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1. Strange Meeting Wilfred Owen
2. Power Tools Strange Meeting

Power Tools – Strange Meeting just visited my page and I thought I’d see what they were listening to and I noticed the name Power Tools, hence the following post. Strange Meeting. Longer ago than I like to think. Antilles was a sometimes forward-thinking record label and this was its most interesting release, imo. Power Tools was a trio headed up by retiring axeman of the moment Bill Frissell, the inestimable Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums and sometime Arto Lindsay bassist Melvin Gibbs.

My brother was stationed at Camp Lejeune in 1970 and was in Viet Nam as well. He was diagnosed with breast cancer. Petrodollars: Figuring out what to do with PNG's.

I listened to Strange Meeting a lot at the time. As I only have it on vinyl, I put on some Naked City, specifically the creaking, spooky Leng T’che. I’m going to see whether I’m up to the 31 minute Absinthe when it arrives, I’m still on the radioactive horror of Fleur Du Mal at the moment. And now it’s been sliced open by Artemisia Absinthium Anyway, Power Tools. After a little checking, it seems it’s been long out of print. An Amazon UK reseller is trying to sell a copy at the ridiculous price of £101 Amazon US resellers are trying for around $70 and on eBay a vinyl copy is going for $3.99 with 3 days to go.

Of course my copy’s upstairs in the cupboard. Another reason to buy a record player, perhaps, or more likely resurrect my old Leak Truespeed deck (for which Google returns no references).

Strange Meeting Wilfred Owen

Anyway, Power Tools. Was a brilliant, shredding trio that I’d love to hear again.

Power Tools Strange Meeting

Frisell I lost touch with sometime after his sixth album, once he’d travelled too far from the me(n)tal path that I so enjoyed, Shannon Jackson faded into the shadows sometime round the mid ’90s I think (last I heard he’d gone back to Texas to look after his ailing mother) this is starting to sound like that lyric to Iggy Pop’s Dum Dum Boys Strange Meeting is one to watch out for anyways, it deserves a reissue. In the meantime here’s a fine Naked City track in their death ambient mode PS Can’t help but think that Leng Tch’e prefigures Sunn O))) by a decade and a half and the fact that Frisell was a floppy haired mid-westerner lends the music an extra frisson or three. Phewthe memories come flooding back. S’funny, i never really got the measure of strange meeting – i liked frisell and shannon jackson, but this album didn’t ever click with me. I remember reading a last exit interview where rsj and sonny sharrock slagged off frisell, abercrombie etc and i suspected that maybe shannon’s heart wasn’t in power tools. I never liked melvin gibbs much anyhow – nice hats, but not much else going on imho. As to antilles, the best album on that label has got to be the decoding society’s barbeque dog, innit?

The thing for me about Strange Meeting was that Frisell alternately played both melodic and heavy. I was a big fan though and didn’t ever hear RSJ not being into it, at least in the music. That was partly Last Exit’s bag though, being rough and ready in attitude, musically and otherwise. I’m fairly ignorant about early RSJ, really got into him around Decode Yourself and the follow-ups like Texas. I wonder whether he’ll make a comeback One of my favourite ever gigs was seeing him at I think the Half Moon Theatre in Mile End with my mate Robin.

It was the band that recorded Red Warrior, but they were 200% more cheek-wobbling in person than on that slightly disappointing recording (er, who produced? Our friend Billy Laswell) Two bassists, three guitarists and RSJ at the centre of it all he began by playing some strange pipes, dancing and grunting, then the band kicked off and didn’t stop til the end – big, heavy blues/jazz/rock/marching band hybrid. The grin on my face didn’t subside til long after it was all over. Unsure if it really is my browser simply because I yet got no free time to upgrade and so i’m now utilising G chome 2 but while taking a look at this web site I’ve found some sort of strange letters all around the site, in the case it is essential I merely thought I would tell you.

It says it together with many added txt just after it, similar to Attention: Cannot modify body information and so forth. It is actually slightly strange because for me webpages similar to google.com and bing.com or my own one cause me never trouble.

About I’ve been writing this blog for quite a lot longer than three years and now I’m finally getting round to writing something in the About page. But what to write? Oh well, if you check the category listings you’ll see what I cover. It’s a ragtag assortment of bits and bobs, anything that catches my fancy really. Unsurprisingly, much of that is music. I much appreciate comments, but whether you feel like making them or not, I hope you find something of interest.

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