Notes

Thrasher Magazine, Feb, 2003

FROM THE UNDERGROUND.

A COUPLE QUICK REISSUES to get things started: The first is Electric Frankenstein's Listen Up Baby. Originally on Man's Ruin as a 10", the TKO CD has bonus tracks culled from 7's as well. It came out only five years ago, but this shit deserves a resurfacing because it simply rocks. Steve Miller on vocals throughout, some of the best EF ever... Now to really go back in time: check out The X-Ray Spex Plastic Fantastic LP. Recorded in 1978, it's London studio sessions of this British proto-punk/wave band, fronted by Poly Styrene (who later went Krishna and abandoned her prior lifestyle). While most of the rest of the early punk movement was concerned with looking, acting and singing tough, the Spex joined more lighthearted contemporaries like The Rezillos and The Undertones, and poked fun at society at large with songs like "Warrior in Woolworths" and "The Day the World Turned Dayglo." Awesome stuff...Looking for straight-forward searing HC that ranks with Christ on a Crutch for fury and Die Kreuzen's first for feedback crunch? Ruination's been around for awhile, and this vinyl EP, shaped like a map of the US, was recorded in Germany and is on Youth Attack Records outta SD, CA. Look no further...Perhaps someone has slipped me an Ex-Lax and valium cocktail. What else to explain my compulsion for a gut-level shitter and the melted-into-the-couch feeling. Oh, maybe it's the new Spits self-titled EP that I'm listening to, on Slovenly records. It's got some low keyboard gut rumbling, and the upbeat but somehow down tunes will leave you copacetic as fuck. Arghl Pass the Robitussin!. . .How many records can The Lost Sounds put out in one year? A prolific band, their newest is Rat's Brains and Micro chips on eMpTy Records. The organ and cello enhanced soundtrack to the apocalypse continues, these guys are a must-see... One apocalypse not enough for you? Double up and get the new LP by The Hunches (Yes. No. Shut it.) on In the Red Records. Your stomach will drop to the floor and your mom will go into convulsions upon hearing this screaming slab a' wax. Dirty, filthy, noisy, it's a flicking mess...From Brooklyn comes The Bad Luck Charms, street-level, '77 and snotty. Great old-style punk, with former members of the US Bombs and Nuns. Check out the Rich Girl 7" on TKO... .Also on TKO is the new Stitches 7" Automatic. More of the same top notch punk rock and roll, and the B-side's got a Child Molesters coverl Look for a new LP (12 Imaginary Inches) soon.. .On the live front, just saw The Blood Brothers from Seattle, They got a catchy nouveau hardcore/noise thing going on, with trade-off vocals that range from screaming and ranting to a kind of helium-and-speed mix. They've got few CDs out, like their March on Electric Children on Three.one.g Records, and a new one coming out on Artist Direct...

--Wes Lundry

So they didn't come through your town this Fall, but the latest Jets To Brazil LP (this one's more like a double, really) Perfecting Loneliness on Jade Tree is Just the thing all y'all backpatchers need to get through some perfectly lonely upcoming Winter nights--and hey, if you fancy yourself some sorta music a-fishy-o-nado, you types need to pick this up as well. All the best songsters eventually turn to the keys, right? A guitar can wear out its welcome I suppose, and these latest offerings from Blake and Co. split the written difference between the two no-better instruments for making music. Long, long ballads and straight-up rockers--seems Blake characterized this record to Jawbreaker drummer Adam Pfahler as an album of "last songs." You know, the sad numbers are always saved for last. Speaking of Adam, his Blackball Records label just put out a rarities Jawbreaker collection called Etc. Hurts so good at first, it's a real nice representation of the band's chronology with written, song-by-song commentary by the trio and penned by Mr Cometbus. By the way, the rights to Dear You have been secured by Blackball... All we've got say about the Nirvana "Greatest Hits" collection (read: singles plus one) is that you guys are technologically advanced and Courtney's pockets are heavy enough, so break out the burner and start with "Scoff," "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter," "School" and others. You can keep "Sliver" on there guess... Al from the great SS Decontrol sent us some SSD shirts (same ones that Krist Novoselic used to wear, yeah segue) and is playing bass on a new project called Gage, filled with Seattle-isms and East-coast-isms and Pegboy-isms for good measure. Represent Boston Crew, it's a rocker on XCLAIM records... Asphalt Jungle, Electro Avenue; duo with storied past in the electro/chem house drop beats and bottom end with speed, topped by hella scooped gits and light-speed samples, all from the good folks at Roir... Future Farmer just sent former-Dieselhed Virgil Shaw's new album called Still Falling. Steepe d in our folk and the blues, it's a good one for you, Dad, good one for you, Dad, good one for cryin' in the Pabst at The Old Dog House... On that sweet note and to sum it all up, listen to the over-ground Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, you ain't heard nothin' this good in years...