California Month continued, tremor #30:
Savage Republic - "Next To Nothing"
(Independent Project Records, 1982 / reissued by 4 different labels)
Well, by now you can see that California Month owes a lot to Independent Project Records, which has a bland name but put out some of the most challenging and texturally-interesting music of the early '80s to mid '90s, generally with an edgy tribal feel.
IPR pretty much only released stuff by California and Arizona bands, though I'm sure there were some exceptions in there. Similarly, Dischord only releases stuff by Washington, D.C.-area bands and I think Red Eye only did Aussie bands. This song has a nice combination of post-punk, krautrock, and industrial elements, held together by a poppy melody (a rarity for S.R.) and sick drumbeat. It's from their debut album, Tragic Figures. The stuttery drum break right in the middle of the song is very cool, reminiscent of a chugging train. The lyrics are existential without being comical or depressing, and are delivered in sort of a disembodied, robotic way. This album has been put out with something like six different cover designs over the years, so it can get pretty confusing. This is apparently the cover of the original numbered-edition LP:
I don't know what that text means in Arabic (or Farsi?). Like many such self-styled guerilla bands, S.R.'s sloganeering was not very subtle; for example, this album has a song called "Kill The Fascists!" Fascists worldwide report that they were quaking in their boots on the day this album dropped, but I think they were just being sarcastic.
I had originally intended to post the pummeling "So It Is Written," which I first heard in '05 on a great Atavistic DVD called Twelve O'Clock High:
A guy on that YouTube page said "I directed this video on $50 budget in half a day! Shot on super8 film at show near L.A. Originally comissioned for a USA network show on NightFlight..."
So anyway, I plinked around YouTube and tried to find a different S.R. song, found "Next To Nothing," enjoyed it, and decided to post it, since it has better crossover appeal than "SIIW."
Played a few hours of basketball at Lutcher Playground today, got in two separate arguments with two different dudes calling me "Larry Bird" during two different games. (Almost started a fight there exactly two weeks ago with yet another dude over this exact same slander.) Ugh. I never even admired Larry that much. My favorites of the last 25 years would have to be Penny Hardaway (have three jerseys), Reggie Lewis, Charles Barkley, Dwayne Wade, Larry Johnson (have two jerseys), Joe Dumars, Akeem Olajuwon, Latrell Sprewell (have a jersey), Randy Livingston (went 90 miles to see him win the high school state championship with Newman when I was 14), Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf), Steve Nash, Sam Cassell, Chris Paul (have two jerseys), Jason Williams, Kevin Garnett (have two Timberwolves jerseys), Grant Hill, and Hank Gathers; and in the group category, Run TMC.
On the topic of burning buildings, things that are savage, and California, I vividly remember an incident one day ca. '84 or '85 when we were living in the Presidio. My family had gone on some sort of a road trip, and my dad got me a Swiss Army knife, which is sort of a mind-blowing gadget if you're a boy. I thought it was the coolest thing and swore to not cut myself on it. Back home that night, a house in the neighborhood caught on fire and I climbed up a chain-link fence to get a better view, but slipped and got my left palm gouged pretty badly. I made sure to explain to my dad that no, I hadn't cut myself on the knife. I still have the sweet scar.
The always-hilarious Wonkette did an apparently dead-serious article claiming that Herman Cain got his much-discussed "9-9-9" tax plan from the video game SimCity 4. Someone with the Wonkette username fartknocker made this great comment: "Rick Perry's plan is called '10-10-10.' It works out like this: Everybody but Rick and Anita shall follow the 10 Commandments; $0.10 of very tax dollar goes into the Rick Perry Special Enterprise Fund for his pet projects; and, Rick will execute 10 prisoners every month he's President"
Planets with similar climates: Sonic Youth - "I Don't Want To Push It" (1982), The Sound - "Fatal Flaw" (1981), Joy Division - "Wilderness" (1979), Simple Minds - "Sons And Fascination" (1981).
R.I.P. Thurston and Kim's marriage, the glue that held the indie world together all these years.
No comments:
Post a Comment