Month: October 2007

Christopher Milk – EP


Please welcome back Collin with this fine review. Please note that the views and opinions represented by this review should NOT be mistaken for those of the owner and operators of this blog…

Christopher Milk –EP – UA SP -66 (1971 US)

I think by-far the best description I’ve ever read of this marginal piece of fluff was the GEMM listing that convinced me to buy it in the first place:

‘Rock scribe (John Mendelsohn) wants to be a rock star – insider joke band makes nice early glam, pre-punk sound’.

For those not in the also-ran know, John Mendelsohn was perhaps the ultimate early 70’s Anglophile (Muswell top-ranking!). All pop, no style, John’s strictly roots journey to superstar writer-DUMB began with a notable stint beating-skins with the embryonic Halfnelson (soon to become Sparks) before graduating to out-and-out skin-(flute)-suckling with his own hype L.A. fashion band, Christopher Milk (whom he promoted ceaselessly in nearly every record review he scribed). Brendan Mullen tried to pass them off as ‘proto-punk’ in the pages of his poor-poor-very-poor, We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb, which, like most everything else contained in said narrative, failed to hold enough water to drown a newborn kitten or enough substance to fill a pot-hole. Not even known good-guy Gregory Shaw had much positive to say about ‘em (even though he did allow Mendelsohn liberty in 1977 to turn in a truly horrific EP as The Pits which was so embarrassing most BOMP discographies today will not even acknowledge its existence or shouldn’t anyway!). So…on the threshold of such a dreamy ‘n’ positive introduction, what – really – are we left with?

Well, the Warners album Some People Will Drink Anything may suck righteously, but the United Artists EP (that’s EXTENDED PLAYER) that preceded it is as alright with me as Jesus is/was with the Doobies! Over-bearing and not wholly successful attempt at reconciling the style/sound of Arthur/Village Green-era Kinks with the sardonic sartorialness of the Bros. Mael, Mendelsohn and Milk here unveil four fun-fun-fun laugh-fests that I can see appealing to fans of everyone from the Bonzo Dog Band to The Who. Semi-ridiculous lyric themes – There’s A Broken Heart For Every Rock And Roll Star On Laurel Canyon Boulevard, To You He’s Just A Cop, But To Me He’s Mr. Right, nice grumbling bass sound, EXTREMELY UNDERPRIVILEGED orphan-pledge-drive vocal range, a price tag of zero dollars (free to anyone back then through the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine) – yup, all things bright and beautiful, Christopher Milk had them all. …then I guess they forgot the basic difference between tragedy and comedy is measured in equal parts sympathy and fear. And while I may fear for Mendelsohn’s ego following Christopher Milk’s inevitable curdling expiration , sympathy I have none. Too bad too. Everybody loses! You, me and even Mike Saunders, who had his own reasons for wanting to see Mendelsohn make it:

“And just think: if C. Milk become stars, maybe Mendelsohn will quit writing. Now that’d be something to look forward to!â€Â

Pick To Click: ‘Hey, Heavyweight!

Click on title for the 3 minute mono edit of Hey, Heavyweight!

I’ve long thought Deborah Solomon was a

I’ve long thought Deborah Solomon was a terrible interviewer. Her short fluffy NYT Magazine interviews have a strangely aloof quality to them, as if there is a disconnect between what is asked and what is answered. As it turns out, that appears to be the case. This is ok for satirists like Colbert and the Daily Show guys, but it’s not so great for the Grey Lady.

I also want to point out Phil Nugent’s clear-eyed analysis of the Bush Administration’s weird ethical gymnastics. It’s a thing of truth and beauty.

Last, but definitely not least, the 33 1/3 blog has an excerpt from David Smay’s upcoming book on Swordfishtrombones. Smay is not just a good friend and a hell of a writer; he’s the guy who first gave me a break when he and Kim Cooper accepted my submissions to Lost In The Grooves. This excerpt excites me quite a bit. I think it’s going to be a hell of a great book, and I’m looking forward to seeing any parallels between his work and my own.

It/They Must Stop – Hall of Greatness

1. Interpretive Dance
2. Poetry readings, poetry slams, and poetry
3. William T. Vollman
4. Indie Film (99%)
5. Rock docs concerning “outsiderâ€Â or “insaneâ€Â subjects
6. Vegetables
7. Dogs
8. Pizza from Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or any health food store
9. Indie Rock/Hipster/Scenester embracement/name-dropping of 70’s Soft Rock
10. Mandolin Players

VENOM P. STINGER: THE SORROW AND THE PITY

VENOM P. STINGER were an overpowering late 80s/early 90s Australian group who morphed out of one scorched-earth, rawer-than-raw hardcore noise band called THE SICK THINGS, and later again morphed into another thing completely: the lovely, edgy instrumental trio THE DIRTY THREE. In between were several LPs, a 45 and one 4-song CD-EP that it is essential that you hear. Nowhere have I heard a band so desperately trapped in their own skin. Their militaristic, brutally loud and often atonal punk rock was an ugly cousin to a lot of the American bands of the day, the ones that came out on labels like Amphetamine Reptile, Treehouse, Noiseville, Circuit and Adult Contemporary. Their singer, Dugald McKenzie, had the rawest mouth-rasp vocals imaginable, and not only was it difficult to imagine him singing without his neck veins popping halfway to China, it was difficult to hear his deep-accented wails and think him anything but Australian. Drummer Jim White usually sounded like he was stuck somewhere between drumming for the Daughters of the American Revolution parade and for later-period John Coltrane. Even when the songs didn’t fall together all that well – and their albums do have some filler – they never wavered from a mood that was dark, angry and ballistic. Even on the (rare) slow ones.

Needless to say, I was a pretty big fan while they were around, and I bought all the records where I could. I got to see them live twice, but without McKenzie, who was held back at customs & which then necessitated the quick recruitment of Venom P. Stinger’s “biggest fanâ€Â into vocal duties. (Or so says informed commenter KI in the comments to this post). Other than their one and only 45, “Walking About/25 Milligramsâ€Â, their best record is this 1991 EP that came out on CD only called “Waiting Roomâ€Â. Play it, download it, and raise a pint of bitter for the now-deceased Dugald McKenzie, one of the great throat-rippers of all time.

Play or Download VENOM P. STINGER – “Inside The Waiting Roomâ€Â
Play or Download VENOM P. STINGER – “I Try, I Really Tryâ€Â
Play or Download VENOM P. STINGER – “Turning Greenâ€Â
Play or Download VENOM P. STINGER – “In Loveâ€Â

Ok, ok….

…Wes Anderson doesn’t make “whiteâ€Â movies. You win. They are incredibly diverse. Stop with the e-mails. And this should tell you something about standing in lines: I was waiting in line at the book store, and overheard two progressive housewives talking about Cornel West “rappingâ€Â on Real Time with Bill Maher. They referred to it as “really cool.â€Â I incorrectly figured that they knew the difference between Dr. Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson (author of over-academic Hip-Hop books that I don’t want to read and a man that finds the existence of Benjamin Franklin biographies to be “racistâ€Â), the latter of whom DID recently make a complete ass of himself on the show, rapping about Alexander Hamilton being a “pimp.â€Â Maybe Cornel West dropped some science on Bill Maher as well, though I don’t feel like IM-DIBBING him to find out (he did in fact, put out a Hip-Hop album this year). My style of blogournalism includes using misguided strangers as primary sources. That’s what you’re going to get here at failedpilot.com

I did enjoy Maher referring to 90% of Hip-Hop as “affirmative action for the ego.â€Â Duh, but nicely put.

Matchbox – Rod

Matchbox –Don’t Shut Me Out/ Rod –RAK 113 (1971 UK)

This is not the Rockabilly Revival outfit, but the sounds of Ex-Rupert’s People (Reflections of Charles Brown) members Rod Lynton and Steve Brendell soldiering on into the early 70s. Rod is in fact the B side of a pleasant up-tempo Bubblegum/ Pop number and is a strange beast indeed…Based around a rockin’ backbeat and pop vocals, they then added these weird oscillator/Theremin or Moog gurglings. The overall effect is bizarre and sounds like this was done more as a playful after-thought rather than through astute planning.

Click on title for edits of Rod and Don’t Shut Me Out

RIDICULOUS HARDCORE, PART 2: SIN 34

(Read Part One here). I don’t know what it is about SIN 34, and why I come back to their recordings every few years. They were perhaps the first speed/thrash/burn punk band that ever connected with me during my teenage late-night listening sessions with “Maximum Rock and Roll Radioâ€Â, even before Black Flag or Minor Threat. Generic-by-the-numbers early 80s LA hardcore, with the added curveball of female singer “Julieâ€Â, SIN 34 at times had this ability to leapfrog the genre & throw in some burning, stop-start hooks that got testosterone-fueled limbs flailing and bodies flying. I know that their name made it to Pee-Chees and Army surplus jackets even at my Northern California high school – but then again, so did “China Whiteâ€Â, “TSOLâ€Â and “The Adictsâ€Â. In SoCal, they had a much higher profile, due to band member Dave Markey’s involvement with WE GOT POWER fanzine and friendly connections with RED CROSS and Smoke Seven records. Only one 7â€ÂEP and one (quite lame, save for 3-4 tracks) LP made it out, but I’ve cherry-picked the band’s winners for you. Read a whole lot more about SIN 34 here and here.

Play or Download SIN 34 – “Nuclear Warâ€Â (from 1982 “Sudden Deathâ€Â compilation LP)
Play or Download SIN 34 – “Left Waitingâ€Â (from 1983 “Do You Feel Safe?â€Â LP)
Play or Download SIN 34 – “Forgive and Forgetâ€Â (from 1983 “Do You Feel Safe?â€Â LP)
Play or Download SIN 34 – “Notâ€Â (from 1983 “We Got Powerâ€Â compilation LP)

I don’t know

Nor do I have the energy tonight to fix the italics problem on this page. Like they say on Fire Island, “Get Used To It.â€Â

Is there anything, at this moment, more embarrassing than Dr. Cornel West’s rap album? YouTube his recent Real Time with Bill Maher appearance…also embarrassing.

Does this make me a racist? Or does it make you a racist for having the “issueâ€Â sensitivity to assign “racismâ€Â to my opinion?