Dying of Cancer

 

Following up with one more for Día de los Muertos, this time more serious than the previous humor/horror, a variety of tunes from Mary Sims & friends.

You might not know her as Mary. You might know her by her stage name Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave. She was instrumental in the creation of the LA punk scene ghoul rock that spawned gothic deathrock. The band lasted from 1979-1991, when original bassist Rob Graves died from an accidental drug overdose. In the early Teens, Dinah resurrected the band to some success.

Before 45 Grave, Dinah was in the LA experimental punk band Vox Pop active 1979-80 featuring former/future members of 45 Grave, Germs, Nervous Gender, Angry Samoans, Dream Syndicate. They released two singles.

 

Vox Pop - Cab Driver/Just like Your Mom 7", Bad Trip Records 300, 1980.
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Side □ -
Cab Driver
Side 5-
Just like Your Mom

bonus track -
You’re My Favorite

 

 

 

 

Vox Pop - The Band the Myth the Volume, Mystic Records M12452, 1982.

Side A -
Become a Pagan
Side C -
Production
Procession

 

 

 

 

Here's a 12" EP & the first full-length from 45 Grave... 

 

45 Grave - Phantoms EP, Enigma ENIGMA 7, 1983.

Side A -
Phantoms (EP version)
Sleep in Safety (EP version)
Side B -
La Tomba

 

 

 

 

45 Grave - Sleep in Safety, Enigma ENIGMA13, 1983.

this side -
Insurance from God
Evil
Partytime
Dream Hits II
Slice o' Life

the other side -
45 Grave
Phantoms
Violent World
Bad Love
Surf Bat
Procession

Note: The song "Partytime (Zombie version)" was featured on the OST for Return of the Living Dead which led to heavy airplay on MTV in 1984

 

 

 

.

After the initial break-up of 45 Grave, Mary was in the band Penis Flytrap. Here's one from them... 

Penis Flytrap - Tales of Horror, Bloody Daggre Records DAG003, 1998.

Cemetery Girl    
Tears of Blood    
I Wait    
Village of the Damned    
Now    
Dracula's Daughter 

bonus tracks (other releases from Dinah/Mary) -
The X Girlfriend - Castration Squad
Panic in Detroit - Christian Death
Evil (45 Grave cover) - The Nerve Agents

 

 

 

Happy Day,
NØ

How about the Best Band in the Land

 

After a month of weird music, it's time to get a bit more serious. Here, to celebrate Día de los Muertos is that all-time jam band from San Francisco...no wait...not that Garcia ice cream band, they were grateful, oh yeah. 

This is Andy Haldane, Jim Xavier, & Jonni Boa, some lads from the UK & you can believe they’re ungrateful... 

 

The Ungrateful Dead - Black Snakes & Rats, Rainfall Records CLOUD050, 2013.
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Side 1 -    
Best Band in the Land
She Don't Care
Sick! Sick! Sick!
Come on Down & See the Doctor
Master of the Dead
Sex After Death

Side 2 -    
Real Bad Guy
It's Just Rock 'N' Roll
Snake Venom
The Back Seat
Bug Out
Black Snakes & Rats

 

 

Enjoy,
NØ

I am a Witch

 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock all your life, you know who Yoko Ono is & you know she's definitely weird. 

This one is for celebrating All Hallow’s Eve with a bang-up party. 

Yes, she’s a witch. 

 

Ono - Yes, I’m a Witch, Astralwerks ASW79287, 2007.
decryption codes in comments

Witch Shocktronica (intro) with Hank Shocklee
Kiss Kiss Kiss with Peaches
O'Oh with Shitake Monkey
Everyman...Everywoman with Blow Up
Sisters O Sisters with Le Tigre
Death of Samantha with Porcupine Tree
Rising with DJ Spooky    
Nobody Sees Me like You Do with the Apples In Stereo
Yes, I'm a Witch with Palumbo 
Revelations with Cat Power
You & I with the Polyphonic Spree
Walking on Thin Ice with Jason Pierce 
Toyboat with Antony Hegarty & Hahn Rowe
Cambridge 1969/2007 with the Flaming Lips
I'm Moving On with the Sleepy Jackson
Witch Shocktronica (outro) with Hank Shocklee
Shiranakatta (I Didn't Know) with Craig Armstrong

 

 

 

 
Bonus release for all you special people... 

 

 

Yoko Ono & the Plastic Ono Band - Take Me to the Land of Hell,
Chimera Music No. 19, 2013.

Moonbeams    
Cheshire Cat Cry    
Tabetai    
Bad Dancer    
Little Boy Blue You're Daddy's Gone    
There's no Goodbye Between Us    
7th Floor    
N.Y. Noodle Town    
Take Me to the Land of Hell    
Watching the Dawn    
Leaving Tim    
Shine, Shine
Hawk’s Cal

 

 

 

The end of weirdness for now...onward to the Day of the Dead,
NØ

X-Ray Tech

 

X-Ray Charles was a lo-fi jangle pop (with a raw, experimental edge) duo from Christchurch, New Zealand consisting of multi-instrumentalist James Sullivan with drummer & Melted Ice Cream label head Brian Feary. This lo-fi release was recorded on a Tascam 424 Mk III 4-track tape recorder with digital vocal overdubs. 

 

X-Ray Charles - Selph Titled, Melted Ice Cream, 2013.
decryption code in comments

Covered in Shit    
Field Recordings of Animal Noises    
As a Matter of Fact
Winterlude    
Heavy Fast    
Supersoaker    
One Lady Owner

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Lots of Vomit & Wanking in the Quiche

 

Cabbage was a post-punk Manchester based five piece made up of: Eoghan Clifford - guitar, percussion; Joseph Martin - guitar, vocals; Lee Broadbent - synthesizer, organ, vocals;  Stephen Evans - bass, vocals; & Asa Morley - drums. They were around from 2015-2021. Their music is an idiosyncratic, satirical attack in the form of discordant neo-punk.

Although from Manchester, Cabbage are more like a northern version of Fat White Family’s southern uproar, with a dash of the Fall’s garage rumble

Young, Dumb, & Full of... is a collection of their early EPs. What's weird about this??? That it's not 1977, it's 2017. 

 

Cabbage - Young, Dumb, & Full of..., Skeleton Key Records SKLP010, 2017.
decryption code in comments

Side A -
Uber Capitalist Death Trade    
Fickle    
Tell Me Lies about Manchester

Side B -
Free Steven Avery (Wrong America)    
Necroflat in the Palace    
Indispensable Pencil

Side C -
It's Grim up North Korea    
Dissonance    
Terrorist Synthesizer    

Side D -
The Road to Wigan Pier    
These Boots are Made for Walkin'
Because You're Worth It

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

While My Bong Gently Weeps

 

Weeping Bong Band is a stoner space psych outfit from Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts. This, the band's eponymous debut, is perfect fodder for higher consciousness excursions & late-night fade outs into the aether. The band consists of Anthony Pasquarosa - guitar, Beverly Ketch - lyrics, Clark Griffin - bass, Pat Gubler - guitar, Wednesday Knudsen - guitar. They are known for their atmospheric instrumentals creating a state of permanent 2AM Grateful Dead improvisations twisted through the soul of Brightblack Morning Light, doused in the blood of John Fahey. They followed up this release with II & then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Weeping Bong Band - Weeping Bong Band, Feeding Tube Records FTR313, 2018.
decryption code in comments

Side A -
Replay I    
Replay II    

Side B -
Replay III    
Jaume 1

bonus track -
Dream Away

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Dub is Addictive

 

Dub Narcotic Sound System is live touring & studio recording band founded 1993 in Olympia, Washington by Calvin Johnson. Johnson is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, music producer, & disc jockey born in Olympia. He was a founding member of the bands Beat Happening & The Go Team as well as Dub Narcotic Sound System. He is also the founder / owner of the influential indie label K Records.

All their releases showcase the group’s style which is a lo-fi fusion of punk, funk, Dub, indie rock, & hip-hop highlighted by Johnson’s deeply droning low & gravely vocals.

Dub Narcotic Sound System - Out of Your Mind, K KLP83, 1998.
decryption code in comments

Wicked Bad    
Basemess    
Teenage Time Bomb    
Dub Narcotic's Delight    
Sawed Off    
Rebel Makes Rhymes    
Out of Your Mind
Oslo Calling    
Belly Warmer
Shock Mount    
Papa's Got a Brand New Burnbag 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

So Just Superman That

 

Injury Reserve was a Tempe, Arizona-based rap group formed in 2013 consisting of DJs Ritchie with a T, & Stepa J. Groggs (R.I.P. June 2020) & producer Parker Corey. They released two acclaimed mixtapes Live from the Dentist Office & Floss (recorded in a dentist office belonging to Corey's grandfather).

The group relocated to Los Angeles in 2017. The two original mixtapes were stylistically jazz-rap, but after moving to California, their sound gravitated to a more industrial / glitch style. While recording this album in 2020, Stepa died (age 32). Ritchie & Coery finished the album but as tribute to their deceased bandmate, they stopped using the Injury Reseve name & became By Storm. 

 

Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Injury Reserve self-released, 2021.
decryption code in comments

Outside
Superman That    
SS San Francisco
Footwork in a Forest Fire    
Ground Zero
Smoke Don't Clear    
Top Picks for You
Wild Wild West    
Postpostpartum    
Knees    
Bye Storm

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Cheese Legs & All...Forty Years Ago Today

 

Gorgonzola Legs was an improv industrial-jazz group from IJmuiden, The Netherlands, active in the 80s. The band consisted of: Jos Van Duijne - guitar; Hessel Veldman - guitar, bass, piano, synthesizers, tapes; Herman Te Loo - soprano & alto saxophone, clarinet, piano, vocals; & Gert Jan Prins - drums, percussion, sampling, keyboards.

This is a live recording recorded at De Bunker in Rotterdam, October 25, 1986 (forty years ago today). 

 

Gorgonzola Legs - Bunker cassette, Exart EA028, 1986.
decryption code in comments

Side A -
Fishing Withe Black Cow in the Movies
Have You Seen Me on the Tree Quay

Side B -
Caligari's Call Girls
Three's Crowd / No Gnus is Good Gnus
Honey Swahili Qui Mali Pense

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Iowa City Fab Four (er...Two)

I've shared the weirdness of the Tape-Beatles several time before on NSS, here  & here.

Well, they're weird as ever. Here's one more from the Plagiarism® gang.Enjoy.

 

The Tape-beatles - Steal This Lick cassette, SSS Productions SSS30, 1990.
decryption code in comments

Side A -
Tension Creek
Hard Times
Stress
New Animal
Right for the Job
/o/ For Frog
Metro / Pulse Logo

Side B -
Desire: Desire / Desire: I Want It
From the Tide or the Wind
We Need More People
Hard Times (Chinese mix)
Beat Repeat

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Action Painting #98

 

V-3 was a lo-fi experimental rock band from Columbus,Ohio in the 1980s-90s led by underground legend Jim Shepard (formerly of Vertical Slit). 

The album was released with a hand painted cover with paste on front/back cover slips. It was pressed at a slightly lowered volume level so you may want to crank it up. 

V-3 sez:
          "We would have just put 'play real loud' on the jacket, but that's simply a cheap ploy from another era..."

Here V-3 is: Jim Shepard - multi-instrumentalist, guitar; Leland Cain - bass; Al “Nudge Squidfish” Martin - songwriter, bass; Sam Brown  - multi-instrumentalist, drums; Rudy K. Smith - drums; David Mikula - drums.

Frontman Jim Shepard passed away in the late 1990s shortly after the group's demise, cementing their cult-legend status. 

 

V-3 - Pimpin' in the 90s, Iron Press 2027, 1998.
decryption in comments

Side 1 -
The Amateur Welder
Queen of the Underground
Defective
Car Horn in a Stinger Trap
Please Take Hold
Carnage on the Midway
Your Rival.
Indy Rock 101
You Smoke Ink?

Side 2 -
Contact!
Glam Rock Ray Gun
Talking to S.B.
Super Human 2
Squid Ink
Forever Low Man
Grip Connector
Voices in the Woods
Son of Sam Donaldson (Boom-Box demo excerpt)
Harlem U.F.O. Sighting #128
Bullet Through the Floorboards

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Living in a TENT

Electric Noise Twist was Alex Buess, Christoph Fringelt, & Markus Kneubühler. 

 

 

Alex Buess is a saxophonist, composer, producer. He has collaborated with Peter Brötzmann, Toshinori Kondo, Bill Laswell, Tim Hodgkinson, & many other musicians in the wide field of improvisation, electronics, electro/acoustic music. Buess has written compositions for various contemporary music ensembles & works as a producer / sound engineer. 

 

Christoph Fringeli is responsible for the Vision & Praxis labels. Vision was a label project from Basel, Switzerland, founded by Christoph in 1986 & finished in 1992. The material released by Vision were not limited to cassettes / records but also included printed materials / visuals. These items included fanzines, posters, t-shirts & like the recordings, received catalogue numbers. Vision evolved into Praxis, which was both a label & a record shop for harsh experimental electronic music led by Fringeli based in Berlin (first located in London/UK, then in Berlin/Germany, then in Basel/Switzerland, now again in Berlin/Germany). 

 

Markus Kneubühler plays synthesizers, mostly concentrating on free-Jazz experimental noise.

The three got together to create Electronic Noise Twist as a project for Fringeli’s Vision label.

Here Fringeli plays guitar & provides vocals, Kneubühler plays bass & manipulates tapes, & Buess plays saxophone & drums making wild, crazy Blurt-like jazz/industrial crossover. 

 

Electronic Noise Twist - The Electric Noise Twist, Vision Vision 23, 1989.
decryption code in comments

Side One -
My Trigger Fingers Itching
Who the Fuck are You & What are You Doing in My Image Track
Slaughter
Choose Alienation
C.A.Dub

Side Two -
Media Assassin
Twisted Hubbub ‘N’ Din
Synchronise Your Castor Oil Will You?
Tell Laura I Love My Blue Heaven
Time to Squeeze out the Welchers

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Artificial Material & Plasma Co.

 

ADULT. is Nicola Kuperus & Adam Lee Miller. They have been married for 17 years, working together for nearly 20, via their band ADULT. They have released material on their own Ersatz Audio label as well as Thrill Jockey, Ghostly International, Mute, Third Man Records, & Dais Records. Their style is electro-punk, integrating vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers & electronic/punk elements, uniquely danceable as well as harshly abrasive. 

 

ADULT. - Becoming Undone, Dais Records DAIS194, 2022.
decryption code in comments

Undoing / Undone    
Our Bodies Weren't Wrong
Fools (We Are...)    
Normative Sludge    
I am Nothing    
She's Nice Looking    
I, Obediant    
Teeth Out Pt. II

  

Weirder & weirder,
NØ 

Sweet Celestial Golden Showers

 

You might not know the name Efrim Manuel Menuck, but if you wander around here much or like weird music as I do, then you've heard him before now. He's a Canadian musician & composer, playing guitar & synthesizer, singing, writing, & producing. He is one of the founding members of Godspeed You Black Emperor!. He also created Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band as a side project. He is co-owner of the famous Hotel2Tango, a loft space that acts as a practice area, recording studio, & one of the very few non-commercial venues in Montreal capable of accommodating live concerts.. 

Here's his second solo effort, some sweet weirdness... 

 

Efrim Manuel Menuck - Pissing Stars, Constellation CST129, 2018.
decryption code in comments

Black Flags ov Thee Holy Sonne
The State & its Love & Genocide    
The Lion-Daggers of Calais     
Kills V. Lies    
Hart_Kashoggi    
A Lamb in the Land of Payday Loans    
LxOxVx / Shelter in Place    
The Beauty of Children & the War Against the Poor
Pissing Stars

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Going Back to Warszawa

 

Ah Cama-Sotz is the industrial-techno/ritual-tribal/dark ambient project of Belgian electronic music producer/DJ Herman Klapholz. 

 

Active since the early 1990s, the name is inspired by the Mayan bat deity Camazotz. The name reflects Klapholz's themes of darkness, mysticism, & the underworld. The music ranges from haunting cinematic soundscapes to energetic, rhythmic club tracks, often exploring apocalyptic, ritualistic, spiritual concepts. Well known throughout the underground electronic scene, Ah Cama-Sotz creates immersive atmospheres that captivate with a fusion of heavy beats, ritual chants, & eerie ambiances. 

 

Ah Cama-Sotz - Declaration of Innocence, Bats & Cats bc06, 2008.
decryption code in comments

When Dreams Collide    
Voices from the Dark (Silentium)    
Warszawa
Decline of the Roman Empire    
Lines are Sacred    
Isfahan    
Akhirah    
Offering | Sacrifice    
Declaration of Innocence † Aralim

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Playing with Death

 

David Peel was a legend in his own mind & in the minds of a generation, He died April 6, 2017 at age 74. What a life. His raw, acoustic "street rock" with lyrics about marijuana & "bad cops" appealed mostly to hippies or the culturally disenfranchised. In 1968, Peel was contracted by Elektra Records when he was first discovered. He recorded two albums for the label. His album Have a Marijuana peaked at No. 186 on the Billboard chart.

Peel was rediscovered by John Lennon in 1971 as the early seventies continued its swing towards the youth revolution. Lennon befriended Peel when David was playing with his ragtag hippie band in New York's Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Lennon produced The Pope Smokes Dope for Peel. The album was banned in many countries & since has become a cult classic sought by collectors worldwide.

As the acoustic hippie counterculture shifted into the aggressive late-1970s punk movement, Peel adapted his anti-establishment ethos. This release stands as an obscure bridge between 1960s underground fringe-folk (such as The Fugs) & the raw New York punk.

Determinedly low-fi, accompanied by squalling banks of angry guitars & no drums, here Peel ramps up  the stoner howl he had been using since the mid-60s into a sneering double-tracked monotone which almost sounds like punk parody,

David, not with the Lower East Side but with The Death-O-Lettes. 

 

David Peel & Death - King of Punk, Orange Records ORA700, 1978.
decryption code in comments

Side A -
The Devil’s Prayer
King of Punk
Uptight Manhattan
Marijuana
Murder Burgers
Punk Rock

Side B -
In the Beginning
The Master Race
Who Killed Brian Jones
He's Called a Cop
A Mother Mother F. 

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Pygmies on Ice

For the 17th I thought 17 Pygmies was apropos... 

 

 

I've shared 17 Pygmies three times in the past on NSS. Their's is some of my favorite weirdness. I've shared Welcome here, Isabel here, & Jedda here. If you want to read or hear more from this Art rock outfit, my pleasure...

This is CD2 of the 2013 compilation Jedda/Captured. CD1 contains Hatikva & Jedda by the Sea.  CD2 is Captured in Ice with five bonus outtakes. 

The cover artwork below is from the original Captured In Ice release (the comp cover can be seen at the Jedda link).

17 Pygmies - Captured in Ice & Outtakes, LTM LTMCD2581, 2013.
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Captured in Ice - 
Suit of Nails    
I Know    
Voices    
A Thousand Lights    
Monday    
Chameleon    
Icarus    
Shade    
Autumn Cathedral    
The Way    
Home Again    
The Far Country

Outtakes -
Piano Song    
Cheetah Acasia Tree     
A Thousand Lights    
Monday    
Shade

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

Blame the Mashed Potentater

 

Fat Worm of Error is an avant-rock band from Northampton, Massachusetts. They're well known in the underground noise / improvisation scene. They were instrumental in fostering a regional scene of noise music called Western Mass Noise. 

The band lives in a fertile valley in western Massachusetts. They record their own hectic compositions of self-produced high-density music in a wooden shack. They utilize traditional rock instruments as well as homemade electronics & other modified instruments. Semi-regularly FWoE leave the confines of their shack to perform costumed rituals with other local tribes. In their live performances, singer Jess Goddard, engages in primitive pageantry with homemade surrealist costumes. 

 

Fat Worm of Error - Pregnant Babies with Pregnant Babies, Load Records LOAD074, 2006.
decryption code in comments

Special Bonus Thing    
Let's Fool the Meat to the Hassle Room    
Cicadas    
Mildew    
La Mort Dans la Ville du Bois Vert    
Special Bonus Thing (reprise)    
Red Melting Plastic Box    
Laissez-Faire is for the Birds    
Stretch
Brown    
20’ X 20’    
Petulant Bureaucrats Pummeled with Peanut Butter    
Hand of God

 

 

 

Weirder & weirder, br />NØ

Totally Waq

 

WaqWaq Kingdom is a Japanese tribal bass duo, consisting of singer/songwriter Kiki Hitomi (also in King Midas Sound) & Shigeru Ishihara (also bassist for Seefeel). Both are originally from Japan,but  met while they lived in the U.K. for over a decade. They are now based in Leipzig / Berlin.

Their genre-bending sound is like a psychedelic stew melding Japanese traditional style Minyo with Jamaican dancehall & spicing it all with Dub, techno, tribal polyrhythms, & Super Nintendo soundtracks. The lyrics & visuals draw deeply upon ancient Shinto mythology & Japanese "Matsuri" festivals. WaqWaq Kingdom's hypnotic shamanic live performances are an intense time warp experience that connect their animistic roots with the latest in urban night life. 

 

WaqWaq Kingdom - Shinsekai, P-Vine Records PCD17765, 2017.
decryption code in comments

I Would Like to Let You Go
Blow it Up
Oh it's Good
Koko Says
Love Game
WaqWaq Dream
Step into a World
Bird 

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ

The Snakes of Egypt

Luciano Talpini Aita is a queer, formerly undocumented comedy writer, actor, filmmaker, & musician based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, he is widely known as a keyboardist & synth player. 

 

Cairo Pythian was a project of Luciano’s while living in Olympia, WA.,  a hidden masterpiece of depraved synth pop, swimming in New Wave, Industrial, & even pulpy Britpop influences. Here he is aided by Dave Harvey, C. Kiley, Jakes Bailey, J. Wulf, The Baby & Robin Storey. Recorded by Capt. Tripps (Dave Harvey). 

 

 

Cairo Pythian - Touched, Katorga Works KW037, 2015.
decryption code in comments

Side A -
The World is Mine, Too
Touched
Yesterday's Makeup
Asexual Cake
Gone Fishin'
Come Be with Me
Ruckman's Boogie

Side B -
Down for the Crown
My Pal Renfield
Forbidden Days
Playboy Blues: Laced Again
Terrible Thing

 

 

Weirder & weirder,
NØ