How deep are the philosophical waters when it comes to Motörhead's "Metropolis?"

Is there much to be made philosophically from the Motörhead tune “Metropolis?”  Well perhaps not if you take the song writer’s word for it.

“I went to the movies one night and saw Metropolis, the old Fritz Lang movie, and went home and wrote that complete nonsense lyric,” explained Lemmy.  “‘Metroplolis is something new / Ain’t nobody got their eye on you / I don’t care.’ What the fuck does that mean?  But it’s a great song.” Lemmy told Freddy Villano in his final interview for Bass Player.

“This track is a complete mystery,” Lemmy wrote for the linear notes to No Remorse.  “I wrote (the lyric) in approximately two minutes after seeing the film of the same name in Portobello Electric Cinema.  Eddie wrote the riff 9/10.”  That’s the story of “Metropolis,” the song, but there’s more to it than meets the eye, surely.

Let’s look at the Fritz Lang film, then return to Lemmy’s complete lyric and see what we can’t find.  

The film Metropolis was shot in 1926, so in just 10 years we’ll be able to see just how closely the future measures up to Fritz Lang’s dystopian images.  In the movie society has been divided into two rigid groups, one of city planners (thinkers) and the other of underground workers, bringing to mind a situation much like the one in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine with the Eloi and the Morlocks, but I digress.

The city leader is Johnann “Jon” Fredersen, played by Aldred Abel.  Maria, played by the evangelic appearing Brigette Helm, champions the cause of the workers.  Though the workers are desperate for action to gain relief from their all-work no play situation, Maria advises them to wait until the appearance of a mediator, someone who will act as liason between the workers and the city dwellers and unite the two halves of the society.

New on the scene is the son of Jon Fredersen, Freder played by Gustav Frohlich.  There are a couple of things happening with his charachter.  First off, he quickly becomes infatuated with Maria and follows her down into the city’s underworld, where he becomes furious upon seeing the living conditions and the working conditions to which the under-dwellers are subjected.  He is witness to an explosion at the “M-Machine.”  New workers are brought in to attend the machine, even before the dead and injured are cleared.  Freder is infuriated.  Of course, he joins Maria’s cause.  Maria has prophesied the coming of one who can unite the workers and the those living in the city above and he believes he can be that man.

Meanwhile, the city father, who happens to be Freder’s father as well, pays a secret visit to the scientist Rotwag (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), both an old companion AND rival.  It turns out there were secret plans and speeches that Maria had given among papers found on the bodies of the workers killed and injured by the blast at the “M-Machine.”  This sets an evil plan in motion.  They wish to discredit Maria.

Rotwag has constructed a gynoid robot.  They will give the robot Maria's likeness and they then kidnap Maria and replace her with the gynoid, who sets to ruin her reputation, driving men to dissent and even murder among the workers.  Freder, meanwhile, has fallen into a delerium, and there are intercut scenes of hallucinations.  He recovers and returns to discover the false Maria directing the workers to rise up and destroy the machines.  He accuses her of being false.  The workers ignore his plea, leave thier children behind, and go forth and destroy the Heart Machine, flooding the underworld in the process.

In the meantime, Maria has been able to escape, and with the aide of Freder, has rescued the children from the flood.  The foreman Grot unleashes fury upon the workers for what they have done.  Believing their children dead, they seize the false Maria and burn her at the stake.

A horrified Freder looks on, not comprehending until the flames finally reveal the robot.  Rotwag chases the real Maria to a rooftop, pursued by Freder, where the scientist eventually falls to his death.  Freder, joins the hands of his father and foreman Grot, fulfilling his role as mediator.  The End.

Now, Lemmy's lyrics.

Metropolis, the worlds collide,
Ain't nobody could be on your side,
I don't care, I don't care,

Metropolis is something new,
Aint nobody got thier eye on you,
I don't care, I don't care,

Metropolis, the worlds collide,
Ain't nobody on the other side,
I don't care, I'm not there.

The song is a mystery, but a quick study is easy.  Indeed we have two world's colliding, one of leisure and one of toil.  "Ain't nobody could be on your side" isn't too difficult to puzzle out.  I think Lemmy took an every man for himself, or every worker for him or herself mentality to this film.  Much is known about Lemmy's philosophy in life and what a lot of it boiled down to was kind of a lassie faire attitide towards everyone else, live and let live.  So no, nobody could be on your side.  And no, Lemmy probably didn't care one iota.

Metropolis was something new.  When Fritz Lang first saw the skyscrapers of New York he knew he had to create a cinematic work featuring towering spryres such as these, saying "The buildings seemed to be a vertical veil, very light and scintillating, a luxirious backdrop suspended from the gray sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize.  At night the city gave only the impression of living; it lived as illusions do.  I knew I must make a film of all these impressions."

The next line I think means neither side knows what is going on in the class struggle in the film.  The lower class is oblivious to the plot to discredit Maria and certainly the upper class, while they may know that Maria intends to attempt to unite the workers with those living in the city, they are not sure just what violence the workers are truly capable of executing.  And still, Lemmy doesn't care.

Verse three the worlds do collide and by the film's conclusion there is no longer a need for "sides," and still Lemmy doesn't care, and he isn't there.  I get the impression Lemmy wasn't overtly moved by this film.  Perhaps going in he knew it was this important piece of German cinema and we all know he had thought the Germans had an eye for a lot of things stylitically, but maybe he wasn't as moved as much as he had hoped he would be, but still felt that it deserved a tune.

Hell, that's my excuse anyway.  The film Metropolis is an important piece of cinema and the song "Metropolis" kicks ass.  I at least want the song to have some thought put into it, even if its only on the listeners' back end.  My two cents.

The Genius of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma

When you get into a discussion with Pink Floyd fans about the band's best album(s), inevitably Dark Side of the Moon and/or The Wall are going to get the bulk of the votes.  Sure, Wish You Were Here is going to get some honorable mention respect it deserves and rightfully so, but from there  you're going to have fringe voters, sticking up for albums dear to their hearts, albums they consider their pets.  But I'm guessing the album that is actually the best of their career won't be getting much love.  That album is the half live, half studio effort Ummagumma.  That's  correct, Ummagumma!

It's near perfection.  The only thing that would make the album better would have been the inclusion of a live version of "Interstellar Overdrive."  The song was recorded with the intent of inclusion upon the album, so perhaps some day we'll get a release with a bonus track version, but I wouldn't hold my breath.  The brand new 2016 reissues didn't feature the track.  But I digress.

What is it that makes Ummagumma a perfect album you ask, or, at least, you should be asking if you're not.   One, there's the symmetry.  Each band member was required to submit half an LP side worth of material for the studio portion of the album.  David Gilmour famously remarked his contribution to the album, "The Narrow Way (Parts 1-3)," were little more than fits of "desperation," just him "waffling about, tracking bits and pieces together" while in the recording studio.

I think my 11-year-old daughter would agree with that assessment, having remarked something to the effect "it's just a bunch of parts strung together that don't belong."  Even she could hear the mismatched textures and structures.

But, I can hear you saying, "doesn't that detract from that album?   Doesn't that make Ummagumma less of an album?"  Well, no, because, even though David Gilmour was uncertain of himself while constructing his part for the record, and because of that an 11 year old can tell the piece of music is disjointed, it is precisely disjointed, it communicates a theme of Pink Floyd's, forever present in their music - alienation.

Gilmour told BBC radio he just "bullshitted through the piece."  At that point in Pink Floyd's career they were using the music, not the lyrics, to communicate alienation, so this disjointed four part movement from the guitarist is perfect, you see.

According to Theodor Adorno, social theorist and musicoloist, popular music inspires "relaxation which does not involve the effort of concentration at all."  This is a BAD thing, you understand, and Ummagumma inspires precisely the opposite of this.

While a relaxed mood may be produced by listening to Ummagumma, particularly if any mood enhancing pharmaceuticals have been ingested prior to the enjoyment of the album, it is not because Ummagumma does not involve the listener's concentration, contrary to that actually.  The album DEMANDS the listener's attention.  Otherwise, you're in for shocks or surprises, sometimes unpleasant.

Having never been exposed to the vicissitude of "Careful With that Axe Eugene" during the first 42 years of my life, I literally pissed myself the first time I heard Roger Waters scream 3:09 into the song.

The band reaches an ominous crescendo just as Waters whispers "Careful with that axe Eugene," seconds before he lets loose the barbaric yawlp that is the primordial scream that curdles blood and still to this day catches first-time listeners off-guard.  This is not a tune that invites its listeners to comfort, not at all.  Does it alienate listeners, perhaps?  It certainly challenges them and that is what makes Ummagumma such a great work.  Start to finish, it is a challenge to listeners, not comfort food, but music for the soul to grow with, chew upon, roll around in the brain pan for a while.

"Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun," originally appearing on the sophomore Floyd album A Saucerful of Secrets but a definitive live version later appears upon Ummagumma, offers another challenge, about two thirds of the way through the tune the bottom drops out with a simulated rocket blast-off when Gilmour's guitar reeks havoc over Nick Mason's tribal drumming  around the 4:45 mark.  Hearkening to mind images of  2001: a Space Odyssey Roger Water's bass line and the keyboards of Rick Wright beep in with tonal sounds before the song begins to reconstruct itself and steer us toward conclusion.  This is the point of maximum alienation, writes Edward Macan in his chapter of Pink Floyd and Philosophy - titled Psychedelics of Alienation.

Of course, we are also presented with a live version of the "A Saucerful of Secrets" title track on Ummagumma, perhaps the most challenging of the instrumentals early Pink Floyd offered listeners.  Macan refers to it, as well as "Interstellar Overdrive," as "radical" and "utterly original musical statement(s)."

He points out that once Pink Floyd moved past its psychedelic period, post-Meddle, never again would we see the band offer its fans such complex musical structures as those found on Ummagumma, and the later side two of Meddle, "Echoes."

Waters, the group's main writer, moved toward lyrical expressions of alienation and departed from allowing the song structures to communicate this important message.  Perhaps this is why Waters himself grew increasingly frustrated with his band's fan base,  Macan writes, "Waters' ever-growing contempt for Pink Floyd's enormous post-Meddle fan base is well known.  As the 1970s wore on, he became increasingly frustrated with what he perceived as the audience's indifference to the sophisticated analysis of alienation and the critiques of contemporary society he undertook on Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals."

Simply put, Waters fucked up.  If he wanted the fans to continue to "get it," meaning comprehend what he was trying to communicate lyrically, maybe he needed to concentrate more stylistically on keeping the complicated structures Floyd had utilized in its early days.  Instead, the group hired produced Bob Ezrin, composed songs with more and more commercial appeal structure wise, focused on how to write singles, and sold more and more records.

Had they not made those moves and stayed true to their psychedelic roots, maybe Waters would have been more fulfilled philosophically, albeit at the likely expense of the vast amounts of wealth and fame that came with success,  The fan base may not have swelled to the enormity that Pink Floyd enjoys today, or during its heyday, but the fans in the know would truly be in the know.

Incense & Peppermints: Pass Time With the Strawberry Alarmclock

There are a few songs from the 60s and 70s that REALLY stuck with me from my childhood.  Songs that I associate with my father heavily in some sense or another, because of a random memory here or there, or something.

The Zombies' Time of the Season is one such song.  I know it was my mom and dad's "special" song.  It's a trippy tune and I dig it,  Another is House of the Rising Sun by the Animals and there's I Saw Her Standing There.  Most people think immediately of the Beatles, but for me the Pink Fairies' take on the song comes to mind instead. There is one song I really have a strong memory of, and its just me, dad, his old car, and a very cool song driving somewhere down the Florida coast.  Since Father's day is just past and yesterday, June 21st, 2016, marked the one-year anniversary of the last day I saw my father alive, I thought I'd share that memory and the song.

Its actually one of the earliest songs I can recall ever hearing come on over the radio in my dad's old Dodge Charger and digging and it belongs to the psychedelic then sextet band Strawberry Alarm Clock and its off their 1967 album of the same name, Incense and Peppermints.  Of course, by this time, 1976ish, the group had broken up long before in the year of my birth (1971) and the song was already slipping into "oldie" status, but it was new to me.

In recent days I've added the LP to my record collection, as well as the group's sophomore effort Wake Up... It's Tomorrow.  While I love the debut album and have a special attachment to the title track, Wake Up... It's Tomorrow is the better album in spite of the fact it did not produce a follow up hit single nor did it match the sales of the debut 12".

Incense and Peppermints leads off with the excellent eight and half minute epic The World's On Fire, but the remainder of side one, while solid, does not stand out.  Side Two opens with the killer psychedelic romp Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow, a bonafide classic.  That's followed with a couple tunes that feel like filler bits - Paxton's Back Street Carnival and Hummin' Happy - before the album reaches its crescendo with its three outstanding closing tracks Pass Time With The SAC, Incense and Peppermints and Unwind With the Clock.  The biggest lament here is Japanese bonus track Birdman of Alkatrash is left off the main album because it also is a great track.

Wake Up jumps right in with an avant garde number, Nightmare of Percussion, one of my favorites on the album, with drummer Randy Seol taking a turn up front on vocals and at the fore with some killer percussion.  Soft Skies, No Lies is a lighthearted romp that gets us to the meat of side one.  Tomorrow, with Randy's drumming and Mark Weitz' keys featured really pops, then... oh my, we have the most amazing track this band ever produced - They Saw The Fat One Coming!  This song is too surreal to describe.  It must be heard to be appreciated.  Ed King, Lee Freeman and Group provide the haunting vocals.  The bongos are great, the guitar solo chilling, the brush strokes with the drums by Randy are awesome, the sitar perfect.  "They gathered at the church on Sunday and turned the House of God into a place of violence."  That line will always stick with me, and then, it bleeds into the next killer, chilling, haunting song, Curse of the Witches.  Delivered in a stilted vocal style, it still works, and this songs sends chills down my spine, and there's a xylophone.

Then you flip the record over.  And the damn thing is just as good, almost.  It leads off with Sit With the Guru, a psychedelic classic.  Go Back (You're Going the Wrong Way) is a fun group vocal tune.  Pretty Song From Psych-Out, a tune that originally appeared in the Dick Clark Produced, American International motion picture "Psych-Out" the year prior to the album's release, is up next. followed by a low point, Sitting on a Star.

The record closes with the Black Butter trilogy - Black Butter, Past, Black Butter, Present, Black Butter, Future - primarily a concoction of guitarist, sitarist, vocalist Lee Freeman.  In all, the three pieces combined last around six minutes and close out the record nicely.

The third Strawberry Alarmclock record isn't one that interested me much.  While five of the original six members were still playing in the group, with Gary Lovetro having left after the debut, the record label had handcuffed the group to an extent and refused to let them write all their own material after the did not produce a hit with their second album.  (To me this is a stunner because at least four of the songs should have been huge hits, especially They Saw the Fat One Coming.)  The group had only been allowed to contribute one original song to side one, Lee Freeman and Ed King's A Million Smiles Away.  The remainder of the groups original material was relegated to side two.

The rhythm section, Randy Seol and George Bunnell, departed before the group's fourth album,   Ed King moved to bass, Jimmy Pittman was brought in to sing and play guitar and Gene Gunnels joined on drums.

In 2010 Lee Freeman passed away.

In 2012 most of the original group, including original band leader Mark Weitz, drummer Randy Seol and bassist George Bunnell, along with Gene Gunnels, and newcomer (since 1986) Howie Anderson on guitar reunited and recorded and released a new album, titled Wake Up Where You Are.

The Strawberry Alarmclock's Officical Website can be found here.

You're the Inspiration - The One Album at the Heart of My Vinyl Collection

Was there an album that you just HAD TO HAVE on vinyl?  That album that in spired you to build a vinyl collection in the first place?  For me there most certinly was, and that album was Monster Magnet's 1998 monster of an album - Powertrip.

Powertrip sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States alone on its way to gold status and was the top selling rock and and roll album in '98.  In addition to top five hit single Space Lord it spawned several other radio friendly tunes, including See You in Hell, Temple of Your Dreams, the title track and there were those adventurous DJs who played some deep cuts who would ocassionly throw on Crop Circles or even Tractor.

I thrilled to that album, end to end, not a bad track on it.  I've identified with many different bands through my life, ranging from The Power Station, Anthrax, Nirvana, Pantera, Foo Fighters, but there has been one constant since my youth, and that was Motorhead.  The other constant since 1995 has been Monster Magnet, and I regret not getting in five years earlier on the ground floor when thier self-titled EP was making some noise in Germany on the Glitterhouse label.

When Powertrip broke I researched this band; I had already discovered they had been on A&M for a while, and had already released two albums on the label, 1993's Superjudge and 1995's Dopes to Infinity. Superjudge I found pretty quickly on CD, but I already had a copy of Dopes.  As it turned out, those in the know, read the stoners in the area, had already snatched up all the copies of Dopes to Infinity in the region a couple years earlier and record stores had never bothered to restock.  I just happened to have liked the cover and the title and bought a copy myself.

Anyhow, I eventually picked up Spine of God, and Tab, and then followed Monster Magnet's career through its ups and downs right up until this very day and the band's current trippy release, Cobras and Fire a Re-imagining of Mastermind -- a brilliant fucking album end to end if I do say so.

Anyhow, what has all this got to do with me and my vinyl collection? Well, I didn't rush out and start a vinyl collection in 1998 when Powertrip came out, but I should have.  No, I waited until another band that is sometimes cast into the same stoner genre as Monster Magnet produced a new album in late 2012 on its own Weathermaker label before I made my first vinyl purchase since I was a teenager - I pre-ordered a copy of Clutch's Earth Rocker.  I didn't even own a record player at the time.

I was supposed to get a Crosley that had belonged to my mother-in-law, but thankfully, my brother-in-law tore that thing up and I never inherited it and discovered what a piece of shit it was before I ever had to deal with it.  Anyhow, time went by and I again pre-ordered a record I wanted in January of 2016, this time thrash kings Anthrax' new release For All Kings on translucent blue vinyl.

Okay, it came in February  I was unimpressed.  The blue came out in huge blobs.  In places it was this beautiful translucent light blue and in others you had this massive cells of opaque blue mess.  I don't know if this is what Anthrax wanted or not.  But, I wasn't discouraged.  I saw the potential of what colored vinyl had to offer and I knew I wanted my favorite band(s) in the format.  I began researching players and in mid-March I placed the first in what became a series of entirely TOO MANY VINYL ONLINE ORDERS!

Powertrip was among those albums ordered in the first wave.  My initial copy was supposed to be on orange vinyl.  I had to send that pressing back to the seller when he sent standard black by mistake.  I first focused on collecting Monster Magnet records, getting the black and white splatter vinyl of Cobras and Fire, the Cosmic Bronze version of Last Patrol, the purple marbled version of Superjudge, and the yellow and red-orange splatter vinyl of Mastermind.  From there, though I decided to move on to bands that I liked that influenced Monster Magnet - early Black Sabbath, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Amon Duul II, Pink Floyd (notably my favorite period, the first four albums) early Skullflower, Hawkwind, Branticket, Pink Fairies, etc.

The collection then expanded to feature my other two favorite bands, Motorhead and Clutch, Record Store Day 2016 rolled around and I picked up four releases - the Clutch etched 12" single, the gorgeous Iron Maiden Empire of the Clouds 12" picture disc, the Anthrax 7" red vinyl honoring those lost in the Paris attacks and the vulgar Rob Zombie, Well, Everybody's Fucking in a U.F.O.

Now I moved on to other psychedelic bands I liked such as The Doors, more stoner rock like The Atomic Bitchwax, and well, that brings me full circle, because I just laid my hands on another Monster Magnet album that nearly completes my collection of that band's vinyl production to date.  I lack just a few RARE official releases, plus, Monolithic Baby!, and a couple of bootlegs I'm trying to pin down that I'd like to have. (That's the subject of a whole other column for certain.)

In the meantime, my turntable and set up should arrive tomorrow and Thursday so hopefully by Friday I'll actually be spinning some vinyl.

The Atomic Bitchwax - The Bitchin'est of the Bitchwax

If you follow this page for any length of time you're going to quickly discover I'm a HUGE Monster Magnet fan, have been ever since I first heard that opening riff to "Negasonic Teenage Warhead" for the first time way back when in 1995.  So, no, I wasn't there at the beginning for "The Magnet," but I've damn sure been there every step of the way since then.

I've gone back and collected everything they've ever produced on MP3, CD, cassette (except those rare demo tapes), and since I began collecting vinyl a few months months ago, I'm ONLY a copy of Monolithic Baby! (and two or three really rare pieces) away from completing the record collection.

Now, what the heck has all that got to do with The Atomic Bitchwax?  Well, quite a lot actually.  As it presently stands, two-thirds of The Atomic Bitchwax are actually members of Monster Magnet (TAB founder, lead singer and bassist Chris Koznik and drummer/upright piano player Bob Pantella each pull double duty in the two stoner rock titans).  And, when Monster Magnet was in need of a guitarist after the departure of co-founder John McBain back in 1993, it turned to the Bitchwax then for assistance as well and found guitar golden god Ed Mundell, who went on to play with Monster Magnet for twenty years before departing first TAB, then Monster Magnet, to start up a third band, The Ultra Electric Mega Galactic with Rick Ferrante (of Sasquatch) and Collyn McCoy (of OTEP).

Now, I'm busy, collecting vinyl for TAB as well, and let me tell you, it's not easy to find some of thier stuff.  Hell, TAB 3 isn't even available on vinyl, nor is Boxriff, and you're going to shell out some serious dough for 1, 2 and Spit Blood.  In the meantime, I have the most recent three TAB discs to spin, and I can always turn to my MP3s if I must  Here's a  comprehensive list of TAB's bitchin'est tunes, IMHO, anyhow.

From The Atomic Bitchwax 1 (1999)
Stork Theme
Birth to the Earth
Hey Alright
Kiss the Sun
Gettin Old
Last of the V8 Interceptors
Shit Kicker
The Formula

Hell, pretty much the whole damned album, which is why it goes for more than $100 online these days on LP.

From The Atomic Bitchwax 2 (2000)
Ice Pick Freek
Forty-Five
Cast Aside Your Masks
The Cloning Chamber
Marching on the Skulls of the Dead
Dishing Out a Heavy Dose of Tough Love
Solid
Liquor Queen

Bonus Points if you track down a copy of the Aerosmith Tribute Album from 2000, Right in the Nuts, which features a rare track where TAB covers Combination.

From The Atomic Bitchwax Spit Blood EP (2002)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Cold Day in Hell
Black Trans-Am
U Want I Should

From The Atomic Bitchwax 3 (2005)
The Destroyer
Maybe I'm a Leo
Force Field
The Passenger
If I Had a Gun
Half As Much

From The Atomic Bitchwax Boxriff (2006)
STD

From The Atomic Bitchwax 4 (2008)
Astrononmy Domine
Sometime Wednesday
Giant
Wreck You
Super Computer

From The Atomic Bitchwax The Local Fuzz (2011)
The Local Fuzz

From The Atomic Bitchwax Gravitron (2015)
Sexecutioner
No Way Man
It's Alright
War Claw
Coming In Hot
Fuckface
Proto World
Down With the Swirl
Ice Age "Hey Baby"

Lost in Translation

I recently picked up four of the first five Amon Duul II albums after learning they were great influences upon Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet.  The Magnet is my favorite ACTIVE band, meaning they are tops among groups still touring and producing bodies of work. Heck, Monster Magnet very nearly tops my list of INACTIVE bands too.  There are not many bands I like better than Monster Magnet readers of this site will soon learn. 

When I received these in the mail I did what I always used to do when I got a new album, I tore through the exterior packing and dove straight into the linear notes.  I wanted to see if I recognized any band members names, learn the song lyrics, read what the band had to say, but in this case I was disappointed to discover the bulk of the notes were in German.

Well, not to be thwarted, I steered my internet browser to Google translate, keyed in the German text and eagerly hit the translate button, rubbing my hands together like a mad scientist for the couple seconds it took to do its work.  And behold, the translated text:

""Come to Hauf in the catacombs of Canaan (3.56). Who has seen them in those violet hour through the keyhole, the priests on stilts, flown as an attraction for intergalactic monster show. "Thus spoke the CHILDREN MORDER" (6.00) illustrious inventor of the Trumpet Fair of Tibet, when he ascended the caravan Cart Geier of Golgotha , everyone is a composer, if he finds the intersection of two parallels in the infinite. "Unexpectedly entered Lucifer GHILOM (8.02) the magic circle around which the polka and Landler drehn, and the ears of those assembled bowed from the east. he came with electronic swing of the valley of Angels einbalsameinrten where in Wahrsagersom Gregorian vision spider HENRIETTE KROTENENSCHWANZ (1'59) complain Apgehoben of the runway with hyphnotischen knives in their hands:. PHALLUS DEI "(20'45).

* THE GOOD, CONSERVE, PROTECT""

Hmmmm.  Clearly, something's been lost in the translation, right?

Double Clutch

Today I have a double dose of those Earth Rockers, the road dogs that they are, Clutch.  The discs featured are copies of Clutch's latest effort, 2015's brilliant Psychic Warfare, one in standard black and the other a Newbury Comics exclusive, limited to just 500 pressed copies done in  a gorgeous translucent red.  Now, I actively sought out the red copy of this disc, and after two months of searching and passing over opened copies, high priced copies and reasonably priced copies offered simultaneously with that one other disc that I JUST HAD TO HAVE RIGHT THAT MOMENT OR I MIGHT HAVE DIED, I finally found a copy under $30 still sealed and not so far away from me that I was going to have to donate a kidney to cover shipping, so I FINALLY scored a red Newbury edition for my collection before they were all snatched up and got it at a respectable price for such an awesome piece of wax.

Now, the story behind the black version is just as boring, but a little bit more odd.  I was unaware that Clutch had partnered up with the Susan Komen group and 15 other bands, to assemble a number of special albums to promote awareness of breast cancer some time after 2012 while also raising money to help support breast cancer research.  The product of that partnership was the pink vinyl album promoting eight of Clutch's tracks featuring strong female characters - La Curandera, with album art by a strong female no less, Becky Cloonan, who's claim to fame at DC Comics was that she was the first woman to draw The Bat - yes the vigilante himself, Batman.

Now, I won an auction on eBay for a sealed copy of La Curandera, and ONLY, that singular sealed copy of La Curandera.  I made certain after the fact, going back and reading all of the fine print, etc., to see if I missed something and make certain I had not screwed up and underpaid the seller or something.  Anyhow, a week after the auction my regular mail carrier dutifully pulls to my back door and I meet her at my back porch steps and accept this package containing La Curandera that I have been tracking for a few days.  I open it open and greedily grab up my pink vinyl album, tear through the plastic and prepare to unsheath the vinyl for the first time when my 11-year-old daughter calls my attention to the discarded box, "Dad is there supposed to be another record in there?"  Me, "No, dear, why?"

Her, "Well, you better come look..."

I have messaged this seller three different ways on at least seven different occasions since I obtained the package and I have yet to receive a response from him.  At this point I'm calling the album "officially MINE!"

Hawkwind celebrated 45 years with this special RSD release in 2015

Today's feature is the debut album from psychedelic space rockers Hawkwind.

This disc features the tune "Be Yourself," which Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf identified as one of the 10 greatest Hawkwind songs ever.

This particular version of the LP comes from the 2015 Record Store Day event and is pressed in translucent Orange, limited to just 5,800 total copies.  I snagged this copy, unopened at the time, for under a saw buck.  Of course, my collection is not intended to sit around and draw dust, I'm gonna play this sucker so I opened it up.

Check out that crazy gatefold.