Sounds

Shit-Fi Mixtape #5

by Dave Hyde

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Shit-Fi Mixtape #5

Since the old-timer wierdos don’t have the market cornered on shit music, I figured it was worth a shot to assemble a mix tape of cruddy punk made by folks who weren’t quite a twinkle in their parents’ eyes when Dee Dee met Joey. As all things shitty should be, this tape was hastily assembled and sounds a bit like a third-generation dub. My mistake, but it sounds good if you crank it.

With its fuzzy mess of a guitar track and “found” percussion, The Reatards “You Got So Much Soul” seems a fitting opener. Their debut EP, from which this track is taken, was recorded when the group was just one fellow with a healthy Oblivians obsession; these early recordings are an amateur wreck, which puts them leagues above their peers in my eyes. Until discovering Sad Sack’s “Heinous Bitch” single, my immediate mental association with the upstate college town New Paltz, NY, was a sidewalk lined with bead-selling hippies. Stereotype or not, perhaps this single, dirgey and mean, was somewhat of a reaction to the town’s atmosphere. The Ginn-esque guitar leads, Soxx-ish vocals, tin-can drum machine, and layers of sludge are a true joy to listen to. Few bands strike me as being from the wrong era as much as the Icky Boyfriends. Fifteen years in either direction may have seen a warmer reception for their sardonic sound, as I’m not so sure it gelled with the SF scene of the time. “What We Had” was released in 1992 on their “Miss Nevada” single and later reappeared on their first album, “I’m Not Fascinating.” In addition to these and a handful of other releases, the Boyfriends also starred in the world’s greatest rocknroll move, I’m Not Fascinating by Danny Plotnick. Monster Truck Five were perhaps the noisiest of bands to emerge from the Columbus, Ohio, scene of the early 90s. Their needles-in-the-red, wall-of-sound take on Mike Rep & the Quotas’ “Rocket Music On” is among my all-time favorite covers. Recorded in a dorm room in Austin, TX, and released in a micropressing of 45 copies, “Crosswalk” by the Nubees is a benchmark of lofi punk in the 90s. This is the perfection of the “bang on what you can find while I crank up the practice amp” approach! Though the Action Swingers would have a long career with a rotating cast of players, they never sounded as good as on their debut single from 1989, “Kicked in the Head.” The song, with its buzz riffing and primary school drumming, provides a hypnotic skeleton for guitarist Ned Hayden’s spastic, off the wall soloing. This track is an undeniable classic. “Model Citizen (Nitroglycerine)” is Monoshock’s most off-the-hook moment and, consequently, my favorite. From Oakland, CA, the band released a couple of singles, a double album, and members were involved in other bands such as noise-makers Liquorball, the brutal, free-form Sternklang, and current rockers The Bad Trips. The only track on this mix recorded in the last eight years, Home Blitz’s “Apocalyptic Grades 2005 A. D.” is just too good to ignore. Informed by a voluminous musical lexicon, this first Home Blitz single was a one-man effort that seemed to come out of nowhere and was clever and catchy enough to bring a tear to the eyes of even the most jaded among us. It seems that Mindburger was the brainchild of a 60s rocknroll enthusiast (and, I believe, record dealer) from the Chicago metro area. Twenty-five years too late, “Reflections of Infinity,” the A-side to his 1991 single, is a spectacular garage-psych track. The sleeve mentions an upcoming album but so far I haven’t been able to find any evidence that it exists. New Orleans’ Persuaders’ 1997 debut EP is a fine slab of teenage trash. The distorted vocals on “Southern Wine” and dirty recording carry this one. Front-man King Louie has played in countless other bands, but his earlier singles as a one-man band may be particularly appealing to fans of primitive shit rock. I particularly like how the Evolutions transformed “Band Aid” from the Trend’s punk-pop original into this blown-out, disgusting mess. Members had previously played in Last Sons of Krypton but the Evolutions’ all-treble noise upped the ante. This track is from their 2000 single on Yakisakana Records. Unlike the previous track, I don’t get the impression that The Fingers were trying to destroy “First Time” (The Boys). Instead, it seems as though they were striving for power pop but weren’t quite adept enough to get there. Thankfully, I prefer shit-sounding trash rock any day! From Ontario, The Earthlings released one mighty fine single in 1995 (recorded straight to VCR!!!). They’d play gigs decked out in full space suits but it’s the fuzzy guitar and immature, otherworldly (perhaps a little out of breath) vocals that really win me over. Along with the Fingers and Mummies, Supercharger were instrumental in forging a no-talent, lo-fi aesthetic that’d be adopted worldwide during the mid-90s garage rock explosion. From 1992, “Icepick” is about as good as they—or anyone who followed—got. Following Supercharger’s breakup, guitarist Darin and drummer Karen formed The Brentwoods, a budget-rock version of a 60s girl group. “Little Barfy Bobby” is off of their “Fun in South City” album. As much UK mod as 77 punk, “Speed” by, um, Speed is one of the finest tunes I’ve had the pleasure to hear. A raw little rocker with androgynous vocals, these German lads could sure write a song. Up in Maine, Jumpin’ Beans and Willie has cranked out a slew of challenging, abrasive singles. “Bus Driver” has the boys pounding and yelping over a sludge of distortion. A one-off band featuring veterans of outsider rock (TJSA, MR&Q, Gibson Bros, Vertical Slit, etc.), Ego Summit released one fantastic album on Mike Rep’s Old Age label that runs the stylistic gamut without straying from its rough, honest aesthetic. “Black Hole” is the most aggressive track on the album, which I thought would fit better in this mix, though “Half Off” or “We Got It All” may be even better.

Shit-Fi Mixtape #4

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Shit-Fi Mixtape #4

Patrick Lundborg’s Acid Archives of Underground Sounds 1965–1982, published last winter, opened many eyes to a world of music that might best be described as the forgotten underbelly of the American counterculture, the side that never quite fit into the political ladder-climbing and academic theorizing. Not long after I bought the book, I visited the Whitney Museum’s exhibit of psychedelic art and memorabilia, and from that mainstream accounting of the 60s and early 70s, one would never have known that thousands of artists put out decidedly non-mainstream records then. Before the infrastructure and cohesion of “independent” music developed in the 1980s (thus nullifying what made it really independent), the American spirit of self-realization infected myriad musicians, weirdos, and visionaries across the country. Of course, collectors have known about many of these records for years, but this encyclopedic book, with its judicious descriptions, introduced many to records that otherwise might’ve simply been names on sale lists followed by high price tags. The LPs covered in the book range from professionally played psychedelic rock to hippie folk to basement hard rock to loner, outsider, real people weirdness. For the purposes of Shit-Fi, I am mainly concerned with the lo-fi, the inept, the teenaged, and the bizarre. Here are songs from a handful of the many incredible records covered in the book.

To begin, here’s the closing track from the first LP by Michigan’s Index, called “Feedback.” Considering that it was recorded in 1967, its nearly power-electronics, noisy beginning is remarkable to say the least. This LP might be my favorite Acid Archives record. The whole record, with out-of-tune vocals and an echoey, lo-fi recording, has an otherworldly quality. It manages to parallel the Velvet Underground’s early approach in an intelligent but utterly unpretentious and unprofessional way. Baltimore basement rocker George Brigman was rescued from obscurity by the advocacy of Anopheles Records, which re-released his 1975 “Jungle Rot” LP. I actually prefer the 1976 “I Can Hear the Ants Dancing” LP, which didn’t make it to vinyl until 1994. This LP is uneven, but the fuzzy hard rock numbers on it are great, especially “Vacation,” a quintessential “basement shredder.” I wish San Francisco’s Shiver (as in “one who uses a shiv”?) had been my soundtrack to Hunter Thompson’s writing about Hell’s Angels when I first read it over a decade ago. With a sound clearly influenced by early Blue Cheer, but much rougher, this band’s 2-track 1972 recording was not issued until thirty years later. Lo-fi, aggressive, and unpolished, “Boneshaker” is quite different from what I would consider the Haight-Ashbury feel. Stonewall’s shit-rare-see-bank-officer-for-loan LP, released on a tax-scam label, is one of the finest obscurities of the 70s hard rock world, with nearly proto-punk vocals and catchy, heavy, songwriting. Here is “Outer Spaced.” Shit-rare ≠ shit-fi, but we’ll take this killer song anyway. At times ineffably touching, Bobb Trimble’s “Harvest of Dreams” LP from 1982(!) is a cohesive whole, from which the constitutive parts cannot justifiably be isolated—nonetheless, here is “Selling Me Short While Stringing Me Long,” which makes great use of dynamics and layering, especially when the buried fuzz becomes a fuzz rocket blasting off. I highly recommend the recent reissue of this outsider, noncommericial, and brilliant album on Secretly Canadian. Read Aaron Milenski’s review of the original here (review #62). New Jersey’s Kenneth Higney was late for the trend (though I don’t know which one) in 1976 when he self-released an LP in the hopes of garnering attention for his songwriting skills. Ironic because he didn’t have any. “I Wanna Be The King” is actually from a later single (1980), which is more “normal” rock than the LP and modestly influenced by punk. When he drops the N bomb in the verse, it’s a reference to the punk band New York Niggers—though that doesn’t make the lyric any less lunkheaded. Good grief. To conclude, the scrapings from the bottom of the chamber pot: Fire-and-brimstone mother-and-son Canadian Christians New Creation released one extraordinarily rare LP in 1970. These no-fun fundamentalists differed from hippies who “saw the light” in that they adopted an ascetic approach to life and spat venom at their peers who drugged and fucked their way into God’s graces. Oh yeah, they also couldn’t sing or play their instruments, making their Shaggsian approach to bombastic proselytizing believable and creepy. “Sodom and Gomorrah” is actually one of the most competently played tunes on the album. I promise to return to the Acid Archives on future Shit-Fi Virtual Mixtapes.

Shit-Fi Mixtape #3

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Shit-Fi Mixtape #3

The third shit-fi virtual mixtape is dedicated exclusively to ‘60s garage punk. I have tried to seek out some of the most primitive, inept, lo-fi, and proto-punk tunes among the thousands of sides released in the mid-‘60s. In general, ‘60s garage punk, which is a broad term with many possible interpretations, comprises a great deal of amateur, noncommercial, homegrown, untalented, and derivative rocknroll. A great deal changed in the music industry between the mid ‘60s and the punk explosion, so ineptitude in the ‘60s probably should not be thought of in the same way as the reactionary ineptitude of ‘70s punk. Still, even in the ‘60s, there was bad and there was bad—and, of course, the baddest are among the most loved today. Consider this an introduction to the shit-fi aspect of ‘60s garage for those who may be well-informed about obscure punk or hardcore and are interested in learning about its shit-fi forebears. It’s not meant to be thorough or definitive, just, I hope, a killer listen. Where applicable, I’ve included the record’s ranking on the G45 list of top garage records in parentheses after the band name. (I highly recommend reading this list closely, as it is one of the best resources on this music and also one of the coolest examples of record collectors doing good.)

Might as well start off at the top of the shit-heap: Teenaged Randy Alvey and the Green Fuz (17), from Texas 1966, whose “Green Fuz” was recorded in a stone-walled diner, are responsible for one of the most primitive and otherworldly records of the ‘60s. It was reissued on a 45 by Norton and is still widely available. Not particularly primitive, but extremely aggressive and irate, even with socially directed lyrics more typical to punk rock, “Social End Product” by New Zealand’s Blue Stars was included on the compilation “Trans-World Punk Rave-Up” #2 LP. Sing along with Missouri’s Cholos, if you can call this singing. Air guitar along too—sike. Still, despite the ineptitude, I find “Last Laugh” from 1966 stuck in my head all the time. Hear it on “Teenage Shutdown: ‘No Tease…’” LP. From the same compilation, here is The Mere Existence with “The World Still Turns.” Seems like they dealt with the pain of their mere existence by taking copious ‘ludes, especially the, uh, crooner. I wish I could’ve witnessed his surely charismatic stage presence. Hopefully, the screaming on “To Find Out” by The Keggs (15) will reinvigorate you. A bonzerfied unpolished lo-fi classic rarity among collectors, it has luckily been booted multiple times and can be found easily (the song’s also on “Back from the Grave” #5 LP). The Sloths (3) produced the rarest and most desirable picture sleeve 45 of the garage era according to the G45 list, and “Makin’ Love” is a stomping killer that captures the slight menace, which may or may not have been real, that imbued rocknroll before the hippie era (see Joyce Carol Oates’s classic short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” for more on that menace). Hear the singer’s lispy imprecations on “Back from the Grave” #4 LP. Perhaps the only creature less rockin’ than the sloth is the snail. Yet, if you add alcohol, Snails apparently are capable of chaos. I wonder if the crapulence associated with “Snails Love Theme” ever impaired their potency. Check it on “Back from the Grave” #7 2xLP. Peru’s Los Saicos penned “Demolicíon” in 1965 about blowing up a train station (it became a minor hit in Madrid among the truly tasteless after the bombings in 2004): truly sublime, extraordinarily raw, and punk as fuck. A Saicos discography 10" came out on Munster a couple years ago. One of my favorite garage tunes is “Rats Revenge” by The Rats, though it seems that serious garage-heads consider it to be a novelty track. This cheap-beer snot party spreads across two sides of a 45. Here’s the first half, which receives frequent plays at Shit-Fi HQ. Every time I listen, another nuance reveals itself. Check it out on “Back from the Grave” #1 LP (and check out how their manager then looks like President Bush now). In a search for proto-punk, I read about the extremely obscure 45 by Skip Ellis (215). This record has never been reissued, but some kind soul (whose name I have forgotten) shared an MP3 of it on the Garage Punk Forums. “Ice Cube Girl” is a lo-fi cacophony with ‘tude to spare. Prefiguring The Door And The Window by a decade and change, Kim Fowley (possibly the sleaziest man ever to slink around the planet) gathered some women off the street and made them sing back-up vocals on “Worst Record Ever Made” (yes, that’s right), issued under the name Althea and the Memories. It appeared on “Girls in the Garage” #1 LP. Finally, it just doesn’t get any better, or worse, than The Modds (50). Insane fuzz and howling bile seem to have been smeared atop a perfectly respectable garage tune after the singer’s sweetie done him wrong. The solo beats just about anything since and makes my blood perk-u-late. This beshitted song was included on “Teenage Shutdown: ‘Target: Fuzz’” LP. Garage experts, I’d love to hear suggestions for lo-fi garage disasters I missed.

Shit-Fi Mixtape #2

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Shit-Fi Mixtape #2

Rudimentary basement bile from Holland’s The Ex, originally released on v/a “Utreg Punx” 7" in 1979, “Stupid Americans” is one of the most simple and effective songs that band recorded, following in the footsteps of Wire and Rondos; though these lyrics sum up a popular sentiment around the world today, it seems back in ‘79 anti-Americanism had its roots in tourism, not imperialism—a quote: “Stupid Americans are walking in the way / Stupid Americans see Holland in a day.” One of the many druggie-punk bands from San Diego, The Injections, mixed shit-fi punky reggae with more typical shit-fi punky punk, always accompanied by angry radical (and paranoid) lyrics; “Panther Anthem,” which veers toward hardcore, is about Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers. This song was released on a tape distributed by BCT in the ‘80s and then on an LP reissue by Rave-Up a few years ago. “Pets” by Anorexia is stuck in my head nearly every day. Combining the lyrical silliness/inventiveness of UK DIY with class of ‘77 vocals and class of ‘79 guitar-playing, this is bliss. Fuzz-laden outsider/acid casualty one-man punk from Chicago, “Deathtrip” from the megarare first single by J.T.IV appeared on v/a “Staring Down the Barrel” LP, which I reviewed in 2005. Is that a drum machine? Very early Italian hardcore, Sottocultura appeared on vinyl only once, on one of the first international hardcore compilation records, v/a “Papi, Queens, Reichkanzlers, & Presidennti” 7", in 1982. The Italian hardcore aficionadoisie will recognize this tune, “Attack,” as one played later by Rappresaglia on v/a “Skins E Punks = TNT” 7" and also included on v/a “Killed by Hardcore #3” LP. The bands shared a member or two (for those counting, Rappresaglia is one my five favorite Italian hardcore bands). The only mid-tempo song by Anti-Cimex to make it to vinyl, “Heroindöd” was on v/a “Vägra för Helvete” LP on Rosa Honung Records (nb, a different song by the same name appeared earlier on their first EP). Even at this pace, and with Jonsson “singing,” Anti-Cimex were one of the most brutal bands ever. The demo version of “Suburbio Geral” by Cólera that appeared on Xcentric Noise Records and Tapes’ v/a “Beating the Meat” LP is a classic of rough-hewn early Brazilian hardcore punk. Sink your teeth into that guitar sound. Eye of a cat, skin of a duck, this short 1981 demo track by Olho Seco does not quite match the intensity of their vinyl releases, but the lazy d-beat, punchy rhythm, and killer guitar make me listen to “Olho de Gato” over and over again. From v/a “Nobody’s Perfect” 7", a remarkable compilation of obscure and atypical hardcore bands from around the world released on a Finnish label, comes Yugoslavia’s answer to RAPT, Opdaki Civilizacije, also the most brutal band on v/a “Hardcore Ljubljana” LP. Sekunda, appropriately meaning second-rate, is the second-drunkest and second-crappiest hardcore band of the early Finnish scene, surpassed only—on vinyl at least—by Kuolema. All 30 seconds of “Suomi Vapaaksi,” meaning “Liberate Finland,” appeared on v/a “Russia Bombs Finland” LP in 1982. Wrong Kind of Stoneage, from Australia, released this chaos-punky caveman ditty, “Run Amok,” in between two world-beat improv compositions, on an EP (with a very noisy pressing) in 1984. Japanese hardcore heroes Gauze rip off Discharge in 1982 with this live version of “Drug Addict” taken from v/a “Outsider” LP; a studio version of the song appeared on v/a “City Rocker” LP and was included on v/a “Killed by Hardcore #3” LP. Here’s an embryonic version of The Maggots snotpunk classic “(Let’s Get, Let’s Get) Tammy Wynette” from Haight Asbury 1979; this song was released recently on vinyl by Discourage Records. As a one-man band, The Good Missionaries (now sans Mark Perry of Sniffin’ Glue fanzine) released this social critique on the “Deranged in Hastings” single in 1980; recorded at Streetlevel Studios, “Attitudes” is just this side of a UK DIY classic, with its sharp guitar sound crossed with white-boy reggae riddims. A genuine UK DIY classic, the single by The Raincoats on Rough Trade was met with critical reception in this vein: “This is atrocious. The sound is terrible, the drums sound like Mars bars boxes, the guitars sound strangulated, the bass isn’t really there and the tune isn’t either. The Raincoats are to music what Wimpy Bars are to food.” Clearly, The Raincoats, as UK DIY’s interpretation of the Velvets, were doing something right. Another bonafide shit-fi classic, “Dead Flowers” (and the other three tunes on the first EP) by The Urinals is untouchable sheer genius. On a roll here: Tapeworm. Break My Face. The sound of the messiah shitting, as interpreted by high-schoolers from the richest town in America. Fuzzbox! After that, it’s only appropriate to play my sweetheart’s anthem: “I Won’t Pay for Punk Records” by Australia’s Thought Criminals, re-released by Ascension Records last year. To close, my favorite song released on the Scottish Groucho Marxist label, by Mod Cons. “Buildings of the ‘70s” is a stark, astute critique of Modernist urbanism—and you can dance to it. See Mike Clarke’s exhaustive article about the punk scene in Paisley, Scotland. A coda: Chelsea, the guitar genius behind Death Side, Poison, and Paintbox, recently died unexpectedly. None of his bands really qualifies as shit-fi, but they are among my favorites of all time. On “Lonely Blood” by Mino-5, from v/a “Enjoy Your Youth By This Hardcore Sampler,” Chelsea showed that he was a gifted drummer too. This 1988 track also features Katsuta from Tetsu-Arei on bass and United’s guitarist soloing wildly. Chelsea was an irreplaceable, singular character and will be missed deeply.

Shit-Fi Mixtape #1

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Shit-Fi Mixtape #1

Here is the first Shit-Fi virtual mixtape. Please give us your feedback on what you hear, including if there are any technical glitches (we’re new to this—and certainly prefer proper mixtapes to virtual ones). If you’d like to submit your own virtual mixtape, get in touch.

One of Switzerland’s few early ‘80s hardcore bands, GKH pack quite a punch; “Zensur” made it to vinyl in 2006 on the awesome “fanclub” compilation LP “Earsplitting Noise.” Plasmid’s EP, released at the end of 2005 by Shortfuse Records is, in my opinion, the finest archival hardcore/punk release ever; “Lust for Power (ii),” whose original title is lost to time, was previously unreleased, though it was recorded at the same time as the four tracks on the 1984 “Lust for Power” demo. Psycho Faction, whose sound varied between ultra-simple “Realities of War” rip and typical “Bullshit Detector” style anarcho-punk: “Last Hours of Peace,” recorded in 1982, is in the former style and appears on a 7" released last year. The 1981(!) single by Rhode Island’s Joe Hebert Band is likely one of the absolute rarest US punk records—only two known copies of this teen slime in collections (and Joe’s apparently isn’t one of them!); the fuzz attack “I Don’t Want to Be a Preppy” appeared on the “Hooked on Junk” bootleg compilation, which never made it past the test pressing stage due to fears of a lawsuit. Yet another Disorder, this time from Holland circa 1981, play scrubbed-down slightly late-for-the-trend political punk in the classic Dutch style; “Civilization” is particularly powerful, with lyrics that do not oversimplify and remain appropriate to today’s imperial moment plus one of those guitar sounds that makes us grown record collectors weep. The Avant Gardeners must be one of the most enigmatic bands I’ve ever encountered: quasi-Christian UK DIY meets swamp-rock with rather suggestive lyrics (“I wanna dunk my biscuit in her tea”), released on Virgin Records in ‘77; this head-scratcher is called “Strange Gurl in Clothes.” “Suburban Kid” is rudimentary Swedish thugpunk c/o your friends PF Commando—preteen slime. Ataque de Sonido, from Medellín, released an EP and appeared on the shit-fi cornerstone v/a “La Ciudad Podrida vol. 1” LP; this eponymous compilation appearance is more “proto-grind” than the grindy, and hence less interesting, EP. Believe it or not, this is far from the most primitive tune on that LP. Here are some lyrics, translated on the insert: “Sound pollution, industrial noise / Bombs, motors, human beings / Sound attack is progress, is dementia / present and future pollution, attack.” That’s what I’ve been saying for years. “The Night of the Holocaust,” from the unreleased second Shitlickers EP, is a masterpiece; it is difficult not reach for terms like “the hand of God” when explaining this recording. “War Machine” is one of the mysteriously unplace-able Genocide Association tracks (see my review here). Schleim Keim were the most important East German hardcore punk band, and the desperate “Ende” appeared on a split LP, with them under the pseudonym Saukerle, released in the West by Aggressive Rock Productions in 1983. Sieg Heil, a Kyushu noise-core band released two demos, and the scorcher “Anti Nuclear War” appeared on the “Nazism” tape, reissued on LP by Overthrow Records last year. To close this mixtape, here is a very rare and obscure live version of “E.D.P.S.” from Tsunematsu Masatoshi from a Pass Records compilation 2xCD, recorded on New Year’s Eve as 1981 blossomed into 1982; this industrial noise (uh, way more noise-laden than the previous noise-core song!) does not call to mind Tsunematsu-san’s untouchable early solo punk material nor Friction, but I find it to be killer nonetheless.