Saturday, April 16, 2016

Frankly I'm kinda tired (spring fever has set in), so no big opening pep talk regarding my personal life or politix or kultur in general to pad this thing out a bit. Aren't you glad???

The David Roter Band-"I Think I Slept With Jackie Kennedy Last Night"/"He's a Rabbi" 45 rpm record (Unknown Tongue)

Big surprise of the week's this particular spinner dating back '79 way, the first (that I know of) platter by the legendary yet way underdocumented En Why area minstrel David Roter. Oft talked about yet hardly ever heard, Roter was a man who was constantly mentioned (some may say hyped) by minds as bright as R. Meltzer and Bobby Abrams in books (THE AESTHETICS OF ROCK) and magazines (FUSION) for nigh on twelve years before this blink 'n you'll miss single was unleashed on whatever public there was who'd wanna pick up such an obscurity as this inna first place!

The plug side was so good that Roter re-did it on one of his later releases, but here "I Think I Slept With Jackie Kennedy" is even better, perhaps because it ain't as lush as the version that ended up on FIND SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL Cee-Dee even if it lacks the post-mortem appreciation of it all. And if YOU TOO, like David, had those hotcha sex fantasies regarding our First Lady back when you were hitting the pubesprout portion of your life well...you just might go for this 'un too.

The "Sweet Jane" riffs sound stronger and Roter's in top form the way he belts out that passionate tale of a pick up that might very well have been none other'n the former Mrs. Onassis. or at least Lee Radziwhatshername. On the flip Roter mangles "He's a Rebel" in this tale of a gal who falls for the rabbi who teaches at her yeshiva and of course the yuks are on full blast to the point where some of you GUILTIER types'll think you're anti-Semitic for daring to chortle even in the least! As the old saying goes you don't have to be Jewish, but it sure helps!

Two strong sides from this tres original (and long deceased) BOC/Dictators buddy who's due for a big retrodoc of his material because hey, the way his name was referenced throughout the seventies I'd sure like to know what it was really all about! Maybe someday we'll all finally get to lend ear to his legendary and unreleased gems like "I'm a Doper (And Not Ashamed)" as well as that all-time classic "Jame (no sic) Brown".
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Yoshi Wada-OFF THE WALL CD (EM, Japan)

Fluxiod Wada does really good with this collection of drone pieces that wallow somewhere between Philip Glass and Tony Conrad all done up with bagpipes, an affected pipe organ and maybe some tympani and other boom booms tossed in. The results sound like a gathering of the clans under the influence of Redi Whip fumes and personally I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate Robert Burns' birthday than spinning this particular rouser (like, I wouldn't eat haggis on a bet!). Like Glass the sounds move and the rhythm gives this (in part) a particularly rock 'n roll drone-y kinda feeling that might even appeal to some of your less universally-minded brethren. But I kinda doubt it.
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Nirvana Sitar and String Group-SITAR AND STRINGS CD-r burn (originally on Mr. G Records)

There must have been a zillion of these sitar platters cooked up ever since George Harrison raised Ravi Chancre's stock a few thousandfold, but this one really is a specialty amongst cheap cash-ins. The hits of the day played by...who knows...Mr. G himself backed by a full-blown orchestra adding all of the syrupy sloppiness we've come to know from the 101 Strings to the familiar twangs and gleeps of the sitar. Nothing to up nose at really, though after a spin of this I was so bogged down in karmic slop that I kinda felt like one of those hippies on an episode of DRAGNET who are so out of their skulls that they don't even notice when Friday and Gannon unexpectedly bust in
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The Bevis Frond-EXAMPLE 22 Cd-r burn (originally on Woronzow, England)

Didn't even know that the Bevis Frond were still together. Shows how current and uppa-date with this thing called the underground I am! Still despite my own stupidity with regards to these once-popular-in-my-mind acts I gotta say that I am surprised by this.Yeah it is a little Hendrix-y heavy at times which might not suit some of you readers but I like this post-psychedelic stew that sounds like what the music that was oft heard on seventies FM AOR-styled rock shoulda, if it had a little more tension to it. Some Floydian flourishes here and there, maybe a tad of...Robin Trower???...but still together enough in a way that's more fitting of an English outdoor free festival ca. 1971 than the Royal Albert Hall. Might not be a bad 'un if you're craving something in the old "heavy" genre and your Hydra albums are nowhere to be found.
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Zachary Thaks-IT'S THE END CD-r burn (originally on Big Beat, England)

I know that you, me and everybody but Helen Keller's heard these classic track before, or at least heard 'em via various sixties garage band rock compilations and that Moxie LP from the early-eighties, but it's always nice hearing 'em again. This selection of everything-plus really goes to show you just how varied the Thaks were, from the orchestrated (and perhaps gloppy but so what) "Mirror of Yesterday" to the straight ahead Brit Invasion pounce of the Kinks' "I Need You" and da blooze ("Weekday Blues") not forgetting the Texas influences that you woulda expected all along ("Bad Girl" and "My Door" being just a few). Yeah this ain't nowhere as cozmik as the 13th Floor Elevators or as avant garde as the Red Krayola (plus "Everybody Wants to be Somebody" reminds me of laid back Dead of all things!), but it's sure a testament to what sixties rock could be during those days when it was the most strident form of teenage expression yet not the overwrought self-pitying mess it became in only a few year's time.
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Various Artists-STRANGE WORLDS; SIXTIES GARAGE BAND TREASURES CD-r burn

Like a few of these garage band collections STRANGE WORLDS's got more than its share of softer suburban slob trackage that really doesn't measure up to the big guns of mid-six-oh rockism. Don't expect anything the caliber of the Seeds or Sonics here, but do expect some nice teenage moaners o'er the lack of proper pudendum that seems to be at the heart of many of these self-produced sides. Not bad at all even if it falls quite short of them BACK FROM THE GRAVE propensities that I seems to judge all garage band collections by. Fave of the batch: the Sabers' "Skinny Minny" which ain't the song ya think it is, but you'll love it all the same.
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LOBBY LOYDE PLAYS WITH GEORGE GUITAR CD-r burn (originally on Infinity Records)

This 'un might be a tad slick for some of you BLOG TO COMM grungemeisters, but I find LOBBY LOYDE PLAYS WITH GEORGE GUITAR to be hey, rather exhilarating in spots. Of course in other spots I think it comes off typical early-seventies professional and "hey look Ma, I can play da blooze!" but this does deliver on those early-seventies high-energy jamz. Y'know, the same kinda jamz that some of us still crave even though it's forty-plus years later and we're supposed to have gone beyond alla that primitive thud and wail. Not bad for a once-in-awhile guitar-laden experience...one that doesn't rot on ya that is.
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Various Artists-INCENSE AND OLDIES CD-r burn (originally on Buddah)

Wow what a neet idea! The cream of the Buddah (and other labels) classic hits on a budget platter, each track prefaced with this deep soothing voice spouting pseudo-meaningful prose related somewhat to the numbers we're about to listen to. You can just see the gals in Junior High just getting all frothy over the deep spiritual meaning of it all the way Mr. Smoothie intellectualizes in his own hippoid way well-loved trackage like "Chapel of Love" and "Give Him a Great Big Kiss"...one spin'll get the gals turning into bowls of wiggly gelatin at which point you finally get your way with 'em----isn't that neat?!?! Great selection too from Tommy James and the Tradewinds to the Jelly Beans and Ad Libs...if sixties straight-ahead pop w/o the ROLLING STONE-bred journalistic highbrow approach is your musical meat I'm sure there is some aging relative's record collection you can snatch this outta!
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Various Artists-SWEET LITTLE LEAPYEAR PIECES CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Another shortie from Bill featuring a whole slewwa obscurities that you've probably never heard of before and probably never will heard about again, sorta like this very blog in fact. The song-poems are entertaining in their own crank-out suburban slob way, while the obscure country and rock material give off the same sorta amateur hour nerve-jangle even this far down the line as they must have back in the early-sixties when these sides were being laid down. In all, the aural equivalent of an antiques mall table filled with cheap gadgetry of an era long gone or better yet a look through your Aunt Mabel's attic seeing all of the stuff you used to see when you were but a mere turdler, only its a half-century later and like you still wonder why she never unloaded this stuff at a garage sale like just about everyone else on this planet of ours woulda!

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