Late 90's zine tales & Cathy Ames - inteview

In 1998, I was attempting to put out a 5th issue of my zine Marketing Ploy. I did a small run of the first 4 issues since they were mostly just for friends. Although, the last issue published issue (Vol. 2/Number 2) got reviewed in Factsheet Five  and was supposed to be distro-ed by some guy in Colorado but that dude was a total rip-off. The article I wrote in the last issue "Torn Between Two Turnbuckles: Pro Wrestling: Then vs. Now" ended up in The 3rd edition of book The Zine Yearbook.

My article was alongside some interesting stuff like a Glen E. Friedman interview, a new technology in the workplace piece, and Mike Mannix's excellent "Bang your head to this!" (via Alice is an Island zine). His artcile dealt with masculinity and sexuality in the metal scene. A few months after the Zine Yearbook was published I met Mannix and editor of A.I.A.I zine/his friend Robyn. Robyn was also an occasional columnist in Heartattack zine - which was the 1st place I knew of that championed for better or worse) the then-underground metal-core and screamo, emo scenes. This was also going on around the time that KZSU was playing a lot of this stuff i.e. - Lifetime, Hoover, Converge, Cave-In  and so on...

 Although I only met Robyn and Mike once the way I met them is unforgettable. We were at Gilman Street and well, I can't actually remember the show lineup maybe that night. Uh, maybe something like Noothgrush/Deadbodieseverywhere and Benümb ? Anyway, I was standing next to Mike, Robyn and a German friend of theirs when I heard:

Mike: "what do you mean you don't like Accept?
German friend: "Nooo, they're terrible"
Mike: "c'mon dude - Balls to the Wall?!?...Restless and Wild"
Robyn: "Fast as a Shark"
Me: "Excuse me are you talking about Accept?"
Mike: "Yeah..."
(Talk goes into other Accept albums and WTF was with Russian Roulette and the Udo-less Eat the Heat?)

A few minutes later, Mike was complaining about the in-between band music which was some so-so pop-punk. He was shaking his head in disgust while making sarcastic remarks about said band to Robyn. I asked what band it was and he said "Discount". which just too poppy & saccharine for tonight's hardcore/grind & sludge lineup. I also found out that Mike had a record label called Ellington which released early stuff by Ire (who got airplay on Leia Organa's "From the Darkside" show on KFJC), Converge and Shadows Fall.

Summer of 1997, I was involved in the West Bay/Peninsula scene from making flyers and attending shows along with sometimes schlepping equipment for my friends "dork-core" band, Slobber. A number of the Slobber and other punk/metal shows were in the backyard of B Street Music in San Mateo. The backyard fit about 35-40 people and had a little stage set up. The shows ran from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend. So, with Labor Day being the final one they booked a "mega-show" with 8 bands.

Made at Jungle Copy in downtown Palo Alto when I was on my lunch from my stupid-ass sales job.

Breakdown of the bands:

On Mars - Riot Grrl-ish punk from Redwood City, released a tape and were around for all of a month & a 1/2 ?
Lipids - San Mateo weird Minutemen-ish/almost prog maybe even new wave stuff?
Anti-Core -Demented Dadaist art-noise made by one loon from Jacob Ham and the other from Slobber.
Brick - Heavy AmRep/mid-paced rockin dudes from Fremont who shared members with...
Christian Prohibition - Rapid, sometimes messy power-violence-ish / heavy hardcore mix. I'm not sure if either them or Brick recorded anything. C.P.'s vocalist picked up the Examiner with the headline "Princess Diana dead from carcash" and said in his sarcastic voice: "oh I'm sooo saaad boo fuckin' hoo!" and then went into some song against churches.
R.W.S. - I'm not even sure if these guys had a proper acronym or what but it wasn't Red Wood Sity. They did silly power-violence/death-grind stuff that had titles like "Claire Danes" (this was during her My So Called Life-era) and "My Village was Attack by Vikings" followed by "My Village was Attacked by Emperor".  I saw these guys a few times later with Godstomper and with...
Cathy Ames - San Jose kids that were pretty damn ragin'! Fast & gnarly heavy hardcore that REALLY went under the radar. I was lucky to see them on this show as well with Godstomper and RWS a few months later in East San Jose at Musicians Warehouse (another short-lived South Bay D.I.Y. space). Their guitarist Alex was SUPER into Slayer and did a total Clark Kent into Superman transition as before their set we were talking and he was this mellow guy in glasses and an army jacket that was just talking about guitars and his fave metal bands. Then he got on stage and his hair went outward about a foot in each direction and out came the Slayer shirt and onward to headbangin' fury. OK, now here's the interview I did with them.

 

UPDATE DEUX: I saw Cathy Ames play for a 3rd time in Fall 1997 with some dull Pantera-ish band called Resin, Godstomper and Noothgrush at the Cactus Club in SJ. I last ran into Alex sometime around 2005 at a High on Fire show in San Jose. He told me that Fenny was in Seattle working at an art gallery. Prior to Cathy Ames bassist Pat was in pretty cool, raw punk band  called Charity Case. Alex was in the grind/death band Ragweed,  and the deathcore-ish before deathcore act, San Resina  - both of whom I saw in 2001 at the Silicon Valley Metal Fest (which actually ran 3-4 years in a row but unfortunately got overloaded with shitty "goregrind" bands). He's currently plays for SJ heshers, Beerijuana.

More Favorites from 2012 - Live & otherwise

I spaced on mentioning that Cirith Ungol's "Servants of Chaos" 3xCD/DVD is ALSO on of my fave re-issues in 2012 as it runs from their trippy space rock via proto-metal of the late 70's-early 80's to their perfect HM songs from the mid-late 80's.

Anyway, I didn't get out enough this year but here's what saw & loved:

Voi Vod - Fox Theater, Oakland. Neurosis were good (and Yob was pretty medicore) Voi Vod just RULED!
Iron Maiden - Shoreline, Mountain Schmoo
Ghoul / Slough Feg / Gravehill - Tidal Wave Fest, S.F.
Dancer (SF) / Lenz / Apache / Terry Malts  - The Knockout, S.F.
Terry Malts / Apogee Sound Club / Light Brigade / C'est dommage at Thrillhouse Rec's, S.F. - Every band was fantastic and shows at this place are awesome.
The Yes Gos / The Mengs at Mardi Gras, Redwood City - The Yes Go's only had guitar & drums and ripped it up like an early Sub-Pop band. The Mengs did catchy punk without a lot of gloss. Only the second time I've been to a show and talked a LOT about wrestling as all three guys in the Mengs have at one point worked for BTW in Newark.
Godstomper / Backslider - Some dude's house, S.F. - BBQ & garage grind/powerviolence gig.
Acid Mother's Temple - Bottom of the Hill, S.F.
White Hills - B.o.t.H., S.F.
Warm Soda/King Tuff / (and yet again, Terry Malts) - New Parish, Oakland
Barn Owl /Trans Am / Wooden Shjips - Thrill Jockey Showcase, Independent, S.F.

Not a gig but a very cool in-store: Erkin Koray at AQ Recs.

Worst: Every good show I missed - a miles long list including but not limited to: Swans & Codeine.

Hilariously bad: 
Liturgy this past at the Thrill Jockey anniversary show. Gabber beats cranked to 11 & some guitars doing uh...something?


Other Live Events: 
"The Wrong Dick" - Film Noir parody stage play at The Dark Room, S.F.
"Asteroids" - stage play at The Dark Room, S.F.
Comedy Night at Artist Television Access - Lotsa comedians including George Chen who I've known for years but haven't seen 'em do comedy and he was quite good. Also, I made some girl laugh by adding on to a joke that one of the comedians said about doing Bay to Breakers and eating chow mein.

Films & TV: 
Last Days Here - Bay Area premiere at The Roxie, S.F.  Oh Bobby Liebling, whadda crazy life!
Lilyhammer - Funny, crazy and deals with a lot of the culture clash between "old school" New Yorkers and generally polite and cautious Norwegian society.
Norges Hergliste - Very cool idea of two brothers from Norway that go round the country finding everything from weird inventors to 50's collector obsessives to base jumpers to uh, some guy that can pull a car with a certain member.

Peep Show (BBC) - I didn't see every ep of That Mitchell & Webb Look but it seems no matter what these two are doing they're damn funny. The internal dialogues around the office & elsewhere I can REALLY relate to (though not the constant lying).
Classic Album Series: Black Sabbath - Paranoid, Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast, Motorhead - Ace of Spades.
Varg Venem - NOT a Black Metal thing but instead a fine, dark Norwegian detective show filmed in Bergen.
MST3K & Narduwar interviews - The gifts that keeps on giving.
Arrested Development - OK, I finally "get it" - it is funny and stays consistently good. Simple lines such as Tobias Funke saying "when  working in the business of show" always makes me laugh.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret- Another David Cross show but why not? For some reason Will Arnett and Bob Odenkirk sound alike when they're raging and irrational but both are genius.
Metal Maniac! - A 2012 Metalsploitation schlok-fest made for about $100 and loads of Manilla Road can't go wrong with that.

Sports: 
Pro wrestling in general including the better side of WWE: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and the indies: Sara Del Rey, Chikara & the like but more on that elsewhere soon.  The Oakland A's playoff run - they challenged the Tigers a lot more than the Yankees so that's something but I'm about 99.9% sure the team's future in Oakland is doomed. SJSU (American) football getting into a decent ranking - not bad for a commuter school.


New places of interest: 
Gaumenkitzel - There really needs to be more places like this where I can get a proper German pretzel
Gestalt Haus - giant beers & very comfy chairs & couches to sit on.
The Beat Museum & Contemporary Jewish Museum - California Dreaming exhibit.
Oakland Museum of California's Exhbit on
Thrillhouse Records & 1-2-3-4 Go! Records - I love 'em both & wish I could go there every weekend but my wallet hates me.
Desert Museum of Palm Desert, CA - mountain goats, hirax (not the band in either case), sand cats, snakes, giraffes, jaguars and more!

Favorite Books I read: 
The Time of the Hawklords by Micheal Moorcock & Michael Butterworth (1976) - I typically don't read a lot of fiction these days but this story is a lot of fun. It's a sort of sci-fi story involving the members of Hawkwind at the time and Lemmy (pretty sure he was out of the band at this point but still neat to see him show up in this).
Commando - The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone - 4th book I've read on The Ramones and this one's also interesting to see where Johnny came from, his opinons on song writing, touring and personality clashes, baseball and so on.
Sputnik, Masked Men and Midgets - The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling by Ron Hall
Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and American in the Swinging 70's by Dan Epstein. Touches on nearly everything that made 70's baseball great. Especially in terms of breaking social and cultural barriers.
Ding Dong Daddy From Dingburg - Bill Griffith - Lots of Zippy the Pinhead and non-Zippy stuff as well.
The Beats - A Graphic History - Harvey Pekar (R.I.P.) & Paul Buhle - shows the complexities of their lives as well as underscores their significance
Crusin' with the Hound - The Life and Times of Fred Toote. - Spain Rodriguez - Spain was a helluva artist and all-round bad-ass. These are all graphic stories on his & his friends lives in late 50's Buffalo that deals with racism, sex, violence and drinking all with fantastic art. Spain's another great we lost in 2012.

Zines: 
Atomic Elbow - Incredible mix of pro wrestling's past & present. More on this in the pit.
Chips & Beer - Sometimes I don't get Voetglin's writing but he's passionate about what he & his co-writers love and at times the take downs of hyped artists can be on target. Moreso, the super-detailed articles on Mercyful Fate and King Diamond history, NY Metal and in-depth interviews with Chris Black (Dawnbringer, Pharoah, High Spirits, Superchrist).
Maximum Rocknroll - 'Cause it's still pretty damn good even though I'll only ended up listening to about 5% of the records they review.

Podcasts (non-wrestling) 
The Smartest Man in the World with Greg Proops - Always have a lotta love for the Proop Dog. Especially great when he's able to talk a lot about the city and country he's in and not just to 2-3 cheesy jokes about it. Also, lots of talk about the 70's, history, politics, literature, and even an unexpected reference to W.A.S.P's "Fuck Like A Beast" (!)
The Dana Gould Hour - Dana Gould - Like Proops another long-time fave who I discovered originally on Live 105's Alex Bennett Show. Two gems: "It's easier to deal with the voice telling you you're no good if you just think of it said by Little Richard" and: (re: contemporary political debate) "it's professional wrestling with ties".
David Feldman Comedy Podcast - OK, it's not all comedy in fact, lately Feldman's been on a tear with monologues on the NRA, the corrupt policies of Amazon and so on. But more so, Feldman has also covered Hollywood stories of the past (i.e. - the show with the Steve Stollar author of Raised Eyebrows), plus Eddie Pepitone AND TV's Frank Conniff - count me in.
WTF with Marc Maron - the episodes with Colt Cabana (yeah OK that's about wrestling), Bob Zmuda (so's this one, kinda), Nick Lowe, Craig Ferguson, Tony Millionaire, Coop , W. Kamu Bell, and Tom Kenny  being baffled about "180 gram LP reissues of Iggy & the Stooges and The Ramones - they're supposed to sound like shit! I need the hiss and pop." 
You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes - I dunno what is about 'ol Petey but he just has this funny and interesting conversations with his friends that just remind me of a friend I would've had in high school. His laugh is hi-larious to me everytime. Can't explain it otherwise. Also, the ep. with Mike Burns you'll the meaning of "Double Dew - no ice!" 
Doug Loves Movies - Doug Benson & guests make a bunch of jokes on the cinema of the present and past - one of the best things you can listen to on a road trip. 

Best of 2012

 2012 was a part good, part crud year for me. Two good friends dying was the biggest thing to deal with. The rest was somewhat manageable but frustrating with too much lack of focus. I was at least able to be employed in 11 out of the 12  months. Also I have a few ideas that I'm planing on stop talking and writing about doing and actually complete them in the upcoming months.

Re: Music this year - I'm still very much burnt out on the lot of extreme metal.Then there's super praised stuff I just don't have patience for - i.e. Pallbearer's album which would've been better if the songs were shorter. Otherwise, there's a bunch of stuff I managed to listen to in between listening to way too many comedy & wrestling podcasts.


Full-lengths:

Terry Malts - Killing Time (Slumberland) Probably my favorite band of 2012. The first song I heard, "I Do" mixes Naked Raygun type of guitars,and Phil's often Joey Ramone-like voice. Though the Ramones-isms aren't super duper obvious. Instead, Terry Malts are an honest punk/fuzzed out power pop band with lyrics about love and relationships sometimes heartfelt othertimes just cynical and funny ("Waiting Room"). Their cover of Negative Approach's "Can't Tell No One". Other times they write anti-religious tunes "No Sir, I'm Not A Christian". At least one tune reminds me of proper 90's indie rock (i.e. - Seam) on "No Big Deal".  Lest I forget their weird-ass video for "Something About You" that does an intro like KISS' "Detroit Rock City" then some WTF-ery 'ala David Lynch. Granted I coulda saw these guys play live about 12 times this year but only saw them 3 regardless they were great every time.

Antiseen - Falls Count Anywhere: A Collection of Wrestling Songs (Rusty Knuckles) - Yeah, I have these squared circle classics on other albums and singles BUT this also has their cover of the Fabulous Freedbirds (R.I.P., Buddy Jack Roberts and "Bam Bam" Terry Gordy) "Bad Street U.S.A."

Aura Noir - Out to Die (Indie, Norge) Aura Noir started off doing so-so black/thrash but by about 2008 they streamlined their sound and made everything louder, heavier and gutted the thin 2nd wave black metal stylings with their thrash and focused more on what made their influences so great. Namely: Venom, Bathory, Sodom, Possessed & Morbid Angel (as Apollyon does have those flaming ghoul vocals) and really sometimes taking those influences and pushing it forward is ALL you need!

Demona - Metal Through The Time (Dying Victims) - Damn good Speed Metal from Montreal via Chile.  I wrote about Demona earlier. Spirialing guitars and thick and catchy but not overblown riffs. Really good vocals from Tanza who also does the leads. Hearing her accent the chorus of "Nightmare" is also really cool. Overall, very good mix of the past sounds while making it something of their own. Also nice to see the title track with guest appearances from a lot of the bands that inspired them (i.e. - the REAL Warrant, Sabbat, Wardance, etc).

Eat the Turnbuckle - Fans Bring the Weapons (Useless Drunk) Nasty, violent & heavy hardcore inspired by the squared circle. Namely, the likes of ECW, CZW and IWA Mid-South. Though they do have a bit of more "big time" influences as well. Speaking of, it starts with a cut up of Mean Gene (Okerlund) from various WWF stuff then goes into a bunch of Death Metal-ish/Heavy harcore tunes as if sung by D-Von Dudley or Brusier Brody himself. These guys won't be playing any Scion-fest (unless they can put their marketing team on a flaming table) nor will the creeps at All Songs Considered promote it on the twitterverse (I hate myself for even writing that). The lot of these guys were from Philly obnoxioids, Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravangaza who's shows at times became riots. Musically this is more in the vein of fellow Philly ragers, Bad Vibes & maybe a hardcore version of Impaled?   Bonus for doing a killer cover of Cocknoose's "Invader #1 Must Die" in their live shows.

Hawkwind - Onward  (East World) Double CD of newer stuff and it's great to see Dave Brock (now in his 70's) still doing Hawkwind - sure, it's not gonna be Doremi Fasol Latido ever again but their spirit is definitely intact. 25 studio albums and still next to no bummers. And R.I.P. to Huw Lloyd-Langton you will be missed.

Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God (Profound Lore) Chris "Professor" Black has done it again and made an excellent traditional Heavy Metal record and yeah it's a concept record about uh...I dunno but there's loads of great riffs, solos and Black's vocals are clear & passionate in the real sense and the in the same way that makes me love the sound of singers like Mike Scalzi and Bruce Dickinson. Songs are just roman numerals. "II" is very speedy and ripping and the ballad "V" doesn't turn up the suck either - especially with the doomy riff bit at 2:30. Now if they could just play the Bay Area with Slough Feg and Hirax.

Superchrist's  Holy Shit (Hell's Headbangers) - featuring guitarist Chris Black (and Ian Viper who also plays with Black in High Spirits) was nice and sleazy speedy punk/metal. .

Metz -  s/t (Sub Pop) Sub Pop put out something good and loud this year? Yeah and it doesn't sound like Jesus Lizard (Pissed Jeans are OK & all but really I think I heard enough J.L. soundalikes by 1995 but you could emulate far worse stuff like the shit my co-workers listen to). Really bombastic, shouted out vocals and with loud-ass guitars at nearly every moment. Curious to see what they're like live.

Lamps- Under the Water Under the Ground (In the Red) - Noise rawk and garage-racket mix that's somewhere between Pussy Galore and a buncha chaos.

Pins of Light - II (Alternative Tentacles) Rockin' Killing Joke/Hawkwind-gone punk stuff from Oakland with the vocalist from Cross Stitched Eyes. Very not the usual kind stuff in the Bay Area scene and that's makes it all the better. Completely spaced on the fact that Cross Stitched Eyes had an album out, too. But I can assure you that they were incredible when I saw them live in 2010.

White Hills - Frying on this Rock (Thrill Jockey) Big, heavy psych as usual but his time they pretty much stay on point with the rock stuff and avoid the ambient stuff (which I like just fine). Got to see them for the 3rd year in a row at Bottom of the Hills. Got to meet bassist/vocalist Ego Sensation and drummer, Adam after the show in April. Adam said he was sick of all these other band "white this, white that, White Fence White Denim". Which leads me to...

White Lung - Sorry (Deranged) Speedy punk from Vancouver, B.C. Very consistent from start to finish. Rather melodic guitars that change things up on each song. Pisser they couldn't make it to S.F. a few weeks back.

A few runners up:

Pharoah - Bury the Light (Cruz Del Sur) More traditional HM that mixes the likes of Manowar, Priest, Riot and even Rush (on the start of "Year of the Blizzard") but given those influences done with flair and chops instead of generic cheese (see 2000s power metal). Sure it's histronic and over the top. Vocalist  reminds me of Eric Adams, Halford and Graham Bonnet all the same time. Obviously this has NOTHING to do with:  the blackened/post-/stoner/sludge/deathcore/whateverthefuck

Hawklords - We Are One (Künstler) This is a different, now reformed version of Hawklords with long 'wind & 'lords bandmate Harvey Bainbridge, Jerry Richards (writer & producer for Hawkwind from the 90's-00's), Adrian Shaw on bass and writer for the Quark, Strangeness & Charm & PXR5 albums. Cool interview that sorts out the details here. Only heard two tracks so far but hell, Nik Turner & co. still sound great. The title track has a kind of garage rock feel in the riff only cleaner mixed with Turner's trippy voice & the usual wah-wah guitars & space ritual electronics. Nice thing is the "hello and thanks list" had Dave Brock on it so doesn't seem to be much bad blood in the 'lords vs. 'wind camps.

Grails - Deep Politics (Temporary Residence) - Still sorting through this one and I like it but needs more time.

Carlton Melton – Photos Of Photos (Agitated) - The more mellow" side of 'Melton but still pretty damn good. They never fail live.

White Hills / Farflung – To Find The Secret Door / Fade (Cobraside Distribution)  - White Hills here is doing their ambient trip out thing and Farflung doing a killer space rock tune that sure sounds like White Hills (hmm...).


Singles/EP/demos:

Dancer - s/t  7" (Daggerman) 3 songs of punky power pop and straight up power pop from the Bay Area. Nice and infectious stuff, nuthin' fancy. Funny thing is when I saw them with Terry Malts and Lenz - 3 of the 5 bands on the bill had really tall singers.

King Tuff - Screaming Skull / Love Potion (Sub Pop) 70's-styled strummy, glam-pop mixed with power pop with some nasly goofball on vocals. Super good, earwormy chorus & chords on the A-side. "Love Potion" has the same guitar tone as Bowie's "Suffergate City" but does  and a ton of bright guitar chords on side-B.

Warm Soda -   Reaction / In Another World  (Southpaw) - "Reaction" is just purely, perfect power pop with a bit of mid-70s styled punk. Super catchy, great build up, ticking time rhythm and and a lot stuff that takes from early Cheap Trick and maybe even 20/20. The flip is quite nice, too though more straight ahead with the guitars getting brighter/louder over time plus some nice drum fills. Helluva live act, too. Weirdly the opening guitar wails to "Reaction" to reminds me of some NWOBHM stuff.

Apogee Sound Club -  Belligerent (Fully Intercoastal) Solid rhythmic punk and never lets up which I dunno reminds me of the Minutemen or a less spastic Victim's Family and maybe Gang of Four (but I've never got into that band). I could be way off on all that but anyway, go see them live & listen to them here.

Conquest for Death  - One Definition Of Success  (Tank Crimes) Super fast hardcore on the A side with a ripper tune in Tagalog ("Mga Agawai"). The B-side has a few more mid-paced tunes including the excellent "Against the Wall"   Craigums' solo on "One Definition of Success" is ace. Really good lyrics about sexual assault and homophobia, bullying, and the title track deals with the band's perspective of making music and touring all around the world (not just the usual US/Europe/Japan trips but they've been there a plenty). Still probably the only band that I know of that's played 6 of the 7 continents. Looking forward to their Antarctica tour in 2013 with Tubby and The Tusks - the world's only all-walrus garage rock band. (Actual band may not yet exist).

Elegy - Cemetary Earth (Shadow of Fear) - For some dumb reason I thought this was gonna be either medicore crust, the 9459th Swedish death metal worship band or both. (Must've of been the old english "E" in the logo and the headstones on back). Instead, Elegy puts more of the rock n' roll and punk into their metalized hardcore. Somewhere around English Dogs, Inepsy, and Broken Bones. It gets better the more you hear it.

Unholy Two - Cut the Music (I'm the Nightstalker) / Razor (12XU) Menacing noise rock wreck on both sides. "Razor" has more of a "normal", bludgeoning riff mixed with even more feedback but the vocals are purely mental. Haven't heard many bands do this stuff since at least Trance Syndicate label . Also, if you've read my article on Kevin Sullivan in Atomic Elbow wrestling zine (and why WOULDN'T you humanoid?!?) I make the error saying the band is from Australia (but they did put out a release on Oz-land's Negative Guest List) and not Columbus, OH . Bonus for the Razor Ramon pic on the B-side label.

Hellfire - 2012 demo  Great speed/proper power metal and a bit of NWOBHM from some young guys from Daly City. The band's founder, guitarist Tony Campos is a pro BMX rider (!) Vocalist Alex Orozoco voice has a great range. Overall, the band shows lot of promise. Plus, they do an ace cover of Jaguar's "Axe Crazy" (or at least did on one live clip I saw). Thanks for Aesop at Cosmic Hearse for letting me know about these guys. Hopefully 2013 will see them release an LP (and maybe my lazy ass will actually see them). Check 'em out here


Reissues:

Astaroth - Satanspiritus / Lady of the Moon 45 (Unseen Forces) Wow! ORIGINAL "occult rock" - no fancy pants site webhype for these guys. Burning proto metal outta Detroit - the A side could be a little long is my only complain. "Lady of the Moon" comes off like a non-bloated take on The Doors on the B-side that doesn't sit around and play the same boring shit, instead it goes off trippy psych tune. "My love is Astaroth it's said /and you shall serve her 'til you're dead/I will see your soul in hell/ and I'll take your life as well" must've ruined a few grooves in late 60's.   Dig it.

Codeine - When I See the Sun (Numbero Group) This "complete the set" with all three of the albums from the first & greatest "slow-rock" band. 3 LPs in giant packaging, booklets and CD versions of each LP. Not a cure for the bummer moments of life but it helps.

Black Sabbath - "The Rebel" (Zella)  7" - I dunno if this is 100% legit. Tho' Goner Records had it in their mailorder for $8. So file under "not gonna see THAT everyday", 1 sided but no biggie as this is pre-album from '69 that sees them doing a sort of Beatles-esque (god I hate that phrase) tune with some of their trademarks starting to shine through: Iommi tone and Ozzy's warble-y/not all the clear vocals but it is certain them and it's listening to songs like this that make you forget all the bullshit that's gone on with their recent reunion. Though that said I managed to see it on youpube and they sounded pretty damn good despite Ozzy making part of "Paranoid" sound like he was teaching P.E. class.

Coloured Balls - Ball Power (Sing Sing) - I discovered these guys via one of those Fenriz mixes (that had their song "Human Being"). From there I've been reading up on them ever since. Aussie hard rock/70's rock stuff with some solid guitar tone & attitude. Lobby Loyde should be in the legions of guitar gods and seriously how many more times does anyone need to be told about Jimmy Page? (pun unintended). Now I wish only that Sing Sing would re-issue their singles on vinyl - especially so I can play "GOD (Guitar Over Drive)"." on my stereo instead of little 'ol computer speakers.

Razar - "Stamp Out Disco" / "Task Force (Undercover Cops)" - 7" (Sing Sing) I got this with the Coloured Balls LP 'cause the part of 2012 was listening to a lot of Aussie punk/glam, hard rock stuff (Skyhooks, Cosmic Psychos, Slug Guts, etc, etc). This is raw and mean Brisbane punk from '78. If they were from south side Chicago they could've been playing in the outfield during the disco demolition. The b-side's no slouch either as it sonically & lyrically attacks the cops. The cover of this 7" is also on Bloodstains Across Australia and was on a flyer from some schmo's last radio show.

Razor - Armed & Dangerous (War on Music) Nabbed this LP at S.F.'s excellent Thrillhouse Records. The first release from 1984 by these Canadian ragers. A wee bit into the power metal speed style and a little erm less unchained as they were on Evil Invaders. The title track is still a rager despite not going a 100 mph and there's an early version of their classic "Take this Torch".

Mythra - Death and Destiny (Buried by Time and Dust) Rockin' as fuck NWOBHM from '79 right up there with the equally under the radar Brits, Dark Star. Love the "Warrior of Time" and its use of the very British Status Quo "boogie speed". "Killer" is speed with a ton of guitar harmonies 'ala Diamond Head's "Helpless". Got the regular LP and missed the one that had the poster for the gig they did with Motörhead/Saxon/Girlschool/Saxon/White Spirit/Angel Witch and  (*exhale*) Vardis. I guess I'll wait for the super limited "time machine that transports you to that gig" edition

F.U. 2 - Punk Rock (1-2-3-4 GO!) Punk that was first throught to be the "secret Downliners Sect" album". I haven't heard Downliners Sect but I read they were a blues/R&B act in that goes back to the mid-60's. Therefore, it's "fake punk" that comes off quite er, punk. Though the Sect connection is "Stars in the Street" is a really nice romper. There's fast bluesy stuff on "Playing My Guitar".   "Sniffin' Glue" sounds more keyboard laden and silly like a Stranglers outtake but it's undeniably catchy. Also, 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is a store I need to get to WAY more in 2013.

Pagan Altar - The Time Lord (Shadow Kingdom) I still had Pagan Altar in the "could use some better vocals" column. But on one hand Terry Jones' "slowed down Katon De Pena" voice comes off pretty nice here. (And yes, I love Katon's voice).  But I think well, duh, that's part of the charm - you might not always "get it" but it did and does set P.A. apart from the tonnes of doom that came after them.

Poison Idea - Darby Crash Rides Again (Southern Lord) - Everyone and their dog brings up the USHC generica but weirdly despite their equally if not more intense HC tunes, P.I. seemed to never get the same praise as the Circle Jerks or even later bands like Cro-Mags. Either way, P.I. this has their first release from 1982 and a bunch more stuff from various Portland live shows and some live stuff on KBOO.


Older stuff I also loved: 

Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties (Columbia) I've gone back & forth with BOC and heard so much about their first 3 albums that I hadn't really latched onto tho' one of my first rocker friends Kenny had the 1st album t-shirt back in '80 'round the time he was getting me into them, Nazereth & The Scorps. I often found their stuff from 1976-81 hit and miss - for every 4 solid tunes there were weird fillers. This album has NONE of that. The Meltzer (not his relative, wrestling journo, Dave) lyrics are really interesting and damn catchy especially on "Flaming Telepaths".

Contr Act -  Cyrillic title (translated to Warriors of Rock) (Werewolves) Siberian (Russian) power/speed metal in the fine tradition of Noise Records on some Belrussian label with only 3 other releases. Not much info on this act but they did make some very cool Kai Hansen-era Helloween/early Blind Guardian inspired speed/power metal sung in Russian. Not much on them on the web cept on their label site and a wee bit on Metal Archives.  I got CD for $5  I did at Amoeba. But NWN! has a copy here. Also listen here.

Dark Heart -  Shadows of the Night (Roadrunner) One of those records I was afraid of getting instantly disappointed by via the very Duran Duran looking artwork. Turns out I was way off. Rather solid NWOBHM with some nice "ah-ah-ah-ahhhhhh" backing choruses; riffs. Not far from the likes of 1st album and early singles-era Def Leppard, Dark Star, and Angel Witch.

Ded Engine - s/t  aka: Hot Shot (Pentagram) - 1985 LP debut of what some called the "American Judas Priest" to some but not as slick or obvious as Malice. Ded Engine was from Detroit and were part of the better side of Michigan metal in the 80's - i.e. Repulsion. "Scream" gets right out of the gate & tears things up sounds closer to Hallow's Eve or Exciter. Weirdly I have no idea why this wasn't include in this era's greatest metalsploitation film. (much less any horror flick). Regardless, check this out it's worth your time.

Mercyful Fate - 1st EP (Rave On) - Bought this a second time (first time I trade my friend Steve in high school this EP for something shitty like Reckless something hey I was a dumb 16 yr old). Sure enough I bought this the day before King's favorite holiday. Went back to Amoeba SF where I got this just yesterday and there's 2 copies just sitting there. I have no idea if this is a super sneaky bootleg but all the right  details seem to be there. Either way, fuck it - I have their first three on vinyl (Melissa  and Don't Break the Oath I bought when "metal was dead" in 1994 for $4 each).