We all make typos.
#############################
Indie List Digest!
October 12, 1995
Volume 4 Number 41
#############################
Heeby Geeby II
Fugazi, Amoebic Ensemble, dis-, Secret Stars, et al.
Kustomized
ANNOUNCE: <<<SKIRT>>> TOUR ROUTING
AD: God Is My Co-Pilot/D.Q.E./Mr. Quark
Howdy, and welcome to another Indie-List Digest. This one is,
surprise!, a little off our regular mailing schedule, which we're
struggling to maintain. As if you remember what that was.
Once again, those of you who might receive more than one copy of the
IL, -please- let me know. It seems to be an isolated and sporadic
glitch, but I want to be certain.
Some errata from the last IL. It turns out the Escargot, the tasty
guide to indie-net, is $3.50 postpaid, not $4.00, as I mistakenly
believed. You can get a copy from Jeanne McKinney, 1230 Market St.
#224, San Francisco, CA 94102.
We got a PR thingy from ArtRock Online, who sell Rock n Roll
memorabilia online at http://www.artrock.com. If the Hall of Fame
weren't enough...
And Wonderland Records wrote to tell us about their Web presence at
http://www.connix.com/~wlr. And to remind the readers that they have
an open submissions policy...
And now, on to the content!
-es
<---------------------------->
From: bce2@midway.uchicago.edu
Heeby Geeby II
Husk is the nom de guerre of Richard Johnson. He is assisted on this
recording from 1992 by Paul Dudeney on "metal," percussion, and
keyboards, James Machin on guitar and bass, and Andrea Parsons on
"metal." The title of both the A & B sides of this record, "The
Abattoir," (parts 1 & 2 respectively) can be translated as "the
slaughterhouse." And that makes sense because this is gory, messy
noise, the aural equivalent of a steaming pile of guts splashing down
on a concrete floor. A clanging, bell-like sound begins part 1 and
builds anticipation, which, of course, is never consummated. Tension
builds, but release never comes. Instead the listener is left to
study the slaughterhouse. One of the particularly nice things here is
the use of interesting rhythms which are so often absent from noise
recordings (too preoccupied with texture? ). Please don't infer from
that last comment that this is an industrial dance record (I really
hate that Wax Trax garbage). And please, dear reader, don't let the
presence of of electric guitar and bass lead you to believe that
anything on this record sounds like an electric guitar or bass.
(Fourth Dimension Records P.O. Box 63, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 6YU, UK)
The ideal demo tape is designed to grab the listener by the ear and
never let go. The tape must demonstrate the skills and prowess of the
musicians as quickly and efficently as possible, thus winning them
props, respect and gigs. Or that's what I expected when I heard that
a Kill demo tape had been mailed my way. Even from a band whose gigs
have consisted of shows at a handful of San Francisco art
galleries (The Art Explosion and Acme Gallery among them) and an
outdoor concert on the roof of the San Fran. Art Institute I
expected a certain economy.
Instead the tape I received was a sprawling collage of live jams,
studio experiments, samples, interviews with the band, street noise
recorded by lowering a microphone off the roof of their apartment
building in the Mission (as guitarist Barrett Heaton explained). The
effect was like reading one of Ben Katchnor's "Julius Kniple, Real
Estate Photographer" comic strips while listening to a jukebox filled
with records by Jandek and AACM alums. Kill makes music for a road
trip without a destination, where you just follow the road until
another looks more promising.
The stream of nostalgia reveals its threatening undercurrents as soon
as the first tentative toe is inserted in its icy waters. The space
under the porch is cool and safe, but the floor boards overhead creak
under the weight of a killer's boots. The tattoos across his knuckles
refer to a struggle of Biblical proportions. Chris Lawson's saxophone
and Roman Bolks' aggressive bass guitar work complement L.V.
Washington's sparse drum compositions perfectly. Samatha Brennan is
credited with vocals, but unless her voice is being run through some
heavy effect boxes I never heard her. Another mystery for the
University of Chicago English grad student researching a thesis
entitled "The Cross Cultural Precedents of Postmodern Discourse as
Exemplified in the Descendents of Free Jazz" to sink her teeth into.
Whew. (Kill Management, 50 Lafayette St. S.F. CA 94103)
The Scissor Girls' new single is easily their best work to date (which
I guess should be an indication that there is even better stuff yet to
come). It plays like an abstraction of their earlier work. Every
sound has been tinkered with and stretched out into something
different. Gone are the decisive guitar riffs and up-front bass lines
of _To: The Imaginary Layer On Skeletons_(their debut Lp on Quinnah
Records). Only Heather's steady drumming remains. On earlier
recordings I felt they filled up every space in their songs with notes
and beats which received equal emphasis and ended up overwelming the
listener. Now they leave more space and vary the attack more. New
guitarist Kelly Kuvo uses her guitar to find some strange sounds. Her
approach reminds me of Jim O'Rourke's. You get the idea she could
just as well be using telephone wire streched across a cinder block
and she could still make it sound interesting. IMHO the Scissor Girls
are (along with the Flying Luttenbachers and Trenchmouth) the most
important Rock band playing in Chicago of which I myself am not a
current participant.
This single is part one of two and has "By Process of Elimination",
and "Ambulatory" (which has this great cavernous, long-distance reverb
on the vocals and which, for me, was the stand-out track), and on the
other side, "New Tactical Plan."
Their new music communicates feelings with more intensity because it's
more abstract. It's like when you walk into a building and the smell
overwhelms you, reminding you exactly of some apartment building you
used to live in four years ago. You can't really describe the smell.
It's not good or bad. But it's funny how a smell can invoke memories
so clearly, better than a photograph, because you don't have to think
about the smell itself. It's a trigger. Instantly you remember
exactly how you felt four years ago and why you felt that way, and how
messed up your life was then. Only now you have some distance, some
perspective on the whole thing, and you realize just how sick you were
and by extension still are. It's time to seek professional help, I
guess. (Scissor Girl Research P.O. Box #476748, Chicago, IL 60647).
I just got a copy of the new Soul-Junk album, 1951. Soul-Junk is on
a mission. This mission forced Glen Galloway to diverge from the
sonic juggernaut known as Truman's Water and follow Charles Gayle
along the path less traveled (less traveled by Indie Rockers because it
is mainly populated at present by belligerent born-again Jesus
Freaks). Yeah, you got it. I wasn't just dropping Mr. Gayle's name
because I was trying to be all hip like John Corbett or Peter
Margasak. Soul-Junk, like Mr. Gayle the great saxophonist, is fueled
by a powerful Christian vision. Let me quote from the lyrics of No
Eye Has Seen: "No eye has seen, No ear has heard, no mind has
conceived what God has prepared for those who have loved him, but God
has revealed it to us by His spirit. The spirit searches all things
even the deep things of God."
The point of this record is not to preach, as the liner notes explain,
but to celebrate, like gospel music, to which this bares no musical
resemblance whatsoever. In fact, musically this is closer to the
classic Truman's Water album, _Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox & Ass_ on which
Glen Galloway played guitar. He left that band after marrying his
wife Cathleen. He nows plays all the instruments in Soul-Junk, drums,
saxophone, guitar and bass. Recently he has begun collaborating with
another guitarist so that he can play drums exclusively. But this CD
is an amazing testament to an idiosyncratic and often brilliant
musical vision. Twenty-one songs, several instrumentals, which convey
powerful feelings with unique song structures and unusual sounds.
Glen Galloway seems to me to be on a hardcore nostalgia kick, of which
the religious lyrics are only a part. Like performance bands such as
Caroliner or the Boredoms, the CD creates its own context. The
recorded-on-a-boombox, lo-fi sound ads to the music's feeling of
"authenticity", as if it was the sonic equivalent of a Grandma Moses
painting. The album's title, "1951" evokes a specific past, which is
at once capable of generating a variety of associations. The CD's
packaging has been made to look like a cloth psalm-book from the 19th
century. The liner notes are all in block capitals. Earlier singles
from Soul-Junk had covers made of folded wallpaper, held together
with heavy maroon electrical tape and xeroxed pictures of sports stars
from the '30s.
I bought the "1949" single on Holy Kiss Records, apparently Mr.
Galloway's own label, because a friend told me it was by the guitarist
from Truman's Water. The liner notes said: "This is a love letter,
write back." The a side, "Stripes We are Healed" is a long, sparse
Free Jazz improvisation spotlighting a tentative saxophone and
all-over-the-place drumming. The b side features two religous songs,
"Isaiah 9-2-6" and "1 Peter 2-6-10" which are mellow, tuneful (although
not necessarily in tune) and anthemic in the way Volcano Sons songs
used to be. An LP of 23 songs entitled "1950" followed the single.
Now I am listening to the "1951" CD. What seems consistent to me is
Soul-Junk' s obsession with recapturing an earlier period in America
when culture was produced for its own sake, for the glory of God, for
private reasons (like a love note), but not for profit (the primary
motivation for 90% of the CDs available today). This is certainly a
sympathetic cause and one that resonates with the Punk D.I.Y.
asthetic of the Indie Rock fan. However it is a retreat; it looks
backward instead of forward. The past has been made, it's up to us to
make the future. I'm sorry but I don't think that a retreat to an
overly idealized post-war boom period (the late '40s, the early
'50s) that never existed can save us from the crisis in which we
find ourselves right now. And we are in the midst of a real crisis.
Everywhere the modest gains that working people have won through
years of struggle and sacrifice are under attack. Every where those
in power seek to keep their disproportional share of the common wealth
by deflecting the blame onto scapegoats.
Perhaps I should make clear that I wouldn't waste this much space on a
review of Soul-Junk's "1951", if I didn't believe that the music
wasn't so wonderful. I really think that the music is great.'50s.
to object, however, to the idea that things were better in the '50s.
That kind of nostalgia got Ronald Reagan elected twice. And that kind
of nostalgia runs deep in "Generation X" culture, from Esquivel's "Space
Age Bachlor Pad" records to Dan Clowes' " Eightball" comics to Scott
Rutherford's "SpeedKills" 'zine to thrift store aesthetics, etc.
We cannot afford to live in the past when action in the present is so
crucial. (Shrimper PO Box 1837 Upland CA 91785-1837).
Peace,
Ben.
++++ Free Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
++++more info: http://www.calyx.com:80/~refuse/mumia/mumiadir.html++++
<---------------------------->
From: silverst@ils.nwu.edu (Steve Silverstein)
Fugazi, Amoebic Ensemble, dis-, Secret Stars, et al.
Time to write for Indie-List. I see Eric and Anne all the time and
they work [or worry... -es] really hard and I feel guilty. So, time
to catch up on my reviews. Sorry if some of these are old. I haven't
written for ages. I'll get through everything slowly...
Fugazi--Red Medicine LP/CD (Dischord)--Fugazi take a giant leap
forward and put out their best album since the first 2 EPs. They've
totally dropped their really thin sounds and sound completely thick
and dense--instruments and vocals. The songs are as good as anything
they've done. Lots of imitators had caught up to and even passed Fugazi,
but it'll take them another 5 years to do so again.
Amoebic Ensemble--Limbic Rage CD (Over the Counter/P.O. Box
35/Providence, RI 02901)--Kind of like Slayer gone chamber music?
Weird instrumentation (7 piece line-up), completely amazing left-field
composition. If not the year's most original and pioneering record,
damn close for sure.
Dis- --Nicolae 7" (South East/P.O. Box 579/Iowa City, IA 52242)--A
year or so old, but new to me, so good enough. The best 7" I've
bought in literally ages. Really catchy songwriting, but complex and
really well-played. A bit in the stop-start-y math rock vein, but way
too catchy. I don't know. People compare them to Rush, but in a
totally different way than, say, June of '44.
Tizzy--New Jersey 7" (Chunk/Box 244/Easthampton, MA 01027)--Punk-ish
pop. Kind of a mix of Jawbreaker with small factory? A trio with
simple, loud, catchy songs and female vocals. Swell. Not pioneering,
but darn good.
The Make-Up/The Meta-Matics split 7" (Gemini Star, no address
listed)--You know The Make-Up as the new Nation of Ulysses spin-off.
Very stripped down, minimal, with Ian S's vocals right out front. The
winner here is the sadly defunct Meta-Matics, also from DC. Their
last show ever was here in Chicago, and it blew me away. Kind of 20
year olds doing the Contortions mixed with bits of early '80s punk and
the first Devo record. Unlike anything else you've heard of late and
completely sincere.
Mercy Rule--A Simple Word 7" (Faye/P.O. Box 7332/Columbia, MO
65205)--Nothing fancy here. Straightahead Midwestern rock trio.
Catchy songs, raw attack, amazing female vocals. A vague reference
might be the Poster Children, who are huge fans, but more even more
straight rock. Nothing that will surprise you, but a really solid 7".
The Secret Stars--Wait 7" (Simple Machines)--My favorite Simple
Machines release in awhile. Features Geoff from No Duh/karate!. I
guess the obvious reference is the Spinanes, though one side has male
vocals, and there's little drumming. Somehow, though, the end result
is different from the Spinanes, less strummy and more spacious, I
guess. Very highly recommended for fans of soft, well crafted, pretty
pop.
Ladybug Transistor--Marlborough Farms CD (Park 'N Ride/2178 34th
Avenue/San Francisco, CA 94116)--Debut full-length from the band
formerly known as Sunhead (7" was on Popfactory). The obvious
influence here is New Zealand pop, but still totally original. They
mix in their own more American sound, and then use a huge variety of
instruments to create these vague-ly Eno-ish soundscapes over the
whole thing. Way better than I'm making it sound.
Six Finger Satellite--Severe Exposure LP/CD (Sub Pop)--Back with a
mean-sounding record that mixes their barrage of early '80s new wave
and no wave and whatever-else-wave influences as only they can. There
are synths as on Machine Cuisine, but drums, guitars and bass return
too. Their first release as a quartet. The focus here is obviously
more on sound than on songs, but a couple of the songs are actually
catchy. The sound, though, is really odd, quite unlike anything else
that's come out of late. Maybe not for all tastes, but well executed.
Baldheaded Stepchildren--Bilkamenjo (Merry Dogger/83 Plymouth
St/Montclair NJ 07042)--Essentially a jazz record on a rock label. Go
figure. It features horn charts a bit like Anthony Braxton with a
totally amazing rock drummer. Certainly not like much else you've
bought of late.
There's 10 anyhow. More will follow, probably next week or so.
-Steve
<---------------------------->
From: SCREWBALL@delphi.com
Kustomized in Cambridge, MA
Kustomized
T.T. the Bear's Place
Cambridge, MA
16 September 1995
---------------------
From its name, T.T. the Bear's Place (aka T.T.'s) sounds like it
could be a den for one of the ursine persuasion. Given the acoustics
(strange), the PA ("golden ear" types beware) and the size of the
place (dinky; the PA at stage right fires straight into a cul-de-sac,
while the sound from the other side spills out toward the adjoining
bar/pool table area), it's almost appropriate. A big plus of the
place is the lack of bouncers; the crowd is pretty well behaved, and
there's no need for that kind of rude distraction.
Kustomized played last on a five-band bill. The crowd thinned out as
the set progressed, possibly due to the volume (a lot of people
retreated from the front of the stage with their fingers in their
ears). Pity--the band played a strong set, mixing new material and
covers with songs from both _The Mystery Of Kustomized_ and _The
Battle For Space_. Musicianship was solid throughout (even though
three-quarters of the band are playing the wrong instruments--
guitarists Peter Prescott and Ed Yazijian played drums in Mission of
Burma/Volcano Suns and violin in High Risk Group, respectively, while
Bob Moses played guitar in Busted Statues), with a strong group
dynamic that has progressed greatly since this lineup's debut gig at
Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ (their first with Malcolm Travis replacing
former Bullet Lavolta vocalist Kurt Davis on drums) just over three
months earlier.
Highlights: A rollicking "Hound," a hard-rocking "The 5th," a
pumped-up cover of La Peste's "Better Off Dead," a set of "Handcuffs"
worth getting arrested for, and one appropriately goofy "Puff Piece"
(with all the stops in just the right places).
Set time: 55 minutes
---------------------
Setlist:
Hound
Fingertips
Climax
Throw Your Voice
Harlem Nocturne
Yacky Do
Gorgeous
You Make Me Feel Weird
The 5th
Bored
Better Off Dead
Handcuffs
The Place Where People Meet
Puff Piece
It Lives!
---------------------
<---------------------------->
From: phisst@grove.ufl.EDU
ANNOUNCE: <<<SKIRT>>> TOUR ROUTING
Here's Skirt's Current Tour Routing. If you want to be added to a
mailing list to receive Skirt updates, drop us a line.
[some dates deleted... -es]
OCT. 11 DNA SAN FRANCISCO, CA
OCT. 12 DRAGONFLY LOS ANGELES, CA
OCT. 14 50 BUCKS LOS ANGELES, CA
OCT 15 BRICK BY BRICK SAN DIEGO, CA
OCT. 16 GIBSON'S PHOENIX, AZ
OCT. 19 MERMAID LOUNGE NEW ORLEANS, LA
OCT. 20 HIGH MUSUEM ATLANTA, GA
OCT. 21 SOB'S ATLANTA, GA
NOV. 2 LITLE IRELAND'S AUBURN, AL
NOV. 4 METRO CHATTANOOGA, TN
NOV. 8 9:30 WASHINGTON, DC
NOV. 12 TOAST BURLINGTON, VT
NOV. 16 ELBO ROOM COLUMBIA, SC
NOV. 17 MAGNOLIA ST. PUB SPARTANBURG, SC
NOV. 18 RED LION AUGUSTA, GA
********************************************************
Phisst Records Corporation p) 904-378-9887
1630 NW 1st Ave. f) 904-373-0991
#14481 e-mail) phisst@grove.ufl.edu
Gainesville, FL 32604 http://grove.ufl.edu/~phisst
<---------------------------->
From: Douglas Wolk <dbcloud@panix.com>
AD: God Is My Co-Pilot/D.Q.E./Mr. Quark
Dark Beloved Cloud and The Making Of Americans are proud to announce:
God Is My Co-Pilot _Puss 02_ CD--29 new songs and a cast of thousands
of musicians, watch for them touring the U.S. through mid-November.
$10 ppd.
D.Q.E. _Jump On In_ CD--lovely new album from the duo of Grace Braun
and Dugan Trodglen, with 18 new songs--wild and soulful. $10 ppd.
Mr. Quark _Enjoy Nuoc-Mam With Mr. Quark_ 7" EP--a 14-minute rock
opera by four French teenagers; frighteningly catchy. $3 ppd.
Send cash or checks (payable to D. Wolk) to Dark Beloved Cloud, 5-16
47th Rd. #3L, Long Island City, NY 11101. Thanks!
<------------------------------------------------------------>
The Indie-List Digest is published weekly (Mondays) or more often by
the Indie-List Infotainment Junta, Unltd.
What Who Where
Editors Eric Sinclair esinclai@tezcat.c