10-25-2015

Setlist:
1. Dean Carter - Jailhouse Rock
2. Satan's Rats - You Make Me Sick
3. King Uszniewicz And His Uszniewicztones - Doo Wah Diddy Diddy
4. Mirrors - She Smiled Wild
5. Les Yper Sound - Psyche Rock
6. Cromagnon - Caledonia
7. IRK - Painful
8. Jon The Postman - Louie Louie

Dean Carter - "Jailhouse Rock"

Off the "Rebel Woman / Jailhouse Rock" single released on Milky Way Records in 1967.
Dean Carter is / was a little known Rock 'N' Roll Personality best known for his song "Rebel Woman" and his use of the 12-String electric guitar. But what he's been known for in more obscure corners of the internet is a pioneer of modern Noise Rock - the absolutely unhinged playing and dubious production turns many of Dean Carter's songs into proto-punk / proto-noise rock blasts of energy. This aspect is best observed in his cover of Elvis' Jailhouse Rock - the punch of the guitar chords and the shrill sound of the synthesizers turn this once Rock 'n' Roll classic into a collage of amazing noise. 

Satan's Rats - "You Make Me Sick"

Off the "You Make Me Sick / Louise" single released on DJM Records in 1978.
A more well known UK punk single from the Evesham based act, are much less confrontational then their name promises. Most twisted love songs about ex-girlfriends and the like. With an overly dramatic and passive-aggressive attitude, Satan's Rats became one of mid-UK's most well known punk acts, despite only releasing 3 singles (2 of which had the same B-side, Louise) and 1 comp, which was released including 20 studio tracks, although the release date is unknown - looks pretty 90's / early 2000's to me.

King Uszniewicz And His Uszniewicztones - "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy"

Off the "Doin The Whoo Hoo With King Uszniewicz and His Uszniewicztones" LP recorded sometime in the early 70's, released on Norton Records in 1994.
Whatta cacophony! King Uszniewicz (pronounced You-Sneev-Itch) and his Uszniewicztones were a group of Polish-Americans (whether or not they were actual immigrants is unclear) that were the house band for "The Orbit Room" - a bowling alley in Detroit.
Forming sometime around 1969 and running until the mid 1970's, King U and his U-tones recorded some studio sessions with Cub Koda (from Brownsville Station) on production. He claims on the liner notes of the album that their sound was unintentional and wasn't meant to be ironic - and the drunken yelling on the songs agree.
The King in question is Ernie Uszniewicz - singing and playing atonal sax. I had trouble finding any updates on Ernie, but I did find a Flickr account baring his name - hope it's him!

Mirrors - "She Smiled Wild"

Off the "Shirley / She Smiled Wild" single released on Hearthan Records.
A classic of the Cleveland Proto-Punk scene of the early 70's, Mirrors wrote songs that had noisy, yet oddly poppy rhythms coupled with off-the-wall production and at times almost fell into the No Wave hole.
Sadly, like most bands of their scene (think Electric Eels, Rocket From The Tombs, The Styrenes...) Mirrors never saw their proto-punk and visionary recordings have a proper release until Punk had already started. Mirrors was activated from around 1972 to 1975, and their first release, this single, was released in 1977; 2 years after they broke up, 5 years after they formed and most importantly, 1 year after the Ramones debuted. If they got this released right after it was recorded Punk history would be forever different! What a shame.

Les Yper Sound - "Psyche Rock"

Off the "Too Fortiche / Psyche Rock" single released on Fontana Records in 1967.
A fun, loud but most importantly awesome tune made by this visionary French group. A psychedelic band playing under some stirring and buzzing electronics, this tune may sound strangely familiar because a remix of it was used as the theme song for the TV Show Futurama. Weird how that works!
Very little is known about Les Yper-Sound aside from what is included on their releases - a formation date and break-up date is unknown, and they only released 4 songs during their career. The most that is known is that it contained Michel Colombier, a French composer, and Pierre Henry, a respected French Musique Concrete / Experimental artist.

Cromagnon - "Caledonia"

Off their Untitled Debut LP released on ESP Disk records in 1969.

You can tell it's high art when there's 2 skeletons boning (pardon the pun) in front of Frank Zappa which is actually just an enigma formed by the cosmos which is flowing from under a river and a forest. What? I don't know either.
Cromagnon were an experimental Avant-Psych Folk project from New York City, a contemporary of the Godz and the Fugs.

IRK - "Painful"

Off the "Demos Vol. 1" tape released independently in 2015.

Whatta load of fuckin' wankers.
Somewhat-Long story short, I'm in this ensemble. And as the J-Card implies, this is the cadillac of free-form music!

>> Bandcamp <<

Jon The Postman - "Louie Louie"

Off the "Puerile" LP released on Bent Records in 1978.
Amidst UK's Punk explosion in 1977, there lied a man more interesting then the likes of John Lydon, Joe Strummer or Captain Sensible - and his name was Jon. Jon who? Jon the Postman!
His birthname was Jon Ormod, and yes - he was an actual postman, hailing from the bizzaro land of Manchester. You may not be familiar with Jon - but he had some important friends - such as Mark E. Smith, (who actually does backing vocals on this track) Pete Shelley, and has been described as an "omnipresent figure in Manchester's Punk and Post-Punk scene." Sadly, it was announced in July of this year that Jon passed away. Sad.
But to change gears, I'd like to inquire as to why they made a 2 minute Garage Rock anthem into a 12 minute jam? Well, someone had to do it! In fact, Jon quite liked long songs, he had 2 versions of Louie Louie, one 12 minutes and one 13 minutes, a song called Sengal at 11 minutes, and a Van Morrison cover of "GLORIA" which is 10 minutes long.

>> Read about out lord and Savior 'Jon' here <<