The Tommies
by Thomas Schulte
**************************************************************
Outsight brings to light
non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and opinions.
Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print this article.</font></p>
Please, keep Outsight informed:
Email Outsight at
outsight@usa.net.</font></p>
Ratings are (1) = :(, (5)
= :)</font></p>
Outsight Radio Hours Internet
radio Webcasts with live interviews:
Sundays 6pm-8pm Eastern
http://www.new-sounds.net/</font></p>
**************************************************************
NEWS **************************
THE
TOMMIES</font></p>
Following is an alphabetical
list representing my choices as Top 19 albums for 2001. Note that while many
of these are reissues, they are all 2001 releases.</font></p>
Luther Luther’s Blues (Motown/Universal Music)</a>
Deficit The Idiot King (Magna Carta)</a>
Pierre Intuite (Favored Nations)</a>
Heidi Pomegranate: An Anthology (4AD)</a>
Raoul Apocalypso (Cuneiform Rune)</a>
Bob / Hirayasu, Takashi Nankuru Naisa (World Music Network)</a>
Dave & Grammer, Tracy Drum Hat Buddha (Signature Sounds)</a>
Claypool’s Frog Brigade Live Frogs – Set 2 (Prawn Song/Red Ink/Columbia)</a>
Neubauten Strategies Against Architecture III: 1991-2001 (Mute)</a>
Cesaria Sao Vicente (Windham Hill)</a>
Fujii, Satoko April Shower (Ewe Records)
Gobeil, Gilles …dans le silence de la nuit… (IMED)
Contemporary Ensemble I Dig (Innova)</a>
Teresa New American Piano Music (Innova)</a>
Jimmy The Source (Label M)</a>
Matthew Matthew Shipp’s New Orbit (Thirsty Ear)</a>
Artists Head Jazz (Label M)</a>
S. Ware Quartet Corridors & Parallels (AUM Fidelity)</a></font></p>
BEDTIME FOR ALTERNATIVE
TENTACLES?</font></p>
Reeling from the controversial
loss of the Dead Kennedys albums from their back catalog and feeling the effect
of the current recession, AT openly considers a foreboding future. You can help
keep the label alive and educate yourself through their new, recent spoken
word releases in conjunction with AK Press. Noam Chomsky on An American Addiction
( http://www.alternativetentacles.com/product.php?product=450)
examines America’s foreign policy and the intersection of drugs, guerillas and
US involvement. Learn how U.S. military might merely transform hardworking peasants
into criminals at work deep in the jungle and out billions in military aid supports
a Colombian ruling class rife with corruption. Chomsky lucidly delineates this
insidious chain of invents since the beginnings in the ‘80’s of the War on Drugs.
This exegesis reflects back on current events through the Bush administration
providing $43 million in aid to the Taliban to destroy opium poppies in May
- </font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1430858/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy Noam Chomsky at CDNow</a></p>
Similarly, a spectrum of thought can be heard on the various artists collection
Monkeywrenching the New World Order ( http://www.alternativetentacles.com/product.php?product=452).
This double-CD compilation features speakers ranging in length from under a
minute to 15 minutes. Like earlier Alternative Tentacles spoken word releases,
this clarifies the discontent that led demonstrators to shut down the WTO meetings
in Seattle as well as place the WTO and other factors in their place in a full picture
of the New World Order. This political
landscape includes militarism, and policing; environmental issues, ‘frankenfood,’
and genetic engineering; digital capitalism and more. Featured speakers
include Noam Chomsky, Craig O’Hara (“Philosophy of Punk”), liberal historian
Howard Zinn and Agent Apple of the public pie-throwing Biotic Baking Brigade.
</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1430859/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at Monkeywrenching the New World Order CDNow</a></p>
</font>A PORTRAIT OF PATRICIA
MORRISON
Patricia Morrison, bassist for The Damned, is the only child of an Irish immigrant
mother and Sicilian born Italian father, prompting her to joke, “I’m real
even tempered!” She is a veteran of Sisters Of Mercy, Gun Club and The Bags.
Morrison joined The Damned in 1996 at the suggestion of the band’s founding member
and guitarist, Captain Sensible. Two years later, Patricia married the group’s
other founding member, lead singer Dave Vanian in a Las Vegas ceremony on their
way back from an Australian tour. “I was walked down the aisle by an
Elvis impersonator in a black jumpsuit. It was brilliant!” she recalls.
The Damned just completed a six-week North American tour in support of their recently
released CD Grave Disorder (Nitro Records). The band just began a
tour of the UK that will be followed by concerts in Italy. Patricia and The
Damned hope to return to the US in April for another tour.</font>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1411405/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
TRYOUTS FOR A TRIBUTE
Wampus Multimedia seeks
submissions for a new CD tribute to Lou Reed. Wampus hopes you might have something
to say on record about Reed’s career as one of the most influential pre-punk
songwriters in rock. Deadline for submissions is February 28, 2002. Find out
more on the Web at http://wampus.com/lou.html</font></p>
DVD REVIEWS ***************************************
Bertrand Tavernier, Director
</font>The Clockmaker
</font></i>Kino On Video
</font>http://www.kino.com</p>
The Clockmaker is the 1973
filmmaking debut of Bertrand Tavernier (Sunday in the Country, ‘Round Midnight).
This much regarded French director and ex-critic obtained New Wave writing veterans
Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost to collaborate with on the script based on a Georges
Simenon novel. Philippe Noiret (Il Postino, Cinema Paradiso), a regular in Tavernier’s
early work, ably carries out the title role. This character is forcibly and unexpectedly
torn from his normally passive role in life as his son is accused of murder. Here
we visit the aspects of a criminal investigation from the point of view of an
indirect victim, the accused’s father. The unique view in this storyline, Noiret’s
genuine emotional portrayal and the comparison of the mechanics of parenting and
government make this debut DVD edition worth seeking out. (4)</font>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=947065/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></p>
Spencer Rice and Kenny
Hotz, directors
</font>The Pitch
</i>Video Service Corp./MVD
</font>http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/
</font>http://www.videoservicecorp.com/</p>
Canadian filmmakers Spencer
Rice and Kenny Hotz launch into the American music industry with naivety and
enthusiasm that turned into disgust. This is the video-documented story of their attempts
to pitch their transsexual mob comedy script, The Dawn. First rebuffed
on all accounts through the phone solicitations of their office they go to the
Toronto Film Festival to engage the industry firsthand. Herein is the greatest
comic value of the flick as Roger Ebert, Matt Dillon, Al Pacino and other names
react differently to being approached by the duo. There’s no “reel” happy ending
even after they land in Hollywood for hopeful if questionable negotiations but
after it is all done we are all are educated in the realities of independent
scriptwriters’ hopes with laughs and entertaining impromptu cameos along the
way. (3.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/MOVIES/mv_item.html/itemid=1461775/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> More on this video title from CDNow</a></p>
BOOK REVIEW **************************************
Kim Cooper and David Smay,
editors
</font>Bubblegum Music
is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits
to Britney Spears
</font></i>Feral House
</font>info@feralhouse.com</p>
A cast of contributors
from cartoonist Peter Bagge to the bizarre Partridge Family Temple to Greg Shaw
document the history of and celebrate the unknowns of bubblegum music.
Pete Townsend once remarked, “Some of the world’s best music is bubblegum,” and
most of these contributors agree. Their overlapping and amorphous definitions
of the genre cause the chronologically laid out volume to act as a history of
pop music from the ‘60’s to today with a focus on that created with marketing
in mind. Entertaining and enlightening, this lively tome sheds light on the
names behind the manufactured sounds, the true stories of the real people leading
or trapped in the movement and institutions that fostered its growth. As educational
as it is fun, this excellent collection of essays and interviews is a must for
any music fan. (5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0922915695/qid=1010344358/sr=2-1/outsighthomepage”>
More on the book from Amazon.com</a></p>
STYLUS COUNCIL (VINYL REVIEWS)
**</font></p>
Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue
Heavy Dirt</font>
In The Red Records
</font>http://www.intheredrecords.com/</p>
A journeyman of garage
rock and heavy roots rock, Melchior is one of two Brits joined with two guys
from Florida in this lineup. Like a harsh distillation of American folk music,
Heavy Dirt fuses wailing country blues in overdrive and Jon Spencer take
on R&B. It’s the hard-bottom rhythm section of Greg Anderson (drums), and
B.L. Truax (bass) that hails from Florida and they provide a the low-end with
a delivery as heavy and extreme as the metal acts that hail from that state.
This incarnation of Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue is hardcore heartland heroics.
(3.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1422605/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Institut
</font>Unto the Last Man
</i>Cold Meat Industry
</font>http://www.coldmeat.se/</p>
Featuring an embossed,
full-color gatefold cover with insert, this double-single is limited to 911
copies. Unto the Last Man is four sides of dominant, art-noise exhortations
toward the oppressed to strive for freedom spread over a double seven-inch
vinyl release. Cacophonous and searing, this four-sided documents tonally and translates
revolutionary angst. Primitive, but effective, this is the sound of streets filled
with the rubble of radical change. (3)</font></p>
King Brothers
King Brothers
In The Red Records
</i>http://www.intheredrecords.com/
Dressed like a Yazuka visitation
and rocking like the Demolition Doll Rods on “Drum Rock (Part II)” and then a punk
Dick Dale on “Big Boss,” they cut a burning swath through every hard rock sub-genre
on this album. This florid display of lo-fi mayhem is a typhoon from Osaka
and is the soundtrack to their highly praised live rock performance when
they toured the U.S. club in 1999 and 2001. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1247710/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Hot Rod Honeys
Kill Me Now</font>
Demolition Derby
</font>http://come.to/demderby
</font>demderby@pi.be</p>
This European punk rock
band exhibits a wide strip of American-born drag rock. The music is often hard
and fast, a real blur, but whether the sounds wax of wane melodic the lyrics
always have a catchy, sing-along feel reminiscent of the bubblegum birth of
‘70’s East Coast power pop and punk. Kill me Now could be The Ramones
producing The Dwarves. (3.5)</font></p>
Various Artists
</font>Victims Family
“Calling Dr. Schlessinger” b/w The Fleshies “Gonna Have to Pass”</i>
</font>Alternative Tentacles
</font>http://www.alternativetentacles.com/
</font>http://www.victimsfamily.com/</p>
Old school Alternative
Tentacles (Victims Family) meets new school Alternative Tentacles (The Fleshies)
on this split 7”. The punk panegyric to Dr. Laura starts out creepy and ends
up hard. The youngbloods in The Fleshies don’t have time for such arranging
and put their explosive episode at the front of their side leaving a few seconds
for the vapor trails to fade out from their speed-punk outburst. Alternative
Tentacles has been doing hard punk on vinyl for years and it shows, production
on both sides is excellent. Also, both tracks do not appear on other releases
from the groups. (4)</font></p>
REVIEWS ***********************
Various Artists
That’s Rock & Roll</font>
Golden Stars / Qualiton
</p>
This 3-CD set is comprised
of sub-three-minute early rock gems that stood the test of time to earn the
moniker as “oldies but goodies.” These selections include the two great streams
that gave birth to rock-n-roll, the rockabilly born of country like Carl Perkins
“Boppin’ the Blues” and the blues-born thread like Bo Diddley. A live version
of Diddley’s “Road Runner” can be heard here. (3.5)</font></p>
Anita Lane
Sex O’Clock</font>
Mute
</font>http://www.mute.com/</p>
Anita Lane was an original
Bad Seed who wrote “From Her to Eternity,” “Stranger than Kindness” and other
songs with Nick Cave. She collaborated with many since then, including two other
ex-Bad Seeds, Barry Adamson and Mick Harvey. Sex O’Clock has a lot of similarity
to the recent releases of those fellows, especially to Harvey’s Serge Gainsbourg albums,
which Lane worked on. There is an easy, languid sexuality to these pop rock
tracks. Like Harvey and Adamson, Lane leaves the harsh sound of the
Bad Seeds behind for an updated approach that includes strings, electronic beats
and a soft, breathy delivery. It works very well and much of this disc is catchy
and memorable. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1430861/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Bill Neely
Texas Law and Justice</font>
Arhoolie
</font>http://www.arhoolie.com/</p>
Neely’s marked influence
is Jimmie Rodgers. He tells the story of how the Blues Yodeler and forefather
of country music taught him the C-chord in “On a Blackland Farm.” Also drawing
on his life is the title track, with haunting chorus-box effect that tells the
story of Ira McKee, a Neely relation who wrote the song and was executed for
a crime he was later proven innocent of. Mostly the material is delivered simply
and effectively with Neely accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. The songs
draw on blunt, rural spirituality, Neely’s soldiering experience (WWII, Korea)
and stark views obtained as a penniless hobo as in the previously unreleased
“Skid Row.” (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1430497/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Markus James
Nightbird</font>
Firenze Records
</font>http://www.firenzerecords.com/</p>
Taking the blues to their
very deepest roots ultimately leads us to the native sounds of Mali. Markus
James went to that country with his gentle, but contemporary style, and played
alongside ethnic percussion and stringed instruments. This puts side-by-side
the first whispers and a current voice of the blues. The union of traditional
and current sounds works together extremely well. This is a singular and remarkable
recording of songs by Markus James. (4)</font></p>
Chava Alberstein and The
Klezmatics
The Well</font>
Rounder
</font>http://www.rounder.com/</p>
This is a reissue of The
Klezmatics’ successful 1998 release, which works as a precursor to Chava’s solo
career beginning with the December 11, 2001 release of Foreign Letters (Rounder).
Chava Alberstein, “The First Lady of Israeli Songs” exhibits her vocal talent
on this album from gentle, floating melodies to ebullient, lively folk songs.
The lyrics to each of these tracks are drawn from the work of 20th
Century Yiddish poets. (4.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1475129/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Les Savy Fav
Go Forth</font>
French Kiss Records, 111
E. 14th St., #229, NY, NY 10003
</font>info@frenchkissrecords.com</p>
Working since 1995, Les
Savy Fav now has a well-crafted marriage of stylized British punk and trebly
guitar rock, like a fusion of The Clash and U2. Like any number of groups, they
spawned from an association formed by attending the same Providence, RI art
school. A similarly-spawned group is Talking Heads and there is similarity in
the arty beat music of the two, though Les Savy Fav tends toward a more stark,
almost Gothic sound. Think David Byrne producing Bauhaus. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1426408/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
The Trey Gunn Band
Live Encounter</font>
First World Records
</font>http://www.firstworldmusic.com/
</font>http://www.treygunn.com/</p>
Trey Gunn once again uses
his trusty and alien-sounding Warr touch guitar to produce an amazing album,
this time the live recording Live Encounter. Built on deep grooves, Gunn’s
music is often composed of short, repeated parts that give his prog rock pieces
a hypnotic aspect, composed as they are of repeated phrases making a sound mosaic.
The King Crimson sideman’s serpentine work features a second Warr guitarist,
Joe Mendelson. This enhanced CD features live QuickTime footage of the group.
(4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1431063/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Twinkle
Golden Lights</font>
RPM
</font>http://www.rpmrecords.co.uk/
</font>info@rpmrecords.co.uk</p>
RPM makes available the
first ever collection of Twinkle’s singles. This includes many rare tracks with
her hits “Terry” and “Golden Lights.” The Smiths covered “Golden Lights.” Twinkle
herself was involved with the compilation which features extensive sleeve notes,
a discography, rare pictures and more. Her bubbly, innocent pop songs, like
“Ain’t Nobody Home But Me” or “Tommy” juxtapose with darker pieces like the
saga of a biker killed in “Terry” and incarceration ode “Poor Old Johnny.” Such
melodramatic pieces put Twinkle in the “death disc” debate that included “Leader
of the Pack” by The Shangri-Las. (4)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=322811/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Billy Preston
</font>Billy’s Bag
</i>RPM
</font>http://www.rpmrecords.co.uk
</font>info@rpmrecords.co.uk</p>
RPM brings together Billy Preston’s
exquisite, sly and funky Hammond sounds in this collection covering the years
1963-1966. This is from the groovy heart of his soul years. This gathers from
the various labels he worked for earning a name as the ‘wildest organ in town’
before going on to pop fame as part of Capitol in 1966 and then The Beatles’
Apple Records in 1969. From hearing the exemplary, fiery playing on this compilation,
it is easy to understand how he got the attention he did. Excellent liner notes
cover the history of the organ in R&B and soul as well as Preston’s career.
(4.5)</font></p>
<
p align=”center”> <a
href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1466464/from=sr-4589690-1”
target=_new> Listen to or Buy at CDNow</a></p>
Dave Storrs
Another Thing</font>
Louie Records, 644 SW 5th
St., Corvallis, OR 97333
</font>http://www.peak.org/~louierec
</font>louierec@peak.org</p>
In Storrs’ 35 years as
a jazz musician, he has internalized Cuban, African and Latin styles. He draws
upon this entire palette of multi-ethnic inspiration in his solo instrumental
release. Storrs plays all the tracks on this percussion album. Storrs’ exceptional
talent marks his playing with crisp, bright beats on this warm, percolating
album that employs a wide spectrum of percussion timbres. (4)</font></p>
<
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href=”http://www.cdnow.com/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/itemid=1434495/from=sr-4589690-1”
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