Released April 22, 1997
Technical Credits Unknown, Likely Varied
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I found a small used record and used/new CD store about fifteen miles away and had a very strange experience there, locating both upstate New York's Immolation's third album and some Split Enz albums I was looking for on CD. I found some Throbbing Gristle material, too, which is only appropriate for this particular entry--well, parts of it. I couldn't really make heads or tails of the place, though I've intended to go back a few times (never managing). When I started my current job just a bit further out, though, someone there mentioned a local record store, which piqued my interest immediately. I swung by after work that day, only to find it was closed on Mondays, deciding to come back the next. That next day, I wandered in and found it comfortably cozy and close, as you'd expect from a fledgling (only a few months old!) record store. However, its walls were papered with posters and fliers for bands I knew well--but knew well from my forays into music in the last few odd years more than anything else. Snapcase. Gluecifer. The Murder City Devils. The Supersuckers. Turbonegro. Mudhoney. All the sorts of things I'd tried (sometimes successfully) to push on a very picky person I know.
When I started flipping through the records there, I found I was in a store I could definitely see myself returning to. I brought a stack of 7 12"s up to the counter and was told I had really good taste. I was buying Prince, Black Flag, Alice Donut, The Church, Leon Russell, and The Fall albums--and this one. I later went back for a single volume that was hanging out there, Vol. 6 in the "Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets" series, too. But that set--including my favourite Church album, Heyday--basically informed me this was a worthwhile stop. And, along the same lines, it was confirming that this set included Jawbox's "Low Strung" that sealed that purchase and left me shrugging and stacking everything else in (Heyday was a no-brainer, mind you, and was the "gateway" to accepting that I would purchase more that day).
I knew the series, vaguely, because tracks from it will often appear on compilations now, such as the Sub Pop reissue of Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff, or, most pertinently, Jawbox's My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidents. My habit of relentlessly parsing out the bonus tracks on CD releases was fruitful, as it often is: it informed me both of the series' existence, and its particular approach to art, meaning I recognized them as soon as I saw them--and it was that that sealed the store as worth digging in for me. Many bands have appeared there, the ones familiar to me including the above, Rocket from the Crypt, the Melvins, Helmet, Lubricated Goat, Tar (who did a split with Jawbox, which I own), Superchunk, and the Jesus Lizard. The last is a stretch insofar as familiarity, but those were the names I knew--in most cases, bands I owned full-fledged releases from (Lubricated Goat quite by--hilarious--accident).
If any of those names mean anything to you, then this is probably an interesting-sounding compilation. If they don't, this is probably a scary-sounding compilation. And that's probably fair--while Superchunk and Jawbox are by no means known for anything ultra-noisy, abrasive, raucous or otherwise "difficult" and largely any bands "known" for that aren't known in the first place, unless you're asking people who like that kind of thing (or they know the more popular and largely more accessible works of those groups--like the Butthole Surfers' "Pepper", for instance). But this isn't a noise compilation--at least, not completely. It's a mix of alternative, noisy, post-, and various other kinds of independent music, though it largely eschews the "indie" variety, if you'll allow that rather expansively-narrowed definition.¹
Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volume Eight
(Superchunk, Guzzard, Jawbox, godheadSilo) - Originally released in April, 1994
Despite living in Durham and working in Chapel Hill for the majority of my adult life (no longer, in case the "there are no record stores here" wasn't a tip-off), I never really listened to Superchunk. I kind of filed them with Guided by Voices and Pavement and a bunch of other bands I heard spoken of in awed tones with respect to indie rock in the 1990s. I tried a few out about ten years ago and nothing caught my ears, but the newfound love for Pavement in the past some-odd years and growing love for GBV has led me to soften my disinterests and try things. I picked up a few Superchunk singles in my last wanderings through used CDs, and liked what I heard. "Basement Life" is a bit more buzz-y than the singles ("Hello Hawk" and "Hyper Enough") I've picked up, which didn't bother me and seemed quite fitting for a release on a label that has "NOISE" built into their logo. It's a stomping roll through a rumble-bass-focused track of fuzzy, catchy fun. What strains it has of indie rock--the only instance on this compilation of compilations--is the full-on Pavement kind (I'm betting also the Superchunk kind) that still carries the genetic trace of punk in its semi-sneering vocals and snarky tone--less "Revolution", more "whatever".
Guzzard apparently didn't last much past this compilation's original release (indeed, not long enough to see the release of the three volumes combined), but sounds more like you might expect from a label associating itself with noise, though it's still pretty accessible. "Bites" grinds and buzzes a little more, and has a forward-leaning aggressive tone to it than "Basement Life" by far. Nice, strong, clear drumming that wasn't always present or as well-produced in hardcore acts appears and backs a strained yell of a voice, as well as very clear hardcore origins for the group. It's a nice, tight, buzzsaw follow up to Superchunk.
Jawbox's contribution is a nice bridge between the work on their first two full-lengths (Grippe and Novelty) and the works for which they'd become best known and loved (For Your Own Special Sweetheart and Jawbox). Original drummer Adam Wade had left to join Shudder to Think (labelmates of Jawbox on Dischord--interestingly, both being the Dischord bands to hit major labels in '94) and now the great Zach Barocas had joined and added a ton of spice to the group with his unique drumming style. He's not quite in the front seat he'd be in the albums that would follow this recording, but his "voice" is clearly present. J. Robbins' voice is "punkier" than it would be on most of those next two albums (with the possible exception of Sweetheart opener "FF=66"). It's a smart contribution to the release, as it, too, is like the noisier edge of their range.
godheadSilo were a peculiar group, being one of few to work with the "bass and drums" set-up, lacking a guitar, keys, or other 'focal" instrument. The track sounds like a strange amalgamation of the low-end droning of bands like SunnO))) and some of the (knowingly) sloppier garage rock of the last two decades. It's the first clear sign of "noise" on the album, though it's a clearly defined song, built on a(n admittedly repetitive) bass riff and simple drumming, with vocals shredded by distortion themselves. It's a catchy number despite that--maybe the years of metal and rapidly increasing years of noise rock have inured me to those things and let me hear the underlying guts of a song, I'm not sure. Still, it works well, and feels like a nice comfortable medium stance between "noise" and the kinds of genres that didn't quite cross that line, but sat snugly against it.
Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volume Nine
(The Boredoms, Supernova, Chokebore, Love 666, Bailter Space) - Originally released (later) in 1994
Spacial concerns obviously pushed the fifth track on this one onto the second side, but I can't complain too much, as it's still 4 of these put together, and each was a wild mix of artists, anyway.
I can't say I've heard of a single one of these bands--maybe Chokebore, but that could just be the fact that my research around this has taught me that they, like many of the others, were Amphetamine Reptile "natives", and would release their singles and albums through AmRep, too. Indeed, they did a split release with Guzzard and Today Is the Day the same year as these first two Dope-Guns. Still, otherwise? Completely new.
The Boredoms' appearance with "Pukuri" immediately gave me a better impression of what AmRep was interested in including. Kazoo-like sounds and a tromping beat bring to mind the kinds of weird melodies and instrumentation that would sometimes meander through early Zappa/Mothers records (particularly "Mothers" ones), especially the brief "interludes" that appear between songs. It devolves into screaming, dissonant and semi-random guitar distortion and even more distorted recordings of drums--but seems to inevitably circle back to the same marching melody that it started with in spite of that. The drumming gets "tribalistic" at some point, and sort of takes on a kind of focus, though the track wanders through a variety of "movements" and sounds, wah-wahed guitar, strange wails--this is not the kind of track most people throw on for a good time, but it's appreciably intentional, despite its chaos. I'm gaining a bit of a taste for this kind of controlled insanity, I have to say, though it still comes out a bit weird sandwiched in with "normal" songs, even if from punk-related bands.
"Sugar Coated Stucco"'s intro makes it sound, at first, like it's going to be even weirder than "Pukuri", but breaks off into extra-nasal pop punk of the kind I've grown to like a lot (think Screeching Weasel, not Blink 182, if that helps at all--though I realize it probably won't for most I know to read this). The vocals are so nasal, though, that they almost disappear into themselves. It's catchy like all that stuff should be, though, simple and built on guitars and drums that are perfunctory--they're there to build the beat and melody and nothing more, really, and that's what they should do here. Interestingly, they were responsible for "Chewbacca", the song in Clerks (which isn't nasal at all--go figure). Hayden Thais ended up joining Man or Astro-man? though--and later Servotron, who appear on volume 11 here.
While their name implies something aggressive, speedy, and thought-to-be headache inducing, or perhaps the inappropriately aggressive name for a pop punk band (that sound just doesn't seem to work as intimidating, despite the occasional name implying it ought), Chokebore are more in the Mudhoney vein than anything else--sludgy, just-above-plodding and fuzzy as hell, with a vocal totally uninterested in sounding "pretty", but staying firmly where it is placed, it might even bring to mind that of Alice Donut's Tom Antona, too.² "Brittle and Depressing" doesn't sound much like either musically, though--it's strong, and has a nicely cranked out, unobtrusive lead guitar.
Love 666 contribute "You Sold Me Out #2"--it's a great little track, that seems to somehow wind its way between hints of shoegaze conventions and sludge-rock ones. I'm not sure what, exactly, that adds it up to--but it's interesting. Drums thump and guitars buzz loosely, while the vocals are clean, clear, near-spoken and very upfront. There's a clear chorus, where the voices reach a kind of weird, amateur harmony that is endearing and lovely in its strange little way. The way the thumpy fuzz of guitar hammers down after it is really great, though--confusing what the track actually is without ever losing sight of itself in the process.
When Bailter Space's "Glimmer Dot" drops, it's totally unexpected. Unabashed shoegaze (!), it warbles along in the shoegaze vein of My Bloody Valentine, washes of guitar and production that seems to blur everything into a single stream of sound, despite the still recognizable variation in instruments. Vocals are in the half-lidded, drugged-out style that marks most shoegaze, and the whole track is great, but wildly unexpected. It's entirely possible this track would be worth the whole compilation to someone who couldn't stand the rest, if they liked shoegaze enough.
Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volume Ten
(Steel Pole Bath Tub, Chrome Cranks, Brainiac, Today Is the Day) - Originally released (later) in 1994
I guess these records were coming fast and thick in '94, which makes sense as the whole series of 11 came out between '91 and '94, but, dang, that's three, and I know 11 came out years later...I figured they were spaced out more than that.
The name Steel Pole Bath Tub rings only the faintest of bells--nothing helpful, but something that insists I've heard the name before in the context of a band. I'm not sure how, why, or what context it came in, but I don't think I would've gone with their actual sound if I was asked point blank before I'd heard this what they sound like. "A Washed Out Monkey Star Halo" at least is a track I'd be inclined to call instrumental even if it isn't--a nice fat bassline opens the track and carries it a long under semi-unnerving guitars and over a steady drumbeat. Vocals are seeming babbles, distorted and distant, acting as a layer of sound more than a perfectly clear expression of thoughts as words. It sounds a bit like a story, but it's hard to peel out of the music, seemingly on purpose.
The Chrome Cranks ride a rather rockabilly beat in "Dead Man's Suit", with the scattered slide of many of the more twisted modern interpretations of that genre. The vocals are like the more frantic and unhinged Nick Cave vocals--but with layered echo and even more punk influence. It's like a rockabilly band through a carnival mirror and the spinning room of chemical influence. For all that it does seem ramshackle, the guitar finally takes off on a solo that is sharp and pointed in its quick run, deflating the song for a moment, before it takes off again. A fun track, and rather in contrast to what has come before on both of the previous records.
Brainiac has the frenetic drumming of a punk band, but the proximity-distorted (is he eating the microphone, perhaps?) vocals and the elliptical swing of the guitars makes the placement of "Cookie Doesn't Sing" next to "Dead Man's Suit" terribly appropriate. It's a wonderfully weird track, in more the Birthday Party (I don't know why Nick Cave's on the brain right now) than the Butthole Surfers sense. It's not an effect I haven't heard before, but it's exactly the right one in context, like a spitting flurry, slurred into a deceptively steady swing.
It's no surprise that Mastodon's Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher floated through Today Is the Day at some point, even if "Execution Style" isn't an example of their time there. I'm reminded most immediately of the peculiar choices of time signature and stylistic variation in bands like Coalesce and Botch--the most aggressive, abrasive, and heavy ends of hardcore, but filtered through tight musicanship. The guitar here is beautiful in its knowingly unsteady vibrations--I cannot think of what it reminds me of (despite hearing it for the third time now) but it's a sound I know, not derivative enough to feel obvious, though. It's an odd track here, but aren't they all?
Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volume Eleven
(Rocket from the Crypt, Calvin Krime, Gaunt, Servotron) - Originally released in 1997
Man, where did time go?
Now this band, while I'm still only just getting a good feel for them, is the other that I felt assured in purchasing this record for--Rocket from the Crypt. I picked up Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime on recommendation a few years back, and quite liked it. DLJ's John Reis would of course become "Speedo" of Rocket from the Crypt (as well as plain ol' John Reis in Hot Snakes) and there we have the connection for me. "Tiger Mask" is a fantastic example of RFTC for sure, the semi-dramatic rumbling rock and roll that defines much of their work, under Reis's affectedly rocking vocals, which turns more melodic and shaky for that great and catchy chorus. It's probably the most fun song on this whole record--and I mean 8-11, not just 11.
Calvin Krime is apparently the band Har Mar Superstar was in before being Har Mar, and it's actually a kind of cool song they contributed--"Fight Song". It's a series of layered "conflicting" tracks: multiple vocalists and a stop-start drumbeat, guitars gluing the two together. It's actually very tight and solidly played and interesting. Unexpected and interesting, but fitting with the RFTC track, stylistically, in many ways.
Perhaps AmRep had abandoned a lot of their noisier strains by 1997--I don't know. Gaunt continues the heavily rock/punk feeling of both RFTC and Calvin Krime, with the rapid patter of pop-punk drumming but a rather windmill-chord style rocking guitar. Vocals cross somewhere between the sneer of pop-punk and the sandpaper edging of a vocalist like RFTC's Reis. The guitar is great, its lead loose and bendy, never showy, just pointy enough to make itself known. There's a brief interlude for some cool tom drumming, and then a perfect ending.
Servotron may be the most interesting find, band-wise--even if not necessarily sound-wise--for me. One of those groups (actually like Supernova above) that decided to go whole-hog, naming themselves all with robot names and dressing up in costumes to emphasize their chosen subject matter and mythology, they sound like they listened to a lot of the B-52s, down to the choked-down male-female alternating vocals, but with hints of rather more Devo-style weirdness slathered over the whole thing. There's a deliberate monotone to their vocals that is even given the "robo-voice" treatment here and there. Of course, the whole song is about robotic genocide of humans (so long as robots remain as limited as they do, we can find this weird and amusing instead of terrifying--but really weird for such devoted lyrics writing, I'd say anyway). The song actually ends up breaking down into something smoother and less stilted toward the end, with a rather warm and soft synth coating it, their vocals finally reaching the title: "Initiate! The matrix of perfection!" repeated until the song ends in a cleverly placed sudden stop.
When you find someone talking about the Dope-Guns series, they usually speak rather highly of it--and now I can see why. I'm going to have to resist the temptation to explore a number of these bands in greater depth now, but I doubt that resistance will last long. It's a great mix of styles, never seeming like it wants anything more than to showcase interesting sounds from interesting bands--not force you to buy other records (indeed, these tracks are exclusive to the series, in most if not all cases, barring modern compilations and reissues), nor to give you that record to make you seem "cool" by annoying the hell out of anyone else with weird noises. The weird noises, instead, seem like just another iteration of interesting sounds.
Give this thing a spin, actually. You'll probably find something you like in here somewhere!
- Next Up: Guest Writers!
¹There are at least three largely useless genres I know of--not useless for content, but useless as labels, they've been stretched and abused so significantly that little if any clear thread is left to connect them. "Indie"/"indie rock" is one of those. It means way too many things, yet there's a vague, nebulous idea there, of some kind. And it's not on this record. Mostly.
²I've been accused of writing things that require too much music knowledge to make sense to the unfamiliar on my last blog, but it's hard to think of appropriate voices. Mudhoney was relatively popular during the early grunge surge, though never as popular as they were hoped/expected to be. Alice Donut have never left the underground, not really, so I'm sorry for that one. But it's what I hear! And if you know those bands, cool--I'm talking to the lots-of-people-I-know don't, and operating on statistical probabilities. Besides, it's a footnote.
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