HW: Other groups, etc.

[Chuck Rosenberg]

Hi, it's Chuck, I re-subscribed again. thought i should try "reaching out". I live in San Luis Obispo, Ca, which is kind of a drag. (Steve Youles, when ya comin??) ah, but i did come to LA last weekend for family business and also managed to catch day 2 of All Tomorrow's Parties. I know this is originally a UK festival, I don't recall folks discussing it here. anyway, i think I saw a note on the web-site that the Boredoms may play the next one...if so, don't miss it! I picked up "Vision Creation New Sun" recently, and it is MIND-fucking-blowing space/kraut-rock, with some serious HW moments. anyway, missing day one, I missed the Magic Band, which is my main regret. Marc Groening (Simpsons) "curated" the festival this year, and the MB is his favorite. anyway, the best group I saw Sunday was Jackie O'Motherfucker: motherfuck yeah! I picked up the "Wow/Magick Fire Music" disc, too, which is wonderful. Bardo Pond were good. American Analog Set were disappointing. Mars Volta were cool...uhh...the headliners were Iggy and the Stooges, whose originals I've hear little of...they sounded pretty good, but I was too cold and drunk by then to come out from under the blanket, didn't have my jacker. You Brits w/yer muddy fields and what-not certainly must chuckle at such California naievete. Terry Riley was the "elder statesman" of Sun, he played a little keyboard set, with his white beard all the way down to his waist or so. that's all that's coming back to me at the moment. i know there was at least one more band i wanted to comment on.
uh...i hope to be doing radio again by jan...maybe w/some luck i'll even have a regular slot again by April. Turns out the program manager at KCPR (Cal Poly SLO) grew up listening to KUCR and the DJ who inspired him the most was his high-school english teacher Ron McCafferty...whom i just happened to be back-to-back w/on sat nights for two years...
uhh...I sold 2/3 of my collection when i moved up to this stupid town, but i recently repurchased a coupla items: Mushroom's "Compared to What" and Salaryman's self-titled...goddamn, they're both great, I own the latter due to one of Keith Henderson's CD-R mixes. I'm really into Barry Adamson. He used to be in Magazine and Nick Cave/BS, then went solo. "Oedipus Schmoedipus" and "As Above So Below" are discs I'm listening to alot. This guy rules, he's so diverse. caught on to him via the "Lost Highway" sound-track. Speaking of which, I also listen to Lynch/Badalamenti soundtracks compulsively.A picked up a Sh'Mantra double-CD which has some GREAT songs on it. Bought the first album by Comets on Fire...it's good, sometimes great, but i didn't get as excited over it as I'd expected from reviews I read. Came across an album by Heru Avenger, it's really long spacey jazz-fusion instrumentals, definitely been growing on me lately, though apparently not nearly as good as their previous one, which Jerry and Keith raved about back in AI number whatever.The only really good show here in San Luis since I arrived back in Feb was Mogwai, who played the Univ. There were some incredible, jaw-dropping jams in the set (incredibly loud, too). anyway, I finally picked up an album, "Rock Action", it's just...blah. what happened?? where's the fucking power?!
Picked up another Flowchart record, lovely stuff once again. Another album by Red Temple Spirits, "If the Train were leaving for Lhasa..." Anyone here into these guys? Back when I picked up another of theirs, I mentioned it here, wondering if anyone knew more about 'em...they're still kinda mysterious to me, though it's obvious they were british and active in the '80s. oh, and there's the actual music, depressing apoco-rock (ragna-rock?), which is at times boring, at times really really moving.hmm...same trip I finally picked up a Here and Now album...definitely sounds Hillagey...it's either just kinda average to my ears or I need to listen to it more. New F/i reissues are out on Lexicon Devil!!! "The Past Darkly/The Future Lightly" box-set ('83-'89 retrospective) on a 2-disc CD for the first time and "Why Not Now?...Allan!" from '87. They were at Amoeba, i'd had no idea, and I gave a great cry. The new Census of Hallucinations "8th Dwarf" is great, their best since their 4th (which wasn't really that long ago). The new Rollerball, Twin Atlas and Primordial Undermind albums are all fine, too, discs that i recently reviewed for AI.
oh, yeah, HW! well, I picked up Weird #3...I think that's it, the one with the '75 and '77 free festivals...man these buggers is pricey, that shows ya how much I couldn't resist hearing some of these tracks again. I used to have a cassette, but I'd lost it and was trying to remember "Circles" and such...
BOC? All I can say is that last weekend my sister made me watch an SNL video, which included a skit of the group rehearsing DFtR in the studio...the funny bit was that the guy playing Bloom (can't remember the actor's name, but the video was the Best of Him) was just jumping around, no guit, banging on the cow-bell. what's actually playing is the studio recording of Reaper, but then the Bloom figure starts banging obnoxiously on live, way up-front underproduced cowbell. The manager/agent guy, played by Christopher Walken and certainly not meant to have anything to do w/Pearlman, keeps telling him "less cowbell"... that's it!
i've talked too much!chuck