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Gearing up for the next issue of The Big Takeover, so I thought I'd get this up before I'm swamped in review hell.
I had heard about Justin Melkmann through "Crazy" Glenn Wernig of the New York Waste, who suggested we connect because of our mutual love of GG Allin. We exchanged a few emails, but they went nowhere. Finally, I met Justin and his girlfriend (now wife) Trish at "Crazy" Glenn's house-warming party. They were super-cool people and I discovered that Justin also shares my love of Black Flag and old hardcore/punk rock as well. He worships Lou Reed, too!
Naturally, I got into Justin's band, World War IX. Unfortunately, the original singer was kind of a douchbag - one of those "trying-too-hard" types. When he split and Mike joined, it was a godsend - just what the band needed. Here's the review I wrote for BT 64:
"This is a significant release in WWIX’s legacy in that it simultaneously announces the arrival of vocalist Mike and the departure of bassist Annick. If you ask me (and I’m assuming you are since you’re reading this), Mike is a far superior vocalist to Max. His gritty street punk voice works a lot better with the music than Max’s dopey monotone. It’s especially evident when comparing two old favorites of mine that appear here, “Treasure Hunt” and “Employee of the Month,” to their older versions. Really, there is no comparison; these are the definitive versions. WWIX include a CD of the songs with the 7”, which to me is a stroke of business genius and something more bands should do. The brown paper bag cover is a nice touch, too."
Hey, any band that combines Damaged-era Black Flag with GG Allin is A-OK in my book.
The images and music were uploaded with Justin Melkmann's consent. Thank you, Justin!
World War IXBrown Bagging It 7"/CD(Red Black & Blue)2008
Sample Track:
Treasure Hunt
I met Marc Mozga in English class my first year at CSUN. Somehow it came out in our first class that we were both film majors and we both liked David Lynch movies, so we started talking. Turned out, Marc was from the Minnesota Twin Cities and was heavily involved in the music scene there with a band called The Swingtones. Like me, he had a really eclectic taste in music, so we started hanging out. I believe he came with Aidan and I to see Thee Headcoates at Jabberjaw. We saw The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion a couple of times, too, and probably some more bands.
He also really loved The Two Felipes.
After a year or two in LA, Marc had had enough of LA, though he managed to bring The Swingtones around on tour and I hooked him up with a show at The Whiskey-A-Go-Go. I was there with my friend Mark Lovretovich and we sat there really amused by the bands that played before them. There was some really pretentious art-punk band that was trying desperately to be The Fall (and failing miserably) and this ridiculous Motley Crue/Poison-type LA glam band called 88 Crash, who really perplexed us - especially the bald, body-waxed singer who looked like some guy from Century City letting loose onstage. It was completely ridiculous. Finally, The Swingtones took the stage and it was a great show, they were all great guys and we had a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, after Marc got sick of LA and moved back to the Midwest, we lost touch. He sent me a few really odd handmade tapes (to be posted here in the future), but I didn't hear much from him after that. Finally, he found me on MySpace a few years ago, but I'm not good at communicating on MySpace and we lost touch again. Oddly enough, he Googled "The Two Felipes" and found this blog a few months ago, and I haven't lost touch with him yet.
I Luv Luv Birds is his newest project with his girl, Holly Prindle. He plays stuff and she sings. It's indescribably great music. Although it's rooted in dub reggae a la The Mad Professor, there are elements of various modes of electronic music, including Cabaret Voltaire's early industrial, new styles 8-bit and glitch, and some sound collage aesthetics to keep it interesting. This is one bass-heavy, pulsing, psychedelic collection of music.
Ever read William Gibson's Neuromancer? This is the music that I imagine the Rasta space colony listened to.
Mysteries of Magnetism is ILLB's first release. It's mostly instrumental, but Holly comes in on the last track with a haunting vocal that would indicate where they'd go in the future.
I'm very happy to be posting this tape. It's an amazing collection of music.
The images and music were uploaded with Marc Mozga's consent. Thank you, Marc!
I Luv Luv BirdsMysteries of Magnetism CS(ILLB)2005
Sample tracks:
MoM 2
MoM 7
I've been immersed in black metal lately, so I thought I'd post some.
I went to high school with Atrox, but I didn't really get to know him until after I'd graduated. Some mutual friends brought me to his house to hang out one night, and Atrox made an immediate impression with his extremely high intelligence, left field philosophies and black metal obsession. Soon I was hanging out at his house all the time and we quickly bonded as friends.
I got a crash course in black metal from Atrox. While I didn't really get a lot of it at the time, Burzum and Mayhem with Dead stuck with me. When I completely immersed myself in black metal over a year ago, I remembered a lot of what he had taught me and I put it to good use.
Unfortunately, we also bonded over drugs and our respective psyches fueled each others' addictions to the point where our friendship completely dissolved.
Fortunately, I've recently reconnected with Atrox and he's the same great guy, minus the chemicals.
The images and music were uploaded with Atrox's consent. Thank you, Atrox!
Centuries of DeceptionHeic Noenum Pax CDEP(Blood, Fire, Death)1998
Sample track:
...Only War & Hate Survived...
(Mr Phreek at The Smell circa 2000/2001 - Photo by Ackronomicon)
After Ed left Eckankore, Ron tried collaborating with Kris Andersen and then just doing things on his own, but nothing really clicked. (You can hear those recordings here.)
Finally, he asked me to join and these are our first "rehearsal" sessions together. Apparently, Ron really like what I did and how I was able to follow his lead, and I ended up joining Eckankore for a spell until I moved to NY. We performed several shows at The Smell in Downtown LA with Emerson Balla controlling the visuals. Emerson typically had nine film projectors running at once, and he'd run around the room switching film loops to the noise that Ron and I made. I always had a bottle of Seagrams 7 Whiskey that I'd drink before, during and after our set. Emerson drank some, too, to get in the mood. These performances were quite ear-shattering and I wish I had them documented. Oh well. At least I have the few "rehearsal" tapes that Ron and I made.
The tracks:
(note: there are only two, so they're linked individually)
01. 1/26/01 (Vagueness Visible)
02. 2/9/01
EckankoreMixdown 1 CS(n/a)2001
I've really been itching to post something, but time has been scarce, so Nightmare Mode's third release, this digital-only EP seems perfect.
From what I understand, Danny and Nikki up and quit, so Ammo quickly assembled these songs (out-takes?) and uploaded them to the internet. All things considered, it's a pretty damn good EP, with three previously unreleased songs and two killer versions of songs from The Eht.
Ammo has since replaced Danny and Nikki and Nightmare Mode are still in action.
The images and music were uploaded with Ammo's consent. Thank you, Ammo!
Nightmare ModeHaste MP3(Nightmare Mode)2009
Sample track:
Salute to the Dead
Book of the Fucking Piece of Shit was the Fourth Book of Pope Goat VII, recorded August 15, 1999 entirely live in four takes. Everything was improvised within the span of that hour without any pre-arrangement or overdubs.
This was a "concept album" of sorts centered around our "catch-phrase for the new millenium," i.e., "fucking piece of shit." So, as we recorded, we complained about every little thing that popped into our heads, from Christians to guitar picks, deeming them all "fucking pieces of shit." We even made shitty Jeno's personal pizzas while recording.
This was a true and powerful display of His Holiness Pope Goat VII's power. It was an awesome sight to behold.
(Sir Billy the Phreek circa Summer 1999 - Photo by Sir Ackronomicon)
(note: psalms that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. Chapter I - Intro, band, world, Christians, TV, cops, batteries, blues, singers.
02. Chapter II - Tape, suburbia, houses, food, piano solo, picks, land, action movies, jewelry, commercials.
03. Chapter III - Sharks, Mike, stock market, Elton John, bass solo, pizza, weatherman, alarm clock, golf, dogs, slide, Cher/Sonny Bono/John Denver/JFK Jr.
04. Chapter IV - Wrestling, bands, babies, infomercials, shitty piece of fuck, president, doctors, Grammys, end.
Pope Goat VIIBook of the Fucking Piece of Shit CDR(MPAE/Hummer Productions)1999
Visit Pope Goat VII on MySpace!
Gearing up for the next issue of The Big Takeover, so I thought I'd get this up before I'm swamped in review hell.
I had heard about Justin Melkmann through "Crazy" Glenn Wernig of the New York Waste, who suggested we connect because of our mutual love of GG Allin. We exchanged a few emails, but they went nowhere. Finally, I met Justin and his girlfriend (now wife) Trish at "Crazy" Glenn's house-warming party. They were super-cool people and I discovered that Justin also shares my love of Black Flag and old hardcore/punk rock as well. He worships Lou Reed, too!
Hey, any band that combines Damaged-era Black Flag with GG Allin is A-OK in my book.
World War IX
