YOUR INSTAGRAM MIGHT BE LIVE, BUT YOU'RE NOT!
Truth Bomb courtesy of Tim Dillion
Firstly, I would like to apologize for the lack of posting on the newsletter. It seems like everyone else but I have found the time during a pandemic lockdown for Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and creating podcasts. My excuse for not participating in such actions is due to being engulfed in a large scale, anxiety-inducing non-music writing project that’ll hopefully see the light of day by the end of the year. I hope that’s good enough for you! Right now, I find myself in the middle of paying writing assignments that I am ever so grateful to get, so why not sink to a whole new level of laziness and self-importance by assembling an Oprah-esque list of the things I enjoyed in-between highlighting portions of The Voice Of Guns and visits to marxists.org.
Gaunt - I Can See Your Mom From Here (Crypt, 1994)
While basking in the glow of a monster article finally being fucking finished, we finally decided it was time to rewatch The Sopranos from the very beginning. In maybe the second or third episode, Carmella visits A.J’s room where a promo poster for that third Ulver album with the long-ass title hangs on his wall while a trip into Meadows’ room reveals her to be a fan of Midwestern punks Gaunt due to her proudly displaying a promo poster for their ill-advised sole major-label release, Bricks & Blackouts. I suppose discovering who was responsible for such product placement is a task that would be interesting to tackle someday, but right now, I’d rather just go straight to this disc to remember how phenomenal these goons were in their prime. For some reason, a newfound wistfulness for my first drunk-in-public moments has slipped into my psyche since the lockdown with a very significant one being at a New Bomb Turks/Gaunt show at Maxwell’s. Frankly, the whole thing frightens me to the bone. Maybe I’ll bring it up to Dr. Melfi next week on our Zoom call?
Once And Future Band - Deleted Scenes (Castle Face, 2020)
I thoroughly enjoyed this North California units’ debut a few years back as it showed a love for the pomp production of 10CC and ELO without resorting to the usual ironic horseshit the kids feel a need for these days. The band thankfully does not rest on their laurels and scales back the slick studio trickery to make a record that somehow smooshes together an adulation for the compressed sound of Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard, A True Star and the sunset glow of those first two Jan Hammer Group albums, Oh, Yeah? And Melodies. If Madonna were to cough in my face at this very second, I’d declare it album of the year. But only if that happened.
John Martyn - Glorious Fool (Duke, 1981)
The way Martyn and Phil Collins' voices come together on the chorus of “Couldn’t Love You More” is like eating ice cream while wearing velvet undergarments: It feels good...and it can be written off on your health insurance!
P22 - Human Snake (Past Present Medium)
It seems alotta people wanna scream nice things into the microphone about this L.A bands’ debut, and I am no different than the rest of the thirsty scum. If you got yourself a fondness for the sparse dissonance contained in the weirder wing of Crass Records like Poison Girls or Flux Of Pink Indians, this’ll tickle your kneecaps like an ace. Know what I’m sayin’, fat?
Cosmic Sand Dollars - Requiem For King Dick (Cold Vomit, 2020)
Due to having written the liner notes for this album, I do not feel comfortable vomiting up even more accolades over its matchlessness. Just blast this the next time you hang ten on a picnic bench and thank me later.
Lake Headley - Vegas P.I. The Life and Times of America’s Greatest Detective (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1993)
I’ve been meaning to read renegade private eye Lake Headleys’ autobiography for a while now due to it being referenced quite a bit in Brad Schreiber’s 2016 fascinating book, Revolution’s End: The Patty Hearst Kidnapping, Mind Control and the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze and The SLA. Headley was an old-school Vegas cop who broke off into the private investigation business and somehow ended up becoming the go-to man for everyone from the teamsters to radical lawyer Luke McKissack when dirt needed to be dug up on the perceived ‘good guy’ authorities. Most famously though, Lake is known as the man who not only revealed SLA leader Donald “Cinque” DeFreeze to be a longtime snitch and Black Power provocateur but that Patty Hearst had been visiting him regularly in prison. He writes like an ex-gumshoe with a hard-on for Raymond Chandler and it's just the right mix of cornball style and alternative history needed to shrink the swelling on my sore brain.