started sounding similar to me...or was I just getting tired of them?

Every party, every bar band seemingly covered The Hip. I got sick of them...and it wasn't their fault...it was....
Overexposure in Ontario!!

When we moved out here, all of a sudden the lack of entertainment helped me appreciate one of the great things about Southern Ontario. The music!! Lots of live shows to choose from...Toronto only a train ride away...compared to Prince George. I mean, we're 7 hours from Edmonton and 8-10 hours from Vancouver. We're a population of 80,000 so you don't get too many top acts coming out here. Let's see - in just over 2 years we've had Bonnie Raitt (the Guru went and it was good), Kim Mitchell (we saw him at the local rock bar...weird, but Kim was fine), Gordon Lightfoot, Matt Good at the folk fest and...um, oh yeh, Nickleback...and that's it in over 2 years. So, when The Tragically Hip and James Brown were both coming to PG tickets needed to be purchased. JB died, but The Hip are still alive.

Friday January 12th, 2007:
Here's a synopsis of the day...it was a hell of a day!!!

The Hospital and a War!!!
We wake at 6:45 to get to the hospital by 7:30 for the Guru's endoscopy. I figured she wouldn't be able to make the show and we'd either give away the tickets or the Guru would force me to go alone.

After being informed that the Guru would not be ready until 9:30 or 10:00, I returned home to kill time with the dog and cat...well, the cat was sleeping, but the dog is always happy to have company.

I returned to the hospital at 9:30 and I go to the back to see the Guru, expecting her in bed. Nope. She was ready to leave, and I was informed that the scope did not take place. Apparently, the Guru was somewhat resistant to the tube going down (even under heavy sedation) that she beat the shit out of everybody in the room like the alien in "It's Alive (1974)".

The Afternoon:
We return home and of course the Guru hits the sack for some zzzzzzz's. I hang around increasing my anxiety about going out that night. I've developed quite the phobia about crowd situations (which I'm working on) and I was increasing my feeling of dread second by second.

I wanted to dump the tickets figuring the Guru couldn't go, but she wanted me to go with our friend (who was joining us). The whole situation was avoided when the Guru started feeling better and decided to go. She was looking forward to going out, so we decided to take a cab so I could "relax" and she was legally impaired to drive anyway with her sedation.

As the time started approaching, I started getting physically sick from anxiety. Crowd situations, you know. I laid down, closed the eyes, and focused on giving the Guru a good time, so I snapped out of it somewhat, and went downstairs deciding to do my best.

We Arrive:
Our friend drove to our home and we all grabbed the cab together. We got to our seats 1/2 way through the opening bands set. The seats were right at the top and 60% back from the stage. In the diagram below we're the red dot, and the stage is the blue line. Sorta blah seats considering the Guru ordered them within 10 minutes of them going on sale. The Sadies were the opening act and they did a good job. We have Favourite Colours (2004) by them and it's a good solid pop-psych album.
The Guru was hanging in there admirably, considering all she had been through. I was also hanging in there and started enjoying the music. I had a seat at the edge of the aisle, when I realized there was a chair next to me! Because we were in the last row, they put chairs in the aisle. Eventually, Stoner Baseball Cap (the kind that shouts "Yeh you're a rock star buddy" to the guitar tech checking the sound level - which he did) and his date Screaming Sandy Smalltown sat beside me. I looked around in desperation and realized there was no escape. I sighed inside and sucked it up.

The Tragically Hip:
Then...The Hip come on.

The crowd comes alive and Gord Downie and the band start off rocking hard and energetically only letting up for a couple of lighter songs...giving the crowd a break...but returning hard again. Gord Downie was a great showman. Throwing mic stands, lying on the speakers like a Canadian Iggy Pop and never staying still.

They did a different version of "At the 100th Meridian" (my fav TH song) and it was awesome. Maybe the best thing of the night. "New Orleans is Sinking" was fantastic. They did most of the hits and a few from the new album, which sounds like their best in years.

As the show hit the 1 hour 15 minute mark, I started feeling tired (I had been up since 4:30 in the morning worrying about the Guru's procedure) and wanted to get out of there before the end of the show...beat the crowd, so to say. However, I knew our friend (KL) wanted to stay until the end [aside: She saw The Hip before, and got in a fight with her ex-husband because he wanted to leave early and beat the crowd and she missed her fav song] but after the regular set list finished and we were waiting for the encore [another aside: what is the point of encores??? I mean...really] I had to get out of there. I stood in the hall waiting while The Hip encored with a great version of The Band's "It Makes No Difference" and one of their own hits I can't remember now.

The Finale:
After "It Makes No Difference" the Guru and KL came out and we headed towards the exit. Being from Ontario, I was startled to not find any cabs outside the arena. I mean, after a big event, wouldn't they be there ready to go? So we called and it was going to be 30-45 minutes.

Did I mention that the temperature high that day was -21 Celsius? And it was currently around -28 Celsius? It was a wee bit chilly.

We decided to cross the street to the bar thinking it would be faster getting a cab there. That was a mistake. It was worse.
I started freaking...being terrified of crowds and being a reformed alcoholic, it wasn't really great being in a busy bar near midnight. I said I was going to start walking home and did...then it hit me. It was an hour walk, and it was -28 Celsius. Moron. And I have to keep an eye on the Guru who had been on sedation and had decided to have a drink! I went back, and also realized that no cabs were getting to the door, but were being hijacked before the cab could turn into the parking lot! It was useless to call the company. You had to go out in the cold and stand there waiting for the next cab with all the other suckers.

We finally got a cab and made it home at midnight. What a fucking long day!!!

Conclusion:
All being said and done....The Tragically Hip made it worth all the aggravation and psychosis worthwhile. The Guru survived and is now ready for her next battle with the medical profession...and I remain determined to defeat those bastard phobias.
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RIP James Brown. A little catch-up!!! Oh Yeh...Happy New Year!!!

R.I.P James Brown

The Guru and I had tickets to see James Brown on Sunday January 14th, 2006 in Prince George, BC at The Civic Centre. Alas, it was not to be. Thanks for the music!

To offset the pain of missing James Brown (by a mere 3 weeks!), I purchased a sealed 2 lp set, "Get on the Good Foot" for an excellent price of $26.99 at a new cd / record store in town....which looks promising, but small. The name of the store in question is Meow's.

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I've been taking a nice long unemployed vacation by being a bum...a lazy bum...but a well rested bum!

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Lots of new music aquired over the past month that needs to be dissected to determine which ones NEED to be passed to those needing a shot of new music in their life!!

Psychedelic stuff (Archaelogies / Rubbles / Unknowns: great series' one and all - Wyld Canada vol. 3 awesome! Coming your way Randy!!)

New Stuff (John Cale's new live one is great - Nick Cave's last studio could be his best - new Ozrics, Widespread panic, Outkast to hear)

Old obscure shit (Catapilla floored me!! King Crimson with wild vocals courtesy of Anna Meek - Curved Air's "Air Conditioning" is great - Folkdove from 1975 is beautiful folk - Groundhogs need more digging - and who's Art?)

Classic Tuneage (filling out my Hendrix, Clapton, Animals, Ramones and Bowie collections. Time to start working on the James Brown collection)

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Finally...Happy New Year to one and all. I hope the new year is better for everybody...then it'd be a better world...ahhhhhh...

A shout out to Mole...Thanks for the cds. Love the shows! It was fun to hear Tim Gibbons again. Reminded me of the old days of Hamilton...

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Local Jazz, Gong and C.A. Quintet takes you to HELL!!!

The Northern BC Free Jazz Ensemble: Over the Edge (2005)
This captures a local performance here in PG BC at a place I've been to many times, but ignorantly missed this show!!
Idiotique!!

The first 2 minutes captures the tension before the first chord. At first I was wondering if there was something wrong with the cd, but there is nothing wrong with the cd!
It's part of the fucking performance!
The name of the band captures what the music is about. I love the feeling out process of the musicians. Tentative, then confident, then withdrawn until ready to enter the "conversation" once again. Free jazz is a lot like a conversation...and the best is when there is an empathy and listening between the players...this is definitely present in this recording!

Give your locals a listen!

The lineup:
Peter Stevenson: Composition and Keyboards
Justin Arding: Drums
Jeremy Stewart: Guitar
Chris Batting: Guitar
Erin Arding: Vocals
Justin Frey: saxophone
Chantelle Gouliquer: Saxophone
Ken Goudswaard: Bass

Recorded live in Prince George, British Columbia at Art Space on June 1st, 2005
Thanks Jeremy! Jeremy's web site.
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Gong: Chateau Neuf [aside: I think] (1974) My friend Steve supplied a large amount of Gong which I regularly devour. This is definitely live around the 74 era...it's a strong show. The playing is always superlative and Daevid Allen adds enough quirkiness and originality to make Gong into something wild and special.

Here's Gong's wild web site.
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C.A. Quintet: Trip Thru Hell (1968)
At times, these guys sound so far ahead of their time...amazing! Then other times...they give themselves away. I love it. I had never heard of these guys until Randy's last batch of musical goodness. Thanks Randy!! Another
amazing
fantastic
fascinating
obscurity I finally got around too

as the demons dance upon the ashes /
piles of bone drink from the
skeleton mug /
engrossed and entangled
in the hellish liquid /
let it consume
your bones
until it becomes
one with your
consciousness.

C.A. Quintet's Home Page.
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Tom Waits' "Orphans" (2006) arrived on my doorstep yesterday, and I've only had a chance to listen to the first cd...and it's amazing. 3 cds of Tom obscurities! Nice package, even though I wish they would include the dates for each recording...if possible. Still, it's always a treat to get a multi-disc set!

And Tom covers The Ramones!!
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Creativity

creativity

survival

...contemplated

the edge honed...

...not quite razor-sharp

trim the path

analyze the source

hone the knife

let the wire

cut

penetrate to

perceptions of truth

~~~~~

mantra-like

sitting on the floor

looking to the sky

looking to the stars

waiting for answers

but the answers ain't a knockin'

and a little voice

keeps shouting

YOU GOTTA FIND A FUCKING PURPOSE!!!!
***
Motherfucker

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Random Thoughts from a Random Mind

Jethro Tull were quite the great "hard-rock" band up to Minstrel in the Gallery (1975) period. Hey, I know it's not cool to like em, but I got into them in high school and have stuck with them.

When you're all fucked up and crazy and young and insane, you become possessive of the music you love and derisive of the music that does not belong to that sphere.
When you're older and more sensible(??????????????) and more "liberal", musical tastes open up, and the passion remains, but the derision of other music dissipates. Too fucking "mature" to HATE anymore.

Why hate?

The cult of Syd Barrett is quite something. He actually had the BALLS or mental condition

(it really doesn't matter)

to simply....
walk away.
fuck becoming a star, fuck becoming a puppet for the masses
fuck this need for acceptance....
sometimes it's healthier...to simply...
walk away.

Please Jandek....NEVER allow yourself to appear on "reality" TV.

Something is happening here
and you don't know what it is....
do you.......Mr. ????

We all live in isolated little worlds
What's yours like?????
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More YouTube sightings, Residents Reich 'n' Roll

YouTube Sightings

Can:
1) Mushroom Head (1972) Video. Is this made by the band? A friend? It seems to be from 72 and is incredible. Even the Guru was impressed, and she's no krautrock fan.
2) Paper House (197?) This is live from TV with Damo dancing maniacally and spurting out his broken words. Another winner.
3) Vertical Equinox (1975) Damo has gone, but the band sounds awesome and still experimental with Karoli sounding particularly awesome in this live tv performance.
4) Don't Say No (1977) Another live TV performance, and latter Can is much smoother, with a nice funky bottom supplied by some really cool looking cat on bass.
Summary: It has been an absolute joy watching Can performances from the 70s, especially the early stuff with Damo. Awesome band, awesome videos.

CSN & Y: Down By the River on the David Steinberg show circa 71. Great live performance with the band actually living up to their potential. Neil and Stills particularly shine. Who's a thunk???

William Shatner: Rocket Man - I canNOT get enough of William Shatner. I was laughing through the whole video...I mean, I was in deep contemplative mode with William's interpretation bringing new and insightful meanings to the original lyric.

Bob Dylan: Love Sick - This was a strange one! A small studio crowd dressed in black grooving to this song, with Bob acting particularly cool.
[aside: Time Out of Mind is a classic to me *****, with Love and Theft a disappointment (I don't see why so many critics consider this a classic, it's a *** at most). The new one, Modern Times (2006) sounds fantastic. Blows away Love and Theft.]
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The Residents: The Third Reich 'n' Roll (1976) I remember seeing the video from this album many decades ago and it blew away my virginal eyes. I saw it again a couple of weeks ago, and it still blows me away. Of course, I had to get the album, and it is currently melting my mind
into
frothy ice cream
layers
of possibilities
and creativity.

Eyeballs need love too!!!!!
***

YouTube gets a hold of me: Parliaments, Dylan, GG yelling, Derek and the Dominos, Acid Mothers, Moby Grape and Professor Shatner speaks.

YouTube Musings

I've been getting trapped up in the YouTube phenomenon. It really is pretty fucking great!!!

Here's some awesome shit I've seen.

Bob Dylan doing "Old Man" from 2002. Fucking fantastic! Great version...great song for Bob. If you're a Dylan fan, or a fan of the song...go, go now and view it. Go on you...get.

Derek and the Dominos doing "It's Too Late" (unfortunately without Duane, but still...), sounding great on the Johnny Cash show, who then wanders out with his guitar and you know what's coming. No you don't, cause they also pull out Carl Perkins and The Dominos and Cash / Perkins rock out on "Matchbox".

I really don't know what to say about the next one.
It brought tears to my eyes
thoughts to my brain
a lump to the throat
contemplation...deepness...philosophy...
extremely fucking P S Y C H E D E L I C
William Shatner doing a brilliant version of "Taxi" and revealing layers that Harry Chapin could never have imagined.
This is classic.

Serge Gainsbourg & Brigette Bardot in the video for "Bonnie & Clyde". I'm not entirely sold on Gainsbourg, but this is a great song, and the video is very dramatic.
Bonnie & Cl-i-de.

A real find ---- The Parliaments doing "What Is Soul?" in all their freaky glory from 1969. I've looked for old Funkadelic, and it's not that easy to find, so this was awesome. Fuzzy Haskins sounds awesome and the whole band...well, it don't get no fucking cooler than this!!

Almost 10 minutes of Moby Grape doing 3 songs. It starts off with a couple of tv performances...strong and great.
Then...let the acid kick in and
feedback roars,
guitars blare and there's some kind of movie going on in the background of the performance. Wild.

GG Allin yelling at people.

Acid Motherfucking Temple - 2 3 minute live snippets. One was Pink Lady Lemonade. Absolutely gorgeous and transcendent. Takes me away every fucking time. The other was the opposite extreme. Loud, abrasive, chaos, guitars flying, hair flying...Awesome.
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Random New Listening, Thoughts

I've been working on adding some class to the collection, so I've added Bill Withers "Just As I Am" (1971) and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" (1972). Needless to say, they are both brilliant, and more more more is needed!!!

I didn't think The Pseudo-Velvets "Squeeze" (1973) album sounded as bad as the legend would have you believe.

I heard Dylan in his born-again phase from 1980 at Massey Hall in good old T.O, and found it very interesting.
What the hell was going on with Dylan at this time?
Is he serious? There's certainly an energy there that I find very intriguing.

Beck's "Mellow Gold" (1994) finally converted me over to Beck's side. I'm not sure what took me so long, but I thought this album was pretty awesome.

Help Yourself: Strange Affair (1972) is very enjoyable / interesting. Gotta find out more about these guys.

Finally...I picked up The Velvet Underground: 1969 Live Volume 2 (1974) and was enthralled listening to this masterpiece once again. There's lots of live Velvets out there now (aside: Quine's bootleg series is in-fucking-credible), but back in the day when I had this on vinyl it was the only decent live Velvets out there.

The Bevis Frond: New River Head (1971) was great. Another guy to look into.
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ghost floats, bears come to visit and what's with those visualizations??

Ghost: Second Time Around (1992)
This is the second time around for me listening to this, so...
only appropriate to talk about it.

beautiful
transcendent
mystical
illuminating

in a forest...at peace
at ease

at one with nature
the music of the forest
the music of animals

Ghost is an appropriate name

I am insanely glad that I have delved into the world
of noise
of extremes
embracing beauty and ugliness

Second Time Around is beauty

I can see the leaves fluttering
and sheets of ghost
engulf the
inner mystical mind,
music touches
inside and heals
and I feel better than I did 48:21 ago....

I have also listened to Damon & Naomi with Ghost (2000) and thought it sounded great!

Here's a couple of Ghost links: Spirits in the Sky: The Almighty Japanese progrock of Ghost by Erik Davis and for those who speak Japanese Ghost's official web site, and AMG's Ghost page.
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At Peace

The wind blows through the trees,
I zip up my coat to keep out the breeze,
kicking stones, looking at the ground,
ignoring the traffic bellowing in the streets,
I'm at peace, I don't hear a sound,
except for the wind, blowing through the trees.

Caressing the peace I recently found,
not bothering to cover up
the peace bulging in my pants,
I don't care what others think today,
today's my day, with the breeze blowing through the trees,
me, the wind, the trees, walking together through the streets.

By: John Harvey (oh gosh..1984?)
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There was a bear in our backyard last week.

How cool is that??!!
Especially since we're all still alive
...no Timothy Treadwell story here...
we watched him from inside.

We also had Trouble and Poobah to protect us.

Unfortunately, the Guru's camera is STILL at Future Shop...Future Shop's customer service is incredibly incompetent!
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It's sorta cool getting high and turning on Windows Media Player to fullscreen and stare at those awesome visualizations while you got great tunes blaring into your skull.

I suppose...* cough cough * ... what would I know about that????
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