Date: Fri, 10 Jun 94 04:36:54 -0400
CHOKE, INC. NEWSLETTER VOL. 1 #6
CHOKE, INC.
1376 W. GRAND AVE.
CHICAGO, IL. 60622
I just moved into a new house so this is a little rushed this month.
Great place, though. Second floor of a big old house all to myself.
And my dog. I'm totally broke after plastering, painting, building,
destroying, etc, etc. The house has been abandoned for about 10
years. We haven't been able to get into the basement yet, but I'm
fairly confident we'll find a body or two.
The Choke, Inc. boys have recently gotten net access themselves, so
anyone wishing info, catalogs, stickers and other shit may get them
at choke@spagmumps.com
NEW BANDS
Choke, Inc. has signed two more bands - The Hairy Patt Band from
Columbus, OH and Jaks from Ann Arbor, MI. Look for these releases in
the fall.
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MY R KEY IS WORKING AGAIN
I finally broke down and took my keyboard apart and got rid of all
the crap which had accumulated under my R key, forcing me to hit it
very hard every time I needed the letter R. Thank god for being a
geek.
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Craw has a song out on a compilation released last month. The song,
entitled Tunnel Vision, is on 3128 Seconds over Cleveland put out by
WUJC here in cleveland. You can write to WUJC to figure out how to
get this since I have no idea how big distribution is. I think its
going through Scat Records. Anyway, WUJC John Carroll University
20700 North Park Blvd. University Heights, OH 44118. This song is
actually a few years old, but listening to it again after a few years
I think we are going to relearn it and play it out again.
Also, new craw shirts are going fast. They are the rave in Athens,
Ga. so be hip like our chemistry friends down there are order yours
today. I'm such a good capitalist, aren't I :)
Milkmine and Morsel t-shirts are available from them at their shows.
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NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHO HE IS, DO SOMETHING
There are a few political causes out there which deserve some serious
attention. Although the focus of this little rag is definitely not
political, I feel that there may not be a better opportunity to get
Leonard Peltier out of prison. Being of partial native descent, this
is a very important issue to me. Most people who are reading this
know of Peltier from the Rage Against the Machine video. Peltier's
application for parole was denied on Dec. 14. 1993. Fabricated
affidavits, withheld evidence(the bullets didn't even match),
perjury and coerced witnesses are more than enough evidence that he
should AT LEAST be given a retrial, if not simply released after 18
years of wronged imprisonment. Anyway, I don't want to recount the
whole thing(read In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, The Trial of Leonard
Peltier and see the movie Incident at Oglala) so just let those who
matter know that you feel he should be released. Clinton knows and
has said that once all roads by justice have been taken and he still
isn't out, then he might consider Executive Clemency. That is now.
Here is where to contact.
(202) 456-1111 call and demand executive clemency for Peltier
(202) 456-2461 fax and do the same.
write : President William Clinton The White House 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave, Wash, DC 20500
and say something to the fact that you believe that it is time for
the US Government to change its policy on the Indian peoples, and
that nothing can greater symbolize this change than the release of
Leonard Peltier.
PELTIER WEEKEND - JUNE 25TH & 26TH WASHINGTON DC
Speakers, bands, and a walk of protest from Foggy Bottom to Lafayette
Park. Be There.
I have much more info and will gladly give it to those who want.
Also, the president and vice president are on the net, but I forgot
the exact address. If you know, send it to me and also send some
E-mail to them about this.
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Craw is finishing up writing the new material that will be on the
next release. We now have all of the songs written and need to
woodshed on them for the next couple of weeks so we are nicely
prepared for studio time. Luckily the opening ceremonies of the World
Cup lies right in between our two recording sessions in chicago.
Personally, I am very excited about this material because it will be
a representation of current material, all of which has been written
since January '94, as opposed to our first release which had material
spanning three years worth of writing. There will be 10 songs, or
nine if we release a split single with some friends.
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Sent in by our friend George in Athens, Ga.
The Healing Powers of Craw
Recently I have been suffering one of the world's nastiest colds. It's
one of those bastards in which you can hack and cough for minutes on
end and never feel relief. The phlegm and mucus coming up from my
internal passageways is always some interesting colour between
flourescent green and brown. And come up it does. A teaspoon sized
gob every couple minutes of hacking. Each cough starts deep in my
chest, and as it shakes my whole body, you can hear the fluid splash
around in my lungs. The possible benifits of bed-rest are even kept from
me by the fact that after dozing off for only a few minutes, I wake up
gasping for breath, and need to sit up to hack and wheeze until I clear an
airway.
This morning I decided that despite my ill health, I needed to get some
excercise. Maybe not the wisest of decisions, but I havent' been
completely lucid for several days now. So I went for a 2 mile run. The
crazy thing about it is that for the whole 15 minutes I was running, I
never needed to cough. Not once. But within 30 seconds of the end of my
run, I started coughing again. So why am I telling you all this? Well,
I just finished listening to my Craw cd, and while I was listening to it,
I didn't cough either. 69 minutes and 15 seconds of pure heaven.
Shortly after the cd ended, I resumed coughing, of course. But it took a
couple minutes before the cough got really bad again. Since then, I
restarted the cd so as to recieve the relief that only Craw and running
seem to give me.
In conclusion, listening to Craw can be more healthy than a 2 mile run!
George
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George, being the cornucopia of info that he is, found this on the
net somewhere also -
In article <2s5oc3$s3n@bigfoot.wustl.edu>, kl1@cec2.wustl.edu (Kagin Lee) writes:
Last week I saw one of the best shows I've seen this year (comparable
in quality to John Zorn's Cobra, Sarah McLachlan, and Big Hat).
The band was Morsel, and they're on Choke Inc. Unfortunately there
were not many people there at all; at first it was just the bands,
the people working the bar, and me and a friend. Anyway, it was a
show that really wore me out because of its intensity. Both bass
and guitar players use a lot of noise and effects (their album is
called Noise Floor) but the singer/flute player really magnified
the effect. First she simply played the flute plugged in of course,
through delays, effects... then she sang simply, but then she stepped
on a pedal or switch and sang into what appeared to be the pickup on
the flute, which resulted in a really noisy, distorted sound that was
at times unrecognizable as the human voice, though the words were
often coherent.
That didn't make all that much sense did it? Well anyway, it was a
pleasant surprise to hear them play, and they show that you don't
have to be a basic guitar/bass/drums band to be energetic, powerful,
and even accessible. Perhaps I thought more highly of them because
I didn't expect them to be so good live (in contrast to Cobra, who
should have been and was excellent live).
By all means, see them. Or at least get their CD. They come oh so
close to being my favourite live band...though Big Hat still wins.
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EVERGREEN, ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR
Euclid Tavern, cleveland 05-16-94
Evergreen has a member from slint and, yeah they kinda sounded like
them. Don't get me wrong, I loved that band. And these guys were
loopy enough to not fall into the 'Slint ripoff' band. Their singer
has a tendency to yell about a foot away from the mike, which sounded
pretty cool. AFC are pretty good considering they are from
seattle(oops, did I say that?) Pretty good rock/punk rock style.
LUNA and LOW
Euclid Tavern, cleveland 05-08-94
Luna bored the shit out of me. Color me silly. I just can't get into
it. I hated the feelies, and galaxy 500 never did much for me so at
least I wasn't expecting much. Low, however were very good in a VERY
quiet kind of way. They are one of the few bands whom you need to
strain your ears in order to hear them over the crowd. Interesting.
RODAN, DIMBULB
Euclid Tavern, cleveland 05-02-94
Dimbulb are local cleveland and I like them. Total fuzzed and tripped
out bass and a guitar which holds the rhythm. Melvins-ish at times.
Heavy. Rodan is an amazing band. Hands down, they rock. Long
songs(which I like, go figure) sweet rhythms and noise at the same
time and a beautiful bass player. I love women in rock. especially in
a band that rocks as hard as rodan. They are the Dazzling
Slintmen (sorry, I couldn't resist).
MULE, CATHOUSE and YOU WOULD IF YOU LOVED ME
Euclid Tavern, cleveland 05-11-94
You would if you loved me are brand new local cleveland and are pretty
cool. Lots of guitar noise and heavy grooves. Cathouse are great.
Excellent straight ahead dynamics and tambor, and man, can this woman
sing. Highly recommended. Mule was Mule. Rock and Roll at its finest,
and indeed their music is fine. Special guest appearance by William
'Porkchop' Collins. I guess you had to be there. At least their bass
player and craw's singer didn't fight over a stupid girl. We won't go
into that.
CROWBAR, VARGA, TEN TONS OF HELL
Euclid Tavern, cleveland 05-18-94
Ten Tons of Hell are becoming one of clevo's top heavy rif bands. An
excellent combination of musicians. Hopefully they'll put something
out soon. Varga sucked. Don't bother. Crowbar ruled. Crushingly heavy
(music and weight) and straight out, they rocked. That is, if you
like slow super metal and grindcore vocals. I do.
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TOUR INFO
Not much for june, but some stuff is still unconfirmed
Craw May 28 Kent
June 19 Chicago
28 Cleveland
In studio june 10-13 and june 24-26
Milkmine June 3 Lacrosse, Wi
4 Toledo
30 Little Rock
July 2 Lafayette, La
9 Nashville
10 Atlanta
12 Louisville
15 Warren, Oh
Morsel June 15 Grand Rapids
16 Lacrosse, Wi
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Again, feel free to send the choke inc guys demo tapes, etc. and
please feel free to send me articles for this - reviews, fiction,
whatever - i don't give a shit. I'd like to try and make this a
little more interesting.
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Back Issues at FTP 141.214.4.135 under the directory /docs/choke. WWW
stuff located at http://zapruder.pds.med.umich.edu/uwi.html under the
'UWI Shopping Maul' section ... Thanks Jon.
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R. Brockway Computer Security & Virus Specialist
rockie@neurosis.wariat.org PGP2.3a key available upon request
APPENDUM:
I forgot this in the letter, but I wanted to plug a publication out
of chicago called The Baffler. Issue number 5 has some of the best
material I have read on how and why this whole 'alternative' phase is
not even remotely alternative. Find it. Buy it. If you can't find it,
send $16 to The Baffler, P.O. Box 378293, Chicago, Il 60637 for the
next 4 issues (its worth it, they're book size).