AFS v. 223½ ~ So Cow live on KDVS

Freeform KDVS is honored to present a live in-studio set from So Cow, the most fantastic picture-perfect pop band on the planet today. Touring the States for the first time as a full band, the Irishmen inflicted a pop-maelstrom of 23 songs in 45 minutes. Catch them on tour now! If you can't pick up So Cow's first ever vinyl long-player from their merch table, order it here from Tic Tac Totally...it's one of the most essential new albums of 2009 so far!

Download this program within two months at this link...
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Thanks to Fenris Wulf for engineering sound, Tim Hance for loaning drums, and Michael Mastrangelo for bass cab and guitar amp.

Here's the playlist...

Greetings
100 Helens
Ping Pong Rock
So Cow vs. the Future
Only Fools + Horses/Swords
Choh Ah!
Ja Ju Ah Pa Yo
League of Impressionable Teens
Bat Toes
Meaningless Friendly
One Careful Owner
High Standards
Normalcy
The Tony Keady Affair
Shackleton
This Angry Silence [Television Personalities]
Commuting
Mess Me Up [NoBunny]
Moon Geun Young
You're Nice Mysteries
To Do List
Casablanca
It's Over

AFS v. 223 ~ Green Psychic Stasis

This week's podcast features a Live in Studio A set by Green Green, the weirdpunk/weirdfolk project of one Andrew Henderson from Folsom, California. Some of the bravest, boldest singing and most emotionally wrenching live shows I've seen locally in the last year have been performed by this young fellow. He surely has a knack for polarizing rooms with his intensely personal style of singing and unstable rhythms, but if you listen patiently, I think you'll hear that this cat's got courage and personality in oodles, a really unique sense of humor, and even a keen--if quirky--sense of pop. After a couple self-made cassette and CDR releases, the first Green Green 7" vinyl came out last month. Two KDVS-affiliated labels, Out of Order and Orange Regret, teamed up to release "Swimsuit Drugs" b/w "Mouth on the Floor" in an addition of 300. It ships for $6ppd to the USA.

Lemme just say that this new Ganglians LP+7" on Weird Forest totally knocks it outta the park! But I'll more extensively feature it next week...Read on below the playlist about this week's other features: (1) the new tape by Michael Stasis which sounds like the best cassette-only album since Harmony Ground Zero last year, and (2) the first 7" from Not Not Fun all-star band Vibes...

Download this program within two months at this link...
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or
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GANGLIANS | Cryin' Smoke | Monster Head Room 12"+7" | Weird Forest *new
MICHAEL STASIS | Greenskin | self-titled cassette | Natural Resources *new
BELREVE | The Sky Is Falling | Nothing 7" | Anyway 1993
SUMMER HITS | Mod Cinema | 1000 Moments of Natural Flotation 7" | Silver Girl 1995
THE FRESH & ONLYS | Peacock & Wing | self-titled | Castle Face 2008
DAVILA 666 | Me Va Muy Mal | self-titled 7" | Douche Master *new
* * * live in Studio A * * *
GREEN GREEN | Swimsuit Drugs
GREEN GREEN | Celestial Ceremony
GREEN GREEN | For You
GREEN GREEN | Clean Chemicals
GREEN GREEN | Song
GREEN GREEN | Mouth on the Floor
GREEN GREEN | Sinner Now
GREEN GREEN | Hot Streets
GREEN GREEN | Lipstick
* * *
THEE OH SEES | Hey Buddy | Zork's Tape Bruise (bonus CD) | Kill Shaman *new
MICHAEL STASIS | Bugle Boy | self-titled cassette
VIBES | Dead Horses | Psychic 7" | Not Not Fun *new
THE MIRRORS | Beaver Girls | Something That Would Never Do | Violet Times/Hovercraft *new (orig 1974)
THE MIRRORS | Living Without You
SPIRIT DUPLICATOR | A Poor Craftsman Blames His Tools | Tonight I'll Forget the English Language CDR | Deathbombarc *new
CELESTEVILLE | Leftward Glance | Spirit Duplicator CDR | Tape Mountain 2005
ODD CLOUDS | title unknown | Deceiving Illusion | Not Not Fun *forthcoming
HEAVY WINGED & INCA ORE | side A | self-titled | Not Not Fun *new
JANDEK | I Ain't Got None | Interstellar Discussion | Corwood 1984
JIM SHEPARD | Animal Man | The Songs of Kim Fowley 7" | Anopheles 1996
V-3 | It's Not Easy (Over-Drive) | Psychic Dance Hall | Ropeburn 1991
FRANCIS HAROLD & THE HOLOGRAMS | Why Are You So Afraid? | Who Said These Were Happy Times | Going Underground/Square Wave *new
TELEVISION PERSONALITIES | This Angry Silence | ...and Don't the Kids Just Love It | Rough Trade 1980
SO COW | Halcyon Days | self-titled | Tic Tac Totally *new



The new cassette-only album by NYC's Michael Stasis is a shining nugget of vinyl-ready psych-pop that varies between folky strum, breezy twee, soulful crooning, and consumer-grade electronics. One moment, he daringly embraces mainstream pop radio just enough to smack of Prince a little bit. Later, you could swear that he just ripped off the vocal progression from Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" and reappropriated it for fans of the Quiet Storm and 70's soft rock. Ariel Pink and Gary War are inevitable comparisons, but Michael Stasis does not reek so much of irony, not even when the unexpected overdub of a creepy, maniacal "gimme what I want...motherfucker!!!"--complete with a separate layer of a different brand's tape-hiss(!)--sneaks into the otherwise sweetest, most lullaby-like little ditty. Michael's approach to lo-fi recording is also more effective than either of the comparables, and the entire album hangs together brilliantly, beckoning repeat listens. Fans of those Ganglians should surely approve! Seriously, this would sound great on vinyl....Why doesn't someone make it happen? If you just wanna listen, I recommend that you paypal $8 to naturalresourcestapes(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or send concealed cash to Natural Resources, 75 Wilson Ave 2nd Floor, Brooklyn NY 11237.

Speaking of soulful....the first vinyl from Vibes--the Psychic 7" on Not Not Fun--is a soulful psych weirdpunk rager! The band is comprised of Amanda and Britt from Pocahaunted (also the NNF label honchos) and formerly Weirdo/Begeirdo and Cameron from Sun Araw. Amanda's dynamo vocals immediately recall Kilynn of Little Claw as they go from ladylike to unhinged and back again while the band pounds out overdriven bluesy riffs of fuzz with warbly wah-jammin' that build to roiling crescendoes from laid-back beginnings as the drummer sets the early tempos with head-bobbin' hip hop double-triplets. In that way, these four songs are kinda like more condensed punk versions of "Black Sky" by Mainliner. For fans of awesome girl-power, this is a must. Man, am I bummed to have slept on their tape from earlier this year! Anyone gotta copy and wanna propose a trade? For what is essentially a jamrock band that probably barely--if ever practices--this is incredibly effective...really a perfect side-project for each of these three. And it's probably the most rockin' slab that NNF has released since The Hospitals made an appearance on the Bored Fortress Singles Club in year one.

AFS v. 222 ~ Philosophically Stoogely

After having just met Mattin as Deflag Haemorrhage/Haien Kontra polarized Sacramento--and with KDVS presents Black Dice and Wolf Eyes (with English Singles!) looming ahead (Thursday, May 28 @ Retrofit Studios, 1815 19th Street in Sacto across the street from Safeway)--my mind's not really been on rock and roll. I useta go to so many more noise shows, y'know! Has the noise scene dwindled a bit as underground rock has blossomed again? I'd hafta ruminate on that one for a while, but at least for this week, Art for Spastics is featuring a lot more knob-twiddling and synth-bleating than string-thrashing, and a lot more mechanized beats than drums. The most outstanding exception this week, however, is guitar-god Grady Runyan leading the Liquorball charge, flanked by Steve Mackay, the man who set the bar for saxophonists playing in rock music when he blew on the greatest album of all time, Funhouse by The Stooges. This excerpt is from Evolutionary Squalor, the new album from Liquorball which features two side-long epic psych-rock jams recorded live at Grady's Record Refuge in Ventura, CA. I wish I coulda been there, but this record is a plenty satisfying substitute for the real thing. There's a couple moments of stupendous scorching, and it even flows marvelously during the times when it merely simmers. Here's to hoping that Liquorball and Mr. Mackay make up to Northern California sometime!

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

TV GHOST | Prodrome | The Fiend 7" | Columbus Discount *new
THE INTELLIGENCE | I Hear Depression | Fake Surfers | In The Red *new
THE INTELLIGENCE | Intromentals | Crepuscule with Pacman | Born Bad *new
GANGLIANS | Nevermind | Ganglians | Woodsist *new
KAA ANTILOPE | The Break of Day | VPRO RadioNome - April 2 1982 | Enfant Terrible *new
DISTEL | Fand | v/a: Radio Resistencia | Enfant Terrible *new
BROTMAN & SHORT | A League to Destroy All Nations | Rubix Dudes CS | Hardscrabble Amateurs 2008
CRACK: WE ARE ROCK! | Homoerectus | split 12" w/ Wolf Eyes | F-Cute 2001
WOLF EYES | Let the Smoke Rise | Dread | American Tapes/Hanson 2001
WOLF EYES | trk 3 | Slicer | Hanson 2002
BLACK DICE | Chicken Shit | Repo | Paw Tracks *new
BERMUDA TRIANGLES | Human Electric/Sexy Mutants | Giant Squid | CNP *new
LUC VAN ACKER | Buharata | VPRO RadioNome December 18 1981 | Enfant Terrible *new
FNU RONNIES | Watchful Eye | Golem 12" | Night People *new
SWORD HEAVEN | Leave Holes | v/a: The Human Conduct Detox Program | Human Conduct *new
S.P.K. | Despair | Leichenschrei | Thermidor 1982
SIRIUS B | Build Your Children | v/a: The Elephant Table Album | Xtract 1983
CULTURAL AMNESIA | Scars for E | Enormous Savages Enlarged | Klang Galerie *new (orig 1983)
TOMBE EN COMBAT! | trk 10 | v/a: Solveigs Lied Remixes | Teen Action *new
TORSTEIN WJIIK | trk 11 | v/a: Solveigs Lied Remixes
BUG SIZED MIND | Daisy Cutter | v/a: Sarcophagus 1-4 | Radius Waste 2006
GOILS GOILS & FRIPPED | title unknown | Goils Goils & Fripped | Being Weird Isn't Enough 2006
EVOLUTION CONTROL COMMITTEE | But I Don't Believe in Evolution | v/a: Eerie Bazaar | Eerie Materials 1997
ESPECIALLY LIKELY SLOTH | Hammer Smashed Face [Cannibal Corpse] | v/a: Roots II (The Return) | Root of All Evil 1998
SLEESTAK | Kentucky Lover | split 7" w/ Lil Rudy G & the Chizmosos | Total Annihilation 1998
SLOTH | Local Hunter | split 7" w/ Noothgrush | Dom's 1997
LIQUORBALL w/ STEVE MACKAY | untitled | Evolutionary Squalor | Rocketship *new
CHROME | Nova Feedback | Alien Soundtracks | Siren 1977
CRASH WORSHIP | Procession | ¡Espontaneo! | Charnel 1991

Among small cities under 100,000 population, Davis has always been one of the top tour stops for underground bands thanks to Freeform KDVS playing alla these bands and creating a welcoming audience for even some of the most marginal. In the early to mid 90s when there was a Davis Musicians' Co-Op, that was probably the last of the days when Davis boasted a great number of bands, especially on a per capita basis. For the last 15 years, however, Davis has mostly been a place where precocious young music listeners start awesome record collections and becoming walking encyclopedias of rare record knowledge....not so much a place where you start a band. At any given time, there's only a handful or less musical projects worth getting excited about. But all that seems to be changing now that a certain group of KDVS DJs are finding their voices as daring musical improvisers. Pictured to the right here is a new band which (for now, at least) is called Random Boners. Four female KDVS DJs create a buzzy, crackly, yet lush drone with keyboards, violin, and contact mics on various junk. Just two shows in, they're already as competent as Organum, but what really makes it unique are the texts which vocalist Oki delivered deadpan. She began their second ever show opening for Eternal Tapestry and San Kazakgascar by reading marketing propaganda straight from a paper placemat from In-n-Out Burger, which got the audience nice and confused. Some simulated one-sided phonecalls dripping with Valley Girl vapidity polarized the room between the annoyed and the these-are-my-friends/OMG-I'm-so-embarrassed. Sensing a possible mutiny, Oki changed gears into morbidly raunchy divulgement of some unexpected junk in the hammock, and that is when everyone in the room (well, let's say most!) got on their side. Oki's emotional detachment never wavered as things turned daringly ribald....it was like Algebra Suicide slumtripped through a Tenderloin alley, turning Too Short's Freaky Tales tame and obsolete.

Two of these ladies also debuted in support of Mattin's DHHK project and Jean on Jean. They performed as Yours with contact mics on a metal frame and a fantastic-looking sculpture that looked like a feather boa made of rusted curls of metal. Even though they ended their first improvisation early and apologetically due to some aberrant feedback, they continued after the audience begged for more; and while they were a little bit apprehensive at first, they really did a great job of rolling with the unexpected. Yours reminded me of some of the best performances I'd seen by 16 Bitch Pile Up.

Also, Mucky the Ducky--now with a short California tour under their belt--have turned into a fantastic free-jazzy vibe-ridin' live band all of a sudden with a lineup shift including drummer Jon Bafus, who'd been active the last few years with local projects such as Afternoon Brother and Good News Bears. I always managed to miss those bands, so I was unaware until now how tremendous a drummer he is. Now the Sacto/Yolo area is home to two of my favorite improv drummers whose mindbogglingly quick virtuoso movements rival even Tony Oxley in my mind (the other being Kevin Corcoran). I saw 'em two nights in a row and thought their best moments trumped anything I've heard from the No Neck camp in recent years. Hard to believe that only a year ago, this band performed one of the most painful shows I've witnessed in recent memory!

I challenge all of these projects to keep it up and maybe even make some records! (Maybe change your band names, too? I dunno...I just think you can do better in that regard.) And if you wanna see what these bands are all about, three branches from this new family tree of project are playing in a corrugated metal shack on the UC-Davis campus on Saturday night! (see flier to the left)

Of course, Sacramento has been home to some really outstanding and courageous experimental/improv artists lately: pretty much anything involving Chad Stockdale and/or Kevin Corcoran is totally thrilling; Mom is progressing conceptually to the highest echelon of performance artists today; and ingenious stringed-instrument handcrafters Art Lessing & the Flower Vato are criminally overdue to prove via vinyl that they are a world-class psychedelic band. With these stalwarts and a steady stream of touring bands and artists coming through the area, it is clear that more young people in the Sacto/Davis area have become inspired to create. I'm looking forward to seeing this develop.

Now....I'd love to carry on about some wonderfully weird records, tapes, and CDs that I played, but there's so little time @ 3:20 a.m. Just enjoy the music of little-known Belgian proto-minimal-wavers Kaa Antilope. This song has been stuck in my mind since I heard it as a kid listening to KDVS. The band only made one 7" and made a few compilation appearances (this version of the song from the Coal Heart Forever LP comp from Sub Rosa in the late 80s), but Enfant Terrible has been wise enough to issue a full LP of their live material from a Dutch VPRO Radio broadcast. Don't all react at once...I still need to hunt this vinyl down!



Okay, okay...one last morsel! I've told the story twice in the past couple days....

A watershed live music experience in my young life happened in 1995 when I saw Crash Worship play in San Francisco at the Trocadero Transfer. By then, the band's live shows had become legendary, but as word of mouth traveled to Davis, that legend seemed to center mostly on how half the crowd would inevitably strip to the nude. I had heard something in their music that reminded me of Coil, yet also Savage Republic, so I was just curious. I had previously been very sheltered from anything that had the look and feel of evil, yet also created some sorta feeling of communal spirit, the encouragement of unbridled ecstasy...I mean...I was still a hardcore punk kid for the most part!

So, I went to the Crash Worship show with a neighbor who knew better what to expect, but the only advice he gave me was "Wear clothes that you won't mind getting ruined." Okay!

The band took positions like a phalanx of fighters on-stage with drummers arranged symmetrically and flanked by freaks holding torches. Other operatives walked through the crowd with canons shooting wine which people tried to catch in their mouths. Total strangers freak-danced on you from all sides, literally, and figuratively (as in, whichever side of the fence, in relation to gender or sexuality). There was a choice to be made....become disgusted or ashamed and run outside, or adapt quickly and roll with it? I actually did sense a significant personal growth opportunity, and I thought momentarily about how I could practically imagine now what it might be like to have seen Throbbing Gristle in their heyday. So, I stayed....and as it became too hot to bear, I made another unexpected choice and peeled off the shirt. There was no coat check area, so I just stashed the shirt in a corner somewhere.

By this time, the entire band and their flamebearers were on the floor parading through the audience. I have no idea how many people were there, but I'd guess somewhere between 300-400. At least, that's how I remember it. Now, normally, I'm pretty conscientious about my personal safety, but that night, I really felt free of those concerns because, despite the palpable sense of darkness there, I felt like everyone in that room had a collective consciousness that wouldn't allow anyone to get hurt. But all of a sudden, I felt intense heat on my back, and I turned around to discover that one of those impish torchbearers was bouncing backwards towards me without a care about what was behind him. The entire group of people surrounding me scampered outta the way, splitting like the Red Sea, and I scurried away just in time to avoid getting burned.

Now my blood was really pumping, and I was ultra-aware of everything around me. And that is when two girls with chocolate sauce approached me. One of them squirted the sauce across my torso from the lower left oblique up to my right shoulder. Her friend enthusiastically licked it all off, taking an extra few seconds on the right nipple to nearly bite it off! I was just stupefied. The rest of the show was like a blur...perhaps a cumulative contact high effect or something. Afterwards, my shirt was soaked, so I threw it in the trash and drove home shirtless. I felt like I had a few extra chest hairs to show off, so I adjusted to the awkwardness of that, too.

Since that time, I've ever so seldom experienced any sense of fear at a live music show. Thank you, Crash Worship, for inspiring me to explore music with so much more courage. The next few hardcore shows I went to seemed pretty trifling. It took a while to re-accept regular ol' punk rock on its own terms again after seeing true mayhem ensue.

Of course, nowadays, I would be afraid to take my shirt of at a show. No more Crash Worship for me....crash diet might be more like it!

AFS v. 221 ~ You're Soaking in It!

If you were one of those ballyhooers who pooh-poohed the last Crash Normal album--My First Stop--for being too straightforward of a Jon Spencer-ish garagey bluespunk album and lacking in all the cool artpunk angles and junk-techno accoutrements of Heavy Listening and earlier singles, then you'll probably be happy to hear this new Finger Shower 10" a-comin' on Rijapov soon. The Spencer touch has been lifted in favor of a Wallers slant; the Country Teasers are covered on this, and echoed throughout. Have a taste of "Chrome Cramps" this week...you might envision the possible result if Wallers had borrowed "Doktor Avalanche" offa Sisters of Mercy to make a headphone soundtrack for crushing the countryside in an armored tank. As Crash Normal has been a twin guitar attack in the past, I don't know if there's a bass guitar anywhere here, but it's no matter 'cos there's some brawny low-end presence that syncs up brilliantly with the rhythmic bludgeon. It's certainly a lot more dour and mean than anything you've heard from Crash Normal before, but I think that old fans will be very pleased. Another fun thing about this 10" is how it makes you wonder....What the hell is a finger shower??? Is that something like the scene in "Election" when Matthew Broderick's character takes a genital shower before returning home to his wife after an extramarital tryst?

Download this program within two months at this link...
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or
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THE HUNS | Busy Kids | v/a: Bloodstains Across Texas | Bloodstains 1992 (orig 1978)
SUPER WILD HORSES | How Do You Sleep | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 7 7" | Almost Ready *new
DAY CREEPER | Outerbelt | v/a: New Kids on the Block 7" | Randy *new
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT | All Together Now | Golden Oldies | no label *new
GANGLIANS | Rats Man | Ganglians | Woodsist *new
THEE OH SEES | Tidal Wave | Tidal Wave 7" | Woodsist *new
REAL ESTATE | Fake Blues | Fake Blues 7" | Woodsist *new
MOVIE STAR JUNKIES | I Love You More as Dead | split 7" w/ Vermillion Sands | Rijapov *new
NOTHING PEOPLE | When I Drink | Late Night | S-S *new
CAVE | HLD2/Hunt Like Devil/HLD3 | Hunt Like Devil/JAMZ | Permanent 2007
CAVE | trk 5 | Psychic Psummer | Important *new
TV GHOST | The Fiend | Singles Club 7" | Columbus Discount *new
OCTAGON CONTROL | Hedz R Gunna Roll | split 7" w/ Doctor Scientist | FDH *new
HERE COMES A BIG BLACK CLOUD | Black Mold | s/t 7" | Stank House *new
NICE FACE | Situation is Facing Utter Annihiliation | Mnemonic Device 7" | Sacred Bones *new
CRASH NORMAL | Chrome Cramps | Finger Shower 10" | Rijapov *forthcoming
PLASTOBETON | Hard to Kill | a 31 7" | SDZ *new
DOLINA | Once Again | v/a: Radio Resistencia | Enfant Terrible *new
THE PINK NOISE | Buzzsaw | Alpha | Almost Ready *new
TECHNO PRISONERS | Huge Slit Splitting Love Log | split CS w/ Sewn Leather | Hardscrabble Amateurs *new
METALUX | Oblivion Bibulah | split LP w/ KK Rampage | Rampage *new
ZOLA JESUS | Sea Talk | Tsar Bomba | Troubleman Unlimited *new
THE SHORT WAVE MYSTERY | Ecaterina Szabo | Pilots 12" EP | Good 1985
HELENE RICKHARD | title unknown | v/a: Solveigs Lied Remixes | Teen Action *new
MODEL Z | Military March | v/a Radio Resistencia
CULTURAL AMNESIA | Repetition for This World | Enormous Savages Enlarged | Klang Galerie *new (orig 1981)
BLUE SABBATH BLACK FIJI | trks 9-10 | Lazer Saber | JK Tapes 2007
BILLY BAO | Putrified Egos/Broken Mirror | Dialectics of Shit | Parts Unknown 2008
KNELT ROTE | Assimilation Estrangement | From Without | Celestial Gang *new
KNELT ROTE | Masked Descending

Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom VII was a gas, huh? That was certainly the best and most successful ORMF fest ever. We didn't keep counta the head, but we woulda lost count anyway, I figure. Probably 450, even in the sweltering heat...WOW! The highlights for me were the slow-burning sax-assisted jamrockers by Eternal Tapestry, the mayhem of the Mayyors (resulting in ORMF's first ever stagedive attempt), and the sublimity of Thee Oh Sees. Now, this might make you really jealous if you missed it, but something happened that was unprecedented in live performance, I think. You know that Oh Sees song "Two Drummers Disappear"? Well, two drummers appeared during this show, and one of them was named Chris Woodhouse, and he added some extra wallop during a couple extended jams which were just superb in every way. Maybe we'll get #8 going for October....who knows?

And on that triumphant note, if you're in the Sacto/Davis area, be ready for more rulingness from Freeform KDVS Presents...

Wednesday, May 20 @ The Hub
1819 23rd Street in Sacramento
(between R & S Streets) $5 9pm

Cave (Chicago)
Nothing People
Art Lessing & the Flower Vato

Saturday, May 23 @ DAM House
503 E Street in Davis
donate $5; 7-10 pm only

Blue Sabbath Black Fiji (Scotland)
Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk (Lawrence, KS)
Mucky the Ducky

Sunday, May 24 @ The Hub
$5, 9pm

Deflage Haemorrhage/Haien Kontra (Basque Country/feat. Mattin)
Jean on Jean (Molly of Out Hud)
Mucky the Ducky
Yours

AFS v. 220 ~ feat. Eternal Tapestry live in Studio A

Our special in-studio guests tonight--Eternal Tapestry--dropped an outstanding performance in Studio A tonight! This begins about 20 minutes into the file and absolutely scorches for nearly 40 minutes. The band joins me in the second hour to spin a few fave old records and have a listen to some new ones from recent paypal'ing sprees. Hear those FNU Ronnies again for the first time on vinyl. I know that I've been playing "Golem Smoke" since it was a demo last year, but it still flattens me everytime! Hey...If you dig this E-Tap set, you gotta come check 'em out at Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom VII fest on Saturday, May 16, where they play with such heavy hitters as Wooden Shjips, Thee Oh Sees, Mayyors, Lucky Dragons, Meth Teeth, and more....all day long in the boonies between Davis and Sacto. Read all about it below the playlist....

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

HUE BLANC'S JOYLESS ONES | Cry | Cry 7" | Static Wagon *new
HELLO SUNSHINE | Flying Chariots | 4-song 7" | Les Disques Steak *new
TYVEK | Blessed | Blessed 7" | Les Disques Steak *new
TYVEK | Hey Una | Tyvek | Siltbreeze *new
ERIC & THE HAPPY THOUGHTS | Bad Days | v/a: New Kids on the Block 7" | Randy *new

********Live in Studio A*********
ETERNAL TAPESTRY | Don't Know
ETERNAL TAPESTRY | Cathedral of Radiance
ETERNAL TAPESTRY | Thyme Traveler
ETERNAL TAPESTRY | Smoke Monster

THE FRESH & ONLYS | Love & Kindness | The Fresh & Onlys | Castle Face *new
DEAD CLODETTES | Je Cherche un Garçon | 2nd 7" | Lipstick Pickup *new
X | Suck Suck | Aspirations | X Music 1979
VENOM P. STINGER | Venom P. Stinger | Meet My Friend Venom | No Master's Voice 1986
RED TRANSISTOR | Not Bite | Not Bite 7" | Forced Exposure 1990 (orig 1977)
MAYYORS | Fatigre | Marines Dot Com 7" | Waste of Oil 2008
MAYYORS | Airplanes | Megan's LOLZ 7" | Gomerdome 2008
FRANCIS HAROLD & THE HOLOGRAMS | Glitter Girls | Who Said These Were Happy Times? | Square Wave/Going Underground *new
BLOODBIKER | Dead | demo CDR | no label 2008
BUTTHOLE SURFERS | Negro Observer | Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac | Touch & Go 1984
CAVE | trk 2 | Psychic Psummer | Important *new
THEE OH SEES | Meat Step Lively | Help | In The Red *new
HAWKWIND | Dying Seas | Warrior on the Edge of Time | Atco 1975
CHROME | Zero Time | Half Machine Lip Moves | Siren 1979
FNU RONNIES | Golem Smoke | Golem 12" | Night People *new

Freeform KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis presents...



WOODEN SHJIPS (SF)
THEE OH SEES (SF)
MAYYORS (SAC)
METH TEETH (PDX)
LUCKY DRAGONS (LA)
ETERNAL TAPESTRY (PDX)
STRIP MALL SEIZURES (OAKLAND)
SILVER DARLING (SAC)
THE NOTHING (SF)
PLEASE QUIET OURSELVES (BERKELEY)
DMPH (SAC)
PREGNANT (PLACERVILLE)

Saturday, May 16
2pm-10pm
@ Plainfield Station
23944 County Road 98, Woodland, CA

ALL AGES

This is in the boonies between Davis and Woodland at a rustic roadhouse (just like the one in the movie with Patrick Swayze, except not the least bit contrived) dating back to the 1920s which is the local haunt preferred by bikers (mostly real ones) and area agriculturalists. Best burgers and tacos in this part of Yolo County! Beer much cheaper than usual! This place is as much the star of the show as any of our outstanding bands.

Low price
$8 advance
$10 door

Best value in day-long festivals ever....How do we do it???

For more info or to PayPal for advance tix...
http://www.myspace.com/maximumfreedom

Directions:
(Googlemaps can't seem to find this, but it's easy!)

From Sacto (30 mins)...
(1) Take I-80 west to Davis
(2) Take Hwy 113 North toward Woodland
(3) Exit at County Road 29, turn right at end of exit
(4) Turn right at 2nd stop-sign at Road 98....it's 200 feet away.

From SF Bay Area (1-1.5 hours)...
(1) Take I-80 East toward Davis
(2) After passing town of Dixon, get over to right lane
(3) Take Hwy 113 North cutoff toward Woodland
(4) Exit at County Road 29, turn right at end of exit
(5) Turn right at 2nd stop-sign at Road 98....it's 200 feet away.

AFS v. 219 ~ I've Bled Everywhere, Man

Attention, synthpunk fans! I'm finally digging out from the deluge of promo packages even while the aftermath of the KDVS Fundraiser's still being sorted, and I'm happy to have finally discovered a blippy 8-bit barrage from St. Louis by the Medical Tourists. The guitar attack on the 7-song demo CDR makes it plenty punk; the blippiness and robotic rhythms make it totally fun, yet it smartly avoids being dorky. The songs hang together well, varying in pace and ranging through stylistic touchstones as Devo, the A Frames, and Metal Urbain, but also sounding just like themselves with an upfront female presence and a penchant for riding that synth-highhat-bell sound not often heard since the electro/hip-hop of my breakdance obsession daze. This might be the first band in the rock realm to appropriate that sound. I've never heard another band do it! Crash Course in Science might be the closest comparison, but imagine that band minus the nerdiness. The CDR is available for $6ppd to USA addresses at their MySpace profile linked below. I dedicate this band to Todd, the touringest medical tourist I know. Incline Village, Yelm, Klamath Falls...we've been there together! Get well soon, buddy...

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

THE DICTATORS | Two Tub Man | Go Girl Crazy | Epic/CBS 1975
BARRERACUDAS | Don't Get Me Wrong | New York Honeys 7" | Douche Master *new
BUNDLE OF FAGS | Art School Asshole | Art School Asshole 7" | Weird Hug *new
RUDI | No. 1 | Big Time 7" | Sing Sing *new (orig 1978)
SATAN'S RATS | In My Love for You | In My Love for You 7" | DJM 1977
HUNX & HIS PUNX | Movin' On | Hey Rocky 7" | Bubbledumb *new *request
JEFFREY NOVAK | Three Sisters | Home Sweet Home 7" | Shattered *new
SPARKS | I Like Girls | Big Beat | Island 1976
METAL URBAIN | Colt 45 | Anarchy in Paris | Acute/Seventeen 2004 (orig 1978)
MEDICAL TOURISTS | Permanent Press | Medical Tourists CDR | no label *new
MEDICAL TOURISTS | Eject Reject Object
DEMENTIA PRECOX | Mines | Mines 7" | Hospital Productions 1981
POCKET PUSSY | Sausage Party | v/a: Runt Vol. 2 CDR | Tardigrade *new
I AM THE LIQUOR | Bariwax | v/a: Runt Vol. 2
DADFAG | title unknown | Congratulations CDR | no label *new
POMPOIR | The Fist | Flexibility CDR | Isolated Now Waves *new
POMPOIR | (Into) Asylum | Eye 2 Eye CDR | Isolated Now Waves *new
BLACK PUS | River That Ran Too Far | Black Pus 0: the Ultimate Beatoff CDR | no label *new
PETER WRIGHT | The Terrifying Realization We Might Be Wrong | new 7" | Dirty Knobby *new
SIC ALPS | Strepix | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 8 | Almost Ready *new
DEAD C | Children | Eusa Kills | Flying Nun 1989
SWELL MAPS | Midget Submarines | A Trip to Marineville | Rough Trade 1979
SWELL MAPS | Bridge Head (Pt. 9)
THE PHEROMOANS | Penis Envy 96 | Revamper 7" | Convulsive *new
MIKA MIKO | Keep on Calling | We Be Xuxa | Post Present Medium *new
BRILLIANT COLORS | Takes So Little | Highly Evolved 7" | Captured Tracks *new
THE FRESH & ONLYS | 500 Snakes | I'll Tell You Everything 7" | Dirty Knobby *new
THEE OH SEES | Hey, Conflicted Men | Zork's Tape Bruise | Kill Shaman *new
THEE OH SEES | Noise for :30
THEE OH SEES | Grave Blockers | Zork's bonus CD
MIKE REP | Donovan's Brain pt 2 | Singles Club 7" | Columbus Discount *new
MIKE REP | The Ballad of Jim Croce
GREEN GREEN | Swimsuit Drugs | Swimsuit Drugs 7" | Out of Order/Orange Regret *new
PINK REASON | Going Home | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 8
WOODEN SHJIPS | Motorbike | Dos | Holy Mountain *new
HENRY FLYNT & THE INSURRECTIONS | Jumping | I Don't Wanna | Locust Music 2004 (orig 1966)
ULFHEDNAR | #2 | Live at Stork Club, 06/01/2006 CDR | no label | 2006

Here's some video evidence of The Pheromoans' rulingness from a show in Paris just a few days ago...


Also new this week is the first ever vinyl by a Sacto-area artist that we've featured on cassette and CDR since I met him personally last year (and even briefly joined the live band version, which unfortunately fell apart due to the hopelessness of practice scheduling). This young Green Green fella from Folsom has a very intensely personal style of doing everything...playing guitar, singing, humor! He's a daring noisy weirdfolker with the courage to sing, and he's a precocious lyricist to boot! It's a bit rhythmically unstable, but that's something I enjoy trying to follow while listening. There's more than a little smack of Jandek in there. The 7" can be ordered now for $6ppd from...
http://www.outoforderrecords.com/

If at first you don't dig it, don't take him off your radar...The guy has recorded in different styles...some on the noisier/rockier edge of the spectrum, sometimes a bit more electronic, and other times solo/acoustic/folky.

AFS v. 218 ~ Raising the Q.Q. Quotient

A couple weeks ago, I reported that The Intelligence had fired back at Eat Skull to tip off undie-rock's first significant West Coast Battle. But now that April has seen the release of two new albums by the Intelligence, is it possible that Lars Finberg's gang is aiming next for Dan Melchior in a battle to determine who can maintain the highest quality of records while ratcheting up the quantity at the same time? How do these marvels do it? Crepuscule with Pacman is out only on vinyl from France's Born Bad label, so if any USA distros nab some more copies, you better swoop fast. If you are a fan of the bedroom-recorded sound of Boredom & Terror like I am, I'm sure you'll enjoy this LP immensely as it's similar in spirit and sound. I love these whacked, yet laconically paced songs that convey so much weariness and dread for a partyhardy non-stop lifestyle. It's like, "I know I should stop!" World, please stop spinning! I need to lay down and get normal for a minute. Just like how Lindsay Lohan must feel sometimes. Then you try to have normal thoughts, but cloudy memories of afterparty dramas turn into nightmares, and focusing on the daily doldrums of ordinary life ("Meetings") is no less frightening, so you escape into fantasies about witches in outer space ("Witch in Outer Space", doi!). If not a timeless classic (which this might be, but Fake Surfers certainly is), then it's perfect for these kindsa situations. I also imagine Crepuscule with Pacman will come in handy in the summer dog days when I'm lying down on the couch with the thermostat set at 82° waiting for the A/C to blow.

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

EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | Sometimes | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 7 7" | Almost Ready *new
THE INTELLIGENCE | The Beetles | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 8 12" | Almost Ready *new
THE INTELLIGENCE | Conference Call | v/a: Puget Power 5 7" | Regal Select *new
THE INTELLIGENCE | Witch in Outer Space | Crepuscule with Pacman | Born Bad *new
CHEVEU | Like a Deer in the Headlights | Like a Deer in the Headlights 7" | Born Bad *new
THE PINK NOISE | Gold Light | Gold Light 7" | Sacred Bones *new
PLASTIKTANZ | Ende | v/a: 2 Hemden & 2 Hosen vol 6 7" | Kernkrach *new (orig 1979)
RIGHT THANT | So Hot | He Wants to Meet Me 7" | no label *new
NOTHING PEOPLE | Stick in the Mud | Late Night | S-S Records *new
TYVEK | Summer Things | Blessed 7" | Les Disques Steak *new
THEE OH SEES | Rainbow | Help | In The Red *new
THEE OH SEES | Schwag Rifles | v/a: The World's Lousy With Ideas vol 8
DEAD GHOSTS | She Likes It | split 7" w/ Smith Westerns | Bachelor *new
GHOST HOSPITAL | Religious Bias in Nursery Rhymes | D+ 7" | Teen Ape *new
SONNY & THE SUNSETS | Death Cream | Love & Death 7" | Soft Abuse *new
JACUZZI BOYS | The Countess | split 7" w/ Woven Bones | Needless *new
BEWARE OF THE KNIGHT | She Spoke of Ships | Cool for the Time Bean CDR | no label *new
ART LESSING | Season | The Plastic Couch CDR | Electric Eggplant 2006
DADAMAH | Nicotine | Nicotine 7" | Majora 1992
ROY MONTGOMERY | Just Melancholy | 324 E. 13th Street #7 | Drunken Fish 1999
ALASTAIR GALBRAITH | Marcasite Lace | Morse | Siltbreeze/Xpressway 1992
SYD BARRETT | No Man's Land | The Madcap Laughs | Harvest/EMI 1970 *request
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | O! Anxiety | Thankyou Very Much 2xLP | S-S Records *new
BLANK DOGS | Blue Lights | Under and Under | In The Red *new
ABEDECARIANS | Benway Carnival | Smiling Monarchs 12" | Factory 1985
THE WAKE | Patrol | Harmony | Factory 1982
LIAISONS DANGEREUSES | Mystère dans le Brouillard | Los Niños del Parque 7" | Mute 1982
PORTION CONTROL | Sort Out | I Staggered Mentally | In Phaze 1982
SCORN | Stairway | Gyral | Scorn 1996
THE INTELLIGENCE | South Bay Surfers | Fake Surfers | In The Red *new
AMON DÜÜL II | Eye Shaking King | Yeti | Liberty 1970
ZENI GEVA | Honowoh/Sweetheart | Honowoh/Sweetheart 7" | Baby Huey 1991
TANKARD | Total Addiction | Chemical Invasion | Combat 1987
SODOM | Ausgebombt | Agent Orange | Steamhammer 1989 *request

Wish I was there...


The night will belong to microphones if you eat this breakfast for dinner...

AFS v. 217 ~ The Money Will Roll Right In (won't it?)

Thanks to my special guest co-hosts Scott Soriano and Mick Mucus surely kept things lively, plus everyone who called in or logged on to pledge support of Freeform KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis, CA.

Download this program by Sunday, April 26 at midnight at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
...otherwise it will become obsolete!

IVY GREEN | I'm Sure We're Gonna Make It
THE GORDONS | Future Shock
BUTTHOLE SURFERS | Butthole Surfer
DAVID PEEL & THE LOWER EAST SIDE | Legalize Marijuana
NOBUNNY (w/ WAX MUSEUMS) | Tina Goes to Work
NOBUNNY (w/ WAX MUSEUMS) | Chuck Berry Holiday
HEAD | I'm Not Like Everybody Else
X | I Don't Wanna Go Out
FANG | The Money Will Roll Right In
CHROME | Chromosome Damage
WAX MUSEUMS | I Eat Vomit (Squeeze Inn edition!)
THE MONKS | Oh, How to Do Now
THE TWINKEYS | Aliens in Our Midst
THE CLEAN | Tally Ho!
THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS | Talkin' 'Bout Miscegenation

If you are a fan of freeform radio and this blog/podcast, will you please call now or donate online? KDVS gives you dollar-for-dollar value in thank-you gifts which you can choose...PLUS, if you donate $25 or more, I will add to any thank-you-gift you choose a special handmade CDR compilation which I've carefully compiled called Cityy Managgers: the best of Live on Art for Spastics plus primo moments of pre-Mayyors bands and side projects.

You must donate before 12:00 midnight on Sunday, April 26 to get this. The easiest way to donate is to pledge online here...
http://fundraiser.kdvs.org/premiums/special/show/artforspastics

Here's the tracklist w/ commentary...

(1) A.H. KRAKEN "Allen Müller"
(2) A.H. KRAKEN "Black Borny"
(3) A.H. KRAKEN "Drop Sex"
From their brutal, lathery live set @ KDVS, broadcast on 24 Nov, 2008; includes a station ID.

(4) GIFT OF GOATS "Death to the Outsider"
(5) GIFT OF GOATS "Sleeping All Day Long"
(6) GIFT OF GOATS "Live from the Pegasus"
Before the Mayyors formed, bassist Mark played with this Davis-based band that was one of the Sacto area's very best mayhem-bringing live acts. They recorded nine songs with Chris Woodhouse, and all of them made it to vinyl. Tracks 4 & 5 are from the 4-way split LP (with JonnyX & the Groadies, Corpse Fucks Corpse, and Get Get Go) on Omnibus Records. Track 6 is from the 7" on Omnibus. Other GoG members included now-SF-based visual artist Jay Howell (perhaps you've seen his animation series "Forest City Rockers Motorcycle Club" which remains central to the Mayyors' limited web presence), former KDVS GM Justin Kable, singer Mick Mucus, host of longtime KDVS fan-fave show "Hardcore Party: the Chicken Years", who's otherwise known for fronting bands such as Anal Mucus, unkuT:Hunks, Girls Soccer, and Feces Munchers, and Upside Dan, who's been in a number of bands with Mick since their teenage years growing up in Concord, CA.

(7) FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS "Teenage Guerillas"/"Exquisite Corpse"
from live @ KDVS broadcast aired on 7 July, 2008...This young Orange County band really surprised me with their heady sarcasm, early-80s time-capsule sound, and clever arty riffs and arrangements.

(8) WAX MUSEUMS "Claw You Like a Cat"/"Magnet II"/"Tunguska"
(9) WAX MUSEUMS "I Eat Vomit"
(10) WAX MUSEUMS "Mosquito"/"Pyramid"
(11) NOBUNNY "Boneyard"
(12) NOBUNNY "Tina Goes to Work"/"Chuck Berry Holiday"
recorded/broadcast live on KDVS on 18 August, 2008...The Wax Museums blazed through 11 funnypunk anthems with jawdropping precision after playing (and singing) backup for NoBunny perfectly as well. Apparently, the best-tasting vomit comes up a few hours after chowing down a cheese-skirted burger at Sacto's Squeeze Inn.

(13) STANDARD TRIBESMEN "Record Player"
(14) STANDARD TRIBESMEN "Killed Her"
(15) STANDARD TRIBESMEN "Waiting"
recorded/broadcast live on KDVS on 24 April, 2008...This band was the main vehicle of Mayyors drummer Julian after The Sores just sorta stopped playing and before the Mayyors formed. And the Tribesmen continued until late last year, culminating in an absolutely tremendous and vinyl-ready demo recorded by Chris Woodhouse, who had joined the band on bass for the last few months. This version of the band featured three other KDVS DJs including some splendid sax-work that nobody saw coming from DJ Boomer. Get that guy a new band already! If you plotted The Sonics, the Contortions, and Feedtime on a graph, the Standard Tribesmen are somewhere in between that triangle, shading a bit toward the Sonics' corner.

(16) METH TEETH "Unemployment Forever"
(17) METH TEETH "People Will Say Anything"/"Failures Selected by God"
These are the best three from the 9-song session they laid down live @ KDVS on 5 July, 2008, which sounds like their best recordings yet (pending that Woodsist release I can't wait to hear once it's out!) as it is free of the tape-hiss evident on their 7" and tour cassette.

(18) THE WHINES "Down the 2 Tracks"
(19) THE WHINES "Cut Meat"
(20) THE WHINES "Insane OK"
recorded/broadcast live @ KDVS on 16 March, 2008...The dazzling guitarwork of this Portland band gets a lot more room to breathe here as compared to their 7".

(21) CHRIS WOODHOUSE "M1"
The guitarist and sound architect of the Mayyors recorded this privately at home in 2002. When I heard that 18th Dye was gonna make a record with Steve Albini, I expected it to sound a lot more like this...a killer dreampop wallopper!

(22) SEXY PRISON "Universal Order of 2011"
(23) SEXY PRISON "Without Us Some Guys Would Starve"
Two songs from last summer's most outrageous party record, Filth Flarn Filth. I described this before as clattery dance-party weirdpunk like Cheveu, but only if Etienne traded his guitar for a lithe and lively postpunk bass guitar...plus some wonderfully wacked pop-culture-jam garnish. Many legendary live shows live on in memory. Mayyors singer John first tweaked the Memory Man knobs in this outfit. Woodhouse and Julian add extra percussion on track 22.

(24) CORPSE FUCKS CORPSE "trk 7"
From their Feb 2003 demos recorded by Woodhouse, these are the best recorded moments of the band which gave John a broader palette of vocal and performance tricks. Quirky hardcore with plenty of power still intact after the art-damage....sort of a turn-of-the-millenium take on early Saccharine Trust.

* * *

You can donate online at http://fundraiser.kdvs.org/premiums/special/show/artforspastics, and you can pay by cash, check, or credit card. But if you prefer to pay via PayPal, you can indicate "check or cash" and just PayPal me your pledge amount at rickele (AT) gmail (DOT) com. I will immediately instruct your pledge be marked as "paid" so that your thank-you-gifts will be sent ASAP.

$25-40 Donors receive Cityy Managgers in addition to any premium package, such as packages of CDs or KDVS t-shirt (three designs available).

$100 donors receive Cityy Managgers plus host-your-own-show premium or four-hours-studio-time premium with our analog wizard Fenris Wulf (dude is ace!).

$200 donors ($50 less now) receive Cityy Managgers plus I book your band's West Coast tour leg and roadie you around so that you can party like no tomorrow while I keep you safe from dying on the road. Tour must be between late August and mid-December, up to one week in length, and you provide van. Also, I pick where we eat, but every band that's used my services in the past will tell you that this is one of the best parts to having me roadie your tour. (Only one band may choose this premium.)

If you need more reasons why to donate...

* Freeform KDVS in my opinion is one of the three best radio stations around, and the only in this echelon that has been student-run for 46 years.

* We need the money....Listener support accounts for two-thirds of our annual budget. Our goal by the end of Sunday night is $60,000. If 2000 pledgers pay an average of $30, we are there. This is one of 100 programs that KDVS has, but as one of the longer-running programs with an international listenership, I think there should be 50 pledges out there to support this to the tune of $1500. I am stating that as my personal goal now.

* It's tax deductible.

* Unlike any fundraiser I've heard of, we thank you with gifts that are a dollar-for-dollar value (and sometimes even more!) for every dollar you pledge. Surely, you've seen other listener or viewer-supported non-commercial media offer a travel coffee mug for $75, right?

* A successful fundraiser validates all of this effort we go through to provide outstanding programming that is streamable and downloadable for your time-killing, office-doldrum-alleviating, music-discovering pleasure. If you must know, I put about 4-6 hours of listening to deliver a two-hour AFS podcast every week.

* If it weren't for KDVS, bands would very likely not even have anywhere to play between the Bay Area and Portland....KDVS Presents books a majority of the good shows around here. We keep Sacto and Davis from becoming more like Fresno and Turlock.

Thanks!

AFS v. 216 ~ TermBo Turf War

Jay-Z vs. Nas...KRS One vs. MC Shan...UTFO vs. Roxanne Shanté vs. The Real Roxanne...All famous East Coast battles. But who remembers the first West Coast battle? Sir Mix-a-Lot vs. The Egyptian Lover! That's right...Before he went top 40 (when his "Square Dance Rap" was an underground dancefloor hit), Sir Mix-a-Lot picked a war with Egyptian Lover in "I'm Trippin'", wherein he touted the technology of his home studio and the supremacy of his Yamaha DMX drum machine over the Lover's Roland 808 (how did his tune change so drastically by "My Posse's on Broadway"?). Egyptian Lover fired back with "E Rap (Holding It Down)" which dispensed with his Kraftwerkian Arabesque brilliance only to reveal himself as a sorrowfully substandard as a serious battle rapper. Has there been a West Coast battle ever since? Maybe, but now we usher in the "TermBo Turf War" between Eat Skull and The Intelligence, and man am I ever caught in between! The dirt's dished down below the playlist...

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

DRUNKDRIVER | Knife Day | Knife Day 7" | Fan Death *new
MAYYORS | Metro | Marines Dot Com 7" | Waste of Oil 2008 *request
KARP | Absolutely Fibulous | Suplex | K Records 1995 *request
BRAINBOMBS | Ooh What a Feeling | Fucking Mess | Lystring *new
BURMESE | Kintardgarden | Colony Collapse Disorder 10" | Rock Is Hell *new
SILENTIST | Verdelet | Silentist | Celestial Gang *new
THE BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH | Dainty Bones | The Better to See You With | Celestial Gang *new
A.H. KRAKEN | Ville Électrique | Tatiana | Gaffer/Down Boy *new
TIMMY'S ORGANISM | Body of Love | dbl 7" | Sacred Bones *new
TIMMY'S ORGANISM | Squeeze the Giant
THE PINK NOISE | Prince Charlie's Revenge | Gold Light 7" | Sacred Bones *new
MAGNETIX | hidden track | Positively Negative | Born Bad *new
THE HOSPITALS | Ape Lost | Hairdryer Peace | Meds *new
THE MOLES | Europe by Car | Untune the Sky | Seaside 1991
BIPOLAR BEAR | Algiers | split 10" w/ Talbot Tagora | olFactory *new
WOUNDED LION | Silver People | upcoming LP *request
WOUNDED LION | Carol Cloud | Carol Cloud 7" | SS Records 2008
THE INTELLIGENCE | Pony People [Wounded Lion] | Fake Surfers | In The Red *new
THE INTELLIGENCE | Singles Barge
THE BEETS | Why Should I Live If I Don't Fit | Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to Be Cool | Captured Tracks *new
EAT SKULL | No Intelligence | Eusta Kill CDR | no label *new
EAT SKULL | Oregon Dreaming | Wild & Inside | Siltbreeze *new *request
HOLE CLASS | True Temper | Hole Class | Meds *new
HOLE CLASS | Place Like All
PLAGAL GRIND | Blackout | Plagal Grind | Xpressway 1990
THE PHEROMOANS | Revamper | Revamper 7" | Convulsive *new
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | I Don't Want to Be Nice | Dim Are the Lights 7" | Convulsive *new
THEE OH SEES | Meat Step Lively | Help | In the Red *new *request
IDLE TIMES | Whatever Works for You | HoZac Hookup Club 7" | HoZac *new
WET HAIR | Radio Machines/Gold Chains | Dream | Not Not Fun *new
NAKED ON THE VAGUE | Chitty Chat | Chitty Chat 7" | Sacred Bones *new
ZOLA JESUS | Said the White Rabbit | Tsar Bomba | Troubleman Unlimited *new

The latest West Coast battle must have begun with the 2008 release of the Dead Families 7" by Eat Skull which included the song "No Intelligence", and a cover drawing depicting a jumbo jet clipping the Seattle Space Needle with its wing. Back when all us thirtysomethings weren't all on Facebook, I left a comment on The Intelligence MySpace profile suggesting that this was a possible challenge. Intelligence main man Lars Finberg replied, "Gee...I hope not! I can't stop thinking about how great that album [Eat Skull's Sick to Death] is."

Relations seemed totally peachy when Lars and Suzanne roadtripped to Portland to celebrate his birthday by catching Eat Skull live at the Twilight Lounge with The Mayyors, Psychedelic Horseshit, and Fabulous Diamonds. Much shitgaze-related heckling was volleyed back and forth, but it was all good-natured and well-timed in the wake of the Portland Mercury alt-weekly trying to appropriate the term as if it were a honest-to-goodness musical genre.

Fast forward to April 2008, and the new Intelligence album--Fake Surfers--has been newly released on In the Red. Anyone who called last year's Deuteronomy a dud for sounding "too boring" (I thought it was pretty good, but I know that I heard a few such grumbles from the jaded and overstimulated) should be very pleased with this record. It certainly is more exciting...varied, yet cohesive. Most of the riffs and rhythms are more aggressive than anything on Deuteronomy, and there's a good balance between live-band-energy (e.g., "Thank God for Fixing the Tape Machine" and a re-recorded "Debt & E.S.P."), breezy melodies (such as "Warm Transfers"), and songs with that 4-tracky bedroom sound of Boredom & Terror (like "South Bay Surfers" with its vibe-hexing warped orbits of elliptical polyrhythms). "Saint Bartolomeu" sorta reminds me of those mid-period Severed Heads songs that enfolded pure pop perfection in layers of texture, sine-wave scribble, and sampled voices. Fake Surfers certainly joins the race with Eat Skull's Wild & Inside for best record of 2009. And it deploys the most pointed attack with a song entitled "Fuck Eat Skull"! The story's even juicier when you consider how The Intelligence claimed drummer Beren off the wire after Eat Skull unceremoniously waived her in the midst of a nationwide tour after she put in two weeks notice.

I'm sure it's all just for kicks n' giggles, though...These bands are still good friends, I'm sure....No matter how I try to look for some drama in these lyrics, "Fuck Eat Skull" isn't actually about Eat Skull. And "No Intelligence" is about a literal lack of intelligence, as in know-how, mental aptitude, n'at....not the band. In fact, I seem to recall bringing the Space Needle thing and the song title up to Eat Skull, and they said it was completely coincidental. And as much as Beren's bombastic power and pocket-burrowing rhythm has helped make the most recent Intelligence live shows the most effective yet, Eat Skull's new songs are perfectly complimented by the primal style of Kyle. It all works out in the end for everybody who buys these records and enjoys the shows and savors the memories. And there should be plenty of new ones made as The Intelligence embark on their Crimping Our Coast tour...

Apr 13 in Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore
Apr 14 in Bellingham, WA @ Nightlight
Apr 15 in Olympia, WA @ the Clipper
Apr 16 in Eureka, CA @ Accident Gallery
Apr 17 in San Francisco, CA @ Annie's Social Club
Apr 18 in Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
Apr 19 in San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Apr 20 in Isla Vista, CA @ the Biko Garage
Apr 21 in Sacramento, CA @ Luigi's Fungarden
Apr 22 in Oakland, CA @ the Stork Club
Apr 24 in Portland, OR @ East End
Apr 25 in Seattle, WA @ Wild Rose
***and then onto Europe***
Apr 30 in Nancy @ L'Autre Canal
May 1 in Bruxelle @ Bunker
May 2 in Evreux @ L'Abordage
May 4 in Toulouse @ Le Saint des Seins
May 5 in Nantes @ Live Factory
May 6 in Roubais @ Cave Aux Poetes
May 7 in Chalons sur Saone @ La Peniche
May 8 in Limoges @ Woodstock Boogie Bar
May 9 in Clermont Ferrant @ La Cooperatice de Mai
May 10 @ TBA
May 11 in Strasbourg @ Molodoi
May 13 in Paris @ Point Ephemere
May 14 in Bordeaux @ TBA
May 15 in Orleans/Bergerac @ TBA
May 16 in Poitier @ Comfort Moderne
May 18 - 23 TBA
May 24 Off/Travel
May 25 in Tolosa, ESP @ Bomberena
May 26 in Madrid @ Wurlitzer Ballroom
May 27 in Barcelona @ Side Car
May 28 in Valencia @ Magazine Club
May 29 Off/Travel
May 30 in Beauvais @ Festival Mixed Up
May 31 in Rennes @ Le Sambre
Jun 1 in Korttrijk @ Vlas Vegas Festival
Jun 2 in Anvers @ Bar Mundial
Jun 3 TBA
Jun 4 in Stockholm @ Boat Music Festival
Jun 5 in Stockholm @ Club
Jun 6 in Oslo @ Gloria Flames
Jun 7 in Copenhagen @ Loppen
Jun 8 TBA
Jun 9 TBA
Jun 10 in Koln @ Sonic Ballroom
Jun 11 in Amsterdam @ Paradiso
Jun 12 in Harlem @ Patronnat
Jun 13 in Tours @ Aucard de Tour

In other Eat Skull news, Meds has just issued an LP of the Hole Class cassette which Rob recorded with Beth from Times New Viking while he was living in Ohio between The Hospitals' Employer Destroyers tour and moving to Portland and founding Eat Skull. Yeah, that tape was my first inkling that Rob had any knack for pop songwriting. Before that, I mainly knew him as my favorite x-factor in various free-flailing improv bands and noise groups (Gang Wizard, Vholtz, Hale Zukas, Horse Dwarves, etc.), although I also remember the time I saw him play a Davis house-show leading a band called Creepy Crawly Claw, who did the best "Sex Bomb" cover I've ever heard or witnessed. He did a handstand on top of a ratty keyboard with spindly little legs and walked on the ceiling of Mick Mucus' Charred Dog House before falling on his head. I thought for sure that he was injured, but he popped right back up with the mic clenched in his teeth.

I'm so glad to see that Hole Class make it to vinyl after all this time. If you can imagine how Thee Duchess & the Duke might sound with some sweet kiwi-psych damage, then you might be in the ballpark of what this album sounds like. The whole tape is on here, plus some unheard goodies.

Also new from Meds...the first ever CD version of 2008's landmark album by The Hospitals, Hairdryer Peace. Good luck...Meds ain't gotta website. Try your favorite distros. I'm not gonna tell you, or else that's more competition for me. I gotta get these, too!

NEXT WEEK IS THE ANNUAL KDVS FUNDRAISER!

I'm gonna make volume II of the Live on Art for Spastics compilation CDR featuring bands that have played live here since last year. If you donate $25 or more, you will be thanked by KDVS with a premium package (CDs, records, t-shirt, or ???...you pick!) PLUS the Live on Art for Spastics vol. II CDR! This is very important.....Freeform KDVS is one of the handful of really great radio stations in this world for fans of a wide variety of new and old music, and we rely on listener donations for two thirds of our budget. We only ask for your support one week out of the year, so next week will be your one and only chance to make this fundraiser count for us. We need $60,000 this year. On a more personal note, I want my listeners to contribute $1000 toward this overall effort. This will validate the effort I put into the show on a volunteer basis, which usually amounts to 4-6 hours of listening to new stuff--picking and choosing from lotsa great music on all formats (but lotsa crap, too!), sequencing it effectively for your listening pleasure, and burning the early A.M. oil to post this here blog before waking up at 8:30 to go to my real job that pays the bills so I can buy all these records. Oh, I also teach the class that all the new volunteers must take before they go on the air as trainee DJs at KDVS, and I book and promote several KDVS Presents shows in the Sacto and Davis area as part of a KDVS-led effort to prevent Sacto and Davis from becoming subcultural voidspaces like Fresno and Turlock.



Watch here for an update with the Live on Art for Spastics vol II CDR tracklist once it's complete. And if you wanna donate more than $25, please consider these premium offers....

$100 - host your own hour-long show on KDVS
$100 - four hours studio time with our analog-wizard, Fenris Wulf
$250 - I will book your West Coast tour and roadie your band (up to a week, August through mid-December only, as far south as Mexicali and as far north as Vancouver, BC)

AFS v. 215 ~ feat The Homosexuals (for real this time!)

At last (!), Freeform KDVS have got the mp3 archive back online, so I've decided to replay that live set which The Homosexuals featuring the irrepressible Bruno Wizard recorded here in Studio A on Tuesday, March 23. It starts at the halfway point of this two-hour podcast if you don't have the patience to try some new music on for size. Read all about The Homosexuals' miraculous last-minute Davis house-show in AFS v. 214.

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

ONNA | Mune o Tutunde | 7" | Holy Mountain *new (orig 1983)
SUNNY & THE SUNSETS | Death Cream | Love & Death 7" | Soft Abuse *new
EAT SKULL | Dawn in the Face | Wild & Inside | Siltbreeze *new *request
U.S. GIRLS | Me + Yoko | Me + Yoko 7" | Not Not Fun *new
TUNNELS | Case of the Dreamer | v/a: Post-Alarmist Dracula Safari | Oms-B *new
TEEPEE | Big City Life | Heal 7" | Florida's Dying *new
EAT SKULL | Stick to the Formula (UK Club Banger version) | Eusta Kill CDR | no label *new *request
BLANK DOGS | Calling Over | Seconds 12" EP | Captured Tracks *new
WOODS | Sunlit | Sunlit 7" | Captured Tracks *new
THEE OH SEES | Ruby Go Home | Help | In the Red *new
WOUNDED LION | Silver People | forthcoming LP
TALBOT TAGORA | The Weather Man | split 10" w/ Bipolar Bear | olFactory *new
TYVEK | 9 Bucks | Blunt Instrumentals CS | no label *new *request
TYVEK | Robots, Dogs
HAPPY BURGER | Pizza All Around | Pizza All Around 7" | Douche Master *new
GG KING | In the Terminal | Adult Rock 7" | Douche Master *new
TEENGENERATE | Sex Cow | Smash Hits! | Estrus 1995
X_X | You're Full of Shit | v/a: Killed by Death #9 | Redrum 1979
BLUCK! | Phone Affairs | v/a: Panx Vinyl Zine 01 7" | Panx 1989
L.D.S. | Breeders | On the Cross 7" | Underworld 1985
EAT SKULL | Nuke Mecca | Wild & Inside *request
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Pentecost 2016 | Live at KDVS, recorded March 23, 2009
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Hearts in Exile
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Soft South Africans
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Technique Street
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Vociferous Slam
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Divorce Proceedings from Reality
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Snapshots of Nairobi
THE HOMOSEXUALS | My Night Out
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Astral Glamour
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Neutron Lover
THE HOMOSEXUALS | False Sentiment
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Flying
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Walk Before Imitate
THE HOMOSEXUALS | You're Not Moving the Way You're Supposed to

Here's a special dedication to Jared, who spreads the freeform radio disease at KRCL in Salt Lake City, Utah, and leads a cool band called Kidneys. Some time ago, I told this Massacre Guys fan that my favorite moment of Utah punk history was this little-known band called L.D.S. who released the On the Cross 7" in 1985 and an LP around the same time. It may be fairly generic slop-thrash, but its irreverence and blasphemy sounds pretty revolutionary given the time and location that these boys toiled in. This record was lost in limbo for a while until the "L" shelves were realphabetized here. As you can see, our copy is well-worn.



The L.D.S. LP had a few deathrock flirtations if memory serves me. I could kick myself for selling it back in 2001 when I jettisoned nearly my entire vinyl collection for quick cash after I became a casualty of the dot-com bust. Can anyone help me replace it? Surely, it's a record that few people care about....You'd probably be lucky to get $5 for it. I'll give you $10 at least, even if it's just a VG copy. I'm not a stickler. I just want it to be playable. THANKS! ***UPDATE***...Nevermind! I just nabbed a BuyItNow copy on eBay for $7!