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The Gories/Jimmy Ohio at Maxwell’s in Hoboken
I caught up on my live gunk-punk fix last night at Maxwell’s. The Gories knocked out a vicious set of kickin’ rock’n’roll, opened up by bluesy southern-styled (but Detroit-based) sounds of Jimmy Ohio. Both acts were good, but, as expected, the Gories really knocked it out. I missed last summer’s reunion tour, so this was my first opportunity to see them live, and they were just as shitty as I hoped they’d be. Which is to say that they were amazing.
Not only was this my first time in witness of these two acts, but it was also my first time at Maxwell’s. It’s a small club, and that’s good, especially for this kind of show. It makes me a bit bummed that I missed out on seeing the Mummies there last summer instead of Southpaw, especially since Southpaw is about five times the size of Maxwell’s. Not as intimate. Whoever was running sound last night was, perhaps, a genius. The mixing for both groups was perfect, but I’ll get into that in a bit.
First, Jimmy Ohio played a forty-minute set of alternately piano- and guitar-based rock tunes, backed by a tight-as-hell rhythm section. As I was just getting to before, you could hear each instrument perfectly, even the often hard-to-nail drum set. I was pretty excited about the sound they were getting out of the stripped-down cymbal-less kit, but, then again, there was barely anything to mic, so I guess they had to do a good job.
The songs ranged from more laid-back, ballad-y numbers to aggressive punk sound, and, if you’re a follower of this blog, you probably have a good idea which style I preferred. Ohio’s a good song-writer, but I think he’s an even better front-man; the one song where he left the piano and guitar alone to growl out the lyrics and herky-jerk himself around the stage was my favorite part of the set, made only more entertaining by his guitarist’s noise-lead work.
When Mick Collins mentioned he’d be setting the volume of his guitar softer than he usually has it with his other group, The Dirtbombs, I was a bit bummed, but then as the Gories began their set with the perfect opening, “Hey Hey, We’re the Gories,” right from the start, it was the loudest thing I’d heard in my entire life. And there’s no other way this kind of scuzzy garage-punk should be. In a similar vein, the group made several comments about not remembering their songs or how to play them, and yet still played them all with energy and groove. These guys-and-gal are a fine example of what punk rock is all about; they don’t know what they’re doing, but they do it anyway, and way better than anyone else could.
While I was hoping they’d pull out a cover of “Land of 1000 Dances,” I was not at all disappointed that they did not; they hit all my favorite songs of theirs, including the perfect sing-a-long “Thunderbird ESQ,” and the covers they did do were great — no-brainers, but you’d never come up with them. During the encore, which finished up with a nasty rendition of “Nitroglycerin,” as per audience request/chant, the group pulled out a dirty scream-through of Muddy Waters’ “I Just Want to Make Love To You” that truly stands on its own against the original.
If you’ve got the chance, and you won’t be at the free Sonic Youth/Grass Widow/Talk Normal show in Brooklyn tomorrow night, you should check out the Gories at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, also for free (with ? and the Mysterians also performing). Too much awesome.
P.S. Happy belated birthday to drummer Peg O’Neill, who celebrated it last night by laying down the punchiest beats I’ve heard in a long while.
P.P.S. For all you Gories/Dirtbombs fans out there, don’t forget about Blacktop. They were also fucking great.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Jadewalkers - Happy Feet
Jadewalkers EP II (Puta)
The Jadewalkers’ second EP, produced and engineered by a former Voidoid (Ivan Julian), includes four tracks, “Tall Boy Mob,” “Happy Feet,” “Jumpstart,” and “We Killed the Jadewalkers.” Imagine the Hives but with boobs, and you’re on the right track, although I don’t think I’m really happy with the image this sentence puts in my head. On second thought, just listen to “Happy Feet” and join me in attempting not to think about Dr. Matt Destruction’s rack.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Mark Sultan - Icicles
$ (Last Gang Records)
You of course know Mark Sultan as BBQ from The King Khan & BBQ Show; these guys are really kicking their music’s ass as of late. This record is no exception. For the uninitiated: Mark Sultan and King Khan are at the forefront of the hipster garage-rock scene, and for good reason. This stuff kicks ass. It’s simple, catchy stuff with that lo-fi crunch all over the place, and incredibly sing-a-long-able lyrics.
Cuts like “Icicles” and “Waiting For Me” have some of the best fuzz guitar tone I’ve heard in a long time. This is like, “The Shag” good. And Sultan is experimenting with some cool stuff on here as well. The song “Status” includes a good bit of noise music, which I was not really expecting. And a couple of songs are upwards of six(!) minutes long. This isn’t (all) the stripped-down, bare-bones garage pop of The King Khan & BBQ Show. The energy is still there, and they keep it pretty simple. But they’re settling in, and stretching out a little bit. And it’s cool. Way cool.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Post Shit Notes - Untitled
Bri’ish trash rock is always welcome here. After you check out their latest, an as-yet-untitled cut which I dare the group to call “Feeling Trent Ruane’s Boner,” check out Post Shit Notes’ MySpace for three other tracks. My favorite might be “Lovestruck,” which reminds me of why I used to love the bass guitar.
More of this stuff, please. Less of whatever else you were going to be doing.
… okay, I guess I’d be alright with them renaming this song to incorporate the C-word somehow. As Brits, they get to use that all the time and somehow it’s not horrifyingly offensive. Make use of your freedom!
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