I was put off these guys for decades because of their dumb name and stupid cover, figuring the music to be just mullet-shaking Clod Rock with maybe some futuristic synth farts. Turns out it's worryingly clever, which makes you wonder why they chose to present themselves as the musical equivalent of Truck Nutz™.
 |
| Ewww ... big hands! |
Like, check out these track titles, bro: Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air), Myopic Void, and I Can't Feel Nothin' (Parts One and Two). Someone who knows something about words came up with that good stuff. And the tracks, thirteen of them in thirty-six Earth minutes. Not your standard sludge-athon flex.
Turns out that yes, it's hard rock, but with NEW added smarts! It was something of a Supergroup at the time, with musicians from RSRCH PSE ED WIKI OR DISCOGS [and that's a big Fuck You from me - Ed.] but stiffed in the racks in spite of a lavish 3D cover specifically designed to appeal to absolutely nobody.
Anyway, they were picked up by Phil Walden at Capricorn - Duane Allman was a fan - for a second album called Sufficiently Breathless, which is one of the greatest album titles of all time, in a sleeve even worse than the debut [below - Ed.]. It's more mainstream, with a little Santana influence (okay, and why, exactly?) on a couple of tracks. The quality is there but the elusive youth market got even more elusive and decided to spend its walking-about money on a bag of reds and a corn dog instead.
Apparently they never quite delivered live (I've only heard a bootleg, which sounds like a bootleg, and I hate that sound), and this may be a reason for their "untimely demise". The records are basically pretty terrific, and it's hard to find a bad word about them. If you haven't heard them, they're likely to surprise you, in a good way.
I think they made a third album, which was a mistake.
 |
| Yeucchh, right? |
You may add these grand long-playing record albums to your collection FREE OF CHARGE just by suggesting a Nalbum or a Nact you'd like to see featured here at Th' Isle O' Foam©!
ReplyDeleteThis is quite off-the-wall, but I finally thought of a Nact that wasn't fully obscure and had more than a few albums: John Martyn. Seems like there might be something there, but I sure don't know what.
ReplyDeleteI hope someone has a better suggestion.
D in California
It's very on the wall, and a great suggestion.
DeleteI saw John Martyn live more than I bought his albums. Solid Air is a cracking album, I think Babs shared a large stash of JM here a few years ago.
DeleteDon't think Babs knew much about him until I mentioned him in a comment, which is probably where I posted some albums.
DeleteJM is one of those musicians whose albums often had a few weakish tracks, is he someone who a comprehensive ‘best of’ is the way to go?
DeleteHere on the south coast of England I am suffering with the high temperature (mid 30’s for three days), I don’t know how you guys living in ‘the tropics’ put up with it. My brain and body are not coping very well, normal summer should resume tomorrow. :-)
I think you have to get into him by the albums, because they're very different from each other and a "best of" wouldn't hang together. You can always edit out the tracks that don't hit the spot.
DeleteAs for tropical living, you get used to it. Luckily I don't have to go out in the sun. Rainy season has started so we're getting very welcome rainstorms and cool air for a while. The highest I ever measured it was 45 degrees, and it's hit that in France over the last few days. But it's not El Nino you have to worry about, it's the death of the Gulf Stream. One day that's going to flop over and you'll all be building igloos!
I have a few of his albums on vinyl, but used to play a C90 cassette of his Glastonbury and Cambridge festival concerts from 1985 and 86 more than his LPs.
DeleteI think I could cope with living in an igloo better that 45 degrees, I'll look out for a good jumper at the charity shop next week just in case.
Capricorn had large prints made of the 1st lp cover and gave them to some record stores. The late, great Stash had a 4x6 one (3D of course) that hung by the counter until its last day. I really like the 2nd album. As late as 2020, a version of the group was still touring, but the only original member was Bobby Caldwell. An odd signing for Capricorn, since the group certainly didn't fit the other acts under the Capricorn brand (Allmans, Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker...).
ReplyDeleteI think John Zorn has a new lp out (and probably yet another by the time you finish reading this), so maybe another piece on him?!?
New Zorn gets posted on the ZornWatch® piece - thanks for the heads-up!
DeleteIt would be nice to here some Max Schubel. I have (downloaded) an Opus One album with also compositions of Donald Erb. I'd like to hear some more. If possible
ReplyDeleteWay outside my comfort zone, but maybe another 4/5g© can help?
DeleteOT: Lee Dorman, bassist Iron Butterfly, was a member of Captsin Beyond. He went missing for years. A hiker found the van Lee was driving down Kanaan Dume Road years prior. He'd run off the road into the canyon in a location that couldn't be seen from above.He expired there, sufficiently breathless. Nuff said and zoot allures.
ReplyDeleteOkay, stop the presses, this just in! The old ConcertVault site is back dressed up in new name as "Moshpit.com" (how 1980s....), with expanded "catalogs" - that's "collections from a single syndicator such as King Biscuit, Silver Eagle, Starfleet-Blair, clubs (Tramps in NYC, Ash Grove in L.A., Great American Music Hall in San Francisco), plus things I'm clueless about..."Amazingrace from Northwestern University??...
ReplyDeleteSo far, I don't see a catch....or how they're monetizing it... you can play a single track; it will then continue on to the following track, allowing you to stream the entire show in order, or cherry-pick just the track you want to hear.
Amazingrace was a very small coffeehouse in Evanston, my hometown, from the late 60s through the 70s. I saw an an astounding assortment of great acts there: Mingus, Rollins, Fairport, Roy Buchanan, Hot Tuna, Luther Allison, McCoy Tyner, Vassar Clements, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ellen McIlwaine, etcetc.... no booze, just coffee, and you sat on the floor a few feet away from the stage (maybe a foot higher than the floor), pleasantly stoned and let the music wash over ya. Ain't nothing like it these days!
DeleteYOU LUCKY, LUCKY BASTARD!!
DeleteAnd....hmm....I've been wondering about Tim Hardin. He's one of those names I hear, but have never heard his music.
ReplyDeleteHe's ... kinda depressing?
Deletekinda? Only "kinda"? No qualifier necessary. Will Sheff from Okkervil Riverfrom convinced me to give him a second chance (they did a tribute album to him) but I was still not there. "If I Were a Carpenter" has certainly been covered a few times ("Reason to Believe" too).
DeleteANON RF: Howza bout Cat Mother And The All Night Newsboys? I mean. Howza bowddit?
ReplyDeletehttps://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2020/06/buncha-hippies-dept.html
DeleteANON RF: How did I miss this?!? I've been following your blog for several years (I thought). Anyhoo, the dreaded guy with the binoculars tells me the link is defunkin'. I've got them but others might benefit etc etc...
DeleteLinks have a shelf life, like most things!
DeleteI think I saw Captain Beyond as an opening act, for either Wet Willie or the Allman Brothers.
ReplyDeleteSaw them live once, when they did open for the Allmans at The Warehouse. As much as I liked that 2nd lp, was as unimpressed as I was by that performance.
DeleteMerrel Fankhauser ..??? ... in all his guises???
ReplyDeletehttps://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2024/10/tales-of-incoherent-dept-merrell.html
Deletehttps://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2021/04/fanks-for-th-memory-dept-surfin-to-th.html
Ahh ..thanks again!! .. apologies for my poor memory!!
DeleteI forget what's here myself.
DeleteKhon khun kop
ReplyDeleteWhy, you - for two cents I'd ... I'd ...
Deletethe one and only Robert Wyatt.
ReplyDeleteHe's ... kinda depressing?
Deletenot at all. sometimes melancholic, but depressing? never.
DeleteI can understand that. Not necessarily agree with it, but get the nuance.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqgWkbF5NTI
Delete1. Pete Fine – On a Day of Crystalline Thought (1974).
ReplyDeleteBefore suggesting - I used the Island Search Feature to see if has already been covered here - it revealed nothing Pete Fine related but did pull up a FT3 2019 post discussing the "Fine Wine" album and related topics that I found of interest. The Island Search Feature continues to be HIGHLY underrated!
This seems to be the sort of thing th' 4/5g© would like - anybody got an updownable?
DeleteRe-upping my request - I'm pretty thirsty to hear this!
DeleteTry this one:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/CeUYxZ4AVJT
The Mutton Birds - excellent NZ band
ReplyDeleteI'll bite. I would love your take on, in no particular order; if not a post, one word will suffice:
ReplyDeleteRoky Erickson
Bill Frisell
R.E.M.
Eugene Chadbourne
Hammel On Trial
June Carter (Cash)
Syd Straw
"kind of depressing" is three words, but, sure, why not.
Fan of Roky here. I have a lot of the CDs. Anything in particular yo'u would like to hear?
DeleteI had them, too!
DeleteI keep thinking I've tracked his stuff all down and there keeps turning out to be more, which is not a bad thing. Sorta like searching for the best chocolate chip cookie...it's rough, ugly work, but somebody's gotta do it, #amirite
DeleteFavorite Roky story: We were the openers (and lucky to be there at all; honestly not sure how that happened. Someone else had cancelled?) on a bill that culminated 3-4 bands later with Roky & The Explosives. At some point, one of my bandmates asked him what he thought (of our set? the scene?) and with a sweet smile he replied "I have no idea."
I used to be in contact with Mike Stax (Ugly Things), and he told me Roky, a frequent guest at his abode, was a lovely guy.
DeleteI'm adding REM to the list. Roky as a solo artist? Have to be a fan. Syd Straw? Did you mean Sid Slaw? Showing results for Sid Slaw.
ReplyDeleteGeorgie Fame and Alan Price
ReplyDeleteGilbert O'Sullivan and Barbara Dickson
DeleteIs Barbara Dickson, The Scottish Thrush, still with us? Or was The Scottish Thrush Eddi Reader? Whose name evoked Kurt Cobain's favorite thrush, Eddie Vedder?
DeleteWhat's a fungal infection got to do with all this anyway? Singing, I suppose?
As long as I am free associating here, given the two dynamic duos above, what about Elkie Brooks & Chris Rea? Or keeping to the Scotch, as it were, Stealers Wheel (Gerry Rafferty & Joe Egan)? Last one: Ralph McTell & Richard Thompson.
I added the two stars because they were both keyboard botherers and Light Entertainment TV Favourites, as were Georgie Fame and Alan Price. And the only songs I can remember by any of them drive me nuts.
Delete"Sufficiently Breathless" received a lot of airplay in the OKC area when it came out.
ReplyDelete