Category: Uncategorized

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanLeave a comment
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/189571789/stream?client_id=3cQaPshpEeLqMsNFAUw1Q?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio

No time for fancy introductions. Let’s kick out the jams. DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO #54 is now available for streaming and download – brought to you from a laptop in a bunker somewhere in San Francisco, California. Raw and sub-underground rocknroll from the last five decades. Songs of joy, songs of pain. Songs we wish you were listening to. There’s still time.

Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #54 here.
Stream or download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #54 on Soundcloud here.
Stream the show on Mixcloud here.
Subscribe to the show via iTunes here.

Track listing:

CREME SODA – (I’m) Chewin’ Gum
ERASE ERRATA – History of Handclaps
LA DRUGS – Put Your Body on Me
8 EYED SPY – Innocence
THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 – Catcher
LIME CRUSH – Honk Tonk
THE FROGS – I’ve Got Drugs (Out of the Mist)
MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS – Red Headed Woman
THE REVILLOS – Motorbike Beat (demo)
EDDY DETROIT – Mephisto Cigars
MAGIK MARKERS – Taste
THE FIREWORKS – Took It All
SISSY – So What
SUICIDE COMMANDOS – Attacking The Beat
THE MIRRORS – Living Without You
STROKE BAND – Gun Fighting Man
DUST DEVILS – King Woody
FLIPPER – Love Canal
DELTA 5 – Make Up
THE PIN GROUP – The Power
JENNY HVAL & SUSANNA – I Have Walked This Body

Some past shows:
Dynamite Hemorrhage #53 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #52 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #51 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #50 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #49 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #48 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #47 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #46 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #45 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #44 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #43 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #42 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #41 (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #40 (playlist)

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanLeave a comment
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/187269692/stream?client_id=3cQaPshpEeLqMsNFAUw1Q?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio

dynamitehemorrhage:

After a painful 3-week absence from our studio and mixing desk, by which I mean aging laptop, we’ve returned with a new hour-long DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO (#53) for you and yours & for the people, too. Loaded with new bangers and ragers from around the rocknroll milieu. Some of the aforementioned: Constant Mongrel, Lime Crush, SROS Lords, Birds of Avalon, Coma in Algiers, Sissy, The Dance Asthmatics and Penny Machine. Whew.

What’s more, we didn’t stop there. We also added library material from The Meat Puppets (pictured here, back in 1980); The Silver; Coolies; Rotters; Flesh Eaters; Dacios and much, much more. Couldn’t believe what an unmitigated delight it was to put it together for you. Sincerely hope it plays as well on your end.

Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #53 here.
Stream or download it on Soundcloud here.
Stream the thing on Mixcloud here.
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Track listing:

 CONSTANT MONGREL – The Law
SISSY – Sail and Rail
THE ROTTERS – Sink The Whales (Buy Japanese Goods)
THE MAD – Mask
THE SILVER – No More Grease
MEAT PUPPETS – Out in the Gardener
THE MOTARDS – The Fast Song
THE DACIOS – Monkey’s Blood
SIC ALPS – Clarence
WHITE FENCE – Destroy Everthing
GROWTH – Blind Voice
LIME CRUSH – Baby
THE COOLIES – Dark Stormy Night
SROS LORDS – Jesse’s Girl
FLESH EATERS – Pony Dress
PENNY MACHINE – Ruthies
DANCE ASTHMATICS – Liquid Lunch
COMA IN ALGIERS – Freeland
BIRDS OF AVALON – Disappeance

Some past shows:
Dynamite Hemorrhage #52    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #51    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #50    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #49    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #48    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #47    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #46    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #45    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #44    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #43    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #42    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #41    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #40    (playlist)

New edition of Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio coming tomorrow morning. Here’s the most recent one if you haven’t given it a spin.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

“NOISE IN MY HEAD” VOICES FROM THE UGLY AUSTRALIAN UNDERGROUND” by Jimi Kritzler

Made my way through this recent book by Jimi Kritzler recently, and it was like reading a stack of fanzines on a hungover Sunday afternoon. I barely know the bands covered – well, that’s not entirely true – but that’s also true of most of the ephemeral and short-lived combos covered in the fanzines of yore. Kritzler’s aim here is to take a snapshot in time, the time being roughly now (or at least 1-2 years ago), of the more brutish and punk/skronk/thug and/or experimental bands down under, with a few pop practitioners included simply because Kritzler either likes or knows them.

The formula is repetitive but comfortable. Intro, interview, finished. “Noises In My Head” does this upwards of twentysomething times, to bands both known (Eddy Current Supression Ring, Total Control), unknown to me (most of ‘em) and loved (again, by me: The Garbage and The Flowers, Fabulous Diamonds). Here’s what I learned: drugs are freely available and consumed in rocknroll circles in Australia, and just as when I was in my 20s, talked about in far greater proportion to how interesting they actually are to the reader. Drugs drugs drugs, overdoses, mental illness, fallen comrades (to drugs), etc. Seems as though drug celebrations didn’t cease in underground Aussie rocknroll the moment Nick Cave left the island.

All funnin’ aside, I learned that Kritzler’s got a good ear to the ground in his homeland, and is definitely one of those man-about-town gadflys who seemingly knows everyone & is excellent at connecting the dots between bands, scenes and sub-genres. He writes well and with passion. There are a few grunters in this book whom I’ll need to follow up on. Hey, he missed just about every favorite rock band I personally have down there, from Constant Mongrel to King Tears Mortuary to The Clits, but that’s why it’s his fanzine-cum-book, not mine. It’s a hefty tome, skimmable when it needs to be but also full of good musical ore to be mined. The folks who live and breath in these Melbourne-, Sydney-, Brisbane-, etc.-based scenes will have something very well-done to show their progeny somewhere down the line.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

Since we just listened to the Gerard Cosloy/Boston ‘core episode of the “Turned Out A Punk” podcast, we were reminded of this 2004 e-interview we did on our Agony Shorthand blog with Clint Conley of Mission of Burma about Boston hardcore.

Why did I think of asking him these questions? I’m truly not sure, but I knew they’d been fans of hardcore at the time & I thought it’d make for a nice, short piece. Short it definitely was.

AGONY SHORTHAND TALKS TO CLINT CONLEY ABOUT BOSTON HARDCORE!

This small chat with MISSION OF BURMA’s Clint Conley took place a few weeks ago in cyberspace, and was slated to be part of another online magazine’s since-revamped Burma tribute next month. My proposed angle for my piece was a handful of questions on Mission of Burma’s proximity to the 1981-83 Boston hardcore scene of SS DECONTROL, DEEP WOUND etc. – thinking that they had played on some of those bills, I reckoned that there might be some rich stories of fistfights, stagedive mishaps and having to play songs like “Trem Two” a zillion MPH to keep from being murdered onstage by a pack of angry baldies. You be the judge! :

Agony Shorthand: Mission of Burma’s first round of recordings and bulk of gigging happened during a time (1981-83) when Boston was well-known, at least in underground rock circles, for a particularly aggressive brand of hardcore punk. To what extent, if at all, were Burma influenced by this sound?

Clint Conley: Hardcore was certainly a force. We dug the energy and speed and audience ‘participation’. I’d have to say though, the bands we really dug the most were mostly from out of town – Flag, Minor Threat. We played with Black Flag at the Peppermint Lounge in NY on their first gig in NY. They completely killed us – we loved it, our minds were blown. Did we start playing faster? It’s possible.

Agony Shorthand: You mentioned in a previous interview that, “We did play with some of the hardcore bands, but the whole hardcore scene hadn’t hardened into a rigid thing yet, it was just craziness. Crazy guitars – that was our language. These guys were just doing it twice as fast”. Can you say anything more about the similarities?

Clint Conley: Burma always leaned in the direction of hi-speed confusion, and that aspect of hard core was a total rush. Later the hard core scene became more regimented and codified. It’s the old story – an initial burst of anarchic freedom turns into small-minded intolerance w/ a list of do’s and don’ts.

Agony Shorthand: Were there any standouts for you in Boston’s hardcore days, and was there any affinity between you guys and those bands?

Clint Conley: I loved the first Jerry’s Kids album – played it a ton. But I didn’t know any of those guys. I suppose we knew Springa from SSD best on a personal level. They had a massive guitar sound that was completely frightening, and his ‘little big man’ voice added a hard-core cartoon element that was entertaining.

Agony Shorthand: There must be at least one good story of Mission of Burma on stage, confronted with a boatload of angry hardcore kids who couldn’t wait for you to leave the stage.

Clint Conley: The gig that stands out was in Hollywood, playing with the Kennedys and Circle Jerks in ’82. Us thin-skinned art-weenies from Boston got a rather hostile response. No applause after songs, just yelling and spitting. Maybe they were trying to show affection? I don’t think so. It was somewhat intimidating, but much more interesting than the typical non-response of many of our gigs for ‘new wave’ audiences. Offstage, Jello offered his condolences: ‘not exactly the most open minded crowd, eh?’

Agony Shorthand: Similarly, were there times when you were able to win over what might have looked to be a hostile crowd there to see, say, SS Decontrol or Negative FX?

Clint Conley: We never really played with the Boston hard core bands, that I can remember – except on our last gig we asked Neg FX to open. They played a completely chaotic 10 min. set that ended with the stage jammed with kids and cops. Fun. But in general when we played in Boston there wasn’t enough hostility.

Agony Shorthand: What was a typical bill for you to be placed on in the band’s early days, and how do you contrast that with what I assume is the band’s current ability to pick and choose who you play with?

Clint Conley: We were often selected to open for the latest Brit band – Go4, the Cure, Psych Furs, etc. The club owners musta thought we sounded Limey. It was cool – we made some friends, and they’d sometimes ask us to play with them in NY and other places.

Uncategorized

Episode 5 – Gerard Cosloy (Matador Records)

Jay HinmanLinkLeave a comment

Others have called attention to this and I will too: it’s a nearly 2-hour interview w/ Gerard Cosloy about his process of “becoming a punk” (not his words), with some choice segments on the Boston Crew, “Choke”, the relative unpopularity of Mission of Burma before the farewell shows, obscure ‘core bands Vile and Last Rites, and more. There’s one with ‘lil Steve McDonald of Red Cross by the same host that I’ll probably listen to next.

Episode 5 – Gerard Cosloy (Matador Records)

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

Here’s a thing on this book that I wrote on my Agony Shorthand blog 11 years ago…

“MAINLINES, BLOOD FEASTS AND BAD TASTE: A LESTER BANGS READER”….

I’ve now completed two posthumous books and one entire magazine (Throat Culture) written by, and another book written about, Mr. LESTER BANGS. I guess you could say that I, like many, am an admirer of the guy who truly put the rrrr in rock critic. Someone made the point in the forward to the “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung” collection that a lot of Bangs’ pieces read even better as straight-up prose than as vanilla “rock criticism”, and I whole-heartedly agree.

It’s probably redundant to make the point that this guy, when ON, was one of the finest and most funny writers of his century, all genres included. That he also had strong and well-defined taste in outside-the-lines rock music as it was being created was a nice side benefit, given that Bangs was cheerleading for the Velvet Underground, Stooges and MC5 (after his much-celebrated false start with “Kick Out The Jams”, which is included here) in the late 60s/early 70s with the same bug-eyed intensity that people do today. Finally, Bangs had the humility to write follow-up articles proclaiming his initial ignorance whenever he’d slam something that later grew on him, as he did with both “Kick Out The Jams” and, in this collection, “Exile On Main Street”. And his plaintive justifications for “mis-hearing” them actually held water, too.

One of the surprises of this recent collection of essays and scattered writings, circa 1967-1983 is that Bangs was one of the few writers I’ve seen who could write about jazz with the same amount of feeling and passion (and knowledge! Bangs was no dilettante) he brought to rock and roll. Some of the best work in here is his cold dismissals of MILES DAVIS’ 1970s fusion and funk meanderings in comparison with the glories of the 50s and 60s, and his willingness to call Davis on his callous and ornery disdain toward his fans.

There also a few riotous essays and/or reviews on Bob Dylan, Wet Willie and their shy search for groupies, more LOU REED worship/baiting, and a fantastic piece on THE DOORS deflating the Morrison myth while keeping his longtime love for the music intact. The 1979 CAPTAIN BEEFHEART essay, which includes snippets of interviews with the good and good-hearted Captain, is easily the single best thing I’ve read on Beefheart anywhere. Bangs also makes up for his slobbering CLASH obsession with a correct (i.e. mocking) take on Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys in real time.

Finally, there’s a well-mannered travelogue of Bangs’ paid junket to Jamaica along with a bunch of other rock journalists, there to report back on reggae culture and interview Bob Marley. Bangs approaches the whole thing with a great deal of healthy skepticism and comes away marginally impressed, if not a changed man. It’s terrific reading, and arrives at the perfect intersection of music fandom and gonzo travel writing.

There are also areas of this book that call for a quick breezing-through, rather than a deep read. Bangs wrote much of his material while high, drunk or both – and was legendary for first-take-is-the-best-take, stream of consciousness blabbering. That so much of it so intelligent, funny and insightful is in itself amazing. But much of it isn’t, and editor John Morthland was smart to include some of the more rambly and difficult stuff to help keep a sense of perspective in check. So even though a good chunk of the book is unpublished material, I wouldn’t get too lacquered up about it. A lot appears to be drugged-fueled journal entries on nights when things weren’t going so well, some of which hits brilliance in places, but much of which begs for the same sort of half-hearted speed reading as the spirit in which it was written.

I was also surprised to see an over-intellectualization of the ROLLING STONES in places; at time Bangs succumbs to Ivy League navel-gazing about this most primal of rock groups, then veers off into gossip about how much he dislikes Mick’s wife etc. Yeah, Bangs was a pretty tortured guy with a lot of inner demons, but he appears on whole to have been a very decent and at times lion-hearted man. It would have been great to grab a beer with him, ask a few strategic questions and just watch him go. Consider this collection an adjunct to the superior “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung”, but if you loved that one, there’s no reason to think you won’t dig this too.