Paul Kantner - Blows Against The Empire

This record is no secret or curious oddity. I have every iteration of it on vinyl. However, I never got the CD release, never knew it has live performances at the end comprising about half of the Blows Against The Empire story cycle. Cool.

I decided to add this here after reviewing a David and the Dorks torrent. Any live material from this odd conglomeration of a crashing Jefferson Airplane, a bored with psychedelia Grateful Dead, and their friends needs to be noted and kept track of.

I once heard a rumor, never to have been repeated, and I forget where I heard it, which I've never dared repeat out of fear of appearing silly. But it's one of those things that should be true even if its not. What I was once told was that George Lucas wrote the first script for Star Wars listening to this record.

Why not.

1. Mau Mau (Amerikon) - Paul Kantner
2. The Baby Tree - Paul Kantner
3. Let's Go Together - Paul Kantner
4. A Child is Coming - Paul Kantner
5. Sunrise - Paul Kantner
6. Hijack - Paul Kantner
7. Home - Paul Kantner
8. Have You Seen The Stars Tonite - Paul Kantner
9. X-M - Paul Kantner
10. Starship - Paul Kantner
11. Let's Go Together - Paul Kantner
12. Sunrise - Paul Kantner
13. Hijack - Paul Kantner
14. SFX - Paul Kantner
15. Starship - Paul Kantner

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Can - Future Days

Can was the best of the first wave of German "krautrock" bands in the late sixties. They didn't sound German, and owned as much to the Velvet Underground as to the modernist or serialist German composers that Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream held in such asteem. Simply stated, this means you can actually listen to their music. Thinking about it is voluntary.

Future Days comes smack in the middle of the band's discography, released in 1973. A jazzy and mellow recording, verily complex arrangements do not sacrifice themselves on the alter of idea, but are merely the background for a listening experience that reaches a timeless quality. No shame for listening to this one loud on a Sunday afternoon in 2007. Your neighbors will not think you dated.

1. Future Days - Can
2. Spray - Can
3. Moon Shake - Can
4. Bel Air - Can


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Primordial Undermind - Loss Of Effect

Not everything in my blog has to be thirty years old. Primordial Undermind has been playing whatever the hell they've wanted since 1993. Loss of Effect is from 2006, and is their latest release. At times they sound like John Renbourn, at others they cover the same ground as early Pink Floyd without stepping in footprints.

1. Intercessor - Primordial Undermind
2. Breathe Deep - Primordial Undermind
3. 3rd Class Sissy - Primordial Undermind
4. Color of Nothing - Primordial Undermind
5. Diftglass - Primordial Undermind
6. In Violation - Primordial Undermind
7. Tremens - Primordial Undermind
8. Pertussis - Primordial Undermind
9. Blinding Stars - Primordial Undermind



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Octopus - self titled (ESP 1969)

That I found this for download made me disgorgingly apoplectic. A few years ago, I found a fairly decent copy of an ESP sampler LP in what was otherwise a box of trash. ESP was a folk, psych, freaky jazz label that existed in the late sixties and early seventies. All of the original LP pressings are very pricey collector's items. Hell, even the reissues on CD and LP will set you back about $50.00 as those are now out of print as well.

The song on the sampler, and the only song I heard from Octopus until I found this on Rhapsody, was "Harold Knows (Better Than You)". My immediate, almost visionary thought, when hearing this song was - my god, Trey Anastasio (or his mom for that matter) must have had this record. Octopus as progenitor of Phish - who knew? But the rest of the album just confirms it. Perhaps I'm insane, but I'll bet all the metaphysics in my aura that one way or another every musical idea in this record has been expanded on by Phish.

Not that the ideas on this record are presented all that well. The "US Blues" on this record is an annoying bluesy number with a freaked-out trumpet - in no way connected the Grateful Dead's song. "The War" is a typical hippy anti-war rant. However, "Fruk Juice" is a very cool 16min jazzy psych jam that is the primary reason this record has its high regard.

1. Dedication - Octopus
2. Harold Knows (Better Than You) - Octopus
3. Sleepy Blues - Octopus
4. The War - Octopus
5. I Think It's Understood - Octopus
6. U.S. Blues - Octopus
7. Fruk Juice - Octopus



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Gong - Camembert Electrique

Damn this was a great band! If Pink Floyd were Zeus of the classic rock gods, Gong was Hercules. Perhaps the personel changes served their demise - by the late 1980s no less than three bands claimed the name across three continents and both hemispheres. As forgotten, or at least unincluded, as Gong is on any mainstream remembrance of when Rock was, well, simply known as Rock, this band deserves a place on any informative top 100 list. Camembert Electrique is Gong's second release from 1970. It begins (unoffically) the Planet Gong story cycle, which came to complete realization in the next three albums (known as the Planet Gong Trilogy). All of these are available on Rhapsody.

1. Radio Gnome - Original - Gong
2. You Can't Kill Me - Original - Gong
3. I've Bin Stone Before - Original - Gong
4. Mister Long Shanks: Oh Mother I Am Your Fantasy - Original - Gong
5. Dynamite I Am Your Animal - Original - Gong
6. Wet Cheese Delirium - Original - Gong
7. Squeezing Sponges Over Policemens Heads - Original - Gong
8. Fohat Digs Hole In Space - Original - Gong
9. Tried So Hard - Original - Gong
10. Tropical Fish: Selene - Original - Gong
11. Gnome The Second - Original - Gong


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Gandalf - Gandalf II

This is not a true Gandalf release. This is more or less an outtakes compliation released about eight years ago. However, it outshines the insipid hippyness of the first and only Gandalf LP, which for some reason stills fetches over $200 on eBay. This is actually a good record, and while taken from acetates and demos shows a strong psychedelic band playing fairly pretentiousless music.

1. Bird in the Hand - Gandalf
2. Days Are Only Here and Gone - Gandalf
3. Smokey Topaz - Gandalf
4. Ladyfingers - Gandalf
5. No Earth Can Be Won - Gandalf
6. Bad Dream - Gandalf
7. I Won't Cry No More - Gandalf
8. The Dance at St. Francis - Gandalf
9. Julie (The Song I Sing Is You) - Gandalf
10. Over This Table - Gandalf
11. Golden Earrings - Gandalf
12. Tears of Ages - Gandalf
13. Downbound Train - Gandalf


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Listen to Gandalf - II

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