Joe Strummer Love Kills

So did Farrah Fawcett get trumped or what? When one large icon dies it's always a good time to remember some of the others who were nothing but good souls. Joe Strummer (1952–2002) was always true to his roots and the origin of rockn'roll. Thus his 50's look I would say. Part of legacy brings the Strummerville Foundation which strives to enable folks the opportunity to create music who may not have the chance.

"Love Kills" was the title track for Sid & Nancy movie soundtrack. Being as I totally missed 7" Friday yesterday I'm giving you a 12" LP on Sunday. Here's the dub mix promo of said song which I found in the bins at the Princeton record exchange. If you want some nostalgia check out this Out of Control T-Shirt from the good folks at worn free. I have a red one and so should you if they are still available. They have some cool stuff.

MP3 Love Kills Dub version [buy some]
BONUS:
MP3Silver & Gold with the Mescaleros
MP3Straight to Hell Cover by Lily Allen who Joe was a godfather too. Strangeness.

7 Inch Friday: Baxter vs Unsane

Seven Inch Friday: Noise pollution sometimes can be seen as good thing. The east coast was fortunate to have plenty of bands stricken with the need to play fast and loud with the vocals and melody playing a backseat. Enter the Toms River New Jersey band Baxter and Unsane from NYC.

Although they were around for short blip in time the punk rock continuum they put out one hell of 7 inch on their own make-shift label Velocipede. Mark (vocals/Guitar) and Daneal(drums -later to play in Aviso'Hara) were the Jersey shore's king and queen of indie. This blistering inferno of a band was known to play 4-5 sets tops and then cut the chord. Mark would later go on to form The Trans Megetti and put out a couple releases on Art Monk Construction and full length on Southern Records. Photo by your's truly.

Baxter an accident waiting to happen Velocipede 7"
mp3 car twenty seven - Side 1
mp3 simba - Side 2
mp3 superstar

BONUS: The Trans Megetti (pictured above) mp3 - "Opposite of Techno" (Courtesy of Southern)

Now onto one of the most morose record covers I own by a band that made a interesting turn post-hardcore.

mp3 - Concrete bed A side
mp3 - El Mundo - B Side
This is probably a little tasteless considering the Cobain reference below but then again I feel this is the premise. The music of the UNSANE should scare you out of your gore. Chris Spencer(Guitar.vox) and team were big time into horror flicks and the german Glitterhouse(GR0090) label were more than willing to accommodate. Now for some this straight forward display of rock was everything the new york noise scene stood for and umbrella'd like Foetus, the Swans, Sick of it all, etc. I saw them open for Crash Worship once (more on them sometime) and the unsane just made such a awesome wall of sound. Delivered with a scalpel precision which was only to be washed out by a literal flood and fire by CW. Amazing show. I remember Allen Ginsberg's boy punk rock lover David Greenberg cowling over them one time. I didn't get it at first but then I was like this rocks to holy hell. Damn. Don't expect a melody to catch you. Just let the molten guitar power grab ya which is akin to electrifying a vacuum cleaner sucking the air right out of you right to the end.

Unsane @ Wetlands NYC - More fanzeen rock scene photos up on the facebook

Past 7 Inch Fridays:
Jesus and Mary Chain vs North Elementary and Pistolero
Superconductor vs Mudhoney and George Clinton
Monster Magnet Glitterhouse seven inch

Day of the dead Kristen Pfaff RIP Janitor Joe

Kristen Pfaff RIP 1967-1994: There were few bass players in the Alternative scene in the early 90's who used distortion and in particular chick bass players who were as killer as Ms. Pfaff. Enter Kristen who died of a heroin overdose some 14 years ago in a bathtub today. Safe to say grunge got the best of her...

Get the rest of this story about Kristen Pfaff on the all new Review Stalker Music mp3 Blog>>

Jesus and Marychain vs North Elementary and Pistolero

On this rainy seven inch Friday we have "What is the sound of somebody scraping the underbelly of a jumbo jet" which is how Ethan Stein(RIP) from Captn' Video, WRSU's Overnight Sensations and his New Brunswick NJ band Leather Studded Diaphram(LSD) once described The Jesus and Mary Chain to me and I've been quoting him ever since because he was so damn right. More on him later but he was always good for long music chats till his unfortunate self destruction. This one goes out to you my friend.

This is, from I can tell, the first jesus and marychain release that came out in oh god 1981? I need to get a loop out to actually read the 7" label but I'm going with it till somebody corrects me. This was later to be followed up with the must have PSYHCOCANDY full length debut by JAMC. I discovered them in highschool before going to college and it was one of those life changing bands that basically broke a lot of sonic rules and were a perfect companion to Day Dream Nation and New Day Rising as those type of get-up and go or go to bed and smoke pot records(either way worked). Anyway, this has got all the killer feedback that can make you want to stick a fork in your ears in order to scratch inside the part of your skull. You eventually get used to it when chorus parts kick-in. Enjoy.
A Side: Upside Down - BUY JAMC
b Side: Vegetable Man(Sid Barret cover)


Before school lets out we bring you North Elementary a hook filled indie rock band from Chapel Hill NC who has a new full length out called Not For Everyone, Just For You on Eskimo Kiss records. NE remind me of grandaddy meets the big rock of Blue Tip in a can filled with dreamy lyrics and reverb. As a limited edition promotion you can get a split 7" with their friends Pistolero from Atlanta which reminds me of the warmers/cloud cult mixed with something hooky and smartly mod. Dig it. If you don't have a record player just go to their site as they are giving you the tracks (oh hell linked below for your convenience) for free of course. I love the split tradition. I wish more bands did this more often but it totally helps if the songs are good and herein is the case. Thanks. Keep them coming!

EndlessSummer (NE covers Pistolero) - Great song. Dig the big oasis type bass groove, which then picks up in to this awesome live lou reed jam circa rockn'roll animal machine.
Fuzzy TV Delay (pistolero covers NE) Big drum beat and keys layered in a hand clapping pastiche of what is a minimalist nation of Ulysses style all their own.

Emusic is going to obscure the indies with Sony BMG

So I opined on my tech/life blog the other day about SonyBMG screwing the Emusic pooch with the coming of a mostly lame catalog from the behemoth label that has such great chart topping artists like Jefferson Airplane, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Faithless, Kelly Clarkson, Dolly Parton, Judas Priest according to last.fm. Ok I of course like Cash and sorta is like blasphemy or communism not like Elvis but C'mon. Really?

Which if you take a close peak at the metrics on last.fm there it equals 420 Million unique listeners for the combined fans of those groups who scrobble their music from iTunes alone! Holy F*ck batman! That is a lot of freaking band equity. There will invariable be a few issues they will have to deal with this marketing conundrum.
(1) They might start crashing because of the boon of new subscribers. Which in most cases is a good problem to have but much better to grow steadily than over night.
(2) They will or in process of obscuring the indies and fans who have helped build up emusic for the past 7-8 years (see the thread). New music fans take risks with on all these artists because of the low entry cost. Angry user will need to appeased one way or another.
(3) Financially, sorta supporting point above, the indie 00' band hey day is in serious jeopardy. There is huge set of emerging artists that will be competing with releases older than 2 years. You know that will change once the price point start to turn over fast there could be roll back. These are just mp3s in the over-all scheme of dismal cd sales there are lessons to be learned from the past. Remember the beta and VHS war? Lower quality always wins for mass distribution with right price point (So markety i know). Slowly emusic may (hopefully not) start to obscure these artists for moving volume. If I were them my immediate course of action would be to segregate the "Majors" in the charts like they do in record stores sometimes (remember those?).

Personally, I am going to be on pins in needles as this fiasco unfolds PR nightwares get sorted out. I'm not going to up my emusic subscription and I'm not going to cancel it either. I've been a loyal customer since Jan05. It's still the best deal out there these days and people gotta eat. It will slow my support and consumption of the indies since I'll only be able to afford on average 3 albums a month as opposed to 5 and half a month in previous plan in this new budget. I would have preferred a subtle 10-20% rent increase but oh'well. Quite a slow down in my music consumption. Again, not that I always downloaded my whole 65 tune subscription previously. Emusic secretly loves that kind of customer with their use it or loose it rule. Which was a great revenue stream for them. Lets see what happens for now there was a Alice Cooper song I wanted to buy... Seriouly it's bit of sell-out but somebody had to give my only hope is that it benefits all the little guys in the long run or short run. Somehow.



Mp3 - The Big Sell-Out - Bongwater - BUY SOME WHILE IT'S CHEAP

What's Sonic Youth got to do with the Dustdevils?

Nothing really is the answer, unless you consider SY the only band of it's type of which case you live in a very narrow universe.

So the other night a post caught my eye on mog by a mogger posting a Live Bush tetras video at the knitting factory, which i have scratched up, i mean really scrappy 7" copy of "Things That Go Boom in the Night" (i think), and was then subsequently chatting with my friend Jim about Danceteria and couple bands from the past including Mission of Burma and the one other bands that came up during the conversation were of course the Dustdevils and I said holy hell I just ran into this band accidentally again...blah,blah,blah. Seriously file Dustdevils with your noise bands on the farther end with neurosis and live skull as far as I am concerned. SY is a pop band compared to this drug smuggling outfit or least in the middle of their output. for the most part Dustdevils are a really noisy rock band founded by English Guitarist Michael Duane and Aussie vocalist/guitarist Jaqi Dulany. They started the band in the Mid 80's in the UK then transplanted themselves to NYC. With a inconsistent line-up of now well known NY scenesters playing in the band on and off again up until the late 90's where they toiled their brand of sonic pollution. The exact dates for these things are not so important sometimes if the discography overshadows it in the annals of rock history. Probably a foot note (if that) for some but for others a major part of a scene along with thinking fellers union, Fly Ashtray, Wider, Gerard Cosloy Matador owner, and Crown Heights among other band folk; all whom did time as part of the Dustdevils. I can't even keep up but this trouser press discography review does a good job naming names. Now seriously, you really need to be into dissonant guitars and feedback that creates this aural landscape to enjoy it. The later stuff gets all trance and mixxy but you'll like it. I have.

Here are a few choice selections:
Mp3 - Young Moss Tongues - from Geek Dip (Matador 1989) where you really get that SY comparison to something could have easily been on EVOL and you would be none the wiser.
Mp3 - Encient - from Rhenyards Grin (Rouska/Fundamental -1987) - This album starts does hit part of pop department alla throwing muses a whee bit but i think it has to do more with production and more apparent song structures. I honestly start with this one then work you way up or down.
Mp3 - Receiver - From Extant EP (Matador - 1996) Recorded in 1993 sometime and released posthumously after for good parting of Duane and Dulany.

Live dustDevils Video
Grab just about the whole Dustdevil discography for yourself here or buy some somewhere if you can find some. They're better than drugs kids.

Superconducter vs Mudhoney and George Clinton

Throwing a couple things at ya this on 7" Friday from the grunge and funk variety.
First up is a group called Superconductor from Vancouver, B.C. Canada that featured 10 freakin' band members at times that came out on Scratch and boner Records (catalog number BR30) out of California (same label as the Melvins) in the very early 90's. On this release they had (7) seven guitar players, (2) two bass players and (1) one drummer nicknamed on the 45 as follows: Dream Whip (G), It's on You (G), Thighmaster(B), He who is named (G/V), Flying Fist(G), Noise Annoys(G), El Impacto (D,V,bontempi), Sweet Bitch (B), Alan Smithee(G) and Delicious Warm on (G). This particular release was called Heavy With Puppy, produced by Don Gordon and band, engineered by Ken Marshall in Nov of 1991. The photo above is by Mike Ledwidge and group photo below by Mark Critchley from the inside cover. Now I suppose you're going to find out what this sounds like if like loud raunchy guitar music. I was always impressed how tightly they could play together and not sound like a washed out mess. Then again I never got an opportunity to see them live but always enjoyed their releases when I could find them. Enjoy the noise man.


Mp3 - This side: Bushpilot - Superconductor
Mp3 - Baby Side: Satori Part One - Superconductor

Printed on baby side it says "Smoking during pregnancy can harm the baby"

The bonus for today is a cover of "Pump It Up"(Elvis Costello Cover) by Mudhoney that was a 7" promo for the movie PCU. The flip is George Clinton doing a track call "Stomp". Fun stuff. Enough said.

Mp3 - Pump it up (cover) - Mudhoney
Mp3 - Stomp - George Clinton

I dig the Hold Steady for everything they are not

Major leage props to pitchfork (yes I know who knew this day would come) for posting 7 songs from their festival on their TV channel of the hold steady playing live. Damn. These guys were nerds. Nobody was paying attention to them years ago in their earlier incarnation of Lifter Puller. I had their cd back in the zines daze and thought they were just another rocknroll band too. Now they are doing the same thing on south and main from Brooklyn usa and still killing it 4 albums in. Drinking budweisers and talking at you live before happy hour starts. Check them out when you get a chance. If you dig the replacements and ac/dc and kiss. Chances are they will be as drunk as you are but still be able to hold their tune drinks above the bar as they have learned from the mistakes of their former masters and on their own. To repeat this is a bar band so you're going to need to know the words because there are a lot of them.

Find some Hold Steady tracks on hype-non-standard
or
mp3 - Atlantic City (Spingsteen Cover)
mp3 - Constructive Summer - Stay Positive

or better yet buy some on emusic (better idea).

Music for haters, liars and cheaters

I did a rant about a social network for karma police site on my life/tech blog today called Ventma.com which didn't work when i tried to login to vent! ha! The site did inspire some songs about liars, haters and cheaters though.

Anybody know any good tattle-tale or whistle blower songs? I'm sure this is just the tip of the proverbial ice-burg.

Listen to some hate for now:
Liar - Built to Spill - mp3 from you in reverse
Cheater - Bubblegum Thunder
Hateful - The Clash - London Calling
Hate Paste - Archers of Loaf
I am the Jury - Moistboyz

OK that is it. Enjoy.