We're Late For Class

#47 We're Late For Class Presents: The Act You've Known For All These Years (A Mash)

Destined to be our first deleted release. This is a psychedelic mash-up using only tracks from The Beatles' experimental solo releases. Every sound you'll hear is The Beatles (or, more accurately, from their solo albums). No sounds have been added by us. Since they never made an experimental album together, a future press release should wildly claim, "The Beatles - As You've Never Heard Them Before!" If only they'd all just gotten along. That's the premise, anyway. Originally made for our amusement, we figured, hey... why not share it? Link back to us and we'll whisper your name in bonged reverence & dedicate a bowl to your existence. When our species comes to rule this planet, your name will be on the protected rolls and you will come to no harm.

Listen

Space Fantasy Peace (Intro) (1:18)
Real Made Up (7:06)
Ski-ing/Au (3:15)
Mersey Silence Movement 1 (Overture) (5:10)
Greasy Leaf Changes (9:52)
You Can't Fight Virgins In A Dream (7:00)
It's So Hard To Hope For Peace In A Spiral (Requiem) (13:34)
Goodnight Sad Ramsterdam (3:44)
John, Yoko Is My Madness (Hidden Track) (19:02)

The Reviews Are In...
"...we at Ask Fred are glad WLFC exist" - MOJO
"If only they'd all just gotten along." - We're Late For Class
"...finely wrought, melancholy character studies" - NØ
"The 13 minute Lennon epic, 'It's So Hard To Hope For Peace In A Spiral (Requiem),' is an impassioned anti-war cry from the grave." - Earl
"The greatest Beatles mash up of all time." - Never Get Out Of The Boat
"A rather boring and sentimentally self conscious effort from a Face(less)book act soon to be forgotten on the horizon of last decade." - Anonymous Guy
"...sure to go down in music history in the category of 'required listening.'" - Elementary Penguin
"Best Free Beatles Mash-up of Jan 2010!" - Astral Headspace
"Clever stunt yields intriguing results!!" - Astral Headspace (The real quote)
"Luv it! Luv it! Luv it!" - Casey, The College Crowd Digs Me
"...download it as soon as possible" - homemade lofi psych
"...a trip into the dark twisted world of The Beatles alternate reality..."- Omlette Dangle
"To say it transcends the original works is an understatement and may make me eligible for the "Master of the Obvious" award..." - mick55

The pre-law guys insist we say that no money changed hands for these reviews. Thanks for all the totally manufactured opinions. Now that you're a newly published/certified music critic, you've got a virtual license to "download for review purposes." Please consult your attorney.

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#46 A Hundred On The Hyena

Another 23 minute manifesto of improvisation, made up on the spot, never to be played again. If not for the tape recorders, it would be just like this stuff never happened. You’re invited to experience something the remainder of the planet will never, ever hear. Something that, by all rights, shouldn't even exist... or should have dissipated in the air seconds after it took place. Something that record companies already know in advance they’d lose money on. We are We’re Late For Class! Noisemakers who don’t want your money. Improvisers with no ulterior motive for fame. Layabouts lacking the secret desire for padded riders filled with quarts of Jack, spare tube socks and roast beef heavy backstage deli trays (well... the roast beef would be nice). A gang of pot smoking, acid dropping, ecstasy driven misfits who do this... because. Recorded live.

Listen

Stanley's Sun Ra Conga Line Experience (7:09)
A Hundred On The Hyena (6:30)
Les Hallucinations de Shackleton (9:31)
Jazz Interlude (0:33)

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#45 The Stalker 45

The first scene of the pilot episode of The Stalker is set inside a car parked in a dark, desolate, wooded area. One dumb guy and one dumb girl are wrestling in the front seat. Flashbacks are fast and furious; late night hang-ups, phantom doorbells, cars keeping a certain distance behind. Every episode the dumb guy, Ronnie, runs into your every day stalker-related calamities; dog bites, getting roughed up by flashlight wielding Neighborhood Watch guys, reimbursing people for damaged flower beds... there are new adventures every week. Ha! You just can't make this stuff up. At show's end, Ronnie eventually feels the girl up, but that's as far as he gets. The flip side of this digital 45 is the show's elaborate theme music, which plays under the credits. The Quinn/Martin reference harkens back to #11 The Quinn/Martin Quartet Offensive …Tonight's Episode: Dick Gunn.

Listen

The Stalker (Ronnie Don't) (4:00)
The Stalker (Main Titles) (7:14)

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#44 Solar Musik

The Legend of the Vanishing Washington: Three stoned musicians go to a motel to sleep off a bender. The clerk says the room is $30, so each guy chips in a $10 bill and they all stumble up to their room. After a while, the clerk suddenly remembers, 'Hey, we have a $25 Musician's Special.' So he calls the bellhop over and gives him a $5 refund to take up to the room. On the way up in the elevator, the bellhop thinks to himself, 'Those guys were wasted, they'll never know. I'll just give each of the three guys a dollar back, so they'll have only paid $9 each for their room, and I'll keep $2 for myself.' Which he does, even though they were too smashed to care. So, in the end, the musicians (who each got a buck back) paid $27 ($9 x 3 guys) and the bellhop kept $2 for himself. $27 + $2 = $29. Thus... The Legend of the Vanishing Washington. Recorded live.

Listen

Landings On Moons Besides Our Own (5:17)
Flying (4:34)
Solar Musik (In Analog) (5:16)
Instrument Of Art (5:23)

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#43 The LSD Journals, Vol. II

On June 6, just after recording our last mind-numbingly lengthy epic, #42 The LSD Journals Of Dr. Jackson Gamble, we took a smoke break to listen back, a favored ritual around these parts. Some folks stopped by, so we smoked and listened back some more. Then some others came over and we started another round. Thus, we were righteously blitzed when deciding to take another stab at The LSD Journals. After arduous mixing, "Chapter 2" is the result ("Chapter 3" is a Martian version). Thanks to Will C., without whom. Also included: an indoctrination-free, instrumental version for those that like it raw (or don't buy #42's premise in the first place). It's live.

Listen

The LSD Journals: Chapter 2 (14:45)
The LSD Journals: Chapter 3 (6:35)
The LSD Journals: Chapter 2 Again? (Instrumental) (14:45)

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#42 The LSD Journals Of Dr. Jackson Gamble

Shipwrecked on an uncharted island, Dr. Jackson Gamble begins to experiment with mind expansion. Until he is rescued, nearly a year later, Dr. G. kept detailed journals of his experiences with a wide variety of plants he was consuming, including Yoto, a hallucinogen the native Polynesians used for spiritual ceremonies and sacred bloodletting. The Doc was zoned on this stuff for eight straight months and these are his thoughts and exploits. "It was Oriental women such as I have never known," he was once heard to mutter. Another 19 minutes you can never get back. Recorded live.

Listen

The LSD Journals Of Dr. Jackson Gamble (19:00)

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#41 Sheep Watch

At a military-run bio-engineering facility, a duty roster emphasizes just one rule of caution, "Whatever you do, whatever you hear... don't look into their eyes." Of course, to move the plot forward, a stoner security guard fails to heed that rule and mayhem ensues. Engineered sheep first infest your dreams. Then, behavioral changes will occur under their watchful, nay, judgmental eye. After that... well, we'll save the exciting Quinn Martin finale for the script negotiations with Roger Corman. In reality, the title track is just another in a series of cheap re-writes of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." "Capt. Hapi" really only has a sheep theme if all you equator-crossers out there want it to. In the meantime, we've resurrected the classic gatefold album cover for stoners to stare at while listening. If Giles, Giles & Fripp had used this cover you'd have thought they were geniuses. Recorded live.

Listen

Sheep Watch (Don't Look Into Their Eyes) (6:46)
Sheep Watch (Reprise & Fade) (2:07)
Capt. Hapi Crosses The Equator (7:50)
Sheep Watch (Variation) (3:29)

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#40 Another Collection

Another Collection is 2-CDs, 142 minutes, of uncharted improvisation and drug fueled excess, including a seance with Jim Morrison, a musical romp with O.J. Simpson, a homage to producer Jimmy Miller, the theme song for a low budget cable comedy sketch show, one too many accidental nods to Hawkwind and stoned tributes to Ali, Guess Who guitarist Kurt Winter, Pink Floyd and whatever else was on our minds that weekend. It's all here, from a college stoner perspective, of course, culled from previous posts #21-#39. We didn't have room for our 20 to 30 minute jams, but those aren't hard to find. It's all free, so we've done all we can do. Spread the word, tell your pals, post our album for your readers if you'd like... just stop placating us! We're not going away. In fact, #41 is all ready to go. As with our first collection (#20 A Collection), we've got a nifty, state-of-the-art, future-of-online-album art, animated .gif cover. When Kings Of Leon get around to doing it, it might be considered cool.

Listen

Disc 1
Herd Mentality (3:05) #23
Low Budget Cable Sketch Comedy Show Instrumental Theme Song (2:48) #38
Transmission From Jimmy Miller's Car Phone (6:46) #24
Ali Ali (4:57) #27
Under 30 Second Tribute To Kurt Winter (0:29) #21
Lab Animal (3:16) #21
Checkers (5:42) #23
Wind Of The Hawk (4:20) #28
67 (4:23) #31
The Lumbering Rex (Remix) (5:05) #32
Pattern Of Abuse (7:32) #34
Universal Cardigan (Live At Pompeii) (9:08) #38
Dirge Experience (In Easter Hay) (5:31) #38
Buttery Hog Mosh (8:49) #31

Disc 2
Sequel To The Return Of The Son of Monster Magnet (11:00) #28
The Premiere & Final Performance of Jazz From Outer Space (10:31) #35
Liquidity (The Spastic Conductor) (11:25) #33
The Jim Morrison Seance Tapes (13:57) #30
Trippin' In A Plymouth Belvedere (10:25) #32
Particle Alert (12:55) #35

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or... Free 320 (Both Parts Together) Pts 1 & 2
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#39 Opium Den Express

When every minute equals an hour... you're on the Opium Den Express. It runs parallel to the old Ho Chi Minh trail, through Laos, for about 22-1/2 hours. Say nothing, steer clear of the chickens and nestle into one of the back births for the chill experience. The vibrating track pulses with the rhythmic monotony of a non-stop train (a 'heroin gate'), offering hallucinations and plenty of time & space to develop your own plot lines. Think of it as a Spaghetti Eastern. For Broadway, it'll require an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery to fill seats. For now, a few bong hits will do. Recorded live.

Listen

Opium Den Express (22:21)

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#38 The Dirge Experience

We had planned to do a whole album of an alter-ego group, The Dirge Experience... 60s holdouts with white-boy afros, black session sidemen and a credo, In Dirge We Trust. "Dirge Experience (In Easter Hay)," is the band's signature song, which they insist must never be covered by any other artist after they die (especially their own kids). Will it be a fiery plane wreck or a slow, endless succession of OD's and suicides, where one mediocre bassist is left with all the trademarks? As for "Low Budget Cable Sketch Comedy Show Instrumental Theme Song," imagine a spunky, 10 second loop underneath a blurry montage of the latest troupe of hip, irreverent cable comics. "Universal Cardigan (Live At Pompeii)" is us pompously grandstanding against the backdrop of ancient Roman ruins, minus the gong. It's so cosmic, perhaps you should save it for an eclipse or something. Recorded live.

Listen

Low Budget Cable Sketch Comedy Show Instrumental Theme Song (2:48)
Dirge Experience (In Easter Hay) (5:31)
Universal Cardigan (Live At Pompeii) (9:08)

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#37 Live In The Theatre Of DisBelief II

Live In The Theatre Of DisBelief II is our second episode of mind-numbingly random, alien transmissions encountered by the intergalactic scientific deep-space probe, Trace. Episode 2 comes with a plot development unmentioned when Episode 1 (#22 Live In The Theatre Of DisBelief) was released earlier... EAC's (Embedded Addiction Codes). Meaning, casual listeners aboard the ship were unaware they were slowly becoming mentally dependent on the transmission's subliminally embedded helix re-organizer. The plot thickens, as they say. Settle in and toke up for another non-musical, 26 minute improvisational dose of seemingly benign space racket. We're concealing the show's exciting, climatic, professional, prime-time TV conclusion until negotiations get us a graphic novel anime to score. Recorded live, during sessions that included #35 Jazz From Outer Space.

Listen

Live In The Theatre Of DisBelief - Episode 2 (26:19)

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PRESS THANKS...

Thanks to the late, great Fred Dellar at MOJO Magazine for mentioning Art Jackson's Atrocity AND We're Late For Class in two separate "Ask Fred" columns, where he called the Atrocity's Gout a "fine, percussion-fuelled, invigorating free-for-all," and also saying, "we at Ask Fred are glad WLFC exist." Thanks Fred!

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Many thanks to Jeff Fitzgerald over at Psychedelic Waves for including Art Jackson's Atrocity in his list of Top 30 Albums of 2019, calling Tribute To Sun Ra... "Some great, exploratory, tripped out Sun Ra inspired free jazz," and "a terrific album." Needless to say, we're shocked. Since we never sent the guy a dime. Thanks Jeff.

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Thanks to Roz Milner for the two interview/articles posted at Bearded Gentlemen Music, "Solving the Mystery of Art Jackson Atrocity’s Gout," and the most recent, "With His Back To The Crowd: Art Jackson’s Atrocity’s Live In Europe - Lost Live Jazz Recording."

We collectively appreciate the creative interest and the well-groomed ink.

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Thanks to It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine for the article, "Maybe It’s Time To Take Art Jackson’s Atrocity Seriously." Maybe.

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AN ACTUAL RECORD REVIEW...

ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY

Gout

(Unreleased 1974 Promo On Columbia Records)

Reviewed by Joe Kenney @

Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage

If, like me, your favorite era of Miles Davis is his electric era, specifically the 1973-1975 years in which Pete Cosey was his guitarist, then you’ve probably wondered why that super-fantastic lineup of his never cut an album together, after Miles decided to retire in late 1975. I mean, they were the greatest group in history, with Pete Cosey’s phenomenal, psychedelic guitar (the man was beyond Hendrix, that’s all there is to it), Reggie Lucas’ wah-wah’d grounding rhythm guitar, Michael Henderson’s dub-like basslines…hell, I can’t go through all of them, but if you know them, you love them. But if you’ve ever wondered what an album by this super group sans Miles would sound like, well my friends, I give you Gout, by Art Jackson’s Atrocity.

Only thing is, you’ll have to hunt the blogs for it. Recorded in 1974, the album was cut as a promo by Columbia, who then went on to drop both the group and the album, which is unreleased to this day. “The horror…the horror…” No one’s sure why (info is slim to none on this group and album), but most rumors have to do with Art Jackson’s drug abuse. In any case, the album has perfect sound quality – the only source is the promo LP, of course, and it sounds phenomenal.

The Miles connection surfaces again: Art Jackson was a twenty year-old guitarist whom Miles Davis himself recommended to Columbia records. Apparently Davis even funded the recording of the album. The Atrocity was put together around Jackson, an 11-member collective of hard-rockin’, psychedelia-lovin’, jazz-playin’ motherfuckers (two saxophonists, four drummers, two keyboardists, a guy on reeds, a guy on bass, a guy on “effects”), none of whom I’ve ever heard of (much like Art Jackson himself).

The five long tracks on Gout center around Jackson’s guitar, and the kid is Pete Cosey reborn; the stuff on here sounds almost identical to what Cosey was performing on the Agharta and Pangaea albums. That same sort of fucked-up, psychedelic distortion which goes from raging and chaotic one moment to spaced-out drones the next, the strange tunings, the works. Only thing is, unlike Cosey, Jackson’s not above playing a power chord or three, so the album packs a definite metal-rock punch. I mean, it’s fantastic, the whole thing.

The superbly-named “Shaft In Afghanistan” opens the album. Jackson’s guitar is on super-fucked mode, sounding like a cyclic tone. The rhythm section lays down a menacing, throbbing track, which Jackson and the sax & reeds proceed to riff over. Jackson soon leaves the actual “song” to the others, instead riffing and roaring with all manner of guitar sounds across the track. He’s everywhere, from wah-wah to thick distortion to cosmic fuzz. Things cool down three minutes in, but it’s only a fake-out; the track comes right back in. Jackson funks it up on wah-wah, with studio-tricked handclaps providing additional percussion. There's all sorts of electronic gimmickry on the album; this isn’t just some quickly recorded demo. This eventually calms down again into a sort of funky ambience – but it’s just another fake-out! The track rips right back up, the drums so superbly recorded (and no doubt closely-miked) that they seem to pound within the caverns of your skull.

“Arabian Fabian” (another great title!) comes in with total menace, until a faux-lite jazz tune pops up. Funky, proto-drum’n’bass drum kit and sax. But this soon becomes something altogether un-lite. Echoed murk creeps across the track, eerie wails, treated reeds, and dubbed-out sax bleats. Those close-up drums kick in and we’re in an altogether heavier, funkier groove. The first half of the track belongs to the Atrocity, with Jackson throwing in brief fills and licks on his mutated guitar. Things collapse into psychedelic ambience at the five-minute mark; free jazz with plinking guitar and tapped cymbal. But ominous guitar fuzz hovers in the distance, a starving wolf preparing to attack. John Carpenter keyboards arise and give the track even more of a horror-movie feel. But it’s a ruse; the piano takes over, playing a melancholy melody as the other instruments recede into the murk. This doesn’t last. Those ultra-loud drums kick the shit out of you again, jumping out of nowhere, and suddenly we’re into the strangest of strange: ambient free jazz with heavy metal drums. The track eventually wears itself out, descending back into the murk from whence it came.

“Available Bush” sounds like some early ‘90s industrial mash, with in-your-face drums and ripping and roaring Ministry-esque guitar. The track throbs on an off-kilter funk grove, Jackson heading the proceedings with the twists and turns of his guitar. The sax plays a faux-Middle Eastern counter-melody to his blasts and blares. The bassist throws in a few snake-like fills of his own, but his instrument sounds anemic compared to Jackson’s acidic distortion. This one humps along for seven minutes which quickly pass by, never establishing anything beyond that off-kilter groove, but never suffering for it.

“Tomato Reign” is the epic of the album, 16+ minutes of cosmic echo and free jazz. It crawls out of the murk in the opening moments, ethereal and disjointed fills from the assembled players. Things continue in this dubbed-out vein for a few minutes; nothing on the level of the Taj Mahal Travelers, but close…along the lines of the last half of Miles’ 1975 shows, when Cosey et al would let it all hang out in improvisatory bouts of experimental noise and abstraction. Pounding, tribal drums which pop out and then disappear. Bleated sax fills which float across the sound spectrum. Even animalistic grunts, growls, and screams from the group. This culminates in ultra-fucked guitar from Jackson, sounding again like some cyclic tone from hell, and then someone (a group member? a sample from some obscure film?) states in the calmest tones, “Fuck her. Let her rot.” A few more minutes of banging, echoed drums and bleating, mournful fills from the sax, and that’s it: the freest noise-skronk ever comes to a close.

“Let’s go!,” someone yells, and we’re straight into the pounding, pissed-off proto-metal of the title track, “Gout.” This is the rock version of the preceding track, another rhythmless excursion into all things free, only packing a wallop in the guitar distortion and overall menace. It pounds and snarls for six minutes, never finding a groove, preferring to live in its own sonic hellhole of chaotic din. Finally it builds to a climax of sorts, with a few final bashes on the drum kit, and the record’s over.

To be fair, you can see why Columbia refused to release this. Gout is the type of album you’d only find on some free jazz label or, if it was recorded today, some ultra-hip indie label. But Columbia in the mid-1970s? Releasing this groundless swell of jazz-metal ambience? Hard to believe. But those master tapes are out there, somewhere, as is the full story of what exactly happened to Art Jackson and his Atrocity. In the meantime, we can only listen to their one recorded album, and wonder.