various artists - Good Vibrations: A Record Shop, A Label, A Film Soundtrack

It's a quiet Sunday, the first weekend of April, here in the PNW, a bit rainy and grey. A wonderful day for laundry, the Criterion Channel, and a bit of light blogging. We're back in the saddle again, picking up where we left off with this, the soundtrack to a documentary about one of the all-time great shops/labels/institutions, Belfast's Good Vibrations. And while I've not seen the doc, this is one I couldn't leave behind on the Central Coast last winter when it crossed my path at $7.

Is it nitpicky to ask why Protex isn't here? Yeah, it is, but "Don't Ring Me Up" was G.V.'s sixth release. Its absence seems a bit pointed. But I can't find any fault with what was compiled here. A mix of Good Vibrations releases ("Teenage Kicks", "Big Time", "Just Another Teenage Rebel"), inspirations (Bert Jansch, Bowie, Niney The Observer, the Shangri-Las), and contemporaries (S.L.F., the Saints, Suicide) make for a really great record of what made the shop so special in its relatively short life.

Discogs

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various artists - Stones Throw And Leaving Records Present: Dual Form

A tip from me to you, my dear reader: If'n you have an animal you mind, and you are planning on making a move to a new locale, I would highly recommend either sending your beloved dog/cat/parakeet off to a spa, or queuing up something mellow to soothe the savage beast.

So it was that I ended up putting this on while the missus and I packed away/threw away eight years' accumulated detritus. Madam Mummy wanted to know how I landed on this. I told her, "I trust Stones Throw, and it had Julia Holter on it." Then she asked me how I knew Julia Holter. My response was that I probably discovered her when I confused her with Jenny Holzer.

This one's available digitally through the Stones Throw website. I make no promise that you'll find it as relaxing as I do, but you'll feel good supporting L.A. area artists with a little dosh.

Discogs

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various artists - After Dark 2

Let us harken back to the halcyon days of 2012. 'Twas a glorious time, after the punks fully embraced dancing to go along with fucking and party drugs, and Ryan Gosling was soundtracked by outstanding Italo-disco whilst speeding thru the streets of Los Angeles.

All the usual supects are here on this second of four volumes in the "After Dark" series. Chromatics and Glass Candy contribute multiple tracks, and label co-founder Mike Simonetti also kicks in an atmospheric banger. The lesser-known names, whether it's Chromatics side-project Symmetry, or label mates Farah, Appaloosa, Mirage, Desire, and Twisted Wires, are all equally on par with the brighter lights. I like that this feels nostalgic and fresh, all at the same time. I need nighttime ambience a lot of the time, and this has it in spades.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Bad Seeds Jukebox

This one's been sitting in my Kraken folder since last September. I had initially intended to dash off fifty words about this; "it was compiled 10 years ago by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, it has a bunch of weird shit on it, blah, blah, blah." But something told me, "hold back for a laundry day. Listen to this on random. Throw the tracks in with a bunch of your regular tunes."

So I did. And gratefully so.

Other than the curators, I grabbed this initially because it had tracks from Adrian Younge (who I've heard and loved), Betty Davis (ditto), and Karen Dalton (who I'd heard of, but never heard). And there were no surprises there; everything I'd heard about Karen Dalton was, if anything, understated, and I rushed out to cop her two initial releases.

It was the unfamiliar that knocked me for six, especially when it was slotted in between a Get Up Kids track and some classic Adam & the Ants. The likes of Moondog and  Giorgos Xylouris were revelatory; "Else Torp singing Arvo Part" is a sentence that is almost unfair in its simplicity, for how powerful a track it is. Even songs from Thurston Moore and Bill Callahan are almost gobsmacking in their strength. It's enough to make me reevaluate how I feel about those artists.

(Hint: I wasn't a fan.)

So, yeah, this has been on my phone for about five months now, on account of how it inspires me to listen broadly and experience sound differently.

Discogs

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various artists - Deadly Mince Grinder: The Third World Scum Project

The one had all the hallmarks of a "must buy" when I found it, tucked away on the dusty bottom shelf of a thrift store I'd never set foot in just an hour from the Canadian border.

Were there bands I'd never heard of? Check! Hailing from a place (Indonesia) I'd never been? Double check!

Was there a Carcass cover? Check! Was it "Reek of Putrefaction"? Lemme give ya a check!

Was this co-released by five or more labels? Check! Did at least one of those labels also release records by Unholy Grave or Agathocles? Mic check!

Recordings like this are a great reminder that you can find gold literally in the weirdest, most unexpected places, sorted in between an Elton John "Candle in the Wind '97" CD single and a Boxcar Willie cassette. I cannot tell you how much this made my day.

Discogs

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Christer Pettersson - Empatihaveri

Swedish thrash, bordering on power violence, named after a Swedish assassin, from the days when fascism was still taboo, a fringe idea that everyone would at least pay lip service to condemning.

This is not a blog about politics, but it is a political blog. I find it impossible to align with the art I love and want to share without taking on a fair amount of its ideals. And thus it is that I grew up a punk. And punk says everything is political.

It's less than a month until the American presidential election. The wall between truth and perception has never been higher. I've never been happier to be away from the East Coast. Earlier today, the FBI unraveled and stopped a plot to kidnap and assassinate the governor of Michigan. Last night, I watched the vice president talk loud and say nothing, while his counterpart in the debate bragged about her law & order bona fides. A senator today bragged about ending democracy on Twitter. The people in power seem determined to finalize their erosion of the American dream. This was the plan all along, to use the levers of government to undo that government.

There's so much going on, and I get why people can feel like we have little to no hope left. I can count the days where I've experienced the fulfillment of the American dream on both hands, and still have fingers left over. I wouldn't call myself disillusioned, because I shucked those illusions a long time ago. I can understand the fear that so many are experiencing; somehow, they got left behind in the chase for wealth accumulation. Their generation was subtracted in the math of late capitalism. And they're told that it's a brown person's fault, a yellow disease, that a rainbow stole their birthright.

I don't think we're completely lost as a nation. If nothing else, keeping your hope alive is the ultimate rebellion against control. It's the middle finger to those who benefit from the division currently being sown. The title of this 7" is "Empatihaveri". Translated from the original Swedish, it means "empathy". Hope and empathy are our weapons to fight hate and fear with. This record makes a pretty good soundtrack for that fight.

Bandcamp

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Crimson Wave - 2013 demo

Crimson Wave (photo by Jeffrey Lash)

There was this wave of bands in Baltimore in 2012 and 2013 that came up all at the same time which, while they may have had dissimilar sounds, all fit together really well. There was Denny Bowen's post-Double Dagger band, Roomrunner. Angie from CCAS joined with Ian from Give to start Big Mouth. Wildhoney came out swinging with a demo and 7" that evoked some of my favorite indie records from the early 90s. But then Sophie, who'd been singing for Wildhoney, left the band to start something new with her friends, and it became one of my favorites.

Crimson Wave was fairly short lived; maybe they were around for two years. But in that time, I'd be hard pressed to miss one of their gigs in Baltimore. It fit well into that nebulous C86 world that's comprised of indie pop, twee, shoegaze, dream pop, and a million other micro-genres from the 80s that got revisited over the past 10 years. Had they been a thing in the 90s, it's a near certainty that their demo would have come out on K Records. Instead, it got a fairly limited release on Rainbow Bridge, which was based in Baltimore at the time. CW would put out a 7" in 2014 with Sean Grey's Accidental Guest Recordings, then call it a day shortly after I moved away from Baltimore.

Why bring it up now? I'd like to say it was a roundabout plug from Sam from Crimson Wave's current band, All Hits, whose new LP is out on Iron Lung. But I was really feeling dirgy today, and this is great, guitar driven, funereal music from a group of women who I miss very deeply.

Discogs

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