December 11, 2008

The streets of Harlem in the early 80's


1984 - Crash Crew

The Crash Crew came together in the Lincoln projects in Harlem back in 1977, the year after I was born.
While this record was released in 1984, what we really have here is a document of the first few Crash Crew 12" singles, which were released between 1980 and 1983 on vanity labels and also, on the famous Sugar Hill label, which issued this LP.
That's all I got in me right this second. I'll add some meat to this post later. Good night! :)

Happy Holidays!!!!




December 10, 2008

Peej




I soooo love my dog!!!

December 9, 2008

...and it only took 12 years to find it!


1986 - Girl In The Sweater / I Heard Her Call My Name 7"

Back in 1993 or 1994 I was a junior in high school and dating this girl whose mother was an exchange teacher from Australia. She had some mix-tapes that her friend back in Woolongong had made for her that we listened to together bunches of times. Apparently she had forgotten to pack one or something because she was always looking for a tape that had this elusive song called "Girl In The Sweater" which she wanted to play for me.The song was by a band called the Hard-Ons, who were a very popular old-school punk band back in Australia. Many times she frantically tried to find that cassette and many times she made me promise that I would continue to look for this song for the rest of my life or until I found it, whichever should come first.
I can honestly say that probably because of her manic insistence, or perhaps because of how much other great music she had turned me on to, I did in fact search for it. And search, and search, and search...
I had no problems finding material by the Hard-Ons. They are pretty well known in Australia, and the UK, and aren't completely unknown these days in the states among serious punk collectors and enthusiasts. This song though... God damnit. I could have sworn that she made that shit up!! No fucking trace of any such song, even after working for years in used record stores, where I got to see and listen to pretty much every weird, obscure record that ever existed.
Nothing.
Then, one day, about three years ago, I was just kind of wandering around the Clinton neighborhood, waiting to meet a friend at Dot's and decided to pop in to this really great little record store called Green Noise. I browsed around and found a great old record of early Roy Orbison recordings and was close to leaving when I thought, "Oh, I should look for Hard-Ons" (yeah, haha) I went to the "H" lps and there it was. Right in front. A yellow covered record by the Hard-Ons. Self-titled. I had never seen or even heard of such a thing. I flipped it to the back, and there it was, 'Girl In The Sweater'. I flipped it back over.
$80
*erkkkkkkkkkkk*
That wasn't going to happen. :( However, the owner of the store was nice enough to let me put the record on a turntable and listen to it in headphones. Finally.
A few months later somebody from London via the interweb traded me a copy of the 7" version for a 7" I had of green day.
Sucker.
Sarah and I still keep in touch. She's busy back in Sydney being a bad-ass teacher/art-curator/musician and though I talk to her relatively regularly, I don't think I ever told her that I found that goddamned song.
She is getting married in March or something and I won't be able to go, but in honor of her engagement I dedicate this post to her. Congratulations Sarah! May your marriage be even lovelier than chips!

Thurston was hiding out in St John's


1995 - Cindy (Rotten Tanx) 7"


This seven inch was released as a promotional item for the 1995 record 'Psychic Hearts'. I could go on and on and on about that record and it definitely belongs in my Top Ten Records Of All Time list, but this post is only related to that album by proxy, and I'm pretty sure that you can easily find a copy of that one if you want to.

I found this little gem hiding in a pile of otherwise totally uninteresting 7"s out at a tiny little record store in St Johns at the far north end of Portland. This same trip to this record store yielded up a Deftones promotional 7" for '7 Words' as well, which people have offered me all kinds of crazy things to trade for including first-born children. Oh, those wacky Deftones fans...
Anyway, this little record has the album track Cindy (Rotten Tanx), a super fucking tough bad-ass of a song that grinds like a night driving in the city, high on youth energy and a joint you snuck past your parents. Doesn't make sense? Listen and maybe it will. The lyrics have something to do with a guy who is rapturing in the idea of wrapping himself up in all the things that are amazing about females, but get a little lost in all the revved up guitar slithering.
The B-Side is the otherwise unreleased track 'Teenage Buddhist Daydream', a gentle, lo-fi, songlette which is interrupted in several spots by seemingly random clips of audio, probably dubbed off a TV. Considering the heft of 'Psychic Hearts' it makes sense that it wasn't included on the record. It isn't a total throw away though, and if you like the album you'll probably want to hear this.

December 8, 2008

I found this CD on the ground



1997 - 70 Minutes Of Happy: Bulb In Bulbophonic


Yes, I literally found it on the ground. Right in the middle of the street near NE Sandy, close to a nice little townhouse apartment I used to live in with my friend Keira.
It was summer and I had had a crap day at work and it was about a millions degrees outside. I rode my skateboard all the way from the record store I worked at on NE Sandy and 20th to our apartment, which was on like 54th or something. If you are familiar with that patch of Sandy Blvd circa 2000 - 2001, you know that it IS NOT skateboard friendly. 100% uphill and riddled with vicious potholes, shitty, smashed up sidewalks and weird intersections.
Anyway, I had turned up Sacramento to the kind of back approach to the apartment complex, and stopped to sit on the sidewalk and rest before I crawled up the last couple blocks. And there it was. Sitting right in the middle of the street. I picked it up and looked at it. A cdr with a printed disc in a little plastic sleeve with what looked like a photocopied piece of bright pink paper for a cover.
(the scan above I found on the internet. It sucks I know, but I can't find the cd right now...)
I assumed it was for some local band but saw that it was on a label called Bulb, out of Osaka, Japan. I fucking LOVE Osaka! Favorite place ever! I recognized something else as well. A name. Incapacitants. I had never heard these "Incapacitants" but I had heard of them. Infamous japanese godfathers of the Osaka noise scene, and older contemporaries of Hanatarash. This I was excited to hear. I decided to just go ahead and listen to the whole thing from the beginning and I had a discman with me. In it goes. It sounded a little like...
"SSSSSSSSSSSKKKKRR
RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Auh-
GUHH-g-g-g-g-g--g-g-G-G
-g-gkschkreeeeeeeegk... gk...
gk gkgkgk!!!! DOOM
".
This stuff isn't for everyone. Hardcore NOISE. Right at that moment though, it was like a perfect reflection of my mood. I was hot, and wanted to crawl out of my body. 15 million annoying reminders of people being rotten and aggressive were wrestling each other in the front of my brain. My skateboard fighting against the jagged, toothy sidewalks and complaining audibly. Surrounded by pushy, careless automobiles with faceless automatonic drivers. Only sounds like these could push them far enough away from me that I'd be able to maybe catch my breath and assemble my thoughts reasonably. It sounded perfect.

The cover is cryptic and the track list spotty. Some tracks don't even list an artist, or just say "???" When I find the CD, I'll make sure and put up an accurate transcription of the track listing as it is listed on the cover. Til then, you can listen. :)
As far as I can tell this thing is very very uncommon and out of print. The label doesn't even seem to have a website anymore. Anyone have any more info on this thing?

December 7, 2008

NeoBoys and a brief dip into Portland's punk roots...


1983 - History Of Portland Punk Volume One


I used to have a vinyl copy of this ridiculously cool record, but I gifted it to my friend Isaiah from the band the Eegos. :( I'm a dumbass. This record was released by Zeno Records on wax, back before I ever lived in Portland. The CD reissue from 2000 is out of print and goes for about $70 on Amazon. However, the label now offers it for sale as a CDR here. This is a really amazing peek at the scene here in Portland in the late seventies, which was fantastic and really in and of itself. Around this same time the Satyricon released a lesser compilation of local bands as well. I'll get it up here someday. The track listing is as follows:

1 Better Off Dead - Wipers
2 Up In Flames - Wipers
3 Does It Hurt? - Wipers
4 Romeo - Wipers
5 No Solution - Wipers
6 Never Comes Down - Neoboys
7 Give Me The Message - Neoboys
8 Rich Man's Dream - Neoboys
9 Afraid Of The Russians - Stiphnoyds
10 Mom's A Fake - Stiphnoyds
11 Radiation - Stiphnoyds
12 I'm Trouble - Sado-Nation
13 Gimme You - Sado-Nation
14 On Whom They Beat - Sado-Nation
15 Mom & Pop Democracy - Sado-Nation
16 Rock & Roll Hell - Napalm Beach
17 Johnny Paranoid - Sado-Nation
18 Running Dog - Lotek
19 World Gone Mad - Lotek
20 Running In The Shadows - Neoboys
21 WW2 - Neoboys
22 Mutant Baby - Smegma
23 Outro - Smegma
24 Same Old Thing - Wipers
25 Meat Is Rotten - Stiphnoyds
26 1988 - Rubbers
27 Riot Squad - Rubbers
28 Bug - Cleavers
29 Bop Street - Bop Zombies



I also am linking a live recording of the amazing and hard to track down music of old-school Portland girl-punkers the NeoBoys.
Enjoy!

1990 drops knowledge

1990 - Holy Intellect

Another request, and another totally out of print album. This is for my good friend Jon down in Nashville, fighting the consumer hoards, and making the streets safe for the children. Poor Righteous Teachers. The name really takes you right there all by itself, doesn't it? 1990. Oh, 1990... I bet the first time I heard this I was rocking a pair of bright red denim shorts, a cross colours or Malcolm X hat: and a giant t-shirt with a Loony Toons character on it. Maybe someone said to me, "Hey man, is that the new 'Black Sheep' cassette? Shit.. you should check out these cats PRT!" and I was probably like "Wow man, these guys are fresh!" And I was right.

*
1 Luv 2 tha Nation of Gods and Earths son!
*
"It's only like 5% out of a hundred..."

Friends overseas

In the summer of 1994 I was lucky enough to spend some time with my friend Yoshiyuki in Tokyo. I was 17 years old, and though I was a rabid musician at the time, playing in several orchestras in Washington state, I hadn't yet stumbled upon the rich deposits of experimental and noise music exploding out of Japan. It's probably for the best, as I don't think any of my friends would have wanted to go check out whatever wild noise madnesses were happening in Tokyo that summer. Luckily for me, someone made it their business to make some sort of chronicle of that time and place.


1991 - Tokyo Flashbacks Vol 1

Tokyo flashbacks is actually a long running series of compilations chronicling the vast amount of noise, experimental, and out-jazz music of the Tokyo scene. This first volume was released in 1991 and contains work from relatively popular artists like Keiji Haino, to the completely obscure. I bought this thing on vinyl in 1995 in Spokane, WA at a wonderful little independant record store called 4000 Holes (You'll hear more about this place from me for sure). It said "Tokyo" on it and it had a gamera toy hiding on the cover, which was all the motivation I needed to take it home with me. I was living in a weirdo house with a couple other looney, acid-soaked, art damaged kids and an angry siamese cat named "Agony". My only solid impression of my first listen was a feeling of being about 20 years artistically behind what I was hearing. Spokane in 1995 had nothing on Tokyo 1990. The most exciting thing for people in Spokane was the possibility of mixing ska with grunge... *sigh* Anyway, this is a really well curated series, and I'm sure I'll end up posting more of these records in the future. For now, this is a great jump-off for the uninitiated, and ought to keep you pretty bent and busy trying to unravel it for a while...

honey bliss light melt



2002 - Kali Yug Express


This one is just plain gorgeous and in it's own nice little place. A separate slice of what the Sonik were up to while delving into one of my favorite discs, 'Murray Street'. As far as I can tell this little EP is out of print.

the one that got away...

That's all for a bit today. I'll leave you all with a letter from our boy Jack.

jackpot debris


1998 - Jackpot Studio Demos


Elliott recorded these at, tiny, cute, Jackpot Studio at it's original location on SE Morrison in Portland. I recorded on two different records which were recorded here in his little studio which he co-owned with Larry Crane, who did the bulk of actually running the studio. Larry still runs Jackpot here in Portland and is an ace producer and is also magically patient. I think my old band *deleted* might have baked him a cake he was so nice. Anyway, I always like hearing these recordings. They were recorded right down the street from where I was living, right when I was living there. It's nice to think these songs were being born right in my little neighborhood.

Mad props to the st(r)ash (treasury)!

Sweet sweet exorcist...


1974 - Sweet Exorcist

I don't think that this particular album has ever been put onto CD and made available for mass consumption, which is a damned dirty shame. If you know Curtis already, be prepared to be shocked that this album isn't held up in the same light as 'Curtis' , 'Roots' and 'Superfly'. The track "Kung-Fu" alone will kick your ass. There are a few more Curtis Mayfield records like this one that have just kinda disappeared into the void. I'll put more of them up as I get to it.

New Years Eve!



I live in a house where we have shows. It is popularly known as the Sorority House. Mostly experimental, and noise, but not always. We're having one of these fun things go down on New Years Eve! Old school homie Alex Miel will be decking the crib out with some super sweet art and the musical line-up is deadly! This will be an out of control fun night!



Evan @ Lola's 2002

This one is a request. Once upon a time I was in a band called Tea For Julie. While I was in that band, we had occasion to open for the talented and extremely stony and friendly Mr. Evan Dando. This was, I believe, in 2002? I had learned the bass parts for the set about a week before the show and I was a bit nervous as it was a near sold out show at Lola's room, and I really didn't want to be playing bass in that band anyway. Yikes. Anyway, it all worked out and a great time was had by all. We recorded Evan's set for him with a single Groove Tube condensor mic plugged into a Vestax VF-16, (with his permission) so don't expect it to sound super amazing. :) Playing with him on this tour were: Juliana Hatfield on Bass, Chris Brokaw on guitar, and a sweet drummer.




Evan Dando - Live @ Lola's Room
Portland, Or 07/14/2002


Evan, if you would like this removed let me know.