Here tis!

Psychotic Infractions and Zombie Dung!

I'm listening to the completed "Psychotic Infractions Volume 1: Under the Covers" disc, that I just happen to appear on, for the first time... fresh from the mailman's hands. I'm about 2/3 through, and I can honestly say that this is a pretty great compilation, especially considering the way it all came together. (for details see previous posts) I'll admit that I've been checking the mailbox, and the thread this whole thing originated in on Garagepunk.com all morning, but morning is relative isn't it? Track 17, by Sir Maggot's band The Maggots is "Tomato Juice", a song originally by The Cardinals, and it's rocking my socks off right this second. The timing for the next song to appear (W.B. Vaughan's countryish take on Bo Diddley's "Roadrunner")is perfect to illustate the variety of musical styles represented here. There's everything from traditional, organ-driven garage-rock, to country/rockabilly, straight-up rock and roll, garagepunk, boogie, and the hard-to-categorize. Sprinkle in some soul, punk and mod-influence and you're pretty close. All done with the spark that's what made us all love this stuff in the first place. Now this isn't to say that every song on here is great, or in a lot of cases, listenable( to most average music fans). But since musical taste is so subjective I'll clarify this by saying that IN MY OPINION this disc holds it's own against many other established comps, and I can listen to this thing straight through and dig it all.

I'd like to eventually do a track-by-track review of the album but for now I'll just say it speaks for itself. The fact that I'm still unable to post audio on this here blog is frustrating since I'd love to share this with anyone who's interested. I'll go ahead and post this link to the thread on Kopper's site so that, if anybody gets the gumption to, a podcast or some other way to get the songs may soon be available...

http://www.garagepunk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18835&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=225

Kudos to those who went for an "authentic" '60's garage sound. Some of these could pass for the real thing( from way back when). First-impression standouts include tracks by : atvff (atvff), jprackets (Morey & The Amsterdams), MalThursday (Mal Thursday & the Cheetahs), Carpet Donkey (Trash Stranglers), K.F. (Daytonas), vonghouls (Von Ghouls), Spacerich66 (Spacerich66), Sir Maggot (Maggots), W.B. Vaughan (W.B. Vaughan), and Mr Pharmacist (Betty & the ID). An honorable mention goes to the ultra-raw cover of the Sonics' "Psycho" by rumblemoney (Damn Dirty Apes). Be sure to listen to the one by krakhaus( The Mahow Mahows) just because it's me, and please feel free to comment, complain or say "That only sucked a little!".

And while I'm tooting my own horn you can check out my big(ish) screen debut in Justin Powers' POT ZOMBIES at the Texas Frightmare Weekend horror convention coming up on February 4th and 5th in majestic Grapevine, Texas. My buddy Justin has been crafting this labor of love for a few years now and we finally get to see the results. In addition to portraying a redneck hunter with a weed-jones, and a pot-belly( hey, it was three years ago/no pun intended) in the film, I did some artwork for, and provided some props for this beauty. The convention sounds pretty cool too with appearances from special effects legend Tom Savini, legendary director Herschell Gordon Lewis, movie critic Joe Bob Briggs, Troma's Lloyd Kaufman, scream-queen Linnea Quigley, and a performance from reunited local speed- metal heroes Rigor Mortis among many other notables.

http://texasfrightmareweekend.com/index.html

Here's the Pot Zombies Myspace page...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2942537

Oh yes, and DVDs are available!

F**k-in' Freeman!!

John Freeman. One-man Rock Assault!

An extremely late Merry Freakin' Christmas to all you unwashed masses! And Happy New Year while I'm at it. It's about time I paid tribute to a man that you are probably famliar with if you live in the DFW area, and pay attention to local undergound music. If you don't live here you might have heard of some of his bands, and since relocating to New York a few years back he's taken to spreading his disease there as well. He's had a buncha these "groups" but some include: The Dooms U.K., The Dutch Treats, The Meat Helmets, The Cockouts, The Psychos, Duck Duck Annihilation, Telethon, Danza, Alan Parson's Projectile, The Delicious Bulls, Pink Mistake, The Golden Vipers, and The Thrilling Chilling Sounds of the Haunted House. John Freeman (also known as Johnny Murder, Uncle Sloppy, etc.) started out as simply "The Dooms" when he wrote a set of songs about Emmanuel Lewis, Patrick Swayze, Chewbacca, and other noteable subjects to be performed with his own guitar accompaniment at a friends's party in Denton, Texas. He soon had a band that seemed to start out with the intention of being a "rap and roll" band (mind you this was the early '90's). They quickly evolved into a more experimental beast that came to full fruition with the release of the now classic album Greasy Listening. Though truly a band, it is widely accepted that John was the "brains" behind the group, writing the lyrics and forging the direction in which they would head. His songs inhabit a world I can truly relate to; equal parts Bad T.V. and Pop Culture, Dungeons and Dragons, Punk/Metal, Extreme Sarcasm, Ernest Borgnine and a encyclopedic knowledge of Rock and Roll both good and bad. The word genius gets tossed around a lot these days so let me throw this fools name into the ring. (Robert Wilonksy said nearly the same thing in this weeks Dallas Observer, but I wrote this before I saw that rag.)

In addition to making music this Super-Nova is a cartoonist, writer, actor/voice over dude and Nanny to the stars. His comics are really funny, and drawn in his trademark jittery style, and though I'm most familiar with his writing via his song lyrics, what little else I've read was very well done. I have witnessed a "performance" of one of his plays, and the name escapes me but it took place at a science fiction/comic book convention in the '80's. Needless to say...It was a gut-blasting riot. Watching him perform live is the best way to get a feel (if you know what I mean) for his whole shtick, as he is an amazing improvisational comedian. I guess a large part of his appeal is that he is literally one of the funniest people ever to grace this world, and I can't undertand why he isn't at least as well known as any of those Blue Collar Comedy tour guys or Ruth Buzzie. I didn't make it up to Dan's Silverleaf in Denton for his only DFW appearance this year last night but I can only imagine there were smiles, and lots of bodily fluids all around.

I'll never forget the time I was treated to a very intimate solo performance of "Waterfalls" by TLC in my truck during a run I took John on to retrieve his guitar to play some keg party, or the time he scared an army of zoned-out hippies by opening the Fry Street Fair with the song "Hippies". (basically a rallying cry for the death of that type of hairy person.) The Dooms U.K. realeased one more album enititled Art Rock Explosion which documents the later Dooms fairly well. I love both discs for different reasons, but if you want a little taste you can check out some of these links:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=11841340
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=9543087
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=40928900

Some of his comix, as well as those by other local peeps can be found here:

http://www.polypop.com/index.htm

O.M.F.G.!!! Birthday Suits, Hideo of B.S., Rubber Gloves Grafitti, Marked Men

A homecoming of sorts...

Bob and I made the treck up to lovely Denton, Tx. to the Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio to see The Apeshits, Birthday Suits, and Marked Men ply their punk, and/or rock wares Friday night. It turned out to be one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. Having seen the Men only once before their year-long break I was ready for them to move my ass, and they have only gotten better. One of the tightest bands of the rock and roll underground in my opinion, with the added bonus of power-pop hooks played with punk intensity. But you've heard about them before. When we got to the club Austins' Apeshits were on and based on the couple of songs I managed to check out I'd love to see more. They had the same kind of intensity but a wilder , noiseier, and more playful/sloppy attack. I was jealous of the fun they seemed to be having up there. At least one of these cats was in the Carpetbaggers, and since my good buddy "Wild Bill" Ivy digs em I need to delve deeper. (The mans got taste!)

But the guys who blew me away that night were The Birthday Suits. Comprised of two former members of Sweet J.A.P. the Suits have a very full sound when you consider it's just a drumset, a guitar, and an amp turned up really loud for that "natural" distortion we all know and love. I can see how garage and/or punk purists might cringe at what these guys are doing but let them. It's their loss. I was trying to categorize them somehow (I hate labels but they are an excellent shorthand for describing music), and phrases like "jammy-garage" and "space punk/punk space" didn't seem to be sufficient but you might get a vague idea. The drummer did and amazing job of laying a strong foundation(not your typical punk beats but very rocking) for guitarist and vocalist Hideo to alternate between short bursts of structured pop-like intensity, and leg-kicking punk rock and roll swagger. He was flying all over the stage, even running up to the wall and kicking off in a 180 turn all the while continuing to bring the noise. I wish Bobs camera-phone had managed some better pics of any of these bands but we'll have to settle for the really blurry one of Hideo (top/right) and the grafitti from Rubber Gloves restroom( bottom/left) for now. We think it says "I f***ed your Dog" under the tag. I stole the other two pics from various sites.

This night made me remember why I loved living in Denton. I hadn't been there for a show in a couple of years at least and I talked to a bunch of old friends, most of whom weren't even there for the show, and some of whom live here in Dallas. There's this crazy Extreme Wrestling League in Denton that I've got to check out...

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Still wasted but now with focus!

This photo was taken a few months back during my trip to Corpus Christi. I include it now because I like the photo, and I'm having a bit of deja vu relating to that period of my life again. And let's not forget Freddy, who loomed large over popular radio when I was a tot. My folks were way into him, and it saddens me that he would never make it in pop music today. His big songs were Wasted Days and Wasted Nights and (I'll be there) Before the Last Teardrop Falls for those of you that might be unfamiliar. His brand of Tex-Mex rock and roll meshed perfectly with that of Doug Sahm when they teamed up for The Texas Tornadoes. I saw him on an endless-loop type infomercial for a Classic-Country cd set on cable at Kara's grandma Judy's place in Claremore, Oklahoma last night so it all ties together somehow.

I basically drove the nearly six-hundred mile round trip to drop her off for about three weeks to help her granny run her gift-basket shop during this busy holiday season. That and the fact that we are both losing our minds due to our nebulous realtionship made this "vacation" necessary . It's hard for me to decide how much to comment on about this so I'll err on the side of caution and just say we'll see what happens. No need to bore you, my imagined audience, with such matters. This ain't no EMO-journal. I did get to listen to some great music on the trip back including a bunch of great, random punk I downloaded off of various Mp3 blogs, and some Sir Douglass Quintet cds, and pretty much the whole Reigning Sound discography in order. Greg Cartwright never ceases to amaze me. He'll fool you with some song you think is kind of a throwaway, and then on a subsequent listening it kicks you in the head with its kickassitude!

I'll probably be posting more regularly as I have much more time on my hands now. And if you happen to pass Buford's Fun and Nut Company in Sherman, Texas (right on I-75 North) stop in and pick me up a post-card. (There was a mildly disturbing mural featuring a "mad hatter" type character out front and the whole thing made me ruminate over the thought process involved in such a venture. "Well, people love FUN and people love NUTS, right?")

Link Wray R.I.P.

The originals are quickly leaving us

As I come to consciousness this morning I am listening to Joe Belock's excellent THREE CHORD MONTE radio show on WFMU via the world-wide-web. The music he's playing is the inspiration for this post. He's doing a well-deserved tribute to the father of the power-chord, and perhaps the father of all raw, aggressive electric guitar-playing as well...LINK WRAY. He was buried on November 18th in Copenhagen, Denmark to little fanfare per his request, and most likely due at least in part to the obliviousness of most critics and fans of popular music. Hell, CNN didn't pick up on it until he had been in the ground for 4 days!!!...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/21/obit.wray.ap/index.html

I won't go into detail about this great loss( even if he was only 76 years old for pete's sake!). I will say that Link was influencing my life path before I was even aware of him though. It's common knowledge that Link was the inspiration for Pete Townshend to pick up a guitar, and The Who were in competition only with Van Halen for the title of my favorite band as a kid. Neil Young was also quoted as saying that if he could go back in time to see any band it would be Link Wray and his Raymen. It was inevitable that I was later drawn to the punk rock that Link hinted at with his deceptively simple, beautifully distorted guitar work, and attitude. It's hard to imagine a world in which Mr. Wray never existed, and I don't even want to try. I regret that I just missed getting to see him at last year. I guess I thought he'd be around forever. With that in mind here's the part where I put the link to the second petition to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that I've posted( The first being Doug Sahm/Sir Douglass Quintet)...

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?linkwray&851

If you have ever enjoyed a "dirty" guitar tone or believe in any kind of justice take a minute to sign the petition. And then proceed to poke pencil holes through the speaker-cones of every guitar amp that you are in proximity to...

Shake the hand of the man with a hand full of LOVE...

...The one and only Jimmy Carter!

Well, now I've done it. I managed to get my little blog here listed amongst many other blogs that in general seem to kick-ass, especially in comparison to this 'un. Kopper, of Garagepunk.com fame has turned that site into a blog with the requisite large number of links(one of which leads this way). Don't fret though, he still manages the Herculean task of doing a radio show, running a garagepunk and related forum, and probably a bunch of other projects that he's either too modest or busy to gab about. I need some of his focus and energy. It's time to step up to the plate. I'd feel that I had more to offer if I only knew how to post an Mp3 on my site( hint..hint!). I have tried to find out for myself but as I am mostly HTML illiterate I haven't found anything that spells it out well enough. And Blogger.coms own podcast/audio section won't let me register, so for now I will just have to try to dazzle you with bullshit, so here goes...

"This isn't the real America" is the title of a suprising article by former president Jimmy Carter in the most recent LA times. It was suprising to me at least, as it closely echoed my own feelings about the general direction our country has taken, especially in regards to the war. Carter was the first president that I was conciously aware of being in office and his presence was felt strongly even in pop culture at the time. He was a colorful character, with the whole peanut-farmer, big-toothed smile, and drunken brother thing. My Dad still proudly displays his lone surviving can of Billy Beer in his hunting room. I think Jimmy gets a bad rap today, though it's no surprise, just look what they've done to Clinton's image. Check it out, it's a short read and it might give you some glimmer of hope for American politics.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-carter14nov14,0,7164514.story

On a side note the title of the photo and text posts from today are a line from a song called "Jimmy Carter" by the sadly defunct "insurgent country" band Blue Mountain. If you like what is known as Alt-Country, Americana, Ya'llternative, Cowpunk, etc. etc. pick up some of their stuff. I can't recommend the album Dog Days enough, but they are all above average.

It's finally getting cold here, and I'm excited about it. I like cold weather, and snow more than I should for someone that calls the Lone Star state his home. One day I may migrate further North but I would either have to become an expert Mexican-style chef or convince some Amigos to go with me. Yes, I live for Mexican food. Speaking of Tex-Mex, this Friday, November 18th has been declared ( unofficially I assume) Doug Sahm Day in Dallas. What this means other than the fact that Shawn Sahm & His Tex Mex Experience featuring Augie Miers with special guest Eleven Hundred Springs will be playing at The Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum, I don't know. Shawn is the son of Doug( R.I.P. ), Augie was in some of Doug's bands, and 1100 Springs are as close to old-school country as you can get as well as owing a great musical debt to Doug(this in common with any band that has a twang and is any good) , so the show should be great.

Men of a thousand faces, and as many talents...

 

Paul Slavens and Lon Chaney

I'm slowly emerging from my zombie-like haze and it feels very nice. I've been getting out and socializing more and more, like last nights trip to The Dallas museum of Art, and a couple of other spots. Mark Sharon (who happens to have been my college roommate) and I went to the DMA for a showing of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME starring Lon Chaney, but with the added bonus of having a live soundtrack performed by a group of local musicians. This film was originally silent and the new score written by the versatile Paul Slavens made the already amazing even more so. Paul played piano, and did some vocal sound-effects I believe while backed by a "super-group" of primarily Denton-related musicians that are mostly known for their work in various punk/rock/indie/experimentalish bands that I have seen many times over the years. Bands represented include Baboon, Mission Giant, Ten Hands, The Dooms U.K., March Arc, Brutal Juice, The Banes, and others I might be unaware of. The added touch of a talented female vocalist that employed the subtle use of an effects processor along with other analog keyboards, and equipment complimented the piano and rock-oriented instrumentation. I'd love to see this kind of thing catch on.

Lon Chaney has always been somewhat of a hero to me and this might be his masterpiece. I had never actually seen the film but I knew the stories of Chaney suffering the 40-pound hump strapped to his back while performing his own death-defying stunts. Sure he's an amazing stuntman, and special effects make-up artist but you don't hear much about his acting ability. He somehow managed to take what could be a very one-dimensional cartoon of a character and make him multi-faceted, and likeable despite his gruesome appearance. He actually gets you to empathise with the deformed, and surreal hunchback primarily through the use of body language and facial expression. I don't think I could ever watch this again without some type of musical accompaniment and that would still never come close to the soundtrack I heard last night.

I was coerced into going to The Tom Tom Noodle house in the West Village, which is a part of town I usually avoid like the plague for a late meal after the show. The lure was 1$ sushi and we missed the mark by a couple of hours but still managed to avoid doing the dishes in lieu of payment. Though it was chilly on the patio the warm sake and excellent food worked together to keep us happy. I had an amazing dish that is supposedly the most popular dish in Malaysia called Beef Rendang. It was basically a curried-beef dish served over a large portion of jasmine rice and garnished with bits of mango. I highly recommend it. I even managed to run by Stout on Greenville Avenue to catch a few songs by my friend Jeff Hill's band The Sutcliffe's. Jeff was rocking the key-tar(keyboard worn like a guitar), vocals, harmonica, washboard, and Fisher-Price xylophone in fine form. I slept eventually...

Mimus...

...Latest victim of "art" filters.

Mimus is one of the first, if not the first character that my best friend and I created together. Colin and I met when we were just about to enter junior high. We bonded over a love of rock and roll, comic books, movies, and general lunacy. We both had older brothers that were quite influential to our interests but when we got together those interests grew exponentially. We were both aspiring artists of roughly the same ability, but Colin was also quickly becoming an accomplished guitar-player. Even before we began to create our own comics we were in the habit of creating characters for as yet unnamed projects. I remember many a conversation that began, "We could have a guy that...", and went on to describe some unusual character. The concepts discussed were often visual in nature so it's only natural that we both gravitated to being cartoonists. Ironically the first project we ever worked on together was a "film" entitled THE BATTLE OF ZENON, which was named by Scott Franzke, who along with his brother Bobby, Colin and myself comprised the film crew. We never got further than the creation of a miniature set which was comprised of dirt, and Star Wars toys painted to reflect battle scars all placed on a card table.

Colin and I progressed as artists, and unintentionally as writers as well. Encouraged by local small-press publishers, and cartoonists we met at The Dallas Fantasy Fair we created Milk Vampire Babies which was a magazine sized, and fairly ambitious project for a couple of teenagers. The final product, which was put together with help from my brother Andy under the Permanent Press imprint, was a bit rough but the experience gained was indispensable. Next we did the mini-comic MIMUS which got published by Starhead Graphics in Seattle. Starhead was a small-press comics label that was started by a couple of guys that used to live in Dallas, and I've since forgotten how we hooked up with them. As cool as that seems now we decided that we could easily self-publish our own stuff in exisiting formats we became familiar with through the mini-comics scene and so Permenant Press was reborn. We got reviewed in a few related publications and began to get orders from all over the country to our amazement. This was by no means a lot of interest but to us it was the coolest thing in the world.

Colin and I started doing more comics on our own, as opposed to as a team, but we continued to record our silly, and sometimes disturbing music under the name THE SONS OF GRAVITY. The name is laughable now, but to my addled teenage mind it was perfectly appropriate. As time went by Colin went away to college at The University of North Texas in Denton, while I stayed at home to complete my senior year in high school before going to North Texas after two years of community college. We rarely spoke during this period, and by the time we met again we had changed in unexpected ways. I had grown up a bit and become invloved in a serious, but ill-fated relationship, all the while partying with old high school friends. Colin had immersed himself in bohemian college life with all that comes with it. Without going into too much detail, Colin had a mysterious, life-changing experience that would permanently alter his behavior and life. It was years before we had a "normal" conversation but we eventually began to speak farily regularly.

Recently Colin has been putting together a new mini-comic called PERMANENT PRESS PRESENTS, which showcases many of our characters in new stories, some old sketchbook pages, and other loosely related comics. He has asked me to contribute but up until now I have been extremely lazy about producing artwork. The reasons for this are numerous but I am attempting to break the cycle. It's not much, but the drawing of Mimus is one sketch on a page I'm working on of our old characters. This is just the beginning.

These guys are cooler than we'll ever be. 

GANG OF FOUR!

If you've been living under a rock for awhile you may not have heard that the incredible Gang of Four are back together and playing shows, in addition to putting out a new record of re-recorded versions of their classics. To this you might say, "Yeah, and...?", and I would in turn reply with the order, "Go see them play live immediately!". Seriously, if you have any kind of appreciation for live music, do yourself a big favor and check 'em out if you can. I dragged Bob along to the show, and even though he was unfamiliar with the songs, he enjoyed it quite a bit, and that says a lot. You know, the kind of show where after the first few notes, or beats of a new song the venue is littered with groups of friends giving each other the "Dude, it's this one!" look.

I'm going to rip-off some other reviewer of this particular tour and say that Andy Gill prowled the stage like a panther, or some sh*t, and was the first to take the stage, staring with a convincingly menacing look into the crowd. He did this as he played the first few jagged notes to one of their best songs. You'll have to take my word for that as I can't for the life of me remember which one it was. I CAN say that it's on Entertainment, and if you like I can try to recall which ones I'm sure it wasn't. That's easy because nearly all the songs they played where from that album, which is rightfully considered to be their best work, with Solid Gold right behind it.

Aside from being really tight, really rocking, really punk, and really funky these elder statemen of punk( sorry, I hate that phrase too...forget it ever happened.) were suprisingly hip, and energetic too. Vocalist John King prowled the stage like...uh, ran all over the place, did a lot of "hands in the air" disco contortions, did the crouching-froggy sideways leaping thing, and generally sang his ass off while often glaring over the upturned lights under each microphone. This dramatic lighting was among many of the effective elements forming the minimal aesthetic of the stage presentation that would go un-noticed if you didn't really pay attention. In an odd, couple of psychic moments Bob and I each got flashes of both Bauhaus, and Cheap Trick which surprises me in more ways than I can describe. And since they are so integral to the sound of the band I have to mention bass-player Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were cool too...

Drawing with a dried-up Sharpie kinda sucks! 

Zee moment of truth...

Who knew that the hardest part of the whole "seat-of-my-pants" recording project I've been yammering about would be deciding which mix to use?....And it's dri-ving me cray-zee! Matt sent me two final mixes to choose from, and in the simplest terms one of them is kind of rough, and the other is a bit overblown. I was ready to go with the latter until I played it for my friend Bob and he preferred the stripped-down version. I'm usually all for a less is more aesthetic when it comes to music and many other things but somehow this case is different. Maybe it's because I can't really look at the song objectively any more, who knows? I'm sure you've had the experience of being so close to a project that you can't get back far enough to look at it, well that's what I'm going through here. So what did I go and do? I sent both versions of the song to 5 friends and/or relatives to get their opinions. This accomplishes two things: I get to show off, or perhaps show how truly stupid I can be, as well as getting the feedback I need from a group whose opinons on music I respect.

It's going to be really interesting to see what kind of a response I get. Not only from the folks I've mentioned but from other friends, family, and fellow contributors to this project. I can't wait to see my parents faces when they hear this thing. My Dad listens to light alternative or something on the radio, while my Mother is into horrible young country, Celine Dion and other mind-rot. They won't really have a context to judge this in so it could go in any direction. Most likely they will smile, and nod with some sort of vaguely positive, obligatory response. I'm looking forward to hearing what my nephew has to say. Jonathan is a very cool fifteen year old with good taste in music. He's also an aspiring musician amongst many other talents.

The best thing is that I'm finally starting to feel like I'm using my creativity again. In addition to the music thing I've been slowly getting back into working on my more natural aptitude; drawing. I've been completing a two-page story I did most of a few years back for a comic my old friend Colin is putting together. Colin is an extremely talented artist and guitar-player, as well as being very influential to me in my youth, which I'm almost completely in favor of. It's like a Garagepunk forum dork-out month around here but I wanted to mention that the image above is what I drew today to label the excellent cd I recieved from rontokyo a few months back. Yeah, I'm kinda slow...