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!

Lightning Baltimore "Squiggles, Loose in the World"

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Lightning Baltimore
Unsolicited Material
(unreleased, 1998)

Yep, this is me, playing Fred (the Höfner guitar in picture), through my Marshall (model 5210, 50 watts), also pictured. Fred was a gift from my friend Charlie. Unlike Charlie, Fred is covered in naugahyde and used to belong to Charlie Pastorfield of the defunct Skip Castro Band, who used to play often where Charlie Not Pastorfield and I lived in the '80s.

I recorded this stuff in the late '90s but only just now took a pic of the equipment used for this track and made this cheesy album cover. Not pictured are the guitars I played on other tracks: a Gibson SG and a much-maligned-but-I-love-mine Gretsch TK300.

Alchemical Rowdies "Tour de Convulse"

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Alchemical Rowdies
Trans-Idio
LP
(Trans Museq, 1981)

Free improvisation! Yea! None's been featured for a while, so here's a nice selection from a fine platter from the Alchemical Rowdies. I'm guessing the album is entitled Trans-Idio 'cause it's a collaboration of Alabama's Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith, who've run the Trans Museq label since the mid-'70s, and ¾ of Virginia's Idio Savant, whom I featured here early last year (all of them are here but Marty McCavitt, who I suppose was too busy mutilating cattle).

This probably sounds like random noise to a lot of people; it sure did to me, at first. In fact, I sold my first copy of this 'cause I couldn't stand it. I'd bought it 'cause the same ¾ of Idio Savant that play on it were later in the fabulous Orthotonics, also featured here in the past. It sounded nothing like the Orthos, though, and my brain was still too small and unprepared. Full disclosure: I'd never even heard of Idio Savant at that point. It was several more years before I was able to really wrap my head around free improv.

Explaining why I like stuff like this isn't easy. I noticed when I was around nineteen or twenty that I was starting to really like music that was full of chaos, but chaos that had some sort of anchor, like a good beat amidst the noise, or that gelled in some other way. Good free improvisation is a dialog between musicians, the gel comes from the conversation: the players are listening and responding to each other. On the other hand, people in their own little worlds, playing away, and not paying attention to each other, tend to be considerably less interesting.

Line-up:

• J. Pippin Barnett - percussion
• Danny Finney - saxophones
• LaDonna Smith - violin, viola, voice
• Paul Watson - trumpets, alto horn
• Davey Williams - electric guitar

Stalaggh untitled

Stalaggh Stalaggh 7" EP (New Era Productions, 2001)

I think I'll let the insert speak for this one: Stalaggh is a Misanthropik-Nihilistik projekt of leading Individuals from both the Dutch and Belgian Black Metal and Elektro/Ambient scenes, with as prior aim propagating the sonic ideology of human genocide. With among it's members a murder convict and mental-institution patient, STALAGGH is bound to awaken emotions of depression, hate, nihilism, misanthropy and to drag you deeper down into it's pits and voids. :STALAGGH:'s :projekt nihil: was improvised and directly recorded Ina 24 track studio, driving the producer to Insanity. "Never again" were his words... Excessive self-mutilation took place while recording these streams of black emotions, evolving into a 35 minutes piece of Art, which is to be considered the soundtrack to humanities global suicide... We will destroy, we will hate, and we will spread our misanthropic audio-terror until there Is nothing left but scorched earth. ...KILL YOURSELF!!! They followed this lovely little record (today's piece is side A) with three albums of considerably less musical material, Projekt Nihil, Projekt Terrror, Projekt Misanthropia), plus variations on the same, like the remix album Nihilistik Terrror (not dance remixes, mind you). They've now changed their name and sound, to a degree, to Gulaggh and have released one CD, so far, Vorkuta. I quite like it.

Idio Savant "Escape from the Trick Vans #6"

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Idio Savant
Shakers in a Tantrum Landscape
LP
(Artifacts , 1979)

Idio Savant were an improv quartet from Richmond, VA back in the 1970s. As far as I know, Shakers in a Tantrum Landscape was their only release. The members all went on to other bands, however, hence the before they were famous tag.

Line-up:

• John Pippin Barnett - drums and percussion
• Dan Finney - alto, tenor, baritone saxophones, duck-o-phone, fandango
• Martin McCavitt - synthosizer, organ, piano, etc.
• Paul Watson - trumpet, alto trumpet, flugelhorn, etc.

Pippin, Dan and Paul all went on to the Orthotonics, featured here in September of last year. They also all played with Half Japanese at one time or another (you can find them scattered throughout the albums Our Solar System and Sing No Evil). After the Orthos split, Pippin went on to be a member of both Curlew and Nimal. Danny joined former Orthotonic Rebby Sharp in the combo Rattlemouth, who've released a number of CDs.

Marty was, of course, the Marty half of The Tom and Marty Band, also featured here last September. Sometime later, he, Pippin and Paul started the group Famous Actors from Out of Town, whose lone release, an album-length cassette, will be featured here at some point.

Ax Genrich "Helicopters"

Ax Genrich Psychedelic Guitar CD (ATM Records, 1994)

Ax Genrich was the ax slinger in the most vital era of the krautrock trio Guru Guru: UFO Hinten Känguru Guru Guru Don't Call Us, (We Call You) Admittedly, I've not heard a ton of what followed, but a good deal of what I've heard has been stinky. The relatively recent albums In the Guru Lounge and 30 Jahre Live (a triple CD set!) are enjoyable, however; I regret buying neither. After leaving Guru Guru, Ax put together a lil' supergroup under the name Highdelberg and released one eponymous album in 1976. Honestly, it's pleasant but forgetable; I'm listening to it as I type this, and despite owning it for probably close to a decade, the songs don't really sound familiar. I'm not sure what he did for the next couple of decades, but in 1994 his first proper solo album appeared, Psychedelic Guitar. Today's selection comes from it, in fact! It was followed in 1995 by Wave Cut. Both are pretty great, imo. A decade later, he did a couple of live jam albums with Mani Neumeier (also from Guru Guru) on drums and Dave Schmidt (no clue who he is) on bass. I need to hear them!

San Agustin "12'32"

San Agustin non-titled LP (Road Cone, 1998)

I first saw San Agustin guitarists Andrew Burnes and David Daniell play as part of the group Barrel, whom I suppose you could say were math rockers. San Agustin (also featuring percussionist Bryan Fielden) are a very different beast, however. Whereas Barrel were tightly scripted, intricate, and loud, San Agustin are an improvisational trio, and much quieter and more introspective than Barrel (they do get quite loud at times, however). Most of their recorded pieces don't have titles, per se, and today's selection, from their first full-length release, is no exception. The album contains four tracks, each denoted simply by the duration of the piece, hence "12'32" for this one. To the best of my knowledge, San Agustin are still extant, but they play infrequently, and their most recent release, a one-sided 12" on Table of the Elements, came out in 2003.

Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου "DM/βήχας"

Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου
Πιανοεπαφές
LP
(σειρά αυτοσχεδιασμός, 1980)

I first discovered free improvising pianist Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου (Sakis Papadimitriou) in a bargain bin at a record show around ten years ago. There was a dealer with several boxes of $5 CDs, and Plus and Minus, by Papadimitriou and percussionist Lefteris Agouridakis, looked intriguing. Plus, it was on Leo Records, an excellent jazz label generally worth a risk (other Leo risks that proved fruitful have included South Wind by the Satoko Fujii Orchestra and Hidden Music by the Scottish improv combo Green Room).

Plus and Minus turned out to be a very cool album, and I've been searching out more Papadimitriou ever since. He's released several solo albums, in addition to collaborations with others, and today's piece is from his second release and first solo outing, Piano-Contacts (in English). The name of this piece translates to "DM/Cough." No, I don't speak or read Greek; there are translations for everything on the back cover. Papadimitriou sticks strictly to the keys on this number, but he often plays inside the piano as well, strumming, scraping, and plucking the strings. No matter how he plays, he's a master, imo.

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.

Erik Hinds "Angel of Death"

Erik Hinds
Reign in Blood
CD
(Solponticello, 2005)

Today, we continue with heavy metal cover songs, specifically acoustic versions of Slayer tunes.

Athens, GA guitarist Erik Hinds, who now goes by the name Killick, plays this badass thing called the H'arpeggione (picture after the jump), built for him in 1999 by master instrument designer and builder Fred Carlson. I've seen (and heard, of course) him play it a number of times, and it's really something to behold.

In 2005, Erik decided to record his own version of Slayer's classic Reign in Blood album, on solo H'arpeggione. Today's track is the leadoff track, Angel of Death. Please, commence headbanging.

The H'arpeggioneMore photos here

Böhm ohne Köb "South of Heaven"

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Böhm ohne Köb
South of Heaven
7" EP
(Nur Sch. Rec!, 1990)

Some people are so talented, they probably oughta be thrown in jail. Hans Platzgumer is one of those people, and he sings and plays guitar on this record.

Bit-Part Actor "Crash Course"

Bit-Part Actor
Bit-Part Actor
CD
(Braille Records, 1996)

Sorry, today's selection is not a Budgie cover; that'd be "Crash Course in Brain Surgery." Anyhow . . .