Graves 'Web Of Dharma'

when th new misfits or misfits '95 or whatever you wanna call 'em went on tour th first time i agreed with a friend of mine that we would go but we didn't, so when their record was aboot to come out i was working at this one-stop and it was only like $6 to take it home on wax th friday before it was released so i was like what th hey, we'll see how much it sucks. ONLY IT DIDN'T SUCK. i listened to that lp ('american psycho') a whole hell of a lot that year (at ear-splitting volume, mostly - perhaps to drown out th elliott smith and sublime that my third-floor roommates spun non-stop to th left and right of me) and i've listened to it a whole hell of a lot since - along with their sometimes-it-seems-even-better second lp ('famous monsters') and this disc - th record th singer and drummer (th non-old school members of said misfits) made directly after walking off stage from th caiafa bros in th middle of a set. listening to this record it becomes abundantly clear who th "talent" in th reformed misfits were, and it ain't th aforementioned brothers. unfortunately, on this lp graves (michale, th singer) and chud (dr., th drummer/songwriter) were separated from th third in th talent triangle, producer/recordist/guitar genius daniel rey (tho' this record sounds alright, it's no match for th ultrablast fury of those two misfits recs), and when th dust cleared after a short tour, graves and chud would be separated too. so while i enjoy some of michale's later solo stuff, this is th magick moment, a record that feels like it's october th whole way thru, that doesn't get bogged-down in bad-b-film-pun one-upsmanship, that rises (along with th killer japanese band balzac) so far above th rest of th genre that calls itself horrorpunk that it effectively turns them into th ants (and no, not ants from 'them!') they pretty much are. track down a tune graves and chud did with a band called sardonica called "mommy made luv to an alien" (a chud tune also rejected - like many of these songs were - by jerry only at one point) if you dig what you hear here.

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Black Tie Revue 'Code Fun'

quite simply th best capital-all-th-letters POP record of th last ten years (maybe ever). everything about this is PHENOMENAL. i'm not even gonna tell th completely silly story about how i heard/saw/met these guys th first time at a pay-to-play battle of th bands three hours from where they live or how th only other time i saw them was with maybe seven (pushing it) people and a dying tree in a bar meant only to be visited by neighborhood fishermen, cuz those stories are just complete shit that takes away from th fucking TRIUMPH of GLORY that is their musick (specifically this lp). if you enjoy ice cream and driving REALLY fucking fast (or are human and not a miserable piece of shit - or even if you are, this can probably help), i can't see why you haven't downloaded this yet.

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Unicorn 'Kedamono No Arashi'

once i got a little column in a local paper where i talked aboot some of my fave records. that moment in time is preserved here, if you care to peruse it in its entirety (caveat: it is in some ways a bit of a saab story), but here is th bit which pertains to our post here and now:

kedamono no arashi, unicorn (sony japan, 1990)
akin to spending an hour trying to dial in the best freeform radio station on the planet, maybe skipping between two more unknown yet almost equally fantastic stations in the pursuit. a playful hawaiian number gives way to a soaring ballad with jet planes for a solo; a song with dogs barking the snare hits is one-upped by fifty seconds of thrash that disintegrate into a man quietly counting down from ten under a mournful string section. supposedly the lyrics are great too!

grab this now. no kidding!

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Bones Brigade Video Tunes

this is basically th soundtrack to th first three bones brigade movies ('83-'87). if you grew up watching th shit outta them like i did, i can't imagine you wouldn't think this is th niftiest disc on this green earf. however, even if you don't have a massive flood of intangible emotion associated with these tunes, i'm here to tell you that you still might find a lot to like. first, th major contributor to these pieces/songs is one dennis dragon, whose profile in tape op a few months back failed to mention that - what i'd argue is th most important job he's ever done, and th way most people have heard of him (or at least heard him) - at all, to my utter dismay. anyhow, dennis dragon (coolest name this side of adrian demain) has lived a long and colorful life and th work he did soundtracking for powell is fucking second to none. it's funny how in listening to these tunes all detached from th videos really, um, socks home how cheesy some of it is, but at th same time it's incredibly obvious how well th music captures th vibe of skating - at th time and even now. it's insanely intuitive accompaniment. second, a short list of tracks included herein that should be mandatory listening for anyone interested in fun and badassery: th rodney mullen "yes i'm gonna get a dog" bit ("big dog," by the knight); that sacto song from 'future primitive' where they just yell "ONETWOTHREEFOUR!!" a lot ("one, two, three. four," by los pukes - best band name ever); and of course th oft-occurring background jam "mctwist and shout," found here in its pristine entirety (by johnny rad, of course).

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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'.

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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!

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