Tuesday, January 25, 2011

AFS v. 298 ~ Freeform Fellowship


This week in AFS...

* the state of the freeform family is optimistic
* on-air interview w/ KUSF's Carolyn Keddy
* the state of Pink Reason...strong!
* Electric Crush: USA glue-wave's desert-baked missing link

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.

LUMERIANS | Deathray Bradbury | Dethray Bradbury 7" | Rococo 2010
THE HOLYDRUG COUPLE | Now | Ancient Land EP 12" | Sacred Bones *new
FIFTY FOOT HOSE | Red the Sign Post | Cauldron | Weasel Disc 1994 (orig 1967)
BONGWATER | Great Radio | The Power of Pussy | Shimmy Disc 1991
BUNNY BRAINS | RU Ready Carolyn Keddy? | Bunny Magick | Blackjack 1994
BUNNY BRAINS | Erin Go Boom! (The Pinty Song)
SPROTON LAYER | Up | With Magnetic Fields Disrupted | New Alliance 1991 (orig 1970)
PREFAB MESSIAHS | Prefab Sun | Franz Kafka 7" | Almost Ready *new (orig 1981)
THE ZOLTARS | Party at the Batcave | self-titled 7" | Sundae *new
THE LOFTONS | Stockton Mental Hospital Theme | early demo | no label *new
GREEN SCREEN DOOR | Psychic Rape Machine | self-titled CS | no label *new
SALEM 66 | Lemon Rind | self-titled | Homestead 1984
GRASS WIDOW | Walking Out on Love [Paul Collins' Beat] | v/a: Under the Covers vol. 2 CS | Volar *new
VEGETABLE | Sol | C.F./Sol 7" | Gilgongo *new
J. MARINELLI | Your Ethos is Like a Drug to Me | Pre-Emptive Skankery Sessions | Commodity Fetish Analogue *new
JAMES ARTHUR'S MANHUNT | My God #4 | self-titled | Aarght! 2010
HANGING COFFINS | Ladies Upstairs | Bombers and Blues 7" | Malt Duck *new
ART LESSING | When it Ends | Lectures | KDVS Recordings *new
ART LESSING | Cantina
ELECTRIC CRUSH | Speed Demon | Dropouts in a Drug Haze | Black Gladiator/Slovenly *new
CRASH NORMAL | That's My Favorite Shit | Normal 7" | Royal 1997
CRASH NORMAL | Let's Cook Some Meat
SUBTLE TURNHIPS | Bob | Terd Album | HoZac *new
BUTCHER COVER | Census Man/Forced Friend | self-titled | Rotted Tooth *new
PINK REASON | Empty Stomach | Desperate Living EP 7" | Almost Ready *new
PINK REASON | The Song with No Name
BLACK SNAKES | Ride | Crawl | Radium 226.05 1988
INDUCED LABOUR | Red Deer Travelodge | Untitled 7" | Pleasence *new
JEBERREKENELLE | And My Hands Move Around | split LP w/ Rugburn | Reality Control? 1995

Many other bloggers and social-networkers have spread the word about the abrupt banishment of KUSF from the San Francisco airwaves, but if you haven't heard 'til now, this is truly a travesty. On Tuesday, January 18, the University of San Francisco ordered KUSF's transmitter to be turned off, removed staff from the station, and changed the locks. A deal had been brokered to sell KUSF's 90.3 FM frequency to a classical music network from Southern California. No warning was given, and now one of the greatest cities in the world is without its only full-power freeform community radio station. Over the years, KUSF has been one of the handful of very best radio stations, with tons of great underground music of all flavors, and an incredible array of cultural offerings in many languages. It was only last summer that Rice University in Houston made a move to sell the license and transmitter of Freeform KTRU, causing immediate mobilization of KTRU staff and supporters to block the sale and keep a student and community resource from becoming another dentist's office classical music radio station. The same kind of effort is quickly under way by KUSF's staff and supporters. Longtime KUSF DJ Carolyn Keddy joined me on the air this week to talk about what's happening...and a little about what got her involved with KUSF 20 years ago and what kept her motivated to stay so long.

I'll never forget the day that I first heard The Consumers...it was winter holiday break from UC Davis, and fellow KDVS DJ Todd Urick (of the "Hometown Atrocities" show) and I were driving around the Bay Area blowing mad money on as much rad garagepunk and Japanese hardcore records I could afford, plus Killed by Death and Bloodstains compilations. We'd shopped and spent 'til we could no more...or so we thought! The moment that Carolyn played The Consumers on KUSF, we got off I-80 in El Cerrito--yes, we were on our way home--and turned back around to double back to Amoeba in Berkeley, where we found our copies of All My Friends Are Dead. We bought one each for ourselves, plus a copy for KDVS which we still treasure and play often to this day. Is that a record-nerd story or what? Thank you, Carolyn, for this disease you've given me.

If you want to keep track of what's happening, please check out http://www.savekusf.org/ and http://www.facebook.com/SaveKUSF.

In other news, a crucial piece of American glue-wave history has dropped...Black Gladiator and Slovenly present the dawn of Electric Crush, perfectly preserved in the hot dry Las Vegas air since 2000 when Dropouts in a Drug Haze originally debuted as a cassette. Now on 12" 45 RPM vinyl, this screeching, blazing menace of hot guitar riffs, punched-up drums, unhinged howl-at-the-moon psycho vokills, and odd bits of budget electro booyar is sure to melt all your earwax and get your fist pumping and ass shaking. It makes perfect sense that this retrospective release would follow the revelatory future-primitive 7"es by Vex Ruffin & the Lo-Fi Jerkheads.

Also, Pink Reason is back, and stronger than ever. Bolstered by the walloping rhythm section of Pygmy Shrews, Kevin shows that marriage has not softened Pink Reason. This is the most aggressively rockin' Reason yet, and the best EP since the very first. If you sorta just forgot 'cos so much other music has happened since Kevin slowed down releasing music, then you need to hear this...a loud and clear bulletin that Pink Reason is still one of the best bands on the planet. Can't wait to hear more!


Friday, January 21, 2011

You can't spell P-A-R-T-Y without this guy!





One of the most thorough rockings The Hub has ever seen!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

AFS v. 297 ~ "If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for,...


...he isn't fit to live."
--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sorry to wax Bono on you, but shit is real right now!

This week in AFS...

* the latest batch from S.S. Records!
* plucking nuggets of late-80s greatness!

And on a serious note...

* a plea for Dan and Letha Rodman Melchior

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.

TY SEGALL | Annette's Got the Hits [Red Kross] | v/a: Gonerfest 7 Golden Ticket Record | Goner 2010
DUCHESS OF SAIGON | Four Soft | self-titled | SS Records *new
SPERM WAILS | Lady Chatterley | Lady Chatterley 7" | SS Records *new (orig 1986)
LOS LLAMARADA | The Restless Light (Was Made Flesh in Me) | The Restless Light 7" | SS Records *new
BLACK SNAKES | Rear View Mirror | Crawl | Radium 226.05 1988
PSYCHOPLASMA | Yellow House | Radio Flies | Schemer 1989
RADIOPUHELIMET | Hetki | Rokkiräjähdys | Euros 1988
VENOM P. STINGER | And Suddenly | Meet My Friend Venom | No Masters Voice 1986
FEEDTIME | I Wanna Ride | self-titled | Aberrant 1985
HONEYMOON KILLERS | Kansas City Milkman | Hung Far Low | Fistpuppet 1991
LUBRICATED GOAT | Nervequake/Anal Injury | ...Plays the Devil's Music | Black Eye 1987
THE RESIDENTS | Satisfaction | Satisfaction 7" | Ralph 1978
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Love Thug | Visionary Pangs | SS Records 2010
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Winter/Rip It to Pieces | self-titled CS | Night People *new
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Modoc | The Pink Scream EP 12" | Shake Appeal 2007
DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVUE | O, Clouds Unfold | O, Clouds Unfold | Hook or Crook 2009 (orig 2004)
TRETETAM | Highway House of Prayer | split CS w/ Color Rabbit | Ikuisuus 2010
PROMINENT DISTURBANCE | Creatures of the Night pts. 1 & 2 | self-titled | Down & Out 1984
NEITHER/NEITHER WORLD | Night of Hell | Sociopathic Pleasures | Majestic Chaos 1992
COLLECTION OF THE LATE HOWELL BEND | Haha | Beasts for While 11" | Ownness *new
DEATH BY DOLL | Green Fields | Ratio Atque Usus CDR | no label 2004
DANGEROUS BOYS CLUB | Scary Mercenary | VRIL | Fast Weapons *new
BILTING/KARKOWSKI | Trad Wam | Bad Bye Engine | Radium 226.05 1988
SKULLFLOWER | Birthdeath | Birthdeath 12" EP | Broken Flag 1988
SKULLFLOWER | Woodland Death March | Ruins | Shock 1990
ZENI GEVA | Sweetheart | Honowoh 7" | Baby Huey 1991

One of my longtime favorite artists, songwriters, and guitarists and his wife need help. Dan Melchior has been a friend of the show for a while, which is quite an honor for me because I've hung on every riff and lyric he's played since the dawn of Das Menace and always wanted to know more during the Broke Revue days. His wife Letha has been battling cancer since fall, and that's put their lives on hold and put their finances in peril. Scott of SS Records created a Blogspot account--http://melchiorfund.blogspot.com/--with a link to donate to Dan and Letha via Paypal and wrote these words about the situation...

As you probably know, the life of a musician playing independent music is not a lucrative one. So when one hits a snag in life that taps the resources and makes working an outside job impossible, times get really hard. This is where Dan and Letha Melchior find themselves right now. You know Dan as one of the best underground rock & roll songwriters around. He's released records on labels such as In the Red, Hangman, S.S., Siltbreeze, Daggerman and others, and played with his bands the Broke Review and Das Menace, as well as Billy Childish and Holly Golightly. Letha is a member of Tretetam and Das Menace, a former member of Ruby Falls, and contributes to a lot of Dan's record jacket art/design, not to mention Dan's partner.

A few months ago Letha was diagnosed with cancer and since then she's been in a pretty hard fight, requiring some operations and much treatment. She's been unable to work. Dan's role as her caretaker has taken him out of the work force. Letha has basic medical insurance but that really doesn't mean a whole lot in the USA. Debt is piling up. And the state that they live in, North Carolina, doesn't offer much in the way of aid. Dan and Letha need our help.

Independent of Dan and Letha, we are asking people to help them out. The Melchior name has given us a whole lot of great music; now it is time to give a little back. We know times are hard for a lot of people, so we are asking that you give what you can afford. Please know that the money donated to Dan and Letha goes directly to them via their paypal account.


One of the things that's struck over the past few years is how Dan has printed his name on inner sleeves and back covers of records as Dan Rodman Melchior...as if he's taken his wife's last name much as she has taken his. It's hardly a concern to men that women must go through all this trouble to take our last names in marriage. We mostly just go on like life's hardly changed. Very few cultures have done it differently. Some indigenous tribes of the Americas did. Jack White did it...or did he? He's really mucked that one up. No telling what his motive was, but considering Dan's case, I think it speaks pretty profoundly about how much he loves Letha and honors her.

Please, if you're a fan of Dan, go to http://melchiorfund.blogspot.com/ and send what you can afford.

Or, buy his records, tapes, and t-shirts directly from Dan here...
http://danmelchior.net/Records.html
Or, his paintings...
http://danmelchior.net/artwork.html

I still find myself having to explain to people born after 1985 why Dan Melchior is awesome. But then again, these are people who still enjoy eating at Taco Bell, and I also hafta explain to them why taquerias and supermercado lunch counters are so great. Consider that MLK quote in light of this travesty.

The latest and greatest SS Records wares include this astounding retrospective release by England's Sperm Wails, first heard by many of us when people started sharing this awesome YouTube video...



Pre-dating the American neo-no-wave and noise-rock zeitgeists by a decade to a decade-and-a-half, this came as quite a shock. And it sounds even fresher full-blast on vinyl grooves with room to breathe. Surely, it woulda been sad if this song remained unattainable on enduring vinyl. It was only ever available on a rare flexi back in the day.

The new Duchess of Saigon is an essential Sacto history lesson...the best of three Woodhouse recording sessions before a debut LP project was aborted. Fans of Reading Rainbow, I like 'em alright, too, but...this blows that outta the water! Fans of the Velvets, Beat Happening, and Half Japanese simply MUST! And Soriano bowls a turkey with a new Los Llamarada 7". Dark, deranged, brilliant!

This week's late-80s content was inspired by SS's choice to issue that Sperm Wails. He always says this a wrongly maligned time for raw, real rock 'n' roll. I was guilty of writing off that half-decade as the era that marred a would-be-great Steel Pole Bathtub LP with prevailing studio production values. But, indeed, I was overlooking a lotta great stuff. The Aussies and Scandinavians were especially fruitful during this time, it seems. More of this to come in the next AFS episodes.



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

AFS v. 296 ~ In Your Internet Speakers


This week in AFS...

* gimme Sopors!
* dawn of the 2nd coming of Lo-Fi Jerkheads!
* crucial pre-Katy Perry HC/thrash outta Davis!
* sneak-peak of new Michael Beach (ex-Electric Jellyfish) 7"

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.

MONARCHS | Polio | Polio 7" | 20 Sided *new
BOOMGATES | Bright Idea | Bright Idea 7" | R.I.P. Society *new
ALPACA BROTHERS | Zithers | Legless 12" EP | Flying Nun 1986
TY SEGALL | Imaginary Person | Melted | Goner 2010
THE GIRLS | Lord Auch | Remote View 7" | HoZac *new
WANTON LOOKS | Worst Side of Me | v/a: I'd Buy That for a Dollar 2 7" | UFO Dictator *new
LO-FI JERKHEADS | In Your Stereo | In Your Stereo 7" | Black Gladiator/Slovenly *new
ZULUS | Illiterate Eyes | Heatwave 7" | Wizard Mountain *new
TERRAFORM | Flood | Temporal Junk CS | Karamazov *new
THE EX | 148 | History is What's Happening | De Konkurrent 1982
ISOLATION WARD | High & Low | v/a: FM-BX Society Tape vol. 1 | SS Records *new (orig 1981)
TEMPORAL PAIN | Baptist Girls | More to Come 8" flexi | Split Consciousness 1982
TEDDY & THE FRAT GIRLS | Clubnite | I Wanna Be a Man 12" EP | Alternative Tentacles 1984
TEMPORAL PAIN | I'm Dead
TAMPAX | Police in the Car | Sorry Not Tonight | Attack Punk 1988
WARM STREAMS | Dr. Fuck, I Presume | self-titled CDR | no label *new
WARM STREAMS | Fingers in It
GIRLS SOCCER | Tow Truck | split 7" w/ Patient Zero | Motaba 1996
HELLNATION | Banana Farm | Suppression 7" | Sound Pollution 1991
STIKKY | Don't Lick My Leg | v/a: The Thing That Ate Floyd 2xLP | Lookout 1988
WELL HUNG MONKS | Product of Misdirection
SOPORS | I Watch Movies | Golden Era #267 | Mongo Bongo *new
SOPORS | Read to Me/Brand New Faces
WE SHAVE | J'ai Mal Aux Dents [Faust] | In the Flesh CS | Night People *new
WE SHAVE | Sgt. Chowder
COLLECTION OF THE LATE HOWELL BEND | Dominated by Splendor | Beasts for While 11" | Ownness *new
DEAF WISH | The Beat of Nothing's Wrong | Mercy | Radio Records Melbourne *new
DEAF WISH | Mean to Me/Deaf News | Reality & Visions | Idget Child 2010
WHITE WOODS | Ballet Tea/Sea Sickened | Bellplay CS | Night People *new
MICHAEL BEACH | The Exhilarating Rise | A Horse 7" | Spectacular Commodity/Twin Lakes *forthcoming
RED LORRY YELLOW LORRY | Only Dreaming (Wide Awake) | Nothing Wrong | Beggars Banquet 1988
A WITNESS | Red Snake | Red Snake 12" EP | Ron Johnson 1986
A WITNESS | The Loudhailer Song | I Am John's Pancreas | Ron Johnson 1986
DRUNKS WITH GUNS | Zombie | self-titled 2x7" | Behemoth | 1992
DRUNK TANK | Scissors | Leadfoot 7" | Radial 1989

No garagepunker's ever reinvented the wheel 'til these Jerkheads came around and cut/pasted some ruling rockin' roll sorta-breakbeat-style. I dropped "Volcano" on an unsuspecting dance club crowd, and before slipping into straight-up minimal/darkwave/synth-mode, it was the Jerkheads who got the crowd moving more than any other record I played all night.



More Jerkheads hype here:
http://www.pahardcore.com/Jerkheads

Don't presume I worship the ground every Aussie rocker's ever walked on because of all the Aussie content over the last couple years. Here's provin' ya':
"Put your drinks down....Let's punk it up a little bit....YEAH! ALRIGHT!"



Okay...sorry!

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

AFS v. 295 ~ Universal Order of 2011


This week in AFS...

* new tapes!
* what's Cheveu got in store for '11?
* new knuckle-dragging scuzz-rock devastation!
* in 2011, we finally catch up to what Sexy Prison threw down!
* Saturday, Jan 8 sees Davis and Sacto thee center of the funiverse!

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.

SEXY PRISON | Universal Order of 2011 | Filth Flarn Filth | Occult 2008
BUK BUK BIGUPS | Hotfuckdetekta | Big Big Fuckups CS | no label *new
CHEVEU | Charlie Sheen | 1000 | Born Bad/Kill Shaman *forthcoming
NAKED ON THE VAGUE | Dust | split LP w/ Wet Hair | Night People *new
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Hook or Crook | s/t CS | Night People *new
BASSHOLES | Cyclotron [Electric Eels] | I Feel Like Sleeping 12" EP | Columbus Discount *new
ELECTRIC BUNNIES | All the Pretty Girls Have Gone to the Beach | Heal Me With Your Kiss 7" | Columbus Discount *new
STRAIGHT ARROWS | Gone | It's Happening | Juvenile *new
DEAF WISH | Song for Aleesha/D.E.A.F. | Mercy | Radio Records Melbourne *new
CIRCLE PIT | Sewercide | Sewercide 7" | Sweet Rot/R.I.P. Society *new
UNHOLY TWO | Sick Fuck | $$kum of the Earth | Columbus Discount *new
ACTION SWINGERS | Miserable Life | Quit While You're Ahead | Caroline 1994
DEAD HEAD | Black Despondency | s/t CS | no label *new
SONSKULL | Laura/Boston Girls | Birth Scene/Rewind EP 12" | Perennial 2010
SLICING GRANDPA | Drugs and Money | Rock and Roll Violence CDR | Strain Theory *new
SLICING GRANDPA | Pretty Vacant | Never Mind the Bullshit, Here's Slicing Grandpa | Strain Theory *new
STARFUCKERS | The Right Side | Metal Diseases | Holy Mountain *forthcoming reissue (orig 1990)
MEERCAZ | Drag Street | s/t CS | Night People *new
THE SAINTS | This Perfect Day | Eternally Yours | Sire 1978 (request)
DEAD MOON | Down the Road | Stranded in the Mystery Zone | Tombstone 1991
DRIVETRAIN | Time is of the Essence | Time is of the Essence 7" | Tombstone 1988
MATT K. SHRUGG | We Were D.O.A. | Spliff Bunker CDR | no label 2010
JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN & FRIENDS a.k.a. MINOR WES | Straight Edge | split 7" w/ The Crackpipes | Sick Thought *new
POTATO CHIPS | You Don't Have to Act Free | Looks Like We're About To Bite It, Maybe You Should Bite It Too? 3" CDR | Savoury Days *new
GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH | Seeker | Postcard from the Tar Pitz | Worksound/Hovercraft *new
THE GO-NUTS | Transfusion [Nervous Norvus] | Go Nuts With... 7" | Estrus 1995
NOBUNNY | Monster Kiss [Golden Boots] | Raw Romance | Burger *new
THE MANTLES | A Million Miles Away | v/a: Under the Covers vol. 2 CS | Volar/I Hate Rock & Roll *new
WHITE FENCE | Gimme Some Time | v/a: Under the Covers vol. 2 CS
SHARP ENDS | Mother Squid | self-titled | Kill Shaman *new
GOLDEN ERROR | It Must Be Me/Coat of Green [X] | Refuse Me 7" | The Hard Sell *new

With the Mayyors dead, G. Green starting over in v5.0, and the English Singles still talking only very wistfully about making their debut 7", 2011 might be the year of Buk Buk Bigups in Sacto. Having begun as the solo project of Mom's main man Aaron, blending funk, electro, psych, glitter, and Krauty grooves, the Bigups expanded into a full band last summer and quickly became one of the very best and funnest new bands in the Pacific Time Zone. Last week, Fuzzbox Flynn and I had the honor of DJing a party for the Bigups' video premiere and full-length cassette release. This cassette begs to be released on vinyl. Have a peep at the video...

Buk Buk Bigups - Endless Itch (Official Video) from Kenneth Vaughn on Vimeo.



Every year, during the first week of January, I hear an LP for the first time and regret not hearing it soon enough to include it in my best-of-YYYY list. For 2010, that record is Mercy by Deaf Wish.

But now that it's 2011, we are finally gonna see what Sexy Prison foresaged almost four years ago when their tour theme was 2011 in 2007. What can we glean from their opus from their 2nd LP, "Universal Order of 2011"? Is it a hopeful promise or a warning? I think it depends on whether you know how to party, and what is your tolerance level for unusual levels of radness. A great first test is coming to Davis and Sacto on Saturday, January 8 when an epic double-dip happens. First, at the DAM Haus (503 E Street in Davis) it's Gestapo Khazi, Warm Streams, and the debut of the new lineup of G. Green now featuring lead guitar by Rod Meyer, formerly of The Hospitals and Eat Skull. Food will be provided by Warm Streams vokillist and traveling gourmet chef Joshua Ploeg. This show runs from 7pm to 10pm. Pick up the first half of a raffle ticket when you donate a whole integer amount of U.S. dollars to the DAM Haus donation jar. Then take it to The Hub in Sacramento (1819 23rd Street) where NYC's The Babies (side-project of Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls and members of Woods (and it's better live than either main vehicle)), The Mantles, and White Fence will play at 11pm sharp on shared equipment. Pick up the 2nd half of your raffle ticket. If you attend both shows, you are entered into a raffle to win free admission to every KDVS Presents @ The Hub show through summer 2011 (a programme including Ty Segall, NoBunny, Quintron, and too many other rad bands to list).

Advance tickets for that Hub show are available at a discount here (see Paypal buttons)...
http://undietacos.org/undietacos/board/index.php?action=view&id=14016



I know you're excited for Cheveu's 1000 LP to drop, so here's one more taste...with some tasty string music!



...and that's not the only song on 1000 to feature real strings! Whereas the first LP copped a riff from Tuxedomoon--"Hello, Friends" coulda been based on "No Tears"--1000's resemblance to Winston Tong & co. is in these brilliant strings. And the drum machine from Cabaret Voltaire's "Walls of Jericho" hasn't sounded better in almost 30 years. Yet, for all the touches of legendary bands (and raps swiped from Vanilla Ice on the "Ice Ice Baby" re-write), 1000 is unmistakably Cheveu and takes the band to a whole new level of greatness. Look for Cheveu in the U.S.A. in late spring/early summer.

2011's rollin' already, see!