Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Amazing LP Friday a Few Days Early - The Lazy Cowgirls - Tapping the Source (1987)

Produced by god-like poet and punk rock howler, Chris D. who wound the band's scree into a raunchy ball of righteous bile, The Lazy Cowgirls' second record says summer to me. Not just because the record houses the finest pissy, summer song ever written



but more because it reminds me of the summers of my post adolescence when my cares were less and my frustrations with the world were more focused.  I was a mere 18 years old when the record came out and I was 20 when I finally scored a copy.  The world was my oyster and I did not like seafood.  All the world was a stage, but I could not find where the auditions were being held.  This Lazy Cowgirls record was angry, sad, joyous (the covers of "Yakety Yak" and "Justine" are dance-around-your-apartment-with-drunken-abandonment burners) and, above all, non-stop fucking rock and roll.  Besides the non-stop fucking rock and roll - the other three adjectives were me in the 80s!

The track "Goddamn Bottle"

might be one of the greatest drinking song ever written by a singer that does not sport a cowboy hat.

Today at 42 years of age, I still play this record as loud as possible and dance.  Only not too drunk and not too late in the evening.

Pat Todd is still making music.  His last record was one of the best releases of 2008.  He still writes songs about living, loving, drinking and drugging.  A little wiser and quieter...but...no less arresting, no less powerful than when he was leading one THE BEST rock bands of the 1990s...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Terrible Film Terrors Tuesday: Monsturd (2003)

I'm still overwhelmed with paper and the shuffling of paper.

So real quick-like here is some poop to ponder...

Despite falling asleep during this film about three years ago, I still highly recommend that you find a copy of this movie and try very hard to stay awake during this tale of a chemically-mutated, serial killer turd.



To say this film is crap is a far too easy mis-use of a pun.

The film is not available on Netflix, but fortunately (I guess) the directors other film IS availiable - streaming to boot!




Both of these lessons in bad taste make me proud to be an American who (on occasion) drinks to excess...

Friday, June 17, 2011

Amazing LP Friday: Death Angel - The Ultra-Violence (1987)

I've been busier than a bee in a bonnet making factory, so yet again I must be short and sweet with this amazing LP.

Death Angel - The Ultra-Violence

I've been doing a lot of painting lately. As in, walls of a room not barren lunar landscapes or dainty humans frolicking by the sea. I've found that Death Angel's first record to be the ultimate motivator to get the (sometimes tedious) job done. Definitive Thrash Metal.

Dig the reference to John Carpenter's soundtrack to Halloween in this brutal mutha.





Use it...the next time your baseboard needs a second coat.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Terrible Film Terrors Tuesday: A Twitter-of-a-Review of Prayer of the Rollerboys (1990)

A dystopic view of a future in which the only choices for pizza toppings are kelp and pepperoni.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Amazing LP (er, um 45 B-Side, actually) Friday: The Waikikis - Hawaii Honeymoon / Remember Boa-Boa (1965)



Exotica Godhead brought to sun-dappled fruition by the Belgian studio group, The Waikikis. May it turn your lonesome room into a lazy Tiki Bar...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Terrible Film Terrors Tuesday: Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988)

A documentary about a gaggle of delightfully eccentric local-yokel Australians (plus a few scientists) and their relationship with many toads from Hawaii who sport poisonous skin.


I do 99% of my bloggery in my cubicle at work - usually on my lunch break. I basically have an hour to let my hands flop around on the keyboard and hope something I deem OK comes out of it all. Sometimes my neck becomes sore if I do any blogging that is not on a lunch break. I constantly have to turn my head to see if my manager is watching what I am doing. It reeks havoc on the 'ole neck and spine.

So.

Today.

In order to save myself from a sore neck I'm going to post this wondrous documentary that some very kind person uploaded in its entirety to Youtube. It's out of print on DVD and VHS. The OOP status makes it a fairly expensive item to want to hold in your hands.

Basically, it showcases what happened when (in the 30s) the Hawaiian sugar-cane toad was imported into Australia to get rid of a crop-destroying beetle. The importation of the toads was based on poor information. The toads have no natural enemy in Australia mainly because of their poisonous skins so it was not long before they themselves became a cumbersome nuisance to almost half the continent!

These toads are not only horrifyingly huge but deadly, too:

Fish who eat (the cane toad) toadpoles die. Animals who eat young toads and adults die. The museums have plenty of snakes preserved in jars which were killed by toad toxin so fast, the toad is still in their mouths unswallowed. Even small amounts of water which toadpoles have gotten into, such as a pet's water dish, can be poisoned by toadpoles. When the pet comes along to drink from it's dish, it becomes sick. Local vets report that a couple dogs a month are brought in ill just from mouthing toads.


The documentary is odd, hilarious and educational!

Dig it:

Friday, June 3, 2011

Amazing LP Friday: Bevis Frond - New River Head (1991)

A nice place to begin your Bevis Frond love affair.

The Bevis Frond - New River Head


Nick Salomon's long running (a new record is due out this summer) one-man-band-with-a-bit-of-help-now-and-again psychedelic excursion has no beginning and no end. In the beginning there was and is Miasma (1986),

The Bevis Frond - Miasma


It was then he began building a house made of bits of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Blue Cheer, The Byrds, The Wipers, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, etc. He then furnished this wonderfully demented mansion with every obscure band who ever used an effects pedal to aurally describe what it was like to take LSD. Rooms are added and filled with mild-melting bric-a-brac ad infinitum.

Any trip the listener makes to the groovy abode is cozily familiar. The fifth trip will remind you of the first or the second or the the third...

So, as Trouser Press stated years ago, a listener can jump in anywhere when it comes to Bevis Frond. Each record builds upon the same form as the last.

New River Head is yet another nicely furnished room for celestial contemplations, melancholy folk moments and Wah-Wah Pedal dreams. There is even an eldritch ode to ole' H.P. Lovecraft with David Tibet lending chants - the nearly 20 minute freakout The Miskatonic Variations. Also, you can count on Nick, amidst the haze created by the magic mushroom cloud, to drop in a fragile, beautiful pop tune:



I suppose listening to the first eight Bevis Frond records is like smoking pot every day. After a week or so, you just don't get that high anymore. But if you lay off the stuff for a few months and THEN pack your bowl or bong then, well, then you get really StOneD...

Bevis Frond is something to be savored and loved in moderation.

The Frond has rested for seven years, but Salomon has kept himself busy compiling the absolutely essential and excellent releases on his Psychic Circle record label. Each release is like a fully furnished room in that Way Out Mansion he built long ago...