Stümper "Mein Leben"

Stümper
Rasende Stümper
cassette
(Clarita Gomez Tapes, 1989? 1990?)

Jan and Kai Damkowski were a couple of really cool brothers from West Germany with whom I was pen pals in the late '80s/early '90s. Jan put a song from one of my old bands on a compilation tape he released and Kai took some pictures of my band that we ended up using on the back cover of one of our records. Kai also sent me tapes of a few bands in which he and/or his brother Jan played. One of those bands was Stümper, a loose-knit band composed of a bunch of energetic German teenagers.

Kai sent me a couple of Stümper tapes and they are a big mess of chaotic fun. I can't find the booklet he sent that went with this tape, so I have nothing at the moment but the song titles and a note in English that he stuck in the tape box. I don't throw stuff away, generally, so I'm sure I have the booklet somewhere, but I've been searching for days to no avail. Anyhow, per Kai's note:

We rotate on instruments. We use no distortion or effects mechanisms and no fuzzbox apart from one guitar on 'Gitarrenkampf'. . . . We never played a song twice and we are not planning to do it.

The song I've chosen for today is Mein Leben, and Kai had this to say about it in his note:

Translates as 'My Life' and has everything in it. Love, Pain, GG Allin, Highway-deaths, Oliver North, Freezer, Horst Hrubesch, money, sex, HSV, Genscher, Aussiedler, and more. A song about life that offers you absolutely everything. This is the ultimate tragedy.

Tragically, one of the founding members of Stümper, Flassoff, drowned in the Elbe River in the early '90s.

I stupidly lost contact with Kai and Jan ages ago, but I did some research this weekend and discovered that Kai was later in a band called Hrubesch Youth, named for the apparently famous footballer Horst Hrubesch. They released at least a few records and a CD, so I'm hoping I can find copies. Also, Kai is a published author!

Dump "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat"

Dump Women in Rock CD EP (Shrimper, 1999)

This one is for listener VirginiaM, who commented in the previous post: I won't be happy until you've featured the actual true very best horror film doomed-heroine warble: "Words Get Stuck in My Throat" from Gargantua. Well, luckily for all y'all out there in internetland, I don't own that. Besides, she couldn't even get the movie title right; it's The War of the Gargantuas. All is not lost, however! The mysterious James did a swell cover of "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat" with his one man band Dump, so here it is for your listening pleasure. I say mysterious, by the way, only because in re-reading my post about his band the Maynards, I realized I never mentioned his last name; it's McNew.

Slish "Donna's Bible"

Uh, oh! You either don't have the Flash plug-in installed, or you have it disabled.
Otherwise, there'd be a cute lil' streaming audio player on the left, rather than this message.

Slish
The Eight Hundred Dollar Demo
cassette
(not released, 1994)

Slish were led by vocalist and, I assume, bassist ('cause that's his main thing) Michael W. Dean. Unfortunately, I guess they got a publishing deal with Warner Brothers but nothing came of it release-wise, and that's a shame. Today's selection rocks hard, and is my fave of the five tunes they recorded.

Last Days of May "Sand, Sea and Space"

Last Days of May Last Days of May CD (No-Fi Records, 1997)

When I was in Charlottesville, VA ten years ago, where I'd lived ten years previous to then, my friend Tom Howard gave me a copy of the newest CD, Radiant Black Mind, by his new (since I'd left town) instrumental trio, Last Days of May. I forget how they met, but LDoM was Tom, Jim Ralston, formerly of (DR.) GöTLöD (whom I featured back in September), and Karl Precoda, formerly one half of the original guitar team of Los Angeles psychedelic rockers The Dream Syndicate! Today's song is from their eponymous debut album, released three years prior. Two more albums followed, Inner System Blues and The First 7 Billion Miles, released under the name LDOM. I've not heard of anything further since, unfortunately.

(DR.) GöTLöD "Death on the Installment Plan"

Oh, dear! You must not have a compatible version of flash!

(DR.)
GöTLöD
Santa Lives in the White House
cassette
(self-released, 1991)

Some friends of mine formed a slammin' metal band before they scattered like the wind after graduation. OK, after one of them earned his doctorate and skipped town; I think the rest still live there . . . maybe. Mr. Dr. drew the lovely cover, and the name is pronounced "goatload." \m/  ^_^  \m/

Maynards "Suckerfish"

Maynards
The Sound of No Hands Clapping
b-side of a mix tape
(not really released, 1988? '89?)

I've known Maynard for close to thirty years; he does not play on this song. His name, however, was the source of the band's.

See, Maynard played drums in the band, but James was the primary songwriter; Eric played the bass. This ferocious little ditty, however, James recorded all by his lonesome, at home with his ferocious little four track. Not long after, he left our ferocious little town and joined the ferocious little band Christmas. Together, they recorded the ferocious little album Vortex, which wasn't released until after they'd split up, if my ferocious little memory serves me correctly.

After that, he ended up joining Yo La Tengo on bass for a European tour or something. That was nearly twenty years ago, and he's still with them. That is one long tour, huh?

He gave me a tape of a live set by the Maynards and a few home recordings long ago; I've always especially loved Suckerfish. So, I asked his permission to post it, and he said it would be OK. Enjoy!

In addition to playing with Yo La Tengo, he has a solo project called Dump. He's done scads of singles, EPs, full-length releases, splits with other artists, and compilation tracks. It's all good. I'm not just saying that because he's my friend; I'm saying that because he could probably snap me in two, like a twig.