Thursday, June 20, 2013

Karlos P. Steinblast































 
We have to admire these dedicated or perhaps stone-crazy American artists like Karlos P. Steinblast who continued making progressive music into the eighties when it was completely unfashionable and unsustainable.  He even proudly proclaimed it on the cover: "progressive rock" -- pretty uncompromising, or perhaps stoned lacking in sobriety, to fly his freak prog flag so high.   It was a style already uncool by the late seventies as far as I've read.  Yet this record is full of references to how he'll gain fame and groupies, though it hasn't happened yet: dear cadillac-driving Karlos, why not copy Duran Duran? 

When you look at this guy if you're old enough you're taken straight back to childhood and those crazy over-hairy days, those lazy over smokey-and-the-bandit days of stinky herbal park benches endlessly discussing Jimmy Page versus Jeff Beck, while 'Eric Clapton is god'.  His best record is actually the one that came before, the first, called "Hard Rock Vol. 1".  I will post also the third one, "Steinblast and Friends" which demonstrated a bit of deterioration in quality, not the best friends to have around maybe.  Notice that the "I need a woman"  Suite from the second transforms into "I don't need no leash" in the next record, a year later - how many of us men have felt the same way one or two years into marriage?  check out some of the lyrics for that one:
"Woman let me be, and shut your screaming face,
I don't need no leash
I don't need no collar
I don't need the way that you scream and holler"


ouch!  is it even possible to seek counselling at this stage? or advisable?

To focus on the track "Where is Debbie Miller?" is to be taken back to those hazy redolent five-leaved days of 1981 when all was denim and possible, droppable, inhaleable, when big fat psilocybin-fueled dinosaur America still ruled the world of cars with its carboniferous chevys, massive mustangs, trashy trans-ams; it's the story of Debbie Miller, a teenaged girl who witnessed Karlos get run over by a Cadillac: "he's squashed, baby, between two cars!!!" -- when the PO-lice came, of course, she had to run away because she was 'jailbait'.   But here's the best part; halfway through the song, he suddenly starts asking "Where's my kazoo???  Where's my kazoo????"  --and then he plays the kazoo!
I mean you gotta laugh, it's like, what the F---?
On the back of the record, this plaintive little note from Karlos: " Could the DJ's in the Illinois area please play 'where is Debbie Miller' to help me locate her? It's very important! Thank You!"

But yeah, that's what it was like back then in the late seventies early eighties.  People tell me.  The American dream-- Morning again in America.  America the beautiful, America the great, home of the bald eagle and the toupee'd presidents, Stars and Strippers forever.  Come back to the 5 and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams has led you to the Last House on Dead End Street, but now night has fallen and as Mao once said, for us to soon see, " it's never darkest till it's completely black " ...

One must persevere through his singing, it's probably a fifth to an octave below where he should be singing, but his guitar-playing style is very interesting and original, particularly with regards to the use of inverted chords, and sudden fast riffs between the chunky chords, and for this I really love him.  Check out for the perfect example of this, the first part of "I Need a Woman" with its really odd riffs. I think you'll all agree he was highly talented at the GUI-tar.

Yes, I LOVE YOU KARLOS, and I would love it if you would drop a comment here below and tell us what happened to you (and Debbie Miller!)  It's never too late to become famous, and I think you deserve it, even if only in our rarefied, unfemale-populated, progressive circles where you are all too unknown still.  Finally, note the cool message written on studio letterhead I found inside the record, presumably written by the Karlmeister himself, I scanned it and included it.  Apparently he thought this one was better than his first record.

Where is Debbie Miller?:



I Need a Woman Part I:



I don't need no leash:

13 comments:

Tristan Stefan said...

steinblast and friends:
http://netkups.com/?d=af60327db3541

Arizona Phossils said...

Thanks! I love these records by guys/gals who are so out of step with their times. it always adds to the general sense of unease on vanity press albums.

Tristan Stefan said...

I need a woman:
http://netkups.com/?d=62193375ab38c

djangoblango said...

I have a really good friend named Debbie Miller. This is too funny.

Tristan Stefan said...

good point arizona and well said too

spunkie said...

Any chance for his first lp?

Roetoes said...

Hi Tristan.
These albums are ripped with too much volume. They clip all the time. If you look at the waveform in an audio editor, the signal should be constantly below 100%.

Tristan Stefan said...

when I returned home from holidays back in March this computer installed a bunch of automatic so-called updates that 'reconfigured' all the recording process and the microphone started recording LPs in mono at 100 percent volume, that's why the first mp3 rip of Rantz was so dreadful, it took me a while to figure out how to change it back again but even with the volume turned down to 31 percent internally it's still too loud I agree, I will turn it down some more for the future.
And don't forget "Debbie Miller was last seen in the South Illinois area in the early seventies and if anyone knows where's she's at please contact me [Karlos]!"

djangoblango said...

The Debbie Miler I know never set foot in Southern Illinois, and is a technologist in California. She's very nice, with exquisite taste in music.

peskypesky said...

i like this music. sort of dorky in an innocent way, but still interesting and melodic.

Anonymous said...

Hello good people....

This is NOT a Prog Album at all....

It's jazzy, funk, blues or something like that....

So these 2 albums ARE NOT PROG!!!

It's hard to qualify these songs...but I think its
deserve 2 of 5 stars....so far!!!!

Peter Hammill - SP

Tristan Stefan said...

check out his first album, it's definitely proggy… I thought it was important to complete his discography by featuring all three of his records

Anonymous said...

Hi, I have never heard of this guy before, but I think he's cool. Really strange, funny music & lyrics at times. (what are you doing with my wife? and more, hilarious) Thx for all three albums! cheers, corehead667. The Netherlands

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