Gerber!

I was re-reading Lexicon Devil this weekend for literally the 7th or 8th time and did a quick lil web search for my fave female in the book, the insanely awesome Gerber! Lo and behold... an email interview by Alice Bag!

Update: I am going to see Sonic Youth tomorrow at the Electric Factory in Philly and I really hope they play "Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn" from their new album after all the Germs/LA punk I have been soaking in this week.

Dig this snatch of lyrics, yall!

Lots of dreams of vicious actions
Plastic stomachs wrapped in steel
Hair falls in a deadbeat's curtain
Trash can, canterbury, hollywood boulevard

Awe you can count on it
To have your hair tacked to the wall
Under the plunger pit
Love with nothing at all

Here comes mary rat
Trudie tacked to the wall
Take me back to disgraceland
Love nothing at all

Sky Saxon RIP

Another one goes home to Yahowha... Such sad news...

From the article:

Sky’s wife Sabrina Saxon posted news of his passing on Facebook this morning: “Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep him here with us. More later. I’m sorry.”

Ride on, Sky/Arlick.

Sonic Youth - Live Feb 26 1991 Hershey PA

With the release of the surprisingly good new Sonic Youth album The Eternal, (plus re-reading old issues of Conflict) I was going back and listening to some live SY that I have accumulated over the years as well as some recent live shows popping up on the dimeadozen torrent site. Always the jammiest of the class of '88 (or '81, even), it doesn't surprise that they are still a great live band and all that jazz, with variable set lists and songs taking on different personalities live, etc. Plus Lee is a Deadhead. Since they are such a live band and such, it is also not shocking they have a gigoraphy on their site and that there is a lossless live SY archive online.

While I was searching in vain for the Washington DC 9.30 Club show from Dec 1988 (yep, the 'cid one... if anyone has a recording please get in touch), I remembered that tour they did with Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Social Distortion. I honestly can't remember the deal, but I was at school in Philly at the time but came back to Central PA for this show and went with a friend of a friend whose name I cannot recall. Alas there was no wild and crazy mild alternatingness (at least for me) at this one. We had seats in the stands, (this was a concert! in the old Hershey Bears Arena), sitting down to watch Sonic Youth. So bizarre. In Hershey. Anyways, most of my Philly pals caught the the show in Philly, but this one sorta stood out because of the super hostile audience reaction. As the archive site says "A relatively short set, due to extended booing from the crowd." And that was pretty much the case. SY bummed out central PA... My fave memory of the show was the end of "Expressway To Your Skull" with only Lee remaining on stage leaning on his guitar making some huge ocean feedback drone to the chorus of angry "booooos." Also, Thurston's shout out to "the Hershey hardcore scene" and ensuing laugh on the tape is great as well. I thought the show was pretty awesome for what it was and where it was (just hearing "Flower" in this setting was amazing by itself), though the ice rink sound def was bassy/bouncy/echo'y. Crazy Horse sounded better and were a super wall of fuzzed out bleakness, even with that awful "Blowin' in the Wind" cover.

I got a recording of the show from Jack Chiara who used to run the Record Outlet in Hburg, Stump Wizards, etc, but I am not sure if he recorded it or who did or how many generations or any of that stuff. I burned this to CD a few years ago and it doesn't seem to be in circulation in the trading circles, so here you go. A pretty thick sounding audience recording, I didn't do any clean up or anything like that, download is 256kps. The "Only Just Begun" and "War Pigs" are just tapes, so don't get your hopes up on that.

Sonic Youth Live Feb 26 1991 Hershey, PA

1. (only just begun intro)
2. White Kross
3. Brother James
4. Mote
5. Flower
6. Dirty Boots
7. (war pigs break)
8. Titanium Expose
9. Kool Thing
10. Expressway To Your Skull

UPDATE: Thanks to Chris in the comments for hipping me to the fact that this show was Feb 26th, not the 27th. Ooooops!

UPDATE II: FLAC by request

It's coming... one week from today...

Interview with the Turning Points

Check out this awesome multi part (though not done yet) interview with Jay from Lenola/Like a Fox about his years in NJ's Pointless and Turning Point on Double Cross blog.

Worth it for pics like this, when people had hardcore shows on the lawn:



(and yes that is Jay leaning on the amp and providing yucks)

Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 15: Musica Transonic & Yamataka Eye (LA-049)

So this time around, for Vol 15 of the Acid Mothers Sunday series we venture into the world of free rock band Musica Transonic. Muisca Transonic is the same line up as second album Mainliner, Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple, etc) on guitar, Nanjo (High Rise) on bass and Yoshida (Ruins) on drums. The difference between the two groups is more theoretical than audible in my ears. While Mainliner were slaves to the riff, Musica Transonic are free, improvised rock and do seem to push and push the boundaries of song more than Mainliner. They have a bunch of CDs on PSF and some other labels, plus a bunch of La Musica cassettes as well.

This one has Yamataka Eye from the Boredoms on a few songs and features two decently recorded (with that patented Nanjo in-the-red production) live shows from July 1996 in Japan. Kawabata's guitar definitely takes on more of the free echoed out Strat sounds, bashing and spazzing into the other instruments and then blazing right over them with long washes of almost out of tune sheets of 'casterness. Nanjo's bass lurches and bounces like someone trying to play basketball with a Nerf football. Yoshida's drums sound fantastic and his playing is more suited to this style than Mainliner. His fills and drive are amazing and I love the sharp snare sound he gets, it reminds me of Peter Moffett from Government Issue. Eye shows up about five or six songs in, screaming his head off making his shredded voice another free'd up instrument. A surprisingly good edition to the heavy psych squall. That said, the title is a bit of a misnomer, as Eye only appears on a few songs. Eye heads, be warned, this is way more of a live Musica Transonic release than a true equal footing collab.

I transferred this to CDr years ago and it seems I got the tracking wrong or something. My transfer has 15 tracks total, but the cassette label lists 17 tracks, so I must have combined some songs. Sorry about that! Also, the tracks are in some symbol language deal, I just used numbers. This one carries the La Musica catalog number LA-049. Lets see what the La Musica catalog has to say:

World-shakng speed-freak free sound featuring the unique Yamatsuka Eye, one of the few people in the world on the track of a fusion of noise and minimalism. Mutli-track recording of an astounding high tension live performance that will blow off the top of your head

So yep, there you go. Enjoy!

Musica Transonic & Yamataka Eye (LA049)

Acid Mothers Temple - Are We Experimental? out today

If you missed picking up the awesome new CD by Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO, Are We Experimental? on their recent US/Canada tour, you can pick it up today on amazon, iTunes or direct from Prophase, as well as your fave indie outlets. Woo hoo... I mean, how can your AMT collection... hell your music collection be complete without the song "Goodbye, Big Asshole Emmanuelle?"