"On Dec. 15th, 2008 ugEXPLODE Records released the great lost New York No Wave record: Toy Killers The Unlistenable Years. This 67 minute CD features previously unheard recordings circa 1980-1984 by the destructive Downtown NYC duo formed by improv madmen Mark E. Miller and Charles K. Noyes with special guests John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsay and many more. The Unlistenable Years is a vital document of some seriously weird and awesome music by some seminal musicians at the top of their games early in their careers. The Unlistenable Years is an absolute must-have for diehard No Wave, Noise, Free Improvisation and post-punk aficionados... here's the story....
Back in 1988, when I was ripe 16 years old, I got hold of a compilation on Homestead Records entitled Speed Trials. This LP was a document of an experimental music festival from 1983 and featured early live cuts by Sonic Youth, Swans, the pre-rap Beastie Boys, The Fall, Lydia Lunch, and others. The stand-out track was a very chaotic, violent song by a band called "Toy Killers", seemingly led by DNA guitar mutilator Arto Lindsay. Of particular note on this great recording was the hecticly discontinuous drumming of Charles K. Noyes - I had never before heard anything quite as disruptive and random as the percussion Noyes laid down on this song. I was instantly hooked. I did some further research and found another record Noyes was on: the bizarre 1983 Korean/free improv hybrid double album Invite the Spirit, also featuring guitar legend Henry Kaiser. Over the years I often listened to this single Toy Killers track over and over, wondering what the hell was the deal with this mysterious band. Was it a one-off? Was it a continuing interest? Back in 1988, it was considerably more difficult to find these things out...
Time flies by and we skip forward to 2002. I'm on tour with the Flying Luttenbachers and I'm browsing the great NYC record store Downtown Music Gallery. Elliott Sharp walks in and begins chit-chatting with Bruce Gallanter, the owner. I walk up to them, introduce myself and ask them whatever happened to Mark Miller (with Noyes, the other 'official' Toy Killers member)? They both laugh and tell me some strange story about Miller's love for letting off explosives during concerts as well as an anecdote about some Elliott Sharp gig at the Kitchen where Miller lit his hands on fire and the show got shut down... Bruce tells me Mark is somewhere out on the West Coast...
Fast forward to 2005: I've been living in Oakland, California for several years now and through my associate, bass player Damon Smith, I make the acquaintance of guitarist Henry Kaiser and begin sporadically playing music with him. Charles K. Noyes comes up in the conversation to little ado other than Kaiser and I both agreeing that Noyes is a sort of drumming genius. The following year I notice a listing at local venue for a concert featuring ROVA saxophonist Larry Ochs, Fred Frith and... Mark E. Miller on drums. I get in touch with Miller and ask him to play some music with me. We quickly spark up a friendship and the million dollar question is asked: "What was the deal with the Toy Killers?"
Mark reveals to me that he and Charlie started playing together in the late '70s. The two would often pop up in the nascent downtown New York improvisation scene as a team, notably appearing together on classic records like John Zorn's "Pool", Elliott Sharp's "Carbon" and more. Initially they started just as a two-piece, abusing all sorts of percussion instruments, making feedback and lighting things on fire. Mark explained that his use of fire merely had to do with finding a way of separating himself from the herd of improvising drummers! Mission accomplished.
As time went on, a lot of various people in the scene would play with the Toy Killers, coming and going at whim. For a while Arto Lindsay was indeed in the ranks for a spell, lending his distinctively warped vocal outbursts and trademark guitar skronk to the proceedings. A very rare self-released cassette called Humdrum (of which all the tracks appear freshly remixed from the original multi-track masters on The Unlistenable Years), showed this guest star mania in full bloom with great, off-the-cuff performances by Material bassist Bill Laswell, Sharp and saxophonist John Zorn amongst others.
At one point, Mark suddenly envisioned Toy Killers as a "kick-ass rock and roll band", even though they didn't really rehearse and Noyes had almost no experience or interest in playing rock and roll! Mark morphed from being a drummer to being a true wild card, sometimes singing, sometimes abusing a bass guitar, sometimes deafening everybody with his amplified metal drink shakers, sometimes disappearing into thin-air half way through the set.
While Noyes explored his Eastern music inspirations with the exotic polyglot improv of Invite the Spirit, Miller helped found the Golden Palominos as well as Arto Lindsay's Ambitious Lovers (he appears on both groups' debut releases). By the time the Toy Killers made it to the studio near around 1984, things were beginning to unravel even more and the remnants from this aborted project produced by Bill Laswell (tracked at Martin Bisi's OAO Studios) appear fully mixed for the first time on the new CD. Luckily for us, Mark happened to be sitting on a box of Toy Killers tapes which I began sifting through earlier this year.
Many of the live recordings on the CD were made by DMG domo Bruce Gallanter back in the day and they still sound incredible. On one track you hear fireworks going off. On another track, if you squint you can detect Derek Bailey almost inaudibly fretting a few note clusters before walking out in total disgust. All the spit, sweat and noise of the various Toy Killers bands are in full evidence. The studio recordings sound amazing with their brand new remixes. This is a truly action packed hour plus of intense and varied chaos. Anton Fier was kind enough to write some succinct liner notes detailing yet another anecdote of Toy Killers property-damage-as-performance for us."
-- Weasel Walter
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Toy Killers.
The Unlistenable Years (ugEXPLODE)
1. I'm Embarrassed To Be An American Girl
2. Sex Carp
3. 24 Handkerchiefs for Roger Trilling
4. Smoky Raindrops
5. Green Dolphin Sweet
6. Corrugated Gems of Woe
7. Scabby
8. Bleed For The Mind
9. Shaken Not Stirred (Pe de Boi with M.E. Miller)
10. Dance of the Were-Samurai
11. Teen Sex Carp
12. Where Do We Get The Money To Save Our Children
13. Death Certificate - 14 Dollars
14. Citymulch
15. Away all Pests
16. The Devil May Be Your Santa Claus (Studio)
17. The Devil May Be Tour Santa Claus (Live)
18. Victimless Crime
19. Improvisation
20. Improvisation
21. Improvisation
22. Improvisation
23. Improvisation
24. Improvisation
25. Improvisation
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Aa
From the desk of Sean Neil, teacher at juvenile hall and founding member of Aa:
"Regarding the inserts... I think that we were inspired by the Three Mile Pilot burlap wrapped version of Chief Assassin to the Sinister when we came up with the idea for multiple inserts, hand made by various artists. We enlisted the help of many of our friends in making 500 unique inserts for the record. A total of 1,000 records were printed, so I feel a bit sad for anyone who got a version after the limited edition version sold out. Our record label had some of their friends contribute as well. I'm gonna only talk about a few of the inserts.
Aron Wahl makes all the major artwork for the band, including album covers and show fliers. You can easily spot his work amongst the inserts. He hand drew, hand dunked in ink, or hand burned all the inserts he contributed. Nadav Havusha made 'My Body is a Temple Where Nobody goes to Pray' pulling the title from an old song we used to play called 'Fate Day'. Dav was always the masterful lyricist. I can remember a band argument we got into over his use of the word faggot in a song. I didn't want him to use that word. Mr. Quintron later had a song called 'French Quarter Faggot, and he defends his use of the word on the back of the album cover. I wish I hadn't been so uptight over Dav's use of the word. All his lyrics were spot on.
Our friend Becca Cohen made the sexy dirty lady insert. She played in a band called Split Me Wide Open, that played the first ever show at our house at 502 Warren. Both her and her band mate Giorgio sang and shook a box of cereal on the albums closing track. Our roommate at the time, Peggy Wang and I, played a one off show after that first show at 502 with Split Me Wide Open. We were called Office Supply, and we basically attacked one another while screaming into microphones and rolling on the ground. That band was the primary influence of her current band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
Marisa Jahn (co-founder of the Pond art gallery with Steve Shada) made the America's Next Top Model insert. I loved how she subverted the use of an advertisement for her insert. It reminded me of when we sang the line 'Everybody’s fighting for your attention' on the track ‘Fake War’. Both Marisa and Steve appear in the 'Good Ship' video I shot in Mexico and released with gAame. Sadly, they meet their horrible demise during the video.
John Atkinson made the ‘Ocular Aa Brain’ and then joined the band. We met at a Black Dice show and at the time, he was playing in a band called fuckface2k. When he joined Aa, he initially played his old high school saxophone. John played the saxophone at some of our early shows, but he quickly moved onto to electronics and breakables.
Our friend from Philadelphia, Brendan Greaves, made the see through insert. It's worth a closer inspection as he removed all the A's from the text. He played in a band called Wrists and Pistols, an offshoot of Lucky Dragons, and we all played multiple shows together both in NYC and Philadelphia.
John Dwyer made ‘Garfield Thinking of Boobs’. He informed me that he was really stoned when he came up with the concept. He wanted us to abuse the image in the copy machine, but I thought it looked great pure and clean. I do think we hand drew the Aa on them in green crayon though.
I taped together pages from old biology texts for my insert involving various animal life. We took this idea of multiple inserts to the next level when we had our friends create a music video for each song off of gAame. The band has always been a bit of a collaboration of sorts. Whenever we could we would involve our friends in our shows. We used to start off with a procession through wherever we were playing, and would have our friends march and play along with us. At an early show at Above the Right Bank, we cut off Bonfire Madigan before her set was over. This was an accident and simply bad timing.
Our first show was with Semiautomatic and The Lack, and many more after that. Like magic, all our band fights over names ended and we finally settled on a name that Aron was able to add to the flier. For our early shows, we tried to run all the electronics through one power switch so that we could turn the sound of all at once with the flick of a switch. I think I always fucked up the cables though so we were never able to dramatically drop all the sounds out at sets end.
I was so thrilled to play an early show with the Coachwhips and Guitar Wolf at the Happy Birthday Hideout (now Rubulad). That show led to the record deal with Narnack, who released the vinyl. I think I randomly dropped by the Narnack offices with a demo tape and they soon offered us the chance to play. Coachwhips were insane that night.
Linda Rosenbury played a viola like instrument for the final song. That drone is hers. We had many of our friends play on this final song. We would bring them into our basement studio at 502 Warren (my bedroom) to make whatever noises they could come up with. And then we recorded them chanting over the beat.
I remember when we recorded a song for Kyle Lapidus' daughter called 'Lil' Rama,' we set off fireworks in the basement of 502 to record the sound. I lost my hearing for a few days after that mistake. The song turned out great though, and was released by Luke Fishbeck of Lucky Dragons as a cdr that was reverse shoplifted into stores.
One of my favorite shows we played during this time period was with Japanther at a place called The Chicken Hut. The floors were completely covered with 6 inches of shit. Some guy was moshing while naked during our set, and at one point he crashed into my equipment causing it to drop into the muck. None of my stuff broke. We did have to throw away our clothes though because we couldn’t get the stench off them. Picture the smell, while listening to the music."
Full disclosure: I used to live at 502 Warren Street, played on this record, and attended most of the gigs discussed above.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Aa.
Big A LiTTLe a (Narnack)
1. Side A
"Regarding the inserts... I think that we were inspired by the Three Mile Pilot burlap wrapped version of Chief Assassin to the Sinister when we came up with the idea for multiple inserts, hand made by various artists. We enlisted the help of many of our friends in making 500 unique inserts for the record. A total of 1,000 records were printed, so I feel a bit sad for anyone who got a version after the limited edition version sold out. Our record label had some of their friends contribute as well. I'm gonna only talk about a few of the inserts.
Aron Wahl makes all the major artwork for the band, including album covers and show fliers. You can easily spot his work amongst the inserts. He hand drew, hand dunked in ink, or hand burned all the inserts he contributed. Nadav Havusha made 'My Body is a Temple Where Nobody goes to Pray' pulling the title from an old song we used to play called 'Fate Day'. Dav was always the masterful lyricist. I can remember a band argument we got into over his use of the word faggot in a song. I didn't want him to use that word. Mr. Quintron later had a song called 'French Quarter Faggot, and he defends his use of the word on the back of the album cover. I wish I hadn't been so uptight over Dav's use of the word. All his lyrics were spot on.
Our friend Becca Cohen made the sexy dirty lady insert. She played in a band called Split Me Wide Open, that played the first ever show at our house at 502 Warren. Both her and her band mate Giorgio sang and shook a box of cereal on the albums closing track. Our roommate at the time, Peggy Wang and I, played a one off show after that first show at 502 with Split Me Wide Open. We were called Office Supply, and we basically attacked one another while screaming into microphones and rolling on the ground. That band was the primary influence of her current band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
Marisa Jahn (co-founder of the Pond art gallery with Steve Shada) made the America's Next Top Model insert. I loved how she subverted the use of an advertisement for her insert. It reminded me of when we sang the line 'Everybody’s fighting for your attention' on the track ‘Fake War’. Both Marisa and Steve appear in the 'Good Ship' video I shot in Mexico and released with gAame. Sadly, they meet their horrible demise during the video.
John Atkinson made the ‘Ocular Aa Brain’ and then joined the band. We met at a Black Dice show and at the time, he was playing in a band called fuckface2k. When he joined Aa, he initially played his old high school saxophone. John played the saxophone at some of our early shows, but he quickly moved onto to electronics and breakables.
Our friend from Philadelphia, Brendan Greaves, made the see through insert. It's worth a closer inspection as he removed all the A's from the text. He played in a band called Wrists and Pistols, an offshoot of Lucky Dragons, and we all played multiple shows together both in NYC and Philadelphia.
John Dwyer made ‘Garfield Thinking of Boobs’. He informed me that he was really stoned when he came up with the concept. He wanted us to abuse the image in the copy machine, but I thought it looked great pure and clean. I do think we hand drew the Aa on them in green crayon though.
I taped together pages from old biology texts for my insert involving various animal life. We took this idea of multiple inserts to the next level when we had our friends create a music video for each song off of gAame. The band has always been a bit of a collaboration of sorts. Whenever we could we would involve our friends in our shows. We used to start off with a procession through wherever we were playing, and would have our friends march and play along with us. At an early show at Above the Right Bank, we cut off Bonfire Madigan before her set was over. This was an accident and simply bad timing.
Our first show was with Semiautomatic and The Lack, and many more after that. Like magic, all our band fights over names ended and we finally settled on a name that Aron was able to add to the flier. For our early shows, we tried to run all the electronics through one power switch so that we could turn the sound of all at once with the flick of a switch. I think I always fucked up the cables though so we were never able to dramatically drop all the sounds out at sets end.
I was so thrilled to play an early show with the Coachwhips and Guitar Wolf at the Happy Birthday Hideout (now Rubulad). That show led to the record deal with Narnack, who released the vinyl. I think I randomly dropped by the Narnack offices with a demo tape and they soon offered us the chance to play. Coachwhips were insane that night.
Linda Rosenbury played a viola like instrument for the final song. That drone is hers. We had many of our friends play on this final song. We would bring them into our basement studio at 502 Warren (my bedroom) to make whatever noises they could come up with. And then we recorded them chanting over the beat.
I remember when we recorded a song for Kyle Lapidus' daughter called 'Lil' Rama,' we set off fireworks in the basement of 502 to record the sound. I lost my hearing for a few days after that mistake. The song turned out great though, and was released by Luke Fishbeck of Lucky Dragons as a cdr that was reverse shoplifted into stores.
One of my favorite shows we played during this time period was with Japanther at a place called The Chicken Hut. The floors were completely covered with 6 inches of shit. Some guy was moshing while naked during our set, and at one point he crashed into my equipment causing it to drop into the muck. None of my stuff broke. We did have to throw away our clothes though because we couldn’t get the stench off them. Picture the smell, while listening to the music."
Full disclosure: I used to live at 502 Warren Street, played on this record, and attended most of the gigs discussed above.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Aa.
Big A LiTTLe a (Narnack)
1. Side A
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wet Hair
From the desk of Shawn Reed, record label mogul and organ player:
"A Sunday night 2am, post bleak show at a popular warehouse spot in town, something that seems defeating that I am maybe finally immune too for better or wrose, at least it wasn't a gig I performed at. A night of long discussions about going, staying, moving, traveling, confusion, mixed opportunities and limitations. Do I stay in Iowa City for another set of seasons for another year, I'm annoying myself with my flip flopping on the ideas of it. Do I move to New York, Portland, Austin? or do I stay? I'm fearful that miserable feelings related to this place will come back over and over again, but I worry that there is nothing else out there really that is any different even though I know there is. I keep staying because I am already set up, the total living space, cheap rent, practice space, silkscreen/art studio, storage all in one location and integrated into everyday reality no job just tapes, records, music, artwork, and plenty of financial limitations. Haunted in the house that I live in by the space itself, the time of it, the friends going, that major lost love harbored and dissolved in this place and house over years and now just a memory, the possessions themselves, the piles of tapes, records, amps, and artwork. The labor of love for life and all that it has to offer even the natural decay of it. A life dedicated to all that is creative in it more than to itself, to the constant push for prolific output and a never ending desire for more potential and opportunity. Imaginary momentum towards some unknown horizon, patience upon patience, waiting and working, worrying whether its in the making or the place. Like my father in his youth searching for something he never even knew what he was searching for like an instinct for something beyond the instinct. The feeling is limited, getting older in a Midwestern college town, near where I grew up, but with enough traveling and endless touring under my belt to know the road as well as anything. Changed by it for better or worse, addicted to the inspiration and humiliation of it. Endless horizons often ending at epic ocean views, amazing shows, the meeting of minds, and also broken vehicles, empty rooms, limitation, and harsh realitys.
I pluck away melodies on a bass guitar while I write this, something I have tried to write or sum up before but never could and still might not accomplish now. This one simple riff on a couple of strings speaks for more in my mind then I can even remotely speak for here in words. Sketching out ideas for new Wet Hair songs, bass parts to record onto four track tape to play over live. I'll probably stay in Iowa City another year just to do this band, Wet Hair. I've stayed here for years, to be in a band, to do another tour, to put out another record, to maintain forward momentum for the work that has already been done. Maybe there is nothing outside of me, nothing in me besides these creative instincts. Ryan is staying for his own reasons, stuck in his own confusion and financial limitations, much like my own. Wet Hair spawned out of a few generally miserable years of being lost. What was maintained in all that personal lost was a sense of direction in the spirit of creative act. I just want to see it through, to keep searching for the spirit in it, the potential in it and to realize that potential merging into the moment. I feel like we are getting closer to something, deeper, richer, more imaginative, something with more feeling. We work with spontaneity, years of playing and practicing together to the point of being almost uncritical or unknowing in the conception of songs. We just turn on the gear and start playing and what flows out before us is the result, we play it, practice it, hone it in until it takes the fully realized shape that we see before us, but it still lies outside our knowing our understanding, it just is a result. The visuals seem too much of the same way and just as much from the world, drawn from everything, anything and all experience. Wet Hair is changing it is always changing, we are getting better at it, being a two piece band, 4 hands, two minds. I had no idea when I started it solo in the basement by myself it would grow to involve Ryan so fully and sound like this now. A total change in approach and sound to what we were doing before Wet Hair, the maximal changed to minimal. The songs we are writing now, they are becoming more and more personal to me then ever before, they are just as spontaneous but more aware more critical of themselves, they are striving toward a harmony that I can't get to in words. They are getting closer to describing the ideas and feelings in me, less and more abstractly at the same time. They describe this labor of love that I feel in making the songs themselves, them being this conduit to the spontaneity of the experience of life itself. Wet Hair is just a journey, it's part of the journey, it took years and years to get to Wet Hair, and what lies beyond it I'm not sure, hopefully as much and more then what came before. The creative knowledge that grows from the experience, even in the repetition of things, the endless cycle, the natural decay even of a creative endeavor it speaks for itself. It's as much the process as it is the result. It's confusing to think of where audience comes into all of this, seems like to much for this already windy group of words so I'll think about that some other time.
I wonder if I will ever be done searching and wondering...ever be done playing in 'bands' working on 'projects' putting out 'records' going on 'tours'.... probably not, there is to much beauty even in the decay to stop looking for it, seems like I never even made the choice to express it, it just happens.
Playlist: Les Rallizes Dénudés - Romance of the Black Grief and But I Was Different over and over again, for some reason this seems relevant."
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Wet Hair.
Irifi (Night People)
1. Blood Spirits
2. I Am The Jackal
3. Magnetic Youth
4. Could Want Nothing
Wet Hair EP (Night People)
1. Forever Young Ever One
2. Machete
3. On The Lilys
4. The Hermitage
Wet Hair CS (Night People)
1. Whitestrobe Void
2. Black Sand
3. Saturns Return
4. Cult Electric Annihilation
The Beach (Night People)
1. Ordinary Lives
2. Mesmerized
3. Hey Chrome
4. Reprise
5. Crucifix In The Waves
6. Radio Machines
7. Gold Chains
Dream (Not Not Fun)
1. Cult Electric Annihilation
2. Black Sand
3. Ordinary Lives
4. Radio Machines/Gold Chains
Glass Fountain (Not Not Fun)
1. Mesmerized
2. Crucifix In The Waves
3. When The Right Time Comes
4. Cold City
5. Stepping Razor (To Heaven's Door)
"A Sunday night 2am, post bleak show at a popular warehouse spot in town, something that seems defeating that I am maybe finally immune too for better or wrose, at least it wasn't a gig I performed at. A night of long discussions about going, staying, moving, traveling, confusion, mixed opportunities and limitations. Do I stay in Iowa City for another set of seasons for another year, I'm annoying myself with my flip flopping on the ideas of it. Do I move to New York, Portland, Austin? or do I stay? I'm fearful that miserable feelings related to this place will come back over and over again, but I worry that there is nothing else out there really that is any different even though I know there is. I keep staying because I am already set up, the total living space, cheap rent, practice space, silkscreen/art studio, storage all in one location and integrated into everyday reality no job just tapes, records, music, artwork, and plenty of financial limitations. Haunted in the house that I live in by the space itself, the time of it, the friends going, that major lost love harbored and dissolved in this place and house over years and now just a memory, the possessions themselves, the piles of tapes, records, amps, and artwork. The labor of love for life and all that it has to offer even the natural decay of it. A life dedicated to all that is creative in it more than to itself, to the constant push for prolific output and a never ending desire for more potential and opportunity. Imaginary momentum towards some unknown horizon, patience upon patience, waiting and working, worrying whether its in the making or the place. Like my father in his youth searching for something he never even knew what he was searching for like an instinct for something beyond the instinct. The feeling is limited, getting older in a Midwestern college town, near where I grew up, but with enough traveling and endless touring under my belt to know the road as well as anything. Changed by it for better or worse, addicted to the inspiration and humiliation of it. Endless horizons often ending at epic ocean views, amazing shows, the meeting of minds, and also broken vehicles, empty rooms, limitation, and harsh realitys.
I pluck away melodies on a bass guitar while I write this, something I have tried to write or sum up before but never could and still might not accomplish now. This one simple riff on a couple of strings speaks for more in my mind then I can even remotely speak for here in words. Sketching out ideas for new Wet Hair songs, bass parts to record onto four track tape to play over live. I'll probably stay in Iowa City another year just to do this band, Wet Hair. I've stayed here for years, to be in a band, to do another tour, to put out another record, to maintain forward momentum for the work that has already been done. Maybe there is nothing outside of me, nothing in me besides these creative instincts. Ryan is staying for his own reasons, stuck in his own confusion and financial limitations, much like my own. Wet Hair spawned out of a few generally miserable years of being lost. What was maintained in all that personal lost was a sense of direction in the spirit of creative act. I just want to see it through, to keep searching for the spirit in it, the potential in it and to realize that potential merging into the moment. I feel like we are getting closer to something, deeper, richer, more imaginative, something with more feeling. We work with spontaneity, years of playing and practicing together to the point of being almost uncritical or unknowing in the conception of songs. We just turn on the gear and start playing and what flows out before us is the result, we play it, practice it, hone it in until it takes the fully realized shape that we see before us, but it still lies outside our knowing our understanding, it just is a result. The visuals seem too much of the same way and just as much from the world, drawn from everything, anything and all experience. Wet Hair is changing it is always changing, we are getting better at it, being a two piece band, 4 hands, two minds. I had no idea when I started it solo in the basement by myself it would grow to involve Ryan so fully and sound like this now. A total change in approach and sound to what we were doing before Wet Hair, the maximal changed to minimal. The songs we are writing now, they are becoming more and more personal to me then ever before, they are just as spontaneous but more aware more critical of themselves, they are striving toward a harmony that I can't get to in words. They are getting closer to describing the ideas and feelings in me, less and more abstractly at the same time. They describe this labor of love that I feel in making the songs themselves, them being this conduit to the spontaneity of the experience of life itself. Wet Hair is just a journey, it's part of the journey, it took years and years to get to Wet Hair, and what lies beyond it I'm not sure, hopefully as much and more then what came before. The creative knowledge that grows from the experience, even in the repetition of things, the endless cycle, the natural decay even of a creative endeavor it speaks for itself. It's as much the process as it is the result. It's confusing to think of where audience comes into all of this, seems like to much for this already windy group of words so I'll think about that some other time.
I wonder if I will ever be done searching and wondering...ever be done playing in 'bands' working on 'projects' putting out 'records' going on 'tours'.... probably not, there is to much beauty even in the decay to stop looking for it, seems like I never even made the choice to express it, it just happens.
Playlist: Les Rallizes Dénudés - Romance of the Black Grief and But I Was Different over and over again, for some reason this seems relevant."
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Wet Hair.
Irifi (Night People)
1. Blood Spirits
2. I Am The Jackal
3. Magnetic Youth
4. Could Want Nothing
Wet Hair EP (Night People)
1. Forever Young Ever One
2. Machete
3. On The Lilys
4. The Hermitage
Wet Hair CS (Night People)
1. Whitestrobe Void
2. Black Sand
3. Saturns Return
4. Cult Electric Annihilation
The Beach (Night People)
1. Ordinary Lives
2. Mesmerized
3. Hey Chrome
4. Reprise
5. Crucifix In The Waves
6. Radio Machines
7. Gold Chains
Dream (Not Not Fun)
1. Cult Electric Annihilation
2. Black Sand
3. Ordinary Lives
4. Radio Machines/Gold Chains
Glass Fountain (Not Not Fun)
1. Mesmerized
2. Crucifix In The Waves
3. When The Right Time Comes
4. Cold City
5. Stepping Razor (To Heaven's Door)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Cloudland Canyon
-- Camilla Padgitt-Coles
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Cloudland Canyon.
Lie In Light (Kranky)
1. Krautwerk
2. White Woman
3. You & I
4. Scheisse Schatzi, Auf Wiedersehen!
5. Heme
6. Lie In Light
7. Mothlight Part 1
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Beaches
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Beaches.
In A While b/w Halve (Pukekos)
1. In A While
2. Halve
09/3 // Seattle // Sunset Tavern w/ The Shackles, Del Mar
10/3 // Portland // Holocene w/ A Sunny Day in Glasgow
12/3 // San Fransisco // Hemlock Tavern w/ Nothing People
13/3 // San Fransisco // Amnesia
14/3 // Los Angeles // The Smell w/ Sun Araw, Love of Diagrams
17/3 // Austin // (SXSW) Submerge
18/3 // Austin // (SXSW) Rancho Relaxo
19/3 // Austin // (SXSW) Maggie Maes
23/3 // Athens // Caledonia Lounge w/ Love of Diagrams
25/3 // Brooklyn // Bell House w/ Crayon Fields, Love of Diagrams
27/3 // Brooklyn // Death By Audio w/ Total Slacker, Flight
28/3 // Philadelphia // Kung Fu Necktie w/ Love of Diagrams
30/3 // Washington, DC // Black Cat w/ Partyline, Love of Diagrams
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Black Flag
In case of emergency:
RISE ABOVE
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Black Flag.
Damaged (Unicorn/SST)
1. Rise Above
2. Spray Paint
3. Six Pack
4. What I See
5. TV Party
6. Thirsty And Miserable
7. Police Story
8. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
9. Depression
10. Room 13
11. Damaged II
12. No More
13. Padded Cell
14. Life Of Pain
15. Damaged I
RISE ABOVE
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Black Flag.
Damaged (Unicorn/SST)
1. Rise Above
2. Spray Paint
3. Six Pack
4. What I See
5. TV Party
6. Thirsty And Miserable
7. Police Story
8. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
9. Depression
10. Room 13
11. Damaged II
12. No More
13. Padded Cell
14. Life Of Pain
15. Damaged I
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
8 Eyed Spy
"Teenage Jesus and the Jerks bit the dust in mid-'79 after a torrid European tour featuring a wheelchair bound Lydia Lunch, Jim Sclavunos on bass and Lydia's then-squeeze Johnny O'Kane on drums (in lieu of regular pounder and loose-cannon Bradly Field). Having sonically expressed so much about sheer terror in a corpus adding up to so few total minutes, it seemed that the group was cut down in its prime simply for the sake of sheer nihilism. After Lydia finished the sessions for her bizarre, almost torchy debut solo album Queen of Siam (ZE Records, 1980), she set about forming a new combo with Sclavunos on drums and added ex-Contortions bassist George Scott (who appeared on said solo album under the pseudonym 'Jack Ruby' in an allusion to his defunct '77 hard rock combo named after the famed assassin) along with guitarist Michael Paumgardhen and multi-instrumentalist Pat Irwin to make 8 Eyed Spy.
After debuting in Fall '79, the band lasted shy of a year, but packed a huge musical wallop, as evidenced on their classic, posthumous Live cassette release on New York City-based proto-indie ROIR Records. Operating in a totally different and more mature musical mode than previous Lydia Lunch projects, 8 Eyed Spy fused Beefheartian discord with Surf music and roots-rock earthiness while retaining the bleak lyrics and monotone caterwaul expected of their anti-charismatic front person. The Spy is undoubtedly a rock and roll band - hot, energetic, dirty and emotional. Their songbook included furious and scabrously performed covers of songs by the likes of Bo Diddley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane and the Strangeloves' galloping 'I Want Candy' (beating Brits Bow Wow Wow to the punch by two years), but don't get the wrong idea here, kids: 8 Eyed Spy wasn't some fogey-ish '60s revival group - when it came to original material, this quintet delivered some truly gnarly, harrowing skronk! On the ROIR tape, ditties like 'Frantic', 'Love Split With Blood' and 'Boy Meets Girl' careen with berserk discord as the guitars pile up in a contrapuntal/polytonal gridlock on top of Jim Sclavunos' busy, angular drum frameworks. On many of the tunes, Pat Irwin (at the time concurrently playing in modernistic, Surf-influenced instrumental outfit The Raybeats with George Scott and fellow Contortions alums Jody Harris and Don Christensen) drops his axe and blows some piquant alto saxophone lines over the whole seething mess. There's a grungy, barwalking feel to the honking horn playing on songs like 'Sorry for Behaving So Badly' and 'Lazy in Love' which really expanded the tonal possibilities of the unit. Lunch is particularly effective as a vocalist when she really lets it rip, almost losing control on the cruelly spiteful dirge called 'Looking For Someone'.
By the Fall of 1980, after a string of killer New York City dates and some European touring, Lydia abruptly quit the band, remarking accusing Irwin in particular (who would later be seen mugging away in the B-52s corny 'Love Shack' and 'Meet The Flintstones' videos!) was trying to push the music into a more polished and cozy commercial Pop direction. To hammer an ominous nail into the coffin, bassist George Scott died of an allegedly accidental heroin overdose on August 8, 1980, pretty much insuring the end of the project. The four remaining members briefly regrouped later that year to record a few over-produced and ineffectual versions of some of their original material, bundling those tracks with a side's worth of live stuff to muster a forgettable eponymous album released in 1981 on UK-based Fetish Records.
The far-superior and vastly more energetic Live release seems to be culled from (perhaps) three separate shows. The versions of 'Sorry For Behaving So Badly', 'Innocence', 'Boy Meets Girl', 'Swamp Song', 'Run Through The Jungle' and 'Motor Oil Shanty' spring from the final live gig at Hurrah's, in New York City on August 3rd, 1980. Video footage of this particular performance surfaced on Lydia's recent Video Hysterie DVD, originally shot by video artist Paul Tschinkel for his defunct NYC cable access show Inner Tube. 'Looking for Someone', 'Ran Away Dark' and 'Frantic' are from a San Francisco gig at Mabuhay Gardens (featuring opening acts Johanna Went - the awesome, uber-messy performance/sound artist - and early-industrial junk-metal percussionist Z'ev) on February 9, 1980. The Bay Area-based video company Target Video filmed this particular gig and it appeared on a long-out-of print VHS video compilation. I'm not sure where or when the remaining quartet of tracks came from, but they sure sound great. All of the audio here was 'reprocessed' (i.e. mostly likely re-eq'ed) by dB's frontman Chris Stamey and the final product was released in late 1981.
Lydia Lunch continued on soon after to lead combos like the quasi-blues Devil Dogs (not the garage band, folks) and the Los Angeles-based death-rock band 13.13 (arguably her finest purely musical achievement) before concentrating on her solo music and spoken word work, amongst many other disciplines. Rock-solid axe-man Michael Paumgardhen would play briefly in Lydia's Devil Dogs and on one track appearing on Richard Hell's R.I.P. anthology before dropping off the No Wave map. Multi-talented Jim Sclavunos - who also was a member of such no-wave related acts like Information, Red Transistor and Beirut Slump - went on to some notoriety in Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds as well as playing in many other acts, including the recently reincarnated - and re-slain - Teenage Jesus line-up. Pat Irwin works steadily in the movie biz, supplying soundtracks to various films and cartoons. Like most of the classic No Wave ensembles, 8 Eyed Spy wasn't built to last, but rather existed to create something brilliantly urgent, jarring and incendiary.
Weasel Walter, Brooklyn, 3/1/10"
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, 8 Eyed Spy.
Live (ROIR)
1. Diddy Wah Diddy
2. Love Split With Blood
3. Sorry For Behaving So Badly
4. Innocence
5. Boy Meets Girl
6. Swamp Song
7. Run Through The Jungle
8. Motor Oil Shanty
9. Ran Away Dark
10. Lazy In Love
11. Looking For Someone
12. Frantic
13. Maintaing My Cool
After debuting in Fall '79, the band lasted shy of a year, but packed a huge musical wallop, as evidenced on their classic, posthumous Live cassette release on New York City-based proto-indie ROIR Records. Operating in a totally different and more mature musical mode than previous Lydia Lunch projects, 8 Eyed Spy fused Beefheartian discord with Surf music and roots-rock earthiness while retaining the bleak lyrics and monotone caterwaul expected of their anti-charismatic front person. The Spy is undoubtedly a rock and roll band - hot, energetic, dirty and emotional. Their songbook included furious and scabrously performed covers of songs by the likes of Bo Diddley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane and the Strangeloves' galloping 'I Want Candy' (beating Brits Bow Wow Wow to the punch by two years), but don't get the wrong idea here, kids: 8 Eyed Spy wasn't some fogey-ish '60s revival group - when it came to original material, this quintet delivered some truly gnarly, harrowing skronk! On the ROIR tape, ditties like 'Frantic', 'Love Split With Blood' and 'Boy Meets Girl' careen with berserk discord as the guitars pile up in a contrapuntal/polytonal gridlock on top of Jim Sclavunos' busy, angular drum frameworks. On many of the tunes, Pat Irwin (at the time concurrently playing in modernistic, Surf-influenced instrumental outfit The Raybeats with George Scott and fellow Contortions alums Jody Harris and Don Christensen) drops his axe and blows some piquant alto saxophone lines over the whole seething mess. There's a grungy, barwalking feel to the honking horn playing on songs like 'Sorry for Behaving So Badly' and 'Lazy in Love' which really expanded the tonal possibilities of the unit. Lunch is particularly effective as a vocalist when she really lets it rip, almost losing control on the cruelly spiteful dirge called 'Looking For Someone'.
By the Fall of 1980, after a string of killer New York City dates and some European touring, Lydia abruptly quit the band, remarking accusing Irwin in particular (who would later be seen mugging away in the B-52s corny 'Love Shack' and 'Meet The Flintstones' videos!) was trying to push the music into a more polished and cozy commercial Pop direction. To hammer an ominous nail into the coffin, bassist George Scott died of an allegedly accidental heroin overdose on August 8, 1980, pretty much insuring the end of the project. The four remaining members briefly regrouped later that year to record a few over-produced and ineffectual versions of some of their original material, bundling those tracks with a side's worth of live stuff to muster a forgettable eponymous album released in 1981 on UK-based Fetish Records.
The far-superior and vastly more energetic Live release seems to be culled from (perhaps) three separate shows. The versions of 'Sorry For Behaving So Badly', 'Innocence', 'Boy Meets Girl', 'Swamp Song', 'Run Through The Jungle' and 'Motor Oil Shanty' spring from the final live gig at Hurrah's, in New York City on August 3rd, 1980. Video footage of this particular performance surfaced on Lydia's recent Video Hysterie DVD, originally shot by video artist Paul Tschinkel for his defunct NYC cable access show Inner Tube. 'Looking for Someone', 'Ran Away Dark' and 'Frantic' are from a San Francisco gig at Mabuhay Gardens (featuring opening acts Johanna Went - the awesome, uber-messy performance/sound artist - and early-industrial junk-metal percussionist Z'ev) on February 9, 1980. The Bay Area-based video company Target Video filmed this particular gig and it appeared on a long-out-of print VHS video compilation. I'm not sure where or when the remaining quartet of tracks came from, but they sure sound great. All of the audio here was 'reprocessed' (i.e. mostly likely re-eq'ed) by dB's frontman Chris Stamey and the final product was released in late 1981.
Lydia Lunch continued on soon after to lead combos like the quasi-blues Devil Dogs (not the garage band, folks) and the Los Angeles-based death-rock band 13.13 (arguably her finest purely musical achievement) before concentrating on her solo music and spoken word work, amongst many other disciplines. Rock-solid axe-man Michael Paumgardhen would play briefly in Lydia's Devil Dogs and on one track appearing on Richard Hell's R.I.P. anthology before dropping off the No Wave map. Multi-talented Jim Sclavunos - who also was a member of such no-wave related acts like Information, Red Transistor and Beirut Slump - went on to some notoriety in Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds as well as playing in many other acts, including the recently reincarnated - and re-slain - Teenage Jesus line-up. Pat Irwin works steadily in the movie biz, supplying soundtracks to various films and cartoons. Like most of the classic No Wave ensembles, 8 Eyed Spy wasn't built to last, but rather existed to create something brilliantly urgent, jarring and incendiary.
Weasel Walter, Brooklyn, 3/1/10"
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, 8 Eyed Spy.
Live (ROIR)
1. Diddy Wah Diddy
2. Love Split With Blood
3. Sorry For Behaving So Badly
4. Innocence
5. Boy Meets Girl
6. Swamp Song
7. Run Through The Jungle
8. Motor Oil Shanty
9. Ran Away Dark
10. Lazy In Love
11. Looking For Someone
12. Frantic
13. Maintaing My Cool
Monday, March 1, 2010
Golden Triangle
I did not meet the members of Golden Triangle recently, it would appear.
OJ and I actually met many years ago at The Right Bank. It was a bar on Kent and Broadway, probably best remembered for the Lightning Bolt gig that is documented in the Power of Salad (if you look closely at the video you can see my glasses get knocked off my face by some drunk asshole). OJ's old band Mob Stereo played a gig there with Ferrari Testarossa one night, during which I ran out into the crowd and knocked some chicks' beers onto their boobs (although less intentionally than I am making it sound). We always had a special bond as our names are similar (there was also an NJ in Mob Stereo, although we didn't share the same bond).
Carly is a great photographer, and don't let the fact that she is super hot intimidate you.
Cameron and Vashti run the Live With Animals space, and the studio they share there with Raul de Nieves is one of the more calming rooms I've had the pleasure of entering. Surrounding yourself with beauty can actually add time to your life, so I will be toasting them with all those extra moments.
Alix scares me a bit, I'm not sure if I like it but anything that gets you outside of your comfort zone, etc.
I first met Jay High at some GoGoGoAirheart gig, I think. He has a great last name but he's a ginger so it must be tough going out there. He didn't play on this tape, but best of luck to you bub.
To my knowledge, the information contained on this cassette has been kept secret from the general public until now. OJ seems to recollect the era as being particularly debaucherous:
"Ok that show where the tape was recorded was at Gavin Brown's Passerby Gallery for Useless Magazine. It was the last show ever at that space supposedly. We just set up a mic in the back of the room and pressed record. It was actually the first time TraLaLa (our first bass player) ever played the songs -- I think it was the first time she was actually sober. Our friend Micki Pellerano started off the show by performing a zombie cannibal ritual. At one point he pulled out an eel and cut it open to pull out its heart, and proceeded to devour it and share it with everyone around him -- I even took a bite. Everyone remembers that that eel smelled like a giant dirty ass, though. It threatened to clear the room, but everyone stuck around and it was a rad show.
I also have a story of how we got our current bass player, Alix Brown. We had just played a show at Montana's Party Palace with King Khan and BBQ, and rushed over two blocks away to Don Pedro's to play a late show. It was one of those times where the PA didn't work , and everyone's gear was broken, but people were so wasted by then at 3am, that they were just going crazy for no reason. We weren't even playing songs. People kept jumping onstage and at one point someone got in a fight with TraLaLa, but we kept playing because that stuff always happened with her at shows. Well they kept scuffling, and eventually she was being strangled by a mic cord. Long story short -- she bashed someone with her bass and took off -- and we had to stop the show. We didn't see or hear from her for 8 months after that. We heard rumors that she smashed someone's face with a glass and nearly severed 3 of her fingers that night as well. Anyway, we asked Alix Brown to play bass shortly after this night as we had shows lined up.
This story may be old to some. We were on tour with Knyfe Hyts in early 2008 when we stopped for our show in a town-not-to-be-named. Show was ok -- the weirdness happened afterwards. Locals were warning us of an old abandoned factory where they made pencils, but is now used to hide dead bodies. Then we were offered some rollie cigarettes that may have been laced with I-don't-know-what since all the guys started feeling weird and lethargic and hallucinogenic and feeling messed up -- a couple of us got sick and started vomiting -- and smoking those rollies was the only common denominator. Then as the night wore on, and it was time to leave the venue, some guys offered us a place to crash, but they also strangely offered a separate house for the girls and we were like, 'noo -- sorry, we wanna stay all in one house'. So we all end up in this messed up decaying house, through the kitchen which had a pot of week-old dry mac n cheese on the stove. One guy at the house was like, 'hmmm, I'm gonna add some water and it'll be cool' so he added a cup of water and started stirring up this mess and they showed us to this room with 5 bare stained mattresses. We were scared to even lay our sleeping bags on them. One dude just kept hovering near the door and offered us mescaline and pills which we politely declined -- but he silently just stayed in the doorway anyway for awhile which was awkward. Finally he creeped us out by saying, 'I'm just gonna stand here all night and watch you pretty faces while you sleep.' Finally he went away and we passed out. We overheard someone coming down the stairs in the middle of the night, and heard him say, 'that was easy... I just had sex!!!' I can't really articulate the creepiness of that moment or remember the other details creepy of that night, so this story may not sound so special to read. Anyways we got up early and split the next day really quickly."
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Golden Triangle.
Club Bangers (Party Store)
1. Live at Passerby
OJ and I actually met many years ago at The Right Bank. It was a bar on Kent and Broadway, probably best remembered for the Lightning Bolt gig that is documented in the Power of Salad (if you look closely at the video you can see my glasses get knocked off my face by some drunk asshole). OJ's old band Mob Stereo played a gig there with Ferrari Testarossa one night, during which I ran out into the crowd and knocked some chicks' beers onto their boobs (although less intentionally than I am making it sound). We always had a special bond as our names are similar (there was also an NJ in Mob Stereo, although we didn't share the same bond).
Carly is a great photographer, and don't let the fact that she is super hot intimidate you.
Cameron and Vashti run the Live With Animals space, and the studio they share there with Raul de Nieves is one of the more calming rooms I've had the pleasure of entering. Surrounding yourself with beauty can actually add time to your life, so I will be toasting them with all those extra moments.
Alix scares me a bit, I'm not sure if I like it but anything that gets you outside of your comfort zone, etc.
I first met Jay High at some GoGoGoAirheart gig, I think. He has a great last name but he's a ginger so it must be tough going out there. He didn't play on this tape, but best of luck to you bub.
To my knowledge, the information contained on this cassette has been kept secret from the general public until now. OJ seems to recollect the era as being particularly debaucherous:
"Ok that show where the tape was recorded was at Gavin Brown's Passerby Gallery for Useless Magazine. It was the last show ever at that space supposedly. We just set up a mic in the back of the room and pressed record. It was actually the first time TraLaLa (our first bass player) ever played the songs -- I think it was the first time she was actually sober. Our friend Micki Pellerano started off the show by performing a zombie cannibal ritual. At one point he pulled out an eel and cut it open to pull out its heart, and proceeded to devour it and share it with everyone around him -- I even took a bite. Everyone remembers that that eel smelled like a giant dirty ass, though. It threatened to clear the room, but everyone stuck around and it was a rad show.
I also have a story of how we got our current bass player, Alix Brown. We had just played a show at Montana's Party Palace with King Khan and BBQ, and rushed over two blocks away to Don Pedro's to play a late show. It was one of those times where the PA didn't work , and everyone's gear was broken, but people were so wasted by then at 3am, that they were just going crazy for no reason. We weren't even playing songs. People kept jumping onstage and at one point someone got in a fight with TraLaLa, but we kept playing because that stuff always happened with her at shows. Well they kept scuffling, and eventually she was being strangled by a mic cord. Long story short -- she bashed someone with her bass and took off -- and we had to stop the show. We didn't see or hear from her for 8 months after that. We heard rumors that she smashed someone's face with a glass and nearly severed 3 of her fingers that night as well. Anyway, we asked Alix Brown to play bass shortly after this night as we had shows lined up.
This story may be old to some. We were on tour with Knyfe Hyts in early 2008 when we stopped for our show in a town-not-to-be-named. Show was ok -- the weirdness happened afterwards. Locals were warning us of an old abandoned factory where they made pencils, but is now used to hide dead bodies. Then we were offered some rollie cigarettes that may have been laced with I-don't-know-what since all the guys started feeling weird and lethargic and hallucinogenic and feeling messed up -- a couple of us got sick and started vomiting -- and smoking those rollies was the only common denominator. Then as the night wore on, and it was time to leave the venue, some guys offered us a place to crash, but they also strangely offered a separate house for the girls and we were like, 'noo -- sorry, we wanna stay all in one house'. So we all end up in this messed up decaying house, through the kitchen which had a pot of week-old dry mac n cheese on the stove. One guy at the house was like, 'hmmm, I'm gonna add some water and it'll be cool' so he added a cup of water and started stirring up this mess and they showed us to this room with 5 bare stained mattresses. We were scared to even lay our sleeping bags on them. One dude just kept hovering near the door and offered us mescaline and pills which we politely declined -- but he silently just stayed in the doorway anyway for awhile which was awkward. Finally he creeped us out by saying, 'I'm just gonna stand here all night and watch you pretty faces while you sleep.' Finally he went away and we passed out. We overheard someone coming down the stairs in the middle of the night, and heard him say, 'that was easy... I just had sex!!!' I can't really articulate the creepiness of that moment or remember the other details creepy of that night, so this story may not sound so special to read. Anyways we got up early and split the next day really quickly."
Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Golden Triangle.
Club Bangers (Party Store)
1. Live at Passerby