Some people have told me that their mailbox has smaller limits than usual(less than 8k), thereby cutting off the last few paragraphs of the last issue. If this is the case for you, let me know and we will put you in the SPECIAL room.
Choke, Inc. is in the middle of recording and releasing their two other bands in the month of february. Milkmine and Morsel are both in the studio and are expected to release the results in march. I'm very excited - almost as much as when I heard Blue Oyster Cult's Career of Evil was out.
We have an added bonus here. Our friend Jon up in michigan set up
some neat stuff for us. FTP 141.214.4.135 now holds the directory
/docs/choke where you can
a) Obtain back issues of this, even though
we're only on issue #2
b) Check out the entire Choke, Inc. catalog,
which is totally huge right now
c) etc. - be nosey - you get the drift
My R key is not producing the desired r result, but I'm too lazy right now to clean the pads.
WARNING !!! DO NOT PLAY DOOM !!! WILL RESULT IN INSOMNIA, EMOTIONAL DURESS, SHAKES, AND GENERAL LACK OF GETTING ANYTHING DONE. THOSE SUFFERING FROM AN INABILITY TO CONTROL THE NORMAL DOOM URGES MAY CONTACT US AT DOOMAHOLICS ANONYMOUS FOR AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 12 STEP GUIDE TO SHEDDING YOUR ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY AND REACHING YOUR LOST INNER CHILD WHO HAS BEEN TAKEN PRISONER BY MUTANTS ON MOON BASE ALPHA. ALL IS NOT LOST. I FEEL HAPPY AND HOPEFUL FOR THOSE WHO HAVE JOINED US.
We here at craw resort are finishing off some new t-shirts. The front will be an illustration by Derek Hess, the guy who drew our two 7" covers. The back will have some shit on it, too. We will probably be selling them for $10. If anyone thinks they might want me to hold one and send them one, let me know.
Soon craw will be thinking about artwork for the next full length release. We will be recording with steve again in june, but need to have the art done before that. Anyone wishing to submit for this, please do. If chosen, you WILL get SOME money, but probably not a whole lot cause we po'.
The March issue of alternative press which will be available in early February has a 1 page article on craw. In it, band members dave mcclelland and neil chastain discuss things which I can only dream about, since I chose not to be present in the interview. Honestly, I have a hard time with press publications like that, solely for the reason that people take them too seriously. If Spin says so and so is cool, then of course they must be. Don't get me wrong, I'm very honored to be given space in AP, but I also feel people should not rely so much on what these kind of magazines have to say and experiment more with new music. - well, enough of this lecture.
Exciting news in the business end of running a small label with small fry bands ... choke inc., with help from the craw CD and milkmine 7", has just been picked up for exclusive european distribution by some company in england whose name escapes me, but the idea of spreading our disease en masse into europe makes me giggle.
New DAZZLING KILLMEN in March. If you are unfamiliar with this band from St. Louis, do yourself a favor and UN-unfamiliarize yourself with them. These guys are SO good, when they played with us I didn't want to play after they finished their set. THATS how good they are. They play with so many different times your head will spin. People liken both them and us as the new wave of death jazz. I kinda dig that.
Compilation in the works : A fellow clevelander and partner of his are putting together a new compilation that will showcase mostly mid-western bands. Bands so far include : craw(cleveland), milkmine (cincinatti), brainiac(dayton), new bomb turks(columbus), and cage (dayton), with possible tracks from shorty(chicago) and dazzling killmen(St. Louis). But, this is only a rumor - haha...
Ann Arbor, MI - Excellent crowd and response. Played with two real good bands, called Jaks and Zug Island Quartet.
Philadelphia, PA - Coldest night here in 20 years, and no one was at the show except the first band and their fiends. the band was called Kitchkao and were really nice guys who let us crash at their place.
Asbury Park, NJ - Quaint little ocean side town who really got into our stuff. I was kinda surprised, too, but that just tells me not to take people at face value.
Baltimore, MD - It took us 8 hours to get from Asbury Park to Baltimore, a normally 3 1/2 hour drive - freezing rain took out most of the morons who think they know how to drive, but consequently locked up the highways. We got into town and it was completely empty. The opening band didn't even show, so we told the promoter to call us for another date and left.
Huntington, WV - The owner/soundman hates us cause we were late. I usually am pretty good with people with different views than I, but I really can't stand hicks who openly admit to being prejudiced and can't understand how I can live in a city with so many black people. I almost took this kid's head off.
Akron, OH - We did this show at the last minute when some other band called torque cancelled out. We played with Karma to Burn and a local speed metal quintet called Hyper as Hell. Cool show, but low pay cause we filled in for someone else who wasn't getting much money in the first place. I know, I know - you have to pay your dues.
Richmond, Va - What a cool looking town. All old style buildings and houses, etc. Small turnout due to a few unrelated events where no promo stuff reached the club before we played and flyers were put up the day of the show due to unconfirmed other bands. Regardless, those who showed made us feel welcome and stuck around the whole night. The opening band was called Hegoat, jesus lizard-ish stuff and very cool. Stayed in this great house with a bunch of guys in all these different bands in richmond. Special thanks to Pat, Rob and Jamie.
PITCH SHIFTER - Desensitized
Earache Records MOSH 75
I got this in a trade with one of the dudes who works at earache and
I must say its really cool. Not completely what I expected, given the
name, but highly enjoyable nonetheless. Heavy rifs and growling
vocals over almost industrialized drums and a few loops. Its
definately a head banger, and even, dare I stretch this to extremes,
the heaviest danceable metal/grind album. Cool shit.
CRAW, MILKMINE, and DUVALBY BROS.
Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH, 01-23-94
No, i'm not gonna shamelessly review our own show, just say that this
was one of the most fun shows I've played. All bands performed great
and fun was had by all. Duvalby Bros. are local cleveland who can
rock real fuckin hard.
NIK TURNER'S HAWKWIND and SLEEP
Peabody's Down Under, Cleveland, OH 02-01-94
Sleep's first album was one of the heaviest, slowest recordings in
the history of music. It's called Vol. 1 and is pretty hard to find.
So when they came out with their second album I was thrilled, only to
find that they had ditched one of two guitars and were now not only
trying to sound like sabbath, but sing like them as well (as opposed
to the insane screaming of the first album). I still had hopes,
though, that sleep would still be pretty brutal. And I wasn't
disappointed. I wish they would not try to sing these days, though.
They come off as total throwbacks from 1972. Hawkwind was very
entertaining. Never really listened to them much before. Helios Creed
played guitar, though, and he rules. Total Spacecore. Cool show.
DAZZLING KILLMEN - Face of Collapse
Skin Graft Records
Nick from the killmen just sent me a copy of their new album. It
won't be out til march and if fuckin' rules. totally amazing times
signatures that will fuck your shit up. these guys definately have
been a big inspiration for me. go out and find their first album,
called 'Dig out the Switch' and wait impatiently for this one to
arrive.
It doesn't look like much this month, but there are still a bunch of unconfired dates at the time of pressing.
February
craw
11 - Kent
12 - Louisville
16 - Columbus
18 - Cleveland
19 - Morgantown, WV
milkmine
19 - Baltimore
25 - Muncie
recording in baltimore feb 9-18
touring with unsane in april
morsel
recording in chicago feb 9-16
craw's possible stint with white zombie fell through, but are working on prong and jesus lizard tours.
If you know people on net who would be interested in this, let them
or me know. Send anything you want to rockie@neurosis.wariat.org.
Thanks again to all interested in this.