The Fall

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
Beggar’s Banquet

What can I say about this album that hasn’t been said a million times over? It’s the classic, most stable lineup of this band, featuring Brix on guitar, dual drummers, Steven Hadley’s propulsive bass playing and some of Mark E. Smith’s best lyrical creations. There’s not a single weak song on this album in my humble opinion, from the scorching Lay of the Land to the domestic complaint of No Bulbs. There’s even a guest in the form of Gavin Friday (from The Virgin Prunes) on two songs. This is the first Fall album that I remember hearing as it got lots of airplay round these parts when it first came out. I could say that this is the Fall at their peak, but that’s always somewhat contentious as they’ve had many ups and downs in their long, illustrious career. If you can get your fingers on it, I really recommend watching the BBC doc The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith for the full story.

Tracks:

1. Lay Of The Land
2. 2 x 4
3. Copped It
4. Elves
5. Oh! Brother
6. Draygo’s Guilt
7. God-Box
8. Clear Off
9. C.R.E.E.P.
10. Pat-Trip Dispenser
11. Slang King
12. Bug Day
13. Stephen Song
14. Craigness
15. Disney’s Dream Debased
16. No Bulbs

Ripped @320kbps

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall pt. 1

The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall pt. 2

Pigface

Easy Listening for Difficult Fuckheads
Underground Inc.

A mixed bag from the multi-star-spangled juggernaut that Martin Atkins (PiL, Killing Joke) calls Pigface.
I don’t know what to make of an album that tells me to “fuck conformity, fuck the mainstream” but then contains some of the most ready for Clearchannel Nu-Rock spuzz (Blow You Away, Bitch, King of Negativity) and formulaic quirky Goth-girl pop (Sweetmeat) imaginable. It does feature a cool version of Delta 5’s Mind Your Own Business, a weird turn by Ex-KMFDM’s En Esch and a dreamy track from My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult’s Groovie Mann (Closer to Heaven- which also features ex-PiL member Keith Levene, making it a reunion of sorts), which is heads above anything Thrill Kill’s done in a long time. Chris Connely makes an appearance on Miss Sway Action, a floating, Berlin period-Bowie-esque tune. There’s certainly a wide array of styles and genres represented here, so you’re a little less likely to be completely disappointed. Add to that a calculated faux rant piece by Penn Jillette as the closer that is sure to only shock/annoy/entertain those who didn’t hear it coming.

Get Easy Listening

Butthole Surfers

The Hole Truth.. And Nothing Butt
Totonka

Semi-legit bootleg comp that includes two very early demo versions of songs that appeared on their first EP and LP respectively.
Most of the live recordings occur around the mid-eighties and early nineties, the latest including tracks from around the time of Independent Worm Saloon. Sound quality on all are good to excellent. The real prize is the WNYU interview from 1987 wherein the Buttholes do an impromptu version of Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. I dug this out today and noticed it still has a price tag of $25. No way did I pay that much - or did I? I found it years ago in a somewhat dubious market known for its bootlegs. It appeared to be some kind of radio promo with an actual air date posted on it, but I’ve since seen it in other places, so who knows?

Go get it.

A Vast Pile of Buttholes

Were you aware of this?

Chances are, if you are a regular vistor of either WFMU’s Beware of the Blog or Archives.org, you may already know that there is a treasure trove of live recordings of The Butthole Surfers. Some of them date back to the mid-eighties, thier peak era. All are in the FLAC format, though. I might download and convert some and pass them along if worth it. Link right here.

Also, at the formerly mentioned WFMU BotB, some kind poster put up that funny Thai song that is in the middle of Locust Abortion Technician (Kuntz). It’s nice to hear it in its unadulterated form, although weird not to hear it looping and pitch distorted. My memories of that song are watching the Buttholes play at the Pine Street Theater in Portland on Halloween night in ‘86 or ‘87 - several people tripping hard - and that song playing on the house system while the band took a break. Paul Leary came out on stage and took his break, smoking the biggest joint I’ve ever seen outside of a Cheech and Chong movie - seemingly oblivious to the crowd.
Another was playing that song very loudly at the factory I worked at at the time (the Butthole’s doctored version of it anyway) and putting it on nearly every mix tape for nearly a year. Go get it here.

That is all.

Various Artists

S.W.A.T.: Deep Inside a Cop’s Mind
Amphetamine Reptile

You know something bad is going to go down when you have a convergence of criminal lowlifes such as these inside of a recording studio: Jim Goad (author, Answer Me!, Redneck Manifesto) , Adam Parfrey (author, Apocalypse Culture I & II, Extreme Islam), Nick Bougas (of Celebrities at Their Worst series and Death Scenes fame) Boyd Rice (The King of Noise Music) and the late, great Anton LaVey. What have they done? They recorded an ode to the thin blue line between chaos and even more chaos. They documented the Manichean struggle between good and evil in America’s crumbling cities.

That’s right, folks. This gang, who are no strangers to encounters with the boys and blue, have put out an album dedicated to the fine men and women of the police, almost entirely through the use of of hilariously re-purposed cover songs - usually from the perspective of a jaded or overly alert policeman. It’s funny to hear the staged skit featuring Rice as a young rookie and LaVey as an aging, departing cop, given their real-life relationship within the Church of Satan.

As unappealing as an album by a bunch of authors and cultural shit-disturbers may sound, let me assure you that they are aided and abetted by some of Portland’s finest - in the form of nearly four-fifths of Poison Idea (Jerry A., Pig Champion, Thee Slayer Hippy, Mondo - Sheesh - I hope they had reinforced floors!) and Sam Henry (Wipers, Napalm Beach) on drums.

Download it! 

Oblivion Seekers

Snake Eyes
Tim Kerr Records

This Portland Oregon band has been around for two decades and has been a virtual revolving door who’s who of P-town musicians from Napalm Beach, The Jackals and even a member or two from Poison Idea. They play a mix of rockabilly, sixties soul and most predominately, punk. If I had to describe them using other bands (a supposed rock-critic no-no), I’d describe them as X meets Roy Orbison. I realize that that sounds kind of horrifying, but this album is the one that the formula really works. I’ve owned more than a few Oblivion Seekers albums, but for many reasons, this one remains a favorite. This album (from 1994) was bassist/vocalist-and sole constant throughout the band’s long life- Mark Sten’s keyboard-driven, girl backup singer concept of the band. I saw this configuration open for The Cramps back in the mid-nineties and it was really great. I fell in love with the incredibly cute singers (and the girl that kept grinding her ass into my playground throughout the Cramps set) and the band was really hot despite the mellowness of the songs. That was one of the best bills I think I ever attended; The Oblivion Seekers, The Doo Rag (Yeah!) and The Cramps during their Flamejob tour. Ahhh.. Memories. Wish I coulda found that girl after the Cramps set.

Snake Eyes

Swans

The Great Annihilator
Invisible

Although many would malign this as a lesser, late Swans album, I have to admit it’s the first one that really held my attention. Maybe I’d burnt out on the New York Noise thing (Swans, Live Skull, Rat At Rat R, etc.), especially after that clique became rock-press darlings - Sonic Youth be damned.

But from that fertile, stinking scene, The Swans grew into a huge, dynamic sound all their own. Although Michael Gira’s lyrical outlook hasn’t softened one iota, many of the tracks are quite striking in their power and beauty - especially Killing for Company, seemingly inspired by the Dennis Nilsen necrophile murders. Nice touch.

Download

Cop Shoot Cop

Ask Questions Later
Interscope Records

Ugly, atonal. I shoulda posted about these guys last summer, had I known more about them. With twin, pummeling basses and pounding drums - and some deep, Cave-like vocals from frontman Tod Ashley. But these guys could carry a tune, even if the lyrical outlook was pretty bleak. I know next to bupkis about them besides being one of the many bright spots to the compilation Mesomorph Enduros (Room 429, which is included here), which I posted a while ago. What does Trouser Press say about them?:

Cop Shoot Cop formed out of the ashes of noisemasters Dig Dat Hole and exceedingly confrontational junk-blues potentates Black Snakes (a band that counted among its members transgressive filmmaker Richard Kern). The quartet wasted no time establishing a reputation for sonic fuckery through use of sheet-metal percussion and guitar disavowal (Ashley and Jack Natz both play bass, with the former taking credit for “high end” version of the instrument). The early self-released EPs move with a decidedly mechanical grind, but sidestep industrial pigeonholing thanks to the inventive found-sound sampling of “Cripple” Jim Filer. The wall-of-noise sampling, odd stuttered timings and belligerent anti-structures illustrate a conceptual ambition underscored by such psychotic psychedelic sound collages as “Disconnected 666,” somewhat less structurally/sonically intricate than Pere Ubu’s “Sentimental Journey” but drawn from the same dark core of industrial paranoia. Harking back in some ways to the days of New York no wave, Cop Shoot Cop score three toes idiot, seven toes savant on Piece Man — an improvement over Headkick Facsimile’s ratio of five to five.

HUH?!
Whatever.
You get the point. Ugly. Dark.
You need it.

Download it!