Entry of the Chameleons

So lately I've been spending a lot of time with the new King Crimson 40th Anniversary remasters, most notably the CD + DVD edition of their 3rd record, Lizard. Something about this record, and its surrounding partners (In The Wake Of Poseidon and Islands) has always fascinated me, even more so than the acknowledged classics In The Court Of The Crimson King and Larks Tongues In Aspic. There's something so mysterious and hidden about this trio of records, something that gives the impression of a sort of hidden knowledge that can be gleaned from intense study. Needless to say, this is right up my nerd alley. Which leads to this post and story of the 21st Century Schizoid Band. In a nutshell, a few years back some former members of the almighty Crimso got back together to bash out some old favorites and generally have a grand ol' time. Since Mr. Fripperlips above was leading a current version of Crimso (and producing some mighty fine new material), the lads recruited a one Jakko Jakszyk to take the place of not only Robbo, but Greg Lake, Gordon Haskell, Boz Burrell and John Wetton as well. Whew! They put out several releases before the untimely passing of drummer Ian Wallace, the best of which (Pictures Of A City: Live In New York) I have 0h-so-graciously included below. This little piece of plastic sadly went out of print not too long after its release, thus depriving the world of a fun document of some master players running through through some classics, most of which are taken from the above mentioned trio of records! So nicely tied together there!

Talk to the wind here and here

What could be romantic to Mike Watt?

Your slightly-friendly blogger took a solo trip to the Bottom of the Hill the other night to Mike Watt in concert and promptly had his ass blown away. Now, I've seen Watt jam the bass on multiple occasions, and thus being blown away was no surprise, but I never cease to be amazed by the man's dedication and intensity. He's a fucking lifer, man. In tribute to his Wattness' genius, I give you the J Mascis & The Fog Guitar Center promo CD, featuring, you guessed it, Mr. Watt himself on the bass. Ever wanted to hear J and Watt jam out a Sabbath-style version of "Maggot Brain?" Of course you fucking did.

And now you can!

We are NOT Devo

Okay, okay, so maybe that ain't exactly the most clever headline you've ever seen, but we (the royal we) here at Eat My Dump pride ourselves in our TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. And these yahoos above certainly are NOT Devo. But they are kinda interesting. What I hold in my pretty little hand above is a 45 rpm release by the Hotfoot Quartet, a seem to be a bunch of Ohio residents doing a dandy little bluegrass (!) version of the Devolution-kings smash hit, Mongoloid. Now lest you think I'm pawning off some modern day "pickin' on" bullshit here, please be advised that this piece o' wax emerged on this realm in 1979, thus making it roughly contemporary to the original Devo 45 release. Hot Damn! And if you click on the little blue link below, you can hear the track (and its non-Devo b-side) in all it's dubbed-off-my-scratchy-45 glory!

Yo!

*Insert Kobaïa nerd joke here*

So what we have here is the Magma singles collection. Now, I want you all to sit there and ruminate on this one here for awhile. Magma, the group known for their epic-length tellings of the trials and tribulations of the good ol' people of the planet Kobaia have a collection (albeit a brief one) of their nice, little, concise non-album pop singles. Well, pop for Magma. And guess what, IT'S PURTY DAMN GOOD. The first few tracks are filled with all these little mutant-samba riffs and horny horns, kinda like nuclear damaged Herb Alpert, but with the all-too-fun trademark Magma operatic shriek vocals. I call this whimsical little CD to your attention, however, for the last track, "Mekanik Machine." Oh mama, "MEKANIK MACHINE." This is Magma recast as a funk band from hell, picking up the gauntlet that "De Futura" (off their Udu Wudu LP) dropped by its lapels and kicks the living shit out of it. It's that good.

HEAR FOR YOURSELF

File under: underrated

Nothing else to be said.

"Oh my god, Darby's dead!"

Oh me, oh my, we have a special treat today! What we're workin' with here is the Angry Samoans live in 1983 at the Mabuhay Gardens in my lovely residence of San Francisco. I got this in trade prolly about 7 or 8 years ago from the dude who taped this, so I can't imagine it's floating much around this newflangled interwebs of yours. The nerdy archivist in me wishes I had a more precise date than this, but the '83 vintage was enough to make me nervously wring my sweaty hands in anticipation of he bountiful rock delights contained within. You see, Back From Samoa came out in 1982, and as anyone who doesn't eat their own snot is aware, IT IS ONE OF THE BEST GODDAMN RECORDS OF ALL TIME. And for once, the needless to say introduction is appropriate, as this tape freakin' rules. As such, it provides a nice contrast to when I saw the Samoans at the Pound around 2000, which had Metal Mike pretty much looking the pint-sized crypt-keeper you see above, except with the addition of a rather fetching Britney Spears backpack. The show was hilarious and awesome, but for entirely different reasons then it would have been in the early '80s. Such is life.

Time to fuck

P.S. Oh! Oh! Until I spun this bad boy today, I had totally forgotten that the dude threw on the MIA set that he taped that night. So yeah, you get MIA too. So to clarify: Tracks 1-22: Samoans, Tracks 23-35: MIA. That is all.

Q: How have I never heard this song before?

A: Because even I can be a chump sometimes.

I picked this up yesterday solely because it was a Rufus Thomas (of "Walkin' The Dog" fame) 45 for 2 bucks. When I got back to my buddy's place we poured some spirits and threw this bad boy on. OH MAN. Kinda thing that makes me wish I wasn't a honkie with no rhythm. That break! That fucked-up-ass guitar line! OH MERCY! New favorite song.

P.S. Mine sadly does not have the sleeve. Oh fart.