With my guts feeling lead-lined in the aftermath of Greedy fat gits day, i felt the need for a shot of happy energy, and be praised, my new best friend Eric from Indiana sent me an mp3 of his band 'Eric & The Happy Thoughts', who i just love.
According to Eric, its a lot more fun with Indiana girls, and i believe it:
Eric writes AMAZING pop songs and is incapable of making these pop songs any longer than 2 minutes, which is as long as any pop song needs to be.
The last couple of years at our night, ahem, The Broken Shackle Tabernacle, we handed out christmas compilations called Pigs In Blankets, named after our favourite part of Christmas dinner, apart from the roast potatoes. And the wine.
But this year I couldn't be arsed, so i'm putting the tracks on here in celebration of me having a week off work.
One rainy day this year, i visited the dwelling of Folk Beat troubadour Joe Woolley on the promise of fortifying rum & a mound of vinyl he wanted to flog. The rum didn't happen but i did have a sumptious ginger tea, and left with a copy of 'Shake N' Smooch' by Goon Show jazzer Ray Ellington, Off o' which comes this parping gem:
Dennis Wilson has been everywhere i've looked this year. Good for him, he's great, just a shame he's dead. Yes he was the only Beach Boy who could actually surf, yes he was a handsome brute, yes he hung out with Charles Manson, yes he shagged a lot of beautiful women, yes he was a drunked bum who drowned in the Pacific under a boat, YAWN!!! Lets just let the music do the yappin'. With Pacific Ocean Blue getting a much deserved audience over the last few months, i thought i'd post some of my favourite other Denny tracks. Such as:
Little Bird-From 'Friends'(1968)
Never Learn Not To Love-(co-written, or maybe more likely stolen from Charles Manson)From 20/20 (1968)
Its About Time-From 'Sunflower'(1970)
Sunflower is a grand album, possibly my favourite by The Beach Boys, at the minute at least, here's a youtube clip from that period of them playing Dennis' almighty 'Forever' live.
Lady- a B-Side!! from 1970
This one is just a monster, i have to thank Russell The Disaster from the staggering pop trio The Research for letting me know about this one, cor!:
Cuddle Up-From Carl & The Passions-So Tough (1972)
Well for one, this is seasonal, and for two, its AMAZING:
Holy Evening-Dennis Wilson
And, in closing, i'm chucking this one in the mix, a Brian song, but so good, and Dennis' voice suits the cracked up sentiment. Lovely job.
I'll Bet He's Nice-From 'The Beach Boys Love You' (1977)
Yeah, Moondog is the one on the left in the above.
I can't get enough Moondog. A huge blind street musician with a viking helmet, spear, and home-made shoes & clothes, his eccentricity & novelty was upfront, but its the music that has the cosmic pull here. Totally magnetic, so simple & gorgeous. I've listened to his last LP 'Sax Pax For A Sax' more than anything else this year. The drums on it are phenomenal, just a bass drum getting stomped, and the instruments slide in a weavy web around the caveman beat like little golden birdies.
Moondog-Golden Fleece
I can't get enough Moondog 'coz theres not enough Moondog to get. Why has nobody made a film about this guy? And why don't the music magazines have him on their covers? Surely, there are no new stories about The Beatles or Bob Dylan? Give me Moondog you luddite monkey boils!
I used to have these terrible dreams about long black trains like the one in this film from 1897. I don't know what it means, probably reading too much Woody Guthrie & Kerouac at the time.
"Black Diamond Express To Harmonica"-Rev. A.W. Nix/Ennio Morricone
On April 16th 1943, Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman rode his bicycle home from his work at the Sandoz laborities where he had been researching lysergic acid derivatives. Having absorbed some of the synthesised liquid through his fingertips, by quitting time Hoffman was tripping balls, the bike was barely moving him along in his perception, as bystanders jumped out of his path as he powered by wild haired at 30mph. He had cooked up LSD, or as he called it 'Medicine For The Soul'. And thus began the long strange, easily cliched trip, and the AMAZING music it influenced.
What did Hoffman do when he got home that night? Check the results.....?
Of course changing your perception of the world and your own consiousness isn't always going to make you a useful member of Capitalist society, so well founded & researched anti-drug propaganda films are handy in making 'the kids' scared of things they don't understand. Like this clean-cut chick who naively considered having a good time and ended up talking to a hot-dog:
Ah but how nice to be out in the summer breeze spring footing it naked to the sounds of H.P. Lovecraft, your fingers stretching off into the horizon & laughter floating out in bubbles. Kiss me, you fool....
Mobius Trip- H.P. Lovecraft
...Bloody hippies. Oh god....whats god? Everythings god, i'm on this pebble floating in space forever, death has never seemed so real or unimportant....I think i'm getting the sweating tremons... don't get the fear, too late, its all going wrong, so here's 'Breaking The Bread' by Enon, played at the wrong speed because i think it sounds better that way....
Breaking The Bread-Enon
Drugs are underated. There should be more drugs. Make more drugs and give them to the right people. Not all drugs, Special Brew is rotten at its core, and nothing good could ever come from crack cocaine, although it could be argued that its part in the downfall of Whitney Houston's career was its gift to mankind.
The drug sequence in cinema has been cliched into the ground. They need a comeback, this is a favourite from 1969's Easy Rider....whilst you watch this editmongers of a clip, listen to the closing beat number 'Ozium' from the long-player 'Spine Of God' by those fresh faced boys Monster Magnet
Ozium-Monster Magnet
Right, now we've had our fun, but its monday tomorrow so come on, pull your socks up and fuck off.
"No, I will never succeed…….but somebody has to start"
Q+A WITH MISTYS BIG ADVENTURE'S GRANDMASTER GARETH....
Q: It gets hard to keep up the mental strength to go on sometimes in this media & celebrity fixated world. What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning and continue the Grandmaster's good fight?
A: By ignoring most of it and living in a bubble. I think the important thing to remember is that none of it is really important. Are you happy with what you are doing? Do the people you respect like what you do? If yes, then all is good. I should add that it's rare I get out of bed in the morning!
Q: I'm quite a calm person, but the (on a world scale) smallest things fill me with worrying rage. Simon Cowell's face, Conor NME Editors face, Edith Bowmans increasingly banal comments on Radio One which usually amount to the words 'Random' & 'Amazing', Zane Lowe's face, McFly, that Welsh bastard on T4 & that new music programme, Paolo Nutini's face....theres more important things to be enraged about, whats wrong with me, what can i do?
A: Is this an interview or counseling!? Don't people charge money for this sort of thing? I understand. And there's nothing wrong with you. But it's always been the same really. You just need to step back a bit. It's all about ego's. Mostly the only people who get to the top are the pushy, confident types who would sell their soul to Rupert Murdoch in exchange for money and fame. And if it wasn't the people you have listed doing those jobs, there would just be another load of annoying people filling those roles. As an example, it'd be wonderful if George Bush died of an illness that could have been prevented had he not used his veto on stem cell research, but then they'll only get another parasite to take his job and make ill advised decisions. So this is how I deal with it. Firstly, eat custard. It gives you a warm feeling inside and reminds you of childhood. Secondly, poke fun as much as possible. Thirdly, start a mantra, in the words of Harvey Pekar, "It's your World, I'm just living in it."
The Story Of Love-Mistys Big Adventure :
Q: When i first heard Misty's Big Adventure, i'd turned on 6music half way through 'Story Of Love'. I had to sit down and listen. The dishes be damned. I remember my first thought was 'Julian Cope is really back on form'. Then the presenter said your name. Thats a compliment though isn't it? I love Julian Cope. Your voice is very similar, do you think?
A: Ha! Rumbled! I got into Julian Cope in my early teens and I became obsessed with his songs. He's one of the greatest songwriters EVER! When I first started writing songs, I hardly listened to anyone else. And that's probably why I sing in a similar way. It's not like I've deliberately set out to sound the same, I've just been very influenced by him. A quick aside......I wrote a fan letter to him when I was 14, and not only did he write back, he sent me a box full of records and made me a tape of some Krautrock! Now that's how to treat your fans!
No Hard Shoulder To Cry On-Julian Cope:
Q: Joe Meek shot his landlady & then himself , its not like we haven't all been tempted from time to time. He gets a dedication on the Black Hole sleeve, what was it about him that you like/inspires you?
A: Joe Meek is THE greatest producer EVER! He was one of the first people to fully understand what could be done with sound recording. He was making loops in the fifties! Virtually everything that we take for granted when recording a song in the 21st Century he did in the Sixties. Pretty much before everyone else. And when it was a hell of a lot harder. Unfortunately he was very misunderstood, very paranoid and prone to violent mood swings. And he lost the plot. The real shame is that’s he’s mostly remembered for the shooting and not so much for the recording. Though he seems to be getting mentioned a lot more these days. I dedicated the album to him because I aspire to producing records as mind blowing as the records he produced. But there’s a long way to go!
Q: Do Extra-Terrestrials exist? If so, why don't they save us? Do you think the existence of Johnny Borrel has put them off at all?
A: I hope so. If you were an alien, would you bother to save us? I don’t know who Johnny Borrel is. So in my Universe, he doesn’t exist. Q: We here at Blank Stares and Cricketclaps finally had the pleasure of seeing Mistys live show at Brighton's Great Escape, and you were fantastic, everyone had a great time. You were running a little late that night. If hell exists on earth, is it called the M25?
A: It’s around that area certainly! We enjoyed that gig though. There’s something very rock and roll turning up at the venue when you’re meant to be on stage! I liked the fact the audience watched as we hurriedly dumped the equipment on stage, made sure everything worked and then played. No showmanship whatsoever! The gig should have ended with us being paid on stage. The only thing that stopped it being rock and roll was we were late due to a traffic jam.
Q: Thequote at end of the gig about the man digging his way to freedom with a spoon made me feel as ready to take on the world as when i saw Rocky at the age of 7. I can't remember it word for word, could you remind me of it? Not Rocky, what you siad at the end of the gig.....
A: “There is a village which is hidden in the shadow of a mountain. Everyone is suffering from a lack of light. One day, the eldest of the village leaves for the mountain with a tea spoon in his hand. The others ask him what he intends to do. He tells them he is going to move the mountain. But you will never succeed they cry out. No, I will never succeed…….but somebody has to start.”
I can’t take the credit for that story. It’s by Alexandro Jodorowsky. He’s the greatest film maker EVER! Watch The Holy Mountain and have your mind blown away! It’s not as well known as Rocky, but it’s way more psychedelic.
Q: If we invited you 'round ours for a BBQ, and asked you to bring a few records to play with you, what do you think you might bring, in the mood your in today?
A: I’d bring round The Faust Tapes, some Raymond Scott, a home made Joe Meek compilation and a couple of Shooby Taylor, the human horn songs.
Whilst wading through piles of debris in the culture corner of my flat this claret filled sleepy sunday, I rediscovered this forgotten tasty little number on a compilation that landed on my doormat over 3 years ago from the good people at Manchester record label Melodic
The sunshine harmonies and odd lysergic digital thrust of the tRANSELEMENt track was quite appealing at the time, and still is, so i had a quick gander to see what they might be up too these days.
Turns out they're long gone, they split around the same time I first heard them in 2005, all myspace links and info on the band have gone a little stale, though learning they concocted this wizadry a couple of miles from where i was raised and dragged up made me even more interested. The Pendle images in my head of dry stone walls, rolling green & grey landscapes, claustrophobic country lanes and gangs of teenagers off their rockers on mushrooms really blends with what these chaps seemed to be about.
This paragraph on their abandoned Myspace seems to be the sum of their toils:
"tRANSELEMENt (formerly EleMenT) was a musical ensemble located betwixt Pendle's hills and undulations making alternative and interesting sounds/noise/musique from 1994-2004."
And thats about all the info i can muster, though they did do a couple of Peel sessions, being discribed by the Margrave as 'a bit weird' which is some compliment i think.
England has a history of moral panic & incomprehensible knee-jerk scape goating. Someone must be to blame for all this sexless grind.
Happy Halloween!!!Its a national holiday now right? No, it isn't! The only one that people seem to have any real interest in without getting free stuff, and we have to get up and earn a living through it....
I grew up in the valley below Pendle Hill, which thrives on its Witchy history:
Really, the Blair Witch Project seemed as old hat when it came out as it does now to anyone who lived through teenage Pendle Hill rituals.
Have we really come on any as a race since the Witch Trials in the 17th century? Not much. Still mostly all stuffy bluster, holier than thou finger pointing, just pointing at the part of ourselves we can't deal with.
Burning Of The Witch-Troyka
And Andrew Sachs, or to use your more commonly known name until this week, Manuel, i know you'll be reading this, the one on the left in the picture above fucked your grandaughter, you know, the porn actress grandaughter who is in the pole-dancing troupe Satanic Sluts, & takes cheques off tabloids to tell sex tales, take off her undercrackers and preach about morals?
Deal with it, get a sense of humour, and stop Piers Morgan suckling on the nourishing Daily Mail green horned devil nipple.
Is it just me? Whole countries and continents are on the brink of blowing themselves up daily, there's a U.S. election next week, and all this country can talk about is somebody swearing on a pre-record on night time radio. Strange spooky times.
"...all the young ladies lookin' outtasight.Close my eyes and I started to dream, About another world that I haven't seen..."
I'm Through With White Girls-The Dirtbombs
Look at Al Green here. Albert Greene. Just about cresting the arc of superstar here on Soul Train in 1974. 30 years old, his whole life is on fire. Look at his face, listen to that voice, he hasn't slept the night before, handing out roses to sweet things at the front. Look at the drummer smacking those half boiled-egg drums behind there: Al Jackson, he'd be dead within a year. His tombstone read "For i have promises to keep, and miles to go before i sleep."
A couple of months after this show one of Al's girlfriends brought him the wrath of the Lord, throwing boiling hot grits over him, then shooting herself with his pistol.
Rev. Al Green has been preaching at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on Hale Road in Memphis every Sunday since. “God had called me to a higher place, turned me away from earthly to heavenly love, and while it hurt to say it, I had to leave the sensual for the spiritual.”
Well fair enough, but he looks as high as can be here....and check out Soul Train host Don Cornelius at the end, dude...
Oh but we shall. Done it before & we'll do it again.
Moral conundrums are as bereft in the magical kingdom of rock n roll riffage as they are in the looting free-for-all of MP3 blogging.
The Blues got royally pillaged for its strutting golden goose eggs. From the delta porch, to Beale Street, to the Cavern, to McLemore Ave., to Sunset Strip, to CBGB's, to the Roxy, to Defjam, all the way through to the 6th Floor office of some hellhound of a TV advertising agency, there's been some snotty cockeroo stood around hearing the same few notes thats made their underpants & wallets twitch & thought-"I'll have that".
His one private press released LP-'The Truth', is a swirling psychedelic gem, and so obsolete as to fetch $1000 from the pockets of certain rich fools. How do such well conceived, greatly produced works of art disappear like that? Not always easy to say, but in this case, I'd say its pretty obvious-LOOK! That's him on the cover! Off his top bollocks! He's got a massive Jesus complex & was spouting 'Set yourself free my children...' quasi-cult jive to a culture quaking with post-Manson Family horrors. Where did it all go wrong D.R? Might have been the robes eh? Hmm maybe...but NO!!!! I'll tell you when! When you swiped a riff off Neil Young to propel a song about how amazing Jesus' fashion sense & the Bible's message is, and thusly helping the black dawning of 'Chr*stian R*ck'.
"Well I'm about to get sick from watchin' my TV Been checkin' out the news until my eyeballs fail to see I mean to say that every day is just another rotten mess And when it's gonna change, my friend is anybody's guess
So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin' hopin' for the best Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin' That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day
Wednesday I watched the riot . . .seen the cops out on the street Watched 'em throwin' rocks and stuff And chokin' in the heat Listened to reports about the whisky passin' 'round Seen the smoke and fire and the market burnin' down Watched while everybody on his street would take a turn To stomp and smash and bash and crash and slash and bust and burn
So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin' hopin' for the best Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin' That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day
Well, you can cool it,you can heat it . . . 'cause, baby, I don't need it . . . Take your TV tube and eat it 'n all that phony stuff on sports 'n all the unconfirmed reports You know I watched that rotten box until my head begin to hurt From checkin' out the way the newsman say they get the dirt Before the guys on channel so-and-so
And further they assert that any show they'll interrupt To bring you news if it comes up They say that if the place blows up-they will be the first to tell, Because the boys they got downtown are workin' hard and doin' swell, And if anybody gets the news before it hits the street, They say that no one blabs it faster-their coverage can't be beat
And if another woman driver gets machine-gunned from her seat They'll send some joker with a brownie and you'll see it all complete
So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin' hopin' for the best Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin' That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day
Hey, you know something people? I'm not black But there's a whole lots a times I wish I could say I'm not white
Well, I seen the fires burnin' and the local people turnin' On the merchants and the shops who used to sell their brooms and mops And every other household item, watched the mob just turn and bite 'em And they say it served 'em right because a few of them are white, And it's the same across the nation-black and white discrimination Yellin' "You can't understand me!" 'n all that other jazz they hand me In the papers and TV and all that mass stupidity That seems to grow more every day each time you hear some nitwit say He wants to go and do you in because the color of your skin just don't appeal to him (No matter if it's black or white) Because he's out for blood tonight!!
You know we got to sit around at home and watch this thing begin But I bet there won't be many live to see it really end 'Cause the fire in the street ain't like the fire in the heart And in the eyes of all these people Don't you know that this could start on any street in any town In any state if any clown decides that now's the time to fight For some ideal he thinks is right and if a million more agree There ain't no Great Society as it applies to you and me Our country isn't free and the law refuses to see If all that you can ever be is just a lousy janitor Unless your uncle owns a store you know that five in every four Just won't amount to nothin' more...
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor And make up songs about being poor
The AMAZING MP3s on this site are posted in the good faith that they will change your life, or at least make you buy the related record yourself, thusly supporting the artistes, keeping them in strings, bongo's & soundcards.
If you own the rights to a music file on this site and would like it removed, Email us , and allakhazam!! Thine will be done. Salut!
Posts
