NEWS

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Last minute show. July 5th.

Chaz put us on the bill of next Wednesday night's punk gig. We're the TBA! Blackstrap, Bob Ucker, Lefty Loosie and Army of Jesus. We'll go on at 9PM.

Let's see. Bob Ucker doesn't have music on MySpace. But they're an offshoot of a band I've been listening to quite a bit, the Modern Machines- they've got a Midwest punk and pubrock feel. Lefty Loosie are solid pop punk. And Army of Jesus are hardcore. I'm not sure if I've got the trackname "Airopine" correct, but that's what I see as the first song when I squint at their cover art online.

Modern Machines Flash Infatuation
Army of Jesus - Airopine

And we've got one coming up on July 16th, and the Wake Forest Skate Park. This is part of the Jimmy Jam fundraiser. Details to follow.

posted by bendy @ 6/29/2006 11:59:00 AM [permanent link]

The Jimmy Jam event will be held at The Factory Skatepark July 15-16 in Wake Forest NC. All proceeds go to cancer research, so come grind one out for a great cause!

The bands will play in the afternoon on Sunday July 16th during the bowl session. So far the bands playing are Blackstrap, SAPCO, and The Chest Pains ... we might have more, but let's see what happens.


http://www.deliciousskateboardshop.com/

Click on "Jimmy Jam 2006"

said Mr. Surly, at 6/29/2006  

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Hillbilly Boogie - No Country Shit!

I just moved, and found the crate of cassettes. I'm down to one boombox with a cassette player. And there's one in the minivan. The cassette player in the Accord busted while playing the Birthday Party, driving on my way to a gig a few years ago.

Anyways, I found this beloved mixtape, one that changed my outlook on music. It was 1991 or so, and I was getting deeper into Rockabilly, and the friend who'd set me down that road sent me this. It is a trip one circle deeper. Most of these tracks are contemporary to early Rock 'n' Roll, but mostly devoid of the R&B influence. Hillbilly boogie isn't lacking in drive, however.

What always struck me about this mix was how it really created a portrait of a world- and not just the cheatin' and drinkin' one expects from this sort of music. Where rockers from the era were reaching out, going for the craziest and most unleashed emotion they could find, these tracks are confined to a small town landscape. These artists were negotiating a place in those confines. "Hog-Tied Over You" is full of cornpone jokes about chasing each other around a farm, but is genuinely horny sounding. "Johnson to Jones" is one of several songs where the singer declares his young age, though here he's settling down with a sugar-mama he stood behind at the bank. And Jean Shepard's "Two Whoops and a Holler" has a hostility towards the less-fair sex that still stings. Pent-up it the dominant emotion across this mix. Since I was living at home at the time, stuck again my own rural home town, I could commiserate.

I just digitized side A. Plugged in the boombox, and let it run. Here is the vinyl to cassette to wav to mp3 conversion. This music was so clearly recorded in the first place, you won't miss a thing. I'll post side B later. Stay tuned.

Hillbilly Boogie - Side A. (54 Megabytes, it's gonna take a bit)

A pdf of the original cassette cover.

posted by bendy @ 6/24/2006 01:42:00 AM [permanent link]

Great list, I love this genuine e primal rock.
"Oughta See Grandma Rock" is a great rock-a-billy,
I wait the next.
Many thanks.

said loveabilly, at 8/15/2006  

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said bendy, at 5/17/2007  

Here's the other side

said bendy, at 5/17/2007  

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Tribal

I recently got digital copy of the album Uncarved Block by Flux, and it's dredging up a load of memories. This was a hunk of vinyl I really enjoyed in it's day. I don't hear "tribal" used to describe rock percussion anymore, but in the late-80s it was used to describe music like this album; rock instrumentation filled out with a ton of banging. The general suckitude of industrial after NIN ascended had something to do with why I didn't pick up Uncarved Block for a while. And then the whole Iron John drum circle thing probably turned me off to the adjective.

The album is somewhat dated- the guitars have a squelching Adrian Belew sound. But it's still a defining moment. Flux of Pink Indians was agitprop punk band when they started, but by this album they'd grown into something unique. The lyrics were still political, but less overt, and the songs flow like a suite. Or a very extended remix. Bitches Brew horns are what really set this apart, floating in an out of the rock instrumentation. Flux keeps the album in print, under the long version of their name, and have posted some lengthy excerpts of the first section of the record. Which is nice, 'cause you've got to hear the songs in order to get the sense of how this album washes and rises over you-

Flux - Value of Nothing (excerpt)
Flux - Youthful Immortal (excerpt)
Flux - Just Is (excerpt)

If they were more dedicated anarchists, they'd put the full songs up.

The recording that injected this approach into popular music was an early 70s proto-world album of Balinese music, Golden Rain. The first side is gamelan music, an orchestral tradition in Bali. Tuned to a non-western scale, the music is droning, atmospheric and clanging at the same time, sort of like early Sonic Youth. But the second side is the real stunner. A twenty minute chant performed by 100 men in a circle, whose voices become drums.


Ketjak - The Ramayana Monkey Chant

Ketjak recordings show up in horror films all the time, and Fellini used it in Satyricon as a stand in for Roman mystery-cult music. It hits something primal. It's so pagan, it brings out the frightened missionary in anyone raised in the west. It makes you want to go native.

And what an eerie coincidence, WFMU recently blogged about this too.

The band that took tribal percussion the furthest in rock was Savage Republic, who blended it with surf guitar and Arabian scales and album packaging that looked third world currency. Before a gig, like Einstruzende Neubaten, they'd gather some junk from the area around the club, and use it for drumming. I saw them twice, both times completely mesmerizing. They still perform sporadically. This track is from the final performance of their 1989 incarnation.

Savage Republic - Mobilization


and this recent demo captures the surf-punk side of the SR sound:

Savage Republic - New Generation

I learned about Flux and Savage Republic from a guy who went on to form a band influenced by both; Washington DC's long-running instrumental band Tone. They don't tour- some versions Tone have had five or more guitarists. That electric guitar orchestra sound is represented nicely on their latest album:

Tone - C&P

While the tribal side can be heard in this one:

Tone - Fate

Tone is especially generous with the mp3s. Be sure to explore their site.

Now that Stomp has come and gone, underground bands might be able to wring something new out making a racket with percussion. Liars have been drifting in that direction. But the spectacle of pouding on rusty urban detritus should get recycled.

posted by bendy @ 6/16/2006 11:04:00 AM [permanent link]

Tone! I was looking for them in the'XDU stacks ... didn't find 'em. Maybe I need to burn the mp3s to a cd and bring it in for my next show ...

said Lisa B., at 6/17/2006  

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Killed by Death

Those Nuggets-like comps of first and second gen punk have inspired a great radio stream at killedbydeath.org I've been listening for a few days and the selection is nearly flawless. Along the same lines, I've been listening a ton to the Murder Punk comps of early Australian punk bands- the big discovery for me is the Fun Things. But it seems like everything loud that came out of Australia in the years around 1980 was good. Some of the best bands are still around: the Saints, though they've been mellow far longer than they've been loud; Celebate Rifles who share only measly realaudio samples of their mighty output, and it seems even Radio Birdman is set to return.

posted by bendy @ 6/14/2006 01:17:00 PM [permanent link]

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