A few hundred people helped cele-
brate the opening of Bulldog Records in Chicago
this past February. The record store, which promis
es to be an important Midwestern hub of the under
ground music scene, was created by Victory
Records. The label's Integrity performed for the
grand opening. Tony Brummel, who started
Victory in 1989, sees the store as a logical move.
since most record stores have a thin selection of
hardcore and punk titles, and Victory's mail order
department has a fully stocked warehouse five min-
utes from town. "We realized we could have fun and
do a good job at the same time," says Brummel,
"plus be in touch with people who are buying our
music, to interact with them face to face." Brummel
also says that once the word gets out, they hope to
feature an in-store appearance by a band at least
once a week. Bulldog Records is
located at 1420 N Milwaukee
Ave in the Wicker Park area of
Chicago MW... A hardcore.
hybrid of its native Kansas City's
noise and jazz traditions.
Coalesce is the fusion of the
future. Two years ago, when its
members were only 19 years
old, the band spurned record
company courtiers and prompt-1
ly took a year off. "Everybody
was promising us this, promising
us that," says singer Sean
Ingram, "we needed some time
apart to figure out exactly what
we wanted." In the meantime.
the success of their split 7" with
Napalm Death has only served
COALESCE
to increase the A&R froth-factor. Next time, howev
er, Coalesce has opted to go with the small indie,
Edison Recordings, home of hardcore bands
Overcast and Starkweather. The legions of fans
who have reveled in the brilliant chaos of
Coalesce's four 7" releases will likely not be disap-
pointed by the band's first full-length out on Edison
this spring. "We've had this album burning inside us
for over a year," says Ingram, "and we didn't want it
to sound like bands that we would be compared
to, so, for the last four months of the writing pro-
cess, we didn't listen to any new hardcore records"
Men In Belted Sweaters by Betty Blue on Diesel
Boy records-The independently produced French
film and the new band with the same name both
share quite a lot in common: they both deal with
love, sadness, and major discontent. From out of
the suburbs of the Maryland area comes a group
that may just be one of the "chosen ones" to shake
up this tired community of "alternative-press-dar
lings, The band's frontman, John "Stabb"
Schroeder, formerly of the legendary "80s band
Government Issue "spouts his hole" on some of
his fave and most familiar subjects of "personal
loss/sad relationships" on songs such as "Hot
Tortured Soul" and "Disappointment." But his "sar
castic sense of humor prevails on other material
like "Club Pretentious" where he attacks the
Marilyn Manson youth with his verbal bludgeon:
why spend your money on a live band show?/when you
can hear the dj/and you can watch the Crow. On the
92 Талия
JUMP WITH JOEY crowd got too
record's opening cut "Fist," guitarist night wore on. Ghostface still hadn't shown him-
Mississippi Dave's power-chords are self onstage. Then, at 1:00 in the morning, he final-
smoking from the grooves, bassist ly did, accompanied by his Wu-Tang Clan. While
Brian White has a real strong pen- they were all definitely worth waiting around for,
chant for abrasive as well as power-pop Ol' Dirty Bastard was the one who stole the show
playing, and drummer Craig with cuts from his Return To The 36 Chambers. "High
Thomas' pounding fury, as Geto as 50 million kites up in the sky," the Wu brought
Boys' Bushwick Bill puts it. much love to the West Side, even though they
"kicks more ass than a donkey!"-JS threatened to bust some heads when the over-
Before LA's King King club closed
zealous
its doors for the last time three years ago, it
hosted an act that consistently drew in a crowd
that usually included Christian Hosoi, Scott
Oster and Steve Olson. While the club is no
longer, the band, Jump With Joey, has
remained intact, infiltrating their blend of jazz,
Latin jazz, Afro-Cuban ska in venues across the
globe, most recently the Elbo Room in San
Francisco. With three records out-Skaba,
Generations United, and Strictly For You distribut-
ed out of Japan-since their inception in '89, plus
features on a multitude of compilations such as Call
Ska Quake on Moon Records and Keep The Pressure
on Kingpin Recordings, this groove quintet-Joey
Altruda, bass Willy McNeil, drums; Mike Boito,
piano; Dave Ralike, trombone; Jim Akimoto, sax-
ophone. Elliott Caine, trumpet-never fail to put
the boogiewoogie in cocktail-sippin' scenesters. It
takes true talent for a group to be able to include
scrap metal junk pieces as percussions and vocals
sung through an ancient microphone in their per
formance and have the result be one tight, soulful
sounding set. While the rhythmic flow of
Skeleton Key's Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon on
Capitol Records definitely make you want to get
your groove on, the musicianship contains far more
depth than your typical pop record.
The ASR Tradeshow in Long Beach, CA, was
the site of yet another successful three-day social
affair, as skaters and industry types.converged upon
the convention center floor and nearby Pine Street
strip to mix their business with pleasure. But the
festivities really
began when night-
time brought out the
real entertainment.
The Droors/DC
Shoes/Dub Clothing LYER
party was much
anticipated one par-
ticular evening, due
largely in part to
Ghostface Killah's
scheduled perfor-
mance. The party
was bumping, just as
expected, but as the
T54 True 54 MB Menachem Boots JKH Jasmine K Huynh SKELETON KEY
close to the dj
stationed in
the audience,
fucking up his
scratching
and their
show. For
further access
to Michael
Masley's instrumental music, contact him via E-
mail address: mmasley idiom. com or the web-
site: http://www.idiom com/-tonehenge-JKH
While wading through the schmooze-a-palooza of
the ASR Tradeshow, I had the opportunity to hang
with the East Coast's finest in skateboarding.
Destination: a benefit party for the Tibetan
Freedom Coalition co-organized by the Milarepa
Fund, Supreme Skateshop, Grand Royal, Haze, and
X-Large Money Mark performed, and he is one
straight freak, who's hella cool and humble, He
just appeared out on the dance floor amidst the
audience with one of his many portable
sound/music contraptions and turned out a demon-
ic funk jam. The man's possessed! For his first
onstage number, he busted out some weird micro-
phone used by the Beastie Boys" that sounded
like elephant bowels. He backed up his sub-bass
barrage on drums and kicked out the sickest solo
jam ever. After that, he had a drummer join him
while he played a trippy electric organ, a Moog syn-
thesizer, bass pedals with his feet, and even sang.
turning the facade-driven tradeshow into an inti-
mate garage type session. Lastly, Firehose's Mike
Watt was pulled out of the front row of head-
knodders mid-set, and the three capped off the per-
formance with more sick insect-type jazz
improvs-MB... Evidently, producer Frankie
Cutlass subscribes to the notion that an essential
element to any hot hip-hop album is the posse cut,
as his new record. Politics & Bullshit on Relativity
Recordings, demonstrates. With all posse cuts
except for the party-anthem "Puerto Rico Black
People." the sound is strictly NYC lyrics over
familiar beats, with a sprinkling of Puerto Rican
pride. Some stand-out MCs include Redman, Fat
Joe, Sadat X and members of the Juice Crew on
the reunion joint "The Cypher". San Francisco's
Fillmore venue looked like a 5-year grammar
school reunion during Airwalk's Sno-Core event.
Scores of young snowboarders and snowbetties
moshed to the music of Powerman 5000, the
Voodoo Glow Skulls and Face To Face. But
it was The Pharcyde who made the show
worth the price of a lift-ticket. They appealed
to the crowd's affinity for the soul flower and
even packed the bong for one lucky snowdog
to toke onstage. They then compounded the
debauchery by packing the stage with a
bunch of gyrating jennies from the audience to
serve as visual aid for their performance of
"Otha Fish. Notably absent from the action
was Fatlip, who is apparently off doing a solo
project, while the rest of The Pharcyde finish
their new album, To Be Continued, slated for
summertime release-T54
JS: Jon Stain MW: Morgan Walker
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TO HEAR SONGS FROM THIS ALBUM CALL
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