Luis Moreno - This Is Me CD

Stumbled upon (or however it's done in this new facebook world we're lving in) an old buddy of mine from high school, Luis Moreno. The great diaspora that occurs after a class graduates, sent him to of all places, New York (not sure if that's where he went right away, but that's where he is now, about as far away form Burbank as you can get and sttill be in the US. The group of guys that Luis hung out with, "the Mad Hatters" were known for their interest in the Beatles, Bruce Springstein and Charles Manson (ever heard Manson's music...interesting, I'll have to post a 7" I have). Anyway Luis has continued his musical endeavors and just released a CD of his own music. You can give some short samples a listen and pick that up at his CD Baby page. Really cool singer/songwriter type stuff, the kind that is very easy to sit back and groove to.  Luis is such a down to earth a guy and it really is reflected in his music...that laid back emotion.  It's cool to see these creative guys doing their thing and spreading the joy so to speak.  Kinda jealous of all the imaginative people that I grew up with putting themselves out there.  Anyway, like I said, there's short samples of all the tunes at the CD Baby site and also you can pick up a copy from there too.  Here's an example of one of those samples... Thought of You

Adam and Dog - short film

My buddy Davrick had recommended a short animated film to me that had been nominated for an oscar called Adam and Dog. Heart warming stuff, especially for the dog lover. I asked Davrick, who has worked in the animation industry for years, to give me his take on it, "Yeah, Adam and Dog is a great short, and the best part is it's essentially a student film. Unbelievable. If you notice though, in the credits Minkyu had Glen Keane (animation master) as an adviser, so that's definitely a useful consigliere. I actually saw preliminary animation for it two years ago, and couldn't wait to see the final product. I don't know much more about it. I don't actually know Minkyu, except through mutual friends. There's an insightful interview with Mikyu Lee over at Asia Pacific Arts. 15 minutes of your time to be captivated by stunning scenery, inspiring score and a fantastic story (yeah I'm a softy)...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=921YhPq1vqI&w=560&h=315]

Nuisance - Humboldt County 7"

First thing that came to mind on this one, was how horrible Psilocybin mushrooms taste (don't ask me how my brain works).  Some people could handle them, some even enjoyed them, but I was more the peanut butter and crackers type, or better yet steeped in tea. What do you know, an ex-drunk druggie thinking about drugs...hahaha.  Don't really get cravings anymore for the addictive shit, but I'll be damned if I don't feel like taking a little trip. Been acquainting myself with some industrial music, both the classics and some more recent stuff, trying to broaden my musical horizons.  There may be sub-genres within the industrial framework, but I haven't learned the art of differentiating those yet...ambient, noise, drone, etc.  This industrial thing makes great listening while multitasking on the computer, but would really go well with a couple of caps and stems.  Here's some old and new stuff for your sampling pleasure, be sure to look into buying their stuff, these industrial bands tend to be very prolific and have a buttload of releases... Esplendor Geométrico - Unidad De Control Blue Sabbath Black Cheer & Pig Heart Transplant - Untitled Cyrnai - Parts Of The Insomnic Wheel 03 The Guilt Øf… - Social Recall Rewind Ivs Primae Noctis - Solo Odio Throbbing Gristle - No Two Ways/Last Exit Nuisance is a band that we've visited before in the form of their Attractive Nuisance demo. One of very few Humboldt bands to have an impact outside of Humboldt (Mr. Bungle was a big one that comes to mind, still need to post a demo or two of theirs), but I guess they had to move away to do that.  That says nothing about the dynamic nature of the Humboldt scene though, which is vibrant and unique.  Before I go any further, the full content of the Nuisance part of this post was completely stolen from Little Records I Have Loved, but these days blogs are disappearing faster than liquor at a bar, his is an apparently dead blog with no recent updates, and I don't want this lost in time...plus it goes good with the Humboldt stuff floating around here. Do your self a favor and read his post (while it lasts), he really has some good insights and a love for the music.  Anyway, this is a Humboldt band, but this is a Santa Rosa release if that makes sense and as I said I got to see them play live when I first got up to Humboldt. It's funny, some guy got after me in a comment for calling these guys poppy on the other post, but on this 7", which I like better and more closely resembles the live experience I had, they are sort of a punky kind of hardcore, even some metal riffage thrown in. The drummer really shines on this, can't get enough of that rat-a-tat-tat.  You can pick up a copy of this bad boy at Discogs for $5. Three very different tunes here, but I'd say my favorite is the first one.

Terminal Fuckup King Rat Sungod

EDIT: This is my rip of the 7"... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2i2g9sDEi8&w=560&h=315]

Vae Victis - S/T LP

This one left me with perma-grin...reminds me of what all the women in my life must have experienced having sex with me. High expectations... disappointment... get as far away as possible. Maybe it wasn't all that bad.  It doesn't matter anyway, partying was always more important to me throughout my life and then when it got really bad with the hooch, no woman could compete with the bottle.  Now when all is said and done, my wife has the leftovers of a life like that, the "relics" you might say. Picked up the Flat Tires vs. Asound 7" (with Jeff "Antiseen" Clayton cover art), I'm not sure when, but it must have been after 2010 when it was released.  Was going through a stack of 7"s I hadn't listened to yet, believe it or not.  Did a little searching for info on the bands and whatnot, and ran across a great review/site in the The Obelisk. The whole band rocks but the drummer is unusually insane in a 60's British drummer kinda way ala Mitch Mitchel, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, etc.  Best tune hands down on the split with all it's hard and heavy glory... The Asound - Joan Shit Happens, you knew that right? In order to make shit happen, a person back in the day could have referred to the Anarchist Cookbook. Don't know where my copy went, they go for about $15 on Amazon and Alibris.  Got a wild hair to see if there was a pdf floating around somewhere and sure enough this pirate of a site had the original 1971 copy, We Has Links. It's since been updated several times to go with the information age...easy to find a pdf of those updated versions if you want them too. Picked up this LP a while back solely because I'd heard a member of  Iron Lung had been in the band.  The drummer of Iron Lung was the guitarist of Vae Victis, is my understanding. The bio at Discogs reads..."VAE VICTIS was born from the ashes of Reno Goatrock pioneers EVERSKWELCH. From 1997 until 2001 VAE VICTIS reigned as one of the best bands to emerge from Reno's underground punk scene.  One of the more underrated bands of the time, VAE VICTIS is outlived by their legacy, members of VAE VICTIS concurrently played in, or went on to play in such bands as GEHENNA, CRUSHSTORY, REDRUM(reno), IRON LUNG, ARTIMUS PYLE, CRUCIAL ATTACK, COLD SWEAT, THE JENNIFER ECHO and more." If you're looking for another Iron Lung-esque band, then this isn't it. VV is more of a straight forward metallic hardcore thing, not so much start-stop-start. The tunes are more melodic, not in an Air supply kind of way (I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy), they swap hectic for driving. All the tunes shred, but if I had to pick one it would be "Hope"... Bridge Builder Apparatus Five Dollars 1000 Winters Stagnant Old Man Hope Green Unleash The Doves

 

Econochrist - It Runs Deep 7"

Steve Buschemi is one hell of an actor, not sure which flick this is from (I should).  All of his Coen Brothers stuff, 6 films I believe (one of the highlights being "Donnie" in The Big Lebowski), are worth seeing...loved him as "Mr Pink" in Tarentino's Reservoir Dogs too. A link out of the blue here, something that interests me being an old philosophy/religious studies major.  My mom found this site that gives you back round, translation and actual scans of the Dead Sea Scrolls...nerdy stuff I find interesting. Another little something out of the blue...these guys have done a million and one covers...loved the original and their cover ain't half bad either... Melvins - Candy-O One more piece of information to solidify the apparent randomness of this post (you should try crawling into my brain, a very hectic place).  Just stopped by one of my favorite sites, Kill Your Pet Puppy (there's so few left if you've bothered to check my links), and ran across a band called Nocturnal Emissions. Described as a band akin to SPK or Whitehouse, I had to give them a listen...accurate description. Well worth your time if early electronic meanderings is your thing. You can give all their stuff a listen and support the band by purchasing their releases at their Bandcamp. Saw these guys at the Gilman in about 1988 playing with Capitol Punishment, et al...may have mentioned that before. My buddy and fellow band mate Steve and I, were at the show and it was the single reason we got our first band together. Watched them and CP, both bands shredded and looked like they were having so much fun that we figured we could do something like that, who doesn't want to have fun. This is their first release from 1988 and to be honest their BEST stuff. Classic west coast hardcore punk with just a bit of that bay area poppiness thrown in.  Listening to this record again after all these year, it's great stuff, but it's not as good as I remember it.  I guess I'm too far removed from that space in time and it was all about that moment.  Still one of my favorite records...

It Runs Deep Can't I Think For Yourself Camouflage Blind Faith Fuck Your American Dream Ignorance

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Gmz9ggLgg&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjNukQrC4z0&w=560&h=315]

Human Thurma - S/T 7"

One of my stomping grounds in the mid 80's, Auditory Odyssey on Laurel Canyon in North Hollywood.  I've mentioned taking the bus there before, a straight shot down Victory from Burbank.  In the other direction was Turning Point in Glendale on Glenoaks.  AO was the super store though, it just had a lot more selection than TP, although I did more shopping at TP because they were great about ordering from distributors.  Records, T-shirts, posters, knick knacks, bongs/pipes, with perpetually burning incense in the air...some of my records still smell like incense.  Across the street was one of those mega theaters, with like 8 movies playing at a time.  They had midnight movies for cheap that we'd go to, Song Remains the Same, The Wall, Heavy Metal and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with all the characters that movie attracted.  These things don't exist any more (not sure if the theater is still there, but if so I doubt they have midnight movies).  Sad really, I mean we have to flow with the times, but buying mp3s through iTunes and watching movies though Netflix just doesn't cut it. Picked this thing up not too long ago, for dirt cheap. Gotten into the habit of picking up Japanese stuff, old and new, because 9 times out of 10 if it's Japanese it's going to be good. Sweeping generalities...it's racism if it's bad but what if it's a positive? The split has an American band on the flip and they're not bad. Fastkill though, from Japan tear it up, good solid speed/thrash/death with over the top vocals... Fastkill - Sickness

Ever since I opened this place up I've been getting spam comments, the good old fashioned home made ones and the spam-bot variety. Recently I got one from my new favorite imaginary person...."Curly Afro Weave". God there's got to be something I could do with that...maybe change the name of the site to Curly Afro Weave!

The description on this one said "loud heavy creepy noise rock - if you like AmRep stuff." Doesn't that just demand doing everything you can to give it a listen. Dirt cheap too. If you like browsing distros do yourself a favor and check out Nevin's IFB Records. So his description was just about perfect. Funny thing was the band was a total mystery to me, so I did the google thing and a link from Mustard Relics popped up (losing/lost my mind). Turns out they played with the Hitch, Melt-Banana and the Hellworms live at The Vista in Eureka Kali back in the mid 90's. I guess they could be called a noise rock band but according to the "experts" at wikipedia they are a Math Rock band. Outta Richmond Virginia they do have a Myspace and over at Last FM, you get kind of a bio. Tones From the Underground did a little ditty on them as the guy there was part of the Richmond scene. At least one band member went onto a killer band I'll be posting sooner or later called Hex Machine. If you do one tune do "Low Budget"... Little Barracks Smoking For 2 Low Budget