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?????
***

Here's an awesome video of Can performing "Paper House" in 1971 on The Beat Club. Can's official website.


***

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!
***

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.
***

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.

***

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

***

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)

***

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...

***

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.
***

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.
***

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.
***

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!!
***

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

***

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?????
***

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.]
***

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.
***

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.
***

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.
***
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?)
***

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!
***

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????
***

A job is found!! Music Tidbits: Harrison, New York Dolls, Randy California and pink dots bounce and bounce and bounce!!!

A new job is taken on! Security lives!!

racing towards the unemployment line
when good timing
walked into the picture
(I mean...my contract was done last Monday)
I'm staying
where I like it

BUT

It's taken time away from my blog!! 2 people moved on, so in 3 days I was trained for 2 different jobs and left to my own devices...

I ain't complaining, it's tiring though...ahhhh

The boss is cool...always a bonus.
***

Music Tidbits

I've been downloading Zappa stuff from this site: Kill Ugly Radio: Gilles Friday Boot. There's a Zappa boot or gig available for download every Friday. Only for us Zappa fanatics...

I must be listening to a LOT of weird shit! I listened to Don Cherry & John Coltrane: The Avant-Garde (1960) and it's as amazing as you would expect, but it sounded surprisingly trad to me. I do need to listen to more Don Cherry! Coltrane could be my fav jazz guy...fuck that!! One of my fav musicians. Period..........

Been listening to some early George Harrison solo stuff. I don't bother listening to The Beatles anymore, but George has become my fav little beetle. Beware of Abcko (1970) is a fantastic bootleg, and I can relate to those that think Spector's production took away from the inner song. I'll keep my copy of All Things Must Pass though. Especially with the poster!!!!!

Randy California: Kapt. Kopter (1972)
WOW! This is amazing! Spirit were one of the best late 60s bands...
criminally under-rated...
this solo album is great!!
Randy did a shit load of great stuff in the 70s. Listen to Spirit: Live at Rockpalast (1978) for proof. Incredible live album! Next stop is the 80s stuff, but I'm already satisfied!

Agitation Free were fucking incredible!

I'm enjoying The Legendary Pink Dots: Maria Dimension (1991). I heard about these guys from Ricardo Wang's What's This Called?. Very cool.

Starting to watch more videos on You Tube. Saw some old rare New York Dolls clips. Especially from their last shows. Great stuff. I see that the new New York Dolls video for "Dance Like a Monkey" is splitting the fans. 1/2 love it, the other half think it's awful. Too soft. I think it's a great song. The video? It's fun, but what kind of video would you expect for this song? The new album's pretty strong. The new album got me to go back and listen to classic Dolls, David Johansen's stuff and Johnny Thunders with and without The Heartbreakers.
That makes it worth it for me.
[aside: I really like David Johansen & The Harry Smiths.
Q. David Johansen sings the blues???
A. Fucking right!

So Mole...how was Jandek??
I must say I am still contemplating this mysterious wonder by the name of Jandek.
***

the mind melds
into torrents
of fantastical reams of light
bleeding through ears of tin

music travels far and wide
back to the beginning of time
...the end of time

has it happened?

a constant state of puzzlement
at our species
...puzzlement
at our behavior

the past is
cut into the stone of our minds
and we run and run and run
and...

we can never escape the past.

the beauty of memories
the terror of the truth

I see people confused
confused like me
confused like you

the future approaches
unsure
hesitant
frightened at our destruction
baffled at our brutality

we wonder why???
why needless tragedies?
why needless deaths??

babies taken from mothers
lonely and scared
nothing to hold on to...
...except strands of sanity
that become more strained
every second....

Then I turn on the tv
and see the
glorification of violence
and I see the answer
I see the fucking answer

The answer is US

the eternal question?

why???
***

Busy times...it's all good, Peter Brotzmann and a blizzard of Popcorn!??!

Times have become BUSY BUSY BUSY...in a good way!

I'm on the shortlist for a job where I currently work (and the contract is up Sept. 18th AND I really like it here...great place) and I'll be filling in until the interview process. All sounds good, but until I hear: "We'd like to offer you the job", I won't celebrate...anything can happen.

BUT

The 2nd person [out of 2] is also leaving as of this Friday...thus...I'm learning to do 2 jobs in 3 1/2 days, and will be doing them both Monday! And...I still have the contract job, but that's almost done.

SO

It's a shit load of stuff to learn and work at, so it hasn't left a lot of time for the blog.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I can hardly wait until things return to normal!!! The you'll get a more in-depth review / study of Jandek's "Glasgow Sunday", as well as all the other shit I do on here...hopefully better!
***

Peter Brotzmann: Machine Gun (1968)
What the hell is this????????????????
Machine Gun is fucking right!!!

a blast of bullets
riddle the body
blood boiling
on burning asphalt

chaos on the streets
people screaming
people singing
people dancing
there is no
rhyme
there is no
reason

You can hear the Albert Ayler influences VERY clearly. Even I can tell the influence and I'm no technical expert. Amazing amazing stuff.

Just be ready for blast of bullets through your brain!
***

Popcorn Blizzard...really cool name!
Released their only album in 1968. Light psychedelic pop. It's ok.
Guess who the lead singer was................Meatloaf!

I like obscure weird facts and shit like this. I mean...who knew??
***

Sorry bout the delay! Initial "Glasgow Sunday" impressions!!! Yoko is my Goddess, poetry practice [aka/ I'm losing my mind!]

Sorry bout the delay

reality interrupts....

gets in the WAY
of LIFE.

Yes, I've had to focus my attention...and t i m e
on resumes, cover letters, studying job pdq's (not a lotta fun...but helpful).

Until I'm back in a regular routine and the job search is over
(amidst great relief on my part!!!)
blog publishing may become a little...irregular.

So here's what I haphazardly have noted. I'll try to keep within a week next time.
***

Jandek: "Glasgow Sunday" (2004)
Initial impression...I was startled at the dynamics of the music!
I had only heard New Town (1998) which was quiet, dark and acoustic.
This is louder, dark and electric.
Am I the only person who sees a connection between Jandek and Krautrock???

The way the music ebbs and flows...improvised, but in tune with each other.
Jandek's young rhythm section drive hard and keeps the pulse of the music flowing.

The mysterious Mr. Jandek is very thin and quite youthful for his age (sorry J). Like a young William S. Burroughs on electric guitar...

I love the way the video starts without any big introductions...
3 guys on a small stage
nod at each other
start the journey
and we are invited
along to savor the sounds
and observe the action.

The lyrics and singing are something else!
Jandek certainly understands how it feels to be
lonely, isolated, depressed
one would think he has an intimate knowledge of these feelings.

The vocals threw off The Guru somewhat who kept mumbling about drugs...I don't know what she meant! I wasn't that high!!

I remember placing my first order for a Jandek (ordered "New Town" from Amazon for like $12!! Great deal!), and the darkness of that album may have been a bit impenetrable on first listen. I feel that this dvd opens up his music and makes exploration of this muse long overdue!!

I should have time over the long weekend to view this amazing documentary again, and give my opinion (or whatever the hell it is I do!) in more detail. It's worth it! Thanks Mole!!! When I get a chance I'll throw you some more great krautrock I got recently. Jandek web site.
***

Charalambides: Market Square (1995)
What a brilliant wrapped way to start an album.

"please, pick up the phone...
pick up the phone!!
If you don't pick up the phone
...I'm calling the police!!"

...the desperation,
pleas falling on empty ears...

The strumming of the electric guitar, the whispered vocals...
enticing you into Market Square.
think about...before it's too late...I mean, just "think about".

This is spooky, enchanting, thought-provoking... Excellent!!

Randy heard of these guys through a top 100 list on Terrascope.

This is another great way to discover new/old bands. Check out lists. Rate Your Music has tons. Top 50 krautrock albums you never heard...Top 100 Dylan bootlegs...I mean the possibilities are endless out there!
***

It's no fucking joke...Yoko Ono WAS the BOMB!!!

Fly (1971) is EVEN better (!!??) than Plastic Ono Band (1970)...Absolutely stunning and brilliant. She had so much fucking GALL...I love it!!!

Another reason to love her: She broke up The Beatles!!!
***

OK

Life is getting..weird

The past week:
1) Steve and I were talking about this cd Psychedelic States in the 60s: Alabama and were laughing at imagining hippies in Alabama in the 60s.
So, I leave, get in the car, turn on the radio. What do you think was playing? Of course, it was "Sweet Home Alabama" by Skynyrd.

2) Yesterday I started thinking about my old workmate (for 13 years!!) from Hamilton, Marg Turnbull. [aside: Hi Marg!!] Out of the blue. We haven't communicated since xmas. I get home, go to my email and sure enough...there's an email from Marg notifying her contacts of an address change!

3) I have been recollecting parts of my childhood in excruciating detail that I haven't thought about for...decades!! Let's leave this one alone!!
***

Bob Bannister: Dives and Lazarus (2002)
Oh My fucking God!!!!
Who the hell is this guy? This is absolutely stunning.

"Maria Marten" starts the cd off with fantastic violin and Bob singing about killing his fiancee instead of marrying her. A little drastic maybe, but...isn't this what folk music is about?
"I Am A Pilgrim" rocks along with the desperation of hope.
"A Minature Rainbow" experimental beauty
"Got To Hurry" I love his singing! Bob's in a hurry to get to the promised land...and the song convinces me that Bob's well on his way!
"Dark Hollow" has some amazing electric guitar.
"In Christ (Slight Return)" ends the cd beautifully.

If you like intelligent, string based (and not afraid of electricity) folk this is HIGHLY recommended. The musicianship and vocals are top notch. Brilliant!!
This is firmly in the folk tradition BUT not tied to it. It is free, experimental, traditional.

There's not much online about Bob, but here's a link to his label.
***

The Mind of Self Pity

fragility...
broken glass cells twist into unending fury

dreams become your reality...
your dreams are a fucking nightmare

sweat drips into unseeing eyeballs
the terror of the future
has you clutching for something
...you never had, you've never seen
- only sensed -

friends come
... go
lovers come
...go

...you're still...
with yourself

addictions supply
warmth and comfort
BUT
isolated and withdrawn

the walls enclose
you like a prison
but the prison
is your mind
...in your mind...

Link to Walsh gallery - Lucy Kim page (artist of painting)
***

Jandek arrives, Randy's Stash continued: Agitation Free, Acid Mothers, Dylan and now - Steve's Stash of lps!!

A package arrived all the way from Hamilton, Ontario from my friend, ex-manager and all around man about town, Bruce "The Mole" Mowat.

As hands grasped the package, one could tell it was a cd. Ha! Wrong! It was a DVD!! It's hard to tell the difference these days....

Jandek's "Glasgow Sunday"!! Footage of the mysterious Mr. Jandek playing live in October 2004. I am anxiously awaiting viewing this piece of historical footage and relating my thoughts here at the Carnival.

Thanks Bruce!!! Jandek web site.
***

I am working my way through Randy's stash and discovering so many morsels of musical goodness that it is keeping me in a constant state of excitement! Here's more of:

Randy's Stash (part 2)

Agitation Free: Malesch (1972)
Another band I was ignorant of. Here's a snapshot of info I found:
They disbanded in 1974 after two albums. Malesch was the first. 2nd (1973) was the second. Last (1974) was..the last and live. Other albums appeared after they broke up.
2 main guys regrouped as Lagoona.
That broke up.
In 1998 they reformed.
First impressions: Very impressed! Awesome for you krautrock fans out there. I definitely need to check out their 2nd as well, and later various offshoots. Check out the official Agitation Free web site.
The band also look very cool as well...(or freaks)...same thing to me!

Acid Mothers Temple: The Penultimate Galactic Bordello (2004)
4 - FOUR fucking cds!!!
I know I mention these guys a lot, but what can I say? I'm a huge fan!
The Acid Mothers and their various offshoots [aside: Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno, Acid Mothers Gong, Acid Mothers Afrirampo, and the most common (but done with...for now! or are they??) Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso UFO] have released seemingly thousands of recordings, but...BUT!!!
This sounds to these ears like a classic!!! I've only heard the 1st cd and it's taken me on a
flight

through stars
and comets
and laser beams
shooting
through
synapses
of brain tissue
nailing me
to its dream
state
... a new path
opening and
I hear the heavens calling me calling me.....
Also...Cotton Casino is awesome. She could take you away with a touch of her finger on the right key...This is already one of my fav hits of the Acids.

Bob Dylan: Beneath the Border Sun (1978) bootleg
Here's a concert of Bob's from 1978 that blows away At Budokan (1978) ** for live performances. This was recorded a little over a year after that, and the energy, arrangements and Bob's voice are much more"involved". For some reason I get a kick when he keeps saying "Merci" to the crowd.
First impressions: Great bootleg! Good sound, great performance. Great Bob Dylan bootleg discography site. Bob has a few...
***

Steve's Stash (part 1)

As if going through gigabytes of Randy's stash wasn't enough...

Well...I picked up 61 lps (counting 2 & 3 lp sets as 1!) at Steve's garage sale on the weekend.
All kinds of stuff...

Derek & The Dominos (Layla & In Concert - both 2 record sets), Sidney Bechet, Humble Pie (w/ Peter Frampton still in the band), Manfred Mann, Roy Buchanan, George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" with poster!! Pink Floyd, XTC, Ry Cooder, CSNY Deja Vu, Goblin: Suspira (1977)!! Ian Hunter: Shades Of - 2 records!! Zappa in New York (another 2 record set!), Warren Zevon from 1969...
all kinds of shit...
some brilliant, some fun, some silly, some kitschy....it's lps man!!!! Gotta love it.

The Guru was going through them and she related how much she liked looking at album covers when she was 13-14. There is something about the allure of lps over cds/cd-r's. The artwork was part of the package. This is probably why lps refuse to die the way of 8 tracks or cassettes.
***

Life Crap

Harvey Dog's contract at his current job [aside: which I love...best job ever!] is ending in less than 5 weeks...so I'm starting to feel the pressure of having to go out...
do the
bullshit resume
bullshit cover letters
bullshit interviews and all the other bullshit involved.

As you can see, the ol' attitude needs to be readjusted so I can get through this.

I know I'm not alone when it comes to
looking for work,
dealing with shitty work,
even getting shitty work!
So here's some positive vibes to those currently in the same boat.

Positive Vibes!!
Positive Vibes!! peace out..
***

The good people of Wells! Randy's Stash! Yoko Ono Rules!! Edgar Broughton, Fela, Popol Vuh!! Poetry?! That's Enough!!

Back from my Holiday in the Sun...in the new Belsen!!!

Actually the funky little town of Wells, BC
for their 3rd Annual ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art.

It was a relaxing time for Harvey Dog, the Guru and the Bah.

The Town: I've never really been to a town quite like this. It's a town full of artists, freaks and a few others (total pop: 500). The area is gorgeous and is perfect to rejuvenate broken down, tired depressed people. Check it out: Wells BC

The Music: We didn't see as much music as we originally planned, but that's ok...The music we did see was all good...relaxation was the order of the trip!

Here's who we saw:
The Buttless Chaps: Enjoyed them live, and when they did their 80s schtick (cheesy..ie. Duran Duran) it worked fine, but listening to Love This Time (2003) when we got back home, I found that the 80s schtick broke the momentum of the album. I mean...if you're going to do 80s music you have to be coked out, and these guys don't seem coked out at all! Overall: fun band.

Kia Kadiri: very popular with the crowd and she had tons of energy and seemed to enjoy herself. Overall: Good.

OK Cobra: We only got one (of two) OK Cobra, but I liked him. He worked his ass off and seemed to mean every word. I thought it started ok, got really strong and enjoyable, then tapered off at the end. Overall: Very Good.

Ken Hamm: This man can play the guitar and he sounded great. I'd like to check him out with better sound than you get in a Community Hall! Overall: Worth investigating.
***

My friend Randy went incredibly insane and sent me a massive amount of music from his collection.

I am FREAKING OUT!!!

And Vaspers always recommends brilliant music and videos, as well as creating incredible music himself...
And Steve (another music fanatic) is always feeding my rock and prog desires...
And Mole is sending me a package from Hamilton that sounds...intriguing.

good friends...good music...good times
***

Impressions of Randy's Stash

Where to begin? So much music....How about what I'm listening to right now as I'm typing this?

Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band (1970)
This is absolutely brilliant. Stunning. I guess it was outrageous in it's day for conservative Beatle lovers, but today it sounds vital, experimental, engrossing...
"Paper Shoes" is freaking me out...should I be listening to this at work?
Should I be doing my blog at work?
Should I get back to my VS2005 copy function project? OK...but LISTEN to this one!
Wait...is Yoko screaming: "Alfred!!! Alfred!!!!" in "Open Your Box"? Who's Alfred? The butler? Her man-servant? Paul McCartney? Alfred E. Newman?
[aside: This album just finished up, and it appears to me that Yoko was the TRUE innovator of The Beatles! Forget Lennon/McCartney let's hear it for Yoko!!!]

Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (2005)
Randy and I were extremely stoked when we first heard about this 6 cd box. We're both huge Miles fans of his late 60s early 70s electric period. Incredible fucking music!

Soul Jazz collections
The Soul Jazz compilations are a great way to discover obscure, underrated artists from the past. Always interesting.

Fela Kuti: Expensive Shit (1975) / He Miss Road (1975)
I love this! The groove is happening and entices you in...immediately! Then Fela and company bitch about expensive shit that smells. Now who can't relate to expensive smelly shit!?
The politics are great as well. I mean, you can go on and on about why Bush and all these other world leaders (using the term "leader" very loosely) are demonic and seemingly bent on the destruction of our world and its people...
BUT, Fela sums it all up by saying: "He Miss Road". How fucking true!
Summary: Happy to be introduced to Fela's world.

Edgar Broughton Band: Out Demons Out - Best Of 1969-1972 (2001)
Gotta love the freaks...and STILL going strong. Loads of fun...
"There's No Vibrations But Wait" is insane.
Actually, there's tons of good old freaky insanity going on.

Popol Vuh: Affenstunde (1970)
OK...I had heard of these guys and desperately wanted to hear them.
Finally!
This is beautiful music that takes one into
different atmospheres
walking on planets
reminding me a bit of Eno's Apollo (1983) album which I always thought was brilliant.
***

scattered
and strewn
amongst my pile
of music

refreshing the mind
constantly revolving
like old lps
on a dusty turntable

solid...true...
reliable
like life
and death...

drowning in the
v a s t n e s s
of humanity
called music

music is life
music is death
music is everything
and

all is music
***

The Guru and I are hooking up a second computer at home...
will this lead to more posts?????

Just warning ya!
[aside: I didn't use any of the post I mentioned...last post! Once you get started...]
***

Vacation....

Vacation Time!!!!

Off to Wells, BC for the 3rd Annual ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art!!

4 DAYS
40 ACTS
Eric Tompkins!!! [from PG!!]

It should be
fantastic
relaxing
soothing
healing

Guru T-Lu, the Bah and myself will be departing tomorrow morning.

A new post will be published early next week.
The notes are done...just gotta put it together!

Happy BC Day!!!
***