The Light, The Sound, The Rythmn, The Noise.
1-Best record ever found at a thrift store? It's a toss up between Flipper, Gone Fishin from a super creepy Christian charity shop on Shepherds Bush Green or Thelonius Monk, Brilliant Corners at one in Orange County CA. Thelonius' nickname was Melodious Thunk which seems apt in regards to everything I just said or will ever say... I found the Flipper record when I was about 15 and had only really ever heard about them because Kurt Kobain wore the shirt and actually finding it really tweaked me out. Maybe now Shepherds Bush is more akin to Noe Valley or Park Slope... (not completely gone that way butbutbut the yoga moms are encroaching) ...when I was a kid there were Pie and Mash shops, rival football teams, a huge African/West Indian market and a bunch of stores that only sold new 45s from Jamaica. The idea of someone within the confines of that area owning a Flipper record and then donating it really blew my teenage mind as did the Flipper record itself... said... Repetition....
In related news I have had the No Trend song Hanging Out in Georgetown in my head for over a month on a loop. The first time I heard that band was because a pen pal I had when I was Flipper record buying age made me a mind melting tape containing the complete output of both No Trend and Middle Class. I think it's still in my tape box at my mum's house. This week I got an actual No Trend record, utilizing the power of thee internet... and then when I went to see the film recently made about Chicago punk,You Weren't There, I was struck instantly by the band End Result and everything came together. Especially after a snide comment made by Dr PepperHardcordova at brunch (BRUNCH MOTHERFUCKERS!!): 'What have you been listening to recently? Oh. No-core? Really?' I swear this is all connected but what does no core even mean? Music that isn't the skit at the beginning of the Our Turn record? I only like music that sounds like the way a Raymond Pettibon drawing looks.
End Result were formed in 1980, a three man self proclaimed hardcore band from the projects of Chicago who tuned their guitars like a cello, had no drums and a saxophone. They played hardcore shows and I would say their music is more hardcore than any generic 83 Reagan band. Since seeing the movie I have become somewhat evangelical about this band, and several people have informed me that their records turn up frequently, in dollar bins/lowest common denominator bins around the world. In fact Martin Sorrondeguy just found me the Albini released 12" for three bucks... and the 7" is downloadable from the internet browser website search engine, which I would advise you in getting involved with involving you-self within because it'll fracture your sense of self and bring your core temperature WAY DOWN.
Steve Albini on End Result:
"End Result was truly a band apart. Ahead of its time and unique in more ways than I can count. Alan tuned his guitar like a cello... End Result had no drummer to keep the beat, because (in Alan's immortal words) 'we think our audience can count.'"
Alan Jones was the constant member and the band lasted through most of the 80s. There are some mindblowing early 80s You Tube performances which are mandatory if you do not have the chance to see the Chi-punk doc. I guess they are considered a pioneering no wave band now, which is kind of a bummer. The fact that they played hardcore shows, and considered themselves a hardcore band and yet the no wave co-opted their destruction anyway makes me sad like a clown painting in a cafe co-operative.
The rest of the Chicago documentary was equally inspiring, one of the first 'good ol days' punk artifacts I have seen where despite the fact that the old men said the world ended when they lost interest you actually kind of understood where they were coming from. 1-They think Avril Laving/Hot Topic Mall Rat Rock is what the punks are up to nowadays. 2-They claim that the feeling of seeing Silver Abuse at a queer bar in 1980 has not been and will never be recreated by current punk attemptees and after seeing the footage of Chicago punk in thee olden days I have to agree. Gauze groupies in bullet belts brown baggin forties and talking about Finnish demo tapes are no match for anything in this movie. You Weren’t There is light years away from the fossils of that American Hardcore movie. The fact that all the early Chicago punk shows happened in queer bars and were also all ages definitely had an affect on the originality, up against the wall-ness and insanity of the music produced. I think they showed an early cut of the movie (it was two hours long, which the film makers said they were going to edit down) but one of the things that was kind of mind blowing was the part at the end that lasted for fifteen minutes of old people saying punk was dead, it was super harsh and brutal and endless in a way I can't quite describe. Like performance art almost? I don't know what else to say... I mean if you want to see insane Effigies, Articles of Faith, Strike Under, Tutu and the Pirates, Naked Raygun, Negative Element and Rights of the Accused footage go see this movie! The footage at the bar where Chicago punk was initially formed is amazing and sums up everything I have to say or will have to say about music and art and being an artless deadbeat...
(regressivefilms.com)
After seeing this I was really psyched and ready for destruction, but could not get anyone to do anything so I skated to Jessalyn’s where listened to the Germs, talked about dudes, and went to a random party where someone who works as a yearbook photographer had set up a room so I got a year book photo taken. Teenage wasteland. Doomed to dream.
2-Chaos in Tejas vs Sex Vid in Olympia.
I was ALL PUMPED on going to a fest for the first time since the days of olde when Assuck played a lawn in Ohio and someone made their pick up truck into a wacky time kiddie pool. I have never been to a Chaos in Tejas fest or a Pointless fest which I guess are the current versions of the ones I went to in Ohio in the 90s or at the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford same time period... But then someone informed me of the final musical line up and I realized that I really don’t care about seeing any of those bands at all and I kind of don’t want to go anymore. The only reason I would want to go is to go swimming in TX swimming holes and skate TX ditches. I decided to go to Olympia for Sex Vid’s 7” release show instead. The two events will not be occuring in the same time frame in anyway. Maybe one event will be a mass accumulation of punks on a scale my small brains cannot comprehend and I should go witness? Crusties congregating and surviving the plague? And to see both Crude and Los Crudos play. But Sex Vid is like having Pettibon on the inside of your eyelids. 21st Century Schizoid Man.
3-A Man came into my work today wearing a perfectly executed Union Jack tie dye t shirt. My mum wrote me an email asking me why I call men DUDES and women GIRLS. I will start calling everyone 20th century schizoid men regardless of gender, in tribute to Robert Fripp and mother earth. You know I actually number all my columns from one to ten like a top ten then the co-ordinators edit that part out? It’s true. If you want to see the numbers you have to look at where I put the words on the internet. Also my favorite pizza place (not hippie pizza the other one) is now bogus. I had a life crisis about what a deadbeat I am and how fruitless my life is, and ultimately decided that it’s ok to care more about getting the Church Police 7” than wearing a three hundred dollar organic cotton dress to a party at a beach house where gentle trance music plays as people smoke and discuss wine and the stock exchange and child care options. It’s not like I am puking up Sparks in a 7/11 parking lot, I mean I read Celine, listen to King Tubby and drink green tea! Sophisticated like a Flipper song on your headphones whilst walking out to the ocean for the endlessly endless time. Not needing anything else.
4-Thinking about getting a germs tattoo at age 30. What we do is secret. SECRET!
5-Hubbs’ Story about the Christian record store guy that buys records from his work and won’t swear, so when requiring the Cricifucks he instead asks for the Cruci-jerks.
6-the Nor Cal top five of mine in this issue? Here are the couldabeens:
1- Dils-Made in Canada double 7"
were they in SF or LA at this point? What city claims this band and for what period, could I claim the 2nd 7" oer the 1st one as an SF release? Regardless I love this 7" though obviously I do not own it, just a reissue, but it’s good for skating around to and also for sitting and reflecting in yr room.
2-Noh Mercy-Caucasian Guilt
When people were still trying to figure out what punk was, this was what some girl came up with. Screaming insanity over a dying drumbeat. It’s on one of those Fast records comps and is creepy and rad and wrong. The lyrics!
3-Pink Section 12"
Some art school students rented rooms in a single occupancy weekly hostel in the early 80s and only had to work one day a month to make rent. Their music contains keyboards, like a less destroyed Screamers more than a skinny tie band I would say, the girl’s vocals are kind of pitched between Exene and Lilliput, and the lyrics confront the endless liberal millionaire complacency of the Bay Area, wine collectors wife swappin in Marin voting for Jerry Brown save the planet go to the zoo. The MRR copy has an amazing Tim Yo made cover, but I bet you can get this pretty easily online in MP3 format because I have never seen this band’s records outside of the MRR collection and I have been searchin.
4- Chrome Half Machine Lip Moves LP
For some reason I always avoided Chrome, and after hearing this record I am completely confused as to why I did such a thing. A waste of my life and ears for sure. It’s post apocalyptic music, and I think I thought they were gonna be bad industrial, but it’s not. It’s half formed yet complete, shards of nasty that make up a whole world. How I wish Eno’s Warm Jets sounded when people described it to me. So good. Endtimes.
5-Inflatable Boy Clams 7"
This band were linked somehow to Pink Section, maybe they shared members or played shows together? They are way more fucked up musically. It’s not catchy destruction, it’s kind of like a meaner Y PANTS (the NYC band on 99 records). I have no chance in hell of ever finding this 7” but there’s a website that comes up that has all the music and cover art and info so you can make a tape for your faraway abandoned pen pal that makes them realize that they are not as lost as they once believed. The internet will save us. Just browse.
6-Wilma 7"
SF’s first lesbian seperatist punk band? One side is a lesbian soundscape bummerization, the other is a total rager that’ll make your eyes droop and your teeth itch. I think most of these records I am talking about came out on Subterranean records. Just to contextualize. I think in fact I am sure most were purged from the MRR collection. If that’s how you like it seek em out.
7-Raooul FreshnNubile 7”
My teenage band did a split LP with these ladies on Lookout, which apparently they threw out when they went out of business. One of my friends dumpster dived a bunch of the LPs. Wish they would have called me instead of trashing them since I don’t actually have a copy of this anymore! (Actually I do now-thanks Arwen!) But I guess they are still selling the CD/licensing the music for comps and selling downloads without our permission/ever paying us. Sketchy business people aside, when we played with Bratmobile in 93 they told us we should do a record with Raooul. So I wrote a note on the wall of Gilman when visiting the Bay later that year. Raooul wrote back and sent this 7” and it totally sums up being a bratty teenage girl in a place where being a punk is easy.
8-Peligro Social side of the Born Dead Split.
9-Ecoli 7”
10-Hey Girl! LP
11-SOCIETY DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!
THAT”S ALL I HAVE TO SAY! Write me layla.gibbon x x x gmail.com or read whatwewantisfree.blogspot.com for old columns.