As I mentioned in the cheese-like post from last month, I've got plenty of Smegma & I'm not ashamed to admit in. In fact, I'm willing to share it with you here.
Smegma was founded in Pasadena, California in 1973, but moved to Oregon two years later. At the onset, they were part of the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS). LAFMS formed in the 1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective & multimedia publishing vehicle. Originally started by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts, & Rick Potts, soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art. & avant-rock in permissive anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building & at Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena.
Poo-Bah Records, with its import bins & backroom jam space, attracted the pseudonymous artists forming the initial incarnation of long-running collective Smegma. Early members Ju Suk Reet Meate, Dennis Duck, Cheez-it Ritz, Big Dirty, Amazon Bambi, & Dr. Id contributed to various LAFMS compilations & combos before several core members relocated to Portland, where they recorded their debut album Glamour Girl 1941.
all decryption codes in comments
Side A -
Difference
1980 A.R. (After Radiation)
Prowing Nose
Die Wo-Wo
Side B -
I am Not Artist
Ladies Nite at the "Ortho Lounge"
Half a Billion
Beyond its roots in LAFMS, Smegma would help shape the early Portland punk scene in the late 70s alongside Wipers & Neo Boys. Back then, virtually nobody thought it was cool to be in a band made up primarily of non-musicians, much less one that combined fried free improv moves with nods to straight 1950s rock & roll.
Ju Suk Reet Meate sez:
"If we played at a party in the 1970s, there would be a riot. People would hate us, and be physically threatening! People didn't put up with weirdo shit."
Here are a few singles...
Side B - Fish Story
Side B - Found & Lost
Side B - Vox
Enjoy,
NØ
Glamour Girl
ReplyDeletesNnuYXF3y-QSImIoyM7kgh15lrda6QemgBZBNYPkDJc
The Whey/Fish Story 7"
AEmKdFJVoUhCDMpmTw9cCbN8IUfy0OyUvIthQDHn6xk
Boils & Carbuncles/Lost & Found 7"
abMa5GOaRFCBAsWT7Gjo4G_L8z2vsCt-mQ_m1y9uGjE
Thicket/Vox 7"
M5WVMResweHvJgN87qJ3h4b_LpFK5PvdpkbCZtWhE2g
One of those wonderful mornings when I check this mess & all the comments are truly wonderful missives. FlaccusMUC prompted the entire Smegma post & found it. Old dear friend Ib Sibling is back on the Bleachers. & elsewhere Mooz has been a fount of information. Thanks, you all.
DeleteWonderful! Endless thanks!
ReplyDeletePrompted by yourself, dedicated to your friendship, more to come. Thanks, friend.
DeleteHola, hombre. Having apparently hosed my previous site, I am currently exploring some kind of afterlife here:
ReplyDeletesiblingshot.wordpress.com
While I am tentatively back on the bleachers, it's a little like learning to walk again, but at least all previous content - and comments - are rudely intact. Maybe you might change your sidecar link to accommodate this latest trip?
Hola, yourself, my brother. So glad to get this slice of tremendous news. I changed the link immediately & got stuck there wandering about, even though I had other things to do first. So good, so good.
DeleteThank you so much!
ReplyDeleteMy first encounter with Smegma was taking a family trip through Portland OR with my parents when I was very young and spotting graffiti on a bridge that said SMEGMA RULES and when I asked my mom what smegma meant, she yelled at me 'NEVER MIND!'.
I've since seen them live numerous times (I think they managed to open for Butthole Surfers nearly every time they've played in my town) and have met many members of that shambolic collective.
I could see how a mom might not want to explain Smegma to a young Chardman, especially if she didn't know it was a band. I envy you numerous times & meeting them personally. I have seen then twice & both times were totally memorable. Thank for the remembrance.
ReplyDeleteThanks N0 -- don't think I have anything except the one track on the LAFMS box set so this should be some interesting listening!
ReplyDeleteJust don't leave a sticky mess on the stereo.
ReplyDelete