various artists - Tarantulas Attack!

I've fallen into the HC equivalent of a k-hole over the past few days, trawling through four years of crust and D-beat blog posts on Eastern European compilers to pluck out Swedish and Japanese noise that I don't have digitally. It dawned on me at work Monday that I hadn't posted anything for Mojo Mondays, in spite of the fact that I uploaded a dozen new entries last week. So let's rectify things with a day late post; my favorite sort of dashed-off reminiscence.

The Explosion were Boston hardcore dudes who, after playing in bands like In My Eyes, the Trouble, and Panic, decided to embrace their inner Dag Nasty and play fast, tuneful hardcore. They put out a full length and an EP on Jade Tree, a second EP on Revelation and, BOOM!, they were signed to Virgin freakin' Records. I don't recall any negative scene politics about it at the time. They made good records, they'd been bashing it out in basements and VFWs since we were all kids; no shade, good on them. And, sure enough, they brought along a bunch of their friends from the Northeast with them and started their own imprint, Tarantulas Records.

"Tarantulas Attack!" was the sort of street team sampler you'd get free from the merch table either at the Warped Tour or whatever club show you saw the Explosion. It had one track each from six bands who'd put out records on Tarantulas; the Explosion, the Bronx, the Lot Six, Darker My Love, the Faux, and the Tonsils. Of these, the Bronx has had the greatest staying power; they released their fourth record as Mariachi El Bronx last month and, from all accounts, remain an incredibly entertaining band to see live. Darker My Love was two of the dudes from the Nerve Agents, following the soon-to-be-standard career path of hardcore band to psych rock. I have a vague recollection of seeing them sometime in 2003 or 2004, third on a bill in Baltimore, and definitely thinking "these dudes are going to break big." DML ended up putting out a trio of full lengths on Dangerbird over seven years, all of which are pretty well worth checking out.

As for Tarantulas Records, they gained a reputation over their fifteen some-odd releases for really good looking records that demonstrated how expanded tastes reflected the music one made as they grew more experienced. In less than three years, the TR gang showed how scene kids could evolve and still make good, interesting art. And, shit, that's all we want for our friends in bands.

Discogs

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various artists - Macro Dub Infection Volume One

Before I fanboyed out of Lee Perry and King Tubby and Scientist, this was what I thought of when I thought of dub. Less associated in my brain with reggae at that time than as a confluence of many branches of electronic music, I was more familiar with Bill Laswell and Spring Heel Jack at that time. And "Macro Dub Infection Volume One", which I first encounted in the back pages of my buddy's CaseLogic binder, is the key reason why.

I love how broadly defined dub is here. This is a distinctly British endeavor, featuring names like Mad Professor, Laika, 4hero, and the Disciples. The Yanks make a couple of appearances: it's the first time I ever heard Tortoise, and Laswell performs under his illbient Automaton banner. This was also probably the first time I had come across Tricky. "Maxinquaye", "Nearly God", and "Pre-Millenial Tension" were such huge records for me in the late 90s, and this was my first exposure to his genius. There are even surface outliers like COIL and Scorn present, though a dive into their tracks provides the context that, yeah, they belong here.

Released on Virgin in the UK and Caroline in the States, it was nice turning up a copy for $3 at Value Village over the summer and nudging me to really dig back into my mid-90s electronic collection. And apologies for any stray tagging here; I would have gone back and corrected with a fresh upload, but I also downgraded my copy on my hard drive to a 128kbps version and stored the CDs. And most folks I know would trade incomplete tagging for a high sample rate.

Discogs

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various artists - Slaves Of New York (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

What do you think it was that lead to pay a penny (plus $1.75 S&H!) to bring this home? I've never seen the Merchant-Ivory film to which this provides the soundtrack. The only artist here I love is Iggy, and I didn't need to snag this to have "Fall In Love With Me". I don't stan P.I.L. or Boy George, and Maxi Priest & Ziggy Marley are low on my list of reggae artists I'm interested in.

That leaves a weird mix of songs that made for a nice surprise. "Buffalo Stance" broughr back memories of my first Walkman, playing the hell out of Neneh Cherry and Public Enemy and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince before I needed to use deodorant regularly. "Good Life"? Only one of the all-timer house cuts, from one of the Belleville Three. There's a pair of Arto Lindsay tracks here, both derived from the second Ambitious Lovers record. With guest spots from Vernon Reid and John Zorn, these are a duo of pretty awesome mid-80s downtown tracks, the sort of which you'd NEVER see on a major label release these days. The whole thing wraps up with a cut from French new wavers Les Rita Mitsouko, a curiousity the likes of which I found most welcome.

That Dalmatian on the cover looks like it aims to misbehave. What a naughty dog.

Discogs

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The Geraldine Fibbers - Live At The Bottom Of The Hill

I'm not sure how some 90s A&R at Virgin heard the Geraldine Fibbers and imagined a future where they'd top the charts, or even appeal to a larger audience. But I dig it...the same way I dig the Gun Club and Flesh Eaters. And maybe (almost definitely) that "cowpunk" tag is technically incorrect, but fiddle songs for us art-damaged weirdos should fit under that nebulous subgenre.

This here was an American promo-only release, coming on the heels of the G.F.'s 1996 album, Lost Somewhere Between The Earth And My Home. Recorded live at San Francisco's The Bottom Of The Hill, this never got a retail version, which is a shame, because while the recording feels flat at times, it was the recording that finally broke through to me on behalf of Ms. Bozulich and co.

It didn't help me avoid run-on sentences, though.

Discogs

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