Weasel Walter Hott Mixx Club #3: Weird '70s

For one year between 2004 and 2005, I created a little mix-cd club. Here is edition number Three from the series. Thanks to Phil Plencner for re-posting it:

WEIRD '70S:
1. Sir Lord Baltimore - “Hellhound” (1970)
From the s/t debut album by this HEAVY new york group. Pretty much all of the songs on the album are about how mean women have been to the screaming, pcp-inflamed drummer. Their second album sucks, so beware.

2. Carmen - “Bullfight” (1973)
The archetypal glam/flamenco/prog group. Make that the only one. From their debut "Fandangos in Space" (". . . and wearing an outfit of lace!"), this incredibly ambitious, warped group weaves an epic tale of loss and redemption through man vs. beast ritual. The band made two other records before going financially (and creatively) bankrupt and the bass player leaving to join Tull and taking the sexy girl keyboardist with him. They had contact mics on the stage floor so their "footwork" was amplified . . .

Gatefold of Carmen's excellent glam/prog/flamenco epic "Fandangos In Space"

3. Amon Duul 2 - “Ladies Mimikry” (1973)
From the progressive group's "glam" album "Viva La Trance". Sort of a weird precursor to the Contortions white-ampheta-funk stylings with kermit the frog on vocals. This band is better known for its psychedelic jamming, but I love this album the best, with its strange, succinct "pop" vibe! (well, at least for them it's pop.)

4. Streak - “Bang Bang Bullet” (1973)
An english glam obscurity featuring two guys that went on to the equally unknown (to us) Arrows and another guy who played in the early punk band the Vibrators. It's impossible not to like this bouncy little tune. Naturally, the lyrics are replete with some not-so-subtle innuendo.

5. Goblin - “Witch” (1977)OK, this is kind of a late year, but this fucked noise-rock comes from the "Suspiria" soundtrack. These guys are italian.

6. Mirrors - “Another Nail In The Coffin” (1975)

Masters of disaster: The Swee

One group from the mythic Cleveland pre-punk axis featuring Jamie Klimek and Paul Marrotta (also of the Styrenes and Electric Eels). Fine Velvet Underground influenced guitar skronk, this track surfaced on a CLE magazine comp CD that came out about a decade ago and is difficult to find these days. This song might have popped up later on something, but I'm not aware of it. (This track was actually recorded in the mid-80s, but let's pretend it was made in 1975, just for kicks.)

7. Sparks - “Lost and Found” (1974)
Killer B-Side to "Amateur Hour", this is one of my favorite Sparks songs, period.

8. Le Orme - “Contrappunti” (1974)
Some wonderfully angular Emerson, Lake and Palmer inspired italian prog from "Beyond L'eng", a comp of middle period trax by these guys who started out psych and went total Little River Band after the mid-'70s. Basically "Beyond" seems to have all of their great trax, so skip the rest.

9. Dictators - “Two Tub Man” (1975)
Hamburger-rock off the debut album "Go Girl Crazy". What more can I say. Including Ross the Boss of later Manowar infamy. Not-on-this-album Dictators bassist Mark "The Animal" Mendoza went on to play in Twisted "fucking" Sister. The only other good song on this record is "Master Race Rock", trust me. It's not about Nazis.

10. Sweet - “Burning/Someone Else Will” (1973)
Fucking blistering live track from the Sweet's new year's '72/'73 show. The beginning of their laughable misogyny-rock outbursts (which usually come off sounding more pathetic and desperate than oppressive), this song features the haunting chorus "if we don't fuck you, then someone else wiiiilllll!" You won't believe your ears.

11. Simply Saucer - “Electro Rock” (1974)These Canuck rockers successfully melded Hawkwind heaviness with Eno's bleeps and bloops as well as a late Velvets pop sensibility before it was in vogue to do so. From their posthumous album "Cyborgs Revisited".

12. Dust - “Suicide” (1972)
More new york heavy from their second album "Hard Attack". The lyrics say it all. Drummer Marky Bell went on to both Ramones-hood and Richard Hell's Voidoids (before landing on the Vegas circuit with the all-new "Misfits" punk nostalgia review) and bassist Kenny Aaronoff (he of the bass solo!) went on to, uh, do a lot of lame session work. There are only two other good songs on this album ("Ivory" and "Ready to Die"), so don't pay more than a dollar for it, unless if you're really into Boris Vallejo.

13. Magma - “Mekanik Machine” (1974)
A wikked single-only track from the French prog masters featuring prime bassist Jannick Top (who achieved his ballsy bass sound partially by tuning his strings like a cello) and master drummer/svengali Christian Vander. This is a bit disco-y for the band, but in a good way. Not in a bad way like their sucky 1980 album
"Merci" though!

14. Debris - “One Way Spit” (1975)

'Debris' killer proto-punk album "Static Disposal

Oklahoman proto-punk rage from their mythic "Static Disposal" album. Just listen. There's nothing more to talk about. The whole album is like this!

15. Jet - “Nothing To Do With Us” (1975)
 A dubious "glam supergroup" (members of Milk 'n' Cookies, various Sparks back-up guys, the original Roxy Music guitarist, and dudes from John's Children) is clearly just totally ripping off Sparks. Since they did it so chillingly accurately, we'll let them live.

16. Residents - “B*by S*x” (1971)
Material from one of the four early pre-"Meet The Residents" album/tapes that never really got released. One can definitely hear the primitive bizarreness of the group budding. Don't ask where I got this. The b*by s*x track "Kamikaze lady" wound up on "Residue" and the band also did a fairly straight-ahead version of Zappa's "King Kong" for the record.

17. Hollywood Brats - “Sick On You” (1973)
An obscure british rip-off of the New York Dolls that actually improves on the formula. Very trashy and ass-kicking. Fuck guns and roses and their McCartney-covering asses. Keith Moon dubbed them "his favorite band in the world" to little avail.

18. Funeral of Art - “Zivoid is Cuming” (1972)
Early Italian-american acid-rocking by the legendary Von Lmo (drums, vocals) with Sal Maida (Roxy Music, Milk 'N' Cookies) on guitar. A basement demo that appeared credited as a Von track on the out-of-print Spanish double lp reissued of his "Future Language" jam.

19. Electric Eels - “Flapping Jets” 1975
Wrapping it up is another stunning track from the aforementioned CLE Mag comp by these seminal noise-punks. A slightly aberrant, long track for the band replete with totally scathing guitar yowling and hypnotic chanting. I used to live a few blocks away from their rhythm guitarist Brian McMahon. He was pretty cool.

WEASEL WALTER HOTT MIXX CLUB #1: CLASSICAL GAS
WEASEL WALTER HOTT MIXX CLUB #4: PUNK JAZZ