Top Ten Of The Week-Fire And Rain

Here I am, in the old mildew area known as the mancave and once again trying to put back in order due to another fucking gullywasher.  Four times this year I had to put up with too much water in a leaky basement.  Even with a week away, I can't escape the crapfest that is Summer Storm Jerkoff which is now flooding up the east coast.  And in the west, they can't buy a storm but they got plenty of fires from dry storms.  If you're not baking, you're drowning in it.

Yep, James Taylor said it best, I've seen fire and I've seen rain.  And I wish I can see those sunny days that would never end.

 

This week's eye candy is Bo Vixxen.  Betcha you would like to win a date with her.  So do I. ;) Javier Padilla took the photo.  We'll see how long before this picture disappears again.

Top Ten Of The Week, brought to you by Buono's Pizza http://buonosmesa.com/



1.  Living On A Thin Line-The Kinks 1984   One thing I forgot to add in the blogs about the Last bargain hunts was that I got to hear my favorite radio station KCDX out in Florence and they still play the obscure single such as this forgotten Kinks number but they disappointed me so much that I gave up on them too.  They bill themselves the IPOD station, and they're right.  Sounds like an IPOD.  Which meant they played the same damn songs over and over no matter how obscure they are.  If you hear them more than twice a day, then it's overkill no matter what.  Which meant we got to hear Down By The River about five times, as well as Under Pressure, The Finer Things, even Lady Killer from Flash And The Pan which was great hearing it the first time, bout the 5th time not so much.  Ended up going to the airport listening to KSLX (100.7)  Odd thing about 100.7 was that somewhere out in Lake Havasu City they had a different classic rock station there and Tucson had a different classic rock radio station too.



2.  What Goes On-The Velvet Underground 1969  Another song played on KCDX although I only heard it one time.  On the flight to and from Mesa, I was reading a Velvet Underground book called Peeled, which is a very good and detailed story about the beginning and end of one of the most interesting bands of our era. Despite Andy Warhol and the bizarre beginnings, The Velvets were one of the best garage rock bands; when they had John Cale in the band you always got the feeling they were on the edge but when Doug Yule replaced Cale they became more of a bar band although Steve Sesnick moreorless killed the Velvets rather than Lou Reed although Reed's control freak persona was the cause of the breakup of the reunion band they had in 93.  In the meantime Yule was all but forgotten but for the third, Loaded and the sessions that later released as VU he balanced out Reed.  The curio that was Squeeze isn't bad but then again it's not exactly the real Velvets, just Doug and Ian Paice (Yes the Deep Purple drummer) who played on Squeeze.  But even Ian doesn't recall playing on that album at all.  Maybe he doesn't want to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKODcZOHUtg



3.  It's Alright, It's OK-Primal Scream 2013  Bobby Gillespie continues to ride the vibe of glam rock, along with the noise he learned from The Jesus And Mary Chain but also visits kraut rock as well as Rolling Stones rock and roll on the new album More Light which goes on forever it seems.  I still love Primal Scream regardless, even to the point of buying the record new down at Zia's last week.  Cuz I have a funny feeling that Best Buy wouldn't have it.  The one out in Fiesta Mall didn't have it.  Told the female clerk out there working that their CD section is like my hairline, getting shorter and shorter each year.  And that's not a good thing.

4.  Thinkin' Of You-Loggins & Messina 1972  It would have been easier to include Your Momma Don't Dance, which was one of my favorite songs when I was in 5th grade but classic rock and oldies radio overkilled it.  I could have swore that CBS issued a single version which was much more different than the album cut which also graced The Best Of Friends throwaway best of.  The reason why i got the album in the first place was to hear the complete 7 minute 41 seconds of Angry Eyes which was a Beaker Street favorite. Probably sounds better with a beer and a joint too.




5.  Stompin At The Savoy-Babs Gonzalez 1947  I didn't find much in terms of obscure stuff but perhaps the best find came from going to (where else?) Half Priced Books in the 2 dollar section and finding a compilation of Babs Gonzalez' output for Blue Note.  Babs was one of the best scat-jive singers and if you ever heard any of his stuff you'll know what I mean.  Here he's backed by the great Tadd Dameron.



6.  Men Without Shame-Phantom, Rocker & Slick 1985  One of those albums that haven't been issued on CD till last year from Rock Candy, Mark Prindle was talking about how lame most of this album is but needless to say I like this record and still do more than he did.  After Brian Seltzer decided to go solo, the stray cats picked up journey man guitarist Earl Slick to make two albums for EMI.  Rock Candy, a import label specializing in hard rock finally released this for the first time ever.  They also reissued, for the first time ever, Head East Live.  On the down side they also reissued a couple Quiet Riot and Eddie Money albums, to which you can still get cheap here at home.



7.  Hey Gyp (dig the slowness)-Donovan 1965  Another love hate for an artist that made pretty good singles but crappy albums on Hickory, Castle/Sanctuary reissued his early stuff and basically I can see why Bob Dylan made lots of fun on Donovan, it's pretty second rate protest music with too much hippie dippy and The Animals did a better cover version of this song, but I kinda like it for it's boyish amateurish sound. B side to Turquoise, an awful folk song done even worse by an out of tune and off key harmonica squeal that predates Metal Machine Music.  UGH.



8.  You Got What I Need-Shooting Star 1980  Virgin Records signed them in the 80s and they made four or five albums in the Journey/Styx mode and had Elton John's producer help them on their debut album.  They managed to keep hold of their masters and later reissued them themselves but poor distribution found most of their stuff in the bargain bins.  The Salvation Army store in Casa Grande had something like 20 copies of their first album and one other, the 1983 Burning which does sound like Journey without Steve Perry.  The cheapest find of the AZ bargain hunts both CDs only cost me a dollar.  Side note:  I remember Jerry at Relics telling me to pick up any of their albums since they sold very well at that time.  Shooting Star did reunite at the end of the 1990s and made a album that I never heard but have seen in the dollar bins at the thrift shop.



9.  Young And Restless-Prism 1979  One more acknowledgement of KCDX, was on their IPOD cast was playing a song from this forgotten Canadian band from perhaps their best album which was produced by an up and coming Bruce Fairbairn and recorded by an up and coming dude by the name of Bob Rock.  Prism, like Shooting Star was more of a pop rock band but even more poppier than Shooting Star.  Didn't get into them till much later when they had their highest charting single in the states with Don't Let Him Know but by then Ron Tuback had left the band.  This may have not been the song that they played on the radio but I did find their Young And Restless CD at Zia's Tempe and that made a excellent choice for a road tune.



10.  St. James Infirmary-Bobby Blue Bland  1961  Last week, Bobby Bland died at age 83, he had been in failing health but I didn't think much of it, even when somebody at Zia's was playing this track in the background, I think this was at the Camelback Zia's.  Bobby had a distinctive voice that can be fine and mellow one moment and then a shout scream next line.  His sides for Duke in the late 50s, early 60s are required listening.  Gone but never forgotten, not as long as I live.

And now five songs heard on Phoenix radio stations

Paranoia-Klaatu 1980
7 + 7 is-Love 1966
Down By The River-Neil Young  1969
Whitchi Tai To-Brewer And Shipley 1969
Rain Dance-The Guess Who 1971



What I'll be doing the 4th of July is what I've been doing every other month this spring summer and that's once again trying to restore order downstairs from yet another fucking monsoon rainfest of last week.  Even coming back from vacation and seeing how things have gone to hell in a hurry makes me wish I stayed down in the desert.  However, it's monsoon season right now and they been having dust storms to which I saw the last night I was there.  And of course, the earwigs have made their annual annoyance once again, I just killed six of them since coming home tonight. 

We're past the halfway point of this shit year and so far much of the music of 2013 has been forgettable, and that includes the overrated John Fogarty's Wrote A Song For Everybody, the star studded appearances of country and rock stars trying to jump start a career that has been spinning the past five years and another attempt to lay claim to the CCR songs of long ago and far away. Make no mistake the originals are good but the new stuff basically comes across a tribute album that nobody will play after a couple times.  I love John Fogerty as much as anyone but this is the second straight album that I didn't buy but I did hear this at Hastings in Prescott last week and made notes.  The Proud Mary song is ruined by another don't yell at me chick singer (Jennifer Hudson) and whoever gave this piece of shit song five stars from Rolling Stone Mag is tune deaf, better to stick with Ike and Tina.  Only time John gets going is on the two new songs but then it's back to the all stars, the Zac Brown band, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley.  Only thing missing is the CCR rhythm section but I think John burnt that bridge down that they'll never get back together which is a shame.  In the end, Wrote A Song for Everybody, John tries to play to the whole crowd and it fails him.  I give it a 2 and half stars rating.  And don't trust Rolling Stone Magazine for anything.

Whatever happened to Jason Everman you ask?  Read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/magazine/evermans-war.html?_r=0



Jim Kelly aka Black Belt Jones, a black martial artist and actor who was on Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon has joined Bruce Lee in the great beyond. He was 67 

Last Bargain Hunt In Arizona Part 2

I wish there was some way I could live in either Bullhead City or Lake Havasu City or Kingman, wish I could open up a record store or something to base a living out there.  I'm sure the electric bills would be bigtime but at least we wouldn't have to worry about the fucking rains that engulfed us over the past year. I love Kingman, the way it's a part of Route 66, the downtown area, the trains that run through although not so much the fucking curb that scraped my rental car.  I'd probably be a permanent fixture at the local Hastings, or Del Taco although after Lake Havasu I didn't stop at a Del Taco.  I ate there four times in various areas.

I drove deeper into the desert the next day on the way to Parker and took some pictures of their drive in screen that still remains although the drive in itself is no longer there.  But drove down the road on the way to what I thought would be the Phoenix bypass and on the way to Casa Grande but ended up at Gila Bend, a place that I never been.  Plenty of trains to see but since there wasn't much else going in there, I went on Interstate 8 to Casa Grande.  For 60 plus miles, there is nothing but open desert and road.  This is the dead of the desert, trying to dodge semis and blown tire treads all over the road getting there.  The natives call them Alligators for blown tire treads, mostly from trucks. I never heard that term before last week, but if you on any road, chances are you'll see those type of alligators.  And they are dangerous.

Two nights in Tucson, two nights at the motel 6, living at the Circle K for a midnight shake.  Wanted to stop at Moliaros by Bookmans' liked their food last couple times, this time not so much, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.  Only found one cd at both Zia's and the one on Speedway I found Soft Machine Third on CD but the one on Oracle, the help pissed me off to the point that I left without buying anything.  I don't know what it was but they kept bothering me asking if I needed help, looking for something or am I all right. On the 7th time of being bothered by some pushy dude, I threw up my hands and walked out.  One of the reasons why it's better to shop online.  They had some 10 cent records I was going to buy but the pushy sales associates made me decide it wasn't worth the hassle.  7 times bothered, and I thought that the Thunderbird Zia's help bothering me 4 times in a hour was bad enough.  At least the Zia's in Tempe let me to my own devices.  Guess which store I bought the most from.  One thing about Tucson, they had the cheapest gas at 3.12 a gallon.

Friday, I concluded my tour of AZ at La Quinta Inn  on Grove and finished up shopping at the FYE by Fiesta Mall.  The FYE stores were a big disappointment, the Tempe Broadway store had some things of note but the bad rap music drove me out and the one on Gilbert Street I jolted down and took notes of a couple cds but didn't think I needed them bad enough to pick up.  Next day, I went into Phoenix and picked up a couple of cheap cds at Half Priced Books as well as a few 45s, then found the new Zia's on Camelback which is their biggest store but after three hours looking through 45s and Cds, found nothing of note.  By then temps in Phoenix was a record breaking 119 degrees.  Decided to get some Chinese food at my favorite spot, the Jade in Metro Center and they gave a lot of food but i ended up getting sick afterwards almost to the point that of going to ER.  But I survived somehow.

What did Sunday bring?  One more visit to Zia's Tempe, picked up a Captain Beefheart and a Joe Walsh that is hard to find and decided that was enough tunes to bring back.  And then took a walk downtown Tempe in 118 degree temps (another record) and had a malt for dinner and three Arby's Jr Roast Beef for supper and got to watch Ice Road Truckers and finding a computer and reading about the bad news back home.  For the first time though, the monsoon started and skies got dark in the afternoon which sparked the fire up in Yarnell but in Tempe/Mesa it was just dark clouds.  Got back to the motel and did a night walk around the old Mesa Fiesta stripmall that used to be home to Best Buy, Marshalls, Staples, Famous Footwear and the missed Borders.  It sits empty but it's going to be a new home to Upper Iowa University where Borders used to be.  Thought that was ironic, Upper Iowa University in Arizona?

As I begin to pack to come home to this mess left by another GD fucking Monsoon storm in the basement, I had one more morning walk around the area and heard a crash, looked up and seen a SUV smacked in the middle of Southern and Alma School and a taxi cab smacked on the side.  Don't know what happened but either the SUV guy thought he was going to get a arrow after a red light or the cab ran a red light and BAM. Both drivers were okay but the SUV's front got rearranged and probably a total loss.  To which I prayed to get back to the airport without any problems, and then getting through the airport and security without any problems and hope no fucking change zombies came up to me.  Had two of them surprise me the day I got there.  It's a big problem in a big city when you have some scruby looking dude come up and asking for change.  Felt sorry for one of them but when I had one more come up to the car after I got out of Zia's in Tempe, I almost ran the asshole over.  They say it's worse in Phoenix, but I know it sucks more in Las Vegas. I know from last year.  Anyway, I managed to get to the airport although the clusterfuck that is the check in area and making it to the airplane and getting out in time was a event upon itself. 

My brother brought me home and was telling me about the events of what I missed and how he and Mom did their best to get things out of the way when the GD monsoon hit last week.  Thanks bro and Mom. 

In summery, The Last Bargain Hunt in Arizona is that.  I wouldn't be surprised if FYE closed a couple more of their stores in that area.  It's a sad trend for the bargain hunter that nobody is buying cd's like they used to and the used inventory that FYE had was poor.  Hastings was no better although they still continue to have a decent selection of things on sale for 3.99 or less new.  For the first time in three years I actually bought some stuff from the Kingman store and may have brought more since they had some decent 1.50 cds.  But it was basically more miss than hit and had I known the Flagstaff Hastings was out of business wouldn't have trekked up there.  The Bookmans Store used Cds are overpriced, most are around 8.50 and basically I'm not paying anything more unless it's out of print. Which I did find the elusive Saigon Kick The Dragon on Wounded Bird.

But at the same time what used to be going around the Phoenix area and hitting all the decent stores has turned into a state wide search and even if you do venture into a Hastings or Zia's you will not find what you could find say 10 or 20 years ago. Rockaway is gone, so is Wherehouse Music and Sam Goody and even FYE continues to trim their stores.  Basically I'm better off going to Half Priced Books and finding a obscure Babs Gonzalez CD or Dave Brubeck for 2 dollars and get the same satisfaction as I do going to the one at home.   With pushy and overzealous help at the Tucson Oracle Zia's not helping things either I really do believe that we have come to the end of the line in search of the hard to find.  Sometimes going back to a FYE I do discover something that I overlook before, Jim Croce's I Got A Name for example.  Or The Millennium Begin for 2 dollars at Zia's Tempe.  But outside of that, you have to search and search and even then the returns get less and less.

Maybe I have it all and don't need to push myself anymore than I have been.  Yes it was work but it was fun before the back spams started up, before Montezuma's Revenge after a big Mexican Dinner or having a dry nose in the middle of the night.  Or having stomach pains from bad take out food.

But in the process I got a kick out watching dudes buy crappy albums from Goodwill, watching them put the Carpenters, Carly Simon and Culture Club into their stack of tunes, watching the trailer trash queen buy 20 cheap CDs at Hastings and hearing a couple old dudes taking about "the Zombies are out today" at the Flagstaff Del Taco.  People must have thought I lived in Arizona, had one guy ask about The Motel 8 I was staying at Sunday Night while taking his daughter to college orientation.   Or talking to Skip at the Mesa hotel about storms in Florida and the record hot temps.  Nevertheless my heart and soul remains down in Tempe/Mesa, in the bargain bins at the Hastings in Kingman or FYE next to Fiesta Mall.  Sad to say, my livelihood remains here in the floodlands of Iowa to which storm after storm wishes me to be back in oven that is Arizona or Lake Havasu.  And I'll be back at work, trying to balance work and trying to get things back to normal here again and compiling top tens and watching ratings and thinking I'm making a difference.

The Last Bargain Hunt in Arizona is over.  May we never do this again.....till next year.


PS. Oatman: Forgot to add that the Oatman Hotel was closed to the public so I couldn't go upstairs and take pictures and see if Oatie, the ghost was still around. Oatman has some new updates to it, some newer buildings replacing the old and crumbling, but the burros were out and in the way of traffic.  They actually had an open mine that I managed to go inside but the further I went into the darker and darker it got till I got to a section that it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.  To which I didn't go any further and walked back out into the daylight.

The radio stations I listened to were KCDX and KSLX, the latter more often after I became disappointed that that KCDX was playing the same 50 songs earlier in the day.  For a radio station that prides itself on playing the lesser known, it's one thing to play the same thing over and over even if it's a track no other radio station plays.  And Great Gig In The Sky still annoys me.

But not as annoying as Train's Soul Sister which was blaring from a pizza joint in Lake Havasu City.  I ended up walking next door to Del Taco.

Favorite hangouts:  Zia's Records in Tempe, FYE Fiesta Mall area, Half Priced Books-Camelback, Hastings in Kingman and Lake Havasu City.

Worst stores: Zia's Records Oracle Road (The help was too pushy and too annoying, seven times asking me for help or if I'm okay or all right gets a bit annoying)

Zia's Records-Thunderbird Rd Phoenix (Pushy help but they only bothered me 4 times; they're known to do this in past stoppings).

Other notes:  Bookman's was very hit and miss, only cd I bought was the Saigon Kick-Lizard on Wounded Bird.  Problem remains their high prices on used CDs, at 8.50, or 10 dollars for The Beatles. Since they're the only CD store in Flagstaff now I guess they can do that but in Mesa they're next door to Goodwill and sometimes Goodwill does have better and cheaper music.  I remembered the Speedway Bookman's as a music store a couple years ago but now they're a sporting goods store with the music store relocated down the road

In terms of bargains Hastings beats out FYE although selection varied from location to location although my favorite ones still remain the Lake Havasu City and Kingman stores.  Bullhead City didn't have a good used selection and there's too many weird folk in Prescott for me to hang around.  FYE on Broadway in Tempe had a big selection of dollar cds of varying degree but not enough to compel me to return and try to sort through all they had while they were playing crap rap.  Last year the Gilbert FYE had plenty of good music, this time out not much so.  The best bargains were at the FYE across Fiesta Mall.

Revolver Records in Phoenix branched out to a new store on McClintock in Tempe so I went there instead of Phoenix.  The help was friendly and let me to my own devices but their dollar selection of LPs, all of them were pretty scratched up. I got there late but they were kind enough to let me still look away after the five oclock closing that they do on Sundays. Worth a look if you're in the area.

Best pizza place was Buono's in Chandler about a mile away where I used to live.  Their motto: Our Pizza's are so fresh we have to slap them.  And they were fresh.  New York style. In the stripmall a couple doors down from Goodwill on Guadalupe and Dobson.

I boycotted Sonic, still pissed at them for closing all the Iowa stores up here.

Finally, 3 Half Priced Bookstores in the Phoenix/Mesa area had some 45s that i passed up last time still there.  Disappointed in Bookman's putting the damn price tag on the record label itself.  Passed on Louie Jordan's Run Joe cuz of that. Ever tried to peel a price label off the old black Decca labels?  They always tear up the damn label every fucking time.  If you have a record sleeve put the fucking price there, not on the label, very against my wishes and drives the price down should you ever want to sell it.

For the most part, I was on my own this trip.  No friends were available to get together although I did meet a few characters in Del Taco or Hastings.  Sometimes that's the way it goes.  BTW meet the grouchy old TSA dude who bitched about me having sunglasses on my head while going through security.  Good job Barney Fife.  (Photo courtesy of the Gazette)

 

Last Bargain Hunt In Arizona Part 1

Why did I come home?

While I was gone, Summer Storm Jerkoff came and dumped 8 inches of rain the past couple days and for the forth time in four months, we ended up getting water in the basement once again.  The fucking frustration that has been this year weatherwise continues. Can't wait for Summer Storm Kunt if and when it gets here.

While I was gone, the readership made last month the 2nd best month. Thanks for your continued support.

While I was gone, last Wednesday storm knocked power out of here for 5 hours  and the most intense heavy rain came in sideways and everywhere it can come.  While I was gone, Lowden became a raging river in its city limits.  While I was gone, the Wapsipinicon River went up to 19 feet in Anamosa but thankfully they kept their sandbags up in the low lying areas and therefore managed to avoid more disaster.  Coming home I noticed the Cedar River was past flood stage for the third time in as many months.

I'm surprised that with my continuing to bitch and give Mother Nature the finger for every damn rain storm we get (I was doing that down there while watching the Weather Channel) that I continue to get ratings beyond expectations. I didn't think we would clear 3,000 views even before submitting Al Kooper's top ten. But thanks to the lonely Russian women sites, they managed to make the Neil Young Review number 2 with 613 views behind the 719 for The Brains blog.  Most of the ratings went to the archival stuff, only two came from June but overall I guess I can't complain.  But you know I will.

If you read this far, The Last Bargain Hunt In Arizona was another attempt to locate the forgotten stuff while doing the fun things I like to do in Arizona.  Like hanging at Zia's, Hastings and FYE, going up to the north country, doing the Route 66 thingy, then on to Lake Havasu City and then two days in Tucson.  The big news was the Doce Fire that was in full brunt when I arrived there and when I left a lightning sparked the Yarnell fire that claimed 19 firefighters, the worst loss in US history since 9/11.  I drove past Yarnell a week before on the way to Prescott and then to Flagstaff.  Yarnell is on AZ 89 and basically a tourist town, not a lot going in there and there were a few empty buildings in the business district.  But without rain, it was dry, the vegetation and grass was brown and a slight spark would set off a fire.  That would happen a week later, as the beginning of the monsoon season begin Sunday Afternoon, when a dry lightning strike set up a blaze that would eventually take out half the town.  Sad to say that 19 fire fighters died when shifting winds shifted the fire to being on top of them.  Either way, it was a sad way to end a vacation that was at the moment uneventful.   Arriving at Prescott a half hour later, they had a bluegrass festival going but I was trying to get through town.  So I didn't stop.

A change of plans, I got off the road to Sedona cuz I wanted no part of that tourist trap, I continued up 89 to Ash Fork and heading on I-40 to Flagstaff to spend the night there but sad to say that the Hastings that used to be next door to Bookman's closed up shop so it turned out to be a wasted trip. So I spent the night at a Super 8, hoping to catch Ice Road Truckers but came to find out that they didn't even had the History channel.

Monday, back on the road but before I went west, the Bauhaus store caught fire and they had to get people out of that store.  Never quite knew the cause of it but it made the news.  Off to Crookton Pass one more time to enjoy the sunshine and maybe see some trains but only saw 2.  And got sunburned badly in the process.  The sunshine and gusty dry winds didn't help either.  Stopped in Seligman to Angel's Barber Shop but he wasn't there, but I did managed to spend about 50 dollars in shirts, magnets and a autographed photo of Angel Delgadillo that they sold for 15.99.  I didn't think I would be back for a long time and at least I would have a memento of the last remaining link to the original Route 66.

Made it to Kingman for a night at my adopted town and got a room at the Motel 6 next to the train tracks and at El Paradiso downtown for Mexican but for the first time ever, not one train came through downtown. And didn't see any till I saw two going in different directions when I got the motel. Found a few interesting CDs at Hastings.  More road music on the way to Lake Havasu City.

Tuesday, was Bullhead City to Lake Havasu City and I stopped at Laughlin to feed the goldfish that they have outside the casino.  It got up to 111 in the shade so I got burned again but it was fun feeding the fish but at the same time feeding two ducks that seemed to get all the fish food rather than the fish themselves.  Then it was off to Needles, home of the five dollar a gallon gas and the Hastings at Lake Havasu to which I found Jeff Beck Beck Ola for 3 bucks new.  Funny thing about the Hastings stores is seeing all the trailer trash folk, with their kids running up and down the aisles, they seemed to have lots of that motley crew, especially the Kingman and Prescott stores.  Must have been Wal Mart rejects.  Then a walk up and down London Bridge before heading to Tucson.