Waltham

i dunno if it's just hard to search for waltham or if people RILLY don't give a shit - which makes no sense cuz srsly out of all th' why-aren't-they-famous-at-ALL bands i listen to these guys' lack of superstardom confuses me THE MOST - but finding this stuff in some way other than for $1.88 on amazon has been far more difficult than it has any business being so hey as per usual i'm here to help. heard these guys first over at regala's before they got th' ryko deal; JB sez they're rick springfield vs .38 special and that they always make th' right decisions (ex. it would be a VERY BAD idea to add any more .38 special) and i gotta add …IN DROP D. that's their main contribution to th' '80s-revival racket (that exists? -ed.): FUCKING DROP D (and a buncha way-way-WAY-excellent tunes) - and wotta contribution it is! if there's anything catchier than outfield ripoffs played with giant guitars, i dunno at all what it is. without getting too far into bio territory here i do feel it's necessary to mention that basically they recorded this one album three different times and they're all awesome AND THEN THEY MADE AN EP CALLED 'AWESOME' and then they stopped with the existing. only record more unsung (in modern powerpoop circles) than these is that boss samantha 7 disc.

The First Album
Permission To Build
Self-Titled
three covers (Rick Springfield, Oingo Boingo, Rocky IV) and an unreleased track
The Awesome EP (yes it's pretty much itunes only so just pay the five bucks)

note: i am TOTALLY on th lookout for an actual cd copy of the awesome ep so like lemme know if ya see one, alright?

tse tse fly

back in highschool we useta get this catalog called vinyl ink - an exhaustive labour of love that, at the time, also happened to be the only way we knew to track down half the stuff we were getting into. as it happened, the descriptions would often lead us to grab stuff we were unacquainted with as well (which was right in line with my habit of buying at least one thing i'd never fucking heard of every time i went to th' record store); i don't remember if i bought tse tse fly's 'duckweed smuggled home' 10" in this fashion or if my pal bill recommended that i do so, but for sure it came from vinyl ink.

flash forward to now and that 10" is long-gone (who knows why or where) and all i have left to play for anyone who i'm trying to force into caring is a 7" - not bad, mind you, but not as good as 'duckweed' - and for some reason tse tse fly remain one of those bands that NO-ONE seems to want to put on youtube or their blog or whatever. (tho' what a blessed thing that is - when you find that something you know about - something you know is GOOD - has eluded the fucking internet.) and that's just a damned shame cuz outside maybe 18th dye i dunno anyone who rings my fucking early-'90s across-the-pond indie-rock BELLS quite like they do. these cd issues that i finally bought for like 75¢ off amazon (no, REALLY) are nicely mastered but of course lose somewhat that x-factor that helped make the original vinyl releases so god-damn alluringly cryptic (it isn't muddiness, tho' it's not far off - nirvana's 'bleach' and r.e.m.'s 'life's rich pageant' have a similar quality) but at least i can hear this stuff again. fans of bands who don't come right out and bludgeon you with it all the time can't afford to be without this stuff. it'll be holy grail in less than ten years, mark my words.

download includes the comp cd they did ('duckweed', that 7" i mentioned ['fox under diesel'] + a coupla tracks that weren't on it originally & 4 unreleased tunes) as well as their lone lp, 'mudflat joey'.

download

Metal Machine Music, remix

now here's something i've been meaning to do for a very long time.

i've been a HUGE fan of this record ever since i first heard it around tenth grade (it may well be my favorite record, if there is such a thing, and of course it inspired the name of this blog), but i always felt like it would be really interesting to slow it down until you could (maybe? hopefully?) identify it as guitar feedback rather than the crazy squalling chipmunk death screeches of glory that it is. recently i read that by slowing it down to 16rpm and listening to either the right channel or left channel independent of the other you could start to make out what's going on, so that's what i did: readjusted the pitch and tempo to roughly 48% of the original and split the tracks into mono files of each channel. unfortunately, that sounded way too slow to me (tho' if you do it without changing th' pitch - just slow the tempo - it does sound pretty great) so i started experimenting with different values, beginning with 75% (seemed appropriate). judging by just kind of an innate sense of how the knocking delay sounds in the left channel of side one "should" sound, i felt like this was too fast so i then tried 70% (still a bit too fast), and then 65% (sounded fucking incredible but something said 'split the difference'), so here ya have it, 67% of the lp tempo. of course keep in mind that i have no idea how much lou sped his multitrack tapes up, if indeed that's what he did - and heck, he could've been messing with the pitch control on the deck the whole time he was recording (…and mixing…and mastering…); this is just something i wanted to hear and i think it sounds fantastic at the same time that it offers insight (well, at least a little) into what the origins of the signals are. this now gives you over three hours of MMM, and taking into account the sad fact that even thurston moore admitted he's never listened to it all the way thru - blasphemy - you can pride yrself on being one of the chosen when you reach the end of this journey!

download

THE STORY OF CREATION (VHS, 1992)

hey folks, here's a FIRST fer th' blog, a real, honest-t'-gosh VIDEO TAPE. this silly thing is a remnant of sire's short-lived fascination with the creation label and their (in)ability to make great sacks of loot for 'em over here across th' pond. ya get a few choice vids each from primal scream (at least it has "higher than the sun" on it), my bloody valentine (nothing before "soon", sorry) and ride (criminally missing "like a daydream") and some heartwarming/ridiculous/banal interviews. apart from th' low-level drawbacks listed above, this thing 's a keeper. i mean, i've kept it for 19 years (jeez). lost th' cover tho' (thus th' crummy scan from someazon else).

info

dead link, sorry

Girls Galore 'Weightless'

along with merchandise, girls galore are my favorite band of the past coupla years. i actually broke down and ordered a compact disc (I KNOW) in order to hear their second lp (turns out it's fucking great, and their label sent me a buncha free shit!). anyhow, they've been working on a third record and took a break to remaster their first release, add an extra track, and make it available for free. knock yrselves out!

download

Dancing Hoods

before mark linkous was mark he was freddy and before there was sparklehorse there was dancing hoods. he was just th' guitar player in this band tho' and their music bears no resemblance to his later stuff - which is fortunate since after this ep somehow the dancing hoods decided (alongside many of their peers, i must add) to become the del fuegos (or pontiac brothers, or whatever) - but this ep is damned fine, along the lines of what you'd hope for from four dudes trying to make it in the early '80s on the mean streets of nyc, growing up in the midst of luminaries like the feelies and the bush tetras: squeeze-y pop leanings/minimalist beat dance not unlike mid-period fingerprintz/americana closer to let's active than bruce springsteen/&c. "not the only one" even hints at heights bands like the cavedogs (watch these skies!) and odd numbers (ditto!) would commit commercial suicide from in less than a decade's time. my only wish is that these tunes encompassed the flip of an equally great b-side.

download

King Louie and the Loose Diamonds

in which king louie musically explains the history and future of all boozy southern rock'n'roll slime-pop in about 40 minutes flat. my favorite record any of these guys have been a part of and that includes those unfuckwithable oblivians lps so you know it's on the stellar side. most of this band is back together with th' addition of one mr. jeff dutton (of action family and barbed wire dolls) as THE FUZZ. includes louie's supreme take on th' lost exploding hearts classic he cowrote, "gypsy switch" (aka "shattered").

download