Thu 4 Feb 2010

Devo – 1st 2 7″s

Posted by admin under Punk
[6] 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
[13] 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″

Posted by admin under Punk
[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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