Happy Birthday to my favorite Niece

1/22/12 marks the passage into adulthood for my very favorite niece, Alaska's very own AKMETALCHCK....as I have probably told you before, reaching the age of 18 makes one an adult in name only, I only hope that you make more sensible decisions at that age than did I.....I will trust your judgement

At first I looked for a concert that took place on your date of birth, 1/22/94, and I actually did find one, sort of, a show by Rush in Florida, unfortunately, the links for it are dead as you can see: http://bootslive.blogspot.com/2011/06/rush-1994-01-22-pensacola-florida-shn.html.... this was the ONLY concert of any note I was able to find from that date, so what would be the next best thing? How about the best albums of that year, the year that we lost Kurt Cobain, in fact.....well, for my money the BEST album of 1994 was "Gentlemen" by the Afghan Whigs, which I have already posted on this blog and can be found right here: http://www.mediafire.com/?fysuj6sb360861tafire.com/?fysuj6sb360861t damn fine album, but I don't really want to talk about it again, besides it's kind of a depressing album for celebrating a birthday......so, standing THAT particular logic on its head, I present another classic from 1994, and depressing as hell for that matter, Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral". My favorite NIN album is actually "The Fragile", but this is close. Maybe 1994 was not a great year for joyous, celebratory type music? Well, here we have one...."Transmissions From the Satellite Heart" from the legendary Flaming Lips....Flaming Lips have been around forever, and have made about a zillions albums, one of which ("Zaireeka") was a four disc set, DESIGNED FOR ALL FOUR DISCS TO BE PLAYED AT ONCE ON FOUR SEPERATE STEREOS, I am not kidding (It's a really cool experience, actually, if you happen to have four stereos....I'm not going to do that to you here), ...this album featured the minor hit "She Don't Use Jelly", and is just crammed with light-hearted

power-poppish oddball rock. Great album.

Changing gears again, I have selected "Welcome to Sky Valley"

classic stoner-desert surf jams from none other than Kyuss......

the seeds 0f the great stoner rock bands of the next two decades are here, if unfamilair with Kyuss, well, you certainly should not be......this is a mind blowing experience all the way, for some of us, perhaps a "perfect" birthday album (those of us enamored with this type of fuzzy, noisey sludge, such as myself).....One more regular release from that great year 1994, "Ruby Vroom". I choose it to ensure variety in the selections, and also because it contains, hands down, the best single of 1994, the way beyond awesome "Screenwriter's Blues"

OKAY. One last thing....I couldn't find a concert from that wonderous day of 1/22/94, so this will have to do: from THREE WEEKS later, a double disc set of Nirvana doing a great show from Rennes France.......Hope it's soemthing you've all not heard before.

So Happy Birthday AKMETALCHCK, I hope your 18th year is a glorious experience, and your finest year yet having spent upon this planet!!!!

LINKS IN COMMENT SECTION, Hope to get them up tonight, if not, tomorrow at the latest!

THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL:01 Mr Self Destruct/02Piggy/03 Heresy/04 March of the Pigs/05 Closer/06 Ruiner/07 The Becoming/08 I do Not Want This/09 Big man With a Gun/10 A Warm Place/11 Eraser/12 Reptile/13 The Downward Spiral/14 Hurt

TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE SATELLITE HEART: 01 Turn It On/02 Pilot Can at the Queer of God/03 Oh My Pregnant Head/04 She Don't Use Jelly/05 Chewin the Apple of Your Eye/06 Superhumans/07 Be My Head/08 Moth in the Incubator/09 *******/10 When Yer Twenty Two/11 Slow Nerve Action

WELCOME TO SKY VALLEY: 01 Gardenia-Asteroid-Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop/02 100 (Degrees)-Space Cadet-Demon CLeaner/03 Odyssey-Conan Troutman-N.O.-Whitewater/04 Lick Doo

RUBY VROOM-01 Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago/02 Sugar Free Jazz/03 Casiatone Nation/04 Blue Eyed Devil/05 Bus To Beelzebub/06 True Dreamin of Wichita/07 Screenwriters Blues/08 Moon Sammy/09 Supra GEnius/10 City Of Motors/11 Uh, Zoom Zip/12 Down To THis/13 Mister Bitterness/14 Janine

NIRVANA FRANCE 2/16/94 DISC 1-01 Radio Friendly Unit Shifter/02 My Sharona/03 Drain You/04 Breed/05 Serve the Servants/06 Come as You Are/07 Smells Like Teen Spirit/08 Sliver/09 Dumb/10 In Bloom/11 About a Girl/12 Lithium/13 Pennyroyal Tea

NIRVANA FRANCE 2/16/94 DISC 2-01 School/02 Polly/03 Very Ape/04 Lounge Act/05 Rape Me/06 Territorial Pissings/07 The man Who Sold the World/08 Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle/09 Sappy/10 All Apologies/11 On a Plain/12 Scentless Aprentice/Heart Shaped Box

RIP Sean Bonniwell

Now and then a band is so far ahead of its time that the rest of the world literally NEVER cataches up, such was the case with Music Machine. The world wasn't ready.....enjoying only the briefest moment of fame with the legendary single "Talk Talk". "Talk Talk" is a two minute buzz of experimental, mind-bending garage punk, the alienation of the Kurt Cobains of 30 years later foreseen, "My social life's a dud, my name is really mud"...it just didn't fit in 1965..."Talk Talk", of course, is featured on "Nuggets" and many other garage/punk/psych comps of the era, the genius does not end here. Problem being, their record labels actually wished for the to SELL RECORDS, which at the time consisted roughly of a formula of a hit single or two and the rest of an album fleshed out with covers of reent top-40 singles. Bonniwell, years ahead, wrote and performed long buzzing songs that ran together like "suites", quite a novel concept at the time. To hear the people who were actually "there" tell it ("there" being Los Angeles of the mid-60's, at a time which I was between 3-4 years old), their live shows were like nothing else at the time....they'd play an hour long set of all original material, without the slightest break between songs, the attention spans of the era set on their heads. As with many other bands buried in history, we must do a bit of digging to fine out what else they were about, other than the fantastic "Talk Talk".

The first proper "album", "Turns You On" featured "Talk Talk" and its follow up single "The People In Me", but they are lost in the context amongst covers of "Hey Joe" and "See See Rider".
Released on Original Sound, the album flopped other than "Talk Talk" (I remember Arthur Lee once criticizing Boniwell for "Talk Talk", saying Bonniwell was basically trying to cop Lee's groove........you'd probably have to say there is some validity to that, but Love (Lee's band) were an original creation as well, and what better inspiration than Lee/Love?)

Far more experimental and daring is "The Bonniwell Music Machine" on Warner Brothers, and there is some wonderful stuff here....some of the very best garage psych of the era, two more great (but overlooked) singles ("The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly" and "Double Yellow Line"), as well as great stuff like "Talk Me Down", "Bottom of the Soul", and teh somewhat amazing "Discrepancy".....the album sank without a trace and more or less Bonniwell abandoned the music buisness. Bonniwell's story has been told and retold many times in various books on the music of the era. A post-career complilation of odd ball demos, rarities and more is "Ignition" which features more of the great

hautning trademarked Bonniwell persona.....I was not, obviously, a music fan at this point in history...there are others who are FAR more qualified than myself to write his story. He passed away December 20 2011 of lung cancer, and what more can we say? I offer my prayers for his family and survivors, and I thank him posthumously for the great singles and the great tracks that flesh out "Music Machine" and "Ignition"......If you care to listen to these, perhaps you will discover something with which you ahd been unfamiliar.....and you will see a LOT of Music Machine's influence on many of the new wave/punk bands of the 70's-80's, most notably the Stranglers who could almost qualify as a tribute band (and I enjoy the music of the Strangelers, I am not attempting to disrespect them)

Rest in Peace Mr. Bonniwell....your music touched SOME of us, at least, and "Talk Talk" is one of the absolute greatest singels of all-time. As with many others who have passed on, you made MY time on the planet a tiny bit more enjoyable, for which I owe you my thanks

Links In Comment Section, leave a comment or opinion if you so desire......Should have the links up in the morning!

TURN ON-01 Talk Talk/02 Trouble/03 Cherry Cherry/04 Taxman/05 Some Other Drum/06 Masculine Intuition/07 The People In Me/08 See See Rider/09 Wrong/10 96 Tears/11 Come on In/12 Hey Joe

THE BONNIWELL MUSIC MACHINE-01 Bottom of the Soul/02 Absolutely Positive/03 Soul Love/04 Somethin' Hurtin On ME/05 Affirmative No/06 The Trap/07 The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly/08 No Girl Gonna Cry/09Me Myself and I/10 To the Light/11 Tin Can Beach/12 TIme Out (For a Daydream)/13 Astrologically Incompatable/14 Discrepancy/15 Talk me Down/16 I've Loved You/17 You'll Love Me Again/18 In My Neighborhood/19 Double Yellow Line/20 The Day Today

IGNITION-01 Everything Is Everything/02 Two Much/03 Advise and Consent/04 THis Should Make You Happy/05 Black Snow/06 Chances/07 Mother nature, Father Earth/08 Talk Me Down/09 Dark White/10 Push DOn't Pull/11 Smoke and Water/12 King Mixer/13 Unca Tinka Ty/14 Citizen Fear/15 Worry (Instrumental Version)/16 Worry (Vocal Version)/17 Tell Me What Ya Got/18 Point of No Return/19 902