1/25/99
A month-long Quintron and Miss Pussycat European tour is currently in the works for April of this year. There is a strong possibility that the tour will overlap with a Bobby Conn tour, giving German audiences a double dose of perverse pop showmanship. Details at
agog.
Bobby just shot photos for Spin Magazine wearing heavy make-up and a fur coat in the YMCA shower room. Check here soon for pics from last years' East Coast and European Bobby tours.
1/18/98
New Arab On Radar
website. New LP/CD out February 15, 1999 on Load Records with exciting
production by Weasel Walter!
The Hanson Records "Electroverload Tour" came to Roby's in Chicago on January 15th. Metalux opened this extremely fuckin' LOUD show with their brand of noise guitar-jam squish and disembodied vocals. If they sought to rope all their sounds in to actual songs, I bet a lot of people might take notice. Wolf Eyes (featuring a Mini-Systems member) got the joint bumpin' with a bizarre, minimal mixture of cracked electronic beats, echo-drenched nonsense diatribes and spazzy guitar grackle. Rubber-O-Cement, with Grux of Caroliner dressed as a big dragon baby on bass and a quivering castle/computer on synthesizer, rattled out a brief set of sploogy improvisation. Nautical Almanac followed with a succinct burst of comedic random noises. The show came to a close with the group Scummeri, which includes a hypnotizing robot and a huge castle/computer that continually spit out 'data'. A grunting, wheezing Beast Person made a cameo appearance, long enough to sniff an empty beer bottle, hop on top of the bar and cower in fear of the strange humans surrounding it.
1/12/98
Nothing is going on! Buried in snow!
U.S. Maple will record their third album in New York City at the end of this month. Michael Gira(ex-Swans) will produce the sessions with Martin Bisi at the engineering helm. Maybe USM could get Homestead records to put this out as a boxed set with Phantom Tollbooth and Live Skull. Or maybe that was a really awful indie rock-circa-'88 in joke... or.... The album be released by Drag City.
Adam and the Ants news: first single, "Young Parisians"
b/w "Lady" available now from ugEXPLODE. The band will air their third
Peel Session recordings live on the internet on January 26, 1999 (see
Ants site for details) and appear live at the Big Horse in Chicago on
January 30, 1999. Also appearing at the show will be the glorius, chaotic
post-pubescent overload of Raunch Factory.
All you trash video freaks should check out the newly opened Big Brother store at Chicago and Damen in Chicago. They have Chris Elliot's "Get A Life" episodes, "13 Ghosts", The Chuck Berry, GoGos, and Rob Lowe videos, all of the "Ilsa" movies and sell Chicago No Wave product to boot! We have discussed supplying them with Chicago No Wave tapes to rent. Hopefully these will be available in February.
BoxMedia/Gentle Giant/TV Pow noise monarch Brent Gutzeit is now booking Monday night improvised music shows at Roby's on Division and Damen in Chicago. There is no cover charge for these shows which will start at 9:30 or so. The usual suspects will be there. Weasel Walter is putting a group of Luttenbacher alumni together for a show on January 25th. Roby's will also host a spectacular freak-out on January 15 featuring a quintet of Hanson recording artists (including the feral Beast People) and Chicago's Metalux.
12/20/98
So after the ugEXPLODE staff departed the House of Blues in the aftermath of yet another "Satan vs. Jesus and Satan wins because he's cooler" debacle featuring Morbid Angel and Nile (o.k. godammit, we were at a death metal show) we headed over to the, -cough cough- Funky Buddha bar to catch the latest Easy Listener Mag party. The odd and euro-sleezy Cattivo Orchestra romped through a bunch of sexy, exotic easy-rockers before turning the stage over to Zeek Sheck, who dazzled the audience with her trademark bleat and pummel catharsis. The evening wound down to a close with Mr. Bobby Conn in a beat-box propelled review featuring Monica BouBou and dope DJ LeDeuce. Bobby's show touched back heavily upon the old-school brand-of-weird that he has forsaken as of late. Viva le "ick", we say, and viva "easy".
12/18/98
Poor old Scott from Adam and the Ants busted a rib at the last Lounge
Ax gig. I guess he can't play the show on Friday! Drop him an e-mail
and cheer him up.
Cheer-Accident will wipe up the friggin' stage with the competition this Saturday at Lounge Ax in Chicago. This band's last show was one of the greatest performances I have ever seen - an unbelievable display of musical acrobatics that made Ruins sound like Beat Happening!!! Come to think of it, their last four years of shows haven't been too shoddy either. Now if they could only make a decent record, they might fuck everybody up.
Weasel Walter is selling a bunch of records,
mostly free jazz.
12/17/98
Our intrepid buddy Tom
Smith has written a blazingly lucid essay on the diametric
opposite of the filthy, pompous genre known as "post"-rock: PRE. Pre-
is the goddamn id manifest, and if there is a brain in your head, you
may agree that we are all better off embracing it.
Speaking of good ol' Tom, the Smithster himself has taken upon himself
to contribute to a smashingly good website worshipping the vitriolic British
disaster-master punk-funk-skronk unit The
Pop Group.
12/15/98
Big No Wave News: Mr. Quintron recently taped an appearance
on the Jenny Jones Show! I don't know when this thing will be broadcast,
but Q was a gimp on the panel answering questions about "your cousin slept
with my dog and I'm not going to take it any more" or whatever horseshit
it is they talk about on that program. Check out the brand new fourth
Quintron album "These Hands of Mine" on Skin Graft Records or die! This
one's the hit.
Another new slab of vinyl comes from 25 Suaves, the
new Osaka based unit led by ex-Couch führer Mr.
Velocity Hopkins. Fans of the Ann Arbor No band will only be
disappointed if they can't stand a little "bump" in their skronk: this
record manages to swing and fall down a flight of stairs all at once.
This seven inch was released by your enemies at Bulb Records.
Old school no wave obscurantists will want to check out Kongress
keyboard-meister Otto von Ruggins' website at http://www.erols.com/otvr/.
Kongress was a wild late-'70s NYC assault unit featuring Von LMO.
12/4/98
Atavistic Records recently reissued the 1980 NYC No Wave überwork
John Gavanti on CD. This long unavailable slab originally
issued on Hyrax records features three-quarters of the legendary Mars
and two-thirds of DNA in a re-working of "Don Giovanni".
The organic haze of strings, brass, and woodwinds and affrontive recitation
of this piece definitely create a timeless, psychotic gleam.
Had some fun a few nights ago at the grand rich-people/industry weasel
opening bash at the Virgin Megastore in Downtown Chicago. Skin Graft Records
somehow procured seven invites, so label head Mars Fischer,
sidekicks Billy Sides, Sonny Erly and Errol Butkisss,
village asshole Jeff Day, staff member Weasel
Walter, Mount Shasta massa John Forbes and mystery
man Cho-Yun Li hightailed it down to the land of duck
pate and cocaine to take a look. Lots of upper class poofs in de rigeur
all-black chit-chatted benignly while our men lit their first cigarettes
in this spectacular non-smoking environment before washing the smoke down
with free screwdrivers and sushi. These dashing young lads did a sexy
dance in front of featured performer "Deborah Cox" before waggling home
with their greedy pockets full of "hot" Sparks and Sir
Lord Baltimore CDs. Hey, if you're looking for that easy to find
domestic "Flying Luttenmbachers" disc and have a measly twenty bucks burning
a hole in your big, saggy trousers, come on down! Why spend less when
you can spend more. Oh yeah, they didn't actually have Sir Lord Baltimore
anyway. Phooey!
Word has it that Zeek Sheck will be defecting to the
West Coast soon.
New Year's Eve at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago will feature headliner
Bobby Conn (one disco set and one hard rock set) with
The Meshuganas, Rainer Maria, Hatewave, and The
Nerves. Doors open at 7PM and admission is only $5!!!!!!!!!
11/30/98
OOOOOOOF! We're back. So, here's a recap of October and November
Chicago No Wave Events delivered in a gossipy, second-hand mewl:
- Scott Gibbons of Adam and the Antz/Lilith/Orbitronik/
Strawberry tied the knot with Rachel Wilson from The
Slits/Futuristic Dragon on September 26, 1998. All of the
usual miscreants were in attendance. And speaking of Adam, the Antz
first single will be out any day now.
- The magnificent Caroliner played at Roby's on Division
in Chicago. One of the opening slots was filled by Plastic
Scorpion, a new combo with Marlon Magas
(Lake Of Dracula, Many Moods, Couch), Fred Lonberg-Holm ,
and ex-Jaks Bill and Jessica. Fred
told us that the band played a single 20-minute tour-de-force and
hopes that they will continue to develop. Hanson recording artists,
The Beast People also appeared.
- If anyone has an account of the other October No Wave-related Roby's
shows, send 'em to us so we can post 'em. Ditto on the Lounge Ax show
with Suckdog, Zeek Sheck and ZZZZZ.
- The Bobby Conn European tour went pretty f'in'
good. The band played about 30 dates in Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia,
Netherlands, etc. and did their best to put on the lowest budget spectacle
imaginable. If anyone really cares to hear all of the gory details,
e-mail us and simply put "Bobby Conn Tour" in the subject heading.
If we get enough requests, a full account will appear here. The homecoming
show at the Lounge Ax on Friday revealed a newer, bolder, tighter
side of Bobby's megalomaniacal vision. The band whipped through a
long, loud set featuring the bulk of "Rise Up" and old chestnuts like
"Never Get Ahead" and "I Love You". Bobby is negotiating a Europe
only ep release of new songs to be recorded with the touring unit
and will take off next week on an East Coast jaunt with E.A.R.
- U.S.Maple recently wrapped up a string of dates
with Royal Trux and will begin working on their third
album soon. The band has apparently jumped ship from Skin Graft Records
to Drag City. Lead libertine Al Johnson explains that the sole subject
matter of the lyrics concern the omnipresent physical/intellectual/sexual
tension of "8th grader in us all." I see...
- Chicago badboy poet Thax Douglas hosted an evening
of weirdness a few weeks ago at Lounge Ax featuring performances by
Metalux, Abort Protocol, and Nautical Almanac
as well as others.
- The rumor mill has it that the terribly well-hated and legendary
multi-media explosion known as Strawberry may resurface
in the near future! Oh the agony.
- Monotrona was in town this weekend, performing
at the Empty Bottle (with Chinese Johnny also on
the bill) and on the Cable Access children's dance show Chic-a-go-go.
Other exiled Chicagoans appearing at the television studio included
ex-Scissor Girl guitarist Kelly Kuvo
and MotherCountryDeathRattle founder Peter
Redgrave. Both are members of the NYC based theatre troupe
Sweet Thunder who will release an album produced
by Bobby Conn in the near future.
- 7000 Dying Rats have disbanded due to internal
conflicts.
- Yet another Flying Luttenbachers album is slated
for release in 1999, entitled "Satanic War Metal Holocaust". Weasel
Walter promises "the sound of total armegeddon. Gods of Chaos was
baby-shit compared to what this will be! I will drive a tank through
the recording studio..." Uh huh.
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