24th July 2010

Text with 7 notes

We Never Learn: The Gunk Undergut, 1988-2001

… Then there was the contest between the Reverend [Horton Heat] and Dwarves drummer Vadge Moore to see who could have sex with the most people. “Yeah, everyone had some money riding on who would win,” Eddie [Spaghetti] says. “I bet on Vadge. He took down this really disgusting fat girl on the very last night we were there and won the contest. The grand total winning number? Two. So the ladies weren’t exactly breaking down our door.

This excerpt comes from a section of the book We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001, by New Bomb Turk Eric Davidson. That’s Eddie Spaghetti from The Supersuckers talking about an insane-sounding European tour consisting of the Reverend Horton Heat, the Supersuckers, and Dwarves. Just one of many moments from the book that had me laughing out loud like a fucking asshole (the book didn’t make me laugh like an asshole, there’s just nothing I can do about that).

Obviously, a book like this couldn’t be more down my alley, and I probably would have been happy with anything, as long as the thing mentioned Billy Childish and the Mummies somewhere in it. But this thing is great. More information than I ever would have thought existed about so many great bands in the trash-punk style I’ve grown to enjoy so much. It’s got all that awesome “crazy story” stuff you’d expect in a Please Kill Me-style oral history of a subgenre of punk-rock, like the above excerpt, and it’s handled by a guy who was involved in the scene and really loved much of what came out of it.

Couldn’t ask for more in a book like this, really. Go buy it. It’ll be another reason for you to pull out your old Milkshakes and Oblivians records, and you’ll probably get hip to some other group you had no idea rocked as hard as they did.

Tagged: we never learnnew bomb turksit's... it's a psychobilly freakout!!reverend horton heatdwarvesstuck in thee garageobliviansmilkshakesmummiesbilly childish

15th July 2010

Text with 4 notes

Psychedelic Music: I guess this is a “round-up…”

You might be wondering what I’ve been doing instead of writing up music, like I should. I mean, I should be doing this more now, right? I’ve graduated, and I’m now unemployed.

Well, I’ve been doing some research. When not reading We Never Learn, Eric Davidson’s excellent oral history of garage punk, and catching up on all the garage punk I missed out on while watching Power Rangers and being five, I’ve been getting my fix of psychedelics. And since I’ve come across such an amazing bunch of finds lately, I figured I’d fill you in on them. Not like I’ve got anything better to do, really.

Girls in the Garage, Volumes 1 - 5

Though there are ten of these Girls in the Garage compilations, I’ve only found the first five (which you can grab by following the above link). Most of the stuff on these discs is a little more doo-wop than garage scuzz, but that’s cool too. Plenty of gems on this one, but my favorite track is definitely “Those Ever-Lovin’ Baby Blues” by the Id, found on Volume 1. It’s one of those “what the hell, babe?” songs for which garage music is oh-so well-fitted, and the vocals are killer. Don’t miss it, it’s the song of every lazy, bummer summer.

Terauchi Takeshi’s Let’s Go Classics

Thanks to WFMU for this one. Terauchi Takeshi is the king of Japanese surf rock, and this record is a collection of his fuzzed-out, psychedelic surf-takes on classical music. Each is nasty, but my favorite might be “In a Persian Market,” because it’s just a bit more out-there than the rest. If you go to the above link, you can get the whole record, and then follow the trail to get another record of straight surf by Terauchi.

Kayama Yuzo’s Black Sand Beach

Speaking of Japanese surf rock royalty, Kayama Yuzo’s ”Black Sand Beach,” which appears twice on the same-titled record found above, is another surf-rock masterpiece that I can’t stand not hearing at least once a day, since stumbling across it earlier this week. You may remember Kayama from this insanely incredible video, which I posted about a year ago (if you’re some weirdo who’s been following this than for a year… do those exist?). Too bad the song from that film never made it to vinyl, or so I hear.

Love, Peace, and Poetry, Volumes 1 - 9

I fully expected a compilation called Love, Peace, and Poetry to be absolute garbage, but I was happy to find that it totally annihilates. Each volume tackles some deep psychedelic cuts from a different area of the map, including the obvious American and British psychedelic scenes, and the more interesting scenes with which you might not be familiar. My favorite comps from this set of nine were the Brazilian and Turkish ones, but they’re all definitely worth checking out. Go for it.

That’s it for now. You’ve got some work to do.

Tagged: prince of partiesbetter living through chemistrytaking drugs to make music to take drugs tofucking YESmeltingstuck in thee garagepsychlove peace and poetrygirls in the garagekayama yuzoterauchi takeshipsychedelic music

3rd July 2010

Text with 2 notes

The Oblivians/Andre Ethier at The Knitting Factory

Just in case you missed it, The Oblivians, supported by Andre Ethier, put on a free concert Thursday night at the Knitting Factory. Although I’m not a big fan of corporate involvement in music, I guess I should show some appreciation to Scion for sponsoring the event, not only because I didn’t have to pay money to go, but also because they were giving out free Black Lips/Pierced Arrows splits, and I snagged two of them. So, that was cool of them. But enough shilling. Let’s talk about rock.

Andre Ethier, photo courtesy of my crappy phone camera.

Opening up the night was Andre Ethier, with whom I was pleasantly surprised.  To me, his set sounded like the psychedelic sounds of Bob Dylan. Ethier had the kind of stream of consciousness vocals that few people can really pull off, and when you hear someone do it right, it’s really something special. Whoever was on lead guitar duty that night was really driving it home. I’m hoping that’s not the last I’ll hear from Andre Ethier.

The Oblivians - another picture taken with my phone camera. Anyone want to be my photographer?

The fucking Oblivians. If you’re not with it, the Oblivians fucking rock. That’s all you should need to know in order to be caught up with what’s going on. They hit the stage, and annihilated for an hour and fifteen minutes before taking a couple of minutes off before the encore.  I lost count of how many songs they played (can you blame me? they’re all a minute and a half long) but I did manage to keep track of how many fights broke out: three and a half. That half fight was when a girl poured her beer out on a guy’s head… it would have been a fight, but they were both too scared to hit someone of the opposite gender. Of course, things never got past a bro-style “hold me back!” exchange, as the crowd seemed to be able to completely separate aggressive-types, so things only seemed energetic, not dangerous. Exactly what you want at a punk rock show.

Each member of the group got to have several turns leading things, and everyone seemed to know exactly what’s up. After their reunion tour last year, they seem to be in fantastic shape; the band rocked exactly as hard as I’d always hoped they would. When Greg Oblivian sat behind the drum kit so Jack O could have a turn on the mic, things got both sloppier and cleaner, somehow at the same time.  Greg’s drunken southpaw style on the drums was loads of fun to watch, and Jack’s songs had their own unique punch to them that I really appreciated; “Strong Come On” might be the best minute-and-thirty seconds of music of all time. For the encore, the guys brought up a friend to play some organ, and, of course, they continued to kick everyone’s asses.

If you ever get the chance, you need to see the Oblivians. They did mention they’d all just moved up to Queens, by the way… I’m hoping we’ll be seeing them around more in the future.

Tagged: strong come onstuck in thee garageBeing at a punk rock show always reminds me I need to have more sideburnsoblivianseconofuck youholee shitkick out the jams motherfuckermissgofuckyourself

2nd July 2010

Text with 1 note

The Roar of the Masses Could be Farts: The Pack A.D. - We Kill Computers

Corey from Sex Sux (Amen) and I have decided to destroy you. Here’s how we’re going to do it: collaborative blogging. Knowing Corey to be a fan of theirs, I asked him to check out The Pack A.D.’s most recent record, We Kill Computers.  Over on Corey’s blog, we talked about Woven Bones’ new one, In and Out and Back Again. Once you’re done here, head over and check it out. Now, take it away, Corey.

Corey: I had forgotten about my favorite Canadian garage punk duo, Becky Black and Maya Miller, even though they dropped a couple excellent LP’s last decade on Mint Records: Tintype and Funeral Mixtape.

The girls are burning down British Columbia on this record: the vocals from Becky are more biting, confident, and angry and her guitar playing is heavier and noisier.  Maya’s thrashing drums complement Becky’s downright evil fire she is spitting.  Check out the best tracks, “Crazy” and “K Stomp,” and you can feel Becky’s snarl right in your mouth.

The mostly blues-inspired song writing from their earlier records occasionally got repetitive.  On this record, they choose to branch off a little more, diving into heavy rock and punk territory.

In retrospect, The Pack AD’s earlier records showed off promise, and, since they weren’t over-hyped/were over-looked, they’ve been able to organically develop into a motherfucking powerful force.

David: I’ll be honest, I got this record when it came out a few months ago, and I didn’t even make it all the way through. It seemed over-produced, and, when the basis for most of a group’s appeal is based on raw energy, too much time in the studio can really dull that edge. But it’s been a while, and I figured since their previous two records were nasty, I should give this one another shot.

I guess my real issue the first time around was just that their visual aesthetic seems to have changed a bit in between this record and the last, going from hairy tomboy southern (yeah, I know they’re Canadian) thugs to a cleaner, hipper look, and I expected that to transfer over into their sound.  But, now that I’ve had some time to remember I shouldn’t really give a shit about what they look like, I can recognize that I made up that “over-produced” bit.  I was expecting to be able to start a debate with Corey over this record, but it looks like I fucked up. I don’t know if I see as much improvement in between Funeral Mixtape and We Kill Computers, but my original appraisal was definitely misguided. It’s a solid album. Go fuck yourself, me-from-the-past!

I don’t know how I missed it the first time around, but the first cut, “Deer” fucking stomps. It’s riffy, and there’s just enough space to make that riff really land hard. Is it me, or is “Crazy” just a reworking of “The Hardest Button to Button?” Can’t go wrong starting in that territory.

Corey: Haha I actually tried listening to it a little while back and got bored but you forced me to listen to it again and it’s pretty good, right?  Fuck us.

David: Yeah, I think the main issue is “Cobra Matte” sucks. I think that’s as far as I got the first time, and this time, I got up to that song and was still like “what the hell?” It’s not that bad, but it’s sucky.

Corey: Yeah that “Cobra Matte” sucks.

Tagged: stuck in thee garagethe roar of the masses could be fartssex sux (amen)