Art for Spastics

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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

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

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

AFS v. 216 ~ TermBo Turf War

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)

Monday, April 06, 2009

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

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!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

AFS v. 214 ~ feat. The Homosexuals

I was so very excited to bring to you a special tape-delayed broadcast of British DIY/postpunk legends The Homosexuals featuring Bruno Wizard, and it was indeed a treat for all of my terrestrial listeners and live-streamers, but unfortunately, the Freeform KDVS archives did not catch the stream, as they were taken down for maintenance over the weekend, and there was a problem getting the system back online in time for this broadcast. Surely, that means I'm gonna hafta update this post when a future rebroadcast is successfully saved to our archive tree. Watch for that later this week when DJ Simi gives it a twirl. And if things aren't working by then, I suppose we can do it again next week. It really is a delight to hear it.

So, here's what you woulda heard, followed by some notes about this outstanding "reunion" of The Homosexuals...

THEE OH SEES | Meat Step Lively | Help | In the Red *new
SLIM LIMBS | Queen of the Mist | split 7" w/ Beast With a Gun | Murder Slim *new
DUM DUM GIRLS | Long Hair | HoZac Hookup Club 7" | HoZac *new
THE MAYFAIR SET | Desert Fun | Already Warm 7" | Captured Tracks *new
SUNNY & THE SUNSETS | Death Cream | Love and Death 7' | Soft Abuse *new
PUMICE | Twin Neck Double Kick Bum Chin | split 7" w/ Grouper | Soft Abuse *new
ZOLA JESUS | Flesh | Tsar Bomba | Troubleman Unlimited *new
ZOLA JESUS | Past the Blue Brick Stone | Tsar Bomba
ZOLA JESUS | Lady in the Radiator | New Amsterdam CDR | Sacred Bones *new
CHAMPAGNE DIAMOND | Separate Members | split 2xCD w/ The Brilliant Light | K is for Kaleidoscope *new
DAN MELCHIOR | Terrible Shame | Terrible Shame 7" | Dull Knife *new
NOTHING PEOPLE | Another Rattle | Late Night | S-S Records *new
AFCGT | Return to Thundernest | AFCGT | Uzu Audio *new
BIG YOUTH | Dread Locks Dread Festival | 7" | TR Groovemaster 1976
MARK STEWART + THE MAFFIA | The Paranoia of Power | Learning to Cope With Cowardice | Plexus 1983
THE HOMOSEXUALS | Pentecost 2016 | live at KDVS in Studio A, Tue 3/23/09
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
WOUNDED LION | Silver People | forthcoming LP

This is what I splashed down on the laptop just after seeing The Homosexuals perform in a living room (and nigh on a week later, I still believe every word of this)...

I just saw The Homosexuals tonight in a house in Davis, CA. Just got home from it. It was absolutely outstanding and will surely live on as a forever memory for me, and probably most of the 90-or-so people that crowded into that living room tonight. It was another one of those shows where I turned around and looked and saw kids in their early to mid teens, college-aged kids, and middle-aged record collector nerds all dancing and/or smiling or just looking totally riveted.

It is just Bruno flanked by a band of thirty-somethings who were very capable and knew all the old songs well, and they also excelled at jamming those songs out and keeping things going during a bass amp failure and MASH unit amp revival. Mostly, during those parts, it was spirited monologues that went on some tirade angles and some preachy righteous angles, but even that was undeniably awesome as it was probably greater than any oratory we had witnessed. It was also rhythmic enough to count as music. And even when preachy or pissed, it was poetic and actually very engaging.....not at all like dour or condescending sort of Englishness that bums most of us Yanks out. And he had some moments of great comedic timing and cleverness. His singing voice stayed strong even despite all the oratory.

As for the music, all the old songs sounded new again. Remember those old films from the 50's that were reenactments of great moments in history? "YOU WERE THERE!" This show was like that if it were only authentic.

Making this all the more mindboggling to me is that this was a last-minute show that was thrown together in just a few days to fill a hole in the tour schedule after their Portland show. This was an early-starting house-show. The whole band including the old man had been awake since 6:00 a.m. and drove 10 hours straight through before playing in this sauna-like room. Bruno looks like a corpse, yet he was incredibly sharp and very energetic throughout the 90 minutes they performed. Almost no one left until the music stopped. He finished with an encore of jangly solo songs so as not to invite the cops who miraculously hadn't showed up yet, as they are usually quick to do the moment it strikes 10:00 in Davis. I stayed for about 20 minutes of that and had to pry myself away due to extreme hunger and the feeling of wooziness. Yep....I was no match for the old man tonight.

The dude is the real deal. His band sounds like the real deal.

The Homosexuals on tour gets my highest recommendation.

By the way, since when did Zamfir join Thee Oh Sees? Their brand-new LP--Help--is by and large more of a straightforward rocker and perhaps the most aggressive thing that John Dwyer has unleashed since Yikes, but this panflute solo on "Meat Step Lively" is a well-placed break from that. Can't wait to see 'em bring it at KDVS presents Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom VII this year. More to come about that in coming weeks!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

AFS v. 213 ~ feat. The Whines live in Studio A

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

AFS v. 212 ~ Halcyon Will Survive

If you are in Sacto or Davis, be ready for Friday the 13th for a memorable night of music and pizza-partying at Luigi's Fungarden with Eat Skull, Ganglians, The Whines, and What's Up?. That will surely be another show-of-the-year candidate brought to you by Freeform KDVS and the Sacramento News & Review. Doors are 8:30 and showtime is 9:00 sharp, and fashionably late might be too late 'cos it might sell out judging by the press this one's getting. I've included a couple new songs from the upcoming LP because Eat Skull has let it be no secret that they will be carrying limited-to-100 tour-edition copies of a CDR advance of Wild & Inside, their incredible new album that is coming out next month on Siltbreeze. Have a listen, and you'll see what I'm saying about Rob spreading his wings as a singer and the band achieving moments of real beauty! This is the best LP of 2009 so far.

This wonderfully weird collage work to the right is by ILTH, and it is the cover art for the brand-new 2nd LP--Late Night--by Nothing People on SS Records, just out this week along with the official release of Dan Melchior's epic new double-LP with das Menace. These albums are both so momentous that they surely give 2009 even more momentum to carry on the current halcyon age of futureclassic vinyl. These are both superb thinkingman's rock records to suit a variety of listening circumstances and deep concentration. Along with the best of the Wooden Shjips, Dan's "Blue Tentacles" and the entire Nothing People album are perhaps some of the finest headphone moments in recent memory, as their subtleties reveal themselves upon repeat listens (I'm on consecutive go-around #5 with Late Night as I write this, and it's sounding better and better!). Mr. SS warned me that Late Night was "definitely a lot more mellow" than Anonymous, but that suits my just fine...It might've taken me a while to accede to this kinda record as a kid, but I'm a grown-up now. The title track is an outstanding cover of Syd Barrett's original, and hey, young fellas, take it from me as a grown-up...THIS is thee best version of the song if you wanna make an impression on a mix-tape for a special young lady. Now go buy these!

Download this program within three weeks at either link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
(~ 173kB)
or CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
(~ 346kB)

RTFO BANDWAGON | Dums Will Survive | Dums Will Survive | Dull Knife *new
GUINEA WORMS | I Know Where Wil Foster Lives | Singles Club 7" | Columbus Discount *new
TYVEK | Pamphlet | Singles Club 7" | Sub Pop *new
ODD CLOUDS | Gum Coup Follicle | v/a: Shiftless Decay | X! Records *new
GARY WAR | Zontag | Zontag 7" | Sacred Bones *new
SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY | Time Is Racing | Time Is Racing 7" | Sacred Bones *new
LOU CHAMPAGNE SYSTEM | Inside Outside | v/a: 2 Hemden 2 Hosen vol 6 7" | Kernkrach *new
SONNENBRANDT | Herz Aus Geld | Gestern | Kernkrach *new
EAT SKULL | Talkin' Bro in the Wall Blues | Wild & Inside | Siltbreeze *forthcoming *request
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | New York Hole | Thankyou Very Much 2xLP | SS Records *new
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Piledriver Nightmare #2 | Mr. Oblivian 7" | Columbus Discount *new
NOTHING PEOPLE | Stick in the Mud | Late Night | SS Records *new
EAT SKULL | Surfing the Stairs | Wild & Inside *request
EAT SKULL | Leave the Universe | split 7" w/ Ganglians | Dulc-i-Tone *new
VICTOR DIMISICH BAND | Native Waiter | v/a: Xpressway Pile-Up | Xpressway 1990
BLANK DOGS | The Threes | Seconds 12" EP | Captured Tracks *new
DUM DUM GIRLS | Yours Alone | Catholicked 12" EP | Captured Tracks *new
ABSINTHE MINDS | A2 | The Song of Returning Light CS | Not Not Fun *new
BLOOD | trk 3 | Evacuated Materials CDR | Skrot Up *new
JAMES FELLA | Glitched Layers of Leeched Samples | split CS w/ N.213 | Isolated Now Waves *new
JAMES FELLA | Dead Synth Meander
YEAR OF THE LIPS | Signal to Earth | Year of the Lips CDR | no label *new
COLIN NEWMAN | Image | A-Z | Beggar's Banquet 1980
SILENTIST | Witches | Chariot Swing EP | Celestial Gang 2005
SILENTIST | Paralytic | The Tunnel 7" | Zum *new
CURSE OF THE BIRTHMARK | Le Phant | Welcome to the Hard Times...You're Late! | Deleted Art 2005
ACCEPT | Fast as a Shark | Restless and Wild | Portrait 1983
SCHNAUZER | The Things That Get to Me | split 7" w/ 216 | no label 1997
SCHNAUZER | Drug Bust/To Hell and Back | split 7" w/ Hangnail | Hibachi 1998

Did I betray my grown-up ways with those Schnauzer tracks or what? Hey, what can I say. 10-14 years ago, I was a sucker for any sick 'n twisted northeast Ohio metal, sludge, and noisecore...everything from Sloth to Hemdale to Minch and Nutscreamer and the whole Steveggs family tree of bands. Even before I saw Gummo, it was the music of this delightfully degenerate scene that has me thinking that there was something seriously wrong with the water in the Cuyahoga. There have been many times when I've suffered some aggravation that I've imagined the incensed voice of Schnauzer's Jim Teufel yelling "FUUUUCCCKKKK!!!!" (as heard in "Drug Bust/To Hell and Back" upon his discovery of a narky weasel in his grass). Glimpsing into these guy's fantasies of roid rage, methy paranoia, and moral adjectness was quite a thrlling slumtrip of the mind. And now I've discovered that the band's still around(!?!?!) and released a new split just last year. Guess what's on my list to paypal (verb transitive) next!

Anyone sign up Year of the Lips for a vinyl LP yet? Hurry it up! Go re-listen to it again!

Because there is no longer a doubt that they are truly one of the best bands on planet Earth today, I must urge you to see Eat Skull on tour if they come within half a day's drive of you; here you have their merch report and itinerary--straight from the desk of Rob Enbom for the month of March...

OK We're going on tour next week. The first four shows are with the Whines. If you've slept on them, time to wake up.
We will have a couple of tour CD-Rs:

Eat Skull 'Wild and Inside' CD-r

Limited to 100 stamped and numbered copies with alternate art work for you ebay freaks. This is our new album that will see a proper release on Siltbreeze in early April.

Tracklisting:

1. Stick to the Formula
2. Cooking a way to be Happy
3. Heaven's Stranger
4. You're With a Thing
5. Nuke Mecca
6. Who's In Control?
7. Killed By Rooms
8. Happy Submarine
9. Talkin' Bro in the Wall Blues
10. Surfing the Stairs
11. Dawn in the Face
12. Oregon Dreaming

Eat Skull 'EUSTA Kill' CD-r

Also limited to 100 copies numbered and stamped, this is a collection of everything that came out on 7" so far and 5 extra songs recorded during or after the Sick to Death sessions.

Tracklisting:

1. Seeing Things
2. Stuff Reverse
3. Things I Did When I Dyed My Hair
4. Dead Families
5. If I'm Insane
6. No Intelligence
7. You Must Be Bugs
8. Double Wasted
9. Leave the Universe
10. Don't Leave Me on the Speaker
11. Thank You Smoke Breaks
12. Negative World
13. Medication Time
14. Stick to the Formula (UK Club Banger Version)

Both of these CD-rs have been mastered by Tim Stollenwerk who does the Mississippi Records comps that everybody loves so much. He's the shit and they don't sound like shit. We will not be doing mailorder on these, just selling them at shows to help pay the bills.

---------------------------------------------------------

Eat Skull 'We Don't Like Adam Anymore' Tour Dates

WED MARCH 11 - PORTLAND, OR @ Kenton Club w/ Kurt Vile, The Whines, Eternal Tapestry
FRI MARCH 13 - SACRAMENTO, CA @ Luigi's Fun Garden - w/ Ganglians, The Whines, What's Up?
SAT MARCH 14 - SAN FRANCISCO, CA @ OCD w/ The Hospitals, Long Legged Woman, The Whines
SUN MARCH 15 - ECHO PARK, CA @ Echo Curio w/ Lovvers, The Whines, Long Legged Woman
MON MARCH 16 - PHOENIX, AZ @ Rampage Fest @ Trunkspace w/ Abe Vigoda, Wavves, Long Legged Woman and more

****SXSW March 18-21****

MON MARCH 23 - El Paso, TX @ Blackmarket w/ Blank Dogs, Turpentine Brothers, Naked On The Vague, Nobunny
WED MARCH 25 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar w/ Blank Dogs, Naked on the Vague + more
THU MARCH 26 - San Francisco, CA @ Eagle Tavern w/ Oh Sees, Grant Hart, Fresh and Onlys
FRI MARCH 27 - West Sacramento, CA @ 300 Room w/ Mayyors, Careerers

:::SXSW Shows:::

WEDNESDAY MARCH 18TH:

Beerland Free Day Show, 21+

Can't Stop The Bleeding. com presents
Endless Boogie (NYC, 5:40pm)
The Homosexuals (London/NYC, 4:50pm)
Turbo Fruits (Nashville, 4pm)
The Young (Austin, 3:05pm)
Eat Skull (Portland, 2:20pm)
Dikes Of Holland (Austin, 1:40pm)
Psychedelic Horseshit (Columbus, 1pm)

WEDNESDAY NIGHT SHOW:

Natrix Natrix House - 3222 John Campbell?s Trail, Austin, Texas 78735 - Tyvek,

XYX, Ratas del Vaticon, Eat Skull, Psychedelic Horseshit, Talk Normal.

THURSDAY DAY SHOW:

"The Medieval Reslayathon"
Thursday March 19th
610 Vermont Rd.

Austin, TX 78702

20 min. sets for locals 30 min.
sets for toursters

1:00 Rat Bastard & Doug Ferguson (members of To Live and Shave in LA)
1:40 Mae Shi (Los Angeles - SAF, 5RC)
2:20 Crime Novels (NY)
2:50 Eat Skull (Portland - Siltbreeze)
3:40 Pillow Queens (ATX)
4:30 Wildildlife (Seattle - Crucial Blast)
5:15 Diagonals (ATX)
5:55 Coathangers (Atlanta - Suicide Squeeze)
6:35 Over the Hill (ATX)
7:25 Fiasco (Brooklyn - Impose)
8:05 Roller (ATX)

then:

Driveway Day Show
5615 Jim Hogg Avenue
Austin, TX 78756

2:00 - Magic Jewels
2:30 - Aids Wolf
3:00 - Snack Truck
3:30 - Purple Rhinestone Eagle
4:00 - Hot Lava
4:30 - Eat Skull
5:00 - Mayyors
5:30 - Bermuda Triangles

THURSDAY NIGHT:

Siltbreeze Showcase
SoHo Lounge
217 E. 6th St.

Austin, Texas 78701

8:00 p.m.
Ratas del Vaticano
8:45 p.m.
Eat Skull
9:30 p.m.
Hank IV
10:15 p.m.
Psychedelic Horseshit
11:00 p.m.
Naked On the Vague
11:45 p.m. U.S.
Girls
12:30 a.m.
Los Llamarada
1:15 a.m.
FNU Ronnies

FRIDAY DAY:

End of an Ear
2209 South 1st Unit C / Austin, TX 78704

1pm - Eat Skull
2pm - Crystal Stilts
3pm - Gary War
4pm - Cursive
5pm - Homosexuals

Then:

FRIDAY MARCH 20
2908 COLE STREET
2PM

2-220 the wiggins
230-3 rtfo bandwagon
310-340 teenage cool kids
350-420 kurt vile
430-5 eat skull
510-540 psychedelic horseshit

SATURDAY DAY:

Sound on Sound Records
106 E.
North Loop
Austin, TX 78751

3-5:30pm

Mayyors
Rusted Shut
Eat Skull
RTFO Bandwagon

The Music Gym Free Day Show
815 E.
6th Street
Victim of Time Presents:
http://www. victimoftime. com/

1:00 - 1:30 Guinea Worms
1:45 - 2:15 Christmas Island
2:30 - 3:00 Woven Bones
3:15 - 3:45 TV Ghost
4:00 - 4:30 Digital Leather
4:45 - 5:15 Intelligence
5:30 - 6:00 Eat Skull
6:15 - 6:45 Psychedelic Horseshit

Woodsist Showcase:
SAT 3/21 @ Ms Bea's (1104 East 6th St @ Medina St)
5pm- 12am

11- WAVVES

10:30- CRYSTAL STILTS

10- WOODS

9:30- EAT SKULL

9- THEE OH SEES

8:30- BLANK DOGS

8- PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT

7:30- CAUSE CO MOTION

7- KURT VILE

6:30- CHRISTMAS ISLAND

6- THE FRESH AND ONLYS

5:30- GANGLIANS

5- REAL ESTATE

SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY:
w/ Mayyors, Oh Sees + more
Eat Skull plays at 12:30am

1118 linden, austin, Texas 78701 - free

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

AFS v. 211 ~ Nobody Knows This is Somewhere!

It's a great time to be in Sacto or Davis this week 'cos Freeform KDVS 90.3 FM is presenting Tyvek twice this week: on Wednesday 2/25 at the UC-Davis Coffeehouse with Th' Losin' Streaks and GGreen, and on Friday 02/27 in Sacto at Luigi's Fungarden with San Kazakgascar, Desario (ex-Holiday Flyer and Rocketship there for ya!), and Not an Airplane. Of course, Tyvek are one of the preeminent funmaker bands on the planet today. Another hot show is happening at the "Goobertarium" on Thursday 2/26 (1819 23rd Street in Sac) with Ganglians, Dadfag, and one of my tip-top favorite discoveries of 2008, Long Legged Woman, who finally have copies of their self-released LP which is outstanding! It's kinda like the Mayyors in that they can pummel you severely and relentlessly with mean riffs and braincell-devastating scuzz, but you can also go wild and party with them. And there's a little smack of Dinosaur Jr. in there. (The right smack to be sure!) Sometimes they mellow out and play kinda pretty. It all comes together brilliantly. 9pm start. And if you're early, you can even catch Sam McPheeters (you remember him from Born Against, Men's Recovery Project, etc.) reading from his CLOG fiction zine at Time Tested Books (1114 21st Street in Sac @ 7pm).

Download this program within three weeks at either link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
(~ 173kB)
or CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
(~ 346kB)

EL JESUS DE MAGICO | Elohim City | Scalping the Guru | Columbus Discount *new
OUTER SPACIST | I Walk With Telepathy, Baby | The Mind Is As Outer Space 7" | Columbus Discount *new
PILLOW TALK | The Sutan's Wish | Down Town Unga Wunga 7" | Columbus Discount *new
PILLOW TALK | Columbus Ohio Phone Conversation (skit)
SPIDER | Tonight at 10:00 | v/a: Puget Power 5 7" | Regal Select *new
TUNNELS | Crouched in the Dark | v/a: Post-Alarmist Dracula Safari | Oms-B *new
INDIAN JEWELRY | Zing Zang | split 12" w/ Future Blondes | Dull Knife *new
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Blue Tentacles | Thankyou Very Much 2xLP | SS Records *new
BEACH BOYS | Be With Me | Wild Honey | Reprise 1967
GANGLIANS | Lost Words | split 7" w/ Eat Skull | Dulc-I-Tone *new
TYVEK | untitled | split 7" w/ Cygnus | no label 2007
KEVIN BOYER | Something's Gonna Come Up | Something's Gonna Come Up 7" | What's Your Rupture? *new
TYVEK | Honda | Mary Ellen Claims 7" | X! Records 2006
TYVEK | Give It Up | Summer Burns 2x7" | What's Your Rupture? 2007
YUPPIES | Leper Blood | split 7" w/ Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship | Dutch Hall *new
LONG LEGGED WOMAN | He Was a Narc, but We Loved Him Anyway | Nobody Knows This Is Nowhere | Pollen Season *new
LONG LEGGED WOMAN | I Have a Scheme
BLASTOCYST | Marjoe Works for Free | split LP w/ Reverse Mouth | Heat Retention/Phase 2007
MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT | Conquer Your Honor | v/a: Today the Planet, Tomorrow the World 7" | Thin the Herd 1997
MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT | Experimental Music Is Consumer Fraud
BORN AGAINST | Mount the Pavement | Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children | Vermiform 1991
XBXRX | untitled | split 2x5" w/ Total Shutdown | Rock Is Hell 2008
MATT K. SHRUGG | Games of Blaze | Mentor to Wall CDR | Guiness Book of World Records *new
TIK///TIK | Diamondz from the Dude | Diamond Hand Hold 3" CDR | EMR 2007
KAWAIIETLY PLEASE | Capsuled Confessions and Coffee, Please | v/a: DBA 095 CDR | Deathbomb Arc *new
AXEMEN | Big Cheap Motel | Big Cheap Motel | Siltbreeze *new (orig 1984)
LEMON BEAR | Sad Sad Sad | Lemon CDR | Chocolate Monk *new
LEMON BEAR | 005 | All New CDR | Liquor Store & Laboratory *new
CHEATER SLICKS | Part 1 | Bats in the Dead Trees | Lost Treasures of the Underworld *new

Of course, the new Dan Melchior und Das Menace 2xLP is thee clincher among his bevy of new releases for 2009, but it's not quite out yet, so stay patient for a little while. Nary a dud track in the lot! But I've not found time yet to cuddle up to it since I only got my paws on it today, and my mind's not yet come back to earth since listening again to the newest CDR by Matt K. Shrugg, Mentor to Wall. Ten tracks, two thirds of it is really rockin' in the vein of his Plastic Idol 7"es that came out last year, and the other third gets really wild, like Matt's got Ben Wallers drunk on absinthe in the grips of a headlock while he wrestles him to the Rashied Ali's house (he's been rumored to be livin' in Sacto for years, y'know!) for a ruthless shock to the psyche. You just hafta hear tracks 9 & 10 back-to-back to see what I mean. Maybe I'll spin those both next time. I really wish this guy had a band together that could pull these songs off live, but he'd probably need to clone another four Matt K's. This guy plays with a rare quotient of soul, ferocity, and precision, and he's uncommonly long on ideas to work a definitive rock 'n' roll song for maximum catchiness, cleverness, and impact. Seriously, some DIY label honcho would be super-shrewd to issue this on a 12". It is absolutely vinyl-worthy next-level futurepunk.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

AFS v. 210 ~ Raising the Bar

Leading off this week, we get a sneak preview from the upcoming Eat Skull LP--Wild & Inside--due out this spring on Siltbreeze. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to it for the fourth time back-to-back-to-back-to-back, AND THE ONLY WAY TO EXPRESS HOW BRILLIANT THIS RECORD'S GONNA BE IS TO USE ALL CAPS AND EXTRA EXCLAMATION MARKS!!! This totally exceeds my lofty expectations! There's a couple more songs from it on their MySpace, and I'm not gonna spoil the real surprises by playing certain other songs on upcoming AFS shows before the record comes out. But suffice it now to say that this record's dripping in picture-perfect pop brilliance more so than even the best individual songs of their 2008 releases. There's still some crucial anthems and wild rides--"Nuke Mecca" being the obvious 80's HC touch (is that an accidental re-write of "Breeders" by L.D.S.?)--but all of these songs reveal the songwriting to be uncommonly strong, and every little "weird" extra is absolutely purposeful (including field recordings from a busy kitchen and a to-die-for chorus sung by what sounds like a kids' choir). There's even moments of true beauty in the final five songs, which hang together just perfectly! If you're one of the naysayin' message-board trolls that say Eat Skull has typefied "weirdpunk" as too often "weird for the sake of weird" (I know I've read that more than once), I dare say that YOU need to let this one under your skin. In his fascinating interview in the new Z Gun, Dan Melchior talked about some of his favorite records of the past which he described as "haunted pop": Roy Orbison, darker moments of the Beach Boys you'd never hear on oldies radio, and so many records bearing the mark of Joe Meek or Phil Spector. I swear that Wild & Inside even captures that vibe. Is it live or is it Memorex? How about whether it's anachronistic or timeless? Not that it's a competition or anything, but this sets the bar really high for the rest of the year. 'Bout that new Z Gun...I intended this playlist to be a listening companion to this excellent new issue of the best music print zine since...since?...before the internet happened, I figure.

Download this program within three weeks at either link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
(~ 173kB)
or CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
(~ 346kB)

EAT SKULL | Killed by Rooms | Wild & Inside | Siltbreeze *forthcoming
EAT SKULL | Double Wasted | split 7" w/ Ganglians | Dulc-i-Tone *new
KEVIN BOYER | I Was Born | Something's Gonna Come Up 7" | What's Your Rupture? *new
HOME BLITZ | Apocalyptic Grades 2005 A.D. | Apocalyptic Grades 2005 A.D. 7" | no label 2005
HOME BLITZ | Thin Ice | v/a: The World Is Lousy With Ideas #1 7" | Almost Ready 2007
FEEDTIME | Mandead/Searching the Desert | Feedtime | Megadisc 1985
FEEDTIME | Fractured | Shovel | Aberrant 1986
BILLY BAO | Borders of Mass Deception | Fuck Separation 10" | S-S Records 2007
RATAS DEL VATICANO | Disparame ya no Quiero Toser | Mocosos Pateticos | Siltbreeze *new
RATAS DEL VATICANO | Himno al Rock n' Roll
TV GHOST | Nodoz | TV Ghost | Die Stasi 2008
LEPER PRINT | Dead Flowers | Coma 7" | Die Stasi 2008
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | The Post Office Line | The Post Office Line 7" | Columbus Discount *new
DAN MELCHIOR | Claptrap Thing | The Covert Stomp | Smart Guy 2004 (orig 1999)
DAN MELCHIOR | Natural Misanthrope | This is Not the Medway Sound | Smart Guy 2003
DAN MELCHIOR UND DAS MENACE | Cockroaches in Yr Handbag | The Pink Scream 12" EP | Shake Appeal 2007
GANDALF | Nature Boy | Gandalf | Capitol 1969
LEFT BANKE | Lazy Day | There's Gonna Be a Storm | Mercury | 1992 (orig 1967)
TORNADOS '66 | No More You and Me | v/a: Joe Meek Freakbeat: You're Holding Me Down | Castle 2006 (orig 1966)
THE TWINKEYZ | Cartoon Land | Aliens in Our Midst | Anopheles 1998 (orig 1978)
MATT K. SHRUGG | (We Aren't Here for) Yesterday | Mentor to Wall CDR | Guiness Book of World Records *new
CHARLES ALBRIGHT | I'm Just a Fine Young Man... | I'm on Drugs 7" | no label *new
PACK | Nobody Can Tell Us | Com'On 7" | Eversongs/Aggressive Noise *new (orig 1978)
GOD IS MY CO-PILOT | I Hate My Friends | On a Wing & a Prayer 7" | Funky Mushroom 1992
GOD IS MY CO-PILOT | Submissive | Gender Is As Gender Does 7" | Funky Mushroom 1992
HUGGY BEAR | Her Jazz | Her Jazz 7" | Wiiija/Catcall 1993
PUSSYCAT TRASH | Punk Xerox Connections | The Brat Years: 1992-1995 | Troubleman Unlimited 2001
SKINNED TEEN | Starch | split LP/CD w/ Raooul | Lookout/Wiiija 1994
FRUMPIES | She's a Real Cutie Pie | Babies and Bunnies 7" | Kill Rock Stars 1993
BOYCOTT | Barbie Doll Death | Boycott 7" | Trench 1994
CEBE BARNS BAND | You Use Me For Fashion | Height of Fashion 7" | Horsekitty 1996
KICKING GIANT | Dubious | She's Real 7" | K Records 1994
KICKING GIANT | Wire | Alien I.D. | K Records 1994
SLEATER-KINNEY | The Last Song | Sleater-Kinney 10" | Villa Villakula 1995 *request
MUTATING MELTDOWN | Six Minutes Underground | Fantasy 7" | M'Lady's *new
ZOLA JESUS | Dog | Poor Sons 7" | Die Stasi 2008
LUXURY PREVENTION | Tenable Fort | v/a: XXperiments | Die Stasi *new
WET HAIR | White Strobe Void | 2nd CS | Night People *new
JAMES FERRARO | Subterranean Pipe Dream | Chameleon Ballet | Olde English Spelling Bee *new

Like I said....Z Gun is the best print zine out there in quite some time. Unless you can take your laptop into your W.C. everytime you take a ruthless duke, you really do need this thing. It's got tons of well-done reviews of a variety of punk, garage, and tangential musics as usual, plus superb interviews with the likes of Mattin and Billy Bao, feedtime, Home Blitz, Dan Melchior, and the DIYCEO of Die Stasi Records, AND a toughtful examination of crucial records and tapes from the heyday of riot grrl. As Ryan Wells wrote in his introduction, riot grrl music was never treated well by critics. During that early heyday, professional music journalists rarely dealt with the music of riot grrl, but focused instead on the social and political aspects of it as a movement. Surely riot grrls with their own zines covered the music, but mostly, they completely lacked the ability or willingness to be critical. Truly, this kinda piece is long overdue. Now you can have a riot grrl grails list. Happy hunting! Let's hope this attention inspires a compilation to bring these sounds to the non-collector-scum. My finger will be on the mousebutton ready to paypal.

If you're in the Sacramento Valley, you can get it at Time Tested Books at 1114 21st Street in Midtown Sac. If you're anywhere else, CLICK HERE to find out how to cop it.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

AFS v. 209 ~ Down With Hope!

Really, though....the cheeriest news of the day is that the new installment of the Columbus Discount Singles Club came in the mail today, and it's possibly the wildest 7" yet by Dan Melchior und das Menace. We lead off tonight with the schizoid B-side that alternately rambles with sweet guitar and cloys with jarring keys, but it's surely as tight and purposeful as any Melchior song, and Dan still makes his point with authority. I never expected him to veer so close to the "synthpunk" zeitgeist, but that's exactly what you'll hear on the A-side, and it's exemplary as a best-of in the genre. I can hear the alacrity and aggression of TV Ghost, but also the appreciable kinda maturity that helps such an assault hit its target perfectly. And there's another 7" by Melchior and his Menace coming any day now on Columbus Discount which is already available for order even for non-subscribers to the Singles Club. It's coming in a killer batch of new titles by such cool rulers as El Jesus de Magico (full length!)!!

And yet more consoling is available in the form of these great new reissues and retrospective releases...

Siltbreeze's new 7" featuring Beyond the Implode is just in time to take advantage of heightened curiosity in DIY pop and postpunk, like the kind chronicled by the Messthetics series, and rekindled interest in the sublime sounds of 80s kiwi pop and psyched-tinged adjacencies. This English band's 1979 home recordings definitely sounds like a perfect combination of the two, and it is surely already in short supply, so go cop it right now! Also check out the new LP by Detroit Afro-proto-punks Death, due out on February 17, plus a re-ish of early 70s Austin psych-trippers Cold Sun, a still-too-scarce vinyl edition of drastic neo-no-wave scuzz by Cousins of Reggae (surely one of the very best bands of this particular ilk!), and a double-CD by The Shadow Ring that shall surely send you scouring for their entire discography once you let it creep under your skin. Rumor has it, more Shadow Ring reissues are on the way.

Art for Spastics

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

AFS v. 216 ~ TermBo Turf War

Monday, April 06, 2009

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

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

AFS v. 214 ~ feat. The Homosexuals

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

AFS v. 213 ~ feat. The Whines live in Studio A

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

AFS v. 212 ~ Halcyon Will Survive

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

AFS v. 211 ~ Nobody Knows This is Somewhere!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

AFS v. 210 ~ Raising the Bar

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

AFS v. 209 ~ Down With Hope!

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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