1968 International Artists/2009 International Artists
Lelan Rogers was Kenny Rogers older and crazier brother. In 1965 he decided to start up his own record label, International Artists, after his and Kenny's joint effort KenLee Records failed in the late 50's. The International Artist's label would quickly become recognized as Houston's demented psychedelic rock label, signing bands such as 13th Floor Elevators, The Red Crayola, The Bubble Puppy, and more. One of the better albums released would be Power Plant, by The Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn featured a man named George Kinney on vocals and guitars. Kinney was a childhood friend of 13th Floor's Roky Erickson and remained friendly with him throughout their shared venture on International Artists. When it came time to pull the trigger in 1967 and release Power Plant, there was a last minute change of plans and 13th Floor Elevators ended up taking the newest International Artists release slot. The Elevators album was called Easter Everywhere. The record did fairly well and it has grown to become an epic psych classic to this day. Unfortunately, a combination of timing and label decisions pushed Power Plant to the immediate back burner and as a result, the record never received the attention it could have.
Power Plant by The Golden Dawn shares obvious influence and style with 13th Floor's Easter Everywhere. Erikson and Kinney were openly sharing ideas by the late 60's and the evidence in both the instrumentation and the lyrics are overwhelming. Swirling, twangy southern psych guitars with low-fi noise tracks and mid-tempo feelgood rock, Power Plant captures a very similar vibe as Easter Everywhere with a slightly happier, less desperate and nervous feel. A few songs on Power Plant sound like early Floyd while others could be 13th Floor songs if I didn't know the difference. The vocal style varies at times, and the subject matter (traveling through new planes of existence, psychic crystals, transcendental unity, and of course, love) coincide oddly with 13th Floor lyrics. The record is currently available as a repress on International Artists.
"There comes a time of starvation It is true If you believe in elevation It will happen to you"
My cousin called a few months back to let me know that The Church would be hitting New York in the near future and that our attendance to said show was essentially imperative. I agreed and although we almost blew it and missed it, he came through a few weeks back and the tickets were secured without any issues.
We arrived pretty much on time and ended up waiting in a small line for the doors to open. The crowd was comprised largely of older strung-out new wavers and ex-gothers but there was a presence of younger "hip" kids (Chameleons shirts, shoulder bags) as well as what appeared to be an "intellectual" crowd (turtleneck wearing nerds... to make it plain and simple). We got inside and my cousin eyed up the merchandise table and instantly raided it. Rare imported and OOP singles, amazingly obscure Priest=Aura and Seance tees as well as autographed copies of their latest gem Untitled #23 were just a few items the band was offering. He bought The Church tote bag and packed it with as much stuff as he needed and even some prints of front man Steve Kilbey's neo-psychedelic artwork. We hung around for a little bit as the theater became congested and then act one of two took the stage: Adam Franklin and the Bolts of Melody.
As a fan of Adam's legendary band Swervedriver, I was souped to see him and his new project. I'm a huge fan of the work he did with Swervedriver when the band was on Creation Records, but can't say the same for the later commercial releases. Something just changed in the early nineties that screams "boring and contrived" to me. I was a bit prejudice with the Bolts, and figured they would be a crummy watered-down facsimile of the later swervedriver material, but that ended up being only a half-correct assumption. Adam Franklin and the Bolts of Melody were good, but just good. They were definitely more shoegazy and atmospheric than the commercial releases of later Swervedriver, but there was still an occasional revisit to that undesirable later sound. His lyrics seemed half-hearted and banal, and the rest of the band rocked, but seemed as if they were just along for the ride.
It felt like we were subjected to the same tired mix of songs over the PA about ten times between the time the Bolts left the stage and The Church took it. Once the curtain went up and the boys appeared before us, it was instant ecstasy. They opened with "Tantalized", a heartfelt rock song from their 1986 album Heyday. Steve Kilbey was energetic and full of entertaining banter, Peter Koppes was back on guitar for this tour and shredding, I mean shredding on his Stratocaster. The newest member, Tim Powles kept it going strong on drums, and then there was Marty Willson-Piper. Holy shit. Now it's understood that this band has been around for some time now, and they really haven't had a hit in the states in almost 30 years, but time has done some strange things to this man. You can forget his clean cut pretty boy image that he maintained throughout the eighties - this man looked incredibly insane and I loved it. Dirty, baggy work clothes, long grey hair in a pony tail, and a straight-up Charles Manson beard. I took one look at him and thought: "this man goes home every night, guzzles a six pack and smokes the world's largest joint". It was an unreal sight to see him display his epic guitar skills in what could almost pass as a costume.
Their set was long and satisfying. The band jumped around from newer to older songs and then they played a song that changed the night for me. It was "Almost With You", from their rare (and import only) second record, The Blurred Crusade. The song fit my evening perfectly and assisted me in sinking deeper into a comfortably sad yet exciting realm. The rest of the show was wonderful, and even though they pulled the dreaded double encore, their sensational performance was enough to achieve my forgiveness. I just wish I got to hear "The Unguarded Moment"," One Day", "Electric", "No Explanation" and oh so many more.... but they played for over an hour and a half so I can't really complain.
Set: Tantalized Block Day 5 North South East and West Happenstance After Everything Almost With You A Month of Sundays Deadman's Hand Pangaea You Took Operetta Under the Milky Way Reptile
Encore 1: An Interlude Space Saviour
Encore 2: Buffalo Hotel Womb
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The Judy's
The Moo Album
1985 Wasted Talent Records
Some of my favorite acts hail from the state of Texas. From the garagey psychedelic sounds Roky Erikson, 13th Floor (and the rest of his related acts), to the weird psych-punk alternative sounds of The Butthole Surfers, to more recent rockers At the Drive-in, Texas might have something in their water and The Moo Album by The Judy's only helps my case.
The year is 1985, so punk has changed shape a few times by now and new wave has affected a lot of music by now as well, so The Judy's must have found themselves somewhere in the middle of all that was changing, because the times are quite evident in their sound.
The record is punk rock but poppy. It's professionally produced, but has a silly edge. Some songs remind me of The Dead Milkmen, other of Devo. Some of the pop melodies they experiment with sound influenced by late seventies/early eighties Nick Lowe , Joe Jackson, or Elvis Costello. From straightforward pop rock tunes like "Magazine Man" to zany songs like "The Moo Song", (which simply includes the word "moo" hilariously sung 98 times), The Judy's rock like a tight band should, but stay loose enough to keep it a good time.
To listen to The Judy's and for more info, go HERE
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Bound & Gagged S/T 1980 Modern Method
Side A: 1) Clutter 2) Chains and Polymers
Side B: 1) Attack 2) Roach Motel
Sometimes I really wish I was twenty years old in the late seventies/early eighties. I certainly would have embraced the punk lifestyle and gravitated towards the more artistic "wave" of new music that punk rock was beginning to spawn. I would have rocked out to DNA and Liquid Liquid, Teenage Jesus, Red Krayola, and Bush Tetras, (to name a few). Even if I did make it to these shows, more likely than not, I wouldn't have had the chance to check out Bound & Gagged. They seem to be a band that has fallen through the cracks of time. Maybe it's because their catalog is short, and their longevity as a band was short as well. Either way, their sound remains huge nearly thirty years later. The quirky guitars and sporadic, winding vocal melodies paint a picture of a band that you could convince me was a collaboration between ESG and The Contortions. They have a keyboardist too, and she does it right laying super percussiony lost and found keys alongside moderately dancey drumbeats, while executing an overall twisted no wave sound. The cover art is great (both front and back) and the label artwork and song names seem fitting as well. Throw their radical songwriting into the mix, and you have yourself a nearly perfect record.
This Ep was recorded in January 1980 and mixed at Studio B, Boston, Ma. by Allen D. Smith. It was produced and put out on the label of Boston's infamous Newbury Comics owners at the time of release.
Here they are L-R: Marcia Maglione: keyboards and vocals, Barbara "Britt" Britto: lead vocals, Deni Ozan; drums, Trude Koby: bass, vocals, Martha Swetzoff: guitar vocals, Wendy Stone: guitar
