Don Howland from THE GIBSON BROS, rocking an FMLN hat, no less. Live in San Francisco – the only time I ever saw them play – in 1991.
Photo by Nicole Penegor.
The Gories, when I interviewed them for my 1992 fanzine Superdope, turned me onto this lost Australian garage rock song from 1986. You can certainly hear the influence in the Gories’ sound, too.
THE BO-WEEVILS did a few things after this, but nothing as chugging nor as strong as this mid-tempo, minor-key scorcher.
There was an excellent time-wasting meme/hashtag on Twitter yesterday called #NBABands, in which you combine basketball players/teams with rocknroll to create “bands”. There were some good ones that had me laughing til bedtime: Right Said Faried, Durant Durant, My Alonzo Mourning Jacket, Thabeet Happening, Gasol Asylum and more.
My more esoteric choices didn’t seem to register with anyone, probably because while everyone knew the players I was referencing, no one knew the bands: Robin Lopez & The Egyptians; Boy Dirt Carmelo; Tallulah Bosh and Biff Bang Pau.
Several weeks ago I posted a moderately embarrassing June 1989 radio show that I did for KCSB-FM in Santa Barbara, CA called “White Trash”. It was my last show ever – on that station, anyway – and therefore was the culmination of four years of training, teenage toil and practice.
Now let’s go back in time over two years, to April 22nd, 1987. I’m 19 years old; I’m snarky; I’m fast-talkin’, and I’m absolutely lovin’ the noisy late 80s indie rock. This show features paranoia about an impending crackdown on what records we’re allowed to play on the station, all thanks to a minor censorship kerfuffle that was erupting that year in which the FCC gave our station a warning for playing punk rock music with naughty words. You can read the LA Times story on the incident here. My repeated paranoia about impending censorship doom during this show’s 90 minutes are testament to the limited scope and worldview, political myopia, and the affluenza common to UC-Santa Barbara students who come from nice families.
Download the 4-22-1987 show of KCSB’s “White Trash” right here, and you’ll hear gems from Pussy Galore, Squirrel Bait, Naked Raygun, Soul Asylum, Bad Brains, Redd Kross, Phantom Tollbooth, Adrenaline O.D., The Flesh Eaters, and much more.
Bill Direen and the Bilders perform ‘Do The Alligator’ at the Gladstone, Christchurch 1984.
Erika Elizabeth played this one last week from THE SIC ALPS on her Expressway to Your Skull radio show on WMUA, and I guess it helped me remember to go back to their 2012 album on Drag City that I didn’t like so much at first. Mea culpa. It’s terrific.
The band, and this track in particular, are mining a nice cross between “Exile on Main Street” Stones and Royal Trux’ mid-period swagger, and despite changing lineups multiple times, they’re still got a hell of a sound, once it sinks in & all.
NUMBERS, live in San Francisco, April 2003, doing “I’m Shy”. For about one year this was the hottest band going, and I was fortunate enough to have been in attendance at this show and a handful of others before it.
THE CHARALAMBIDES were – and may very well remain, for all I know – a Houston-based band who continued well into the ‘00s after putting out a number of self-released tapes and records, as well as a much-hailed series of experimental psychedelic/folk LPs on Siltbreeze. I actually got to know the band’s Christina Carter via mail back when she was Christina-something-else, and working in a record store in Austin. She and her later-husband Tom Carter showed me a fantastic time in Houston once around 1994 or so when I was visiting on a business trip; taking me to an Indian restaurant, playing me records at their house and then drinking on the lawn at Rice University. Almost – almost – made me want to move to Houston, for about five minutes.
For years my favorite thing by them has been this 5-minute accordion instrumental that was almost a throwaway near the end of a side on their “Historic 6th Ward” LP from 1994. It’s called “Now The Day Is Over”. Let it lull you into a pleasant chin-on-hands stupor.
CLAW HAMMER, and yours truly in the middle of the stage, kneeling – Wichita, KS, April 1993.
AGONY SHORTHAND 