HEX - Demo - Tape - 2007

Today's post is brought to you by Erik Ruin, who previously contributed a top ten list to the blog a few years ago. I think this tape is incredible, but wanted a different perspective on it, so I asked Erik for his take. Many, many thanks to the members of HEX for sending over the digital files when my machinery was having issues. 

   Heavy music on non-traditional instruments has a seriously mixed track record. It can tend toward simple novelty- (think APOCALYPTICA or even worse) but it can also lay bare nuanced dynamics and complex compositional structures that are often obscured to those- like me- who have trouble looking beyond the standard genre tropes (wailing guitars,machismo, long hair, etc.). It’s into this latter camp I’d put viola/tuba/drums trio HEX, alongside luminaries like Portland’s DISEMBALLERINA and Providence’s BELLOWS.

  According to violist Jackie Beckey- “Andie, Aaron and I were all hanging out around this time and interested in creating heavy music on nontraditional instruments. I'd been experimenting with this for awhile and was hoping to start a project with someone who shared this vision. Aaron--a fellow classically trained orchy dork punk on tuba--was the obvious choice for a bandmate. We were both interested in creating heavy music influenced by non-western music, such as African drumming. Aaron and I were also into geeking out about poly-rhythms, exploring tonality by amplifying acoustic instruments and using instruments with incredible amounts of sustain to play heavy music.”

   The first and last songs of this tape begin with lengthy tuba drones rich in texture and atmosphere. From there it gets more rocking, with Jackie alternating between heavily reverbed pizzicato plucking (kind of a trademark of hers) and sawing riffs. At times, it reminds me of stoner rock transcendalists like SLEEP or even 70’s Swedes PARSON SOUND (a direction Jackie and Andie would take further with their project MYRRH) but it also breaks out into galloping sections that are not too dissimilar to their Minneapolis contemporaries COUNTY Z (ed. note: there is so much CZ on this blog and you should definitely seek it out) and ROTTEN LIVING. The cover sports paper-cut artwork by “Dragon-face” Dan Nelson, virtually de rigeurin the scene at the time (see also DOGS, THIEVES, DANGER BOY & THE ROAD VULTURES, etcetcetc….)

   HEX was relatively short-lived, beginning and ending in 2007. As far as I know, this is their only recording. They did go on a two-month tour, which Jackie remembers as “the best tour I've ever been on. Luke Holden toured with us the entire way and performed at every show as the hilarious "Body McFartin" human fart machine opening act. Because we kind of didn't fit into any specific musical genre, we played a lot of weird shows--opened up for a D-beat band in Dallas, performed with the art-punk band TEENAGE WAISTBAND in Providence, and performing during an intermission for a psychedelic play in Kansas City.”

    They so impressed my friend Dan Schleifer at their Providence show that he formed his own tuba-drone metal band, the aforementioned BELLOWS (who also ruled and are also sadly broken up)

    All the members of HEX have gone on to do a bunch of stuff– Jackie formed the more melodic yet still driving BRUTE HEART and is now mainly focused on soundtrack work. Tuba player Aaron moved to Pittsburgh where he’s playing in two great bands- tuba with brassy LUNGS FACE FEET  and bass with heavy weirdos COME HOLY SPIRIT(alongside Gina Favano of the much-missed JOHN DENVER'S AIRPLANE). Andie went on to play drums in the brilliant MOTHER OF FIRE, then in a variety of scrappy punk bands and is a brilliant painter.

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CRIMENY - Demo - Tape - 2002

   Here's a band I know absolutely nothing about! Friend of the blog and lovable freak-about-town, Josh sent this one over to Remote Outposts HQ (which, for the record, is neither an imposing edifice nor an underground lair, but is simply my tape-strewn bedroom) to share with the world-at-large...or small. Josh said he loooooved this band when they were around and this tape had been lost in the shuffle for a few years. For a recent (?) birthday, his friend Ben bestowed this tape unto Josh and he felt as if the chakras had been aligned once more. I sent out a smoke signal (okay, maybe it was a text) to my friend Morgan to try and track down info on these guys, since both he and the band are SF natives and he had a bit to say....(I'm sure Morgan didn't intend for this email to be posted as-is. I was gonna edit it, but how do you edit brilliant terms like "ass-helmet"?). Here he is...

Morgan, Rio (from Mission Mini-Comics)and members of the band at Morgan's grandma's trailer park in Tigard, OR.

  

They were a relatively short-lived band: ~late 2001-2002.
 Zane Groshelle: guitar and vocals 
Tyson Vogel: bass and vocals 
Angus Haller: drums 

   The tape was recorded in Joe Demaree's garage on 7th Street in San Jose in May 2002, in preparation for CRIMENY/FUCK YEA! AVOCADO/LOS RABBIS tour. Undeniably influenced by HICKEY and some of the darker old mission sounds ala the likes of LOST GOAT, FAGGZ, TOWEL, etc. The bulk of their shows were at houses, on the street, or east bay warehouses now long lost to the blight of sweeping ass-helmet gentrification. 

 Assorted trivia: Zane also played in FUCK YEA! AVOCADO. Soon after CRIMENY's demise, he moved to Santa Cruz and started a great two piece band called BROWN RECLUSE, whom I'm pretty sure never recorded anything. Tyson went on to tour the world with TWO GALLANTS (which he's still doing), as well as assorted side projects (PEOPLEPEOPLE is one with Antonio and Andrew from OVENS/TRAINWRECK RIDERS)-- He also does a solo project called DEVOTIONALS. Angus was the original drummer of THE JOCKS (my first band; this may be useless information-- he only played our first two shows), and went on to play all sorts of bizarre music, but often was just known to 'jam out' with random garage lurkers throughout the Outer Mission and Bernal. I hope he's still playing music, cause he's a great drummer and a solid weirdo.

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MARISSA MAGIC - "Infinity Bums" - Tape - 2012

   Last night, I went to see DavEnd's amazing musical, Fabulous Artistic Guys Get Overtly Traumatized Sometimes and it was outstanding. It took me away from my mostly straight, mostly hetero, somewhat confined punk world and set me adrift in the genderqueer, trans, performance art fabulousness of DavEnd's mind for a couple of short hours. It was smart, funny, thoughtful and poignant. I would go see it again right now if someone handed me a ticket.
   It made me feel really good, but I was soon back out on the streets of SF, among the Saturday night crowds of affluent white people, party dudes and drunk assholes. I rode my bike back to my neighborhood, thinking about how everyday it looks more and more like a place that doesn't make me happy, which is a sharp contrast from how I used to feel. There's more people who look like me around: white, kind of vaguely punk the way most young people do now, riding a nice bike, drinking fancy drinks. It makes people that look like me feel safe. Like they're in a safe place. It makes me feel completely and utterly insane. I don't have enough middle fingers for the hate that flows through me on a daily basis. I don't feel this hate just for the damage that tech people are doing to this community. I feel it for a myriad of reasons, like for the continuation of full time war, the shitty writing in the SF Chronicle, men who protest at abortion clinics, people who hate others for being LGBTQ and organized religion. I wish that I could wrap all of these things into one big bundle, stuff it into a large pinata and destroy it with a bat.
   Anyway, I was thinking about all of this stuff as I biked back to my neighborhood and continued to drive myself into an unreasonable frenzy. An old friend had invited me to the queer goth show at a bar, but I soon found myself alone, hiding in the back of a taqueria, listening to cumbia and reading a book about Mormonism. I politely declined the invitation and just went home. In my room ,I wanted to listen to something that was as fucked up as I felt. I looked through the hardcore tapes, the snarling punk anthems and the noisy dirges, but when my fingers floated to this tape, I knew my search was over.
   Marissa Magic and I don't know each other too well, but I feel like we might share some of the same thoughts about the state of the world. This tape is cathartic, uncomfortable and noisy as fuck. I could name some comparisons but this isn't really my world of punk. In different ways, it makes me think about RUSSIAN TSARLAG and the Sonic Death tape, but only vaguely. There are some wild stabs at drums, a soothing blanket of feedback and layered screams that started to pull me from this awful mood. I dreamed of walking into the karaoke bar where 20-somethings had been post-ironically singing Kenny Loggins songs and just blasting this through their PA. In the right kind of setting, someone would want to beat you up for listening to this kind of music and in my mind, that is how I still want punk/noise to be. I don't want punk to sell cars. I don't want punk to reunite to play shitty fests. I want punk to always come out of weird, dirty places and remain challenging, like this.

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Find more by Marissa here

That's all pretty rambly, but you know what I'm saying, right?

Mormonism is some weird shit.

VISITOR - "III" - Tape - 2012

   LOOK, IT'S MUSIC!! I know I have been pummeling you all with top ten lists, but as I stated before, I like lists a lot and there's still a few more to come (if people get them to me in time). For now, let's get back to the music. Longtime readers may remember that I posted an earlier VISITOR tape way back in 2011 that had little-to-no info. Other readers may think "I already knew about that band and didn't need your paltry download, fool." Either way, here is another mysterious tape by this down-tuned Minneapolis doom outfit, which was released by Lighten Up Sounds in late 2012. Two drummers and one guitarist play two 15 minute songs that build up from ambient sounds into massive, swelling riffs. No vocals. Perfect for working on stuff in your room, staring into the abyss from a cliff, getting sucked into a vortex, dying a slow death or, uh, getting stoned, I guess.
   Graham plays the guitar, also plays in BLOODWALL and he will cut a mono lathe of your band (or four LP drone project) over at 2208 Records. Jefferson plays the drums and also does stuff with 3 MOONS and THE SPACECHRISTS. Andie plays the other drums. He also spends time in MOTHER OF FIRE, which is a band that I like a whole lot. I would go so far to say that I am obsessed with them at the moment. Enjoy this one.

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   If you would like to get the actual source recordings rather than my beautiful tape-hissy download, you can head over to Lighten Up's Bandcamp page. The tape quickly went out of print so don't try to order it.

  Also, just to let you know, Mediafire is a slowly sinking ship. I would say that if you ever thought about downloading anything on this site, now is the time to do it before all of the links disappear. I moved over to Zippyshare, which is currently confusing and frustrating. I might change to a different file sharing service again. Or maybe I'll just stop doing this altogether.

SWORD OF THE ANCIENT - "Head Of The Tide" - Tape - 2007

   Many of the sounds I put on here are harsh, abrasive, fucked up, angry and defiant...because I like that kind of music. I also like sounds that are beautiful, indescribable, meditative, experimental and noisy. That is where bands like SWORD OF THE ANCIENT come in. But first I have to ask myself, "Are there other bands like SWORD OF THE ANCIENT?" Some of you may remember when I posted their first tape over a year ago. This tape finds the band stripped of one member, moved over 15 states away from their former home of New Orleans, a lot more subdued and a little more lush, but still strange, hypnotic and captivating. Some of the moments on here sound like they could have come straight out of the brains that wrote the first RESIDENTS record. In addition to changing their locale from a harsh, violent city to a beautifully calm seaside village (which sounds evident in their sound), it also sounds like the band switched from coffee to drinking loads of tea between their two tapes. It works. I think this tape sounds best driving across eastern Montana at 4am when everyone else in the car (van, truck, etc) is asleep or at home alone in the dark, but you can do whatever you want. 

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Updated 2013

PASSIVE AGGRESSOR - Demo - Tape - 2009

   My buddy, Meredith has always been a big supporter of DIY punk bands. She has been known to drag me up front at shows, physically force me to dance and talk me into buying tapes from struggling bands on tour. It's not uncommon for her to yell (sometimes louder than the band's between song feedback), "YES! I LOVE IT! MAKE IT HAPPEN MORE!!!" The weird part to me, is that for all of her charm, natural charisma and penchant for being a lovable loudmouth, Meredith had never really been in any bands, barring a one-off project doing some X and STOOGES songs. She is a natural frontperson and has a way of captivating a room when she is in it.
   Of course I was happy when she told me that she was singing in this band called PASSIVE AGGRESSOR in Brooklyn and I was even happier when I saw them. They turn from slow, dirgy, JESUS LIZARD-worship to late-era BLACK FLAG to full-on hardcore attacks with Meredith's fierce, raspy voice guiding the way. Their songs wind around like a snake sliding through the grass that is coiling up for an attack. My favorite of the four tracks, "Nightmares" sounds like waking up in a cold sweat at 4 am and being short of breath. All 4 songs are great though.
   I was sad, but understanding when Meredith left the band after putting out their split 7" with PRSMS. The band forged ahead as a three-piece with their guitarist, Glenn taking on most of the vocal duties. I'm sure it was great, but I can't tell you for sure since I didn't listen to them again. No offense to the guys in the band, but I think Meredith is an outstanding frontperson and I couldn't imagine the band without her. So, I just let them slip out of my life. At least I have this demo to remind me of how great they were.
  The guys from PASSIVE AGGRESSOR started a new band called ACID PROBLEM that seems to be picking up where PA left off. Punk is calling you, Meredith and it wants you to be in another band.

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LINK REUPPED MARCH 2021