I've barely dived into this yet, what with lots of folks doing Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, and me needing that Region B Blu-ray of "Climax" for $10. But I'll never miss an opportunity to do a Nico imitation, so I'll be jamming this between work calls on Monday. It's the last record of her heroin years, before she got on methadone and disembarked to her final destination of Ibiza. I think it's going to be neat.
...the thing we do instead of the things we're supposed to do... Posts on Mondays & Thursdays
Monday, November 30, 2020
Nico - Behind The Iron Curtain
I turned this one up at Goodwill over the weekend, and what a find it is. Here's latter-day Nico, backed by Manchester industrial/avant-garde band Faction, two of whom were previously bandmates in Ludus. While the cover says this was recorded in Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague in the fall of 1985, it was actually recorded in Rotterdam on the same tour, supporting Nico's penultimate studio album, "Camera Obscura". Dojo released the full set as a double LP set; a truncated version, which is what I found for a measly $3, came out on CD at the same time via Castle Communications.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Trial By Fire - Ringing In The Dawn
Trial By Fire was one of those hardcore bands that came out of the Wilson Center scene in WDC around the turn of the new millenium. Kevin from Majority Rule played bass; Jason, who was the only non-Kane brother to play in Turbine (who did a split with M.J.), sang and played guitar. Colin and Mike were DC hardcore kids who'd round out the lineup. They go on to do more things: Mike would play drums in the Loved Ones and Dark Blue after heading up to Philly; Colin would help start Cloak/Dagger with his brother Aaron, Matt from Majority Rule, and Colin K. and Jason from Count Me Out. They played fast, political songs of a type that paired well with the likes of Strike Anywhere and Propaghandi. It was whip smart and danceable so of course I loved it.
It was, of course, a "big" deal when they ended up recording with Brian McTernan at Salad Days and releasing what'd be their only record on Jade Tree. They'd burnt fast and bright since their demo had come out the year before; now they'd essentially be filling the same spot as the beloved but disbanded Kid Dynamite on Jade Tree's roster. But they didn't last very long. If memory serves (and it's fading fast), they would themselves break up within a year.
And that's the way it's gone for most of punk immemorial. You get a few years, play some shows, put out a demo and hopefully a record, and you split up. Maybe you get lucky and someone remembers you 15 or 20 or 30 years later and says, "you should check this out." So here's your Sunday wake up call.
Saturday, November 28, 2020
various artists - Singles: The Great New York Singles Scene
So what we have here is a load of classic record sides from various New York independent bands of the mid- and late-70s, collected on a single cassette, courtesy of the gang at ReachOut International Records, better known to the likes of youse as ROIR. What a great label: the home to the first Bad Brains and Bush Tetras records, the Stimulators tape, Glenn Branca and Suicide and Lee "Scratch" Perry and G.G. Allin and the Raincoats and just a metric fuckton of amazing sounds from downtown when it was still a beautiful shithole where you could get an apartment for $75 a month.
They're all stone cold hits. One could slap the original 1974 cut of "Piss Factory" of Patti Smith on as side A, track 1, fart on a snare drum for the remaining 87 minutes of a C90, and it'd still be worth it. But to then follow up with a pair of Ork Records releases ("Little Johnny Jewel Pt. 1" and a pre-Voivods "Blank Generation"), and you know you're in for sheer excellence. While the remainder of the tape isn't quite as Hall of Fame as those first three, they're all an awesome sampling of pre-Koch DIY NYC. There's the John Cale-produced Model Citizens, and Theoretical Girls, featuring Glenn Branca, both presaging the No Wave scene. Invaders and the Speedies turn out a pair of power pop cuts that, had they come out of L.A. or the Midwest, would have influenced generations of tunesmiths who wanted to be something more than KISS or Cheap Trick. Even the Mumps, playing something akin to post-glam, wouldn't truly get their due for years until after vocalist Lance Loud died.
Despite the last release of this coming in the early 90s, only some of these cuts have gotten collected elsewhere; I'm thinking specifically about Numero Group's awesome "Ork Records: Complete Singles" box set from 2015. Still, with the weather turning a bit cold and a leather jacket becoming climate appropriate, this is a good way to tune into some old stuff that wouldn't otherwise be easy to track down.
Friday, November 27, 2020
Fuel - Monuments To Excess
Fuel was derisively introduced to me as "Fuel-gazi". And, yeah, I obviously can hear the similarities; a propulsive two-guitar quartet with hollered vocals. I was told they were the Gilman Street counterpart to the Wilson Center's Fugazi. But these were Bay Area kids, doing their first band, not the former members of hardcore and emo royalty. And even if they were consciously aping another band's sound, fuck, they were good at it.
The key revelation here is a pre-transition Sarah Kirsch on guitar and vocals. Long before she pushed the boundaries of hardcore with personal favorites like Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack and Baader Brains, she made an immediate impact with these amazing sonic textures on guitar throughout Fuel's 17-song catalog. For me, that's the standout. Was anyone in their peer group playing with such speed and technique? I dunno: I was 13 and still two years from my first punk show when they broke up.
"Monuments To Excess" collects Fuel's self-titled LP, a 7" released on Lookout!, and a pair of splits with Ontario's Phleg Camp and Angry Son from Oklahoma. The artwork and design is some of my favorite John Yates work, and is adapted from his earlier cover for the LP. He also compiled the songs for his Allied Recordings; Ebullition handles the vinyl compilation. By the time this came out, Kirsch had moved onto Torches To Rome, while her former bandmates had disappeared from recorded bands. San Francisco's Broken Rekids would reissue this in 2000, but it's been out of print for a number of years. That sucks, because, along with Leatherface, Fuel would set the template up for .org-core to be a thing starting in the late 90s. And if folks are going to pick on Fuel for having a similar sound to Fugazi, then Hot Water Music and Braid and a bunch of other bands owe Fuel some royalties.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Elton Motello - Jet Boy Jet Girl b/w Pogo Pogo
It's a day when many of us are reminded to recognize the things to be grateful for. I've been in the Pacific Northwest for four years today, and it hasn't already been easy to do so. But things are getting better, and this is an excellent practice. So here goes:
- I'm grateful my family and I are safe, dry, and have food to eat today.
- I'm grateful for my new job, and the possibilities it holds.
- I'm grateful that all seasons of "The Venture Bros." are up on Hulu, thus preventing me from tracking down all my various DVD sets.
- I'm grateful that almost everyone I live around share the common courtesy of masking up when they're out and about.
- I'm grateful for fake punk, in all its various, money grubbing permutations.
Here are two English studio musicians performing an English-language cover of Plastic Bertrand's "Ça Plane Pour Moi”. It is ridiculous and, if you've never heard it before, well, get ready to shake ass. I'll play this loud whilst preparing Thanksgiving for two.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Kino Lorber in December
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| From "Beasts Clawing At Straws" (Kim Yong-hoon, 2020) |
It's the last month of the year, and while the lineup coming this month from the folks at Kino Lorber is a bit on the light side, there are still some rad titles getting a release in December. I mean, any time that the Barbarian Brothers get a Blu-ray reissue of two of their biggest releases is a good month. There's a bit of everything coming from the Kino family in December; here's a few of my favs.
December 1
December 8
December 15
And that's it for Kino in 2020. No releases for the last two weeks of the year. It makes one sad. Thankfully, there's a MFT of good stuff coming over the first quarter of 2021 that I'm looking forward to. "The Kid Stays In The Picture" on Blu-ray! Reissues of "Devil's Express" and "The Black Gestapo"! Pre-Code James Whale thriller! Deep cut films from Frank Darabont and Joe Carnahan! There's a lot coming; I'm back in 30 to talk a bit about it.
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Crucial Unit - Everything Went Strunk
"Baby, I don't want to make out
"I just want to circle pit!"
-Crucial Unit
I remember my then-girlfriend being really bummed out that I wanted to go see Crucial Unit play in the basement of Charm City Art Space instead of whatever she wanted to do. It should have been a clear sign that it wasn't going to work out.
Crucial Unit kept things fun at the turn of the millenium. I'm kinda shocked they didn't play Baltimore more; I remember their only CCAS show being packed and steamy, with a crowd that didn't circle pit so much as make waves like the sea. Their songs were short, pun filled, with outstanding titles like "Freegan Reich" and "One Less Jeff Gordon Fan". They believed in consuming gallons of iced tea and smashing all buffets. In short, they were champion piss-takers and the antidote to far-too-serious punk rock of the early aughts. There should have been more of them.
They put out a split LP with fellow thrash revivalists Municipal Waste and a second full length with Athena and Jeff at Six Weeks. "Everything Went Strunk" was named after their first drummer and collected their first three 7"s and a mess of comp tracks, both released and unreleased. There's also a live set tacked onto the end. It's 38 tracks of thrash revival, more punk than metal, from the post-9/11 years, back before irony was dead. And it features an excellent illustration by Mike Bukowski of kindergarten children moshing around Chris Strunk. It's well worth your $4 + S&H from your local Discogs vendor.
Monday, November 23, 2020
Paul Williams - Phantom Of The Paradise
Bup bup bup bup bup bup bup. That's the trenchant insight that comes at quarter til one in the morning. I have the first John Mulaney special streaming in the background; no necessarily the inspiration I was looking for, although I appreciate the chuckles that are sure to come.
I re-watched "Phantom Of The Paradise" the other night and remembered, "Hey! I own a copy of that! Let's write about that!" Paul Williams was always Little Enos from "Smokey and the Bandit II" to me, the guy who wrote all the good Muppets songs and stood about four foot nothing. It wouldn't be until Scream Factory released their Collector's Edition in 2014 that I would even recognize it as a thing; maybe I confused it with "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera", both of which I was both overexposed to and underwhelmed by in my youth.
(Sidebar: when I was a kid, I lived near Virginia Tech in southwestern Virginia. All of my extended family lived in the metro Atlanta area. So I'd end up in the back of my mom's 1982 Mazda 626 an awful lot, heading down I-81 with three tapes in the center console: Basia's "Time and Tide", Barbra Streisand's "Memories", and "Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber". You want to know why I glommed onto noise? There are exhibits A, B, and C. Cruising through the Appalachians, hearing the same Broadway shit over and over and over again. Merzbow was a fucking relief.)
(Second sidebar: I have mixed feelings about KISS. Gene Simmons can go screw, and everything they did, the Ramones did better. But "Detroit Rock City" is a jam, and "I Was Made For Loving You" is a great disco cut.)
Back to "Paradise". It's a horror/musical, a black comedy without any of the theatre kid campiness that comes along with "Rocky Horror". It was independently funded by Edward Pressman, the heir to the Pressman Toy Company, and directed by Brian De Palma in his follow up to "Sisters". The songs were written by Paul Williams and performed by the cast: long-time De Palma collaborator William Finlay, Jessica Harper (in her debut role), longtime L.A. jazzman Raymond Louis Kennedy, and Williams himself. These songs totally slap. It's a mix of mid-70s pop, glam/shock rock, Beach Boys homage, and doo wop. It was nominated for Best Original Score at the 1974 Academy Awards, and rightfully so. It's a really cool soundtrack. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is Ben Folds' Fear Of Pop project. Williams would move on create the music for "Bugsy Malone", another outstanding 70s cult film that's due for rediscovery.
This rip comes from a copy of the 2001 Japanese CD reissue that I found for $10 in a store north of me. I would have gladly paid twice as much. There also exists an extended version of the soundtrack and score, released in 2015 on bootleg cassette by a Canadian label. If you're sitting on a copy you're willing to part with, holler at your boy. Because that's the only way I'll be able to cop one until I get to start making my own reissues.
Sunday, November 22, 2020
The Criterion Collection in December (plus The Best of 2020!)
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| From "Amores perros" (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2000) |
Christ, where would I be in 2020 if I hadn't been writing these?
I started writing back in May because I decided, with my therapist, that I needed to talk about something good. I live on the other side of the country from most of the people I love, and we're all locked in the house (or should be), and my spouse is susceptible to all manners of infectious disease, which happens when you take chemo, and half the nation seems hellbent to rush us into some afterlife that's not necessarily promised to anyone. I could either give into the desperation, and wallow in the depression I've experienced my entire life, or, you know, I could revel in something that was enjoyable.
So, here we are. Eight months on, reviewing the last Criterion releases of the year of our Lord 2020. It's fun. It's something I look forward to. That shit is crucial right now. I hope you dig them.
December 1
December 8
December 15
He, along with D.P. Rodrigo Prieto, has overseen the 4K digital restoration of "Perros", which includes a remix to 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray. There are a ton of new extras created for this release: a new making-of documentary, conversations with the cast and the director, and all three music videos Iñárritu shot for the soundtrack. It's a great way to end the year's releases with Criterion, and the one of my two must-haves from December.
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| From "Crash" (David Cronenberg, 1996) |
Speaking of which, I've been considering my favorite additions of 2020 to the Criterion Collection. It's fun to write about these ahead of the release, but I really haven't gone back and mentioned how they turned out for me. There's a 50% off sale at Barnes & Noble on all Criterion releases running thru the end of November, so feel free to take this as my recommendations for what you might pick up.
- "Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits" (various, 1971-1978)
- "Parasite" (Bong Joon Ho, 2019)
- "Come And See" (Elem Klimov, 1985)
- "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (Wes Anderson, 2014)
- "Paris Is Burning" (Jennie Livingston, 1990)
- "The Great Escape" (John Sturges, 1963)
- "Holiday" (George Cukor, 1938)
- "The War Of The Worlds" (Byron Haskin, 1953)
- "Dance, Girl, Dance" (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)
- "Portrait Of A Lady On Fire", (Céline Sciamma, 2019)
I'm back in around 30 with the first releases of 2021 by the Criterion Collection: a Luis Buñuel box set featuring his final three films, Scorsese shoot Dylan, and features from Bing Liu and the late Larisa Sheptiko. Be there...aloha!
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Joie De Vivre - You ruined everything that was ever good (2010 Tour EP)
Twas the summer of 2010 and I, newly separated and returned to the Charm City, decided to book a show at my old stomping ground of CCAS. I was flush with cash for the first time in my life, the legacy of my grandfather who'd left me some money. And I decided that I wanted to throw a show the way I thought a show should be thrown, cost be damned. I'd heard a couple of tracks from this band from Michigan called Empire! Empire (I Was A Lonely Estate) who, despite the twee name, made the kind of music that made my heart swell. They were on tour with a quartet called Joie De Vivre from Illinois. If E!E! reminded me of Mineral, then JdV was more along the lines of Elliott, all slow dances and Midwestern charm.
I bought around $200 of barbeque from my favorite brisket joint, filled a cooler full of drinks, and pulled out another couple hundred dollars, because, for once in my life, I had the chance to offer bands I liked the hospitality I felt they deserved. They weren't going to have to schlep it down to Richmond worrying if the gas would hold out, or what they'd eat that night. My new girlfriend put together a dozen to-go boxes that both bands could easily pack up and carry with them. I asked some friends from Westminster to open; these kids from Annapolis, who'd show up late and play too long, begged to get on the bill as support, so I said, fuck it, and put them on. Truth be told, it was a really fun night. Had I not spent a fuckton of money on BBQ (an appreciated gesture, to be sure), I would have paid all four bands and the space AND made a few bucks for myself. As it stands, it was a good way to step back into the world I'd reluctantly left a few years back.
The three songs on this limited edition CD-R were originally released here, and would pop up on a pair of releases over the coming months. "Vicodin Lite" is on the B-side of the Count Your Lucky Stars "Four Way Split" 7", alongside E!E!, Annabel, and the Reptilian. The title track and "Another Month, Another Season", along with a Pedro the Lion cover, showed up on a split with Sleep Bellum Sonno, released by Keep It Together Records out of Wisconsin. Joie De Vivre would release a pair of full-lengths, a grip of splits, and show up on a variety of comps over the years. Their latest release looks to be a lathe cut 12", put out by the folks at Little Elephant in Toledo in 2016.
Here's to doing it right, if only once.
Friday, November 20, 2020
The Unband - The Unband aka Chung Wayne Lo Mein
Do you like Thin Lizzy and the Dwarves? Do you like underappreciated bands? It's Friday, let's party. As the Unband sang, "We Like To Drink And Rock And Roll".
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
The Vicious - Alienated
Simultaneous with his work in Regulations and the Lost Patrol, Robert Hurula Pettersson fronted a little four piece in Umeå called the Vicious. Remember that comment a few weeks back about Umeå being an incestuous scene? Well, maybe that's not the appropriate adjective, but the Vicious' lineup doesn't contradict that statement. Robert had been playing with drummer André Sandström in power poppers turned post-punkers the Lost Patrol/Invasionen/INVSN. Guitarist Sara Almgren had been a member of the (International) Noise Conspiracy since their inception, and in the legendary all-female vegan sXe group Doughnuts. And bassist Andreas Johansson had been playing with the Umeå post-metal band Cult Of Luna going back to their second LP. It was, to be fair, a murderer's row of players.
So it should prove no surprise that this, their only LP, is a full-blown ripper. Released in 2006 in Europe by Ny Våg Records and Cage Match Federation, and in North America by Yannick Lorrain's Feral Ward, this was the hot record all summer. They'd tour the US in 2007; of course I missed them, to my eternal regret. Andreas had left the band by that point, replaced by Erik Viklund on bass. Given the choice between vinyl and CD, I chose the compact disc, since it had the first two Vicious 7"s on it as a bonus. And that's how I'm able to share it with you.
After that tour, the four members of the Vicious would return home, drop their English-language songs for their native Swedish, and turn into the beloved Masshysteri. I did see them play in the back of a comic shop in Baltimore to a crowd of circle pitters and bummed-out gamers. It was fucking magic. They'd continue to build upon the Vicious's blend of Dangerhouse-style punk, New Bomb Turks riffs, and bubblegum pop.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Excuse 17 - Excuse Seventeen
The first album from Olympia's Excuse 17, imaginatively self-titled, came up on random the other day, and it gave me pause to reflect.
(Note: whenever I open with some shit like that, you know I'm about to cross into "sniffing one's own farts" territory. I'll try to tamp it down.)
I picked up this download years ago from the late, great Pukekos. As a long-time Sleater-Kinney fan, I was well acquainted with 1995's "Such Friends Are Dangerous", but I'd never seen a physical copy of the debut LP until I moved out West a few years ago.
Why did I pause to reflect? Maybe because this came out when I was 17, and the likes of Excuse 17, and the Need, and Heavens to Betsy, and Go Sailor all seemed so much older and more mature back then. I had no idea that most of these folks were my age, or just a couple years ahead of me, that they lived in a town smaller than mine, but that its insular nature fostered creativity. There was no local version of Calvin Johnston or Slim Moon for me to emulate, so I'd get this fear of doing it wrong, even though there was doing it wrong! So much wasted time, where I could have just gotten up and done it, regardless of what that "it" was.
Anyway, here's Carrie Brownstein's second band's first album.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Iron Lung // Hatred Surge - Broken: A Collaboration
I wish that I'd gotten into Iron Lung sooner. There's really no excuse; I was aware of them back when they did a split with Teen Cthulhu in 2001. But it literally took me moving to their stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest for me to revisit any of their records I'd picked up over the years. And that's a shame, because their entire catalog is brutal.
"Broken" was a collaboration between Jensen & Jon from Iron Lung and Alex from Austin's Hatred Surge. This isn't pleasant, easy going music.. If Basil Poledouris had grown up listening to Napalm Death, he probably would have written music like this for his score to "Conan the Barbarian". It's snakecult slaying music, the soundtrack to a wasteland ride towards glory. It's the opposite of yacht rock. And I'll never get to bang my head to it live. C'est la vie.
There were only around 1,300 of these made; 101 in a Chaos in Tejas press, 1000 on purple, and a third pressing of 170 on red. It's not particularly expensive, unless you're looking for one of those Chaos pressings. I would, however, suggest spending the $3 for a digital copy from Iron Lung Records. It's cheap at thrice the price.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
various artists - Down In Front
It's pretty comforting when I still have to seek out information on someone who interests me, instead of just stumbling across it in social media. The search is still valuable, I think. To go out, almost blind, into the world and to find something new by choice rather than have it broadcast at you is a delightful thing. Sure, Instagram will, thankfully, keep me fully appraised of what John Brannon and Coop and Baseball Card Vandals are all up to. But if I want to keep up with the likes of Aaron Cometbus, historian of the East Bay scene, zinester extraordinare, and drummer of a million bands, I still gotta pick up a copy of his eponymous zine (now on issue 59).
Anyway...so Aaron Cometbus. The dude started a tape label and his zine when he was 14. The zine is nearly 40 years old, and I get something engrossing from it any time I read it. I'm not sure if he's still making music; he was a part of the short-lived Thorns Of Life, but after that, nothing that I recall. I suppose we all step back eventually.
No Idea put together this CD version of a simultaneously-released 7" box set of unreleased Aaron Cometbus songs. The CD has one unreleased song from each band, along with a previous vinyl-only release. Confused? You shouldn't be. Here's who's on the CD:
- Redmond Shooting Stars - a three-piece that existed in Eugene, OR in 1995 and 1996 and did a single 7" on Broken Rekids
- Astrid Oto - a female-fronted, Asheville, NC-based quartet with 7"s on No Idea, Broken, and Meconium. They'd get a discography on No Idea in 2002
- Pinhead Gunpowder - arguably the best known of Cometbus's post-Crimpshrine projects, this band featuring Billie Joe and Jason from Green Day and Sarah and Bill from Sawhorse put out four albums and a host of 7"s from 1994 to 2008
- Cosmetic Puffs - this punk band from Eureka, CA made their only recorded appearance on the "Down In Front" comps
- Sweet Baby - Cometbus replaced Sergie from Samiam on drums for this East Bay band's post-LP songs back in 1989
- Retard Beaters - this four-piece with the awful name put out a single 7" on No Idea in 1998. They do not appear in the 7" box set
- EFS - EFS self-released a single cassette containing 25 songs, six of which made it to vinyl via the 7" box set
- Shotwell - Shotwell is still a band (!), although Cometbus left this Bay Area institution after the release of their first LP
- The Blank Fight - pre-This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb folk punk from around the same period as Astrid Oto. Their two songs on the CD were their first releases
- Mundt - a one-off project made with Quitty from Behead the Prophet NLSL/Mukilteo Fairies. They did a single split cassette with Long Hind Legs on Punk In My Vitamins
- Cleveland Bound Death Sentence - best known as Paddy Costello's Dillinger 4 side-project, CBDS did a pair of 7"s for THD in 1997 & 1998, then reunited in 2005 for four more songs on No Idea
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Wymyns Prysyn - Green Ribber
I booked these fellas on the recommendation of the noise merchants from Friend Collector. FC was releasing their first 12", a snappy little platter. And I'd known Donnells for years, so if he and his boys wanted to play a show, then, by Gawd, I was going to put on a show.
This was Hive Bent's second gig (I'll write more about them in the future). I described Drunk Monk as "Baltimore noise agents" on the Facebook event listing, but I seem to recall them playing spacey surf music, like a less punk Man or Astro-Man? And Wymyns Prysyn? Well, thematically, they were right in line with the rest of the lineup. They made a racket that, 20 years before, would have been on AmRep, Trance Syndicate, or, lord help us, Skin Graft. They lived in that same territory as Drunks With Guns, Dazzling Killmen, KARP, or Clockcleaner.
It turns out all three members of Wymyns Prysyn knew/had worked for friend o' the blog and Atlanta/Athens legend Henry Owings. So we had that to chat about. Something like 15 people showed up to the show. We had van beers afterwards, then went our merry ways into the early April night. The songs on this digital-only release originally appeared in a short run demo from 2010, with a bonus track from the "Tres Umbros" demo tape.
Friday, November 13, 2020
various artists - Oh, Merge: A Merge Records 10 Year Anniversary Compilation
I got this for the Rocket From The Crypt song (an outtake from "RFTC") (and it was cheap). I kept it because it has a bunch of unreleased and rare indie rock from the late 90s. It's a pretty good lineup: the Karl Hendricks Trio, Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel, Rock*A*Teens, Seaweed, and Superchunk (of course). And that's all the insight I can offer here.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Garden Variety - Knocking The Skill Level
I think I got this because the Revelation Records catalog likened them to Fugazi. It was such a lazy shorthand for any post-hardcore band circa 1995, but, shit, it worked, because it got me to order this. I happen to think it holds up remarkably well 25 years later; these songs are so energetic, so smart. As far as I'm concerned, it's yet another example of a band being a few years ahead of their time. Plus, Joe Gorelick beats the ever-loving shit out of his drums on this record, and that is a high mark of quality to me.
The good folks at Arctic Rodeo Recordings in Hamburg put together a lovely, limited edition 3 x LP box set of the Garden Variety discography last year. If you have the bread, I'd definitely recommend picking it up. Otherwise, enjoy the band that preceded Radio 4, Retisonic, and Red Hare!
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Regulations - Regulations
Prelude: Today is the fifth anniversary of the last show at Charm City Art Space. It closed a year after I left Baltimore, replaced by a tattoo shop that I assume is still there (?). I've already written about them before; I'll write about them again. But seeing as how they were doing their second American tour behind this release when I saw them in 2007 at CCAS, I guess it makes sense to write about this now.
Everybody associated with this record is on fire here. Regulations have really hit their stride here, channelling Dangerhouse Records through Umeå skatepunk. Dennis Lyxzén co-produced this slab with the band and released it on his Ny Våg Records; you may know him as the singer of Refused, the Lost Patrol/Invasionen, the (International) Noise Conspiracy, and AC4. This was a co-release in Europe with Kick N' Punch Records in Denmark, who also put out records from Amdi Petersens Armé, Gorilla Angreb, and Hjertestop (amongst others) over their 21 releases in the aughts. Felix von Havoc put this out on his eponymous Minneapolis label, in the middle of a year where he put out the second R.A.M.B.O. record, a pair of reissues from the Finnish hardcore band Riistetyt, and the second Kylesa record.
More than anything, it's this record, along with the "Electric Guitar" comp that came out around the same time, that got me paying much more close attention to European punk rock. It was such a good year both domestically and internationally, but 2005 was the first year I made a conscious effort to seek out European releases. At the time, I thought it was just because I was a newlywed living with my father-in-law to save money for a house I couldn't afford. Turns out I got a lot more out of that newfound interest in Swedish crust than I did out of the house.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
various artists - Fear Of Smell
I'll keep this short because I got a new 9-5 job last week (work from home, benefits, the whole nine), which means I really shouldn't be writing at 1:30 in the morning any more. I guess we'll work that one out as time goes on, right? I'd better; it's the first grown-ass-man job I've had in over three years, and I really shouldn't fuck that up.
I sometimes feel like I was born just a few years too early. I missed out on the days of No Comment, Greyhouse, Native Nod...the heyday of weirdo, outsider hardcore, in a few cases just by months. I had just started exploring things when the last issue of No Answers came out, so while I was there as Ebullition kicked off, I felt more in common with Sam & Neil's Vermiform, a label firmly on the bleeding edge of things from its first release (the "Murders Among Us." 7") to the last (the Fast Forward CD). Some bright lad with a musicology degree will someday write a book about the Vermiform discography, and its impact of independent music throughout the 90s, and I'll be the ding-a-ling queued up to buy it.
Vermiform really nailed it with its compilations, which served as great snapshots for where the edge of the map was in a given year. Their first was 1992's "Fear Of Smell". It originally was a vinyl-only release, the first pressing of which featured distinct, hand-drawn covers, which is the exact sort of quixotic, money-losing scheme that I really appreciate. The collection of bands here is incredible: Nation of Ulysses, Moss Icon, Heroin, Infest, Rorschach, Man Is The Bastard, Tit Wrench, Native Nod, 1.6 Band, Merel, Sugar Shock and Hell No. This is ugly music for angry dorks who would rather make art than shoot up a school, the soundtrack to the last days before a band from 924 Gilman would turn up on MTV.
Plus, there's prank calls, which I think is always a nice touch, and is basically impossible nowadays, unless you're a genius like Longmont Potion Castle.
Monday, November 9, 2020
Shout! Factory in November
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| from "Let's Scare Julie" (Jud Cremata, 2019) |
It's the last big release month of 2020 for the folks at Shout! Factory, with 16 titles coming out in November. The schedule has shifted a lot over the past few months, with "Event Horizon" in particular seeing its street date move multiple times. It's not a huge deal, though; there's some good stuff coming out in time for the stuffing of stockings and whatnot. Let's take a peek, shall we?
November 3
Well, I guess I'm a week late on this post, which makes me a real bum-ass. GKids has reissued a trio of their classic animation catalog on Blu-ray, a welcome return after each of these went out of print in the recent past. 2009's "The Secret of Kells", and 2010's "Chico & Rita" and "A Cat In Paris" all received Oscar noms for Best Animated Feature, and set GKids up as a strong home for progressive animation. Each of these came out under their prior distributor; "The Secret of Kells" never got a Blu-ray release in the States. While there aren't any new additions to these releases, it's great to get to revisit each of these acclaimed features without having to track down a copy in the secondary market.
"Misbehaviour" is one of those films that I'll see a trailer for in a 25-minute compilation on YouTube, say, "Hey, that looks like a larf!", then promptly forget about. That's not a mark of its quality; it's more an indictment of the current theatrical distribution and marketing models. Phillipa Lowthorpe's second feature, in the midst of an acclaimed career in television, looks to be the kind of film that Miramax and Lionsgate made their names on 20 years ago, and the sort that Shout! Studios is building a strong catalog out of. Set during the 1970 Miss World Pageant, "Misbehaviour" is a collision of race, gender, and culture, starring the likes of Kiera Knightly, Suki Waterhouse, and Greg Kinnear. I'm down to give it a look.
November 10
Stop: Hammer time! Here's another in Scream Factory's long series of Hammer Films reissues. This time, it's 1960's "The Brides of Dracula", the sequel to 1958's "(Horror of) Dracula", directed again by Terrance Fisher and starring Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. Yeah! This has been available as a standalone British release for years, and as part of Universal's 2016 "Hammer Horror 8-Film Collection", but has received a really nice release via Scream Factory. The print has received a 2K scan, and is viewable in both a 1.85:1 and a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. There are also new features highlighting Fisher, D.P. Jack Asher, and score composer Malcolm Williamson. Add a new commentary track, carry-over features from the earlier UK releases, and a killer cover, and this Collector's Edition is on my wishlist!
I'm definitely interested in GKids' release of the 2019 French animated feature "Marona's Fantastic Tale" ("L'extraordinaire Voyage de Marona"). Ya like dags? Well, Marona is a dog what ping-pongs from name to name and owner to owner, in a tale of blind love. This got a bit of theatrical play before COVID-19, and while the story seems a bit sad (it's all told in retrospect after MARONA WAS HIT BY A CAR!!!!), the blend of animation styles looks fantastic.
"How To Make A Monster" reads like a 50s meta-thriller; a master make-up artist is fired by the new owners of American International Pictures and creates monsters to seek revenge. It's a Arkoff/Nicholson presentation, starring Henry from "Valley Of The Dolls"! It has both a teenage werewolf AND a teenage Frankenstein! It's a B-movie freakout! You get a 2K fine grain scan, two commentary tracks, a featurette on director Herman Cohen, an interview with both teenage monsters (hopefully in character), and the trailer to the movie.
It's been a minute since there have been any "Sesame Street" releases, and, normally, yeah, you'd say "Who cares?" if you don't have kids. But these first two "Old School" releases, covering 1969 to 1974 and 1974 to 1979 should be fairly interesting to collectors who follow classic television. Each volumes has five complete season premieres, along with an archival release (the pitch film on Volume 1, the pilot episode on Volume 2). It should be of no small interest to also see the entertainers featured from those first ten seasons: everyone from Jackie Robinson to Richard Pryor to Lena Horne all make appearances over these two volumes. This is the era of "Sesame Street" I was raised on; I'm really excited to introduce my niece to this huge influence.
November 17
GKids released some really nice editions of "Weathering With You" back in September. But the Collector's Edition coming out in November looks to be the definitive version. It's a 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo, and includes Radwimps' soundtrack from the film. The set also includes a feature-length making-of documentary, a 108-page art book, a mini poster and a decal, along with all the extras that appeared on the previous GKids releases. If you've been holding off on snagging a copy, and/or have a UHD player, this is the version to buy.
These last two are releases I've actually been looking forward to. I've read a ton of good reviews of this year's "Relic", an IFC Films release that I think would have gotten a lot more publicity had COVID-19 not squashed its theatrical run. Produced by the Russo Brothers and Jake Gyllenhall, Natalie Erika James's first feature is a meditation of family and infirmity, wrapped within a haunted house story. The recaps I've read so far tell me this is a slow burn that really blows up in the third act. As with "Let's Scare Julie", I'll be keeping an eye out for an inexpensive copy of this over the next few months.
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| from "Brides Of Dracula" (Terence Fisher, 1960) |
There are a lot of titles in November, but not a ton of must-haves. "Twins" probably tops that list for me, with the two new horror releases also ranking up there. Had I not already bought a copy, I'd probably queue up for that "Weathering For You" Collector's Edition as well. There are a few noteworthy releases coming in December: a new pair of Studio Ghibli steelbooks, Dave Franco's "The Rental", and another Kenny Rogers TV movie collection. I'm back in less than 30 to tell you all about them!
Saturday, November 7, 2020
The Stranglers - 10 Track Collectors Album
One of my all-time favorite film openings is from Jonathan Glazer's 2000 debut, "Sexy Beast". Ray Winstone's Gal gallumps around his Spanish pool, his internal dialogue soundtracked to the Stranglers' "Peaches". The scene ends with a boulder crashing into the pool, narrowly missing Gal and setting off one of the best crime films of the 21st century, not to mention the source of myriad "cunts" and "fucks".
This was the first time I remember hearing the Stranglers.
I'd guess that has something to do with their fairly limited exposure in the States, or that their punk releases weren't particularly easy to find over here when I was coming up, or that they started out a pub rock band (a genre I ignored until my mid-30s) that was a bit older and more proficient than their first wave brethren. At any rate, it'd take me a while to get hip to how good their early bass-and-keyboard led sound was, or how progressive and uncompromising they were as a band.
This collection came out in 2006, a giveaway packaged into the August 6th edition of the Mail On Sunday. Released a month ahead of "Suite XVI", it's split evenly between acoustic and live versions of a number of their hits. Second vocalist Paul Roberts does the singing, so don't go into this expecting it to be definitive. For that, I'd suggest picking up Parlophone's 2018 "The Classic Collection" CD reissue series. But as far as free shit goes, this is far better than a sharp kick in the ass.
Friday, November 6, 2020
The Soft Pink Truth - Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth?
When he's not teaching English at Johns Hopkins or making sounds with legendary noise/musique concrete/electronic duo Matmos, former Louisvillan and Slamdek alum Drew Daniel transforms the sounds of our youth in his The Soft Pink Truth project. I tripped, dingus first, on this CD while bin-digging a few weeks back, and grabbed it based on label (Kid 606's Tigerbeat6) and price (50 cents). The cover was just...icing on the cake. Also, maybe I thought the title was "Soft Pink Turds", which is perverse and just what I'm looking for in a mystery recording.
And what did I get? It's techno adaptations of classic punk, hardcore, and new wave songs, along with a Carol Channing standard from the 1974 musical "Lorelai". Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), Blevin Blectum, Dani Siciliano, and Matmos bandmate M.C. Schmidt all take turns on the mic. There are covers of Crass, Minor Threat, Nervous Gender, and a version of Die Kruezen's "In School" that just melts like a steel beam covered in jet fuel. All of it leads to my conclusion that there should be more house/hardcore homages.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Reason To Believe - The Next Door
I originally had something incredibly catty all set up to frame why Reason To Believe matters. But I honestly don't have it in me, especially in light of the events of the past few days. Let's give it a straight read, and let you decide if it's worth listening to 30 years after it came out.
Reason To Believe was a purveyor of that peculiar late-80s SoCal blend of youth crew hardcore, Dischord-style emo, and Sunset Strip hair metal. None of that is a dig; I'm not sure that sound could have come out of any place in the country that wasn't L.A. and Orange County. It also couldn't have happened at any other period of time. A few years earlier, and this would have been straightforward, Uniform Choice-like Cali hardcore. A few years later, and you would have got...well, you would have gotten Sense Field, which is what Reason To Believe eventually transitioned into. I remain a pretty diehard fan of Sense Field; "Building" should have gotten the recognition that "Bleed American" got five years later, and their unreleased record on Warner Bros. deserves a proper issue.
"The Next Door" was originally released by Soul Force Records in Scottsdale, a short lived label who also put out a pair of Ripcord American releases and the first Admiral 7". It was reissued after the first pressing by Nemesis Records, whose proprietor Big Frank Harrison also managed Reason To Believe. My copy is on Nemesis, a sharp looking second pressing that still sounds like it was a well-executed play to bring hardcore to a more mass audience. The rip comes from the CD version of RTB's 1990 LP, "When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance". I'll probably share that in the near future. In the meantime, give this a listen.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Social Coma - self-titled
I bought this when it came out because it was the band Mark McCoy was in between Charles Bronson and Das Oath, so I figured it'd have to be pretty good. And it was. It's Mark on guitar, Jeff Jelen (MK Ultra) on bass, Simon Czerwinskyj (Long Live Nothing) on drums, and a woman named Christina on vocals. It's 11:37 of power violence gloriousness that originally came out as a 21 song, self-released demo tape, then was paired down to a 15 song 7" on NAT Records in Japan. This here was ripped from the Youth Attack reissue that came out in 2000 as the second release on Youth Attack. It also is, coincidentally, one of the only records I've ever been able to successfully rip from that stupid-ass Ion turntable I wasted $80 on.
This is the freakout that's been going in the background of my brain for most of 2020. I know you feel me.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
various artists - Keats Rides A Harley
Nothing big going on today, right?
I went out to pick up food, prescriptions, and #0 mailers yesterday, and made a quick lil stop at a thrift store along the way. It's rare that I don't find something cool there, and this visit was no exception. There was a copy of this live U2 fan club release, a copy of the "Stand Alone Complex" soundtrack, and a couple of other things I'll end up putting up for sale online. Not a bad haul for $2 a CD.
But the find...THE FIND...was a reissue of one of those early 80s comps I've heard about for years and years, but never seen in real life until yesterday. "Keats Rides A Harley" originally came out in 1981 on the Urinals' Happy Squid Records. Hell of a lineup for 1981: the Gun Club, the Meat Puppets, Leaving Trains, 100 Flowers, and Toxic Shock (who became Slovenly) all appeared on this comp of SoCal (and one AZ) outsiders. It's not a particularly rare record; in the liner notes for the reissue, it's said that 2,000 12"s were pressed. But I'd never come across the LP or the CD reissue until now.
The reissue came a quarter century later, courtesy of Warning Label in Massachusetts. It was a wide expansion of the original record, with a second cut from each band on the original comp, as well as the first ever reissue of 1980's "The Happy Squid Sampler". This addition is cool for its additional Urinals song, an early iteration of Trotsky Icepick, and this really weird synth cut by Phil Bedel. It is, as one of my British friends would say, "a mad curious sitch". I appreciate its strong weirdo punk vibe; so different from what I'd anticipate hearing if I was handed another punk record from 1981.
This is the part of the blog where I'd tie everything I've just written with what's happening in the world today. All I have to say is, if you're an American and registered to do so, go vote today. Stand in line for a few hours. Tilt at the windmill that is our political system. Do it because it's one of the few choices you still have left. Like Ms. Apple once said, "This world is bullshit." Go with yourself. Be a goddamned oddball and make something happen, even if the results aren't immediate. Who knows? Maybe forty years later, someone will write about the little thing you did that had a real impact. Like a record, like a vote.
Monday, November 2, 2020
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - So Far - So Good
My tastes during the third wave of ska ran a lot more 2-Tone-influenced or JA-style than the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' ska-core style. I got a kick out of seeing them out at Charles Town during Lollapalooza '95, and it was wild having them show up in "Clueless". But I felt like the Pietasters, or the Toasters, or Hepcat should have led that 3rd wave charge into the mainstream. What do I know? I should have been able to guess that the Bosstones would have been able to piggyback from the greater acceptance of punk in the mainstream to become one of the biggest bands of 1997.
I got this six-song sampler a few weeks before I got my promo copy of "Let's Face It". None of the kids who'd hang out at the radio show would let a night pass without me playing "The Impression That I Get" once. It drove me crazy; I was right at the tail end of my indie label orthodoxy, and here was a really great song from a band on MERCURY RECORDS! What would Tim Yo say? I gave the people what they wanted...at least until HFS put it in heavy rotation.
The sampler has one cut from the second through fifth Mighty Mighty Bosstones albums, as well as a pair of covers. I can only assume that I held onto this after 1998 for the KISS cover of "Detroit Rock City", from the cleverly-titled "KISS My Ass" tribute compilation. I hadn't thought about it since the early aughts until I turned it up in a box full of slimline CD case releases. I've been revisiting a lot of ska from the mid to late 90s over the past year, and this, surprisingly enough, holds up really well. So, let's take this last opportunity before Election Day to skank it up, Clinton-era style.
Click here to download.
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