The Blasting Concept Volume II

The Blasting Concept Volume II

1985

SST Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Saint Vitus: Look Behind You  2.  DC3: Theme From an Imaginary Western  3. SWA: Mystery Girl  4. Black Flag: I Can See You  5. Gone: Watch the Tractor   6. Würm: Death Ride  7. Overkill: Over the Edge  8. Saccharine Trust: Emotions and Anatomy  9. Painted Willie: The Big Time  10. Angst: Just Me   11. Meat Puppets: I Just Want to Make Love to You  12. Minutemen: Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (Uncensored Version)  13. Husker Du: Erase Today  14. October Faction: I Was Grotesque  15. Tom Troccoli's Dog: Todo Para Mi


A 1985 SST compilation album that doesn't get a lot of love...This first "Blasting Concept" (released in '83) had 4 Minutemen tracks, 2 Meat Puppets tracks, 3 Black Flag tracks, and assorted one-offs from a small handful of other bands including Husker Du...In short, SST at its absolute peak with its very best bands on display...Volume II? A metric fuckton of Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowksi side projects...

I know Greg Ginn can be a pretty divisive subject in the punk scene, with his lawsuits, constantly running mouth and bizarre guitar style, so if you're not down with Ginn and his skronky metal-sludge leanings then you might not want to touch this with a 10-foot pole...Greg and Chuck are pictured in almost every group shot on the album's back cover....

You must also accept that by 1985, SST Records (arguably the best punk label in the world at the time) had largely abandoned punk for sludge metal...If you can't stomach sludge metal or Greg Ginn noodling, this is going to gall you to no end...

And the bands from SST's golden era that do show up here tend to not do a whole lot with their timslots...The Minutemen show up with a cover of Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" that already appeared on "Double Nickels on the Dime," although this version has altered lyrics and is longer than the Double Nickels version, so it's worth checking out...The Meat Puppets contribute an indeterminable cover of "I Just Want to Make Love to You," that on paper sounds like it should be a knockout, but in reality is so sloppy and endless that it's hard not to be relieved when it's done...Black Flag is represented by the "Loose Nut" album track "I Can See You," which is quite possibly my least favorite song from that album...The only old-school SST band that really pulls through though is Husker Du with "Erase Today," which I can't believe was a "New Day Rising" outtake...As  much as I love "New Day Rising," that album seriously peters out by the middle of side two...I had always assumed they were utterly and completely out of songs by the time "How to Skin a Cat" comes around,but nope...They had a good blast of pop hardcore they were holding out on us...

But if you're into sludgy punk/metal there's some neat stuff. First and foremost, Saint Vitus doing an earlier version of "Look Behind You" with original vocalist Scott Reagers. I love Reagers-era Saint Vitus! Back when they sounded like Black Sabbath fronted by Eric Bloom! Do people still vastly prefer Wino over Scott Reagers? If so, this might sound like blasphemy, but I like this version much better...Overkill is also here, with some Motorhead-ish metal/punk that I enjoy very much...

 Outside of the jangly punksters Angst (who are kinda awesome), the spoken word pretentiousness of Saccharine Trust, and the mildly interesting Painted Willie, the remainder of the album is all Black Flag Alumni: Dez Cadena's band DC3 unspools an epic (and poorly sung) Mountain cover...We have Chuck Dukowski in both SWA's "Mystery Girl" (which is grubby hair metal, which you're guaranteed to despise if you have no taste whatsoever for the genre (and don't beat yourself up too much if you haven't acquired that taste)) and Würm's "Death Ride" (which is a pretty fun slice of heaviness)...Then we have a large volume of Greg Ginn side projects (some with Dukowski), the best being Gone's instrumental "Watch the Tractor" that would have made for a killer late-era Black Flag track if they had thrown a Henry Rollins vocal on top of it...Low point? Probably October Faction's "I Was Grotesque" that tries to steal some of Saccharine Trust's pretentiousness...The vocals on "Todo Para Mi" by Tom Troccoli's Dog are almost as irritating but as least there's a bit of groove going on in the instrumentation...That poppin' bass is almost a dealbreaker, though...

Ultimately, I'd say the good (narrowly) outweighs the bad and this is a decent comp if you can get it cheap ($3.49 is printed on the cover and the record store I bought it at decided to honor that pricing, even in 2015)...Historically relevant if you want a firsthand listen to the decline of SST records...Still, there's some unreleased tracks by some of the greats (that Husker Du song is worth the $3.49) and if everything isn't great at least it's almost always interesting...

The Blasters: Non Fiction

The Blasters: Non Fiction

1983

Slash Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Red Rose  2. Barefoot Rock  3. Bus Station  4. One More Dance  5. It Must Be Love  6. Jubilee Train  7. Long White Cadillac  8. Fool's Paradise  9. Boomtown  10. Leaving  11. Tag Along


After being blown away by the self-titled album, I went out immediately and found the follow-up album, "Non Fiction."  In a way, I kinda wished I had heard this one first...I think after hearing the near-flawless previous album anything is going to sound a bit lacking in comparison, yet this too is a killer album...It's just not quite as killer...Whereas "The Blasters" put you right into the center of the heat, it feels like you're watching from a slightly safer distance on "Non Fiction"...Still, it's impossible to be unmoved when you're listening to rock n' roll songs as great as "Red Rose," "It Must Be Love" and "Bus Station." 

 Again, this is a smarter take on traditional rockabilly...Check out "One More Dance"...Its attributes are equal or superior to any classic sock-hop bop (catchy beat, a knockout horn section) but with a knowing bent to it...Same goes for "Long White Cadillac" which gives Hank Williams the kind of intelligent, literary sendoff his signature genre (country) could never quite muster: 

"Night wolves moan,
The winter hills are black,
I'm all alone,
Sitting in the back,
Of a long white Cadillac..."

I tried listening to Dwight Yoakam's (much-later) cover of this song but  it was so slow moving I couldn't do it...That's why I think The Blasters originating from the 80's punk scene makes such a difference to me...Why loiter on a great thing, when you can move on quickly to the next one...They assumed the audience could follow along, even though this probably moved waaaay too fast for the 50's folks who were the original audience for this kind of stuff...Listen to the meltdown at the end of "Tag Along" for a prime example of this...

 I almost think if this were recorded a little hotter and had a single catchy singalong equal to "Marie, Marie" or "So Long Baby Goodbye," I would probably prefer it to "The Blasters"...It's more self-assured, more their own thing...A great little record that really shouldn't be overlooked...Every single time I play it, it grows in stature for me...

Here's "Long White Cadillac" by the Blasters...Enjoy...

The Blasters:The Blasters

The Blasters: The Blasters

1981

Slash Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Marie Marie  2. No Other Girl  3. I'm Shakin'  4. Border Radio  5. American Music  6. So Long Baby Goodbye  7. Hollywood Bed  8. Never No Mo' Blues  9. This is It  10. Highway 61  11. I Love You So  12. Stop the Clock


This was always a record that I was always being urged to check out, but  it took me a long time to get around to it, since I've never really been that big into rockabilly...For whatever reason, out of all the fetishistic retro scenes, rockabilly revival has always seemed the fakest to me...Something about a bunch of guys dressed like the Fonz has always bugged me...

Maybe its flashbacks to all the Sha Na Na reruns I was subjected to as a child...Maybe it was having to endure the Brian Setzer Orchestra during the late 90's...Whatever the reason, rockabilly usually has to go a looooooooong way to impress me...

Anyway, back in 2004 I was listening to the horrible "Viking" album by Lars Frederiksen (why was I listening to this album? Shouldn't I have known that it was horrible by looking at the cover? Man, I'm alwaaaays desperate for new punk to listen to. Especially in 2004 when I couldn't quite accept that listenable punk albums were a thing of the past) and was blown away by the single good song on it, which happened to be a cover of "Marie, Marie" by the Blasters. It was rockabilly, but catchy, vital and full of life...Like X, it felt like rockabilly but didn't have the "museum" quality that rockabilly revival music usually carries for me... I put The Blasters on my mental "check out" list...

I was at Eastside Records last January and found this Blasters album that had such a strikingly ugly cover that I couldn't stop staring at it...It had the "Marie, Marie" song I liked, so I figured now was a good time to finally check out The Blasters...

Given the aforementioned "museum" quality of  rockabilly I was expecting the record to mainly consist of covers but to my surprise these were almost all originals...And I was even more surprised that these originals were better than the covers. My God, the rock n' roll/zydeco/punk hybrid "So Long Baby Goodbye" is maybe the best old timey rock n' roll song I've ever heard...Stands right up to any classic Jerry Lee Lewis song...Dead serious. I should also add that they were more diverse than just the "rockabilly"sound I had pegged them for..."Border Radio" sounds like the greatest song Fats Domino never wrote, "Never No More Blues" is yodelin' country, and " I'm Shakin'" sounds like the Heat Miser song!

There's also a fair bit of blues and Bo Diddley stomp on display...You can hear some punk seep in around the edges too on "I Love You So" and "So Long..."...The whole thing is tight as fuck, clean as a whistle, and fun as hell...Super trad, but diverse and infused with enough energy to capture the attention of folks like me that have no ear for this kind of stuff...Yet, with its rich sense of history,  it's smart enough that I can't picture American Music dieheards not flipping over this...They've helped soften my outlook on old timey rock revival...After all, if a record like this could come out of it, it can't be that bad a scene, right?

Alright, let's put on our leather jackets and a fistful of crisco in our hair...We're going to check out some Balsters...Here's "So Long Baby Goodbye"...Enjoy...

The Blank Fight: House Band Feud

 The Blank Fight: House Band Feud

2002

Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club Records (whew...That's a long 'un)

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. This Bike + This Guitar  2. Madison Truckstop  3. Song For K80 Bigtoe  4.  Three Songs  5.  Driller's Song  6.  Rusted Freedom  7. John Henry  8.  Song For Todd X + Others  9.  Graveyard  10.  The Hutterites in N. America  11. Old Trick  12.  19 Years, 40 Years  13.  Death Warrant  14. Cry For Help  15.  Jack Johnson


Aaron Cometbus  stuff...Whenever I see a xeroxed cover with lush eyelashes and a sleeve full of booklets I usually just buy it...It's generally good stuff...This is a one-off band who were put-together for a house-band showdown...This differs a bit from the other Cometbus records I have since "House Band Feud" has a very pronounced folk influence to it...Streetwise pop-punk with a good country gallop...Crimpshrine meets Johnny Cash...A circle pit set to harmonica...

 I'm not too familiar with the other band members...I've heard "This Bike is a Pipe Bomb" once or twice, who I might also classify as folk-punk, but of a different species (The Blank Fight has more of an older, dustbowl, hoe-down folk thing going on)...The singer is from a band called Headless Marines and he's a great choice...He sounds exactly like the sort of person who should be singing on a Cometbus release...Shaky, hoarse and anthemic...Maybe think Jeff Ott if he had a bit of early Henry Rollins in his DNA...The bass is quite possibly some of the most amateurish bass guitar I've ever heard on a record (outside of maybe that John Lennon "Live Peace in Toronto" record)...But its primitive rutting kinda works perfectly (unlike that John Lennon "Live Peace in Toronto" record)...

 The record works best when it goes straight for uplifting, gut-felt anthems like "Madison Truckstop" and "Rusted Freedom" and "Old Trick." "19 Years, 40 Years" has that same gravelly sweetness that reminds me why I fell in love with Crimpshrine in the first place all those years ago...

Damn. This is just some super solid punk...I've yet to hear a shitty Cometbus record...He's always had impeccable taste in collaborators, even if they're not always the obvious choices...More! MoRE! MORE!!!!

Here's "Madison Truckstop " by the Blank Fight...Enjoy...

 

Black Sabbath: Live at Last

Black Sabbath: Live at Last

1980

NEMS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Tomorrow's Dream  2. Sweet Leaf  3. Killing Yourself to Live  4. Cornucopia  5. Snowblind  6. Children of the Grave  7. War Pigs  8. Wicked World  9. Paranoid


So many good memories associated with this album...I was never able to find this record when I was growing up, but my friend Josh had it, so whenever I went to his house I would make him play it... I'd marvel at the monstrously slow heaviness of that "Cornucopia" riff as I stared at the cover..."Ossie Osbourne"? And what the hell was going on with that cover anyway?

"Is it the bottom of the ocean? Is that a jellyfish? Wait! I think it's outer space and that's like...a satellite or something....Wowww..."

Y'know...This is one of those instances where I realize I probably shouldn't be publicly providing my opinion on music...Every reviewer seems to hate this album, but I love the shit out of it...And here's why...

1. It has a wonderfully skeevy 70's bootleg vibe...Like it should be sold in a dusty headshop or something...The mis-spelled text is written on an illegible background and the flimsy cardboard cover only adds to the illusion...In reality, it was semi-official...Sabbath did record the show with the intention of releasing a live album, but had second thoughts when they heard the tapes...Their manager  (or ex-manager at this point, I should say) had no such artistic misgivings and a good 7 years after its recording, "Live at Last" hit the shelves...

2. It's a live album of 70's Black Sabbath!!! The only one available!!!!! (until the 2000's when it was bundled with some other live stuff...Don't have that one yet, so can't comment on it...) Didn't every band put out a live album in the 70's? What kind of classic 70's band didn't have a live album?! And this is a real deal live album...No studio trickery here...Just sluggish tempos and slightly muffled sound, which might be a drawback for other bands, but these are positive attributes when applied to these guys...The sense of foreboding mystery remains intact (for awhile anyway)..."Sweet Leaf" becomes even slower and more impenetrable, cementing its reputation as the first true Stoner Metal track even further...

3. That track listing!! Fuck "Iron Man"! Who needs it when you have "Cornucopia," "Snowblind," "Killing Yourself to Live" and ...

3....the main reason for owning this album...The epic 20-minute version of Wicked World" which is so much more than you're expecting...It's a massively entertaining jam that also includes "Supernaut,"  "Into the Void" and some other cool stuff I don't recognize (including a jazzy version of "Changes" or something?)...There's a bit of superfluous guitar wanky-wanky but its forgivable...Again, what's a 70's live recording without copious guitar wanky-wank? Some things are sacred, man!

So, I not only consider "Live at Last" a great live record, but it's also one of my favorite pieces of Sabbath vinyl, period. Is nostalgia coloring my view? Absolutely. Still there's no way around it, this is Sabbath at their filthy, hazy, pitch-black best...Sabbath diehards will forever carry a boner for this thing...Folks who casually enjoy "Iron Man" or "Paranoid" on the radio and are looking for a wanky, polished live album to smoke a doob to on the weekends (for old time's sake) might want to pass...This is some true, greasy-haired shit...

Set aside nineteen minutes...Here's  "Wicked World" by Black Sabbath...Show some respect...

Big Youth: Manifestation

Big Youth: Manifestation

1988

Heartbeat Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. No Nukes  2. Love Fighting So  3. Turn Me On  4. Mr. Right  5. Like It Like That  6. Conqueror  7. Spiderman Meet The Hulk  8. No Way To Treat A Lady


Alright, for all the play and love I give to Jamaican music, I readily admit that I'm not an expert in the field... I just haven't researched it that extensively and the albums are somewhat hard to come by...I can usually find (and buy) the acknowledged classics, so of course I have Big Youth's super-duper 1972 toasting masterpiece "Screaming Target," but I wasn't especially aware that he had put out any other albums...So here was my train of thought when first confronted with "Manifestation"...

 "Woah! Big Youth put out an album that's not 'Screaming Target'?!?!?!"

"Wow! It's from 1988?!  The same year as Poison's 'Open Up and Say...Ahhh?!?!?!?" 

"Wowzy wowz wowzers!!! There's a song on it called 'Spiderman Meet the Hulk?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!"

Easy sell...And what does it sound like? Some seriously 80's reggae. First of all, the opening track is called "No Nukes" and features the world's most loudly mixed syndrum...But beneath all the 80's-ness? I hear that same smart, socially conscious,  half-sung toasting that I loved on "Screaming Target." So yea, Big Youth toasting over time-honored, roots-era Gregory Isaacs and Augustus Pablo backings is always going to beat Big Youth toasting over cavernous 80's music, but I don't think that should detract too much from what he accomplishes here..."Love Fighting So" is some pretty fucking legit 80's reggae...Very rootsy and classic as it slowly dissolves into a big soup of dub stickiness...I would also consider "Mr. Right" and "Conqueror"to be totally "Screaming Target" worthy...Again, tune out the thudding drum machine and you have some sweet roots and fine toasting...

And most importantly "Spider-Man Meet the Hulk" totally lives up the title...It is indeed about  "Spider-man a-talking in a rub-a-dub style..." and Superman and the Hulk show up to have a war in Disneyland!!!! (Prophetic, I say!).  There might be some serious subtext or something somewhere in here, but I don't know what it is...And he keeps laughing throughout the track so I'm not so sure how serious the subtext can be...

There's some total WTF-ness too...Like I have previously stated, I have no idea what those massive amounts of albums between "Screaming Target" and "Manifestation" contained, so maybe there was some precedence for "Turn Me On," which seriously sounds like Saturday Night Fever if someone swapped out John Travolta  for Dr. John.  I had zero idea that Big Youth could sing (or croak tunefully, which is probably closer to the truth)...So when I first heard it, I was like, "Ha! What an amusing little trifle...How droll..." But then I looked down at the big fat band on the vinyl and realized this song takes up the majority of Side One! Uh oh! Hope you like 1988 disco! You're going to be here awhile!

The singing pops back up on "No Way to Treat a Lady"  which has a noble message ("stop disrespecting women and calling them names"), but my God...That singing on it fucking hilarious... I very strongly urge you to listen to this so you can hear him warble, "That ain't no way to treat a layyy-DY!"

Oh, man...It's the small things that get me through the day...

Alright, time to summarize...Pretty good 80's reggae album if you can look past loud drum machines, 8 minute disco infernos, and some questionable singing...Somewhat worth it to get a flash of that prototypical toasting style, that at this point had been largely replaced by dancehall...

Here's "Love Fighting So" by Big Youth...Enjoy...

Big Black: Pigpile

Big Black: Pigpile

1992

Touch and Go Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Fists of Love  2. L Dopa  3. Passing Complexion  4. Dead Billy  5. Cables  6. Bad Penny  7. Pavement Saw  8. Kerosene  9. Steelworker  10. Pigeon Kill  11. Fish Fry  12. Jordan, Minnesota



 I remember this coming out shortly after I first got into Big Black (via "Songs About Fucking") and was stoked to hear what kind of sonic chaos this band could wreak live... Turns out their live shows were less chaotic than the fried clangor the studio albums served up...The layers of grit have been scraped away from the vocals and Steve Albini's message becomes direct and clear...A guided tour of the deepest, darkest corners of the trailer park...Missing fingers, wife-beaters, unrepentant racists, Trump supporters...You have to be in a certain mood to embrace this kind of bleak reality, but when that mood hits there's nothing better (except maybe the Jesus Lizard?).  1-2-3-Fuck you!!

 That horrible, glorious, paper-cut guitar is still in full-effect though...Clawing and scraping at raw, self-inflicted wounds...Shit that never heals...Live drummer? Fuck, no...Just a disengaged, pounding drum machine. They stayed true to the sound until the end...Oh yea, I should mention this was recorded around the same time as "Songs About Fucking" so it makes for a great overview of the band's brief history, since you get something from almost every one of their releases...

Here are the highlights as I see them: I love the zombified groove of "Dead Billy," which comes across as a mutant strain of diseased funk...They also happen to choose a couple of my favorite "Songs About Fucking" tracks with "L Dopa" and "Bad Penny," but I think I have to (unsurprisingly) pick "Kerosene" as the show-stopper...I don't know if any other song has ever captured that repellent strain of backwoods boredom better:

"Sit around at home
Nothing to do
Stare at the walls
Stare at each other
Wait til we die!"

 So what's left to do? Bust out the kerosene...Set something on fire...The whole song just kinda slowly twists in discomfort...The misanthropic pigeon-killer's monologue in "Pigeon Kill" is pretty twisted too..

 If you're an established Big Black fan, I'm sure you already have...If you have a car-crash curiosity with the world's tangible evils, this is also recommended...A big, rackety performance that commemorates the time Big Black brought bad, ol' American values to London...Good fun...

Here's "Cables" by Big ol' Black...Enjoy...