All Rise for the Queen of Siam....

Looking back at past years,age 12 to be exact, I , like most people get a kick out of pondering the lineage of my musical preferences. I find some value in returning to and revisiting so-called "Gateway" bands that turned me onto other things I might have missed out on. Bands that I dread to think that might not be such a deep part of my fabric today. The Culprit: Nirvana. Nirvana, they are what they are. You love them or you despise them. Either way, in the 7th grade, Nevermind was shooting to the top of the charts and it just caught me at the right time. There are more than a few catchy songs there and at the time my music collection was a couple of shoe boxes full of mix tapes my uncle Pete made for me. These tapes were chock full of '80's hair bands. Whitesnake, Quiet Riot, Cinderella, Guns and Roses, Def Leppard, Poison, and Van Halen all were represented. Other than these, I had a couple of AC/DC cassettes my dad gave me and Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Nirvana just opened me up to a slew of new shit. The Melvins, Sex Pistols, The Raincoats, Celtic Frost, Black Flag, The Germs, among other, were all names that Kurt Cobain and David Grohl would throw out in their interviews with Circus and Rolling Stone. Every penny I scrounged up would lure me down to the old Harlequin Records or Sound Barrier on a hunt for these new names. I'll always remember walking home from school after not eating my lunch at school for the past week so I could save the money and stop by the record store and buy The Melvins "Houdini". the one band that really caught my attention though was Sonic Youth. Watching 1991: The Year Punk Broke blew me away at that age. So I steadily started collecting every single piece of their history i could get my hands on. I kind of lost track of them after their album "Washing Machine" which I was never too fond of. But no matter, Daydream Nation and Bad Moon Rising were more than enough to make up for the direction they were heading in. Ahh, Bad Moon Rising, it's still my favorite to this day. One of my favorites' by any band really. It was this particular album that introduced me to a particular girl that I also have spent much time trailing throughout the years. That girl is Lydia Lunch. You know, I'm no historian when it comes to her. I have had an on again/off again infatuation with Lydia. On my time line of iconic crushes she fits somewhere after Samantha Fox,Ann and Nancy Wilson,and En Vogue and before Wendy O Williams, Rozz Williams ,and Amy Miret. I have collected her various albums ever since but by no means an impressive list. What I have I do love and as this is so, after putting it off for about a week, I'll get started throwing them out there.
Here is "Queen of Siam", which if I'm not mistaken is her first solo album after Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. It's amusing for what it's worth with a few great songs and a hilarious cover of Dusty Springfield's "Spooky" which is kind of out of place.

Queen of Siam

"Drowning in Limbo" is actually a reissue that combines two great albums on in one place, the soundtrack for "The Drowning of Lucy Hamilton" and one of my 2 favorites, "In Limbo". The Drowning... is a collaboration with China Berg of the band Mars, who'll pop up again in a bit. It 's dreary with a lot of droning clarinet.It's reminiscent of John Zorn I guess which is a good thing by my standards. In Limbo is performed with a more conventional band with Thurston Moore on bass and more John Zorn-ish horns squealing throughout. It's the sonic equivalent of a rainy Sunday afternoon. Check out the song "Some Boys", it's one of her best.

The Drowning of Lucy Hamilton

In Limbo

Next up is "Honey Moon in Red" which features the one and only Rowland S. Howard of the enigmatic "Birthday Party"(who will surely make a proper appearance here eventually). This one is the real prize of this lot. It is a more fleshed out,less stark version of In Limbo. while I love every last song on here, it cannot go unmentioned for the beauty lies in the sublime cover of the Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra duet, "Some Velvet Morning".
For the longest time I mistook R.S. Howard's voice to be Nick Cave's, but that is a tangent that will be left to itself for now. If you only download one of these album, make it this one.

Honeymoon in Red

One tangent I will embark on is this.Since I mentioned Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra duets, check out this version of "Sand" by Einsturzende Neubauten. It's a beauty.

"Sand" by Einsturzende Neubauten

The last of these is a collection I came across last week called "Hysterie". It's a retrospective that spans her involvement with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, 8 Eyed Spy, Beirut Slump, and a few other odds and ends. Unfortunately, neither this compilation nor I delve too deeply into her works with "Clint Ruin" aka J.G. Thirwell of Foetus but I did choose to include their cover of B.O.C.'s "Don't Fear the Reaper for it's own sake. Maybe Stinkfist will end up here some other time?

Hysterie

Don't Fear the Reaper

That does it for Lydia Lunch herself except for a few scraps I have left. Her Bibliography page, and some videos I thought did some justice.

Death Valley '69 with Sonic Youth

Interview from 1983/1985

Sympathy for the Devil

Dance of Dead Children

Before I end this thing for the day, I want to share this last piece of the puzzle with you.
the "No New York" compilation. The story goes like this: Brian Eno was in New York to produce the new Talking Heads album. He happened to be in the audience at a festival where a few of the New York's vaunted "No Wave" bands were playing and came away impressed with some of them, namely Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, D.N.A., and James Chance and the Contortions. He offered to produce songs for these four groups and long story short, No New York was born.

No New York

I'm not sure what tomorrow's going to bring. I've got a few direction i might head in. So stay tuned and thanks is due to all of you that return..........Troy

From the Readers.....

Good Morning everyone. Just a few quick things for right now before I drop a Lydia Lunch bomb on you either tonight or tomorrow. A couple of people who stopped by have sent me some cool things that I want to share with you. The first one comes from Chris in Seattle, WA and
it is a wicked cool Sam McPheeters interview on KSPC. I couldn't tell you where that radio station comes from but the 25 minutes is certainly well spent if you are a Born Against fan.
I'm not sure how recent the interview is besides the fact he states that he is 39 during it. There is a whole lot of great reflection from his Born Against days.

KSPC Interview with Sam McPheeters

The Loom of Ruin (Sam's Blog)

and for the few of you who haven't already seen it, an oddity of sorts,short and sweet.........

Sam McPheeters on the Montel Show


For the sake of giving y'all something to listen to today, Michael from Athens, Georgia sent me this awesome German compilation a few months back. It's called the Plot compilation and it contains a who's who of great German bands from the early '90's. There are Luzifer's Mob and Graue Zellen who some of you may know from the wonderful "Whispers" compilation that was put out by Profane Existence/Skuld back in the mid '90's. There also more well known Hardcore groups like Acme, Golgatha, Systral, and Zorn. And last but not least, one of my all time favorites, the unrivaled "Ambush". There a few mediocre offerings here but 95% of it definitely stood the test of time. Don't miss out....Troy

Plot Compilation

Someone Like You....

I'm sure most of you know John Doe from his well known band X and Flesheaters, as well as his modest acting career(besides Roadhouse that is). But still, I've been wondering how many of you have heard The Knitters. The Knitters are 3/4's of X(minus Billy Zoom) and they play what has been called "Cow Punk" though I like to think of it as their take on Roger Miller's style. That's not a bad thing to emulate anyways. These folks debuted with the great "Poor Little Critter on the Road" in 1985 which contained some original songs, a few covers, and some reworked X songs. This album is fucking classic. The songwriting is wonderful and the musicianship is as great as any X fan would expect. Some would argue that they were far better suited to work in this style though as a passionate lover of X's first 4 albums, I'm kind of on the fence on that one.. The Knitters took a while off but in 2005 put out their 2nd album entitled "The Modern Sounds of the Knitters". Unfortunately for us all, I don't have this one yet nor have I heard it. if someone sends it my way, I'll put it up here on the double.Anyway, take the one you can get......It's a beauty.


Poor Little Critter on the Road

This gal here is my partner in crime and Darrylynn's mom, Dianna Lee. Today is her 30th birthday. It's unbelievable to me to sit here and think to myself that we've known each other for almost 15 years but 15 years it has been. Dianna graduated with her degree in Psychology this past summer after 5 long grueling years. We've been to hell and back through those last 5 years but we're still standing. Dianna, besides being an awesome mom also dedicates her love and energy working with 6 other children at work. She also organizes for the Student Peace Alliance of Rutland County(S.P.A.R.C.) and her and I "Counter Recruit" at local high schools and hand out literature to "targets" of the military and tell them the other side of the story that they don't get from those bastards. She's tireless and everyone that knows her knows that she would bend over backwards for a complete stranger. Fuck, most of the arguing that we do is me getting on her case for doing too much when I think she's being taken advantage of. You know, she's been dragged through the shit more than a lot of people will ever know and she still puts a smile on her face for everybody. People should be more like Dianna, really.

Dianna loves the Knitters and the Knitters love her. So all of you out there, wish her a happy birthday when you get a second.............Troy

Residue....

Before he made his presence known in Napalm Death, Fall of Because, and Godflesh, Justin Broadrick had a fruitful obsession with his Brian Eno and Throbbing Gristle records. Man, it's been a dreary couple of days up here in Vermont. Final is my soundtrack to a good session of gazing out the window and watching the rain splatter the road. Every year, I just know when it's time to dig out the album One and let it take over.

One part 1

One part 2

Final, for years, was something that just seeped through the cracks of all the Godflesh albums and the plethora of other J.K. Broadrick side projects that have been born throughout the years. Thanks to Neurot Recordings and most notably Steve Von Till, Final has bloomed into a more regular sort of twin to Jesu. I haven't heard any Final albums besides One and Solaris, so if anyone wants to trade, I have a ton of stuff uploaded and I'd be glad to help you out too.

Solaris part 1

Solaris part 2

There are so many "Ambient" albums out there and I know a lot of you probably cringe at that term anyway but I must tell you, Solaris is really good, One is the perfect album everyone dreams of making........................Troy

Here we go again....

Welcome back and my apologies for the delay.This was originally supposed to be part of the Skaven post but I had not heard back from these guys with the go ahead to put this stuff up. I never did hear anything but since I already uploaded it, here it is.
Stormcrow are an active Oakland Stenchcore/Crust band. They have a style that is similar but a little bit more straight forward than Skaven. They rock just the same, it's just that their singer lacks the eccentricities that Zeb was known for. I learned of these guys on the Life is Abuse page awhile back. After seeing that Nate from Destroy, Brain Oil, Squalor, Silenced, among others, was involved,I was definitely intrigued. I haven't heard a band that he was in that I didn't like.
So, without further delay.....have some of their records:

Enslaved in Darkness

split with Sanctum

split with Skaven

and here are a series of videos from "Kill that Cat" via Youtube. They are of Stormcrow playing at Gilman St.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Live at The Haz Mat in 2005

The Jab and then the Hook.....

In Viridis Mons Montis Abyssus has been around for around 2 months now, which isn't really too noteworthy when you line it up with some of the others out there. The reason I mention this is that despite my sparse posts the last week, I am starting to actually get the interaction I was hoping for. Unintentionally, the Noothgrush and Ahisma posts actually put me in touch with some folks I hadn't heard from in years, not to mention a ton of other new allies. It hasn't had quite the local bend I had envisioned but I do know of a good amount of VT readers,the bands will make it up eventually. So this is a thank you to everyone that linked me up and to those who have sent me music or have just given me the go ahead to share their stuff. Tino, Steve, Will, Aesop, Chiyo, Shelley, Tony, Zeb, and anyone else that is slipping my mind......Thank you!!!!

Speaking of Tony, he is one of two bassists in Pennsylvania's Mancruel. They are a three piece and they play fuzzed out lo-fi groove filled shit. They obviously love Man is the Bastard, Neanderthal, and Black Sabbath. They kind of remind me of some of Siege's slower parts too. The recording sounds like it was made on a 4 track and that is perfect for these songs. These songs are form a split tape with Malaysia's SMG.
So please give them a bit of your time,the songs will only run you about 11 minutes, and then send Tony a message through the link above and tell him if you love it or hate or if you just didn't give a fuck. Feedback is the name of the game................

Split tape with SMG

Thanks to all you guys who leave comments......Stay tuned for some more Oakland Crust tomorrow.............Troy

We are not Progress

The scene was Oakland,mid nineties, an era I admittedly knew absolutely nothing about. I was just a 15 year old twerp in good old isolated Vermont and the closest thing to Crust I had heard were the first couple of Sepultura albums. Back then I would of thought Amebix was something I ignored in Biology class. I had no idea that on the other side of the country, Skaven was alive. It wasn't until I was at a show at the Lafayette Center in L.A. and I bought their 7inch from Reggie Rosales that I discovered them. I brought the record home, put it on, and immediately stopped. The sample seemed a bit out of place but the instrumental at the beginning was one of the most epic passages I've ever heard. The term "Stenchcore" gets used as a lot these days and there are a slew of great bands that have really carried the tradition spawned in the early eighties, some memorable, other's not so much. Skaven just stands out more than the rest to me. Zeb's lyrics are more Nietzsche than "Cal" Morris, they reek of Lovecraft or Camus rather than Penny Rimbaud. For all the bands who get dubbed with the honor of being called "Apocalyptic", Skaven is one of the few that really feels that way. There are no forced, cliche-sounding growls here. Zeb comes across on these songs sounding like the fucking Omega man, telling his stories to the ground. The dual bassists, Shane and Mick work perfectly serving their own function and Geoff Evans, well he's just Geoff Evans(Asunder, his current band, will make an appearance here soon.) Some would call this blasphemy,and believe me I do love these bands, I would choose Skaven over Axegrinder or Hellbastard any day. My only reservation saying this is the relatively small discography Skaven treats us to. Beyond the 7inch I mentioned earlier, there is the split LP with Dystopia and the split with Stormcrow. I contacted Zeb and asked for his blessing and he said it would be alright to put a few things up. So I'll put the EP's up because they are my favorite. There should be a discography CD out in the future and I hear they recorded a demo but I'm not sure about either. You can a read a review of their split with Stormcrow here.

Severed/Flowers of Flesh and Blood

split with Stormcrow

Zeb lives in Montana and plays in a great new band called Demonsteed. They have an album out called Nitro Ground Shaker which I 'll post once I get a copy. They kind of remind me of Tony Iommi obsessively reading a Cormac McCarthy book??? Sounds about right!! Geoff Evans plays in Asunder and the rest of the guys, I have no idea where they are or what they are doing? I 'll let Skaven lie now with this alternate version of the song "The Swarm" .
Contact Zeb through the Demonsteed link about that discography CD.

........and with that tribute paid, it's now time for a fun little lesson in Existentialism.
Charles Manson's 1987 interview with the one and only Geraldo Rivera. I'll be damned if I just didn't make some sense out of this diatribe. I realize this was the guy's chance to paint himself in a certain life, but while he was digging himself a hole he would never be free of, I soaked up a bit of wisdom out of this when I first saw it as a teenager.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7


Charles Manson: LIE-Love and the Terror Cult

an interesting listen and I'll leave it at that.....Troy

Memento Mori

Here is a new link to the Memento Mori album. Unfortunately, I couldn't convert them to Mp3's so they are in AIFF files. I apologize to anyone that can't use these. If anyone could point me in the direction of a good converter,I'll upload it one last time. It's just that right now, I can only convert WAV's,M4A's and WMA,s to Mp3.

Stay Tuned...........

Memento Mori

Behold.....The "Hellion"

Big Problem Does Not Equal The Solution. The Solution=Let It Be

Now there is an ambiguous name for an album if ever there was one.I bet most of you didn't realize Crispin"Hellion"Glover ever put out a record. I sure as hell didn't until I noticed on my friend Matt's shelf last Friday night. Say what you want about the mans acting skills, but River's Edge is a classic and that movie probably sucks with anybody else filling that role.
Big Problem Does Not Equal The Solution.The Solution=Let It Be is a mish mash of readings from a few of Crispin's many books, a Charles Manson cover, a Lee Hazelwood cover, and a couple other surprises. Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the whole package lies in the interactive attempt that's made with the back cover art. an excerpt from Crispin's Wikipedia page explains:
"The back cover of the album is a collage of figures relating to each track on the album, with a puzzle: "All words and lyrics point to THE BIG PROBLEM. The solution lay within the title; LET IT BE. Crispin Hellion Glover wants to know what you think these nine things all have in common." He included his home phone number with copies of the album, encouraging listeners to phone when they had "solved" his puzzle. Glover later commented that he was surprised how many people figured it out."
And almost as weird for the solitary fact that Slayer and the Wipers share the same stage for the soundtrack, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to include the music from River's Edge.

The movie, although ultimately fictitious,is loosely based on the murder of 14 year old girl Marcy Conrad. Marcy was strangled by Anthony Jacques Broussard in Milpitas, California on November 13th, 1981. It seems the 16 year old kid was a bit twisted and had made several attempts at his mother's life prior. The parallel lies in the fact that in both the movie and actuality, the killer shows the body to his friends who respond with callousness. In both cases, while killer's close friends help conceal the body and show genuine interest in their friends' deteriorating innocence, they at the same time went and boasted to others and treated the corpse like a museum. I don't really know why I went so far into this, so while I'm drawing a blank, just go ahead and check out the soundtrack:

River's Edge Soundtrack

For those of you that might be interested in pretty decent synopsis of the Crispin Glover album, here is a page I found that gives a little history on it's creation as well as a couple of his music videos....... here .................................Troy

Wait a Minute.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait a minute. I fucked up so Don't download the Memento Mori album just yet. The converter I used to change it to Mp3's is a piece of shit and only converts 60% of the songs. I'm going to try to fix it. If not,I'll post it as AIFF files. I 'm just nervous some peoples computers don't support that filetype.Don't let that stop you from getting the Dukes of Nothing album though, that one is just fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry if you already downloaded the shit version.