Anything On Your Mind?
1991 was a big year, as it was the year I graduated high school and went off to college. So musically, I was still getting it sorted out in my new surroundings. And then Nirvana released Nevermind and scrambled up music. I’ll say that it was convenient for Washington State to suddenly become cool, although it was really only reflected coolness, since I was from Spokane and not actually Seattle. Whatever, most people only had the dimmest grasp of the geography in the state. But, nevertheless, I’d say that 1991, musically, was still kind of a high school year for me. In practice that mostly meant industrial and California punk. (This will rapidly be disproved when I look at my library.)
As far as my life, well, the end of my senior year in high school was a typical senior year, which is to say, mostly mailing it in and coasting to the end of things. There were parties and get-togethers, but I was a huge nerd, so not that many of them for me (and mostly those parties were dorky). I did wind up at one very memorable party where various games were played up until a fistfight broke out during a game of Diplomacy. Not ideal! But other than that, we played lots of cards (lots of Bridge, lots of Pinochle), plenty of various role-playing games, lots of HeroQuest, whatever we could get on the table.
I’m going to guess that at this point, I’m not going to do as well on the charts, but let’s see. But: 17. Dang! Not bad!
What Are You Listening To From 1991, Josh?
A sampling of albums that I’m playing regularly from 1991.
Some all-timers again from 1991, such as The Low End Theory, Spiderland, Goat, Drive Like Jehu, No Pocky For Kitty, a bunch of ground-breaking death metal (Human, Effigy of the Forgotten, Blessed are the Sick), but let’s see if we can dig a bit deeper.
Total Castration, Zeni Geva
I’ve told Wolf Rambatz that I’m probably the only person in America who was listening to Zeni Geva before Metallica. My route into metal was roundabout - I didn’t get into bands like Metallica or Megadeath, or even older stuff like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and then wander from there into more extreme stuff. No, I got pulled into things by going from industrial dance (Nine Inch Nails, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242) to industrial metal (Ministry and similar) and then to regular industrial (Einstürzende Neubauten, Throbbling Gristle, etc) and then to more noise stuff (Masonna, Merzbow, etc). Once you arrive there, well, you start looking into adjacent music, which is how you arrive at Zeni Geva.
Zeni Geva is primarily KK Null and Tatsuya Yoshida, the latter of whom we’ve seen in Ruins from the last blog and the former being one of the more prolific artists from the Japanese noise/underground scene. Zeni Geva use elements of metal and noise to make really excellent records, and it did drive me back towards metal. Horseshoe theory but for unlistenable nonsense. This one is as good a place to start as any if you’re interested.
Jackson, Tar
I mentioned last time that Cunning Stunts was not my first AmRep record. Instead, it was this one. It’s not entirely clear what attracted me to it, really. I just saw it in the new releases, was curious about it, asked the clerk if it was good, and brought it home. And dang, yeah, it sure was good. It wasn’t my first encounter with noise rock or anything - depending on how you define it, that was probably either Big Black or the Jesus Lizard. But noise rock wasn’t a huge part of my musical diet when I picked up this record. That would quickly change.
It’s hard to say exactly what about this record I find so great. Most of it is that Tar knew how to write songs. It’s not just fury and noise, there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on. The start-and-stop sections in “Walking the King”, the driving bass in “On A Transfer”, the long build up of “Dark Mark”, the album is full of fantastic moments. They instantly became one of my favorite bands, and one I was lucky enough to see multiple times while in Pittsburgh, putting on absolutely ear-splitting shows. I got to heft one of their aluminum guitars also. Great band, great record.
Nationwide, Surgery
Hell, let’s keep it AmRep. Surgery’s first album is maybe the greasiest album that AmRep ever put out, which is an achievement given how sleazy some of these bands were. Some of that is Sean McDonnell’s vocal delivery, which is sort of a classic rock sneer. But there’s a heavy blues influence here that merges with some of the guitar noise to give a pretty different feel compared to their label mates. And Wharton Tiers did a bangup job on the production. This isn’t actually my favorite Surgery release, I like the two EPs they put out after this one even more (Little Debbie and Trim, 9th Ward High Roller), but it’s a fun record. This album would be enough to get them signed to Atlantic for their second record, with that marriage not being super successful, but that’s kind of the story of the mid-90s: underground rock bands were getting signed all over the place only for the labels to discover that “the next Nirvana” was a phantom.
Let’s Talk More 1991
Records come out every week, and we’re just ignoring that and looking at stuff from 35 years ago instead! 35 years, jesus, I’m old.
Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
I know, I did Phono-Comb just the other day, but I’m sorry, I have to highlight this record. The Shadowy Men never put out anything less than great, but this is my favorite. One thing that always gets me about the Shadowy Men is how lyrical their music is, given that it’s (almost) all instrumental. How they pull that off is beyond me. It’s just distilled happiness, this is an incredible album, and if you haven’t heard it, treat yourself.
Praise the Lard, PIG
I hesitated before putting this record in here. I’m an unabashed Foetus fan, which we’ve seen in the many times I’ve mentioned them here. The creativity and evolution of J.G. Thirlwell’s main act just cannot be denied. But what to make of PIG, which is the alias that Raymond Watts used. Watts started out in KMFDM before setting off on his own, and he’s probably the closest imitator that Thirlwell had. Watts also worked with Thirlwell on some things, so maybe he’s more like…Foetus’ intern? Praise the Lard takes a lot of cues from Foetus: the orchestration, the restlessness with genres, the dark imagery in the lyrics, the pacing of songs. I mean, marching sounds and a bunch of brass to open “Gravy Train”, that is right out of the Hole-era playbook. Watts takes these Thirlwellian tics and combines them with some residual KMFDMishness, in some of the keyboard lines and splats of guitar. But does this stuff hold up at all?
Well, I’ve listened to this album a fair bit recently - I pulled it up on a flight I was on, enjoyed it, and have put it on a few times subsequently. And I still really like it! It’s got big Theater Kid energy, which a fair bit of the industrial scene had, but I think this album is really constructed well. If you can just embrace the corniness, I think it’s a lot of fun. I do recognize that this might cause those of you reading this to question my sanity, but whatever, I’m going to speak my truth. Maybe if you don’t have affection for it from the first time around, it’ll land with a thud. I guess I’ll take that risk.
(This album isn’t available on his Bandcamp, but a bunch of other stuff is. I never liked any of his other work as much as this record.)
U2, Negativland
Can we talk about this dumb thing? At some point in their history Negativland, the audio pranksters who had a radio show and periodically released sardonic records that nobody really understood, got a hold of some audio that they knew they had to use at some point. An engineer for American Top 40 recorded some profane ranting from radio legend Casey Kasem, and they were right up Negativland’s alley. They loved that sort of found sound stuff, and the juxtaposition of fame with unexpected words. Eventually, in 1991, they did something with them: they crafted a “cover” of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, centered around David “the Weatherman” Wills’s nasal vocal rendition, some humming, and Kasem’s ranting. It’s actually one of their best ever compositions (it’s stretching things to call it a song), and as was their habit, they poked every bear they could find.
Word about the single got onto a mailing list I was on, and I picked it up. It was actually my first Negativland release, and I also told my friends to look out for it. And sure enough, Negativland got extremely sued. Island Records (U2’s label) sued them, and while their claims were a little dubious (unauthorized sampling, even though it’s pretty clear that this was transformative work, and then a trademark dispute about “U2” being too prominant on the cover), they were still a huge company and so there was risk. Kasem also sued, and I suppose his case was probably better, since they used those non-public recordings. Chaos ensued. Negativland tried to appeal directly to U2, Island Records got some bad press but they said they couldn’t stop the lawsuit because of Kasem, SST Records tried to throw Negativland under the bus, it was a giant mess. In the end, SST Records took a lot of financial damage, Negativland was also buried in legal bills, and the outstanding copies of the single were recalled and destroyed. The band hastily rushed out another single to try and raise some money, their relationship with SST was shattered, and it wasn’t really clear how they’d survive.
It was in a lot of ways it was one of their own stunts catching up to them. Helter Stupid is the story of how they convinced the media that they were being investigated in connection to murder, and now they were in actual legal jeopardy from one of their songs instead of fake jeopardy. In the end, the band survived, and the additional media attention probably (?) helped them. A sort of primitive Streisand Effect. They eventually ended up writing a book about the whole thing (called Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2), including thoughts about fair use and copyright. The single itself did eventually resurface in a semi-bootleg called These Guys Are From England and Who Gives A Shit, a phrase from Kasem’s ranting that is still very much in my vocabulary today.
In the end, it’s a very funny tune, especially the “radio edit” on the B-side. It showcases Negativland at their best, with fake conversations between found sounds and relentless and on-point goofing on culture. They wouldn’t always hit this high point, but I’m glad they took swings at it, and they’ve left behind a very interesting discography.
(For somewhat obvious reasons, this thing isn’t on Bandcamp. Both tracks are available on Youtube: a capella mix and special edit radio mix. You can also get the CD with the tracks direct from the band on CD (sssshhhh).)
White Noise, Cop Shoot Cop
There’s a lot about Cop Shoot Cop’s music that should be incredibly harsh to listen to. Phil Puelo used literal sheet metal as part of his percussion. Jim Coleman played manipulated samples to add layers of noise. The rest of the lineup was filled out by two basses and Tod Ashley’s rough vocals. But through it all, the band can’t help but write catchy songs, which really softens the record a ton. I think this is their best work, even though all their albums are worth seeking out for various reasons. Spin this one for some of the catchiest noise around. (J.G. Thirlwell connection: he mixed this record.)
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Dead”, Down By Law
Down By Law is the band that Dave Smalley (Dag Nasty, ALL) put together after leaving those bands. If you like those bands, especially Dag Nasty, you’ll probably like this one as well, although I’ll say that I don’t think it’s as strong as his work with either of those bands.
(NB: I couldn’t find “Dead” on Youtube, a little acoustic number, so I grabbed a different song from the album instead.)
“Orange Blossom Special”, Johnny Cash
From At Folsom Prison, a classic record that really created Cash’s legend. His setlist here is very heavy on tales of crime and violence and failure, and he really sounds incredible throughout. An all-timer.
“Take Me Out To The Ballgame”, The Baseball Project
Sure, why not?
“Circle K”, Bitch Magnet
One of the descendant bands of Squirrel Bait, Bitch Magnet (named after a scribble in the artwork for Big Black’s Atomizer) put out a couple of excellent records before breaking up, resulting in further bands downstream (most notably Seam). Both Bitch Magnet records are worth listening to, although I prefer Ben Hur (mostly because it has the magnificent “Dragoon”).
“Lounge Act”, Nirvana
Putting a button on the 1991 blog, I guess.
Josh, What Are You Doing Here?
I’m just writing about music. A structure like this blog helps me get my thoughts out, and it’s a way for me to explore my own music collection through various lenses. My sincere hope is that some folks out there find some new music they love. That’s all I’m up to. Sincere thanks to everybody who sends me feedback, with news that they’ve found a new favorite especially fun for me. There’s no monetization, no metrics, no ads, no promos, no nothing. Just some static web pages, some links, and my scribbling. If you want to support it, just shoot me a note! Thanks for reading.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather, Treble Magazine, The Quietus, Stereogum.