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HOMOSTUPIDS: Lean Steve and the rest of The Homostupids are perennial TB faves (at least to the editor). Look out for the second LP on Load Records in 2009. Good Lord!! 2008 certainly was a very special year, not just for listening to great music but also watching great television and eating delicious foods! This year, I purchased a handfull of records from a music group named Factums. One in particular is named "A Primitive Future" and I listen to it while I make toast and eat the toast or also while I watch my cat eat the tinsel off of my beautiful Christmas tree. The other night, I noticed some tinsel hanging out of my cat's little butthole and knew I had to do something about it. I put the Factums record back on and went over to the cat to slowly pull the tinsel out of his little pink butthole. Instead, though, the cat started sort of dancing to the Factums. It was making these strange snake-like dance movements. Very cool. So I left the tinsel in there and started dancing like the cat dancing like a snake to the Factums. 
I bought a record by a group named His Electro Blue Voice on Sacred Bones Records and I like it very much. The Brainbombs put out a new LP and every gaywad with $15 probably bought the fucking thing and listened to it and thought out loud "Oh My Gosh!! How Sexual!!". Well I haven't listened to it yet. Just one song. I liked the one song, but just didn't wanna listen to the rest of the LP at the moment. The moment where I do wanna listen to the rest hasn't happened yet. However, the moment where I wanted to listen to the entire Gaunt LP titled "Yeah Me Too" has come and come many times. I have listened to this record many times this year. Not the Brainbombs, but Gaunt. A band I thought could do no wrong, has done just that---WRONG. That's right, friends, The Lamps, one of the real killers out there, went out and did a very gay and bogus thing. They made a cute little 7" record where they cover the fucking Pissed Jeans. Buy every Lamps record. They are all great. But this record is fucking gay and I broke it in 3 pieces when I found out what was going on. Fucking gay. Come on! Give me a fucking break! Maybe Homostupids will do a cool 7" record where they cover Fucked Up? That would actually be a little more fucking gay....maybe. 
Some wonderful mid-tempo killer music from our friends in Buffalo was brought to my face, head and ears this year!! The Plates put out their debut release on Feral Kid Records and it's a real scorcher. Great live band too. They show up to the gigs. They set up their equipment at the gig. Then they play their killer music at the gig. Great stuff. Sadly this year the writers of our favorite television shows took a little break. This meant that the new crushing episodes of Law & Order Criminal Intent with my main man Vincent D'Onofrio were in repeat mode. However the cast returned after the writer's vacation and knocked me on my fucking ass with all the brain busters and spine stingers I love them for. This year I developed a new love for Eric Bogosian in the role of the captain.....never really knew that old bugger had it in him to bring that much drama to a script. Some great new episodes of CSI:Miami also this year. Our old pal David Caruso has honed his acting chopps to a place few men have journeyed. He fucking rules. This year I ate lots of delicious foods. I will only mention one here. My old buddy Wedge from the city of Painesville bought me some wonderful chorizo and you wanna know what I did with it? I fried it up in a pan and ate the fucking shit out of it. It ruled. I rule! Wedge rules! Chorizo rules!! WE ALL WIN!!!!!!!!! DAVE MARTIN: Nicest dude. Everyone's favorite Matador employee and elder statseman of the NYC Termbo chapter. Dave is also crazy as fuck, as proven by his diving off his bike and attempting to wrestle a moving car to the ground late in the year. 2008 Shows: KILL SHAMAN RECORDS: Paul from Kill Shaman put out quite a few nice slabs of wax this year from Love Tan, Rodent Plague and more.... DUSTY MEDICAL RECORDS: Kevin Mistreater, man-about-Milwaukee. PINK NOISE: Mark is Pink Noise and we look forward to his various releases upcoming in 2009. LEMMY CAUTION of BLACK TIME: TB loves Black Time so much we interviewed them twice. Many of us in the Eastern US got to see the Black Time for the first time this year, which was excellent. Top dude. And check all the band names below for links, lovingly provided by Caution! GOT LIVE IF YOU WANT IT 1. I’ve probably seen THE MASONICS more than any other band over the last couple of years and caught them on at least five or six occasions in 2008. One of the best things about living in London is that the Masonics play on average once a month, in much the same way as Thee Headcoats used to do a monthly residency when I first moved here. They’re never less than great, and if you catch them on an evening where they’re really on it they’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up (well they will if you have a soul). Medway royalty Mickey Hampshire (co-frontman of the legendary Milkshakes along with Billy Childish), Bruce Brand (all of Billy’s bands up till the Buff Medways plus Dutronc, Kravin’ As, Len Bright Combo, many others) and John Gibbs (Wildebeests, Kaisers) play raw, stripped down R&B punk insanely well – spirit, verve and chops honed from years of distilling rock’n’roll down to it’s purest essence. No showing off, no frills, just song after song you want to dance or swoon to. Lots of folks can churn out the same three chords but no-one can make a Burns Nu-sonic sing like Mickey can, and watching Bruce hammer the shit out of a Ludwig Super Classic will make you want to give up drums (or not bother starting in the first place). There’s lots of bands that do something in the same vein as the Masonics but most of them are missing the key ingredient of killer songs – something Mickey pens in abundance. The nearest comparison for yankee readers would be Greg Cartwright in that he writes songs that sound like covers of lost Fifties and Sixties classics but with trademark touches that stamp his personality all over each tune. Class. 2. FNU RONNIES in a very dark Philadelphia basement. Never heard any of their recorded output but they made an incredible racket live, especially for three people – all sorts of strange and wonderful noises echoing off the walls – Chrome get banded about all too readily as an influence these days like the Stooges/MC5 were a few years ago but they definitely sound in that lineage. A raw punk attack on the Hawkwind back catalogue if you want an alternate take – sci-fi punk! Mysterious. 3. THE YUPPIES did much the same number on us as Audacity did last year – collective age of approximately 33 (I don’t think the singer’s voice has dropped yet), hormone-raging energy and a refreshingly varied set of fucked-up pop songs – from early Half Japanese angst-rants to scratchy ballads which won both my glowing admiration and a sinking sense of “great, we’ve got to follow this”. Humiliating. 4. On the subject of being blown off stage, Sarim peppered his hilarious speed (or something) fuelled in-between song ranting during LIQUOR STORE’s October set at Don Pedros with big-ups to the limeys, further embarrassing the inebriated shambles we presented the audience with to follow up their guitar army/multi-drummer maelstrom of sound. An awesome spectacle that rose above the equipment-trashing clichés by virtue of savage riffs and holding onto a solid groove despite severe intoxication. Like early Can being torn apart by a bunch of mongoloids from New Jersey. Messy. 5. I admit bias in nominating BLACK MAMBA BEAT as it’s Mr.Stix’s band but my natural inclination would be to take the piss rather than offer praise. Kudos where it’s due, over the course of the year I witnessed them progress from falling-apart party band to a unique live proposition – Minutemen basslines colliding with hi-life-esque guitars, Sam’s completely wrong but better for it approach to keeping the beat, all topped-off by drunken free-form punk rants. Their 4-track recordings capture some of the magic but in the flesh shows all three dimensions to its best effect. The patrician part of me wants to see them achieve mass acclaim and tour the world but the miserly part wants to see them fail miserably so I don’t have to find another drummer. Tropical. 6. It’s probably not cool to like CALVIN JOHNSON and whilst I find aspects of his folksy image irritating, I can’t help but love Beat Happening. The summer evening he played in London bordered on the magical. Setting up in an inner city youth club, he charmed everyone with a mixture of (fucking funny) stories, yearning acappella crooning and battered acoustic laments. It was also bring-your-own-booze so I got quietly smashed on German wheat beer whilst being soothed by the rumbling bass of his voice. And he sold awesome mixtapes. Perfect night out. Dreamy. 7. One day I’ve promised myself I’m going to attempt the definitive history of Finnish garage-punk for English readers (whether they want to read it or not). I’ve picked up some amazing records on my three trips to the frozen northern wastelands and am constantly struck by the way they filter tried-and-tested blues riffs through their own national psyche. No matter how upbeat the tempo, Finns have an uncanny ability to bring a melancholy wistfulness to even the happiest composition. Given the constant winter, high suicide rate and mass alcoholism this is hardly surprising, but has the silver lining of giving their bands an instantly identifiable edge over other interpreters of the same standards. The likes of Blues Section, 22 Pistepirkko (in their early prime) and the Festermen kept the torch burning over the years and it’s currently held by the fabulous MICRAGIRLS. Twist party anthems the Trashwomen would be proud of, arranged around a drum/guitar/organ line-up to great effect with occasional snatches of that aforementioned aching sadness only the Finns can bring. Juotuna. 8. Unless it’s a one-off for a party, the idea of the tribute band is pretty lowdown in the musical evolutionary order (just below one man band, but above electroclash duo). Somehow THE NUNS, an all-girl tribute to The Monks featuring luminaries from various London beat combos (various A-Lines, Headcoatees, Action Timers amongst them) manage to pull off a set that bears repeated listening. Obviously they have some great repertoire to draw from, but those arrangements are headache-inducingly difficult. Their set at the Cave Club earlier in the year in memorial to the much-missed Dave Day not only pulled it off with aplomb but also added their own twists and turns keeping with the traditions of their brotherly order. Ecclesiastic. 9. Two tribute bands??!!! OK, I’d never watch this band again but PROXY MUSIC was a great night out. Various folks that usually play in terrible London indie bands found their true calling by dressing up as Bryan Ferry and co. and knocking out perfectly executed selections from the first few Roxy albums with a couple of Eno solo tracks thrown in for good measure. It was like some kind of feverish dream you have (or socially dysfunctional music nerds like me have anyway) where you imagine an alternate history of classic rock. I’ve seen the real Roxy Music play a big stadium show but watching a bunch of imposters play the same songs in a tiny pub through a vocal PA was ten times better. ‘Phil Manzanera’ was on particularly fine form – wrenching out improvised solos that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Human Eye record. Stylish. 10. I find the OH SEES records a bit hit and miss, but their set at Café Oto was dead-on. The juxtapositions in their sound really work in a live context – melodious boy/girl West Coast harmonies barked out with a clipped teutonic delivery and John Dwyer’s random guitar reverberations howling over the repetitive mantra of a primitive rhythm section. Propulsive. 11. Fuck, how did Mr.Stix manage to get two mentions? His freeloading even extends to year-end lists – wanker. Anyway, EAT SKULL rolled up in Atlanta having lost their drummer en route (part of some strange revolving drummer soap opera that unfolded around Gonerfest). Stix was co-opted into the band for that night’s performance having never heard a note of them before. Watching the frontman give out stoned rhythm directions before each song had me laughing so much it hurt: “The drumming on this one is just like Peggy Sue”, “This one is really simple all the way through except for a part in the middle where it goes all complicated” and my favourite exchange “Do you know the band Flipper”, “No”, “OK, uh, well, just play it like Flipper, but a bit more mid-tempo”. Mirthful. 12. I generally take a bleak view of our young homegrown guitar bands – other than a few scattered examples most groups are infected with this NME/Xerox-the-latest-sound/get signed/play festival death circuit mentality. To paraphrase Stuart Braithwaite: “They’d rape their own granny for any kind of award”. I’m always glad when I’m wrong-footed though – SPEAK & THE SPELLS come out of a Horrors-inspired scene of sharp-dressing teenage mods and perhaps somewhat influenced by the Black Lips endless brand-sponsored UK tours. Their sound embraces elements of the early Who (slashing chords and equipment destruction) and Pink Floyd (psych harmonies and space echo) but played with a ramshackle Neanderthal garage band mentality more akin to The Keggs or The Tempos. Amid the feedback and floortom pounding there’s also a batch of angsty tunes that recall early TVPs or The Times. The pessimist in me suspects that by the time they get a record out they’ll have been snapped up by some Major Label subsidiary and had all the smooth edges sanded off by a pro-tools producer, but right at the moment they’re a genuinely exciting prospect. Shit-hot display of youthful aggression at Madame JoJos. Spunky. 13. Completely different crowd of people but another great contemporary London band are THE MISSING LIMBS. Mining a falling apart at the seams brand of DIY punk that sounds Messthetics-inspired but I think is more unconscious than that. It’s like they’re trying to be a ‘proper’ punk band but played on cardboard box drums and a homemade guitar. Awesome set at the launch party of Victor Torpedo’s exhibition of obscene paintings. Shambolic. 14. I very much doubt I’d buy any of their records but we ended up on an incongruous bill at a record store in Asheville with a stoner rock band called PONTIAK – three brothers who all look like Bonnie Prince Billy playing noisy Sabbath-inspired drones with the occasional jazzy interlude. I wasn’t looking forward to it but was totally sucked in – awesome musicians doing what they do really well and unlike a lot of this genre, not outstaying their welcome. A concise 30 minutes of blissful noise with enough variation to keep the audience rapt – the two-drummer freakout towards the end was a particular highlight. Rocking. 15. On the same tour, we played a few shows with Denmark’s COLA FREAKS including a house party in Denton which was the perfect venue for them to do their thing. Is dance-punk a genre? Does it conjure up terrible images of emo boys with white belts screaming into a microphone on the floor?? Well, the Cola Freaks are dance-punk but in the best sense of the word – like a load of hardcore kids brought up on a diet of early SST and Dischord records and then twisting it on it’s axis with 60s frat party and 80s new wave moves. Smart. 16. The enticing/terrible thing about going to see THE REBEL is you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it will be drunken acoustic Leonard Cohen covers, the next time it might be Ben farting around with his gameboy for three hours. Recently it has expanded from a solo venture into a three-piece with Country Teasers alumni Alistair and Sophie on bass and stand-up drums respectively. This has sent the music off on a compelling Fall-meets-Glitter Band tangent. Their set opening up for Cheveu combined some dynamic experimentation (the bass is played more like decorative percussion than driving force) with a powerful delivery, Ben’s genius lyrics blurted out like a preacher at a sermon. Stomping. 17. I wasn’t going to go and see MY BLOODY VALENTINE as all the reformed bands I saw in 2007 were awful and there’s no way it could compare to seeing them at Leicester Polytechnic in 1991, a head-shredding formative experience. Someone twisted my arm at the last minute though and I’m extremely glad I capitulated – they did a weekend-long residency and I was so impressed by how good they were I ended up going twice. The perfect band to reform in a way ‘cos they never relied on good looks or a high energy performance in the first place, so age hasn’t really withered their impact in the way it has with, say, the Sex Pistols. There was no hyperbole about that encore either – so loud it was like an out-of-body experience – a guy in front of me fell over ‘cos the frequencies fucked with his balance. Intense. * I’m using the term ‘shows’ here as this is for an American website. In jolly old England we say ‘gigs’ but Janie Too Bad told me that ‘gigs’ sounds really pretentious in the States – the kind of term only rockstars use. It’s the other way round here i.e. a ‘show’ is something Whitesnake would do but Bogshed would have done a ‘gig’. I could go on for HOURS about all the ker-azey cultural differences between the UK and USA but I’ll do everyone a favour and just not bother.BLACK AND WHITES: The Black and Whites followed up their string of great singles with an even greater LP on Douchemaster this year. TALBOT ADAMS: Talbot sings and plays guitar in The Black and Whites and is widely regarded as being one of the nicest guys in the world. 
Favorite Album: Gentleman Jesse and His Men s/t LP (Douchemaster)Favorite Single: Blues Control 7"( Sub Pop Singles Club) Favorite Song: "Childish Ways" - Perfect Fits Favorite Show: Nobunny w/Wax Museums in Memphis vs. Spits in Atlanta Favorite Songwriter: Rich Crook Favorite Guitar Player: Johnny Valiant Favorite Drummer: Matt Williams Favorite City to Play: Chicago vs. Atlanta vs. New Orleans Favorite Record Label: Douchemaster Favorite Artwork: Lover! "Man in The Woods" 7" (Rob's House) JOHNNY VALIANT: Johnny plays guitar in The Black and Whites and isn't related to the Boogie Woogie Man as far as we know. 
BEST: WORST: DEAD LUKE/JERKWAVE TAPES: Dead Luke released a bunch of music on both vinyl and tape this year and also helped revitalize the cassette scene through his Jerkwave Tapes label. And he just announced he's retiring from recording as Dead Luke now! What a year! Top 8 Releases of 08 in no particular order: SACRED BONES RECORDS: Caleb is the man behind one of the most exciting labels of 2008. Anyone daring to call a release a "Special Edition" from now on needs to look at his label's releases and rethink that phrase. 
LPs (in no particular order) 
Tapes (in no particular order) Singles (in no particular order) ROCKET REDUCER MAILORDER: Pat does Rocket Reducer mailorder out of Chicago, the Pure Hype radio show on WHPK and is gonna be a lawyer. 01/25/08: The Krunchies – The Krunchies hadn’t been on the show in a few years, so we had them back. They were amazing, as always. They can play in twenty minutes what most bands need forty to do. 03/07/08: WHPromK with Johnny & the Limelites – We got a bunch of girls to wear slutty dresses and dudes to wear crappy suits. We drank punch and whiskey. The last song was cheesy as hell, but once Costello gets in character, there’s no stopping him. 04/11/08: Radar Eyes – Pat from Cherry Burger Records and Handglops had these guys on his Facebook, and so I saw them the next night. They are a great band and very nice people. 05/16/08: Animal Law – This was the warm-up to Summer Breeze, WHPK’s annual outdoor festival. I’d never mic’ed a circular saw on sheet metal before. 07/25/08: Chronic Seizure – This was released on Fashionable Idiots Records. I don’t remember any of it, because I found out a friend of mine is a member at the UChicago faculty club and drank expensive whiskey for a couple hours before the show. I took a couple months off to study after this. 12/12/08: The Snow Angels – We actually had egg nog for this Christmas supergroup. This was their second (and hopefully not last!) appearance. I especially enjoyed recording Sic Alps and The Feeling of Love for future broadcast in the summer. Sic Alps especially are just such sweethearts. The version of “Gelly Roll Gum Drop” that they did for us is, I think, better than the LP. And I saw the Feeling of Love three times that weekend but didn’t get my fill. Shows I wasn’t at but were supposedly real good: Fucked Up, Nobunny, the Smith Westerns, the Butts. Non-musical highlights of ’08: Unassisted triple play in 16-inch softball; Great score on the LSAT; no kids. Oh, also, it was great to meet Rich from Florida’s Dying! He’s a swell guy. MATT KORVETTE: Matt sings in Pissed Jeans and runs White Denim Records. We interviewed him not too long ago here. TOP SINGLES OF 2008
Mi Ami 'Ark of the Covenant' 12" Mayyors 'Marines Dot Com' 7" Martyn 'All I Have Is Memories' 12" Eat Skull 'Dead Families' 7" TOP ALBUMS OF 2008
Rusted Shut 'Hot Sex' LP Breathing Fire 'Years of Lead' LP Mudhoney 'The Lucky Ones' LP Hair Police 'Certainty of Swarms' CD Revenge 'Infiltration. Downfall. Death.' LP DX: DX is the bloke behind the Distort Cult Hardcore zine (and website), the frontman of Aussie ragers Straightjacket Nation, drummer of UV Race, co-conspirator in the Stained Circles label and Stained Sheet zine and is also an MRR columnist now. One busy motherfucker. TOP TEN FANZINE WRIT 2008 1. MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL - a lot of choice writing in this years volume of this long lasting maligned publication. Layla Gibbons as editor is excellent and Brace (Warkrime) as columnist - excellent! JACK VOLT: Jack was the frontman of French favorites the Splash Four and is currently part of the trio known as Volt along with his wife Lili Z. and FX, who were interviewed in our very first issue. The pic below is from his Cuban vacation. REWIND 2008: 
- Lili Z 'The Two of Us' LP/CD (In the Red/Pollymaggoo)- V/A Mad Mike Monsters Vol. 1-3 LP (Norton) - Brainbombs Live @ Sonic protest '08 - The Rebel 'Northern Rocks Bear Weird Vegetable' LP (Sacred Bones) - The Nixe LP (Pollymaggoo) - Systematics 'What we did in the afternoon' 2LP (TU-134) - Havana - Brainbombs 'Fucking Mess' LP (Lystring) - Mike Rep & The Quotas 'Songs The Grackles Liked' 12" mini-LP (Col. Discount) - Pyramids/Love Tan 'This Land is No Good' 7" (Sweet Rot) - V/A The Rock-A-Round LP (Norton) - Bobby Fuller 'Rock And Roll King Of The Southwest' LP (Norton) - 'Take Me to the River: a Southern Soul Story 1961-1977' (Kent) - V/A 'African Scream Contests' 2LP (Analog Africa) - Sick Things 'My Life Is a Mess LP (Stolen) - Circle X 'Prehistory CD (Blue Chopsticks) - Figures Of Light 'Smash Hits' LP (Norton) - Liimanarina 'Linkolalaista Lahiorokkia Landelta' CD (Bad Vugum) - Irma Thomas 'Sings' LP (Mississippi) - Schluchsee - V/A 'Give Me Love - Songs of the Brokenhearted- Baghdad' 2LP (Honest Jon's) - The Clean 'compilation' LP (Mississippi) - V/A 'Sprigs of Time - 78s from the EMI Archive' 2LP (Honest Jon's) - Rembetika '2' (JSP 5CD) - Pascal Comelade 'Monofonicorama Best Of' CD (Because) - V/A 'Life is a Problem' LP (Mississippi) - Rusted Shut 'Hot Sex' 12" EP (Dull Knife) - V/A 'Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long' LP & 'Last Kind Words' LP (Mississippi) - Krakow 
- Moondog 'Snaketime Series LP (« fan-club »)- Toni McCann 'My babe' 7" (Zenith) - Charlie Feathers 'Wild Side Of Life' LP (Norton) - Charlie Feathers 'Honky Tonk Kind' LP (Norton) - Charlie Feathers 'Long Time Ago LP (Norton) - Dave E & The Cool Marriage Counselors "Searching Thru Sears" 7" (X mas Pet) - Mayo Thompson 'Corky's Debt...' LP (Drag City) - Soggy LP (Mémoire neuve) - Nerves 'One way ticket' LP (Alive) - Bachs 'Out of the Bachs' LP (Void) - V/A 'Victrola Favorites' 2CD (Dust to Digital) - V/A 'IVG Vol.1 - Futur antérieur, France 75/85' (Poutre Apparente) - Jean-Pierre Massiera 'Freakoid' (1963-1978) LP (Mucho Gusto) - Tommy Jay 'Tall Tales of Trauma' LP (Columbus Discount) - We The People 'Too Much Noise' LP (Sundazed) - V/A 'Twistin' Rumble' LP (Crypt) - Country Teasers 'W.O.A.R' LP (Holy Mountain) - Weegee retrospective in Montpellier - Mickey Baker 'In the '50s: Hit Git & Split' CD (Rev-Ola) - V/A 'Break-A-Way: The Songs of Jackie Deshannon' CD (Ace) - Spider 12" EP (Thrift Store) - V/A Puget Power Vol. 5 (Regal Select) - Roca medical collection of wax models in Ghent COOL DUDE QUARTERLY: Our good bud AA is the man behind a blog we'd like to see updated a little more often. It's nice to see he finally lifted his self-imposed exile from the TB message board so his on-line love affair with Collin may continue. I would've hated to see that relationship wither on the vine like that. 2008 was a wash. Total it up as twelve more months spent fomented in the slumgullion: six of ‘em devoted to the peddling of lodestones and the other half locked into a familiar demonic circuit. With my record collecting yen thinned to a shadowy husk, even the end of a decade-long search for the Nothing 45 seemed anticlimactic. The unexpected arrival of an atypically boss Euro (Ger. “All Skrewed Up” / Fr. “Garbage Man”) combo evoked a measly “Meh!”…and, come to think of it, getting that untouched upgrade of the MAD’s “I Hate Music” single only succeeded in leaving me feeling all jejune’n’shit. |
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Though, this isn’t to say that the past year was entirely devoid of thrills. The exchange of real and cultural currency enabled the pilfering of the following fetish objects—items so layered, complex and infuriatingly unobtainable, that relative proximity was enough to keep my double-ought-eight grinding along at a surprisingly sprightly clip: Daniel Clowes: The Gold Mommy (1994). A key, self-contained example of Clowes’ starkest period, this one’s got it all: the gesture, the sweeping motion of the crowd, the nagging paranoia …and one of Eightball’s most haunting captions. |
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Rick Altergott: Doofus (1999). Sublime pen/ink/watercolor portrait of the scummiest flâneur to ever don a boater. What if Altergott’s vision of a Doofus movie starring Ralph Waite (!!!) had actually come to fruition? The mind reels; the loins swell. AH YASSS! |
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The MAD: record release poster (1979). NYC. 1979. Young freaks, punks and weirdos coalesce at Pratt and the School of Visual Arts. Screaming Mad George’s little man gets snipped onstage by an irate eyeball — a handsome (17x22) poster commemorates the occasion. Nearly thirty years later, a pal unearths a forgotten friend and sets it free. |
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Feederz: promo flier (1978). Clumsy devotees of Breton, Beefheart and Laszlo Toth who were ridden outta town on a rail. I can only hope that this flier, masterfully silkscreened onto butcher paper, was included in the “Terrorism Packets” doled out to Valley of the Sun teens shortly before the band’s hasty relocation to SF. |
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HONE: Functional Blackouts / Sneaky Pinks / Radio Beats (2006). The most contemporary entry of the bunch comes from the same street-tough responsible for the best fliers made in recent years. Projectile vomiting, Psilocybins run amok, Jughead’s ample sweater-meat: this man can do no wrong! I can’t wait to get this’un framed…I’m thinking it’ll look lovely in distressed Gaboon. |
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(click to next page for the rest of TB friends lists...) |
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Sic Alps 'U.S. EZ' LP (Siltbreeze)
Getting to play on Haunted George and Intelligence albums
Books:
In alphabetical order:
- "Look Over Your Shoulder" -- Alan Price
- Spats coming back into fashion, however briefly
3-Song Enchilada for the Children:
1. Homostupids - 'Cat Music': Good songs, Real Men.
1. Children's Hospital LP (Sacred Bones)
This top ten is a combined best record or song or live show that I've come across this year in no particular order:
-Teeth Mountain - cassette (Night People): Blows the Shadowplay LP out of the water with an explosion of rhythm heavy drones all recorded live which helps to capture the true intensity of this band. Worth the price of admission for the B-side that has one of the most severely pounding jams I’ve ever heard.
- Dead Luke 'Running Scared' (Sweet Rot)
7. STAINED SHEETS - New Melbourne fanzine I helped edit did two issues this year. Issue 1 had a vintage GG Allin interview and a bunch of excellent reviews. Issue 2 had way more shit - Lamps, Kurt Vile, Joe Carducci, etc. Hopefully more issues in 2009, look out for it.