Art for Spastics v. 121

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Download AFS v. 121 (w/in next 10 weeks)

...or stream it (by Feb 20, 2007).

LOS BLANKITOS // C.H.U.D. // You Make Me Drool 7" // Discos Chango *new
THE DULL // I Hate the Motorcyclist // v/a: Barricaded Suspects // Toxic Shock 1983
BRUCE HAACK & ESTHER NELSON // Motorcycle Ride // Listen Compute Rock Home // Dimension 5 1968
FACTUMS // Gold Is the Best Color // 1st demo // self-released 2004

FACTUMS // Split Screen // 2nd demo // self-released 2005
DER TEENAGE PANZER KORPS // Thy Depth! // Harmful Emotions // Siltbreeze *new
ARTHROSE AUJOURD'HUI // Slept in Again // MySpace mp3 *new
BAD TRIPS // Miracle of Marsh Chapel // self-titled LP // Rocketship *new
GUN // Dreams and Screams // Gun Sight // Epic 1969
WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE SON, GOD? // Celestial Titanic // Out of Body Diva // KDVS Recordings 2006
DANAVA // Quiet Babies Astray in a Manger // self-titled // Kemado *new
HELLA // Let Your Heavies Out // There's No 666 in Outer Space // Ipecac *new
MOUTHUS // The Final Tribes // For The Great Slave Lakes // Three Lobed *new

ETTRICK // live @ the Hatch Gallery, Pasadena, CA 10/20/06 // Sudden Arrhythmic Death vol. 2 3" CDR // Not Not Fun *new
XOME vs. TRALPHAZ // Escaping the 984,849,503 Claws of Space Chum // Manifesting in Matter (w/ Eco Morti) // Resipiscent *new
TARANTISM // The Cowl Apparatus // Stuck to the Bottom // Resipiscent *new
XELA // The Gate/Linseed // The Dead Sea // Type *new
CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS // Tahiti // self-titled // Conspiracy *new
QUILTS // Pink Hotel // split cassette w/ Quintana Roo // DNT *new
POCAHAUNTED // Native Seduction // Native Seduction 3" CDR // Arbor *new
CHARALAMBIDES // Namasté // Market Square 2xLP // Siltbreeze 1995

Does your local suburban stucco-laden conglomo-movie-rental-mart only stock DVDs of major releases, and you can only wish that you could browse through ridiculous movies of the 80's on VHS? When you need a break from CGI effects in Sacramento, the place to find cheesy movies with monsters made of Play-Doh and refried beans with fake fangs drippin' KY Jelly and melted Red Vines is Awesome Video on Freeport Blvd. They have almost all of the Puppet Master and Trancers series. (I just love the Full Moon classics!) And it's the only place in the Sacto area I know where you can rent a copy of both C.H.U.D. movies! So, that's why we start with Brooklyn's Los Blankitos this week. I just bought this record on my lunchbreak today, and I'll hafta remember it when Halloween 2007 rolls around. It's a rabblerousin' garagestomper about being a cannibalistic humanoid underground dweller! Let's have a song about "Bud" from C.H.U.D. II on the 2nd 7".

This song by The Dull was so hellbent on dulling your senses that it dared to drive its one and only guitar riff into the ground from start to finish. Sounds like the bassline rides the same note all the way, too. And how many ways can you hate motorcyclists? Their needless revving at stoplights, the noisiness, their disregard for the basic speed rule...The Dull even protest "driving around without spark arresters and causing forest fires." Quite moralistic, these guys, and nary a hint of attention deficit!

I've always been curious to know more about Bruce Haack, and tonight before the show, I watched an excellent film about him on the Documentary Channel, way up high on my DishNet. I knew he built his own synthesizers, and I'd heard Electric Lucifer and that he did children's music before that, but I did not know how wide his appeal was and that it reached into early-80's electro and hip hop. There was so much great footage of his early television appearances on I've Got a Secret and especially Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, where Bruce demonstrated his photosensitive "music computer" for the boys and girls. It sounded just like the music of the recent zeitgeist of bent Casio SK-1's. So, here's a little pro-motorcycling song by the man Kurtis Blow and Russell Simmons called Bruce Haack the "Anti-Wack."

The Factums from Seattle are a cousin branch on the A Frames family tree with membership directly descending from The Intelligence and Popular Shapes. Their sound is not too unlike a cross between the droll DIY transistor artpunk of Boredom & Terror by the Intelligence and early Bruce Haack proto-electronica, perhaps also spiked with the more experimental edge of the British DIY music of the late 70's and early 80's featured on Hyped2Death's Messthetics series. Their first demo from 2004 had 20 tracks on it, and more than enough of them were good enough to make an excellent debut album, excising a few others that were false starts. The 2005 demo has their best potential A-side in "Split Screen," leading with its dominant yet gliding and seductive synth, insistent beat, and phone-tapped vocals. But aside from these demo CDR's, the Factums have no records or official releases, which is a shame because I know that plenty of people would become Factums fans if they could only hear the band.

Perhaps that will change now that the Factums are embarking on a tour with Climax Golden Twins...

Wednesday, Feb 14 9:00 p.m. @ Towne Lounge in Portland, OR
Thursday, Feb 15 10:00 p.m. @ Fools Foundation in Sacramento, CA
Friday, Feb 16 9:30 p.m. @ Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco, CA
Saturday, Feb 17 8:00 p.m. @ a loft party at 705 Peralta St. in Oakland, CA

And then next on Friday, March 23 @ the Rendezvous/Jewelbox Theatre in Seattle.

There's three new things out now on Siltbreeze, a name you should always trust for scooping up the best psych scuzz detritus and discerning artpunk. And with its sharpied and pasted-up sleeve, this LP by Der Teenage Panzer Korps (or more conveniently Der TPK) looks every bit as DIY as it sounds! Harmful Emotions also harkens to the weirder moments captured on Messthetics, especially the Homosexuals. At the expense of sounding like a lazy band x + band y = lovechild z record reviewer, I dare say that "Thy Depth!" sounds like The Fall and Savage Republic got it on. There's a lot of diversity to behold throughout this album, so I'm sure you'll keep hearing more TPK in upcoming weeks.

My newest Vancouver (BC) fascination is Arthrose Aujourd'hui, a trio with with two parts Ladies Night, one of whom is also in No Feeling. Unlike Ladies Night or No Feeling--both awesome bands who brashly bash away trashed-out garagescuzz anthems--Arthrose Aujourd'hui are a subtle attack of psychedelic sleaze. "Slept in Again" is slow, dark brooder that is a total tug o'war of remorse, regret, creeping anxiety, and helplessness? Haven't you been outta work for an extended period of time? Did it feel like you had nothing to wake up for? For me, even worse than the shame of being unemployed was the guilt I had about the bum lifestyle, and that I couldn't remember the last time I'd woke up before noon. This song recalls a time in my life when I was surfing couches across Davis, caught between feeling sorry for myself for being victimized and acting decisively to change the bad pattern.

In my pantheon of guitar gods, there is a throne reserved for Grady Runyan, best known for his scorching work in Monoshock and Liquorball. The Bad Trips are his new band, and this 180g slab of vinyl is their first LP. I saw a show last year at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco which was billed as a Liquorball reunion gig. Grady was in a zone in such an awesomely ridiculous, relentless way. A crowd fulla balding beardstrokers were completely glazed, ready to collapse in submission. The Bad Trips are more composed and have more restraint than that, but this LP's still a masterpriece of heavy psych.

I hope to finish up the notes and anecdotes for the rest of this playlist tomorrow...check back!