I keep every audio bit of history that I can, and the web is a peculiar arena what with sharing and comments and etcetera…..I just think folks need to hear the stuff that James (Chaos Kid, Snafu) and Marshall Mathers (Eminem) and Manix (Michael Ruby) and Matthew Ruby (Butterfingaz) put together in 1988 or 1989 or 1990 or whenever it was…anyway….here it goes:

Bassmint Production freestyle stuff

I never really liked this stuff, honestly.

In fact, I’d revisited the music on a few occasions and still shrugged at the revered presence which Nemesis enjoyed in the late ’80s music scene in Detroit.  There was always the novelty factor of vocalist/frontman John Cross being the elder son of my high school drama teacher – but by the time 1989 rolled around, John was no longer a student there, and my fellow 10th grade “goth-industrial” enthusiasts seemed (to my sensibilities) to be lauding a phantom.  However, I’ve kept the tape safely in my collection for decades now due to a few factors worth mentioning:

Firstly, there is one rather iconic tune here (”The Object”) which has enough confident sonic sprawl and liberated synthesizer invention to hint at a possible brilliance that might have become album number two, had the band survived. It was also the track which I’d happened to dub from a broadcast on WPHS FM, a neighboring high school’s student radio station…which led to me actually parting with the 3 bucks  to buy the thing.

Another endearing Nemesis moment was their opening slot at the Christian Death show that never happened.  I guess I always sort of blamed them for the overall let-down of that event.

And, of course it didn’t help their cause that a fairly prominent rap act named Nemesis was getting solid promotion that year …or that the timely release of the pre-Candlemass demo recordings revealed that they bore the earlier moniker of Nemesis, as well.

Anyway, at some point in the early ’90s there was no more goth-industrial Nemesis…and members came and went under a new (and more industrial) project named Noc Barrage, and I lost interest but kept the tape because I knew one day it would be a scarce nostalgic curio…so here it is:

NEMESIS demo tape (1989)

This is another of those legacy CD titles that somehow went “out of print” – although it’s difficult to argue for a historical preservation of the band later known as Wang Chung.   Released on One Way Records in 1995 (see concise label background), this early ’80s debut is represented in the file sharing community by a few 12″ singles…yet the full album remains a somewhat elusive, um, “collectible”.

You see, I bought my CD copy for a mere dollar, from the bargain bin at the “grand closing” of local corporate music retailer Media Play.   This was only about 5 or 6 years ago, but the HUGELY inflated used prices currently on Amazon and Half.com have me vexed and incredulous.  Is it even possible that there is anybody remotely considering the act of buying this thing now?

Sure, when I saw it in the $1 pile, the simple novelty of owning the Wang Chung debut (…”I was listening to them when they were Huang Chung“…) was entirely worth the pricetag.   But for a band that was the shopping mall soundtrack of 1984 (”Dance Hall Days” and “Don’t Let Go” while you shopped for stickers off the roll, checkerboard Vans, or at ‘Thingz’), the CD struck me as completely at home in the cut-out bin.

Immortalized by spacious, synthy production and band member Jeremy “Jack Hues” Ryder’s peculiar visage (which seemed to meld Malcom McDowell, Geddy Lee, and Thomas Gabriel Warrior into a singularly creepy Duran Duran reject)…well, here’s the promised (scarce) full length record:

Huang Chung – s/t

(…and Good Lord, if they aren’t still active…)

]]> http://cultureofnone.com/2011/02/22/huang-chung-self-titled-wang-chung/feed/ 0 http://cultureofnone.com/2010/08/09/michal-urbaniak-group-the-beginning-1976/ http://cultureofnone.com/2010/08/09/michal-urbaniak-group-the-beginning-1976/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:42:22 +0000 CultureOfNone http://cultureofnone.com/?p=398 As I’d mentioned here before, in the mid ’90s there were scores of 8 Track tapes to be got for a quarter apiece, and this gem was one of my earliest purchases. I’m not sure if at that point I was already familiar with Michael Urbaniak’s jazz fusion violin work, but the sonic experience here was a rather different beast altogether.

Much of my first impression of this recording was the result of the “fuzzy edges” and channel bleed that occurs with old 8 Tracks.  If you are an 8 Track enthusiast, you will know the sound:  The ghosts of adjacent audio tracks will seep in through the haze of tape hiss and add a strange, distant confusion to the music.  That effect is particularly striking with music as outlandish and spacey as this, especially when Urszula Dudziak’s impish coo weaves non-literal, abstract melodies.

It turns out this particular title is a re-release combining two earlier Urbaniak LPs, ‘Inactin’ and ‘Paratyphus B’.  An attentive ear will recognize a number of familiar hip-hop samples on these, as well.

You can enjoy these rare cosmic wonderworks via the Ile Oxumaré blog, which features quality rips of the vinyl for both ‘Paratyphus B‘ (1973) and ‘Inactin‘ (1975).   The standout track “Lato” (an otherworldly, crazed freak-out of paranoid squawks and frenzied percussion) was cut into two parts for the 8 Track sequence, and it truly deserves to be experienced in all of its free-form insanity without that surprising moment of  silence.

I’m guessing I wrote this one mostly from intuitive observation and with minimal research, so it strikes me as both amusing and illuminating to revisit it now…
“If you want to be a rock star you need experience in musical instruments and song lyrics. First you may want to decide if your group is going to be a pop/soft rock group or a Heavy Metal group. Then you can think of a name for your group.

You can write songs yourself or hire someone to write songs for you. People in some businesses test you for your musical talent. If they think your music is good you sign a contract to get a type of license. When you get one you can go on a concert tour. If people like your music you can make more songs and put them on albums and sell buttons of your group.

One important thing you need to be popular is a type of uniform. One part of the uniform may be a glove. Michael Jackson wears a glove with shiny beads on it. David Lee Roth of Van Halen wears a glove with the thumb and forefinger cut off. Heavy Metal groups sometimes wear spiked leather straps and chain belts. This occupation has good pay and satisfying results.

-Adam P.   4/4/84″

That paper earned an A-, simply for telling it like it is.

They were quietly promoted as a side project of a side project (Brad) that coupled Shawn Smith’s soulful croon and keyboards with a rock ensemble given star-power by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.

I’ll admit that my initial curiosity about Brad was  Gossard’s involvement.  Even though I wasn’t neccesarily a huge Pearl Jam fan, I was intrigued that a Seattle big name could be both prolific and  humble.

The recently reunited Satchel and new album ‘Heartache & Honey’ is worth mention here, especially if you’ve followed songster Shawn Smith’s various musical identities as Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhed, and solo.

Unreleased tracks are always a treat, and this promotional EP offers a surreal, lumbering Prince channeling in “Nice Guy Eddie” and the hazy, tranquilized funk of  “Vic Vega”.

Mr. Pink / Nice Guy Eddie / Vic Vega

The band has one of those names that can easily be buried in non-relevant search results.  However, I was able to find a bit of coverage at the VonFrostBlog, and (of course) there are always plenty of copies of the disc on eBay.

I purchased my CD copy out of a bargain bin (much as others did) after pondering the album art for a while following its release .  The cover combined low-budget Dali emulation with a logo font you’d expect to see in an Arts & Crafts ad.  Also, the band looked nowhere near as tough as  Crowbar or EyeHateGod (the other NOLA heavies of the time).

They certainly do deliver some mean, snaky, unrelenting metal, though. It’s almost closer to Confessor at points than any of the many stoner groove sludge acts.  Stressball’s sound is appropriately tense and paranoid, with unique vocal character.

With a little a bit more research, I also found their later ‘Above The Surface‘ demo available at the awesome ‘The Way It Was‘ demo archive.

Give ‘Stressball‘ a listen.

Track two on this CD is “Drastic Measures” which, of course, has garnered some degree of fame for its early-era Slim Shady (Eminem) cameo verse.

Also worth noting here is the somewhat confrontational “Detroit scene” lyrical jab in the first track:  “ICP is overrated and hated for the false identity created” which now surely falls on different ears with eras gone by.

A few years later (around 2002) Indigenous Tribe made a significant industry move with ‘Doomsday Machine‘ as a professionally realized full-length, endorsed by some Wu-Tang affiliates – but it remains a scarce and unrecognized hip-hop recording.

They also apparently released a followup disc called ‘Amazing Little Black Box‘ which prominently featured the names of Eminem and DJ Rec on the front cover.  I have no idea why it has similarly vanished into history, but that’s the story.

Listen to this stuff and tell everyone you got it here.

I couldn’t help being a Veldt fan from the very start – early press described  the Chavis brothers driving a jeep under rural North Carolina skies, their in-dash mixtape jubilantly positioning Cocteau Twins next to Public Enemy.  It was the delirious  “pre-grunge” era, and hip hop beats & shoegaze seemed a brilliant fusion of audio textures.

Veldt were initially somewhat of a triumph of idea over product. Their first disc (Marigolds) featured the brilliant “CCCP“, but overall was not amazing. Their major-label sophomore effort (Afrodisiac) – while sonically ambitious and rewarding – came across as conceptually dated (”Revolutionary Sister”?) from the moment it hit the cut-out bins (which, unfortunately, was shortly after its release).

Still, I stuck with the band over the years and bought some promo CDs (for non-album tracks & interviews) and the “Soul In a Jar“  vinyl 12″ (remixes & instrumentals).

How fitting then that ‘Universe Boat’, arguably their finest record, surfaced in 1996 on the tiny indie label Yesha and was barely heard by anyone.  Fans of Veldt who haven’t heard this album have no reason to fret over the inflated prices on Amazon or Half.com.  Continue to watch for it on eBay or in the used section of your local music shop, and definitely check out the current Chavis brothers project Apollo Heights.

Meanwhile, here’s the fantastic ‘Universe Boat‘.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of positive response to my recent post praising the Bloomsday full-length CD ‘The Day The Colors Died‘.  The band apparently not only has a lasting legacy of enthusiastic fans – but they’ve managed the feat with only two releases.

Their second and final recording is this self-titled five song disc on Velvet Blue Music.   After a good deal of web scouring, I was able to find it shared as a .zip file via tehParadox.com – however actually buying the durned thing proves rather tricky.

Firstly, there’s other bands called “bloomsday” …or variations thereof.  Secondly, the label’s website offers the disc for purchase, but it is well hidden and not very searchable (just try Googling “bloomsday ep order”).  There’s similarly an Amazon listing which provides the…um… label name (?) as the “artist” which renders the purchase effort a precarious and obtuse pursuit for fans.

I’m providing the above links as evidence of my elaborate research, with the requisite encouragement for you to do the right thing and order the disc – but in the meantime:  “WOW! this ep is awesome!”

1. Blush
2. Television
3. Tuesday to Thursday
4. Girl With A Black Dress
5. Suddenly June

Bloomsday ep