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(Exclusivos live - Photo courtesy Nef)
I checked them out on MySpace and was completely astounded at the completely original, unique songs I heard. They gave me a CD at a later ULTRABASTARD! show and I couldn't stop listening to it. It was just so DIFFERENT. Here's what I wrote for Under the Volcano #93:
From the sinister concrete jungle of the Bronx comes what is quite possibly the oddest band I've heard since Arab on Radar - The Exclusivos. Combining Captain Beefheart insanity with arrangements reminiscent of early Fall, these five outsiders contort their way through eight songs that syncopate like the Birthday Party and trip out like some of the funkiest West African Psychedelia to actually make it to the States. Top it all off with a singer that delivers his lyrics with the mind-altered, yet controlled, monotone of Can's Malcolm Mooney and you're left wondering whether your're listening to a band or a music therapy session at Bellevue. I sincerely hope (believe) that this rough, raw recording is just an inkling of what will come in the future. To quote their song 'The Ballad of Fred': 'The lightning's always frightening when it comes before the thunder.' This recording is the lightening.
Unfortunately, some inner turmoil tore the band apart shortly before ULTRABASTARD! was set to play our first show with them. There have been some attempts at getting the band back together, but nothing's been solid as of yet.
And so, I'm proud to announce the second "official" MPAE blog release. These songs were recorded on a Fostex multi-tracker between late '05 and early '06, according to guitarist/keyboardist Nef. Download it and leave comments to let the band know you want them back in action!
ExclusivosDemos MP3(MPAE)2009
Tracklist:
(note: songs that are linked can be downloaded as samples)01. Forces Unknown
02. Drip
03. The Machinist
04. Just a Thought
05. Ballad of Fred
06. Have You
07. Fargunstein
08. Tradition
09. Rage, Hate
10. Sad Ending
11. Changing (My Ways)
12. Untitled (Version 1)
13. Untitled (Version 2)
14. Dead Man's Curve
15. Breaking News
16. The Devils Dogs
(Photo of M7 by NASA)
Songs About Girls Who Never Existed was one of the first albums I finished after I moved to NY. I was having a really hard time connecting with anybody musically, as I was (and still am) on the ass end of Long Island where people get their cultural relevance from television and radio. I actually had some redneck asshole tell me that the music I like couldn't be any good since he hadn't heard of it. So I holed myself in my apartment, got really drunk and stoned and recorded music on my own.
I'd been a huge Helios Creed fan since I was 14, and I always wanted to do something along those lines. I even bought a bunch of effects pedals to get that spacey sound. Finally, I decided to put together some older tracks of mine, record some new tracks, and have a spacerock "band" of my own.
I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. My dad was even impressed with my guitar playing. Maybe you'll dig it, too.
Best heard under the influence of something or other.
About the songs:
(note: songs that are linked can be downloaded as samples)
01. I Saw You (Crying) - An old song from my solo recordings. Go here for more info.
02. Lady Dragon - Another old song from my solo recordings. Go here for more info.
03. Descent Into Your Mind - This was the first song I recorded after buying my Danelectro phaser pedal. It had been a long night working in the bar (I was a barback) and I was irritated at having to listen to Rush on the satellite radio, so I went home with a few drinks in me, quickly assembled my recording gear and basically improvised this. It's mostly influenced by The Butthole Surfers' "Human Cannonball," especially in the vocals. It's a fun song.
04. Mistress Morphing - The guitar riff was inspired by a song from the cult science fiction animated movie Rock & Rule, where the character, Mok, is summoning a demon in Ohm Town. I believe this was recorded under the influence of opiate pills, hence the pun title.
05. Space Flying - This was centered around a riff I had written for The Gardeners that was really influenced by Neu! and Stereolab. I kept it an instrumental and recorded two guitar tracks. I always liked this one.
06. Xolotl/I Wanna Be Your Dog - "Xolotl" was a song I wrote for Anubis Rising, but I was never happy with the way it came out with them, so I redid it and tacked The Stooges to the end for some reason (probably because I could, and because I wanted to do a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that didn't try to sound like The Stooges for once). By the way, "Xolotl" means "monster" in Nahuatl, the language of pre-Columbian Mezo-American cultures, i.e. Aztecs.
Messier 7Songs About Girls Who Never Existed CDR(MPAE)2001
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
(Exclusivos live - Photo courtesy Nef)
I checked them out on MySpace and was completely astounded at the completely original, unique songs I heard. They gave me a CD at a later ULTRABASTARD! show and I couldn't stop listening to it. It was just so DIFFERENT. Here's what I wrote for Under the Volcano #93:
And so, I'm proud to announce the second "official" MPAE blog release. These songs were recorded on a Fostex multi-tracker between late '05 and early '06, according to guitarist/keyboardist Nef. Download it and leave comments to let the band know you want them back in action!
Exclusivos
