We're Late For Class

#74 "I Wanna Be Your Man (Mono Master)" Official Digital Online RE-Release!

I WANNA BE YOUR MAN 45
"Most people aren’t aware that Lennon & McCartney's 'I Wanna Be Your Man' is actually a re-write of an old blues tune of the same name. 'Blind somebody' recorded it in the early 1950s, and collectors know of a few records out there that have survived. A sure clue that it's not a Lennon/McCartney original is illustrated by how seriously John & Paul treated the song. For a larf, they pawned it off on The Rolling Stones (theories abound that it was a blatant attempt to derail their career). But, Lennon & McCartney ended up laughing even louder at the bank when the Stones accidentally had their first hit single with it. Then... they gave the song to Ringo to sing - a sure sign of something, to be sure. But because copyright laws were so loose in the 1960s, 'I Wanna Be Your Man' has long been considered just another old, co-opted blues tune that got ‘borrowed’ and goosed-up by a band of upper-poppin' punks with a Merseyside beat. Hey, they were kids, what did they know? So, we stripped the song back to its original Mississippi blues roots. This is why we don't do vocals. Consider yourself warned."

We first debuted an edited variation of this recording via the multi-artist, web-only project, The Beatles Complete On Ukulele... before posting it ourselves as #53 I Wanna Be Your Man 45. But now, in a misguided stab at crossover acceptance, we're re-releasing "I Wanna Be Your Man (Mono Master)" to respectable digital outlets like iTunes, Amazon, Shazam (and other big time retailers). That's right, we've gone legit - even springing for the necessary licensing so that Lennon & McCartney get their splits for "writing" this 1964 hit for The Rolling Stones, though (as you can read above) their authorship has been irresponsibly challenged and questioned (ahem). The Record Store Day people didn't appreciate any of it, either (and, given our rep, probably didn't believe the MOJO quote was legit. It is, thanks Fred). Those of you who require FLAC, AIFF, WAV or other lossless formats can grab it from the Bandcamp player below. Those deciding to get it from a big time digital distributor (hint hint), and thus helping to push this track into Billboard and Soundscan's Top 10... we humbly thank you.

Listen

I Wanna Be Your Man (Mono Master) (3:04)

Free 320
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#73 The Behest Of We're Late For Class
- Big Time Digital Mega-Store Release!

In yet another attempt to inflict what we do on the masses, we are (for the first time) officially releasing a compilation of previously-released material to big league, professional, corporate digital retailers - like iTunes, Shazam, Amazon, CD Baby and others. Who'll collectively have no warning about what is secretly infesting their sites and playlists. Precisely what you'll find here is 80 minutes of grooved-out jams, short bursts of nonsense, a mind-numbing 22:44 opus, and even a taste of our jazz-blistered alter-ego, Art Jackson's Atrocity. All thoughtfully sequenced and ever-mindful of your blissed-out smoking jacketed listening pleasure.... just like the sub-header says. None of which should be any surprise to our devoted and loyal followers... if that's indeed who you are. Your kind already know where to grab 320 files of this material, while those with sound fetishes requiring FLAC, AIFF, WAV and other high-quality formats can visit Bandcamp (or any of our streaming players). Full releases are a mere $1. Click the linked #'s behind each title below to visit our original posts. Virtually all of this was recorded live, without rehearsals, without much thought and without much sobriety. We advise adopting the same mindset.

Listen:

1000 Islands (Two) (1:24) #4
Burden Bearers (Of Aristocracy) (4:54) #15
Trippin' In A Plymouth Belvedere (w/ College Sweater Breach & The Misplaced Prelude) (10:25) #32
Final Moments Of Barry Cowsill (Redux 4) (10:08) #14
Fukhausen (Excerpt) (2:22) #3
The Air In Another Country (Soundtrack To An East Berlin Spaghetti ...Western) (11:00) #51
(Another) Summer Of Heigel (8:22) #9
Jazz Interlude (0:33) #46
Bob Can Hear Us (22:44) #29
Available Bush (from GOUT, by Art Jackson's Atrocity) (7:16) #71

Free 320
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#72 ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY Live In Europe (1975)

The long-lost second LP from Art Jackson's Atrocity. Recorded live in Germany, just months after Gout (the band's 1974 debut album for Columbia Records) was shelved, deemed unsellable by the label's corporate hierarchy. Turning down a January, 1975 invitation to support Miles Davis in Tokyo, The Atrocity decided instead to blitzkrieg Germany, finding a receptive audience for their incendiary style of improvisational jazz/noise/rock. First issued as an independent LP in St. Louis, circa 1975, Live In Europe is the only known live document of Art Jackson's Atrocity - though… all of the Atrocity's work was recorded live as it happened. Live In Europe, however, captures the frenetic energy that can only be found in a live setting, as artist and audience face off for an anticipatory clash of unknown expectations and improvisational possibilities. The enthusiastic response from the jazz-hungry Germans in both Düsseldorf and Berlin provides an exhilarating backdrop to The Atrocity's only overseas performances. Now, for the first time in over 40 years, a new generation of listeners has the opportunity to hear the musical madness of a close-knit collective of anti-social misfits with no corporate goals. What might have been... had label indifference, drug abuse and multiple incarcerations not derailed one of the 1970's more unpredictable forebears of a futuristic musical dystopia few were willing to believe could possibly exist.

Listen

#31994 (4:22)
The Continuum (4:55)
Death Train To Nuremberg (4:06)
Birds On Fire (7:59)
Birds On Fire, Part 2 (11:14)

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#71 ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY Gout (1974)

"This is the tale of one of the great lost experimental jazz/rock albums. According to legend, Gout was bankrolled by Miles Davis in 1974, delivered to Columbia Records and pressed for promotion… then summarily abandoned by the label. Reasons, besides its lack of commercial potential, are unclear. Though theories range from guitarist Art Jackson’s already developed heroin addiction to Columbia’s desire to distance themselves from a band that may have included a few radical Black Panthers. Reportedly, when Miles (with his own drug problems) began withdrawing into seclusion, so did the desire to release Gout. Specializing in free form, live-in-the-studio, jazz/rock experimentation, The Atrocity was a chaotic, 8 to 11 piece collective fronted by the 20-year-old Jackson – whose guitar explorations were prone to both violent outbursts and spacey sonic excursions. No charts, no songs, no rhyme or reason. Driven by heavy-propulsion drumming, the musical interplay between the players suggests a drug-fueled free for all." - Willard, Never Get Out Of The Boat

"I've heard Gout and, whatever the provenance, it's a fine, percussion-fuelled, invigorating free-for-all." - Fred Dellar, MOJO Magazine

Listen

Shaft In Afghanistan (7:36)
Arabian Fabian (9:02)
Available Bush (7:15)
Chimps Do Five (Bonus Track) (8:54)
Tomato Reign (16:11)
Gout (6:21)

LOSSLESS (Remastered & Expanded)

Limited Edition CD Release...

Art Jackson's Atrocity SOLD OUT
Gout (Remastered & Expanded) Promo CD

#70 "8 Gigs In Kingston - The Complete We're Late For Class" (USB Flash Drive)

SOLD OUT!

Our catalog is officially out of control. This "complete" USB Flash Drive release first began as 4 Gigs In Kingston, but has exponentially expanded into a behemoth we're now forced to call, 8 Gigs In Kingston. As before, it contains the entire We're Late For Class catalog - almost two days worth of so-called "music," designed to soundtrack your blissed-out mindset (or... up the ante on your ongoing audio wars with the neighbors) - all on a single 16 GIG 3.0 SE9 G2 Kingston Data Traveler USB Drive. Every track available on this blog (and even one track that isn't). This collection (all @320) comes with a Rich Text File containing all the artwork and text found in this blog's nooks and crannies - including... all of our numbered releases, our ongoing soundseries, even alternate personas (aka Art Jackson's Atrocity, The Manipulationators & The Avant Guard) and... "Pregnant Tight Rope Walker In Santa Ana," a track that only appeared on an offsite compilation album. ~~Such a deal at $16.99, plus $3.92 Media Mail shipping (USA SHIPPING ONLY! )~~. The good news is that (for a while anyway) you'll get an extra 8 gigs of free space, which is probably more valuable than the chaotic 8 gigs we're hawking here. After we foot the bill for the drive, Paypal fees and sundry expenses, we'll probably wind up with a six-pack of imported brew for ourselves - which we're confident you'd happily treat us to if we ever came over to your house to play. And, in a way we are... in the form of a discreet Media Mail package, shipped within 24 hours (except weekends & holidays). Can you beat that? If we sell enough of these, we might even buy a van and tour. Then we just might show up at your place to hang out long enough to empty the fridge. That's cool, right?

8 Gigs In Kingston
The Complete We're Late For Class
USB 16GB 3.0 FLASH DRIVE Only $16.99 + $3.92 Shipping (USA SHIP ONLY!)

#69 Space

“Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.” ― Kafka On The Shore

Listen:
Space (35:33)
The Orchestrated Art (6:05)

Free 320
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#68 The Tim Leary Seance Experience

This was actually our 5th seance. The first, an attempt to contact Screaming Jay Hawkins, resulted in massive property damage and some outstanding fines and liens that have yet to be satisfied. Our next attempt had better results, and was released as #30 The Jim Morrison Seance Tapes. After that, we tried to communicate with Captain Beefheart, but that didn’t pan out, and we found out the hard way that our seance with Courtney Love was... uh, premature. Of course, we’re confident that our spiritual guide, Madame Jodi, really does make contact with the people we’re paying her to find... and she’s not just downloading old voice tapes from the internet and passing them off as new spiritual connections. But we noticed she does always demand payment up front. Just like our Jim Morrison seance release, we’re also offering an instrumental version of the proceedings, minus the good Doctor, just in case you're one of those who aren’t buying into the whole seance premise in the first place. Frankly, we can't blame you.

Listen:

The Tim Leary Seance Experience (Comet Watchers) (22.50)
The Tim Leary Seance Experience (Instrumental) (22.50)

Free 320
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#67 VGER

Reconstructed through highly advanced technologies as a vast space-faring artificial organism, VGER was augmented with a three-dimensional data collection and storing apparatus magnitudes beyond anything previously known to Federation science. Likewise providing it with effectively immeasurable defensive and sensory capabilities, the inhabitants of the machine planet gave VGER the ability to fulfill its programming in a far more complete fashion than the scientists who originally built and launched the vessel at its core ever imagined. Recorded live and made up on the spot. As if you couldn't tell.

Listen

Tuning (0:27)
VGER Love Theme / VGER (10:38)
VGER VEGR (11:54)

Free 320
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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.

Art Jackson's Atrocity *SOLD OUT* Gout (Remastered & Expanded) Promo CD

8 Gigs In Kingston The Complete We're Late For Class USB 16GB 3.0 FLASH DRIVE Only $16.99 + $3.92 Shipping (USA SHIP ONLY!)

Art Jackson's Atrocity SOLD OUT
Gout (Remastered & Expanded) Promo CD

8 Gigs In Kingston
The Complete We're Late For Class
USB 16GB 3.0 FLASH DRIVE Only $16.99 + $3.92 Shipping (USA SHIP ONLY!)