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Review: No Trend
Tritonian Nash-Vegas Polyester Complex
Touch and Go (Reissue of 1986 release)

No Trend were responisible for one of the most amusing tracks of the 80's undergroud, "Teen Love", a spoken word satire over grinding PiL dissonace that got played alot in the era "TV Party" and "Institutionalized". But they'd changed quite a bit from noisey confrontation when Tritonian came out. Musically, this shares a lot with the too-much-acid prettiness the Meat Puppets were pursuing at the time. There's a good amount of Beefheart skronk too, what with a full horn section on some of the songs. Lydia Lunch co-wrote "Choc-o-Jet", and free-associative sarcasm is the main lryical technique here. All together, this doesn't really sound like anything else from the time, though. It's way too crafted and eclectic to fit with the hardcore punk and proto-indie-rock that ruled the scene at the time. It's arty, but at times they just let it fall apart into a dadaist mess that's just silly. It doesn't fit any of the trends of the day. Wait, they're called No Trend.

posted Friday, December 19, 2003

Review: The Little Killers
The Little Killers
Crypt, 2003

Loud bands seem to have a particular perfect song that they are trying to recreate. The Little Killers have wiry telecaster overdrive, snarly mumbled singing, and hooks that hit hard through all the murk. They even have a song called "Happy" that isn't the Keith Richard's masterwork. But I think Keith is the inspiration here, the model songwriter. They got the lines you wish Keith was still writing- "Let have some goddam fun", "I can't count to ten/ without thinking of you again", "I love to rock / put you on my chopping block." And they got the riffs. Exile on Main Street muddy blues meets ripping CBGBs punk.

They even got Crypt records out of limbo. Crypt was one of the first labels to concentrate on Dolls-Dead Boys garage punk, bringing us the Goires, New Bomb Turks and Devil Dogs ten years ago. The Little Killers are first new band they've put out in years. It was worth waiting. I bet they're gonna rank with them all. Let's do some messing around.
posted Thursday, December 18, 2003

Dom Casual at the Cave

Greatest band ever named after a font. The singer told a fascinating story about seeing ghostly green lights after practicing in Mebane. One of the great things about this band is you can tell that they could all put down their instruments, rotate once to the right, and play the next song. In fact, they all traded off on the keyboard. When all three guitars were strumming, it was a wall of surfy jangle that crashed like waves.
posted Monday, December 15, 2003

Review:Various unknown punkers
Punk 7 Inch CD, Vol 1. 1988-89
Lookout, 2003

This is like finding some embarrassing yearbook photos from a Gen X'ers high school days. Really dated, but entertaining in a cruel sort of way. Somewhere there is a thirtysomething who has to cope with the fact that she wrote a political song insisting a “major babe” zine editor put on a condom before they screw. And not just a song, an a cappela rap.

The a cappela Yeastie Girlz were the only band here to make any sort of ripple in their day. In retorspect, they suffer from the same mistakes most left-field attempts at rap suffered back then. Rap is not about the rhymes, it's about the flow, but this wasn't well understood, even in the projects. The result of such miscalculations sound like someone with a hernia reciting Dr. Seuss. 2 Live Crew was hardly worse. Alas, poor Yeasties, in-your-crotch feminism was done better 30 months later and 800 miles north when Riot Grrl hit. With guitars. The Yeasties tracks are chock full of indecencies, so they never got played on the radio. Except for the one about the FCC. But, er, does the FCC really “think kids will be corrupted if they hear about poo.”

Kamala and the Karnivores is the opposite end of the specturm, twee punk. It's okay, though surpassed in the 90s again.

The rest of these bands are thrash with backwards ballcaps and hoodies, and some of it holds up well. Surrogate Brains is record all wrong, given the big sound they're going for. But a few tracks are catchy and bouncy, while still keeping an edge. This band probably had the most potential.

Corrupted Morals self-titled song, is good thrash. You had to have a theme song back then. And the Reagan Attorney General's career has never recovered from the devastating satire of “The Adventures of Edwin Meese”

The Isocracy 7” has clogged indie singles bins for years, but Funky Breakwire is good, most of the rest could stay in the bin.

Plaid Retina is closer to UK grindcore than the Bay Area sounds of the other bands, with a brittle metal guitar sound. However, Sugarfit has the classic California couplet “I ate some Captain Crunch today / My sleepiness just went away”. You can't really make out lyrics on any of their songs, even the indecent ones. Play a few of these tracks together, and you've still only taken away 66 seconds of your life.

If SLC Punk made you feel like you missed out (or participated) in some sort of golden age, this is an informative collection. These were the types of bands you heard before Bad Brains took the stage, only to find that HR wasn't singing for Bad Brains that particular week. The sounds here are dated. But, to be dated, it proves that even 'generic punk' has continuously mutated.

posted Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Review:Harold Ray
Live in Concert
Alternative Tentacles, 2003

Live, mono R&B madness. No originals, no solos, nothing ironic or contemporary. The only discernible motive is to capture that weird lo-fi powerhouse energy of a James Brown's live record. Nothing to go on but energy, energy that somehow rips through the outside-the-club sound quality. It rips. The sax is what puts the songs over the top, but Harold's gut busting howling is what holds it together. This was allegedly recorded in front of a crowd of San Francisco arm-crossed hipsters who he melted into frenzy. I'll buy it.
posted Wednesday, December 10, 2003

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