Friday, August 02, 2013

Karlos P. Steinblast - Hard Rock Vol. 1 (USA, 1980)






This is by far his best work (and indeed one of my favourite guitar-rock albums from the US) featuring some really raw, psychiatric and hard-assed guitarwork-- moreover, most songs are quite progressive and each its own uniquely bizarre way.  The one thing about this album is the late year-- you'd think most of this material was written 5-8 years before, especially given the Led Zep-influence that seems to be omnipresent.  )

Let's just have a listen to the first magnificent masterpiece track, "Me and my babe--"  wherein Karlos  stays at home with his babe gettin' it on, "we can't drive - with the price of gas, fuel oil running out fast - we keep warm under cover -- please don't tell my mother" (--showing he was a peak oil believer 25 years ahead of his time--)   but then the song goes: "Costs too much to go nowhere-- I don't wear no underwear" showing he's truly an insane genius deserving of immortality.

 As I said, each track has its own interesting twist: the spacey funk that starts side b, the fast instrumental riff that follows (called Stabb, sampled below), recalling perhaps the Frankenstein song by the Edgar Winter Group, the lament for being stranded in New York City, the "I hate disco" song that sounds so beautifully quaint today, esp. with the utter dominance of 'dance music' in today's world... again note his wonderfully original guitar-playing style, often using chunky chords punctuated by fast riffs to interconnect phrases.

And of course I ask you all again, Where is Debbie Miller?  she was last seen in the South Illinois area sometime in the early seventies, anyone, please have any info on her whereabouts?  maybe we should start a facebook page about it, that seems to be successful in a lot of these cases…….
Or perhaps we should be asking, Where is Karlos P. Steinblast? 
It can't be too late to make him famous, as famous as he deserves on the basis of this wonderful music.  And I can tell you this is one record I will never give up until the day I die.

Me and my babe:


Stabb:




9 comments:

Tristan Stefan said...

http://netkups.com/?d=1a1f761435f6f

the6070Rock said...

Gonna get right now Mr Tristão. You wrote a magik word to me: HARD. Thanks in advance !!!

ferd burfle said...

you DA MAN

Anonymous said...

this is a great record...can you share it in wav format?
thanks
Peter

Anonymous said...

anonymous, the man does not do reposts. Believe me, I've asked, in the most polite ways imaginable, and offered trades, and he doesn't do reposts. Period, end of story. Anyway WAV is no better than good MP3s unless you have the ears of a dog. And if you listen to this kind of music that's really fucking unlikely.

Tristan Stefan said...

I'm sorry, the problem really amounts to lack of time… it's unimaginably tedious to keep uploading files from the past that are now located on backup dvds in shoeboxes… (how I miss isabelbc!) what you don't realize is that in addition to this blog I am also busy with other blogs and files, plus a full-time job, plus two toddlers I have to watch over half the time (we don't have a nanny)… it also makes me nervous when I upload too much given my ISP's stingy bandwidth and the (federal) attention being paid to excessive digital file-sharing. Having said that, when kids are in school there will be more time for the robotic acts of reuploadings.

Tristan Stefan said...

(At that time that I have more time I'll make a post about reupload requests, and try to fulfill all of those, although some might not be possible since they might predate my time here the so-called tristanozoic era.)

Anonymous said...

Hello, this is a very interesting record indeed.

I think I found "Karlos P Steinblast": his true name is Karl F. Stein (see: http://www.copyrightencyclopedia.com/if-we-were-still-together-and-i-was-still-loving-you-hard/#b). I seems he had additional music published as Karl Stein in the 80's.

I also think that this is the same gentlemen, here:
http://www.thetruthstein.com/index.html
https://twitter.com/KarlFStein
http://www.youtube.com/user/karljesusstein/videos

He is still based in Carbondale, Illinois and active as an evangelist, claiming to be able to heal people (see his youtube videos).

The good news is that he again makes music, which you can listen to at this page:
http://www.indieheaven.com/artist_main.php?id=90683&sel=6

Some of it is actually quite good (some cheesy synths and drum computer), and his voice and style is recognizable. Lyrics are religious, but the music interesting.

In his bio he says he has been a musician for a long time, but does not refer to "Karlos P Steinblast" at all. In the bio you find on the "indieheaven" site, he describes how he started preaching during gigs instead of playing the music, and that was a problem for his carrer (and the carrer of his fellow musicians).

Anyway I think this all gives new meaning to the comment on the LP cover: "Special thanks to .... for time, energy, friendship and psychiatric help."

From my point of view it is a little sad, but as they say: there is a fine line between genius and insanity. We owe some very creative work to people who are sensitive, nonconformist, but also unstable.

Tristan Stefan said...

wow you're dead right!
I can't believe it of course it's the same guy!
And yes, that explains why he stopped recording this crazy music, he found religion... wow... what a typically American ending to this story.

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