Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 108

.
Download AFS v. 108

...or stream it

BATTLESHIP // This Town Wants You Skinny // Hearts Addendum // On/On Switch *new
ABE VIGODA // Tom Tom Sun // Kid City // olFactory *new
LAKE OF DRACULA // Biographers of the Flaming Druglords // Skeletal Remains // Savage Land *new
SILVER CREME // untitled // Perfumed Metal // Self-Released *new
MUTATORS // Stevie Wonder Can See // Nerves 7" // Grotesque Modern *new
SMUT // Big Business Can Suck It // split 7" w/ Ovo // Friends & Relatives/Carbon/MT6/et al. *new
NEW FLESH // Scapegoat // Parasite // Maelstrom 2005
PUKE ATTACK // Elizabeth´s Bed // Love Cum´s 1st split LP w/ New Flesh // No Label *new
UNMONO // Two Dirty Flies // As Long as an Album // 12 Pylons *new
UNMONO // Prodpot

UNMONO // Schoolgirl Stalker
THE BLOW // Bonjour Jeune Fille // Paper Television // K Records *new
KANIA TIEFFER // Coq à l´Ail // Kania Tieffer Against It // Self-Released *new
LAWRENCE WASSER // Piggy on a Rooftop // v/a: Tête de Bébé // S-S Records 2006
PRETTY THIGH // Testicaligraphy // Split 7" w/ Hot Girls Cool Guys & KK Rampage // HIV Tarnations *new
SLIVERS // Questions // Restraint for Style 7" // New Alliance 1981

DEAR RAINDROP // Theme to the Pharoah´s Secret part VIII // v/a: Sarcophagus 1-4 // Radius Waste *new
BLACK PUS // Kind Companion // Black Pus 3: Metamorpus // DiareahRama *new
BLACK PUS // The Mad Scatter
WHAT CHEEK? BRIGADE // Disco Bhangra // v/a: Rare Youth 2xCD // Rare Youth *new
MERCY LIGHT // Fuck Deke (Live at Club In-Zane) // v/a: Rare Youth
DYNASTY // Milk of Human Kindness // Gate 2x7" // Dynasty *new
TORTURING NURSE // -0- // Hate Human cassette // Hate State *new
TIK///TIK // Out of Respect for His Family, Let´s Say We Ate the Cabin Boy // Sea Door split 2x3" CDR w/ Stomach Aches // Deathbomb Arc *new
CAPTAIN AHAB // I Was the Only One There to Suck // Snakes on the Brain // Deathbomb Arc *new
OKAY TEMIZ TRIO // Trabzon Karsilamasi // Turkish Folk Jazz // Sonet 1975

EAT THE PEOPLE // Disappear // Soundtrack to the Unicorn Movie // Baby Arm 2005
M.A.L. // Seven Minutes to Midnight // Compendium Maleficarum // Physiocrat 1981
RUTH WHITE // The Irremediable // Flowers of Evil // Creel Pone *new/1969
DEAD SCIENCE // White Stain // Crepuscule // Slender Means Society *new
TUNNELS // Partitions // Vexations / Reflections / Partitions // Yarnlazer *new
SHADOW RING // I Am the Black Piper // Lighthouse 2xLP // Swill Radio 1999
SHADOW RING // I Am Lloyd Lyson
SHADOW RING // Mindart
SHADOW RING // If It Is a Boy

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 107

.
Download AFS v. 107

...or stream it

BATTLESHIP // Buster Keaton // Hearts Addendum // On/On Switch *new
BATTLESHIP // Bringing Home Jerusalem
HIPS // Monkey in a Cage // v/a: Happy Birthday DNT! // DNT *new
MUTATORS // My War [Black Flag] // Nerves 7" // Grotesque Modern *new
BOB BURNS & THE BREAKUPS // Losing My Head // Hydrostatic Heart 7" // Plastic Idol *new
NO FEELING // Holes // split 7" w/ Ladies Night // Seeing Eye *new
APE CITY R&B // She´s Candy Coated // She's Candy Coated 7" // Jenasol 2005
HONEYMOON KILLERS // Vanna White (Goddess of Love) // Hung Far Low // Fistpuppet 1991
HONEYMOON KILLERS // You Can´t Do That
NO DOCTORS // Sharkskin Blues // Hunting Season // Cock of the Rock 2004
CHEB SAMIR & THE BLACK SOULS OF LEVIATHAN // I Know What to Do // Don´t Like Girls 7" // Yakisakana *new
THE CHEERAKS // Honey // The Cheeraks are N°1 7" // Yakisakana *new
THE NORMALS & JEFF CLARK // The Street of Your Heart // The Street of Your Heart 7" // Yakisakana *new

HOLE CLASS // What Doesn´t Kill You // A Glimpse of Hole Class cassette // No Label *new
ETERNAL TAPESTRY // Puff Cloud Temple // Demo CDR // Self-Released *new
POCAHAUNTED // Water Moccasins // Moccasinging cassette // Not Not Fun *new
PLANTS // Animal Spirit Gestalt // Totem CDR // Self-Released *new
TUNNELS // Reflections // Vexations / Reflections / Partitions // Yarnlazer *new
YELLOW SWANS // Live at Grandma´s House 12/05 // Psychic Secession 2Xlp // Weird Forest *new

NON-HORSE // excerpt // Rigor Lore cassette // Not Not Fun *new
BREATHER // Radiation // Loves and Disloves // Sonic Incision 1984
NEITHER/NEITHER WORLD // Our Devil´s Cave // Sociopathic Pleasures // Majestic Chaos 1992
CAROLINE K // Tracking with Close-Ups // Now Wait for Last Year 12" EP // Earthly Delights 1987
FACTRIX // Phantom Pain // Scheintot // Adolescent 1981
AKSAK MABOUL // Three Epileptic Folk Dances // Aksak Maboul: Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine // Kamikaze 1977
IVA BITTOVÁ // Ouvertura // Dunaj // Panton 1988
IVA BITTOVÁ // Kaše
FLYING LUTTENBACHERS // From Oblivion // Cataclysm // ugExplode *new
VÁGTÁZÓ HALLOTKÉMEK // Másfélé Táj (Another Kind of Landscape) // Jumping Out the World Instinct // Sonic Boom 1990
SAPAT // Halcyon Daze // Tongue-Tied & Staid 7" // Black Velvet Fuckere *new
DANIEL JENKINS // Gridlock // Taking a Drive... // No Label 1987
DEAD MOON // Fire in the Western World // Echoes Of The Past // Sub Pop *new

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

What Are You Gonna Wear???



Friday, October 27
@ the DAM House
503 E Street in Davis

7:00 SHARP! to 10:00 p.m. SHARP!

RAD SHOW!

GANG WIZARD
http//www.gangwizard.tk/

w/ special guests...

WAY BAD
&
WOMAN'S WORTH
http//www.myspace.com/105893724

Bring $3-$6 to donate to bands. Wear a costume??? Dance! Eat our food (come hungry!!!) & drink (WOO!).

Gang Wizard's new album--Byzantine Headache--is out on Load Records. Says Load CEO himself

Los Angeles-based GANG WIZARD play an unholy gumbo of out-fried rock that draws from fluff between such couch cushions as the more stumblin' side of the ROYAL TRUX and the jazzercize neck of sonic explorers like the NO NECK BLUES BAND klan. Its truly a groups effort as 13 members appear on this release utilizing every weapon in the war chest ... from guitars, snyths and vocal pipes onwards. Truly the sound of levitation.

The band has three previous records on Ecstatic Peace, and its members have been in too many bands to mention THE HOSPITALS, KEVIN SHIELDS, BOXLEITNER... the list goes on. Labels as diverse as DEATHBOMB ARC, WEIRD FOREST, IN THE RED have all played home to these members projects.

In short, if you crave the out sound, this record will burrow its way into your routine. Its the sound of life... in all its shitty glory. Blowing loud, proud and straight through. Get it while you still are alive. Waiting could be your biggest mistake.


This album is also my debut, as I drum on part of it. But this particular Gang Wizard incarnation is a reunion of the classic early band that hasn't played publicly since this decade began. But I might grab a stick and beat on something (your adam's apple) at some point during the show.

Call this the Byzantine Headache release party!

WAY BAD is a special performance by a merged band of The Hospitals and The Skaters. So we get the pinnacle band of gnarly garage-scuzz/artpunk's moan-wave arm together with the band that is arguably the pinnacle of moan-wave altogether, the kings of burly and brilliant waves of mouthsound modulation. This should be historic, especially when you consider that The Skaters are supposed to be moving to Berlin in a few weeks. Catch 'em while you can! I imagine this might be the only time you'll see the Skaters and feel the urge to rock out at the same time.

Please also be aware that this will most likely be thee exclusive Way Bad performance. Like, don't expect the band to ever happen again after this. Already, if minor celebrities will book flights from NYC to Sacto to see this, you can drive to the DAM House or ride your bike here, right?

Woman's Worth is a special and sweet sorta damaged take on chamber music with a heaping dose of free-jazz influence, but these are rigorously rehearsed and composed spasms of trombone of Wilson and sax of Matt (from Vholtz), cascades of drum rolls by Paul from Business Lady, and the zany operatic yelps of fellow S.D.-expat Jessalyn. This band kinda loopy, wild and weird, but most of all EXTREMELY FUN! I saw them play at The Bakery in Emeryville with Deep Jew and Gator Surprise and some other bands, and they were by far the best act of the night. Paul built his snare drum by hand, he is one of the very best drummers I've ever seen, but he will not glaze your eyes with Berklee/Juilliard-level wizardness.

FOOD WILL BE SERVED AT 700 SHARP! Eat it all up!

When the donation jar comes around, please put some of the money we saved you on food and drink in the jar so that the bands will make it to their next stop and feel appreciated.

Please also bring extra cash if you wanna buy the new Gang Wizard CD before its actual release date...PLUS there will be the typical Brian "Deathbomb Arc" Miller merch table including all the latest and greatest of the worldwide scene of exquisitely packaged DIY noise and arty fun weirdness, etc., etc. I always blow $50 on 10-15 pieces of merch that I have only the faintest clue about because his merchbox is my favorite merchbox, and I've only ever fished out one dud outta dozens and dozens of "adventure picks" I've purchased.

This will tbe greatest show in Davis at least until the following night when Flying Luttenbachers, No Doctors, and (((Microwaves))) rock the Delta of Venus for another costumes-encouraged band show/party.

Davis will be really happening on this weekend!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 106

.
Download AFS v. 106

...or stream it

ENTRANCE // Prayer of Death // Prayer of Death // Self-Released *new
RESIDUAL ECHOES // MFI-GBSP Ride // MFI-GBSP 12" // Rocket *new
HOLE CLASS // Cigs & Beer // A Glimpse of Hole Class cassette // No Label *new
HOLE CLASS // Mind
HOLE CLASS // Two Children

SIC ALPS // Surgeon and the Slave // Pleasures & Treasures // Animal Disguise *new
STRAPPING FIELDHANDS // Neptune´s World // Neptune's World 7" // Siltbreeze 1995
STRAPPING FIELDHANDS // October Kentucky // Future Pastoral 7" // Siltbreeze 1993
STANDARD TRIBESMEN // Riverside Strangler // self-titled 7" // Borox 2006
GRAVITAR & NICODEMUS // It´s an Idiot´s Life // It´s an Idiot´s Life 12" // Insignificant 1997
RUDOLPH GREY // 1000 Luminous Flowers // Transfixed 12" // New Alliance/Ecstatic Peace 1988
JERK // Jimmy Sled Dog // Reverse Vampire // Banana Seat Girl/Soundesign *new
SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON // Neon Dad // Natural Selection of Accidents // Tower Control *new
SHEARING PINX // Chaos Patent // Caves 7" // DNT *new
IKEBANA // Children Are Inhumane When Excited // v/a: Happy Birthday DNT! CDR // DNT *new
MICROWAVES // Song X // split 7" w/ Made in Mexico // Rampage *new
DUCHESSES // The Pit Bulimia // Demo CDR // Self-Released *new
HARDCORE-OPA // Lenin Yulidan // v/a: Paxta-Core: Underground Uzbekistan // Tian an Men 89 *new

EVIL/ZLO // My Malice // v/a: Dushanbe Punkers & Rockers: Underground Tajikistan // Tian an Men 89 *new
BUG SIZED MIND // Daisy Cutter // v/a: Sarcophagus 1-4 CDR // Radius Waste *new
MATTRESS // Eldorado // Eldorado // Below PDX *new
YOUNG MANIACAL // O.R.M.F. Shutdown // quick demo CDR *new
WESTERN BLOCK/ZAPADNY KVARTAL // Autumn to Blame // v/a: Dushanbe Punkers & Rockers: Underground Tajikistan
DEAD MOON // Ricochet // Echoes Of The Past 2xCD // Sub Pop *new
DEAD MOON // Dead Moon Night // Echoes Of The Past
GAMMA RAYS // Infinity // v/a: Strummin´ Mental! part one // Crypt 1999/1961
THE RATS // Defiance // Intermittent Signals // Whizeagle 1981
BIZARROS // Mind´s a Magnet // self-titled // Mercury 1979
HANK IV // Melonhead // Third Person Shooter // Hook or Crook *new

TALES OF TERROR // Deathryder // self-titled // CD Presents 1984 *request
THE DRAGS // I Wanna Be a Carnie // Tedster +3 7" // One by One 1994
MECHT MENSCH // Killer Klowns // v/a: The Master Tape vol 2 // Affirmation 1983
SACRED ORDER // I Just Do // v/a: The Master Tape vol 2
HARPOON GUNS // 16 Year Old Adult/Follow Your Leader // self-titled // Square Wave *new
HARPOON GUNS // Mutant
YELLOW SWANS + MOTH DRAKULA // 4:49 // They Do Not Always Remeber // Obsolete Vernacular/Oedipus *new
WOLF EYES // Human Animal // Human Animal // Sub Pop *new
BLACK PUS // Swampus // Black Pus 3: Metamorpus // DiareahRama *new

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 105

.
Download AFS v. 105

...or stream it

SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON // Comparing Cancers // Natural Selection of Accidents // Tower Control *new
SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON // Best in Show
BLACK PUS // Earth Ain´t Enuff // Black Pus 3: Metamorpus // DiareahRama *new
DAVE PUBLIC // Chicken Pox Pie // v/a: Sarcophagus 1-4 // Radius Waste *new
DAVE PUBLIC // 11 Months Pregnant
GOILS GOILS AND FRIPPED // title unknown // self-titled CDR // Being Weird Isn't Enough *new
BULBS // Beloved Sun // v/a: The Fruit Will Rot vol 2 9X3" CDRs // Deathbomb Arc 2006

GATOR SURPRISE // A Species // Camping Trip 3" // Jugular Forest *new
DEEP JEW // Searchlight // Harem c10 // Callow God *new
CIRCUIT WOUND // The Smog Monster // v/a: L.A. Noisescape // Bastardised *new
PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT // Intrigued by Her Stare // v/a: L.A. Noisescape
DJ DOGDICK // Nuthin´ Be Makin´ Any Sense // v/a: Less Self Is More Self 2xCD - A Benefit For Tarantula Hill // Ecstatic Peace *new
LEE RANALDO // Spkr Test 3 // v/a: Less Self Is More Self
VAMPIRE CAN'T // Wax Lips // Key Cutter // Load *new
SEXUAL TOURIST // Teenage Fantasy // Womb Broom 7" // Black Lakes *new *request
THE HOSPITALS // Missing My Hands // self-titled // In The Red 2003 *request
THE HOSPITALS // Airplanes There // I've Visited the Island of Jocks and Jazz // Load 2005 *request
NO FEELING // Don´t Tell Me What to Do // split 7" w/ Ladies Night // Seeing Eye *new

THE MAGNETIX // Horror Chalet // Horror Chalet 7" // Yakisakana *new
SAPAT // Mystikal Stupors // Tongue-Tied & Staid 7" // Black Velvet Fuckere *new
STEVE MACKAY & THE RADON ENSEMBLE // Voyage to Arcturus // Tunnel Diner // Qbico *new
THTX // Nightfall // The Lost City // Cosmo-Revolution Technologies *new
THEE SCARCITY OF TANKS // titles unknown (2-3) // NZ Metals CDR // Slow Toe *new

CHANGELING // Astral Arch // Astral Arch 7" // Not Not Fun *new
BRUCE GILBERT // Work for >Do You Me? I Did< (3) // This Way // Mute 1984
TAMPAX // UFO Dictator // v/a: Killed by Death #7 // Redrum 1979
SLIVERS // Questions // Restraint for Style 7" // New Alliance 1981
LAKE OF DRACULA // Coconut Wine // Skeletal Remains // Savage Land *new
NECROPOLIS // The Governor´s Wife // The Hackled Ruff & Shoulder Mane // Columbus Discount *new
100 FLOWERS // Contributions // Drawing Fire 12" EP // Happy Squid 1984

Rare power, drastic bombast, and epic melodicism are words that I’d use to describe what’s special about bands like Parts & Labor, Oneida, or The USA Is a Monster, but just when I began to think that the borough of Brooklyn had effectively cornered the market on bands well-versed in all three, here comes a band from the Midwest that mines that same sonic territory. As I keep mental inventory of candidates for “best of ’06” nominees, Cleveland’s Self Destruct Button skyrocket straight to the top of the class with their Natural Selection of Accidents, a disc full of pump-up jams that run the gamut from clever “indie-rock” of the early 90’s vintage (before the word began its transition to synonym for “sucky”) to almost “brutal prog.”

Can a music critic—or even just a blogger like myself—use “brutal prog” without quotation marks. That seems to be the one so-called genre of the last five years or so which seems destined to suffer the fate of “powerviolence.” Even as “powerviolence” nostalgia has unquestionably crept in, I still see in quotes more than it is not in quotes. (I will say nothing more of “moan-wave” (the one I singlehandedly try to keep alive) and “free twee” (the one I made up myself)…until next week!)

I’ll leave some meat on the bone for the next time I play Self Destruct Button. They offer a lot of texture to describe in detail, and I’ve got plenty more bands to write about this week.



Brian Chippendale is best known as the tireless drummer extraordinaire of Lightning Bolt, and he’s secondarily best known for his stentorian work in Mindflayer, but even less known is his even more daring, radically noise-soaked solo project, Black Pus. The third Black Pus CDR release has been issued, and it is Chippendale’s most gloriously pungent bleep-bloop dayglo-noisecore to date. I hesitate to use the “in a blender” method to describe this sound—second only in laziness and deplorable-ness to the ad-lib style of “like [such and such band] on crack (or other drug)”—but I really must do it this time. Throw Brian’s other bands in the blender with two heaping scoops of Carl Stallings Project and a generous ration of The Residents, grated coarsely. Doesn’t this song have a happy, chirpy vibe, and a strange Eastern Euro folk flavor to it? Ultra-limited for fans of the scum stats, and it comes in a beautiful hand-screened sleeve, a paroxysm of pigment.

Brian also sent me this wonderfully weird anthology of “handmade Providence music,” as he described it in the little note. The Sarcophagus 1-4 CDR contains four EP’s in their entirety, one each by Dear Raindrop, Bug Sized Mind, Blast City, and Dave Public. Each artist featured here will scramble your brain with low-tech klingklang-scuzz, seemingly equally informed by the label outputs of Load, Ralph, and Xtract. Fans of Men’s Recovery Project are especially advised to seek out this compilation. Here we hear Dave Public broadcast the most cracked and forbidden noise on the disc. Next week, get ready for a more mellowed-out space-jam. Seemingly no website exists to market this thing, so let me give you a physical address and an email for you to write to…

Radius Waste
PO Box 321
Providence, RI 02901

radiomachete@muchomail.com



One of the dudes in Self Destruct Button stayed at my house after Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom IV, where he performed as part of Thee Scarcity of Tanks a revolving-door cast of musical improvisers who make a fantastic racket to compliment the poetry of the one constant member, Matt Wascovich. Another person in Thee S.O.T. that fine October day (until it was broken up by the Yolo County Sheriffs Deparment) was Angela Sawyer from Boston, who’s also a member of the ruthless dog-whistle noise band, The White People.



Angela (pictured above at Jeff the Pigeon in Allentown, PA) left me a copy of a fascinating new CDR of her solo project, Goils Goils and Fripped. I was dumbfounded after hearing these songs, so I pressed her for comment and the song titles, and she said:

Goils is me, Angela, who spent a fine night in the black chair next to your couch, just doing solo synth stuff. Afraid there weren't any song titles when I made the cd, as it was an attempt to make a whole record in one day, including the art, the imaginary band members, & the cdr copying. I'm usually very, very, very slow to get recordings finished, so I decided to try a super fast one & see how it went. Thrilled that it made it onto your deck. If you'd like some hoppin' song titles, I would like to hereby declare you the official song titler for the band, and would love to hear what happens when you let 'em rip.


Awesome! Last time I was commissioned to title songs for a band, it was for What Does Not Kill Me…I HATE! by Le Flange du Mal, and I never heard back whether they liked the titles or not. Some of the titles were inside jokes for people who know the words to Chrome songs. I’m gonna give it my best for the Goils, but I still need to digest the album fully. It’s a weird one. It’s like Neon Hunk’s synth player insta-composing the weirdest waltzes in world history at a sludge pace. This is absurdity and self-contradiction that will be evident if you are patient.

Bulbs is Jon Almaraz on unrecognizable guitar and the manually-played electro drumpads of William Sabiston, who formerly worked with Axolotl. Jon’s guitar is indeed so unrecognizable that it makes the guitar on Arrived in Gold by Sightings sound like AC/DC. It’s very alien, unstable, yet oddly appealing.

Gator Surprise is part of a new crop of ascetic Los Angeles noise artists, and he jams pedal effects with his panicked shrieks and despairing moans from his small suitcase. The four tracks on his new 3” CDR are horrific heart-wrenchers. He came across legit in his solo performance before playing with Deep Jew at The Bakery in Emeryville a couple weeks ago. Whereas Gator Surprise seemed like an introvert’s attempt to exorcise himself of shame, the band Deep Jew aggressively externalized their hatred with their flailing, lashing slaughter-noisecore barrage that recalled the Providence band Dynasty when they trounced through the West Coast supporting Coughs. Deep Jew—an all-star cast of noise artists including Impregnable, Privy Seals, and Oscillating Innards—is similar to Dynasty in their opaqueness of blackness, but there is no calculation or pace and almost never a moment where a rhythmic groove sets in. Here, you can hear most of side B from their extremely limited cassette release on Callow God.

These tracks by Circuit Wound and Pedestrian Deposit are culled from the outstanding L.A. Noisescape CD, which I’ve described elsewhere (if not here in an earlier volume) as arguably the most important single compilation album of its kind in years. I can say that because I’m not aware of another compilation of exclusive tracks all from contemporary experimental artists from the same geographical area since the legendary Elephant Table Album. With this disc, Los Angeles makes a strong case for being the world’s noise capital.

Less Self Is More Self is a new double-CD collection of “experimental” (in the broadest sense of the word) artists released by Ecstatic Peace as a benefit for Tarantula Hill, the Baltimore home of Twig Harper, the notorious leader of Nautical Almanac. Some of the crucial-est freaky folkies—especially Jack Rose—appear here betwixt the more forbidding sounds of artists like Chris Corsano, To Live and Shave in L.A., and Twig himself. Perhaps it’s Mouthus or Jessica Rylan (a.k.a. Can’t) who marries these factions together on this disc. Here, I’ve offered you DJ Dogdick’s spasmodic sample stew and Lee Ranaldo’s jarring juxtaposition of guitar drone and supersonic hisses. Next, Corsano and Rylan team up (with Bill Nace) in Vampire Belt to belt out one of the two songs from Key Cutter to nearly take the shape of an actual rock song. Yet it’s still plenty gnarly.

Art for Spastics newsflash: San Francisco’s excellent Sexual Tourist went down a drummer, and in their moment of need, friends of the band suggested Honus Wagner-dressalike and handcrafter of his own snare drum Paul of Business Lady to assume the drum throne. Paul and the band discussed rehearsal on the sidewalk of Harlan Street in front of the Bakery and agreed that Sexual Tourist and Paul should develop their rapport and explore their compatibility as musicians. I expect it will work out great. Since leaving San Diego last year, Paul has only recently found a band to employ his energy and creativity, Woman’s Worth, an unusual outfit with Matt of Vholtz and two other S.D.-expats, Wilson of Duchesses and Jessalyn, whose operatic vocals recall Dagmar Krause’s work in the Art Bears.



The trombone/sax/drums combo creates a bizarre take on chamber music that is free-jazz-damaged, yet certainly rehearsed. Perhaps that hardly sounds like “F-U-N,” but Woman’s Worth definitely is fun…kinda silly, and composed enough to make dancing easy, even if it’s a bit interpretive and lurchy. The band will open up in my living room for the Gang Wizard Halloween party at the DAM House here in Davis on Friday, October 27th at 7:00 p.m.

Also appearing at that Halloween party is a special sorta merged band of The Hospitals and The Skaters. Together, they will perform as Way Bad. Sure, I said I’d wait ‘til next week to drop the “moan-wave” bomb again, but if there’s ever gonna be a moan-wave supergroup, Way Bad is it! On their tour this week of the west coast, The Hospitals consisted of founder and only constant regular Adam Stonehouse, original Hospitals guitarist Rod Meyer, Chris Gunn of The Hunches (and one of thee most bad-ass guitarists in punk rock today!), and on bass, sometimes third guitar, and sometimes extra drums and vocals, Rob Enbom, who was briefly a Hospitals member in 2005, but best known for his stints in Hale Zukas, Vholtz, and Gang Wizard. They sounded gnarly beyond belief on this tour. And their supposed to be recording in the studio up in Portland this week. They made a cassette for the tour which I didn’t get because they had to dub some more off, and it didn’t help that I stayed up ‘til 5:45 a.m. with them after their show talkin’ shit about the Crazy 8’s, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Sweaty Nipples, and all the other bands that made Portland, Oregon, a laughing stock of a musical scene in the early 90’s before it became the mecca for radness that it is today.

Next, you get a primo slice of excessively reverbed garage-scuzz from—not the Hospitals or The Lamps—but an awesome new Vancouver (BC) band called No Feeling. This is the flip of the split 7” that I raved about when Ladies Night came through Davis. And if you didn’t know by the sound of Ladies Night, now you know that you need this record. Especially if, like me, you are a fan of ridiculous levels of reverb soakage. No Feeling is the more “traditional”-sounding punk band of the two on this split, but they are no less interesting than the cryptic cavestomp of Ladies Night because they have co-ed duet vocals.

Gonna hafta end it here ‘cos I don’t always have all the time in the world to review or share anecdotes about 50 bands per week. Jeez, what did you expect?

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Art for Spastics v. 104

.
Download AFS v. 104

...or stream it

STRIP MALL SEIZURES // Songbird // Self-Titled LP // True Panther Sounds *new
THE WRISTS // Final Few // Freak of Natures 7" // Die Stasi *new

THE NORMALS W/ JEFF CLARK // School = Shame // The Street of Your Heart 7" // Yakisakana *new
CHEB SAMIR & THE BLACK SOULS OF LEVIATHAN // Just Do It [Cheater Slicks] // Don´t Like Girls 7" // Yakisakana *new
LADIES NIGHT // Nazi Tomb // split 7" w/ No Feeling // Seeing Eye *new
THE LAMPS // Now That I´m Dead // v/a: Zine:White square 8" // Borox 2005
THE CHEERAKS // Cheeraks Are N°1 + No Mercy // Cheeraks Are N°1 7" // Yakisakana *new
THE MAGNETIX // Missing Joker // Horror Chalet 7" // Yakisakana *new
HOMOSTUPIDS // Tapeing the Worm // The Brutal Birthday E.P. 7" // Richie *new

HOMOSTUPIDS // Finger
LIVE FAST DIE // Bang It´s War // split 7" w/ VCR // Daggerman *new
LIVE FAST DIE // Lovedogs in Space

VELVEETA HEARTBREAK // I Shot the Invisible Man // I Shot The Invisible Man 7" // Semper Lo-Fi *new
IMAGINARY ICONS // Fade // Eye-Cons 7" // Daggerman *new
OSCURO LUGAR // Alguien Muere // Alguien Muere 7" // Darbouka *new
PINK REASON // New Violence // 3-song 7" // Savage Quality 2006 (2 copies simultaneously outta phase)
AFTER THE SNOW // Oktober // v/a: Electronic Renaissance // Enfant Terrible *new
ECHO WEST // Luck to Come // v/a: Electronic Renaissance
THIS SONG IS A MESS BUT SO AM I // Deaf Ears // Marble Mouth EP // Acuarela *new
THIS SONG IS A MESS BUT SO AM I // untitled
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY // Swoosh! // split LP w/ Quem Quaeritis // Not Not Fun *new
CHANNELS 3 & 4 // Plastic // Christian Girls 12" // Summer Lovers Unlimited *new

MICROWAVES // House of Regurgitation // split 7" w/ Made in Mexico // Rampage *new
[RETARDS] // Will Drum for Food // Kicking Against the Micks 7" // Rimbaud *new
WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE SON, GOD? // track 2 // Out of Body Diva // KDVS Recordings *forthcoming
THE CRAINIUM // You Pretend that You Depend, but Now You Are, Are You, Visible? // A New Music for a New Kitchen // Slowdime 1998
LE CHEVALIER DE RINCHY // La Ballade en Vélo // Mes Plus Belles Chansons D'Amour 7" // Le Vilain Chien *new
THE PUNKS // This Right Here Is Considered a Banger // Unanimous Bangers // 5RC *new
THE PUNKS // Poppin´ My Collar (+band commentary) // Unanimous Bangers (test press edition w/ bonus commentary CDR) *new
PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH // More Paranoia // Self-Titled LP // Homestead 1986 *request
PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH // The Whaling Ultimate // Valley of the Gwangi 7" // Homestead 1986 *request
PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH // Barracuda [Heart] // Power-Toy // Homestead 1988 *request
LIVE GIRLS // Blanks // split 7" w/ Nons // Grotesque Modern *new
SO SO MANY WHITE WHITE TIGERS // Menswear // The Greatest Hits of Acid // No Label *new
BIPOLAR BEAR // Smoking in the Secret Garden // Man Mountain // Deleted Art *new
GOLIATH BIRDEATER // Mongol Hammer // Blood Venus // Not Not Fun *new
GERRITT // Cali Mega // v/a: California 10xLP boxed set // Troniks/Groundfault/RRRecords *new

Over the last couple of years, the Strip Mall Seizures have grown into one of the most cherished DIY bands among East Bay youth, mostly through the local buzz surrounding their energetic live shows. Now, it’s been years since I was part of the 924 Gilman roll call, and in the years since, I’ve been blinded by the ubiquitous Grimple (and other overrated bands) patches adorning the freight-rider-chic punkpants and backpacks of Berkeley punk kids. It’s like these kids have been frozen in time since 1993, only if they were actually frozen, they wouldn’t smell so bad, right? So even as I heard of their burgeoning rep as a great live act, I willfully ignored the Strip Mall Seizures. What a mistake? I finally did see them in June at Ghost Town Gallery playing in support of Coughs and Dynasty, and they were pretty fantastic. They brought a lot of their young fans there, and they really freaked for them. And it was then that I learned that East Bay kids weren’t only digging on crustpunk and pop-punk. The kids are alright again.

With that vampy lead keyboard sound and rollicky rhythms, the Strip Mall Seizures inevitably invite comparisons to a great East Bay live act of yesteryear, the Phantom Limbs; but where the Limbs had a debauched druggie vibe, these Strip Mall Seizures are an upbeat, freshfaced, fun party band, and also very intelligent with metaphor-rich lyrics about sociopolitical issues. Distinguishing them even more is the flavor of traditional Russian folk music, unmistakably rendered by a prominent accordion and a junk-encrusted drumkit. What’s that Russian folkdance where the dudes get really low with those gravity-defying, alternating kick-steps? (You’ve seen the Dschingis Khan video for “Moskau,” right? No? Then google it now.) When you hear Strip Mall Seizures’ new LP, you’ll wanna do that dance, seriously. There’s also some cool lofi klingklang noise during between-song interludes. If Alternative Tentacles is smart, they will put out the next SMS album.

Next up is The Wrists, a synthpunk band from Denton, Texas, which seems rather distinctive among synthpunk bands for the very reason that they’d sound so typical of any raw garagepunk band, were they to go back to guitars. Not an ounce of arty pretension here! Four songs on a 45 rpm 7”…quick, fast and dirty!

I picked up the four newest 7” Eps from the French label Yakisakana from the SS Records mail-order, where thankfully it’s convenient enough for me to just walk across the street during my lunch break. They’re all winners. The Normals & Jeff Clark break no new ground with their raw, wild rock ‘n’ roll, but they are positively on fire! Cheb Samir & the Black Souls of Leviathan do justice to a Cheater Slicks original in the damaged bluespunk style. Related personnel-wise to both the Normals and the Black Souls of Leviathan, The Cheeraks throw the sharpest breaking curveball of the bunch, sampling themselves a’la early 80’s electro-hop and running it backwards for an intro to this ace garagey artpunk scorcher. And at last, hear an exquisite instro burner from The Magnetix.

I know I’ve gone outta order here…sorry!

From their brand-new split 7” with fellow canucks No Feeling, Ladies Night from Vancouver (BC) have taken the rhythm from Toxin III’s “I Rock I Ran” and ignited it even more to make “Nazi Tomb” one of the most undeniable cryptic cavestomps on vinyl. Both of the bands on this record take vocal reverb into (and perhaps beyond!) Hospitals or Sexy Prison territory. Ladies Night gave an intense, riotous, and amazing live performance at Delta of Venus Tuesday night which make the whole crowd shake, and they shocked everyone when the two guitarists progressed their playful ribbing to personal attacks and eventually a physical altercation resulting in an instant implosion of their set, guitars clashing like light-sabers, and an amp doing a dangerous belly-flop on-stage. I was sure that the band just broke up right on the spot, but within an hour or so, heads cools and friendships were renewed, and the band was ready to forge ahead with the rest of their tour.

Another from the upper echelon of the beyond-trashed and finely fucked slaughtergaragepunk is The Lamps. This song is from the Zine:White 8” square slab of white wax which comes with a Xeroxed zine in a white envelope which also featured Ladies Night, Tractor Sex Fatality, and Hotel Pistol. There’s still several of these left after more than a year, but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t all be gone now. So please do my friend a favor and get your own copy of this very unique future collectible now.

I’ve already gotten a lot of flak via email for playing a band called The Homostupids. Pay attention to the lyrics, people! Since you obviously are very familiar with political correctness and sensitivity, you’re probably also an expert in white guilt, too. Now, unless you are a hapless homostupid, follow this analogy…

“Guilty of Being White” : racism :: The Homostupids : species-ism

We analytical bipedal primates who make better use of tools than any previous species are mammals of the genus Homo. The Homostupids do not mean to offend homosexuals and their friends (whom I totally adore, BTW!); no, they are far less discriminatory. The entire Homo sapiens is fair game, so unless you are too prideful of your species—or genus—you should give this great idiot savant trashed-out thrashpunk a chance. I guess this is their second 7”, and it’s a one-sided affair with about half a dozen quick songs.

More reviews to come later…