Holy cow! I don’t know how I did it, but I snagged 20 of this single to sell on the Chunklet site. Just to appeal to you record nerds, there’s only 300 of this and they come in lovely letterpressed sleeves. The Harvey Milk song is one of their earliest tracks called "Hell Toupee" and the Hayride tune is "In Bottles".
Hell effin’ yes!
Ah, I’m sure I’ll sound like a broken record, but get this now before you’re cruising eBay trying to find a copy for under $20.
Artistic genius most likely to use the phrase "leg injury" to excuse "poor ticket sales."
So I’ve been culling together my "Best of 2006" lists for the three or four people that ask every year. Quick to come to my head are Major Stars Synoptikon, Mastodon Blood Mountain and Harvey Milk Special Wishes. There’s a slew more, but holy cow, the early part of 2007 is already stacking up nicely.
Straight from Mr. Pharmacist himself
Again, off the top of my head, The Fatal Flying Guiloteens, Shellac and Les Savy Fav have records coming out around SXSW. I’ve been lucky enough to hear the new records by The Shins (it totally kills) and Big Business (a Hydrahead masterpiece if there ever was one), and then low and behold, I go to see the Ted Leo/Death Cab extravaganza and Mr. Leo throws his new record in my mitts. Recorded by Brendan Canty (who knocked out another impressive record with The Thermals The Body The Blood The Machine this year) it’s a pretty ballsy record, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Mr. Leo. And I’m hoping my ears aren’t playing tricks with me, but I could’ve sworn I heard a Crass cover about half way thru the album. Crass? Jesus, nice one, Ted. That makes me feel less than totally old. [Upon discussing this with Mr. Leo, I was totally wrong…..keeping this though to make me look bad.] But while I’m on the subject of things that make me feel old, why do I think of Jeff Clayton from the AntiSeen when I see Ted Leo’s bloody forehead after his show?
Mark my words, 2007 will be the Year of the Ted.
Ted Leo – Shake The Sheets (Atlanta ’04)
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Until the holidays are over, shipping to anywhere in the world is free. So come on, please buy some of the goods we have in our store for yourself or a friend. It’ll make us happy.
So I just finished driving from northern Louisiana and back over Thanskgiving. Sure, there was turkey, but there was also crawfish etoufee, gumbo, caramel brownies, spinach madeline, squash souflee…..it appeared to be a ceaseless stream of food coming from my in-law’s kitchen. And I forgot to mention that it was also my birthday for which my mother-in-law cooked a stellar cake with raspberry icing and white chocolate cream icing. I promise I won’t eat for the next week, but jesus, a man can’t have any self control around that. Trust me.
So on the 16-hour road trip, we resorted to playing an alphabet game called "My mother went to the record store….." which the folks at 5minutestolive.com taught us. Basically you just go in alphabetical order and list bands that go in alphabetical order. And to make things difficult, you have to go back and recount all of the bands that were already listed. Starting with "A" is easy, and finishing around "Z" wasn’t much more challenging, so we decided to add 2 more rounds to the game. In case you’re wondering, we finished around Six Flags as we were coming in to Atlanta. I am so glad we’re done. I swear it was driving me insane to rattle all of this off, but it did help pass the time on the drive. Let’s see if we can remember this all for the drive to Pennsylvania over Christmas…..
So it began…..ABBA, Built To Spill, Calexico, Dave Matthews Band, Everclear, Frank Black, Gang Green, Helmet, Indigo Girls, The Jesus Lizard, KMFDM, Luscious Jackson, Mighty Lemon Drops, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Newton John, Pussy Galore, Quintron, Raconteurs, SS Decontrol, Tim Buckley, Unrest, Victoria Williams, Ween, X, Yaz, The Zombies….
Which led to…..
And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, BBQ Killers, Circulatory System, The dB’s, Elton John, The Fleshtones, The Germs, Harry Pussy, Imogen Heap, The Jam, Kylie Minogue, L7, Mission of Burma, The Neats, The Olivia Tremor Control, Pylon, Quarterflash, R.E.M., Silverchair, The Tragically Hip, Unwound, Venom, Wilco, Xymox, Young Jeezy, Zipgun….
Which ended with…..
Animals, Bread, Cracker, DMZ, ELO, Five for Fighting, Goo Goo Dolls, Harvey Milk, India Arie, Justin Timberlake, Kraftwerk, Laughing Hyenas, Moreland Audio, New Pornographers, Oblivians, The Postal Service, Queen, Red Elvises, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Tommy Tutone, Uncle Cracker, Velocity Girl, When People Were Shorter And Lived Near Water, XBXRX, Yes, The Zippers.
I guess the real game is figuring out which bands I mentioned and which can be attributed to my wife. Seems obvious to me.
I should also add that I’ve played this game with my buddy Pete Wilkins when we were driving back from Birmingham one dark night and we ramped it up a bit by including album titles with the band which really challenged us. But then again, we’re record geeks….we yearn for the challenge. Any other games we should try?
Pussy Galore – Penetration of the Centerfold
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I’ve been happy to make concessions to my wife since she quit smoking. A nice pair of shoes, a fancy sofa (which benefits me more than her) and now this little puppy that is ten pounds of cute in a five pound bag.
Sarah and Bun E.
There were four names in the running: 1. Lando, 2. Tackleberry, 3. Thor and 4. Bun E. Carlos. Obviously by the headline, you can tell which name won out. However, I have allowed myself to call him Lando on holidays….. It’s a small price to pay for not smoking. And honestly? I consider it a small concession to make.
Bun E. on the Louisiana plains….
Now is a very magical time in Atlanta. That is, when I’m around to enjoy it. There was a time when I first moved here at all the bands from Athens were stars and Atlanta had jack shit. That is, Atlanta never had bands that were cool. Sure, there’s been countless shit-splat bands that get all over the radio, but who gives a shit about that?
photo courtesy of Carbonas’ myspace page
Legends are started by bands that have record collectors in a fuss. And at the new Lenny’s, two of those bands ended a night of Atlanta’s best and brightest. I guess I sometimes go under the assumption that those not from Georgia are a bit more tapped into what’s going on here than the people that actually live here. Case in point.
photo courtesy of DryInk Magazine
The Carbonas and The Black Lips are both perched on the crest of greatness. And who can blame them? Seeing these bands for the umpteenth time never gets old, but it certainly is a bit odd to see how the crowds seem to be changing. Or rather, how there’s actually crowds to appreciate them. I guess you can call that "change". The Black Lips have been touring relentlessly through the last few years, but it wasn’t until they toured with King Khan that I think they switched from slop rock to truly fucked up savants on a mission from God. I’m still of the believe that the "O, Katrina" single might be one of the best records released in the new millenium. Then again, I only buy a couple hundred seven inches per year….what do I know?
And the Carbonas? Well, it’s singles like this, and this, and this along with an absolutely stellar recent full length on Raw Deluxe have kept my record player from collecting dust. On this recording, check out their version of "September Girls" by Big Star and the lovely in between song chatter. These boys are nothing if not total fuck-ups…..and I love them for it.
Am I crazy or is Atlanta in a total rock’n’roll renaissance right now?
There’s a slew of other bands to fuss over from here (The Frantic, Beat Beat Beat, Deerhunter, The Selmanaires, etc.), and I’ll try to get to them all in due time, but for now, please bear with me. This’ll have to do for now. Turn it up, and love the crudeness of it all.
Carbonas – Atlanta ’06
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This week Part Chimp got some mysterious mail from new fans who really loved their "new videos on YouTube." Strangely enough, Part Chimp hasn’t put up any new videos (other than live footage) since sometime last year. The lads found upon further investigation that 2 amateurish videos had been made from existing McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s advertisements.
tim of part chimp
Singer / Guitarist Tim Chimp: "Which bleeding heart liberal cunt took me on their arsehole mission? You can put me on the greenpeace warrior boat or you can chew bricks; either way you lose your teeth. Fucking poetry mate. Seriously, though, I don’t really get what these people on YouTube think our music has to do with middle class american twats spitting in food or prancing scrubbers eating it."
Part Chimp, it seems isn’t the only band getting their songs taken to make these videos which are being posted randomly by several different accounts. In fact, the 2 chimp videos appear to have been posted with other bands’ music underneath earlier last week.
Guitarist Iain H.: "I didn’t think they were so bad. It would have been nice if they’d asked. It would also have been nice to see something original, but the next video it asks you to watch is the same images only with some horrible Tool shite backing it up. The "I’m Eatin’ Shit!" part was funny enough, but have some respect. If the view count goes up into the millions, Google had better set some more money aside for us, too."
www.partchimp.com
www.rockaction.co.uk
www.myspace.com/partchimp
So I’m relaxing right now in my house which has the smell of a dead rat which I can’t get to in the crawlspace underneath the floor. However, that doesn’t stop me from toiling away in front of my computer.
by the illustrious (literally!) Jay Ryan, 2006
I’m getting ready to produce Patton’s next album in Austin at the end of this month and I just got the artwork to circulate at will. Can Jay Ryan do wrong? I think not.
And hey, anybody want to go on a BBQ run with me while I’m there?
I think I’m showing my age with this post, but what a fucking band. Michael from the DUSTdevils has been gracious enough to post the band’s entire recorded output through his own website for free download. I really don’t know what to say about this band as I’ve always put them as kind of an indescribable force. A show in Pittsburgh and then later at a shit-box loft in Baltimore were the only times I got to see them and thankfully, I did. Further reaffirming the fact that living in the South keeps those ‘cult’ type bands away, I don’t reckon the DUSTdevils ever played down south once I moved here.
"Rhenyard’s Grin" is a common dollar bin find, but I still wonder why. It, along with "Struggling Electric + Chemical", are total keepers. I guess people are too interested in finding Animal Collective bootlegs instead of digging deep in the back catalogs of better (and more significantly talented) bands.
DUSTdevils were peers of bands that went on to have ‘legacies’ like Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth and other legacy-free bands like Live Skull and Rat At Rat R…. Funny how time and place can trivialize or mythologize an artist.
Download all this DUSTdevils stuff for yourself and tell me I’m wrong. This is one of the most under appreciated bands from the late 80’s/early 90’s. Hopefully having these records for free download might help remedy that problem.