The Fas'ners/The Wurst Live @ Sarasota Succulent Society split CS Kraus The Facts CS
"LET THEM EAT INTERNET, Pt 5: Impressions of Post-Communist Beijing, December '07" by Elvis deMorrow (article at nodoctors.com)
Slayer Seasons in the Abyss
These Are Powers Terrific Seasons
Thelonious Monk Best of... CD
Siloah Sukram Gurk CD
Panzer Talk s/t 12-inch
Kurt Vile Constant Hitmaker CD
Metal Rouge Winter Calling CDR
Fossils CDR
Lorna Doom The Diabolical EP CD
Steve Hauschildt The Summit CDR
Kurt Vile Constant Hitmaker CD
Charalambides Likeness

First record of the day (7:40AM) is a split tape from the west coast of Florida documenting a couple bands in and around the Sarasota scene, the inaugural release from the label Roofless. The Fas'ners is "a one man synthesizer dynamo from Tampa, Florida," but he doesn't play any kind of death-drone or space-rock, opting instead for bold horror/classical arpeggios spat out in a basement/punk style. Pretty nice and not-normal stuff, and cool to hear the wasted youth chatting, cheering, and making comments like "Death metal" and "Where are my smokes?" On the flip are The Wurst, from Sarasota, a boy/girl synth/guitar duo that wear lots of masks and, well, I'll quote the letter that came with the tape: "Allie, the guitarist, played inside of her pet dog's cage which was on top of a table in the middle of the room. She was wearing a gorilla mask and had a strobe light going. Jimmy, on synth, taped flowers to his face and at the end of their set (about 6 minutes) began screaming at and shaking the cage, as if he were beckoning forth a mutant creation." Maybe, just maybe, Jack Smith would've been into it... sounds pretty awesome for Sarasota, or America for that matter, but devoid of visuals, the 5-minute set on here doesn't really distinguish itself from the post-noise live-mess churn-and-burn masses (although here's a snippet of 'em on YouTube that has a cool electro-void shake to it).... Back over to the Dreamtime Taped Sound label for another tape, this one from Kraus, called The Facts. Not too easy to figure out any info on this one, but apparently this is a member of The Futurians, that NZ band that released the great disc Spock Ritual in I think 2006. And hey, this tape is pretty great too. Varied instrumental tracks that get into particularly crude and spacey post-SCG ethno-punk, floating electronics, and I'm not even sure what else but I know I liked it. He has a website here where you can get more info and maybe download some tracks. While listening to these two records I read the rousing conclusion to Elvis deMorrow's 5-part travelogue on his trip to Beijing (posted on 2/01/08 at nodoctors.com, scroll down, or go here for all five parts) - check out the insights, even if you don't have a Kraus tape to listen to while doing it. Suave author's photo too! Speaking of Beijing, I am loving the These Are Powers song "Little Sisters of Beijing" so much right now. Incredible rock'n'roll singing by Anna Barie and that 'prepared' bassline by Pat Noecker is a hook that can pound in my head all day long. "Makes Visible" is also a great song. Excellent album and it comes in one of the best gatefolds I've seen in a very long time... go see them on tour right now, dates here.... Panzer Talk, huh? This came out of nowhere with not a whole lot of promise (it seemed like another one of those 'college pop'/'career rock' bands that has constantly sent Blastitude stuff ever since our address was for some reason listed in the Billboard Magazine directory a few years ago, I never asked them to) but at least it came on vinyl and the colorful formal/abstract peacock cover art looked nice so I gave it a spin... and it does sound pretty lite and college-y but I swear there is something else here, something kind of forlorn and cracked about this stuff and the twin guitars sound pretty good playing around each other... I go to their MySpace and see that they're from Youngstown, Ohio, which is bleaksville, which might explain the tone of this stuff... and they do have "panzer" in their name, and that refers to like Nazis and war, which are also bleak.... more on this band later? And hey, that's not a typo, I really am listening to the Kurt Vile CD a lot....