More soon... we swearz.

The Nuclear Beauty Parlor 7" (1983)

After one more unplanned hiatus, I'm back with another installment of Controversial Trousers.  Sorry for the lapse.  I promise you, it WILL happen again... and probably again.

What does 1950's Doo-Wop and the end of the world by nuclear annihilation have in common?

Everything.

Well... that is of course if you're talking about the apocalyptically-arty, radiantly-retro kitsch of San Francisco's Nuclear Beauty Parlor.  This record, self-released on NBP Records in 1983, stands as a testament to the fact that political sing-a-long songs aren't just reserved for folk singers and hardcore bands(my definition of 'singing' is pretty expansive).

Rather than I try to explain the events that led up to the creation of this record, I'll send you to the website of one of NBP's founding members Marissa LaMagna where you'll find a short history of the Nuclear Beauty Parlor, links to articles and record reviews, and a couple interesting photographs.  I don't want you to think I'm shirking my researching duties.  It's just that it's probably better to get the information straight from the horse's mouth-so to speak-rather than get my boiled down interpretation of articles that I was going to direct you to anyway.

In my further research I wasn't really able to come up with anything too in depth (or anything at all, really) about the whereabouts of the other participants.  I tried to uncover any information I possibly could about performer, lyricist and-from what I can tell-central NBP member Vicki Krohn.  I only found one mention of that name in a Google search that I'm confident is the same Vicki Krohn.  It appears in an article about NBP cover artist, famed comic book author and Church of the SubGenius co-founder Paul Mavrides and his battle for reclassification of comic art under the California sales tax code.  I'm going to stop myself here and not get too off topic.  Paul Mavrides' life and career is too much to cover for this little blog.

Probably the most famous (er... most recognizable) name associated with the NBP is Re-Styles of The Tubes.  She performs the lead vocal track on the song The Nuclear Beauty Parlor with perfect AM radio precision. 

Some the other non-NBP performers on the record include Claytoven Richardson, Larry Batiste, Stacy Baird, and Cookie Marenco. All of which seem to be professional musicians or work in the music industry in some function.  Neil Kaku, who played bass and violin on Awake was a member of Club Foot Orchestra and is mentioned here and here about his 1985-1986 improvisational performance entitled How They Make Hawaiian Music.  (Note the mention of Jay Cloidt and Marina LaPalme/IXNA in the first of those two links.)  Bob Firpo, who's credited with Crashes on Awake may be a special effects artist but I cannot confirm that.

Anyway, if anyone has any further information about other members of the NBP and their whereabouts/connections or any other related information, please don't hesitate to comment or contact.

Zip includes 256kbs rip from original vinyl and scans sleeve and labels.

Enjoy.

Cold Dogs In The Courtyard-Video Is Not Art 7" (1982)

I’ll admit that I happen to have a superman-strength tolerance for cheese ball New Wave. Well, that’s a bit misleading, I guess. A KBD Punk purist would call it tolerance, but rather I look at it as a positive…more a measurement of an enjoyment level. I’m super duper “pro-dork” and the geekier the better when it comes to New Wave, I say! (I’m using New Wave as the generic, catch all term here to generalize things.) Female vocals always get priority over male leads in my book. Crude early 80’s synth sounds, tinny/mechanical beats, and 8-bit samplers send me over the top. My enjoyment level takes a sharp turn downward when crummy disco style bass lines are throbbing through a whole song, and the "90% of the time awful" Power Pop/New Wave hybrid bands sound like crappy 80’s bar rock to these ears.

This record is a perfect example of something that will make most folks turn up their noses. I’d think that after initial release sales, this one was destined for budget bin lingering. That’s OK, leave stuff like this for me! With a fairly plain/unimaginative sleeve, minimal credits/info and no insert…the clues leave much to be desired. Usually a scan of a thank you list will at least leave hints if this is bad, small press AOR bar rock or at least has potential. This once drops no such hints. It could just as easily be a toss away Pig Bag style post-punk-funk piece o’ crud as it could be that lost Synth-Punk gem virtually nobody’s heard of. This was one of those total crap shoots. Sure, it wasn’t the gnarly Synth-Punk holy grail you always hope for, but I was pleased with my dollar purchase nonetheless.

They obviously took their name from mid 60’s Charles Bukowski book (See here for more info) and that’s about all I can tell you at this point. A web search only turns up three playlists from freeform/community radio stations WFMU (NJ), KDHX (St. Louis) and KDVS (Davis, CA). Every other hit was in reference to the Bukowski book that I could find. There was no band info at Discogs or the other usual starting points. The only info I could find was on a search for Jim Allington who played drums on the a-side of the single. I’m guessing he was more of a hired hand or friend rather than a core member…but really, who knows?. He’s shown as playing percussion on Larry Young’s Fuel-Spaceball LP, which is a Jazz album from 1976. He’s also listed as one of many people who play on the album Lights, Traps & Exploding Wires by avant garde guitarist Naux. The Naux album was released in 1982 on the Noise New York label and also has guitar genius Robert Quine’s involvement along with a large cast of NYC noise and art crowd types. (The Naux LP was posted this past February on the Fantod Under Glass blog if interested: direct link to Naux post )

OK, that’s I suppose that’s enough text on something that I really don’t know much about. The A-side is definitely the “hit” here. One of the other elements that draws me to obscure New Wave singles is subject matter that dates the band almost instantly. Sure, that’s not hard to find, but this one would certainly clue you in to the era even if there wasn’t a date on the back of the sleeve. Know something more about them? Please leave a comment and let us know!

Cold Dogs in the Courtyard-7” (NYC)

(1982-Orgonomic Functionalism Records)

Side A: Video Is Not Art

Side B: Nagisa Oshima

Ripped at 320kps with scans of both sides of the sleeve

MP3s Are Not Art

Precision Bearings - Roller Funk-Roller Bliss-Don't Fall Down 7" (1981)

If you haven't yet already, scroll down and read Menlo's excellent post on the Good Samaritans. It will provide some background information about the people involved with Precision Bearings and prevent me from having to reiterate a lot of the things he's already written.

As a follow-up to the Good Samaritans record, I have for you the one-and-only 7" by San Francisco's Precision Bearings, released on Fowl Records in 1981.  This is Fowl Records first release and probably the label's hardest record to pin-down musically.

As with most things on this blog, the information I have is skeletal, at best.  Most of the information I do have about this record comes from an interview of Precision Bearings/Black Humor member George Miller from the fanzine Z Gun, issue #1.  (The interview was originally posted on the now-defunct Dragnet Records website for those of you who may have read it there and didn't know it was available again.)  You can order Z Gun from S-S Records.

From what I understand, like Black Humor, Precision Bearings was more of a loose art collective than an actual band.  Besides George Miller, members included: Dan Houser - co-founder of Fowl Records, member of Black Humor and Good Samaritans; Mark Brendt - another BH contributor and GS member;  Patty Costa - same as above; and Quentin Llorente - also same as above.  Tom Mallon, who produced the GS record, is credited as recording and mixing the PB record (with the exception of Don't Fall Down which was mixed by Mike Fox at Subterranean) and designing the graphics.  Not to editorialize too much but it seems they really 'kept it in the family,' so to speak.

As eluded to above, this record is one bizarre musical exploration.  The record starts out with the aptly titled Roller Funk-a funky, progressive, upbeat, harp-laden instrumental number.  Although I can't tell if the music meant to be taken as ironic, I know the inspiration for the music is not.  According to the interview, Dan Houser was a huge Roller Derby fan.  In fact, at least the way George Miller describes it, Dan's primary mode of transportation around San Francisco was his roller skates.  As a side note, the Black Humor song To Stupid To Die is about Dan's parrot who he would sometimes let ride around on his shoulder when he'd go out skating.  On one unfortunate day, the parrot was blown off of Dan's shoulder and into the street where it got run over by a car.  In the end, the parrot lived.  I wonder if the parrot was the inspiration for the name Fowl Records.  I digress...

The next track entitled Roller Bliss shifts gears into industrial/ambient territory.  According to the sleeve this is essentially a solo effort by George, with him playing both keyboard and guitar in... well... blissful, shimmering, flange-washed repetition.  Very pleasing and-clocking in at only about 1:15-very to the point.

The final track entitled Don't Fall Down is the most like you'd expect from this collective: creepy vocals by Patty Costa chanting the track's title over spooky, sci-fi sounds and what could loosely be considered a beat(?).  Very much in a similar vein to the material on the b-side of the BH LP or to IXNA's Ixna Portal Exo track (see other post).  Probably my favorite out of the bunch.

George Miller currently lives in Berlin and performs/records under the name Das Verkannte Modul.  Check out his myspace page for more information.

According to his discogs.com entry, Dan Houser wrote some music featured in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game.  When I poked around on the web to try and confirm this, I found contradicting information.  It seems that whoever added that piece of information to the discogs entry got this Dan Houser confused with the British video game producer and Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser.

As far as other relevant information goes, I found this Black Humor page, and their myspace page both which appear to be run by George.    

As always, if you can shed some more light on this record, the people involved or have any other relevant information, please share.

Zip includes 320kbs rip from the original vinyl and high quality scans of the packaging.

Enjoy.

Good Samaritans-Dotted Line 7" (1980)

I’ve only been to San Francisco a couple times. The first time was for a business trip that only allowed very minimal time to visit any record stores. I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of amazing used records I found at Amoeba. I barely managed to struggle through the airport with an additional 40-50lbs of vinyl weight. A couple years later, I was able to get back there with my wife on our own vacation time. On that trip, we ventured into one smaller store on Haight that looked promising, but after some browsing; we had come up empty handed. (I think it was on the way to get some lunch, so hunger and the thought of cheap burritos probably stifled the record search a little!) Pretty much everything in the “Punk” section was either laughably over priced or common/unwanted titles that had obviously been sitting there for years. I was excited to find a very clean copy of Algebra Suicide’s Alpha Cue LP; which had been on my want list for a couple years at that point, but nothing else of interest reared its head. On the way to checkout, I stopped to flip through a small pile of 7”s on the counter. Dusty price tags and curled sleeve tops had me assume there was nothing to be found. I decided to buy the copy of Leather Nun’s Subterranean Records single for 50 cents and to take a chance on one by a local band called The Good Samaritans. That half dollar chance leads us to my second post on Controversial Trousers…

I had previously only found a couple of online mentions of the band or record, but I pieced that together to figure out where the Good Samaritans fit into the scheme of things. The first one was found was on a list of recording credits for Tom Mallon-McCorgray/Grifter. (Tom's website) He is/was a long time San Francisco recording studio owner/engineer who also performed in The American Music Club and a later line up of The Toiling Midgets. His website has a discography of records that he recorded or produced. Some of the credits have other names by them. I took this to mean other people who have recorded in his studio, but he did not personally engineer and/or produce. The Good Samaritans record notes: Engineered - Produced by Quentin Llorente (Direct Link) A search on Discogs shows Quentin as being a member of Precision Bearings who had a 7” released by San Francisco’s Fowl Records in 1981. He is credited with guitar/vocals on the infamous Black Humor LP ; also released by Fowl. This info had me do a quick search on the other members and I discovered that Good Samaritans band members Patty Costa, Mark Berndt and Dan Houser were all involved with both Precision Bearings and Black Humor. Dan Houser; their guitarist, produced the Urban Assault EP and two of the Good Samaritans folks are credited as producing the The Fuck Ups-FU82 EP. I looked a little closer and noticed Tom Mallon engineered or produced all of the Fowl releases. So, it seems that the Good Samaritans were the step before Fowl Records, and the members seem to link all of those bands and releases together.

Needless to say, this chance record for half a buck not only turned out to fill in an interesting history blank, but the single is really good, too. Their sound most certainly fits into the SF art-punk/wave bands of the day. It avoids the “commercial ambition” pit falls many bands and over zealous managers fell into time and time again in those days. Two songs and one’s an instrumental. The A side is a swirling blast with some great falsetto vocals and well handled sax. The B side is a fine instrumental that chugs along at a good pace, but I still think vocals would have worked well on it.

If you know of any compilation appearances or other related info, please don’t forget to comment! Now if only someone would do something about that Precision Bearings 7"...

Good Samaritans-7"
1980-self released

Side A: Dotted Line
Side B: Nightmares Theme

Ripped at 320kps with scans of the sleeve

Dotted Link

IXNA - s/t 7" EP (1981)

Up next we have the fabulously obscure and underrated EP by San Francisco's IXNA, released in 1981 on Dumb Records, cat.# DUMB #PJ101.  IXNA was a duo of performer and vocalist Marina LaPalma and multi-instrumentalist Jay Cloidt.

I knew nothing about this record when I purchased it besides the fact it was on Dumb, home of Novak, The Survivors and Bob.  That alone was enough for me to take a chance on the purchase.  I was sufficiently rewarded.

Sound-wise, it's a great mix of minimal electronics and and DIY-strangeness with plenty of tape loops, bizarro sounds and even some scissors thrown in on Ixna Portal Exo for good measure.  Also, I believe this is the only record I've ever heard with a song sung in Esperanto.  Any comparisons I attempt to make will be extremely loose at best.  I would think that if you like Sis Q Lint (which I'll hopefully cover in a future post), Blah Blah Blah, The Stupid Set or possibly even Crawling With Tarts, you'll find plenty of things to like in this record.  I will say, the rhythm of Mi Ne Parolas reminds me a little of Buy MCCB by Geoff Leigh's Black Sheep...but that might be a bit of a stretch.  Anyway, listen for yourself and think up your own terrible, off-base comparisons.

I did a little poking around on the web and found some additional information.  (1) In a 1987 issue of How(ever) Magazine, Marina LaPalma wrote about the background of IXNA, the group's inspiration and her other projects.  Read the web-archive version here.  (2) She recorded a track for Bad Alchemy Nr 5, a German zine and tape compilation released in 1986.  Additional information can be found about this at discogs and at a discography page of Guy Klucevsek, LaPalma's collaborator on the track.  (3)  Jay Cloidt is currently a composer, musician and recording engineer and still works out of the San Francisco area.  More information about him can be found at discogs, of course, and at his website.

If anyone has any additional info on this record, the members or anything remotely related, please don't hesitate to share.

Zip includes 320kbs rip from the original vinyl and high quality scans of ALL the packaging, including the 7"x7" decal.

Enjoy.

Morris and the Minors-State The Obvious 7"ep (1979)

So, here’s my debut post on Controversial Trousers. I had a hard time deciding what to start with, so I just chose one of the newest additions to the piles since it was fresh in my mind. I came across this EP by a UK D.I.Y. band named after the Morris Minor automobile a short while ago at a record show. It was buried deep in the boxes of a dealer of mainly 70’s rock. Lotso’ import singles had me double check for something just like this. It was the only thing that turned up, but it was certainly worth the effort.

Morris and the Minors-State the Obvious 7”ep

1979-Square Records

According to the first edition of the Volume guide, Morris and the Minors turned into Madness. If you’ve ever paged through the first book Volume published, you’ll know it’s riddled with mistakes. I’m guessing Madness used the same name or similar in an early incarnation or something along those lines. Mario Panciera’s 45 Revolutions book lists this as their only vinyl release and quotes a few period reviews that range from brilliant to crud. I think it’s brilliant, personally.

It’s definitely more on the same brain wave as the Television Personalities then the art pop noise of The Digital Dinosaurs or Instant Automatons. It also has its goofy charms like the use of kazoo on two of the songs. A drum machine is a great addition to “Can’t Smoke A Fag in the Rain”. Little factual information to clue us in on the identities of the members is standard for D.I.Y. records and this one’s no exception. The inside of the sleeve has five pictures of everyday looking street shots with a few of them showing three guys in non descript dark trousers and jackets. The two pictures where you can see all or part of a face or two have the eyes scribbled out with a pen. The line up is: Guitar-Morris, Singing-Morris, Drum-Morris. Contact address is Charlton, England….and that’s about it.

Side A:

Emily

Falling Asleep

Side B:

Scared

Can’t Smoke A Fag in the Rain

Ripped at 320kps with scans of both sides of the sleeve.

Get minor with Morris