Smash the control images… smash the control machine…
Cover Painting: “Last Chance Junction and Curse on Drug Hysterics” – William S. Burroughs
Monthly Archives: January 2015
Nostradmus He Ain’t
There was a time when the only Hot Snakes I listened to was 2000’s Automatic Midnight. 2002’s Suicide Invoice came and went, and so did 2004’s Audit in Progress, their last “proper” studio album. Fast forward to 2014 when I got my grubby mitts on a few Hot Snakes tickets (Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, CA). And during my homework / listening prep, I absolutely fell in love with Audit in Progress, specifically the first four tracks, Brainstrust, Hi-Lites, Retrofit, and Kreative Kontrol. Rocket from the Crypt (another John Reis outfit) holds the candle to the best one-two opener for any album with 1995’s Scream, Dracula, Scream!, but Audit in Progress may be the crowned king of an album with the best one-two-three-four track opener. Automatic Midnight was outstanding, but Audit in Progress is downright spectacular. Seek it out if you haven’t already.
P.S. RFTC at Alex’s Bar (back to back nights) later this month…
Mr. Lif
Star Wars references in sub-indy hip hop back in the late 90s were kind of a fanboy treat, and are almost immediately featured on this record’s b-side, Settle the Score. The third in a four-part series titled, The Blow Up Factor, Mr. Lif offers 3x versions of Farmland, the a-side, the previously mentioned Settle the Score, and a track I don’t remember ever hearing, You Don’t Knowstrumental. Released in 1999 on Grand Royal Records, this little 4-track is worth more to the diehards than to avid collectors of the medium, but for only $1.49 on discogs, this pressing is a steal!
1×1
I’ve been listening to a lot of Freispiel lately. You know, the 2001 Faust remix album? No, well anyway, it’s a worthy listen, especially in 20+ minute increments commuting to and from work. It’s beat-y, repetitious, a little industrial-ly, and overall a surprisingly good listen. I don’t own Faust’s Freispiel, but I do own Motor’s 1×1 / King of USA remix 12”. About the only similarities between the two records, aside from the remix factor, is that they’re both pretty badass electro listens.
Hey! Let’s Party
This cover couldn’t be more immediately deceiving… a bunch of privileged white kids dancing to brown-eyed soul from the great Afro-Cuban genius, Mongo Santamaría. With 1967’s Hey! Let’s Party, Mr. Santamaría fashioned a thick-lined afterparty staple with his horn-heavy deviance into the wonderful world of (a blanket term) Latin Jazz.
Pryor dug him (in both his screenplay contribution to Blazing Saddles as well as his empowering standup), as so you shall too.
W E F U N K
Make my funk the P. Funk… and not just because the King Ad-Rock brags and boasts in 1989’s 3-Minute Rule, the following unforgettable slew of syllables:
Mothership connection, getting girls’ affection
If your life needs correction, don’t follow my direction
(I was listening to the Beasties today, so I had to tie that in somehow…) Parliament, and their 1975 masterpiece, Mothership Connection need no introduction. The 4th album for the band featured the mighty George Clinton as Producer, Writer, and frontman vocalist, but again, this is all but painfully obvious for lovers of the Funk.
Make your Tuesday evening an untamed mass of street-talkin’, booty-rockin’ Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication (track 1, side 2).
Orange Marbled (Guilty) Pleasures
Guilty pleasures are certainly fine… on occasion, and in moderation. Such is the case with Alkaline Trio’s 2000 comp, Alkaline Trio (read: soundtrack to my early 20’s). Pressed on a variety of colors, this version (orange marbled) was part of the first, vinyl pressing (back in 2008), and was limited to 500 copies. Last night got a little crazy, and this here guy was sitting on the platter when I woke up this morning. Moderation, kids.
Thanks
Thankful of my SO for dredging through my drunken-nonsensical-rants, manifesting themselves, beat-by-beat, through a personal, and obnoxious onslaught of amazing (as far as I’m concerned) tracklist.
Thanks, kiddo! Welcome!
Like a Lighthouse Overhead
With the incessant noise from the rotating blades of a nearby helicopter, passing, then again, dipping, diving, and vacationing overhead for the past hour and a half, one can’t help but dig through local news outlets in needed search for the informational cure. With no worthy news to be shared, the mystery still remains, but with decent, drowning-out, attempt-to-ignore-the-violent-disruption-overhead-music desperately needed, one turns to the Canadian psychedelic rock, jazz-infused outfit, Lighthouse, and their 1971 album, One Fine Morning. Here’s hoping the blades of mystery solve themselves sooner, rather than later (and that nobody nearby is seriously, or otherwise, in risk of danger).
Moondance
Van Morrison’s 3rd solo album, 1970’s Moondance, is, pardon my French, a fuggin’ masterpiece! As evidence by the unforgettable tracklist (from a previous post) here, Moondance is wonderful for just about everyone, and for seemingly just about every occasion. Long live the Van!
By Ruth White
What can be more magnificently majestic than the backside of Ruth White’s collection of “Electronic Realizations and Performances” of the following, incomplete, list of classical composers: Verdi, Chopin, Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov… the answer… absolutely nothing.
Short Circuits by Ruth White.
The Prudent Groove 