Tuesday, August 26, 2003
My love for anti-disco punk songs superscedes by general indifference towards the Bags. Having once compiled a collection of anti-disco punk songs, I couldn't pass up the new Bags reissue "Disco's Dead" (Artifix Records). The title song rules. Alice Bag's voice drips with blood-thirsty contempt as she screams the lyrics in true LA punk style. The two live songs ("Why Tomorrow," "Sanyo Theme") on the B-side are, well, crappy live recordings of a punk band. You know what to expect. What I didn't realize was that this record is a benefit for AIDS research, in former guitarist Craig Lee's name.
The new school year has begun, blitzkrieg in full force. Brace yourself.
The new school year has begun, blitzkrieg in full force. Brace yourself.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
A recent record binge, fueled by a fat student loan check has left me with a towering stack of records on my desk. My "To Play" pile. You see, I have a small neurotic process I go through when I get new records. Enter the records into my database, a spreadsheet program that helps me keep track of what I have and what I don't. Laugh if you want, but about half of my collection lives in a small storage space in Southern Indiana. Even a fair number the records I have here in Berkeley are holed away in boxes, or tucked onto shelves in the closet. Every month or so I have to thin out my singles, pull stuff I haven't played in a while to make room for the new. With LPs, for any new record that gets added to the shelves, one has to come out, go in the closet.
After entering the record into my database–information on band, title, label, year, country, condition and special notes (color vinyl?, etc.)–I play the record. Before any record gets filed, it gets played. Stuff that sticks, that catches my ear, sits out for repeated play. And Dave Henry doesn't have the access to music that he once had, so I herd together enough singles to fill a CD and burn him some of the better new stuff. Helps keep him current. He turned me on to so much good music, I owe him.
Since I saw them on the Revolver distribution list, I'd been going to Amoeba almost daily looking for the Fuse! and Mystery Girls 7"s on In the Red. Mitch and Marcos and just about every other person I know who've seen them have been blabbering about the Fuse! Greatest band ever! You gotta see 'em, they'd say. Well I've missed them the few times they made the trek from LA to SF. The record would have to suffice, at least until they made it back up here.
The problem is, I it's really hard for me to walk out of Amoeba, or any record store, empty handed. There's always something I'm looking for, and a place like a Amoeba is designed for happy accidents, stumbling on records you didn't know you were looking for, didn't know existed even.
Each time I went into Amoeba looking for the new batch from In the Red, I'd walk out with out with an armful or other records. The Fitts 7" (Big Neck). Amdi Petersen's Arme "Blod Ser Mere Virkeligt Ud Da Film" 7" (Havoc). The Black Lips 7" (Electrical Human Project). You get the picture. More than I came for. Mimi would ask if I found the records I was looking for and then roll her eyes as I explained I'd have to check back tomorrow. Ridiculous since they're not limited, and within a week or two I'd be able to find them anywhere.
Eventually I found the singles in question. And, as with any record that gets built up so much, after getting home and finally slapping those singles on my turntable I was left, well, not all that moved. They were good, but I had built them up so much, it was about the quest, that in the end, no record, nothing, could have lived up to the hype.
After giving myself a week to calm down, I've revisited both.
The Mystery Girls single is on par with their debut on Bancroft Records. That is, it's good, but doesn't stand up to their album (Trick Knee). They're a band that needs the room provided on an album to spread their wings. Even if the songs can (and do) stand on their own, they fit so well together on an entire album. So few bands these days it seems sit down and write an album, as opposed to just piecing together a dozen or songs written here and there. An album, something meant to be listened to in its entirety, songs that work off each other, building momentum, something that has an atmosphere and can be judged both as a piece of work itself and in its individual parts.
So, while the new Mystery Girls 7", "Circles in the Sand/That's What I Said," delivers as you would expect–great production and a sound very similar to their earlier garagey-psych rock–I am really looking forward to the album.
Though Mitch and Marcos both had a lot of good things to say about the Fuse! neither really could describe what they sounded like. Just that they were incredible live. I had no idea what to expect when I put on the record. But I wasn't expecting a kind of Le Shok jumpiness, discordant, tinny guitars, choppy vocals and simple, primitive, driving drums, all toned down a bit. But it works. Mitch tells me I should be shitting my pants over them, and I probably will when I see them, but the single as an introduction, especially after some serious hype, leaves me with the feeling of "more of the same." It needs to be louder, more chaotic, as I expect they are live. The guitars and drums and vocals all play it too straight. I wanna hear a game of chicken or get the feeling that they're playing as if they cops are gonna bust up the house show they're playing at any second, so they're blasting through the songs with uncontrolled oblivion. Instead, it's all very tight, concise, but not tight enough where it has an appealing mathematical precision.
Rumors have been swirling both in the Bay Area and online about a mystery compilation single with the Mummies, recorded live. Some have photocopied covers with the title "Fuzz Club" on them. After a bit of detective work, it was discovered that Bay Area visionary Tom Guido was the mystery person dropping them off at the San Francisco Amoeba. Of course. Mr. Guido ran the Purple Onion during the height of the Bay Area garage orgy that took place in the late '80s and early '90s.
The "Live at the Fuzz Club" 7" is exactly what you would expect from Tom Guido. Live recordings of 7 bands crammed onto one green vinyl 7", wrapped in a photocopy sleeve with random photos and a huge explanation about how the record was finished in '96, even though the songs were recorded in 1989, and here we are in 2003 and he's just now getting them out. Some are hand numbered, in an edition of 777.
As crazy as it is, the record is also mostly good. Sure the recording is lousy, but no worse than a lot of other records released at the time, including Mummies records. Other bands include the Driving Wheels, Vanilla Whores, Pussy Hounds (featuring Mike Lucas), Wild Breed, Barnaby Street Lamp Post, and the Gaping Wounds. Good luck finding a copy.
Another blast from San Francisco's illustrious past, Pure Filth Records makes a return with a release by a band called The Vaticans. As you might expect, Shane White is in the band, handling bass duty. They have a strong Bell Rays/Detroit Cobras sound going, heavy '60s soul/R&B influence with solid, smoky female vocals. The kind of stuff that, if people in the Bay Area actually danced, would have the floor on fire. The A-side "Commotion" sounds like it could've been a product of the Memphis soul song factory, while the flip "Talking About You," has a more modern, poppy feel, with a catchy as hell chorus. Unlike the Detroit Cobras, the Fondas or lotsa similar bands, these two introductory songs are originals. Bonus points.
***
Next time: Disco's Dead! and How Sean Marciniak saved my sorry ass as I hung on the face of a cliff, forty feet above my rocky ocean grave!
After entering the record into my database–information on band, title, label, year, country, condition and special notes (color vinyl?, etc.)–I play the record. Before any record gets filed, it gets played. Stuff that sticks, that catches my ear, sits out for repeated play. And Dave Henry doesn't have the access to music that he once had, so I herd together enough singles to fill a CD and burn him some of the better new stuff. Helps keep him current. He turned me on to so much good music, I owe him.
Since I saw them on the Revolver distribution list, I'd been going to Amoeba almost daily looking for the Fuse! and Mystery Girls 7"s on In the Red. Mitch and Marcos and just about every other person I know who've seen them have been blabbering about the Fuse! Greatest band ever! You gotta see 'em, they'd say. Well I've missed them the few times they made the trek from LA to SF. The record would have to suffice, at least until they made it back up here.
The problem is, I it's really hard for me to walk out of Amoeba, or any record store, empty handed. There's always something I'm looking for, and a place like a Amoeba is designed for happy accidents, stumbling on records you didn't know you were looking for, didn't know existed even.
Each time I went into Amoeba looking for the new batch from In the Red, I'd walk out with out with an armful or other records. The Fitts 7" (Big Neck). Amdi Petersen's Arme "Blod Ser Mere Virkeligt Ud Da Film" 7" (Havoc). The Black Lips 7" (Electrical Human Project). You get the picture. More than I came for. Mimi would ask if I found the records I was looking for and then roll her eyes as I explained I'd have to check back tomorrow. Ridiculous since they're not limited, and within a week or two I'd be able to find them anywhere.
Eventually I found the singles in question. And, as with any record that gets built up so much, after getting home and finally slapping those singles on my turntable I was left, well, not all that moved. They were good, but I had built them up so much, it was about the quest, that in the end, no record, nothing, could have lived up to the hype.
After giving myself a week to calm down, I've revisited both.
The Mystery Girls single is on par with their debut on Bancroft Records. That is, it's good, but doesn't stand up to their album (Trick Knee). They're a band that needs the room provided on an album to spread their wings. Even if the songs can (and do) stand on their own, they fit so well together on an entire album. So few bands these days it seems sit down and write an album, as opposed to just piecing together a dozen or songs written here and there. An album, something meant to be listened to in its entirety, songs that work off each other, building momentum, something that has an atmosphere and can be judged both as a piece of work itself and in its individual parts.
So, while the new Mystery Girls 7", "Circles in the Sand/That's What I Said," delivers as you would expect–great production and a sound very similar to their earlier garagey-psych rock–I am really looking forward to the album.
Though Mitch and Marcos both had a lot of good things to say about the Fuse! neither really could describe what they sounded like. Just that they were incredible live. I had no idea what to expect when I put on the record. But I wasn't expecting a kind of Le Shok jumpiness, discordant, tinny guitars, choppy vocals and simple, primitive, driving drums, all toned down a bit. But it works. Mitch tells me I should be shitting my pants over them, and I probably will when I see them, but the single as an introduction, especially after some serious hype, leaves me with the feeling of "more of the same." It needs to be louder, more chaotic, as I expect they are live. The guitars and drums and vocals all play it too straight. I wanna hear a game of chicken or get the feeling that they're playing as if they cops are gonna bust up the house show they're playing at any second, so they're blasting through the songs with uncontrolled oblivion. Instead, it's all very tight, concise, but not tight enough where it has an appealing mathematical precision.
Rumors have been swirling both in the Bay Area and online about a mystery compilation single with the Mummies, recorded live. Some have photocopied covers with the title "Fuzz Club" on them. After a bit of detective work, it was discovered that Bay Area visionary Tom Guido was the mystery person dropping them off at the San Francisco Amoeba. Of course. Mr. Guido ran the Purple Onion during the height of the Bay Area garage orgy that took place in the late '80s and early '90s.
The "Live at the Fuzz Club" 7" is exactly what you would expect from Tom Guido. Live recordings of 7 bands crammed onto one green vinyl 7", wrapped in a photocopy sleeve with random photos and a huge explanation about how the record was finished in '96, even though the songs were recorded in 1989, and here we are in 2003 and he's just now getting them out. Some are hand numbered, in an edition of 777.
As crazy as it is, the record is also mostly good. Sure the recording is lousy, but no worse than a lot of other records released at the time, including Mummies records. Other bands include the Driving Wheels, Vanilla Whores, Pussy Hounds (featuring Mike Lucas), Wild Breed, Barnaby Street Lamp Post, and the Gaping Wounds. Good luck finding a copy.
Another blast from San Francisco's illustrious past, Pure Filth Records makes a return with a release by a band called The Vaticans. As you might expect, Shane White is in the band, handling bass duty. They have a strong Bell Rays/Detroit Cobras sound going, heavy '60s soul/R&B influence with solid, smoky female vocals. The kind of stuff that, if people in the Bay Area actually danced, would have the floor on fire. The A-side "Commotion" sounds like it could've been a product of the Memphis soul song factory, while the flip "Talking About You," has a more modern, poppy feel, with a catchy as hell chorus. Unlike the Detroit Cobras, the Fondas or lotsa similar bands, these two introductory songs are originals. Bonus points.
Next time: Disco's Dead! and How Sean Marciniak saved my sorry ass as I hung on the face of a cliff, forty feet above my rocky ocean grave!
