Notes From The Record Room: Melt-Banana (Live), Butthole Surfers, Osees, Fucked Up, SSD
To whom it may interest,
Melt-Banana headlined a four-band ticket on the evening of June 6th at Underground Arts in Philly. Promoting their upcoming 8th album “3 + 5”, the duo, composed of vocalist and remote control maestro Yasuko Onuki and guitarist Ichiro Agata, incited joyful commotion, leaving most of us in the crowd unable to stay on our feet for very long between songs, every blast of high-speed percussion granting permission for frenzied, physical interaction. During a break in music-induced tumult, Onuki was addressing the crowd as a crowd surfer was slowly handed over to the stage. “Okay, calm down,” Onuki calmly directed. The surfer didn’t make it.
To summarize: decibels, sweat, and energy.
Openers included Tomato Flower, the art and anxiety-fueled quartet from Baltimore whose Gold Arc and Construction EPs were in constant rotation in 2022. The band recently released their full-length debut, No, earlier this year and turned in a solid performance. Babybaby_Explores, a tech-enabled dance trio from Providence, started off a tad shaky but eventually gained traction. I heard hints of DEVO in their performance. And The Flying Luttenbachers, a hefty progressive outfit, bulldozed through time signatures and stop-n-start arrangements with impressive mastery and overt love for aggression.
I happened to catch the teaser for the upcoming Butthole Surfers documentary, Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt. Talking heads include Richard Linklater, Dean Ween, Eric Andre, Flea, Thurston Moore, Larry Tee, Dave Grohl, Ice T, Henry Rollins, King Buzzo & Dale Crover, Al Jourensen, Kramer, and Steve Albini. Based on the sampling of live footage alone, this documentary should be worth the price of admission.
New OSEES album!
SORCS 80, easily the ninetieth release from the band, is apparently a new jam from the band that’s sans geeetar but full of brass, samplers, and drums. The single “Cassius, Brutus, and Judas” confirms as much, though the sonic signature of John Dwyer’s ever-evolving project is intact. I thought there was some possibility based on SORCS 80’s instrumental makeup that some elements of Dwyer’s psych-electric sidepiece Damaged Bug might’ve been incorporated into the mix, but this track contains the lively, punk-stomp and serrated edge of an Osees record.
The single premiered at Flood.
SORCS 80 is available for pre-order and due out August 9th via Castle Face Records.
Links:
Osees — Official site / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Tell All Your Friends PR:
This album was a self imposed ambitious project for us. Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo’d everything at home on cassette 4 track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of “songs”.
Tom and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of 3 octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have 4 people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys.
As we were recording I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote & Brad Caulkins on tenor and Baritone saxophones :)
Sort of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk.
Poppy and hooky, heavy at times..
Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound.
Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics.
Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on 8 track 1/4” tape .
So pretty hot and raw.
Lots to write about today.
A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me.
Things that made me reflect.
Things that made me laugh.
Things that made me WTF.
Some folks are kind, genuine & give you love and energy.
Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins.
You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself.
Be self aware and check your mind for cracks.
Learn to relax and be well.
There are moments of beauty and redemption.
Its not all bad news and there’s always hope.
People continue to surprise me one way or another.
Anyhow,
Hope you enjoy and good luck out there.
- John Dwyer
Also out on August 9th is a new album from Fucked Up, Another Day. As preview to the new album, Fucked Up released the single and video for track “Stimming,” some nice twin guitar harmonizing which propels their trademark anthemic tone.
Links:
Fucked Up — Official site / Pre-order / Bandcamp / Instagram
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Stereo Sanctity:
Today Toronto band Fucked Up announce details of their new album 'Another Day', out August 9th on the band’s own imprint Fucked Up Records. Along with the news, they share a first single and video from the album, as well as North American and UK tour dates for later this year.
When you’re alive, every day is exactly the same but also completely different.
One day you’re hibernating inside. On another, you can’t wait to get outside. “Let’s goooo!”
One day your heart’s shattered. On another, it’s full of love and blissful hope. “Do you maybe want to hang out some time?”
One day the body and mind you received from your parents start to fail, and you feel grounded or trapped. On another, it recovers and is strong, flying you and your inventions around the world. “I am free. Finally.”
One day, you’re down but optimistic. On another, you feel the same but altered.
What a difference a day makes.
Like springtime in the Canadian prairies, ‘Another Day’ is fleeting but buzzes with activity—it’s Fucked Up’s shortest album ever and arrives the most quickly after a previous album by the band. ‘One Day’ emerged in the winter of 2023. Each band member separately recorded all their respective parts in a single, presumably rather cold day. It’s a powerful document of a band known for elaborate, dense albums and (over-?) thinking everything through, instead letting go and trusting that they’d made the most of the time they assigned themselves to work with and against.
Today’s single “Stimming” is a 3-minute joyous Fucked Up-style hymn to letting music carry you through those rough days and into the next. “In making the video for stimming we tried to depict the transcendence of music from within our bodies outward to physical action” the band explain. “Stimming is self-soothing behaviour through repetition, and in the context of music and our band, we overcome, calm, and manifest the best of ourselves through these specific, finely tuned physical movements which create a freeing joyous place from which to bring new ideas into the world.”
Trust Records continues in their quest for hardcore preservation by reissuing the second SSD album, 1983’s Get It Away. A mini-documentary named after the album has been developed and part 1 is ready to watch.
The reissue will be out July 19th.
Links:
SSD — Instagram / Facebook
Trust Records — Pre-order / X (formerly Twitter) / Facebook / YouTube / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of another/side:
Universally recognized as the first straight-edge band, SSD’s (Society System Decontrol) 1982 debut The Kids Will Have Their Say is considered a landmark release for hardcore music. However, many fans consider their 1983 sophomore effort Get It Away to be the band’s most crucial release. Most notable is the addition of guitarist Francois Levesque who joined the classic lineup of the “Boston Crew”: Guitarist Al Barile, vocalist David “Springa” Spring, bassist Jaime Sciarappa and drummer Chris Foley.
Another dramatic shift for Get It Away was the improved recording quality of this recording. While The Kids Will Have Their Say was recorded during multiple session on 8-track recorders, Get It Away was recorded on 24-tracks at Downtown Studios in Boston and produced by Mike Bastarche and Lou Giordano (the latter of whom would go on to work with everyone from Hüsker Dü to the Goo Goo Dolls). “It was much more organized as far as the sessions went and we were more prepared,” Foley explains. The result is a seven-song collection, including a cover of the Buzzcocks’ “No Reply,” that finally captured the veracity of the band’s legendary live performances. “When I listen back, it sounds like the vinyl can barely hold all the sound,” he adds.
That said, Get It Away isn’t an easy release to describe—and the fact that hardcore didn’t exist yet allowed the band to approach aggressive music in a way that didn’t sound like anyone else. From the distortion-drenched groove of the opener “Glue” to the blistering chaos of “Under The Influence” and the avant-tinged experimentation of “Xclaim,” Get It Away effortlessly captures a moment of Boston at a time before the scene was codified.
Ultimately, Get It Away is the result of five people and a confluence of circumstances that had to come together in a very specific way in order to create this sonic document. “I think sometimes the arc of a band intersects with the arc of public taste and you have a moment,” Foley says. “Whether it’s the cover art by Pushead (Metallica, Septic Death) or the pictures of us playing at CBGB on the back or maybe it’s just how unique we sounded in 1983. I think for some people it captured a moment in time.” Sciarappa adds, “When we were kids doing this stuff, I don’t remember thinking about future relevance. I’ve got to admit it’s pretty cool nowadays to hear how much the album meant to them and many have it in their top five hardcore albums of all-time, which is a nice compliment.”
Following the 2023 reissue of The Kids Will Have Their Say, Trust Records is set to re-release Get It Away on vinyl July 19 and across digital platforms for the first time ever. It features remastered audio of these songs by Dan Johnson at Audio Archiving Studios and immaculate deluxe packaging - the Trust Records touch. The album has been out of print for almost three decades and is massively in demand amongst the band’s rabid fan base – this is the first officially sanctioned repress of the album since its initial pressing back in 1983. Whether Get It Away is already one of your favorite albums or you’re hearing it for the very first time, this is the definitive version of one of hardcore’s most important releases.
In addition, Trust Records has partnered with Six Stair Productions to tell the SSD story. The short film, titled Get It Away, was directed and edited by Coan Buddy Nichols. It premiered last night at Brain Dead Studios in Los Angeles and today you can preview part one - watch below.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
