No Wave

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 
09/13/2013. Enjoy, NØ.

So, what is No Wave?

The name came about as reaction to the term New Wave. At the tail end of the 70's the record industry was trying to rebrand punk & labeled the poppier bands that came in the aftermath of Punk as New Wave. The No Wave bands wanted to reject this poppier side but they also felt no affinity to Punk. At the time, Lydia Lunch (the queen of No Wave?) bemoaned how Punk was just sped up Chuck Berry riffs & it is true that if you listen to most (but not all!) punk today, it is just badly played, sped up three chord rock n' roll. The Garage bands of the 60's had nailed the Punk sound way earlier & frankly mainly sound better to this day. Listen to No Wave today and it is still a shock to the system & often sounds like a music with no precedent. This last thing is another of the keys to what No Wave is. Many of the artists were determined that their music should not be influenced by anything that came before & should sound totally new. If influences did creep in they were more likely to be from free jazz than any rock based form of music. The 'No' in No Wave could thus be taken to imply the music didn't belong to any particular style or genre.

The ability to play was completely unimportant too. But where Punk liberated thousands of non musicians who found they could make music by only learning a few chords, many of the No Wave artists didn't even bother learning one chord. Coaxing atonal & abrasive sounds from their instruments & conjuring up basic repetitive rhythms was a much more effective way for them to express themselves. Melody? Forget it! Although when one hears No Wave, it is instantly obvious that that is what is being listened to, none of the bands really have that much in common stylistically.

In 1978, Brian Eno was living in New York & was blown away by the performances he was seeing by these artists. He wanted to capture this & document it so he took four of the bands - Mars, The Contortions,Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Mars, & D.N.A. into the studio & produced (in the loosest possible sense) four tracks apiece by each of them. This came out as the legendary No New York album. The one problem with this album is all the bands that got left off, which has resulted in many people thinking these four bands are the definition of No Wave when there were numerous other acts ploughing similar (different) territory. The Theoretical Girls must have been particularly gutted as they were initially meant to be on the album but were then dropped at the last minute.

No Wave critics often argue that it was all a load of art wank and while many of the artists involved did come from an art / performance background, most didn't. But, as well as music, there were also No Wave film makers, the most famous of them being Nick Zedd, John Lurie and Richard Kern.

Starting off with one track each from all four contributors to the legendary 'No New York' compilation, here represented by tracks that don't appear on that record:

Mars - 3E (Ze Records)
First up are Mars with perhaps their most conventional sounding song. Mars were perhaps the first No Wave band, having formed before any one else got in on the act. Their two man / two woman line up would also prove to be a reflection of how equally the sexes were represented in No Wave, a fact often forgotten & seldom replicated in any other musical genre.


D.N.A. - You & You (Lust/Unlust)
From a fabulous 7" on Charles Ball's Lust/Unlust label, Arto LIndsay's guitar on this is outrageous. Perhaps more than any other No Wave act D.N.A. took their complete inability to play & made it their greatest asset. Lindsay conjured sounds out of his guitar that had never been heard before while Iku Mori's non drumming is a revelation. Lindsay's strangulated vocal style is also a thing of wonder. What I would give to have been able to see them live! They can be seen in rehearsal in the flawed but brilliant Downtown '81 film .


Teenage Jesus & The Jerks - Freud In Flop (Lust/Unlust)
42 seconds is all you need. Lydia Lunch's wonderfully named combo may have been short lived but everything they left behind is like an electric shock to the system.


The Contortions - Contort Yourself (Ze Records)
Led by the legendary James Chance who also co-founded but was only briefly in Teenage James Chance could be the Godfather of No Wave. Being a James Brown freak probably clinches him deserving that title. This song is The Contortion's 'hit' & Chance would go on to re-record it in a disco style with his James White & The Blacks ensemble. Chance could have gone on to become a star but personal problems & his confrontational attitude on stage helped to prevent that happening.


The Fire Engines - Get Up & Use Me (Codex Communications)
This is where music nerds will start to debate about what is No Wave & whether it is limited to New York artists. The Fire Engines are Scottish, but they were obsessed with The Contortions & it certainly shows. Based around one of the greatest riffs of all time, this was recorded in one take.


Blurt - Puppeteer (Factory)
Blurt are probably the most No Wave but not No Wave band of all time. Blurt probably would have existed & sounded exactly as they do whether such a thing as No Wave had ever happened or not. Hailing from Stroud & centering around the skronking sax genius & belching vocals of Ted Milton, Blurt are one of the great unsung bands of our times. Their music has so much space & groove that it's easy to get lost inside it. Blurt are a psycho-funk, afro-punk, no-wave, pogo-jazz-trio. This track oozes funk which apart from James Chance's experiments is not something No Wave is generally known for doing.


Tools You Can Trust - Show Your Teeth (Red Energy Dynamo)
Hailing from Manchester, Tools You Can Trust were very aware of No Wave although they never thought of themselves as a No Wave act, but this has all the hallmarks of a No Wave gem. The slightly deranged vocalist & the gas cylinders used for percussion clinches it. Most of their songs related to the war which the Conservative government was at that time waging upon the ordinary working people of Great Britain.

Sonic Youth - Shaking Hell (Neutral)
Again, the purists would probably debate the inclusion of this. But even though No Wave had pretty much finished by 1983, Sonic Youth were certainly born out of it. This song is great & features one of my favorite Kim Gordon vocals.


8 Eyed Spy - Lazy In Love (Fetish)
Here's Lydia Lunch finally getting to let rip. 8 Eyed Spy was her short lived 'mutilated blues' band & while a lot less shrill than much other No Wave (especially Teenage Jesus) it still has a certain 'on the edge' aspect to it.


Pulsallama - On The Rag (Y Records)
Described at the time as '12 girls fighting over a cowbell', Pulsallama were a short lived collective of feisty women who banged things together & wowed New York crowds as much with their on stage fighting as with their music. Featuring future star Ann Magnuson as a member, this is their ode to their periods!
bonus track - May (Y Records)


Arto / Neto - Pini, Pini (Ze Records)
This was a one off project for Ze Records featuring Arto Lindsay from DNA & his cinematographer friend Seth Tillet. On top of primitive drum machine hi hats, Lindsay does some of his best & most out there guitar noise while Tillet (Neto) recites an hysterical pigeon English rap. It has been argued (sort of) that this is in fact one of the first hip hop records.


Y Pants - That's The Way Boys Are (Neutral)
Y Pants were three women artists - Barbara Ess, Virgina Piersol & Gail Vachon. They mainly played at art spaces & had their own unique sound derived from their unusual instrumentation. They based their sound around an amplified toy piano, a toy drum set & a ukelele played through a distortion unit. Later they would add an electric bass & synth. They released one single for the legendary 99 Records & then one lp on Neutral Records. "That's the Way Boys Are" is sad, scary & lovely all at the same time.


ImpLOG - Breakfast (Log)
impLOG are most famous for the track "Holland Tunnel Dive" which is in my opinion seven & a half minutes of complete genius . "Breakfast" shows that No Wave doesn't have to be all about abrasive dissonance. impLOG were Don Christensen with help from Jody Harris. They were both in The Contortions & released just two records as impLOG - the Holland Tunnel Dive 12" and the Breakfast 7". This song is a rather silly but utterly charming ode to the great American breakfast. Jody Harris is one of the unsung heroes of No Wave - a Contortion, an impLOGger, founder of the wonderful Raybeats & collaborator with New York legend Robert Quine on the super Escape LP on the mighty Lust/Unlust label.


Jill Kroesen - Fay Shism Blues (Lovely Music)
Ending with the best song Patti Smith never wrote, this features contributions from Bill Laswell, the ubiquitous Jody Harris, Don Christensen & Arthur Russell amongst others. This is an incredibly tense piece of music that is so New York it hurts. Several people I have played this to have become completely obsessed with it. A performance, video & visual artist, musician & composer, it astounds me that Kroesen's work is so unknown. To me this sums up all that that era gave us - truly challenging & supremely wonderful music that inspires & moves as much, if not more so today than it did a quarter of a century ago.

A visitor request this update. I have placed all the songs in one file. I also added an entire folder of scans.

Various - No Wave Bands 1978 - 1984.

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Enjoy,
NØ

No New York

No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records (AN-7067) under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave movement.

No Wave was a short-lived but influential art music & art scene that thrived briefly in New York City during the late 1970s & early 1980s alongside the punk subculture. The term No Wave is in part satiric wordplay rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre. The term also highlights the music's experimental nature: No Wave music belonged to no fixed style or genre.

In many ways, No Wave is not a clearly definable musical genre with consistent features. Various groups drew on such disparate styles as funk, jazz, blues, punk rock, avant garde, & experimental. There are, however, some elements common to most No Wave music, such as abrasive atonal sounds, repetitive driving rhythms, & a tendency to emphasize musical texture over melody. No Wave lyrics often focused on nihilism & confrontation. No Wave is often better defined in terms of the artistic environment in which it thrived & the character of performances typical to its context. No Wave performances drew heavily on performance art & as a result were often both highly theatrical & minimalistic in their renditions.

Also during this time, there was a period of No Wave Cinema which was an underground film movement in the East Village. No Wave filmmakers included Amos Poe, John Lurie, Vivienne Dick, Scott B & Beth B. This in turn led to the Cinema of Transgression, with work by Nick Zedd & Richard Kern. Late followers of this movement included groups such as Sonic Youth, Skeleton Key, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop, and others. The Theoretical Girls heavily influenced early Sonic Youth, who then emerged from this scene by creating music that eventually reached mass audiences & critical acclaim.

No Wave had a notable influence on noise & industrial bands who formed after, like Big Black, Lev Six, Helmet, & Live Skull. Also for new bands like Liars, Ex Models, Neptune, Erase Errata the influence of the No Wave scene was important. The Brian Eno-produced album No New York is perhaps the best example of this genre, featuring songs by The Contortions, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Mars, & D.N.A.

The No Wave movement continues to have a far-reaching impact on the American anti-culture music scene.

In a foreword to the book No Wave, Weasel Walter wrote of the movement's ongoing influence:
"I began to express myself musically in a way that felt true to myself, constantly pushing the limits of idiom or genre and always screaming "Fuck You!" loudly in the process. It's how I felt then and I still feel it now. The ideals behind the (anti-) movement known as No Wave were found in many other archetypes before and just as many afterwards, but for a few years around the late 1970s, the concentration of those ideals reached a cohesive, white-hot focus."

From No New York, spring 1978...
Enjoy,
NØ

The Contortions

One of the original punk-jazz groups of the New York No Wave scene, the Contortions were led by saxophone player James Chance, aka James White. (aka James Zhite, aka James Black, etc.) Their first recorded appearance, credited solely as the Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York. The following year, two albums were issued almost simultaneously on the ZE label, Buy the Contortions (an extreme jazz-punk LP) & Off White (a disco/standards hybrid; with one side vocals, the other side instrumentals). The same line-up recorded both records, although no one aside from Chance appears or is credited on the jacket of the Buy album. Following Chance & manager Anya Philips' acrimonious break with many of the original Contortions, the line-up changed frequently.
Dish it Out
Flip Your Face
Jaded
I Can't Stand Myself

Chance was romantically linked with another New York No Wave luminary, Lydia Lunch; in 1979 the pair collaborated on the album Off White (released by 'James White & the Blacks' with 'Stella Rico'). Original Contortions guitarist Pat Place went on to found the group the Bush Tetras. The African-American band members of "the Blacks," later separated from Chance & formed the band Defunkt. Guitarist Jody Harris formed neo-surf combo the Raybeats with Don Christensen, George Scott III & Pat Irwin.

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks were an influential New York City No Wave music group of 1976-79 fronted by Lydia Lunch & James Chance, who later left the band after some conflict about their direction.

Burning Rubber

Reputed to play ten-minute sets of thirty-second songs (though "The Closet" & "I Woke Up Dreaming" extended to around three minutes & pushed performances up to twenty), they sought to take music beyond what Lunch saw as the traditionalism of punk rock ("I thought punk was lousy Chuck Berry music amped up to play triple fast", she later commented). Their frenzied playing & Lunch's shrieked vocals gained them a renown quickly matching & even surpassing that of other No Wave bands such as DNA or the older Mars.

The Closet
Red Alert

The group left behind little more than a dozen complete recorded songs, most of the surviving titles being assembled in 1995 into an 18-minute career retrospective CD only slightly incorrectly titled Everything (though other studio versions of several songs exist alongside a few live recordings). Few bands can have achieved quite such an impact with so slim a body of work, one felt not only in the US but also via (extremely limited) radio play in Britain where their assault on convention contrasted even more powerfully with the punk music of the day. Lunch & Chance went on separately to continued success in the New York underground music scene & beyond.

I Woke Up Dreaming

Mars

Mars were a New York City No Wave band formed by vocalist Sumner Crane in 1975. He was joined by China Burg (née Constance Burg; aka Lucy Hamilton - guitar, vocals), Mark Cunningham (bass), & Nancy Arlen (drums). The band played one live gig under the name China before changing it to Mars. They played a mixture of angular compositions & free-form ambient
noise jams, featuring surrealist lyrics & non-standard drumming; all the members were said to be completely untrained in music before forming the band.

Helen Fordsdale

Critic Stella Doon wrote in 1977:
"To the uninitiated, Mars may sound like listening to a laundromat magnified. That's because every instrument is making a sound, but who is making which sound? Instead of one direct sound or beat the music travels in at least 3 different directions, speeds of rhythm making a totally orbital sound, one that never really enters the ear instead spinning around the head. At times it sounds like tortured children singing in 7 different tongues."

Hairwaves

Mars played live about two dozen times, all in Manhattan. Their first show was at CBGB's in January of 1977; their last one was at Max's Kansas City on December 10, 1978.

Tunnel

Their recorded debut was the "3-E"/ "11,000 Volts" 7-inch single, released by Rebel Records/ ZE Records. The group then released a single live EP in 1979 or 1980, though they had broken up in 1978. Both recordings were compiled by Lydia Lunch's self-run label, Widowspeak Records, in 1986, as 78; the songs were slightly remixed & tweaked by Jim Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus). It was reissued by Atavistic Records on CD in 1996 as 78+. Due to complaints about Thirlwell's modifications on 78/78+, the full studio recordings of Mars (totaling about 30 minutes) surfaced in 2003 on the Spanish labels G3G & Spookysound. Cunningham ran both Hyrax Records & Spookysound Records. After the break-up of Mars, Cunningham was part of the bizarre John Gavanti "no wave opera" project with Crane, Arto Lindsay, & others. He has also worked with the band Don King, & recently with Convolution.

Puerto Rican Ghost

Crane died of lymphoma on April 15, 2003. Arlen died on September 17, 2006, following heart surgery.

D.N.A.

D.N.A. was a short-lived but influential New York band, associated with the No Wave movement. They were formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay & keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique & unusual sounds. Their music was described as spare, noisy, & angular. It was compared to some of Captain Beefheart's output.

Egomaniac's Kiss

D.N.A. originally consisted of Lindsay, Crutchfield, Gordon Stevenson, & Mirielle Cervenka. They took their name from a song by another no wave band, Mars (see above). Stevenson went on to play bass for Teenage Jesus & the Jerks; Cervenka is the younger sister of Exene Cervenka of X. This incarnation of the band was very brief, not playing even one concert. After the rapid departure of Stevenson & Cervenka, Lindsay & Crutchfield hastily recruited Ikue Mori (listed as Ikue Ile on the No New York album) --- a Japanese woman with little command of English & no drum set --- to be D.N.A.'s drummer.

Lionel

This lineup of D.N.A. played occasionally at CBGB & Max's Kansas City. They recorded one 7" single. Within their first year, they had cemented their reputation as a paradigmatic no wave band when Brian Eno selected them as one of the four groups documented on the No New York LP, the first recording to expose no wave groups to an audience outside of lower Manhattan.

Not Moving

Shortly after the recording of No New York, Crutchfield left D.N.A. to form a new band, Dark Day. He was replaced by Tim Wright, previously of the Cleveland band Pere Ubu. As Wright played bass guitar & not keyboards, & also being the only member of the band to have any conventional instrumental technique, the change in D.N.A.'s sound was dramatic. The music became even more spare & angular, with Wright's bass lines creating a sometimes menacing sound to support Lindsay's scraping, atonal guitar & Mori's irregular rhythms. Their song structures became tighter, briefer, more abstract. It has been compared to aural haiku.

Size

The Lindsay-Mori-Wright lineup of D.N.A. developed something of a cult following between 1979 & 1982, but perhaps more of their fans came from the art world than from rock audiences. Live shows were frequent in this period, but rarely outside of the CBGB - Mudd Club - Tier 3 circuit in lower Manhattan.

All four songs in 320Kbps mp3 & FLAC.

The group's 10-minute debut album, A Taste of D.N.A. was recorded for Kip Hanrahan's American Clavé label. It was later released on Rough Trade in 1980. Some live D.N.A. tracks appeared on compilation albums while the band was still in existence.

Lindsay, Mori, & Wright decided to dissolve the band in 1982. It's a measure of the cult following the band had developed that its final concerts were three consecutive sold-out nights at CBGB. D.N.A.'s final encore was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Sadly, this is not included on the CD Last Live at CBGB, released more than a decade later on John Zorn's Avant label.

Lindsay, Mori, & to a lesser extent Crutchfield, have remained active in music.

The Aesthetics of Noise is an in-depth, scholarly article on noise & its relationship to aural art (if anyone is interested in learning more).
From the above mentioned article, by Torben Sangild:
Noise can blow your head out. Noise is rage. Noise is ecstatic. Noise is psychedelic. Noise is often on the edge between annoyance and bliss. Noises are many things. Noise is a difficult concept to deal with...
After defining noise and giving a brief history of noise in music, I will take a closer look at Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Merzbow and Curd Duca as four very different aesthetic approaches to noise...
The first composer to consciously operate with noise as music was the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo, writing the manifesto "The Art of Noise" in 1913. He constructed the so-called "intonarumori" (noise intonators) and composed a few works for these machines...
Noise in rock music is centered on two effects, both connected to the electric guitar and developed in the sixties: feedback and distortion...
The deliberate use of these effects can be traced back to Link Wray's "Rumble" (1958), but it was garage bands like The Kingsmen who made it an integral part of their sound. The great innovator, however, was undoubtedly Jimi Hendrix, who constructed a whole catalogue of noise effects, using them with virtuosity in his blues-inspired rock compositions. Aesthetically, however, the influence on noise rock came not from Hendrix, but rather The Velvet Underground, with their minimal, lo-fi, sinister music and disillusioned texts. On tracks like "European Son" and "Sister Ray," the noise is alarming in ways that has made Velvet Underground a reference point for all noise rock.

The present-day Pachuco refuses to die!

Never forget Ruben Sano!

The Story of Ruben & the Jets

Ruben Sano was 19 when he quit the group to work on his car. He had just saved up enough money to buy a '53 Nash & four gallons of gray primer. His girl friend said she would leave him forever if he didn't quit playing in the band & fix up his car so they could go to the drive-in & make out. There was already 11 other guys in the band so when he quit nobody missed him except for his car when they had to go to rehearsal or play for a battle of the bands at the American Legion Post in Chino. They are all still good friends even today. The other main guys in the band: NATCHO, LOUIE, PANA, & CHUY still come over to RUBEN'S house on Tuesday or Wednesday to listen to his collection of Richie Valens records & also "Eddie My Love". Generally speaking, they save "Cherry Pie" & "Work With Me Annie" till the late part of the evening so they can have something to hum on the way home or to Burger Lane. Some of them continue to hum & pop their fingers even the next day, working in the car wash. Now that they have gotten their big break in show business each one of the main guys in the group voted at the band meeting to keep the name RUBEN on the JETS not only because it sounds real fine & gives it class, but also because it makes it real sharp. RUBEN even likes it too & thinks its real sharp. All the guys in the band hope that you are sick & tired like they are of all the crazy far out music some of the bands of today are playing. They hope you are so sick & tired of it that you are ready for their real sharp style of music. They are good socially acceptable young men who only want to sing about their girl friends. They want everybody to start dancing close back together again like 1955 because they know that people need to love & also want to hold on to each other. Even holding hands is okay to them. They want you to hold hands & dance the bop & fall in love to their music. One of the main guys in the band was telling me a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about how only about half the guys in the band ever show up at rehearsals most of the time..."IF PEOPLE WOULD JUST HEAR MY PLEA I WOULD GIVE EVERYTHING JUST TO SING THE SONGS THAT WAS TURNING ME ON IN HIGH SCHOOL.

RUBEN HAS 3 DOGS.
BENNY, BABY & MARTHA.

The Mothers - Cruising with Ruben & the Jets

Verve V6-5055x

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"This is an album of greasy love songs & cretin simplicity. We made it because we really like this kind of music (just a bunch of old men with rock & roll clothes on sitting around the studio, mumbling about the good old days). Ten years from now you'll be sitting around with your friends someplace doing the same thing if there's anything left to sit on."

Ray Collins (lead vocals)
Frank Zappa (low grumbles, oo-wah, & lead guitar)
Roy Estrada (high weazlings, dwaedy-doop, & electric bass)
Jimmy Carl Black &/or Arthur Dyre Tripp III (lewd pulsating rhythm)
Ian Underwood or Don Preston (redundant piano triplets)
Motorhead Sherwood (baritone sax & tambourine)
Bunk Gardner & Ian Underwood (tenor & alto saxs)

TRACKS:
Cheap Thrills
Love of My Life
How Could I Be Such a Fool
Deseri
I'm Not Satisfied
Jelly Roll Gum Drop
Anything
Later That Night
You Didn't Try to Call Me
Fountain of Love
"No. No. No."
Anyway the Wind Blows
Stuff up the Cracks

In 1984, Zappa, unhappy with the sound quality of Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, enlisted Arthur Barrow & Chad Wackerman to re-record the original bass & drum parts (although they were not credited) for the Old Masters Box One re-issue of the album.

In addition to the new drums & bass, Zappa added several vocal overdubs & heavily remixed the album, nearly making it sound like a completely different album. 
 
The 1984 remix of the album has become the standard, & all post-1984 reissues of the album have featured this mix.

The 1968 version of the album with the original bass & drum parts has not been officially rereleased on CD, although bootlegs have surfaced.

The tracks here are from the original album release. They will be removed shortly.

Enjoy
NØ

Can You Hear Me?

Re-uploaded 03/12/2014. Enjoy, NØ.

Various - Can You Hear Me? Music from the Deaf Club, Optional Music OPT LP001, 1980.

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This record has only three tracks per side, one track for each band. I did not separate the tracks nor the songs in each track but simply included Side 1 & Side 2. I have included the back cover graphic that lists the song titles. If you want it cut up into individual song, DIY.

The Deaf Club was a notable music venue located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18 month period. Its main attraction was punk music. The name comes from the fact the building it was in originally was the San Francisco Club of the Deaf.

Robert Hanrahan, manager of the The Offs, discovered the club, & was able to rent it on a nightly basis.

The first show as the Deaf Club was on 9 December 1978 & featured the Offs, The Mutants & On The Rag. Over 100 bands such as Northern California's The Zeros, Crime, The Dils, Flipper & Southern California's The Bags, Alleycats, The Germs, X & Dinettes played during the clubs short history.

Given the unique nature of the venue & it's location in the Mission District near 16th Street & the Roxie Theater, it was enthusiastically supported by the punk & arts community, visited by film greats like John Waters & occasionally challenged by the officials of the San Francisco noise abatement patrol, the police, fire department, health department & the alcohol/beverage control until it closed.

The house DJs were Enrico Chandoha who worked on the editorial staff of the early Thrasher Magazine; Jack Fan (an Offs road manager & chef at the Zuni); BBC celebrity Johnnie Walker; & Robert Hanrahan.

About such venues, Brendan Earley of The Mutants comments:
"The earthiness, I guess, of playing places like the Deaf Club seemed to have a lot more energy to them. You know the crowd that started coming to this music in '77, it was maybe a peak of their scene, or the scene at that time. They were not normal kinds of clubs, they weren't places like the Stone, or even the Mabuhay, really. They were neat places to play; often good audiences, & good energy going on."

The four partners in Walking Dead Records developed a live compilation project that resulted in this album, released by Optional Record distribution of Berkeley, CA on the Walking Dead label: Can You Hear Me? Music From the Deaf Club. It was recorded on a mobile 8 track by Jim Keylor (also of Army Street Studios), DJ'ed by Johnnie Walker , produced by Robert Hanrahan who also managed & booked the Club, & coordinated by Peter Worrall. The photos selected for the album were taken by Sue Brisk, the album art was by Diana Miami (aka Diana Stumbo) & the liner notes were written by V. Vale of RE/Search/Search & Destroy. It was recorded live at the club during early 1979 & is a testament to the authentic underground punk & "new wave" scene during that period in San Francisco's music history.

The album features performances by first & second generation San Francisco Punk bands like:

* Dead Kennedys with "Police Truck", "Short Songs" & "Straight A's". This was the last performance of the DK's rhythm guitarist 6025 & also features Ted on drums, who was replaced by DH Peligro at the very end of 1980. Raymond Pepperell, Jr., better known as East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedy's used the original eight track safety masters from this live recording to release their recent 2004 "live at the Deaf Club" CD.

* KGB- "Dying in the USA" & "Picture Frame Seduction"

* Offs - "Hundred Dollar Limo", "Die Babylon", "I've Got the Handle" (Offs were: Don Vinil, Billy Hawk, Bob Roberts now of Spotlight Tattoo in Los Angeles, Bob Steeler & Denny Boredom who also played with Hot Tuna)

* The Mutants' "Tribute to Russ Meyer" & "Monster of Love"

* Pink Section - "Jane Blank", Francine's List" & "Been In The Basement 30 Years"

* Tuxedo Moon - "19th Nervous Breakdown" - courtesy of The Rolling Stones & "Heaven" from the film Eraserhead

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The Dead Kennedys ... no need to say more.

1. DEAD KENNEDYS "Police Truck"
2. DEAD KENNEDYS "Short Songs"
3. DEAD KENNEDYS "Straight A's"

K.G.B.

Re-uploaded 01/23/2014. Enjoy, NØ.


K.G.B. was a short-lived band consisting of singer Johnny Genocide (The Offs, No Alternative), drummer Zippy Pinhead (The Dils, DOA), bassist Jeff Reese (No Alternative) & guitarist Ron Ramos (The Assassins). Johnny also played rhythym guitar for the OFFs. After KGB broke up, he formed No Alternative with Jeff Reese on Bass & a rotating list of drummers (Bobby Barage, Andy Freeman, & Chris Coon).

K.G.B.

4. K.G.B. "Dying In the USA"
5. K.G.B. "Picture Frame Seduction"

The Offs

Re-uploaded 05/13/2024. Enjoy, NØ.

 

The Original line-up of The Offs was: Billy Hawk - guitar, Don Vinil - vocals, Fast Floyd - bass, & Bob Steeler - drums. They were later joined by Bob Roberts - saxophone. The Offs' singer, Don Vinil (who sadly died of a heroin overdose on Ninth St. in New York in 1983), was one of the first openly gay people in the West Coast punk scene. V.Vale of Search & Destroy & RE/Search introduced Vinil to guitarist Billy Hawk after Vinil was kicked out of his first band, Grand Mal. The Offs formed in late 1977 as just a goof between Billy Hawk, Don Vinil, & a girl named Olga. They played around, various wanna-be musicians drifted in & out of the band. Gradually everyone involved got more & more serious.

The Offs were unique among the first wave of West Coast punk bands in maintaining a home base on both coasts. In San Francisco, their manager discovered the Deaf Club as a live venue, & the Offs released records on the labels CD Presents and 415 Records. In New York City, they hung out with Basquiat (who scrawled their album cover), & released a single on Max's Kansas City Records. The greatest thing about this San Francisco sextet was their inability to be pigeon-holed. Were they punk? New wave? Avant-garde? Art rock? No New York noise? A new strain of art jazz? Some odd form of mutant ska gone wrong with bleating sax & screeching vocals? Like their U.K. contemporaries, Blurt, they were sort of all these things, & still others with names that haven't been invented. But what tied them to the punk community was the basic blazing energy to everything they did. These weren't a bunch of art school posers, they were smash-it-up party skanksters who wanted to do something fresh within an absolutely remarkably creative late-'70s Bay Area scene -- in cahoots with Crime, Nuns, Avengers, Negative Trend, Flipper, Pink Section, Tuxedomoon, Vktms, Mutants, Lewd, Dils, Zeros, & more.

Most of their earlier recordings have been nearly impossible to get but recently a live recording of The Offs has been released on Vampir Records, recorded by Terry Hammer at the infamous Mabuhay Gardens in 1980.

The OFFs from Various - Can You Hear Me? Music from the Deaf Club, 

Optional Music OPT LP001, 1980.

6. OFFS "Hundred Dollar Limo"
7. OFFS "Die Babylon"
8. OFFS "I've Got the Handle"

Mutants

The late 70's provided a giant stage for American underground bands trying to create a new kind of rock & roll. In San Francisco, The Mutants emerged as one of the great art school punk bands of the era with their unique seven-member high octane, alcohol fueled melodic punk assault. Each performance was treated as a special event, which the band packed with truly memorable tunes from their enormous catalog.

Seeing the Mutants live was like being invited to a secret John Waters movie about punk colorfully & melodically crashing into New Wave, like a dysfunctional locomotive designed by Johnnie Cash on angel dust. Why couldn't the Sex Pistols or the Doors be this much fun? Because the Mutants could be so flamboyant & conceptual, it's easy to forget the musical power of their songs. This is partially connected to how the vocals of sweet toughies Sally Webster & Sue White harmoniously combine with those of Fritz Fox. Although Frank Zappa denied ever using LSD, the Mutants didn't. Maybe that's how they mutated.

9. MUTANTS "Tribute to Russ Meyer"
10. MUTANTS "Monster of Love"

Pink Section

Re-uploaded 01/25/2014. Enjoy, NØ.


Pink Section was a great short-lived no wave/synth/noise band that performed regularly in San Francisco during the 1980's. It's members included: Mr. Todd, Stephen Wymore & Judy Gittlsohn/Carol Detweiler of Japanese Weekend. Yoko Ono was an inspiration to them.

They released the Tour of China 7", a self-titled 12" & a number of scattered tracks on compilations albums back in the day, plus no doubt there is some unreleased material in the vaults. They should have done more, but whaddya gonna do, they were playing in every other band in town & life is short. They veer from catchy art-pop to demented synth spazz.


Pink Section 

11. PINK SECTION "Jane Blank"
12. PINK SECTION "Francine's List"
13. PINK SECTION "Been In the Basement 30 Years"

Tuxedo Moon

 UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/14/2013.       Enjoy, NØ.

Tuxedomoon was an avant-garde, electronic-oriented collective whose music ranged from new wave pop to jazz fusion to more experimental synthesizer soundscapes (usually including saxophone & violin), which were frequently married in concert to performance-art shows. Tuxedomoon was formed in San Francisco in 1977 by two electronic music students at San Francisco City College, Blaine L. Reininger (keyboards, violin) & Steven Brown (keyboards, other instruments). Brown's local theater connections supplied equipment & occasional vocalists in Gregory Cruikshank & Victoria Lowe, plus more frequent contributions from singer & performance artist Winston Tong. Punk & new wave were opening up the San Francisco music scene at the time, & Tuxedomoon landed an opening slot for Devo in 1978 at around the same time they cut their first single, Pinheads on the Move.

Lowe quit the band before their first EP, No Tears, which featured off-&-on members Michael Belfer (guitar) & Paul Zahl (drums). Tong & Belfer departed temporarily, & Peter Principle (b. Peter Dachert) joined as a full-time member. Tuxedomoon signed to the Residents' Ralph Records in 1979, when Tuxedomoon recorded their now classic album Half Mute. It's startling variety & innovation combined with Patrick Roque's brilliant award-winning cover art made it an unexpected success. Feeling that their ideas were more in tune with the European electronic music scene, the band then toured Europe. Touching down first in Rotterdam in April, 1981 where they spent six months as artists-in-residence, they were soon drawn (along with many others) to the independent music scene which began to flourish in Brussels in the eighties. Brussels at the time was a cultural crossroads, drawing groups from all over the world.

After 1981's Desire, the band relocated permanently to Rotterdam, where Reininger began to branch out as a solo artist. Tuxedomoon was also hired to score a Maurice Bejart ballet, the results of which were released in 1982 as Divine. Reininger left for a solo career in 1983 & was replaced by Frankie Lievaart & horn player Luc Van Lieshout.

Their period of European residence based in Brussels was extraordinarily prolific. When not touring, they spent much of their time in the studio, taking advantage of the free-spending optimism of the time & producing a large body of work which has stood the test of time & continues to appeal to those who seek alternatives to mainstream consumer Culture.

Although the group itself was semi-officially dissolved in 1989, they have continued to work on collaborative projects as well as their individual output, continually updating their collective discography with works for dance, for film & other media as well as music for its own sake.

In June 1997 Steven Brown, Peter Principle & Blaine L. Reininger, the founding members of the band met in Tel Aviv to collaborate upon the composition & performance of a series of pieces of "Hypothetical Elevator Music", music designed to create aural backdrops appropriate for a pursuit of leisure activities within the urban landscape.

Here are a couple songs from the Deaf Club compilation:  

"19th Nervous Breakdown" & "In Heaven".

decryption code in comments

Enjoy,
NØ

I...I...Iowa

UPDATE 2: I finally re-ripped & re-upped the two IOWA compilations thanks to the gentle prodding of Dan the OlderMusicGeek. Re-uploaded 06/01/2014. Enjoy, NØ.
 UPDATE: TapeBeatles has been re-uploaded 11/16/2013.
I will re-up the Iowa Comps as soon as I can re-rip them.

Nathan Nothin' here.

Several moves back, I was packing up my records & although I don't really keep them alphabetized, I decided to box them up that way so I could get a better idea as to what all I had.

In so doing, I realized that the letter 'I' was the smallest, most neglected section. I had just decided with no real knowledge that 'X' or 'Z' or 'Q' or some other high Scrabble score letter was probably the slighted one. It was, however, 'I'. Yet in this smallest of groups were not one but two compilations that contain some very 'I'nteresting material. These are The Iowa Compilation - 13 Iowa Bands & It's Another Iowa Compilation - Uncharted Territories, both released by South East Records

South East Records was an Iowa City based label that put out many of the Eastern Bands records and the above mentioned Iowa Comps. Their first release was House of Large Sizes Debut 4-song 7" in 1986. House of Large Sizes has tracks on both compilations.

House of Large Sizes is by far the most successful, prolific, & well-known band in the history of the Cedar Valley. Begun in September of 1986 by core members Dave Deibler & Barb Schilf, the band released 8 full length albums & a smattering of EPs & singles. They have toured the country extensively, most notably with ex-Pixies front man Frank Black. The name "House of Large Sizes" refers to a chain of clothing stores for plus sizes which operated in the midwest in the 1980s.

HOLS or 'House' as they were known to fans & friends, signed to Columbia Records in 1994. They released their major label debut, My Ass-Kicking Life, on that label. Due to internal mismanagement at the label, they did not receive the support or attention for their record, & they left the label as a result. Not to be detered, they continued to play music & make records with What Are Records? & The Tyros Label until 2003.

The band broke up due for unknown reasons in late 2003. Barb & Dave currently own & operate Mohair Pear, a vintage/retro clothing store on College Hill in Cedar Falls. That said, according to its The Reverb in Cedar Falls has booked HOLS for a New Year's Eve show. More surprisingly, posted on the Bands 'MySpace' page is a New Year's End run including:
(Dec 28 The Picador Iowa City, Iowa
-Dec 29 People’s Court Avenue Des Moines, Iowa
-Dec 30 Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis
-Dec 31 The Reverb Cedar Falls)

The second volume, It's Another... contains two tracks by one of the most interesting & important bands, The Tape-beatles. Similar to Negativland or John Oswald (Plunderphonics), The Tape-beatles believe in "Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative" They believe copyrights were illegal laws which hindered art's progression. Of course they were right! In fact The Tape-beatles started a very justifiable war against copyright laws, which under the blanket group Public Works they continued. As the liner notes on this compilation clearly states, "all the Tape-beatles material is not copyrighted & can be used & abused at will..."

South East Records lasted until the mid '90s.

Various - The Iowa Compilation - 13 Iowa Bands, South East Records SER002, 1987.

decryption codes in comments

Side 1 -
Sally Anne - Drednex
Never Ending Ceiling - The Hollowmen
Why Their Faces are so Worn - Full Fathom Five
Sidewalk - Dangtrippers
My Turn - Claude Pate
One & a Half on a Hill - House of Large Sizes
Popsy Sally - Cursing Birds

Side 2 -
The Dam has Broken - Shellgame
Music Boy - David Brooks
Heat Ray - The Shy Strangers
Teddy Through the Glass - Moveable Feast
When I was Young - The Eclectics
War & Peace - Four Million

Various - It's Another Iowa Compilation: Uncharted Territories, South East Records SER006, 1988.

Side A -
Big Tough Dreams - The Eclectics
What if There's a Fire? - House of Large Sizes
Let Me In (your blood bath) - Artificial Limb Embrace
Ego Explosion - Full Fathom Five
Cult Pop Guru - The Dangtrippers
Pavilion - The Hollowmen
A Pale Blue in the Muddy Grey - 23 Lies
The Ads Become the News - The Tape-Beatles

 Side B -
A Thought - Stone Wakening
Crawl - Ted Cutler
Sid - Chronic Love
Now - The Merry Pranksters
The End of the World - Moveable Feast
The Dreamers - Made Ya Look
Getting too Round - The Punishment Club
Individual Choice - The Tape-beatles

fruitman
trootbath polywog
derogatory sweet potato
yamface the third
junior

Enjoy
NØ

(if you dig the Tape-beatles as much as I do & think that
two tracks of :34 & :36 seconds are just not enough...I
have included the entire The Tape-Beatles - A Subtle Buoyancy of Pulse - NØ
decryption codes in comments)

UPDATE: I have fixed the broken links to The Tape-Beatles & added their album The Grand Delusion.

Enjoy,
NØ

TABOO - the Modern Record story

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 12/23/2013. Enjoy, NØ.

Nathan Nothin' here.

Now for something strictly TABOO...

The Modern label was formed in 1945 in Los Angeles, California,by Saul & Jules Bihari. Modern recorded rhythm & blues, country & western, jazz, popular, blues, & gospel. The subsidiary Crown was formed in 1954 & after three years (starting in 1957), was used only for budget priced albums. The Riviera label subsidiary was a budget label that operated in 1959.

All of these labels were very much a family affair, as the President of all the labels was Saul Bihari, his brothers Jules & Joe served as Vice Presidents, & brother Lester was head of Sales & Promotion. At the Modern, & Crown labels, A&R was handled by Joe & Jules Bihari, Maxwell Davis, Austin McCoy, Jake Porter, Lester Sill & even Ike Turner.

In the late '40s and early '50s, Modern was able to attract many fine blues performers to the labels, including B.B. King, Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Little Willie Littlefield, Jimmy McCracklin, Jimmy Witherspoon, & John Lee Hooker. Modern also leased masters from Sam Phillips in Memphis, & was the first label to release material by the legendary Howlin' Wolf. A split between the Bihari brothers & Sam Phillips occurred when Phillips started leasing the Wolf masters to Chess in Chicago.

Modern was even successful in the rock & roll field: with vocal groups including the Cadets, Marvin & Johnny, the Jacks, & the Teen Queens; single artists Jesse Belvin, Etta James, Jimmy Beasley, Richard Berry, & Shirley Gunter. The biggest hits for the Biharis were: an uptempo instrumental by tenor sax player Joe Houston, titled "Blow, Joe, Blow'; the slow group recording by the Jacks titled "Why Don't You Write Me" in 1955; a novelty number titled "Stranded in the Jungle" in 1956 by the Cadets (a group with the same personnel as the Jacks); a hit by Jesse Belvin with the fine ballad "Goodnight, My Love" in 1956; & a hit with the amateurishly sung "Eddie My Love" by a girl group called the Teen Queens, also in 1956.

The Biharis started putting all of their energy into the Crown budget album line in 1957.

Another budget label named Riviera was created in 1959.

The first label on this series was black with silver printing. "Riviera RECORDS" in silver above the center hole, "HIGH FIDELITY" in silver on the left side and "LONG PLAYING 33 1/3" in silver on the right. The second label was black with silver printing, "Riviera RECORDS" in white above the center hole with a three-color logo, "HIGH FIDELITY" in white on the left side and "LONG PLAYING 33 1/3" in white on the right.

The second run of Taboo - Riviera Records R0028 has "STUDIO GROUP" in white below the center hole. Searching the Internet will reveal that Taboo is often credited to said 'Studio Group' or 'Various Artists'.

Taboo is really the music of Subri Moulin & the Equatorial Rhythm Group. It is re-released from 195? Jungle Percussion. One side of Jungle Percussion is authentic African traditional music, the A side is primarily Caribbean music. An additional side from the JP recording session was added to Taboo. The Jungle Percussion session notoriously appears on countless public-domain, budget-label records, as Taboo, Congo Percussion, Soul of a People, Fabulous Bongo Ping Pong Percussion, even Tahitian Percussion(???). It is credited to various artist names --"Sabu" (meaning the actor; the LP has nothing to do with Sabu Martinez), Subri Moulin, "Kaino" (not Chaino), Chief Bey, Cawanda, even Studio Group--- & with song titles having various spellings, typically "Yowcolule", here listed as "You Couie" & "Ayilong", here listed as "Ayilongo".

Subri Moulin & Equatorial Rhythm Group - Taboo, Riviera Records R0028, 1959, first pressing.

decryption code in comments

Side A -
Asiwanda
Elunde
You Couie
Sha Sha Calor
Fukiiya

Side B -
Yarbon
Ah De Vous
Ben Je Engay
Dedication
Ayilongo

Although the Biharis only goal was making money for the Biharis, they nevertheless released a great deal of music that might not otherwise be available today. Unfortunately for record collectors, the goal of the Crown line seemed to be "How cheap can you make the record?" The covers were two pieces of thin cardboard held together with the paper cover, with no liner notes, & no record inner paper or plastic sleeves were used. Many had only 10 songs rather than the standard 12. The vinyl on these reissues was thin, & many have manufacturing defects.

In the true spirit of the Biharis brothers & "How cheap...?" Here for your listening pleasure, stricly free...strictly TABOO.

Enjoy
NØ

Billy Boyd - Twangy Guitars

As a tad, he used to sit & stare, fascinated at the Mississippi. The mighty silver-grey ribbon that slashes through thousands of American miles whispered then spoke, finally shouted..."Get on your walkin' shoes, boy...the world's waiting."

Billy Boyd got the message. Took to the road. Went places. Did things. Lingered by the cool, blue-green lakes of Wisconsin. New York City's noise & confusion scared him. But he stuck it out awhile. Something inside compelled him to see everything there was to see: do everything there was to do.

Along the way he picked up a guitar. Didn't study. Just took it up in his big hands & played it & all his knocks & good times...all his misunderstanding of what makes a man tick, from then on, came out of the gut-strings of that guitar.

Billy Boyd managed to make music pay. Became an entertainer, & he started writing songs. Some people call the kind of stuff Billy plays hillbilly. Some --- rock & roll. To others, it's rockabilly. We call it "soul" or "this is what it means to me" music. Because it's sincere & because the lusty, rollicking rhythms mirror, without distortion, the many faces of our great nation.

It's time. Time to listen to a young & virile giant. A hardy man who loves his work.

Billy Boyd - Twangy Guitars, Crown Records CST 196, red vinyl, 1960.

decryption code in comments

Side CST-196-1 -
Shuffle Boogie
Night Rock
When the Lights are Low
Jivin' at the Savoy
Stompin' at the Crossroads
Diggin' the Blues

Side CST-196-2 -
Mambo Boogie
South Hampton
Bolero Boogie
Duck Walk
Oop Shank
Drifting

He’s the most prolific session guitarist in music history, a master of six-string twang & ax muscle. He’s Billy Boyd...er, ah, actually, he's Jerry Cole, the king of hot rod guitar, & his astonishing six-decade career leaps from top of the chart classics to over 100 gold & platinum recordings.

This isn’t retro or rockabilly, it’s the real thing. As a charter member of session all-stars the Wrecking Crew, JERRY COLE bent strings with everyone from the Byrds (“Mr. Tambourine Man”) & Nancy Sinatra (“These Boots Are Made for Walking”) to the Beach Boys (Pet Sounds) & Paul Revere & the Raiders (“Kicks”). As performer, he & bandmate Glen Campbell headed The Champs & sent “Tequila” up the charts. Cole was featured guitarist on Shindig & Hullabaloo. He backed up Elvis Presley in 1974. His bandleader abilities were tapped by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Roger Miller, & Rick Nelson. He was a first-call guitarist on TV show bands for Andy Williams, Sonny & Cher, the Smothers Brothers, Laugh In, & Dick Van Dyke.

Yes, he matched Dick Dale on the surf turf, recording with the Stingers (Power Surf) & the Spacemen (Surf Age). Cole also recorded numerous instrumental albums under his own name & turned out the hotly collectible Guitars A Go-Go series. Yet his most unheralded contribution to modern rock is as King of the Hot Rod Guitar. While the Beach Boys & Dick Dale were making waves with surf music, Cole was revving up his guitar by making music to drive faster by. During the mid-Sixties he recorded over a dozen albums of hot rod & dragstrip songs. His music inspired & influenced bands from the Blasters to the Cramps & Butthole Surfers

While stand-alone record shops & the rare department store music section offered the latest in vinyl, drugstores & grocery stores were a treasure trove of gems by anonymous performers such as:

The Scramblers (Cycle Psychos)
The Blasters (Sounds of the Drag)
Eddy Wayne (The Ping Pong Sounds of Guitars in Percussion)
The Winners. The Hot Rodders
The Deuce Coupes (The Shut Downs)
The Red Jackets (Surfers Beat)
The Id (The Inner Sounds of the Id).
Even the legendary (& imaginary) Billy Boyd (Twangy Guitars), Don & Eddie, The Electric Underground...the list get longer everytime I re-do this sucker

All were JERRY COLE.

Enjoy
NØ

D. BOON D. BOON D. BOON

Nathan Nothin' here.


A friend wanted me to post the Minutemen's
Spoken Word Piece from 3-Way Tie (For Last).
While I was working on it I posted
the clip below. Here's spoken word...
plus several other tracks that I dig
(two from The Punch Line, my personal favorite
even though Double Nickels... is godhead).

While I was working on this I came across an hilarious article that
is about as over the top as the Minutemen.
D. Boon! D. Boon!! D. Boon!!!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Since his untimely death, a hagiographic aura has enveloped D. Boon and the Minutemen. Indeed, D. Boon is widely considered a patron saint of American punk rock.

But how great were the Minutemen, really? I've been thinking about that question a lot recently. Here is my answer:

-The Minutemen were--are--the greatest punk band of all time.

So there you go.

But there's more:

-The Minutemen's awesome, inexhaustible 1984 masterpiece, "Double Nickels on the Dime," is the greatest rock album of all time.

-D. Boon's opening guitar lick on that album's "Two Beads At The End" is, simply, the most "God-DAMN, no he DIDN'T" punk rock guitar moment of all time.

-D. Boon's guitar solo on "'99," from the album "What Makes A Man Start Fires," is the greatest guitar solo of all time.

-Bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley were the tightest, baddest, most in-the-pocket-and-out-of-bounds punk rock rhythm section of all time. Their performance on "What Makes A Man Start Fires," which careens from as-fast-and-furious-as-Paris-Hilton's-panties-dropping to as-buckled-down-and-funky-as-Darth-Vader-buttfucking-a-purple-Rolex, is the most convincing proof of this of all time.

-The first time I heard the Minutemen--on a Saturday afternoon in 8th grade, when my friend lowered the stylus onto "Shit From An Old Notebook," and the song somersaulted out of his RadioShack speakers in an ecstasy of spasmodic guitar and drum fills--is the greatest "first time someone heard a band and their life changed for all time" of all time.

-That song's jarring first line: "Let the products sell themselves / fuck advertising, commercial psychology / psychological methods to sell should be destroyed," is the greatest first line of a song of all time.

-The band's political lyrics, printed on album covers without line breaks or capital letters, like James Frey channeling Noam Chomsky, are the greatest political lyrics of all time:

"I saw some military hardware today they changed the color olive drab to yellow/brown/gray the color of our dead the color of our glory"

-The band's other lyrics, many of which were combined with brief, angular melodies to create remarkably accurate approximations of what Western intellectual thought actually sounds like, are the greatest other lyrics of all time:

"starting with the affirmation of man I work myself backwards using cynicism (the time monitor, the space measurer)"

-The Minutemen's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son"--which is itself one of the greatest political songs of all time, but which is not quite as good as the Minutemen's version, because Mike Watt's bass line sounds so goddamn funk-ass amazing coming out of the stereo that you want to crap your pants and run around gurgling like Lewis Black--is the greatest cover of all time.

-The photograph accompanying Spin magazine's posthumous 1986 tribute to Boon--a grainy gig photo in which Boon and Watt play acoustic guitars accompanied by Hurley on bongos in what looks like a church basement located 500 miles below the earth's surface and 10,000 miles away from Top 40 radio; an image which totally confounded my expectations of what "punk rock musicians" and "punk rock concerts" looked like; and which I taped to my locker at Culbreth Junior High so I could feel connected to this mysterious new American culture that lay beyond the Maginot Line of Bon Jovi and Jefferson Starship--is the greatest photograph of a punk band of all time.

-The Minutemen's catalytic philosophy--that "punk is whatever we make it to be," that any group of kids could pick up instruments and make artistic, innovative, impossible music without worrying about cliques, categories, or condemnation; even working-class kids from San Pedro like Boon and Watt--is the greatest band philosophy of all time.

-The 1,200 songs my friends and I recorded in my parents' basement after becoming fans of D. Boon and the Minutemen, and the happy memories of those years, are, for me, the most compelling argument for the power of the aforementioned philosophy of all time.

-That my career as a political cartoonist literally began the night I asked myself "What would D. Boon do?" before clumsily trying to make the comic-strip equivalent of a Minutemen song--which therefore means I owe D. Boon my livelihood--is, for me, as a childhood worshipper of D. Boon, the greatest fact of all time.

-That D. Boon's bassist and best friend, Mike Watt, still plays bass, writes music, and tours the country in a Ford Econoline van; and that Mike Watt ends his gigs with the exhortation to "start your own band, paint your own picture, write your own book"--twenty years after his friend's death broke his heart--and that Mike Watt continues to champion this D.I.Y. punk philosophy while many other punks have burnt out, grown soft, or given up; and that Mike Watt (I imagine) perseveres in part to honor his brilliant friend's brief life and the possibilities bequeathed to future musicians, artists, activists, punks and outsiders--is one of the greatest American success stories of all time.

"Our band could be your life."

D. Boon is dead. Long live D. Boon. - David Rees

TRACKS:
spoken word piece - 3-Way Tie (For Last)
song for el salvador - The Punch Line
straight jacket - The Punch Line
#1 hit song - Double Nickels on the Dime
################################################

David Rees was working a crummy magazine job when
Operation: Enduring Freedom inspired him to make his cartoon
"Get Your War On." The satire about the war on terrorism
became an internet phenomenon. "Get Your War On" now
appears in every issue of Rolling Stone. Sales of the two
GYWO books have raised almost $100,000 for land mine
removal in western Afghanistan.

David's other comics include "My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable"
and "My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable," which appeared every
Thursday in the Guardian until they dropped it.

BIO UPDATE: A Texas theatre company called the Rude Mechs
adapted "Get Your War On" for the stage and now they're
performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

MINUTEMEN - History Lesson, pt.II

it crawled into my hand, honest

This upload expired. If you are interested in this & many other things FUG, you can find them over at the United States posting on my Musick Around the World. It is included in the 3-disc set Electromagnetic Steamboat: The Reprise Recordings



 ONWARD EARTHLINGS


We wax weary of the tadpole smegma served to us as the primal data of the nations of Earth. In the face of a world led by a command generation of savage Honko-Cossack marauder pirates poisoning our air, murdering our youth & defiling our ethics, we declare our continuing commitment to the possibility of a benign civilization & the absolute right of each man on earth to:
1) a guaranteed grope,
2) land & money,
3) longevity,
4) happiness,
5) freedom,
6) supplies for his art,
7) sheep.

We wave the banners of these god-lit principles even now while Dom Dom Doom marches in waving a carrot & in the dreams of war lords mutant fruit flies devour syrup-coated telephone poles. Somehow great slurgul-slurguls of glee, humor, horniness & peacecraft can still escape our lips, for you, for us, for the love that can spurt & flow from the surfaces of song & poetry. The benevolent city of ivory colored grope spires in our vision. & all of us, all lovers & drooling minstrels aboard the Chariots of the Abyss, bend back into the terror, take knowledge of the City of Love we wish to create, flash it the fig fist, & spew onward, attempting radiance, into the skush. Onward! Grope for peace. Love the Earth. We have escaped the crone drivel. Up against the wall. - Ed Sanders

The Fugs here are: Ed Sanders - vocals; Ken Weaver - vocals, drums, routines; Tuli Kupferberg - vocals, futution; Ken Pine - guitar, vocals; Charles Larkey - bass; & Bob Mason - drums.

Having attained a professional rock-band sound on Tenderness Junction, the Fugs seemed determined to further expand their arrangements (aided, perhaps, by a major-label budget) on It Crawled into My Hand, Honest. Indeed, the album is ridiculously eclectic. There's stoned psychedelic folk-rock ("Crystal Liaison"); cry-in-your-beer country music with vehemently satirical or surrealistic lyrics ("Ramses II Is Dead My Love," "Johnny Pissoff Meets the Red Angel"); grand, sweeping classical orchestration ("Burial Waltz"); a Gregorian chant about "Marijuana"; down-home gospel with lyrics that no preacher would dare enunciate ("Wide Wide River," with the line: "I've been swimming in this river of shit/More than 20 years and I'm getting tired of it"); &, almost buried along the way, the kind of tuneful, countercultural folk-rock Tuli Kupferberg contributed to earlier albums ("Life Is Strange"). Choral backup vocals abound, and the mere presence of a half-dozen outside arrangers testifies to how much the group's attitude toward exploiting the studio had developed since the bare-bones ESP albums. Generally, the songs (most written by the core trio of Sanders, Kupferberg, and Weaver) are more concerned with deft poetry & humor than political statements, although the customary social satire & calls for sexual freedom & drug use are present in diminishing degrees. Although side one is five discrete tracks, side two is a side-long cut-&-paste of tracks varying in length from three seconds to four minutes, the stylistic jump-cuts similar to those employed by the Mothers of Invention in the same era.

Tracklist -

Crystal Liaison
Ramses II is Dead, My Love
Burial Waltz
Wide Wide River
Life is Strange
Johnny Pissoff Meets the Red Angel
Marijuana
Leprechaun
When the Mode of the Music Changes
Whimpers from the Jello
The Divine Toe (part 1)
We're Both Dead Now, Alice
Life is Funny
Grope Need (part 1)
Tuli, Visited by the Ghost of Plontinus
More Grope Need (Grope Need - part 2)
Robinson Crusoe
Claude Pelieu & J.J.Lebel Discuss the Early Verlaine Bread Crust
Fragments
The National Haiku Contest
The Divine Toe (part 2)
Irene

This stereo record can best be played while holding an antique porcelain foot.
Enjoy
NØ

Oh,Man It's...like...DRAGSVILLE

Nathan Nothin' here.

The question is, if the XKE beats the COBRA on the first turn, will the STING RAY, that was out shot on the line by the '58 PLYMOUTH with a 408 V-12 FERRARIC engine, be able to retune his radio before he has to down shift on the second switch back to keep his RPM's up to 5800.

Of course, one must keep in mind the fact that since the STING RAY's driver is wearing one lavender mitten & sun glasses, he must avoid using his rear view mirror in order to keep the glare of the moon out of his eyes. Another problem the Sting Ray's driver is having at this point is getting "Bach's Prelude & Fugue In D Minor" off his radio & getting "Mashed Potato Time" on! But, alas, as he hit his automatic selectomatic radio tuning knob, he missed a shift & the big red STING RAY spun out & stalled...which just goes to prove that if you don't buy this record, you won't find out who won the race!

DRAGSVILLE!! Drag Music --- this is it. Although we feature DRAG CITY & LITTLE DEUCE COUPE, this entire album is a must. We recommend particularly MISTER HOT ROD & DRAGSTER ON THE PROWL. So slow down & give THE WOOFERS a chance to act up.

DRAGSVILLE by THE WOOFERS...wyncote W-9011...1964

TRACKS:
Drag City
Hot Rod Races
Mister Hot Rod
Wailin' Wheels
Ridin' the Rails
Little Deuce Coupe
Bench Racer
Dragster on the Prowl
Cool Bash
Down by the Draggin' Strip

Enjoy
NØ

M K Ultra

crude oil nearly $100 per barrel
global warming
George Dubya
need I say more?

last nite I shimmied out on the dance floor
enraptured by a latin fusionista septet.

the strobes were flashing faster
than my heartbeat or my feet
multi-colored lasers sliced the ganga-smoke infused air.
the world is crumbling outside in the streets
inside the club every body is glad.

Nihil
Nihil
latin for nothing
grey arch-angel

Music, music
takes away the pain.

Happy Birthdaze Be-bop baby
Happy Be-bop birdlegs girl
Birthday Be-bop happy woman
let be-bop boogie twirl your world!

Enjoy
NØ

Are You Seeking Truth

THIS POST HAS BEEN RE_UPLOADED - 8/3/21

Are You Seeking Truth ‽


‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽

INTERROBANG


After being born in a factory called a hospital,
after passing through a factory called school,
after learning how to exist in a society primarily
filled with factory-line computer monitor-staring sheep...
fate found PaPa Hawk (record producer), Mug-Z (painter), & N-Boy (writer) all seeking solace at an art gallery in downtown San Jose. The name of the gallery...Kismet. & it was at Kismet that the three of them formed their initial bond. Each of them believed themselves to be irreplaceable in the factory-line society; each believed they had a purpose for being alive.

Surrounded by art from contemporary Russian masters, the three began to develop an idea which would soon become a quest. They talked of combining music, cinema, visual art, written & oral history from various cultures & performance art into one big blob. Hours of discussion led to the idea of live performance done in an inclusive manner. They would need a small community of musicians willing to take a chance on an abstract idea. PaPa Hawk said he knew exactly who the next member of the band would be.

A week later, Mug-Z found himself jamming with CAP n T. PaPa Hawk was right. CAP n T was the man. His unique attitude toward noise & sound & their place within music helped mold the initial sound & structure of this unnamed band. PaPa Hawk & Mug-Z found N-Boy at Kismet later that evening. They told him about CAP n T & the killer jam session they had just had. N-Boy knew CAP n T would help them take music into the void & agreed. Now they just needed a drummer...& a name.

PaPa Hawk & CAP n T went to Los Angeles to pick up a fellow Little Lucky band's cds. CAP n T was lead for this band, PaPa Hawk was their producer. Get the Picture? Anyway, after they picked up the cds., PaPa Hawk took CAP n T to see an old Beat sculptor, Ed Morrisey, in the heart of the city. & it was Ed Morrisey who handed them an old symbol absent from modern day language.
( Nate note: Actually, American Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for "a rhetorical question" or "cross-examination"; bang is printers' slang for the exclamation point.)
This symbol was absent from all typewriters & computer keyboards
(Nate note: In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. During the 1970s, it was possible to buy replacement interrobang keycaps and strikers for some Smith-Corona typewriters. The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s, with the word 'interrobang' appearing in some dictionaries and the mark itself being featured in magazine and newspaper articles.)
, yet possessed a vivid familiarity. CAP n T knew they needed to take this symbol back to San Jose & use it for a band name. Interrobang. ‽ I guess you get the picture‽...but they still needed a drummer.

As luck would have it, a young buck named Tommy Guns strolled into Little Lucky Studio looking for an internship. To the bands surprise, Tommy Guns was a composer for a local marching band. The fifth member of the band was now in place. Now they just needed a formula.

Despite living in a time of individualism, the notion of individualism...of thinking for one's self, of navigating one's own path throughout life...was not an option for the five. One doesn't choose to be an authority...the truth can always be questioned, if you're lying, you'll get no answer.

A product of the post-industrial-cyber-information age & sculpted by the movement of individualism, it was apparent this group of five would have to find a newness in music which lie past all concepts, without dismissing them. What is music? At what point does sound become music & not noise‽ Is noise music‽ Is music noise‽ Such postmodern concerns would be looked upon as a given by the band, as past masters had already addressed these questions in depth.

Change does not come about through conformity. Change requires risk. Art requires risk. Ideas of change don't happen when you're old & have hemorrhoids. Ideas of change happen when you're young & impatient. & the band, well they were in for a big change. The place that brought them together, the place where local artists of all mediums met & talked...Kismet...up & closed without notice. One night it's open, the next morning, it's completely empty with a hand written sign in the window.

This was a blessing in disguise, as the band would now have their meetings at a small office right above The Phoenix, & at Little Lucky Studios. The Phoenix was an old jazz club that closed down after losing their liquor license. By meeting in private, the five were able to focus their attention on form. One night, while smoking cigarettes in the moonlight, N-Boy noticed that Mug-Z & CAP n T were standing under a sign that read CARAVAN. It was the name of the bar that Little Lucky Studios was above.

That was it. Kismet brought them together. The Phoenix took them above the flames & led them to the Caravan to capture & record their journey. It was obvious to the five that they were exactly where they were supposed to be & doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing...letting nature take its course.

TRACKS:
! Question Expression
@ Bone Train
# Allusion of Seclusion
$ Where's It At? (downtown)
% Half A Soul
^ Build For Pleasure
& New Enlightenment
* Sabbath Shaft II
? Nobody

Just as their quest for truth led them to nature, it's only natural that they relied upon nature to set the course in developing their formula. Despite endless cycles & formulas, there is no definite form to nature. Nature is a process of discovery. In nature, unexplained change is not only excepted, it's expected. Art is not different. Thus, the five approached the creation of music in the same way. Little Lucky put it like this, "Nothing is dictated, preset, or structured. All is guided by instinct & positive channeled energy, with emphasis placed on process & outcome."

Coexisting with an entire generation of young people detached from the planet, detached from the past, the present, & the future, who live in a reality where sex means death, rain is acid, tap water is poison, nuclear destruction is ever-present, the rain forest is nearly gone, the polar ice caps are going to melt, human clones are being created in private, animal clones are being created in public, microchips are the size of a grain of sand & food is cured with toxins, it's no wonder there's a certain Nihilism present in their music.

While recording, the five found themselves surrounded by the inner-city underworld...a place filled with drug-addicted murderous misfits, liars, & whores. It was only natural that parts of their music became reactions to this horrid reality. Thus, the old blues concept...'Things are bad, but they're bound to get better'...was resurrected & applied to their music. Then T-Tone showed up & became a vital role in the band. This guy was always there for the five during all recording & practice sessions. He helped to keep them focused & smoked a lot of Mug-Z's cigarettes.

At this point, the band had everything they needed...except a song-bird & a man on point. Enter Brooklyn, the ultimate on point. Brooklyn immediately connected a beautiful woman named Star to the five. One practice is all it took for Star to become an instrumental part of the band's sound. & Brooklyn, well he wasn't done, as he brought The Glad Professor to the table...turntables & all. Like I said...Brooklyn is the ultimate on point. Of course PaPa Hawk brought an array of guest musicians to sit in on various songs, but it was Brooklyn who delivered their Star. Shortly after, the six finished recording.

PaPa Hawk observed this at the tail-end of the recording sessions, "If one listens to the tone of the cd. as a whole, it's inevitable that one will hear & feel the band's hope in humanity & belief in the triumph of the human spirit. Are you seeking truths (fill in interrobang)" & now, the band is ready to tackle a music scene that has yet to be labeled or defined.
N-Boy:
founding member of Interrobang & also The Pigeon Project

‽ are:
PaPa Hawk: vocals, spoken word, guitar, harmonica, percussion, finger snaps, human being
Star: vocals, cynic, daughter, skin-deep, lady, spoiled monthly bitch
CAP n T: musician, guitar(for hire), spoken word, keyboard, samples, sounds, licensed asshole
Mug-Z: painter, bass, spoken word, percussion, vocal accents
N-Boy: writer, guitar, spoken word, keyboard, percussion, finger snaps
Tommy Guns: listener, drums, percussion, overall machine
T-Tone: d.j., percussion, finger snaps, vocal accents, clutch
The Good Professor: d.j., cuts, samples, brakes (like the wind)

Guest Musicians:
Sequoia Tim: wooden flute (Nobody)
R-Factor: saxophone (Where's It At [downtown] - Allusion of Seclusion)
Jonathan: samples (Bone Train)