Monday, June 02, 2008

AFS v. 179 ~ Mayyors Hit the Trail of Beers!

If you're in or near Portland or Seattle, I highly recommend catching The Mayyors "Trail of Beers" Pacific Northwest mini-tour this weekend.

Friday, June 6
Portland @ East End w/ the Hunches and Eat Skull

Sat, 6/7
Seattle @ Funhouse w/ the Intelligence, Pleasure Boaters, Partman Parthorse

Sun, 6/8
Portland @ the Twilight w/ Eat skull, Psychedelic Horseshit, Fabulous Diamonds


Bands of Portland and Seattle, if you come, please bring your latest recordings on vinyl, cassette, or CD/CDR to me for AFS extreme-blogging and Freeform KDVS airplay. No tellin' when I will make it back north this year. Save on postage.

You can download this week's show AT THIS LINK HERE! @ 192kbps
(archived for ~4 weeks)

Or, also AT THIS LINK (@ 320 kbps!!!)
(archived for ~10 weeks)

THE YOLKS // Somewhere New // Introducing the Yolks 7" // Criminal IQ *new
THE BARBARAS // Flow // Summertime Road 7" // Goner *new
GENTLEMAN JESSE & HIS MEN // (If I Can See You) You're Too Close to Me // split 7" w/ Joseph Plunkett // Rob's House *new
RTFO BANDWAGON // New Jack // New Jack 7" // Dull Knife *new
ANGELS OF EPISTEMOLOGY // Vile and Disgusting/William Campbell // 7" // Merge 1987
POLVO // Tread on Me // 2x7" // Kitchen Puff 1990
POLVO // Totemic
JOBY'S OPINION // Natty Bohemian // Natty Bohemian 7" // Friction Media 1995
84 NASH // Not of the Same Tourist // Snacks of Wealth 7" // Cushion 1998
84 NASH // Snacks of Wealth // Snacks of Wealth 7"
84 NASH // Ice Breakers // Band for Hire // Rockathon 1999
84 NASH // Shot Bully // Band for Hire
HEADACHE CITY // Hey Ugly // Teenage Grease 7" // HoZac *new
DAY CREEPER // Daycreep 1 // I Fuck the Body Electric CDR // self-released *new
ELECTRIC BUNNIES // Fantastic Metal Eye // Fantastic Metal Eye 7" // Columbus Discount *new
UNHOLY TWO // Porkys // Kutter 7" // Columbus Discount *new
BLACK PUS // Body on the Tide // 4 // Diarrhea *new
MINITEL // Astre // Streisand 7" // Bruit Direct Disques *new
SHIT & SHINE // Toilet Door Tits // Küss Mich, Meine Liebe // Load *new
MULTIPLEX // Wing Over This Land // v/a: To the Marrow ~ Japanese Deathnology // Toy's Factory 1994
SUPPRESSION // Elite/Stranglehold/Enema // Amputated Brain Stem: 1993-2000 // CNP // *new (orig 1996)
HATEWAVE // Insomniac // Sexual Healing 2 // Apop *new (orig 1995-96?)
RUSTED SHUT // Disease of the Spirit // Rehab // Emperor Jones 2004 *request
TRAIL OF TEARS MALT LIQUOR ICE // Surfing Mural // only 7" // Enoch Organization 1996
MAYYORS // Metro // Marines Dot Com 7" // Waste of Oil *new
PLASTOBETON // La Prison // Glam Mort CDR // Tanz Procesz *new
JAWS // War Harmonizers // Imagery Weapons CDR // no label 2004
THE PINK NOISE // Dead Glitter Sun // Dream Code // Sacred Bones *new
FACTUMS // De-Arranged // The Sistrum // Sacred Bones *new
NAKED ON THE VAGUE // Poltergeist Palm // Poltergeist Palm 7" // Skulltones *new
PINK REASON // Free Bird [Lynyrd Skynyrd] // unreleased *new

I'm so psyched to be driving The Mayyors up to the Pacific Northwest for some shows. Check out the full-length first episode of Forest City Rockers Motorcycle Club feat. live footage of the Mayyors @ The Eagle in San Francisco.


Forest City Rockers Episode 1 from Eighty Four Films on Vimeo.

Check back @ http://www.forestcityrockers.com/ for upcoming episodes of Jay Howell & crew's animation series (featuring live footage of Thee Oh Sees and Crash Normal).

NoBunny's cover of this Yolks' "Somewhere New" got me curious about the original, which led me to this 7" of breezy garagey pop by the Chicago band, and I'm quite charmed by it. It never quite teeters on the precipice of being too sappy-sweet. I will definitely be watching for future releases now. Speaking of breezy garagey pop, that's what Goner's got goin' on with The Barbaras. Three songs here, and this one's the swirliest bit of cleverly coy pop that you'd (n)ever expect to hear from Slumberland or Creation rather than Goner.

When The Police sang "Don't Stand So Close to Me," they still had the courtesy to ask please, but Gentleman Jesse is less cautious about hurt feelings on this cherry piece of powerpop from the new split 7" of His Men and Joseph Plunkett. I thought the South was all about genteel manners! Whatever the case, I'm glad these fellas escaped from that vanfire last year to record my exact thoughts about certain loathsome whippy-chippers...the kind we all know.

Check out the new RTFO Bandwagon 7" for a stunning variety: an A-side of quirky, bouncy poptunes backed by some kinda weirdfolk downer derangement that certainly must be heard in an upcoming AFS. This wasn't quite immediate to me, but I'm coming around to it now, and I'm ready to hitch up.

Much ballyhooing on TermBo about the canonized indie rock of the 90s heyday led to us punk-asses re-remembering what good came from that era, and the debate over Superchunk was like reading the letters section of MRR circa 1992-1993 all over again. Remember when Chapel Hill, NC, became known for something beyond basketball and powder blue, and Sonic Youth namedropped the city in lyrics? If you suck from the teat of Pitchforkmedia, surely you never stopped listing the place as some sorta utopian indie mecca, but the rest of us could probably care less if every record ever by Seam was bulldozed into oblivion. But surely there's a few nuggets that are worth preserving from that time and place, such as one of the earliest Merge 7"es by the Angels of Epistemology. By the 90s heyday of this scene, this stuff was already a few substrates deep, but this sounds like the best and most raucous moments of Fly Ashtray with the edge factor ratcheted up a notch or two, and with some early SY-generation guitar damage. Those exhorting femme vox at the end exude exquisite sass.

Polvo are from that era when the SY-generation guitar sound was in full swing. Today's Active Lifestyles does not stand up quite as well after all these years as Cor-Crane Secret or Celebrate the New Dark Age, but I still think that Polvo were damn near infallible up to about 1994; then with Shapes and Exploded Drawing, they cleaned up the sound and eschewed the mayhem to resemble a more middle-of-the-road mathy college-rock/indie-schlock band. Yet, that's what most people liked best about them, and it's probably why they're so excited about reports of the band reuniting to gig a bit. This version of "Tread on Me" is the rawer one from their double 7" that pre-dates their albums.

Flying below the bevy of releases by Chapel Hill heroes and critical darlings, Joby's Opinion went mostly unnoticed nationally, but this Brainiac-ish "Natty Bohemian" has always been the one (should-be) classic of that time and place that I can most instantaneously recall.

After our station's deepening fascination with J.P. Herrmann solo stuff and Flu Faker, much thanks to Doug (author of the excellent Population: Doug blog) for sending that 84 Nash stuff to KDVS. We only ever had the Kings of Yeah CD since back in the day. Our J.P. discography is closer to complete. People are playing the hell outta this so much that I'm pretty sure J.P. is the most heard person on KDVS lately just short of the Bishops of Sun City Girls fame. Seriously, though...Why hasn't any of J.P.'s recent stuff come out on vinyl? Some shrewd and tasteful label oughta snap that up!

Jumping ahead a bit....lemme just warn you that there's no way you'll be ready for that Shit & Shine track; it is too tremendous and totally bludgeoning. Maybe make yourself a Mainliner appetizer before you abuse your eardrums and speakers like that. But the effort (and possible damage) will be worth it. This rules!

After remembering a few overlooked nuggets of the 90s indie-rock heyday, I suppose it was only right that I dig out one of my top three favorite bands of the 90s "powerviolence" era. The other two were Despise You and No Le$$, but they already had their discography CDs issued years ago. Now the time's come for everyone to remember Suppression thanks to their recently released Amputated Brain Stem: 1993-2000 collection. This includes everything from their earliest grind/thrash releases to their most definitive "West Coast"-style-rivalling P.V. pummelling and their subsequent descent into all-out noise maelstrom, so, of course, it's too much to take all at once, but it's nicely segmented and annotated to help you digest. If you weren't born soon enough to experience this stuff back then, forget about this current crop of nostalgic reunions and style-apers....get with one of the best originals!

And great news for fans of the filthy Rusted Shut (from the desk of Dull Knife Records): Rusted Shut "Hot Sex" 12" EP - Finally! 4 track EP that predates "Rehab", but has been collecting dust for about 11 or 12 years. 2 "noise" tracks, and two classic Rusted Shut tracks that stand up to anything on "Rehab". A limited amount of copies will include a dvd-r of Rusted Shut playing live at the Pink Pussycat Gentleman's Club. Houston. Out in August or September.....[and] a little later: Rusted Shut "Rehab" LP - first appearance of this classic on vinyl. Originally recorded in 98, first released by the band as a cd-r circa 2003, then released on cd by Emperor Jones the next year. A masterpiece. In this biased opinion, this is the finest record to ever be made in Houston, Tx, and one of the finest noise-rock records ever made.

Check back here for even more updates: more reviews, more anecdotes about these bands or records, maybe even an interview...THANKS FOR LISTENING!

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