Ink 19 :: Outsight: The Other 9/11

Outsight

Outsight: The Other 9/11

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Outsight brings to light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and opinions.

Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print this article.

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THE OTHER SEPTEMBER 11

Alternative Tentacles and AK Press continue to jointly release spoken word titles of relevance and import. The debut of the Freedom Archives series is Chile: Promise of Freedom. This reminds us of September 11, 1973. This date for Chile resulted in more societal disruption and the death of more people than New York's September 11. This was the bloody coup that saw a U.S.-backed Pinochet overthrow the democratically elected Allende. Of course, the U.S. has never paid a tenth of the price for that compared to what it is exacting from Al Qaeda. The interviews, music and narration of this audio documentary tell the story of how a progressive democratic experiment crumbled under the pressure of the CIA and neighboring countries. Noam Chomsky in The Emerging Framework of World Power offers a critical analysis of United States foreign policy suggesting that the post-9/11 world is what the United States has orchestrated from pre-9/11 actions.

Listen to or Buy Chile at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy Chomsky at Amazon.com

NEW PRIMUS WEBSITE HAS LIVE RECORDINGS

Primus announces the launch of www.primuslive.com. The band will be offering downloadable soundboard recordings of every performance from the 2003 'Tour de Fromage'. The shows will be available in both standard MP3 and CD quality FLAC audio formats. November shows will each become available 48 hours after the show. Downloadable Zoltron-designed artwork for use in CD jewel cases will also be included with purchases. In addition, fans will be allowed to tape the shows themselves. The 2003 'Tour de Fromage,' which supports the current release of the EP/DVD Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People (Interscope Records), will be a multi-media theatrical stage production with two full sets by the band.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION: "LOST" INDIAN TRUST

Estimates range from $10 billion to $176 billion in funds that have been "lost" by U. S. government agencies. Will mismanaged Indian trust funds ever be repaid? Vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Daniel Inouye, says he has been flooded with appeals from Native Americans and questions about whether "any other group of Americans would be singled out in this manner for such treatment." The momentum stalled when members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior put last minute language into the HR 2691 conference report on Interior appropriations, seemingly to delay or derail the prospects for repaying Indian individuals and families. Implore Congress through your Representative to honor U. S. trust responsibilities to Native Americans. The House of Representatives bill already passed is HR 2691, the Interior Appropriations bill. Express your disappointment to your members of Congress that a rider was added late and secretively to the Interior's appropriation bill in the conference committee. Last minute riders on appropriations bills are troubling and democratically unfair, especially when they fundamentally change the direction of a bill before proper public discourse is possible. This bit of information came to me from the legislative action arm of one of the few religions with a truly non-violent past. That is, The Quakers. Check it out at http://www.fcnl.org - where you can sign up for their e-mail newsletter as well as learn how to contact your Rep

TWEAKER TO DO THEME SONG FOR WB's "XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN"

Grammy Award winning artist, record producer and music composer Chris Vrenna, a.k.a. Tweaker, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, will compose and produce the main title song for Warner Bros. Animation's new television series "Xiaolin Showdown." The half-hour, action-comedy-adventure series debuts November 2003 on Kids' WB! The series is based on the mythical Xiaolin martial arts inspired by ancient Chinese monks. Each episode's showdown culminates in a fantasy universe showcasing gravity-defying, extreme martial arts skills. "Animation has always been a big influence on me, so I am really very picky about what I like and what I don't like," said Vrenna. "'Xiaolin Showdown' is something pretty dynamic with intense action, so I was very motivated to compose an equally dynamic and memorable theme for it. It's totally a thrill to be able to do it!" More information on Vrenna is at http://www.tweaker.net and http://www.waxploitation.com.

MUTATED FUGS

Michigan's Mutant Press and friends come together for Blood For Oil (Mutant Press). Some of the Fugs songs are updated to reflect current political realities, but a lot left untouched still hits home. Among the songs on the eleven-track CD is "C.I.A. Man" as "CIA", "Kill for Peace" and "The Bed is Getting Crowded". The band even includes the Fugs' take on Ginsberg's "Howl" as "I Saw The Best Minds Of My Generation Rot". The title track is a Youngman original, with lyrics directed at President Bush and company. Mr. Yummy is credited as one of the Blood For Oil guests and "Mr. Yummy" is one of the standout tracks on the new, self-titled Mutant Press album. Both albums show the Jerome T. Youngman signature of simple, direct programmed drum loops, distorted but not overly loud guitars and a penchant for cynicism and lowbrow humor.

THE LEMON FLOWER IS SWEET

Cherry Red Records launched a brand new reissue label, called Lemon Records. The object is to be "re-releasing rock and new wave albums from the '70s, '80s and '90s." I don't know how I feel about the decades I grew up in being reissue material, but as Bowie said, "Time may change me/But I can't trace time." Among the first releases is the Mother Love Bone debut Apple and a hot, rocking album from Vinegar Joe called Six Star General. Vinegar Joe (formerly Dada) was Chris Blackwell's formation to give Island Records a response to Allman Brothers. This short-lived early '70s band launched the career of Robert Palmer. Released at a time when Palmer's demise is causing his career to be reflected upon may be fortuitous for bringing deserved attention to this excellent rock band and Cherry Red's Lemon venture. Also out is a new release of the eponymous Dan Reed Network album. This is the equally Prince-inspired and Night Ranger-inspired attempt to erase color lines in rock that was eclipsed by the contemporaneous Living Color. With The Official Art Vandelay Tapes, Lemon is not reissuing a period album, but gathering Graham Parker rarities from the time. This will be of real interest to collectors and a reissue of Parker's Up Escalator is also in the works. Promising to release three CDs per month, Lemon also has out Trapeze's You Are the Music - We're Just the Band. This was vocalist Glenn Hughes' last album for the jazz-tinged rock band before going on to greater fame in Deep Purple. You will be surprised at his soulful vocals on such tracks as "Coast to Coast".

Listen to or Buy Apple at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy Six Star General at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy Dan Reed Network at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy You Are the Music at Amazon.com

DVD Reviews ************************

Snog
Adventures in Capitalism
Metropolis Records
http://www.Metropolis-Records.com

DJ David Thrussell first brought wide recognition to his Snog project with the 1992 club hit "Corporate Slave". That is the last of a baker's dozen of videos on this compilation. Thrussell's voice becomes the most Stan Ridgway-like on "Fill My Hole" which closes out the first trio of videos. These all have a Chuck Close-like fetishistic focus on the mouth-portion of a human face. Perhaps an allegory for the consumption of consumerism, this approach yields John Waters-like shock value in the close-ups of sloppy tooth brushing ("Late 20th Century Boy", "Empires") and chicken eating ("The Human Germ"). This mirrors the level of critical detail Thrussell has for modernity, which reaches a feverish pitch recalling Emergency Broadcast Network (EBN) on "Born to be Mild". These videos are all obsessively edited and feature-rich, allowing more to be discovered on repeated viewings. A handful of interviews reveal Thrussell's anti-corporate philosophy as well as the fact that America's freedom of speech laws gave life to the Snog Relax Into the Abyss, which was effectively quashed in Thrussell's less conducive Australia. Tracks found here off that album are "Are You Normal Enough?" and "Real Estate Man". The slogan-based attacks on consumerist culture and the post-psychedelic image collages are like a cross between Survival Research Laboratory's phrase assaults and the neo-hippie look of a late-period Psychic TV lightshow. It is video artist Richard Grant that works with Thrussell's sounds to make these pieces and he deserves at least as much credit as Thrussell for the final success. However, the duo seems to be unable to move out of this formula of densely constructed moving collages and socially aware content for any of the tracks. Thrussell's refreshing and witty radicalism aside, this DVD is good electronica for the headspace or the dance floor, even if you say to yourself with apologies to Papa John: "The message may not move me or mean a great deal to me/But hey! It feels so groovy to say!" (4)

More on the DVD from Amazon.com

Various Artists
The Slog Movie
We Got Power Films/MVD

Subtitled L.A. Hardcore Archives '81 - '82, this movie introduces the dramatis personae that played the stage for the birth of L.A. hardcore. Meeting Pat Smear (Germs), Randy Rampage (D.O.A.), Jordan Schwartz (SWA, Black Flag) and more we see a scene that was not just anti-pop, but a radical counterculture as well. Funny and striking, the documentary includes plenty of vintage live footage from Circle One, Red Cross, TSOL, Sin34, Fear, Circle Jerks, Henry Rollins, and more. This extended version includes never seen before footage. An audio commentary track has running narration from Mike Watt, Keith Morris (Circle Jerks), David Markey and Jordan Schwartz. (3.5)

More on the DVD from Amazon.com

Steve Hanft & Ross Harris
Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician
Eclectic DVD

This indie film really works. It is an imaginative journey by a struggling keyboardist after his stolen mythical "Moletron" vintage synth. The extreme characters and extreme situations are buffered with song episodes and all of this rarely falls flat. While being a travelogue through hell for a distraught keyboardist, it is also a hallucinogenic musical with music episodes from Beck (as middle man to a Luddite destruction artist), Hank Williams III (gun-toting junkman) and Union 13. This film also includes music by the now deceased Elliot Smith. Beth Orton acts and sings and Future Pigeon is central to the story with its dub pop. Jazz drummer Billy Higgins helps create a Sun Ra-like space jazz scene. Also, do not miss the extensive footage that not only includes complete songs but the impressive Robosaurus car-toting prop. There are a couple of good character actors here you will recognize: Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs ("sweathog" Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington on the TV sitcom "Welcome Back Kotter") and Richard Edson (Stranger than Paradise, Do The Right Thing) and Gregg Henry (Body Double, Sharon's Secret). (3.5)

More on the DVD from Amazon.com

Boris Karloff
Snake People
Sinema Diable/Eclectic DVD

The stage for this 1968 freaky horror flick is an island of the demented and dangerous. Central to the freak show is Mexican cheesecake pinup Tongolele and her sensual dances. Zombies, cannibalism, chicken beheading and voodoo in the name of science are some of acts in this wild circus emceed by an evil dwarf. It is an interfering new cop in town that stirs up this nest of ghouls and their caretakers, resulting in mayhem. The film is over-the-top enough to be entertaining. This comes at the very end of Boris Karloff's career, being one of four Mexican films, which he appeared in as a result of two weeks of filming in 1968 Jack Hill. It is the insanity and creepy stylism that transcends the schlock to make this a B-plus movie. (3)

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Mario Gariazzo, Director
The Eerie Midnight Horror Show
Sinema Diable/Eclectic DVD

In the mid-'70s Italy had a cottage industry in knock-offs of The Exorcist, sometimes resulting in legal action. Among such films are Beyond The Door, House of Exorcism, Abby and L'Odessa. The latter of which came to the English-speaking market as Enter The Devil, The Sexorcist, The Tormented and now The Eerie Midnight Horror Show. This current re-titling is the most perplexing, although it may have been necessary to not use The Sexorcist because of the same-name anime feature. However, the film's softcore porn angle on The Exorcist seems to fuel its recurring resurgences. While there are some picture quality problems here on this dubbed version it is, apparently, not the worst print and audio edition available. Comparisons to The Exorcist are most valid in the second half as the woman shows signs of being possessed and priests battle her resident demon. The first half is a swinging scene of a rose-whipped masochist mother (Lucretia Love) and the star (Stella Carnacina) that gets sexually infected with demonic possession by a randy crucifix-affixed diabolic entity (Ivan Rassimov). (3)

More on the DVD from Amazon.com

CD Reviews ************************

Audra Kubat
Million Year Old Sand
Times Beach Records

Audra Kubat continues to excel and surpass herself as a vocalist. On this album, she reaches a plateau where comparisons to Rickie Lee Jones and Joni Mitchell become valid. The arrangements are largely acoustic and in this space, Audra's simple, unadorned phrasing compels the listener to listen, take in and be transformed by the poetry of these songs. (4)

Paul Westerberg
Come Feel me Tremble (CD and DVD)
Vagrant Records

Come Feel me Trembleis 13 all-new tracks from Westerberg. The focus is on the man himself with his songs and guitar, in the arrangements. The basic delivery and this focus make the album approach classic The Replacements in spirit. A fourteenth track is a cover of Jackson Browne�s �These Days�. A separately released DVD documentary of the same name is out that candidly shows a humble and down-to-earth Westerberg bringing it to the fans. (3.5)

Listen to or Buy at Amazon.com
More on the DVD from Amazon.com

Nathan Wiley
Bottom Dollar
Sonic Records

Nathan Wiley is a clarion voice in neo-Americana, delivering compelling rootsy songs that reverberate with the listener for a very real emotional content. In these days of electric pop, the brushed drums and cleanly picked guitar lines lend a nostalgic air to the music. But, Wiley is no mere time capsule. Full of enough material to credit him as a stalwart roots songwriter of the first degree, this independent debut also includes standout track "Betty, Betty (ride that hog)". This eerie track has Tom Waits production values of AM radio and alarm clock with the electric guitars and vocal compression so that the song echoes down from the ceiling. (4)

The Prime-Time Sublime Community Orchestra
( )
Corporate Blob Records

The idea of this parenthetical titling is that you can put your own title in. That's right, write it right on the copy you should have of this album. I'm calling mine My Neo-Classical Runneth Over. I call it this because this orchestra takes a post-classical substrate and spreads over it a thick jam of electronic and ethnic seasoning. "Holy War in Your Pants" has Eastern and Western instrumental, while "A Day at The Mall" is an easy listening tune with free jazz, Chinese music and Native American chanting. The rest of the six tracks are a post-bop infusion into chamber work ("Erectile Cognitive Bop Bits") and more unexpected cross-genre collages from the sophisticated sonic kaleidoscopes of "Pomp and Vindaloo" (curried '60s with bossa nova), "Fellini's Pickup Truck" (avant-bluegrass jazz) and the grab bag of "Invocation and Fanfare of the Tahitian Garbage Fairies" with a Polynesian percussion section. (5)

Outsight

Outsight: The Other 9/11

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