Sure,you know what's cool. But do you know what's really fuckin' FAR OUT? That's where Advanced Demonology takes over. Every week, (K)en and (S)wilson trudge through the murky waters of the pop culture hellscape, dredging up sparkly morsels of wonder. These are the result of our latest foray into the world of the weird, our wildest, wiggest-out picks of the week. Call it our 13 Point Program.
13. Blue Oyster Cult: Live At the Empire Concert Club Cleveland Ohio 1991
I never thought the day would come when I'm recommending a B.O.C. bootleg from 1991 but today is the day. These days the 8th wonder of the world has been reduced to playing chili cook offs and street fairs (I'm actually going to see them July 21st in San Diego..a street fair). This was recored for a radio broadcast and has the band in amazing form. They play all the hits with such ferocity and swagger it rivals On your Feet or On your Knees. (S)
12. Faithful Breath - Judgement Day
16 blissful minutes of awesome late 70's Viking prog! (K)
11. Radio Birdman Live 1978!!!
Australia's answer to the Stooges and the MC5 by way of Blue Oyster Cult, I'm sure they are already your favorite band. (S)
Roctober is one of the greatest music magazines of all time, ever, and they've just published their 50th issue, which also happens to be their 20th anniversary issue! 141 pages of arcane rock knowledge, weird interviews, kooky komics, and hundreds (if not thousands) of reviews printed in the tiniest font imaginable. So you might wanna break out a magnifying glass. Either way, this hefty tome will eat up your weekend, that's for sure. (K)
9.1968 Playmate Gale Olsen
On a recent trip back to the fatherland of New Jersey I picked up in some junk shop, a copy of From Playboy Press: The Youth Culture 1971. It's Playboys special report on what's happening with the youths in early 70's America. It's got an awesome interview with Peter Fonda fresh off from the success of Easy Rider. He's a smart mother fucker. A cool story about a commune in New Mexico and a mind blowing panel discussion about Drugs with: Baba Ram Dass, John Finlator (former director of the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control), Alan Watts, William Burroughs, Harry J. Anslinger ( who is 80 at the time and was one of the main men behind prohibition and was the guy who made grass illegal!), Leslie Fielder, and James Coburn. But the real star of the show is 1968 Playmate Gale Olsen, holy hippie death goddess!!! She would make a later appearance in the glad mag almost 20 years later and her daughter became a playmate in 2009. Wow! (S)
8. Outer Spacist - Even Iller
These Ohio spacejammers released a single a year or two ago, "I Don't Care About Love, Baby" that knocked me out with its aggressive Stooges-riffs and sneering punk rock vocals. They were like Flipper jamming with Gaye Bykers on Acid. I figured they'd break up or fall out of a window or something because they sounded too crazed to last for long. Well, lo and behold they managed to keep it together long enough to spit out a fantastically sleazy mini-album of scorching cosmic punk. Hot! (K)
7. Brion Gysin: Dream Machine
I missed the Brion Gysin retrospective when it was in New York and I don't think it has come to L.A. so the next best thing is this companion book published by Merrell. It's the first comprehensive collection of the proto-psychedelicist's visual work assembled in book form. His art is more a product of personal psychological experiments, than finished pieces and although not all that groundbreaking, they are extremely ascetically pleasing. He viewed art as a method to induce different state's of conciseness in himself through the process of creation. I like that. (S)
6. Nihilist Spasm Band - Destroy the Nations
So, who really invented noise-rock? My money's on these loonies. The Nihilist Spasm Band was a group of Canadian musicians, artists, tinkerers and manic street preachers who built their own instruments and created an unholy racket with 'em. They called it "Free improv". Everybody else called it a headache. This was in 1965, by the way! "Destroy the Nations" is a tasty track from their 1968 album, No Record. Most of the original members are dead at this point, but the Spasm Band is still together, and still battering eardrums with abandon.(K)
5. James Knight & The Butlers: Black Night (1971)
Let's face it…when was the last time you put on a 70's soul or funk record and were disappointed. Maybe it wasn't something you'd remember forever but it wasn't bad, in fact it was probably better than most anything else you listened to that day, even your favorite rock band. So when it comes to 70's Soul it's really only worth reporting the truly great finds here on Advanced Demonology. James Knight's Black Night recored for CAT records in Miami Florida, 1971 is a truly GREAT find. In fact I think it might be the most Advanced Demonological soul record of all time. Tailor made for this blog. The record effortless dances a tight rope between smooth easy soul, down home funk, blues, fuzzed out psychedelia, and free jazz without ever becoming one thing or the another. James belts out his vocals with punk rock vigor with no apparent real concern for staying in key. His guitar sounds at times like the distortion is being achieved by plugging it into a clock radio. He has a matter of fact charisma that keeps the listener pinned to tunes like funky cat, uncle joe, and fantasy world. There is a beautiful cover of Aretha Franklin's "Save Me". Further proof that Miami's greatest legacy is 70's funk….well second greatest legacy next to 80's cocaine.(S)
4. Virgin prunes - Decline and Fall
Holy fuck. No one would dare to be this ridiculous/awesome these days. 80's goth was amazing.(K)
3. Badmags.com
Before cable TV, before home video, before the inter-web if you wanted to get your cheap sleazy kicks, in the privacy of your own home your best bet was magazines. Yeah sure there were porn mags but there was all sorts of other rags to get your rocks off to (mostly porn disguised as something else): Detective mags, True Crime, UFO mags, Biker mags….It's fun to collect these things now, especially since the computer age. The eye candy is great and it's a fantastic way to see how the world was viewed. What old school stereos are worth grabbing. How lecherous squares really viewed hippie girls. It's a kaleidoscope of sleazy selections that one might find overwhelming rummaging through thrift stores and flea market bins. That's where Badmags.com comes in. An extremely well thought out online guide to the perverted periodicals of yore. Each entry well written with tons of awesome covers scanned in. Even whole sections dedicated Manson, Ed Wood Jr. and Myron Fass ; the publishing madman behind such forgotten gems as: Gasm(!?!), Acid Rock, Buccaneer, and Flick (which if you look at the title at the right angle it looks like FUCK..brilliant!). (S)
2. Freewheelin' Frank: Secretary OF The Angeles As Told To Michael McClure By Frank Reynolds
"the Earth is hell and on it there are Hell's Angels" It's 1965 and Frank is in his early twenties and he is a young man in the throws of the demon. He is at the top of the food chain of the toughest biker gang on the planet and at ground zero for the unleashing of one of the most powerful psychoactive drugs known to man. The combination makes for an amazing read. One minute he's talkin' about loving everyone the next minute he's talking about stompin' a guys brains out. There is an amazing scene where he is chased by the SFPD on his bike while high on acid, caught and almost beat to death, when he ends up in front of the judge the next morning, still dosing, the judges asks him if he's got anything to say, he recites the entire lyrics from Dylan's "It's Alright ma". The poet Michael McClure basically typed the book as Frank Reynolds talked, the two remained friends and when frank was sent to prison for arson in the 70's Michael sent him a book on zen to help him through. When he got out frank became a zen hermit and lived alone in the redwood forest, near a waterfall. He died in 2003. (S)
1. The Curiosity Rover is due to land on Mars in August. So how hard is it to drop a robot on to the surface of another planet?
It's insanely hard. Check out this excellent video detailing the various means utilized to make it happen. (K)
Another brilliant Top 13!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys.