I Want To Rise So High That When I Shit I Won't Miss Anybody

After the Lemuria show on Saturday I bounced over to Cafe Nine, where Estrogen Highs were playing as part of an Ideat Village fundraiser (don't ask me what that means exactly, other than a lot of old guys with grey-haired ponytails and tie-dye shirts are going to show up). It was pouring out, so when I found out that Estrogen Highs weren't really going on in 40 minutes as I had hoped but instead had 3 more bands ahead of them, I right away thought about leaving. Turns out they were off by about one and a half-- only two bands were ahead of them, including the one that was already playing-- so I stuck around by standing underneath a Bud Light beach umbrella out on the sidewalk, listening to (in no particular order) Estrogen Highs talk about how John Joseph's book on tape makes good tour van material and Steven Deal talk about, I dunno, his hair or something. Oh, and some lady told me that my Chuck Taylors looked shiny, which was weird because I didn't shine them at all last week.

Estrogen Highs were toast by the time they hit the stage, as it turned out, which meant a very interesting night got even better. This was also one of Chip's last shows with Estrogen Highs (the last one is at Cafe Nine with Jacuzzi Boys, a show that I'm missing right now as a matter of fact). Stefan's guitar sounded far more distorted than usual, and he also tried to karate-kick Wes about twice as many times as usual. I don't remember anything all that different about their set list; their cover of "Red/Green" kicked ass as always, and "God is Black" was introduced as "that long and boring song". To say that this might've been my favorite Estrogen Highs set ever, even more than their set at the Fucking Discovery Zone back in April or the last two times I saw them at the Whitney House, is like saying Abe Lincoln had ugly feet, it's not like it's all that important anyway.

M.T. Bearington went on right after Estrogen Highs, and though for the past couple of years or so I've been really curious to see what M.T. Bearington are like live, that curiosity has waned considerably, so I split. In between bands I spotted Brad from Titles, who are finally releasing their new CD this weekend. I've been hopped-up waiting to hear the new album since January, so I gave Brad a tap on the back and told him how much I was looking forward to the release show on Saturday. I'm sure he had no idea who the fuck I was.


Estrogen Highs -

"Age of Romantics"

I've Got To Hand It To You, Those Paintings Aren't That Great

I was most likely a little late in getting on board re: Lemuria, and then it took me another year and a half to finally go see them, which happened last Saturday at the Fucking Discovery Zone in New Haven. If you haven't heard Lemuria yet, think of '90s Dischord stuff like The Warmers combined with the measured response of a band like Titles or Soft Effects-era Spoon. Their recordings are all crafty stuff, though typically it's their singles compilation ("The First Collection") that I hit the most-- much like Chinese Telephones "Democracy", where the hodge-podge of odd early vinyl seems to stack up better than any of the regular full-lengths.

I kinda figured I'd just end up watching Alex's drumming the whole night, since he sounds pretty amazing on all of Lemuria's records, but I ended up leaving more impressed with Sheena's guitar playing, which in a lot of ways is the sort of playing that I can get myself square with the most: not overtly flashy, with a willingness to throw in some feedback here and there, alongside a hefty dose of chunky metal power-chording like those Texas is the Reason songs that I used to really like. When they kicked off with "Hours" I meant to watch the slick little part that Alex plays at the beginning, but I was still dicking around with my camera and forgot to pay attention, right up to when Sheena paused in mid-verse and a couple of burly-sounding dudes who were standing right behind me shouted out the "got your nose in, in my hair" part, which snapped me awake because it sounded so goofy. Along the way it became obvious that Alex's mic wasn't working, which sorta took "his" songs out of the equation (not to mention his backing vocals on all the other songs, which are usually pretty key), so I don't know if that affected the set list or not. They played two new songs; the first one was pretty straightforward, nothing special, but the second one (don't ask for any song titles) had an extended hard-rock instrumental part that sounded really cool.

The two songs I'm posting below can be found on "The First Collection", though these are my own vinyl rips from the original 7", recorded five years ago (so don't hold it against them).


Lemuria -

"Home for the Holidays"

"Piranha"

I'm Finding It Hard To Stay Afloat

I first heard about Telephone Explosion when they released the Estrogen Highs tape, back when they were still a tape-only label making 100-copy runs of bands like Demon's Claws and Holy Cobras, all of which is completely out of print. They've since moved onto vinyl, starting with the Charlie and the Moonhearts/Teenanger split LP from a year ago, which I think might still be available from the label even though only 600 were pressed. I've already said that I love pretty much everything by Charlie and the Moonhearts-- all of their recordings have this big friggin' drum sound, and much like Ty Segall, there's a thousand devilish hooks in everything they do-- and their side of this record is completely ample, being made up of mostly new recordings of songs from their Thunderbeast cassette (which, if you already have the tape, probably makes this record half as awesome-- I'm betting most people haven't heard the tape, though). Teenanger's way around rock is a bit more conventional, and without the effects on the vocals, their stuff here (also taken from an earlier cassette release) would probably sound like Rank and File or something. Every Telephone Explosion release comes with a free download, though I'm not going to use those files and instead post my own vinyl rips, even though the label mp3's sound a lot more robust than the vinyl, which isn't normally the case. Another reason to buy a copy of the record for yourself, I guess.




Charlie and the Moonhearts -

"Cagemouth"

"I Hate You"

"Charlie Moon (Style Tycoon)"

Teenanger -

"Minimum Wage"

"Brain Hiccup"

God, I'm Really Fucked Now

The seldom-seen "I'm Really Fucked Now" multi-format set (combining a CD, 7", clear-vinyl LP, and cassette all in one package) stands as an early testament to Prisonshake's strong "bow to no man" ethic, especially if you consider a band with barely three 7"-ers to their name choosing a box set for their next jumping-off point as being somewhat of a head-scratcher. I had no problems with the concept myself, though much later I would find trouble with something else: the hollowed-out piece of 12" square green foam that was used to hold the cassette in place and make sure that all the other odd pieces would fit together in the same bag without getting all scuffed up. While I'm sure it seemed like a great idea initially, eventually foam does dry out and get crumbly, meaning that now-- decades later-- the records have a good chance of looking almost like they've been coated with asbestos or something. Luckily, out of the handful of sets that I own (with #0040/1000 being the lowest number-- I think that's the one I bought at Brass City Records), one of them is made up of only the 12" and 7", without the foam. I'm guessing that it might've been a budget edition for mailing out as a promo to reviewers and so forth, though that's only a guess.

To post the entire set here would be kinda daunting anyway, so I'm using the one vinyl-only set that I own as an excuse to post just the 12" and 7" now and maybe get to the cassette and CD later. Don't worry, you should still be able to hunt down the other half of the material fairly easily, if you're interested; just look for the identically-titled "I'm Really Fucked Now" 23-track CD that came out on Rubber Records in Australia a year or two after the original Scat set was released, as it contains most of the material from the original cassette/CD and on top of that is fleshed-out with a bunch of other goodies, representing a planned-for double-LP that was never finished.

The 12" included in the box set is a compilation of previous singles sides, and while I know I've posted a good chunk of the original 45s already, some of the tracks here were re-mixed for the box set or had a new vocal track added ("She Talks Trouble" includes a little bit of "Ginn Slips In" as a coda, which is different from how it was on the original 7"), plus now you can hear them with the different fidelity that a 12" LP offers... not to mention the "120 Days" b-sides, which were originally split-channeled (one song coming out of the left speaker, one song coming out of the right speaker) but the ones included in this set have been converted back to stereo. The 7" is a collaboration with Mark Edwards of My Dad Is Dead, a collaboration that the band sorta abandoned later on (saying it "wasn't really all that spectacular" in the liner notes to the Rubber CD), which means the Scat set is the only place where these two songs can be found. I sorta like the 7" myself, especially "Redeye", although both songs are merely re-works of previous Prisonshake/MDID songs.

The eight-page booklet that comes with the set pretty much nails down any of the other details you may need, and you'll also find a handy sheet of early Prisonshake fanzine reviews, which are mostly clueless. I'd sorta forgotten how badly Fred Mills sucked, though I know that Jim Testa won't like me saying that (I don't think he reads this blog anymore, anyway). There's also a show review for Prisonshake's May '89 opening slot for Mojo Nixon, the live tape of which I posted back in '08, and you can read the Gerard Cosloy and Tim Adams reviews back-to-back and figure out which one was the original and which one was the soon-to-be disgruntled imposter. A lot of the other reviewers keep trying to label Prisonshake as being some sort of Americana crap, which is as hilarious as it is depressing (remember when people actually thought the Del Fuegos were a good band?).

I may keep posting other Prisonshake stuff as I go along, but Scat does have a complete CD box set and a best-of '87-'92 overview in the works, so do take notice.




Prisonshake -

"Fairfield Avenue Serenade"

"She Talks Trouble/Ginn Slips In"

"Fall Right Down"

"Ode to Abe"

"Downtight"

"Redeye"

"Take My Wife, Please"

I Have No Reason To Be Mad

This might not be the best Spaceshits 7", but it could be the scuzziest sounding, which is maybe just as important. If an all-out blast like "Spaceshits Please" doesn't immediately have you considering backflips, then maybe I've got the wrong idea here (which I'm starting to think is the case anyway). Although I think most people already know this, "Von Needles" = Mark Sultan and "The Blacksnake" = King Khan, on this particular platter anyway. "Bridge Mixture", that was a good one, too.




The Spaceshits -

"Spaceshits Please"

"Spacetrekkin'"

"Showdown on 3rd"

I Tried To Feed Your Jackal But He Bit My Hand And Ran

If you're looking for another important piece of Connecticut indie music history, look no further head on elsewhere. This here's the second installment of the "Footprints of God" compilation series; the first one, which I posted a year ago, has M.O.T.O. and a pretty good Isolation Farm song, while the second one tails off a bit. I think if you chopped up Purple Eternal and the Deadbeats and put them together in a mixing bowl you'd end up with the Bunnybrains... I have the Deadbeats 7" laying around here somewhere, as well as a live recording, but don't ask me what either one of them sounds like, I have no clue. I'm regretfully leaving off Biker Mutt even though Jim reads this blog because their song reminds me of a Glen Thrasher birthday party that I wasn't invited to. As for Bimbo Shrineheads, don't be fooled by the goofy band name cuz they put up some pretty ace-sounding pedal-happy swirly guitar stuff. In summary, every single person involved with putting out this record deserves to be shot. No wait, that's my Butterflies of Love review. Never mind.




Purple Eternal -

"Johnny Extremity"

Bimbo Shrineheads -

"I Will Die In Willimantic"

Deadbeats -

"Garbage Stew"