Pages from DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE #2, an 84-page fanzine now being printed available for pre-order here. We should have them in stock by November 20th or so.
It’s written by Jay Hinman and Erika Elizabeth, and the thing took the better part of 2014 to throw together. Seemed to have turned out all right despite some typos that I’ve already caught post-production. You can handle it, right?
Learn more about what’s in it and order at this link here….!
TOMMY JAY is one of those legendary American rock underground heroes that we probably need to interview one of these days.
He typically takes a back seat to his pal and longtime collaborator Mike Rep, whom he’s recorded with in True Believers, Mike Rep & The Quotas and other fantastic Columbus combos – but not here. He’s front and center on “Bug Men”, which came out in 2010 on Siltbreeze’s “Skull Without Borders” comp, and which I think was recorded some time in the 1980s. Someone correct me on that if you would?
I’m in the midst of a MINUTEMEN bender the last couple of weeks. Here’s a knockout comp track of theirs, “Base King” from the New Underground series of early 80s LA punk/art comps.
(Originally written for my Agony Shorthand blog, November 2004)
VARIOUS ARTISTS : “CHARRED REMAINS” cassette……
I used to buy Maximum Rock and Roll during hardcore punk’s golden years (1981-83) and marveled at the huge array of “scenes” all over the USA and globe. It was almost downright hippie in the way loving attention was slathered on how “the kids” would organically come together in places like Milwaukee and Fresno to create awful punk music and fight the fuckin’ pigs. All it took to file a scene report was to file one – that is, write up what bands formed in your town, who was putting out 45s this month, which crazy punks got stinking drunk at which parties, detail any police harassment at the VA Hall and add a few parting words on how Reagan was about to murder us all, and your scene report was ready to go.
Chequering all this exciting banter were cool advertisements for micro-releases from around the world. MRR kept their ad rates low enough that a 15-year-old kid with a pressing-of-200 45 could get out his glue sick and a thick pen and have a quick ad in there for maybe $10. It was just such an ad that I remember seeing for this 1981 cassette-only release called “CHARRED REMAINS”, which (retrospectively) is sort of a who’s-who of hardcore, both good and horrible. I’d never heard the tape until last week but had long wanted to, but noooo, I ordered the Wisconsin scene overview “America’s Dairyland” tape instead back then. Someone threw a clean copy of this tape up on Soulseek and I pulled it down, making sure to earmark some royalties directly to SIN 34 and THE MISGUIDED, of course.
Based on what I could track down on the World Wide Web, this tape was put out by a guy named Bob Moore who ran a ‘zine called NOISE and later a record label called Version Sound. DIE KREUZEN fans, of which I am a big one, will remember this label as the one behind the “Cows and Beer” 7"EP and subsequent “Master Tape” LP comp, which featured super lo-fi versions of the tracks that eventually made up the single greatest US hardcore punk album of all time, the self-titled debut Die Kreuzen record on Touch & Go. Their tracks are pretty much the best on “Charred Remains”, but there are a few other corkers I’d never heard before.
Best is “Crime Watch-Block Parents” by DOGS OF WAR, a real spinner from back in the days when crime was out of control in the US and each suburb had “block parents” that kids could run to if some vile creep offered them a ride. It’s got great vocals and reminds me of a faster AUTHORITIES (“Radiation Masterbation” and “I Hate Cops” – you know you love ’em). I’ll still stand by LA’s SIN 34 even though they’ve a longtime butt of wasn’t-hardcore-awful jokes; they’ve got two relatively strong tracks on here, and another surprise was VIOLENT APATHY from the Midwest. You might know these strapping young fellas from “I Can’t Take It” on the “Process of Elimination” EP (famous for also including Negative Approach, The Necros and The Fix), but they’ve got 3 red-blooded meathooks on this, served up fast-n-loud.
There are also two from VOID, who just plain ruled (though their non-Dischord stuff like this is incredibly tame compared to their godhead side of the split LP). On the down side? Well, how about ARTICLES OF FAITH? What a crap band – each track is way too long, too involved, too English to merit even a first listen. Ditto for the TOXIC REASONS, who were a living parody of a bunch of American kids trying to be Discharge or GBH, complete with horrendous British accent. Rounding out the pile are HUSKER DU (a track lifted from “Land Speed Record”), UXB, PERSONALITY CRISIS (Canadians! Guy had monstrous vocals here and elsewhere, but the band was pretty weak), Sacramento’s REBEL TRUTH (horrid) and a handful of nonentities. A total nostalgia trip even if you weren’t there (and I wasn’t), yet one you might not ever want to listen to more than once a decade.
COLD BEAT’s currently on tour around the west coast. You should check ‘em out if you haven’t yet.
Say hello to the CELLULOID COUCH.
One element of writing I’ve been trying to integrate into other things I futz around with is film commentary. I’ve rarely found a way to work it into any print magazines I’ve done, including Dynamite Hemorrhage, though occasionally I’ll mess around and put some stuff up on my longtime blog The Hedonist Jive.
I’ve created a home for any film/cinema-related writing I’m doing – as well as other film stuff (recommended articles, cool stills, GIFs and so on) called Celluloid Couch, which is now ready to go here.
Follow the site on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Print edition coming sometime in 2015.
A GUIDE TO BILL DIREEN
Bill Direen’s the cover star of the upcoming Dynamite Hemorrhage #2 fanzine (currently at the printer, in your hands in 2-3 weeks if you order now) and deservedly so. Since 1978, he’s been making weird and wonderful disjointed pop music in his own idiosyncratic manner, and with shape-shifting tonal adjustments that change year to year and record to record.
He’s somewhat well known by a certain slice of the New Zealand-loving, underground 1980s connoisseur clan, but not as well as he probably should be. For those of you coming to Direen’s music just now, or who’ve never heard of the guy, we’d like to assist.
Here’s a 19-song sampler of his musical career, 1978 to the present. It’s available to stream on 8Tracks. I’d have added even more great songs, but 8Tracks requires that only 2 tracks per band can make it onto a mix – which actually works great for Direen stuff, since he’s had so many differently-monikered combos: Six Impossible Things, Bilders, Builders, Vacuum, Above Ground etc etc. Hope you enjoy it – and as mentioned, if you want to read up on Direen and hear the story from the man himself – order Dynamite Hemorrhage #2 here.
NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE #2
We’ve shipped DH #2 off to the printer, and they tell us we’ll have it back in our hands within 2-3 weeks. With that in mind, Dynamite Hemorrhage #2 is available for pre-order, and will ship to you as soon as we have them.
Here’s what’s in it:
– An interview and retrospective with BILL DIREEN, the New Zealand-based musical iconoclast and creator of some of the most weird and wonderful underground pop music of the last 35 years. Great old photos of Vacuum, Six Impossible Things and more – and Direen’s take on his many recordings, bands and general outlook on creation & creativity.
– Tim Warren from Crypt Records, on the eve of two new volumes of the mind-destroying “BACK FROM THE GRAVE” 60s punk compilations, takes us through how he’s been putting these comps together since 1983 and the pain he’s endured to make sure we get to here some of the most raw and rare rocknroll chaos of all time
– Interviews with current musical superstars HONEY RADAR, NOTS and KING TEARS MORTUARY
– Erika Elizabeth’s overview of lost and neglected female-fronted punk and post-punk bands and records you’ve never heard of
– The Layman’s Guide to 1970s Jamaican DUB – an overview of wild, weird and wacked dub reggae during its peak era, along with ten essential dub recordings, explored
– Interviews with Jon Savage and Stuart Baker on the new PUNK 45 series of archival 70s punk reissues
– 87 record reviews
– 15 book reviews
– Advertisements from today’s top hit making labels
We’re selling the remaining copies of SUPERDOPE #8 – a fanzine I put out back in 1998 – over on Dynamite Hemorrhage’s order page. If you’d like to order a copy, they’re only $3 plus shipping.
Hey there.
Yea, it’s November 2014 and the tactile engagement of Fuckin’ Record Reviews #1: The Print Edition – originally advertised for October 2014 – remains confined to the digital realm. Confusion and delay? Worry not Sir Topham Hatt, we are working feverishly to complete this thing and print it on 100% recycled paper before the 2016 election. In fact, we are 64% done (up from 61% last Tuesday), but just like everyone else, we occasionally get stuck between the buttons of procrastination and daydream nation and consequently…it’s proceeding a bit more slowly than hoped.
- Things done to periodically knock my eye off the prize include…
- posting Stretch Heads pix at Now Paying
- rewatching the BBC Synth Brittania doc on YouTube (this has been mentioned previously)
- making out with my pillow
- firing off daily missives at this here FRR tumblr
- enjoying vidz of Mike Wolf’s dog DOMINATING in the park (by the way she’s real, and she’s spectacular)
- Pampers like 72 times since September…2014 USA tour starts next week
- sorting hand sanitizer bottles by color
- omg – rathausrathaus and brainplan records!
- fancying it possible be au courant
- rehearsing the perfect personal intro to belakoe at Anyway Records Night last month
- devouring the Popwatch zines Leslie Gaffney sent (thanx!)
- saying “Alan Licht” out loud more times in a row than any other human for the world record
- organizing Lee Noble selections from best to bestest
- reshuffling our guesses for super secret guest entires into the Death By Audio lottery
- concocting several non alignment pacts
- Best Reasons To Write A Fuckin’ Record Review Today
- ever-never-records
- how many people are in the Gizmos anyway?
- Thomas Storck at WFMU….real or unreal?
- writing this post…
- Several changes have taken place that render the advertisement above obsolete. As you might’ve heard, our brother Tony Rettman got signed by Monument Records to annotate the lost recordings of Barefoot Jerry and we wish him well. He may visit with us in FRR #1: TPE, but we hope to see him return to his Hardcore in Silhouette status by 2015.
- Since we last wrote, New York Observer’s Vicky Wheeler has dedicated her life to figuring out how to be the sixth member of Wussy, and of course we wish her well. Maybe we’ll see more of her in 2015. We begged her to don’t leave us now, but who can complete with Chuck & Lisa?
- GOOD NEWS: In the stead of those now gone, we’ve tricked urbankill’s Matt T to write like 40-60 fuckin’ record reviews! Jay Hinman called Matt one of the curators of our time, and we are delighted to offer Matt a platform to sink or swim. He’s submitted a dozen or so reviews so far and they really cut the rug.
- We’ve also employed Bela Koe-Krompecher of belakoe krompecher’s blog to write fuckin’ record reviews! Yea, we’re pretty impressed with our networking power too.
- So…see you soon! In the mean time, dynamitehemorrhage #2 should be out soon and try reading it while listening to cyanidetooth‘s The Whole Tooth & Nothing But …(ever/never – 2014)
WHY THE FUCK we would create more tangible stuff in the future, namely FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS #1: The Print Edition?
Because…VIVE LA RÉSISTANCE!
Svenonius: “In the sleek Apple future, our ‘outdated’ possessions are turned into symbols of poverty…We’re encouraged to lose our possessions…
Meanwhile, those who have hung onto possessions are castigated, jeered at, and painted as fools…This is fine for the cyber elite; they can live as they wish. But why is their ideology impressed on all of us through this shame-based propaganda? Why is the “hoarder” so loathed by the Apple authorities?
Because she is feared.
The record collection or magazine or newspaper might reveal some clue to a social movement or trend or fashion or sensibility that defies their moronic stranglehold on consciousness. A burp of resistance. A clue to a way out. A signal that life doesn’t actually depend on high-speed internet access.”
ALL POWER TO THE PACK RATS by Ian Svenonius Jacobin / a magazine of culture and polemic (July 2014)
- We don’t love everything Svenonius belches forth with Chain And The Gang, Cupid Car Club, Felt Letters, Make-Up, Nation Of Ulysses, Scene Creamers and Weird War, but now and again we can get down.
- We are aligned, however, with Svenonius on many matters of thought and we found the linked article All Power To The Pack Rats to be a very worthwhile justification for keeping stuff.
- It also helped us clarify why we would create more stuff in the future, namely FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS #1: The Print Edition – because we’re fighting the powers that be!
- Of course, we recognize Fuckin’ Record Reviews utilizes the internet in an obvious fashion, but if our print version – which, by the way, we will not be posting to the tumblr (for the most part) – offers one burp of resistance, then good on us and our collaborators.
- Why do it? Now you know. Now we know. HEY! HO! LET’S GO!
Announcing our second year of Fuckin’ Record Reviews with…
FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS #1
- Print Edition – numbered,
Rettman-kissed copies- many, many pages
- eye popping grafix
- might be a total wreck…but it *will* be!
OCTOBER 2014
- (you only have yourselves to blame)
AGONY SHORTHAND 