Tuesday, February 22, 2011

AFS v. 302 ~ The Dream of the 90s is Alive in Milwaukie!


This week in AFS...

* A triple-low-brow scuzz block of Rancid Vat
* Remembering a time when Portland was no hipper than Sacto
* Further investigating the solo career of Peter Hammill
* The K-Holes can kill...coming soon from HoZac

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.

or STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night.

MAN THE HUNTER | Dance With Me | Less for You 7" | Ginkgo *new
CHARLIE & THE SKUNKS | Pay No Attention to Time | Take an Ice Cream Scoop Out of My Brain 7" | Eradicator *new
SWIMSUIT | Dolphins | Dolphins 7" | Lifelike *new
PETER HAMMILL | My Experience | Sitting Targets | PVC 1981
PETER HAMMILL | Pushing Thirty | The Future Now | Charisma 1978
WIRELESS | Sign Right Here | Positively Human Relatively Sane | Mercury 1979
SAMUEL LOCKE WARD & THE BOOHOOS | Tell it to the Man of Diminishing Clout | split 7" w/ Mumfords | no label *new
RANCID VAT | Joy to the World [Three Dog Night] | v/a: Flies Like Holidays | Pigface 1982
RANCID VAT | Hot Cages in Vietnam Rattle | Stampeding Cattle | Pigface 1982
RANCID VAT | Destroy Nature | Justice (This is What We Do to Traitors) | Horton/Reflex 1989
TRUE SONS OF THUNDER | Butt Bong | split 7" w/ Wizzard Sleeve | Jeth-Row *new
I.V. LEAGUE | Caucasian Fear | Songs of the North American Anglo | Mind Drum 1989/90(?)
CULTURCIDE | The Heart of Rn'R (Is the Profit) | Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary America | no label 1986
WHITE SAVAGE | Orphans [Teenage Jesus & the Jerks] | Destroy Your Style 7" | HoZac 2007
K-HOLES | Short Zippers/Werewold with a Tan | self-titled | HoZac *new
FIFTY FOUR FORTY | Long Goodbye | v/a: Things Are Still Coming Ashore | Mo=Da=Mu 1982
HALF CHURCH | Attention Span | In Turmoil 12" EP | WiN 1981
BILLY & THE BUTTONS | Want Want | Whole Fam Damily 7" | Button 1983
PASTICHE (THE MINI-BAND) | Running in Place | v/a: A Wicked Good Time, vol. 2 | Modern Method 1981
SWINGERS RESORT | Hit List | v/a: A Wicked Good Time! | Modern Method 1981
ENGLISH SINGLES | Grey Skies USA | Splashing Past the Action CDR | English Singles *new
SHARK TOYS | I Don't Fit In | v/a: Under the Covers vol. 2 | Volar/I Hate Rock n Roll *new
BELREVE | Nothing | Nothing 7" | Anyway 1993
MOVIOLA | Color Copy | Frantic 10" | Anyway 1995
FLIPPER | Way of the World | Album Generic Flipper | Subterranean 1981
DEAD C | Maggot | Eusa Kills | Flying Nun 1989
LAST FEW DAYS | Megaphobia | Pure Spirit and Saliva Live | Dead Man's Curve 1986
SANDRA BELL | Gilt | Angel 7" | Zabriskie Point 1995
AMATEUR CHILDBIRTH | Venus in Flames | Brighter Futures Dialysis | self-released *new
DEAF WISH | Freeze the Sound | self-titled | self-released *new (orig 2007)

Five episodes into Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein's Portlandia (airing weekly on the IFC network), I've enjoyed some great laughs. As buffoonish as the many characters of Portlandia are--the hardcore vegan fixed-gear bike-punk, the overly cautious locavore, feminist bookstore owners, etc.--they really do ring true to the generally-true generalizations of Portland people and their subcultures.

If you haven't seen the show 'cos your cable company sucks, I bet you've probably seen their music video for "The Dream of the 90s" [in case you did miss it]...which they proclaim is so alive in Portland. But that's the only thing I don't totally agree with about Portlandia, 'cos I remember Portland in the 90s...when a sandwich was really just a sandwich, and Miracle Whip was exotic. There was no slathering aioli with capers and fresh herbs from the chef's own backyard garden on brioche. An omelet at Cobblestone Cafe was just an omelet...a really big lumberjack-gut-bustin' omelet, and nobody thought to ask about how far these eggs had traveled to get to the table, or how many acres the chickens were free to roam. Whereas today there are carts, trucks, and trailers in every quadrant of the city serving food from every culture you didn't even expect to encounter in Portland, the 90s was a time when there was not even one decent Mexican or Chinese restaurant, and people were slow to accede to the few fledgling Thai places. Nobody knew of pho or bahn mi or pupusas. The clothes at thrift stores wound up being worn by poor people instead of on the racks of pricey vintage boutiques where they're washed, repaired, or cut, re-sewn, and re-contextualized.

The other thing that seems incredible about Portland--especially in the early to mid 90s--was that good bands were nearly as scarce as a good taco. It had been years since The Wipers had made a great album, and they were already taking a long lead toward Arizona. Poison Idea had just released Pajama Party with a cover of The Gogos's "Vacation". They still ruled when I saw 'em play, but I was also kinda depressed by watching Pig Champion's severe joint pain as he took over a minute to walk up four steps to the stage with the help of two spotters. Smegma was sorta in a flat spot with their recordings, and they bored me to death the couple times I saw 'em then. (Smegma's next heyday was a great reinvigorated run in the 2000s, and I think it still continues!) Rancid Vat were also leading off to Philly, where they went on to make predictable records for fans of the Confederacy of Scum. Dead Moon was the only great band in the midst of their prime at the time, and I was too young to go to a bar to see 'em play. Aside from a burgeoning crust/HC scene centered around Resist, I didn't see a lotta stuff happening when I was there in 1992-1993. Other kids in my college dormitory were way into the deplorable Crazy 8s, a band that local papers compared to The Clash and The Specials, but if they were punk, they were the least-threatening punks ever, and if they were ska, they stripped all Afro-Carribean elements to create a distillate of the kinda party music preferred by Docker-pants-wearing middle-aged middle-class white tourists. They thought they were funky, too. The Crazy 8s were cut from much the same cloth as those despicable Cherry Poppin' Daddies, who were the one regional musical export to maintain a national image.

Cruising everyday Portland then, it seemed really blue-collar. Steak and potatoes. Flannel for function, not image. If the "Dream of the 90s is alive in Portland" today, then it came a decade late, because the Portland of the 90s was living the dream of the 70s. It was arguably less hip than Sacramento...where I had no shortage of rad all-ages shows to attend as a young person and so many rad bands centering around the Midtown Sac gathering place, The Loft (Yah Mos, Tiger Trap, Los Huevos, Nar, Lizards, Bananas, Four Eyes, Salmonella, Lab Rats, etc.). And in Davis, we had the scene revolving around KDVS with the Curbfeelers, Buick, Shove, Harvester, Chance the Gardener, Duct Tape, Beef With Society, Girls Soccer, etc. (and compared to Portland's token rappers U-Krew, our area boasted DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, Brother Lynch Hung, and more). For as much as I thought it was gonna rule up there when I went off to college in 1992, I couldn't wait to get back to the music scene I'd left in the Central Valley. Portland seemed light years behind. Elmer was probably in my top-five Portland bands list then, and that was in part due to their Sacto pre-history!

But one thing Portland did have in spades was that legendary weirdness! And Smegma epitomized that during their heyday in the 80s. This video of primetime news footage of Portland's Mayor's ball in 1988 brilliantly shows Smegma's integral place in what was mostly a musical wasteland. Enjoy...



If the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland, I reckon it's because the 20- and 30-somethings of Portland that give the city its mecca-of-hip image imported the dream from wherever they lived before moving there.

Don't take any of this to mean "DJ Rick thinks Portland was cooler before it was cool", 'cos I love Portland for the way it's become as a place to visit and eat and see music. I liked it the way I remember it, too. The dream of the Portland of the 90s is still alive in Milwaukie. Also...RIP, Henry Ford's, Cobblestone Cafe, the original Hung Far Low.



That K-Holes LP is coming on March 1, says this one-sheet I got from HoZac. It's quite tasty and delivers well on the promise of their killer live show they gave Sacramento last fall. Haunted swamp rock that's psycho and psych-y with a dash of nĂ¼-gothy-ness...very tasty! Tonight I give you a couple faster-burning songs. Songs, indeed...they do actually write 'em in this band! Next week a different flavor.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

AFS v. 301 ~ They Saved Hosni's Gallbladder


This week in AFS...

* first band from the ashes of Meth Teeth!
* a three-song punk suite of coping w/ incompetence!
* Michael Beach of Electric Jellyfish on tour through Northern CA!

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.

or STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night.

ELECTRIC PEACE | Drinking and Driving | Road to Peace | Barred 1989
ELECTRIC PEACE | Hate's a Special Feeling | Medieval Mosquito | Barred 1987
PETER HAMMILL | Portion Down | PH 7 | Charisma | 1979
THEORETICAL GIRLS | You Got Me | You Got Me 7" | Theoretical 1978
SPERM WAILS | Mr. Wonderful | Lady Chatterley 7" | SS Records *new (orig 1986)
ELECTRIC JELLYFISH | The Glitch | self-titled | Spectacular Commodity/Twin Lakes 2010
MICHAEL BEACH | The Exhilarating Rise | A Horse 7" | Spectacular Commodity/Twin Lakes *new
GREG SAGE | Keep On Keepin' On | Straight Ahead | Enigma 1985
SAVAGE RESURRECTION | Expectations | self-titled | Mercury 1968
KAK | Everything's Changing | self-titled | Epic 1968
THE HOLLIES | Everything is Sunshine | King Midas in Reverse 7" | Epic 1967
ENGLISH SINGLES | The Finer Points | Splashing Past the Action CDR | English Singles *new
BLUE-GREEN GODS | Implosion | Implosion 7" | Jettison 1992
BLUE-GREEN GODS | Kudzu | Sudden Death 7" | Jettison 1991
ANGELS OF EPISTEMOLOGY | Vile and Disgusting/William Campbell | self-titled 7" | Merge 1990
POLVO | Fractured (Like Chandeliers) | Celebrate the New Dark Age | Merge 1994
ARCHERS OF LOAF | Funnelhead [Treepeople] | split 2x7" w/ Treepeople | Sonic Bubblegum 1994
MILK MUSIC | The Burning Light | Beyond Living | self-released 2010
MILK MUSIC | Violence Now | Nuts! #6 zine flexi 7" | Nuts! zine *new
H.P.P. | Sexual Tension | self-titled 7" | Perennial *new
I.V. EYES | They Saved Terri's Tube | split 7" w/ Schiller Killers | Rubber Vomit *new
UNNATURAL AXE | They Saved Hitler's Brain | They Saved Hitler's Brain 7" | Varulven 1978
ANGRY SAMOANS | They Saved Hitler's Cock | Back from Samoa | PVC 1982
ANGRY SAMOANS | Egyptomania | STP not LSD | PVC 1988
CHILD MOLESTERS | X Amount of Grief | The Legendary Brown Album | Sympathy 1994
LAZY COWGIRLS | Can't You Do Anything Right? | Tapping the Source | Bomp! 1987
SCRATCH BONGOWAX | Because I Hate You | Zero Conformity Intuition | 1+2 Records 1995
THE PAGANS | What's This Shit Called Love? | Shit Street | Crypt 2001 (orig 1977)
THE PROLES | Fall in Love | Thought Crime | Grand Theft Audio 1996 (orig 1978)
SATAN'S RATS | In My Love for You | In My Love for You 7" | DJM 1977
STRAIGHT ARROWS | Something Happens | It's Happening | Juvenile 2010
GUIDANCE COUNSELOR | Lena or Prudence | demo | no label *new
WIZZARD SLEEVE | Setting Fire to Your Loft | split 7" w/ True Sons of Thunder | Jeth-Row *new
GROUND ZERO | Ground Zero | self-titled 7" | GZ Records 1979Electric Jellyfish,

Sorry...no time for anecdotes or reports. I'm off to play Bob Vila or Mike Holmes when I'm not working for money or freeform radio or extreme blogging. Just go see Michael Beach if comes near you. He has released his first solo record since returning to California from Australia where he anchored the amazing psychedelic rock band, who performed one of the greatest shows I saw in the last decade. A Horse is brilliant, understated, yet powerful and emotive. I guess you could call it a "singer/songwriter" effort, but that'd be selling it short. Fans of the best of Elliot Smith, the best of Lou Reed, and Straight Ahead, the 1984 solo LP by Greg Sage of The Wipers, please have a listen to 'A Horse' here...
http://michaelbeach.bandcamp.com/

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

AFS v. 300 ~ Ride into the Danger Zone!


This week in AFS...

* the latest, greatest Teeny mystery record
* our trilogy of Deaf Wish albums is complete
* the dystopic dialect of Damon Edge of Chrome

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.

or STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night.

JOHN JARRETT'S TRIBE | The Racer | unreleased? 198?
DEDRINGER | We Don't Mind | Sunday Drivers 7" | Dindisc 1980
THE TOURS | Language School | Language School 7" | Tours 1979
RITCHIE STARS | Highschool | split 7" w/ Mars Mario | Teeny 1992
THE BOYS | We're Too Young | v/a: Just Another Pop Album | Titan 1981
NOBUNNY | Monster Kiss | Raw Romance | Burger 2010
NOBUNNY | I WaS On (The Bozo Show) | First Blood | Goner 2010
PREFAB MESSIAHS | Franz Kafka | Franz Kafka 7" | Almost Ready *new
THE EMBARRASSMENT | Sex Drive | Sex Drive 7" | Big Time 1980
KARATE PARTY | Ball Game | v/a: Sacramento - City of a Beer 7" | Moo-La-La 1998
HENRY FIAT'S OPEN SORE | Local Imbecile | split 7" w/ Spider Babies | Proud to Be Idiot 1999
HENRY FIAT'S OPEN SORE | Gimme the Loot
ELECTRIC CRUSH | Twisted Inside Out | Dropouts in a Drug Haze 12" EP | Black Gladiator/Slovenly *new (orig 2001)
TROPHY WIFE | In the Water | self-titled 7" | Private Leisure Industries *new
MICHAEL BEACH | A Horse | A Horse 7" | Spectacular Commodity *new
LOWER PLENTY | She'll Stick Around | Mean CS | Radio Records Melbourne 2010
LOWER PLENTY | Got Your Advice
DEAF WISH | Mean to Me/Deaf News | Reality & Visions | Idget Child 2009
DEAF WISH | Mercy | Mercy | Radio Records Melbourne *new
DEAF WISH | I Traded You | self-titled CDR | self-released 2007
3 TOED SLOTH | The Odds | ...Against the Odds 2x7" | Unwucht *new (orig 1993)
THE GORDONS | Future Shock | Future Shock 12" EP | Flying Nun 1988 (orig 1980) *request
YI | Golden Pouch/Brains | At Home + 5 CS | Reeducation *new
THIN LIZZY | Sitamoia | Whisky in the Jar | Decca 1981 (orig 197?)
A reading of DAMON EDGE's fantastic visions from the Inworlds 12" EP insert over...
CHROME | Nova Feedback | Alien Soundtrack | Siren 1977
CHROME | Mondo Anthem | Half Machine Lip Moves | Siren 1979
CHROME | Danger Zone | Red Exposure reissue | Lilith *new (orig 1981)
CHEVEU | Sensual Drug Abuse | 1000 | Kill Shaman *new
THOROFON | Stunde Null | Maximum Punishment Solutions | Stateart 1997
WARSER GATE | Torched Scrawl | Torched Scrawl 7" | Rafter 1997
WARSER GATE | Going Nowhere | All My Hates, All My Hang Ups | Rafter 1996
PINK REASON | Your Girlfriend [V3] | Desperate Living 7" | Almost Ready *new

I'm afraid that my reading from the insert of Chrome's Inworlds 12" EP didn't do it justice (it is kinda hard to read Damon Edge's handwriting), so I shall type it out for you...

THE CITY WAS FALLING APART, THERE WAS FIGHTING IN THE CENTER OF TOWN, THE PEOPLE HAD CHROMOSOME DAMAGE AND THERE WAS NOTHING TO DO, I MEAN ABOUT THE MUTATIONS THAT KEPT OCCURING. THEY WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE, EVER SINCE THE 1ST WAVES OF FEEDBACK FROM THE NOVA. I DIDN'T HERE 'BOUT IT 'TIL IT HAD ALREADY HIT GRUX, I REMEMBER THE NEWS AT FIVE THT DAY, SOMEONE SAID SECTION D OF THE DROID SUPPLIERS HAD INSTIGATED THEIR OWN PATENTS INTO ASSEMBLY. SORT OF OFFENSIVE I THOUGHT, I MEAN WHO IN THE HELL WANTS TO LOOK AT THAT SHIT? A KING OF MAGNETIC REPTILE COMBINATION. THE COUNCIL SAID THAT SECTION D WAS SUFFERING FROM BIOLOGICAL CHANGES DUE TO THE 2ND WAVE. THAT'S WHEN I HEARD OUR DIVERSION FLEET HAD ENCOUNTERED SIMILAR MUTATIONS WITH SOME ROCK THEY FOUND IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY, GOOD ASSORTMENT OF SPECIMENS THOUGH, AT LEAST FROM THE RAVINGS THE PRESS WAS MAKING. BUT WHO THE FUCK CARES ABOUT SOME ROCK IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY? EXCEPT FOR ITS AUDIO CONTENT THAT IS. SO I TIMED FOR PURPOSE AND CALCULATED THE OBJECTIVES, HAD MY MONITORS ON IT CONSTANTLY, DIGGING THROUGH CHIPS UNTIL I FINALLY PUT THE OVERVIEW IN COMPLETE PERSPECTIVE. THEN I COULDN'T GET THE SPECIFICATIONS, I MEAN WHO KNOWS, THEY WERE MISSING. I GOT THE MESSAGE WHEN THEY WERE PASSING CYGNI THAT THIS WAS IT, IF I DIDN'T STOP FUCKING ABOUT THE MONITORS WERE GOING TO PUT ME AWAY. I JUST NEEDED THOSE CHIPS FOR MY RESEARCH, THAT CONTINENT ON THE ROCK SOUNDED PERFECT. THE ONE THE DIVERSION FLEET CALLED THE PARK. THEY COULDN'T MAKE THE TRANSMISSIONS THOUGH CAUSE THE ALIENS HAD SOME PRIMITIVE GADGETRY THAT KEPT SCREWING EVERYTHING UP, SO THEY HAD TO LEAVE THE ATMOSPHERE JUST TO GET THE GOD DAMN SOUNDS BACK HERE AND THEY WERE STILL FUCKED UP. SO I REQUESTED A SPECIMEN WHICH WAS AGAINST THE ETHICAL CODE, ND THAT WAS WHAT THE MONITORS WERE GETTING PISSED ABOUT YOU SEE. I MEAN WITH THE CHAOS IN THE CITIES AND ALL - THEY WOULD JUST SAY TO ME "WHAT IF EVERYONE WAS GOING ON LIKE YOU? CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INEFFIENTCY?" WELL THERE'S NOT MUCH I COULD SAY TO THAT. THEY LOOKED AT MY PRIVATE STUDIES AS SOME SORE OF INDIRECT SABOTAGE. SO I SAY FUCK 'EM, FUCK IT, I DECIDED TO GET BOMBED. IT HAD BEEN A LONG EXTENDED CONCENTRATION. SO WHY NOT TAKE A FLIGHT TO ALTAIR AND GET INTO SOME 37? AND THIS IS WHERE I MEET CHROMIUM YOU SEE, I GET ON BOARD AND THERE HE IS WITH THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY SCULPTURED DROIDS I'VE EVER SEEN LAYING ON A DECK FEELING 'EM UP AND PISSING ALL OVER LIKE IT'S A RUBBER ROOM OR SOMETHING. THEN I'M ROLLED DOWN THE AISLE AND HE RECOGNIZES ME FROM THE MUSICOLOGY AWARDS LAST YEAR. HE INVITES ME OVER, AND WE DO UP THE DROIDS AND HIT BASE. HE'S BEING REAL CHUMMY AND ALL AN I'M JUST RIPPED AND I FORGET MY DEFENSES FOR A MOMENT AND HAPPEN TO MENTION THIS BUSINESS WITH THE DIVERSION FLEET - AN HE COMES ON REAL THICK ABOUT IT LIKE SOME FRIGGING PATRIOT - BLASTING AWAY 'BOUT THE MONITORS AND HOW THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT ME IN STOP. AND THE NEXT THING I KNOW, I WAKE UP IN THIS BOX MADE OUT OF THE PLANET'S CRUST, AND I'M STILL A BIT DIZZY. THEN COMES THIS MONITOR WITH HIS DIGITALS ON THE BLINK, AND I CAN SEE HE HASN'T BEEN SERVICED IN AT LEAST 3 EVOLUTIONS, SO I BASH HIS HEAD IN WITH THE ACCOMMODATIONS AND MAKE FOR THE LIGHT FIELDS - AND ON THE WAY I RUN INTO THIS OLD PHILOSOPHICAL TYPE WITH ONE GOOD EYE LEFT AND GIVING ME THE EVERYTHING IS COOL, EVERYTHING IS ONE LOOK, AND JUST BEFORE HE STARTS TO SAY SOMETHING I TELL HIM HE'D BETTER WATCH OUT FOR HIS DESTINY JUST TO THROW HIM OFF, AND YOU KNOW IT WAS FUNNY CAUSE IT WORKED AND HE SHUT RIGHT UP.[sic]

Y'know what would be a fun game? You could search and find titles of Chrome songs in there!

RIP, Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy, and RIP to Deaf Wish if you really have broken up. Thanks for a fantastic body of work which I only learned about too late (about four months ago). Their never-really-released 1st album was sent to KDVS this week, and it's a masterpiece, too.






Tuesday, February 01, 2011

AFS v. 299 ~ City Spirit


This week in AFS...

* Cheveu's 1000 hits the USA!
* maybe that was T.M.I. at the end...sorry!
* a remarkable, accidental "City Rock" discovery!




Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.

or STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night.

ED NASTY & THE DOPEDS | I'm Gonna Be Everything | I'm Gonna Be Everything 7" | Last Laugh *new (orig 1978)
CIRCLE PIT | Roll With the Punches | Sewercide 7" | Sweet Rot/R.I.P. Society *new
22-PISTEPIRKKO | Bone Bone Baby | Bare Bone Nest | Spirit 1989
HORRID RED | Foehn Winds | Pink Flowers 7" | Soft Abuse *new
PSYCHE | Wrench 11 | Tales from the Darkside | Animalized 1990 (orig 1982)
BUK BUK BIGUPS | Hot Mess (live on KFJC) | Big Big Fuckups CS | Zeff Group *new
CHROME | In a Dream | Red Exposure | Lilith 2010 (orig 1980)
TUXEDOMOON | Nervous Guy | Scream with a View 12" EP | PRE 1979
CHEVEU | No Birds/Impossible is not French | 1000 | Kill Shaman *new
THE ORTHOTONICS | Whack-a-Mole | Luminous Bipeds | Rift 1986
IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT | Lowell "Bud" Paxson | Pretty Totally | Unwucht *new (orig 2001)
PROOF OF UTAH | August Days | Out of Order | Smiley Turtle 1989
MOTOR TOTEMIST GUILD | Diamonds for Fishhooks | Shapuno Zoo | No Man's Land 1988
PORNOSECT | Pure | ...of Vibrations, Resonances and Divine Things | The Product Korps 1988
SCORN | Automata | Evanescence | Earache 1994
ALVIN LUCIEN | I Am Sitting in a Room Pt. I (excerpt) | I Am Sitting in a Room | Lovely Music 1981
COIL | Ubu Noir | Scatology | Force & Form 1984
THUG | 2 Important Mistakes | Proud Idiots Parade | Black Eye 1987
THUG | Fuck Your Dad | v/a: Waste Sausage | Black Eye 1987
THE POOFTERS | Wipe Out Your Whole Family | v/a: Waste Sausage
SMERSH | Under Your Hoop | Emmanuelle Goes to Bangkok | KK Records 1990
SLEETMUTE NIGHTMUTE | Look Back in Anger | Night of Long Knives | Fast Weapons *new (orig 2004)
SLUMS | Waiting Rooms/Chained to the Wall | demo CDR | no label 2004
TRIAL | Lobotomized Visions | Moments of Collapse | Communications Syndicate 1986
JOHN JARRETT'S TRIBE | Something Always Brings Me Back | self-titled | Capitol/EMI 1984
BROWNSVILLE STATION | Rockers 'n' Rollers | self-titled | Private Stock 1977
THE ROCKETS | Desire | No Ballads | RSO 1980
TIGHT FITS | Bulldozer | Full Frontal Attack 7" | Pure Filth 1995
MY BROTH'R HANS | Set My Bowels Free | The Money Makers of Punk Rock CS | Scud Prod. 1992
THE A.G.'s | Taking a Shit | Bryan's Car 7" | Mystic/Super Seven 1987

Every now and then, I go to pull a record outta the cavernous catacombs of the KDVS record collection and I get blindsided by a record that I never dreamed existed, and it's like a Highlander "quickening" moment. Such was the case tonight when I went back to grab Moments of Collapse by Trial and found the very next record in our alphabetized archive labeled as Tribe. The LP cover piqued my interest. With the "I" represented by a jagged diseased palm tree topped by a sabertoothed ear-pierced (in an era when the right ear was the wrong ear to pierce in rock 'n' roll!) lion-sphynx, the bold red Tribe logo screamed speed-metal, but certain members of the band looked curiously un-metal, even as they posed in an urban ruin. Apparently, the LP had been in our record collection since it was new in September of 1984. The back cover shows a color picture of the band perched atop a crumbling arcade on the 2nd floor of the brick building, posing with much more personality. The band members were John Jarrett, Jon "The Bull" Riveiro, Phil Grande, and Greg "Bonz" Baze. Is Phil Grande a rock 'n' roll name or what? Add the Bull and Bonz to the brigade, and Jarrett's band can only be formidable. Considering themes evoked by the song titles, I knew I'd found the trail of "City Rock"...

Side A
------
1. I Wanna Be With You
2. I'm Always In Trouble
3. Call Of The Wild
4. Movin'
5. Something Always Brings Me Back

Side B
------
1. Don't Say No
2. Every Man For Himself
3. Nature Of The Beast
4. Love Is Like A Wheel
5. You Can't Do That

Flipping back to the front cover, I noticed that the band was actually called John Jarrett's Tribe, so this record had been mislabeled and misfiled since 1984! It was some kinda miracle that I'd found this record. Then I noticed that the radio station label had but one DJ notation: "Grower!" I knew right then that I must hear this album!

Like everyone else, I knew nothing of this "City Rock" phenomenon until I had noticed that the "City Rock" message board thread at Terminal Boredom had burgeoned so quickly to about 20 pages. I tried to catch up, but was still confused about whether this so-called musical genre was real and whether its proponents weren't pulling a fast one on other TermBo readers. But soon I came to realize what was actually special about it....at its best, this music was as much about truth, as genuine, devotional, and honest as punk rock at its best, and like punk rock or hip hop, it was as at once a style of music and an immersible lifestyle with its own belief system. And, again like punk rock or hip hop, the lifestyle city rocker was viewed by others as having made the wrong choice. Some chased their dreams to stardom and successful careers, like Eddie Money or even Huey Lewis (whose News are claimed by nearly every little city in the East and North SF Bay Area as a hometown band, and local legend when I was a 4th-grader was that their first practice was in a basement in the huddled little downtown of Suisun City...which was a neighborhood on the skids when I was a 4th-grader at Suisun Elementary). But others kept chasing and never achieved the dream. They gave the best years of their life to rock 'n' roll, partying, party-girls, living every day like it was the weekend, and if they were still rockin' toward or into their middle ages, they'd be more qualified to write songs about epic loss and despair than any post-folkrock plunderer of world-beat music, or any ex-school-teacher post-new-wave Zen-master, or any Juno-award-winning supposedly-edgy ingenue.

Having found John Jarrett's MySpace (which includes a song not from this album--"The Racer"--that totally smokes anything on the first Def Leppard album as a palpably-punk-tangential glitter-pop-metal nugget!), I see evidence that he rocked it as recently as five years ago! And a recent photo of Mr. Jarrett with Hilly Michaels (right), who's credited in several ways in the liner notes of the album. Other notable names in the liners include Ellen Foley and Dan Hartman on background vocals. If you search Discogs.com, nothing comes up for this album, but you do find John credited as a vocalist on "Mano a Mano" from Hall & Oates' Private Eyes. More Google-sleuthing reveals that bassist Bonz was also in disco outfit Touch, and Phil Grande played guitar with Joe Cocker, and re-joined John (with Hilly on drums) in a band called Life Dot Com.

Surely, there's several songs on the Tribe's album which exhibit the cringeworthy cheese of 1984's prevalent professional studio production values, but there are several winners on the album that are bursting with that irrepressible city spirit. Check these lyrics from tonight's selection...

"Something Always Brings Me Back"

So pretty, those neon lights are calling me
This city, my city means so much to me
The many faces that she has
Places that she has to hide away
When you don't feel like being seen.

But don't be foolish
Don't let it hold you down
It's not so easy
I know, 'cause I've been around

Something always brings me back
No matter how I try to spread my wings and fly
Something always brings me back

This Friday, they're having a party in the street
I'm going, I know there'll be lots of girls to meet
There'll be dancing all day long
And dancing until dawn
A real good time for all
In the city that never sleeps

But don't be foolish
Don't let it hold you down
It's not so easy
I know, 'cause I've been around

Something always brings me back
No matter how I try to spread my wings and fly
Something always brings me back

Here's another track from the album (incorrectly titled by the person who posted the video)...



You can smirk and say it's 80s cheese...but that's too easy! Many examples of City Rock sounds like a soundtrack to any of the hundreds of mostly-forgotten one-star-rated 80s movies you enjoy on an ironic level. But if you consider the lyrics of "I'm Always in Trouble" and hear the conviction in the vocal effort, you've gotta figure that this is a pretty honest biographical song. The intimacy totally betrays the larger-than-life production value.

If this doesn't help you catch the City Rock bug, then keep reading as the TermBo thread grows, and please forgive me if I occasionally dig up another nugget and stick it near the end of a future podcast. I make no promises on their behalf, but I'm gonna keep bugging Sacto's chief arbiters of City Rock crucialness to come guest-host an AFS where we can get it all outta our system.