EYES LIKE A BUG...LEGS LIKE A BIG BIRD
Last week, in between getting a cat cremated and three (count ‘em!) THREE MRI’s, I’ve found myself staring at my phone for a pointless escape. As expected, it made me feel ashamed and disgusted to be a human being, but it also made me ponder how something as trivial as this newsletter matters in a world full of self-immolation and Wendy Williams reality shows.
Perhaps you find it liberating to read a middle-aged man kvetch about the bad hand life has handed him or blather on about music that barely existed and/or barely constitutes as music. I don’t know. I don’t come here to eat the popcorn, I just come here to pop it. But much like Wendy’s bug eyes and Big Bird legs, I don’t see myself going away anytime soon. So rejoice fellow sad satchels! Also, rejoice at these musical recommendations I am throwing out there in the form of ‘content’.
FOUNDATION - Voyage (Fartblossom Enterprises, 1986)
I purchased this at a fleeting punk record and clothing shop that popped up in my town called Grot where Faith fanzine editor and future art dealer Jon Levine worked. Brian Baker being credited as producer intrigued my virgin brain as did it being recorded at Inner Ear Studios. If those coincidences don’t set off any alarms with you, let me just come out and write that Virginia’s Foundation seemed pretty darned inspired by the sounds imitating from Washington D.C. at the time. Opening with the icy, acoustic instrumental “Winter Vision”, the following “Halfway to 50” sounds like an updated version of The Faith’s “In The Black”. The theme of needing to grow past thrash is presented in “Time Has Come” and the appropriately-titled “We’ve Strayed” with the familiar distorted chime of Rites of Spring or Grey Matter (after they heard Rites of Spring) present. By the release of their second LP in ‘88 Tied Up With A Monkey, it’s apparent the moment of soul searching was over with song titles like “Emo O.D.” and “Must You Keep Us Awake With Your Constant Urinating?” You looking for forgotten emo, kid? Well, here you go.
WET THE ROPE
A present-day band featuring former members of Downcast, Sinker, and Pitchfork, Wet The Rope made me cock a ‘brow with their songs on the split LP they share with San Diego’s Icepield. With minimalist Wire-like song structures and the jaggedly textured guitar of Chris Sanders for Scott Torguson to drape his raspy vocals upon, they’ve created four provocative songs that truly caught me off guard. They also throw in a cover of “Suffocation” by Oklahoma Emo forerunners Angry Son, just to show they don’t pose when it comes to their fervor.
MARY TIMONY - “The Guest”
I’ve been listening to Mary’s new solo record Untame The Tiger ever since it came out a couple of weeks ago and every time has been a fairly intense experience. To hear someone in my same age bracket sing unabashedly of their vulnerabilities so poignantly is both refreshing and reassuring, even if a recent evening listen to “The Guest” hit me hard enough that it got the waterworks going (out of my eyes, rather than the usual nethers area) Line it up with Emitt Rhodes’ “Better Side of Life” and let the healing begin!
PUBLIC ACID - Deadly Struggle (Beach Impediment)
I go back and forth on this type of stuff – modern-day hardcore purposedly made to sound like it was recorded in a homemade submarine while someone stomps on outdated boxes of cereal to keep the beat. Sometimes I just want to tell a band like Public Acid to get off my lawn, but sometimes I want them to move inside my brain to quiet the voices in there. If you’re looking to blow off some steam, put on all fourteen minutes of Deadly Struggle during the freeform dance class at your local senior center. You’ll be sure to make new friends or the cover of the local newspaper.