Page 65 - 72_11PDF_Searchable

THE PHLORESCENT LEECH AND EOOIE
MARK VOLMAN & HOWARD KAVLAN
REPRISE
The Phlorcscent Leech and hddie. alias
Mafk Volman and Howard kaytan. have
pined repute of late as comic Mother
mouthpieces; but before that they comprised
the core of the Turtles , for whom they sang,
wrote, and generally administered Now they
have an album of their own and to me it ' s | ust
Kike the Turtles finding* (pardon the
expression ) a new leech on life; food tidings
indeed. Volman and Kaylan have lost none of
thru «JREHANDED commercial mainstream pop
touch, and they' ve created a consistently
enthralling lightweight rock LP, with the
familiar impeccable ( sometimes spectacular)
vocals intact and a host of brand-new
let your lituatton run away with you. nmerung their entire coMectfve body in a infectious and hummable tunes.
Whit ' s different here is that the Turtles
-
'
Maybe that s a hit too harsh; Morrison b lagoon of draught beer, and watching old pever used to rock out as vigorously as the
unique . He hat stopped putting out new vr runs of Cannonball on the tube. Hot Lkkt. P.L. A Eddie can. in such songs as ' Thoughts
records though , it’s been over a year since he Cold Steel A Thicken Fcvoetiet ( pronounced Have Turned " (with an intro straight out of
released hit last one. Anyway, my Jim fay- vo-nghts) presents exactly the same mix- " Street Fighting Man "). Stange Girl. " and
Mormon s not dead , sorry ' about yours. ture of laidback, oft humorous and titillating especially “ It Never Happened. where they
"
-
'
"
Bernard Wolfe is, in the phraseology of the countryfied booze rock that its dce- lightful pock a superbly solid punch.Of course ( here ' s
*
50 s, a shithook. If you don ' t uke such things predecessor did. still plenty of melodic pop tunes, too -
too seriously, one of the great Uff riots of
Thai is to say.if you had any morbid fears
notably " There You Sil Lonely. " with echoes
Newt Journalism b to be found in his June. that thb followup disc might present some of the memorable " You Showed Me. " or
1972, Ftqutre article on "The Real- Life Death forget ’ em. Over half the songs here, after all. " Goodbye Surprise, " reuniting Mark and
radical new change of direction in the band,
of Jim Mormon. " Why wux the snake seven Howard with Gordon-Bonner, the cx- Magictin
miles long, huh Jim? Thn b important! arc little more than re- wntei of the stuff from composing team who wrote their biggest
What Ml CM * b , b distinctly the first album. " I ruck Stop Rock " b merely smash " Happy Together " (fuse wordless vocal
unimportant. When you pass through the a slowed down "Midnight Shift " 'Truck bits in this song) and "Lady Blue. " both
-
midsection of the infinity loop, full cucle in Drvvin Man " has a remarkable “Lost In the tituUrly and musically reminiscent of the
’
other words, what happens b that you Ozone flavor, and for those of you who dug enchanting "Lady O. " Frequently the listener
"
squeeze out the intellectual doodoo. and the spoken verse of "Famil) Bible. " you ’ ll b reminded of the Byrds, us snatches
throughout and particularly in " I Been Born
that's what the Doors have done for this choke on your ' Bud ' when you hear the story Again.
album. In fact, in the headier boogie moments in " Mama Hated Diesels " of how a certain " which if I ' d been quoted in the
Manzaick ' s organ work sounds as neat as that trucker ' s mama who lost her man to the Melody Maker Blind Date (a lifelong goal ) I’d
on the live punk rock album of the ages. Joey intoxicating odor of diesel smoke and have presumed to be an unreleased Younger
Dee And The Starlitcrs Doin ' The Twist At freedom b found one day trying to flag down Than Yetierday dub by David Crosby.
*
The Peppermint Lounge. If you think that semis in the middle of the highway in a sain The album b straight pop for the most
-
means I don ' t like it. Sport, you better check and pathos ridden attempt to find him again. part, though delving briefly into a fairy tale
out the bargain bins so s you can be as sharp There are three or four more songs on the realm (" Strknge Girl " ) and also featuring a
'
as I am. album that you can mix and match in this slightly wacky prologue. The only out-and
I ' ve had trouble getting past side one. In manner. If you look real hard you can find outre buarnty is the indescribably hokey
"
fact. I don ' t care about gelling past ude one, mates for such other Ozone faves as " Seeds "Nikki Hoi. a presumably harmless bil of
bass beat oriented hardwood floor stompin ' and Stems," " Beat Me Daddy. " (a tropical fluff sung in some kind of bastardized
good ruckin ' - let yore vcrdilacs all hang out* maso-sadttiic lament from a daughter to her Chicano/Polynesun dulcet and quite silly
If I say il ' s perfect musk for a Coke dale paler, tncsdentaQy, a meaning which some of withal, though it earns a couple of points for
at the local teen dub, you might get me the more uilelkctuali/cd critics missed being the first pearl- diving rock number since
wrong. So I ' ll just say. what the fuck n a completely when the song first appeared ), and Roy Orbison ' s " Leah. "
verdilac? ' Twenty Flight Rock. " Anyway, the Phlorescent Leech and tJdie
Buck Sanders But so what if they * steal songs from iwhose actual identities arc prone to frequent
thcmtclvev Is there really anything at all and unpredictable shifts ) is an exceedingly
*
wrong with that* No since, especially seeing
HOT LICKS. as how they also thought to include some
COLO STEEL & TRUCKERS FAVORITES greal new things, like "Watch My .38. " This
COMMANDER COOY song sounds like what might have happened if
ANO THE LOST PLANET AIRMEN Sly Slone had Keen bom in Saginaw. Michigan
PARAMOUNT and spent the rest of his life doing the
Dctroii- Akron run for Goodyear; eating in
In these days of soporific wizards , truck stops, and listening to WDFE Detroit
omnipotent groundhogs , bisexual Martian (country shit ) with one ear and WCHD (soul )
spiders and baby- faced sliders , il sure is good with the other. Which b all tantamount lo
to be confronted with nothing more taxing saying thal " Watch My .38" sounds somewhat
than "Here I sit alone with a broken heart/I too funky for Commander Cody, but is Cody
took three bennics/and my rig won t start. " nevertheless. Weed.
'
Yes, Cody fans and diesel affictonados.
unto a year
nigh
Yes. it 's been
since
Commander Cody' s humble debut album. Hot Lickt. Cold Steel and Thickest Faroelies
lott in the (/tone, first emerged to tranquilire b what truckin ' b really all abouL
harried minds the world over, and if thb new Amphetamines and steel pedal guitars , not
album is any indication, ( he band has spent Robert Crumb t- shirts. I can hardly wait til
the entire time unce doing nothing more the next one.
strenuous than playing three gigs a day, Alan Ntester
November, 1972 66