The Jesus Lizard

Much like Godflesh last week, The Jesus Lizard were one of those bands that for a long time I had heard of but never actually heard.  I remember that they put out a split single with Nirvana that I completely failed to buy at the time; and that frontman David Yow was arrested for indecent exposure at some festival or other after playing a game of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" with Courtney Love of Hole.

And that was about the sum total of my knowledge until an afternoon of digging around in my local second hand record den revealed a Jesus Lizard rich seam.

Not that it was an especially enlightening experience at the time.  Mostly I came to the conclusion that it was all a barely listenable racket.  And whilst I diligently gave the records another try every now and then, I still didn't really get it until I saw them play live at one of the ATP festivals a few years back.  And with Yow crawling over the crowd towards me, malicious intent written in sweat across his writhing features as he howled "I can't swim, I CAN'T SWIM", I realised with horror that the jarring, angular, smashed melodies of the music had spun a paralysing hex on me and I was sure to die.

And in that moment, I got it.

You won't like them.







Website: nope
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thejesuslizardpage
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jesus-Lizard/10640406914
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jesus_Lizard

Joy Division

Lots of my other favourite bands have covered a variety of Joy Division songs at some point or another.  Come to think of it, it took a surprisingly long time for me to hear a Joy Division song that was actually performed by Joy Division.

I think their bleak miserabalist post punk indie racket has aged quite well.

Probably explains why I'm listening to so much of it right now.







Website: nope
Myspace: nope
Facebook: nope
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division

Stanford Prison Experiment

Just to be clear - I am talking about a band here, not the prison experiment of the same name.  I mean, it was a pretty great prison experiment that had lasting implications in the way that psychological studies were carried out; but all that belongs in another blog (this week, the greatest/most traumatising prison experiment in the world ever is...)


So, Stanford Prison Experiment - the band.


First contact was a video shown on the now long defunct Noisy Mothers, a rock/metal/alternative tv show that used to air at around 3am on a Saturday some time in the mid nineties.  It was eventually axed due to poor viewing figures, the schedulers at the station apparently not being keen students of cause and effect.  Anyway, I forget what the song was; but the name of the band stuck in my head.  And there it stayed, jostling for position with other useless facts, until a few years later when I stumbled across their entire back catalogue (all three records of it) in a second hand record shop.


They don't sound a lot like anyone else I can think of; though that probably says more about how little punk and post-hardcore I was listening to in the mid nineties than how innovative SPE were.  Although having thirty minutes of a Noam Chomsky lecture as a bonus track is a fairly unique proposition...


In any case, those three records still sound pretty fucking great to me; and I'm kind of surprised that SPE didn't achieve greater recognition at the time.











Website: nope
Myspace: nope
Facebook: nope
Wikipedia: nope

future of the left

future of the left were initially cobbled together from the leftover bits of Jarcrew and mclusky.  Or possibly blended together from all the finest bits of Jarcrew and mclusky.  It's hard to tell, I've never really given Jarcrew or mclusky much of a listen.  I'll get around to it eventually.


In any case, future of the left might perhaps have been destined to join my musical to-do list behind their ancestors, but for the fine set that I drunkenly stumbled into at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival.  A finer display of alternative rock and contempt for morons I have seldom seen, and cash was instantly exchanged for records.


And, as is so often the case with my perilously short attention span, I more or less forgot about them until the song The Lord Hates A Coward shuffled its way to the top of my playlist.  This mostly resulted in my spending the day singing "she's got a lot of pickled onions hanging from her thighs" to myself, much to the bemusement of my work colleagues.


After a bit of a re-shuffle, future of the left are now cobbled together from the leftover/bestest bits of future of the left and other stuff - new bassist Julia played in the very excellent Million Dead, whilst new guitarist Jimmy Watkins' past is altogether more sinister and mysterious.  By which I mean I couldn't find out by looking at the first Google result.


It would seem that all the swagger and bile is still very much present and correct however, if the first release from the new record "Sheena is a T-shirt Salesman" is anything to go by.  The band is touring very soon - go and throw money at them so they'll keep doing this sort of thing.











Website: http://futureoftheleft.net/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/futureoftheleft
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/futureoftheleft
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Left

Melvins

I've mentioned before that I dislike repeating myself here.

Hence the delay. I kind of hoped that something else would pop up and rock my entire world.

But in a week where I saw the Melvins play to a sold out Thekla, there was only going to be one greatest band in the world ever.

Website: http://www.melvins.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/themelvins

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvins

The Icarus Line

I thought these guys had called it quits years ago; but then last month I read a review for a new record. After a bit more digging, I discovered that they hadn't gone anywhere - I'd just stopped paying attention. They even had a small line-up change and released a third record while I wasn't looking, the tricksy bastards.

I'm pleased to say that I am now, more or less, back up to speed with The Icarus Line - no doubt a prelude to a massive resurgence in my ignorance. In the meantime, I am happily reacquainting myself with their obnoxious brand of sleazy brat-punk.

I heartily recommend that you do the same.

Website: http://theicarusline.org/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theicarusline

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Icarus_Line

At The Drive-In

This month, my music periodical of choice recognised ATD-I's third and final record Relationship of Command as the seminal post-hardcore masterpiece that it most certainly is. And I thought to myself, about bloody time.

And then I realised that I hadn't listened to that record for, like, years.

Which - by my own admission - is fucking shameful. I don't remember how, when or where I first heard it, but Relationship... is a definite entry on my list of all-time, must-have, listen-to-this-or-die-screaming-with-sharp-things-in-your-head totally fucking awesome records.

Now if I can only work out what the other records on that list are, I can start a big gay blog about that too.

Website: http://fearlessrecords.com/atdi/main.html

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/atdi

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Drive-In

Melvins

I made a very conscious decision to leave my mp3 player behind when I went on holiday. Partly because it's just another thing to lose/break/drop into my fruity cocktail; but mainly because if I had taken it with me I would have spent the entire time time listening to the Melvins, to the complete exclusion of all other activities. Including sleeping, eating and washing. And it would be shame to go all the way to the Greek Islands without trying out their leading brand of shower gel at least once.

A few days before I left, my good friend Smith gave me a heads up that they would be playing in my favourite shipwreck in November; I immediately squealed with delight, bought a pair of tickets and ordered two more records for good measure. Nine days later, and I am still giddy with anticipation. The next two months are going to be hard to get through.

Plenty of other people have tried before me to explain how fucking great this band is; and as much as I'm in favour of plagiarising the best bits and standing on the shoulders of giants, I fear that this will merely provide me with a better view when I too run out of superlatives. You'll just have to take my word for it that the Melvins are way better than your favourite band, and probably have twice as many drummers too.

Website: http://www.melvins.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/themelvins

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvins

Kepone

I once read a review for these guys in some magazine, which said something along the lines of "Kepone's ascent to rock stardom is unlikely to be interrupted by bassist Michael Bishop winning Miss World."

Hardly a startling observation. But based on this entirely uninformative piece of music journalism, and the fact that two of my other favourite bands at the time had names beginning with the letter K (Kyuss and Karma To Burn, if you're wondering), I picked up a record.

I'm not too sure what I was expecting; probably something a bit sludgy or stoner, and almost certainly not the abrasive hick-punk that did spill out of my speakers. It was damn good though, and got even better when they meandered off into more improvised sounding jams.

They are now, of course, quite defunct. As far as I can tell, they were generally well regarded but not exactly commercially successful. Despite Michael Bishop never winning Miss World.

Website: nope

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/keponetribute (tribute page)

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepone_(band)

Die! Die! Die!

From New Zealand, apparently.

I picked up the second of their three records a week or so ago; and whilst I haven't exactly been wearing it out with repeated spins, it has still been a fairly regular feature. There's something about their scuzzy lo-fi shoe-gazey Joy Division-esque indie punk racket that sticks to my brain like a boiled sweet to an ironic cardigan.

Website: http://diediedieband.com/

Myspace:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_die_die

Trash Talk

I don't normally go for punk that much, but these four jerks from Sacramento have completely taken a hold of me.

It's raw, urgent, violent and chaotic; and it's pretty much all I'm listening to at the moment.

This one's off their new record Eyes & Nines; it's called Explode. I think it's about stuff exploding.

Website: http://trashtalkhc.com/eyesandnines/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/trashtalkfu

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trash_Talk_(band)