Kevin Blechdom / Eugene Chadbourne - The Chaddom Blechbourne Experience

A very long time ago, I was much younger than I am now. I was lucky enough to have been so fucked up by the "adults in the room" that I was elevated into the orbits of others who had no other option but to celebrate the dys in function. The Fall's Witch Trials at 13, Motorhead's Ace tour at the Apollo at 14 ... and then the Iron Fist tour fuelled on cider and mushrooms. Not forgetting trying to get your head around Trout Mask and Freak Out (by choice) when you are fifteen. On reflection, not a bad call for escape-route and it set me in good stead during the fuck you wars.

However, nothing really compares to the first time the needle hits the opening groove of a Shockabilly LP when you didn't even know that they existed! The brain recalibration takes years to recover from because nothing could possibly remain the same. It's like some poor fucker who has spent his time with his family endorsing him being touched up by the hand of god realising that Day Tripper was the only way to the truth. Well it is. Plain and simple! Well that truth anyway.

Here, Kevin is actually Kristin Erickson who records different work in her own right. This live recording is full on duelling banjos ahoy with covers of The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd that need to be heard to be believed ... in a good way.

For no particular reason, I'm feeling reflective. I spent nearly all of my formative years being smacked around the place and sleeping rough. Now, through life choices, I'm sitting here in a house that serves as a sanctuary for stray and "rescued" cats. I also get to sit here saying to whoever is out there "you really need to hear Eugene and Kristen covering Astronomy Domine" as a way to get the entire thing heard ... there is so much genius here!

Life sometimes turns out to be quite good and most often it's better than the alternative.

A CD released on Les Disques Victo in 2008 "recorded live at the 2007 24e Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. Includes traditional and contemporary medleys with banjo, piano and voice."

hate from the hills