Two scoops of DETROIT ROCK SAMPLER please

January 6, 2011 11:24 PM

If you like meaty filthy 60s-70s rock by sometimes severely ripped blokes &b.b.b.babes — like I know I do — then bite on these two crispy mix streams and the extensive opinionated textual japery and idolatry from Brit musician, musicologist, Julian Cope that accompanies them. This man writes books on music. Why is he giving it away?

On these trips to trilling days of yesteryear you'll hear two unrelieved hours of MC5, Alice Cooper, Amboy Dukes, Frigid Pink, Funkadelic, ? & the Mysterians, the Stooges ... und und dozens of other lesser and greater tunes, there are 38 here spread across two hours. But wait! there's some of the meatiest writing this side of Lester Bangs ... AND pictures. NOW how much would you pay? For your added enjoyment, the bit-rate's even funky. I'm finished with this one.

posted by Twang (21 comments total)

10 minutes in and very cool.
posted by a non e mouse at 11:39 PM on January 6, 2011

This is great, thanks. I haven't listened to anything of his since The Teardrop Explodes' Kilimanjaro, which I think I've got on vinyl.
posted by lydgate at 11:58 PM on January 6, 2011

I needed this, 40cc's of unfiltered scuzz. Thanks.
posted by item at 12:01 AM on January 7, 2011

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BROTHER WAYNE KRAMER

Sorry, irrelevant, I just like saying that.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:11 AM on January 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

Also, Death, "Politicians In My Eyes"
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:16 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Glad youse are diggin it!

I found a mention at Friedman's WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE? blog, and he found it at Rich Metzner's Dangerous Minds blog. Two oases for the twitchin in sorry-ass times.
posted by Twang at 12:18 AM on January 7, 2011

Sure, now I'm gonna be late for work....
posted by HuronBob at 2:58 AM on January 7, 2011

Track down Julian's Glam Rock Sampler for more great nuggets from the era, candyass side. Introduced me to The Move's "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm" and John Kongo's "He's Gonna Step on You Again" and Be Bop Delux's "Swan Song" among many other platfom sneaker classics. Kongo's track was the basis for the Happy Monday's "Step On".
posted by bendybendy at 3:10 AM on January 7, 2011

Julian's also got some fantastic books about stone circles and other neolithic sites around Europe. In addition to that he also reads out his poetry during Sunn O)))'s 25 minute long "My Wall" track. Cope's a national treasure.
posted by longbaugh at 3:18 AM on January 7, 2011

Excellent mix.

Pettiness Ensues:
I sure wish he would've given the credit to all of Michigan. ? is from Saginaw and Grand Funk is from Flint. I know, minor point to someone who is not even American, so I guess I need to accept that "Detroit" just has more street cred than "Michigan."
posted by NoMich at 3:21 AM on January 7, 2011

Bless my cotton socks that I heard this news
posted by quarsan at 3:52 AM on January 7, 2011

Can I just say that the Arch-Drude is one of my musical heroes and if he isn't one of yours there must be something wrong with you. Go buy "Peggy Suicide" at once, you silly person!

The stuff he's released by himself over the last few years has been bloody excellent too. Oh yeah... and the 60s/70s thugrock? Wonderful. I was weaned on that stuff. That's why I turned into such a beautiful soul.
posted by Decani at 5:07 AM on January 7, 2011

Previously on Metafilter: Julian Cope reviews Tom Lehrer.

Highly recommended: his memoir Head/On, about the Teardrop Explodes and the glory days of Liverpool postpunk and how much better his band was than Echo and the Bunnymen (well, it's true!)
posted by escabeche at 5:32 AM on January 7, 2011

Julian Cope is my favorite rock 'n roller of all time. His muse is unpredictable, but he follows it with gusto. Both volumes of his autobiography are great, as are his music history/review books krautrocksampler and japrocksampler. (I guess he even did a web site to catalog Japanese psychedelic rock: http://www.japrocksampler.com/) I only have one of his books on megaliths, but it's great.

Early this year he is planning to release a disc of his unreleased recordings from 1993, between being dropped from island after Jehovahkill and before Autogeddon. It should be some great stuff.
posted by snofoam at 5:48 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Maybe a dumb question, but is there any way to download this rather than stream it?
posted by chrisph at 6:38 AM on January 7, 2011

Aw man, from the headline of this post I assumed that KISS had made the branding jump to boutique ice cream. Oh well, a boy can dream.

/still waiting for KISS brand ramen, too
posted by davelog at 6:52 AM on January 7, 2011

chrisph open the download file in Notepad and you'll find the link
posted by quarsan at 7:58 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

@NoMich re: credit to all of Michigan

Funny when he mentions "the northern Detroit area of Saginaw". By that standard Birmingham is North London and Bristol is West London. Either he has a very small map - or to his ears Questionmark sounds Detroit ... not mine. But then there's so little to go by.

MI contributed way more than its share; quick name notable bands of that era from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota!
posted by Twang at 8:35 AM on January 7, 2011

The Archdrude's ability to track down under-underground music and then turn around and make music that respectfully channels it is uncanny. Five more samplers can be found here -- all of them are varying shades of fantastic, and the voice of the DJ on the last one, whose name I shall not repeat, is unforgettable. Just make sure there's plenty of beer in the fridge.
posted by vverse23 at 10:38 AM on January 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Released as a 7” single, ‘Rock’n’roll’ failed to turn around Ryder’s failing fortunes by making the Top 40.

it made the top 40 in battle creek - one of the neat things about living in michigan is that we got to hear some of this stuff on our radios

Funny when he mentions "the northern Detroit area of Saginaw". By that standard Birmingham is North London and Bristol is West London.

well, no - saginaw, like lansing, battle creek and flint are michigan factory towns that have a lot in common with detroit, at least musically and culturally - it was the dream of every struggling band in that era to gig in detroit and the bands that were there were the bands everyone wanted to sound like - strong, punchy, no bullshit rock and roll with a heavy r&b feel - they were the template and the rest of the michigan bands followed them

hell, for a short time, mel schacter of grand funk railroad played bass in ? and the mysterians

i saw destroy all monsters several times in the late 70s, early 80s - awesome stuff

yeah, we definitely had our own scene for awhile before the homogenization of rock and roll culture took over - but at least michigan gave the world techno as a parting gift before corporate music took over - and let us not forget p-funk ...
posted by pyramid termite at 10:16 PM on January 7, 2011

"I sure wish he would've given the credit to all of Michigan. ? is from Saginaw and Grand Funk is from Flint."

? is from Sagnasty, but has lived most of his life in Detroit; it's where his house that burned down was.

And if folks are into the Destroy All Monsters stuff that's a little more noisy (prior to Smith), track down the Broken Mirrors comp from Laurence Miller (whadayaknow, it has a quote from me on there from years back). It's pretty fun, though recorded worse than Metallic KO.

For a while, I've wanted to put together a Detroit No Wave/hardcore/post-punk comp, with bands like Destroy All Monsters, The State, Laughing Hyenas, Crucifucks, Meatmen, Cult Heroes, Bootsy X, The Mutants…
posted by klangklangston at 10:15 AM on January 10, 2011