Pachinko - Who Shaved Pachinko?

 

Label: Rhetoric

Year: 1995

Aren't 5" records such a hoot? Is it anyone's favorite format of choice? No?

Yeah.

But is it weird that this funky 'lil platter (Spazz ref!) is pound for pound my favorite Pachinko record? Cause I think it is. Three songs, one of which is an Andy Kaufman diatribe set to music, all blown the fuck out noise rock boils. 

Also of note, wasn't it weird that Rhetoric Records bifurcated their discography between pop punk types (Boris The Sprinkler, Zoinks!, and Horace Pinker) and super heavy noisy types (Pachinko, Floor, and Ninefinger)? I did.

DL

Lowercase - Cadence

 Label: Amphetamine Reptile

Year: 1995

I think Lowercase categorized themselves as "slow-core noise rock", but if not, they could. I just typed it, so there are the words should they want to grab them and use them. Free of charge. Or they could rearrange those four words and say the same thing a slightly different way. Totally up to Lowercase.

What do those four words sound like? Legit question. I would throw bands like Codeine, Native Nod, Unwound, and maybe a sleepy version of Godheadsilo. 

It's good. It wouldn't be here if it wasn't. You trust me, right?

DL

Loveslug - Coyote Date / Quest For Fire

 

Label: Glitterhouse

Year: 1990

A Dutch band that I honestly don't recall how/when I came across, but they operated for a couple of years at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. They did splits with both Skin Yard and The Fluid, which actually should give you a decent sense of what they sound like. Unabashed rock-n-roll with some of that grungy muck applied just to keep them honest.

Two songs, recorded two years apart, which is sort of weird for a band that put out three albums between 1988-1991, but, they are Dutch, and Dutch things skew...weird.

Tony Leeuwenburch, who was in first wave hardcore bands The Nitwitz and B.G.K., (and apparently also Fitz Of Depression) helms this group.

DL

Milkmine / Liquor Bike - Split

 

Label: Merkin

Year: 1993

Two bands, one song each, you're in and out in under seven minutes. No big commitments.

Even though Milkmine get top billing per the official title of the release, Liquor Bike start things off. And they start off in a convincingly rocking way, that channels some of the proto-punk that Mudhoney would hone, with some of the gonzo rock that Fluid liked to traffick in, and some of the post punk by way of garage rock that a band like Gaunt might make. All american good rock music that is played on some bizarro world FM radio classic rock station somewhere as we speak (right after the 18th airing of 'La Grange'...not that I'm complaining).

Milkmine round out the proceedings with a punishing double bass (the stringed instruments, not the drummer's foot pedal) boogie bummer lumber, that should sound like noise rock mating calls to the sweaty and bespeckled amongst you (us). You'll like it. I do, and you seem to like me. Although "like" may be a strong word.

DL

Thirty Ought Six - Eris

Label: C/Z

Year: 1994

Two songs, two pretty perfect examples of that sound when basement emo graduated into the college town bar. Assuming you feel that's matriculation. Maybe you don't, and maybe you would have a good point. 

My point though, is that Thirty Ought Six has some of those mid-90's emo vestiges, the flailing dynamism, the punk energy, and the emotional earnestness that made seeing Braid in a basement so much fun. But, they had a vocal and musical maturity that rounded off some of the jagged edges that kept those bands in the basement and out of the public domain. Not that those bands really cared, and not that Thirty Ought Six is a household name, but they were swinging for the fences a little harder than some of their peers. 

Try it out, and maybe that ramble above will add up to something approximating a cognizant thought. You tell me. I really liked this band a lot thought, I thought they were getting into that Boilermaker and Castor territory of emo perfection. Bands who played their fair share of basements, by the by.

DL