Lookit this, another post, 3 in a row! I'll be playing a lot of the stuff I've shared here on the blog this week on the Clean Nice Quiet KPISS.FM show, which is now a full TWO HOURS every Saturday, from 5 to 7 PM Eastern! I'm very excited.
The Gents from Hamburg have a really bitchin' new 5 song release on their new label, Creepy Kid Records. Super noisey, super cool:
Check out this no wavey "experimental pop" single from peopling, which is the solo project of Ronnie Gonzalez. It's the lead single of an album that's due out October 27 from Already Dead:
Aggro garage punk single from London's Rifle, off a 5 track EP also due out October 27:
I fell in love with this today, great new punk from Cincinatti:
Ohhhhh man, this is so heavy!!! From an album called Bleed Yourself which, weirdly is also due out Oct. 27. What's up with that?
Fun arty post-punk single from Baton Rouge's SPLLIT, off an album called Infinite Hatch due out...October 27!?!?
From the DuPage County HC archives page, here's a righteous blast of punk from 1993:
Hey if you make cool tunes and you want to send me your cool tunes for possible play on my KPISS.FM show (Saturday 5-6P EST) or featured here on the blog, take note that the email to contact me is now matt (at) cleannicequiet (dot) (com). I dunno if I have to spell it out like that anymore, I saw someone do that like 10 years ago and figured it was to confuse bots, so I started doing it too. But I dunno; I'm an idiot. Here's some new stuff from Bandcamp:
Exhumed, rad "gore metal" from San Jose, has new vinyl pressings of their 2017 album Death Revenge and their 2019 album Horror, Horror. I've only recently gotten into Exhumed but I've enjoyed everything I've heard. The line between extreme metal, powerviolence, thrash metal, grindcore, and death metal have really blurred over the last few years, if there was ever lines demarcating them to begin with. I dunno, as mentioned above, I'm an idiot:
Speaking of blurred metal lines, Riversleem are "emo-violence" from Saskatchewan. I listened to their new EP A Second Release today and really enjoyed it. Super heavy and fast, and the tone of the screamage is pro. It qualifies as rock'n'roll to me. I love/hate when I listen to something and I see it promoted as "For Fans Of:" and it's four or five bands I've never heard of. I try to keep up but it's tough, man. You understand.
You can get Riversleem's A Second Release either digital or on vinyl here, from Zegema Beach Records:
And I guess someone found some unsold CDs of this Pinback re-master. My old-timey goodtime buddies are all into Pinback, but I never grokked it. I did catch Goblin Cock once and they ruled. Anyway I listened to the first three songs on this today and enjoyed them enough.
Anyway, send me your stuff, if I like it I'll play it or feature it here. I'm going to make an effort to post more often -- over the last eleven years of doing this blog, I've said that often, and Phantom Liberty just came out, so I can't make any promises. Even if I do fail to post more often than I like, there will be the KPISS.FM show on the reggie, as mentioned above every Saturday from 5 to 6PM Eastern. All songs are considered, as long as you send me a publicly available link or file.
Yesterday I added a few new additions to our record collection. Here's what I picked up, as well as some other stuff I've been listening to (and one thing I haven't listened to yet).
The Fall - Slates 10" re-release from 2016. Originally an EP from 1981. I bought this without realizing -- this 2016 re-release doesn't contain the extra Peel sessions tracks that were added on a follow up re-release in 2021. The 2021 release is readily available and for the same amount I bought this one for. I'm ruined! Anyway, it's a great EP, and the linear notes are a typed letter from from former WFMU music director Brian Turner.
Gene Clark - Collector's Series Early L.A. Sessions. This is a remixed and re-released version of Clark's first album with the Godsin Brothers, remixed five years after it's release by Clark and producer Jim Dickson, and re-released on CBS in 1972. The record didn't sell upon original release, so now that country rock was finding more acceptance via bands like Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Clark's former band The Byrds, CBS brought Clark in to re-record vocals and remix these songs. Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were on this album, too, along with the Byrd's Clarence White and Van Dyne Parks on keyboard. Anyway I have With the Godsin Brothers so I thought it would be neat to have this as a companion piece. And it does sound different. Also they took out "Elevator Operator" which I thought was a groovy jam but apparently Clark was embarrassed of it.
Clifton Chenier - Bon Ton Roulet! The King of the bayou, Clifton Chenier's 2nd album from 1967, on Arhoolie Records. All of the songs but one were recorded in Houston in '66, except "Ay Ai Ai," recorded in '64. Cool stuff. Zydeco blues. Arhoolie Records started in 1960 and is still around today.
Todd Rundgren's Initiation, from '75, Rundgren's fourth solo album. Rundgren was on an occult kick, so it's got a long proggy jam on the b-side about Theosophical, New-Agey occult stuff. Which, I'm into in theory, but I'm not sure how often I'll be spinning it, which I read on Wikipedia is sorta what Julian Cope said about it:
"When asked if Rundgren had influenced his music, with perceived influences of Initiation on Queen Elizabeth and Rite², Julian Cope responded that he and Thighpaulsandra loved "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire", "but we both bemoaned the fact that it was recorded so long before ambient music had been defined that Todd treated it as an ever-evolving, almost prog-rock piece. We both loved huge elements of that piece but found that we never listened to it. So we tried to build that Todd-like transcendence into our own piece of music [with Queen Elizabeth]."
The first side of Initiation is rockin' tho. Meanwhile, from Discogs:
"(Initiation) is a one of the longest running single disc LPs ever issued (1 hour, 7 minutes and 34 seconds; side B's total time is almost 35½ minutes). However, because of its fragility and reduced dynamic range, the following note was printed on the inner sleeve: "Technical Note: Due to the amount of music on this disc (over one hour), two points must be emphasized. Firstly, if your needle is worn or damaged, it will ruin this disc immediately. Secondly, if the sound does not seem loud enough on your system, try re-recording the music onto tape. By the way, thanks for buying the album" The final suite 'A Treatise On Cosmic Fire' was sped up by half a step to fit the disc with ease, this is why 'Prana' on the 'Real Man' 45RPM 7'' single sounds slower, as that was the speed that was intended to be heard, except all discs and CD reissues play the sped up version used for the original LP. To slow it to the correct speed, using software such as Audacity, reduce the speed by -5 percent."
Here's a 2015 remaster of a track off the first side, the rockin' "The Death of Rock'n'Roll." That's Rick Derringer on bass:
I've also been on a Julian Cope kick. Here's 30 minutes of his ambient project, Queen Elizabeth, mentioned in the Cope quote above:
Continuing with the noodly electronic theme for a moment, I also picked up a copy of Jean Michael Jarre - Equinoxe. From 1978, this is the follow up to Oxygene, which I have, and Jarre's fourth album. I was reading about these two albums under "Critical Reception" on Wikipedia, and apparently critics really didn't like the electronic stuff at the time. I dig it though, and certainly I'm not the only one, so those critics were wrong. Go figure! Here's a video for "Equinoxe 5":
I found a copy of the Secretly Canadian release of BLK JKS Mystery EP with "Lakeside" on it, I dunno if y'all remember that song from 2009? Neat atmospheric, indie/post-alt type of song, very groovy. They're from South Africa. Apparently they had an album out in 2021. They fell off my radar after "Lakeside." The rest of the Mystery EP is as great as "Lakeside" -- spooky, rockin'. There's some pretty wild psych guitar on the track "Mystery."
I had originally went to the record shop to pick up the latest Undeath album, It's Time...To Rise From the Grave, which is killer old school death metal from Rochester, put out by Prosthetic Records. The band really nails it. Here's the video for "Defiled Again." Brutal fun!
But I got home and I had the wrong album -- they gave me Mortuary Drape's latest, Wisdom-Vibration-Repent instead. Mortuary Drape is Italian death metal. I've listened to about half of this now, and it's good - competent, enjoyable:
I took the Mortuary Drape EP back and it turns out someone else who wanted Mortuary Drape got my Undeath album. So instead I picked up a copy of Captain Beefhart and the Magic Band's Strictly Personal, their second album.
This is The Fall doing "Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones" for a Peel Session in 1996. "Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones" is from Strictly Personal.
When we were driving to the record shop, the wife and I heard for the first time Accept's "Pandemic," released on Nuclear Blast Records back in 2010. Why wasn't this song playing everywhere the past few years??!?
Though I didn't buy it, we did look up this single when we got home. Wish I would've bought it! Lil Bastards' "Bitch Get A Job," from the halcyon days of 1992. Youtube comments mention this is the earliest work from a producer called Dougie Diamonds -- I'd never heard of him. This 12" put out on Livin' Large Records appears to have been Lil Bastards' only release:
I've also been getting into the Pastels. Here's "Yoga," from 1995's Mobile Safari. There's a video for this, but the only available version I could find was a shitty upload from someone taping MTV2.
Finally, not as poorly recorded but also not exactly hi-fidelity, check out Julian Cope and backing band pretending to do "I Gotta Walk" on Top of the Pops in 1994:
"I know what your father is saying right now...and he's wrong."
Hey check it out, I did a little Mixcloud show last night. Cribbing some stuff I've enjoyed listening to on the radio recently (via the Radio Garden app), and some recent and relatively recent CNQ faves from Bandcamp. An hour long, give it a listen -- if it's not hep enough, then you're too cool!
1. Love Hate Passion & War by Armstrong
2. Macho Music by "Blue" Gene Tyranny and Peter Gordon
3. Freak by Shanique Marie
4. Loretta by Ginger Root
5. Okeanos by Succumb
6. Thank The Universe by Thank
7. Kurious Oranj by The Fall
8. Oo Poo Pah Susie by Professor Morrison's Lollipop (Thanks to Suzie Hotrod at WFMU for playing this when I happened to be listening!)
9. Heaven Beat Iowa by Cub Scout Bowling Pins
10. Pop Cabecinha by Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda de Tempo
It's coming up on December and I have all these submissions from the last several weeks and I wanna give them all that good and sweet attention they deserve. Plus I got some releases I'm directly connected to I should be promoting on here since I got off of Facebook. But in the meantime it's late and I've had a few and I want to do an old fashioned CNQ Bandcamp dive into new releases, because that's fun to me.
These guys from Akron seem mad at jobs, the scene, and hipsters. Based on the songs I mean -- okey dokey for sure, I like this three song lo-fi EP. Rock'n'roll ain't dead but dreaming:
Since I posted that Syf Records interview, the prolific Polish micro-label has cranked out three new EPs, including this, Kidz Against, featuring a 5 year old on vox and a 7 year old on drums. Ain't nothin' more punk than this 4 song EP:
Also from Poland, long established label Nikt Nic Nie Wie has this available via digital download, or cassette, but there's only one cassette left as of this writing. Two song release from 1999 by a presumably Polish band called TISSURA ANI. Cool alt-rock that could've been released today, doesn't sound dated despite it is 22 years old:
I was a 17 year old high school drop out when I first heard the Scat release that was the combo of Vampire on Titus and Propeller. I was stoned and confounded, and dumb all the time besides. I would listen to it late night after getting high. I'd dial up the AOL in the dark, put the CD on my Discman.
I've been reading Zeppelin Over Dayton by Jeff Gomez, which is great, as is his GBV podcast, the book is a transcription of the podcast which covers each song on every GBV release. Tonight we watched "Watch Me Jumpstart," the GBV doc from 1998, which is now on Youtube.
I love Guided By Voices. Here's a quick blast of the recent hits, starting with my new personal favorite, "Heavy Like The World," along with some other hits, ending with another of my old personal favorites, "How's My Drinking?" off the incredible Isolation Drills:
And so, to try and get myself into the habit of posting regularly again, here's another post.
I bought Age of Decadence on Steam a while ago and it's a great (and slightly depressing) top-down RPG. It's deal is that combat is really tough, so with that in mind I've played mostly non-combat characters (drifter, grifter, loremaster), since it kind of seems you have to talk your way out of just about everything. But each one of those wound up in the body heap, so I tried a merc last night and she also wound up dead with a relative quickness. Still super-fun, I played a little more tonight with a drifter. It has a neat post-apocalyptic after the fall of Rome-like setting. There doesn't seem to be any magic involved except as backstory, I dunno if that changes since I haven't gotten past the first few quests in the game without dying. Recommended if you're into isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun, etc. Those types of games are my favorite, aside from Civ, Fallout 4 and Skyrim.
I flipped over to Bandcamp and on the Bandcamp Daily it's "The Best Punk on Bandcamp, September 2019," and the byline reads "queercore, righteous feminist anger, and Finnish hardcore," which is basically what I've been sharing here on CNQ since 2012. So once again I'm like, if they're doing this now, then what the heck purpose do I serve?
I took down my Sony record player that hooked into my computer to share obscure vinyl, but have been thinking of hooking it back up. I just need a little extra space is all for the turntable, as I've moved my desk around and have various knick-knacks up on the desk that I like and don't want to move now.
Anyway, yes, all so fascinating. Blog identity-crisis and not enough space on desk for a Fallout 4 Pip Boy statue and a turntable.
Let's rock a few recent purchases from Bandcamp.
From Chunklet Industries, "a painstakingly recreated re-issue" of the first Apples in Stereo 7" from 1993. The songs are great, the re-issue looks boss, the yellow vinyl is limited to 100 copies, you get some stickers and a poster, it's a win:
Through Midwest Collective, I got this Boys Age cassette, Initiate - Very Best of Boys Age Vol.2 (Bonus Edition), limited to 100 copies as well. Boys Age is from Japan and just such a treasure. I'm still not sure what language he's singing in, and it doesn't matter because his bedroom mash of lo-fi shoegaze pop absolutely transcends and becomes a pure joy.
I've thought about doing interviews for the blog and I would love to do an interview with Boys Age.
I purchased this digital release back in May, and have been enjoying it ever since. Devotional music from Santa Fe. From the Bandcamp page, this is what they have to say about this track:
"Here we harmonize with the potential reality that we are satiated with the vast bounty of Creation. There is an inexhaustible and mysterious quality of abundance here that can fill us, inspire us and overflow from our being into the world. We feel into the incredible unlimited outpouring of the cornucopia of Nature, of the Cosmos and know we are a part of this, that it is our birth right as manifested beings of Creation."
Super-groovy. Most of the songs on Prisms of Wholeness are around 10 minutes, give or take. It's a pleasant journey of an album and certainly worth a listen.
Finally, from Metal Postcard Records, a 5 song digital release by Graham Domain, from Manchester. After that Mike Patton/Jean-Claude Vannier release (Corpse Flower) I've been interested in Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg type stuff. This is certainly in that wheelhouse and I dig it:
Per their Bandcamp page, The Puking Toms formed in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1997, released 2 demo cassettes, and played a lot of shows in different places. This is their first recording, from 1997:
This is new from Abnormal Broadcasting, out of California. The band is called P.E.A.R.L. and their new 4 song demo is the type of raw hc I'm really into. Their Bandcamp page says "This is for the queers who have had enough of that trans misogynist bullshit. No one deserves to be left out. Fight back till you die." Which I think is cool but tbh I dunno what "trans misogynist bullshit" is. I'm gonna assume it's something non-inclusive and that I would be against it.
Here's the first song off the EP, they've got cassettes available on the page:
Six song album "Joy of Life" from Polish powerviolence band Low Standards. Heavy as the af, I'm into it:
And here's Iron Filth, Indonesian powerviolence! This song is called "Lumut Kemunafikan Dunia," and it's off Iron Filth's six song effort "Lethargic Dialogue" originally released back in 2014 but due out on cassette soon.
The Nods are garage rock from Salt Lake City. This is the b-side from their new cool 2 song 7":
This is from a crazy little six song demo from Olympia, Washington's Scrivener. A lo-fi Devo devotional, reminds me of the Ausmuteants, but the best parts of it remind me of early Gene Ween. Completely enjoyable demo:
New Quieteer Kale and his band Doctor Nod got a super positive shout-out on Dynamite Hemorrhage this weekend, which is one of our fave podcasts, and we couldn't be more excited. Check out the full show here when you get a chance:
Kale and I have been blowing up each other's phones with ideas for CNQ here lately, it's been a lot of fun. He recommended I get more into Soundcloud, which I neglect in favor of Bandcamp for various reasons. But, I think he may be right -- there's cool sound to be heard on Soundcloud as well. So here's some new stuff from my neglected Soundcloud feed.
I've been grooving to the damaged pop sound of Japan's Boys Age for a while now. Boys Age has a new 13 song album called Pangea available for free download (on Bandcamp, btw), but here's a song from that album from Soundcloud anyway:
Cool as always hip-hop from Mello Music Group and Apollo Brown:
From Now-Again Records, jazz/spoken word from either 1975, or 1980. World's Experience Orchestra only had two albums, one put out in '75 and the other put out in '80, and I'm not sure which one this was on. It's hep regardless:
African music from 1999, I guess, courtesy World Circuit Records:
Most anything from Burger Records is an easy share. Turns out they post a lot on Soundcloud and for some reason don't have much of a presence at all on Bandcamp:
Burger also has a podcast they're putting out on Soundcloud, which is cool. I haven't listened to all of this yet but I'm putting it here to do so:
From Total Punk Records:
And finally, courtesy Relapse Records, this was originally released in 1998, and then re-issued in 2008. I dunno why it's new on Soundcloud, but it's pretty rad:
I have not posted a 45 in a while. On a recent CNQ Las Vegas junket, I picked up Fells' Walking & Wanting b/w their cover of The Buzzcock's E.S.P. for $5 at The Beat Coffeehouse. The Beat was a super-cool place; the food was excellent and they had a neat little record selection.
I'd never heard of this band before, the label just looked cool. I know we're at the point now where I can just look it up on my phone real quick, and I will do that if I'm on the fence about something. But if it looks too cool there in my hand like this one did I like to take my chances and don't bother looking it up until after I've bought it. Usually, like with this seven inch, I am pleased at the outcome of that adventurous gambit.
Looks like the band went by Fells and The Fells, but since Fells is what's on the label of this 45, I'll go with that for this post.
Back in 2009, this writer cat Jason Gelt wrote a good piece for examiner.com which reminisces about Fells as "Arizona's greatest garage band." Gelt mentions Walking and Wanting was his favorite Fells song.
Per Discogs, this was recorded live to 2-track on February 28th, 1994, at Waterworks West, Tucson Arizona, and broadcast on "Gimme Indie Rock" KXCI 91.3 FM. 500 of these seven inches were pressed.
In doing a little research on the band and their discography, I found some transcripts of an Austin fanzine called Geek Weekly that have been digitized. I'm not sure who the author is, but they mention Heath Heemsbergen, the lead singer, and Fells in a story about what otherwise sounds like a pretty righteous punk party if you're twenty in 1994:
"Then it all fell apart...and the Fells fucking went to hell in front of us all. It was insane nad (sic?) by the end no one was playing their own instruments or anything and people were getting on the stage and Heath was under a ladder in back of the stage nursing wounds."
In 1994 I was eighteen and I hitchhiked to a Lollapalooza with a hobo sign. It was different times back then. For me, anyway. This song is songs are copyright 1994, Heemsbergen and Fells:
This morning at work I listened to Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here, which is good, on google play. Google recommended Donny Hathaway based on that listen, whom I thought I had never heard. I queued up Hathaway's soundtrack for the 1972 movie Come Back, Charleston Blue. Turns out, the fourth track on the album, Vegetable Wagon, has been sampled several times over, from Dr. Dre's Rat-Tat-Tat off my fave album ever The Chronic, to DJ Jazzy Jeff, Biggie, and KRS-One (according to WhoSampled and Youtube comments on the Vegetable Wagon clip below).
I recognized the first few seconds of the song from Mix Master Mike's absolutely amazing Anti-Theft Device. You can hear the sample from Vegetable Wagon at around 10:36:
A little while later on the Hathaway album is Little Ghetto Boy, used prominently in the Dr. Dre/Snoop/Nate Dogg song Lil Ghetto Boy, also off The Chronic. I didn't realize Lil Ghetto Boy had an official video:
Google play then suggested Minnie Riperton's first two albums, 1974's "Perfect Angel" and 75's "Adventures In Paradise," re-released together in 2004 by the U.K. label Stateside. I feel like my life has been enriched by listening to these two excellent albums -- I recommend you go do the same after you're done here.
Google play suggested Roy Ayers after that, another one I'd never heard, so I brought up Ayer's 1976 effort, Everybody Loves The Sunshine, which was cool too:
And that was my day of listening to cool shit while I worked. Meanwhile, on twitter, Canada's 4th smartest person recommended to me this new video from Winnipeg's shoegazey The Hours:
And I got the Doomtown Records update today, and zeroed in on this synth-punk sweetness, from Croatia. This was released this past February:
