4/18/99

Roby's on Division Ave. in Chicago is looking a lot like Chicago No Wave ground zero circa 1999. Monday nights are being booked by Brent Gutzeit and the upcoming shows all look promising. Tommorrow evening Robert Johnson and the Browns (featuring Todd Rittman of U.S. Maple infamy) will take the stage with a phalanx of acoustic guitarists (all playing an 'E Minor' chord, evidently). April 26 and May 31 will bring Fred Lonberg-Holm's Lightbox Orchestra, a conducted improvisation consortium featuring a revolving cast of characters. May 3 features a set by Lozenge. May 17 is a double bill with the Weasel Walter/Michael Colligan/Kurt Johnson Trio and a solo set by Fred Lonberg-Holm. May 24 will bring two trios: one with Ken Vandermark and another featuring Gutzeit and ex-Destroy All Monsters multi-instrumentalist Ben Miller. Last monday's show had William Pisarri's performance troupe ZZZZZZ and a set by Nautical Almanac.

Bobby Conn will appear at the Lounge Ax in Chicago on Saturday April 24, 1999. The noxious li'l' pop tyrant has just returned from tour of the coasts and is working on material for his next album. The band on his West Coast leg included ex-Dazzling Killmen/current-You Fantastic! bassist Darin Gray and Cheer-Accident/You Fantastic! drummer Thymme Jones. Both men were required to grow mustaches for the tour. The East Coast line-up included Cheer-Accident bassist Dylan Posa and veteran drummer Coldman.

Also joining the bill at Lounge Ax on the 24th will be Strawberry, reappearing after a 5 year absence with a new look, a new sound and new songs. The sleazy testosterone overload of yore is apparently being replaced by a suave, "internationale" style. Lead icon Eugene "XXX" Pomeroy -"The El Shorty" informed us that the band is tired of rocking to deaf ears and that they are "looking to get more pussy" by acting like euro-trash homosexuals a la "Ultravox". This sounds like the big sell-out they've always been trying to make!

Hatewave makes their return to the stage at Smiler Coogans on Grand in Chicago Wednesday, May 12, 1999 at 7PM. Their murderous new album is out now and features 10 songs of furious high-speed death metal. Relapse recording artists Incantation will headline the show.

7000 Dying Rats will play this years' Expo of the Extreme at The Riviera in Chicago on May 22, 1999. Weasel Walter will fill the drum chair on this gig. Motorhead headline.

On Monday June 7, 1999 at 8PM, Flying Luttenbachers alumni William Pisarri, Kurt Johnson and Weasel Walter meet Boston transplant saxophonist Bhob Rainey at the Improvised Music Workshop at Myopic Books on Division in Chicago. Admission is free. The workshop just celebrated its fifth anniversary of weekly concerts.

4/3/99

Last Thursday's show at Roby's went smashingly. The evening began with an amazing set by Hanson recording duo Wolf Eyes who strike me as a way more fucked up early Suicide with Loverboy overtones. Next up came a last minute addition of Metalux, who played an even briefer set than normal. The trio dished out their usual slobbering guitar noise. Mr. Velocity Hopkins post-Couch attempt at "blues exploding" followed under the guise of 25 Suaves. The frontline was decked out in kitschy shades and John Travolta suits while the zombie like drummer opted for gold lame. Velocity Hopkins worked the stage with overzealous enthusiasm, smashing his guitar brazenly and extorting the audience to "participate" in cheers. They won the crowd over with rock and roll. The night ended with King Brothers a totally extreme, savage rock and roll band from Japan. These three guys put out. Their sheer intensity is rivaled by few in this day and age. They literally went berserk the whole time, grafting spastic atonal guitar wrenching over houserockin' backbeats. Their display was an unbelievable and pummeled the audience into complete submission. Couch didn't show. Apparently Marlon Magas was in Texas... Ha ha. Fuck April Fool's Day.

Friday night Billy Side's Abort Protocol played at the Mutiny on Western. William and his female singer were joined at the last minute by Weasel Walter on drums and Liz Armstrong on guitar. A torrid 15 minute free jazz freak-out ensued that reminded me of a more potent and frenzied early Sonny/Linda Sharrock: a flowing, but maniacly dense exposition of sound. The bar owner shut the band down after a while. "You're scaring off my customers!" Indeed.

3/28/99

There's a slew of gigs coming up. On April 1st (this report isn't a joke) Couch will play their first gig in a long time at Roby's on Division in Chicago. Hanson recording artists Wolf Eyes and Bulb sensations 25 Suaves will also appear. 2 Fast 4 Love, "the early soundz of Motley Crue" will rock the Lounge Ax for the first time in 5 years on Saturday April 3rd. Believe me, the cocaine will be free that night. April 5th at Roby's will bring an "electro-acoustic music" gig by the trio of Kevin Drumm, Michael Colligan and Weasel Walter. ZZZZZ, featuring Luttenbacher alumni, and Nautical Almanac will play at Roby's on April 12.

Apparently U.S. Maple played a free show at the Rainbo Club recently and didn't bother to tell me or any of their old pals. Disappoining. Oh well, tough shit for us, right?

Here's a link to the brand new New York No Wave Photo Archive featuring pictures of The Contortions, Red Transistor, Come On, Theoretical Girls, NYC Scenesters, Mars, Futants, UT, Rhys Chatham, Lounge Lizards, The Static, DNA, 8-Eyed Spy, Von LMO, Sick Dick and the Volkswagens, Judy Nylon, Model Citizens, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and No Wave Jam Session at Max's Kansas City, 1978. There's plenty more on the way. The scanner is burnin' up!

3/12/99

• The Scissor Girls: "The Sequential"
  This track was recorded at a big show held at a huge, decrepit movie theater called "The Hub" on Chicago Avenue in Chicago on September 29, 1994. The CIA CD and LP Anthropod Vector tracks are also from this event as well as the stills on the back of the second SGs record, "We People Space Phantoms". The Flying Luttenbachers and Math finished up the evening's festivities. The "We People..." material seemed totally chaotic live - I had to learn a lot of it when I filled in on guitar for Kelly Kuvo the next year and I can attest to the bizarre density and construction of the material. Sue Ann Zollinger was still playing guitar in the group at this time.

• MotherCountryDeathRattle: "The Tarantula Spasm Stomp"
  I think I only saw this band play 3 or 4 times over the years. They really seemed to like holidays - the Fourth of July in particular. I seem to remember them in matching marching band uniforms celebratorily blowing up a pigs head with explosives at a gig in '94! Their earlier modus operandi of primitive noise-rock jamming eventually evolved into a quite eloquent and elegantly spacious style of organic free jazz (like this track) after falling under the spell of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra and the like. They seem to have morphed into something else in the past few years. I don't know what they call themselves now. On this recording I believe the line-up to be Peter Redgrave on trumpet, Fletch on bass and baritone horn, Thom Reid on drums, and Dave Bramble on shenai.

• The Flying Luttenbachers: "Demonic Velocities"
  This track was recorded in April '94 at the last show Ken Vandermark played with the group. I'm not fond of the balance of instruments on this track, but, hey... My ultra-defunct "alien death metal" trio Vagiant debuted at this show and The Scissor Girls also played.

• Math: "Gorilla"
  Math were very popular in the neighborhood during the first half of the '90s. One of our interns made an FAQ about them that you should read if you are interested.

• Trenchmouth: "Dawning of a New Sound System"
  Around the time of their second album "Inside the Future", Trenchmouth were an inspiring live band. The album's pretty fucking good too! This track is o.k. but doesn't have the maniacal spark of one of their many really inspired performances. I think the art crowd thought they were too, uh, "good" or something because the noise snobs didn't seem to have any respect for them musically. At their height they combined complex dissonance and visceral rhythms with an unmatched furor. All of the members still do stuff in bands like The Eternals and Adam and the Ants.

• Quintron: ?
  Quintron just sort of showed up in town one day in the mid-'90s with a crazy percussion-and- electronics set-up. Now he lives in New Orleans and plays sleazy organ music that makes people wanna buy records!

• Duotron: "Dan't!" and "Another!"
  Rikkeh and Jodi hacked it out through three albums before imploding. They perfected a method of finding widely varying modes and structures within they could sound shitty! They never seemed to like each other very much and I think that had something to do with their stable musical chemistry. Jodie had all kinds of metal contraptions and weird microphones around her Duotron drumkit. Rikkeh used a totally fucked up cheapo guitar with some ultra-arcane microtonal tuning that only he will ever understand.

• El Niño: "Pangaea (A World Apart)"
  I never saw this band play, but I get the impression from people like Jeff Day that this was their "hit". It definitely is a math-rock stomper. Their vocalist/guitarist was perennial ladykiller Joaquin De La Puente who also led the band D.O.G. at sporadic intervals through the years.

• JAKS: "?"
  JAKS relocated from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Chicago in 1995. I can't help but to think that if they had been in town a few years earlier that they would have blown it totally fucking apart. Towards the end of the band they really mastered an entertaining, startlingly morose and mesmerizing style of Grand Guingol horror rock. Bassist and musical directrix Jessica went on to Lake Of Dracula and a cryptic, unheard project called Hair Hair.

• Anthropod Vector: "Powerful Lies"
  From the Hub Theater extravaganza (cf. Track 1). Tom Sibley (vocals, electronics), Jeff Day (drums - went on to Monitor Radio, Bobby Conn, Baccus-D), Eric Renick (guitar - went on to MotherCountryDeathRattle), Sava (bass - went on to Dirty Old Man River) and Mike (guitar).

• Slope: "Polarized"
  This three-piece slogged it out for a few years. I remember a gig they did once where AZ joined them on vocals for a cover of the Pretenders' "Tattooed Love Boys". That was pretty fucking good. The rest of their stuff seemed like fairly average noise-rock one chord jams.

• The Deuces: "Transistor Man"
  This group consisted of Rik Shaw (bass/vocals - later of Deadly Dragon Sound System and Rome), Douglas "Coldman" Walker (drums - later of Bobby Conn, D.O.G., Rome, Baccus-D), James Yoo (guitar - later of The Coutures, Baccus-D, The Scissor Girls, D.O.G.), and Ben Redgrave (vocals - later of Baccus-D, The Coutures).

• Condeucent: "Baby, Baby"
  This is a very early recording of the band from one of their many, many gigs at the Gallery in Chicago. Bobby Conn (guitar - later of Short and Sweet), LeDeuce (electronics - later in Rome) and DeShaun DuSent (vocals, drums - later in Short and Sweet). The early Condeucent sound was totally improvised. They later added a miraculous bassist and vocalist named Rex Jenny before mounting a series of incredible rock operas (e.g. conceptually covering the entirety of the "Best of Buddha" 8-Track). Three full-length albums recorded by the band rot on the shelf. I've heard the second one and I saw their final gig in 1993 where they played many of the songs off the third and I must say that it's a crime nobody cared.

  3/8/99

  Still no word on airdate for the Quintron/Jenny Jones episode. The topic, however, is something along the lines of "My Girlfriend Dresses too Sexy!" Click Here for some pictures taken by Liz Armstrong of Mr. Q's 9th Ward Marching Band from Mardi Gras a few weeks ago.

  Apparently 7000 Dying Rats are at it again with ex-Anal Cunt/Grief drummer Tim Morse in as "official drummer". The band is recording in Detroit soon and are slated to do some touring with Pigface.

  The Hatewave record is ready and will be out in stores this week.

  2/2/99

  Today we received some very bad news: Cheer-Accident guitarist Phil Bonnet was found dead in his running car, possibly of a brain aneurysm. Phil was a great musician and engineered many recordings at Solid Sound Studios in Hoffmann Estates, Illinois.

  Photos from the Bobby Conn East Coast and European 1998 Tours are now available online.

  The horrific Rock and Roll monolith known to many as Vanilla has reconsituted itself as Strawberry and now includes Johnny Fucking Holocaust and Cho-Yun Li (a Bobby Conn Band alumni) on dual lead guitars, Hott Lixx bassist Ripp E-Z, skin-basher Lawrence "Larry" Pomeroy and shocking 4-foot-7-inch powerhouse Eugene XXX Pomeroy, "The El Shorty" on lead vocals. Copies of the "lost Vanilla single" have been found in a warehouse. These will be distributed through ugEXPLODE as soon as they are disinfected. The band will begin attacking audiences once again this spring.

  Speaking of Rock And Roll Apocalypse, the legendary Mötley Crüe tribute band 2 Fast 4 Love will return for one night only, Saturday April 3, 1999 at Lounge Ax in Chicago. The band features members of Flying Luttenbachers, Hatewave, Hott Lixx, Vanilla, Strawberry, Hatewave, Mama Tick, Lake Of Dracula, Cheer-Accident, Brice-Glace, etc performing note-for-note renditions of the earth-shattering debut Crüe LP with pro-gear and attitude! Ex-Didjits band Gaza Strippers will also appear.

  The Flying Luttenbachers (Weasel Walter, Kurt Johnson, Michael Colligan, Fred Lonberg-Holm) will appear at Roby's in Chicago on Monday March 1st, 1999 at 11PM. Admission is 3 dollars.

  Adam and the Antz will telecast a live concert on the internet on February 19, 1999. For more details see their website.