Old Music Monthly #036: August 1996
The Cover
I know D Generation isn’t hair metal, but the Sunset Strip’s corpse was still too warm for these dudes to be rocking this look.
The Letters
As we get our first look at the inside of the magazine, we can see a hefty redesign. One thing that doesn’t change, however, is people complaining.
Tours We’d Like To See
… I GUESS?!
Promotional Item of the Month
Night Thread!
Weird Record of the Month
This is (almost) extremely my shit. This is field recordings of fast food restaurants, and if were just kind of like samples of their timers and machinery and stuff I think I’d like the idea more. It’s on French fry colored vinyl (some of them), and copies start at $47.99US on Discogs, but it seems a little steep for a seven-inch record.
Mix Tape!
Fire up your fax machines! I’m not a fan of the redesign for this “feature”, it’s shoved even further into the margins and loses any sense of story these things had.
The Return of New York Rock
I don’t know how much of a “return” it was. DJ Spooky and Cibo Matto are probably the biggest. With the exception of DJ Spooky and God Is My Co-Pilot, all of these groups flamed out between 1998 and 2002, with Handsome breaking up before this magazine was even published (just kidding, 1998 for them as well). All of them got back together eventually, but SpeedKing (sometimes The Speedking Trio) and it seems like they never recorded anything past a few singles in 1995, but had a compilation in 2002.
But here are some blurbs on Handsome and Psychotica, because they also don’t have much out there, but do have cult followings.
Best New Music
I don’t know who picked this hideous salmon color but I hope every time they bite down they get a single grain of sand between their teeth.
Reviews
Only 28 reviews this month, they’ve been quietly decreasing. You’ll also notice the cute little speaker that denotes the artist is on this month’s CD is replaced by a little “CD” circle. (Sorry this scan is a little sloppy)
The Genres
I don’t normally post the Dance page, but c’mon, Dr. Octagon!
How funny is it that Far is on the Metal Top 25?
Top 75
While this new version doesn’t have all that negative space, I miss the little album cover on the side. Maybe they could have just picked a bunch of them to fill up the margin. Yes, I’m giving suggestions to a magazine that was published 27 years ago. Anyway, I owned 6, how many did (do) you own?
Multi-Media
This is the type of weird shit I miss from the old internet.
Localzine
The CMJ Staff takes you through the East Village… 3 pages!
Without further delay, the CD:
D Generation – Frankie
We did talk about them back in #014, and I wrote up an Artist Spotlight on one time member Todd Youth (kind of by accident), which also included D Generation’s founding guitarist Howie Pyro. New York’s D Generation started as a fusion of Glam, Punk, and Garage rock and were signed to Chrysalis for their debut album, and “No Way Out” was in installment #014. Here, they’re split from Chrysalis, and are onto Columbia. This is fine, I didn’t save it back in the day, and if I’m being perfectly honest it’s probably because of their stupid hair. Little did I know, Nu Metal would arrive and show us the truly worst hair that music had to offer.
Well, they got dropped from Columbia and put out a third album in 1996, then split in 1999. They reformed in 2011 and released a fourth record in 2016. While they haven’t officially split, they’ve pretty much been on hiatus since the 2016 album. (+)
Reverend Horton Heat– Big Red Rocket of Love
We talked about The Rev in #012, but all the same, here’s some more. In 1996, I had no idea what “Rockabilly” was, let alone “Psychobilly”. To me, this is what Metal would have sounded like if it were invented in the 50s.
Austin’s Jim Heath is the singer and guitarist, but he’s also the Rev, as is the band (like Alice Cooper in the old days). Heath played in several local bands (some with his then wife), before forming the group in 1985. By 1989, The Rev solidified the group which would record the first three albums with Jimbo Wallace on upright bass and Taz Bentley on drums. By the time we’ve caught up with them, they have a new drummer in Scot Churilla.
I really love this, it just has this frantic sort of energy, like you’re just about to go off the rails, but somehow you hang on. The whole album is really good, not quite as good as sophomore album Full Custom Gospel Sounds, but still better than the next album, Space Heater.
The Rev is still going, with Jimbo, but they’ve had a long line of drummers behind them. Bentley went on to play with Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, Sawyer Brown, Burden Brothers (with Toadies’ Todd Lewis and GWAR’s Casey Orr), and former Pantera vocalist Terry Glaze. Churilla went on to join Supersuckers, and is now a journeyman drummer playing with everyone he can.
We’ll hear from them again in 1998 . (+)
Prolapse – TCR
This is a band I’ve wanted to explore more, but never really got around to. The song is just this frenetic and exciting blast of sounds. I can’t really say it better than the Discogs description, so here’s that:
The year 1993 might not have seemed an auspicious time for new initiatives in post-Sonic Youth noise pop. A motley gaggle of archaeology students and practitioners of experimental drama might not have seemed the people for the job, and English sleaze-rock backwater Leicester was definitely not the place. Somehow, Prolapse made this kind of activity fun again. As unappealing as the prospect of droning guitar, grinding bass riffs and pounding drums — garnished with the destruction of whatever discarded household appliances might be gleaned from the streets in the vicinity of the show — sounds, Prolapse stands apart from the art bores by its liveliness, submerged humor and preference for driving rhythmic grooves over self-indulgent fretwank. The most arresting part of the sextet’s performance (often unsettling even for the initiated) is the unpredictable and generally tempestuous interaction between the two vocalists: sensitive souls in the audience tremble as the huge, hairy Scot Mick Derrick attacks the diminutive Linda Steelyard verbally and physically — yet it is generally the larger contender who takes away the more serious injuries.
The band split in 2000, but reformed for some shows in 2015, but the reunion was never meant to be permanent. Post-2015, their catalog has been reissued digitally, and some EPs have trickled out of unreleased material and Peel Sessions. (+)
Charlie Hunter Quartet – Ashby Man
We’re no stranger to Charlie Hunter. He played with Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy who we talked about a long ways back. Sometimes he’s a “Quartet”, sometimes he’s a “Trio”, but right now he’s a “Quartet”. This is fine, it’s jazzy, which is out of my wheelhouse so my apologies for not writing more about it.
Hunter has played with tons of people including D’Angelo and John Mayer. He put out 5 albums (either as a leader or sideman) in 2021, which is almost enough to make King Gizzard quake in their boots. (+)
(The) Blue Nile – Sentimental Man
Glaswegian band The Blue Nile has managed to squeeze out 4 albums since 1981. It didn’t seem all that impressive until I realized that it’s more albums than I’ve put out since 1981, but then again, I was 5 in 1981 so unless I was that rapping French baby Jordy, there was no hope of me putting out a record… except for that cassette only release of me singing “How Much Is That Doggie In the Window” with my dad, but the hipsters never latched onto it.
Anyway, The Blue Nile is pretty well known for taking years and years between albums and refusing to talk to the media about anything. They also are known for not being very accomplished musicians, by their own admission. They released their debut in 1984, which was well received and then hurried off to capitalize on the debut by recording a follow up… that took 6 years to complete. 7 years after that, we catch up with them and their third album Peace at Last. Frankly, I think it’s a bore. I guess it’s just not for me, I can’t find anything to latch onto with this.
After this album… 8 years after… the group put out their fourth album. They’ve been quiet since 2004, except that the band fractured and seemed to be over, but they’ve played a show as recently as 2017. (-)
Willie Nelson – She Is Gone
I wrote up an Artist Spotlight on Willie a little while back, but really, how do you sum up a person who has been actively recording for 67 years? They don’t make them like Willie Nelson anymore.
On 1996’s Spirit, there is a strong Spanish guitar influence and the instrumentation is stripped down to his sister Bobbie on piano, a rhythm guitar (Jody Payne from Nelson’s band), and one of the most prominent Western Swing fiddlers, Johnny Gimble. (+)
Liz Phair – Rocket Boy
We’re going to put this foot forward: I have never heard Liz Phair, other than that one big single she had (“Why Can’t I?”) because it used to play at my retail job every day. That was Phair’s “sell out”, according to the jackanapes at Pitchfork. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Phair was born in Connecticut, but grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and eventually made friends with Urge Overkill and Material Issue. By 1993, she had released Exile In Guyville on Matador, which of course is a huge deal. She followed up with 1994’s Whip-Smart, which sold more, but was not as well received by critics. But who cares about them anyway.
Here we have a song that was originally recorded for Whitechocolatespaceegg, but didn’t make the final 1998. It was, however, released on the soundtrack to Stealing Beauty which was a thinly veiled excuse for Liv Tyler to hang out in Tuscany masquerading as a film.
This song is ok, it’s more interesting than “Why Can’t I?”.
Matador ended up rejecting Whitechocolatespaceegg, and wanted more radio friendly songs, which seem like a very un-Matador thing to do. No matter, she signed with Columbia for her big pop breakthrough (for as short lived as it was), and she returned to self-releasing albums in 2010, but released her most recent album on Chrysalis.
We’ll see Liz Phair again in 2003. (+)
Imperial Teen – You’re One
San Francisco’s Imperial Teen is an indie pop supergroup by Roddy Bottum (Faith No More), Will Shwartz, Lynn Perko (Sister Double Happiness, The Wrecks), and Jon Stebbins (The Wrecks). Bottum was pretty much over Faith No More in 1996 (the entire band was over each other within the next two years), and was ready to do something a little more straightforward.
Slash Records released Seasick in 196, which is where this ode to Kurt Cobain came from… but at least Bottum actually knew him. This song is really the blueprint for the band, the “boy/girl harmonies” and alternating vocalists.
Imperial Teen spent a lot of time opening for Hole, Courtney Love and Bottum are friends (and ex-betrothed). In 1999, they were tapped to open the co-headling tour for Hole and Marilyn Manson, which I can’t imagine was a fun time. It didn’t last, as Hole dropped out and Manson canceled due to an ankle injury. Thank God for small favors. Who wants to get pelted with dead animals from the crowd every night?
The band is still going, with the original lineup, releasing their most recent album in 2019. We’ll see them again in 1998 and 1999. (+)
Chainsuck – Prozac
Chainsuck was started by singer Marydee Reynolds, who wrote everything on guitar. She sent things to two producers who “Industrial-ized” it, then it got sent to the live musicians to add bits and bobs (but they played the whole thing live). Chris Connelly is the one who brought them to Wax Trax Records, but honestly they sound more in line with 4AD than Wax Trax.
And in today’s edition of Men Have Always Been Creeps: The name refers to a mountain bike malfunction, but … what if it means something else? “People don’t believe me, but I never thought it had any obscene connotation,” Reynolds told The Boston Phoenix in 1996. “I have guys come up to me and explain in detail what it means to them, but I just walk away.”
Reynolds did appear on Pigface’s 1997 album A New High In Lows, and Chainsuck squeaked out an album on TVT in 1999 and ended sometime after. Reynolds was on Die Warzau’s 2004 album, Convenience, but has been quiet since then. She is now a vocal coach and a “vintage curator” in Chicago. She also recreated her great aunt’s singing cowgirl group, Girls of the Golden West. (+)
Gus – Out Of Tune
Gus, aka Gus Black, aka Anthony Penaloza is a musician / video director from Los Angeles. What’s really interesting to me, is that he’s still going now and he has this entire career that is largely invisible. He’s had all sorts of songs in all sorts of movies and TV shows (Scream, Smallville, Californication), keeps releasing albums, but you never read about him or hear about him. I want to say it’s impressive, but I think it’s probably chalked up to connections in Los Angeles. As the saying goes, it’s who you know.
Anyway, the song is fine. It’s exactly the sort of pop rock / grunge lite you’d expect from 1996. But, improbably, it’s not on Youtube! What a miss.
We’ll see Gus again in 1999 (and then again in 2006). (O)
Van Morrison – Drumshanbo Hustle
We already talked about this snowflake and his bullsh!t. Guess what? This song sounds exactly like every other one of his songs. (-)
Brenda Kahn – Yellow Sun
Brenda Khan is a singer-songwriter / poet… whenever someone calls themselves a poet, I think of that 30 Rock joke where Steve Buscemi is an English teacher and is equating Shakespeare to hip-hop… I know it’s not an exact match, but I just see them saying, “My words aren’t lyrics, they’re poems, maaaaaaan….”
Anyway, she plays “punk-tinged folk music”, and her 1990 album led to her getting signed by Columbia and releasing her second album in 1992, but nothing really came from that, as she got dropped. Now, it appears that Columbia did release this as a promo cassette in 1994 as a self-titled album, but I guess they changed their minds and Kahn released it as Destination Anywhere on Shanachie Entertainment.
This has a whopping 124 views on YouTube. Listening to it, I can’t understand why in a post-Alanis world this wasn’t bigger… well, I guess it’s because there were suddenly 100,000 artists just like this scrambling for a piece of the pie. But Kahn was not deterred, she’s still out there making music and is also a published author. (-)
Brendan Benson – Sittin’ Pretty
It kind of seems like putting Brendan after Brenda is kind of lazy, like you didn’t even shuffle the artists.
Anyway, this Michigan native and multi-instrumentalist used to work in a record store. That’s it. That’s his backstory. He sprung from the loins of Sam Goody fully formed with his debut record in 1996, with contributions from Jellyfish’s Jason Faulkner. This is another one I can’t say is exactly bad, but it’s too far deep on the pop spectrum for me to really be into it.
Benson released his second album in 2002, and it featured “Good To Me” which was covered by The White Stripes. On his third album, Jack White provided back-up vocals. This paved the way for Benson to team up with White in The Raconteurs. (-)
Kicking Harold – Kill You
As I’ve stated before, this project began as a way for me to go back through and mine the music I maybe thought I was “too cool” for back when these discs were new. One thing I find fascinating is that every so often I can hit upon a band that has a straight up career that is not even invisible to me, but invisible to the world at large. This song has two videos on YouTube, one is less than 400 views, the other is less than 2000, for a song that is 27 years old.
L.A.’s Kicking Harold is alternately an “alternative hard rock” or “heavy metal” band, depending on who you ask. The released a cassette EP in 1994, and their debut (Ugly and Festering) in 1995, which was soon picked up and re-released by MCA Records. Their next two albums were back to indie status, and they might have broken up around 2002-04, it’s not really clear. At any rate, the TLC show Overhaulin‘ used one of the band’s songs for its theme from 2004-08, and the band was back to releasing albums in 2010, and released their newest album in 2022.
But here’s the problem: there’s little to recommend it. The reason I didn’t save it back in the day was that it’s neither “alternative”, not “rock” enough, to be interesting. A band with an album called Ugly and Festering should sound better than this. (-)
Versus – Yeah You
We first saw Versus way back in #009. Here, we’re catching up with them on their second album Secret Swingers. I didn’t save this back in the day, but this has a great driving rhythm. The “Whoo-ooohs” remind me of something that was much more popular in the mid 90s, but I’m completely blanking on what that would be.
We’ll see them again in 1998 (+)
Red Five – Space
L.A.’s Red Five was born from the merging of two other bands, Honey Dust and Garbage Hearts. In 1994, Honey Dust had a slot on a big charity gig, but they had broken up. Singer / guitarist Jenni McElrath enlisted the help of singer / guitarist Betty Carmellini, bassist Greg Jones, and drummer Adam Zuckert to play the show under Honey Dust. After that, they agreed that the name stunk and changed it to Luke Skywalker’s call sign in Star Wars.
“Space” was released as a seven-inch single in 1994 (or 1995, sources vary), and the band was quickly signed to Interscope, who released Flash in 1996. The song is almost in that Kim Deal / Veruca Salt vein (which is what Interscope was after, I’m sure), but a little bit punkier. This song was a bone of contention between my friend and I, as he found it “annoying”, but he’s a contrarian by nature. This is a group I always wanted to get further into, but never did.
The band had some tours, including Warped Tour twice, but Jones had returned to his main band, CMJ alums Mr. Marainga. Red Five recorded a follow up album Wink. However, Interscope was already done with the band, and dropped them without even listening to the album. The band broke up in 1999, pretty much solely because of Interscope and their shenanigans. The band did get ahold of their masters and released their entire output as Anthology 1993-1999. (+)
Foreskin 500 – Superfamily
This Denver duo started in 1992, and put out this final album in 1996 (Starbent But Superfreaked). I mostly hate it, but it’s the kind of thing that if you described it to me, I’d think it might be good. They play a sort of industrial-funk-trash, but it’s really a poor attempt at My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. (-)
Moonshake – Exotic Siren Song
David Callahan has been active in The Wolfhounds in the back half of the 80s, and after they split he formed Moonshake in 1991, naming the band after a song by Can. By 1993, original members Margaret Fiedler and John Frenett had quit to start CMJ alums Laika.
Callahan put a new version of the group together snatching members from Gallon Drunk, Collapsed Lung, and PJ Harvey’s band. But then that version split and the group was dropped from Too Pure, and the members just continued to rotate. Here, we catch up with them almost at the end of their lifespan, with their final album, Dirty & Divine. I did not save this back then, but this is pretty good. Not sure I’d listen to a whole album of it… saxophones give me hives.
Moonshake split in 1997, and Callahan went onto form the short-lived The $urplus!. Callahan reformed The Wolfhounds in 2005. (+)
Virgin-Whore Complex – Four-Alarm Fire In Lovers’ Lane
This San Francisco trio formed from members of The Dambuilders and singer / guitarist Spats Ransom, who is heir to the Getty oil fortune and owner of Emperor Norton Records. This is about as exciting as a nap. Actually, I’d rather have the nap. (-)
Dub Narcotic Sound System – Ship To Shore
I’m not sure there are any other genres that bum me out more than “indie funk”.
Olympia, Washington musician / DJ / record producer Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening / The Go Team) formed the loose-knit collection of musicians and named the project after his analog studio, Dub Narcotic. Here, we are with the group on their second album, Boot Party.
I like classic funk. But where do you cut it off? Do 90’s groups get punished by simple virtue of being too late. Yes, yes the do and they should! Funk is repetitious, but it can also get deeply weird. This is repetitious, but there’s no groove. Maybe they have better songs. I’ll never find out. (-)
Now It’s Time For Breakdown:
Worthy Tracks: 12/19, 63.16%; 62.55% through the entire series.
Maple Leaf Invasion: ZEEEERRROOOO. 2.52% since the first installment.
YEEEEAAAHHH, Here Comes the Roster:
D Generation, Reverend Horton Heat, and Versus have joined the Two-Timer’s Club. So has Van Morrison but nobody gives a fuck. They are in company with Me’Shell Ndogeocello, The Figgs, Dig, Sincola, Cowboy Junkies, The Spinanes, Idaho, Cracker, Iggy Pop, The Coctails, Possum Dixon, Rocket From the Crypt, Pharcyde, Gene, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Echobelly, Ben Harper, Hum, Bracket, Chris Whitley, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Quicksand, Digable Planets, Adam Ant, Catherine, Ass Ponys, Magnapop, Cranes, Sarah McLachlan, Eve’s Plum, Jeff Buckley, Beastie Boys, Engines of Aggression, Luscious Jackson, G. Love & Special Sauce, Green Apple Quick Step, Letters To Cleo, Big Audio Dynamite, Eve’s Plum, Greta, Paul Weller, Radiohead, Ramones Stabbing Westward, Sister Machine Gun, Superchunk, Lida Husik, Bad Brains, Cocteau Twins, and Blind Melon.
Magnapop, Therapy?, Catherine Wheel, 700 Miles, Guided By Voices, and Matthew Sweet have all appeared three times.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are the only group to appear four times.
Over the 36 installments, there have been 621 unique artists.
See you next week!