May 19, 2012

Cat-Iron



Critical writers on the blues have often disputed the difficult question of whether the "canon" of classic country blues recordings made between 1924 and, say, 1940 really represent the cream of the talent available at the time, or whether in fact those artists who found their way into the Paramount or Genntt recording studios were only the lucky few - the tip one might say of the blues ice-berg floating beneath the sea of white indifference and hostility.
Myself, I am such a believer in the power of the "almighty dollar" that I am convinced that, once the record companies had realized the profits to be made from the country blues singers, whom they had first ignored, they left singulary few stones unturned in their search for any artists with commercial potential.
However, of course, this does not mean that no fish slipped through the net; and names like Fred McDowell and Mance Lipscomb spring easily to mind. In fact, by the late fifties, a number of devoted researchers were combining the Southern country districts continually on the lookout for any folk musicians practising their art in out of the way corners.
In 1958 just such a man, Frederic Ramsay Jr., editor of a jazz magazine, was guided by a local sax-player of his aquaintance to a slum called Buckner's Alley deep in the negro suburbs of Natchez, Mississippi. There he was introduced to the artist whose work you can hear on this album. Known only by his nickname of Cat-Iron, he at first declined to record any blues at all, saying "Since I been converted, I sing the hymns." This he proceeded to do, and with just what fervour you can hear on side two of this record. However, fortunately for us, he later in the afternoon relented and risked damnation to extent of laying down the six folk blues that will delight you on side one.
As far as I know these are the only recordings Cat-Iron ever made, indeed I am afraid I do not even know if he is still alive; but, on this album, his voice stakes his claim for all time to the proud title of Bluesman. Mike Raven, July 1969


Cat-Iron is really William Carradine, and I presume the Cat-Iron comes from the way coloured slurred the name.
According to his wife, Fannie Carradine, who is still living in Buckner's Alley, he was born near Garden City, Mississippi. He died in 1958 and said he was 62 years old.
Apparently his blues singing consisted of songs about the history of Natchez, such as the tornado of 1840 and the dance hall fire in the thirties. He lived near a place called Tin Can Alley and apparently some of his songs were jokes about this. Elenora Gralow




Cat-Iron - Sings Blues And Hymns (Folkways, 1958)

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May 09, 2012

Blind Video Days (1991)



Spike Jonze's first foray into video was Video Days (after World Industries Rubbish Heap in 1989)—(sic), a twenty-minute-long tape of a skateboarding team named Blind doing tricks in various suburban settings. It's standard stuff shot on a single handheld camera, but Jonze brought something new to the form. The opening sequence shows prepubescent Guy Mariano riding to the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" -- a bold and ironic departure from the usual hardcore-punk and speed-metal soundtracks found on skate tapes. To get permission to use the song, Jonze convinced his lawyers to tell the Jacksons' copyright administrator he was using it in an anti-drunk-driving film. To justify his claim, he then shot a sequence in which the team's mostly underage members swill booze as they hurtle down a dirt road in a giant blue Lincoln that eventually careens into canyon. NYMag

Blind in Paris

May 08, 2012

Grave - Grave I (1975)



"Another one of those sacred "heavy progressive" legends! Grave were a band of teenagers that formed in a Brinkum (near Bremen) basement in 1975. With a primitive tape recorder, six tracks were recorded live in the studio (Summer 1975) and released as Grave I in a limited edition of 100 copies. This was plain, straight forward and simple garage rock, like the fast competent rehearsals from your neighbourhood teenage combo. I cannot understand why this has become such a hunted collector's item, and that people are prepared to pay 1,000 DEM for it! But of course, other people have different opinions."

Above is quoted from the book Cosmic Dreams at Play: A Guide to German Progressive and Electronic Rock (1996) which you can download here



(3 more tracks recorded in 1975 were added to a reissue in the early 90's)

Morning Sun
Initations
The Hunter
Ohrwurm
Please Günter Play The Bass
Little Giant
Funky Stadtkommandant
Grave Boogie
Hey Little Lady

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May 07, 2012

Executions (1995)


Western Colonies (1900 – 1945) – 200,000 Executions
Armenians (1916) – 600,000 Executions
World War I, Military and Civilian – 400,000 Executions
Russian Civil War (1917 – 1919) – 100,000 Executions
Stalin’s Purges (1930′s) – 1,300,000 Executions
Japan/China Occupation (1930′s) – 200,000 Executions
The Holocaust (1941 – 1945) – 6,000,000 Executions
German Third Reich (1933 – 1945) – 1,000,000 Executions
World War II, German Military – 3,500,000 Executions
World War II, Japan Military/Civilian – 1,000,000 Executions
World War II, Soviet Military/Civilian – 1,000,000 Executions
World War II, Allied Military/Civilian – 400,000 Executions
China Civil War (1945 – 1949) – 200,000 Executions
China (1949 – 1995) – 1,500,000 Executions
African post Colonial – 3,000,000 Executions
Middle East Civilian – 600,000 Executions
U.S. Civilian (including lynching, 1900 – 1995) – 20,000 Executions
European Civilian (1900 – 1995) – 100,000 Executions
India/Pakistan Post Colonial – 500,000 Executions
Indonesia 1965 Coup – 500,000 Executions
Vietnam Wars (1954 – 1975) – 200,000 Executions
Cambodia (1975 – 1979) – 1,000,000 Executions
South America Civil & War (1965 – 1995) – 700,000 Executions
Soviet Wars/Invasions (1945 – 1995) – 100,000 Executions
Soviet Internal Gulags (1945 – 1990) – 250,000 Executions
East Timor (1975 – 1995) – 100,000 Executions
Rwanda (1994) – 700,000 Executions
Iran/Iraq War & Kurdish (1975 – 1995) – 200,000 Executions

Philip K. Dick



A Day In The Afterlife (1994)

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May 01, 2012

WHIRLWIND HARDCORE 1



Video compilation from the '80s.

Bands: KAFKA PROSESS, ACTIVE MINDS, ATTITUDE, HERESY, CONCRETE SOX, CHAOS UK, EXTREME NOISE TERROR, ARTLESS, LÄRM, NEGAZIONE, ANTITOXIN, SPERMBIRDS, SKEEZICKS, EXTREM, CROWD OF ISOLATED, FEAR OF GOD, RIPCORD, RKL, VERBAL ASSAULT, MESSIAH, EXXOR, EMILS, FLITOX, JAILCELL RECIPES, NIGHTMARE VISIONS, CROW PEOPLE, JOYCE MCKINNEY EXPERIENCE, NOMEANSNO, CHRIST ON PARADE, NONOYESNO, CAPITOL PUNISHMENT, WALTER 11, ELECTRO HIPPIES, NAPALM DEATH, SACRED DENIAL, SATANIC MALFUNCTIONS, UNWANTED YOUTH, LEBERWOHLSTAND, HUMAN ERROR

WHIRLWIND HARDCORE 2

Thanks Degen Erik!