Everybody Wants Some!

For those of you who need some awesome today... there is this. Describing the wonderfulness at the end of that link would only spoil it. You're just going to have to trust me.

For the musical sputtering today we have the Original SS, some early raw hardcore from Japan (widely considered to be the first Japanese hardcore release ever) circa 1979. Fearsome, fast and just a touch over 12 minutes long, it's the sound of history. Hard to believe this is 30 years old.

Remember This Always.

The best advice I've ever received. Fittino Pocible...ahh, just imagine. Fittino Pocible...

Eyes of Horror.

Welcome to the weekend! Feeling a little quiet today. Quiet yet creepy, I guess. Luckily, I have found some good music to go along with this odd feeling. Popol Vuh made some of my favorite quiet time music ever. Some of their choicest bits have been soundtracks for director Werner Herzog. He directed the supremely creepy Nosferatu, with the always interesting Klaus Kinski as the dreaded vampyre, and which Popol Vuh churned out the eerie soundtrack to. It is here if you want it. Whew!

Missing the Good Doctor.

My custom H.S.T. figure!

I am a fan of Hunter S. Thompson. I'm a little weird about it. He shot himself four years ago today. I'm a little sad about it.

He stomped terra.

In honor of the Good Doctor, here is the long out of print audiobook for "Songs of the Doomed." Taken from the often bootlegged cassette tapes, it's three cds worth. Too much?

Songs
of the
Doomed

Look Away!

Too much goddamn Squeezinator. Sorry. I love it but it needs to stop now.

I AM THE SQUEEZELORD!!

GET SOME! I'LL SQUEEZE IT UP, BITCHES!

Fear me and my feats of repetitive hand strength! Also, fear my primitive, seizure-making, gif-creation powers! Hypnotically annoying... wait... annoyingly hypnotic... Fear! Also, Valentine's Day! Fear!

Back to Work.

Week number two of being back on the job. I'm good, feeling stronger with each passing day.

Tomorrow there will be tentative bicycling.

Please enjoy this picture of a deceased century plant.

Good night to all!

"Trouble in Mind..."

"...I’m blue. But I won’t be blue always,

I know the sun's gonna shine in my back door someday..."

You Can't Shit a Shitter.

Number four in a series regarding my involvment with the visual aspects of the audio endeavors of a few underground musical bands listed chronologically herein.

Negative Step on licky red wax. Accept no substitutes.

My friend August has been in many many bands, usually as the singer. Off the top of my head... let's see...Big Horny Hustler, Crown Roast, SSS, Filipino Wife, Society of Friends, Negative Step, part time live vocal duties in Iron Lung, Electric Eye, Lords of Light, Walls, Scilentist. Probably, I missed some. I'm also sure there have been many more since the last time he and I spoke.

At one point while August was still living in Austin, he was in this awesome throwback hardcore band called Negative Step. They had this raw, old-school thrash sound. So much fun to see live too, not as intense or precise as Society of Friends, but playful and snarky. They were a real joy to watch.

It came to pass that there was to be a split single between Negative Step, and Houston's finest, the Pretty Little Flowers. August had this idea about the cover. It was to have a snake on it. Not just any snake, but a very specific snake. It was the snake from the Gadsden Flag, don't ask me why, I don't know. We went around and around about it, and I drew some crazy snakes. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that we should just make a copy of the snake picture that he had.

Which is what we did for the cover. I traced the snake on a light box, and hand lettered the purposefully boring logo. For the inside, August said to "draw a grim reaper killing a punk rocker!" Ah, the easy part. This would also mark the last time that I would do a manual paste-up for anything, hooray!

As for the music, it fucking shreds. The Step side is fast, furious and frowny, with August's howling over the whole tinny mess. The Flowers side is more fully produced, brutal and quick. Even though I'm a little biased, I have to admit that I think the P.L.F. side wins in a very tight competition.

This is way out of print, but you can get this shit here, now! Yeah!

[{Negative Step-Pretty Little Flowers Split 7 Inch}]

Negative Step Side:

Core Memory

What You Pay For (by the F.U.s)
Respect (Redding)
Negative Step Theme
Dead in Two Capitols

Pretty Little Flowers Side

Indigenous Revolt
Embrace Your Failure
Nuclear Threat (by Violent Headache)
Apathetic Shithead

Holy Shit!

It's Friday, everyone. Be careful out there!

Frankenstein's Progress.

My busted chicken wing, now with more staples!

Fancy Gothbrace!

Just the Facts.

Here is the Buzzcrusher cover illustration, minus the paste-up. I like to share!

"Cut Off at Midnight"

Periodically, I produce pretty, putrescent pictures for the people. Come, gaze upon the shambling horror that is my art...

Cover number three by me!

My instructions for this project were something informal like, "I don't care dude, do whatever you like." Instructions like that give me pause, and I have to evaluate them carefully.

In this instance it worked out well, because the band really didn't care. Thankfully, they were totally pleased with the result. There have been other times where I had been told that I should "go wild" and then, when wildness happened, they got upset or were disappointed. That's why I like it better when there is some previously existing vision of how things should look or be done, a theme or an idea that I can work off of.

For example: "Draw a dude with a skull-head killing punk rockers." Done. What a clear vision. So easy! I'll even make the skull-head guy naked, with a tiny, flaccid penis, just to be funny.*

That's much better than leaving it up to me, having no interest in my development sketches or roughs, and then getting pissed off when I turn it in, because "Too many skulls." or "Too much... it's just too much." If you didn't want over the top yuck, why come to me?

I ramble... Back on topic, this single is pretty awesome. It's a little Poison Idea here, a little Discharge there, maybe a touch of Motörhead, kneaded and squeezed through a fine Texas Redneck strainer, and poured over ice to make a delicious punk-core hellbroth, fit for the whole family.

Besides the rock, the one other thing that makes this single near and dear to my heart, is that Buzzcrusher were made up primarily of bar staff... bartenders, barbacks and bouncers. Being a longtime bartender myself, it makes my heart fill up with precious, prideful blood to know that I had a hand in this.

Grab it up here.


*An actual poster design that was later made into a tshirt.