Requiem For A Trend

former music bloggers

Well, looks like blogger might be the new internet-ghetto. Many of the people that inspired me to join in on this whole music sharing/festival of verbal onanism have gone on to newer, greener pastures like podcasts, tumblr porn, twit(ter), and other short attention span pandering suck&fuckeries. Posts have been sporadic or non-existent in many of my favorite internet haunts. I get it. I'm part of the problem. Hell, I'm almost too lazy to even embed links in this post. At one point the constant flood of music I was DLing became overwhelming. I just couldn't find the time to listen to all the sick shit people were posting. I still have albums on my HD that I've never listened to. As a silly man once didn't say, "There's more to life than blogs you know, but not much more." Well, I, for one, always enjoyed the flogging of a dead horse (or a dead hooker), so here I am posting without shame. To all those guys who created and contributed to the blogs over there on the right, thanks for all the good times and awesome tunes. I will continue to haunt these pages, and I will never leave you, until I do. For all the people that have sacrificed their time to read my bullshit, and to those who choose to communicate via comments and e-mails, here's a truly heartfelt "Thank you." Also, I'm really stoked to see Jason and Shelby out here on the Big Island real soon. You guys are champions.


And, speaking of champions, here is a truly majestic piece of work by the much-celebrated paragons of getting fucked-up and fucking things up: HICKEY's "US vs. THEM" e.p.  Matty Luv is dead, yeah, but HICKEY is immortal. Ain't nothing in this world makes me happy like a HICKEY record. Matty's mad poetry and  gonzo guitar attack and Aesop's nitro-fueled jalopy pump n' munch drums have inspired many a drunken night's regret-worthy hi-jinx. Great alone or with friends. When is somebody gonna write the book on HICKEY, already? Few bands have ever earned such a wild and debauched (not to mention dumb and crazy) reputation. Aesop said it best, "Hickey is a cult band. When they were around, nobody went to  their shows. Now, everybody says they were there." LONG LIVE THE NAKED CULT OF HICKEY! People are always re-releasing their shit so go and buy some of it. I got the new 2x12" edition of "Various States of Disrepair" with all the extras, and I have already dry humped it twice, built a shrine to it, and stole it a baby; and that doesn't even scratch the surface of its potential.

"Life is cheap, but living is expensive." (DL)

"...You're the only one - 2 - 3 - 4!"

I really wish I could tell you more about Manson Youth. I know that they are from SoCal (Riverside?), that one of the dudes is a well known tattoo artist, and that these two kick ass E.P.'s were recorded around '84, but didn't see a release until the early nineties. As far as I know, that's all they released, which is a damn shame. I picked up "God's Fun Children" at Streetlight Records in San Jose, Ca., back when they had a legitimate selection of punk on vinyl ('95? '97?). I haven't stopped spinning it since. Seriously good, old school punk rock jams. Maybe you can fill me in on some of the blanks? Did you go to school with these dudes? See them live? Get beat up by them? Maybe you've got a rip of some third generation, cassette dub of demos or unreleased goodies. School me holmes. My two favorite tracks would have to be "Karen" and "Vulnavia", those songs do not get old:





"Some people think that she's really dead [DL]"

"The Funny Thing About Regret Is..."

I've seen the Butthole Surfers live twice, now. Once, when they opened for Nirvana on New Years Eve '93 going on '94; and again last October, when they shared a bill with the Melvins. The more recent show was part of a reunion tour, and to be honest, left me a little cold. They played most of the songs you would expect, and pretty much note for note. All told, it was a decent performance from a band I've been listening to for twenty years. So why didn't I have fun? Several reasons. Firstly, the venue was divided into terraces, and unless you were one of the first couple hundred people to get there, you couldn't get within 25 feet of the stage. Yawn. And, secondly, they played that shit straight as can be, and Gibby spent most of his between song banter complaining about the shitty venue. Well, sorry Gibby, if you weren't booked at a better club, but it's not the audiences fault. To be fair, ten years will grow you up, and turn down the punker antics. Oh, and they looped the theme from The Price Is Right and played it full volume for at least twenty minutes before they went on stage, which ruined every one's buzz. Maybe that was the point. You see, I first read about the Surfers in the seminal book on early DIY/Indie culture, Our Band Could Be Your Life, and I was like, "holy snappers, these cats are cuhrazy!" They took acid everyday, and fingerbanged girls on stage, then set the drum cymbals on fire, etc. So, when I saw them play in '93, I felt prepared. I wasn't. That was and is the craziest show I've seen, and one of the best. Yeah, it was at the Oakland Coliseum, a huge sports arena, but that just meant they could fit more freaks in the building. The Surfers pulled out the usual antics I mentioned before, while standing in front of three projection screens playing different images, sometimes over one another. Gibby sang through the bullhorn, the music was incredibly loud and mostly unintelligible, and the fans were the weirdest people my thirteen year old eyes had ever set upon. There was a cluster of girls wearing black leotards, doing some kind of interpretive dance. A guy in a wheel chair rocking out, then producing and consuming a strip of blotter acid, at least five hits long. Pot smoke thick as maple syrup filled the air. Anyways, if you get the chance, catch them while their still alive and kicking, but don't expect the legend to hold true. And, in the meantime, enjoy this classic album from 1987. Noise rock at its finest, if you ask me. Oh, wait, back then they were calling it "Pigfuck."

Satan! Satan! Satan!

"People are more hideous than monsters"

You thought I was gone, didn't you? Well, to paraphrase a young Johnny Rotten, "I'm back! Wif a vengeance!"

Kicking things off, we've got a three track 7" from Tampa,Florida's Pink Lincolns. These guys are what I would call Punk n' Roll, I guess, because they've got chops (guitar solos), but retain a snotty, fuck you-edness sure to offend your parents. "Sumo Fumes" starts off with a cover of X-Ray Spex that should sound pretty familiar to anyone who's ever listened to punk, anywhere. Then we get my favorite track, "Monsters", it's thought provoking and it jams. What else do you want? There's also a third track, another cover, this time it's "I Got You" by the Split Enz. To be honest, I think I've only listened to the last track/b-side, maybe ten times. But, "Monsters"? About a zillion plays in my lifetime so far. Grab it for that alone, what 'ave ya got to lose?

Smell the Fumes Here

"I Don't Want to Live in Anytown"

Reagan Youth are an oft misunderstood band. Sarcasm and satire don't always travel as far as record distributors. Look at these crappy photos, and you'll see that the album imagery is of a particularly sick leftist bent. Swastikas, Klan robes, burning crosses. Ohhh, the eighties. (I'm kind of joking here. I was in diapers when Ronnie was in office. I remember that I called him the Clown, and I would punch his TV face and laugh.) This is Vol. 1 of a two part-er put out by the New Red Archive label in 1990 on beautiful clear-red vinyl. Part 2, which I don't have anymore, covers the later years and sees the band taking a pretty drastic turn away from their punk roots. It's still good, but don't expect any more songs like "New Aryans." If you have ever watched that corny-ass Brendan Frasier/Steve Buscemi movie, Airheads, you might recognize the track "Degenerated", which was used in the finale of the film. Weird.


Run Spot, run.

I saw my reflection in that dirty yellow water...

This is an album that was on constant rotation for a good six years of my life. There isn't a whole lot of info on the web about these guys,other than passing references. All I know is that The Piss Drunks put out two really good albums before breaking up and that they were from Seattle. The quality on Urine Idiot is a bit suspect, but the song writing makes up for that in spades. Straight up punk rock, here, with just a hint of blues. I believe this was put out by Ransom Note Records in 1995. Urine Idiot captures the feeling of drinking, puking, and drinking again as well as any Bukowski poem. Oh, don't confuse this band with the skate crew "The Piss Drunx", that Greco, Dollin, and Reynolds were affiliated with, they had nothing at all to do with this.Their other release, "Alocoholocaust" will probably be posted here sometime soon. It's time for beers.

Black Label Me