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bIG fLAME by Tony Rettman

NEW REVIEWS by R. Queequeg

WHAT'S ON D'S iPOD? by D and D

RECORD REVIEWS!!! by Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman

2007 WRAPUP by Dolman too

ALSO ON THE INTERNET

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THROW MORRISSEY’S PANTS IN THE AIR AND WAVE ‘EM LIKE YOU JUST DON’T CARE – bIG fLAME AND THE ORIGINS OF HIP DIFFICULT LISTENING

By Tony Rettman

I don’t have much time for anything these days, but I will always have time for the digestion of the singles done up in the mid-80’s by Manchester’s premier ‘Jazz Fuck’ trio bIG fLAME. Arriving at a time in the English popular music scene when things were at a mind numbing standstill, this trio assessed the situation and did up a batch of brutally direct singles to hopefully wake their nation from its mediocre sonic slumber. Some dents were made, but in the long run, people will remember A-Ha more than the jagged zap of the tracks found on those singles.

For some reason or another, Drag City did up an excellent compilation CD (which is currently out of print) in the late 90’s of all the singles, etc. entitled ‘Rigour 1983-1986’ but it still didn’t pull in the punters’ interest. Every once in awhile, I find someone who's aware of this trio’s existence, but it’s few and far between. Like most of the better things in life, bIG fLAME is best enjoyed with very few people and copious amounts of red wine.

This interview was done via electronic mail in March of 2008 with Greg Keeffe, former guitarist of b.f. Appropriate links and discography will appear after the interview and there will be a choice of carrot cake or brownie served afterwards.

Tony Rettman -- Let's get the basic stuff out of the way...How and why did bIG fLAME come together? How did you 3 know each other? What was the specific time you started playing together? How old were you guys at the time of forming?

Greg Keeffe -- We started X-Mas ’82. Dil and Alan had been in a band together previously and I used to share a flat with Dil in Hulme Crescents, these shit derelict modernist council flats that everyone lived in. It was out of the blue when Dil asked me to play guitar. I had never played before (I'd played bass before tho’) and I was unsure I wanted to be in an indie type band. I was more into A Certain Ratio, Pop Group, Jazz Funk, and early hip hop at the time, but he was persuasive so I said I'd try it. After the first rehearsal (we played the theme from Shaft by Isaac Hayes - which was my choice!) Alan said to Dil he didn't want me in the band ‘cos I was too shite, and I said to Dil I didn't want to be in the band cos Alan was too professional!! Somehow we carried on, but the tension was always there. I was 19 at the time, Dil 20 and Alan 21.

T.R. --You say you were unsure of being in an ‘indie’ band at the time. What was your idea of an 'indie' band in '82 and what were your problems with it?

G.K. -- I think punk had run its course really. Britain had become obsessed with Goth music, which seemed to lack any political intent. The politics of punk were what really interested me - the Clash, Pop Group and Gang of Four - Dil politicized me too. At that time with Thatcher in ascendance, the battle-lines had been drawn and the right was winning and suddenly music was completely non-political. I just couldn't understand it. With punk, in five years we had had a complete lifetime of music from punk, new wave, nu punk, punk-funk, ska, funk, jazz, pop... And suddenly Goth was like heavy metal. I was oppositional to that. I hated metal.

T.R. -- What were some of your 1st gigs like + where were they performed?

G.K. -- The early gigs were all in Hulme. It was easy to play there cos no one gave a shit. We were the sort of band who had no fans whatsoever. Most people in Manchester at the time were either Goths or Jazz Funk boys - and we didn't really fit in to either camp.

T.R. -- Describe what the Manchester music scene was like at the time bIG fLAME was starting up. Was there anything inspirational to be found musically (or otherwise) in what was going on in the city at the time?

G.K. -- Manchester was good at the time. The city was in terminal post-industrial decline and the Factory Records scene that I was in was small yet friendly. The Hacienda had just opened and was in walking distance of the Hulme Crescents. Me and Dil were glass collectors in the Hacienda early on so we knew everyone there. The best of Factory was coming to an end then and the Smiths were starting up. Me and Dil saw their first gig, but they were considered a student band. There seemed to be a bit of a gap in the punk continuum that we thought we could fill. Me and Dil used to call it ‘H.D.L’ - Hip Difficult Listening.

T.R. -- Do you think the formation of bIG fLAME was a reaction to the end of the quality Factory bands at the time?

G.K. -- Yeah I think so, but it was conscious. I loved A Certain Ratio and they started to get into Roy Ayers and Maceo Parker. I just couldn't go there! It was too wimpy and meaningless. I was left with nothing but hanging around at early electro nights and jazz funk nights watching all the black boys dance. I just didn’t fit in. Jazz Funk or Goth?? It’s not much of a choice.

T.R -- As far as The Smiths go, even if you didn’t like their music, could you sense the impact they would have when you saw that 1st show?

G.K. -- In hindsight, I quite like The Smiths now; they were just a Pop group with a weird singer. Morrissey was cool. I was amazed when Rough Trade signed them. They seemed so manufactured at the time.

T.R. -- I read somewhere once that Moz threw a bunch of confetti around at that 1st Smiths gig...true?

G.K. -- Yeah that's true. To be honest, I thought they were his pants!!

T.R. -- Was there any interest in bIG fLAME from the Factory/Hacienda crowd?

G.K. -- Post 1982 Factory really went up their own arses with loads of indulgent crap. We were against everything really. Dil and I were totally puritanical about everything. Nobody measured up to our ridiculously high standards.

T.R. -- Were there any groups from Manchester (or elsewhere) that you regularly performed gigs with?

G.K. -- The bands we liked were sort of random. We liked the Mackenzies from Glasgow. I met Paul the drummer in the barbers one day and he said 'We're supporting you in Glasgow on Sunday' and we've been mates ever since! We also liked the June Brides. They were a sort of ultimate pop group and we quite liked the idea of that ourselves. We also liked the Age of Chance and The 3 Johns.

T.R. -- I love the June Brides...were they as tight live as they were recorded?

G.K. -- The J.Bs’ were excellent live. I suppose they were modern folk music in the true sense of the word.

T.R. – So bIG fLAME wanted to be the ultimate pop group?

G.K. -- We set out to be the ultimate pop group, there’s no doubt about it. We wanted to take on the whole industry on our terms. We were stupid really. We thought that if we could produce something ultimately ultimate, it would sell well. We were living in this incredible bubble in Hulme, where everyone was under 25 and alternative, and we imagined that the rest of the world was like that. We couldn't believe how conservative the music buying public are/were. That's why the Smiths made it and REM made it and we didn't!!

T.R. -- How did you gain the interest of John Peel + what were those sessions like? Did you have any interaction with the man himself?

G.K. -- John Peel was really important. Nobody showed the slightest bit of interest in us until JP played our first D.I.Y. single and offered us a session. He also put us on in his John Peel Rock week at the ICA in London and said on his show that we were the best live band he'd ever seen in 40 years, which was nice. That got us started with touring. We met him a couple of times. He was always very shy really. More like an obsessed fan rather than someone famous.

T.R. -- Where did the name bIG fLAME come from?

G.K. -- bIG fLAME were an anarcho-syndicalist collective who mobilized wildcat strikes and wrote passionate diatribes in the 1970's. They were particularly big in Manchester and Liverpool. We were never in them, but we liked the idea of libertarian socialism as an ideal, so we chose the name as a tribute to them.

T.R. -- Out of curiosity, what were some of the 1st live shows you saw?

G.K. -- My first ever gig was to see the Buzzcocks in '78 at Blackpool Mecca, which was amazing! During 1979 and 1980 I used to wag school and follow the Clash around. They were amazing live. I remember seeing them at Rafters in Manchester at a secret gig where there were only 200 people, which was amazing. As soon as I got in bIG fLAME - I said we have to be as good as the Clash live!!! They were the benchmark for me and Dil. Other bands I saw live that really influenced me were the Fire Engines. I liked the way themselves and Josef K created so much with such a limited palette of sound. That’s one of the things we tried to do with b.f. Really limit ourselves and then explore within those limits. Orange Juice was brilliant live, particularly early on in ’79 through ’81. Within the harshness of Punk was this ironic wimpy band who took the piss out of everything, themselves especially, yet created really brilliant songs. I liked the way they could start a song, let it sort of dissolve and then find it again and reach some sort of crescendo! Early on the Pop Group and Gang of Four were so funky live. A Certain Ratio were just really fucking cool. One thing I didn't mention that was also really important was dub reggae. Hulme was full of Rastas and Dil and I really liked the rigorous way they approached life. We used to see them working out outside in the winter, all looking super-muscley and I loved the way they played amazing music without really trying!!

T.R. -- How did you come upon being on the Ron Johnson label? Did Dave Parsons see a gig of yours or hear one of the singles or what?

G.K. -- For some unknown reason we sent a single to Ron Johnson. I've no idea where we got the idea from. We were desperate and we sent out hundreds to anyone whose address we could find. Dave contacted us and he said it was the first thing he'd been sent that was any good. He wasn't really running a record company at the time. His band, Splat! just came up with the name Ron Johnson to release their own record. When he heard us he thought he might try and start a proper label.

T.R. -- I guess before we get into getting on a label, we should talk about the release of your 1st self-released single. Did it prove to be difficult?

G.K. -- We had no money and releasing a single at the time cost £100 for studio time, £500 for pressing and £100 for printing sleeves. We were all either on the dole or students so we only had £30 a week each so it looked impossible. Alan's mum loaned us the money and we paid it back later. We were very insular and very D.I.Y. We did not want anyone else involved. We never had a manager ever. We did everything ourselves.

T.R. -- Why did bIG fLAME call it a day?

G.K. -- We wanted to be as pure as possible, so when we started we agreed on a ‘sell by’ date that would prevent us being seduced into full time careerist stuff by the music business. The date was Oct 1986. So when it came up, we packed it in…simple as that. We were at the height of our powers at the time with a record in the top 5 of the indie charts. Suicide really!!

T.R. -- What did the members of bIG fLAME get up to after the break-up?

G.K. -- I didn't speak to Alan again for 15 years. Dil moved to London. He'd had enough of music and it just didn't interest him. I felt too old to do another band until Meatmouth asked me to join them. Alan tried exceptionally hard to make it as a pop-crooner, and was professionally styled by professional stylists. I felt and still think that he betrayed everything we stood for. I cannot forgive him for that.

T.R. -- What other things caused the fallout with the members of the band?

G.K. -- Loads of things really. I suppose being in van three or four times a week for two years can lead to a lot of intolerance. Dil and myself were very combative and mouthy. Alan was quiet and not as radical. So there were differences. We never really let Alan say anything or really shape the band ideologically so I suppose he was looking for a chance to do that with his new band. I felt that in the last year all the later songs were written by me. I would bring all the guitar parts in and everyone would play along. I was amazed a month after the end of the band that Alan already had an albums worth of tunes for his new band and then I realized he'd been holding back a year's worth of songwriting. That really fucked me off. I could never look him in the face again. I felt he'd betrayed the whole idea of the band. Stupid really, but that's how it goes. It meant everything to me... and not as much to him... he wanted a career in music. Dil and I, not being so conventionally talented, wanted to express ourselves and make a difference.

T.R. -- Is there any music/sound that's being produced today that you enjoy or admire?

G.K. -- I am old, so this won’t sound good, but I mainly listen to 70s dub reggae!! I hate new-folk and Franz Ferdinand. I like noise and hate commercial stuff.

T.R. -- How and when did Drag City approach you to do the CD?

G.K. – I have no idea about this. Alan organized this after we split and I never received any monies from it at all and I’m still furious!!

T.R. -- What were the inspirations for the graphics on the bIG fLAME records? Any certain record covers or artists that stick out?

G.K. -- I like 7" singles with picture sleeves. I spent my teenage years poring over all the punk singles, so it started there. At the time we really liked pop art and op art, so we took that as a starting point along with Italian futurist and Russian constructivist stuff. In typical bIG fLAME style it never really came out right, so we got the blue and red kangaroos. As Jean Cocteau said ‘Genius is the inability to conform’. Dil and I had plenty of inability. Alan had plenty of musical ability! But we had lots of ideas.

T.R. -- Any final words or things you'd like to address that weren't covered in the questions above?

G.K. -- I really enjoyed the band and I'm glad we finished when we did - I think music today would be loads better if all those old stars had packed in early too. Music today is dominated by old fuckers who are busy making cash, with their back catalogues. Young people need to have a revolution and kick all those fuckers into touch…you know who U2, New Order, R.E.M. etc etc etc. ALL of them have nothing to say to 16-year-old kids. Oh and ban computer games too!!

bIG fLAME DISCOGRAPHY
‘Sink’/’Illness’/’Sometimes’ 7” E.P. (Laughing Gun Records) 1984
‘Rigour’ 7” e.p. (Ron Johnson) 1985
‘Tough!” 7” e.p. (Ron Johnson) 1985
‘Why Popstars Can’t Dance’ 7” e.p. (Ron Johnson ) 1986
‘Two Kan Guru’ 10” (Ron Johnson/Laughing Gun) 1986
‘Cubist Pop Manifesto’ 7” e.p. (Ron Johnson)
‘Cubist Pop Manifesto’ 12” e.p. (Constrictor)
Communicate!!! Double LP compilation (T.P.S.U.) 1985
Bludgeoned Fanzine cassette compilation 1986 (**-- NEVER LAID EYES ON THIS THING NOR HEARD IT, BUT APPARENTLY b.f. DO A JUNE BRIDES COVER ON IT? ANYONE GOT IT? LEMME KNOW – TR **)
NME C86 Cassette Compilation (NME/Rough Trade) 1986

bIG flame MySpace -- http://www.myspace.com/bigflamemcr

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Ugh, I have SO MANY things to review! Why did I ever agree to this sort of “lifestyle”???

Oh well, might as well start off with this big stack from Vanishing Records, which is of course Angela M's label from down Nashville way. All very nicely packaged in multicolored screen printed glory. Harrowing Narrowing is possibly the name of a really good CDR by Vegan Brand Mouth Pet, which is a collab of Angela Vegan Brand, and Bridget Mouth Pet. It's pretty nice and spaced out, lots of feedback, fuzz, some echo here, a rhythm there. I think it's called Harrowing Narrowing, but I am not positive. But I am "timeless positive infinity" right now! What does that even mean? I have had that phrase in my head the last few weeks...maybe it was the name of a Bananafish comp? Another one from those same "girls in the mist" (as it says on the insert) has the delightful title of Dry Humping! This one is mixed louder, and arguably better (to me right now at least). More of Angela's crazy guitar jamming in the mix, and more "space", and "heavy air" to it all. Listening to this is one "dry hump" that won't end with "painful chafing"! Haha, did you see what I did there? Eat yr heart out, Gene Schallitt! Next up on Vanishing is D.I.B., a supergroup of Nashville jammers, which is about 5 or 6 women whose names I got mixed up a lot when they played at my house, but thank god for the internet, they are: kuss "Sweet Bref" Csillagi, Angelars Messina, Bridge Titsworth III, Ms. Brookesy G., and Murder Epic. Their name stands for "Do It Big," and that is what they do. It including awesome distorted vocals and making chaos rippers turn into what sound like actual songs including some very nice SOUL singing!? Sort of foul mouthed soul singing, but soul nonetheless. Taiwan Deth! What can I say about them? Most underrated band in the freak scene, except maybe for Pengo? They got everything I like in a band, psych/sick guitar jamming, violins, synths, saxophones, and lots of gadgets and pipes to make even more cool sounds. And LOVE POWER. Life/Deth is a nice long creeper, it builds you up then it shakes you down. DOWNTOWN, WHERE THE CROWN IS BROWN. I don't know what I am saying, this music is making me feel crazy right now, and I am completely sober!

Records...pretty much the best format out there, right? So why have I managed to go for like the last 4 years without a goddamn record player of my own? Well, problem solved now, so I guess I should get around to reviewing all the vinyl that people gave me back my stoned age (and also, more than a little drunk)! Sword Heaven/16 Bitch Pileup have a record called Come Here, Sandy, which basically everyone owns by now, right? And 16 Bitch Pileup are now famous superstars, having performed with Pink Floyd reunion at Live 8, and have been featured on the cover of magazines like Time, Vice, and Cat Fancy. So how does it hold up right now? Pretty great actually, with their side of the record being a murkey haze of grit, gunk, and squiggles (squiggles courtesy the turntable scratching, something they do about 10% as well as Rock and Roll Jackie, which is to say 100000% better than Christian Marclay, and still 1000% better than everyone else). The Sword Heaven side is super killer too, they remind me of the Swans a bit, with pummeling beats, and angry vocals, but the vocals are super delayed out, and also there is some delayed sax in the jams (or at least it sounds like a sax to me). It looks like this record is still around too, it's put out on on Cephia's Treat and Gameboy Records.

Coming from the killer Killertree Records out of Montana is Ex-Cocaine's "Keep America Mellow", and it's so fucking good. I saw them last year at No Fun Fest, and was duly impressed by Bryan Ramirez's Grateful Dead/Michigan Basketball t-shirt, as well as the fact that he was playing actual SONGS, and TUNED HIS INSTRUMENT! The music doesn't sound like the Dead per se, but it definitely is kind of going on the same vibes of mellow psychedelitude. Songs about dogsleddin'...a Roy Harper cover...they've got an even newer record out on Siltbreeze...Keep America mellow forever, JERKS!

DeStijl is one of the best record labels around today, thanks to Clint Simonson's vision. Spectacular of Passages is the second album on the label by Samara Lubelski, and I like it even better than her first one. It's some real solid, uh, folk pop I guess? She has a beautiful whispery voice, and the arrangements on this are top notch, sort of a looser version of the first handful of Belle and Sebastian albums. Put this album on when you have a day of work in the summer, and are sitting in the sun, and tell me life isn't OK. What, you say it still isn't? YOU ARE LYING, AND I WILL BREAK YOUR FUCKING TEETH, MAN!

Jakob Olausson has a record called Moonlight Farm, and while it's folksy, it's less poppy, but no less good. Apparently he is Swedish, and works on a sugar beet farm, which has caused some other reviewers to be like "working in the sun has influenced him". However, while that is a nice image, that's not the way sugar beet farming works, he's most likely driving around a huge machine when he is working the fields. I used to live in a rural town where sugar beets were the main industry, and boy does processing those things smell bad! So it is really better for me if I don't think about sugar beets when listening to this, even though Jakob mentions them. The musical jamming on here is super great, it reminds me a bit of Skip Spence, and the Supreme Dicks, in the way that it's fairly melancholy, but also has a sense of no matter how sad life can get, it's still pretty mindblowingly beautiful....Ju Suk Reet Meat has got a reissue on Destijl that is just about to come out (i.e. probably been out a year after I write this goddamn review column!), entitled "Solo 1978+79/Do Unseen Hands Make You Dumb?" Well yes, Mr. Suk, if that IS your real name, they do, sometimes! Like tonight, as a matter of fact! These goddamn hands...everywhere...making me crazy...but, I guess I should try and describe this album right now? And try and do a better job of it than John Olson who wrote the liner notes? Who manages to namedrop Patrick Marley of the late, great Muckraker zine which John ALSO contributed to? Well, to be honest, I really can't. I am a bit "shattered" right now, over a bombshell (as Alan Partridge would say), over the fact that my claims to be a triple Cancer were false…I am only a double Cancer, and my mistake was due to my previous research being done in a hungover/possibly still drunk haze one morning long ago.

Sounds of Shinkoyo is a compilation of the Shinkoyo label, I guess. And hey, it turns out I know most of the people on here…there is a song by Skeletons Band, which compares favorably to, I dunno, Animal Collective and Depeche Mode, maybe? Next up is a song by my neighbor Carson, which is a total pop song! I didn’t know he had it in him! Creative synth pop, which is probably about Swedenbourg or something…next is a track by this dude Sevy, which is pretty cool, like spoken “raps” style, with some crackle, clatter guitar, far out, like I am still floating. The next side of the album is a lot of "wanking about", but is still good here and there!

There is this label called Hidden Birdhouse which is run by one of the first people I ever met in Minneapolis, and still one of the best, Josh Tibbets. He has a band called Neglected Receptors with another guy named Josh, last name Mead. The cover of this CDR, Tropic of Canada is silkscreened, w/ a LOT of ink…it is a bit strange, actually, even though they probably spent a fair amount of money on this, it still comes off as seeming like the packaging is a bit cheap. Of course this is a very good thing! The music is pretty classic lo fi weirdo 4 trak awesomeness…guitars and drums, with plenty of “mushrooms pedal” on the guitar side. The drums are simple, in the best way, and the vocals have a clear understanding of what made punk vocals so awesome (the holiness of sound over all).

Speaking of the holiness of sound, this album by LHD on Misanthropic Agenda, Gerritt’s label, entitled Limbs of the Fawn, is…well standard harsh noise. You can tell exactly when he (and I do mean he, I am betting dollars to donuts a woman did not make this album) is twirling the knobs. In a proper state of mind, this could be truly transcendental music, however when I am in that state of mind, I find myself usually listening to things that are more interesting to me, like Lindsey Buckingham solo albums! (This is not meant sarcastically at all either, Buckingham’s solo albums are ALL good…if you like the weirder parts of the Tusk album you will probably love any of Buckingham’s solo albs, including his most recent...actually I think I will do a feature review on them all when I am done with this…look for it sometime in 2013!)

Replicock is a duo of Rock and Roll Jackie of Smegma, and Angie from Tarantism, if I remember correctly…no label on this one, but it is maybe related to the Fish Pies label done by Bobby Loachfillet…maybe not though…anyways, there is no label listed on this 3” CDR, but the title is “bloody delicious”. It is a good description, as it allows the lazy reviewer to just say things like “bloody delicious…INDEED!” and they can just write it on their one sheet, and go on and work their way up the underground industry ladder. Except Angie and Jackie don’t care about things like that, and would be probably too “clouded” to do that sort of deal even if they wanted to! Instead they just put all their effort into making cosmic sounds. Remember in that last review where I said I could tell where the dude was twirling the knobs? Well I still can on this, but the difference is, I bet watching them twirl the knobs is actually interesting. It is like their fingers are performing ballet, if ballet were interesting. Though I may eventually grow to appreciate ballet…like I used to think jazz was bullshit, I love it now! I have kind of been getting into some really cool modern dance pieces I have seen lately…not that lately though, I don’t see them that often…but I am guessing there are some cool ballet dances out there, so maybe I should just change my “dance style I just don’t get” to….what…the lambada? Not sure what that is either, but it’s supposedly “forbidden”, but whatever, I was raised Baptist, ALL dancing was forbidden! In the Midwest that has caused this joke, first told to me by Clint DeStijl, which goes:

Q: “Why do Baptists refrain from performing the act of intercourse standing up?”
A: “Why, a Peeping Tom might catch sight of them, and assume they were dancing!”

Definitely not on the Fishpies label, but on the 267 lattajjaa label, but by Loachfillet is another 3” CDR entitled “In Random Selekt, Volume II 2001-2006”, which seems to imply it is a sort of “best of”, and it sounds like it. The sounds of robotic sirens from the covers of Heavy Metal magazine from an alternate universe (or non-nerd culture perhaps), where sexy robots would have different aspects than “giant metal boobs” and “servitude”. Of course, this would just mean “more like real women”, which would just mean “sexy robots are unnecessary”…which would mean, I guess, that my sexual robot fantasies are my reality, if I consider myself to also be a robot, only one made of flesh and bone and spirit and soul. What an amazing future, it is!

Yeesh, I keep grabbing from my pile to try and grab an album I know is on the Fish Pies label, and I keep failing! My latest grab was The Beast live at No Fun Fest CDR, but the boombox I am listening to things on would not accept the spraypainted top of the CD. Well, it was a good set, and you can also hear it on the DVDR of the set on AA Records. Speaking of them, I was given one of their lathe cuts…but they forgot to lathe it! I actually noticed this, and asked for it to review, and they said ya! Thanks Etan and Alivia!!! Since all their releases LOOK very good though, I will be hanging this on my wall (and I have, since I wrote this! –RQ)…it’s by Christina Kubisch and the cover is some b/w photo of her wrapping some yarn around a tree from a huge spool, or something…it looks super cool though, and seems to have some ceremonial aura about it…way to go Aryan Asshole Records! They also have a zine out, which is untitled…the cover is a woman’s feet, tied up. It is actually a very cool looking image, even if, like me, you just think girls feet look good and all, but you like their eyes and everything else just as much…the playable lathe cut on the cover is some sort of Detroit garage rock shit! It’s not that bad, but it’s not sounding like Demons or anything either…who is it? Who knows…I like to imagine it is Nate and Alivia, but I will ask them next time I see ‘em if they made the song…and will pass it on to you, dear reader! AA has another offering in magazine form, only since this is actually bound, I think it qualifies more as an art book…it is by Nate Young, and entitled "Drawings 2004-2006”, and it is pretty “f’n” sweet. Cover: the back of a hot woman with a fulsome ass embracing w/ one arm a horned yeti with several eyes, next page dying angels and birds part of the top of a skull with teeth in the one visible eye socket next page a “chooping block”, after the fact, with hatchet and flies and lies, next page, the landscape of infinity on one plot of land, with all the dead skeletons some of children crying, but a cabin on top, that’s America, next page, simple fuzz, mold style. You can create your own meaning (but of course you can do that with everything), next page dark palms, the horizontal page is later on in the evening and the yeti is grinding on the side of the naked woman’s leg, next page, crucified cedar witch above the fur and moss, opposite page from that a medieval death tableau. A couple simple lines above represent the passage to the next realm. Next page, a smudge under a mountain, probably representing the Tungaska Event. Opposite side, a chemical marriage between the foetus and the aether. Last page…a sexual tribute to the wilderness in Northern Militiagan. You will have that from time to time.

Hoss Records has a split LP out by I think the singer of 90 Day Men’s solo jam Lichens, and then on the other side is my #1 soul sister in the universe Lexie Mountain. The Lichens side is playing well on me right now, it reminds me a lot of the things I was enjoying that were coming out on the Thrill Jockey label from Chicago back in 99 or so…I kind of got tired of that style for a while, but now lately, with time collapsing on it self a lot (which is not to say it wasn’t already), it sounds even better…it actually sounds a lot like he’s been jamming out on some Lexie influence. Speaking of which…Lexie’s side, entitled “If you so choose” is miles beyond…how to describe this yodeling yoni? Heavy reality mixed with the spaciousness of the infinite, all on a tarot card which Pamela Colman Smith wishes she were alive today to create? (My guess is it would be #2, The High Priestess card, but interested readers are encouraged to write in w/ alternate responses.) “Yo this is is K Swiss, and I am going to tell you how you can buy some weed and buy some sweaters/I know you all wanna know how I lost the weight, cause my name is K Swiss!” she says at one point…but though she is not the famous Baltimore Club DJ, she is just as good, and is merely paying tribute to a national treasure.

Lexie’s also got a CDR out on the Afternoon Penis label [c'mon Reggie, it's Our Mouth Records!! - ed.] entitled Bloodshed in the Course of Things…definitely a sentiment I can appreciate…the other night I was a little loaded after a show, and I hadn’t put in the ladder on my loft bed in my room yet, and it was just an aluminum step ladder I was using, I thought I knew where the ladder was, but didn’t and fell HARD, and bled all over my floor. Funnily enough because of that, my back was fucked the next day, so I spent more time on the internet than I do usually, and I found a job on craigslists, and one week later at my job I found a perfect sized ladder to attach to my loft bed in the dumpster at my work! (Which is shared with a Dunkin Donuts, I am pretty sure it was from them.) Anyways, this album is some pretty crazed art shit, lots of repetition of phrases, mostly vocals, possibly all, with backgrounds being other tapes. Fuck Yoko Ono, Lexie is now my new favorite Beatle.

“999999996666666666666666666666666-“…I just walked back into the room after a smoke, and that was T. Hill cat Shrimpy’s review of the Men’s Recovery Project, “Bullets Over Basra”…I should prolly listen to this myself, since Ben Mcosker of Load Records gave this to me 2 No Fun Fests ago…and hey, they actually were a good band! I’d always classified em in the “90s hardcore scene”, which usually = horrible, but they got a “more political Buttholes” going on. Which I guess was said about the Sun City Girls back in the day…and they certainly aren’t as good as the SCG. Still good though. But even with the cool definite Tubeway Army influence, I bet these guys still think that voting is a legit way to influence our mass culture. CHUMPS.

Leslie Keffer…probably the best noise jammer around these days…she’s got a remix album out even (just like Madonna), this one is a remix of one song (or probably the whole album, but he only got past the one song) by Rodger Stella. Possibly, the label name is “Mutter Wild”, and since I bought this off of Rodger, who was once a co-owner of Mother Savage label, that would make sense…anyways, it seems a lot like Rodger playing w/ Leslie, in that he is off on his own pill zen journey, and Leslie is doing her thing, but he has tripped over an important wire and he is only allowing the most important parts to go through. Leslie also has a split LP out with a band called Robedoor, who I don’t think I have ever met, they are probably from the West Coast or something. Is this label called Lost Treasures of the Underworld? It might be, anyways, it’s #2 of that series/label/whatever. Anyways from what I can tell Grimdoor, I mean Robedoor’s side is atmospheric guitar pedal jamming. Yeah, like we need more of that shit in 2007…NEXT SIDE! (Actually I would probably be amazed by them playing this live, and maybe even if I wasn’t kind of tired and cranky right now!) Leslie’s side is way more raw, and atmospheric if you are Phillip K. Dick in 1963 looking in the sky while in a field at yr house in the country, and you see a hideous mechanical/organic being looking down at you with malice. Only sexier. And she’s also got an even newer LP out on Ecstatic Peace, entitled Feels Like Frenching, and (sic) excellent title...real cool packaging too, the cover is by Adriane Schram, and looks like a cross between Leslie’s drawings, and Andy Bolus’s drawings. Oh yeah, a little Lexie Mountain in there too, though maybe Lexie and Bolus just have the same influences as this Schram character. The insert is a photocopy, but what with the “Geffen millions” (ha!) they are able to provide, get this, COLOR photocopy on one side, a cool picture of Leslie at No Fun Fest 06, which I missed cause I was checking Lambsbread downstairs at the time, and on the other side is Leslie apparently making out with a piece of her equipment, only her body is Xeroxed/collaged to be a fucked up mangled mess…the music on here is pretty fucking sick, I don’t know if it’s like frenching Leslie, but it’s at least similar to being passed out on a couch, and having her end up passing out on top of your head. Sort of weird and maybe hard to breathe, but you are friends, and even if you weren’t you are too tired to care.

Gowns is a duo that has been traveling the land lately, bringing their songs made of noises to ears and feet, and the sounds are made of Erika Anderson and Ezra Buchla, whose father apparently invented a famous synthesizer or two, and for some reason everyone always brings this up. I guess it is sort of interesting, but he makes electronic instruments of his own, must he live under his father’s shadow forever? Cardboard Records put out their sort of annoyingly titled album Red State. I totally hate that red state/blue state bullshit. It’s not like everyone in those states voted for one party or the other. And Ohio still counts as a red state even though they were nearly 50/50? Horsefeathers! The first track is a poem over an organy with the poem spoken in a sincere whispery talking, sort of like that Miranda July does in her art. It is the sort of thing that I would find very annoying 4 years ago, back when I still felt I had to give a shit about being macho, but now I think it’s fine. My favorite song on here is called “White Like Heaven”, which is about mystical experiences you can have from drugs, or just from out of nowhere, and it sounds a lot like one too, or at least would be a good soundtrack for a video where you were trying to convey what things like that are like.

Hair Police…one of the best bands around! And they managed to stay such diasporatic moves to different cities! (Or at least the Con Man, who moved to A2 to take up a “totally nonsexual relationship with John Olson.”) Their album Prescribed Burning on the Hospital label is pretty “f’n” sick! Basically sounding like circa 73 boots of Tangerine Dream if the band drank Steel Reserve Malt Liquor, and maybe a little crack too. Fortunately the Hair Cops don’t need to get on any sort of death race like that, they just make fucked in the head music, while being ridiculously over the top nice reasonable people. OR ARE THEY? Maybe listening to their 7” on the Troubleman label, entitled “Strict” will change your mind about their aspects which would allow you to watch after your children. The cover is pretty “f’d up”, it is like a hot Patty Waters type’s head and hair, but then the cut faces of a baby and an older woman…in some sort of collage! Everyone knows collages are the domain of those satanic postmodern dada artists, who deny the virgin birth of our lord jesus Christ! And the unholy echo effects that Trevor makes use of, implying some sort of Eternal Now! Disgusting!

“Usaisamonster”…”Aren’t they some sort of anti United States band?" That is what you’ll hear a lot on your Cingular Verzon tele-vision, Fox-Nyt-Cnn telephonodigivision sets right? Well let me blow your mind, CHUMPS….there were some people living in the USA before us Americans…and they were called…THE ENGLISH. And they created a band called the Incredible String Band who would never have existed without a magical idea called empiricism! And this picture disc by Usaisamonster totally sounds like ICB! Did I just blow your mind? No? Good. Because there are alternate views of history you can view, very easily, which are not even illegal yet! And I would personally recommend viewing this alternate view first though the lens that USAIAM provide, over the more academic views of people like Ward Churchill (he is still cool though). Poetry is the true Buddha! Ha!

How about those early years of Usaisamonster? Early out of print 7”s you can never experience, probably? Actually, now that I think about it, they probably are still affordable, but still, who wants to shell out more than $20 for a 7”? Apparently they were yelling about “let’s fuckin’ party” back in 2000 or so though, according to this cassette on the massdistro@yahoo.com label…you have to admit that that is a bit forward thiniking…AWK was still in his early mode of that stuff at that point…homeboys might have still been living in Militiagan back then and created his whole “POV”. Standard history may not agree with this sort of “high altitude mapping”, but let’s follow it, further, into what is probably truth. “Ooosaeesamonster” did not turn into a band who can be all “shit, we gotta pay the rent (for their HUGE place in NEW YORK CITY)" by CHANCE! They did it by lots of HARD WORK, but also not taking themselves too seriously! Seriously, the end of side A of this early shit by them is fucking DUMB! But AWESOME too! Like early Lightning Bolt dumb! “C’mon, do it!” they yell, before an amazing folk pop ballad….”if I have another shot of whiskey/I think I’ll grow too fat”/”and I’ll walk down to the river/just to see who’s standing there”….who amongst us hasn’t done that? And who amongst us hasn’t performed a Sebadoh III influenced song like that “back in the day”? Answer: No one whom we shall not eternally love!

To Live and Shave in LA have had a release schedule lately that would put people like Luke or Master P to shame…however the biggest of the releases is probably still the long awaited Noon and Eternity album on Menlo Park…it finds the band in a somewhat more minimal mode than most other albums, but with maximum results. The beginning of the first song sounds like the middle part of one of mid-period Pink Floyd’s longer jams (especially the bootlegs), and then goes into a territory I tend to assosciate with Excepter. Then it goes farther out, and becomes it’s own thing…creepy sad tendrils wrap…tearful outrage over the current idiotic war becomes manifest. The last section actually reminds me of the bringdown vibes of The Wall a bit, even. No idiotic comparisons of “you know, going on tour is a lot like being in the trenches of WWI” here though…Tom Smith’s kid is fighting over in that mess right now. I can’t imagine what that is like, and neither can my dad, who several years back, before the war become consensus unpopular, once told me “I can’t imagine sending any of my kids over to war.” Last time I saw TLASILA play, Tom let off a torrent about harsh noise dudes. I paraphrase: “these guys talk about their shit being harsh…a kid who my son was riding with in a humvee got his hand blown apart by an IUV…running a synth through some distortion pedals ain’t harsh!” At first I was kind of “whatever, it’s just music, no one really thinks it’s that harsh”…but then I remembered an issue of a harsh noise scene zine I picked up at the last No Fun Fest, and these people really DO think their shit is that hard. Every interview was like “what do you want your music to do to people?”, and they were like “we want to shred and rape them physically and mentally until they are too broken to continue life”, and shit like that…then a few questions later they are talking about their favorite serial killers and porn actresses. All I have to say to them is “C’mon guys…” Anyways, this album is a real solid jammer, up there with the best of the krautrock space cadets, like, I dunno, Zweistein, as well as…some other genre I was going to bring up but am too spaced out by the music (as well as the “dojha’) to remember right now. TLASILA was always a kind of “party clearer” band to most people, but for real, you can play this to your friend who thinks like Spiritualized is the best band ever, and maybe they jam out on some Animal Collective when they are feeling real freaky (which is totally fine of course, I think that band is at the top of their game right now…not Spiritualized though, they stink!), and I think they would be totally down with this album…especially when you mention that it features members of Wylde Ratzts, Gumball, Pterodactyls, and Cocaine! (That is the funniest band name I could think that Mark Morgan was in…or was he? Maybe it was just Richard and John w/Mouthus?) Fuck, this album is so good…

Well this column is turning out a bit long, and I have way more stuff to review! I guess I will finish this up with some things I’ve been sitting on for a while. First is a CDR by this band Aghost, which is an artist dude named Walter who I met at a backyard potluck show. It is maybe called Scary Shit or maybe AAAAA. The first track sounds sort of like good fusion style (no fast guitar lines though), like Bitches Brew influenced, but fucked with/possibly all made on a computer. Then it goes off into smooth techno territory, I don’t know what the genre is or anything, but it’s pretty mellow and pretty and relaxing. Oh wait, it’s a few songs later, and this song is a banger! I was just going that I could see myself listening to this and getting bored at times, but that one rocked! The next song is more bangin’ too. Still, I guess I might skip over those other tracks when I listen again. Hopefully he will put out a record of his prepared guitar playing sometime, that’s what he played the first time I saw him play, and it’s amazing.

Sejayno is fast approaching Pengo as the most underrated experimental band going right now…they haven’t had that many releases out, but that’s quickly changing. Sedainty is an LP co released between Shinkoyo, Heresee, Skulls of Heaven, and BOC Sound Laboratories (who I’ve never heard of, they better be Blue Oyster Cult fans though!) The band is made up of my fellow West Side Baltimorons Peter B and Carson, and then also this guy Sevy who is in California now or something. They met at Oberlin College, and all have some impressive chops. This record is pretty stoned improv jams all the way through, and there’s non vocal vocals, as well as plenty of electronics that Peter has invented. They are pretty much living in Pythagoras’s cave, if Pythagoras wasn’t “basically a cult leader”, like this book on Numerology published by the Mathematics Association of America claimed. The author’s proof consisted of the fact that Pythagoras was mystical, and mathematicians aren’t mystical, cult leaders are! Sound scientific evidence, if you ignore the fact that lots of science went into everything these guys do, and they’re mystical as all fuck. More evidence of their esoteric leanings can be found on their album Laity on the Megaphone Records label, which is the label of that Jason Willet guy’s label! Is Jason famous elsewhere? He’s in Half Japanese, and he’s a real Baltimore treasure, one of the nicest guys ever, always there with a hug whenever you see him. Anyways, this CD is part live on the radio (on Professor Cantalope’s show), part live in Birmingham, Alabama (which has a crazy iron hill which attracts radio waves that you can sense if you are “tuned in” as it were, and there’s also a statue of Vulcan at the top!), and then a song recorded at the “Baltimore salon” which I believe is Peter’s basement. There’s some real top notch trombone playing on here, and oh yeah, some cool apocalyptic poetry by Sevy…who is using an English accent! A few times back when I saw them play, Jenny Graf Bibulah from Metalux had to restrain herself from laughing at some of Sevy’s poetry, which was a bit silly, there were a lot of fantasy elements that night. That’s kind of part of the band’s aesthetic though, transcendence through silliness. It helps if you are stoned though. Oh yeah, there is a nice neighborhood moment on here where Peter starts riffing on the phrase “shordy” (as it’s spelled in the liquor stores, to describe a miniature bottle of liquor) or “shorty”, as I believe it’s spelled by the white man. It’s an all purpose word, like “dude”, or “gnarly”, but probably has even more meanings. It can mean a child, a girlfriend, a miniature bottle of E&J, or, as Peter is referencing here, the cops (the lookouts for the drug dealers yell “SHOOORTAAAY!” when the cops are rolling).

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WHAT'S ON D's IPOD?

by D and D

(October 2007)
D: I have no idea who it is, but I'm digging it.
D: It's Magik Markers.
D: No shit! Wow, I've already been thinking about this goddamn band all day, because their new album Boss is just.... it's invading my soul. And I want it there. I want it to invade my soul, and make it safe for democracy.
D: Boss is pretty incredible.
D: And get this, they're playing in Chicago.....RIGHT NOW. As we speak. 30 blocks south of here at Schuba's. Somehow I didn't even really hear about it until yesterday. No way I could get a babysitter. But anyway, this song is about as good as Boss, in a different way. What album is this?
D: For Sada Jane.
D: Yeah. Is it just me or is there like some kind of salsa music playing underneath this whole album, like it was taped over a different album and there was a lot of bleed-through? See, you can hear it right there.
D: Yeah, I do hear it. I've never heard this album before. I'd say it's intentional. Boss has stuff like this.
D: Yeah, it kinda does. Weird layers. Reminds me of Royal Trux.
D: Or Charles Ives.
D: Yeah! It's definitely American music. Speaking of which....Bob.
D: We don't need to listen to this.
D: No, we don't. We're not gonna say anything new about it, that's for sure. You know, I honestly don't know the name of this song. It's the one that goes "Honey, why are you so hard?" From Blonde on Blonde.
D: It's "Temporary Like Achilles."
D: Of course. Who calls a song that?
D: He says the name Achilles in the song.
D: Yeah.... it all goes by like a dream. Like right there! That line he just sung, "I'm helpless like a rich man's child." We listened to this just a couple days ago at work, and that was the first time I ever noticed that line! Which is another one of those lines that suddenly sums up so much, you know, like Phil is just starting preschool, and he's meeting these rich kids, and you know, they're good fun kids, but they're just so indulged, and they'll probably all grow up basically refusing to work, just sitting around like playing video games on their cell phones or whatever, and no one will get mad at them for it because there's no actual need for them to work because they're rich and they live in this abundance society, and even I am raising my son to be helpless, because I'd much rather just put his underwear on for him in 5 seconds than wait 5 minutes for him to put it on incorrectly, you know?
D: Hello, tangent....
D: Well, you see, that's what Bob Dylan does, he inspires reveries on the human condition, even with just a simple aside, a mere suggestion at the end of the line...
D: Dude, you sound like Owen Wilson right now. I mean not what you're saying, but physically.
D: Holy shit, I did sound like him! That was weird. I don't sound like him now, do I?
D: No, you're back to normal.
D: Oh, this is John Bender. I love this guy's vocals. He hits the echo on the last syllable of his lines really well, as good as Alan Vega. What's he saying, something about outer space? "Long distance runner of the human race," is that what he said?
D: (shrugs)
D: Total sci-fi electronic pop. Play this for people who like Kraftwerk.
D: It's a little more lugubrious. Maybe more stoned.
D: Yeah, that's what makes it creepy. Kraftwerk was cold, but they were never really creepy. That's why you can hear a sonic connection between John Bender and Wolf Eyes, but not Kraftwerk and Wolf Eyes. This part is especially nice. Which album is this?
D: I Don't Remember Now.
D: Oh yeah. I've just started listening to these. The John Bender trilogy, if you will... this one, Plaster Falling and Pop Surgery. You know this is the guy that John Olson was talking about in that Bananafish interview, right? Where they were listening to the album and found his number and that strange woman answered....
D: "How many men do you need in your life??!"
D: Yeah, exactly! When I read that interview years ago, for some reason I pictured the music as like loner folk music, like self-released weird shit with acoustic guitar and everything. But there's no guitar on here whatsoever...... okay, next song. No idea what this commune jam is. It's funny, people who don't like New Weird America would totally point to this as an example why they don't like it. "Long-winded hippie jams."
D: It's Tower Recordings, from Folkscene.
D: Ha ha! Okay.... but see, there, they just cut it completely, after only a minute or two.
D: Short-winded hippie jams.
D: Yeah! That's what the whole Folkscene album is like, nothing ever adds up, everything cuts out way early. I actually wrote a thing about it for Blastitude a few years ago, how it has the same narrative arc as a lot of William Burroughs books, where it starts out strong and genre-allegiant for the first few chapters, or in this case songs, but then rather quickly starts to dissipate into just total subconscious, no language or narrative from the conscious mind, in this case like improvs and sound pieces, lots of edits and collages. When I wrote the review I was pretty impressed but now I find it kinda unlistenable. See, this song is already over, nothing lasts for more than a couple minutes. Oh shit, this is something from Killed by Finnish Hardcore. Great album. Who is this?
D: This is "Sotaa" by Varaus.
D: I love it when you can pick out the song title. It's kind of like American hardcore that way, where all the vocals are a blur, but you read the title on the record sleeve and those are the words you pick out, so the meaning of the song is filled out sonically, more so than... textually.
D: Right on.
D: This is probably Sir Richard Bishop.
D: That is correct.
D: Is this the new one on Drag City?
D: No, this is All Strung Out.
D: Oh yeah! That's a great album. And it was released in what, an edition of 40?
D: Yeah, if that.
D: I like this one better than Improvika. I really like it when he changes approaches. Like Improvika was all just acoustic improvised arabesques for 50 minutes, but on this album, and Salvador Kali, and While My Guitar Violently Bleeds, which is also excellent, he really gets into a lot of different electric guitar sonorities, like with drones, and feedback, and whatever.
D: Have you heard the Drag City album?
D: Not yet. I think it's on here though.
D: It's really good. It's got that kind of variety you're talking about. It's got arrangements, overdubs, electric, acoustic.... It's got a piano piece, like on Salvador Kali.
D: Awesome. I'm glad he's on Drag City, that was a good call by them. This is Swell Maps, isn't it? "Rundown." Great song.
D: "Rundown Tube," to be exact. This is Train Out Of It.
D: This is the only Swell Maps thing I have. A cut-out cassette I bought for a dollar at the Antiquarium in Omaha. "Stop the train!" There's a lotta different ways to play krautrock. Like Circle, for example.......this has gotta be Sun Ra. I know this one, it's "On Jupiter." From the album of the same name. Oh shit, is there synth doubling the horn melody in there?
D: There is some sort of wah-wah super-chorused electric guitar doubling it.
D: Yeah, I hear that, but I could swear there's some synth in there too.
D: This is 1979 -- he was playing a lot of synth around then, right?
D: I think so. But obviously he's playing acoustic piano here. Yeah, I think it was just that chorused guitar. Which is awesome. June Tyson is killing it on this song too.........okay, this has gotta be the new Mammal. [Lonesome Drifter, track is "Cyclops"] That high-end feedback thing he's doing there... I mean, I know we're not supposed to use the word "gnarly" anymore, but....
D: How about brutal?
D: Yeah, I think we can still use brutal, for like another month or two. But this track is like... there's something so still and calm and hollow about it.... it's like.... electro-acoustic. It's such a solo track, and as brutal as it is, the sounds are still small and, like, naked. I mean, this is a solo bass track, and you can tell it's a solo bass track.
D: The isolation thing ain't no shtick.
D: Totally amazing album..................... This is Brainbombs. I was gonna guess Brainbombs but thought I'd wait for the vocals to be sure. This is one of the live cuts on the Singles Vol. 2 disc. From like 1993.
D: The early days.
D: I have no idea. The vocals work better in the studio.
D: Oh definitely.
D: This is still good. The band sounds great. The faster live songs are better, the singer goes apeshit and basically just screams like a hardcore singer, which is better than this slower song, which is kinda blustery. The words are too obvious, it's better when you can just pick up brief little phrases here and there. Like you listen to it here and there for months and a year goes by and all of a sudden you're listening to it and you're like, "Wow, I could swear that he just said 'I need speed so I can fuck black trash in the ass,' wow, I hadn't noticed!" (next song starts) Oh sorry, I looked. I cheated. I saw that unmistakable cover art floating by.
D: No Age. Weirdo Rippers.
D: Yes. So far with this band, I still have to look and see who it is every single time.
D: There's something weirdly nondescript about their sound.
D: Yeah, and I think they kinda work it to their advantage, they hide behind it and get away with playing these incredibly anthemic songs. You know, like, embarrasingly anthemic. Emo-anthemic. Emoanthemic.
D: E-"moanwave"-themic.
D: Gesundheit. I don't know, but then there's like almost a British thing going on too, from left field, you know like Guided By Voices but a little milder, and much more emo.... and from California definitely, not the Midwest...
D: I'm starting to kinda.....love it.
D: I know what you mean. It's interesting. I do like how it's all kind of... humid and hazy. It's like a dream commercial for Gatorade. Like ghosts surfboarding in a Mountain Dew commercial... I'm gonna have to listen to it some more. But only someone from California could get away with naming their album Weirdo Rippers. And I'm not quite sure these guys have gotten away with it.
D: I think they have.
D: Maybe. (next song has started) Dude, I have NO idea who this one is.
D: Do you like it?
D: Yeah, it's pretty good. It's fuckin' excellent, really. Who the hell is it?
D: Guess.
D: Mouthus.
D: No.
D: That was a joke, I know this isn't Mouthus. I don't know, fucking.... Phillip Werren?
D: Ha, well, that's at least ballpark. This is the Seastones album.
D: Oh fuck. I always said this was some impressive shit, like any connoisseur of hardcore electronic music or today's noise music should appreciate it. [Twenty minutes later.] Yeah, I think you should just jump to the next one, this is great but now's not really the time for a 55-minute track, ya know? Here, I'll hit next without looking.... [new song comes on].....hm, I really have no idea, but surely this ["School Jerks" by Vains] is from a Killed by Death?
D: Yeah, Killed by Death #9.
D: Some of this Killed by Death stuff is just okay. I downloaded four volumes, just at random, I didn't even get the first one, and there's some great awesome songs and a lot of so-so songs, and I really don't know anything about any of it. I think the Finnish one is the best of the four.
D: Which ones did you get?
D: I have no idea. You'd have to look it up. Here, give me that thing. [looks it up] Let's see, #0, #9, 7, and Finnish Hardcore.
D: Means nothing to me.
D: Me neither. Tapeworm is on one of these, and uh, they were actually on the cover of Blastitude once. Good thing I've finally heard 'em.
D: Well yeah, all your covers are just whatever Rettman writes about.
D: How could they not be? No, I mean, there's some definite classics on these, like "UFO Dictator" by Tampax, I mean that song is just... I mean that's it. This whole Killed by Death reissue program coulda just been that one song. I mean the name of the band is fucking Tampax. But there's uh... the "Cola Freaks" song is on one of these... actually, one of my favorite songs on these, "Police State" by the Crap Detectors.
D: Nebraska!
D: Yes indeed. "Police state!!! It's your.... fate!" Speaking of which, here's These Are Powers ["Silver Lung"]. Pat's from Nebraska. He's lived in New York for ten years now, but before that.... I really like 'em, but they're my buddies so my opinion doesn't count. I recuse myself from the trial. But I do think it's the best thing Pat's done so far, including the Liars. I think Anna is awesome. She's a great singer and a great performer. Not to compare them to the Liars. Actually, do you know what it would be like if we did compare them to the Liars?
D: No, what, in fact, would it be like?
D: It would be like comparing apples and - now I don't if you're gonna get this analogy right away, but.... apples and oranges.
D: Or maybe comparing green apples with honey crisp apples.
D: Oh my god, you do get it. Holy shit. No, but I have not heard a single thing by the Liars since the witch album. The first one after Pat and Ron left. I thought that album was good. Oh, this is.... Val & Oli.
D: Good, I'm glad you knew that, because the iPod just says "Track 12," by "Unknown Artist," from "Unknown Album."
D: Huh, I just ripped the CD, I guess I forgot to write in the track names the right way or something. I think it's called "Gift," and the album is.... some pun joke title.... Shocking Pink?
D: That's not a pun.
D: I know. Oh wait.... Raw Powder! That's it! Raw Powder.
D: Okay, I think that's a pun.
D: Yeah, that's a pun. It's on Blossoming Noise.
D: Great label.
D: Yeah, a lot of good stuff on there. The Daniel Menche album he just put out is really good. The G*Park CD is wonderful. And they all look great. Nice digipaks. I wonder how long he'll go at this pace.
D: We'll see.
D: Not that this Val & Oli is one of the great ones.... it's good, but pretty uncharacteristic.... I mean it's basically a rock CD.
D: Yeah, but it's good. Kind of a bedroom Syd Barrett T. Rex thing. Really weird.
D: Yeah.... that's a woman singing. Her name is Val. Val Denham, I think.
D: (listens) I actually can't picture this being a woman. That's really weird.
D: I wish I could show you the pictures on the CD, she's definitely a woman. Although you can't be too sure, as we move into this new pansexual era. Blossoming Noise also just put out a Genesis P-Orridge album, after all. [listens to next song for awhile] Okay, I was gonna guess Ceramic Hobs already, but hearing that, some British voiceover talking about "80s punk" seals the deal. No idea what album this is.... either Psychiatric Underground or Straight Outta Rampton.
D: It's Rampton. Those two together are the real Sandinista.
D: Wow. I'll have to think about that one. Okay, Dylan again. From the Tree With Roots bootleg, absolutely indispensible for anyone who cares about American music.
D: Music snob.
D: It's true though. But maybe we should... I don't know, can we figure out a way to shuffle out the Bob Dylan on here? To keep all his songs out of the shuffle?
D: I'm sure there is, but how the hell are you gonna figure it out with fucking iTunes? I mean you're not gonna figure it out from the manual....
D: No shit, so it isn't just me, that program is kinda clunky, right?
D: Yeah, I think so.
D: I mean, it's fucking amazing what it CAN do, so I'm not complaining too much. Oh, this is uh, "Cold Rain," by MV & EE, and probably the Bummer Road, or the Golden Oblivion, or the Electric Mayhem, or whatever the heck they're callin' themselves these days. But anyway, the album is Deep Space Nine.
D: Don't know it.
D: There's a lot of MV & EE to keep track of. You're not gonna know 'em all. It's a CDR only release, I think it was a two-disc set of various performances, all from their 2006 tour. There's only like, 8 or 9 tracks on the whole double disc. Long live tracks. Some of it is really good, and some of it is just kinda long. I think this is the best track on here.
D: This is a great song. I think the, uh, 'studio' version of this was on Mother of Thousands.
D: Yeah, I knew I had another version of it, that's probably it. It's not like he plays too many songs, like with singing, on these CDRs, ever. His 'song' to 'extended free-form guitar exploration' ratio is pretty crazy, like if you did it by the minute it would probably be, I don't know, 1 to 27.
D: For every one minute of song they play 27 minutes of guitar extrapolation?
D: Exactly.
D: This is a good song.
D: It is, this is really nice. I was gonna say I actually saw them here in Chicago on this tour. At South Union Arts, have you ever been there?
D: Once. It's a cool place, but I don't know, it seems like it's hard to have a good show there.
D: Yeah, the whole playing in church thing just seemed kind of awkward. Are they still having shows there?
D: I don't think they are, actually.
D: Ronnie's is the new spot I guess. I haven't seen a show there, but before they were doing shows there, I lived just down the street from it for 2 years. I'm talkin' like a half-block away, if I leaned out my bedroom window it would be right there. I mean it was always just a mellow neighborhood Latino dive bar. Anyway, the MV show at South Union Arts was kinda awkward, mainly I guess because there were only 10 people there total. Chris Miller said from the stage -- he played a solo set, and before he started he said, "I think I know each and every one of you," and it was literally true. It was a weird show but they did play good, some of it was fairly amazing. It was nice to be able to sit in a chair. Hey hey, Sun City Girls. This is the Caroliner cover, from that split 7-inch with the Thinking Fellers... can't think of what the song is called.
D: "Wheat Delusion."
D: That's right. How could I forget. I like this one. Probably doesn't sound anything like the original.
D: I'm pretty sure I will never find out.
D: What the original sounds like?
D: Yeah.
D: Yeah, I would rather hear Sun City Girls do Caroliner than Caroliner do Caroliner.
D: I can only take so much Caroliner....
D: Yeah and whenever you play one of their records at home you get shit all over your couch.
D: Yeah, I mean they are an amazing band, but sometimes I don't want amazing, at least not for very long, especially when it's full-on amazing and what you see is what you're gonna get, it's all right there and there it stays.
D: Yeah, I don't remember there being a whole lot of nuance... whatever. Haven't listened to 'em in quite a while, I got tired of vacuuming the floor every time I was done..... Okay, who the hell are these punk rockers? It's obviously not Killed by Death. It's too well mastered.
D: This is Fucked Up, you dumbshit!
D: Oh yeah, does everybody know Fucked Up?
D: You should probably be able to recognize the singer right away.
D: I've really only heard 'em once or twice. Yeah, I do remember this singer. But he wasn't singing at first. Is this like the B-side to the Year of the Pig 12-inch?
D: Bingo. "The Black Hats."
D: I think this is the only full song I've heard by 'em. It's good.
D: Yeah.
D: The singer is fucking killing it. That was pretty awesome at the end.
D: I think he might've lost it with the rhinoceros mention. That was like one too far.
D: Ha ha, maybe.
D: At first I thought the singer was awesome but I think it's starting to get old. No variability, or something.
D: I know what you mean, it's the same with good-looking people. Some are good-looking in a way that can only decrease as you get to know them better - you start to notice the blemishes and the quirks and the struggle to cover it all up - and some are good-looking in a way that only gets better, you can only discover more....
D: True, but that might be a little much if you're describing the singer of Fucked Up...
D: Wow, it's the new Sightings again. "Cloven Hoof" is the name of the song.
D: This is a straight-up noise piece. Like subdued noise, not that insane super-distorted stuff they were doing a few years ago.
D: Absolutes.
D: Yeah, that was the one I was thinking of. But this track -- it's noise, but it keeps the needle out of the red. It's got all these weird characteristics, like the acoustic drums, and the occasional little bristles of post-punk guitar... this is like Keith Levene jammin' at No Fun Fest, special collaboration with, I don't know, Slogun or something.
D: Slogun?
D: I have no idea what I'm talking about, I've never heard Slogun. Here, go to the No Fun Fest website and I'll pick someone. [at site] Okay... Putrefier. Maybe. Go to the 2007 archive.... wow, that Maya Miller stuff is amazing, that flier...
D: Totally. I don't think I ever saw that.
D: Not out here in the sticks. Anyway, where's the lineup? Oh there.... okay, how about a Keith Levene & Pain Jerk collaboration? Or Grunt... Keith Levene & Grunt.
D: Actually, that was the name of his band before PiL. Back in the early 1970s, they were more of a pub rock kinda thing, before he got real experimental. Keith Levene & Grunt.
D: Nice. I'm just picking the ones I've never heard before. How about Keith Levene & Sickness? Actually, there's one I haven't heard that I want to hear, Deathroes. They sent an LP awhile back, I need to break that out. Too bad Angelina's coming home in 20 minutes. Deathroes would not fly.
D: No. But yeah, this Sightings album is getting better all the time.
D: I knew it would. You know, I was just thinking of that Sonic Youth track coming up a couple days ago, when we weren't recording ourselves talking about it...
D: Yeah, "Satan is Boring."
D: Yeah, see, "Satan is Boring" and "Cloven Hoof"... both New York City noise-rock songs about Satan.... and I actually think this one is better.
D: I like "Satan is Boring." It's a different thing than this. I mean it's basically a spoken word piece. It's like anything on the so-called 'beat poetry' album they did 15 years later, NYC Ghosts & Flowers.
D: Yeah, that's true. They were already doing it, way back then. But that song, that piece, "Satan is Boring," I find it just a little awkward. And I think Mark Morgan's vocals on this album can be awkward too, in much the same way, the same way a guy on the street in New York City can sound awkward even as he's being tough and self-determined.
D: Awkward in a punk way.
D: Yeah, it's a good thing. His vocals on this album are great, it's really a big jump forward for everyone in the band, I think. Oh fuck, not the Grateful Dead. Fucking "Weather Report Suite Prelude." This might be where we have to call it a night. But you know, this is gorgeous. So fucking beautiful. And it's so.... sluggish, which is when I like them the best. This is early-mid 1970s, prime sluggish era. This isn't the Grateful Dead Movie version, is it?
D: I don't know, is it?
D: Actually, it's not, I can actually tell by listening to the guitar. So this has gotta be the Missoula show, I'm pretty sure that's the only other Dead stuff I have on here so far.
D: Yep. 5/14/74.
D: This might be my favorite Dead show. Totally mystical sounding, ridiculously mellow show.

(November 2007)
My iPod has gotten insane. I've been putting like 10 albums on here every night. I'm 99 percent sure this is The Shoes, from just up the lake here. Zion, Illinois. It's about 50 miles from here, kinda almost past the suburbs.
Is this supposed to be great?
Yeah! It is considered a great private-press power pop album, maybe the first one? It's from 1975 or something. I kinda know what you mean, this song ["If You'd Stay"], I mean it might be one of the last songs on side one or something...
We really should be sitting down with the original vinyl and listening to it sequentially before we pass final judgement.
Exactly. This song does kind of have that, I don't know, that weird electronic sheen that a lot of the great underground sci-fi rock had back then.
Yeah, actually I hear that.
I don't think there's any electronics on here though. No Brian Eno in the band.
No Ping Romany.
No. It's just some weird blend in the reverberation of their cheap guitars.
A haunting echo.
But I was gonna say, I was once at this guy's house, at a party, and he put on a Shoes LP and it just sounded fantastic, like this feathery dream of a pop rock album. I don't think it was this one............. Ah yeah, finally got On The Beach on here. Ripped from a co-worker's copy.
He had the actual CD?
Yes he did.
I love this album.
I do too, of course, but when I finally heard it, I thought it was a little shy of Tonight's the Night. To