LAST VISIBLE DOG:

VARIOUS ARTISTS: The Invisible Pyramid 2CD (LAST VISIBLE DOG)
In particular regarding my overworked flippancy last ish, I'd like to make some amends for the review of the Last Visible Dog label's The Invisible Pyramid 2CD compilation. Not only was my track-by-track for the first CD half-assed and rushed, I didn't even mention the second disc at all! What can I say, sometimes my beloved off-the-cuff-ness takes over my common sense (like when I coin a phrase like "beloved off-the-cuff-ness").
       For example, I couldn't even remember disc one's tracks 7 and 8 right after listening to them, and now they're two of the most memorable on the whole album. Track 7 is by Thuja (the sound of dark blue smoke finding it's way into the fissures in a football field made of ice at 4AM in the morning) and Track 8 is by that (I think I can spell this right) Kemialliset Ystävät band from Finland (some kind of crafty cinematic mind / loop-fuck, WTF??).
       As for disc two highlights: The track by The Birdtree is just gauzed-out GREAT. Sounds like someone just put on a scratchy obscure singer-songwriter record from the 70s except that it's obviously from the 90s and BEYOND. What else? Subarachnoid Space hit hard with a heavy boom-box jam. Kind of imitation Bardo Pond, but in this case it's a good thing. One of the few tracks on here that really moves; a lot of this stuff is drony and static . . . . . Miminokoto contribute "Dokonimo" -- say it three times fast! This was the first place I heard this band, which I highly recommend -- Fushitsusha meets Curtis Mayfield back to Crazy Horse at their rawest and slowest. I was just talking about them today to local psychedelic superhero Plastic Crimewave, he's opening for them this Tuesday on their first US tour. We hope people go see this band. I won't, I'll be at home with babe-o, but I'll be there in spirit. Hell, I'm ALREADY there in spirit. This song is GREAT, I think it's better than any song on their excellent Live CD, also on Last Visible Dog . . . . . . Avarus are big in the news these days, and with good reason -- their track on here is a little freaky too. Manic low cello saw, sure, but as Tony Rettman said about some completely different record in the last issue, "it's the shit clipping in the air around it that's so dangerous" . . . . . Charalambides contribute an excellent track, one of the quieter ones on here, but if you listen close there's a lot of their distinctively thorny beauty and quiet desperation in there . . . . . Bardo Pond's track is actually kind of a letdown for me, I wanted to hear them in full huge heaven-band mode, but it's a no-rhythm-section 'ethnic forgery' kind of track . . . . . Omit's track is GREAT and reminded me that he's one of the very best soundmakers to ever have the two words "New Zealand" somewhere in his return address. Why have I not listened to this guy once for the last four years again? . . . . . Karl Precoda and Mike Gangloff (are they in Pelt?) do an excellent soft piano meets softly shaken sheet metal kind of 'contempo classical' whatsis . . . . . Black Forest/Black Sea's track reminds me of both "Drifters of the Grand Trunk" by SCG and, gosh, I think Sandy Bull . . . . . really good, too short . . . . . and Peter Wright closes the disc with a nicely short and slightly odd piece. And that's not everybody, but that's the end of this review -- obviously, you should check out this comp if you're looking for a fully stuffed introduction to today's various strains of New Millenium Psych.

MIMINOKOTO: Live CD (LAST VISIBLE DOG)
Man, everybody knows this is nowhere. What we need is some ragged glory, and tonight's the night. So put on this album, and it's like, "Zuma!" Y'know? Naw, forget all that, I just wanted to be funny. I mean, this band very well could use Crazy Horse as their one and only inspiration, but if so it's still just a jumping-off point into their own haunting zone. In the liner notes, Alan "Of Course" Cummings says something nice about how the band willfully submerges their influences and indeed, you could say that this band coyly sounds like the middle point between Fushitsusha and, I don't know, Humble Pie. I swear, at times they boogie, and they boogie well, and people (probably visiting Brits and Yankees) in the audience go "YEAH!!!", and then other times it's more the fragile 'singing to the heavens from the ruins of a war-torn city block' downer rock you might associate with the PSF legacy. Either way, they're a band to watch. And listen to. The trio consists of Masami Kawaguchi (guitar & vocals, formerly of The Broomdusters, Aihiyo, LSD March), Koji Shimura (drums, has played with White Heaven, High Rise, Makoto Kawabata's Mothers of Invasion, and Mainliner), and Takuya Nishimura (bass, also with Che-SHIZU).

LOAD:

KITES: Royal Paint With The Metallic Gardener From The United States of America Helped Into An Open Field By Women and Children LP (LOAD)
Man, how long has it been since I've just looked at an album cover without knowing anything about the record and said, "Alright, this is going to be good." I mean, those records like from Nauscopy that have stuff glued all over 'em are always promising, but Kites do it with just full-color photography and cut-up design. That title helps too. As for the music, Kites have been getting some pretty serious if deep-under props from a few trustworthy people and so far side one alone has more than lived up to 'em. A mix of harsh noise and song experiments that seems like, finally, the proper mixture of day-glo performance, the one-man harsh noise legacy, and, I don't know, any singer-songwriter whose one-sheet namedrops krautrock and Syd Barrett. Starts off with a long psych-noise jam titled, perfectly, "Staring Into The Sun." Then there's a scary song about Side two has three tracks, the first which is subtitled "Live 2003" and features bits from five different shows, and it's pretty much all harsh loopy bleatage -- some of the photos on the cover give a hint what a Kites performance might be like and I'm sorry I missed his recent tour. One of the shows is in collaboration with another name you might've been hearing, Jessica Rylan, a/k/a Can't. (I really like that for a band name: Can't.) Did I mention that even the inner paper sleeve is color silk-screened with lyrics and artwork? A veritable artastic explosion, this record. Limited to 500. Also available on CD.

THE USA IS A MONSTER: Tasheyana Compost CD (LOAD)
Damn, I'm kinda bummed. I love Load Records, and I love USAISAMONSTER's Masonic Chronic rec (see #15), but something's kinda off about this one. Masonic was muddy and creepy and weird (and on vinyl) and it was hard to believe they were a duo, but on this one it pretty much sounds like a duo because the production is clean, bright, and sparkly (and on CD). There's still lots of great riffs, but not a lot of mystery. I like how they set Chief Joseph of the Nez Pearce's "I Will Fight No More Forever" speech to music on track 3 (that's him on the cover too) but the melody is so bouncy and light, and it's this weird new 'happy' direction that's throwing me. Vocals aren't buried enough in the mix. It's almost . . . emo production!!! There, I said it. Track 4 is getting somewhere, with some mean extendo-riffs, but they still sound like they could be playing at some Touch 'n' Go CMJ showcase. There are more good protest lyrics about the U.S.A., like "His progress looks like cancer cells to me somehow." I don't know, people who haven't heard the band yet might find this pretty good, but I'm kinda bummed.

NEON HUNK: Smarmymob CD (LOAD)
Oops! I was sent this CD a long time ago and I forgot to review it for the last Blastitude. Why? I don't know, overexposure??? I used to see The Neon Hunk play at least three times a week in Chicago (they live in Milwaukee which is only 90 miles away), and everybody loved 'em, and maybe I thought they were already too ubiquitously approved of to need a review in Blastitude. What kind of shit is that? Now they don't play as often and I don't go to shows as often, and I miss 'em and wonder if I'll ever see 'em again. Put it this way: when it comes to costumed retardo-core, I actually only really like about 3 bands. And Neon Hunk are one of them. (Their secret ingredient, though it's no secret to those who have seen 'em: sex appeal! For all genders and preferences.) This CD is a fine introduction to the band if you'd like one -- it pretty much sounds like the live show, which is synth and drums and treated vocals bringing you straight-up helium-argument-prog-noise, without overdubs or studio arranging. However, if you're used to hearing them through the Fireside Bowl P.A., you will find this studio recording to be quite crisp and clean. At first the mix may even seem a little Steve Alb-indie, but keep listening and it does piercing things, especially with Ms. Mothmaster's keyboards. And, the album's only 21 minutes long, so it's a nice little shot of adrenaline. No complaints here.

MR. CALIFORNIA AND THE STATE POLICE: Audio Hallucinations CD (LOAD)
First song is called "No Soda Pop" and the first song on the Screamin' Mee-Mees new archival Live From A Basement CD is called "Sody Pop." Kindred spirits, 25 years apart? Totally: lone punks, no scene necessary, recording on whatever junk they've got and cranking out some giddy raunchy good times. In this case Mr. California plays "Guitars, Bass, Programs a Drum Machine, Programs Bass, and sings." Lots of bad words, and lyrics about running out of soda pop, serial killers and their dental plans, Tic Tac Toe, cocaine, zombies, ego trips, high school, and suicide -- actually that's just the first eight songs, and there are FIFTY-ONE songs on here, so yeah. After track 8 the songs devolve into tiny little blasts where the entire text is usually just the song title. In the time it took me to write that we're already on track 20. Some good jokes, like "Cocktail Party Ice Breaker," which goes "The doctor says I'm gonna live," and "Pelican," which goes "He was fucking a Pelican." One of the longer ones is track 33, "Flaming Heart," which goes "YOUR HEART IS LIKE A BAG OF SHIT ON FIRE, AND I'M AFRAID TO PUT IT OUT BECAUSE IT COULD GET . . . MESSY!!!!" It's fun, but by the last third of the album it's pretty hard to care what the hell's going on. The first eight tracks (billed as "Side A") are the keepers.

MANG-DISC:

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NARNACK:

HELLA: Total Bugs Bunny On Wild Bass CD (NARNACK)
Weird one from Hella, the guitar and drums duo from Sacramento. The drums are there in all their technical ecstacy, but instead of good ole gee-tar I'm hearing like two or three or even more tracks of guitar synth grotesquerie, or synclavier sickness, or MIDI mania, I don't know, it's really fast and complex and manic and goofy, and in the same sub-subgenre as the concurrent Flying Luttenbachers album Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder, which is progressive rock that takes you to that far-away planet where the King of Rock 'n' Roll wasn't Elvis, it was . . . . Conlon Nancarrow! Pretty enjoyable, but I do find myself wishing for some good ole straight-up gee-tar on these tunes, more like the Hella live show. That's where the enhanced portion of the CD comes in, an mpeg video clip of one song videotaped live at a little place in Sacramento, and it's excellent, the two of 'em just jamming out to an appreciative crowd, more the Hella I know than the bugs bunny stuff on the disc itself. The drummer really is amazing, he even plays two kits on the live clip.

PARTS & LABOR / TYONDAI BRAXTON: Rise, Rise, Rise CD (NARNACK)
Both of these acts got reviewed last issue, their respective debut records on the JMZ label. They were good, neither bad nor quite great, but now, moving over to Narnack for this new split release, both bands take further steps and, ahem, "grow as artists." If you're interested in one or both, the debuts are good, but you might want to check this disc out first.
       Parts & Labor was already bringing their own much-needed spin on the dance-punk sound of today, with some sort of classicist mix of Lightning Bolt, Trans Am, and, I don't know, Lee Michaels. On this disc they add more styles to the blend. The first song starts out with pace-setting sitar-type sounds and synth, and then after quite some time an arena-rock drum beat comes in and it's rather triumphant. On the second song they include vocals for what I think is the first time, and it comes off pretty well. The track that's on right now has a friggin' bagpipe on it, so yeah, they're definitely moving onwards and outwards from their not-bad first release.
      Tyondai Braxton didn't quite get the full thumbs-up last ish either. When he worked solo with voice and guitar pedal he made some excellent dusted landscapes but when he brought in indie-rock session men things got kinda trad. Now he's onto new shit just like Parts & Labor, and it's more unified than just solo tracks vs. band tracks. He has three tracks on here, two of them around ten minutes long, and it's some odd dreamy epic soul music, which I've listened to a few times and have yet to completely figure out, but I want to keep trying. Stevie Wonder meets Black Dice???

NAUSCOPY:

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NIHILIST:

COSTES: Hung By The Dick CD (NIHILIST / MENSCHENFEIND)
Here's some sample lyrics: "Oh my god, my dick is yellow! It's so weird! I can't believe it!" And that's merely from the song called "Logic and Mathematic." I'm not even going to quote from the songs called "A Dick in the Brain," "Big Is My Dick," "Hung By The Dick," "Himayala Of Shit," or, for that matter, "Heil, Fuck Me Harder" or the controversial "Koreans, Part of the Plot." If those titles intrigue you, you should know that this CD comes with complete lyrics! It's a very inflammatory text, but I've been able to overlook all my tensions about race relations (and shit relations and dick relations), and enjoy this CD, simply because of the title. I just can't help but love an album called Hung By The Dick. (Same way I love Fucks The Sky by Liquorball, even though I've never actually listened to it or even seen it.)
      I love the mini-manifesto on the back cover, too: "I hate my race, I hate myself, but I like my dick." I know how he feels! Above that it says, "30 Songs, 1993" -- we're getting closer to the music. I am curious to hear it, because Costes is still in the public eye ten years later; in fact, he just finished an extensive American tour, and it sounds like he's lost none of his youthful enthusiasm. Even if you missed it, as I did, you've probably heard the reports of how the vomit and piss and shit (some of it real!) and karaoke and balls and dicks and pussies and boobs were flyin'. How could I not be curious? Here, I'll put it on, let's listen . . . .
      Oh merde, take it off, this is the most annoying shit ever! Just kidding, leave it on. Costes is actually a great noise shouter in the tradition of William Bennett and Miguel Tomasín. (I think it's an obscure mutation of the 'toaster' tradition more commonly seen in reggae and global hip-hop, as developed over the past couple centuries due to trade routes between Europe and the Americas, with their stops in the Caribbean Islands, but I'm no expert.) He's also in the tradition of both Antonin Artaud and Alice Cooper, because he plays theatre of cruelty shock rock!
      Either way, I dig the music on a sonic level for the dubbed-out cavern feel, and I dig the overall abandon of the performance. The cumulative effect of all this frothing profanity does make me shut down a little, but not enough to miss the little horribly damaged pop/cabaret/?? songs that pop up sporadically. Kind of great, but sometimes I wonder just how big of a William Bennett fan Costes is. He even has the same high voice that Bennett has for imitating women and children. Then again, I think Costes is older than William Bennett, so I'm not sure. You tell me . . . and research it by checking out this album!

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Masters of the Scene, the Definitive ABBA Tribute CD (NIHILIST)
Maybe you get excited when you hear about another tribute album that features various noise and no wave artists DECONSTRUCTING (ahem) the work of kitschy pop superstars, but me? Not very. However, I can be persuaded by an interesting lineup, and this comp has one, for me, anyway, because I live in Chicago where the label and a handful of the acts are from. Eye-catchers for Chicago noise people and/or assiduous Bananafish readers would include Canned Hamm (Vancouver), Kazumoto Endo (Japan), Vertonen (Chicago), Evil Moisture (Great Britain), SkiMask & the Bucketmen (Buffalo), Absorb (Chicago), I & Makoto (Japan), irr. app. (ext.) (San Francisco Bay Area), Foamula (Chicago), Spider Compass Good Crime Band (Berkeley), Plastic Crimewave Sound (Chicago), Sudden Infant (Switzerland), Gunshop (Chicago), and Viki (Michigan).
       The Canned Hamm track sounds a lot like Smell & Quim! And, they seem to have messed up the instructions, and done "Your Mother Should Know" by the Beatles instead of the intended ABBA song, "Does Your Mother Know."
       Sockeye do "Take A Chance On Me" as a lo-fi rock stomper, recorded in 1991. I'm just starting to hear about Sockeye regularly but I know nothing except he/they are/were from Akron, Ohio.
       Kazumoto Endo do "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)," bringing the sort of hardcore gruesome Germanic karaoke / pop / techno nightmares that for whatever reason seem very appropriate for Nihilist.
       Vertonen does "The Name of The Game" inscrutably, as one of his trademark loop-infected constructions.
       Evil Moisture do "One Night in Bankok" (hey, I thought that was by Murray Head . . . must've been produced by the B&B team), completely unrecognizably as a series of shadowy noise edits. Not unlike some recent Hair Police cut-ups!
       Next is Ungrateful Deadbeats, who I know nothing about besides "jetjag@webtv.net," doing a slightly more conventional version of "SOS." (It has singing and words and a backbeat and stuff. The 'outro' jam is really good avant-rock tape stew!)
       Next is Ski-Mask & the Bucketmen, who had a great track on the Roctober Uno-A-Go-Go comp, and are perhaps the third greatest artist to come from Buffalo after Rick James and Vincent Gallo. This track is great too, "My Mama Said" sounding like Depeche Mode being destroyed by Schooly D and the bizarro world (i.e. good) version of the Insane Clown Posse on vocals! Great hip-hop beat.
       Next is Absorb, another small group involving the member of Panicsville who is the CEO of Nihilist Records. They do "Super Trooper" -- actually somewhat recognizably -- with vocoder madness over evil frog basslines, intentionally gay damaged-muzak interludes, samples of mooing cows, and laser gun effects.
       Track 9 is Guilty Connector doing "Rock Me," total harsh Japanese noise that has nothing to do with any ABBA song but it's very invigorating.
       Track 10 is I & Makoto, which is Cotton and Makoto from Acid Mothers Temple, doing "Eagle" (don't know it) as a super-spooky little-lost-ghost-girl ballad! And there's another excellent spooky lost ghost girl ballad just a couple tracks later, Chicago act Foamula's rendition of "Chiquitita" (certainly don't know that one either). Okay, YOU can check out the rest . . . if you want a noisy/weird compilation, you could do a lot worse than this, and don't worry, even with ABBA being the honored artist, it's not a kitsch/irony-fest.

PSYCHO-PATH:

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Space Is No Place CD (PSYCHO-PATH)
Here's a "some of what's going on in the Big Apple these days" comp that has the enormous good taste to have not called itself Yes New York. I just don't think any of these people are really scenesters -- the name of the comp itself destabilizes that sort of affiliation.
      Flaming Fire kick it off and are good until they start singing, which is about four seconds in. Still one of the more creative tracks I've heard from them -- weird jump-cut chantism. Too bad they still remind me of Tenacious D.
      No-Neck Blues Band contribute the closest thing I've ever heard to a pop song from them -- three minutes, a backbeat, and 'lead vocals'.
      Axolotl and Centuries are two bands I've never heard of before with two tracks that I still can't quite recall, even though I've heard them both numerous times and I think I like them. I have a vague recollection of maybe Centuries sounding sort of like . . . . um . . . . accordion? But in a good way? That's about all I can come up with, and that's just what kind of music this is. (Psycho-delic?)
      Jesus With Me offer a crazed-ass noise-wall that goes down real good, and they do it with conventional rock band instrumentation (gtr/gtr/bs/drms) . . . . Enos Slaughter is a NNCK side project that specializes in what I would call mutant bluegrass noise psych. They do another version of the second song from their fall 2002 live set. (See Enos Slaughter review!) . . . . Electro Putas do 6 or 7 minutes of improvised skronk-rock, not too bad at all but kind of 80s, kind of -- dare I say it -- pigfuck?? I would compare it to Lubricated Goat or Live Skull, but I've never heard either band.
      Mouth Us (who??) contribute one of the more musical presentations of one piercing feedback tone I've ever heard, and they keep it up for all five of their minutes. Then Sightings, who I'm sure you know, doing more of their whited-out 'new klang' sound, then Naturally, doing a great haunted ghost-children-of-ESP-Disk mutter-zone type-thing (who the hell is Naturally?), then Terrestrial Tones, which is Dave Portner of the Animal Collective and Eric Copeland of Black Dice doing . . . microhouse! And doing it well! Then it's Breast Fed Yak! Best band name since Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink! And their track is nuts-gibbering faux-east improv! Almost as good as Avarus! Then two more bands, Mountains of Mata Llama, and Las Malas Amistades, which is to say WHO??? I thought this was a comp of bands from New York, not Peru! I guess that's what they mean by melting pot. I'm from Nebraska, there ain't enough melting going on out there, but there's plenty of melting going on HERE, so get with it, if that's your kind of scene (like it is mine).

ZIPPO ZETTERLINK: In The Poor Sun At Sunday Night In The BLOW UP CD (PSYCHO-PATH)
They talk about first-tier krautrock and second-tier krautrock, but who knows what tier the one and only Zippo Zetterlink resides on. Apparently they are from Germany and this weirdo LP came out in 1971, so the time and place is right. The first time I put this on I really thought I had reached it: the absolute bottom of the krautrock barrel. The second time I'm like "This is the most pure statement of THUG JAMMING ever recorded." Track three is like Jonathan Richman singing a blues shuffle while being German, and not done very well at that. And it's also a great track, somehow still well within THE ZONE. Throw in the fucked-up colorful 1971 scrawl graphics and it's a keeper.

SCRATCH 'N' SNIFF ENTERTAINMENT (SNSE):

VIKI / HAIR POLICE: Split LP/CD (LP on SCRATCH 'N' SNIFF ENTERTAINMENT, CD on LOAD)
The LP version is reviewed here, and it's real nice to look at, with artwork by Gary Beauvais (a/k/a Gary Mlitter, a/k/a Mr. Mlitter, a/k/a MAMMAL), another fine example of the "New American Hesher Scrawl" movement: yellow scrawl on field of sweet blue, the insert is white on darker blue, and then the vinyl itself is light chalk marble blue with a darker blue label, with all text hand-drawn by Mr. Mlitter. Thanks for all the blues! Really, really nice -- props to Scratch 'n' Sniff Entertainment!
      Listening is also a pleasure. Starts with Viki, and I'm pleased to hear it's pretty much the same soundbombing style she was hitting so hard with at the (relatively) recent August 2003 Empty Bottle show. The recording doesn't do that show justice, but is good in a different way -- that was high volume city, this is more far-off basement loner. First track ("800 Lies," not "Goolies"!) is instrumental, a vibe-up of sorts, track two has vocals, and a soundbomb hook that I remember from the Bottle, and Viki speaking cute in between verses ("We've got a lot in common") and then ranting during verses. And then on the third track, "Merican Metal," she takes the rant deeper and it's almost like John Rotten himself. Dare I say instant classic? Fourth track continues to stomp, with noise atop that actually makes sizzling sounds from where the needle is touching my vinyl, I can hear it when I'm standing next to the stereo. And I really like the closer, a tape-warbled instrumental cool-down called "Compulsive Sigh."
       As for The Hair Police, they turn out their very best set of music yet, in my opinion. All their records have been good to great, but with qualifications: History of Ghost Dad was really good but it was a little too all over the place, Blow Out Your Blood was really good but not all over the place enough, Mortuary Servants was great but it was only about six minutes (?) of stuff. This 20-odd minute side, on the other hand, strikes me as the perfect Police release for right now. I really can't describe it, and I've already listened to it 8 or 10 times this week, but I'll try: after a real short 'atmospheric' opening (kind of like the Dead C White House LP??), it rocks out with the expectable Hair Police mega-dive into 110% spazz-hell, but something happens along the way, shit gets spliced and diced and stuttered and -- I really don't know what happens! Which is why I've listened to it so many times, I'm still trying to figure it out.

MAMMAL: Double Nature CD (SCRATCH 'N' SNIFF ENTERTAINMENT)
The thing I always liked about Mammal was the way he wasn't afraid to throw down DANCE AND HIP HOP BEATS. Someone called it "BOOMBAP," and it reached a pinnacle on Side 1 of his classic Fog Walkers LP. Before that, I even did one of my most embarrasing comparisons ever when I compared him to PEACHES. I was just trying to make a point, that Mammal wasn't afraid to fuck around with the more hyped fashion-mag sell-out electro styles, 'cause he knew he could still clobber 'em. But, really, Peaches?? I still like that "Fuck the Pain Away" song just fine, but that was just plain stupid. And I've been called on it. Believe me, it'll never happen again, especially not with this new Double Nature album. The BOOMBAP is in there somewhere but Mammal seems to be trying to suffocate it, bury it, drown it, smother it in a black hole that lets in no sun or light or love. Really, this is an intensely unpleasurable record. When the beats do emerge in these four long tracks, they are sick, withered, fried, dead. I don't mean all of these adjectives in a negative sense. On the cover: more killer Beauvais artwork.

PANICSVILLE: Imperfection of the Organism LP (SCRATCH 'N' SNIFF)
Man, I am just getting a goddamn SLEW of colored vinyl these days, which I like just fine. Something about this new 'scene' of 'kids', I think. They like things day glo and excessively psychedelic (psychotronic?) so as to celebrate/regurgitate their upbringing with THE FOUR C's: cartoons/comic books/cable TV/and cereal (or just substitute candy). (If I could somehow make video games start with a C, there would be five C's . . . how about arCade?)
      Side one: nothing seems to be going on at all with this record for at least the first minute, at least nothing I can hear with this ghetto mutt outside my window barking like crazy. Is my turntable playing slow? It looks like it is, but maybe that's just the colored vinyl . . . . . . let me try something else . . . nope, "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps sounds perfect. Put Panicsville back on, and now after a few minutes it doesn't sound like Sukora anymore and more like that weird loopery/quease I know as "Panicsvillian."
      This Andy Panicsville guy is kind of a trickster, you know, the way he straddles scenes as a scene of (almost) one. He's like a classic post-RRR noise guy who plays around with the 'asshole' image and runs a label called Nihilist that offers weird packaging and anti-record objects, but then he's all day glo and artsy and no wavey and he has one of the most involved costume concepts you'll see this side of Caroliner. His shows never blow me away, but I think that's at least partly by design -- he doesn't really pander to the audience that way.
      This record is low-key too, and although many of the loops and tones are theoretically annoying, there's a weird 'background' vibe to it. "Piss In Your Brain And Control Your Mind" kicks up some steam though, with the largest wall of noise on the album and a Wolf Eyesian dentist-drill broken-beat menace. Also a 'definite Wolf Eyes thing going on' with the first track on side two, the LP's title track, but not in any kind of bad over-imitative way. I mean, really, who in today's noise scene isn't dealing with Wolf Eyes in one way or another? They're pretty much setting the benchmark. Crazy ending on this track, almost like the ending of Coop's "Halo of Flies." Record goes on, in and out of focus -- it's weird to listen to at low volume because you keep thinking you can hear someone breathing or something. Then it gets real loud and crazy for awhile, etc. Good record. Last track, "The Man Who Hated Women And The Women Who Loved Him" is one of my favorites.