Monday, November 13, 2006

Fugazi Country

Over the weekend, between work and the miniscule amount of play I snuck in, there was a lil' time to make a meandering post that included tracks from the SF based band Bomb.

I though today I should toss in one more related tune that is kinda fun for the whole family...at least if yer the Manson family.

Probably not so much fun if yer the Santorum Family

... a picture making the rounds, of the clan from the night Rick, the child pimpin' politician, conceded his PA Senate Seat and sent his creepy kids out for sympathy...



( insert Uncle Fester ) and we'd have a suitable casting call for a sequel to the Addams Family don't ya think...

Sorry I'm not as sad as the pictured folks, cuz here in Fugazi Country... what else is there to do but rejoice...

Party Ben's Destiny's Child vs Fugazi Mash Up - Independent Room

Speaking of Fugazi, Bomb singer Michael Dean used to live in Charlottesville Va and before moving to San Francisco had a band called Baby Opaque. That's who he was playing with when I first met him, at The Landsburgh Cuiltural Center in DC in October or November of 1983. It was the same room where what I believe was the last Minor Threat show occured a few weeks earlier.

This time the empty furniture storefront was hosting a Crippled Pilgrims, Nuclear Crayons, No Trend show. I think it was billed as Noise From Nowhere and maybe Mink Deville showed up to jam as well to the assembled few dozen attendees as well. Dean was a quirky character in a striped shirt, and as usaul had some sort of female attendent...

Dean's band Baby Opaque put out a single, then an album.



One of his bandmates was Michael Berube' who now teaches at Penn State & has recently been called, along with Howard Zinn and others, one of the "101 Most Dangerous Academics in America" by conservative nut hound David Horowitz. For some reason I wanna connect John Beers who would later become half of Happy Flowers to this band as well, who I believe later went by the stage name was "Mr. Horribly Charred Infant".

Happy Flowers was a comedy noise rock project ala Eugene Chadbourne meets Throbbing Gristle or something like that, and the duo had a good run on Homestead and was way more popular than you'd imagine. I don't know why I am stringing all this together, but it is leading me to the next tune anyhow, I swear!

Anyhow, Baby Opaque went up deep into the VA Beltway to record at Don Zientara's Inner Ear studios,(which was basically his basement) and Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat happenend to drop by and was cajoled into lending some backing vocals.

This is a rare recording in which Ian ( now of The Evens) sings a cover, a darn good one at that, a folk tune made most popular by Johnny Cash. Here they are decades before Me First & The Gimme Gimmes would get it together to do some country, Baby Opaque with Ian MacKaye doing Long Black Veil...

Baby Opaque w/ Ian MacKaye - Long Black Veil


More Coming when I get time... go peruse the archives...lotsa nuggets still in there anyhow...



If that won't tide ya over Go To E Music and download 25 free Mp3'z from The Dischord Records Label back catalog and lock in a subscription before they raise the prices on Nov 21st...

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