Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band-Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)

After the free-form weirdness that was Trout Mask Replica, Captain Beefheart, with his Magic Band, decided to record another album that is as weird as its predecessor, but with an actual concept and more jazz elements. The album, released in 1970, was Lick My Decals Off, Baby. Despite the “cock rock” nature of the title, don’t expect any Led Zeppelin hard rock stylings here, as the album is mostly a concept album tackling environmental issues. Don Van Vliet sure was one of the most conservationist figures, despite his lyrical and poetic weirdness, in the 1970’s experimental music scene, and he famously called the Earth “God’s Golfball”.

So far, I bought four tracks off of this mighty weird album off of iTunes, and hopefully I will buy the complete album pretty soon.

Before the album’s release, a Dada-inspired TV commercial for the album was produced, featuring stuff such as a gloved hand throwing what appears to be bullets, members of the Magic Band using kitchen utensils as instruments with black cloaks on their heads, and an overly-kistchy 1950’s-style voiceover. This commercial was so weird that when I first watched it, it made me retroactively interested in the album. Unlike Trout Mask Replica, however, parts of this were not recorded in an old house, nor were there any “bush recording” segments, as this album was recorded in an actual studio. As I can tell, there are no weird musique concrete sound effects like in Trout Mask Replica, but it’s still an album worth listening to.

The tracks:

“Lick My Decals Off, Baby”-The opening title track kicks things off in a speed-freak manner, until slowing down into a jazzy breakdown with Don’s raspy vocals. The guitars are very wiry and trebly, and the percussion is clicking, clacking, and bashing all the way through.

“Doctor Dark”-In a similar manner to the first, but in a similar style to the track “Hair Pie: Bake 2” from TMR. This time, it does have vocals. The cymbals begin to blast off, and the guitar solo is very down-and-dirty.

“I Love You, You Big Dummy”-This track is driven by an electrically-distorted chromatic harmonica, which sounds like a wheezing motor-driven machine. The instrumentation seems to stop and start if the drums are anything to go by.

“Peon”-A Spanish folk music-style instrumental duel between an acoustic guitar and an electric bass. The acoustic guitar has a more steel-stringed quality, while the electric bass sounds very deep and monotone.

“Ballerin’ Plain”-A jazzy number with distorted guitars and cymbal-driven drums. Later, you hear a guitar solo with bass playing without the other instruments and vocals, and after a while, there’s another duel between a guitar and a marimba. The Captain wails away on his bass clarinet at the end of the track.

“Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop”-A catchy tune driven by sloppy marimba which sometimes sounds like a calypso musician somehow jammed with the wrong band. But, I think that is a fine style to my taste.

“Japan in a Dishpan”-This instrumental track is driven by honking, bleating bass clarinet which sometimes sounds like car horns. The background music gives this track an even more abstract atmosphere. At the end, the bass clarinet blurbs away, only to be drowned out by a fade-out.

“I Wanna Find Me a Woman That’ll Hold My Big Toe Until I Have to Go”-Another jazzy love song that this time is driven by marimba. The ending to this track is rather repetitive, but it’s not a tape loop.

“Petrified Forest”-A dark, dramatic piece about what’s happening to the environment, but not as dark and surprising as “Flash Gordon’s Ape”.

“One Red Rose That I Mean”-An instrumental jam performed only with a country folk-style acoustic guitar.

“The Buggy Boogie Woogie”-This piece is going towards a more cool jazz approach, driven by a Rolling Stones-style guitar riff, a much deeper electric bass, and two brooms as the only source of percussion. The lyrics give a hotel broom-sweeping analogy with “too many feet” to describe overpopulation.

“The Smithsonian Institute Blues (or The Big Dig)”-This begins with a crime mystery-style melody performed with electric bass and marimba, before turning into a bluesy number with guitar and jazzy percussion. The lyrics describe fossils.

“Space-Age Couple”-In a rapid style to the first track, but it stays in that manner for much of the song. The percussion seems to be the leading component of this track. Later on, you hear a short, sometimes funky, electric bass solo, before becoming a percussion-driven time warp by the end. The lyrics describe air pollution, not George and Jane Jetson if that’s what you’re thinking!

“The Clouds are Full of Wine (Not Whiskey or Rye)”-The intro is driven by guitar, bass, and marimba, before percussion gives way to the Captain’s singing, which this time is not as gruff, but rather in a Frank Sinatra-style manner. The track ends with a marimba solo.

“Flash Gordon’s Ape”-This closing track is the most experimental piece on the whole album. This is driven by an apocalyptic collage of screaming, honking, nightmare-inducing saxophones (and bass clarinet), backed by a guitar-driven boogie. When the Captain is done singing for a while, the saxophones begin to sound like distorted car horns. In the middle of the track, there is a jazzy, sometimes majestic marimba solo. After the marimba solo, the guitar-driven boogie starts again, but the saxophone and bass clarinet collage becomes more chaotic, later sounding like something out of the musical score for a 1950’s romantic sitcom. When the drums begin increasing in tempo, the album ends with the saxophones squeaking like a bunch of dog toys.

Los Angeles Free Music Society-I.D. Art #2 (1976)

Mac McCloud-“A. Mac McCloud/B. Mac McCloud”
The first section consists of overdubbed vocal drones. The second section is a beatnik-esque spoken word piece that consists of two voices overdubbed on top of each other.

Harold Schroeder-“Silent Rituals”
This piece features desolate electronic drones that were performed on a synthesizer, but sounds like they could’ve been produced on a Hammond organ. It also has some electric guitar sounds, bass, oboe musette, and some mechanical noises. Later, you hear a distorted voice that sounds like it was spoken through a dictaphone.

Greg Neutra/J.D. Elliot-“Grieg Fatigue”
A sound collage consisting of recordings of classical music being layered on top of each other.

Smegma-“A. Rrose Selavy Will Wait For My Washing Machine, Even/B. The Andalusian Dog Often Digs into the Furniture with Onyx Fingers”
The first track consists of a recording of a washing machine and some out-of-tune trumpet-like noises. The second track is a recording of a saxophone being played backwards, backed by oscillator drones.

Smegma-“Potatoe War”
Starting with a deep chanting, a short diddy with vocals about potatoes and a Jew’s harp plays for the rest of the song as the chant continues.

Fredrik Nilsen-“You Can’t Hide From Aldehyde”
A collage of tape loops of random freak-out weirdness.

Le Forte Four-“Discarded Portion of the Soundtrack for Rick’s Film “Burger Madness”
A 14-second noise collage piece, as performed on a “Boop-o-graph” by Joe Potts, that was used as part of the soundtrack for a high school film project that Joe’s brother Rick Potts had made. I was lucky enough to ask Rick on Facebook about it, since he was one of my Facebook friends, he told me that the film was about a guy who goes to Jack in the Box, eats a cheeseburger, and then has hallucinations.

Miles Forst-“Art, Art, Art”
A recording of a woman making coughing sounds, along with some background noise and dialogue.

Smegma-“One Moment”
A sound collage of a rock music jam session (that was later reversed) and samples from various music and TV shows (or radio broadcasts), all spliced together and manipulated in an interlocking manner.

Smegma-“Pigface Blues”
A short diddy with vocals and out-of-tune acoustic guitar.

Doug Henry-“View This Command as a Verbal Enactment of a Command”
Just 15 seconds of the guy saying the track’s title (backed by an electronic buzz), followed by some silence.

Josie Roth-“Heal, and Another Little Time”
A recording of what sounds like a toy animal, or something like that.

Joe Potts-“I Don’t Want to Go to the Farm”
A collage of random singing voices.

Otto Fick-“Untitled”
A tape loop of flute sounds and a voice about satisfaction. A different voice accompanies the tape loop. The track ends with an out-of-tune flute finale.

Smegma-“Excerpt From: I’ll Have Julie Nixon-Eisenhower For My Appetizer (Sour Lungs to My Surprise)”
A noise rock jam with distorted electric guitar, bass, flute, kazoo, random sounds, strange vocals, and weird electronic effects that sounds like a UFO. An extreme attempt at trying to impersonate The Mothers of Inventions’ 1968 album We’re Only in it For the Money.

Karen Kato-“Xmas 1952”
An old home recording of the Kato family during Christmastime in 1952, as recorded on a phonograph. The recording ends with a locked groove, meaning that the last part loops at the end.

J. J. Allen Vargas-“Victim of Racism”
The first half consists of records being speed-manipulated with a turntable. The second half consists of samples from Looney Tunes cartoons.

Le Forte Four-From “The Origin of Largie Shrapnel”
Performed by Rick Potts with trashcan tympanies, bass, piano, and cartoonish vocals, this was an excerpt from another film project by the aforementioned composer.

Dennis Guy Mehaffey-“Busta Nosa”
A piece consisting of warped records that could also have been speed manipulated. This perfectly recalls the second Neu! album.

M/R/Zuniga-“Vulnerability: Rape, Male vs. Female”
Beginning with some tiny sped-up voices and electronic percussive sounds, this leads into a creepy horror movie-style piece with a teenage girl repeating the words “raping my mind” like a schizophrenic.

Mike Green-“Martin Heiddeger Revisited”
A collage of a rapid spoken word piece and singing.

Le Forte Four-“I Haven’t Heard You For A Long Time…”
A short conversation between a woman and Chip Chapman on a CB radio. This piece was recorded at “Loud Mouth” Dunn’s CB shop in El Monte.

Dennis Guy Mehaffey-“A. Introduction by Buckminster Fuller/B. I Stumble/You Laugh”
The first track is a spoken introduction about a radio broadcast. The second track consists of a piece with strange guitar sounds and mechanical percussion. The guitar was played by the one and only Mr. Foon, who also recorded a piece for this album. 

Le Forte Four-“Fat Ape”
A piece composed by Tom Potts for distorted voice and Mexican radio. The way the voice is distorted sounds like it was processed through a cheap vocoder-esque device.

Jules Lemelle-“Untitled”
A field recording backed by the sound of a clock ticking. You also hear a motorcycle revving later on. The sound quality makes it sound like it was recorded on a cassette tape.

Maureen Abbott-“Untitled”
A 14-second recording of a woman speaking, backed by an electronic buzz.

Smegma-“Take One”
An free jazz composition featuring an out-of-tune hammer dulcimer, bass, clarinet drones (both performed on an acoustic clarinet and a metal clarinet), koto, “flax”, trombone, violin, and tape effects (credited as “toons” on the original release).

Dan Weiss/P. Hamilton Ross-“A Bicentennial Tribue to America’s Freight Trains”
A recording of two guys talking about freight trains in a beatnik manner, along with some harmonica sounds.

Mr. Foon-“Timeless #1”
The album’s longest track, clocking in at 5:50. This track is a sound collage consisting of a continuous, stereo-panning tape loop of a telephone voice sample (it pauses at points throughout the song), singing, various samples, out-of-tune instruments, and random noises.

Bertil Petersson-“Monologue to Henry VIII”
A spoken word voice consisting of a woman, in a number of voices, speaking as if to King Henry VIII.

Amrein & Stoll-“Untitled”
A piece featuring: (1) deep electronic drones and African thumb piano, (2) deep saxophone-like noises, (3) an electronic rumbling sound, and (4) more deep drones and some metallic clanging.

Ace & Duce-“Dogs Are Barking”
A short recording of acoustic guitar, a man singing, and a dog barking.

Irene Dogmatic/Rose Tattoo-“Untitled”
A piece featuring a reverbed female voice, another voice (that sings later on), and some acoustic guitar playing.

Gordon Shields-“Cotton Duck, Up and Back”
A recording of some tearing noises with the tape played backwards and forwards.

Donald Spaulding-“I Don’t Want This to Happen”
A tape loop of the guy saying the words of the title. 

Tom Kemp-“Pasadena Subway Station Poetry Stills”
A recording of the guy reciting his poetry in a subway station, with real acoustic reverberation on the guy’s voice.

Janice Felger/Joan Hugo-“One Minute of Art News Update in 30 Seconds”
The title says it all!

Sue Farthing-“Untitled”
22 seconds of background noise

Waynna Kato-“White/Noise”
To me, this track sounds like a lo-fi recording of scraping violin noises backed by some old recordings and other random sounds. At the end, you hear a recording of an electric guitar playing a surf music-style melody.

Jim Abuan/Peter Muzzey-“Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad?”
A loud refrain recorded over the telephone.

Juan Gomez-“This is My Country”
A lo-fi recording of schoolchildren singing the titular song, backed by a grand piano, glockenspiel, and percussion.

P.J. Campbell-“Untitled”
Just one minute of silence with nothing else!

Kathe Schreyer-“Don’t Make Me Laugh”
A woman making high-pitched laughing. At the end, the recording sounds like it was going through a filter, with some reverb to top it all off.

Mary Dana Chodzko-“Patty Smith by Mary Dana Chodzko”
A poetic a capella that could easily be one of the very first hip-hop songs!

Gary Laskin-“Have Sex With Rex”
A recording of a fictional dating service.

Jean Koller-“Dream”
And so, the album ends with a woman giving a description of one of her dreams.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band-Trout Mask Replica (1969)

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of one of the greatest experimental rock albums of all time, which would happen to be Trout Mask Replica. It was released on CD many times, but it never made its way to iTunes for some strange reason (I get lots of my music off of iTunes), but I was lucky enough to hear the full thing on YouTube plenty of times before I would have a chance of buying it. I remember when I first listened to it a couple years ago, and I thought it was one of the most awesome things I had ever listened to. In fact, some of this was recorded in an old abandoned house! Don Van Vliet, as is the real name of Captain Beefheart, sure is a musical genius!

I remember reading the album’s credits, but they looked rather plain (but it did give out some of the instruments used). So, for this reason. when I describe each of the tracks for this review, I’m going to give personnel credits to each of the songs, just to add to the album’s weirdness!

“Frownland”-An electric boogie starts, but Don’s vocals quickly deconstructs the song into interlocking guitar noise. Not like noisecore in the Gerogerigegege fashion, but more in an electric blues style. This is a good way to start the album, by the way!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-lead guitar, steel appendage guitar (slide guitar with a steel slide)
Zoot Horn Rollo-lead guitar, glass finger guitar (slide guitar with a glass slide)
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“The Dust Blows Forward n’ the Dust Blows Back”-A lo-fi a capella sung by Don, and he pauses the cassette recorder several times throughout the song, meaning that the song could’ve been improvised

Captain Beefheart-vocals

“Dachau Blues”-A song about the Holocaust. This song starts in an ominous manner, and Don’s voice sounds more deeper. The drums began to have a much slower beat. He also plays a deep droning bass clarinet in the background, at times sounding like some of the music you hear in the original Thomas the Tank Engine series. At the end, there’s a field recording of Rockette Morton giving an impromptu narrarion.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, bass clarinet
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar, narration
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-field recording

“Ella Guru”-An interlocking song about a pretty woman. Throughout the song, you hear random voices talking, and Antennae performs vocals with his hand cupped over his mouth. This was credited in the notes as a “flesh horn”.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, flesh horn
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
The Mascara Snake-voice
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-voice

“Hair Pie: Bake 1”-This track is a “bush recording”, beginning with an improv duo between Don’s saxophone and The Mascara Snake’s bass clarinet. Since this is a field recording, you can hear various outside sound effects. Both instruments were panned perfectly, in an atmospheric manner. Afterwards, the Magic Band strikes up a tune, recorded inside of the house that they recorded this in, with the other two instruments outside. Later, the Magic Band’s music gradually becomes louder, eventually drowning out Captain Beefheart and the Mascara Snake. The track ends with Don talking to two unidentified neighbors, with sounds such as doors opening and closing, an airplane flying, a dog barking, and some other outside sounds.

Captain Beefheart-tenor saxophone, voice
The Mascara Snake-bass clarinet
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-bush recording, effects
Dialogue provided by two anonymous contributors

“Moonlight On Vermont”-A more garage rock-oriented tune centered around distorted guitars. In the middle of the track, you hear some guitar feedback, and some more feedback while the band are still playing.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, feedback
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Gary “Magic” Marker-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Pachuco Cadaver”-This begins with Don talking about “a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag”. After that comes a jam driven by Rockette Morton’s bass. A strange tenor saxophone solo comes in later on.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, tenor saxophone, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Bill’s Corpse”-I can’t describe this song!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Sweet Sweet Bulbs”-This song has a more country feel to it. The lyrics describe a garden.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish”-This is a jazzy tune driven by Don’s vocals, which sounds like it was processed through a small speaker to give it a very tinny quality. He also plays a simran horn and an oboe musette.

Captain Beefheart-robot voice, simran horn, oboe musette
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“China Pig”-This is a lo-fi delta blues piece played by Doug Moon on acoustic guitar with Don singing about a piggy bank. Near the end of the song, there is a tape splicing sound effect.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Doug Moon-acoustic guitar
Gary “Magic” Marker-tape splice

“My Human Gets Me Blues”-This is another interlocking song that has really weird vocals.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Dali’s Car”-A minimalist/modern classical-style guitar duel without any other accompaniment.

Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar

“Hair Pie: Bake 2”-The same rock melody from “Hair Pie: Bake 1”, but this time was recorded in an actual studio. The track ends with the sound of sleigh bells that gets sped-up to sound like a vacuum cleaner. Don was indeed a vacuum cleaner salesman at one point.

Captain Beefheart-sleigh bell tin tear drop
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-special effect

“Pena”-Beginning with some studio dialogue, this leads into a really weird tune with high-pitched, very nonsensical, girly ranting backed by high-pitched barking.

Antennae Jimmy Semens-lead vocals, steel appendage guitar
Captain Beefheart-voice, barking
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
The Mascara Snake-voice
Drumbo-drums
Frank Zappa-voice

“Well”-The album’s second a capella. This, however, is not a lo-fi recording. The reverberation in Don’s voice comes from the house’s acoustic setting.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals

“When Big Joan Sets Up”-The album’s lognest track, coming in at over 5 minutes. In this song, Don plays an even weirder tenor saxophone solo. Some of the instruments stop and start at a couple of points.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, tenor saxophone
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Fallin’ Ditch”-This bluesy track begins with a musique concrete intro of sound effects and dialogue. The sound effects heard in the intro are:

1. An amplified recording of someone munching on food with Laurie Stone, Captain Beefheart’s girlfriend at the time, talking in the background
2. A recording of Laurie’s laughter that was sped-up, with some clacking sounds accompanying it
3. Tiny static
4. A tape-spliced voice that darts like a laser beam

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar, narration
Drumbo-drums
Laurie Stone-voice
Frank Zappa-tape effects

“Sugar n’ Spikes”-I can’t describe this track, either!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, background vocals
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Ant Man Bee”-This track has Don playing a soprano saxophone and a tenor saxophone simultaneously.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, tenor and soprano saxes played simultaneously
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Orange Claw Hammer”-The album’s last a capella, sung in the form of a sea shanty. At one point, when Don pauses the tape recorder between verses, his voice warps a little. This is common in most lo-fi recorders of the time.

Captain Beefheart-vocals

“Wild Life”-Much of the guitars in the beginning of this track have a proto-grunge feel to it due to the distortion. Later, a jazzy bass clarinet solo comes in.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, bass clarinet
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“She’s Too Much for My Mirror”-This song begins with a radio announcer-style voice. After that is a short jam about a beautiful woman. At the end, Don’s voice echoes off into the distance, with a tiny bit of commentary to end it all.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums
Dick Kunc-announcement

“Hobo Chang Ba”-This track is driven by jingle bells. At one point, you hear a tiny flute noise

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals, jingle bells
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar, flute noise
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)”-In this song, Frank Zappa’s group, the Mothers of Invention, plays their composition “Charles Ives”, while Antennae Jimmy Semens recites impromptu poetry by way of telephone, with Don accompanying him on a hunting horn. In some points, the drums roll off into space, some brass instruments honk like car horns, and a piano can be heard futzing about.

Captain Beefheart-hunting horn, voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-voice
Roy Estrada-bass guitar
Arthur Tripp III-drums, percussion
Don Preston-piano
Ian Underwood-tenor saxophone
Bunk Gardner-alto saxophone
Buzz Gardner-trumpet
Frank Zappa-voice, telephone

“Steal Softly Thru Snow”-I can’t describe this track as well!

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Old Fart At Play”-One of the album’s best-known songs. This consists of the band accompanying the Captain’s bizarre poetic ranting. This is also where the title of the album comes in. At the end, Antennae can be heard speaking in a hippie manner.

Captain Beefheart-voice
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar, voice
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Rockette Morton-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

“Veteran’s Day Poppy”-The track ends with a song about some veteran’s day poppy, but if the lyrics are any indication, the song might have been about a psychedelic drug.

Captain Beefheart-lead vocals
Antennae Jimmy Semens-steel appendage guitar
Zoot Horn Rollo-glass finger guitar
Gary “Magic” Marker-bass guitar
Drumbo-drums

Negativland-Negativland (1980)

A month ago, I posted an article about how the arena rock band Journey is related to the sound collage/Plunderphonics group Negativland. Now, it’s time for me to post an actual review of a Negativland album. That album is their 1980 self-titled debut album. This album I listened to on YouTube when someone uploaded the full thing, and Negativland themselves are busy working on a reissue of this album, mainly for an iTunes release along with the two albums that came after this one (this is what Negativland actually told me on their official Facebook page when I asked them when will the first three albums come out on iTunes). I get a lot of my music off of iTunes, and here’s what they told me on Facebook about the album’s cover art (I’ll explain it after):

“The 1980 release had 9000 vinyl and 6000 CD covers made over the years, all by hand, each one totally unique! We’ve never quite known how to translate that into a download. But we do have a big surprise planned related to this in the next year or so!”

The album’s releases on CD and vinyl had various handmade covers for each release, and the CD release included an insert containing a recipe for coffee toffee torte, which I included for this review.

Negativland, formed in Contra Costa County, California, were best known for using samples and electronics that conveyed messages related to politics, the music industry, copyright law, gun use, and radio programming. However, on the 1980 debut, this was home to a very different Negativland. This first version of Negativland was described by founding member Mark Hosler in an interview in Spinal Jaundice magazine in 1989:

“Our first record was in 1980. I was just graduating from high school when that came out. And a couple years previous to that we had started just messing around with a lot of loops and sounds and noises and tapes and stuff. We were in the suburbs, I really was not aware of what was going on in independent music. I wasn’t familiar with the more ‘classical’ experimental music history like John Cage, Stockhausen, Musique Concrete. I really don’t know why it is that with all the music we were listening to, that we said well, what we want to do is make these tape loops and turn on our oscillators and mix in the sound of the TV set and my mom in the kitchen baking a pie. You know, why are we doing this. It just seemed like that was what needed to be done.”

Mark Hosler and Richard Lyons, the two founding members of Negativland, recorded this album between late 1979 and mid-1980 when they were in high school at the age of 17. On board with them were David Wills, better known as The Weatherman, guitarists Peter Dayton and W. Kennedy M., a.k.a. Bill McFarland, and Joan Alderdice, who provided “bellbeating” on the album. The Weatherman introduced to Holser and Lyons the Booper, an electronic oscillator that he built in 1975 that was made out of a transistor radio that he circuit-bent and made into a noise machine. Many years prior, the Weatherman recorded tapes of his family, some of which you hear on this record. Negativland took their name from a song off of the 1972 self-titled debut album by Neu!, a German experimental Krautrock band who formed out of members of future techno innovators Kraftwerk. Neu! had largely influenced the project along with Faust, another Krautrock band from the 70’s that was more sound collage-oriented. The album was released on Seeland, an independent label set up by the band that also took their name from a Neu! song.

Here are the tracks, even though there are no actual track titles:

“#1”-A TV news broadcast plays along with sound effects treated with reverb. As the broadcast continues, a Cabaret Voltaire-style industrial jam starts, featuring echoey acoustic guitar, spooky synth bass, and a drum machine. The track ends with a tape recording of the Weatherman’s grandmother introducing the listener to Negativland (in a Firesign Theater-esque way), followed by a warped recording of what I think is a folk song. I can tell because I hear an acoustic guitar.

“#2”-Some faint conversation with a clock ticking. A Pink Floyd-style acoustic guitar melody plays, accompanied by various machine sound effects like a mechanical saw, a vacuum cleaner, and some more clock ticking.

“#3”-A droning electronic jam with synthesizer and a drum machine, playing in tune to a sample of a guy talking about a homicidal maniac. You also hear weird electronic noises, Captain Beefheart-esque clarinet, and more TV samples. The track ends with an interview with a fascist, anti-immigrant guy.

“#4”-A low rumbling wind sound effect leads into a strange, squeaky clarinet improv, like the Captain Beefheart track “Hair Pie: Bake 1”. A dog barks later on, and a startling Hammond organ noise appears to end the song. This may have been performed on a Hammond organ because it sounds all mechanical instead of being synthetic.

“#5”-Starts with the sound of banging and a lit-up fuse, as if like on a bomb, leading to a strange, futuristic sound collage improv filled with echoed Hawaiian slide guitar, acoustic guitar, clanging, banging and chiming percussion, synthesizer noises, backwards voice samples, distorted arena rock-style electric guitar soloing, video game-like sound effects, and the Booper.

“#6”-A new wave-style drum machine rhythm opens the track, along with droning synth, voice samples playing in tune to the music, and baroque-sounding viola. The Weatherman recites a bizarre spoken word segment in his very silly voice (it’s his natural voice!). It suddenly cuts into a short collage of electronic effects and voice samples.

“#7”-A short collage of TV samples (one of them has some classical music in the background, but is a lot noticeable when listening with headphones), droning industrial synth bass, and warbling noises coming from the Booper.

“#8”-Blurbing Booper noises appear, playing along to a desolate Jandek-style tune with deep acoustic guitar and bleating, emotionally-dissolute vocals.

“#9”-The majority of this song is a random secession of samples of singing schoolchildren, electronic noises, TV samples, and an organ chord. It ends with the sample of a schoolteacher talking to her students about silent E’s at the end of words.

“#10”-Beginning with a field recording, this leads into one of the two song-oriented pieces on the album. The song consists of a new wave tune with drum machine, electronically-distorted electric guitar, the Booper, clanking percussion, horns, and whispery vocals singing a love song.

“#11”-Out-of-tune trumpet-like synth noises starts the track, along with French voice samples and clarinet. It also has a tape loop of a Southern voice that continues throughout the rest of the track, along with a droning organ note, clanging cymbals and percussion sounds.

“#12”-A loud, distorted tape loop of a man saying the Hail Mary and a woman saying the Rosary.

“#13”-A collage of TV samples, polar wind sound effects, a continuous droning synth note, weird electronic sound effects (as like from an old transistor radio), CB radio samples, a helicopter, and a family tape from the Weatherman.

“#14”-Ambient synth sounds accompanied by a weird teen voice sample, leading to a collage of “wub-wub” synth bass, electric zapping noises, voice samples, and what sounds like a bird chirping. It ends with another collage consisting of distorted electronic noises and a TV sample of a woman talking about a book.

“#15”-The second song-oriented piece on the album. Beginning with a faint field recording, followed by some coughing, leading to a piece with bluesy acoustic guitar accompanied by experimental acoustic string sounds (maybe a duel between Peter and W.?), which sounds like someone placed his hand on a guitar’s strings against the body, thus producing weird muted sounds. You can also hear some more coughing, along with some very faint TV samples that are noticeable with headphones at a good volume level. I notice these because I have Beats headphones. Yes, they are the Dr. Dre headphones! The song cuts off abruptly at the end.

“#16”-An ominous chant leads into spacey synthesizer noises. Afterwards comes a collage of TV samples that were all thrown into and edited with a mixer. You can also hear a strange noise improvisation performed on the Booper.

“#17”-A strange improvisation featuring a slow drum machine rhythm, mechanical acoustic and electric guitar sounds, manipulated voice samples, and squeaky, high-pitched electronic sounds. You also hear some stretching noises by the end.

“#18”-A collage of electronic sounds, water sounds, and another family tape from the Weatherman.

“#19”-A collage that is more chaotic than tracks 5, 7, 13, and 16 combined! This starts off with an electronic alarm sound effect, leading into a piece with TV samples, loud synthesizer noises, samples of children, a phone conversation tape from the Weatherman, and a vinyl record being played (I can tell because of the background music and the audio quality, as you can hear some hissing). Afterwards, it fades out into a piece with CB radio recordings, lo-fi samples of people talking about Coca-Cola and Pepsi (accompanied by an old recording of opera music) and a sample of a small child having fun. The track ends with an ambient-sounding reverb effect.

“#20”-The final track has electronic cricket noises playing along to samples from old records; one coming from a classical music record (I think), and the other being a record talking about what real parakeets sound like. The album ends with artificial bird sound effects produced on a synthesizer.

To me, this is Negatviand’s finest work of the 1980’s, and I can’t wait for it when this gets on iTunes next year!

Rare Pink Floyd Reviews: The Soundtrack for the 1993 Documentary “Fractals: The Colors of Infinity”

In 1993, a documentary was released about the Mandelbrot Set and fractal geometry, called Fractals: The Colors of Infinity. I watched the first 22 minutes of the documentary, and it is rather fun to watch. However, I was also focused on hearing the unreleased background music that was done by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, but I’m going to say that the music was done by Pink Floyd because some of the tracks were recorded during the sessions of 1994’s The Division Bell album. One of them was later released on 2014’s The Endless River, which was the last official Pink Floyd album.

I’m going to go through the documentary to try and find the background music, listen to it (even though bits of dialogue and narration can be heard in the music, but it doesn’t matter), and then give a summary as I review it.

“#1”-The same music from the track “Things Left Unsaid” off of The Endless River, but this time featuring ambient bird sound effects.

“#2”-This is a heavy prog piece featuring Gilmour’s blazing guitar solo work, along with bass and 90’s crime drama-style percussion.

“#3”-An ambient piece featuring brassy synthesizer, similar to the opening of the Dire Straights song “Money for Nothing”.

“#4”-A jazzy piece driven by electric guitar and synthesizer. This reminds me of the song “Empty Night” by the South Korean group Sanullim (Mountain Echo), from their 1978 album Vol. 3.

“#5”-This has Hammond organ, atmospheric keyboards and soaring guitar work.

“#6”-Similar to the previous piece, with Hammond organ and guitar, but is more atmospheric and also featuring strange electronic sound effects.

“#7”-A track recorded during the Division Bell sessions, featuring ambient synths, tribal percussion, acoustic guitar, bass, and spacey guitar soloing. In fact, this was recorded as an exercise to the track “High Hopes”, before the final version of that particular track was recorded.

“#8”-This has a rapid synthesizer melody similar to the track “On the Run” from 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon, along with a rapid cymbal rhythm. I bet the synth used was an EMS VCS3.

“#9”-This has ambient synths, one of them is a string synth, another sounding like a flute.

“#10”-This is similar to the 7th track, but this time, it has different guitar melodies, and a more ambient string synth.

“#11”-The same music from the first track, minus the bird sound effects.

“#12”-The same as track 2, played during the documentary’s closing credits.

NOTE: Although there are 20 pieces of music that were used, I didn’t add or describe the other 8 tracks to the list because they are just very short snippets.

The complete documentary, with Pink Floyd’s soundtrack, can be found on DVD, but the soundtrack can also be found on the bootleg rarities CD box set A Tree Full of Secrets. I still don’t understand why the full soundtrack was never officially released in any form. However, it’s still a great soundtrack.

An Analysis of The Warner Bros. Album by the Residents (1971)

Here’s another review of a Residents demo tape. This time, it is not an actual review. It is an analysis of the band’s most anarchic-sounding psychedelic work, The Warner Bros. Album. The picture above was the cover of the actual tape box. Allow me to explain its partial history.

From late 1970-mid 1971, the band that became the Residents recorded an album of 40 songs, all of them on a reel-to-reel tape, made with a very low budget and with crude instruments, and sent it to Warner Bros. Records in hopes of getting a recording contract with the label. The band sent it to that label because the label’s A&R manager, Hal Haverstadt, helped signed Captain Beefheart, who was a major influence for the project, to the label. When listening to the tape, Mr. Haverstadt was horrified, and probably psychologically-scarred, when he heard the music, and wondered what was the reason behind it. So, Hal rejected it, and since there was no name given on the return address, he sent it simply to “The Residents”. The photo below is the actual back cover of the original tape.

Let me try to give a theoretical history of this mighty weird album.

In 1969, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band released what was their most critically-acclaimed work, Trout Mask Replica. The album was considered to be one of the weirdest albums in rock music history. A year later, the Residents just finished recording a demo tape of desolate experimental psychedelic rock called Ballad of Stuffed Trigger. When the Residents bought a copy of Trout Mask Replica and listened to it for the first time, the band really liked the music, and thought that they could do the same. The band were recently discovered by Philip Lithman, a British musician who later became known as Snakefinger, as well as the Bavarian avant-garde composer N. Senada, whose existence is widely disputed. In fact, N. Senada was rumored at one point to be Captain Beefheart (real name Don Van Vliet) because the same house that Trout Mask Replica was recorded in was located on “Ensenada Drive” in Woodland Hills, California. When 1969 ended, Flower Power and the hippie generation were still becoming popular even as the 1960’s ended. Charles Bobuck, a member of the Residents, did gave out on the Residents website the history of “Moonman”, a pre-Residents track recorded on the day of the moon landing in July 1969. He said that at that time, the band liked to go to Psilocybin Beach and take psychedelic mushrooms, run around naked and then completely losing their minds. So, I think that this could mean that drug use played a role in the making of The Warner Bros. Album. When Snakefinger joined forces with the Residents, he took a violin with him, and the band began to make music. N. Senada also helped the Residents in their music at this point, too.

When the band tried to record something for Warner Bros. Records, I think stuff such as William S. Burroughs, Looney Tunes cartoons, Richard Nixon, The Beatles, guerilla art and grindhouse films all played a key role in the making of this tape. The Residents were a bunch of hyper-hippies at this point, and maybe the recording studio that the tape was made in was a living room that was covered in a bunch of psychedelic posters and strange junk. I also read on Discogs that the artwork, perhaps the back cover art, was done by N. Senada himself. The instruments used for the album included detuned acoustic guitar, violin (played by Snakefinger), drums, various percussion instruments, harmonica, low-watt electric guitar, distorted electric bass, kazoo, saxophone, barroom piano, upright bass, and tape effects (I’ll explain them later). According to The Cryptic Guide to the Residents, “strange liner notes” were designed for the inside of the tape box, and I guess the liner notes were a stream-of-conscious rant that was literally typed.

If Warner Bros. Records considered releasing The Warner Bros. Album, they would probably market it to stores under the label’s own categories, such as “Free-Form Comedy Noise”, “Sub-Surface Infiltration”, “Hillbilly Dada”, “Velvet Waste”, or “Discombobulated Country”.

I also have two theories about the album’s artwork:

1. The back cover of the tape shows guerilla-style artwork with figures that are (1) a schoolgirl who was one of the Residents’ friends when they were very young, and (2) Richard Nixon’s head on Mr. Peanut’s body, who is holding a plate with what appears to be a skyscraper. I’m thinking that this was a political statement, talking about Richard Nixon’s policies during the Vietnam War.
2. The inside artwork, which could be for the gatefold, consists of what I think could’ve been either: (1) Looney Tunes cartoon characters looking completely stoned, (2) various doodles of weird things, or (3) a group photo of the Residents during the recording of the album.

Let me give an analysis of some of the tracks heard on The Warner Bros. Album. However, I’m not going to describe all of them, since that would be a big waste of time.

“The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany” is a piece full of droning electric guitar, ukulele, jazzy drums, electric bass, harmonica and piano. The way the electric guitar was played sounds like it was fed through a broken fuzzbox, making it sound like an out-of-tune Indian instrument.

“Baby Skeletons & Dogs” features rather cartoonish lyrics, which describes things such as “an American dream” and a “washing machine”. I think the song was referencing America in the 1950’s.

“Stuffed Genital” is a short instrumental that consists of a recording of metal percussion and a cheap horn, and then the recording was gradually sped-up.

The track “A Merican Fag” has a little kid singing along with the Residents to this song. It sounds a bit creepy if the lyrics are any indication! Maybe the little kid is Lana Flynn, the daughter of Homer Flynn, one of the founders of the Cryptic Corporation, the Residents’ business management.

“Going to Arcata Blues” references Arcata, a city in Northern California that is located in Humboldt County. This track has a sound collage consisting of random hippies in the studio shouting random slogans typical of the Counterculture. You can also hear a couple of women’s voices, which could perhaps be girlfriends of a couple members of the band. At the same time of the recording of this track, Snakefinger and N. Senada appeared on a college radio station in Arcata, where they were performing a composition composed by N. Senada himself for saxophone and violin. This live broadcast was officially released on the Residents’ 1991 rarities compilation Daydream B-Liver, which was released on CD by Residents fan club label UWEB (Uncle Willie’s Eyeball Buddies).

“Black Velvet Original” can be best described as a hillbilly tape speed experiment, featuring violin, acoustic guitar, and percussion. Note that when the violin is sped-up, it sounds like a fiddle.

“Christmas Morning Foto” was an instrumental that was a free jazz piece featuring out-of-tune saxophone, acoustic and electric guitar, and percussion. This also experimented with tape speed effects because a majority of this piece, particularly the guitars and percussion, sound a bit warped.

“Snot & Feces Live at the Grunt Festival” is an instrumental consisting of a recording of acoustic guitar and drums. This time, the tape was gradually slowed down to achieve a desolate effect.

“Oh Yeah Upp Bop Shu Bop” is a free-form mix of country noise and doo-wop that sounds like an extreme attempt at impersonating both Dion & the Belmonts and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy all at the same time. The way the instruments were played sounds like the tape was warped and distorted a little, and had new vocals overdubbed on top. The lead vocals sound like a teenage hippie, and the background vocals sound like characters from The Simpsons.

The lead vocal on “Ohm is Where the Art Is” sounds strangely like Paul McCartney. A rumor was told thousands of times, particularly in Australia, that the Residents were in fact the Beatles!

“Concerto in R Flat Minor II” has a faint spoken word segment that is partially unintelligible. Some of the stuff I hear in the monologue include “Minnesota”, “special impact”, and “defective”. I posted the song to a Facebook group I made called “The Pre-Sidents: The Residents Before 1974”, and a person named Gary Childs commented:

“It sounds like he’s reading a product warranty. He’s saying the product will be replaced if it is defective.

This sounds like an example of “found object art”. He is reading the warranty label from some product. It’s like a boiler plate legal statement written by a lawyer from some corporation.”

Similarly, the album Music to Eat by the Hampton Grease Band, also from 1971, had lyrics read from encyclopedia pages and a can of spray paint.

Good ears, Gary! I’m very proud of you!

“Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture” is perhaps the only piece on the album to be more “commercial”, because it is a majestic piano tune. Since the album was rejected by Warner Bros., it counts as a failed attempt at a film score.

“Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone, and French Horn”, a piece made for those three instruments, sounds like a mix of Louisiana carnival music, Captain Beefheart, and cheap parade music.

“Short Circuit Comes to Town I” is a 7-second snippet of noise that always intrigued me as if what was used to make the strange noises heard in it. I posted the whole snippet to a Facebook group I joined called “WIERD INSTRUMENT TRIBE”, and I was told in the comments:

“Off the top of my head, sounds like metallic friction (like a brake disc) taped at 7.5 ips and played back at 15–or something like that.”

“It sounds like an overdriven electric guitar picked way up near the pickups”

“Cymbal, tom and a guitar played between saddle and bridge plus the recording is played back faster and its distorted like hell.”

“Short Circuit Comes to Town II” is a 6-second snippet of noise that sounds similar to the first, but this time it sounds like the Residents played a duel between a slide guitar played Hawaiian style and an electric guitar that sounds like it was played on the 5th and 6th strings, muted and distorted. This recording was gradually sped-up with a violin and jazz drums overdubbed on top of it.

There’s also a short untitled track near the end of the album which consists of distorted electric guitar, percussion, violin, and tribal chanting. I think this was the Residents trying to channel Frank Zappa’s 1966 track “The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet”, but only by under 30 seconds.

And finally, the intro to the noise track “Psychedelic and Orgasmic Finale I” has a strange grating noise. I posted the song to the same “WEIRD INSTRUMENT TRIBE” Facebook group and asked what was used to create that sound, and a person commented:

“Sounds like they’re bowing a violin’s strings with a rusty warped hand cranked wheel.”

The rest of the track consists of grating violin, drums, sloppy electric bass, out-of-tune penny whistle, and a bunch of free-form guitar noise that sounds like the guitar player turned up the volume of the amplifier all the way up, complete with the drive setting, and just made out-of-tune noise and mechanical feedback. An extreme attempt at trying to overcome the Velvet Underground!

In the “The Pre-Sidents: The Residents Before 1974”, Facebook group, my Facebook friend William Reinhardt commented on my Warner Bros. Album-related post:

“BTW, my ‘falling out’ with the Residents was over selling ‘WBA’ & ‘Baby Sex’ Reel-to-Reel dubs from the masters in the original silk screened tape box boxes (as shown above) a special gift to me for radio play on my KBOO show.\ I was in a desperate period for cash and is something I have regretted ever since! (Whoever is in possession of these one of a kind tapes has the rarest of collectibles). Their early Sycamore St. studio was simply a mixer and a 2 track and 4 track 1/4 inch recorders, as i recall.”

Mr. Reinhardt was a radio DJ who worked at KBOO FM in Portland, Oregon. He was one of the guys who helped the Residents become popular. He even broadcasted the entire Warner Bros. Album on radio in 1977!

That’s pretty much my analysis of The Warner Bros. Album.

Hampton Grease Band-Music to Eat (1971)

Today, I’m going to review an album that I seriously want to get on CD or vinyl (it sucks that this album isn’t even on iTunes yet!). The album in question is Music to Eat, the only album released in 1971 by the Hampton Grease Band. The Hampton Grease Band was formed in Atlanta, Georgia, and before they recorded this album, the band became known for their wacky and quirky stage antics ranging from covering the whole stage with junk to inviting a lot of friends over to do random things. Here’s a review, from the album’s gatefold, that describes the latter performance:

“On stage with the Grease Band were friends who danced, watched TV, listened to the music and marched around stage as if at home in their living room. One girl even read a book and another sewed on an American flag during the Grease Band’s performance. 

As to their `music’–and I use the term loosely–the band performed much the same way. Very little of what they did had any context within itself. The casual actions on stage relayed directly to the audience and caused wandering, talking and virtual unrest.”

The band even performed at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970, and the band was brought to the attention of Columbia Records, who wanted to give the band a record deal. Music to Eat was the second worst-selling album in the history of Columbia Records at the time, as the honor for the worst-selling album stayed with a Maharishi Mahesh yoga record. Because of a lack of potential radio hits, Columbia marketed it to stores as a comedy record, which makes perfect sense because a famous comedy troupe that were on Columbia Records at this point was the Firesign Theater. However, Music to Eat was far from being a comedy album, but the lyrics are full of lead vocalist Bruce Hampton’s strange sense of humor, and some tracks have sound effects that give the album a rather whimsical feel. The music is a perfect mixture of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, and Frank Zappa. Even Bruce Hampton’s vocals sound a LOT like Captain Beefheart himself. but with a more tenor voice.

I listened to all the tracks on the album before, thanks to YouTube. Here are each of the track descriptions, by order:

“Halifax”-The 19-minute opening track starts off in a soft rock manner, similar to the Journey classic “Lights”. The lyrics for this track was literally taken from an encyclopedia page about the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The music develops a drumbeat and the guitars begins to have a more progressive tone. Try to imagine Captain Beefheart making a lengthy progressive rock song! Glockenspiel appears for a bit with soft guitar jamming. The music changes in tempo, and one of the guitarists begins to sing a duel (not duet) with Bruce. Vibraphone appears in a jazzy, lounge-style jam. The guitars begin to dart in like a satellite signal beaming into outer space, with the drums having a more jazz-fusion approach. Later on, a guitar begins to make an experimental sound that sounds like a telephone ring being echoed into space, and a similar sound comes in after some more guitar jamming. More vocals come in, with the guitars futzing around a little and making weird sound effects. A reprise of the vocal duel appears, but with a different key. A Minutemen-style punk jam appears, reminding me of the band’s 1984 classic Double Nickels on the Dime, which I have in my ITunes collection (great album, by the way). The guitar soloing in this part sounds like Led Zeppelin. Another jazz jam appears. After all of this endless jamming, a voice sample of one of the album’s recording engineers appears, talking about how he doesn’t trust the tape recorder that was used for the track (it was an 8-track recorder that had only 5 tracks working). A reprise of the very opening part of the track appears to close it out.

“Maria”-This piece is about Mexican teenagers stalking a woman taking a bath. A quirky, Frank Zappa-style folk rock number with acoustic guitar. The glockenspiel from “Halifax” makes a return. This time, it’s not just Bruce Hampton singing the lead. Silly voices appear throughout the track. The track gets a bit ethereal later on, with a rather calm acoustic solo. Afterwards, it gets upbeat with group vocals, with one of the vocalists sounding a bit like “Weird Al” Yankovic. A noodley solo appears, reminding me of the solo from the Residents’ 1971 cover of Frank Zappa’s “King Kong”. The track gets dramatic at the end.

“Six”-This is another 19-minute track about a series of weird events involving aliens from the planet Pajodis, as how Bruce Hampton describes it. Like “Halifax”, this has a lot of bizarre jamming. Near the end of the track, an old-school country hoedown appears, before reprising to the original opening jam.

“Evans”-A 12-minute piece that is about a guy named Jim Evans. A majority of this track consists of uninspired guitar soloing. Before the track finishes, you can hear a bunch of people running around the studio and freaking out, in a manner similar to that of the unreleased Residents rarity “Going to Arcata Blues” off of The Warner Bros. Album, which was also recorded in 1971.

“Lawton”-This is a jam between guitarist Harold Kelling and drummer Jerry Fields. A majority of the opening consists of strange electronic sound effects and percussion, sounding like something Pink Floyd would do in the late 60’s and early 70’s. When actual guitar sounds do show up, it’s just strange jamming. Tribal chants also appear, and the track ends with a Hammond organ-like distorted guitar chord along with semi-choral vocals.

“Hey Old Lady/Bert’s Song”-This track reminds me a LOT of Minutemen during their Double Nickels period. The track is divided into two themes, one about a crazy old lady, and the other about a garbage truck driver.

“Hendon”-This closing track is over 20 minutes long. It features stuff ranging from Bruce Hampton singing lyrics from a can of spray paint, an anatomy lesson, horse hooves clopping about, and a lot of jazzy, abstract jamming that all leads to an Allman Brothers-style improv. Practically the best track on the whole album.

I told my Mom practically the whole story behind the Hampton Grease Band and this album, and I even shared a couple of the album’s tracks on Facebook, and to her, they all sounded incredibly weird. This album is so awesome that I may buy it on either CD or vinyl, so that way I can listen to it at home. If I want to form my own band, it would be like the Hampton Grease Band, but also fusing with the arena rock styles of Journey. It would be awesome combining two of my all-time favorite bands!

Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, & Roland Sheehan-Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor (Unreleased, 1970)

UPDATE: This cover was shown to me by one of my Facebook friends.

For my first Residents review, I reviewed their second demo tape, 1970’s Ballad of Stuffed Trigger. This time, I’m going to review their very first demo tape, also recorded in 1970, entitled Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor. This is basically the holy grail of Residents history, and I wished that the band would release this! However, in a Residents-themed Facebook group, I was told by one of my friends from the group, who was from Germany, that the reason why the Residents refused to release all or part of Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor is because it has “no artistic value” and that it just consists of “uninspired fuzting around with musical instruments”. Also, this was not made by the actual Residents, but by some guys who later formed the band. Their names were Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, and guitarist/organist Roland Sheehan. Upon hearing some of the results, however, I would have to disagree, because out of all the demo recordings I’ve been listening to that have levels and levels of uninspired fiddling around, Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor is what I would say to have the most least amount of uninspired fiddling out of all of them. I’m going to give you a description of the first track out of the two tracks on the whole tape, since that was the only one uploaded by someone on YouTube so far.

“Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor”-A 12-minute suite in several parts, all of which I’m going to give a name, since the movements in the suite doesn’t have any actual titles.

1. “Majestic Introduction”-The whole tape starts off with guitar and keyboards that gradually becomes more and more majestic, perhaps in a classic movie-style manner. Drums also appear. The guitar in this part reminds me of Pink Floyd during their Atom Heart Mother period. No fiddling around in this part. The track ends by being altered with effects to make it sound like a broken radio transmission.
2. “Dialogue & Records”-This has some studio dialogue (that has some microphone feedback at the start) between a couple of the Residents and some girls. In several parts, you hear snippets of old records being played (one of them belonging to the soundtrack for the film Bye Bye, Birdie!), making this movement Plunderphonics-sounding in the process.
3. “Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor”-A really folky piece with lead and background vocals and acoustic guitar, kinda like Bob Dylan but with a more hick voice. More dialogue starts, then comes a reprise, this time in its full form with lyrics. The spoken opening describes how the singer’s “42-year-old baby sister” had a family member killed by soldiers during a battle. It soon becomes psychedelic with distorted bass guitar and Hammond organ.
4. “Freak Out!”-This is a free-form noise improv with distorted bass guitar and Hammond organ. The bass sounds like something from a 70’s or 80’s punk rock song, while the organ has a lot of strange mechanical wonkiness. It ends with a psychedelic chord that leads into a clock ticking with distorted electric guitar and high-pitched organ chords. Some percussive bass chords are played, followed by more organ sounds. A kitschy, NBC Chimes-style guitar melody appears leading to some strange experimental jamming, ending with a vibrating organ cord.

I also listened to a section of the second track of this demo tape (the whole track wasn’t on YouTube, unfortunately), and it is a Hammond organ-filled cover of the classic hymnal “Bringing in the Sheaves”. I absolutely loved the way the Hammond organ sounded, how it is all campy and cheesy.

I didn’t think that the Residents were fiddling around talentlessly with their instruments when they recorded this. Maybe they didn’t want to release anything from this tape because it just consisted of guys who later formed the Residents, meaning that this tape is not really from the Residents.

And, since I’m a musician who releases music online, hopefully I can buy a Hammond organ and a couple other instruments and try to make a clone of this tape, but with different tracks.

The Breeders-Last Splash (1993)

I first heard about Last Splash when I was a kid, looking at various album covers in CD catalogues that I like to read out of. However, I knew nothing about the Breeders at that time. The Breeders are an alternative/indie rock group formed by two twin sisters, Kim Deal and Kelley Deal. Kim Deal was the former bassist of a group called Pixies. That’s pretty much all I know about them now. However, their magnum opus, 1993’s Last Splash, looks to be a rather interesting album by indie rock standards! I mean, the psychedelic cover art sure looks promising enough. Right now, I’m going to listen to the full album on YouTube first as I’m going to type a review of each of this album’s songs, and then maybe if it is good, I might buy it, perhaps on iTunes, where I like to get most of my music quicker. That’s a rule for me when I buy new albums, to listen to it online before thinking about it to see if the album or any of its songs are any good.

Here are the reviews of the album’s songs, in order:

“New Year”-Distorted guitar and some feedback open the song. A slow drumbeat envelops with atmospheric guitar. The drumbeat gets faster and the song starts to go a more punk approach. More feedback appears throughout parts of the song. The vocals reminds me of Blondie’s lead singer, but with a more cool attitude.

“Cannonball”-Begins with an electronically distorted voice and wordless vocal loop with some electric noises. Clicking percussion appears along with bass and rather jazzy drums. A bluesy guitar shows up, sounding like the style of guitar playing you hear in the Hampton Grease Band’s music, but then it develops into a distorted punk guitar that is followed by some distorted telephone signal sound effects (that’s what it sounds like). The vocals in the chorus sounds like they were recorded through a telephone, similar to the vocal styles of Rhode Island noise freaks Lightning Bolt. The same HGB-style guitar appears in several more parts. The song ends by cutting off abruptly and into the next track.

“Invisible Man”-Starts off with distorted, almost grungy guitar with vocals, drums and bass. Maybe Kim Deal was trying to channel Kurt Cobain with that style of guitar playing? The lyrics reminds me of what Nico sang in the song “I’ll Be Your Mirror” from the Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. A distorted, but much more clean guitar solo comes. The track ends with some wind chimes, treated with effects, making the ending seem more like ambient music in the process.

“No Aloha”-Begins with vocals and ethereal, Hawaiian-sounding slide guitar, dueling with distorted guitar. A drumbeat develops as the track develops a more punk edge, with the Hawaiian guitar still being played. In fact, Kim Deal was inspired to write the song after she went into the women’s restroom of the recording studio and saw graffiti written on the wall that says “Motherhood means mental freeze”.

“Roi”-An experimental piece that starts off with distorted guitar and bass. A drumbeat develops with distorted noises. The guitars begin to experiment a little. Next comes an avant-garde section where you hear what sounds like a scraping violin or cello and strange electronic noises coming from a Minimoog (the credits for the album states that this track also uses a Casiotone keyboard). That particular moment in this song reminds me of the first of the two closing pieces off of the Residents’ 1971 demo tape The Warner Bros. Album. The guitars and bass get a little atmospheric, kinda like the Hampton Grease Band song “Lawton”. The guitars start to get that punk edge again. I also hear a little squawk of feedback, and later you hear speed chords and amp noises. Vocals appear again. The track ends with a rather fuzzy chord.

“Do You Love Me Now?”-Starts off with processed vocals with bass and drone effects. A slow drumbeat develops with more conventional guitar work. This goes on for most of the song, before leading to a fuzzy, experimental guitar jam with feedback, which reminds me of some of the fuzzy psychedelic guitar stuff you can find in the 70’s and 80’s work of the South Korean group Sanullim (Mountain Echo). The conventional structure starts again, ending with a quasi-choir vocal with a fuzzy chord.

“Flipside”-A light, plucky guitar melody eventually becomes a rather hardcore-sounding jam that reminds me of stuff from Minutemen. Shockingly enough, this track is an instrumental.

“I Just Wanna Get Along”-A punk melody appears with vocals. Guitars get a little fuzzy with feedback. The drums also get a bit loud by the end.

“Mad Lucas”-Another experimental piece that begins with a fuzzy, wiry guitar solo with pulsing bass and scratchy, rather jazzy drums. The vocals sounds like they are processed through an old Leslie speaker. Electronic bass pulse tones appear before continuing the song’s original structure. A wiry guitar solo starts up. More electronic bass tones come after. Strange, faint high-pitched noises also show up. Strange noises are heard, created by scraping heavily on a violin, with the same electronic bass pulse tones. The same structure continues. The track ends with some faint voices followed by the same violin noises as earlier, getting eventually cut off. In terms of style, this reminds me of a mix of the pre-1974 version of the Residents mixed with the previously unreleased Captain Beefheart song “Korn Ring Finger”, which was recorded during the Mirror Man sessions back in late 1967.

“Divine Hammer”-This starts off with bass and a wiry guitar chord that leads to a rather Smiths-style indie jam with vocals. A guitar solo appears, and its distortion is so clean that it reminds me of the guitar solo from Sanullim’s 1982 track “In The Past”. This ends with weird noises.

“S.O.S”-Not a cover of the Avtograf song of the same name, but this piece is rather interesting. It’s an instrumental that begins with a strange mechanical and distorted noise that was created (literally) by plugging in a Kenmore 12-stitch sewing machine into a Marshall guitar amp. This reminds me of when Captain Beefheart used a custom-built “atomic flour sifter” for use on the track “Son of Mirror Man-Mere Man” from his 1968 album Strictly Personal. A punk jam develops as you hear high-pitched guitar noises. Feedback appears in parts of the song. More amplified sewing machine noises appear as the track ends with a final punk melody that ends with an experimental fuzz noise.

“Hag”-The guitar chords in the opening of this track sounds rather Christmas-y. It leads into a rather soft jam with bass, drums, and guitar and vocals. The guitars start to get fuzzy, turning the song into more conventional punk. More Christmas-sounding guitar chords appear as the song gradually fades out.

“Saints”-This track begins with a fuzzy guitar solo followed by a hardcore-sounding jam, this time with a much slower drumbeat. Another fuzzy guitar solo appears. This track almost has a typical radio rock feel for its time.

“Drivin’ on 9”-This begins with vocals and an acoustic guitar melody. The chords sound like they came from an acoustic-electric guitar because of how they have a little reverb (the non-echo reverb) onto them. It leads into a rollicking country rock piece with guitar, bass, and drums. A violin tune also appears with acoustic guitar and a banjo. The acoustic guitar in this song sounds like it had a little phaser attached to it. The drums start to get a little punky at one point. This is the most unusual track on the whole album, because it is a rather friendly-sounding country rock tune! Maybe this would be a good way to introduce your country/Americana-loving grandparents to the Breeders, by the way.

“Roi (Reprise)”-This is the shortest track on the whole album, and also the closing track, clocking in at only 42 seconds. It starts out with a fuzzy, reverb-filled guitar with a pulsing bass tone and feedback. A punk jam appears, with some more feedback. It ends with a speed chord. This pretty much has the same formula from the original version of “Roi”.

After listening to this album, I would like to say that this is the best 90’s indie/alternative rock album I had ever heard. I like it because it is augmented by several different and strange forms of sonic experimentation that are not typical in most indie and alternative groups from this time, especially for that unusual country rock tune at the near end of the album. Even the album’s psychedelic artwork made the album sound even better. If you see a copy of it on CD or vinyl, or if you spot it on iTunes or Google Play, go ahead and buy it, and then have fun with it.

The Residents-Ballad of Stuffed Trigger (Unreleased, 1970)

We all know the Residents for being one of the most well-known and uncategorizable experimental music collectives in the history of popular music. With each era of their albums, they actually like to undertake stages of musical evolution going from tape loops and musique concrete-oriented Dada collage music to avant-garde minimal synth music all the way to futurisitic experimental electronic music. However, what would happen if there was a band that combined desolate electric blues with psychedelic fuzz rock, free jazz, and musique concrete and Dada weirdness?

That answer lies within one of the earliest stages of the Residents, on an unreleased demo tape from 1970 called The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger. This tape was recorded after their first demo tape, Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor, which sounded totally different from this tape. I listened to plenty of tracks from this tape, as clips of this were uploaded to YouTube recently. (One of them I remember listening to was on there along with others from the tape, but got taken down. It was a year back.)

The music itself has a very coarse, free-wheeling, and at times junky atmosphere. This doesn’t have the typical experimental electronic music that the Residents experimented with after 1976, and there were no synthesizers used. This is basically the Residents experimenting with what they have. This was all recorded with cheap equipment, which at times can max out into the red, like the track “Unknown Song”. Highlights include the desolate country blues that is the title track, the old-fashioned Dixieland jazz version of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” (the Residents would revisit Gershwin’s works 15 years later), and the experimental Dada-inspired freak out version of “House of the Rising Sun”.

 

 

Out of all of these tracks, the original title track was officially released by the Residents, first on their 2012 mp3 compilation ERA B474 (consisting of stuff recorded before the band’s 1974 debut album Meet the Residents), and second on their 2013 CD compilation Delta Nudes’ Greatest Hiss (Delta Nudes was the band’s name before the name “The Residents” was chosen).

The only way the full demo tape can be found is through bootleg CDr’s and mp3 downloads from file-sharing sites. However. Most bootleg CDr dealers want you to pay more than 30 dollars for their stuff, so I suggest you look up songs from the tape on YouTube, so you could do it more safely!