Pornostroika Dadaifi – Pornotroika: Erotas sta hronia tis porneias (free download)

Posted on November 30, 2011 by admin

Well here we are again with another review, despite the fact that I’ve got 30-40 records from my own shelves, ripped and ready to be posted and inanely reflected upon. What can I do…I’ve been listening to a few of the tunes off this release for the last week or so, so what the hell (and how can you turn down an image of Chuck “I’ll buttrape you with my gun, wrapped in the american flag” Heston on the virtual cover). Plus I kind of admire the anti-consumer stance that this free and virtual only release represents. Here’s what their spokesperson had to say in a couple of emails to me…

” Pornostroika Dadaifi(or dadayfh pornostroika) is a cyberpunk group formed in 1999 in Lesvos (Greece), an island located at the North-East part of Aegean Sea, from people that united to have their musical revenge. PORNOSTROIKA’S STYLE OF MUSIC IS DADACORE!! Pornostroika Dadaifi is a politicized band that does not aim for money or fame but to destroy the music culture of capitalism. Pornostroika Dadaifi belongs to ZAM (Zero Artistic Movement). ZAM’s influences are: Futurism, Dadaism, N.S.K.(Laibach’s Art Collective), Berlot Brecht, W.Burroughs, Soviet Realism and the fantastic-horror cinema.” They have released 9 albums.Their style is political (anticonsumerism) -free art and diy.They supportes also Anarchocommunism.
THE NAME DADAIFI IS FROM DADA (DADA MOVEMENT)
THE NAME PORNOSTROIKA IS A JOKE FOR PERESTROIKA
Their latest album is against IMF and troika (E.E)…PORNOTOIKA (a joke for Troika).The last song OF the album is dedicated to Antoni Gramsci and the semifinal is a poem of Mayakovsky.

The Industrial Twilight, Red and Anarchist Black Metal, and Anarcho Punk have also reviewed this thing so maybe those places might be of more value. The first tune on the release is the hands down standout for me. It’s teetering on the edge of brutality and leaves me wishing I understood Greek, but even without, you get the feeling the vocalist (orator) is making a strong argument. You can really hear the disgust in his voice. It is really the only tune that has an industrial edge to it for me. I thought about putting it on cassette (yes my ride is equipped with a cassette player) and cranking it as I drive through town, just to elicit responses from my fellow small town/small mind Kansans, but my shock value days are over for the most part. According to the Google translator (with it’s limitations, so I could be wrong), the song is Ανοδος των Πιθηκάνθρωπων, or “Rise Of The Apeman”. Definitely give it a listen…

Anodos ton Pithikanthropon

Th second tune represents the bulk of the rest of the tunes with more of a techno vibe, New Wavish, Kraftwerkian but still with that spoken word style vocals. Really wish I knew what they were saying…

Naraxia

As I said this is a free and virtual only release, so if those two tunes did anything for you, get the whole thing HERE.
EDIT: After the fact found a Greek site that must have a close connection to the band, a boat load more of their music for download at To Fresko.

Not sure anyone is following what’s going on where these guys are from, I’ve limited myself to just the headlines these days and don’t really delve to much deeper (mostly). Greece is on the leading edge of what we’re seeing all over the world really. I asked my Greek buddy Billy from 7inchcrust to give me a heads up on what’s going on over there…

“Hi Justin
as expected things are hard here,endless austerity with new taxes every week,new cutting of wages and pensions,expensive bills for public services (internet starts to get a luxurious thing),there is no any alternative hope from left winged political parties and people seem to be lobotomized:look what went on in Spain,what happened to these millions of Indignados?when the election time came they voted the right winged conservatives who are going to bring deeper austerity,the same thing is presented in my country by numerous gallops.oh i forgot to say that we have a new gov. now after a constitutional cue:a ECB member,the man who led Greece into Eurozone by cooking up in co-operation with Goldman Sachs a part of Greek debt in 2001,now he is prime minister.a man who’s part of the problem is the new master!hahaha!th new gov. includes fascists ministers for a neo-fascist extreme right wing party. fuck em!”

Tit Wrench – Ok You Homos, Out Of the Car CD

Posted on November 24, 2011 by admin

Tit Wrench at the Casbah in San Diego, circa 1995(?), my buddy Chris on guitar…if you click on the thumbnail, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding me in the crowd.

Here it is Thanxgiving and so much to be thankful for. Around here it marks 4 years that I’ve been doing the Mustard Relics. Good times. Thanx to all my old buddies and to the new friends I’ve made for making this a fun virtual place to be involved with. I thought about bringing up the hole silly, ironic idea of a Pilgrim/Indian Thanxgiving, but I’ll save that negativity for another time. Instead, I hope all of you have something to be thankful for and that whatever feast you might have is a metaphor for the blessings you have in life (short of gluttony).

Ripped one of the dozens of cassettes my buddy Sam Atakra gave me and figured I’d just put it out there now instead of dedicating a whole post to it…still worth a listen,
~~The Mighty Sphincter – Phoenix 11/16/85~~

Also as a result of Senor Atakra, after my Phantom Limbs post, he highly recommended a band called New Collapse. Some seriously insane female fronted diabolical keyboard shit, that’s so worth listening to that I ripped the songs from the myspace so I could put them on the iPod…you might think about doing the same. This is the only stuff I could find of theirs in the webosphere after over an hour of searching and according to Sam they never officially released anything. Outta L.A. from 2001-2007 it’s hard to believe there isn’t a slough of tunes out there floating around…somebody is holding out I’m sure. Facebook is worth checking out too. All good tune but maybe “Ghostworld” is a good place to start.
~~New Collapse – Fellow Man~~
~~New Collapse – Ghostworld~~
~~New Collapse – Reconstruct~~
~~New Collapse – Your Face Is ReArranging~~

Got this CD from my first San Diego friend, Chris Squire (on guitar), about the time it was released in 1995. As the photo evidence above indicates I got to see them at least once live. In that setting they have much more of a hardcore vibe with an actual drummer, while this CD is reminiscent of that Ministry sound (drum machine, sampling, etc.). Experimental and electronic is what Discogs calls them, but I suppose these days they might be called noise too. SPK seems to come up a lot in my descriptions of bands like this, but you can really here it in a tune like “Sausage People Rule”. The arrangements are just incredible between the myriads of samples, creative drum machining, simple cords and barked vocals. Anyway I could probably go on and on but I ate too much food and am having trouble folding at the waist to type…take my word for it (as always) this is some damn good shit.

~~01 Ex-Mutant~~

~~03 Cops Hate Firemen~~

~~04 Sausage People Rule~~

There’s a lot more to the CD than what I’ve posted which is just what’s listed on the cover. If this is still available go get it, but for now the whole thing ripped at 320 ~~here~~. EDIT: Had most of the tunes posted and the whole thing up at mediafire, but not anymore, just samples for you…go out and buy the record.

Peopling -S/T CDEP

Posted on November 19, 2011 by admin

Got this one in the mail yesterday. First off, love the cover art on this thing, and to me that’s always a good starting point (I’ve gotten many a record based on the cover alone). Outta Brooklyn, Peopling is the brain child of self-described “noise-rock artist” (I had to create a whole new category), Ronnie Gonzales. Noise-rock is something I’ve only dabbled in and don’t have a lot of here at Mustard Relics central. In fact I don’t know what criteria you have to meet to be put in that category other than that it’s electronic. I know SPK, but are they considered “noise”? If you want a good review from guys who know what they’re talking about, check out this cornucopia of blog names… Dying for Bad Music, Weed Temple, Ongakubaka, Ampeater Music, The Static Fanatic, Justin Marc Lloyd, Black Insect Laughter, Cactus Mouth. If you want the opinion of a guy who just loves music in general (and who the fuck wouldn’t)…I am 100% down with this CD. Right from the first “song” I was hooked. One reviewer said, ‘“Come Home Eccentric” and “Fiji” are what can be considered closest to actual songs,’ and those two happen to be my favorites (call me old fashioned). The whole thing has a tribal feel, maybe that’s because it’s repetitive at times. Ever seen the second Exorcist, the one set in Africa, with Linda Blair all grown up? This would make a great sound track for that. Here’s my two favorite tunes…

come home eccentric

fiji

You can check out all the tunes at Bandcamp and if you must, (I would rather hold the art, as a package, in my filthy little hands) get it at iTunes. What I recommend you do though, is drop a line to Ronnie and get the real thing, thepeopling AT gmail DOT com.

The Phantom Limbs – S/T 7″

Posted on November 14, 2011 by admin

This one got to me…I have something about eyeballs, and I can hardly look at it. When I was a kid my buddy and I were playing with a frisbee and decided to put a spin on it so to speak. He turned it upside down and laid a nail in it. He then threw it to me. Needless to say, the frisbee didn’t make it to me, but the nail got stuck in my head just missing my eye by a few centimeters. To this day I still have the scar. Ever since then I’ve been sensitive about things near my eye and have never been able to put eye drops in them. Somehow the GIF goes with the music featured in this post.

Not much going on here at Mustard Relics central at the moment. In important world news though, Kim Kardasian and her husband filed for divorce after 70 something days and Michael Jackson’s doctor was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Other than that I believe the world is at peace and the human race has finally gotten all of it’s inherent flaws worked out…oh joy, bliss, nirvana.

I’ve got some reviews coming up (are you ready for that), one CD and two books…someone out there must value my opinion round here…hahaha.

Was moving stuff off the computer and onto the external hard drive and ran into this (wish I had a hard copy). I was secretly a Cure fan in high school, but I don’t think I appreciated them then like I do now, especially the early stuff…their first Peel Session from ’78
~~the cure – killing an arab~~
~~the cure – 10.15 saturday night~~
~~the cure – fire in cairo~~
~~the cure – boys don’t cry~~
~~Even earlier I think…punk fucking rock~~
~~the cure – heroin face (live)~~

My buddy Sam Atakra sent this to me, along with a bunch of other music, several months ago and I only just recently got around to listening to it. I’ll be damned (really I already am) if it isn’t (to use a word I used to use a lot in the 80’s), bitchen. Discogs describes them as “alternative rock” and “goth rocks”, but the band hit’s a little harder than those categories seem to imply. The Phantom Limbs were outta Frisco and were around from ’99 to ’05. This here 7″ put out by Sam’s Atakra Productions was their first. I have yet to hunt down their other stuff to compare their later work but they were important enough to be signed by Alternative Tentacles. What you get is sort of a hardcore gothy thing-a-ma-bob, sort of like early 45 Grave, but not really like them at all. Twisted like the Butthole Surfers but not like them at all either. I’ve heard a lot of shit in my time, by no means an expert in anything, but I’ve never heard anything like this (you probably have…if so, tell me who). The organ reminds me of going to church when I was a kid, but this is not church music (but it should be). Synth too, but not Flock of Seagulls synth, much more disturbing than that (although now that I think about it FoS was disturbing in it’s own way). This is so Sam, that is to say, a naked people with masks kind of thing. The whole vibe is like a sick tortured carousel ride. All three tracks rip but the first is the rotten worm infested apple, the kid who pulled the wings off of flies, gave to his 2nd grade teacher. Enjoy…or do whatever it is you do to this type of music…

Hot Knives And Hornets

Shake A Baby

Murder Us Windpipes

The Hitch / Mos Generator – split 7″

Posted on November 7, 2011 by admin

The most graphic gif I’ve run across yet, from the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. When I was at my worst, my darkest days you might say, I too had the gun in my mouth, but I didn’t think the 22 I had would do the trick…pussy. Didn’t cross my mind at the time that I was shooting heroin every now and then anyway (on top of guzzling 2-3 fifths of vodka 24/7) and could just go out the easy way by overdosing. Ah but then we wouldn’t have the Mustard Relics, as quiet as it is round here. Nothing worse than feeling sorry for yourself, but I suppose there’s a time and a place for everything. Speaking of suicide, it turns out that the coroner finally figured out that Amy Winehouse died by drinking herself to death (does anybody care about her, I do), thus suicide by addiction (one of a few similarities to Billie Holiday).
~~Amy Winehouse – Back To Black~~
~~Billie Holiday-Good Morning Heartache (Live)~~

Heard this song on the radio and was glad I did…in usual Mustard fashion, I felt the need to do some overkill with the tune. The heartfelt original (we’ve all been there)…
~~Neil Diamond – Solitary Man~~
The manager at this restaurant that I worked at up in Humboldt after I graduated from college, Casa de Que Pasa (right next to the head shop run by Chet the uber-hippie from Superman’s bizzaro world), was really into Chris Isaak. I suppose most of my friends probably can’t stand the guy, but I would think there’s one thing you can’t deny, like Morissey, he’s got one hell of a voice (I know I’m foolish)…
~~Chris Isaak – Solitary Man~~
~~And just to piss you off further, how about Mr. Isaak with none other than Stevie Nicks (c’mon, you know there’s at least one tune off of Rumors you like)…~~
~~Chris Isaak & Stevie Nicks – Solitary Man~~
~~LOVE the arrangement on this one, the plucked guitar, the horns and organ, this is a damn good version, granted, if you liked the tune in the first place…~~
~~Crooked Fingers – Solitary Man~~
~~80’s-esque soft metal version, not bad if you like Winger…~~
~~HIM – SOLITARY MAN~~
In my mind this version gives this song all the legitimacy in the world, if THE MAN IN BLACK saw fit to cover it, then it must be good, and as usual Mr. Cash takes it, makes it his own and absolutely always surpasses the original…
~~Johnny Cash – Solitary Man~~
~~Even more legitimacy, a reggae/dancehall cover (hahahaha), I dig it…~~
~~Skin Flesh & Bones – Solitary Man Version~~
~~This one sounds like Neil Diamond covered by the Mamas and Papas, take it or leave it…~~
~~The Deep Six – Solitary Man~~
~~I’m not too into the xylophone unless it’s used by the Violent Femmes, plus I get the feeling this guy thinks he’s Neil Diamond…~~
~~Tony Carey – Solitary Man~~
~~I like the drums on this one and made me think that this tune would do well in a Tarantino film…~~
~~Ups and Downs – Solitary Man~~

How about a taste of the Hitch? It’s been a while, we’ve visited them twice, here and here (plus a comp or two if you care to search around). I’ve babbled a little bit about them, mentioned I saw them in Hollywood (now that I think about it, it may have been downtown LA), my connection to two of the band members and most importantly that they fucking rocked. This tune here represents some of their best stuff in my opinion and even though I have a hard time with long songs, this one is acaptivating from beginning to end. Hard and heavy like John Holmes’ schlong. The band on the flipside, Mos Generator is similar in sound, that 70’s heavy rock influence taken to an extreme (I guess you’d call it sludge, stoner, or doom, but I think all three tunes are punk as fuck). The second of the two tracks from MG is the better of the two in my opinion, sort of a speedy sludge. Kind of cool that these tracks were recorded in each bands’ practice pads and then mixed by Tony of MG. DIY, but the packaging is pro with it’s gloss and fold-out-ed-ness. I’ve seen copies of this out in the intersphere, so if you dig it you might be able to pick one up. Thanx Jeff for sending this to me, so that you mugs could give it a listen…