ESG - Come Away With ESG

ESG (Emerald, Sapphire and Gold) is a girl-group from the late 70's, early 80's comprised of four sisters and their friend. The sisters decided to get into music to keep themselves out of trouble (as was prevalent in the South Bronx where they lived). They played at punk venues and were on the same label as Liquid Liquid, among others. They opened for Public Image, Ltd. at a few of their shows, and are a staple of a no-wave diet. Basically, the only way to describe ESG's music is that it's simple in structure and heavy in rhythm. Their James Brown-inspired funk is flawed in such an impeccable way that it doesn't actually seem flawed.

ESG had a problem with uncleared samples; the siren-sound in "UFO" has been sampled so much in '90s rap---the Beastie Boys even sampled that sound in "Hey Ladies."

No-wave... not enough said. Come Away With ESG is undoubtely their best album. A compilation album, A South Bronx Story, came out around 2000 and it is definitely worth the price. We bought it at Plan 9 recently on vinyl for a hefty 30 bucks we didn't have, but I'm glad I didn't eat for a few days to have it now.

ESG - Parking Lot Blues
ESG - It's Alright

Yeah, I'm Coming Back!

How much shit have I been through lately? A ton.

But it's all paid off in the long run. I'm stronger, I'm cooler, and anything else you could hope to be after you're faced with problems.

After a really long hiatus, I'm going to start posting again, and you can all thank Jason. Kiss his ass, buy him a beer. ...And me too.

Up next: Some... stuff. Awesome as per usual.

-Caroline

M.A.N. - Mothers Against Noise

Have a laugh. Mothers Against Noise are against noise music for this reason:
NOISE MUSIC EMBRACES:

1. Rebellion
2. Violence
3. Nihilism (belief in nothing)
4. Escapism
5. Drugs / Alcoholism
6. Sexual Perversion, Self-Mutilation
7. Dissonant / Offensive Sound
8. The Occult
9. Anti-God / Anti-Authority
10. Cult-like Organization, Terrorism

Anyway, go there and look at it. It's absurdity.

Mothers Against Noise

Old and in the Way

I love bluegrass; it may just be something that was instilled in me from a young age since I grew up in a mainly "southern rock/Grateful Dead/bluegrass and country" home, but I still enjoy listening to old bluegrass a little too much. And it's not just the Grateful Dead part of my early household, but Old and in the Way is my absolute, all-time favorite bluegrass group. Their entire catalogue is solid---they play original songs and standard bluegrass songs. Given, there are many "legendary" acts in bluegrass (Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, etc.), but Old and in the Way channels the best parts of these two artists and adds their own younger feel to it. They also do one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs, which is coincidentally my favorite cover of any song.

Old and in the Way formed in 1973, when Jerry Garcia asked mandolinist (and longtime friend) David Grisman to start a bluegrass band as a way to pay homage to his bluegrass roots. Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan (who was a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys from 1964-1967), and John Kahn were also added to the group and shortly afterwards they started playing a handful of shows around the San Francisco area. Their first album, Old and in the Way, was pulled together from all of these live performances done around their beginning, and was not released until 1975.
This eponymous bluegrass album includes the bluegrass-tinged cover of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" and Peter Rowan's originals, including the now-bluegrass standard "Panama Red."

After Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, the remaining members released a collection of 1973 recordings, That High Lonesome Sound. A third album of 1973 songs, Breakdown appeared shortly thereafter. The first album is essential bluegrass listening; the other two are great listening, but I highly recommend the first to anyone.

Old and in the Way - Wild Horses
Old and in the Way - Panama Red

Nick Cave and Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash is one of Nick Cave's heroes; Cave covered his songs "Muddy Water" and "The Folksinger" (shortened to "The Singer") on Kicking Against the Pricks. Nick Cave wrote a piece about Johnny Cash for his compilation album The Essential Johnny Cash. After this, Cash covered one of Nick Cave's songs and also asked Nick Cave to duet with him.

Nick Cave wrote "The Mercy Seat," originally on the 1988 album Tender Prey. It has been called Nick Cave's "signature song" because he plays it at almost every show he performs. Later, in 2000, Johnny Cash covered Nick Cave's song "The Mercy Seat" on his album American III: Solitary Man.

Together, Nick Cave and Johnny Cash recorded a duet of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" for Cash's 2002 American IV: The Man Comes Around. Another collaboration of theirs, the American folk song "Cindy", was released posthumously on the "Johnny Cash: Unearthed" boxset.

Now, I'm not trying to compare Nick Cave and Johnny Cash. Both were geniuses in their own genres, but both of their versions of "The Mercy Seat" are stunning and compelling in different ways. Enjoy these four songs. Nick Cave and Johnny Cash both have startling, sometimes creepy, crooner voices that often sing dark lyrics. When they sing together, the effect is even more beautiful, and creepy, than their single counterparts.

-Caroline

Nick Cave - The Mercy Seat
Johnny Cash - The Mercy Seat
Johnny Cash w/ Nick Cave - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
Johnny Cash w/ Nick Cave - Cindy

Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re

I have been listening to this band called Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re for about four months now on-and-off hoping that the singing will grow on me but it never does. It's a trio of Japanese girls that play this fucking badass rock music, but they're little Japanese girls, and only a handful of girls with cute voices should ever sing (Debbie Harry being one that comes to mind). Anyway, listen to the music; if you like Japanese girls you might get past the singing. I've talked to a few people and everyone is pretty awed at this band, at the music being so amazing.

Here is their website: Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re

Here are two live tracks from when they did the SXSW fest in Texas. I can't find any other tracks for download than those online, if you can, send 'em my way, I'd love it.

Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re - Ebihara Shinji
Tsu
Shi Ma Mi Re - Ochassuka

Wire

My brother, who I admire in most all of his musical tastes turned me onto Wire when I was 14 or 15 by saying, "I hate this band, but you'll love them." I didn't know what that meant until I listened to them. I asked him recently if he ever liked Wire and if not, why not, and all he replied was "Too much fartsy, not enough artsy." And I don't know if that rings true or not to everyone, but it doesn't to me. Isn't all post-punk thought-driven and artsy? And isn't all post-punk experimental and fartsy?

Watching the DVD performance from Rockpalast for the first time a month ago, I realized what he meant when he said "fartsy." Wire is over-confident in their playing technique and the way they jerk about on stage, but they have every right to be.

Wire's second album, "Chairs Missing," came out ten months after their first one, "Pink Flag," and was leaps and bounds better than the first in terms of arranging, writing, and musicianship. One of the artistic pinnacles of the post-punk movement, the first album came out in '77 and was pure post-punk, and the second album is still easily one of the greatest albums to come out of the post-punk movement. Every D.C. rock band since early Fugazi has taken a lot from Wire.

These two of the heavier Wire songs, "Mercy" and "A Question of Degree," both from "Chairs Missing," show the mastery of the subtlety of their arrangements and their musical ability. For example, in "A Question of Degree," notice how the drummer starts playing double time on the hi-hat in the second verse. In "Mercy," notice how the bass player will stop on the second interval instead of the root to add a little tension (-James).

The version of "Mercy" here is from the On the Box 1979 CD/DVD, and "A Question of Degree" is the studio version. If you dig Wire, check out On the Box. It was done between "Chairs Missing" and "154," their third album.

Post Punk Junk also has a live Wire show from CBGBs from 1978 up that is not the best sound quality, but it's still neat to listen to. You can find them here.

Wire isn't for everyone as I said, but Wire is still cool.

-Caroline

Wire - Mercy
Wire - A Question of Degree

John Bellows

John Bellows is a great dude from Chicago who rode into town to play a show with Hallelujah!, The Coughs, and The Amoeba Men. After Hallelujah! played, John ran up to the front with a guitar strapped to him in teal green Umbra shorts and a striped shirt and just started wailing on his acoustic guitar with these "can't-stop-looking-and-can't-even-talk-because-you-must-listen" songs. He played and sang by himself, and needless to say, he looked crazy and we were all waiting for him to get kicked out until we noticed his band on his arm that denoted he was scheduled to play. The songs were childish, harshly played, and hilarious, so I still thought he was crazy. He played for a solid 15 minutes with only about five seconds in between songs. The songs were so catchy that while the next band was playing, I was still thinking about his songs.

After he played, we went back to talk to him and he was absolutely sane and normal. I was so amazed by his balls in how he played and acted. We bought his CD, entitled "Clean Your Clocks." On the CD, he has other instruments which takes away from the childishness and craziness of the songs, but they're still pretty damn good and just as catchy with the other instruments.

Here I'm going to post two of the songs he played at Nanci Raygun---they are the ones that stuck with me for the next couple of days, so hopefully they do that for you also.

(John has a website, www.brownstuff.biz where you can get some more of his music, and I highly recommend it.)

-Caroline

John Bellows - Travel On
John Bellows - Bouncing Ball

Chrome / The Jesus Lizard

Since our blog is named after Chrome's album Half Machine Lip Moves, I decided that I should put Chrome on this blog as soon as possible. Most people don't enjoy Chrome as much as I do because of their weird intros and outros that tend to drag on a bit too long, but I feel that their noisy inros/outros were almost the way that they set themselves apart from their counterparts of the time, and conversely, aligned themselves with fans of the industrial music of the mid-1970's. The beginnings and ends of songs are weird, loud, and layered. Even if you don't enjoy the intros and outros, what lies between the two is well worth the wait.

Half Machine Lip Moves came out in 1979, and to me is their best album. It's got some really good songs on it, and is in my opinion the best work Damon Edge and Helios Creed ever did. The album starts out with screeching guitars; it's full of tightly-wound songs that are very drum-and-guitar-driven. For a good explanation of a weird outro that is heavily layered, listen to "T.V. As Eyes" and try to discern all the sampling. There are sometimes as many as five things layered on top of each other (probably more, but I can usually only pick out that many).

The Jesus Lizard did a medley of two Chrome songs ("T.V. As Eyes" and "Abstract Nympho") off of Half Machine Lip Moves, so I chose those two Chrome songs and the Jesus Lizard song "Chrome" for the post today. "Chrome" shows you the cleaner-engineered version of the two songs without the intros and outros. The song is also a clear definition that Helios Creed's guitar playing influenced Duane Denison a lot.

-Caroline

Chrome - T.V. As Eyes
Chrome - Abstract Nympho
The Jesus Lizard - Chrome