Classic article from RIPPER fanzine about the infamous 1982 MISFITS show in San Francisco (with Flesh Eaters, Meat Puppets and Jodie Foster’s Army supporting!) in which blood was spilled, anti-gay slurs uttered, and a legion of San Francisco/Berkeley punks turned off to the Misfits forever.
Article was written by Eugene Robison, who was the singer at the time for Whipping Boy, and who probably could have snapped even Doyle and Jerry Only in two had he chosen to take them on.
THE WHINES are a band from Portland, OR, who’re a pretty razor-sharp approximation of what a scuzzed-out psychedelic rock band of the 60s would sound like if they’d been exposed to all the iterations and flavors of psych, punk, grunge and garage in the intervening years. While this song, “Cut Meat”, from 2010’s “Hell to Play” album, is pretty straightforward if a bit of an ear-bleeder, they’re not all like this. They can zig folky, zag heavy, and drop out and go totally weird on ya as well. I loved their split record last year with The Burning Yellows, and I think we all need to keep an eye peeled for more from these mindbenders.
Photo shared with me on Facebook by Anthony Bedard. All tapes made by me, for him, when he and I were in “the tape-making stage” of our relationship.
Two fanzine covers from my collection, both with tribute covers to the then newly-posthumous D. Boon.
Meet HISSEY MIYAKE. They’re not around anymore under that name – my sources tell me the two women in the band are now called GLOW – but whilst performing art-thump music under that name circa 2009-11, they put out a split single with a band called Terrible Truths, and have a quartet of original recording available for a mere $1 download fee on their Bandcamp page. This one’s on both releases, and is called “Ghosts”.
I liken this Australian act’s approach to that of the minimalist, post-no wave NYC bands playing places like Danceteria circa 1980. They’re about halfway between Pulsallama and Liquid Liquid, with squeaky female vocals and some obtuse lyrics. I’m totally grooving on the cut of their jib. Keep a lookout for GLOW stuff and please let me know if you find any.
THE NIXE playing live, 1979. Note the photographic absence of the “dude” in the band.
Pic by Jeroen “Buffel” Meijerink
THE NIXE were a predominantly female Dutch punk rock act from ‘80-’81, who most of us had never heard/heard of until their 2008 posthumous LP collection came out on Lili Z’s Polly Magoo Records. This track in particular is pretty special in the 60 seconds or so that it’s around.
“Disco, get out of my way!!”.
….and here’s the awesome flyer that Chris D wrote the set list on. You can see the “pen bleed” on the flyer if you look closely.
Since I never saw THE FLESH EATERS in their early 80s incarnation(s), getting to first a DIVINE HORSEMEN (‘86) and then a STONE BY STONE show in 1989 were big, big deals to me at the time. I was, and continue to be, a huge Chris D. worshipper, and though neither band floored me the way hearing the recently-deceased Flesh Eaters did when I got acquainted with them around 1985, their live shows were great.
Here’s a set list I swiped off the stage of Los Angeles’ Anti-Club when STONE BY STONE played there in ’89. It is effectively the entire contents of their one and only album, released on SST around that time.
In 2002, San Francisco band NUMBERS were my favorite musical act on the planet. I got to see them play multiple times as their hyper, Bulb Records-inspired, technology-gone-awry dance/postpunk was becoming fully formed. It was pretty ephemeral, too, because after about a year, they’d pretty much played the whole concept out and started releasing some pretty mediocre records.
I’ve listened to “Numbers Life”, however, at least once every six months since it came out that year. Not much of a commitment, considering it’s over and done in 20 minutes, but absolutely one of my favorites of the first decade of our young century.
AGONY SHORTHAND 