The No WTO Combo - Live From The Battle In Seattle

Band: The No WTO Combo
Album: Live From The Battle In Seattle
Country: USA
Release Date: 2000

The No W.T.O Combo celebrate and further the protests that took place against the World Trade Organization in Seattle during late November of 1999. Recorded live at a show amidst the protests' aftermath, he Combo brings elder punk statesman Jello Biafra together with Kim Thayil, Krist Novoselic, and Gina Mainwal. Two new Biafra-penned punk burners, the Dead Kennedys classic "Let's Lynch the Landlord," a Biafra spoken-word piece, and the DOA/Biafra jam "Full Metal Jackoff" comprise the set's material. The recording is musically noteworthy due to the musicians' obvious passion, not to mention that Thayil sounds like an unholy cross between Greg Ginn and East Bay Ray. Most interesting, though, is Biafra's subject matter -- worker rights, NAFTA, downsizing, and the WTO -- and excellent liner notes from Biafra and Novoselic summing up the demonstrations and issues at hand. At the least, Live From the Battle in Seattle is an important historical document; leave it to Biafra to show that rock and social protest don't have to be mutually exclusive, even in the year 2000.

1. "Battle in Seattle" – 15:02
2. "Let's Lynch the Landlord" – 3:41
3. "New Feudalism" – 4:15
4. "Electronic Plantation" – 4:55
5. "Full Metal Jackoff" – 16:28

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The Cramps - How To Make A Monster

Band: The Cramps
Album: How To Make A Monster
Country: USA
Release Date: 2004

Part of the beauty of the Cramps is the consistency of their vision -- since 1976, their body of work has been one long fever dream of kinky sex, bug-eyed monsters, and switchblade-wielding juvies, married to the primal twang of an electric guitar and the malevolent thud of a drum kit. While the quality of their work has run through some peaks and valleys over the years (they've made plenty of good records, but just a few great ones), they seem to have known what they were shooting for from the very beginning. How to Make a Monster, a two-disc collection of demos, rehearsal tapes, and live recordings, documents the band's formative years (for the most part), and while a few of these takes push the boundaries of the word "primitive," this is the Cramps, alive and oozing, from the very first lo-fi run-though of "Quick Joey Small." The first two sets of recordings, from 1976, are plenty crude (in terms of both performance and audio quality), but the band's energy and abandon are already in place, and while later tapes (from 1981 through 1988) are cleaner, the band ultimately doesn't sound that much different, just tighter and better at what it's doing. While Lux Interior sounds a bit subdued in some of the earlier studio stuff, he's a live wire all through disc two, which preserves two early live shows, one at Max's Kansas City in 1977 and the other from CBGB's in 1978. The band has to put up with a too-cool-for-school audience for the Max's show, which periodically heckles the band (gotta wonder what those "hipsters" are up to today), but Poison Ivy Rorschach's deadly guitar is already on the case, and by the time the CBGB's gig rolls up, the Cramps sound loud and proud, and the crowd is with 'em all the way. How to Make a Monster is hardly the definitive Cramps anthology (this is one band that has earned a box set by now), but it's a fun and fascinating look at their early days, and if you subscribe to the notion that the older the Cramps record is, the better, then this little item's a must. Great notes from Lux and Ivy, too, along with some classic flyer art and provocative photos.

CD 1
1-Quick Joey Small
2-Lux's Blues
3-Love Me
4-Domino
5-Sunglasses After Dark
6-Subwire Desire
7-TV Set
8-Sunglasses After Dark
9-I Was A Teenage Werewolf
10-Can't Hardly Stand It
11-Sweet Woman Blues
12-Rumble Blues
13-Rumble Blues (False Start)
14-Rumble Blues
15-Rumble Blues
16-Lonesome Town
17-Five Years Ahead Of My Time
18-Call Of The Wighat
19-Hanky Panky
20-Journey To The Center Of A Girl
21-Jackyard Backoff
22-Everything Goes
23-All Women Are Bad
24-(Untitled Track)
Summer 1976 (1-8), Oct. 1976 (9-10), 1981 Rehearsal (11-16), 1982 A&M Studio (17-19), 1988 Rehearsal (20-22), 1988 Home Demo (23)

CD 2
1-Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk
2-I Was A Teenage Werewolf
3-Sunglasses After Dark
4-Jungle Hop
5-Domino
6-Love Me
7-Strychnine
8-TV Set
9-I'm Cramped
10-The Way I Walk
11-Love Me
12-Domino
13-Human Fly
14-I Was A Teenage Werewolf
15-Sunglasses After Dark
16-Can't Hardly Stand It
17-Uranium Rock
18-What's Behind The Mask
19-Baby Blue Rock
20-Subwire Desire
21-I'm Cramped
22-TV Set
Live at Max's Kansas City 1/14/77 (1-9), Live at CBGB 1/13/78 (10-22)

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Wire - Third Day

Band: Wire
Album: Third Day
Country: UK
Release Date: 2000

These are five songs from the third rehearsal of Wire's recent, stunning comeback, recorded at the Ritz in London, November 29, 1999. And regrettably, The Third Day is only a limited edition, 1000-copies EP the group peddled at its 2000 tour gigs, because frankly, it's jaw dropping. As those who attended the tour could attest, the four original members declined to replicate their 23-year-old versions. Instead, as seen here on a mind-blowing "Pink Flag" (two ashen versions for good measure) and an equally wicked "Mercy," the group hurls a viscous cacophony the old recordings always hinted at -- like on 154's later "A Touching Display." In place of the underground-touchstone scratchy guitars on the Pink Flag and Chairs Missing classics that launched a thousand bands, Bruce Gilbert and Colin Newman are all roaring thrust, all dense wall of sound eruption. Recall, Wire-heads, My Bloody Valentine doing "Only Shallow" on the Loveless tour in 1992, and you're in the fuming, exploding, deafening, needles-screaming-in-the-red ballpark. Right in step, bassist Graham Lewis doubles the solidity into a distorted, crunching slam of a sound. Yikes. Even tap-tap-tap master Robert Gotobed sounds as if his kick drum's a howitzer and his snare's a tommy gun. 154's more gaseous "Blessed State" is similarly reinvigorated (though it had less far to go; sadly, this wasn't subsequently performed live), and "Art of Persistence" is a great find. Speaking of "find," how does one find this surprisingly must-have document? Alas, Wire probably sold all copies by tour's end, but try at www.pinkflag.com.

1.	Pink Flag (r1)	3:56
2.	Blessed State	3:22
3.	Mercy	5:28
4.	Art Of Persistence (1st draft)	4:33
5.	Pink Flag (r2)	3:35

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Polysics - Polysics or Die!!!!

Band: Polysics
Album: Polysics or Die!!!!
Country: Japan
Release Date: 2005

Polysics aren't cute, and they don't have their own cartoon show. (Although it might be interesting -- I'm thinking Ren & Stimpy, but weirder.) What they do have is a thoroughly original, bizzarely entertaining sound.
What do they sound like? A friend of mine suggested techno punk, but that description is too glib. Imagine the bastard child of Devo and a hardcore punk group, fronted by a guy who, umm, hasn't been keeping up with his meds, and you start to get the idea.
The music is braindead fun, spastic, and thoroughly addictive. Chief Polysic Hiroyuki Hayashi (once known only as Poly-1) mugs and wails off key over a bed of thrashing guitars, bleeping synthesizers, and the sugary sweet harmonies of keyboardist Kayo and bassist Fumi. The few non-Japanese songs are more Engrish than English, but it all fits somehow. This isn't brain surgery music.
Sure, Hayashi's over-the-top style can wear on you, and they do love their vocoders. Some songs don't work -- a "live in the studio" re-recording of the single "Black Out Fall Out" (found on Japan For Sale Vol 3, for the curious) introduces unnecessary elements and loosens the songs tight charm. But the sped up, vocoded cover of "My Sharona" deserves to be on everyone's list of alltime bizzare songs, and numbers like "Kaja Kaja Goo", "Lookin' Looin' Gaa" (with its childlike verse chants), "Peach Pie On The Beach" (just TRY not singing along -- pippikippippippi!) and "Code4" really do show off the band at its hyperactive, geeky finest.

1. Buggie Technica
2. Hot Stuff
3. New Wave Jacket
4. Plus Chicker
5. Kaja Kaja Goo
6. Black Out Fall Out
7. My Sharona
8. Making Sense
9. Lookin’ Lookin’ Gaa
10. Commodoll
11. For Young Electric Pop
12. XCT
13. Peach Pie on the Beach
14. Each Life Each End
15. Code 4
16. Modern
17. Urge On !!
18. ENO

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Wire - Read & Burn EP series

Band: Wire
Album: Read & Burn 01
Country: UK
Release Date: 2002

With the 1990 departure of Robert Gotobed (now Robert Grey), Wire ceased to exist, becoming the trio WIR. A decade later, however, the unpredictable foursome reunited for a series of concerts. Playing together again, the bandmembers realized Wire still had something to say. Tracks from 1999 rehearsals appeared on The Third Day, but the band began recording completely new material in late 2001. That first studio collaboration since Manscape resulted in Read & Burn 01. It's appropriate that this release from British punk's most innovative band should coincide with punk's Silver Jubilee. But although Read & Burn 01 evokes the taut and abrasive, pared-down rush of Pink Flag -- before the more experimental departures of Chairs Missing and 154 -- this isn't empty nostalgia. On the vintage foundation of simple, minimal patterns repeated to often-hypnotic effect, Wire builds a beefed-up, contemporary wall of sound. In keeping with the title, this material is urgent and intense, feelings conveyed by the music's sheer pace. The three-chord wonder "In the Art of Stopping" kicks things off frantically and the band goes into overdrive on the deconstructed speed metal/hardcore onslaught of "Comet," with Grey's characteristically relentless, rigid beat at the center of the sonic maelstrom; aside from Colin Newman's trademark sneer, this could be an outtake from Motörhead's Overkill. Although there's a respite on the shouty "I Don't Understand," with its ominous, lumbering groove recalling "Lowdown," elsewhere Wire sustains the amphetamine pace. They end with a bang on "The Agfers of Kodack," an assaultive number enveloped in Bruce Gilbert's swarm-of-bees guitar. During a 1977 Wire gig at London's Roxy, a heckler shouted at the band after every number, "That's better, now louder and faster." Read & Burn 01 suggests that 25 years later, Wire might still be hearing that voice egging them on.

1.	In the Art of Stopping	3:34
2.	I Don't Understand	3:17
3.	Comet	3:17
4.	Germ Ship	1:51
5.	1st Fast	1:41
6.	The Agfers of Kodack	3:14

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Band: Wire
Album: Read & Burn 02
Country: UK
Release Date: 2002

On their post-millennial return to the studio, Wire rediscovered no-nonsense noisemaking, trashing the art component of their pioneering art punk identity and throwing themselves headlong into a fast, loud, and bilious new philistinism. The band's first salvo, Read & Burn 01, was a stomping, short, sharp shocker, the aural equivalent of getting jumped in a dark alley by a bunch of irate, amphetamine-addled pensioners (well, Bruce Gilbert was nearing 60 when the CD appeared). A few months later, with listeners still cowering in the corner groping about for their glasses and checking for broken bones, the thuggish quartet came back to put the boot in again. Grounded in the three Rs (repetition, repetition, and repetition), Read & Burn 02 shares its predecessor's hit-and-run aesthetic: it's a post-industrial punk rock barrage of buzzing, stinging guitars; chunky basslines; and clockwork beats littered with terse, strangled vocals that fall somewhere between bolshy, pre-brawl aggression and football-terrace chants. The sound of Wire 2002 rarely lets you catch your breath. From the title track's deconstructed glam rock rhythms to the metallic rush of "Nice Streets Above" to the hectoring speedcore of "Raft Ants," these numbers seem fueled by a "last-one-to-the-end-of-the-song's-a-sissy" competition among the bandmembers. But while the overriding feel is one of menace and urgency, there are some less-fraught moments. It's a good cop/bad cop routine: Amid the general sonic onslaught, part of "Trash/Treasure" sees Colin Newman trading his heckling delivery for almost soothing vocals and Wire playing pop in a way that recalls their better '80s material. Still, Gilbert, Grey, Graham Lewis, and Newman have never had much time for nostalgia, and the new level of assaultive energy here emphasizes that the band is still reinventing itself. Read & Burn 02 is the sound of Wire not so much looking back as looking forward in anger.

1.	Read and Burn	2:35
2.	Spent	4:43
3.	Trash/Treasure	5:07
4.	Nice Streets Above	2:50
5.	Raft Ants	2:05
6.	99.9	7:42

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Band: Wire
Album: Read & Burn 03
Country: UK
Release Date: 2007

Having spent the four-and-a-half years since the May 2003 release of Send, their last full length studio album, consolidating and reappraising their back catalogue (by means of CD and DVD releases and re-releases of their '70s material) and for the most part remaining out of the public eye, Wire have nonetheless not been creatively idle. Although drawing on a resource pool of material developed over the entire post-Send period, Read & Burn 03 benefits substantially from a concentrated creative effort and newly defined aesthetic sense developed since mid-2006. Wire, ever multi-layered, ever redefined, is evolving yet again. No greater indication of the seismic shift in Wire's intentions can be given than the very fact that the first track on the band's first utterance for almost five years is nearly 10 minutes long!

The fertile creative seam hit over the latter part of 2006 continues to be mined, and although Read & Burn 03 stands as a body of work in its own right, it is but the finished part of the larger set of material from which Wire will draw the next album. Note, however, that no material from Read & Burn 03 will be included on the next Wire album. Read & Burn 03 is NOT a part installment: it stands in its own right.

1.	23 Years Too Late	9:46
2.	Our Time	4:33
3.	No Warning Given	5:26
4.	Desert Diving	5:34

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Wire - Cabaret Metro (Send Bonus CD)

Band: Wire
Album: Cabaret Metro (Send Bonus CD)
Country: UK
Release Date: 2003

A great performance of Wire live at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago on 14th September 2002 give out as a bonus with some early release of Send.

1. 99.9
2. Germ Ship
3. Mr Marx's Table
4. First Fast
5. Read And Burn
6. The Agfers Of Kodack
7. Comet
8. In The Art Of Stopping
9. Spent
10. I Don't Understand

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Nao Wave - Brazilian Post-Punk (1982-1988)

Band: Various Artists
Album: Nao Wave - Brazilian Post-Punk (1982-1988)
Country: Brazil
Release Date: 2005

A strange object surprised music fans in Brazil in 1982. An independent 7“ single, with an obscure cover in black and white where the band name could be read: Agentss. Here were 2 tracks impressively synchronised with the electronic music that was happening at that time in Europe and the USA, from Gary Numan and Fad Gadget to Gang Of Four, ESG, New Order and Liquid Liquid.

It was the first manifestation of a phenomenon that developed during the whole of the 1980's: Brazilian bands working from the same post-punk references as scenes occurring in London, New York and Berlin. In the following years dozens of releases revealed an invigorating and vigorous generation of bands. From 1982 to the end of the 80s bands like Ira!, Smack, Mercenárias, Muzak, Voluntários da Pátria, Chance, Vzyadoq Moe, Akira S & as Garotas Que Erraram were some of these names - all of these coming from the city of São Paulo.

With today´s groups like Bloc Party, LCD Sound System, The Rapture, Whomadewho, Radio 4 and other contemporary punk/dance bands taking their influences from the early eigthies, the music of the groups included on Não Wave (all of whom have remained unknown outside of Brazil until now) will be a surprising revelation.
The tracks that Andy Cumming, Alex Antunes and Miguel Barella compiled in this collection give an idea of what was the Brazilian "Não Wave". An idea that is perhaps incomplete, because what was documented in the studios was often less explosive than the live experience - but still intriguing none-theless to see how current some of these tracks sound.

Não Wave track details, by Alex Antunes

01 Agentss "Agentes"
Technopop band that were the predecessors of the Brazilian new wave. Formed in 1980, they released an independent single ("Agentes" / "Angra") in 1982, and another for a major label ("Professor Digital" / "Cidade Industrial") in 1983, splitting up in the same year. The few live shows they did always had a huge impact. The leader, vocalist and keyboard player Kodiak Bachine continued with an obscure solo work, while the guitarists Orion Mike (Miguel Barella) and Duo (Eduardo Amarante) went on to work in important bands in the following years such as Voluntários da Patria and Azul 29.

02 Black Future "Eu Sou O Rio"
The darkest ("dark" being the name given to Brazilian pre-goths) and most experimental band from Rio de Janeiro, where the radical musical scene was based round the club "Crepúsculo de Cubatão" owned by the exiled English bank robber, Ronnie Biggs. Black Future were led by vocalist Márcio Satanésio and keyboard player, violinist and artist Tantão, two eccentric composers from the bohemian neighbourhood of Lapa, influenced by pop culture in general and comics in particular. The group appeared in 1983 and the album was released in 1988, promptly disappearing. One of the most well-known tracks is "Eu Sou O Rio" (I am Rio), which ironically celebrates the city, mixing punk funk and samba.

03+04 Akira S & As Garotas Que Erraram "O Futebol" + "Sobre As Pernas"
Anarchic punk funk band formed by bassist Akira S and vocalist Pedreira Antunes in 1984. Akira S & As Garotas Que Erraram (Akira S and The Girls That Fucked Up) were the highlight on the seminal compilation Não São Paulo. Can member, Holger Czukay participated in the hit "Sobre As Pernas". In 1986, the year of the recording of their only album, they also performed with American no wave guitarist Arto Lindsay in a show that ended up in confusion and rioting with the vocalist Antunes inciting the audience to destroy the club Zoster. Pioneers in the use of computers on stage.

05 Azul 29 "Ciências Sensuais"
The principle Brazilian technopop group, carrying on the heritage of Agentss, from whom they inherited guitarist Eduardo Amarante. Between 1983 and 1984 they released two singles ("Metrópole" / "Olhar") and ("Video Game" / "O Teu Nome Em Neon") for a major label before disappearing.The bizarre performance of vocalist and composer Thomas Bielefeld on this exclusive unreleased track ("Sensual Sciences") with his falsettos recalls the German operatic pop singer Klaus Nomi.

06 Chance "Samba Do Morro"
One of the most experimental bands in São Paulo, formed by composers Nena and Scot and by singer Marcinha. Combining low tech a la early Cabaret Voltaire with the Brazilian rhythm of samba (the title is a word play with "morro" where the favelas are based in the mountainsides in Rio and the first person form of the verb "morrer" - to die). Highly conceptual, they performed rarely, and when they did it was with video equipment, a revelation at that time. They left just two recorded tracks on the Não São Paulo compilation with Akira S and Muzak.

07+08 Fellini "Teu Inglês", "Funziona Senza Vapore"
One of the most unusual bands of the time, Fellini formed in 1984, as a (more or less) conventional new wave group, scoring the hit "Rock Europeu". The band was used as a medium to convey the obsessions of composer / multi-instrumentalist Thomas Pappon (founder of Voluntários de Pátria and Smack) and vocalist Carlos "Cadão" Volpato, combining low-fi samba and sung poetry.

09 Ira! "La Fora Pode Até Morrer"
Still an important band in Brazilian rock, Ira! appeared in 1981 directly influenced by punk and post punk groups like The Clash and Gang of Four. The angular ska-like song "La Fora Pode Até Morrer" was recorded for their first demo tape and has never appeared on any album. The bassist and drummer would change soon after this recording. Later the group would clearly show the more seventies and mod influences of the composer, guitarist Edgard Scandurra, considered one of the best in the country on the instrument. Today Ira! have 12 albums and various collections released, and have never lost their credibility along with their audience, even when guitarist Edgard experiments with techno in his solo career.

10 AKT "Prince No Deserto Vermelho"
Underground feminine supergroup formed by bassist and vocalist Sandra Coutinho (Mercenárias), Guitarist Karla (R. Mutt), Keyboard player and vocalist Dequinha (Bruhahá Babélico) and drummer Biba Meira (DeFalla). The quartet recorded some tracks in 1990, of which two were released on the indie compilation "Enquanto Isso...?!". They had a short existence with very few live performances before two of the members moved to Germany.

11 Vzyadoq Moe "Redenção"
From the city of Sorocaba, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, the young band Vzyadoq Moe came together - the name, which has no meaning, appeared in a dream of one of the members. With sombre vocals in the style of Bauhaus and percussion from junk metal inspired by Einstuerzende Neubauten their debut album was released in 1988 by the independent label Wop Bop. Members of the band are still active today working with electronic music as VZY.

12 Mercenárias "Polícia"
Aggressive feminine band formed in 1984 released their first album, the indie "Cadê As Armas?" (Where are the Weapons?), with the production skills of Edgard Scandurra of Ira! and the Englishman Peter Price, collaborator with members of Wire. The first LP directly attacked institutions such as the police and the church while the second LP, recorded for a major label, was much more sophisticated, adapting, for example, the "Proverbs of Hell" by William Blake. The incomprehension of the public and the label bringing on the end of the group.

13 Muzak "Ilha Urbana"
One of the more vigorous bands of the Paulista scene, thanks to the furious beat of the now deceased drummer Victor Leite and the heavy and tense playing of guitarist Nivaldo. Appearing in 1984 they were a revelation on the important independent collection Não São Paulo (on the label Baratos Afins). Later they recorded an EP for a major label, however, it had a weak production and a more acoustic sound which didn't match their reputation as the "Killing Joke of Brazil", soon after they disappeared.

14 Voluntários Da Patria "Iô Iô"
Formed at the end of 1982 by drummer Thomas Pappon and the guitarists Miguel Barella (former Agentss) and Minho K, the Voluntários witnessed a long line of ever changing vocalists. The album recorded in 1984 borrowed the singer from Ira!, Nazi, at the same time the guitarist Giusseppe Lenti replaced K. Barella and Lenti, both alumni of Robert Fripp, invested in the interaction of the guitars, in the style of Television and Talking Heads. Produced by the group, the album launched the new wave phase of the independent label Baratos Afins, which became the main focus of the local scene.

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