Monday, August 31, 2015

Things that are...interesting ca. 1982.

Not a whole lot on either of these objects.





You can cross Nebraska off your fifty states list.

This single was included with a copy of Beef Tabloid #9, a zine started in Omaha, Nebraska in 1980. The  sum total of which I know about it comes from this.  As for the bands themselves? Nobody knows anything. Even a guy in Nebraska who wrote a music column in 2011 devoted to music from Nebraska seemed mystified and stymied. That should peak your interest at least. Personally I kind of prefer the Bump Fuzz side if for no other reason than I think the moniker is a euphemism from less pubic hair phobic times. A hole is a hole, indeed.





 Venus Dressed in Plastic Garbage (1982)

Meanwhile due east about 1440.8 miles (give or take) in Boston, Mickey Bliss was strapping on his boots and laying down this dark little synth ditty. The title alone qualifies it as a masterpiece. Is this that Cold Wave that I sometimes see listed places where people are wont to endlessly divide music into genres and subgenres and microgenres  until things get so muddled and confused and arguable that the labels themselves lose all sense of meaning? Maybe.




Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Cities (1979) : Seattle and San Francisco cont.

Coincidences abound today.

The last post was of the Blackouts who started in Seattle and ended up in San Francisco. The next thing I have to post is of bands from both those places. I'll bet they all knew each other. Probably shared bills in dingy little clubs playing to a couple dozen disinterested people together. Maybe even hung out. It is a pretty small world after all if one is to believe animatronic dolls at amusement parks.


If it matters, the Cheaters were the starting point for Kurt Bloch who would go on from here to form the Fastbacks who would go on to make some fine pop punk for the couple of decades. B-side is the winner for me on this one, but you know, that's just like, my opinion, man.


First issue by San Fran's Breakouts. They're more or less a bit of a mystery to me and I couldn't find much in the five minutes I spent looking. Apparently this seems to be their best release. Loud and sloppy and poorly recorded and the punk rock fan favorite over the other releases that I neither have nor am willing to spend the money for. (The three copies of  this for sale on Discogs start at $200)
 I paid a single dollar for my copy. I feel like I got my money's worth.



Sunday, August 23, 2015

Blacking Out

It's still early. I've had my coffee, but need something to eat and a quick rinse and then it's a day that I'll spend cooking. I need to make a pie with the blueberries we got from the Farmer's Market as well as some Harvard Beets from the (at least) ten pound bucket of beets we got from the same. There was a third thing too, but I can't think of it right now. Doesn't matter. You don't care. Here's a couple singles by the Blackouts.   


So if you took the time to follow the Wikipedia link you already know that this band originated in Seattle in 1979, moved to Boston for a couple years (I don't remember them) and then ended up in San Francisco. There's some Ministry connections and the drummer ends up working for REM.



Exchange of Goods (1981)

Adding to the confusion their third release (after a 12" I don't currently have) is on a UK label so for the longest time I thought they were two different bands. I mean, the singles certainly sound like they could be different bands to me. They just grow up so fast.


Saturday, August 22, 2015

I'm feeling beneficent

I woke up this morning after a rather longer than I was scheduled for week partially refreshed. (I slept in. I got up at 6am rather than 4am.) And I looked and the last post that popped up was five days ago and the next one not until tomorrow.

Like a spoiled baby I want a post for right fucking now because I'm a giving person and I'm getting ready to buy some new things because I worked overtime and totally deserve nice things.

Here's some seven inches by Crude.

 Desert Storms (1995)

 Crude is essentially the SS Matt Middleton and all who sail with him. The labels most often used for his discography over at our good friends Discogs are "Experimental", "Noise", "Industrial" and our old friend "Avant-garde"
 It's still rock and roll to me. He plays the clarinet sometimes.




Both of these bad boys are lathe cut discs, hand crafted in ridiculously low numbers (I don't really remember. Under 50 I'm pretty sure.) in the lovely land of New Zealand by Trinder records.

 They were also mastered at a whisper so in order for them to play back at a volume reasonable for our modern hustle and bustle times I had to quadruple it when I turned the vinyl into ones and zeros. It's going to be hissier is what I'm trying to say, but since they are Avantgarde Industrial Experimental Noise type records it only adds to the charm.


Monday, August 17, 2015

Screw It, I'm halfway there already.


My internet is shit and this 6 months old laptop keeps randomly crashing so I'm having a bitch of a time uploading new things to post about. I still have Dentists crud on mediafire I haven't posted.

Have some more.

This is the second proper Dentists full length. It's quite good and is an important part of a balanced breakfast in some Eastern Bloc countries where they generally eat an unhealthy amount of potatoes.




This was a collection of various odds and ends and demos and miscellaneous bits of bullshit that the Dentists had hanging around their house around the time that they got signed to East West Records (a subsidiary  of Atlantic Records). It was released by Independent Projects so has an elaborate hand printed fancy ass sleeve that is pretty posh, but you're going to have to take my word on. You're getting the music Quit whining. Elaborate artwork to hold in your hands and admire is for winners who buy records. Find your own to stroke lovingly.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Hog Butcher for the World

I have a really good and dear friend in Chicago. We drove down there this past winter to hang out with them and see the "David Bowie Is..." exhibit. That was really cool. It had David Bowie's 70's coke spoon.
But all I could really imagine was how weird it must have been for David Bowie to wander around the exhibit and watch shit that he may have had hanging in the back of his hall close for  decades get the full on museum white glove treatment like priceless artifacts rather than the odd crocheted 70's pantsuit still smelling like 100 shows worth of ball sweat that they are to him 40 years later.
It was a bit unsettling.

But one thing I knew I was going to do while I was there was score a copy of the 12" by DA.

I did.



They were female fronted. A bit Art School with a touch of Goth and a heaping spoonful of Siouxsie & the Banshees. But not boring like actual Siouxsie and the Banshees. Rather enjoyable actually. Lyrics out of English Comp. class seriousness, but I still like it. I shouldn't but I do. You should too you cynical fart..


DA made these two slabs of vinyl for Autumn Records otherwise known for bringing the Effigies to the  light of day and existed in or around the contemporary Chicago scene. Sadly Lorna Donley passed away in 2013. But this music still remains. So there is that. Just fucking download it and love it already.

Friday, August 7, 2015

Big Red Ball

Big Red Ball were from Minneapolis and released these three singles on Prospective Records between 1991 and 1993. They hold up pretty well.



 It's Up to You (1991)

Is this the stuff of collector frenzy  wet dreams, probably not, but they were a pretty good band that I saw more than once when I first moved here. I liked them


I liked them enough to remember that I liked them many years later and picked up all three singles at some point to see if I still, in fact, did like them enough lo these many many years removed from watching them live in the 7th St Entry. I did to the extent that I do not regret anything and thought enough of the to put them up here right now.


Your mileage will naturally vary. I can't help that. But if on the off chance you would like your own personal cheap copies GoJohnnyGo has some NOS copies that he'd love to sell you. You do that.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

I've Been Busy.

For the handful of folks who occasionally frequent this page, I missed where a couple of posts should have gone. It happens. I've got shit to do. We went out of town and work has been pretty nuts in an entirely different way as I train into new areas.

The plus side is that I scored a bunch of New Old Stock copies of things on the long ago defunct Akron Ohio label Clone Records that at some point will start trickling down into this shithole of a blog in the future whenever I get around to it or they pop up in the box as I  thumb my through it. You can wait. You don't care. You want stuff to listen to without the fuss of having to pick through hundreds of shitty records to find the gem.

Not everything I post is a gem. There's a lot of half assed turd polishing that happens. Delete is always an option.

So while I toil away figuring out what all else I want to put up here have some more Dentists.



I don't actually have a physical copy of this 12" Ep, but I recreated it from the same songs as released on the compilation "Beer Bottles & Bannister Symphonies". Unlike some people, I kind of balk at purchasing redundancies for the collection. Records are heavy and I'll have to move at some point.

  

This was their mostly penultimate release before being snagged up by a major label. The sound is evolving, yo. They're maturing as artists.  The 80's are slowly coming to a squeaky close and Grunge is now on the horizon. Jangly Pop music was becoming unhep. Reagan was at the end of his term and we were stuck choosing between Bush, sr. and Michael Dukakis for "Leader of the  Free World". Yeah, it was a really shit time to be alive.