Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (01/06/87)
Really-From: hsu@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU (William Tsun-Yuk Hsu) New Lustmord is called Paradise Disowned, with a "latent" side and a "manifest" side. The latent side has slow, agonizing, thick slabs of noise that conjure up images of Azathoth and his demon brethren tossing and turning in the primordial void. Apparently most of this stuff was recorded in underground caves, cathedrals and such places, so the wild reverb and other acoustical properties add to the effect. The manifest side is more conventional, with standard industrial drum machine and not very outstanding noise collages. This album is much more controlled (at least the latent side) and effective than Lustmord's last album, but I do miss the distorted '50s pop music. You'll like this if you like side A of PGR's Flickering of Sowing Time, or Jeff Greinke, or the new SPK but without the ethnic instruments. I meant to write something about this compilation thing called Passed Normal weeks ago, but kept procrastinating and now Option has reviewed it. Anyway, it's mostly twisted rock/pop, with some good playing and decent songwriting, and one or two fairly weird things. The Skeleton Crew tracks have incredibly bad sound. The Shockabilly tracks are characteristic Shockabilly. Snakefinger's songs were kind of lame. The more demented stuff comes from the lesser-known contributors. Good complex rock with horns from Voodoo Mark called "Coffee", similar sentiments as Lou Reed's Heroin. Tricycle Thieves contribute the hilarious "Careful with that axe Eugene Pt. 2". The acoustic guitars on Jeff Michel's "Chimes" scream "New Age" at you until you hear the wild swooping Fripp-ian electric guitar solo. Sediments and Shmazz work within more traditional rock formats while adding weird twists, while Kixx, my favorite on the album, play demented sax and guitar and add free improv noise and turntable manipulations over a chugging rock rhythm. The name Passed Normal is a pun on Normal IL, where many of the contributors live. You can also get two cassettes with the album, with all different material. The second cassette (free if you get both the album and the other cassette) is fairly uneven (like the first cassette) but has a great song by Scott Lucas called "Butt Plug" and the greatest cover of "Black Dog" ever recorded. Bill
Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (03/02/87)
Really-From: sdcrdcf!stephen@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU Crimony, DC3, fIREHOSE Anti-Club Friday, 2/27 Capacity. Nostalgia night for me. This was the venue for my only Minutemen show. Crimony is a duo consisting of DC3's Paul Roessler and fIREHOSEr Mike Watt. They might do some playing during the tour. DC3 is reasonably talented with high, high energy. fIREHOSE played mostly new stuff, with a couple of jaunts down memory lane (eg. Red and the Black). Ed is a guitar maniac. I think you're gonna like him. He has way to much energy to funnel into his playing, so he spends much of the time leaping into the air. My favorite line was Watt going, "We're gonna let you hear Ed's guitar for awhile." As if Ed's guitar hadn't been shredding our brains for the last half hour. Watt and Gurley look damn strong. Watt's benediction: "Everyone have a safe drive home." The Need, Pluto Gang, Radwaste, fIREHOSE Gallery 1:16 Saturday, 2/28 Capacity. Serious outside overflow. The Need need talent, bad. Radwaste was a radical waste of my time. The Pluto Gang were the best, and only worthwhile, opening group. The venue pretty much sucked: a small loft space above a downtown gallery. It was fucking hot and packed, and since the "stage" was a two-inch platform, you couldn't see much of the band. Hard to judge performance. Dangerous Jaywalkers, fIREHOSE, Charlie Haden Trio McCabe's Guitar Shop Sunday, 3/1 Pre-show sellout. This one was somewhat hard to believe from the ad. Here we have LA's rock band of the moment (perhaps the year) playing with jazz legend Charlie Haden. In the back room of a guitar store no less. Well, they brought it off. Dangerous Jaywalkers turned out to be a local high school hardcore band fronted by Charlie Haden's son on bass. This meant that at least a third of the audience was local high school kids come out to see this band. They were okay. fIREHOSE ripped through a too short set, with possibly more assurance than even the previous two shows. Watt introduced Ed as Pete Townshend, and Ed obliged with a few trademark split-leg leaps during the first two songs. Haden (with Ernie Watts and Larance Marable) was somewhat too cerebral for the high school crowd. However, these kids are no slouches; they knew who Ornette Coleman is. Summary: fIREHOSE is a superior band. If you miss their upcoming tour you will be seriously fucking up. b. head