Plunger

It's raining right now, and I really don't feel like doing much other than sitting in my bed. I'll probably finish Fun Home after this (thanks, Dan) and then move on to reading I'm actually supposed to be doing.

The show went pretty well on Tuesday although we got shut down just before the end. We probably won't be doing many more noise shows, but hopefully the punx will keep going. Definitely looking forward to Walls' tour (Quincy Cage, November 14). I'm also already looking forward to Little Lungs and Closet Fairies at the Platonic Sleepover House on October 19 (not our show, but stoked nonetheless). I'm also excited about the next Libyans show in town (October 23). Aaron dropped off their new record at the station last night. I enjoy it of course, and the art is pretty sick- the cover has a screened acetate insert.

One of our turntables in the studio is broken right now, so last night/this morning's show was quite a change of pace. Most of my show is usually vinyl, but without two functioning turntables, I couldn't really do that, so I played almost everything on my computer. Without having to cue up a bunch of separate things, I could actually listen to what I was playing. I felt lazy, but it was kind of nice.

I had only listened to a couple times through before, but I really enjoy what I played off the new Grouper. I listen to it a lot more and always love it, but I was digging Plunger even way more than usual last night.



Plunger formed in 1993 in Crofton, Maryland (outside of Annapolis). They were gone within a couple years (played their last show in '96), but they managed to release a demo, a 7" EP, a couple splits (one with William Martyr 17, whom I also love), and contribute to a couple comps. After they broke up, Plunger's self-titled LP put together a recording session from 1995 and their final one from 1996. It was released in 1997 on Planaria.



Someone put together a solid tribute myspace page for them here. It has lots of cool fliers for shows & album art.

I guess they're pretty stereotypical of the '90s emo sound I always love. Both Moss Icon & Tsunami are listed as influences (I've been listening to both of these a lot lately. Especially, Moss Icon + screen printing = golden)... That Tsunami is listed is perhaps a sign that they can be quieter at times. Lots of variation in tone/intensity/speed though as you'd expect.

Also look for them on the We've Lost Beauty compilation, in memory of Christopher Horne of William Martyr 17 (also with Cap'n Jazz, Julia, Ordination of Aaron, and many more).

Plunger- self-titled
Planaria seems to have some left

September 26, 2008

Harvey Milk- Motown
Bolt Stein- Judas
Acid King- Electric Machine
Deformed Conscience- At a Loss
Balboa- Dixie Jam
---
Libyans- No Chances for an Orphan
Antichris and the Raped- Anneke
Bookburner- DEA
Human Mess- Uncaged Animal
Aspirin Feast- World of Shit
---
Best Friends Forever- My Head in Front of Your Head
The Casual Dots- Clocks
Better Looking Brother- Richie Sherwood
P.S. Eliot- Like How You Are
Turboslut- Emotion Sickness
---
Bitch Magnet- Navajo Ace
Admiral- Horns Lay Silent
Breakfast- Breakfast? Eat Rice
The Measure (SA)- Portland
Bipolar Bear- Cuzco
Circle Takes the Square- Same Shade As Concrete
---
Pocahaunted- Time Fist
Bellafea- Seasons
Deer Tick- Diamond Rings 2007
Baba Yaga- Sparrow
Barn Owl- Dirt Road Blues
---
Chugga Chugga- Xtian BFF
Teenage Cool Kids- Awkward Type of Girl
Kickball- Beard
Screaming Females- Henry's Embryo
Bridge and Tunnel- Rubrics
---
The Ergs!- 2nd Foundation
Glo-Worm- Travelogue
Fat Tulips- Nostalgia
Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano- Girl in the Sky
Grouper- Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping
High Places- Golden
---
A.N.S.- Propaganda Machine
Formaldehyde Junkies- NBSD
Infect- Sociedade Masculina
JFA- Beach Blanket Bongout
Ambassador 990- Nothing in Return
Dynamite Arrows- Blowin' It
---
Algernon Cadwallader- Some Kind of Cadwallader
Breathing Walker- Moth
Class of 84- Bent
Plunger- Swallowtale
Des Ark- Eloise
---
Foot Village- Narc Party (Let's Make It Fucked Up)
California Love- Legacy
Call the Cops- Easy to Break
Chronic Seizure- Ancient Wound
Concrete Facelift- I'm Not Done
---
Vomit Bomb- Profile Me
Discount- Half Fiction
Meneguar- We Own We Sell

Final line-up for Tuesday

This got kind of messy due to all the changes at the end.
Ryan from Dreamhouse added! Secret Abuse & Earth Crown will be playing together as Earth Abuse.
Be on time- we're starting close to 7.

Pink Razors, DST, Walls, etc.

New Pink Razors tracks are up on their myspace! Two so far ("Not the Wrong Son" and "Too Obvious"). I've only listened to them a few times so far, but the band continues to deliver (especially after quite a long break). These are their first recordings with Erin Tobey (a favorite of mine, mainly as part of Abe Froman but also through her solo stylings). "Not the Wrong Son" takes advantage of her presence in the band, juxtaposing male & female vox in a way that always pleases me. I think "Too Obvious" sounds more like their other releases, with Erin only in the chorus backing vocals. I'm not complaining about Jeff's usual singing. These tracks are hyping me up for their new album, Leave Alive, which comes out mid-October on Houseplant Records (Erin & Jeff's label). Jeff & Erin both moved to Bloomington, Indiana, which means my plans for Fest '09 might be foiled.

No albums to post for now... I've been listening to the new Shorebirds this week courtesy Roxana. More pop punk goodness, but maybe not quite the glory of their 7" (which is being reissued on No Idea).

I saw Daniel Striped Tiger again on Friday at a house in Somerville. Glad they're playing a lot recently. The basement was really small, and I was afraid the guy from the first band was going to hit his head on the ceiling. I think it was the Big Bucks, but I'm not entirely clear. They were pretty good, but stoned & sloppy. It was definitely way different than the show at the Middle East, if only because of the venue. I prefer the smaller atmosphere, but playing at a bigger venue does offer the advantages of better sound mixing, etc. I'm kind of pissed that I don't think I'll be able to see their next show because it's at the Church (21+). I also really want to see Young Widows.

I'm kind of sick right now and am hoping for a speedy recovery. Off to reading, but get ready to destroy yourself:


and don't forget: SECRET ABUSE + more on Tuesday. Scroll down for more information. Get in touch at girlyshtcambridge@gmail.com for directions/questions

September 19, 2008

Viva Knievel- Boy Poison
Archers of Loaf- Wrong
Abe Froman- What's Your New Address
Turboslut- Dry
American Cheeseburger- The Kid
---
Neurosis- Pain of Mind
Human Mess- Uncaged Animal
Ice Nine- Endangered
Elder- Golden Flower
Books Lie- Adobe
---
Chia Pet- Hey Baby
Des Ark- The Subtlieties of Chores & Unlocked Doors
Closet Fairies- Union Suit
Team Dresch- Hand Grenade
Bridge and Tunnel- Call to the Comptroller's Office
---
Frumpies- Malice and Discontent
Vivian Girls- I Can't Stay
Magic Johnson- A Ver Que
Sissies- Stand Up
Social Junk- Bog Blast
---
Life Crisis- Church State
Furnace- I Rest Easy, Your Ship Has Sailed
Brainworms- For Want Of
Death Squad- Summer of Arson
Kurt- Franklin
---
Pygmy Lush- Asphalt
William Martyr 17- File Thirteen
Rye Coalition- Cigarette for a Drag Queen
Blank Stare- Suicide
Off With Their Heads- 1612 Havenhurst
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...Who Calls So Loud- Resonant Grain Silo
Kilara- Wishing
Off Minor- Everything Explicit
Neanderthal- Mind Eraser
Anti You- Ask Me If I Give a Fuck
---
Battery- In Our Hands
Night of Pleasure- Hipster Downgrade
The Insurgent- Miles to Go
Flake- Deluca
Mr. Highway- Invisible Cricket
---
Pink Razors- The New Justin (I Wanna Be)
Heavens to Betsy- Axemen
The Fisticuffs Bluff
Meneguar- Let Us Decide

Finally Punk

This is a request, but I figured it was fitting for several reasons:
1. I had my Finally Punk shirt on earlier today.
2. They have a bunch of new shit coming out.
3. They're an awesome band, and I had intended to post this at some point anyway.



Finally Punk have been hyped a lot probably mostly because Tobi Vail said, "This is the band Bikini Kill was trying to inspire with all that riot grrl stuff. Four girls from Austin, TX playing their own style of punk that sound like equal parts Mika Miko, Lungleg and Meltdown. Hilarious, true and liberating. This is just as fresh-sounding as those Kleenex 7"s you are hunting for, and it's happening today!"
They also got a pretty stellar review from MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL.



Tobi doesn't do it, but I've seen others compare Finally Punk to Bikini Kill, pretty much just because they're a girl band. They may carry some of the themes of original riot grrrl bands (mostly the silliness) and draw inspiration from them, but that doesn't warrant the name-dropping. Tobi's got it right comparing them to more chaotic acts... I'd throw in Phantom Pregnancies too, and probably say they're closer to the Frumpies than to Bikini Kill.



Some of these are gone now, but they have a s/t CDLP (if seventeen & a half minutes counts as an LP), two seven inches (Primary Colors & s/t), and a live tape. I only have the tape & CD with me (media mail can be slow & some of my 7"s are in transit right now), but I'm pretty sure most the the tracks from the CD are on the self-titled 7". The CD & the self-titled 7" are now sold out (from the band although you might be able to hunt them down in a distro), but you can still get Primary Colors and the cassette.

I don't think they're still on hiatus now because they seem to have a West Coast tour coming up, but they were for a while (save the occassional SXSW performance and the like) because Elizabeth was (is?) in Providence for grad school and some one moved to California, where she joined up with some ladies of Mika Miko to form Finally Bomb Squad or Teenage Moms or whatever their name is now (they were always changing it for a while). They also seem to have a European tour planned for next summer.

Finally Punk's long list of upcoming releases includes a 7" called Hypertension on M'Lady's Records, a 10" & enhanced CD with new recordings on ABL Records, and another 7" on Germs of Youth for that Euro summer 2009 tour.

Finally Punk- self-titled
Buy their shit

Air this semester

I'll be on from 12:30 to 3 am eastern Thursday night/Friday morning, so check it out. I'm going to keep posting the playlists here but sans mp3 files for individual songs 'cause that just takes way too much time.

Brenda Lee

I shopped a class today called "I Like Ike But I Love Lucy: Women, Popular Culture, & the 1950s." There was a short survey with a question at the bottom about ideas for a final project. I of course thought about some awesome ladies of the '50s... perhaps more so venturing into the 1960s. I've been listening to a lot more '60s girl groups lately, but I still wish I were more well versed in that area.

When I was home for the first time over the summer, I bought a couple cheap Brenda Lee 7" on a lark. The A side of one is "Dum Dum," which I kept dragging the needle back to the beginning time after time. She does this thing where she drops down her voice in this ridiculous way. Kathleen Hanna tries describing it as a "sexy hiccup" in this video, but I think you really just have to listen to it to really understand.



She started out in the '50s (when she was only eleven), which is why I thought of her for that class, but she really hit it big in the sixties... she had more charted hits than any other woman. She went more country later on, but you can even hear that in earlier songs like "Jambalaya" (a Hank Williams song originally). This probably gives the best example of the hiccup Kathleen is talking about.

Brenda Lee- Greatest Hits

Inaugural girly shit show!

SECRET ABUSE (upcoming LP on not not fun)
EARTH CROWN (on night people records/arbor)
ZOMGRUL OCTIM
BOHOTHAHR (Harvard's only boys of noise)

September 23, 7 pm (early show!)
Adams K-Space (enter at Bow & Linden in Harvard Square)
email girlyshtcambridge@gmail for directions/with questions

Archers of Loaf

I love the '90s. I often long for them. A time when everything seemed simpler. Maybe not really, but certainly in the world of indie rock. Things didn't need to be so dressed up; they could just be what they were.

Clearly, the early/mid '90s were one of my favorite times for music... all my riot grrrls, indie poppers, and great emo. I just wish I had some sort of time portal because, as hip a five-year-old as I was, I some how didn't make it to any Tiger Trap shows. I also rediscovered my love for indie rock from the era this summer.

I was going through a particular phase with Archers of Loaf while in London, when a review of Oxford Collapse came up on Dusted:

"Oxford Collapse is a throwback – to a time when indie rock didn't involve harps and trumpets, to a time when indie rock performers were smart people but not necessarily very good musicians, to a time when you could write pop songs that people liked and yet not really have any idea, yourself, why they worked. Oxford Collapse doesn't sound like any one band in particular, but they do sound like the sort of band that might have been popular in the 1990s, only to disappear in the new millennium, as if the Y2K bug had snarfed them or something. Think Archers of Loaf, or Boyracer (who are actually still around), or Superchunk. You could go back further – to Husker Du, or Mission of Burma, or occasionally even the Clean – but you don't really have to. If you were in college radio in the 1990s, Oxford Collapse will be wholly familiar."

While I don't particularly care about Oxford Collapse, this pretty much summed up my thoughts. Indie rock could just be simple; it didn't have to glam itself up. It was straight forward but great.



Archers of Loaf fit perfectly into this category. On Icky Mettle, they churn out some serious hits. They have the perfect balance of wit & angst and what Alexandra called "semi-ironic sincere longing." "Wrong" is probably my favorite example. It and this whole album are definitely '90s indie classics.



Out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Archers of Loaf formed in 1991 and released Icky Mettle as their first full length in 1994 on Alias. They released a few more albums before calling it quits in 1998. Alias also released a live album in 2000.

Archers of Loaf- Icky Mettle

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I saw Daniel Striped Tiger last night at the Middle East (upstairs). Luckily they were on first and started promptly, so I could attend to my busy social life afterwards. Solid set- their first all together since April. Free DJ tickets are the best. Hopefully going to see the New Monuments, Heathen Shame, & others at Nom D'Artiste tonight.

I kind of wanted my first post back at school to be something ripped from vinyl, but I haven't had the time yet to figure out how to do that (luckily the regular preamp part functions though). Moving up to the sixth floor with no elevator is not the most enjoyable thing.

I'll be back on air (that's why this blog started although it kind of took on a life of its own) some time next week.

Teenbeat 100

I ventured to the Valley a couple days ago to get some supplies for tie dye. While I used to have to drive there every day of high school, I tend to avoid it now. As Johnny Drama recommends on Entourage, it's wise to avoid the Valley during the summer. I had to stop by Pagliacci’s for some of my favorite frozen yogurt since I was in the area.




Tie dye was accompanied Mario Kart- highly recommended on wii.



I had another flashback while going a bunch of old CDs in preparation for my trip to Amoeba… I sold a bunch back to finance my record purchases today. Mostly lots of indie rock from high school, but I did hang on to a couple. One of my favorites is Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. I still love this album and could listen to it over & over. My biggest Liz phase was junior year of high school when I drove two sophomore boys to school. I would make them listen to “Fuck and Run” over and over at very high volumes. They loved me, needless to say.

Anyway, one of my favorite finds at Amoeba today was the Teenbeat 100 7". It was put out by the Washington, DC label in conjunction with its eighth anniversary celebrations in 1993 (March 18 to be specific). Ten songs, one minute each, ten minutes total.



Super '90s indie rockers featured include Tsunami, Unrest, Eggs, & Bratmobile.



TeenBeat was started in 1985 by Mark Robinson (of Unrest). Its last release was in 2005.

Other favorite Amoeba finds include the Simple Machines Inclined Plane comp (with Rodan, Tsunami, Unrest, & Superchunk), Glo-Worm & Belmondo 7"s for 50 cents each, Tsunami's Deep End, Meneguar's I Was Born at Night, and Shark by My Sexual Dad (third release on Not Not Fun).

I'm headed back to school on Sunday and will be moving in next week, so I'm not sure how much/if I'll get around to posting. If anyone has any tips for shipping back a large quantity of records, give a shout.

Teenbeat 100