Outer Music Diary

Led Zeppelin - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA 4/27/69

Now that’s more like it. Perhaps Page didn’t wake up with a hangover this morning, but man this is night and day compared to the night before both sound quality and performance. This is why people collect Zep boots, when they’re on fire they’re quite impressive. And undoctored.

Ginhouse s/t

Just got in a big batch of late 60s and early 70s British albums, an area I’ve just been dying to dig more into as the heavier edge, less style-conscious early bands were often far more adventurous than what was to come. The first of the batch bodes very well, this was an amazing guitar-driven early progressive rock album, demonstrating the ethic stripped of its later aesthetics. Lots of funky time signatures and great songs, but all done in a Vertigo label-like manner. Oh man I was thinking minimum 11 all the way on this one!

Fuzzy Duck s/t

2 for 2. The same year I believe (1971) but with more of a keyboard approach, that sort of heavy rock and classical keys thing that the Nice started and everyone else improved. Great stuff, some of the songs on this album made me wonder if I’d discovered another Jody Grind album. Another one I’m thinking an 11 on.

Groundhogs - Solid

I didn’t get much of a chance to listen to this as I had company coming in and out. But my friend voiced what I was thinking when he came in and said ”It’s like Motorhead with mellotrons!” I don’t seem to remember the vocals being like this in prior albums so much, but the guy sounds like Lemmy here, which has to make you wonder about their connection to the biker scene. Anyway I’ll need a better crack at it, it was time for bed soon after.

Wigwam - Hard ‘n Horny

Of the four Wigwam albums I’ve heard, this was the one I had the lowest grade on, something I’m looking back on with amusement now that I’ve heard a remaster. I was actually surprised in retrospect how much this debut actually does sound like their later albums (or at least through Fairyport), given I had compartmentalized it sounding more like, well, the title. So I bumped this up to a 10, it deserves at least that.

Earth & Fire s/t

Probably a better album than I give it credit for, but they’ve got a couple monsters that follow that almost make you forget this slightly more beat/pop version of the group. Still kinda learning this one, even in revisit mode.

Blue Phantom - Distortions

Bands like this always get me confused, I forget if it was an Italian band in Britain or something else (I usually try to do a little research but right now I’m just trying to catch up with posts), but they put out a pretty nice prog rock album that’s just a little bit quirky. Like some of these other titles, I was really in cleaning and work mode so I had to do a few replays and this was one of em. The 10 seems to fit.

Larry Coryell - At the Village Gate

I can see why my friend’s eyes were bugging out when I told him I thought this album was fair, as this remaster/mini LP breathes a lot of the life missing from my copy back into the mix. That is, I seemed to be going on a copy missing a lot of the ambiance and somewhat dry. All the buzzing and space and atmosphere and everything makes this a much more organic record than I’d given it credit for. It’s actually almost like the Band of Gypsy’s younger brother. 9>11

Man - Do You Like it Here Now? Are You Settling In?

Revisit listen at a 10. Another album I keep expecting to catch fire a little more for me. I tend to like the albums after this a little more I guess.

Jean-Baptiste Barriere/Pandemonium - Non Jamais L’Esparance

Just about everyone knows Univers Zero and Art Zoyd from the Atem label, but the two Pandemonium albums are quite a bit more obscure, industrial/electronic albums that keep the dark spirit of the label alive in a totally unique environment. Lovecraft-like in a Frohmader sort of way. I may like the other of the albums better marginally but both are solid. And very creepy.

Led Zeppelin - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA 4/26/69

Gotta say that sometimes my listening patterns are driven by mundane things such as reorganization. In moving my spools collection off my bookshelf, I took the time to reduce the Zep stack to a 50 sized spool and put the top end in the listening pile. This is the first gig to get to and is very typical of a lot of 69 Led Zep shows that sound really bad. I’m gonna talk a little more about this when I hit the next day’s date.

Cecil Taylor - Roberts Hall, Grinnell College, IA 2/8/69

I’m not super familiar with Taylor’s canon but I know enough to know he can play and has a wide musical vocabularly. I set that up because this still sounds like a 5 year old kid let loose on a piano for the most part. You know it’s far more intelligent and cognizant than that, but the results are the same. 3 discs of improvisation that are almost impossible to parse, especially through the sound quality. I think I may have an upgrade on this in a spool somewhere, so I’ll get back to it later.

Gong - Flying Teapot

A listen to a nice vinyl copy, reminding me yet again why just about every existing CD copy of this is useless, missing tracks, clarity and even bits of the tape. Side 1 of this is so 15 to my ears it generally carries me through the weaker moments on side 2 (which aren’t that many, mostly the “All I want to do is to be yoooooooooooooou part”).

Smak s/t

An old favorite from the Yugo scene, a very heavy, blues-based progressive rock with guitar out in front. They’d increasingly polish up this sound with later albums, but early on, especially during the second side of the record, this just slays in all the right ways. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a point more out of this.

Michel Moulinie - Chrysalide

Another review I did for the Menagerie article in Exposé many years ago, this is an album that continues to age well, still sounding just a little better every time. And I finally got a nice upgrade to hold me until the long-(long-long-long-)awaited Musea reissue. It ought to be a German album really as it holds more in common with Gottsching, Schickert and Reichel than anything French. Echo guitar with just the right amount of Oldfieldish melody. An 11 and rising.

Grateful Dead - Capitol Theater, Port Chester, NY 2/18/71

Another meh 71 Dead show. Probably my least favorite year from 1968-77. Hardly even remember anything about it, so it might have been a late evening cruiser.

Grateful Dead - Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI 12/14/71
Grateful Dead - Fillmore East, New York City, NY 9/20/70

Neither of these shows are what I’d consider among the best of the early years, in fact 1971, with a few exceptions, is generally forgettable. December shows the band getting Keith Godchaux up to speed and spinning out 5 minute versions of songs they’d stretch out to epic lengths only about a half of year later. Because of this, these December 71 gigs sound embyronic. Don’t remember much about the 70 show, which I spun much later on the day, except that it wasn’t very exciting overall. Not even as good as some of the Festival Express clips.

The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified

The Dismemberment Plan are almost typical of what I’d consider an indie rock band, there’s an almost self-consciousness when it comes to the lyrics and vocal methods. It’s a good thing they’re generally good songwriters and this album like the others demonstrates it fairly well. However, they get a little zanier than usual, at times comparing pretty well to a band like Ween. The omnipresence of the vocalist does tend to wear on me over time, but overall this is good pop.

Herbie Hancock - Gershwin’s World

Kinda heard this out of the side of my ears so to speak, another of Herbie’s later, modern experiments. Like Future 2 Future, some of this sounded quite good, although there’s a lot of electronic beat stuff I can do without.

Mahagon - Slunecnice Pro Vincenta Van Gogha

Turns out my freebie upgrade of this was bad, so even though I let it play I had to sit through some digital distortion. So it’s kinda weird I decided this was a better album than I’d originally given credit for, although I think I just moved it to an 8 or something. They’re a weird rock band that has trouble getting through my radar on occasion.

Caldera - Dreamer

Some of these Caldera albums are starting to impinge on my consciousness, they’re actually quite good in a Santana goes fusion sort of way. Lots of pyrotechnics and shredding for the most part, but also some nice rhythms.

Caravan s/t + If I could

CD-R comp of stuff from the first two albums, all old chestnuts. The first album is neat on a psychy sort of level while their sophomore album is a masterpiece and will always be my favorite Caravan.

Aerosmith - Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI 4/4/74

I just love the idea of Aerosmith cranking it up in a masonic temple, it’s wonderfully irreverent. This is a good sounding, par for the course show in a very early stage for the band. They were far from becoming the movie soundtrack ballads juggernaut they are now. Good fun, but a once through and file.

Osanna - Landscape of Life

A listen to the Japanese mini LP version. I’m becoming more sensitive to badly overdriven remasters, but the Osanna and Amon Duul II reissues seem to work for me. This is a straight 10 with a classic intro.

Doobie Brothers - Memphis, TN 9/75

Like the Aerosmith, classic rock, good sound, solid performance. And right before they started to suck really bad. Lotta big radio hits on this one.

Derek & the Dominos - 10/23/70

Better than some of the jammy, tedious non-Layla material, but without Duane they just aren’t the same band to my ears. It’s hard to imagine they’re going to be doing the reunion thing like Cream really, given how utterly tedious they could be.

Agitation Free - At the Cliffs of River Rhine
Aviolinee Utopia s/t
Charles Earland - Leaving this Planet
Indian Summer s/t
Kraan - Wintrup
Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense and Peppermints

With company over, it’s often best to load the changer so you don’t have to think about it and these were the 6 loaded into the cartridge. I’d say we heard at least half of every given album. Not an album in this batch didn’t hold up very well, although the (slightly) biggest surprise had to be the Indian Summer which well vindicated the 12 I have on it. I thought at times that I might wanna knock the Agit Free down to a 12, but they’re a band so close to my personal aesthetic it’s almost impossible to do. And yeah, I’m still hit by the tragedy of Aviolinee Utopia hanging it up after their debut. They had such a weird combination of the Police, Deus ex Machina and even DFA in some ways. One more note, it’s amazing what a poor sounding CD the Incense and Peppermints copy is, but it’s to be forgiven since the band was so far ahead of their time in moments (and also typical of it, in the best most dated way on their pop tracks).

Various Artists - 1975 Downbeat Reader’s Poll Awards, WTTW Studios, Soundstage, Chicago, IL

Part neat, part cheesy, this hour long show seems to be a musical way of announcing the Downbeat awards by trying to get all the winners together as band and have them play together in various formations. You’ve got Chick Corea and Quincy Jones as announcers, and most of Corea’s RTF band in the house. While Billy Cobham won the drummer award, I suspect he was busy with the new band at the time and you’ve got the far preferable Lenny White in his place. While this gave a lot of the sets an underlying sense of late 70s fusion, guests like McCoy Tyner far elevate the class level. The high point for me was Freddie Hubbard leading the band on one of the tracks from Straight Life. Oh my god is he an incendiary player, the whole vibe and magic went straight through the roof. I’m sorry, but Miles had nothing on this cat when it comes to chops. One of the pieces the full band played also had an intriguing keyboard trade off between Corea and Tyner which is something I never thought I’d hear. Quite the fun disc really, quite looking forward to the 76 show now.

Sleep - Jerusalem

Oh man, we really saw the emperor naked after this listen, I don’t think I could have hurled the CD towards my sale pile any harder. Something of a holy grail of the stoner rock scene, this is just one endless sludgy riff, only broken up in spot by a few good fuzz guitar solos. I just don’t think I can take the utter down-in-the-gutter, wasted out of mind sort of vibe these bands put out. I had a friend over last night who was talking about how the Melvins often do these really sludgy boring riffs to mess with their audiences. Sleep just aren’t joking about it. A 10 (!!!) becomes a 6.

Robert Rich - Somnium

This was put on for the nighttime journey, as I think we’re talking about 4 AM or so in the morning at this point. The only problem was setting the volume too loud, so when the intro 2 minutes came back the bass was shaking my place. In fact I remember having trouble falling asleep to a later part so it must have been real loud.

Scarve - Luminferous

A night and book shopping trip later and I’m back to the stereo with this French tech metal group. It sounded a bit better this time around, a lot of sorting the wheat from the chaff in this genre is just hearing something memorable in the music, a good song, a great riff or whatever. They may be in there somewhere and just starting to emerge to this consciousness.

Lonnie Smith - Live at Club Mozambique

Smith’s grooves are just a little earthier in the clubs and while I’ve yet to sort out the non-10s from the 10s, I’d probably say this is marginally the most enjoyable. While it’s got at least one strike-you-dead-like-Tony-Williams vocal tracks, it also has a few bar(n)burners that are like the booty’s bible code.

Rene Werneer - L’Habit des Plumes

I believe I reviewed these for Exposé in the late 90s when my interest in French folk was at its peak, so I was probably more generous than I will be now. Every time I revisit Malicorne I’m astonished at how good they are, something like this seems almost like a pale comparison in the same field. Maybe it was a fluke this listen but I had to knock it down to a 9. It didn’t light up the spirit like a good folk piece oughta.

Georges Grunblatt - K-Priss

I don’t remember this too well, in fact I rarely do. It’s the solo album by one of the two early members of Heldon and while it definitely leans to that style, it’s also a bit more squarely progressive rock at times. Always an enjoyable 10 when it’s on, although I can’t quite point to why this is so.

Thule - Ultima Thule

This first album by the Norwegian band was actually out of print by the time I really started collecting rarer progressive rock in the early 90s. Thule really vary in quality for me, except the direction it always goes in is lower unfortunately and this listen to the debut was no exception. Had to lower this to an 8, and apparently did so in two increments. I remember their original comparison being to Hawkwind and while they’re anything but a sound alike, that sense of passionate and somewhat amateurish urgency is here.

Radio Massacre International - Organ Harvest

I forgot to mention this one earlier as I spun this for a while before Somnium went on, but I was enchanted enough to give it the file listen later in the evening. It’s what I’d consider the band’s second finest album after Borrowed Atoms (or was it Bothered, I can never get them straight?) Anyway they’re about as close to a Tangerine Dream clone as they’d ever get here, but there ain’t no finer modern exponent of that sound going. Still hanging onto the 12.

Meters - Jackson, MS 10/5/75

I wouldn’t mind a few earlier shows for a comparison, but I’d say this late 1975 show isn’t quite the live juggernaut they’d be in even a year or two. In fact there’s even a reggae-ish flavor in parts I wouldn’t normally associate with the band. I even gave this a few spins as it was rolling outside my attention at times.

Matt Darriou/Paradox Trio - Flying on a Slant

I can’t help compare the music of Paradox trio to oud master Rabih Abou-Khalil in terms of the tone and pace of the music, a world music style coming from the jazz scene. I’ve always wondered if that feeling is due to having Shakti as a model, with that band you could almost guarantee that your pace will quicken with the musicians. The Paradox Trio never even attempt such a frenzy, which gives them a far more trancelike feel. Really hard to get excited over this even though I’d like to.

Phil & Friends - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 9/25/03

More catching up pains on this one. Having played the gig on the 27th yesterday I’ve more or less erased my memory for this one, except that there were some pretty awful Phil vocal moments, certainly more so than two days later.

Chicago - Toronto 8/10/72

I think I didn’t cut as much slack for this the first time around sound quality wise, it’s certainly well within the B range which for an early-ish Chicago show is quite good. This was introduced on dimeadozen as “the holy grail” of early Chicago shows which put my expectations fairly high, although possibly not high enough for a rabid fan. I still haven’t heard a show (s) quite like what you get on the Carnegie Hall box, and this isn’t really any exception. The band pretty much always burned live so this is par for the course.

The Band - Woodstock 8/17/69

Warming, warming, warming. A hard aesthetic to move into from my perspective but Dylan wedged the door open. Heavily steeped in Americana. Note to self: go check out an album soon.

Tangerine Dream - Orange Theatre, Antique, France 8/16/75

You’d think a band as electronic and sequenced as TD would be more or less a static live band, but they definitely had their on and off nights. On this particular night they were definitely on fire, it’s some of the best live TD I’ve ever heard. Parts of this are so much like Rubycon (and not quite as much like Ricochet) that I could hardly believe what I was hearing. You know you’ve got that frisson when 1 or 2 of the sequencers are just belting it out as the musicians carve soundscapes and the occasional Hendrixy outburst from Froese.

Scorpions - Taken by Force

I wonder if this isn’t voiced in the same sentence as the band’s earlier albums because of the awful opening track “Steamrock Fever”. The rest of this seems as classic Uli-era Scorps as anything going and even with such an opening stinker it’s hard to go below a 10, so I did and filed it.

Sonny Simmons - Burning Spirits

A very heavygoing, intense free jazz album and something of a chore at the length. Give me a 15 minute chunk and I’d be looking at it a lot more favorably, but several of them are a little too much given the somewhat Sanders/Brotzmann like approach going here. Still a lot to like, and I still haven’t gotten the foot in the door of the genre that I’d like to.

Lonnie Smith - Think!

With guys like Lee Morgan and Melvin Sparks involved you more or less know what you’re getting here. What I like about Lonnie’s early albums is that the soul jazz grooves are quite minimalist without a lot of flash. They speak to the ass and the ass alone. Only a 10 because they couldn’t help but throw in a commercial track or two.

Ravi Shankar - A Morning Raga/An Evening Raga

It was kind of funny to have this playing when I had company as I tend to think of Ravi’s music as being something more internal and reflective. Second, you’d get the impression from the price of the Angel reissues that these are very cheap productions, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I was literally amazed at how gorgeous this remaster is and it helps that this is possibly one of the best, if not the best of the Ravi World Pacific albums. When you get to the second track with the tablas, it’s sheer bliss. Bumped up to an 11. Ravi newbies, this is the place to start and you’ll be able to get out under the $8 mark.

Ange - Tome VI/Culinaire Lingus

A friend over asked about Tome VI so I threw it on, given that the opening “Fils de Lumiere” crushes the studio version. Then, of course, conversation went to the current Ange and I threw the Cunilaire Lingus album on as a demonstration that they still had it. Both went over fairly well, although given the type of night, CL had to give way to something a little more “classic.”

Phil & Friends - Warfield, San Francisco 4/17/99

My current comments are colored by hearing a P&F 2003 show recently. Given that Phil follows the Grateful Dead model, it’s hard to definitively state that Phil is turning over the vocal spots a little more than he used to, but when you listen to something like this (and this could be called Phil and Phriends given the Phish members involved, in fact it may have been), you’re always reminded how bad it could get. Maybe the problem is that Phil loves to sing all the great Garcia tunes. Anyway I think this is the last of the three night stint and none too soon.

Brian Auger - A Better Land

When I first played this I thought it was something else (the Average White Band album below) and I ended up coming out of it thinking how much it sounded like a similar period Steely Dan album. It wasn’t a fluke, it’s exactly the vibe I got from this spin. Very soulful and quite a bit different to his earlier bands in style. I’m still not sure what to make of it yet, it hangs me up in a few areas I can’t quite qualify.

Average White Band s/t

Not a bad early soul/funk/pre-disco album, but perhaps pales in comparison to its trans-Atlantic cousins on most occasions. Or maybe I’m saying that knowing how bad they were to get. This debut has a lot of nice grooves although it’s perhaps a little, erm, whitewashed.

Thieves Kitchen - Shibboleth

TK are about as straight a symph prog band as you’re going to find, except they tend to have just a few more chops than you’d expect, that is, the musicianship tends to be above average for the genre. It’s got a very strong British sound and even though they’re doing complex and intricate progressive rock, the sound, sheen and style still remind me of the 80s Marquee groups. The change of vocalist was obviously the right move as far as that’s concerned. I think what I’d always like to hear and never get with bands like this is for an occasional step outside the reality tunnel, without such it’s hard to move their albums past respectable 9s. But as you can see that’s more an aesthetic choice than a true criticism.

Egberto Gismonti - Coracoes Futiristas

I’m pretty sure I had a chunk of this with another Gismonti reissue, although I could be confused. I’m still way too newbie with this guy to even attempt to describe what I’m hearing and I barely even remember this listen from the 14th.

Thinking Plague - Orion Studios, Baltimore 9/11/99

I’m not sure what the story is on this because this is a very short gig or short clip of the gig, maybe 20 something minutes. As such it comes and goes so fast I barely notice it. Although I think it settled into the subconscious enough to feel it was the better material from the tour.

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco 4/14/68

Wow. QMS gigs are a lot like aiming at a dartboard blindfolded, but it becomes pretty obvious when they hit their target as they did so more frequently in the early days. This is pretty much as classic a show as you might imagine from the band at their Happy Trails-ish best.

Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked

Nile always strike me as a band I like by memory more so than listening to them, I’m always amazed at seeing 12s on their last three albums, but I’ve never listened to one and thought to change it. However, I think it will be a little different on their new album which is somewhat more traditionally metal. It blasts at you with an intensity I might have attributed to a band like Immolation, and the Egyptian motifs the band has built its career on are a little more sublimated. But I’m still thinking 10-11 territory nonetheless.

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus

I think the Sonny paradigm for me is still the comparison to his poorer later material. These late 50s albums are truly amazing and show a player with great control and class. While my grade tends to fluctuate with mood, it’s certainly a minimum 10 and likely to grow a lot higher.

Maneige - Montreal 6 AM
Maneige - St. Malo EP

Montreal 6 AM is what I’d consider the last good Maneige album, their swansong Images is as typically forgettable as most exit stage lefts are. I suppose Montreal 6 AM could be considered as a transition from their mid-period jazzy style as repreented by Ni Vent Ni Nouvelle and Libre Services. It’s a little more calculated and a little less swinging. The EP seems more an afterthought from the same period, but having only heard it once during this listen, I’ll need a little more time with it. Where Montreal 6 AM was provisionally a 10, it seems to have settled into the grade. Not the first album of theirs to start with, but a good closer.

Autopsy - Mental Funeral
Autopsy - Acts of the Unspeakable

A good comparison between strong early and weak (slightly) later albums. They’re almost a death metal band but with a slightly different aesthetic from the Floridian groups of the time. Mental Funeral is a bit involuted and almost claustrophobically dark at times, but it’s also quite enjoyable. Later the band’s lyrics get more banal (or perhaps just more decipherable) and the music less imaginative, making Acts a very dull metal album. Perhaps there are some line up changes involved here, but I’m not particularly motivated to investigate.

Cybotron s/t

Australian answer to Tangerine Dream in some ways, although the results are much different, Cybotron often sound a lot more like a band. They’d go onto better work with their second album Colossus, but this debut isn’t so bad. It’s very thin on the ideas and very heavy on the analog gear fans of the genre tend to gravitate towards.

Oktober - Die Parisier Commune

An album like this is likely to speak a lot more loudly to the German fan who can parse what is a considerable amount of political lyrical comment. I’m probably protected from the polemics which makes it a lot easier to get to the music, which is a surprisingly elaborate German symphonic progressive rock with lots of keyboards. It’s even structurally unusual at times, with all the instrumental sections leading into long lyrical breaks. I’ve had a 10 on it for ages and see no reason to change it even though I might grade most double albums a lot harder. There’s just too many bits I like here.