Arsenal - Manipulator (1988) & Factory Smog Is A Sign Of Progress (1990) (By Request)

Arsenal was Santiago Durango's brief follow-up project after Big Black. As far as I'm aware the band never performed live and it's quite possible that it wasn't really a full band at all. I think it was basically just Santagio playing all instruments and was strictly a studio project, although I may be wrong on this. It doesn't quite pack the same punch that Big Black did but you can definitely hear his contribution to the band in these records.

*[EDIT] So I was wrong about Durango recording these albums alone. He did have a bassplayer on both recordings. Thanks to someone leaving a comment I've been reading up on Malachai Ritscher who played bass on Manipulator. His life seemed very interesting but also very tragic. He was an extreme political activist that committed suicide as a sort of anti-war protest just like the monk protester from that famous Vietnam war photograph. This whole self-immolation thing just makes no sense to me. I can't seem to stop thinking about it since reading about this guy. I have a difficult enough time just trying to understand suicide in general but I just can't seem to understand how this could possibly benefit your cause. Really how does it change anything? Am I missing something here? Even if he managed to torch George Bush himself would it really change the outcome of this war? And if you feel like you had to do this couldn't you find a less painful way to do it than to set yourself on fire? Anyways this is old news that goes back a few years and if anyone is interested Pitchfork wrote an article on the guy here. I just can't help but notice the irony of his death considering he was in a band called Arsenal with the guy whose previous band's most well known song was titled Kerosene. I think most readers of this blog will probably already know what that song's about.

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Pygmy Shrews - Big Time (2009)

Pygmy Shrews are a trio from Brooklyn with members of Drunkdriver and Zs. This is their self-released cassette but they have a album coming out soon on Wantage USA. Just sloppy chaotic noise rock for fans of early Cows and Pussy Galore.

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Sad Breakfast - Sad Breakfast (2009)

This band just posted their website on our message board and asked us to give them a plug for their new album. I'm more than happy to post it and not just for the sake of being polite but also because it's pretty damn good. I only listened to about half the album on my way in to work this morning but I like what I've heard so far. They're similar to Pelican or Tides in their heavier moments but also have a lighter side to some songs more along the lines of Tristeza or Unwed Sailor. So here's their website which has a link to their album. Good luck on the tour guys...

Lamps - Lamps (2007) (By Request)

So this one's a request from months back but I just picked it up recently and I think it was worth the wait. LA's Lamps have got to be the heaviest band on In The Red Records' roster. Their label is more known for bluesy garage bands and Lamps have a hint of that but it's mostly just thudding noise rock in the vein of Feedtime or Crust.

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Wreck - El Mundo de Los Ninos (1993) (By Request)

I know it's been a little quiet here at the blog lately, so I figured I post a couple of old requests. So this is Wreck's final album that they put out for CZ Records. Although I think it's probably their weakest release, they're still a great band that people should be more familiar with. I listened to it for the first time today in a really long time and it's not bad. Not great, but not bad. I think the production of it doesn't really do the songs justice. For first timers to the band I'd probably start with House Of Boris which I've already posted then give this one a try. I also have their first EP and LP on vinyl that I may get around to ripping at some point and will post it if anyone is interested.

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"Real" Detroit Garage Rock Returns...

The Gories & Oblivians Joint Reunion Tour 2009

06.19.09 - Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
06.20.09 - Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
06.27.09 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Theater
07.03.09 - Madrid, Spain - Sala El Sol
07.04.09 - Bilbao, Spain - Kafe Antzokia
07.05 09 - Barcelona, Spain - Sala BeCool
07.06.09 - Bordeaux, France - BT59
07.07.09 - Paris, France - Maroquineri
07.08.09 - Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
07.10.09 - Nottingham, England - Blast Off Festival
07.11.09 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
07.12.09 - Gierle, Belguim - Sjock
07.13.09 - Dikmuide, Belguim - 4AD
07.14.09 - Munster, Germany - Gleis 22
07.15.09 - Berlin, Germany - Festaal
07.16.09 - Munich, Germany - 59:1
07.17.09 - Ravenna, Italy - Hana-Bi
07.18.09 - Torino, Italy - Spaziale Festival

Brain Banger - Yellow Belly (2007)

OK... so I'll throw in one more Young Widows related band while I'm at it. This is Widow's bass player Nick Thieneman's side project. If you like Young Widows you'll like this.

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Breather Resist - Full Of Tongues (2005)

Breather Resist is the band that Young Widows formed out of after the singer left the band. Guitarist Evan Patterson and bass player Nick Thieneman took over on vocals which I thought was a good call because the vocals were always the weakest part of Breather Resist in my opinion. The early BR albums were a faster more grindcore/screamo kind of thing where as this (their last recording) took on more of a thudding noise-rock sound that Young Widows would become. In fact two of the songs on this EP would be reworked into songs on Young Widows debut album Settle Down City.

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Young Widows - Split Singles (2009)

So Young Widows are jumping on the increasingly popular "split single" bandwagon and brought Pelican, My Disco, Melt Banana and even Bonnie Prince Billy along for the ride. I guess it's a good way to introduce some of your friends bands to new people. In this case with maybe the exception of My Disco none of these bands are particularly obscure. So I guess maybe it could work the other way around and it could be used as a way to introduce Young Widows to new people. Either way I guess it works out to be a win/win situation. I've been singing the praises of Young Widows many times already on this blog and they are probably my favorite band at the moment. What I love about these songs is that they're just as good as anything they've put out on their LP's. They don't have that "studio outtake/cutting room floor" feel to them like a lot of split singles do. If you put the 4 songs together it would make for a great EP.

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Shiny Beast

So there was some interest shown in Shiny Beast in the comments from the Regraped post from a while back.  Like Regraped they are also from Raleigh, NC and share the same intensity.  This is a collection of just about everything they ever recorded.  Here's a brief history of the band that I've taken from their Myspace page: 

Shiny Beast started in Raleigh North Carolina in the summer of 1991 after the demise of a band that guitarist David Sullivan and myself were involved in for the previous year and a half, called Willard. I remember that David had come to my apartment one day to show me all of these cool ideas that could have saved Willard but alas it was too late. We found a bass player in the form of one Chicago area resident named Mike Meadows. Mike was a kickass drummer that recently re-located down here to play in his childhood friend Andy Freeburn’s band, Erectus Monotone. So we rehearsed a lot and settled on this name from an old Captain Beefheart record that David liked. Since none of us wanted to sing, we asked Mike Carden of the band Garbageman to sing a few songs, which he did. His caterwauling fit in nicely. After a few shows with Mike, we recorded the first demo. Five of these songs ended up coming out on Tom Flynn’s BONER RECORDS as a cd-5 and a single. It was too bad that SHINY BEAST never recorded anything that sounded anywhere as good as this stuff. This is why we never did a follow up with Tom. Afterwards, Mike had to leave our band due to his situation with Erectus Monotone, which is a story I don’t want to get into. Lets just say that even though Mike was an amazing musician, personality wise it never would have worked. Kim Walker ended up teaching herself how to play bass in literally a month, which was pretty amazing to behold. She joined the band and this is the lineup that most people saw if they ever in fact did see us, with the exception of Mike Carden leaving or us kicking him out, I don’t remember what happened. We never found anyone to replace him, so we just stayed instrumental out of laziness, probably. We recorded lots of demos and four tracks that no one ever heard because either they weren’t great or because we were lazy or because we didn’t bootlick the right people that could help us out. We tried, though. People seemed to like us around the Triangle area but it seemed to be more of a “musicians” band meaning that we had heard a lot of nice stuff from people in other bands in the area, big and small. We were also lumped in with the whole MATH ROCK thing, which was pretty accurate I guess. We liked stuff like the Melvins, anything Pen Rollings played on and a bunch of other stuff. Eventually towards the end of our existence, we were able to record some more music for a split album with us on one side and our friends Regraped on the other. Regraped were a mighty two bass driven power trio that we played with millions of times. The record came out on current Birds Of Avalon members Cheetie Kumar and Paul Siler’s label, BLAST O PLATTER records. Sure it sounded like shit, but that is no ones fault but the bands. We eventually called it a day and did a “last show” here in Raleigh that was captured on tape. Mike Carden even sang on a few songs. And that was all she wrote, kids. God bless and Amen.

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The Honeymoon Killers - Sing Sing 1984-1994 (1997)

Sing Sing is a collection of demos, rehearsal recordings, and outtakes from The Honeymoon Killers decade long career.  The Honeymoon Killers was founded by Jerry Teel and Lisa Wells and had various members over the years including Jon Spencer (Pussy Galore, Blues Explosion), Christina Martinez (Boss Hog), Judah Bauer (Blues Explosion), Russell Simins (also Blues Explosion), Marcellus Hall (Railroad Jerk) and many others.  Jerry has had an interesting career after Honeymoon Killers with bands like Boss Hog, The Chrome Cranks, Knoxville Girls, Little Porkchop, Jerry Teel & The Big City Stompers and now to his current band The Lonesome Jerry Teel & Queen Pauline Review.  His bands started out as being really swampy lo-fi garage rock and over the years went into more of a country/bluegrass direction with Knoxville Girls and The Big City Stompers.  I'd seen Chrome Cranks play many times years ago when I lived in Chicago and would always talk to Jerry about music and he always just came off as being this cool laid back guy.  In fact I remember one conversation about his plans on bringing The Honeymoon Killers back which it turns out never happened.  I'm just finding out now much to my surprise that The Chrome Cranks have reunited!  In fact it looks like they're playing a show in Brooklyn tonight so if any New Yorkers are reading this and are looking for something to do I'd highly recommend checking it out.

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New Header

Thanks, Lisa.  I have a friend that has great photoshopping skills that's working on a better one that will do your drawings justice.  Coming soon... 

Dig Dat Hole - Kneejerk (1987)

So I wrote about DDH a while back and posted an old demo of theirs and talked about their shelved debut album that never saw the light of day. I just found it myself and here it is. I think Tod and the guys were in their prime with the first few Cop Shoot Cop releases (Headkick Facsimile, Consumer Revolt, White Noise) and this was the record that preceded it and it's right up there with those albums. The only thing that hadn't quite reached the level of CSC is the lyrics. Some of the lyrics on Kneejerk are immature and sometimes just plain stupid. One of the things I really love about CSC was their clever insight about politics, religion, and whatever else was pissing them off at the time and Kneejerk just isn't really up to par lyrically with CSC in my opinion.

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Celan - Halo (2009)

Celan is a new band fronted by Chris Spencer of Unsane with Ari Benjamin Meyers (Einsturzende Neubauten), Niko Wenner (Oxbow) and a few guys from a German band called flu.ID which I've never heard of before.  Much like Spencer's last side-project The Cutthroats 9 it doesn't really go in any new direction from what Unsane's been doing for the last 20 years.  But hey, "If it ain't broke why fix it" right?  Although that may not be entirely true.  The album artwork has roses on it as opposed to bloody corpses.  The song "Washing Machine" is a simple gentle piano piece and the final track "Lunchbox" has a slower meditative build which won't be found elsewhere on this album.  The rest is the pissed-off pummeling that you'd expect from Spencer and he probably wouldn't have it any other way.

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Rema-Rema - Wheel In The Roses EP (1980)

This is the sole release by the short-lived Rema-Rema, which was just re-released by 4AD a few years ago. Featuring a side of studio and live recordings each, the music is very bass and feedback-heavy. You might know them from Big Black's excellent cover of their titular song "Rema-Rema."

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Egg Hunt - Me and You (1986)

During a visit to London in Spring 1986, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson were invited by the Southern Records founder to do some recording. They recorded four songs, and to commemorate the great time they had, they issued this single. The music itself is surprisingly proggy - kinda like a cross between Embrace (Ian's Embrace, not the shitty one) and Rush.

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Scul Hazzards - Slaughtered Pigs (2009)

This is to tide you over until the upcoming LP Landlord comes out, which should be any day now.  Scul Hazzards are a band from Australia that fits perfectly with just about everything we write about on this blog.  Just good old fashioned noise rock.  In fact it even includes a cover of Big Black's Kerosene.  Speaking of Big Black, they happen to have just started a European tour with fellow Aussie's My Disco.  This would be a "guilt free" download that they've offered themselves for free on their Myspace page.  So try it out then buy the upcoming LP which I'm sure will be fantastic.

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Gear Jammer - Horsepower 2000 (1994) & Two Tons Of Chrome (1990) (By Request)

A quick side-project of Tom Hazelmeyer's (Halo Of Flies) with Bill Hobsen (Killdozer) and Frank Thorpe (Like Hell).  As good if not better than Halo Of Flies if you ask me.  Each had a pressing of 800 copies.  Since I'm on the subject of Hazelmeyer, I have a request myself.  Does anyone out there have the Pogo The Clown's Lederhosen single that could hook me up?  I've been looking for that damn record for years...

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Bob Log III - My Shit Is Perfect (2009)

This is the only music that makes me want to dance.  And this is coming from someone who loathes dancing.

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Steel Pole Bath Tub - Scars From Falling Down (1995) (By Request)

This was requested a while back and I've been pretty busy lately so sorry for the delay.  SPBT's major label debut isn't their best but it's not half bad either.  Maybe a little more produced than their other releases.  I hadn't listened to this one in a long while before today but I'm liking it more now than I remember.  The first track in particular is pretty catchy and has been stuck in my head all day.  Slash Records dropped the band after this one record and the fact that they hated it that much means it must have something going for it.

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