This months top ten comes to you from the secret society of girls that don't wanna read a zine about vegan treats/herbal abortion recipes/home made tampons and would rather:
1-Insert comment on nostalgia.
The same thing every month.
The same thing.
Every month.
You are doomed whatever you have or haven't got to say.
Primitive boredom/constructed negativity/Hype bands/hipsters.
2-The sound of a reggae piano combined with the story someone told me about how Jeff Beck wanted to capture the Motown sound and recorded at the Motown studio one time in order to make this happen... but he freaked out at the basic nature of the place and had his sound guys come in and sanitize and rock dude everything out so much that no Motown sound was captured. Bad reggae tinny piano is enough to get you thru the night, in ways that a 5th generation over dubbed attempt at the Motown piano only could, out of tune but so in time. Enough to create a world in which you can exist. Like the Die Kreuzen record encapsulating something that you can't put your finger on at this point but it's probably something about nostalgia and aging and how rotten a human I am because what do I have to say that isn't about that at this point. Another dime in the jukebox. A cup of coffee and a lame story about hitch hiking. Your own personal per-zine. FEEEEEEEELINGS. Off the pigz.
3-It's easy to be a critic. Everyone has one! An opinion that is. I obviously do not know enough about anything to write about it so let's hire a scientist to write about it instead, maybe a mathematician would do a better job. I guess if you are that dude that paid 2 dollars for the Yes LA comp in '78 only to then write to Flipside in '81 because suckers were paying $100 for it...then, however, you can write about anything you want. When Golnar first asked me to write a column for MRR one of my friends asked me why I would want to write for an audience like that. I couldn't actually figure out what she meant, like who did she think MRR readers were? GG Allin fans on St Mark's Place? D-Beat trainhoppers? Spikey top Adicts Fans? I guess because I have been a shitworker since 2003-ish I had less pre-conceived notions of MRR's audience than said friend did. However, just so it's clear, I write my columns for fans of the Urinals and Huggy Bear, the people who think that the guitar on the last two songs on the VOID split is Better Than The Beatles. You know, the people whose lives were changed by the Screamers Target video. Every month do I have something to say to the audience/the Adicts fans of MRR? Every month I have to figure out what to say whether I do or don't. I made a butt flap about it that references that dude from Fang that killed his girlfriend. "Don't patronize with apologies, you son of a bitch, the devil has many faces, yours just fits!" (©Some band, a long time ago.)
4-This week I have been mostly going to shows and hanging out with my friends.
I wrote that sentence at the beginning of the month and it was very true. There were two Limp Wrist shows, an all ages one where they showed a documentary on the history of Brazilian punk, and Jump off a Building played a last super raging show... No Thanks also played and the singer lady walked home behind me boasting about singing back ups for Seven Seconds last year in a super loud voice. I watched the show from my poser spot standing on a bench behind the merch table, and while it was not as fucking crazy as the last two Limp Wrist shows attended (1-Naked dude clad in jack boots only, stage diving from balcony onto insane Black Flag in So Cal circa 82 crowd//2-Front row of pit ALL LADIED out, and all the girls knew all the words...) it was still a frenzy best watched from above... Then of course Limp Wrist at The Eagle, bear bar, line of rad ladies stood on the um benches behind the merch table? Golnar was in town visiting and she made moves towards the pit and when she saw that no one was following was kind of flabbergasted. I have not been in a pit since I was about 14, probably a Jesus Lizard show, probably some gross dude put his hand in my underwear! Oh I didn't write a riot grrrl zine about it but I totes shoulda! OMG! For sure! It totally made me never wanna be anywhere near a million random macho fucktards who think that's an ok thing to do to a teenage girl! AT ANY RATE, even from behind the merch table Limp Wrist were great, their new songs are awesome and I can't wait for a record... The riffs were killer next level and they were totes my jam. OMG for sure!!
Carnal Knowledge played a basement show, a Brooklyn based all lady hardcore band featuring ex members of Hey Girl! they talk between songs and actually give a shit so obviously are not for the message board dude scene. People that like raging intelligent yet bratty hardcore that doesn't suck and borrows equally from early Born Against and Bikini Kill, well I would advise them in making moved towards getting the demo... They played in the basement at Thrillhouse to a packed audience featuring a chicks up front pit (except I doubt any of the ladies in said pit would get that stupid 90s sxe crew reference.) Usually lady fronted hardcore is not my favorite genre, the vocals of Spitboy being a prime example of why this is the case, but Tobia from Look Back and Laugh made me rethink my lame attitude and I have since enjoyed a Margaret Thrasher show and discovered the radness that is The Wrecks demo. (All girl hardcore from Nevada circa 83, featuring the drummer from the SF version of the Dicks before she moved here. They have a song on an MRR comp but it's not as raging as the demo, which my friend Pete dubbed for me. I know MRR has a copy of it, and I played a song from it on mine and Golnar's recent ladypunk radio special, which you can listen to here: http://maximumrocknroll.com/radio/specials/LadyPunkPlaylist.html)
Also of interest during week of rad bands and hanging out with friends: the 80s skate zine exhibit up currently at Needles and Pens, if you remember Swank Zine and wanna see some OG Big Boys artwork now is the time to visit our local and awesome zine emporium... (needles-pens.com)
5- I was informed by Hubbs that watching the recent reissue onto DVD of the Flipper target video would be life changing, and I have to say his assumption was correct. The only music I want to listen to right now. Hopefully the Black Flag/Hardcore Target vid will be next. I need obliteration.
6-loomofruin.blogspot.com Sam McPheeters has a blog.
7-New Order-Turn the Heater On (Peel session nervousness like a leaky radiator in a creaky Victorian)
8-SEX VID- Nests 7" test press with especial skinned teen coverage.Best band in America. Music for the haters and the hated. Interview to come: ask the What's Your Rupture dude, he asked me to for his zine and I did so.
9-fIREHOSE-Brave Captain VIDEO.
10-The Uphill Struggle/Electrical Nitemare split on Astronautical.