Chicago Car Show 2007 pt 3

Chicago Car Show 2007 pt 4

A Buddhist mix for Thursday

I came across this mix on DJ Spooky's site today.

Anything that can mix John and Alice Coltrane, chanting monks, Beastie Boys and Philip Glass is more than OK with me. Very OHHHHHHHHMMMMmmmmm.

I am very late to the party here, but it definitely put a glide in my sub zero frozen stride.

Hawkwind Motorhead

Building upon yesterday's Hawkwind post, here is another that will discuss the Hawks.
As I mentioned briefly, Lemmy was a member of Hawkwind prior to going off on his own with Motorhead. I recall that early on Lemmy and Motorheard even toured with Hawkwind.

Before he left, he wrote the song Motorhead which showcases his vocal and his bass stylings.
Below please find a link to an mp3.

Motorhead

Hawkwind Kinetic Playground

Flashback to the mid 1980s...

Mazda GLC moving at a high rate of speed, the tinny speakers in the home made speaker box are rippling with a treble filled, massive sound sending the musical wave forms out the open windows and open sunroof.

The sound is Hawkwind, a space rock band from Britain, that still exists to this day in some form or other.

Their heyday was the early to mid 70s when Lemmy was a crucial figure in the collective, providing his solid bass anchor, wild gruff vocal stylings and general charisma. Above is a picture of The Hawks in action in Chicago (at The Cubby Bear of all places) in 1997.

Coming across this cdr was quite interesting to me as it features Lemmy in the lineup as well as Twink on drums. The sound quality is OK, but it was "recorded by some guy with a tape recorder in the audience" per the tags that came with the sound files. The date of the recording is 6 December 1971.

Part of the whole allure to me of Hawkwind was their general weirdness and the fact that most people, even music geeks hated them back in the day. I am not a fan of scifi per se but I like the spoken word weirdo ramblings that Dave Brock (or whomever) that are performed between songs, add a creepy, lost falling feeling to the music. I always pictured hearing Hawkwind, if I were in space and my line to the ship got severed and I was left to drift into the void.

One of the highlights for me is the intro where they announce that we the technicians of spaceship earth and that they are out of control. The "captain" sounds like he is on something...

You Shouldn't Do That has a nice build, with Twink just rolling on the drums and then pounding out a solid beat to Lemmy's bottom end.

It is followed by The Awakening that is a spoken word weirdo thing into You Know You Are Only Dreaming, which is slow and has a boring, slow, repetitive riff that may have the potential to put you to sleep.

Master of The Universe has the Wind hitting their pocket performance wise, but the tape has distortion and perhaps some dropouts.

On Born to Go, they get downright experimental. The sound is like awkward jazz or something, atonal ramblingness, adorned with feedback.

All in all a great flash back, even thought it is a bootleg and has some sonic deficiencies.

Tribute to WSB and Jajouka

After spending many a college afternoon in the WSB archives at ASU, I have been extremely interested in the thought process developed by him. I won't bore you with more details because he has been discussed to death.

The cut up methodology has been a fave forever, especially the short WSB/Anthony Balch film of the same name.

I also discovered the "4000 year old rock band sound" of Jajouka since I took the Brian Jones record in on trade at a record store that I used to manage. Later that year the Axiom Jajouka release came out and I spun that disc incessantly for personal enjoyment and also as a way to keep the patrons of said store under control. That Adcom speaker controller was put to very good use...

So I felt that after all these years it was time to do a tribute both to WSB and the mighty Jajouka.

Here is a "remix" of Talaha.

Thank so for inspiration both to the Cabinet (and all of the revelant members) as well as my #1 Bro EJ.

More musings on Finnish Nuggets

After receiving a reprimand for not posting comments in garagepunk.com, here are some more comments...

Some thoughts and musings on this massive comp, ( I received a copy on 4 discs!)

I dig the fuzz on Hey Hey Hey by Blues Section. The Sax riff in response to the vocal is a bit disconcerting. A pretty heavy tune otherwise.

The Ernos bust a moody move with the track Harha. A hypnotic riffs reels the listener in and then returns to continue pushing the song forward. The vocals are more of a harmonic thing, think these folks were influenced by Mamas & Papas?

The Renegades (Birmingham UK) give a hard, Brummie reading of 13 Women. That organ riff still startles me after a few listens. The dog seems to dig it. The guitar break is punctuated by screams, growls and cymbal bashing. Great tone on the axe. Ace.

Jormas scream it out on the keyboard heavy I Can't Break The Habit. Falcetto vocs provide the counterpoint to the distorto guitar that sludges along.

The Roosters shake a soul feather on thier version of See See Rider. I dig the rolling organ at the bottom of the mix.

Topmost gives the Artwoods a run for the money with their reading of I Keep Foregtting. The guitar break is pretty sweet, but could be tough by either turning up the amp, or hitting a distortion pedal.

The Careless hit the garage pocket with Desolate Time. I dig the accent here. Garage vibe from the North. Drum roll intros the tuff guitar solo. The cymbals are smacked hard as well.

The book that Euphonic assembled is also unbelieveable. After all of the comps that I have bought over the years, this surely has to be one of the most complete. Compilers take note...

I hope to print it, sit down with the comps, with a Belgian Ale and fully get the story of Finnish Nuggets.

Sons of Adam Moxie ep

Ah yes, the soothing sounds of The Sons of Adam. Soothing would not realy be a proper adjective with Randy Holden's blistering guitar. Mr Holden is a master.

This ep starts with You're a A Better Man Than I, the Yardbirds track. While most of the performance of the song has little to improve on the original save for Holden's guitar. The break will bend your mind. Lots of strings bending, sustain and speaker rippling feedback.

The Sons cover an Arthur Lee song called Feathered Fish that Love never recorded. Here Randy builds the base for the entire sound. He pounds it out, and the vocals, in a very 66 LA follow the path blazed by his guitar.

Baby show Me The Way was introduced to me from one of those Tony The Tiger comps from 10 years or so ago. This is a hard number with Mr. Holden playing counterpoint to the vocals. He seems to be trying to keep his axe under control, but his youthful energy and chops demand that he let it rip. "Lets move it down, now... Yeah."

The vibe is the MC5 at their most raw, without the politics. Word is genius.
The sound on this ep is pretty rough, obviously "mastered" from the original 45s themselves.

Here is a link to d/l mp3s. Thanks, Lost In Tyme Blog

Noise for the people

If you have been paying attention, I have been trying to get my skills together with garageband.
I still have a lot of work to do with the learning curve, but here is a remix of the funk nugget "Hachet."

Hachet

(the link above is to a non compressed 34 M file hosted by our friends in Deutschland at Rapidshare.)

Thanks to the prodding of my friends, hopefully this is just the beginning.

Nuggets from Finland

Wow, I constantly amaze myself with how much cool music came out in the 60s. It came from everywhere. Last year somebody provided multiple cds of mp3 sourced Portugeuse 60s music.

So here we go with FOUR (!) cds worth of 60s beat from Finland, home of a very heterogenous (and rocking) population.

The sound quality varies on record to record, but what else would you expect. Even the worst disc does not touch the "sound" of earlier Pebbles type comps. There seems to be some digital imperfections at some places in the songlist.

There are tons of tracks here, but I will try to stick to the ones that caught me ear. On disc two, there is Kevat by the New Joys. The fuzz riff is maximum, but then mood is kicked down quite a few notches when the vocals start. Lyrics are in Finn, and add an eerieness to the proceedings. Then a Keith Moonalike makes a quick appearance and smacks his drum kit like a collection of garbage bins. Cool track.

Dance to The Locomotion by Jormas, is wary fast and smokes. How does the drummer play that fast? R&B speeded to the max, the snare solo is crazy, followed by a frantic guitar lead. Their take on California Dreaming aint so hot, though. The tempo is kind of jerky on that song.

The Downwalkers do the moody thang with I Don't Believe You. These gents are from Espoo. There is a bit of the string jangle, but the vocals make the mood here.

Tunnen Sen by The Esquires seems that it may be more of an authentic sound, as it doesn't sound like anything else.

Volume Three kicks off with Call Me on The Telephone by Blues Section. It has more of a tough sound, I liked 80% of this one, excepting the saxaphone, and the cowbell might be a bit abused. The guitar snarls and wheezes trhough a break sounding like nothing else.

The Renegades do a great cover of the Sorrows, "Take A Heart," with a phenomenal harmonica sound.

The Hitchhikers do a track called Meditation with a driving organ. The tempo is all over the place.

I will try to post some more thoughts later.

Captain Beefheart Bat Chain Puller

This unreleased album from 76 comes my way via the mail. I am not sure why Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band never released this one. But thank you, internet.

The title track that leads this off, makes me say, "What an astonishingly odd way to start a record."

The harmonica "tone" that came out of the speakers gave my dog the inclination to do a double take. Sounded like wounded young elephant.

Maybe as I listen to this I am beinning to understand why this is lost. The third track, Harry Irene with it's sing songy vocals and whistle solo, really makes me this of one Jim Croce. Sorry, Captain.

Poop Hatch, while being a wierd Beefheartian spoken word piece, just kind of sucks.

Bat Chain Puller redeems itself with the track Brickbats. Lots of skronkity skronk horns dueling with some sloppy drums playing in an uncountable time signature. Surely those AZ pizza hut employees the Sun City Girls modeled their music in that style.

Not his strongest effort. I guess the hardest part is getting past Van Vliet's singing style. His famous multi octave voice is nary in view.

Handbraking weather

Well, to say that I am a fan of my daily driver whip would be the overstatement of early 2007.

My tonda shivic is quite excellent in the weather as experienced today. We received an inch or so of snow that fell at around 30 degrees, so that the snow was both slippery and fun. This is where the car shines, and I enjoy it the most, outside of the built in reliability.

Here are the main important features of the car:

1. The car is pretty light.
2. The car is front wheel drive.
3. Said shivic has a handbrake (even though it is a 4 speed lame o auto tranny.)

I enjoyed going to a local mall with Cratedigger Sr. holding onto the chicken bar on the headliner, and plunging over the snowplow "drifts" at the edge of each parking row. The look on pop's face was quite priceless as he screamed, "Craaaaaaaaatediggeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr Watch It!"

Another fun routine was forcing the vehicle into right angle turns, by taking my foot off the throttle and then pulling the handbrake, thus slowing front wheel spin whilst at the same time locking the rear brake drums, and jerking the steering wheel in the direction of intended turn.

I really should have taken some shots of the right angle turns in the slush. Good times.

DJ Shadow Psych Mix

I have been spending time in the cut/paste/edit/repeat zone as noted in recent posts. I finally got around to downloading the DJ Shadow psych mix as discussed on the yahoo group U-Spaces. I have to admit to being a lurker in that group...

This has been of interest to me for awhile, but my MP3 aversion is hard to overcome. I can't pull many of the songs that Shadow uses here, but I did recognize an Alexis Korner record used on the first track, as well as a Zappa voice over, "Suzy Creamcheese, where are you?" I do believe that is from the Mothers' Freak Out record.

For me the source records are not the most interesting part of this sound collage. The film strip from 7th grade sound quality of some of the sampled voice overs is of most interest. In fact some of the snips remind me of real experimental/industrial (not waxtrax) from the 80s. I wish I still had some of those tapes... The snips make mention of UFOs and other appropriate spaced out subject material that well accompanies the light headed feeling that the listener will get from jamming this. The sum of the parts, is much greater as a cliche.

The build from some unknown (to me) record at 4 minutes into track five, would be a great sound track to pumping the pedals up a large uphill ascent on your old roadbike. Then it breaks into "I am so tired and I don't know who I am..." A melancholy come down, go buy a farm in the country, hippie. There was some sound collage here also, but hard for me to make out at volume. Nice touch on the sampled loc groove at the end, scratches and all.

The sound quality is dodgy as I doubt this was ever very hifi and the source>aiff>mp3>aiff sound path has not helped on the highs in the sound spectrum. But I enjoyed splitting my wig to it nonetheless.

Not much in the scratching arena is in evidence here, but there are tons of edits, of that I am sure.

I found this collection of tracks to be highly effective, in additon to my homebrew espresso, to get the Sunday going.

AR + Machines Echo

What have I been up to? I have been getting lost in the Interzone of cut up music and distorted internet culture. Old WSB's ears may hurt from this $h!T, but he would surely get it from the creative and production level.

Take for example, the double record, AR+ Machines. Apparently, this is a Krautrock masterpiece that will "Never" see the light of day in a proper cd reissue. So the FLAC files that I decoded and burned to a couple of cdrs will be as good as it gets.

The dude behind this release is pictured above. His name is Achim Reichel and he used to be in the Rattles, a beat band with whom I am somewhat familiar. This record is firmly in the progkrautrockcamp. As illustrated in the pic above, Herr Reichel, likes to abuse the Strat and the tape loops. There are even some floot loops on one of the tracks.

Echo is one of those releases that you can put on and start the coffee and go about your Saturday morning, and the noise will put you into an oddly creative mood. I think that volume will make a big difference in what your personal takeaway is from the record.

It is almost useless to out write Julian Cope in regards to this record. He seems to get his Freak On about Echo.

AR+Machines abuses the tape loops and edits and uses phasing in such a way that it makes me wonder where I put my Fripp and Eno records. The mood goes from outer space to inner space and back again. I think that I will listen to this on the headphones the next time that I am on a plane.

Damm GarageBand is Baaad

Thanks to some of the persistence of one of my bros, I have been abusing the mac program GarageBand. The claw knows...

I have found it incredibly entertaining to abuse the tunes around the house and fill the system with some discombobulating noise. Just drop the noise into iTunes and then find it in GB and bring it in. I am thinking that putting it back out should be just as easy. So far I ahave been mixing live and hurting my garage sale amplification. One of my "tracks" is getting closer to the point that I may be able to record it soon.

Some of my faves are pretty mainstream funk dusties, then busting fills with Dutch noise. I may be onto something, or I may just be lame. But it doesn't matter really.

The program has an extremely easy learning curve. I really know nothing about sound, but GB makes it very easy to make edits, cuts, loops, and add extra tracks without much skill required. I can't believe how much fun this has been, maybe more fun than my tascam 4 track 15 years back.

The Churchills LP from 68

I had heard a bit about the Churchills LP from 68 a bit as being the one high dollar psych lp that is actually worth the money. They were an Israeli band that challenges Plastic Cloud on the fuzz category.

I am happy to get a cdr of an out of print $5-6000 lp usually, but I have not been able to make that happen yet. Yesterday, I was able to download an mp3 copy of the album from 1992. For mp3, this particular burn makes quite the room filler of sound.

Pictures in my mind has a preponderance of fuzz curlique throught the mid range. The stereo mix is very effective here. The 'Hills use the the panning effect to excellent result. Towards the end the fuzz travels channel to channel, up and down in volume in the mid range. This is all over a pounding blues based rythm stomp. Very cool.

Track four mellows a bit and takes the progression down.

Track 5 starts to pound and the guitar workout would give both Jimi and Ron Asheton a run for the money. Once again the panning effects are used to build tension. The arrangement is spectacular. The bass is tight and the drum kit is spanking out. My listening room is rumbling.

When the Churchills get to Straight People, they lose my attention a bit. The tempo reminds me a bit of Coronado's biggest drunken export, Jimmy Morrison. That f er should have sent more time mowing his lawn instead of "poetry," but I digress. Not a good thing to my ears. They use a preponderance of reverbed sound effects to move the song. The vocals just kill it for me. There is also either more tape hiss or snare rumble on this track.

Subsequent Final betrays their geographical heritage by including local instrumentation (the saz?). Sonically it reminds me of some of the more powerful Turkish psysch that was being reissued in years back. The bass is just doing bass drops. My neighbors must love me this morning. They break it down in an almost bluegrass fashion at the end. Amazing. This is possibly best one of the best arranged songs that I have heard in months. Rumble, rumble rumble oes the electric bass under it all. "Here I go..." Nice test tone at the end.

So Alone Today uses backwards guitar and echo to make chills form on the back of your neck and to make the dog ask to go outside. Freak.

Debka has the freak out award for this record though. Listen to our friends consult the joint chiefs over a rambling stringed arrangement as they build into a more medium tempo. The leader and intro is asking to be sampled.

I won't bore you with the details as they move into Led Zep cover territory.

Frank Zappa - King Kong (1968)

This was posted, just because it is there.

Many Beefheart collaborators,and FZ kind of stinks up the joint.

critical mass

Kind of glad that I missed this part of the Mass.

Critical Mass 12.29.06 pt 2

So after riding down Milwaukee, we follwed a couple of fixed gear riders down Lake Street underneath the El to Franklin, where we once again followed the El tracks, but this time south. Manouvering the Dahon amongst the supports for the El tracks and the Friday traffic was quite challenging. The Speed handled very well, I need to take it in for a dialing in, though. The brakes could use some adjusting. Overall, the chrome moly frame feels stiff and the SRAM shifter is a huge improvement over the 5 speed Sturmey Archer failure.

We got to Daley Center and there was a crowd, but not as big as I suspected for a New Year's Critical Mass. The weather was extremely mild and dry. Amazing for late December in Chicago.

We met our two groups of friends, two of the total group were Chicago CM first timers. They seemed pretty psyched. We heard rumors that the ride was going to head south to Hyde Park for a bonfire. None of our group was up for a ride down south and then all the way back north.

We headed out and almost immediately started heading south and west. We went past Greek Town and then headed west on the street directly north of 290. When we got to Ashland, the ride headed south. Our group was definiately not into going to either Oak Park (west) or Hyde Park (south) at that point. We called a group audible and decided to head back north and hit a couple of bars.

Based on a video that I posted, it looks like we are all wrong, and the ride did head north at some point, since the video shows some CM nonsense in Wicker Park at the North/Damen/Milwaukee intersection. We did see more than a few groups of riders heading both east and north as well.

Anyway, we headed north and stopped at a place called the Union Club,, on the edge of the hood. Judging by the bars around the parking lot, I felt that this was a somewhat unsafe place to park our six bikes. We used our Kryptos and some of our friends used a cable.

We mentioned to the door dude to watch our bikes, but I didn't feel that he gave it much priority. I came out the front door of the bar every few minutes to check. Everything was there each time that I checked. After we were done, maybe 45 minutes or so, we settled up and left. I was the first one out the door and was the first to notice that there were only 5 bikes!

f-ing thieves!!!

Our one friend had his mountain bike stolen. Not cool. We talked to the manager, and then we headed the 2 blocks to the police department. We dropped our friends there, they were going to file a report, take the blue line to the red line and go home.

We started heading east though the Loop. It was a great night to be out in the city on a bike. Pretty calm, and the weather was perfect. We went north on Clark, and then took the scenic route through Lincoln Park. Going through the Park at night on a bike is another cool thing to do. All of the familiar sights and smells from my childhood at the Zoo seem so much different. It is a quiet oasis between Broadway and Lake Shore Drive. I also almost ran over two rats that think that they have the park to themselves at night.

We continued up Broadway and evetually ended up at Moodys. Ths place has the 1966 beer joint down. Nothing has changed there since the 60s, a nice dark joint with free peanuts and $9.00 Anchor Steam pitchers! I will be going back.

We continued north and caught the Rogers Park train at 11.52. It was a long night of riding. I can't wait for next month.

Chicago Critical Mass 12.29.06

So yesterday after taking a short holiday schedule at work, I went to the city to have my new Dahon Vitesse 5 speed tuned up at Rapid Transit Bikes, where I bought it. This was in preparation for the last Critical Mass of 2006.

I used the new Bolsa bike bag to carry the folder on the Metra commuter train to the city. The ride to the Clybourn stop was uneventful.

We got off the train, folded the bikes up and headed down the bike lane on Cortland through the yuppie borough of Bucktown. As I was pedaling amongst the city dweller hoopties and the yupster whips like Mini Coopers and Range Rovers, I detected a major clicking and vagueness coming from the Sturmey and Archer rear hub. This was not a cool feeling coming from any bike much less one that was a week and half old.

We get to the shop and they put the Vitesse on the rack. There was a mood of familiarity that permeated the room as if they had seen problems with this ride in the past.

Apparently Sturmey Archer is now owned by another company and is NOT known for the quality that I am familiar with from vintage Raleigh 3 speed transmissions.

The mechanic replaced the gear selector cable, ground down the adjustment barrel, replaced the cable again, and when I took the Vitesse on a test ride the same problem was evident. The bike couldn't find gears in the rear end and when it could, it could not stay in gear for long. Bogus.

Things were not looking good to use the bike for the final Critical Mass of 06.

After another agonizing hour, I said that it didn't look like the bike could be fixed, as the mechanic had tried everything. He seemed releived, then he shared with me that they had taken back 5 of this model due to similar issues. Dahon had even made a mod that was supposed to rectify the situation.

Strike #1 Dahon company.

I still kept my cool, but I was very determined to have a bike to ride in the Mass, especially since I took time from work and planned to meet a few people from both out of town as well as from the surrounding area.

They are determined to keep customers happy at Rapid Transit, so they let me pick out another Dahon in even exchange. The one that I selected was the Speed 8, which is much more of a performance bike as opposed to the 16" Piccolo and the D5 Vitesse, which are commuters. Also the Speed 8 has a derailleur instead of an internal hub tranny.

While this bike is off the floor, and could still use a few adjustments, I can say that it honestly hauls. The SRAM shifter moves the chain over the cogs pretty consistently with nary a skip.

So after getting a quick felafel at Sultans Market, (in Wicker Park at North and Hoyne), we flew down Milwaukee and enjoyed the bike lane all the way to Lake Street. We were able to see a tall bike and a stereo equipped trailer bike as we stopped for the requisite Old Style 6 pack.

Abby: Exorcist rip from 74

Here is another winner (loser?) from the CD archives, 1974's Abby. This is a Blaxpolitation version of The Exorcist.

Being an American International picture, it hits on many points in the Blax genre. Also, this is a cratedigger vault member that appears to never have recieved a dvd release. The vhs copy is a multi generational copy from a scratched film print. Some of the scenes are pretty washed out. I would imagine that this is from both the film source as well as the old tape on which the signal is stored, but I digress.

William "Blacula" Marshall co stars in this film and plays a critical part in the plot as well as the resolution. The actor can emote. Not hard to imagine him as Lord Vader in the place of James Earl Jones. He plays Abby's father in law. He is trained in the ways of the Eshu spirits and knows how to deal with them.

This is a real freaky film as it starts all happy and positive with Abby (Carol Speed) moving into a new house with her husband who also happens to be a pastor. Spirits come to visit on the first night and Abby is never the same.

Once she starts to get her posessed freak on, first in a hot shower and then notably while cutting some bloody chicken, the positive tone of the film goes south. I guess this is much like the tone of the US during the early Ford Presidency circa 74.

When she freaks out and gets evil, the reverb used and the spooky green face flashed in really freaked out the youthful members of the audience. Sidenote, when I scored this video 10 years ago, a co worker named G 2 tha E said that he saw it on the West Side and had nightmares for the rest of the year. The combination of sound and visual effects remind me of the 70s anti drug film Angel Dust the Wack Attack!

Abby diverts from her training as a marriage counselor mighty quickly as she becomes the soul shaking hootchy mama enticing the brothers with the soul glow with her evil ways. The bar scene where this occurs will make any crate digger of soul quite happy. There are at least two cool shots of an old jukebox spinning the dusties, and afros and wild threads all over the place.

Marshall ends up saving the day and in so doing gives a positive resolution to the film. This is somewhat unconvential for movies from the blax era.

While being a cheapy, I enjoyed viewing this film again for the first time in years. The acting is not too bad for a blax movie and there is a basic plot that is not hard to follow. This would be great for a beer or cocktail fueled viewing party. Find a copy of this and dig it.

Weekend with The Babysitter

With the Holiday season in full effect, I received a dvd recorder as a gift. As part of the process of learning to use the machine and the related technology, I am digging into the cratedigger movie vaults (boxes and crates) to find movies that are trapped in the vhs domain. Many of these gems are way out of print, (if they were ever in print) on vhs, and certainly do not have a proper dvd release. I am wrong-- look here.

So that said, the first film that I pulled out of the basement video vault was Weekend with The Babysitter from 1970.

This Crown International picture opens with a cool scene at the CA / Mexico border that shows the border security in place in 69/70. Great mid 60s cars are all over the place. A hippie-aged young person gets taken down after he tries to run after being selected for a search. As I watch the film, I wonder what this has to do with the plot. I guess it is an attempt to have a teaching concept to this mild explotative time killer. "Sex and Betrayal," I guess...

George E. Carey seems to have done just about everything in this film (write, direct, produce) and Susan Romen stars as the teenaged, Honda Dream riding, gogo boot wearing babysitter named appropriately enough- Candy Wilson.

The babysitter randomly shows up one evening, apparently univited, The dad, Jim, is surprised to see her. The doped out wife, Mona, is "going to see her parents" with Mike, the wee laddie son. That leaves dad and the babysitter alone for youthful shenanigans.

The question remains, did Mona really invite Candy over to husband sit as a distraction?

Candy is soon making Tanqueray martinis ("on the rocks") and taking Jim to Sunset Strip, for some beer drinking/acid rock/lightshow/dancing mayhem.

Really, Mona is going to hang out with Rich, to get some drugs while her mom takes care of Mike. After a bit, Rich entices Mona to use Jim's cabin cruiser to sail to Mexico on a drug run.

Meanwhile, Jim takes Candy to the mountain house in his airplane.

This movie has it all, drugs, sex, some violence, motorcycles, motocross, youth rebellion, "rock" music, and hip lingo. The plot is pretty snore inducing. But the exploitative nature of this film tries to cover all bases. Some of the coolest footage is of the early motocross action.

JB Update--still b!t$h slappin' from beyond the Grave

I don't know if this is for real or not, but pretty amazing nonetheless.

It appears that James Brown might have locked his wife out of his GA house after his death.

There must be something to the story based on USA Today's coverage:

"It's not a reflection on her as an individual," lawyer Buddy Dallas told The Associated Press. "I have not even been in the house, nor will I until appropriate protocol is followed."

Brown's partner, backup dancer Tomi Rae Hynie, was already married to a Texas man in 2001 when she married Brown, thus making her marriage to Brown null, Dallas said. He said Hynie later annulled the previous marriage, but she and Brown never remarried.

"I suppose it would mean she was, from time to time, a guest in Mr. Brown's home," Dallas said.

On Monday, after the 73-year-old "Godfather of Soul" died at an Atlanta hospital, Hynie, 36, found the gates to Brown's Beech Island, S.C., home padlocked and said she was denied access."

Ouch, JB. You are still pushing people around, even though you are gone. The world is a much less interesting place without you.

RIP JB

This will be a lot less funky Christmas this year.

I just got word that James Brown has passed away.
Rest in piece Soul Brother Number One.

You will be missed.

James Brown dies aged 73

By Telegraph staff and agencies

Last Updated: 10:52am GMT 25/12/2006

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul", whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco, died today in Atlanta, aged 73.

	James Brown had a complicated and unhappy personal life

Brown, whose career spanned six decades, was taken to hospital yesterday with pneumonia, said his agent, Frank Copsidas, and died with longtime friend Charles Bobbit at his side.

Brown’s music was a major influence on modern music, and his work has been sampled by rap artists from the 1980s to this day, his famous 1960s and 1970s break beats becoming the basis of hip hop.

"The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. In 2003, he reaffirmed his impact: "Disco is James Brown, hip hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I’m saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 per cent of their music is me."

His hit singles include classics such as Out of Sight, Funky Drummer and Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud, a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves coloured, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society."

Brown won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag (best R&B recording) and for Living In America in 1987 (best male R&B vocal performance.)

He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown spent more than two years in a South Carolina prison for assault and failing to stop for a police officer.

Brown, who had his first hit, Please, Please, Please in 1956, earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" for his tour schedule and number of performances. He was still touring this year, with concerts as far flung as Auckland, New Zealand.

"James presented obviously the best grooves," Chuck D of Public Enemy once said. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one’s coming even close."

Born in poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina, in 1933, he was abandoned as a four-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets of Augusta, Georgia, in an "ill-repute area", as he once called it. There he learned to wheel and deal. "I wanted to be somebody," Brown said.

His troubled childhood saw him duck in and out of reform school, and it was there that he met Bobby Byrd, a major early influence. While most of Brown’s life was glitz and glitter, he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne.

In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private toilet.

Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia.

The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his truck. Brown received a six-year prison sentence.

He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.

The Plastic Cloud

This reissue CD from 68 arrived in the mail the other day. Tonight, being all black and inklike outside seemed to be the perfect time to warm the vacuum tubes and give this CD a spin on the reference system.

Sonically, this record appears to be in early stereo. It is a bit disconcerting, but I guess is part of the trip here. Track 2, Shadows of Your Mind exemplifies the fizz riffing, scale running and balls out jamming appears in the left channel while the plantive vocal attempts to balance coming out of the right channel. A backup vocal appears in the left channel later in the song.

The guitar appears to favor the left channel on Art's A Happy Man as well, the hippy vocal stylings can be a bit trying, but you can feel the build of the song by using multi channel mixing of the various vocals.

Fuzz face or some other cool old pedal appears to be modifying the signal of the guitar at the beginning of the focal point of the LP, You Don't Care. The guitar is mixed into the lower depths here. It moves back and forth. The drums roll and the cymbals are used mercilessly.
"You Don't Care for the morning, you dont care for the sumer rain." Then the guitar takes off. Maybe like a much speeded young Jorma... Everything chills the weird Indian sounding drum tone appears in the right channel, and the master volume of the guitar is somewhat squelched.
Finally the bass moves into an area of the mix where it can be heard.

Bridge Under the Sky, seems like way light after You Don't Care. "Everybody knows, everybody says... might as well be dead." Have to love anti happy hippy lyrics like that. There are some odd tones and hums that leak from various areas of the sound pallette. It is hard for me to tell if it is tape hiss, or what, but it certainly does seem that the system is appropriately grounded.

Dainty General Blues moves the vocals more in the center of the mix. There is a hefty ladel of plate reverb added to the vocals as well. The bass really stomps in the right channel and may bleed a bit into the left. The marching beat matches well with the lyrical matter.

The lp does not end on an easy listening note as they trot to a near sludge beat on Civization Machine. "Finest you've ever seen."

This is a bit off the beaten path, but fans of psych like Love or perhaps West Coast Pop Art Experimental band should dig this. While the fuzz is the element that sticks with the listener, The Plastic Cloud is much more in the psych realm that in garage. This record may contain the highest possible level of fuzz.

In fact, other than the raw production there is nothing garage about this record. The packaging goes to lengths to provide all the material from the original vinyl release. It includes complete lyrics and oddball liner notes that give the feeling that these kids dug their Hobbit.

Plastic Cloud shot a bit of light out of the loudspeakers on this the most dark of nights.

Scoot Cannon

I have always been into scooters, and I even have a pic of this Vespa on the CD listening room wall, but I did not have the full story... until now.

"After World War II, there was little money for defense spending while the nations of Europe rebuilt their industry and society. When there was some cash to spend, one had to be creative to stretch it as far as possible. The French probably accomplished the most astounding example of that with the ACMA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56. Deployed with their airborne forces, this was essentially a militarized Vespa scooter outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle. Five parachutes would carry the two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters safely to earth, and the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, then ride away. More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews. Total cost? About $500 for the scooter and the recoilless rifle was war surplus. Were they successful military machines? Well, the French Army deployed about 800 armed scooters in wars conducted in both Algeria and Indochina."

Kind of like the story of the Vespa scooter itself. Piaggio, was a supplier to the Italian aerospace field, this helps to explain some of the defining features of the Vespa, such as the stub axle and the monococoque integral frame and body structure. The Vespa was very key to the moblization of Europe after the devastation of WWII.

Thanks to Scott for sending the link.

Captain Beefheart - Ice Cream for Crow (HIgh Resolution)

Since it is raining tonight, it is time for some desert bound Capn'

No Drumbo, but dig the Capn's command "Dont shake my hand Gimme' a Claw."

Are you listening, friends? You know that I am a fan of the claw.

Chocolate Soup For Diabetics

I have heard about this series of compilations over the years, but it is only in the past week that I have scored a "copy" of sorts. Chocolate Soup is a series of comps that explore British Psyche, similar to the Rubble series.

I am listening to a CDR of the tracks. Looking at an online database, I see that the CDR to which I am rumbling the HQ, is a comp of the Chocolate Soup comps.

One of the tracks that seems new to me, The Nutchez' Open Up Your Mind has a sort of fey, baroque sound , that has a pretty tasty fuzz riff, over a really booming electric bass line.

One In A Million sings about death, "He won't come back... he's dead now, " in the Fredereek Hernando track. Nice backward coda. Odd song with an odd ending. I have to say that as far as psych goes, I appreciate the spooky, creepy, grey skies, twisted, leafless oak tree sound as opposed to the sunny West Coast sound.

Tinturn Abbey in Vacuum Cleaner conjures some moaning tones from their guitar, some sort of electronic sustain that sounds like it is melting both the tubes of the amplifier driving the speaker cabinet as well as the tape stock running across the magnetic recording head. Perhaps it is just my pre amp tubes melting...

The Misunderstood, from Riverside CA, take up 4 tracks on this. While the tracks are great, I have them on other comps as well as on the Ugly Things CD and the other Cherry Red Before The Dream Faded release from the 90s. John Peel really dug them and played The 'Stood a bunch on his radio shows way back then. I Can Take You To The Sun, please do.

Dantalian's Chariot Madman Running Through a Field has a weird vocal, sort of whiny, with an odd slow break that features some backwards sound effects. Instead of a flute solo, a Hammond jam would have been better in my book. There is also a persistent high pitched tone from a Farfisa or something that is turning the dog's ears for pretty much the entire track. Bizarreness.

The Flies (also on Rubble) bust their jamming version of Steppin' Stone. Great power intro riff that leads into the killer bass line and pounding percussion. Are these dudes Brummies? Double tracked vocals add to the general tough sound. The guitar tone rules and just weaves its' way throughout the mix. "Didn't have no shoes- now you're walking around like you was front page news." Indeed.

In my book, Fresh Windows' Summer Sun Shines should jump through the closest one, and end it, please. But they redeem themselves somewhat with the very next track, Fashion Conscious.

Your boot will definitely tap the carpet to My Father's Name is Dad by The Fire. I have heard this one a bunch, but it has a great simple riff that is punctuated by a pulsing bass. Sappy pop lyrics only help this one.

This comp of comps would be an excellent intro to some of these British psych sounds, akin to an ongoing in the similar Rubble series. The sound on this CDR has a pretty decent range. The (minimal) vinyl surface noise only adds to the listening experience.

THE CREATION - Painter Man +2 (1966)

More Killer Mod Stuff, the quality here is also excellent. The camera work seems to shy away from Eddie Phillips, for this viewer, but we get to see the late, great Kim Gardner hit the bass and the back up vox. Thanks klemtoon for posting these.

The Electric Prunes - A Long Day's Flight

This is a massively cool clip. While it is lip synched, it is is great quality. Rock The Prunes Brothers and Sisters!!!

Searching for Shakes Swedish Beat 65-68

Wot a great cd... Got a cdr of this 99 reissue in the past week. It seems that our musical friends from Sverige were very contemporary with the styles from the UK, and pull it off extremely well.

The reference system really seems to dig on the monophonic glory of the 45s on this. One wonders where Benny Andersson appears on this release. A trip over there a few years back suggested that he is still fairly integral with music and even current bands. I wish I had this cd when I was there as I think that the beer and wine fueled singalongs would have been even more fun with these sounds as source material.

The Namelosers start strong with Do-Ao. Much fuzz leads this moody howler, where the vocalist emits quite a howl among the guitar feedback screech and sustain. Strong.

Early fave is track 3 At The Club, where the T-Boones put on their best English r&b strut. A wonderful reverb ladened push moves this song. "You're my secret-- love at the club."

My fave track is The Tages with their freakbeatish The Man You are Looking For. Swirls of sound spit off the disc here. I am not sure if they put their Norsk brethren The Diworced to shame with their sound, but this one does it for theses ears. Nice strong drums that Mitch Mitchell could be jealous of.

The Lee Kings do a massive Whoesque feedback drenched break as part of the coda in On My Way. Darn impressive is the mood that they dish here.

Steampacket II in Take Her Anytime, assemble awesome Hammond under a sustained guitar distortion wash, more please. I love the clearly stated vocal. Even reverb on the snare. She'll be yours, you gotta be the one for her. This one borders on the psychedelic. I can put this in heavy rotation.

Ah hell, most of this stuff is totally correct for your next aquavit session accompanied with the requisite fiske. These groups also understood that if you can't make it happen in under 3:30, son't bother, as most of these songs are in the 1:50 to 2:20 range as it should be.

Brazilian Funk Experience

Picked this one up yesterday. Not sure what to think... Took a risk and reap the rewards...
Sonically, this cd makes the tubes hum.

The lead track No Baixo Do Separtiero, by Meirelles, pushes with a mad analog synth. Can you sat Moogathon??? The bass percolates and moves the track into symphony territory. I can see a lot of asses shakin to thisn.

Kick the cowbell on track 3, Homenagem A Mongo, into an arrangement that a Mancini on acid would dig. Funkety, funkety, funkety. Great brass accents and killer percussion. I can see someone grabbing some snippets and doing something different with this one.

Cala Boca Menino, has a definitely funky godfather of soul riff to it. The liners say that this had been sampled a ton and I believe it. The bassline is the stuff to lose your brain to, perhaps one could even lose his cool to this track.

The 3rd time through the release, I find myself really starting to get it, and tapping my foot excessively. This is a great way to get immersion into funky Brazilian sounds. The liner notes will even give you some background to help you find more, because we all know that comps are only there to whet your appetite to find more stuff.

Tremendous Audio Action Lately

Cratedigger HQ has been a flurry of activity as of late.

The reference system has undergone a revision and an upgrade. The B&O turntable is now gone, sold at a 330% profit.

Here is the low down on the current setup. Rega Planar 43 turntable, Audio technica cartridge, Dynaco PAS2 preamp, and the Yamaha CR500 bridged, running as an amp. I have upgraded the interconnect between the pre and the amp by going with a Canare interconnect. The loudspeakers are still the AR 2 Axs, running on stands that are 20" off the hardwood floor. For cds, I am still using the AMC CD 8b.

I have also ditched the old vertical format of the stand for the system. The Ikea rack is now in the vault. I now have everything stretched out on an old coffee table between the loudspeakers.

I can detect a definite improvement on the mids and the bass with this new set up. Some of the new tunez have been really shaking the walls.

Baby Huey, esp. Every time the track "Listen To Me" busts out of the break-- the AMC cd8b skips...

Chubby "Chequered" Checker

YEEE AAAHHHHH!!!!

I have been wanting to hear this LP forever, well at least since I read about it in Ugly Things 23 from a couple of years back. And what did I find in my mailbox this afterlunch, but a copy on CDR from Mockba, no less.

Scott Seward wrote an excellent piece on this record in UT 23, which happens to be Chubby's acid rock album. I know that it sounds crazy, but this is a solid effort, featuring tons of soulful Hammond and acid tinged guitar. His vocal delivery is awesome.

He even uses turned on lyrics- "How does it feel when you smoke by yourself, How does it feel when you trip with someone else?" from the song "How Does it Feel," obviously not anything to do with the Creation track.

The details on how this LP, which Chubby doesn't want to speak about or really acknowledge, are somewhat sketchy. A record company scammer from he 60s, named Ed Chalpin, who also was behind the Hendrix / Curtis Knight chitlin circuit records, released this in Europe and in a cutout version in North America. Money was made on this, but one suspects The Chubbinator did not reap any of the monetary reward.

1971 is listed as the year of release, but since the Moon is such a large part of the lyrical subject matter suggests a possible earlier release (or composition) timeframe.

Wild! The LP leads off with "Goodbye Victoria" a real scorcher. The build of the piano into his haunting acid vocal moves it along.

The pacing of the album ebbs and flows after that, but really "peaks" with the track "Love Tunnel." It is like a more speeded out Arthur Lee with a more heavy acid backing group. "Don't get hung up in the Love Tunnel," Indeed. The drums just pound under the vocals. Just wait until you get to the crazy track that ends it all-- "Gypsy," Chubby sounds like he is really losing it, fast tempo, yelling vocals.

I can't recommend something higher, this is both a novelty and psychotronically entertaining, but also quite good. I can see listening at least to "Goodbye Victoria" and "Love Tunnel" in the future. I am looking for a vinyl version of this one!

Snow Day

Damn. Quite the wet winter wonderland out there. Above see a shot looking south out of my front door. I am snowed in. I think that I have an hour of shoveling after the snow stops before I will be able to get out the old honda.

There is maybe a foot of wet snow, and the air temp is about 30. Need to clear it as soon as it stops, so that I don't get ice.

The dog, of course, loves it. I will love it, if I get a chance to get out on the XC skis.

Velvet Underground Disc-Find of The Decade?

I am not a huge fan of the VU, but this ePay auction has a great story.

For the sake of simplicity, I am going to do a simple copy and paste of the back story:

Following is excerpted and adapted (with the author's approval) from the article written by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records in Portland Oregon which is featured in the December 8, 2006 issue of Goldmine Magazine currently on newsstands through mid December:

THE MYSTERY OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S "REAL FIRST RECORD" (AND HOW THE ONLY EXISTING COPY WAS BOUGHT FOR 75 CENTS)

In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a nice Leadbelly 10" on Folkways, a water damaged copy of the first Modern Lovers LP on Beserkely, and a brittle 12" piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words "Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph" written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75 cents each.

As I have a small knowledge of records and am an old friend of Warren's, I got a call from him the next day in which he described the acetate. Because of the date and the unique type of pressing, we both agreed that it was probably an in-studio acetate made during the recording of the first Velvet Underground LP back in 1966 (I had heard that they occasionally would have
a vinyl cutting lathe in the studio to cut records of the day's recordings for the artists and/or producers to take home for review). Warren didn't want to play the mysterious platter due to the fragile nature of acetates, and the cheap nature of his record needle, so we agreed that the next time he was visiting me in Portland we would check it out together. If it turned out to be what we thought it was, maybe we could sell it at Mississippi Records, the small neighborhood record store in Portland that I work at. Sight unseen and sound unheard, I assumed that it was likely an acetate pressing of the recording which would be eventually be released as
the group's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico".

It took awhile for Warren to visit, but when he did he brought along the acetate. We cued it up and were stunned -- the first song was not "Sunday Morning" as on the "Velvet Underground & Nico" Verve LP, but rather it was "European Son"- the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before! It was less bombastic and more bluesy
than the released version, and it clocked in at a full two minutes longer. I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special. Between the two of us we had heard many Velvets outtakes on both official and less than official releases, but the present material had never been heard by either of us.

The next few days found us scrambling for clues and information about what to make of this find; calling every record collector/historian we knew and reading everything we could find concerning the early recordings of the VU. We pieced together that this was probably a surviving copy of the legendary Scepter studios recordings which had been regarded as lost (hence the epic moniker "the lost scepter studios recordings" applied to these unheard sessions over the years). The recording is comprised of the primitive first "finished" version of the LP that Andy Warhol had shopped to Columbia as a ready-to-release debut album by his protege collective "The Velvet Underground".

This acetate, which is possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released.

Though the same compositions and even a few of the same "takes" (albeit in different mixes) were used on the subsequent commercial release, that which was eventually issued as their debut album on Verve, "The Velvet Underground & Nico", was a significantly different creation. I had heard of these nascent recordings before... it was said by some that the master
tapes had burned in a fire, by others that all of those recordings ended up being on the released album, and still by others that the only existing copy of that material was on an acetate owned by David Bowie, and that he was known to tout it as his most prized possession.

The truth about what we held was fuzzy until Warren managed to track down the N. Dolph referred to on the label for an interview.

Norman Dolph was a perennial in the New York art & music scene of the 1960's. He worked as a sales representative at Columbia Records through 1967, and was deeply involved with different facets of the independent music world on the side. Andy Warhol, who was managing the Velvets at the time, contacted Dolph & offered him a painting in exchange for services as
"ghost" (uncredited) producer for the Velvet's first recording session. Warhol wanted to record a Velvets album before they had a record company behind them as this would tend to minimize meddling label executives' mobility in compromising the musical arrangement's distraught primal force, not to mention the unprecedented taboo lyrics which openly address sex, drugs, and depravity. Warhol's plan was to have Dolph record it and then shop it around to labels (first & foremost Columbia) as a finished recording.

...and so Dolph rented out Scepter studios, and with an engineer named John Licata by his side, they recorded the Velvets for four days. At the time Scepter studios was between reconstruction and demolition with walls falling over and holes in the floor. Velvets' bass & viola player John Cale would later recall the environment as "Post-Apocalyptic".

Dolph took the master tapes made during this session to the Columbia building, which still had an in-house pressing plant, and cut the acetate "after hours" with people he knew on the inside. Dolph then sent the acetate to Columbia to see if they were interested in releasing it. It was returned promptly with a note that said something akin to "do you think we're out of our f**king minds?" Dolph then gave the acetate to Andy Warhol or John Cale, he cannot remember which.

Six of the songs recorded during the Scepter session made it on to the "Velvet Underground & Nico" LP, albeit with radically different mixes. The other four songs were re-recorded in LA by Tom Wilson. As far as we know, the only listenable copy of the original versions of Heroin, Venus In Furs, I'm Waiting For The Man, and European Son exist on the acetate that Warren
found. (A Japanese bootleg of the same material did appear, but in poor, arguably ‘unlistenable' sound quality. It is possible that the source tape for the Japanese bootleg was made from this very acetate decades ago when it was in different hands. Who knows?) We have since realized that we are in possession of a likely one of a kind artifact - the first recordings by one of the most influential rock bands of all time!

After establishing the authenticity of Warren's find we photographed the item and made a high quality digital back-up copy of the material. A media frenzy ensued, with articles appearing in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Record Collector, The Globe & Mail, and many other news sources. Calls started flooding in from people interested in buying the acetate, as well as record companies interested in releasing the songs on it. After much consideration, we decided that it would be best to release it to the highest bidder through an auction facilitated by our good friends at Saturn Records in Oakland, California (a store that has a well-established presence in the international vinyl collecting community, and an excellent reputation on the internet).

As to the most interesting mystery brought up by the appearance of this item - how did such an important artifact disappear for 37 years & end up at a Chelsea New York yard sale priced at 75 cents? ...We have no answer.

The track differences between the acetate versions and the commercial recordings on "The Velvet Underground & Nico" are detailed as follows:

1.European Son- completely different version,. Guitar solo is much bluesier. Less noisy and experimental. Longer by 2 minutes or so.

2.Black Angel's Death Song-Same take as released version. Different mix.

3.All Tomorrow's Parties- Same take as released version. Different mix.

4.I'll Be Your Mirror-Same take as released version. Radically different mix. No echo on Nico's vocals. Background vocals on end of song are more subdued.

5.Heroin-Completely different take than released version. Guitar line is different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. Drumming is more primitive & off kilter. There is a tambourine dragging throughout the song.

6.Femme Fatale- Same take as released version. Radically different mix. Percussion more prominent. Alternate take on background vocals. Much more "poppy".

7.Venus In Furs- Different take than released version. Vocal inflections completely different. Instrumentation more based around Cales' violin than the guitar as in the released version.

8.I'm Waiting For The Man- Different take than released version. Guitar line is completely different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. No drums, just tambourine. Bluesy guitar solo.

9.Run Run Run- Same take as released version. Different mix.

The weirdest stuff can show up in a pile of junk. It reminds me of a piece of advice that a wise (and very poor) friend gave me once. He reminded me to look down when entering a bar, and from time to time while in the bar. Drunk people have a way of dropping things- money, jewelry, wallets, etc. He would hardly ever go out on the town with any money. His glass was never half empty.

You are not going to see "it" unless your eyes are open.

Chicago Critical Mass 11.24.06

Since Critical Mass fell on the day after Thanksgiving, I had a feeling that we were in for a big treat. I was not let down.
Initially, the Mass was supposed to start at Daley Center as per usual. I had already trained into the City on Metra and ridden the Dahon to meet at Quisp's gf's apartment. The pictures above and below show the nonsensical scene at Daley Plaza. There were so may people attending some German village fest there that there was absolutely no place for bikers.

We ended up getting the word that the Mass would start from Federal Plaza, Below you can see the typical sights of a Chicago Mass.

The Mass seemed to be a celebration of anti consumerism, so with the biggest shopping day of the year with one of the most expensive cities laying in wait, hilarity was destined to ensue.

Above is a shot looking back on Michigan Avenue looking north. The plan was to head north on State weave around the Rush Street area and of course cause havoc on the Magnificent Mile. There was quite a decent turnout and lots of laughs. "Buy some more $#it!" was one of the more amusing comments used again and again with the "Ye AH!" pointed at some out of state shoppers that were so startled that they dropped their bags. At one point the token rollerbalder was going down Mich Ave, and I heard a loud scream. He had jumped onto the windshield of a minivan. I asked him later why he did that. He yelled, "Because they were getting too close!!!"
What stupid fun.

The ride itself wound south through the Loop down to Roosevelt and then out west on Taylor, et al. We did not make it all the way to the destination of 24th Street and Marshall. (There was a party there.) The thought of going all the way north again was too much.

Instead we went north up Damen or something to Elm Street and refueled at the Edwardo's Pizza that is in the neighborhood. All that grease combined with a couple of St Pauli Girls, I was ready for the next phase of the evening- a ride 9 miles north to Rogers Park.

We headed north through Lincoln Park and then eventually up through Uptown, up up up to Roger's. I caught a bit of a breather at the end for some more water, then I sprinted on the Dahon to the train. I made it home to tea and bed by midnight. My knees were killing me from all the distance on the wee bike.

Stang

It is 50 degrees or so today with an abundance of sun, so I decided to get the Mustang out of the garage for some speed trials on the streets.

The tank was down to a quarter of a tank, so I went to the local filling station and put 10 gallons of high test in and added 5 oz of STP lead substitute- not for road use it says on the bottle. Yeah, right, want to keep the original seals in the 289 happy. Gimme some more lead.

I warmed up the powerplant on some 30 and 35 mph stretches of road before I got to my favorite mile stretch, which I find out from my neighbor has been a speedway since at least the 70s.

I cross the stop sign zone and turn north rolling at a couple of miles an hour. Then I pointed the coupe northwards.

I hammered the gas and sidestepped the clutch. The new tires that I put on earlier this year made nary a squeal nor emitted the slightest amount of smoke, I was a bit disappointed.

I rode 1st, dumped the clutch and dropped into 2nd and rode it to what seemed the redline. I then short shifted 3rd, and then wound in 4th a bit. The FOMOCO gauge said 65 mph...

Just then I look in the rearview, which I had neglected as I enjoyed both the rush of acceleration as well as the fumes of unspent high test (coated with lead). I see the tell tale lights of johnie law.

I take the right foot to the rest position. I look in the mirror and the Man gives me a wink and a tilt of the hat. Then he hammers his Crown Vic, and speeds by.

I was only doing about 20 mph over the posted, but incidents like the one relayed above, make me realize that I shouldn't push my luck when putting about in the Civic.

As I relaxed my pace on the rest of the am drive, I spent more time looking around. In the distance, I heard the sound of a fierce modern motor. Then I saw the metallic blue paint and the white stripe of the new Shelby GT500. I clicked my headlights on and off and gave the driver the high sign as he roared towards me.

He saw me and waved and then just buried the accelerator. (Remember this is in traffic on a public road in the weekday morning.)

I hope that johnnie law feels generous when he sees this new Stang. This guy was doing some serious damage both speed and soundwise.

Sonics Busy Body

Could this be the reissue single of 2006?

I am not real sure of the provenance of this record. It is a live recording from The Tacoma Sports Arena 11.27.64. Our friends took the R&B flavor and brewed it to an exceptionally strong elixir. Tim "Back From The Grave" Warren mastered this monster and it appears as Norton 133.

The front side is an instro workout with the horns pushing it along and the drums anchoring it down. They took a song that garage afficionadoes are familiar from The Jolly Green Giants, and threw it in the NW R&R blender and came up with something entirely new.

The mastering is extremely loud. The kick drum is very prominent on the mix on the flip, "The Witch," my fave Sonics track. Gary Roslie's vocal is buried in the mix. But hey, I can't imagine the source tape was all that pretty being a live rock and roll tape from 42 years ago.

The guitar brak is tough. This is one that I continue to hit the play button on the Beogram. Repeat!

11.15.06

I made it out to lunch to a place called Beyond Bread for an early lunch. I had a pretty good sandwich, that had olive paste, goat cheeze and carmelized onions.



After these preparations, we headed to Sahauro Monument West. We made our way west out of town on Speedway. The drive is quite exhilierating, but since you cross over the ridge, you really forget that a town of 1 million population is very near.



For fun after the hike we took a drive to see one of Tucson's more classic sites-- The Notel Motel. This place is super creepy. As we pulled in to the parking lot to get some shots in the Honda, I got pretty creeped out. This place is for the Bates Motel school of hospitality. It also reminded me of a Manson family preferred stay property. I don't think anyone had been in the pool since 1968.

11.14.06

11.14.06

I got up early and hit Macy’s before leaving Flagstaff for Tucson. I rolled with Pass the Caviar, Captain Beefheart Lick My Decals Off, Baby, and then a couple volumes of Prae Kraut Pandemonium. I saw a few highway patrols, but nothing was too weird even as I had to slow down for no apparent reason to the direct north of the cancer known as Phoenix.



As I drove down Grant on the north side of town, heading east, I once again realized why I like Tucson so much. It is dirty and everything seems old and worn out- not recycled, just being in constant use. Seeing a 67 Mustang daily driver just all clapped out, but still moving under its own power is a great thing.

We also made a trip out to the Ventana Trail for an afternoon jaunt up the drainage. It is quite evident on that trail that Tucson has had much more rain than normal due to the change in overgrowth on the trail.

Trip interuptted for THE TROGGS

Apparently, Spinal Tap was inspired by this set of tapes, where "during a session and display, according to The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, "instrumental incompetence, mutual recrimination and much foul language". They inspired the sequence in which Tufnel and St Hubbins have their row in the Rainbow Trout Recording Studio."

11.13.06

11.13.06

Today was the Grand Canyon.

We made it to the South Rim at about 9:30. Prior to leaving Flagstaff, we grabbed coffee and breakfast at Macy’s. A simple 2 room café where they roast their own beans. The Americano and the breakfast croissant were very good.

When we got to The Grand Canyon, we decided to take the Grandview trail to Horseshoe Mesa. It is roughly 3+ miles from the trail head and it approximately 3000 feet lower in elevation from the parking lot where we parked the Path Finder. I borrowed some hiking sticks.

The views directly below my feet, had at some points 1000-foot drops. The trail is roughly 110 years old and was originally used for hauling copper ore up on donkey back. That said, some of the trail sections are simply old tree trunks mounted into the canyon wall. Behind the dam formed by the attached tree trunks, dirt and ravel comprise the footpath. Pretty bizarre, especially on the return hike.


Going down, was extremely difficult on my knees, even using the hiking sticks. I cannot imagine how much more difficult it would have been without the sticks.

We made it to Coconino Saddle, which is one mile from the trailhead, and stopped for a trail bar.
After this intermission, we quickly came upon an area called The Cobbles, stones were arranged by humans at some point. They must be on at least 20% grade, and there were some many switchbacks, I lost count. The Cobbles are very slippery and conducive to ankle twisting.

After two miles, we made it to Horseshoe Saddle It is very flat, shaped like a horse shoe and I believe that it has 2000 foot drops on some of its many sides. We also came upon what must heave been a cabin 100 or so years ago. It was made with red rocks arranged like bricks. It ended up looking like a primitive Hogan.

We moseyed along past Horseshoe Mesa and down into a drainage. Following the drainage we found a well used trail that was nearly non-existent at some points. At the end of the scary trail that overlooked a 1000 foot or so drop to the Cottonwood River. This lead us to the Cave of Domes.


The Cave of Domes has an entrance where there used to be a door, the surrounding brick work looked identical to the structure at Horseshoe Mesa. Once inside, there was a series of low openings with the roofs opening up to standing height. The first domes had graffiti going back to 1800. When I got to the end (for me) we were in a room that had a 30 foot ceiling.

We got back to the car at about 4:30.
I have never kicked it as hard on any hike in my life.

11.12.06

11.12.06

In the afternoon, We took out the ATVs. I rode a fully auto 700 cc Yamaha. This thing had unending torque. We rode up into the hills, At one point I got the beast up to 60 mph. I would say that we went up to 40 miles away. We had made our way to the Lava Tubes. The Lava Tubes are a cave that goes straight into the earth. We clambered into the ground. Physically, I was fine with the descent, but I started to wig out a bit with the absence of sunlight. Jon worked my mind a bit and we made it a bit deeper into the ground. I would say that in 10 minutes we made it to the main room where the ceiling goes up to 12 feet of so.

the Trip 11.11.06

11.11.2006

I left the house with a modicum of damage after last night’s City expedition. The trip on the Dahon, has yet to be matched in my bike riding experience. The rain was coming down so hard that I felt as if it combined with the wind was working to push me backwards.

The night was fun, punctuated by a Delerium tremens and a couple of Laguenista Bruns.

I fell asleep on the train ride home however, and I had to walk 5 miles to the Dahon that was parked at the Depot in the middle of the night. That was a lot of fun.

Today, I worked on getting packed and took a jaunt to the city. I checked out some folding bikes at Rapid Transit, I rode an aluminum framed five speed internal shifting beast called the Vitesse. It was noticeable more stiff than the Picolo that I am currently riding. It seemed a bit lighter, too. The 20 inch wheels seemed to allow a better coasting experience as well.

The flight was an experience, I watched part of that Nascar movie that Will Farrell put out, it sucked, but what stopped me from watching it was the person that went face down in the aisle in 1st class.


I rented a mighty Chevy Cobalt from Avis, the drive from PHX to Flagstaff was different for me. First of all, I 17 seems to be in great shape, I also was not piloting a broken down car. I felt naked as I did not have a weapon on board.

I abused the stereo by playing Wyld Canada v.1n at top volume.

Two typical AZ events unfolded on my journey. North of PHX, I got caught in a pack of 6-8 Civics. They were going pretty fast and after they surrounded me, they slowed down. It was a bit of a white knuckle, but they got off at Deer Valley.

South of Prescott (”Presskit”), I 17 is a 4 lane divided highway, that is 2 lanes of traffic, going in the same direction are separated by a large stone and tree median. I was shocked to see a set of high beams coming right at me. Some tweaker was heading south in the slow north-bound lane. The limit is 75 mph there, and I was struggling to keep the mighty Cobalt under 90. If I didn’t swerve onto the shoulder, I shudder to think what may have happened.

It is one of those nights

Where you don't really know if it is night or day. The wind is out of the north gusting at 40mph. It is inky black out, the rain is coming down in sideways sheets, it is 40 degrees.

Even the dog doesn't dig it.

So it is a spin of the Dahon, a ride of the train and the consumption of a couple of Belgians in preparation of the trip.

Maproom expedition, here I come.

Check out these posts

Coop has some excellent travelogue pics going right now of the coming La Carrera race in Mexico. I can't do justice to what will happen and what is currently happening.

50s cars ridding like the wind in Mexico. Sounds like quite the Neal Cassidy adventure...

Just read this and I will do the right thing and shut up.

Getting ready for a trip

I have been starting to get ready for an impending trip to the desert and to the high country for visit.

I went through the basement and started rounding up all of the supplies that I will require.

I will need to use the samsonite bag that I got as part of my purchase of the used Dahon folding bike off of craigslist.

I have been consulting various hiking books as well. It has been some time since I have been up in the high country. Methinks even Seth was somewhat jealous.

Time to start puttting together a list-- Northface bag, water bottles, pack pack...