How weird, that just the other day I was saying to myself, “What would I spend to dress like the Kings of Leon?” Well, it’s a damn good thing I happened upon this most helpful article on the People magazine site (that’s a whole other kettle of jokes there). I’m so very glad we live in times where you can spend $108.00 on a fucking t-shirt, because one of the KOL’s designed it – meaning, “yeah, you can use our name to sell this shit to gullible nitwits who have Mom’s credit card." Want to wear a bomber jacket? Join the fucking Air Force. But this certainly won’t be the first of many bands, past and present, to start branching out into other fields of possible income procurement. I can see it now:

You get the idea. What’s the latest rumor you’ve heard of rock band diversification?

(All the KOL’s loyal subjects are now free to scream & yell at me as well. Why break tradition?)

To wash the taste out of your mouth, I’ve included a vid by The Jim Jones Revue (JJ = Thee Hypnotics, Black Moses), who better get their collective butts & record to the states PDQ (SXSW aside). They ain’t Kings, but that’s how it’s done kids.

I’m not going to bore those that frequent this site with the obvious. Yes, Chunklet has been a long time friend/supporter of Man…or Astro-Man? Yes, the band has been affliated with our endeavors (and vice versa) pretty much since day one. And yes, Birdstuff has pretty much been #2 at Chunklet for the past ten years. However, with that said, Man…Or Astro-Man? is reuniting in March and nobody is more excited than us!

Long time Astro-Man? fan James Bennett (along w/a few spare ?s from other Astro-fans) rattled off some questions to Birdstuff about the impending reunion. You’re reading all this here first, ladies and gents. Get excited for their reunion. Man…or Astro-Man? are a band that we’ve loved very dearly here at Chunklet HQ for going on eighteen years.  — (H2O)

Are you guys sticking to the alien back story? Still using pseudonyms?
Do you want to see Kiss without the makeup? Come on, what do you think? Of course! You should crash land in the middle of nowhere in Alabama and try not sticking to the "back" story. That said, we’ve been disguised as humans on planet Earth for a long time now and it’s sort of impossible not to talk about those endeavors at all.

How did the whole MOAM? reunion thing come about?
Well, although Star Crunch and I had talked about things at different points, the whole impetus of this was really from reading Henry’s post about our friend from The Rachels/Shipping News Jason Noble struggling with cancer. I toured with Jason both playing with Man or Astro-Man? and Shannon Wright and I can attest that he is simply the most genuinely nice person in the rock music world. It severely bummed me the fuck out to hear about his ordeal. So it just hit me that the one thing in the world I could put together that would make a difference monetarily for him would be for the three of us to play the music we made for ten years, and, I know this sounds cheesy, but that was a powerful moment of sorts — realizing you have this thing that for whatever stupid reason people really cared about. I feel very lucky and privileged in a sense to have that. It got us talking about the band and, well, here we are.

As the first show looks to be a Whirlyball gig, what are the chances of a Henry Owings special edition single or doing some special merch for the show?
Well, first off, I’m ecstatic that our initial show back is with Henry at Whirlyball. Henry’s as old school as it gets, and over the years he put on some of our absolute best shows in Athens and Atlanta. It will just be a fun, low pressure, punk rock setting to get back in the game. Plus, Henry always hands down makes the best screened posters and does awesome limited edition shit—usually specific to the show. Henry and I have been talking about a variety of things to have for the show as well as the possibility of doing a record of some sort for Chunklet. Right now, it’s a matter of seeing what that could be. I was in Atlanta yesterday and there are at least twenty unmarked Man or Astro-Man? reels in our old studio. I may go have to go up to Electrical in Chicago and spend two days just cataloging crap. It’s going to be strange hearing master tapes of shit we recorded when we were teenagers.

But what kind of actual merchandise can fans look forward to this time around?
Definitely freeze-dried ice cream at some point. I also always wanted to make weapons of some variety to sell at shows. Maybe Chinese throwing stars or machetes. That said, I made two Man or Astro-Man? hatchets with our logo and graphics on them a long time ago and snuck them into a Wal-Mart. I set them out with the other hatchets for sale to be bought. It was the reverse of stealing! Man, I bet somebody in Auburn still uses one of those hatchets.

What are your thoughts on band reunions in general?
I used to think, and sort of still do, they absolutely suck. If you liked us young and vital, then you’ll love us old, hairy, and half-assed! That said, the Gang of Four and The Jesus Lizard ones really sort of changed my mind about the whole thing. Both those bands were arguably better on their reunion tours than when they were in their original form — not that they weren’t great bands then as well. Sometimes a long hiatus really helps you figure out what was actually good, and bad for that matter, about your band.

Well technically, you guys did the Touch and Go 25th Anniversary so this isn’t the first reunion?
Yeah, that is right on a technical level I suppose, but to be honest, and not to say we weren’t thrilled to be playing then, we predominantly did that for everyone in the extended Touch and Go family who really wanted us to play. I don’t mean to imply that it was purely a favor, but it was a little less “for us” and more about pleasing dear old human friends.

What are you guys plans and where will you be playing?
We’ll be doing a lot of material off Experiment Zero, 1000X, and Made from Technetium, but there’s also some early stuff thrown in just to prove we can still go old school. Right now, plans are very open-ended, and all we have booked is an Atlanta show on March 5 at fucking Whirlyball!!! Then we have a Birmingham show on March 6 and various shows in Austin, TX from March 17-21. That said, who knows what we will and won’t do in the future—that is, unless we’ve already been there and done it. Ha! I still got some chops, right?

Do you think that this will be the last time?
I think when you get to this stage in your band’s "life" any show could be the last one. I’m not saying that as a ploy to get people out, and I hope it’s not the case, but I’ve learned to take nothing for granted with the rock bands that I’ve been in. We’re just having fun while we can.

After all the years away from Man or Astro-Man? Are you nervous and what were you most proud of about your original run with the band?
Not really nervous, although we haven’t done it in quite some time, we did do it a ton of times in our existence and it’s just been coming back fairly naturally thus far. The excitement level is genuinely high. I think the ten years of cryogenic storage has given us a perspective we never had. We were so lucky to get to do what we did. It just seems astounding to me that we would travel all over the country (I suppose the world, really) and have Coco set his head on fire or shoot 1,000,000 volts of electricity out in a club, and then people would let us stay at their house and sleep on their floors! We never had any expectation for the band and just stuck with the idea that if we worked really hard and tried to put on the best show we could every single night maybe we could get to do it some more. By 1997, we did overwork ourselves and that was a big part of the break with Star Crunch, but we never phoned it in or didn’t try to bring the A-game. Out of all the things we did or were about, I’m most proud of that.

What are your genuine feelings about what you guys did as a band?
Well, I can be a pretty harsh person at times. It’s hard to analyze your own band and I am personally truly of the ilk where I thought every show could have been better. During our original lifespan, I always thought we absolutely sucked, could have played tighter or gone crazier at a show, but watching back through old performances after years of being away from it, I actually think we were a pretty entertaining and amazingly tight little band who even when we were hungry, sick, tired, or whatever, put on a pretty good live show. This is not to mention the fact that we put out three albums I am very proud of—I can hardly ever listen to music I have been part of without cringing or thinking it could have been way better.

Which is your own personal favorite Man or Astro-Man? record?
Well, again, I don’t listen to the music I’ve recorded much after it’s been mixed, but, if forced, I would probably say it would be Made From Technetium. I always kind of considered that my record and Star Crunch’s record as being 1000X. 1000X I think is great as well and it was a really highly inspired moment for Star Crunch in so many ways. We had learned an unfathomable amount about recording from Albini—who was absolutely huge in Man or Astro-Man? both developing in the studio and helping us get involved with Touch and Go. After working with him on several records, we felt moderately confident that we, along with our long time Zero Return engineer, Jim Marrer, might be able to get a really good sound ourselves. Jim had gotten this huge, old plate reverb that just sounded remarkably natural and we really utilized it. I know people like those first records we made, but I have trouble listening to them because they have a lot of crisp, sibilant digital reverb on everything, and it just seems really harsh on my ears.
 
Anyway, by the end of ’96, we had done close to 500 shows since the winter of ’94 and were way over-worked and then some, and that’s really all my fault. I pushed everything way too much. Meanwhile though, Star Crunch had been building up a lot of new conceptual ideas musically and 1000X was sort of like a major statement for him. I mean, I think it’s an over simplication when people say the early records just sound like us playing Ventures records as fast as we can, but I don’t totally disagree with that either. The thing about 1000X was it felt like no one else in the world sounded like us at that point. I mean we weren’t making abstract sound collages with microphones place inside body organs or anything, but it felt pretty fresh to us. That record went down pretty fast and easy, and Star Crunch just had great idea after great idea. Probably the most satisfying record we ever made.
 
But here’s the deal, Technetium was done just four months later and we still had all these interesting production ideas left over from 1000X, but after touring straight for 2 years and just recording a 7 song 10”, there was just no creative juices for an entire record. We sort of sucked it up early on and banged out some nice collaborative practice space jams like “Don’t Think What Jack,” “Sound Waves Reversing,” and “Jonathan Winters Frankenstein,” but a lot of the rest of the record was written in the studio. It was the first time we were going to spend an entire month or longer in the studio and have time to do whatever we wanted, which also took its toll.
 
Star Crunch sort of became like Syd Barrett (without the real-life acid damage) at that point. He was staying out on a lake and not at the studio with us. After about the second week, we never would know if he was going to show up sometimes. It was extremely frustrating. I had all these great, amazingly played guitar parts he did  to work with but a lot of them were weren’t finished. There were days were we’d be waiting to see if he would finish a song. Sometimes he’d show up for 45 minutes and that’s all we’d get.
 
Coco kind of got sick of the process and went back to Georgia so what basically happened was we had this great record just waiting to be finished but nobody wanted to work on it. Maybe it was out of desperation, but I sort of took it on myself to piece the record together. I spent another three weeks at Jim’s in the woods in Alabama mixing, splicing, and trying to make it happen. It was a sad, lonely, desperate way to make a record and I think in a sense the lp reflects that and is a pretty dark record for Man or Astro-Man? (if that is possible), but I also think it’s a pretty excellent piece of work for us. It was one of those situations were the process was miserable but the end product came out pretty vivid and inspired. I always have felt like Technetium was the unwanted stepchild I adopted so I am very close to that record.
 
It has often been said Man or Astro-Man? easily toured more than any band in the 90s. I’ve seen estimates of 1,500 shows in 31 countries. Why did you guys tour so much?
My attitude was always like “better to be playing a show than sitting at home,” but there’s a psychological cost to that after a while. Plus, you have to understand this, Man or Astro-Man? worked harder than any band I’ve ever known and the work we had to do was way harder than that of an average band (and I not saying that’s something necessarily to be proud of—"twice the effort for half the result" was our motto). We had so much projection and stage shit to set up every night and break down, and it wasn’t until the very end that we ever had more than two people touring with us to help out. Luckily, Curt  Wells, who is currently head engineer at the EARL in Atlanta, did about 3 people’s work every single night—hardest working guy we’d ever met. We were very communistic in the sense that you had to do your share of work or shit would just fall apart. No one ever really partied on the road because it was just impossible to have time for that.
 
It was not atypical for Man or Astro-Man? to arrive at a club, set up for 5 hours, play a show as hard as you possibly could, break down for 3 hours and talk to everyone until the last kid left, drive to the next city overnight, wake up at 10:00 AM and do some fanzine interview, play on the local college radio station shortly after lunch, then do an in-store thing at 4, go to the club and set up, then (if the club was over 21) do a short 20 minute full stage show for underage kids when the clubs would be closed during our soundcheck, and then finally play our full show again and repeat the process the next day. It was fucking crazy. I’m completely 100% not joking or exaggerating about that being a standard process of what we did. Ask the other guys. We thought that was what every band did. I guess to answer your question though, for a long time we just felt lucky to get to play in front of people, and we didn’t know that doing it thousands of times would make you go insane—at east I didn’t.
 
What’s the best thing about Man or Atsro-Man? being active again??
Well, I really appreciate the other Astro-Men now more than ever. I don’t think I ever realized in the moment what a great guitar player with a truly distinct sound Star Crunch was/is. We started playing together as teenagers and he just always seemed like the guy I played with so it didn’t ever occur to me to think “Holy shit this guy can really play some profoundly amazing guitar.” And as far as Coco goes…Jesus, besides being a true-to-life mad scientist and deranged inventor, I don’t think there has been a more entertaining personality in the last 20 years who has played in a rock band. He cared more than anyone I have ever met in any band about the fans and the people who supported us. I can’t fathom the number of times it would be 2:00 in the morning and we’d be ready to go and he’d be teaching some kid how to build their own theremin or be explaining how the Tesla coil worked or how to use the O.R.I. real-time sampling gear—Back to Basics. Forgive me if I sound like a fan of my own band. That’s pretty lame, huh?

(Included with this entry is a "best of" – if you will – of MOAM? Peel Sessions from the ’90s. Crank it!)

Man…or Astro-Man? – The Miracle of Genuine Pyrex (Peel Session ’97)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Lo Batt (Peel Session ’97)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Don’t Think What Jack (Peel Session ’97)

Man…or Astro-Man? – With Automatic Shut Off (Peel Session ’97)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Jonathan Winters Frankenstein (Peel Session ’97)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Put Your Finger in The Socket (Peel Session ’95)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Sferic Waves (Peel Session ’95)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Classified (Peel Session ’95)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Max Q (Peel Session ’95)

Man…or Astro-Man? – Invasion of the Dragonmen (Peel Session ’93)

I guess I should start off by saying that I’m an unapologetic fan of music. That is, music that I love. Hell, as an example, I flew to Austin during last year’s SXSW on a week’s notice SOLELY to see Mayyors perform three times in two days. So to me, The Lizard’s reunion was not about reliving old times, but simply doing something both fleeting and intensely genuine. So when The Jesus Lizard announced their reunion tour early last year, there wasn’t much of a discussion (at least in my own head) as to whether I was going to see as many shows as I could or not. In fact, not much changed from when I was seeing the band back in 1990 or so. I was convinced that they were the best live band in the world back then, and well…. Let me just put it this way, if at their first reunion gig at ATP they weren’t that great, I wouldn’t have gone to another show. Period. However, I just KNEW that the band wouldn’t reunite if they couldn’t kick ass. I just knew it. So when they took the stage at the upstairs room at Butlins, I won’t lie to you…. It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful moments of my life and there was an entire room of people who agreed with me.

Over the past couple months, I’ve had no shortage of people asking me to rattle off my reflections of all the shows I attended. And well, this document has been sitting in on my desktop for about a month and so I’ll try and sift through all of this as best I can.

An injured Yow on top of the crowd. 2nd Metro show.

General Observations
• I don’t know how rich/drunk/stupid the people were at these Lizard gigs, but I was consistently astounded by how casually people would pop their iPhone or expensive camera in the pit to take a photo of Yow 3 feet from them. Great. You get a blurry photo of a rock concert. You win. Here’s a revolutionary idea: Why not just actually ENJOY the show and visit some OTHER assholes blurry photos on flickr later? Additionally, how can people get upset when their glasses get knocked off at a show such as this? I’ve been wearing glasses for almost 30 years and have never once asked a crowd to stop and help me look for them. That’s the price you pay, four eyes. Get used to it. Lord knows I have.
• The opening bands were generally pointless. What about the army of bands that would stab their own mother in the face just to open? What about the bands that used to open for them (Pegboy, GVSB and Arcwelder come to mind)? What about something that’d add to the bill instead of just padding the bill out? Anyway, I don’t want to sound like I didn’t give all the bands a chance, but it definitely got difficult. The exceptions to this personal observation were Hex Machine (Chapel Hill), Double Dagger (Baltimore), All The Saints (Atlanta) and Disappears (Chicago). Just my two cents.

ATP/Minehead
• The audience cried while the band played for the first time in ten years. Very intense.
Forum/London
• Cornering The Jesus Lizard’s booking agent and asking him point blank how he could accuse me of stealing a bottle of Maker’s from the Blues Explosion 15 years ago (an event he admitted he didn’t personally witness). His smug deference was only outweighed by his inability to let such an falsehood go and be what he’s used to to smear me since then.
Exit-In/Nashville
• Convinced Adam R and Pat M to fly from Chicago to see the show. I immediately drove them to Hog Heaven and, true to form, their worlds will never be the same again.
• Halfway through their set, I got booted in the melon by Yow and then nose bloodied by same boot a split second later. These things happen.
Casbah/San Diego
• The reunion tour debut of Duane Denison’s "Smokey and the Bandit"-style moustache.
• Without a doubt the smallest room of the tour. I wasn’t the only one to notice this, but it seemed like half of the crowd was photographers and they were either hovering over the stage or actually ON the stage. Aggravating.
Fonda Theater/Los Angeles
• Although they were advertised as such, I was crushed to find out that Killdozer wasn’t (nor were they ever planned) to open the show.
• After not seeing him for 14+ years, I ran into old pal Tom Zaluckyj (from Tar) and the first words out of his mouth were "Of COURSE you’re here." I also met long-time buddy Jason Pettigrew face-to-face in the lobby for the first time. Judging by the amount of people who came up and said hi while Mr. Pettigrew and I were talking, it would’ve appeared as if I was campaigning for office.
Cat’s Cradle/Chapel Hill
• This was the show that I discovered that there were three rotating set lists. Tonight was the "A" as denoted by the letter in the top right hand corner of the set list. When asking Sims what the next show (Atlanta) would be, he said "Now Henry, what’s after ‘A’?" Regardless of the predetermined set lists, the flow every night was spectacular. My only regret is they didn’t do the "Tight’N’Shiny" transitioning into "Seasick" which was always a favorite.
• I had a healing/hugging moment with Pitchfork/Indy Week’s Grayson Currin outside the venue (long story). Kids, just remember, Henry Hugs(tm) cure EVERYTHING.
• Got to see a love letter/photo that Pen Rollings left for Mac backstage

Photo of Pen Rollings’ “Snooze Bar”

Atlanta/Variety Playhouse
• Convinced Yow to fly to Isla Mujeres with his girlfriend for R&R after the two Chicago shows in November. Judging by the texts he sent me after he went, it apparently did the trick.
• Although it’s a minor criticism, I still think that the Masquerade would’ve been a better choice than this converted movie theater.
Philadephia/Starlight Ballroom
• Got in. Saw the show. Zipped out. Yow’s britches were decimated by the end of the gig!
9:30 Club/Washington
• Upon the band (or rather Duane) deciding that the club-appointed DJ was going to drive him into further insanity, Yow offered up his iPhone as the de facto DJ for the remainder of the evening. Three songs in, his phone rings and his ring tone (and subsequent voice mail notification) fills the 9:30 Club sound system. Classic.
• I saw audience members escorted out of the venue for trying to start ANY sort of movement in the crowd. Whereas I thought they should’ve received a medal for trying to liven up the otherwise dull crowd, the 9:30 staff opted to keep the people motionless. Assholes.
• I got to shake hands with Pen Rollings!
Sonar Club/Baltimore
• I got to see my brother-in-law (who hadn’t previously heard The Jesus Lizard) in the pit.
• The band dedicated "Mouthbreather" to me on my birthday!
Metro/Chicago
• First time I’d ever seen them in their home town. As with every time I step foot in Chicago, I’m persistently challenged (in my head, at least) as to why I’ve never moved there. The NYE gig, which clocked in at 5 below zero with the wind chill, reminded me why. My balls receded immediately and have still yet to poke back out.
• After being dropped by a couple spindly fans in the audience towards the end of their first November show and seriously injuring his ribs, Yow still came out to perform the next night on a stool. Seriously, the guy deserves a medal for stage diving the one time that night.
• By the time of the New Year’s show, Duane shaved his ‘tache off. Regretfully, Sims’ goatee remained. Accountants. What do you expect?
• After the NYE show I saw Jim Kimball (openly vented as persona non grata in TJL interviews) backstage talking to Mac and then turning the corner to see a drunk Yow draped over Mac’s daughter.

Stuff That Happened More Times Than Notably Notable
• Mac’s drum solos which seemed to get more ferocious the fewer gigs there were left.
• The band laughing over the preposterous nature of their booking agent’s persistent (and improbable) accusation of me stealing a $12 bottle of Maker’s 15 years ago at a Blues Explosion gig that he never actually witnessed and who is still unable to LET. IT. THE. FUCK. GO.
• Thanks to people who came up to me to say hello or thanks. Fans of the magazine, fans of the blog, fans of comedy. It was incredible. There were so many people that it’d be hard to mention everybody, but sincerely, thank you. And for all of that, I’m humbled.

Best Record Store Stops (When I Had Time)
Thirsty Moon (San Diego), Vacation (Los Feliz), Grimeys (Nashville) and Permanent (Chicago-TWICE!). Due to shitty weather in the Mid-Atlantic, I wasn’t able to go to AKA or PRX in Philly or my other usual haunts in Baltimore or DC. Such a drag.

And so with all that out of the way, allow me to personally thank The Jesus Lizard (I can’t remember all their names….Fred, John, Mac, their all latino horn section whose names I can’t remember, and Mr. Dave? My memory is foggy….) for being so fucking unbelievably nice and accommodating to me as I politely showed up at shows to celebrate how incredibly incredible they continued to be. Additionally, I’d like to thank their sound men (Whitney and Peter, most notably), the show promoters, the clubs and, yes, even their booking agent, for making 2009 the year I got to have a lot of fun all over the globe courtesy of a bunch of old dudes playing young dude music.

Setlist to the final show at the Metro. c Kip Kelgrad

Now, I don’t like being political (nor do I fancy Chunklet a political soapbox), but I saw the images this past week and was really upset. Then, once I saw and heard the right wing nut-jobs talk about how Haiti "deserved" it or "made a pact with the Devil," I decided it time to put my money where my mouth was and help.

Early in the week, I donated money out of my own pocket to Partners In Health, but by the end of the week, and a few more hours parked in front of the television later, I realized that wasn’t enough. So I did what anybody in my position would do: I dug through the Chunklet vaults to find things to sell for Haiti’s benefit.

Everything that I’m selling this week has been culled from my own personal collection. Some things I released, some things were never for sale and even more were things I either designed or worked on. Much of this I considered "rainy day" items and, well, that rainy day has sadly arrived for the country of Haiti.

I’m selling a rare version of the Melvins/Patton Oswalt 7" (only six copies with this particular color scheme exist!):

I’m also selling a personal copy of "The Giant Day" by The Olivia Tremor Control that I released fifteen years ago. Yes, one of the copies that Will, Bill, their respective girlfriends and yours truly colored at their house on Peter Street in the summer of 1995.

I’m selling SEALED copies of the Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band "Grow Fins" 2xLP sets that I designed over ten years ago. These are out of print.

There is also the "WHIRLYBALL" edition of the ‘Let’s Stay Friends’ LP by Les Savy Fav. There’s only 70 or so copies of this and this particular copy was opened strictly to show the color.

There’s a CD by the Velvet Underground’s John Cale that I designed and had signed by Mr. Cale at his performance at the 40 Watt in Athens, Georgia some five years ago. (I’m selling another CD he signed as well!)

And here’s a test pressing edition of FIVE of the legendary Ted Leo/Zach Galifianakis split single. This is my last copy.

I’m also selling several Harvey Milk, Oblivians, Deerhunter and Black Lips rarities so be sure to check it out. And remember, a little bit of money goes a LONG way with these non-profits so every bit helps.

Hopefully this might also spur a couple of you into diving into your own "stash" to help those who, let’s face it, have NOTHING. Proceeds go to benefit Doctors Without Borders with their rescue efforts in Haiti.

If none of these goodies interest you, I still strongly urge you to donate to DWOB, the American Red Cross or any non-profit as they’ll truly know what to do with your money.

Okay, that’s enough.

I know, I know, we posted about this doc already, but it seems like it’s progressing nicely judging from this newly uploaded clip on YouTube.

To celebrate this momentous news, here’s a rare demo tape that I’ve had here at the house collecting dust for over ten years.

Karp – Falling Under (demo)

Karp – Me Big Mouth (demo)

Karp – Handsome Traveler (demo)

Karp – Blu Blud (demo)

Karp – 30 Ton Press (demo)

Karp – Propane Activist (demo)

Karp – Rocky Mountain Rescue (demo)

Karp – Nine Lives (demo)

RIP is short for "dead". There’s no rest.

RIP

Goodbye, Jay Reatard.

(note: the headline is directly from Jay’s twitter feed.)

Oh Oxes…..

I met and became quick friends with the guys in Oxes upon their first visit to Atlanta at the EARL in (I believe) 2000. They didn’t have so much as a record out, but Dave B. from the Chicago band Neutrino was about to put out a split release with them and 90 Day Men and wouldn’t shut up about them.

And so the story goes.

What has always struck me is how this was one of those bands that were known almost exclusively for being a spectacular live band. And not just spectacular in their performance, but man, they were FUNNY. AS. SHIT. ON. STAGE.

My Oxes Wheaties box, Mall of America ’02

One of my regrets is not recording that first show they did at the EARL as they spent the majority of their set making fun of how ugly two people in the crowd (not including me) were. Oxes ended up coming to Georgia numerous times and our friendship blossomed. I ran into them on the Mr. Show tour while in Minneapolis when they were opening for Isis at the 7th Street Entry. They came back and crashed at my super swank hotel room a mere block from the club and we ran up the room service bill (at David Cross’s specific request). The next morning I had to start my drive to LA (yes, Mpls to LA) and we went to the Mall of America and found Cereal Adventureland where we all got personalized Wheaties boxes. My signed Oxes cereal box still sits proudly among my treasures on my shelves. Sadly, Cereal Adventureland wasn’t open long, but I have personalized boxes by Enon, Oxes and Les Savy Fav in my collection. It MIGHT be the largest collection of its kind in North America. MIGHT.

Not sure whether Oxes are DOA (I heard they reunited a year ago), but man, I’m happy to say I saw them do their zany performances all over the world for at least five years and they were always dead on. Love them.

Anyway, I didn’t want this entry to be an appreciation of Oxes but more an enthusiastic paragraph or two. Dave McG (of the legendary Yakuza zine and former Vineland drummer!) asked for the Peel session that they did, and so I now oblige with BOTH Peel seshs less one track from the ’04 one (due to site design, I can only put up ten tracks). Feel free to hit me up for the final track.

ADDENDUM: Here’s a sendspace link to the "Territory" cassette that was released by the band (I’m presuming) from before the first album. Two unreleased tracks included. Neat!

Oxes – Rikki Creem (Peel Session 11/3/04)

Oxes – Top Tucker (Peel Session 11/3/04)

Oxes – Take Care, The Song (Peel Session 11/3/04)

Oxes – Boss Kitty (Peel Session 5/6/02)

Oxes – Half Half and Half (Peel Session 5/6/02)

Oxes – Panda Strong (Peel Session 5/6/02)

Oxes – Everlong (Peel Session 5/6/02)

Oxes – And Giraffe Natural Enemies (Peel Session 5/6/02)

Oxes – Dear Spirit I’m In France (Peel Session 5/6/02)

Oxes – I’m From Hell, Open A Windle (Peel Session 5/6/02)

The pedigree of this three piece group is absolutely undeniable:

Mike Fellows (guitar): Rites of Spring, Happy Go Licky, Miighty Flashlight and backing member of GI, Silver Jews, Royal Trux and Will Oldham (among others).

Guy Picciotto (drums): Rites of Spring, Happy Go Licky, One Last Wish, Black Light Panthers, Brief Weeds, record producer and recent back-up musician for Vic Chesnutt.

Kim Thompson (guitar): Cupid Car Club and The Delta 72.

The music definitely has all of the players unique thumbprint on this recording. Okay, perhaps not Guy so much (compared to his guitar work) but I’d actually say this is an aspiring DC-flavored Royal Trux-type band at first listen.

But what else do I know about this band? Absolutely nothing.

Cassette insert (outside)

Seeing as how Happy Go Licky were a band that only existed off board tapes from the 9:30 Club and DC Space, it seems fitting that yet another part of the Fellows/Picciotto body of work is yet another mysterious board tape that was officially released on Kim Thompson’s Rodeo Recordings whose goal was "dedicated to making available music that might not otherwise be released, such as bands that have now dissolved, project bands and live tapes." And well, that would describe this second Rodeo release. And FYI, the first Rodeo release was a tape called "Rodeo Riders #1" which was a compilation of DC artists and will eventually find its way on this site.

Cassette insert (inside)

So yes, that’s all anybody (other than the players) know about Getaway Car. This clocks in as yet another "holy shit!" entry into the now legendary Chris Thomson ’09 tape dump. So again, thanks Chris.

I have an additional Getaway Car live show from the 9:30 Club (different set) that depending on reaction to this I’ll post at some later date.

Can you fill in any pieces to this puzzle? Then post it in the comments section.

the tape.

Getaway Car – Whatever You’re Hard On

Getaway Car – Knockout Artist

Getaway Car – Hey Saturn

Getaway Car – Fuck On Off

Getaway Car – Kreem Me Man

Getaway Car – Sony Radio

Getaway Car – I’m Not So Strange

Getaway Car – He’s My Thing

Getaway Car – Thanks for the Time of Day

I am forgoing the usual list of “Stuff I liked this year thing”. For one, having done it for two decades, I’m sick of it. Two, who cares? I bought a ton of records, some were great, some were good, and some were neither. Three, this being the end of a decade, I thought I’d widen it out a bit and just purge some of what need be purged. And yes, I’m going to curse a lot. Sorry. (I know it’s trite, deal) 

Tony Brummel of Victory Records needs to come out of the closet. It’s okay man, it’s a new time, and you’ll be fine. I mean ALL those bands will still hopelessly suck, but you will be in a better mental place dude. ((((Here’s a web-hug))))

Put a sock in it pal.

I will sometime 2010 declare an OFFICIAL END to the "Cool Wars" – the "Guess What I Have & You Don’t / I Was There, Man!" Contest. No one gives a rotting corpse fuck, Okay? Just move it along. This may or may not include a signing ceremony that shall include myself (as notary) – Vincent Gallo, Thom Yorke, Jello Biafra, Wes Anderson, Courtney Love, Devendra Banhart, Jenny Lenz, Jack Rabid, & Thurston Moore.

Finally, after 20 years in “the biz” I got to put out a record by John Brannon & his band Easy Action. (Detroit, MI.). For all the yungin’s – JB invented what is known as “hardcore punk rock” in 1981. You can do your own googling.

I had an approximately nine-year old boy at a wedding I was attending ask me to help him “make his hair looked messed up & cool”. After giving the lil’ tike a head ruffle, he said, “Thank you. Hey you look like Jesus, bye!” Then ran off, I guess for cake?

Band of the decade: NEU! – Now I know what you’re thinking – How can a German band from the early 1970’s be the “band of the decade?” Well, NEU! was without a doubt the most aped, ripped off, imitated, copied, mimicked, impersonated & emulated band of the 2000’s. Never have I heard so many bands trying to pull the wool over so many ears as this decade demonstrated with NEU! Hell, even Jeff Tweedy tried to shoehorn some NEU! into friggin’ Wilco for cryin’ out loud?

Okay, gotta go, try & catch the train. Feel free to spit or swallow in the comment section of course.

:43 seconds of pure, unadulterated, 1/3 retarded sexy. Is there any better kind?