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FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
Best
album of all time:
Either Queen Sheer Heart Attack or Wizzard's
Brew, can't decide.
Special
thanks to:
Think Heavy Industries (Lincoln, NE), without
whom this issue would not have been possible.
The Blastitude World is still reeling:
From Issue #13, which was like 250 pages long (one of
our Jersey correspondents printed it out at work). Kudos
to Cary Loren, Anneke Auer, William S. Wilson, Ben Schot,
Tosh Berman, Mike Kelley, of course Ira Cohen. As one
reader said, "Sweet work, really."
my
wife looked at this receipt and said, "Stay Hungry,
Master of Reality, Take No Prisoners...what'd you buy,
a bunch of self-help books?"
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A
Funny Guy...
Hi,
I was ego surfing through Google and came across
your site with the very kind appreciation for my songs;
that they are songs.
Thank you for the high praise.
Harvey Sid Fischer
Rejoinders
and Shout-Outs to Blastitude 13 by C.M. Sienko....
[excerpted]
>Where
did you see that [video of The S.S.]?
On
my copy of the Cramps video, the one supposedly filmed
at the mental hospital...I screened that after an HPK
format meeting, and all Bob could say through the whole
thing was roll his eyes and go, "That's so fake!
That's not a mental hospital! This is all staged!"
Okay, fine, maybe, but FUCKING SHUT UP ALREADY! "Some
of us are trying to watch the movie" (said in a Hans
Moleman whine) […] …there's a bit on the video
for "other titles available" from Target Video,
one I think for the S.S. live. Geoff was like, "Oh
yeah, I've heard these guys are the shit," and it's
exactly as Tony described...a bunch of shaggy haired japanese
dudes with really "Metal" looking instruments
(might have even been a flying V in there!) and costumes
proceeded to SHRED THE FUCK out of the song and the audience.
Just a quick 30 second clip, but it's definitely shit-hot.
I can see what he means.
[….]
Okay,
I would like to take SERIOUS SERIOUS umbrage at your take
on the Residents as pure quirk, no soul. NO WAY! The Residents
DRIPPED soul on those first couple records, I'll stake
my Pulitzer on it. "Meet The Residents" is nothing
but soul...yes, it's weird as hell, but it's got a strange
swing about it. If you listen to it more than 20 times,
it becomes very natural, the songs almost folky (The Residents
Commercial Album is VERY folky to these ears, plantation
lullabyes [to borrow from Me'Shell N'egeoto'cel'l'o'e'o]
of a very touching, and sometimes Grimm scary, sort...though
it did seem impenatrably weird at first). "Not Available"
and the "Walter Westinghouse" mini-opera also
got much soul in them. Every voice singing on "Not
Available" is singing for its life, and putting forth
mucho passion. I may not know what they mean, but they
are meaning it from the bottom of their hearts. I will
grant that the pop-culture smashies of "Third Reich
and Roll" may come off a bit cerebral, but there's
no WAY you can tell me Snakefinger's solo on their cover
of "Satisfaction" is anything but pure SOUL!
That's as much soul as Richards' original riff for the
song. Ditto the woozy-as-hell vocals on their miniaturized
version of "Double Shot Of My Baby's Love."
Yes, it's savage, yes it's somewhat inaccessible, but
it's also earnest in capturing the lyrics: "Woke
up this morning, my head was a wreck/it was the worst
hangover that I'd ever had." Sounds like it!
Residents
albums with less soul, but not soulless: "Third Reich,"
"Eskimo," (I never really got with that one),
anything post-Mole trilogy.
Soulless
Residents recordings is just about anything after "God
In 3 Persons," and even some of that record.
Residents
records dripping with soul: "Meet the Residents,"
"Satisfaction," (though not its B-side), much
of "Fingerprince," most of "Duck Stab,"
"The Commercial Album" (ALL), "Not Available"
(ALL), the track "Something Devilish" on the
"Stranger Than Supper" slop tape LP. That's
soul in the Dock Boggs sense, though. "Help me purge
my eternally burning soul. IT BURNS!"
Oh,
and on a side note, your mention of Cromagnon at the Huun
Huur Tu festival made me get that record out the next
week. To be honest, I'd never listened to it, even though
I taped it from you many months before! (You know how
it goes when you dub 15 tapes all at once...) I had heard
speculations that Cromagnon might have been an early incarnation
of The Residents. Well, I'd now like to hear some convincing
proof that they weren't an early incarnation of the Residents.
Because they are...the Residents. Unless someone can prove
otherwise, there's no doubt in my head. It's definitely
the Residents. I even recognize a few of the voices, and
MOST of the ideas. There's only four years difference
between "Orgasm" and the "Santa Dog"
double 7", and only a year after that to "Meet
The Residents." It's not hard to imagine them jettisoning
the "freedom now!" rhetoric and developing their
mythology in the intervening years. That's the truth and
I'm sticking to it...unless someone can prove me wrong!
Girl
group soul or not, the Residents are (within the scope
of their entire oveure) at least 25% PURE SOUL, and will
continue to be that much no matter how many hollow, quirky,
soulless records they menstruate out.
[….]
I'm
glad Harrington also mentions this "Godboys"
element of Sabbath, which I think continues, in some form
or another (at least sonically, if not lyrically) up to
many of the great metal bands of now...vintage Maiden,
Darkthrone, and definitely Weakling. The idea that the
protagonist was not in league with Satan, but in fact
being PUNISHED by Satan, even while being in league with
him. For me, much of the best heavy metal squirms and
cries in agony. It's like those first few minutes after
the Faustian character has finished with his ass-kicking
life, and is now being dragged kicking and screaming into
an eternity of torture. That's what I hear in "Black
Sabbath" when Ozzy lays down those not-of-this-world
"Oh God, NO, NO!" screams at the ends of verses.
Lots of it seems to be the punisher, and much of that
is also good, but even Ledney has some elements where
he seems to be being punished by his own anti-christ,
no matter how punishing he gets.
[….]
Man,
your Top 9 Noise albums list makes me want to do one as
well. May I? Okay, here goes:
(no
order!)
-
Dead Body Love: Maximum Dose CD
- Emil Beaulieau: Anti-Performance cassette
- Pain Jerk/Dogliveroil: The Snake-Charmer's Beautiful
Daughter split/collab CD
- Facialmess: The Madcap Barely Smiles cassette
- Merzbow: 1930 CD
- AMK: AMK Montage cassette
- Whitehouse: Dedicated to Peter Kurten CD
- K2: The Rust CD
- Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock/Masonna/Schimpfluch: Arschloch-Onna
CD
Not
adding Nihilist Spasm Band/Borbetomagus and such since
I figure we're talking about pure noise pedal/guitar hoppers
here mostly, and not proto-Russolos and such either. Also,
despite having sizeable collections of both, no Cock E.S.P.
or Smell & Quim appear on my list. I love what they
do, but much of it is tied to performance. This is straight
sonics, and yes, I wouldn't probably cross the street
to see several of these artists play live, conversely.
Of that list, only Beaulieau, Whitehouse (I guess), Dogliveroil,
and certainly Schimpfluch know the importance of stagecraft.
Each
of them is sort of a high water mark of a certain kind
of noise that I like. WH obviously hit the mark on the
post-TG electro shriek, before becoming a total cartoon,
and then transforming into a total supernaut.
K2
is the apotheosis of what can be done by scraping scrap
metal together (VERY close second: Knurl's "Meatrag").
The
Pain Jerk/Dogliveroil, especially on the PJ dominated
tracks, are masterworks of the whiplash, pedal dancing
edit school, faster even than Facialmess, who was sort
of of the same class (along with Kazumoto Endo, aka Killer
Bug). Pain Jerk's a funny one, since he started out as
good-but-not great, suddenly got phenomenal for a bunch
of releases, and then suddenly got really lame again!
Joel St. Germain told me he developed some sort of crippling
illness for a while, like a virus or something.
Facialmess
seemed to do all those same sorts of things live, though,
with a lot more of the thuggish grit that you'd expect
from a guy who got into Merzbow through Relapse, and still
mostly listened to Born Against and Dead Kennedys records.
Taking
the editing up another notch, the Arschloch-Onna disc
is a beast of a different color, including several that
haven't been identified on the color spectrum. I wrote
about it in Dead Angel 43, if you're interested. All that
stuff still applies.
Beaulieau
is the grand master to me (more so than Merzbow). His
stuff IS what I like about noise. The textures, the extreme
repetitions, the jumpiness. It's simultaneously horrific,
funny, sweet, and intoxicating, pure adrenaline/sugar.
I do truly agree with the video title that Emil is "America's
Greatest Noise Artist." Howie Stelzer once said, "All noise people LOVE Emil Beaulieau,
but nobody ever says this in public, or admits it in interviews." It's
weird, but true, he gets nowhere near the propers that
he deserves.
1930
by Merzbow is hardly his harshest, or most characteristic
work, but it's amazingly nuanced and beautiful without
being wimpy, like the similar "Rainbow Electronics
2" is.
Like
Beaulieau, AMK is another person I think of when I think
noise, though not as much so, since he's kind of on a
parallel track. He's like musique concrete with a noise
aesthetic (see also: tac). His skipping records make very
cracked pop songs, and remind me of my train of thought
when I'm tripping EXTREMELY hard. All of his stuff (literally...it's
very few artists whose complete discographies I can unquestionably
recommend) is at the core of my being. Very nourishing.
Dead
Body Love is just a beast. His name and locale (Italy)
seem to imply that he'd be Power Electronics a la Whitehouse
(nearly every Italian noise person is Power Electronics,
in much the same way that nearly all of Latin America
is "trade" in its sexual orientation), but he's
not! His noise, when he does it well, has a hard chromium
electro-sheen...he almost makes me think of techstep,
like Panacea or the No U Turn label. Larger than life
loops that get larger and closer with every turn, like
that shot of the dinosaur in the rearview mirror in Jurassic
Park. This as his "Albert Fish" 7" (part
of the 12 7" "Serial Murder" series [I
have the "special edition" with the 13th record,
a lathe cut by Emil Beaulieau in which he reworks the
first 12 records, thus putting me out of the PRE-empire
forever, but ensconsing me as legend in other circles,
since this special edition was in an edition of 25 copies!])
is amazing, and sadly, many of his other records are shit.
(He actually does have a "Power Electronics"
side project [must be the Italian in him...don't print
that!] called Discordance, which is also amazing)
And
I guess that just about wraps it up. So much for buckling
down to work today! Ha ha!
Chris
I
Love This Guy!
It
is most interesting the way Joe Harrington has done this
list (I know nothing about most albums on it, some of
it would be import-only at best down in Australia) but
what I am curious about is if it would be possible to
find out what the top 25 albums on his list are. Or at
the very least, some of the artists on this top 25 are.
Contact jpbenney@hotmail.com if you do have any details.
Julien Peter Benney
Thanks for writing. To find out the
top 25 albums, tune in to the next Blastitude (scheduled
for November 1st). That's all I can tell you -- right
now, I'm not even sure Joe could tell you what the top
25 albums are!
Best,
LD
I
think it would be unlikely that Joe would not know who
the artists in the remaining 25 albums are - it does seem
purely illogical that he would have not decided on the
Top 25 - or at least which 25 artists - after he has counted
down from 100 to 75. In his own texts, moreover, he does
give a few vague hints as to who the artists are.
Julien Peter Benney
A
Plea From Mort DieBold and VisionaryRecordz...
Ron
Rancid of the Nihilistics threatened me with physical
harm.
I work for them and Visionary Records.
My name is Mort.
Ron read your magazine, e-zine and exclaimed "finally
someone knows what it is all about! This is pure genius
a master piece," (he went on for a very long time
and slapped me)
Please help me!
If I do not place an add or send you people Nihilistics
stuff I am dead!!!.
IM just an old punk biker in a wheelchair that helps them
run things. I laid down my bike and my girlfriend died
in 85. This is the only job I can manage.
So I need it, disability pays shit.
so the bottom line is that he is a nut, and if I do not
get in touch with you I am fucking dead. He gave me 3
days to accomplish this. I try my best you know but this
guy is fucking murder, he keeps screaming that "how
could I
miss this." I mean its real bad here so please help
me out. I need add rates and someone's name to send shit
to. ASAP!!!!
Ohhhhhh if you talk to him don't mention I said he was
nuts.
Thank you and help!
Mort DieBold
VisionaryRecords
www.visionaryrecordsusa.com
Thank
you!
You saved my ass. I will show it to him today. It may
even put a smile on his
evil jaundiced face.
He will not shut up about Blastitiude! Thanks again!!!
Mortie D
Thank you sooooooooo much!
This nut made a sign that says "BLASTITUDE"
on it and he hung it up in front of my computer. I take
it down when he is not around. But don't tell him that.
I will mail a package out with their new CD.
He got me in a head lock and tried to write BLASTITUDE
on my forehead "so each time you hold your Dick Mort
to piss you will see it in the fucked up handicapped mirror
we hung for you in the bathroom." "Now go clean
the seat
cause you pissed on it again!!!".
I told him is piss through a catheter.
He said "We pay you to stick shit in your Dick all
day." "Make sure you finalize the German tour
and by the way 'that crack whore we pay to suck your
Dick blows you through a tube?"
I said what whore?
He said "That ugly Kathy"
I said you pay her I thought you said she liked me?
He just laughed and said "Nah we told her to tell
you that"
Nice way to start my week.
Thanks again.
Mort D.
As
Dr. Dre said, "The Motherfuckin' Saga Continues..."
Have
you yet been able to get in contact with Joe himself since
I last e-mailed you?
Are DRAFTS of "Blastitude 14"
already in place, and if so, are there any clues as to
the identity of some of the artists in Joe's Top 25?
Does Joe have any personal e-mail address?
Julien
Peter Benney
When
is Blastitude 14 likely to be out?
Are
there any details on the Top 25 as yet??
Are
drafts being made already??
Julien
Peter Benney
I
had expected Blastitude 14 (with Harrington's Top 25)
to be out in November - early November in fact. Has Blastitude
14 been delayed by any chance??
Julien
Peter Benney
It
certainly has--until January 15th. Quality takes time!
Best,
Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman
Subject:
One question
Was
Blastitude 14 originally intended to be online during
November?
Any details
as to Harrington's Top 25?
Julien
Peter Benney
That's
two questions. Answers: yes and no.
Larry
"Fuzz-O" Dolman
Blastitude
14 was due online today. It is still not online.
When is it
due NOW?
Has it been
cancelled??
Julien
Peter Benney
You
have continued to delay Blastitude 14 - it is already
"this weekend" and Blastitude 14 has not come
out still.
Is
this because Blastitude is no longer functioning and the
fourteenth edition has been CANCELLED altogether?
Julien Peter
Benney
Good
lord, would you please leave me alone? (said in a
Hans Moleman whine)
Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman
BLASTITUDE
is now a quarterly. #15 scheduled
for......sometime in 2003.
Comments, recommendations, complaints,
submissions: blastitude@hotmail.com
Any music/tapes/books/artifacts/records/documents
for consideration should be mailed to Blastitude
@ 2158 N. Mozart St. #2, Chicago, IL 60647
USA
BLASTITUDE
#14 © 2003
Published by Tiny Press
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