Junk - Continuation of Madness

Continuation of Madness is the third and final album by Bay Area acid-skronk quartet Junk, released in 1997 on their own Faffco Records label. The core trio of David Robbins (baritone sax), David Schumacher (guitar), and Frank Swart (bass) is intact from the previous album, while former drummer Diego Voglino is replaced by Malcolm Peoples. (See the previous entry for a full band bio.) The band's postpunk influences are on display here: "Ascending Thirds" is a fantasia on Liquid Liquid's immortal "Cavern" bass riff, and "Tippy Top" sounds like a lost SLAB! track. The full track list is:

01-Continuation of Madness
02-F U, Frank!
03-Stoppin' in Gilroy
04-Ascending Thirds
05-Stratesphere
06-Chutney con Carne
07-Leslie B
08-Tippy Top
09-Kojak Girl
10-Bowleeged Otis
11-Foreign Relations
12-Jive Picnic
13-Win Some, Lose Some
14-The Spoiling Kids
15-Junk

Malcolm Peoples was in turn replaced by Ian "Inkx" Herman; that lineup lasted for only a year and did not result in an album. Junk disbanded; Robbins, Schumacher, and Herman continued as Post Junk Trio, releasing four albums between 2001 and 2007. The last, Chinatown, is in print and readily available for purchase in mp3 format. The first three are more elusive, and may eventually grace these pages. In the meantime, get the Continuation of Madness CD rip here or here.

Junk - Kiss My Acid Jazz

Junk were an instrumental four-piece band who made music somewhere in the borderlands of acid jazz and skronk; the rhythms were too smooth for skronk, but David Robbins' baritone sax was too edgy for acid jazz. The band's bio from their seemingly abandoned website (last updated April, 2001) reads:

JUNK has been called a jazz band, a funk band, a jazzy-funk band, a funky-jazz band, an "anything but jazz" band, even (horrors!) an acid jazz band. While critics can't agree on how to define them, the listeners & dancers who have heard and seen JUNK will usually agree on this: they have a talent for moving their audiences (body and soul) and they do it intelligently, confidently, and without getting hung up on the labels others try to hang on them. Call it what you like--it swings, it grooves and occasionally it goes off the deep end. But label it, and the music will punch a hole through the box you tried to put it in.

JUNK's beginning can be traced back to 1988 when Dave Schumacher (guitar) and David Robbins (baritone sax) roomed together at Boston's Berklee College of Music, while Schumacher played with Frank Swart (bass) in a band that was to have a significant influence on JUNK. Six years later they all met again in the Bay Area and hooked up with Malcolm Peoples, the local drummer of choice for numerous funk/hip hop acts. Their first CD, JUNK was born out of jams worked out in a smoke-filled rehearsal space. The buzz got going right away. "A solid album," said Stepjazz magazine, "which really shows the possibilities of this music and this band." Urb agreed. "Quite against the pretty boy space cowboy pseudo-funkateer pretenders, they are willing to funk themselves into a cold sweat without apology or gimmickry."

Following tours of the West Coast, the band entered the studio with Philip Steir of Consolidated to record Kiss My Acid Jazz. A more varied CD than the first, KMAJ 's jazz/funk mix was spiced with some experimental cuts that raised a few eyebrows but also brought them critical praise, and national radio airplay. JUNK was nominated in the Outstanding Jazz Band and Jazz Album categories of the 1997 Bay Area Music Awards (Bammies).

The "band that was to have a significant influence on JUNK" would be Morphine, whose defining "low rock" sound is echoed in Junk's heavy bass-and-baritone-sax orientation. Get the CD rip of Junk's second album, Kiss My Acid Jazz (Faffco Records FAFFCD-02), here or here; check back in a week or so for their third and final album. (Have a rip of the first? Please let me know, I'm looking for one.)

Jon Butcher Axis - Stare At The Sun

The All Music Guide entry for Jon Butcher reads:

Jimi Hendrix disciple Jon Butcher achieved some moderate chart success in the mid-'80s as the singer/guitarist for the Jon Butcher Axis. Coming out of the Boston club scene in the early '80s, the Butcher Axis (which also included members Chris Mann [Chris Martin, actually] on bass and Derek Blevins on drums), issued such albums as 1983's self-titled debut, 1984's Stare at the Sun, and 1985's Along the Axis (Butcher dropped the Axis for such releases as 1986's Wishes and 1989's Pictures From the Front), opened for local Boston heroes the J. Geils Band in addition to other harder-edged bands, and issued a few singles that enjoyed some success on radio and MTV -- "Wishes," "Goodbye Saving Grace," and "Life Takes a Life." Butcher continued issuing solo albums in the '90s -- Positively the Blues (1995) and Electric Factory (1996) -- while a hits compilation (1998's The Best Of: Dreamers Would Ride) and an archival concert (1999's King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents) were also issued. In addition to his musical career, Butcher founded the Electric Factory Recording Studio, which focuses primarily on film, TV, and multimedia work. (Greg Prato)

According to Wikipedia, "Jimi Hendrix disciple" is a bit of an overstatement:

"If you grew up in the era of Jimi Hendrix as I did it would be nearly impossible NOT to be influenced by his brilliance and amazing facility as a guitar player. To be sure, my early impressions of the Jimi Hendrix Experience were completely life altering, but so too were my impressions of Albert King. Jeff Beck was and remains a constant source of inspiration, and working with Jeff on the MTV/ VH-1 video Ambitious remains an all time high." Jon also lists among his influences Richie Havens, John Lennon Bob Dylan and Keith Richards. While Butcher is humbled by the Hendrix comparisons he emphasizes that they may be superficial. " Being black and playing a Stratocaster might lead one to assume Jimi was my sole influence but that wouldn't be true. Like most musicians, in fact like most people we're a complex mix of a lot of things."

The 1984 album Stare At The Sun contains nine original compositions and a cover of Bill Nelson's "Eros Arriving" from his groundbreaking album The Love That Whirls. Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Onyx - Call of the Wild and Jet Set singles

Last July I posted a rip of a 1982 cassette by Onyx, an obscure Boston-area New Wave band. Their two 45s had long eluded me, but last week a generous reader provided me rips of them. (Thanks, Martin!) They are:

• Call of the Wild b/w S.O.S.
• Jet Set b/w Saturn 09

"S.O.S." and "Jet Set" appear on the cassette as well, but these vinyl rips obviously have better sound quality. "Call of the Wild" and "Saturn 09" round out the Onyx canon with more of the same sweet blend of minimal electronics and heavy basslines. Martin has also provided nice scans of the sleeves. The back cover of "Jet Set" contains the most information about the band I have yet seen: production and copyright credits are for Judd Stone and vocals are by "Beveur." The songs were recorded and mixed the The Loft in Boston and engineered by M.J. Klein. Web searches have turned up no more information on these people; does anyone out there know of them and their pre- and post-Onyx endeavors?

Get the vinyl rips here or here.

Onyx - four-song cassette, 1982

One of the great lost bands of the new wave era is Boston-area Onyx, unmentioned in any online music guide, unrepresented in the online music marketplace but for a single 7" 45 of "Call of the Wild" b/w "S.O.S." on GEMM (as of this writing). Between 1981 and 1983 they released just two singles and a four-song cassette that included two songs from the single releases, all on their own Nu-Age label. They sound like a three-piece: acoustic drums (sometimes phase-shifted), a heavy electric bass that serves as the lead instrument, and keyboards that create a spacey atmosphere; the overall effect is of a more beat-heavy Krautrock. The female vocalist does not sing, but whispers or recites a narrative over the driving instrumental backing. "S.O.S." is particularly infectious:



Presented here is a rip of the cassette, the full track listing being:

1. S.O.S.


2. Robot World


3. Jet Set


4. Planet X

Total playing time is about 23 minutes. I don't have the actual cassette handy, so the picture above is just a reconstruction; there was no cover art. Update 9/3/08: I found the tape! The actual cassette is now pictured above.

Update 3/7/09: The two Onyx 45's are now posted here.

Update 1/6/11: see comments for new links.

Richard Toro and John Orsi - Music for Bass and Drumset

This may be the most obscure album I've put up so far: a 1985 live-in-the-studio set by Boston musicians Richard Toro (bass) and John Orsi (drumset), released on Lilith Records. From the press release:

Richard Toro and John Orsi have seen service together in two Providence quartets: 'Tightrope' and 'The Parents'. From there, Richard went onto co-charter the adventurous 'Ante M' who recorded an excellent cassette sampler for Lilith before disbanding last year.

John Orsi, upon relocating to Boston, teamed up with Ann Arbor's 'It Play' who had also recently switched locales. John took leave of absence after eighteen months to develop this lp with Richard and to begin recording his first solo disc. John maintains an active catalog of solo releases on the Lilith label which have garnered him critical acclaim from both print and radio media. The double single 'Can You Draw Attention' is widely considered his finest effort to date.

I really liked Orsi's "Noisy Data" single, but I haven't heard it in over twenty years; if you have it, would you kindly rip it and send it along? Music for Bass and Drumset should not be mistaken for improvisatory noodling, as there are definite song structures in place, with progressions and dynamics that were obviously thought out beforehand. It's rare for bass and drums to take center stage, and Toro and Orsi take advantage of the setup to present a surprising range of styles and textures. Don't worry, there are some funky beats lurking within the album's nine tracks. Get the vinly rip here or here.

New Models - Sight and Sound

Boston-based new wave band New Models released one single ("Permanent Vacation") and a five-song EP, Sight and Sound (PVC Records, 1983). I've never managed to find a copy of the single, but I've had the EP for twenty-odd years. The band was led by Casey Lindstrom (guitar, vocals, synthesizer, songwriting) and also included Steven Thurber (synthesizer, machines, vocals) and Michael Johnson (drums). Lindstrom was already a veteran of the Boston club scene, having previously been a member of The Jets, Easy Action, and others. (There are some fun pics of those early years on his sister's website, Boston Groupie News.) He would later be part of Ric Ocasek's touring band, and then went on to form punk/metal band Shake the Faith. But in 1983 "new wave" was the order of the day, and Sight and Sound is a competent stab at it. The hooks are undeniable, and while the whole thing threatens to slip into AOR cliché at any moment, it never quite does. The overall sound bears a strong resemblance to John Foxx-era Ultravox (especially Systems of Romance), though Lindstrom can't touch Foxx's visionary lyrics. Get it here or here.

Update (4/1): I found mp3's of "Permanent Vacation" on two blogs:
Reckless Country Soul
Killed By Death Records