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

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...
NØ

Celestial, just celestial

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded & more music added

09/12/2013. Enjoy, NØ.

Recently ISKSP posted up Circle X's first release, an untitled four-song EP on Celluloid Records, from 1980. It revealed the talents of raw, manic iconoclasts set on tearing down & reinventing the stuff of rock musick itself with a strong philosophical bent & intense early standards like the relentless "Onward Christian Soldiers" & the blues-tinged terrorism of "Tender." The record’s cover - identifiable only by a spray painted circle with an X through it, a symbol the group chose instead of a name - gratingly reflected its content. "Marketeers" inevitably forced a spelled out "Circle X" on them.

I hadn't listened to the band for many years, but after listening to that first release, I dug out all of their other stuff I have & that's all I've been listening to since then. The band next recorded the equally inventive but more varied Prehistory LP, unreleased until 1983, on the California-based consortium of Enigma & Index Records. Some say this recording served as a crucial blueprint for the subsequent New York noise scene that spawned Sonic Youth, Swans & Live Skull. The LP went out of print rapidly, but was later reissued semi-legally by the French label Sordide Sentimentale with the addition of a booklet of essay texts & skin disorder photos. Mutant Sounds has posted this, in my opinion, the bands finest. (Nothin' Sez...Happily reissued in 2008 by David Grubbs' Blue Chopsticks label.)

When I realized that Celestial was unavailable anywhere that I could find, I decided it was my duty to post it here. If you don't know this band or haven't heard then of late, or were looking for this release, then without further ado...

"The morphology of the song & its text; building blocks words of inaudibility. The word may be dead & its object the text yet the entirety of the project may create a conditional world where the right perception of the song will change the world. After hearing: Liberation; Late in the song like night. The distant sputter & hiss: Man stands as a swan. The list of ingredients which constitute it as a thing:

Part A. Part B. Part C.
Ship's Pulley
Rope - Coiled
Guitar - Detuned
Open, Standard
Measure
Trigger - Envelope
Generator
Korg ----------- Casio
Synthesizer
Bass drum - 2 x 4 - Pony
Clamps - Orange
Temper Metal Rim
Digitech Blue Box
Muff
Boss - Lavender - Box
PA Budapest Station
Mosque Konya
+ ALI
The Egg Shaker
Device Radio Band
Bow
Hammond
Violin
File - Chunka - Loop
Long Squeak
Vacuum
Slam - Splice - Hiss
Traps
Snares
Typewriter
The Body, its Voice
Guided by:

On the cellular level, the equipment's interior construction, the creation of the conditional setting."

Bruce Witsiepe - voice, guitar, & tapes; Tony Pinotti - voice, synthesizer & tapes; Rik Letendre - bass & keyboards; Martin Köb - drums. Violin on "Crow's Ghost" & "They Come Prancing" - Lois Dilivio. All music by Circle X, all lyrics by Bruce Witsiepe except "They Come Prancing" - Lakota traditional courtesy of Bureau of American Ethnology Collection.

Circle X - Celestial, Matador OLE 091-1 , 1994.
decryption codes in comments

Side 1/2 A -
Fig. #1 - Kyoko
Fig. #2 - Pulley
Fig. #3 - Crow's Ghost
Fig. #4 - Gothic Fragment

Side Ø B -
Fig. #5 - Tell My Horse
Fig. #6 - Some Things Don't Grow Back
Fig. #7 - Little Celestial Poet
Fig. #8 - They Came Prancing


Enjoy,
NØ

The band recorded four white-vinyl seven-inch singles for Matador, American Gothic & Lungcast Records that were released over the course of 1992. Titled The Ivory Tower, the records were compiled into a box set & re-released under the auspices of EDITIONS ANTI-UTOPIA in mid-’93. If anyone has these, please post them & let me know. Please!

UPDATE: Moments after I posted this, a friend from Portugal hooked me up with all four of these gems. These four records are stunning from start to finish. Thanks Imbroglio

I was recently asked to post up The Ivory Tower, as it is not really readily available (I saw one advertised for $300 online somewhere). Well, here it is...

Circle X – The Ivory Tower, Editions Anti-Utopia 4 X 7”, 1993.

decryption code in comments

 Disc 1 -

1a 33/Puerto Rigan Ghost (after MARS)

1b The Pleasure Gallows

Disc 2 -

2a Compression of the Species

2b Fail Better

Disc 3 -

3a Shiny Blue Orb

3b Crooky Crain

Disc 4 -

4a Some things Don’t Grow Back

4b Champ Pourri

Enjoy,

NØ

A Call to Arms

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 03/01/14. Enjoy, NØ.



Starting off with local Sacramento band Hoods, its...

Various Artists - California Hardcore:A Call to Arms,
Breakout Records #001, 1998.

Enjoy,
NØ

Ain't that America?

Released in 1996, the title track was in response to the Oklahoma City bombings, but seems to be appropriate today, the day after the ousting of the fascist Bush regime. Recorded at Sound Impressions in Portland, Oregon with cover art by famed tattooist Freddy Corbin of Temple Tattoos in Oakland, California.

Knuckleheads - Ain't that America, Ransom Note Recordings RNR 012, 1996.

Enjoy, NØ

The Twits

Re-uploaded 5/17/2020 by request...

Next, for all you twits, The Twits...

Darrin Twit - guitar
Nathan Twit - guitar & vocals
Fil Twit - bass & vocals
Cuddlebear Twit - drums

The Twits - The Twits, Dirty Records DR-09, 1999.

Enjoy,
NØ

Adams Alcoholics

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 02/26/2015. Enjoy, NØ.

Well, its time to circle the wagons. Adams Alcoholics are liquored-up & on the warpath. One of the bands featured on the last post compilation, here's an album from Phoenix' phinest drunx (& they are not using any apostrophes).

Adams Alcoholics - Circle the Wagons, Dirty Record DR-666, 1999.
decryption code in comments

Enjoy,
NØ

Denver vs. Phoenix

Next up is a battle of the bands pitting seven Denver bands against seven local Phoenix faves. Listen up, & you be the judge. Various Artists - Denver vs. Phoenix, Dirty Records DR-06, 1998. Denver Side: Pinhead Circus - Asking for a Beating 8 Bucks Experiment - American Blue The Gamits - Don't Take Much The Family Men - Signals Substitutes - Beneath the Wheel Uphollow - Sparkle Eyes Phoenix Side: Mandingo - Alcohol Subject Mad - SMIII Adams Alcoholics - Lifes Blood Dirty Laundry - Lucky Dog Aggression Session - Bee Pragmatics - Edmuns Fault Plinko - Picture Perfect Enjoy, NØ

The Assmen

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 02/26/2015. Enjoy, NØ



I first got hooked-up with Dirty Mike & Dirty Records out of Glendale, Arizona when I was doing EAT POOP! 'zine. A band from my old stomping-grounds in northwestern Pennsylvania called The Assmen sent me their latest, Enema Nation. It was on Dirty Records. From that point on, I got some great musick from some great bands from Dirty Mike. I'm gonna post up some of my favorites (this is punk-as-fuck shit, so get ready for the moshpit, crusties). It's only right that I start at the beginning.

The Assmen - Enema Nation, Dirty Records DR-08, 1999.
decryption code in comments

Enjoy,
NØ

Chameleon Fetish

 Re-upped 7/23/2022.

 

Chameleon Fetish was a bondage, punk, & piercing place in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They put out a compilation of mostly local bands (Michigan, Illinois, & Iowa).

Various Artists - Chameleon Fetish presents:P.F.W. Volume I, Chameleon Fetish 110, 1996.

What Have You Done at All Lately?
Hard
Mary St. Massacre
C.R.S.4 (Captive Rock Star)[Short Attention Span mix] - CRS (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Thee Duma - Iowa City, Iowa
Silence is Rhythm Bound
Prayer for the Sick & Stupid - Thee Duma (Iowa City, Iowa)
Friction
Dive - HAL (Ferndale, Michigan)
I Fall Down
The Fish Song - Salt Chunk Mary (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Winner
Used to Be a Fence - The Deterants (Ypsilanti, Michigan)
Liberate the Minnows
Tired
Obituary - Blue Onion (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Plastic Man
Jimmy - Nadsat Nation (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Commitment
Ant Dance - The MIBs (Peoria, Illinois)
Mengele USA
Bury Freud - Mt. Tai (Detroit, Michigan)

Enjoy,
NØ

Clean Up this F@@king Mess

I'd forgotten about this until friend Jon was looking for it. I sent it to him, then I forgot again. Now I remembered again. [from Wiki] The Mops were formed in 1966 by a group of high schoolers: Mikiharu Suzuki (drums), Taro Miyuki (guitar), Masaru Hoshi (guitar), & Kaoru Murakami (bass). They began as an instrumental rock group similar to The Ventures, but soon after forming, Mikiharu Suzuki's brother Hiromitsu joined on lead vocals. The group began to play psychedelic rock at the suggestion of their manager, who had brought home recordings of American hippie groups such as Jefferson Airplane from his trip to San Francisco. The group signed to JVC Records, the Japanese wing of Victor Records, and released a single in November 1967 called "Asamade Matenai", which hit #38 on the Japanese charts. In April 1968, the full-length debut, Psychedelic Sounds in Japan, followed; the album included covers of "White Rabbit" & "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane, as well as songs by The Doors & The Animals. They received much press for being the 'first psychedelic band' in Japan, & performed with elaborate light shows.

The Mops - Psychedelic Sounds in Japan, RCA Victor Japan SJV-356, 1968

Side A: Asamade Matenai (Can't Wait 'til Morning) San Franciscan Nights I am Just a Mops Inside Looking Out The Letter Somebody to Love Bera yo Isoge (Hurry Up Vera) Side B: White Rabbit Asahi yo Saraba (Goodbye Morning Sun) Light My Fire Kienai Omoi (Unforgettable Memory anthem) All of You I Can't Get Hot Blind Bird (Please Kill Me) Enjoy, NØ

Just like hot Velveeta

Here's some smooth cheese. One hit blunders. Try the first track for their faux reggae splash, or the last track for bargain basement Queen of the Meatloaf poo-poo platter. This is what you deserve, boyos. Chris Kay - lead vocals & guitars; Sky - bass; Guy McKeague - drums. Special guests Michael Dawson - lead vocals on "Never Wanna Go"; Ricci Accardi - drums on "Smoke Two Joints".

The Toyes - Smoke Two Joints ep 45, Ginger Coffeee Records PK 85003, 1983.

Side A: Smoke Two Joints Eddie's Theme Side B: Listen to the Radio Never Wanna Go Enjoy, NØ

It's 2009 Futhermocker! Let's Have a Love-In!

It's a new year. I'm into different shit right now. The first live recording from the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, 1967. The Charles Lloyd Quartet doing Love-In. What a stellar band. Charles Lloyd on tenor sax & flute, Keith Jarrett on piano, Ron McClure on bass, & Jack DeJohnette on drums. I need say no more.

The Charles Lloyd Quartet - Love-In, Atlantic 1481, 1967.

Side 1: Tribal Dance Temple Bells Is it Really the Same? Here There & Everywhere (Beatles cover) Side 2: Love-In Sunday Morning Memphis Dues Again / Island Blues Enjoy NØ

Kim Fowley's 523rd Dream

UPDATE: This post has been re-uploaded 08/09/2013.  Enjoy, NØ

Kim Fowley & Dyan Diamond

Kim is dreaming. It is Easy Rider era & Phil Spector has gone to cop cocaine from Wyatt & Billy. Kim breaks into Spector's mansion & steals Phil's platforms. Kim wants to follow in Wall-of-Sound Spector's footsteps & thinks that stealing his shoes will help. The Runaways show up dressed as the Keystone Kops & nearly spoil everything (again). Kim awakens, it's 3:30 in the morning, he stumbles to the phone & calls his friend Hugh. 'I have a new hustle,' sez Fowley.

'This time my girl-group won't even be all girls. The Clingers & The Runaways broke me of that. Fuck Spector.'


Venus & the Razorblades...'This is what the Runaways were supposed to be,' quips Fowley. 'The name connotes California Sunsets & all night rumbles.' What Kim could do once, he could do again. Unfortunately the Razorblades changed personnel more often than Kim changed underwear. At their live debut at the Bel Air Sands Hotel, the sound system blew up in the middle of Punk-a-rama (or Punk-o-rama, it's spelled both ways on the album). The rest would have been history.

from left: Cher, Kim Fowley, Steven T.

No press is bad press. V&tRB played the usual venues around LA & then broke up before going on tour or releasing an album. While Kim was moving out of his apartment in 1978, he was sorting through his tape library & came across the Razorblades material. He decided to edit & re-mix it to issue the posthumous album.

Kim Fowley - Svengali, Ring Leader & legend in his own mind
Steven T. - guitar & vocals
Dyan Diamond - guitar & vocals
Danielle Faye - bass & vocals
Vicki Razorblade - vocals
Nicky Beat - drums (ex-Germs, Mau-Maus, Cramps)
Roni Lee - guitar & vocals
Kyle Raven - drums (ex-Droogs)
Sal Maida - bass (ex-Roxy Music, Sparks)
Rene Bernard - drums (ex-The Swarm)

Venus & the Razorblades - Songs from the Sunshine Jungle, Visa Records IMP 7004, 1978.
decryption codes in comments

Side One -

Finer Things in Life
Big City
All Right You Guys (Alright You Guys on single)
Midnight
Punk-o-Rama (from record & liner...cover says Punk-a-Rama)

Side Two-

Workin' Girl
I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are
Dog Food
Wrong Kind of Guy
victim of My Backstreet Love




bonus:

Dyan Diamond - vocals, guitar, synth drums, & percussion
Craig Magee - lead guitar
Jerry Ackerman - bass
Joseph Fitzgerald - harp & keyboards
Randy Whepley - drums & percussion
Chris Darrow - mandolin, accordian, guitar, slide guitar & percussion

Dyan Diamond - In the Dark, MCA 3053, 1978.

Side 1:
Baby, What You Want Me to Do (written by Jerry Reed)
Western Ave. (Dyan Diamond, Kim Fowley)
Hot (D.D)
Teenage Radio Stars (D.D.)
Someone like Me (D.D.)
Back on the Strip (D.D.)

Side 2:
Mystery Dance (Elvis Costello)
Animal Girl (D.D. , Kim Fowley
Nervous (Chris [Ace] Spedding)
Your Neighborhood (D.D. , K.F.)
In the Dark (D.D.)
Gonna Rock Ourselves to Death (D.D. , K.F.)

Enjoy,
NØ

Her Name is ODETTA

 UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/01/2013. Enjoy, NØ.

A delayed post from earlier this month, no less poignant now...

On Dec. 2, the Queen of American folksingers, Odetta, died of heart failure just short of her 78th birthday.

Odetta Holmes was born in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 31, 1930, in the depths of the Depression. The music of that time & place...particularly prison songs & work songs recorded in the fields of the Deep South...shaped her life.

Her discography is an aural history, centuries deep, of abduction, enslavement, social & sexual abuse by the whites in power...& of the determination first to outlive the ignominy branded on the race, then to overcome it. She marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & performed for President John F. Kennedy. The one thing that death denied her was the chance to sing at President Obama's inauguration.

Odetta never started out to be a folk singer. She was operatically trained. She earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. Her debut performance was in Finian's Rainbow, but while on the road with the show, she met a group of folkies in San Francisco. Their interest in traditional songs took her back to her own youth & the songs that had helped form her being.

Miss Rosa Parks was once asked which songs meant the most to her. She replied, “All of the songs Odetta sings.”

Bob Dylan said in a 1978 interview, “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta.” He said he heard something “vital & personal”. He added, “I learned all the songs on her first record", songs like “Muleskinner Blues,” & “ ’Buked & Scorned.”

You can hear them here. Featuring Odetta on guitar & vocals, Bill Lee on bass.

Odetta - The Best of..., Everest / Tradition Records TR 2052, 1967.
decryption code in comments

Side One -

Muleskinner Blues
If I Had a Ribbon Bow
Shame & Scandal
'Buked & Scorned
Joshua
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Side Two -

Glory, Glory
Lowlands
The Fox
Lass of the Low Countree
Devilish Mary
Take this Hammer


This is some mighty great musick, & if songs like "Devilish Mary" or "Take this Hammer" don't get you dancing, well, then you're dead, Jim.

Respect,
NØ




Odetta at Newport.

Betty Paige R.I.P. baby!

Some music to listen to while you think about Betty.
Danger Girl

Pablo Picasso's Never Been Called an Asshole (not by me)

UPDATE: This post was
re-uploaded 09/19/2013.
Enjoy, NØ







During a recent exchange concerning "Pablo Picasso" by Jonathan Richman, I had said I liked John Cale's version of said song. I found out not everyone is familiar with it, or the album it comes from, so...here 'tis.

John Cale - Guts, Antilles AN-7063, 1977.
decryption code in comments

Guitars - John Cale, Chris Spedding, & Phil Manzanera
Bass - John Cale, Pat Donaldson, Archie Leggatt, & Trevor Burton
Drums - Timmi Donald, Phil Collins, Fred Smith, Raymond Duffy, & Keith Smart
Keyboards - John Cale
Saxophone - Andy Mackay
Synthesizer - Brian Eno & John Wood
Percussion - John Cale & Tony Carr
Vocals - John Cale
Backing Vocals - Geoff Muldaur, Alan Courtney, Liza Strike, & Barry St. John

Side One -

Guts
Mary Lou
Helen of Troy
Pablo Picasso
Leaving it All up to You

Side Two -

Fear is a Man's Best Friend
Gun
Dirtyass Rock 'N' Roll
Heartbreak Hotel

Enjoy,
NØ

Maybe take away their guns?

Copied without permission from 7 Dec. 2008 Sacramento Bee...

Group seeks to keep police officers alive

Danger is from their own guns, research sez...

"Far more police officers killed themselves with a firearm last year than were gunned down by criminals...research indicates that as many as 150 police officers killed themselves last year, usually with their service weapon.

During that time...55 officers were shot to death by criminals.
So far this year...about 80 police suicides nationwide. Another 20% may go unreported because many police agencies still view suicide as a disgrace.
'The facts are covered up, the families are shunned.' "
by David Richie

Cop Shoot Cop - Get Gone (unreleased-unmixed from final recording session)

Feeling safe now, are you?
NØ

Deleted without Warning

I have become the latest victim of the Anti-Freedom Forces.
One of my file servers deleted my account without warning.
Since I was too stoopid to back-up everything, some is lost forever.
The rest I have pulled the links for now, & will re-upload the files elsewhere.

Both Earhole Stuffer II & Son of Earhole Stuffer II, Link Cromwell's Crazy Like a Fox from the Lenny Kaye post, a live Nick Cave show, The Fuzztones, Misfits/Rocket from the Crypt split, ROTR, & Scratch Bongowax are gone for good.

Nasal Sex, Nash the Slash, Renaldo & the Loaf, Pig Bag, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, John Sinclair, & The Detonators/Econochrist split will have to await re-up & their links are dead for now.

If anyone notices any more dead links or suspicious activities, please let me know.

NØ