TIMES NEW ROMAN ROCK

Well, that was a long piss break. Guess what happened. Nothing. I just wanted to see what it was like to take my unproductive tendencies to the next level. It got pretty boring. I guess one thing did happen. The traffic here jumped, not a little, but a lot. The past few months have had the most hits in the time I've been doing this, something like seventeen years. If this blog was monetized, it would be the ultimate "passive income", money for sitting on your ass. I ain't got time for that.

So, anyway, the Viagra Boys. I happened on a link to one of their videos. Sometimes a band name will be the only reason I click. Viagra Boys: the stupidest fucking band name I've ever heard of. That's precisely what sucked me in. I was hoping for another Oklahoma Blood. Oklahoma Blood you ask? Another band that also sucked me in via a bad band name, with very different results. Oklahoma Blood is a metal band from, you guessed it, Oklahoma. I'm not sure what their reach is but the gigs in the videos have the look of a band still in their take-any-gig stage. To wit, the first video I saw was an instrumental banger called "Stompin' Nachos" and they're playing in what appears to be someone's back yard, complete with a junior headbanger back by the drummer. I'm no judge of this type of metal, but I can say they seem earnest.. I have to admit, the scene is humorous but you know what? Good for them. They're doing it.

Back to the Viagra Boys. I was pleasantly surprised. After .watching a few videos and without knowing anything about the band I came away thinking they sounded like the My War-era Black Flag with a little early Stooges, with Weirdos singer John Denny and a dash of Flipper sludge. If you're an old fart like me and liked those bands back in the day your assessment might be different. Good. Another thing was that they had a synth player and sax, both played abrasively enough that it made me think of the No Wave stuff from the No New York compilation. Add all that up and it's a salad bowl of good shit. [I should add here that in subsequent listening I'd add a dozen other bands. Heroes-era Bowie is in there, all sorts of stuff.]

I gave it a couple weeks to see if it was just the mood I was in when I first ran across them. Sampled some recordings, watched a few more videos. Okay, I realized that I dig them, a lot more than any "new" band that's come down the pike the past few years. I'm surprised as hell that I hadn't heard of them. Really. They been around for six years or something. I'm so out of the loop that I don't care about being out of the loop.

It's better this way. Even though I thought they had a stupid name, with no pre-conceived notions about their music I was allowing myself almost total objectivity, I'm' pleased as punch, I dig them, from out of nowhere. Late to the party? Says who? The party starts when I show up.

Then, the lyrics. They kill me. "I Ain't No Thief", sung in the first person, is about a guy who gets accused of stealing things, repeatedly. His defense is always..., well the chorus says it all with a snarl. "I ain't no thief!, I ain't no thief!, I ain't no thief!, I just got the same stuff!!" Lyrics Larry, Moe and Curly would envy.he In "Sports", singer Sebastian Murphy rattles off things that could only be loosely defined by some as sports or sports related, including "Getting high in the morning, Buying things on the internet, ..." ending multiple verses with "wiener dog" which is really a stretch. It's like one of those drunken jams you have with your buds where you just improvise random lyrics. After that as my initial assessment, I ran across an interview with Murphy alluding to almost that exact scenario. When writing he just fits random words and phrases to the music and fine tunes them later once he thinks of something better. Sometimes he doesn't. Hence, wiener dog.

Here's just a sampling. There's a shitload of videos at YouTube on their "channel"; some live, some live in studio and some official music videos. Whoever does their videos does a bang up job. The live stuff is well mixed and has great camera work with multiple cameras. Not the shaky fan videos done with someone's phone. The "official" music videos are entertaining in a David Lynch "what the fuck is this?" sort of way. 

 

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Viagra Boys. - Troglodyte mp3 at Internet Archive
Viagra Boys. - Punk Rock Loser mp3 at Internet Archive
Viagra Boys. - Sports mp3 at Internet Archive

Viagra Boys. w/Amy Taylor - In Spite of Ourselves mp3 at Internet Archive

Viagra Boys. - Ain't Nice mp3 at Internet Archive

Videos
Viagra Boys.channel at YouTube A shitload of well done videos.

DO IT.

FINALLY, SOMEONE GOT THE MEMO

If you're like me, you've probably wondered why more musicians aren't speaking up about what is going on in the U.S., especially the highly visible ones. Springsteen stepped up. These spoken word moments from a concert a few days ago should be heard. He does a good job of describing what's happening in plain terms, And if you're one of those people that feel celebrities and musicians should keep their traps shut and ignore the shit that's going down, pretend he's a nobody and just listen. Now, er, Boss, about that outfit....

ANY EXCUSE TO POST THIS AGAIN

Have you seen the commercials for SUVs that have a "crab walk" feature? That's a kind of steering with all four wheels turning simultaneously, instead of just the two front wheels. Rather then turning in an arc, the car goes diagonally. What could go wrong? It's not just a disaster waiting to happen. Many disasters are waiting to happen. Idiots will be driving them. Watch.

After shaking my head, I thought of Prince Jazzbo's "Crab Walking", the long disco mix.version with Jazzbo toasting over the "Skylarking" riddim, I dig it, classic Studio One. So here's that and three other cool golden age cuts.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Prince Jazzbo - Crab Walking mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse mp3 at Feems
Burning Spear - Social Living mp3 at Internet Archive 12" version, with a couple minutes of the version on the flip.
Horace Andy - See A Man's Face mp3 at Kazo Wailers

THE MANY MOODS OF ART PEPPER

Last night I was sick. Bad congestion, body ache, all that. I slept a good long time and got up this morning still feeling like shit, unsure if I was better or worse. Time to move.

I got and made some coffee and grabbed a book. I'm re-reading the Art Pepper memoir. I learned something. Do not read a book about a junky, particularly the part where he's describing his first fix when you're sick. It made be feel sicker. I shut the book. I gotta say, that dude had a mess of a life for someone with a talent so immense. You'd think more people would know of him just because the juxtaposition is so great. I thought I'd fix that by posting about him. In checking, I saw that I'd posted about him the first time I read the book. So below are the text and links from that (all links are still good.) From 6/9/2021:

I'm halfway through reading Art Pepper's autobiography The Straight Life (co-written with his wife Laurie). If you know anything about Pepper, you know he's a West Coast jazz guy, saxophone. If you know anything else about Pepper you know that he was a junkie, for years. He did time in a number of facilities, the most notorious San Quentin. I'm only halfway through the book (up to the mid-sixties) and I can tell you just from that that he makes Keith Richards look like a dabbler. Nothing is glossed over in the book. Not the crimes he committed, not the extent he went through to get a fix, not the lovers he treated like shit, or the dark thoughts running around in his head. It is heavy.

So I started browsing, A couple links in, I'm already distracted. There's a shitload about Pepper online. These are tonights detours.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Art Pepper - Caravan mp3 at Rubber City Review
Art Pepper - 'Round Midnight mp3 at Space Age Pop
Art Pepper - Straight Life mp3 at Rubber City Review From Meets the Rhythm Section
Art Pepper - Birks Works mp3 at Rubber City Review Ditto
Art Pepper - More songs and excellent profile at Rubber City Review
Video:
Art Pepper Quartet - Jazz Casual at YouTube Three songs, 29 minutes.1964
Art Pepper - Jazz Survivor at YouTube Documentary, 46 minutes, 1982
Visit:
Their Unique Love Affair at Perfect Sound Forever Profile of Art and Laurie Pepper, 2014
Laurie Pepper, Wife of Late Saxophonist Art Pepper at Fresh Air, PBS Interview podcast, 27 minutes, 2001

FOR MARGARET

I have a friend that I grew up with that now lives in New York. I touch base with her on Facebook every now and then but haven't seen her face to face in at least twenty years. It's a bummer because we went through a lot together back in the day, were roommates (with about eight others) around 1980. Back then she had a thing for David Bowie and I just ran into some Bowie oddballs and it made me think of her. She, Margaret, inventor of the Bowie Fast.

What is the Bowie Fast, you ask? Something that, at one time seemed silly, worthy of a teasing. Later it made total sense. I think it was somewhere around 1978-79, someone was putting on a record and they were asked not to play Bowie. It seemed Margaret liked Bowie so much that she didn't want to risk getting sick of him. She was on a Bowie Fast. Now I know what you're thinking, that Bowie's catalog is so vast that it would be nearly impossible, particularly for a Bowie fan, to even hear all that he's recorded enough times to go to that length. Not the ease in 1978. Bowie only had about a dozen albums out. There was no internet, no downloads or search engines, no deluxe editions. Outtakes, then only on bootleg LPs or via tape swapping, were hard to come by if they existed at all,  There was roughly twelve hours (or less) of Bowie recordings readily available. The Bowie Fast makes total sense.

Here's three covers and a link to a collection of more outtakes, demos and the like. Margaret, hope you like :)

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
David Bowie - Mother mp3 at Internet Archive Orig: John Lennon
David Bowie- Chim Chimney mp3 at Internet Archive From Mary Poppins
David Bowie and Bryan Ferry - The In Crowd mp3 at Internet Archive Orig: Dobie Gray (?)
The collection (80 cuts):
Bowie For Bowie Fans at Internet Archive