Month: October 2008

The Lord’s Burning Rain

Another choice taste of Humboldt, Ca from my bro Jeff the Leftoverking, giving us a glimpse of what’s going on up there these days.

The Lord’s Burning Rain could be a reference to Genesis 19:24 (Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven), but I don’t know that these guys intended that reference.  Interesting what the Skeptics Annotated Bible had to say about that passage, “God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining “fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.” Well, almost everyone — he spares the “just and righteous” Lot and his family. Although many Christians consider this story to be a condemnation of homosexuality, others disagree.”

That was a little bit of a tangent there because the reality is these guys really put out some heavy rockin music.  The tunes I have here are rough mix stuff from a session they did with Jeff.  My personal favorite is the tune Alien Brood.  Now this is what I like to hear coming out of Humboldt.  The North Coast Journal calls them a “psyche-metal band” and “adventure metal”…hahaha…I wish I was up with the many genres of metal there now are. Let me know what you think and if you dig them be sure and check out their page at, Myspace…

Alien Brood
Ice Breath Of The Snow Bear
My Turkish Bride
Rachel’s Song

Couch Of Eureka – Year Of The Zombie

big comfy couchEDIT: This post was whack and needed completely redone, to pay homage to yet another one of the great ones to come out of Humboldt County California. (08/18/18)

Another Saturday night, and not much going on except for this. No head phones tonight, got the tunes blasting, which around her could happen anytime within a 24 hour period. I don’t sleep for shit anyway, so when I don’t, may as well spin some records. So much to spin, I don’t know how many records I have, maybe 2000, but I did finally order some proper storage units from IKEA. It’ll be so much easier to access that one specific record my little brain tells me to play at whatever moment…ahhh haaa!

PETE - by Lamar MilesWhat Humboldt post wouldn’t without a pic of Pete.  Photo by Lamar Miles, a Humboldt denizen, I don’t think I’ve had the please of meeting, he took a helluva good picture. I did meet Pete of course, his squeaky Spanish accent stands out in my memory, but nothing else. I wonder if he’s still around?
Couch of EurekaSo, Couch of Eureka…listening to this fantastic album as I type. They started playing as I was making my exit from Humboldt County, so I don’t recollect ever seeing them play. They were featured here at the Relics before on the Behind the Redwood Curtain 7″. There a nice write up on Sonic Hits…”Originally penned “Couch,” Couch of Eureka was a punk band that formed in the summer of ’93 in the burned-out industrial town Eureka, CA. The group consisted of Sara Gambin (vocals), Bandon Taylor (drums), Brandon Bay (guitar), and Chris Colland (vocals). Colland was meanwhile several other bands of local fame such as the Cosmetic Puffs (with Aaron Cometbus), Thee Audio Lobotomies (with Ethan Miller), Audio Wreck, Eureka Garbage Company, Heroin Glowbugs, and Hookah. Having lost their drummer but gained his cousin Kris Cunningham, they put out some modest recordings, and subsequently embarked on a few small tours, the band was eventually forced to add the suffix “of Eureka” to their moniker when they faced a possible lawsuit by the Ann Arbor, MI. band of the same name. Couch of Eureka soon signed to Lookout! Records, then run by founder Larry Livermore, and in 1995 released their debut 7” entitled “This Life?” which included a cover of Wire’s “Three Girl Rhumba.” A year later they released their full length, Year of the Zombie, which was produced by Greg Freeman, a man known for having worked with groups such as Smog, Pell Mell, and The Thinking Fellers Local Union 242. The vinyl issue of “Year of the Zombie” was limited to 1000 copies, while the CD version contained 4 of the 5 recordings previously released on their 7″. Later in ’96 they contributed their track “I got the Boom” to the Lookout! Records compilation “Heidi Sez…” which included tracks by artists such as Mr. T Experience, Groovie Ghoulies, The Queers, and Pansy Division.”
CoE
I remember Sara Gambin (Sister of the late great Chris Gambin), we took a music class together I think she also played the saxophone. A wonderful person and like the rest of the band, extremely talented. I did some looking ’round on the interwebs, and hmmm, the Lookout Records link to the band is dead (wonder if there’s a story behind that. Hangover Heart Attack has this record for download from way back when I originally wrote the shit that was this post. I don’t know what to call these guys, discogs lists them as Alternative Rock, Garage Rock, Punk…hahhahaah, I would never list a band as alt rock unless I didn’t want you to listen to ’em…they are definitely not that! I think where I’ll leave it at, is 90’s post-punk like you could only get from Humboldt County…

Numb And Screwed
Year Of The Zombie
I’m In Trouble
Ego Train
I Got The Boom
Songs
Furs
Styx Bridge Toll
Go Get Your Own Death
Oh

Halloween Rant

Drunk O Ween This picture seems to be circulating again now that Halloween is around the corner and it made me glad that I’m not a drunk anymore.  Drink, throw up, hangover, the next morning, start the cycle over.  It’s been a little over 3 years now that I haven’t had a drink and for me that’s reason enough to celebrate.  My life has drastically changed for the better since then and I would say that my whole way of thinking is different (if you can call it thinking).  Before I was a slave to the bottle and now I am a slave to nothing.  I have my wife, my son, my family, my friends and my animals.  Reason enough to enjoy each and every day.  Cheers to all of you (I sincerely mean that) who can drink and get up the next morning without wanting to get drunk again.  Beware though, there is a fine line between someone who gets drunk and is a drunk, and in my case I found out too late.  Okay enough preaching.  Thanx to all of you who have stood by me through the sand and the boulders.

zombie Around here Halloween is our favorite holiday, one we actually decorate for.  I think it should be a day off from work, more so than 4th of July, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.  In this neck of the woods, smack dab in the middle of the bible belt, you get a lot of right wing Christians who have a problem with Halloween celebrations.  As has become custom around here, I commit the falacy of appealing to authority and I link you to Wikipedia. Here’s their general take on Halloween, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween .  I don’t like the capitalist end of the gig but what can you do about that except do your own thing.  For me it is a spiritual time, maybe not in some time honored sense but just the “feeling” that it just is.  My wife and I are, as it is, horror freaks and have an ever increasing horror movie collection.  That sick sense that attracts us to well delivered gore.  Even a little comedy thrown in, to turn it to satire works well.  “Feast” we recently saw, with Henry Rollins in the cast was a good one.  We get most of our movies through someone else’s window, if you know what I mean, but we did buy that one.  At the same time a bad horror movie can be extremely disappointing.  For instance, do not waste your time on “Haunted Highway”.  Any favorites or recomendations you all have?

Cisco Off the Halloween topic, the old lady and I were driving around the other day listening to the classic rock radio station we usually listen to and War’s Cisco Kid came on.  I need to dig out my old tape of theirs from the 70’s and do a proper post on them.  I know those guys are known for the song Low Rider but man Cisco Kid is just so damn good.  Check it out if you don’t believe me, Cisco Kid.  Well?  In looking around it was their highest charting tune at #2 in 1972.  I guess this month they came out with a live record, which is the first in quite a few years.  I saw them at the San Diego Street Scene about 15 years ago but I don’t remember much (because I was drunk).  It makes me think of Parliment and Funkadelic, but I’ll bore you guys with a post or two of those bands another time.

Jazz13 As you can tell this is kind of a random, wandering post and actually I’d be surprised if you made it this far.  If you’ve been reading what I’ve been writting for almost a year now you know that I’ve mentioned jazz a few times.  I haven’t done a straight or fusion jazz post yet but I did run across this tune, Mystery Jazz.  I had been ripping some poorly labeled tapes and this tune (or is it just part of a tune) popped up out of nowhere on the tape.  Pretty intense stuff especially if you like drum solos.

trick or treat Instead of a trick, I am going to give you a treat.  Here’s a Mustard Relics Mix of stuff I have found both here and on other blogs.  Mostly hardcore like this blog but I have wandered a bit as well.  49 tunes and 77 minutes, so it should fit on a CDR, to blast at your convenience.  Maybe to get you pumped on your way to work, or if you can, maybe at work to annoy your co-workers.  Pretty random and in no particular order, like me, but I like every tune on here and maybe you will too.  This mix goes out to the dead drunk guy, killed walking across the highway that Match and I found on Halloween about 15 years ago.  Happy Halloween yall.

Shower Of Smegma – Demos

First LutheranI went to a pretty small private elementary school growing up, over on 6th and Shatto in L.A.  The alternative would have been Commonwealth Elementary, where I went to summer school but it just was not known for educating kids.  For the most part the kids all got along, even though the poor kids (me) were seperated in classes from the rich kids.  I liked everyone though and between there and soccer at Fairfax High, I had a lot of friends.  My two best friends though were Roy Miyake and Alex Wallace.  We stayed friends after I moved to the valley for junior high and shared a common love for music.  Alex was a true genius and played several instruments well before he was even 14.  We tended to go to jazz shows together(Return To Forever, Dizzy Gilespy, Alan Holdsworth, etc.  I’ll have to do some posts on those bands sometime (which I think I’ve mentioned before).  We lost touch though while he was living in Beverly Hills and the rumor was he went goth and killed himself.  I hope that’s not true, he was so talented and was a really good person.  Roy was also a lover of music but him and I tended to go to harder shows (Slayer, Black Flag, etc.).  He ended up moving to Brentwood while his parents ran a sushi restaurant.  He hung out with a whole different crowd, which meant that I was exposed to stuff I may not have been.  Shower of Smegma was one of those bands I was intruduced to from his crowd of friends.  Roy and I actually did all kinds of shit, like take acid for our first time together.  I remember watching Song Remains The Same and really tripping.  I may have mentioned it before but him, two of his friends (maybe a Smegma guy), my bro Deustche and I got shot at when we were exploring the Manson caves.  So many stories I could half way share.

SOS1S.O.S. (Shower Of Smegma, Screams Of Sanity) were my age and had been playing since they were about 14 during the early 80’s in and around Hollywood.  I don’t even know how well they are known outside of that scene, but if you don’t know them you should.  I got to see them with several other bands, at least twice.  Once at Skull Rock (don’t ask me where that is because I don’t remember) and once at a party out in Palisades.  One of my favorite bands from that time period and I really played the hell out of the tape I got this music from.  Historic as far as I’m concerned but you can read (and hear) more about them here, http://pjdmusic.com/sos/ and here, http://www.myspace.com/showerofsmegma .  A while back I did an internet search to see if I could find Roy, but I had very little luck.  In fact all I found out was that he had played bass in a band called Oblitasaurus.  In that search though I did find Ed Gregor, the singer of S.O.S.  (who has been in several notable bands since).  He told me that the last he heard of Roy was that he was in a Buddhist Monastary 10 years ago in San Francisco.  I had met Ed a few times but I don’t think he remembers that.  Anyway he helped me out with a track listing on these and set me up with some other links.  He ended up playing in another band that was pretty good, No Use For A Name, along with, Hegehog (http://www.myspace.com/hedgehogspace) that just did a reunion thing recently and his current band I Want Out (http://www.myspace.com/iwantoutrock).  Super cool guy with some super cool music, I hope you guys take some time to check that out.  He also runs a little label here, http://pjdmusic.com and here, http://www.myspace.com/pjdmusiclabel .  On top of the song titles, Ed gave me some notes on each of these recordings which I’ve included with the music.  I’ve babbled on enough so let’s get to the music.

SOS_1

The first demo on there is our 4th demo we did, I think. It was recorded by Steve Tounsand (of mustard) in 1984 or ’85.

Tracks 9-17 were recorded by Phil Neuman (bassist of Sin 34 and Painted Willie) at his and Dave Markey (drummer Sin 34/Painted Willie, went on to be a film director of Teenage Lovedoll Superstars, The Year Punk Broke, etc.) recording studio called Spinhead Studios. It was recorded in early 1984 I believe and was our 6th demo we did.

EDIT: Unfortunately I/we lost the tracks when two things happened, first I gave up the server space I was renting and my hard drive crashed…that’s life in the fast lane, baby

Jesus Lizard

Jesus DinoWas looking for cover art on this post, so yall wouldn’t have to suffer through my pics with my crappy digital camera.  Yeah still no scanner.  I found this picture and was kind of chuckling, but it fits in fairly well.  On another blog a guy was saying he was going to vote for McCain/Palin and someone was saying that she believed that Jesus walked with the dinosaurs.  Or was it Moses?
A little further on I found this flyer up for sale on ebay and was chuckling again.  I am a spiritual person but the idea that the earth is only 5 or 6 thousand years old just baffles me.  So limiting.  I don’t know I guess I don’t need to get into a spiritual or philosophical discussion.  Around here though that is a pretty popular belief.  You tell me.
Jes LizDid a post of these guys not too long ago, but didn’t really have too much to say.  I guess you either know them or you don’t, but if you don’t you should.  If you are a fan of the jazzy punk kind of sound like No Means No or Victims Family you should dig these guys.  I can’t remember if these guys played in Nor Cal when I was up there or not but it was about that time in the late 80’s that I got into them.  I’d probably have to credit one of my old guitar players, Ed, for that.  On this 7″ you get one song off an album (a different version) and a Dicks cover.  If you have followed this site from way back you know I love it when great bands cover great bands.  This site, The Jesus Lizard has a lot more info on the band than I could ever spit up, so check that out.  Wikipedia always seems to make a decent read, here .  They actually call them noise rock and it wasn’t until I read that, that I found out there was a Scratch Acid connection.  What the hell do I know anyway?  Actually I know some pretty decent music, so here it is.