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By Max Conroy
My struggle lately has been that I have way too much music to listen to. In the past year or so, I’ve had some incredible resources and have acquired more music than I could realistically listen to. It’s obviously the result of some sort of compulsion that I have to collect things. But records are meant to be listened to, and I feel guilty about having some of the best records ever made lying around where I’m only able to dedicate a cursory listen. Also, my interests wax and wane like the moon, so I’ll have some records that I’ve just purchased and my interest in that genera of music will fall by the wayside, the record filed to be stumbled upon when my interest in that music reawakens. I guess the solution is to make it a point to try and not acquire anything new. Don’t worry, readers, I’ll have plenty of stuff to write about.
For some reason, last night I actually went through my CDs and pulled out a huge pile and pretty much froze because it was late, past midnight, and I wanted to listen to everything, but I didn’t want to be up till sunrise. I’ve been getting back into rock and roll, from jazz fusion and soul and funk. I had also just hooked my DVD player up through my stereo, so I wanted to be able to watch a bit of something before I went to bed, so I had to make a tough decision, but I sure as hell made the right choice.
Starship, The MC5 at the Sturgis Armory June 27, 1968 is, in my mind, the best document of the MC5 live. Don’t get me wrong, Kick Out the Jams is a hell of a record, but it doesn’t necessarily represent the 5 accurately with regards to their live show at the time. They knew that they were going to make a record and had to trim parts of the set, like Black to Comm and various jazz and soul medleys from their set to make a digestible product for the masses (I’m not saying they sold out to the man or anything, they do say ‘motherfucker’ in the first five minutes, before their most commercial song). The sound on Starship is obviously from someone in the crowd, so this is how it pretty much sounded if you were standing in the Sturgis Armory. A lot of people don’t realize that soundboard recordings aren’t necessarily the shit because they just capture the sound that’s pumped through the system and not what comes out of it.
Where is Sturgis you ask? It’s in southwest Michigan, not far at all from where I, and Cousin Justin, grew up. The area now is probably a ghost town, but back in the day when muscle cars were king the place was probably still out of the way. This show catches the 5 playing their set in all its glory in a small town and displays perfectly their mettle. They didn’t care where they were playing or who to; when they stepped on the stage it was all over; they were going to destroy any other band that dared share that stage, no matter who it was, Cream or Led Zeppelin.
I had to put the headphones on for this one as it was late and I needed volume, so I recommend that you do the same. Find your headphones and brace yourself…
Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa:
James Brown’s Cold Sweat: Dig Dennis Thompson’s drumming on this track.
PS: In my opinion the only other live performace by the 5 that rivals this is Thunder Express, a live set in a European studio. Go figure, Cub Coda gave it two stars in AMG, haha.
by Max Conroy
I first heard about the Third Power on this site a long time ago when the Cousins did a write up about their bass player Jem Targal in response to finding a signed copy of his rare solo album Luckey Guy. I downloaded Believe, the only album released by the Third Power and didn’t feel too bad about it because of the album’s obscurity; I believe that it isn’t too hard to track down on CD though. The download that I got was ripped from a record and the guy recorded the second side first, which I didn’t realize till finding the vinyl a few weeks ago. It doesn’t get much better than this if you’re looking for an aggressive, Grande-era Detroit power trio. I’ve scoped this record every now and then for the past few years on EBay and it seems like every copy that I’ve seen was in Europe, which is odd since it only sold about 16,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area.
Like the record itself, information regarding the band is pretty rare. For the most part everything out there is very basic and states that the band formed in Detroit in the late 60s, were very loud, had a cult following, released one record, it flopped, they went their separate ways, the guitarist Drew Abbott went to play lead for Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, and Jem recorded Luckey Guy in the late 70s. I did find an early biography of Jem Targal, their lead singer and bassist, on someone’s personal website. The biography reads a bit strange, almost like it’s Targal speaking in the third person (pardon the pun). According to the site, Targal was born in Ann Arbor, his father studied and taught at the University of Michigan, and when he was young his father accepted a position at the American University of Istanbul and moved his entire family there: ”There were seven families, all related, living in the house together. Targal’s grandfather, a retired general, was there. So, too, was Targal’s uncles. One had been the head of NATO forces for seveal years; the other uncle was a professional wrestler.” Sounds like a trip, man. His family moved back to the Detroit area in 1951 and eventually many years later he met Abbott at Oakland Community College in a speed reading class. Abbott taught Targal the bass and they formed several groups, met their drummer Jim Craig, a solid powerful drummer, and came up with the name the Third Power in the van on the way to their first show together at a club called the Fifth Dimension (a popular venue that had featured Hendrix and the Yardbirds). Power trio…trio…third…third…power…like to the third power, man…get it? The band moved into a farmhouse on Haggarty road, between 12 and 13 mile roads. They were known for having massive parties at their place where rock icons like Rod Stewart and Badfinger would hang out. The band kept playing around and became very popular in the Detroit area, playing shows with local acts like the Rationals, Seger, and the MC 5. They signed with Vanguard, who also featured another Detroit act of the era the Frost, in 1969. The album was produced by poet and blues scholar Sam Charters and came out in 1970.
I almost shit my pants when I saw it in the stack at Encore. They pile up their new arrivals on the floor against the bins, in front of the register. I was in there a few days prior to finding it and noticed that they had a massive pile of new arrivals and quickly paid for whatever I had gone in there to find, so as not to be tempted by whatever was in the new stacks. A few days later I was walking in the neighborhood and decided to go back to see what was left in that pile, and there it was, perfect, in the shrink, bronze Vanguard label. I bought that and Grant Green’s Alive! for $30 and the dude working there said bye to me using my name off of my credit card. Respect, mon. Irie! I got it for $20; the price guide says $30 mint, but Popsike lists anywhere from $50 to $250 previously on EBay.
This is what I would throw in it on my way to work:
1) Taj Mahal, Mo’ Roots
My favorite Taj Mahal album, it’s a masterful blend of reggae and southern roots music. Clara (St. Kitts Woman) is going in my next mix tape after Akido’s Yesterday http://cousinsvinyl.com/2006/akido-self-titled-mercury-lp-1972-afro-funk/. A great Friday morning selection.
2) Jah Bunny, Dubs International
Such a sweet dub album. All the songs are well put together, and not as echoey and crazy as Lee Perry. Makes for great late-night cruisin’ music. Also good for a passenger friend who just needs to chill out.
3) Various, Electric Breakdance: The Hottest Breakdance Music On The Street
Awe yeah! This is my pimpin’ music! 1984’s freshest breakdance joints. Need to shop here to listen to this www.myairshoes.com Too bad I can’t put the poster that comes with it on the side of car.
4) T Rex, Electric Warrier
“Beneath the bebop moon, I want to crooooon, with you, Beneath the Mambo Sun, I got to be the one, with you…” Impossible not to turn this up.
5) Mel Brown, Eighteen Pounds Of Unclean Chitlins and Other Greasy Blues Specialties
Yeah, it’s what you would expect. Mmmm, mmmm!
6) Marvin Holmes and the Uptights, Ooh Ooh The Dragon and Other Monsters
Sweet happy funk. Has one of my all time favorite songs, I’ve Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do). The back cover describes this album as being as funky as barrrels of hot asphalt. This is being played as loud as my speakers will let them. I hope I don’t get a speeding ticket with this on.
UNDER THE SEAT: Wes Montgomery, Full House
OK, this is cheating a bit. But I gotta keep this in reserve in case I feel the need for some relaxed jazz cruising. This early Riverside is one of my favorite jazz LPs.
I think I’d put in a new rotation after about a solid two weeks. Better not do any off-roading though.
-Cousin Geoff
jsREVIEW:
For some reason, the Stooges always get the nod when playing the “Godfathers of Punk” sweepstakes. I know, I know, I wanna be your dog too, but I’m not arguing against the Stooges, I’m arguing for the MC5.
Even though this single, being radio-ready, starts off with “Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters” rather than the better-known intro, it still shows how far away from the rest of the world Detroit was during the late ’60s. This is no Woodstock, no gentle psychedelia. This is raw, explosive blues rock that puts better-known folks like Cream and Led Zep to shame. Sure, they were virtuosos in a way that no one in the MC5 was, but “Kick Out The Jams” is the sound of a dual-pipe Mustang to their Aston Martin.
Recorded live, neither side is the picture of audio clarity, but when they sang “The Motor City’s burnin’, ain’t nothing no one can do,” they hit with with the kind of truth that left The Clash to pick up the aftershocks some ten years later. Vietnam, race riots, assassinations, SDS, it’s all here. Along with the slinky sex that comes from the rolling electric blues.
If there’s ever been one single that summed up Detroit rock, this is it. If there’s ever been an essential punk single, this is it. And if there’s ever been a rock album that still connects politically, this is it. Fucking, fighting, drugs and guitars. What more could you want?
jsREVIEW:
Aside from the obvious East-West divide, ’70s Germany also seemed to (at least to my American ears) have a significant divide in their art rock.
On the one side, there’re bands like Can or Faust, the druggy, woozy titans of Krautrock, which didn’t sound so much Teutonic as otherworldly.
Then there were the more terrestrial (though sometimes just as spacey) bands like Grobschnitt, Popul Vuh and Trimverat, who played music that had more of a rock influence to it.
Of these, Triumverat is probably the one that would fit in easiest with prog bands from around the world, occassionally to their detriment. Sometimes derided for similarities to ELP, mostly because of the instumental line-up (Jurgen Fritz’s keyboards are the main attraction), the comparisons are a bit unfair. First off, Triumverat really sounds closer to a hybrid of The Who (”This Song Is Over”) and Yes, and second because the songwriting is brighter, more adroit and less ponderous.
While the album is technically only two songs long, each has been broken into suites, and the 2003 remaster included radio edits (as if to show how easily these could have been pop hits). The addition, for this album, of Cologne Opera House strings and the Kurt Edelhagen Brass Band gives a welcome depth and allows more of the Moog virtuosity to shine through.
When listening to the album, and noting the strong, clean compositional strength, it’s a bit of a wonder that Triumverat never really cracked through to the level they should have. Maybe there was just too much other prog at the time for them to be noticed. Not so anymore— this album is a great addition to any prog library.
