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.

Engine "Barrett's Privateers"

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Engine
Crescent Fire Co.
CD
(Sister Ruby, 1994)

There used to be this club in town where bands played. The first time I went there, I believe it was to see a couple of fine local combos: Magic Bone and the Go-Devils. My friend James's band, who are not local, played there several times, and he just loved the place. If you ever happen to see him (a relatively easy thing to do when his band Yo La Tengo are playing), ask him how much he enjoyed playing at The Point. Wear a raincoat, if you do, though, 'cause his head will likely 'splode into a million bloody chunks of brain and bone. Then, you can make sausage.

James's musical boss, of sorts, Gerard Cosloy, had a band for a while in the early '90s called Envelope. A band sporting that name was announced as playing at The Point, so I went to check them out, Gerard being a nice guy with good taste in music. Well, it was a different band with the same name. I don't think I ever did hear the real thing.

The other band on the bill that fateful night, however, was a local group called Engine. I ended up digging their set quite a bit, in fact. Several years later, me not being all that up on local music at the time, I discovered they had released two CDs, so I bought 'em, and today's tune is from the first one. For this particular number, they wrote the music, but the words are by Canadian folkster Stan Rogers.

Their second album, A Good End to Memory, featured an almost completely different line-up, but the sound is pretty much the same, albeit a bit more expansive, with horns 'n' such.

Aside from the two albums, they also had three cuts on a compilation of local bands. You might notice one of them is Babyfat. They later changed their name to Ultrababyfat, due to there being another Babyfat already extant. They also later gained bassist Britta Phillips, who went on to join Luna and is now half of Dean & Britta, who are kinda like Luna if you killed two of them.

NOTA BENE: Years after The Point closed, I happened to see their weekly ad in an ancient-ish copy of Creative Loafing, a local free rag that covers music, among other things. Whaddya know, KoЯn and Limp Bizkit played together at The Point. Golly.

Grateful Dead "The Same Thing"

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The Grateful Dead
Historic Dead
LP
(Sunflower/MGM, 1971)

Man, I used to hate the Grateful Dead. I just despised them, you know? I thought the song Deadhead by The Teen Idles was hilarious:

Riding that train
High on cocaine
The music's really lousy
The fans are a pain

Trouble behind
Trouble ahead
Only good Deadhead
Is one that's dead

I've often wondered how they felt when Grateful Dead co-founder/leader Jerry Garcia died fifteen years or so later.

Sorry . . . tangent complete . . .

A number of years back, for some reason unknown to me despite the fact that the idea came from my own brain unit, I decided to buy a used copy I found of the reissue of their third album, Aoxomoxoa, replete with beaucoup bonus traxoa. I ended up really diggin' the long, drawn out, pyschedelic jams therein, and, naturally, started buying whatever I could snag from that period. My collection now sports twenty Grateful Dead albums (!). I should add, however, that they are almost all live recordings and nearly entirely from 1970 and earlier.

There are three exceptions to the above, two of which are sonic cut-up experiments: 1991's Infrared Roses, which features live recordings from the late 80s/early 90s mucked about with by soundman Bob Bralove, and 1996's massive Grayfolded, an amazing double-CD featuring recordings of Dark Star, spanning November 14, 1967 through September 13, 1993, that have been chopped, folded, contracted, expanded, etc. by John Oswald into two epic Plunderphonic versions of said piece: Transitive Axis (59:59) and Mirror Ashes (46:46). The third exception is Dick's Picks, Volume Two: Columbus, Ohio 10/31/71.

Today's song, however, comes from a legally released, but long unavailable, album from 1971 that featured live recordings made at the Avalon Ballroom in 1966. The Same Thing is a Willie Dixon song, and, to the best of my knowledge, this is one of only three versions of it by the Dead that have been released. In addition to this particular recording, there's one from 1967 in the So Many Roads boxset, plus a much later recording on Dick's Picks Volume 27: Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA, December 16, 1992.

There's another album of Avalon Ballroom recordings, also on the Sunflower label, called Vintage Dead. Anyone have a spare copy?

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Os Mutantes "Glória ao rei dos confins do além"

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Os Mutantes
A arte de Os Mutantes
CD
(Universal Music/Mercury, 2006)

Back in the late 16th Century, in the early days of this blog, listener VirginiaM requested something rare by Os Mutantes. Most of their original catalog of six studio albums and one live (from 1968 through 1976) has been available, off-and-on, on CD and LP since the beginning of this century. In addition to those seven, two unreleased albums from that period have surfaced, plus a live and a studio album since they reunited in 2006.

Like many bands that began in the 1960s and continued into the next decade (and beyond), Os Mutantes went through some interesting changes, which included three fairly distinct phases. They began life as a psychedelic, Tropicália combo, morphed into a psychedelic, rock/hard rock band, then shifted into a progressive rock group.

• Phase I: 1968 to 1970
  • Os Mutantes
  • Mutantes
  • A divina comedia ou ando meio desligado
  • Tecnicolor [recorded in 1970 but not released until 2005]
• Phase II: 1971 to 1973
  • Jardim elétrico
  • Mutantes e seus cometas no país do baurets
  • A e o Z [recorded in 1973 but not released until 1992]
• Phase III: 1974 to 1978
  • Tudo foi feito pelo sol
  • Ao vivo
• Intelligent, Murderous Ants: 2006 to present
  • Live - Barbican Theatre, London, 2006
  • Haih... or amortecedor

So, anyhow, finding a rarity that I could actually, you know, afford would not be an easy task. Luckily, not long before VirginiaM's request, I just happened to have purchased an Os Mutantes collection, A arte de Os Mutantes, with a tiny handful of non-LP tracks, and today's jukebox selection is one of them.

The info (in Portugese, dang it) in the booklet seems to indicate this tune is from 1968. A bit of on-line research leads me to believe it was from a 7" EP released between their first album, 1968's Os Mutantes, and their second, 1969's Mutantes.

No doubt, the more observant of my listeners have noticed that they ditched the Os from their name between their first and second albums. No biggie; it's just Portugese for The. Since I've not been able to find a picture of a record cover for the aforementioned EP, or even a label (as in the paper stuck to the center of the vinyl disc), I've decided to leave the Os in place for this song. If that is incorrect, my deepest apologies, and, as always, please, no lawsuits.

Interestingly, to me at least, the Os has returned twice. The first time, on the cover of their double-decade-delayed album A e o Z and again for their 2009 studio comeback (and quite good) album Haih... or amortecedor.

ゆらゆら帝国 「貫通」

ゆらゆら帝国
『冷たいギフト／貫通』
2 x 3" CD single
(MIDI Inc., 2002)

Sometimes, bargain bin finds can end up costing a butt ton of $$ in the long run. Such is the case with ゆらゆら帝国.

There's a book and music store here that used to be on the outskirts of the Asian area of town. Used CDs from Japan showed up on a regular basis, and I often would take risks on them (and non-Japanese CDs, as well). One such risk was on this CD; I think it was either $4.79 or $5.59. See, the store prices most all of its used CD stock at $7.99 per disc. They use a letter & number system to track how long things have been sitting on the shelf, and prices used to drop in 10% increments the longer things sat (nowadays, the prices lose a dollar at a time).

As it turned out, it was ゆらゆら帝国's second album, and they'd released a buncha stuff since. The album was an interesting mix of garage rock, prog rock, and avant garde-isms like drum patterns pretty much lifted directly from early Captain Beefheart songs. It was really good! My friend Charlie was about to go to Japan for a business trip, so I asked him if he could check for their CDs while he was there. Shortly after he returned, a box appeared on my doorstep jam packed with ゆらゆら帝国 CDs.

O_O

I got worried; what if I ended up not liking them? With much trepidation, I opened one and put it in the player. It was great! Whew!! As I listened to the rest, they just got better and better!

Naturally, this put me on a quest to get the rest of their releases. I ended up spending a lot ordering their CDs from various on-line stores in Japan, as no one stocked them in the USA at the time. I'm not going to admit what I paid for it, but I paid probably at least three times as much as the second most expensive CD I've ever bought on a copy of this, their extremely rare first album. Not long after I bought it, ゆらゆら帝国 played their first ever shows outside of Japan. I drove 1,000 miles one way to see them, and it was totally worth it. I stayed with my friend James in Brooklyn for four days and got to see ゆらゆら帝国 twice! I also caught excellent shows by Alice Texas and by CocoRosie with Dirty Projectors opening.

Today's song comes from the limited edition single they issued prior to the release of their 2003 concurrently unleashed albums 『ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ』 and 『ゆらゆら帝国のめまい』. The former was their most out-there album yet, while the latter expressed their softer pop side. When I put the latter in the CD player for the first time, I thought it was a mispress and not the right disc, until the voice of leader and guitarist Shintaro Sakamoto appeared and allayed my fears.

『ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ』 featured today's song, but in a rather different arrangement. I had no idea that the single version was different until I decided, a few years later, to go ahead and snag the copy I found on-line of 『冷たいギフト／貫通』. I mean, it was not only a 3" CD (cute city!) but a double one, at that! In a tiny gatefold sleeve, even. It was also released on vinyl as a 10" single, but that's not nearly as adorable.

Interestingly, the video I later discovered for the song is, in addition to being super cool, the single version, rather than the album one. So, you can watch the video on YouTube, but you can't get the single unless you want to spend a fair chunk of change. Or you could just download today's song. ;-D

Sadly, ゆらゆら帝国 decided to part on friendly terms in 2010, as they felt they had accomplished all they could/wanted to as a band. Former leader Shintaro Sakamoto just released his first solo album, How to Live with a Phantom, in November of last year. I cannot wait to hear it!

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Translations:

• ゆらゆら帝国 = Yura Yura Teikoku = Swinging Empire
  
• 冷たいギフト = Tsumetai Gifuto = Cold Gift
  
• 貫通 = Kantsuu = Penetration
  
• ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ = Yura Yura Teikoku no Shibire = Numbness of Yura Yura Teikoku
  
• ゆらゆら帝国のめまい = Yura Yura Teikoku no Memai = Vertigo of Yura Yura Teikoku

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Axehandle "Pulp"

Axehandle
Axehandle
CDR
(self-released, 2003)

In honor of today being National Metal Day, or something, I will be featuring one of my favorite lesser-known metallic ensembles. On a side note, why the Hell is 11-11-11 a metal day? All I can think is because the numbers add up to 6, as in 666, the number of the beastie. But, if that's the reasoning, then today should be International Patrick McGoohan Day. Hmph.

Math time!

Don't'cha' love Venn Diagrams?

I do! Or, I should say, I did when I was a wee schoolboy. I think. That was a while ago.

Anyhow . . .

My friend Elizabeth, whom I've mentioned before, informed me sometime in the late '80s that she'd seen God. As it turned out, she meant she'd seen Avail play in Richmond, Virginia (an hour away) the night before. Embarrassed as I am to admit this, I have to admit I've never heard them. I've heard plenty of positive stuff about them, however, and Elizabeth generally has excellent taste. One day, I will check them out. I promise.

What does this have to do with anything?

Well, Richmond musician Erik Larson first made a name for himself as Avail's drummer, Erik Larson (see above diagram). Yes, I wrote that intentionally. I don't think he was playing with Avail when Elizabeth saw them, but that is beside the point, dammit. He went on to play guitar in the stoner metal band Alabama Thunderpussy, who were also from Richmond, which is not now, and has never been, in Alabama. Unless someone has been lying to me.

'Round about 2003, three fifths of ATP started the side project Axehandle (see above diagram). They toured a bit and released one album, the eponymously-titled Axehandle. They originally released it themselves as a professionally duplicated CDR, and I bought a copy when I saw them that year. Their setup was rather unique, I must add. The aforementioned Erik sang and played rhythm drums, ATP drummer Big Shirley (AKA Bryan Cox) played lead drums, and ATP guitarist Ryan Lake stood behind them, playing a single guitar (a Les Paul, if I remember correctly) through two massive Marshall stacks. It was awesome, so I bought their CDR. The CDR also turned out to be awesome, and Small Stone Records apparently agreed, as they did a proper release on regular, regulation CD the following year. I've chosen to use the cover from the CDR version above, though, as I bought it first, and I like it better than the new cover down here. A lot better, actually.

Tragically, Axehandle never released anything else. Tragically 2 (The Electric Boogaloo), they never released their horrific cover of Phil Collins' I Don't Care Anymore. Seriously, it was menacing as Hell when they performed it at that show. Lyrically, it fit right in with their other anger-and-psychosis-and-violence drenched material; it was a good fit percussively, as well.

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BTW, I saw Brass Castle for the first time that same night. They rapidly became my favorite local band, amidst a ton of great local bands, and will most definitely be featured here at some point.