Black Sabbath, really....

Various Artists: Everything Comes and Goes
A Tribute To Black Sabbath
(Temporary Residence Ltd.)
Tribute albums, for the most part, are worthless major label messes aimed at thick-headed consumers unaware of how to purchase music using their own decision-making process. This  cool tribute to the original Black Sabbath (when Ozzy was still aboard - the first time) is as unique and powerful as the band it honors. For about 40 minutes, nine distinct and very different combos skew and scramble first wave Sabb classics like “Iron Man”, “Fairies Wear Boots” and “Planet Caravan”. Japanese stoners Ruins perform their own mini-medley of all the familiar greats on “Reversible Sabbath”. The Curtis Harvey Trio begin their version of the Black Sabbath Volume 4 ballad “Changes” using the original arrangement before morphing the song into a cute bluegrass lilt. The unexpected happens often on this jewel which is what makes it so rare of a find. If tribute albums are gauged by the fresh perspective the bands create then “Everything Comes and Goes” is definitely top-notch.
The MONk 2009 view: What can I say except that this tribute album from a few years back is what initially turned me on to the awesome Japanese trio Electric Eel Shock, and for that, I am eternally grateful. Thanks "Everything".

REAL Roots Rock

Hobart Smith
In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes
(Smithsonian Folkways)
Too many folks shy away from the unerring archival nature of the Smithsonian Folkways releases. Apparently there isn't actually a huge market for banjo players that sing hundred year-old ballads through their nose. That is not the case with this special new collection. Hobart Smith died in 1965 at 87 years old making him one of those turn-of-the-century dudes and the music he heard in his travels stuck with him. This hugely talented musician became a kind of human repository for all kinds of (mostly white) folk music over the course of his entire life and you get a sense of his worth. Hugely talented may be an understatement. Smith played piano, guitar, banjo and fiddle with equal aplomb and the 36 renditions here will make your jaw drop accordingly. Nudged into the cracks between (and sometimes during) songs, archivist/recordist Fleming Brown pulls as many dates and events out of Smith as possible like he knew it would all be important some day. The 80 page booklet and smart packaging will meet the highest fan expectations and provide neophytes with a history lesson that won’t be challenged anytime soon.
The MONk 2009 view: Truth be told, I listen to a lot of this olde timey stuff when the mood strikes me thatta way. The general spookiness that much of this classic Americana spins holds my attention as much as Swedish hard rock gets me going physically. The moods evoked from that real wild Appalachian music or searing conjunto or cajun music all comes from similar veins of experience and while the themes may vary the instruments used are pretty much the same, and hearing how they are used in differing ethnic musical variants is what truly excites my brain. Conversely, much of what passes as "roots" music or *sigh* "country" music these days is but a thin discourse on stylistic application. Many of the groups hailed as saviours of *real* roots music are only generational interpreters of what has come before. That may sound a bit trite, I know, but if you dig deeper into some of the music of cats like Hobart Smith and his ilk you will find that in reality the current crop of artists are really only reasonable facsimiles. Plus, and I know that they HAVE to do it to compete, I don't see that a band that tweets (fuuuuck) their every bowel movement and string change or has 5,000 friends on facespace has any real concept of being dirt poor and struggling to release demons from their soul. But that is just me. I do like the new Reckless Kelly album. Is that being contradictory or what? Right then, away with ya!

On the player right now...

NP  - Strange Parcels: All Souls from "Disconnection", OnU Sound 1994
More of Adrian Sherwood's production magic on a set of tracks that bounces from thumping, dance floor ready beats to ethnic and dubby tirades. I had never heard this album before but being familiar with Adrian's majestic work I dove in when I saw it at the record store today. Only two Canadian bucks friends. It was a sad and lost musical gem looking for a home and I have now made it so. Check it out when you can.

This Is Your Brain On NOT Christmas Music

 Hello....You made it this far and obviously yr already succumbing to the onslaught of the incessantly jolly Xmas tunage yeh?
Here is your track listing.
This should help clear out the cobwebs and open yr mind to other action options at this special tyme of the year. It's frikkin' cold isn't tit?
Enjoy.
Antidote To Christmas 2009 (Track/Time/Artist/Album c/f)

Another Shot Of Whisky    2:43    The Gits    Frenching The Bully
- this band may still be around but sadly their singer was raped and killed back in their heyday...Check out the documentary movie on this band and you will understand. Tough and ballsy. R.I.P. (if possible) Mia Zapata. Oh, and they actually caught the guy. May he roast in hell.
Baby Let's Play God    2:50    Big Boys    The Fat Elvis
- Texas, me and you.
Clock Strikes 13    2:24    Demons    Riot Salvation
- Swedish hammerheads that are relentless as they are intoxicating to listen to.
Destructive Love    2:32    Butch Minds The Baby    Meet Me In The Time Tunnel
- You tell me. Rarity plus plus.
Do The Pop    2:31    The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs    Maximum Overdrive    
- Boldly covering Radio Birdman and doing quite a nice job.

Don't Munchen It (Live)    3:27   The Pirates    Out of Their Skulls [Disc 2]
- Please Santa give Mick Green everything he wants for Christmas.
Don't Say Fuck    3:18    Electric Eel Shock    Beat Me
- via Japan, the best stupid rock band ever. The singer eats grass for bleakfast.       
Full Grown Man    3:22    Dragline    Fuzzy Logic Compilation   
- another rolling obscurity. The logical followup to Chuck Berry's "Almost Grown". I think.    
Guilt Within You Head    2:26    The Gits    Enter: The Conquering Chicken
- ah Mia, long may these records pass from hand to collector hand...
      
Hold Fast    2:10    Lords Of Altamont    Altamont Sin
- compleat with ex-MC5-er aboard     
I Got A Right    3:27    Iggy and The Stooges    Destination Bomp [Disc 1]
- What, you haven't heard this?       
Inner-Flight Head Royale    2:45    Powertrane    Beyond The Sound
- Happy New Year to Scott Morgan, wherever he may travel.
Just A Girl    2:18    Mono Men    Back To Mono!
- Triumph of the thumpier men.

Minus Celsius    3:35    Backyard Babies    Tinnitus
- Sweden rocks! See previous posts.       
My Baby Is A Headfuck    4:25    The Wildhearts    Earth Vs. The Wildhearts
- Another hipster golden nugget.      
My Card Says Typhoon Killer    3:46    Gluecifer    Respect the Rock America
- may make you poop in yr pants...hopefully not, but you have been warned!   
No Love    1:47    Big Boys    The Fat Elvis  
- Texas punk Rawk from the 80's. It don't get any better...unless it's The Skinny Elvis.

Rock 'n' Roll Can Rescue The World    2:57    Electric Eel Shock    Go USA!
- It can, and when it does, it may come via these guys. 
 So It Goes    4:01    Nebula    Liquor and Poker Records Music Sampler
- see Label name...the rest is up to you.
Stand In Line    2:17    The Bent Scepters    Landlocked and Loaded!
- I bent my scepter once and it really hurt!      
Turbonegro Hate The Kids    3:04    Turbonegro    Ass Cobra
- I don't think these Nords really hate the kids. They may hate adults tho. I wouldn't want to test my theory.      
Walking Out On Love    1:40    The Breakaways    Destination Bomp [Disc 1]
- Pop Rawk          
Your Main Man    3:12    The Nomads    Big Sound 2000
- Swedish Main Men, you need these guys in yr collection.
Sayonara for now, y'all  .. and love each other at XXXmas.

From 2001, Sweden Rules, okay?

The Soundtrack of Our Lives
Behind The Music
(Warner/Telegram)
www.tsool.com
This awesomely dense and near-perfect rock album could only come from our friends in Sweden. Over the last few years, the Swedes have offered many of the most excitingly unique bands there is to hear when it comes to straight ahead, no frills rawk and pop. Some of the members of TSOOL were formerly in a tidy little rock group called Union Carbide Productions and are no strangers to creating loud sounds with electric instruments. This band fully engages their sixties and early seventies influences well, pulling mournful acoustic guitar forays from Pink Floyd, heavily dosed Procol Harum organ antics and plenty of Rolling Stones flick riffs. With repeated listens you may find a shifting array of fave tunes. “Broken Imaginary Time” has a kind of sad warmth, “Sister Surround” rumbles righteously and “Still Aging” could be Oasis if they were less in awe of themselves. The use of clay masks for the cover imagery adds an extra layer of mystique to a band that obviously cares more about their music than what they project visually. A winner.
Jeff Monk

The MONk 2009 view - I still like these guys a lot. As a fan of much of what they have output it can't be denied that they are of the times yet, somehow in their own special way, of another, more musical tyme. They blend so many influences together (60's psychedelia, pop, hard rock and beyond) to create their unique brew that one would be hard-pressed to find another band so ill-fitted to the times. Yet, they somehow attain majesty at some point in many of their songs. Their latest is a two-disc monster that is as lengthy as it is good. Hope this helps!

from 2000, The Big (and gettin' bigger) Omar Dykes, official Blues Dude

Omar & The Howlers
The Screaming Cat
www.omarandthehowlers.com
Blues and roots aficionados may remember big’n’greezy Texan (by way of Mississippi) Omar Dykes from his 1987 breakthrough album Hard Times in the Land of Plenty. That album came at a time when a certain other Texas guitar grinder had set the music world on it’s collective ears with his brand of soul wrenching Hendrixian tones.  It might have been a trend except that it really didn’t last and Dykes was swept up in the deluge of marketplace need for all things similar. The Screamin’ Cat could probably describe Omar himself this time around. Mix equal parts Captain Beefheart-like moon hollers with Howling Wolf grunts’n’gurgles and you may get close to the sandpapery growl Dykes releases from his throat. Omar hasn’t been idle in the thirteen odd years since his initial brush with fame. In fact, he’s released an album almost very year since, leaving him with an estimable body of work. The songs lean toward the voodoo screech of the past, leave off the commerciality and get down to the dirty bidness of just getting into it, no frills added. The vocals are way up front as they should be, and Omar has that tube-warm guitar skree nailed to the barn door perfectly. There is a wonderful edge to this album that many players would trade their vintage Stratocasters for. The production is almost a player in itself with weird hisses and ambient drones swirling in the misty mix. Slicked-back, righteous and a touch evil. You need this album.
Provogue Records

The MONk 2009 view - Dykes' latest work (besides his ever-growing girth, which seems to be an ongoing project) was in co-operation with the great Jimmie Lee Vaughan on a "tribute" album to the work and "sound" of late bluesman Jimmy Reed. Check Reed's stuff out, as well as "On The Jimmy Reed Highway" if you like this kind of blue matter. It's a matter of taste, for sure, but when Dykes and Vaughan wail it's pretty awesome. Omar can keep howlin' as long as he likes. That is just fine with me.

From 2004, another Electrophonic Tonic Playlist You Missed...

Here is how it all went down one Monday night back in 2004. Ray Condo is still deceased, and I am very much alive, thank Christ! To all of you out there that love music...check summa these out. Much Love...JMo!

As I type this I'm listening to the last few seconds of the last track on the new Alligator release "Houndog Taylor-Release The Hound" which compiles previously unreleased live tracks of the 'Dog in full tilt.
Mr. Taylor is kibbitzing on mike with another band member about it being time to bring out the "champagne and vaseline". Woah.
Classic stuff. Unadulterated, old school badass, goofing around. It doesn't get any saucier-or better-as time passes do it? Oh yes. And the entire album before these sweet last few seconds kinda warms it up real nice, do you know what I'm saying? Thanks for tuning in.
I'll be back in three weeks with mo'. Tune-in every week as the ET co-hosts make some great things happen, aurally speakin'.
hugs
MONk

r.i.p. Ray Condo (May 16, 1950 ~ April 15, 2004)

Electrophonic Tonic Playlist April 26/04
artist/track/cf
1. Deniz Tek and Scott Morgan/Electrophonic Tonic/3 Assassins (Career)
2. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/Blast Off/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
3. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/The Worrying Kind/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
4. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/Lonely Wolf/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
5. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/Crazy Mixed Up World/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
6. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/Burn Your Playhouse Down/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
7. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/Hot'n'Cold/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
8. Ray Condo & His Hardrock Goners/The Sinister Urge/Hot'n'Cold (Crazy Rekkids)
9. Weeping Tile/Through Yr Radio/Valentino (WEA)
10. controller controller/silent seven/history (paper bag)
11. Les Internes/Oh Non/Dans Le Vent Vol.1 (Echo67)
12. les Chantels/Shaggy Baggy Joe/Dans Le Vent Vol.1 (Echo67)
13. Curse of Horseflesh/Liberty's Cannon Ball/Burning Up The Jade (Rotoflex)
14. Jack deKeyzer/Top of the Line/Wild at Heart (Parfio)
15. Houndog Taylor/the Dog Meets the Wolf/Release the Hound (Alligator)
16. The Smugglers/Don't Mess with Beez/Mutiny in Stereo (Mint)
**************the nine-o-clock DUB break**************
17. Toots and the Maytals/Pomps and Pride/Best of: Pressure Drop (Trojan)
18. Twilight Circus Dub Sound System/Blue Motion/Foundation Rockers (Mrecs)
***********************************************
19. Donovan's Brain/The Known Sea/The Great Leap Forward (Career Records)
20. Deniz Tek and Scott Morgan/Dangerous/3 Assassins (Career Records)
21. Deniz Tek and the Golden Breed/Out Of Action /3 Assassins (Career Records)
22. Roy Loney and the Longshots/Nobody Does It/Drunkard in the Think Tank (Career Records)
23. Roy Loney and the Longshots/Doggone Fine/Drunkard in the Think Tank (Career Records)
24. Doug Sahm/Magic Illusion/He's About a Groover: Best of (Fuel 2000)
25. Mando Diao/Little Boy Jr. live/Paralyzed ep (Mute)
26. The Catheters/Between the Creases/Howling...it grows and grows (subpop)
27. Young Heart Attack/Starlite/Mouthful of Love (XL)
28. Mott the Hoople/Crash Street Kidds/The Hoople (CBS)
29. The Zombies/If It Don't Work Out/Decca Stereo Anthology (Big Beat)
30. Little Esther/Mojo Hannah/Mojo Raw Soul
31. Lole y Manuel/Tu Mira/Kill Bill 2 Sdtrk. (Maverick)
rave on people..........