I think he likes it: TAR - Jackson (lossless revisit)

Tap tap. Is this thing on?

Apologies again for the (relatively) lengthy delay in new postings. With the onset of summer comes additional projects to tackle in and around the homefront, taking more and more of my tiny slice of available time to devote to the blog.

So it is at the risk of repeating myself that we revisit Tar (as we've done before).



Now last year I posted most of this Chicago proto-grunge noiserock band's Amphetamine Reptile catalog, as MP3. Tar's whole AmRep catalog is now out-of-print, and only selectively available via your usual download-only retailers. This includes one of my favorite records of all time, their 1991 LP Jackson.

If heavy duty factory machinery had a soundtrack to their day, it would be Tar. Dual guitars relentlessly threshing and grinding away, propelled by propulsive bass and drumming, gloriously captured by Steve Albini (in "beautiful downtown Chicago in July, 1991" at Chicago Recording Company). Vocalist John Mohr doesn't need to "sing" to this soundtrack, so he doesn't. There is no singing at the factory. I don't understand how the hands of progress could be so cold, indeed ("Trauma").

So rather than burying this wonderful record amongst a Tar mega-pack, here be it freed as lossless FLAC. Please enjoy responsibly, keep your hands out of the equipment, wear hard hats at all times, etc. Slight remastering from an original 1991 CD issue (as if there are any others, considering this record probably sold less than 10,000 units)...

But first - a video! This is exactly how I imagined a Tar video would look, when I only heard there was one for this song. Now thanks to the magic Internets you can enjoy it too! Also this is perhaps close to the most melodic Tar song in existence, at least chording-wise.



"Goethe"

So enjoy. And a slight warning: the second side of the LP (starting with "Dark Mark") is slightly better than the first - bar "Short Trades", one of the best tracks by any band ever.

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TAR
Jackson
1991 Amphetamine Reptile Records



01 Short Trades
02 Cross Offer
03 Walking The King
04 On A Transfer
05 Trauma
06 Dark Mark
07 Goethe
08 Tellerman
09 Land Luck
10 Viaduct Removal

Get it here.

And, if the interest is there, I recently acquired 1990's Roundhouse/Handsome CD (also out-of-print) and would be happy to FLAC it here.

Recorded by STEVE ALBINI: 17 unconventional songs

(This turned out to be my favorite blog post to assemble - because in researching entries for this post over the past several months, I discovered some wonderful music I've never heard before - music that's leapt to the top of my new favorites list.)

I've always been more of a music than lyrics guy.

See, I think the best records are those records that you don't listen to for the effects or the singer's thoughts, you listen to for the music. The performances. The cohesive jelling of the band, performing their music, as one.

Oh I like those "studio creation" records as much as the next guy, because I think the studio - given the right circumstances and the right personnel - can be just as effective of a compositional tool as a band's jam session in the basement. But to me, nothing beats the sound of music performed by a well-rehearsed band, firing on all cylinders, captured in glorious room-sound-and-all recordings.

And the master of this is Steve Albini.



Now I'm no Albini fanboy (though I'm sure the world's laughing at that statement), because I know not everything he's touched is gold (last week's Bitch Magnet EP for starters). And the man records anything that comes his way and pays his fee (that's right, unlike any other "name" recordist/engineers (he hates the term "producer") out there, he charges a flat fee rather than royalty points), as long as he doesn't violently despise the music. And given the man's rep as a master noisemonger, it's a wonderful breath of fresh air to know that virtually anybody - from Nirvana to the three kids in the basement next door, playing Appalachian jug band folk songs - can walk up to Steve and record with him.

I suppose it's best to define "the Steve Albini sound" though, before we really get started. Albini is a no-bullshit engineer who, to the best of his ability (and it's an INCREDIBLE ability) tries to capture the sound of the band performing live. Most of the time the bands do exactly that, and while anybody can stick a mic or twenty in front of a band playing live in studio, it's the actual mic techniques, the dedication to capturing the natural room sound, the non-reliance on computers, and the basic "know your shit before you set up in studio with Steve" preparation that makes Albini's recordings sound so damn good.

So in celebration of this - and to bring greater appreciation to the breadth of music that sometimes never gets heard - I made this mini mix-tape-of-a-post celebrating the Unconventional Steve Albini: recordings that are antithetical to the common perception of the man, recordings that capture a mood, a sound not normally associated with the "recorded by Steve Albini" tag, etc. Basically, it's a fantastic compilation of wonderful songs, all recorded by Albini, that have nothing to do with noise rock, hardcore, "Chicago sound" punk, or what-have-you.

And I pre-emptively warn you (though you know... is there any other kind of warning than a pre-emptive one? Just asking...) however: There are some tracks here that will surprise you. Genres you'd never associate with Albini, or tracks you'd expect to hear at the local joint that has $1 Pabst drafts (or for those non-Americans, substitute your local hillbilly/redneck/low-class beer instead) for the regulars.

As with the blog's other compilations, I am not claiming this is anywhere close to definitive: by his own count, Albini has recorded thousands of projects. I only have perhaps, and this is a stretch, a hundred of them. If not less. So this is just the proverbial tip o' the ol' iceberg, as you will.

So let's roll the tapes...

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RECORDED by STEVE ALBINI
17 "unconventional" songs recorded by Steve Albini
a powerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com exclusive

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01 THE NEW YEAR / Folios
From the 2008 Touch and Go LP The New Year

Twee pop and Steve Albini? You got it! Twee with a subverted twist of course...

02 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / The Dark Don't Hide It
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

Imagine you were given an extremely detailed blueprint of the typical Neil Young and Crazy Horse sound. Then, taking that blueprint, you made a record. This is what the Magnolia Electric Co (Jason Molina) tracks on this compilation sound like: Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" dissected, thrown into the Crazy Horse blender, and the results sliced/diced and recorded by Albini. Absolutely reverential, absolutely essential.

03 LOW / Dinosaur Act
From the 2001 Kranky LP Things We Lost In The Fire

The drums on this track are amazing - I imagine a giant, empty cavern, with a lonely drum kit in the middle, and microphones all around the walls - and the resulting recording being just of the room reverbs. Stellar.

04 PALACE MUSIC / More Brother Rides
From the 1995 Drag City LP Viva Last Blues

This sounds as if Albini showed up on Will Oldham's porch armed with a tape machine and microphones, and just started recording Will and the guys. Appalachian hillbilly porch music at its finest modern interpretation.

05 NINA NASTASIA & JIM WRIGHT / Odd Said The Doe
From the 2007 Touch and Go LP You Follow Me

Brooklyn singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia teams up with Dirty Three drummer Jim Wright to record a beautiful collection of tracks based on Nina's fragile voice, gentle guitars and White's fractured drumming.

06 JOEL R.L. PHELPS & THE DOWNER TRIO / Always Glide
From the 1998 Pacifico Recordings LP 3

Just beautiful, barebones acoustic guitar, drums, wistful pedal steel and Phelps' unique voice.

07 SHANNON WRIGHT / Black Little Stray
From the 2004 Quarterstic Records LP Over The Sun

A very loud, quiet electric guitar and powerful drumming song. Very dynamic and a great showcase for Shannon's powerful voice.

08 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / Hard To Love A Man
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

09 BEDHEAD / Parade
From the 1998 Trance Syndicate LP Transaction de Novo

This "slowcore" band from Dallas, TX made their final record (as Bedhead) with Albini, before "reforming" in 2001 as The New Year. Basically this band is the Kadane brothers with whomever plays with them. The New Year trends towards more upbeat, acoustic and/or piano-based stylings, while Bedhead was a bit louder but slower. If that makes any sense.

10 LOW / Lion/Lamb
From the 1999 Kranky LP Secret Name

11 SILKWORM with KELLY HOGAN / Young
From the 2002 Touch and Go LP Italian Platinum

Bassist Tim Midgett wrote this piano-based song for noted Chicago-based alt.country chantreuse Kelly Hogan to sing. Midgett, to this day, thinks this should have been a Nashville hit.

12 SONGS: OHIA / The Old Black Hen
From the 2003 Secretly Canadian LP Magnolia Electric Co

Jason Molina's first sessions with Albini produced this amazing record, after which he changed his band's name to the name of this album. This track features the outlaw country vocals of a Lawrence Peters and is perhaps among the least likely songs you'd picture Albini recording - but it's just plain beautiful. I love the harmonies on the chorus as well.

13 NINA NASTASIA / One Old Woman
From the 2006 Touch and Go LP On Leaving

I just love these drums.

14 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / Northstar Blues
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

15 SILKWORM / Goodnight Mr. Maugham
From the 1997 Matador LP Developer

Andy Cohen's simple acoustic number is just beautiful. I like the opening.

16 THE NEW YEAR / 18
From the 2004 Touch And Go LP The End Is Near

17 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / I Can Not Have Seen The Light
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

And off we go gently into that good night.

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enjoy! Grab the project here.

And if you have any suggestions of similar records that I've not covered, recorded by Albini, please drop a comment below!

indie postpunk pre-postrock: BITCH MAGNET

There have been three bands, or rather, two basic bands and another band that evolved from one of the basic bands, that I haven't been able to stop listening to for the past week or so.

So why not blog one of them? This week's particular band was on my future "I should probably blog these guys" list, but as is the case with most of my postings, bands move up and down the schedule - or are completely unplanned until I sit down to write the entry - with reckless abandon.



So, seeing as how last week we featured Slint, this week I chose one of Slint's compatriot bands, the North Carolina (by way of Oberlin College, Ohio) postrock pseudohardcore proto-math-rock combo Bitch Magnet. Slint and Bitch Magnet are related by band interbreeding, if you will: Slint's root band Squirrel Bait bequeathed Slint's Brian McMahan and Britt Walford, and that same band also bequeathed free agent guitarist David Grubbs, who played with Bitch Magnet for a duration.

But besides a terrific appreciation for dynamics, that's about the end of the similarities (though Slint's Tweez can be a good starting comparison point with Bitch Magnet in terms of dynamics, and raw sound). While a fan of Bitch Magnet will probably also enjoy Slint, fans of Slint's later material (i.e. Spiderland) may not appreciate the getting-away-from-hardcore basics underlying Bitch Magnet.

And besides, Bitch Magnet featured one of the BEST drummers ever in the annals of 1980s/1990s indierock, Orestes Delatorre (aka Orestes Morfin). The only comparison I can think of for Orestes's amazing drumming is Scratch Acid and Rapeman drummer Rey Washam - widely thought of as one of the greatest indierock drummers EVER. Orestes is absolutely up there with Rey: one of the best drummers I've ever heard, and criminally underrated amongst those who should know better (Pitchfork, I'm looking at you). There are transcendent moments all over the place with Orestes's drumming, touches such as the recurring "ting ting ting ting" of his bell-like ride cymbal slay me every time.

The only consistent Bitch Magnet members were Sooyoung Park (vocals, bass), Jon Fine (guitars), and Orestes (drums). Guitarist David Galt joined the band for their first full-length - 1989's Umber, and David Grubbs played on one track on 1990's Ben Hur. Galt did not play on Ben Hur.

Bitch Magnet's oeuvre was rather limited, with mainstream releases consisting of just a brief EP (1988's Star Booty) and the two previously-mentioned full-length albums. The band also released a few 7" and 12" singles, but those are VERY hard to find and I personally have never heard them.

Bitch Magnet broke up for unknown reasons following Ben Hur, with members going on to found Seam (Sooyoung Park), remaining in Bastro (David Grubbs), or disappear from the scene entirely (Orestes - though he did join Minnesota's Walt Mink for a brief spell in the mid 90s).

Star Booty, their 1988 debut EP, was engineered (or only mixed, the Internets are not clear on the details) by Steve Albini and I have to be honest here: it's really crap sounding. I wonder if the record label screwed something up in the mastering for release, because I'm really surprised such product passed Albini's legendary no-bullshit quality control. Granted I've not heard this on original vinyl, only the CD version - it's entirely possible the vinyl version sounds spectacular ;) The music is OK - I do like the proto-Seam melodicism of "Sea of Pearls", and "Hatpins" is a nice blast of 1980s hardcore, but overall this EP isn't what made me a Bitch Magnet fan. The songs eventually blur into a samey miasma that, while noisy, does seem lacking. (This EP was appended to the CD release of the following LP by their record label.)

Umber, the band's 1989 LP produced by Mike McMackin, is what made me a fan. I simply love this record. From wigout opener "Motor" to the understated beauty of the closer "Americruiser", the full 10-song set grabs you by the proverbial balls and never lets go. I hear audio references to Big Black and Scratch Acid (Austin, TX mid-1980s punk and Jesus Lizard ancestor) all over the place. "Navajo Ace" is a BLISTERING punk workout with some utterly jaw-dropping drumming courtesy Orestes. The languid soft/loud/soft dynamic beauty of "Clay" - another proto-Seam track - leads nicely into the very-Scratch Acid "Joan of Arc". Then we get an amazing quieter number "Douglas Leader", the first 2:30 or so consisting only of Sooyoung's gently-melodic bass and spoke/sung vocals. Orestes comes in with a nice touch in restrained drums, and finally we hear guitars washing over the track with icy-cold feedback. A standout. Then we have a few more brilliant post-punk mini-epics in a row, all with amazing drums and noisy guitars, and finally bring matters to a close with the stunningly beautiful "Americruiser". I can listen to this song on repeat all day, the gentle verses leading into the swelling choruses is so Seam-like it's ridiculous (and wonderful). And I have no idea what Sooyoung's vocals are about, though the musical phrase from his last vocal "sure could use a good place to sleep" leading into the overwhelming chorus of guitars and drums is spectacular. Yeah it sounds like Slint - but remember, this was before Slint's own take on this same style.

Overall rating? Almost 10 fucking stars.

1990 saw the band add Bastro's David Grubbs to replace the departing David Galt for one track (after touring with the band in 1989), and released the swan song LP Ben Hur (track 2 recorded by Howie Gano; tracks 4 and 8 recorded by McMackin; and tracks 1, 3, 5 and 7 by "Arden Geist" - which I suspect to be an Albini pseudonym, because 1) there is zero biographical, or anything for that matter, information on "Arden Geist" on the Internet besides mention of these particular BM tracks, and 2) the tracks bear every single hallmark of an Albini recording). While more a refinement of, than a dizzying progression from, the sound established with Umber, Ben Hur shows the band increasingly exploring a more textured side of their music: "Dragoon" is a nearly 10-minute epic beginning with feedback-laden guitar and Orestes' simple ride cymbal tings, before exploding into a melody-laced all-out assault of guitars, frenzied drumming and barely-audible spoken word vocals. "Valmead" (featuring a pseudonymous Grubbs as "Shannon Doughton") and "Gator" are instrumentals, "Valmead" exploring dissonance while "Gator" returns to Umber's pummelling in-your-face guitar and drum workouts. "Mesentery" is brilliant, while "Ducks and Drakes" and the amazing, beautiful closing track "Crescent" foreshadow Sooyoung's future Seam project: in fact "Crescent" could easily fit on either of Seam's first two LPs and nobody would bat an eye.

Overall rating? Not quite as strong as Umber, so almost 8 fucking stars. I wish the band explored more of the Seam/Slint textures they explored briefly on Umber, and touched on a bit here, and there are no absolute stunners (to me) on this record (as opposed to Umber, which features several), but this is still a fine, fine record the likes of which is almost never seen today.

I present all three records described above, slightly remastered for your listening pleasure, in glorious lossless FLAC. I really attempted to fix up Star Booty but essentially it's helpless, someone needs to revisit that from the original master reel.

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BITCH MAGNET Essentials
remastered from redbook CD by thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com

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STAR BOOTY (1988, Communion Records)
Recorded by - or only mixed by, it's unclear - Steve Albini



01 Carnation
02 C Word
03 Sea of Pearls
04 Hatpins
05 Knucklehead
06 Circle K
07 Polio
08 Cantaloupe

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UMBER (1989, Communion Records)
Recorded by Mike McMackin



01 Motor
02 Navajo Ace
03 Clay
04 Joan of Arc
05 Douglas Leader
06 Goat-Legged Country God
07 Big Pining
08 Joyless Street
09 Punch and Judy
10 Americruiser

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BEN HUR (1990, Communion Records)
1/3/5/7 recorded by "Arden Geist" (Albini)
2 recorded by Howie Gano
4/8 recorded by Mike McMackin



01 Dragoon
02 Valmead
03 Ducks and Drakes
04 Mesentery
05 Lookin' At The Devil
06 Gator
07 Spite y Malice
08 Crescent

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edit #2: removed link.  Watch for official deluxe reissues!

edit: some factual updates thanks to Fred in the comments...

enjoy!

life-changing records: SLINT

Some time back we briefly touched base on that absurdly-named Math Rock genre of postpunk indierock. Angular guitars, intricately-woven webs of sound, etc. Spoken, not sung, vocals, more often than not.

Today we feature perhaps the Ground Zero band of Math Rock, the mythical, majestic Slint. One can say that Slint is my generation's Velvet Underground - not many of us bought the record(s) when they came out, but those who did, formed bands. What they did was unlike anything that had come before, and better than the imitators who followed.



I won't waste energy rehashing the band's history (it's all over the Internets, though the best pieces are here, here, here and here), that their first, strange, odd noiseblast of an LP Tweez was an early Steve Albini recording (from 1987, well before he made his name as a highly-sought recording engineer), that their second full-length, Spiderland, was NOT recorded by Steve but received "ten fucking stars" from him in a Melody Maker review, and that after their breakup the true bridge piece between the two LPs, a two-song set recorded by Steve between Tweez and Spiderland, was released in 1994 to a collective "sigh" (as to what the world was missing with the breakup of the band).

I just won't. Rather, go to Wikipedia and follow the links, there is a fantastic entry for Spiderland contained within.

I once read on another blog that Spiderland is a true life-changing record, as opposed to a "soundtrack to my life"-type record. That guy was spot-on: once I heard Spiderland (way back in 1991, fools!) my entire window to the world of music changed. All you have to do is immerse yourself into the sonic panorama that is "Washer", or the closing cathartic torment of "Good Morning, Captain", or the subdued, apprehensive "For Dinner..." to experience it.

Albini's remarkably prescient 1991 review, as originally penned for Melody Maker, is reproduced in its entirety here:

Since about 1980, America has been host to an ever-increasing parasitic infestation of rock bands of ever-dwindling originality. It seems there is no one left on the continent with an aspiration to play guitar that hasn't formed a band and released a record. And that record sounds a little bit like Dinosaur Jr.

Trust me on this; all but maybe three of those records are pure bullshit.

My primary association with rock music is that I am a fan of it, though listening to the aforementioned nearly killed that. In its best state, rock music invigorates me, changes my mood, triggers introspection or envelopes me with sheer sound. Spiderland does all those things, simultaneously and in turns, more than any records I can think of in five years.

Spiderland is, unfortunately, Slint's swansong, the band having succumbed to the internal pressures which eventually punctuate all bands' biographies. It's an amazing record though, and no one still capable of being moved by rock music should miss it. In 10 years it will be a landmark and you'll have to scramble to buy a copy then. Beat the rush.

Slint formed in 1986 as an outlet and pastime for four friends from Louisville, Kentucky. Their music was strange, wholly their own, sparse and tight. What immediately set them apart was their economy and precision. Slint was that rare band willing to play just one or two notes at a time and sometimes nothing at all. Their only other recording, 1989's Tweez hints at their genius, but only a couple of the tracks have anything like the staying power of Spiderland.

Spiderland is a majestic album, sublime and strange, made more brilliant by its simplicity and quiet grace. Songs evolve and expand from simple statements that are inverted and truncated in a manner that seems spontaneous, but is so precise and emphatic that it must be intuitive or orchestrated or both.

Straining to find a band to compare them with, I can only think of two, and Slint doesn't sound anything like either of them. Structurally and in tone, they recall Television circa Marquee Moon and Crazy Horse, whose simplicity they echo and whose style they most certainly do not.

To whom would Pere Ubu or Chrome have been compared in 1972? Forgive me, I am equally clueless.

Slint's music has always been primarily instrumental, and Spiderland isn't a radical departure, but the few vocals are among the most pungent of any album around. When I first heard Brian McMahan whisper the pathetic words to "Washer", I was embarrased for him. When I listened to the song again, the content eluded me and I was staggered by the sophistication and subtle beauty of the phrasing. The third time, the story made me sad nearly to tears. Genius.

Spiderland is flawless. The dry, unembellished recording is so revealing it sometimes feels like eavesdropping. The crystalline guitar of Brian McMahan and the glassy, fluid guitar of David Pajo seem to hover in space directly past the listener's nose. The incredibly precise-yet-instinctive drumming has the same range and wallop it would in your living room.

Only two other bands have meant as much to me as Slint in the past few years and only one of them, The Jesus Lizard, have made a record this good. We are in a time of midgets: dance music, three varieties of simple-minded hard rock genre crap, soulless-crooning, infantile slogan-studded rap and ball-less balladeering. My instincts tell me the dry spell will continue for a while - possibly until the bands Slint will inspire reach maturity. Until then, play this record and kick yourself if you never got to see them live. In ten years, you'll lie like the cocksucker you are and say you did anyway.

Ten fucking stars.

Steve Albini.

I never got to see them live, I won't lie about it, but by the time the March 30, 1991 Melody Maker - the issue which contained this review - wound its way to Colorado Springs (where I was living at the time), I had already bought my copy of this record.

Backtracking a few years, Tweez (an LP where all the tracks, and the individual album sides themselves in the record's vinyl configuration, are named for the members' parents and pets), while good in its own right, completely fails to give any indication whatsoever that these musicians had the music of Spiderland in their future. Tweez is Slint's "Warsaw" (1977-era Joy Division) as Spiderland is to "Blue Monday".

The segueing Untitled EP (recorded by Albini in 1989) has a new track "Glenn" and a re-recording of Tweez's closing epic "Rhoda" - and it is such a radical reinterpretation, it may as well be a new track based on "Rhoda". I used to dislike the EP because it's all instrumental - but, in listening to it over the past year or so, I think it's utterly phenomenal.

Since this is my blog and I do what I choose with it, the versions presented here have been remastered by yours truly (from the original CD issues). Both Tweez and Spiderland were pressed at relatively low volumes, so I tightened up the levels a bit to give them more oomph. The band and Albini were unhappy with Tweez's final mixdown EQ, so I did some judicious re-EQ to the Tweez tracks to bring a bit more presence back in the middle. And finally, the whole thing is presented in lovely lossless FLAC for your pleasure. I can't abide by such wonderful, life-changing music being subjected to lossy MP3 encoding.

If you don't like the EQ or my mastering job, feel free to buy the originals (AFAIK they're all still in print, though may be hard to find locally).

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SLINT Complete Discography
remastered from redbook CD by thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com

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TWEEZ (1989, Jennifer Hartman Records)
Recorded in 1987 by Steve Albini (credited as Some Fuckin Derd Niffer)



01 Ron
02 Nan Ding
03 Carol
04 Kent
05 Charlotte
06 Darlene
07 Warren
08 Pat
09 Rhoda

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UNTITLED (1994, Touch and Go Records)
Recorded in 1989 by Steve Albini



01 Glenn
02 Rhoda

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SPIDERLAND (1991, Touch and Go Records)
Recorded in 1990 by Brian Paulson



01 Breadcrumb Trail
02 Nosferatu Man
03 Don, Aman
04 Washer
05 For Dinner...
06 Good Morning, Captain

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Files removed. Sorry kids, but check Amazon ;)

enjoy!

great record: SILKWORM Libertine (1994)

Sorry for the update delay, kids, real life does intrude occasionally and I've also been busy looking for that record. You know, the one that really strikes me as "hey, that's the one! That's the one I'm going to blog next!"...

And oddly enough, while I was already a fan of this week's artist, I never did have this particular record until yesterday. And I've spent the past 24 hours kicking myself in the ass for not discovering it sooner (though admittedly it HAS been physically out-of-print for some time).



Silkworm formed in the thriving postpunk hotbed of Missoula, Montana in 1987, then after spending much of their career in the Pacific Northwest, ended up in Chicago with longtime pal Steve Albini. Tracing a path from 70's retro homage to 80's postpunk to 90's angular indierock, Silkworm was a steady workaday band who reliably issued forth new records every couple years - until 2005, when long-loved drummer Mike Dahlquist was killed (with 2 co-workers) in a car accident near Chicago's Northwest Side by a foolish woman intent on ending her own life (she survived). Needless to say the band ended with this, though two of the members carry on today as part of Bottomless Pit.

Today's record is Silkworm's 1994 release Libertine, their last with founder member Joel Phelps on board (singer, guitars and songwriting). It's a great record that leaps stylistically from Pavement-ish skwonk (I made that word up) to Neil Young rustic to rhythmic postpunk to near Palace-esque Appalachia. They pull it off, somehow, and engineer Steve Albini (him again) captured the enormity of this band's sound just perfectly.

Recorded over a 4-day period in rural Minnesota in May 1994, this record has managed to claw its way to my Desert Island Disc selection in record time. I love the pacing, the songwriting, the rubbery basslines, the sometimes-Televisionesque guitars, the whole damn thing. The quasi-schizoid switching back and forth amongst three different singers (Phelps, bassist Tim Midgett, and guitarist Andy Cohen) just adds to the record's greatness. HIGHLY recommended.

From an archived Matador Records website:

As has been their custom, Silkworm recorded Libertine cheaply and efficiently in a mid-Western recording studio after a lengthy gestation. Discerning listeners will notice the songs of the recording combine to form a compelling inner-rhythm and feel of a high-concept album due to a refinement in the playing and marked diversity in the songs themselves. Libertine includes several classics: Cohen's "Grotto of Miracles", Phelps' "Yen + Janet Forever" and Midgett's "Couldn't You Wait", to our ears the best composition by each of the three writers to date. Many memorable performances are captured on the record: "Written On The Wind" (a self-empowerment dirge), "The Cigarette Lighters" (hey, if W.D.C. can base an entire youth movement on a Gang of 4 rip, please allow this one song nod to Wire, O.K.?), and especially on "Wild In My Day" where the band meticulously recreated the sound and studio environment of the Wedding Present's Seamonsters LP (from the amp settings down to the string gauges and studio engineer).

At the conclusion of the recording the band was asked if they were comfortable with the Hendrix/Television/Band/Roxy Music genre they've invented. Tim Midgett replied "Oh yeah sure". So are we.

The band at the time of this record:

Joel R.L. Phelps -- Telecaster guitar, vocals ("Yen + Janet Forever", "Oh How We Laughed", "The Cigarette Lighters" & "A Tunnel"

Michael Dahlquist -- Drums

Tim Midgett -- Bass, vocals ("Cotton Girl", "Couldn't You Wait?", "Written On The Wind", "Wild In My Day", "Bloody Eyes")

Andrew Cohen -- Stratocaster guitar, vocals ("There Is A Party In Warsaw Tonight", "Grotto Of Miracles")

And now you too can enjoy it!

SILKWORM
Libertine
1994 El Recordo, Ltd.



01 There Is A Party In Warsaw Tonight
02 Grotto Of Miracles
03 Cotton Girl
04 Yen + Janet Forever
05 Oh How We Laughed
06 The Cigarette Lighters
07 Couldn't You Wait?
08 A Tunnel
09 Written On The Wind
10 Wild In My Day
11 Bloody Eyes

EDIT: Removed at new label's request. The record is available digitally via new label Comedy Minus One so go forth and purchase, post-haste!

dalliance: The Wedding Present vs. Steve Albini

Sometimes you own a record, you even like it, you listen to it off and on for almost 20 years, and then suddenly it clicks: The record you've liked for so long, is actually a masterpiece. Bits and bobs that you'd just hummed along to as the notes flew past, suddenly found their place in the collage of noise. And you wished the music never ended.



The Wedding Present record Seamonsters, from 1991, is that record for me. I've owned it since it was released in 1991, on import since at the time it had no US release. I liked it for two reasons: 1) singer David Gedge, while a terrific songwriter, can't sing his way out of a paper bag - just like yours truly; and 2) it was recorded by Steve Albini. But for almost 20 years it stayed just that - a record I was happy to own, but didn't get more than the odd listen over the years. Then one day "Suck" came on the ol' iPod and suddenly I was transfixed. It just was "one of those moments", I can't really explain it. The same with "Carolyn" with its oddly-Mancunian groove, the same with "Dalliance".

The rest of the record suddenly became the same way for me. Not a duff track in the bunch, I even loved the B-sides tacked on by US label First Warning to differentiate the record from the import version that had been in the shops for some time prior to the eventual domestic release.

I think Steve Albini has that magic "something" when it comes to engineering records. Nearly every record he engineers has that same "in your face" feeling, you often feel as if you're RIGHT THERE between the Marshall stacks or Hiwatt cabinets. The drums in particular sound spectacular on just about every Albini recording - I would kill to hear the drums soloed at the console one day.

So I went back and eventually tracked down every song the Weddoes recorded with Albini - and here they are, in their entirety. Starting in 1990 with the re-recorded "Brassneck" (originally recorded and released on the 1989 LP Bizarro) backed with three other tracks (including a song written by then-unknowns Pavement "Box Elder", a track discovered by Weddoes bassist Keith Gregory when visiting New York City in 1989, before virtually anyone had heard of Pavement), Albini went on to engineer the vast majority of Wedding Present sessions up to and including their third LP Seamonsters, released in 1991.

So first we have the "Brassneck" EP with its associated B-sides. Then, we get the "3 Songs" EP which introduced the classic "Corduroy" to the world - a re-recorded version would feature later on the LP. Then, we get the B-sides to "Dalliance" (the lead single off their forthcoming LP), and then we get the Seamonsters album proper. Then we have the "Lovenest" single in its entirety, and then lastly two more covers also recorded by Albini.

This collection of material is stunning in its breadth and power. The Weddoes, in your humble blogger's opinion, never bettered this material featured here - I'm even including their most recent record that has the Weddoes name on it, and was recorded by Albini, but doesn't rate at all.

So enjoy!


THE WEDDING PRESENT
The (classic) Steve Albini Recordings 1990-1991

01 Brassneck
02 Don't Talk, Just Kiss
03 Gone
04 Box Elder
05 Corduroy (single version)
06 Crawl
07 Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
08 She's My Best Friend
09 Niagara
10 Dalliance
11 Dare
12 Suck
13 Blonde
14 Rotterdam
15 Lovenest
16 Corduroy
17 Carolyn
18 Heather
19 Octopussy
20 Lovenest (edit)
21 Mothers
22 Dan Dare
23 Fleshworld
24 Don't Dictate
25 Crushed

sources:

1-4 "Brassneck" EP, 1990


5-7 "3 Songs" EP, 1990


8-9 "Dalliance" CD single, 1991


10-19 Seamonsters LP, 1991


20-23 "Lovenest" CD single, 1991


24-25 Singles 1989-1991 2xCD, 1999



EDIT: Links removed... why? Because I was honored with my first DMCA notice! Way to go, TPoIT! Only took three years...

Thanks due to Tock and Jan...........

postpunk on the prairie: Rapeman

In 1987, Steve Albini had had enough.

Big Black had outlived its purpose - singer/guitarist Albini, guitarist Santiago Durango, bassist David Riley and drummer Roland all believed that they'd taken the Big Black concept as far as it could go within its constraints. And besides, Sant was entering law school that fall, so it was a convenient time to call it a day after a farewell tour and the obligatory final LP.

Then Albini got bored. Restless. Itchy to play out again - there was yet music to be played. And no band to do so!

Conveniently enough, Austin, Texas postpunk legends (in their own time) Scratch Acid had just broken up and had a phenomenal rhythm section just waiting to be taken. Rey Washam (drums) and David Wm. Sims (bass) hightailed it up to Chicago and joined Albini for his new project.



Calling themselves Rapeman after a very graphic Japanese serial comic (a name guaranteed to gain the hearts and minds of Albini's heretofore-underground female fan base), the trio gigged around Chicago and the American Midwest, played Europe, and recorded a few songs.

Then, they broke up. For the usual reasons, according to Albini - someone just didn't get along with someone else, the usual bullshit.

Certainly it didn't help matters that the name was keeping them off the radio (not that they were looking for that angle, mind you) and causing them endless frustration in touring Europe. So they too just called it a day - but in this case, listening to the music in retrospect you get the feeling that they were just getting started, that they'd just skimmed the surface of the power, the noise, the energy the trio was certainly capable of making. The sentence that was just beginning to write itself starting with the word "Rapeman" just didn't seem to have a period at the end of it.

Of course this wasn't the end for any of the members - Albini went on to sustain a prolific engineering career recording a gajillion (roughly) records for bands across the musical spectrum, and also performs indie-riffic music to this day with his latest project Shellac (with Todd Trainer and Bob Weston). David Wm. Sims rejoined Scratch Acid alum David Yow in the Jesus Lizard, and Rey Washam flitted about the underground scene with stints in Ministry, the Didjits, Tad, and quite a few other lesser-known acts.

Rapeman (Rx for short) did not leave much of a recorded legacy in its wake. With just two 7" singles, a 4-track EP and one full-length LP marking their existence, it's difficult to ascertain where they would have headed had the band continued. That being said, Rx finds Albini in true song-writing mode for the first time (as one wag put it, he actually learned to write songs!) and their recorded work showpieces the classic Albini guitar shards moreso than Big Black ever did.

The first Rapeman release was the 4-track EP Budd. "Budd" the song is about the sad sorrowful ending of one R. Budd Dwyer - just search the internets for the story. "Budd" and two other tracks were recorded live at Chicago's Exit on Bastille Day, 1988, while the last track "Dutch Courage" was "recorded dead at CRC, Chicago, Juneteenth, 1988".

Next came the "Hated Chinee" / "Marmoset" 7", a taster for the upcoming LP.

And then we have the LP Two Nuns and a Pack Mule, perhaps the best all-around album an Albini band has ever recorded. "Produced" by Fluss - Albini's cat, a clear indication of Albini's thoughts on what a producer should do, these ten bile and pile-driven tracks are about as good a showcase of the Albini songwriting style as you'll find. Abrasive, funny, sharp and cutting, these tracks address topics such as future Shellac drummer Todd Trainer's monobrow (err, the track "Monobrow") and a pair of female panties given to Albini, on Big Black's final tour, by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon (the track "Kim Gordon's Panties").

Lastly, in 1989 the band released one final effort as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club monthly series of limited 7" releases. The instrumental tracks "Inki's Butt Crack" and "Song Number One" are as good as anything on the album or EP and could be an indication of where Rx would have gone had they continued.

I'm including all the above bar the "Hated Chinee" 7" (since I don't have it, and AFAIK the tracks are identical to the album versions) in one file linked below.

Here goes - enjoy!

RAPEMAN
Up Beat: The Mostly Complete Discography 1988-1989

BUDD EP
(1988 Touch and Go Records T&GLP#34)



01 Budd
02 Superpussy
03 Log Bass
04 Dutch Courage


TWO NUNS AND A PACK MULE
(1988 Touch and Go Records T&GLP#36)



01 Steak And Black Onions
02 Monobrow
03 Up Beat
04 Coition Ignition Mission
05 Kim Gordon's Panties
06 Hated Chinee
07 Radar Love Lizard
08 Marmoset
09 Just Got Paid
10 Trouser Minnow

Rx's descriptions for each track:

1. We don't hate vegetarians, we just think they're funny
2. Singular eyebrow as a fashion statement / Drunkasexual
3. Puny but angry
4. Professed goal of space program: conception and birth in space
5. Blatant Coachmen ripoff
6. Lotten flucking ruck
7. Golden earring tribute / reptile tendencies
8. Lincoln Park Zoo Nocturnal Mammal Building / failed hummer
9. Bonus Edgar Blossom muchas gracias
10. Men suck

"INKI'S BUTT CRACK" b/w "SONG NUMBER ONE"
(1989 Sub Pop Singles Club SP40, limited edition 1500 black vinyl, 1000 clear vinyl)



01 Inki's Butt Crack
02 Song Number One

"Inki's Butt Crack" is credited on the label to (Spencer, Moore, Mascis) - as in Jon Spencer, Thurston Moore, and J Mascis - but this is a joke. The song is a variation on Mendelssohn's "Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)".

edit: Removed link.

postpunk on the prairie: TAR (part II)

Apologies for the update delay, life does intrude occasionally for your humble blogger.

Events have conspired to force me to suspend indefinitely my Joy Division/New Order postings. I can't say exactly what, but it's actually a pretty funny reason. Someday there's an incredible story to be told.

So instead we're going to revisit a prior featured artist, Tar. Why? Because I can.



Some time ago we featured Tar's 3rd full-length record, Toast. That record is still in print.

The records featured today are not, however, having gone OOP with the fading away of label Amphetamine Reptile.

Before they had developed their signature Tar sound (ref. Toast), they sounded a bit more derivatve of the scene they arose from: 80s Chicago punk, specifically Naked Raygun's sound and Big Black's vocals. After an EP, a couple 7" singles and their first record, they lost a bassist, gained a new one and kept developing. And as is common, suddenly they hit the magic note one day and created their own unique sound, first evidenced in full with 1991's Jackson - the band's second full-length.

And you frankly can't discuss Tar without discussing drummer Mike Greenlees' steady use of the ride cymbal (that "ding ding ding ding ding" cymbal sound that comes up on every Tar song at one point or another), it's so 1970s you can't help but laugh.

So allow me to present the following:

1988 - "Play To Win" / "Mel's" 7"
(No Blow Records, NBLW 01)



01 Play To Win
02 Mel's

Recorded by Steve Albini, this is the band's self-released debut. Very much of its time and place in the Chicago punk scene, it sounds more Naked Raygun than anything else. Perhaps a weird melding of early Slint and Naked Raygun with a touch of sub-Big Black vocals?


1989 - HANDSOME EP
(Amphetamine Reptile, 89160-1)



01 Static
02 Mumper
03 Same
04 (untitled)
05 Downtime
06 Seam
07 Mel's

"Static" and "Downtime" recorded by Iain Burgess, and the rest by Steve Albini, this record further lays on the Raygun styling and is perhaps the most "accessible" Tar record. "Mel's" in particular is a standout, featuring terrific dynamics and the push/pull of guitarists John Mohr and Mark Zablocki closing out the record brilliantly.


1990 - ROUNDHOUSE
(Amphetamine Reptile, 89197-1/2)



01 Les Paul Worries
02 Cold
03 Glass Grief
04 Pick One
05 Black Track
06 Bad Box
07 Mercury Block
08 Gag Reflex
09 Thermos
10 Jurbo

Churning guitars and often-buried vocals mark this Iain Burgess-produced record. Perhaps the most "dense" of Tar's records, nevertheless it's a nice transitional record - transitioning from the sub-Raygun earlier works to the more driving, dynamic and unique Tar to come. I never used to rate this record, always thinking it paled to the later Tar, but having revisited this a LOT lately, I've come to love it. "Les Paul Worries" (video) is great, great - and is it about the worries of guitarmaker Les Paul, or worries about the guitar itself? Singer John Mohr says both (scroll down). And the start/stop guitars in "Thermos", where the (very slight) finger noises on the fretboard precede and follow each start/stop effect, gets me every time.


1991 - JACKSON
(Amphetamine Reptile, amrep 004)



01 Short Trades
02 Cross Offer
03 Walking The King
04 On A Transfer
05 Trauma
06 Dark Mark
07 Goethe
08 Tellerman
09 Land Luck
10 Viaduct Removal

Perhaps the best overall Tar record, this Steve Albini recording is the summation of the "classic" Tar sound. Thick guitars, pummeling bass, and John Mohr's unique vocal stylings, "Short Trades" kicks things off nicely and they don't let up until the record's over.

All the above in three RAR files, gotta grab 'em all as usual....

Part I / Part II / Part III

enjoy!

temporary relief: LOW

I think we need a breather. Some temporary relief from the blistering postpunk I've featured lately. Something slowed way, way down. Always good to cleanse the palate, they say.



Duluth, Minnesota's legendary "slowcore" (as opposed to hardcore) trio LOW certainly fits the bill. Virtual inventors of the genre (perhaps shared with Codeine, but that's for the nitpickers to argue), Low doesn't write songs as much as songscapes. Low is all about atmosphere, all about the space between the notes being just as important - if not more so - than the notes themselves.

Early in their career (1994-1995) they worked with legendary New York noisenik Kramer (he of Bongwater fame), who produced the band's first two heavily reverb-laden LPs I COULD LIVE IN HOPE and LONG DIVISION - two records which introduced the world to the idea that hey, glacially-paced punk can be just as mind- (and head-) blowing as hardcore. After a third LP, 1997's THE CURTAIN HITS THE CAST, somebody had the genius idea - and I mean that with all due respect - to hook the band up with the original analog purist Steve Albini.

Low and Albini was truly a marriage made in heaven. For a band that trades on the idea of the spaces being as key as the musics, Albini's recording style is absolutely perfect for this band. You can hear the room as much as the music - it feels as if you are RIGHT THERE as much as any recording I've ever heard. You get a real feel of texture, of space, of atmosphere - and it's all without any gimmickry, just a GREAT live room sound at Chicago's Electrical Audio (Albini's own studio) and very strategic microphone placement.

So I present two of the finest sounding records in my collection, 1999's SECRET NAME and 2001's THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE. Recorded in Chicago at Albini's Electrical Audio studios, by Steve Albini, these two records sound just frankly incredible. From a sonics perspective, there's headroom (dynamics! No loudness wars here!), clarity, depth. And just as important (it's a music blog after all, not an engineering blog) - from a music perspective, the songs are just wonderful.

Guitarist and co-vocalist Alan Sparhawk, "drummer" and co-vocalist Mimi Parker, and bassist Zak Sally have created here some of the most beautiful songs I have in my collection. You'll just have to hear for yourself - and I can't imagine hearing these recorded any other way, the recording fits the songwriting fits the recording....

As a bonus, I've included some extra tracks from the 3xCD rarities box set A LIFETIME OF TEMPORARY RELIEF that I'm fairly certain were also recorded by Albini (I had the box stolen so don't have the credits, just the actual CDs). Well, all but the final two songs I present here are Albini sessions, that is - the Smiths and Pink Floyd covers aren't Albini recordings, as far as I know. But whatever, they're just utterly spectacular regardless.

So enjoy....

- - - - - - - - - - - -

LOW
the ELECTRICAL AUDIO recordings

featuring

SECRET NAME
THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
(selections from) A LIFETIME OF TEMPORARY RELIEF

edit: Removed link.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

SECRET NAME



(1999 Kranky KRANK035)

01 I Remember
02 Starfire
03 Two-Step
04 Weight of Water
05 Missouri
06 Don't Understand
07 Soon
08 Immune
09 Lion/Lamb
10 Days Of...
11 Will the Night
12 Home


THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE



(2001 Kranky KRANK046)

01 Sunflower
02 Whitetail
03 Dinosaur Act
04 Medicine Magazine
05 Laser Beam
06 July
07 Embrace
08 Whore
09 Kind Of Girl
10 Like A Forest
11 Closer
12 (untitled instrumental)
13 In Metal

Some random internet critic:

While Low was playing live on John Peel's BBC radio show in England last year, an emergency back-up system kicked in without warning, momentarily replacing the group with a blast of pre-recorded, insipid pop (possibly All Saints). As Peel later explained, the system goes into operation automatically if there's an extended period of silence resulting, for instance, from the death of the DJ on the air. Those who designed such technology obviously hadn't considered how it might respond to Low, whose pared-down, slowcore aesthetic centers on an artful use of quiet spaces, pauses and decidedly un-rock levels of amplification.
With the assistance of producer Steve Albini, on Things We Lost in the Fire Low crafts another collection of downbeat, achingly stark songs. Threaded with slight, hymnal vocals and striking a delicate balance between dark intensity and ethereal fragility, this new material bears many of the hallmarks of Low's sound as it has defined itself on previous releases. The coordinates here are familiar: The Velvet Underground, Simon and Garfunkel, Galaxie 500, Joy Division, The Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star.
But although Low's music remains minimal in its design and beautifully snail-paced, this new release also attests to the continuing evolution of the band's sound. Things We Lost in the Fire picks up where Low's last recording with Albini (1999's Secret Name) left off, progressively expanding on the band's sparse common denominator of bass, drums and guitar. Things finds Low's measured atmospherics and gentle melodies further enhanced by layers of instrumentation — for instance, cello, violin, piano, mellotron and trumpet. Moreover, it finds the band's melancholy and affecting textures coalescing even more into traditional song structures.
The focal point of Low's sound has consistently been the human voice and, on Things We Lost in the Fire, the lulling vocals of spouses Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker again take pride of place, serving as the most engaging instruments in the mix. Throughout this album — most notably on "Sunflower", "Medicine Magazines" and "Kind of Girl" — the couple execute stunning harmonies with an emotive range that belies their quiet simplicity.
"Laser Beam", sung by Parker, is a brief yet superbly haunting lullaby, so down-tempo that it seems just to hang in the air. On the spare "Embrace", her voice captures and translates the melancholy swell of the string arrangement and the building tension of the unrelenting, funereal beat. Similarly compelling is Sparhawk's delicate, almost murmured, singing on the vaguely unsettling "Whitetail", probably the most stripped-down song on the album. With its repetitive arrangement of brushed cymbals, a suggestion of cello and a modicum of guitar and bass, this track displays little linear progression, moving not so much forward as downward to plumb the depths of some intangible menace.
While it's impossible to locate weak points on Things We Lost in the Fire, it's relatively easy to pick the two strongest tracks. "Closer" showcases Low at its lilting, unhurried best, the couple's voices breathtakingly intertwined and subtly cocooned by doleful strings. "Dinosaur Act", on the other hand, evokes a succession of controlled explosions in slow-motion, revealing a harder, distortion-scuffed edge of Low's sound. Here, Sparhawk's disembodied, Neil Young-esque vocals hover over the track's ponderous bass-heavy reaches, to be joined in the pounding crescendos by Bob Weston's trumpet as well as Parker's dulcet harmonies.
On Things We Lost in the Fire, Low proves once again that less is indeed more. Voices are barely raised and the sound is only rarely turned up, yet the band's understated, lingering vocal and instrumental arrangements conjure up textured, dynamic spaces whose emotive resonance speaks volumes.

(selections from)
A LIFETIME OF TEMPORARY RELIEF



(2004 Chairkickers CKM012)

01 Last Breath
02 Old Man Song
03 Try Try Try
04 When You Walked
05 Back Home Again
06 Blowin' In The Wind
07 Open Arms
08 ...I Love
09 Overhead
10 Don't Carry It All
11 Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
12 Fearless

1-2 extra tracks on the 2xLP vinyl SECRET NAME
9-10 extra tracks on the 2xLP vinyl THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
and yes, track 7 is a Journey cover

postpunk on the prairie: the Jesus Lizard

Man, we're on a roll here with the Chicago postpunk, might as well strike again while the iron is hot - with perhaps the best of 'em all...



Today, I bring you the Jesus Lizard. Only the best live band I've EVER seen, bar none.

Vocalist - and I use that term lightly - David Yow fights his way through each song as if he were choking on booze and razor blades. Oddly enough, he's one hell of a nice guy in person, clearly a case of a stage persona vs reality thing. Bassist David Wm. Sims (who's blog I have linked to on the right) muscles each song forward with some of the best bass playing I've ever heard, guitarist Duane Denison layers each song with sheets/shards of furious - but tasteful - guitars, and drummer Mac McNeilly (the heart and soul of the band) anchors it all down with, again, some of the greatest drumming I've ever heard.

So yeah, they're pretty good.

Formed in Chicago in 1989 from the remnants of Steve Albini's Rapeman project (Sims) and Austin, Texas legendary punk act Scratch Acid (Yow and Sims), the Lizard began relatively inauspiciously with the 3-men-and-a-drum-machine debut EP PURE on Touch and Go. Having taken the drum machine approach as far as it could go, they recruited super drummer man Mac and unleashed the new 4-piece Lizard via a classic 7" single featuring a medley of Chrome songs ("TV as Eyes" and "Abstract Nympho") simply-titled "Chrome", backed with an original track "7 vs. 8".

Then they ran off a series of absolutely fucking stellar/devastating/ridiculously amazing/fantastic records on Touch and Go through 1993, and then began a slow gradual slide into irrelevance after signing to a major label in 1995, ultimately breaking up in 1999 after earlier losing drummer Mac to other projects (he was replaced by former Laughing Hyenas drummer Jim Kimball for the last couple years of the Lizard's life). 1994's DOWN was their final Touch and Go LP before jumping ship, and I don't know if the separation had already begun between tJL/Albini/T&G but it really sounds like the last LP of an era.

More tJL info here, here and here (official Touch and Go page about 'em).

All their Touch and Go output was recorded by the legendary Steve Albini, who, being the indie purist he is, refused to work with them again after they signed to the major label Capitol Records.

The latest news - "latest" being a relative term, of course, when Jesus Lizard news was few and far between until a month ago - is that the Lizard is reuniting with the original lineup (Yow/Denison/Sims/McNeilly) to play a few gigs in the fall. Oh how I'd pull my own Tight 'n Shiny to see those gigs!

Changing it up a bit here, rather than posting entire album(s), I'm going to compile the greatest tJL compilation ever. We're going to flat-out ignore the Capitol Records era, and focus exclusively on their indie years on Touch and Go 1989-1994, and better yet, I'm going to do it chronologically.

Here's a quick Touch and Go-era discography hit, we'll get to our exclusive compilation below....

- - - - -

1989: PURE (EP) T&GLP#43



Blockbuster / Bloody Mary / Rabid Pigs / Starlet / Happy Bunny Goes Fluff-Fluff Along


1990: CHROME (7") T&G#53



Chrome / 7 vs. 8


1990: HEAD (LP) T&GLP#54



One Evening / S.D.B.J. / My Own Urine / If You Had Lips / 7 vs. 8 / Pastoral / Waxeater / Good Thing / Tight 'N Shiny / (None Other Than) Killer McHann


1991: MOUTH BREATHER (7") T&G#66



Mouth Breather / Sunday You Need Love


1991: GOAT (LP) T&GLP#68



Here Comes Dudley / Mouth Breather / Nub / Seasick / Monkey Trick / Karpis / South Mouth / Lady Shoes / Rodeo in Joliet


1992: WHEELCHAIR EPIDEMIC (7") TG087



Wheelchair Epidemic / Dancing Naked Ladies


1992: LIAR (LP) TG100



Boilermaker / Gladiator / The Art of Self Defense / Slave Ship / Puss / Whirl / Rope / Perk / Zachariah / Dancing Naked Ladies


1993: PUSS / OH, THE GUILT (split single with Nirvana) TG083



Puss (the Jesus Lizard) / Oh, The Guilt (Nirvana)


1993: LASH (EP) TG121



Glamorous / Deaf As A Bat / Lady Shoes / Killer McHann / Bloody Mary / Monkey Trick
(tracks 3-6 live)


1993: (FLY) ON (THE WALL) (7") TG128



(Fly) On (The Wall) / White Hole


1994: DOWN (LP) TG131



Fly On The Wall / Mistletoe / Countless Backs Of Sad Losers / Queen For A Day / The Associate / Destroy Before Reading / Low Rider / 50¢ / American BB / Horse / Din / Elegy / The Best Parts

- - - - - - - -

Enough background.....

FOUL
the Jesus Lizard 1990-1994, Compiled
(a Power of Independent Trucking exclusive)

Part I
Part II



01 Blockbuster (live soundboard recording 4 December 1992, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC - far better live than the 3-piece studio version)
02 Chrome
03 One Evening
04 S.D.B.J.
05 My Own Urine
06 If You Had Lips
07 7 vs. 8
08 Waxeater
09 Tight 'N Shiny
10 Then Comes Dudley
11 Mouth Breather
12 Nub
13 Seasick
14 Monkey Trick
15 Wheelchair Epidemic
16 Boilermaker
17 Gladiator
18 Whirl
19 Rope
20 Dancing Naked Ladies
21 Glamorous
22 Destroy Before Reading
23 Low Rider
24 The Best Parts

This compilation just plain rips. If there's enough demand I can post the individual records, but they're all still in print (the albums, that is) on Touch and Go, and there are plans afoot to issue remastered editions (and, from what I've heard, remastered the right way by none other than Shellac's Bob Weston) before the year is out.

postpunk on the prairie: TAR

If you haven't noticed yet... the blog has featured a LOT (relatively speaking!) of albums released in 1993 on Touch and Go Records.

Coincidence?

Perhaps. But your humble blogger - in retrospect - is amazed at the quality and quantity of fine records released that year. It's as strong as a year as I can remember, for indierock releases. I was going to run a list of some of them but I don't want to lose focus... ;)

And being perhaps the greatest ever American indie label, it's no surprise so many quality records - from 1993 or any year since T&G's early 1980s inception - came out on this fine label.

(one of the nifty things about running your own blog is that you're beholden to nothing. Zippo. I declared early on that the blog would have several recurring features such as the "variations on a theme" producers meme, the "5 songs" meme, etc. But there's no rules here, no schedule. Nothing but my wily wiles to guide me. And if I want to post nothing but snippets of Benny Hill jokes, for 30 days straight, by all means I'll do so. So, long story short, if you're waiting for the "variations on a theme" or "5 songs" series to continue, just settle down. There. Feel better? Good. Now pay attention... ;) )



Which brings us to TAR, formed in the teeming metropolis of DeKalb, Illinois (75 miles west of Chicago, thick in the cornfields, home of Northern Illinois University and Cindy Crawford). I don't have a clue how to describe TAR but that they're rhythmically awesome, they're guitarishly amazing, and they were one of Steve Albini's favorite bands ever. I know this because Mr. Albini told me so himself, when I found myself standing next to him at TAR's last-ever gig at the fabled Chicago venue Lounge Ax (RIP...) in November 1995. The gig was pre-announced as their last ever gig, so all the indie/postpunk Chicago luminaries (and, I suspect, others from all around our fine world) were there. It was a stellar gig, opened by Arcwelder, and closed with TAR auctioning off their handmade aluminum guitars from the stage.

Albini is perhaps a tad more qualified than most to assert "favorite band" status on TAR because he recorded the majority of their releases.

TOAST, the band's 1993 Touch and Go LP, is being featured here only because I can't stop listening to it myself. No other real reason - their prior record JACKSON may be better, or it may not - but that I like it and "Barry White" kicks some serious butt.

Believe it or not I even reviewed this record for my college newspaper in 1993 and even more terrifying, I still have a copy of that review, from the paper's September 17, 1993 edition:

TAR sticks to you like... well, tar

By YOUR HUMBLE BLOGGER
Editor-in-Chief

TAR
Toast
Touch and Go Records

Chicago's neo-Nirvanaesque TAR has kept a busy pace this year with three releases: Winter's "Teetering" 7-inch single, April's Clincher EP, and now Toast, their third full-length album. Toast is much in the same vein as their past two LPs, Roundhouse and Jackson: Walled guitars, shouted vocals, brisk drumming, throbbing metallic bass, muddy-yet-clear Steve Albini production. The album's ten tunes show off what makes TAR one of the best neo-grunge groups around.

The first tune, "Altoids, Anyone?" opens the disc with a full-frontal-assault of guitars. Nice, powerful, aggressive music. Aggressive is a good way to describe TAR's sound, actually. If you feel like kicking the shit out of a wall, or smashing your head against a (punk) rock, put on TAR instead and just yell. Works wonders for the mind. Anyway, "Barry White", the next song, has kind of a groove-type thing working for it. Good for shaking your booty to while letting off steam. Same goes for "Quieter Fellow", the next ditty, which isn't really quieter.

The rest of the songs are much in the same vein as the first three, and they are choice. "Mach Song" stands out in my mind, for some reason. The last song, "Theme", is really two songs separated by 12 minutes of total silence, reminiscent of "Endless Nameless" from Nirvana's Nevermind. The second part of "Theme" is quite brilliant, actually, It's about 2 minutes of weird guitar sounds and indecipherable vocals. Pretty cool.

If you want good frustration-releasing music, check out TAR. Especially since Nirvana's taking so long to put out their next one, which I just found out is delayed 'till October.

For the record, that "second part of 'Theme'" that I described above in the review is tracked separately in the download below, as "(untitled hidden track)". So no need to have a 14-minute song on your iPod ;)

enjoy....

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TAR
Toast



(1993 Touch and Go TG106CD)

01 Altoids, Anyone?
02 Barry White
03 Quieter Fellow
04 Satritis
05 Clincher
06 Giblets
07 Testor's Choice
08 Standpipe
09 Mach Song
10 Theme
11 (untitled hidden track)

edit: removed link.