CDOTD 11/24/2024

 VA: The Residents Present Buy or Die! Ralph Records 1972-1982 (Cherry Red)

Purchased mail order from the label

The will be some spoilers regarding The Residents below, if it matters to you.

I enjoyed watching Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents. It is largely a fan piece, similar to Zappa. Both films are filled with talking heads, both are essential to serious fans for otherwise publicly unavailable stills and film clips. 

There's a passing moment in the former film that hinted at something deeper. All four of the Cryptic Corporation, The Residents' management and heads of Ralph Records: Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, Jay Clem, and John Kennedy. Jay would be the "human", non-eyeball-head representative of Ralph/Residents for public appearances in the latter years listed on this collection. When he was asked if he would say why he split from the Cryptic Corporation, his answer was simply "No." I could be over-interpreting the moment. I thought there was such a sadness in his eyes, it still seemed like something painful even after several decades had elapsed. 

I was told by a mutual friend with The Residents that the split with Jay was "ugly." When I told him The Residents weren't around when I made a pilgrimage to Ralph Records in 1986, he said, "Sometimes it's better not to meet your heroes."

Ouch. 

Despite their veil of secrecy to the general public, those close to The Residents have revealed bits and pieces of the story. It's no surprise that the Cryptic Corporation was The Residents, sort of. What started as a hippy art collective became a music and multimedia band. Hardy Fox, shortly before his death, came out as the musical director of the group. Anyone who's heard Homer speak will immediately recognize his voice as the primary singer. Those who have played in the studio for the band confirmed it was basically two guys. Jay's voice appears here and there on some of the early records, but he had to run the day to day business. John? I understand he owned the (in)famous 444 Grove St. It's quite possible they were all involved musically in the early recordings, but I lack details in that respect.

Ralph Records was created to release The Residents. The first double single, Santa Dog, wasn't even really sold for the most part. They sent a copy to the Nixon White House, to have it returned unopened with "Rejected" stamped on the package.

Within a few years, the label had started to sign other artists. It was believed (a notion I understand that was promoted by Homer) that to be a viable, profitable label, they had to include other bands and musicians. Maybe for a time it was sustainable, but largely it seems like a highly optimistic viewpoint. Having a small, artist-run label is difficult, and now practically impossible now. 

We now have this triple-CD collection overview of Ralph Records. The emphasis is on the Ralph singles. It's a lot of music to write about, and I won't attempt to go into detail about everything.

Disc one: The Residents, Schwump, Snakefinger, Art Bears, Chrome

The earliest years, dating to 1972's "Fire" from Santa Dog. Tracks come from the singles, and all of the albums up to Duck Stab! and Not Available. Not included is anything from The Third Reich N Roll or Eskimo. The former isn't surprising, as it's two side-ling suites of unidentified covers of 60s pop and rock songs. "Satisfaction" is included though. As for Eskimo, perhaps they considered it another long suite, and wouldn't separate a portion of it. I can only speculate. Schwump was a one-off, a friend who sang for one limited edition single from 1976. The release includes both sides, and dangles an unreleased track in front of us fans.

Snakefinger was the first artist signed to the label, though he was friend of The Residents and appears on several of their albums. The songs in disc one are from Chewing Hides the Sound, which is Snakefinger singing and playing guitar with Residents supporting tracks. It sounds like The Residents with a different singer, more guitar, and generally more traditional songwriting (if still weird).

Ralph's association with Fred Frith begins with releasing music by Art Bears, his studio project with Henry Cow bandmates Damar Krause and Chris Cutler. There's a bit of that Henry Cow-style prog going on, but also more lieder-like perhaps? Dagmar sounds rather like Lotte Lenya, and it's appropriate she would record an LP of Weill and Eisler songs. 

Disc one ends with Chrome, the most traditionally-rocking piece of the entire collection. Chrome only appeared on Ralph by way of the Subterranean Modern compilation. What I read recently is that Ralph tried to sign them, but they wanted too much money. They had already started releasing their own records, and would release Third From the Sun (an old WRCT favorite) on Subterranean Records, appropriately enough.

Disc two: Chrome, MX-80 Sound, The Residents, Tuxedomoon, Gary Panter, Snakefinger

Disc two opens with the four radical (and radically different) interpretations of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" by the first four artists listed above. MX-80 and Tuxedomoon would be added to the Ralph roster. 

MX-80 Sound would probably be the most atypical of the Ralph artists. A quartet (formerly quintet with two drummers) originally from Indiana, they were signed and quickly dropped from Island Records, producing the LP Hard Attack. I guess Island wanted in on this punk rock/new wave thing, but they're not typical of either. They had a non-singer singer who plays occasional saxophone and minimal guitar. The real star of the band was Bruce Anderson, blazing guitarist with a style I've described before was virtuosic sloppiness. I know that's an oxymoron, so maybe think of him as an action player. "Someday You'll Be King" should top any proper list of post-punk songs, and the single B side, "White Nights" is nearly as good. There's an unreleased MX-80 song that closes the disc, which is not bad but not at the same level.

Only two original songs by Tuxedomoon are included on this disc, which seems like a huge omission. They were probably as compelling a band as associated with Ralph. Both their albums for the label are great in different ways. 

The really oddity on this disc are the three songs by Gary Panter. Gary was a visual artist did several covers for Ralph. The songs were produced by The Residents, but never appeared on the label. I am lucky to have the original issue, a 7" that folds out into a great Panter poster of a robot playing guitar. The third track, unreleased, is "Rozz Tox." Perhaps it's Gary reading the Rozz Tox manifesto he wrote, but I can't really tell what he's saying through the vocal processing. The Rozz Tox image is Gary's take on the huge Chicago Picasso sculpture, and appears inside the Eskimo gatefold Lp cover. There's also a picture of Gary with Philip K. Dick, wearing a Rozz Tox t shirt.

The Residents appear here with "Diskomo", their disco remix of Eskimo. With a hype sticker on the original cover, "Disco will never die!", and without even having heard the original album, my teenage self got the joke.

There's more Snakefinger here from Greener Postures. It sound like the he and The Residents became more accomplished with production, the sound is better than ever.

Disc three: Fred Frith, Yello, MX-80 Sound, Tuxedomoon, Renaldo and the Loaf, Snakefinger, The Residents

The third disc opens with Fred Frith and it's about time. Unfortunately, it's the two songs released as a 7" that appear on his album Gravity. While The Residents' Duck Stab is like comfort food for me. Gravity might be the single best record the label released. There's a European side with backing largely by Samla Mammas Manna, and an American side with The Muffins. It's his take on various dance musics. It's at times whimsical, serious, dense, abrasive, and you can even dance to it. His followup album, Speechless, follows the same form of the European side (Etron Fou Leloublan) and American side (Massacre). There are two tracks included here too. It's good but I don't like it as much as the earlier record. 

After the opening Frith tracks, the collection dives deeper into Yello. Four pieces from their first album, plus a single B side from that period. Why so much? Could it be that Yello went on to be the most successful of all the groups here, largely due to the "Oh Yeah" song that appeared in Francis Bueller's Day Off? I can only speculate, but I suspect the answer is a yes. I bought this collection in large part due to the previously unreleased pieces; I fully understand it's a way of earning off The Residents' old work. 

But Yello's recordings? The first album production has a kind of dead sound to it, the subsequent tracks the second album are clearer. The music is draws from various pop music idioms: a little exotica, some early jazz, bossa and salsa, and throws them into a mostly synthetic sound world. There are drums, some guitar, some sampled horns. Hearing recent Yello recordings, they really haven't changed at all. 

Renaldo and the Loaf was accused by some listeners as being The Residents. They may be in a similar mode, but they don't really sound alike at all. I always got the impression (confirmed by the feature documentary about them) that R&TL was the closest to a folk group of anything on Ralph, even more than The Residents. But the voice is clearly different, the use of recording technology is different. Aggressive use of tape loops, backwards vocals, altered speeds on instruments, and especially high pitched whiney vocals, it's a different sound world than their labelmates. Only their first Ralph LP, Songs for Swinging Larvae, is represented in this collection. They released several more through Ralph, I own one. Maybe just that first was enough.

And what's left? A little MX-80 from Crowd Control, two pieces from Tuxedomoon's Desire. Again, the latter seems like a big omission, considering how great (and different from their first) that album is. There's more Snakefinger too, "Eva's Warning" from Manual of Errors, the first "band" record he released, plus a few unreleased demos.

And the conclusion? It all ends with The Residents, naturally, the conclusion of Mark of the Mole. "Would We Be Alive?" A fitting end. The beginning of their Emulator/digital instrument period. no more out of tune piano, very little awful squonky saxophone by Homer. The beginning when when I take less interest in their music. 

Whew. Well, welcome to some of the soundtrack of my early adulthood. There's more I could have written, but this already feels like an immense knowledge and opinion dump. I'm tired and have been writing largely to distract myself. 

VOTD #2 11/19/2024

 Maurizio Bianchi: SFAG (Recursion)

Purchased new at Mind Cure Records

Maybe, after staying mute for a time, I feel like writing. 

I know I should probably be pouring my feelings into my music. It's my primary/fundamental art, right? Yet here I am, putting letters to words to sentences to paragraphs. 

I have a largely illogical love of Maurizio Bianchi's music. Why so? He's someone with no skills whatsoever, running his primitive synth performances through an Echoplex and recording the results. 

There's a dark ambience to what he does, that definitely appeals to me. "Dark Ambient" is a genre unto itself, and I often fall asleep to streaming radio stations that play dark ambient/drone sounds. 

SFAG=Symphony for a Genocide. Unlike some of his early industrial music cohorts, I don't think MB is fascistic. He's eschatological, more concerned with the death of humanity. 

I think this LP is a bootleg, though I'm not certain that Maurizio himself cares. He is himself a Jehovah's Witness, since his first retirement from music in the early 80s. To see his image now, he looks like a middle-aged business man mid-level on the corporate ladder; neither at the bottom, but never at the top.

VOTD 11/19/2024

 Sun Ra: Nothing Is (ESP)

Bought used in the 80s, probably in Baltimore

Hello, how are you? I'm not so good, but surviving. 

My previous missive was during the election night, or the next day I guess? I'm not as crushed or surprised as the last time Mr. Trump was elected president, despite the strong possibility this administration will be far, far, worse. 

I've largely avoided broadcast news, radio and television, and online. Not as determinately as 2016, but nearly. They are in large part responsible for Trump getting elected. 

I chose this album semi-randomly. Semi because....I went through a few other random selections before deciding this one was right. 

I can't recall where I bought this LP, though I doubt it cost me more than $5. The spine is split at the opening. I'm pretty sure I've had it since the late 80s, which would place it in my two year period of living in Baltimore. 

I'm not certain, but it's possible I bought this at Red's Records in the Federal Hill neighborhood. Red's was a tiny record story run out of someone's basement in a row house, and the manager didn't own the house. He rented the space. I think he had been in a different space previously. I tried to pay for a copy of Jazz in Silhouette, a Sun Ra reissue on Impulse! for $3 with a twenty dollar bill. He didn't have enough change, but let me take the record with me. When I paid for it in singles a week or two later, he didn't remember the prior exchange. 

Red (I guess I can call him that) had a day-glo screen printed poster of The Immoral Mr. Teas, Russ Meyer's first feature length movie, hanging on the wall. I saw it and laughed out loud, and Red said, "Do you want one? I think I have another copy" and gave me a folded, undisplayed copy of the same poster. I still have it. It's beautiful.

What I guess I'm saying is, Red, if you're out there, you have had a friend for life.

But....it's quite possible I bought this LP somewhere else, rendering my previous memories nothing more that the ramblings of an old man. 

Nothing Is... is unquestionably one of Sun Ra's best albums. I generally cite Live at Montreux as my favorite, and like the Space is the Place soundtrack album, represents a good overview of Sunny's work. This period, 1966-68, was probably his most daring if not my absolute favorite. The Magic City is from this time period, which I'd probably regard as his most important record. "Important"? Well....critically original. But this is close behind. 

"Dancing Shadows" opens the program, and it's a banger melody. Closing side one is "Exotic Forest", wtht Marshall Allen (who turned 100 this year!) kicking it on oboe, his first instrument. It builds, builds, builds with most of the band on percussion. 

Side two includes a performance of "The Shadow World", possibly Sun Ra's greatest and most epic composition. He must have known it too, considering how many versions appeared on his records.

I don't know, I'm happy to slip into another world momentarily. Our politics are for shit, I am frustrated teaching apathetic college students, one of whom has lodged a formal complaint against the grade I gave him. I'm tired.

At least there's music.

VOTD 11/15/2024

 Etron Fou Leloublan: Les Sillons De La Terre (Turbo)

I think I bought this at new at Tower Records in downtown Manhattan

A lot's happened since I last checked in. I don't need to write about most of it. My daughter's birthday was Monday, that eclipses most things globally. 

I guess this album had been on my mind to spin, another "comfort music" choice from my younger days. This was a band I probably read about in Op magazine, an essential zine from the 80s covering independent music. Lost Music Network's OP (LMNOP). There were 26 issues, each thematically for each letter of the alphabet, though not limited to the theme. Op, on its dissolution, broke into two factions: Sound Choice (the more radical and shorter lived spin off) and Option (the more commercial byproduct, still ultimately doomed). I subscribed in the last year or two of Op, even had an Op tshirt. 

Somewhere....maybe in Op?...I read a description of Etron Fou Leloublan as being being like Captain Beefheart with all of the blues drained from it. That's not far from the mark. The music is jerky and twists, but also grooves at times. I might have guessed they were French without listening to the vocals. Without understanding a word of French, I get a sense that it's a bit on the absurd side.

The lineup on this album is a quartet (bass/voice, saxophone, organ/vocals, drums), though an earlier live album is saxophone/bass/drums. My favorite configuration. The center of this band is clearly Ferdinand Richard, the bassist/vocalist. He often strums the bass chordally, which in part defines the sound of this band. 

This was the first album by this band I heard, which is probably in part why I enjoy it the most. For as much as I like my saxophone/bass/drums trios, organist Jo Thirion adds an additional layer to this band sonically, as well as putting a female voice into the mix. 

I suggest you find this album and I ask one thing: is this prog rock? I mean, such labels are limiters, not expanders. In some ways this is stripped down like punk rock, and yet the music is no less complex than most Yes songs, sometimes moreso. The execution is tight, this was a great playing band. 

Maybe, when I checking over every prog rock recording I could lay my hands on as a high schooler, this was what I was actually looking for. 

VOTD 11/06/2024

 Birchville Cat Motel: Cranes Are Sleeping (Ecstatic Peace)

Purchased at Jerry's Records

So here we are. 

Eight years ago when Donald Trump was first elected president, I made a comment to Facebook: "I guess America likes a bully." I've had more than my share of bullies. I know one when I see one. I'm certain every bully I knew in my school days probably voted for Trump.

It's still true, but this time I'd add, "I guess we have no collective memory." Are we better off then we were four years ago? You're goddamned right we are. But, there was inflation!

I'll leave it at that.

I don't imagine I'll be watching broadcast news any time soon, and I'll put podcasts on in the car and not the radio.

There's time for darkness, there's time for light. I'm splitting the difference this time.

I didn't know the name Birchville Cat Motel when I bought this. I probably tracked this on the Jerry's turntable and knew it was for me. I can't say what's the source of sounds much of the time, only that it's droney and ambient while being noisy and even annoying at times. Perfect! 

Track #2, "An Emperor's Second Acension" is largely feedback. Guitar? Synth? Mic? Don't know. It's layered but I can't distinguish each layer.

I'm trying to ball up the energy to keep writing, but I think i just want to go to sleep this afternoon.

Maybe more later.

VOTD 11/05/2024

 Akira Ifukube: Godzilla (Death Waltz)

Purchased new at Half Price Books

Well, it's election night. I'm neither completely ignoring the results nor paying close attention. I have to teach at 8am tomorrow morning, and I doubt things will be completely decided tonight or even at that time. 

I guess for my third blog posting in a row, I'm on the topic of comfort music.

I'll always love Japanese monster movies. Give me a man in a rubber suit stomping through downtown Kyoto, and that's entertainment as far as I'm concerned. 

Even before I might have been aware of such things, I'm certain that love in no small part stems from the soundtrack work of Akira Ifukube. He lends depth and resonance to films that at times could be seen as silly.

I will admit to a degree of....hypocrisy? I love Ifukube's soundtracks, even though they largely sound alike. He has some range, but even he admitted that he did two things well: marches and requiems. We are all permitted our own personal taste, and Ifukube just appeals to me. I say hypocrisy because I don't like the soundtrack work of Danny Elfman. I mean, I really don't like it. And part of my complaint is that he has written the same score to films over and over. So how is that different from Ifukube? It's fair to say, it isn't, I just happen to like one and not the other. 

In my defense, I went to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army in the theater. For a popcorn movie, I enjoyed the first Hellboy. It tied together some Lovecraftian themes and Rasputin, good casting and performances, and had a solid score thanks to Marco Beltrami. When I went to see the sequel, I could tell it wasn't the same composer despite the credits not appearing at the opening of the film. I wasn't digging it. I even thought at one point, "Oh, you better stop using those raised 4ths, or you're going to sound like Danny Elfman." Sure enough, I saw that Danny composed the music in the end credits. I felt vindicated that I didn't care for the music despite not knowing who had done it. I may not like his music, but I want to be fair too. 

It's significant that this film and score ends with an elegy, a requiem, sung for the monster. That seems non-Western to me. The people gathered on the boat, when the oxygen destroyer obliterates Godzilla on the ocean floor, sing a song of mourning to the creature. And Ifukube delivers. The monster couldn't help what it was, it was only acting on its impulses in a world where it didn't belong. 

That is, until the sequel happened. 

On this election night, I'm hoping there isn't another sequel, though I won't be singing a requiem. 

PS: Ifukube is responsible for the signature Godzilla roar. My understanding is that it's a glove covered in rosin, rubbed on the back of a bass, with the tape slowed down. Brilliant. 

VOTD 11/04/2024

 Ennio Morricone: Les Plus Belles Musiques d'Ennio Morricone Vol. 2 (GM France)

Purchased used at Half Price Books

Ah well, another day, another Ennio Morricone collection. I suppose this one falls under the same general category as The Residents' Commercial Album, that is to say, comfort music for me. 

It's somewhat unclear from the cover what is what at times. There is very familiar material on here, such as the "Man With a Harmonica" theme from Once Upon a Time in the West, the main title theme for The Sicilian Clan, and the theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 

I watched the second half of the latter a few weeks ago. I'm not a fan of Westerns but Sergio Leone films are another matter. Even at their most "normal" they're strange, gritty, bordering on surreal. It seems to me none of the leads are good, and they're all bad and ugly to varying degrees. 

Among his many scores, I didn't remember that he composed for La Cage Aux Folles. It's super-sweet and poppy, more than my taste, but that's fine for today. I have plenty of depressing music lined up should I need to rely on it. 

Thinking of La Cage brings back memories of the Pittsburgh Playhouse's film series. Anyone who was in Pittsburgh of a certain age will recall their monthly calendar. Sometimes they had two screens running simultaneously, all repertory or second-run films. It was well curated. Among the films I saw the first time there included: Harold and Maude, Eraserhead, Dawn of the Dead, 1984, Forbidden Planet, Glenn or Glenda?, Reefer Madness, Liquid Sky, Freaks, Mad Love, and that's just off the top of my head. Sell out showings were common. 

I remember seeing La Cage there with my wife and thinking it was hilariously funny, so much so that I had no desire to see the American remake years later with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. More recently I did see the end with Gene Hackman escaping the club in drag, and I admit it was okay. 

Maybe I'm feeling nostalgic as we head into this dreaded election, to say nothing about the frustrations of dealing with my car. Sorry. I look forward to Pennsylvania not being the center of the political universe again.

And here I sit listening to Morricone again, who's sounding alternately epic or weirdly saccharine on various turns.