Ho Ho Ho

Leave it to Polish conductor Krzysztof Penderecki to suck all the fun out of Christmas with his haunting, almost hellish Christmas Symphony. Recorded in 1981 with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and a cluster of evocative of vocalists, the symphony is a exactly the opposite of what one would assume from a holiday piece. Dark and foreboding, the music is actually an interpretation of "Silent Night" though listeners will be hard-pressed to discern any details. Discarding the more minimalist/conservative avant-garde style of his earlier works, Penderecki considers his Christmas piece a turning point in his career, what most classical reviewers mark as his maturation into neo-romanticism (I wouldn't be pretentious enough to claim that analysis as my own). Included in the performance is Penderecki's wonderful rendition of Te Deum ("Thee, O God"), an Ambrosian hymn still quite popular in the Catholic Church (evidently during papal ceremony). Equally as unsettling as it's predecessor, the piece and would find itself perfectly at home in any number of cerebral horror flicks (Shining anyone?). Significantly more choral, the last third of the movement is my favorite, a typical Penderecki tradeoff between soprano and baritone that simply sounds ominous and fearful. Enjoy.

Dóminus Deus Sábaoth

Pathologically Explicit

Ah, nothing creams holiday spirit like a 30-minute dose of Spanish brutal death metal. Straight outta Lleida, Catalonia comes Haemophagia. I don't know what got into me over the last few weeks but man I was getting tired of the pussy shit that kept popping up on my iPod and felt it was time to find a new BDM band. Originally spawned in 2005, the trio began life the sorta-stupidly named Triskaidekaphobia (technical term for fear of the number thirteen), recording a 3-song demo and eventually settling on their current moniker. While the "low" guttural vocals are a tad bit lower than I'd prefer if I was mixing this myself, it's still a great album and one that isn't marred by shitty production, a tinny drum machine or endless movie samples. The breakdowns are heavy and plentiful, the song titles are meaningless and offensive, and while there's nothing you haven't heard before it's performed by a bunch of guys who know their death metal history and play what they like. Break out the egg nog and throw this disc in the CD player for a cozy night of holiday cheer. Enjoy.

Appealing Obliteration

What Have You

Goddamn I wish I was Nick Hexum. Not only does the guy not look like he hasn't aged a fucking day since he graduated college but he owned a fucking island in the Florida Keys. An island. That is some serious shit. Anyways, twenty years before he became a paradise entrepreneur, his band released their second demo on Hexum's What Have You Records. In case you've been living in a soundproof cave on Mars since 1990, Hexum is the lead singer for perennial funk rockers 311; one of the few 90's bands that weathered the death of MTV just fine and still release arguably good shit to this day. I just picked up 311's 4-disc Archive box set and was kinda disappointed they didn't include the band's pre-Music demos. I've sifted through boatloads of illegitimate mp3s over the years trying to find a definitive copy of most of them and the aforementioned Dammit! (1990) has proved the most elusive. Sure there are umpteen "first generation" rips out there but they all seem to be from one of two sources; are completely inconsistent in their mastering; are actually songs from the more readily findable Unity (1991); and many rips clip off several minutes of some tracks (or are missing a song or two entirely). With that being said, I compiled a few "versions" and tried to form what is a reasonable facsimile of an entire album. Side A is actually pretty listenable but make no mistake, the quality is rough (think 64kbps mp3s sleazily up-ripped in disguise). Oh well, what the fuck, you can't have everything. Enjoy.

Fuck The Bullshit!

Mozcore

Yep - my first reaction when this 1996 compilation was recommended to me was a nonplused "are you fucking kidding?" Interestingly, after I looked at the bands on the roster I belched out another "are you fucking kidding?" Having never knowingly heard a Smiths or Morrissey song in my life I wasn't sure what to expect from a punk/hardcore homage to the Manchester woe-is-me rock kings. In short though, I dug it. Probably the absolute antithesis to the original vibe of the songs, each cover are if a fast rocker, some a little more poppy then I'd like (a bunch of songs really sound like the Bouncing Souls) but I can't help but crack a smile at the idea of each vocalist taking a bit of a piss out of Morrissey's whiny style. Christ, even Anal Cunt (circa the 40 More Reasons To Hate Us-era) make an appearance - and their song is damn straight! Dare To Defy's "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" is a fantastic opener - if I didn't know better I would think I was listening to some old Snapcase song. Sub Zero has their Sick Of It All groove going, even the Meatmen rock their anthem with tongue planted firmly in cheek. I think the only song I could skip is Lament's restrained closer, "Back To The Old House" which is a little too close to the irritating original. Smiths fans prepare to be disappointed, all others, enjoy.

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

Government By The Wealthy

I don't know why it took me 20+ years to stumble upon this classic slab of crusty powerviolence grindcore or whatever pretentious audio tags I'm using today. Ironically, I've been pretty aware of Plutocracy's existence for some time, somewhat ashamedly from perusing the endless porn-laden liner notes (and "thank you's") on a few of my dusty Meat Shits 7-inchers of which Kindred (guitar), Max (drums) and Thomas (guitar) were all musicians(?) in at one time of another. Regardless of their pornogrind origins, Plutocracy's debut LP Dankstahz is chock full of crusty stop/start mincecore (what I always wished Man Is The Bastard actually sounded like) interspersed with solid, riff-heavy grind. Wicked fast A.C.-esque blastcore screeches to a blistering halt and crawls along at a leaden pace with some cool crusty Dystopia-vocal tradeoffs. Completely at the forefront of what better-supported bands were dropping at the time (and it's tough to know who actually influenced who), it's too bad these guys never broke out of Palo Alto. And the old-school rap samples are priceless. Surprisingly, Plutocracy had a tough time actually getting Dankstahz on record shelves, most of this LP (recorded in 1992) didn't see the light of stereos until their eponymous compilation CD dropped in '94. Evidently dropped by both Psychoslaughter and Schematics Records (how? why?), the pressed vinyl sat in a warehouse before one of the band members hand-screened a bunch of covers and finally got it in the stores years later (completists note there was a limited 10" that came out on a Germany label in '96 as well). For those interested in the further musical endeavors of the posse surrounding Plutocracy check out this blog run by Agents Of Satan vocalist Jason Balsells - lots of good downloads and stories. Enjoy.

Listen you fuckers...

Never Dirty

Stuck in a shit ton of traffic while driving home from work these 8 minutes of gold randomly popped onto my iPod and kept my road rage at bay for the home stretch of I95. Mixed by old friend DJ Stew back in the late 90's, there's nothing here that would amaze any potential Q's out there, just a solid seamless medley of D.M.C. old-school hits. "My Adidas," "Sucker M.C.'s" and "Peter Piper" as well as some snippets from other classics. Relegated to weddings and cheesy bar mitzvahs, Stew left the disk jockey racket a long time ago. Enjoy.

Mostly Clean

Central Jersey Sludge

Very little out there on this sludgecore three-piece other than they seemed to be active around 2012 and even got a gig at the sadly defunct New Brunswick, NJ Alamo club. Which was dutifully recorded by someone no less! And here it is. Blasting a wall of lo-fi shit-Peavey-amp feedback-laden nonsense at the surely confused barflys, Thorn wallow through twenty minutes of respectable sludgecore. Lotsa screaming and shrieking and there are times it almost sounds like blur. I've also included the bands' three-song demo, recorded a month earlier sans vocals and lead guitar (possibly as show prep?) which show the guys as committed musicians who gave a shit about what was going on at the time. Three years later I'm sure the band has long since dissipated but hey, they accomplished more in a few short months than some idiots achieve over years.

I II III IV

Time For Sex

As I've rambled about before from this ol' soapbox, my favorite albums of Kool Keith's fucking epic discography are those conceived with Kutmasta Kurt. A long decade after the duo dropped Keith's ultimate Sex Style (here) comes an hour of outtakes and demos; shit that didn't make the final cut or was simply never made it out of demo status. To be honest, why? The shit rules. It is fucking awesome to hear Keith rapping his trademark dirty "do-do" freestyle over Kurt's absolutely minimal groove-heavy beats once again - by no means are these apologetic bottom-of-the-barrel scraps. Shit, the fact they came up with a token "skit" cements the fact that Sex Style should have been a double LP. Regardless, it is now with this album as a companion, discovering another cache of top-dollar Keith at his peak is simply money.

Oh. My. God. Girl.

Straight Outta Stockholm

Something a little different-sounding from my usual posts - and tough to actually describe. While their bandcamp handle is "dvaladoom" don't be fooled, this Swedish 5-piece plays a pleasantly unique smorgasbord of post punk, lo-fi and croony, arty indie rock (they evidently posit themselves after 80's Swede alt rockers Broder Daniel whom I've never heard so the reference is completely lost on me). I present their 2013 release Vanföreställningar (Delusions), a 4-song EP that skirts across a large chunk of the musical spectrum. Most of the songs have two separate parts, one somewhat gloomy and bluesy followed by a more traditional R 'n' R finale. Guess which part I like better. If I have one complaint it's having no idea what the vocalist is wailing in any of the songs (à la watching a foreign movie without subtitles) but I can't really point too much of a finger since most of the music I listen to is abject screaming and gurgles anyway. The band appears to still be active (and poised to drop a full-length LP) via the usual social media pages so check 'em out (fb/bc).

Harborside

Lo-fi lovers unite...

As raw as they come these days, the Kent, UK three-piece calling themselves Sorg stumbled late into my bandcamp search results long after I had expected to discover anything worthwhile. Vaguely reminding me of the Fuckheads and/or any other bunch of pissed-off guys projecting their pent-up rage towards the world/job/girlfriend/parent/whatever via a musical instrument, the shit is pissed off and groovy to listen to. The band claims to play a mixture of black metal/sludge/powerviolence/hardcore and I'd agree with genres 2 and 4 - I'm bereft to to find the black metal connection here and I still don't really know what the fuck "powerviolence" is. My favorite song is easily "Sludge Cunt" (Yes! The best song name in the world!), a tune that totally reminds me of Loinen or Usko or some weird black Finnish sludgecore band. Am I digressing? Absolutely worth a listen. 

The Fall

Burning Inside

Man, way back in 1989 Al Jourgensen must have been having the time of his life. Not only was his industrial monster Ministry blowing up stereos around the world, he was involved in like ten other bands outputting EPs, LPs and singles with astonishing speed. One of the better records dropped during that time was the first 12" single from The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, "Burning Inside." While the titular song gets little more than a minute or so of "remix" treatment (a few extra loops of beats here and there, nothing terribly different - same with Side B's "Thieves"), the real star of the release is an "arrangement" of the Skinny Puppy song "Smothered Hope". Originally found on their 1984 Remission EP, Jourgensen culled and mixed his version from a 1988 live Chicago performance. Ironically, Jourgensen met Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre at the Wax Trax Studios while cutting the track which would eventually be PTP's "Show Me Your Spine" single for RoboCop.

"...I was doing a song for the RoboCop soundtrack as PTP, when Ogre walked in. I get pretty psychotic in the studio, and I didn't even know who he was, but somebody said he was some singer from somewhere, so I just said 'hey man, make yourself useful, get in here and sing.'"

And so a friendship was born. Anyways, nice to hear some not-so-common Ministry from the earlier days and longer versions of two of my favorite Taste songs can't be beat. Enjoy.

So What?

Contemplating Death

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything "heavy" on the ol' blog (much less posted anything at all but that's a different story) so a big welcome to the creepy month of October with a 38-track slab of good ol' pathological goregrind to ruin your day. I gotta admit I was pretty excited when I heard the opening "Symphony For A Casket Full Of Nematodes" - a brutal lo-fi goregrind neo-classic with a solid riff and great blasts of noise and gurgles. Unfortunately the rest of the record doesn't hold up quite as strongly. Imagine really early cassette-deck Regurgitate (a la Concrete Human Torture) and you'll get the idea. Occasionally a RGTE-esque riff will really stand out ("Anatomophysiological Deterioration" for one) but there is a lot of slogging through the swamp until you hit the satisfactory closer "Enter The Realm Of Cadaver... Dissection." I really prefer the slower grooves over the blast beat nonsense (which ultimately becomes terribly tiring) and there's enough variation between the nearly forty 1-minute tracks to keep Stages Of Decomposition listenable. The duo behind Thanatopsis includes Neto from the forgettable Brazilian gorenoise outfit HxAxSx and Pelle  from the equally obscure (and I'm sure just as unpleasant) Swedish one-man grindshow Shitfaced. I'm actually curious as to whether the two guys made the trans-global flights to record together or if this was a collaborative email/snail mail effort. Either way it absolutely blows away anything either of them have done in the past and there are some other splits and comps featuring the band out there waiting for you to check out...

Play Possum

Space Spotted Deer

Inspired by (or should I say riding on the coat-tails of) the should-be-more-praised I Hate The 90s comes the second record by South Korean grunge lords Noizegarden. Slavish Soundgarden fanboy moniker aside, the music sounds exactly like what you'd expect from an Asian bandwagon band jumping into the fray five years after the style they so fervently revere has departed for the cut-out bin. Still, aside from my deadpan (and terribly jaded) historical assumptions, But Not Least is a fucking solid LP from guys who obviously enjoyed what they were playing (are you listening, Jonathan Davis???) and sound more like what I wish Badmotorfinger actually ended up being. It's easy imagining guitarist/founder 윤병주 strumming a pristine 7-string Ibanez through tracks like "I Do Not Want Anymore" with a big fucking smile. His guitar work is effortless and almost sounds like Slash as he noodles his way up and down the fret with a sluggish confidence - really impressive. Sure, lead singer 박건 is a lot more melodic then the Chris Cornell-ish wailing you'd come to expect with a band like this but simply imagine Cobain singing for Soundgarden and I think you'll get the idea. There's some great feedback manipulation on a couple tunes which would never had made it into a Sub Pop release and while they were probably a decade too late to make it on this side of the hemisphere it's still a rocking 57 minutes. Enjoy.

Another Temptation

The Old Style

I consider myself a pretty big early-era Beastie Boys fan so I was surprised as shit to stumble upon this bootleg claiming to feature demo tracks from the trio's watershed 1986 LP Licensed To Ill. Jaded from decades of shitty boots I didn't expect much but once "Rhymin' & Stealin'" hit the speakers it was like welcoming an old friend back home. Sure the mixes are rough and the CD quality is marginal but man it is fun hearing semi-alternate versions of the record's time-tested classics. Featuring two so-so deleted songs "I'm Down" (a Beatles cover, 'natch) and "Scenario" - the real treat are the demos. While most of the songs are basically the same they are clearly mixed differently and, how can I say, heavier (especially "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"). "Rhymin' & Stealin" now ends with a since-censored "I smoke my crack and I'm rhymin' & stealin'..." "Fight For Your Right" has a whole additional verse (!) tacked on at the end, "Hold It Now, Hit It" wraps up differently. While it would be great if this was an actual leaked demo of what Licensed was originally intended to be, I've since read that Blue Moon Records (or whoever really cut this together) compiled some demos of tracks that were altered after the fact, added some deleted songs and filled in the gaps with slightly modified album cuts to approximate an "almost was" record. Regardless of the history it's still a cool listen. And I hear there's a Paul's Boutique demo bootleg floating around out there as well. Stay tuned.

Time To Get Ill

The MTV star that never was...

Over the last couple days I spliced together a video for one of my favorite GG Allin songs. "Cornhole Lust" off of the ever-so-lovely Suicide Sessions. Check it out here.

Update 11/18/21: YouTube deleted my original video because I spliced in a few seconds of 80's porno clips, so I re-edited to include some classic gore segments and the video is probably more brutal now than it was originally. Yeah censorship!!

South Central Samples

Well, with the upcoming Straight Outta Compton hitting theaters in a fortnight or two I thought I'd wrap up my sample compilations with the record that started it all. Pulling the material for this one was a real beast; the first thing I learned is that Dr. Dre had a lot of records in his archives and secondly, he produced in a significantly different way then DJ Ready Red of the Geto Boys did. While Ready Red tended to use pretty big chunks of his sample songs, Dre (and I guess Yella to an extent) used only the tiniest snippets from records. Of course there are a few exceptions ("Parental Discretion Iz Advised", "Express Yourself" and "I Ain't Tha 1") but for the most part only a quick drum loop, sound effect or guitar lick was lifted from source songs. And Dre also wasn't against modifying some of the material, case in point the classic drum beat to "Straight Outta Compton" is a significantly slowed down bridge riff from the Winstons' "Amen, Brother." With that being said I don't know if I would have been able to figure a lot of these out (or track them down) without a plethora of assistance from various sample libraries on internet.

Still, it was a little iffy adding some of the songs to the compilation. Including Beastie Boys' "The New Style" simply because Adrock's solitary one-second "Puttin' it on wax!" lyric is used in "8-Ball" was a bit of a game-time decision. Unlike the Geto Boys who culled most of their spoken word from Scarface, Dre used a ton of different records for quick vocal clips. Hell, I probably could have included the entire Eazy-Duz-It and N.W.A. And The Posse LPs as source material as well. Interestingly, a choice few of the sample tunes I included I am not actually sure when they are used in the respective song but I figure someone out there does. There are also a couple that I question their legitimacy - Fishbone's "Lyin' Ass Bitch' for one. Yeah, there's a loud "Biiiitch" yelled in both "A Bitch Iz A Bitch" and at the close of Fishbone's track but is it the same one....?

Once again, here's the song-by-song breakdown, and yes I added "A Bitch Iz A Bitch" simply because it is such a classic fucking song:

1. Straight Outta Compton
        • "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons
        • "You'll Like It Too" by Funkadelic
        • "Engine Number 9" by Wilson Pickett
        • "West Coast Poplock" by Ronnie Hudson And The Street People
        • "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" by The Gap Band
        • "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" by Bob James
2. Fuck Tha Police
        • "It's My Thing" by Marva Whitney
        • "The Boogie Back" by Roy Ayers Ubiquity
        • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown
        • "Funky President (People It's Bad)" by James Brown
        • "Feel Good" by Fancy
        • "Engine Number 9" by Wilson Pickett
3. Gangsta Gangsta
        • "Weak At The Knees" by Steve Arrington’s Hall Of Fame
        • "Be Thankful For What You Got" by William DeVaughn
        • "N.T." by Kool And The Gang
        • "Funky Worm" by Ohio Players
        • "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch
        • "Impeach The President" by The Honey Drippers
4. If It Ain't Ruff
        • "A Star In The Ghetto" by Average White Band & Ben E. King
        • "Don't Believe The Hype" by Public Enemy
        • "Ain't We Funkin' Now" by The Brothers Johnson
5. Parental Discretion Iz Advised
        • "I Turned You On" by The Isley Brothers
6. 8-Ball (Remix)
        • "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
        • "Paul Revere" by Beastie Boys
        • "Fight For Your Right" by Beastie Boys
        • "Girls" by Beastie Boys
        • "Be Thankful For What You Got" by William DeVaughn
        • "Yes, We Can Can" by The Pointer Sisters
        • "It's My Beat" by Sweet Tee And Jazzy Joyce
        • "My Melody" by Eric B. & Rakim
        • "West Coast Poplock" by Ronnie Hudson And The Street People
        • "Too Much Posse" by Public Enemy
7. Something Like That
        • "Take The Money And Run" by Steve Miller Band
        • "I Think I'd Do It" by Z.Z. Hill
        • "Down On The Avenue" by Fat Larry's Band
8. Express Yourself
        • "Express Yourself" by Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
9. Compton's N The House (Remix)
        • "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" by Bob James
        • "Funky Beat" by Whodini
        • "It's My Turn" by Dezo Daz (featuring D.J. Slip)
        • "Cinderfella Dana Dane" by Dana Dane
10. I Ain't Tha 1
        • "The Message (Inspiration)" by Brass Construction
11. Dopeman (Remix)
        • "Funky Worm" by Ohio Players
        • "Dance To The Drummer's Beat" by Herman Kelly & Life
        • "My Posse" by C.I.A.
        • "Freestyle Live (Edit Version)" by Roxanne (Fly) Shanté (featuring Biz Markie)
        • "I'm Bad" by L.L. Cool J
12. Quiet On Tha Set
        • "Rock Creek Park" by The Blackbyrds
        • "I Get Lifted" by KC And The Sunshine Band
        • "The Unsafe Bridge" by Laura Olsher
        • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown
        • "Take The Money And Run" by Steve Miller Band
13. Something 2 Dance 2
        • "You're The One For Me" by "D" Train
        • "Dance To The Music" by Sly & the Family Stone
        • "'Mighty Mouse' Theme" by The Sandpipers
        • "Change the Beat (French Rap)" by Beside
        • "ORCH5" by David Vorhaus
14. A Bitch Iz A Bitch (bonus)
        • "Papa Was Too" by Joe Tex
        • "Lyin' Ass Bitch" by Fishbone

Phew, what a list. Almost 4 hours of stuff. Y'know when I started writing this blog I was sure it was my swansong compilation but I gotta tell ya, after typing this all out I'm now sort of itching to do Eazy-Duz-It. But until then, sit back, crack a 40 or two of Old E and enjoy.

Part I                                        Part II                                        Part III

Industrial Rap Rock Rollins

Here's a quirky oddity from the early 1990's, sounding exactly like something that could only come from that era. Henry Rollins paired up with frequent bandmate bassosaurus Andrew Weiss and cut a strange EP showcasing an amalgam of twanging bass-heavy industrial drum-machine rap rock which can only be described as "unique". Rollins alternates between his best Mike Patton "Epic" imitation and a more typical "Low Self Opinion" forceful snarl. The overly synthetic backbeats are strangely poppy, when overdubbed with Weiss's effect-laden bass it sounds positively surreal. The hypnotic wall of flanging noise at the end of "Right To Life" would seriously fuck up any acidhead's mind if listened to mid-trip. "The Whole Truth" is the closest thing to a single on this one, white-boy pseudo hip-hop that was all the rage back then and I have to imagine Hank and Andrew cracking up in the studio at the silliness of it all. You gotta see the video as well - especially Rollins hamming it up on the beach in a parody of Madonna's "Cherish" video, fucking priceless. It all wraps up with an absolutely unrecognizable Grateful Dead cover to boot.

Check Out The Gap

Who The Fuck Is Fred?

Nothing like a one-trick pony, right? No sooner did I finish my Geto Boys sample post then I got some info on the background material for Akshen/Scarface's incredible 1991 solo debut Mr. Scarface Is Back. Nursing a sore throat and with a little time on my hands, I culled the sample tracks for this record and here ya go, another amazing 2+ hour collection of 70's funk and soul. Not as much James Brown this time (and there are a few hold overs from the Geto Boys comp as well, sorry) but finally hearing "Synthetic Substitution" by Melvin Bliss and "Thinking" by the Meters is enough to deserve a listen. Half of these tracks are a who's who of legendary sample beats - wonderful to hear the full songs behind the scenes.

Here is the LP track breakdown:

A1. Mr. Scarface

        • "Gimme What You Got" by Le Pamplemousse

        • "Different Strokes" by Syl Johnson

        • "Sexy Coffee Pot" by Tony Alvon & The Belairs

A2. The Pimp

        • "Sportin' Life" by James Brown

        • "Impeach The President" by The Honey Drippers

A3. Born Killer

        • "Theme From 'Buck & The Preacher'" by The Nite-Liters

        • "Amen, Brother" by The Winstons

        • "The Assembly Line" by Commodores

        • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown

A4. Murder By Reason Of Insanity

        • "Synthetic Substitution" by Melvin Bliss

        • "UFO" by ESG

        • "Untitled Instrumental" by James Brown

A5. Your Ass Got Took

        • "Sing A Simple Song" by Please

        • "Down On The Avenue" by Fat Larry's Band 

        • "The Traffic Cop (Dance)" by Bloodstone

        • "Four Cornered Room" by War

A6. Diary Of A Madman

        • "The Payback" by James Brown

        • "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton

B1. Body Snatchers

        • "Soul Power Pt. 1" by James Brown

B2. Money And The Power

        • "Love Serenade (Part II)" by Barry White

        • "UFO" by ESG

B3. P D Roll 'Em

        • "I've Been Watching You" by Southside Movement 

        • "Blind Alley" by The Emotions

B4. Good Girl Gone Bad

        • "Do Like I Do" by Smokey Robinson

        • "Good Old Music" by The Parliaments

B5. A Minute To Pray And A Second To Die

        • "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" by Marvin Gaye

        • "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

        • "Kissing My Love" by Bill Withers

B6. I'm Dead

        • "Thinking" by The Meters

        • "Down On The Avenue" by Fat Larry's Band

        • "Mango Meat" by Mandrill

On a final note, I never really liked the cover I did for The Geto Boys sample comp so I updated that one and used what I had before for this one. Makes a lot more sense - and I sourced the photo from the original Mr. Scarface negative before they "browned" out DJ Ready Red. Enjoy.

Part I                                                                     Part II

Grrrrrr...

There's that part of me who can't help but chuckle when I come upon some of the more contrived black metal names. And what's the allure of the whole goat thing? Yeah, I get it's a Sabbatic Goat/Baphomet reference but let's be slightly more original guys. Black Goat, Goat Anus, Black Anal Goat Vomit, Goatwhore, Goateatgod, blah blah bluh. Which brings us to Oregon's Weregoat and their verbose debut EP Unholy Exaltation Of Fullmoon Perversity. I just don't get it. Who sits around a kitchen table and comes up with the name Weregoat? Were they in the middle of playing Dungeons & Dragons? Save for the few lupophobics out there it doesn't come off as anything but cheesy. Which is a real shame because this trio is no joke when it comes to their sound and image. Clad in Slayer-esque rusty-nail armbands as well as necklaces of raw meat, they play a solid hybrid of black metal and grindcore recorded in wonderfully scratchy lo-fi. All members (both past and present) are true veterans of the Northwest metal scene with dozens of bands under their belt (the drummer owns Parasitic Records as well) and their experience shows. Blistering fast blastbeats and wicked guitar work - effortless switching from thrash grooves to heavy riffage. There are a few intros that drag on a little too long at times but my only real complaint is the muddy background echo effect on the lyrics. Yeah, I know it's kind of a black metal standard but I wish they were a bit cleaner, angrier and up front. Still, a great introduction to a band still churning out records - keep up with 'em here.

Invoke The Black Oblivion

It's On

Not sure where or when I got this bootleg CDr but it doesn't have anything from the Cocktails era (and beyond) so I'd guess around 1994. Most of the tracks are culled from Get In Where You Fit In and Shorty The Pimp but "Freaky Tales" makes an appearance from Born To Mack as well as a few from Life Is... and the epic Ice Cube duet "Ain't Nothin' But A Word To Me" from Short Dog's In The House. All in all the mix is just what you'd expect from a Too $hort greatest hits collection - slow plodding bass lines with some overtly dirty lyrics but the addition of "Hoochie" and "Gotta Get Some Lovin'" speed the bpm up nicely. My favorite song on the record is the "Glove Compartment" mix of Shorty The Pimp's "In The Trunk" - an already great tune is remixed with a huge beat and stand up bass. Too bad it's a radio cut but oh well, awesome shit.

BTW, I just checked out $hort's new video - it's pretty solid for a guy who's been doing the same thing for a quarter of a century.

Where They At?

Back the Geto Boys!

Holy fuck, just stumbled upon this while finishing up research for my last post. The Geto Boys are fucking back and need you to help fund their reunion album Habeas Corpus. While I wish Ready Red would be part of the gang I will take it. Check out their Kickstarter site - 15 days left as I write this...

Give To The Geto

F#@* 'Em

With the 25th anniversary of the Geto Boys' eponymous Def American debut looming, I decided to take a cue from a fellow blogger and add another entry into the "Songs Someone Taught Us" series. The year was 1990 and Def American released quite possibly the finest rap record in history. The Geto Boys. Sure, "Ghetto" Boy purists consider it more of a remix album then a legit new LP (although other than possibly "Size Ain't Shit" all of the Grip It! On That Other Level tracks were revamped and re-edited into vastly superior versions) - it still stands as the group's best work and a standard for pretty much any other hip-hop album to aspire. I was surprised to learn how much material was sampled to create The Geto Boys, while mostly funk tracks featuring James Brown as vocalist (or in some other major role) there are some real surprises once you deconstruct the songs. Billy Squier? "My Girl"? After listening to the album over and over while culling the below tracks I now can't hear a sample without thinking of its origin. So while this is not quite a collection of originals that a band covered (à la my previous Metallica and GG Allin posts) it's a window into what D.J. Ready Red's record collection must have looked like and got that Houston studio bumping way back in 1989.

Here's the song-by-song breakdown:

A1. Fuck 'Em
        • "Breakthrough” by Isaac Hayes
        • "Rocket In The Pocket (Live)" by Cerrone
        • "Kool Is Back" by Funk, Inc.
A2. Size Ain't Shit
        • "Blow Your Head" by Fred Wesley And The J.B.'s
        • "Mt. Airy Groove" by Pieces Of A Dream
A3. Mind Of A Lunatic
        • "Givin' Up Food For Funk" by The J.B.
        • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown
        • "Batman: Stacked Cards" by Joey Lapidos
A4. Gangster Of Love
        • "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band
        • "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" by Johnny Jenkins
A5. Trigga Happy Nigga
        • "Memphis Soul Stew" by King Curtis
        • "Love The Life You Live" by Kool And The Gang
A6. Life In The Fast Lane
        • "The Big Bang Theory" by Parliament
        • "Girl In The Hot Pants" by The Soul Brothers Inc.
        • "The Big Beat" by Billy Squier
A7. Assassins
        • "Apache" by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band
B1. Do It Like A G.O.
        • "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield
        • "Apache" by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band
        • "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey And The Detroit Guitar Band
        • "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved" by James Brown
B2. Read These Nikes
        • "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock
        • "You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks And I'll Be Straight" by Fred Wesley And The J.B.'s
        • "Funky Drummer" by James Brown
        • "Funky President (People It's Bad)" by James Brown
        • "My Girl" by The Temptations
        • "Batman: Stacked Cards" by Joey Lapidos
B3. Talkin' Loud Ain't Saying Nothin'
        • "Talkin' Loud & Sayin' Nothing" by James Brown
        • "Skin Tight" by Ohio Players
        • "Theme From The Planets" by Dexter Wansel
        • "South Bronx" by Boogie Down Productions
B4. Scarface
        • "Blues & Pants" by James Brown
        • "Ashley's Roachclip" by The Soul Searchers
        • "Gimmie What You Got" by Le Pamplemousse
        • "Different Strokes" by Syl Johnson
B5. Let a Ho Be A Ho
        • "Money" by Pink Floyd
        • "Impeach The President" by The Honey Drippers
B6. City Under Siege
        • "The Message From The Soul Sisters" by Myra Barnes
        • "Think (About It)" by Lyn Collins
        • "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" by The Hillside Singers

For those with sharp eyes, yep there's a children's Batman 7" record on the list. Packaged with a comic book, it was a 70's vinyl version of the "Read-And-Listen" shit kids have loaded on their iPads today. It supplies all of the "he's a paranoic who's a menace to our society" samples  - which up to this day I assumed were from some obscure B-movie. Who in the Geto Boys owned that record? I debated including it since it runs a little long but was so surprised at the discovery I felt I had to. And upon listening to this catalog you'll find that it could have sufficed as sample material for a whole multitude of famous rap songs from back in the day (Public Enemy being one of the more consistent repeat clients). While some of the tunes are far from something I'd listen to on a daily basis, all have their moments, and most of the funk stuff is truly amazing. Interestingly, I just read a somewhat recent interview with Scarface in which he pledges a Geto Boys reunion LP if Rick Rubin would produce. Rick, are you reading?

7/11/15 update: Since my latest post was actually for Mr. Scarface Is Back I went ahead and updated the "album" cover for this one. Looks a ton better in my opinion. Enjoy.

Part I                                        Part II                                        Part III

Raw Dog Style

Completely overlooked West Coast supergroup debut featuring the indomitable Keith Korg (Kool Keith), Ice Oscillator (Ice-T who raps light years better on this record than anything else in his solo catalog), Marc Moog (Mark Live - a producer most known for his work with Ice-T), Silver Synth (Kool Keith protegé Black Silver) and Rex Roland JX-3P (Pimp Rex). While the latter three of the quintet may be mere plankton in the vast hip-hop ocean, Kool Keith kills (as usual) on this record and I simply cannot get over fucking Ice-T. Where the fuck was this guy on all of his records?!?! He raps with a smart fluency and keeps with the fast-ass rhythms like a pro. Man, it is so refreshing not to hear Ice simply brag about himself for 60 minutes! Of course the music sounds exactly like the evil synthesizer shit Kool Keith was dropping at the time (Spankmaster anyone? You'd be hard-pressed to convince me that this album was anything but Keith's idea...) but it flows great and the rappers give more than enough time to each other's skills. The one thing that I can't get over is my obsessive opinion that someone in the posse is the deep-voiced dude from Jurassic 5...

Shut Down Show

Smackin' a brick across your crown...

Regardless of how you feel about the short-lived genre that was nü metal or the whole seedy music business selection process in general (and this was years before fucking American Idol), I still have a soft spot in my heart for Fairfax, VA rockers Sev. A local band crushing cities up and down the Eastern corridor, they were the first group signed by Farmclub - a web/TV show/record label hybrid (which back in 2000 was huge). Farmclub was backed by the heads of Interscope and Geffen respectively - Sev got the record deal, a $300K budget and their future was brighter than a thousand IEDs. Amazingly, the WWF of all things destroyed their future. "Monday Night RAW" (originally airing the hour before Farmclub TV) switched networks and the forgotten music show tanked without its drunken redneck regular viewers. Sev got pushed to Geffen which had no interest in the group and put their mainstream debut on hold until 2002 with little to no support whatsoever. Amazingly, an epic lifeline came along in the color of a blue soda - Pepsi was gearing to launch the then-revolutionary Pepsi Blue and picked Sev's "Same Old Song" out of every other song on the fucking planet to helm the worldwide advertising campaign. But lightning does strike twice. Pepsi Blue tanked. Badly. Along with the advertising campaign and any last shred of Sev's musical future. The band changed/lost a few members and tried to record a follow up to Geffen's All These Dreams but it all finally fell apart in 2007. A repectable website is still maintained by the band which offers a whole bunch of unreleased material left over from the post-Geffen days as well as Farmclub-era demo stuff. While a tad dated style-wise, the early 2000 stuff fucking kills, solid nü metal before the genre got agonizingly boring. The late-2007 material struggles - a band trying to come to terms with their extraordinary bad luck. Unbelieveable. 

RC-1207

Bitchslap

While I'm sure this was ripped straight from bootleg and has little to offer slavish fanboys of Slipknot's eponymous 1999 Roadrunner debut, MFKR is a refreshingly bold experimental record from a band that simply hadn't yet found its niche (or the all-encompassing influence of Ross Robinson). There is the funky "Confessions" more suited for a Mr. Bungle record, "Only One" dabbles in the nü metal genre they'd eventually be associated with (a smirk-inducing white boy rapping opus that would make even Fred Durst groan) and "Do Nothing" - an epic jazz/death metal amalgam with Ministry-esque vocals to totally fry your mind. As a whole, the glue of the record is still metal - actually very Metallica-sounding metal that seems a tad dated, even in 1996. My biggest problem with the album (and the reason its recording budget ballooned to almost $40K) is the piecemealing together of the drums and overdubs. It simply doesn't sound quite in time. An excuse could be made in the fact that there is a lot going on in the songs but that problem has plagued Slipknot for years (I almost found Iowa unlistenable at times simply because there was so much shit going on on once). Fans of Slipknot will either love or hate proto-versions of "(sic)" (they way-too-long opener simply titled "Slipknot") and "Tattered & Torn", but unbiased prog metal fans could be pleasantly surprised if they can get around the somewhat unrefined production (revisionist band history now considers this a demo record). I chuckled upon finding out that none of the members still own a legit pressing of this record. Enjoy.

Meld

Who's The Next Maggot?

 

Was this album underrated? I know they got some MTV play (and controversy) with "Freedom Got An A.K." but I have yet to meet anyone over the last 23 years who actually owned, much less liked this record. And what a shame. Two of the trio (J-Dee and T-Bone) backed up Ice Cube on his AmeriKKKa's solo debut, bringing on Shorty to round out the threesome in 1992. While sounding a whole lot like what Ice Cube was releasing at the time (thanks both to Sir Jinx's stellar production and constant uncredited appearances by O'Shea himself), Guerillas easily stands on its own with both solid beats and some arguably harsher lyrics than what other L.A. rappers were spitting out on major label LPs (I tell ya, it's still feels somewhat weird to this day being a white guy enjoying this record but what can ya do). Regrettably, J-Dee was sent up the river on a murder charge and the group was forced to find a replacement in Maulkie (of Yomo & Maulkie fame) the next year. Their 1994 follow up is pretty solid but doesn't touch this amazing debut. Enjoy.

Buck You With My Shotgun

Chocolate Town

Undeniably Ween's finest hour. 2003 was both the best and worst year in my life (besides signalizing my turning 30 that is). Best: the girl I absolutely loved at first sight from the day I ever layed eyes on her actually took me up on my standing 2-year offer to grab a drink. Our whirlwind relationship (which is a whole other demented blog post) started at that point and never let up for one second over the next two years. Worst: My crazy ass dog - a giant Shepherd/Collie mix who was the most loyal friend I ever had needed to be put down after struggling with hip dysplasia for so long I can barely remember him being normal. I also watched my career collapse right in front of my eyes and had two good friends kill themselves within weeks of each other. For the latter half of this crazy year I had Ween's Quebec as my constant audio ally. Alternatively depressing, uplifting, happy, sad - the seemingly innocent songs on this album morph into whatever you want them to be. Starting with the barnstorming "It's Gonna Be A Long Night" (Deaner's cock-rock bar band ode long before it got tiring) and including such New Hope classics as the goose-bump inducing "Happy Colored Marbles" (possibly their best song ever?), "I Don't Want It" and the ultimate closer "If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)" - Quebec is less of an album than a good friend. I have listened to a million LPs in my life and this one is truly at the top of the list. Even the outtakes and B-sides are show-stoppers - I included the epic "Mountains and Buffalo" as well as "Ooh Va La" for completists out there. The brownest Ween album since the Chocolate And Cheese days - and the musical pinnacle from a band I had figured had already done it all. In 2011 Deaner released Caesar online - a 2CD collection of outtakes and demos from the Quebec recording sessions - what a treat to hear. Who knows why some of the tracks didn't make the cut - "Hello Johnny" being a personal fave - but such is the enigma of the Boognish. Ween slowly unraveled after Quebec both personally and musically - 2007's odd The Friends EP left a lot to be desired. But seriously though - how can you top perfection? God, I wished I'd married her...

Studio                                                              Demo

Get off my case motherfucker!

As I've droned on about in other pages of this blog I'm a huge fan of Italian cannibal/zombie horror and have been ecstatic seeing some of the more notable "classics" get the deluxe re-release treatment on Blu-Ray. Movies that were only seen as a scratched, beaten negative in the smelliest dives on 42nd Street or via cloudy nth-generation VHS dubs are now being scanned into high-def with a host of fun bonus shit for sleazeophiles like me. Umberto Lenzi was the auteur behind 1981's Cannibal Ferox (astute trash cinema historians will know it by its VHS title Make Them Die Slowly), a poor man's cash-in on Ruggero Deodato's epic Cannibal Holocaust. While much has been written about the two directors' individual style, Lenzi was clearly the knock-off king of the two, riding an established genre wave to its inevitable completion. Cannibal Ferox effectively ended the minor Italian cannibal cinema renaissance - it's a mean-spirited canker sore of a film that features absolutely no likeable characters spitting spiteful dialogue from one to another with contempt and a sneer. It's a riot. And that's not even counting the inescapable violence that supposedly got this gem banned in 31 countries. Gluing the whole thing together is a solid synth-funk soundtrack by one "Budy Maglione," also known as composer Roberto Donati. Donati was a Lenzi regular in the early 80's, scoring his other cannibal/Guyana mishmash Eaten Alive! and oddball comedy Daughter of the Jungle. While nowhere near as coherent a soundtrack as provided by Riz Ortolani for Deodato's jungle films, Donati effort is much more poppy and terribly catchy. Some of the NYC jingles almost sound like they were recorded for some 1980's L'eggs commercials - they are that kitzchy (to be honest I think Donati was trying to sound like Ortolani's "Do It To Me" from La Casa Sperduta Nel Parco but that's just me). Anyways, the actual soundtrack is only 20 minutes or so long but there are a host of alternate takes to keep you interested - enjoy a trip down tit-piercing, dick-cutting, brain-eating memory lane.

Los Últimos Canibales

Doorway To Freedom

Scored this 7" as a bonus from the very nice folks at Not Very Nice Records, a wicked old-school throwback to the crossover days of the late 80's. The record opens like a fucking Spinal Tap song - imagine "Stonehenge" or something equally as epic. After a few minutes though the songs devolve into some absolutely killer moshage of which I haven't heard since the last M.O.D. show at L'Amour in '88. Of course this a ton more palatable since it only lasts a total of 13 minutes but I love hearing old school proto-Metallica/C.O.C.-esque speed metal that reminds me of the good times slumming local NJ clubs listening to one nameless thrash band after another. I cannot imagine you will be disappointed with that state of mind. Enjoy.

自由の扉

We Will Cock You

 

I pretty much gave up on the Revolting Cocks with their banal Linger Ficken' Good which was simply too retarded and disjointed to pretend to like. Coming off like a "worst hits" of everything that was hanging around the studio after Al finished Psalm 69, LFG would have been completely forgotten if not for the lazy Rod Stewart cover and slavishly milking the Nirvana-driven William Burroughs beatnik renaissance the media world was jerking off to. And, to be honest, Beers, Steers + Qveers wasn't that good to begin with as well. OK then. With that bitter ramble off my chest, I only recently discovered RevCo (their hip new-millenium moniker) actually got back together, thankfully sans Chris Connelly whose brit-dancepop influence I have always absolutely hated on any Jourgensen projects. Honestly, Cocked And Loaded sounds way more like a classic Ministry album then anything else out there today. It's still terribly manic and over-programmed but every song fucking rocks and there is a refreshing sense of humor about it all (which is maybe all the 'Cocks were s'posed to be when juxtaposed against the über-political Ministry). Some of the usual suspects show up (Biafra and Haynes) but there are supposedly appearances from ZZ Top and Cheap Trick on this record as well. You'd never be able to tell - for all I know that was legal's way of clearing guitar samples. Even still, a solid 55 minutes of industrial metal from the guy who invented the genre, reinvented a dead side project and is still going strong today. 

Purple Head

Still Wanted Dead Or Alive

A real hidden treasure from hip-hop's golden era, Kool G. Rap's sadly underrated Live And Let Die is significantly more akin to the West Coast style dominating the scene at the time than Rap's previous LPs. It comes as no surprise with Sir Jinx producing that Ice Cube managed to stumble into the studio for a few lyrics as do Geto Boys Scarface and Bushwick Bill. Labelmate Big Daddy Kane shows up as well. Some of the songs are a little akin to the fast-paced stuff Cube did on AmeriKKKA's but there are enough slow bass-heavy tunes (sounding much like Scarface's Rap-A-Lot debut) to keep it fresh. And his ode to cock-blocking is fucking hilarious. It's unfortunate that Warner Bros. balked at the record cover and eventually refused the LP's distribution (the bad taste of Body Count still in everyone's mouth) - Live And Let Die never had a chance at the recognition it deserved. Kool G. Rap has stayed on the scene since and has enjoyed a respectable (and respected) career but this is easily my favorite record of his - enjoy.

Kool Genius

Straight Outta Drummondville

Wow, give it up to fucking Québec people. The best French screamo nonsense from Canada since Despised Icon decided they wanted to quit and "raise families". Good for them. Back here on planet Earth I was happy to stumble upon the first LP from fellow countrymen Politess. Way less harmonic-heavy deathcore and much more screaming hardcore this record reminds me a lot more of what Eighteen Visions was trying to do back in the day. It drags at times but it's still the best heavy shit I've heard this week. Gotta love the saxophone overdubs as well - shades of Siege. Check 'em on bandcamp and enjoy.

Never Going Back To Wawa

Do It Like An Instrumental

Look, when it comes down to it, there's little I can write to further extol the greatness of the Geto Boys' Def American release. I came across these instrumentals of "Fuck 'Em" and "Do It Like A G.O." the other day and have been listening to them non-stop. Evidently the cuts existed as a 12" vinyl-only release back in 1990 but I'm pretty sure these were culled together from the original record samples by someone with a LOT more Audacity dexterity then me. A complaint? I just wish there was an instrumental version of the whole album. Enjoy. 

Like A Cardiac

Faith

Straight outta Finland comes another incredible slab of vinyl from some nameless four-piece playing the most desperate doomcore sludge. Regardless of what that says about my internet searches (or basic musical tastes in general), Usko has been on my playlist radar for the last couple years after their solid debut Kuusi LP which was admittedly a tad more dronish (think Loinen... Stumm... yeah you get it) than this 2013 single which mainlines the meth, turns up the gain and elevates the tempo to a resounding 4/4 with excellent results. Some powerviolence influences in there as well - it's an enjoyable 10-minute fix.

Golden Hill

Blues Man

A week late, I know. While I grew up vaguely familiar with B.B. King's oldies radio hits, I never actually listened to an album of his until way into the 90's. A co-worker/dope dealer friend of mine who was in retrospect a clear-as-day bad fucking seed surprised me one afternoon by dropping this CD on the boom box and insisting I teach him how to play a few of the riffs on guitar in exchange for some cheaply cut blow. I bit. What actually occurred that afternoon was us getting high as fucking kites while listening repeatedly to the wah-wah grooves of "Everybody Lies A Little" for ten hours. To this day I can't get that song out of my head and my buddy still can't play a lick of guitar. Rest in peace Mr. King.

The thrill is not gone...

Broken Lung II

Is there really anything more to say other than this band is without a doubt the second incarnation of Abominable Iron Sloth? While there are some subtle differences (mainly in the vocals), I can't help but be reminded of "I Am Your Carcass" while listening to this excellent slab of sludgecore. Pounding, sluggish downtuned metal to destroy. There are some slight stoner/Southern sludge-esque influences, especially in "There Was A Bloodbath" and "Take Back The Hive" to keep it interesting but make no mistake, this is textbook chugging riffage here. For those who care, the band is busy putting finishing touches on their second album (preview track here) and I posted a couple demo tracks from this LP a few years ago. Enjoy.

A Grudge In The Key Of Sludge