At the Free Music Archive, you can stream or download WFMU performances by Ivan, his former wife and bandmate Cynthia Sley (with the Bush Tetras), and their son Austin Sley Julian (The Sediment Club). Stream and purchase Swing Your Lanterns at Pravda Records.
Another gnarly guitarist, Derwood Andrews has collaborated more than once with legendary drummer (and author) Rat Scabies. Late last year, they released their first full length, Derwood and the Rat. Stream and buy the download here!
SAD NEWS: Michael Belfer died in March 2022. One of my favorite guitarists, he began his music career with The Sleepers and Tuxedomoon, and spent the 1990's playing with Torcher, Black Lab, and Lil Tiger, as well as engineering and producing. Michael's memoir When Can I Fly? is available from Hozac Books. Buy it!
We've lost some legendary guitarists in the past year (Tom Verlaine, Keith Levene, Jeff Beck, Wilko Johnson, Bruce Anderson). Michael Belfer deserves to be ranked among those greats. Listen to my compilation of his music and you'll hear why.
MORE GOOD NEWS: Belfer's co-author Will York has brand new book called Who Cares Anyway: Post Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age. York has started a podcast to accompany the book. His first guests are Joe Carducci and visual artist Kim Seltzer (who created album art and posters for the Toiling Midgets). Spread the word and buy the book!
Speaking of books and guitarists, an authorized biography of John McGeoch called The Light Pours Out of Me was published last April.
Mark E. Smith was born on March 5. (March 5 will also mark the fifth anniversary of this modest blog.) If you're a Fall fan, you probably know about the new album by HOUSE Of ALL, which includes happy Fall guitarists Martin Bramah and Pete Greenway, drummers Paul Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft, and the mighty Steve Hanley on bass. The first two HOUSE Of ALL songs previewed sound brilliant, and I couldn't be happier about the two drummer lineup.
Brix Smith also has a forthcoming album called Valley of the Dolls. (When will she stop borrowing titles from Redd Kross?) Brix, Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft are also published authors. (Would love to read a book by Martin Bramah on his years with The Fall, Blue Orchids, and Nico.) HOUSE Of ALL might be one of the most literary bands of recent years. Order the album in vinyl, CD and digital formats at Bandcamp.
RELATED BLOG POSTS: Blue Orchids, Bruce Anderson, Derwood Andrews, The Fall, Ivan Julian, John McGeoch, Keith Levene, Michael Belfer, San Francisco punk and post-punk, SF's Subterranean Records
Not familiar with Belfer's other work but Tuxedomoon were great. Speaking of Joe Carducci, has anyone actually made it through his Rock and the Pop Narcotic? I've leafed through my copy several times but never managed to actually read it (but that's true of a lot of books of that nature for me)
ReplyDeleteI tried and failed to finish Rock And The Pop Narcotic. A Goodreads review of another of Carducci book (Life Against Dementia) says that it "isn't nearly as dense and erudite as Rock and the Pop Narcotic, which may make it a better jump-in point to his work". Maybe I will try that one or Enter Naomi (Carducci's book about SST Records).
Deletehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13583417-life-against-dementia
Carducci hasn't posted anything in months at his New Vulgate blog, but he sure was consuming a lot of conservative political journalism.
https://newvulgate.blogspot.com/
In case you missed it, cool recent Guardian story on The Fall here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/21/the-fall-band-new-zealand-flying-nun-record-company
ReplyDeleteThanks, I did see that one! Interesting history of Fall In A Hole, and how it helped to raise Flying Nun's profile. It's amazing to think that The Fall had hit songs in Iceland and NZ. Did you see this Guardian article on HOUSE Of ALL vs. Mark's sisters?
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/02/mark-e-smith-fall-members-house-of-all-martin-bramah
Good interview with Bramah, and more information about the album:
https://louderthanwar.com/house-of-all-interview-and-second-new-song-magic-sound-released/
I've been friends with the SST man Joe Carducci on meta for a few years. Lately he has been updating us on SPOT's health. Last one in his hospital bed he was getting harder to understand but seemed to be stable. Joe is a big movie buff as well as a cool outdoors photographer. Great updates Jonder.
ReplyDelete(I just a left a rather longwinded comment under THE WRONG POST, so feel free to delete that one.)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the mention. For anyone interested in hearing Michael Belfer's guitar playing, this very blog put together an excellent compilation, which I linked to here (along with my own YouTube playlist, which overlaps quite a bit with Jonder's):
https://whencanifly.wordpress.com/2023/02/25/a-couple-of-michael-belfer-playlists/
But in my opinion, you can't go wrong with any of the Sleepers' records (the Seventh World EP, the Mirror/Theory 7", or the Painless Nights LP). Hopefully some new reissues will be on the way at some point...
And thank you so much for the mention and the link to WCA (and the podcast). If it's any consolation, I'm much better with the written word (writing/editing) than I am with the spoken word (speaking/editing).
Thank you so much for the
Thank you in return for the mention! I didn't realize that you had a blog for Michael Belfer's book, and I just geeked out on your unpublished conversations with him about other bands he was in, as well as Jack Douglas telling him about Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner playing the solos on Aerosmith's "Train Kept a Rollin"... I was a big fan of Translator too, so it was cool to see the picture of Michael playing with Larry Dekker.
DeleteIt sounds like Michael had wide-ranging tastes: Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Fripp and Eno, Magazine, the Catherine Wheel...
Really looking forward to your book. There is a cool record store in Andrews, NC called Dean's Music. The owner knew Mark Linkous well, and let him use a private space for his music studio when Mark lived in Hayesville. Maybe an idea for your NEXT book!
DeleteWow, haven't thought about Spot in a long time. My high school pal liked to hobnob with the stars of the LA music scene in the early 80s and since I was his wheels I spent some time chauffeuring Spot around Torrance doing his errands, lol. Got stuck sitting around awkwardly at SST a few times which was an apartment as much as a music business. Interesting times ... My friend, Rich did a lot of work with Joey8 in Invisible Chains but that mostly after I moved away
ReplyDeleteCool! One of my all time favorite singers (Carla Bozulich) is on that Invisible Chains album.
DeleteHa! Another blast from my past! I spent several months commuting with Carla and her older brother to a family counseling place near San Pedro when I was a freshman in highschool. They were a few years older than me and they helped school me in music and life at the time. Gun Club's Fire of Love was Carla's favorite album at the time and the first time I heard them was when she played Sex Beat in their apartment one time. They introduced me to the Dead Kennedy's, the Damned and many other bands beyond my limited Punk Rock knowledge at the time.
DeleteRIP Spot. I am even more jealous of you than I was before, MrDave.
DeleteI accidentally deleted this anonymous share of Invisible Chains (thanks, anonymous!):
https://mega.nz/file/XAt3TTpb#AN3pskkvn7G1TMiQmbEbkXr2-O0QMkkQ8hdw3u-AKNQ
Ivan Julian's "Swing Your Lanterns" is also available on Bandcamp: ivanjulian.bandcamp.com
That Chains link was this anonymous.
ReplyDelete