Thu 4 Mar 2010

VA – Sounds Waves 1 7″

Posted by admin under Metal
[10] Comments

Kinda picking up the torch, where I left off with some music in the last post.  As I had mentioned, my bros in The Underlings (Eugene, Oregon) and Splinter Cell (Manila, California) played a show at the Alibi in Arcata, California back on February 6th.  James shared some of the Splinter Cell set and now, a few days after that post, Ed has kindly shared some of The Underlings set.  So here’s those tunes for you because I think their worthwhile sharing and one of the few instances where I have permission to do so around here (ha,ha).  Not bad for an audience recording, knowing Ed he probably uses that same 35 year old tape deck we used to record our rehearsals with.  The vocals are too low but if you want to hear them sounding studio sweet check the posts I did on them a while back or better yet get their CD or 7″. Every tune rocks here, the last one is a Helios Creed cover.

Vice Squad
Second Best
Black + White
Hyperventilation

You’ve gotta love this pic, sort of symbolic of shared ideas, or maybe it’s just nifty.  Wish I had more Public Enemy in my crates.  Anybody into those guys? Accused of being anti-Semetic, homophobic and maybe a few other things, but there was something about a more intelligent approach to rap as opposed to the gangster variety where every other word is nigger, bitch, ho, or money. Oh what the hell, how about a tune that might be relevant to this post, Public Enemy – She Watch Channel Zero!

Edit: Summary of the next paragraph: I watch sports, sports suck, the media sucks worse, ultimately the human race sucks.
I don’t know about anybody else but I’m glad the winter olympics is over.  Sort of in an odd place with sports myself because I can respect and admire athleticism but I could do without nationalism and the whole jock mentality.  Ultimately I guess it’s just kids playing. As a kid I played all kinds of sports with the other kids in the neighborhood over at the dirt lot (mostly broken glass and pebbles) next door to the apartments we lived in.  Still have the scars to prove it.  With organized sports, I played baseball and soccer up until my knee exploded on my 16th birthday.  In college you could take coed sports as a class, but what that really amounted to was getting drunk and/or high after classes and mostly just messing around.  It got serious sometimes but for the most part it was a chance to hang out with your friends, get buzzed and earn half a credit.  I played goalie in indoor soccer because I couldn’t run for shit anymore, but the real sport for me, I took it every semester I was in school, was softball.  Anybody ever play softball on mushrooms? My first semester I played on a mostly native team and it was sadly stereotypical because we were just a bunch of drunk indians.  I don’t think we ever won a game and we’d always be missing a few people because they were in jail or the drunk tank.  For a couple of years I lived down the street from the ‘Rugby House’.  At HSU rugby was not a school sport but was a club that played against other school clubs.  We used to party with those guys all the time and even though they were jocks, they were more of the scumy variety.  My bro Match was a gifted athlete, but watching him play rugby was violently beautiful.  The ’sport’ that I’m best at is ping pong.  If I detect a smile there, I will insist that ping pong is more of a ’sport’ than hunting, fishing or even golf. Definitely not Olympic status but in all modesty at the height of my game I kicked some serious ass.  Spent a month in rehab (the last time I had the pleasure of doing that and actually if you’ve been in that situation you know that the detox is the absolutely worst part of that experience) and I was the undefeated ping pong champion the entire time I was there.  Had the unstoppable super slicing silly serve. :-)   These days my broken down fat ass is exclusively a sports observer.  I enjoy the idea of a person training hard and dedicating themselves to something to the point of where you’re in awe of what they can accomplish.  At the same time I never let myself forget that they are jocks, plain and simple.  I don’t think I need to describe that mentality, even if you are a jock, you know what I’m talking about.  Jock=Idiot  Nothing has changed about these people just because they have aged beyond the awkwardness of being a teenager.  Macho or a prima donna, it lives on.  So even as I watch and am amazed, I realize what makes them tick.  The only athletic events I can afford to go to is the local high school stuff and I see it in those kids, but at the same time I’ve grown up and it’s just kinda cool, beyond that attitude, that they’re having a good time.  They probably beat up on the nerdy kids and treat their equally idiotic cheerleader girlfriends like shit, but that’s life.  At my high school the jocks never fucked with the punks or heshers.  I do watch sports on TV but you either have college or professional sports.  The college kids are just slightly grown up dickheads, who aspire to be professional dickheads and make mountains of cash.  I watch all kinds of sports but what I regularly watch is professional American football and mixed martial arts (MMA).  Before you think anything, I will say to you that both these are lame for oh so many reasons.  I know this. The fact that young people aspire to become grossly overpaid professional idiots within organizations, institutions really, that are symbolic of the gluttonous disease that infects the human race, is beyond sad.  At the same time I am a sucker and I enjoy watching it, if for nothing more than my own misanthropic and apathetic entertainment.  Football even slightly more than baseball or basketball is this disgusting monster that defines the United States.  In other parts of the world it may be soccer or some other sport.  What a thing to owe your allegiance to, a team.  Now MMA has become it’s own monster, specifically the UFC, in it’s desire to become just as huge in the shameless money making department as the NFL.  I don’t know what it is though, I just enjoy seeing two guys beat the shit out of each other.  I can take a punch pretty well but I was never a very good brawler.  In fact I avoid fighting unless you really piss me off (really just when I was drunk).  Most of these guys lack the honor that I was taught when I took martial arts, and actually they’re more often than not they’re the type of guys you could find at a bar anyplace in the world who just enjoy beating people up.  On the plus side with these organized fights they are both willing participants, it’s not like getting sucker punched while you’re sitting in some bar minding your own business and trying to drown yourself in your drink.  So what is it about watching football and MMA that I dig?  I think it’s that inner jock or better yet my own personal inner idiotic asshole (if only I could take my ping pong skills on the field or in the ring.  Anyway, back to me being glad the winter Olympics are over.  I’ve always used Yahoo for my email, I think Yahoo is 15 years old now.  Not because Yahoo is somehow superior to anything similar. If you use it you know that the home page where you sign in is a deceptive mix of news and advertisements.  I never hit up the ads and seldom check out the news, because for too many reasons to explain here it just pisses me off.  Sometimes I check it out in curiosity if it’s something scientific or historical, otherwise I just read the ‘headlines’ (or what “they” choose to be the headlines).  So with the Olympics in full swing at least two headlines, every time I checked (they change and then repeat themselves as the day goes on), was something about the colder sports.  Every fucking time though, I swear, it was about nationalism (who’s got the most medals) or worse yet the drama that in most cases is behind the scenes, but today is right there in your face. “Some effeminate male skater doesn’t care that people are pissed because he chose to wear fox fur on his costume.  Someone who was expected to win the gold, didn’t, and now they are sad and tearfull.  So and so was cheated out of victory”.   And yet I’m stupid for expecting anything less from something that reflects this society.  That’s how we are, very little interest in the real and tangible things. Instead a summary of the human condition, just a fascination with shiny objects.  Ha, ha and I said I was going to cut my posts in half, yeah right.

In other news  :-)   my bro Mike turned me onto a sweet all around site.  Good writing accompanies the posts, which to me makes it even more worht the time. As the title suggests, the subject matter is 80’s Punk Videos.

After the last post too, on the subject of Mystic/Nardcore bands, it was suggested by Jay and Davrick, that in that category, Dr. Know was the best.  Damn good suggestion, and they’re probably right if there is such a thing as objective truth in music, but it got me thinking. How about RKL – Love To Hate or RKL – Life In A Bottle?  So fucking good.  They’d be worth posting too, I think 3 of the original 4 members did suicide by addiction.

What did I say, “Just because, every post could potentially have a live Motorhead tune thrown in”.  Josh and Brian mentioned a couple that I kind of took as requests, so I slaved away night and day, under a hot lamp with no ventilation, a knife to my throat, and did my usual thing ripping the audio from live youtube stuff.

Motorhead – Bomber (live)
Motorhead – Ace Of Spades (live)
…and how about this cover
Motorhead – R.A.M.O.N.E.S. (live)

Got this comp 7″ from 1988 for fairly cheap, not too long ago. At the time this was released by Sounds Magazine (I think), the versions of these tunes and maybe even the tunes themselves were exclusive to this release (that’s what the sleeve says anyway). I dig these various artists 7″, just for the sampling of bands they usually provide and it’s easier if you already know there’s one tune you’re into. That tune for me, one of their slightly later four peice things, was
Motorhead-Killed By Death
The second tune is by a band I am very familiar with, but did not recognize the tune. Let me tell you, this one is nothing like they’re early stuff like Stupids-Live To Rock
Outside of Venom, Slayer and few others, my metal experience, until recently is pretty limited. I own nothing by Kreator and couldn’t tell you if I’d ever heard them before. I think this tune was released as a single but as I said it’s probably a different version. Actually some pretty decent speed metal (is that the right category?) here,
Kreator-After The Attack
I heard Celtic Frost back in the 80’s and didn’t really get into them. Recently though I got into Hell Hammer (prehistoric bone crushing simplicity ala Venom), a pre Celtic Frost band, and figured maybe I should give CF another spin. They’re decent but aren’t as good as Hell Hammer,
Celtic Frost-Visual Aggression

Too cool not to share here,

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Thu 25 Feb 2010

False Confession – s/t 7″

Posted by admin under Hardcore
[14] Comments

Edit: Sorry for the Super Sabado Gigante mega Armageddon post, but it just has to be done that way sometimes.  It’s excitement for the many colors and shapes of music, along with the way my brain works.  Realize of course that this could have been a minimum of three posts, so you’re a good man Charlie Brown if you made it to the end and managed to listen to a song or two.  Expect the next posts to be half this size.

Y’all know I love music, hence this site, duh. Well, I think I’ve also made it clear that getting music in the mail (the nearest store that carries even a marginal selection of vinyl is 150 miles away) is one of those things that, as Dirty Harry would say, makes my day. So I guess this would be a good point to say that if you want to send me music, (old, new, vinyl, CD, even mp3s for the live shit) to review, post, or just out of the goodness of your heart, I will be forever grateful. That request is a little more than cheezy I know, but I never claimed to be cool, just poor. Poor me, shameless. I have been know to say, “if it’s free it’s for me” (although with age I’ve realized that most things do not come without a price and that other things, like venereal diseases are also free). Some of my fellow music bloggers, specifically say they don’t want to be approached by bands to have their stuff reviewed. I figure, what the hell, if you send it, I will listen, and I’m such a sap, even if I don’t like it I’ll probably search high and low to find something nice to say about it (or not). I do not take music lightly, and I’m not a total freeloader, I do use Ebay and some of the smaller labels/distros, like an addict though, even though I can only listen to one song at a time, I always want more. Blah blah blah.

Since my last post, I’ve gotten two such packages of benevolence. One rather large one, I got from one of my oldest friends, Davrick, which I’ll talk about in the main part of this post. The second one was the result of me freeloading at another site. Erich at Good Bad had gotten a comment from “Lackeyland” about an address to send some records. I commented, jokingly, that I too would be glad to receive free records by mail. Well, Brad (as I came to find out) from Shut up Records was not fucking around, got my addy, and promptly sent me a 7″. You never know what you’re going to get venturing into unknown territory with a band you’ve never heard of, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a great record. Severance Package out of Chico, California just plain rock on their “All Down Hill” 7″. That driving kind of early punk, no bullshit sound, featuring male and female vocals. A three piece, that aren’t strangers to making music, but you can read all about that either at the label or their myspace, where you can also hear some of their stuff, including the songs on this 7″. Also found some more web presence on them in the form of a site called Reverb Nation, where you can get even more music, videos, photos, tour dates and whatnot. Understand they have a demo that I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on to post. Anyway, go hit up Brad to get your copy which I think is $7, ppd. One of their live tunes for you,
Miseducated
…and a short one from the 7″ (thanx Brad)
POW!

Along the lines of some seasoned musicians doing no bullshit punk and rock, with a contemporary band, some old friends of mine in Splinter Cell played with another old friend of mine, in his band The Underlings at the Alibi in Arcata, California on February 6th.  Back in the days when I was doing whatever kind of dope I could get my hands on and my drinks of choice were either a gin and tonic or a black Russian, the Alibi was my home bar (is Dave the bartender still alive).  Now days they put on shows there and I wouldn’t have wanted to have missed that show, but that kind of stuff happens all the time up there.  I haven’t heard anything from the Underlings’ set but James of Splinter Cell was kind enough to send me a few tracks from their set. I posted a few of their tunes a while back and thinking about it now I should have made a bigger deal, because I am definitely down with these guys. Check those tunes hidden away in this post.  I think the next time I get something from these guys, I’ll make it the main topic of an entire post.  For now, join me with a big tall glass of water and dig these tunes from that live set.

Always Pulling Back
I Need a Rope
Robo

If you’ve been following along here at MR, you would know that I’ve semi-boycotted my local “classic rock” station for their repetitive lameness.  Now I’ve moved on to two other stations that would be more classified as news/”oldies” stations.  The news part is kind of cool because it is a mix of Associated Press news reels and local stuff.  The local stuff is mildly interesting and amusing because they’ll talk about things like fatal accidents and whether or not people were wearing their seatbelts or criminal activities like Billy Bob was arrested for his third DUI.  The music is in general a bit mellower, not as a rule though, but I think they play a wider variety of stuff.  So are you ready for this little ditty?  Another one of those tunes I remember as a wee lad, top 40 circa 1974-5.  One of the best that folk-pop had to offer in the form of,
Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown
Damn…I love the chorus
“Sundown ya better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs”
That sent my brain swimming and for a folk-pop “singer songwriter” kind of reason reminded me of two things, John Denver and that TV show from around the same period, Grizzly Addams. I’ll spare you the John Denver (this time), but does anybody remember “The Life and Times of Grizzly Addams? In all of it’s post-hippy-height of the 70’s-ness, at about 7 years old, I loved that show.  There was a movie first, then the show for a couple of seasons, then a couple of made for TV follow up movies.  Looking back you had some heavy hitting serious 70’s actors on that.  What’s cool too is that the main Indian on the show, Don Shanks was actually Indian as opposed to a dark skinned Italian as was often the case in Hollywood. What is a TV show without a good theme song right? Ha, ha…
Thom Pace – Maybe
I had the lyrics memorized to that tune. If you think about it punk was not just about what bands it was influenced by (Ramones, Stooges, MC5…) but also what was distasteful in music. Is it possible that the “singer songwriters” also influenced the rise of punk rock?
So my other package came from one of my oldest friends, must be 25 years nowwe’ve been friends, Davrick.  I sort of weaseled my way into that one too, because he was going to give about 75 records to another old friend, Ki, and I told him that if Ki didn’t want them I would definitely take them.  As I said, shameless.  What I got from him was quite a mix, from Zeppelin to Echo and the Bunnymen to Return to Forever (I’m going to post that live LP some time) to False Confession.  I’ve already posted the hell out of Ill Repute but I would have to say that False Confession may be my second favorite of the “Nardcore” bands.  Could have sworn I had this 7″ but it’s dust in the wind.  This 7″ was their only individual effort other than their demo along with some comp tracks.  What I liked about these guys though was that although, up front they were a hardcore band, there was also that feeling that they were in a death rock kind of groove.  Like everything I post around here, this is some sweet shit (would you believe, almost everything?).  Nothing rare here, I don’t think, it’s been posted by several others, but do believe it’s out of print.  We’ll see though I heard Mystic Records was making a comeback.  For some reason I feel like someone’s going to come get me for posting this so… I though I would be a completest and see if I couldn’t come up with a semi kind of discography.  First you get the 7″… (thanx a ton …deutsche!, I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am)
Left To Burn
Feline
Scared
Our Savior
Just As I Am
Lies

…then a while back, Curious Guy at his killer System Sabotage Chaos site posted their demo.  I was personally blown away and just stoked, because no one at the time had posted that.  Here’s a few of the tunes from that, but you should really take the time to not only go to his site for the entire demo but also, to check out the massive amount of rarities he has posted there.

Scared
Our Savior
Just As I Am

False Confession also made 4 comp appearances that I know of, all put out by Mystic.  One is on the “Lets’ Die” comp and on there along with the rest of the bands featured you get a straight up death rock thing that kills (ha ha)
Inside
They were also on the “Nardcore” comp, with a tune from the 7″ but to my ears it sounds like a different version.
Feline
On the “We Got Power…” comp you get an untitled track that I’ve aptly labeled
(untitled)
I dig everything these guys did, but this last one from the “Mystic Covers…” comp is cool because it’s reminiscent of some of the Devo stuff I posted a while back.  Damn good cover and actually if Mystic does start releasing stuff again or you’re an Ebay type, you’d do well by getting any one of these comps, especially this one (all kind of hits).  Check it, and later…
Freedom of Choice

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Thu 18 Feb 2010

Linton Kwesi Johnson – Sonny’s Lettah (Anti-sus Poem) b/w Iron Bar Dub

Posted by admin under Reggae
[10] Comments

In most things, I am a very laid back person, (with the exception of politics, religion and the mass majority of idiots in this world) some would say too laid back.  An unfortunate side effect I suppose of some of the medications that keep me moderately sane or maybe I’m just a lazy bastard.  I used to be the take two stairs at a time kind of guy, but as someone used to say to me back when I was a city worker, “my hero days are over”.  On the other hand, sometimes I am particular (picky, anal).  There are tablespoons and there are teaspoons.  At my house we have a third size ‘medium’, there in the middle of the picture, maybe you do too.  We have three of those ‘medium’ ones in the drawer and when I use a spoon it must be that size.  If they are all dirty, then I grumble and clean a ‘medium’ one so that I can use it.  When my wife and I have company over, I do not offer anyone the ‘medium’ spoons.  Just saying, so you know.

If you’re going to be self-destructive, it’s a bonus if you can do it with a smile on your face.  There comes a point though, where that smile gets wiped the fuck off your face.

Just because, every post could potentially have a live Motorhead tune thrown in, Motorhead – Motorhead (Live At Radio Bremen 1981) When I stop to think about it though, at least half of the stuff Motorhead has released does nothing for me (especially when they weren’t a three piece).

Aesop over at Cosmic Hearse recently posted Flipper’s “Album (Generic)” Lp, which kind of sent me back a little ways.  I didn’t get exposed to that album until 1987, from my buddy Jeremy, who I mentioned a while back as getting me into blues music.  Something about the guitar and the distorted bass that does it for me with those guys.  Another one of those bands who had a member that committed death by addiction.  To die a victim, a slave, a loser puts you in a category by yourself. Wonder if Dante had a place in hell reserved for people in that category. Insensitive of me to say, I know, since there were many times I should have died exactly that way. My favorite tune, Flipper – Ever.  “Ever wish the human race didn’t exist, then realize you’re one too”.

A couple of buddies have mentioned Kraftwerk recently.  First heard them in the early 80’s with their “Computerwelt” Lp, but at that time, they were just kind of an oddity to me.  Never even realized they went way back to 1970.  While I was in high school Greg and Jeff Lewis, Davrick, Kevin Hasley and I went camping at the isthmus on Catalina Island.  My bro Match was on the island too working not that far away at the Emerald Bay boy scout camp.  We did not prepare well for the trip unless you count several cases of beer and a fifth of vodka.  We had a little bit of bread for sandwiches which quickly ran out.  Some people felt sorry for us and gave us some potatoes but there was no tinfoil so we cut the ends off of beer cans.  We brought a boombox but we only had two tapes, one was Kraftwerks, “Electric Cafe”.  Be careful, this song gets stuck in your head easily, Kraftwerk – Boing Boom Tschak, then you might be walking around all day singing “boing (ping) boom chuck (ping)”. Or not.

Did a LKJ post a while back that you really should have listened to.  I don’t care if you like reggae or not (this is more of what they call dub poetry anyway), this is some beautiful, honest, real life, brutality. Linton Kwesi Johnson is well worth a listen.  I’ve seen stuff like this played to mostly white audiences, I wonder if there’s a different vibe when it’s mostly a black audience.  Not so rastafarian like Mutabaruka (saw him at Reggae on the River, who is also a dub poet, but I prefer that. Not to say that any form of slavery is okay or that Africans didn’t get a raw deal, because in actuality a lot of people got a raw deal from the Europeans here in the “New World”. And I’m definitely not saying that racism doesn’t exist today, but to me the worst enemy of any race (or any culturally constructed group), is itself. One thing I always wondered though, was why it was never mentioned or focused upon, that European slave traders did not go out and round up people themselves. Africans sold other Africans to the Europeans. To me there is very little importance of unity in race, unless it is for us to stand united as the human race. Of course we already have that unity because we all stand united under the flag of $$$. Anyway, I hope that mumbo jumbo doesn’t detract from the selection I have for you here, because of course racism, ageism, sexism, tribalism and so on exist today. The first track is one of LKJ’s most important tunes while the second amounts to what could be called, the dance mix, of the same tune. Dig it.
Sonny’s Lettah (Anti-sus Poem)
Iron Bar Dub

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Thu 11 Feb 2010

Disclose – Apocalypse of Death 7″

Posted by admin under Hardcore
[4] Comments

Busting my ass at work, because the boss is gone and I have to take care of some of the things that are normally on her plate, as well as what’s normally on mine. Funny because one would think that with the boss away, it would be a good time to kick back and do as little as humanly possible. Did take a few minutes, just for the hell of it, to send out an email to pretty much everyone in my address book. The usual Justin babble about politics, big business, greed and the gluttonous hordes that cover the face of this planet (you’ve heard it all before). I guess just to see if people would write back and what they would have to say. Figured, I get people puking their political beliefs into my face all the time, maybe I could do the same. It’s mostly the right wing fundamentalist Christian stuff I get from family members, which is blatantly false, so why not throw some thing out there that says both the left and right suck. “Left wing, right wing, you can stuff the lot, anarchy and freedom are what I want”. -Crass  Really wanted to get some feedback from my relatives but didn’t so anyway here are some of the excellent responses I did get:

“I can’t begin to express how disappointed I am in Obama.  I voted for him, thinking that maybe he was different.  But, now, it seems he is no different than the rest of them.  I wish him luck, but will not be voting for him again.  Too bad there are no viable candidates for the future.  Pathetic is right.”

“So how do we get people to stop being greedy and start being more selfless? If evolution is true, then there is no “morality”. Only “survival of the fittest (strongest, most clever, shrewdest, etc.)”. This is the ethic that most people are taught and grow up with. How can there be any morality beyond this in a cold, godless, random universe?”

“Well put, my friend. I still argue that we had better punk rock under Reagan.”

“they’re both cocksukers anyway  we’re being played  I just saw Food Inc. – big companies rule us by our need for fast food, and we let them. the gov is so big it’s untouchable. I gotta plant a better garden and see what animal I can raise out here that I can eat. any suggestions?”

Now here is a flag you (we, the ignorant masses) can pledge allegiance to.  Kinda stoked that I found that, very much what I had imagined a few posts back, although I can think of a few mega-monster-corps I would add, but we ran out of stars.

Just got off the phone with Mike of Strange Reaction and was very stoked on our conversation.  My first friend from the internet (that I’ve never met), who shares some of the passions I do, to make that transition from internet buddy to being a homeboy you can chat with on the phone.  Silly I know, but there are very few people where I live who could give a rats ass about anything more than how cool their brand new gas guzzling truck, what kind of gun Jesus would use and when turtle hunting season starts.  I actually do have some pretty good friends here and don’t get me wrong, even in my self imposed semi-isolation, I realize I have a very good life here.  Sometimes it’s good to reach out though, and share stories and opinions with like minded people.  Thanx Mike.

Speaking of internet friends, Josh, who is actually someone I should remember from my Humboldt days, but apparently the cells my memories of him were stored on are either malfunctioning or are just plain burned up, has his own site now.  If anybody bothers to read the comments around here, you may have caught some of his stuff.  Anyway, his site is called, Voice from the Hurricane and from the first post you know it’s going to be well worth checking out.

Two more internet friends, Erich and Peter (click their names to see the posts I’m talking about), have written a few times about the first D-Beat tune.  Kind of fits well with this post, in a way.  Anyway I tracked down two different versions of the song (two different singers I believe) and if there’s one tune you must listen to in this post, it is this.

Buzzcocks – You Tear Me Up (1977)

Buzzcocks – You Tear Me Up (1978)

Thanx guys for continuing my never ending education in music.  A very good lesson indeed.  (Ah ha, using the word “indeed” clicked something in my brain.  Anyone remember those stickers you could get in the head shops that said, “A friend with weed is a friend indeed”?  Another one, “Ass, grass, gas, nobody rides for free”.)

Same as always, I’ve done worn myself out and here we are at what was to be the topic of this post.  Not much to say really, I’m not an expert at the whole Dis-Clone band phenomena and I think this would be the only record I have that fits into that category.  The whole genre is a love it or hate it thing, as is crust in general (actually I find that most people are love it or hate it type of people, when a lot of the times for me things are just okay).  I REALLY like Discharge.  There’s nothing wrong with being influenced by the genius of their music, but this stuff is pretty much exactly Discharge, as if the band had never made the fatal error of replacing Bones with Pooch, releasing the “Warning…” ep and sealing their fate with “Grave New World”.  (Just my opinion of course and maybe an outdated one at that.) Disclose are probable the most well known and most prolific (and best?) of these types bands.  There are two things that stand out for me with this band though, other than the fact that they do rock.  There is still that Japanese feel to this hardcore despite the blueprint.  You gotta dig that indescribable Japanese sound.  Most importantly though, I’m drawn to bands that have members who did death by addiction, as the singer did not too long ago (and by alcohol, my own drug of choice).  This 7″ is sort of midway into the band’s history.  Anyway dig it or don’t.  Later.

Apocalypse of Death

But Still Work (Victims Of The Mine)

Life Of Fear

The War Dead

Corpse of Hope

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Thu 4 Feb 2010

Devo – 1st 2 7″s

Posted by admin under Punk
[10] Comments

My 1991 Nissan Hardbody that brought me out of my personal Babylon in San Diego, to my quiet semi-Utopian existence here in NoWhere, Kansas.  I had a 93′, same color, that was a little fancier and most importantly had a decent stereo.  That was stolen off of 35th and El Cajon Blvd in San Diego.   If you know the area you know that it’s jam packed with hookers, dealers and just desperate people, especially at night.   I wasn’t up to anything particularly devious, just having some of the finest Thai food to be found for many miles.  Pretty sure that thing went straight to Mexico, along with most of my tools and my decent stereo.  This one has been good to me though and the photo here does not indicate a noble end.  The damage on the front end is from a drunken journey that ended in a ditch.  The windshield is new because in that particular wreck, I smashed it with my head (always have had a hard head).  I don’t miss drinking and driving.  During my exodus from SoCal I wound up somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico with a flat tire.  That’s when I found out that the only tire iron in the vehicle, did not fit the lugs that were on the wheels.  In the middle of January it was somewhere around zero degrees but I couldn’t run the heater for fear of running out of gas and somewhere in the middle of the night, with the hazards on, the battery went dead.  Cold enough to have died that night, which would have been a fitting end to the nightmare I was living.  250k and now the head’s cracked on the motor.   Rather than add that somewhat expensive fix to the long list of repairs it’s had, the salvage guy (Fred Sanford’s white trash cousin) will be giving me $100 bucks for it.

Being pretty burnt out, prone to saying stupid shit or spacing out and saying nothing at all, it’s nice to notice that in others.  The other day I heard a MMA (for my inner Bruce Lee) announcer say about a fighter, “His precision is so precise”.  Then you have the people I work with, who have mental retardation, saying things that make complete sense.  At one of the group homes that I work at sometimes, staff will put the names of individuals on their cups so they don’t get mixed up.  This one resident always goes into the cabinet and grabs the hugest cup there is instead of the small one with her name on it.  So I asked her the other day, why do you always gab the big cup and she said, “because I have a big thirst”.

Grandpa sent me a site that I thought was kinda cool and at the same time a little creepy in that big brother sense.  Check it out, it’s called VPike.  Not just satellite images, but street level stuff.  It shows my road at the highway, but not down a mile or so to my house.

Don’t know why these guys popped in my head, maybe because I recently got in touch with Doug E. Grime through (you have an ugly) Facebook.  He was a big time fan of these guys and actually the one who introduced me to them.  He was probably on dope, but he told me once that I looked a little like the singer Ian Curtis (strung out skinny me, not the present husky bundle of love).  Anyway this is from a live show, can’t remember from where, dig how heavy it sounds with the bass way out front.  Joy Division – Transmission (live) Anybody a Joy Division fan?

Did a short little 45 Grave post a while back (I know Jay didn’t like Dinah Cancer’s voice) and ran across something for those of you that dig them might be up for.  In 2008 they released “A Devils’s Possessions” which is a collection of demo and live stuff, probably still available.  Anyway check out the version from the 7″ I posted of  Black Cross and compare it to the live version, 45 Grave – Black Cross.  Serious energy.

Well a while back I did a Devo post which didn’t amount to anything more than a couple of videos from Youtube.  There’s a shit load over there worth checking out if you’re into that kind of thing.  In the comments though I mentioned how when I first moved to Burbank (1981) I caught a lot of shit from the stoner heshers at the park across the street from my house for having  Devo written on the side of my shoe.  (We used to do that back then write band names or shit like “I love so and  so” on the sides of our shoes.)  Got into these guys when they released “Freedom of Choice” in 1980 and then later went back in time to check out their earlier stuff.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Freedom of Choice despite it’s mass appeal, but you really see how these guys were a musical genre of their own.  A phenomena (I called them punk in my categories).  No need to really go on and on about these guys, you either know and dig them or you don’t.  My copies of these singles are the Stiff Records versions released about a year after the original Bouji Boy releases.

Mongoloid

Jocko Homo

(I Cån’t Gèt Mé Nö) Såtisfactiön

Slöppy (I Såw My Baby Gétting)

Just for the hell of it thought I’d post some interesting covers that various bands have done.  As cool as some of these are, nothing compares to the original tunes.  I tried to pick ones where they weren’t doing karaoke, trying to sound just like the band and instead the ones who put they’re own spin on the songs.

Melt-Banana – Uncontrollable Urge

Plasmatics – Butcher Baby (oops that’s not a Devo cover, maybe foreshadowing a future post though)

Rummelsnuff – Mongoloid

Soundgarden – Girl You Want (for Jay who loves Soundgarden)

Sepultura – Mongoloid

Claw Hammer – Jocko Homo

The Aquabats – Love Without Anger Retry

Don Knotts Overdrive – Snowball (a pretty decent poppy version of one of my favorite Devo songs)

Voodoo Glow Skulls – Time Out For Fun

Devo – Smart Patrol (demo) (for …deutsche!)

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Thu 28 Jan 2010

Tampere SS – Sotaa 7″

Posted by admin under Hardcore
[14] Comments

Well, think I’ve given up on the local “classic rock” station, 96.9 KFIX, that’s been mentioned several times around here. Been pestering them for a while now, both by phone during the request hour and by email through their website. You gotta wondering how much leeway a DJ has as far as what’s played anyway. They certainly don’t have any vinyl like when I DJ’d and I’m wondering if they even have CDs. I think it’s just some corporate controlled database on the computer. When I was young it was about nuclear war, politics, society in general and now I’ve reduced myself to stalking a radio station that obviously doesn’t make decisions on it’s own out here in the middle of nowhere. Pretty silly I know with all the bullshit going on in the world, but how you can you call it classic rock when you don’t play the MC5, the Stooges, Motorhead, the Runaways, …. Those are not obscure bands.  Right is right.  Yes, it has been fun getting into those special tunes that I had never run across like The Who – Boris The Spider or Lynyrd Skynyrd-Junkie. The reality though is that you have to suffer through so much total shit, to finally get served up something that is as rare as stars in the night sky seen from a major city. I heard Sammy Hagar’s “Can’t drive 55″, AGAIN today, and decided that was enough. Culturally (or is it sub-culturally) many of us are defined by the music we listen to and 99% of the shit on that station I simply can not identify with. Fucking Camaro music. Even for those of us who have a varied taste, there are some lines we can not cross, no matter how patient we think we are.

This picture makes me think of a lot of things. Youth, energy, dope, helplessness… I don’t know.  Any thought’s?

Seemingly random black metal tune Ildjarn-Nidhogg – Mørklagt Sti.  That Norwegian stuff tends to be pathetically idiotic and racist, but I couldn’t find any lyrics for this song, so for all I know it could be a Norwegian nursery rhyme.  Been kinda exploring the black metal thing, but pretty much sticking to what is apparently described as lo-fi or raw.  Simple stuff, with a hardcore edge.  I’m also a little superstitious so…

If you’re looking for something to read besides my ramblings and are up for an ironic laugh, check out this hoax.

Discovered an interesting blog the other day called Egg City Radio. Apparently written by an LA local who’s pretty involved in the action as far as music. Good writing and music, maybe worth your time (there’s so damn many blogs these days and actually mine should be saticfying all your blogging needs right).

I was going to do a Cramps post at some point, thinking that I had at least a couple of LPs and a few 7″s. When I looked to see what I had, GONE! With so many gaps in my memory, from burn out and blackout, who knows what could have happened to them (or if I even had them in the first place, ha, ha). Loaned out, stolen, used as a frisby, I wish I knew. I’m dead set though to at least share the tunes I have rolling around like a rock in my head. First off, if you didn’t know, Mr. Cash did Live at Folsom Prison and the Cramps did ”Live at Napa State Mental Hospital” in 1978. A must watch video, that reminds me very much of where I work, minus the novelty of having the Cramps play. You can check that out on Youtube or get the whole thing from a pretty cool site called Aural Damage.  My three favorite Cramps tunes,
Human Fly
Sunglasses After Dark
TV Set

An old Humboldt buddy of mine, Sam Atakra, posts tunes he listens to from his fairly extensive collection.  He mentioned one that I have on tape but I hadn’t heard in many years, Soft Cell – Sex Dwarf. Love or hate this tune it reminds you that the 80’s were an amazing time to be listening to music.  I like several songs on that album.

While hardcore was raging on here in the states, it was equally on fire elsewhere.  Another Finnish shredder for you here, you might remember me posting their countrymen KaAos a little bit ago. Equally as good in my opinion. Actually there were quite a few good bands during this period (early 80’s) coming out of Finland.  No idea what it’s like in Finland, other than probably very cold a lot of the time, but they must have had stuff to bithc about there as well.  Didn’t try too hard but there’s not a lot of web presence for these guys and actually they didn’t have a whole lot of output anyway. You can get their demo over at Old School, that is slamming too. Don’t really have too much else to say, as usual I blew my load writing the rest of this post. I ripped this because I felt like listening to it, so now you can do the same. Later.

Sotaa

Sunnuntai-Ilta

Taisteluhymni

Loputon Marssi

Kaveleva Ruumis

Takaa-Ajettu

Sekasorto

Pikku-Mako

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Thu 21 Jan 2010

Subhumans (UK) – Religious Wars 7″

Posted by admin under Punk
[13] Comments

Was reflecting on something from a post and the ensuing comments at Good Bad Music and remembered that I had saved this picture a long time ago.  This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.  The guy was probably so stoked to be the fellow who got to light the fire.  Kind of a lesson for all of us, how sometimes things just don’t work out the way we planned or what may seem like a really good idea, really is not.  I don’t count myself as patriotic. I have more loyalty to the ground I walk on, the air I breath, and the people I’m close to, than I ever could be to a bunch of guys in suits, controlled by even richer guys in suits, surrounded by almost 300 million idiots. I do recognize that I have quite a bit more freedom than a lot of other souls in this world and I have no choice but to be somewhat grateful for that.  But to who?  I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m torn by that fact.  Most people here have it good, some not so good, some too good, but there really are some serious problems here. I certainly don’t feel that this country is superior to any place else, but I know we have it pretty sweet.  It’s really sweet for those who buy into the American dream, endlessly pursuing monetary wealth, like gluttons.  Robots, or maybe better yet, rats in a maze, getting better at finding the cheese. I feel like most people idolize the wealthy, while it sickens me and makes me want to further isolate myself.  There is no escape of course, success is measured in terms of materialism.  Probably not just an American thing, I guess where ever you can find human beings, there will be that particular form of selfishness.  Maybe it would be cool though, if a country was honest enough about itself to put a “$” (or whatever the symbol is for their currency) on their flag.

This GIF is just too fucking off the wall, if I do say so my self. Wish I knew where it was from.

Well I only got one vote as to which version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” was better, Social Distortion’s or Wall of Voodoo’s. Jay picked WoV’s, which is my personal favorite too, and that works out well because I ran across a damn good early demo version of it. Check it, Wall Of Voodoo – Ring Of Fire (demo). In case you didn’t read the comments from the last post, Mike pointed out that, even more than I imagined, there are a shit load of Ring Of Fire covers. Powerful song.

Do you ever get a song that pops into your head out of seemingly nowhere (stupid rhetorical question, I know)? These days, with the ease of the internet, I am compelled to track it down, even though, at the very least, I probably have it on a cassette somewhere. Remember this one, Stiff Little Fingers – Suspect Device? Undoubtedly my favorite little diddy from those guys but I couldn’t tell you which version I liked better, that one, off their first LP, “Inflammable Material” or the earlier 7″ version, Suspect Device.

I mentioned a while back that a buddy of mine had sent me an ebook and then recently, I had the opportunity to look for another book (like I have time to sit down and read), Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison”. So, anyway I found a cool site for ebooks (I’m sure there’s tons of them, I’m new to that kind of search) called Ebook3000. Might be worth someone’s time.

Well it was only a matter of time before I posted the SubHumAns. Again, I was somewhere else (the same post that inspired the first photo) and a song about one of the many nasty sides of religion was mentioned. Worked out well, since I had just been listening to this and ripped it. Nothing rare here, I wish I had a demo or a live show (may actually have that, just didn’t look) and actually you buy this single included on their “EP-LP” , it’s very available. Just kinda felt like they deserved a place here on MR. Had several chances to see these guys, but I didn’t, old story really. I did see Dick and I believe it was Trotsky, as Citizen Fish. More of a ska thing there, definitely diggable, but not the same. My buddy Greg (Ivan) in high school was big time into these guys, which stood as a stark contrast to his Christian and Republican leanings. I’ve got all their 7″s and several of their LPs, but this one was always my favorite. Side A. Those two tunes were, as I’ve said about other songs, on many a comp tape I made. Two very different songs, but they each stand well on their own. Side B is cool to but if you only have a second, listen to “Religious Wars” (very relevant today) and “Love Is…” (always relevant).
Religious Wars

Love Is…

Its Gonna Get Worse

Work Experience

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Sat 16 Jan 2010

The Clash – Bankrobber 7″

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[16] Comments

smoking20jesus I’ve been smoking now, addicted wise, for 23 years.  I smoked every now and then with my bros that were regular smokers in high school (Match and Ivan, maybe Ki, if I remember right).  We usually did that underneath the library or in the Zody’s parking lot.  The stoner gangsters smoking weed on one end of the parking lot smoking weed and the punks on the other end.  The stoners knew that we would whistle of the school narc was headed their way.  Funny even then I can remember when bumming smokes, Match using a phrase that I would use for many years after that, “why don’t you buy your own pack”.  Once I moved away to college though I was buying my own packs daily, I think I missed the second hand smoke I was getting at home, with my mom.  My Cuban godfather, go figure, was a very regular cigar smoker.  My first year at the university this guys Stephan (who was killed by a logging truck on his way up to the campus to start the second year) taught me how to roll my own cigarettes, which as you can imagine came in handy for smoking all kinds of things.  He also introduced me to doing nitrous whippets (ever want to hear the sound of millions of brain cells dying, sounds like an approaching helicopter, give that a go).  I’ve smoked just about every brand I could ever find, but never did like menthol.  Mostly I’ve stuck with whatever’s cheap and has a palatable flavor.  These days it’s Skydancer, a native made, additive free brand, that you can get by mail or dirt cheap on the reservation.  There’s no such thing as a healthy cigarette, I’m not an idiot, they do kill you, just like exhaust from a car and the pollutants spewed out by most kinds of manufacturing, but these aren’t bad.  I don’t know if I’ve ever envisioned myself not smoking, but I did the other day.  Not a bad vision, really just as peaceful as the act itself.  I know I could use the money spent on them elsewhere, we’re in the process of finding a way to buy the property that we currently rent.  But damn, all I have left is tobacco and coffee.  Except for the killing yourself part, which we’re all doing every day, it’s harmless isn’t it.  Is there ever a good time to quit smoking?

I know everyone probably has, but if you haven’t seen The Big Lewbowski, go check that out.  It’s been a while since I have but with Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buschemi, Flea (in a cameo) and John Turturro, you can’t miss it.  Sophisticated and dark, but I guess that kinda comes with a Coen brothers flick.

Here’s the question of the day, which cover is better, Wall Of Voodoo – Ring Of Fire or Social Distortion – Ring Of Fire? I know there’s nothing like the original Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire, but so many have done the tune. For my German speaking friends, there is Ring um meine Eier.  In kinda looking around, I found that there is a whole album dedicated to just covers of that tune, give it a listen over at Abe Twist’s World.

Finally got myself a Clash single the other day and seeing as how it’s my favorite tune of theirs, I thought I’d share it. Everything I have by these guys is dubbed stuff on cassette (I don’t really count mp3s as actually having the music).  I try to spend $10 each paycheck on myself, after all what’s the point of working if all you’re doing is paying fucking bills.  I don’t squander my money, like so many people do around here on beer, pop (sodas) or junk food, so I’m able to pick up a couple of 7″s every two weeks.  Been after this one ever since Jay and Mike were talking about these guys.  I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about these guys even though I’ve been listening to them since the late 70’s. If you don’t know much, you can do what I always do and check Wikipedia. I can remember listening to these guys with my room mate Dave Slam when we lived up in Kneeland, in the mountains of Humboldt.  Undoubtedly we were up to no good, but we were listening to some damn good music.  The first Punk band to sell out or is there even such a thing as selling out? We’re all sellouts really, aren’t we?

Bankrobber

Rockers Galore…..UK Tour

My second favorite Clash tune.

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Mon 11 Jan 2010

Conflict – The House That Man Built 7″

Posted by admin under Punk
[10] Comments

image0011-2For those of you who used to draw dicks on your desks back in school. Maybe you still have that fixation.

Have you ever been this angry? I had a post office box about ten years ago, back when my life, and where I was living, was uncertain. I was pretty much drunk 24/7 at that time. I must have missed a notice, so they closed my box and sent all my mail back to the senders. Needless to say the Filipino postal worker (for some reason everywhere I have lived in SoCal, it seems that for Filipinos the postal service is a popular place to work) who happened to be at the counter that day, was subjected to my drunken irrational wrath. Not so different to the wrath of the above gentleman, minus the Australian accent.

coooooooooldI know that in this world there are examples of much more extreme weather than you can find in the fair state of Kansas, but at times here, it is, at the very least, uncomfortable.  I’ve said it before, when it’s 0(F) degress outside, it’s plenty cold but when those heavy winds start blowing and the wind chill gets to -25(F) degrees or more, it takes you to a whole new dimension. I have an office job (some driving too in a heated car) and I really just have to spend time out there doing a few animal related chores (and smoking), so I feel for those that have to work in it. Got sent this poem and thought it was worth sharing.
It’s winter in Kansas
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below.
Oh how I love Kansas
When the snow’s up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut..
Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
So, I guess I’ll hang around
I could never leave Kansas ,
My ass is frozen to the ground..

flyer41Man, that show would have been something to see.

Well my bro Jason outdid himself, again, and posted some really good shit. How about a nice live set from the Plasmatics back in 1983. Make it a worthwhile day and go give that a listen over at Lo-Res Viscera. For now a tasty treat for you to enjoy. Plasmatics – Sex Junkie

I still make it a practice getting new vinyl every now and again, I’m not just stuck in the past. Pretty isolated here so mailorder is the practice. I’ve mentioned it before, if you like grind/metal/power violence/hardcore, do yourself a favor and get something at Deep Six Records.  Older and newer bands, with stuff from the past and recent stuff. Just got a couple of 7″s in the mail, one especially worth mentioning, Outlaw Order. Originally released in 2003 on Southern Lord Records, but this repress has an extra live track. Pretty much starting from where Eye Hate God (four or five of the same members) left off with some outstanding sludgy stuff. A sample of what you hear, Outlaw Order – Illegal In 50 States

conflict-thtmbConflict, the UK one, is a love em or leave them band.  Some would say outspoken others would say loud mouths.  In the early 80’s I had pretty much gotten everything by the band Crass, so I started checking out other bands on the label.  Lots of good stuff to be found on that label mostly under that anarcho-punk flag.  What made these guys stand out for me was that I felt there was some kind of continuity between Crass and Conflict.  They kind of took up where Crass left off.  I especially thought that when Crass released “Acts Of Love” and “Ten Notes On A Summer Day”, and the disappointment I felt there.  Maybe I was too young to get any of that shit, I’ve been meaning for a while to give those two records a spin again to see if my opinion is the same.  In human behavior, most of what we do is  a response to some other event(s).  Maybe those records were a response to something I was unaware of.  So this 7″ on Crass Records, Conflict’s first release, bubbles over with angry intelligence.  Like a toilet clogged with a turd, overflowing.  This was their response to whatever events.  Maybe they were just a Crass clone as a lot of bands seemed to be from that time and place, but I wasn’t there and in hindsight don’t really know that much about anything anyway.  Four very different sounding songs here, but they all have that feel.  The first tune, and I guess just both tunes on side one, has always been my favorite.  The self titled “Conflict” has everything.  Just the right amount of anger in the voice, without being contrived, sung at an inhuman pace (I included the lyrics below, try to keep up).  The distortion on the guitar is perfect and even though it takes a strong lead, the bass is there and you don’t have to struggle hearing him pound away.  Last but not least is the essential military snare drum.  The second tune “Wargames” is a total contrast with the female vocals.  I don’t know, who am I trying to sell this to?  Give it a listen alright?

Conflict

Wargames

I’ve Had Enough

Blind Attack

Conflict

Looking for an answer to end all the violence
But you’ll find no solutions behind that white paper
Looking for a way to break down that fence
Do you really believe in this ludicrous caper?

Mountbatten Murdered – A rebel gunman’s been shot dead
“They’re all murdering bastards” – Or was that something that I read?
Well, whatever I read – It’s just the fucking same
Death, destruction, violence and pain.

This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.
This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.

Where could it end? What could the outcome be?
One thing’s for sure
They’ll be alot more corpses before the government begin to see
A lot more screaming bullets. A lot more children dead
And a lot more ‘Bloody Sundays’ – all painted in red.

A lot more pointless talks
And a lot more death walks
A whole lot more of whose tribes should rule
The squaddie’s on the corner. The gunman’s on the roof
Who’s the real terrorist? – Well don’t look to th4e media for your proof.

This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.
This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.

The British Empire isn’t what It used to be, mate
And It’s a bit too late to try and make It great
So what’s the point In fighting out there?
British Constitution on a lands fate!

The ‘Wengill’ computer sums it all up
It’s just filled with reasons to cut people’s lives up
Well, whatever, it’s just the same
Death, destruction, violence and pain.

This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.
This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.

I see no point In deciding
Because I won’t fight for troops In Ireland
And I won’t shoot no squadie dead
And I won’t smash no bastards head
Because I don’t wanna die
Do you wanna die? Do you wanna die? Do you wanna die?
Do you wanna die? Do you wanna die? Do you wanna die?
Do YOU want to die?

This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me.
This side, that side. That side, this side
What side? any side. You can’t side me

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Wed 6 Jan 2010

The Bodysnatchers – Lets Do Rock Steady b/w Ruder Than You

Posted by admin under Ska
[17] Comments

men9Some of my dogs think of cat shit as tasty treats that just happen to be scattered over the land.  When you have some cats with diarrhea coupled with below freezing temperatures, what the dogs get can only be described as “poopcicles”. There are many things that are much more disgusting in this world, but I’d have to say in my secluded life that would be one that can make me dry heave. And then the dogs seem hurt when you don’t let them lick your face. I guess we as people are like that too, prone to having this ugly side, where the stomachs of those around us turn at the thought of sharing affection. I may even go so far as to say that I’m surrounded by people who enjoy poopcicles on a daily basis. The system itself that this human race has created is in itself, a poopcicle store, with a never ending supply, met with a never ending demand.

joan-jett-barbieHeard the other day that they were coming out with a Joan Jett Barbie, along with one for Blondie and Cindy Lauper. I kind of feel like in the case of Joan Jett and Blondie, these two ladies, at least had their beginings in the marginal side of society, but over time, their intensity has been softened as they became mainstream. Maybe not of their own will, but when you become a Barbie doll it signifies something. Things that come from the underground or maybe a better way of looking at it, is something that doesn’t appeal to the masses, eventually is watered down so it can be consumed. Hate to make an alcohol reference even though I’m an expert on the subject, but you don’t take a superior bottle of aged rum and mix it with coke. That shit is meant to be enjoyed straight.

You know working with people that have developmental disabilities can be a serious challenge.  Then you have people that are dual diagnosed (mentally retarded and mentally ill) and it becomes nearly impossible.  When I was studying philosophy and religion, it didn’t take long to realize that it was often necessary for these thinkers to use “big words” because they wanted to be accurate and specific to what they were wanting to describe. Metaphor was also commonly used. Frustrated me a little back then because I felt like most people couldn’t understand these terms and as a result they were missing out on some good ideas and modes of living. People also tend to take metaphors literally with disasterous results. When I wrote papers back then I tried to keep the language simple and the metaphors to a minimum (I did not get “A”s). At work now I really have to keep things simple or it’s just a waste of breath. If you stop to think about it, so much of what we say is just a waste of breath. At work it’s okay because I get paid to sit down and make sure a person understands an idea, mostly through constant repetition. But in my life outside of work, except for here of course, I find myself saving my breath.

I’m just not going to leave it alone until someone says the Scorpions suck or they rule. I mentioned the Scorpions a while back and later it ended up helping me to remember something. At one time I thought this tune, Scorpions – Another Piece Of Meat (live), was not bad. “I said hey let’s go, don’t put on a show…”

2toneHaven’t really done a straight up Ska post yet so here goes.  If you’ve been lucky enough to see me dance, you would know that it looks like a drunken, no rhythm, mess of a skank. I found that you spend a lot of time on the ground when you dance like that when people are moshing or slamming. Most of you should be familiar with this stuff but in case you aren’t see a history of Ska music at my usual source here.  The stuff I’m focusing on is not from the first wave of the early 60’s but I am familiar with that stuff as well.  Check out some of the classic tunes like Desmond Dekker – 007 (Shanty Town) and The Ethiopians – Train To Skaville.  That old Trojan Records stuff has a feeling to it like a Carribean blues thing. Heartfelt and soulful. One later Ska tune, that was not only the inspiration for me learning to play the saxophone, but probably is the most familiar of any Ska tune to the mainstream idiots of the world, is Madness – One Step Beyond (live).  As much as that song inspired me to play on my own, it’s a toss up which is my favorite Ska tune, one of the ones that is featured in this post or The Specials – Ghost Town.  Rico’s trombone on Ghost town is some of the most earily beautiful stuff to ever come out of a horn.  Go figure another band, completely removed from any of this, that I featured several post back went and did their own take on Ghost Town,  Check it, The Prodigy – Ghost Town. Interesting.
the-selector1Still not the featured band here but as you may know, I have a hard time with just posting a couple of songs off of a 7″ and having that be the sum total of music for any particular post.  Another female fronted band for you (The Body Snatchers are actually all female) and I just happened to have one of their singles.  The Selector might be more famous for tunes like Too Much Pressure (live) or Three Minute Hero (live) (perhaps my favorite of their songs because it describes me in bed perfectly, except when I was a drunk, then the party was on). Not my favorite of all the Ska bands, first second, or third wave, but still worth a listen.

Missing Words

Carry Go Bring Home (live)

the-bodysnatchers Ah, finally made it to the band this post is about.  Ha, ha, now that I’ve built you up it may be a let down.  The seven piece, all female, The Bodysnatchers didn’t have a whole lot of vinyl output, just this and another single (some comp tunes too), but they have one song that just blows me away.  I was first exposed to the song by my bro Sang who had “The 2 Tone Story” comp.  I really don’t know why “Ruder Than You” hits me so well, there really are so many good tunes in the genre, but this is the one at the top of my list.  If you want to explore more of the 2 Tone Records stuff, a good place to start would be here. If the whole Ska phenomenon is something you would like to explore, definitely go here or better yet go out and buy the shit.  The Dance Craze documentary is cool for the second wave stuff.  Really my only experience live with any of this kind of stuff is through Dave Wakeling of The (English) Beat.  He was living in San Diego while I was there and I used to see his shows at the clubs all the time.  Pretty rockin on his own but then again when you’re stoned and drunk, who knows.  Anyway, to me the rest of the Bodysnatchers’ songs are just okay, good, but there’s plenty of other stuff that’s better.   Let’s Rock Steady, for me falls into that mediocre category, but do yourself a favor and listen to Ruder Than You.

Lets Do Rock Steady

Ruder Than You

Just because I can, I ripped this version of Lets Do Rocksteady (live) from Youtube.

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