Page 27 - the NOISE May 2013

live dates were announced. In September 1978, drummer Keith Moon died of an accidental sleeping pill overdose at the age of 32. The Who replaced him with ex-Face Kenny Jones and resumed touring and recording.
In October 1978, Sid Vicious’ girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found stabbed to death in their New York hotel room. Vicious was charged with murder, although evidence obtained later sug- gests he was innocent. In February 1979, while awaiting trial, the 21-year-old Vicious fatally overdosed on heroin.
Just before a Who concert at Cincinnatti’s Riverfront Stadium in December 1979, eleven young men and women were trampled and suffocated to death in a stampede for entrance. The practice of “festival seating,” designed by promoters and venue owners to cram more ticket-holders into an enclosed space, was blamed for the incident. Pete Townshend’s off-the-cuff remarks in Rolling Stone regarding Cincinnati were interpreted by some as insensi- tive. Townshend claims he was quoted out of context.
Following the dissolution of Track Records in March 1977, Kit Lambert slowly lost his grip on reality. Ex-partner, Chris Stamp attempted to have him committed for his own safety. In April 1981, Lambert was severely beaten out- side a popular gay nightclub in Soho. The next day, he suffered a fall at his mother’s house and died of a brain hemmorhage. He was 42.
— Tony BallZ
Phosphorescent; Destruction Unit
Doe meets early Wire feel. There’s some down- home country twang dressing for the reverb garage rock salad, and a couple tracks remind this reviewer of the Dead Kennedys, Talking Heads and DEVO. It’s spot-on with the influ- ences, used tastefully to make one great stew of, well, this stuff doesn’t even get called punk rock anymore. It’s too cerebral and nerdy. And the food metaphors — what’s up with those? The longest track, “Hazel,” clocking in just over five minutes is a downright classic, some sort of Crazy Horse/Clash hybrid. It is just right-on- the-edge toward too much discordance and atonal barrage — and this is on the choruses! The best songs, and there are aplenty, are party jams but with just enough pathos to give the songs a little more weight than, say, “Louie, Louie.” And the recording is just dirty and dis- torted enough to not sound clean, but not enough to seem overly gimmicky or just plain annoying (Times New Viking = both.) I like that the singers can’t sing.
The last track has a very different vibe. It’s one hell of a song as well but it sounds like an entirely different band, like that last track on Zuma, where Neil just throws in a random CSN&Y track. I wonder if that’s what they were thinking.
phosphorescent
Muchacho
jj
REVIEW’D
Discipline and Desire
What is this career-killing goofy sh*t? Is it the cocaine? If this was Matthew Houck’s first album, I might think it was a bunch of weirdo demos, but Houck is following up a darn-near masterpiece, and besides occasional moments of beauty (“Terror in the Canyons,”) this is kind of hard to swallow. Did he not want to hire a drummer? I mean, what is going on here? The seven-minute “Quotidian Beasts” is beautiful as Houck bleats along to tasty tambourine, piano and guitar grooves. It’s at near-”Layla” levels of epic, or tries its very best to be. “Down To Go” has a nice mellow country lick. And I can un- derstand the words. Other reviewers seem to be eating this up. Maybe it’ll grow on me?
destruction unit
Void
Wax idols
slumberland records
jjj
These folks definitely wear all black all the time. This could be what Autobahn sounds like. (“We just vant the money, Lebowski.”) If fronted by Maude Lebowski. God, that would be hot.
Woolen men
s/t
Woodsist
jjj
Jolly dream
dead oceans
I love how the drum rattle is audible when the bass putts along on its own. The album has kind of a Mission of Burma meets John
jjj
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