MEDICATION: A BUDDYHEAD BLOG

Kim Fowley - Animal Man

Kim Fowley may have well invented the swear word, because he elevated scum-sucking perversion to an entirely new level. Anyone familiar with his entries in  Please Kill Me and/or tangentially aware of his involvement with the Runaways and early-70s Sunset Strip arcana is well informed of Fowley's foul spiritual-Tourette's epistemology, but this one-off near-hit single is classic Fowley in his unabashed, eternally horny approach to life. And, Fowley's hamfisted performance here aside, perhaps the best part of the song is the obviously hired (or otherwise coerced) girl singer's half-assed coo, "ooh animal man, you're so big... and so rough" that sums up Fowley's, ahem, penetration into the pop culture schism between Hollywood and the Valley of the late 70's -- N'er the twain shall meet. Punk rock in 1968. Today, it's called Hot Topic, and at your local mall. Regardless, this song is fucking hilarious on many levels. And, if you're dying for a current dose of Fowley hipsterism, hop on down to Hollywood on nearly any given night and dig the corporate sponsorship and corporate rock on the ironic DJ decks for hours unlimited. It's not lame enough that rock shows like the Pringles/Depend Undergarments/Coco-Puffs Summer Fun Jam have become one overly-ballyhooed marketing fest. Now, corporate sponsors are buying up DJ nights at bars, in order to reach young, actively consuming "markets" like yourself. But, the funniest thing is, no contemporary Mayor of Sunset Strip would ever dare touch material like Kim Fowley's "Animal Man." Which not only proves how entirely dead the concept of "punk" may be, but even its glam-rock precursors, corporate shills they may be, are no match for today's Chevrolet.

(Download - "Animal Man")

The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)

I don't know much about The Electric Prunes except that they were from Los Angeles in the 60's, they were on the Nuggets boxset, they made a few descent albums (this one, "Underground" & their "Stockholm 67' live"), they didn't write most of their songs (songwriters did), and they had a song on the Easy Rider soundtrack. Speaking of Easy Rider, the documentary on the making of that's on the DVD of the movie is fucking amazing if you haven't seen it yet. It talks about how Dennis Hooper was tripping balls on acid the whole time he was trying to direct the movie, how Peter Fonda was banging everyone in sight, how the whole crew was stoned outta their gordes the whole time, & how the scene where Jack Nicholson smokes pot around the campfire was totally unscripted (he was just that baked)... anyways, check it out.

(Download - "I Had To Much To Dream (Last Night)

John Lennon - "Plastic Ono Band"

Plastic Ono Band is John Lennon's first official and (by far) my favorite solo record. Heck, I listen to this record more than I do any of The Beatles records. If I ever get stranded on a desert island I hope this is one of the records I have with me. This album plays like a self-help record to me. Whenever I'm feeling down, depressed or just unsure about life, I throw on "Plastic Ono Band" and John tells me how it is, that he's been through the same fucked up shit and that everything's gonna be alright. And if anyone knows about that shit I'm guessing it’s him, because homeboy had more issues than anyone I know. The Beatles had just broken up and John has just completed what he called 'Primal Scream' therapy (hence the reason he’s screaming his brains out on “Well Well Well”) with Dr. Arthur Janov. He used this album to exorcise allot of his demons and basically purge everything there was to purge. This is the unveiling of the "real" John Lennon as he lashes out at the world and lets loose a lot of his pain, which in turn sounds like the punkest folk record I've ever heard. Although the whole album is great, these two tracks are my favorites (“Working Class Hero is a close third). "I Found Out" is about his disgust for religion (Christianity – “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the Sky” & Krishnas - "Ole Hare Krishna got nothing on you, just keeps you crazy with nothing to do") and an ironic encouragement to say no to drugs (“Don’t let them fool you with dope and cocaine, no one can harm you feel your own pain"). And I love how "Remember" takes what seems to be forever to get to the cheerful bridge of “Don't feel sorry 'bout the way it's gone, Don't you worry 'bout what you've done”. Oh and if you buy the cd, ignore the bonus tracks “Do The Oz” and “Power To The People”, they’re total bummers.

(Download - "I Found Out")

(Download - "Remember)

Popul Vuh - Dort Ist Der Weg

Discovering what you like about the prolific psychheit group Popul Vuh is as much an investment of time, energy and emotion as finding what you appreciate about life itself, but it can be equally as fulfilling. The German "Krautrock" prog-psych-soundtrack-new-age-folk musical cult is a fitting precursor to the lesser, wannabe "outsider" art-folk hipster scene populated by Devendra Banhart, Johanna Newsom, Entrance, Black Mountain, et al. However, put Popul Vuh in context with the regressive, conservative German culture of the early 70's and its music becomes all the more impressive. This track, "Dort Ist Der Weg" is perhaps a highlight of Popul Vuh's synergy of Far East and Western folk traditions into a powerful, droning force -- one lifted shamelessly by Michael Gira during mid-period SWANS -- that embodies the grace and depth of its musical forrays into nether regions of music's ability to infect the mind AND body. Its name comes from the central text of Mayan culture, and its music is an exploration into repetition, attrition and musical drone that is unsurpassed without aid of extremely debilitating psychedelic drugs and a true interest in exploring our mental netherwords via nervous circuitry. It may sound like intense Enya in the wrong context. So, you might want to sit down with a full album to fully appreciate Popul Vuh. But, anyone familiar with Comus and similar eviscerating psychfolk fuckery will love this and other Popul Vuh songs. Florian Fricke, its main composer wrote several scores for Werner Herzog films, but the oeuvre of Popul Vuh's collective noises are far more incredible given proper attention in the cozy confines ov your own dreamstates.

(Download - "Dort Ist Der Weg")

ROK TOTS - Suicide Weekend

The Rok Tots is/was one of the most intimidating drug-laced garage punk-blues bands ever -- perhaps second only to Laughing Hyenas in pure junkie desperation that translated into furious guitar chords and angry lyrics. This -- the Rok Tots first 7" single, self-recorded and self-released -- was at the time of its release in 1983 a monsterous fucker that squashed the wannabe intensity of hardcore punk like a rock dinosaur risen from a primordial swamp. Yes, that same primordial muck that gave rise to what later became known (and quickly co-opted) as "grunge." But, when guitarist/vocalist Jimmy West first put razor to wrist and penned "Suicide Weekend" there was no intent other than harvesting pure dope sick hostility into song. The Rok Tots came like a hurricane from a historic vacuum to reclaim the fury of rock from the milquetoast suburban teens passing off energy for urgency. Its parallel to Dead Moon is striking in West's fierce DIY home-recording, self-released ethos and diehard grassroots promotion, but the Rok Tots are anything but lo-fi.
  A very well-organized history and overview, as well as streaming audio of several other great songs, is available here. Still going (infrequently) 27 years later without any recognition outside of Denver, the Rok Tots are still the toughest punk rock band in existence, as many touring bands that played the 15th St Tavern would attest upon meeting Jimmy West as their soundman -- he knows how to harness power, and does not suffer fools. After all, he's been "on a suicide weekend, 24 hours a day" for 21 years now, and still hasn't died. That, my friend, is tough.

(Download - "Suicide Weekend")

The Buddyhead Show - "Show #1"

Seeing as how Aaron and I are pretty excited about our radio show we just finished, I figured I'd post it here for download as well for those of you who haven't heard it yet. We'll be doing new shows every month or so, depending on how busy/lazy we are. Check the radio page for updates. Speaking of, here's some text I copied and pasted from that page... Welcome to the first installment of "The Buddyhead Show", our very own internet radio program. Buddyhead's Aaron North and Travis Keller will be your hosts and guides throughout this 2-hour rock n' roll extravaganza smorgasbord sumpthin-er-other. The show is crammed full of good tunes, an interview with Karen O and Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a phone conversation with our Canadian correspondent Nardwuar the Human Serviette, and a drunken exchange with The Captain where he explains the scuffle he was involved in at the Leeds festival in England last year. The interviews were conducted back in late 2004, so that explains the dated questions, but it's entertaining listening nonetheless. Check back here in the coming months for even more installments of the show. Click the here stream it or here to download it! A big slap on the ass to Ian Rogers for compressing this file so it's downloadable, seeing as how Aaron doesn't know jackshit about that crap.

"THE BUDDYHEAD SHOW" #1 play list:
The White Stripes – "Jolene", The Dicks - "Fake Bands" (live), The Birthday Party – "Fears Of Gun", The Stone Roses – "Tell Me", Kaleidoscope – "Kaleidoscope", The Cramps – "New Kind Of Kick", Johnny Cash – "Cocaine Blues" (live), The Gun Club – "She's Like Heroin To Me", Yeah Yeah Yeahs – "Down Boy", The Wipers - "Is This Real?", Daniel Johnston – "True Love Will Find You In The End", The Jesus And Mary Chain – "Tower Of Song", Ultra Vivid Scene – "Mercy Seat" (12 inch single version), Suicide - "Cheree", Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – "4 +20", The Replacements – "Androgynous",The Stooges – "Down On The Street" (single version), Flipper - "Sacrifice" (live), The Damned - "Stab Your Back", The Jesus Lizard - "Seasick" (live), The Duke Spirit – "Red Weather", Neil Young - "Oh, Lonesome Me", Billy Bragg – "A New England", & Bob Dylan – "Lay Down Your Weary Tune"

United Mutation - "Sensations Fix"

 United Mutation was a strange group from Maryland in the early 1980s that never quite fit in, nor caught on during its existence, constantly overshadowed by the omnipresent harDCore Dischord scene. However, despite the obvious influence of the Bad Brains, United Mutation's songs were primarily psych-damaged weirdness, somewhat akin to Captain Beefheart at hyperspeed. This long lost rarity is one of my favorite songs by the group who only managed to release two seven-inch EPs and a handful of compilation tracks. "Sensations Fix" is a bitter lament on the heroin trend that had rampaged the DC scene at the time, and also relates to the title of the compilation, "Alive & Kicking" (which featured a photo taken by Tomas "Beefeater" Squip of a local scenester shooting up) for which it was recorded. The reverbed sax, wacky guitar riffs and frantic beat sounds like a extremely sped-up outtake from the Stooges "Funhouse." The singer, Mike Brown is credited with inventing the cookie monster vocal delivery, but thankfully he sounds more like HR or Jello Biafra on this track.
  The cover art is from United Mutation's "Rainbow Person" EP... Sorry, couldn't locate a scan of the compilation artwork.

(Download - "Sesations Fix")

Hot Snakes - "Peel Sessions"

You should already know that Hot Snakes rule! And yeah you guessed it, these BBC Peel sessions are no exception. Four songs that were recorded live on Oct. 11 2004 and sadly enough were the last session before John Peel's death. They do "Automatic Midnight", "No Hands", "Braintrust", & "This Mystic Decade". This cd gives me a boner. You can buy it online @ Merch Lackey and pop a boner yourself!

(Download - "No Hands")

Muddy Waters - "Electric Mud"

This record was produced by Marshall Chess (son of the founder of Chess Records, which was home to such Chicago Blues greats as Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, & many more) in 1968 as an attempted to sell more records to Muddy's new and growing cracker audience. A gateway record if you will, to turn a new generation onto the blues. Muddy's black audience who had made him a star in the 1950's was pretty indifferent to him by 68', so Marshall figured they'd try and sell him to "the hippies". Which worked and it sold 200,000 copies (which was descent in those days). Although, "blues purists" hated it and still do today. Marshall paired Muddy with a group of avant garde Hendrix sounding (not influenced cuz this came out at the same time "Electric Ladyland" did) players and they tackled classics like "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" as well as covered The Stones song "Let's Spend the Night Together".  The results are said to have inspired Funkadelic (I'll be posting a song or two from "Maggot Brain" real soon) and many others. If you dig this check out the Martin Scorsese documentary "Godfathers and Sons" which gives you a history of Chess Records, explains the making of "Electric Mud", shows the same players from "Electric Mud" making a new record with Chuck D of Public Enemy, and talks about how Marshall managed The Rolling Stones for seven years & produced my favorite Stone's record "Exile On Main Street". It's a good watch. And if you've got some cash to throw down (I found it for $30 used) pick up the Chess Boxset, it's SICK!

(Download - "Mannish Boy")

(Download - "Herbert Harper's Free Press News")

Sonics' Rendevouz - "Sweet Nothing"

The only records you'll find by Sonics' Rendevouz are the one single ("City Slang") they recorded and a handful of bootleg live recordings. Add this live record to your record shopping list. It's a pristine recording of their show at the Second Chance in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 4, 1978. The band features MC5   guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith on guitar and vocals, Stooges drummer Scott Asheton and two other dudes on bass and guitar. "Sweet Nothing" (the song) is seven minutes and thirty seconds of pure rock bliss. It'll set your heart on fire plus it seems like it's never gonna end and when it does you're gonna wanna play it again. Yes, it's that fucking good. Don't be afraid to the hit repeat on this one kids. And it sounds just like you want it to... The Stooges meets MC5. You really can't beat this shit unless we're talking Funhouse but then again what beats that... NOTHING!

(Download - "Sweet Nothing")