Happy 9/11 With...

This is from a stream available over at WFMU's blog. I recorded it with Audacity and split up the tracks and titled 'em. That's all. Get it while you can.

I can't believe they've reformed and are touring. Or rather, I can't believe they're not coming within 6 hours drive of here. Not even stupid Phoenix. Oh well. I've seen 'em a kajillion times, in their prime. But they are sure sounding fucking great here. Recorded at ATP a couple months ago. 19 songs.

Fuck yeah.

Indian Jewelry - "Sangles Redux" (2008)

This is a limited edition (500) vinyl-only pressing from Skinny Wolves Records of Dublin, Ireland. It consists of early material recorded 2002-2004. "Collected singles and extra tracks" as it says on the inner sleeve. Tracks 8-10 are credited to NTX, a band which apparently morphed into IJ. Tracks 11 and 12 are credited to Erika Thrasher, an IJ band member.

This is a 320 vinyl rip of a new LP I got at one of their shows. There are a couple flaws in it, despite being an apparently high quality heayweight pressing. But this might just be due to some of the source material (old vinyls?), particularly since the first song on Side 2 (the excellent Bombing Nightclubs) is sorta bad, but the next song perfectly fine. So I dunno.

I am a huge fan of IJ; the show that I got this at being about my favorite show of the year so far. It was in an old quonset hut, the band set up on the floor pounding out their primordial psychedelic stomp. I was pleasantly reminded of long-ago Buttholes shows (though their lo-tech "stage show" consisted only of one strobe light flashing at a very slow rate consistently throughout the set). Band members switched instruments and vocal duties on various songs.
Later they came through town again, opening for !!! at a bar show, but I had to work that night so missed it. Hope to see them again real soon.

If you are already a fan of their great "Free Gold!" album or any of their fine other releases, I highly recommend getting this. Good for filling in the "formative years" gaps, etc. I hear much less of the Buttholesian psychedelia on this and more Suicide and even Throbbing Gristle influences. Not a bad thing at all.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Flesh Floating By
02. Going South
03. The Same Mistake Man
04, Lost My Sight (Lil Electode Vrsn)
05. Chasing Rats Out
06. Downtown
07. Bombing Nightclubs
08. Pain Reliever
09. Warm Boxcutter
10. Pasadena Skies
11. Titanium
12. When We Dead Awaken

As an added bonus (because I've been neglecting you all for so long!), HERE is a 10-minute psychedelic mindfuck called Zing Zang they did on a 12" split with Future Blondes. I was gonna rip the whole thing, and tried TWICE, but just couldn't get through it. And I can take most anything. I love Whitehouse fer chrissakes! But something about their song just bugged the shit outta me. Can't explain it, don't wanna waste time or effort trying to.
But the IJ cut is awesome!

The Fall - "Totally Wired - The Rough Trade Anthology" (2003 Earmark)

I was gonna rip the great "Slates" 10-inch but as all but one of its songs is on this compilation, I thought why not do this one? So here it is. I picked this 3 LP set up mainly for my punk rock DJ-ing gig, so I wouldn't have to lug out handfuls of singles and other LPs. All in one handy set, see?
The Rough Trade era Fall is arguably the creative peak of the band (not that other years slouch much). But as is always the case with "Best Of"s that someone else has picked, I of course have issues with what was omitted, and more importantly, what was included in its stead (Hotel Blôedel??? Where the fuck is Marquis Cha-Cha???). But my issues with this set is mostly its inclusion of live tracks of songs that are non-RT-era Fall (Lie Dream, Hip Priest, Winter...). Seems kinda, I dunno...shifty. And while The NWRA was on the RT released "Grotesque", and this live version is fine, "A Part Of America Therein, 1981", from which it's taken was not even on Rough Trade! It was on the U.S.-only Cottage Records (though it is of the "era").
Oh, and the songs are all will-nilly scattered around over the 30 months (1980-83).
Such fucking nitpicking, eh? Well I had to write something so there you are.
All-in-all a fine set and if your Fall collection is under-represented from this era, you could do worse.

This is a 320kbps rip of the 180 gram Earmark 3-LP reissue of the 2 CD set.
I have retained the 2 CD set's running order to even it out. The tracks are all in the same order, actually, it's just that The NWRA ends Side 3, and on the CD starts off Disc 2. Otherwise it's 3 sides per "disc".

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
Disc 1:
01. Totally Wired
02. New Face In Hell
03. Fit and Working Again
04. That Man
05. Container Drivers
06. Rowche Rumble
07. How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'
08. An Older Lover Etc.
09. Cary Grant's Wedding
10. Pay Your Rates
11. City Hobgoblins
12. Middle Mass
13. Gramme Friday
14. Leave the Capitol
15. English Scheme
16. New Puritan
17. Prole Art Threat

Disc 2:
01. The NWRA
02. The Man Whose Head Expanded
03. Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
04. I Feel Voxish
05. Hip Priest
06. Hotel Blôedel
07. Winter
08. Ludd Gang
09. Smile
10. Tempo House
11. Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot
12. Wings
13. Eat Y'Self Fitter
14. Kicker Conspiracy

Robert Hazard & The Heroes - S/T EP (2 Versions) (1982)

While gathering together music for a Philadelphia Music radio special, I went on the blogs looking for some Robert Hazard. After digging around in a haystack I finally found one rip of his first EP. But it was so horribly distorted I decided to suck it up, dig out my old vinyls and rip them myself.

But let me backtrack a bit first. Growing up in Philly, this stuff was inescapable. Looking online now I found that this EP sold either 100,000 or 300,000 copies in Philly alone. Whichever number is correct, I'll believe it. Let's just say it was a shit-ton of records. And deservedly so. This is pure new wave brilliance, every song an anthem. The first two tracks, Escalator Of Life and Change Reaction were the massive hits, but all five songs saw much airplay. And the closing Dylan cover is simply explosive.
The story on the 2 versions is that after Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder wandered in to a bar where they were playing (he was in town to review the Stones' 1981 show at JFK Stadium) and got blown away by their always great set, he wrote about them in the mag. Kind of unheard-of back then for an unsigned local band. Major label boobs at RCA read it and, having had their work done for them, signed the band.
And instead of just re-releasing the perfect original, being major-label idiots, they remixed 3 of the 5 songs. Vastly inferior mixes, of course. But maybe this is just because we were so used to the originals. Though I distinctly remember thinking "What the fuck have they done?" upon first hearing the new versions.
They also dropped the "& The Heroes" part; I guess thinking it was easier to market a solo act in the era of Paul Young and Thomas Dolby, etc. ad. nauseum.

Whatever. I have included both versions in a 320 rip for your evaluation. Keep the one you like best, don't trust my clouded judgment. The RCA version sounds cleaner having of course spent much less time on the turntable. But they're both OK.
The reason there's no cover image up there is that both versions came wrapped in a poster of the man. I couldn't find any decent pics online of it, but the files themselves have art of the underlying cover - the RCA version has lyrics and the indie version just the name and song list.

Robert Hazard passed away at 59 about a year ago. He had recently been signed to Rykodisc and released a very decent Americana/Folk record, "Troubador", that I found while scouring the blogs. I'm sure you can find it too. Don't know much about the intervening years; something about an antiques store in upstate New York. But I'm sure he was well taken care of over the years having written a little song you might have heard called Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

Get both versions HERE.

Tracks:
01. Escalator Of Life
02. Change Reaction
03. (I Just Want To) Hang Around With You
04. Out Of the Blue
05. Blowin' In the Wind

Funny thing about that '81 Stones concert mentioned above: I went to that, pretty much solely because I thought it might be my last chance - them being so fucking old and all. It was ok. You Can't Always Get What You Want was fantastic and is today my only clear memory of the show. That and their garish, ridiculous stage set.
Also, because the scalpers over-bought or sometrhing I got in for a mere $3 from a guy with a fistful of tickets. So it was worth it, haha.

Eugene Chadbourne - "I've Been Everywhere" (1988)

One of our perennial favorites here at The Pessimist Club, the good Dr. Chadbourne has a seemingly endless supply of fine albums to be discovered. This one from 1988 is no exception, coming from a time of great creative output for him, the late Eighties. This was the time of his collaboration with Camper Van Beethoven, "Camper Van Chadbourne", as well as the absolutely essential "Vermin Of The Blues" (available HERE).
A friend of mine just picked this (vinyl LP) up on a recent trip home to Philadelphia and we listened to it right away upon his return. It's the typically fried and wonderful psychedelic folk he's known for, interspersed with his (I think) grandmother's musings on being a young girl in Nazi Germany. Makes for a unique listening experience to say the least.
Also there is some Legendary Stardust Cowboy contained herein, though I can't tell if it's any more than samples of Paralyzed. The back cover states, somewhat cryptically, "The Legendary Stardust Cowboy would like to apologize for his tape recorder breaking down".

Anyway, after that first listen I brought the record home to digitize. The next morning my friend got called away for an emergency gig filling in on drums on some rock stars' tour (no names, haha).
So, this is for you, D. HERE it is.

(PS - It's been brought to my attention that you might have trouble with Track 10. If so, I've uploaded it separately HERE. Cheers.)

Tracks:
01. The Ring
02. It Takes Longer Saying Yes Than Saying No
03. You Still Live With Mom and Dad
04. The Liar Song
05. Too Damn Bad
06. Buck Owens Medley / My Heart Skips a Beat
07. We Keep the KKK In Line
08. The Mountain Men
09. Oil Platform
10. I've Been Everywhere
11. Neurologically Impaired Leaders

V/A - "Sudden Death" (1982 Smoke Seven)

Here's a nice little old SoCal comp I unearthed whilst preparing for a record fair a couple weeks ago. Hadn't listened to it in years, and looking at it I remembered how much fun the JFA version of War's Low Rider was. Plus it's got Redd Kross (prolly their first appearance with the 2 d's and the K), Sin 34 and Youth Gone Mad. Looking over the track selection, I smiled at the song Nuclear War. How quaint it was we used to worry about that. I put it on, loved it all over again so I did a nice 320 vinyl rip for y'all.
Back then this stuff got lumped into "hardcore", but it's basically great trashy punk rock.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Low Rider (JFA)
02. Guess What (JFA)
03. American Buttfuckers (JFA)
04. Only Love (Sin 34)
05. Nuclear War (Sin 34)
06. Who Needs Them (Sin 34)
07. America (Moral Decay)
08. TV News (Moral Decay)
09. Life Is Getting Faster (Crankshaft)
10. Massacre Killer (Crankshaft)
11. Twisted Cross (Sadist Faction)
12. Peace Corpse (Sadist Faction)
13. Rat Society (The Sins)
14. All Your Tomorrows (The Sins)
15. Sins Prayer (The Sins)
16. Back To the Bed (The Demented)
17. Deadly Game (The Demented)
18. How Can I Kill You (The Demented)
19. Tatum O'Tot and the Fried Vegetables (Redd Kross)
20. St. Lita Ford Blues (Redd Kross)
21. Ode To Darby (Youth Gone Mad)
22. Diaperhead (Youth Gone Mad)
23. Homo Mommy (Youth Gone Mad)
24. Linda Is a Monster (Naughty Women)
25. Jealousy (Naughty Women)
26. Phantom Citizen (Dead Youth)
27. Kern County (Dead Youth)
28. Radiation Fall Out (Dead Youth)

Years ago at a Pavement show at the Troc in Philadelphia, the guy who looks like Corey Feldman (or was it Corey Haim?) had this LP proudly displayed on his amp during the show. Then he held it up afterwards, showing us all his great find in case we hadn't noticed. Guess he scored it at the Record Exchange...

Yves Mourousi / Paul Hardcastle - Dix Neuf (Single 1985)

In 1985 I returned to France after 5 years to visit friends I had made there while ostensibly going to school. At the time, Paul Hardcastle's 19 was a massive hit in the States, and we all loved it. Everyone was going around stuttering N-N-N-N-Nineteen like retarded Max Headroom clones. I was not immune. When I got to Paris with some friends, we were quite surprised to hear it was a massive hit there as well. Except they were stuttering D-D-D-D-Dix Neuf. We fell out laughing every time we heard it, so naturally I bought the single. I don't think we thought about the larger ramifications of a French version of a Viet Nam war song. I mean, yeah they had their tussle in Indochine so it made more sense than, say, a German version. But couldn't they have their own song?
Whatever, who cares. It still makes me laugh. Sorta.

I think the song is the basic Paul Hardcastle track with French tacked on top. The awkward chorus remains in English ("Destruction of men in their prime / whose average age was nineteen" I mean, c'mon...)
For refresher's sake, I've also included the American original.
Get it HERE.