Crushed Butler - Uncrushed (1969-71 - dead-hippie Proto-Punk, wild R'n'R: The Stooges, Rocket From the Tombs)

We've got a real killer on our hands this time, folks!!

Mostly when music writers throw around the phrase "proto-punk" it don't mean to much, but this is the true thing right here. Very few bands managed to fill the post-73-Stooges, pre-76-Ramones void that was the sputtering dying hippie dream of peace, love, and paisley pants. Sure their was Glam, and Prog, and some tough-as-nails rock'n'roll, but not much really that matched the mountain of fuzz and nothing-to-loose attitude that the Stooges has established as far back as '69.

Not so, as this absolutely killer 6 song E.P. of unreleased demo recording clearly shows. Apparently recorded over the course of 3 years in 3 different studios, Crushed Butler learned the had way that being way ahead of your time usually means no one understands you. Subsequently, you won't be appreciated, you won't make money, and you'll be kicked out onto your asses before you even get started.

Legend has it that when drummer Darryl Read, guitarist Jesse Hector, and bassist Allen Butler were invited to record EMI studios on a wave of local success, they were graciously brought in on limousine, but after laying down a few tracks of their gnarly working class street-skum anthem "Factor Grime," were then less then graciously given the boot and had to ride the subway back home.

The drums are relentless, the guitar moronically-brilliant, the vocals strained and desperate. PERFECT! All the songs are scorchers, even "Love is All Around Me" which sounds weak but isn't. "Love Fighter" is a slow dirge number, but still heavy-as-shit and thick-as-bricks. "High School Dropout" is a bit more standard I-V-IV rocker like Back in the USA era MC5.

The first two tracks, "It's My Life" and "Factory Grime" are absolutely must hear tracks, if you consider your life worth living. Other wise - kill yourself.

- potentially damaging review by denez

Tracklist:

1. It's My Life
2. Factory Grime
3. Love Is All Around Me
4. My Son's Alive
5. Love Fighter
6. High School Dropout
   

Ripped from CD by some blogger a long time ago... i'm getting lazy recently.

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the 1991 Dig That Fuzz 10" vinyl copy of this let me know. But in the mean time Ebay's got some as does Amazon.

OTHERWISE, CHECK IN THE COMMENTS PAGE!!!!!! AND LEAVE A COMMENT JERKWADS!!!! inside you'll find a magic prize!

Wicked Lady - The Axeman Cometh (1968-72 - Hea)vy-psych Proto-Doom: Witchcraft, Pentagram, Black Sabbath)

Not a lot of info out there on this band, since it appears they never had a legitimate release back in 1968-72 when this material was originally recorded. It wouldn't be until 1994 that the Kissing Spell label would give these recording the light of day, but now even those releases are difficult to find in any format.

Don't let that stop you from taking the plunge and snagging this proto-doom hard-fuzz monster. If you've ever heard a modern Swedish band called Witchcraft, then you already have something of a primer for 70's basement-doom and minor-chord lyte-psych melodies that are common do both of these bands. Imagining if Sabbath Bloody Sabbath-era Black Sabbath, instead of getting all synthy and fast, went into a bit more Jethro Tull-esque folksy melodic jamming. Weird sounding, I know, but I wouldn't be surprised if both The Wicked Lady and Witchcraft share Pentagram as a common denominator.

The first track "Run The Night" is the most balls-to-the-wall rocking, and the song "The Wicked Lady" sound right out of the aforementioned Witchcraft's catalog. Other songs, like "War Cloud" might wait a full 4 min before the vocals kick in, and "The Axeman Cometh" is a hard-rocking instrumental. Add a healthy does of wah-wah hell into the mix, and you might occasionally come a bit too close to wanky-jamming overkill.

But, not for me. The lost-in-a-void vocals, and acid-hangover guitar total blows most other supposedly "heavy" 70's releases out of the water. Singer-guitarist Martin Weaver, here with drummer "Mad" Dick Smith, and bassist Bob Jeffries, would later join another Kissing Spell discovered treasure band, The Dark. I've never heard that album, so if anyone's got it, let me know.

- overview by denez
By the way THIS RECORD SLEEVE IS NOT THE SAME BAND. Don't know who it is but i thought it was funny. I kinda wish it was though.... they're HOT!













Tracklist:

1. Run The Night
2. War Cloud
3. The Axeman Cometh
4. Life and Death
5. Wicked Lady
6. Out of the Dark
7. Rebel
8. Living on the Edge

Variable Bit Rate, ripped from CD. Didn't do this my self, but got it from a blog a long time ago. It's split in two files, sorry.

Head on over to the Kissing Spell site and check out what they've got in stock HERE.
but im sure a lot is out of stock, so see if AMAZON or EBAY got it.


OTHERWISE, CHECK IN THE COMMENTS PAGE!!!!!! AND LEAVE A COMMENT JERKS!!!! like so many have done before.

The Gizmos - 1976/1977 (Midwest proto-punk, teenage rock nerds: The Dictators, The Ramones, The Shaggs)

Upon first drop of the needle into these teenage hormone encrusted groves you will likely be, surprisingly, disappointed. But thats the point, dummies!

Rock and roll wasn't meant to be kid tested and mother approved. It's not supposed to be the four years wasted at Music College where you'll end up majoring in audio engineering anyways. It IS supposed to be pure teenage frustration ejaculated straight into you ears!! Sounds GROSS, don't it!?!? You bettcha'!

Many of my favorite rock stars are gross and ugly as fuck, both their visage and in the sounds they excrete- The Ramons (uggh), The Stooges (gaaahh!!), The New York Dolls ([wets pants]), The MC5's (freaks!!) - JUVENILE DELINQUENTS, the whole lot of 'em!! Just the way we like it.

Hailing from the butthole of Indiana, a group of looser drop-out rock journalists and record nerds decided that perhaps they themselves could kick up a racket the likes of which had been largely lost from the late-mid 70's musical landscape. They couldn't, but damn did they ever try!

Remember that this is just prior to when hipster New York bands like The Ramones would make "punk" a house hold word, and so these geeks had few contemporary bands to emulate from (The Dictators are influence #1), a small had full of semi-recent bands to steal liks off of (MC5, The Stooges), and an entire decade of cheap dime-store garage bands from the previous decade to mimic.

The result is some of the most inept music you've ever heard since the Wiggins sisters mongoloid-rocked their way into history with The Shaggs first album. But not just 3 sisters like The Shaggs, The Gizmos took a total of 8 (!!!) band member, 2000 hours of TV watching, 250 bong hits, zero girls, 800 boob jokes, and 3 E.P.'s to make this album.

The album collects their fist self titled E.P., their second "Amerika First" E.P., and their third "World Tour" E.P. plus one bonus track that features a young Johnny Courgar [Melincamp].

But before you start to think that I hate this album, let me say how much I adore these fine young Gizmos. In true Dictators form, the Gizmos lead by Ken Highland, Ted Niemiec, Eddy Flowers, Rich Coffee, and some other guys named Rick, Dave, Jim, and Davey tryed to combine rock and roll with adolescent humor and actually managed to be funny! "Muff Divin'" is so vulgar it even makes my girlfriend blush. Check out the grunge guitar sound of "Amerika First."

Tonights homework: Listen to this album over and over and over again until you learn to LOVE IT. I promise you'll thank me later for it.


- rambling dumb review by denez

Tracklist:

1. Muff Divin' (In Willkie South)
2. Thta's Cool (I Respect You More)
3. Mean Screen
4. Chicken Queen (The [Ass] End)
5. Amerika First
6. Human Garbage Disposal
7. Ballad Of The Gizmos
8. Kiss Of The Rat
9. Pumpin' To Playboy
10. Cave Woman
11. (I'm Just A) Regular Dude
12. Gizmos World Tour
13. We're Gonna Rumle
14. Gimme Back My Foreskin
15. Hey Beat Mon!
16. Boring, Part 1 [take 2]
    

168 kbps, ripped from vinyl.


Screw Amazon who don't carry it, and go straight to Eddie Flowers site and order this and other Gizmo's albums HERE!!!!!!!

or see what's currently on EBay HERE!!!!!!

OTHERWISE, CHECK IN THE COMMENTS PAGE!!!!!! AND LEAVE A COMMENT JERKS!!!! if you don't know what that means, yer dumb.

Re Uploads!!!!!! - Simply Saucer, The Firebirds, The Smoke, The Velvet Underground

due to several requests, which I had ignored for a long time, and my laziness to do an all original post, I've decided to upload some of the classics of this blogs pathetic past. No stinkers here, so you can be sure this is quality material all around. Don't be a dickhead, leave a comment cuz that what keeps me motivated.

Two questions for any readers out there (there must be SOMEONE reading this blog (there are obviously downloaders, but readers?)) :

1) I would like to know how I can use ODEO to embed a single sample song into the blog posts like this guy does HERE. I would like to blog about some newer, and more CopyRight sensitive material (current re-issues, or still in print material).

2) How can I set up a forum that links to my blog, like this guy does over HERE (he actually uses ODEO also). Call me dumb, but I would like to talk to other like minded people about music.

anyways, on to the show.....
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Simply Saucer - Cyborgs Revisited (1974-1975 - Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett Pink Floyd, Silver Apples)

This is a band that would be next to impossible to over hype, but dag-nabbit, I'm going to try. The reason for this is because Simply Saucer's Cyborgs Revisited is not only as earth shatteringly great as anyone has ever said in some pompus british hype-machine mag, Simply Saucer is better....

link to the original post. And Leave a comment, bastards.
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The Firebirds - Light My Fire (1969 - exploito-heavy psych, Blue Cheer)

From all accounts this isn't even a real band. Just a group of studio muscians cramed in a studio to make a quick buck on the wild and untamed youth and their endless hord of disposable income.

But unlike other fly-by-night mob-money exploito-shlock toss-offs, The Firebirds and their alter ego (read: label cash in) 31 Flavors manage to tear a new hole in the delicate fabric of stoned-dead Blue Cheer style acid-guitar nightmare rock. Burried under an avalanch of toxic-fuzz, the all-fills-all-the-time drums despratly try to dig, nay, beat their way out of this flash-back induced hell. The punchy bass acts as the massive counter-weight, giving force from the back, and the amature-Robert Plant gives this warship its direction.

Link to original post. Leave a comment, or rot in hell.
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The Smoke - ...It's Smoke Time (1967)

I had always thought this band was German, or Dutch. I guess it there were a number of factors including the fact that they are pretty well known, but artn't huge. With a single like "My Frind Jack" I can't see how thay could slip under the rader unless thay were from out side of England. The band members names are Mick Rowley, Geoff Gill, Mal Luker, and Zeke Lund. I figued that with names like Geoff, Mal, and Zeke thay had to be dutch. Also the repressing I have is all in dutch (or German, whatever).

Link to original post. Leave a comment, or eat a dick.
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the velvet underground - VU + Another View (1969)

.....durring the mid-80's return of interest in the band, their previous label, Verve, realized that they were sitting on a pile of unreleased Velvet meterial. These 1984 and 1986 albums contained most all of the unreleased album, as well as a hogepog of other tracks. Some of these tracks are great rock and roll numbers (Foggy Notion, We're Gonna Have A Goodtime Together, Temptation Inside Your Heart), brillent pop songs(She's My Best Friend, Ride Into The Sun), while others try to fill some of the avant-guard void that John Cale left (Ferryboat Bill, Hey Mr. Rain).

Link to original post. Leave a comment, or else this whole blogging thing gets old quick....