Where is the love for this stack of weirdo late '80s U.S. indie rock LPs?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Viv Akauldren - Witness
SWA - Arroyo
Zoogz Rift - Looser Than Clams ... A Historical Retrospective (Greatest Hits, Vol. 1)
Erik Lindgren - Polar Yet Tropical
Laughing Soup Dish - We Are the Dish
Plan 9 - Ham and Sam Jammin'
Party Boys - Daddyland
Brent Wilcox - Executive Lullabies
David Thomas and the Wooden Birds - Blame the Messenger*
Mooseheart Faith - s/t
Demo Moe - Demolish N.Y.C.

* I have seen some love for this on ILM

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 00:19 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and Sylvia Juncosa - Nature

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

Can speak to Viv Akauldren...saw 'em a couple of times (once opening for the Laughing Hyenas in a cafeteria at Eastern Michigan)...interesting band. Thought they were actually better live than on record, from what I remember (been a LONG time since I've heard that thing). Kinda bent psychish stuff that had some bite...singer was a freakshow who moved to Berlin to professionally busk (I'm not kidding)...last I heard in about 98 or 99, that was still the gameplan.

― Kwame Kilpatrick, Monday, 5 December 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

I recall Zoogz Rift making the rounds as an Internet huckster back around '93, '94. I'm sure he's still out there somewhere.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

What was he huckstering?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

I used to own the vinyl of that Zoogz Rift. I really liked it. And in amongst all the weirdness, a good, straight cover of "High Fidelity."

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

What was he huckstering?

Himself, of course!

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

There's been some pretty heavy debate over the years as to which one of Zoogz Rift, SWA or Sylvia Juncosa was the worst artist ever released by SST. Myself, I go for the Leaving Trains.

I used to own records by Viv Akauldren and Plan 9 but remember little of them.

The David Thomas is good (not that I've played it in a decade). I think it was basically the reformed Pere Ubu (w/ Chris Cutler on drums), they just weren't using the name yet.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:49 (twenty years ago)

Laughing Soup Dish (LSD! Get it? Har har har!) were a fairly harmless Jersey Shore psych band. All through my high school / college days they were hanging around like bad pennies. The best thing I ever saw them do live was a cover of "Interstellar Overdrive". The best recording I ever heard by them was on the Shadowmouth compilation - what was that track called? "Standing on a Beach" I think?

If I recall correctly, they were active in the mid-80s, and that We Are the Dish LP was a "comeback" of sorts. I had a casssette they put out on the Cool Beans tape label in '88, which was their foray back onto the scene after some inactivity. But when Monster Magnet appeared in '89 the Dish immediately became irrelevant as local torchbearers of psychedelia.

Zoogz Rift always struck me as a substandard Zappa impersonator. Worst SST LP? October Faction.

If you really want to get obscure you'll tell me all about Standard of Living.

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 5 December 2005 02:52 (twenty years ago)

Party Boys the one on IPR right?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 5 December 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

Yes, though the Daddyland LP was on Fundamental. Marnie Weber, who I think did the Sonic Youth A Thousand Leaves album cover, was in this band.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 03:19 (twenty years ago)

Brent Wilcox is kind of IPR-related, too. He was in a group called Neef who did a single w/ Bruce Licher playing. He also had an EP out on Happy Squid.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 03:30 (twenty years ago)

I've been checking out a lot of Crawlspace recently. Think they did a split with Mooseheart Faith. Are they comparable?

― Mestema (davidcorp), Monday, 5 December 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

Is that Viv Akauldren album the one with 'Looking At You' on it? That's a pretty good record that, I liked it quite a lot. I remember they seemed to have a little Chrome in them, a weirdo outsider sci-fi vibe going on.

Never got to hear Demo Moe, would like to know a bit more about them.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 5 December 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

Mooseheart Faith are more of a weirdo psych pop band. Todd Homer from the Angry Samoans is one of the main guys in it. Their first LP (that self-titled one) is very ramshackle sounding.

Demo Moe were a high energy free rock band with vocals. They sound sort of like Blue Humans but with more kind of shouty hardcore vocals.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

Zoogz is still out there:

http://www.zoogzrift.4mg.com/

― mike a, Monday, 5 December 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

> Is that Viv Akauldren album the one with 'Looking At You' on it?<

Yeah. I didn't like an earlier album of theirs that I heard as much.

Edward III, if you knew Laughing Soup Dish, did you know Secret Syde as well? I wish I still had their album.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, actually I think there's a Secret Syde website out there somewhere. The Straight Satans were pretty cool, too - Jon Davies band after Secret Syde went kaput.

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

Zoogz was very active on the alt.music.alt3rnativ3 usenet group in the mid-90s, before ILM, and a lot of e-mail discussion lists took off. He's kinda unforgettable in that way alone, but moreso in his music.

Did he and John Trubee ever collaborate?

― dali madison's nut (donut), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

This is more of a like-not-love stack, in my ear's memory.

― don, Monday, 5 December 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

Well, duh....

http://secretsyde.com

Looks like they've reformed as well.

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

Ah, and the upcoming issuing of the heretofore unreleased second album, Erebus. I look forward to this.

I used to think they were an English group because I had the reissue of their album on that English label and because they had a song called "Drury Lane" and maybe because of the guy's voice.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, they were probably bigger in Europe than they ever were over here. Heavy anglophile sound.

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 5 December 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

-- dali madison's nut

Well, I remember that Trubee had a minor spoken-word skit ("Man, Zoogz's band gets worse all the time!") on Rift's Island Of Living Puke LP, which I used to own, if that counts.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 5 December 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

I found this on another forum:
______________________________________________________________________
The countdown clock for the release of "Erebus" may have been ticking on and off for the last twenty years, but today we do have a rather important announcement to make. December 24th will be a day of moderate Secret Syde history making.
The track "Daniel and Dottie" off of Erebus will become the first track available for download on the Secret Syde's website. With Erebus' release finally somewhere on the Horizone, the decision has been made to post the track on the wesbite on December 24th, 2005. The download will be free, and it will also be available on the Secret Syde's MySpace Music Profile. (http://www.myspace.com/secretsydenj) We ask, however, that you do not download the track, we hope that you will alert all your friends who like punk/ metal music to visit the site, listen to the track, and then await the release of Erebus.
Consider this a Christmas gift from the Secret Syde!
______________________________________________________________________

I am looking forward to this, is a comeback in the future? I heard some of the members tour with Josh Zuckerman now.

― SoRedtheRose, Thursday, 15 December 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

the drummer from secret syde looked like weird al yankovich

― Yagoo, Thursday, 22 December 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.