July Stuff
Feeling gentle in the summer heat on this day (July 8 2024 to be exact), the mind wanders back on the records (pick your format, I ain't no snob) one has grown up with. Y'know, the ones that still mean a lot and get headspace and interrogations on a somewhat decent regular basis. For me, it's maybe a matter of reaching a point in your life where there's more road behind than ahead, and you just get nostalgic, maybe even just plain wistful. I mean, for me it's such a private thing and alternately very universal, the feeling you get from songs or albums that for whatever reason, have managed to stand the test of time (for me). The reasons are myriad and draped in memories, but also can erase the passage of time and space. It's conflicting and hard to explain, as is plainly obvious by this wandering paragraph.
Time and place effect my take on all this, and let me say that most music I used to listen to has not stood the test of time that well. That's no slur on the artists, it's all on me. Time does strange things to people, in general, and music and memory being so intertwined and readily exploited by labels/ music commerce entities (for good and ill), well, that's a whole 'nother thing to explore but not really what I'm getting at here.
And not to make this an exercise in heavy lidded nostalgia, but I'm also thinking on sounds/ music I have heavily indulged in recently, things and people that have really slapped my melon sideways, in hopefully the best possible way. SO, I think I've made not much sense in this bad attempt at preamble, at best just verbally wandering around, flipping through my records/ discs/ tapes/ what have you, and exclaiming to no one in particular HEY THIS SHIT IS FUCKING INSANE, Y'KNOW, THIS OVER HERE, or something somewhat to that effect. Which I think is basically what anyone does who feels moved or excited enough by tunes to throw pen to paper about it. Not to piss in anyone's face or anything, but that's my take.
So excuse me while I blurb away, coherence is not much of an issue with this, only a bit of feel, a shaft of light in the late afternoon, a heady glance or two and, if you're lucky, some glorious moments that go on, reverberate. and maybe come back to visit you from time to time like an old friend, welcoming, probably changed a bit but they're still making moves in the corner and dancing, like you knew they always would.
Neil Young/ Comes A Time 1978
Prob my fav Neil, all told. I think I got the tape from Mike Luce (a recurring and constant inspiration) in 93/4 ish. Don't get me wrong I love the high wire explosions and heat of the Horse, top stuff, all the way. This one just has that long lost feel to it, Neil giving his head over to dark thoughts and ruminations. If only for the coda of Goin' Back, not really a song but more of a shimmer, an afternoon someone dreamed of sometime...
"I feel like goin' back, back where there's nowhere to stay"
Those words waft amongst the strings like hallucinated trees talking, an epic accident that they just happened to record. If I'm really honest, this song creeps me the fuck out sometimes, the serenity of it. Folks talk about music being otherworldly sometimes, this is the real deal, absolutely.
Ministry/ Jesus Built My Hot Rod CD single mix 1991
Here we have Al J and co smashing Brad Dourif in John Huston's adaptation of Flannery O'Conner's Wiseblood into a mess of drag strip guitars and truly MOTORIK drums, ably screamed over by a barely conscious Gibby Hanes from the Buttholes. Speed and many other drugs make appearances here. I think I got this CD at Sam The Record Man here in Saskatoon in 91. An opus of some kind, that no one asked for. For the chaotic mess, it's actually quite a graceful song. Psychedelia as imagined by a sentient 18 wheeler burning into eternity.
Jesus Built My Hotrod (Redline/Whiteline Version) (youtube.com)
Carmike/ Comin At Yo Azz 1994
I became aware of this one from its inclusion on the reissue label Now/Again's 10 LP Memphis Rap comp that came out earlier this year. Couldn't afford the whole set, but checked out a bunch of the stuff on Youtube. This one fucked me up big time. "Verite" snapshots of the hustler life circa Memphis 94, straight to four track and then sold locally. DJ Paul's minimal production kills infinite, murked out. If anyone has a problem with tape hiss, tell them to saddle up and fuck off. An absolute classic that's deserving of its own stand-alone reissh.. Easily one of the best things I stumbled onto in years.
Carmike - Comin At Yo Ass [2021 Remaster] (youtube.com)
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