Drive Like Jehu shirts

So someone made these lovely DIY Drive Like Jehu shirts.  I think Swami Records should sell them in the Merch Lackey store…

Six Finger Satellite’s Influence on Daft Punk’s Homework?

Six Finger Satellite–Rabies (Baby’s Got the)

Six Finger Satellite’s 1995 album “Severe Exposure,” specifically the song “Rabies (Baby’s Got the)” may have influenced Daft Punk’s 1996 single Da Funk, which is also featured on their  Homework album from 1997.  How you may ask?  Check out the keyboard stabs in Da Funk–conceptually similar to this arpeggiated keyboard part/stab in Rabies–then especially, check out that high pitched keyboard sound in Rabies–the notes played are similar to that main winding keyboard riff in Da Funk, it’s just that the riff in Da Funk has a little more frills.  And notice how the keyboard sound in the first few seconds of Rabies (also used to echo the main bassline periodically after :50 seconds in the song) sounds alot like the keyboard sound used for the main melody/winding keyboard part of Da Funk and a sound used alot on Daft Punk’s Human After All album.  I’m not saying these parts sound exactly the same, but that both feature conceptually similar keyboard stabs and winding synth parts with very similar notes.  They also both feature steady beats–a little more rock in Rabies,  still dancey/disco-ish,  and a little bit more straightforward dance/funk in Da Funk.

Daft Punk obviously listened to lots of weird 70s music, disco, electronic, experimental music (see all the music they sampled for Discovery and Human After All and the songs they picked for their Electroma movie), and I would not be surprised if they may have heard about this weird American band Six Finger Satellite that was making weird 70s-ish punk-electronic hybrid punk dance music in 1995 through friends, the press, or college radio, and having eclectic experimental tastes, may have picked up the album and been impressed with Rabies, which may have consciously or subconsciously influenced Da Funk.  What do you think?  On first listen, you may think, “These sound nothing alike.”  But keep your ear open for the conceptual similarities of the keyboard stabs, and the conceptual similarity of the notes of the main winding keyboard parts/main melody and the steady drum beats–conceptually they’re pretty similar in structure and intent.  Interestingly, the soundman for Six Finger Satellite, James Murphy, would go on to start LCD Soundsystem, and would end up making a song “Daft Punk is Playing at My House,” so you can see that there are definitely some conceptual and music shared roots there.

Daft Punk–Da Funk

Don Caballero, American Don tour, Fireside Bowl, Chicago, 1999, entire show (1 hour)

The crowning achievement of Western music to date, Don Caballero on the American Don tour.  Here’s the whole show.  Fireside Bowl, Chicago, 1999.  Please, if anyone has footage of the Fucking Champs show that accompanies this, let me know!!!

Shiny Beast CD–Stop Looking at Us…We’re Waving Goodbye–best unreleased music/reissue from the 90s!

Shiny Beast…imagine a mix between Killing Technology-era Voivod and the Jesus Lizard with Germbox and Drive Like Jehu and mathier-Black Flag/Greg Ginn, you get the idea!  FINALLY they have a reissue compilation filled with unreleased tracks etc–37 tracks long!  The first 11 are from the Boner Records session and adds like 7 new, fantastic tracks from that era.  Also includes the Regraped split material–sounds like the remastered this or something, sounds way better than I remember the 12″ sounding–and a live show!  The guitarist David Sullivan is in the awesome band Red Fang (which is opening for Mastodon on their latest tour) and drummer Brian Walsby does comics etc)…

Buy it at Interpunk.com: Shiny Beast

Shiny Beast–Lodestar (not even one of their best, I’ll try to upload something better to youtube later!)

Justice–Civilization (Fucking Champs remix)

Justice–Civilization (Fucking Champs remix)

All we can say is, wow! The Fucking Champs made this song like 100x better! Champs/Justice/Daft Punk album/world tour???

The Key to Learning Two-Handed Tapping on Guitar

I’d been trying to learn two-handed tapping on guitar due to liking bands like Don Caballero and Maps and Atlases, this great new-to-me band Adebisi Shank, Marnie Stern, Hella, etc, and of course Van Halen etc but could never figure it out. I watched this video http://www.jamplay.com/guitar-lessons/full/basics-of-tapping-111.html and it taught me what I was missing! Basically, I was missing that you can “flick” the string to play a note you’re holding down, and you can flick it at a different fret than the note you’re currently fretting, at a fret that you’ll play later–so say you’re holding down the 3rd fret on the high e string, you can flick the high e with your right hand finger at the 12th fret to play the string, it will play the note of the fret you’re holding down such as the 3rd fret, then you can hammer on the fifth fret with your left hand, then with your right hand you can press down at the 12th fret or whatever for a cool two-hand tap triplet of the 3-5-12 notes. Anyway, I had been missing that “flick” motion to play notes, I had though you were supposed to sound certain notes by just hammering on, but the “flick” while actually holding down the note actually sounds a lot better. I would try to just hammer on say a 3rd fret instead of flicking the string first and it wouldn’t sound good or wouldn’t make any noise at all!

Picture of Ian Williams from:

Live Skull–Rare and Unreleased tracks

Live Skull–Broken Strings (unreleased live at Folk City NYC 1983)

I’ll be adding some Live Skull rare and unreleased tracks here…here’s the first, an unreleased track from 1983 at Folk City, live, I’ve entitled it “Broken Strings” based on some stage patter from Mark C (someone apparently broke three of the strings on his guitar while he was away from the stage!!! If you’re unfamiliar, Live Skull is only one of the best bands of the 80s, sort of the unknown twin to Sonic Youth and just as good, Bringing Home the Bait and Cloud One were just as good if not better at times (though less poppy so less “universally accessible”) than Sister and Daydream Nation. A little more harsh, etc.

Live Skull–Broken Strings (unreleased live at Folk City NYC 1983).mp3
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2MAVCTCB

Metallica Copied/Influenced By Christian Death’s song “First Communion” for “Battery” on Master of Puppets; Neurosis–Souls at Zero

Christian Death: Cavity–First Communion

Metallica: Battery

So Metallica totally copied (or were heavily influenced by, I think) the musical progression in the chorus and main verse of Christian Death’s song “Cavity–First Communion” off of Christian Death’s amazing “Only Theatre of Pain” album (1984) for the intro of Metallica’s song “Battery” off of their equally amazing “Master of Puppets” album (1986)…it’s like they took the progression and made it acoustic, with a few more frills…Also, the intro to Metallica’s One off of And Justice for All and Metallica’s Sanitarium, also on Master of Puppets, both echo the intro to Chrisitian Death’s Mysterium Inquitatis, also on Only Theatre of Pain, sonically…and the very beginning guitar on Sanitarium of course is nearly identical to the intro guitar of Yes’ Rounadbout, you can listen to them both at the same time, I compared them on YouTubeDoubler.

Christian Death: Mysterium Inquitatis

Metallica: One

Metallica: Sanitarium

Yes–Roundabout

Neurosis: Souls at Zero.

So I just listened to Neurosis’ Souls at Zero album for the first time in years…and it’s really, really good! It’s kind of like a mix between heavy metal like Black Sabbath and Metallica mixed with indie/experimental/postpunk like Joy Division, Drive Like Jehu, Live Skull, Sonic Youth, Killing Joke, King Crimson, and Voivod, along with ambient and folk touches (trumpets! cellos!). Experimental and prog metal has become much more prominent these days, and Neurosis are sort of like the godfathers of the whole modern experimental metal scene, way ahead of their time. Some of this sounds actually like the great Christian Death record “Only Theatre of Pain” which is a touchstone for many indie/postpunk/metal bands in their sound, mixed with Voivod and Black Sabbath.

Above is one of their really good songs, “Souls at Zero”…which even samples tie fighters!!! How cool is that! This song especially sounds like Christian Death’s Cavity–First Communion…which was copied by Metallica on the first song on Master of Puppets for the intro to the song Battery!!! Even lots of Sonic Youth and Drive Like Jehu reflect a huge influence of Christian Death’s amazing Only Theatre of Pain album…like Death Ride 69 and Step On Chameleon (that whole blood! part, the yelling, the harmonics, the octave chords, etc)…

Drive Like Jehu covered by…The Deftones????

I am a huge Drive Like Jehu fan…surprisingly, the Deftones (I always think of them as some nu-metal band I wouldn’t like) have come out with what I think is a pretty good cover of the Drive Like Jehu song Caress!!! I mean, I wish Rick Froberg and John Reis would rock out like this still! Part of the key is, they never, ever had another band with a drummer as colossally good as Mark Trombino…

The Art of Rick Fork–Headhunter Records ads, Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt, etc

In the 1990s San Diego was a happening place for a few indie, punk, and postpunk bands, some of the most notable were Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt, and Pitchfork.  Many were on a label Headhunter Records. Singer/guitarist/artist Rick Fork/Rick Froberg/Rick Farr did the art for a lot of these bands and Headhunter Records ads.  Here are some scans of some of the art he did for Headhunter Records including ads for Drive Like Jehu and Rocket from the Crypt. Some of the scans were contributed by Paul Stanley and Jeffrey from the Swami Records forum. ..