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Armadillo Culture 04
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Being the excremeditation of a hyperactive armadillo's activities, opinions
and other stuff...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
No 4.
In this issue:
Editorial Crap....
------------------
Short fiction and prose
The CIA/Denny's connection
Suffocation and fun in my desk drawer
Bitch
-----------------
Music
Curbside with Skankin' Pickle
Show at 15 minutes on 10/9.
Interview(LONG)
Band/Album clips:
Ghost of a RollerCoaster
One Last Kiss CD
Bikini Kill
Bratmobile
Pitchblende
Swirlies
Velocity Girl
StereoTaxic Device
Machines of Loving Grace
USENET RMI CD Project
-----------------
Hangouts
alt.zines
alt.geek
alt.pickle
rec.music.industrial
rec.games.frp.live-action
Zig Zag Cafe'
Monkey Island radio show
-----------------Editorial Crap--------------------------------------------
Umm...hi, welcome to another issue. I had this really cool "Gee I'm sorry
its been so long since this was out, long live the revolution"-type
editorial written up, but on second(or was it 3rd?) reading, I decided to
scrap it because its all been said before in 50 zillion other zines and besides
as a general in one of my favorite cult movies once said "You didn't come here
today to hear me talk".....
Enjoy,
---me
------------------------The CIA Dennys Connection------------------------------
So, after a night of dancing I go to a Dennys at 5:30am. I sit down in the
booth and the place is filled with mugwumps. My waitress comes over and says
"Fire, walk with me" and offers me a variety of acid to go with my slammin'
grand slammity-slam breakfast. Oh god, those pigs in a blanket...how I love
them so....
In the next booth is salvador dali and Elvis making love...oh, pigs in a
blanket to their fullest...I watched them chicken fry their steak....
The lips in my coke start to speak whipsering "look at me! look at me!" So I
look over to the next booth at the annual Sunday morning meeting of the
post-nkotb/suburb-o-buford/high-hair club for girls...In unison they all
twist their hair in that familiar gregorian chant of "like, o my GOD!"...And
then the hair flip...not the hair flip!!!...AAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!! The torments
of their minds have pierced my soul and the fire in their eyes speaks of my
certain death.....Oh, but for the pigs in the blanket....
And then the suit. The suit walks in. His eyes are bleeding and his Armani
suit is not stained. He takes off his Wayfarer's and the sun shines through
the gouged-out holes in his head. He walks over to the high-hair club for
girls in the booth next to me and says "Rosebud. Rosebud." And then he walks
over to a mugwump and the mugwump eats him. And I am not sad.
And the high-hair club for girls took out the dreaded infin-o-mousse cans and
sprayed the restaraunt. And as I feel dead in my plate of pancakes and a
delightful-but-not-precocious sweet-but-never-bitter vintage '32 dark oak
cherry maple splinter syrup I heard one of the girls whisper in my ear "the
Toyota's waiting outside. The shotgun is in its mirror. The flaps still have
the naked chic. The garter hangs from the mirror. 4 rear tires. The mall is
close. The mall is close. And the harleybumper sticker survives. and the
har...."
And I understood. And Amerika was rejuvinated. And it all made sense.
. . my pupils have left me now.
'
\_/
___________________________________________________________________________
| | |
| hawkeye (andy) :: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu | Future Culture Mailing List! |
|________________________________________| Tomorrow's Reality Today |
| | cyberpunk, virtual reality, rave |
| The Kracker Box BBS :: 303.438.1481 | computer underground, industrial |
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|________________________________________|__________________________________|
------------------------Suffocation and Fun in my desk drawer------------------------
>From linus.mitre.org!linus!agate!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.u.washington.edu!uw-beaver!boesch Thu Oct 29 09:14:50 EST 1992
Next Tuesday the police unlock the door and take away my batteries and
rubber band and they take me to visit the doctor for a vacation, or
maybe I was on vacation from the doctor and it's over, it's not clear
any more. The doctor teaches me not to starve myself in the company of
two batteries and a rubber band or else next time he'll get all
exasperated.
At Christmas surprise! I'm out of the asylum and back in the Room
(capitalized, like the Universe or the Bed or the Radio/Cassette
Player and unlike a sock or a stain). It never could really be MY
room because if it was MY room it would do what I want. And I never
decorated the room because to do that I would have to put MY thoughts
on the walls, and by the time I moved into the room the thoughts in my
head were no longer MY thoughts. I have tried to decorate the
thoughts so they would be kind of "personalized", but I haven't done
very well.
There's always something else in the Room to entertain me until the
hallucinations return. Sometimes I need the entertainment even
afterwards, because soon the hallucinations become predictable
combinations of what's really there, like rancid orange juice/dried
out half-eaten plate of spaghetti.
I have fewer responsibilities now because people take them away if you
ignore them. And I still have money left because I've saved money on
entertainment and food. There's still someone willing to pay me for
my time, but he's smarter than me so he doesn't believe my promises to
work. (It's such an easy slip-up to say "I'll have that done by five"
instead of "I'll never ever work again.")
Now I will work so that I can pay back some of what I owe to everyone
for inconveniencing them by living this long. If I pay my part, then
Mom and Dad won't have the credit revoked that they thought they
earned when I grew up and they won't have to look for some other
justification for their lives which is good because I'm not sure they
could find one. If I keep going on visits to the doctor, I'll just
keep owing more and more, but if I kill myself then I'll go even
further in debt because I'll upset the parents.
But Mom and Dad will have at least one way out as long as Brother and
Sister and Nephew are alive. Mom and Dad just have to hope that it
doesn't end with their grandchildren or great-grandchildren and it
doesn't end until something somewhere finds reason enough of its own
to live because something has to find justification in itself before
all the others who found justification in others can really be
justified. Then the parents could have their justification and they
could keep it.
So I'm think about working and so about the future and what it means
to work and what will happen if I don't and it's over almost
immediately when I'm reminded of how it feels to think that way. So I
stop thinking about working and the future and reach into the desk
drawer for two batteries and a rubber band but there are the timer's
spare clips I'd forgotten about. The red one (that turns the timer
on) fits against the black one (off) perfectly, and they can slide
against each other and the protrusions in one fit the notches in the
other. In, out, in, out, in, out, halfway in they look like an "S"
together. But it's not just them, it's me too. They wouldn't slide
in and out if I wasn't there.
There's the crescent wrench and the pair of pliers and they're missing
something and I have it and I'm missing something and they have it and
I test the nerves in my fingers. The nerves still work, but they
don't shriek like the ones in my head do when I put down the clips and
pliers and wrench and I look for something better. It'd be
embarrassing to hurt myself with them and then be found out and have
to explain why and even if I don't hurt myself I won't be let out so
soon next time but the important thing is to have no one asking why
because I don't know why.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitch
***************************
/Bitch/
Watch out, I just might
rip out your jawbone
and use it to hurl stones at Philistines,
asshole.
Choose your words more carefully
in the prescence of a woman who has had
enough.
Enough time bided.
Enough nice.
Enough of this shit to last a lifetime.
"Bitch"
you mutter, under your breath,
and I am complimented,
for your concept of "lady"
is synonomous with "doormat".
Count me in their number,
it is the time.
Look back in anger,
there have been too many tears
eroding my soul,
and only the fire of anger
will evaporate them.
The meek will inherit the earth
after everone else is done with it
and all the good parts have been taken away.
For once, god once,
I would like to be first.
So next time you fly out,
expecting only tired submission,
watch your step.
I may emasculate you for the rude pleasure
of becoming free.
I'm still new to feeling brutal, but I feel my claws
already flexing
and I could use some practice...
Let us start with your heart.
One razor-nail will disinterr it
from the stony sheath
within your chest.
I want to see you cry
as I did at each of your
harsh words.
Let's hear it for the changing of the guard.
"Bitch"
I please myself and am
pleased by what I look on in the mirror.
I am not ashamed of my accomplishments.
If I am bitter, it is from soaking
too long in the vinegar stares
of you all.
Did any of you ever think to remove the
pole stuck up your ass,
pull it from the ground
and walk to widen your perspective?
Surely not, from the expression
of dull hatred
and the sulfur on your breath
when you exhale my name.
Although in practice I have yet
to rip the heart out
of a man,
in theory I would slaver for the opportunity
to rip it beating from your chest
and macerate each tender spot,
winding the tougher parts into harpstrings
to pluck at will.
"Bitch"
Damn straight.
And fuck you all
if you can not accept my anger
with the same grace you accepted
my defeat.
---Lea(Nightshade)
------------------------Curbside With Skankin' Pickle--------------------------
So, I'm looking through the City paper almost a month ago now, and under
the weekly blurb for the 15 minutes club, I see the following words:
"10/9 Skank and Pickle".
So I managed to tear my brother away from the wifeoid for an evening(I could
tell it was going to be a cool show already just from that. Anytime I can
get him away from her domestic clutches is an auspicious occasion and can
only bode well) and we head down there. We almost immediately run into
(and I'm talking literally here) Lars, carrying his trombone and
we do this weird kind of Spalding Grey-in-the-Hermitage type thing.
I go "Shit!, its Lars from the Pickles" and he's like "Holy Shit, where'd
you get the shirt!?!?" I tell him about the show i saw them at last winter
at Slims in SF and the next words out of his mouth are "Put these guys on
the guest list!" 'We don't have one yet...Happy Hour isn't over yet so there's
no charge ' comes the reply from the cashbox inside. "Well put them on anyways
...Cool!, somebody here knows us"
Skankin' Pickle is a 6-piece ska-punk band from San Francisco thats been
together since 1987. They have put out a demo tape, a {cd|tape} called
"SkaFunkRastaPunk" and by now should have the new album "Pickle Fever"
out of the jar and working its way onto shelfs/racks,etc. They play
a blend of high-energy ska with heavy hardcore punk influences, seasoned
with a tangible flavor of funk and reggae.
The Show:
The show was totally cool. There were Pickles everywhere.
Pickles hammering on guitars, Pickles skankin' their asses off, Pickles
on horns, just this total burst of punk pickle ENERGY just all over the stage.
And while they're leaping over each other, or skanking or singing, they're
playing too. I mean not just playing a couple seconds and then backflipping
across the stage, but playing WHILE backflipping across the stage. Okay,
so there weren't any gymnastics like that, but it was pretty damn close.
They played stuff off their demo and off SkaFunkRastaPunk, plus some other
songs I didn't recognize off the new album. They started off with
"Fakin' Jamaican" and from there went on to do "This is Ska", "You Shouldn't
judge a man by the hair on his butt", "HandTwister"(a personal fave along
with "Anxiety Attack"),"I Missed The Bus","Pseudo-Punk","Hulk Hogan" and
a bunch of others.
Despite Mike's laments in the interview below, taken before the show, I
thought the show was good. Yes, there were yuppies. But who cared?
By the middle of the first set there were already about 10 people in the
back room of 15 minutes who were up front skanking and just gyrating
and throwing themselves all over the place like I was. By the 2nd
set the whole front section of the back room in 15 minutes was
moving and gyrating and bouncing off each other and I was just totally
exhausted, I couldn't walk straight for 2 days afterwards.
The energy that these guys exude just totally bowls you over, even for
the yuppie kind of crowd that showed up...
Interview:
Before the show I got to talk to Mike "Asian Man" Park and got him to
agree to do an interview and we just started talking and he let me record him
and at first it was me interviewing him and then we just got to talking
and then it kind of got to be the other way around and he ended up
interviewing me...We talked for about 40 minutes and this is pretty much
how it went:
[Me explaining about AC and what it is]
Mike Park: So you've made two copies of this thing?
Armadillo Culture: Well, they went out to the net fine, but the second got
eaten by my computer after I sent it out. Its mostly done on the computer
networks, like Usenet more than anything else. But you're right...I've only
really done about 2, maybe 4 printed copies and that was 'cause two people
asked me for them...
Mike:Someone said there's an alt.pickle now.
AC:There's an alt.pickle now!?!?
Mike:Thats what I heard...sounds pretty cool..
AC:Do you guys have access to USENET?
Mike:Uuuuh...I used to....the guy who used to live downstairs, he had the
computers and then he moved out and I don't now...but our trombone player
he does....one of the guys he lives with works for Sun, so he has it all
set up for him right there...
AC: Cool!...God, that just sounds so California.....thats just so cool.
AC:So, what do you play?
Mike: Saxaphone...
AC:Is this your first time out to the East Coast?
Mike: Yep...
AC:What brought you out here...I've talked to some people around here who
are into the ska scene and they said you guys were mostly a west coast band.
Mike:Well, we're just on tour, y'know...you gotta do it eventually....Thats
cool...who'd you talk to?
AC:Well, just some friends of mine from around here and I saw this girl at
a hardcore show a couple months back with a Pickle shirt on and...
Mike:In DC?
AC:In DC....and she said they'd seen you in New Mexico and a bunch of times
in California and NM, but never here, and was pretty psyched to see another
Pickle fan so I guess it was just kind of word of mouth, nobody like really
important I guess...
Mike:Oh yeah...definitely..Well, with the new album coming out,we got a new
one...hopefully it will get distributed more around the east coast and we'll
get a bigger fan base.
AC:Um, Whats a, Whats this one called?
Mike:Skankin' Pickle Fever.
AC:Ok, 'cause like I saw you guys last year in December in SF, and you had
Skafunkrastapunk out then...have you done anything else since then?
Mike:No, ah, this is gonna be our second album. Nothing else since that one.
AC:Ok....
[A porkpie hat attached to a head pops in between us from overhead at this
point]: Hey, Howya doin'?
AC:Hey!..not too bad....could I get your name for the record?
Lars Nylander:Lars Nylander, I play valve trombone..
AC:Cool..thanks..
Lars:Later...[He walks away]
AC[turning back to Mike]:I was wondering if you could just maybe talk about
your music in general? It seems like a lot of your songs or the content of
them kind of comes from stuff around you out there or real life experiences
or things from around where you live and stuff?
Mike:You mean lyrically?
AC:Yeah...
Mike:Ahhhhhhhhhh...I don;t know...its hard to say. I haven't really thought
about it in that sense, but I guess it could be. I guess everybody who writes
something its going to be uh, going to be more adapted to your environment.
Don't you think so?
AC:Yeah.
AC:Probably one of my favorite songs is "Anxiety Attack" on the...
Mike[jumps in]:Oh!, that was a demo tape!
AC:It was?...
Mike[Surprised, smiling]:Where'd you get that?
AC:I got it at the show last year..
Mike:At Slims?
AC:Yeah, the guy who was there hawking stuff didn't have change for the
money I gave him or anything so he just gave me a couple of the tapes and
a sticker and some other stuff instead.
Mike:Oh well thats cool...Yeah, well I didn't even know we were still selling
that one, thats a rare tape man, you should hold on to that one. Anxiety
Attack is going to be on the new album.
AC: I guess what I liked about that one....well, um, see Dan Quayle is such
a target in this town, its like every time he says something here, you hear
about it no matter what it was, I mean we heard about the whole potato thing
for weeks. Is there anything in particular behind that song about him, or
is it just that he's such an easy target like he is for everybody else here?
Mike: I don't like him, but its because he IS kind of an easy target, y'know,
we just kind of had to jump on the bandwagon,and,uh, y'know its the Quayle
thing. We do Quayle a lot; and Bush. We gotta rip on Bush and Quayle as
much as possible.....
AC[laugh]:I don't know if you've seen it out there or not, but here they
put out this thing called the "Quayle Quarterly"
Mike[grinning]: Oh really?...I haven't seen THAT...
AC:You haven't?
Mike:Nahhh...(excitedly)I saw a book!, A Quayle book, but thats all.
It was called like "Everything Quayle knows" and it was just empty, it was
white pages, have you seen that?
AC[I crack up here a bit]:Ummmm..no, and there's been like a book that has
all of his and Bush's misquotes and stammerings in it. I've seen that at
some of the indie/punk record holes around here..a friend of mine has a
copy of it..its pretty cool.
Mike: Have you seen our record at any of the stores around here in DC?
AC:Um,No.
Mike:Well do you think you could just as a favor, just kind of go around and
ask them for it?
AC:Ok...sure..
AC:So, uh, how did you guys get together?
Mike:Well,uh, lets see here, what DID we do? 3 of us went to high school
together and then we met a couple people from our college, and(laughs and
throws up his hands) and we just did it!.
AC:You..
Mike:We just did it!..thats it.
Mike:...Have they advertised this show at all?---How did you find out about it?
AC:I saw it in an ad in The City Paper...15 minutes took out a full page
and you guys were in there with some others bands on about a quarter of
that.
Mike:Yeah, God...I wish there were more people....I mean I don't think anybody
here knows who we are, doesn't like like our crowd you know, doesn't look
like our type of crowd at ALL.
AC:So what do you think of DC so far?
Mike:I couldn't say...its impossible to judge on one day. We're leaving tomm
orrow. I dunno, its good fast food, good chinese. The stuff in the cafe'
[at 15 minutes] was good.
AC:Yeah, we do have some good chinese around here...
Mike:...I'm not even looking forward to this..this is not the kind of crowd
I want to play for, you know what I mean?
AC:Yeah, I know what you mean, yeah.
Mike:I like playing you know, with punks, with punk shows.
AC:Yeah, you want to play somewhere where the people are really into it,
where there's going to be like a pit and everything right?
Mike:Yeah!
AC: You guys had a really good pit going out there in SF when I saw you
Mike:We have a lot of unity out there too. The crowds always with us.
AC: Yeah, I noticed that, the crowd was always moving with each other
and not against each other, they were trying to be together.
Mike:yeah...yeah..
AC:Out here you just have a lot of the fratboys who just like jump in and
they think the idea is to kick somebody or stomp on somebody, it kind of
sucks.
Mike:I know what you mean, I hear you..look at these guys reading the name,
(points to billboard at the front of the club)"Skankin' Pickle who's that?"
I hate these shows man, I hate 'em
AC:Has the tour gone mostly like this?...has this happened a lot?
Mike:Yeah, at least once a week..Last week we did Porchester New York,
it was just like this, it was worse. It was like the average age was 40
and just all yuppy.....shit, it sucked. This crowd, man, look at this,
I hate 'em already...I hate 'em...even if they like us I'll hate 'em.
(I cracked up at this point)
'Cause sometimes we'll play to like a totally yuppie crowd and they'll
just love us y'know, but I hate 'em...'Cause we're a punk band man!,
we're a punk band with horns, thats what we are! Our whole mentality
is punk, we're totally punk. We're too fast to be a ska band. Our
ska is way too fast.
AC:...Yeah, you guys are really fast.
Mike:The tape doesn't give us justice, justice to the album.
AC:Really?
Mike:With the new album we should do a lot better. So if you want to get
it, it should be out in like,well like a MONTH.
AC:Ok...cool. Are you guys still on your own label?--are you still on Dill
? or are you with somebody else?
Mike:Oh, yes, ever faithful to Dill records. Especially since we're the
only band on it.We're the band and the label...
AC:That can help...kind of like Simple Machines and Tsunami around here.
They're the band and the label...well one of the bands.
Mike:Tsunami!?!??---Whats Tsunami? who the hell is Tsunami? Is that a rock band?
AC:Well here, they're a...
Mike:I've seen like 10 different bands called tsunami. I've seen a Tsunami
speed metal band, I've seen a Tsunami glam-rock band, its kind of like
"How many Tsunami's are there!?!?!? "(grins)
AC:Well this particular one is a indie rock/punk kind of band. They're
one of the big bands around here on the indie rock and punk scene.
The band members run Simple Machines and they're all part of this
punk collective called Positive Force.
Mike: ...If you're going to get any record, get Operation Ivy. Get their
CD, they put out a CD, they broke up like 4 years ago, but they put out
this CD, it has their album, their EP, and then a couple compilation songs
on it. It has like 27 songs.
AC:Cool!
Mike: They're the best. You're really getting your money's worth from that.
Mike:So, where's a GOOD place to play, where's like a good punk club?
AC:A Punk club would probably be like asylum or St. Stephen's Church or
maybe even the Roxy, I don't know how much punk the Roxy is though..
Most of the real hardcore shows people manage to rent
Mike:...rent space for?
AC:Yeah..
Mike:Well thats cool. See, we're going to be on tour in the spring and
in the summer and during that time we're going to try and hit every punk
DIVE and just do 'em all!
[Ed. note, okay I've now been to the Betapunk's warehouse and its totally
cool. Mike and everybody, if you're reading this, THATS where you want to
play when you come out here next.]
AC:I'd go to like Asylum or call any of the punk groups in this area and
see about renting space...a lot of shows around here aren't even in a club
, a lot of it is rented space. They had a cool place here up until last
December called DC Space, but the property owners closed it down 'cause they were going to tear it down, but its still sitting there and now
like the only place to play here is either here or at the 9:30 club, but
they've gone almost totally "alternative".
Mike:How would we do here with the punk crowd?
AC: I dunno....probably pretty good
Mike:'Cause we've played with them ALL...We've played at speed metal shows,
we've played punk, we've played with Bad Religion...
AC:Really?---Cool!, how was that?
Mike:Maybe it was because we were home, but it was fine, we did great.
We've gone to like South Dakota and played punk shows in halls and
just done great. 'Cause like stage shows are just *pfffft*, punk shows we
just go *SO* crazy!...we just go totally off...more punk shows, less of
this shit will make me happy...and that pretty much about it..
AC:Okay, well thanks a lot Mike...this was just really cool of you
Mike:Alright, no problem...
Skankin' Pickle can be reached at :
PO BOX 35585
Montesereno,Ca.
95030-5585
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Versus:
Some good fast, fairly driving pop, sounding like somewhere in between Mission
To Burma and The Pixies.
Favorite Song:"Seaweed Rising", which ,according to their bassist is their "hit".
"Everybody likes it" she said. "Its like everybody comes up and say 'I really liked that last song' Great!,
what about the rest of it...."
Pitchblende
Punk meets Wall of sound and explodes like a phosphorus shell into 50 zillion
different varied rhythmic fragments and you feel the soundwaves hit you
before you hear it . A mixture of megadistorted rhythmic soundwaves backed by
hardcore drumming. The dictionary definition of pitchblende is
"A varied, black brown mineral with a shiny slick texture." Exactly!!!
Swirlies:
I first heard them at the Pop Losers show last year and really like the grunge
mixed in with Clarity Held type sound and they way the two work together and
manage not to stomp on each other. Kind of folky, kind of speed pop, they tend
to stick to trad indie sounds while musically roaming around the room and
checking out the boundaries that the sound exists in.
They have a couple out on K as well as as demo they did for the PopLosers show
last year and a split single they did with Kudgel on Pop Narcotic. Look for a
couple new singles this fall and an album early next year as a result of a
recent signing with Taang!.
Favorites:"Didn't understand" and Chris R.(Their contrib. to the "One Last Kiss
" SpinArt CD)
Bikini Kill:
At the forefront of the DC/Seattle Riot Grrrrl thing, Bikini Kill zips around
with a pair of killer hardcore scissors slashing institutional G-strings
and ripping social "convention" to shreds. While this makes for a cool attitude,
it doesn't save their music from being ruined by 4th grade antics
on stage and their message being delivered with a whine as opposed to the
grrrrowl they're looking for...
Bratmobile:
'Nother Riot Grrrl band. Think Bikini Kill but with no whining. Cool!
Singles by themselves(The neat Anti-Metro "Kiss and Ride")
and with Bikini Kill("No You Don't") and also on the Kill Rock Stars
comp. as well as the IPUC Steamer CD comp from the International Pop
Underground Festival. On K!
Ghost of a RollerCoaster
A Shrimper Collection
A collection of bands all on the Shrimper label yields a neat, weird,
,kind-of-performance-arty,dripping-with-pathos,varied
type canvas dipped in a grungy batter and fried to a delicate crisp
upon which Halo, Refrigerator, Shoeface, Franklin Bruno,
Satnam Puppets,Halo, Refrigerator,Wcker Spgt, and members of Sebidoh
scribble, scream, ponder, and angst. Most of the cuts on here are too short
and varied to allow for the formation of anything but the shards of images
and ideas,which kind of seems to be the point. Highlights are Wcker Spgt,
Refigerator and Franklin Bruno(if you like indie rock love ballads).
Shrimper:PO Box 1837, Upland Ca. 91785-1837
One Last Kiss:A Spin Art collection
A collection of mostly East Coast Indie-Rock bands such as The Swirlies,
Jane Pow, Magnetic Fields, Our American Cousins, Crayon, Lorelei, Small
Factory, Courtney Love, Wimp Factor 14, Lilys and others. Mostly concerned
with the downside of love, highlights are The Swirlies with "Chris R.",
Magnetic Fields and "100,000 Fireflies"(a neat song that uses something
sounding like a toy piano as the lead instrument), Our American Cousins
("One wish too many"), Courtney Love with the angry, insistent "Baseball
Bat" and Wimp Factor 14 for their Slacker-generation/anti-trendoid song
"Change of Address Kit". A worthwhile disc despite a few missteps in
organization and a couple weak and misplaced tracks.
SpinArt Records
P.O. Box 1272
Lancaster, Pa. 17603
Stereotaxic Device: LostLand
This one has been around for quite a while, but I like it so much I decided
to stick it in anyways.
If you thought all recent industrial was AngryYoungManScreamingHate-type
stuff think again. SD is cool, ambient, dark, threatening industrial that
doesn't hit you at 120mph, but instead sort of seeps into your brain and
marches across your mind with just as much purpose and intent. All I could
see when listening to this was Post-Nuclear Terminator type wastelands....
Good proof IMHO, that small-in-number electronic bands can crank out stuff
other than remixed "industrialized" disco. I have "LostLand" by them
off Cargo and there was supposed to have been a new one a couple months
ago, but I haven't been able to find it. Environmentally and animal-rights
based lyrical content doesn't do anything to fluff-ify or weaken the sound
and manages to avoid reducing the problem to a series of cliches like other
"enviromentally correct" music I've heard..
Machines of Loving Grace:
After picking up a demo copy of "Burn Like Brilliant Trash" and liking it
I snagged the full CD when I was out in 'Zona and was disappointed.
Sounding initially like a more pop version of FLA or KMFDM with "BLBT",
then electronic love-pop with "Cicciolina", then back to the KMFDM style,
then to something else, I was left confused and disoriented. If you
want to hear a band do funk,industrial, electronic love pop, and techno
all on one disc, you'd like it. I just thought it got a little silly
after a while.
Velocity Girl:
Yeah!, as if these guys really NEED any more press around here ! :) :)
VG is fast, indie-pop grunge fuses attached to sonic shells
that detonate into MBV-influenced sheets of sound. Sound a little
more pop and less anarchic than they used to, VG is still a personal
favorite.
If you like wall-of-sound and have had you head in the ground
for the last year or so, they should be your first stop in D.C.
On too many labels to mention, save for the fact that they can currently
be reached at Sub-Pop:
A singles collection should be out now, with an original album out in early '93.
A neat, recent T-shirt of some anime' characters dancing near a portable
turntable gets a claws-up from this 'dillo.
USENET RMI CD Project:
No I haven't actually heard this one yet, mostly because it doesn't exist.
It should be good though. The RMI CD is going to be a 2-CD set of industrial
and dance-industrial music created by bands and singular artists who are
on the net and in particular hang out on rec.music.industrial. I'm plugging
them because I've talked to some of these people, have some of their music,
and what I've heard I've liked. Some of them have also been cool to me in
helping me to find shows to go to in their area when I've been traveling.
Among the bands to be featured are:
Dresden, Evolution Control Committee, SLUR, SNOG, Soma Holiday, Users of
the Wicked Gravity, grae*com, Unit Circle, KILLED by a BLOW in the HEAD,
Macronympha and a bunch of others that are subjects of occasional threads
on RMI. I am looking forward to this one...
>From the FAQ:
The compilation will be available as a 2-CD set, with discs entitled
"Mind" and "Body". The "Mind" CD will have traditional and ambient
industrial music, the "Body" CD will have industrial dance music. The
pieces were selected by a panel of reviewers from the net (the panel
did not contain any of the artists) (or me, for that matter).
PRICING on the CD set (all prices in US dollars):
CD set itself: $8.00
Shipping: first copy additional copies
USA: $3.00 $1.50
Canada/Mexico: $3.50 $1.75
Outside N. America: $6.00 $3.00
Contact:
Ben Cox
RMI CD Project
1007 W. Kirby
Champaign, IL 61821
USA
or finger btc30679@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
---------------------------------Hangouts----------------------------------------
Below is a list of places, virtual and real that I've hung out in over the
past couple months, either in person and visibly or lurking.
Newsgroups:
alt.geek: Newgrouped about a month ago, its just what it says it is. A hangout
group for the pocket-protector and black-framed glasses set. Recent threads
have included talk about the aforementioned glasses, Geek the (ex)band,
geek love, geek socialization and evolution, geek food, etc. A surprising
number of female geeks and all of them damn proud of it too!
alt.zines: repository for netzines and typed-in postings of analog hardcopy
zines from all over the place. Punk, SF, Cyberpunk, indie, horror,
discordianism, Bob-ism,anarchism, militant feminism, etc. You can be
recursive and find a copy of this one there. Really good stuff!, two claws up!
Also, check into the Anonymous Political Archives for copies of these and
other zines. ftp to redspread.css.itd.umich.edu to reach the Archives.
Snail:
Paul Southworth
Consulting and Support Services
Information Technology Division
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mi.
alt.games.frp.live-action A group for discussing the different forms of
live-action gaming and interactive lit. Sizeable representation of
SIL, ILF, and Vagabond members there.
alt.pickle I looked for this, but its not out here yet. Supposed to be a
fan and info group about the Ska/Punk band Skankin' Pickle.
comp.graphics.animation Also relatively new. A sort of meeting of the minds
between artists and programmers about animation. Significant threads have
been on schools for studying animation, file formats for anim. data, fave
software, technique, notices on showings of original works by artists on
the group, etc.
rec.music.industrial This one's been around for a while and is usually
besieged by flame wars, but I mention it as a pointer to a CFD on the
proposed group rec.music.hardcore.
Zig Zag Cafe'
1524 U St. NW D.C.
Open 'till 2am weekdays, 4am weekends.
A real coffeehouse in Northwest D.C.. 50's/60's Camelot style decor with
period kitsche and pattern formica tables with the 3-inch wide metal
rim makes this a cool throwback place to hang out at. The couch and
other furniture makes it apparent they don't mind if you veg here for
a while. A sparse, veggie-oriented menu(PB&J sandwiches, muffins,bagels,
veggie dips and soups rounded by a killer white pizza) with typical
coffeehouse drink offerings as well as juice, seltzer and Jolt.
If you drop by, say hi to Jan for me, but just don't sit over in the
corner table in the 2nd room...its mine :)
Monkey Island
GMU Radio Station AM 560
6-9pm Sunday nights
Probably the only other radio show I've managed to find in the D.C. area
that plays indie/small label stuff along with import psychedelia and
occasionally some hardcore. Chris, the DJ has been pretty cool by just
letting me hang out with him for a few shows now and spin some stuff.
Yet another port of solace from the mass-produced storm....
Too bad they're on cable....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------Roll Credits!----------------------------------
Generally, let me just say thanks a lot to all the people who sent me stuff
and gave me the opportunity to inflict my little persipflage upon the
unknowing public once again... :)
In particular, here's who did what:
Andy Hawks <ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu> did the CIA/Denny's thing. You can also
get a hold of him on his list:future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu.
Eric Boesch <boesch@cs.washington.edu> did the "Fun and Suffocation" thing.
Lea(Nightshade)<a FOAF, contact me> did the "Bitch" poem.
Mike Park and the rest of the Pickles were cool enough to let me stick
a tape recorder in their faces and interview them.
Eric Mason provided the pictures from his "Specious" artwork collection.
Please don't post these or send them to anonymous FTP sites.
They are (c)'ed and Eric was cool enough to let me put them in here.
Contact Eric through me.
I did the music reviews, the hangouts column and this bit right here.
Nobody did anything else...the bastards...
------------------Submissions,Dominations, and other family fun-------------
Submissions: yes, have some. Send me stuff, pretty much anything really.
reviews, letters, opinion stuff, high-weirdness-by-mail type stuff, art,
etc.
Send to:
USnail:
Armadillo Culture
2857 Foxmill Rd. Herndon, Va. 22071
Net:
sokay@cyclone.mitre.org
If you're at a show and you see a guy with long brown hair wearing a
photographer's vest(has about 20 pockets on it)glasses(and possibly an
AC t-shirt), thats probably me. Come up and say hi, I don't bite.
GIFS and FTP sites:
The FTP site has changed. Paul at the redspread political archives
has been kind enough to offer me space. The new address is:
redspread.css.itd.umich.edu.
I still have all the old cover GIFS and a couple backissues.
I would especially like GIFS of some bands. If you are in a band or
know somebody who is, send me a uuencoded GIF to my net address or
something that I could scan in via snail.
Shirts:
I was bored one night and decided to make up a silkscreen with the 'zine
logo on it.
The text says:
Armadillo Culture
Netzine
Music, Film, Technology, The Net, Fiction, Opinion
Cool Tunes, Fast Compilers, Cheap Caffeine.
(or)
Sleep all day, Hack all night, Geek like Hell!
The Armadillo Culture part was done in a spray-paint type text
with the word "Netzine" done with storm of data lines zipping
across it, to give it a dissolving transporter kind of effect.
The rest are done in a Helvetica font.
Black or blue ink on a white shirt. $6, specify size,color
and logo. Default is Large, black ink "Cool tunes" version.
