pinball demo

            I’m fairly thin on what I know about the band Pinball.  I saw them play the Rainbow Cave at least once, I’m sure I saw them a few more times but I’m not remembering the wheres and whens. 

            I liked em to the limited extent that I remember em.  I think Drew Livingood had this demo because I remember hearing it and liking it all those years ago.  They weren’t mind blowing but it was good to see the scene expanding to include different subsets of expression coming to the fore.  They were on the poppy end of things and that made em stick out from the furious, or at the very least desperate hardcore bands that were filling in the ranks in 93-95.  They looked super young and seemed to be learning as they went.  So it was poppy but sloppy.  Which had a charm.

            Those years were a rejuvenation for the next generation of Vegas bands who took the steering wheel and sent us even deeper into the desert.  Rainbow Cave as it was called (it was right off Rainbow Avenue) was the most popular desert spot for shows at that time.  

            I’ll explain again for the unfamiliar readers, y’see there were no all ages venues in Las Vegas back then.  So we’d set up a generator at these spots in the desert and have shows out in the middle of nowhere.   The sound was never super great but you couldn’t beat the atmosphere.  In retrospect I’d say it took real musicianship to play out in the sticks with just a generator, a shitty PA, and a few small lamps designating the “stage area.” Today there are legions of bands who get monitor mixes, Guitar Center, drink tickets, and … well, walls surrounding them.  It seems like it’s too easy to be in a band today.  Maybe that’s part of why there’s so many shitty bands out there today. 

            Later on the Pabco and Lossee road spots would become popular again but the Caves had more drama and more shit to fuck with plus it was even more dangerous than the other spots which gave it character.  It was on the West side which sucked but whatcha gonna do?  The cave also destroyed a lot of vehicles from people trying to make their way up to the entrance of the cave by taking the shorter jagged path east of the cave as opposed to going around the long way west of the big hill.  Never a smart move but every show someone would attempt it. Music aside I think watching people fuck up their cars was the real entertainment at the Rainbow Cave.

            The main thing I’m remembering from seeing Pinball at the cave was the gangly dude wearing a dress who stood up and started dancing halfway through their set.  He was obviously a part of their “gang” and was familiar with their music.  Maybe that’s the other thing that I’m remembering about them and that time period.  The disparate nature of the scene and really the uneven nature of all “punk scenes.” 

            I remember that “scene” of young bands from 94-97 being cozy and inviting especially compared to the horrible implosion of the hardcore scene years earlier due to nazi/anti-nazi violence that would make going to shows a gamble.  (Will I get knifed at the show tonight?)  I never saw any major fights during that window of Vegas history which was cool but the scene was far from united.  Thinking anything as ill defined and cumbersome as punk rock could induce unity of any stripe is the dream world utopian flip side to the satanic fantasy that Metal perpetuates.  As goofball as that metal mythology presents itself it to be it never strayed from it’s one dimensional roots and in fact perpetuated more unity among it’s audience than punk ever would. 

            I’m still working on my evaluation of punk and metal as social constructs so forgive me if I’m sounding goofy or smart aleclike.  I’m breaking this shit down too seriously because I still love the music and I enjoy the redundancy.  I’m also wondering if we can learn from our mistakes.  I know I’m sounding really insipid with these observations.  Making comparisons that are dated and maybe irrelevant today with the lines blurring and the true natures of both subjective genres coming in to question.   I can’t help it because I enjoy thinking about it.  I still like and respect the music and maybe you’ll agree they’re both maligned as true art forms.  But maybe the fact that they’re not seen as art is what’s made the music so valuable and meaningful?  Both types of these subterranean pop cultures never got caught up in artistic flights of fancy because most participants and fans never thought it was worth pondering.  So why not look even deeper and take all the magic away?

            As pop culture entities they are of the moment and now that moment is 20-30-40 years later.  I think it’s worth investigating and I don’t give a shit what you think.  I have to wonder if it’s still evolving.  Plus it’s hilarious to know there will be serious cultural studies about these scum bag modes of expression when we’re long gone and hardcore/punk/metal/etc. will finally be seen as art.  That’s if the society doesn’t collapse and we all revert to barbarians.  Maybe it will take a collapse before it will finally be seen as art?  That only makes sense.

            My point and academic boner here is in regards to the character flaw endemic to the nebulous “punk scene.”  And I guess it’s because as a more intellectual “movement” I tend to expect more from punk and therefore I’m more disappointed when it doesn’t pan out.  Metal never makes those claims and yet the polished nature of the musicianship brings another level of irony in that it has more gloss and ultimately more nuance to make it appear more artistic. 

            The punk scene propels itself forward as a collection of cliques.  Sometimes united sometimes fighting against itself.  And admittedly, against it’s better nature, it tends to be a collection of clichés.  It’s these cliques that are the strength and weakness of the genre.  It’s unstable and the best of it should always be changing and pushing forward therefore as an experiment, and as a potential powder keg, it can never have the bucks and perhaps the balls behind it that Metal does to make it more understandable to a mass audience.  Because of it’s low budget nature the underground is always something you find out about if you’re in the know.  As a result it’s got an elitist vibe built in to it’s very nature that for good or bad infuses the character.  Some of it is self conscious grand standing because the “punk band” can never be huge in the public eye.  As a result only the cool kids know about the bands.  It’s a self esteem device that makes punk seem a thousand times cooler than it really is/was.  The audience is a part of the underground and that’s where it festers/ages the “little secret” that is so valuable to the scene.  This elitism rears it’s head when the favorite “underground” band crosses the tipping point and is suddenly accepted outside the boundary of where the band first began.  Then you can hear “sellout” on the lips of the betrayed fan who were there when it first started.  Something you’d never hear from a Metal audience. 

            Metal has no sell out language in it’s vocabulary.  Because it has no pretentions about seeing the performers as anything but rock stars.  Whereas one of punk’s firmly held tenets, if such a thing really exists, is the concept of destroying the rock star by tearing down the wall of audience/performer.  Maybe punk even tries it’s hand at destroying rock and roll itself?  I can’t theorize too much on the agenda of punk rock.  It’s too broad in it’s scope.  And ultimately maybe it shouldn’t have too much of an agenda?  The big agenda eventually lead to fascism in the LVHC scene in the late 80’s.  Hardcore destroyed itself when it took itself too seriously.  I can’t speak to other scenes but I’m convinced nazism was a national obsession that eventually creamed the hopes that hardcore could mean much of anything outside being a goofy albeit violent and passionate explosion of creativity that left a  lot of casualties.  Um.  Yeah a trend.   

            And how is this relevant to us now?  Hardcore is history.  Metal somehow survives.  And I don’t want to breakdown metal into it’s divisions (hair bands/death/black/crossover)  and speak to them all.  The fact remains the metal audience has always been united.  For what?  Who gives a shit?  Beer.  Drugs.  Pussy.  Satan.  Basic stuff.  It’s not intellectual.  It’s not punk.  And that’s part of where punk can never find it’s unity.  It’s too wrapped up in details.  And too wrapped up in being cool while acting like it’s not acting cool. 

            And it’s the clique.  It’s the secret.  It’s the start of the hipsterization of all culture.  It started in punk.  And it makes the whole world cool.  And if I’m being honest with myself and my writing I have to share my own elitist feelings to deflate my ego a little and show just how punk I really am.  It pisses me the fuck off.  The self conscious tick of knowing that I was there.  And now everyone’s there.  It’s a part of the culture.  And perhaps there is no counterculture anymore?  It makes me wretch to say from my standpoint, being in my late 30’s watching the nobodies of the world get tattoos, wear their punk fuck t-shirts, piercing their fucking checks.  When I stood up and did that as a teenager I was threatened with physical violence.  The act of doing anything of that sort was a threat.  It’s too easy to be different now.  I was different before you were!  Petty?  Yep.  Spiteful to the next generation?  Check.  Convinced I know the truth and everyone else is full of shit?  Yeah Yeah.  I’m sounding conservative.  I’m sounding like I know it all.  Nothing is more pathetic than an aging hipster.  Believe it or not this analysis can get even more juvenile if I let myself go which is why I’m dropping it here.  And I wonder why these things can’t be taken seriously as art.  Not that I give two shits about art.  Or punk for that matter.  What’s worse than hating punk for not being able to change the world?  Going to a Metal show and hearing that racist, sexist, fucktard of a community try to have an actual conversation between bands.  Maybe it’s time to put all my hope back into hiphop?  Again.  

    

            What does all this have to do with Pinball.  Very little.  And I don’t mean to paint them with the “stuck up punker” brush.  I’m just using them as a springboard for another stagedive/nosedive into the abyss that is my ego.  What could be more punk or metal than that?  Plus it’s one of the only things I remember about them.  Hearing some elitist douche from my specific scene tell me how stuck up they were for not trying to get closer to his clique.  I can feel my PHD in Punk/Metal studies becoming a reality already.  And I ain’t paying a god damn thing for it you higher education motherfuckers! 

            I’m not trying to single out Pinball by any stretch.  I never talked to em so I don’t even know their story.  They played a few shows with the other bands and then they sauntered off retaining their own identity when I think about it.  Good for them.  But maybe bad for the rest of us because we didn’t get to see em play very often.  

            I started writing this crap weeks before I finally got the demo in the mail.  As mentioned they came across as sloppy/poppy.  Later on they got to be tighter and they later changed the name to the Grrr Meyows.  They weren’t as good as Pinball from my recollection.  But maybe I just thought that because we didn’t hang out?

            I saw Steely Dan play a few weeks ago and it got me to thinking a tiny bit about the audio fidelity of demos I’ve done so far.  The sound quality is mostly awful but I maintain it’s mostly because the source tapes are shitty cassette dubs that might’ve been listened to exclusively in a sun baked car stereo back in the day.  Sometimes those cars got wrecked.   So it sounds like shit.  But what kind of shit?  I took the mids out a tiny bit and beefed up the highs and lows in the mix.  It’s still lo-fi crap.  Which makes it sound pretty great for what it is.  The beginning of the tape has the first few songs starting out way overblown and then immediately compressed.  It’s awful.  Or awfully good.  Depends on your aesthetics fucko.

            What is it?  Sugary sweet candy of a sleazy variety.  Sleazy insomuch that they're sounding really bubblegum but talking about gettin some in almost every song which I totally respect.  That backdrop of sleez is surrounded by innocence that's pretty hard to resist.  The first song is about playing Pacman at the Chuck E Cheese and that's just adorable.  It's not the standard pop punk crap that was vomited all over the late 90's "punk" style nor is it powerpop.  I'll stick with my gut reaction and call it sleazy bubblegum pop for lack of more telling adjectives or more divisive genre classifications.

       I love the simplicity of the whole thing though.  Lot’s of naïve songs that come off simple, direct, and it might make you want to masterbate.  There’s catchy pop moments and some influences might seem apparent.  I hear the Misfits a tad but maybe that’s just me?  It's inventive and rough.  But yeah it doesn't stray far from what you've heard before.  Maybe that makes it even more valuable?  I’m pleased to see none of the songs goes much over the one minute mark.  Which makes this a keeper.  Not something I’ll listen to forever but you might go for it.  Still I think I’ll be listening to Eric B and Rakim tonight after this. 

            Special thanks to the cute girl who sent this to me in the mail.  She wishes to remain anonymous.

Download this pinball demo below

1. pacman

2.  i wanna take out sally too

3.  9-volt

4.  pinkeye

5.  ask her friends

6.  c'mon and dance the hootchie-coo

7.  there goes that girl

8.  i don't wanna be with you

9.  teenage pornstar

NOTBAD Film Series

            Nevadans Organized To Better Address Diversity (NOTBAD) was the ridiculous name we came up with for the nonprofit that was gonna be a big part of our getting a Low Power FM Radio license from the FCC in the mid 90’s.  It was a goofy acronym that reflected some of our disillusionment and mistrust about how things were going with that process.  After a year of meetings, debates, rallies, and benefit shows we made a lot of noise in the community and raised enough money to start the non-profit but the odds of Free Radio Las Vegas happening became slim over time with the lack of real money being the main issue as it always is in this country. 

            Eventually the idea of a radio station came to a grinding halt and Free Radio Las Vegas became NOTBAD.  As corny as the name sounds it made us a legit cog in the system which gave us a little momentum to continue doing shit for the community, and for kicks.  The name also came to represent our trickster subversive nature and the fundamental reasoning behind FRLV.  It's hard to believe that for all the media outlets there are in Las Vegas there just aren't enough real community voices being heard.  Particularly at that time since there was no cable/community access television in Las Vegas and KUNV had recently changed it’s format silencing a huge portion of the youth voice.  We felt like we were being forced to be an audience to messages that never came close to representing our lives and in the interim we were never given access to the stage.  

            Through a stroke of luck NOTBAD was able to partner with the Las Vegas- Clark County Library District to host an ongoing film series.  This became the main push for NOTBAD and it had some fire behind it with added financial support from the Nevada Arts Council.

            In the beginning I was in charge of programming and so I made it a priority to include the most outlandish controversial films I could find.  But I also wanted to expose Vegas to great works that Vegas residents didn't know about.  This was a direct inspiration from the role KUNV had played in educating me about musical culture when KUNV was at it’s peak in diversity.  I tried to pass that inspiration on in the form of programming good films which were deserving of attention.

            This post spotlights the flyers I made for the series from 2000-2002 because I think we made a positive impact on the community we made some serious statements that I think are worth sharing.  Plus the films are worth checking out.

            I tried to keep the advertising informative and slightly informal as you can see.  Looking back I think some of the writing is just awful on these flyers.  Especially the one for the Kids Are All Right.  It’s embarrassing how bad the text on that one came out.    

        Each month I struggled and juggled to find new themes and pair up films to produce a cohesive program.  It wasn’t always spot on but it was good considering the limited amount of research materials I had and the limitations of our budget.
        At the time the library district had a blanket licensing agreement which allowed us to show any movie we wanted so long as we didn't charge admission and the film was made available for check out through the library.   This was an incredible rare opportunity.  The library still has an ongoing film series but over time they've been forced to narrow the parameters of what can be screened to be within the legal guidelines of motion picture presentation and copyright law.  We were lucky to take full advantage of this window to show some amazing films which are rarely screened anywhere in the world let alone the city of Las Vegas.     

             I always hoped that our series would push the library in the direction of acquiring more significant films for the collection.  These "off the radar" films are still an important part of the collection but for a number of years the library made more of a priority of obtaining multiple copies of first run hollywood films which made the library almost seem like a glorified Blockbuster video.  Now that the library has a new executive director let's hope they start stocking more intelligent fare.

            I wasn’t always a fan of all these films but I respected the work that we presented.  An example I give is the film Fando and Lis by Alehandro Jodorowsky.  To this day I will admit that I don’t exactly like this film.  It’s ugly and incredibly dark.  But I respect the film.  Fando and Lis was only the second film we showed at the very beginning of the series!  We had over 100 people in attendance when we started the film and over half the audience walked out.  I think it’s a true measure of how powerful the art is if it can induce that kind of a reaction.  Even if it's a negative reaction.  

      The films shown above in the series "The Glory of War... The Horror of War" were perhaps our greatest achievement in blatant protest.  These films were shown a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq.  Come and See is an incredible film.

            I've almost completely stopped watching movies all together.  I find I just don’t have the time or I’m not willing to make time unless someone gives me a recommendation.  Here’s a few films I’d recommend watching if you got the time.  

          Enough praise and thanks cannot be heaped onto Kristy Price, Suzanne Scott, the Las Vegas- Clark County Library District, and the Nevada Arts Council for supporting this program and understanding it's value to the Las Vegas community.

Doom Snake Cult

     I’ve been too harsh on Doom Snake Cult in the past.  They were a good band- wait you mean they’re back together?  Wow.  That’s fuckin rad.  No sarcasm implied.  Those dudes deserve any recognition they get and it looks like people are taking notice. 

    I've never been sure of which genre these guys fall into.  It’s Metal.  It’s heavy.  It’s got weird groovy breakdowns which are Sabbathesque in delivery.  They’re striving for a heavy psychedelic vibe and it’s freaking me out.  In all honesty it’s not my thing but I hung out with the singer Ace a few times years after DSC were over and done. He was a lot of fun.  Except when he drunkenly smashed the window to my shitty apartment on Linn lane.  Or was it guitarist Jeff Schwob who done that?    

    They were at their peak during a transitional time in the Vegas underground.  There weren't many other bands gigging around that time in Vegas who I knew about.  Although I should probably mention that the Wholes were also somewhat active around that time.  During those ramshackle years, roughly 90-92, the Vegas underground seemed rarely linked to the outside music world.  I don’t recall too many touring bands who came through town during those years.  The Elks Lodge seemed to still be a venue on occasion but I mostly remember house parties.  I suppose the Huntridge was on the radar at that time but for some reason I didn’t go to many shows there.  I liked it better as a movie theatre.   

    First time I saw Doom Snake Cult was also the first time I ever took what someone told me was Ecstacy.  I don’t know what it was but I shouldn’t have got drunk before it kicked in.  It seemed to fall flat on me.  The drugs I mean.  In any event I didn’t pay attention to Doom Snake Cult although onstage they had one of those trippy carnival wiggling lights you get for popping the balloons with darts on the midway like you’ll see in this video.  I was fucked up at that show but not in a good way. 

     The second time I saw Doom Snake Cult is a complicated story.  Again I got really stoned but had no money for beer.   That night DSC had girls dancing onstage during their set.  One of the girls was really eyeballing me.  The song ended and the girl who’d been flirting with me asks out loud who has a beer while she’s staring straight at me.  At that exact moment the guy next to me, who I didn’t know, puts his full beer down on the stage and goes to tie his shoe.  I impulsively, and stupidly, grab the guy's beer and hand it to the girl at which point the drummer gets pissed off and starts yelling at me as he comes from behind the drum set screaming that this was his girlfriend and blah blah blah, meanwhile the guy who’s beer I stole gets up and finds himself in the altercation, also my brother and all my friends are behind me yelling and screaming as well!  Heavy scene but it just fizzled out and I think Doom Snake Cult even started playing again after a few minutes time.  I didn’t talk to the dancing girl after all that but I remember she kept the beer.  I'd like to take the time now to apologize to that guy whose beer got stolen.  Wherever you may be.  Again, I wasn’t paying attention to DSC as they performed onstage.

     Uh, let’s see, there had to have been a third time I saw them.  I could swear I took mushrooms and saw them.  Maybe not.   Over beers Ace once told me that Doom Snake Cult played a show with White Zombie out at the West Charleston ditch well before White Zombie became WHITE ZOMBIE.  Only a dozen or so people were in attendance from what he said.  Apparently WZ and their roadies were freaking out by the dust being kicked up around their speakers.  I don’t know any details.  If you were there tell me what you saw.  That W. Charleston spot was a weird one.  But which of these desert party spots was normal?

     Doom Snake Cult were an interesting twist on the Doom Metal genre.  A nebulous sounding name for a genre if you ask me.  I used to think of them as Stoner Rock but that might be a misnomer as well since Stoner rock would  become a genre that would later explode for a few seconds in the late 90’s and then slowly fade into obscurity in the 2000’s.  Or is Doom Metal and Stoner Rock the same thing?  I can't keep up or even care much anymore. They certainly were in the same league as bands like Cathedral and maybe even Grief although the weird hippie vibe they would emit made them stand out among the legions of Sabbath worshippers that came in their wake.  Their style was equally menacing  and somewhat laughable but you wouldn't laugh in their face that's for sure.  They were creepier than “punks” or traditional metal heads because of this weirdo hippie vibe.  Kinda like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family putting together a metal band or a louder Manson family, considering their affinity for psychedelics.  I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say Doom Snake Cult was a psychedelic metal band although I have to strain to hear that psyche influence.  In truth I might only be thinking that because they had the song Acid Orgy and plus I don't know where else you'd place these guys on the hard rock spectrum.    It was hard to see if their delivery was by accident or design although it seems cooler if they stumbled onto it by accident so I’ll just assume that’s what happened.   It’s not something they had to work real hard at nailing down so in that regard they were not posing.  

    They were too mid paced for my tastes but it took balls to try and pry open a style like that in front of crowds who were used to hardcore or at the very least death metal.  Although it should be stated that the umpteenth ska revival was just around the corner at that time.   

     I dig Metal.  It doesn’t have a whole lot of pretensions about it.  It’s a fully developed genre that doesn’t have much leeway in how you ape it.  I respect the adolescent wet dream fantasy world which is a large part of the atmosphere.  The subject matter is largely the same for each style of Metal (Speed Metal/Power Metal/Thrash/Death) and in point of fact I'd say if the lyrics deviate from those subjects too much it might not be considered metal anymore.  There’s a clear delineation of subjects you’re allowed to broach in this realm.  Drugs, woman, motorcycles, kickin ass, getting drunk, Satan, killing people, and other darker facades.  Obviously Death Metal plays up the horrible shit but it’s all cut from the same cloth.  It’s all fantasy.  Which I can respect.

     DSC played up that point in some regards.  I think.  I’m not sure what they're singing about and as with most bands in this genre the lyrics are not all that important in the grand scheme.  In fact the less you know about what these bands are saying the better.  The obvious Conan reference from their name speaks volumes to their Metal mythology or their laziness.  Again I think it's just that outsider status that makes them so unusual and somewhat scary like the Manson hippies.  Living in the desert and appearing vaguely satanic was a potent mix since they don't appear to be clever enough to be faking it.  Which seems to make them even more sinister and unpredictable. 

     Another aspect of Metal I find perplexing is the complete allegiance the fans have for Metal of any stripe.  The fact that Doom Snake Cult's sole release, which I think was really just a demo, is being pressed on insanely expensive vinyl format in 2011 speaks to the reverence metal fans have for any music that resembles Metal.  I'm a bit surprised there would be a market for this music here and now.  I know that sounds like a slight but I only say this in comparison to the huge amount of underground punk records and demos which will never receive any repressing.  The most these hardcore bands can expect is a write up on a second rate blog such as this.  Meanwhile DSC and even Goatlord have super classy pressings which go for big bucks.  Which I suppose is another factor in the divide between punk and metal.  While the ebb and flow of the metal audience comes and goes the fact remains that audience however small throughout America will continue to shell out big money for anything Metal.  It’s a part of the culture.  T-shirts at a metal show generally start at $25.  The punk band that sells a shirt for over $15 is laughed out of the hall.   Even if the hall is packed.  I’m not even gonna bring up the Metal audience outside of America, many of whom will be buying this DSC record. 

     Meanwhile there’s still no real “punk” audience.  And probably there never will be.  There’s the occasional new pressing of upper tier hardcore bands and the irreverent Killed By Death series, which has always been hit or miss, but far too many hardcore bands have been lost in the shuffle.   Is this partly because that target audience might be making that same music themselves?  Possibly but I suspect it will remain that way because it’s just not marketable in the same way Metal is.  Metal will always be a juvenile dream that is dopey but ultimately timeless while hardcore places too much value on reality so it’s shelf life is built in.  It’s always of the here and now and it rarely lives on past that.  Add this to the fact that hardcore, while it seems rigid and codified, is somewhat more pliable than metal.  It has gone on to change and take different forms while metal only seems to change slightly over time especially in regards to lyrical content.  This is an especially unusual development because time was that hardcore was stubborn and unchanging while metal was more accepting of new developments ie. thrash, death, speed.  I'm just going on and on, I have no idea what I'm talking about and it doesn't really matter anyway.  All I know is Doom Snake Cult have a super nice repress that came out this year and they have a sizable internet presence in the form of multiple reviews through multiple blogs.  No other underground Vegas band has anything which compares.  Maybe the metalheads are more obsessed?  Maybe the hardcore heads are always moving forward instead of running in place?  Band's and listeners of today borrow effusively from punk and metal so the line has blurred.  It sometimes seems like the worst elements of each are cropping up to taint it all but I know there's still good bands out there.  You just have to be more selective in what you find I suppose.  Or jut go back to listening to hip hop like I have.

     This is all conjecture and grist for the metal/punk PHD I'm trying to define just to have something to do.  Obviously I'm generalizing just to hear myself write.  I find it interesting.  If you don't why'd you read this far into this post?

     To be fair Doom Snake Cult was peddling this style long before it was fashionable and that is worthy of respect.  It also shows an odd crossover of cultural iconography between the metal of yesterday and the punk ethos.  Since they are still largely obscure it seems like only an elite metal collector would want to add this vinyl repress to his collection.  An elitist attitude consistent with punk record collectors who were used to paying big bucks for original rarities on ebay at the turn of the century.  Original pressings mean big punk points to some idiots out there.  Or in this case big Metal points.  Glad I unloaded some of my vinyl before these repressings and mp3 downloading destroyed the market!  (I got $60 for a TSOL Dance With Me record back in 2004.  Can you believe that?  But I must admit I bought the metal band  Destruction Infernal Overkill LP at a record sale a few weeks ago for $20 but hey that's not as bad as paying $50 for a Dr. Know LP right?)    

     I love spouting my inane philosophical platitudes about shit that only I and 3 or 4 other people would care to ponder in between my fond remembrances of drug induced fits I’ve had.  I’m still considering writing a book about punk and metal.  I think this blog might be training wheels for just such a project.  I got too much time on my hands.           

     Ace is a cool guy.  I always liked him and I think he's a great vocalist for this style.  Lot's of rasp instead of just growl.  I can understand most of what he's singing which works out good.  Glen the guitar player always seemed nice enough but whenever he talked to me it seemed like he was forcing himself to concentrate on what I was saying.  Meanwhile he seemed to understand other people just fine.  Whatever.  He was later a mainstay at the drum circle at Sunset park.  No surprise there.  Even later he started a hippie jam band called the Baccanaul.  I was done with psychedelics at that point.  Or was I?

     I don’t think Jeff Schwab ever liked me that much either.  Whatever.  I’m guessing it was because I dressed vaguely punk and he was an avowed Metalhead.  It’s ridiculous how important those lines seemed back then.  I recall a weirdo freakshow music festival out in Pahrump in the mid 90’s.  I wanna say it was called Pahrumpstock.  Seriously.  I only bring this up because I remember partying with Schwab at this festival and later in the night he passed out underneath his car.  Hilarious.  I always thought he was cool even if he didn't like me so much.    

     I’m surprised to see they’re still kickin it.  I hope it’s the same dudes or at least I hope it’s still Ace, Schwab, or Glenn.  I wouldn’t care if they got a new drummer.

    There are several blogs offering links to download this record as well as some spotty and spot on reviews.  There's even one that offers the demo pictured above.  Doom Snake Cult more popular now than ever before!  ACID ORGY!! LSD!

Blog with the demo download found here

Blog with the original CD download found here

I have yet to see this new vinyl ripped and posted online but I'm sure it's coming.

Wheat Pastes 2000-2002

     I'm letting the cat out of the bag.  In the years 2000-2002 I did wheat pastes all over the city of Las Vegas.  Mostly on the East Side because I lived on the East Side and fuck the West Side.  These were designs I made myself as well as a few I stole outright.  They’re not all clever but I think they’re all worth seeing again since none of them are around anymore. 

    If you lived in Vegas at the time and were wondering what all the fuss was about now I guess I can reveal my motivations and end the mystery. As if anyone gave a shit.  I’m sure no more than a few people will remember these images anyway and it’s probably people who knew it was me all along. 

     Las Vegas is… let me put this diplomatically, Las Vegas is an easy target.  There is plenty to complain about.  One gripe I always had was the constant bombardment of commercial imagery.   More than any other city I've ever seen, including Tokyo.  Billboards shoved their tits in my face.  Random signs clogged every conceivable nook and cranny along every street.  The radio blared commercials which were usually twice as loud as the music in the broadcast. 

     Messages. Messages. Messages.  None of them worth a shit.  None of them meaningful.  None of them strayed from the script of senseless spending and coaxing to spend and consuming and eating and shitting and drinking and smoking and chocking.  It never ends. 

     I couldn’t take the drowning anymore.  I had to plant little islands of humanity along the boulevards of bloated schemes covered up with minty fresh breath that was suffocating my soul.  I'd done some spray painting as a kid.  It would never stick for more than a few days before it was whitewashed.  I wanted something more artistic for which I could have more control.  Something with more teeth that might be easier to understand and appreciate with the potential to connect with others who might even let the images stand on their own.  Much to my surprise a few of them did stand the test of time and they were not removed for months and sometimes years!

     Part of this project was inspired in an off hand way by the wheat pastes I’d seen by Shepard Fairey.  At sometime in 2000 he, or his minions, invaded Las Vegas and put up their Andre the Giant posters.  Some of these showed up in my neighborhood.  I can’t explain why but it offended me.  Maybe it was the outside influence of these out of towners?  Well fuck that shit this is for locals only!  Within a few days I was plastering my own public art in my neighborhood and beyond. 

     I didn’t have a treatise about why I did it.  I just fuckin did it.  I wanted to have something created by my community displayed in my community without merit aside from connecting community.  Easy stuff to understand I would think but that mentality has little space in a place like Vegas where you’re bought and sold every minute.  Still I think some people appreciated why I did it.  It was 100% positive and didn’t have an agenda other than reaching out to be understood.  I wasn't trying to preach some bullshit hippie do gooder ethos with cute little messages.  More like I was trying to steal back something intangible that had been stolen from me.  Part of the appeal was that I was breaking the law and forcing others to look for a second at something real.  And I didn't pay a dime to reach my "audience."  


    It's obvious to me now this was also an attempt to reclaim some of the public space that was being robbed from me by mountains of advertisers.  For all the money changing hands in advertising revenue in that city I'm surprised no one from the public makes a stink about the rights we have as involuntary receptacles for these garbage messages.  There's got to be some subconscious side effects.  It's an indignity for the whole community to be plastered with messages about hemorrhoids, bad breath, or athletes foot and not give more than a fraction of space to public art.  Or maybe we are just pigs waiting to pay money to enter the trough?            

     I wasn’t the first to do it in Vegas but I noticed a wave of wheat pastes followed in my wake.  I won’t take credit for something for which I have no control but I’ll tell you there were very few naked telephone poles.  Vegas being what it is I wasn't too surprised to see some rogue advertisers using this wheat paste tactic as well.  I heard they got busted and fined.  Only an idiot would wheat paste his phone number or website at a bus stop.

     So with this post I reveal my intentions and officially add Street Art to the growing resume of my obscure, go nowhere, post no bills, pay no bills, IOU Art Career.  When I’m dead they’ll all say how remarkable and unmarketable I’ve been.  If my memory could be so lucky.  More than likely I’ll just be chewed up and shit back into soul compost comprised of hundreds, thousands, millions of dudes who had something to say.  Oh wait something new just came out…    

        

     I love bringing up my mortality.  When I die please print these out and wheat paste some of them on the East Side in Las Vegas.  Come to think of it why don’t you print some of these out and wheat paste them tonight when you walk to that Rebel station on Trop and Pecos to buy cigs?