Not sure if I’m repeating myself, but fuck it if I am…nothing wrong with saying the same thing twice. Back in the 90’s when Seinfeld was airing, fresh and new, I would watch it every week like clockwork, planning my night around it. My wife at the time encouraged it. There was 3 sometimes 4, of us blue collar guys who would get together on Thursday nights (I believe it was), to watch it. Pretty much the same routine every week. We would arrive at one guys house early in the evening, have a couple of your finer type beers (Sierra Nevada was one) and get stoned, usually Mexican dirt weed. Then we’d go out to eat at any one of a number of restaurants/breweries in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego. A couple more beers and bellies full with some decent chow, we’d head back to my buddy’s house. Another joint and some ice cream, we were ready for Seinfeld at 9. Everything’s funnier when you’re stoned, but that show was so well written that even in my later sober days, I still found it funnier than all get out. My current wife (and last, I’m done if this one doesn’t work out), is a big fan of Seinfeld and I think the both of us have seen every episode many many times. I just love how the story was woven together, never political, but always making a social statement. A lot of people I know disagree, and that’s okay. The episode above was hilarious…wonder if Michael Richards will outlive his racist tirade.
Looking backwards again, this time a little further, this record is solidly a part of my college experience. I had a blast in college, maybe too much so, if I had to do it over again, I’d have partied less and studied more, oh well. But… So wonderful being exposed to and making lifelong friends with characters from all over the state and even the country. Music was a huge part of that experience. My Bro Sang, in particular, turned me onto all kinds of cool tunes. The Throwing Muses “Fish” would be a prime example of one of his magnificent suggestions. Just got this flexi, (paid way to much for it actually), which is the TMs first release according to the sources I checked. It came with the Great Recipes for Hard Times #2, a Boston fanzine from Oct. 1986. It’s a split, with the 1st band being Classic Ruins doing “How Do You Know?”, a tune originally by a band called the Lyres (I know nothing about them), and I’ll be damned if that isn’t a pretty killer tune in itself. Kind of a Johnny Cash-esque vibe. The TMs tune, I already knew I loved, with it’s dual vocal harmonies, poetic lyrics, treble-y guitar and military drum beat. My prayers were answered though, when I listened to it, and it turns out it’s different version from the one I was familiar with.
“Have a fish nailed To a cross On my apartment wall
It sings to me with glassy eyes And quotes from Kafka
It sings to me
An eel is squirming on my couch He’s talking up a storm
I’m laughing at his face He slithers down across the floor
I’m laughing
I Have a man
It follows my hips with his hands
Don’t worry (I’m laughing)
Dance in the road (I have a man)
And it explodes (It follows my lips with his melting eyes)
Don’t worry
Dance in the road
Fellow turns a fishy eye from the counter
I feel at his hand
Stalking in the grey
The girl behind the counter Sees a fin (school)
An eel slithers to the chalkboard
It writes 1 plus 1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 5 plus 6 plus 6 plus 6 plus 6 plus 6 plus 6
Don’t worry
Dance in the road
And it explodes
Don’t worry
Dance in the road
The house is reeling I’m kneeling by the tub
Lonely is as lonely does Lonely is an eyesore
The feeling describes itself
I Have a man It follows my hips with his hands
I’m laughing
At a man It follows my lips with his melting eyes
Don’t worry
Dance in the road
And it explodes
Don’t worry
Dance in the road Eye…
I’m painting his eye in the middle of the floor
Fish is frozen in my living room
Stares out of a block of ice
With one melting eye… eye… eye…
(Whoo!) Aced it Sick”
One of the most beautiful songs ever written. It’s a flexi so not the best quality, but my rips aren’t audiophile style anyway. Give it a listen. Good stuff Maynard…
Classic Ruins – How Do You Know?
Throwing Muses – Fish
The version of “Fish” that I had been listening to for all these years, was from the 4AD Records compilation called Lonely Is An Eyesore (the title of which is from a lyric in “Fish”). Not sure if it’s still in print or not, well worth picking up as there is all kinds of great songs on it, but you can listen to it a place called Urban Aspirines. Here’s that version…
Fish
Another equally good comp, Doctor Death’s Volume 1, has yet another version of the song (this may actually be the same as the one on the flexi…you be the judge). Have a feeling this one is way out of print, so find yourself a used copy or give it a listen at a pretty killer blog called Systems of Romance. Let me know if you think it’s the same version as on the flexi…
Fish
I’ve been swapping emails with my internet buddy, Bjorn of Unter Den Linden and Pilleemandjoonks, for a while now, we chat about life and bring to light music that we’ve separately got tucked away in our collective unconcious. I’ve heard a lot of music in my time, but by no means have I heard it all, there is so much old/new music just waiting to blow my mind. Out of the blue, a while back, he mentioned a Swedish Band called Nyx Negativ, you can read about them at Swedish Punk and Kill From The Heart. I thought I had never heard of them, but I must have, because their cassette is posted at Good Bad Music and I’ve read through everything there (but I’m a burnout and a mind is a terrible thing to waste). That cassette is absolutely essential, and Erich’s rips are top notch, so stop here, download it, listen, and if you’d like you can completely disregard everything else I have to say…or not. Bjorn sent me these three tunes and I instantly had a hardcore hard on, 1983 at it’s very fucking finest, it just doesn’t get any better than this…
Of course never being satisfied (the virtual bug had been put in my ear), once I had found out they had tracks on various comps, I needed to hunt those down. “Trofull” was also on the V.A.-Really-Fast-Vol.2-LP-85 (that is a direct link to the download, I could not find the original blog that it came from), but here it is again along with the other tune off that comp…
The next comp appearance brought me back to Erich’s Good Bad Music, as he had kindly posted the Varning!! For Punk massive 3xCD comp (another of many, absolutely essential downloads from GBM). Here’s the NN tracks off of that…
They also found themselves on the Raped Ass comp (you can imagine the things that popped up doing a google search for that, hahaha. At the risk of further repeating tracks, that may or may not be different versions, here’s those…
The only other comp that I could find that they were on, was the Vägra för helvete comp, I couldn’t find that for the life of me but it’s got the same tunes represented here, anyway.
