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Entry 182: 7/24/2010: Analog CyberPunk Third Series XXII and XXIII (Instrumentals), and Video Review

Hory Clap! It's the end of a fixed point in time from which a series of years is reckoned, or a memorable or important date or event; especially : one that begins a new period in the history of a person or thing. You know, an era!

The Resident's personal label, Ralph Records, is closing on August 15th. They've been around since 1972. The blowout sale should be a doozy, but still pricey, as was their way.

Here's this week's edition of Analog CyberPunk Third Series XXII and XXIII (Instrumentals XXIV) (download zip files at Rapidshare)

XXII

Adn Ckrystall: "Cocaina Vitamina"
ALU: "Funkturn"
Anonymous: "Corporate Food"
Karen Cooper Complex: "Petit Deja Vu"
League Of Nations: "Illuminas"
Marge And The Marvelous: "A Distance Dance"
Martial Canterel: "Consulates"
Phew: "Closed"
Polyphonic Size: "Logique Polygonale"
The Popular Sex: "Mad Heat"
Stephan Eicher: "Noise Boys Song"
The New Age: "2525"
White Boy: "Little Idiots"
Wunderlich Ausgang: "Picture"
Zoo Z: "On And On"

XXIII (Instrumentals)

Alberto Gonzales: The Surfs' Nightmare "Village Walk"
Alien Skull Paint: "Underground"
Bugger West: "Water"
Eurocheque: "Sternchen"
Harald Grosskopf: "So Weit, So Gut"
Harmonia: "Deluze (Immer Wider)"
Marie Moor: "Pretty Day Tango"
Ron Hubbard: "The Immortal, Track 14"
Perrey-Kingsley: "Winchester Cathedral"
Temper Temper: "Body Blows"
The Vindictives: "Dummyroom"
Wirtschaftswunder: "Saigon"

Suckdog: Drugs Are Nice – A Suckumentary 1988 – 2005 (dvd review): I discovered after I’d returned this that there’s an additional thirty minutes of footage hidden on the DVD, but as it could only be similar to the original sixty minutes I’d felt I’d already seen it. Released in cahoots with the excellent read Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir, Lisa Crystal Carver’s insane (in a middling good way) and poetic biography, Suckdog: Drugs Are Nice should have been taped to the inside back cover of the book as a fun addendum. As a stand-alone item it’s a handful of low-rent WTF.

If you haven’t read the book or are not aware of the performance art group Suckdog this dvd might well be a nearly unwatchable collection of old footage of strangers screaming and tearing at each other, newer home movies made by Lisa and her friends in Dover, NH, and interview footage of Lisa and others created especially for the dvd. I enjoyed it because I wanted to see what these nutjobs look and sound like, especially Lisa, who seemed to have her life together at the end of the book but in reality could be a bag lady. She looks good, especially considering her life story. My guesstimation of Suckdog’s sound and vision were on the mark as loud, abrasive, shapeless, violent, silly, dumb, and surprisingly not improvised after huffing glue in the parking lot. The home movies from that era are equally free of talent. The new stuff with her friends is sweet and endearing, especially the surfer boy piece, followed by a skit with Lisa dressed like a man and her friend Scott Munroe gussied up as a woman cheating with the postman. I’m glad Lisa’s life’s appears to have leveled out and she’s surrounded by friends.

Lisa’s a talented writer and a big deal for creating and steering the zine Rollerderby. I bought a copy of the compilation book directly from Lisa on EBay. She has her own store and sells everything from found items to copies of her books and this dvd. I wrote to her that I was renting the Suckumentary dvd and she responded with “I didn’t even know they carried the beast!”

There’s no evidence Lisa can hold a note or play an instrument. Her role in Suckdog was to scream, rip off her clothes, simulate sex, urinate and possibly poop on stage, cover herself in chocolate syrup, attack the audience, and be smacked around by her ex-husband Jean-Louis Costes, who I imagine had musical talent but chose not to waste any on an audience. Previously I assumed performance art was how people with no talent pretended they did, but Drugs Are Nice drove home the idea that people with actual talent like to create anti-music and anti-art for a set of pretentious and mentally problematic reasons. Boyd Rice, the villain of the book, isn’t on the dvd. He’s another one who’d rather record discs of emergency broadcast signals. Lisa also knew GG Allin and Psycodrama, another non-artist collective.

There’s nothing else to add, so I’ll stop right about ……no .…………here.

Entry 181: 7/17/2010: CD Reviews & Video Review

The Vindictives - Muzak For Robots (cd review):

The Vindictives: "Habliche Amerikaner" (download)
The Vindictives: "Dummyroom" (download)

I've tried getting in touch with Joey Vindictive to find out more about this nutty 21-track synth muzak tribute to his band, but his e-mails are dead. I suspect he had nothing to do with this since the titles are in German and the cd is devoid of information on how it came to be. The back thanks Interpunk.com and they may be the only source of this oddity. I knew what to expect as an owner of the 1981-1984 Devo E-Z Listening Disc, which is more eclectic sounding than this one but I'll bet this was worked up on a single synth machine. I love it but the market for wordless cheese amongst remaining Vindictives die-hards must be infinitesimal. I read there's a Vindictives unplugged disc out there. I imagine twelve were made.

The 4 Skins - The Return (cd review):

The 4-Skins: "The Return" (download)
The 4-Skins: "Take No More" (download)

The sperminal UK oi band The 4-Skins are back in 2010 with The Return, on the German label Randale Records. It's a mix of the old and the new, which I've seen before but don't understand. Maybe that's how an old band hedges their bets on a new release. It could have something to do with copyright, like how Gang Of Four released Return The Gift for murky financial reasons. "Yesterday's Heroes" sounds cleaner but not different than the original 80s version. "Evil" sounds exactly the same. "One Law For Them" is also an oldie and "Come On Feel The Noize" is an oi oi oi redo of the 1973 cock-rock anthem from Slade. The Return's an odd duck for sure.

"The Return" is a nice anthem and "Soldiers Graves" is rocking, loud and proud. Gary Hodges, who at one recent point changed the name of the band to Gary Hodges' 4-Skins, has aged into a nice growly bear of a singer, bordering on over-the-top but not jumping over. As oi is about stating the present state of affairs, comeback albums demand explanations of what's been learned, what's changed, and what's now needed. Cock Sparrer are the kings of the original oi movement, and their 2007 Here We Stand set the gold standard in this regard. The 4-Skins decided to recycle their themes to stay true but not learn anything new.

The new tracks on The Return hold their own nicely even if after thirty years they're avoiding that the immediacy of their cause hasn't budged the power balance an inch in their favor. "Take No More" made me smile because Hodges sings the recurring chorus of "We're not gonna take this s--t, we're not gonna stand for it, we're not gonna take this s--t no more." Just like you weren't gonna take it in 1979, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2006 and most of 2009. Buddy, that boat set sail and sank a looong time ago.

The Real McKenzies: Pissed Tae Th’ Gills – A Drunken Tribute To Robbie Burns (dvd review): I was sadly disappointed with 2002’s Pissed Tae Th’ Gills because The Real McKenzies catalog is deeper and richer than their live shows, and their guitar grandstanding on the dvd comes off somewhere between wanking and stalling for time, and I’m not sure if they’re going for parody when it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep things moving.

Proudly Scottish by way of Vancouver, and with only original members Paul McKenzie and Mark Boland in a nine-person lineup, The Real McKenzies have recorded eight albums and tour as a full-time endeavor. I caught them in 1998 and wrote: “If the Sex Pistols were from Scotland they would be The Real McKenzies. If The Dickies were from Scotland they'd be The Real McKenzies. The Real McKenzies are from Canada but I think they're all Scottish. They're at least all Canadian, and all foreign countries with English speaking white people in them are the same to me. Around fifty people managed to gather for their set and the band played their asses off for nothing more than showmanship. They were so much bigger than their audience - you know what I mean? I felt like apologizing to them for the city of San Diego. A punk band with a bagpipe player and they're all wearing kilts? If that doesn't make them the coolest thing since chunky spam I don't know what to think. If they were around in ‘77 the press would have crapped their pants.

Since then they’ve recorded handfuls of songs that rival The Pogues, and if they decided to go in that direction they could stage concerts that successfully bridge the gap between rock and traditional Scottish music, but seeing how most sound systems stink and that drunks like to play loud and fast for audiences of drunks who demand loud and fast, it’s almost impossible to pull that off anyway. It doesn’t help that their set is weighed towards their punk side. I don’t know firsthand but I imagine The Dropkick Murphys deal with similar considerations.

The set list this night is: “The Real McKenzies Stompin’ Intro”, “My Bonnie”, “Scots Wha’ Ha’e”, “Tae The Battle”, “Will Ye Be Proud”, “King O’ Glasgow”, “Sawney Beane Clan”, “Bastards”, “Stone Of Kings”, “Scottish And Proud”, “Haggises”, “Another Round”, “Auld Mrs. Hunt”, “Thistle Boy”, “Auld Lang Syne” and “Loch Lomond”.

The show opens strong with only the bagpipe player and drummer on stage. The intro goes on too long and then Paul and his massive, bulging neck veins settles in for “My Bonnie”, a parody even of the most stereotyped Scottish song ever. To go along with this. They could have gone with “Scot’s Wha’ Ha’e”, and that they didn’t play “Mainland” is a crime against zumanity. The set repeats itself with guitars and bagpipes competing for dominance, and if they mixed up the tempos it would’ve been a lot more interesting and professional. The DVD is from 2002, so I don’t know what their set list is now. I hope it’s better than this from a better than this band.

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