various artists - New York Ear And Eye Control

Well, it's another stupid Monday. And far be it for me to mislead you, my valued reader (there are dozens of us!), so early in the new week into believing you're getting the 1966 ESP Disc landmark free jazz recording. No, you're getting the spiritual successor, released a quarter century later by the nascent Matador Records.

This one doesn't feature Albert Ayler or Don Cherry. Instead, you receive the likes of Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, Royal Trux, and Railroad Jerk, along with more experimental sounds from Steve Fitch, Borbetomagus, Circle X, and OWT. This ultimately reads like a late-period Homestead release, which makes sense, since Cosloy probably conceived it in his last days running that joint.

It took me roughly (counts on fingers) 28 years from the first time I heard this to actually buy a copy, probably because I spent my 20s thinking Unsane was the only band here worth a shit, my 30s chasing different comps, and a fair portion of my 40s just looking for steady work. Like adult acne, some issues take a long time to clear up. 

Discogs

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various artists - Amateur Soundtrack - A Film By Hal Hartley

"I am a star / A Hal Hartley movie / I read my lines / Straight faced in the mirror"

 Kind Of Like Spitting, "Your Favorite Actor"

Here's another Matador soundtrack from the mid 90s, this time from Hal Hartley''s fifth film, 1994's Amateur.

Does it feature Martin Donovan? You bet it does.

Is Parker Posey in it? She is not.

It does star Isabelle Huppert, a secret crush of mine, as an ex-nun named "Isabelle" who gets wrapped up in criminal hijinks spining out of her new career as a pornographer.

Did you get all that? I was told recently I had a way with log lines, but I dunno.

This is one of the places where Liz Phair, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus Lizard could comfortably rub elbows back in those days. And I find the Ned Rifle/Jeffrey Taylor score to be a pretty great appendix to what would have otherwise been a decent Lollapalooza 1995 sampler.

8/10. Now go watch the movie. You're going to have to find a physical copy, tho; it's ain't on streaming here in the States.

Discogs

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various artists - Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Matador put out more than a few soundtracks over the years, and even though I loved this movie and have made a fuckton of references to Death Lurks and "I'm Gay", I hadn't owned this one until this year. It makes sense; I'm pretty sure there are only four original songs from the film here, a few of the Kids' Canadian buds, along with a layer of contemporary Matador sounds from their Atlantic days.

I feel like this should have come out on, I dunno, Sudden Death or Arts & Crafts or Attic? Some established Canadian label, replacing Liz Phair with Sarah McLachlan and GbV with...Cub? Really lean into the Canuckness.

Discogs

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various artists - Discos Matador: Intended Play 2007

Initially, I thought I'd do an unexplained list, ranking each year's Matador releases from inception through today. But CHRIST, that's 33 years of records, man. That's a long way to go for a bit.

Let's just say that 2007 was a pretty decent year. I like that Ponys record an awful lot. Matador released a great Times New Viking 7" ahead of the following year's drop of "Rip It Off". The Cave Singers put out their first full length. Shearwater joined the label with a deluxe reissue of 2006's "Palo Santo", and Lavendar Diamond & Love Of Diagrams dropped their first Matador records.

The big one for 2007 was the New Pornographers' "Challengers". Is it represented on this sampler? No, dear reader, it is not. But there's a cut off Cat Power's "Jukebox", which ended up coming out the following year. You get a live Mission of Burma track, a Yo La Tengo track, and, most importantly to me, a pair of Earles & Jensen prank calls. That's right, gang. Bleachy is BACK in town. He's going down to the Checkers to get himself a grip of Big Bufords, y'all!

Also present: a 22-year-old Pavement cut, if you're into that sort of thing.

Discogs

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various artists - Teen-Beat 50

This record will turn 30 years old in a few weeks. This millenial of a compilation is still paying off its student loans, has probably delayed getting married, might have moved back into their mom's place.

A split release between DC's Teen-Beat and NYC's Matador, Teen-Beat 50, as the story goes, was originally scheduled to come out in 1990. which would have made this one of the first ten recordings on the now-indie titan. I'd guess it'd slot into that same space now filled by New York Eye And Ear Control. Teen-Beat was well known for split releases, working with Homstead, No. 6, Ajax, and a host of others; all to get some of the best bedroom indie of the late 80s and early 90s off of cassette and onto wax/CD.

Your listening experience runs the gamut, from Dischord contemporaries Circus Lupus and Autoclave, to goof-assin' from Sexual Milkshake, to an early Carl Newman track from his pre-New Pornographers band Superconductor. A shitton of Teen-Beat luminaries perform: Unrest with 3 appearances, Butch Willis, Jonny Cohen, Andrew Beaujon (on four tracks). This here's the CD release, which has 11 more recordings than the LP version.

I'd held off writing about this b/c I wanted to talk a bit about what Teen-Beat means to me as a counterpoint to Dischord in DC music history, but I never could pull my shit together well enough to make a solid enough essay. Let me say that I feel very lucky haven't been turned onto Fugazi and Unrest almost simultaneously, and to become aware of both frontperson's labels. To discover that sense of possibility, that you could follow your own path and have folks glom onto it...it stuck with me. Clearly.

Discogs / Teen-Beat

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Unsane - Unsane

Screencap from YouTube/Noise r'us

Unsane came along for me at the perfect time and proved that ugly art could be sexy.

I had no clue, at the age of 15, that a lot of the material on their self-titled LP had existed for two or three years, or that drummer Charlie Ondras would O.D. within a year of the record coming out. All I knew was what I heard, initially, on a dubbed tape while skating (and falling) all over downtown Roanoke, VA. It was brutality on a level I hadn't experienced yet. It was the soundtrack to a New York City that would disappear completely within a few years. It was lurid; it made "Friday the 13th" and Metallica look two-dimensional by comparison. I think it's important to note what it's like when a teenager encounters a naturalistic performance like this. Everything else started feeling contrived and fake.

Now it's 2020, and Matador Records has long since stopped being the home for weird and noisy New York City bands. New York isn't even New York anymore; it's a place where people stash their money in real estate they never live in. Unsane got a "new" drummer in Vinnie Signorelli who only lasted through the lifetime of the band. They'd go on hiatus, get back together, record another 10 full-lengths, and eventually would call it a day in late 2019. This remains a keystone record for me; the thing that opened me up to noise rock, noise, power electronics, etc. I still remain shocked that it's still out of print.

Discogs

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Unsane - The Peel Sessions

The devil told me listening to Chris Spencer's bands was good for me, and who am I to argue with fallen angels?

And, by the way, why hasn't someone come along and reissued all the Matador & AmRep Unsane releases (and, no, that greatest hits thing that Relapse released 5 years ago doesn't count in my book)? It's all brutally awesome noise rock that still sounds fresh to me. If you ever had a death wish, this is probably what would be playing when you carried it out.










Unsane - The Peel Sessions

RIYL: the L.E.S. circa '91, Tom Hazelmeyer's gun collection, Chris X's mustache

Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life

I've been super psyched for the release of The Chemistry of Common Life, the 2nd full length by Toronto's Fucked Up, this coming Tuesday. Matador Records & Fucked Up are going full out to promote the record, which, whether you are patiently waiting 'til New Record Tuesday to listen to or you've had the leaked record for a month, is fucking FAN-TAS-TIC. Lots of guest stars, lots of circle pit madness...it's a great rock record. So, take the opportunity to check out these three tracks, then go spend $15 on Tuesday.










Fucked Up, "Days of Last"
Fucked Up, "Black Albino Bones"
Fucked Up, "The Chemistry of Common Life"

RIYL: Negative Approach, Pink Floyd, reading Vice Magazine
"Dance of Death" video