|
_|  | THE INDIE-LIST DIGEST #17                                              |
    | "You kill what you're afraid of... are you afraid of me?"              |
 |  |                                                                        |
 |  | Moderated by Mark Cornick, Liz Clayton and Joshua Houk.                |
_| _| Mailed weekly from Indie-List world headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. |
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From: Mark <mcornick@delphi.com>

Lots of reviews this week. We'll get to them in a minute, but first this:
Somebody at the Washington Post is finally getting a clue. On the cover of this
week's Weekend section are Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thompson; the cover story
is about the DIY punk rock-lala-whatever scene that everyone except
Washingtonians seems to know about. Profiled are Jenny and Kristin (Tsunami/
Simple Machines), Mark Robinson (Unrest/TeenBeat) and Charles Bennington and
Geoff Turner (WGNS Studios). Get your hands on a copy of this if you can.
(The Post has been doing some cool Weekend covers of late; last week's was on
zines, and a few months back they had Velocity Girl on the cover.)

On to the reviews:

Th Faith Healers, "My Loser" (Elektra): New songs from th Healers, with the
sound cleaned up ever so slightly (you can hear Roxanne's vocals real well)
but overall pretty much the same sound as the LP. This is a radio promo item
(7" on blue vinyl with no pic sleeve) so it may be a little hard to find, but
Healers fans are gonna want it. **

Laurels, "Hate Me" (Heparin): Another 7" from the noise brats of Providence.
Fast, very fast (sounds kinda funny, like it might be at the wrong speed, until
the vocals kick in.) Distortion, bizarre guitar slides, hyperactive rhythms,
you've pretty much heard all this before, but it's still pretty good noise.
The B-Side is cleaner sounding and just kinda spins around in one place without
going anywhere. *1/2

Sleepyhead, "Punk Rock City USA" (Slumberland): The closest thing the East
Coast has to a Beat Happening. Quick, hyperactive A-side backed with a slightly
slower, fem-vox B-side. Another fine 7" from a band that has yet to fail to
impress me. **

Fudge Factory Inc., "Locust Mind" (Mongrel): A weird hybrid of SoCal hardcore
and rap stylings. Didn't float my boat, but it obviously floats Rick Rubin's
cause I just heard they've been signed to Def American. The next Beasties they
ain't. *

Jawbox, "Jackpot Plus! (DIS77)" (Dischord): With Fugazi pretty much stalling,
Jawbox are, to my mind, the leading hardcore band in DC right now. Two new songs
on this 7"; "Jackpot Plus!" is loud & fast; "Motorist" is slow, uses a drum
machine on the first verse and perks up as it goes along. (Real quality 7"
too--nice vinyl and full-color picture sleeve; I guess Fugazi sell enough
records that the whole label can share in the wealth.) Essential. ***

Tar/Jawbox, "Static" (Touch & Go/Dischord): As you know from Liz's review,
Tar covers Jawbox's "Static" and Jawbox covers Tar's "Static". Nice idea for a
7". Both bands do pretty straight readings that, if not overly creative, are
OK. **

The Jesus Lizard/Nirvana, "Puss/Oh, The Guilt" (Touch & Go): TJL's song "Puss"
was on their last LP, so I won't review it again here. It's a fine song. The
Nirvana song kinda starts and stops and never really gets going, but still
manages some entertainment value. For as long as some of us waited for this, it
seems like a misstep to me. *

Scrawl/Versus, "11:59 It's January/Tin Foil Star" (Simple Machines Working
Holiday Series): The January issue salutes New Year's Eve (Scrawl, sounding a
lot like Tsunami, hmmm) and "the first rocket shot to the moon (which missed
the moon and now orbits the sun) and... those crazy scientists" (Versus,
getting soft'n'pretty with occasional outbursts.) Cool. **

The Tinklers/Lungfish, "James Brown/Abe Lincoln" (Simple Machines Working
Holiday Series): The February issue salutes Black History Month (The Tinklers,
starting with a poem about Rosa Parks et al, and then tinkling into a soulless
tribute to Soul Brother #1) and Abe Lincoln's Birthday, or President's Day to
some of you (Lungfish, doing their usual hardcore sort of thing.) I guess if
the Tear Jerks aren't gonna do a single, a split Tinklers/Lungfish single is
the next best thing. **

_Soluble Fish_ compilation (Homestead): With a lineup like Phoaming Edison,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Kicking Giant, Caroliner, Uncle Wiggly, Sun
City Girls, Sleepyhead, Happy Cat, Dumbhead, Unrest, Beat Happening, Barbara
Manning & Mad V. Dog, Dogbowl, Fly Ashtray, Fire In The Kitchen, Empty Box,
Jane Martin & Nathaniel Knight, Gashounds, Smack Dab, Spawnbath, Gamma Rays,
The Zomboys, Waldo Jeffries and Wall Drug, and the sponsorship of _Chemical
Imbalance_, it has to be good. And it is. Over 70 minutes of low-fi in-yr-face
rawk-n-roll. **

Silverfish, _Organ Fan_ (Creation USA/Chaos): The first release from the newly
opened US arm of Creation (distributed by the Sony-owned Chaos Records--how's
that for a pair, Creation/Chaos?) is the LP from Silverfish. Loud, obnoxious,
non-PC rawk, fronted by mean girl Lesley Rankine (she of "Hips, Tits, Lips,
Power" infamy) and produced by Jim Thirwell (Foetus, Etc.) Includes bonus
tracks for the American issue. Like a real silverfish, this will weasel its way
into your brain and eat it alive. **

and...

Bullwinkle Sound System, "Lord God Muzick" (Lovechild): Okay, I'm being lame and
reviewing a cassette from my own label, but who cares. Really dense, heavy and
echo-laden dub tracks. The A-side "Lord God Muzick" makes extensive use of
Steroid Maximus's "Life In The Greenhouse Effect" drums and horns, throwing in
various space noises, bits of the "Across 110th Street" soundtrack, the
Star-Spangled Banner, public service announcements for Social Security, and more
unidentifiable stuff--I think they recorded over the same tape about 23 times.
The shorter B-side, "Uptown Sputnik" is based around vocals by Bobby Womack and
contains multiple bugle calls. Cool stuff--thank god they didn't just say no.
**

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From: Lena <keb@u.washington.edu>

Lena sez:  A friend of mine who works for Fantagraphics, publisher of
_The Comics Journal_ tells me that CJ is planning an article about
record/CD covers by comix artists.  I thought I'd take advantage of the
wonderful world of electronic communication to glean some data for the
article.  Send me your factoids.  Also, I have an idea for a feature: 
"comix covers we'd like to see" -- match up artist/musician that you think
are appropriate.  Thanks!!!! 

Later,
K

      keb@u.washington.edu

      "Forget the past
      and just say yes."
                --Sonic Youth
                
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Mail submissions for next week's issue to Joshua <houk@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Mail address changes to Liz <lclayton@uhuru.uchicago.edu>
Back issues available via anonymous FTP from <ftp.uwp.edu> (131.210.1.4)
 in directory /pub/music/lists/indie, or by writing Sean <skmurphy@phoenix.
 princeton.edu>
Comments, complaints, suggestions to Mark <mcornick@delphi.com>
Thanks for reading, see ya later, bye bye.