Tuesday, May 30, 2017

THE ARTIFICE OF HOPE


GROWING FAT ON THE SALT OF YOUR TEARS


TAD!



Those re-issues of the glorious music of my dubious younger days just keep rolling on….


Seriously, tho – will a TAD remastering job bring out previously hidden nuances and subtleties in the music?  Hell no.  This is Tad, for christ’s sake.  Nipple Belt?  Cyanide Bath?  Wood Goblins?  Throat Locust?


On the other hand, is it nice to see TAD’s Sub Pop years being dragged back out into the light of day, with the added bonus of some unreleased stuff and a few tunes previously only available 25 years ago on vinyl?  Shit yeah!


TAD were fun.  Not nearly as stupid as they wanted you to believe, but nowhere near pretty or “cool” enough to break out into the big time.  They were heavy, they were one of the first Seattle bands of the grunge era, and Nirvana was their opening act for a little while.  Good stuff.

And wouldn’t you rather have a TAD re-issue than the umpteenth re-issue of Sgt. Pepper?  Of course you would.

Plus, that original 8 Way Santa album cover that got them into legal trouble was awesome…..

Tad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpgTad 8 Way Santa Alternate.jpg


in cities without wars



there on the third floor where we
believed in nothing


said she was engaged while she got undressed
and i remember that her pants
laced up the sides


eight o’clock in the pouring rain, but i
forget if it was spring or fall


i knew my father was still alive, that i was
paying $320 a month for these two
small rooms


i knew that i still loved her
 
was sick with it


four years now of scraping my wrists
over jagged glass, of putting my fists through
unadorned walls, of waiting for the phone
to ring


four years now of simple regret
shot through with fear
and i remember the silence we invented


held it like a sustained note, like
wind through an empty house,
midnight and then one and then two


four o’clock in the morning and
she said i have to go and
that was it


got dressed, drove her back to her car,
head foggy with lack of sleep,
taste of ashes in my mouth,
of cold metal and rust,
and she looked at me like i was a
stranger, and i was
 
opened the door, said good-bye
and the rain kept falling


the starving
continued to starve


nothing you’d ever notice with
your eyes closed

FEAST


WALLFLOWER 2


Monday, May 29, 2017

LAUGHTER, NOT JOY


BAND OF SUSANS



Sure, Band of Susans were never going to be the next Pearl Jam or Nirvana or whatnot, but damn they kicked up some dust.   Getting lumped in w/ the No Wave shit coming out of NYC at the time didn’t help.  They were way too tuneful for that crowd, but critics love pigeon-holing, and I guess that was the best they could do to try and fit them in somewhere. 
 

I think BOS would have had a little more success if they had started a few years later, or maybe been from the west coast.  Unlike Sonic Youth or Swans, they kicked ass right from the get-go.  Unlike the grunge crowd, they seemed to lack a sense of lyrical irony and eye-rolling (which, I have to d=say, is a very good thing – irony and sarcasm in music is highly overrated).  The Wired for Sound comp was a nice gesture, but I’d love to see a box set for these folks.





AERIAL GEOGRAPHY


IN MY DREAMS, THE SUICIDE FACTORY



KAREN EHART



CORRUPTION


Sunday, May 28, 2017

ELIZABETH





GREGG ALLMAN





Me & Dawn were out in Corning for GlassFest this weekend, as is our wont.  It kicked ass,  I didn’t hear about Allman’s death until after we got back home.  I took this picture out at GlassFest when I saw it hanging in one of the Artist’s booths.  The ’73 Summer Jam was in my neck of the woods, and I’ve always liked the Allmans, so I figured it’d be a nice little pic.  The Band are so-so for me, the Dead make me want to stick a sharpened pencil in my ear.  I had no idea Ticketron had been screwing the little guy for so long.

WALLFLOWER 1


ZOOMORPHIC STONE




excerpt from "uncertain terms"



::


sunlight turns to shit in
the blink of an eye
 
dead vines hanging from
chain link fences out at the
edge of town and never any idea of
whats being kept in or whats
              being kept out


never any sound but the sound of
the wind or of
dogs barking in the distance


sound of abandoned trailers
pushing against
the empty landscape


drive as far away from here as
you can, but it will still be
the only place you ever
think of as home


DISBELIEF