Thursday, July 30, 2020

RAY CARMEN - "Accidentally On Purpose" (1995)

 "Accidentally On Purpose" was a four song EP put out by Ray Carmen in 1995.
Ray was, and still is a very prolific singer/songwriter.

 Isn't it about time that the world got serious ......

 .....About Ray Carmen?
Well, here's the place to make that happen!!

This cassette is so cool, I actually have two copies with different layouts!
Here's a song that shows a different side of Ray's talents, but it doesn't matter which side, because they're all good!
All the instruments were played by Ray, except this song on which Blind Waldo is playing the fiddle. Blind Waldo was Ray's friend friend Roy Combs who passed away several years ago. 
The songs were also all written by Ray, except this one, which is Author Unknown!

Monday, July 27, 2020

HUMIDIFIER - "Louder Than Yr. Mom" (1990)

 Here's another great 5 song 7" EP I got from John King!
The band was called Humidifier, and this record titled "Louder Than Yr. Mom" was released in 1990!

 Humidifier was a trio from Uniondale, New York, and the members were John King on Guitar and Vocals, Denis Saulnier playing the Drums, and Jim Wilbur on Bass and Vocals!

 This insert included the lyrics to the songs.

 The other side showed information about the band's other releases!

Here's something a little different, an explosive high-charged instrumental called...

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

SISTER RAY - "Psycho Sis" (1988)

 I kind of forgot about all the 7" records people also sent me. 
It was always a thrill to get a 45 in the mail. This 45 was by Mark Hanley's band Sister Ray. This release was on red vinyl, and was on the Ajax Records label out of Chicago, Illinois!
The front cover drawing was by Bundy K. Brown
Sister Ray were:
Mark Hanley - guitar
Joe D'Angelo -  bass, vocals
Vince Colucci - drums
Sam D'Angelo - keyboards

Most home tapers were just that, but there were a lot of actual working bands who were trying to promote their bands via the D.I.Y. network, and you were always more likely to get some airplay from a record than you would from a tape.
So straight out of Youngstown, Ohio, here's......

Sunday, July 19, 2020

CASSETTE CULTURE: HOMEMADE MUSIC AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT IN THE PRE-INTERNET AGE - Jerry Kranitz (2020)

Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age by Jerry Kranitz (320 pg book + 2-CD compilation)
 
The book takes a social history/analytical approach to the growth of the global cassette culture/homemade music network that sprouted and flourished from the post-punk era through the early 1990s. The author explores how the participants communicated, traded, collaborated, and set up cottage industry labels to distribute their work. A long overdue study of this pivotal yet less than comprehensively documented chapter in the post-punk and 20th century independent arts movement stories.
 
While the book's focus is on how the network and it's participants functioned, it concludes with a 4-part 'Reviews' appendix. The author selected three cassette labels based in different countries whose roster of artists was international in scope:
* Alain Neffe and Insane Music
* Matthias Lang and IRRE Tapes
* Al Margolis and Sound of Pig
The fourth section features a small number of ‘song’ oriented hometapers. In some cases, these artists were known for both songs and more experimental forms of music, making them of particular significance to the cassette culture story.
 
 
The book also includes a 2-CD, 46-track compilation
 
CD1
01 10-Speed Guillotine 'Temper Tango‘ 1990 (4:24)
02 Aconite 'the truth about Cable TV‘ 1982 (3:05)
03 Another Headache 'Cacophony Continues‘ 1992 (5:31)
04 Autopsia 'Lebensherrgabe‘ 1983 (4:59)
05 Beequeen 'EE EA‘ 1988 (2:18)
06 Big City Orchestra 'Karawane‘ 1987 (3:44)
07 Bret Hart 'Partytime‘ 1985 (3:02)
08 Brume 'An Amphibian‘ 1988 (6:18)
09 Cacophony 33 'Frank‘ 1986 (1:37)
10 Charles Rice Goff III 'Big Surprise' 1990 (4:11)
11 Dog As Master 'Black Body' (Excerpt) 1985 (4:36)
12 Don Campau 'I am Not Satisfied' 1983 (3:02)
13 E Coli 'Lag Phase' 'Djihad‘ 1981 (1:19)
14 E G Oblique Graph 'Fall into Glass' 1982 (2:21)
15 F-i 'Zombie’ 1984 (4:50)
16 Gen Ken Montgomery 'It happened to You' 1983 (3:09)
17 Girls on Fire 'In My Blood' 1985 (1:29)
18 If,Bwana 'Beauty and the Beast’ 1986 (3:28)
19 ITN / Mental Anguish 'Force of Waves' (Edit) 1988 (2:24)
20 Jeff Central 'Tragick' 1988 (4:26)
21 Joseph K Noyce 'The Beat' 1988 (2:37)
22 Kapotte Muziek 'Audio Plagio 2‘ 1988 (3:58)
23 Ken Moore 'Soft Pretense‘ 1986 (2:33)
 
CD2
VOD158.CD2: Artists L-Z (Total Duration 78:56)
01 Larynx 'Graett' 1981 (3:00)
02 Lord Litter 'St James Infirmary' 1990 (3:32)
03 Markus Schwill 'The Advantage Of Tape-Music' 1991 (2:29)
04 Minoy 'Eskalith' 1987 (5:16)
05 Monochrome Bleu 'Imagination' 1986 (2:26)
06 Muslimgauze ‚Cyst' 1983 (4:20)
07 Mystery Hearsay 'Painted‘ 1986 (2:03)
08 Non Toxique Lost 'Statements‘ 1982 (4:18)
09 PBK 'Untitled 04‘ 1990 (4:48)
10 Philip Johnson 'Two Tracks Unused At The Time‘ 1979 (3:07)
11 Psi Nukli Trip Sequence II’ 1988 (5:22)
12  R Stevie Moore 'Puttin' Up The Groceries' 1978 (2:59)
13 Ri Gillham 'Soundtracks for imaginary films‘ 1980 (2:03)
14  Rimbaud Brothers 'Deceit' 1984 (3:41)
15  Rod Summers 'Sad News' 1984 (3:29)
16  Sheer Zed 'Take a Walk Down the Street' (3:26)
17  Storm Bugs 'Hodge' 1978 (4:54)
18 Taste of Stool 'Squeeze Bees’ 1989 (1:01)
19  Viktimized Karcass '3.32 AM Rain‘ 1985 (5:24)
20  Vittore Baroni 'Living with Prosthesis‘ 1985 (2:06)
21  Walls of Genius 'Sunday, Monday Or Always!‘ 1983 (2:42)
22 Wolfgang Wiggers 'l'll Cry Tomorrow‘ 1983 (3:12)
23 Years on Earth 'Opposition‘ 1982 (2:46)
 
(For the record, 320 pages, and not even a mention of  Hermanos Guzanos!)

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

MEMORIES OF A HARSH FUTURE - "A Tribute To The Harsh Reality Music Label" (2020)

Hal McGhee and Chris Phinney are good buddies, and I should know, because I've written them both off and on now for 40 years.
Chris is in the process of getting over some major surgery, so the timing is right for this tribute to his label Harsh Reality to come out. Over the years Chris has released I think over 400 projects of his own and other people, and this is a compilation of just some of it!
Hal has gathered up 34 tracks by a wide array or artists, and the last one is.....
Visit the Harsh Reality Music historical archive site
www.haltapes.com/harsh-reality-music.html

 This release came out on July, 10, 2020. and was curated and produced by Chris Phinney and Hal McGee!
Visit the Harsh Reality Music label at Bandcamp
harshrealitymusic.bandcamp.com/music

Friday, July 10, 2020

MONSTERS UNDER THE BED - "Neighborhood Of Reality" (1998)

 From the ridiculous to the sublime, that's what we do best around here!
Monsters Under The Bed - "Neighborhood Of Reality" is an amazing piece of work by Lance Morgan that was released on the Optional Arts label out of Seattle in 1998!

 Lance wrote all the songs and the CD was produced by Rich Arithmetic!
This CD is a joy from start to finish, and if you contact Rich at richiro51@yahoo.com, you just might be lucky enough to buy a copy! 

Lance is a really good song writer, and with the production from Rich and his additional instrumentation, you'll be scratching your head wondering why you never heard this before!
It was tough trying to figure out which song to share, it's just that good!

 Normally I wouldn't give away a secret, but there's a short hidden 13th track that you might as well know about just because how else will you ever know?

Saturday, July 4, 2020

ROTTING MORON - "Rot" (199?)

It's Independence Day!
A day that all independent artists should rejoice in, and to celebrate I've got this tape for you probably from sometime in the early 1990's.
I don't have any information other than that. There's no writing, the words Rotting Moron are scratched into the tape, and "ROT" is scratched into the case.
There are no song titles, and the tape sometimes sounds like it was run over by a truck.
It does sound an awful lot like John Bartles, but the music is inferior to his work, and it's quite possible somebody had a personal vendetta, and manipulated some vocal tracks to make it sound like him!