Notes from the Underground TED
The rock opera is an institution
carved into stone by such masters as
The Who, Pink Floyd, Queen and
Jethro Tull. Now, booming over the
horizon, MIRV rises with a future
nuclear nightmare Star Wars cantina
band surf salsa theme drama CD
called Cosmodrome. MIRV, the vocal-
ist, guitarist and crosscut saw player
of the combo, explains the concept,
"In a nutshell, it's this kid that's totally
unappreciated by everyone. He has
no friends, he's just this total loner
guy who finds this guitar in the trash
He has a bad home life too, practices
guitar, his dad's a drunk, and the kid
gets some gigs and tries to aspire to
be something. He gets this chick, the
chick dusts him, he becomes horribly
despondent, sad, goes and locks
himself in a room, practices, and at
that time, there's the nuclear freak-
out. Then he survives, he's under
ground, and then in the future, they
64
Sausage
compete at Rock Gig, almost like a
Rollerball situation, and he goes to
great lengths to win the show, and he
alters his body by shaving his nose
off, and buffing his chest, sanding
himself smooth, and he goes out and
plays, and he plays so fast and so
hard that he blows up." Therefore,
the moral of the story, says MIRV, is:
"Work hard for nothing. Fisher-
man Les Claypool is friend to many
Bay Area bands with his new Prawn
Song label, including MIRV, the wise
rap backed by a live band of Alpha-
bet Soup, and the impeccable jazz of
The Charlie Hunter Trio. "Charlie is
pretty much one of the most amazing
stringed instrument players that I
have seen in quite some time," says
Claypool. "He's one of those guys
that you just watch him and you go,
'Wow, I've got to practice, because
he's got the nimble hands. He's also
got the intellect and the theory end
MIRV
down, so he actually knows what he's
doing, as opposed to some of us that
are just floundering through the
mist Another conglomeration
that Claypool is busy with is Sausage,
which features drummer Jay Lane
and guitarist Todd Huth. The trio
have released a new CD titled Rid
dles Are Abound Tonight that busts
with tough ass bass lines, transparent
guitar and tribal cataclysm drums.
When it comes to Sausage, Les is rel-
atively humble on the subject, "Jay
and Todd are two of the original
members of Primus. We basically did
a bunch of old tunes we used to do
about eight or ten years ago"...
Tragedy struck the Seattle scene
when Mia Zapata of The Gits was
murdered last year. Her last album,
Enter: The Conquering Chicken, is
now out, and her loss is more appar
ent than ever with the driving vocals
and the introspective lyrics she left
behind. When it comes to hard
rock belted out by an all-babe band,
Phantom Blue is Built To Perform.
Five fine ladies tell blazing tales of
love, misery and freedom with razor
sharp delivery. With a name like
Failure, it has to be good. A heady
mix of grungy guitars and rambling
songs make Magnified a disc of dis-
tinction. The Ultras may look like
hoedads, but their Surf-Pop-Sludge
CD contains cleanly executed tube
rides and gouging cutbacks of mean
reverberating surf guitar. The SF trio
walk the nose on such offshore tunes
as "Death Tube," "Sludge Beat" and
"Pul-Say Tor."
-Brian Brannon
SCALE
The Meices, Tastes Like Chicken,
CD. This SF threesome have
grown into a powerhouse pop
force... Morphiusdisc, Is This A
Dream, CD. International comp
featuring upstarts and veterans
such as Clawhammer, Guzzard,
Spermbirds, Wool and Stabb
Devil Dogs, Choad Blast, CD.
Most decent six song session of
power chord concoctions record-
ed with Kurt Bloch Bivouac,
Tuber, CD. Debut from these
refined melodic rockers... Pres.
surehed, Sudden Vertigo, CD.
Space jams galore, more core sub-
stance and hard edged at times...
Ragabash, Stoned, 7". Partycore
punkers from So Cal burn it up...
Mount Shasta, CD. Erupts like a
volcano of molten punk, melting a
path of destruction... Zeni Geva
Desire of Agony, CD. Japan's
most well-known noise dealers
serve up eardrum beat-downs...
Fluf, Home Improvements, CD. O
busts some killer chords and has
refined those vocals... Some-
one's Gonna Get Their Head to
Believe in Something, CD. Finally,
the comp you've been waiting
from BYO combines the big two
plus some added bonuses... Oil
Seed Rape, Paid, CD. Gut-pound-
ing UK rapcore. Harsh and to the
point, plus adequate power levels
...45 Grave, Debasement Tapes,
CD. Mostly live recordings of clas-
sic innovative gothrockpunk...
Broken Bones, Death Is Imminent,
CD. Collection of classic Bones
plus a couple of deadly live tracks
Cabe Regime, Kills Lies All,
CD. Paul Neville's (ex-Godflesh
partner) latest crusher of guitar
saturated techno treachery...
Venison, Well-Oiled Machine, CD
Meaty bull-grunge stewed with
melodic seasonings... Capitol
Punishment, Messiah Complex,
CD. These punker people are still
at it and they're older than me...
Ruins, Graviyaunosch, CD. Two-
piece from Japan display disjoint-
ed jazzy noise core like no other
...Superchunk, Foolish, CD. Yet
another masterpiece from North
Carolina's foremost... GRIND
SCALE Demented Ted, Impure,
CD-6.6 Coven, Boneless
Christian-4,9 Amorphis,
Privilege of Evil, CD/EP-8.8...
Mortician, Mortal Massacre,
CD-11.0 Mythic, Mourning,
CD-8.0... Gorephobia, Omen of
Masochism, CD-7.8.
-Rick Rotsaert
Don't
go by
what
you've
herd.
Rattle the Cattle.
The Deluxe Store 1831 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94103 1-800-275-3359
In Stock and Mall Order Ready; 40's, Real, Spitfire, Stereo, Thunder, Fun, Think, Black Label,
Race, Stereo Sounds Clothing Supercush, Independent, Venture Shoe Goo and Avenue.