Butthole Surfers – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 7″

The other day there were two headlines next to each other on the Yahoo home page, “Global Impact of Japan Crisis” and a crucial piece called “Actresses Sport Same Dress.”  I know it’s one of those silly little things to be bothered by, but it just seems connected to where we are today.  All kinds of crap going on in the world today (as on any other day) and unfortunately I have to share this planet with shit loads of idiots.  It’s not just that the whole concept of the media sucks, but it is a reflection of who “we” are.  I include myself in the mix too because I know that I’m just as guilty of being a sucker too.  What the hell are we doing and where’s this all headed?  Oh yeah, and the royal wedding is less than a month away.

I may have mentioned this before, but for all things Rudimentary Peni you MUST go to Piss in a Pod.  At the risk of mentioning that site again, I had been looking a while for a cheap copy of Nick Blinko’s book the Primal Screamer and realized that I couldn’t afford a real copy, the used ones on Amazon are starting at $150, the ones on ebay don’t go for much less than that.  It turns out Piss in a Pod is the place to get your free digital copy of the Primal Screamer .  Printed it out at work, yeah I know I’m a scumbag for stealing paper and ink from a non-profit organization, but I did do two sided copies so I feel better about myself.  After finishing it the other night, first impression, a damn good read.  Kind of a Bukowski narrative that takes the form of psychologist’s notes.  It’s called semi-autobiographical because it has a good deal of factual information with the names changed, but some things are obviously fiction, while others you’re left to decide for yourself.  Hopefully it doesn’t ruin it but the dream at the end is the most intense description of a dream I’ve ever read (you know how hard it is to paint a picture of the other worldliness of a dream or more specifically a nightmare.  Do yourself and read that.

My buddy Mike over at Strange Reaction did a review a book called My So Called Punk and realized I really know nothing about what they call punk today, other than bands like Bad Religion, NOFX and Rancid that have been doing it for a while.  Apparently this guy from Rancid was dating (married to?) a woman who fronts a band that has a big following.  Their kind of part of that whole festival punk/rock/metal phenomena, which I’m not too into (at least the Warped Tour thing I went to was not my thing).  Anyway like I said these guys are remind me more of grunge than anything else but I thought I’d put it out there.

This one came by way of another buddy who does a music site.  Never in the time it took for the universe to be formed did I think I’d be into this stuff, but it’s got that cabaret, Billie Holiday thing going on.  Plus this lady has been bashed in the tabloids and has been known to have that loser thing going on with the dope and liquor…how can you resist that.  I don’t care what you say, bad ass tune.

We’ve visited these guys before in a super post here and I also mentioned their killer website, appropriately called Butthole Surfers.  Probably don’t need to get all fired up again over these guys, this bootleg speaks for itself.  A Beatles  cover in a way only the Buttholes could do and an old classic.  Nobody makes anything close to this good these days and even back then.  Let’s do it legally with some of salvia and enjoy.

Cherub
Cherub the angel
Roll back the hands of time
Cherub Enter the angel
Aaaaaaahhhh!
You walk alone now You’re never mind
The walks you’ve taken Have left behind
All people sideways They look at you
May god forsake me Cause I do to
I see bodies
Maybe, just maybe someone is alive
Naked we smile
Hoo-hahahahahahahah, a-hahahahahohoho
Naked
Ha-ha
Ahhhh
You’re right beside me You gaze a view
Your body’s vacant They crawl right through
Those bodies falling It’s in the air
We’re mixed so close now But I don’t care
Ha ha ha
Walk upon me Your body lead
You try to escape you It’s in your head
I’d better go back I’m not over there
You walk beside me You gaze at me
You’re homeless now Or that times three
Amazon You gaze along
I’ll make you talk you There is no bong
Your mind has cut you You’re bleeding now
Your plans escaped Just like a bow
They walk right past you They stop and stare
Your body’s lying All over there
Ha-he-he-he-he

Come Together (Berlin ’85)

Cherub (Amsterdam ’86)

Reviews #1 (Rambos & United Sons of Toil)

Recently added my email to the side over there, not sure why…guess the rest of the guys who have a similar internet thing going on do too, maybe I’m a conformist.  Actually just wanted to see what would happen.  Well…ended up getting two emails from bands.  One of my buddies who has a much more superior site refuses to respond in anything but a negative way to these kinds of um…should I call them petitions.  Sort of flattered or maybe should say, always knew my opinion counted for something, hahaha.  Don’t know as I have much of a following, I count quality over quantity so in my opinion you guys that come here are the best.  The reality of course though is that 99.99% of the people who stop by this little establishment are MP3 collectors on the perpetual search for musical handouts and have absolutely nothing to say about anything.  It’s presumptuous though to think that a person other than a personal friend would bother to read this drivel.  The fact is that a review here is not going to expose the world to anyone’s music.  Maybe a more positive way of looking at it though is that change starts small and it is worthwhile even if for only a few.  So…what the hell, as I said way too many times when someone pulled out a baggie of some mysterious substance/pills, “I’ll give anything a try once.”

Here’s the first email I got (the snapshot I made from a clip on youtube).

Mustard Relics, Chicago’s junk-rockin’ Rambos have just released two new tracks! “Arrows” and “Terrorize” have the ability to transport listeners to a dingy Logan Square garage, and are available as free downloads on Rambos’ BandCamp page (see below for a link). Rambos have recently shared the stage with the Hollows and the Detroit Cobras, and they plan on taking 2011 by storm!
Please feel free to post any MP3’s or videos, any review consideration would be greatly appreciated!
Rambos BandCamp:
http://rambos.bandcamp.com/
Rambos performing “Human Monster”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyoTTAASvk
Rambos performing “Poet Murders”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69jHahw0DkE
Cheers, Kevin Cornell, NoVo Arts, Inc. / NoVo Artist Representation

Technically this wasn’t from the band but from a manager/agent or something.  Regardless, went to download the tunes from their site and to get them you had to give them your email that would in turn be put on a mailing list and then they would email you the link for the tunes.  Was a little uncomfortable with that, trapped, like when I get those pop ups that tell me that I really really am the 1 millionth visitor and have won a prize.  Silly I know.  I did check out their vids on youtube though.  They remind me of something I might have seen at a bar back in the day.  Wasn’t blown away or anything but thought they were kinda fun.  If they were freinds of mine I’d probably go see them play and say they rocked, but I’d probably just be being nice.  Not sure what else to say, maybe I should have listened to their studio stuff.  Edit: Didn’t feel like I gave these guys a chance so I went ahead and downloaded those two tunes.  You know what?  My opinion of the band stayed the same for “Terrorize”, but I’ll be damned if “Arrows” isn’t a good tune, you’re darn tootin’.  Made me think of something that would be in a Tarentino soundtrack.
Rambos – Arrows
Rambos – Terrorize

The second one I got (again my pic ripped from a youtube video of which these guys have quite a few).

WHY Mustard Relics?
We’ve been checking out the blog for a while now. The aesthetics and
point of view made it seem reasonable to assume that you might be
interested in the Sons’ message and music.
BAND: The United Sons of Toil
LOCATION: The front-line of class warfare and the battle for workers’
rights — Madison WI.
RECORD: In the shadow of the protests at state capitol, Phratry
Records releases “When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be
Beautiful,” a record that tells a story of repression and violent
struggle.
RIYL: The music is indebted to 90s-era Touch & Go, Amphetamine
Reptile, and Dischord releases as well as more recent noise
practitioners like Young Widows and Helms Alee, with hints at
Neurosis-style heaviness.
DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/?kbz2cdbe7pr1r29
WEBSITE: http://unitedsonsoftoil.com
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The story is one of an oppressed people who convince themselves that
their revolutionary violence is justified. Once in power, they become
oppressors and set the cycle in motion again. The underlying theme is
that fundamental societal change can emerge only through radical
individual change.
PRESS QUOTES
“The United Sons Of Toil pretty much instantly became one of the best
bands in Madison with the 2007 release of Hope Is Not A Strategy,
their first album of austere-yet-epic math rock paired with
excoriating leftist screams on behalf of the proletariat.” — Onion AV
Club
“The songs are driving and anxious, with harsh melodies and noisy
splashes of feedback interspersed between technical start-stops.
…some pretty killer off-the-beaten-path punk rock. …introducing
their own noisy, stressed-out take on math rock conventions.” —
Exclaim!
“…a more aggressive Unwound, giving a sort of mathy post-punk vibe
with some hints of chaos thanks to a seemingly heavy influence from
the Touch and Go noise-rock movement. Guitarist Russell Hall wields
distortion like Neil Young gone post-hardcore.” — Scene Point Blank
“…stemming together various aspects of the past mid-western
math-rock elite and the fleshed out noise-rock style of Unwound.” —
Built On A Weak Spot
“Looking for a musical analog of your favorite Howard Zinn tome? This
is it.” — Isthmus

My first thought on this band is that the singer/guitar player, Russel is cool as shit.  I responded to the email and he wrote right back and mentioned a name I hadn’t heard in years, Jiddu Krishnamurti.  My faculty advisor in colleg, had known/studied with JK and really thought a lot of him.  As a result I studied his writings a little myself, of course not having used that information in almost 20 years, I don’t remember much.  At the same time though some of his ideas have become integrated into my own, like the idea that societal change is only posssible when the individual him/herself has undergone self-reflection and change of their own.  Thanx to Russel for that blast from the past, need to see if I still have any of his writings, and really I would highly recommend you do the same.  Off that tangent and back to the band.  I had a little trouble downloading from the external files where their music was stored because the server was “overloaded”, but was able to get through later.  Quite the package you get the music, extensive liner notes, including lyrics, a manifesto, and notes and references about the song backgrounds.  Reminded me of the Crass days.  In other words, first impression…these guys do not fuck around.  Because the email said hard copies available upon request, I took advantage of that, so we’ll see if that comes or not.  I listened to the album all the way through and it was like a punk rock/hardcore opera in the sense that the album is one solid unit and flows from beginning to end.  The reviews that came with the email mentioned something about math rock, I still don’t know what that means (or emo either).  One band that was similar popped into mind called Forced Down, which I’ll post soon.  There’s kind of a jam feeling with the tunes and if I had one complaint, is that the songs are all on the longer side, but that says nothing of the quality of the music.  Listening to it a second time, I enjoyed it even more and reading the material I like where these guys are coming from.  Lyrically and musically my favorite tune hands down is the third one, “ILO Convention 169”.  All in all worth your time, if you’ve got any.

United Sons of Toil – ILO Convention 169

Bruce Banner “Nordic Thrash Power” / Sayyadina “The Inevitable Truth” – split 7″

Edit: Proof that I am getting senile can be found here.  It seems I’ve already posted these bands, coming full circle as I often do with what is being spun on the turntable.  Oh well, if anything, for myself, it shows two different ways to approach a subject and maybe how things are evolving around here.

Been having a craving for hallucinogens lately, I’m not sure why.  Like mushrooms with hardcore visuals, something to really entertain the brain.  I guess that would mess up my clean streak, so let’s not and say we did.  Some guy somewhere mentioned the whereabouts of some long lost legendary punk rock figure and what he was up to, which was connected to the word “enthogenic”.  Essentially “a psychoactive substance used in a religious, psychotherapeutic, shamanic, or spiritual context.”  Always thought a peyote trip would be good, but I suppose you should do that kind of thing for the right reasons, not just like dropping a tab or two and going on an adventure.  The Native American Church is an interesting group that might be worth looking into but I suppose as with any kind of spirituality, you don’t dabble in it, it’s a serious affair.  That may in fact be the problem with 99.99% of religious practitioners, they take it too seriously.

Talk about trippin’, remember the show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters?  Great theme song.  Somebody mentioned them too. How about H. R. Pufnstuf?  Another classic show/them song.  I know I’m stuck in the past…it’s because of early drug/alcohol use…I never grew up.  Hahaha.

As you know my Grandpa forwards me email all the time…the latest,
Man sitting at home on the couch with his wife and he says, “I love you.” She asks, “Is that you or the beer talking?” He replies, “It’s me…………. talking to the beer.”
Felt that way at one time.

Watched a special on Elvis for a couple of minutes and from what I caught the man had a punk rock moment when he played this country classic at the Grand Ole’ Opy (they were horrified),
Elvis Presley – Blue Moon of Kentucky
Mentioned it before, I’m not much of an Elvis fan (except when he was in his Vegas doped out/overweight years, haha) felt like he just took someone else’s idea and because he was white was able to capitalize on it (actually he made a lot of motherfuckers rich).  The reality I suppose is that I’m an ignorant old fool always looking for the conspiracy and really the guy had a huge impact on music.

My old San Diego buddy Chris Squire’s band, Billy Druid is better than non-alcoholic Everclear. Some kick ass shit that he’s been doing for 7 years now on his own in the studio. You older guys (maybe the younger one’s too…Elliott) should get into this rockin’ stufff played by a guy who’s been doing this for a while.  Check it out,
Billy Druid – I Walk With The Cobras
Hoping he’ll let me do a post on the band.

Not sure where to start in this one, but let’s keep it short.   Had heard it before picking it up, which sort of takes the surprise out of buying a record, but in this case it doesn’t matter.  Both bands outta Sweden I think, from 2001, this may be the best hardcore (in the most general of senses) of that decade.  REALLY dig Bruce Banner, their side doesn’t have a bad moment and is well worth listening to, but….the Sayyadina side makes this thing SOLID GOLD (and I don’t mean the 70’s show with the titillating dancers).  Fucking raging shit.  Both bands are what could be called a symbiotic (great word) blend of grindcore and power violence, but again…SAYYADINA.  A three piece with the fastest (I know that doesn’t mean the best) cymbal/snare, blast beat, drummer EVER (sounds like a srum roll).  May have posted a tune way back but now is the time to wake up world and notice.  YOU MUST LISTEN TO AT LEAST THE FIRST SAYYADINA TRACK!!!!!! (and that may not even be their best tune, plus it’ll clue you in to where the band got it’s name from…unless you’re already in the know).  Do it…seriously.

Bruce Banner

Fucked-Up

Don’t Make Me Angry

Dead Serious

Ruiner of All Things Good

Falck Security – Jävla As

Love is the Only Weapon

Sayyadina

Nothing

Prozacgeneration

The Revenge

The Awakening

Their Control

 

IabhorHer 7″

It’s amazing to think of all the jobs I have had over the years but don’t think ever with the enthusiasm of  this gentleman here.  Not sure what you would call his job (advertiser?) but I may have him beat as far as having a job that at the very least was not glorious.  When I first moved to Kansas I got a job at a factory farm for pigs, Husky Hogs.  These guys were anything but organic from their genetic altering to the masses of chemicals, hormones and antibiotics.  All for a pig with almost no fat, buff fuckers is what they were.  I guess most of the meat was shipped to Japan.  A big operation by Northwest Kansas standards they had 6 farms, with 10 barns each and almost a 1000 pigs per barn.  This does not include the nursery or the farrowing barns.  A sad existence indeed life in those barns, artificial light and slats in the floor to drain the shit and piss.  Heated and air conditioned so if that’s what’s important then maybe it wasn’t so bad.  About two barns were emptied a week with the pigs being hauled off to the slaughter.  My job title was Powerwasher, which means that I was responsible for cleaning the barns once they were empty.  These pigs were very susceptible to illness so the barns had to be cleaned thoroughly and disinfected.  With my job, I was considered unclean so I wasn’t allowed to be around live pigs, the only ones I saw were the dead ones who had been shot because they would not load onto the trucks.  For humanitarian reasons (hahaha) and I suppose maybe health concerns an animal must be able to walk itself into the slaughterhouse.  It took about 2 1/2 days to clean a barn so basically all my time was spent in shit and piss.  With these high pressure hoses/nozzles back and forth from one end to the other.  Sometimes if you hit a nook or cranie just right it would spit the shit and maggots back in you face.  Let me tell you, you haven’t lived till your mouth/nose/ear has been invaded by a clump of shitty maggots.  12 hours a day, 12 days on two days off, $7 an hour.  It was no wonder I was having issues with my self esteem and didn’t see the point of quitting the bottle.  Hell I brought the bottle to work in my lunchbox.

Just virtually met Sean who runs Damaging Noise.  Unfortunately you can not comment there but fortunately I was able to pick his brain a little bit.  Busier than most but not so much so that he can’t share his passion for music or his incredible original art.  At some point one of his extremely prolific bands will (hopefully) be releasing a double discography thing and figured I would serve up the first song from that hypothetical beast…piping hot,

Jefe stopped by after a long hiatus and made some of his crucial suggestions as far as some music that needs listened to.  Someone called them math rock, a genre I had heard of but never heard an example of (are they really?).  Another one of those two piecers, not unlike Jefe’s own two piece Fire Demons…a bit heavy on the heavy.  One of my favorites off their self titled thing,

Coffee IS GOOD for you (in moderation of course, not the gluttonous guzzling that I do).

Another one from my gramps who at 82 has seen a lot of shit in his day. This one had the caption, “When top level people look down, they see only shit heads; When bottom level people look up, they see only assholes…” Perfect! Had a big company meeting the other day, you know a management type meeting with the catered lunch, in other words a waste of money in my opinion. I’m considered “middle management” but I don’t have anyone under me, I just manage the lives of my clients. I guess I do get to call the other managers on their shit if they aren’t towing the line on what the agency calls “persons served”. I was talking to the president of the agency because I was kind of impressed how he talked politics, no left or right, rational. What do we need to do to ensure that the needs of the mentally retarded/developmentally disabled (MR/DD) are met in terms of the state and federal budget? With budget cuts going on everywhere both on the state and national level, nobody want’s their piece of the pie cut. Priorities right. Smaller government is what some are saying…funny because for me it used to be about no government. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that there are all these government funded things that really “we” can’t do without (socialism?). Kansas just banned this teacher’s union from the capital building for protesting. Funny how there’s protesting going on in the world that seems to be applauded by the US, but the homegrown stuff is frowned upon. If I was a prophet I’d say that we are going to see some shit here around the corner (but I guess every generation says that). Anyway…what was I talking about?

Was kinda feeling heavy and like something from the Slap a Ham label, and these guys from long about 1995 fit the bill perfectly.  Haven’t had this 7″ very long, but once I ripped it, it has been virtually spinning off and on since then.  Went to do a little research on  the band and it turns out my “old” buddy Batguano had it posted.  Go figure though because I think he’s the one that suggested I track down my own copy.  Expect this to happen again though because he posted a band called Dearborn SS and I subsequently tracked down a hard copy of that…also well worth posting here.  As Mr. Guano said these guys morphed into Cattlepress and I think they may have coexisted for a short time.  He also mentions that the members of this band are some serious heavy hitters including one of my favorite drummers, Dave Witte.  This stuff is not for the faint of heart and I’m sure there’s a name for this genre but I’m going to call it “post-grindcore” (you heard it here first).  I haven’t been in the mood for fire breathing vocals lately but this fits.  There isn’t a favorite of the two so listen to them both if you dare,

 

With just two tunes, figured I’d take it a couple of steps further and see if I couldn’t make it a (known) discography of sorts and find the comp tracks (after a short siesta…does anyone else take naps in the middle of the day?).  The discography used is from that Cattlepress Myspace up there so I figure it’s complete, but you gotta think that the band came up with more than four songs.  It would be a treat to discover more, but we’ll consider ourselves lucky to have these.  Luckily we were generously supplied with the seemingly rare Vols. 1 & 2 Cry Now, Cry Later later double 7″ comps (on CD).  Those are well worth checking into folks there are all kinds of GOOD bands on them, but for our purposes

The other comp appearance off the apparently even more rare “Step on a Crack” comp (I could not find it) was interestingly supplied by another generous donor (victim) in the form of his incredible  “Dave Witte Special” podcast.  That podcast is also well worth you time to be in amazement of, but unfortunately it is provided as most podcasts are, as one giant mp3.  So…I took out my virtual exacto-knife, did some surgery, applied the leeches, dispensed medicinal Coca Cola and plucked that tune right out of the host (I almost feel like I created the music myself…haha).  Enjoy, or do whatever you do with this kind of music.

Napalm Death demos for Elliott

EDIT:  Before you go any further you cyber surfer you, the links are all dead and I can’t find the first 4 demos anywhere…do me a favor and let me know if you find them (yeah right, you’d do that for me)…

Well Elliott as you requested, I looked around to see what I could find as far as Napalm Death demos.  It became quite an adventure and actually spent two evenings after work (my wife works most nights) looking high and low.  Got sidetracked here and there, and found all kinds of other music to listen to and shit to read.  I don’t do Soulseek or any P2P crap these days because of the trouble I got into with with my ISP (there’s only one that provides service in my neck of the woods) over torrents.  The wife said she’d kill me if the internet got turned off so that’s it.  Your best bet for finding those demos is probably one of those P2P sites or better yet finding someone who actually has hard copies (I got one from the band back in the day).  Anyway, here’s what I found.  These are the demos with the original lineup.
Halloween (1982, demo 1 – 9 songs)
And, Like Sheep, We Have All Gone Astray (1982, demo 2 – 15 songs)
Kak (1983, demo 3 – 10 songs)
Unpopular Yawns of Middle Class Warfare (1983, demo 4 – 6 songs)
Hatred Surge (1985, demo 5 – 9 songs)
From Enslavement to Obliteration (1986, demo 6 – 13 songs)
There is also a falsely reported/rumored demo called “Punk is a Rotting Corpse” which just has the song they did off the Bullshit Detector 3 comp, plus three songs by some unknown bands that get attributed to ND.  From this same period there is also some songs on various comp tapes/record,
Chapter 3 – Various Artists (by Jako of “The Joy of Propaganda”, 2 songs, 1982)
Ruptured Gut – Various Artists (by Twisted Tapes, 2 songs, 1982)
Twisted Nervous Breakdown – Various Artists (by Twisted Tapes, 1 song, 1982)
Subversive Elements – Various Artists (2 songs, 1982)
Bullshit Detector #3 : “Crucifixion of Possessions” (1984)
I don’t know if there is more, that’s just what I found at this wikipedia-like site called World Lingo.  So anyway after searching the internet there were only three things I could find.  I have the Hatred Surge cassette but it’s posted a lot and I’m not going to pretend like my rips are any better than anyone else’s.  It was also released with the other demo I found, From Enslavement to Obliteration, as a bootleg LP, which you can from this boring, can’t take the time to say anything about what they’re posting blog. Not sure about the sound quality on that bootleg, if I had to pick I’d get the demos separately, like Hatred Surge from this guy who at least has something to say about the music he’s sharing. Get the From Enslavement to Obliteration demo from my buddy Billy over at Crust-Demos he got some comments somewhere in there from Nic the bass player/vocalist from this original and long gone incarnation of ND. Not sure if you’re still having trouble with external storage sites and RAR/ZIP files so I’ll go ahead and post this killer stuff here (I have another friend who uses a computer for the blind, would love to check how you interface with it).

Hatred Surge

what man can do

instinct of survival

abbatoir

control

sacrificed

so sad

caught in a dream

private death

cheswick green (live)

From Enslavement to Obliteration

Multinational corporations

Instinct of survival

Unclean

Sacrificed

Siege of power

Caught… in a dream

What man can do

Control

Death by manipulation

Abattoir

Private death

The kill

You suffer

Did find one more thing from the ever faithful when it comes to this stuff, Kill Your Pet Puppy with the Twisted Nervous Breakdown comp cassette from 1982.  In general the rips Mr. Penguin does over there are done as a side one and side two type of thing, with none of the tracks separated.  So….I’ve done this before with several of his rips (even posted one with the Mob way back) I sat down and edited them out into tracks and labeled them.  Just to give an example of this whole thing was detoured often, his rips were MP3 and my ripping program only works with RIFF WAV and my converter works in all kinds of formats so I had to find a different converter.  Once that was done everything was sitting pretty.  Really that was just to be able to listen to that one Napalm Death track, but as it turns out even though the recordings were MUDDY, probably done on a ghetto blaster, there were a few worthwhile tunes.  Here’s that ND track,

Napalm Death-The Good Book

Just for the hell of it, to wrap this up, here’s a couple of good tunes from the same comp by a couple of likewise early 80’s English bands with that anarcho-punk almost crusty thing going on (the cold war and eminent nuclear annihilation inspired a lot of music back then, interesting how we still have all these stockpiles and the end is still just a couple of pushes of the button away),

Krondstadt Uprising-Divide and Rule

Krondstadt Uprising-Animal Liberation

Verbal Warning-World Wars