Pig State Recon

No, this is not the start of a new SST Records-related series of posts. It’s just today’s fleeting desire to gab about a few nearenuf, shouldabeen, honest-to-god almost hits from the SST RECORDS family, ca. world domination period (’86-’92). Yeah you probably cried sell-out back then, but in 2008, with 20-20 hindsight? Well listen again:

1. DOS - “Taking Away the Fire” - (Dos LP, New Alliance Records, 1986) The early DOS song you’d hear spun the most on LA’s KXLU radio, probably since it’s got vocals. The wiggly, prog bass harmonics were totally haunting & singular ringing out amidst the bland sea of tunes by THE CULT and SISTERS OF MERCY they was pushing hard back then. And I’ve always interpreted the lyrics as Kira struggling to come to terms with her drastically less intense, post-BLACK FLAG existence. I admit I was one of the last to truly get the awesome power of DOS, but once I did . . .

2. ANGST - “Some Things (I Can’t Get Used To)” (Mending Wall, SST Records, 1986) Frank Fucking Black covered this, but forget about that for a sec. ANGST was this cool mid-80’s SF trio whose strummin’ sound harkened back to mid-60’s political folkrock as often as their vocals summoned up the blunted tonal palette of amazing, recently deceased Bay area bands like THE SLEEPERS and NEGATIVE TREND. All their records have a handful of rueful, biting keepers on em, this being their most serious contender in the Reagan-era, personal-is-political sadcore sweepstakes.

3. ALWAYS AUGUST - “Flatlands” (Geography EP, SST Records, 1988) Not actually a hit by any stretch but it’s the one I most-associate with these Virginia hippie jazzbos, as a pal of mine spun this rec alot back then. Dig that fretless bass! It’s the very best DEAD-inspired coalescing on a label that was infamous throughout the land for a burning, heretical DEADication. For a moment there, I actually believed this kinda freeform, barefoot sound was gonna REIGN SUPREME over the underground for the next decade. Boy, was I ever wrong. This tune along with a whole gaggle of wildly disparate, Ginn-approved tunage can also be found on the quaintly-titled SST Godhead Storedude In-Store Play Device #5 cassette, freely available for public bemusement/befuddlement here.

4. GRANT HART - “2541” (2541 EP, SST Records, 1988) Out of all the early SST signings, HÜSKER DÜ interested me the least. Maybe it was because I had no line on em - they were a 1000 miles away in Minneapolis, not a 15 minute drive down PCH in Hermosa Beach. Or maybe, it was their drug choice (heroin) that rubbed my then hyper-caffeinated metabolism the wrong way. Whatever, I shied away for years - until it was just about over and bitchen solo projects like Grant’s Intolerance started to emerge (read what the astute Aussie blogger at Lexicon Devil had to say about that period here). “2541″ saw Grant revisiting his early HD years via a cool, Tom Pettyesque pop rock tune that suits his ernest vocals like a homeknit sock. Me, I suspect he could’ve eventually out-WESTERBERGed ol’ PAUL, if only the music industry had cut him some slack.

5. ALL - “She’s My Ex” (Allroy’s Revenge, Cruz Records, 1989) Goofy as you may think this one-time college radio staple is/was, this comes from the very-best ALL record of alltime (Allroy’s Revenge), an LP every one of you so-called rocker types should explore in fine detail before you die. While this particular track is pure pop pabulum, the rhythmations that Bill Stevenson, Stephen Egerton, and Karl Alvarez get up to elsewhere on this rec are unparalleled, especially given how damn radio-friendly so many of the tunes are. And if this is just too embarrassing for you to revisit, try this: pretend singer Scott Reynolds is singing in Swahili, and this will go down like a 6:00 am whiskey flip.

6. JACK BREWER BAND - “Why Did God Create Assholes” (Harsh World, New Alliance Records, 1992) He had songs I liked better, but after a handful of beers, few punch lines sounded more right on. This was the one the audiences (ok, me) cried out for more than any other, “Dog’s Liberation” aside. And boy, Jack loved to give audiences what they loved - when he wasn’t making them feel kinda worried/uncomfortable, anyway. Saw him do this live opening for SONIC YOUTH on their Daydream Nation tour, in all his clutzy glory. He nearly brought down the house.

Thanks to lasvegashardcore for the photo

Now this might now mean much to you, but just imagine my excitement when I recently stumbled across this set of YouTube clips all taken from guitar hero Henry Kaiser’s Eclectic Electric - Exploring New Horizons for Guitar and Improvisation instructional video issued by Backstage Pass in the early 90’s. I’ve wanted to see this damn thing since Henry advertised it on the back cover of his great Hope You Like Our New Direction LP (Reckless Records, 1991). At the time, I couldn’t really justify the purchase - I didn’t actually play guitar! But now, I can get in on some of the ear-piercing action I missed out on way back then. I’ll let Henry introduce things:

Wait . . . the weirder side of the blues? Unorthodox effects? Derek Bailey?!? And here, all I wanted was to learn how to play the lick from “Dark Star”. Dammit.

Yeah, yeah Henry - ya don’t haveta go and get pedantic on us - we know all this stuff already. And anybody who bought your vid in ‘91 would’ve known this already, too. It’s like he’s aiming this at all those random schmucks just popping in the gtr shop to buy a new set of Ernie Ball strings! Sheesh.

Yes Henry: gtrs can be used to maintain dental hygiene, but I don’t really recommend it. Especially grafted atop a ZZ TOP riff.

“More fragile harmonics can survive in a vacuum tube, where they seem to be eliminated or squashed in a solid-state crystal lattice”: obviously, big Dr. D is assuming your ears ain’t already blown by waaaay too much loudass rockandroll. The vacuum/sold-state debate is totally meaningless in my hearing impaired world, but thanks for the clarification.

Now this is more like it. Three balding fellas in jeans and white tennis shoes attempting to recreate the MAGIC BAND ca. ‘69 (admittedly, sans some of the gritty, distorto-blues trudge) on a pro soundstage lost someplace in the San Fernando Valley. How great it would’ve been if EVERY boomer musician had been this goddamn peculiar, all the time.

Thanks to Memetoto for the YouTube uploads

It is said that at any point in time here in London, you’re never more than 10 feet away from a rat. Now, if I’m gonna believe that one, then I’m also gonna believe that in LA, you’re never more than 10 feet from some rodent-like fella with a camera angling to get into the movie biz. These clips be proof, ca. ‘67-’72:

CLEAR LIGHT - “She’s Ready to Be Free” 1967: Ah, to stumble across a dashing young rock band this idiosyncratic amongst the canyons of LA. Is this taken from The President’s Analyst? I don’t know jack about CLEAR LIGHT, other than they put out one LP on Electra in the wake of THE DOORS with future CSN&Y drummer Dallas Taylor. This psych fragment - with that manic gtr chickenscratchin’ - makes me wanna explore more.

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - “Electricity” 1968: I’m guessing this is a studio take overdubbed here, but WHO CARES! It’s a young Beefheart & band on the beach, for christ’s sake - looks like Santa Monica to me. And in mismatched hats no less! - ya just gotta admire em. LA freak was waaaay more at odds with SoCal’s idea of itself than hippie ever was in relation to SF’s identity (BLUE CHEER excluded). This created a cluster of LA outcast artists who were more tough/ornery, more individualistic, and ultimately more inspiring than their NoCal counterparts. Give me the Straight! Records crew any day of the week.

KALEIDOSCOPE - “Lie To Me” 1969: This live version beats the pants off the still-rankin’ studio version found on their Incredible! LP. Jimmy Page called these guys his favorite band, and I’m starting to believe he was on to something special here - what a talented group. And if only the flashing colors along Sunset Blvd. were still anywhere near this eye-popping . . .

THE BYRDS & EARL SCRUGGS - “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” 1971: You may have seen this already; I sure haven’t. Industry pressure kept these BYRD guys kinda tame in their early career, but man the times they did a-change and eventually they were free to fly with the best of em. Later BYRDS gtrist Clarence White has always been a string-bending favorite of mine, although here that young guy to the right of Earl (Earl’s son?) turns in a pretty dang talented solo, too.

MU - “Nobody Wants to Shine” 1972: Merrell Fankhauser’s MU chiseled out the absolute pinnacle of Westcoast hippie rock on their first self-titled LP in 1970, recorded during their LA period. There remains nothing like MU’s glorious MAGIC BAND meets GRATEFUL DEAD musical vibeology found anywhere on this still-beautiful planet (Lemuria included). This silent clip - filmed up near San Luis Obispo someplace, but so what - is the only film I’ve ever seen of em. Watch closely, and ya just might learn a thing or to about how to actualize one of those alternate psychedelic realities we all know exist, but seem at a big, big loss to find in 2008.

Yeah I’ve struggled through days of pain, and shared in days of sorrow. I’ve worked through days of tense confusion, and weathered days of heavy thunder. But the sweetest, the longest lasting, the most un-for-fucking-get-able of days have been my days of white hot, burning HATE. Come on now, spell it with me: H-A-T-E. Hating me, hating you, hating us, hating them. Hating it fucking all. And while I’m betting you, too, have your very own personal ritual . . . for me, when I’m really feeling the hate, so to speak - well, I open an armfull of chilled Foster’s in tall cans, shut the curtains tight, turn down the lights, roll my eyes waaaay back and slowly take in the following tunes:

BOYD RICE w/ JOEL HAERTLING - “Hatesville” (from The Way I Feel, Caciocavallo, 2000) - Boyd’s no ho-dad when it comes to hate - he’s a charter member of Hatred Anonymous. And I do not care if this man is a saint or sinner, Nazi or Nationalist. What I do care about is that he’s frequently and inexplicably great at pulling together sonic material + words that reverberate with my darker thoughts, feelings, & unconscious wishes. Here though, he’s spelling it out in a way we can all understand.

FOETUS/THE MELVINS - “Mine is No Disgrace” (from The Crybaby, Ipecac Recordings, 1999) - Don’t even try and convince me Jim Thirwell is a waste of time. Sure he likes to over-arrange his stuff, and I do understand his copious use of BOMBAST is not everyone’s cup o’ tea . . . but pushing buttons is his modus operandi. And by accepting that, you’re half-way into a Foetal position, so to speak. I love the refrain included herein (”I feel like I could rape a nun, and it’s always the first kiss that gets you drunk/ so I keep a habit on her face, while I listen to that YES song, ‘Yours is No Disgrace’ . . .”), and love more that Buzzo & co. are backing him here with real live heavyasswoopin rocknrolla . . .

ADAM PARFREY - “Kill Your Sons” (from A Sordid Evening of Sonic Sorrows, Man’s Ruin Records, 1997) - I realize you’re now wondering: does this Mrowster guy sit around pumping his fist to those later 80’s SKREWDRIVER records? And I gotta say no, no, and more no - that Ian Stuart guy was too predictably boring/shmaltzy with all his Blood & Honour crap for a perverse, self-deprecating mofo like myself to take seriously. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed sharing a pint with the man . . . anyway Adam P., the distasteful cad behind Feral House Press, once sculpted a couple of irresponsible CDs with the POISON IDEA boyz that, when taken together, act as a sort of hate rock concept suite. This Lou Reed cover is my pick of their foul spawn, but I coulda lots of picked others . . .

GLYN STYLER/LYDIA LUNCH - “Casket Built For Two” (from The Desperate Ones EP, Truckstop Records, 1998) - That point where obsessive love finally empties out into a tranquil lagoon of eternal murderous suffocation. Either one of these characters (Glyn or Lydia) harbors enough hatred to fuel a mid-size midwestern town, but together? Brother, the party is ON! I will stand by Lydia’s first dozen or so releases til I die, and once pontificated about Glyn here. But really, the whole world oughta be swooning to this beautifully over-wrought epitaph on a nightly basis. God, how much better I’m feeling already!

BLACK FLAG - “Scream” (My War, SST Records, 1984) Just the ultimate in primeval scream therapy. Overdubbing multiple Rollinses was one of more effective studio tricks Ginn ever came up with. As a shitty no-talent 16 yr old bass/keyboardist, I once convinced the ZEPP-loving buddies in my high school band (we called ourselves HAMMER, THUMP & WEDGE) that I’d written this. I didn’t let on and we jammed for weeks around this riff, while I imagined elaborate revenge scenarios and gruesome fantasies of self-serving mayhem aimed at all those who wronged me in my life. “Yeah I blow my cool, I blow my cool all over the place . . .”

So I’m back to continue with my Hollywood punker round-up, first corralled in this here post. Regarding the pics above: one of these women sang “Adult Books”, the other married yours truly. Betcha can’t guess who’s who!

1. Best GUN CLUB effort: Lucky Jim (Triple X Records, 1994). I have soft spots in my heart for every GUN CLUB record . . . except the first. This isn’t because that one’s not worthy - it is, really - but it got played to death in my household when I was a very young teen. And as they say: ya can’t go home again.

These days, I’m most taken by the later stuff. It still boggles my mind that Jeffrey - the man with Thee Lonesomeist voice in all post-punk rock - developed an individualistic and inspirational take on blues-rock gtr playing. And if you’re one of those jokers who says his playing sounded like Stevie Ray or Eric Clapton . . . well, listen closer, pal. Jeffrey always integrated lotsa folk-blues influences into his gtr sound (see his Ramblin’ Jeffrey Lee solo outing for the evidence) and he never over-played (shades of Paul Kossoff!), though he damn well had the finger agility if he’d wanted to. A man cut down in his prime, fr sure.

2. Best DILS effort: Made In Canada double 7″ (Rogelletti Records, 1979). The strength of the DILS lay in biting, finite songcraft, and their best 3-minutes was “Sound of the Rain”, included herein. Yeah you could slag em off as mere CLASH rip-offs, but in LA ca. ‘79, rockin’ political pop of this caliber was kinda unheardof. And holyhell man, no American city at the time had cops more worthy of TOTAL ANNIHILATION than the fucking scum pigs down in LA. “I don’t listen to the cops I wish they all were dead/ listen to the planes flying overhead/ listen to the sound of the loss and gain/ I just listen . . . to the sound of the rain”.

3. Best WEIRDOS effort: Destroy All Music 45 (Dangerhouse, 1977). You might not guess it, but WEIRDOS singer John Denny is a really sweet and thoughtful guy. He used to shop in our record store in Hollywood, often making clever comments about music and once bringing this huge, dead spider up to the till (”son, I don’t think this is for sale”). He always made a point to acknowledge me, the lowly sales clerk, like the actual human being I was. I owe him some thanks for this.

Now the WEIRDOS Destroy 7″ is merely the first of a great career of bludgeon rock - one that even extended into a 90’s Flea-on-bass period! But it’s this rec that contains one of the very best chooglin’ punk anthems of all time: “Life of Crime”. God, I can almost feel the bottles breaking on my sweaty, 3am forehead during that one. Awesome.

4. Best ALEX GIBSON effort: Bpeople LP (Faulty Products, 1981). Who’s Alex, you ask? Well he was apparently in a group called THE LITTLE CRIPPLES with a young, pre-SWANS Michael Gira; he founded LA’s noir rock-experimentalists BPEOPLE; and he continued his identifiably-Alexian aesthetic through a bitchen solo EP, then in ever-so-slightly watered down form in his band PASSIONNEL, and again solo on the soundtrack to Penelope Spheeris’ Suburbia flick. Everything he did had an arcane sadness/darkness to it that places it squarely in THE TOILING MIDGETS and RIK L RIK orbit (it’s no wonder Alex played a bit of bass on that great SLEEPERS LP from ‘81). The self-titled BPEOPLE LP is less experimental than their early 45/compilation cuts, and slathers the JOY DIVISION gloom on thick and impenetrable. But: there’s a solid rockin’ core buried underneath it all that’ll keep it from ever being mistaken for BAUHAUS. It’s what all so-called goth should really be aspiring to.

Hey: where’s the retrospective CD that Warning Label Records promised us a couple years back?

5. Best X effort: Under The Big Black Sun LP (Electra Records, 1983). Well their best moment certainly wasn’t the X concert my mom took me to in ‘85 at Irvine Meadows, cause all I really remember was John Doe kicking hard at some manic stage dancer to get him the hell off the stage. Openers CHANNEL 3, then deep into their bighair “Last Night I Drank…” phase, left the bigger impression - but that’s a different story. So anyway . . . completely buggering all the nonsense that their individual members have talked/written/produced since: all of the first four X LPs are uniformly great, as is the first KNITTERS LP. I couldn’t really pick just one, so I let my wife choose, as even Chris D. once seemingly mistook her for Exene. Again, this is another story.

And I might add that they’re still displaying this plate prominently in 2008 - no doubt to aid/confuse others on the Big, Big Search. Gotta love them TX hippies. Ya just gotta.

I bought my first PINK FAIRIES record in a headshop/pornoshop/recordshop (remember those?) in El Paso, Texas in the late 80’s. And though I’ve been hooked hard on the entire FAIRIES/DEVIANTS nexus ever since, I’ve often struggled to explain why. Their American peers to whom they are most often compared - THE STOOGES, THE MC5, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - were all more coherent musical units. Studio records from these Brits were consistently uneven, as they keen wildly from sloppy hangover mess to full-throttle, power liftoff in the space of a single hairy eyeball. And neither THE DEVIANTS nor THE FAIRIES had singers who could really, ya know, sing - let alone write actual songs! - until their last, original stand on Kings of Oblivion (thank you, Larry Wallis).

But oooh man they always put EVERYTHING they had into their thing - be that rough-hewn talent, balls-out energy, confrontative politics, or unidentified controlled substances - in turn exhibiting a kind of primitivism more or less unheard of on this fair isle of England at the time. Their unflagging dedication to creating temporary autonomous zones via the sacred act of plugging in, turning it up, and tearing it the fuck down is still worthy of deep reverence. And the collected oeuvre of these guys & their friends is certainly the most compelling document of The End Of Hippie (Burnin’ Ladbroke Grove Division) in extant - one of the more poignantly-fascinating stories in the history of rock n roll. They went up, they went down . . . yes, indeed.

And so all this brings me to the fact that I finally finished reading Rich Deakin’s Keep It Together: Cosmic Boogie with the Deviants and the Pink Fairies, published by Headpress earlier this year. I’ve had it since it’s release here in the UK a few months ago, so excited as I was to get my hands on the complete story behind all these wild records. Welcomed as a godsend to FAIRY freaks worldwide, it’s chock full of images, quotes, and half-remembered stories from everyone involved, including extensive info on even peripheral crazies & hangers-on who chose to orbit this uniquely English sonic blackhole. Not unlike the difficult careers of it’s heros, Keep it Together is a long, tough haul that meanders down blind alleys as often as it takes flight.

That said, it’s also book that often lost me in it’s relentless documentation of DEVIANTS/FAIRIES minutiae. While many of the actual events recounted are captivating, inspiring, and at times, downright Homeric in scope - ultimately, the author fails to bring it all together and articulate why anyone not already attuned should bother paying attention. To paraphase FAIRY drummer Twink: it’s like 10,000 words in 10,000 different cardboard boxes, left for the reader to try and make sense of in the harsh light of 2008. Mick Farren’s Give the Anarchist a Cigarette published by Jonathan Cape/Pimlico in 2001 remains the far more focused, biting, and hilarious - albeit egocentric - examination of this late 60’s/early 70’s crew, as Mick actually succeeds in translating some of that heroic, gonzo spirit into terms even jaded, modern day emo girlyboys could grok. And if ever England’s kids needed some kinda DEVIANT/FAIRY street rock and roll madness & inspiration to light fires under their asses once again, it’s right fucking now.

———-

What does get my unqualified support is the new PINK FAIRIES Finland Freakout 1971 CD (Major League Productions, 2008). Recorded as a trio after Twink had bailed but before Trevor Burton joined up, this catches the boys rockin’ a commie stage to absolute pieces. The fidelity - at least equal to that found on any DEAD C. record - damn near replicates what standing in a muddy field beneath a 50 ft. wall of Orange amplification and Marshall stacks with burst eardrums must’ve once been like. And their take here on “Tomorrow Never Knows” is absolutely definitive. Up the Pinks!

Photo of THE DEVIANTS by Robin Morrison, taken from the pages of Rich Deakin's Keep It Together

I’m too young and too suburban to’ve had any first-hand contact with that original, legendary late-70’s Hollywood punk rock stuff. And like many of you, when I finally did discover it’s joys/wonders . . . man, it was the 80’s. The Masque-heyday looooong over, and seemingly (at that point, anyway) sealed forevermore in a back-alley Hollywood grave. But that didn’t stop me from seeking out all I could from that original ‘77-’79 crew, no siree. Nor from following alot of what flowed from them open Blvd. wounds throughout the Reagan-and-beyond eras. So: I’m gonna give you my two cents regarding the music of the Hollywood punker set. My tastes may not be yours, but they are informed by a 1/4 century of serious, retrospective consideration of such things.

1. Best PLUGZ effort: Better Luck LP (Fatima Records, ‘81). Honest to god I’ve never understood folks that think the first is better. Yeah, the 1st is the more, uh, “punk” . . . but fuck me if this ain’t the richer slice of Hollywood dive bar rockin’. The songs are unforgettable, the stratocaster jangle/snare pop is all their own, and Gary Panter’s cover art is just the best. Plus, Steve Berlin’s sax makes this near enuf the missing link between THE FLESH EATERS A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die and LOS LOBOS How Will the Wolf Survive? LPs. If THE CRUZADOS had sounded half this good, maybe Tito Lariva would now be a household name.

2. Best LEGAL WEAPON effort: Your Weapon LP (Arsenal Records, ‘82). Fuck Death of Innocence - that ADOLESCENT rhythm section ain’t got nuthin on this line-up. Future SEA HAG Adam Maples drumming is way inspired, Brian H.’s gtr was improving by leaps and bounds, and GOD what a voice Kat Arthur had - she was Texacala Jones by way of Stevie Nicks (this is not an insult!). Kat always sounded older and more world-weary than any of her contemporaries - see her vocal on the great “Caught in the Reign”. The moment this rec captures is so comfortable in it’s incorporation of the then-emerging LA hard/glam rock thang into Hollywood punk, it just kills me. And really, later L.W. stuff isn’t as bad as you punkers might wanna believe - though I admit the material wasn’t ever anywhere near up to this level again.

3. Best FLESH EATERS effort: Hard Road to Follow LP (Upsetter Records, ‘83). Here’s what I wrote about em a few years ago:

Tattered, worse-for-wear Hollywood outcasts sputter though split lips and lost dreams on this, the last “real” FLESH EATERS LP. This has that drunk-long-after-everybody-else-has-sobered-up relationship to things that less articulate guys like the LEAVING TRAINS would decide to build careers around a bit later. Singer & lyricist Chris D. disowned this record for years after, and no wonder: it’s a depressingly dark journey through a claustrophobic wasteland of alcohol-fueled romantic despair and eerie paranoia. But the FLESH EATERS’ Alice Cooperish hard rock was loosening up in all manner of cool ways at this point. You get more guitar breaks (matched, it would seem, by a 3-fold increase in the number of words Chris would cram into each song), the addition of cowgirl Jill Jordan’s attractively off-key whine (what ever happened to her?), and a cool cover of Al Green’s “Rhymes” pointing to roads eventually explored in full by D.’s DIVINE HORSEMEN. At the time, a lot of knownothings asked why they had persevered after Slash had ditched em earlier that year. I, for one, am glad they did.

I still stand by that, although the Atavistic CD reissue (with crucial bonus tracks) is the way to go for maximum brain burn.

4. Best WALL OF VOODOO effort: Seven Days in Sammystown LP (I.R.S. Records, ‘85). I’m gonna get heretical on your ass and claim this rec, their 1st with Andy Prieboy singing, edges out all other competition. I love the early records too, but a) this was their most consistent collection of songs, b) Andy’s hypomanic warble beats Stan’s nasally croonspeak everyday of the year, and c) here, Marc Moreland’s gtr is flying it’s V straight to my newwavey hearty-heart. Hell, this band always revolved around Marc’s inspiration anyway; check out his later bitchen work with PRETTY & TWISTED, DEPARTMENT OF CROOKS, and MARC MORELAND’S MESS for further proof of that man’s unheralded genius. And for those that are interested, Andy’s included lots of barely-veiled, embarrassingly funny stories from this period in his great novel The Psycho-Ex Game, co-written with Merrill Markoe.

5. Best ALLEY CATS effort - “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” 7-inch 45 (Dangerhouse Records, ‘78). Sometimes trad wisdom gets it right. I’ve repeatedly tried to “rediscover” their later, heroin-informed LPs that came out on those bogue major-label funded imprints. But I always come back to this, their very first waxing. What an amazing, laughing-hyena singer Mr. Randy Stodola once was! He was a South Bay dude just like Mike Watt of THE MINUTEMEN. But unlike THE MINUTEMEN, THE ALLEY CATS regularly passed as Hollywood cats. How’d that work?!? Whatever, this song is a barn-burner of apocalyptic proportions, and one that has helped me get through a number of heavy, near-total meltdowns. Now I’m gonna go make nothing mean nothing again tonite, once more.

———

So what, you wanted me to blab about THE DILS, THE GUN CLUB, THE WEIRDOS, the almighty GERMS and the too-sexy Mr. ALEX GIBSON of BPEOPLE? Yeah I’ll gets there when I gets there, bub. Gimme time.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy OH BOY! Yep, it’s finally ARRIVED!

THE GRATEFUL DEAD GAME is sitting in my lap as I type this. Now lemme tell ya: this purchase was a controversial one. Take a peek at what my wife had to say about it all on her blog earlier today:

A few months ago, M bid on and won a Greatful Dead Board Game. I think he paid a lot for it, and paid even more to have it shipped overseas. It came today and after seriously trying to hide it from him, he found it and opened it. He is threatening to make me play it. When I told him no, he said that he would then force (*name deleted) to play it with him. I miss her but you know, maybe it’s a good thing she’s in America right now! Though the idea of (*name deleted) beating him at this game is a satisfying idea.

The box says Ages: Adult. Haha…don’t they mean Acid Casualty Boomer? The goal of the game is to collect little tickets while you move a dancing skeleton around a collage of off-their-head dancing Dead Heads printed on the board.

Already M is looking at the cards going, “Man, these questions are super hard.”

And this just proves my theory– with all their lip service to love and light, hippies are the most hung up, retentive and controlling people. Ever.

(Have you ever seen a Head open their suitcase of live Dead cassettes? Did you try to touch them? Do you remember what happened? I rest my case while simultaneously dating myself)

If I must play it, will try to make this into a drinking game. For the good of the marriage.

Sheesh. I’m sure (well, pretty sure) she’s just taking the piss. Hell she’s the only one in the marriage to’ve actually seen THE DEAD play live, and multiple times at that. In the Bay Area no less! Yeah she’ll NEVER live that down.

BUT ANYWAY, the only problem I can see is . . . well you sorta need TWO OR MORE DEADHEADS to play. One Deadhead + clueless participant (willin’ or otherwise) just won’t cut it. Said participant would no doubt lose her pretty, everlovin’ mind after like 2 questions as the questions are, well, super hard. Here’s a sample question: “Creditors repossessed Pigpen’s organ in San Francisco in the 1960’s due to the band’s outstanding debts. Did or Didn’t?” Uh, yeah.

So who else is gonna join in to play? I promise, I’ll go easy onya.

Now I admit I’ve been known to complain loudly about the sorry state of used record hunting in London. But lately, the tides down on the Thames have shifted for the better. Once again, it’s raining second-hand records ’round these parts! Here’s a rundown of a few LPs I scored for 99p in recent weeks:

1. ASGÆRD “In the Realm of Asgærd” (Threshold Records UK, 1972) - Almost passed over this one, thinking it was one of them early KING CRIMSON LPs I’ve consciously overlooked for the past quarter century or so. But then it hit me: just who the fuck are ASGÆRD? I don’t know what an ASGÆRD is, and I’ve never, ever heard even a peep about this ASGÆRD record before. Perfect reason to buy it! And low and behold but this is decent folk/fantasy (rather than classical/symphonic) prog rock in a lighter URIAH HEEP vein. They do lay the vocal harmonies on thick, but they don’t go overboard with the mellotron and they ain’t afraid to rock out (albeit politely), so I’m happy. Oh and they do a song about Austin Osman Spare wherein they “kiss the cloven hoof.” Yes there are still little treasures buried deep within this fair isle.

2. JUDY HENSKE & JERRY YESTER “Farewell, Aldebaran” (Straight Records US, 1969) - Is this even on CD yet? It’s a winner fr sure, all the way through to the end. A real ZAPPA gal, this Judy H. was - in the sense that she saw nothing odd in belting out a ball-busting JANIS J. blues number back to back with a sweet flower-pop jingle tailormade for the second STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK LP, and then: follow it with a harpichord-drenched misery ballad that RICHARD HARRIS coulda made a bundle on as a follow-up to his “MacArthur Park” cash-in. Yeah it’s these kinda juxtapositions (non sequiturs?) that the Straight Records crew always excelled it. Hard to pick the best, but I’d say that’s the Chinese cowboyisms of “Raider”, which sounds like something that coulda brightened up one of them later MOBY GRAPE LPs. If only the GRAPE had thought better of LA.

3. THE RUNAWAYS “Live In Japan” (Mercury Records Japan, 1977) - I’ll be honest: when I reach for a RUNAWAYS disc, half the time I’m thinking not of a album, or a song, or even a riff. I reaching for an image. Like those vaguely creepy portraits of the gals on their first LP that Kim Fowley labeled with their ages. Nuts! Or the amazing cover photo on this record. Here THE RUNAWAYS are looking more like 70’s Japanese kiddie superheroes (I’m thinking Himitsu Sentai Go Renjā) than anything hard rock. But hey this was Cherie Currie’s last stand, so it’s gotta be hard, right? Well, not exactly. I know Joan & co. got lumped in with the punker thing at the time, but sonically speaking, here they come across as THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY trying to bang out THE SWEET songbook. And that, dear Cherie, is not a good mental image.

4. GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR “Pottery Pie” (Reprise/Warner Bros. Records US, 1970) - Now this was a coincidence, seeing as I’ve been saturating my ears with GEOFF’s kinda-recent work (The Secret Handshake & Beautiful Isle of Somewhere from the ’90s) as of late. No this ain’t Geoff & Maria’s best - that would be their gorgeously lazy Sweet Potatoes LP - but it’s still damn, damn fine. It’s got their recording of “Brazil”, around which Terry Gilliam based his great flick of the same name. It was produced by Joe Boyd. It features lotsa tasty Bill Keith pedal steel. And oh! It’s got Geoff’s voice - one of the 100 Essential Musical Keys To Spiritual Enlightenment - prominently exhibited for all to oogle. I couldn’t ask for much more.

5. ORNETTE COLEMAN “Who’s Crazy? 2” (Atmosphere Records France, 1979) My copy is beat, but so what. These were further soundtrack recordings that THE ORNETTE COLEMAN TRIO (O., Dave Izenzon, and Charles Moffett) made for soundtrack to the Belgian flick “Who’s Crazy?” back in ‘66. And even I, a guy who burned out his jazz receptors way back in the early ’90s, can tell: this is hot. The trio format stripped what little fat there was from Ornette’s early ensembles and left his harmolodicisms to float up into the stratosphere like wispy dollar bills set aflame with a trusty Zippo lighter. Though Dave I.’s bowing bass does help ground everything in something thicker than the muddy banks of the Mississippi. This record could potentially rekindle my once-mighty passion for all things jazz. Rhapsody Films has reissued amazing footage of this music being created in real time, ca. ‘66 - I’ll definitely have to see that sometime soon.

6. THE WHO “The Ox” (Track Records UK, 1970) - aka Backtrack 14, this is an odd comp. of ’60s WHO songs all penned by John “The Ox” Entwistle. The fact that he also sings all over these swinging, musichall-ish tunes helps me forget I’m actually listening to THE WHO for long stretches. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d think this was some weird SMALL FACES rec I somehow missed out on back in my inexplicable fascinated-by-Ronnie-Wood phase. My pick is the creepy “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” but none of this is what I’d call embarrassing. Anybody out there wanna try and get me interested in The Ox’s 70’s solo career?