A new, large, overflowing Dynamite Hemorrhage fanzine’s on the way. We just need to actually make the thing first.
We just finished up an interview with Belgian early 80s punks UNIT 4(pictured); we’ve persuaded Free Form Freakout’s David Perron to come aboard and write reviews of left-field, sub-underground, non-rocknroll weirdo records; we rounded up the members of late 80s/early 90s San Francisco falling-apart pop act WORLD OF POOH to agree to an oral history; we have an interview with Velvet Underground Appreciation Society founder Phil Milstein nearly done; and even 2016’s LITHICSare getting a well-earned place at the table.
Oh, there’s more as well. Tim Presley from WHITE FENCE will get a “Dynamite Hemorrhage grilling” in the near future. Erika Elizabeth’s writing record reviews. Jay’s writing record and film reviews.
Like clockwork, the reborn DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO has found new life in dumping out hour-long fake podcasts every two weeks. Here’s another one, our 68th.
The new stuff this time comes from first-time all-stars like NO DITCHING, PALM, MILK LINES, PATSY, TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT(pictured) and other 2016 heavyweights. There’s a heavy 1980s lean to this particular show, and some heroes getting spun here include PUSSY GALORE, 100 FLOWERS, SEEMS TWICE, THE GORDONS and AMOS AND SARA, along with 60s counterparts JONATHAN HALPER and VASHTI + rocks-off 70s punk studs O-LEVEL. And more. Spend an hour and six minutes here, and you’ll never want to spend an hour and six minutes anywhere else.
SEEMS TWICE – Non-Plussed NO DITCHING – Song for Shelley MILK LINES – Domesticate MAESTROS & DIPSOS – Backslide 2x4s – Zipperheads AMOS AND SARA – In a Hell-Bed TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT – Behind The Green Curtain TAV FALCO & PANTHER BURNS – Dateless Night PUSSY GALORE – Get Out PALM – Crank THE GORDONS – Future Shock JONATHAN HALPER – Leaving My Old Life Behind 100 FLOWERS – Let’s Not HONEY RADAR – Kangaroo Court VASHTI – Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind PATSY – Eat It O-LEVEL – Pseudo Punk/O-Level SEX TIDE – Siren NEGATIVE APPROACH – Pressure SOLGER – American Youth SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE – Hollowed Light Severed Sun
Just a quick re-blog of the most recent Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio (#68) in case you missed it. New show coming soon.
Hot desktop app alert. No, this is not an ad, but many of us use SoundCloud on a daily basis, and their interface is a little rough, right?
So here’s something called SOUNDNODEthat works like Spotify, as an app that sits on your desktop & is quite a bit more intuitive that SoundCloud’s web-only interface. I’m always here for hott app recommendations if you need them.
Here’s something I wrote for my Agony Shorthand blog ten years ago. I made a reference within it about how we’d need to revisit this list in 10 years, and here we are. Let me think about it a little.
A handful of times in my life, I’ve been asked to compile a “top albums” or “Desert Island Discs” sort of list, and usually it’s pretty easy to get me to acquiesce to such a request. I’m nothing if not willing to foist my musical opinions on others, and if it gets anyone else to dig deeper into the stuff I already like, well then – how about that. We’ve talked before in this forum about the sort of pathologies that drive individuals to keep such lists in their noggins, and chances are if you’re reading this site it all seems perfectly natural to you, as it does me.
Yet I can only usually rattle off 20 classics or so at a time – the life-changers, the ones usually discovered in the teenage years or just thereafter that set you/me on the fanatic course we still cling to. So I decided to go deeper. 100 is a nice number, why not go there? Thus here sits the Agony Shorthand 100 – the hundred best rock and roll albums of all time, or at least the ones I’d save from flames had I the time to meticulously sort through the alphabetized stacks & pull ‘em out. In order. Like a true dork.
The only rules for the list are that they have to be “rock” records (bending the rules slightly for 2 John Fahey albums), they have to have been LPs that came out during the artist’s lifetime as an official LP (no greatest hits or posthumous collections allowed), and they have to be righteous & amazing.
They also have to represent an honest accounting of my favorites – seriously, I could have thrown on some ultra-obscurities to impress you (even though they wouldn’t have) but that’d be cheating, right? So there’s a lot of Velvet Underground & Stones & Fall & Flesh Eaters in here – because those are my favorite bands when ya get down to it. Maybe yours too.
Oh yeah – EPs are allowed. Why not? I also reserve the right to revise the list ten years from now, but I have to say, my list ten years ago would’ve looked a lot like this one (minus CAN and THE KINKS, both of whom I’m a late convert to). I’m almost locked in. I’m sure I forgot a few – perhaps you can enlighten me as to what those were. Enjoy – and please go buy the ones you don’t have tomorrow!
1. FLESH EATERS – “A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die” 2. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “The Velvet Underground and Nico” 3. ROLLING STONES – “Exile on Main Street” 4. THE STOOGES – “Funhouse” 5. VARIOUS ARTISTS – “Yes L.A.” 6. GUN CLUB – “Fire of Love” 7. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “White Light/White Heat” 8. DREAM SYNDICATE – “The Days of Wine and Roses” 9. BIG STAR – “Radio City” 10. PERE UBU – “The Modern Dance” 11. THE FALL – “Hex Enduction Hour” 12. COME – “Eleven : Eleven” 13. THIRTEENTH FLOOR ELEVATORS – “Easter Everywhere” 14. ROLLING STONES – “Beggars’ Banquet” 15. MODERN LOVERS – “Modern Lovers” 16. THE STOOGES – “The Stooges” 17. BLACK FLAG – “Damaged” 18. DIE KREUZEN – “Die Kreuzen” 19. WIRE – “Pink Flag” 20. FLESH EATERS – “Forever Came Today” 21. MEAT PUPPETS – “II” 22. RAMONES – “Ramones” 23. RED CROSS – “Born Innocent” 24. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Trout Mask Replica” 25. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “The Velvet Underground” (3rd) 26. MISSION OF BURMA – “Vs.” 27. THE FALL – “Slates” 28. THE CRAMPS – “Songs The Lord Taught Us” 29. NEIL YOUNG – “Zuma” 30. GIBSON BROS – “Big Pine Boogie” 31. THE GERMS – “(GI)” 32. SYD BARRETT – “The Madcap Laughs” 33. SUPERCHARGER – “Goes Way Out!” 34. CIRCLE JERKS – “Group Sex” 35. FLESH EATERS – “Hard Road to Follow” 36. ROLLING STONES – “Let It Bleed” 37. VELVET UNDERGROUND – “Loaded” 38. NEW YORK DOLLS – “New York Dolls” 39. DINOSAUR – “You’re Living All Over Me” 40. MINUTEMEN – “Double Nickels on the Dime” 41. JOHN FAHEY – “The Legend Of Blind Joe Death” 42. TELEVISION – “Marquee Moon” 43. PINK FLOYD – “Piper At The Gates of Dawn” 44. THE SONICS – “Here Are The Sonics” 45. FLESH EATERS – “No Questions Asked” 46. MC5 – “Kick Out The Jams” 47. TALES OF TERROR – “Tales of Terror” 48. WIRE – “Chairs Missing” 49. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Safe As Milk” 50. ROXY MUSIC – “Roxy Music” 51. THE STOOGES – “Raw Power” 52. UNION CARBIDE PRODUCTIONS – “In The Air Tonight” 53. THE SAINTS – “Eternally Yours” 54. RAMONES – “Leave Home” 55. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Mirror Man” 56. NEIL YOUNG – “Tonight’s The Night” 57. X – “Aspirations” 58. MISSION OF BURMA – “Signals, Calls and Marches” 59. THE FALL – “Grostesque” 60. HAMPTON GREASE BAND – “Music To Eat” 61. ROXY MUSIC – “For Your Pleasure” 62. BIRTHDAY PARTY – “Junkyard” 63. CHEATER SLICKS – “Whiskey” 64. THE FALL – “Perverted By Language” 65. THE AVENGERS – “The Avengers” (White Noise EP) 66. LOVE – “Forever Changes” 67. PATTI SMITH GROUP – “Radio Ethiopia” 68. CAN – “Tago Mago” 69. THE KINKS – “Something Else” 70. THE GORIES – “I Know You Fine, But How You Doin’” 71. JOHNNY THUNDERS & THE HEARTBREAKERS – “L.A.M.F.” 72. MINUTEMEN – “The Punch Line” 73. JOHN FAHEY – “The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death” 74. THE DONNAS – “The Donnas” 75. GUIDED BY VOICES – “Alien Lanes” 76. GIANT SAND – “Glum” 77. ROXY MUSIC – “Country Life” 78. WORLD OF POOH – “The Land of Thirst” 79. THE SCIENTISTS – “Blood Red River” 80. VARIOUS ARTISTS – “Tooth and Nail” 81. THE CLEAN – “Boodle Boodle Boodle” 82. BRIAN ENO – “Here Come The Warm Jets” 83. NEIL YOUNG – “On The Beach” 84. YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS – “Colossal Youth” 85. SONIC YOUTH – “Sister” 86. CAN – “Soundtracks” 87. HUSKER DU – “Everything Falls Apart” 88. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND – “Strictly Personal” 89. X – “Los Angeles” 90. FAITH/VOID – “Faith/Void” 91. THE KINKS – “Arthur” 92. THE BANGLES – “The Bangles EP” 93. NIGHT KINGS – “Increasing Our High” 94. SWELL MAPS – “ A Trip To Marineville” 95. GREEN ON RED – “Green On Red” 96. THE FALL – “Room To Live” 97. CLAW HAMMER – “Claw Hammer” 98. HIGH RISE – “High Rise II” 99. NEIL YOUNG– “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” 100. NEU – “Neu!”
DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE fanzine #3 is coming together nicely.
I’m expecting it to be another 84-page or larger magazine, and current timeframe is June-ish, 2016. Perhaps earlier if we can swing it. Erika Elizabeth remains in the contributing editor’s chair, and so far we’ve got interviews with White Fence, Unit 4 and the Velvet Underground Appreciation Society on the way or in the can. More on the way.
See those fellas in the picture there? Those are the Desperate Bicycles. They are a – some would say the – UK DIY punk band of much renown, circa 1977-80.
If I could put together one interview with any band to round out this issue, it’d be them. They were notorious even back then for avoiding anything approaching the limelight, and they’ve done absolutely zero to capitalize on any posthumous interest in the band in the 35+ years hence. So I recognize my chances are exceptionally slim. But man, wouldn’t an interview w/ them be something worth reading, even if it was me asking a bunch of ham-handed questions?
Does anyone in the Dynamite Hemorrhage orbit know any of these four gentlemen? Or anyone in their social circle? Even Jon Savage said he couldn’t help me. Can you? Drop me a line at dynamiteh@outlook.com if so. I’ll put the odds at about 100-1 for this one.
Other people we’d like to interview for Dynamite Hemorrhage #3, and the odds of us actually finding them:
Kendra Smith (Opal/Dream Syndicate): 5-1
Sara, aka Sara Fancy (Amos & Sara/Sara Goes Pop): 10-1
Another month, anotherMaximum Rocknroll column from a few issues back, namely #391 (December 2015). I’ve probably referenced Devo & Delta 5 a minimum of a dozen times since I started writing this thing, but this particular column marks the first time I’ve ever mentioned Sabrina the Teenage Witch (and it will almost definitely be the last).
Even if “Underappreciated Classics of 1980s Midwestern Post-Punk” isn’t a premeditated regular feature of this column, it might as well be, and I’m turning the discussion toward two such neglected rippers in particular this month. Oil Tasters were three Wisconsin weirdos (including bassist/vocalist Richard LaValliere and drummer Guy Hoffman, both previously of Milwaukee’s KBD/power-pop heavy-hitters the Haskels) who adopted a bass/drums/saxophone formula that, at least on the surface, didn’t veer wildly off course from the angular mutant-funk of late ‘70s/early ‘80s New York no wave (James Chance and the Contortions being perhaps the most obvious parallel). Look past some of those more superficial similarities, though, and it becomes clear that their musical aesthetic was less aggressively confrontational than Chance and company, shaped more by the deeply Midwestern, tightly-wound neurotic post-punk bent that marked fellow freaks like Devo or Dow Jones and the Industrials. On the band’s self-titled 1982 LP, Caleb Alexander’s slithering sax lines are paired with LaValliere’s equally snotty and surrealist vocal delivery to create a sinister art-damaged punk/experimental jazz meld, but the really dizzying highs come when Oil Tasters take the frantic, oddball post-punk intensity of early Pere Ubu and completely strip it of that band’s more serious/humorless tendencies. Hearts of darkness and final solutions are replaced by whiplash anthems about not wanting to be an encyclopedia salesman and television sets possessed by specters of significant others – see, uh, “(I Don’t Want to Be An) Encyclopedia Salesman” and “My Girlfriend’s Ghost”. Fun fact: Guy Hoffman wound up playing drums for fellow Milwaukeeans the Violent Femmes during the mid ’90s, which was, unfortunately for him, the same point in time when they finally crossed the line into complete irrelevancy – if you haven’t seen their truly unsettling, surreal-as-hell appearance on the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV show during that era, go look it up on YouTube. The Oil Tasters LP, though? Still unfuckwithable.
Underappreciated Classics of 1980s Midwestern Post-Punk, part two: From Chicago by way of Lawrence, Kansas, Get Smart! reflected the relative isolation and desolation of the American plains via the harrowing and bleak angularity of Action Reaction, their debut LP from 1984 (even the release year is thematically appropriate). Both geographically and musically, the band occupied a literal middle ground between the early ‘80s West Coast/East Coast punk and post-punk divide – “Black Mirror” has ominous echoes of the most frantic, paranoid Wipers moments (minus the flashy guitar work and plus some female backing vocals), while the dissonant “Berlin on the Plains” suggests Mission of Burma’s “Secrets” dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. Bassist Lisa Wertman’s vocals and the stark, jagged slashes of guitar on “Knight” both underscore a totally Pylon-esque hypnotic rhythm, and when she and guitarist Marc Koch (who handles the most of the lead vocals on the record) converge into a disaffected duet over the martial post-punk pulse of “Just For the Moment,” it’s not too difficult to imagine them as a Factory Records-backed John Doe and Exene. Get Smart! were hitting all of the same nerves as their contemporaries who have since been aggregated as textbook 1980s American underground rock (with a lot of credit and/or blame going to Our Band Could Be Your Life), but Action Reaction is still one of those nondescript records that you’ve probably flipped past in the bins a dozen times without even paying it a second thought. Bona fide overlooked post-punk gem.
I had the good fortune of getting to put on a Portland show last autumn for Wireheads, who had traveled from Adelaide to record at Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, Washington and had decided to fit in some quick stops along the rest of the US West Coast while they were on this side of the Pacific Ocean. Their new LP Big Issues is the result of the recording sessions on that trip, a sprawl of scratchy, stream of consciousness post-punk racket that made me feel like I was in the presence of a 21st century Australian reincarnation of the Fall when I saw them live (it’s not really a stretch to say that Wireheads have Mark E. Smith beat at his own game these days) and also got a tiny all-ages cafe space packed full of people on a cold November night to discard that most crucial of punk rules and demand an encore (even more impressive given that they were the second band out of three on the bill). There’s faint glimmers of the Scientists’ uniquely Southern Hemispheric take on howling, swampy garage rock at play here, coupled with some piercing John Cale-meets-the Birthday Party violin drone and frontman Dom Trimboli’s eminently Fall-like cryptic talk-singing. There’s a punk barnstormer called “Year of the Horse” with all of the white-knuckled rage of the prime SST Records back catalog, and it seamlessly segues into the soft-spoken strum of “Victorious Hermit,” which puts Wireheads right in line with the bumper crop of modern Australian jangly pop bands (Bitch Prefect, Dick Diver, et al). There’s borderline non-sequitur lyrics that touch on interior decorating and bridges in Oklahoma and people getting hit by buses. Do you need this LP in your life? Yeah, probably. (Tenth Court; https://tenthcourt.bandcamp.com/album/big-issues)
While their band name unfortunately invites lowered expectations of sickeningly saccharine twee-pop, Foggymotion, the new cassette from Islington, UK trio the Choo Choo Trains has (if anything) resurrected the hazy, narcotic lo-fi fuzz of Detroit’s dearly departed Velvet Underground-worshipping, molasses-slow psych queens Slumber Party. Their echo-drenched budget production values, haunting harmonies and bare-bones instrumentation draw equal inspiration from raw, tambourine-bashing Girls in the Garage stomp and the heartbreaking, Wall of Sound stylings of the classic ‘60s girl groups, presented with the foresight of the half decade or so worth of underground musical history that followed as a result. I’m especially partial to the moments when the tell-tale loose threads of their DIY pop leanings are fully exposed, like the shuffling drums and naked guitar strumming on “Margo T and Me” that have all of the delicate pop primitivism of Beat Happening when Heather Lewis got her turns at the microphone, or the ethereal girlish vocals and persistent jangle on “The One I Love” and “Things You Do,” where the Choo Choo Trains transform the wild and giddy C86 rush of the Rosehips, Fat Tulips or the Shop Assistants into something more sleepy and subdued. (Meat ‘n’ Tatty Tapes; https://thechoochootrains1.bandcamp.com)
London’s Shopping have a pedigree that reads like a crash course in modern UK post-punk – between the three of them, they’ve played with Trash Kit, Sacred Paws, Wetdog, and Covergirl (that’s just the short list) – and their latest LP Why Choose draws a similar inspiration as their many side projects from the minimal, edgy tension and angular precision of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s English post-punk canon. Anyone familiar with her other bands is likely well aware of the fact that Rachel Aggs is a total genius at crafting stripped-down and stuttering ping pong guitar lines that seem to exist in a world where the entire recorded history of the instrument begins with the Fire Engines’ “Get Up and Use Me” circa 1980, and those jagged stabs of guitar are the center point from which the rest of the band’s off-kilter jump cut rhythms tumble out. The dryly delivered, overlapping and slightly asynchronous female/male vocals on “Wind Up” have some historical antecedents in the likes of Delta 5 and Gang of Four – think “Anthrax” at 45 rather than 33 with consumerist ennui standing in for romantic disaffection. It’s always great to hear contemporary bands who have assumed not just the stylistic mantle of post-punk from the Thatcher era, but also the lyrical emphasis on the pointedly political (and personal-as-political), which is a critical advantage that sets Shopping apart from so many of their peers who are content to simply throw back to the danceable slash-and-burn musical trappings of their heroes without paying much mind to the purpose of their ideological provocations. Why Choose is straight-up ‘79 in ‘15 and I’m totally okay with it. (FatCat; https://soundcloud.com/shoppingband)
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Send me letters and music! Analog: Erika Elizabeth / 2545 E. Burnside Street #203 / Portland, OR 97214 / USA; digital: ripitupstartagain@gmail.com; radio shows for your listening enjoyment: expresswaytoyrskull.com
Like clockwork, the reborn DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO has found new life in dumping out hour-long fake podcasts every two weeks. Here’s another one, our 68th.
The new stuff this time comes from first-time all-stars like NO DITCHING, PALM, MILK LINES, PATSY, TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT(pictured) and other 2016 heavyweights. There’s a heavy 1980s lean to this particular show, and some heroes getting spun here include PUSSY GALORE, 100 FLOWERS, SEEMS TWICE, THE GORDONS and AMOS AND SARA, along with 60s counterparts JONATHAN HALPER and VASHTI + rocks-off 70s punk studs O-LEVEL. And more. Spend an hour and six minutes here, and you’ll never want to spend an hour and six minutes anywhere else.
SEEMS TWICE – Non-Plussed NO DITCHING – Song for Shelley MILK LINES – Domesticate MAESTROS & DIPSOS – Backslide 2x4s – Zipperheads AMOS AND SARA – In a Hell-Bed TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT – Behind The Green Curtain TAV FALCO & PANTHER BURNS – Dateless Night PUSSY GALORE – Get Out PALM – Crank THE GORDONS – Future Shock JONATHAN HALPER – Leaving My Old Life Behind 100 FLOWERS – Let’s Not HONEY RADAR – Kangaroo Court VASHTI – Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind PATSY – Eat It O-LEVEL – Pseudo Punk/O-Level SEX TIDE – Siren NEGATIVE APPROACH – Pressure SOLGER – American Youth SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE – Hollowed Light Severed Sun
AGONY SHORTHAND 