Reviews

The record reviews have been dropped. But please keep sending your records because we sell them and buy records we actually want. To find out what we've been listening to, check out the Cool Beans! Top Picks list.

NOFX at the El Dorado Saloon, Sacramento

Out to the `burbs for a punk rock show. I bought an XL NOFX t-shirt that's even a little too big for me, and the O in NOFX is the Crass symbol. When I went up to the counter to buy it, I asked for the Crass shirt. Fat Mike was standing there watching and said "I love it when people call it by it's proper name". Or something silly like that. Also, at this particular club they had an entire grocery store frozen prepared foods section for a kitchen.. so whatever you wanted.. they'd just nuke it and it'd be like Saturday night in front of the TV.. or something. Anyway, NOFX were great, the opening bands sounded just like them, and it was just like when I'd go to hardcore shows back in the eighties. [Matt]

Frosty, Willing, Harry Pussy at Bottom of the Hill 4/9/97 San Francisco

Frosty were from Georgia I think.. They sorta reminded me of both Beat Happening and Killdozer. Beat Happening only because of the way the singer carried on like Calvin and rubbed himself on a barstool. He sounded like the guy from Killdozer when he "sang" though. The rest of the band kinda looked like Grand Funk. Most everyone agreed they were awful, I enjoyed them but was glad when they stopped. Willing featured Ian Christe, Brently Pusser, and some guy named Fritz. They were two guitars, a drum kit and a tape recorder doing mostly improv stuff. It worked about 1/2 the time.. and about 1/2 the time it just sounded like they were trying to make cool sounds, but that they weren't quite there yet. The drummer sported a fantastic Slayer "Root of all Evil" tour shirt from 1988. Harry Pussy are amazing. Adris, the drummer, was the complete center of attention. From the start of the show where she threw herself on the floor in the middle of the audience screaming about how someone wants her ass and that she hates something.. (I couldn't really understand it even though she was writhing at my feet) She climbed up onto the stage and Bill and the other guy (not Mark, some new guy) would watch her for cues as to the noise they should make with their guitars. It wasn't as improvisational as I thought it would be, they seemed to have a bunch of songs.. even though they played a few of them twice. She wore one of those Madonna style microphones strapped to her head and had a wireless setup so she could freely freak out on her drum kit while screaming and screaming and screaming. She'd also say "Hi, We're Nuclear Meltdown and this song is called Sex Problem" or "We're the Mentally Deficient and this song is called Fuck You" between songs. Basically it was all-out noise terror, not really like anything I've seen before. I'll be seeing them again later this month in New York. [Matt]

[Bert & Matt]

Pavement and the APPLES IN STEREO at the Warfield San Francisco

While waiting in line to get our names checked off the guest list I overheard someone behind me say, "Did you know the old drummer from Pavement is retarded?" Turns out we missed the Apples by the time we arrived. Everyone assured us they had been really good etc. Great. Whatever. JK had a couple of beers and we gave our friend Ted the Christmas present we kept forgetting to give him for the last few months and then we headed up to the top of the balcony for the worst seats we could find. Turns out some guys were already sitting in the very very back seats.. so we had to settle for 2nd to worst seats in the house. Pavement seemed kind of bored. They're really geeky and when they move around a little bit like they're big rock n rollers, they look kind of dorky. As it turned out, they played every song I really wanted to hear in the first 6 or so songs. "Date with Ikea", "Painted Soldiers", and some other Scott Kannenburg (the other main guy in Pavement) songs. I realize these days that I don't really like the new album much, except for the Scott songs. So I'm embarking on a campaign to have Steve Malkmus tossed out of Pavement so Scott can write all the songs. Isn't Spiral Stairs a better name for a lead singer/guitar player anyway? So we heckled. "Boo!" "Grow Your Hair" "Back in Black" "Don't look so bored!" They did look really bored actually. And all the songs they played that weren't brand new, seemed kind of lame like they were really tired of them or something. Anyway, they played "Cut Your Hair" and we couldn't take it. So we high-jacked a cute girl and went to Japantown Bowl and bowled a game. I scored 128. Winning by 35 points or something. I didn't know J-Town Bowl had a second level. That's where you can find all the good balls too. [Matt]

Breeders at the Great American Music Hall 5-14-97 San Francisco

"Who are all these people?" I asked my friend when the "Breeders" hit the stage. No one from the Breeders I last saw was at this show, except for Kim Deal and the violin player, Carrie, who has toured with them in the past. Everyone else onstage looked like they were borrowed from Social Distortion or some random Ohio bar band. Basically they were sloppy, played mostly Amps songs and for some reason Kim had all the lyrics to her songs on sheets of paper on the floor in front of her. The show wasn't all bad though, I picked up a "Live in Stockholm" Breeders fanclub CD recorded a couple years ago when the Breeders were mostly women. And Kim seemed to be having fun, but she always seems to be having fun. I wonder why she was wearing long sleeves when it was so fucking hot in that place. [Matt]

Ptolemaic Terrascope #22

$9 ppd 37 Sandridge Road, Melksham, Wiltshire SN12 7BQ ENGLAND

The first time I picked up PT it was basically because it came with a 7" single I wanted. I don't know a lot about most of the bands Phil covers in Ptolemaic Terrascope, but by the time I've finished working my way through the ultra-dense text, I feel like I know each of them personally. Let me emphasize that there is a lot of information and text in every issue of Ptolemaic Terrascope and that it's well worth sending that kind of cash to England to get a copy. [Matt]

Paranoiac Gum #1 and #2

$1 plus 3 first class stamps to Ayu Tomikawa c/o Kyo Sasaki P.O. Box 427292, SF CA 94142

Both these comics are about Miss C. who seems to have all these ideas about how things are and shares them with the author's character. PG #1 actually taught me the Chinese and Japanese word for hair. You'll have to buy both issues to get your full Japanese/Chinese lessons. #2 has a multi-color cover that looks to be hand printed on thick stiff paper. Really, what I like most about both these comics is how the stories sort of get derailed and as a reader you become more interested in the way the story is being told as opposed to what is actually happening. The details in the frames and the different visual perspectives made me think about the film courses I took in college. [Matt]