Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Mountain High @ muscle beach Jan 27 2008

Did the Virginville-Allentown jaunt on Sunday, once again making great time. At Eric and Beth's pad, Eric showed me the new decor they are working on for Seeking Solutions With Suzanne's Suzanne.



Awesome. And awesome I got. After that, we headed over to Allentown, I was all uptight driving over, we can't miss Mountain High! Anyway, it was great to see Rodney Emo Motherfucker and Jesse, old roomates/crew members/crips from way back. Rodney looks exactly the same! Ask Eric! Beers and some whiskey, blabbing about the amazing Ralph Darden's views on Chicago and art; catching up on all the weirdos who hung around Cleveland St. Plus they filled in some details on a few Dan Gill stories as well. We all lived with a living legend. After babbling about that stuff, they drifted to their instruments and I found a corner and got awes. Mountain High played like half an hour or so, tightly wound psychy stuff actually. Fueled by two drummers and some extra drums from jogging-in-place Jesse, guitar and bass. Some songs were like psych surf, not quite as tribal crazy as I thought, what with all the drums. Cool swirling jams, but man I wish they woulda played like an hour and stretched out, seems like they can really improvise if they were set free. Eric and I split after snagging some CDs and t shirts from Rodney (thanks!) 'cause it was a Sunday night. Extremely mellow drive home. Here are some pics from the show.





Tuesday, January 22, 2008

New from Prophase Music- Plastic Crimewave Sound - No Wonderland



Today is the release date for the Prophase reissue of the Plastic Crimewave Sound CD, No Wonderland. This is a reissue of the 2LP, out of print, set from Eclipse Records. Best PCWS album there is. For now. You can get it through Forced Exposure or direct at Seeofsound.com.

Here are some PCWS pics from their Baltimore show this summer, more pics here.


Sunday, January 20, 2008

upcoming shows at muscle beach, kingface live show 1988 etc

Sorry for lack of blogging lately, hard drive hassle, yo. Don't worry, Acid Mothers Sunday will return soon.

Til then, this is the best pic of Greg Ginn ever:




Anyways, two psych shows of interest coming up at Muscle Beach in Allentown soon...

And yes, Mountain High is totally Rodney Emo Motherfucker's band. Awesome.

Flyers:




In my last post about VBS, I mentioned Eric talking about Kingface in relation to VBS and I just stumbled across a live Kingface show from 1988 here. Soundboard, sounds great. Right on.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Vincent Black Shadow, Sarah Johnson, Human Teratogen @ Muscle Beach 1.4.08

Drove up after work, went to Eric and Beth's pad in Virginville, PA. I am starting to make really good time on this drive up (after years of getting lost every other time). Anyways, hung with them and let Wheat the cat search my bag. Got awes whilst listening to some Die Kreuzen October File action (and I mentioned my plot to dirty up some of the first Die Kreuzen album and release it as a black metal bootleg. Shhh.) and then it was on the road to Allentown. Drive there was crazy sedate (listening to Ai Aso, yo), at a Hess station saw a dude rocking some Bathing Ape/Ice Cream knockoff hooded sweatshirt, but then saw the Jersey plates... ahhh. Driving through the country with dark farmland and mountains on either side, barely a light on the horizon. Mellow/awes/going on forever. In Allentown proper, we (me following Eric) hit every light imaginable. I didn't blow through any of them.




Muscle Beach looks like an old film set or something, a courtyard with empty garages and buildings encircling it. The Beach is set back in one of these. We rolled up right when VBS were getting there and some noise dude was setting up. We took seats on some old couches and I broke open the flask of Knobb Creek I brought along (heard Muscle Beach doesn't have a bathroom, so I didn't wanna fill up). The vibe definitely seemed more Jeff the Pigeon than Jan's Room. First noiser dude (not sure who it was) had a chaotic rumble going on, but when he started vocalizing, it interrupted the black cloud I was digging. After he finished up, wound up blabbing with Dan from VBS about Lux-era Temple of Bon Matin and such, everyone was buzzing and babbling, thanks for the new CD, dude. After I mooched a Schaeffers from him, VBS's other guitar player put a few drops of some w33dy-grain alcohol concoction in it. I was kinda like, "yeah right," but why not?

Anyways, next up was Human Teratogen, short noise blast set with the dude killing his knobs and mic and slapping around the mic cord like a whip. I was kinda starting to feel the take off in my brain. Strolling around the chilly warehouse, lights out 'cept for a green spot. His noise was more violent than the previous fella and when he leaned on the card table holding his equipment a little too hard, it collapsed. End of set.



After more babble and some outside chilly cigarettes, I strolled in for Sarah Johnson , a 3 piece of 20 something dudes from MN, Midwest, USA. Insanely good drummer (looking like Thurston Moore in the Coachmen) with guitar player and another dude who sang, did samples (KAOS Pad!) and played guitar on some tracks. By this time, my grain drops had me floating and the squall this goofy crew produced was perfect perfect perfect. They mixed it all up, hardcore, jazz, psych, dance music, improv (maybe?) in a crazy tight spazz package. Righteously high for their set, they were mind blowing. A great surprise. Drummer was one of the best I have seen in ages, they were tight as fuck and just left me standing there with my mouth open. Wow.




Smoked up a little more (totally unnecessary) before Vincent Black Shadow took over. Drunk Stooged up mayhem took over. Not sure which members of the crowd came up with them from Baltimore, and which ones just were in the drunk spirit, but regardless, crowd was a slobbering mess for them. Hard rock psych jams with dual guitars (more Allman bros leads!) and Adam Savage as touched front man. Loud, disorientating, heavy. Yeah. They played like two encores (one a cover of "Sheer Heart Attack") and their crew or their converted crew would not let them go.






We high tailed it out after VBS finished, snagging some Sarah Johnson merch (nice screen printed split with some other band, looks gorgeous, haven't had a chance to listen to it yet) on the way out. On the walk to the car, Eric mentioned Kingface in relation to VBS, so now I gotta see VBS again with that in mind. Followed Eric to the turnpike... I was still a bit awes and for a few panicy seconds I thought I was following the wrong car as we rolled into suburban Allentown and I was totally totally lost. And listening to Beanie Sigel. Anyways, I made it to the 'pike and coasted on back to the home base. Ringing ears and a burnt-to-a-crisp Saturday spent watching The Wire awaiting me. Totally one of those "man, this is why I go out" nights. Yay.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008