The 1986 Listening Post - Thee Mighty Caesers - Thee Mighty Caesers of Trash

Thee Mighty Caesers - Thee Mighty Caesers of Trash

#480/2130

1986 Housekeeping

Thee Mighty Caesers

Thee Caesars of Trash

Genre: Garage Revival

2.5 out of 5

Requisite 80s cover: “Not Fade Away”. it’s hard to kill this song. But Childish tries. “Jack the Ripper” by Link Wray. Uninteresting. The Sonics’ “Psycho”, which is…fine, I guess. All of this is unnecessary.

Boy, did Billy Childish put out a lot of music for a guy nobody talks about. But you know what I am reminded of as I listen to this perfectly fine revisit to the sounds of 60s garage rock? The 00s. The Hives and the Vines and The White Stripes and how that sound, in 2003, was considered refreshing and groundbreaking but, in reality, was probably just a rehash of this, which is a rehash of the Munsters. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/thee-caesars-of-trash/624535349

The 1986 Listening Post - Thee Mighty Caesars - Acropolis Now

Thee Mighty Caesars - Acropolis Now

#225/1370

June 15 1986

Thee Mighty Caesars

Acropolis Now

Genre: Garage Revival

2.25 out of 5

And, just like that, the bloom is off the rose. Thanks for everything, Billy Childish but you seem to have lost the thread. This sounds like you recorded it all by yourself in a poorly lit room on a 4 track. I wouldn’t mind so much if the songs were there. They aren’t. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/acropolis-now/624533685

The 1985 Listening Post - Thee Mighty Caesers - Thee Mighty Caesers

Thee Mighty Caesers - Thee Mighty Caesers

#493/1126

1985 Housekeeping

Thee Mighty Caesars

Thee Mighty Caesers

Genre: Surf Garage

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Wiley Coyote

Thee Trickster

We don’t have the whole thing, apparently, but we do have sounds like it was transferred from an acetate pressing that was buried in Billy Childers’ backyard and unearthed, played on a mono console stereo at full blast, which would then result in a spontaneous party as your neighbors come down to hear what all the ruckus was. 

This thing is dripping with Ray Dennis Steckler and both he and we are better off for that. 

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBJ7ztNazTVD2qELXraZRb1baCUjpUwGa

The 1985 Listening Post - Thee Mighty Caesers - Beware the Ides of March

Thee Mighty Caesers - Beware the Ides of March

#141

April 1985

Thee Mighty Caesers

Beware the Ides of March

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

You can’t Judge a Book By the Cover

Billy Childish is back. This time he’s mining a different 60s sound. The sound of a high school band trying to be The Kinks or the Byrds or The Zombies or ? & the Mysterians or [insert 60s garage band here].

In a way I’m reminded of Deface the Music by Utopia. In that case, though, it seemed like Todd Rundgren was just trying to prove that The Beatles music was easily replicated and, through that replication, show that the emperor had little clothes. Childish seems to want to BE Ray and Dave Davies. And he doesn’t want to rehearse. While I applaud the devotion to the sound, it hews too close to carbon copying than it does to emulation. 

But, dammit, Childish makes me feel terrible about myself. I had one album and one ep in me. That was it. about 16 songs. I haven’t written a good one in 15 years. 

He gets an extra 1/2 star for that. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/beware-the-ides-of-march/624539825