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...conceived in the height of 'rollermania' slik came on like the bay city ones elder, more intelligent siblings with their rehashed roller numbers, this was grandiose rollerism, a more eloquent reading of teen dramas than the bcr could ever manage in a million years...glam beats underpin the cathedral expansive nothingness that is their trademark early on (at least on the hit singles) whereas later they grab some early mainstream disco thud to try to propel their tuneage...some funky licks crop up to give the pop rock a certain grittiness, an urban ricochet rebounding across the stereo landscape......not all the tracks make it, some are just too boring to even make a non-impression, they are just not there, but there is surprisingly more substance (on a purely manufactured way) on this 22 track enterprise than would have been thought possible, and it is not in any way shape or form an ironic listen, this is straight up grand scale pop on a budget cloaked in a glam sheen shining in a sea of mediocrity...benefits from being played at a high volume for maximum impact...
...when alex got around to recording this piece of wobbly wax the lost weekends had been mounting up like so many crates of discarded imported beer bottles...he was in sauce town and it looked like the only way up was down...when this arrived in the racks most johnny come-lately-cats were of the opinion that it was the work of a 'lost it all nobody' but of course that was because there was no 'september gurls' style tunes or anything approaching that ultimate pop level but they were thinking along those muddle headed lines as an 'after the fact' trendy when before hand hardly anyone got into big star even though they clogged the cutout bin for a couple of years back in 73/4/5...no, this is r'n'b/rockabilly/lost and lonesome times on a very wet stonedout and wined up memphis 4 a.m sunday morning when the strange ones roam...
...digging RB is a high flying buzz, chillin and grooving with cool abandon,a total trip...richard was a left field beatnik caught up in the hippy scene when he came to prominence in the late 60's world-wide underground market place when publishing houses were trying to GET HIP with the youth that was sprouting literary pretentions...even the FAB4 knew richard was a cool daddio and tried to get him out to the public via their zapple imprint for spoken word, there was going be some kind of series of beat visionaries all reading their work and skitting, but as with other HOTcha ideas emmanating from FAB HQ it came to nought in the 'real world'...brautigan had been writing his grooved out stories of weirdsville for many moons, the bubbly reclining stance of his writing takes a cat to an arcane/unseen world vista, there's an olde rustic charm mixing with a commune hippy scene, nothing defined, just an imagining, a calm encroachment into a hearsay world, all that is known is transmitted via gentle rythym, moving along with sweet eloquence, a fluidity in the mythical stream that once was held in the eye of the denizens of camelot...listening to richard is slipping through the keyhole of the ancient gates of the sacred city of righteous dreams...plus any cat who leaves his telephone number on the front cover has to be some kind of honest head who has belief in humanity...(the wax has a couple of crunches on it that dont take away the enjoyment once it's gotten used to)...
...les guitares de l'enfer, 'the guitars from hell' is the translation for these lounge rockers from belgium, nightclub bandsmiths hooked on the rock'n'roll beat, the beat of the back alleys, the switchblade weilding pink suited stranger dosed on the amphetamines looking for the rhythm to set the world free with beatnik glory, ( mixing up a couple of styles what with the teenage rocking and the coffee swilling poetry and reefer denizens of the late night haunt ) ......there was a myriad of these kind of bands, essentially working the night club and dance hall circuit playing to drinkers out for a dance or something perhaps less wholesome but fun, more in keeping with the darkness of the creeping hours, these bands were fairly skilled operators who'd been in the business ten or fifteen years and were getting to old to learn the new rock, but rock they had to in order to survive the rigours of changing times and taste, the teenage market was happening and seemed to be taking over everyones minds, the sixties was already shaping up as a decade of youth, spurred by the twin attack of two absent trend setters, elvis in the army helping uncle sam defeat communism and james dean gone to a far away place in the cemetary due to some ungainly wheelmanship, plus skifflers cutting a rug with homemade rock'n'roll like the beatles and the professionalism of the shadows all collided in the new teenage/young modern mindset as everyone did the twist, the latest and greatest dance to hit the planet in 1960, old timers even had to get down and try to screw themselves into the floor whilst in the shaking ecstasy of the moment, everyone was unwinding as they wound their bodies in semi circles of delight......it is undoubtedly the twist that set the tone for the next few years with society getting in the groove the same way as the patrons of the youth clubs of europe, (an interesting aside comes to mind as nowadays wet liberal whingers moan on about the fact youth have nowhere to go but hang around on street corners selling crack and laughing at cops, but imagine the moral panic newspapers could scare up if such establishments did exist in proliferation like the 'good old days' with excited stories of youth banding together in buildings out of sight from the 'ordinary citizens', planning who knows what atrocities to inflict on their elders when they emerge into the darkness of the night ), a new classless society was being born for a nano second with the whole planet hitting the twist vibe with relaxed intensity......the cheap recording studio and lack of time allowed the band lends the tunes a basement grunge that works well in this day and age though at the time this was obviously an annoyance to them but it was all they had and most bands were in the same position, getting no respect from suits at the record company and being palmed off with the 'fuzzy end of the lollipop', copping a 'take it or leave (it)' stance from the management......elvis rocking with twangy guitars strumming over various twisting beats explode off the seven inch vinyls for the first part of the cd (E.P mode was very popular in and across europe at the time, it was the perfect medium, four tunes for the remittance of some francs/marks/etc.), though even with the band exerting some lounge ballads to help keep the older female population fueled with dreams, they helpfully do the square routine under other names it's a rocking certainty that it's the twisting that makes this a solid winner, there's more twisting on these discs than can be imagined, they twist on the telephone, they twist in london town, they twist so much their wife is twist (dig the first track for this marvel)......twisting is where it's at as they twist with gina (lollobrigida, natch) and the devil also who no doubt twists a mean mofo twist, yes it's twisting time for two solid years (61/62), nothing else comes close for these cats, it's twist or die, there is no other way to express the times and feeling (and score some bread)......with the passing of time the twist no longer holds sway, being helplessly 'out of time' and favour the next two years sees the band reaching for new heights as surfing space rock instros are the currency, with cosmos twanging shadows style coming within the orbit of the local 'joe meek' at the controls, all mixed up with cheesy organ and 50s elvis vocal stylings running rampant......a pretty solid hours worth of back alley neon via the penthouse vibrations for all to dig in the privacy of that small hours moment when bad motor scooters were getting it on with society dames who in turn were turning slowly into the dolly bird attachment of young go-getters from the provinces europewide...
...conceived in the height of 'rollermania' slik came on like the bay city ones elder, more intelligent siblings with their rehashed roller numbers, this was grandiose rollerism, a more eloquent reading of teen dramas than the bcr could ever manage in a million years...glam beats underpin the cathedral expansive nothingness that is their trademark early on (at least on the hit singles) whereas later they grab some early mainstream disco thud to try to propel their tuneage...some funky licks crop up to give the pop rock a certain grittiness, an urban ricochet rebounding across the stereo landscape...
