The Weirdos - "Destroy All Music" Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Green Vinyl, 2007 (Bomp)

Being a music fan in Los Angeles in the late 1970s was a lot of fun.  At the time we had DEVO, The Screamers, X, LAFMS, and a variety of other artists doing recordings and shows.  My favorite band was The Screamers, and perhaps because they are the most 'rare' of those bands, in that they never released a proper studio recording.  As a live show, they were as great as great can be.  Another band that I enjoyed live was The Weirdos.  I'm not sure of where they came from.  At one time I thought or heard that they were from Cal-Arts, but I'm not too sure about that.  They had a strong visual sensibility, not unlike The Screamers, but more rooted in the tradition of rock n' roll.  To me, they weren't really a "Punk" band, but a well-crafted band who could write songs, and this album clearly shows that aspect of their work/talent. 

"Destroy All Music" is a compilation of recordings that The Weirdos made in the late 1970s.  The first side consists of demos, and "Destroy All Music" EP, and side two is their fantastic "Who? What? When? Where? Why?" six-song 12" EP.   I like side one, but it's side two that shows off the strength of The Weirdos.  I suspect that they shared an aesthetic and love of music with the British band Clash, especially on their first album.  It's rootsy but with classic songwriting touches, I think mostly due to the talent and skill of Cliff Roman with the brothers Dix and John Denney.  The Weirdos are not as brilliant as The Screamers or DEVO (at their height in the mid-70s), but they can deliver a classic garage rock sound that is very much of that era.   "Who? What? When? Where? Why?" is very much wonderful in its recording, and it is a series of moments that showed promise and even perfection. 

The Byrds - "Fifth Dimension" Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, 1966 (Columbia)

The Byrds are a classic band that had a busy and successful career.  From 1965 to 1967 at the very least the David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Jim (Roger) McGuinn and Gene Clark years were the prominent landscape of their classic sound, which in a nutshell would be their harmonies, Jim's 12-string electric guitar, and a relationship between folk and psychedelic music.  On paper, it sounds perfect to me, but in actuality, I have always had a problem with The Byrds. 

I liked them, but compared to my friends for the last few decades or so, who see them perhaps as the most important band, I, on the other hand, found them conventional.  As a young teenager, I bought their albums up to "Younger Than Yesterday," but when they turned to country on the next album, "Sweethearts of Rodeo," I couldn't deal with that identity nor sound.  But even before "Sweethearts" there is something about their overall sound that was pleasing, but not fitting in as a band, or a singular identity, and that I have always found troubling.  I recently purchased an original mono copy of "Fifth Dimension," which was my favorite Byrds album as a young tot, and I still remember playing this album over and over again in my bedroom on a very cheap and portable turntable.  The density of McGinn's great 12-string electric guitar freak-outs in the midst of Crosby and others perfect harmonies or folk-related ballads was an interesting relationship between noise/chaos and rigid pop/folk melodies.   I have thought that McGuinn was going one direction and the rest of the band to another part of the world.  Even though Crosby's songwriting had an Eastern drone, it was never as fascinating as The Beatles experimental approach to the drone, or of course, the music being made by John Cale, Tony Conrad in New York City around that time. 

Still, the one song that is a massive standout on "Fifth Dimension" is "Eight Miles High." A work of beautiful perfection that is either a fearful look at flying or a narcotic reaction - but for me, it works as a musical version of a phobia for being in a metal machine in the sky.  The opening cut on side one is "5D (Fith Dimension)" with Van Dyke Parks on organ, is a great swell of sounds, with a wonderful McGuinn vocal.  The rest is enjoyable filler.  Like a lot of bands during that period, they also do a version of "Hey Joe" which is lame compared to The Leaves, Love, and the brilliant Jimi Hendrix version that will come out later either that year 1966 or in 1967.  

I understand the importance and stance of The Byrds, and why they are so beloved by their fans, but for me, they never went far enough with their sound.  Los Angeles had a fantastic run of great music/bands at this time, and when you compare The Byrds to either Buffalo Springfield or the great Love, they come off as weak and an afterthought.  Still, I find some pleasure in their rubble. 

Love - "Love" Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, 1966 (Elektra)

Love, the band, from my hometown Los Angeles.   I was 12 when this album was released.   I have no recollection of them before "Love" was released.  I imagined that they played on the Sunset Strip. Still, this album is the best music to come out of Los Angeles 1966.  I always felt that they were sophisticated.  Not exactly a garage rock band, but something classy.  I listen to this album 51 years later, and I'm still in love with the sound made by Arthur Lee and others.  

Arthur Lee, perhaps the lead Love (with Byran Maclean as secondary importance in the band) had a rare talent to throw an unusual lyric, such as "slip, slip, slip" in "A Message to Pretty."  Johnny Mathis sounding on the ballads, or rocking with intensity on the upbeat numbers.  It's not surprising that they covered Bachrach/David's "My Little Red Book."  There are these jazzy approaches to the straight ahead pop song in Love's work.  Maclean also had an incredible voice; that's angel-like but perhaps carrying brass knuckles behind his back.   There is something very street/smart about Love.  The Byrds I know are Los Angeles based, but I sense Love was more in tuned to the streets of L.A. and all the by products of that culture. 

Love's first album sound is the very rhythmic guitars with a beat.  It reminds me of Lou Reed in the Velvet Underground.   Both Lee and Reed can write and sing something that sounds simple, but then there's the complexity in what we think is simple.   It's that juxtaposition of sweetness and hardness in their music that keeps me listening to this record.  The other thing I want to note is that I strongly suggest listening to the Mono version of "Love."  The stereo mix or format doesn't work for me, with regards to this album.   The music here needs to be confined in a space that comes from one direction. 

Bob & Bob - "Simple & Effective" (M.I.T.B. Records) Vinyl LP

Bob & Bob are an art duo.  Which means they make drawings, paintings, photographs, videos/films, art performances and of course, record albums.  On the surface, one can describe them as not only an American but specifically a Los Angeles version of Gilbert & George.   Yet, entirely different.  Gilbert & George deal with the British world, Bob & Bob are more light, entertaining, and very American.  Beyond that, there are no concrete comparisons between the two duos, except that they are a duo, they do art, and for the casual fan, it's hard to tell the difference between Gilbert and George, and therefore the same for Bob & Bob. 

Bob & Bob has been around since the 1970s, where they met in art school and decided to work together.  What they have produced is quite remarkable, and I have to say the big aspect of them that I like is that they are fun.   The fact that they are not serious is what makes them so important.  Yet, I wouldn't say humor is the only importance to this duo.  

As far as I know, "Simple & Effective" is their first recording under the name of Bob & Bob.  Recorded and released in 1978, the album came out of the Los Angeles art scene when it was very active.  The album reflects not of its time, but more in the state of the Bob & Bob mental state.   14 songs that are funny, but also quite tuneful in that early Beatle mode of tunefulness. Clearly, the album is very much a hand-made project with the lyric sheets that look like it was made at the local Kinko's -including the pages hand stapled by either Bob or Bob.  This is very much a statement by an art duo who looked beyond the art gallery to do their art. 

It's an impressive collection of songs that is very much the DIY spirit of those years.  It's a remarkable album that puts me in a great mood.  There are very few albums that do that. Especially recordings from visual artist, which tends to be on the dark or depressing side.  Not Bob & Bob, they are here to entertain.  Although, I wouldn't take it fully on that surface level.  There is something critical being made here, and I appreciate that effort to put the stamp, even licked, on the culture of that time, and yes, even now. 

John Cage/Steve Reich/Michael Tilson/Ralph Gierson - "Three Dances & "Four Organs) Vinyl LP (Angel Records)

I had this vinyl album when it first came out in 1976.  I lost it over the ages, but recently found it at my local record store 'Rockaway' on Glendale Blvd.  It's a fascinating to hear these two very different pieces on one album. "Four Organs" is what it is - four electric organs playing the same notes over and over again, with maracas keeping the beat.   Written in 1970, the cords get longer, as the beat stays consistent.  It's meditative, but also really captures the listener's attention.  For me, I love the sound of the electric organ and having four of them going on the same time, is my vision of aural bliss.  This is the original recording of this work, played by Michael Tilson Thomas (a big figure in Los Angeles classical world), Ralph Gierson, Roger Kellaway and the composer himself, Steve Reich.  There is a much more recent version of this work, and when I have time, I will compare the two. 

Side one belongs to John Cage. Thomas and Gierson on two amplified prepared pianos, and it's intense.  Cage wrote this piece, "Three Dances" in 1944, and it is punk like in its attack on the altered pianos. It's beautiful, yet very foreign sounding.  The interesting point here is that Cage looked beyond the piano keyboard to find or make new sounds out of the standard instrument.   Very rhythmic, with layers of sound on top of it.   To meditate and reflect.  The duo that never gets old. 

Arthur Lee & The American Four/ Arthur Lee & The Grass Roots - Unissued 1965 Demos 45rpm single

Arthur Lee & The American Four/ Arthur Lee & The Grass Roots - Unissued 1965 Demos

Vinyl 7” 45 RPM, Single, U.S., 2006

Norton Records

These very early demos by Arthur Lee and Love before they were Love, shows that he always had that “it” quality.   “Stay Away” is him and The American Four doing that garage rock thing that doesn’t really himt towards the classic Love sound.  But his voice is there, and it is fascinating to hear the raw Arthur, but then again I don’t think he was ever raw.   On one level it reminds me of  The Stooges “Shake Appeal” with the hypnotic hand-clapping which does give the recording a sense of urgency.

The b-side is  Arthur Lee and the Grass Roots, performing “You’ll Be Following” which is actually a Love song from their first album.  Different lyrics, perhaps “Signed DC?”  The lyrics are fascinating because it is a day in the life of Arthur with his band - of sorts.   His death was a real lost to music in my opinion.  He had that incredible mixture of styles that is only him.  He was an one-of-a-kind cocktail.