Stopgap

Just stopping in to let you know I haven't given up on this thing. I haven't felt much like writing lately. I've been reading a lot actually, about music and other things. Being that this is a music blog, I guess I should let you know that Joe Carducci's Rock And The Pop Narcotic: Testament For The Electric Church and Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From The American Indie Underground 1981-1991 are both on my bedside table right now. The former is probably the best book I've ever read about rock itself, despite the fact that I find Carducci's many extraneous digressions pointless and am bothered by his readily apparent homophobic, racist, xenophobic, sexist and ethnocentric prejudices. No one's perfect though, and the guy has still done a better job writing seriously about rock theory than anyone else, so until I publish a rebuttal, it'll have to do. Not to mention the fact that I've discovered dozens of obscure bands, many of them of excellent quality (I'll get to those in a minute). The Azerrad book is not quite so dense, it's a more straightforward chronicle of the life and crimes of a number of seminal bands (Black Flag, The Minutemen, Dinosuar Jr. and so on... you know, the classics) The best thing about it is that it introduced me to Mission of Burma, a band I had heard of but never investigated. Their 1982 album Vs. is fantastic noisy garage pop on par with contemporary Hüsker Dü or Sonic Youth. If anything, MOB was far more advanced in their songcraft at the time, but they broke up before the underground support network built by those other bands was fully functioning. They've since reformed however and are successfully touring and putting out new records, so hey, good on them. Anyways, it just strikes me how innocent it all seems, the DIY aesthetic I mean. That these kids were able to run labels, promote scenes, start bands, tour the continent and make records all on a shoestring budget and no fall-back alternatives and without even the luxury of the internet that we sonic travelers take for granted now... it's quite remarkable.

Anyways, enough preamble. Here's what's been curling my toes recently... I've been on a major 70's hard rock kick lately. Of course, there's been other stuff, but this what I feel like telling you about. Nothing fancy, we're going with a list today!

Bedlam - Bedlam (1973)
A forgotten British hard rock band that knew where it was at. And they did it pretty heavy to boot.

Blackfeather - At The Mountains Of Madness (1970)
Australian heavy prog. This album is an absolute treat. They balance the dramatic voice-overs and Canterbury-esque pastoral reveries with plenty of sabbathy riffage.

Bloodrock (1970)
Out of Fort Worth, they were the most rockin' band in America short of the Stooges in the early 70's but they fizzled out quick. I think Terry Knight of Grand Funk fame had something to do with them too. Thier hit, 'D.O.A.' appears on the second album, but their debut is where the REAL goods are. Melvin Laid An Egg indeed!

Budgie - Bandolier (1975)
Take your pick which is the best Budgie album. I've never settled on just one myself, although this one has been getting plenty of play lately. "I 'Aint No Mountain" is probably the catchiest song the band ever wrote, while "Breaking All The House Rules" and "Napolean Bona-Parts 1 & 2" were some of the heaviest and most flat out awesome.

Coloured Balls - Ball Power (1973)
Australian heavy blues jams. For Canned Heat (or Blues Hammer) fans.

Euclid - Heavy Equipment (1970)
Really, the name says it all. Skull-crushing power trio from Maine lays it down.

The Flow - The Flow's Greatest Hits (1972)
Like these guys had hits. It's heavy psych through and through, with plenty of fuzz-wah guitar freakouts.

Grand Funk Railroad - Live (1971)
Capturing the top American concert draw of the early 70's at their lunk-headed live peak. Plenty of songs here outshine the studio versions, and there is some particularly tasty bong-rattling bass from Mr. Mel Shacher throughout. Bonus points for Mark Farner's unintentionally hilarious stage banter and Don Brewer's always competent drum work.

Jerusalem - Jerusalem (1972)
The song "Primitive Man" is sluggish boneheaded riffage at its finest. The rest is very good non-classic rock.

Leaf Hound - Growers Of Mushroom (1971)
'Freelance Fiend' is officially one of my favourite songs ever. The rest is all excellent hard rock from this unfortunately short-lived band.

Luv Machine - Whatever Turns You On (1971)
Recently re-issued with some killer bonus tracks on double vinyl. Props to Ben at Neptoon Records for the hot tip on this one. It's all good, though I'd pick "Reminiscing" as the standout.

The Master's Apprentices - Masterpiece (1970)
An Australian garage band that started out worshipping the Stones in the late 60's then graduated to heavier prog-influenced material at the turn of the decade. Both phases are worth checking out.

Mystic Siva - Under The Influence (1971)
A Great long-lost heavy psych artifact. Trippy, groovy fuzzed out acid rock.

Shiver - San Fransisco's Shiver (1972)
These guys played heavy biker rock spiked with Blue Cheer's acid around San Francisco just as the good vibes were turning heavy in the late 60's. The Hell's Angels were frequent and vocal supporters of the band.

Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come (1970)
This just might be the ultimate rock 'n' roll album, with all the good and the bad of what that implies rolled up in one heavy, fuzzy ball of testosterone, leather jackets, tight jeans and long hair.

Stray - Anthology (1970-1977)
By far all that anyone would ever need from this band. 35(!) Tracks of heavy, boozy boogie from these long lost longhairs. Crack a beer and let those grooves roll.

Speed, Glue & Shinki - Eve (1971) Much heavier on their feet than countrymen the Flower Travellin' Band, these Japanese maniacs made HEAVY power-trio rock with plenty of overt drug references.

Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two (1969)
Ignore the one ballad here, and the rest of the album is a winner. Judas Priest even covered the infamous "Better By You, Better Than Me."

Tin House - Tin House (1971)
Michigan rockers released this one album of catchy heaviness. 100% Rock. 0% Bullshit.

Vanilla Fudge - Vanilla Fudge (1967)
The band that invented 70's arena rock. Oh yeah, they did it in the mid 60's too. This album is all covers, but they are all given a suitably heavy treatment by the mighty rhythm section of Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert.

Warhorse - Warhorse (1970) Apparently one of these guys was the original bass player for Deep Purple. This record stands on its own merit though. This single heavy blast was all that this band released, but few bands directly influenced by Sabbath were as close to the masters as these guys were. Wonder what happened to 'em?

West, Bruce & Laing - Why Dontcha (1972)
THESE GUYS LOOK LIKE THE MELVINS!!! - Noah's priceless reaction to seeing this album at Scratch. Mountain may have broken up, but two thirds of the band returned with Jack Bruce and kept right on rocking through the early `70s.