Tuesday, December 23, 2008

AFS v. 204 ~ Halcyon Year Review Pt. 1


So, I guess that the new Hunches LP is officially a 2009 release, so that frees up one space in my best-albums-of-2008 list, which I've included further down below this playlist. The first six selections this week's playlist aren't necessarily among my official year-end faves; they're just the newest records to arrive in the mail this week, so I threw 'em on for you (these new Sneaky Pinks and Hunx mighta slipped in there). Nor does this playlist represent all of my favorites of 2008. I figure I gotta say that because in the past, I've had people cry to me ("I thought you liked our record!" (I DO, I DO.)) AFS won't be on the air next week because The Intelligence are gonna be in town, and a power-hang and mega-dangle will be in order! I'll be back in two weeks with the second half of my year-end review, plus lists of the best 7"es, EPs, cassettes, and demo CDR releases of 2008.

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THOMAS FUNCTION | Nomad | Nomad 7" | Alive *new
SPREAD EAGLES | Don't Talk to the Narc | Don't Talk to the Narc 7" | Boom Chick *new
MOSQUITO BANDITO | Art School | Woo Woo Woo 7" | Boom Chick *new
LIVE FAST DIE | I Need You (Leroy) | v/a: Wild for Jenkem 7" | Killer Diller *new
SNEAKY PINKS | Loner w/a Boner | Loner w/a Boner 7" | Bachelor *new
HUNX | Cruisin' | Good Kisser 7" | Bachelor *new
* * * * now for the faves part! * * * *
HUNX & HIS PUNX | You Don't Like Rock n Roll | You Don't Like Rock n Roll 7" | Rob's House
DAVILA 666 | Quizas | Davila 666 | In the Red
NOBUNNY | I Am a Girlfriend | Love Visions | Bubble Dumb
THE YOLKS | I Do What I Do | Introducing the Yolks 7" | Criminal IQ
SUSPICIONS | Baby Talk | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 3 7" | Almost Ready
TOUCHED | Jelly Beans | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol. 4 7" | Almost Ready
THE WAX MUSEUMS | War Documentaries | The Wax Museums | Douche Master
DAILY VOID | title unknown | Man/Machine 7" | Florida's Dying
HARPOON GUNS | Nanonii/15 | III 7" | Going Underground
MAYYORS | Metro | Marines Dot Com 7" | Waste of Oil
MAYYORS | Airplanes | Megan's LOLZ 7" | Gomerdome
BILLY BAO | Factory of Repression | Dialectics of Shit | Parts Unknown
CAVE | Sean's Inner Ear | Hunt Like Devil/JAMZ | Permanent
CAVE | 4.24.06
DANAVA | Where Beauty & Terror Dance | UnonoU | Kemado
DEAD LUKE | trk 8 | Dead Luke Box bonus CDR | Sacred Bones
DOLINA | Corridors | v/a: Festival der Genialen Dissidenten | Enfant Terrible
AGENT SIDE GRINDER | String Strikes | Agent Side Grinder | Enfant Terrible
MATTRESS | That Way | Heavy Duty | Reluctant
LILI Z | Dark Toilet | The Two of Us | In The Red
U.S. GIRLS | Bits & Pieces [Dave Clark Five] | Bits & Pieces CDR | no label
RUSSIAN TSARLAG | Blind Spot Fragment | split LP w/ Blue Shift | Rare Youth
RUSSIAN TSARLAG | Let Ponvinon Care
HARD GOSPEL WITH CHILD | Robot Jox | Hard Gospel With Child CDR | Layaway Butch
HARD GOSPEL WITH CHILD | Deadtime Stories
GOSLINGS | Brohm Bramin | Occasion | Not Not Fun
SILENTIST | Seizures | Silentist | Celestial Gang
SQUIM | Trial by Cobra Part II | Zephyrus | Olde English Spelling Bee
DAN MELCHIOR | In a Daze | Christmas for the Crows | Daggerman
HOSPITALS | Animals Act Natural | Hairdryer Peace | no label
LOS LLAMARADA | I've Got Your Face | Take the Sky | S-S
NOTHING PEOPLE | Outsiders Are | Anonymous | S-S
THE INTELLIGENCE | Bulbs | split 12" w/ Thee Ohsees | Mt. St. Mtn
THEE OH SEES | Ghost in the Trees | The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In | Tomlab
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | I Don't Wanna Play No More | Primary Colours | Goner
EAT SKULL | Punk Trips | Sick To Death | Siltbreeze
LIFE PARTNERS | Teenager in Trouble | AIDS of Spades 7" | Ride the Snake

MY BEST-OF-2008 LP PICKS...


Absolute tip-top will-be-classics:

(1) Hospitals Hairdryer Peace
(2) Los Llamarada Take the Sky
(3) Thee Oh Sees The Master's Bedroom...
(4) Eat Skull Sick to Death
(5) Nothing People Anonymous
(6) Billy Bao The Dialectics of Shit
(7) Thomas Function Celebration
(8) Dan Melchior und Das Menace Christmas for the Crows
(9) Hank IV Refuge in Genre
(10-tie) Wax Museums self-titled
(10-tie) Sexy Prison Filth Flarn Filth
(10-tie) Druid Perfume self-titled

Others receiving votes:

Agent Side Grinder self-titled
Blank Dogs On Two Sides
Cave Hunt Like Devil/JAMZ
Cheveu self-titled
Danava UnonoU
Davila 666 self-titled
Dead Science Villainaire
Dead Western Soften Your Screams into Sings
Evangelista Hello, Voyager
Eddy Current Suppression Ring Primary Colours
Goodnight Loving The Goodnight Loving
Goslings Occasion
Hill, Zach Astrological Straits
Lili Z. The Two of Us
Mattress Heavy Duty
NoBunny Love Visions
Pumice Quo
Pyha The Haunted House
Russian Tsarlag / Blue Shift split LP
Sic Alps U.S. EZ
Silentist self-titled
Squim Zephyrus
v/a: Emergency Room vol 1
v/a: Festival der Genialen Dissidenten

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

AFS v. 203 ~ Room at the Top


I almost published my best-of-2008 list too early. Surely, Hairdryer Peace and Take the Sky are still at the tip-top of it, but now the rarefied pantheon of best LPs this year have a couple more nominees a'knockin': Exit Dreams, the new swansong by The Hunches, and the self-titled debut of Druid Perfume. Surely, this makes Chris Gunn the guitar hero of the year since he laid down some of the sickest riffs for both the Hunches and The Hospitals this year. Babyfaced assassin! I still can't believe the shock and awe of watching him murder his two guitars and threatening his amp at the Hunches' live finalé at the East End. I went into the East End thinking there'd be a farewell tour, but during that surprisingly violent destruction, I certainly sensed the finality of the moment. Hell, even singer Hart--usually the volatile x-factor that determined whether the Hunches would be merely good or great--had an immediate wave of soberness wash over his face when he turned his attention away from combating the audience the catch the catharsis. I swear I saw a lump in his throat and look of real concern. Come to think of it, that may have also been the singlemost outstanding live performance I witnessed in 2008, too!

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THE HUNCHES | Unraveling | Exit Dreams | In The Red *new
DRUID PERFUME | It Sleeps | Druid Perfume | Pigs *new
GUINEA WORMS | Lost and Found | Lost and Found 7" | Savage *new
SANDWITCH | I've Had a Few | Assisted Living 7" | Columbus Discount *new
TOMMY JAY | No Place | v/a: Harrisburg Players 7" | Columbus Discount *new
COUNTRY TEASERS | Food + Sleep | W.O.A.R. split LP w/ Ezee Tiger | Holy Mountain *new
THE REBEL | Turtle v. Octopus | Northern Rocks Bear Weird Vegetable | Sacred Bones *new
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL | If You Find Me I'm Here | Alone Together | Sacred Bones *new
HANGING COFFINS | 21 Guns to Cairo | Black Plague in Mono no. 2 CS | Jerkwave *new
CULTURAL AMNESIA | Repetition for This World | v/a: Messthetics Greatest Hiss | Hyped2Death *new
EZEE TIGER | Crush Medley (A Stupid Rock Opera Kinda) | split LP w/ Country Teasers
LEVIATHAN | My War [Black Flag] | The Blind Wound | Southern Lord 2007
OVO | Ostkreuz | Crocevia | Load *new
MULTIPLEX | Feel Free to Feel | split 7" w/ Exit 13 | H:G Fact 1996
JOSETXO GRIETA | Papa K | The Art of Distraction | Mattin *new
BLOOD! | Dogbite | Love in Vein 2xCS | Jerkwave *new
ZOLA JESUS | Rester | v/a: XXperiments | Die Stasi *new
KLAX | Vremya Geroev | v/a: Analoges Russland | Hertz-Schrittmacher/Kernkrach *new
DEAD LUKE | Critical | Running Scared 7" | Sweet Rot *new
NERVE CITY | Over It | Bars 7" | Severed Hand *new
THE MEATARDS | Blues Cranks | Blues Cranks 7" | Les Disques Steak *new
BLACK TIME | Corpse Life | ICU 7" | Skulltones *new
WAVVES | Teenage Super Party | Wavves | Woodsist *new
HUE BLANC'S JOYLESS ONES | Down on Me [Pink Reason] | split 12" EP w/ Pink Reason | Florida's Dying *new *request
TEENAGE PANZERKORPS | Shopping Blitz | Games for Slaves | Siltbreeze *new
COCONUT COOLOUTS | We Drink Blood | We Drink Blood 7" | Florida's Dying *new
BOSOM DIVINE | I'm Your Animal | I'm Your Animal 7" | Les Disques Steak *new
PHOTOBOOTH | Three in the Morning | Da Me Te Sus Besos 7" | Daggerman *new
EAN ERASER | Illegitimate Love | Illegitimate Love 7" | no label *new
SPIDER BAGS | Hey Delinquents | Hey Delinquents 7" | Daggerman *new
THE HUNCHES | Ate My Teeth | Exit Dreams

Now, about this Druid Perfume album. This is certainly the best rock album with saxophone in it since No Doctors' Hunting Season (2005, right?), and maybe even all the way back to Static Disposal by Debris'. I can dig a James Chance song or exquisite break, but this is surely begging its way into the same sentence as Funhouse. Separated by at least a comma, though...C'mon, I'm not ready to be sacriligious here. These Michiganers have got some ex-Piranhas in 'em, and there's some of the same kinda spirit and spazziness as the Piranhas, but this is about 300-400% heavier, tighter, and in most songs, even hookier. This is my opinion after six consecutive listens today, and two earlier in the week, but I suspect that this one's gonna rate as crucial in a decade or few. Truly, a tremendous first splash.

Sorry, I hacked the hell outta that Guinea Worms song. Wrong speed at the beginning, botched ending. Pilot error...blame my stomach growls. It's gotta rather Wallers-like flavor, but stands up well on its own merits. I do the song justice in an upcoming week.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

AFS v. 202 ~ Futurepunk!


Sorry, I missed last week because I was sick, but I bounced back to health thanks to a spicy South Sac bun bo hue, and it was just in time to catch futurepunk's most finely fucked, The Hospitals, on Friday at a free show in the spartan bowels of the Li-Po Lounge in Chinatown S.F. It was part of a marathon of bands, and the Hospitals got closer still to live perfection with the new live lineup of Chris Gunn of The Hunches and Anthony Petrovic of Ezee Tiger. The highlight was the acapella part of "Animals Act Natural" and the stampede of beats and riffs that follows. But perhaps the best band of the night was Long Legged Woman, another bright light glimmering in the crystal ball of futurepunk.

The subtleties and pop hooks of this here summertime 7" (still available from the band or from Thor's Rubber Hammer) are hardly evident when they play live, when they come off more like a rather relentless, surly, and unsympathetic buncha bad apples. With scrapy/slanty guitar angularisms, throttling bass, and drums that just won't quit, most LLW songs were a minute or two, yet nearly as strenuous as a full serving of Brainbombs. When they play fast, I was reminded of what the Butthole Surfers might've been like back in 1981, if only they were a bit more bitter. Slower songs recalled an old Midwest scuzz-pummel fave from the 90s, the Festering Rinyanyons. Yet, much of their recordings really do bear out the comparisons that Siltblog lavished: Eat Skull on the A-side, Plagal Grind on the flip. I've just played you some of the more raucous 'n ranty shoutalongs.

Both of these CDRs are very nearly vinyl-ready with a little bit o' volume-regulation and track sequencing. Surely, this is one of the most exciting new bands I've met in 2008.

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OWL | Midnight Carnival | Of Wondrous Legends | Locust *new (orig 1971)
SIC ALPS | Everywhere, There | U.S. EZ | Siltbreeze 2008 *request
THEE OH SEES | Quadrospazzed | Peanut Butter Oven 12" EP | Awesome Vistas *new
WAVVES | Here's to the Sun | Wavves | Woodsist *new
LONG LEGGED WOMAN | Tolerance | Drugs Don't Last Forever CDR | no label *new
LONG LEGGED WOMAN | Bathhouse | Nobody Knows This is Nowhere CDR | no label *new
BLOODBIKER | No One | demo CDR | no label *new
FRANCIS HAROLD & THE HOLOGRAMS | Pick Me Up | Punk Music 7" | no label *new
RUSTED SHUT | Feelin Bad | 1992-1995 | no label *new
HORUS HAWK | A2 | Psych Nite CS | White Tapes *new
TEENAGE PANZERKORPS | Occult Logic | Games for Slaves | Siltbreeze *new
CALIFORNIA RAISINS | Ride the Rainbow | split 10" w/ Cave | Permanent *new
WOODEN SHJIPS | Vampire Blues [Neil Young] | Vampire Blues 7" | Sick Thirst *new
BUCKETS OF BILE | Caught It Still | v/a: XXperiments | Die Stasi *new
HARMONY GROUND ZERO | ??? | Wild Gunmen CS | Half/Witt Prod. *new
STORM BUGS | Car Situations (Nasal Passage) | v/a: Messthetics Greatest Hiss | Hyped2Death *new
COLIN POTTER | Power | v/a: Messthetics Greatest Hiss
BLANK DOGS | Before the Hours | The Fields | Woodsist *new
BOBB BRUNO | Snail's Pace | Clown's Castle CS | DNT *new
TALIBAM! | The Geometric Mophometrics of P.P.P.P.P. McNasticals | Ecstatic Jazz Duos split LP w/ Wasteland Jazz Unit | Thor's Rubber Hammer *new
EMBARKER | Diamond Shoals | Embarker | Malleable *new
THE LOVE IS SO FAST | Time | The Love Is So Fast | Siltbreeze *new
LOS LLAMARADA | The Future Scream | Take the Sky | S-S *new
AFCGT | New Punk | AFCGT 10" | Dirty Knobby *new
BORON & THE GREBES | The Prophet Hooligan | You're a Horrible Person 7" | Boron *new
THE GENERAL | I Did It | v/a: The Harrisburg Players 7" | Columbus Discount *new

Next on my agenda is unraveling the mystery behind this cassette, which I can only presume is by a band called Harmony Ground Zero....Anybody got the deets on this hilariously mean lady who chides so brilliantly over seasick low-rent electro psych ramblings? Someone needs to get courageous and cut this on vinyl. It's kinda like if Lisa Carver masturbated to the Shadow Ring.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

AFS v. 201 ~ A.H. Kraken live in Studio A!


My special guests this week are here to dish ultra-severe artpunk angles all the way from Metz, France...A.H. Kraken! Thanks to Tim Hance for engineering. Pacific Northwest, they're all yours now...Receive your ass-beating Tuesday 11/25 @ the Samurai Duck in Eugene, Wednesday 11/26 @ the Funhouse in Seattle, Friday 11/28 @ the Sweatshop in Vancouver, BC, Saturday 11/29 @ Slabtown in Portland (w/ Meth Teeth), and then toward the desert Southwest in December! They're bringing more copies of their unrelenting LP on In the Red, plus a brand-new 7" from Sweet Rot, and stuff from other affiliated projects.

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RED MASS | Terrorizer | Red Mass 12" EP | Psychic Handshake *new
KIDNEYS | Ghost Radio | demo CDR | no label *new
BLANK DOGS | Red World | The Fields CS | Fuckittapes *new
BLACK FEELINGS | trk 6 | demo CDR | no label *new
BAD PARTY | Feathered Hair and Tight Ass Jeans | Bad Party | Animal Disguise *new
PLASTOBETON | Ete '83 | Glam Mort | Tanz Procesz 2007
A.H. KRAKEN | Je Suis ton Marécage | Gianna Michaels 7" | Sweet Rot *new
A.H. KRAKEN | Verschwende Deine Jügend [DAF] | A.H. Kraken | In The Red 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (begins at approx 00:32 into file)
A.H. KRAKEN | Gianna Michaels | live in Studio A
A.H. KRAKEN | Kevin Costner est un Acteur Americàin
A.H. KRAKEN | De Type Caucasien
A.H. KRAKEN | Allan Müller
A.H. KRAKEN | Black Borny
A.H. KRAKEN | Ahmed
A.H. KRAKEN | Cette Fille est a Genoux
A.H. KRAKEN | Axe Vertical
A.H. KRAKEN | She Plays Loud
A.H. KRAKEN | Drop Sex
A.H. KRAKEN | Danse, Baden Powell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OVO | Tiki Colo | Crocevia | Load *new
DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA! | Reform | Insects Awaken | Upset the Rhythm *new
DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA! | Dessert Parade
FINALLY PUNK | Hypertension | Coffee, Tea & Misery 7" | M'Lady's *new
GRASS WIDOW | To Where | v/a: Yeti 6 zine CD | Yeti *new
CONTACT | Someone Like You | v/a: Messthetics #106 | Hyped 2 Death *new (orig 1979)
LONG LEGGED WOMAN | Something is Pressing Against it from the Inside | 7" | Thor's Rubber Hammer *new
GRAVE BLANKETS | Our Love Is Real | Our Love Is Real 7" | HoZac *new
BLOODBIKER | Dead | demo CDR | no label *new
LOS LLAMARADA | I've Got Your Face | Take the Sky | S-S *new
MISSING FOUNDATION | Jameels/Turmoil | 1933 | Purge Sound League 1988
POP GROUP | We Are All Prostitutes | We Are All Prostitutes 7" | Rough Trade 1980
BUTTHOLE SURFERS | 100 Million People Dead | v/a: P.E.A.C.E./War 2xLP | R Radical 1984
THROBBING GRISTLE | Hamburger Lady | Greatest Hits | Rough Trade 1980
DNA | You & You | You & You 7" | Medical 1978
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND | Ashtray Heart | Doc at the Radar Station | Virgin 1980
SIM SISAMOUTH | Don't Let My Girlfriend Tickle Me | v/a: Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk and Pop Music | Sublime Frequencies 2004 (orig 196?)
DAF | Der Mussolini | Alles Ist Gut | Virgin 1981
OLD TIME RELIJUN | Casino | La Sirena de Pecera | K Records 2000

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

AFS v. 200 ~ Panic on My 35th!


I'm back from vacation and internet-avoidance, and of course, I gotta bag fulla goodies from record-shopping in Portland, Oregon, in addition to part of the two-week backlog of promos streaming into the KDVS mailbox. Nevermind how it's halfway to septagenarianism (spooky, eh?)...35 might just be the best birthday ever! Everytime I've had the pleasure to say hello to Fred Cole, I've always asked "When are The Rats ever gonna get reissued?" Surely, he must've been hearing it all the time. He would always nod a bit and look sorta wistful. But now the wait may be over any minute because Mississippi Records got it back from the presses last Wednesday. There is a "but", however...Apparently, the label's kinda frettin' over some kinda defect that is apparent on one song, which was described as a loud pop. I listened to my copy gleefully and could hardly care. Hey, this is a great, long overdue reissue of a major piece of Portland's punk rock history, and that one tiny defect--if it is even there!--won't keep this LP off the top of my best reissues of 2008 list. Fans of Cole music aren't audiophiles! Release it and keep those Rats reissues comin', please!

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NASA SPACE UNIVERSE | Meteorite Mystery | 6-song 7" | Gradual Limbo *new
LAS NURSES | I Am Yellin' | Rémora 7" | Discos Humeantes *new
LIFE PARTNERS | AIDS of Spades | AIDS of Spades 7" | Ride the Snake *new
KILL THE HIPPIES | End of Discussion | split 7" w/ Blacken Snapper | Wheelchair Full of Old Men 1993
KILL THE HIPPIES | Born With a Bible
MY WHITE BREAD MOM | Counter Culture Daddy Warlord | split 7" w/ Moody Jackson | Burnt Sienna 1995
PRIMITIVE TRIBES | Trapped | Some Bouncy Anthems from... 7" | no label 1994
THE RATS | Panic on 39th | The Rats | Mississippi *new (orig 1980)
THE RATS | Defiance | Intermittent Signals | Whizeagle 1981
PIERCED ARROWS | Paranoia | Paranoia 7" | Tombstone *new
ELDER CHARLES BECK | Rock & Roll Sermon, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 | v/a: Life Is a Problem | Mississippi *new (orig 1956)
CASSIUS CLAY | I Am the Double Greatest | I Am the Greatest! | Columbia 1964
CASSIUS CLAY | Do You Have to Ask?
w/ SUN RA & HIS ARKESTRA | Somewhere There | Pictures of Infinity | Black Lion 1971
SHADOW RING | I Am the Black Piper | Lighthouse | Swill Radio 1999
SHADOW RING | I Am Lord Llyson / Mindart / If It Is a Boy
GRAHAM LAMBKIN & JASON LESCALLEET | Soap Opera Suite | The Breadwinner | Erstwhile 2008
THE HOSPITALS | Animals Act Natural | Hairdryer Peace | no label 2008
AIDS WOLF | General _ _ | Cities of Glass | Skin Graft *new
A.H. KRAKEN | Kevin Costner Est un Acteur Americain | A.H. Kraken | In The Red 2008
BAD PARTY | I Touched Her Twice | Bad Party | Animal Disguise *new
TWIN CRYSTALS | Spell on You | Twin Crystals | NMR *new
NIGHT WOUNDS | Nothing Changes [Death in June] | split 7" w/ Mutators | Badmaster 2008
NIGHT WOUNDS | Ghana | split LP w/ AIDS Wolf | Nail in the Coffin 2008
GOD'S GIFT | People | 1st 7" | Newmarket 1979
LOVE TAN | This Land Is No Good | Miscellaneous Night Feelings | Kill Shaman *new
THE MEDIATERS | The Waiting Room | v/a: The Waiting Room | Object Music 1980
DISLOCATION DANCE | You Can't Beat History | v/a: Messthetics #106 | Hyped2Death *new (orig 1980)
FINALLY PUNK | Coffee, Tea, and Misery | 2nd 7" | M'Lady's *new
VIVIAN GIRLS | Damaged | Vivian Girls | In The Red *new
BLEACH | Burn | Snag EP 12" | Way Cool 1991
VINCENT OVER THE SINK | I Found a Genie | 22 Coloured Bull-Terrier Chants CDR | no label 2008
BLANK DOGS | Silk Heads | Captured Tracks vol 1 CDR | no label *new
ROBOTI | Robot Sintezator | v/a: Analoges Russland | Kernkrach *new
PRIVATE ENTERTAINMENT | He's Dancing in My Belly | Four Tracks 7" | White Denim *new
ANGEL FACE | Pride | A Wild Odyssey | Pacific Productions 1985 (orig 1974-76)
LOS LLAMARADA | I've Got Your Face | Take the Sky | S-S *new

During late-night record-gabbin' with Scott Simmons from Eat Skull and Exiled Records, we were talking about the Rats record and how much we like it, but he made a funny point about Fred and Toody's singing "There's a panic on 39th!" No, it wasn't so funny because of Toody's youthful punk affectation on the last syllable. "It's just funny to imagine that there could have ever been a panic on that street," he said.

Really, though...What could make one panic on 39th?

I think there really was a time that I was fretting about that double-left turning lane at Sandy Blvd. I never seem to know which lane to be in so that I can catch that westbound I-84 freeway ramp.

I suppose that you could panic at Pho Dalat if you are a vegetarian.

In Laurelhurst Park, at the south end of the basketball court nearest the intersection of 39th and Stark, tree limbs hang over the backboard which can greatly complicate long jumpers. I remember running a game there, 5-on-5 to fifteen, and one guy was extremely adamant about the teams switching baskets at eight to make things fair. No one else really cared, but he seemed concerned nearly to the point of panic as he counted off each point to eight emphatically.

I've seen a Tri-Met bus kick up a ruthless wave of water due to the leaf-clogged storm-drain on the northeast corner of 39th and Hawthorne. It ruined some rockabilly dude's day. He'd worked so hard on his look to have it whippy-chipped like by a gutter tsunami.

Wonder how the Blazer fans at Tom's Sports Bar at Division and 39th felt when Greg Oden rolled his ankle in game two of this young NBA season? Surely someone panicked! Ever eaten there? Your dinner might just threaten to leak down your drawers...That would surely be a PANIC ON 39TH!!!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

AFS v. 199 ~ Takin' the Night By Storm!


The brand-new LP by Monterey, Mexico's Los Llamarada has finally dropped, and it rockets to the top of the list of the great albums of 2008 next to Hairdryer Peace by The Hospitals, the Hank IV's Refuge in Genre, Dan Melchior's Christmas for the Crows, and a handful of others that are the cream of what is a really great crop. When will 2007-2008 be declared a halcyon age, d'ya think? I've enjoyed everything I've heard by Los Llamarada so far, but with Take the Night, the band has finally revealed themselves to be turning a corner in terms of recording fidelity. Side A and the first half of B. Much of what you've heard from the band so far has been self-recorded on a boombox. Last year, the band graduated up to a four-track machine. After much trial and error, they finally nailed it, and the results of that newly gained mastery is the first two-thirds of the LP. The last three songs are from their Live in Studio A session at KDVS during their September 2007 west coast tour. Take the Sky varies in sound from mesmerizing psych-punk seances that'll levitate your chakras, to strains of panic-stricken distress calls. This effectively makes all their previous output damn near obsolete. I give this my highest recommendation!

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LOTEK | Running Dog | v/a: Portland Punk Live at Earth, 10-29-79 | Trap 1980
THE NIXE | Mentally Disturbed | The Nixe | Polly Maggoo *new (orig 1980)
COREY ORBISON | Who's the Monkey? | Your Name Is Poison 7" | Everard *new
LAS NURSES | One Eyed Girl | Remora 7" | Discos Humeantes *new
LOS LLAMARADA | The Late Great MTY Trip | Take the Sky | S-S *new
GRAFFITI ISLAND | Pet Snake (backwards) | 3-way split CS | no label *new
LIFE PARTNERS | Teenager in Trouble | AIDS of Spades 7" | Ride the Snake *new
ANGEL FACE | 12½ | A Wild Odyssey | Pacific Productions 1985 (orig 1974-1976)
RUSTED SHUT | Dyin Up Here/I Hate Seattle | 1992-1995 | boot *new
KRASH ÜN LURNE | Jessamyn's Lips | III: The End Is Nein | Scatalogical Liberation Front *new
STEVEN FIELDS | Legalize Heroin | Legalize Heroin 7" | no label 1988
SWIFT WINGS | Dead Tropic | Swift Wings CDR | no label *new
FEY GODS | Face Like a Rat | free comp CDR/zine | Chicago on a Spree *new
SQUIM | Nightingale Part II | Zephyrus | Olde English Spelling Bee *new
SQUIM | Nightingale Part III (Red Boiling}
THE USA IS A MONSTER | All or Nothing | Space Programs | Load *new
BUICK | Immortality | Sweatertongue | Lather 1992
GGREEN | Swimsuit Drugs | Hot Streets CS | no label *new
BIG BLOOD | The Grove Is Hotter than an Ocean's Oven | The Grove CS | Phase *new
BIG BLOOD | Little Lepers
MARK TUCKER | Everywhere With Sally | In the Sack | De Stijl *new (orig 1982)
CRYSTAL STILTS | Verdant Gaze | Alight of Night | Slumberland *new
CAUSE CO-MOTION | Cry for Attention | It's Time | Slumberland *new
THE TOURS | Language School | v/a: Apprentices Dance | Sounds Interesting 1981
THE EMBARRASSMENT | Celebrity Art Party | The Embarrassment EP 12" | Cynykyl 1981
MATT K. SHRUGG | I'm Gone | I'm Gone 7" | Plastic Idol *new
TY SEGALL | Where We Go | It 7" | Chocolate Covered *new
LIGHTNING BEAT MAN | I Wanna Be Your Pussycat | Wrestling Rock & Roll | Voodoo Rhythm *new
JACK MONAHAN | Poems | v/a: Shadow Mouth compilation one | Shadow Mouth 1987
RUSSIAN TSARLAG | Breadwater | Let Your Dreams Touch Air CS | Unskilled Labor 2007
SKY JUICE | untitled | Hard to Kill | Olde English Spelling Bee *new
DARAKA | Burn Your Docs | v/a: Reality Control? Compilation | Reality Control? 1994
MEGHAN McCAIN | The Only Way to Be Punk... | Interview on Fox News
SAM & JOE | Save the Children | v/a: Fear of Smell | Vermiform 1992
RUGBURN | Left Behind | v/a: Reality Control? Compilation
JEBERREKENELLE | And My Hands Move Around | split LP w/ Rugburn | Reality Control? 1994

And y'know what else???

This 7" by the Life Partners is absolutely scathing and great! Weirdpunk that's funny and tastes a lit'l like hardcore, and it's gotta meanstreak! This B-side shoulda been copped by California's No-on-Prop-4 coalition!

Also, the best drone album in a loooong time is this Zephyrus LP by Squim. It just sorta snuck on my and is now vying to get in that best-of-'08 list.

If I can find time this week before leaving for vacation (running up Eastern Oregon desert, then cutting across to Portland through the Columbia Gorge, and finally down the coast of Oregon and Northern California), I will post some reviews.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

AFS v. 198½ ~ In Honor of Mr. Mick Mucus


You get an extra dose of AFS this week because I pinch-hit for Mr. Mick Mucus while he was sick. Mick has been DJing at KDVS as long as I have (since Winter 1994-95), and he his Hardcore Party: the Chicken Years has been one of the most consistently outstanding programs on our airwaves or any airwaves. This guy has a funny and engaging personality which shines through in the often humorous music that he plays, spanning all genres from 80s hardcore to corny DIY pop to weird audio outer-zoning.

Mick has also been one of the most outstanding showmen in Sacto/Davis music, fronting bands from Anal Mucus (which he transplanted here from his school-age stomping grounds of Concord), Girls Soccer, The Turdwrenchers, Gift of Goats (my fave!), and his current band, unkuT:Hunks (fast-becoming a fave!). The Hunks (pictured here (hey, DJ Oddy and I are front-row twins!)) are one of the very best live bands in the area. They just recorded yesterday, and it sounds absolutely vinyl-ready. Selected tracks are already there on the MySpace...
http://www.myspace.com/unkuthunks
They kinda remind me of late-80s Poison Idea crossed with some of the trickier stuff that the Texan band The Offenders recorded toward the mid-80s (and don'tcha know...that was some of the most underrated stuff of that era?!?!)

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ANGRY SAMOANS | Gimme Sopor | Inside My Brain | Bad Trip 1980
THE WAX MUSEUMS | Safety in Numbers | The Wax Museums | Douche Master *new
THE REDS | I Hate Rules | It's About Time | Rip Off 2002
HORNY MORMONS | The Green Machine | split LP w/ Pounded Clown | Very Small 1992
STUBBY'S CRACK COMPANY | Ode to Larry Harris | v/a: Alaska 7" Comp | Kenai Pen *new
TRAGIC MULATTO | Tac Squad | Judo for the Blind | Alternative Tentacles 1984
SMERSH | Greasing Wheezer | The Beat from 20,000 Fathoms | RRRecords 1986
STANDARD OF LIVING | Don't Worry | Six Songs 12" | Vinyl 1982
DEAD LUKE | Jumping Jack Flash Drive | Record Two 7" | Sacred Bones *new
SEXY PRISON | Without Us Some Guys Would Starve | Filth Flarn Filth | Occult 2008
METAL CITY | Freakout Traverse | Metal City CDR | no label 2003
SLOOP JOHN SCRONGEBERRY & THE ROGER'S BEATS | Minor Threat | lathe-cut 7" | Replicator 200?
THE SCHIZOPHRENIC HOUSEWIVES | Ardia Girls | Don't Marry the... 7" | Hillside Strangler 2008
LEADERS | Rub You Wrong | Rub You Wrong 7" | Point Wrex *new
OCTAGON CONTROL | Proto Christ | Slackattack 7" | Krazy Keith *new
FNU RONNIES | Golem Smoke | Limited Edition Poop CDR | no label *new
SLICING GRANDPA | Peter Bark | Le Hardcore 7" | Strain Theory *new
UNKUT:HUNKS | Old Lady Writing a Check | MySpace mp3 *new
GIFT OF GOATS | Battery Factory | v/a: Omnibus 34 | Omnibus 2003
FESTERING RINYANYONS | Hopeless | Dreamgirl E.P. split 7" w/ the Mercury Players | Big Yucky 1992
KILLDOZER | Pig Foot and Beer | Twelve Point Buck | Touch and Go 1989
SAD SACK | Heinous Bitch | Heinous Bitch 7" | ERL 1991
NIMROD | Cunttroll | Cunttroll 7" flexi | Bron 1991
BETTY BINNS | Ladies Home Urinal | v/a: Killed by Death vol 11 | Redrum 1996
GRUMPY WINOS | Get Up (And Lose It!) | v/a: Killed by Death vol 11
SCISSOR GIRLS | By Process of Elimination | Here Is the "Is Not" | Atavistic 1997
HARRY PUSSY | Smash the Mirror | You'll Never Play This Town Again | Load *new (orig 1997)
GOLDEN TRIANGLE | Red Coat | Prize Fighter 7" | Rob's House *new
SWEET FACES | Cool Kids (Don't Wanna Listen) | 7" | Douche Master *new
GENTLEMAN JESSE & HIS MEN | Butterfingers | Gentleman Jesse | Douche Master *new
TERRY TEEN & THE TWEAKS | Pussy Galore | v/a: Garage Zone vol 3 | Moxie 1990 (orig 196?)
HUNX & HIS PUNX | You Don't Like Rock n Roll | You Don't Like Rock n Roll 7" | Rob's House *new
DREAMDATE | D.A.N.C.E. Party | The One I Need 7" | Chocolate Covered 2006
THE CATHOLICS | Motor Drive | 7" | Duke City 1980

AFS v. 198 ~ Rotisserie Gold


Gotta new grippa HoZac golds in the mail, plus more highlights from the fall harvest of vinyl! And I gotta fresh two-hour show coming tomorrow, too (as I pinch-hit for Mr. Mick Mucus during The Hardcore Party radio show). So, check back tomorrow for completely different batch. I'll be going old-school to please Mick's fans.

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(HTML links to bands & labels coming soon)

KEPI GHOULIE & JERRY HORMONE | Must Be Mistaken | The Lives and Loves of... 7" | Stardumb *new
NODZZZ | I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana) | I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana) 7" | Make a Mess *new
WOUNDED LION | Carol Cloud | Carol Cloud 7" | S-S *new
MIKA MIKO | Bastard in Love | Singles Club 7" | Sub Pop *new
CAUSE CO-MOTION! | Who's Gonna Care? | It's Time! | Slumberland *new
CRYSTAL STILTS | Bright Night | Alight of Night | Slumberland *new
VIVIAN GIRLS | Where Do You Run To | Vivian Girls | In The Red *new
U.S. GIRLS | I Can Hear Music [Beach Boys] | Kankakee Memories 7" | Cherry Burger *new
CREEPING NOBODIES | Exult | split 7" w/ These Are Powers | Army of Bad Luck *new
MATT K. SHRUGG | Let's Eat Space | The Weird Shit... CDR | no label 2007
MATT K. SHRUGG | We're So S.O.L. | I'm Gone 7" | Plastic Idol *new
MATT K. SHRUGG | Phono | Phono 7" | Plastic Idol *new
MEDICATION | Fog | Don't Die 7" | HoZac *new
SUBTLE TURNHIPS | F* the People F* the Power | F* the People F* the Power 7" | HoZac *new
GRAVE BLANKETS | Tripwire | Our Love Is Real 7" | HoZac *new
THE LAMPS | Boring Girls [Pissed Jeans] | Songs of Sexual Frustration 7" | S-S *new
RUSTED SHUT | Woman | Hot Sex 12" | Dull Knife *new
SLICING GRANDPA | Dear Police, We Have Yr Wife/Gone All Gone | Le Hardcore 7" | Strain Theory *new
KRASH UN LÜRNE III | Three Quick Hits | The End Is Nein | Scatalogical Liberation Front *new
HARRY PUSSY | Velvet Pussy/M.S. 20 | You'll Never Play This Town Again | Load *new arrival (orig 1997)
RED TRANSISTOR | We're Not Crazy | Not Bite 7" | Ecstatic Peace 1990 (orig 1977)
MAYYORS | Intro/Airplanes | Megan's LOLZ 7" | Gomerdome *request *new
MEGAFUCKERS | Jet Lag | Escalation 7" | Deleted Art *new
KIM PHUC | Wormwood Star | Wormwood Star 7" | Criminal IQ *new
SKY JUICE | untitled/untitled | Hard to Kill | Olde English Spelling Bee *new
LOS LLAMARADA | Against the Day | Against the Day 7" | Avant! *new
EL JESUS DE MAGICO | Unclean Ghost | Unclean Ghost 7" | Columbus Discount *new
THE USA IS A MONSTER | Frozen Rainbows | Space Programs | Load *new
CHEB ZERGUI | Ana Dellali | v/a: 1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground | Sublime Frequencies *new (orig 197?)
TERMINAL WASTEBAND | Yom Kippur War | Dial M for Monkey 7" | Black Velvet Fuckere *new
HUMAN EYE | Slave Cave | Brain Zipz CDR | no label *new
HUMAN EYE | Vagabond | that other tour CDR | no label *new
CHROME | Abstract Nympho | Half Machine Lip Moves | Siren 1979
BLANK DOGS | Death Jumpers | Captured Tracks vol 1 CDR | no label *new
PRIVATE ENTERTAINMENT | The Dream | Four Tracks 7" | White Denim *new

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AFS v. 197 ~ Perpendicular Jello


By order of Primordial Sid himself, I've finally flipped the Perpendicular Jello cassette tape compilation to play side B in its entirety, and what a treat it is! You may have heard side A on AFS v. 188, where I described it as a mix-tape of wild outer-zoning smart/stupid proto-weirdpunk from the cassette label which inspired Pete Larson to start his Bulb Records label back in the 90s. So, were it not for these teenaged Mississippians in the mid-80s, we might not have ever enjoyed Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink, a band that was very important to me in my formative years of good/bad smart/stupid music appreciation. Thanks again to Doug Barker for loaning this tape. Surely I'd have never heard it otherwise.

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THE LAMPS | Bob the Cat | Live CS | Phase *new
THE LAMPS | Boring Girls [Pissed Jeans]
THE LEADERS | Candy Pants | Candy Pants 7" | Regal Select *forthcoming
THE LEADERS | Electric Cadaver | Rub You Wrong 7" | Point Wrex *new
BLOOD! | Dogbite | Love in Vein 2xCS | Jerkwave Tapes *new
TWIN CRYSTALS | Witness | Twin Crystals | NMR *new
BLANK DOGS | I Was Counting | Setting Fire to Your House 7" | 4:2:2 *new
YUSSUF JERUSALEM | With You in Mind [Marianne Faithfull] | Heart Full of Sorrow | Florida's Dying *new
LILI Z. | Reality (is Laughing at Me) | The Two of Us | In The Red *new
THE BLACK BUG | Dead in My Head | Life is a Whore 7" | Boom Chick *new
VINCENT K. | White Sheet Glory | v/a: Festival der Genialen Dissidenten | Enfant Terrible 2008
CHARLIE DRAHEIM | Guts on the Dancefloor | v/a: Wierd Compilation vol II 4xLP | Wierd 2008
BLACK PUS | Altar Rat | split LP w/ Foot Village | DNT/Deathbomb Arc *new
ZACH HILL | Stoic Logic | Astrological Straits 2xLP | Ipecac *new
HUMAN EYE | Poison Frog People | Fragments of the Universe Nurse | Hook or Crook *new
MUDBOY | untitled | split CS w/ Ducktails | DNT *new
QUINTRON | The Boss Wants to Party With You | Too Thirsty 4 Love | Goner *new
THE HYPSTRZ | 96 Tears [? & the Mysterians] | Hypstrization | Voxx 1980
TY SEGALL | Son of Sam [Chain Gang] | It 7" | Chocolate Covered *new
LIIMANARINA | Suomen Ainoa Elvis | Juutalaiset 7" | Bad Vugum 1990
THE PABLUMS | Under My Gums | v/a: Blub Krad | LAFMS 1979
SKOALKANS | Nervous Breakdown [Black Flag] | v/a: Perpendicular Jello CS | Primordial Sid's 1985 *request
CELLOPHANE SQUIDS | Disco Man
WHEEZING CRAPHEADS | My Baby Left Me
JACK WEBB & THE UNDERGARMENTS | Ted Ain't Love
HANGING SPOONS | Resignation
TERRIFYING SICKOS | Batman
CELLOPHANE SQUIDS | We Don't Want You
ETHNIC LIZARDS | Water's Funny
BRANE DAMN, AGE 13 | John Paul Jones
THE STAFF OF PRIMORDIAL SID'S | Closing Words
HENRY FLYNT & NOVA CITY | Amphetamine Rhapsody | self-titled 2xLP | Locust Music *new (orig 1975)
HUMAN ADULT BAND | Sick & Chic | split CS w/ COW | Phase *new
STRANGULATED BEATOFFS | Don't Let Me Down [Beatles] | The Beatoffs 7" | Chopper 1989
RUDY RAY MOORE | Whatcha Gonna Do? | Hully Gully Fever | Norton 1962

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AFS v. 196 ~ Knife Hits!


The FM Knives were one of the best bands live and on record from Sacramento in the early part of this decade…or ever! I remember when they were briefly called The Clap, and then The Knifes. We all cried when they broke up, but if we know then three excellent bands would hatch from the Knives, it might’ve been easier to take. Here’s the Knives continuum….Guitarist Chris Woodhouse (formerly of Karate Party) is now the guitarist and sound architect of The Mayyors here in Sacto; bassist Zack Olson--now in Oakland--still plays these wonderfully bouncy, yet driving basslines in The Pets; and singer Jason Patrone--when he’s not writing some of the funniest reviews on Yelp--sings and plays in Photobooth, also in Oakland. The Pets and Photobooth are coming to Sacto for a special KDVS Presents event at the 300 Room, the bar/lounge inside the 50’s/googie/neon-era timewarp bowling alley, West Capitol Bowl in West Sac. Some people say West Sac is the best Sac! The Pizzas are also playing!

Twin Crystals are also swinging through Sacto this week at Luigi’s Fungarden with The Dead Science and San Kazakgascar on Thursday. See below this playlist for an instant-messager-trade interview with Jesse…

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THE NIXE | Love Song | The Nixe | Polly Maggoo *new (orig 1981)
PETROLEUM BY-PRODUCTS | Grossest Thing | v/a: Emergency Room vol 1 | Grotesque Modern/Nominal *new
WHITE LUNG | Amy White Out | Local Garbage 7" | Hockey Dad *new
THE DEFEKTORS | Doomsday Girl | Secret Trials 7" | Nominal *new
GOLDEN TRIANGLE | Night Brigade | Prize Fighter 7" | Rob's House *new
CATATONIC YOUTH | Freedom Vanilla | Piss Scene 7" | HoZac *new *request
NOBUNNY | Tina Goes to Work | Love Visions | Bubble Dumb 2008
HUNX & HIS PUNX | You Don't Like Rock n Roll | You Don't... 7" | Rob's House *new
SONIC CHICKEN 4 | Toe Man | Midnight Girl 7" | Rob's House *new
DEAD GHOSTS | I Don't Understand | Holy Ghost 7" | Boom Chick *new
FM KNIVES | The Man from O.S.I. | Useless and Modern | Moo-La-La 2002
FM KNIVES | She's Terminal *request
THE PETS | Heart Attack | Misdirection | Static Impulse 2008
PHOTOBOOTH | Kill the Weekend | MySpace mp3 *new
CHRISTMAS ISLAND | Morning Sunshine | split 7" w/ Le Jonathan Reilly | FDH/Shit in Can *new
THE GOODNIGHT LOVING | Blank Day Parade | The Goodnight Loving | Dusty Medical *new
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | We'll Be Turned On | Primary Colours | Goner *request *new
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | I Don't Wanna Play No More *request
DAY CREEPER | Secrets | 2nd CDR | no label *new
EL JESUS DE MAGICO | Pirate Utopia | Singles Club 7" | Columbus Discount *new
NIGHT OF PLEASURE | Spasm Chasm | split 7" w/ Day Creeper | no label *new
EGO SUMMIT | Small Piece of Germany | The Room Isn't Big Enough | Old 3C 1997
PLACENTA POPEYE | untitled | split 7" w/ Reverse Mouth | Absurd/Phase/Tanz Procesz *new
TWIN CRYSTALS | Two Girls | Two Girls 7" | Summer Lovers Unlimited 2008
FNU RONNIES | Herb Owlpert | Limited Edition Poop CDR | no label *new
RADIO SHOCK | Sick City Water | Rage 158 | Roger *new
DEAD LUKE | trk 10 | Dead Luke Box bonus CDR | Sacred Bones *new
ZOLA JESUS | Soeur Sewer | Soeur Sewer 7" | Sacred Bones *new
THE DEAD SCIENCE | Holliston | Villainaire | Constellation *new
INCA ORE | Valley of Sherbert Cathedrals | split LP w/ Grouper | IOG *new
SWEET KELLY | Not to Go This Far | Tape Fed Into a Garbage Disposal by Spaceman and Jake | Zedikiah 1997
SWEET KELLY | When We've Gone Blind
SWEET KELLY | Running Free
SWEET KELLY | Territory
ORANGE | Golden Falcons | In The Midst of Chaos | De Stijl *new (orig 1978)

INTERVIEW W/ JESSE OF TWIN CRYSTALS

11:57 AM me: So, what about this new LP?
How's it gonna carry?
11:58 AM Twin: the new lp is a party / its like a new madonna lp from 84, no joke!!
me: Well, some of those songs are indeed moments of pop brilliance. What kinda things am I gonna hear that I haven't heard before on your CDRs and 7"?
12:00 PM Twin: well for once it should be all new songs , no demos no scrappy live traxx, its all guitar based now , jeremiah is playing more bass type stuff on the moog, theres a soft cell cover on there that kinda holds the lp together. we recorded it ourselves.
12:01 PM whereas the last record we did "two girls 7" was recorded in a fancy studio with the engineer taking control and adding in his own sounds. it worked but we wanted something different.
12:02 PM me: How many songs and minutes is it?
Twin: 8 songs 26 minutes
12:03 PM me: So, less atmospheric then?
Twin: no, not necessarily. side b is more dreamtime, and side a is pop madness.
12:04 PM me: Is this still gonna play well at a dance party?
12:06 PM Twin: it will play very well, we got sick of people calling us a dance band cause we were on Summer Lovers, and cause we had two moogs, so we wanted to make more of a early nineties party record, kinda like the story i heard of charles peterson playing out his copy of nirvana's mollys lips live single at his house parties.
12:07 PM me: You realize that your split cassette w/ N.213 that was limited to 47 shoulda been on vinyl, right? Your side of that is pretty great!
12:08 PM Twin: i know i know / me and nic are trying to get a label to release it. it was meant to be on vinyl from the start.
12:09 PM me: It has a few mastering issues, but that's easy enough.
Twin: i know nothing about mastering, all i know how to is stay up till 6 am mixxing and mixxing songs over and over.
12:10 PM i spent weeks mixxing the new lp.
12:11 PM me: There's a dark despair and desperation in a lotta music coming from Vancouver, and yet it seems like people are all excited about the music from there, whether it's kids here in Sacto and Davis or folks like Exclaim doing feature articles on it.
12:12 PM Why is Vancouver music so glum-sounding, yet also sparking a lotta interest these days? Twin Crystals included!
12:15 PM Twin: well for one thing all our bands - Shearing Pinx / Mutators / Twin C / Defektors....... all practice on Hastings Street for the low rent, but that street is home to some 20000 addicts. i'm talking the cops have no idea what to do, all day everyday people are smoking crack freely on the street, shooting up in front of cops. the Emergencry Room just got robbeed, and we hall had our guitars stolen. this city is fucked...im not really sure why people are taking notice now, though. all of us have been doing this for years, and we have had zero interest up until now. in Channels 3 and 4, we all worked so hard but we got nowhere with it. it seemed no one cared or anything. we never even got local press.
12:16 PM me: I hear that a lot about the Vancouver press....even D.O.A. complained about it back in 1981-82, I read.
12:17 PM Twin: yeah and look where they are now. hahahha...maybe thats what we have to look forward to.
me: No wonder you guys are so downcast, eh!
12:18 PM So, who's putting the LP out?
12:19 PM Twin: our friend david from NMR records here in Vancouver is releasing it. Summer Lovers wanted to do it, but they are too slow, and project us towards a different audeience...not a bad thing necesarily, but just not really what we want. dave is letting us have complete control. so i have sorted out our distro and cover art and everything. we are really really excited for it.
12:20 PM me: What's it like for Twin Crystals to share Jeremiah with a million other bands?
12:22 PM Twin: well, we all play in different bands, so it's not really a problem ever. it might be a struggle for him, but for us it's really quite exciting to see our best firend have success with other people he plays with. the thing about jeremiah though is he is a player not necessarily a songwriter, so he can just jump into a situation and play along perfectly to someone else's songs.
12:23 PM me: Jordan also strikes me as the sound/engineering kinda guy, so is that also kinda like a part that plugs into a system pretty well?
12:25 PM Twin: yes indeed...jordan is a full time sound engineer. he records most of the vancouver scene and does it perfectly. he is really easy to work with, but he never records twin crystals cause i think he finds it a bit frustrating trying to balance the sound and the playing. so i usually just record us. but yeah...it's a really good thing that we all have going...jordan records all the bands...all the bands are our friends, all our friends go on tour, all our friends make rad music, and that's kinda why i think everything is coming together nicely.
12:27 PM me: It's always so cliched to ask the same old question of "Who are your influences?" But tell us one influence that we wouldn't expect based on your sound.
12:29 PM Twin: well, when me and jordan first put the band together i was (still am) heavily into Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and i was showing jordan all this great afro disco beat, and we kinda imagined these rhythms over pop songs. i think a perfekkt example of that is our song "Trinity".
12:30 PM me: Hmmmm, I never realized that....
I always thought it was like a jungle/DnB-type song minus the drum machine and sequencers.
12:31 PM Twin: hahaha
me: That's your signature song as it's appeared on a lot of different releases. So why is its meaning still so mysterious?
12:34 PM Twin: i think all our songs are surrounded by mystery, but that one in particular is a bit dfferent. it's a really positive song if you can listen though the edges. it's kinda about the three of us sticking together through anything, 'cause we have all been through a lot in our lives...through friends suicides and overdoses, and it's just about the three of us being a family...not just ones that say they are; [we] really mean it.
12:35 PM me: Ah, we must all be imagining that it's more metaphoric than it really is!
12:36 PM Twin: haha probably
12:37 PM it might have a little bit to do with the break up of Channels 3 and 4 where i say "can you tell where my arm got torn"
12:38 PM "don't come and tear it apart"...that means i couldn't believe we didnt make it through 'cause we were supposed to be family. but now that family is back, and it feels good.
12:39 PM me: That coulda been a great record cover photo concept.
Twin: haha yeah probably
me: Put a little baby bonnet on Jeremiah.
12:40 PM Twin: we wouldn't even have to force him.
12:43 PM man that san kazakgascar band rules; they sound incredible.
me: Yeah...Jed, the guitarist of San Kaz is really great! They have a clarinetist, too, which just takes it over the top into magic carpet land.
12:44 PM Twin: awesome...i cant wait!





Tuesday, October 07, 2008

AFS v. 195 ~ Beware of the Freedom!



Freeform KDVS brings you three antidotes to "There's never anything fun to do in the Central Valley": (1) Stolen Minks & Goodnight Loving in Sacto @ Luigi's Fungarden on Wednesday 10/8; (2) an awesome house-show with The Bad Trips, Nothing People, and Art Lessing in Davis @ 802 Villanova Drive; and (3) our sixth all-day outdoor festival, Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom VI, Saturday 10/11 in the boonies between Davis and Woodland at Plainfield Station. Check the feature on ORMF VI below the playlist.

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NIHILISTICS | Welfare for the Rich | Nihilistics | Brain Eater 1983
ARTLESS | Supply Side | Artless | Placebo 1985
THE SLEAZE | Smokin' Fuckin' Cigs | Smokin' Fuckin' Cigs 7" | Fashionable Idiots *new
SCHIZOPHRENIC HOUSEWIVES | Knight Rider | Don't Marry the... 7" | Hillside Strangler 2008
PITY FUCKS | Plug in Baby | Why Right Now? 7" | Felony Fidelity *new
LES HORMONES | Peggy | Peggy 7" | Heads Up *new
STOLEN MINKS | Branded | Family Boycott | New Romance For Kids 2006
STOLEN MINKS | Chug a Lug [Roger Miller] | The Stolen Minks 7" | New Romance For Kids 2005
SINKS | Beat Out My Brains | Beat Out My Brains 7" | Fashionable Idiots *new
TRADITIONAL FOOLS | River | I Got a Baby 7" | Chocolate Covered 2008
AMBER ALERTS | Ghost House | Ghost House 7" | Florida's Dying *new
NOTHING PEOPLE | Corner's For | Anonymous | S-S Records 2008
THE INTELLIGENCE | Witchworld | split 12" w/ Thee Ohsees | Mt. St. Mtn *new
BEWARE OF THE KNIGHT | Klump | Third Canker From the Rock | no label 2007
BEWARE OF THE KNIGHT | Space Sores
THE OHSEES | Inquiry Perpitrated | split 12" w/ The Intelligence
WAVVES | California Goth | Wavves CS | Fuckittapes *new
WAVVES | Wavves
14 ICED BEARS | Blue Suit | Precision: Singles 1986-1989 | Thunderball 1990
14 ICED BEARS | Spangle | 14 Iced Bears | Thunderball 1988
SAN FRANCISCO WATER COOLER | Rocker's Escape | San Francisco Water Cooler | KDVS Recordings 2007
JAY REATARD | Trapped Here | Matador Singles '08 | Matador *new
HOLLOW STARS | Only Your Love | 7"+CDR | Army of Bad Luck *new
DAVILA 666 | Ciudad | Davila 666 | In the Red *new
KIM PHUC | Freak Out the Squares | Wormwood Star 7" | Criminal IQ *new
THE DEAD SCIENCE | Death Duel Productions | Villainaire | Constellation *new
HIS ELECTRO BLUE VOICE | Duuug | Duuug 7" | Sacred Bones *new
JOSETXO GRIETA | At the Junction (Sing Along) | The Art of Distraction | Ozonokids *new
RUSTED SHUT | Godstrike | Hot Sex 12" EP | Dull Knife *new
ULI TREPTE | White Line Fever | Inbetween | Spalax 1974
THE BAD TRIPS | First Priority | The Bad Trips | Rocketship 2007
MONOSHOCK | Crypto-Zoological Disaster | Walk to the Fire 2xLP | Blackjack 1996
LIQUORBALL | A1 | Hauls Ass | Blackjack 1994

Freeform KDVS 90.3FM in Davis presents...
OPERATION: RESTORE MAXIMUM FREEDOM VI


On Saturday, October 11, 2008 ten groups will take to the stage of Plainfield Station to rock Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom VI, the DIY underground music festival presented by freeform alternative KDVS 90.3FM in Davis.

It kicks off at 1:30pm with KDVS DJs spinning killer tracks from this year's top albums. The live music starts blasting at 2pm, with an eight hour roller coaster of punk to experimental to raw folk to indie to psych until 10pm sharp. All this is happening at Plainfield Station, 23944 County Road 98, just north of Davis. Best burgers, killer tacos, and beer bar for 21+.

TIP no. 1 TO ENJOY YOURSELF TO THE FULLEST: BRING A BLANKET TO SPREAD OUT ON THE PARKLIKE GROUNDS.

$7 presale/student and $10 general door admission feeds the hungry touring vans and artists.

Presale tickets are currently available at Armadillo Records in Davis and through our PayPal button on our Myspace page...
http://www.myspace.com/maximumfreedom

Group bike rides are leaving from Davis, as well as a shuttle bus for those too inebriated to keep upright on two wheels. Maximum Freedom has developed a strong tradition of biking to the festival. For the past five fests, people have biked from as far away as the Bay Area to see this unique event! Bike rides leave from Davis at 1pm and 4pm, returning from Plainfield at 10:30pm.

The free KDVS shuttle bus will leave Davis at 1:30pm and 6:30pm, returning from Plainfield at 6pm and 10:30pm.

Driving Directions:
From I-80, take 113 north for a few miles. Exit at Covell blvd. and turn left. Turn right at County Road 98. You will see the Plainfield Station on your left, right after the intersection of County Roads 98 and 29.

Check our DavisWiki and Myspace pages for more updates! And stay tuned to KDVS 90.3 FM or http://www.kdvs.org/ for music from the featured bands, ticket giveaways and more information.

The Lineup:

LSD & the Search for God

Described quite accurately as dreamy indie-warp by the San Francisco Chronicle, this SF group has been compared to My Bloody Valentine, Luna, Spacemen 3, and the Telescopes, with its uniquely moving blend of psychedelic shoegaze indie rock.

Traditional Fools
Shrieking buzzing guitars and raw vocals meet punk melodies to send a killer garage punk rock n roll lighting bolt straight down your spine and get your feet dancing.

Blackblack
LA indie rock ushers out the summer with ebola-catchy lyrics melodies that make you want to dance, then takes a step back to reveal beautifully cute indie pop.

Ohioan
Will this wandering Portland native bard be able to hitchhike his way down the coast in time for ORMF? You'd better hope so, or you ll miss his powerful, sorrowful, honest folk brewed on the roads of America.

Inca Ore
Surreal experimental that must be witnessed to realize the warping of your mental state.

Hexlove
The drummer from Sacramento's Who's You're Favorite Son, God? and Prints launches forth in his solo drum n' ambient experimental crusade against lameosity and the expected.

Beware of the Knight
A mysterious blast from the past, the distilled essence of Sacto '95 Loft in psych/weird/garagepunk form, manifesting itself in a Sacramento rocker playing his first live show in a long, long time.

Countless Others
Feedback fuzzed up, messed up, roadkill raw, garagey rock n roll hailing from The City. What else can you say?

Religious Girls
Forged from the ruins of Destroy Tokyo, this Eastbay experimental electronic rock project takes convention out behind the shed and shoots it.

San Fransisco Water Cooler
Local lords of the psych garage, the sound flows like something that cannot be described, only felt. A KDVS Recordings featured artist!

ORMF VI lineup w/ times:

2:00- San Fransisco Water Cooler
2:45- Religous Girls
3:30- Countless Others
4:15- Hexlove
5:00- Beware of the Knight
5:45- Incaore
6:30- Ohioan
7:15- Blackblack
8:00- Traditional Fools
8:45- LSD & the Search for God

Transportation

Bike rides leave from the Delta of Venus Cafe at 1pm and 4pm.

KDVS volunteers will be providing a bus/shuttle service to the festival, leaving from and returning to the UCD Memorial Union bus stops. The white ex-Unitrans Chris Bus will depart the MU bust station at 1:30pm and 6:30pm. It will return from Plainfield at 6pm and 10:30pm.

1pm- Bike to Plainfield
1:30pm- Bus to Plainfield
4pm- Bike to Plainfield
6pm- Bus to Davis
6:30pm- Bus to Plainfield
10:30pm- Bike and Bus to Davis
Ticket Information

$7 advance
$10 at the door

Tickets available at Armadillo...205 F Street in Davis.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Dead Science off the dome


For nearly ten years now, Seattle band The Dead Science have been one of the most stridently drastic and dramatic bands in the world of independent pop music. Just over a year ago, KDVS Recordings released a split 7" of The Dead Science with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, and this summer, the band released their first full-length album--Villainaire--for their new label, Constellation Records, also home to another outstanding pop deconstructivist in Carla Bozulich's Evangelista. I'm no longer bummed that Deerhoof's last couple of records have been so rhythmically un-daring (relatively, anyway) because the Dead Science have only ratcheted up the excitement now...jazzier, more drastic and obtuse than ever, yet undeniably alluring!

In support of Villainaire, the Dead Science are touring this month and will play a "KDVS Presents" event on Thursday, October 16th at Luigi's Fungarden in Sacramento (1050 20th Street, #160) with local psych desert-drifters San Kazakgascar and the Canadian neo-no-wave danceparty, Twin Crystals. (All ages, 8-11pm only, $5) This is a tremendous band in live performance.

Dead Science guitarist/vocalist Sam Mickens emailed back and forth with me after I'd finally come to appreciate that--while all of their albums and EPs have been very good or even great--Villainaire, replendent in beckoning beauty yin to severely obtuse angular yang, is their first true masterpiece!

Me: For better and for worse, so many critics and bloggers talk about The Dead Science as music with a high degree of difficulty and complication---not just for you musicians, but for the impatient or casual listener as well. I love the challenge and reward, but surely a lotta people wilt almost immediately. How do you suppose this difficulty and complication affects your relationship with your audience? Both fans and a more general audience?

Sam: Well, I don't think of the music itself as exceedingly or
intentionally difficult; it is definitely, for us, fairly pure pop
music, in the sense that it is perpetually about trying to construct
and refine the most exciting and emotionally decisive moments we can,
though I appreciate that what we consider the most beautiful and
immediate musical decisions may sometimes register as unusual or "out"
to others. I think in terms of lyrical content I do value the idea of
encoding and encrypting a lot, and trying to build patterns and arcs
that may only be readable with invested attention.

Me: Particularly in the pop/rock world, complication is thought by many to be an unnecessary contrivance? But I get the sense that these complications unfold your genuine selves? How authentic an expression is The Dead Science's music?

Sam: 100% pure realness.

Me: As individual musicians, you each seem to have a very singular voice, which I especially notice in your live performances. It makes me wonder how collaborative a project is the Dead Science during songwriting? What do you value about Jherek and Nick's individual approaches to the process? How much of a negotiation process is it to write a new song, or do things snap together magically? (A combination of both, I imagine...)

Sam: Generally things snap together really rapidly and in a nice group-mind
sort of way. I think, most basically, our songs will usually start
with Jherek or I having some kind of musical figure or figures that we
then build up from together. There is a good amount of negotiation in
that we will sometimes move through a few different approaches to
arrangements but generally we all coalesce pretty easily on what seems
the illest.

Me: How is Villainaire different from any of your previous records?

Sam: I think that musically and in terms of the arrangements and
production, it is much more fully realized and complete than anything
we've made, due largely to the fact that we made it all ourselves,
with Jherek recording, so we took absolutely as much time as we felt
necessary to make things as we wanted. I think thematically, too, it
is the most thoroughly designed and well-honed record we've done; it
forms a much stronger whole and the themes that exist in the record
pervade every atom of it. I think it is also more instilled with
agency, violence, and forward motion; where the last two full-lengths
were maybe more about being submerged and buried by energies, this one
is much more in aggressive concert with them.

Me: You write about hip hop with such grace and authority for The Stranger (popular alt-weekly newspaper in Seattle). That struck me as something completely unexpected. In what ways does your appreciation for hip hop creep into what you do with The Dead Science?

Sam: In a ton of ways, and not just my appreciation for Hip Hop, but Nick
and Jherek's as well. I think those influences are certainly much
more pronounced on Villainaire than on anything we've previously done;
the music itself definitely bears more of the blood of modern R & B
and Hip Hop, and some of the ways of approaching and dealing with the
content are definitely somewhat similar to rap records.

Me: I've heard about the School of Villainy-The Villainaire Prequel mixtape. What an astounding idea! How did this idea develop? I can't even think of a precedent!

Sam: Thanks, Rick. I don't know of any precedent for the mixtape in the way
that we made it, though obviously there are countless excellent
mixtape predecessors from the Hip Hop world. The idea just kind of
sprung out, but in developing it and working on the tracks, it
definitely took shape as something with two main intentions-one being
to work on lots of sorts of songs that are somewhat outside of the
natural realm of our band and try to exert our creative powers in a
more free-roaming way, and the other being to involve, showcase, and
culturally gene-splice with both our friends and immediate community
and music and film that we worship and adore.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

AFS v .194 ~ Weirdpunk Smorgi


Siltbreeze Records has released its 2nd 7" EP within a month, and its 2nd 7" in about 12 years. (Was the last one really Bardo Pond's Test for New Swords?) New this week is the latest by AFS faves Little Claw. Continuing to mine less percussive, subtler territory as heard on the Why?/Why Not? 7" from earlier this year on Physical Sewer, Kilynn and co. tone down two of the scorchin'est seethers from their raucous live sets of recent years, and the result are two pretty ditties. The perfect song for the final heat of an election season, "Race to the Bottom" still has a powerful and direct guitar groove and aggressive vocals, but there's no more cavestompin' drum pummelin'. It reminds me more of a street protest song. The flip is offered here, and it's a beauty with the allure of lilting vocals and ether-surfing guitar feedback waves. Don't sit around waiting to order this.

Download this program within two months at either link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.

(168mb file)
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
(280mb file)

Food analogies for each band below this playlist....

LITTLE CLAW | Feeding You | Race to the Bottom 7" | Siltbreeze *new
GHOST ECHOES | It Ain't Right | 2nd CDR | no label *new
GRAFFITI ISLAND | Demonic Cat | MySpace mp3 *new
LATERAL HYETOGRAPHY | Some Girlzzz | Some Girlzzz CS | Really Coastal *new
VIVIAN GIRLS | I Can't Stay | I Can't Stay 7" | In the Red *new
LE JONATHAN REILLY | Incitatus | split 7" w/ Christmas Island | FDH/Shit in Can *new
THEE OH SEES | Mincing Around the Frocks | split 12" w/ The Intelligence | Mt. St. Mtn *new
HANK IV | Feeding Me Back | Refuge in Genre | Siltbreeze *new
DAY CREEPER | The Problem at Hand | 2nd CDR | no label *new
MICHAEL BEACH | Blood Courses | Blood Courses | self-released *new
ELECTRIC JELLYFISH | The Woods | The Woods CS | Ecstatic Yod *new
ARCH M | Mountain Tan | Mountain Tan CS | Cavern/Kaleidoscope *new
XELA | Calling for Vanished Faces | split 12" w/ MGR | Barge *new
MARRIED IN BERDICHEV | Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening | self-titled 7" | Gilgongo *new
TUNNELS | Sleet Pillow | In Between Dreams CDR | no label *new
BLACK PUS | Altar Rat | split LP w/ Foot Village | Deathbomb Arc/DNT *new
FAMILY PET | Ideas Are the Enemy | Ideas Are the Enemy 7" | Foreign Frequency *new
SLICING GRANDPA | Family Restroom | Family Restroom CS | Attic Cassettes *new
LANDED | Dairy 4 Dinner | How Little Will It Take? | Load *new
AIDS WOLF | Gnarly Tooth | Cities of Glass | Skin Graft *new
MAYYORS | Intro/Airplanes | Megan's LOLZ 7" | Gomerdome *new
GHOST ECHOES | What You Want | 2nd CDR
MEATHOOKS | M.W. 2000 | Cambodia Soul Music | Disastro Mix 1992
LOVING THUNDER | Magic Wand | split 7" w/ Mtn. High | Hot Dog City *new
HIBACHI STRANGLERS | Azalea Trail Bait | Parasol Parade 7" | Jeth-Row *new
AMBER ALERTS | I Her U Screem | Ghost House 7" | Florida's Dying *new
BEWARE OF THE KNIGHT | Mushroom Cloud | 1st CDR + comic | no label *new
THE BOYS FROM DEER PARK | Rifle Games | Soft Eject CDR | no label *new

LITTLE CLAW = tart berry Merlino's freeze half-&-half w/ peach ice cream & walnuts
GHOST ECHOES = that "mouldy shark" delicacy of traditional Icelandic cuisine
GRAFFITI ISLAND = devilled lamb's kidney's
LATERAL HYETOGRAPHY = all-you-can-eat sushi buffet
VIVIAN GIRLS = blancmange
LE JONATHAN REILLY = paella, of course!
THEE OH SEES = "flame on the iceberg"
HANK IV = a substantial pot roast that mops the floor with most high-dollar steak dinners
DAY CREEPER = cold tongue & chopped liver sandwhich on rye w/ 1000 island
MICHAEL BEACH = pavlova
ELECTRIC JELLYFISH = pie floater
ARCH M = a steaming eggy fromity
XELA = hot treacle tart w/ cold clotted cream
MARRIED IN BERDICHEV = almond mushroom pâté
TUNNELS = lamb & coconut curry
BLACK PUS = fermented tofu in squid ink
FAMILY PET = burgundy moose steak
SLICING GRANDPA = dumpstering at Dick's Burgers
LANDED = torta de salchica
AIDS WOLF = fusilli pasta in squid ink
MAYYORS = XL bun bo hue w/ Metamucil chaser
MEATHOOKS = tempoyak (salted durian left to ferment for a week)
LOVING THUNDER = seafood super burrito
HIBACHI STRANGLERS = mullet on the barbie
AMBER ALERTS = smothered nutria
BEWARE OF THE KNIGHT = Squeeze-Inn cheese skirt w/ ketchup
THE BOYS FROM DEER PARK = Hawkins Cheezies