I'd Rather Be Thin Than Famous

2005-06-01T21:32:00.000-04:00

Ricky-The Butthole Surfers

Hairway To Steven-The Butthole Surfers

2005-06-01T20:39:00.001-04:00

Psych-Stoner rock for skinhead/punk types,at least that's how I remember first being introduced to them by my "across the street neighbor's" when I lived downtown Hamilton with my girlfriend above the Black Forest restaurant. Our mate's building has since been condemned and was supposed to be torn down for new model condos but like anything else in this backwater burg(think of Cleveland before the Flatts were gentrified),it has been put on hold by a succession of graft owing politicos...but that is not why you've linked on ,is it? No,y'all wanna hear bout the Surfers...HELL YEAH!

The first time that I saw the Surfers was with the Flaming Lips opening in Toronto...and I wasn't overly impressed. I mean all the elements were there-back projection movies of grossout images on a large screen behind the band-King K(C)offey's cymbals ablaze with fire while a pot-bellied Gibby smashed them uncontrollably and Paul Leary hammering out proto-Sabbath sludge riffs in a ridiculous blond wig. But sumthin' was missing because I had seen WEIRD before-and in my mind better WEIRD. I saw the goddamn Residents in the eighties on their first world tour ferchrissakes..And that was well...WEIRD. I saw the Cramps w/Bryan Gregory at the Edge in Toronto in 1979 and that was really fucking WEIRD.

I was a huge fan of Surfers' records ever since Rembrandt Pussyhorse and that is probably because I loved the bizarre sounds that they put down -sometimes just with tape manipulation. The lyrical content was at best gross out juvenile stuff better left on the school yard playground. I also think that this record was the"bridge" record between experimentation and more song oriented material and ultimately mass acceptance via MTV and Nike commercials.

Early on,I guess they were like "musical acid" to a bunch of hardcore punks and perhaps that was a good thing at the time.

I bought a t-shirt at the Toronto gig and it was a silkscreen of the Live Bootleg cassette cover of the "baby with dinosaur humps on his back" with no other identification of the band-just the picture and long after it fit me-my pregnant wife started to wear it to step aerobics.

Yeah,my wife is WEIRD too.

The Rolling Stones-The Harlem Shuffle

2005-05-31T20:54:00.000-04:00

Check It Out!

2005-05-17T22:24:00.000-04:00

After the urgings of my brother-in-law-I think he actually dug this crap-I am resurrecting the Blog,only this time with a music file attached,hopefully. Life and Work seem to pile up quickly and doesn't leave enough time for this sort of "thing',but I promise I'll give 'er another go... on to the Stones...

Dirty Work By The Rolling Stones was a pathetic cash in by a broken down band to a public that was dying to hear of any material by Messrs Richards and Jagger but only if it was performed or written together. After the Jagger solo album and Keef's earnest attempt at one as well,even I was more than a little excited by the single released prior to the LP of The Harlem Shuffle,yep a cover and a rather sleazy version I might add.

I bought the record on the first day that it is released and right away at the record store I had mixed emotions(couldn't resist). First of all, the record cover is probably the worst Stones sleeve EVER-a photo of the band laying around a day-glo sofa and them ;all in dayglo pastel jackets and pants. I know that it was the eighties(1986) but jeesh ,hadn't that ship sailed in 1984 w/Miami Vice and Jan Hammer. The only Stone that looks remotely comfortable is Bill and he's probably daydreaming about a 16 year old girl that he saw outside the recording studio that day.
Anyway I get the record home and my girlfriend says "Oooo, the new Stones,put it on", which I did right away and then I glanced at the rear cover and then noticed another death knell before I even heard a note: Co-produced by Steve Lillywhite(where are the glockenspiels). Steve has probably DESTROYED more good music than he has produced. Save the U2 arguments for another day,Bonoites. God,I thought to myself this is really going to suck and of course it did. Hey, my then girlfriend soon to be my beloved wife for a whole 8 months, LOOOVVVED it, so I rest my case. She also loved the video of Keith and Mick "fighting" during the song," One Hit(To The Body) which I thought was the biggest piece of calculated bullshit that I had ever seen. "Look,she used to say,"They really hate each other'. Yeah,hating each other all the way to their Swiss bank accounts.
Also ,when the Stones start to collaborate with Chuck Leavell,things are going from bad to worse.(eg. Back To Zero) Even the guest stars such as Bobby Womack and Tom Waits are invisible in the mix so they can't help.

Why did I keep this record...Maybe it reminds me not to be so fucking naive...Ever again.

Enjoy!

2005-05-17T20:08:00.000-04:00

The Rolling Stones-Dirty Work

Raoul Duke Checks Out

2005-02-21T19:03:00.000-05:00

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

Best fuckin' quote describing the music business EVER. I was once part of that sleazoid biz and every word rings true. Here's to you Doc and make my jar of ether a double. Now where is my copy of on The Campaign Trail...

2005-02-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Phil Manzanera- Diamond Head

Drastic Plastic volume 4

2005-02-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Phil Manzanera- Diamond Head

I had this record when it came out but traded it in on something innumerable in the early eighties. I bought it again a year or two ago because I just had to have the Two Eno sung songs-Big Day and Miss Shapiro and also the Robert Wyatt Spanish vocal on Frontera. This album is so of its time-1975-check the players Paul Thompson,John Whetton,Andy Mackay,Eddie Jobson and Charles Hayward. Funnily enough it does not sound as dated as the 801 -Listen Now lp., maybe it is because they had nothing to prove and were at the top of their game in the UK and punk was still a long "gob" away. Phil's prog instrumental band, Quiet Sun, does a song here called East Of Echo and the above mentioned vocal tracks are superlative. Humour and irony entered the prog pantheon with Roxy Music and it continued here in no short order with the ENO provided lyrics to Phil's psych guitar songs."Even retail crummy cosmetics"croons the Big E on Big Day. No talk of hobbits and pornographic oceans here just plain whacked out surrealist gobble-di-gook.As mentioned before ,Phil's Cuban-Brazil numbers are always interesting and this pretty much is the blueprint for what to follow in his solo career. SD36-113

Television-Adventure

2005-02-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

I bought this new on the same day that I purchased -The Talking Heads- More Songs About Buildings And Food. In 1978 I played the hell of of the Talking Heads record,because it just sounded punkier to me. Sure,I played the songs Glory,Days and Ain't That Nothing alot but they really sounded like if The Byrds of Younger Than Yesterday where junkies instead of acid heads.
Lloyd Cole did an almost note for note rendition of Glory for those of you that care about that sort of stuff but as the last cut's title would expound that The Dream's Dream was indeed over.

Television-Adventure 6E-133

2005-02-06T15:38:00.000-05:00

Drastic Plastic Part III

Drastic Plastic Part Two

2005-02-05T11:52:00.000-05:00

Phil Manzanera/801-Listen Now

This sounds extremely dated not at all "fresh" like I'd thought it would. This record was released in 1977,which was Year Zero of Punk Rock and suffers all the more for it. It is prog to a point but verges on "arena rock" ala Asia,Styx etc. I have always and still do love Manzanera's guitar work and his song writing style especially on the proto-Cuban numbers but the singer,Simon Ainley in his monotone delivery, just drags down the proceedings. Even the Finn brothers with Godley and Creme try their best to give the somber surroundings a wink of humour but it all falls terribly flat. Maybe Eno,who is on the disc but God knows where, should have sang the songs but he was probably so bored that it was more than likely the inspiration for ambient music.

I bought this when new as a result of listening to Bill M's import copy after class in first year university while smoking copious amounts of weed. Sometimes dope makes things sound better than they really are. Exhibit A-Listen Now PD-1-6147

Drastic Plastic continued...

2005-02-03T17:50:00.000-05:00

The first ELO record,which like most vinyl in my collection, was picked up "used" for $3.50 at a used clothing store which also dabbled in used records. The mid-eighties was a great time to pick up used vinyl as all the audiophiles had already bought CD players and were in the throes of purging their record collections. These audio-geeks always had pristine plastic and the used stores at that time were giving them a lump sum for their entire collection,which was usually "fuck all" but paid dividends for me as I could pick up a lot of great stuff for less than $10.00.

I bought this album because I was going through a huge Roy Wood phase so I had to have everything that he had appeared on. The Jeff Lynne songs already had the "blueprint" for the future ELO sound-see Beatles -Rubber Soul and Revolver- and are what you would expect but with a dissonant sawing away on cellos. Roy was the master magician of the sound but they never seemed to carry it foward after this record. The Roy Wood songs,of course,range from 50's style blisterers to chamber quartets and everything inbetween. The Electric Light Orchestra - UAS-5573

The sleeve is by Hipgnosis and photographs on the gatefold are as charmingly odd as the music.

2005-02-03T14:20:00.000-05:00

I guess that taking stock of one's record collection and the details that involved said purchase of and associated memories that come to mind is a concept that's been done, my guess, hundreds of times-famously by Richard Meltzer and various other bloggers-Scott Woods comes to mind as well as Bruce "e-mole" Mowatt ,but I really need to do an inventory on what I have in my possession and perhaps clear some of it out on e-bay. I really haven't purged it (the collection) since my girlfriend(now wife) and I moved in together in the early nineties. By the way,she thinks record collectors are weird and geeky,maybe that is because she has met all my friends and most of them are record collectors and for the most part ;they are weird and geeky. At any rate, I went up to the attic and the above cover scan was from the first pile of vinyl that I 'd pulled out.

2005-02-03T14:07:00.000-05:00

Drastic Plastic or Mining The Attic or Vinyl Inventory or...you get the picture...