Paris Nice Stage Two

A breakaway ruined the sprinters chances and Pellizoti gets the stage and keeps the early season ball rolling for Liquigas who are having a hell of a season. They and Lampre have to be front runners for a Milan San Remo win. Frank Shleck is best placed of my picks 23 seconds back. Leiphemer at 26 and Mayo 52 seconds back. I had predicted a breakaway to define tomorrow's stage and I will stand by that even though the sprinters teams will have to try and do something before the big hills come. Sammy Sanchez at only 15 seconds back could be a threat and can Millar pull it back?
Tirreno-Adriatico starts tomorrow and my heart wants a win for CSC and Jens but it's hard to call. Plenty of Italian heavy hitters are there Pozzatto,Garzelli, Basso, Cioni, etc -but who is looking to improve form and who is hunting for the win? My guess is Garzelli and Cioni would be on the hunt. I am going to throw down a far fetched TA podium of Voigt,Janez Brajkovic, and Garzelli with revenge stages for O'Grady and Bettini. Can't be any worse than my March Madness picks.

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Gil Evans Orchestra plays Hendrix

Sometimes you see a record and do a double take, like I must have read that wrong. Then you look again and it did say "plays the music of Jimi Hendrix". Gil is rocking the flannel like he is CCR or firehose or something. I figured anyone could make it happen with the ballads(Sting did right?), but Gil goes for it -"Crosstown Traffic","Foxey Lady", and "Voodoo Chile" are all on here. According to the liner notes , Gil was planning on recording with Hendrix a la his collaboration with Miles, but Hendrix had to go and die. Wasn't Hendrix supposed to record with Miles as well before he died? Maybe it was for the best. The slow jams are not bad like "angel" or "castles made of sand" but they stick to a pretty straight forward instrumental take unlike the rockers where they tend to push it in a new direction.
Once I bought it I was nervous that it would be close to muzak, but they hold up well -even tackle the vocals with ahmmm.... gusto on some tracks. John Abercrombie, Keith Loving and Ryo Kawasakis must have been a little nervous about getting the guitar credits on this, but they all hold up OK -no one tries to be Hendrix Jr The horn stabs on "crosstown traffic" are pretty cool so is the trombone solo. Trombone on a Hendrix cover and it isn't Ska? Not bad. The synths are used in a goofy and fun way. The give themselves some room to "freak out" on an 11 minute Foxey Lady, which also benefits from the horn section.
Side 2 opens with a swinging version of "up from the skies" that sounds like on of the more orchestrated Jimmy Smith records minus the organ. "Voodoo Chile" is another good one. There is some kind of vocoder or guy singing through his horn effect that is pretty cool. They finish it off with a nice version of "Gypsy Eyes" that is the funkiest thing on here-has a couple moments thst sound like JB's grunt stuck in. I was surprised that "little wing" wasn't on here. All in all a pretty fun record and something you could always drop on mixtapes.

RCA Records CPL1-0667 1974. For $2.99 this was money well spent.

Yusef Latef Hush'n'Thunder LP

Nice name especially when you see it has a track called "the hump" on it. Atlantic Records 1973. Yusef is a guy I want to like and think I like, but I rarely pick up any of his LPs. This opens up with an Ellington's "Come Sunday" and then drops right into the very funky groove of "the hump". So maybe the title and these 2 tracks are supposed to juxtapose the spiritual and the secular? Maybe I am too deep. Bob Cunningham on Electric Bass make this song. Yusef splits his time between flute and tenor pretty evenly. Monroe "Bones" Constantine gets vocal credit on a couple tracks and why wouldn't you let a dude with a name that nice bust em out on your album? He turns up on Opus PTII which has a more grounded groove than the instrumental free floating Opus PTI. By "turns up" I means bust out some groans and shouts near the end of the tune. Nice work Bones. "This old building" closes out side one and goes from some weird noise/synth squiggles to a down home uptempo gospel vamp. Again no real vocals just claps and shouts and squawking sax. Shouts and claps courtesy of the JC White Singers.

Side 2 opens with a nice groove on "Prayer". Yusef is on the pneumatic flute so watch out. 2 guitarists including Hugh McCracken's second appearance in a WWDIS review. Bones is back with some moans and groans. Up next is "sunset" which has a trippy tv soundtrack feel "Help me Spock, Spock help me" if you know what I mean. About half way through the track a song appears from the haze. It also contains the traditional gospel song "his eye is on the sparrow" which to remind you was James Brown's favorite hymn. JC and his singers are back for this one and it is a straight forward take on the song with some additional sax,piano,and organ. Closing it out is "Destination Paradise". A darker vibe to this one kind of a hippie middle eastern feel with flute, 2 guitars, electric bass, and electric piano. At 3:54 it doesn't have too much time to be creepy or trip out that much and then like most tracks on here it ends before it really goes anywhere.

This is an interesting record. If feels like a rough draft or notes for a record to come later and that unfinished quality make it more memorable. Although the tentative meandering around the songs can grow old quick. Not likely to get pulled out again any time soon. Maybe it was supposed to be soundtrack material? Who knows.

Every Town and Village LP Krishna Rock 8

Every Town and village LP, a collection of songs form the 1972 San Francisco Rathayatra Festival, as well as the 1972 New York Sri Sri Radha-Govinda Temple.
This is an interesting record. Basically a "field recording" of samkirtan and sankirtan. Hansadutta is leading the chants on some tracks(There is another Hansadutta LP to be reviewed here later this week!) 10 tracks. 6 short Samkirtans and 4 longer tracks. The shorter Samkirtan's are all interesting variations on the chant -different tempos and insturments. Excellent cover painting plus photos on back. This is a Golden Avatar Production from the Bhativendanta Book Trust. So another label for an "official" krishna release. Similar to the Hara Krsna Festival LP I reviewed as well. The title of course comes from Lord Caityanya's statement that "In Every Town and Village the chanting of the Holy Name of Krishna shall be heard"

No Core NC Hardcore 82 comp

This is a vinyl repress of the 1982 "no core" comp tape from No Core. Classic North Carolina HC. COC are the biggest name here, but for my money No Labels steal the show. Ferocious guitar sound. 15 Songs from No Labels and 16 from COC. COC is in the Eye for an Eye style maybe a touch sloppier but still killer -more of a Jerry's Kids type sound than the sound the would become known for. "College Town" remains a classic and "no core" is a ultra fast rager. Both these bands were on the amazing "Empty Skulls" comp tape from around this time 82/83. Doesn't sound dated to me. Shit like this and Neon Christ coming out of the South in 82 was pretty fucking rad. It's hard to remember that back in the 80s if you rode a skateboard or looked weird, you could count of getting shit. The good old days. "Chance to Speak" by No Labels is a standout with a kind of Faith sound. It's amazing that even back in 82 with the hardcore scene being practically brand new that their are so many songs about the scene being so stupid.
No Rock Stars get 6 songs and Colcor finish it off with 7 songs. Both offer a killer abrasive sound that wouldn't have been out of place on Touch and Go or Dischord. No Rock Stars appear to be the most competent musicians and bring to mind Scream at times.
Raw Deal Recordings. Not sure where you can pick it up. The Kill from the Heart site has a review that indicates the record is from 2002.

Paris Nice Stage One

Well. Millar wins the prologue and Nazon snatches the stage from Boonen and Bennati. My 3 choices are in 6th-Leiphemer 3 seconds back, 76th Frank Shleck 17 seconds back -maybe I should have picked his brother who is only 12 seconds off the pace, and 134th Iban Mayo 29 seconds back. I don't know if Mayo can get back 26 seconds to Leiphemer. Inconsistent or not, I doubt anyone will let him jump in a breakaway. Tomorrow should be another day for the sprinters with just 3 3rd category climbs. Maybe Boonen get his win?

In other news, DiLuca scored a win for Liquigas at Milan-Torino. Probably to remind the team he is still there as the focus seems to have shifted to Pozzatto.
Valverde gets the overall at Murcia and Jimmy Casper gets the overall at 3 Days of DePanne. Revenge for Unibet who seem to be getting unfairly excluded under this "can't advertise foreign gambling" rule that doesn't seem to apply to the Belgian Lotto squad??? William Frishkorn and Steven Cozza from Team Slipstream finished 6th and 7th which kicks ass for a US squad. Navigators were also in this race.
Tirreno-Adriatico starts up on the 14th and hopefully will be a little safer than last year which was plagued with crashes. This is the time of year when the races really seem to heat up and overlap and give you plenty fo reasons to check the computer.

Death 1985 Rehersal 7"s V1&2 "How We Die"

If I haven't made it clear I was a teenage skatepunk hardcore youth. But in the 80s, it was hard not to have a few favorite metal bands. I wasn't a big Death fan. I heard a song or two but it didn't grab me like Slayer. Now that I am an adult, I look back on the early death metal and cross over scences with rosy glasses and pretty much scoop up whatever I can track down. Luckily there seems to be a never ending supply of limited vinyl releases of early demos and rehearsals. This 2x7" set by Death is a prime example.
8 songs spread over 4 sides. The array of covers got me drooling-=Sodom "burst command til war", Slayer "Black Magic", "Into the Crypt of Rays" by Celtic Frost, "Paranoid" by Sabbath and "Armies of the Dead" by Genocide plus 3 originals.
When you are looking at something pressed from "rehearsal" May 2nd, 1985, you know you are going to trade sound quality for obscurity. The Sodom cover is lost in a layer of noise but the songs start to make them selves clear after that. It helps if you know the original song. All of the covers are done pretty much the same as the original. Definitely a lot of teenage enthusiasm. There was a time when this might have been the only way you could have heard this and as a teenager you knew that even recorded over the phone, this was better than most of the bullshit you saw on MTV or heard on the radio. And if you or your friends band ever made a practice tape that you went crazy listening to, this will be right up your ally.
No label info, but Hells Headbangers has it plus a lot of other lost classics.