Meat "Hypothermia"

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Meat
live on WREK-FM, November 8, 1994
radio session
(unreleased, 1994)

Yea! It's October again! Like last year, the jukebox has chosen to celebrate LGBT History Month!

This year, I've decided to be an egotistical maniac and start the month off with myself. It's my blog, and I can do what I want!

During my youth, I was a Boy Scout from 1974 through 1981. Back then, I'd not accepted my gayness, despite being well aware of it since around the time I became a Scout (coincidence, not result!). Over the years, I held just about every youth leadership position possible with two different troops (we moved when I was 15), including Senior Patrol Leader. I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow and achieved the highest rank in Scouting, Eagle. My Eagle pin is proudly on display in our curio cabinet, in fact. The current anti-gay policies of the BSA, unfortunately, completely disgust me. The notion that I am inherently immoral simply because of my sexual orientation is repugnant.

Why am I telling you this?

Well . . . page 381 of my 1979 printing (not sure what happened to my first handbook) of The Official Boy Scout Handbook covers what to do for emergency treatment for hypothermia:

HYPOTHERMIA. When you hear of someone having died from exposure or frozen to death, the killer may actually have been hypothermia—from hypo, low, and thermia, state of heat. It is caused by the body losing more heat than it generates. It occurs when a person is not clothed warmly enough for the air around him. Such a person is further endangered if he is exhausted, wet, and exposed to a strong wind as when caught in a rainstorm. Under such conditions the air doesn't have to be below freezing—a moderate air temperature of 40-50° may result in death.
Hypothermia starts with the patient feeling chilly, tired, irritable. If he is not helped at this stage, he will begin to shiver uncontrollably. Soon his shivering becomes violent. He may act irrationally. He may stumble and fall. If the shivering then stops, he is close to death.
First Aid. If you are on a hike or backpacking trip in severe weather and realize that someone in the party shows early symptoms of hypothermia, stop right then and there. Put up a shelter. Strip the patient gently and get him into a dry sleeping bag. A cold sleeping bag won't help much: a rescuer should also strip and get into the sleeping bag to use his warm body to warm the victim's cold body. When the victim begins to recover, give him a hot drink with plenty of sugar and quick-energy candy. Get him under a doctor's care.
NOTE: The body temperature of a swimmer drops steadily in water cooler than himself. The shivering that results is the onset of hypothermia. Get out of the water. Cover up. Exercise to get warm.

When I read that as a kid, my first thought was saving a particular boy I knew back then. Hey, I was in my mid-teens and my hormones were in high gear, OK? He was amazing, and I had a huge crush on him, but, being in the closet so deep that Mr. Tumnus was force-feeding me Turkish Delight, there was nothing I could do about it except obsess.

When I played guitar in a band in 1993/94, I decided to memorialize it in song. I'm not a great lyricist, so I told the (straight) singer what I wanted the song to be about and he took the reins. The music, however, is 100% mine. That's even me on crummy lead guitar. I'm no great shakes as a guitarist, but I relished being the only one in the band and fought attempts to add a second (I was the rhythm guitarist in my previous band, The Love Killers). I'm quite proud of the music I wrote back then (I wrote roughly 70% of the music for Meat), but this radio tape is about all I have left to document Meat. We recorded a four-song demo with our first drummer (our second is on this recording), but I'm not sure where my copy is. Plus, it was recorded by a rather clueless scam artist individual, and it sounded pretty lousy.

The image at the top of the post is the press sheet thing I wrote up to give folks with our aforementioned demo.

Jackyl "Take a Piece of Me"

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Jackyl
I Stand Alone
CD single
(Geffen, 1993)

Around twenty years ago, Jackyl's first single, I Stand Alone, came bustin' outta my car radio and kicked my ass. It was followed quickly by more hits from their eponymous debut album, like The Lumberjack, When Will It Rain, and Down on Me. It wasn't too long before I bought a copy and ended up loving the whole thing. Even though I'm not a huge fan of Southern Rock, their rousing crossbreeding of AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd just plain hits my spot.

They've released a buncha albums since, and just came out with their latest, Best in Show. By the way, if you get it at BestBuy (click the title a few words back!), you get two extra songs, plus a DVD with a long interview with the band about their history along with a few videos. It's not quite as good as their previous album, When Moonlight and Dynamite Collide, which made my official Top Ten of 2010 list, but it's most definitely a winner.

Today's selection is one of their few rarities, an exclusive b-side from the German maxi-single of the aforementioned I Stand Alone. Dig it!

---

PS: ZZ Top's killer new album La Futura also has an exclusive BestBuy version with two extra tracks. Jump on it!

Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot "When we were kids we built a treehouse from our neighbors' windows and if you get far enough away it looks like a giant eyeball"

Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot
Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot
CD
(Aisle 2 Records, 2000)

There used to be a small CD store named musiCDrome near my old office that I hit on my lunch break on a regular basis. They had a dollar bin that afforded me many prizes over the few years they were around, and I missed them when they moved to a new location many, many miles away.

One of my favorite dollar bin finds at musiCDrome was the eponymous, and only, album by Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot. As soon as I saw the ridiculously long band name and super-stark cover art, I knew I had to at least give it a try. Luckily, they had a couple of CD players, so one could sample potential purchases before making a decision. I listened to a few seconds of the opening track and walked out with it moments later, $1.06 gone from my wallet.

Sadly, they split sometime after this album was released, but not before contributing the otherwise-unavailable track Tied Up Overhead to the Doubleplusgood Records Pop for Charity: Sound Progression compilation CD.

Alchemist "Hermaphroditis"

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Alchemist
Spiritech
CD
(Thrust, 1997)

Someone on the message boards on Rob Halford's website used to talk these guys up all the time, years ago. One day, I was going through the bargain bin at my favorite local store and spied their latest album, Organasm. I decided to gamble $5 on it, and it paid off. As I soon discovered, Alchemist marry what might seem to be the rather disparate genres of death metal and psychedelia. I like to think of them as the Pink Floyd of death metal, but you may not agree. In which case, you are obviously a false and a poser (sic)!

:-P

Seriously, though, Alchemist are heavy as a swear word for copulation whilst mighty trippy and freaky, at the same time. I debated what song to pick, and decided to go with this one from their out-of-print third album, Spiritech. A few years back, Relapse Records released a nifty double-CD, Embryonics (left) compiling most of the tracks from the album along with material from their first and second albums, 1993's Jar of Kingdom and 1995's Lunasphere, their Eve of the War EP, and some demo tracks and live recordings. This song, however, was one of the few left off.

Lest anyone think the lyrics might be transphobic, I've decided to include them for your perusal. They're certainly not run-of-the-mill death metal verbiage.

Hermaphroditis

Union of opposites become union
of ones self.
The universe above mirrors
the universe within.

You search for identity,
schizophrenic multi being.
Your two have become one,
your libran scales often sway.

Focus your thoughts on balance
meditate on harmony.
Elevate your mind and all that is
shall return.

Your active male, fuels your fire for
Furious dominating.

Your passive female, maternal soul.
Psychic subconcious.

Under the scepter of Zeus,
Your two become one.

Let your will penetrate
Deeply from within.
Your libran scales sway
With eternal unrest.

Two as one.
Unisex, you are she and she is him.

Hellcats "It's Alright"

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Hellcats
Hellcats
12" EP
(Radio Records, 1982)

The cover of this Hellcats record jumped off the new release rack at me back when I was in my early days of college. I took one look and determined it was a complete rip-off of the Starz logo. Picking it up and flipping it over revealed just exactly why I thought that: it was intentional. See, Hellcats were, in fact, a new band featuring the former lead vocalist and guitarist of Starz, Michael Lee Smith and Richie Ranno. It's a bit lighter than Starz, but still pretty cool.

I should probably mention that Starz did go through a short power pop phase, with their third album Attention Shoppers!

Hellcats followed this EP with a full length album a few years later, but Michael was gone and, from what I remember of it, so was the spark.

:'-(