Tape Trade Review

[Alun Hughes]

Thanks Doug! I thought I'd been fairly eclectic in making this
take up (though not very obscure) and it's amazing what he
recognised - from Harmonia to the Ramones through John Cale!
Only one missed guess, and that's understandable ....

>>> Doug Pearson <ceres at SIRIUS.COM> 10/06/98 23:47 >>>
>I got a pretty cool tape from Alun Hughes, and although he hasn't sent me
>all the artists' names yet (I asked him not to), I thought I'd post a
>review based on what I've heard so far ...

>Side A

>"Descent Into The Maelstrom" - Radio Birdman
>GREAT song to kick off a boc-l tape with!  Totally driving, great
>atmosphere, and lyrics that are the most BOC-ish of anything RB ever wrote.

>"Phototropic" - ?
>A cool sorta subdued psychedelic guitar piece and lyrics about staring too
>hard into the light?  The chords remind me of the Alchemysts' "Blind Side"
>and My Dad Is Dead's "Cool Rain"

Kyuss, from _And the Circus Leaves Town_. Not perhaps totally typical of
them, but probably my favourite.

>"Singapore-Lore" - ?
>Nice synth-heavy instrumental with a slight eastern feel (appropriate for
>the name).  Probably the mellowest track on the tape.

Michael Rother, from _Esperanza_. Easy to sneer these days at Michael's
"easy-listening" output but I like it.

>"Boats" - ?
>Ooh! Did someone put Wheaties in Glen Danzig's steroid breakfast?  Dunno
>who the singer is, but he's a real throaty howler.  Good blues- and
>metal-tinged heavy sludgerock.

Ha!

Entombed, from _To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth_. Death metal
with tunes and even a blues tinge now and then.

>"These Old Bones" - ?
>Another mellower tune.  A folkish male/female duet, very nice sounding.
>It's not Rose McDowell (sp?) on the female voice, is it?

Sky Cries Mary, from _This Timeless Turning_.

>"Day To Ride" - New Christs
>Thanks Alun!  I hadn't picked up the latest New Christs album yet, so it
>was a real pleasure to hear this track - from the first notes, I knew it
>HAD to be Radio Birdman related, and Rob Younger's voice is unmistakeable.
>Great driving rock and roll, just as you'd expect from the NC's.

The wrong guess, though understandable: it's the Deniz Tek Group, from _Outside_.
A great album!

>"Hunter's Moon" - Thin White Rope
>A live version from the same album as their cover of "Silver Machine".  Guy
>Keyser's younger brother, John, is a friend/neighbor, whose housemates I've
>been in bands with and frequently jam with (in fact, said housemates are on
>one of the tracks on the boc-l trade tape that I made).

Great driving track ...

>"Wolf Moon" - Type O Negative
>Didn't know this band 'cause this track is pretty Goth, which just is not
>my cup of tea (San Francisco has a lot of goths, and the only local
>subculture that invites a higher level of abuse are the Grateful Dead
>hippies), although I've been known to (when no one else is around), hook up
>a CV pedal to control a noise filter on one of my synths and make spooky
>"wind" noises while playing the 3 notes of "Bela Lugosi's Dead" on bass. ;^)

>"Zodiac" - Inner City Unit
>Everyone should buy the 'Complete Works' CD-R from Steve Pond. 'Nuff sed.

>"Sputnik" - Roky Erickson
>An approprate choice for a boc-l tape, since this is one of Roky's most
>sci-fi songs.  Not quite sure what he means by "...your theory of Alien as
>Creator," but it sounds cool!

>"Blitzkreig Bop" - The Ramones
>Live version from "It's Alive".  Simply one of the best and most important
>bands ever.  Saved my life when I was 11 (and had to hide my affection for
>them from my Styx-lovin' friends).  1-2-3-4 ... Hey! Ho! Let's Go!


Side B

>"I Come Cheap" - ?
>Is this an Australian band?  It sounds a lot like some of those
>post-Birdman Aussie groups like the Hitmen or Died Pretty.  Don't recognize
>it, but it rocks.

Now, *this* is the New Christs, from _Lower Yourself_.

>"Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody" - ?
>The token metal song on the tape?  I'm not a big metalhead, but this is
>cool - real crunchy, and a cool tremelo effect sequence during the last
>guitar break, instead of the wanky solo that I was expecting.

Definitely metal - Carcass, from _Swansong_.

>"Archangel's Thunderbird" - Amon D||l II
>>From their 'Yeti' double LP, one of my all-time favorite psych records (and
>thanks to the list member who scored me a vinyl copy a few years ago!).
>Dave Anderson on bass.  This song totally rules; if you haven't heard it,
>you're missing out!

>"A Child's Christmas In Wales" - John Cale
>The lead-off track for his great 'Paris 1919' album, possibly his most
>"pop" or "polished" record ever.  I've been a huge Velvet Underground fan
>for nearly as long as I've been a huge Hawkwind fan, so it's nice to have
>this song here.

>"Tattoo'd Lady" - ?
>Can you say BIG BAD BOOGIE? (that's a compliment BTW 'cause this rocks)

Rory Gallagher! This one's from the "official bootlegs" - _G-Men Bootleg Series
Vol 1_ - it's not the best version but it's the only one I have on CD and I can't
tape from (or even play) my vinyl at the moment. I'm waiting for all the Rory
remasters!

>"Looking At You" - New Race
>Lots of Rob Younger vocals on this tape and I ain't complaining!  I will
>complain that this isn't the best version of this song (although it smokes
>all over the MC5's redone version on 'Back in the USA').  The original
>fuzz&feedback-drenched single version has been re-issued as the title track
>of a 10"EP, so you don't need to find an original, impossibly-rare 7".
>Everyone should own it 'cause it's the ULTIMATE MC5 recording, and one of
>the greatest rock moments EVER.

>"I Wanna Be Your Dog" - The Stooges
>Another more-than-classic tune.  This is what ROCK'N'ROLL is all about.

>"Takin' LSD" - The Deviants
>A tip of the hat to Alun for using the live version from the 'Human
>Garbage' LP, which is far superior to the Pink Fairies version of 'Kill 'Em
>And Eat 'Em".  Brother Wayne Kramer on twin-guitar assault duty with Larry
>Wallis - undoubtedly a killer combo.

Actually I quite like the PF's version, but I agree, it's not as good.

>"I Dunno" - ?
>Who's this?  Sort of Pub Rock-ish, but definitely with a punkish sneer.

Georgia Satellites. This is from the "Best of" album (_Let it Rock_) but was
originally on _In the Land of Salvation and Sin__ I think. Very irritating, the
Satellites, for every good track there's two bummers.

>"Sonnenschein" - Harmonia
>And we finish with a bit of relaxation from this krautrock supergroup; this
>is what synthesizer music (electronica?) should sound like.

>And what's with the "mystery bonus track" with lots of thudding drumming
>that, after brief xylophone? and synthesizer? breaks goes into a bit of
>rocking before the tape cuts out.  Not a bad fragment at all!

Now I seem to remember trying to fit the Pink Fairies "Snake" onto the
tape but it was too long ... not sure about that though. It's the version from
_Mandies and Mescaline Down at Uncle Harry's_ which is BBC sessions
plus the Glastonbury Fayre stuff, fine if you don't mind most of it being *two*
versions of "Uncle Harry's Last Freak Out".

>There you go - sorry this was so long, but I hope that it will encourage
>others to do the same for the tapes they received!  So Andy - when do we
>receive our instructions for the next person to send the tapes to?

Yeah, Andy, do we simply send them along or do we rerandomise?

Alun

>        -Doug
>         ceres at sirius.com