The amount of homespun reading material arriving to the cottage as of late is not only totally unusual from our technological point in history, but it’s also totally fucking inspiring and awesome as well. At a time when I can have the history of any craphole band from nowheresville at my laptop tappin’ fingertips, it’s nice to just take a photo copied labor of love into the bowl for a perusal to learn something about some band I’ve never heard of before like I did with so many issues of Boiling Point in my short trousered years. It’s nice to know some things will never change… I guess.
Brisbane’s The Negative Guest List got some press in the Aussie edition of Vice around this time last year from Daniel Stewart (more on him later), but since I pay a lot of attention to the price of organic brussels sprouts at the grocer, I’m just catching up. Forgive me. Editor Brendon Annersley’s enthusiasm for digging through the muck of all those “disturbingly noisy” 7”s and tapes ne’er-do-wells fart out these days is both an endearing and confusing act in my jaded eyes. The kid obviously knows a turd from gold most of the time and makes an oldster like myself just feel like giving up (not a bad idea). The pace at which Brendon shoots these out is blinding, so it’s sort of pointless to talk about the “latest issue,” so I’ll just let my fave bits of the issues I have here in front of me be known: A documentation of a weeklong pub crawl around Melbourne centered around some Grong Grong reunion shows, Steven of the Homostupids review of Inception, an interview with Cincinnati psychedelic nutbars Wild Gunmen, and a long, rambling meditation on Doc Dart from the Crucifucks. The sole reason to pass a deuce these days is the existence of this mag and that is that. Get your copies from dirtyalley@msn.com
Outta Melbourne, we have the equally prolific Distort zine from sometimes Vice contributor Daniel Stewart. This one falls into the same camp as NGL in that I heard beeps and blips about it from others, but never actively pursued finding issues until much later. I know I could have scored copies when Daniel was in the U.S. a few months back with his band, The U.V. Race, but crowds give me ogeda and I’m not gonna go all the way into Brooklyn and stand around with a bunch of people skinnier, younger, and happier than me just to get some fucking fanzines. Sorry, but it’s the truth. Nonetheless, Distort is an exhaustive and very personal read. Daniel rattles on and on about early 90s (and present day) Clevo hardcore bands like The F.U.’s, Side by Side, Black Flag, Roky Erikson, and The Fabulous Diamonds all without skipping a beat or catching his breath. It just makes you just want to cheer him on as he grapples for some sort of truth in all his ramblings. Isn’t that what a fanzine is all about? Last time I checked (sometime around the release of the Indian Summer/Current split 7”) I think it was/is. Score copies at distortcult.blogspot.com
Then there are the premier issues of Scratch and Sniff from Buffalo that found their way into the mailbox as well. The dudes behind this are the same guys who work the strings behind the Terminal Boredom site and it sticks to the wisenheimer aesthetic of that web presence. The first issue has an interview with a teenage punk band from Rochester called Braincar, a guy named Brett who makes a list of the best records ever committed to wax, a Homostupids pin-up, and the expected ton of record reviews. The second one gots a talk with Thurston Sharkey the Third, a “think piece” on the Bohemian Vendetta record, and yet another Homostupids pin-up. I’m eagerly anticipating devouring future issues of this rag after evenings of pulled pork (no innuendos there) so please keep it up (no innuendo either). brandon_gaffney@yahoo.com
The biggest event for most punk rock nerds this past year was the compendium Bazillion Points published of all the issues of Touch & Go fanzine. But if you really want to geek out with your wallet out, the Presspop people over in Japan did an amazing box set that contains exact re-prints of all 22 issues of the mag with an accompanying CD containing unreleased tracks by Negative Approach, Bored Youth, Necros, and more. The thing is such a total work of beauty to behold that even a savage such as myself won’t break the seal on it to take it into the toi toi for a gander. Instead, please let this creepily silent video the Presspop people made tell the story.
These beauts are limited to 500 and you can get your copy straight from the Dutch Hercules himself for a mere $190. Buy it or pose hard… it’s up to you. http://www.tescovee.com/
But don’t think there wasn’t a soundtrack going on in the background while I scanned away at these grimy little pubs in the can, because there was. I’ve read some middle of the road comments on the innerwebs about this Zond LP released on the R.I.P. Society label, but I find it to be just fine, maybe great even. At a time when every cobblestone suckin’ child wants to stomp on pedals till their hearts’ content and make like they’re the heaviest boot looker on the block, Zond actually sound like they’ve figured out the perfect tipping point between pleasure and pain in the murk sweepstakes. Melodies hide under piles of grey muck, while vocals come out every once in a while to let out a formless yelp and it makes me think this would have been a choice disc to spin in my post-edge/neophyte drug daze when me and my buddies had already worked our way through the Creation catalogue and were seeking something sonically heavier. Yes… more of this would be a good thing. http://www.fusetronsound.com/
Zond - “lo”
Around that same time, in the early to mid-90s where I abandoned my edge and swan dove into navel gazing drug induced pomposity, a whole bunch of Hardcore bands like Nine Shocks Terror and The Ruiners came out of Cleveland, Ohio to fuck with the bearded, floor sitting, Kent McClard worshipping mimosas that plopped into the scene at the time. I have to plead total ignorance in knowing about these bands when they existed, but my love for some recent dunce rock bands coming from the Cle, such as the Homostupids, had me back tracking the history. One of the king daddies of these bands was The H-100s. Sadly, a few years ago one of their founding members, Richard “Wedge” McInally jumped into the path of a speeding train and ate it. In homage to him, the stand up dudes behind both the Non-Commercial and Stomp Yer Gonads labels did up a limited to 500 live LP of a beyond hilarious and beyond scorching set the band did in the spring of ’95 in their hometown. Much early 80s Euro and Japanese Hardcore worship can be spotted in the sound, and vocalist Chris Erba comes off like a cross between Darby Crash and Don Rickles with his constant bitching, moaning, and stone busting of the crowd. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard the term “fuck stick” more than I have on this record. Glorious. http://www.vinylconflict.com
H-100s - “Ain’t Too Young to Die”
Seems like I’ve been waiting for fucking ever to finally score a copy of this King Blood LP entitled Eyewash Silver, but I have to admit it was worth the wait. Word is this is the solo work of one of the guitarists from Snake Apartment, that Rhode Island based unit that put out that decent scuzzy full length Paint the Walls way back there in the ’07. Remember that one? Do they still even exist? Anywhos, this solo stuff of his takes the scuzz down a whole ton of levels, stripping it down to its most rudimentary base–a dude, some low level drugs (stems sprayed with bactine?), a guitar, some pedals, a four track, and maybe some percussion bobbing somewhere in there. This is the kind of black and white psychedelia that would have fit in like a red rubber glove on a label like Majora or New World of Sound 15 years ago, but anyone worth their weight in bong goop knows shit like this is as timeless as the D-Beat, a late 80s NYHC style mosh party, or a shaved taint. These things are scarce, with most distros drying up as soon as they get them, so I don’t know where to point you. This might be your best bet: http://www.eyewashsilver.com/
King Blood - “End of a Primitive”
Some of you out there might be aware of those crazy Christians who make up the truly disorienting SoCal based band, Dry Rot. Their debut LP from last year, Philistine, was one of the most bizarre and disturbing full lengths to come out in a coons’ age, referencing everything from This Heat to the Minutemen to Void within a scant album side. Drew and Jordan from the band have a new “project” called Uranium Orchard, and the four song demo tape they just did up might rival their other band in sheer fuckedness alone. There’s pretty much no reference to Hardcore in the sound, but just like they do in Dry Rot, they glop together a bunch of sound references unconsciously that shouldn’t stick together, but somehow do. A lot of it sounds like the takes on Captain Beefheart that came out of the UK in the late 70s (such as the fore mentioned This Heat), but then there’s all these weird electronic surges going on in the background and spacey parts that sound like “Angel Rat” era Voivod. Like I said before, these guys… they’re real weird. Get a tape and find out for yourself. blood_dumpster@hotmail.com
Uranium Orchard
All right… that’s it, I’m spent.
Next time around we’ll talk about No Statik, The Slugfuckers, Ramma Lamma, The Unholy Two, and many more. Hopefully you’ll be here to read about it all. If you’ve done anything you’d like to see covered here in the column send it to Vice c/o Tony Rettman, and maybe I’ll actually get to listen to it.
‘Til Then – TR
TONY RETTMAN
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