My final day of employment with the State of Ohio

WOW......nearly 31 years, and now it's all over.......today was my final day of work with the State of
Ohio, I am now an "official" retiree......probably the biggest "change" in my life, as I am 52 years old, thusly, I have worked on the same job for over half of my life.....I'm sorry....Im feeling a LOT of different emotions today......

So, why not wrap up the celebratory bonuses (for a while) with a no-joke bang......the COMPLETE "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" series....I am not going to go into detail about this, but this is THE classic piece of underground comicdom.....Phineas, Freewheelin' Frank, Fat Freddie (and of course Fat Freddie Scat) were as much of my childhood/teen years as were the bands I post here each day.....if it's new to you, it will be deliciously dated, if you are a longtime fan, you'll be delighted, but the target group I'D like to hear from is maybe people MY AGE who have forgotten about them......this shit IS the 1970's, represented MUCH better than ANY album I could post.

Thank you for patronizing my blog......it's fun, I enjoy it and will continue it until God knows when (although, this is likely the end of 2 posts a day for a while, I have done so for the whole month of June, and, frankly, a LOTTA work).....anyway I enjoy doing this, and I TRULY thank all the many people who have helped me make it work the way I want it to, and two people in particular, Dave Sez and Apanta Bapanta, thanks so much, literally, this blog would not be what it is without your help!

Here's to another few years (at least) of the WORLD WIDE SHARING COMMUNITY making thisblog what i WANT it to be.......a chance for EVERYONE to share ANYTHING they want, from the most unknown bar band to someone with some out-there porn photos.....EVERYONE.

Love you all.

Sweet

In the newly created genre of "artists whom I think 90% of their shit sucks but thier "Best Of" makes
for an easy post if they had 10% decent comes" (See: Sparks, Donnie Iris) Sweet, who routinely churned out the bubbleglam stuff in the early 1970's.

Sweet were, for the most part, singer Brian Donnelly, bassist Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, an drummer Mick Tucker, which you know if you paid attention to the intro of "Ballroom Blitz"...


"Ballroom Blitz"is a great fucking song, covered by the Buzzcocks among others, and NOT thier only one....."Wig Wam Bam" was covered (in a MUCH better version IMO) by the Donnas, "Blockbuster" is a pretty damn good unknown rocker, "Fox on the Run" was a fine hard rock single, and "Love is Like Oxygen" is at LEAST better than listening to Poison or someone.......formulaic, professional rock n roll singles band, who "hit" probably more than they missed.

So, what's the prob? The prob is "Little Willie", perhaps one of the most nauseating singles of the early 1970's, and THAT, cousin, is saying a mouthful.

Some bands with long careers melt down EASILLY to a single disc......Sweet is the epitome of this in my book...DO NOT overlook this disc, despite my cynicism, the good shit here FAR out-weighs the bad.........opinions,please, espcially from the previously uninitiated, because there is some fine early 70's rocking shit here.

01 Little Willie/02 Wig-Wam Bam/03 Blockbuster/04 The Ballroom Blitz/05 Teenage Rampage/06 The Six Teens/07 Fox On the Run/08 Action/09 The Lies In Your Eyes/10 Lost Angels/11 Fever of Love/12 Stairway to the Stars/13 Love is Like Oxygen/14 California Nights/15 Mother Earth/16 Sixties Man

I've been harsh on them (it's fun) but this is no question a good piece of early 1970's hard glam-rock

Donnie Iris

Oh, settle down, I'm not recapping THIS douche's whole career (What a waste of time THAT
would  be....the Jaggerz? Wild fucking Cherry? No thanks)....the only artifact I have from this lad is a greatest hits affair, which ALSO isn't THAT great except for one thing.....

I LOVE the single "Ah! Leah" for a few reasons...one, it is a fantastic single, sounds as fabulous today as it did when it was released (early 90's or so, TRUE "Nuggets of the Future" material).....great fucking tune, heard it today, and it sparked a couple of memories.....

First of all, when it came out, I actually knew a chick named Leah who was lucky enough to get "AH LEAH" as her vanity license plate....there was probably ONE such Leah in each state, and what an honor to actually know the "Ohio one"

Also, I am reminded of one of Creem Magazines greatest reviews ever....I'm gonna try to recreate this, bear with me......it was a comic strip of "Gilligan's Island"....a crate of Donnie Iris albums washes up on the shore. Skipper: "WOW little buddy, Iris used to be in the Jaggerz, so he needs all the help he can get! He's bound to come looking for these albums and we'll be rescued for sure!"....later they hear on the radio "Donnie Iris has had a huge hit with "Ah Leah", looks like tough times are over for him!".....Gilligan: "Think of the bright side, Skipper, maybe a stereo will wash up on shore.."

Maybe ya had to be there but pretty goddamn funny in my book......

BEST OF DONNIE IRIS-01 Ah! Leah/02 I Can't Hear You/03 Agnes/04 Sweet Merilee/05 Love Is Like a Rock/06 That's the Way Love Ought to Be/07 My Girl/08 Tough World/09 This Time it Must Be Love/10 Do You Compute/11 She's So Euopean/12 The Rapper (Live)

Fuck you, "Ah! Leah" is a great fucking single.......as for the rest of this, if it's ACTUALLY his "best", well.......

Yet another retirement week comic book bonus

Today we have four or five issues of "I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer

Space".......PLEASE, you REALLT expect me to wax poetic about THAT?????? Sorry, if the title does not intrigue, I'M certainly not convincing you! Decide for yourself, I bet it gets MEGA-hits!

Supafuzz (partial, help out if ya can)

Was listening to some Supafuzz today and decided to post them, in spite of the fact that I have only a
small portion of thier output.....two albums, to be accurate, but they are pretty good slabs of hard fuzzed-out stoner rock, the kind I love (think Fu Manchu/Orange Goblin).....they were from down the road in Lexington Ketucky, and consisted of drummer Chris Leathers, bassist Jay Groves, guitarist Eric Belt, and singer/guitarist David Angstrom.

Short and hard-rocking numbers with some occasionally clever songwriting give these dudes thier identity, do not have (nor have I heard) the self-titled 1998 debut disc....the earliest release is 2000's "All About the Rock", which really IS, lotta good ones here, "Tonic and Cigarettes", "Arguing With God", "And Then She Blooms".......really a good effort, I hope a few folks at least get turned onto it....

The other disc I have is from 2002, "Down For the Undeground", which, for whatever reason, repeats a lot "All About".....I'm sure there were legal/label reasons for this but the albums are NOT identical, and there is some good stuff on "Down" as well.....

Good, rocking stuff, but here is the thing: they have released a pair of EP's ("LAMF", "Gimme Gimme") as well as the debut album I don't have, as well as a 2004 release, "Vertigo".....never heard ANY of them but would love to, anyone out there in blog-universe have them? Love to share the ones I DO have though, they rock hard and are quite worthwhile

If you can help a brother out with the rest of thier stuff, PLEASE hook the rest of us up.....

ALL ABOUT THE ROCK-01 Fool No More/02 I Am the King/03 Sick of It/04 Tonic & Cigarettes/05 Confessions/06 Subsonic/07 Arguing With God/08 And Then She Blooms/09 Anesthesia/10 Blame/11 We're Alright/12 Bottomed Out/13 Fade

DOWN FOR THE UNDERGROUND-01 Subsonic/02 Fade/03 Arguing With God/04 Tonic & Cigarettes/05 Confessions/06 Under a Gun/07 Mr. Policeman/08 Bushog/09 Unglued/10 Superstar/11 Sick of It/12 I Am the King

Lot of overlap, but it's what I have and hope for se help to fill in the gaps!

Bonus material for retirement week...

Well, what sort of non-musical bonuses shall I dole out this week in my celebratory mood? I have
TONS of stuff, comics, Ebooks, artwork, awesome photo collections.......I could never share ALL my cool stuff (musical and otherwise you should see my DVD stash, I guess I'm kinda a digtal pack-rat/hoarder, but I DO try to do my part to keep it all circulating......

Well, it's Monday, my final Monday as a State of Ohio Employee....I could write a book about the amzing stuff I've seen in 31 years, and I may yet.....some of the stuff would leave you in disbelief.....so, on a Monday, let's see.....well, let's do some R Crumb stuff, the Zap! series went over HUGE so here is a TON of Crumb comics of various titles/vintages...."Snatch Comics"..."Snoid Comics".....the legenary "Bible of Filth"...you WILL NOT BELIEVE the volume of stuff here. I'll make you love me, on way or another.....

I have a problem I'd hope some computer geek could help me
with.....would LOVE to share R Crumb's brilliant "Book of Genesis, HOWEVER, it is fomatted in CDisplay and is too LARGE for Zippyshare to upload.....ANYONE know a way to either convert or split a CDisplay file so it can e uploaded? I would LOVE to share it, it is awesome......any suggestions will be accept!

Anyway, I hope this tickles a funny bone or two the next few days and maybe later in the week, the entire Freak Brothers collection.......anyone interested in that classic shit?

Black Mountain

From Vancouver BC comes this criminally under-appreciated psych/stoner outfit.... guitarist/vocalist Stephen McBean, vocalist Amber Webber, bassist Brad Truax, keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt, and drummer/keyboardist Josh Wells turn out a good blend of hard guitar riffs and swirling keyboards that remind me a bit of a modern-day Hawkwind.....

The debut (self titled) from 2005 was one of that year's very best, some highlights include Webber's haunting vocal portion in "Heart of Snow", and especially the stunning rocker "Don't Run Our Hearts Around", but actually the album is a fine, 4-star effort that any hard rock/stoner fan is likely to enjoy.

2008's "In the Future" is as good or better, highlighted by the 17-minute "Bright Lights" an epic and unique opus with fine shared male/female vocals, reminding me, really, of nothing much I've ever heard, which is always one of the best things I can think of to say.......also, to me, an essential album.

Making it three for three on excellent releases is 2010's "Wilderness Heart", highlighted by some excellent keyboard work and the thrashing rocker "Let Spirits Ride".... I think it was the top release of 2010, not  that people do or should take my opinion into account.

They've released a few EP's I seem to have but one of them, 2005's "Druganaut", with a cool extended version of the title track (which apeared in normal length on album #1) and a few other worthwhile tracks......

This band has released a fine volume work, all worthwhile in my estimation... very original and hard rocking, anyone having any live boots or their other EP's please let me know.... and leave a comment, as I said earlier this, I think is one of THE great underappreciated acts of our time.

BLACK MOUNTAIN-01 Modern Music/02 Don't Run Our Hearts Around/03 Druganaut/04 No
Satisfaction/05 Set Us Free/06 No Hits/07 Heart of Snow/08 Faulty Times

IN THE FUTURE-01 Stormy High/02 Angels/03 Tyrants/04 Wucan/05 Stay Free/06 Queens Will Play/07 Evil Ways/08 Wild Wind/09 Bright Lights/10 Night Walks

WILDERNESS HEART-01 The Hair Song/02 Old Fangs/03 Radiant Hearts/04 Rollercoaster/05 Let Spirits Ride/06 Buried By the Blues/07 The Way to Gone/08 Wilderness Heart/09 The Space of Your Mind/10 Sadie

DRUGANAUT (EP)-01 Druganaut (extended)/02 Buffalo Swan/03 Bicycle Man/04 No Satisfaction (Campfire Version)

See what ya think, pretty damn good stuff IMO.

Sparks

OK, Sparks.....hadn't really even thier goofy early 1970's albums in a while, for some reason the song
"Whippings and Apologies" popped into my cranium the other day......the band began in California, formed by the Mael brothers, keyboardist Ron and vocalist Russ. The "classic" lineup included a set of brothers the Mankeys, guitarist Jim and bassist Earle, and ace drummer Harley Feinstein......the band was around forever, probably still are in some form or another (the Mael brothers have carried on with many varying lineups, trying thier hands at various forms of music.....I lost track of them/lost interest in them fairly early on, we can observe the handful of their early albums that I DO have, post 1975 or so, you are on your own.

The debut ("Sparks") is a little slow, it features a couple of decent numbers highlighted by Ron's strange keyboard playing, Russ' frankly annoying vocals, and some often moderately interesting, artistic lyrics ("Wonder Girl", "Biology 2")......nothing really great.  However, the followup, "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" is not without its merits.....the crackling "Whippings and Apologies", the bizarre "Beaver O'Lindy", the much MORE bizarre "Here Comes Bob"......not a bad album, worth  listen or two, this stuff does wear thin QUICKLY though.

Along with "Woofer", their peak was reached with "Kimono My House", another collection of falsetto vocals, crackling drum breaks, and of course, plenty of admittedly clever lyrics ("Amatuer Hour", "Barbcutie".......the last of their albums that I own is 1975's "Propoganda", by which time, in my estimation, this ship had LONG sailed. Again, more "clever" than actually"lisenable", with an occasional good one ("Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth")

And that, from here, is THAT.....from looking them up, it would appear they have released probably 20-30 more albums, and I assume they must have a hard core fan base SOMEWHERE in order to hang around so long, but, honstly, I think I'll pass, myself.

"Woofer" and "Kimono" enough interesting material on them to make them worth a
listen....."Whippings and Apolgies" and "Beaver O'Lindy" are both still capable of rocking the house on occasion.

I remember once the "Rolling Stone Record Guide" evaluated the albums and ended the review with the statement "docked one star per album for being somewhat responsible for Queen". Couldn't possible have put it any better.

SPARKS-01 Wonder Girl/02 Fa La Fa Lee/03 Roger/04 High C/05 Fletcher Honorama/06 Simple Ballet/07 Slowboat/08 Biology 2/09 Saccharin and the War/10 Big Bands/11 (No More)Mr Nice Guys

A WOOFER IN TWEETER'S CLOTHING-01 Girl From Germany/02 Beaver O'Lindy/03 Nothing Is Sacred/04 Here Comes Bob/05 Moon Over Kentucky/06 Do Re Mi/07 Angus Desire/08 Underground/09 The Louvre/10 Batteries Not Included/11 Whippings and Apologies

KIMONO MY HOUSE-01 This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us/02 Amatuer Hour/03 Falling In Love With Myself Again/04 Here In Heaven/05 Thank God It's Not Christmas/06 Hasta Manana Monsiuer/07 Talent Is an Asset/08 Complaints/09 In My Family/10 Equator/11 Barbecutie/12 Lost and Found

PROPOGANDA-01 Propoganda/02 At Home At Work At Play/03 Renforcements/04 BC/05 Thanks But No Thanks/06 Don't Leave Me Alone With Her/07 Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth/08 Something For the Girl With Everything/09 Achoo/10 Who Don't Like Kids/11 Bon Voyage/12 Alabamy Right/13 Marry Me

Pretty much forgotten stuff, at least in my circles.......hopefully bring a smile or two to your face (seriously, "Woofer" IS a decent, if hard to take, album.....if you followed these dudes after 1975 or so, I am curious, why? Did they do anything good? Give me a full report!

A Great, Big, Bad-Assed Spiritual Beggars post......

One of the consistently great stoner bands over the years that I have NOT profiled in the time I've
been doing, along with Dozer, Fu Manchu, Queens of the Stone Age and a few others (and in time we WILL get to them as well, fear not, this blog will be around as long as 1) I am alive, and 2) they don't shut me down (always a possiblity, but if the do, I'm sure some of my idols in blogland can offer advice, hell ChrisGOes has been shut down more times than I could possibly count, he's a hero and a roll model to all of us who undrstand that SHARING IS ACTUALLY A GOOD THING, JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER ALWAYS TOLD YOU........

Anyways, Spiritual Beggars from Halmstad Sweden, have been at it since the early 1990's, basically the only "constants" have been guitarist Michael Amott and drummer Ludwig Witt......other current members are singer Apollo Papathanasio, keyboardist Per Weeberg, and bassist Sharlee D'Angelo. Thier sound is border-line stoner,hard blues based rock that reminds one of maybe Five Horse Johnson, whom you know I like......what I'm saying is they are maybe not QUITE as "out there" as some of the more "creative" stoner bands (Los Natas, say, or Orange Goblin just at random), and a little closer to Perl Jam-style hard ass rock n roll.....not a Goddamn thing wrong with that.

Album #1, a self titled affair from 1994, is not the greatest......it tries hard, there are some good tunes
on here, but they would improve upon it. The next year's "Another Way to Shine" picks up the pace a bit, the title track and "Magic Spell" are standout tracks, this was, we could tell, a band on the rise.

The got a bit more creative with the third album "Mantra III", which is a really good one, thier first REALLY good effort (please note: the first two ARE worth your time), better songwriting and better vocals bring out stuff like "Lack of Prozac" (what a TITLE!) and "Homage to the Betrayed", this is a really fine forgotten album of late 1990's stoner rock, highly recommended.

In 2000, they released arguably thier best effort, "Ad Astra", I'd pick it as my fave with a gun at my head......the great "Angel of Betrayal" is the highlight, but there is PLENTY of good stuff here, "Left Brain Ambassadors", "Mantra"and more, if you wish to sample only ONE Spiritual Beggars album (a mistake IMO), this would be the one for ya.

2002's "On Fire" is a pretty good effort as well, it includes more of the bands' trademarked stoner/blues/hard rock, stuff like "Street Fighting Saviours" and "Feejee Mermaid" among others, are "classic" Spiritual Beggars material, the band had peaked with "Ad Astra", but they still had some rifs left in them, fans of ANY hard rock, be it stoner/metal/or just Stonesy hard blues stuff, you'll really want to check these out.

"Demons" is a 2 disc set, released in 2005, with a decent studio disc and a pretty damn good live disc,
these guys evidently put it out live, at least from what I can tell from the live discs.....the studio disc has a lot of depressing themes running through it ("Throwing Your Life Away", "Dying Every Day", LOTS more), but, shit, when has THAT ever stopped anyone from kicking out a rocking effort? And the live disc has good versionsof "Angel of Betrayal" and "Young Man, Old Soul", a LITTLE skimpy, but all in all a good double disc set.

2010's "Return to Zero" is a listenable effort, fans of the band will certainly want to hear it, it's not "Ad Astra", but, you know, I am REALLY a fan of this particular sound (been waiting on "stoner rock" basically my entire life, I am SOOOOO glad it finally emerged).......really, like Sheavy or Orange Goblin, these guys really have never (IMO) made a "bad" album, they all have SOMETHING to recommend them.......stoner rock fans unite!

And can ya beleive that last year, 2013, they actually cranked out ANOTHER double disc set? No shit, it's called "Earth Blues" and follows the same format of "Demons", a studio set of pretty solid material, as coupled with (again, rather skimpy, but why nitpick?) another fine live disc......I really would have liked to see these boys get it done live.

May as well round this out with a coupla boots, both quite good.....got one here called "LiveFire!"

best I can ascertain this is an audio rip of a concert DVD, can't find much info on it, but most of their best shit is here, I recommend it highly.....as well, do I recommend "Live Roskilde 2000", also loaded with great versions of some of the Beggars best stuff, "Angel Of Betrayal", "Wonderful World", again, I would ahve LOVED to caught these fellows live......

If you are a fan of the "stoner rock" i post here (often), I think you'll like Spiritual Beggars......if you are NOT a fan of it, you may like them as well, as, like I said somewhere here, they are a LITTLE more close to the mainstream hard rock border........it's good shit, I presonally guarentee, and this is another ban I consider fairly underappreciated. Please let me know what you think about them, if this is a new experience for you........I guarentee my stoner-rock "Go-to guy" Mark Eveligh would be happy to offer up a second opinion!

SELF TITLED-01 Yearly Dying/02 Pelekas/03 The Space In Between/04 If This Is All/05 Under Silence/06 Magnificent Obsession/07 Blind Mountain/08 If You Should Leave/09 Nowhere to Go/10 Sour Stains

ANOTHER WAY TO SHINE-01 Magic Spell/02 Black Mountain/03 Misty Valley/04 Picking From the Box/05 Nowhere To Go/06 Entering Into Peace/07 Sour Stains/08 Another Way To Shine/09 Past the sound of Whispers

MANTRA III-01Superbossanova/02  Homage to the Betrayed/03 Monster Astronauts/04 Euphoria/05 Broken Morning/06 Lack of Prozac/07 Bad Karma/08 Send Me a Smile/09 Cosmic Romance/10 Inside Charmer/11 Sad Queen Boogie/12 Mushroom Tea Girl/13 The Band Is Playing/14 Redwod Blues/15 Euphoria (Alternative Mix)

AD ASTRA-01 Left Brain Ambassadors/02 Wonderful World/03 Sedated/04 Angel of Betrayal/05 Blessed/06 Per Aspera Ad Astra/07 Save Your Soul/08 Until the Morning/09 Escaping the Fools/10 On Dark Rivers/11 The Goddess/12 Mantra

ON FIRE-01 Street Fighting Saviours/02 Young Man, Old Soul/03 Killing Time/04 Fool Gold/05 Black Feathers/06 Beneath the Skin/07 Feejee Mermaid/08 Dance of the Dragon King/09 Tall Tale/10 The Lunatic Fringe/11 Look Back/12 Burden of Dreams

DEMONS DISC 1-01 Inner Strength (Intro)/02 Throwing Your Life Away/03 Salt In Your
Wounds/04 One Man Army/05 Through the Halls/06 Treading Water/07 Dying Every Day/08 Born To Die/09 Born To Die (reprise)/10 In My Blood/11 Elusive/12 Sleeping With One Eye Open/13 No One Heard

DEMONS DISC 2-01 Monster Astronauts/02 Angel of Betrayal/03 Young Man, Old Soul/04 Wonderful World/05 Blind Mountain/06 Guitar Solo/07 Look Back/08 Not Fragile

RETURN TO ZERO-01 Return to Zero (Intro)/02 Lost in Yesterday/03 Starborn/04 The Chaos of Rebirth/05 We Are Free/06 Spirit of the Wind/07 Coming Home/ 08 Concrete Horizon/09 A New Dawn Rising/10 I Beleive In Me/11 Dead Weight/12 The Road Less Travelled/13 Time to Live (Uriah Heep Cover)

EARTH BLUES DISC 1-01 Wise as a Serpent/02 Turn the Tide/03 Sweet Magic Pain/04 Hello Sorrow/05 One Man's Curse/06 Dreamer/07 Too Old To Die/08 Kingmaker/09 Road to Madness/10 Ead End Town/11 Freedom Song/12 Legends Collapse

EARTH BLUES DISC 2-01 Left Brain Ambassador/02 Beneath the Skin/03 One Man Army/04 Wonderful World/05 Fools Gold/06 Star Born/07 Concrete Horizon/08 Euphoria

LIVEFIRE!-01 Intro/02 Beneath the Sun/03 Fools Gold/04 Monster Astronauts/05 Angel of Betrayal/06 Young Man, Old Soul/07 Blind Mountain/08 Mantra/09 Wonderful World/10 Killing TIme/11 Not Fragile/12 Euphoria

LIVE ROSKILDE 2000-01 Wonderful World/02 Angel of Betrayal/03 Monster Astronauts/04Sedated/05 Until the Morning/06 Homage to the Betrayed/07 Blind Mountain/08 Per Aspera Ad Astra/09 Broken Morning/10 Euphoria/11 Escaping the Fools

OK, guys, this quite a lot of material, quite a bit of work.....don't get me wrong, I LOVE doing stuff like this......ALL I ASK is that you briefly tell me what you think of these albums, should you sample them......I think they are, across the board, pretty damn good....I've been putting some extra time into the blog of late, with mega-posts like this as well as sharing some non-musical stuff, which is ALL in celebration of my impending retirement......AFTER I retire I may just go crazy on here for a while.....but WORK WITH ME, please.....I am ALWAYS looking for contributions, NOTHING I love more than when some bar band I never heard of sends me a demo tape or soemthing like that....but this is NOT TOTALLY ABOUT MUSIC.......SEND ME ANYTHING, I WILL put it up......ANYTHING.......recipes, photography, art work your third grader did.......I want this to be a REAL share blog, a real community, like Facebook without all the nonsensical gibberish.......please help me to make this work.......at the VERY least, leave a comment if you sample the music, it could be "it sucks" for all I care.......by the way, I now have TEN working days until retirement.......haven't figured out what I'll do then, I'm thinking of a mega-Roxy Music post as they are (perhaps) my favorite band of them all.....we'll see......but THANKS SO MUCH to you guys who DO help me out, and I'll ALWAYS welcome MORE members to the team to make this thing work.......sending some more Greek Punk to Apanta Bapanta tonight for translation, what would I do without HIM? Or Dave Sez? or Marcan? what of Viacomshutmedown's latest kick ass contribution...........I don't WANT this to be the world's "best " blog (WAAAAY to mucrk), but I do want it to carve out a unique niche......I think we are getting there, but the more people that help us out the better! 

Thanks for reading, listening, commenting, contributing, and just being here!

Baroness

From Savannh Georgia, Baroness are simply bad-ass.....they have created some criminally
overlooked stoner/psych, I think they have really given us some GREAT shit, and it's high time guys got around to digging up on this excellent fucking band. Basically, the lineup is guitarist/vocalist John Baizley, guitarist Peter Adams, bassist Summer Welch, and drummer Alan Blickle (in very recent times the drummer and bassist have been replaced)......

Thier first full length was released in 2007 ("The Red Album").....it is a wonderful piece of hard rocking progressive-stoner (!), wonderful album that was perhaps the best release of that year for my money......"Rays on Pinion" and "The Birthing" get things started right, and, that's really about a fourth of it.....wonderful, memorable album that I still listen to a lot.

In 2009 they released the almost as good "Blue Record", really, like it's predecessor, hard to describe.....wonderful rocking tunes, flowing together with weird lyrics.....this is a fine band, PLEASE check them out and comment on their greatness.

In 2011 they released the ALSO excellent double set, "Green and Yellow", it's fantastic, although the "Yellow" disc does wear a tiny bit thin, but "Green" is as good as anything they have produced.

OK, obviously I love these guys, and I happen to have some of their early EP's and the like.....in 2004 they released their first EP, going WAY out there for the title "First".....it's great as well, you can

definitely hear the seeds of the latter brilliance being planted. The next year they released (are you ready?) "Second", which is a fine EP as well, for my money, these guys have released purely imaginative, wonderful, hard rocking discs, if you have missed out, it is your loss!

Well, what else....a 2010 single, "A Horse Called Golgatha".....a split disc with Unpersons entitled "A Grey Sigh In a Flower Husk" (also known as "Third", beleive it or not) and a 2013 live recording from the BBC, which features the "new" rythem section, and is also pretty damn good.

I really, really like this band, I think they are totally kickass......if you are unfamilar PLEASE check them out and gimme a full report, I just hate when bands that (I think are) this good go unnoticed

FIRST-01 Tower Falls/02 Coeur/03 Rise

SECOND-01 Red Sky/02 Son of Sun/03 Vision

A GREY SIGH IN A FLOWER HUSK-01 Tiersias/02 Cavite/03 Black Finnegan/04 Number/05 Dry Hands/06 A Small Gesture, a Thousand Small Happy Gestures

RED ALBUM-01 Rays On Pinion/02 The Birthing/03 Isak/04 Wailing Wintry Wind/05 Cockroach En Fluer/06 Wanderlust/07 Aleph/08 Teeth of a Cogwheel/09 O'Appalachia/10 Grad/11 Untitled

BLUE RECORD-01 Bullhead's Psalm/02 The Sweetest Curse/03 Jake Leg/04 Steel That Sleeps the
Eye/05 Swollen and Halo/06 Ogeechee Hymnal/07 A Horse Calld Golgotha/08 O'er Hell and Hide/09 War Wisdom and Rhyme/10 Blackpowder Orchard/11 The Lashing/12 Bullhead's Lament

A HORSE CALLED GOLOGOTHA (SINGLE)-01 A Horse Called Gologatha/02 Bikeage

YELLOW AND GREEN (YELLOW DISC)-01 Yellow Theme/02 Take My Bones Away/03 March to the Sea/04 Little Things/05 Twinkler/06 Cocainium/07 Back Where I Belong/08 Sea Lungs/09 Eula

YELLOW AND GREEN (GREEN DISC)-01 Green Theme/02 Board Up the House/03 Mtns. (The Crown and Anchor)/04 Foolsong/05 Collapse/06 Pslams Alive/07 Stretchmarker/08 The Line Between/09 If I Forget Thee, Lo Country

LIVE AT MAIDA VALE BBC 2013-01 Take My
Bones Away/02 March to the Sea/03 Cocainium/04 The Line Between

This is REALLY great shit, implore you to try it out if you are unfamiliar......great modern day rock n roll DOES exist, we just need to track it down sometimes.....Baroness are fucking great.....don't cheat yerselves, YOU WANT to hear these!

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels

Say it with me: "Va-Ri-E-Ty"......it's ALL rock n roll,
 but to my ears it is all nearly as intersting, and
if I want to put the Mothers of Invention/Televsion/Zerocharisma/and Mitch Ryder up on consecutive days, that would simply be a reflection of the mood I happen to be in that particular moment.

Hell, me, always loved me some Mitch Ryder, a real wild man on stage (never saw him, relying on video only), influenced somewhat, I'd say, by James Brown, and something, maybe, as a precursor to Prince.......Hell I don't know......hard rocking blue-eyed white soul from Detroit Michigan counts for SOMETHING. Seemingly, they were under-appreciated in the heyday, and seem to be not as well remembered NOW as they might deserve to be, hopefully I can change that just a smidge.

OK, this is all I have this single disc, doesn't REALLY seem to matter, this stuff is super-high-octane R&B, ahead of it's time in the intensity of the performances.....Likely you know "Jenny Take a Ride", Little Latin Lupe Lu", "Devil With a Blue Dress ON", and maybe "Sock It To Me Baby", all phenominal pieces of frantic blue-eyede soul, but there are a total of twenty tracks here, EVERY ONE worth your time......"Shakin WIth Linda", "Longneck Goose", "Shake a Tailfeather".....I can go on and on, but what is the point. If you love primative rock/soul, look no further. If you're already a fan of Ryder's work, this is (IMO) the best collection (albiet no really rare tracks)....as always, if you ahve something to share here, myself and the REST of the blogosphere will be more than thrilled to death with you. This IS rock n roll......no two ways about THAT!

REV UP-Jenny Take a Ride/02 Little Latin Lupe Lu/03 Shakin WIth Linda/04 I Like It Like That/05
I had It Made/06 Break-out/07 Shake a Tail-Feather/08 Just a Little Bit/09 Takin All I Can Get/10 You Get Your Kicks/11 Sticks and Stones/12 Baby Jane (Mo-Mo Jane)/13 Joy/14 Devil WIth a blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly/15 Sock It To Me Baby/16 Too Many Fish In the Sea/Three Little Fishes/17 I'd Rather Go To Jail/18 Liberty/19 Longneck Goose/20 Rock N Roll

Know what I'd REALLY like? for some of the kiddies to tell me what they think about this! It's smart, seminal, influential, and highly listenable (that being the main point).....come on you under-30 pups, let's ALL share opinions, that makes it ALL GO ROUND! Also, old timers like me, would love any live material/rarities you may have in the vault!

Human Expression and Other Psychedelic Groups

Found this one a couple days ago on Venenos Do Rock (and it's a FANTASTIC site. very http://venenosdorock.blogspot.com/) and couldn't wait to share it with any of you guys who might have missed it there, I think it's pretty rare, at least I don't seem to recall seeing it before, and the tracks are both obscure and great.
professionally done and LOTS of good and rare stuff there, please visit, check out and patronize this very excellent blog,

Much of the site is not in English and I am not able to discuss EXACTLY what we have here, but from what I can tell it is a hodgepodge of tracks from the Cicadelic Label.....certainly we all DO know Human Expression, they get three tracks here including the pretty well known "Your Mind Works In Reverse"....the rest is a collection of extreme fuzz guitars, haunting keyboards, tortured vocals and goofball dated lyrics......absolutely a great find, listened to it TWICE yesterday it is so cool.

Taking the lazy way out today, raiding another blog, but I want to be sure the paych fans who come HERE and may not go THERE pick this one up, it is worth it big time. IF YOU DO check it out, please stop by http://venenosdorock.blogspot.com/ and give thanks to him as well, and check out his other awesome stuff!

HUMAN EXPRESSION AND OTHER PSYCHEDELIC GROUPS-01 THE FRONT PAGE NEWS-Thoughts/02 THE REMAINING FEW-In the Morning/03 THE HUMAN EXPRESSION-Your Mind Works In Reverse/04 THE HUMAN EXPRESSION-Calm Me Down/05 THE HUMAN EXPRESSION-Optical Sound/06 SILK WINGED ALLIANCE-Flashback/07 SILK WINGED ALLIANCE-Hometown/08 THE REMAINING FEW-Painted Air/09 THE CICADELICS-We're Gonna Love This Way/10 MECHANICAL SWITCH-Everything Is Red/11 MECHANICAL SWITCH-Spongeman/12 CHILDREN OF THE MUSHROOM-You Can't Erase a Mirror/13 CHILDREN OF THE MUSHROOM-August Mademoiselle/14 THE KYKS-Where Are You/15 THE KYKS-When Love Comes Searching For Me/16 THE RUBBER BAND-Forever Friday/17 THE RUBBER BAND-Below Up, Above Down/18 THE GRUVE-You're Gonna Love Me/19 THE GRUVE-Take Hi Five/20 THE FRONT PAGE NEWS-You Better Behave.

Magnificent set, please check it out!

Built to Spill

Some catchy, hook-filled, guitar jamming indie rock from Boise Idaho, most often bringing to
memory the work of Pavement, or, perhaps more accurately, Dinosaur Junior. This is also a band (like Flaming Lips) who have released a bunch of EP's that I don't have......you know the drill!

Guitarist/singer Doug Martsch formed the band in the early 1990's along with bassist/keyboardist Brett Nelson and drummer Ralf Youtz. This is one of those "floating conglomeration" bands, with Martsch being the only "permanent" member, though Nelson has been there most of the time as well, while splitting his time with  Caustic Resin.

First release was 1993's "Ultimate Alternative Wavers", a very, very good album which I would argue as thier best. "Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup" and "Shameful Dread" are good, long tracks filled with noise that guitar junkies will simply fall in love with. To me one of the more overlooked albums of a point in time (early 1990's) in which great albums were seemingly coming out every week.

They followed up with "There's Nothing Wrong With Love", also an excellent effort, shorter and more accessible tracks with standouts "Car" especially "Distopian Dream Girl"......good effort which like it's predecessor was and is still overlooked. Recommended.

Make it three great efforts in a row with 1997's "Perfect From Now On".....we could also argue this as thier best work, MUCH more experimental/psychedelic, longer, droning tracks like "Randy Described Eternity" and "I Would Hurt a Fly", among others, are good, unique, and difficult to describe. One track on the album, "Out of Site", prominently features cello playing. Good stuff.

Closing out the 1990's with yet another perfectly acceptable album, "Keep It Like a Secret"....nothing
here as fine as the previous three discs but another album of tuneful indie rock songs, "The Plan", and the long closing number "Broken Chairs" are the highpoints.

Sounding somewhat like a broekn record here, but, certainly, also, there is not a thing wrong with "Ancient Melodies of the Future", another set with some good tunes such as "Strange" and "Alarmed", and plenty of Martsch's trademark guitar sound.

"Goin' Against Your Mind" and "Conventional Wisdom" are the standout tracks on 2006's "You In Reverse"....these guys knew their formula and executed it quite well, I actually like THIS album quite a bit also, so, as you can see I think they were quite excessively underappreciated.

2013's "There is No Enemy" is their latest, and, for me, weakest effort.....Nelson and longtime drummer Scott Plouff left, this one doesn't really get it done for me, not "awful" by any means, but I think the "sell-by" date had been reached though. Quite a run, though, regardless.

There are also a so-so live album, imaginatively entitled "Live", and also "The Normal Years" which rounds up a bunch of singles, previously unreleased other tracks, and whatever......for fanatics (both of em I guess).

Good band......unappreciated in their time, but as I said before I think that in the early 1990's, the void that was the 1980's was being filled with SO MUCH good stuff that a lot of it tends to get overlooked. If you aren't familar, let me know what you think, the first six efforts really ARE good, solid, creative indie rock if that is your thing, and Martsch really is a fine guitar player......give it a try if you think it may be your thing.

ULTIMATE ALTERNATIVE WAVERS-01 The First Song/02 Three Years Ago Today/03
Revolution/04 Shameful Dread/05 Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup/06 Get a Life/07 Built to Spill/08 Lie For a Lie/09 Hazy/10 Built Too Long (parts 1,2,&3)

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH LOVE-01 In the Morning/02 Reasons/03 Big Dipper/04 Car/05 Fling/06 Cleo/07 The Source/08 Twin Falls/09 Some/10 Distopian Dream Girl/11 Isreal's Song/12 Stab/13 Preview

PERFECT FROM NOW ON-01 Randy Described Eternity/02 I Would Hurt a Fly/03 Stop the Show/04 Made-Up Dreams/05 Velvet Waltz/06 Out of Site/07 Kicked It In the Sun/08 Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else)

KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET-01 The Plan/02 Center of the Universe/03 Carry the Zero/04 Sidewalk/05 Bad Light/06 Time Trap/07 Else/08 You Were Right/09 Temporarily Blind/10 Broken Chairs

ANCIENT MELODIES OF THE FUTURE-01 Strange/02 The Host/03 In Your Mind/04 Alarmed/05 Trimmed and Burning/06 Happiness/07 Don't Try/08 You Are/09 Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss/10 The Weather

YOU IN REVERSE-01 Goin' Against Your Mind/02 Traces/03 Liar/04 Saturday/05 Wherever You
Go/06 Conventional Wisdom/07 Gone/08 Mess With Time/09 Just a Habit/10 The Wait

THERE IS NO ENEMY-01 Aisle 13/02 Hindsight/03 Nowhere Lullaby/04 Good Ol' Boredom/05 Life's a Dream/06 Oh Yeah/07 Pat/08 Done/09 Planting Seeds/10 Things Fall Apart/11 Tomorrow

LIVE-01 The Plan/02 Randy Described Eternity/03 Stop the Show/04 Virginia Reel Around the Fountain/05 Cortez the Killer/06 Car/07 Singing Sores Make Perfect Swords/08 I Would Hurt a Fly/09 Broken Chairs

THE NORMAL YEARS-01 So & So So & So From Wherever Wherever/02 Shortcut/03 Car/04 Somethings last a Long Time/05 Girl/06 Joyride/07 Some/08 Sick & Wrong/09 Still Flat/10 Terrible/Perfect

So let me know what you think about these........pretty good stuff for the most part, in my opinion.

ALSO,putting out a request for a couple albums by the stoner band Mermaid.....the best I can tell, they have released three (early 2000's), I have "Red Led or Dead" which is excellent, but looking for the other two, would like to do a post on them and introduce them to some new ears. Have a hunch that juts maybe Mark Eveligh can help with this one, but if any of ya have any Mermaid (other than "Red Led or Dead"