Song We Like: #YFMU by BROTHRS

We have a long history with BROTHRS – we’ve been going to their shows, hanging out with them, interviewing hem for this podcast, and playing their music for a couple of years now. Goddamn these guys can write a song – bluegrass, rock, punk, funk, pop – they got it all. This is about that girl: “You Fucked Me Up.” Yes this girl fucked him up – but BROTHRS have written at least two great albums because of the implosion/explosion of a certain relationship. Featured on our #66 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.

https://wearebrothrs.bandcamp.com/

Song We Like: She by Rosiano Neko

Great Japanese punk rock. We’re into massive garage rock riffs, attitude – and a special bonus – we really love the male/female voice combination. That female voice adding melody to the grunts and groans of the male singer. This is perfect – especially the extra sweet and poppy vocals when the female singer grabs the mic. Featured on our #66 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.

Song We Like: For Sale by Not The Ones

Classic 1977 punk – influenced by The Damned, early The Clash and the Sex Pistols – this is a catchy as hell song about selling plasma to take out your honey, to throw the real world away again and head back out on tour. This is the month that I’ve been choosing all the songs – and this song I’ve probably played the most, just over and over and over. Featured on our #66 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.

Song We Like: Deluxe Electric Ninja Mistress by Daikaiju

Cinnamon loves instrumentals – but it takes a lot for me to go for a song without words to dig into and analyze and sing-a-long. Every element has to be fresh and inventive and full of emotion and catchy as all hell. Daikaiju are legends in the underground scene for these reasons – and that they love to jump over bonfires and like their guitars on fire. Featured on our #66 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.

Song We Like: IDK by Angry Lovers

Sometimes is seems as if the aim of underground music is to be strange and bewildering to the mainstream. So much so that when something this beautiful emerges out of the underground scene it feels like a rare flower. The singing is so gorgeous and the keyboard and drum machine beats are beautiful. Angry Lovers, playing with more mainstream sounds within the context of underground, are fresh and fun and wear their heart of their sleeve. Featured on our #66 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.

https://www.angryloversmusic.com

Ep 66 – Rosiano Neko, Angry Lovers, Daikaiju, Not the Ones, Brothrs

Best of the underground, week of August 13, 2019! Lots of great music, plus: should you sell plasma? And we try to think about sexy rock stars. Also, polyamorous relationships, again. (All podcasts are on itunes and spotify, and reviews plus podcasts are on our website, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.) We love you artists 💚

Band Management: Blog 33: Getting Back on that Horse…

I am managing “Band A” for the year. Often the escapades of “Band A” read like a shaggy dog story – but I promise you everything I write is true. It’s not been so bad: “Band A” are on a label (Kafadan Kontak Records), they’ve been played on the radio (KPSU), but they’re impossible to manage over the summer – so they haven’t been together for two months. This week they played twice in three days, including a three-hour 27-song set at the The Town Pump Tavern.
Their warm-up show was Wednesday night at The Odditorium, with 8 songs, which lasted about 20 minutes. It was fine – they have that spirit when they’re all on the same track. However, apart from the singer and the drummer – visually speaking – the show was a little bland. “Band A” has been known for costumes and stage props, but they brought nothing. The opening band, the Skewed Collective, had a guitarist with no shirt, a bondage mask, and played his guitar with a violin bow. Can’t tell you about their songs – but great visuals. 
I lay awake that night thinking how everything has to be art, everything has to touch this primal creative energy, and that every show has to be massive entertainment. I guess I wasn’t the only one. On Friday night “Band A” had painted 5 extra-large Chinese lanterns to look like eyeballs and brought two screens which showed loops of 1950’s noir movies and Stanley Kubrick movies.
The show was a bit wiggy – a little madness in the air. I wore my lewd t-shirt that Hotdoggrrrl and the Sesame Buns sent me, which probably added to the chaos. The show went over really well with the packed house. $68 in the tip jar, plus another $150 from the establishment. And this part is absolutely true – some guy in the crowd proclaimed he was a music promoter and that the lead singer for “Band A” had sung with the B-52s in the late 90s when Cindy Wilson took time off – and this was her new band. 
Something was off with the band. For a group of nice civil people, something touched wildness. If you ask people to invest 100% in an artistic enterprise – and as an artist you have to be that committed – this is dangerous territory. I don’t think art is always good for mental health, with the ups and downs. An artist is challenged to be totally true and unguarded and show this to the world – to be truly vulnerable. 
Oh I am looking forward to sending “Band A” on the road this fall to Franklin, Morganton, Greenville and Johnson City. Especially Johnson City. Johnson City is pure madness…. 

Band Management: Blog 32: Kick Starting A Revolution

Joshua Edward Keyes of Bandcamp said that everything new comes from the underground. The establishment, the corporations, create no new concepts ever. 
For all the underground artists – these last few years have been both long and the blink of an eye. Five years ago you could count the Asheville bands that played punk rock, underground, indie, surf, garage rock on one hand. The Stump Muttswere a rarity. The Lords of Chicken Hill were shocking. Bands and great music rose up and crashed down like tectonic plates of the earth. Something like that. The euphoria of a stunning show and then the crash and confusion of everyday living. 
So this is the work now. To create the best body of art. Because this is what will define the movement. Punk Rock is thought to be defined by 1977, by the first 100 days at the Roxy in London, when the look and the sound were settled. But The Ramones first album was out in 1976 and those short garage rock songs were the handbook for the punk sound. The provocative nature of punk was created through the live performances of the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, MC5, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. 
So, what comes out of this underground art movement happens now. We choose the look. We choose the sound. We choose the artwork. We chose the language. We choose the images and photographs. 
And I bought a boombox – bright red – kind of small. I hear there is a guy at Sly Grog Lounge who can help me make a cassette. I am going to put a collection of my favorite underground songs – with the bands permission – and walk up and down Haywood – playing the sounds of the underground. Holy Crap Records Podcast Radio. Now I have a radio show. One cassette. 
I was hanging out at “Band As” practice this week.Kafadan Kontak Records has asked them to cover “Johnny” by Suicide. At it’s core is a rudimentary blues chord progression and lyrics about Johnny going out and looking for trouble. A droning E chord and a grinding drum loop. Now “Band A” is messing around with adding a Joy Division bass line, more melody, and maybe a third verse… Maybe this is the sound of the underground…

Song We Like: I Don’t Mind by Fixed Faces

One part Rolling Stones and one part Rod Stewart and one part Dead Boys – that’s a perfect mix for great garage rock. Stop-start beauty and then a great sign-along chorus. And I don’t mind where you spend your time – which is about as nice and a romantic statement you could say to your sweetheart. Featured on our #65 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.