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)

Pussy...Pussy Pussy Pussy

Nathan Nothin' Here!

But seriously...Pussy!

One fine foxy cool smart funny babe says to me,

"Hi Nathan,

LOVE the tunes on your blog & would be making a couple of requests
of my own if my brain would ever bother to wake up.

With that in mind however, there is a song I listened to
yesterday that cracked me up.

R. Crumb & his Cheap Suit Serenaders

Naturally, I thought of you and Craig.

The song "Pussy" is just plain funny.

Cheers,
St. Gothric (not her real name, Ha! Ha! He! He!)

Well until said brain does said awakening, consider
these two gems an "unrequest".

Tracks:
(The Original...My Girls) Pussy
Harry Roy & his Bat Club Boys 1931
Pussy Pussy Pussy
The Light Crust Doughboys 1937

both tracks taken from Copulatin' Blues

Enjoy,
NØ