Bleach >> I'm a shotgun when you want to be a warm sun

Bleach - "Shotgun"

(Musidisc Records, 1991)

Since a teenage user on a music rating site that I use recently made a rant against Faith No More's supposed "rap-metal" stylings, repeatedly expressed misogynist beliefs, and said that I partake in "feminist bullshit," I figured I'd post a song with a female singer rapping over a shoegaze background, if only to see if his head would explode at encountering all these things he hates rolled into one pie.  I mean, one can insult me all one wants, but when Faith No More is brought into it, a line has been crossed and things shift to a different level.  This person apparently has no idea that FNM's original lead singer was black, and hence the Rock Police would thereby have granted him leeway to do some rap-style singing.  (Chuck recently put out a solo album cheekily titled Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food.)  His favorite bands are Neutral Milk Hotel and Bright Eyes... No, really.  So one song immediately popped into my mind, since I already posted the other one ("Burn", also by Bleach).  The feral intensity of the guitars in this song will never cease to impress me.  The tremoloed guitar at the beginning adds a bit of surfy twang, but that is quickly massacred by a tsunami of drums and what I call "Godzilla roar" guitars.  I always looked at this as sort of a novelty track until about 5 years ago, when I realized how addictive and well-contructed it was.

This song apparently caused a minor stir in the U.K. indie scene when it was released as a single (on CD, 7", and 12") in 1991.  It was then wisely included on Bleach's sole album, Killing Time, in '92.  That's one of my top ten fav. LPs ever, but I'm sure I've mentioned that before.  If you don't know which version of "Shotgun" you're listening to, the single (indie) version is 3:51 long and the album (major-label) version is 3:42.  The versions sound identical, except that the album version has four drum taps at the beginning.  And on the single version, Salli ends the second stanza with "Spin me around," whereas on the album version she uses "Fucking around."
Salli's sharp-edged vocals in this song can be discussed forever, both pro and con.  Being someone who listened exclusively to rap / hip hop in that particular year (1991), I can say that she knew exactly what she was doing, and did it with zero hesitation or "Ha ha, check this out" sarcasm.  (If you want the latter, check out Sonic Youth's "Master-Dik.")  Her vocal starting at 1:55 is very badass, playing off the beat in a nimble way that noted clumsy rapper Kanye West should take notes from.  What I mean by that is that she slows down for a line, then speeds up and uses the bass drum hits to provide emphasis/punch underneath certain words near the end of phrases.  You can even hear her waiting a split second to say the second syllable of the word "homespun" right on the kick drum (bass drum).  It takes skilled breath control to be able to do this stuff; for someone who was known for her somewhat reedy / fey voice, she stepped up and really delivered the goods here.  I've spent years trying to figure out what she says at this 1:55 section; I know it contains "You do and say what you think I'm not supposed to" and "I don't say what I'm allowed to."

The single's cover art features a silver-painted foot with a blue string tied around it.  The string could either be for an i.d. tag in a morgue, or a way for a person to commit suicide by tugging on it whilst its other end is on the trigger of a gun.  Parasol Records was clearancing this 7" for 50 cents for several years, and I always swore I'd get around to ordering a bunch, but recently was miffed to discover they no longer have it.  The b-side is the extremely poppy and passionate "Bone," which should have also been released as a single.  I would recommend buying the CD or 12" version instead of the 7", since in addition to "Bone," those formats add the stunning 10-minute "First & Last."  An absolutely essential and groundbreaking EP, which I give 5 stars without any reservations.

A few days ago I discovered that Bleach made a video for "Decadence" in 1990.  This made my week.  The last third or so of the video has lots of psychedelically-tinted sea creatures:

This means that they had at least three videos, the others being the exuberant "Dipping" (1991) and the stylishly vertiginous "Surround" (1992).  Does anyone know if there was a video for "Shotgun"?  I also just found an ferociously spirited and bloodthirsty Peel session from July '91, which is neither for those who are faint of heart nor for those with flimsy computer speakers.  Fun Fact: This was the same approximate month that I bought Above The Law's Livin' Like Hustlers, an album that brilliantly combined rap with jazz & rock instrumentation.  I wouldn't even find out about Bleach until about a decade later.  Also in '91, Public Enemy and Anthrax were touring together after having done that (awful) "Bring The Noise" collabo with each other.

Here is a pic from the May 4, 1991 issue of Melody Maker, with Curve on the cover.  As far as I know, this image (photographer credit: Patrick Gilbert) has never been posted online before:

In 1993, a live version of "Shotgun" appeared on Bleach's Trip & Slide & Live promo CD EP, which I've been trying to get my hands on for years.  That EP's artwork also starred the dead silver foot, this time on a bed of red grapes.  In 2006, the song was included on an impressive and much-needed compilation called Like A Daydream: A Shoegazing Guide:

Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13 & 15 are among the best songs ever recorded, and most of the others are quite nice

It's been a record-setting week of heat across the U.S., with Denver over 100º for 5 straight days and the area near Colorado Springs ablaze.  It's said to be Colorado's worst disaster ever.  Tropical Storm Debby thankfully went to Florida instead of here last week.  No rain here for about 2 weeks now, with temps in mid to upper 90s.

Sat. 6/23: Went to two Louisiana Nursery locations in Baton Rouge, both for the first time. Was very impressed with their plants.

Wed. 6/27: Got a picturesque & hardy species of prickly pear cactus called Opuntia santa-rita at Home Depot to replace a flimsier Opuntia that I already have.

Thur. 6/28: Saw the Flaming Lips set the Guinness world record at HOB.  Grimes dropped off the bill with no notification or explanation.  She was replaced by the somewhat (intentionally or unintentionally?) hilarious MNDR, sort of a combination of Madonna, Har Mar Superstar, and Grimes.  She was decked out in slutty black and white mid-'80s Madge garb, letting her love handles jiggle provocatively, and ordered a guy and girl from the crowd to come up on stage to dance during one song.  MNDR played only about 15 minutes.  Then Wayne Coyne was paraded up Decatur Street to the front of the HOB, with local boys the Stooges Brass Band leading the way.  The Lips kicked off with their two biggest hits, "Do You Realize??" and "She Don't Use Jelly."  I was kind of jaded towards their stage prop tricks, having not seen the Lips since 1994, but I have to admit it was pretty transcendent.  I raised my can of Guinness Draught at the moment the Guinness record breakage was announced.  They played for about 70 minutes, despite averaging only 15 minutes at the previous seven stops.  Thanks for the free tix, Butch!  And thank you Ashley for making it through your terrible day (moving problems + flat tire) and coming out with us.  It was too hot and humid to walk around the Quarter, so afterwards we got some grub at Lucy's (Lucy's Retired Surfer Bar & Restaurant) afterwards, and my sister taught me what a well drink is.  I had my eyes glued to the NBA Draft.  In addition to the somewhat overrated Anthony Davis, we got human highlight reel Austin Rivers, as I'd been hoping.  I've also heard a rumor that Chris Paul wants to come back to the Hornets...

Fri. 6/29: My sister has been mad @ Grimes for canceling, so I texted her a self-deprecating Grimes tweet ("I'm not trying 2 be cute, I have a fucking speech impediment.")  Went to dad's surprise 60th birthday party at Pelican Club.  Tom, Ann, Kathleen, Shane, Ali, Roxanne, Preston, Sprague & wife, Jay & wife, and Jack & wife all came.  It was also Vanessa's bday so she was included too.  Emily cleverly wrote "You're sixty and you know it!" on dad's card, and dad actually crooned a bit of said LMFAO song.  Do not ask me how he knew about it...

Sat. 6/30: Went to Dat Dog's new location for the first time.  We had to sit outside in delightful 95º heat. I got the Guinness (beer) Dog again, but found it overbearingly greasy, so I probably would not get it again.  Got aunt Ann a little Stevia plant at Freret Street Nursery directly across the street.  We did not make it to the NOMA sculpture garden as I had hoped.  Shane ripped lots of my CDs (e.g. Ween [R.I.P.], The Church, Acetone, Gil Scott-Heron, Faith No More, Miles Davis) to his Mac on my recommendation, after quickly selecting Herbie Hancock's Headhunters on his own.  Roxanne decided that she and Shane should get a Uromastyx after she held mine and fed her by hand.  Went to get snowballs at Sal's with dad, Preston & Roxanne.  Used Sears gift card (received as collateral during garage door repair last summer) towards a little Sony HDR-CX190 Handycam, mainly to record bands in concert.  Overall, one of the most eventful & strange 48-hour spans I've had in many years.

Here is a painting I finished on Super Bowl Sunday 2012, whose silver and blue reminds me of the Shotgun cover art.  Yes, the palms are supposed to be leaning towards an implied ocean on their right, since the sand is always shifting / sinking a bit on the ocean side as compared to the dry land side.  And I guess it goes without saying that these are supposed to be coconut palms.  It's the first palm painting I've done on a circular or oval canvas (bought at Hobby Lobby, I think), and I will definitely be using them again:

That's the painting's info card; I try to remember to make one for every artwork I do, just in case I become famous in a few decades.  I posed it on the pot of my 'Blue Elf' aloe for no reason.  Some interesting tidbits are often buried in these cards, such as the fact that those are not black stripes.  The dates also remind me that that silver-coated oval canvas sat on my coffee table for almost a year while I thought about what to do with it.  Note that I only sign the backs of my paintings, never ever ever the fronts, since I grew up admiring album cover art, which essentially never have anyone's name scrawled on them.

Deciding whether I will go see a mediocre band with potential tonight called Widowspeak at Circle Bar, if only because I haven't been there in almost two years.  I don't know if they have A/C post-renovation; they never did before.  Widowspeak sound just like Mazzy Star's first two albums, down to the most minute detail, for better or for worse.  The problem is that they remind me of a more lightweight version of the band EXITMUSIC, and don't yet have Mazzy Star's knack for penning at least a couple memorable tunes per album.

5 greatest NBA Finals moments Legoized

10-year-long video game creates 'hellish nightmare' world - "He doesn't play every day but returns to what he called a 'hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation' when he has some free time.  Now in the year 3991, his world is down to three super-nations, each competing for dwindling resources, and a planet left scarred by multiple nuclear wars.  His Celts are locked in a 1,700-year war with the Vikings and the Americans.  All other nations have been destroyed or absorbed.  Because of the continual fighting, he was forced to abandon his democracy and adopt a communist state, because his Senate kept overruling him when he wanted to declare war.  Also, his cities are filled with starving people (90% of his world's population died from nuclear annihilation or famine from global warming) because, he says, he has to keep building war machines to sustain his combat efforts."

Planets with similar climates: A.C. Temple - "Chinese Burn" (1988), Lush - "Blackout" (1994), Poem Rocket - "Small White Animal" (1995), Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Swervedriver - "Son Of Mustang Ford" (1990), Faith No More - "From Out Of Nowhere" (1989), Feverdream - "Vortex" (1995), You Am I - "Embarrassed" (1993).

Lynnfield Pioneers >> Look directly into the sun

Lynnfield Pioneers - "Add It Up"

(Matador Records, 1997)

Since that guy in the Beastie Boys died, I decided the only thing to do is to post the most Beastie Boys-esque song I can think of.  Unfortunately for the Beasties, these 140 seconds eclipse pretty much anything they ever did... Awkward.  I really hope their moms are not reading this...

Note: It should go without saying that the tagline on this site's header ("Providing roughly the same amount of hits as Sadaharu Oh since 2011") is an appropriation of a line in the Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies."

I got this album, Emerge, on LP in Dec. 1998, after reading about the band in Alternative Press and/or Magnet (both of which I subscribed to) in the previous year.  They were essentially always described as some variation of "Pavement meets the Beastie Boys," or "Archers Of Loaf meets the Beastie Boys," etc. The hilarious cover art, a soft-focus shot of a group of flowers, is a classic.  It'd be ideal for an album by Starland Vocal Band or some hirsute new age flautist from a Balkan nation.  As for the curious band name, it's simply the name of their high school football team; for what it's worth, mine was the Country Day Cajuns and our mascot was a crawfish.  I was a starter at wide receiver and cornerback, and wanted to play WR in the NFL.  AllMusic Guide gives this LP an accurate 3-star review and accurately says "Emerge seeks out the common ground between the Beastie Boys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, slicing and dicing meaty hip-hop beats, crazed garage-rock riffs and vintage keyboard squawking; what could have amounted to little more than primordial pomo sludge is actually quite impressive when it catches fire (see "Go for a Ride," "Add It Up" and "Get Off Your Feet"), although the band's willful lack of focus is a weakness as often as it's a strength."

The drumming is incredible... Like, it should be in the hall of fame of drumming.  Listen to how the drummer leads the way in speeding up and slowing down the tempo within each bar.  Polvo would be proud at the sheer math-rockness of it.  The distorted organ (Hammond B3, I'm guessing) sound is just too cool.  The song has an overall badass quality that is infectious.  I planned to recommend this song to Apple for use in an iPod commercial about 10 years ago, but for some reason I never did.  The "Do the math / Multiply, divide, subtract" line would be perfect to play next to a graphic showing how many songs could fit into a certain size (GB) iPod.

"Add It Up" is a huge leap forward from their early self-released novelty single "Yos To Go," which begat what was apparently their only music video:

Pic taken by my sister, at my behest, in December on the edge of the French Qtr. while we were going to various Prospect.2 art exhibits around town:

She also took this one of me with some sort of robot vending machine outside the Contemporary Arts Center:

Pretty uneventful week... Went in for Mother's Day barbecue with the fam, and drove around with my dad frantically looking for flowers at 7PM on a Sunday night.  Luckily Rouse's saved the day.  Planted a Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Point' (Blue Point juniper), a Chamaerops humilis (Mediterranean Fan Palm) (normal green version), and a Leucophyllum frutescens 'Compactum' (Compact Texas Sage).  Had to buy a new $300 tire due to a tiny nail in the sidewall.  Found out holes in this location cannot be patched, so the whole tire has to be replaced.  Was sort of creeped out by how enthusiastically the mechanic told me "If someone gets mad at you, all they have to do is stick nails in your sidewalls!"  Vaguely considering seeing a band called As Cities Burn on Friday.

Appreciation of BOOTED NEWS WOMEN Blog - I just found this, the worst site in the history of America, narrowly edging out Facebook.  It brews up anywhere from 1 to 30 boot-tastic posts per day.  Reading the user comments is by far the best part.

CSI Miami: Endless Caruso one-liners - Because this show just got cancelled

Your rage comic sucks

Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Six Finger Satellite - "Parlour Games" (1995), James Chance & The Contortions - "Contort Yourself" (1979), Bleach - "Shotgun" (1991), The Delta 72 - "...Ever Since You Told Me" (1997).

Faith No More >> I'll make my pleasure greater, push the accelerator

California Month continued, tremor #22:

Faith No More - "Why Do You Bother?"

(Mordam Records, 1985 / Festival Records [Australia], 1995)

Horace Greeley allegedly said "Go West, young man."  Well, I couldn't just end California Month with a treasure trove of essential songs getting denied.  I need to show them all off in order to complete my alternate history of the state's music scene, one which omits all the '60s dad-rock, hardcore punk, Pavement, gangsta rap, O.C. ska, etc.  If you can actually sit through Pet Sounds or Sweetheart Of The Rodeo without wanting to fall asleep or harm a nun, then you probably like having geriatric music critics and music guidebooks telling you what music to listen to, hence you probably shouldn't be here, plus I hear Wilco just released a new album which probably has cutesy song titles and it's probably streaming somewhere.

Faith No More were a huge part of the adolescence of millions of Americans in my general age range.  I find that their music holds up even better today than it did back then, and they're one of the few "big" bands that every indie rock dude can agree on loving, or can at least reminisce about at great length.  I was totally obsessed with them from 1993-96, and they'll always be in my all-time top 10, or even top 5, if their last album, which I bought the day it came out, hadn't sucked so bad.  Some friends and I had listened to Angel Dust constantly in the car in summer '92 when it came out.  I bought it on cassette in early '93 using only quarters bundled together with rubber bands, after riding to a record store at night on my bike.  I got their debut album, We Care A Lot, on cassette at around the same time.  I bought the album on CD in '96 as an expensive import CD from Australia, on Festival Records.  (Amazingly, it still hasn't come out on CD in America.)  FNM's singer on this album was the inimitable Chuck Mosley, one of the most entertaining frontmen in music history, who was later fired from the band for allegedly falling asleep while singing during a gig.  His singing style could best be described as a train wreck, and on this song it was even less aurally-pleasing than usual, since he's trying to sound all menacing but is really a goofy skater dude dressed in day-glo at heart.  It's one of FNM's most ambitious songs, and one of their darkest.  Almost every lyrical couplet is quotable and/or tattoo-worthy.  The ambient gothy intro draws the listener in, while the piano solo at the end points the way towards the band's big hit "Epic," which concluded with a similarly beautiful one.  Definitely not a song for an FNM rookie, because it's atypical of their overall sound, but their genre-hopping is what made them great.

Back of '85 European LP; L-R: Mike "Puffy" Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Chuck Mosley, Jim Martin, Billy Gould

FNM's next album, Introduce Yourself, included a rerecorded, more metallic version of "We Care A Lot," with slightly different (and even funnier) lyrics.  Ask yourself: Which came first, the Anthony Kiedis or the Chuck Mosley?

I read that the TV show Dirty Jobs uses this as its theme song.  Speaking of funny, Chuck was in a band called Haircuts That Kill, another one called Cement (possibly a spoof of Pavement?), and recently put out an album titled Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food, which is of course a nod to the fact that some folks credit FNM with inventing rap-rock.  He was replaced by Mike Patton and FNM went on to briefly conquer the charts.  I guess I should mention here that the title track from that album has been my all-time favorite song since I heard it 18 years ago.  I only saw FNM on their final tour, headlining a big outdoor festival in '97, but it was one of the best performances I've ever seen.  Sorry for giving all these years, but I'm really only giving a tiny fraction of all the FNM / Bungle-related stuff I could go on about.  For example, there's Mike Patton's paean to Fiona Apple which I saw inscribed in a House Of Blues New Orleans bathroom stall.  (She was one of the acts at that festival that FNM headlined, and Patton evidently went to see her perform at the HOB later that same night or the next night.)

Fun Facts:
1. Jim Martin, estranged from the band since Angel Dust, played a New Age spiritual guru in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and is now a grower of gihugic pumpkins.
2. Courtney Love was briefly FNM's lead singer, pre-We Care A Lot.
3. The main reason I started using the internet, in '95-'96, was to visit cacavolante.org, the extraordinarily-detailed FNM / Mr. Bungle fansite, about once every 5 seconds.  I even bought an album by the band Milk Cult in '96 just because I had read that Mike Patton "sang" on one of its songs.  Cacavolante.org later changed to cv.org, and has recently been reborn under its original URL, but in much smaller form.
4. Members of FNM are rumored to have been in Brujeria.

Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), The Pop Group - "Sense of Purpose" (~1980), The Comsat Angels - "Don't Look Now" (1982).

Tape >> Would it help if I screamed?

California Month, tremor #4:

Tape - "Fill In The Blank"

(Trank City, 2002)

Tape featured Norm Block of Plexi on drums and was fronted by onetime "paisley rapper" Justin Warfield.  (Check out his interesting Prince Paul-produced 1993 rap album My Field Trip To Planet 9, which is somewhat of a cult classic.)  He later fronted the more commercially successful neo-post-punkers She Wants Revenge, but Tape was definitely his musical peak, though Tape only released six songs and two song snippets.  Tape formed in L.A. in 2001 and were apparently done by late '02 or early '03, unless I'm mistaken.

Man, this could've been a legitimately huge hit song, which is something I say a lot, but I mean it every time.  The whole EP, Amplified / Push Escape, can still be downloaded here, which is where I downloaded it several years ago.  I highly recommend downloading the explosive psychedelic rap-rock cut "True Crime" and the atmospheric "Dream Club."  (In fact, I planned to make this entry about one of those two songs, but ended up choosing "Fill" because it's so dang catchy.)  Definitely a hidden gem of a disc.  "Fill In The Blank" also appeared on Tape's 3-song EP Signal Level Will Now Increase, released June 2002.  Well, just squint your eyes and read the article from Kerrang! below, which calls them "currently the hottest band in L.A. bar none":

L-R: Kirk Hellie (guitar), Thomas Froggatt (bass), Justin Warfield (vocals, guitar), Norm Block (drums, backing vox)

It's pretty weird that a big U.K. metal magazine was covering Tape, yet U.S. music mags apparently had no idea they even existed.  What's that, you say?  Another U.K. metal mag covered them?  Yeah right...

Article in Metal Hammer, Sept. 2002

As you can tell by now, Norm is pretty tall; 6'5", in fact.  Anyway, thanks, U.K. metal mags.  Carry on.

Tape's website used to be www.tapenation.com, but that URL is now owned by an adhesive tape company, so the band's site is currently archived here.  It's tricky to figure out what to click on, but there are lots of surprises waiting, such as a set of dozens of live photos:

Live at the Knitting Factory's Hollywood branch, 11/22/02

I don't usually like to give a bunch of pics of any band, but when the band is as unknown as this one, and has as vague of a name as this one, I tend to make an exception.

Well, not a great day today.  I got bitten by a few dozen fire ants on my bare feet / legs / hands.  Then the garage door came off its track for a second time, and almost scalped me for a second time, so I made some calls to Sears to get the ball rolling on getting that fucker replaced.  And I'm pretty sure I have a cavity, which would my first since that one I had in the '80s.  And it's been raining nonstop for two days due to the tropical storm.  Life goes on.  As this song says, "Life has a cruel sense of humor / Shit is not as bad as it seems."

Here's a collage I made on Nov. 18, 2000, using only comic strips from that same day's newspaper (the New Orleans Times-Picayune).  I've never shown it to anyone:

(As with all images on this site, click it to see it full size.)  I never named it, but I guess "Only Momentarily" would be a good name.  I remember that it was a rainy, gray day, just like today but way colder, and I had just read through this fairly pretentious metal zine called Lamentations Of The Flame Princess (LOL) that I had picked up for free that day.  For some reason it was interesting reading, even though I had completely sworn off metal several years earlier.  It was my first time ever hearing of Opeth, whom I saw a few years later and then promptly forgot all about.

Planets with similar climates - Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Plexi - "Dimension" (1996), Pluto - "When She Was Happy" (1996), Social Distortion - "Let It Be Me" (1990), The Sound - "Heyday" (1980), The Pharcyde - "Passin' Me By" (1992).

Shady Crady >> And you can see your breath on the glass

Ω¬¬¬¬ Shady Crady - "Clamor" (Demo) ¬¬¬¬Ω

Ω (unreleased, 1988) Ω

Shady Crady were a band from Buffalo, NY, which evolved into alt/art rock/pop icons Mercury Rev.  They recorded an 8- or 9-song demo tape in 1988 in Fredonia, NY, which is known as the "Fredonia demo" among fans.  Only two of its songs have ever hit the webs, and I am posting the other one in my next post.  This one, "Clamor," is mainly intended as a teaser for the next one, "In Bloom," which is much more intense and unsettling.  But "Clamor" has its own cool charm, from its insistent, Krautrockin' beat, to its lyrics about being stuck inside a wall, to the singer's brilliant/hilarious/badass rap-style vocal phrasing, to its droning note which magically turns into an ascending psychedelic guitar riff, to the subtle bongo drum fills, to the almost orchestral, noisy finale.  Shady Crady opened for Sonic Youth in 1987, which must've been an amazing show.  You must read this whole page for all the info that is fit to print about Shady Crady, via the great Mercury Rev fansite Before The War.  I got these two songs when they first hit the internet and have been absolutely dying to hear the rest of this demo tape ever since.  I'm pretty upset that the rest of it has never been released.  For what it's worth, here is where the two songs were originally foisted upon the world.  "Clamor" found its way on to Mercury Rev's 2006 career retrospective double-CD called Stillness Breathes, so some of you may have this song and not even know it.

Interestingly, singer Dave Baker's erratic (many would say drug-fueled) behavior got him kicked out of Shady Crady, just as he later was from Mercury Rev, in '93.  And if you get kicked out of Mercury Rev for being too weird or doing too many drugs, you can rest assured that you are one weird druggie.  After this, he borrowed the word Shady from Shady Crady as his recording alias for his bizarre '94 solo album, the cult classic World, which featured song titles like "Rap Soda," "It Sucks Being An Astronaut," and "Narcotic Candy".  Note that Baker apparently did NOT sing on the Fredonia demos, so I don't even know why I'm mentioning him so much here, other than the fact that he rules.  Here's the lineup for the demos: Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak (vocals, bass), Mike Huber (drums), Jonathan Donahue (guitar), Suzanne Thorpe (flute, some backing vox).  I wish Grasshopper had gone on to be Rev's lead singer after Baker left, since I think he brought a more charismatic singing style to the table than that of Jonathan Donahue.


"The transparency of sound makes it all the more visible," "You can move the wall with your voice [force?]," and "And we feel the clamor there / And we feel the power there" are just a few of this song's cryptically cool lyrics.  "Move it!"  That would make a great line in an aerobics or Jazzercise tape, e.g. Richard Simmons' "Don't Tell Me."  Yes, that's a dope Richard Simmons song.  His niece Evelyn was in high school with me and now lives a few blocks from my parents.

Artist's depiction of funeral for the late Randy "Macho Man" Savage, via Hugging Harold Reynolds

Planets with similar climates: CAN - "I'm So Green" (1972), Pharmacy Lounge - "Building A Compound" (1996), Mercury Rev - "Trickle Down" (1993), Medium Medium - "Hungry, So Angry" (1981).


Interesting or useful sites I have recently found: Astronomy Picture Of The Day (NASA), Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things, How to delete Flash cookies from a Mac, Peter Lapshin's succulent site (Aloes)

Bleach >> Stupid fuck, gonna make you burn

Bleach - "Burn"

(Way Cool Records, 1991)

Well, I wasn't planning on posting any more Bleach for a while, but about an hour ago I destroyed my microwave while taking a shower, so I have the perfect excuse to post this song.  (I actually dig it so much that I considered it for the honorary first-ever post on this blog.)  Also, an RYM buddy commented that she recently discovered and liked Bleach; hopefully this song won't freak her out too much...  The smoke when I entered the kitchen was so acrid and overpowering that I could hardly talk and I developed a weird cough.  The last supper inside was Swedish meatballs, charred the color and texture of coal.  The rotating glass tray underneath had cracked into pieces and the sides have brownish orange stuff on them, vaporized food particles.  Amazingly, the digital display still worked, so way to go, Whirlpool company.  I must've pressed 22 minutes rather than 2 minutes before I traipsed off to shower.  Well, seeing as for the last 5 or 6 years I've always entered palindromic numbers when microwaving, I entered either 22:02 or 20:22 instead of 2:02.  It was down to about 5 mins. left, so it was on for 15-17 mins. straight.  So here's this intense, mind-melting song, which combines rap-style vocal phrasing (with lyrics like "You use my head to pop your trunk"), psychedelic soundscapes (made via reverb, delay, volume swells, panning, and other studio tricks), a few primal shrieks, tribal drumming, and other forms of mayhem to create something that is totally sui generis.  I don't know what got Salli so mad at the dude or dudette at whom her vitriol is directed, but I'll have what she's having.  She perfected her badass rap singing on their '91 single "Shotgun," which was re-recorded for their '92 album Killing Time.

Saw a great concert last night (Warpaint, PVT, Family Band) and actually bought both of Warpaint's CDs at the merch table, which is something I rarely do.  I met a dude who showed me his skateboard which he had gotten signed by Warpaint's bassist, Jenny Lindberg (sister of Warpaint's original drummer, actress Shannyn Sossaman) before the show.  I told him about how I had quit skating in 1988 after moving from hilly, smooth-paved Olney, MD to flat, pothole-filled New Orleans, and he told me about how skating is his life and Sonic Youth, Deftones and Tame Impala are his favorite bands.  He looked just like Dangermouse, but even skinnier.  After driving an hour and a half to see the show, he lost his iPhone at the club; we helped him look for it, but to no avail, so I hope you ended up finding it, man.  I'll stick to my little 2006 RAZR phone for this very reason.

Adding this pic on 6/3/11:

Yes, it's Disaster Girl

Planets with similar climates: Dinosaur Jr. - "Don't" (1988), Sleater-Kinney - "The Last Song" (1995), Sonic Youth - "Drunken Butterfly" (1992), Helmet - "Murder" (1990), Unwound - "Rising Blood" (1992).


Currently forced to: Use something other than a microwave in which to cook dinner; may resort to using the stovetop or even the oven.  I've told people for years that Russia has banned microwave ovens since 1976 due to radiation fears, and that microwaving destroys vitamins in foods, yet I still hypocritically use mine at least 2 or 3 times daily, so maybe this was the wake-up call I needed.  You may remember I almost posted this song a week ago after burning my finger on the oven while removing biscuits, so I should probably not be using it without supervision.

Update, Sept. 2011: Here's the photo I took of the situation: