THREE SLEAZOID ZONKERS FROM L.A. DRUGS

I missed the one and only LP from Los Angeles’ L.A. DRUGS when it came out in 2003 (update: I am told in the comments below that they were from Boston, whoops) – it existed first as a CD-R and later was put out as a one-sided affair on Twisted Village. It has the potential to both anger and dazzle all comers, given that it’s simultaneously one of the most annoying and yet most crazed and unhinged, dirty, noisy, lo-fidelity records I’ve ever heard. I think they were around for less than a year, tops. Obviously they found a lot of comedic value in early 80s LA punk (as we all do), given that the album is bookended with verbal clips from “The Decline of Western Civilizationâ€Â (“I swear, I hate cops to the MAXâ€Â) and the Germs’ final show (“We’ll see you all at Oki Dogâ€Â). The singer has a bratty, whining tweener voice that she uses to fine effect on tracks like the ones I’m posting for you today – sorta like what one might have called a quote-unquote “riot girlâ€Â fifteen years ago, but even more annoying. The band exudes learning-to-play confidence, utilizing cheapo keyboards, fucked-up guitars, and all manner of crashing & bashing to get their point across. It sounds like a goddamn lights-out teenage pajama party with peanut butter smeared all over the floor and pharmaceuticals piled high in punchbowls. See what you think by clicking the links below.

Download LA DRUGS – “High School”
Download LA DRUGS – “Casual Sex”
Download LA DRUGS – “Sinful Youth”

Costes tours the US with demonic S&M opera

Jean-Louis Costes is among the most uncompromising musical and performance artists to come out of the '90s DIY scene, as remarkable for his legendarily self-destructive tours with Suckdog as for his surprisingly poignant self-released music.
 
Costes was featured in the anthology "Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed," and his 1992 "End of the Trail" is available for download at lostinthegrooves.com, along with other great, neglected albums. Writer Bengala called EOTT: "an homage to his breakup with indie icon Lisa Suckdog Carver, and a more moving love letter has never been recorded. Splatters of filth and sonic mess hide the sentimentality, but the beauty shines through, triumphantly sad beneath layers of disgust and ugly noise. It is the document of modern humanity as representative of his era’s id as Gainsbourg was of his. Lauded by the likes of Thurston Moore, Costes remains virtually unknown, even in his own country, a special gem without genre."
 
Costes has just begun one of his rare US tours, with a new performance piece called "Les Petits Oiseaux Chient" ("Little Birds Shit"), co-starring Lisou Prout, with support on most dates by Mr Natural. It's among the most highly-anticipated noise tours of the year. Costes' 2003 presentation of "Holy Virgin Cult" thrilled his long-time fans and earned him a legion of new listeners. After surviving malaria, the Paris riots and the authoring of his first book, this legendary cult figure now plans to survive the USA.
 
Costes says: "'Little Birds Shit' is the story of an ordinary couple.  They meet… they flirt… they fuck… They make a baby.  Gradually they find themselves falling into the trappings of normal existence. Working to make money becomes their new focus. As they grow weary from the struggles of life, they find solace in bizarre acts of S&M sex. Yet cruel, earthly fates conspire to keep them down. The couple must finally come to the logical conclusion of this journey, finishing in Hell."
 
Radon presents:
COSTES USA Tour 2007: "Les Petits Oiseaux Chient" or "Little Birds Shit" starring: Jean Louis Costes and Lisou Prout with support act: Mr Natural  (on most dates)
 
FEBRUARY
Fri 9 : Johnson City, TN @ Heather's Hideaway
Sun 11 Hickory, NC    @ Chez Marque w/ Mr Natural
Mon l2 Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlife w/ Mr Natural, Klang Quartet, Jason Crumner
Wed l4 Jacksonville, FL @ Yesterday's Pre-Party International Noise Conference
w/ Mr. Natural and 15+ artists from the INC line-up
Sat l7 Miami, FL @ Churchill's Hideaway (International Noise Conference)
Mon l9 Tallahasse, FL @ OAF w/ Realicide, Rotten Milk, Mr Natural
Tue 20 Atlanta, GA  @ Eyedrum
Fri 23 Houston, TX  @ Superhappy Funland w/ Mr Natural, Rotten Piece + Richard Ramirez, Concrete Violin
Sat 24 Austin, TX  @ Scoot's Red Inn
Wed 28 Los Angeles @ The Smell w/ Captain Ahab, Mr Natural
 
MARCH
Thu l Oakland, CA @ 21 Grand
Sat 3 Portland, OR @ Someday Lounge w/ Mr Natural
Sun 4 Seattle, WA @ Rebar w/ Mortii, Mr Natural
Wed 7: Rapids City. SD @ tba
Thu 8: Sioux Falls, SD @  Dischordia w/ Question, Thrash Wave
Fri 9: Winonna, MN @ tba
Saturday 10: Minneapolis  @ The Church w/ Cock ESP
Sunday 11: Chicago @ 3219 s morgan st w/ Cock ESP, Panicsville, Mr Natural
Tue 13: Columbus, OH @ Skylab w/ Mr Natural, Cock ESP
Wed l4 Pittsburg, PA @ Smiling Moose w/ Plastered Bastards, Cock ESP
Thu l5 Rochester, NY @ The AV Room w/ Cock ESP, Mr Natural
Fri l6 NYC  @  Paris London New York w/ Cock ESP, Rubbed Raw
Sat l7 Boston @ School of the Museum of Fine Arts w/ Cock ESP, Mr Natural
Sun l8 Providence, Ri @ InZane Gallery w/ Two Dead Sluts One Good Fuck, Mr Natural
Wed 21 New Brunswick, NJ @ Plum Street
Thu 22 Philladelphia, Pa @  Pageant Gallery w/ Rubbed Raw
Fri 23 Washington  DC  @ Velvet Lounge
Baltimore, MD tour finale party tba
 
More info available at
www.costes.org
www.radoncollective.org
www.glkweb.com

Attention, DJs and journalists: Costes is available for interview. Contact Scott at Radon Booking. 

SAY, THAT’S A SWELL MAP

THE SWELL MAPS are probably in any right-thinking individual’s personal Top 10 punk-era British acts, despite their experimental, sonic distance from punk and the fact that they slot much better into the DIY, homemade post-punk “Messtheticsâ€Â world so popular with the kids today. Several of their most “famousâ€Â tracks – famous being relative for a band still so little-heard – like “Dresden Styleâ€Â, “Vertical Slumâ€Â and “Read About Seymourâ€Â, are surely punk rock on wheels, but they also feature the scarf-on-the-mic-stand, beatnik/French-like vocals of Nikki Sudden, and there’s just something very strange about the construction of each tune. That’s why I love ‘em. They often went totally ambient, too, or showcased piano ballads, 10-minute soundscapes, or tribal, polyrhythmic percussive workouts. Some of these worked better than others, but it’s a good bet that there weren’t many bands this far-reaching & still good anywhere at the time. There were only two real albums (1979’s “A Trip To Marinevilleâ€Â and 1980’s “Jane From Occupied Europeâ€Â), some amazing 45s, a couple posthumous collections, and then this: a 1981 double LP on Rough Trade called “Whatever Happens Nextâ€Â.

When I found my copy of “Whatever Happens Nextâ€Â in the early 90s I was just becoming wise to the charms of the Maps, and I felt like I’d struck gold at Sutter’s Mill. This collection was rare to begin with, and has never been put on CD, even with two US Swell Maps reissues having come out just over the past 6-7 years. I did my research, and the three tracks I’m posting for you today are not only fantastic, fantastically rare, and fantastically fabulous, but they exist only on that great “Whatever Happens Nextâ€Â 2xLP that nobody has (not even me, I eBayed & digitized it a few years ago). Strong recommendation to you to buy buy buy the two LPs (now on CD with loads of extra tracks), plus the “Train Out of Itâ€Â and “International Rescueâ€Â comps while you’re at it…..

Download SWELL MAPS – “Armadilloâ€Â
Download SWELL MAPS – “Sheep Dipâ€Â
Download SWELL MAPS – “Bandits On Fireâ€Â

Trolley Square

The house I was born into in Salt Lake City was located across the street from what is now a stylish, maze-like mall called Trolley Square what back then was a dilapidated trolley barn. The house itself is gone, too; while far from a paradise, it indeed was replaced by a parking lot. Forty-four years ago, I was out delivering Valentines when I witnessed Mrs. Egan, who lived across the street from us, get hit by a car speeding along Seventh East, in front of Trolley Square. Years later, as a teenager, my best friend Ellis and I used to regularly play pinball at the arcade there. In 1996, I met Elliott Murphy when he performed at the Wooden Dog (before it relocated to Park City), the beginning of a relationship that continues to this day. I enjoyed many a dinner with my folks at Rodizio Grill. My friends Larry and Lou and Steve and Marv and I used to regularly escape from work for lunch at Desert Edge Brewery. And in 2005, I took my dad to see the amazing Grizzly Man at Trolley Square, the only time we’ve ever attended a movie together alone. Deb and I went to the mall, too, during one of our last visits to Salt Lake.

On Monday evening at Trolley Square, dressed in a tan trenchcoat and carrying a shotgun and a .38 and a backpack laden with ammo, Sulejman Talović, an eighteen-year-old Bosnian refugee, killed five innocent people and wounded four others. A quick-thinking off-duty cop quelled any further shootings and police ultimately shot Talović to death. The story, despite the Bosnian twist, is a familiar one: “Although he was a loner and withdrawn,” according to today’s Salt Lake Tribune, “Sulejman Talović seemed normal and ‘nice’ to the few people who knew him.”

I didn’t know him, but all of my aforementioned memories, good or bad, now forever take a backseat to the crimes of Sulejman Talović.

You’re a with-it kind of person. I know this beca…

You’re a with-it kind of person. I know this because you’re reading my blog, and by “with-it” I mean “reader-of-my-blog.” Admittedly, this stretches the the ordinary definition of the word.

Anyway, you, dear reader, my with-it kind of person, should know that there is a new High Hat, a valentine to you, with the theme of First Loves. And Love is the key. I cannot read it without getting all soft-focus vaseline-eyed. It’s just that wonderful and romantic.

There’s too much goodness to recommend any particular article over another, but I will single out two. First, Phil Nugent’s remembrance of New Orleans and his friend Helen Hill, who was murdered there last month, is a breathtaking essay of such scope that the editors took the unprecendented move of presenting it outside of any of our little departments. Second, and I mention this not because it is a high quality essay, but because this is my blog which I write, necessitating a bit of occasional egotism to stay in the spirit of things, my first love article is on an embarrassing youthful indiscretion with the band Styx. Read it at your own peril. Or don’t and still think well of me (presuming that, in fact, some of you think well of me in the first place).

Go and be loved.

PETER BLEGVAD’s “ALCOHOLâ€Â

One of the strangest records I’ve ever heard, and one of the most oddly compelling. A friend of the distant past bought this solely for the cryptic cover; check out the back cover and inner labels pictured here – we had NO IDEA who this was by until I sent out a plea on my old blog back in 2003, and was told that it was PETER BLEGVAD, a member of the avant-rock band SLAPP HAPPY. Is this from 1972? Or 1980? I know the 45 pictured here is from ’80 but the track may be from much earlier. It may have only existed as a bonus one-sided 45 that turned up with the reissue of a Slapp Happy LP called “Sort Ofâ€Â in 1980. Regardless, it’s totally fried and out of time, the sort of oddball madness that sucks you in & makes you watch/listen, rather than turn you away in horror. Well I guess that’s really for you to decide, isn’t it?

Download PETER BLEGVAD – “Alcoholâ€Â 45

Anton Barbeau – In The Village of the Apple Sun CD (Four-Way)

Medium Image

I'm predisposed to laud Anton Barbeau for his yeoman's work luring Scott Miller back to the recording studio (see last year's swell Loud Family CD, of which we still have a few free copies for Scram subscribers), but his lush, Bowiesque art-pop stands on its own freaky merits. Kicking off with the glam starburst of "This Is Why They Call Me Guru 7," the disc seduces with effortlessly catchy tunes, hyperactive arrangements and a neatly meshed tapestry of electronic and real instruments. The ideas fly furiously, tape runs backwards, cohorts shriek deep in the mix.. and yes, you could say much the same about a Scott Miller record. It's no coincidence these two have formed a collaboration, and fans of the Loud Family and Game Theory will certainly want to explore Barbeau's deep catalog of smart, weird pop, with this a timely starting point.

Keeping Order

Slowly I take off my shoes and roll up my pants before dipping my toe the right big one back into the vast pond that is the blogosphere. More than three months have passed since I last posted here. Why? I’ve been busy as hell, for one thing: researching and writing my book, working with my agent to get it in front of publishers; and expanding my publicity services. More to follow about both.

About these last few months, with its challenges and achievements and occasional disappointments, I’m reminded of a passage from Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest (based on the Georges Bernanos novel). With a face like a pinched and pious James Dean, Claude Laydu as the country priest writes in his diary: 

Keep order all day long,
knowing full well disorder
will win out tomorrow,
because in this sorry world,
the night undoes the work of the day.

I’ll be back soon.

The Crumbiest Month

Just a couple of random things for those who aren’t at the Berlinale…

***

A friend who works with a company here in Berlin that produces trade magazines, several of them for the food industry, was over the other day. “That bread you get in the bakeries here,” he was saying, “you know they don’t bake that on the premises, right?” Well, that hardly takes a genius; most bakeries don’t have the room to mix, form, proof, and bake bread. No, of course it’s brought in from somewhere else in what readers of a certain age might recognize as Brown N Serve condition and finished in the tiny ovens in the bakery. “Yeah, right,” he contined, “but here’s the really weird part. Do you know where that bread starts out?” In some factory somewhere, I suppose. “You’re right — but the factory is in China. They fly the bread in, frozen, and it gets distributed to an intermediate point, and then it gets thawed and delivered to the bakeries.”

I’m not passing this along as gospel, although I suspect it might be true for some of the chains. I’ve often known I was approaching Berlin on the train, for instance, because of a huge Thobens Bakeries facility just outside of Potsdam, but I don’t know what they actually do there. Anyone else have info on this? It’d help explain why the bread here is so bad — the independent bakery in Berlin is virtually extinct — but it would also open up a new market for German bakers: it would be just as easy to re-heat this stuff in ovens in America or Japan as it is to do it here. And you could market it as “authentic German bread.”

***

Speaking of magazines, a friend passed this article along. Ho-hum, another magazine startup. But…Vanity Fair isn’t just any magazine. It’s hard to say if the Spiegel article is tongue-in-cheek — although, like the country it’s published in, it’s not known for a sense of humor — but there are some rather astounding things in it. Like this quote: “And rumors abound that Gruner + Jahr is already working on a magazine in case Vanity Fair is successful. The working title sounds like something Poschardt would come up with: Neues Deutschland or New Germany.” Ummm, I know Germans are expert at forgetting their history, but did no one notice that this was the name of the house organ of the East German government? I mean, I can go to the DDR Museum and buy a replica copy of the first issue for €1.50.

Not to mention the folly of doing this as a weekly, doing it as a weekly with a tiny staff, and running a picture of Till Schweiger with a goat on the cover of the first issue. Till Schweiger with his shirt off, sure, but…a goat??

Read it and weep.

***

Which is pretty much what I did this afternoon while trying to figure out if I have enough in the bank for a round-trip train ticket to Paris. I probably do, but when you go to the Deutsche Bahn travel information page and try to book the ticket, you’re met with a link that says “Unknown Tariff Abroad.” Click it, and you get this message:

“For the most important foreign cities (e.g. Vienna, Amsterdam, Zurich) fares are available.

“For your requested connection fares are unfortunately not available.”

So Deutsche Bahn is still fighting the Franco-Prussian War and we, the customers, get the benefit.