TOUCHED BY AN A-HOLE

SONGS WITH OHHH AND R-R-R-R-R-R

T-SHIRTS COMING SOON

STAY QUENTE

Apes Dream of Beneath the Planet of Baseball Cards in a Jerry Reuss State of Mind

 

More 'Kenchy' (QUENTE) cards to collect! 

Call the Doctor!

 

Coming with the Gaius!

 

JERRY REUSS

Dude was bad-ass with the Dodgers in the 1980's

APE SHALL NOT PICK-OFF APE

DR Z AT FIRST BASE

 

 

URSUS IN THE BIG APPLE

 

CALL OUT MY NAME!

ZIRA IN CENTER

CORNELIUS' FINGERS

AAAAPPPPEEEESSSSS!

DJ DOOM WITH THE HEAVY HAND

Some photoshop fuckery with Doc DOOM then some quick chop steady to 'Hand of Doom' spliced with diabolical laughter and mic check of MF Doom.

GRANT LEE BUFFALO: NEW (OLD) RIDERS ON THE STORM (HYMNALS)?

You'd never have known these guys hadn't played together in a very long time...
Their show the other night would not have given you any indication. Grant Lee Phillips
mentioned the songs they would be playing were from an era when they "practiced a lot".
It showed. The airtight rhythm section of Paul Kimble (bass) and Joey Peters (drums) and Phillips on twelve string played through any number of pedals sounded like a well oiled and muscular machine. They joked about loud / quiet dynamics and showed them off effortlessly. "The loudest slow songs you'll ever hear", Phillips joked. I always associated them more the alt-country of the mid-90's, mostly because of Phillips Americana-soaked  lyrical bent. His voice was always front and center for me, burnished baritone and aching falsetto waltzing through songs of of the old weird America, which seems to be getting weirder by the way... But Phillips also shreds. Reminded me of Sonic Youth or Dinosaur Jr at times, with big blasts of riffs.

Phillips is a natural storyteller and cut-up. He spent most of the evening cracking jokes between songs. Some of the music is melancholic to say the least and he and the band recognize that. It's like they are introducing oddball members of the family. That humor may be absent in the bands earnest songs, but it is an essential part of their show. They looked like they were having a blast and it certainly sounded like it

When they mentioned knowing a "hybrid of a Doors song", the audience roared. What followed is their version of The Doors-doing-the-theme-to-Gilligan's Island to the music of 'The End'. Phillips' Lizard King was dead on complete with drone-y eastern tinged guitar riffs.

Giligan.
Yes, little buddy.
I want to kill you.

Devastatingly funny and musically perfect.
Then they tore your heart out with "Rock Of Ages".

Hopefully not the end.... Maybe a new record!?




GRANT LEE BUFFALO:

The OG line-up consisting of Grant Lee Phillips, Paul Kimble and Joey Peters.
Live at the Old Town School. March 29, 2014.

SPICOLLI'S BAGEL VS BASS DRUM OF DEATH

IT'S MY SKULL!

EXPRESSWAY TO IT!

RAWK AND/OR ROLL

BASS DRUM OF DEATH!!!!!!

2014: a Seth List - Random records that have stuck

10 Records that I always go back to off the top of my head.
Tried to just fire em out as quick as possible. Cut n' paste took substantially longer...
Enjoy!

The Big Boys - No Matter How Long The Line In The Cafeteria There's Always A Seat
Treepeople - Guilt, Regret, Embarrassment
Caetano Veloso - Transa
Tony Allen - Black Voices
Aswad - New Chapter in Dub
Mark Murphy - Midnight Mood
Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods
Antonio Adolfo - s/t 1972
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Gal Costa - s/t 1969

Put The Punk Into The Funk!

The Big Boys - What's The Word, 1984





Boise's Finest.

Treepeople - Pity, 1991





Universo Bilingual

Caetano Veloso - It's A Long Way, 1972





The Beat in Afro Beat

Tony Allen Ariya (Psychejuju Mix) 1998

I wanted 'Ariya'. Dis hott 2 do....




Jah Lite It Right

Aswad - Dub Fire, 1982





You Irritate Me! (In A Good Way)

Mark Murphy - You Fascinate Me So, 1968





Paul f*cking Weller

A trick as it's from Cafe Blue - with the UK version of My Ever Changing Moods.

The Style Council -My Ever Changing Moods





Na vitrola sem parar... Ends up glued to the turntable. Endless Sundays.

Antondio Adolfo - Por Que Voce Se Esconde




RIP MCA

Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump




Nota 10

Gal Costa - Que Pena

WTF? A band called F+CK

I forget how I stumbled upon these dudes, but I played their albums incessantly. Still have the occasional 'fuck-fest', hence today's post and glorious return to blog-o-land...! I can vividly remember driving through New Mexico at dusk listening to 'Pretty....Slow'. Perfect laid back lo-fi soundtrack. Bi-polar as well, fuck. These guys played all over the map, but hit a sweet spot with super hushed countrified slow jams. One minute they sound Cobain-esque, the next maybe Jeff Tweedy, then David Byrne/Brian Eno... The name pretty much killed the band I would imagine. They refused to change their name while on Matador records. And left after two albums. They recorded two more LPs on multiple labels, then called it quits around 2003/4. They didn't play anything remotely hardcore, so the name probably fooled too many people.

(Above is a sticker that came inside their  'Baby Like A Funny Bunny' album. I had it on my motorcycle at the time. One night someone pushed the bike over and took the sticker... FUCK!)

Fuck

American indie rock band, Oakland, California in 1993. (Timothy Prudhomme, Geoff Soule, Kyle Statham, and Theodore Ellison.)
 

CD: PRETTY....SLOW (1996)

LP/CD: BABY LOVES A FUNNY BUNNY (1996) 

LP/CD: PARDON MY FRENCH (1997)

 

LP/CD: CONDUCT (1998) 

 CD: CUPID'S CACTUS (2001)

 CD: GOLD BRICK'S (2001)

CD: THOSE ARE NOT MY BONGOS (2003)

LISTEN TO A WHOLE BUNCH OF FUCK!

Detail from Fuck coloring book/insert 'Pretty Slow'

MASTERS OF REALITY: Ginger Baker vs. Steven Seagal?

 MASTERS OF REALITY

Masters of Reality were active in the early 80s to early 90s in Los Angeles. They have subsequently reformed and played ever since, with leader Chris Goss at the core. Goss is probably is better-know for producing, and sometime playing with, Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. But Masters were/are an amazing band their own right, particularly live. Rick Rubin produced their debut and the sound is undeniably a Rubin record, but it only goes to perfectly frame the sound, not dominate it. His signature move.  It was one of the earliest released on his then-nascent, Def American Recordings. Rubin worked on a lot of rock records around that time. Starting with The Cult's Electric in 1987, then with Danzig and Slayer with American. Nevermind the Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magick... Drums are huge on the record like those release, His Hip Hop side bringing the low theory to the mix. Its more grunge blues than the slick hair metal of their contemporaries of the era. The band played blues-tinged heavy rock with a dark Texas backbeat. Broody and grooving.

The debut album came out in 1989, no one really bought it, and it disappeared. It popped up again in 1990 with an extra track and different art and promptly vanished again. The cover art of their first album reminds me of the Haunted House ride at Disneyland. It was actually designed by their drummer. Story is in the promo video for the re-issue of their debut LP on Delicious Vinyl.

Then they reappeared in 1992 with Ginger Baker?! for their second album, Sunrise on the Sufferbus, which actually had a Top 10 hit with She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On)

 

Somehow Steven Seagal appears in their video to Domino from their debut....

 Mad Men Live! 

OH MY SO HIGH 

 Ginger-ed Masters! 

Grumpy Goss speaks! 

MASTERS, 2013

CHECK THE WHOLE DEBUT!

SHIMMER DOWN. Land of Made Up Dreams

Random connections and recollections. Breathing labored from swimming in the bloody summer smog of fantastic L.A. The sights and sounds shimmering, the hissing of summer lawns, all idyllic and fleeting. Hot hot heat rises up from moving sidewalks, sprinklers count it out, but the gasoline line, suspends time. Double Nickles On The Dime.

Las Puertas de Percepcion

David Hockney - A Bigger Splash (1967)

 

David Hockney - A Lawn Being Sprinkled (1967)

 

Hockney at work

 

David Hockney - lithograph 1978-80

DAVID HOCKNEY by Christian Guémy SEE MORE HERE

BLACK FLAG X BLACKHAWKS T SHIRT

     I grew up listening to Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Adolescents... My uncle actually managed the Circle Jerks - 'Golden Shower Of Hits' era. I grew up in L.A., but moved to Chicago years ago. I was riding my bike home one day and got the idea for the shirt. My cousin 'Gwar' (yeah, that's his nickname, has been for 20+ years) is a huge Kings fan, so it was kind of a dig at him, too. Of course he secretly likes the Hawks and wants one, too. The greatest punk/hockey shirt of all time?!?! Dunno. Is there another one?

Well, hopefully sue-happy Greg Ginn doesn't come after me. (Or the Blackhawks, either...)

In the meantime; RISE ABOVE!

 

WANT ONE? BUY IT HERE

THE SCARY MONSTER IS NO LONGER A SUPER CREEP... BOB FORREST + THELONIOUS MONSTER DOC

Aaaaand I'm back! Sorry for the prolonged hiatus. No real reason other'n bein' super busy, but that's no excuse either is it?!?! (Aren't we always gettin' some slack in over on the interwebz...) Future blog posts may not have a 100% identifiable California connection... So much much for that disclaimer, cuz this one mos def duz...!

     Wasting time the other night, I stumbled upon the trailer for a documentary on the mighty Thelonious Monster and their mercurial frontman, Mr. Bob Forrest. The Monster and Bob were a part of the early '80's music scene in Los Angeles that spawned The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Firehose, Jane's Addiction et all. Those bands shared the same bill (and members) countless times. I can't even remember how many times I saw them together. The Chili Peppers even recorded "Good Time Boys", which name checked Thelonius Monster, Firehose, Fishbone and X.

      That music scene and era were notoriously drugged out. The Peppers lost Hillel Slovak to heroin and the whole scene seemed to be swimming in it. I remember going to a benefit/commemorative  concert for 45 Graves' bassist Rob Graves, who died of an overdose in 1990. (Graves played bass on Thelonious Monster's third LP, 'Stormy Weather'.) Thelonius played along with 45 Grave and Trulio Disgracias, which was a Pepper/Fishbone mix at the time.  

Dug up the stub. RIP Rob Graves

      Anybody who saw any of those bands or Thelonious Monster knows they played as hard as they partied. Bob Forrest seemed to be outdoing them all in terms of hard drug use. Usually Forrest pulled it together on stage and blew away the crowd, but as the band ground on, the drug use began to take its toll and eventually the band imploded.

     I don't think that anyone who saw one of Forrest's public meltdowns would have expected the massively talented, but self-destructing demon, to turn into some sort of Rock n' Roll angel.... But flash forward 20 plus years and that is exactly what happened. Forrest has been a drug counselor for years now, helping countless folks to get clean and sober. He appears regularly on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House. Both were sort of a guilty pleasure of mine for a minute, but honestly I sometimes watched in awe just waiting for a glimpse of of Bob... BOB?! WTF?!?!

Here is the trailer:



     The documentary looks intelligent, sympathetic, deep, funny, sad, silly, scary... Well, just like Bob's solo stuff and the music he made with Thelonius Monster.  Going back and listening to the Monster, the dude had serious lyrical chops and a beast of a band to back him up. There are just so many cuts to choose from... Well, the debut T. Monster album is posted on youtube in its entirety, so we will start there:

THE MONSTER!

     Nobody mixed melancholy and sardonic wit quite so well. He odes to day to day drudgery sound like Bukowski fronting a band. (Gotta' include this one as I now live in Chicago. No one knew at the time how big Mike would be...)

And of course, his love of Mr. Sammy Hagar:

Or a heartbreaker. Could easily be about the drug problems that plagued him.

This song just hit between the eyes back in the day.

And sometimes they just rocked the f*ck out (while bearing their souls...)

Before the implosion, they dropped a final record, which included a (fitting) duet with Tom Waits!
Oh, and the album was called "Beautiful Mess". 'Nuff said.



     I admit I lost track of Bob for a while, but then he came back up on my radar with a new band called, The Bicycle Thief, song writing chops fully in tact. World weary, but the same Bob, dropping cultural references and emotional bombs.

Listen to the whole album:

     Looking forward to seeing the full documentary and hearing more new music from Bob Forrest. Currently digging into some of his more recent solo work. Maybe another Thelonious Monster disc will drop at some point?

Hats off to an unlikely hero and damn talented man. (And of course the 'Rest of the Band'...!)

Oh, and buy the music, too! Support real music and musicians!

DJ SHADOW: PARTS IS PARTS - WHAT DOES YOUR SOUL LOOK LIKE?

DJ Shadow has been blowing minds it seems like forever, so it's hard to remember when this sh%t first dropped and cats were falling out, flippin'. Endtrotucing It was unlike anything else at the time. Cam and Krush were also dropping heavy pieces. Ah, the salad daze. Mo-Wax and all that blown, blunted, jazzy beat science that was rolling hard. 

PART ONE           

 
 

PART TWO  

 

 PART THREE

  

PART FOUR

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART: UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED

Straight outta' Glendale x Cucamonga x Victorville x Mojave. The Captain kicked out the

dada absurd(ist) blooze! Safe As Milk is an old favorite and a cold classic. Peep the John Peel doc. The Real Frank Zappa autobiography is a good read for more tales of weirdness.

ABBA ZABBA!

THE DOC

SAFE AS MILK!

CHECK OUT THE INLAND EMPIRE OF YOUR MIND BLUESSSSS...........

GOLD SOUNDZ: CALIFORNIA DREAMS IN STEREO

   

An all California mix with the exception of Little Joy, who named their group after the L.A. bar 'round the corner from where they recorded.

     Tunes range from olderly school to (pretty) new. The Electric Prunes get their Association on to kick things off all wistful and groovy. The Growlers skiffle thru the graveyard, while Kaleidoscope tastefully turn on. Pocahaunted drags dub into the garage and the Lions bring it back into Jah Selassie light. Jefferson Airplane's surrealistic swag or Dan the Automator's cine-o-scopic soundscape...? The Originals bust some hot tub funk and the aforementioned Little Joy go slightly Latin on a bitter sweet beach comber. A lost cut off the Red Hot Chile Peppers' '84 debut sounds like Berlin-period Eno. Fuck (the band)  do their best Echo and the Bunnymen riffs and the 3' O Clock's Day in Erotica gets stripped. Pastel Six finish off the ride with a swinging close-out.



the Electric Prunes - Big City
the Growlers - Graveyard is Full
Kaleidoscope - Keep Your Mind Open (edit)
Pocahaunted - Touch You (edit)
The Lions - Ethio-Steppers (Wilderstyle Dub) ((edit))
Jefferson Airplane - She Has Funny Cars (3 on the tree edit)
Dan The Automator - Sleep (edit)
the Originals - California Sunset
Little Joy - Next Time Around (edit)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Grandpappy DU Plenty
Fuck - Love Me 2 (dubfuck edit)
the 3 O' Clock - Day in Erotica (paisley chop shop edit)
Pastel Six - Bandido

DOGTOWN SOUND + VISION: A SEA FOR YOURSELF + GO FOR IT

  The Captain and Tenille meet The Surf Punks vs. Wilt Chamberlain vs. Tony Alva.....wait what?

     The story for me begins years ago at a flea market in Rio where picked up the 'A Sea For Yourself' sound track and took it back to my friend's vintage store and played it as he opened his store. It was our morning ritual; cleaning records, coffee, talking to customers, checking out the morning scores. We were blown away by the record. It covers a lot of styles - from instro stoner rawk - to wild latin-y percussive speed jazz - to cosmic countrified blues-ish west coast pop. A killer.

     It is a various artists joint but it turns out The Dragons on the LP are brothers Dennis Dragon (The Surf Punks) and Daryl Dragon ('The Captain and Tenille') and were behind the sound track, along with some friends/musicians. I still haven't seen the entire movie, though I FINALLY just bought it on DVD. I recently found the videos with some footage on youtube. It features the best surfers of the day tearing it up from Peru to France.  It was directed by Hal Jepsen and released in 1973. Buy the DVD

PEEP THE FOOTAGE. DIG THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDZ!

     A few years later, Ninja Tune turns up with a compilation of The Dragons:
READ THE STORY> The Dragons BFI.
I think like one or two songs from the compilation are on the 'A Sea for Yourself' soundtrack. Same groovy madness!

  LISTEN HERE:
THEN GO BUY THE WAX!

Digging deeper into the story of the records I come across a video for Drainpipe (off 'A Sea For Yourself'), but it lists the sound track as Wilt Chamberlain presents (?!)  'Go For It'. Another sick 'Dragons' sound track to chase.

Lo-and-behold youtube footage! Surf, ski, skate, wait...!!!!! Dogtown + Z-Boys. Tony Alva, Stacy Perralta, Jay Adams et all -  '76 STYLE. The scenes in Lords of Dogtown bio-pic written by Stacy Peralta, are lifted right from here! More wicked chunes!

DOGTOWN STYLE!



GO FOR IT - INTRO Y MAS...



The movies and music capture a moment and feel that is distinctly California, a golden state in the golden state. Cool cultural intersections, with surf, skate and music made where it all came together. LIFE. STYLE. Dope artifacts, dope jamz. Ah! Digging...!

8 TRACK STATE OF MIND

Used to have a pretty pissed off 8 track collection complete with turntable/tuner/8 track console with flashing synchronized disco lights. That went ages ago in one of many legendary garage sales. I also had a unit that recorded and we would make fake Misfits 8 tracks.

We'd crank Blizzard Of Oz in the back of my dad's car. (Four door Caddy Eldo.) He was into Dolly Parton + Kenny Rogers... 

Combed the interwebs for a minute to find a few I had, knew of and bumped into some cool random ones. I pieced together the collage with my digital 'scores'. The Sinatra + Jobim 8 track went for $4500. Few crazy heinous examples here; Radio Birdman, Eno, Faust, Undertones...

 Check out the 8 track museum in Dallas, Texas.

OR THE COMPLETE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT 8 TRACK ENTHUSIASTS/OBSESSIVE/COMPULSIVES!

"SO WRONG THEY ARE RIGHT."

Ah, the sound of the track changing... "KA-CHUNK"!

stolen slurpee tongue sunset

BLUE BLUE ELECTRIC BLUE

TRIPLE THREAT