More from Ohio or thereabouts-ish

Well, it has its roots in Ohio anyway.

More or less.

A Monster and the Devil (1989)

  It was recorded in NYC in 1989.

So what happens when you take author and founder of Cleveland's punk legends the Pagans, the late Mike Hudson and set him up to read his Bukowski-esque stories backed by the Styrenes?

You get this record.

Pour yourself a few fingers of your favorite hard liquor and close your eyes and absorb in a stifling hot room on a late Sunday afternoon while a fat green fly buzzes desperately in the window screen trying to get out. It's not going to get anywhere and gets stuck behind the window banging it's skull uselessly and endlessly between the panes. In a day or two you can find it's dried husk in the sill next to your empty glass.
That's what this record sounds like.

Home and Hombres

This is another post.

I have business to take care of.

It will be short.

Home and Garden (1986)

"By 1982, Pere Ubu, a band that had blazed a trail of influence (if not outright commercial success) through the punk/new wave scene, had broken up. Scott Krauss, Ubu's founding drummer, who had left a year before the band's dissolution, was already exploring new musical avenues when he was joined by Ubu bass player Tony Maimone. Together they entered the recording studio as Home and Garden" 

That should be enough to start you off. The last update from their site is from 2012. So there you go.

Let It Out (1967)

The Hombres. Garage. The A-side is a classic. B-Side is a lost classic. Let it all hang out, baby.

Way Too Many Records

So I'm going through the boxes of seven inches and I get up to Guided by Voices.
There's a metric shit ton of singles and records there. I believe that Robert Pollard is the kind of guy who doesn't believe in outtakes or demos for the most part and he releases virtually anything he records.
There are also legions of folks who will lap up every bit and lick the plate.

I'm not quite there, but close enough. He lost me towards the turn of the century when I was poorer and found that I couldn't quite keep up with his prolific catalog of releases to the point that I kind of gave up and moved on.

It was kind of a sad day.

Chunk Split w/ New Radiant Storm King (1995)

So rather than flood this thing for a month and a half with GBV singles, I'm just going to throw you all a bone with some oddities.Nothing impossibly rare and unobtainable, but something less likely to be heard.

I think I picked this one up at a show in the Mainroom at First Avenue for the "Under the Bushes, Under the Stars" tour which was the last hurrah for the "classic" lineup.

Holy shit, was that a good show.

Anyway, it's a split with each band playing a song by the other band.
Enjoy.

Split w/Cobra Verde (1997)

After Pollard disbanded the "classic" lineup he snagged Cleveland's Cobra Verde to be Guided by Voices for a little while. It was a big change from previous versions of GBV and one that didn't really click for me. I would have picked this up at another Mainroom, First Avenue show in 1997.

I wasn't too impressed with this version of the band live. Kind of a lackluster show for me and "Mag Earwhig!" just wasn't doing it for me at the time.

I have since come around with a reassessment of the Lp. It's pretty fucking great.

About all I remember about Cobra Verde's opening set before Bob came on and they became GBV was that they had the same theremin I do.

And that is, as they say, that.

Mopping up.

Here's the last of the last batch of things I digitized literally months ago and have sat in a folder on mediafire just waiting for me to get my lazy ass shit together.

It's more Comped to Death shit.

I Cannot Stop You (1967)

A snazzy little garage number from this Saginaw, Michigan band that even the presence of a horn section cannot quite diminish. It was a decent regional hit back when those could happen because one company didn't own all the radio stations in the country and decide what the country was going to consider a "hit". I don't listen to radios.

It's Cold Outside (1967)

Yeah, it's been comped a million times. You may have already. But this is my copy and I fucking love this song. I'm a little less enthused by the b-side, but I fucking love "It's Cold Outside". 

The band were from Cleveland, OH and would eventually reconjigger to become the Raspberries best known for a AM hit about trying to convince a girl to bang you. (Kind of like a slightly less graphic "Paradise by the Dashboard Light") Eric Carmen who sang for the Raspberries would go on to a successful solo career making dreary light rock songs for the rest of the 70's. I don't recommend them.

Slogging on.

I'm slowly catching up today with stuff that's been sitting around in a folder for a while waiting for a chance to be posted.

 

the Brainiacs (1979)

  The label for this LA band is based in Gilroy California. The garlic capital of the world and home to the famous Gilroy Garlic Festival. You already missed it for this year. I think that "Don't Tell Me Why" was comped somewhere on one of those silly and bottomless punk rock compilations. Certainly deserving. The rest of the ep seems to follow more or less the law of diminishing returns, but it's nothing that's going to keep me from listening to the whole thing. Is the world clamoring for a reunion and deluxe reissues? No. But don't let that you stop you from giving it a spin in the old digital entertainment device.

 

 Test Tube Baby (1978) 

1978 and In Vitro fertilization was new and exciting. So were the Chronics. This is their sole contribution to recorded music that has been available. I like both sides.
There must have been something the water in Ohio.

Chicago Scores

A while back (at least as far as when this post will show up as opposed to when I'm actually typing this up and setting it loose in the queue) I made a quick trip down to Chicago to go and see the big "David Bowie Is..." Exhibit at the MCA Chicago. It was fab and had a bunch of stuff and costumes and ephemera. David Bowie's cocaine spoon was on display. It was a wonderful time.

While I was there I got to hang with a wonderful friend I hadn't seen in way way too long and she proceeded to chauffeur us around to just about every record store in town. I spent a lot more money than I'd wanted, but there was so much that I'd never physically seen that I knew I'd better just go ahead and pick it up while I could.

 the Lepers (1979)

ClePunk.com has a little bit of info on them. Doesn't matter. It's Cleveland, 1979. It's punk rock. It's on the same label as the Pagans. There's a song called "Coitus Interruptus". There's cowbell. I picked it up pretty cheap because there's a huge ugly scuff mark on the b-side which looks bad, but doesn't effect the grooves. I'm pleased with this purchase.

 the Panik (1977)

Manchester band with some vague tenuous Joy Division connections. It's loud. It's UK punk. It didn't sell.

I Got Nothing Really.

I got nothing to say, but stuff to post. Here's a couple more 12" records.

 

Charlotte Pressler (with the Styrenes) (1982)

I know nothing of Charlotte Pressler. There isn't much on the internet. She's backed by the ever fabulous and underrated Styrenes for this one. A band that formed in that never credited enough Cleveland scene in 1975 and eventually moved East  to that really rather overrated NYC scene at some point after. They released a handful of lovely and essential things worth tracking down. ("Drano in your Veins" remains ever a favorite in my tiny little world)

The A side of this is a spoken word piece by Ms. Pressler with a fine musical accompaniment by the Styrenes. The B side is the same music accompaniment without the spoken word part which makes for quite enjoyable listening on its own but can also function for Charlotte Pressler karaoke which I can only imagine is the highlight of any social affair.

Impotent Sea Snakes (1984)

The cover of this alone was worth the whatever paltry amount I shelled out for this beauty. It screams half assed high school punk band. Certainly not something you'd ever want to use to pad out a graphic design portfolio, but sometimes you have to let the significant other make the cover if want to continue to get some. They were from Tampa, Florida.

This is the Impotent Sea Snakes first effort and it appears that they did evolve into quite the elaborate performance artists with costumes and dancers and nudity and everything a boy could ask for including an endorsement from Ron Jeremy.  The band wants to shock, offend and amuse you. Totally punk rock. Starting out with "Pope John Paul Can Suck My Dick" you kind of can get an idea of where the rest of this is heading. It's all very junior high school with a not overly special punk rock backing and ending with an out of nowhere relatively straight cover of Martha & the Vandellas "Heatwave"  where the singer didn't quite learn the lyrics particularly accurately. For me the highlight of the whole experience would be "I Wanna Fuck Your Dad" which seems to hit the intended mark a bit more than some of the other songs. You can decided for yourself