Soothing Soul Suckers

I’ve been a little busy lately doing some stuff including backpacking in the Pioneers.

Got so caught up with the other shit I neglected to put up my pick for the week.

Blessed B sent me some burns and one of them was a gem I hadn’t heard in a long time. Prince’s “Lovesexy”. What the hell ever happened to that guy? His music turned to shit about 20 years ago, great Super Bowl though.

Beware.

The following may be the scariest album cover of all time.

Still hooked on ZZ Top. I haven’t listened to this much ZZ in almost 20 years. The cream always rises to the top and the boys from Houston jam hard. I’ve been obsessed with guitar videos on YouTube that feature the solo from La Grange. So, my POTW is Tres Hombres. I still haven’t put it in the collection but that will be rectified shortly. The remastered version from 2006 is the only way to go for CD. The older versions were all fucked with.

Here’s the guys ripping it up back in 1980.

I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks and somehow I managed to neglect my pick of the week.

Well, here it is.

Bite that bitches.

This album needs no introduction or explanation. It’s kick ass all the way through.

If you’re a puss and don’t own it or have it locked in your memory banks either kill yourself or go and get it. If you choose to live make sure you try to pick up the CD remaster with the weird border around the cover or the LP. The later CD issues have the bass and drums replaced on Queen Sharon’s orders by some Faith No More douchebag and another fuckwad and the original CD issue is inferior in sound quality.

Attempting to get into Merzbow can be a losing battle. Wading through what seems like a zillion albums that (on the surface) sound similar can get pretty tedious. If you’ve given up or never even tried to get into Merzbow, “Merzbeat” is a great place to start.

My buddy Z turned me on to Merzbeat. It’s Merzbow you can dance to! O.K., I don’t know about that but it’s got a recognizable beat. And lots of cool Merz noise. If you aren’t a pussy pick one up from Important Records.

……The Rime….of the Ancient…Mariner!!!!!

Best live album ever.

I’m talking about the real version. Not that bullshit single CD version. It’s got to have the Hammersmith tunes and the long “Running Free”.

“Revelations this one!!!”

Went to Helena and hung out in and near the Capitol. Snapped a few shots from under the copper dome. It was dark and my camera is shit so I did the best I could.

“These are the tales of Edgar Allen Poe. Not exactly the boy from next door.”

On the way to Helena I listened to Lou Reed’s “The Raven”. It’s is incredible and vastly underrated. The typical reviewer fuckstains looking for “Sweet Jane Pt. 2″ and Transformer 2003 were hugely disappointed and trashed the album. They didn’t know jack from shit.

“The Raven” began Lou’s recent run of esoteric albums and runs the gamut from classic Lou, spoken word, noise and absurdist lounge music. His cohorts on the album include Laurie Anderson, Steve Buscemi, Willam Dafoe, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Ornette Coleman, Antony and his stellar backing band.

Really great shit. It’s easy to get lost in Lou’s adaptations/interpretations of Poe’s work. He reworks a couple old songs and throws in some new ones too.

Here’s Willam Dafoe narrating The Raven. With some differences from the common version that make it even more sinister. Not sure if Lou altered it or it’s another Poe but it’s pretty wicked.

Got my batch of Our Love Will Destroy The World stuff the other day. Haven’t got to the wax due to my turntable being fucked, B is transferring the cassette to CDR for me (fucking tapes, why won’t they die?) so I’ve got the Goddess of Ten CDR on the player.

Fucking Kick Ass.

This is the kind of shit you wish Eye from the Boredoms was doing instead of these goddamn Nike sponsored events like Boadrum. Well fuck it, Campbell Kneale has picked up the slack big time. I was a fan of Birchville Cat Motel but I found the music to be a little spotty sometimes. I haven’t been let down by his new project OLWDTW yet. This particular CDR is 40 minutes long, features dogs barking, tablas jamming and general mayhem. I was listening today and got lost in the song. I started the disc and next thing I know I’m at the 34 minute mark. That’s good shit folks.

If you’re interested, get this fucker quick. It was limited to 50 copies. Aquarius got 30 of them and it is probably the best bet to pick one up unless Campbell is holding one. HIGHLY FUCKING RECOMMENDED__GET IT WHILE YOU CAN

Old Black burning in the hands of it’s master.

I found one of my most prized possessions this morning.

My burn of Neil Young & Crazy Horse Park City, UT 7/15/97.

I’d been looking for this one for a few years. I saw this show at the peak of one of the craziest summers in my life. Living at Old Faithful and having a blast. My whole crew and I took a couple set of wheels from Yellowstone to Utah. Stopping in Wyoming’s Star Valley to camp on the way there and the Gros Ventre mountains on the way back.

Got to the venue and just missed the solo set Neil did on the small stage. No worries, I was there to juice up on the Horse. I did see the equivalent of a unicorn later that day on the small stage but that is a tale for another time. Watched Morphine (boring), Primus (good) and Leftover Salmon (no thanks) in the buildup to the Horse. Started psychedelic preparations while they were setting up Neil’s gear.

Enter the Horse.

This was the last great tour of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. They were winging the set list every night. And they were smoking. “Hippie Dream” from Landing on Water was completely redeemed, “I’m the Ocean cemented it’s status as legend and “Don’t Spook the Horse” came out of nowhere. During the short solo set Neil played an early version of “Slowpoke” which I took as a sign to buy a new guitar. “Cortez the Killer” was a flat out annihilator. My mind was blown after the show and being too wrecked to go anywhere we parked behind a church on the main drag and slept under the cross on the lawn. Protected from bad weather and Johnny Law by Neil, a church and psychedelic intervention. You can only get away with that shit when you are young and dumb.

Early set:
Sugar Mountain
Slowpoke (aborted)
Everybody’s Alone
Unknown Legend
Pocahontas
Out On The Weekend
Heart Of Gold

Late set:
Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)
I’m The Ocean
Hippie Dream
Cortez The Killer
From Hank To Hendrix
Buffalo Springfield Again
Someday
Slowpoke
Crime In The City
Modern World (Neil lurching around the stage with just a microphone and a harmonica strapped to his head is something too see–not in a good way!)
Don’t Spook The Horse
Homegrown
Country Home
Rockin’ In The Free World

Special Pick of the Week offer.

I will burn you a copy of this bad boy and send it to you free of charge. With homemade packaging and all!

Contents:
2 CD
First set: The first set starts in the middle of Everybody’s Alone.
Second set: The first three are from a different, inferior source. Then the second set restarts and comes from a far superior source. So it’s all there. Not sure how the first source got in there. Oh well, that’s the way I’ve had it all these years.

Shoot your mailing address to SSS and get one. Offer expires June 7th.

Pick O’ the Week.

About six months ago I had a guy call during the 29th minute of a thirtysome minute Acid Mothers Temple jam and say, “It’s like the turd that won’t flush!”. Well mister, you must have some fantastically oversized and pleasantly fragrant shit.

I never get sick of AMT. Long tunes, freakout synth, extended drones, wacky Kawabata guitar, I’ll take it all.

The last track of Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under the Stars “Electric Psilocybin Flashback” is the crown jewel of the album. A 30 plus minute freak out with a sax solo, female wailing and a mellow, lengthy outro are the featured menu items. A little psilocybin probably helps digest the music a little better too but I think my brain makes that on it’s own.

I was having a hard time finding my groove this week.

I sifted through various styles and genres without once tapping into the source of what I needed to hear. So, I’ve been letting my kid pick out the music. She grabs whatever is laying around—The few CDs that she can reach from the collection and some various stuff on other shelves I have to get rid of.

Today she picked out an Alice Coltrane disc I had never heard so I threw it in. Afterward she got into the lower shelf of the collection, picked out a disc and tried to open the case. I opened it her, placed the disc in her hand in a way she could hold it without destroying it and took her to the stereo. She dropped the disc in the player and after I straightened it she closed the drawer and pressed play.

She’s starting out young just like I did.

This is her pick:

Not only is it a good metal album but a great choice for first disc ever placed in a player. So SSS Pick of the Week it is.

The band is from Russia and I’ve seen them lumped in with NSBM Black Metal but I’m not sure why since the artwork is standard evil stuff…but the lyrics are all in Russian so what the hell do I know? Regardless, they kick ass. The best part of the band is the drummer Sergey “Angam” Fyodorov (who left last year according to the entry at Metal Archives). He wails. The music is black metal with classic and thrash elements. It really gives Fyodorov a chance to show off his blast beat drumming with a heavy old school metal influence. Ultimatum and III: Nomen Nostrum Legio are both superior metal albums and are available at Hell’s Headbangers.