Endless boogie...

Hi. How are you? Fine I hope.

Well, seeing as how I am no longer blogging from the library or the men's restroom at McDonalds ('Free Wifi!'), I will now attempt (not commit) to conform to the tighter strictures of posting party discipline (or at the very least a starting pitcher's rotation). And because I have been so lax in the discharge of my duties, this time I will give you two sides of an entire LP instead of one measly little 45, though, likely after hearing this tepid collection of white soul with boogie brown sauce, you will not be thanking me for my indulgence.

V/A, 'LIVE AT THE ZODIAC' (Zodiac, 1973)


If ebay listings, collectorsfrenzy and the Acid Archives are to be believed, this 1973 Jackson, MS. night club live album is tee-total 100% KILLER UNKNOWN HEAVY PSYCH ROCK through and through. I didn't know Santana and Sly Stone covers were called psych these days, but I guess that's what it means to be a life-long learner.

Of little interest probably to anyone save local collectros and (maybe) the most fanatical of mid 70s rock supremacists, the 'Live At The Zodiac' LP remains an enjoyable if unintentionally amusing portrait of regional, backwater club rock. The covers (8 of the album's 11 tracks) are mostly between two and three years old, the style of playing is either rote, rudimentary or Blueshammer and the one winner (if there is one) is also probably the least hard rocking thing on offer ('Your Love Took Me By Surprise' by Sweet Fever - a nifty piece of bubblegum/Philly Soul which I could see doing well on the Northern scene if Northern diggers were into picking up obscure 70s dirt-rock LPs; also a 45 on Malaco).

What else...

The discretion at which many of the songs are faded out tends to be arbitrary. The sound-quality on some cuts is much better than on others, giving the impression that some tracks may not be live at all. The DJ announcers between songs are not annoying nor are they particularly memorable; most of the time they just sound bored, as if unable to convince even themselves to feel excited about the bands they're supposedly hyping, though I was amused to find a young Walt Grayson counted amongst the credited on the album's rear side. Nowadays he hosts a rustic Mississippi travel program week-nights on PBS. If nothing else, after listening to this LP, I can understand why Ed Nasty was so pissed off.

Too bad there were no Lou Reed covers, as everyone represented on 'Live At The Zodiac' was most certainly still doing things that he gave up years ago. That backwards tendency above al makes me proud to hail from the Magnolia State. Enjoy?



1. ROYAL AMERICAN SHOWMEN - 'DANCE TO THE MUSIC' (SLY & THE FAMILY STONE)


2. MISSISSIPPI RAIN - 'THAT'S WHY I SING THE BLUES' (B.B. KING)


3. KATMANDU - 'MISSISSIPPI QUEEN' (MOUNTAIN)


4. STRAWBRIDGE - 'RUN RUN RUN' (JO JO GUNNE)


5. UNION JACK - 'NO ONE TO DEPEND ON' (SANTANA)


6. MACE - 'REVIVAL' (ALLMAN BROS)


7. EVERYBODY'S PILLOW - 'DON'T EAT THE CHILDREN' (BLOODROCK)


8. SWEET FEVER - 'YOUR LOVE TOOK ME BY SURPRISE'


9. AGE OF AQUARIUS - 'SLIPPIN INTO DARKNESS' (WAR)


10. PAPA JOE'S TRAVELING SHOW - 'MIAMI'


11. BACCHUS - 'WHERE ARE YOU GOING?'

Nat Turner's pinstripe dump

DAILY PLANET, 'LIFE' b/w 'PAY' (Riff Raf, 1980)

Yes, I will continue to write in the tedious first-person.

For those that know me, you are likely already well aware of the direct correlation existing between the length of my hair and the depth of my inner square. Similarly, the limit to my dick’s limpness (or color in 1972) should come as little surprise, requiring no advanced equations or line-judge booth reviews. It’s taken me a long time to accept, but... I am a nerd. I am just a power pop turd. And I can live with that. I’ve made peace with myself and my life-partner (a small fluffy white dog). We had a lovely ceremony last year at a lake-side chalet with matching vests and the singer from Off Broadway acting as the officiate. This is me, ya’ll! And I can finally, honestly and proudly now say that yes, I am a slave.

…anyway, mixing my anti-power pop song lyrics there. Thankfully less dangerous than mixing my drinks. And listening all about Los Angeles’ Daily Planet, you have to wonder if Bobby Soxx or M.Saunders/G. Turner might have been painting with too broad a brush.

How many promising new wave combos must suffer for the sins of the likes of Phil ‘N’ The Blanks or the Naughty Sweeties?????

Answer: most of them (like a skinny-tie Sodom).

Impossible to say or recreate the climate of the time, but I find it doubtful that Bobby or the Samoans would have found much with which to take issue (get it?!) with the sound/style being mined by Daily Planet. Recorded live at L.A.’s Club 88, both sides of D.P.’s lone single recall the Rickenbacker/high-energy spit-roast of groups like The Rockers or maybe even The Nerves if they had worn matching striped shirts instead of three-piece suits. Some of the members were originally from Chicago and apparently soldiered on in the Planet until at least ’82, at which point the writing was well and truly on the stall and it read DROP DEAD BABY.

A cool uncomped breath of fresh air before hardcore idiocy/Posh Boy mediocrity set in and made southern California safe for board shorts and Social Distortion tattoos forever.

Derp Burps For Lerp Twerps.

'LIFE'

'PAY'

M for the Mark

MARK CAMPBELL & SOULSHAKER, 'STEPPIN OUT' b/w 'GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS' (Winesong, 1978)

Complete credit/big-ups/whatever to Clayton S. for digging this one out. Imagine Robert Johnson (the caucasian close personal crony, not the Mississippi crossroads soul seller) meets The Pop! by way of Arlis!. ...or any other inparticulate prairie powerpopper with an exclamation point in their name for that matter.

Classy beyond belief with great words, great Mark Campbell vocal, great Soulshaker guitar, great sleeve; so much so that it moved a known Texas punk collector to distraction, describing it blithely as 'Awful b/w Worse.'

WHATTA PUNKS KNOW ANYWAY! Good music is wasted on bad (wasted) ears. And now I'm reeling in the years (which is just 'So It Goes' by Nick Lowe with different words five year earlier anyway).

DIG ON MARK CAMPBELL & SOULSHAKER, FEEBS! This blueberry wine tastes great! Mark is still out there too and available to meet all your Humble Pie and Bad Company cover band needs as they arise; don't be a stranger! Also, if you can't get with these lyrics, you for sure can't get with me.

'STEPPIN' OUT'


'GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS'

Down on inland beach

As I'm still getting settled in here in the land of the brain-eating amoeba, I thought I'd cheat a little and recycle something I wrote and originally posted over on waxidermy last year. It's not much, but I truly hope this meager repast finds favor in both in your ears and your innards.

DAVID CRAWFORD, 'CEMENT CITY' b/w 'HARD TIMES' (Phase Two Music, 197?/198?)

Waxidermy BRAVE OLD WAVES READERS likes to rock; there’s no denying it. Aerosmith, AC/DC, maybe even a little Queen – it is still Rock ‘N’ Roll to them! So let’s keep on rockin’ in the US of A! From the Frisco Bay to Nags Head, VA, all the way down to Lake Charles, LA with David Crawford & Phase II!!

Times are hard in Lake Charles – the Cement City – if the a 'n' b-side to this record and Dave’s strikingly homemade t-shirt are to be believed. And I do (believe). In fact, I didn’t know they issued nicknames to towns this lousy. I thought they were just called dumps. Dave and Phase II aren’t exactly local boosters overflowing with civic pride either. There’s nothing on the street or in the record store, the night time’s shining, but the daytime’s blinding and even the phone is out (which is just as well as there’s no next of kin or friends to call). So sequestered in the cellar Dave and the Phase stay and – happily – have a taut and tasteless rocker to show for it.

The guitar rampage on ’Cement City’ reeks of Motor City residue; the gymnastic histrionics of Sonic’s Rendezvous most particularly. …which is likely just an off-target result of aiming for Ted Nugent. A bleak take on bleak living. The A-side’s good too, but ’Cement City’ is the real star. …well, co-star, if you count the photo insert. Phase II is Fortune Teller sick! And I don't even want to guess what Phase I must have looked like.

'CEMENT CITY'


'HARD TIMES'

Land of 1,000 cancers

To my faithful readers - all three of you - I will be going on short hiatus as I establish residency in my new home-base of New Orleans, LA. Once on my feet, I will, as they say, be going hard, out in these streets, stacking up mountains of the raerest black mould. All day, every day. Yaheard? ...or something like that. In any case, enjoy some actual good music from me for a change and see you when my long march concludes.

There was an old lady who lived in a pyramid

DAVEY DOOLITTLE, 'ANIMALS' b/w 'DANCING MALARIA' (New Wave, 1978)

When you are a no-selling, fringe figure on the margins of a major American new wave scene, you have three possible long-term career arcs (none of them dignified).

You can (A) attempt to ret-con yourself into the prime real-estate of the official histories through embarrassing reunion shows, catalogued citations of how many times you played with the Zippers and Pearl Harbor & The Explosions or (more often) over-taxation of the poor saps who bite into your bait and actually want your crummy 7'' at approximately the same rate Virgil might try and gouge you for an autographed photo (READ: $40 and up).

Alternately, you could always (B) tape your dick back and make sweet synthetic love to Patrick Cowley and find fame as both as a Hi-NRG dance pioneer as well as an early victim of GRID...I mean, AIDS...assuring a type of immortality amongst both drag queens and hanky code crackers.

Or (C), frustratingly most often, maintain a web presence making tantalizing mention of your unimportant musical past while focusing or rather fixating on the sort of tin-foil hat, U.N. black helicopter, politburo ponzi scheme babble usually confined to the waiting rooms of free clinics or flea market tables selling records.

And, if you're at all curious, one may take the most cursory of google stabs to quickly discover which flavor of filling flows inside our boy Davey. The one and only single by Mr. Doolittle - on NEW WAVE RECORDS in you case you hadn't heard! - shows definite sonicness kinship to the style of Larry Lazar, however, this is not so much the sound of the LONE ROCKER, but rather the LONE OFF HIS ROCKER!

'Three blind mice, man. Think about it. We're the animals, bro. See how they run. Just look at the sleeve...it's all there.'


Moving on...unsure just what nursey rhymes and malaria have to do with each other, but I'm sure Davey knew (a revelation which I'd just assume he keep to himself as the b-side is unlistenable Neil Diamond drivel with horns). Whatever the matter, it's clear that Double D, like Saint Vitus or Wesley Willis, was scarred by the heavy burden of possessing THE REAL TRUTH.

...access to which can be yours for only the most nominal of investments, guaranteed to triple your initial amount in less than six months. Let me show you some figures...

'ANIMALS'

No t-shirt time

TERRY HUGHES, 'TIME TO TURN' b/w 'SO GLAD' (Rubber Ball, 1982)

It’s a good thing there are several states separating Terry Hughes and Justin Trouble, otherwise I’d expect there’d be a Johnny Thunders imitation showdown at the Loveland corral (winner earning a one-way trip to New Orleans and death).  Fairly inexplicable and simply irresistible shirtless guido junk rock plus Stones-y pop moves circa 'Between The Buttons' with definite ideological nods (tambourine, Jagger vocals) towards the late 60s.  The first of three single-servings along Mr. Hughes’ rather unpredictable flight-path - his second is hesher-lite party rock, while the third is total G.G. Allin worship with the lyrics to ’Don’t Talk To Me’ changed to insult some skank from Bayonne. After Damian & The Criterions, I think Terry Hughes is definitely my second favorite New Jersey rock loser.  And he’s STILL GOING STRONG! 

IT'S A TERRY HUGHES RIOT!

Also, would like to dedicate the b-side of this record to my friends Daniel and Megan who got hitched over the weekend and whose wedding I only slighted ruined by forgetting the rings to their ceremony.  Thanks for allowing me a chance to redeem myself guys!  Have fun in the DR!

CABS ARE HERE!

'TIME TO TURN'


'SO GLAD'