Today’s compilation:
Pebbles, Vol. 3: The Acid Gallery
1992
Psychedelic Rock / Garage Rock / Acid Rock / Proto-Punk / Garage Punk
OK, so, first there was the Nuggets series, which consists of the most heralded V/A comps when it comes to the vast expanse of 60s garage rock, and then, following in its footsteps, came Pebbles, which specialized in digging up far more obscure beauties than were ever contained on Nuggets. See, while Nuggets' forte was presenting hits and semi-hits from the 60s garage rock era, Pebbles understood that the true essence of garage rock was actually local; the music and its noisy ethos had managed to permeate just about every suburban crack and crevice across the United States, but the scenes were pretty insular. If you lived in Tacoma, for instance, the odds of you ever coming into contact with a piece of garage rock from a seemingly random place like Peoria, Illinois were probably close to nil.
But Pebbles, it seems, were at the ready to help ameliorate that issue. They dug deep into all sorts of places—even Europe—to uncover and eventually showcase gobs of disused and virtually unheard songs to a broad, national audience. That person in Tacoma was finally going to hear something groovy and/or crazy that was made *far* outside of their own suburbs that had never achieved much of any commercial success. And amateur bands who'd only made one or two records that had only received a few hundred pressings or so were finally going to get some long-deserved recognition! 🙌
Now, this third volume in the Pebbles series supposedly presents a slate of the most bizarre songs that the underground garage/psych/proto-punk 60s had to offer, but to be honest, I didn't find it *that* strange. Don't get me wrong, some of it's definitely way out there and far too deranged for my own liking (Adjeef the Poet's "Squafrech Lemon Comes Back," for example), but I'd say that, while a majority of them definitely wouldn't have fared well on a mainstream commercial radio station, they're also not as strung-out and clinically weird as you might be led to believe.
A lot of these, I think, while certainly mega-dosed on various combinations of acid, noise, fuzz, and buzz, would fit nicely within a regular 60s garage and psychedelic rock playlist. They'd probably represent some of the wilder fare on that playlist, but they wouldn't be far outliers on the gnarliest fringes of the garage rock spectrum; a little abnormal, sure, but not straitjacket material, at least for the most part.
There's definitely a Frank Zappa throughline with a bunch of these though. Teddy & His Patches take Zappa's own "Suzy Creamcheese" and as the liner notes say, "adds some Louie Louie." Then there's songs like the William Penn Fyve's "Swami," which pokes fun at the psychedelic crowd's glaring exoticist obsession with all things Eastern, and there's also Jefferson Handkerchief's (clearly some kind of play on Jefferson Airplane) "I'm Allergic to Flowers," which is a psych-pop tale about a guy who can't be a flower child because he's actually allergic to flowers. And it includes audible sneezes 🤧.
But I'm telling you, a good deal of these are just marginally strange and cacophonously fantastic romps. Crystal Chandlier's "Suicidal Flowers" sounds like an awesome Doors record, The Third Bardo's "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" brings this vocally braggadocio Jagger swagger, and Sweden's Lea Riders Group casts this coat of blues upon the plight of a Stockholm junkie, with a lead vocal that captivates with its tongue-tying rapid-fire delivery; all of it maybe a smidge offbeat, but none of it exceedingly wacky.
So, this was my first foray into Pebbles and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to getting into more of this series someday, as it looks like there's 28 whole volumes of it! 😄 There's so much 60s garage rock out there and while I don’t have a huge collection of it, I also don't think I'll ever be able to have nearly enough of it either.
Highlights:
Teddy & Patches - "Suzy Creamcheese"
Crystal Chandlier - "Suicidal Flowers"
William Penn V - "Swami"
Jefferson Handkerchief - "I'm Allergic to Flowers"
Third Bardo - "Five Years Ahead of My Time"
Lea Riders Group - "Dom Kellar os Mods"
Beautiful Daze - "City Jungle, Pt 1"
Catfish Knight - "Deathwise"
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What was Akina's first guitar?
"I actually still have it and keep it in the best condition... because it's never played anymore. My first guitar was a 1948 Gibson, none of the music I played then sounds like what I play now. The rock scene didn't start for me til the 1960s. Now I carry a red stratocaster around on my back, even when fighting hollows."
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Frankie Traandruppel - Castling
Frankie's debut album (2023)
order here: https://ronnyrex.bandcamp.com/album/castling
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The Association: Never My Love 7” Single (1967)
Side A: Never My Love
Side B: Requiem For The Masses
French Release
Riviera Records
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Music Genres
When I was kid, you would have probably heard me say something like “I don’t believe in genre labels”. To a degree, there is still something about that sentiment that I agree with; I don’t think you can really put music and styles of music in neat little boxes. But otherwise, I was pretty much wrong about everything else.
Let’s go over that.
pictured: Mala, one of the godfathers of roots Dubstep
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To be blunt, “genre” isn’t just about approximating what a song sounds like. If you say “I love pop music”, that honestly doesn’t mean much. The more specific you get, the more you will approach something someone can imagine like “I like experimental progressive noise pop music”. Ok, I can start to imagine things that likely approach what you're talking about, but even then it will usually not help someone fully understand what something truly is. In categorizing and approximating music styles, genres only go so far. So what makes them important then?
Well, not to say that approximating a style when describing an artist to someone is a bad thing or that doing so isn’t meant to be valued, but it’s hardly the only reason these labels exist. Importantly, “genre” helps establish culture, history, and a musical identity. So when you're trying to tell someone you're listening to a "progressive rock” project, you’re not just imagining odd time-signatures and complex riffs, you’re also meant to understand and consider that whatever is being described as to you has some sort of relevance or importance with regards to the history behind progressive rock; the culture of college bands in the UK, the sound that the punk movement revolted against, the progression of musical storytelling in rock music since the late 60’s and early 70’s, stuff like that. There’s a distinct culture and history you can pinpoint and understand when you describe something as being progressive rock and you can’t just go around calling any complex electric guitar oriented music "progressive rock" unless it has those specific ties as well as understanding and iteration of the roots.
pictured: Genesis, because progressive rock mention
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Genre labels help to clarify what kind of culture and histories a music project is being associated itself with and where a lot of its inspiration comes from. This is much more compelling reason for underlining the importance of genre labels and why they should be used correctly.
So, there is something I need to get off my chest then. There are a lot of misuses of genre labels all over the place, especially online. And I’m not talking about saying something is “Alternative Rock” when it’s clearly some kind of “Folk Rock” record instead. What I’m talking about is something like “Dubstep”.
Even as recent as a few years ago, I started personally reclaiming the term “Dubstep” as a genre label to describe any bass-adjacent music. At the time I did this, I thought it was cool, because the term Dubstep had been dubbed (pun intended) to be cringeworthy lexicon to some people. And while I feel that’s a noble reason to reclaim something like that, because some weirdos think it's cringe, in this case I actually think it’s wrong.
The term “Brostep” has been used to describe any non-roots bass-oriented music that originates from the proper roots Dubstep. It’s a term I didn’t like FOREVER, especially because the phrase was derived as a generalization of the kind of people who tend to listen to it. However, I actually think that Brostep is a title that people should be more comfortable and confident with labeling things as.
The original Dubstep came as a result of Jamaican immigrants bringing Dub music to the UK, which then fused with the remnants of 2-Step Garage which was prominent in the 90’s just years prior. Timbah.On.Toast made a great video called All My Homies Hate Skrillex and it is a really good breakdown of what separates roots Dubstep from the Americanized Brostep, which came after it. I think everyone knows by now that I have a deep, deep love for EDM based Broste and I am the biggest Skrillex fangirl alive. So being both a Brostep and Skrillex superfan, please understand that I think the video is one of the most important things you can watch as an EDM enjoyer.
Conflating the term Dubstep with things that aren’t actually Dubstep is honestly a slap in the face to all of the pioneers of Dub and Dubstep, which famously were both pretty much ENTIRELY invented by black people. I think it’s fair to say that incorrectly labeling music in this way has racist implications. It dishonours and twists the legacy of the music. You can find og Dubstep to listen to on the RYM Ultimate Box Set > Dubstep page. Check some of that out, then listen to some 2010, 2011 Skrillex and see how different things really went.
It confused me at first when I was a teenager, I didn't understand why so many people hated Skrillex back in the day. I came to realize so much of the hate wasn’t even really with regards music itself, but the total lack of understanding or care for the roots of the genre, which all of his work was founded upon and he then subsequently bastardized without caring at all. It was pure disrespect, it was practically cultural erasure and so many people will now only know of Dubstep as “that Skrillex transformer screech music”. Yeah. It actually fucking sucks.
But there is a LONG history of black music being erased from history and being undermined, whether entirely intentional or due to systemic unawareness.
I saw a post the other day talking about how it sucks that so much music is just lumped into being “video game music” when so much of this stuff has deep roots and cultural significance. The first example pointed how a lot of acid jazz music is just described as “Persona music” by the layperson now. Meanwhile, Acid Jazz as a genre is a huge development on things like roots jazz, disco, funk, and hip hop music. You know. All genres that were invented by black people. Fascinating, right?
Jungle music was also mentioned. And this one is very particular for me. Jungle music, when not being generalized as "PS1 Music", is often just called drum & bass or breakcore (also please Google the difference between breakbeat and breakcore, thanks) which are all fundamentally misunderstanding what Jungle music even is. Much of Jungle music, AS MANY THINGS DO, finds VERY prominent roots in Reggae, Dub, and sound system culture in Jamaica as well as countless other prominently black communities in the UK.
But it doesn’t stop there.
If you’re unfamiliar, there is a genre called “IDM”, otherwise known as Intelligent Dance Music. When I was a kid, and I first heard that word, I immediately was like “that is the most pretentious, stupid thing I’ve ever heard”. Eventually as I grew up, I just stopped thinking about that and started referring to more music as IDM. This style of music is generally characterized with “complexity” and being “not much danceable”. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the music that is called IDM, I do think there’s everything wrong with the term IDM, intelligent dance music.
When asked how he feels about being labeled as an IDM artist, Aphex Twin responded:
"I just think it's really funny to have terms like that. It's [basically] saying 'this is intelligent and everything else is STUPID.' It's really nasty to everyone else's music."
pictured: Aphex Twin, the funnyman himself
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I think most people would agree with this sentiment. It’s so strange to call one kind of music “intelligent”, out of the hundreds of thousands of genres out there. But let’s bring this back to Jungle music. The reality is that IDM started to become a term around the same time that Jungle music became prominent, in the 90's. Both styles of music are complex, introspective, skittery, and chaotic (but refined and often disciplined) genres. Except, of these two, Jungle music was the one pioneered primarily by black artists. IDM was a sort in competition with Jungle. To therefore call IDM “intelligent” in comparison to Jungle music ... well. I don’t feel like I really have to explain why that’s fucked up.
A lot of people have proposed different names for IDM. A quick look on reddit yields things like “Experimental Electronic” and “Brain Dance” (which was coined by Aphex Twin's label). Me personally, the term “Electro-Prog” comes to mind. Sounds cool.
Similar conversations are presently being had about the term “Riddim”. This brings us back to the dubstep side of this discussion again. Riddim, as an EDM genre, is an offshoot of Brostep music that focuses a lot on repetition over the downbeat, maintaining an insanely distorted sound design, a lot more than the average Brostep song. However, the term “riddim” originates — yet again — from the Jamaican Patois for “rhythm”. And Riddim as a musical style in Jamaica is actually more associated with things like dancehall and reggae, rather than the commercialized "Riddim" that is several hundred times removed from its own roots.
Last year, musician INFEKT proposed that what most EDM listeners call “riddim” should be referred to instead as “Trench” in an article on their website. This proposed name is derived from Getter’s use of the term on his 2014 record “Trenchlords Vol. 1”. I don’t personally know how much I resonate with the term, but whatever the consensus is, I don’t think we should be conflating a westernized, commercialized, and EDM-centric genre like this to Jamaican roots music. Over and over again, it seems that black music is constantly overwritten by developments like this, so I think more care needs to be taken in not allowing that to happen.
As a side note, a lot of people online seem very keen on appropriating Jamaican Patois quite often? There are so many examples of this. When the term “Bomboclaat” started making the rounds on Twitter a few years ago, so many white people were quick to either talk wildly about the term and trend or otherwise start saying it as well. There was a fucking article that sought to answer “The Bomboclaat >> Meme << Meaning Explained”, like they’re not dissecting an element of Jamaican slang lol. Then there was a period of time where people were constantly saying things like “On Jah?” as a stand-in for “On God?” even though this, again, is Jamaican Patois. And even now, you have tons and tons of non-black people going everywhere being like “what is blud waffling about?”, the phrase “blud” ONCE AGAIN also being Jamaican in origin.
I shouldn’t even have to explain what makes these kinds of appropriations weird and messed up. But black people lose jobs and are denied basic things in life over their hair styles, their expressions and slang, and so many other things that a white person can just appropriate and face zero consequences whatsoever for.
That aside, aside. Understanding and labeling genres correctly is such a big part of music history and highlighting and preserving cultures worldwide. When efforts are made to undermine the meaning of a genre label or otherwise use it incorrectly, so much damage is done to the communities and people groups that innovate and pioneer this art to begin with.
For these reasons, I will gladly use the term Brostep. I will happily call things Electro-Prog. And when you talk about genres like Jungle and Dubstep, say it with your whole chest. Be proud of the human race, show respect and love for the people who have forged the greatest parts of music with their bare hands. We will always stand on the shoulders of giants as musicians, so instead of pretending you yourself are the giant, build monuments and maintain the history of these people. You as an artist are nothing without them.
pictured: Augustus Pablo, one of the most important innovators of Dub. Without him, and without many of his contemporaries, I would reckon that half or more of all modern music would simply not exist.
CONTENT WARNING FOR THIS FINAL SECTION, THERE ARE LIKE LOTS OF STRANGE SLURS AND RACIST VIBES.
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One last thing I wanna mention, this is slightly tangential but I think it's relevant to this conversation. It's always weird how lots of websites categorize things like this:
From Big Fish Audio... "G**sy*? "World/Ethnic Loops & Samples"? What the fuck are you talking about. Seems like racism to me.
On Loopmasters they have a "World" section. Any Americanized genre gets its own category, but the entire continents of Africa and Asia as well as the country of India and region of the Middle East (which are part of Asia, hope this helps btw) and lastly South America are stuffed into the nebulous "World Label". Seems like racism to me. Are you telling me you weirdos can't figure out a better way to represent these things?
But then Psy Trance gets its whole entire own category? Aren't there only like five people who listen to Psy Trance? /hj . But like come on.
Shoutout to WA Productions for categorizing a universe of suspiciously mostly black music as """Urban"""". And this company is a dime a dozen, hundreds of corpos do this shit.
East fucking West, what is this dude. There is a racism happening, I just know it. Please give me a count of how many poc are on payroll at your company, I am so curious.
And while we're at it, East West, what is this. Tell me. Fucking tell me.
Thanks for reading.
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you have probably been asked this a billion times already, but do you have any punk music recs? I feel I do a search myself I get more watered down stuff.
Yeah! My favorite punk punk band is Pure Hell, I fucking love their stuff, my favorite album is noise addiction (idc if people say that's basic it's a good album lol) and also Streetlight Manifesto if you want something a little more funky. SLM is technically a ska punk band. I love ska punk but it's def not for everybody. if you do wanna listen I recommend their album The Hands That Thieve or Everything Goes Numb
Those are my favorites. But the 70's-80's (Don't jump down my throat I'm listing these off the top of my head) classics are bands like the Misfits, Green Day, Joy Division, Rancid, The Descendents, NOFX, The Romones etc. I can't vouch for the behavior of a lot of these bands and the artists in them, pretty much all of them have a history of being racist/ok with Nazis/bigoted in general so take with that what you will, these are just the bands that most people seem to agree are punk rock.
There's like three different generalized eras in punk, you've got proto-punk (60's-70's) (the stooges, the pink faeries etc) which were garage bands that played stuff that kind of hinted at punk before it became commercially recognized, there's early punk (early 70's) which was when punk started gaining momentum, then you've punk rock (80's- late 90's-arguably present day) and after that a whole bunch of sub-genres popped up and mixed together an all that. That being said I'm not a music historian and this is all very generalized information that I've heard and gotten from the internet. This is also focused on the U.S and the U.K. I hope this is somewhat educational, as always do your own research and all that, rock on!
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the NO-SKIP albums: a tag game 🎶💖
rules: share the albums that you can listen to nonstop. those lightning in a bottle-albums that scratch ur brain just right. every single track, an absolute banger. u could not skip one if u tried. no notes. stunning, show-stopping, immaculate. ur no-skip albums. 🔎 bonus & optional (but imo, v fun) rules:1) add a track rec for us to listen to! AND2) share ur favorite line(s) from that track! 👀
Thank you so much for tagging me and inventing this game @ventiswampwater ! <3
I added two extra dimensions that I do not expect anybody else to do, but i tried to focus on my current favorite musical textures, and I only picked bands with less than 1.5 million monthly spotify listeners because you do not need me to tell you how good deftones is lol
check below the cut for album info ~
and in the spirit of the boops, i'm tagging a lot more people than i usually do in these games, so feel free to ignore me if you don't want to participate lol @loureedpiss @hersweetrevenge @toxicanonymity @deathwestern @grandmawitch @bbwithaknife @sevvventhson @clemkruckinnie @hall0ween-twn @ghostwriterforghosts @barbie-cock @heartrot666 @ethanhoewke @deanmonlover
Apocalipstick (2017) | Cherry Glazerr
indie rock, noise pop | for fans of Veruca Salt, Mitski
track rec: Trash People
art is love and love is sloppy / nothing is all pure / nothing is all dirty
Neck of the Woods (2012) | Silversun Pickups
indie rock, shoegaze | for fans of Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol
track rec: Dots and Dashes (enough already)
see you in the room next door / your feet float above the floor /
dress torn above you knees / like you've owned it for centuries
Glow On (2021) | Turnstile
post-hardcore, alternative metal, dream pop | for fans of AFI, Title Fight
track rec: Underwater Boi
i just need to know i'm / working for the big prize / when i get to heaven will i know?
Comfort to Me (2021) | Amyl and the Sniffers
garage punk, hardcore | for fans of Descendents, Adolescents, Distillers
track rec: Maggot
everything you touch turns to gold / i can't wait for you to touch me
GT Ultra (2017) | Guerilla Toss
dance punk, progressive pop | for fans of Le Tigre, Oingo Boingo
track rec: Skull Pop
will there be a warning? / when the clock stops moving? /
will you have just 60 seconds? / will you find it boring?
10,000 Gecs (2023) | 100 Gecs
hyperpop, pop punk, nu metal | for fans of ??? they're too unique for this sorry
track rec: 757
i got problems with my spending / all these horses in my engine /
doing 80 in a 30 / but i'm never in a hurry
Mind Control (2013) | Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
traditional doom metal, heavy psych | for fans of Black Sabbath, heavy Beatles songs
track rec: Poison Apple
don't you worry baby, you're safe with me / i'm the poison apple in your tree
Soma (2013) | Windhand
doom metal, stoner metal | for fans of the sensation of a weighted blanket, but sound
track rec: Orchard
i'm having trouble with the down time / can't pick myself up off the floor
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Thanks for the recommendation! If you have more I would love to hear them~ I think maybe I'll try to learn more about grunge's roots and history :3
Oh sure! I really recommend getting into 60's garage rock, I've always thought of a lot of that stuff as "proto punk" or "proto grunge." I used to spend hours combing through compilations of old 45s just to find a few good tracks (I could send more if I had my laptop to check my mp3 files, but I left it at the Mansion back in Mississippi...)
Here's some good ones:
Also, thanks for sending recommendations to me as well - that was the first time in months I've been able to listen to anything that I wasn't putting on for someone else.
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now i’m super curious, what’s ur hcs for alt!corey?
Alt!Corey Cunningham HC's
prompted by the conversation started here.
Sorry this took so long!
tagging @rebel-blue @nachtmahr666 @vanellygal
I never know who all to tag so if you want me to tag you specifically every time, please lmk!
Music:
Corey grew up listening to the radio and whatever music Joan put on. His mom is probably in her early 50’s in the movie, and she seems like one of those people who is terrible but likes and uses sweet nice wholesome things to hide behind, so she probably only listened to squeaky clean and boring pop music, and I think that would start Corey on a path towards heavy music, distorted music, music with dark themes, anything other than what Joan liked. He finds a lot of pop music to be insincere and he hates that.
WURG seems like an oddball station from what we hear of it in the movie and what it’s mentioned as playing in the book, so Corey definitely likes some punk and metal and garage just from the radio. But he doesn’t really know that’s what it is, genres and subcultures are kind of lost on him. And he doesn’t really realize he only knows music that’s 35-60 years old.
Personally as someone who grew up listening to a lot of oldies radio specifically, I know they’re really bad about identifying old songs cause they think you know the artist and title already. So I’m gonna go ahead and say for a lot of his life Corey doesn’t know the name or artist of most of the songs he likes, and he probably doesn’t realize he likes multiple songs from the same artist, so he doesn't have a favorite band. He has to learn to dig into a catalog and listen to full albums as an adult because that was never something he was introduced to as a child.
His mom obviously put heavy parental controls on his computer time, looked through his browser history, etc so I don’t think he was really able to explore his music taste probably until he got a smart phone and more privacy in his internet usage, which wouldn’t have been until he was an adult. I think Joan would have wanted him to have a phone so she could call him but would’ve kept him with a non-smart phone with no data until it basically wasn’t an option anymore, so he got his first smart phone when he was probably like 17-19, and that’s when his music exploration could really begin.
Even pre-accident Corey is sad and lonely and angry so he’s drawn to those lyrical themes. He has very angsty taste. But he also likes interesting time signatures and weird textures. He's a math and science guy and he thinks it's really cool when musicians approach their craft in a mathematical or experimental way. Post- Michael I think Corey recedes into the heaviest and most anguished parts of his music taste. Songs that used to make him cry, songs that pump him up, songs that he used to imagine were written for people much more badass than him, whatever that might be. Devastating vocal delivery, heart wrenching lyrics, chugging guitars, all three if he can get them.
BAND LIST (trying to go with the most popular examples so you can get the gist of the aesthetic I’m picturing lol):
From the Radio - Rolling Stones, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, The Clash, Talking Heads, all the obvious legacy early metal and punk bands.
Pre-Accident - American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate, Hum, Modest Mouse, Smashing Pumpkins, Descendents, Brand New, New Order, Mazzy Star, The Smiths, Hella
Post-Accident, Pre-Michael - Grunge big 4, but his favorite is Pearl Jam, Pixies, Melvins, Tool, Joy Division, Deftones, Sonic Youth, I Hate Sex, Garbage, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails
Post- Michael - Electric Wizard, Windhand, clipping., Lingua Ignota, Full of Hell
Fashion:
I see a lot of different ages thrown around for how long Corey's mom dressed him, but novelization canon is he started dressing himself at 13. I think it's definitely still the case that his mom buys and picks out most of his clothes for a long time, but I think he slowly wears her down on letting him pick things until his wardrobe is mostly his choices filtered through her. But because of that filter it's still never quite him.
When the other kids started getting into subcultures, Corey watched with envy. He didn't have a particular favorite style, and he wouldn't have known what to call it if he did, he just liked the idea that you could say something to the world with your clothes, and draw people who agreed with you to you and push people who didn't away. The idea that you could form a community around how you dress. All he wants is community.
Corey's never really considered tattoos or piercings because he knows his mother would absolutely lose her mind if he "damaged" himself that way. The only thing he's thought of is that his dad had a tattoo of a duck, so maybe he could get a tattoo of a duck in the same place. I think that if Corey was more interested in tattoos than that , pre-accident he would be a black linework only kind of guy, he wants to be an engineer, he likes the kind of sparse, design-y, almost technical drawing aspect of plain linework tattoos. Post-accident, pre-Michael, he' definitely an American Traditional/Neo-Trad guy. It's straight forward, it's classic, it's low-key. Post-Michael Corey is the kind of guy who gets big blackout stripes or brush strokes for the experience. Because blackouts hurt and because they make people, even other tattooed people, say why the fuck would you get that? Post-Michael Corey would also so get a prince albert sorry.
I can't see him wearing make up, even just eyeliner. Seems too pretty for him I guess, like he's an aesthetically simple guy in a lot of ways, and presents in such a casual masculine way, it just doesn't seem like him. But I can see him painting his nails black every once in a while. Not any other colors but black for sure.
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my favourite punk records of my late teens / early 20s (released roughly 2010 to 2015)
no particular order, some much better than others
Dawn of Humans - 2010 s/t EP (intense, frightening, deeply weird, and somehow oddly uplifting hardcore)
The Love Triangle - Clever Clever (cheery yet cynical 77-79-sounding punk - brilliant lyrics and melodies)
Ceremony - Rohnert Park (art school surf-hardcore - their trend-hopping means people are less likely to admit how brilliant this record is)
Good Throb - Fuck Off (took a while to fully appreciate; sounds like Gang of Four but funnier and also 300 times angrier)
Hank Wood and the Hammerheads - Go Home (60s garage rock played at a hardcore pace with lyrics about fighting and wanting to die)
Creem - Discography LP (the thinking man's stompy tough guy hardcore)
RAD - Loud and Fast (the most fun record on this list; thrashcore gone silly-style; so funny, so fast, so loud, so rad)
Criaturas - Espiritu de Libertad ('burning spirits' hardcore aka d-beat with insane guitar leads)
Ajax - 2014 s/t EP (the ultimate d-beat meets stompy hybrid; with smart lyrics to boot)
Triage - Power Beat EP (raw metallic d-beat with great songwriting and riffs. this and Ajax are my go-to EPs if I need a quick shot of rage and riffs)
Sonic Avenues - Mistakes (poppy garage punk, but with real ambition and experimentation, and deep emotion)
Radioactivity - Silent Kill (driving, laser-focused, mechanically precise garage punk, from veterans of the style)
Kriegshog - s/t LP (nightmarishly noisy Japanese d-beat; a genuinely scary record; 'Burn' is possibly the best hardcore punk song ever written.)
Sheer Mag - first three EPs (the power! the passion! yes, they sound very like Thin Lizzy and the like, but is that such a crime? I'm a stickler for this shit, but this band are punk)
Uranium Club - first two releases (sneering garage rock-y post-punk, with absolutely twisted and often jawdroppingly brilliant lyrics)
Suburbanite - Suburbanite EP (seriously feral, blindingly fast and disturbingly vitriolic and violent hardcore - right near the top of the pile)
Rats Blood - Punks is Mutants (more d-beat with high quality songwriting - the title track is an anthem, and 'Heroin' and 'No More Fukushima' are chilling)
Primetime - s/t EP (joyfully amateurish and snarky punk-pop about lady sex (!) among other things)
This Routine is Hell - Howl (interdisciplinary hardcore with a passionate beatnik heart)
G.L.O.S.S. - both releases (This band had lesser songs, but damn, they really knew how to do an opening track...)
Dead Hero - demo (many oi! bands now appreciate the genius of Blitz's 'New Age', perhaps none more so than this Colombian crew)
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Proto-Punk is a pretty dumb term half the time
It can refer to any rock band pre 1969
There are some I agree with, Los Saicos was garage and surf rock all the way back in 1964, Iggy Pop (solo) was garage rock back in the 60’s, MC5 was hard rock back in 1963, you can also make an argument for David Bowie
And the only band I can think of being proto punk after 69 is New York Dolls and Death (you could make an argument for ELO too)
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WANNA BE 60’s PUNK vol.10
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Oh yeah! Against all odds, here’s brand new volume in WANNA BE 60’S PUNK series of garage revival bands covering 60’s punk tunes. Featuring: THE MISSING SOULS, ROYAL PENDLETONS, THE GRUESOMES, THE COWSLINGERS, FABIENNE DELSOL & THE BRISTOLS, LORDS OF GRAVITY, PSYCHOTIC YOUTH, REAL PILLS, THE SHOUTLESS, THE SWINGIN’ NECKBREAKERS, TAILGATORS, THE FADEAWAYS, DELMONAS, THEE HEADCOATEES, THE…
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Anita Baker - Rapture
Polish it until the mix sparkles. Polish out the imperfections. Polish out the personality. Polish out the funk. Polish it until every living thing inside it dies. This is how we do it in the 80s. This album is a fantastic sample pack for vaporwave artists.
Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele
I love Wu-Tang solo albums. Like it's totally a ghostface solo album it just happens to feature RZA, GZA, Inspecta Deck, Method Man, Cappadona, and U-God. RZA crafts most of the beats here as usual and manages to give Ghost some of the widest variety of sounds on a Wu-Tang album ever. And Ghost steps to the challenge by really stepping up his game lyrically. Not only is his flow more complex than ever, but he also takes on the subject of crime and inner city life with more nuance and focus on community than his previous record.
Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - Expensive Shit
To understand Fela Kuti you have to understand his relationship with the Nigerian government. Fela Kuti would write an album criticizing the government, then they would raid his home, destroy his music equipment, and attempt to arrest or kill whoever they could. Then Fela Kuti would set up somewhere else and record an album mocking the Nigerian government for failing to kill him. Expensive Shit commemorates the time that the Nigerian government tried to frame him for marijuana possession but he ate the joint they planted on him so they took him in to force him to shit the joint out so that they could arrest him for having marijuana poop. I'm not kidding, this happened. All this is to provide context so that when you hear the energetic upbeat rhythms of the title track of this album, that is the sound of a man mocking the government for spending time and money to inspect his shit.
Blondie - s/t
This is one of the original punk rock bands. If you don't like that then fuck off back to your music history class while the big girls thirst for Debbie Harry. Blondie really had a way of hiding their punk rock underneath a facade of every other genre they felt like. Doo wop, 60s garage rock, surf, and some good old rock n roll. The other thing about this album is that Debbie Harry is horny, for men and women alike. The music may sound upbeat but she's gonna kick your teeth in and that's just the foreplay.
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Mixtape blitzkrieg for your weekend satisfaction!
Three new Mixcloud uploads from The Underestimator Mixtapes series with songs posted during the first two years of the original Underestimator, roughly between 2013-2015, before Tumblr began cracking down harder on copyright violations and back when life on social media still seemed easy and carefree:
"Volume 1 (The Early Years)", a mega-mixtape of 60 tracks uploaded on the first version of the blog which got the axe due to copyright infringements, plus "Looking Back In Anger" & "Take Cover(s)!", two more mixtapes with punk rock & garage punk covers of mostly '50s & '60s classics by Radio Birdman, Thee Headcoats, The Flaming Sideburns, The Gun Club, The Last Drive, The Dead Boys, The Sadies, The Fall, The Godfathers, The Cramps, Pagans, Ramones, Frank Black, Hollywood Brats and many more.
Tracklists, step-by-step guides & links to download as separate mp3 tracks on respective Mixcloud links, here:
1) "Volume 1 (The Early Years)": https://www.mixcloud.com/.../the-underestimator-mixtapes.../
2) "Looking Back In Anger": https://www.mixcloud.com/.../the-underestimator-mixtapes.../
3) "Take Cover(s)!": https://www.mixcloud.com/.../the-underestimator-mixtapes.../
Enjoy!
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FOR FANS OF '50s ROCK 'N ROLL, '60s GARAGE, FREAK ROCK, HORROR ROCK, & BRITISH ROCK.
PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on "Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages," a CD compilation by rock 'n' roll band SCREAMING LORD SUTCH & THE SAVAGES, released under the EMI label in 1991.
OVERVIEW: "Screaming Lord Sutch was an original, at least as far as British rock & roll was concerned -- with the obvious exception of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, to whom he owed an obvious debt -- there was no one in rock & roll on either side of the Atlantic who took anything like the approach he did to the music, mixing completely out-there playing and singing with mostly strange, dark novelty tunes.
PART II: This collection, 18 tracks of which were produced by Joe Meek, show off the highlights of Sutch's five years on the EMI label, and feature accompaniment by Ritchie Blackmore, Nick Simper, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Matthew Fisher, and Nicky Hopkins, all future luminaries in the rock world. And between all of those talents, this collection would naturally pull in listeners on the American side of the Atlantic by sheer force of gravitation, as it were.
PART III: As it turns out, however, the music is entertaining in its own right, and at its best offers a refreshing dose of straight-ahead rock & roll: "'Till the Following Night" and "Jack the Ripper" hold up well enough among the novelty tunes, while others, such as "Monster in Black Tights" (think of a Goth adaptation of "Venus in Blue Jeans") are good for a laugh and not too much else; "Purple People Eater," by contrast, is a punchy rendition of the Sheb Wooley tune, and it's followed by a raw (and '70s punk-speed) rendition of "Good Golly Miss Molly" that can stand in any collection, and "Don't You Just Know It" is just as good.
PART IV: They open the middle section of this collection, which is the strongest part, as it has all of the mainstream rock & roll. Among the treats is a surprisingly effective slow-tempo version of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and a pounding, driving interpretation of Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush" that has room for a honking sax and a delightfully weird guitar break. And Sutch's take on Johnny Otis' "Bye Bye Baby" is worth the price of admission, even if you don't know precisely who's playing that guitar break; odds are it's Jimmy Page.
PART V: Sutch's own "You Don't Care" also demonstrates that the man himself could help his cause creatively. The end of the disc is devoted to some '80s-era tracks that play off of Sutch's (by then) longtime fame in a somewhat more sophisticated manner than Meek‘s old productions did. These are very self-conscious but effective in a suitably theatrical manner, with several ex-Savages participating: "London Rocker" is a superb Little Richard-style song, while "Murder in the Graveyard" and "Loony Rock" play beautifully off of other sides of Sutch's persona.
PART VI/END: It's all a lot of fun and well worth tracking down as a profile of this singular figure in British rock & roll. And for a change, it's an actual EMI production: this is one that Colin Miles' See for Miles Records didn't have to do for them in order for it to come out right."
-- ALLMUSIC (review by Brian Eder)
Sources: www.bear-family.de/sutch-screaming-lord-screaming-lord-sutch-and-the-savages-cd.html & Allmusic.
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Toxic Shock
The Assassin of Mediocrity
Book Review
Stephen Jay Morris
4/2/2024
©Scientific Morality.
Recorded history must be correct and precise. Otherwise, why bother to study it? There are thousands of years of lives that existed before you were born. Some people don’t care about the past. Then, there are the curious and those who want to change history to fit their political or religious biases. My generation has received the most criticism from authors who want to discredit every rebellious generation that ever lived in the towns and cities across the USA. From the Beatniks of the 50’s, to the Hippies/Yippies of the 60’s and 70’s, all the way to the Punks of the 80’s. Most of that has come primarily from reactionary conservatives. A lot of suckers believed the propaganda and stereotypes that the political right wing utilized in their books, so as to mischaracterize the culture rebels and artists of those times. I’m not even going to mention their names. All of it was to say that the so-called woke and Left are evil.
This book, the subject of my review, is crucial within the rank and file of the cultural revolutions of the past. It sets the record straight about the punk movement. Critics who stereotyped leftists as lazy bums who lived off government programs and bought pot with their welfare checks blatantly lied.
There is what’s known as the Anarchist work ethic. One subject of that ethic is this book’s author, Bill Sassenberger. He was a Yippie who became a supporter of garage bands and the punk culture. He went from being homeless in 1977 and working in various low paying jobs, like being an apple picker in Washington state. He drove an ice cream truck in Orange County. Somehow, he ended up in Pomona, California and took over a headshop, converted it into a record shop/clothing shop, and sold fanzines for the “Blank Generation.” It got to the point where he released records on his own independent label.
This book is anchored throughout by reminiscences of his beloved wife, Julianna, and her fight to recover from a debilitating stroke. I recall meeting her casually, but never really got to know her. Bill writes about her in detail and in admiration. I’m sorry that I never got to know her.
The original punks were art school drops-out in Hollywood, California. They were elitists creeps. However, the punk scene eventually spread to suburbia, which energized the scene in the 80’s. Kids were starting bands left and right. Bill nurtured the suburban movement by putting on concerts and releasing records. He even had his own radio show on a college radio station.
In this book there is never a dull moment. Bill’s story includes the shakers and the movers of the punk scene. It’s part autobiographical, part travel log. It contains American history, suspense, compassion, and music. Bill clearly describes his moments with the trials and tribulations of a Baby Boomer. Perseverance became the order of the day. He struggled with poverty, crime, reprobates, the mentally ill, and a sick wife. Fortunately for all, he lived to write about it.
Bill’s writing style is unlike that of Jack Kerouac, with the lyrical poetic props that permeate the novel, “On the Road.” On the contrary, Bill’s style is comprehensible and gets to the point. His recollections are a light-hearted romp through experiences and other anecdotes.
The book is filled with historic photos, band fliers, and fantastic artwork, all of which is printed on glossy paper stock. I must protest, though: my failing eyesight struggled with the small font. Luckily, my trusty reading glasses served me well. Also, Bill includes comments about his book by people he knew.
I hope to Buddha that more books like this are produced. I have a friend named David Spaner who is writing a book about the Yippies. He is a Canadian living in Vancouver. No publishing date has materialized. I do hope he gets published. We need more books about the New Left, starting with the 60’s. Bill’s book is the first shot into the 1980’s American suburban youth atmosphere.
This book was so compelling! I finished it in just four days. I hope “Toxic Shock” by Bill Sassenberger, becomes an underground success.
Buy this book! If you value history like I do.
For more info on this book, go to:
toxicshockrecords.com
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