Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 12:19:07 -0400 CAMBODIA : A ZINE FOR PEOPLE WHO FIND MUSIC TOO SLOW VOL 1 #3 Welcome to Cambodia. CONTENTS Art is not a Game Ledney and Columbus Reviews, etc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -King Sour's debut release is out. look long and hard for this one. -Dead Guy's full length is out soon. heavy fuckin' metal rules. -Craw tours south at end of april/early may (see below) -look for some kind of web home page soon. i'm back doing some part time computer stuff so i have more access. -the choke, inc. fellas also now have their own distribution company and are not only distribution nationally but internationally in Japan and Europe. Anyone who wants their stuff distributed write to them at the usual address below. -New Hess CRAW shirts available by the time you get this. Double sided natural color shirts with Hess art on both sides. Back is the cover to the vinyl Lost Nation Road. If you want one by mail send $12 ($10 for shirt and $2 for postage) to the choke boys (not us, we are only making enough for tour purposes) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ART IS NOT A GAME ... continued from last ish So with this new marketing hour of "alternative" comes a new reign of power and manipulation. Oh, its not REALLY new, just new players, and the story goes like this - play with us or we'll bury you. Only now it seems like there is more of a concrete uproar from much of the underground against this elitist behavior, and an uproar that goes further than just the rudimentary Major Labels Suck (no reason given) attitude. Open rebellion. But isn't that what all this 'rock' stuff is about anyway? Rollins as the icon of muscled angst and business street smarts according to Details, Burroughs as Nike spokesman, Black Sabbath selling Molsons? The market has found and coddled a new version of the 50s beat counterculture where rebellion, aggression and general unhappiness towards the powers that be are now making billions for our corporate giants. Obviously we have a flaw in our definitions here, then. Counterculture and Corporate Anything should be mutually exclusive, but apparently this strange new paradigm in the entertainment world is allowing us some general leeway. So where are the Painkiller records located in our neighborhood high powered 'alternative' radio station? Why can't I find a copy of Fucktooth zine at my local bookstore/coffee/hip joint? The paradigm comes to a grumbling halt with those who won't play the Big Game, those who remain true to the original ideas of 'alternative', independence and rebellion in the face of corruption. This selective exploitation is of course expected. Hoards of young fresh out of college faces working side by side with the ex-hippies who are now the CEOs and grand decision makers in an endless attempt at keeping with the current trends and creating new markets on top of the existing ones. The new hipsters guiding the old and luring into their fiscal year tons upon tons of generic 'alternative' culture. And occasionally, a few very fine artists. All in an attempt to pinpoint the most accurate market location such that their product may succeed. Thus begins the degradation of moral fiber and discipline and the fork in the road which separates art and imagination from global entrepeneurialism and economy. Artists are then faced with the choice of either forging ahead on the path of creativity, art for arts sake and typically poverty or embracing the market in all it's splendor and embarking on a journey of generic, money making, mass pleasing pop production with the express purpose of topping the charts and generating revenue. This is, according to Joe Carducci in his 1990 criticism "Rock and the Pop Narcotic", where rock and pop concretely separate into the viable definitions of art (good) and craft (boo!), respectively. Too bad that the pop crafter sees only a smidgion of the actual total revenue generated, the rest going to pay off advances, producer points, managers, booking agents, tour buses, etc. For an excellent synopsis of such major label delinquency see "What I Hate About Music" by Steve Albini in Baffler #5 (The Baffler P.O. Box 378293 Chicago, Il. 60637). But that still by a long shot doesn't slow down the franchised meat grinder in full view of the ignorant masses. The very idea of being a star, having riches beyind your wildest dreams, men and/or women at your feet with a snap of your finger, sex with young fans and so on is enough incentive for most to throw away integrity and creativity like an Andy Gibb record and sign up, up and away. ... continued next ish ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My buddy Mike Ledney from Columbus, OH, masters student, ex punk rocker and all around cool guy sends us this. NOTES FROM THE COLUMBUS UNDERGROUND so columbus is still punk. been that way for, oh, 15 years or so and showing no sign of changing. this is fine and all, i mean everyplace needs an identity right??, and cowtown has stuck to it's guns through wave after wave of trendy pop culture. first rap, then metal, then schmalternative, but the town just remained a punk mecca. now let me state for the record that i'm not a punker. i was at one time (say 12-13 years ago) but i guess i'm kinda spoiled. i like things like food, a functioning toilet, and running water that my punk rock lifestyle couldn't furnish. so i quit punkin', never really liked the straight ahead punk rock music anyway so it was no big loss. so now punk rock is cool again. columbus is even being featured in national magazines as some type of musical haven, a place where the music has remained pure. excuse me, how did this happen???? punk had it's shot. you'd get up there with your three chords and your drummer going way too fast and you'd yell. but even that got fat and tired and corporate. and this was 15 years ago for god's sake. now stache's is packed with flannel shirts pulled tightly over greek ebroidered sweaters whenever the new bomb turks play. the turks suck. they've sucked for about 6 years, and now, since they've been so persistant in their sucking, they have a video and throngs of visa card carrying fans. i'm sorry, but when i was punkin' we didn't have visa cards. this is sad, these are the same shitty clubs and the same shitty bands. don't be fooled kids coulmbus music sucks. if you wanna be a punk, go buy the minor threat discography,quit paying your rent, and eat from a dumpster. if you wanna try some real music that hasn't been on life support for 15 years, go buy the following albums. NEW (FOR ME) MUSIC Mount Shasta (forget the album name, could be self titled), skin graft this has been one of the most enjoyable listening experiences i've had in quite some time. when i fisrt popped it into the cd player (no, no vinyl. i told you i wasn't a punk) and saw that it lasted < 30 minutes i was disappointed. "another ep at an lp price." i thought. but then it started. i'd have to describe their sound as a cleaner shorty with some scary little cartoon character singing. in fact, if you use your imagination you can picture the cat depicted in the cover art as the vocalist. sleeve says that the album was recorded between the hours of 3:30 and 5:00 am and i believe it. first three songs bleed right into one another with no edits, and finally at the intro to the forth song (if you listen really close) you can hear someone saying "did you fuck up, well start again", and the bass riff begins anew. good stuff. mike say do check it out. Brise-glase, when in vanitis, skin graft (do i detect a trend here) this is some kind of experimental underground supergroup featuring members (he said member) of the dazzling killmen and bastro (among others). borders on industrial at times with a fair amount of heavy percussion. i really like the heavy percussion parts, kinda like good pigface. other times there are fairly intricate acoustic guitar parts that put me in the mind of gastr del sol. still other times there are many layered sample collages that make me think of what the beastie boys sould have sounded like if they were from chicago and never learned to talk. no vocals, kinda adds a somber darkness to the entire album. if that sounds interrresting to you, get the album. enough of that. SHOWS I SAW RECENTLY Mule/Monster truck 5/Hairy patt band Barley's Underground early Feb. the hairy patt band fucking rules. an acoustic guitar running through a distortion box, a drummer who frequently uses a 30 gallon drum and a cast iron pot. these guys make more noise than a 2 man band should be allowed to. throw in vocals about love, west virginia style, and (in supercool voice) "you're there dood". loved their set, turns out that i used to ride the bus with their drummer every morning a few years ago. scary thought. monster truck 5 sucks. i think i figured out why, check out their initials, MT5. when i was listening to their set i couldn't help but think they were an MC5 cover band (for the uninformed, MC5, or motor city 5 was a seminal detroit garage rock outfit in the late 60's). don't get me wrong, i liked MC5, but these guys were quite lame in their immatation. plus they were way too loud. i mean, if you're gonna suck, do it quietly. mule was pretty good. if the guitar/vocalist wasn't so fucking drunk they would have been much better. they played a very long set (> 2 hours) with very long pauses between songs. seems they played most everything from both albums and the ep, so i won't even attempt to name songs. the highlight of their set was when a member of their entourage, who's soul purpose seemed to be sitting on an amp and occaisionally grabbing the mic and saying foul things, got up and said, (paraphraising, imagine a very eastern kentucky drawl) "this ain't no politically correct gig, if you're offended by foul language and rude gestures, you can just get the fuck out now." overall it was a good night beel jak/craw/ted bundy's VW sudsy malone's mid feburary ted bundy's VW had promise. the song they played had potential, but they played it 15 times. they kept stopping and anouncing new song names, and the vocalist would throw in a different lyric or two, but they didn't fool me. craw......craw......nice hair rockie. going for the bootsie collins look?? nice set, almost entirely from the latest album, but lacking a few of my favorites. really you guys should start every show with the first three songs (from the album) in succession, but that's just me. intense, i loved every minute of it, but it did seem a bit short. but i did like neil's (the drummer) comment when the wino yelled, "c'mon just play one more song" neil, "no, now shut up" beel jak blew. they had to be the worst band i've ever sat through. imagine bad killdozer without the funny lyrics and cheesy guitar wank. i want them to die. jesus lizard/cop shoot cop/the method stache's early march missed the method. no comment cop shoot cop is great. they played a good mixed set with selections from all four albums. i just love their drummer with his sheet metal and lethargic, panama canal zone concussion look. it was alot of fun, but it seemed like i was the only one there that enjoyed it. i just wanted to grab those clueless lizard fans by the throat and say, "that's cop shoot cop you little fucks, move your ass a bit." but i probably would have gotten my ass kicked. after the show i was talking to the keyboardist and it turns out that they now reside and practice in the same neighborhood that i grew up in. the south side of williamsburg, brooklyn. can you say sal's pizza. small fucking world, huh. david yow came onstage in a nice sweater over a button down collered shirt. my god, doesn't he remind you of the scary uncle that you never wanted to go see but your parents made you go anyway and he's always want you to pull his finger and his house was always really gross. whoa, kinda gota away from myself there. anyway there were PA troubles so uncle dave proceeded to tell us about his tree frog named jean-luc which eats crickets. early part of the set was almost entirely from down. i don't like down (risks losing indie credibility by critisizing a JL album). it's boring and tired. this part of the set sucked, but shortly they went with the old standards and even pulled out a few very old songs from pure and head which i'm sure i was the only person in stache's singing along. very long set in which all the better JL songs were played. the band (YOW) seems to have lost no intensity and was highly entertaining. BTW rockie, at the show i met a friend of yours named heather who claims that she was arrested with you. could be true, but i think she was just one of the many craw groupies you guys have scattered across the nation. oh the life of a rock star. >^^^^^^^^^ - ha! thats a good one. tho' i did think i resembled the punk >rocker you described not paying rent and eating out of dumpsters -me BTW2 i had a dream with all you guys in it. it was really wierd, we were in brooklyn, a very bad section called east new york (mike tyson's old neighborhood) and at the begining i walked under an el track and you guys (craw) were hanging out under on an old abandoned car. your vocalist (joe) had his arms around a very pregnant puerto rican (maybe dominican) girl and the conversation turned to food. i mentioned that i knew where we could eat and we started walking toward the southside (my old neighborhood) and the world started moving really fast, like those high speed films. then we were in the home of my old friend rob. another white trash fellow from my neighborhood who's entire family (like 9 people) lived in a 2 bedroom walkup on grand st. we were frying ham and i mentioned to ms. thacker that i was a vegetarian, and then you guys all said you were too (but the PR girl was already munching away on a sandwich, so obviously she wasn't). she told us to have a sandwich, it won't hurt nothin'. and your bassist decided he would and he tried to talk you into it. then this converstaion followed, "have some ham rock, i saw you eating a piece of pepperoni this morning anyway, one more piece ain't gonna hurt you." then you, "fuck off, that's west virginia math. just because i had a piece of pep doesn't make it all right for me to eat ham." well the thackers are from WV, and they didn't like that comment about WV math, and kicked us all out without even a piece of bread. they let the pregnant girl stay though. strange stuff. that's all for now. remember, edit freely. breathe deep, sleep well. mike ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEWS, ETC. Today Is The Day - WILLPOWER: A startlingly viscious second full-length effort from this Nashville, TN trio. If you can imagine King Crimson, pre-ANGEL RAT era Voivod and an exorcism all crossbred with a demonic songwriter from the future, you might come close to nailing WILLPOWER down without actually listening to it. Superb, grand guitar abrasion leaps and spits from track to track, complemented by limber, amazing bass playing and drumming to confuse the masses who only accept the norm in time signatures. Nestled among all this screaming and flesh-slicing genius is a subversive element of melody! It's unbelievable how easily Today Is The Day incorporates the sought-after "memorable hook" into their soundscapes of acidic release on cuts like "My First Knife" and "Golden Calf." Although I don't quite understand the inclusion of a completely sweet and near My Bloody Valentine-sounding track ("Simple Touch") beyond what could only be a desire to stretch out away from total abandonment to their cathartic needs, WILLPOWER takes up where the band's SUPERNOVA left off . . . and finds it yanking away excesses and reinvinting itself. (Amphetamine Reptile Records, 2645 First Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408) -Jeff McLeod (The Subversive Workshop, email: 75321.2755@compuserve.com ------------- SURFIN' & SPYIN': Either side of THE DEL LAGUNAS "Time Tunnel"/"Shadow" 45 (Estrus) will probably sit right with instro surf folks. Not real fast, "Shadow" is my pick, painting a musical picture of an overcast day on a deserted beach... Cut-man Q had raved about THE FINKS' Dirty Rotten Finks (Dionysus) EP some time back and after a month or two, I finally listened. The first track (called either "High Wall" or "Meltdown", depending on whether you're looking at the sleeve or the record) is heavy-reverb drenched double-pickin' fun, but it seems like I've heard so much of that that I once again pick the slower one. "Close Out at Pier 11" seems like lonely twilight time at your fave spot. Time to relive the day's glories and wipeouts with a couple of close friends while sittin' round the fire in the sand. -Blair Buscareno <blairb@eden.rutgers.edu> Teen Scene #52 ------------- ICEBURN - POETRY OF FIRE What can I say? this album is fully great. five piece from utah with kicking influences and very cool interpretations on great music like miles. heavy and dynamic, saxophone adds flavor. of course i like it - it in ways reminds me of us. find it. its so good, in fact, that it killed my receiver amp while playing it at high volume. i am now musicless. ------------- LiveReviews: BinaryScale 1-good 0-bad Chokebore 1 Today is the Day 1 Steel Pole Bathtub 1 Love666 0 cows 1 (fully) golden 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CRAW Touring : april 21 Kansas City mo Derek Hess art opening with Season to Risk at the Foundry 22 St. louis mo Bernards (early all ages show - 7PM) 23 Memphis tn Baristers 24 off 25 Lake Charles la Pourquoi pas 26 lafayette la Metropolis 27 panama city fl Mescalitos 28 birmingham al club 2308 (?) 29 pensacola fl handlebar 30 1st annual craw swim to cuba event May 1 Athens ga Atomic 2 Atlanta ga Somber reptile 3 knoxville tn mercury theatre 4 chilicothe oh blue monk 5 cleveland oh euclid tavern (1st home show in 6 months) - special guests Dimbulb and Philo Beddow Memorial day weekend romp in chicago. details coming. Mid June detroit/cleveland/chicago(?) with Neurosis. NXNE festival in toronto, Dayton Music festival, then 2 week northeast coast run. NOTE : Anyone wanting to get ahold of us for a show, our number has changed - it is now 2162312907. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Special thanks to Mike Ledney for totally cheering me up. Again, feel free to send the choke, inc guys demo tapes, etc. CHOKE, INC. 1376 W. GRAND AVE. CHICAGO, IL. 60622 choke@spagmumps.com Booking info for craw mail me or call 2162312907 and ask for dave. booking info for morsel and hairy patt band call 5139610357 ask for lucia. booking info on JAKS call 3132131457 or 3132131280 'Shee, you guys are so unhip its a wonder your bums don't fall off' --- rockie@neurosis.wariat.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Back Issues at FTP 141.214.4.135 under the directory /docs/choke. WWW stuff located at "http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi.html" under Shopping Maul ... Thanks Jon.