& thanks for the memories!

From left - Artiste Mark Ritch working the soundboard & bon vivant Henry Lee aka NØ
taken at the notorious Poopoopalooza debacle better known as Punchupaloser

Well, as I mentioned in the Zarkons post, Tuesday past was my two year anniversary here at Nothin' Sez Somethin'. I've never given a rat's ass about whether or not anyone comments, though I am indeed thankful to all who do & try to respond in kind, but when my TWO YEAR mark came & went with nary a word, not even from my so-called netfriends, well...in the words of Blue Cheer to Bill Graham when he denied them a slot on the last days of Fillmore West extravaganza, "Fuck you & thanks for the memories!"

NØ

Like a Plutonium Coughdrop

Jim Carrol - R.I.P.

Bill & Jim

I turned one night the other way,
faster than I should have
and this beam of purple light shot
slowly from your wrists like a tired
lazer, straight to my eyes...and
dyed them blue, I swear...then I tilted
back my head to suck it to my lips,
and felt it melt down in layers
like a plutonium coughdrop...I turned
the other way to hear the reverberations
of purple light in the hollow of its flux,
it was the sound that steals snowbirds
from the wire to sing...we sleep, we
sleep without dreams, too distant from
the mirror...imitating clarity...
disguising childhood terror.

I turned the other way...always turn
the other way. One night you kissed me you
were drunk. I thought of Candy Darling
in 1971, the back room of Max’s Kansas City
with Jackie Curtis, leading me out the back
door with Lou, changing places in
the alley-way until the circle was full
and the snow turned to fire while the birds
wept on the wire for the purple light to
sing. We went back inside...it was
empty and we didn’t care. Candy
was dying and she didn’t care...
Ginger, why don’t you smile next time
they take your picture? Why are you
looking so sad in each photograph?
©1980 - Jim Carroll

Goodnight Sweet Prince,
NØ

Look into the Eyes of the Beacon Street Union

Though part of the trinity with Ultimate Spinach & Orpheus in the MGM scheme for 'the Boss Sound of Bosstown', The Beacon Street Union was a far superior band. They were second only to Boston’s Listening (who released the phenomenal eponymous album) in reality. But like other bands used in the Bosstown promotion, the Beacon Street Union suffered from the hype, & although both their albums made the charts, they never had much of a chance to succeed.

Bosstown Sound was originally a publicity campaign by Alan Lorber of MGM started in January 1968. The idea was to present the groups on his label (Ultimate Spinach, The Beacon Street Union & Orpheus) as a package. The Bosstown Sound was to echo the San Francisco Sound that was very big at the time. The hype was a big turn off to the rock critics & rock audiences. Record sales never materialized. The campaign backfired & became an albatross.


TIME Magazine, May 10, 1968: “THE EYES OF THE BEACON STREET UNION (MGM). Among today's sound- saturated rock groups, The Beacon Street Union is refreshingly rare: it recognizes the existence of twin stereo speakers and utilizes them to separate its music into two compatible components.”

Not everyone agrees, citing the band as too eclectic (late 60s???) , but The Union deserved better management & better acceptance.

The Beacon Street Union were:John Lincoln Wright - vocals;Paul Tartachny - lead & rhythm guitar;Wayne Ulaky - bass;Robert Rhodes - keyboards; & Richard Weisberg - drums.

Beacon Street Union - The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union,

MGM Records SE 4517, 1968.

Side A:
My Love Is
Beautiful Delilah
Sportin' Life
Four Hundred & Five
Mystic Mourning

Side B:
Sadie Said No
Speed Kills
Blue Avenue
South End Incident (I'm Afraid)
Green Destroys the Gold
The Prophet (4:33)

Beacon Street Union - The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens,

MGM Records SE 4568, 1968.

Side A:
The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens
The Clown's Overture
Angus Of Aberdeen
Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins cover)
A Not Very August Afternoon
Now I Taste The Tears


Side B:
King Of The Jungle
May I Light Your Cigarette
Baby Please Don't Go

Enjoy,
NØ

Between the Idea & the Reality...Falls the Shadow

It's been a great week for me & musick.

This Tuesday is my two year anniversary at Nothin' Sez Somethin' & I was trying to come up with somethin' good.

Yesterday I got a package from a friend of mine who lives in Massachusetts. He is a vinyl collector. He pillages the eastern seaboard for collectible vinyl. He occasionally sells off doubles he's accumulated or stuff he no longer listens to or wants. I never pay more than $5 per platter. I always have a standing order for certain types & genres of musick, plus certain specific request, so although I never know exactly what I'll be getting in my Care packages, Steiner never fails to come through & enthrall. In Friday's treasure trove were many wonders of vinyl heaven that I'll be getting to as time permits...but there were two ethereal gems with which to begin.

First off was an album from 1968 by a Boston band that I have been looking for for years, which I see on ebay sometimes being offered in the $40 - $60 range...The Beacon Street Union - The Eyes of... I had this disc back in the day. I finally wore it out I played it so much. Classic Boss Sound of Bosstown with just that somethin' to make it special. When I listened to it yesterday, I remembered the songs as if it was, well, yesterday that I had last heard it...but not in the way that I usually remember old favorites long unheard. They were fresh as my lover's smile in my mind. I had the strangest feeling that they were, unbeknown to me, the soundtrack of my deepest dreams.

Then I found an unexpected unrequested star.

If you've followed this blog for long, you probably have heard me blather on about The Alleycats & The Zarkons. Well, for a long time I've been looking for The Zarkons final album from 1988...Between the Idea & the Reality...Falls the Shadow. Well, lo & behold, there it was...& here it is. Although this was released as The Zarkons were in terminal meltdown, it is one hella great album in this man's opinion. If you're not sure, try "Shoot the Moon" for a taste. I think you'll be back to the platter for seconds. I'll get to the other things later.

The Zarkons - Between the Idea & the Reality...Falls the Shadow,
Atlantic 81846, 1988.

Side A:
Heart Full of Soul
Just Who We Are?
Rodeo Rider
Miasma of Illusion
The Hunchback in the Park


Side B:
Shoot the Moon
Among the Ruins
The Dark Horse
In the Realm of the Zarkons

Enjoy,
NØ

My Government is My Soul

When I was posting up the cassette-only release The Last Supper, I was re-listening to it & was reminded that Bourbonese Qualk is an extremely excellent band that I haven't revisited nearly enough as of late. I am remedying that situation now, by listening to all of their material that I have.

After Julian Gilbert & Steven Tanza left the group (to pursue writing & form the band The State, respectively), Simon Crab, original founding member & musical mastermind of Bo-Qu reformed the group with Miles Miles (guitar & other instruments) & Owen 'If' Rossiter (drums). The re-formed Bourbonese Qualk trio spent the next 3 years (1987-90) in a recording silence constantly touring Europe. Out of these years came the highly acclaimed LP My Government is My Soul released in 1990 on their own New International label. My Government Is My Soul is a more polished live-sounding album which occasionally hints at a rockier, slightly more commercial-edged sound than their earlier releases. It's a collection of hauntingly quiet passages, broken by unusually emotive angst, filled with sequenced bass rhythms, endless percussion & wonderfully noise-ridden synthesized voice.

You can read about the early years of Bourbonese Qualk & the infamous Ambulance Station over at Simon Crab's great site, The Stalker. You can also download the entire Bo-Qu back catalogue at their Archives, which documents their work from the beginnings in 1980 until the end in 2002, when, following the untimely death of guitarist Miles Miles in October of that year, the remaining members decided to disband the group.

Bourbonese Qualk - My Government is My Soul,
New International Recordings/FünfUndVierzig 34, 1990.

Featured on this release: Simon Crab - voice & electronics; Miles Miles - guitar & saxophone; Owen If (Rossiter) - drums & percussion; & Kif Cole - live sound.

Side A:
Guilt
Let It Go
Ton Ton Macoute
Know Your Enemy
Eist
Knock

Side B:
Murmur
Keep Pushing
Forget The Past
Decide
The Last Thing We Have Is Choice

Enjoy,
NØ

Word Falling...Photo Falling...Towers Open Fire

Something for the ears...The Fugs - Virgin Forest

Something for the eyes...

from Port of Saints 1973 - William S. Burroughs:

"Drifting sand, fish smells & dead eyes in doorways, shabby quarters of a forgotten city. I was beginning to remember the pawn shops, guns & brass knuckles in a window, chili parlors, cheap rooming houses, a cold wind from the sea. Dead eyes seemed to be looking at some distant beginning to remember the boy, an old skating rink...any minute now...Who said Atlantic City?...wire rusty around jagged holes...Van's Surgery...writing croaker...Globe Hotel...Great Atlantic Accident...name address hotel quite right?...a number...police line ahead frisking seven boys against a wall. Too late to turn back, they'd seen us. & then I saw the photographers, more photographers than a routine frisk would draw. I eased a film grenade into my hand. A cop stepped toward us. I pushed the plunger down & brought my hands up, tossing the grenade into the air. A black explosion blotted out the set & we were running down a dark street toward the barrier. Behind us the city went up in chunks."

Enjoy,
NØ

The Last Supper

Great cassette-only industrial (& other) release from 1984.

Various Artists - The Last Supper, Adventures In Reality ARR 007, 1984.

Side 1:
SPK - Ich Klage An (Euthanasia)
SPK - Satori
Gorilla Aktiv - Spiegelbild
Gorilla Aktiv - Ottos Pornos
Autentisk Film - Polaroid
Smersh - X, X, X, Going On L
Bourbonese Qualk - In The Flesh

Side 2:
Test Dept. - Forward
Audio Leter - A 'Lot' Of Time
Muslimgauze - Metropolis
Muslimgauze - Trans/Time
Tex Mirror H - Sister
Attrition - Mr. Toma (I Looked But It Was Gone)

Enjoy,
NØ

The Madison...dig that crazy dance

Found this recently on Infinite Foolishness.



Enjoy,
NØ

Exploits

Something to listen to while you read...Little Dragon - Never Never (2009)

Right now I'm reading Alfred Jarry. Most noted for the avant-garde black comedy Ubu plays (Ubu Roi, Ubu Enchaine, & Ubu Cocu), however, Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician is a much more sublime endeavor. 'Pataphysics revolves about the truth of contradictions & exceptions. When writing Faustroll, Jarry suggested that he was writing over everyone's head, including his own & would have to experience death in order to catch up with himself.

In Dr. Faustroll, the good Doctor is hounded for back rent of 372,000 francs 27 centimes for the past 11 quarters by Rene-Isidore Panmuphle, bailiff attached to the Civil Court of First Instance of the Department of Seine in session at Paris, who inventories & then seizes Faustroll's library of the twenty-seven most excellent volumes, as follows:

1. Baudelaire, a volume of E.A. Poe translations;
2. Bergerac, Works, Volume II, containing The History of the States & Empires of the Sun, & The History of Birds;
3. The Gospel According to St. Luke, in Greek;
4. Bloy, The Ungrateful Beggar;
5. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner;
6. Darien, The Thief;
7. Desbordes-Valmore, The Oath of the Little Men;
8. Elskamp, Illuminated Designs;
9. An odd volume of The Plays of Florian;
10. An odd volume of The Thousand & One Nights, in the Galland translation;
11. Grabbe, Scherz, Satire, Ironie & tiefere Bedeutung comedy in three acts;
12. Kahn, The Tale of Gold & of Silence;
13. Lautreamont, The Lays of Maldoror;
14. Maeterlinck, Aglavaine & Selysette;
15. Mallarme, Verse & Prose;
16. Mendes, Gog;
17 The Odyssey, Teubner's edition;
18. Peladan, Babylon;
19. Rabelias
20. Jean de Chilra, The Sexual Hour;
21. Henri de Regnier, The Jasper Cane;
22. Rimbaud, The Illuminations;
23. Schwob, The Children's Crusade;
24. Ubu Roi;
25. Verlaine, Wisdom;
26. Verhaeren, The Hallucinated Landscapes;
27. Verne, Voyage to the Center of the Earth.

Faustroll manages to take Panmuphle prisoner & escapes in a skiff that travels on both water & land, with the bailiff tamed by drink & chained to his seat, along with the "twenty-seven equivalent books" & a hydrochephalous baboon, Bosse-de-Nage (bottom-face) who speaks only the two syllables 'Ha ha!'.

from "Concerning the Forest of Love" (chapter 14):

"Like a tree frog out of water, the skiff edged forward, drawn by its suction disks along a smooth descending road.

In this district of Paris no omnibus had ever passed, nor railway, nor tramway, nor bicycle, nor probably any openwork boat with a copper skin, moving upon three rollers...Here, instead of street lamps we could see ancient monuments of carved stone, green statues crouching down in robes folded in the shape of hearts; heterosexual ring-dancers blowing into unmentionable flageolets; finally, a seaweed-green calvary in which the eyes of the women were like nuts cloven horizontally by the suture line of their shells.

'Ha ha!' said Bosse-de-Nage, without further commentary.

Thus I remained in charge of the skiff with the baboon cabin boy, who passed the time by jumping on my shoulders & pissing down my back; but I beat him back with blows from a bundle of writs & observed with curiosity...the demeanor of the gaily dressed...

They were seated beneath a great archway, behind which was a second, & behind these there blazed the greenness & fatness of a historiated field of cabbages. Between the arches were tables & pitchers & benches set out in a barn & on a threshing floor, crowded with people dressed in sapphire-blue velvet, with diamond shaped faces & down-colored hair, the furry surface of the earth & of the people's necks being both like cows' hair. Men were wrestling in a blue & yellow meadow, disturbing sand-gray toads whose frightened croaks reached me in the boat; couples danced gavottes; & the bagpipes, from on top of the freshly drained barrels, droned out the flight of ribbons of white tinsel & violet silk.

Each of the two thousand dancers in the barn offered to Faustroll a girdlecake, hard cube-shaped milk, & different liqueurs in glasses as thick as a Bishop's amethyst is wide & holding less than a thimbleful. The doctor drank from them all. Each person threw a pebble into the sea, stinging the blisters on my hands, novice oarsman that I was, as I held them up to protect myself...stinging the multicolored cheeks of Bosse-de-Nage.

'Ha ha!' he growled, to express his fury...

The doctor returned to the sound of bells, with two big maps of the country...one representing realistically, worked in tapestry, the forest surrounding the triangular space: the rose-red foliage rising above the blue mass of the grass, & the groups of women, the wave of each group with its crest of white bonnets breaking gently against the ground, in an eccentric circle of dawn shadow.

& on it was written: The Forest of Love.

On the second map were enumerated all the products of this happy land, men at the market with their plump yellow pigs, themselves plump & blue, stuffed into their clothes like sausages. They were all as blown up as the cheeks of a bagpiper, as full of wind as a bagpipe or a stomach.

We rubbed the adipose cheeks of the hydrocephalous baboon against the slide rails of the felt seat; & when I had taken up the oars once more, & Faustroll had taken the tiller's silken guide ropes, I crouched & stretched out once again in the alternating movement of the oarsman, over the conjoined waves of the dry land."

After much travel through strange lands like that above, Faustroll starts a holocaust & Bosse-de-Nage dies, giving rise to an in-depth analysis of his cryptic "Ha ha!" After this, Faustroll sets Henri Rousseau in charge of a 'painting machine' to embellish the works of art in the Luxembourg Museum. The painting machine, named Clinamen, spazzes in an orgy of creative violence & produces thirteen paintings.

Adrift in a sea of this artifice, Faustroll must avoid collision with the creations & maneuvers the skiff into an 'aqueduct six hundred meters wide' & 'along with the canal barges were vomited into the river' where at the age of sixty-three, he makes the 'gesture of dying'. His body unrolls like a tight-wound scroll, revealing the future & a treatise on 'pataphysics.

" 'Ha ha!', he says succinctly; & he did not lose himself in further considerations."

I've got Dengue Fever

...but I'll survive.

DAY ELEVEN...I'M IN HEAVEN, MR. ORANGE! (rhymes with doorhinge)

Dengue Fever

EVERYDAY...A NEW TRACK

So Dr. Benway prescribes: One new Venus on Earth ™ dose daily for the next 11 days. If we're not completely hooked on the cure by the third day, then we must be dead already, just not willing to admit it. I'm more than glad to oblige the good Docktor. If you've got The Fever, you might want to treat your symptoms daily as well.



Seeing Hands
Clipped Wings
Tiger Phone Card
Woman In The Shoes
Sober Driver
Monsoon Of Perfume
Integratron
Ocean Of Venus
Laugh Track
Tooth & Nail
Mr. Orange

Fair thee well, me bruthers, fair thee well,
NØ

What's New? - Shits & Giggles

Just got my copy of Shits & Giggles first release, Trick or Treat. For those of you who haven't heard, it's Ariel Pink & the cats from Vas Deferens Organization (Eric Lumbleau, Jay Jernigan, Christopher Moock, & Matt Castille). It's on 180 gram vinyl from the Free Dope & Fucking in the Streets label (a VDO,er,well...organization).


Here's the title track for a little taste...

UPDATE: The bassist left a comment on the previous Nasal Sex post that he had come across a handful (7) of the original unopened Golly (Shove a Baloney Sandwich up Your Butt) lps, if anyone is interested, leave a comment here. I'll facilitate.

It's Them

Before Van Morrison became a grumpy curmudgeon, there was Belfast's own.

Them.

Their first release was the single "Don't Start Crying Now" b/w "One Two Brown Eyes" which failed to cause a ripple in the music world. Then an appearance on Ready Steady Go along with The Rolling Stones & the release of their second single "Baby Please Don't Go" b/w "Gloria" started things rolling for Them. "Here Comes the Night" quickly followed & leaped to #2 on the British charts, only failing to reach #1 because of that B (eatles) band.

This album was released in the UK on Decca as The Angry Young Them & in the US by Parrot as Them featuring Here Comes the Night.

The album line-up consisted of: Van Morrison - lead vocals, song-writer, & tenor saxophone; Billy Harrison - lead guitar; Alan Henderson - bass; John McAuley - drums, piano, & harmonica; & new member Peter Bardens - organ.

Them - Them featuring Here Comes the Night,
Parrot Records PA61005, 1965.

Side 1
Here Comes the Night
Mystic Eyes
Don't Look Back
Little Girl
One Two Brown Eyes
Gloria

Side 2
One More Time
If You & I Could Be as Two
I Like it Like That
I'm Gonna Dress in Black
(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66
Go on Home Baby

Enjoy,
NØ

The Nothing Changes

Just got finished re-reading Norman Spinrad's epic Bug Jack Barron. The godfather of the cyberpunk movement is my estimation. If you haven't..., you should have. In the immortal (literally) words of 'The Black Shade':

(last penultimate paragraph before the epilogue)

"You, out there, you suckers, you!"
he shouts.

"Look at the thing you made! We all made..., we always make...,because there'll always be men who know the Big Secret: we can all be bought. Who wants to die? Who wants to live in a rat-trap? Who wants to eat garbage? They know it, & they suck on it---politicians! Power-junkies, giving you just enough to keep you bought with Welfare & Medicare & Niggercare & nice-sounding Lies; crumbs from the table, is all! Just enough & not a crumb more. Hold your noses & take a good look around you for a change---we've got a thousand...calling themselves Governors, Congressmen, Senators, Presidents. What are you gonna do about it? Sit on your fat asses like you always have? Or maybe go out & get yours...

Well, suckers, had enough? Or are you gonna let it go on & on & on till you die? Just remember, though, when you die now, you die alone."

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - The Nothing Changes
Enjoy,
NØ

Rockin' with Wanda

Culled from previously released singles going back as far as 1954, but no longer trying to tame her voice as they had on her self-titled first release, Capitol Records this time let Wanda rip. That's not to say that there aren't any mellow moments, but mostly Wanda just, as the title states, rocks. By request from a friend...

Wanda Jackson - Rockin' with Wanda, Starline/Capitol T-1384,
May 02, 1960.

Side One:
Rock Your Baby
Fujiyama Mama
You're The One For Me
Did You Miss Me?
Cool Love
Honey Bop

Side Two:
Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad
Baby Loves Him
Mean, Mean Man
You've Turned To A Stranger
Don'a Wan'a
I Gotta Know

Enjoy,
NØ

Will the Wolf Survive?

Los Lobos - Will the Wolf Survive?

Before quitting her job as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin turned the state into the most dangerous place for wolves.

She didn't think Alaskans should be allowed to chase wolves from aircraft and shoot them -- they should be encouraged to do so. Palin's administration put a bounty on wolves' heads, or to be more precise, on their mitts.

In early 2007, Palin's administration approved an initiative to pay a $150 bounty to hunters who killed a wolf from an airplane in certain areas, hacked off the left foreleg, and brought in the appendage. Ruling that the Palin administration didn't have the authority to offer payments, a state judge quickly put a halt to them but not to the shooting of wolves from aircraft.