Food. Because I lose recipes. [22 Dec 2009|09:42pm] daintress [ mood | hungry ] Spinach Balls 2 (10 oz.) pkg frozen chopped spinach 3 cups herbed seasoned stuffing mix (fine or use food processor to make smaller) 1 large onion, chopped 6 eggs well beaten ¾ C melted butter ½ C grated parmesan cheese 1 ½ tsp garlic salt ½ tsp thyme Cook spinach according to package, drain well, squeezing out extra moisture. Combine spinach with remaining ingredients, mixing well. Shape into 1 inch balls. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Squash Casserole 3 cups cooked yellow squash cooked/drained/smashed 1 cup Ritz cracker crumbs 1 onion finely chopped ½ stick of butter Salt and pepper 2 eggs beaten 1 ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese ½ cup mayo 1 tsp sugar 1 garlic powder Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all together and bake 30-35 min. Sprinkle with cheese on top while hot. 9 comments|post comment

Torrent Music [21 Dec 2009|01:08pm] mostuncertain [ music | Almost Medieval - the Human league ] The ridiculous cost of buying music to try, & my recent finding of several rare & out of print albums compressed for online downloads @ Punk Anarchy & elsewhere, has prompted me to start torrent downloading albums. Many new albums, or new to me albums, but a lot of albums which I already own on CD & have ripped to the computer but which are now available in superior masters with higher clarity & so on. The downside is my computer will probably die an awful death of aids. The up side is all the free sex I can take (& that’s a lot – I have dowloaded like 100 albums in the last two days.) Home fucking is destroying prostitution. Also have been picking up b sides & filling out my singles collections in onesies twosies fashion. I will sometimes have a singles collection which doesn’t feature B sides, or which has a surplus of album tracks, & I will mix & match in iTunes, put all the cover art with the appropriate single so I can look at it when it plays, & dump the album tracks unless they are a special- differing mix or something. Some albums I have wanted forever but have never been able to find (I am stupid cause I paid like $35 each for a couple Raincoats CDs when I could have just done this, & I bought them used so the artist didn’t make any more money off them anyway) are; Orange Juice, Rip It Up (the album, not the single) Album has a five minute version of the title track & different version of two other songs available on the singles, plus a new reggae version of the superior on Glasgow School track Breakfast Time. I was very surprised that the new black drummer wasn’t just pulled in to make the band indecipherable in photos from Haircut 100, A Certain Ratio, & other flat-top soul groups of the time, but that he also blacks it up on nearly every song, singing more than prominent “backing” vocals which I would refer to more as “second lead" than backing vocals. It’s weird with a band with such a distinctive sound to just suddenly pull a shift like that & use his voice along with Edwyns on about every single song. I still love them, but they peaked way before the world was listening. Sorry to say that Rip It Up & the other singles (Flesh of My Flesh/I Can’t Help Myself) are far & away the best songs on the album. You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever rocks it all over Rip It Up as an album. The one two punch of Glasgow School with all the postcard versions, & YCHYLF is the reason OJ are considered what they are. I don’t quite get it actually. I find the same sort of disappointing thing happening with post High Land Hard Rain Aztec Camera. There’s poison in the major label drinking fountains or something. Buy by James Chance & the Contortions “Now a little something for those of you who live in the past; that’s about 99% of you idiots out there.” –James Chance’s live introduction to the Contortions’ funkified version of Jailhouse Rock Yes that’s right, this bad boy for some ridiculous reason is out of print & can’t be found legally to download even for ready money. It’s every bit as good as it’s supposed to be & was about what I was expecting from hearing the live albums & so on. Funnily it is often the best or most famous album by a band which is OOP. This is true in the following case as well. Fire of Love by Gun Club Their entire reputation seems to be based on this album. You can find all the later albums other than Miami, easily, as well as a dozen comps with rarities & demos & other odd ephemera & musical nic nac paddywhacks, but not the first two “classic albums.” I’d tend to say that Fire of Love is far & away my favorite thing I have heard by Gun Club. Making History by Linton Kwesi Johnson Most critics seem to agree that this is his best album, & I’d say it’s truly very listenable. I’d tend to disagree that it was the best, but it’s a possible second to 78s Dread Beat An Blood. This situation was a very frustrating one for me, however because again the most “important” album to hear is the one you can’t get. It seems to happen a great deal. I am still digesting it, so it may grow, as well. I’d still recommend the first album to anyone giving LKJ a shot. Plus it’s relatively easy to find. Additionally I downloaded the entire catalogue by Japan, which I am really enjoying. I have always been a fan of David Sylvian's 1980s solo output (many of which albums prominently feature the guitar stylings of King Crimson/Brian Eno solo album alumnist Robert Fripp [think of the blistering lead guitar on Eno’s Baby’s On Fire, & the sweet simple one note lead on Bowie’s Heroes for a cross reference of what the guy is capable of as a guitarist collaborator] & the piano arranging skills of Yellow Magic Orchestra & co author of the Last Emperor soundtrack, Ryuchi Skamoto), & also had a solo album by bassist Mick Karn, who wrote the music for 1984 joint project Dali’s Car, with Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy on vocals, in addition. Of course that fretless bass style is very unique & a step beyond what you hear on other edgy ambient jazz things like Eno’s Another Green World. Duran Duran really did these guys a bad turn by hijacking their entire sound & look. It’s sort of uncanny. Nick Rhodes is such an admirer of Sylvian that he’s practically a clone of him. Additionally, while John Taylor has chops & I think he’s a good bassist in his own right, decisions to use fretless bass on tracks like Rio’s The Chauffer, are obviously a pre ordained & easy to make choice given the fact that everything Duran Duran did, Japan did better, more coherently, & with greater aesthetic integrity, at least two years earlier. Another band caught in the perception of being too late in 78 & on the cusp of this seeming to have missed out on glam-rock thing, in the beginning (both they & Japan made two guitar driven, New York Dollsy first albums before finding their real voices on their third album), but who would wind up blossoming into synth heavy, arty post-punk, are Ultravox. Singer John Foxx’s first solo album Metamatic & the singles from it are actually better than anything I have heard so far by Ultravox, although the band’s third album, 1978s Systems of Romance comes close to it. Metamatic for me is a bit like if Howard Devoto had done vocals on a Kreftwerk album. I don’t mean to reduce the musical originality of the album to mere drafting off the greats. There’s more than a cloning electronic sensibility in the compositions which are raunchy & cool like a good analog 1980 synth record should be (think Soft Cell). It’s just that Howard Devoto singing on a Kraftwerk album is sort of the concept which readily came to mind. Also Conny Plank, famous Krautrock producer & coincidentally the producer of most of Krafwerk's famous 1970s albums, produces a string of three Untravox albums; 1978s Systems' of Romance with John Foxx, 80s Vienna, & 81s Rage In Eden, both with Midge Ure on vocals. *Plank also produced all three of NEU!'s albums as well as a huge string of others. Eno was a big admirer of his production work which featured sloppy echoing live drums that sound a bit pre Joy Division/Martin Hannet IMO. Supposedly Eno had initially wanted Conny Plank to produce U2s Joshua Tree, rather than doing it himself, but according to legend & the Conny Plank wikipedia page, Plank refused saying "I cannot work with this singer." This goes back to an entry I did a few weeks ago about poor little Bono & everybody's inexplicable slagging off of him. Add another quote to the list. Have also been doing the early Human League singles, & pre Dare albums Travalogue & Reproduction, which I really like in an odd, patient way (I feel you have to be patient with them, knowing what’s to come, but actually preferring the noble failures & sometime directionlessness of the earlier output). I have gotten my Depeche Mode B-sides up to date & have a great digital singles & B sides comp to go with my remasters of all the classic 80s albums. I did a bit of additional Mute records exploration with Warm Leatherette (BW T.V.O.D. by The Normal), the famous single that made Mute records possible, & a goodly portion of Fad Gadget & other electronic acts on Mute (aren’t Einstürzende Neubauten on Mute as well? I think they are). Got a couple of OMD albums & while I like them, I guess they really are a singles band. I picked up the Architecture of Morality & Dazzle Ships. Telepgraph is a really great single from the latter which never appears on any singles collection but ought to. I also am listening to Visage which features most of the first lineup of Magazine, as well as Ultravox’s later vocalist & author of the terrible Do They Know It’s Christmas, Midge Ure (he’s not on vocals though). The Band are led by Blitz Kid & early 80s face (“period face” is Pee Wee’s word of the day) Steve Strange. The Cherry Red edition of the 2nd album, Anvil (yes I actually bought some of these) features a half dozen bonus tracks from singles, extensive liner notes, discography & some great photos of cover art & various images of Strange, who has a cameo as pierrot in Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes video, if you’re looking for a cultural reference from the era. I guess I’ll close by saying that the first three proper early 70s Kraftwerk albums are also not available for legal download or purchase & I have been enjoying them considerably. Especially the first album’s “Ruckzuck, which very recognizably went on to be the theme song for Bill Nye The Science guy on TV during the 90s & early 00s, I believe. Very cool. (Maybe it was a different show, tell me if you recognize it?) .......... Edit: sorry folks if this entry appears to appear twice in slightly altered form. When I was writing it & getting the artwork together my aids infected computer wouldn't let me get on the internet, so an unofficial version of the blog was put up without my knowledge & left up for two days. The version I stand behind is the one with the picture of the stout American hooker, not the emaciated Asian one. I have standards, after all. Also, this version has much greater detail & background elaboration, so if you liked it before, re-read the section which interested you. Maybe it's improved. the management post comment

Groundskeeper Willie (Free Music) [16 Dec 2009|06:12pm] mostuncertain [ music | The Normal - T.V.O.D. ] i was a little disappointed when I realized this was a joke. .............. The Musical theme for the afternoon is Americans ahead of the pack, or anyway pre greatness demos of the following sort Talking Heads - CBS Demos 75 Free Download Here http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2009/09/talking-heads-1975.html If This release is to be trusted & was in fact recorded in 1975, it would prove that the Talking Heads, rather like Johnathan Richman & the Modern lovers, had songs to spare & time to slack before the world was ready to hear them. Most of the best songs on the first two albums appear on this recording In stripped, but very much complete form. Verge of greatness. Songs i didn't think could have been written until 78 turn out to have been in the bag & waiting to be put to vinyl (by Brian Eno - as with another of the entries here today - who apparently did all his American band shopping the same year - 78) ...... Devo, Be Stiff (1978) Free Download Here http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2007/09/devo-be-stiff.html Some superior versions of songs on the debut album (produced by Eno, as we all knew), & some others which weren't released but should have been, appear on this EP. It's sick how much this band ripped. Suddenly I understand (Are We Not Men? is sedate by comparison - this band made their bones performing live). ....... The Cramps -All Tore Up Demos 1980 Free Download Here http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2009/02/cramps.html a really roaring set of demo tunes, some of which appeared on songs the lord taught us the same year. I actually prefer the unproduced versions. Gives me the feeling they could have kept it up for hrs & hrs & hrs & hrs &.. ........... Gun Club, Da Blood Done Signed My Name Free Download Here http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2009/08/gun-club-da-blood-done-signed-my-name.html This has the first studio recordings from 81, a live set from 82, & a whole second disc of demos from 1980. Haven't listened to this one yet, but it very much fits in with the rest of what seems to going on here, Mr Jones. ....... Magazine pre Real Life Demos (to English things up a skosh) Free Download Here http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2009/04/magazine-pre-real-life-demo.html The keyboards aren't completely there yet, but John McGeoch & Devoto definately are. This could have been Spiral Scratch 2. A really great set of tunes & intensely performed. Love this band, love that man. ............. Rocket from the tombs 1975 free Dead Boys Download (Sorry, no Ubu) http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2008/11/dead-boys-young-loud-and-snotty.html This band split in half sending half their best songs along to what became Pere Ubu, & the other half to what became the Dead Boys. Both Dave Thomas & Stiv Bators sang on this bitch. WTF? It doesn’t make any effing sense anymore 1975. How'd I get all up inside you like that? ....... Did I mention this album was recorded in 72? I wasn't born yet people. This came out he same years as Ziggy Stardust (well it actually "came out" the same year as Stations to Station, but it was recorded the same year as Ziggy startdust. What?) Hear It!!! Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole for saying lick my American ball sack, jack. it's true cause he was Spanish, & called them Juevos, & drove around an El Dorado the color of Avacado. I knew I was going to cry. See, there I went. This always happens. :::::::::::::::::::: & for extree credit here's some Teenage jesus & The jerks with Lydia Lunch (James Chance was in this band before he started the Contortions) Free Download Here http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/search/label/Teenage%20Jesus%20%2B%20The%20Jerks .............. & Some Iggy & Bowie doing their 1977 thing http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/search/label/Iggy%20Pop%20%2B%20David%20Bowie 9 comments|post comment

Nectarine No 9 [12 Dec 2009|11:41pm] mostuncertain [ music | Odds & Ends, the Weather Prophets ] Further attempts at bending Vic Godard's ear via myspace Couldn’t find any Win & the singles you suggested by Sexual Objects could be heard on myspace but are only otherwise available on vinyl & not without my learning the translation rate of pounds to dollars. I did get my hands on a couple 90s releases by Nectarine No. 9, to place next to my Fire Engines & compare. I did hear what you mean, I think. There’s a looseness & ease there in the songs & the approach, which is also there in your post 90s output, but it’s a bit different too. I can see that since the 80s Davey Henderson has not abandoned his love of the 2 Chord vamp. As I recall the Television version of the song Fire Engine off of the Live tape is a 2 chord vamp, so go figure; it’s the band’s name & a kind of statement of intention. Yourself & your songwriting it seems to me will always be both liberated & caged by your sense of melody. I think that may be why I initially had a couple Bowie flashbacks listening to you. His tendency to explore a melody very thoroughly. But with something simple like Gene Genie, which when Bowie does it, at least to myself, is like a pastiche, there’s just not enough melodic meat for it to be interesting. Maybe Rebel Rebel is a better example of a bowie 2 chord track, but I think you know what I mean. There’s a fundamental difference between say Bowi & Iggy Pop, & you would fall to my mind a good deal more on the Bowie side, whereas Davey Henderson would be a bit more on the Iggy one. The chameleon tag could fit you quite well, & also, I guess you smoke on all your album covers so that’s another obvious parallel to Bowie. Not saying you’re as pretty as him though, surely. I myself am presently playing & studying Spanish (primarily Flamenco) guitar & have never possessed the genius for making vocal melodies. I have a strong hand for making instrumental melodies & themes but the lyrics never came. I identify strongly with people like Eno, who claims to be almost without instincts when it comes to making songs up in terms of lyrics. It’s something I envy & admire. You have a cool genius at it, without being sort of a “pretty” songwriter – this always happens to people with a strong sense of melody like Paul mcCartney or Stuart Murdoch. They get a bit of a pussy tag, or as John lennon said, Paul writes the pretty ones for the grannies so I know the Beatles will always be big. Not to say that McCartney was the only band member with a sense of melody, but he is saddled with being the shallow, pretty song one – this happens to Grant McLallan, by conbtrast to Robert Forsters more jerky, off key stop start tendency musically. Any time you read reviews of them separately, he’s kinda considered the shallower “pop” Go-Between. You side step that somehow. It’s an anomaly. Like if Television are the greatful dead of punk rock, then I guess that would make you I don’t know, you never got the tag. It’s sort of cool, actually. I was always curious about yourself & the Scottish connection. I am half Scott myself & my last name is Black so it’s on my dad’s side. I find myself indulging in certain Scottish tendencies which I find in terms of a funny combination of humor & deadly seriousness. I don’t feel it so much from you. There’s a thing with Talking Heads & David Byrne as well; like the big suit – is he taking the piss or does he really mean it – making a statement – if you listen to him in interview he’s deadly serious like Dada pop revolution or something, but conceptually it’s hilarious. This is there with the concept of masculinity put forth by Orange Juice/ a lot of Scottish comedians who work in America have this sort of a vibe too – like Norm MacDonald for instance if you’re familiar with him. Actually the very sentence “twee as fuck” sort of exhibits the very tendency I am referring to. You seem sort of a lot more like a satellite & a loner, which is odd & interesting because you came from right in the middle of Punk epicenter & could have ridden it, but were instead identified with by this peripheral- weird Postcard thing. What was that like? You still keep in touch with those guys? ............ The Nectarine No. 9 albums I have been listening to are Niagara Falls & Saint Jack, both put out by Postacrd in 1995, & Received, Transgressed, An' Transmitted from 2001 It's striking me as pretty anarchic. It makes sense as the almost next step, & as what might have been going for post Fire Engines Davey Henderson in the 90s. I can hear a bit of the Pavement thing I have read mentioned. Not saying there's a chicken & egg relationship. I think it's just a certain weird classic rock tube amp thing came ripe, & "hatched" in the 90s. Also, I always thought Stephen Malkmus' voice sounded a lot more like Lou Reed's than Mark E Smith's, so maybe for Henderson there's a VU connection. On one Nectarine album he covers both the VUs Inside Your Heart & Nico's These Days. Am also listening to a bit of the Human League circa 1981, & then a lot of the Subway Sect circa late 70s early to mid 80s. http://mostuncertain.livejournal.com/210064.html 3 comments|post comment

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