tom ze, caetano veloso

oh brazil! oh tropicalia!



tom ze, dor e dor....



The babelfished lyrics>>>> enJOY!

You I want I want you wanting I want well I want I want you wanting I want well. Chiclete chiclete, I chew pain and pain clete chiclete, I chew pain and pain. You I cry I cry you, chuvinha chuviscou. I cry I cry you, chuvinha chuviscou. Chamego chamego, me left it leaves me. Mego chamego, me left it leaves me. Pain pain, pain pain … …… But wait I you because the shout of your eyes it is more long that the arm of the forest e appears behind of mounts, the winds e of the buildings e the brightness of your laugh it is more hot that the sun of the noon e more and more and oh oh oh oh oh But wait I you in the door of the mornings because the shout of your eyes it is more and more and more e later that you left the honey of the life apodreceu in my mouth apodreceu in my mouth Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

and Canterbury silliness w/ Gong



and Soft Machine



and more to say on this LATER.

The world opens like a flower.

Maybe YOU, The HIP cat that you are, are already down w/ this.

I was not. Now I AM.

loathe to get off of 69, onward to 489

It's an ol' chestnut, but seemingly, in my case, kinda true, that the older I get the more similar to my dad I become. No, that doesn't mean I've started playing golf or voting republican, but it does mean that I've come to appreciate two things that used to cause me to cringe: Meatloaf and Bob Seger.

Really, I can thank Dan J for the Meatloaf love more than my dad, and in particular the drive up through Marin to Pete & Nancy's wedding when we jammed BOoH II. How often does it take one moment, one listening session to open the doors of perception to hear and appreciate a band? Once that threshold is crossed the rest, what previously seemed impenetrable or just not interesting, folds out like a clear map of what is good & bad. And having said that, I don't know what about the Loaf that was the trigger. How does one come to like music? Any external description of the facts or of the elements of the music or the history in which it falls is insufficient. None of that can create the feeling of or the realization that YES, I LIKE THIS. They can lead the way, writing can create the context in which one hears the music, and give the vocabulary to talk about it, but it can't BE the music. Or better said, they can't BE YOUR EXPERIENCE OF THE MUSIC. (I think this distinction is important - experience of v. the thing itself.) Everything else is external to that.

All that said, I should be clear that I am not saying that what is not the music (ie the sound & silence in time) is not part & parcel (or in fact *part* of the music, in the sense that, the not sound *is* just as much of it as the actual sound is). Why is context so important to appreciation? Why was it the fiftieth time and not the fifth time that I heard Meatloaf that my ears/mind was opened? What changed between/during that at one point I would have said 'meh' and the point when I would say 'rock'?

But as per the usual I've digressed. Meatloaf's BOoH is great. BOoH II has some super jams. and more to the point the Bob Seger System's '2+2=?' is the sweetest new-to-me heavy psych jam I've heard in a while. You don't believe me? Check it out...



So no, I'm not into the Silver Bullet Band Seger like my dad. No 'Ol' Time Rock and Roll' or 'Like a Rock' for me just yet. 2+2=? is late 60's Detroit Seger w/ the Bob Seger System. Much loved by Lester Bangs in his Creem years, it's said that the Seger System could really bring it. On top of that 2+2=? is an anti-war song ala 'Fortunate Son' (I think the CCR/Fogerty & BSS/Seger similarities are telling).

And one more heavy psych rock youtube tidbit...



next up GOLF!

Kim & Dawn. Fucked'em Both.

Still my favorite Youtube clip evvvvvvveeeeerrrrrr...




does 'girl's on my mind' exist in recorded format somewhere? It was on some tape I made from my brother's cds back in the day, and was included as a hidden track on one of the Teenbeat samplers, but what I'm asking is Can I get some prime Butch Willis & the Rocks on VINYL somehow? PLEASE?

a good interview w/ the man himself

Old Tom Clark

Ah the random walk of passed down histories and anecdotes with their related connections and lineages embelished with half-heard/felt recommendations and overstatements that is my ever-growing (but also ever diminishing through lost thoughts) understanding of rock'n'roll. As mentioned previously, my current life mode involves change/movement which equals parts nostalgia, remembrance and future-planning. Why did I get this? or better Who recommended it? Who was I trying to impress, who did I want to get to know better? What still holds true? For long periods the records I pursued and desired where ones mentioned by friends (with which I would compare notes --> macho bullshit collector caveats to some degree telling) or guides who's taste I trusted/envied. First my brother, through Ed & Stefan, and shared record scavenging w/ Dan or Golnar or whoever, and while at Kim's Loy. (the last couple of years this has become less my mode of listening to music, as it's become more of a solitary journey through disco & electro & the world's music & whatever - not as many of the "guess what record i just found" or "have you heard of" conversations).

Ah, Loy, talker extraordinaire, at heart a mid 90's indie/college rocker grown to be lover of Jazz & Punk & everything else. These days he does things like running a small improv/noise label and being a DJ on WFMU as well as being a father & lawyer (i think; i'm not good at keeping in touch). In my post college NYC-Kim's days, he worked part-time in the music department and we shared DJ sets at the Ding Dong Lounge. While we djed (on Thursday nights to an audience of four or five TOPS) he loved to sing along to Pere Ubu's Navvy ("I've got these arms & legs that flip flop flip flop") and expound on the greatness of the John Coltrane Quartet ("best band ever"), Joni Mitchell, the first Hawkwind record, etc all the while getting plastered on free drinks & talking out of his ass half the time. Music Snob/Elitist in the good way and very GOOD GUY.

One of the records he would play, and which I've looked for (on vinyl) since, was Mayo Thompson's "Corky's Debt to His Father." A solo record recorded after Mayo (temporarily) put the Red Crayola to bed in the 60's. It's always pitched as a skewed 'pop' record, but it's really not that far from the second Red Crayola record on International Artists - the songs are a little more composed and expanded, but it's not like the difference btw Bowie "Low" and "Young Americans" or Whatever. This has been available on CD (and in limited quantities on Lp) from Drag City for a while - probably since RC (now RK) reformed for the third time w/ Chicago post-rockers. I never bought the CD, considered it many times, but waited for vinyl. Obviously not the original Texas Revolution pressing, and luck for me (and $20 in the till for them) Drag City recently decided to repress it. (egging me on was a drag city 7" of 'old tom clark' from the same group of folks - also og on Texas Revolution, a quirky country great).

The song that Loy loved the most was "Horses," a lopping song w/ a quasi bossanova-ish beat & mayo's wandering warble over the top and some sweet simple acoustic guitar hooks. Loy playing it while Djing, blissfully singing along, was a beautiful thing that kept me looking for the record since.

Three years on, and me not having heard it since, the song still rings true to my ear.

"In my heart..."


PostScript: Did you know that George Hurley drummed on a couple v3 Red Krayola records? GREAT!

a good interview w/ Mayo
another one on Unterberger's site

the lost continent of MU

An unintended side benefit of my, as of yet not really started, record purge/ship/just-an-excuse-to-look-at-all-my-records-individually is that I've found some hidden gems in my own record collection. Which is a little ludicrous, I should know the records in my own collection, but this is a consequence of periods of buying more records than I could consume, mostly listening to exclusively new additions, and my own evolving tastes. OH WELL. (though obv. this makes it harder to get rid of records, because, what if, you know in 3-5 yrs I'll really like that USA-Europe Connection Lp or that Clikitat Ikatowi live Lp on Gravity even though right now my reflection on these lp's is that I bought them after a certain vein or push had already run dry.)

First up for rediscovery - MU's self-titled first album. The story on MU is definitely out there, and I had heard of them from Unterberger's Unknown Legends(once saw him at Amoeba - it kinda freaked me out), the lead dude Merrel Frankhauser following the (one?) CA rock trajectory going from early surfy/garage rock (the Impacts) to byrdsy folk rock (Fapardokly) to psychadelic folk/country rock (HMS Bounty) to bluesy space rock (MU) to a move to Maui embracing a new agey cosmos vibe; all of this w/o any real commercial success. Granted, other than MU's first album, I haven't heard any of these bands/records, so your guess is as good as mine at their quality, though several of them have been rereleased by Sundazed (a good sign).

The first incarnation of MU includes Jeff Cotton on guitar, otherwise known as a member of v2 Cpt. Beefheart bands (post Safe as Milk through Trout Mask - I think...), and he also throws in some bass clarinet.

When I first bought the MU album three, maybe four, years ago I liked first song on the first side "Ain't No Blues" - which despite it's title, Is a blues riffer in a maybe more soulful CA heavy rock sort of way w/ weird proggy digressions, and then I had trouble w/ the rest of the album. Mostly with the songs on the first side that follow "Ain't No Blues." It wasn't wierd enough, or maybe too CA trippy fey in a way that I DID NOT DIG. Golnar was also digging through the Unterberger book around the same time, and I remember making her a mixtape around then that had "ain't no blues" as well as some CAN on it, that sort of fell flat. In a way that I didn't have a grasp of the songs so they just sounded lame when ripped out and placed on a mixtape, where they sounded like the HITS of their respective albums (the CAN sounded boring - a reasonable complaint, and the MU kinda weak and jokey (my POV not theirs) in a way that didn't click into the groove). I suspect I may have focused most of my listening on the first side and only given the 2nd side a couple of cursory listens - filing the Lp away as a footnote on how to trust rock critics ONLY SO FAR.

NOT SO FAST THOUGH, last week I was going through my record collection pulling lp's that were on the fence to keep (fewer than I'd hoped) and pulled the MU lp thinking "if i only kinda liked one song on this record, why should I keep it? for archival sake?" but threw it on the turntable anyway this time STARTING W/ THE SECOND SIDE. And WTF, the first track on the second side is a cosmic jammer. It opens normally enough and then transforms into a cosmic drum track w/ chanting & droney sax (or maybe bass clarinet) & blissed out greatness. The KEY to the LOCK of MU had been found and the rest of the album opened up like a book to my, now, more open ear. I'm sure my recent journeys through jazzy & folky krautrock have only helped in my appreciation of MU, where before it just didn't make sense and I wasn't into it.

Now the question is what if the same thing will happen in the future w/ Cromtech's Gravity 12"? How can I get rid of anything? DAMN.

I tried to find some links to this period MU w/o success. Though I did find this --> FUCK THE DEAD AND ANN COULTER.

addendum...