Jad Fair "Another Silent Night"

Jad Fair
Everyone Knew . . . but Me
LP
(Press Records, 1983)

I saw ½ Japanese, who featured Jad Fair on vocals and guitar, open for the Dead Kennedys when I was 17. Based on that performance, I was firmly convinced they were the worst band on Earth. Later, I was shocked to discover they had a 7" single out! I mean, someone was stupid enough to put out a record of that? They just made a buncha noise, and, out of six people on stage, only one of them appeared to know how to play his guitar, and he looked all of 14 (he, Mark Jickling, was actually quite a bit older than me)!

I didn't know at the time that the single, Spy, was from a full-length album, Loud, now on CD with the b-sides from the aforementioned single plus the also excellent Horrible EP. Or that Loud had been preceded by a couple of 7" records, a couple of cassettes, and a triple-LP box set, 1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts!

Jad and his brother David founded ½ Japanese in 1974. David wrote the majority of the songs in those early years, so I guess that's why Jad started doing solo releases. Jad's solo songs gravitate mainly towards love, mostly unrequited, and monster/horror movie themes; today's song, Another Silent Night, is one of the former. Musically, the album veers from noise collages to frantic anti-rock to beautiful sadness. As far as I know, it is the only of his solo albums to never see reissue, in CD or any other form. That's a damn shame.

NOTE: There was a follow-up, of sorts, to this song called 1,000,000 Kisses on the 1988 ½ Japanese album Charmed Life.

Tormentor "Branded with Satan"

Tormentor The Seventh Day of Doom CD (H.L.K. Prod., 1997)

It musta really bit to have been a rock'n'roll band behind the Iron Curtain. I would think it was probably completely illegal when Tormentor started, though I could be wrong. Today's song is from their 1987 demo tape, which was officially reissued on CD in 1997 in Italy. I've also seen a pirated CD version with a solid black cover and the band name written in white in a completely different font. I'm guessing the sound quality here is kinda crap due to probably not being recorded under ideal conditions. Or maybe the CD was just mastered from a crummy copy of the tape. I EQ'd it a tiny bit to lessen the mud; hope you don't mind.

I Almost Saw God in the Metro "Surveillance"

I Almost Saw God in the Metro
The Sound I Want to Make Is Only in My Head
CDR
(Cracked Egg, 2003)

I found the debut CDR EP by these folks in the bargain bin at my fave local store. It turned out they were locals and a power trio of guitar, synths and drums. The bass end of things was usually held down by the guy who plays just keyboardy things (the guitarist/vocalist also played synths), and I love deep, rumbling, dense synth drone in r'n'r. All of the songs on the EP were on the follow-up album featuring today's song, so I passed it along as a gift to a friend. I never really listened to stuff like Gary Numan (love the song Cars, though), but I imagine fans would find something here of appeal. They released one more album on their own Cracked Egg label, this time on pressed CDs, Silver Dust of the Funk Age, then disappeared, though I did see MiniMoog man Zachary Hollback later play with the rather completely different (but also good) Brodie Stove.

Nutchild "+[.o.] . i ° .3 . ° . ."

Nutchild Nutchild CD (self-released, 2000?)

I found this bizarre CD in the free bin at my favorite local store around a decade ago. There was no info other than the artist name on the cover, song titles on the back in spidery handwriting mixing letters and symbols with little regard to standard capitalization, and an e-mail address. I sent him a fan mail and he responded, but I lost it long ago when I moved my e-mail from one platform to another. I just did a search, though, and found his website. It's jam packed with some pretty amazing artwork, sculptures, and tattoos. Plus, if you poke around, you can find samples of more songs from this CD plus another called Ignakiiiatussin Epilektum, though I'm not sure that it's been released in physical form.

The Freeze "Paranoia"

The Freeze
In Colour
7" EP
(A. 1. Records, 1979)

No, this is not the hardcore band from Boston. This particular The Freeze were late '70s punkers from wee Scotland. They only released a couple of 7" records in their lifetime, and, while they're good records, they're more historically significant for being transgender warrior Gordon Sharp's band prior to Cindytalk, whom I featured back in July. Not to denigrate The Freeze, mind you. I think this is a pretty sharp tune. HA! Pun not intended.

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I've added a download button so songs can now be downloaded or streamed, as you wish. I plan on retroactively adding it to the preceding posts, but there are 140 or so of 'em, so don't expect it to be done overnight.

^_^