We're Late For Class

#82 ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY Tribute To Sun Ra (1977) w/guest SUN RA

Independently released in 1977, Tribute To Sun Ra was the third and final official album from Art Jackson’s Atrocity. Jackson’s original plan for this LP was to enter the studio with material more structured than The Atrocity’s previous releases, a notion supported by this record’s 1976 (pre-sessions) live recording, “The Outer Limits,” taped at the Spot Me A Five Club in East St. Louis. But something happened that would alter Jackson’s intent… a chance meeting with legendary experimental jazz great Sun Ra, whose unexplained presence at the sessions would ultimately transform the LP’s stylistic approach. It was a seismic shift… or, perhaps, just a re-affirmation of Art Jackson’s core, anti-music intuition. Because, instead of tightening the reins, Jackson decided to completely abandon the group’s prepared material, resulting in The Atrocity’s fiercest, most chaotic album to date.

What listeners will hear on Tribute To Sun Ra is an Atrocity untethered by expectations, forged by alchemy and club work, and firing on all cylinders. An aggressive improvisational sonic assault that would even incorporate recordings of Sun Ra himself, whose distinctive vocals pepper the LP with ruminations on interstellar travel, alien space angels, and Ra's thoughts on an adopted planet in flux. These exclusive Sun Ra vocals have never been heard in any other context, and are available here for the first time in over four decades. There is speculation that Saturn’s man-about-town also performed additional keyboard work on the Hendrix suggestion, “6th Stone From The Sun,” but that suspicion has never been verified by Sun Ra’s estate. Tribute To Sun Ra’s cover, by the way, is different from the original 1977 indie LP (see that one here), and is now updated for the digital age.

Listen:

Let The Sacred Music Begin (8:09)
Opening Ceremonies (5:48)
29 Psalms (5:20)
The Outer Limits (Live At The Spot Me A Five Club, 1976) (8:52)
6th Stone From The Sun (5:22)
Hoarse Latitudes/Slave Ships To The New World (8:50)

Art Jackson: guitar
Artis Killins: bass
Pharaoh Keyes: keyboards
Kurtis Snider: drums
Joseph Mix: sax/trumpet/flute
Eric Gaye: sax
Mark Napoleon: percussion
Val Heston: violin
Sun Ra: guest voice

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#81 ART JACKSON'S ATROCITY "The Outer Limits" (8:52) b/w "GOUTTAKE" (20:10) ADVANCE SINGLE From Tribute To Sun Ra

"The Outer Limits" is the advance single from the upcoming reissue release of the 3rd LP by Art Jackson's Atrocity, 1977's Tribute To Sun Ra. This preview is a rare club performance recorded in 1976 at the Spot Me A Five Club in East St. Louis, just prior to the album's official studio sessions. Which, by the way, features vocal contributions from Mr. Sun Ra himself (recorded exclusively by Mr. Art Jackson himself). It drops soon, so save your allowance money.

"The Outer Limits" gets its title from guitarist Jackson's otherworldly fret work, which recalls the mysterious allure of the namesake 60s TV show's musical cues. This single's b-side, on the other hand, is a recently unearthed recording from the 1974 Gout sessions. It's a 20-minute long alternate take of "Tomato Reign" - a mind-numbingly chaotic "GOUTTAKE" that is not included on the upcoming Tribute To Sun Ra LP. The free-form noise crowd might appreciate... or not. Almost 30 minutes of previously unheard Art Jackson's Atrocity.

Listen:

The Outer Limits (Live At The Spot Me A Five Club, 1976) (8:52)
GOUTTAKE (Tomato Reign, Take 2 - 1977 Remix) (Non-LP) (20:10)

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#80 The Faux Tapes

If we'd been alive in the 70s, and if we'd been influenced by the random, flighty chaos of 1973's The Faust Tapes, we probably would also have been inspired to released this, #80 The Faux Tapes, an odd assortment of ideas, miscues, free-form jams and unrelatable in-jokes, fronted by an LP-styled cover (designed to recall the aforementioned classic of the era), all mixed with the ambience of aged vinyl and household mold. Of course, it sounds nothing like its paraphrased namesake. But, it's not suppose to, either. Just as Satanic Majesties wasn't supposed to sound like Sgt. Pepper's. You see, in the 21st Century, it's all about name-dropping and Google hits. Because of that, lowly web bands like ours are forced to resort to click-baiting to garner the eyes and attention of a world cluttered with noise... noise that's often nosier than our noise. After all, why would you, the discriminating listener, waste his-or-her limited Kardashian, Jay-Z or Ed Sheeran-devoted hours to sample what we're serving up? You wouldn't! Which is why we're counting on your inherent abnormalities (and Google's re-directional aid) to offer you something both alien and absurd.

Because The Faux Tapes includes numerous short segments intercut together, we've included two side-long files alongside the individual tracks, so that the curious can listen online without streaming interruption. It doesn't help the music one bit, but at least your highly cultivated buzz won't get challenged every few minutes. We've also added a patented "Pick Your Ending"© option. Do you want a simple needle lift, or a trendy looped outgroove? (For you post-digital types, the run-out groove is a few seconds that loops continuously until the needle is manually lifted). Or... just keep 'em both, what do we care?

Listen:

FOR YOUR UNINTERRUPTED ONLINE LISTENING PLEASURE
The Faux Tapes - SIDE ONE (21:13)
The Faux Tapes - SIDE TWO (20:37)

SIDE ONE
Chaos & Chowder (0:54)
Untitled (Space Dirge In Two Parts) (7:25)
Day After Day After Day (2:52)
Tokepoker (1:16)
Commercial Music For An Istanbul Ad Agency (0:60)
King For A Day (Molte Grazie Bella) (3:01)
The Unmarked Grave Next To Arch Stanton (4:46)

SIDE TWO
Some Avant Garde For The Old Folks (1:33)
A Patsy's Death Dream (1:10)
The Orchestrated Art (Vocal Version) (6:05)
Fukhausen (Extended Remix) (7:15)
Arcticulation (4:17)
Pick Your Ending: Outgroove (0:17)
Pick Your Ending: Needle Lift (0:06)

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#79 The Splendiferous Octet

Blatant, brazen, brilliant, catchpenny, chichi, chintzy, coarse, crude, flashy, flaunting, florid, frou-frou, garish, gay, glaring, gross, gussied up, jazzy, kitschy, loud, meretricious, obtrusive, ostentatious, pizzazz, pretentious, putting on the ritz, raffish, ritzy, screaming, showy, snazzy, splashy… splendiferous.

Listen:

The Splendiferous Octet (Sacred) (13:14)
The Crows Know (6:04)

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#78 Experiments... In Terror!

"The Horror" is part of a larger work that was originally commissioned for use in the Ken Burns documentary, The Vietnam War. For the project, we recorded over 7 hours for the soundtrack, but the deal would eventually fall through - partly because 6 hours of what we submitted consisted of nothing but crickets. So that's on us. We also failed to read the contract's fine print, which we thought guaranteed us $4,180, only to learn that we were supposed to pay $4,180. But what really soured the negotiations was when Ken Burns arose from his chair during the listening preview, opened the window of the 8th floor PBS conference room and - without saying a word - tossed the still playing CD player into the parking lot below. Our only regret was not being able to record the noisy smash (and resulting alarm) when the device landed on an expensive Aston Martin One-77...which was sitting in Ken Burns' parking space. It might have fit in nicely with this release's second offering, "The Coriolis Effect," so named as to attract the attention of DJs in the land down under - otherwise impervious to payola and our collective charms - to broaden our appeal beyond our listening stronghold... grandma's house at Thanksgiving. Another 23 minutes you won't get back (and can't sue for).

Listen:

The Horror (13:52)
The Coriolis Effect (9:02)

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#77 Space Box

A spiffy, galaxy-sized, vacuum-packed box o' space compiled for your smoking jacketed pleasure. 13 overtly cosmic space epics and spontaneously stoned dirges - nearly 4 hours worth of mind-bending, patience-testing, brain-frying sound excursions - compiled for those who lack the stamina to weed through our overgrown catalog looking for the spacier, pseudo-psychedelic, often disembodied improvisations we tend to wallow in when the tapes are running. We hope you enjoy this bulbous soundtrack to our wasted lives. It even comes with a fake gatefold CD cover for your amusement. Space Box, like all our releases, is available for free @320 below. But, those whose ears require higher quality WAV, AIFF or FLAC files can download it at Bandcamp, or from the streaming player below, all for a mere $1. Righteous, huh? Well... if nothing else, you’ll still have some Bitcoin left over for Cheetos® and Snapple®. It is the final frontier, after all.

Listen

I
Live In The Theatre Of DisBelief (32:43) #22
Galerienmusik Pt. 1 (9:04) #3
Space (35:32) #69

II
Landings On Moons Besides Our Own (5:20) #44
Outside The Opium Den (Oscar Coverage) (5:33) #59
Buttery Hog Mosh (8:48) #31
Message From Fornax (Pre-JMST Instrumental) (14:02) #30
Live In The Theatre Of DisBelief - Episode 2 (26:19) #37
Flying (4:34) #44
VGER Love Theme / VGER (10:38) #67

III
Galerienmusik Pt. 2 (14:22) #3
The Tim Leary Seance Experience (Instrumental) (22:49) #68
'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' As Played By Vanilla Fudge Imitating Iron Butterfly When Fudge Were Forced To Open For Butterfly At The Fillmore West After In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Went Top Ten (40:36) #6

TOTAL TIME: 3 hours, 51 minutes. All selections previously released.

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#76 soundsbox

Sound experiments. It's arguable whether this stuff is even listenable. If that's the case, you might actually be able to call it "art." Don't bet on it, though. We've released all of this stuff before as individual posts in our ongoing soundseries. But we're now boxing it up with a spiffy new cover for easy consumption. 15 tracks, approximately 78 minutes, almost like one of those CDs your favorite rock star might release when he's slumming in the "experimental music" field. We all know that just means he finally made enough money to buy some new gear, and he's paying for it by selling his fans the noise it makes when he turns it all on at once. We already had the gear. All tracks previously released.

Listen

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Click To View, Listen or Download Each Release Individually
soundsone
soundstwo
soundsthree
soundsfour
soundsfive

#75 The Singles Box

The original idea was to release a new single every few weeks and then sell our less-than-impressed fanbase some Limited Edition hard copies at inflated collector's prices. We envisioned including some droll postcards, like The Pixies might do, to justify the exorbitant price tag. In this new age of the music business, bands now know that they have to give away their albums to web-leggers, just to be able to sell the $100 Deluxe Expanded Import Box Set (with some more pieces of paper and, perhaps, a free mini-CD of a bad rehearsal gathering dust on DAT). So... here's our digital version of one such redundant box set, just like the big stars' record companies might concoct. The Singles Box includes our first digital 45 (#45 The Stalker), along with our consecutive series of digital 45s (#52-#56). Click titles for details. All tracks previously released.

Listen

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Click to View, Listen or Download Each Release Individually
#45 The Stalker 45
#52 Clash On Broadway 45
#53 I Wanna Be Your Man 45
#54 Metal Machine Music 45
#55 The Last Countdown 45
#56 The Trouser Variations 45

#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)

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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

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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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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.