July 28, 2026 - Black Sabbath - Symptom of the Universe (1975)

Mother moon she's calling me back to her silver womb

Father of creation takes me from my stolen tomb

Seven hundredth unicorn is waiting in the skies

A symptom of the universe, a love that never dies

I didn't always love Black Sabbath, most stumbling myopic blunder of my musical life. It's because I didn't know. The radio station never played much by them; meanwhile, it played pretty much every Led Zeppelin song. If I had grown up with a heavy dose of  Sabbath? Well, who knows. Why didn't the older Garcia brothers have Black Sabbath records? They had tons of Yes and Uriah Heep albums. Were they hiding them?!

This is like the ultimate Beavis and Butthead riff, such a headbanger. Phenomenal drumming. Ozzy does his thing, interpreting Geezer Butler's fantastic voyage through space and time. Shortly after three minutes, Tony Iommi riffs out and goes into a solo at 3:36, then blasts off into the stratosphere at 3:49.

At 4:23, things change dramatically. We are suddenly on a pillow of acoustic guitars. Ozzy still belting out the groovy love poetry as the gentle music drifts on.

 

July 27, 2026 - Regurgitator - Mountains (2013)

My friend Kate sent me this CD years ago. Great album, Dirty Pop Fantasy. Mountains kind of reminds me of The Reds, Pinks and Purples "Don't Come Home Too Soon", which I wrote about earlier this year. You know, the vocals have similar ranges and styles and reverb. This is a nice rocker with an 80s appreciation. Joy Division meets The Church maybe? It rolls along with a sweet guitar lick, nice pop structure, lyrics about a love that wasn't meant to be. Regurgitator are from Brisbane, Australia, and they are still out there making music and playing live shows. Awww yyyyeah.

 

July 26, 2026 - The Vandelettes - A Love of Mine (1968)

A dose of sugar pop soul fluff today. Geez it probably took someone two minutes to write this song. Full of the usual cliches. Girl sees guy walking down the street, he somehow picks her to be his girl even though he could have any other girl, all of whom are way prettier than her, low self-esteem, etc.

The Vandelettes were from Texas. That's about all I can find. Searching their name on the interweb thingy, it thought I was thinking of either a group called the Velvelettes or a women's drill team at the University of Idaho, the Vandalettes. So many -ettes back in the day. Marvelettes, Ronettes, probably others.

No photo available. It's like they never existed.

July 25, 2026 - Velvett Fogg - Lady Caroline (1969)

This appears on a compilation called Real Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970. If I ever intentionally listened to this song I have forgotten. It's a dark dream of a tune, two or three chords. It's a story about a guy who cheats on his Lady Caroline with another woman. Caroline sees the guy enter his "castle" with her, she finds the woman in his bed and she kills her. Then Caroline is thrown in jail and later executed. Meanwhile, this guy is feeling the massive guilt and saying he'll never love another woman. It's tragic but really dude? "No one's fault but mine?" This Lady Caroline was obviously nuts, she didn't have to kill the other woman, she could have tried to kill you too but she didn't. Just move on and quit pretending you're so devastated and haunted.

It's ok musically, trippy piano, nice guitar riff, eerie medieval themed vocals. But totally ridiculous, this faux woe is me I cheated and it's all my fault and I'll never love again "until the end of time" bs. like fuck off "sir" lord duke whatever, with your "castle" and your "maiden" and your guilty heart in 6/8 time. Acting like you'll just mope around in your castle forever haha. You'll easily find a few more servants down in the vale to satisfy your cravings.

Velvett Fogg...wtf. Yeah adding those extra letters is so typical. Let's see if I can find a photo of these guys:

Um...this is the album cover. In the liner notes, John Peel wrote "Remember Velvett Fogg - you will hear the name again." Wrong. Well, now you did because of this post. But after this one time you will not hear of them again. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) was in the group but made a wise decision and left after 1968.

July 24, 2026 - Twilight Circus - Cracking Dub (1995)

I'm having my music player, MediaMonkey, just pick tunes at random. I know nothing about Twilight Circus, so I have to look it up.

Twilight Circus is a project of a member of Legendary Pink Dots named Ryan Moore. He's been interested in dub since the early 80s, and has worked with reggae greats like Michael Rose, Sly & Robbie, & Big Youth. 

July 23, 2026 - Venom - One Thousand Days in Sodom (1981)

Few could hear the suffering

And the pain of ripping flesh

But those who did were damned in hell

And breathed their final breath

Venom are a heavy metal band from England. Their second album, titled Black Metal, was so influential it became the name of a genre. 

One Thousand Days in Sodom is from their first album, Welcome to Hell. It starts off all grungy thick slabbed and distorted, very lo-fi production. The part I like best is in the middle, when the bass gets all phased out and just a very cool wah guitar solo comes in. According to my calculator, 1000 days is about 2.74 years. Since the wicked city of Sodom was destroyed a long time ago, we probably don't need to worry about spending any time there. Phew.

July 22, 2026 - Graham Parker & The Rumour - Passion Is No Ordinary Word (1979)

Alongside the smart, snarling, sardonic Brit singers like Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson sits Graham Parker. He should be way more popular than he is; just a tremendous songwriter.

From the incredible album Squeezing Out Sparks, this is a blueprint for making a raw stripped down slow burn nightcrawl rocker. Its main point is the way a word like passion gets tossed around so cavalierly that people don't know what passion actually means or feels like. Parker said, "People are dull, aren't they? People aren't living to their max, or to anywhere near it. They're just drones or clones. Especially in England - they're just walking zombies. They believe what the TV tells them. They're just put in a direction and led there".

July 21, 2026 - Prince Fatty - Cow Foot and Gravy (2007)

Mike "Prince Fatty" Pelanconi is a British record producer. He assembled a group of reggae greats to create the excellent album Survival of the Fattest. It is dub, rocksteady, roots all mixed together.

Huh, there's also a sculpture in China called Survival of the Fattest.

July 20, 2026 - Phil Collins - I Don't Care Anymore (1982)

I still remember buying the album Hello, I Must Be Going! by Phil Collins. It was at Laury's Records in the Deerfield Commons, it was a Saturday morning, and I was out running errands with my Dad. By this time in 1983, I had heard a few other songs from it and decided I liked them as well. That same day, I also picked up Men At Work's Cargo (I liked Overkill and It's A Mistake), and Pink Floyd's The Final Cut (based solely on liking Now Now John).

I Don't Care Anymore is like the little brother of In The Air Tonight. It has that same keyboard backed shadowy atmosphere. Not as good but still a decent song. He was beginning to crank out the hits, well on his way to dominating the 80s. I never cared much for the stuff that came after, like Sussudio and One More Night and so on. But I remember being impressed when he started out playing Live Aid in London then flew the Concorde to Philly later in the day. The guy was everywhere.

July 19, 2026 - Culture - Natty Dread Naw Run (1979)

Even though my enemies are come

Natty Dread nah run

For them are like still gone

These are words to live by and take comfort from. "Let perseverance be your guide!"

To the Rastafarians, their beliefs give them courage in the face of threats from Babylon. Let them come, for it's like they don't really exist. "Hear what I say when I say!"

Sweet harmonies, cool little trombone slides, percussion bouncing all around, brass punctuations, bible stories.