This monophonic microgroove recording is playable on monophonic and
stereo phonographs. It cannot become obsolete. It will continue to
be a source of outstanding sound reproduction, providing the finest
monophonic performance from any phonograph.
#############################
Indie List Digest!
November 27, 1995
Volume 4 Number 45
#############################
Urge Overkill, Guided By Voices, and Thrush Hermit
Quintron, Dirty Three, etc.
mumbo yak takes manhattan
ANNOUNCE: gentle giant on WWW
ANNOUNCE: Local Beat Magazine
why am i always writing these intros? i dunno.
as always, we want to encourage all of you out there (yes, you) to
send us your reviews of shows, records, thanksgiving dinners, etc.
lurkers are urged to de-lurk, procrastinators are urged to
un-procrastinate. i'm tired of looking at URLs in the indie-submit
box and would like to see some real reviews, please.
yrs in briskness,
az
p.s. if you're looking for some related reading, the latest issue of
Finley Breeze (#6: Promotion!) is out and about. contact FB editor
and I-L Bloofgamanager Sean Murphy at grumpy@access.digex.net to get
your copy.
brisker: what is it with yaks this issue?
-es
<------------------------------>
From: Michael Ligon <ai227@freenet.toronto.on.ca>
Urge Overkill, Guided By Voices, and Thrush Hermit at the Phoenix (Toronto,
Ontario:Oct 25, 1995)
To start off, I got there about 10-15 minutes late and I was only able
to catch about 3 or 4 Thrush Hermit songs at the most. They write
great pop songs but you can also hear their classic rock influences in
the music. Surprisingly, their classic rock tendencies sound fresh
and not like some over-rated bar band. They are on Murderecords and
their new ep is out which is called `The Great Pacific Ocean.'
Guided by Voices stole the show, in my opinion. Being only familiar
with their lp 'Bee Thousand' and nothing else, I was glad they played
a lot of the great songs off that album like 'I am a Scientist,' 'Gold
Star for Robot Boy,' and 'The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory'.
Robert Pollard strolled onto the stage at the beginning of the set
with a mannequin, which I think was an attempt to get some 'woo woos'
from the audience. But really, I was just there for the music, and apart
from the mannequin their only stage theatrics were limited to Rob
Pollard's perpetual beer guzzling, the Pete Townshend windmills by the
lead guitarist and Rob's bopping up and down. The music was great and
that was all that mattered.
To be honest I wasn't particularly excited to see Urge Overkill. I
like their music but I think it was just being tired that made me want
to leave after GBV. I'm glad I stayed. Although I liked the Guided
By Voices' songs more, Urge Overkill put on the more exciting show.
They rocked, I mean they ROCKED. The played several songs from the
new album, plus some of their favourites from 'Saturation.' When they
finally walked off the stage I thought the show was over but after a
minute Nato strolled from the darkness with a guitar, gave the
audience a sign of approval (I think this is when an audience member
yelled out "Green Gay sucks," who were playing down the street, and Nato
responded "Some of my best friends suck") and went into "Girl, You'll
Be a Woman Soon.' And right on cue, the other band members strolled
onto the stage and merged into the song right on beat. Now that's an
entrance. With the disco light ball spinning, it felt like the prom.
Of course, they did the obligatory encore (how could they refuse!) with
Blackie singing `Dropout' and their new band member taking over drums.
All in all, they put on a great show. Oh yeah, and I've rediscovered
how great "Saturation' is. I think I'll go listen to it now. Bye.
[duck... -es]
<------------------------------>
From: madnbut@vt.edu (Mad and Butch)
Quintron, Dirty Three, etc.
Charalambides-Our Bed Is Green (Wholly Other)
This Houston, TX trio has put out a nutty record on Siltbreeze, so
you've got a general idea where they're coming from. Two or three
guitars all droning and freaking at once, with the occasional
otherworldly femme vocal over the top, in a kind of wordless moan
similar in concept (though not necessarily in style) to the moon-speak
of Liz Frazier. It's got that crazy lo-tech sound, which only adds to
the intimacy you feel as you let these epics wash over you. Or, for
those who may remember, there's a similarity to the '60s guitarist
Sandy Bull, who utilized some scratchy acoustic/electric/etc. noises
on tunes of his like "Electric Blend."
Look for a double LP on Siltbreeze shortly. This CD is a reissue of
one of the band's earlier tape-only releases (with more volumes on the
way?), and the covers are each individually done in a very attractive
(and cost-effective) package.
Wholly Other: 1205 Crocker Houston, TX 77019
----------------------------------------------------
Pelt-Brown Cyclopaedia (Radioactive Rat)
Excellent double LP-only set from Richmond, VA, noisemakers under the
spell of Rake, Skullflower, Throbbing Gristle, Siltbreeze, Forced
Exposure, etc. Lots of scraping and guitar grit; occasional vocals
are actually a distraction. This is probably incredibly hard-to-find
(the easiest way to get it would be to write to them directly), but
for anybody who really wants to get "out there," it's a gem. It's
pretty obvious that these guys have their own unique vision, one that
takes into little account things like "commercial potential" or
"college charts". Richmond has always had an active experimental
scene, and Pelt have gone through a number of incarnations to get
where they are now. They started out as a much louder and heavier
band, working territory similar to Sonic Youth at their most
bombastic. Several years down the line, the very tough Richmond
circuit seems to have worn them down. Either that, or they've moved
so deeply into their own heads and their own inner visions that they
can't get out any more. This is really chilling; a more pure vision
of inner hell I've not heard in many a moon. And that's as strong a
recommendation as I can give.
Radioactive Rat: 238 S. Cherry St. Richmond, VA 23220
------------------------------------------------------------
Various Artists-Cognitive Mapping Vol. 2 (Friction Media)
One of two essential compilations of the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill
music scene released this year (the other is Wifflefist's Scattered
and Smothered), Cognitive Mapping Volume 2 captures the straighter
indie-rock side of the scene, while still remaining remarkably
experimental and refreshing. Despite wildly varying styles, there's a
sense of thematic consistency thoughout the 31 different cuts, and it
paints a picture of the Triangle as one of the most exciting musical
destinations in the country.
Take, for example, the three way juxtaposition of HMS Cervix, the
Troubador Squat Trio, and Bicentennial Quarters that takes place
towards the middle of the CD. HMS Cervix is making some impressive
noise, hearkening back to the halcyon days of the Raincoats, the Slits
or the Bush Tetras. They're followed by the TST; chamber scronk that
immediately brings to mind the Kronos Quartet, mainly because there's
not too many other folks to compare them to. Finally, the mighty BQ
finishes off this thread-within-a-thread with their Henry Cow/Jon
Spencer/Naked City mixture of flailing scronk/punk/dink. And the
amazing thing is that it flows as smoothly as silk. In a way, CM
echoes the work of the pioneering Chapel Hill radio station WXYC.
Those weened on the station wouldn't find it surprising to hear the
juxtaposition mentioned above. Open-minded listeners will find CM
just as rewarding an experience.
Many of the bands featured here have released other material on their
own: Minerva Strain, June, Rebar, Spatula, HMS Cervix, Shiny Beast,
the Raymond Brake, Tractor Hips (and in fact, all but a few artists
here) have put out LP's, CD's and 7" singles of their own. Look for
them all, but if you want a good place to start in getting a grip on
the rapidly evolving Triangle scene, CM is an excellent place to
start. Not only that, it's a good listen.
Friction Media: PO Box 373 Chapel Hill, NC 27514
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Karate!/Crownhateruin split 7" (Art Monk Construction)
Wow! Karate! really smokes in sort of a Slint kind of vein-you know,
lots of dynamics and "heaviosity". Their half of the split, "Cherry
Coke," is really one of the best songs that I've heard in a while.
Slow, slow, slow, and then it kicks in pretty heavily, with crunchy
guitars that have the perfect amount of bite, without going over the
top. They're in the midst of recording an album for Southern right
now, and it will definitely be worth checking out. The CrownHateRuin
includes former Hoover people, and is in that Universal Order of
Armageddon kind of post-HC vein. Pretty decent, but the Karate! side
is the special one.
Art Monk Construction: PO Box 1105 State College, PA 16804
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Money Mark-Performing Chicken (Love Kit)
Here's Beastie keyboardist Money Mark (Mark Ramos-Nishita) stepping
out with some grooves of his own. This sounds a lot like fragments,
which is good; rather than cheese us out with some long funk workouts,
Money kicks little "thoughts" and "phrases." Deep organ grooves, and
an occassional vocal; if you like the heavy organ parts of the
Beasties repertoire, you'll love this. This is a great record to
mellow out and just stare out the window with. Supposedly, there were
going to be two other 10" singles to go along with this one, but they
haven't materialized. He does have a pair of new CDs out (one from
Japan which is probably out of all of our price ranges). Haven't
heard them, but if they're half as good as this, they'll be sweet.
Love Kit Records: PO Box 861565 Los Angeles, CA 90086-1565
-----------------------------------------------------
Quintron: The Amazing Spellcaster-Live at the Pussycat Caverns (Bulb)
This is totally wacked! A (mostly) one-man organ jam, much of which
acts as background for a puppet show! The Pussycat Caverns is a now
defunct performance space in New Orleans that did all kinds of crazy
stuff, including the aforementioned puppet shows. Quintron was
apparently a regular performer, and he still does his thing around
N.O. when given the chance. What is "his thing," you ask? Well,
imagine Jimmy Smith when he was just starting out, and exploring the
organ keys as if they were his momma's fingers: imagine Money Mark if
he had gotten into European "art music" instead of funk: imagine an
otherworldly recorded sound similar to the crazy anti-recording found
on the first Guitar Wolf album. If you can picture all that, then
you've got an idea of all the mystery, fever and soul that Quintron
brings to the organ . It's spellbinding and laughable all at the same
time. This is another one of those inexplicable records that make it
all worthwhile. Beg, borrow, steal: find it and get loose! Plus, the
album cover art alone makes it worth it.
Bulb: PO Box 8221 Ann Arbor, MI 48107-8221
------------------------------------------------
Dirty Three-Self Titled (Touch and Go)
Dirty Three-Sad and Dangerous (Poon Village)
An Australian instrumental trio consisting of a guitarist, drummer and
violinist, the 'Three manage to conjure up some firestorms of
intensity, as well as plunging the depths of melancholy. It's quite a
unique record, and is sure to stir some sorts of urges. "Indian Love
Song" kicks off the Touch & Go release with a modal feel similar to
John Coltrane's "India." "Better Go Home Now" spits fire, while "Odd
Couple" and the ever-so-slowly evolving "Kim's Dirt" bring the mood
down. "Kim's Dirt" sounds like the world unfolding in aching steps.
No, no-I mean it. Beautiful. The overall tone reminds me of some
Fairport Convention stuff (especially Fairport's "Sloth"); sturdy
dynamics that keep you interested despite the lack of vocals.
Sad and Dangerous opens with another version of "Kim's Dirt" that, if
possible, unfolds even more slowly than the version on the self-titled
album, plus it has some nice thumb piano work. The overall tone is a
bit more "experimental" on this recording; the band recorded all the
tunes live, and that gives it a certain "something" as far as the
recorded sound and feel go. Despite whatever differences went into
the recording process on each of these, they are both highly
recommended.
Touch and Go: PO Box 25520 Chicago, IL 606225
Poon Village: PO Box 9102 Waltham, MA 02254
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking for info on Refrigerator, Geezer Lake, June, Rake, Yak! and
thousands (or tens) of others? The Squealer Home Page is your
salvation: http://www.mal.com/~squealer
"A man's a man, a yak's a yak. Understand, a fact's a fact."
--King Kong, '95
<------------------------------>
From: dann <DLM94001@UConnVM.UConn.Edu>
mumbo yak takes manhattan
hi. um... 3.11 tt bears in boston: meghan opened up, she used to be
in sk-70 & did a great solo set. i saw her a long time ago, she was
just as good as remembered. while shiva speedway was playing we were
going to hook up a 40 (sidetracked by the news of rabin's death: i'm
israeli & a lot of my family lives there, it was pretty heavy news...
felt really strange) before we remembered the "no re-entry" signs. we
ran back and they we were nice enough to let us back in. shiva
speedwy, now a 3 piece, was not as bad as i remembered them being.
they were actually ok. the drummer is really nice. nice people are
good. somebody made a good comparison of someone they sounded like,
but forgot both. useful information, eh? i had wanted to see turkish
delight for a long time, and had to unfortunately resignate
disappointment. creative, yes.
the guitarist was rad and most of the elements seemed in place... i
dunno. the singer just kind of hopped around unenthusiastically and
in someone's words i do remember (no offenses intended to anyone) was
simply too "white." whatever. i hate writing bad reviews of bands
because it's other people's time and effort and love & then stupid
little me comes around and in a bunch of dumb words- poof- judge judge
judge. anyways, i assume that you all (duh) keep in mind that as
selfish as i may be, i try to express my personal tastes and opinions
(no, i mean ben weasel's) in my reviews and that anything i say that
you take seriously (i suppose that that can relate to good stuff too)
is yr own problem. ick, please excuse all this, much less a
milkcrate/ soapbox then self-affirming guilt trip for writing bad thing
about bands.
[oh dann, i write bad things about bands all the time. don't you
worry your head about it.-az]
anyways, godhead silo was very good and very loud and there were a
very lot of people there to see them. a bunch of new songs & fewer
silly dances. mike (vocals, bass) had a slayer "spill the blood"
t-shirt which i hadn't seen in years. i was (need i say more) very
impressed. the next day we walked around in boston and did intern
work. there needs to be a good all-encompassing record store in
boston-cambridge. altogether, its ok, but that's counting the
inventories of some 15 stores. i was really upset that a lot of
places were charging over $10 for some used jazz records. fuck
colector bullshit, the damn thing isn't going to play for more than 10
times if at all if it's that friggin' (friggin? huh?) old. i was sad
and mad. i ended up getting a used tape of miles davis's "on the
corner" and picked up "sketches of spain" (my last roommate had it & i
never had a chance to copy it) & sonny rollins' "tenor madness" for
really good prices. we ate lots of cheap pizza. well, not lots.
when we were in the subway i hit on jo through a crowd of people. i
hope that they thought that i was being a dirty boy, but whenever i
was able to do something really good (wink @ her under some stranger's
armpit & see her over someone else's shoulder) too many people would
notice & it was hard to be really serious. note for tourists: a record
store that you should visit when you're in boston is pipeline. the
selection is only average, but p.shaw!, who did the artwork on the
kudgel 10", painted a super rad mural on the wall.
so it was sunday night now, we went to see karp @ the middle east
where caterpillar & el tiante (speaking of kudgel) played.
caterpillar was good, only i was antsy for unknown reasons and kept
leaving to walk around. el tiante was mark e. & a drummer & were
really fantastic. i think that they've finished a tape. the songs
weren't heavy like kudgel (although a couple were w/the limitation
that guitar & drums might present). a thoroughly entertaining set.
hopefully playing soon again. boston is nice.
karp was good, extremely loud. like last year, i thought that i knew
all of their material, but i only recognized half of the songs that
they played. the singer has a lighter that says "soundgarden" on it.
whenever he lights a cigarette (the guitarist singer i mean) he starts
singing "outshined" & sounds really good. well, you know what i mean.
it was a good night & i saw lots of beautiful people i hadn't seen in
a long time. then we went home & ran into a lot of trouble, didn't
sleep for another 24 hours, and the rest of the week sucked.
that tuesday night (when i wasn't working on a paper-07.11) the sun
ra arkestra played a free show here @ uconn. lots of fun. they
played my favorites ("face the music" & "space is the place") & went
on to prove that as long as there are 20 80-year-old men who will put
on gold robes and sing and dance to songs about outer space, there is
still hope & soul left in this world. a great evening, until after
the show when it was back to tennessee fucking williams (not like i
haven't read "glass menagerie" a billion times already anyways, why
not write a paper on it too? lots to learn there...). blah blah
blah.
yesterday was too weird. we went down to wesleyan to see karp. the
last article that i wrote described my fear for wesleyan & the people
we ran into. so we drank 40s on the way down (someone else was
drivering, der. why did i have to be defensive there? hm.
whatever). we got there & things were bizarre from the very
beginning. i couldn't tell if the local band was sound checking or
playing, but no one was @ the door so we stamped & marked ourselves.
then we found scott & went to get something to eat. it was pretty
cold outside, but i ended up getting a waffle cone of grape nuts ice
cream from baskin-robbins (splurge!). it was yummy. we came back &
josh got lost. scott went somewhere else & scot & i (our friend who
drove) went for a walk to get away from all of the people who looked
like they were in brainiac. we stopped in @ a pizza parlor & i
ordered a slice of cheese. not literally (bad '80s commercial there,
remember? "yeah, & give me a slice of pizza w/nothing but the
cheese!"). they didn't charge me for it. this was @ a restaurant too.
so i went over to scot, where there was a table top mr.do, & spent a
few quarters. then scot got a slice of pizza. they didn't charge him
either. he returned the paper plate to see if they were waiting to
bill us, but they just took it & threw it away. nice! so we went
back to the school and went to the back porch to look for josh. we
only found a keg. hmm. free pizza, free admission, free beer? we
weren't sure, but we had some anyways. people were beginning to be
walking around drunk & singing to themselves.
still couldn't find josh. then (it was almost 11 pm) some guy came up
to the front of the building & opened up a hot dog stand. i bought a
dart soda for 75 cents and ran out of money. we went upstairs to the
dorm part, where we found josh flirting w/x-girls. we went up another
flight & there was a trampoline twice the size of my kitchen, where
scott was touching the ceiling & bouncing around. we stayed there
until karp had to set up & al