The only spam I get is prescription drug related and I don’t even know what the drugs in the email titles are or what they do. Cialis. Cialis. What is this. I don’t want to know. Cialis. Cialis. A week or so ago I saw THRONES play in SF, Joe Preston; bass scientist, technician of tension. I saw MELVINS support Nirvana when I was 13 and it kind of changed my life, Joe played bass, I did not know this then though. I only remember their hair cuts and the feel of the bass on my skin, total second layer of epidermis, noise so harsh and all emcompassing it would have crumbled colluseums, definitely made me reconsider the Sid Vicious bootleg T shirt I was wearing because MELVINS were way better than My Way. Got kicked in the face in the pit and had my life changed and thus went out and got the 1st Melvins record I could find, the one with the Flipper/Alice Cooper covers on it. Such a rager. The first time I saw Thrones I tried to convey to Joe the effect this show had on my brain and demonstrated the true fixated nerd that I am, he still remembers me from this conversation even tho that was probably ten years ago. Jeez. Anyway new THRONES set is like a birthday pony ridden through the post apocalyptic tundra, or more like a birthday without the pony. A ride without the post apolcalyptic tundra, or maybe actually no birthday, no ride, no pony, no tundra. Maybe if you know about cialis? Cialysis. Cianalyse it.
Next month you will see my name in the co-ordinator section of the masthead because I am taking over from Martin as Distribution co-ordinator. If you work at a record store, skate shop, zine store, art n craft empire, info shop, squat gas station, tattoo shop, distro hovel etc etc you should totally start carrying Maximum Rocknroll. It’s the magazine for shitty thinkers, indifferent ragers, political gas attacks and you. Carry it. No but seriously duds email me here: layla@maximumrocknroll.com if you can think of a store or distro that would be interested in carrying the mag. I have been training under the watchful eyes of Uncle Mar and am really looking forward to taking over in July. If you live in the SF/Bay Area and would be interested in helping out with shitwork contact us poser. There are some vaguely exciting things happening in terms of what I will be doing with the magazine with which I will need help, and also we always need people to help out doing shit like green tapin, picking up the mail from the PO box, and other equally fascinating tasks.
In the midst of all of this I had to fly to England on two days notice to deal with Some Family Matters. I took the opportunity to bring home my early 90s hip-hop tape collection (Raekwon! EPMD! Many others!) find an OG copy of Wipers Youth of America for £5 and go see an exhibition of May ‘68 posters from the student/worker Paris uprising. Last time I was there it was because my mum wanted me to clear out my record collection from my teenage bedroom, I mailed about 2000 LPs and 7"s to SF and sold the rest at random record stores where people kept telling me that no one was buying vinyl in the UK anymore, which struck me as strange. It seems like 2nd hand vinyl is the one thing that would still sell, if only to nerd collectors now that CDs have been devalued by the MP3. I guess the UK is bereft of old vinyl obsessives? Though having seen Fat Bob from Hard Skin’s record collection I am not sure of the truth of that statement. I found that £5 Wipers LP in the ‘White Stripes/Garage revival’ section of the record store that someone from Swell Maps used to work at, which is kind of inexplicable. The catagorization that is. Garage revival?? Jeez. Also the New Model Army records were in the ‘CRUST’ section of the record store, along with a bunch of dodgy spiral tribe techno dreadfuls, can the punks please stop liking this shitsystem of a band? They had their own brand of fucking clogs! CLOGS! No! I saw many records I would have picked up if the dollar hadn’t been so worthless. Seeing an old insane looking early 80s comp LP with a bunch of classic Messthetics bands on it including The Tronics, for £30, which worked out at $60 for me, was a total bummer. Also there was an article in the listings section of the Guardian newspaper about Jay Reatard which claimed he was in a long line of American Hardcore Heroes such as Fucked Up. Really?? English people and their genres.
Other bummers:
1-The shambolic indie revival. Chapel Hill part V. Make it go away.
2-Mimimal Techno
3-Hippie dadrock jam revival music that just sounds like late 70s AM rock. At least channel Roky/Skip Spence rather than generic rock millionaires.
4-the word ‘chill’ used in contexts such as ‘we had a chill time’ ‘it was chill’ ‘he’s a chill dude’ etc etc also chill out music as a genre.
5-‘punk’ bands or bands with ex ‘punks’ who play shows/events sponsored by Nike/PBR/whatever. Also Nike’s new subliminal ‘unbranded’ advertising.
Top tenned
1-Venom P Stinger Live LP
2-Kikeiji-Plastics Love
3-The Lowrider mag from 82 with The Brat on the cover
4-Punk style from east LA in that era
5-Julien Stranger’s part in the Reason for Living vid.
6-Can-I Want More
7-Jay Boy by Kent Sherwood/Glen E Friedman. Pre Dog Town Jay Adams...
8-Subculture-I Heard A Scream LP
9-Shitty Laddes
10-layla at maximumrocknroll.com or whatwewantisfree.blogspot.com