One More For The Road--I'm Crying Icicles Instead of Tears! Vibeke Saugestad!!

Happy Holidays! One more for the road. Here's Vibeke from her fantastic Christmas Ep.



5 New original Christmas classics on one great ep on Pop Detective Records.

Merry Christmas--Off On Holiday!!!! Plus Rheinallt H Rowlands

Well, I am off on Holiday and will be taking some time off from whatever this thing is I'm doing.
By 2011 my batteries will be recharged again and I'll be regaling unfortunate unsuspecting with more
musical minutia, long winded diatribes, and outright lies. What's an old punk to do?

Future posts: Eduardo Mateo, Nikki Sudden, Dishrags, Bhundu Boys, Ash, Cecil Taylor, Mcrackins,
Lush, Tom Robinson Band, hellogoodbye, Zumpano, Paris 1919, Blind Idiot God, Crippled Pilgrims, Coolies, Shiina Ringo, Caribou, Baris Manco, John Kastner, Ben Orr, Loketo, Boukman Esperyans, Master Musicians of Jajouka, Purrkur Pillnik, Able Tasmans, Dead C, Hector Zazou, Mega City Four, Damien Dempsey, Little Willie John, Jazz Butcher, The Legends, Texas Instruments, Olof Arnalds....well, you get the idea.

I'll leave you with a nifty video by Welsh loungecore band Rheinallt H Rowlands comprised of Dewi Evans and the late great Owain Wright, he of the operatic voice. What a great song and video.

Happy Holidays To All!!! Happy New Years!!!

But if you're not feeling happy, don't let them beat you down. Things won't always be bad. I'm a very nonreligious person, but a wise priest wearing a cowboy hat told me something that I've never forgotten. Everyone is brought into this world with special unique gifts. We may not know exactly what they are, or what to do with them. But they are there within each of us. And this includes anyone who happens to stumble onto this little site and reads this post. So if you are feeling blue this holiday season, try to remember what I'm saying, because we're all important and anyone who thinks otherwise---well it's more a reflection of their own inadequacies and internal venom.

Well, sorry, for the Elron Hubbard moment. Get back to enjoying the holidays.

Purify Yourself In The Waters Of Lake Hüskertonka!! Hüsker Dü's Eight Miles High!!!

Celebrated Stunner

Except for the original single, this Cd Ep is the only place to get Hüsker Dü's fantastic cover of the Byrds Eight Miles High, which many consider to be the greatest cover ever done. Frankly, I could not disagree. If someone knows a better one, please share. I'd like to hear it. The song is destroyed, reinvented and celebrated on this monumental 3:56' of punk catharsis. The Clash may have sung about No Elvis, No Beatles, but the Hüsker's were the ones who finally dropped the Neutron Bomb on their elders. Critics may contend that the era of love and peace ended at Altamount, but Mould, Hart, and Norton brought the final end by spontaneous combustion.

That live-in-the studio blast by Hüsker Dü was part of the whirlwind recording period that gestated the classic punk concept double album Zen Arcade, and it completely rips the roof off of the studio. Molten guitar riffs, the bellowing emotional howl of Bob Mould, the possible sounds of people smashing furniture during the song.

The song ends so abruptly, but it felt like the world changed once my eardrums began to heal. A punk manifesto, a new world order.



A band so great, yet it is 2010, and there music has yet to get a proper issue. Just the old crappy sounding Cds, you can only here them properly on vinyl. But if you love great music, you need to have this, even if just for that song. Of course on this Ep is the decent thrashy Masochism World from Zen Arcade, plus Makes No Sense At All from the unbelievable album Flip Your Wig and the b side to that single, the Hüsker's take on the theme to the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Hüsker Dü are of course Bob Mould, (guitar,vocal), Grant Hart, (drums, vocal), and Greg Norton (bass). They are one of the most important American bands of the past 30 years along with Mission of Burma, combining the brutal power of punk and hardcore and blending it seamlessly with the melodies and harmonies of the 60's.

Bob Mould is an icon of American music, whether or not the industry deems to recognize him as such, or not. In England, he would be viewed as part of the same elite rock club with Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, Elton John. But things don't work that way in the old US. And in his Post-Hüsker career he has continued to distinguish himself, both as a solo artist, and as the leader of noise pop savants Sugar. (He also does a great cover of Richard Thompson's Turning Of The Tide on the Beat The Retreat tribute album).

So please check out Eight Miles High--things may never be quite the same.


P.S. Some further empowering music to reflect upon this holiday season......

Persian Gulf--Changing The Weather ep

I heard about the Philly band Persian Gulf in the Village Voice back in 80's--their music critic Robert Christgau gave them a positive review, so I managed to pick myself up a copy of their Ep Changing The Weather. And I was glad I did. It's quite good. I knew they put out a followup album (The Movie) but never got around to picking it up. Just recently I picked up a copy of this and with a little bit of effort you could do the same. If you google Persian Gulf Changing The Weather then click on the the Witchingstick store on Cafepress, you will find a bunch of things relating to Persian Gulf/Hal Shows. I'm saying this merely because it took me quite a while to find this.

Till Then Won't You Wish Me Luck....

There is not a lot here about the band in the brief liner notes. The band is composed of Hal Shows, Jonathan Adams, and Chas Chase. The music is garagey pop music with intelligent lyrics that contain a bit of a political edge. The most notable song is the sarcastic at time ironic (I'm So Glad I'm) Living In The Free World. He sings about people living in crappy conditions yet still proclaiming how glad they are for everything.

"I spent half my life in school, now I'm sitting here dreaming on a barstool".

Other notables here include Eclipse of The Moon, the folky It's A Good Thing, and Race War. The final song Pieces of Eve is also a very strong track. Basically the brief Ep ends stronger than it begins. Not a bad little album and available at a reasonable price. I was just surprised that I found it.



"Beertown"

But I wanted to end this post with a little bit about Christgau. We was a music critic for decades at the Village Voice who was an important influence on my musical tastes. I would try to never miss one of his monthly consumer guides--I was a rock and roll guy, but it seemed all styles of music were fair game to him.
He would review a lot of the critical flavors of the month and sometimes he would deflate the hype with his pithy reviews.

But he would also review Washington GoGo music by Chuck Brown, African Music, Disco, whatever suited his fancy. And his review were short, often pithy, sometimes so vague that if it was not for his professorial grade giving (A,A-, D), at times I would not be sure whether he liked or disliked a record. I can't say I always agreed with his reviews, and at time he was off the mark, misunderestimating some artists like Sonic Youth, at least in their early days. But I certainly admire his independence and the courage of his convictions. And he sometimes would admit that he didn't get an artist or did not appreciate a particular album when he first heard it.

I definitely would never have heard of the amazing Africa Dances comp on Original Music and then become a huge fan of African Music, and I probably would not be seeking out new and interesting music the way I do without his influence. And I most definitely would have never heard of this pretty good  disc by Persian Gulf. So just giving a brief unmushy thanks to one of my inadvertent musical mentors.

Neats--The Ace of Hearts Years 1981-84--Monkey's Head Soup

God, I was a handsome child

Neats were a great Boston band that put out an ep The Monkey's Head In The Corner Of The Room and a self-title LP in the early 80's on Ace of Hearts records. Ace of Hearts of course is the recording label that released music by notable Boston bands like progpunk icons Mission of Burma, farfisa powered garage popsters The Lyres, and shoulda been contenders The Neighborhoods. And of course the Neats, a band that was popular at the time and also well received critically. These days they are not nearly so well known outside of the Boston area. They play a dark eerie form of garage pop, in some ways like R.E.M., The Feelies, The Outnumbered and not unlike some of the bands on the Flying Nun label like The Clean or early Chills. I'm even reminded of some of the more melodic tunes by the Pixies. Vocally, Eric Martin does actually sound a bit like Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate. But unfortunately this music has never been available in Cd format, until 2009, when Rick Harte of AOH finally released their 2 recordings on his label plus 6 extras in one convenient package.

Neats were comprised of Phil Caruso on guitar, Jerry Channel, bass & vocals, Terry Hanley on Drums, and Eric Martin, vocals, guitar, and organ. Never saw them perform, but I played their two records way back when an awful lot. This record is chock full of dark melodic goodness. Of particular note is the fluid melodic bass lines of Jerry Channel and the drumwork of Hanley, a rhythm section whose level of musicianship helps set the Neats apart from their peers at the time.

Of the music on the Monkey Ep, of note is the first track Red and Gray, which is a classic song of the Boston scene. Chiming guitars, more melodious and less dark than most of their songs with a big chorus. Same, Lies and Monkey's Head are also outstanding tunes from the Ep.

The first Lp, with the great Escheresque cover sleeve is step up in the Neats development. This is a very very good record, not in a class with Burmas Vs. (understand that Vs. is one of the most important albums of the last 30 years), but nonetheless a very excellent and interesting album from start to finish. It may be merely that they had a bigger budget on this one, with a lot more organ on this and the songs seem more fully realized because of it. The band seems tighter than before. Martin's vocals are measurably better on the Lp, singing with intensity as before, but with a lot more subtlety and nuance. And Phil Caruso's guitar work is as always stellar.

I have to confess that I hadn't listened to the Neats in a while. I'm relistening to them as I write this. The Lp is great from start to finish. If you are into the Boston scene of the 80's or are huge fans of the bands I have compared them to, this is an essential purchase. The album is a long ignored classic. Maybe the last song Water, drags on a bit, but still not too bad. But everything else is top shelf. The first song Sad, is a fantastic leadoff, with sharp jangly guitar, melodic complex bassline and passionate confident vocals. They continue on a winning streak, with Sometimes, A.B.D., and Now You Know. Caraboo is one of my favorites here and is one of the intense highlights of the album, as is the jangle pop of Ghost.



In addition there are some extras here that are of the same quality as the Ace of Hearts releases. The song Harbor Lights seems to be a loungy goof cover of an old standard song which is unrepresentative of the rest of the music on the album. I don't have a problem with that though as it is is quite good. Six is a precursor to the Ace of Hearts releases, and is a organ swirling seemingly satanic (6-6-6) psychedelic tune. Very good. The other songs are from 1984, and for people who own the vinyl already, a good reason to be redundant in your purchasing. Of particular note are confidently understated vocal performance of Eric Martin on Saturn.
But these are all pretty superlative.

If you have any interest, you can buy this directly from Rick Harte at the Ace Of Hearts website. I definitely think you will enjoy this one.

We Love Christmas--Cause It's Just So Damn Therapeutic--Fear--The Record

Probably most of you only know of Lee Ving as an award-winning thespian, with credits such as the night club owner in Flashdance, Motorcycle gang aide-de-camp to Willem Dafoe in Streets of Fire and his unforgettable portrayal of Mr. Boddy in Clue. The latter movie has been Hollywood's most artistic rendering of a board game to date, though at the time of the movie there was no Oscar award for a film in this category. Hungry Hungry Hippos: The Movie is supposedly coming out sometime in 2011, so Clue may soon become passe, another forgotten adaptation.

Let's Get Outta Here!!!!!

Turns out that there is also a musical dimension to Mr. Ving, who for years has been the singer of the hardcore thrash Fear. Their first album is a punk classic, nihilistic, crude, hate-filled, misogynist, hilarious. They freaking hate everything that moves. But the music is incredibly tight, tuneful, and accomplished. Ving has a stentorian, almost operatic voice. The over the top lyrics and Ving's intense shock rock persona are so ridiculous that you can't take the band that seriously. Cartoon manifestos. But I stress this isn't for everyone, maybe not anyone. This is not your parents' kumbaya. Andrew Dice Clay for punks.

I thought this would be a nice segue from my last post.... and it being almost Christmas....

So here we go, from penthouse to macadam.

I still remember hearing this music for the first time. Remember that the music industry as I knew it growing up was very different from now. The music we bought was censored, edited to omit obscenity. Thus the constant presence of double entendres and allusions in popular music. It was the most amazing thing for us to hear Steven Tyler briefly cursing on an Aerosmith Live Album. Cut to the early 80's. It all seems quaint today.

This aggressive high powered music is blasting off the walls of my 80's dorm room. My college radio station had the vicious I Don't Care About You, and I Love Livin' In The City on fairly regular rotation. Apparently the FCC was taking a nap that semester. But I remember hearing the chorus of I Don't Care About You with complete astonishment, the blatant obscenity smacking me like a punch to the face. It was such a complete contrast to the music I knew and grew up with that I of course had to run out and get a copy for myself. The rest of the album was a blast also, as it turned out. Aside from the Live Album, the other Fear albums are pretty dicey at best, but this one is pretty awesome.

On the first song screams out, Let's Have A War, so you can go die!, basically a retort to warmongers and crass politicians who make cold blooded decisions based on their calculators. Beef Baloney I think must be the greatest tribute ever to the face paced and secret world of the delicatessen. At least I think, though there could be some very well hidden double meaning coded into the obtuse and unblunt lyrics. (ha,ha). It goes from a parodic blues intro into a misogynistic thrashy rant. A hardcore version of a hair ballad, the closest thing to a love song on this album. This is kind of funny, but I think they get out of line with the song on Fresh Flesh, which is a really hateful song without really anything to redeem it. It is all shock value and pure venom on a very personal level. But you must understand that these guys are in essence provocateurs, who want to push peoples buttons in a very straightforward manner.

It's a shame about that song because other songs are extreme but enjoyable like the anti-East Coast rant, New York's All Right If You Like Saxophones, which of course is full of saxophone. Another good one is Camarillo, an expose of Mental Institutions very much in the manner of the Dead Kennedys. Also enjoyable are the nihilistic closer No More Nothing, and the anti family values screed We Destroy The Family. Ditto with Foreign Policy and Gimme Some Action ("I don't want no satisfaction"...). But the big hits are of course the aforementioned  I Don't Care About You (FU)....

I've seen an old man have a heart attack in Manhattan.
Well he just died while we just stood there lookin' at him.
Ain't he cute?

and I Love Living In The City.....

Spent my whole life in the city,
Where junk is king and the air smells shitty.
People pukin' everywhere.
Piles of blood, scabs and hair.
Bodies wasted in defeat,
People dyin' on the street,
But the suburban scumbags, they don't care,
They just get fat and dye their hair!

Words to live by. Death Wish in a can. In addition to Lee, Fear includes Philo Cramer on guitar, Derf Scratch on bass, and Spit Stix on drums. Fear are forever memorialized in the classic punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 1, by Penelope Spheeris, of Wayne's World fame. A few years ago I heard rumors that an expanded version of the film would finally be available on DVD for the first time, but to date there has been no release. Hopefully it will be available soon, as it is an important movie.

When Fear are on stage they bait the crowd like the consummate professionals that they are. They are saying anything that they could possibly think of to get the ostensibly hard core punk audience to kill them. You have to love the ugly candor. So often you go to shows and the band thanks the crowd so much that I start thinking they want to buy me dinner. This is just brutally funny..when I saw their segment of the film when watching this for the first time over at Clark University I'm surprised I didn't wet my pants. Watch as the magic unfolds....

A record not for the faint-hearted. I've given a thumb nail sketch of this album, if I get any complaints from people, saying this album caused convulsions to their cats, don't say I didn't warn you. To make an apocalyptic punk record you have to crack a few eggs, or longhairs. But hey, this band even performed a brutal moshing set on Saturday Night Live, back when their musical guests could be eclectic, not necessarily known quantities. I leave you this classic snippet, the last noel, where Ving and company put a big stake in the hearts of Christmas Past Present and Future.

Thank you so much. Your continued patronage is important to us here at C-Funk.

Post One Five Oh!!! The Mutton Birds' Envy Of Angels--Best Album You Never Heard

If you're on your high horse....

The Mutton Birds were one of the best bands you probably never heard of. I have to credit the Big Takeover for finding out about them. I'm surprised that I didn't know about them sooner being an avid collector of musical Kiwiania. Envy Of Angels is a superb mature pop album loaded with beautiful complex melodies and intelligent well crafted lyrics. The album was produced by the illustrious Hugh Jones and that only further adds a crisp bright texture to an already stellar set of songs. The music here is as good as anything Crowded House or the Go-Betweens did in their illustrious careers. The music business works in mysterious ways indeed. They are no secret in the Antipodes, better known in the European Union. In other places their music is treasured by select initiates.

The Mutton Birds never put out an album in America, though this album was released on EMI in Australia, and licensed in Europe to Virgin, big labels.

They never did a tour in the United States. The fact that Don McGlashan of the Mutton Birds was performing a short set at the Big Takeover's Anniversary party in July was one of the main motivators for me to haul down to Brooklyn for the show. Even though it was not a Mutton Birds reunion, it was really a long deferred personal thrill to see this great songwriter performing 20 feet away from me, strumming on acoustic guitar and demonstrating his prowess on the French Horn. When he broke into the euphoric ballad Anchor Me I definitely considered myself one lucky punk.

So why was America left off the Mutton Birds guest list? It probably was some quirk of the recording industry at the time. If I was to overanalyze, it might have to do with Terroir--maybe they were deemed too Kiwi to sell mass quantities here, in the same way that the great mid-period albums of The Kinks were deemed "too English" for the American market. But that's probably an overstatement which is probably true of their earlier albums, with literary songs like A Thing Well Made, or with a local flavor like Wellington or Dominion Road. Great songs, endearing to their countrymen, but maybe not the songs that would translate to a big global cash payout. But I think that with the right promotion, Envy of Angels would have sold well here.

If Crowded House was in steady rotation on MTV, you would think that they would have been scouring the North and South Islands for similar product.

In the final analysis, let me just say that Envy is one of the better pop albums of the 90's, with beautiful chiming guitars, sophisticated song structures with underlying complex and sometimes dark lyrics. Certainly some of the love songs are simply unparalleled. While You Sleep Sounds like a section from a chapter in a novel set to music. People have been composing songs like these since before we were writing things down, and he manages to put a new spin on things with evocative imagery, taking the personal and making it universal. I wish I wrote this.

While you sleep

Coiled up like a spring

I remember everything

from the first day

Summer flowers

Shimmering in the street

Plastic sandals on your feet in the doorway

You looked so hungry

You couldn't stand still

You made everything in the flat

Look so cheap

I showed you round

Forgetting when to breathe

And that's still the way I feel

When I watch you when you sleep.

While you sleep

The Earth revolves in Space

Ships and planes they race

Towards tomorrow.

You took the room

And pretty soon I knew

That we all would fly to you

Like little arrows.

Fancy dressers

Queens and jesters

Throwing glances your way.

In the street

Never worries me

Cause I'm the one that gets to be

Beside you when you sleep.

Once on a still grey, motorway day

We jumped the fence and we lay

Watching all the expensive people

Speeding away.

Just before the sun's up

The wallpaper lights up

And another car climbs the hill.

They will keep whatever plans I've made

They'll wait another day

When I will tell you things that now

I only tell you while you sleep.

Wow! In addition to Don McGlashan, the Mutton Birds are Ross Burge (drums), Alan Gregg (bass,vocals,keyboard) and David Long (guitar). Alan Gregg found the group Mushroom after The Mutton Birds disbanded. On Envy of Angels he also was the author of the irresistible classic Come Around, which is probably the most radio ready pop song on the album. One of the best songs on Envy.



Of course there is the aforementioned Anchor Me, half love ballad, half sea chantey. The whole song is effused with nautical imagery, and the impression is that the person Don McGlashan is singing about is at a distance. Another of my favorites here is Trouble With You, with a muted dark verses crescendoing into a sublime falsetto chorus. Also notable is the infectious kinetic April. Other standouts include She's Been Talking, which was released as a single, the strong opening number Straight To Your Head, and the titular dramatic closing song Envy of Angels.

If you are from New Zealand or Australia I'm probably preaching to the choir here. But if you like the bands aforementioned in this post, there is no reason why you shouldn't own and cherish this album. Ditto for their other albums, including Rain Steam & Speed, which is nearly as great as Envy of Angels. And Don McGlashan has a few nifty solo albums on Arch Hill Records. Some of the best songwriting of the 1990's is on this excellent Cd. This album is one of personal favorites and I could not recommend this more highly.

Kensington Blues--Jack Rose--From Rags To Ragas

Kensington Blues is an excellent and always fascinating acoustic folk album by an extremely talented musician by the name of Jack Rose. Unfortunately he passed away at about this time last year at the age of 38 from a heart attack. Very sad that this talented artist died at such a young age. In addition to many solo records, he was also a member of the improvisational group Pelt.

This is an album that I like to listen to when I want to relax and mellow out. It also reminds me of the holiday season. Everything about this album is opaque, the songs are all first takes, with a man and a twelve string guitar. He performs in a variety of styles, from blues, ragtime, raga, bluegrass. The type of music he plays here was extremely popular in the 60's and into the 70's but has been ignored by the general public. That is until performers like Jack Rose, James Blackshaw and Rick Tomlinson (Voice of the Seven Woods) began a mini revival.

I particularly enjoy the eastern excursions here like Cross The North Fork and Calais to Dover. He intersperses these meditative journeys with jaunty folk rags like Rappahanock River Rag (for William Moore) and the John Fahey cover Sunflower River Blues. Cathedral et Chartres is one of my favorites on the album, a densely packed hypnotic wonder. The title song Kensington Blues is another sunny rag with an especially poignant finger picking passage at approximately the center, before returning to the original song structure. Kensington Blues is definitely an album by a virtuoistic talent at the top of his incredibly capable game. On this album Rose, like other great artists before him, goes beyond mere musical competence; the guitar seems to be merely an extension of himself, an expression of his very essence, a quality I find in artists like Sonny Sharrock, or in free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler.

If you love great acoustic guitar or folk artists like Bert Jansch, John Fahey, or Davy Graham, you will need to give this record a proper hearing. Check out the VHF records website for this and other Jack Rose recordings.

Prince's Black Album--Surrender To The Funk--It's What Your Hips Were Made For

Pardon My Savoir Faire

I love the Black Album. It was a mysterious record, about to be released, then not released. I heard the rumors about the record and I vowed to get a hold of it. Finally I picked up a cassette of it in New York and listened to it all the time. Funny, funky, filthy. A booty shakin' party disk. Is it one of his best? Prince has made a lot of bests over his career, and this isn't one of them. But its one hell of a ride.

The cassette was destroyed on the beach one summer by an errant wave. The music was etched in my mind forever though. Helpfully the disc had a limited release years later, and I ultimately picked up a used copy in my local used book/music store. I wasn't looking for it, but it came back to me, like the Ring found Bilbo. It's all good here folks, believe me. The track I like least is hip-hoppy spoof Dead On It, and even that is a decent song. Aside from the euphoric ballad When 2 R In Love, it's full-on funktastic and funny.



Clap your Hands doubletime! commands Prince in Le Grind--if you don't think this is funky, pay someone to slap you. Superfunkycalifragisexy? I had to have this album to own a song with that title--and Prince delivers again with one of his best songs on the Black Album. Rockhard in a Funky Place is another top notch tune right out of the P-Funk school with some excellent guitar leads. Cindy C is also a tripped out funk delight. Prince makes it all seem so easy.

For a long period Prince was mainly mocked for his eccentricities and his diminutive height, and the public ignored all the substance beneath the smoke and mirrors. He is really an amazing musician, a polyglot who performs music in a variety of genres, and has made albums where he plays the majority of the instruments. When I started seeing him perform with the Revolution on MTV, I knew something special was happening. And he was a guy open to trying different things. There were rumors that he would sometimes check out some of the Punk bands performing at clubs in Minneapolis back in the 80's. He was in fact an artist who walked a tightrope between rock and rnb. He even signed the Three O'Clock to his Paisley Park label and recorded a good number of psychedelic inspired tunes himself.



But the Black Album is a disc I have a special affection for. I have some of Prince's albums, but with his prolific output, I have only scratched the surface. I think critics were always wondering what he was going to do next, when he was putting out albums every month or so. Even when he throws out the occasional dud, he's always interesting. So check out the Black Album, and satisfy your daily FDA requirement for the funk.

Sadko and the Undersea Kingdom--Ilya Repin

Just remembered this painting for some reason. Ilya Repin (1844-1930) was a Ukrainian artist that I knew as the artist who painted revelatory portraits of typical non-aristocratic Russians. Most people know his famous paintings of the toiling barge haulers on the Volga and Zaporozhian Cossacks. But this painting is different. I stumbled on it while flipping through a large folio of his collected artworks in grad school. It's apparently based on the old Russian Fairy Tale about Sadko's journey to the Tsar of the Sea.

There is something both old and new here. Repin lived a long time, straddling two centuries and a variety of schools of art. There is a debt to traditional realist art, but there is also something very surreal,dreamy and even fluorescent. Such a great attention to detail. The style is similar to patterns found on Palekh laquered boxes. But I still remember how amazed I was when I came across this painting. Repin is often maligned because the Soviet Communist party found in his art a sympathy for the common laborer and whose works revealed the indignities suffered by peasants under a Tsarist government. I just happen to like some of his paintings because they are great art.

Snapper--Death and Weirdness--Another Old Gem From Flying Nun

Some people come to New Zealand to see the Shire, Bilbo Baggins, to search for the missing Tom Bombadil, but in my mind I keep coming back to New Zealand for the excellent music.

Here's an old Ep by Peter Gutteridge's band Snapper, eponymously titled,recorded back in 1988. He formerly was a member of The Great Unwashed and The Clean with the Kilgour boys, and then branched out to make his own unique brand of noisy driving electronic drone pop. Some say they are influential, and I think that if they aren't, they ought to be. A very cool sounding band, with noise powering over a driving unrelenting beat.

Only four songs here, only 15 minutes long. Peter sings, and is on guitar and keyboards. Christine Voice also sings and plays keys and guitar. Dominic Stones is also on guitar and vocals with Alan Haig on Drums. Buddy, the lead song is one of the highlights, with a big steady beat and distorted keyboard, like a noisier version of the Velvets' What Goes On. Cause Of You contains the same driving beat but with woozy organ swirls. Death and Weirdness In The Surfing Zone is another classic tune with chanting dual vocals and discordant keyboard riffs. The final song Hang On, moves along in the same mesmerizing repetitive path. It's great to hear electronic influenced music with a human feeling to it. So many groups tried to use that motif of man vs machine, of technology turning us into robots. This particular recording is definitely carbon based and full of verve. This Ep is a very interesting and unique sounding album that I recommend highly.

McLusky--such an awkward child...Mclusky Does Dallas is bigger than your love

Bring On The Go-Getters....Obvious Ploy, and Irresponsible

My inexplicable obsession with Wales continues. I bought McLusky does Dallas and it was one of the those albums that had an immediate positive reaction on me. Completely mad, surreal and cynical lyrics, over the top noise. I was pretty amazed that a band this amazing had eluded me for so long. I found about them accidentally on Amazon, I think. Never heard of them before, but they sounded like they were right up my alley. Though there is little comparison musically, their attitude reminds a bit of The Replacements. We want to take over the world but on our own terms, but we might just wind up smashing it up along the way. I wish I could get a hold of one of their shitrock t-shirts. And all that gleeful apocalyptic venom in their music never fails to cheer me up.

Musically they are a big ugly mosh up of Pixies, Big Black and the Beastie Boys. They are fantastically noisy but also masters of dynamics and tempo. They are masters also of  "did he just say what I think he said"? The first salvo of Dallas is Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues and that is just the first skirmish in an absurd anthem war. Nothing makes sense here but it all makes perfect sense. They shock while they rock. And they have a hilarious skewed  and often mean vision of the world. After all they wrote the song The World Loves Us And Is Our Bitch. "you need some cokecokecokecoke inspiration, for your seven year itch".



The late lamented McLusky was comprised of Andy Falkous, guitar/vocals, Jonathan Chapple on bass, and
Matthew Harding on drumkit. Do Dallas was engineered by Steve Albini (Big Black, recorded In Utero), and the sound quality on this album is awesome, thunderous, yet with empty cavernous spacious dropouts. Actually, the Albini connection is probably how I heard about this band. To Hell With Good Intentions is a manic shout along "My LOVE IS Bigger Than Your Love--Sing It! Whoyouknow is a snotty Beastiesesque rap-noise crossover. "your hearts gone the color of Coca-Cola, rescind yourself as you get older. Yet they also come up with a pithy phrase like "obscurity is not a badge", or "notoriety follows you like beatings follow rain".

I'm saddened that the band broke up back in 2005, but maybe they did as much damage as they were going to do. Falkous is in Future of the Left, and Chapple is now Shooting at Unarmed Men. But the Mclusky legacy lives on. I doubt many people know about them in the US, but they really ought to. This huge insane mess of a band could do no wrong in my book. Consider the lyrics from Fuck This Band. "FTB.. cos their clothes don't fit, but their dancing clowns... are incredible... The song is a hilariously cynical indictment of the music hype machine, who probably felt Mclusky was in desperate need of a time out.

Before they broke up they also put out the excellent The Difference Between Me And You Is I'm Not On Fire which if you appreciate Does Dallas you need to own. Pundits probably rate Dallas a little higher, but I don't see any real qualitative difference. Both records are superb. They make great gifts for the noise lover in your family, or if you want to finish off your rich grandma before the end of the year before the death tax kicks in again in the US. A slab for all the patriots and good time girls out there.



This is Without MSG I Am Nothing, from their last album. Everywhere I look there's a Darkness.

The Brother Kite--Waiting For The Time To Be Right--Loud Vibrations From Providence

It's like the old chicken vs egg analogy. Did they get Beach Boys in the My Bloody Valentine, or the My Bloody Valentine in the Beach Boys? Scientists and Sociologists may debate these issues and their ramifications for decades, but for you, the savvy and hip musical polyglot, the sonic benefits to you are here right now unobscured. Behold Waiting For The Time To Be Right by The Brother Kite.

The Brother Kite are a 5 piece band from Providence, Rhode Island who play a particularly melodic form of shoegaze. Endless Summer/Odessey and Oracle harmonies melded with beautiful modern noise like Kevin Shields or British Band Ride. Call them a noisy Zumpano. I think you get the basic picture. Waiting For The Time To Be Right came out in 2006 on Clairrecords, a label devoted to the shoegazing subgenre. The band is composed of Patrick Boutwell on Vocals, Jon Down Guitar/Engineer, Mark Howard on Guitar, Andrea Mason on Bass, and Matt Rozzero on Drums. Together they have created a truly beautiful loud guitar album with massive enveloping soundscapes.



A typical song on WFTRT is Get On, Me, with melodic vocals trading with loud treble reminiscent of David Kilgour's work with The Clean. I'm Not The Only One is a short high powered burst, featuring great drum work by Matt Rozzero. If you had any doubt that Brother Kite were Beach Boys aficionados, hearing the sleighbells on Out Of Sight are an overt giveaway. The songs on this album are amazing sounding. To get these astounding tones and textures they actually built their own home studio. This album is a definite essential buy for shoegaze fans--anyone who enjoys Ride, Slowdive, Jesus and Mary Chain or current bands like Sleepover Disaster. But I feel the noise is just icing on a melodic cake. Brian Wilson is a major player here as I have mentioned. The songs beneath the maelstrom are really well constructed--you would enjoy these songs if they were just acoustic demos. And Patrick Boutwell has a great voice to boot.

Clairrecords/Tonevendor is a great website for fans of shoegaze/experimental/creative music. They put out and sell interesting bands from all over the world, from California all the way to Estonia, and stocking cool little known recordings that would you be hard pressed to find in other places on the Internet. Bands like Secret Shine, Guitar, and Air Formation. Definitely a site worth checking out. But I would definitely recommend The Brother Kite. A good place to start actually might be the Moonlight Race Ep which contains Get On, Me, and also the excellent tune Half Century. Brother Kite but in a smaller dose. They have also released a new Cd this year entitled Isolation, which I have not heard yet, but hope to soon. I hope that many of you will do the same.

Dogs Different Me---Further Evidence The French Can Rock--

Considering that they have been our staunch allies for generations, a lot of Americans talk crap about France.
In the run up to the Gulf War part deux, things got very out of control here in America. In those tense times I was often afraid to put on my beret and striped shirt when I drove to a local shopping mall. I would in most cases go back inside and change into my lucky Stars & Stripes jumpsuit. Thankfully those days have passed and things seem much more cordial under the Democrats.

Instead of Freedom Fries, we can now refer to French Fries as pommes frites de liberte. Recently a law was finally passed making assault of a mime a hate crime. And as I'm sure you've heard, the Snail McNuggets are back again at McDonalds, but for only for a limited time. Jerry Lewis has been finally been released from Guantanamo prison. Most importantly, that probe NASA was going to send to determine if there was in fact rock and roll in Gaul has been scuttled. Because anyone who has listened to The Dogs excellent punk album Different Me knows the real score. My fellow Americans, a few listens to this cool record and you will soon be eating smelly cheese yourself and surrendering to the charms of these 21 punk rock gems.

The Dogs were from Rouen, and featured the dramatic heavily French accented vocals of Dominique LaBoubee. Hugues Urvoy de Portazamparc played Bass, and Michel Gross was on drums. They played a spiky but melodic style of punk, sounding like an updated Velvet Underground, but also playing in the style of the New York Dolls, Ramones, Clash, even Pink Flag era Wire. They clearly also have a love for classic 50's rock n roll. It's sort of hypocritical to think that we make fun of France for not being able to have great rock music, but this super album was never released domestically much less promoted. If people can't hear this, it turns that old canard into a self fulfilling prophecy.



From the very beginning of the first song, Different Me, you know you are in for treat. Dominique was a very charismatic performer with his own unique style. Different Me is to me like a French version of the Saints Classic Stranded. He's got that chip on his shoulder like Chris Bailey. Gotta Tell Her is in the same vein. I'm thinking back right now to when I first listened to this album. I bought it on word of mouth and because I figured that if I didn't I probably would have to pay a lot of cash to get it. I am happy to say I was not disappointed, and shortly therein I was grinning from ear to ear. They must have been a terror on stage. I regret not ever seeing them perform, but I only found out about them a few years ago.



And I've missed out on a lot. I have three of their albums now--the other ones I would have to get awfully lucky to find. But this album is particularly special. More From You is another classic tune nestled in a bed of classic snotty punk. Other great songs on this are Words, Lonesome Hearts, Fortune Teller, and Terminal State. Of the additional track you have No Way, 19, Charlie Was A Good Boy, Here Comes My Baby and Go Where You Want To Go.

My only regret about this album is no lyric sheet. I have a lot of difficulty understanding what he is saying. But I do understand the intensity. As a bonus the CD reissue of this album includes 8 songs from prior singles and Eps. These songs have a real live in the studio quality and in general have a rougher punkier feel. But this album is a winner throughout. Unfortunately Dominique passed away tragically in 2002 at the premature age of 45 while on tour in the US. But he left behind some great music. If you like the bands I mentioned above you will be absolutely delighted by The Dogs. This album has aged well, like a good Bordeaux. I give Different Me 3 Michelin stars as a classic punk rock delicacy.

Have A Super Furry Christmas, Everyone!!!

Check out this evil Christmas Video by Welsh Mensches Super Furry Animals.

Hairy Christmas To All

Take Your Brain, It's Time To Go---The Action--Rolled Gold--60's Secret Classic

The Action were a great band from the 60's that never found popularity. Though they were one of the most prominent signings by George Martin to EMI, their singles never found much success. As a band they were part of the Mod movement of the 60's performing in competition with the likes of The Who and the Small Faces.

At some point the band changed in personnel and also musical direction. The psychedelic movement was the new fashion and The Action followed suit both musically and experimentally. The basic core of the band remained, with Reg King as vocalist, Alan King on Guitar, Michael Evans on Bass, and Roger Powell on Drums. Guitarist Pete Watson left the group and was replaced by Martin Stone, and Ian Whiteman was recruited to play keyboards and flute. What was in fashion was changing and the new version of The Action recorded a series of demos in the vein of psychedelic melodic pop. They presented the tapes to EMI who subsequently rejected the copies. They have passed through the hands of collectors in bootleg form but only in 2002 did this music get a proper release on Ric Menck's Reaction Music in 2002.

What a revelation these songs are! It's hard to be believe that these songs sat in a vault for all these years as they stand up with the best product released in their era. Perhaps The Action's lack of hit singles was a compelling reason for the lack of support from their label. Artistically their decision is a definite head scratcher. And these are just demo versions of these songs! Who knows what Rolled Gold would have sounded like with a recording budget.



Every song is magnificent here. They sound somewhat like the early Who, and to my ears like Swansea rockers Badfinger. I have no doubts that Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices has also been influenced by The Action. The themes of the songs are of the ilk of that era, drug experimentation, love, founding a
new kinder, gentler society. The songs are so well done. Reg King is an amazing singer, with a very strong assertive delivery, at times sounding like Paul McCartney. Icarus is probably the standout song, using the imagery of the tale from Greek Mythology, flying too "high", and the Sun getting hotter and hotter, nearer and nearer. Another great tune is Brain, with unoblique references like hanging your Brain high in the sky.

You might think that with such lysergic type of lyrics, the music on Rolled Gold might be a little meandering, unfocused, a little anachronistic in the light of today. But the arrangements are tight, harmonies are spectacular, musicianship at a highly skilled level. Only a few of the songs here are over 4 minutes long. The songs are easily as great as the best music of the late 60's. Other noteworthy tunes here include Climbing Up The Walls, Come Around,  and I'm A Stranger. Little Boy in particular sounds like a long lost Badfinger song, a cousin to the classic song Dennis.

So if you are a fan of great 60's bands and power pop, Rolled Gold is not merely an interesting side note. It is an essential part of a 60's collection, alongside your Stones, Beatles, Zombies, Love, and Velvet Underground records. It's unfortunate that the band didn't see success with these songs, which to me are like their own Odessey and Oracle. But musicians like Ric Menck and Mattew Sweet know and understand what The Action accomplished here. They are even the favorite band of Phil Collins. So do yourself a favor and check out a stunning 60's classic that had inexplicably remained in mothballs for a good 25 years.

It's A Christmas Miracle From The Yobs!! Yule Punks Take Note

Consider this an intervention. Put down that Jessica Simpson Christmas album!!

Back in 1980 a product was created to combat your holiday blues. Remove from cellophane and commence your road to recovery.

This is easily one of the best punk Christmas albums you could ever purchase, a lively combination of punk rock attitude and profane humor. The Yobs are a Christmas side band of the London punks The Boys. A great mix of twisted versions of Christmas favorites and their own twisted Yuletide originals. A wonderful flaming bag of poop for a stocking stuffer.

I did not realize how incomplete my life was until I purchased this album. Sing along to the wonderful sentiments of XMAS Guantanamera. Sitting in front of a warm fire listening to Tommy The Christmas Tree. Baking Christmas cookies to the Stonesy parody Who Had All The Christmas Cake? (note: Can't always get what you want intro is missing from video below) Screaming out C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S/Gloria as you carol around the neighborhood with your mutant friends. Holidays don't get better than this, do they?



In addition, you have Oy Santa, a song that taught me the true meaning of Christmas--make sure you stay on your feet while opening Christmas presents in a moshpit. What is Christmas without the Worm Song, or Rub A Dub Dum? The punked out German version of Stille Nacht and their totally crude rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas? The album concludes with a soccer chant version of Auld Lang Syne. This album is all you need to celebrate a traditional sacrilegious holiday season. Very funny stuff indeed.

Standing In The Doorway Of Cloud Nine--The Avengers--Essential Punk Rock

The Avengers' Pink Album is one of the greatest American Punk albums ever. It is up there with X, The Ramones, Pere Ubu, Television, Dead Boys, Husker Du, Blondie, Replacements. I'll be succinct. If you are into this music, go to the Penelope Houston/Avengers website. You can get it for 9.99. It's unfortunate that this album has been commercially unavailable. Some label tried to put out an unauthorized version recently, and Penelope's website has mentioned that they have filed a big lawsuit against the company. So for the time being that is the place to get this essential must-have music.

As I had mentioned in one of my first blogposts, I had the pleasure of seeing The Avengers perform at the 30th Anniversary party for The Big Takeover Magazine (Issue #67 hot off the presses-Teenage Fanclub on cover). After all these years they are still great! They blow away much of today's artists even now. I've wanted to see this band for years and it finally happened! Penelope Houston is a punk rock icon and Greg Ingraham exudes rock and roll from his very essence. This band should be one of those names that come up when you think of American Punk and this album is in my view, the second best American Punk album of the 70's after The Ramones first, edging out X. The two main reasons the band remains obscure to many are the unfortunate association with the dodgy label CD Presents, and relatively short lifespan of the band. Back then there were many great punk bands on the West Coast that never made an actual studio album, only a few singles printed in small numbers if not at all. These artists didn't have the money for studio time, and the major labels did not consider such act to be financially viable

Album begins with the power anthem We Are The One, an exhilarating and serious punk statement of purpose. We are here, so get out of the way because a new generation is about to take the helm. Without all the stupid baggage of the past. A lot of sacred cows get skewered on this album. Another stone cold classic is the empowering I Believe In Me, an aggressive shove against the opprobrium the general public felt about punks in that era. One of my favorite Avengers numbers is the pleading Open Your Eyes.

At first I thought you were dead

But now I see you're one of the rest...

They drugged you with muzak and TV sedation

You're one of the Blank Generation!

Equally great is Thin White Line, with its "Don't Go, Don't Go" chorus. It's a cautionary tale about the personal price exacted by fame and fortune. I think the thin white line reference speaks for itself.

I'm riding on a thin white line
Standing in the doorway of Cloud Nine
And you see me in the window
Of a chauffeured limousine
You see me on the TV, radio and the magazine
Don't ask me how I feel
Or if I'm coming home

I would be remiss in this post if I didn't mention the other members that comprise this great and criminally ignored band. James Wilsey is on bass and backing vocals. On drums is Danny Furious, who also sings backing vocals. Without their great contributions this album would not be the punk masterpiece I am extolling here. Notably The Avengers also perform an excellent high energy version of The Stones' Paint It Black on this record. Other great songs represented here are Desperation, Corpus Christi, No Martyr, and The American In Me.

So if you like punk rock, you need this one. They are the closest thing I know of to an American Sex Pistols, without being a slavish imitation. Because Penelope Houston is such a dynamic and singular performer they could not be anything other than a unique product. On rare occasions, The Avengers get back together and perform brief tours, but I wish they would go in the studio and put out some new material. It would be interesting to see this bands views refracted through 30 years of American history. They can't and shouldn't try to go back and tap into that youthful change the world attitude, but I know that they would still have some invaluable insight about our New World Order and the state of our modern society. But for the time being give the pink album a spin and see if you agree with my opinions too.

Don't Hate The Players, Hate Your Eardrums! Boris' Pink Album

For Serious Masochists Only

Boris' Pink is simply a disgustingly noisy album. They are a power trio from Tokyo. Takeshi sings and plays Bass and Guitar. Wata is on Guitar and Echo. Atsuo is on drums and percussion. If you love blissfully pummelling loud noise, you probably should not continue another second without this album. If you don't share those sympathies, this album would be a great example to persuade the sceptical how beautiful noise can be. The album is a crazy mix of musical genres, metal, shoegaze, garage rock, hardcore, grunge, drone rock experimentalism. Whatever they may be doing at any given time, this album makes my eardrums tingle. That is, before the blood begins to trickle out. I have three of their albums but this one is my personal favorite.



Even though this is mighty room saturating blast of sound, the music is nuanced, with tempo changes, and artful manipulation of volume, going from softer to louder in an eyeblink. Beneath the noise cloud there seems to be a fair amount of melodious music.While the first song Farewell is an almost ambient My Bloody Valentine excursion, the second song Pink is a hard riffing highly kinetic blast of Black Sabbath meets the Stooges. Woman On The Screen is MC5 on steroids. Wata is simply amazing--a poster of her should be hanging on the wall of every teenage Metalhead from Tokyo to Tacoma. This is simply an example of taking extreme forms of music from rock history and bumping the stakes up a few more notches. This music bowls the competition over with an almost religious fervor, as though they recorded this album from inside a moving tank.

The Perfect Woman?

This album just stuns me completely. The music is so beautiful, like a more traditional riff ready version of Bailter Space. In other places Boris even remind me of the stoned controlled feedback Kiwis Dead C. The final song on Pink is the 18 minute just Abondoned Myself which is an over the top epic blast of distortion.

Like a damned death star blowing up. A perfect Christmas for the noise aficionado, or you can give the gift of tinnitus to someone you hate. An extremely cool band who appear to be musicologists with a sense of humor. If you've seen the ironic Nick Drake inspired cover of their album Akuma No Uta you know what I mean. They have also collaborated with the likes of Ghost's Michio Kurihara and The Cult's Ian Astbury.

I used to play this in my old office when I was by myself and it just seemed to get louder and louder as the cd progressed. I always had to keep turning it down. If you like bands like Sonic Youth, the Detroit bands I previously mentioned, Jesus and Mary Chain, Xterminator era Primal Scream, Foetus, Wire, Ministry, Gordons, you will be quite pleased by this big slab of molten distortion.

Francis Bebey's Fantastic Akwaaba--Traditional Experimental Masterpiece From Cameroon

Akwaaba is a truly singular album by Francis Bebey (1929-2001), one of the most important Cameroonian composers and artists of the 20th century. The album came out on John Storm Roberts' Original Music label in 1984 and it is one of those albums that defies comparisons. He takes traditional African music forms here, mashes them up a bit, and puts an experimental, sometimes playful spin on things. The featured instrument throughout is the sanza or thumb piano, which is an extremely popular instrument in Africa. On some songs there is also the pygmy pipe, or Ndehou, which sounds a bit like a recorder or flute. He also experiments with types of vocals, including a croaking double voice technique which sounds like a variation on Tuvan throat singing.

On this album the music is old and new, in a way like an Albert Ayler album follows early jazz tradition but also transmutes into chaotic free improvisation. Listening to this album, you can hear him trying new things, but his outlook is steeped with tradition, ritual, history, and the many variations of African music. There is a hypnotic surrealistic magic at work here folks. I've heard bits and pieces of this before, but like seeing a seemingly familiar face, as a whole you have an artist boldly venturing into uncharted areas.

I played this album years ago to one of my cousins when he was about ten, and he was mesmerized by this album. He actually got stuck on the second song Bissau, and insisted that I play it over and over again. I finally wound up buying it for him, and his poor family had to listen to it for five hours straight on a vacation drive to Cape Cod. But I can't say I blame him. Bissau is a potent combination of funky bouncing bass, sanza and pygmy pipe riffing, with Bebey's sometimes elegant vocals segueing into a throaty droning counterpoint.

The title song Akwaaba is simply a phenomenal otherworldly instrumental track. I can't believe the music that he gets out of a finger piano. Bebey is also a virtuoso guitarist (no guitar on this album though) who capably transferred his gifts to this deceptively simple instrument. Look at the album cover--you probably thought he was text messaging an acquaintance here, but he is putting his thumbs to more productive use.

At seven songs and only forty minutes, the album tracks pass by quickly. The finale Di Sengi is another cool  percussive workout. Binta Midiallo is mesmerizing, with devotional impassioned vocals that are almost a musical instrument onto themselves, hovering over the rhythm of the talking drums. The drum beats in their lock groove repetitiveness remind me of some of the experimental German electronic bands, like Can.



Francis Bebey was an amazing individual and an inspiration to many other African artists. In addition to his adept musicological background, he was also an acclaimed author and was a cultural ambassador to the World for Cameroon. He studied at the Sorbonne and also spent time in America. He produced numerous albums over the years, continuing to record even into his seventies. If you can get a hold of this long out of print album, do it. I recommend it very highly to people like me, who can't get enough interesting and creative music to listen to. This is a very special record.