Dumber than a sack full of hammers

I've talked about the USA a lot in earlier posts: Amerikaemia, Lessons From Easter Island and Turning Points. Why am I so concerned about one country when there are other places facing threats to democracy or have autocratic rulers or are religiously bigoted? The reason is that, apart from the USA potentially ticking all of those boxes, it has inserted itself into the world as the upholder of certain standards whether the world likes it or not. That combined with its military power and cultural influence means the question is: how can you not be concerned about them? Like it or not, they have created the western power structure that the world lives under. Most of the antagonism in the world is directly attributable to the attitude of the USA towards economic systems (communism), religion (Islam) and the division of the world into have and have nots (first vs third world). If you want to comply with their standards you are welcome into the club, if not they know where you live.

All of this could be acceptable if the USA itself wasn’t such a hypocritical cot case. Consider the war in the Ukraine, and disclaimer before I start I’m not apologising for Putin – he is an evil narcissistic sociopath that has to be stopped – but this is to show that hypocrisy at this level needs to be called out whenever it rears its ugly head. Picture this: specific country has considerable wealth and is strategically important. Greedy larger country wants unlimited access to specific country’s wealth but doesn’t want to worry about negotiating terms and conditions so it invents some disinformation to justify a military invasion so it can steal said wealth and seize the desirable strategic advantage. Sounds like Putin with Ukraine right, but I was actually referring to the US invasion of Iraq in the ‘war against terror’ twenty years earlier. That is all conveniently forgotten in the current climate. We don’t want no arrest warrants for war criminality issued to any former US presidents now do we?

All the buffoonery and toxicity of Trump has brought the role of the US even more into the spotlight. Assuming it is going to be the world’s sheriff (and who is big enough to argue), what laws is it going to be upholding and who is going to make them? If they can’t get their own shit together how can you take them seriously when they come kicking down your door to put your house in order?

This could potentially be a massive post, but in the interest of time I’ll try and summarise the state of America and how it has no right to be talking down to anyone, anywhere at any time.

The USA has a polarized political system that splits the population roughly down the middle so that each time they have an election the winner is determined by a few thousand votes in a handful of states. How that is democratic is anyone’s guess because it puts ultimate power in the hands of a few undecided John and Jane Does that have no mandate or qualification to determine the fate of the world. The rest of them stick to their guns (literally) with no hope of ever sharing common ground.

On the left, in the blue corner, you have the disparate bunch of ‘progressives’ that like to kid themselves that they are outward thinking and leading the rest of the world with their staggering foresight and liberty. In their dreams. They at least walk the talk a little bit when it comes to living up to the American hype, so you can give them points for trying. On the right, in the red corner, you have a brainwashed, backward looking, subservient, gullible bunch of flag waving sheep that will kill to maintain a status quo that doesn’t exist anymore, and who accept the word of their religious and political leaders unconditionally because they are brought up from day one to follow instructions and reject knowledge. Knowledge is for the people they place their faith in. Education is a tool of the devil. Education leads to questions, which leads to change, which is unacceptable when you have a bible that tells you how things have to be now and forever. That’s how Trump can still command about 45% of the vote, even though polling suggests half of them don’t like him, but they still aren’t concerned about the implications of voting for him. My granddaddy was a Republican, my daddy was a Republican, so gosh darn it I’m a Republican no matter what. As one of their favourite movie characters says: stupid is a stupid does.

Then you add in the credulousness when it comes to fairy stories like the American Dream, that tells them that life can be perfect and anyone can make it big if they give it a shot. Living that dream applies to about 0.1% of the population, but it’s constantly reinforced by Hollywood fantasies that also set them up for the dark side of this whole blind acceptance – conspiracy theories that suggest organised dark forces are at work, preying on them and undermining their way of life. So you get millions of people that believe The Matrix was a documentary and Q-Anon is the only source of truth. That’s how someone as shallow, self-centred and dishonest as Trump can be elevated to cult status and be viewed as some kind of messiah in some corners, because those that buy into it are accepting the fantasy, not the reality. Reality doesn’t have a shot in a culture like that. Reality isn’t heroic. It doesn’t have good guys and bad guys. Reality is dull. Reality is also hard to deal with because it ultimately exposes the big lies they are living under.

Sounds mad right, but it doesn’t stop there. The real kicker is the cultural hypocrisy that allows at least half the population to accept mentally deranged teenagers running around with military styled assault rifles shooting school kids as a ‘fact of life’, then at (literally) the same time swallowing and being outraged by a fake story about Haitian immigrants barbequing cats. Hypocrisy is so ingrained it doesn’t even register. So you get politicians that commit egregious acts then project it onto the other side. You get religious leaders that preach hatred and division. You get absurd wealth paying to influence democracy. You get criminal wars masquerading as police actions, and you keep races partitioned off in ingrained poverty in the land of freedom and liberty for all, and NONE OF THIS is questioned in any meaningful way. And if you are brave enough to bring it up, then you must be ONE OF THEM GODDAM (fill in derogatory stereotype of choice from the list: commies, pinkos, fags, muslims, yankees, democrats, etc etc).

The problem is the USA is too big and diverse, and has too much to lose to act as a unified country. It is really 50 different countries all pretending to act as one. Much as I loath her, Marjorie Taylor Greene will probably get her wish of a ‘national divorce’ by the time she shuffles off into the sunset. The madness is just unsustainable.

Genuine: The Opposite of Fake

 The word fake gets chucked around a lot. With AI becoming more of a thing, fakes are a growing industry, especially how it applies to the media. The term ‘fake news’ gets thrown around a lot, usually by the people who are telling the lies and don’t like them getting exposed. While most accusations of fakeness are hollow projections, it is fair to say that mainstream media does leave a lot to be desired in terms of integrity. There is either a desperate attempt to stay neutral, in which case the stories they produce are toothless and leave too much to the reader to sort out for themselves, or they are slaves to a corporate commercial agenda that is more concerned about ratings and traffic than maintaining journalistic integrity.

For this post I thought I would promote lower scale media channels that focus on bringing honesty to political reporting. This is particularly important in the run up to the US elections which are only a few weeks away. Those are the most consequential elections of the century so far, for all the wrong reasons. The world is at an inflection point, where unpopular right wing politicians are realising that their approach is heading for the tar pits of history and they need to find away to avoid that annoying democratic process that they are tied to. This US election is not so much about which party wins as about a vote for democracy itself. Now democracy isn’t perfect, but it is still preferable to having some demented narcissistic sociopath imposing his will on the most powerful country in the world whether they like it or not. The podcasters I am about to highlight understand the threat to democracy, understand the bullshit approach of mainstream media and aim to present that rare thing: reality. Even though it’s an old fashioned word I’m gong to describe them as genuine media. As in not fake. As in honest. As in reliable.

Meidas Touch Network

Probably the most well known and comprehensive, the Meidas Touch Network has grown from its initial living room podcast to having more than 3 million subscribers and being name checked on 60 Minutes. Ben Meiselas is the lead podcaster but there is also the offshoot Legal AF with Michael Pocock for amateur legal geeks to dive into. Highlighting political hypocrisy and the negligence of commercial media when it comes to exposing misinformation and deceit, these guys are both brutally honest and hilarious. Fact checking is their strong point and they are able to source up some stories that few others would go near, like just how close were Trump and Jeffrey Epstein? With a growing reach they are the right wing’s worst nightmare.

Bryan Tyler Cohen

Meidas Touch are the right wing’s worst nightmare with one possible exception: Bryan Tyler Cohen. Brian is my favourite political commentator. Not just brutally, but savagely honest his sarcasm is a more deadly weapon than any AR15. If you are looking for razor sharp humour look no further. But Brian isn’t just a joker – although he knows that nothing hurts a puffed up, pretentious politician more than being laughed at – but he is also searingly honest when it comes to reporting the facts behind the spin. Piers Morgan foolishly invited him on as a panelist recently and instantly regretted it. As a bonus value add, Brian also hosts spin off podcasts The Legal Breakdown with Glen Kirschner and Democracy Watch with Marc Elias. Both are a lot more serious, but they hit the honesty button hard and you won’t find anything that cuts through the BS harder.

David Pakman

Moving away from the more aggressive approach of Brian and Ben, David Packman has carved a niche as a commentator that likes to present a fair assessment of political crud. In other words David tries to be more balanced, while still exposing the constant hypocrisy and misinformation that runs rampant through US politics. Sometimes his desire to be fair can be a little bit irritating when you know he is dealing with obvious bullshit, but on the whole he treats his topics with integrity and you have to admire him for that. The fact that he gets so much hate mail proves that he is hitting nerves with the right wingers in his audience, but it also proves that they are watching him, which is important when it comes to breaking down silos. His real time fact checking and the way he laughs when Trump speaks is reason enough to watch him.

The Young Turks

Taking David Packman’s balanced approach a step further, but turning it on its head so they hold no one sacred are TYT. Very experienced, with more than ten years under their belt, they are a lot more politically aggressive, to the extent that host Cenk Uygur stood as a Democrat presidential candidate in the primaries. He obviously got nowhere but he proved he means business. Another one of Piers Morgan’s panelists that he must have later regretted, Cenk has a booming voice and a bear-like sense of humour. His co-hosts on the network support the overall approach to find the nastiest political crap they can and expose it. Possibly dealing more in outrage than I’m comfortable with, they are still one million times less strident than political propagandists like Fox etc. Equally at home exposing the madness of Q-Anon as they are looking under the hood of the GOP and Democrats they are challenging and great if you are in the mood to kick some shit.

Pondering Politics

Jessiah Eberlan is the host here. Bit more of a slow burn than the previous podcasters, it took me longer to get into his more low key approach, but once you get to know his style he is the equal of Packman when it comes to keeping emotion out of his analysis and zooming in on the nitty gritty.

Luke Beasley

Also a bit more low key, but more prone to letting emotion out in his presentation, Luke is notable for actually getting out into the field and interviewing political nutters, fascists and conspiracy theorists to see what makes them tick. This is an especially brave thing to do in the current powder keg of US politics. How he hasn’t been assaulted yet is beyond me, especially when he seems to embody everything these people hate.

The Damage Report

Another network operating like Meidas Touch with guest presenters and side slots. Their Garbage People of the Week is always a laugh and shines the light on some lesser know political freaks. Operating in a space between Meidas Touch and Brian Tyler Cohen they are well worth the clicks.

The Dollemore Daily

Jesse Dollemore is a former marine with a big laugh and an open approach that encourages contact with his audience. This is a risky practice as he has been on the receiving end of some horrific abuse, but he keeps laughing at the haters and exposing their stupidity. The fact that he is an ex-serviceman gives him the credibility to get away with commentary that others can’t, and it seems to pull in more right wingers to his audience, for better or worse. His recent coverage of Trump’s Arlington Cemetery stunt is a must see.

Honourable mention also goes to Adam Mockler, Farron Balanced and Keith Edwards for their podcasts that cover similar ground to the Meidas Touch but without the numbers, although all of them are growing. More power to them – the world needs as many clear voices as it can get at the moment. It’s fair to say that none of these media channels would be anywhere near as popular if it wasn’t for Trump and the right wing in general, but that’s the natural process of restoring balance. The world has to wake up to the existential threat posed by the retrogressive, corrupt, hypocritical and downright retarded right wing view of the world and its enabler, organised religion. And that’s where we are going next.

Gimme OUTRAGE!

Dear reader – you don’t know what you’re talking about. And I mean that in the nicest possible way. We are all victims of a media environment that favours sensationalism and opinion ahead of facts and analysis. Why? Because sensationalism sells and facts are boring. The commercial reality of running a publication means you need paying subscribers to cover your costs and return a dividend. Being relevant and interesting isn’t enough. You need to dive into psychology to get the real returns.

Back in the mid-20^th Century, B.F. Skinner ran a series of experiments involving rats and pigeons that would probably fail today’s ethical standards, but which are landmarks in behavioural psychology. He found the link between mental stimulation and physical reward is the most important driver of behaviour. His lab animals responded to flashing lights and sounds when they performed certain behaviors like pecking coloured dots or pushing buttons. The action was rewarded by a treat or even direct stimulation of the pleasure centres in their brains.

Humans work the same, but what Skinner couldn’t see was the link between hormones and the physical action. In humans the buzz we get from adrenaline and other hormones is a powerful motivating force. Think sex, sport, music, sky diving – whatever turns you on basically. The same with stress – it produces a similar buzz as your body reacts by readying you for fight or flight. That’s the one that media operatives have homed in on to drive the copy sales and clicks.

What is your reaction when you read a page of text outlining a series of facts and scholarly analysis of a specific issue? Boredom at best, right? You want to skip to the click bait with the half naked people or jump to the sports section. Most of us don’t even get past the headline.

In the 1970s Rupert Murdoch and others were cynical enough to start deliberately manipulating their readers by running headlines that not only jumped out at you to grab your attention, but covered topics that people were most likely to get off on. Mostly sex, but also political scandals, celebrity gossip and all the rest we are now surrounded by every minute of the day. They got people hooked, and those publishers made a gazillion out of it.

It would be innocent enough if they had just stuck with the titillation, but the problem was that a lot of these publishers were running a strict political agenda as well. Almost always right wing and focused on exploiting people’s fears of all the various isms, xenophobia, big brother, conspiracies and all the other juicy stuff you can’t see but love to think is real. It has now developed to the point where people can be manipulated in close to real time. You don’t even need words now – just a bunch of angry emojis in the comments is enough to rile people up.

It's all down to the buzz people get from outrage. Outrage gets people going like nothing else. That feeling that you have the righteous justification to take action and crush the forces of evil. You are your own superhero. The problem is that you actually become the force of evil when there is no reality behind it. You are promoting the lie, building the conspiracy, breathing life into the zombie apocalypse.

Despite the obvious danger, right wing media like Fox, Newsmax etc are now competing with each other to see who can pump out the most outrageous shit to their adrenaline junkie audiences. They can hear the howl every time they open the juicy headline and the watch the angry cable presenters personifying OUTRAGE! Then it is picked up by their competitors and amplified so that the howl becomes a ROAR and people start getting motivated to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Whatever it is. Look at January 6^th 2021 for a direct link between the hysteria in social media and an attempted coup based on … absolutely nothing other than feelings, conspiracies and outright lies.

Who cares about the facts – facts are for geeks and wimps and they are probably made up by the ‘enemy’ anyway, right? All those lefty academics that want to destroy our way of life with their science and global thinking. The audience are the true believers, they are getting the skinny on the scams, they are the militia, the forces for good, the real patriots.

Yes folks, it is a cluster fuck of hatred for profit, but we haven’t even got to the kicker yet. The kicker is that the right wing media companies fueling the outrage machine don’t even believe the stuff they are pumping out. They see their viewers as easy marks to drive their profits and run with the anger that will build into the next round of action and reaction. When Fox was sued by Dominion Software the texts that were exposed during discovery exposed what their beloved presenters REALLY thought about their audience. Something about their audience being like domestic terrorists that fuck their mothers or something along those lines. Look it up – it's online. Most of those cable presenters are more like actors, putting on the faux outrage for the bucks it pulls in. Someone like Tucker Carlson has a background of privilege and education. His pose as the voice of the grass roots real America is as fake as his devotion to the right wing cause. Sure he’s a Republican, but he can’t stand Trump. They just have a symbiotic relationship that satisfies their desire for wealth and power through maintaining the hysteria of OUTRAGE!

For a couple of glaring example of this whole phenomenon, look no further than these. Firstly, the assassination attempt on Trump. When that happened everyone was expecting the shooter to be a deranged left wing vigilante taking out the criminal candidate, like Spiderman with a sniper rifle. I was expecting it to spark a right wing feeding frenzy with riots and militia reprisals across the states snowballing into the much drooled over (in right wing media) civil war. But no. Turns out the kid at the centre of it came from a hardcore Trump loving, gun toting family and himself was noted for his conservatism by his classmates. On top of that, he had a hit list of potential targets that included the Democratic National Convention and any foreign visitor that came within range. Trump just happened to be first and closest. Once that came out officially, the story faded away like gun smoke in a fairground. There wasn’t sufficient OUTRAGE to continue it, so once the fake ear bandages at the Republican National Convention came off, so did the story. But you can bet it will be in the back pocket for future disinformation support. It’s too good an opportunity to let die completely.

Second example comes from Britain – the home of tabloid OUTRAGE and manipulation. When another deranged kid went on a stabbing spree at a pre-school dance class, disinformation that the attacker was an illegal immigrant was picked up in social media and amplified by various ‘news’ websites leading to riots in the streets and a fiery attack on an accommodation centre housing refugees. Turns out the kid was from Wales, but by then the damage had been done and the hydra was out of its cage, living on OUTRAGE and fueled by lies that weirdly originated in Pakistan!

Unfortunately, gentle reader, there is nothing that can be done about this. The shit is so many layers deep that it will take generations to undo, even if there is a will to do it. This is how civilizations die. You can choose whether to help or hinder. This post isn’t going to give any easy way out – that is up to you, but as a starter I’d suggest taking a deep breath before you open any juicy headlines and to keep that breathing up when you feel the outrage start to flow. Altogether now – deep into your lungs, calm and even. That’s it. Now start thinking instead. As P-Funk say: it ain’t illegal yet.

A week is a long time

 

Has it really been two years? My little guys thought it was a week. Well, it was for them but with the relativity of time and gravity and all it soon added up back on Earth. You see they were very concerned about the way things were going on their favourite planet, so they took time out for a planning retreat. You know - the sort of thing big corporates and government departments do to concentrate on the big issues. Luxury, out of the way location, lots of nice catering, team building, design sprints and focus groups. Yada yada. For my little guys it was a seven day road trip around a couple of constellations and back, toting a slightly different approach on return.

We’ve said this before, but playing a song isn’t going to change the world. And at this point in time, the world is changing in ways that are well beyond the scope of music to effect. Taylor Swift aside, (but with her I suspect it’s more the football and the social media influencing than the music) socio-political ra-ra set to a beat is going to achieve jack. It’s like it was 50+ years ago when the kids thought that wearing flowers in their hair was going to stop LBJ shipping them off to die in the jungle. When you are facing impossible odds you need to beat it back to the barracks and get back to basics.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the human race is fucked. Covid gave everyone the sign that we were heading up Shit Creek and no one could agree on the design for the paddle, much less agree on how to use it. In the face of a common threat everyone started acting more selfishly than ever, especially those with the power to make the big decisions. Then you get past the microbe threat and you dive into the ego threat from the same narcissistic politicians, one after the other – first Trump, then Putin, then Netanyahu, then whatever is next down the pipe. Couple that with the ongoing climate threat and it is enough to make one feel a little insignificant and powerless. Hence the need for a massive reset.

Music is never going to be far away because it helps to keep you sane, but this blog is going to focus on some bigger picture stuff for a while. The big stuff is where the roots to the problems lie, and a lot of the big stuff is maintained by total blind acceptance. That’s where we come in as individuals. It’s time to channel our inner three year old and start asking, WHY? That’s something your average corporate retreat does, but they limit it to five whys then you should know where to go. If only it was that simple. We are not going to limit it. You keep asking why until the people who are trying to keep you brainwashed and submissive run out of the easy answers, and if they resort to the frustrated parent’s response of “because I say so” then you know you are winning. You can’t have much of a coup / war / fascist repression if no one shows up.

Stick with us. We will still be linking it back to music, but the time has come to turn it off and turn it back on again.

Bite the Wax Tadpole

 

A golden hour in the silver disco

Released 31 August 2022. Hey, at least it’s not September this time! From the global trip of our last album Mundivagrants we have selected some targets and let fly. This is a bunch of short punches, most of which you can dance to. And why not. Muhammed Ali was a great mover on the canvas so boxing/dancing? It’s all the same. To prove the point the cover shows me, with a couple of my little guys, getting down with it.

>Bite the Wax Tadpole here<

Here’s what’s coming your way on the floor:

Are we there yet?

Are we where yet? If the 2020s have taught us anything so far it is the need to rename our species from Homo Sapiens to Homo Stupiens. Our main skill seems to be in ignoring warning signs while devising new and more imaginative ways of destroying ourselves. We are the only creature that routinely craps in its own nest.

Shiny metal disco

Music may be one of the only things that can save us. It just depends on how it’s used. Get on board.

Soft red needles

Pohutukawa are native New Zealand trees that grow around the northern coast in rocks and old lava. In summer they are covered in scarlet flowers that drop a carpet of red petals on the ground. They are a rare and beautiful thing. This song is the flip side of Serf City.

Nun squirters

William Burroughs has a lot to answer for when it comes to spawning pretentious artists and writers, but his cut up technique is still fun to play with at times. In this case we grabbed a bunch of progressive rock band names and threw them up in the air. Cheap, pointless and frivolous – like a lot of things.

Point of no return

You have basically reached the point of no return the moment you are born. What you do after that is up to you. If you have had the experience of growing up in a small town, then had the misfortune of going back there later in life, this song is for you.

It’s a trap!

Pretty self-explanatory. ‘Freedom’ is ultimately another illusion.

Holiday porn

Do you get sick of motorway billboards taunting you with flawless images of glamorous holiday spots? I sure do. How many of us have ever gone surfing as the sun goes down in some ideal tropical hot spot? Thought not. Having spent time in the tropics, what they don’t show you on those billboards is the crust of plastic waste along the high tide line.

They say

They say you should do this. They say you should do that. They say a lot of things.

Qbgone (Cold blooded mix)

This is the vocal version of Qbgone. Global warming is a conspiracy to keep the reptilians alive. They say that too, right kids?

What could possibly be more important?

Apologies here for some lyrical similarities to “Know your enemy” on Hit the # Key, but they cover similar territory. This one slams it home a bit more though. Narcissism is a mental illness. It isn’t a key performance indicator for a world leader.

White swan on the Black Sea

This is what narcissism in a world leader leads to.

Here be monsters

There is no chart of the world wide web. Krakens, tritons and sirens await.

Recycled heart

It’s amazing what you can do with recycled materials these days. What doesn’t kill you makes you dance harder.

Rubber time

The Voyager probes have just managed to creak their way out of the solar system. Humanity has entered galactic space for the first time. Hope the aliens they encounter have a decent turntable. In a million years we might see you ‘round.

White Swan on the Black Sea

It seems like an eternity already and Putin’s political ego trip still shows no signs of ending. Instead the world is held to ransom while we wait for grinding WWI style trench warfare to reach its inevitable tragic end. Words aren’t enough to say how dangerously evil this all is, but at the same time you know getting up on a soapbox labeled U2 isn’t going to help either. About the most pretentious thing you can do as a musician is to think that writing a song is going to change the world, so we haven’t. This is a simple snap shot from a war zone to try and keep the ugliness in people’s minds before they start getting numb to it. The biggest danger is to give up and turn your back. You have to mentally speak truth to power, especially when that power is a lie.

This is the first of a new batch of material due to go up later this year. Hopefully the war will be over by the time the rest of the songs are released.

Take a seat though the roof has gone

The stage is strewn with broken pawns

It’s a ballet of carnage going on and on

The only thing dancing is a dying swan

 

These are the 11 most effective charities for supporting Ukraine:

World Vision

International Medical Corps

Save the Children

Action Against Hunger

Doctors Without Borders

Project HOPE

International Rescue Committee

Heart to Heart International

CARE International

Razom for Ukraine

Voices of Children

The Greatest Records You Never Heard (but need to before you die) Part One

 As I said last time, it's a strange time to be alive. I think the last two years have been an intelligence test for the human race and guess what: we failed. What should have been a chance for everyone to mobilise against a common enemy and develop a shared understanding of the important things in life, was hijacked by self-serving narcissistic politicians whose re-election hopes trumped everything (geddit). Stand up Trump, but also a few others, like that bearded git in India and that gonzo dickhead in Brazil whose names aren’t even worth remembering.

And just when the world starts to emerge from the other side of Covid what happens. Some other self-serving narcissistic politician decides to start a war that could potentially engulf the whole of Europe, if not the world. Way to go Homo Stupiens.

Village Idiots Convention, New Zealand 2022

With all of this going on it is hard to stay adjusted to the ‘new normal’. The new normal being the same old shit with added lies and madness courtesy of fringe individuals that once upon a time would have been referred to as village idiots. Now they have access to social media they are instead referred to as ‘influencers’. Yep, they’re influential alright. Just ask the kids in New Zealand that had eggs thrown at them by tin foil hat wearing Nazis because they were wearing masks on their way to school (I kid you not). That was the new low reached during the far-too-long occupation of New Zealand parliament grounds in March. Actually the Nazis weren’t wearing the tin foil hats, they were sitting around in tents waiting to execute any politicians they could capture. The eggs were probably chucked by bubble blowing hippies in between pilates sessions. What with the mud and their own shit (literally) they were wallowing in, it was like Woodstock without any decent music and with the KKK as house guests. Surreal? Nope, it’s the ‘new normal’. Oh yeah, and the world is flat as well (apparently).

So what to do? Well folks, this is still a music blog so maybe we should get back on topic. The segue from the above being, that what reaches the mainstream isn’t always what you need to hear. For my sins I have a day job that requires me to get up about 6:30am every day. To gently rouse myself I have the radio set to a nice tame classic shits station. There is the risk of being woken by something hideous like “True” by Spandau Ballet, so it’s a bit like Russian roulette at times. That said, they drag out a lot of obvious fodder from the ‘classic’ period of rock (ie the 70’s and 80’s), some okay, others not so much.

Which got me thinking about the hidden gems from those Halcion days that most people are blissfully unaware of, but should know more about and really hear before Putin nukes us. Hence the theme of this post.

So in no particular order as usual I present to you a purely personal and very subjective list of the greatest recordings you have, most likely, never heard.

Manassas

In 1971, Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fame was looking for a bunch of guys to play with that didn’t come with massive egos and unchecked baggage. He decided to team up with Chris Hillman of the Byrds, and more lately the Flying Burrito Brothers, to play some old timey country as a break from the treadmill. He enjoyed it so much that he brought in some friends from the LA music scene that could also play latin and rock, and decanted to Florida where they all moved into a massive house and started jamming together (as you did). The result was the short lived, but utterly awesome Manassas.

Stills booked studio time and started recording pretty much everything they came up with during an intense period of creativity that led to their self titled debut double album, released in 1972. “Manassas” stands up with some of the other landmark recordings of that year, partcicularly the Rolling Stones double platter “Exile on Mainstreet”, for which it is a creative and sonic cousin. As it was a double album, it was split into four, with each side dedicated to a different style of music. The side with the country and blugrass tracks aren’t my bag, but they are still good songs, mainly written by Hillman. The other three sides contain latin, folk and blues rock. Stills' song writing is at its peak and he hits each style with a consistent quality. In a way it’s an extension of his two previous solo albums, but with a band that is able to switch between styles at the drop of a hat, often within songs. Every track could be named as a highlight, but the massive “Treasure” that sort of closes the album is a tour de force that has to be heard. Stills guitar and vocal tracks are also a highlight, ironic for a band-centred album. His solo acoustic guitar playing always sends a chill through me.

A European and American tour followed, then it was pretty much over as the members moved on to other projects. One follow up album was released but it counts as just okay, not outstanding.

As far as one-off projects go, Manasssas was a huge achievement. The fact that there were no singles and no flashy promotion meant it was largely forgotten in the rush of the decade that followed, making this a crucial artefact for people with an ear for classic rock.

Todd Rundgren

“Hey, I know him”, I hear you say. But do you? Todd is best known as a producer, lending his skills to such significant albums as Meat Loaf’s “Bat out of Hell”, the debut from the New York Dolls and XTC’s commercial breakthrough “Skylarking”. How many of you are familiar with his own albums though?

Todd had a prog rock outfit called Utopia during the 70s that managed to out-bombast the usual supects, but that isn’t what I’m talking about here. He also produced a couple of eccentric songwriter records in the early 70s that are again out of scope. The topic is ‘The Greatest’. If you think about classic 70’s rock you will have a sound in your head that you’ll refer to. Maybe a bit of acoustic guitar, guitar solos definitely, horns perhaps, backing vocals maybe, a dash of piano, nice verse-chorus structure. Yeah that’s it. But who made the most quintessential 70’s rock sounds? That’s right – Todd did on his 1972 double album “Something/Anything”. This is an album that is immediately familiar but one you have most likely never heard. Recorded partially live in the studio it is also a bit meta in that it shows a record being made while you listen to it. Not every track is a winner, but as with “Manassas” (released the same year), the bits that stand out are high water marks of classic rock. It’s also funny as hell at times!

Latin Rock – Malo and Pirana

Latin rock – that’s Santana right?

For most of us that’s about as far as it goes, but with a whole continent of people potentially making it there is going to be a bit more to it than that. I’m targetting latin rock here, not latin funk, samba and other styles, and perversely I’m not even focussing on bands from South America. That’s how obscure this is.

Malo might be known by some due to the fact that they were led by Carlos Santana’s younger brother Jorge. Being a younger sibling myself I know what it’s like to see your big brother get all the attention, and that’s kind of what we are looking at here. Carlos’s band is multi-platinum selling for a reason, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of Malo. Listen to their first two albums and sweat to the heat of the jamming.

Pirana are from Australia, of all places. Not known for its huge latin poulation, Pirana were in fact a bunch of Aussie blokes that were smitten by Santana and liked to jam live. Great musicians all of them, but their first album lacked a lot in the song writing department and is probably best forgotten. Their second album though, imaginatively title “Pirana 2”, is a quantum leap up. Featuring a cover that even looks like a Santana LP, this one really fries the shrimps. Wisely it is mainly instrumental, so you don’t have to endure the endless “love your brother” lyrics of the first one, and the production and arrangements are all top drawer, so it stacks up with anything released by the bros Santana. Pretty much unavailable from the moment it came out it has recently been unearthed for all to enjoy. Go get it.

Kiwi Rock – Ticket and Sneaky Feelings

Let’s jump the Tasman and come home (for me anyway). New Zealand is home to a lot of great musicians, and most of them are reasonably obscure internationally, so it would take a whole website to do this entry justice. As a little entrée I’m going to focus on two of my favourites that produced music that would stand up anywhere.

Ticket were New Zealand’s primo acid rock band. Featuring the uniquely fluid tones of guitarist Eddie Hansen, these guys were best appreciated live where they would sometimes play an entire set without stopping, allowing the songs to float into each other and leaving the audience either entranced or bored witless, depending on whether their chemical of choice was brewed or synthesised in a lab. A bit hard to capture in the studio, their two albums don’t really do them justice, however their second one “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” is still brilliant in its own way. An aging hippie guy I met through e-Bay dubbed me a tape of his copy back in the 1990’s, but it has since been re-issued on CD so it can now be enjoyed by all relatively easily.

“Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” has a great set of songs that are surprisingly tight given their live reputation. There is even a tongue in cheek track taking the piss out of themselves in a mock live setting with the audience booing for them to get off. Ticket were booked to tour Australia supporting Black Sabbath when Eddie suddenly decided to quit the band and become a hare krishna (as you did). The rest is, as they say, history, but the “Eddie Hansen is God” graffiti hung around on city walls for a few more years until the weather eventually washed the last traces away.

Sneaky Feelings were one of the original ‘Dunedin Sound’ bands that released their songs on the legendary Flying Nun label. A four piece guitar band featuring two main song writers, these guys approached their music from a more subtle space than a lot of their label mates did. Most of the original Flying Nun bands were heavy on the “White Light/White Heat” vibe with added post-punk fumes, and liked to crank things up live and in the studio. Sneaky Feelings were more influenced by West Coast 60s sounds, with the guitar jangle of the Byrds an obvious starting point. They had the talent to translate those influences into their own sound though and produced a sublime album in 1984, “Send You” that gently beat the crap out of anything released anywhere in the world. Featuring only eight tracks, and barely over half an hour long, it is a thing of rare beauty that seems to exist somehow out of time. It could be a lost 60s gem, but is too loud, or it could be a power pop classic a la Big Star, but is too simply arranged. It could even be an electric folk record, but is too upbeat. There is one dud song on it that tries to get a bit Leonard Cohen on it, but apart from that, this is essential listening for anyone.

Little Feat and Black Crowes

Okay these guys are a lot better known, but while people know the names, they haven’t necessarily heard their music. Little Feat came from LA and were initially associated with Frank Zappa’s gaggle of freaks. As usual their first album was patchy, but they hit their stride on the subsequent “Sailing Shoes” and “Dixie Chicken” platters. Leader Lowell George had an earthy but surreal approach to lyrics and a great sense of humour. He was also an incredibly expressive guitar player. He sadly died in 1979 after the band had passed its peak, making their later reunions completely irrelevant.

The Black Crowes are good old boys from down South that sometimes get unfairly lumped in with LA hair metal bands. That sucks. Their first three albums were big sellers so why are they here? Well their fourth one “Three Snakes and One Charm” didn’t connect with the punters and critics the same way and has been a bit neglected. Which is wrong, because it has some of their best songs, genuine psychedelic overtones and guest appearances by members of Funkadelic. Still not obscure enough? Well, this post is talking about recordings, not just albums, and the best way to appreciate these two bands was to hear them live.

There are two essential radio recordings of Little Feat recorded at Ultrasonic Studios in upstate New York in 1973 and 1974 that have been widely bootlegged and are now available to all via Youtube and other sources. These give the best representation of their unique swampy rock’n’roll feel and feature songs they didn’t release on any albums. Lowell’s between song comments and introductions also add to the gumbo with their unique flavour.

The Black Crowes also jam live in ways only hinted at on their albums and have likewise been widely bootlegged. Their peak came during the aforementioned “Three Snakes” tours, where their live act developed an epic and organic ebb and flow that is completely unrivalled, even by supposed masters like the Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin. Those who attended those shows experienced rock and roll at its most transcendent. The rest of us can only get a taste through some high quality soundboard bootlegs, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

Kraut Rock

Now there’s a horrid bit of branding. The word ‘kraut’ is to Germans what the ‘N’ word is to African Americans, so how people have got away with using the term kraut rock for about half a century is beyond me. So I’m going to use the term euro-rock instead if you will indulge me.

As far as cult genres go euro-rock can’t be beat. Largely ignored outside of Europe at the time, it would have stayed unknown but for a few notable British hipsters that recognised its unique flavour and approach. It was progressive in a way that British and American prog rock wasn’t, basically a lot less self indulgent, and focused more on funk and jazz roots than on the classical and theoretical takes on rawk favoured by dinosaurs like ELP, Yes, et al.

Euro-rock needs a post of its own, which I promise to get onto later, but at a high level you need to hear albums by Embryo, Atlantis, AR & Machines, Gila and Frumpy. Embryo in particular are incredible and have been going for about four decades, although they have been more involved in ethic sounds for about three of those. You should track down their 1973 albums “Rock Session”and “Steig Aus” immediately and marvel at how such high quality music could be so unknown by the world for so long.

Julian Cope was the highest profile British hipster to embrace euro-rock and he wrote a book on it (literally). The blogs “Old Rock News” and “Krautrock Maniac” are where to source the sounds these days. Get busy.

The Soft Boys

Starting around the same time as punk but related to it only by an aggressive approach, Cambridge’s Soft Boys are unique in the history of rock’n’roll and largely unknown, but for a devoted cult that followed leader Robyn Hitchcock into an equally obscure solo career. Their initial EP was a spiky affair with jarring rhythms and fever dream lyrics that is what they call ‘an acquired taste’. Their first album, “A Can of Bees” toned things down a bit, but only a little. If you imagine DEVO doing Bowie’s “Aladdin Sane” with added Who harmonies over the top it will give you an idea of what you’re in for, but the reality is the Soft Boys were even weirder than that. Musically it is reasonably accessible, but lyrically Robyn Hitchock was still reveling in his love of nightmare imagery and surreal story lines. The result is like finding a sweet looking meringue only to bite into it and find it tastes like fish. This album inspired an oblique reference in “Nought” on our first album.

What you really need to hear is their second album “Underwater Moonlight”. This is classic powerpop with the bonus of Robyn’s best (and funniest) lyrics setting it apart. The range of material is gobsmacking, from the deliberately arthythmic “Old Pervert” and the intense paranoia of “Insanely Jealous”, to the should-have-been-a-hit “Queen of Eyes” and the epic title track, it doesn’t miss a step. The Rykodisc CD re-issue expands it with outtakes, covers and B-sides and is essential listening. Released in 1980 when ‘new wave’ was what was hip, this disappeared without a trace. A crime.

And, of course, us.

Yes indeed – hit the release list in the sidebar while you’re here.

---