Plattaires dew joores

[bc@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (bill coderre)]

Well, after years of looking, I finally found a whole lot of good
records on the same day.

I found a copy of Pere Ubu's Dub Housing. I haven't even had a chance
to play it yet. It's the one I've never heard. I am fastening my
seatbelt and opening a beer. 

A roommate got the "Let Them Eat Jellybeans" compilation (Jello Biafra
presents 10 or 11 great punk bands, 100% great material).
Unfortunately, Buy it if you don't already have the stuff on it.
Lessee, DKs, Husker, Geza X, a whole lot of impressive stuff. My
representative punk record for the Desert Island collection. (Or maybe
one of three others. Hard to say.)

I also found the Pere Ubu bootleg, "Don't Expect Art". Recorded right
after The Modern Dance, a live boot at a shopping mall in Cleveland.
If you see it, buy it. The song titles are all bogus ("491" instead of
"Cloud 149", etc), but sound is very very good (8 or 9 out of 10). I
think it sounds better than "390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo", but not
quite as good as "Terminal Tower", which seems to be digitally
mastered. Material is some stuff from "TT" and some from "The Modern
Dance". Nothing new, nothing super-exciting, but a few very
*different* versions. A perk for collectors, a good cross sampling for
rockers who want to find out about Ubu. Or, you can buy "TT" and
"Modern Dance" and get *all* the rocking Ubu stuff.

I *finally* found the one record store in the universe that has all
the copies of Quiet Sun's "Mainstream." I only bought one copy, but I
will consider divulging the store and where I hid the other copies.
Definite collector material, is half pretty jazzy, avant. Polyrhythms.
Half mellow pop music, too. Personnel: Manzanera, Eno, Charles
Hayward, Dave Jarrett, Bill MacCormick. Nice. Funny song title: "Mummy
was an asteroid, daddy was a small, non-stick kitchen utensil."

That group begat "801": Manzanera (geetar thang), Eno
(vocal/synths/guitar/tapes), MacCormick (Bass, songs), Francis Monkman
(pianos), Simon Phillips (with more drums per unit time than most
speed rockin' bands) Lloyd Watson (slide guitar). A lot of overlap
onto "801 Live", 3 Quiet Sun songs ("East of Asteroid" is "Mummy..."
reworked, "rongwrong", "Sol Caliente", see below), 3 Eno tunes
("Sombre Reptiles" {Birdsongs of the Mesozoic does an awesome cover},
"Baby's on Fire" as a cha-cha and then a speed-guitar excercize,
"Third Uncle" pretty feisty), 3 Manzanera tunes ("Lagrima" is a
monster guitar solo reborn from Mainstream's "Sol Caliente", "Diamond
Head", "Miss Shapiro" co-wrote with Eno), and a cover of "You Really
Got Me", AND a cover "Tomorrow Never Knows" that's better than the
original Lennon-Macartney psychedlic "death isn't the end" tune.
Sound is excellent, engineering is first rate, and the performances
range from fine to awe-inspiring.

Manzanera took the name "801" (and about half the personnel) onto
another record, "Listen Now." This record is nothing like "Live" and
consists primarily of intelligent, mellow, rock (like "Mainstream" but
less jazzy). The highlight is Manzanera's guitar solo work. I like it,
rockers may not.

Last for now is Jerry Harrison's "The Red and the Black". A forgotten
-- well, not classic, but *good* record. My new cutout was $1.99. At
that price, ya gotta have it. Sortof like "Remain in Light". Dense.
Rhythms. Lots of Stuff. Lots. Go buy it.

Toodles............................................................bc