Tag: underground music

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White Noise Eardrum Buster: Look at the camera, and “Mona Lisa Smile”!

Mona Lisa Smile tape came wrapped in black plastic bag with black electric tape.

When this tape came I was concerned, the fact that it was wrapped in what looked like a garbage bag with electrical tape made me think the music inside might be garbage. I normally buy tapes if their recommended to me or if the details of what is on the tape interests me, its pretty much a (half) blind buy. I was careful to cut this thing open hoping not to scratch it. After getting the bag and electrical tape off I encountered two A5 sheets with xeroxed art stapled around the tape.

One of the stapled pages of xeroxed art for the Mona Lisa Smile tape.
The other stapled sheet of xeroxed art for the Mona Lisa Smile tape.

After getting the sheets off the “Mona Lisa Smile” tape I was surprised to actually see a white pro tape and not a cheap recorded one.

Mona Lisa Smile white pro tape.

I can’t find any info on it, got the “Mona Lisa Smile” tape off of Analog Worship, and I forget if there was a limited amount of copies, again this was released by ASKE (Anti Social Kultur England) Records. Here is a side by side break down because there really is no single tracks, side A of “Mona Lisa Smile” is just crackling, rhythmic and pulsating drones, almost like what a sonogram sounds like except more deeper sounding, something you can put on in the background that isn’t too distracting if your trying to study, read, or do any work that doesn’t demand distraction, it is even something you can meditate to. Side B of “Mona Lisa Smile” is a little different, it starts with what sounds like church bells, then there is what sounds like a acoustic guitar and organ all washed over with rippling water sounds, near the end of the tape the organ and guitar give way to only the rippling sounds and rhythmic thumping. Side B could be used for background music but it is a little more noisy and complicated. Overall “Mona Lisa Smile” is a tape I will throw on while writing this blog, working on my projects or reading a book. The tape keeps it interesting and it covers my favorite sub genres in the noise genre, dark ambient and drone. You really won’t find “Mona Lisa Smile” anywhere, its not on analog worship or on discogs at all.

So if you want to “Smile” Mona Lisa style you can go here, I gotcha: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Mlo9buTcCXjf/

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Audio White Noise: Going to go “Tasmania 2”-iac on your ass!!!

The cover to the “Tasmania 2” LP

Well here it comes, are you ready for another bad acid trip for your ears? A lethal hot needle in the veins? Ready to go tripping through black poppy fields? Then look no further than the much awaited sequel (check out the first volume compilation here: https://www.noisepuncher.net/2021/11/07/the-wild-noise-land-of-tasmania-1-lets-go-down-there/ YOUR WELCOME) from the land down under, “Tasmania 2”, put out on 2 LP’s with a booklet of trippy art by the notorious and now probably defunct, Overuse Records in 2018, this features various bands and noise projects, some with the label owner’s different projects. If you have a short attention span, or your ADD like I am you won’t get bored, in this volume like the first you get raw black metal, blackened punk, blackened noise, dark wave and bubbling, oozing noise but without further ado here we go, the first track “Pixelated Waves” is by Colour Sensory, it is a blackened noise slap that at first has blown out sound then calming drones and lilting keyboards drifting in and out of the track, the second track is “Closure” by “Leather Temple”, crackling static and ear piercing feed back populate this track for the fetish leather set.

Page 1, featuring art for the Colour Sensory and Leather Temple tracks.

 Next up is the tracks by Fixation, “Pounding”, and “I Can’t Make It Stop” two blackened punk hardcore stomps that will melt your face and step on your toes until their a bloody mess, next up can you smell “The Scent of Masculinity”? Because I don’t want to, this track by Claudia has a simple, warm drone with pulsating sound and soft drum machine keeping rhythm.

Page 2 featuring art for the Fixation and Claudia tracks.
Page 3 featuring art for the Carved Cross and Dysassociation tracks.

Carved Cross breaks that vibe on their track “Washed Away in the Passage of Time and Regret” with slow, evil, plodding, raw black metal and shrieking in agony vocals, next up you have Dysassociation with the tracks “Interlude”, “Head in the Clouds” and “Interlude 2”, blown out dark wave with haunting, wind chime synths.

Page 4 featuring art for the Night Falls Haunting tracks.

Night Falls Haunting has three tracks “Rest of the Lonely”, “Ancient Rites”, and “Tradition Dies Slowly” the band goes in a different direction with their music on this comp, its hard to describe, their first track is what I’d call “acoustic black metal”, the second track has a incessant drum machine beat, a scratchy repeated riff, hoarse vocals and a strumming acoustic guitar that occasionally comes in, and on the third track there is another repeated scratchy riff with chanting flute in back with the gruff shouted vocals.

Page 5 featuring art for the tracks by Isolationist and Leather Temple.

Isolationist comes on with their twisted power electronics track “Knowledge Control” wailing distorted synths, harsh, electrocuting ripples and banging noise agony with shouted, echoing vocals, once again Leather Temple comes with its sonic whips and chains to torture you audio wise with “The Blurred Lines Between Sex and Death”.

Page 6 featuring art for the tracks by Gaunt and Plague Whore.

Next up Gaunt comes on with some blown out, droning dark wave track with “A.E.” a call back to suicidal, minimal wave, goth 1980’s style, Plague Whore warps your ears with blackened noise filth and black metal vocals run through a static filter with their two tracks of audio horror “Invocation/Apparition” and “Glory to the Mother of Sex” which includes Hindu chants with its wailing noise.

Page 7 featuring art for the tracks by Carved Cross and Claudia.

Carved Cross mourns life with its minimal, primitive slow plodding black metal track “All Debris Return Home to Rest”, and last but definitely not least Claudia closes the compilation with his pulsing, calm and bubbling ambient track “No Sign of Weakness”.

So if you want to find this slab of white noise your gonna have to go here: https://www.discogs.com/release/11672994-Various-Tasmania-II

To assault your ears now go here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/pKZiWeJHAxI3/

 

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White Noise Eardrum Buster: The wild noise land of “Tasmania 1”, lets go down there…

A lot of compilations are hit and miss, sometimes there is a lot more misses than hits and those are the ones I won’t review on this blog. The ones I do review are the ones that have more hits than misses or in “Tasmania 1″s case, almost every track hits like a mack truck.

 

 

 

I found this on a now defunct blog and it was way up my alley, according to discogs it originally came housed in a box with two tapes with an A5 booklet with art for each artist. This was put out by Overuse records, which was founded by Tasmanian based Matthew Nicholls in 2015 and most if not all the acts on the comp are his own bands. That being said, each band and act has its own personal stamp and this comp fucking kills. So without further, ado start digging to the land down under.

The first track is an synth ambient piece with rumbling lows, its soft and calm but bludgeons you at the same time, it is by the act Dysassociation called “Endless Low”. Most people going into this compilation will think this is a noise comp, nope. The first track puts you at ease, wailing and sighing synths give way to…Snarling feedback laden blackened punk by Fixation with two tracks of mean hardcore with “Crippled Over” and “Falling Down”. Both tracks rip and go for the throat, these two tracks hate your fucking guts.

Next up you get blackened noise from the act Blackline, two tracks laden with black metal tinged filth, “Famine” and “Disease” and that is what it will sound like in your ears. Then Carved Cross comes in with their raw, lo fi rumbling black metal, screeching in agony with “Forced Self Deprivation”.

Another blowout ambient piece with crackling and searing textures comes to singe your ears courtesy of Colour Sensory with the track “Waves of Diffraction”.

Now time to get down, and I mean really really down, with the audio heroin of Gaunt, with the tracks “Music Isn’t Fun” and “Something Numb”, this is pretty much down in the dumps, volume blown out darkwave with vocals that are moaning and sound like they were recorded in a coffin. You want to get depressed listening to these two tracks complete with wailing synths. Then you get Leather Temple with “Dark Street Corner”, their piece dark ambient laced with low rumbles and screeching feedback, not for the faint of heart. Like a shot of adrenaline, Parvo comes in with the track “Teenage Kicks” and it will kick you right in the face, straight up no frills, lo fi punk, is what Parvo is about and there is nothing wrong with that!

Next up is the minimalist, lo fi black metal band, Night Falls Haunting with the tracks “Prelude” and “Fear Haunts Me”, “Prelude” is a slow, plodding, echoing and scratchy track that sets the mood for whats ahead, which is “Fear Haunts Me” which is sluggish and like walking through a cold dark forest in winter complete with screechy vocals. Night Falls Haunting has no pretense it is just straight ahead, depressing, old school style black metal.

The last two tracks on “Tasmania 1” are the noise act Claudia with “Faggot’s Spit” which has a crackling sound to it and what sounds like samples lifted from a she male porn flick, sometimes the sample sounds like the participants are wailing in pain, fun fun fun.  Last, but definitely not least, is Fetish Ritual with “M.B.” power electronics done old school like Whitehouse. Spoken word, snarling in fury at child molesters with swirling screeches and static in the background, “Tasmania 1” nails the coffin shut and now you’ll suffocate.

So in closing if you can find this version of the compilation snap it up quickly, to my knowledge there was another version minus the A5 booklet and box set. I have volume 2 and will review that in the future along with some other Overuse releases. In my opinion the art in the booklet helps supplement the music, this is a must have for fans of extreme and on the fringes music.

No copies of the boxed edition of “Tasmania 1” but there is a copy of the no frills release on discogs whoever is interested might want to snap this up: https://www.discogs.com/release/16273038-Various-Tasmania-I

Here is Overuse’s defunct blog, there seems to be no new entries since last year but it still gives some info on their releases: https://overuse.blogspot.com/

If you throw up your hands in defeat and want to make your own depressive noise go here and listen to it in it’s entirety: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Tr5M2tqGgrAt/

Here is a volume 2 you can listen to it and check out my run down of it here: https://www.noisepuncher.net/2022/02/20/audio-white-noise-going-to-go-tasmania-2-iac-on-your-ass/

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On the Bandwagon: The non punk records of SST Records.

When one thinks of SST records they think of classic punk like Black Flag, The Descendents, The Minutemen etc. SST is more known for hardcore punk than anything else and they put out some classic albums by some classic bands. SST was started by Greg Ginn, who founded Black Flag, in Black Flag’s later albums like “Slip It In”, Greg and the crew slipped in heavy chords and dissonant solos and they were accused of “selling out” and “going metal”. Greg got pissed at that and was one guy that didn’t want to stagnant as a writer or player, he said something along the lines of “It shouldn’t be too much as a band to practice your instruments once in awhile”. It would make sense that Greg would sign acts that went into different territory on to his label, this earned the derision of the punk hipsters in the scene. Fuck them, not many people know the non punk acts of SST so without further ado and not in any order here is most (not all) of the non punk acts of SST records.

1.Overkill L.A.

Sounding like fried, burned to death Motorhead, Overkill L.A. started as as a hardcore punk band, in fact, their first E.P. “Hotter Than Hell” was O.K. punk music, however, on their 1985 album “Triumph of the Will” they went for the throat mixing hardcore punk with speed metal, the result wasn’t thrash, it was pure Motorhead worship. I can’t recommend “Triumph of the Will” enough, its a killer album I’ve listened to on repeat. There was a lot of band changes, people getting pissed at each other for stupid comments, dumb drunken behavior and “Yoko” girlfriends. Overkill L.A. had one of their songs put on “Metal Massacre 2” that was a different version than appeared on their studio album and their first singer was more of high pitched hair metal singer who they ditched in favor of the crazy Merrill Ward. At first when Ward quit, Ginn wasn’t even gonna release the album, Felice Lococo talked Greg into it after getting Merrill on board again to do lyrics and vocals. Overkill LA had to change their name when the New Jersey thrash metal act, Overkill, copy righted their name.

2. DC3

Dez Cadena of Black Flag started the band in 1983 and their sound was a far away as possible from Black Flag. Psychedelic Stoner Hard Rock is more like it and its fucking beautiful, along with Dez was Kurt Markham on drums and Kira Roessler on bass until she left for Black Flag, her brother Paul stepped in and played bass and keyboards. This is one band I really dig on and was forerunner of the stoner/doom metal movement that would come in the 1990’s alternative rock explosion. “Your Only Blind As Your Mind Can Be” is a fucking killer album, mushrooms and pot smoke down the hatch!

3. Saint Vitus

Saint Vitus were out and out Sabbath worshipers their sound was dipped in sludgy muck of Osbourne/Iommi/Ward/Butler, started in 1979 they were in the second wave of doom metal along with Pentagram, Candlemass and Trouble, they weren’t into snorting coke off the spandex clad asses of groupies, they were more into drinking cheap beer, smoking good weed and banging hair pie, as a result they were hard to peg in the hair metal go go 1980’s. Greg Ginn was a huge fan and took them along on shows and tours with Black Flag, some punks hated their guts being dumb fucking elitist hipsters, but some warmed up to them, Chandler said “the heavy metal fans at the time hated us, and so did the punk rockers, but the punk rockers grew to appreciate us”. Saint Vitus would be among some of the best retro hard rock bands to come out in the 1980’s. At first the band consisted of Scott Reagers on vocals, Mark Adams on bass, Armando Acosta on drums, and Dave Chandler on guitar, that was on the first two albums self titled and “Hallow’s Victim”, after Reagers quit Scott “Wino” Weinrich from the doom band Obsessed joined in 1986 on the album “Born Too Late” my favorite of the band’s albums and the line up hasn’t changed since. Some people like Reager’s voice better than Weinrich, I like them both.

4. Wurm

Chuck Dukowski who went to play with Black Flag, started Wurm in 1973 and continued the band after Black Flag broke up. Wurm is considered the godfathers of Sludge Metal. Wurm recorded an album in 1977 but the tapes were destroyed after they stiffed the studio on payment. Wurm split apart because that is what good bands do and Chuck joined a band called Panic which had Greg Ginn in it and would change its name to Black Flag, during a Black Flag hiatus Chuck brought Wurm back and recorded a three song E.P. in 1982 “We’re Off/I’m Dead/Time Has Come Today (cover)” they then added Simon Smallwood from the band Dead Hippie as vocalist and recorded the fucking awesome “Feast” and released it in 1985 on SST records. “Feast” is a killer, its blistering, nasty, hard rock that smashes your face in. Greg Ginn and company had good musical tastes.

5. SWA

This is one band a lot of people like to shit on in the SST Records roster and I don’t see why, they are a hard band to pin down, are they punk? Are they hard rock? Are they pop rock? Jazz rock? Experimental? Listening to a SWA song is like saying “WTF?” Those are the bands I like. The name was picked by alphabets to numbers and rolling dice, SWA came up, again Chuck Dukowski came up with the concept of the band and when Wurm fell apart Chuck recruited a teenage drummer who hung out around SST records, Greg Cameron, Ted Falconi of the band Flipper joined on guitar, but that version of the band was short lived. The group was soon joined by Merrill Ward of the aforementioned band Overkill LA on vocals, Richard Ford of Frantic Technoids on guitar, and Greg Cameron’s friend Ray Cooper on guitar in 1985, the band recorded their first album “Your Future If You Have One” which was produced by Greg Ginn. The band continued to change line ups, this is a strange band no doubt, I’d recommend “Evolution” which collects all their recordings from 1985-1987. Check this band out.

6. Zoogz Rift

A one man killing machine and amateur professional wrestler, Zoogz Rift was one of a kind and the type of guy I like, he didn’t give two fucks about what people thought about him or his music. Whatever crazy idea he had he ran with it, this man was genre defying and didn’t like to be tied down. SST Records re released his older albums and newer material because nobody else would. Zoogz has said he took inspiration from many sources like Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Salvador Dali and Ayn Rand (!). Wow so you know what your headed for if you dip your ears in this audio acid, as for Zoogz fray into professional wrestling, Zoogz booked the Universal Wrestling Federation in 1993, he left in 1994 but returned in 1995 to become Vice President of the UWF along with  founder Herb Abrams after Abrams died in 1996. Zoogz did a online show commenting on professional wrestling called “Puke-A-Mania”, his wrestling career was ended when Lex Luger torture racked him and injured him. Zoogz passed away in 2011 from complications of diabetes. I recommend the awesome and weird “Ipecac”.

7. Tar Babies

Another SST Records fray into psychedelic rock, Tar Babies was a weird combo of jazz, psychedelic and avant garde craziness, Acid Punk if you will. The band formed in 1982, the original line up was Jeremy Davies on vocals, Bucky Pope on guitars, Dan Bitney on drums and Robin Davies on bass, the guys came from different bands with different sounds and they came together to create this audio mutant. Their first two albums “Face the Music” and “Respect Your Nightmares” were released on their own label Bone Air Music, but their next album “Fried Milk” was put out by SST Records. In my opinion, “Fried Milk” is their best album acid freaked, experimental rock to the hilt done right. Their later albums would have a more funk sound, I enjoy all of their albums. A band that decided to go out on the limb of Weird Tree as far as they could go.

8. Lawndale

Nothing beats a reverb soaked Surf instrumental after listening to bad acid trip, avant garde black or death metal, a cool blue tropical drink of a Surf instrumental gets rid of that weird after taste. Lawndale toasts that drink to those masters of yesteryear like Dick Dale and Link Wray. There is no dumb vocals that get in the way of the music, ride the wave, baby, ride the wave. When SST had retro acts like Saint Vitus, DC3, Tar Babies and Lawndale they did it right. A band from, where else, Lawndale, CA and oddly enough SST Records mailing address but not their physical address, the band was started in 1984 by Rick Waddell aka Rick Lawndale on guitar and Jack Skelley on bass, on second guitar was Steve Housden and on drums was Dave Childs naming themselves after the city they were from. Greg Ginn signed them and they released the fucking awesome “Beyond Barbecue” and the still awesome “Sasquatch Rock” as well as numerous compilations.  They split in 1987 but Rick revived the band in 1997 under the Rick Lawndale Band. Search these guys out and ride the wave! LA Weekly described them as “The Ventures meet Led Zeppelin in Don Knott’s living room”. Pretty apt description.

9. October Faction

While October Faction was a band rooted in punk, October Faction’s tree branched and strengthened in avant garde jazz and psychotic hard rock. The members were SST Records regulars Chuck Dukowski on bass, Greg Cameron on drums, Greg Ginn on guitar, Joe Baiza from the punk band Saccharine Trust on second guitar and Tom Troccoli from Troccoli’s Dog on vocals and they were mainly a instrumental jam band. Their first album is a live recording from 1985 that is self titled and this is my favorite of their two albums, this is where the experimentalism rears its ugly, mutated head. The back and forth jamming of the players in created something that partakes of jazz, punk and hard rock with equal fever. Their second album “Second Factionalization” is a studio recording, still good but not as insane or dangerous as their first live recording.

So there you have it! Unlike a lot of punk labels, SST Records wasn’t afraid to go into different musical territory, even if it meant dying of thirst and hunger. I am sure I am leaving off bands, SST Records had two different labels under its umbrella, Cruz Records and Issues Records which released a spoken word album by NBA Celtic legend Bill Walton with Ray Manzarek of the Doors doing background music. In the late 1980’s Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. soured on the financial practices of SST and went elsewhere. Sub Pop started to gain more prominence and became the underground label in the 1990’s. SST went into hibernation when noise/sound collage act Negativland sued SST after Negativland’s kerfuffle with U2 over sampling, SST agreed to hand over masters to Negativland in exchange for completing a planned live album along with keeping the original three albums for a short period. In the 1990’s Ginn only kept the catalog of the punk classics, some bands sued to get their rights back. In 2002 Ginn signed a deal with Koch records and digital music distributor, The Orchard, released a bunch of SST Record acts on I tunes and e music in 2006.

While SST Records is known for classic punk, people forget their rich back catalog of non punk acts, most of which was the womb of what would become the alternative rock/metal movement. The Stoner/Doom/Garage Rock/Metal scene owes a debt they can never repay to SST Records.

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White Noise on Paper: “An Ode to Joy” by Frank Kozik is what you get.

In the late 1990’s I had just graduated high school and I was visiting my parents in Los Angeles, I was in a used bookstore but I forgot which one. This bookstore was a bookstore for weirdos, people like me and you. Having a little money I had to make up my mind between a bunch of cool books, underground comics, magazines and zines, I was sweating. This was before the internet was widespread and nobody had a smartphone and here I was sweating my late teen nuts off. On one hand I had a book of nudes hot chicks with piercings in different place, the title of the book escapes me now but I was old enough to buy it, then there was the current issue of “Blab”, a book on unusual fetishes that had me in stitches laughing, the first mention I’d ever seen of “Furries” and “An Ode to Joy” by Frank Kozik. After awhile I had it narrowed down to the nude pierced chicks and “An Ode to Joy”. I knew if I didn’t choose soon my mom was gonna call the police thinking I’d been murdered and dumped somewhere in the Los Angeles River and a scene would be made, I didn’t want a scene to be made. “An Ode to Joy” popped out at me, a insane, psychedelic, nightmarish cartoon brew of retro pop culture screwed, slewed, brewed and tattooed, on the other hand I had forgotten my Penthouses at my apartment in upper Northern California, and being a young guy I had blue balls and a can of Vaseline. My dick won out, soon, however that pierced chick book got lost, I’ve been through two house fires, three crazy ex girlfriends who destroyed my stuff and numerous moves, in between those incidents it was lost but all through the years, “An Ode to Joy” stuck in my head like a icky, sticky pop song, except this is one song I wanted to hear. Years ago I finally got a copy and lost that copy, then I bought another one, for pierced chicks I can just go to Pornhub now.

I lived through the brunt of the “alternative movement” of the 1990’s, the “I don’t give a fuck, everything sucks” Generation X coming of age where a lot of cool music, art and other things got spawned. Us Gen Xer’s were raised on pop culture, some of us without the aid of church and religion made cartoons, b movies, underground music, old TV shows etc. the religion and it was later satirized. I can’t think of a bigger embodiment of that than the work of Frank Kozik, who was owner of Man’s Ruin Records, Frank actually started out doing poster art and other work as an artist in San Francisco. Man’s Ruin released mainly Alternative Stoner rock/metal and punk acts, Frank illustrated most, if not all of the covers for the bands on his label not to mention their posters. He also did posters for bands that went on to become big, Nirvana, Green Day, Soundgarden etc.

The book is hardbound and the posters are reproduced with eye piercing color on slick paper, in this book you’ll get cute animals with knives and axes through their heads, a drunk Yogi Bear, 1950’s children’s books where the kids are cannibals, the Japanese army cheering over the remains of the Statue of Liberty and other mind twisting, nut tweaking images. “Man’s Ruin” has released some of favorite bands, chief among them being “The Fuckemos”.

Frank’s got two more books I’d like to get my greasy paws on “Man’s Ruin: Posters and Art” and “Desperate Measures”. Frank’s work also appealed to me being raised on various cartoons where animorphic animals would blow the shit out of each other, except in Frank’s world you get to see the blood, there is no shaking off of the bomb going off, you see the bloody pieces in close up, ridiculous detail. Any retro pop culture aficionado will be able to pick up on different pieces he satirizes and he mixes different stuff in his art.

As I’ve mentioned before you’ll see posters for bands who are famous, yet to be famous or only bands that you and couple of friends know. Sometimes Frank will chime in with an anecdote of how he got the idea for the poster or some nonsense that isn’t even related to the piece in question. Frank keeps you on your feet, the guy has a twisted sense of humor.

So if you want a little taste of 1990’s alternative culture, visual style, this book is a good place to start, there is copies out there that are within your reach money wise but that might change so go snap them up while you can.

Get your joy here! https://www.amazon.com/Ode-Joy-Posters-1-Oct-2004-Hardcover/dp/B013J92ILM/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Frank+Kozik&qid=1627410615&s=books&sr=1-3