I’ve written about my admiration for Motor City noisemakers Destroy All Monsters before on this blog, and was lucky enough to see the band in person back in 1979 or ’80 (my memory is foggy at this late date). I have a Destroy All Monsters CD that I found, by stroke of luck, in a Nashville used music store some years back and a handful of 45s that I bought new back in the day while living in Detroit, but to say that this legendary band’s recorded output is slim would be an understatement. Which is why I’m overjoyed to announce the release, by our old friends at MVD Audio, of Live In Tokyo, a rare performance CD featuring a 1996 incarnation of the band that, while not including haunting vocalist Niagara, nevertheless features the talents of founding Monsters Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren, the trio supported onstage by Art Byington and Dave Muller. Scheduled for January 22, 2008 release, this 72-minute CD includes revamped versions of old Destroy All Monsters faves like “You Can’t Kill Kill” and “Evil Works” as well as what is certain to be a weird cover of Jon Anderson/Yes classic tune “Clear Day.” I look forward to hearing this one….

One of my fondest memories of the short time that I spent in Detroit was the robust music scene I encountered after moving to the city from Nashville. Circa 1979-81, I haunted clubs like the New Miami (where the rats would fight you for your beer and junkies would roll slumming rich kids from Grosse Point outside on Cass Avenue), Uncle Jams and the Blind Pig (in Ann Arbor) to check out bands like Destroy All Monsters, the Sonic Rendezvous Band, the Mutants, Flirt, Coldcock and Cinecyde. The Reverend had long departed from the downtown streets of the Motor City by the time that Monster Island was playing the local clubs, but the band’s pedigree is impressive. Featuring musicians Cary Loren (Destroy All Monsters), Warn Defever (His Name is Alive), Erika Hoffman (x-Godzuki) and Matt Smith (Outrageous Cherry, Volebeats), Monster Island released a single album back in ’96 on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label. Now MVD Audio is releasing the first album from the band in over a decade. Also scheduled for January 18th release, Dream Tiger is a 13-song collection of acid-folk tunes featuring an ambitious array of instrumentation, including ethnic folk instruments like the oud, sitar, tanpura, harmonium, shakuhachi, djembe and others mixed alongside traditional axes like guitar, bass, violin, cello, flute and drums, with some novelty sounds like Chinese organ, water harp, Mini-Moog and toy piano thrown in for good measure. Considering the talents of the various band members, Monster Island’s Dream Tiger promises to be one of the New Year’s dark horses, an album worth checking out.

The enigmatic musician Plastic Crimewave is not from Detroit, but Chicago isn’t too far down the highway from the Motor City. I’d often hitch a ride on a Trailways bus to the Second City for a night of blues, booze and random debauchery, returning home broke and exhausted. Crimewave, a/k/a Steve Krakow, is the genius mastermind behind the wonderful Galactic Zoo Dossier zine (see review), a talented artist and writer that also happens to make some of the strangest damn music that you’ll ever hear. Plastic Crimewave’s No Wonderland was originally released as a double-vinyl album set by Eclipse Records, but it has long been out-of-print and goes for a small mint on the collector’s market. This reissue by MVD Audio marks the cult album’s first appearance on CD, No Wonderland featuring Crimewave’s lysergic-drenched, psychedelic space-music as well as cameo appearances by Michael Yonkers, Devendra Banhart, Josephine Foster, Fur Saxa, Spires that in the Sunset Rise, Chris Connelly, and others. If you’re a fan of music out on the fringe like Hawkwind, Can, Acid Mother’s Temple and other visionary fellow travelers, you should definitely check out Plastic Crimewave!

(Click on the CD covers to purchase any of them through Amazon.com. Also check out Cary Loren's Book Beat store for ultra-groovy books and music!)