View current page
...more recent posts
The interview Aaron Yassin did with me in NY Arts magazine, linked to here a few weeks back, is now on the newsstands in their Sept./Oct. print edition. The photo above is a very subtle bit of personal horn-blowing. To some extent the text is an attempt to legitimize working with the computer to my brethren in the gallery world; that quest seems totally doomed if you read something like the profile of dealer Leo Koenig in the current New Yorker. It's all about painting with brushes ad nauseum (and theory? forget it), and could have been written about the neo-expressionist hothouse environment of 25 years ago.
The Young Turds Tribute Page has been updated with re-recorded .mp3s: the volume and the streaming rate are higher. The Turds were a DC band active circa '79-'80 (Northern VA to be more specific), and included several high school and college buds of mine. Even with more clarity in the recording, Kerry's vocals are as incomprehensible as ever, but suddenly I'm paying more attention to Tom Payne's precision drumming--he's quite amazing in these recordings, I'll go out on a limb and say as interesting as early Robert Wyatt. My friend Bill posted these songs to the WFMU message board a while back and the connoisseurs were non-plussed. I understand why--the music is completely original but problematic for having, let's just say, different levels of musicianship in the band. There are just enough prog rock influences to make it difficult for the punk purist, and a couple of numbers even make use of the then-new disco synthetic percussion pads. Nevertheless, I've listened to these songs a million times and it's about the only rock I still like. Besides Krautrock.
"Green Slime" [2:09 min. - 2.9 MB]
"Berserker" [2:55 min. - 4.2 MB]
"Hold at All Costs" [3:59 min. - 5.8 MB]
"Tapeworm of Love" [2:38 min. - 3.7 MB]
"One Mad Act" [5:16 min. - 7.5 MB]
"Burn1ng Love" [2:21 min. - 3.3 MB]
"Vigilante" [5:12 min. - 7.5 MB]
"Murder One" [3:09 min. - 4.5 MB]
Personnel are Tim Carter (bass), Kevin Landes (saxophone), Kerry Landes (vocals), Paul Ragan (lead guitar), Steve Walker (rhythm guitar), and Tom Payne (sensible drums).