The thing about music (and most art for that matter) is that if you try to define something by coming up with a label for it, there’s a good chance you’ll end up spending more time thinking and talking about…
Year: 2020
“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.” – Winston Churchill…Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “A Reverse Willie Horton” LP (Pubic Pop Can, US, 1991)
The first time I ever heard The Birthday Party was when a slightly older but very wiser friend played me “The Bad Seed” 12″ EP after I told him about my recent life changing experience seeing The Jesus Lizard live.…
Pegged In the Head With A Lawn Dart.. Ed’s Redeeming Qualities “Ed’s Day” 7″ (Aurora Records, US, 1989)
As a goofy high school freshman in 1989 who had already memorized the catalogs of the Dead Kennedy’s, Black Flag, The Misfits, etc etc etc, “punk rock” was still a wondrous world of discovery where anything that fell outside of…
Yet Another ‘Dollar Bin Dandies’: Space Dust “Cool Car” 7″ (18 Wheeler, US, 1994)
New Zealand “sloppy psych rock band” (their words) Space Dust’s debut 7″ was released in 1994 via Tom Scharpling’s New Jersey-based 18 Wheeler label. In case you weren’t buying vinyl-only releases by New Zealand indie bands in the early to…
“It is the long history of humankind that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Darwin… Lol Coxhill & Totsuzen Danball s/t LP (Floor Records, Japan, 1983)
Speaking from my own experience, free jazz and “prog” are two categories of music which, if you’re looking to learn more about and you ask someone who claims to be into them where you should start, chances are, depending on…
“I didn’t get where I am today by worryin’ about how I’d feel tomorrow.” – Ron White… Bagpipe Operation “Little Twitch” 7″ (City Center, US, 1992)
Not too long ago I saw someone whose taste in music I really respect talkin’ smack on an internet website about some tunes I’d previously waxed ecstatic about on this very blog and I was kinda taken aback at how…
“Labor Omnia Vincit (Labour Conquers All Things)” – Oklahoma’s State Motto… Steve Hayes “Made In Tulsa” LP, (Aaframbia, US, 1980)
When it comes to record collecting, I was pretty late to the game with 60’s-70’s psych/folk/garage and everything in between. Coming from a background where there was never a shortage of obscure punk waiting to be discovered, the thought of…
Roman Dirge vs Joe Coleman: Pick Your King…Incomplete Monday “I Am” LP (Silent Records, US, 1985)
When I was 13-14 in 1989-90 my personal definition of “punk” was very informed by the Sessions catalog and t-shirt ads in Thrasher and other skate magazines. As far as I was concerned punk meant you liked bands like the…
Dollar Bin Dandies Special Edition TRIPLE THREAT: the Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink 7″s.
I’ve always loved bands whose entire output consisted of nothing but 7″s. A posthumous anthology LP collecting said 7″s plus maybe a comp track or unreleased song or demo is not only fine, but encouraged. It’s no doubt difficult to…
Sing Us A Song, You’re the Piano Man from U.N.C.L.E. – First Church of Napoleon Solo “Debbydid” 7″ (UK, 1984)
When I was in high school around ”92-’93 I travelled to Boston with some older, cooler acquaintances to see some bands play at the Rat. I don’t remember who ws playing. I’m guessing Sick of it All or Sheer Terror?…