A prolonged absence may have been noted by your faithful scribe,but i have been an unwilling victim of a Co-Vid variant!Despite having been vaccinated thrice, It fucked me over.and I was visited by the ghost of Christmas Future during my virus ravaged stupor.I was even planning how to keep the blog running after my imminent death!?
I's Still a bit fucked up,but managed to think of something to write about.....The Lemon Kittens of course?...i really don't know what i have been doing in the preceding weeks,but i'm already forgetting that terrifying dying feeling.Shit man, i was panicking about my estate rather more than yer actual fear of death. Soooooooo......!?
In the lengthening history of 'Out There' during the Rock'n'Roll era, there has been, actually, a gaping dearth of genuinely fucking weird groups this side of the grand canyon of 'Out'. You've either got it or you ain't,and 99% of 'Weird' just ain't is it? There's trying (embarrassingly Hard) to be weird,Volcano The Bear (one lp on that NWW bloke's label!?) spring to mind, and there's just plain old. Weird.
Early Residents were effortlessly weird until they discovered computers. Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is the epitome of Weird ,but he couldn't repeat it!....nah....'Decals' is 'trying' not 'being',like all his post bat chain puller stuff, pretentious, like his shite Art works;but hey we all need to make a living don't we? We also have 'Ill' weird, like Jandek, Daniel Johnston,and anything Outsider. You have to be Normal (conforming to general standards of 'Normal) to qualify as achieving 'Weird' status...like Moondog?
There are plenty of early industrial acts who sound weird,but are far toooo normal to fool me....like the bloke from Nurse With Wound*...but his public schooled mate David Tibet knew he was far too fucking normal, and spent his career languishing in,slash exploiting,the truly weird,and wonderful ocean of Dark Folk...now that certainly IS weird shit brother,but we is talking the world of 'pop' here,and Lemon Kittens qualify as being within the 'pop' format, like Don Van Vliet before them, even though they were regularly featured on 'Industrial' compilations.
"We Buy A hammer For Daddy" (also on that NWW bloke label!?) is easily the equal of "Trout Mask Replica" on the pantheon of Weird,with a better follow up to boot.
I won't bust a blood vessel listing albums I reckon are effortlessly weird,but that list would be a slim volume indeed,dangerously treading on pamphlet territory.
Yup, The Lemon Kittens were effortlessly so.
So,in the light of a lack of new material,here's a quickly cobbled together volume of very rare recordings of Dax and Blake supporting This Heat at the ICA....the bootlegger obviously arrived late and missed most of the Lemon Kittens set...twat....and another one supporting ...erm...Modern English!?...dunno what their fans thought of of it all?
That first Modern English LP was rather good I remember?....certainly Not weird,but classic British pop music;just like Lemon Kittens were classic British Weird.
It's a fascinating subject is Weird innit?
Asking what is the Weirdest Album of all time is akin to asking what is the worst album of all time. Mostly, the same record tops both charts, and maybe even tops the Best Album Charts too.....this has happened to "Trout Mask Replica".Alas "We Buy A Hammer" is far too obscure to feature in any chart,even the Obscure Chart....and dare I say, far too Weird?
*once upon a time, That Nurse With Wound bloke,was selling his first LP to the record shops in Camden,when he approached the infamous Ted Carroll of 'Rock On'.Ted asked what kind of music it was.
"Sort of 'Weird'said MWW bloke.
"Nah!" said Ted, that ain't weird....This is WEIRD!"..and proceeded to play The Human League's, "Being Boiled",newly released on Fast Product.
Y'know what I agree with Ted.
Tracklist:
1.Intro (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
2.Up In Arms (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
3.Popsykle (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
4.Morbotalk (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
5.Small Mercies (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
6.Bookburner (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
7.Funky 7 (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
8.(unknown) (end cut) (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
9.Afraid Of Being Bled By Leeches (ICA London 27-12-1980)
10. PVS (ICA London 27-12-1980)
11. This Kind Of Dying (ICA London 27-12-1980)
21 comments:
And here I was thinking you finally came to your senses.
Seriously, hope you are well. And thanks for all the stuff!--Anonymous Bill
The thought that there might be a lack of really weird bands in your world never crossed my mind.
Hope you're getting better. Have a good new year and best wishes from Munich!
Sven
Stay well, my friend. All the best and ta very much.
Welcome back, must have been a 'weird' variant
What of the Edward Barton LP? Didn't he claim to collect planks when he was on the Tube?
Hmmm, Barton? I dunno whether he was a comedy act or not...i smell Actor. But nonetheless a great example of the Great British Eccentric. Have i not posted his album yet?...will rectify.
I suppose we all find The Residents funny,so i can't discount Edwards fine work.....i got no chicken but I have five wooden Chairs stands out.
He had a hit too didn't he?...'It's a Fine day' with his gf Jane which got featured on an advert.
Thanks for thoughts on my weird co-vid attack.....i sound like the first few seconds of Black Sabbaths Sweet Leaf on a loop.
Alcohol does help.
I wondered where you were, you crazy knucklehead! The wife and I were just now talking about you. We decided that either you had Covid or you were dead.
Really, though, I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that. I'm just glad that you're better and wish you nothing but the best.
Thanks.
Alcohol almost always helps. Hope your recovery period isn't too tedious, and thanks for this !
Fresh ginger root, fresh curcumin root with some honey, all mixed with hot water is what we're using here for Covid. Been through that shit twice, it's hell.....
You're so right. Although I do like "Decals" a lot. Even better the instrumental tracks. I like the Mirror Man sessions. To me they are odd if not weird. The Woof singles by Tim Hodgkinson, those are enjoyable.
Henk... ahaaa...if only the science elite knew about Fresh ginger root, fresh curcumin root with some honey, all mixed with hot water, it would have saved Gzillions of dollah!
Northfield hat....I too like decals, but, it sounds too under control to me...which helps the instrumentals i guess, but not the other stuff. None of the other LP's get close to TMR for me...even if its just the guitar sounds?
I admit to liking spotlight kid and Strictly personal,but.....etc
Well, not saying it's a cure of course but it does help alleviate some of the symptoms from what I hear, government was also telling people to take it. They use this concoction for all sorts of ailments and I speak from experience when it comes to stomach/intestinal problems. Research has shown that it's the biggest reason that intestinal cancers are rare in India where curcumin is widely used, it also fights infections :)
Henk..i'm off to the market now..i'll try anything.It ain't going away!
Ehrrrr.... I saw somewhere earlier this week... something about crystal-meth helps against Covid???? Not sure if that's a route you wanna take though :)
Sorry to hear about COVID 😲 definitely hope the full recovery will go well! I had it but blessedly in mild form:)
Henk...i was just about to score some meth when i noticed a very welcome and unexpected improvement in my health after doing the ginger honey curcumin drinky thing.....had interesting colour shit too.Some Sense of smell returned as well....boy does my fridge stink!?
I'll see if it comntinues before I get some Crystal Meth in.....they also said the same thing about cigarettes as well.
Last time I had covid it wasn't just smell, almost everything tasted like shit for a while... No coughing but all my old jiu jitsu injuries started hurting like hell, couldn't walk for shit, got it from my son, he got it in school and he just breezed through it, fine in a day or two, might be an age thing? This meth thing is funny, in the old days you would sometimes hear the "if you're a heroin junkie you won't get cancer" thingy. Guess I'm just going to start using every drug available, just to be sure :) Not weed though, if caught they'll torture you to death for that here in Indonesia, even for the smallest amounts...
I saw the Lemon Kittens in 81 with Killing Joke and 1919 and they were wearing nappies and paint but the weirdest thing was one of them had a beard, not something you saw too much on punk, post - punk musos back then.
Amc....Yeah Beards during punk where limited to The Stranglers, That bloke in the Human League, and Karl Blake.
1919 and Killing Joke on the same bill??....must have been hard to tell the difference, as 1919 based their entire repertoire on just a couple of tunes from the Joke's first two albums.Most amusing was their re-write of "The fall Of Because" as "After the fall Of Any Reason".
Were their any boo's for the Lemon Kittens....can't imagine many Killing Joke fans approving of that..if anyone was there to actually see them that is.
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