NOTESfromthe
UNDERGROUND
I just went to a mostly lesbian show and got real
drunk. Seeing as every girl I attempted to talk to was
gay, I had to settle for checking out the bands, a couple
of which stood out. Patsy was pretty good, but the
badasses that night were The Bangs from Olympia,
Washington. It was their punk rock/Joan Jett type
thing that made me talk my friend into buying their
new record called Tiger Beat, and I'm glad to report
that I don't regret doing that. The record is even better
than their live show-good rock 'n' roll female vocals all
the way through. By the way, don't ever bet money on
a game of pool if you're real drunk and playing against
lesbians. You're gonna lose, dude. The new and
improved Sex Offenders sounds like a completely dif-
ferent band with Heather back on the mic. She took a
little vacation from the band to have a kid who is now
a year old. I was talking with Brad
(bass player) recently and he told
me he was hanging out with
Randy "Macho Man" Savage
that morning. Brad's job consists of
setting up pyrotechnics for big
events and rock shows, and right.
now he's working for the WCW
(World Championship Wrestling). I
I was told that the Slim Jim master.
himself found the time to tell Brad
to get the hell out of the way in
between his workout sessions. The
Sex Offenders will be putting out a
new album on Recess Records in
mid-August...I heard Turbonegro
has a new record out, but I can't
find it anywhere. I used to have
their old CD, Ass Cobra, but then it
got stolen from my house during a
party. If you've never heard of
Turbonegro, they are a punk band
from Norway, and they'd like you
to believe that they are gay Nazis
from Germany. They sound a lot.
like Poison Idea, but with all their
talk of making love to little boys
and shoving fireworks up their
asses during live shows, I think.
these guys might be a little better.
The new record's going to be called
Apocalypse Dudes on Boomba
Records. I would get two copies
and send me one if I were you...I
I also just saw a pretty emo, really
good rock band called Bluebird
play a show in Hollywood. They are
on Revelation Records, but they
don't sound like a typical "Rev"
band. Now that I think of it,
Revelation has a heavy metal band
called Shai Hulud that's really
good too. I guess it ain't just SXE
and Hare Krishnas no more.
Bluebird has an album out right
now-I forget the name, but it's on Revelation, and
that metal band's album is called Hearts Once
Nourished With Hope and Compassion. Speaking of
metal and all that, I just got that "Gummo" soundtrack
and it fuckin' rocks! Some parts are pretty funny and
weird, but there's some good speed metal stuff too.
Don't try to play this around your standard girl, because
it's mostly crazy. The new Zeke CD is called Kicked in
the Teeth, and I've been kicked in the butt by rock 'n'
roll. Sure, it sounds like older Dwarves stuff, but that's
OK; the Dwarves are good. Every song on this CD is real
fast and pissed off rock 'n' roll, so go out and steal it...
went to see Aceyalone do an in-store performance in
Whittier a while back, but all I got was the new record
(he didn't show). It's called The Book of Human
Language, and it has twenty tracks that flow into each
other nicely. Well done, Acey, and watch yer back; I got
a tape recorder and a bunch of dumb questions like,
"Why didn't you show up to that in-store and stop the
retards from freestyling?" The best underground rap to
date is on a comp called Beneath the Surface. It just came
out on CD/LP, but only in limited amounts, so hop on it.
It's got all the Los Angeles
rappers worth mentioning
on it and over 30 groups,
from unheard-of MCs and
DJs to guys from CVE,
Dark Leaf, Alienation,
Shapeshifters, Freestyle
Fellowship, etc.
Engineered by Cut Master Curt and with artwork by
Mear, this is gonna be worth money or something. It's
all put together by a cool guy named Omid, and this is
the first thing he's put out, so if ya want more info, look
up www.Omidpage.com or write him at PO Box 10307,
Marina Del Rey, CA 90295...In sadder news, Tim Childs
(Kanker Sores' drummer) died in a car wreck on April
12. Tim, AKA "Sober Guy," had snuck out of his house
to go to a rave in Arizona. He was with 5 of his friends
in the desert between LA and AZ when the car hit a
weird bump and the driver lost control. Tim was thrown
from the car and died while waiting for the paramedics
to show. No one else in the car was hurt. I would love
to say it was just "his time," but he was just a kid. If
you've ever seen him play drums, you could see he was
talented and you might even feel sorry for his drum set
THE PRESSURE
B-MOVIE RATS
cuz he hit harder than Tommy Lee. Really. We love you
and we're gonna miss you, Sober Guy. I don't know
what else to say-what can you say? He was great. I
think I'm gonna put all my friends in a padded room
until this year is over. The Kanker Sores are now called
No Hearts Hurt. -Spidget...Man, for the last few
years, Long Beach has sucked. With such a nice mix of
urban trash and spoiled suburbanites, you would think
this city with roughly the same area as LA would pro-
duce something a hell of a lot more worthy than those.
lunkheads in Sublime. Finally, however, it seems the
day of musical salvation is on the horizon for Snoop
Dogg's LBC, thanks mostly to local bands like The
Shock and Treadwell. Treadwell's self-titled EP is real-
ly on the screamy side, and I hear their live show gets
nuts. If you like breaking stuff then you'll like
Treadwell. The Shock's EP, So What, on Tiger Suit
records, is all about snottiness and at least 3/4 of the
band works at one punk rock record store in Long
Beach. The Shock will be shocking the fuck out of
America or at least California this summer when they
tour with Costa Mesa's The Pressure. This band has
kind of a mod thing going, but they sound a lot like The
Knack, and the drummer even looks like one of the guys
in that narrow black tie band. They too have got a rocking
EP out right now. It's on What Else records and it's called I
Just Wanna Call Someone. Go buy it, cuz it's got a lot of
"yeah!" and "woo!" in it...Locust is helmet-hair rock. Even
the most hardcore screamer-head can't out-scream these
screamer-heads from San Diego. Consisting of 5 dudes with
black hair, Locust seems to be screaming about things they
are real bummed out about, but seeing as I never caught
one comprehensible word during their whole set at the
infamous PCH, for all I know they could be screaming
about carnivals in spring and cute little puppy dogs. It real-
ly doesn't matter anyway, because their music is real
good-crazy, out of control chaos with strategically placed,
break-it-down groove sections. And the kids really let their
hair down for this band. Flying, stomping, kicking, writing,
and most important, screaming, are the general rules
when Locust plays. I don't know what label these fiends
are on, but Hot Rod Todd at Zed records would like it to
be known that Locust has their own 7" section at his
store... The B-movie Rats are all about bar rock. Singer
Derek looks and acts kinda like Eddie Money, screams a
lot like Paul Stanley, and fronts a band belching out
sounds à la The New Bomb Turks. I've never seen
'em play anywhere besides houses of drunkenness
around LA and Hollywood, and they all look like
they have that working class "let's go to the bar
after work" ethic. Their album called Killer
Woman on Dead Beat records has been out for a
while. The recording quality is kinda crappy, but
shit, follow the band's example and put back a few
strong cups of sweet liquor and this record will
push your buttons. Andy Harris...A couple of
notable comps have been coming out lately. Shine.
On Sweet Starlet is a comp that features some
dirty blues-punk, with The Detroit Cobras, The
Mullens, '68 Comeback, Bantam Rooster and a
bunch more. It looks and sounds like it could be
the soundtrack to a real misguided kind of film, or
maybe just a "concept" record. Whatever-it's
dirty and I like it...Speaking of dirty, The Hookers
just put out their debut LP, Satan's Highway, on
Scooch Pooch. Blurring the line between satanic
death metal and punk, it sticks closer to the latter.
It "rawks." Furious shit in the vein of Nashville
Pussy/Candy Snatchers, with song titles like.
"Back Alley Trash," "Pot Whore," "We Don't Fuck
Around," and "Tear You Apart," you know those guys are
amped and dangerous. Fuck yeah!...Snuff has been put-
ting out consistently great records since their inception
years ago, and their newest, Tweet Tweet My Lovely, is no
exception. They incorporate horns without falling victim to
the latest bunk trend in music, "new ska," and sing the
poppiest songs without being too sappy (well, with maybe
one or two exceptions), plus a few thrashier
numbers...Being from Japan and playing '60s revolution
rock-influenced punk is bound to draw comparisons to
Guitar Wolf or Teengenerate, but maybe that's not such
a bad thing, as those bands kick much ass. Or, in the case of
the latter, used to before the breakup. Anyway, Gasoline
just put out a fantastic self-titled LP with the help of friends
Mike Maker and Tim Kerr. With help like that, how could
they go wrong?... The No Talents just did a West Coast
tour, and, not surprisingly, they didn't stop in Tempe, AZ,
where I just moved outta. They did, however, put out a 7"
record to coincide with the tour, and it's another high qual-
ity dose of three-chord French punk...Hai Karate packs a
sting a mite stronger than Aqua Velva, but how could they
not? Members (and ex) of Gas Huffer, The Dwarves and
The Putters, they have just put out a smoker of a 10" on
Kozik's Man's Ruin. A quick chop to the neck...Another fine.
10" that may cross your path is Scared of Chaka's How To
Lose. They throw around punk as fuck tunes mixed in with
some rambling type stuff that is so good and catchy; plus
they put on a killer live show...Electric Frankenstein has
been putting out a consistently fine blend of guitar punk.
One example is their recent 7" Used To Know, with a tune
that features Rik L Rik singing on the b-side, that reminds
me of The Fluid when they were rockin'. Another manda-
tory item is a split 7" with Sweden's Hellacopters. People
are probably sick of me talking about how good The
'Copters are, but Electric Frankenstein hold their own pret-
ty damn well on this one...Seattle stalwarts Mudhoney just
put out a new single on git player Steve Turner's Super -
Electro Sound Recordings. I don't know how they can make
their dirgy and vitriol-drenched tunes sound so upbeat, but
"Night of the Hunted" does just that. This band has been
around for so long and weathered so much hype, and
they're still putting out killer shit like this. Amazing.
-Wez Lundry
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