Now THIS Is Why I Hardly Ever Sell Records

I have a zillion records in my collection that I happened upon for a cheap price and, despite the fact that I wasn’t jonesing to hear that record or that type of music that particular moment, picked them up and added to the archives simply because it was critically well-respected. This first album by Public Image (John Lydon of the Sex Pistols’ post-Pistols project) is definitely one of those records. I’ve only listened to it two or three times since I bought it about four years ago, and one of those was simply because I was giving a lecture on punk for a class and wanted to give the students a hint of what post-punk was all about.

I’ve been in a major musical funk lately and despite really enjoying new records by the Observers, DSB, Career Suicide and a handful of others, I really haven’t been feeling much music lately. Even dipping into the old classics and spinning records like Singles Going Steady and Second Coming has been failing to get a rise out of me. I guess I was just looking for something a little different to break things up.

When I slapped this LP on this afternoon, though, I found exactly what I was looking for. The LP’s first song, “Public Image,” is one of the greatest songs ever to come from post-punk, right up there with “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory,” “Shot by Both Sides” and other tracks that I can’t imagine a universe in which they wouldn’t stand the test of time.

Critical opinion on “Public Image” (the song, dummy, that’s why it’s in quotation marks!) is pretty uniform, but it becomes sharply divided when it comes to the rest of the album. It’s easy to understand this reaction, as the rest of the disc is very winsome, and unless you’re really into French twee pop or other such absurdities, winsomeness doesn’t really tend to go over well with critics. However, despite the fact that they haven’t officially entered the canon of post-punk greats, tracks like the side one-closing “Annalisa” are downright great reggae-punk tunes (up there with, say, the Ruts’ “Jah War” or the Clash’s “Guns of Brixton”), even with Lydon’s bizarre vocal stylings messing with the groove.

I hesitate to tell everyone to go out and buy this record right away, but if you ever run across a used copy like I did it’ll be a worthy addition to your collection, and no doubt just like me at some point you’ll pull this disc off your shelf and it’ll be exactly what you wanted to hear at that moment. Now, if anyone has a copy of Metal Box in the original metal packaging for trade, let me know because I think it’s time to learn more about PIL.

War? What War?

I was just skimming the headlines on Yahoo, as I am wont to do about every five minutes when I’m trying to get something done (though, I must admit, working out in the morning makes me focus in a way I’d forgotten I was capable of), and I noticed the title “Bush Visits Canada Amid Anti-War Protests.” It strikes me that I haven’t really heard anything from the American anti-war factions since the elections. As I see it, there are three interpretations of this perceived silence (at least that I’ve thought of):

The Generous/Sentimental: Following Kerry’s quasi-decisive loss to Bush in the recent election, the entirety of the American left has settled into a sort of malaise that prevents them from doing anything except speculating about why we lost and how we can get ourselves more in-sync with “red state values.” At some point, then, the shock of defeat should wear off and we’ll start fighting the bastards tooth and nail once more.

The Media Conspiracy Theory: Misinterpreting Bush’s victory as a sign that there are no more left-leaning people in the United States, the media now assumes that all of America wholeheartedly agrees with Bush’s policies, at least as they existed on November 2. Thus, it is only appropriate to report on and analyze new developments such as changes in the cabinet and new offensives in Iraq.

The Over-the-Top Conspiracy Theory (aka the Daniel Theory^©): Now that the election is over, the machines that generate hatred between otherwise fun-loving Americans has gone into hibernation, leaving us free to concentrate on bolstering their coffers by our *cough* religious zeal for Christmas shopping. Once this seasonal upswing in the profitability of fellow-feeling is over, things will start heating up again, reaching their boiling point in about two years when the next round of seats in the US Senate are up for grabs. In other words, until something is at stake (you know, something besides human life and our country’s economic stability) there is, in effect, no anti-war movement (except among those incorrigible hippies).

Thanksgiving Weekend Aftermath

Before I left to make the family rounds for Thanksgiving, I decided that I was going to eat whatever the fuck I wanted all weekend. I figured that, since things are kinda-sorta starting to slow down at school, I could start up my workout regimen again on Monday, so it would be no big deal if I pigged out for a couple of days. Well, when I got home last night I weight myself and it turned out I gained nearly ten fucking pounds in five days! Man, do I envy you people with quick metabolisms right now… hell, at least my newly-acquired girth will provide ample incentive for dragging my ass out of bed and actually getting to the gym every morning.

Besides that, things are going all right. I am completely ignoring the fact that I run a music web site, and I’m beginning to think about the final short paper I have to write for my philosophy class (I think it will be called “Space and Substance in Leibniz’ Monadology;” sounds pretty smart, eh?). I also have the mp3s from MXV’s “Selections from the Punk Vault” series on pretty much constant rotation and I highly recommend that, especially the Big Black song. Fuck, why don’t I listen to that band more?

USHC Mix Track 10: Die Kreuzen

Die fucking Kreuzen! I’ve considered writing about this band from time to time on DFB, but every time I’ve tried to think of words to describe this primal force I just come up short. Unfortunately, you have to actually hear this band’s first, completely manic LP to believe it. There is nary a wilder, more intense slab of vinyl on the planet, and I dare say that pretty much anyone who has heard the record would agree with me. You’ll do well, though, to avoid the band’s later work as, while it was very influential (I think Kurt Cobain may have even cited October File as an influence) it doesn’t seem to sit too well with the die-hards who love Die Kreuzen’s early stuff.

This version of “In School” comes from the band’s debut EP, Cows and Beer, and while the track is structurally all over the place it’s still light years from the chaos the band would create on their first full-length. Here, sound doesn’t come from the singer’s maniacal vocals and the searing production, but from constantly whirling back and forth between different parts of the song like the Dead Kennedys on bad midwestern speed. In fact, “In School” actually starts off quite a bit like “Police Truck,” but you’ll never mistake Dan Kubinski’s howl for Jello Biafra’s cheeky moans.

Whether you like this or not, you need Die Kreuzen’s first two records in your collection, so go out and buy them right now.

Download Track 10: Die Kreuzen: In School (note: this file may be removed from the server at my discretion)

USHC Mix Track 9: White Trash

This track is from yet another band who I wasn’t familiar with: Colorado’s White Trash. These guys released a one-off 7″ way back in 1983 and, as far as I know, were never heard from again. I haven’t heard any of the other songs off of this EP, but “The Ballad of Ronnie Raygun” is quite an achievement, combining vicious hardcore with a winsome, jokeish quality almost as well as the all-time masters, Adrenalin OD.

“…Raygun” starts off with a bubbly bass line and immediately explodes into some crazy, loose hardcore. The band eventually tightens up, laying down some breakneck trash until they get to this odd little break with guitars that sound like they’re straight from a TV theme song. The song seems like it has come to a halt at about the one-minute mark, but then the bass line returns and they essentially play the song straight through a second time (though without the weird break). Maybe these guys weren’t masters of weaving together different sounds into a cohesive song, but I’ll be damned if those individual parts didn’t rip.

Download Track 9: White Trash: The Ballad of Ronnie Raygun (note: this file may be removed from the server at my discretion)

Shirts for Sale

I’m not sure if any of you have ever even seen this, but I just updated my screen printing page:

http://www.deepfrybonanza.com/docs/printing/

I’m in the midst of trying to clean out the explosion of junk that is my study (I’ll probably be posting about a bunch of CDs, records and comic books I’m getting rid of later), so if you want to take any of the shirts I still have for sale off my hands it would be very much appreciated. Just email daniel@deepfrybonanza.com to work out payment.

A Weekend Without Hardcore

That’s right, folks, I’m pretty sure I haven’t listened to a single hardcore record since sometime last Wednesday. That makes more than five whole days with nary a thrash beat being crammed into my head. Honestly, I’m not really sure if I’m still jonesing for a blast of thrash into my eardrums or if I’ve gotten over the first set of cravings and it’s time to put on some Gang of Four or something like that. However, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be adding an entry or two to the mix tape in the next few hours and I’ll probably be spinning some vinyl as well (unfortunately, none of the records I ordered came in the mail while I was gone), so I imagine I’ll get right back into the swing of things pretty quickly.

So what did I listen to all weekend? Well, on the way up to northern VA and back Kelly and I listened to this giant collection of David Sedaris stories called Me Talk Pretty One Day that Kelly borrowed from her officemate. I’d heard Sedaris’ little essays on NPR before and I thought he was just some whitebread North Carolina cornball making observations about daily live… sort of like A Prairie Home Companion for southerners. However, Sedaris is, in fact, a recovering drug addict, a homosexual, an utter misanthrope and completely obsessed with the more gruesom aspects of medicine and taxidermy. Sedaris may not as funny as some of my favorite stand-up comedians, but those five or six discs passed the time quite agreeably in my new (used) Honda Civic.

In addition to that collection, I also listened to a lot of the “Revenge of the 80s and 90s Weekend” on WHFS, doing by best to bear Stone Temple Pilots songs that I hated the first time around in the hopes that they’d play another song from the Cure’s first album. Oh, and Billy and I rocked a lot of sentimental favorites while playing pool and drinking beer until 3am at my parents’ house last night… maybe it was the booze, but I swear Bad Religion’s Stranger than Fiction LP isn’t nearly as bad as my mind makes it out to be sometimes.

So, all in all it was a pretty great Thanksgiving weekend, with the exception of my car getting towed and having to pay 95 bucks cash to get it back (effectively taking away all of the great money-saving feelings I acquired waking up at 5:30 and going shopping on Friday). Now, however, it’s back to work…

I’m Thankful for My Playstation, and My X-Box, and My Game Boy…

Well, I’m off to make the rounds among all of the various family members for Thanksgiving, so things should be quiet for a while around here. I may actually get to connect to the internet a few times and post some updates, but since I don’t know if they’ll happen at all much less how frequent they might be, I’ll just refrain from speculating at all. Nothing else really to say about that, I guess. I hope all of you have a good Thanksgiving wherever you happen to be.

USHC Mix Track 8: Final Conflict

Today we have another band who, for whatever reason, I haven’t really listened to very much. By the way, this isn’t the Final Conflict from LA who were on Pusmort Records, this is the Final Conflict from Minnesota who released one 7″ on Husker Du’s Reflex Records. Speaking of the ‘Du, you can definitely hear the influence of Everything Falls Apart-era Husker Du on “In the Family;” the song is ultra-fast, totally spastic but somehow still sounds extremely tight and well-put-together from a songwriting standpoint. Bob Mould’s production is also totally classic, a little on the trebly side, but all of the little accented beats seem to pop right out of the mix, just like they should on a good hardcore record. Too bad this band didn’t record more, because like Husker Du I think they probably would have written classic music no matter what style they tried.

Download Track 8: Final Conflict: In the Family (note: this file may be removed from the server at my discretion)

USHC Mix Track 7: Deep Wound

Western Massachusettes’ Deep Wound are probably most famous for featuring Lou Barlow and J Mascis, two of the people who would go on to form Dinosaur Jr. after Deep Wound’s demise and then go on to long and storied careers of their own after the dissolution of that band. However, even if both Barlow and Mascis had’ve just gone off to college and become suits like most hardcore kids, I’m pretty sure people would still be listening to and raving about Deep Wound’s lone EP, though the lack of all of the Dinosaur Jr. fans who need a copy of the EP for their collection would probably keep the prices for this single on ebay a bit lower.

If I’d made this mix I probably would have selected Deep Wound’s classic stop/start hardcore anthem “I Saw It” as their contribution, but “Video Prick” is a worthy song indeed. “Video Prick” is definitely Deep Wound’s most diverse song, clocking in at an almost epic minute and a half and careening wildly between singalong punk, wild lead guitar squealing and straight up thrash.

I love songs that start off with guitar solos, and even though the little lead line that starts off “Video Prick” is just about two seconds long, it’s no different. The song then alternates between wild, squealing lead guitar and the singer’s charismatic vocals until the rug gets pulled out from under them and a gang chorus yells out a hyper-fast chorus that is almost completely indiscernable. This cycle gets repeated a few times until the band collapses in a heap of spent energy.

You’re Living All Over Me may be one hell of a record, but my heart will always remain with Deep Wound.

Download Track 7: Deep Wound: Video Prick (note: this file may be removed from the server at my discretion)