CHOKE, INC. NEWSLETTER VOL. 1 #8

 
  			CHOKE, INC.
			1376 W. GRAND AVE.
			CHICAGO, IL. 60622
			choke@spagmumps.com


So we're playing this illegal 7 band warehouse party in huntington,
WV and this drunk moron decides to climb a telephone pole to get onto
the roof so he can then walk on a skylight and fall through,
plumeting 25ft. to the cement floor beneath. A few other drunk morons
decide that that really sucked, but what would be even worse would to
have the cops show up because, of course, this party isn't very
legal. So a few of them pick him up and carry him outside. Meanwhile,
his head is cracked open and so much blood is pouring out that it is
congealing in clumps next to his head. The paramedics and cops
arrive. They say, in between his convulsions, that they don't think 
he's gonna be O.K. We pack up our things and hightail it out before 
they close off the warehouse for evidence and our things are still in
there. Assuming he's dead, we all go party. About 4 in the morning 
some kid comes into the residence of said merrymakers and tells us 
that the dude is alright and will be released in two days, much to 
our astonishment. Lesson to be learned - if you want to do incredibly
stupid things, drink lots. Your body won't even notice. oh yeah -
his name was steve miller but (get ready for bad joke) I guess he
can't fly like an eagle.

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LIMITED RELEASE

Looks as though we are gonna release a limited issue vinyl version of
the next recording. If you can find it, it will have all different
art from the cd, most of which will be from our pal Derek Hess, who
has done most of our t-shirts and 7" covers. 

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HAIRY PATT BAND

September will mark the release of a single by the Hairy Patt Band. A
full length will follow shortly after that. 

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JAKS

October (?) will mark the release of JAKS first release on Choke,
Inc. They just finished recording with a certain skinny, vocal kind
of guy in chicago in apparently record time. I have not heard it yet,
but am anxious. 

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CHOKE, INC. FEST 1994

Craw, Milkmine and Morsel will be playing the 1994 Choke, Inc. fest
in Detroit, MI. on Sat August 20th. Maybe Hairy Patt and JAKS will
play, but I'm not sure. I hope so. One big happy family. 

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SKIN GRAFT IRRITATIONAL

A great showcase from a great label featuring the bands dazzling
killmen, shorty, mount shasta, the denison/kimball trio and another
whose name I forgot. check it out - 6 shows only.

REVIEW

In between our tour we had 2 days back home and got to check out the
irritational. Shorty broke up the day of the tour so it was just the
above 3 bands plus brise glace. Denison/kimball trio was very lounge
music-ish, very cool in its own for what it is. I would listen to
that when I was in the same kind of early Tom Waits music mood. Brise
glace was a project with darin from the killmen and jim o'rourke.
they played one rif for 45 minutes and drove everyone insane. i loved
it. mount shasta was pretty driving rock. fast, heavy, pretty bass
player. fine show. the dazzling killmen, as always, were dazzling.
listening and watching them live really puts me in my place. if i
were to leave craw for any reason, i would want to join the killmen.
excellent live show, tight, awesome. we all are toying with the idea
of all 9 members of both bands writing and recording a few songs and
releasing a 10-inch record. the dazzling crawmen. we'll see later
this year if we actually do it.

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The more we get out on the road, the more I find people who are
really getting into this whole 'math rock' genre of indie bands, like
us and the dazzling killmen and rodan. At least thats what its being
called - at least one person in virtually every city comes up to one
of us praising math rock (or slide rule rock as Tommy Tar likes to
poke at). although the best moniker i've heard recently was from one
of mcclelland's relative's who called us cranial precision rock, or
CPR :) I liked that one.

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Port Chester, NY sucks some big dick. We played there to 4 people (no
big deal) and while we were playing some fuck slashed two of our
tires. Minor setback but a big finish to a shitty day. Almost as bad
as playing in NYC. 

Philadelphia, however was fun since it was a last minute show to make
sure we didn't have a day off, but consequently there was nobody
there cause there was no promotion. So we blew off the show and went
down the street where Milkmine was playing and hung out with them. 

Morgantown was a great show - played with clutch for about 250
people. 

Cincinatti was cool - played with Milkmine - we were first on a three
band bill so not alot of people were there yet  (lush was playing
across the street) but milkmine completely rocked in their hometown.

Then the next night was our hometown show with the jesus lizard and
the entire evening ruled. our friends the duvalby bros. opened the
show. it was their first 'big' show and crowd, and said they were
nervous, but I couldn't really tell. their music is fairly straight
forward but real appealing. i like these guys alot and for a young
band will probably be extremely impressive over the next few years
providing someone picks them up. then we played and i had a great
time. the jesus lizard hadn't played a show in a while and this was
the only show they were doing out of chicago before they tour at the
end of august. per usual, they smoked playing mostly old stuff (which
suits me fine after hearing the new recording. kind of ordinary
compared to jesus lizard standards) - I wallowed in the pit for short
periods at a time coming to the dreadful conclusion that I am indeed
to old to slam. alas ...

then drove 9hrs. to richmond for a one shot show with clutch again.
great turnout, but clearly a clutch crowd, not interested in thinking
about their music, only rockin' out to grooves, dude. clearly not a
craw math rock crowd. many found us entertaining, but most either
went outside, or stuck it out thinking we were really weird. average
age : 17. all then went home and stared at MTV the rest of the night.

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Once again major label discussions have become prevalent in my day to
day conversations, mainly with my bandmates. make no mistake, 4 of us
are vehemently against any and all associations with majors. the 5th
could go either way. regardless, I want to say that the majority of
money that we ever see (and believe me, I still can't pay my rent and
phone bill) comes from people like you who are interested in indie
music enough to go out and try something new, or receive some small
little newsletter like this. Being on the road costs money, but thats
also where we make most of our money. It totally sucks to think that
crummy bands who can't even play their own music live are living
fairly comfortably cause they signed to a major. What sucks even more 
to me, however, is when great indie bands fall to the major league 
scum. rumor is Rodan may be talking. Best case scenario for me would
be an immense backlash against majors, the beginnings of which we are
seeing more and more of now (see MRR and BAFFLER articles), leaving
small indie labels like choke, inc., skingraft and others a fair shot
at having relative commercial success - relative meaning being able
to pay rent, food, etc. This is all possible, but very difficult to
achieve. basically, the final line is thanks for supporting us and
others like us. that kind of unity could eventually mean the
difference between a band like us, or any other indie band, breaking
up because the overhead is too high vs. sticking it out and giving
shitty bands like dig and cracker reasons to break up. 

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george from athens sends us this -

SWEET ROOSTER, CHOKEBORE, HAMMERHEAD
The Atomic Music Hall - Athens, GA
Thursday July 28th

I'll begin with a conclusion that this was the best show I've seen
since Milkmine and Mule earlier this year.  Don't let this be diminished
by the fact that I haven't had time to see another show in between times.
I would have made time if any band with potential had played locally, but
the music scene in Athens has been rather dry of late.  However when it 
rains, it pours.  Rodan played down the street the same night, and I had to 
miss 'em.
Now, about Sweet Rooster.  I hope they never make it, because they'd give 
Athens-grown music a bad name.  Chokebore was perfect.  I couldn't get enough.
They played some of their well known favorites like "Soundcheck" and "I Like
You 'Cause You Dance Sort Of".  Unfortunately their 45 minute set was over
all too quickly.  I don't really have words to describe their kick, the
slight weirdness of their music or the energy of their show that made them the
best band of the night.
Hammerhead, whoa!  The Rollins look-alike on drums was the 
most amazing skin-beater I have ever seen.  I stood enthralled watching him 
for several minutes before the magnitude of the rest of the music struck me.
Overlaying the percussion was was a continuous heavy bass riff, violent guitar
chords and occasional vocal assault.  The sheer god-power of Hammerhead's
music cannot be overemphasized.  Wave after wave of music crashed against me,
eventually pushing me back from the stage and into the protection/comfort of 
the crowd.  But their dominating music sought me out there, hammered at my head,
whipped me into a weak and quivering state, crushed my spirit and trampled 
my soul into the beer-and-ash-encrusted concrete floor.  I crawled up onto
a bar stool and lay there sprawled, head bowed in submission, unable to lift
my eyes to meet theirs, unable to resist as their music repeatedly pounded 
into my being, until eventually, with their play-list spent, they left me for
dead.

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1994 WRUW'S STUDIO-A-RAMA

Saturday August 27th will be WRUW's annual Studio-a-Rama in
cleveland. This is a free outdoor concert, just don't bring bottles,
etc. Bands being featured this year are :

	2pm	Red Giant (Cleveland)
	3pm	Coltrane Wreck (Cleveland)
	4pm 	The Vivians (Cleveland)
	5pm	Boulder (Aurora, OH)
	6pm	Milkmine (Cincinatti, OH)
	7pm	Morsel (Ann Arbor, MI)
	8pm	NRG Ensemble (Chicago, IL)
	9pm	MULE (Detroit, MI)

Don't be fooled - headliners don't really get on before 10:30. As you
can see two of our ranks are playing back to back. If anyone from out
of town wants to come and needs directions, send me some mail.

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AND FINALLY ....

A certain shellac member was nice enough to send me this. I in turn
am posting it for all who recieve this. I'm so nice.


This is a gig announcement.

Shellac, MX-80 (yes, the original MX-80), Tar and Six Finger Satellite are 
playing Sunday, September 4 at the beautiful Logan Square Auditorium in 
Chicago. The show is being independantly promoted (by the bands), and should 
be more fun to go to than not to go to. All ages welcome.

Tickets are $10, and we strongly recommend buying them in advance, although 
unsold tickets will be available at the door, if there are any. Tickets 
may be got from quite a few record stores in the beer and cheese belt 
(Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin), or by mail from Shellac, Post Office Box 
442, Evanston, Illinois, 60204. Enclose $10 per ticket plus $.50 for first 
class postage -- Money orders please. Mail orders received after August 27 
will be held for pickup at the door.

We found MX-80 by looking them up in the phone book. There it was, "Rich Stim."

MX-80 have been together for nearly 20 years, were originally from 
Bloomington, Indiana, and have never before played in Chicago. They are 
unlikely to again, anytime soon.

Shellac are not going to play in Chicago again in 1994.

Tar and Six Finger Satellite are both so good live that coming late is out of 
the question.

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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.