So I got interviewed a couple weeks ago by a nice fellow from the Chicago Reader regarding the tape collections that have been falling into my lap.
Enjoy reading! Also check out this "outtake" of me talking about the legendary Primal Scream demo by Nation of Ulysses.
It’s looking like NPR is going to be interviewing me while I’m up in Chicago over New Year’s about the collection as well. Kinda bizarre, but okay.
The fun never ends, right?
So the last 48 hours have been an absolute goddamned rollercoaster. I check Facebook on Christmas eve and the news of Vic’s overdose were already abuzz with all my Athens folk who were still in town. Shortly thereafter, a reliable source told me that Vic, in fact, had died. A couple hours later, and a number of phone calls from grieving friends later, I find out from a friend that he was still alive, but only barely. But at 3pm EST on Christmas Day, however, Vic died peacefully. And I know I’m not alone in saying this: I’m fucking destroyed.
Vic was one of the first ten people I met when I moved to Athens. He was at Club Fred over on Baxter Street for some local show. Maybe Roosevelt or Porn Orchard. I can’t remember. But the man I met that night did little wavering in the next 18 years I knew him. A wildly funny curmudgeon who happened to be one of the most talented musicians that Athens ever had the privilege to call their own. A fucking genius if there ever was one who had more inner demons than few people I’ve met.
I won’t pretend to be one of VIc’s closer friends but we were always friendly with each other. The last time I saw Vic was almost a year ago in Seattle when he was out touring with Elf Power and I was promoting the Rock Bible. The whole crew went for pizza and about half way through eating, he began to tell me a borderline unbelievable story about Live (a band from my hometown), their label and the band’s annoying idolization of Vic. Out of respect for Vic (or Live, whichever) I’ll refrain from telling the story on this site, but you can rest assured it was a trademark 100% Vic story. Goddammit, and now he’s gone. Life was really unfair to Vic, but I don’t think that ever stopped him from being one prolific SOB.
I think there’s plenty of places to find information about Vic out there, but go check out the his label for the most factual info out there. Additionally, and actually, far more important, Kristin Hersh has set up a site for those who’d like to give money to go towards Vic’s estate. Now, I know this has been a hard year for all of us, but come on, this is Vic Chesnutt. Vic. God, this is all so sad.
This year has been a hard one for losing friends. Frank Mullen, BJ Womack, Jack Rose, Jerry Fuchs and now Vic. Christ, can 2009 just end already? This year has been a MOTHERFUCKER.
Goodbye, Vic.
Major Stars/Mayyors/Obits – WFMU/Aquarius Records SXSW showcase
Eat Skull/Rusted Shut/Mayyors – Sound On Sound gig at SXSW
Mayyors/Thee Oh Sees/Intelligence – 1118 Linden house party at SXSW
Gentleman Jesse & His Men – Star Bar, EARL and Club 529, Atlanta
The Axemen – in-store at Permanent Records, Chicago
Les Savy Fav – Whirlyball Atlanta, Roswell
Double Negative/GG King/Bukkake Boys/Vincas/a crust punk band called Bucket Flush (no joke) – Lenny’s, Atlanta
Obits – Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta
Deerhunter – Club 529, Atlanta
Harvey Milk, The Jesus Lizard, Sleep, The Pastels, Th’ Faith Healers at ATP in Minehead, UK
Sunn O))) – Seney-Stovall Chapel, Athens
Stuff I didn’t get to see, but heard was great:
TV Ghost/The Oh Sees – The EARL, Atlanta
The Scion Fest, Atlanta
Oblivians/Gories reunion tour
I’m sure I’ve missed a few and since I’ll be asked, yes, The Jesus Lizard are getting their own posting.
As a special gift, and as a way to say we still miss you BJ, I’m including a recording I made (and had mastered by Jeff Capurso) for a Deerhunter/Black Lips live LP that was going to benefit BJ’s burial expenses, but obviously never happened. I still think this 529 gig was one of the better Deerhunter gigs I’ve seen. Enjoy!
Deerhunter – 01 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 02 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 03 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 04 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 05 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 06 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 07 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
Deerhunter – 08 – Atlanta @ Club 529 2APR09
….would you believe that PBR is going to give serious $$$$ to PAWS Atlanta next year if we keep this up?
The Mantles – all (especially the Siltbreeze LP)
Mayyors – Deads EP (Mt. St. Mtn.)
Billy Bao – May 08 (Parts Unknown) and Sacrilege (Afterburn)
Twin Stumps – self titled 12" (Dais)
Wizard Smoke – Live Rock In Hell (www.wizardsmoke.net)
H•O•F – Gay Witch Abortion Demos (AmRep)
Home Blitz – Out of Phase (Ritchie)
Double Dagger – More (Thrill Jockey)
Om – Live Conference (Important)
Baroness – Blue Record (Relapse)
White Wires – reissue (Douchemaster)
Hex Dispensers – Winchester Mystery House (Douchemaster)
Pride Parade – Dose (self released)
Polvo – In Prism (Merge)
Cheap Trick – The Latest (self released)
Part Chimp – Thriller (Rock Action)
Circulatory System – Signal Morning (Cloud)
Shit and Shine – Girls Against Shit (Riot Season)
Obits – I Blame You (Sub Pop)
Drunkdriver – Knife Day (Fan Death)
Pigeon Religion – all
Wooden Shjips – all
The Fresh & Onlys – all
Ty Segall – all
anything on Captured Tracks, Trouble in Mind, Douchemaster and Siltbreeze
Reissues:
Big Star – Keep An Eye On The Sky (Rhino)
The Jesus Lizard – All (T&G)
The Ex – 30 (Ex)
Sun Ra – R&B reissues (Norton)
Chris Bell – I Am The Cosmos (Rhino)
Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart (DeSoto)
Volcano Suns – both reissues (Merge)
Pylon – Chomp (DFA)
Feelies – reissues (Bar/None)
Nirvana – Bleach (Sub Pop)
Death – For The Whole World To See (Drag City)
Bill Fox – Shelter From The Smoke (Scat)
Betty Davis – all (Light In The Attic)
Guaranteed to be in the Best of 2010:
Major Stars – Return To Form (Drag City)
Hipsters, Fuck Off With Your Sub-Par Predictable Rehash Bullshit Muzak Already:
Dirty Projectors
Grizzly Bear
Bear In Heaven
Health
The XX
Yacht
Japandroids
The Horrors
Passion Pit
Any group of dudes under 25 with beards
So I did a really pleasant interview with a gentleman from the Chicago Reader yesterday about the Chris Thomson tape archive and he asked me about my own personal pack-rat proclivities. And you know what? I really don’t have many other than the tapes and records I have. Really. Honestly. I moved around so much that I whittled things down to the bare essentials.
And that takes me to this Lungfish live tape. When I lived in York, PA from ’87 to ’91, I went to DC, Philly and Baltimore A LOT for shows. I think I saw Lungfish around this time three times (I was obsessed with "Necklace of Skulls" at the time), and I don’t know why I recorded this particular show and not the others, but so be it.
After almost 20 years of keeping this out of circulation (and surveying people’s reactions from Twitter), I thought it about time to let people hear it. So here you go, Lungfish recorded off the board at the Hourhaus in Baltimore on June 5, 1991. I remember the venue was quite a dump, but the show itself was incredible.
Enjoy.
Lungfish – Baltimore 1991
The Stones said you can’t always get what you want, but just sometimes you get what you need. Well, I got what I needed!
After being thwarted TWICE by Laurent Lebec from Pelican for a tattoo that I designed and would pay for, I found somebody that was willing to get one of the designs!
Yes, that’s Chip and Dale. Dale is sitting on a magic toadstool smokin’ a J while his brother Chip is puking while holding a beer. To further add insult to Mr. Lebec’s injury, the smoke coming out of the joint spells out the name of his band. Overkill? Nah.
The lucky recipient is a friend and a recent transplant to Austin, Mr. Aaron Klein. This will be emblazoned onto his skin sometime before the new year. So thank you, Aaron!
Additionally, for the rest of his life, Aaron will be getting in for free to every Pelican gig he ever wants to attend. When you think about it, it’s really the least they can do.
After many, many requests, I’m gonna put in another offer for these gems.
Unlike the first batch (from four years ago), these hoodies seem to really be quite durable.
Here’s the thing, they’re not cheap, but well, you get what you pay for. They’re hand stitched at Neighborhoodies on really heavyweight zip up sweatshirts. Very small (ladies S) to really big (XXXXL) is available but they DO seem to run a smidge small. And hey! We accept paypal!
So email me directly if you’re interested. Gonna only allow this offer for a couple weeks.
Yes. I know. Another one of those "Holy shit!" moments from going through Chris Thomson’s tape archive which, thankfully, landed on my doorstep a couple months ago. And the only other part of the "Holy shit!" is that this is just one of TWO 1990 sessions by Circus Lupus that I have. The other is from August and will be unleashed at a later time.
The ironic thing, however, is that this version of the demo comes from an old tape trading buddy, Mark Stelmach, who had a significantly better fidelity version than Chris’s. So for that, thank you Mr. Stelmach.
We only get four songs in this particular demo while the other one has eight (2 of which are on the Cubist single).
Circus Lupus’s records still sound as absolutely incredible now as they did back then, but for some reason I just could never get into their live show. Then again, the last time I saw them was at the 40 Watt with about 8 people (*GULP!*) so that might’ve had something to do with it.
Anyway, I think this is an incredible find and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do in posting it for your listening pleasure.
Circus Lupus – Cat Kicking Jerk (DEC90 demo)
Circus Lupus – Deviant Gesture (DEC90 demo)
Circus Lupus – Mean Hot Blessed (DEC90 demo)
Circus Lupus – Pulp (DEC90 demo)
1. My condolences as King Khan and BBQ got busted with narcotics in some shitsplat city in the South. My deeper sympathies to their tour manager who took the fall.
2. Being amazed by the indie-rock news cycle’s over-reaching attempts to keep Jay Reatard in the news who openly "fights" with his "fans" and journos regarding that as "news". Of course, when he urinates on one of his bandmates at Gonerfest, nobody notices. Come to think of it, I guess that’s pretty common…
3. REM’s newest double CD/DVD live release sold less than 2000 its first week while U2’s newest sold over one million. Ouch. That’s gotta suck.
4. The Beatles punishing fans by not selling the mono mixes of their records individually. Pricks.
5. Receiving a box of crazy CRAZY DC relics from Chris Thomson (CIrcus Lupus, Monorchid, Ignition, etc.) that I was neither expecting nor prepared for. Two unreleased sessions by Cupid Car Club? ‘Nuff sed.
6. I announced that I’d fight Manny Theiner for charity in his hometown for Pittsburgh. Obviously no response.
7. I also was willing to publicly debate Paste Magazine over their merit (versus Chunklet’s) and whether they deserve to have fundraiser benefits. Again, no response.
8. Record Store Day exclusive releases! LOVE!!!!!
9. Receiving a call from Corey Rusk asking to sell over 1500 records for him on eBay. I’m two months into it and I’ve barely made a dent!
10. Receiving a cease and desist email from Jenny Lens after posting a prank call that Black Randy (of his Metrosquad) made to her regarding her illicit activities in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
11. Spending 3 hours chatting at NXNE in Toronto with John Brannon (Easy Action, Laughing Hyenas, Negative Approach) and having him close the discussion with "You’re my hero!".
12. The continued rise in popularity of Mississippi Records which, at least to my feeble noggin, seems like nothing more than a glorified bootleg label. By comparison, Numero Group is continually marginalized.
13. The Fugazi stage banter tape on chunklet.com. The only thing that can rival that is a sequel featuring all the Q&A’s from Bob Weston during Shellac gigs. Chance of that happening with their permission? Nil.
14. The Monsters of Folk. No mention of Pete Seeger anywhere and he could both play circles around them and actually be worthy of the moniker Monster of Folk unlike these young, white rich kids.
15. Watching Black Lips fans in Atlanta continue to morph into this mega-douchebag that I can’t even tolerate. And the Black Lips? They haven’t changed that much.
16. Preparing for the inevitable backlash against the Dum Dum Girls. Still anticipating same said backlash for Vivian Girls.
17. Being blown away (yet again) by Thirsty Moon Records in San Diego who cart INCREDIBLE vanity pressings of psych/garage records directly over from Tijuana and sell them for $17.99. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
18. Watching the cringeworthy decline of the once mighty Trail of Dead.
19. Buying the first two Monster Magnet singles from Mike Lavella who, ironically, was the person who first introduced me to them in the pages of MRR so many years ago.
20. Being allowed to introduce Fucked Up at ATP and then having three Irish jag bags ask me what my point was in singling out the Horrors for being less tolerable than having your nuts in a vice. Such is life.