Never Talking to You Again (Alone & Forsaken XXV):
1. 13th Floor Elevators-You're Gonna Miss Me
2. The Abigails-Shadow of Our Darkness
3. Galaxie 500-Walking Song
4. Beat Happening-Cast a Shadow
5. Merchandise-Time
6. The Modern Lovers-Roadrunner
7. The Gun Club-House on Highland Avenue
8. The Wedding Present-Getting Nowhere Fast (Girls at Our Best cover)
9. Vertical Slit-In-No-Sense 1X2
10. Sex Church-I Don't Want to Die
11. Husker Du-Whatever.
12. The Adverts-Quickstep
13. Criminal Damage-Victory
14. The Gits-Second Skin (Live '93 version)
15. Jim Shepard-A Streetcar Named Desire
16. Broken Water-Kamilche House (live @ the Oly Library version)
17. The Wipers-Blue Cowboy
18. Dead Moon-Unknown Passage
Well, there's nothing very secret about most of these bands, but that's my title and I'm sticking to it. All of you will know some of these bands, some of you will know all of them, but you will not all know all of them, hence my justification for this mix. That and really, who doesn't need more weird British music in their lives? Anyways, I read Simon Reynolds' history of UK post-punk recently and man that thing is fun.
So here's a slew of great tunes by great and not-so-great bands. Enjoy!
1. Elveesh Kawstello-Benvenuto alla working week
2. Television Personalities-I Was a Mod Before You Was a Mod (short version)
3. Warsaw-Warsaw
4.Girls at Our Best-It's Fashion
5. Buzzkawks-Lipstick
6. Wire-It's So Obvious
7. Swell Maps-New York
8. Scrotum Poles-Helicopter Honeymoon
9. Marine Girls-Tonight?
10. Josef K-Citizens
11. the Pop Group-Kiss the Book
12. The Slits-I Heard it Through the Grapevine
13. the Raincoats-Dancing in my Head
14. Bauhaus-God in an Alcove (flexi version)
15. Gang of Four-5:45
16. Blitz-New Age
"So out with the old, in with the old. Nothing replenishes itself, not even horseshit!"-Lester Bangs, "New Year's Eve," 1980
'Cause it's one of those days.
The graffiti reads: "you never hear me say [for]give me."
1. Criminal Damage-Anxiety
2. Husker Du-First of the Last Calls
3. Sick Thoughts-Take my Hate
4. Running-Klassic Rok/Classic 'Ron
5. Brainbombs-Ass Fucking Murder
6. Sewers-Human Spray
7. Flipper-Ever
8. The Dictaphone-Acute Anxiety
9. Grazhdanskaya Oborona-Detskij doktor Skazal
10. The Fix-Signal
11. X-The Unheard Music
12. The Germs-Going Down
Yes, kiddies, I'm alive, narcotorpors and booze binges aside. I'm in the process of moving (back) to the Old Country so posts will continue to be intermittent for the next two weeks or so, but then I'll get back to the ever-present pile of shit (er, new releases) clogging the innards of my Gshit account.
In the meantime, have a gander with some classics of the "loud, young, dumb and violent" variety. Some of these tunes appeared on previous installments of the A&F series, but they're classics and zippyshare deleted those long ago anyways.
1. 86 Mentality-Intro/LifeTrap
2. Blitz-Razors in the Night
3. X-Nausea
4. the Germs-Communist Eyes
5. Social Unrest-Making Room for Youth
6. Youth Brigade (LA)-Violence
7. Ultimo Resorte-Cementerio Caliente
8. The Mau-Maus-Society's Rejects
9. Uproar-Rebel Youth
10. Negative Approach-Ready to Fight
11. The Fix-'Cause the Elite
12. SSD-Boiling Point
13. Born/Dead-No One (Necros cover)
14. Cro-Mags-Show You No Mercy (demo version)
15. Government Issue-Self-Destruct
16. Iron Cross-Wolfpack
17. Criminal Damage-No Solution
"I've traveled. Everywhere you go, it's the same. The water tastes weird, the food tastes weird. You get sick. And then, when you get back...you can't figure out if it happened to you, or to somebody else"-character in Slackers
In fact I enjoy traveling, but sometimes it feels like you leave pieces of yourself in a place if you stay there too long. Anyway, here's the latest installment in my mix series. The songs just sorta feel like going home during summertime, for me, anyways.
I probably won't be posting much for the next week; go out and get a tan, get drunk and get laid instead of downloadin' music, kiddies. ...home is where we hide
1. Songs:Ohia-Farewell Transmission 2. Heavy Times-Sunside
3. Husker Du-Celebrated Summer
4. Pink Reason-Storming Heaven
5. Electrelane-To the East
6. Beach House-Used to Be
7. Dead Moon-Don't Look Back
8. Tom Waits-Downtown train
9. Joe Strummer-Let the Good Times Roll
10. Kitchen's Floor-116 (Live at Real Bad version)
11. The Mountain Goats-Distant Stations
12. Broken Water-Kamilche House
"Come back here when you've learned to sin"-paraphrase of Sam Phillips to Johnny Cash, 1950s.
When you're down and out and in the darkest recesses of alcohol-induced torpor, you'd do worse than to discover rembetika. What is rembetika, you ask? A short and highly simplified definition: A south Aegean genre that probably originated in the Ionian cities and Constantinople. It arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and blossomed in the Piraeus after the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-23 and the Population Exchange of 1923. Musically, rembetika is an eastern Mediterranean phenomenon that I'm not technically knowledgeable enough to comment on. Lyrically, topics included love (and loss thereof), drugs, crime, and the dissolute lifestyle any reasonable person would have lived at the time, given the conditions (in Turkey, a terminally decaying Ottoman Empire and mutual atrocities after World War I culminating in this, and in Greece the Venizelos and Metaxas dictatorships, followed by a horrific Nazi occupation). The men and women that made rembetika lived fast, died young, and most of them only recorded 2 or 3 songs, at most, before vanishing in a haze of nargila and ouzo. That's a worse record than American blues musicians.
Speaking of which, if you love the American blues, these folks in the Aegean littoral were on the same page as Charley Patton and Skip James, at the same time. They were just getting wasted on hash and raki melo instead of whiskey and weed. The music, structurally, isn't similar. But the fierce joy in the face of suffering is. It's the sort of attitude that says to the world, "Yeah. You suck, you dealt me a shit hand. But so what? Life is beautiful, and I'm going to have as much fun as I can while I'm here, so pass the booze!"
Antonis Kostis (Αντώνης Κωστής) -a pseudonym for Kostis Vezos (Κωστής Βέζος) -was one of the baddest muthafuckas of this genre as far as I'm concerned. He recorded a handful of songs in the 1920s and '30s, including some Hawaiian slide guitar cuts that aren't as trite as you'd think. He died in 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Greece. Check out his music.
I first heard examples of rembetika when I was much younger and didn't come 'round to it until recently, after a lot of disgusting living. Maybe the listening experience is different if you're Greek, but for me, these are songs of experience, in Blake's words. It's hard to like this music if you haven't lived in the world long enough to get dirty, shameful, filthy, sinful, and still come up loving life no matter what it throws in your face.
CHECK IT OUT. I cobbled together this mix from various rembetika compilations. The most comprehensive collection is, undoubtedly, the Greek Music from the Underworld series. A fantastic single-volume introduction is the Cafe Rembetika LP. Mississippi Records' Bed of Pain compilation is, of course, out of print, but they also released a discography of Marika Papagika's recorded output, which you can buy here.
Track listing:
1. Νίκος Πουρπουράkης-The Offenders
2. Α. Κωστής -Τουμβελεkή
3. Στρατός Ραγιουμτζής -Minor Key Song from the Taverna
4. Σταυροσ Ρεμουνδχος -Μάνες Χιτζασκιάρ Πιρεοτικός
5. Ανεσθης Δαλγας -Καροτσιέρης (The Coachman)
6. Στεφαναυα Γ. Πενχεβυα-Σελσκα Ρατσχεντιτζα
7. Στελλάκης Περπινιαδχης-Μάγγες, Μου Συμοφορθίτε!
8. Ρόσα Εσκενάζι - in the Taverna with the "Laterna"
9. Cavadhias Popular Orchestra-Karsilamas Tekirdag
10. Γιοργιοσ Κατσαρός-[untitled]
11. Εφ. Ραγιουμιδζης-Σφουγγαραδχες ("The Sponge Divers")
12. Κ. Ρουκούνας -Μη Μου Λες βος Δεν Με Θελήσ ("Don't Say that You Don't Want me")
13. Ρένα Στάμου-Bed of Pain
14. Γιώργιος Τράkης-Τα μάγια στο πηγάδι
Greek-speaking/-reading readers, please let me know if I've made any glaring errors in this post. I did the best I could with transliterating the song titles and performers' names; if any of you can help me, get in touch.
I know that the last track, by Giorgios Trakis, isn't rembetika, strictly speaking, but it's beautiful and deserves a wider audience.
So I'm alive and will be resuming regular posting soon. Work, school, and other such grown up endeavors have been precluding my usual levels of stupidty and/or ranting. In the meantime, have fun (or not) listening to this assemblage of tunes I put together awhile ago for a certain someone. Whatever.
1. Buzzcocks-Orgasm Addict
2. Marine Girls-In Love
3. J&M Chain-In Love
4. Sonic Death- [Cyrillic]
5. Dirty Beaches-North East Station
6. Xeno & Oaklander-Toho Picture
7. Carol-Breakdown
8. Led Er Est-Drosophilia Melanogaster
9. No Words-Futile Research
10. High Highs-Flowers Bloom
11. Velvets-I'm Set Free (Closet mix)
Oh, hi folks. Lookit me! It's November, we've got 4 more years of Mr. Kill List at the White House, and here's another installment in the ongoing Alone & Forsaken series.
I've got a whole buncha shit I been meanin' to review for dis heer blog (Preludes, Opus Null, etc. etc.) but I've been grading undergraduate exams and answering questions such as "So is it a good argument to say that the United States has lived up to its ideals in the War on Terror because we successfully and peacefully captured bin Laden?" [I'm not making this up. This is a slice of what's racing through the minds of the brilliant young Americans that call themselves my students.]. Needless to say, having fun (that is, taking painkillers, guzzling vodka, writing bad record reviews and convincing girls at bars to make out with me) has had to take a backseat to, ah, work.
Anyways, here's a beautiful slice of autumnal melancholy and misery to ease you through those tired, grey nights spent alone drinking $2 box wine 'cause yr too blitzed and gutpit depressed to think of anything creative to do with your apathy. Er, yeah.
Warning!: This is tuff tunes for tuff times that is best imbibed drunk and/or wasted on whatever shitty drugs you can find before you crawl home for the evening. Now sit alone and cry to this raw shit.
1. Beat Happening-Other Side
2. Beach House-Saltwater
3. The Velvet Underground-Candy Says (Closet Mix)
4. Tom Waits-Blind Love
5. Sun Kill Moon-Heron Blue
6. The Middle Class-Everything
7. The Mekons-Lost Highway (Hank Williams cover)
8. The Mountain Goats-Color in Yr Cheeks
9. Pink Reason-Dead End
10. J.T. IV-In the Can
11. Glass Cake-truly
12. Elliott Smith-2:45 A.M.
13. Daniel Johnston-True Love Will Find You in the End
I'm too hungover to write a real review, so this is whatcha get instead.
A lot of these songs were included on previous installments in the "Alone & Forsaken" series, but thanks to Lemaire, those are gone, soyabigdealwhatever.
That picture's actually of the Red Dons, not the Observers, but it's more or less the same band.
It starts off big, brash, and beautiful with Broken Water but by the end it's just the same 'ole galling frustration, as expressed by Portland's Criminal Damage. Sorta like an average day in these parts.
Hopefully, my brain cells whill have regrouped enough to form coherent sentences and dash off witty commentary tomorrow. Or not.
1. Broken Water-Say What's on your mind
2. Kitchen's Floor-No Love
3. The Observers-Walk Alone
4. Royal Headache-Girls
5. Wild Moth-Morning Sickness
6. Dead Moon-My Escape
7. Negative Approach-Nothing
8. Husker Du-59 Times the Pain
9. Jawbreaker-Ashtray Monument
10. Heavy Times-Alone
11. Buzzcocks-What do I get?
12. Wipers-Romeo
13. The Repos-Half a Hole
14. Government Warning-Self Destruct
15. Criminal Damage-No Solution
I just realized that Mediafire has suspended my account. Those motherfuckers didn't even send me a fucking email. Thanks a lot, you bastards. I can't explain how angry I am about this.
This means that all of the posts from 2011 now have dead links, as well as quite a few from this year. I don't have the time or patience to re-up everything. If you want a given file or mix, send me an email or leave a comment on the relevant entry and I'll reup it elsewhere. Or, if any of you wanna be sweethearts, try posting current links for dead files.
The "Alone and Forsaken" takedowns especially piss me off, since they're
semi-autobiographical in a lot of ways. Also, A&F XIII included a
track by a good friend that I was hoping would get more attention.
I'd
like to reiterate my charge that the people who run Mediafire are,
collectively, a bunch of cowards and assholes. Of course, I expect this sort of behavior from a corporation, but Mediafire is notable for their open complicity with fraudulent copyright owners, namely, LinkID and Lemaire.
Their one-way process of
kowtowing to any shitbird who sounds like a lawyer is craven and
despicable, and in any case will not save them if SOPA passes. There is no future in Mediafire's dreaming.
The way Mediafire responds to complaints, based on what I, Zen Arcade, Iamtheleastmachiavellian, and various other blogs have experienced, is to unquestioningly believe anyone who emails them with a complaint., even if the email is clearly written by a spambot or dummy corporation.
I'm using Zippyshare for all future reviews when there isn't a bandcamp link. I'm sure, however, that the purge of music blogs will eventually zero in on Zippyshare. If anyone has suggestions for more permanent solutions to this issue, now's the time to start talking.
I'm going to continue Drug Punk to the best of my ability and as time allows. The contrarian in me actually is energized by what these shitbirds are doing to the community of weirdos, loners, and music nerds that I've always aimed my writing and posts at. If all else fails, we can just go back to trading cassettes anyways.
If you run a blog or any sort of website that hosts files, you're probably going to be targeted soon, if you haven't already, by someone calling himself Lemaire, running the company LinkID. Here's the contact info:
LeakID
13, rue Greneta
75003 PARIS
Tel: +33950084207
Mobile: +33620867619
Mail: contact@leakid.com
It's that time 'o' year when it's so hot out that all you really wanna do is curl up pool- or porchside with a cold one and watch the world pass ya by.
On the offchance that, unlike me, you're in an energetic mood, here's some preemo-primo garage misery guaranteed to put a spring in yr strut if you ever get off that porch to go buy another sixer.
1. Royal Headache-Eloise
2. Brilliant Colors-I'm Sixteen
3. Heavy Times-You need a different life
4. Kitchen's Floor-116
5. X (Australia!)-Fuckin' Rockin'
6. Raspberry Bulbs-I Will Not Pretend
7. The Feeling of Love-I'm nothing but a drunk pussy
8. Tyvek-Mary Ellen Claims
9. The Brat-Leave Me Alone
10. Canadian Rifle-Cinder Block
11. Government Warning-Self Destruct
12. Raw Nerve-Dating Problems
It's 2:15 am, I've been up for about 17 hours, and I still have a few hours to go before drinking myself to sleep. It's getting to the point where I think I hear stuff in the halls of the office I work at, but then realize it's just dust settling on the fan, and I can no longer tell if it's night or morning.
In that spirit, here's a collection of spaced out, atmospheric tunes, pieces, and improvisations suited for drifting away on cosmic rays of insomnia, workaholism, and/or drug abuse.
I should also mention that this installment in "Alone and Forsaken" is partially a shameless plug for a good friend of mine. You should check out his music, here.
1. Νικκ Καβε αντ Ωαρρεν Έλλης-χάππυ Λαντ
2. John Lurie-Bella by Barlight
3. Popol Vuh-Tanz der Chassidim
4. Michael Wohl-Variations: Melatonin Blues
5. Γρουπερ-Δισενγαγεδ
6. Cavedweller-Poison II
7. Will Oldham-Do What You Will Do
8. Sun Kil Moon-Heron Bloo
9. Josephine Foster-Where There Are Trees
10. Dirty Beaches-The Death March
11. Moon Dog-Theme and variations
12. βριαν Ενώ-Αλλ θε Σταρς βερε ούτ
13. Crimewaves-Sun Rays
14. Peaking Lights-All the Sun that Shines
Hey there, folks, lookit me! I've been doing Drug Punk for a year now. That's actually quite an accomplishment, given my favored past times, and the fact that I started Drug Punk mostly as a way to act productive while being hungover.
Bigdealyeahsowhat, this is a mix to commemorate the fact that the blog's made it this far. Since the main themes surrounding Drug Punk are heartbreak, frustration, and (self-induced) misery, that's the general theme.
1. Flipper-Ever
2. The Dictaphone-Krank
3. Social Unrest-Rush Hour
4. Dusker Hoo-First of the Last Calls
5. Royal Headache-Girls
6. Buzzkox-Ever Fallen in Love?
7. Government Warning-Self Destruct
8. The Gun Klub-She's Like Heroin to Me
9. The Fagettes-You're Destroying Me
10. Wild Moth-Morning Sickness
11. Pink Reason-Livin' in the City
12. Dead Moon-Can't Help Falling in Love
13. Marine Girls-In Love
14. The Mountain Goats-Color in Yr Cheeks
15. Glass Cake-We'll work it out
1. Social Unrest-Rush Hour
2. Ultimo Resorte-Cemeterio Caliente
3. Raspberry Bulbs-I Will Not Pretend.
4. The Wipers-Over the Edge
5. The Vaselines-Son of a Gun
6. The Ropes-Down in Flames
7. Royal Headache-Eloise
8. Teenagers-I want to know
9. Tennis-Baltimore
10. Warsaw-They Walked in Line
11. The Vyllies-Ahia
*Edit, 3-1-12: I fixed the mediafire link, it should work now.*
*Obligatory preface where I apologize for not posting any of the music that's piled up in my inbox, and promise to post new stuff soon. Life's a killer, y'dig?*
We're at the tenth installment in the Alone & Forsaken mixtape series, which either means I'm an industrious little fella, or that my life hasn't taken a noticeable turn for the better, can't decide which. Hoohaw, whatever, here ya go.
1. Iggy & the Stooges-Search and Destroy
2. Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers-Born to Lose
3. Husker Du-59 Times the Pain
4. Kitchen's Floor-Lander
5. Flipper-Ever
6. The Repos-Half a Hole
7. Cold Sweat-Fuck the Flock
8. Loser Life-Hating the Sun
9. Rancid-the Bottle
10. Jawbreaker-Jinx Removing
11. Royal Headache-Girls
12. The Observers-Down on Today
13. Leatherface-Not Superstitious
Whenever possible, I'm gonna end every mix themed around crushes with a Raincoats song.
1. Heavy Times-Good Looker
2. The Brat-Swift Moves
3. The Vaselines-Rory Rides me Raw
4. Bass Drum of Death-I Could Never be Your Man
5. Ramones-I Wanna be your Boyfriend
6. Dead Moon-Can't Help Falling in Love
7. Elvis Costello-Sneaky Feelings
8. (Young) Pioneers-Port Authority Goodbyes
9. Jawbreaker-Do You Still Hate Me?
10. Husker Du-Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill
11. Black Tambourine-For Ex-Lovers Only
12. Electralane-The Greater Times
13. Beach House-Gila
14. The Raincoats-In Love
After all that year-end madness, and in lieu of posting something from the numerous new releases piling up in my inbox, here's some old American hardcore standbys from the Era of Reagan.
1. Reagan Youth-Reagan Youth
2. 7 Seconds-Fuck your Amerika
3. Middle Class-Insurgence
4. Really Red-Modern Needs
5. The Dicks-Dicks hate Police
6. Social Unrest-Rush Hour
7. Bad Religion-Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell
8. Adolescents-No Way
9. T.S.O.L.-Property is Theft
10. Circle Jerks-Live Fast Die Young
11. The Proletariat-Purge
12. N.O.T.A.-Propaganda Control
13. Negative Approach-Can't Tell No One
14. The Teen Idles-Commie Song
15. Artificial Peace-Artificial Peace
16. Youth Brigade-Moral Majority
17. Septic Death-Terror Rain
18. Citizen's Arrest-Death Threat
"When your late night friends leave you/in the cold grey dawn..."-The Rolling Stones
Hope and despair are the same damned thing. Hope consists of winged flights of absurd elation, detached from any tangible reality, that feeds on its own momentum until something triggers a crash-landing back in reality.
Despair, similarly, is a sucking void that, left to its own devices, separates you from reality and drags you down its twisting path of blackness until, ideally, one of your friends smacks you over the head and forces you to start interacting with the world again...
In that spirit, here's another chartbuster in the A&F series. I may have already put some of these songs on previous mixes, but ask me how much I care.
1. The Wipers-Doom Town
2. Middle Class-Out of My Hands
3. The Mountain Goats-Hellhound on my Trail
4. Neil Young-Tired Eyes
5. Rosa Eskenazi-That'll Teach you [Για να ξερής Αλανιάρα]
6. Tom Waits-Innocent When You Dream
7. Sun Kil Moon-Heron Blue
8. Songs:Ohia-The Black Crow
9. Pink Reason-Thrush
10. The Rolling Stones-Loving Cup
I've been wired on cheap speed and bad beer and worse coffee for the last fort-eight hours. So I hereby legally and officially disclaim any responsibility for this post. It's all on you, as Bane said in some shitty song about unit pride I loved when I was a teenager (I wish mofos on livejournal had catalogued their show in Chicago in 2003...stagedives and bro-downs with bullet belts, eat yer heart out!).
Some of y'all might take offense to the fact that Beirut is included on this mix, and follows Joe Strummer, nonetheless. Fuck you. I ain't comparing Zach Condon to the venerable Strummer legend, far from it-no one's gonna match Joe. He's a hero in deez heer parts. I just happen to think "East Harlem" sounds real good. Deal.
1. Pink Reason-Winona
2. Tom Waits-November
3. Grazhdanskaya Oborona-Ej, babica blevani!
4. Joe Strummer-Good Times Role (Rude Boy outtake, Joe Strummer solo!)
5. Beirut-East Harlem
6. Glass Cake-Friend Forever
7. The Mekons-Garage D'or
8. The Scrotum Poles-Night Train
9. Elvis Depressedly-Turn Blue
10. Dirty Beaches-North West Sea
11. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis-Moving On
12. Popol Vuh-Selig sind die, die da hungern
13. Eluvium-Requiem on Frankfort Ave.
p.s.-Bands/musicians that have been sending me stuff-I'll post reviews of your material soon, shit's been hitting the fan here at Drug Punk HQ lately.
I got falling-down drunk tonight and won't remember most of whatever it was I did tomorrow. In that spirit, this installment in the A&F series wallows full on in the moronic '90s revival currently sweeping the nation.
Whereas everyone else (including me, usually) is fixated on shoegaze and grunge, this mix goes trawling through the monument to quiet, defiant failure that was the '90s punk scene.
I haven't listened to most of this stuff since I was, at the oldest, 17. Looking back, the early '90s were a much more innocent time in the punk scene: these bands wore their hearts on their sleeves, unabashedly and without the violently nihilistic, sneering tone that's dominated DIY punk since the early '00s. Los Crudos should be on here somewhere, but I lost their discography a long time ago. Two of the songs are not from the '90s, but thematically and emotionally belong there. The last one is a surprise. Dig it.
1. Jawbreaker-Kiss the Bottle
2. Crimpshrine-Second Generation Junkies
3. Smoking Popes-Not that kind of girlfriend
4. Fugazi-Merchandise
5. Operation Ivy-the Crowd
6. (Young) Pioneers-The Guns of New Year's Eve
7. Filth-The List
8. ihatemyself-Conversations with Dr. Seussicide
9. Some Velvet Sidewalk-Cat & Mouse
10. Black Tambourine-For Ex-Lovers Only
11. Crash & Brittany-It is Chemistry
12. Lorelei-Sometimesmethinks
13. Glass Cake-Foster City
14. Electrelane-To the East
15. a surprise.
