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Introducing Gabriel Hart (the most run-on sentences ever)
This post revolves around the music of my buddy Gabriel Hart. He’s a singer/lyricist/guitarist/composer living in downtown Los Angeles. Gabe is someone whose music really made me want to start this site. Hopefully, that won’t flatter him a bit. He’s a friend after all, and when this makes him Lionel Richie famous, I won’t be able to look him in the eye anymore. His bands, Starvations, Fortune’s Flesh, and Jail Weddings have been oddly seldom written about considering their fanbase and the years he’s been at it. These fans are mostly born losers/drug abusers/etc. I suppose, and those types usually don’t waste time blogging. Me however, I’m a winner. In typical sportsmanlike fashion, I’ll try my best not to bloat this write-up.
Breakin’ My Black Heart by The Starvations (b-side of first single, ‘Shut Up Sirens‘)
Upon Your Request by The Starvations (off of their second lp, ‘Get Well Soon‘)
Purgatory by The Starvations (off of their third lp, ‘Gravity’s a Bitch‘)
A few years ago, my brother used to play songs over and o’er by this band called The Starvations. I didn’t know that was their name then, I just recognized the songs, and tied them together through the singer’s weird voice (that’s Gabe, today’s subject). Down the line after finding out their name, I asked Kevin (my bro) for the music. During the in-between time I had fallen in love with the Flesh Eaters, Gun Club, These Immortal Souls, Dream Syndicate, Rik L Rik. I think that’s an alright way to describe The Starvations……. if you only use punk references. If it’s details and “insight” you want, well, something that always struck me about them was the influence of country/rockabilly in the drumming (Ian Harrower). Not neo-fagabilly; more along the lines of the old southern stuff Lux Interior used to listen to. But I don’t actually know anything about rockabilly. Not sure if they had more than one guitar in the early days (they formed around ’96 if I’m correct), but at their best they had two guitarists; Gabe and Ryan Hertz. Working together they got a sharp, yet warm sound going; something like the Pogues, something like Dave Alvin. They also added a girl on keyboard/elec piano and accordion;Vanessa Gonzalez. The keyboard added to the old California punk feeling. No particular bands really come to mind, and that’s a good thing. The accordion bolstered the nice Irish stench of it all. All I can say about Jean-Paul Garnier’s bass is listen to Upon Your Request.
Fortune’s Flesh tread very similar ground to The Starvations (after they broke up in 2005). Gabe and Ian were still present, with a few friends on hand from other bands. This is not to say they felt like nothing new. Nope, not at all. This band never released a single record, though Gabe tells me they recorded an album. So here’s something special. One of the prettiest songs I ever heard a man sing.
Mutual Fools by Fortune’s Flesh (unreleased)
Death Country by Gabriel Hart (the ‘Nightlight‘ Ep)
These Fleeting Moments by Jail Weddings (‘Inconvenient Dreams‘ Ep)
Fortune’s Flesh didn’t last very long though. I don’t know what it was. I’m not going to ask. Since then (2007?) Gabe released an acoustic solo-ep called The Nightlight, and has formed a new band. And mandaddy, is it a band! 10 members strong, and lead singers are always made out to be the stars, but fuck man, far as I’m concerned that number is not in excess. What you get is some very layered records. Great shit, good for many listens in a row. My favorites are the bass and violin. Live, they take forever to set up, but are well worth it, despite the lack of brutal pits at their performances. Ideally, they should play open air. The charge of the rhythm section would be amazing. JW are fucking far from what the Starvations were. A lot more tender songs, just check I Thought You Were Someone I Knew on they myspace. Did I mention the Weddings are replete with dualing female singers?
So that’s my impression of Gabe’s music in a nutshell. The scant, hacknyed reviews of his records might lead you to believe that he’s a creepy lech, jeffrey lee pierce wannabe, star-in-the-making, godhead, or genius. Maybe he is all those things at one time or another, but what they always neglect is that he’s a human. Same as everyone who ever lived. To me personally, he’s been a kind guy who let me get away with being awkward, and in my experience, most people don’t do that.
What you want; What we got
There is function on WordPress known as “quickpress” and figgered i’d give it a whirl to mention something that’s been, well, tickling me.
Wordpress has a window at the blog dashboard called “top searches” and it shows you some of the google searches that led people to your page.
Sometimes they are rather off topic (punk is the topic) due to the fact that ALN hosts a variety of “words” from the english lexicon. We don’t discriminate.
Here are some of my favorites:
Necrophilia
Romantic Necrophilia
Necrophilia Romania
Gestapo Torture
Chones
Strong Fuck
Pictures of Famous Gestapo
Nasa Egypt
Necrophilia HIV Story
Abuse party
While weaker stomachs would shrink from their blogging responsibilities, we have taken a personal mission, to love and accept every little baby who should arrive at our doorstep, regardless of which sewer mutant dropped them off. We didn’t plan on this, but God delivered you to us, and by scout’s honor WE WILL LOVE YOU. Even the 12 year old nazis. Like I said, we don’t discriminate. Keep on keeping on taboo seekers, perhaps we will yet satisfy your craven desires; and maybe even a few of our own…………
What the hell else was he supposed to do??
fat people having sex in a pool, teens, black teens, donkey punch, kkk, antifa, speed metal, iron maiden, the misfits, led zeppelin, cher, supple tits
Rare Richard Hell
Richard Hell is one of my favorite singers/poets. Has been for years. The Voidoids are one of my favorite bands. Particularly their guitarist, Rob Quine (RIP). First got into them in the ninth grade after watching some punk documentary. It’s called Punk: Attitude. Not the best punk doc, but turned me onto Magazine, Pil, The Buzzcocks, X-Ray Spex, The Slits, The Screamers, The Dils and plenty other bands I had as of yet not heard of. It came with a miniature reprint of the issue of Sniffin’ Glue with the Adverts’ interview, who were my favorite band at the time. Anywho, I was talking to my pal Jagger about various bands and the subject came up something like this
Me: “There’s this one band in the movie that I really wanna hear. Can’t remember their name…..oh! Television!”
Jagger:”Richard Hell’s band!”
M:”Who?”
J:”Richard Hell, he’s fucking badass. My brother listens to him. He’s totally NIHILISTIC!”
M:”AWESOME!”
At 14 years old “NIHILISTIC” was all the endorsement Hell needed. I asked Jagger to burn me a cd. A few days later he brought me a disk with Blank Generation and Destiny Street on it. I immediately put it in my cd player (part of why I failed spanish the first time). WHAT THE FUCK??!! THIS ISN’T PUNK! THIS ISN’T ANYTHING! THIS IS ROCK! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS??!! I listened to that cd for three days straight, and after that I weren’t the same! My favorite tracks were Liars Beware, New Pleasure, The Plan, All the Way, Going Going Gone, and Staring in Her Eyes. My favorites beside Love Comes in Spurts and Blank Generation anyway. Over the years I would occasionally snatch up another Richard Hell treasure now and then (as I soon found out, the Voidoids did not record very much). The Time Dualdisc on Matador (his amazing RIP LP coupled with an equally amazing Live disc they played with Siouxsie I think) and the Funhunt Cassette (another live gem). A few years later I found a cheap old pressing of Blank Generation on vinyl. I was dismayed that All The Way and I’m Your Man weren’t on it, but when I played it, I had yet another true “What the fuck?!” moment in music. The LP had a different version of Down at the Rock n’ Roll Club!!! And what a glorious, drunken version it is!
Down at the Rock n’ Roll Club (Original Version)
The Chris D. comparisons started making sense. Chris getting compared to Richard I mean.
Not long ago I picked up a bootleg 7″ of studio sessions with Blank Generation, You Gotta Lose, and Another World on it. Here’s track 2; reminds me of sports in the fifties.
And just for why-the-hell-not’s, here’s some live tracks from when Richard was in the Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders.
Ripped @ 80 kbps for no one’s listening pleasure.
King Midas
King Midas
Everything i love turns to gold
everything i touch turns to coal
so i carry everything in a bowl
that i paid for with some gold
under the scaffolding, i looked up
tried to leave, but no such luck
i was in love with all the rivets
took in the scene cuz i couldn’t give it
Everything i love turns to gold
everything i touch turns to coal
so i carry everything in a bowl
that i paid for with some gold
raced the king down thru the mine
we collapsed beside the finish line
we were coughing so goddamn loud
but not enough to draw a crowd
i cut the line with my scissors
and made a confetti blizzard
from my eyes i wiped the sand
and trickled it into the king’s hand
i said to him “nothing is over”
he set his hand on my shoulder
“Lad, that’s a mighty sore song to sing”
said the man; said the burger king
Everything i love turns to gold
everything i touch turns to coal
so i carry everything in a bowl
that i paid for with some gold
AUDACITY, The Band I’ve Seen Most
It’s been at least 22 times that I’ve seen Audacity. That’s since last March! To be fair though, they hardly go a week without playing a gig. This is Brooklyn typing, btw (internet slang: by the wack)
Now Audacity have become blog darlings, and rightly fucking so. Allow me to explain.
- First of all they play often, and they have done so for years
- All of their releases are great
- With that in mind, the new live material they’ve turned out after every new release has one-up’d said releases
- They have already completed three or four big tours that i know of
i think these were flats from a tour with mika miko
- They intermingle on just about any bill (I’ve seen em with Jail Weddings, Thee Makeout Party!, Okie Dokie, AM, Friendly Neighbors, Gestapo Khazi, Le Face, Mika Miko, and they always brought the funk)
- They have given away so much free shit, and played so many free shows
These fools know how to mix it the fuck up.The ‘Dacity mixes, CREATIVELY; punk, garagerock, hardcore punk, pop, and some of that glam-azon in their with an eggbeater of love. The product is the fattest, orangest hallucinogenic brownies this side of the equator!
The boys are all around 20, and they’ve got three pieces of vinyl:
- Split w/ Thee Makeout Party!: The track on this is their big hit, Twilight Zone. It was Burger Records’ first disc i think. Thee’s track is Slack, equally great if not greater. Fun fact (fun for me, not you) I got this at the release show, which was on a boat in the Long Beach Harbor. My copy came with two handwritten sleeves: one drawn by Thee, the other Audacity’s setlist, on colored vinyl, numbered to 500. TALK ABOUT SCUM STATZ!
- Power Drowning Lp: this is where our tracks come from. The lp sounds great, don’t get the cd, get the lp, it might come witha free cd in fact. Doesn’t really have that album feel though, more like a compilation. Very good though. 15 trax. BURGER RECORDS.
- Split w/ Pteradacdudes: A hyped up and fucked out version of their early song, Desert Man, and a swell cover of Annette’s Got the Hits
- The Anne Frank Tape: a lo-fi tape made cuz their lp still hadn’t come out yet. diff. versions and elsewise unreleased tracks. 7 songs in all.
Their myspace oughtta have a link to some more free trax, listen, love, and buy their shit!
Coming soon: Burger Records: Necrophysicians get the the meat of the matter
do you have a fag dad?
Izzy Pod here, yet again to share with you some truly spine twisting music. since i am currently living here in san francisco, i figure i should give one of the locals a shout out. the locals in question are an intimidating band known as Dadfag. the band is a no wave (ugh. hate the term, but i guess it helps u understand the sound?) hardcore trio, originally from georgia. their lineup consists of two girls on guitars both sharing vocal duties and a dude named allan on drums who works in a dildo factory (he wasnt always in that proffession. he started out as an groundskeeper in an orphanage, then worked for the US mint making money, and now he works at said factory. he kinda just failed upwards). anyway, back to the music, i dont really know how to do their sound justice. the vocals are usually shouted and sound like they are coming from a torture victim or someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown or about to crack up laughing. all of those at once. one guitar is pretty downtuned, i guess to substitute for a bass. the other guitar pierces you like the end of a drafting compass punctures paper (brooklyn sez: I CAN TOTALLY RELATE). they just released their first album called “scenic abuse” on Broken Rekids, and while it does not do justice to their live show, it still is an impressive effort. the opening track sounds almost like an alt rock radio ballad until the second guitar comes in and the vocals start to tremble. then you realize something is terribly amiss as the two harpies on vocals shout, what sounds like, “I JUST WANNA SAY FUCK YOUR EYES!!!!!” for those of you waiting for me to referenc other bands for a sound i guess the best way to put it is that they sound like mid career rudimentary peni trying to cover early sonic youth.
Nikki Sudden gets the Necrophilia Treatment
Often, when someone tackles a subject of this caliber, they commence with “What can I say about Nikki Sudden?” Well, shit man, that’s saying it. Nikki Sudden is, for my money, one of the greatest songwriters ever. I have few true favorites, and Nikki climbed onto that shelf with astounding speed compared to the others (though that may have to do with the fact that i wasn’t downloading with winrar when i was discovering those bands). For the uninitiated, he belongs to that illustrious group known as ‘punk approved’ musicians, among the likes of Desmond Dekker, David Bowie, Captain Beefheart, The Smiths, T-Rex, Nick Cave, The Sonics, etc. Save for maybe Bowie and Beefheart, Nikki’s at the top o the slop. He was a very prolific, released about 11 0r 12 lps between 1980 and 1990, and outta those I’d say about 8 to 10 are fucking gold.
A snap from the Maps days
How’d it start? Well, for Nikki it started with the experimental and later to be punk (and later to be experimental) band, Swell Maps, which he started with his brother and school chums back in ’72. For me it started with a song called Jigsaw Blues in the back of my friend’s car. I was wowed by the lyrics to the song, it was like a 19th century gazeteer for drunks. But at that age, I couldn’t get into his voice. It was too fuckin wacky for my 1oth grade brain. This from a kid obsessed with Chris D. and Mark E. Smith. However, since then his voice and a few of the lyrics burned into my head, and by twelfth grade I was jonesing, so I picked up a double disc reissue from Secretly Canadian, and one album led to another. When Swell Maps dissolved Nikki put out two solo lp’s, Waiting on Egypt and The Bible Belt. After this he formed the Jacobites, co-starring Dave Kusworth, who were a notably more pop bunch. Other collaborations include the infamous Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc (with Rowland Howard), a very dark departure from his signature Rolling Stones-Johnny Thunders-Bob Dylan sound, and I Knew Buffalo Bill, again with Rowland as well as Jeffrey Lee Pierce, and Jeremy Gluck on Vocals. He recorded many other lps in the eighties and into the nineties, but i can’t go on about them, or this post would be a chore.
Nikki passed away in March 26, 2006 in the middle of a tour
Jigsaw Blues-(I Belong to You 7″/Liqour, Guns, and Ammo)
Still Full of Shocks-(Waiting on Egypt)
Kissed You Twice-(Live W/ Rowland Howard(turn up the volume)
Ambulance Station-(Robespierre’s Velvet Basement)
Murder Valley-(Groove)
The Rolling of the Hearse-(Crown of Thorns)
Feather Beds-(Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc)
When I Left You-(Texas)
The mighty Souls of Mischief and the best music video ever made.
Brooklyn back here, hot on the heels of Izzy’s first post.
There’s a time for love, and a time for hip hop. Now is not the time for not hip hop.
The famed highschool classmates of Del The Funkyhomosapien, the famed cousin of Ice Cube. Out of Oakland, CA, the souls had noticeably more battle-style lyrics than Del, yet at the same time were a lot more chill. Together, with the additions of Domino, Snupe, Casual, and Pep Love, Del and The Souls formed the “illustrious” Hieroglyphics collective. However great the first Hiero lp may be, I feel that the individual releases tend to be more relevant (lyric-wise) than 3rd Eye Vision.
The tracks on this album are about all the usual things: bragging, chilling, fucking, getting shot at, government schemes, independence, and wack mc’s; but the rhymes delivered by Tajai, A-Plus, Phesto, and Opio are just about the end all be all of said topics. And this was released when they were high school seniors! The sex could be measured in acres!
anywhere, these would be from the souls’ first lp, the CLASSIC ’93 ’til Infinity.
( i’ve discovered the pop-out player! we’re in business!)
Let ’em Know by The Souls of Mischief
Name I Call Myself by The Souls of Mischief
’93 ’til Infinity (extended version) by The Souls of Mischief
HATE!
Hi,I’m the other contributor to this blog, Izzy Pod. My first review will be on the 90’s comic we all know and love known as HATE! (conveniently collected in two volumes: Buddy Does Seattle and Buddy Does Jersey). The author, Peter Bagge, has been referred to as a sort of Robert Crumb of the 90’s. I’m actually going to make an even bolder claim and say he is even more talented than Crumb (and here comes the hate mail). Nothing against Crumb, I just think he relies too much on vulgarity to be creative and engaging. While I see nothing wrong with vulgarity or filth, it does get old after a while. Peter Bagge is perfectly capable of being lewd (sailor-foul language and an abundance of fuck scenes), yet he knows how to fit it into a story and put it in context that makes it feel natural and not just done for shock factor. The series follows the adult life of Buddy Bradley (first introduced as a high schooler in The Bradleys commix) and his friends/family. The series chronicles a revolving lineup of usually insane love interests, the trials and tribulations of managing a terrible grunge band, owning a business and the always-familiar topics that we all love to read about like sex, death, suicide, maturity, elitism, and the all around irrationality of life. As funny and witty as the series is, it is actually pretty serious for the most part. However, right before the comic starts becoming a whine fest, Bagge slips in a little potty humor and breaks up the tension. That’s part of the charm of the series. Never before has such a serious and bleak comic caused me to laugh so much. The concept of this is even further enhanced by the fact that the drawings are so cartoony and almost Saturday morning cartoon-like. There are tons of different HATE! Collections floating around, but you can just pick up the two aforementioned books and get a good grip on the series.
Comix Recommendations
Free comic scanlations for you to open in winrar??!!
Fuck no, sorry, but fuck no.
Go to your local library NOW (now: -adverb, after reading a blog post) and seek out these titles:
1. Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez: The legendary non-punk half of the Los Bros. comic duo’s new science fiction/occult/rock and roll/teenage graphic novel. A haunted lemon orchard in suburbia. Place to screw. Make your own Blair Witch. Somewhere to be alone. Home of the mythical ‘Goatman’ who switches place with those who would cross his path. Three high school seniors will seek their dreams and alter reality in his domain. The results are comatose, hence the title. For anyone hanging onto what could have been. Vertigo Books.
2. Ronin by Frank Miller: For a long time, I’ve hesitated to give Frank Miller a shot. His film adaptation of The Spirit, and those bogus Sin City covers/titles, well, they made me retch. It now occurs to me now, though, that there was probably massive producer pressure on Miller to make The Spirit into something to compete with Watchmen (the film adaptation of which, is as they say, another blog). But I digress; A ronin is a masterless samurai. The nameless ronin of Ronin, seeks to avenge his master whom was tricked and killed by the demon Agat, a shape-shifter who disguised himself as a geisha (dancer/elegant whore) to get the master alone. In an attempt to slay Agat, the demon and the ronin become trapped in limbo for 800 years until freed in the mid 21st century. The two again pursue each other through new assumed identities. The Ronin posseses the body of Billy Challas, a limbless man, with psychic prosthetic abilities. Agat kills and assumes the form of Taggart: CEO of the Aquarius Corporation, patent-holders of a bio-technology with the potential to save or destroy civilization. DC Comics.
3. Seven Miles a Second: by David Wojnarovicz (writer) and James Romberger (artist). Autobiographical comics are usually about getting dumped, going to concerts, or crashing your car. SMaS is about a 9 year old male prostitute who became homeless on the streets of New York and contracted HIV in his teens, leading to an AIDS death in adulthood. The everyday of David is gruesome, violent, depraved, and decrepit. He sleeps in garbage, corroded school buses, gutters. He must let grown men suck his penis in rat-infested motels so he can eat. His body is filled with phlegm and bacteria. He is homosexual, and he is portrayed on television as a sinner with no self control, who has dug his own grave. His most pleasant memory “I remember, when I was six years old, my father took me into the den to beat me, as he regularly did. He said to me, ‘”So, what do you want me to do today?” I replied, “Don’t beat me.” He looked at me with a sad smile, and said, “Ok”‘ David’s story is of ugly, ugly, fucking ugly beauty. David died before the book’s completion. The comic was finished posthumously, by gathering David’s final journals. The result of the artist’s interpretation is hellish and surreal. The title is a reference to physics. Seven miles per second is the minimum speed necessary to escape Earth’s gravitational pull. “I am disappearing, but not fast enough”. Vertigo Books. Way out of print. Amazon.com
A Little Necrophilia 