Images

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

(Originally posted in July 2004 on my now-defunct Agony Shorthand blog)

WHERE TO START WITH GIANT SAND?

It was about 11-12 years ago when I became deeply entangled with the music of the then-California High Desert-based (by way of Tucson) GIANT SAND, and bought pretty much their entire back catalog in one fell swoop. I’d seen the band play once before, in 1987 in Los Angeles – they were still in their Dylan-of-the-desert stage best heard on the 1986 LP “Ballad Of A Thin Line Man”, and actually blew me away with a great keyboard-drenched set of country-based troubadour blues, similar to their pals GREEN ON RED (whose Chris Cacavas was conveniently guesting on keyboards that evening). But an ill-fated purchase of their next record, 1988’s “The Love Songs”, soured me on the band for a couple of years – right around this time Howe Gelb & co. were veering into an experimental black hole of their own making, taking a blender to traditional American roots music and creating something full of quick edits, abrupt shifts in direction, random noise and/or talking, and lyrics that made sense to no one but themselves & the man on the moon. They kept getting big props in the fanzines of the day, but I couldn’t crack the new code. 

That was the case until I heard 1992’s “Center Of The Universe” and became re-engaged in a big way. While Giant Sand retained a lot of the weird surprises of the intervening years, in which a song could be an explosive 30-second shitstorm or a beautiful folk-tinged pop song, the songcraft was at its peak during their 1991-94 glory years. Gelb’s mumbly vocal style and cryptic lyrics gave him a certain stature as a true, bent original, and the much-heralded Convertino/Burns rhythm section were helping him crank out some really terrific songs. They were like this weird, desert-based communal family, with members that floated in and out (Paula Jean Brown, Gelb’s wife and then ex-wife, made regular appearances) & special guests like Gelb’s 6-year-old daughter or an ancient old desert sage that Gelb met in a bar (Pappy something-or-other, who is in full force on 1991’s “Ramp”). To this day “Center of the Universe” remains my third favorite of the three CDs of theirs I’ve held onto into the 21st century. The real killer, the one I still listen to all the time, is 1994’s major label debut (and not at all coincidentally, their final major label record), “Glum”. This is where it all came together: slithering, eerie folk songs full of danger (“Happenstance” and “Glum”); know-it-all travelogues (“Frontage Road”), NEIL YOUNG-style erupto-metal, and the usual detours deep into Howe Gelb’s cranium, this time a journey well worth taking. 

My problem with the band not long after this one was that everything was being recorded and nothing was being tossed, no matter how jammy or boring. Gelb’s unharnessed creativity led him to put out just about everything he did, and I was gobbling it all. I finally had to filter the band’s accumulated catalog into those three essential CDs: “Ramp”, “Center of the Universe” and “Glum” (I dipped a toe back in a few years ago when “Chore of Enchantment” came out and didn’t like it). Talk to people these days about Giant Sand and you’re usually going to get a frothingly positive response or a big fat “they suck”. I’m trying to take a nuanced middle path here, and recommend checking out those 3 if you’re still a bit dubious – and keeping your distance from the remainder.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

Originally posted on my Agony Shorthand blog in November 2003)

THE MO-DETTES – “The Story So Far”

One of the first 45s from the “new wave era” that I ever bought was the MO-DETTES’ “White Mice / Masochistic Opposite” in 1980, and it remains one of my favorite records of any era. Played to death on my local college radio station back in the day (KFJC), the song “White Mice” arrives at the perfect intersection of rough English D.I.Y. and pure golden girl pop, and has one of the most lilting harmonies you’ll ever hear. Among the more charming aspects of the band were the mushmouth vocals of Ramona Carlier, she being of Swiss descent and a then-recent UK immigrant (which helps explains it). It’s hard to put a bead on exactly what she’s saying beyond the song’s chorus, which starts with the first-rate couplet, “Don’t be stupid, don’t be limp / No girl likes to love a wimp”, and contains a throbbing bassline that leads, rather than follows, everything else in the song. The guitarist is practically invisible throughout – her ineptitude in moving from chord to chord is part of what’s so special about “White Mice” and indeed, the small handful of other good tracks this band produced in their short life. 

So let’s talk about that, shall we? This CD-R – or bootleg CD, I’m not sure – is a complete-works (1979-1981) collection of the MO-DETTES’ one and only album and their 45s. “The Story So Far” LP followed the “White Mice” 45’s lead and contained exceptionally crude, poorly-drawn cover art that was sort of a cartoonish, Archies-like version of something you might have found on Fuck Off Records or by THE DOOR AND THE WINDOW. I also bought the LP in high school, and sold it back to a used record store the same year. That’s because outside of a couple of hot ones that’ll charm the pants off of ya (“Fandango”, “Dark Park Creeping”, “Masochistic Opposite”), the band really hid in the shadow of their one and only naïve-pop masterpiece. 

They knew it too, as the LP contained not only the de riguer “White Mice”, but a sped-up version called “White Mouse Disco”. Kind of sad, actually. There’s an awful STONES and an awful EDITH PIAF cover, too – yet I still have a real big soft spot for the band overall. They honestly sound like a case study for the D.I.Y. archetype: young girls, raw ambition, out-of-tune guitars, lots of stumbling and fumbling, and presto : an instant, all-time classic 45. That the rest of their career didn’t live up to it is fairly beside the point, I reckon.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

(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.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

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.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

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.

Listen to A GUIDE TO BILL DIREEN here.

Uncategorized
Jay HinmanImageLeave a comment

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

Pre-order you own copy here.