​by GE 138.

     My father was a Jimi Hendrix aficionado, which, in turn, pretty much makes me a Jimi Hendrix aficionado as well. I've heard all the bootlegs you can imagine, all the various different mixes and alternate takes that came out of Electric Lady studios, and I would sit enthralled at my fathers feet while listening to him tell someone how Hendrix's guitar work would speak to him whenever he saw him perform live. Of course I assume that he was probably on acid every time he saw Jimi Hendrix perform so of course his guitar would be talking to him! LOL Because of all this I keep up with all the reissues and new archival releases like this one from the Jimi Hendrix Experience called Live In Maui. It's everything that was never used in that POS Rainbow Bridge movie that came out in the 70's, which I watched religiously every time it was shown on ON TV and Select TV back in the days. If you've never seen the movie don't even bother. There's little to none of Jimi in the movie, and the films soundtrack had no Jimi Hendrix music on it, but it was supposed to be a movie starring Jimi Hendrix!! Fucking hippies I swear. 🤣 In the movie all you got were short snippets of Jimi playing live, no complete songs whatsoever, like a guitar playing prick tease, and now with this release, you get everything the band played that day, for better or for worse. And considering the circumstances that this album was recorded under, it's amazing that it sounds as good as it does.
     Did I mention that the Jimi Hendrix Experience is playing at the side of a volcano in Hawaii on a makeshift stage during a windstorm for this recording, while the audience is divided into seating arrangements based on their astrological signs? Yeah, all this is going on while Jimi, his longtime drummer Mitch Mitchell (who re-recorded his drum tracks later on in the studio... so much for 'live", huh?), and new bass player Billy Cox just stretch out and jam out on some well known hits like Foxey Lady, Dolly Dagger, and Spanish Castle Magic as well as some songs that were never released until years later, songs that were supposed to be on the album Hendrix was working on before he died, songs like Message To Love, Villanova Junction, Jam Back At The House, and Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) which, I think was supposed to be the title of the album he was working on before he died. There's just some fantastic sounding, really interesting stuff here, with the musical genius on display nothing short but staggering. The drumming is monstrous and unrelenting. The bass playing subdued yet razor sharp. And Hendrix's guitar work is not of this Earth, as always. The band toys with past arrangements and attacks older songs differently than the recorded versions, and the extended jams on most of the songs here have the band soaring and grooving all up and down the side of that volcano and riding the wind around just for shits and giggles. This was the 2nd to last concert Hendrix ever played, dying 6 weeks after this gig was recorded, and if this release gives you anything, it's a small, narrow glimpse at what Hendrix might of become or what direction he seemed to be heading in. While not a crucial or even essential release, and there are much better sounding live releases already out there, but Live In Maui shows the Jimi Hendrix Experience in fine form and is definitely worth a listen or two or three. I dig it. 

Available from Sony Legacy Recordings. Also available from every other place music is sold for profit all across the globe by family members who inherit control of an artists estate and then fight over the money to be made.

​by GE 138.

     Ya know, if you can just get past the fact that Jello Biafra is a terrible, horrible, nasty troll of a human being who ripped off his ex-bandmates for millions and millions of dollars and then lied in a lawsuit about it and about writing all the music and lyrics for all of the Dead Kennedys recorded output just so he wouldn't have to share the bands profits with people he once considered friends, well then I guess you can still listen to his recorded output without gagging and feeling greasy and sleazy while doing so, and I'm glad you can do it because I sure can't, and I once used to worship the ground the guy walked on fer Christ's sake, even following the band on tour in '83 because I was that enthralled with the man but I digress. What I'm trying to say is that I can't separate the Man from the Criminal, like some people can't do that with R Kelly or even with Michael Jackson. Songs that were once top hits no longer can be heard the same way by some people once you know what a scumbag that person is that sang that big hit, and that's how I am with Jello Biafra right now. Phooey.
     Not that there's anything really good or interesting on here worth justifying my not liking of this release from Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine. Even the bands name is as dated as their music sounds. It's the same over-hyped layered vocals (Biafra loves the sound of his own voice that's for sure) played over regurgitated, soft, limp industrial Metal beats, with Biafra spewing off lyrically on gawd knows what subject and showing off his Zappa like nuances by trying to be weird just for the sake of being weird and mixing things up by being so high falutin' and arrogant with his musical stylings. Leave the white boy Reggae to those who do it well, please viejo. I mean, everything on here is just a regurgitation of something he's done before much better - 1st song Satan's Combover is California Uber Alles played differently, 2nd song People With Too Much Time On Their Hands is Bozo Skeleton structured differently, 3rd song A Boring Day Is What I Need is simply Triumph Of The Swill but much much slower, etc. etc., blah blah blah. To someone like me who's heard him do all this before much better with his collaborations with Nomeansno and D.O.A. and Al Jourgensen, which were much more interesting, then maybe you can see how this release is just boring boring boring to somebody like me, but I think that Jello Biafra makes music nowadays just to receive all the love and adoration from his pack of fanbois who love everything he does and swallows all his output like mana from Heaven rather than making music that's good. Look, I'm not wishing for the reinvention of the wheel here, but would it be so hard for Jello Biafra to act like he gives a shit about anything except moving units and having a product to push when touring opens up again. Would it be too much for him to put out something good musically or at least interesting? Guess so. He's been stuck in this rut for a while now. Blah. It's truly a sad thing when you live long enough to see your Heroes become everything they said they wouldn't become, and me watching Jello Biafra fall from Grace as hard as he has, is just heartbreaking. He who fucks Nuns will later join the Church indeed! 😎

Available on all formats in all shapes and sizes and colors from the Alternative Tentacles website, which you can get to by clicking here. Also available wherever Punk music is sold as the cheap, dirty commodity that it really and truly is. 

​by GE 138.

     I've forgotten just how bad this record really is. 😅 For a third generation ZZ Top soundalike knockoff record it's pretty good, but for a Motörhead record? It's pretty bad. Recorded with the original lineup, pre Philthy and "Fast" Eddie even, and produced by Dave Edmonds, this was the first Motörhead recording ever made back in 1975, a recording that was rejected by their record label at the time as not being commercially viable, which is a funny thought listening to it now, and although most of this stuff ended up being recorded much better and much, much faster on the first self titled Motörhead album released in 1977, but it's still kind of cool to hear what the songs sounded like originally before they got revved up and punked out and unleashed to the world on that first Motörhead album.
     This record was released as a cash in, put out years later after the success of Overkill and Bomber, and this is strictly a 'for completists nerds only' kind of release, but for what it's worth, it sounds killer but it is definitely more of a Rock and Roll release than a Punk one, that's for sure. Songs like Vibrator, City Kids, and the title track sound like they'd be more at home on a ZZ Top or Rockpile record, and future classics like Iron Horse and Motörhead give terrifying glimpses into the monster band that Motörhead would become years later. Released as part of that stupid Record Store Day thing, this release has been remastered and fleshed out with alternative takes and demo versions of a majority of the 9 songs that originally made up the album. New cover, new mix, same old spirit of Rock and Roll shining through like it does on every Motörhead album. This might not be the first Motörhead album you reach for when you need your Motörhead fix, but it has it's place in the Motörhead musical canon, that's for sure. A small piece, but a piece nonetheless. 

Available from Parlophone Records. I'm sure it's available digitally everywhere but I'm too lazy to list them and it's really not that good of an album, so go listen to something else by Motörhead instead, something good! 

​by GE 138.

     Anything that breaks up the monotony of all the "singer/songwriters" and "emo pop-punk band" releases I get offered to review on a daily basis around here is looked at as a godsend nowadays, and this album from the collective duo known as Clown Core simply called Van, is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gray and dreary world of banality and musical insincerity. It's not Punk, per se, but it's interesting, it's catchy, and most importantly, it's good. It's really and truly weird, but it rocks. Hard too.
     Opening track Flat Earth pretty much tells you what you're in for when you listen to this release: screams galore, metalcore riffs, jazzy sax solos, blazing drum beats both electronic and acoustic, awkward horn honks, and it's all being performed by 2 guys wearing clown masks. I mean, seriously, sounds great right? Throw in the fact that there are some phat booty shaking grooves as well as blast beat driven bouts of insanity that make the music sound like it belongs on a Rob Zombie movie soundtrack. The production on this is great, sounds amazing when it's turned up loud, and as a follow up to Clown Core's last release, Toilet, this release blows away that last one. It's like they've gotten better at mixing things up, from pretty lullabye like sax melodies that segue into this nightmarish world full of EDM beats, or going from screamo grindcore riffs to 90's disco infused toe tapping goodness. It's like this music is for kids with ADD, with the short length of each tune keeping you from getting bored, but leaving you a bit disappointed when a good riff just suddenly stops. It seems a fair trade for music that's this interesting and good. I wish I could tell you that Clown Core sounds like this band or that band, but they really don't. I mean they do, but they sound like a bunch of bands thrown into a blender and then spliced and glued back together all mixed up. Like I said you gotta hear it to understand what I'm talking about. I think it's great.
     There's lots of speculation as to who Clown Core really is, but I could give a shit less because as long as they keep making music that's this interesting and varied and creative, and most of all good, then I can leave them with their cloak of anonymity if that's what they choose to do with themselves. The videos they make for the tunes on here, like the one for the title track Van (I want to die in a submarine accident!!!), Existence (I... Am... Sad), Keyboard (where they shit on a keyboard and play a beat around the noise the shit makes as it sits on the keyboard), Computers (To maximize resources this stimulation is what everyone is experiencing right now and the cycle repeats) where they crash their clown van into a pole in the parking lot of a Wienerschnitzel, Flat Earth (The earth is flat because you are fat), and Song, which is one of those beats I alluded to earlier, where they could of rocked that shit for another 5 minutes and I would not of complained but alas, they end it after 36 seconds, and all these videos are almost essential listening to this release. I mean yeah, the music stands up on it's own, but the videos just make it oh so much better. If you don't believe me, YouTube that shit. You will NOT be disappointed.
     Fuck, I could go on and on about this release from Clown Core, but I'm just gonna end it here by saying this could easily be one of the best things released this year. Not really Punk per se, but it's one of the most Punk things to come out in a long time, if that makes any sense to you. Mandatory listening. I love this shit. Clown Core. Fucking aye! 

I don't know what label is responsible for this work of Art, but I love them for it. Available digitally only on the Clown Core Bandcamp page, which you can get to be clicking here. The band also has a trippy website full of all sorts of interesting things which you can see by clicking here. Clown Core Facebook page: here, Clown Core Instagram page: here, Spotify page here, and Apple Music link is right here. 

​by GE 138.

     Once the stuff of legends, this newly unearthed recording of one of the most legendary nights in Stooges history, the night Iggy fired bassist Dave Alexander because he supposedly froze up and didn't play a note in front of an estimated crowd of 200,000 people, the night the original version of the Stooges last played together, and it is now available for your listening pleasure and as the stimulus for Stooges aficionados like me to forever debate the wisdom of Mr. Pop's decision that fateful day. This stuff is pretty historical. The original tapes of this concert were found buried in the basement of an old barn somewhere in Michigan (who knew barns had basements?), and after Third Man Records (Jack White's label) cleaned them up and made it sound as good as it could (the tapes are straight from the soundboard, monitor mix it sounds like), they then released it on all formats known to man and priced it to make a pretty profit off of it while doing so. Now if that's not Punk fucking Rock nowadays than I don't know what is! 😂
     And as for the concert recording itself, welllll, it sounds like the Stooges. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view. Ron Asheton's guitar work is spectacular, on point, and mind warping. Scott Asheton's drumming is rapid fire and pummelling, pacing the band when they bother to follow him, and despite what the legend says, Dave Alexander's bass playing is just fine. He can be heard playing on every song, and his performance is no more drug addled or booze influenced than anyone elses on the stage that night, so if anything this recording just confirms that Iggy Pop is an asshole and that he fired the poor guy for no reason whatsoever. This concert took place a few days before the release of the Fun House album, so the set is basically all the songs from that album played in a different order, and like I said, it sounds like the Stooges, for better or for worse. There are a few better sounding bootlegs out there of the Stooges in 1970, and this one is definitely for the completionist fans of the band like me, and as a standout release there are better places to start your introduction to the Stooges music, but like all the Stooges live recordings, this one has it's charm, warts and all, and like all Stooges bootlegs, there are brief, shining moments, where everything lines up perfectly and the band sounds incredible, right before someone fucks up a riff or forgets the change and things go south quickly, and it's at those moments, few and far inbetween as they are, where you can understand why people like me consider the Stooges one of the deadliest, most powerful, simply overwhelming bands to ever crawl on the face of the Earth. Their music still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up everytime I hear it. The Stooges did damage, and their legendary Hell raising reputation was well earned and easily proven on any given night. They don't make 'em like the Stooges anymore, and that's a sad thing to write. 
     Live At Goose Lake: August 8th, 1970 is not the best sounding Stooges bootleg, nor is it the worst, but it rocks, even though the sound fluctuates all over the place, which is annoying, but what do you want from a bootleg, right? And while it may not be the first Stooges album you reach for when you wanna blast some Stooges loud as fuck, but it shouldn't be the last one that gets played either. Rock and fucking Roll. Doesn't get any more real than this. God bless the Stooges. Seriously. ❤

Available from Third Man Records in every available format just by clicking here. Digitally available everyfuckingwhere. Like the Stooges on Facebook by clicking here. Follow them on Instagram by clicking here.