Touch & Go 25th C/S/D

Guy who hit my wife in the head with a baseball bat

What the FUCK? Jesus. Sorry to hear it. Hope she's doing OK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu9lUbf5GQ0

can't wait for tomorrow!!

regards,
A very jealous Limey

Me - in Buckinghamshire, UK.

[sob]

When's this show coming to Hull, England you bunch of tossers?

Killdozer: Classic
Negative Approach: Classic
Scratch Acid: Profoundly, Amazingly Classic
Big Black: Deep, Life-Altering Classicness. 4 songs from the Pezzati era, WITH Pezzati (and Durango, of course). I was a little surprised, being that I expected to see Riley. They did Cables, Dead Billy, Racer-X, and one more I can't recall the title of.

Didgits: Dud.
Country-Folky guy before N/A: Dud.

Shellac: So-so.
The Ex: Good, considering they lost their bassist, it seems.

Jesus. Was any of this filmed, or taped even?

(Shut it you smug Chitown fux
regards,
A very jealous west coaster)

i heard big black had some minor bloopers during their set...

the fact that some loser called them "dud" is laughable. get the fuck out Chicago and go back to whatever east coast or west coast city ya came from, cheese.

http://static.flickr.com/81/239067231_bd5a08c834.jpg?v=0

looks distant, but I was fairly close. shitty old school digital camera. anyway, Mr. Sims on the right holding his bass at angle familiar to anyone who has seen this titan live during his Jesus Lizard tenure. Yow doing ... something, in the middle of the shot.

you've got issues.

I'm as surprised as you are

uh, the comment is in jest. and in the spirit of the event (you never read Albini in 90s zines? oh, of course you didn't n00b.) and you are a gay creepy internet weirdo so get away.

Not in the least.

but why didn't you attend the show? Rick Didjit gave his all for Rock and Roll, a true hero, and you didn't even show up :-( :-(

you make baby jesus cry and you forgot 9/11

It's only the 10th, Stormy.

Some Albini nuggets from the Big Black set:

"I know, I know - you're all probably wondering, what's the big deal? Trust me, it was cooler in the '80s."

"Rock history tends to skip from the Sex Pistols to Nirvana."

"Touch & Go was the best thing to happen to rock and roll in my lifetime."

Also: Scratch Acid were awesome.

Random observation: Shellac may be the only band on Touch & Go that sounds like a Touch & Go band.

Rob, how early will you be there today?

http://file-transfer.org/tmp/tg_sa.jpg

http://file-transfer.org/tmp/tg_bb.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylLRxWs7BGU

When Albini said "it was cooler in the 80s" a guy walking out of the lot nearby shouted "no it wasn't, you still haven't learned to use a microphone since then either!" Stupid, but funny.

Old vs. young punkers during Negative Approach was hilarious. The old guys were doubled over out of breath halfway through the set.

Today I am all over the Monorchid and Three Mile Pilot.

Killdozer: Fond memories of these guys, many laughs. What was that cover -- Canned Heat or Z.Z. Top? Albini was right in front of me and was having a blast. He was totally loving it. Glad to see him in the front row with us lumpen, while the VIP turds were segregated to the other side of the fence, apparently feeling superior that they could stare at the band's asses. I have to say I was satisfied with my dose of Killdozer after 25 minutes and wandered over to the food -- it's a thrill even to have them in the background as I eat Jambalaya.

Didjits: I had a couple of their records but was never a fan. I prefer the Dickies. I have to say Sims is a better performer and guitar player than last time I saw them 13 years ago, but they're still just a minor player on the T&G roster, alongside early Urge Overkill.

I saw a few minutes of P.W. Long, but am not too interested in his solo stuff. Why didn't Mule play? They were a great live band. Saw three Negative Approach tunes, and felt compelled to secure a good spot for Scratch Acid. Sally Timms set was really short but she was charming and lovely, autumnal and even a little spooky. At least until Langford came on and hammed it up. As dusk was settling in and the grey clouds and grimy skyline darkened, it was a great mood setter. Made me want to listen to some Comus and Fairport Convention.

Scratch Acid: I'm not sure if Yow still drinks. They opened with "She Said" and for a while I thought he was not only drunk, but positively insane -- at one point it seemed like he was attacking an audience member. I'm not sure what was going on there, but he seemed as dangerous and unpredictable as some of my favorite highlights of the dozen Jesus Lizard shows I'd seen. If he doesn't drink anymore, he did a great job of whipping himself into a frenzy. Other times when he wasn't moving around as much, he looked more small and frail than he seemed back in the early 90s in the small clubs. The band was great, and incredibly loud. I was a little too close to the left speaker stack, even with earplugs. While they're no match for the rhythmic juggernaut of the J.L., I wasn't too disappointed that Jesus Lizard didn't play, as Scratch Acid had a lurching, woozy quality that I had always wished I could have witnessed live, and finally have. I can die in peace now. Oh, not yet, there's Big Black. Man Or Astroman are great, but no one was budging from their hard-fought spots, so I didn't get to hear them up close.

Big Black: It's frustrating that they had such a short set. Shellac are touring -- and they usually play a couple times a year, so I'd rather have had a full Big Black set. But with Shellac duties, they just didn't have time to rehearse a full set, understandably. It's too bad -- I think the Big Black material is far better than Shellac's. Even with the venerable Roland drum machine, they sounded fresher than ever, especially compared to the twee mixes of the albums (a friend remixed them for himself to sound more appropriately brutal -- I told him he should have brought a copy and given it to Albini). That "knife" guitar sound combined with those crazy, angry lyrics, totally fucking classic.

Shellac were a bit of a letdown after that excitement. My ears and feet couldn't take anymore, so we headed to Ear Wax for some dinner. Kind of wanted to see Arcwelder and Seam today, but it's rainy, and anything after last night would be anti-climactic.

At least these old punkers probably had a lot better sense of history than these ageist kids now do (and I see a lot of that idiotic shit on this board: over a certain age, you necessarily suck, musically and otherwise). Ig and Lou always got their props in the day, not to mention their own predecessors (e.g., Link Wray, about whom Albini raved plenty in the 80s).

Nevertheless, I found moshing to be stupid when I was 18, and now that I'm over 2x that age, I think it's even stupider when guys my age or older do it.

I'm nerdishly interested in this. Has he put them online anywhere, or does he intend to?

Joker Express
You know you're ridin' the Joker Express
You should be ridin' the Joker Express
You know you're ridin' the Joker Express

You're so bad, man
Got bad stacks, man
You're the king of bogus central
You're so wild, man
Tiger child, man
Hanging' outside of my window

You think you are so bad
You should own your own personal army
But you know your daddy's gonna spank your
Naked behind

You're so bad, man
Got bad stacks, man
You're the king of bogus central
You're so wild, man
Tiger child, man
Hanging' outside of my window

Joker Express
You know you're ridin' the Joker Express
You should be ridin' the Joker Express
You know you're ridin' the Joker Express

Danny was a honkey boy
Living in the Negro neighborhood
His boyfriend worked part time at the
N-O-T-E-L-L Notell Motel

You think you are so bad
You should own your own personal army
But you know your daddy's gonna spank your
Naked behind

You're so bad, man
Got bad stacks, man
You're the king of bogus central
You're so wild, man
Tiger child, man
Hanging' outside of my window
You're so bad
You're so bad

Joker Express
You know you're ridin' the Joker Express
You should be ridin' the Joker Express
You know you're ridin' the Joker Express

Danny was a honkey boy
Living in the Negro neighborhood
His boyfriend worked part time at the
N-O-T-E-L-L Notell Motel

www.sucks-rules.com/090906.mp3

(are all Dereks pirates?)

Not yet, but will see if he wants to.

My friends found big black to be underwhelming and thought it seemed like alibin and co. werent really into it.

Big Black sure as hell were into it. Albini probably said he was reluctant for lack of time to put together a set and whatever reasons, but he put out. He seemed bored in Shellac shows of recent years, but here he was electrified. Pezzati as into it. Santiago Durango may have been a little out of practice, but it all fucking worked. It was awesome. Those friends were probably standing away from the crowd with their arms folded.

Too bad the Hyenas didn't play.

what happened with the Monorchid then?

Hardware broke. Band became disheartened and called it.

NFW, shoes. Strictly a Badger thing that respectable Illinoisans avoid. I'm told they (the curds, that is) squeak when eaten. Gah!

The few times I had curds in Madison, they were just like cottage cheese as finger-food. Kinda bland. Inoffensive. Local bars would serve fries with melted curds on top. I didn't try that, tho.

Also kinda suprised/disappointed that recordings haven't shown up on the torrent sites yet...

Also, I am still amazed at the pile of cats spotted before getting to the Hideout.

Are you serious? If so, okay, NOW I'm REALLY mad I didn't go. Thanks.

...Did they play "Just Got Paid"?

Hey Judester!!!!

Cops ride Segways in Chicago.

Is it just me, or do their albums just get worse and worse? Adored "Featuring 'Birds'", and liked each subsequent album less. Hm.

http://www.southern.com/southern/label/TCH/chicagoreader/butthole.html

I only counted one BHS shirt the whole day. What nerve! But um, yes, I was counting shirts. The oddest was Clay Aiken (2), everybody seemed to have the new Scratch Acid shirt (which I think looks awful). Lots of Big Black & Shellac shirts. I can go on if you want.

Wonder if Michael Gerald can take some time off his well paid legal job to tour Europe? I'm guessing not.

Say you're accused of murdering your wife and the case against you is pretty good - who do you go with: Durango or Gerald?

Looks like the Big Black & Scratch Acid audio is up here:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=111839

Oh, did anybody mention the cheeseburgers? They were good.

Check it out :
http://www.smrh.com/attorneys/bios/bio.cfm?attorneyid=781

Is this off the soundboard or a shitty hand-held, d'you know? Torrents are such a goddamned pain, what with everyone's "board" and "rules" and "ratios" and such bullshit. (e.g. Indietorrents. What a bunch of wannabe-nazi wankers. I dunno this particular board, though.) I don't want to waste time with a stupid torrent unless it's a half-decent recording.

Also, I loved the New Year and was reminded how much I miss Bedhead.

sleeve, did you happen to catch these on dad?

Graystone Hall, Detroit, MI
11/16/85
Killdozer / Scratch Acid / Butthole Surfers
11/17/85
Big Black / Butthole Surfers

Die Kruezen opened the second show, but they weren't recorded. What an awesome pair of shows. Kramer was playing bass for the Surfers, too.

Sounds like someone couldn't figure out how to keep their ratio up.

My cynicism owes to the fact that I did figure out how to keep my ``ratio'' up: Seed a bunch of popular crap. That meant I had to first download said tripe. Thanks, but no thanks. Meanwhile, Azureus was causing kernel panics on my Mac, Tomato was a blizzard of ugly windows, and the barely-usable Python console client bombed daily. Fretting about whether my crashy torrent clients were tanking my ``ratio'' is definitely low on my to-do list, no matter what else I got goin' on.

However, the thing that sticks in my craw about IndieTorrents (and other ratio-enforcing torrent communities) isn't the ``ratios'', but how it claims to have this great emphasis on enforcing responsibility to the "community", when the vast majority surely don't extend that notion to the artists who produce the music they so zealously download, by purchasing their music. Now, I'm not one to point the finger of amorality at downloaders, since I've done my share, but it's rank hypocrisy to pretend that there's any kind of "responsibility" in the enforcement of a share ratio of which the artist sees no renumerative part, regardless of their feelings on the legitimacy of the enterprise in general.

Scratch Acid

01 She Said
02 Cannibal
03 Eyeball
04 Crazy Dan
05 For Crying Out Loud
06 Damned For All Time
07 Lay Screaming
08 Albino Slug
09 Monsters
10 This Is Bliss
11 The Greatest Gift
12 Owner's Lament
13 Mess / El Espectro
14 Mary Had A Little Drug Problem

Big Black

01 Cables
02 Dead Billy
03 Pigeon Kill
04 Racer-X

Nice that Scratch Acid played their entire first EP, one of my favorite records ever. Hopefully the Uzeda/Negative Approach/The Ex sets will show up.

x-post - Dimeadozen bans & removes torrents by artists who don't want their shows traded.

People were nice, the sound was great (esp for taking place outside), there was good food and beer avail on site, the two stage set-up was a stroke of genius and the thing ran bascially on time. It was like a music festival run by people who knew exactly what makes outdoor/large crowd events suck and fixed those problems.

As far as the bands, everyband I saw on Saturday was great, w/ Uzeda & Killdozer being two that immediately jump out in my mind. For a band whose members haven't done anything musically since their break-up Killdozer might as well have been in the middle of tour they sounded so great. This was the band that really took me by suprise.

Uzeda was brutal and inspirational in equal measure.

Tim and Andy from Silkworm's set was both beautiful and horrible. It was so painful watching these guys play and everyone missing Michael and knowing this was the last time. I was(am) such a big Silkworm fan, I was in tears when it was over.

Scratch Acid lived up to expectations, Yow was in great form, they played everything I wanted to hear. I was up front and it was the only time during the whole show I felt like I was packed in like a sardine, but that's part of the fun. And points to Sally Timms who played right before and handled all the cat-calls and cries for Scratch Acid w/ great humor.

Big Black, I never, ever dreamt I would see Big Black. It wasn't even something I ever considered possible, Albini made seem like it wasn't even an option. When the rumors were flying about who might reunite for this when friends brought Big Black I was the one who confidently proclaimed "It'll never happen. It just won't". Even standing there for an hour, up front, w/ my feet/legs just killing me, bummed cuz I couldn't be over at the other stage watching Man or Astroman (wasn't going to give up my spot) and seeing Albini, Pezzati and Durango set up, I think even then I still didn't think it was going to happen. Or that it wasn't real or something.
And then Steve set off the firecrackers and they launched into "Cables"...my wife keeps telling me I had the biggest shit-eating grin on my face. I was jumping up and down screaming "Cables" at the top of my lungs. It was great. Sure it was raw, Sant broke a string, they were sloppy, but it was loud as fuck and perfect. It sounded just like the live bootlegs from the 80s!
I've seen a lot made over Steve's comment about how "they didn't having a burning desire to do this" and whether not they wanted to be there. And while he might have meant they didn't want to play a reunion show, they all seemed to be having a lot of fun doing it. Durango had a smirk the whole time and Pezzati and Albini were giving each other shit. Then they played "Racer X" and it was over. I was satisfied.

Sunday, Arcwelder killed it right off the bat. So funny watching all these people who obv don't live in Minneapolis and so haven't seen Arcwelder a zillion times go nuts for them. Duh, their great.

The Monorchid was the only band I saw have any sort technical problems and while it did seem to bum them out, I thought they were great anyway.

So, yeah it was awesome. Salut Touch and Go!

Mule was an awesome live band. PW Long was freaky intense the first time I saw them play.

They weren't asked, Stormy. I saw John Mohr and Mike Greenlees there and asked the same question. Mike thought that they probably wouldn't have done it anyway since John has really called it quits (and Mike wouldn't have wanted to do it w/o practicing a whole bunch).

Victory Records on the other hand... return of the Earth Crisis face-tatted German dude/chick (chik chik)!!!