"This is a new album by Thelonius Monk, and therefore it is an important event – because everything musical that Monk does is of real imporatnce."
Orin Keepnews, 1967.
Heavy statement for a heavy artist. Monk was a big hitter in the jazz world. An individual who ploughed his own furrow for more than three decades. He was also one of the coolest cats in the era of cool. Always dapper in some kind of interesting head gear, with his trademark pointed beard, Monk was a wizard of the piano. Looking at images of him on the internet I was struck by how, in many his hands are a blur, running up and down the ivory keys with a fluidity that at times is breathtaking. His compositions were solid, quirky and unforgettable. "Straight no Chaser" was a relatively late piece in Monks cannon, but it ranks among my favourite of his long players. The title track is worth the price of admission alone. His body of work is huge, but for anyone curious about this "genius of modern music" as blue note titled him you could do worse than investing in a copy of this great slab of '60's jazz.
I can remember buying this album for two reasons...1. Because I thought the band name was cool and 2. Because the cover spooked me so much! I couldn't work out if they were people in masks or shop window dummies. Is that a picnic basket behind them? Why are they having a picnic on those grim and foreboding rocks? In my young mind it had the same quality as some out take from an unseen episode of Doctor Who. If the cover shitted me up, I thought the music in side had to be worth hearing, and I wasn't wrong.
I'd heard of Robyn HItchcock, and his Syd Barrett obsession, but I had no preconceived ideas about what lay inside the spine chilling cover. It's a great great album! The opening track "I Wanna Destroy You" comes on like Television, but the vocals and harmonies are transcendent. "Kingdom of Love" with it's huge reverb is about as un late '70's as you can get. "I got the Hots" with it's strange off key crooning is pure class.The title track should've been a massive world wide hit, with it's infectious disco funk bass, clashing psych guitars and backing vocals that soar into the stratosphere! The lyrics throughout are surreal and obscure but never try hard (unlike say; Julian "I'm so weird man"Cope).
I could go on...suffice to say, it's a lost classic in terms of the mainstream which should've been massive. The Soft Boys should be a household name along side the likes of XTC. Oh yeah... that cover still gives me the fear. Genius.
Previously unseen footage from 1971 polished and put together by the publication Oxford American.
By Fred Mills
Go on YouTube and you can find a sampling of Big Star videos, but there's a catch: they're all either audio dubbed over still images (e.g., not actual performances), or clips of the latterday ‘90s incarnation featuring members of the Posies joining Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens. It seemed that nobody but hardcore collectors would own any real footage of the band in its heyday - if they had any at all.
That's why a palpaple shudder of delight rippled through the musical community recently when the venerable Oxford American, in the July 2008 issue, included a DVD with the third annual "Best Of The South" issue.
"Get ready to be blown away by some rare and never-before-seen clips. See Elvis warming up the mike in preparation for his greatest performance ever. See lost footage of one of the most influential rock bands in music history: Big Star. (Gathering dust on the shelf until we polished it up for this DVD, these beautiful images were shot by Big Star guitarist Chris Bell and bassist Andy Hummel.)"
Blown away is an understatement. You can see the results below, 1971 images set to the tune "Thank You Friends," from the DVD and recently posted to YouTube. All I'll add is that just to see the late Chris Bell smile semi-selfconsciously as the camera points at him, but still beautifully, is worth its weight in gold. (Purists may quibble over the fact that "Thank You Friends" was recorded long after Bell and Andy Hummel had left the band - Chilton and Stephens cut it for Sister Lovers - but as a tribute to the four men and comradeship, the lyrical and musical sentiments hold up nicely, thank you very much.) Text by Fred Mills
Talking of Big Star, from the same article, here's the Bangles doing a note perfect rendition of "September Gurls". Who said videos had to cost thousands to make?
While trawling through my preferences I found this great essay by Nigel Cross on the history of Ladbroke Grove in London between the years 1967 - 1978. It accompanies a CD compilation of the same name. The area around Ladbroke Grove was a veritable boiling pot of artists, underground musicians, freaks, anarchists, writers and drug takers of all stripes from the late '60's on. Everyone from Pink Floyd to Hawkwind, the woefully underrated Quintessence to ace faces The Action either lived or played in the area. Science fiction writer Michael Moorcock, the late great graphic designer Barney Bubbles, head eccentris Sir Viv Stanshall and later Mr. Motorhead Lemmy Kilminster were all at one time residents and witnesses to the going's on.
Ladbroke grove of today is a much drearier affair...With Hoards of cattle like tourists, Hugh Grant (Ugghh!) making stupid f**king movies round the corner in Notting Hill, and not even a whiff of revolution in the air the Ladbroke Grove of yesteryear is unrecognizable when compared to the place described in Cross's Essay. Sit back, spark up a fat one and enjoy the read. Is that Mickey Farren being bundled into a police van?
Link to the essay here, and check out the rest of the Terrascope site while you're at it.
This is a link to the famous, "Daddy's Curses". Bruce tries to fix the family piano (I think) and has a potty mouth breakdown! This Internet classic is not for the faint hearted.
WARNING: To younger viewers and people with heart conditions, this link and download contains A LOT of swearing and blue language. You've been warned...gosh darn it!
Tomorrow is the 32nd anniversary of Marc Bolan's death. While I was never fanatical about the Bolan Boogie, I think he was an interesting character and truly love some of his songs.
A trier if ever there was one, after a brief stint as a male model, ace face half pint mod and an even briefer stint as lead guitarist with the fantastically shambolic "John's Children", the elfin Marc Feld reinvented himself as a star child hippie minstrel along with Steve Peregrin Took (was that really his name?!) in the Band Tyrannosaurus Rex (that's king of the lizard's according to my 5 year old son) singing songs with ridiculously long titles to stoned freaks at love in's, be in's, art lab's and free festivals. While he may have looked like Syd Barrett's wee brother and sang cosmic songs about trippy delicacies, he was a bit of novelty due to the fact that he only took acid once, hated it and lived a quiet suburban existence rather at odds with his image. Took, on the other hand embraced the whole drug ethos of the time, ran around Ladbroke Grove with the Deviants and eventually died after choking on a cherry stone, or so I've been told..
Championed by the late great John Peel, his acoustic noodling was going know where until he hooked up with incredibly handsome Mickey Finn and an electric combo, shortened the bands name to T-Rex and the rest is Glam history.
Bolan died after his girlfriend Gloria Jones (singer on the classic northern soul version of "Tainted Love") wrapped their mini, purple of course, round a tree in Barnes, London. He was not quite 30 years old. Bolan's career had flagged after the death of glam and the rise of punk, but he was making a stab at a comeback with his own T.V. show before his untimely demise. Check out the footage of a very drunk couple of old glam swingers, Bolan and Bowie on the show. David croons while Bolan, in a Tapesque moment, falls off the inches high stage riser mid song!!
The songs that come to mind when someone mentions Bolan's name are the mighty "Children of the Revolution", the sublime "Ride a White Swan" and the whistful "Cosmic Dancer". Every home should have a copy of "Electric Warrior" and for all you oldies out there here's his appearance on the Cilla Black show singing the wonderful "Life's a Gas" with said host...Keep on dancing Marc. Oh yeah, and he called his son Rolan, as in Bolan, a bit like Zowie as in Bowie...
There's two camps when it comes to "Trout Mask Replica", It’s either a work of total genius or it’s a heap of dog dooh masquerading as an avant garde gemstone. I’m of the opinion that it’s a bit of both.I think you’ve got to look at the album as a happening, an experience rather than “a double album of late sixties music man”. You don’t sit down with the folks for dinner and put this lp on, and I say lp, as it just wouldn’t be right on cd. You need the break that turning the thing over affords you. I love a lot else about this album as much as the music itself and I think that’s the point; the story behind the making of it, the months of rehearsals locked in a cabin together, the time it took to record (a couple of sessions according to Jimmy Carl Black), the persons involved, the cover shot (my favourite LP cover of all time), the liner notes, the humour the photo’s…it’s all part of the experience. Highlight’s…Ella Guru, Dachau Blues, pachuco cadaver, Orange Claw Hammer. By the ticket take the ride, it’s up to you…bulbous but also tapered.
A trier if ever there was one, after a brief stint as a male model, ace face half pint mod and an even briefer stint as lead guitarist with the fantastically shambolic "John's Children", the elfin Marc Feld reinvented himself as a star child hippie minstrel along with Steve Peregrin Took (was that really his name?!) in the Band Tyrannosaurus Rex (that's king of the lizard's according to my 5 year old son) singing songs with ridiculously long titles to stoned freaks at love in's, be in's, art lab's and free festivals. While he may have looked like Syd Barrett's wee brother and sang cosmic songs about trippy delicacies, he was a bit of novelty due to the fact that he only took acid once, hated it and lived a quiet suburban existence rather at odds with his image. Took, on the other hand embraced the whole drug ethos of the time, ran around Ladbroke Grove with the Deviants and eventually died after choking on a cherry stone, or so I've been told.. 
