CONSTRUCTIVE REACTIONARYISM VOL III: The 'Why Am I Here?' Edition
CONSTRUCTIVE REACTIONARYISM VOL III: The 'Why Am I Here?' Edition
YOU TELL ‘EM, LIVIA!
Please excuse the lack of content around here. Once again, health issues have thwarted me from my writerly duties. Emergency room trips and test upon test to find out what the fuck is wrong with me has taken up the majority of my time. So, in the words of the late, great Vincent Schiavelli, “Have A Heart”.
(Yeah, right!)
While sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I enjoyed some things. Hopefully, you can enjoy them yourself sans having a painful pee hole or ice-cold feet.
The Traeger Method podcast
Although it’ll sound like snotty hyperbole, it’s absolutely true that podcasts about any music genre are very rarely listened to around these parts. The only two I listen to on a regular basis are Where It Went and 185 Miles South due to doing the deep-dives into Hardcore Punk I live for as well as having hosts who do not feel the need to overshare their musical knowledge.
And just when my podcast schedule was nice and organized, here comes Jason Traeger to throw it all off with his new un, The Traeger Method. As co-editor of the San Diego-based fanzine Leading Edge in the ’80s, he and his partners Martin Sprouse and Pat Weekend witnessed all the shows you woulda loved to seen and bought all the records you’re now trading for bitcoin. But The Traeger Method is not abuncha old guys rolling around in nostalgic slop. The format is basically a long-form conversation between Jason and an old friend; be it Kevin Seconds, Cynthia Connolly, Pete Chramiec, or the above-mentioned Martin Sprouse. Within these minutiae-heavy discussions, the roots of what attracts people to underground cultures are exposed and presented in a highly refreshing way. No one talks about their glory days in the pit like a bargain-basement Al Bundy or reinvents their story to look cooler. No one is pushing a 30th-anniversary reissue. Can you imagine? From The Traeger Method, I learned Kevin Seconds and Richard Meltzer were penpals in the 80s. Fuckin’ crazy, right?
Matthew Ellis - self-titled (Warner Brothers, 1972)
Underrated UK singer/songwriter with a decent backing band behind him consisting of Chris Spedding, Barry Morgan, Lesley Duncan, and many other people no one in their right minds should care about. It’s unchallenging yet still peculiar; like a lighter version of Clifford T. Ward, perhaps? Does anyone get this review besides five men over 60? Hello? Is this thing...on?!?
John Henry West
In some weird act of internet serendipity, I was reminded of this short-lived but amazing band. Speedy and Swiz-like, John Henry West certainly stood head and shoulders above the rest of the rubber-stamp-and-manilla envelope crew of the early 90s. For those who need reminding check out the Bandcamp page of remastered shit. The track “Avoiding” is most definitely in my basement-core top ten of the early ’90s. So friggin’ hard.
Wau Wau Collectif - Yara Sa Doom (Sahel Sounds, 2021)
I have become the middle-aged suburban white guy who listens to crap like this. What’s next? Birkenstocks and a Kamala blow-up doll?
Patrick Shiroishi - Descension (Thin Wrist, 2020)
An even keel of oddly soothing and challenging sax/violin/electronics work from this LA improv type. One minute you’re thinking Ayler with Vestine and the next minute you’re thinking Ayler strangling a pony to death. Man, I miss writing Forced Exposure wanna-be record reviews. Pat, can I buy a ‘yr’?
Attitude Adjustment - The Collection on Spotify
I’m not gonna pose and act like I kept my copy of these Bay Area thrash legends’ debut American Paranoia. That was purged long ago at the Philadelphia Record Exchange so’s I could get some Can record off the wall probably. I’m listening to these tracks straight offa Spotify and when I look down at my phone to see tracks like “Working Class Pride” and “Grey World”, playing I gotta wonder what happened. Am I actually this bored with life or do these blurry thrash songs still hold some charm? Me says, “A ‘lil from column A...and a ‘lil from column B”