Tag Archives for POETRY

BULL TONGUE 26 by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore

(intended for publication in the cancelled Arthur Vol. 1, No. 26 [March 2007])

Bull Tongue 26
The Top 80 of 2006

1. GOTHENBURG BLOOD CULT – New tape label out of Sweden bartering in ultra hell noise. Check out the compilation Fuck Money, Fuck Life w/ grinding hardcore spew from Maniac Cop , Ochu , and Treriksroset . Sweden’s such a beatific place, it’s hard to figure the gore mania the noise scene there is so preoccupied with.

2. SAME BAND – Boxed Set 10 CD box (Disques Dual) Amazing documentation of a Portland, ME combo who existed in an oddball universe akin to some of the best just-pre-punk weirdos. They came along later than bands like MX-80 Sound, but manifest a similar vibe, which makes sense because their roots are in combos first formed in 1968 or. Part free form, part Zappa, part punk, this is rural-experimental fuckeroo of the highest order. Includes some DVD video footage, interviews, a great booklet of fliers and pics, and is contained inside a most lovely wooden box. During their lifetime they cut only one LP and one 45, but this set (recorded between ’77 & ’80) captures a brilliant, beautiful strangeness.

3. SIC ALPS – Pleasures and Treasures LP (Animal Disguise) It’s time for Sic Alps to fully bust out. An incredible raw psychedelia is being played here and after a couple of down low tapes on Folding and Animal Disguise we’re steamy mouthed listening to their first LP (which is basically an early version of the band w/ the awesome Bianca Sparta of Erase Errata .)

4. DESPERATE MAN BLUES DVD – director: Edward Gillan (Dust to Digital) Nice to have a DVD of this great documentary on Joe Bussard , plus another featurette, King of the Record Collectors , and other bonus stuff. Bussard is a stone gas, grooving around his basement amidst one of the finest collections of pre-war 78s ever assembled. A few nice archival shots of Fahey , too. And the stories are hilarious.

Continue reading →

A POEM FOR BIG RED by John Sinclair

Poet-author-scholar-human John Sinclair wrote “this little ode in memory of my pal Big Red, who passed away in Lansing MI around Christmas time”…

hold your horn high
for ron redman gulyas

early sunday afternoon
taking coffee at the dolphins
& the spring training reports
from the detroit news on-line,

all of a sudden
i’m at the batting cage
in royal oak 20 years ago
with big red,

a great big motherfucker in his late 20s
who weighed about 390
& played the tenor saxophone
with the sound of yore

like coleman hawkins
& ben webster were whispering
in his ear
while he fingered his horn,

big red
was a great big crazy motherfucker
who could tell you
the high school & college stats

for all the players
coming up on the tigers in the spring,
& he still played baseball himself,
semi-pro for a lansing team,

not the popular lansing lug-nuts
but some obscure outfit
that would pay him a few bucks
to suit up & power a couple of balls

out of the park,
& he claimed to be a gypsy
or either related to the little giant
of jazz, don redman

& he played
anything he wanted
on the tenor saxophone,
incomplete skills but

plenty of feeling, a
round,
warm sound
that was always good to hear,

big red,
my man,
he backed me up so many times
& played in my band (even though

johnny evans couldn’t stand
the way he played
the other tenor sax),
a great big crazy motherfucker

who drank more beer
than anyone you seen, & his weight
would go up & down
from 390 to 210

& then back up again,
& in the early ’90s
he fled the united states
& roosted in budapest

for a few years
& had a ball playing his horn
calling himself “ron goulash”
like the hungarian stew

& why he ever came back
will never be known
but he passed in east lansing
just before christmas?

big red,
hold your horn high,
let us hear your raspy breath,
my brother, just one more time

–the dolphins,
amsterdam
march 19, 2006