On any post, if the link is no longer good, leave a comment if you want the music re-uploaded. As long as I still have the file, or the record, cd, or cassette to re-rip, I will gladly accommodate in a timely manner all such requests.
Slinging tuneage like some fried or otherwise soused short-order cook. Embiggening the earholes
From Buttholes to Europop, from Loons to Bassoons.
Saw that a few folks had been hitting this but the link was dead. Re-upped 01/28/2016. Enjoy, NØ!
The Jesus Is Dead EP by stalwart Scottish punk rockers The Exploited is very likely the most solid release the band ever put out. Four savage, thrashing tracks about politicians, imperialism, religion, drugs, & issues with law enforcement. Production-wise, this is the best the band has ever sounded: the drums are loud, the bass has punch, guitars are wailing, & Wattie's legendarily indiscernible vocals are loud, upfront, & largely understandable. Although the songs are simple & straightforward, there is some great songwriting here. You may be pleasantly surprised to find how well Wattie & the Exploited's brand of sincere, hard-working punk stands the test of time.
This incarnation of The Exploited are: Wattie Buchan - vocals; Nig - guitar; Deptford John - bass; & Willie Buchan - drums.
You probably don't know this, but between The Misfits & The Fuck-ups, between Mars Volta & Pere Ubu, between The Imperial Pompadours & the Lynch Mob, between Bongwater & Scratch Acid, I listen to Sneaker Pimps & Thievery Corporation & Massive Attack. I really like Hot Chip & Lao loves them so we needed to be over on the Island by 4:20 (I'm not making this up).
We lazed-in late, waked & baked, went to Cha Ya Japanese vegetarian restaurant for lunch, then walked over to Candlestick (er, AT&T Park).
The crowd at the shuttle-point were mostly The Hills, Gossip Girl, OC types & we figured right off we'd better save the 'shrooms for Sunday, which was cool, because we ran into this EarthGirl with a baby in a stroller selling what turned out to be heavenly hash brownies (plus I traded some homegrown for two tickets to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at the Warfield [more on that to come]).
We got over on the Island in time to check out Bostich & Fussible of the Nortec Collective. I dig the whole Nortec Collective sound, traditional Mexican gone electronica/techno. Bostich is Ramon Amezcua & Fussible is Pepe Mogt. Along with a group of great musicians, the Collective created a grooving 21st Century electroMex vibe that set a sultry tropical mood that went well with the Island locale.
After Nortec we kinda just hung around, smoked, ate some more brownies, watched people, looked at records & t-shirts, bought the Black Dahlia a Dia de los Muertos hoodie & then got a good spot for Hot Chip. They kicked ass considering that it was mid-afternoon. Appropriately enough at 4:20 many people participated & some great bud was tried & shared. Alexis Taylor & Joe Goddard, chums since sixth form at Elliott School, Putney, London communicate as such, making for a slightly magickal live show. The band did two, three, four or more song medley-type versions of some their greatest tunes both old (4 yrs.) & new, "Over & Over", "Shake a Fist", "Ready for the Floor". I just wished they had done Kraft Dinner & that they wouldn't have ended on the One Pure Thought down-tempo style.
All I remember after that is people-watching & Alison Goldfrapp looked like Stevie Nicks until TV On The Radio came on. It was just getting dark. The San Francisco skyline & the Bridges were coming to light & life. It was a glorious thing. TV On The Radio were excellent & confusing at the same time, like their name, both disconcerting & melodious, turbulent & harmonic at the same time. We stayed 'til they ended, them headed back to S.F. & the Warfield. I liked CSS's first stuff until the Black Dahlia said they sounded like The Go-Gos. After that, Belinda Carlisle was all I could hear & that was the end of that. Neither Lao nor I can stand the vocals of Justice, so no loss for day one.
Enjoy,
NØ
& Stay tuned for the stunning conclusion...
We finally had to bid TC & Jolene adieu after exchanging vitals & fluids. Late Friday afternoon Lao & I made our way back to our flop off of Mission to try to decompress before the start of the two-day Treasure Island Music Festival the next day. We laid around the room for a while smoking OJs (thanx TC) & then came to the unanimous consensus that we needed a few pints of plain to push us toward slumber. We walked up the street a few blocks until we spotted a likely looking dive. It looked like a quiet hang-out for locals & reprobates, just what we wanted. We slid onto a couple stools near the end of the bar, saw that they had Anchor Porter on tap & Imperial pints. We had found our oasis. We ordered two, then two more. I played a few games of pool & won drinking cash for the night, using Lao as my distraction with guys & gals alike. She's a mean mis-treater. While we were working our way through the Porter keg, a local band set up on the postage-stamp sized stage. I found out from the bartender they were called Andrew Would? Now, I was never a big fan (any size fan) of grunge, but the idea of a Mother Love Bone cover band seemed kinda interesting & the lead singer looked like a junkie. They proved to be good musickians & highly entertaining. By the time we crawled back to out racks we were well lubricated & well satiated. We both fell asleep thinking "This is Shangrila". & except for the sound of scurrying cockroaches & the trips to the head down the hall, it was.
After several spliffs & several buses we found ourselves at TC & Jolene's abode in Berkeley, not far from People's Park.
Lao said she didn't feel like hanging around if we oldsters were just going to be reliving the past, so we banned nostalgia for the mind-poison that it is & decided on other entertainment.
TC & Jolene, like myself, are still narco-anarchists, & like myself, in the passing years they have moved to the strictly organic. During the punk heyday, I never much had the desire to do psychedelics in social settings, as the punk scene was more conducive to amphetamines & alcohol. Since then I have changed my ways & only do what I (or friends) can grow. That means I normally limit myself to weed & 'shrooms (which I brought along for this adventure in abundance). TC, on the other had, living in a more urban space, has turned his green thumbs to cacti & poppi (which he had in even more abundance).
Jolene had constructed an authentic Pawnee sweat lodge in their back yard & this is where we spent the majority of the next two days. First we performed a cleansing ceremony with much sweating & chanting, then we moved on to a Peyote ritual with a great deal of fun with the little green man (liberally infused with peace-pipe loads of green & O).
Here's some musick to listen to while you ponder these events.
Man, what a crazy world. It's been a great wild ride since last Nothin' Sed Somethin'.
Let me try to explain if I can...in the following words & musick, just what transpired.
It's been over four years since I've been able to escape the Wage Slavery. Oh, I've taken a day here, a day there. Never long enough for the shackle marks to clear. Well, I just finished up a fortnight of freedom & I'm questioning my ability to return to the grind, both job & blog.
In the past four years every time there was a show in San Francisco, Oakland, or at Gilman, I'd be working, try to get off early, drive down, do show, have a great time (granted), & then drive back & back to work. If the show was on that lucky Saturn day, then I'd get to stay over & have a bit of Sunny day time. It's just that there is so much to see, so much to do, so many friends to try to look up or track down, so many exquisite places to eat (vegetarian) that with limited time the magick never really gets a chance to unfold to its fullest.
I'd been looking forward to going to the Treasure Island Music Festival for quite a while. The Black Dahlia (my better half) wasn't going so Lao (my better third) & I were making the trek. I used to be a stay-at-home dad, working from the Caca Casa & being a house husband while Lao was going through the diapers to diaphragm years. Since about the time she slipped the noose of the Public School prison we haven't really had a lot of time to do things mano y mano, so I was looking forward to this tremendously. I manipulated my schedule & got two weeks. I took a couple days to reset my internal clock from wake-at-the-break-of-dawn mode to partying late & sleeping 'til noon joy & I was ready. Lao's twenty-six, she's always ready.
We headed to S.F. Wednesday. We snagged a cheap flop in the Mission (the bathroom was only two doors from our room [smoking - hard to find these days]) & dropped off our belongings. Then we hit the streets. First we headed to Herbivore on Valencia to get some pure fuel (vegan & heavenly). Then we found a vacant shop with a nice secluded stoop not far down the block for an after-meal smoke to set the mood. At least it seemed secluded, but to any knowledgeable nose, i.e. a pot-head schnoz, there is no secluding the KGB. Here comes this old hippie couple to share our space, our boo, our mind set.
& then the S.F. magick changed the color of light & the sound of life around us. I knew these people & from the astonished looks that sprang to their faces, they knew me. A veil of years swirled in the ocean-salted breeze & dropped from our lives.
"TC. Jolene. Is it really you?".
"Nathan. Nathan. (simultaneously, I don't know how to write it that way)".
" Jolene. TC. It is really you?!".
"Nathan. Nathan. (ditto)".
We just stared for several eternities until time once more began to move. The roach burned my finger & Lao poked me for introductions. We all name swapped & then we three oldsters started reminiscing.
It had been (you've got to believe this) 34 1/2 years since we'd seen each other. We had been at a benefit put on by STARSEED, as a tribute to Dr. Timothy Leary - then imprisoned after being forced out of Switzerland through pressure from the United States & kidnapped by CIA agents who arranged to have him extradited from Afghanistan. The show took place at UC Berkeley's acoustically perfect Zellerbach Auditorium & starred those heroes of the cosmos, Hawkwind & Man. Joanna Leary spoke. According to Joanna, both she & Dr Leary considered Hawkwind to be the most highly evolved band on the planet. TC, Jolene, & I happened to agree. Hawkwind had done two benefits for Leary in England & still more in the States. Joanne Leary described the bands as, "two highly evolved British bands on the neurological scale of time,". 1,000 people attended. Hawkwind had the most intense stage set, light show, visual & sound show that we had ever experienced. They did the Warrior on the Edge of Time set. I give it to you now to set the stage. Light one up & Enjoy.
I'm going to be in San Francisco all week-end at the Treasure Island Music Festival & I plan on not being in any condition to post for a few days afterwards as well, so here's some tuneage to tide you over until whenever...
Enigma Records was a popular rock & alternative record label in the 1980s, focusing on punk rock, alternative, & heavy metal though it also released techno, jazz & classical music through subsidiary labels. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, from which it split off in 1985 to become its own company. The label was initially located in Torrance, California, then El Segundo, California & finally Culver City, California.
Released in 1985, this two disc compilation of Enigma artists was released to showcase Enigma acts to help promote the newly independent label. Quite a mixed bag.
Maniac - Screamin' Sirens from the Enigma LP "Fiesta"
Shadowdrive - The Jet Black Berries
from the cassette version of the Enigma/Pink Dust LP "Sundown on Venus"
Flesh on the Wall - Naked Prey from the Enigma/Down There EP "Naked Prey"
Oh Mother - Tex & the Horseheads from the Enigma/Bemisbrain LP "Tex & the Horseheads"
Straight Ahead - Greg Sage from the Enigma LP "Straight Ahead"
Time Stands Still - Chris D./Divine Horsemen from the Enigma LP "Time Stands Still"
A Blind Man's Penis - JohnTrubee
from the Enigma single "A Blind Man's Penis"
Side Two:
No Easy Way Down - Rain Parade from the Enigma EP "Explosions in the Glass Palace"
Disengaged from the World - Plasticland from the Enigma/Pink Dust LP "Plasticland"
Worm Boy - The Pandoras from the unreleased Enigma EP
Just for the Moment - Get Smart! from the Enigma/Fever LP "Action Reaction"
Leaving Trains - Leaving Trains from the Enigma/Bemisbrain LP "Well Down Blue Highway"
Sixteen Ways II - Green on Red previously unreleased version of a track from the Enigma LP "Gas Food Lodging"
24 - Game Theory from the Enigma/Rational LP "Real Nighttime"
Side Three:
Insurance from God - 45 Grave from the Enigma LP "Sleep in Safety"
Blue Funk - The Effigies from the Enigma/Fever LP "Fly on a Wire"
Juvenile Justice - Kraut from the Enigma/Cabbage LP "Whetting the Scythe"
Citadel - Redd Kross from the Enigma/Gasatanka EP "Teen Babes from Monsanto"
Flowers by the Door - TSOL previously unreleased version of a track from the Enigma LP "Change Today"
True West - Channel 3 from the Enigma EP "Airborne"
Side Four:
A Situation Of - Cathedral of Tears from the Enigma EP " Cathedral of Tears"
The Yellow Boat - Passionel from the Enigma EP "The Apostle"
Lebanon - The Untouchables from the Enigma?Twist EP "Live & Let Dance"
Where Did We Go Wrong - The Pool from the Enigma/Moment LP "333"
Cowpunk - Scott Goddard from the Enigma/818 EP "Your Fool"
Playback - SSQ
previously unreleased
Enjoy,
NØ
UPDATE
Thanks to a comment from anonymous (ph), I found out that the link to this file was dead. It has be re-uploaded 31 October 2008. If any further problems occur, please let me know. Thanx, NØ
Re-uploaded as per Renfrew requestrew 2rew Mayrew 2013rew. Thanks good sir.
A Side: Nice in Nice (Porridge Mix) Since You Went Away
B Side: Midnight Summer Dream (live) The European Female (live) all one track on record, I split them into two songs recorded at Le Zenith, Paris, 29 April 1985.
UPDATE:This post was re-uploaded 09/15/2013. Enjoy, NØ.
With the passing of Richard Wright, keyboard player for Pink Floyd, many music fans are saddened. My daughter Lao is a huge fan of Pink Floyd. I believe it would be safe to say they are her favorite band. I am posting this for her & all other Floyd fans (so if you aren't, I don't want to hear any shite, I warned you & this ain't fer you). Floyd's of London is a bootleg of the 30 September 1971 BBC London John Peel show. It was broadcast & recorded in stereo, which makes it kinda rare. I have two copies & both are in rough condition, so I've tried to get the best of the two. Ladies & Germs: Gilmour; Waters; Mason; & Wright.
UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 10/12.2013. Enjoy, NØ.
Formed in late 1981, the BoneMen of Barumba was the brainchild of suburban Chicago's Tom Jonusatis & Mark Panick. They had met as part of the cities Super8-film art crowd. They dreamed up the band & concept while on a trip to New Orleans.
The B-Men were an underground art-punk weirdcore group similar in some ways to The Pop Group. They released two EPs & one LP, but never found their audience here in the States. They were popular in England & Europe after their first EP was picked up for distribution by Rough Trade/Green World & after getting airplay from John Peel on BBC. Although they had a unique sound & energy, they never were successful commercially. Their third & final release was a full-length album titled Icons that was a joint release on Fever/Enigma. The album didn’t sell well despite it being a good & diverse record & the band called it quits.
You can read more about the BoneMen & listen to their first EP here.
Their second EP is Driving the Bats Thru Jerusalem.
It features: Mark Panick - language, guitar, synthesizer, percussion; Jeff Jordie - guitar, synthesizer, funny talking, cabasa; Tom Jonusaitis - bass, keyboards; Mike Arturi - drums; & Mike Vicicondi - drums.
UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/01/2013. Enjoy, NØ.
Another band that would eventually be a member of the Trance Syndicate family was the criminally overlooked Distorted Pony. Their earlier records were with BOMP!.
Formed in 1986 with members David Uskovich (vocals, guitar), Dora Jahr (bass, vocals), & Robert Hammer (guitars), Distorted Pony went through several drummers before relegating the drumming duties to a drum machine, until their first full-length LP, which was recorded in January 1992 with the help of Steve Albini.. There is an obvious comparison to Hammer Party era Big Black, but the heavy, sorrowful, enchanting sound is not Chicago, but creeps out of the grit & smog of Los Angeles. By this time, Distorted Pony had recruited London May (ex-Dag Nasty/ Samhain) as their drummer. Although this opened up their sound & allowed for more structured song writing, their 5-song EP is some of my favorite work by this band. Punishment Room & Instant Winner are both great albums, but Work Makes Freedom is still epic.
With a total disregard for their 'carbon footprint', DP dared to waste vinyl by releasing this 5-song ep. on one side of a standard 12" 33 1/3rpm record. The lyrics are etched into the B-side. Also etched in the run-out on the A-side is the reason??? perhaps - "Excess = Wisdom"
Fee Schedule
Sinners Prayer
Forensic Interest
Blare
Pillar of Salt
Enjoy,
NØ
UPDATE: Due to repeated requests, I am posting the links to Distorted Pony's two album releases. They were posted last December over at Shark Fin Blog. I don't know if that blog is active or not anymore as the last posting was 23 May 2008, but the links are still good, so I'd advise getting them while you can.
UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 08/12/2013. Enjoy, NØ
Austin, Texas has always been the home to good music.
If I started a list I could go on & on & the most obvious thing about it would be the many more bands & artists that I left off: from the days of Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen & Roky Erickson to Charlie Sexton & Jimmie Dale Gilmore; alternative bands like Butthole Surfers, Spoon, or the Pain Teens; well-knowns like the Asylum Street Spankers, Double Trouble, Christopher Cross, Shawn Phillips, or Omar & the Howlers; on & on.
The 80s alternative sound in Austin was an inspiration to many younger musicians & groups. Many of the bands on this compilation are familiar to us, some are not, but there should be something here for everyone, so give it a listen & maybe let me know who you like & why...maybe I can feature some of their work.
I you like more mainstream start with Side A, if you like more hardcore craziness try Side Z first, but it's all good.
