BILL DIREEN, taken from Forced Exposure Magazine #16.
Images
XPRESSWAY were the darker, more experimental record label cousin of New Zealand’s Flying Nun. Operating out of Port Chalmers on the South Island, Xpressway was originally a late 80s/early 90s cassette label and later branched into singles and LPs. They were a real cult taste there for a while, putting out early moody, shape-shifting sounds from the Dead C, Alastair Galbraith, the Terminals and more.
This ad came from Siltbreeze magazine #6 around 1990 or so. (Yes, before Siltbreeze was a raunched-out music fanzine before it was a label). Tom Lax from Siltbreeze was probably Xpressway’s biggest US-based champion; I’d certainly never heard of the label before he started yakking about them and running cool ads like this one.
Here’s a new edition of the Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio Show Podcast, our eighth, recorded at home on a Saturday afternoon while the rest of the world was doing more important things. Download it, stream it, do whatever the hell you want with it – but do listen to it, as you’ll hear an hour of righteous sounds from some pretty gnarly artists, including The Scientists, Grass Widow, Big Blood, the Gun Club, The Door and The Window, Look Blue Go Purple, Sally Skull, the Black Jaspers, Clothilde, the Flesh Eaters and As Mercenarias.
Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #8
Stream the podcast on Soundcloud (desktop or mobile)
Playlist for the show:
THE SCIENTISTS – There’s a Monster in Me
SALLY SKULL – Raven
ABE FROMAN – Russian 101
BLACK JASPERS – Smart Car
HEAVY TIMES – Ice Age
A-FRAMES – Neutron Bomb
LOOK BLUE GO PURPLE – Safety in Crosswords
BURNT ONES – Protection Circle
CLOTHILDE – Je T’ai Voulu et Je T’ai Bien Eu
GRASS WIDOW – Advice
THE HOMOSEXUALS – Technique Street
THE DOOR AND THE WINDOW – Dads
FLESH EATERS – Dynamite Hemorrhage
THE GUN CLUB – Devil in the Woods
GOLDEN STARLET – Baby
THE NIXE – You Say
AS MERCENARIAS – Policia
THE MASTER’S APPRENTICES – Undecided
THE BIRDS – You’re on my Mind
THE BREAKERS – Jet Stream
THE GORLS – TV’s On
THE MONTELLS – You Can’t Make Me
BIG BLOOD – Sovereignty You Bitch
Download all of our past episodes, each about an hour long:
Download Show #7
Download Show #6
Download Show #5
Download Show #4
Download Show #3
Download Show #2
Download Show #1
This is a photo I took of THE DUST DEVILS live at CBGB in New York City, May 1993. They were opening for Claw Hammer, The Unsane and Rocket From The Crypt. That’s Matador Records head and Conflict editor Gerard Cosloy playing bass there on the right, which surprised the hell out of me when he stepped on stage.
Dust Devils were awesome, by the way, but on the decline a bit….their 1991 show at the 6th Street Rendezvous in San Francisco floored me, but they were flattening out a bit by this time.
Jon Wahl of CLAW HAMMER (with painting) and Jay Hinman (asleep) in Wichita, KS 1993.
I’ve put together a new 1-hour edition of the DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO SHOW PODCAST, my phony rocknroll radio show recorded and assembled on a laptop and turned into a podcast. This is the 7th one I’ve made – the other six are all available to download at the links below. This features all manner of underground rock music from 1966 to 2013. Bands you will enjoy hearing include100 Flowers, Murphy & The Mob, Clorox Girls, Veronica Falls, Spray Paint, White Fence, Burnt Ones, Rachel Sweet, The Dum Dum Girls, Pink Floyd and a whole bunch of others – interspersed with talking from a wild, wacky radio disc jockey!
Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio Show Podcast #7
Stream Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio Show Podcast #7 (desktop or mobile OK)
Track listing:
THE DELINQUENTS – Motivation Complex
BURNT ONES – Strawberry Tomb
THE CROWD – Modern Machine
SWELL MAPS – Vertical Slum
CLOROX GIRLS – Boys Girls
DIRT SHIT – Exit
JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS – Saints and Sinners
VERONICA FALLS – So Tired
VIRGINIA DARE – Girl King
RACHEL SWEET – Cuckoo Clock
THE MINDERS – Hand Me Downs
THE FLOWERS – After Dark
WHITE FENCE – Real Smiles
SPRAY PAINT – Spock Fingers
PINK FLOYD – Arnold Layne
ART MUSEUMS – S.H.O.P.P.i.N.G.
TAKE IT – Twenty Lines
THE BARRERACUDAS – New York Honeys
THE LOSERS – Snake Eyes
MURPHY & THE MOB – Born Loser
THE VORES – Amateur Surgeon
DUM DUM GIRLS – Pay For Me
100 FLOWERS – Salmonella
Download past shows, each about an hour long:
Download Show #6
Download Show #5
Download Show #4
Download Show #3
Download Show #2
Download Show #1
THE SWELL MAPS, live in one of the members’ bedrooms in the 70s.
Taken from today’s Waitakere Walks post – read it here.
DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO PODCAST #6
Here’s the sixth edition of Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio Podcast, recorded in early February 2013 – i.e. today. Brand-new stuff this time from Spray Paint, Veronica Falls, Little Queenie & more…..plus a smattering of art, noise, punk, pop and psych from eras both hither and yon.
You’ll hear Morty Shann & The Morticians, The Cheater Slicks, Bill Direen & The Bilders, The Bangs, Fizzbombs, Lazy Cowgirls and a whole helluva lot of other tasty malarky, adding up to just over an hour of “good times”.
Track listing:
VERONICA FALLS – If You Still Want Me
SPRAY PAINT – Throwing Cans
MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS – Movin’ In
PUBERTY – Parties
LA DRUGS – High School
SUICIDE COMMANDOS – Attacking The Beat
FAMILY CURSE – Last Days
GIRLFRIENDS – Cave Kids
CHEATER SLICKS – Savage Affection
LAZY COWGIRLS – Bullshit Summer Song
DAN MELCHIOR’S BROKE REVUE – Hungry Ghost
MOGEL – Hall Mig Hart
LITTLE QUEENIE – Blackout
GOOD MISSIONARIES – Keep Going Backwards
RANDY ALVEY & THE GREEN FUZ – Green Fuz
THE COUNTDOWNS – Do It
THE FIZZBOMBS – Test Pilot
THE NIG HEIST – The Nig Heist
ZEBRA HUNT – Get Along
BEYOND THE IMPLODE – This Atmosphere
THE BANGS – Call On Me
THE MODDS – Leave My House
BILL DIREEN & THE BILDERS – Russian Rug
SPRAY PAINT – Throwing Cans
MORTY SHANN & THE MORTICIANS – Movin’ In
PUBERTY – Parties
LA DRUGS – High School
SUICIDE COMMANDOS – Attacking The Beat
FAMILY CURSE – Last Days
GIRLFRIENDS – Cave Kids
CHEATER SLICKS – Savage Affection
LAZY COWGIRLS – Bullshit Summer Song
DAN MELCHIOR’S BROKE REVUE – Hungry Ghost
MOGEL – Hall Mig Hart
LITTLE QUEENIE – Blackout
GOOD MISSIONARIES – Keep Going Backwards
RANDY ALVEY & THE GREEN FUZ – Green Fuz
THE COUNTDOWNS – Do It
THE FIZZBOMBS – Test Pilot
THE NIG HEIST – The Nig Heist
ZEBRA HUNT – Get Along
BEYOND THE IMPLODE – This Atmosphere
THE BANGS – Call On Me
THE MODDS – Leave My House
BILL DIREEN & THE BILDERS – Russian Rug
Download each of the past shows as well, while you’re at it. They’re each about an hour and might even be almost as good as this one:
Download Show #5
Download Show #4
Download Show #3
Download Show #2
Download Show #1
It’s so rare for rock-scene-oriented friends to see me at a live show, much less one in Oakland, vs. my hometown of San Francisco. One pal of 23 years who saw me at last night’s BILL DIREEN live show at Oakland’s White Horse Inn asked me if I’d moved to Oakland. Otherwise why would I be out there on a weeknight, right? I get it. This is what happens when you hit the comfort years.
You also pay money to see guys like New Zealand legend BILL DIREEN once you hit the comfort years, a man who outdistances even me in age by at least 10 years. I’ll let you read about the man here, so I don’t have to explain his pedigree and all the weird and insular kiwi-pop/noise/art records he put out in the 80s. MUSK opened the show – a loud, livewire dirty blues/punk band in the ear-shredding Chrome Cranks/Gun Club tradition. Most pleasing to behold.
LITTLE QUEENIE, a local band whom I totally expected from their name to be some dum-dum Gearhead hot rod band singing about mopars and drag racing, were pretty much the exact opposite: A wiry, two-bass, spasmodic post punk band who came rushing on like feedtime and The Gordons, and blasted through a great pack of two-minute songs in about 18 minutes. What’s more, they sported a rare THREE-GLASSES ATTACK up front: both bass players and the singer were rocking specs. The better with which to see you, my dear. Outstanding stuff – hear more here.
BILL DIREEN, whom I saw play a similar set back around 1993 in San Francisco, stepped up and strummed solo to a somewhat befuddled crowd. His playing and his word-poetry often seemed stream of consciousness, and when he played songs we knew, it was sorta the way Bob Dylan plays his 1960s songs live. Only the words and some occasional chords give up the ghost that this is a song you’ve actually heard before. Direen certainly exists in his own world, and plays the eccentric well. I got rolling with his vibe about midway through and it all started clicking then – and only then. He’s pictured here, a rare iPhone photo of the man in the wild in the 21st century. Why he was playing in Oakland, here and now, is a mystery for the ages. I meant to ask someone.
Oh, and when you reach the comfort years, you leave before Dan Melchior’s finished his first song, because you need to get up at 5:45am to get your kid to school and yourself to work. Right?
AGONY SHORTHAND 