VOTD 7/22/2024

 The Ridiculous Trio: The Ridiculous Trio Plays The Stooges (Modern Harmonic)

I think Rob Pleshar sent me a copy

I'd be envious of Rob Pleshar if he wasn't one of my best friends. If you're old school Pittsburgh/WRCT, you might remember Rob as Ralph the Wonder Llama for his radio broadcast, Spermblast. (I have to admit, when he announced the show title, I thought, can you say that on the radio?) His old Pittsburgh friend know him was Ralph as a result, something he doesn't try to squelch. 

With his band Black Bear Combo, they played on the White House lawn during the Obama administration, all in skeleton outfits. Somebody knew somebody knew Michelle, and it happened. Twice even? Something that will never happen to me. 

I have worked with Anthony Braxton. Rob told me he participated in Anthony's "100 tuba" concert event; even then they couldn't scare more than 79 players. 

Then there's this session. He gave me the original CDR, and a sticker reading "The Ridiculous Trio." Why that name? he said to the bandleader, just call it The Ridiculous Trio. I think I still have a sticker on my alto case.

And that CDR recording session wound up as this LP. I wouldn't mind someone sinking $$ into a vinyl pressing of something I've done, but I don't hold it against him. 

I enjoy the spareness of this album, even if it's produced beyond the trombone/tuba/drums lineup. Barely. Trombone and tuba are often run through distortion. It sound kazoo-like but not always in a bad way. 

The final track is the 15+ minute "We Will Fall". It's spare, lean, atmospheric. And surface pops that shouldn't be there. For such an active album, it seems like a strangely downbeat ending. But then, I do love the unexpected and contradictions.

Rob, if you should read this: I really am not jealous of you. I have it good. Okay, maybe slightly for the Obama lawn performance. But good for you for having someone put money towards this pressing. 

VOTD 7/21/2024

 The Chevrolet Experience (Chevrolet)

Purchased at an estate sale

I do love my vinyl oddities. I don't have a substantial collection of Evangelical Christian preaching albums, but I have a few. I generally try not to spend more than $1 apiece when possible. I have a Jimmy Swaggart LP preaching against the evils of extramarital sex (ummm yup), culled from a large box of his records. I should have gotten one or two others. I have another Swaggart album on 16rpm, and I don't have a turntable that goes that speed. On a related note, I have some flexidiscs of magazines read for the blind, to be played back at 8rpm. They must sound like sludge. I don't know if most old classroom self-contained record players can go to 8rpm. I guess I'll have to look.

This particular oddity turned up at an estate sale, a monster mansion owned by the family of one of my daughter's elementary/middle school friends. The family's father is in used automobiles, so maybe this came down through the family business?

Why was this made, for whom? Was it given away at a trade show? The music (and the tracks are all vocal songs) is professionally played, the production (largely) clear, the vocal performances earnest. But why would someone listen to this, unless it's a cynic like me? 

Some of the music sounds like Broadway maybe, and not Broadway at its best to be sure. Mostly it sounds like pop music that was dated at the time (1977). There's a nod to CB radio users, setting up with a tinny sounding "Breaker, breaker". Talk about antiquated technologies.

Sometimes there's a chuckle or two on promotional recordings like this. There used to be a program distributed on NPR, The Annoying Music Show. Records like this was among the fodder for the host. It could get super smarmy at times, but I'll be damned if it wasn't funny as hell sometimes too. Nothing's really hilarious here, though the gleefully delivered "Chevrolet Proud" comes close.

Really, there's no point in reviewing this record, now or at the time of its pressing. 

I don't know if my wife can it hear playing upstairs, but she must think I'm crazy if she can. 

VOTD 7/19/2024

 Robert Fripp: Exposure (EG)

Purchased new at Quackers in Quakertown while in high school

Chosen at semi-random. 

Discovering King Crimson was big deal for me in high school. I've stated previously that I was the high school prog rock kid, eschewing punk rock and favoring what I considered to be complexity. Over four decades later, I now see things in far less binary terms.

KC was a big deal because they had the instrumental prowess of other bands I admired, but were tougher and leaner. I'm thinking of the Wetton/Bruford lineup in particular. They didn't do, as my friend David Throckmorton once put it, "songs about...ice."*

I was excited to find this Fripp-led project new on the shelves of the QMart in Quakertown.** I'm guessing I would have been a high school junior at the time, but it's possible I'm off a year. (The copyright listed is 1979; I graduated in 1981.)

I was both intrigued and confused by this project. It's fair to say I always greatly enjoyed it, even if it wasn't always what I expected. I mean, first of all the lineup: contributing were Daryl Hall, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Terre Roche, Tony Levin, and those were the names I recognized in high school. 

Musically, it's kind of all-over-the-place, but I think I love it all the more because of that. "Preface" with its dense overdubbed vocal harmonies; "You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette" a largely straight-forward rocker with odd lyrics (I always liked the line, "I'm getting anxious/I'm franxious"); the Crimson-like instrumental "Breathless" (only played live for the first time on the most recent KC tour), the frantic vocals of "Disengage", the lovely ballad "North Star" delivered by Daryl Hall. That's just the first five pieces of 17. 

I can appreciate and sympathize with the idea of Mr. Fripp wanting to not being pinned down to a single thing. Here he is, breaking away from the 60s/70s, creating....an album of excess? That's not fair, but the results could be interpreted as in some ways self-indulgent. I don't think it is though, I think it's more about restlessness, about wanting to do everything you can with as many people possible. And I'm often decidedly in that lane. 

It's fun to spin the original vinyl again. It sounds great. There is a wonderful 2CD reissue that collects both the original mix and vocals, but also a second disc with more of Daryl Hall's vocals on more pieces. This is to speak nothing of the 32 disc box set documenting this period of Robert's creative life, including the League of Gentlemen and other albums that followed this. I was tempted, believe me.

I was thinking of Material's Memory Serves (1981) as I listened to this. Not musically, but how projects like this, at this time, with so little commercial potential, could still get bankrolled in some way. Not so much any more. I imagine this album made its money back eventually, but nobody was going to get rich off of it. 

*Throck is one of the funniest, cleverest people I've known. He has a gift for non-sequitor and puns, and enjoys when others are able to keep up with him.

**It's nearly impossible to explain the QMart to anyone how hasn't been there, and I'm sure it's not the same place I remember as a kid. Part farmer's market, part flea market, and possibly the closest thing you'll find to a Middle Eastern bazaar in the US. But I'm probably romanticizing it. There was a magazine shop that sold leftover comic books at half price; great when I first went there and the cover price was 20¢. Quackers was a record store next to one of the entrances. It's also the place where I found a copy of The Residents' Duck Stab/Buster and Glen, at a time when I was awaiting for my first order from Ralph Records to arrive (besides the third Buy or Die! loss leader). I still have my original copy of that, too. 

CDOTD 7/14/2024

 Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won (Atlantic) 3CD

Purchased used at The Exchange

How do you consolidate your taste as an adult with that of your youth? Led Zeppelin was never a favorite of mine, but I liked them generally. Okay, I thought "Whole Lotta Love" sounded like a huge joke. I still don't care for it. 

The Zeppelin album I had on vinyl was Houses of the Holy, and it probably remains my favorite. That's not to say I love all of it ("D'yer Mak'er"), but being the prog rock kid at 15, that album came closer to my ideal than the others. I bought new at the Laneco in Coopersburg a cassette copy of In Through the Out Door, of course an album package to encourage you to buy the vinyl. Liked it, didn't love it. Reviewed it for my high school newspaper, and I caught heat for so much as criticizing any Zeppelin product. "Putting down Zeppelin, Ben, for shame." Me: "I said I liked it!"

That album now sounds like a very mixed bag. Moments of greatness, but also throwaways. 

Why this album, why now? It seems to me that Led Zeppelin in concert is a related but different beast than LZ live. I have friends in a Zeppelin tribute band. There could be a Zeppelin project in my future, but I can say no more. I thought studying a good live recording was worth the time. 

And indeed, the 25+ minute version of "Dazed and Confused" incorporates "Walter's Walk" (eventually on Coda) and "The Crunge" (contemporary to that tour) and even a small bit of Black Sabbath, as I listen to it. I like that they don't treat their songs gently. I'd never refer to LZ as "jazz" but they sometimes treat the songs as jazz musicians do. Launch from the material, stretch and take your time, don't be afraid to make mistakes. 

And there are "mistakes" aplenty here. Good!

I was having an imaginary conversation in my head with John Paul Jones. Why him and not Plant or Page? Probably because a good friend told me he had dinner with Jones. I don't have reason not to believe him. 

One of the questions I had was, Led Zeppelin's massive popularity gave you the resources to do what you wanted to do. But did you find it limiting? Did it prevent you following "the muse" in ways that weren't commercial? 

I wonder what they would have been like in a small club show? Probably amazing. But we'll never know. 

"Dancing Days" reminds me of hacking out that song on a jazz gig with John Purse, Mike Marcinko of ATS, and Jay Matula at a bookstore on East Carson St. on the Southside of Pittsburgh in the late 90s. The guitar melody sounded good on tenor saxophone. Good times. 

The first LP I bought for myself was Kansas' Leftoverture. For all its highs and lows, this is better.