Vinyl: January 1998
Archived
Chixdiggit!
“Chupacabras” / “20 Times”
Honest Don’s
Chixdiggit are no longer with the once mighty SubPop. Honest Don’s picked them up and the single is a preview of a forthcoming full length. The A-side is about sucking a goat or something. Your basic pop-punk from a band of specialists.
Stella Brass
Figure Eights and Heart Shapes
“Learning To Swim” / “Fine Day For The Lake”
Culvert Records
Stella Brass lost the trumpet for the new single. The four piece present for the session created two moody pieces using water as a metaphor for emotional entanglement. The poetry is a literate explanation of the most intense human experience and the desire to help, protect and save those encountered during the mating dance. In the end each person is alone, the beast with two backs always separates and Stella Brass captures it all with plaintive words and music.
NOFX
“All Of Me” / “The Desperation’s Gone”
Fat Wreck Chords
It had to happen sooner or later. NOFX interprets a depressing standard in typical fashion. The desperation lasts about two minutes before flip time. NOFX is glad that all of them were taken because freedom is the replacement.
Probe!
“Microscopic”/”Touch Me”
Trajectory Records
Devo lives! The single is divided into a “boy side” and a “girl side.” The girl makes the boy feel small — microscopic on the “boy side.” Blondie lives! The “girl side” has the girl begging the boy to touch her in spite of his smallness. Weren’t the ’80s great? Is there a need to relive them?
The Boss Martians vs. The Surf Trio
“Martian Stomp,” “Ape Hangers” / “Fog Lifter,” “Wine, Wine, Wine”
Blood Red Vinyl
Here’s one to fully dig. There are wrestlers on the front cover and a wrestler in a mask on the rear. The format is “battle of the bands” and the music is surf. The record has me wishing for an antique jukebox or a battery operated record player. WIth a jukebox I could load 50 45s and listen all day. With a battery operated turntable I could take my records downtown and offend all the mall-rats. I love this shit a hell of a lot more than I love Happy Days. Give the win to the Surf Trio. “Wine, Wine, Wine” indeed.
The Jimmies
Cheap
“Cheap,” “El Paso”/ “Already Wasted”
Blood Red Vinyl
What can I say? The first song is about drinking. It’s trashy, it’s shitty garage punk and it’s a record. Bad attitudes and we don’t care about losing our guitar on El Paso. The Jimmies aren’t sensitive. If you are, go listen to your Cure records.
Vida
“Remember Me” / “Race Car”
Vida
Vida presents more moody rock about relationships and the loneliness surrounding them. Isn’t anyone happy these days? “I love, I breathe, I crave misery.” “There is no vacancy when you are empty.” The girl vocals are more reminiscent of early punk rock Go Go’s than the X the band references.
78 RPM’s
“The Longest Way Home” / “21st Street Bash,” “Leg Picked Fly”
Dill Records
Oh boy, punk ska. The “third wave.” “The Longest Way Home” is 78 RPM’S attempt at radio. How many ska bands can fit on a radio play list. The tunes for the party reside on the flip. No Doubt a lot of Provo/ Orem’s ska kids have rich daddies with a “Seaburg” in the “family room.” Sneak some booze in, have a big party and destroy the “family room with the 78 RPM’S.
Unbelievable Jolly Machine
“This Is My Life” / “Bitter”
Mutagenic Records
Incredibly enough, after listening to the 78 RPM’S, the Unbelievably Jolly Machine checks in with punk heavily influenced by ska. They aren’t as happy because their daddies don’t have the Seaburg in the family room. Actually they probably don’t have daddies. Daddy ran away with the secretary and mummy raised them. Punk rock with a ska beat and it’s from Minneapolis with a “cool” sticker.
The Church Keys
“Viva Viva Rock And Roll” / “Peephole,” “Staggerin”
Norton
Now here’s a band interested in tone. The genre is trashy garage rock with a rockabilly approach, but the tones the boys coax from their guitars are what rock ‘n’ roll memories are made of. The flip is a dirty blues. Production on this number makes all the difference. Tube amps, bullet mikes, analog, analog analog! “Staggerin” is a raunchy instrumental featuring Lars Espensen on sax. Jitterbug to this shit, fool.
Gene Summers
Record Date
“Fancy Dan,” “Nervous” / “Gotta Lotta That,” “Twixteen”
Norton
Norton dug up some Gene Summers’ demo recordings for this ‘50s style EP. “Fancy Dan” kicks off side A in mighty fancy fashion. THe song has never been released. “Nervous” is as familiar as “Anarchy In The U.K.” to SLUG readers I’m sure. When the punk rock girl walks by and the hands get sweaty, the heart starts pounding and the blood starts pumping into the groin area – that’s what Gene Summers was describing back in ‘58. “Baby I need some lovin’ from you.” The flip has demos of two more famous Summers’ songs. Sexual tension was what Summers was all about. Mortgage the house, pawn the car title, write to Norton at Box 646 Cooper Station, New York, NY 10003 and the cats will send a catalog filled with hot wax as it should be.
Now for a whole stack of trash.
The Volcanos
“Wine, Wine” / “Girls, Girls, Girls”
Get Hip
Reach Get Hip at P.O. Box 666 Canonsburg, Pa 15317. For the second time in the last hour a band checks in with a cover of “Wine, Wine Wine.” “Girls, Girls, Girls” is all surf. No, don’t think of the Beach Boys or Jan & Dean. Think of the Queers. Harmonies, guitar solos, drums, waves! The next time some “critic” writes about the perfect pop song, mention “Girls, Girls, Girls.”
The Volcanoes
Musica Pro Proximum Millennium
“Pompeii”/ “War Drums,” “Where It’s Happening”
Estrus
Oops. How did this Estrus title sneak in here? P.O. Box 2125, Bellingham, WA 98227. The Estrus platter is all twang and reverb. It will all end in two years. Prepare for the end with big waves of surf guitars and sing “Where It’s Happening” when it all comes down, but don’t forget the wine and the girls.
Sloppy Seconds
“Come Back Traci” / “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane”
Get Hip
Call Sloppy Seconds gutter pop punk. The cover alone is worth checking out. These sick fuckers choose to cover John Denver‘s “Leaving On A Jet Plane.” “Leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again.” That’s mean.
The Sugar Freaks
“Summer time” / “I Feel Alright”
Dionysus
P.O. Box 1975, Burbank, CA 91507. Two songs celebrating summertime fun are perfect for the dead of winter. The A-side features Dionysus copying a Liberty Records label. For the B-side they copied Mercury. Anyone believing The Muffs are the word in girl pop punk is ordered to discover the Sugar Freaks. Pure excellence in pressed vinyl trash.
The Fabulous Mach Kung-Fu
“Spicy Drum” / “Rockin ‘ At The Phil”
Dionysus
Japanese bands trapped in America’s past usually beat out the originals. The Fabulous Mach Kung-Fu kick girl group (think The Shangri-Las) on the A-side and then proceed to blend a big Grady Martin guitar into the grit of a beach pressed into a piece of paper used for smoothing. Massive!
Cobra Verde / Leaving Trains
“For My Woman” / “Five Years Ahead Of My Time”
Get Hip
Deadbolt loaf’s Steve Vai‘s meat is a description of Cobra Verde’s selection. The Leaving Trains hot wire The Reverend Horton Heat‘s bus and take it on a psilocybin slide.
The Countbackwurds
“Sorry Charlie” / “The Alligator”
Telstar Records.
P.O. Box 1123, Hoboken NJ 07030. The Countbackwurds do exactly that. “Sorry Charlie” sounds like it was recorded using a primitive reel to reel in a church basement. The same holds true for “The Alligator.” The record is charming. ’60s retro isn’t popular and it never will be.
Pilsner/Liverball
“Monster Inside My Head” / “Liar”
Get Hip
Too often Get Hip is stereotyped as a “garage” label. This split proves how wrong the stereotype is. Sure the genre is punk, but it is old-style hardcore, not garage. Both bands are so tough and gnarled that sweet cheeks with melodies and sing-a long circle pits cower beneath pink cotton candy clouds. I’d say asshole ripping, but this isn’t prison or a porn video. That territory was already covered by Sloppy Seconds.
Gorka Pop Y La Secta
“Kill City” / “Hard Me On”
Get Hip
A Basque band covers Iggy and offers up one original. I wonder what “Hard Me On” is all about? “Sex, sex, sex, hard me on” is the chorus and if the song sounds familiar the reader was probably present at a Detroit concert. Stooges, stooges, stooges!
Ice Nine
Psychology And Extreme Violence
“One Dollar Man,” “Walk Me Crutch,” “Forthcoming” I “Surreal,” “City Son,” “Aspirin Vs. Me”
Rhetoric Records
A seven inch mini album from some friends of John Forgach. The idea here is to scream unintelligibly while the band engages in heavy metal noise jams. “Smoke, fire, aaaaargh!” After listening, don’t reach for the aspirin. It’s a Robitussin moment. —Joe Gee
Read more music reviews from SLUG: ’90s edition!
Records: November 1997
Written in Blood: Octobr 1997
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