So, like, basically, what you’re saying is, umm, censorship . . . it’s bad, right?
I was getting to that! Be patient! We’ve still got another 2 CDs worth of material to go.
“No More Coccoons” was actually really cool when it came out. The whole ‘spoken word’ genre was not impacted at that time and this was something new and different.
“High Priest of Harmful Matter” was cool only for geeks like me who liked getting the tales of the trial directly from the source. Not something that really has any replay value.
“I Blow Minds for a Living” had some great stuff on it, but set the unfortunate precedent of the 3 disc album.
“Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police” — Oh, man, this is getting a bit tired. A lot of the same 'ol, same 'ol.
"If Evolution is Outlawed . . . " — Painfully tedious.
This was where I finally gave up.
Paul Barker’s talked about getting a little annoyed at Jello for the same reasons some of you guys do.
Anyone else remember when he ran for the Green Party nomination for president in 2000? If he’d gotten the nom instead of Nader, maybe Nader wouldn’t have been a spoiler in Florida and W would never have gotten in the White House…
Paul Barker’s talked about getting a little annoyed at Jello for the same reasons some of you guys do.
I wasn’t aware. Was this just chatting “off court” in a group or was it part of a Youtube interview or publication somewhere?
My friend Hide of the Alternative Tentacles band ‘Ultra Bide’ boarded Jello at his house in Kyoto for a while, and also mentioned the same about how he would just not stop talking, ever. Even with a sizable language barrier to discourage him.
[reply]Paul Barker’s talked about getting a little annoyed at Jello for the same reasons some of you guys do.
I wasn’t aware. Was this just chatting “off court” in a group or was it part of a Youtube interview or publication somewhere?[/reply]
It was an interview, probably around the time of DSotS or Animositisomina where someone asked him about Lard and the response was something like “Jello’s great but sometimes you just want to say ‘Enough man, I don’t care about how evil KFC is!’ (laughs)”.
Ultra Bide was a fun band, btw.
I remember the name, but nothing else about Ultra Bide. I used to buy anything on the AT label, though, up through about 1997, so I’ll probably remember them tonight when I hit YouTube. I do remember ZENI GEVA on the label which was a Japanese noise punk band. All the lyrics were also printed in the CD in Japanese for absolutely no help at all if trying to figure out what any of the songs were about. I’m guessing they may have been a little . . . . uhhh . . . extreme maybe. I was dating a Japanese girl in college and asked her if she knew what it said and handed her the CD booklet. She looked at it for a short while, eyes widening, and then handed it back to me and said something like, “This is NOT good.”
I love Zeni Geva…K.K. Null,dude!!!
I remember the name, but nothing else about Ultra Bide. I used to buy anything on the AT label, though, up through about 1997, so I’ll probably remember them tonight when I hit YouTube. I do remember ZENI GEVA on the label which was a Japanese noise punk band. All the lyrics were also printed in the CD in Japanese for absolutely no help at all if trying to figure out what any of the songs were about. I’m guessing they may have been a little . . . . uhhh . . . extreme maybe. I was dating a Japanese girl in college and asked her if she knew what it said and handed her the CD booklet. She looked at it for a short while, eyes widening, and then handed it back to me and said something like, “This is NOT good.”
Zeni Geva FTW!!! DEAD SUN…RI-SING!!!
Hahaha yes, Zeni Geva is not ‘take home to mom and dad’ kind of music in Japan; the band’s name comes from a fairly famous manga but beyond that there’s little mainstream connection, I imagine your ladyfriend’s reaction was parallel to that of my own short-lived date who stumbled across my old Swans records.
As for Ultra Bide - it’s a shame people only know them from their Alternative Tentacles configuration (after Hide moved to the U.S.), before that they were one of the very first punk / wave bands in Kansai (West Japan) and Hide essentially gambled on career suicide by dropping out of high school to focus on his musical efforts. Remember this is in 80s Japan where getting accepted to a top university was a prerequisite for having any kind of a decent job, and he flushed that down the toilet so he could tour around playing hilariously sarcastic, confrontational, ‘zero commercial potential’ music.
Their early incarnations were a kind of jumping off point for folks who would mature into other roles in the underground; original member Jojo Hiroshige went on to form performance terrorists Hijokaidan and to form the Alchemy Records label.
Yes, I remember Dead Sun Rising and WHITE OUT!!!
I just looked it up.
The album I had at the time was “Desire for Agony”. Gee, I can’t believe the lyrics weren’t more upbeat, now that I think of it.
Anyway, I think I picked up one other earlier disc at some time. The 80’s and early 90’s were really great for the Alternative Tentacles label. If you were up for it you could just go along for the ride and you’d be hearing Jello do some honky tonk stompin’ with Mojo Nixon one month and then hear some Hungarian death punk the next, only to be followed by some LARD or God-only-knows what. Heck, even Brujeria was on the label.
It was so diverse, but the quality was quite consistently great. I feel like cranking some Alice Donut and NoMeansNo when I get off work now, haha!
I was listening to NoMeansNo Wrong this morning on the drive to work.
I was listening to NoMeansNo Wrong this morning on the drive to work.
NICE! That was the first NoMeansNo I got, along with their collab with Jello “The Sky Is Falling and I Want My Mommy”.
Sorry, you’ve got my brain in nostalgia mode now. I just remembered that “WRONG” came with a “Wrong Identification Card” that you could fill out. I carried that thing in my wallet for the longest time, hahaha!
I have a friend who was in a band that was signed to Alternative Tentacles Records. He told me that as much as he loves and respects Jello, that he is really difficult to be around. And that (like every other label I’m sure) they got dicked around pretty bad in the money department.
I don’t doubt either of those statements, haha!
Do you remember the name of his band? I’ll probably remember them if they were anything from the 80’s or 90’s.
And, yeah, getting screwed around is pretty standard issue for being on most any independent label.
They were called The Phantom Limbs.
They came a bit later to the label, but I know I heard them on a sampler or something some time. I think they kind of had some of that Alice Donut goofiness but more of a throwback to the 80’s gothic/deathrock bands.
Yeah, that’s them. The guitarist is one of my oldest friends. He took me to my first concert, Over Kill and Dark Angel, when I was 13. He lives in San Francisco now, and I see him once in a while when one of his bands comes through town.
He took me to my first concert, Over Kill and Dark Angel, when I was 13.
Tremendously underrated and overlooked thrash band.
Overkill is great too, of course.
OH mna,I could talk nomeansno all day…what a great band…