Art for Spastics: 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

AFS v. 294 ~ 2010 Scene Rewind

Tyvek Nothing Fits
Sightings City of Straw
Drunkdriver self-titled
The Intelligence Males
The Whines Hell to Play
Home Blitz Out of Phase
Big Black Cloud Dark Age
Nothing People Soft Crash
N.213/Reflektionss split LP
So Cow Meaningless Friendly
Banque Allemande Eins, Zwei
San Francisco Water Cooler II
Sun City Girls Funeral Mariachi
Puffy Areolas In the Army 1981
The Defektors The Bottom of the City
Timmy's Organism Rise of the Green Gorilla
Eddy Current Suppression Ring Rush to Relax
Dan Melchior und das Menace Visionary Pangs
Guinea Worms Sorcererers of Madness (4rd Year in a Row)
Samuel Locke Ward + Darren Brown From the Privilege of the Grave

20 Best shorter-than-LPs

Pluton self-titled 12"
Meercaz Space Hate 12"
Rank/Xerox self-titled 7"
Rot Shit You're Welcome 7"
The Lamps Neils Bohr... 7"
Dead Wife D.W.S.Y.H.F. 7"
Whatever Brains Nesting 7"
Home Blitz Perpetual Night 7"
Wet Illustrated Born Stoked 7"
Druid Perfume Other Worlds 7"
Total Control Paranoid Video 7"
Sonskull Birth Scene/Rewind EP 12"
Red Mass Split Brain Experiment 10"
Grand Trine/Black Feelings split 7"
Sonny & the Sunsets The Hypnotist 7"
Vomit Squad Amon Ra Bless America 12"
Mujeres 3 Canciones de Muerte y Sudor 7"
G. Green I Will Not Withdraw This Statement 7"
Vex Ruffin & the Lo-Fi Jerkheads self-titled 7"
The Chinese Restaurants Summer Romance 7"

10 Best reissues/retrospectives

X Aspirations
A Frames 333
Circle X untitled 12" EP
The Moles Untune the Sky
v/a FM-BX Society Tape vol 1
Ozzie Parabolic Rock: 1975-1982
Ron House Blind Boy in the Backseat
Mike Rep & the Quotas Stupor Hiatus
Sleetmute Nightmute Night of the Long Knives
Nudge Squidfish Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Nashville

12 cassettes that should be on vinyl

The Baths self-titled
Cruddy Negative World
Grave Babies Deathface
Banana Head In the Tubs
CCR Headcleaner tour CS
Eat Skull Crawl for Freedom
El Jesus de Magico Ragtime Hors
Russian Tsarlag Unleash the Chain
J Guy Laughlin Solo Percussion vol. 1
Patriotic Window Klings Guitargument
Waste Rig Ritual Cleansing: Phase 2010
Warm Climate Camouflage on the River Wretched

25 best live performances I saw in 2010

Tyvek @ The Hub, Sacramento
H.P.P. @ The Hub, Sacramento
Eat Skull @ The Hub, Sacramento
Thee Oh Sees @ DAM Haus, Davis
Mayyors @ SMMR BMMR, Portland
Ty Segall @ Gonerfest 7, Memphis
Uzi Rash @ Harm Church, Oakland
Pussygutt @ The Hub, Sacramento
Bill Orcutt @ The Hub, Sacramento
White Boss @ The Hub, Sacramento
Bad Sports @ Harm Church, Oakland
Puffy Areolas @ The Hub, Sacramento
The UV Race @ Gonerfest 7, Memphis
Wrong Words @ The Hub, Sacramento
Big Black Cloud @ ORMF IX, Woodland
The Oblivians @ Gonerfest 7, Memphis
G. Green @ Meth House, Twin Falls, ID
English Singles @ The Hub, Sacramento
Guinea Worms @ Gonerfest 7, Memphis
Pigeon Religion @ The Hub, Sacramento
White Lung @ Axewave Manor, Sacramento
Shannon & the Clams @ Harm Church, Oakland
Unnatural Helpers @ Ghosttown Galleries, Oakland
Wounded Lion @ 27th & V Street basement in Sacramento
Malaikat dan Singa feat. Arrington De Dionyso @ The Hub, Sacramento

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

AFS v. 293 ~ Red Moon Night!

R for off my rocker
E for eerie
D for dearly departed (Don Van Vliet)
M for Mona
O oh, good!
O oh, good!
N for the night...Red Moon Night!
(You did see it up in the sky tonight, right?)

This week in AFS...

It's been a long time since I last time I took advantage of this time-honored method of stretching a freeform or college-radio playlist with the layering of voice and experimental background musics....a quite efficient way to burn many minutes when you don't have a lotta preparation time. If this kinda half-assery appalls you, I'm sorry. But I've been much too busy at work and with my own C.F.U.D.L. (There...how about a Japanese HC enthusiast's joke?). Tune in next week for as much of my best-of-2010 lists that I can pack into two weeks.

And yes...I do suppose I've been indulging in more goth-tangential and industrial-ish areas of music the last couple weeks. But hey...It's winter solstice and there's a crazy red moon out tonight, and this is really rather appropos when you consider that fact, don'tcha think?

By the way, the rising surge of gothy-ness has a new front-runner in the Dangerous Boys Club. If you need your nü-goth to be direct and have a perfect-pop center, stick with Grave Babies who totally rule that field. But if you are adventurous enough to enjoy delightfully overwrought theatricality--cunningly rendered in dichotomous splendor with odd moments of android detachment (Aaron Montaigne is as masterful at this as anyone this side of Blixa Bargeld, I reckon)--and wondrous, seductive spacey synth, check out this Portland supergroup (ex-Get Hustle/Antioch Arrow/Heroin(/not to mention the seriously underrated Silentist)) who are featured in the first eight minutes of this cable-access show...

Experimental 1/2 Hour - Episode VI: Dangerous Boys Club, White Rainbow, NO AGE from Experimental 1/2 Hour on Vimeo.

Their debut LP--VRIL--is available here...
http://www.fastweapons.com/
...and while you're there, you should pick up that Sleetmute Nightmute LP, too, 'cos there never was a better neo-no-wave band than them.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

AFS v. 292 ~ Pain and Joy and Sorrows Mingle

melodies, and brimming energy. You can believe me now and mark your calendar, or if you're waiting to be impressed, check out these ex-members-of affiliations...

Angora Debs is fronted by Jason Patrone, singer of THEE BEST band in Sacramento in the early 2000s...the FM Knives. Also played in Los Huevos and Pretty Girls here in Sacto, and more recently Photobooth. Angora Debs is a Laverne & Shirley reference!

Midnite Snaxxx features Tina "Boom Boom" Lucchesi, chiefly of The Trashwomen and Bobbyteens fame, but was also in a ton of other rad bands. Most recently, she was in Top Ten and C'mon Everybody (you might remember them from their pulse-pounding, fun-packed set at the Delta of Venus in Davis during KDVS "Treehouse" host DJ Emily's birthday party); and she's the proprietor of Down at Lulu's, an East Bay epicenter of fabulous hairstyles, clothes, and records (many fans of Hunx know something about this). The Snaxxx also feature Dulcinea, who totally slayed in The Loudmouths back in the 90s, of whom I was quite the fanboy. Their merger with a reformed The Lewd was The Lewdmouths, and their show at Club Cocodrie in SF was one of the very best blasts from the original punk heyday I've ever seen.

English Singles descend from Sacto rulers of years past, too: Bananas, Nar, FM Knives, Yahmos, Pretty Girls.

I don't know if the Wrong Words dudes 'n lady were in other bands before, but when you hear them, the only thing that will matter will be the Wrong Words. Their 7" on Trouble in Mind is a cracker, and charming, too. Some people around here have whispered to me that the Bare Wires sound really good, but seem kinda like a big put-on. Okay, trashtalkers...maybe you's just bummin' 'cos you don't like to hitch up to bandwagons when too many others are already on. Well, go ahead and get in the front of the bus for Wrong Words 'cos you're gonna love this band. I defy you to resist this, huh...

Wrong Words "What Went Wrong" music video from Chris Anderson on Vimeo.

Do you still look at band pages at MySpace???
http://myspace.com/englishsingles
http://myspace.com/midnitesnaxxx
http://myspace.com/wrongwordsmakeyoulisten

Won't four bands take too long? NO! Lotsa gear-sharing. Quick sets leave you wanting more. This class on "how to party" will be dismissed plenty early enough for you to go pick fights at Flame Club.

First 25 guests get a free headstart on the party....Can you sip what DJ Rick is ladling???

This is the last KDVS Presents joint at The Hub of 2010, so make it worth it!

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

AFS v. 291 ~ Smash Futuro

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

AFS v. 290 ~ Now We Are Having Fun!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

AFS v. 289 ~ the New Pipeline

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

AFS v 288 ~ Roundball Rock 'n Roll

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

AFS v. 287 ~ Ritual Cleansing: Cin-Cin!

This week in AFS...

* Get ready for Warm Climate Cali mini-tour!
* Get ready for Grave Babies Cal/Nev mini-tour!
* Most vinyl-worthy cassette-only release of 2010: Waste Rig
* A different flavor from the forthcoming Sic Alps 2xLP, Napa Asylum

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
or, if you have a slower/20th century connection
STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night!

(Email me with any downloading problem questions...)

MEERCAZ | Never Too Late to Learn | Never Too Late to Learn 7" | Sweet Rot *new
CHROME | SS Cygni | Alien Soundtracks | Siren 1977
TIMMY ZORGANISM | Left My Heart in Germany | Can and Bottle Return 7" | Bat Shit *new
GLEN MEADMORE | Hen Party | Chicken & Biscuits | Amoeba 1987
FACTUMS | Roman Soldier (Remix) | Roman Soldier 12" | Captcha *new
GRAVE BABIES | Eating Babies | Death Face CS | Skrot Up 2009
SLEETMUTE NIGHTMUTE | In Adulthood...Black Steel Sick | Night of the Long Knives | Fast Weapons *new
CACAW | Die Don't Doh | self-titled | Permanent *new
PLUTON | Forgiven not Forgotten | self-titled 12" | Plastic Spoons *new
FLIGHT | Ghosts | Ghosts 7" | Plastic Spoons *new
JOHN'S CHILDREN | Smashed! Blocked! | Orgasm | Get Back! 1998 (orig 1970)
WARM CLIMATE | Blue Metro | Camouflage on the River Wretched CS | Stunned *new
WARM CLIMATE | Devine Souffle and the Southern Approach | Edible Homes CS | Stunned 2009
COMUS | Drip Drip | First Utterance | Dawn 1971
T2 | In Circles | It'll All Work Out in Boomland | Decca 1970
BLOODROCK | American Burn | Bloodrock U.S.A. | Capitol 1972
PUFFY AREOLAS | $200 Jeans | Rock n Roll Express 7" | Die Stasi *new
PUFFY AREOLAS | Teen Scene Cream
WASTE RIG | Stuck in This Shit | Ritual Cleansing: Phase 2010 CS | Pollen Season *new
WASTE RIG | Dream Damage/Pass the Keys
JANDEK | You Painted Your Teeth | Telegraph Melts | Corwood 1986
SMEGMA | Mutant Baby | v/a: Portland Punk Live at Earth 10-29-79 | Trap 1980
SIC ALPS | Ranger/Rat Happy | Napa Asylum 2xLP | Drag City *forthcoming
STRAPPING FIELDHANDS | Woman of Distinction | v/a: Gonerfest 7 Golden Ticket Record 7" | Goner 2010

It's finally dawned on me that this Waste Rig tape is the most vinyl-worthy album-length cassette-only release of 2010 so far. C'mon, somebody...make it happen! Hear three more songs in this earlier AFS podcast. Ex-Long Legged Woman dudes, members of the last Hospitals live unit, and related to CCR Headcleaner, these guys dish some heavily damaged pop that runs the gamut from sweet and catchy to nihilistic, but it all sounds like phases of the same acid trip.

If Sleetmute Nightmute's Night of the Long Knives can finally be issued on vinyl after six years of waiting, I don't think it's too much to ask that such fine examples of the cassette frenzy come out on vinyl, too.

Warm Climate made the most vinyl-worthy (still waiting!) album-length cassette-only release of 2009 in the dazzling Edible Homes. Like Comus meets T. Rex with startling results! See their first shows outside of their rare L.A. performances...

Thu 11/4 in Oakland @ East Nile
w/ Dreamcolour, Eternal Tapestry, The Grey, Magic Whistle
Fri 11/5 in Sacramento @ The Hub
w/ Grave Babies, Build Target
Sat 11/6 in Santa Barbara @ Jitters Coffee
w/ Watercolor Paintings

And sure...there's plenty for cynics to hate among today's wav(v)es of nü-psych and nü-goth, but the way Grave Babies blends the psych and goth elements totally transcends and unjades. And the reason why is 'cos their hooks and melodies are catchy and their riffs and rhythms really wallop...especially live, when the drums bash louder than the drum machine you hear at the fore on the track featured on this podcast. Fans of Bauhaus, Faith thru Japanese Whispers by The Cure, and early Savage Republic will most likely love Grave Babies, but this band never sounds like mere mimicry. See 'em on their tour...

Fri 11/5 in Sacramento @ The Hub

w/ Warm Climate, Build Target
Sat 11/6 in Reno, NV @ Holland Project
w/ TBA
Mon 11/8 in San Diego @ Tin Can
w/ TBA
Tue 11/9 in San Francisco @ The Independent
w/ Weekend, Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Wed 11/10 in San Francisco @ The Depot
w/ Werr

Hey, any Sacto/Yolo friends....If you show up to that Hub show on Friday, November 5 wearing black lipstick and/or nail polish, I'll pour you a free shot of a special festive liqueur I've been saving for just this kinda occasion. I'm making a special trip to the party store for the little shooter cups. The ritual toast happens before Warm Climate plays...Cin-cin!

Love,
your straight-edge enabler, DJ Rick

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

AFS v 286 ~ Message from the Asylum

This week in AFS...

* live-at-KDVS session by Sex Church!
* sneak-peekin' the forthcoming Sic Alps 2xLP!
* a grippa new Troubled in Mind melodic brainworms!
* the latest guitar-slaying of Grady Runyan (ex-Monoshock/Liquorball)!

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
or, if you have a slower/20th century connection
STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night!

(Email me with any downloading problem questions...)

THE FALL | The Container Drivers | Grotesque (After the Gramme) | Rough Trade 1980
SAVAGE REPUBLIC | Viva la Rock n Roll [ATV] | ΝHΠIAΓΩΓEION - Live In Europe 1988 | Fundamental 1990
PARTY BOYS | Ode on a Grecian Urn | No Aggro | Independent Project 1981
ALARMIST | It's Halloween [the Shaggs] | Under the Covers CS | Public Secret Media 2004
ALARMIST | Ignition | Evil Works Get Rich or Try Dying Evil Works | Frenetic 2004
CRABE | Pénis-Céline | Ero Gaki | Signed by Force *new
DE KIFT | Vlijt/Staal op Staal | Yverzucht | Konkurrel 1989
BPEOPLE | Can Can't | self-titled | Faulty Products 1981
THE DEADBEATS | Brainless | Kill the Hippies 7" | Dangerhouse 1978
ROY WOOD'S WIZZARD | Eddy's Rock | Introducing Eddy & the Falcons | United Artists 1974
WOUNDED LION | Pointed Sticks | Pointed Sticks 7" | Trouble in Mind *new
THE WRONG WORDS | What Went Wrong? | What Went Wrong? 7" | Trouble in Mind *new
THE LIMIÑANAS | Mountain | self-titled | Trouble in Mind *new
NICE SMILE | Building | Building 7" | South Director Street *new
RED MASS | Nightcrawlers | self-titled | Florida's Dying *new
~~~~~~ live in Studio A, Oct 20, 2010 ~~~~~~~
SEX CHURCH | Not Anymore
SEX CHURCH | Old Enough
SEX CHURCH | Dead End
SEX CHURCH | Let Down
SEX CHURCH | Paralyze
SEX CHURCH | Mistaken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SIC ALPS | Trip Train | Napa Asylum 2xLP | Drag City *forthcoming
SIC ALPS | The First White Man to Touch California Soil
THE BAD TRIPS | End of War | Open | Rocketship *new
INTERNATIONAL HELLO | Someone's Coming | self-titled | Holy Mountain *new
ART LESSING | Weirdest Places | Lectures 2xLP | KDVS Recordings *new
SUN CITY GIRLS | The Imam | Funeral Mariachi | Abduction *new
PHANTOM PAYN DAYS | Art is Dead | self-titled | De Stijl *new
SAMUEL LOCKE WARD | Church of the Bloated Man | Barely Regal Beagles | no label *new

Due early 2011 from Drag City, the Sic Alps' Napa Asylum will surely please fans and win some more! Tonight, I give you a couple of the fuzziest blasts from the double-LP, but you can also expect to hear the band--now a trio--meander through folk and damaged pop, usually with ease, sometimes with difficulty, but always bearing rewards for the indepth listener. Next week I'll dish you some of the woozier brilliance on these four sides of impending indulgence. My advance CDR was enclosed with a one-sheet which says...

The new SIC ALPS record is "NAPA ASYLUM."

A Brief History of Sic Alps Time:

Matt and Mike met on a boat in NYC in 1996, playing with their bands, Henry's Dress and The Ropers.

Mike started Sic Alps with Adam Stonehouse of The Hospitals in 2004. Matt joined in 2005, stepping in to mix and basically realize the first LP "Pleasures and Treasures."

Noel Von Harmonson joined in 2009. You know - Noel, of Comets on Fire! Noel plays guitars, drums and all kinds of randomness on "Napa Asylum."

Sic Alps always record themselves in the basement. Mike always brings in the song with lyrics and it gets built track by track on an 8 track. A recent exception to the rule is "My My Lai" on "Napa Asylum," written and recorded by Matt. But back to the rule: Matt is always the "engineer" and often the arranger and concept master. The set-up is very minimal - delay pedal, reverb tank, two microphones, $100 preamp and Tascam 8. This has been this way for all the recordings.

2.5 years between records! Where were they? Comp tracks aside, only the Slumberland 7" "L Mansion" and the Magic Markers split (Yik Yak) were released since "U.S. EZ" came out in July of 2008. Sic Alps were releasing a lot of music in the years 2006-2008 and "Napa Asylum" represents for the years when they slowed way down and took a minute to reflect.

Themes of the "Napa Asylum" record include re-incarnation, magic and schizophrenia. Some of the more adventurous writing on the record lyrically speaking: "The First White Man to Touch California" attempts to tie the "discovery" of California to the recent mortgage crisis. "Zeppo Epp" tells parallel tales of leaving a Midwestern home: Zeppo Eppley drives off to never be heard from again while Charlotte Muldeen breaks up with her girlfriend and joins the Navy.

The songs are a fresh assortment of Sic pleasures, echoing half-emptily as the hooks slide into your flesh, animating you in marionette-style to tip-tap your way across the dance-floor. Get your steps in while you can, the songs are as short as they are bitter-sweet. But the one that ends just makes way for the one coming next...

I liked Napa Asylum immediately, but it took a couple more listens to really get under my skin, and now I enjoy it at least as much as the masterful Description of the Harbor which made it onto the short version of my best-of-2008 LPs list. Yes, it's another masterpiece. I'd described Description as the perfect music for a summer heatwave when the A/C's busted and you can only lay on the floor and watch the ceiling fan spin. I actually did this once, and the more warped elliptical Alps riffs made me trip out on how my ceiling fan kinda rocks a little bit

on its base so that the fan blades sorta smear into an oval. Napa Asylum's gonna trip me out like that, but even more.

Napa Asylum is great listening on a high-desert drive. The miles from Weed, California, to Tulelake via U.S. 97 north past Dorris and east on CA Hwy 161 blew by almost too quickly with a sage-scented breeze, even as my windshield got smeared with guts of tiny flies as the route cut across Lower Klamath Lake. The peak of Mt. Shasta dominates the view throughout this drive like the shamanistic vibe of Mike Donovan, smiling and shoeless on stage. I become aware of the ice of Shasta's glaciers scouring the mountain whenever Matt Hartman's nervous energy manifests in a sudden jittery drum fill or shrill feedback squall. (Or maybe it's the Modoc warrior spirit!) It all comes together as a soundscape as massive as the northern Siskiyou landscape. Shasta is always there past the horizon, tantalizingly near even as those nearer horizons keep unfolding every mile or two across this unique microcosm of the basin-and-range formations of the inter-mountain West. It's the perfect place for a psychedelic experience, such as listening to Napa Asylum. I still hope to take one more trip up that way before winter takes hold, and then I'll figure out what's Noel's northern Siskiyou metaphor. Maybe it's the way that the land up there's so surprisingly adaptable. Just like adding water to the mineral-rich soil replaces a valley full of bunchgrass and sagebrush with a green carpet of alfalfa sprouts

across the southern half of Butte Valley, adding Noel to the Sic Alps equation has produced an outstanding result. From seeing the band live four times this year with Noel, I sense that he's added a steadying effect. The rhythms are more permanent on Napa Asylum, riffs heavier and more impactful. Yet the Cali vibe is still so enduring...on this album, just as it is mere miles from the Oregon border where--amidst secessionist Jefferson-state rednecks--there are hippies stroking crystals aimed at Shasta vortexes, and the sun still shines through about 80% of the time year-round.

If you wanna plan a vacation with this album, hit me up....I'll tell you where to stay and eat up there. Keep in mind the 2nd weekend of October is when the town of Merrill, just across the border in Oregon, hosts their annual potato festival. I already bought a 2011 calendar and circled the dates. You should circle January 25, 2011....that's the date that Napa Asylum hits the street.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

AFS v. 285 ~ Hey, y'all...I Gotta Great New Album in the Mail Today!

I remember seeing this commercial on BET all the time nearly 25 years ago, so I was stoked to hear this tonight! All the music was the stuff my mom used to listen to full-blast while cleaning the house when I was a wee lad. Great memories.

Sorry I can't spend more time dishing on these goods this week....Gotta bone up for my Fantasy NBA draft tomorrow!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

AFS v. 284 ~ The Festival in the Vestibule

(the "Festival in the Vestibule" (of a mechanic's shop)
All shows @ The Hub
1819 23rd Street
Sacramento, CA 95816

all ages
$5 for Hub members
(+$1 one-time fee to join)

1st Feat: Thu 10/14
H.P.P. (Olympia, WA)
+ RAPE WHISTLE (Sacto HC/thrash)
& SQUIDZ (ex-Pisol Pete)

2nd Feat: Fri 10/15
Sex Church (Canada)
(waning)
Satan Wriders (Stockton)

3rd Feat: Sat 10/16
Malaikat Dan Singa (feat. Arrington de Dionysio; it's basically kinda like Old Time Relijun interpreting Indonesian pop)
Buk Buk Bigups
San(s) Kazakgascar

I will be giving a single Wild Flag (ex-Sleater Kinney & Helium/Grass Widow (Wed 11/17, SOLD OUT!) ticket away at each show by staging a free raffle. Every paid attendee at each show will receive a raffle ticket for the drawing at the night's end. When we have a consecutive streak of particularly awesome shows, we like to call that "Feats of Strength". If anyone attends all three shows, they will be entered into a raffle at the Saturday show to win a pair of Wild Flag/Grass Widow tickets plus a sweep of the merch table on Saturday (one copy of each new record by each band, plus the Grass Widow LP), and shall be named winner of "Feats of Strength - Fall 2010". These tickets will be transferable, so even if you purchased Wild Flag tix, you can win 'em, too.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

AFS v. 283 ~ feat. Wounded Lion, Whines, & Uzi Rash live on KDVS

This week in AFS, Fuzzbox Flynn pinch-hit for me, picking the first 45 minutes of music, and then airing the pre-ORMF X fest party recorded live at KDVS, featuring Uzi Rash, The Whines (next-to-last public performance ever), and Wounded Lion. I couldn't possibly host AFS myself this week because I had the honor and privilege to play with Wounded Lion (the FCC has a rule forbidding "plugola", which includes playing your own music). It was like fantasy bandcamp with one of my very favorite bands of the last couple years! While I played the drum parts that Monty Buckles usually plays in Wounded Lion, Monty was in Kansas on Lamps duty. The guitar parts that Monty plays in other songs of the Lion were played by Andrew of G. Green.

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
or, if you have a slower/20th century connection
STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night!

(Email me with any downloading problem questions...)

NERVOUS EATERS | Loretta | Eaterville vol. 1 | Penniman 2004 (orig. 1976)
DEAD MOON | Parchment Farm | Parchment Farm 7" | Tombstone 1988
THE OBLIVIANS | Jim Cole | Soul Food | Crypt 1995
MC MONKEY & APE W/ ATTITUDE | Human Zoo | Human Zoo 7" | Kryptonite 2004
THE SORES | Learn to Like Eatin' Dirt | 6 Songs of Despair and Frustration | Borox 2005
NECESSARY EVILS | Get It Out of My Brain | The Sicko Inside Me | In The Red 1999
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | Turn Your Page | self-titled | Goner 2006
ROYAL HEADACHE | Eloise | Eloise 7" | R.I.P. Society 2010
PROCEDURE CLUB | Awfully Managed Pigeons | Doomed Forever | Slumberland 2010
SO COW | Shut Eye | Meaningless Friendly | Tic Tac Totally 2010
========================== Live in Studio A @ KDVS, 10/2/10 ==========================
THE WHINES | Straybird
THE WHINES | Cut Meat
THE WHINES | Vacation
THE WHINES | To Be True
THE WHINES | this one's not on the album or the 7"
THE WHINES | and neither is this one!
THE WHINES | yet another new one!
THE WHINES | and another!!
========================== Live in Studio A @ KDVS, 10/2/10 ==========================
WOUNDED LION | Friendly?
WOUNDED LION | Relaxation
WOUNDED LION | Sacajawea
WOUNDED LION | Pointed Sticks
WOUNDED LION | Pony People
WOUNDED LION | Monkey
WOUNDED LION | Degobah System
WOUNDED LION | Walrus
WOUNDED LION | Carol Cloud
WOUNDED LION | I'm Sad
========================== Live in Studio A @ KDVS, 10/2/10 ==========================
UZI RASH | I Know That You Read My Diary...
UZI RASH | ...Succubus Staring at Me...
UZI RASH | title unknown
UZI RASH | Living in a Swamp
UZI RASH | I'm a Trashbag
UZI RASH | Totally Fired
UZI RASH | ...Come Into My Barn...

After the show, the bands and I slayed this epic burger sesh like it was nothing! R.I.P., Whines....You were a very special band for the time you were around. Folks, if you haven't heard their Hell to Play LP on Meds yet, you're missing one of the greatest future-classics of the year. Like a female-fronted Hunches, but more Velvetsy.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

AFS v. 282 ~ Gonerfest 7 Recap / ORMF X Precap

Sorry, friends! My nonstop life of career in information for public affairs, booking shows for KDVS Presents, being chief cook 'n bottle-washer for The Hub, criss-crossing Northern California to check out other live shows, trying and evaluating new taquerias, community freeform radio, and these here xxxtreme-blogging exploits finally caught up to me between vacations to Nevada/Idaho/Washington/Oregon and Memphis and a mysterious coughy/congestive late-summer bug that's been going around. Something had to give, and it was the xxxtreme-blogging part. I have enjoyed picking and playing music for you on AFS every week and sharing my top picks, and I will continue to do so now that summer is over and life is getting back to normal (almost).

So, I've been getting around this summer, and the clincher was indeed the grand finalé of the summer music festival season, Gonerfest 7 in Memphis, Tennessee. It was the 2nd consecutive Gonerfest for Melissa and me--we decided we were going to #7 about halfway through day two of #6--and we had a blast again! Gonerfest is a benchmark for multi-day/multi-venue festivals; somehow, the Goner gang manages to run a tight, efficient ship so the order of events flows smoothly and predictably, and yet there's tons of mayhem, revelry, and spontaneity. And the city of Memphis is just a fantastic destination for its history, unique flavors, friendly people, and...well...every necessary element to encourage late-night mayhem, revelry, and spontaneity. Beer and booze flowing 'til 3:00am, perfect late-night weather, cops pre-occupied by the potential of real crime happening elsewhere in the city. It's really a great city to visit. And with stately 2800 square-foot homes such as these in our home price comfort zone,

it kinda makes us wonder what it might be like to live there. Could I really trade Sacto tacos, tortas, y burritos for Memphis BBQ? Will my veins explode or collapse first? Kings for Grizzlies? Neither team's making the playoffs yet. But, really...It's certainly become one of our favorite cities.

Gonerfest started a day earlier this year on a Wednesday with Spider Bags. The highlights of this night were Italy's Vermillion Sands and King Louie's Missing Monuments. The Italians overcame TermBo user: Clint's under-his-breath murmuring of barbs such as "I dunno...This seems ridiculously French Canadian to me" to make him oddly quiet by mid-set, by which time they'd won over everyone else with their rollicky jangle-punk with cartoonish lead-guitarist antics, relentless shuffling rhythms, and charming front-lady who I reckon could've won a lotta fans 200 miles east at the Grand Ol' Opry. Maybe Clint didn't know what kinda Vermillion Sands fanboy I am. I've got every record they've made yet. And they didn't disappoint one bit...well...maybe they could've played one slower song to show off the emotional depth of their singer's voice. And speaking of charming...King Louie was a hoot to watch play, and his Missing Monuments hit the mark for the kinda melodic, poppy punk I like. Useless Eaters were dazzling at their best, too, but I think they need to vary their pacing a little bit. They play all-manic all-the-time and can't afford the slightest lapse of concentration on their fretboard action, thereby kinda stunting their stage persona. What a talent they are, though. I walked in too late on Spider Bags and walked out too early--jetlagged, and possibly still in a Gus's Fried Chicken foodcoma--on Msr. Jeffrey Evans, but they sounded pretty good while I was there.

Gus's was great again. I love the spice of their batter, and I can't get over how cheap it is for a place that touts itself as "world famous" and knows it's true. It's listed prominently in most Memphis travel guides and has been on TV many times, so they trap a lotta tourists who are only too ready to be fleeced by opportunistic tourist-oriented businesses. I saved room for pecan pie...pretty good!

Day two started with a hug and kiss from our hostess at Alcenia's, where I had the most delectable breaded pork chops which also blew away my South Sac fave, the "Iowa-style pork chops" at Original Perry's. I'm not sure I'll ever be as satisfied spending $10.09 plus tax and tip at Original Perry's now that I've eaten Alcenia's pork chops. And washed 'em down with what they call "Ghetto-Aid", which is especially-highly-sweetened Kool Aid. I was afraid it'd make my teeth shudder, but it wasn't that sweet, really. Plenty refreshing, though. Green beans and cornbread was just fine, but the bacony black-eyed peas were especially BOMB! Now I feel like I've finally had black-eyed peas the way they were meant to be enjoyed.

"Opening ceremonies" at the Goner Records store kicked off in the outdoor public gazebo next door with a set by Thee Oh Sees which went down sublimely as I felt sweat trickling down my back. That song they've been ending their set with is so splendid, I can't wait to hear it on record with the Woodhouse magic sprinkled on it. It's got a killer groovey riff that rather reminds me of "Crash Course in Brain Surgery" by Budgie...like it was reverse-engineered by removal of that little chug that makes it heavy metal. That will be a great roadtrip record, I reckon. The band was goaded into an encore and ended with an appropos rendition of their epic "Warm Slime" which was the best ever rendition I've heard besides the one they played at KDVS presents Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom XII in June 2009 with Woodhouse on 2nd drumkit (which is, of course, an unfair comparison).

We didn't really have an appetite yet for dinner, but we knew we'd be screwed if we waited 'til after the main event, so we joined some new friends from Canada and Australia for a Soul Fish sesh. This has been a hot new restaurant in the Cooper-Young area since it opened last year, but we beat the rush and only had to wait 10 minutes for a table. I got a Cuban sandwich because it was mentioned as a noteworthy specialty in the best-of-the-city issue of the Memphis Flyer alt-weekly that was current while we were there. It was okay. Nothing to write home about. But everyone else's food looked really great, and they were raving aplenty.

Once again in foodcoma mode, we lumbered over to the Hi-Tone for Thursday's main event featuring Ty Segall, Haunted George, So Cow, Destruction Unit, and Super Wild Horses. The Aussie ladies were pretty good. I think they'll translate a little better to our decidedly less punk crowd at ORMF X fest in the outdoor backyard environment of Plainfield Station. But like I said...I was kinda saddled with foodcoma and sat out most of these sets in the back lot of the Hi-Tone. I'd check in from time to time and catch the show from the way, way back. Ty's energy transmitted all the way to the back. That dude's on a roll right now...He's flanked by a really great band! That drummer seemed kinda tepid the first couple times I saw her play, including at SMMR BMMR 2009 in Portland. She was replaced by a much more determined drummer dude at Gonerfest 6, which up to that point was Ty's best performance I'd seen besides the times I'd seen him playing in bands such as Traditional Fools, Epsilons, and Party Fowl. But now that she's back, she's greatly improved and just nails it so hard. She took as large a leap into rulingdom as I've seen anyone take in so short a time. If you've been believing the hype backlash (which all smacks of silly jealousy now) and sleeping on Ty Segall, you need to get over it 'cos you're missing an outstanding band.

On Friday, we checked out Graceland. I'd seen it when I was 9 back when they had less area roped off and you had a tour guide follow your group around. But despite being pretty expensive and not nearly as interactive as it once was, it was fun, and I'd still recommend it....but only after you check out the Stax Museum. Our visit there last year has still left an impression on me.

We skipped breakfast 'cos headLamp Monty treated us to pork shoulder sandwiches at Payne's Bar-BQ for lunch. The stark ambience of the former mechanic shop was delightful, and so was the pork. Too bad they slap that pork between two of the weakest soft white buns available. These are what you grab as an afterthought when you're late to a company picnic where frugality and quantity counts infinitely more than quality. The fluorescent green-yellow slaw was a trip, though. It's a must-see more than a must-taste.

The daytime event at The Buccaneer was hampered a little bit by some big raindrops, but we ducked inside just in time to catch Eric Davidson reading from his "gunk-punk" memoir, We Never Learn. I'm halfway through that book and dig some of the stories, but I hate a lot of the ridiculous alliteration. I mean...there's like four words starting with "V" in a row somewhere in there. I'd give Mark E. Smith a pass if he did that, but this dude sang for the New Bomb Turks, so I want low-brow if any brow. He did crack some fun jokes at the expense of Little Steven's satellite radio show and the Chesterfield Kings which had me laughing and forgetting about what I've found annoying about the book so far. The Golden Boys were the best band back there, but their vocals were too high in the mix, and the sweet spot for the sound was in the way, way back where you couldn't see anything. Good thing that the backyard at Murphy's is such an excellent spot to see and hear live music, so the next day's afternoon blow-out had plenty of promise.

We'd named our own price on Priceline for our 2½-star hotel, so they stuck us way out near the eastside Memphis 'burb of Bartlett. It was pretty far from all the Gonerfest action and other city-centered attractions, and there wasn't a whole lot closeby. But we did do some exploring of the other easterly 'burbs to the south, which led us to our 2nd BBQ of the day at the Germantown Commissary. Germantown seemed rather upscale...sorta like Roseville and Rocklin 'round our homebase of Sacto. And from the outside, I was thinking this place looked like it might be something of a put-on...like it was a recreation of a rustic outpost in the middle of Tuscanized mini-malls. But no! It was a genuinely historic place, dating back to the early 20th century when it was the general store for the then-tiny hamlet of Germantown. And its BBQ mopped the floor with Payne's...FANTASTIC! I wanted to make an apples-to-apples comparison, so I made it another pork sandwich w/ slaw, beans, and deviled egg. The pork was tenderer, the sauce zingier and more brilliantly complex, and the slaw was the best I'd ever had. It actually tasted like really fresh vegetables much more than drippy mayonnaise. The sandwich wasn't served in some kinda boozhey artisanal bread, but it compared to the buns at Payne's this was like Orowheat versus Rainbo white bread. Melissa's big salad was what the doctor ordered; the proprietary Thousand Island was like none we'd ever tasted, and it was topped with BBQ chicken that was superbly smoky. I saved enough room for the banana pudding, and it completely erased any respect I had for the banana pudding I've been eating at J & J's Fish & Chicken in South Sacramento. This place is worth the drive out...and it's actually not that far, really.

The main event on Friday had many highlights, but the main ones by far for me were the Guinea Worms and the Oblivians. Back in their heyday, I tried to see the Oblivians three times, and was twice thwarted because their van broke down, and once because I wasn't 21 yet and no amount of begging and pleading could get me in the door. Of any band I've tried like hell to see and failed everytime, this is the only time I've seen such a band in reunion form totally deliver on my lofty expectations. Great fucking show! At first, I had the misfortune of being squished into a corner where I couldn't see anything, but it was kinda perfect 'cos for the first 4-5 songs, I was experiencing the Oblivians much like I would have if I was let in the backdoor at that bar when I was underage. It was a privilege just to be there, getting showered with Pabst from the charged crowd that had waited 'til this moment to cut totally loose. Before long, I had a great view and room to move, and I mixed it up with Lutzko who was having such a time that he'd drawn the ire of the only unfun dude in the whole room, that collegiate-looking mosh-cop who was giving beards a bad image.

But the Guinea Worms...WOW...what a pleasure to witness this band! The drumlines and basslines flexed like A Frames at their best, and their angularisms drawled out like the Country Teasers. But hasn't enough has been said about that in other blogs' coverage of the Guinea Worms? It's not until you're actually basking in that sound blaring from the stage so immaculately that you really know this band's uncommon power. And then there's Will Foster of the shirtless, hirsute torso, with such an anachronistic helmet of Dirty Harry hair and a face that looks like Clint Eastwood and Steve Nash had a brother from another mother; and he's mad-dogging the audience with crazy eyes, bulging with every especially emphatic enunciation (eat that, Eric Davidson!) of what are usually lesser-stressed syllables...sometimes even the schwas! He was just as cool and awesome as I'd imagined him, but so much more commanding, charismatic, and weird...even transgressive! Quite possibly my favorite set of the entire festival!

It was a pleasure to see the Strapping Fieldhands, too, but they were not as strange as I thought they'd be, and I was distracted too often by these haters who were standing up front to ensure they'd have a great place to stand for the Oblivians. They must've thought the Fieldhands played for two hours the way they went from tsks and eye-rolling to seething to vocally complaining "THIS SUUUUUCCCKKKKSSSS!!!" and "Does anyone like this shit? I mean...seriously!?!"

On Saturday morning, we rose a little too late to get out the door in time to eat breakfast at the highly recommended Bryant's, but on the previous night's cruising to find an all-night grocer, I'd seen the 24-hour Pancake Shop and remembered that it was just up the street. So, we brunched there on some pancakes, chicken fried steak, and eggs. The wait staff was a real hoot, spinning the folksiest of phrases with the drawliest of drawls, but the food was not so great. Ultra-filling might be the best compliment we could pay it. I'd only recommend this place for middle-of-the-night munchies and afterparty B.A.C. cooldowns.

The Saturday Afternoon Blowout at Murphy's was superb from top to bottom, with The Lamps, Total Control, and Red Mass ruling the indoors (especially Total Control!), and Touch Me Nots the backyard highlight (I got there too late to see the Outdoorsmen). It was too much stimulation following that goopy brunch, so we took a nap back at the hotel and woke just in time to grab a quick bite at Kwik Check (muffaleta is never bad, but I have had slightly better at the Nugget Markets in Davis, Woodland, and Sacto) before catching the Saturday main event most of the way into John Wesley Coleman's set. Girls at Dawn were snooze-worthy, so we ditched 'em for backyard hobnobbing...or trying to, anyway! Our new friend approached Tom Scharpling of The Best Show on WFMU and got rebuffed quite economically as Tom uttered "Don't talk to me" while turning to walk back to the company of some pretty ladies. Oh snap!

Saturday night belonged to UV Race, who overcame a keyboard failure to convert everyone in the room short of Nashville's chapter of Turbojugend who looked stoic or glazed in their pristine jackets festooned so fastidiously like an Eagle Scout's uniform with neat patches as they waited for their far-past-prime heroes' even-further-past-prime labelmates to play. WTF? You gotta be an enemy of all things primal and fun to be so bored when Australia's UV Race are on. I shouldn't have just handed world's-best-saxophone-rock to Druid Perfume last month without mentioning UV Race in the same breath. They are a balanced band (even hormonally) with the shock of a creative dual-guitar attack and surly beats and vocals cushioned by seductive keyboards and sax. Lead-singer Marcus stripped to his skivvies and soaked the front row as he pulled the best dance move of the entire festival with a sorta side-to-side skiing-down-moguls maneuver.

The Saturday afterparty was a house-show featuring Cheap Time and Ty Segall. It didn't even break off 'til 4:00 a.m., and crazier than that was the bowing and bucking hardwood floor in that living room....It must've had about eight inches of travel in the middle! It was like a trampoline, and that's hardly an exaggeration. The mic stands were wobbling so much that the mics were smacking the band members in the mouth as they tried to sing. The show was all fun and friendly, but it seemed rather dangerous as I imagined the entire room fulla partiers crashing through the floor. The same house had hosted an early-evening show the day before for Evil Army, Wild Thing, and Total Control. I can only imagine that show feeling even more dangerous. Cheap Time ruled as usual, and Ty slayed on borrowed equipment despite the lack of fuzz or distortion. It was a real trip hearing Ty's band covering "Paranoid" so cleanly...yet still blistering! Ty said "I think that's the last time we play that" as his band packed into our backseat to return to the Red Roof Inn.

Rising late again to sleep off the extra-late afterparty, we hit up the Blue Plate Cafe on Sunday for brunch. Mine was a blackened catfish with creamy mac 'n cheese and more black-eyed peas, and Melissa got a crab benedict with grits. Pretty decent! We didn't leave overly stuffed, so it was no problem enjoying myself at the Gonerfest closing ceremonies featuring a Ty Segall one-man-band set at the Goner store. Ty ruled again.

We had a couple hours to kill before returning our rental car to the airport, so we drove around the southwest Memphis 'burbs and just kept driving further and further down U.S. Route 51 until we were into Mississippi. A Mexican food cart in a Citgo gas and minimart parking lot got me curious to try a couple tacos. If we're really gonna give anywhere besides California a little bit more thought as a more permanent destination, I gotta find some Mexican food worth coming back to. And while Taqueria Familia Reyes, parked on Church Road W at U.S. 51, was no mindblower for me, I was certain impressed enough. I ordered two tacos al pastor. What I got was grilled pork with no hint of spice...certainly not al pastor...but I soaked it in their spicy red salsa, and it was plenty good!

And that concluded our Gonerfest 7 trip. Thanks to Eric and the Goner gang for making for bringing together so many rad bands. Thanks to Alcenia's and Germantown Commissary for the best meals we had. Thanks to the Fairfield Inn by Marriott on Macon Cove for the clean, comfortable room, friendly and professional staff, and unobtrusive cleaning crew that didn't get started 'til the afternoon. And thanks for the late check-out time. If I had to do it all over again, though, I'd certainly have liked to stay closer to the action. Thanks to whoever had to clean up after the show everynight at the Hi-Tone. That was no enviable task. The place was a disaster every night. Thanks to the bands that ruled, Monty for Payne's lunch (we got you covered for Germantown Commissary if we find ourselves there for #8!), all our friends we met, and the city of Memphis. Five days flies by too fast when you're having that much fun. Thanks also to the photographers and videographers (please get in touch so I can credit you).

It's no five-day bash, but we at KDVS Presents are excited to bring you an all-day outdoor musical funbash this Saturday with our milestone tenth Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom. That's Roman numeral X. We have put together a strong lineup, and I'm especially stoked to guest on drums for Wounded Lion because Monty will be elsewhere with The Lamps. Andrew of G. Green will play the Monty guitar parts, too. This is one of our utmost favorite bands, so we kinda feel like we're going to Fantasy Band Camp!

KDVS Presents:

AIDS Wolf
Ganglians
Dreamdate
Wounded Lion
Super Wild Horses
Mattress
Greg Ashley
Young Prisms
Buk Buk Bigups
Big Black Cloud
Psychic Reality
Random Abiladeze
Didimao

At historic Plainfield Station (23944 Road 98 Between Woodland and Davis California).
Start: 2pm-10pm
October 2nd 2010
Cheap Beer and Grill, along with Various Local Art vendors.
$10 at the door- $8 Pre-sale
ALL AGES

Remember to bring:
a blanket for spreading on the lawn
your friends
2-3 sensible layers (weather should be good, though...86 hi, still 70 when this gets over with)
bathing suit for post-ORMF pool/hot-tub raid across the many apartment complexes of Davis

For you Bay Areans, all you need to enjoy an Indian Summer is to drive the 70-80 miles out here and bring that bathing suit for the pool/hot-tub raid afterpartying. Lodging accommodations are easy enough. You can even AmTrak it to Davis and ride a bike the rest of the way, or AmTrak it, and walk to the free shuttle destinations on campus (~10 blocks).

Driving directions from the Bay...

1. Drive I-80 East toward Sacto
2. As you pass through town of Dixon, get into the right lane
3. Take the Hwy 113 North cut-off toward Woodland
4. ~3 minutes later, exit at Road 29 and turn right at end of exit
5. Turn right at 2nd stop sign onto Road 98...and there it is...easy parking across the street or along Road 98.

Art for Spastics

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

AFS v. 294 ~ 2010 Scene Rewind

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

AFS v. 293 ~ Red Moon Night!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

AFS v. 292 ~ Pain and Joy and Sorrows Mingle

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

AFS v. 291 ~ Smash Futuro

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

AFS v. 290 ~ Now We Are Having Fun!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

AFS v. 289 ~ the New Pipeline

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

AFS v 288 ~ Roundball Rock 'n Roll

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

AFS v. 287 ~ Ritual Cleansing: Cin-Cin!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

AFS v 286 ~ Message from the Asylum

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

AFS v. 285 ~ Hey, y'all...I Gotta Great New Album in the Mail Today!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

AFS v. 284 ~ The Festival in the Vestibule

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

AFS v. 283 ~ feat. Wounded Lion, Whines, & Uzi Rash live on KDVS

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

AFS v. 282 ~ Gonerfest 7 Recap / ORMF X Precap

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