Author: Henry Owings

I just finished watching this and all I could think was "wow". Harry Smith is undoubtedly one of the greatest assets to 20th century recorded music, but good god, this is some out there shit. Does anybody know more about this interview/video footage?

So there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news first. I’ve been extremely busy finishing up the new issue, so there’s not been much in the way of blog updates. And for that, I apologize. There’s a LOT going on, but I have to finish the new issue first. I should add that if you have money to put towards advertising or supporting this endeavor, I’m available.

The good news is that I’ve been seeing some absolutely stellar shows recently. Sex Vid, American Cheeseburger and the Bukkake Boys leveled an Athens pizza joint’s back room on Sunday. Boris, Torche and Clouds brought it on the day after Independence Day. But the big show (at least for me) was seeing Sic Alps perform here in Atlanta on Tuesday with local bands The Suitcases, The NEC and Hawks.

Sic Alps have been a recent fave here at the office and with a new record that came out on Siltbreeze this week, they’re keeping their Most Favored Band status for a while longer. After checking with the band and listening back to the recording, they are allowing me to post their performance in its entirety. It was recorded by Mr. Curt Wells.

I strongly recommend buying their new album (TJ, thank you for resurrecting the label!), the singles comp and the new single (complete with off center and way too big center hole) on Important.

Okay, me go back to work now. You’re gonna love the new issue. I promise.

Sic Alps – Atlanta July 2008
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How rough are things when you’re selling Morbid Angel master tapes on eBay?

Thanks, Stephen.

Hooo nelly! Are we flying by the seat of our pants! The records showed up mere hours ago!

I’m proud to annouce the newest installment in the "record-as-a-ticket-to-a-show" concept. This time we’ve paired Athens mega-band Dark Meat with DJ maestro Diplo for a single of epic proportions!

On one side, Dark Meat cover Iggy Pop’s classic jam "Success" and, on the other side, Diplo deconstructs it on a track entitled "Unsuccessful Space Jam."

As with the two other singles in the series, it’s only available (at least until after the show) if you go into Criminal Records in Little Five Points in Atlanta, Georgia.

And as with the other two shows this was celebrating, it’s being held at Whirlyball Atlanta in Roswell, Georgia next Saturday, July 12 with Noot D’Noot supporting.

Dark Meat and Diplo hit Athens at the 40 Watt the night before with Future Ape Tapes in support.

Get on it now!

The thing that is most disappointing about George Carlin’s career and his death is that the mainstream media will only remember him for his "Seven Words" material and not the inarguably brilliant and venomous nuggets that have spewed from him since the 80’s. You can read anything you want about him on the internet, but I think it best to know Carlin as one of the only comedians (possibly only comedian?) that got better as he entered his senior years. I saw him perform a lot, and he was always top notch. Although I’d like to think he’ll be missed, he certainly wouldn’t care. A nihilist philosopher, oh, and he was funny to boot. He died at 71 and was one of my great personal inspirations.

I’ve included his final in-depth interview conducted by Jeni Matz.

To prove my point about his later material, I’ve included bits about God, Americans, germs and the stupidity of human life.

George Carlin – Free Floating Hostility
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George Carlin – Why We Don’t Need 10 Commandments
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George Carlin – Extreme Human Behavior
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George Carlin – Dumb Americans
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George Carlin – There Is No God
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George Carlin – Fear of Germs
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"Of course My Morning Jacket and (insert band here) sound the same. Everybody sounds the same when they have a dick in their mouth."

Think you know who the band is? I will warn you that it’s a bit of a stumper.

First answer correct in the comments section gets a free "We’re All In This Together" t-shirt.

So today starts a gargantuan summer for Harvey Milk. Six weeks. Two continents.

And The Pleaser on double album gatefold just showed up and looks freakin’ amazing.

The first show is here in Atlanta. Tomorrow night is in Charlotte with what I would call the "Henry’s Dream Line Up" for 2008. Major Stars! Torche! Harvey Milk! Bam! Here’s the rest of the confirmed shows:
Jun 17, The Earl, Atlanta
Jun 18, The Milestone, Charlotte
Jun 19, Canal Club, Richmond
Jun 20, Knitting Factory, NYC
Jun 21, Great Scott, Boston
Jun 23, Europa, Brooklyn
Jun 24, Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia
Jun 25, Otto Bar, Baltimore
Jun 26, Soapbox, Wilmington
Jun 27, 40 Watt, Athens
Jun 28, Bottle Tree, Birmingham
Jul 6, Felerwerk, Munchen
Jul 7, Club Schocken, Stuttgart
Jul 8, Festaal Kreuzberg, Berlin
Jul 9, Hafenklang, Hamburg
Jul 10, Worm, Rotterdam
Jul 11, Recyclart, Brussels
Jul 12, Supersonic Festival, Birmingham
Jul 13, Stereo/ABC2, Glasgow
Jul 14, Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Jul 15, Underworld, London
Jul 16, La Maroquinerie, Paris
Jul 17, FZW, Dortmund
Jul 18, Dour Festival

West coast (and Texas/Arizona dates) will be announced real shortly.

And here’s one of four t-shirt designs I worked on for the tour. My personal fave is the Women and Children shirt, but I don’t wanna ruin anything. You just have to see it.

My good buddy Sloan has posted live recordings from the last few local shows. All worth downloading.

That is all.

I feel so slighted. Massive blood match this fall. Their blood. Our match.

I should add that I’d put Death Cab For Cutie at the top of the whirlyball teams we’ve played along with The Arcade Fire and Les Savy Fav.

And here’s a photo of us with our most recent victims….Vampire Weekend. We won 16 to 12. Not too shabby. That puts us now at 45 and 0.

And a big 7" announcement is coming next week. Diplo. Dark Meat. Mmmmmm….

And Team Chunklet is playing the nationals this weekend. No, I’m not kidding.

So the old lady and I went to Bonnaroo this past weekend. Pretty fun. Got to hang out with funny people and some friends that were playing.

One fun thing is I got to let two of the three people at the ‘Roo that were contributors to the book check it out. Here’s a photo of Dave Schools from Widespread Panic taking a second out of his hot yoga session to pose with the book.

Due out in September on Quirk. More information forthcoming.

Due to a job I had working at a greeting card store years ago, I’m not even remotely sentimental about holidays. Birthdays, anniversaries, everything. Blame the greeting card industry. Combined with that, my dad was never around. So when Father’s Day rolls around, I don’t think of him, but rather my mom who always did everything.

Anyway, with that bit of treacle out of the way, here’s Daddy’s Curses. A recording of a man working on fixing a piano with his l’il cuss of a son quietly recording his dad’s tirades far out of sight.

This recording, with its flurries of nonsensical profanity always make me smile.

Daddy’s Curses
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Or high art? I can’t tell. David Byrne’s a genius.

"Holy shitty. I feel like Chevy Chase’s character in Caddyshack landed a record deal, wrote some lyrics and called Paul Simon to make the music all on a goof."

I practically bust a gut when I got that when she was at a rock show earlier tonight.

First person to name the band gets a free "We’re All In This Together" t-shirt.

Yesterday afternoon, I witnessed a man getting publicly fired from a record store. The owner yelled "Get out!" along with bickering from the guy that was getting fired and then the owner yelling back "I don’t care! You’re fired!" As far as record store humor/pathos goes (coincidentally, most of it’s happened at this one particular store), it was at the top of what I’ve seen.

Similarly, 15 years ago, I was living in Athens and practically living in the bins at the big record store downtown. One day, I walked in and saw an enormous stack of Mummies singles just sitting there in the new arrivals bin. Even in ’93, these records were as rare as hen’s teeth. I immediately went to the bank at the opposite end of the block, withdrew fifty bucks, came back and bought every Trash Rock ™ single they had. When I went to the cash register, Manfred from The Woggles (who worked there until ’97 or ’98) immediately huffed "Where did you find these!?" to which I nudged the new arrivals bin. He looked quite irritated and instantaneously jealous. Again, one of those hilarious record store moments. I walked out and was never to see that remaining incredible stash of records show up ever again. Thanks, Manfred.

What I later found out is that one of the main buyers at the store was lifting multiple copies of records the store was buying for his own personal inventory. This was in the late 80’s and early 90’s when Pre-BS, AmRep, Estrus and Sub Pop singles were lining the back wall of any half-respecting record store with collector’s prices on them. And here he was, stealing from the store. And not just stealing, but also being on the payroll while stealing. Fucking shitball.

So when the powers that be found him out, he was given two options both which left him humiliated, penniless and thrown out on to the curb. First option was to explain everything to the cops. The second option was to give his entire record collection to the store. He went with the second option. And seeing as how the record store wanted to recoup some of their lost revenue, they immediately started to put a tiny fraction of the stock out on the floor. It was in those nano-seconds that I got every Mummies single known to man.

The Mummies were a tongue-in-cheek band that reveled in their disinterest in fidelity, gear and talent. And what do they have to show for it? Only one of the most enviable discographies in all of rock (punk, garage or otherwise). All trash. All hooks. All brilliant. Oh, and Billy Childish liked them. That speaks volumes, yes?

Much like every other bay area band of the time, they never made it even remotely close to Georgia. The Mummies did play a lot though, but it wasn’t for the South to enjoy. In the mid-90’s, they broke up. Shortly thereafter, I was broke and sold all of my singles (along with much, much more) to buy my first computer. Fortunately, everything has been reissued on singles comps that perfectly explain why this is one of the best 90’s bands ever. Ever.

A few years ago, I remember the whole Die Slaughterhaus/Black Lips/Carbonas contingent created a Mummies cover band and performed at the old Lenny’s. This was before the Vice douchebag factor really changed the vibe of  shows here in town, so it was blissfully incredible.

So now we flash ahead to 2008, and Jay Hinman reports that the Mummies played a low-profile show in California this past week in preparation for their "final" show in Spain this coming October. It’s mighty tempting, but what isn’t tempting when you can actually afford to fly to Spain, huh? And here’s an interview in Wired (??!!!) with Trent.

I’m including a bootleg 7" of Mummies Peel sessions from ’94 that many of you probably don’t have.

Enjoy.

(post script: The store I mention at the beginning of this piece is NOT this one. Names are withheld to protect the innocent and tremendously stupid, though.)

The Mummies – The Fly (Peel Session ’94)
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The Mummies – The Ballad of Iron Eyes Cody (Peel Session ’94)
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The Mummies – Just One More Dance (Peel Session ’94)
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The Mummies – Baba Diddy Baby (Peel Session ’94)
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The Mummies – High Heel Sneakers (Peel Session ’94)
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The Mummies – That’s Mighty Childish (Shitsville 7″)
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The Mummies – Doin’ The Kirk (Shitsville 7″)
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A number of people have been asking where the updates to the site have been and to be frank, I’ve just been massively busy. I’m getting the new issue completed (yes, that only took 3 years), the Rock Bible’s about to come out, a few records to put out, shows to promote, the wife and I are nerding out on Battlestar Galactica and we have a new dog that needs lovin’. Oh, and then there’s the "grown up" work that everybody else has that I have as well.

However, in the "down times" I’ve been reading. And yes, I have a few minutes to extoll the virtues of this great book about the No Wave scene in NYC in the late 70’s. Both of the authors require zero introduction, but man, what a rock solid piece of journalism they’ve created! Superior photographs, great interviews (including a 4-pager with Brian Eno!) and very little self-congratulatory spiel from either author. Organizationally, it’s probably one of the best I’ve ever seen and the design of the book is, in a word, stunning.

Worth getting? Oh, you betcha.

I think it’d be safe to say that the New Bomb Turks were a band whose initial success was entirely thanks to MaximumRockNRoll. Or more specifically, "Destroy Oh Boy" was sold exclusively on the adoration that MRR heaped upon it. And why not? It’s a perfect rock album. I think that the only other record that MRR "made" by themselves was "Feel The Darkness" by Poison Idea, but I’m sure there’s others that I’m forgetting. MRR and Tim Yo’s "punk" guidelines which allowed such nuggets as "Destroy Oh Boy" to be heaped onto the top of the underground music pile were also what killed the magazine’s breadth as the 90’s went on. But I digress……

I was still rather new to Athens when I really became obsessed with this album. So obsessed, in fact, that I began writing the band at their Columbus, Ohio mailing address on the back of their records. Without fail, singer Eric Davidson would write me back with news of an upcoming tour or a new record coming out and information on how I could get it. And yes, my full rock dorkdom shines through, I still have the records and the letters around here somewhere.

Much like the Turks, I became equally obsessed with Gaunt and their lesser (yet equally incredible) Ohio bretheren such as V3, Puff Tube and most significantly, The Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments. There was a spectacular "All Ohio" issue of Liz Clayton’s irregular fanzine "Wind Up" which encapsulates that early-to-mid-90’s period oh-so-well. My Dad Is Dead, Log, the list is endless. And yes, all of it still holds up remarkably well.

My interest in the Turks never really died down as the years progressed, but much like an old sweater, there wasn’t much that they needed to improve upon. I was lucky enough to see them perform quite a bit and I still believe to this day that Jim Weber’s guitar tone is up there with John Haggerty (Naked Raygun) as one of the most distinct in all of rock and roll. And Eric? Well, there have been few as energetic and/or humorous as he has been.

As things go with all bands that get on past their 30’s or 40’s, the Turks reconvene every so often when the time and/or money is right. And good for them, they deserve it.

I’ve included a ’93 Peel session by the Turks and included a slowed down version of "Tall Order" that the band had on the a-side of a 12" they did for Anyway Stuff back that same year. I don’t know why, but the band’s best ideas were always when they slowed things down much akin to their cover of "Mr. Suit" on their debut album (which is also included).

God fucking bless the Turks.

New Bomb Turks – I Hate People (Peel ’93)
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New Bomb Turks – Never Will (Peel ’93)
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New Bomb Turks – We Need More (Peel ’93)
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New Bomb Turks – Tall Order (Peel ’93)
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New Bomb Turks – Deathbed Side Manner (Peel ’93)
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New Bomb Turks – Taller Order
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New Bomb Turks – Mr. Suit (Wire cover)
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Truly bizarre audio sometimes comes from the most random place. After purchasing some back issues of Chunklet (don’t ask) on eBay, the seller sent me a CD-R along with the package.

I think the thick Pennsylvania accent and the electric songs he cranks out speak for themselves, but hey, if I thought the power company would turn my service back on if I wrote a song, I’d probably do it.

J&H Productions has nothing on this guy….

Superstar Love Cross Tape – track 1
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Superstar Love Cross Tape – track 2
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I must admit, I was pretty late to AC/DC. When my family moved to Colorado from the suburbs of Houston in 1980, that was my first introduction to their distinct logo and sound. However, my parents were always super protective and not willing to let me bring records into the house with a schutzstaffel "S" (Kiss and AC/DC were the two big offenders) or pentagrams (Rush, Black Sabbath, etc.) or anything that the catholic church (or worse yet, Donahue!) frowned upon.

A classmate lent me "For Those About To Rock" a couple years later and I dug it, but it wasn’t until the mid-90’s that I really started obsessing about them.

With mp3 blogs being how they are, finding AC/DC bootlegs is rather common, but really good bootlegs are another story. During my cyber discoveries, I found these recordings.

The first is by Bon Scott’s 60’s bubblegum pop band, The Valentines, doing a jingle for Coca Cola in Australia. A bit of a novelty.

The second batch is during AC/DC’s first real US push in 1978 where they played any show that Atlantic Records told them. This recording is from a record industry conference in Nashville. Sadly, due to my inability to post more than 7 tks per blog post, I can’t include the hilarious radio announcer lead in track, but the rest of the recording shows just how flawless and on fire this band was back in the late 70’s. And I have said this a lot, I’d put The Ramones and AC/DC in the same pantheon of amazing bands. Simple. Flawless. Unstoppable.

Enjoy.

The Valentines (pre-AC/DC) – Coca Cola jingle
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AC/DC – Live Wire (Nashville ’78)
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AC/DC – Gone Shooting (Nashville ’78)
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AC/DC – Rocker (Nashville ’78)
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AC/DC – Whole Lotta Rosie (Nashville ’78)
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AC/DC – Problem Child (Nashville ’78)
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AC/DC – Sin City (Nashville ’78)
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Actually, that’s not true. Although it’d be miraculous if it happened.

I was lucky enough to see Bitch Magnet at least a couple times when I lived in Pittsburgh during the "glory years" (some would say "year") of 1990 and 1991. Much like lesser (yet still phenomenal) bands such as Nice Strong Arm and Bastro, Bitch Magnet were more massive in Pittsburgh than any place else in the country.

So when I left Pennsylvania for Georgia, I knew that Bitch Magnet lived in Decatur (a burb inside Atlanta) for a while, but even with that, their presence was minimal at best. I pushed them on everybody I knew to little effect.

1993 was a big year. I met an enclave of suburban Atlantans who’d moved to Athens. The Martians, the Fiddlehead guys and most importantly, Jerry Fuchs. Jerry wasn’t well known at the time (he was 18, ferchissakes), but he’s now played in Chk-Chk-Chk, LCD Soundsystem, The Juan McLean, Turing Machine, Maserati, Cloudland Canyon and Vineland (with Jon Fine from Bitch Magnet, not coincidentally). Bands that all massively benefit from Jerry’s motorik skills.

Still, to this day, I think he’s one of the best drummers on the planet. I have crystal clear memories of Jerry sitting in the passenger seat of my ’84 Jetta as we went record shopping in north Atlanta, playing Bitch Magnet’s "Umber" album and Jerry excitedly playing along with "Navajo Ace" on the dashboard. Whereas there are few that could play Orestes’s drum parts, Jerry nailed them. Even without a kit he was a master.

1993 also signaled the year I became good friends with the guys in Seam which featured the songwriting genius of Bitch Magnet’s bass player Soo Young Park. Another blog post goes into this band in detail.

Due to my inability to know what’s passing as "hip" nowadays, I can’t tell you if Bitch Magnet are fashionable in today’s lexicon, but if it weren’t for this band, nothing from Tortoise to Mogwai to Torche to Minus The Bear would exist. There’s no way.

So I’m including this video clip (which was the original impetus for me doing this post) and some rare recordings of Bitch Magnet. The first 2 tracks are from the Caff single that came out in 1990. Caff was run by somebody in Saint Etienne as memory serves. The other tracks are from a board tape of them performing in London in 1989 with Dave Grubbs (Bastro/Squirrel Bait) on guitar.

Go buy all of their albums.

Bitch Magnet – Ducks & Drakes (Caff Single)
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Bitch Magnet – Sadie (Caff Single)
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Bitch Magnet – Americruiser (Live in London ’89)
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Bitch Magnet – Sea of Pearls (Live in London ’89)
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Bitch Magnet – Valmead (Live in London ’89)
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Bitch Magnet – Big Pining (Live in London ’89)
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Bitch Magnet – Goat Legged Country God (Live in London ’89)
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So I’ve been spending a lot of time today sifting through just a mountain of old correspondence (both mail and that of the "e" variety) and came across a couple emails of suggestions for sniglets.

Seeing as how we’ve had these in many past issues, I thought it time to open the floor up to people that might have some suggestions/additions for the new issue.

And in case you’ve been wondering, this new issue is going to be absolutely crushing. Very excited. Finally.

FOLKLECTIC (adj) describes any music group featured on NPR’s Fresh Air.

ALTRO (adj) describes any music group featured on NPR’s Sounds Eclectic. oddly dated. most often derrivative of Beck and/or trip hop.

Leave suggestions/additions in the comments section.

Caught this in the Metro section of today’s AJC. Look who is The Daily Show’s publicist. Keep it funny, TDS!