21 February 2009

Oi! of Japan Vol. 2

 UPDATE: If you are looking for this post, I posted it on a section called Japan 2.0 08/22/2013. Get it there. Enjoy, NØ

Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer...always dug their sounds...street punk, working class. Oi Polloi...the common folk. Kinda got out of it when it got associated with the right-wing racist crowd.

The general ideology of the original movement was a rough sort of quasi-socialist working class populism. Lyrical topics included unemployment, workers' rights, harassment by police & other authorities, & oppression by the government.The genre became recognized in the latter part of the 1970s, emerging after the perceived commercialization of punk rock, but still before the soon-to-dominate hardcore punk sound.

In 1980, writing in Sounds, rock journalist Garry Bushell labeled the movement Oi!, taking the name from the garbled "Oi!" that Stinky Turner of Cockney Rejects used to introduce the band's songs.The word Oi is an old Cockney expression, simply meaning hey or hello.

Although Oi! has come to be considered mainly a skinhead-oriented genre, the first Oi! bands were composed mostly of punk rockers & people who fit neither the skinhead nor punk label.Because some fans of Oi! were involved in white nationalist organisations such as the National Front & the British Movement, some histories of rock music dismiss Oi! as racist. Because of its racist connection, the Oi! movement lost momentum in the United Kingdom, but Oi! scenes formed in continental Europe, North America, Asia & other locations.

In Japan, the street punk, skinhead, or Oi! movement is a vital part of the Japanese musick scene. Although Baws is probably the first Japanese Oi! band, Cobra is usually sited for this honor. Cobra is regarded as one of the world’s best Oi! bands, giving influences for South American & European bands as the original wave of Oi! died out. The lack of schism between skinheads & punks, between left-wing & right-wing is one of the reasons why the Japanese skinhead culture is regarded as one of the most organized & prospering in the world. The contemporary Japanese bands stress unity in their works, as well as a disregard for mass cultural acceptance; the desire to remain marginal. According to Cobra (talking about the Japanese scene & the record label that they run): “Some people in the punk movement today have missed the whole idea. Any true punk or skin will tell you that punk has nothing to do with just having fun, or trying to keep up with this year’s fashions. Imitation & aiming for mass acceptance may be OK for fake punk rockers, but they will never be part of real punk. This label supports only true punks & skins.”

This compilation is a bootleg of an AA Records release. All recordings were made between 1986 & 1990 & feature some of the early Japanese Oi! bands.

Various Artists - Oi of Japan, Volume 2, AA Records bootleg JAP 02, 1991??

(note: the tracks are not listed on the album label, only on the back cover. both sides list nine tracks but there are only eight tracks on each side. i have done my best to decide what's up. i have noted the inconsistencies. bootlegging/translation problem? someone shed some light here. first one with the correct info wins a prize of my/their choice.)





















Side A:
Mamat's - To Sex to Money 1, 2, Clash
Baseball Furies - Carry on True
Baseball Furies - Don't Go Out of Vogue
Cockney Cocks - Blue
Cockney Cocks - Wasted Time
(the Cockney Cocks tracks appear to be only one track. the lyrics seem to say Blue Time?)
Gruesome - Wind Jammer
Gruesome - Dog & Stag
Real - ??? (something in Japanese)
Index - Dream in Actuality





















Side B:
Bugs Bunny - Holy Terror
Wanderers - Don't Look Tomorrow
Wanderers - Here We Go Again
Doccoi - Right & Duty
Doccoi - Cross My Heart
(seems to be the same place on both sides, tracks 4 & 5. appears to be only one track. this time Japanese lyrics give me no clue. near the end is an instumental break then a repeated chorus that might be 'Cross My Heart'. can anyone translate the lyrics & let me know?)
Baws - We Are the Baws
Shuffle - Angel Baby
Cockney Cocks - Empty Heart
Cockney Cocks - Don't Say Any More

Enjoy,

17 February 2009

Drunk with Funk

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/07/2013. Enjoy, NØ.



The Brainiacs were a rarity, a No Wave band from L.A. (maybe they were punk/funk, I'm not very good with the whole labeling/genre thing). They were an integral part of the L.A. punk scene of the late 70s/early 80s.

Young Marquis, The Punks, The Brainiacs, Dell & the Sensations,
Levi & the Rockats
- New Masque, February 3, 1979

The Brainiacs, The Spoilers
- Club 88, April 26, 1979

The Brainiacs
- Club 88, May 22, 1979

The Brainiacs, The Plugz
- Club 88, July 6, 1979

The Eyes, Brainiacs, Suburban Lawns
- Hong Kong Cafe, July 24, 1979

Suburban Lawns, Brainiacs
- Club 88, August 1979

The Vktms, The Brainiacs
- Club 88, August 31, 1979

The Brainiacs, Zilch
- Hong Kong Cafe, October 30, 1979

Mnemonic Devices, The Brainiacs
- Hong Kong Cafe, November 27, 1979

Nervous Gender, Fear, The Brainiacs
- Anti Club, December 6, 1979

The Clones, Subhumans, The Brainiacs
- Hong Kong Cafe, December 20, 1979

Frontman Wayzata Camerone was an L.A. musician who played sax & sang for The Brainiacs from 1979-1981. He also ran a notorious afterhours punk club frequented by X, Blasters, Plugx, Go-Go’s, Fear, Weirdos, etc.

photo by Wayzata Camerone
There is a blog administered by executors of his estate that features Wayzata’s rarely seen black-&-white photographs. His photography 'documents a nocturnal world fueled by restless desire'.

The Brainiacs - Drunk with Funk b/w Fashion Duress 12" 45rpm,
Mental Heath Records 004, 1981.
decryption code in comments

Wayzata Camerone - vocals & C melody saxophone; Jeff Freeman - rhythm guitar; John Shourt - lead guitar & keyboards; Scot Boyd - Fender bass & backing vocals; Dave Spafford - bells; & Vito 'Jack' Codini - skins & handguns.

A side: Drunk with Funk
B side: Fashion Duress

Enjoy,

14 February 2009

Burns me raw!

something to listen to while you read The Residents - Mourning the Undead from The Tune of Two Cities, part two of the Mole trilogy in which the musick of the Moles & the Chubs is compared.

08 February 2009

& Now a Word From Our Sponsors

In Vitro Veritas
something to listen to while you read... The Meatmen - Jerkin' Off from Toilet Slave, 1994.

05 February 2009

Blind Blake

Blind Blake & his Guitar - He's in the Jailhouse Now, Paramount Records 12565, 1927.

P is a band, not a liquid or a fruit

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/02/2013. Enjoy, NØ.




This one has been re-issued by Caroline Records CAR 93398 in 2007, so if you like it, go buy it. The original LP is on wonderfully pee-colored yellow vinyl.


P was a short-lived band formed in early 1993 by Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes - vocals, actor Johnny Depp - guitar & bass, actor Sal Jenco - percussion, & songwriter Bill Carter - guitar & bass. Additional musicians: Ruth Ellsworth Carter - keyboards, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) - bass, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) - guitar, Chuck E. Weiss - washboard, & Andrew Weiss - Mellotron & bass. The band performed their first show at the Austin Music Awards in 1993 & released their eponymous album on November 21, 1995 on Capitol Records. They played the odd gig at The Viper Room, of which Depp used to be co-owner. One of these gigs was played on October 30, 1993, where the lineup included Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Haynes, along with other members of the line-up that night, was a good friend of actor River Phoenix. While the band were in the middle of their song Michael Stipe, which includes the lines "I'm glad I met old Michael Stipe, I didn't get to see his car. Him & River Phoenix were leaving on the road tomorrow" & "but we didn't have a part, not a piece of our heart, not Michael, River Phoenix or Flea or me." Phoenix (unbeknownst to the band at the time) was outside the venue having seizures on the sidewalk. Phoenix died in the early hours of October 31 of heart failure brought on by an overdose of cocaine & heroin.

Although the original idea was that of a Texas roots-rock boogie band, P is everything the Butthole Surfers should be: sick & twisted, dayglo, vulgar, ugly & funny, mean-spirited & self-abusive, out of control & shameless. Gibby is in top form, describing a funhouse ride of vocal hysterics; he even whips out an impressive scrawling noise-guitar solo. Beyond the nearly sincere cover of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" & a full-frontal clambake (complete with electric sitar) of Daniel Johnston's queasy "I Save Cigarette Butts", the group's own inventions are richly absurd, whether taking friendly pop aim at "Michael Stipe," exploring the depths of dub in "Jon Glenn (Mega Mix)" or wailing out a rugged twelve-bar, "White Man Sings the Blues."

P - Self-titled, Capitol Records 7243832942, 1995.
decryption code in comments

Side 1 -
I Save Cigarette Butts (Daniel Johnston)
Zing Splash
Michael Stipe
Oklahoma
Dancing Queen (ABBA)
Jon Glenn [Mega Mix]

Side 2 -
Mr. Officer
White Man Sings The Blues
Die Anne
Scrapings From Ring
The Deal

Enjoy while you can, it may not last...