Author: Henry Owings

I was asked recently to give advice to young writers about entering music journalism and I got really discouraged. However, I think what most discourages me is that there’s a blog (that rhymes with Bloatedgascork) that gave The Stooges "Raw Power" a 7.1 while giving The XX an 8.7. I’m completely at a loss for words.

But you know what? I just finished watching Christopher give (what some might call) his rant to a room full of folks for the third time and I feel like all is not lost. Pay attention and be adventurous in your music decisions. (Click here to watch the video. It was embedded, but it would immediately start playing when it was. Grrrrr…)

And buy the new album by Slices.

It’s no small secret that Touch and Go Magazine is more discussed about what it was than has actually ever been read. Editions were small. Layout and editorial was crude, yet lovingly abrasive. The T&G tribe was all from the midwest and it showed. It was the first place that many heard about the Necros, The Meatmen, Negative Approach and The Fix which, not surprisingly, were all records released by Touch And Go and eventually helmed by Necros bassist Corey Rusk. But really, there’s so much to the Touch and Go story that it surpasses by modest ability to educate those that read this blog.

Finally, the entirety of Touch And Go’s output has been collected. Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83 is due out next month on Ian Christe’s Bazillion Points imprint and nobody is more excited than us here at Chunklet.

In what we’re hoping is going to be the first of three interviews (in theory, Dave Stimson and Steve Miller will follow), I asked T&G publisher/writer/designer/editor and Meatman Tesco Vee about the magazine, Michigan in the early 80’s and his favorite Barry Henssler story. Enjoy!

So when you started Touch and Go, what magazines were you reading and/or aspiring to? Moreover, were you aspiring to anything at all?
I’ve always been a music fanatic..and learned early on putting quill to parchment was my forte. Not math. So writing a zine was inevitable. I got NME, Sounds et al., weekly and scoured them for the latest and greatest but the writing was pretty clinical. Then I found Slash. The record reviews by Kickboy Face (aka Claude Bessey, RIP) and Chris DesJardine (of Fleasheaters fame) really inspired me to write. And backing up a bit the whole inspiration for writing reviews that bird walked all around the actual band/record was definitely a Lester Bangs nod. That guy was genius. Creem Magazine was always into the good stuff even in the early to mid 70’s. The Stooges, Dictators, etc.

What were the biggest stumbling blocks to doing a magazine in an age before computers?
Oh christ! Those old drum Xerox machines! I hadda sneak into the elementary school at 3AM and hope the toner wasn’t running out. [For the book] a couple of the T&G’s were pretty faint, but thanks to Photoshop, they are darkened up. I would spend hours cutting and doing paste ups. Glue sticks, sharp scissors and a poison pen were standard equipment. Oh, and the stalwart army green IBM Selectric typewriter. There’s a pic I found that’s in the book of me huntin’ and peckin’ my way thru a review. You could change fonts with a 4 way ball. Wow, how high tech!

Explain why you think T&G deserves to be bound in a book?
Because nobody ever really saw it!  Because the music it covers is still relevant and resonates with subsequent generations. Early on we were up the UK’s ass, but that quickly changed to [us] mostly [covering] domestic bands. It’s a testament to the Midwest scene in later years and [it] helps document the goings on here. To me, it’s like a musical time capsule as told by two guys with passion, irreverence, moxie, verve and chutzpah. Our air of confidence, if you will, was borne of feeling like we were unearthing this stuff and needed to edify the masses. If we hated you, you knew about it, but predominate was our love for the music. It’s hard to describe but musically it felt like  you were in one of those chambers you stand in filled with swirling money, but just imagine those were 45’s. You are in there grabbing at all the 100’s of records that were being popped from every hill and dale, trying to find the next obscurity, or hidden gem, and then lather virtue upon, or dismiss like yesterday’s stinky socks.

How did you come to meet [T&G co-publisher] Dave Stimson?
We went to the same high school. He was the star running back, I the hair like a big bush parking lot burnout/band nerd so we ran in opposite circles to be sure. I knew who he was and spotted him at a punk show and was surprised. We immediately connected and began sharing our love for the underground music scene that would eventually see the birth of T&G.

Tell me your favorite story about Dave.
It would definitely be the story of how my band The Meatmen got their name. He was living with his folks and getting hearty meals and I’d pick him up to go to a show and he would inevitably let out a loud burp. I would guess what he had for dinner, and I gently took a pull off the stale air I would always guess correct. Beef tips in wine sauce? You are correct, sir!

If T&G had a poster boy, who would it be and why?
Well since his glaring countenance adorns the cover, I’ll say John Brannon of Negative Approach. The guy epitomizes the Midwest ethos. He’s still slinging burgers by day and bellowing out angry anthems in shitholes by night. But the two-headed poster boy would be TV and DS who created T&G. The mag that started the record label. Why didn’t I keep a percentage?!

Although T&G was distributed heavily through the Midwest, how did you get the magazine around the world? Did you end up with distributors that would never pay? Was it mostly mailorder?
It was mostly mailorder. We consigned to Michigan record stores like FBC and Schoolkids…many of them went to other zines, record labels and luminaries. Later on we had some distro, but I can’t recall who!

From your perspective, tell me about the most significant hardcore bands you covered. Were there any shows that were particularly influential?
The shows at the Freezer Theatre were of legend. Minor Threat, Misfits, NA, you name it. I was all over Minor Threat–[the] greatest East Coast live band. The Fix from Lansing were unbelievable powerful. They were gone too soon. Their set was 20 minutes of uninterrupted aggro. Just blazing!

What articles, interviews, reviews or other writing in T&G are you most proud of?
I suppose the interviews which were usually sarcastic and silly but fun to read. Most were done thru the mail, or on my little hand held tape recorder. When we went to DC for the Youth Brigade/Minor Threat/Circle Jerks show, I felt like a kid at Xmas. DC had an aura, a feel to it, and I jumped [into] it, interviewing like a madman. It wouldn’t be long before I bagged Michigan for the Nation’s capitol.

What zines did you consider your peers in the early 80’s?
Wow. There was a bunch, but like Smegma Journal, Media Disease from Reno, of course Flipside, Max R&R, then a couple years later you had Forced Exposure, Al & Abbie’s Straight Edge, Suburban Relapse, Jim Testa’s Jersey Beat, Talk Talk from Lawrence, Kansas…oh crap, there were a ton!

What zines do you feel were taking from the T&G rulebook once you quit?
Definitely Your Flesh and Forced Exposure took the T&G attitude and irreverence and continued the tradition. The level of writing in both of those was top shelf. Byron Coley is a literary titan, and truth be told he had a hand in some of my FE classic pieces like the Agnetha Faltskog Penultimate Peter Meter. He [also] wrote the definitive unauthorized bio of Chuck Norris!

Tell me your favorite John Brannon story.
Oh geez. Staying with him and Larissa in wherever they were squatting to say they were bad neighborhoods in Detroit would be an understatement. That wasn’t fireworks you heard in the distance! He was a character. Always coming up with one liners. I love his quote for the book: "Creem taught me how to piss, but T&G taught me how to shit."  Okay, the greatest JB moment was on Saturday Night Live [when Fear was the musical guest] and he grabbed the mic just before they cut to commercial and yelled ‘Negative Approach is gonna fuck you up!"  I still have my original tape [as] it went out nationally. No five second delay back then. Just too cool.

Tell me your favorite Barry Hennsler story.
He sent a loogie flying 20 feet in the air at a carload of girls in a McDonald’s parking lot in DC ‘cuz they were makin’ cracks about the way he looked. I’ll never forget the reaction when the phlegm ball landed on her face. Priceless!

When Corey Rusk began using the T&G logo to start a record label, could you ever imagine that kid from Maumee would be selling records by the truck full well into the new millennium?
No way..or like I said I would’ve kept a percentage!  He did okay for himself! I was heartbroken, as was he, when he shut it down.

What skills, if any, were you able to take from your days at T&G and use as you grew up and entered the "real" work force?
Writing comes in handy. Being able to form a sentence, and get your point across. I always write letters to the editor and [they] all get published. People always say "you should write a book Tesco", and I always say "I already did"!

Thirty years have passed, would you ever have thought there’d be a large book containing of all your teenage indiscretions?
No!  But am damn glad it is!  This is a long time coming, and I’m happy as fuck this thing is coming out! Ian Christie at Bazillion Points has been totally engaged and behind this the whole way. Distro is through Harper Collins, so you should be able to find it wherever fine books are sold!

Do you follow new music still? Specifically, have you kept notes on the re-emerging hardcore scene which apes so much of what was done back then? What’s your take on it?
Not so much. I have bands I like but I ain’t an expert by any stretch.

Sometimes things that we goof on at Chunklet HQ become reality and, well, this is one of those goofs!

As life-long record collectors, this motto always makes us laugh and we’re hoping it makes you laugh too!

These shirts are for sale for a limited time with a FREE sticker.

They arrive from the printer next week just in time for Record Store Day so although you probably won’t be able to show your pride on RSD proper, you’ll be able to display this for years to come.

Oh, and if you live in the Atlanta, Georgia area, this shirt will be exclusively available at Criminal Records on Record Store Day.

So what we have here is a tape that I thought was a blank from the Chris Thomson tape dump of ’09. And yes, the a-side was blank, but I flipped it over to find that it was a practice session by Skull Kontrol which was Chris’s band with his then-wife Kim and Brooks from Born Against. And yeah, it would be cool enough if it was just the short-lived band blasting thru the tracks on their two Touch & Go EPs on a boombox at their practice space, but no, it’s far more than that.

Apart from rough versions of most songs on the two EPs, I was able to cobble together eleven (!!!!!) tracks by the band that were never released in any capacity. Okay, okay, the fidelity isn’t the best, but I’ve had SO MANY PEOPLE ask for anything from Chris’s tape archive that I thought it best to just throw this out there to appease the masses.

Also, due to the limitations on my end on blog postings (I can only post a maximum of ten tracks per entry), I’m including a link to download all nineteen tracks in all their scratchy lo-fi glory. There’s still oodles and oodles of stuff here from Mr. Thomson, but I’m pacing myself. Or rather, I’m making all of YOU pace yourself. You’re welcome!

And as an aside, holy jesus, it’s been forever since the last posting and well, I have a good excuse. The new Chunklet book is coming along at an alarming pace that might actually outdo The Rock Bible as far as speed of completioni. Right now we’re at three weeks and it’s really shaping up nicely, thanks for asking.

There’s much more to come. Promise.

Skull Kontrol – Untitled 1 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 2 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Mater Delores (Screamers cover) (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – False Ceilings (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 5 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 6 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 7 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 8 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 9 (Midgets tape)
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Skull Kontrol – Untitled 10 (Midgets tape)
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It seems fitting that with the reunion shows of Floor nibbling at my heels that another kick-ass piece of the Florida rock puzzle is being put into place.

Dove were a three-piece fronted by Floor drummer Henry Wilson who were often times unfairly compared to High on Fire, but I just always considered them the Zep-fueled bastard baby brother band of Floor. I only got to see them perform a couple of times (and they killed it both times), but considering they only had one self-released CD and a split single with Floor to their name, I think they did mighty okay for themselves in such a short period of time.

In 2005, Dove was to open up for a reunited Harvey Milk at the EARL, but they broke up shortly before. Such a pity. They were cranking out new jams at an alarming pace and even though it devolved into three long-haired dudes playing shirtless on stage, it was really a sight to behold. No homo.

And now, five years later, the fittingly-named label Financial Ruin has really out-done themselves with a spectacularly packaged LP of Dove’s self titled release. A lovely silkscreened outer sleeve, LP jacket, a mess of reproduced flyers, a handful of stickers, a patch and two different colors of vinyl and all for $15?! And only 300 copies. Wait, are you serious? Yes, well the label has only a few spare copies remaining and well, hey, you don’t really want to blow it, do you?

Click on some of the random links above and listen to a live Dove gig and a few demos. Yes, you’re welcome.

You know, time has a weird way of flying away from me and it wasn’t until a couple hours ago that somebody reminded me about The Star Wars Movie.

Back in issue 12 (in 1997!), I wrote at length about it and well, it’s finally up on youtube! I wish I had a dollar for every person that got in touch wanting to buy a copy of the VHS tape because maybe I would’ve put it out myself.

Astroman? used to play this before all of their gigs back in ’96 when Pez D. Spencer (TSWM director) was touring with them.

I never get tired of watching this. And be sure to watch the second part.

Enjoy!

I’d think by now it’d be pointless to tell readers of Chunklet.com who Eric Davidson is, but here’s the quick synopsis. He was the singer for one of the best bands of the 90’s, The New Bomb Turks (read more about my history with him/them here). Since the band has gone from being a full time endeavor to a labor of love (time permitting), Eric writes. He’s written things here and there for countless publications (Chunklet included!) and has his first book coming out in a couple months called "We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001". Actually, Eric asked for me to write for the book and he was left to tell me that it was cut. So be it. I’ve been in his shoes. But don’t fool yourself, "We Never Learn" is teeming with the kind of detail and enthusiasm that only somebody like Eric could accurately write. Out of my excitement about this impending release, I asked Eric a few questions for the website….

So give me the personal run down of exactly what We Never Learn is.

It’s a bunch of pages bound by glue and shit. But seriously folks, it’s basically a rundown of that strata of trash punk bands and their indie labels from the 1990s (mostly, with some late-80s antecedents) who were neither swept up by the "alternative rock boom" or the Green Day/Offspring neo-punk trend; nor were all-out noise fringe-sters. Just hard-working rock’n’roll bands that basically took their re-lit on fire sounds from 50s/60s raw roots, 70s punk, and kind of eye-rolled the leftover macho hardcore dogmatics. Ended up getting sideways validation when that "neo-garage" trend of the early 2000s finally hit (White Stripes, Hives, Strokes, Jet, Donnas, etc.). And loads of my pals and I in said strata noticed that the major mag press for that trend was either only mentioning the old blues and classic rock these new bands liked, or treated it like a fad — when bands like Dwarves, Supersuckers, Mummies, Devil Dogs, Oblivians, NBT, Bassholes, Jon Spencer, Gories, Cynics, Didjits, Billy Childish and many many others were doing the updated raw roots garage thing for about a decade; many still doing it. And with bands in this tome — like the Mummies, NBT, Oblivians, Gories, Rip Offs and others — reuniting of late, it’s become apparent that these bands have had a slow-boiling influence for newer bands like Black Lips, King Khan & BBQ Show, Jay Reatard, Vivian Girls, Human Eye, Times New Viking, and many more…
    Yes, there’s basically a Death of a Salesman "Attention must be paid" vibe; and my band, New Bomb Turks, is in it a bunch. But it’s not a memoir or whatever. In the end, it’s mostly just loads of wild stories and insider low-rung music biz myth-busting (and around 100 rare fliers/pix/ephemera) that I think would make a great read for any music fan, even if you don’t think the Sons of Hercules are underrated.

Judging by phone convos with you, you cast a pretty wide net, but you were still selective about the bands you chose. Why?

It’s weird. First off, there are only so many bands you can cover. As it is, I interviewed over 130 people for this, over a two-year period, and I’m sure I’ll still get shit for that band "you should’ve fuckin’ talked about, dude!"
    I guess when you take on a topic to write a book about, and there’s a company of any size willing to pony up moola to print it and distribute it, you have to make a confident assumption that they think they know what you’re talking about; and that this is your idea, and just go with it, assuming many will disagree or nit-pick or whatever. Especially considering the bands/style in this book basically has never had a book written about it. Original Gaunt drummer Jeff Regensberger asked me, "So, is this like ‘Eric Davidson’s Favorite Bands’?" And yeah, sort of. But I did include bands that I personally don’t think are that great, but other people mentioned them as being important for numerous reasons; or I remember them having some modicum of success at the time (considering the cult status of most of the bands here) and should be mentioned.
    I basically narrow it down to two lanes of trash garage-punk driving — one being the ultra-lo-fi end (Gories, Mummies, Oblivians, Teengenerate, In the Red, Rip Off Records, etc,) and the faster buzz punk style (Dwarves, Devil Dogs, Supersuckers, NBT, RFTC, Crypt, Sympathy, etc.). (I mostly laid off the surf stuff, though Estrus and some of their bands are in there…) Yeah, it’s a wide net, but I can say that unlike many rock books, the author here was actually in a touring band for 13 years. And I also have been writing freelance since 1989. My editor said, well, if anyone’s gonna write about this stuff, you’re the one to write it.
    Oh, and the editor wanted a kind of "Best of" list at the end of the book. But I made sure to ask a few deep-throated record collector cats to weigh in; and I listed it alphabetically. 50 singles and 100 albums. Should be fun for debate, but at least I didn’t just say, "Hey, Blood, Guts & Pussy is the greatest record of all time!"

I know you didn’t want this to be a "punk rock thru the eyes of the Turks" but would you consider that a bad thing?

Not really, I guess that could be a fun book. But I just thought from early on that since I am casting a wide net, I’d like to get a lot of voices in here. Originally, the idea was to have loads of sidebars straight from many horses’ mouths. But when I handed in the book at twice the length they wanted, I had to cut LOADS of stuff; and the sidebars for space/layout reasons too. Being my first book, this was a total learning experience. Also, from early on, the editor and I agreed that a kind of memoir would be goofy, cuz let’s face it, I’m neither an experienced enough book-length writer to turn my own life into it’s own solo story; and New Bomb Turks ain’t exactly U2 or Springsteen; hell, not even Rocket from the Crypt on the household name scale. But I did try to interview the bands so that if they had a story about, say, getting into a fight with a German fan, I could say, "Yeah, that happened to us," and the conversations, I think, went off on more in-depth tangents than just a usual rock writer would be able to follow….And I’d say 95% of the people I interviewed (and that includes fans, fanzine writers, groupies, and booking agents in addition to the mostly bands/labels) trusted me, knowing I too have puked on stages, fought with club owners for that extra 27 dollars, and been shoved at after-parties by jealous boyfriends many a time.

I know you hacked my part out (no hard feelings) but how much ended up on the editing room floor, so to speak?

    Yeah, seriously, they wanted about 80-100,000 words max — and I handed it in at 167,000 words. Same goes for images in the book, gave them like twice too many. I was able to salvage a bit of those aforementioned sidebars as quotes in different sections. And we’ll be launching www.weneverlearnbook.com around the time of the book’s release, where I’ll be periodically posting stuff that got cut from the book, and adding interviews or blog rants or whatever. Maybe not too many blog rants, the world has enough of those damn things…

What one piece that was cut do you wish remained in the book?

    Too many to mention, but the Henry Owings piece, of course. But seriously folks, this great ol’ pal from Toronto wrote a great story of her and her 14, 15 year old girlfriends seeing the Dwarves for the first time and going to a Denny’s afterwards that was a great, sleazy, ultimately heartfelt story. Chet (Quadrajets) gave me an amazing story about playing Garage Shock and other intense personal things, but it was just too long. I had to cut loads of stuff from my New Bomb Turks pals, and that was really really hard, of course. Mike Rep gave me a good/funny list of his favorite records no one would think he’d like. And I had to cut many things that were personally important to me, but again would come across as memoir-y. Oh, and a great story of a failed Gaunt t-shirt design. Again, too many to mention, but hopefully many of them will get onto the website.
    All that said, I will say that I have learned once again that editing — despite the prevailing opinion of interweb weenies — is a great thing and helps your writing. I think the absolute best stories made the book, the book reads better for it, and had it been 167.000 words, it would’ve been about 600+ pages, and most trash-punk fans would’ve looked at it, and it’s probably $30 price tag, and said, "Fuck that!" And if I just dumped it onto a website, you couldn’t take it to the can with you and use it in case the toilet paper runs out. Take that, Kindle!

Also, are you planning on a book tour? Speaking engagements? Signings? When is the book officially out?

    We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 comes out in June on Backbeat Books. I am planning a book tour, late-June/early July. Lots of readings around NYC/Brooklyn during the summer too. I’ll let ya know when the dates are set. I’ll have We Never Learn Facebook/MySpace pages going too, so probably put the dates on there. I hoping to do a reading/Q&A thing; and I’m also compiling a DVD of very rare clips of bands from the book, and I’ll hopefully be able to show that at all the readings too. Maybe a band playing afterwards too, depending on the venue…

TOUR DATES!
June 26
Brooklyn, NY
Bell House
NEW BOMB TURKS reunion gig, featuring LiveFastDie and the Ex-Whites
Early show! Reading, 6:30; bands, 8-10:30; DJs at front bar ‘til whenever…

June 29
Seattle, WA
Easy Street Records
book signing, 3pm (20 Mercer St.)
Snoose Part Dieu (in Greenwood), reading/DVD showing, 8pm

July 1
San Francisco, CA
Reading/DVD at Hemlock Tavern

July 2
San Francisco, CA
DJ party @ Pop’s Bar (2800 24th St.; Mission District; btw Bryant St. & York St.) – 9:30-2am; featuring your’s truly and DJ “Classic Bar Music” (Erin, from Top Ten)

July 7
L.A., CA
Stories bookstore?
Reading/DVD action

July 9
Columbus, OH
Wexner Center
Reading/DVD action; after-party at Café Bourbon St. w/bands

July 10
Columbus, OH
Surly Girl Parking Lot Blow-Out?- New Bomb Turks gig, plus the Gibson Bros. and Scrawl!!! (Early evening; more bands TBA)?- More action later with the Cheater Slicks and the Oblivians!!! — at The Summit, right next to Cafe Bourbon St.

July 13
Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art

Finally! Attendees of the Whirlyball show will get a special present at the door and we just got it to the manufacturer in time!

If we have any left, you can email me for one.

And to answer the question on everybody’s mind, the air freshener’s smell is "space".

I remember hearing Rye Coalition in the mid-90’s and lumping them in with a lot of really sweaty (yet seemingly interchangeable) hard punk bands that were coming out on labels like Troubleman and Gern Blandsten. At the time, I was living in Athens and it seemed like they played Atlanta a bunch. And, of course, it appeared that Atlanta’s DIY scene was absolutely smitten with Rye. When I moved to town the band had just put out their album "He Saw Duh Kaet" and I got to see them play to a dozen or so people at Under The Couch. I won’t lie to you, I really dug them.

I found their love of playing with each other quite endearing. Furthermore, as the years progressed and I put on a number of shows with them, I found them to be pretty nice guys. A bit TOO modest, but still. Nice. Guys.

And as time progressed, I think I witnessed three really drastic musical changes in their sound. They started with a sort of post-ABC-no-Rio hardcore sound, went full bore into sounding like The Jesus Lizard and then veered sharply off course again and went straight into sounding like a classic rock band. Now, some would argue that they were just unable to find their "sound" or were just changing to see what could be "popular", but you know what? I don’t think they should be knocked around for trying to make music that they love.

Sure, they were derivative. Sure, they had a hard time keeping fans. Sure. You’re right. But then when the band was lured by a major label and had their record produced by Dave Grohl it almost signaled a change! Like, instead of Buckcherry becoming a "hard rock" band, it would be guys that were just guys. Not some pre-packaged bullshit.

Well, as you can see from the documentary trailer that I’ve included, Rye had shitty luck even then. The record was finished and then the label shit the bed. I don’t know the exact details of the drama that unfolded afterwards, but the record that Grohl produced was soon put out on Gern Blandsten and just collected cobwebs.

Shortly thereafter, I asked Rye to play the Chunklet SXSW party at Sound on Sound to which they happily obliged. Personally, I thought Rye were fantastic, but to be frank, they weren’t doing the indie rock slumming any more. They were trying to go for the brass ring. But well, as with everything Rye did, it was mired in a halo of bad luck.

I’m not sure when Rye officially broke up (or even if they have) but here it is 2010 and over half of the band is playing in the Black Hollies and the other half are slugging it out back home.

This takes me to the two tracks that I’m including in this post. Dave Leto, Rye’s affable drummer, sent me a friendly email along with a request if I could post the band’s final two songs to the Chunklet site. Here’s what Dave said about these two tracks:

"Jimmy Iovine wanted to hear our hit before he released our album on Interscope. He kept saying "I don’t hear a hit."  No shit Sherlock, we didn’t write hits…
His famous quote was "I wanna hear their ‘Dirty Deeds’ "So Justin and Jon went home and wrote out the structure, chord changes, etc of "Dirty Deeds" and we gave him two songs that were almost IDENTICAL to that. They are fun to listen to, no reinvention of the wheel here….We still rocked harder than 99.9% of bands."

Now, I’m certainly not going to turn a friend down, but man, these tracks are as shameless in their love of AC/DC as they’ve been as shameless in their love of other musical touchstones over their career.

I’m certainly not trying to knock Rye, but man, it’s bittersweet that these polished studio tracks find a resting place on this site. That said though, I always will have a soft spot for Rye.

Rye Coalition – Hard Luck (final recordings)
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Rye Coalition – High School (final recordings)
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I guess I should start off by saying that I’m an unapologetic fan of music. That is, music that I love. Hell, as an example, I flew to Austin during last year’s SXSW on a week’s notice SOLELY to see Mayyors perform three times in two days. So to me, The Lizard’s reunion was not about reliving old times, but simply doing something both fleeting and intensely genuine. So when The Jesus Lizard announced their reunion tour early last year, there wasn’t much of a discussion (at least in my own head) as to whether I was going to see as many shows as I could or not. In fact, not much changed from when I was seeing the band back in 1990 or so. I was convinced that they were the best live band in the world back then, and well…. Let me just put it this way, if at their first reunion gig at ATP they weren’t that great, I wouldn’t have gone to another show. Period. However, I just KNEW that the band wouldn’t reunite if they couldn’t kick ass. I just knew it. So when they took the stage at the upstairs room at Butlins, I won’t lie to you…. It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful moments of my life and there was an entire room of people who agreed with me.

Over the past couple months, I’ve had no shortage of people asking me to rattle off my reflections of all the shows I attended. And well, this document has been sitting in on my desktop for about a month and so I’ll try and sift through all of this as best I can.

General Observations
• I don’t know how rich/drunk/stupid the people were at these Lizard gigs, but I was consistently astounded by how casually people would pop their iPhone or expensive camera in the pit to take a photo of Yow 3 feet from them. Great. You get a blurry photo of a rock concert. You win. Here’s a revolutionary idea: Why not just actually ENJOY the show and visit some OTHER assholes blurry photos on flickr later? Additionally, how can people get upset when their glasses get knocked off at a show such as this? I’ve been wearing glasses for almost 30 years and have never once asked a crowd to stop and help me look for them. That’s the price you pay, four eyes. Get used to it. Lord knows I have.
• The opening bands were generally pointless. What about the army of bands that would stab their own mother in the face just to open? What about the bands that used to open for them (Pegboy, GVSB and Arcwelder come to mind)? What about something that’d add to the bill instead of just padding the bill out? Anyway, I don’t want to sound like I didn’t give all the bands a chance, but it definitely got difficult. The exceptions to this personal observation were Hex Machine (Chapel Hill), Double Dagger (Baltimore), All The Saints (Atlanta) and Disappears (Chicago). Just my two cents.

ATP/Minehead
• The audience cried while the band played for the first time in ten years. Very intense.
Forum/London
• Cornering The Jesus Lizard’s booking agent and asking him point blank how he could accuse me of stealing a bottle of Maker’s from the Blues Explosion 15 years ago (an event he admitted he didn’t personally witness). His smug deference was only outweighed by his inability to let such an falsehood go and be what he’s used to to smear me since then.
Exit-In/Nashville
• Convinced Adam R and Pat M to fly from Chicago to see the show. I immediately drove them to Hog Heaven and, true to form, their worlds will never be the same again.
• Halfway through their set, I got booted in the melon by Yow and then nose bloodied by same boot a split second later. These things happen.
Casbah/San Diego
• The reunion tour debut of Duane Denison’s "Smokey and the Bandit"-style moustache.
• Without a doubt the smallest room of the tour. I wasn’t the only one to notice this, but it seemed like half of the crowd was photographers and they were either hovering over the stage or actually ON the stage. Aggravating.
Fonda Theater/Los Angeles
• Although they were advertised as such, I was crushed to find out that Killdozer wasn’t (nor were they ever planned) to open the show.
• After not seeing him for 14+ years, I ran into old pal Tom Zaluckyj (from Tar) and the first words out of his mouth were "Of COURSE you’re here." I also met long-time buddy Jason Pettigrew face-to-face in the lobby for the first time. Judging by the amount of people who came up and said hi while Mr. Pettigrew and I were talking, it would’ve appeared as if I was campaigning for office.
Cat’s Cradle/Chapel Hill
• This was the show that I discovered that there were three rotating set lists. Tonight was the "A" as denoted by the letter in the top right hand corner of the set list. When asking Sims what the next show (Atlanta) would be, he said "Now Henry, what’s after ‘A’?" Regardless of the predetermined set lists, the flow every night was spectacular. My only regret is they didn’t do the "Tight’N’Shiny" transitioning into "Seasick" which was always a favorite.
• I had a healing/hugging moment with Pitchfork/Indy Week’s Grayson Currin outside the venue (long story). Kids, just remember, Henry Hugs(tm) cure EVERYTHING.
• Got to see a love letter/photo that Pen Rollings left for Mac backstage

Atlanta/Variety Playhouse
• Convinced Yow to fly to Isla Mujeres with his girlfriend for R&R after the two Chicago shows in November. Judging by the texts he sent me after he went, it apparently did the trick.
• Although it’s a minor criticism, I still think that the Masquerade would’ve been a better choice than this converted movie theater.
Philadephia/Starlight Ballroom
• Got in. Saw the show. Zipped out. Yow’s britches were decimated by the end of the gig!
9:30 Club/Washington
• Upon the band (or rather Duane) deciding that the club-appointed DJ was going to drive him into further insanity, Yow offered up his iPhone as the de facto DJ for the remainder of the evening. Three songs in, his phone rings and his ring tone (and subsequent voice mail notification) fills the 9:30 Club sound system. Classic.
• I saw audience members escorted out of the venue for trying to start ANY sort of movement in the crowd. Whereas I thought they should’ve received a medal for trying to liven up the otherwise dull crowd, the 9:30 staff opted to keep the people motionless. Assholes.
• I got to shake hands with Pen Rollings!
Sonar Club/Baltimore
• I got to see my brother-in-law (who hadn’t previously heard The Jesus Lizard) in the pit.
• The band dedicated "Mouthbreather" to me on my birthday!
Metro/Chicago
• First time I’d ever seen them in their home town. As with every time I step foot in Chicago, I’m persistently challenged (in my head, at least) as to why I’ve never moved there. The NYE gig, which clocked in at 5 below zero with the wind chill, reminded me why. My balls receded immediately and have still yet to poke back out.
• After being dropped by a couple spindly fans in the audience towards the end of their first November show and seriously injuring his ribs, Yow still came out to perform the next night on a stool. Seriously, the guy deserves a medal for stage diving the one time that night.
• By the time of the New Year’s show, Duane shaved his ‘tache off. Regretfully, Sims’ goatee remained. Accountants. What do you expect?
• After the NYE show I saw Jim Kimball (openly vented as persona non grata in TJL interviews) backstage talking to Mac and then turning the corner to see a drunk Yow draped over Mac’s daughter.

Stuff That Happened More Times Than Notably Notable
• Mac’s drum solos which seemed to get more ferocious the fewer gigs there were left.
• The band laughing over the preposterous nature of their booking agent’s persistent (and improbable) accusation of me stealing a $12 bottle of Maker’s 15 years ago at a Blues Explosion gig that he never actually witnessed and who is still unable to LET. IT. THE. FUCK. GO.
• Thanks to people who came up to me to say hello or thanks. Fans of the magazine, fans of the blog, fans of comedy. It was incredible. There were so many people that it’d be hard to mention everybody, but sincerely, thank you. And for all of that, I’m humbled.

Best Record Store Stops (When I Had Time)
Thirsty Moon (San Diego), Vacation (Los Feliz), Grimeys (Nashville) and Permanent (Chicago-TWICE!). Due to shitty weather in the Mid-Atlantic, I wasn’t able to go to AKA or PRX in Philly or my other usual haunts in Baltimore or DC. Such a drag.

And so with all that out of the way, allow me to personally thank The Jesus Lizard (I can’t remember all their names….Fred, John, Mac, their all latino horn section whose names I can’t remember, and Mr. Dave? My memory is foggy….) for being so fucking unbelievably nice and accommodating to me as I politely showed up at shows to celebrate how incredibly incredible they continued to be. Additionally, I’d like to thank their sound men (Whitney and Peter, most notably), the show promoters, the clubs and, yes, even their booking agent, for making 2009 the year I got to have a lot of fun all over the globe courtesy of a bunch of old dudes playing young dude music.

I know, I know, we posted about this doc already, but it seems like it’s progressing nicely judging from this newly uploaded clip on YouTube.

To celebrate this momentous news, here’s a rare demo tape that I’ve had here at the house collecting dust for over ten years.

Karp – Falling Under (demo)
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Karp – Me Big Mouth (demo)
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Karp – Handsome Traveler (demo)
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Karp – Blu Blud (demo)
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Karp – 30 Ton Press (demo)
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Karp – Propane Activist (demo)
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Karp – Rocky Mountain Rescue (demo)
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Karp – Nine Lives (demo)
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Oh Oxes…..

I met and became quick friends with the guys in Oxes upon their first visit to Atlanta at the EARL in (I believe) 2000. They didn’t have so much as a record out, but Dave B. from the Chicago band Neutrino was about to put out a split release with them and 90 Day Men and wouldn’t shut up about them.

And so the story goes.

What has always struck me is how this was one of those bands that were known almost exclusively for being a spectacular live band. And not just spectacular in their performance, but man, they were FUNNY. AS. SHIT. ON. STAGE.

One of my regrets is not recording that first show they did at the EARL as they spent the majority of their set making fun of how ugly two people in the crowd (not including me) were. Oxes ended up coming to Georgia numerous times and our friendship blossomed. I ran into them on the Mr. Show tour while in Minneapolis when they were opening for Isis at the 7th Street Entry. They came back and crashed at my super swank hotel room a mere block from the club and we ran up the room service bill (at David Cross’s specific request). The next morning I had to start my drive to LA (yes, Mpls to LA) and we went to the Mall of America and found Cereal Adventureland where we all got personalized Wheaties boxes. My signed Oxes cereal box still sits proudly among my treasures on my shelves. Sadly, Cereal Adventureland wasn’t open long, but I have personalized boxes by Enon, Oxes and Les Savy Fav in my collection. It MIGHT be the largest collection of its kind in North America. MIGHT.

Not sure whether Oxes are DOA (I heard they reunited a year ago), but man, I’m happy to say I saw them do their zany performances all over the world for at least five years and they were always dead on. Love them.

Anyway, I didn’t want this entry to be an appreciation of Oxes but more an enthusiastic paragraph or two. Dave McG (of the legendary Yakuza zine and former Vineland drummer!) asked for the Peel session that they did, and so I now oblige with BOTH Peel seshs less one track from the ’04 one (due to site design, I can only put up ten tracks). Feel free to hit me up for the final track.

ADDENDUM: Here’s a sendspace link to the "Territory" cassette that was released by the band (I’m presuming) from before the first album. Two unreleased tracks included. Neat!

Oxes – Rikki Creem (Peel Session 11/3/04)
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Oxes – Top Tucker (Peel Session 11/3/04)
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Oxes – Take Care, The Song (Peel Session 11/3/04)
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Oxes – Boss Kitty (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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Oxes – Half Half and Half (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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Oxes – Panda Strong (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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Oxes – Everlong (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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Oxes – And Giraffe Natural Enemies (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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Oxes – Dear Spirit I’m In France (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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Oxes – I’m From Hell, Open A Windle (Peel Session 5/6/02)
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The pedigree of this three piece group is absolutely undeniable:

Mike Fellows (guitar): Rites of Spring, Happy Go Licky, Miighty Flashlight and backing member of GI, Silver Jews, Royal Trux and Will Oldham (among others).

Guy Picciotto (drums): Rites of Spring, Happy Go Licky, One Last Wish, Black Light Panthers, Brief Weeds, record producer and recent back-up musician for Vic Chesnutt.

Kim Thompson (guitar): Cupid Car Club and The Delta 72.

The music definitely has all of the players unique thumbprint on this recording. Okay, perhaps not Guy so much (compared to his guitar work) but I’d actually say this is an aspiring DC-flavored Royal Trux-type band at first listen.

But what else do I know about this band? Absolutely nothing.

Seeing as how Happy Go Licky were a band that only existed off board tapes from the 9:30 Club and DC Space, it seems fitting that yet another part of the Fellows/Picciotto body of work is yet another mysterious board tape that was officially released on Kim Thompson’s Rodeo Recordings whose goal was "dedicated to making available music that might not otherwise be released, such as bands that have now dissolved, project bands and live tapes." And well, that would describe this second Rodeo release. And FYI, the first Rodeo release was a tape called "Rodeo Riders #1" which was a compilation of DC artists and will eventually find its way on this site.

So yes, that’s all anybody (other than the players) know about Getaway Car. This clocks in as yet another "holy shit!" entry into the now legendary Chris Thomson ’09 tape dump. So again, thanks Chris.

I have an additional Getaway Car live show from the 9:30 Club (different set) that depending on reaction to this I’ll post at some later date.

Can you fill in any pieces to this puzzle? Then post it in the comments section.

Getaway Car – Whatever You’re Hard On
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Getaway Car – Knockout Artist
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Getaway Car – Hey Saturn
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Getaway Car – Fuck On Off
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Getaway Car – Kreem Me Man
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Getaway Car – Sony Radio
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Getaway Car – I’m Not So Strange
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Getaway Car – He’s My Thing
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Getaway Car – Thanks for the Time of Day
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So I got interviewed a couple weeks ago by a nice fellow from the Chicago Reader regarding the tape collections that have been falling into my lap.

Enjoy reading! Also check out this "outtake" of me talking about the legendary Primal Scream demo by Nation of Ulysses.

It’s looking like NPR is going to be interviewing me while I’m up in Chicago over New Year’s about the collection as well. Kinda bizarre, but okay.

The fun never ends, right?

So the last 48 hours have been an absolute goddamned rollercoaster. I check Facebook on Christmas eve and the news of Vic’s overdose were already abuzz with all my Athens folk who were still in town. Shortly thereafter, a reliable source told me that Vic, in fact, had died. A couple hours later, and a number of phone calls from grieving friends later, I find out from a friend that he was still alive, but only barely. But at 3pm EST on Christmas Day, however, Vic died peacefully. And I know I’m not alone in saying this: I’m fucking destroyed.

Vic was one of the first ten people I met when I moved to Athens. He was at Club Fred over on Baxter Street for some local show. Maybe Roosevelt or Porn Orchard. I can’t remember. But the man I met that night did little wavering in the next 18 years I knew him. A wildly funny curmudgeon who happened to be one of the most talented musicians that Athens ever had the privilege to call their own. A fucking genius if there ever was one who had more inner demons than few people I’ve met.

I won’t pretend to be one of VIc’s closer friends but we were always friendly with each other. The last time I saw Vic was almost a year ago in Seattle when he was out touring with Elf Power and I was promoting the Rock Bible. The whole crew went for pizza and about half way through eating, he began to tell me a borderline unbelievable story about Live (a band from my hometown), their label and the band’s annoying idolization of Vic. Out of respect for Vic (or Live, whichever) I’ll refrain from telling the story on this site, but you can rest assured it was a trademark 100% Vic story. Goddammit, and now he’s gone. Life was really unfair to Vic, but I don’t think that ever stopped him from being one prolific SOB.

I think there’s plenty of places to find information about Vic out there, but go check out the his label for the most factual info out there. Additionally, and actually, far more important, Kristin Hersh has set up a site for those who’d like to give money to go towards Vic’s estate. Now, I know this has been a hard year for all of us, but come on, this is Vic Chesnutt. Vic. God, this is all so sad.

This year has been a hard one for losing friends. Frank Mullen, BJ Womack, Jack Rose, Jerry Fuchs and now Vic. Christ, can 2009 just end already? This year has been a MOTHERFUCKER.

Goodbye, Vic.

The Mantles – all (especially the Siltbreeze LP)
Mayyors – Deads EP (Mt. St. Mtn.)
Billy Bao – May 08 (Parts Unknown) and Sacrilege (Afterburn)
Twin Stumps – self titled 12" (Dais)
Wizard Smoke – Live Rock In Hell (www.wizardsmoke.net)
H•O•F – Gay Witch Abortion Demos (AmRep)
Home Blitz – Out of Phase (Ritchie)
Double Dagger – More (Thrill Jockey)
Om – Live Conference (Important)
Baroness – Blue Record (Relapse)
White Wires – reissue (Douchemaster)
Hex Dispensers – Winchester Mystery House (Douchemaster)
Pride Parade – Dose (self released)
Polvo – In Prism (Merge)
Cheap Trick – The Latest (self released)
Part Chimp – Thriller (Rock Action)
Circulatory System – Signal Morning (Cloud)
Shit and Shine – Girls Against Shit (Riot Season)
Obits – I Blame You (Sub Pop)
Drunkdriver – Knife Day (Fan Death)
Pigeon Religion – all
Wooden Shjips – all
The Fresh & Onlys – all
Ty Segall – all
anything on Captured Tracks, Trouble in Mind, Douchemaster and Siltbreeze

Reissues:
Big Star – Keep An Eye On The Sky (Rhino)
The Jesus Lizard – All (T&G)
The Ex – 30 (Ex)
Sun Ra – R&B reissues (Norton)
Chris Bell – I Am The Cosmos (Rhino)
Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart (DeSoto)
Volcano Suns – both reissues (Merge)
Pylon – Chomp (DFA)
Feelies – reissues (Bar/None)
Nirvana – Bleach (Sub Pop)
Death – For The Whole World To See (Drag City)
Bill Fox – Shelter From The Smoke (Scat)
Betty Davis – all (Light In The Attic)

Guaranteed to be in the Best of 2010:
Major Stars – Return To Form (Drag City)

Hipsters, Fuck Off With Your Sub-Par Predictable Rehash Bullshit Muzak Already:
Dirty Projectors
Grizzly Bear
Bear In Heaven
Health
The XX
Yacht
Japandroids
The Horrors
Passion Pit
Any group of dudes under 25 with beards

So I did a really pleasant interview with a gentleman from the Chicago Reader yesterday about the Chris Thomson tape archive and he asked me about my own personal pack-rat proclivities. And you know what? I really don’t have many other than the tapes and records I have. Really. Honestly. I moved around so much that I whittled things down to the bare essentials.

And that takes me to this Lungfish live tape. When I lived in York, PA from ’87 to ’91, I went to DC, Philly and Baltimore A LOT for shows. I think I saw Lungfish around this time three times (I was obsessed with "Necklace of Skulls" at the time), and I don’t know why I recorded this particular show and not the others, but so be it.

After almost 20 years of keeping this out of circulation (and surveying people’s reactions from Twitter), I thought it about time to let people hear it. So here you go, Lungfish recorded off the board at the Hourhaus in Baltimore on June 5, 1991. I remember the venue was quite a dump, but the show itself was incredible.

Enjoy.

Lungfish – Baltimore 1991
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The Stones said you can’t always get what you want, but just sometimes you get what you need. Well, I got what I needed!

After being thwarted TWICE by Laurent Lebec from Pelican for a tattoo that I designed and would pay for, I found somebody that was willing to get one of the designs!

Yes, that’s Chip and Dale. Dale is sitting on a magic toadstool smokin’ a J while his brother Chip is puking while holding a beer. To further add insult to Mr. Lebec’s injury, the smoke coming out of the joint spells out the name of his band. Overkill? Nah.

The lucky recipient is a friend and a recent transplant to Austin, Mr. Aaron Klein. This will be emblazoned onto his skin sometime before the new year. So thank you, Aaron!

Additionally, for the rest of his life, Aaron will be getting in for free to every Pelican gig he ever wants to attend. When you think about it, it’s really the least they can do.

Yes. I know. Another one of those "Holy shit!" moments from going through Chris Thomson’s tape archive which, thankfully, landed on my doorstep a couple months ago. And the only other part of the "Holy shit!" is that this is just one of TWO 1990 sessions by Circus Lupus that I have. The other is from August and will be unleashed at a later time.

The ironic thing, however, is that this version of the demo comes from an old tape trading buddy, Mark Stelmach, who had a significantly better fidelity version than Chris’s. So for that, thank you Mr. Stelmach.

We only get four songs in this particular demo while the other one has eight (2 of which are on the Cubist single).

Circus Lupus’s records still sound as absolutely incredible now as they did back then, but for some reason I just could never get into their live show. Then again, the last time I saw them was at the 40 Watt with about 8 people (*GULP!*) so that might’ve had something to do with it.

Anyway, I think this is an incredible find and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do in posting it for your listening pleasure.

Circus Lupus – Cat Kicking Jerk (DEC90 demo)
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Circus Lupus – Deviant Gesture (DEC90 demo)
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Circus Lupus – Mean Hot Blessed (DEC90 demo)
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Circus Lupus – Pulp (DEC90 demo)
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