Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Cosmic Debris 1995 07
============================================================================
############################################################################
######### #########
######### C O S M I C D E B R I S #########
######### #########
############################################################################
# INDEPENDENCE DAY, JULY 4th, 1995 #
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DJ Johnson...........Editor
James Andrews........Ass Editor
Cai Campbell.........Layout Editor
coLeSLAw.............Graphic Arts Editor
Louise Johnson.......Copy Editor
cybr/\w/\spydr........Nonsense Editor
Scott Wedel..........Obscenity Inclusion Editor
DOS 6.2..............Text Editor
Lou Grant............Badass Editor
W.R. Hurst...........Far Better Editor
US Voters Next Time..Senator Editors
Jaws.................Predator Editor
Rick.................Valet Parking & Beer Gopher
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S NOTES: So Many Choices, So Little Time
You are going to take part in a little experiment. You are going to
do something you do day in and day out, even though you don't think too
much about what you are really doing. You take it for granted. I take it
for granted. And yet, if you were no longer allowed to do this thing, you
would be a terribly unhappy person. You'd be what they call "oppressed."
The thing I'm talking about is "making a choice." You chose to get
up this morning, you chose to log on to the net, and now you've chosen to
read this issue of Cosmic Debris. In our graphic/sound version, you have
the choice of whether or not to click on the icon that takes you to our
censorship section. In this ascii version, we can't be that fancy. So
we're informing you here and now that there are some articles in that
section that would offend some people. Jerry Falwell, for instance, would
be downright outraged. You'll understand later, IF you choose to read that
section. We're putting all the other articles into this version first.
Then there will be a warning, followed by the censorship section.
Either way you go, you CHOSE it. Why are we harping on this? Because
right now, there are too many people in political power who want to take
away that right. They want to choose FOR you. And the choice they would
make, I can assure you, would be to take that section completely out of
Cosmic Debris. They seem to think you aren't responsible enough to decide
these things for yourself and educate your children to do the same. They
want to decide for you what is and what is not obscene. And if you think
we're over reacting, I would simply point out that 84 of 100 Senators just
voted yes on the Exon/Gorton bill, which would make it a criminal offense
to say anything THEY deem obscene in your E-MAIL! The very action of
removing this freedom would have devastating consequences. There are
many bible-thumping organizations out there right now, poised and ready
to pounce with the first axe-blow to the Constitution and Bill of Rights,
and we've got to stand up and block that shot. We can't let either of
those promises be broken.
So please, think about the concept of free choice when you make your
own choice. Which ever way you choose, I hope you will read the closing
page, which will at least point you in the right direction if you wish to
become an informed voter. The silent majority must speak up this time.
Next month, we'll be back to our usual format. But this issue is going
to be different. It's the 4th of July. The best things that this day is
supposed to stand for are worth saving. Your comments are welcome. Send
e-mail to us at moonbaby@greatgig.com and let us know how you feel.
DJ Johnson
Editor
*********
Special thanks needs to be given to a few people that have helped a lot.
Blair Buscareno, editor of Teen Scene, for megs of supportive messages
and advice. Don Dill, for the bitchin' cartoon called "Stress Man" that
is our permanant icon for Editor's Notes in the graphic version. NeoSoft
Corp. for the use of their excellent products in making our graphic version.
Sean and Sonja at AbstractSoft, our internet and advice providers. And
finally to our staff, who work so damned hard you'd think they were being
paid or something! Thanks, y'all.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
SURFING RHODE ISLAND WITH THE MEL-TONES (Interview by DJ Johnson) - This
excellent instro band sounds like 5 guys...but there are only 3.
And they can do that live. Find out how. This one also has the
distinction of being our first interview done in the stands at a
minor league baseball game.
THE TWO SIDES OF FRANK ZAPPA (By Cai Campbell) - The old "compare and
contrast" theory as applied to a pair of biographies on one of the
greatest composers and performers of all time.
TIKI GODS APPEASED (By Monica Rex, of Amnesia Magazine) - Monica's a busy
lady, but she took the time to file this report from the 8th annual
Tiki party at Otto Von Stroheim's Venice, CA, spread. Surf culture
freaks? This one's for you.
THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE (By New Jersey disc jocky Matthew Kaplan)
Midnight in the big city. You're exhausted and you're not sure
where your next meal is coming from. So why are you parking in
front of an all night record store? Matthew knows why.
ANOTHER STACK OF RECORD REVIEWS (By Alan Wright) - Alan gives you his
two cents on The Sea Monkeys, Karl S. Blue & The Magic Quells,
The Crawdaddy's, Sin Alley, Link Wray, The Wailers and a few other
goodies.
POETRY FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON - Why do we offer poetry? Cuz we like
the poems. coLeSLAw, the artistic genius behind those Cosmic Debris
Graphic Edition covers, show's another of his many talents. And
witness the return of Cybr/\w/\Spydr as he makes his second appearance
on the Cosmic Debris stage.
THE CENSORSHIP SECTION! - Here's that exercise in freedom of choice we
told you about. If you read this, you'll see words and ideas that
MAY offend you, ideas you may disagree with and writers you may
think belong in the fires of hell. The thing is this: That's for
YOU to decide. NOT some anal Senator who is terrified of every
single thing that turns him or her on. Read it or don't. That's
the beauty of it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
===========================================================================
SURFING RHODE ISLAND WITH THE MEL-TONES
Interview by DJ Johnson
Seems you can't turn on the TV without hearing instrumental surf music
these days. It's not a new genre, but a lot of people don't realize that.
Dick Dale has been playing the stuff for almost 40 years. Although the
style enjoyed its popular peak in the early 60's, it never really went
away. In the past several years, great bands like Man Or Astro-Man, The
Mermen, Impala, Galaxy Trio, The Insect Surfers, The Phantom Surfers and
Laika & The Cosmonauts have emerged to carry on the tradition. Now you
can add another band to the list.
The Mel-Tones, a Rhode Island three piece band, has just put out its
second cassette-only release, "Powerwagon." The seven songs contain a
number of influences, all melded together to make an original sound that is
quite intoxicating. Mel Waldorf, Chris Sanzo and Jeff Halliday play some
outstanding instro-surf, but they also play good straight ahead rock, and
on one song, (Avienu Malkainu), they even offer up some interesting Eastern
influenced sitar music. Put that in your hookah and smoke it.
The Mel-Tones are unusual for another reason. Chris Sanzo plays guitar
synth, handling the bass, keyboard and horn sounds simultaneously. The
result is a full sound that most three piece bands can only achieve in the
recording studio. But these guys can do it live.
I caught up with these three baseball fans in a great setting: In the
stands of the ballpark, waiting for the Pawtucket team to take the field.
(Pawtucket is the Boston Red Sox triple-A farm club, for those of you who
don't know nuthin bout baseball). Between bites of hotdog and swigs of
brew, the guys managed to answer some questions.
* * * *
COSMIC DEBRIS: POWERWAGON is named after your old car,
isn't that right, Mel?
Mel: That's right. The Powerwagon was a mid 80's Olds Custom Cruiser
wagon. Fake wook, wire wheel covers, V-8, the works. I used to drag
race it on the streets when I was in high school.
CD: That fits the old 60's "Surf n Drag" ethic nicely. How about
waxing poetic about that car for a moment?
Chris: How about waxing the car poetically?
Mel: Well, you had time to compose poetry, waxing her took so damn long.
I used to really push that car hard. I remember once, I was coming
back from doing some work on Cape Cod. I was driving along 495, I had
two other guys and the back full of drilling gear. I saw a Ferrari in
the fast lane. It's November, and this guy has his top down, and he's
wearing a leather flying cap. So, I couldn't help making a stand for
America, and got in the lane behind him, and flashed to pass. The
Ferrari took off, and I took off after him. Well, I finally caught
him, about ten miles later. I have no idea how fast we were going, my
speedo ended at 85, and we were way off the end. I got the chance to
pass him, and the look on his face was priceless.
(getting starry eyed here)
Jeff: As a passenger, you learned quickly how to brace yourself for a ride.
Mel: True. Sadly, all the years finally caught up on her, and the
Powerwagon threw all her gaskets. A rebuild just wasn't in the cards,
especially after getting pulled by the police. 70 in a 55.
Fortunately I had slowed down for the turn.
CD: Is it all part of the mystique, for you? The hot rod, the Fender
guitars? You know, the total experience?
Mel: Well, I don't know about a "total experience" but surf and drag are
definitely intertwined for me. I had a Ventures tape in the wagon, it
was just about the only thing I'd listen to when I went driving. And
it left a big impression on me. Surf, speed, adrenaline...the Fender
guitars, well, they're as essential as a V-8.
CD: Comparing the first album to this one is pretty futile. On
THE MEL-TONES, there is a definate garage-pop leaning, with vocals and
the works, while on POWERWAGON, you'd have to say it's primarily an
instro-surf album, although there are certainly other influences in
there too. How did that shift happen?
Chris: Mel wanted it to. (laughter from all)
Jeff: Well, when we started together as a group, we worked on material
left over from the last band Mel and I were in, and new songs in a
similar vein. As the last band was falling apart, Mel had put a
Bigsby trem on his 335, and it was like he was dying to use it. That
led us into the instros.
Mel: My writing style changed too. Started playing more instros, and sort
of fell into the surf thing. It was like, wow, we can really do this,
and it would be a hell of a lot of fun.
CD: Were you all influenced by the 60's instro bands?
Chris: Certainly the '50s instros were an influence.
Mel: I guess I'm the big maven of the old stuff. It definitely affected
my playing and writing.
CD: Chris, you have an unusual role in the band, to say the least. Holding
down the bass, keyboards and horns, all at the same time from your
guitar synth can't be an easy job. How did that evolve?
Chris: Necessity, really. When the three of us started playing together,
we tried a variety of combinations: I played guitar, and Mel played
bass; Mel played guitar and played Farfisa; we tried playing with
pre-sequenced bass tracks. None of it worked. At all. I had been
using the midi synth system (Roland GR-1 w/strat-ed.) for quite some
time, and this two-in-one idea came to me. We experimented, and I
was able to work within the limits of the equipment to play a "bass"
and "keys" or "horns" simultaneously. That way we could have the
full instrumentation without extra musicians.
Mel: It's really something to see. No one knows where the keys are coming
from!
Chris: And the big trick is making it look easy!
CD: So you do the job of three musicians. Ever think you're underpaid?
Chris: All the time...
Jeff: He gets paid?
(laughter)
Chris: Chicks dig it.
CD: Your keyboard sound is rather unusual for this genre. I'm not an
expert at identifying brands, but I'd suspect it's a Wurlitzer Organ
sound, as opposed to the standard Hammond or Farfisa. The tone reminds
me of the organ music at a skating rink, and yet it works perfectly in
the context of the Mel-Tones. How did you choose that sound?
Chris: Again, the limits of the equipment define the sound. In order to
play bass and keys at the same time, I have to split up the
capabilities of the GR-1 synth. Fortunately, the sound we were
aiming for is cheesy, so a synth works nicely.
CD: Jeff, do you have to approach the bass/drums relationship any
differently than you have in past bands? In other words, is there a
difference from where you sit, with Chris' style versus the average
bassist?
Chris: He still sits behind the bass cabinet. (ha ha ha ha)
Jeff: True. With a "real" bass player, there is more flow and flexibility. With the digitally triggered bass, the rythym is more precise.
The kick drum especially must be well co-ordinated with the bass line.
CD: How long have y'all been playing together?
Chris: Let's see, I guess it's been a year and change that we've been at
this in earnest. And a little bit before that. But these two have
been playing together for a while.
Mel: Yeah. Jeff and I were in a rock-n-roll bar band for, geez, two and
a half years.
CD: I'd assume you're drawing a different crowd now than you were a few
years back, though I know a lot of garage-pop freaks are into instro
too. How has that transition been for you? Seeing any of the same
faces?
Chris: Well, we've got 40 or 50 who normally come to shows, and we're
picking up a crowd of surf afficianados as well. The transition has
been fairly seamless.
Jeff: We still play a few vocal tunes at shows, so there's something for
everybody.
CD: Has the Pulp Fiction soundtrack's success had any noticable effect
on the size of the crowds at your shows? I mean, instro is suddenly a
"thing" again.
Jeff: That movie definitely made a difference.
Chris: People ask us to play "Pulp Fiction" at shows, when they mean Misirou.
Mel: The widespead attention certainly helps, and it has turned on a bunch
of people to surf.
CD: Any plans for touring?
Chris: Yes.
CD: Okay! Chris, your synth-horn work on POWERWAGON is wonderful. Anyone
can hook up a synth, choose "trumpet" and play some notes, but you seem
to have a real understanding of horns and their place in the music,
and even their techniques. Have you played trumpet at some time in your
life, or are you just a great listener with a great record
collection?
Chris: Never played trumpet. Really the trick is finding the right place
of the guitar to blow into. (laughter) Seriously, it does make a
big difference to voice the phrases the way they would be phrased on
the horns. Your fingers have to stop for a breath. The same is true
for the keys. I have to remember I'm not playing guitar. It's
something different, that looks like a guitar.
CD: Hey, we might bore some non-musicians here, but I've got to know. Mel,
tell us about your guitar/amp set-up. How does one go about stealing
the Waldorf tone?
Jeff: The secret of the mel tone!
Mel: Well, it's fairly simple, actually. I use a coral pink '66 Jazzmaster, which I run through a Fender Reissue Reverb unit, into a '61
Showman head and Fender tilt back 2x12 cabinet. I use moderate to heavy
reverb, and have the amp volume on 5 or 6. I could sit and play
tremolo dips all day with this. And I do sometimes! I use 011E guage
strings and a 1.5mm Dunlop pick. I file a grip onto the picks so I
don't drop them when I'm double picking. Before I got the Jazzmaster
last November, I used my ES335, but not much since. I sometimes use a
dual volume select box I built for lead/rythym changes. But that's it.
For me, I've found tone heaven.
CD: Who influenced your playing, Mel?
Mel: Well, in no specific order: John Fogerty, Neil Young, Dick Dale, Syd
Barrett, and The Ventures. I'm a big fan of catchy, melodic and
energetic playing, and songwriting. I think that's crucial. I get
bored by long, jamming songs; I like music that goes somewhere. You
can take the greatest riff and ruin it with redundancy. Say your piece
and finish. Basically, I am influenced most by musicians who play
eloquently. There's a lot to admire and learn from in that.
CD: Same question, Jeff. Who were your influences?
Jeff: Wow. I don't know. Bill Ward, Don Brewer, Bonzo, Buddy Rich...guys
who have something to say with the drums.
CD: Chris?
Chris: Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew, Julian Breen, and the guitar player for Ian
Dury. Starting to wonder what we're doing playing surf music?
Jeff: Mel made us do it!
Mel: Yeah, that's it. I found them passed out in a bar, kidnapped them
and chained them to their gear. I force them to play surf, or else
look at Leroy Neimann paintings.
Jeff: Anything but that!
CD: With all the great bands to choose from these days, at least in the
indie scene, who has your attention right now?
Jeff: (still laughing from above) Tough to say. I listen to all kinds of
music. My last purchase was the Ginger Baker Trio.
Chris: I like the Laika and the Cosmonauts tape I have, and the new Bjork CD.
Mel: What?
Chris: It's true.
Mel: I'll have to get those paintings out. I listen to a bunch of instro
bands. The ones that do heavy rotation in my car tape deck are Laika
and the Cosmonauts, Man or Astroman?, Death Valley, and a few classic
surf compilations a friend of mine puts together.
CD: Where do you go from here? Any major plans on the table?
Chris: We'd like to make some vinyl and tour New England.
Jeff: Maybe we could play some Bar Mitzvahs and weddings.
Mel: Maybe I should run to Canada!
CD: Anything any of you would like to add to all of this?
Chris: We're serious about what we do, and we hope to be able to share it
with a lot of people.
* * * *
Interview by DJ Johnson (moonbaby@greatgig.com)
To order a copy of The Mel-Tones cassette, POWERWAGON, send $5 to:
Mel Waldorf
160 Irving Ave Apt. 8
Providence, RI 02906
No postage necessary.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TWO SIDES OF FRANK ZAPPA
Book Review: Viva! Zappa!
The Real Frank Zappa
by Cai Campbell
vex@greatgig.com
Upon first glance, "Viva! Zappa" and "The Real Frank Zappa
Book" --hereafter referred to as VIVA! and REAL-- appear to be
very similar. The cover of each book features a close-up of
the face only a mother could love. Here we see Frank himself
with his dark, bushy hair, matching eyebrows, dark sparkling
eyes, close set and divided by a long, slender hook nose. His
warm, quirky smile is framed by his trademark mustache and
thick, bushy patch resting above his chin. Both photographs
portray Frank with his head cocked slightly to the right.
Together, with this immediately recognizable figure, jumps the
word ZAPPA, so as to leave no doubt about the contents of
either book.
The covers DO differ, however. The photo gracing the cover of
VIVA! features Frank wearing a fedora, angled in such a way
that he appears a mock gangster. A single bright light
illuminates his face, making his skin seem all too pale while
casting a dark shadow over the rest of his face. His hair is
tied back and is very long. Splotches of red, yellow and blue
paint decorate the photo; adding life and color to what would
normally have been a placid contrast. This artificial and
haphazard addition of color portends VIVA!'s contents. The
cover of REAL seems more genuine--warmer. Frank's hair is cut
short and he is wearing a business suit and tie. The lighting
is more varied and gives his skin a healthy red glow, echoed in
the deep burgandy of his tie. VIVA! is of a larger format,
measuring eight-and-a-half by ten-and-a-half inches, compared
to REAL, which measures six by nine inches. REAL, although
smaller, is three times thicker than VIVA!, but utilizes a much
larger type. Overall, the two would seem to purport the same
amount of text.
VIVA! was published in 1986 and REAL in 1989, so it would
appear that both books could draw upon the same source
material. At this point both books would seem very similar.
However, as we delve further into the actual contents, it
becomes apparent that both books approach the subject matter
from different angles, succeeding in balancing each other out.
Although VIVA! and REAL rely on previously published material,
REAL makes an effort to present the material in a more personal
and illustrative manner. Unfortunately, neither book contains
a biography, comprehensive or otherwise, so one can only assume
that similar material was culled from similar sources. The
most obvious instance where identical source material was
utilized for both books is in their presentation of a story
pertaining to Frank's main musical influence: the modern
composer Edgard Varese. Frank originally wrote the story
--discussing his infatuation with the composer-- for a magazine
in 1971. The piece is presented verbatim in VIVA! (105). The
same essay had been rewritten for its inclusion in REAL (31).
There are many subtle differences in the way the same story is
presented. Here is one section of the original story as it
appears in VIVA! (106):
On my fifteenth birthday my mother said she'd give
me $5. I told her I would rather make a long-distance
phone call. I figured Mr. Varese lived in New York
because the record was made in New York (and because
he was so weird, he would live in Greenwich Village).
I got New York Information, and sure enough, he was in
the phone book.
Now, here is the same section as presented in REAL (33):
On my fifteenth birthday, my mother said she would
spend five dollars on me (a lot of money for us then),
and asked me what I wanted. I said, "Well, instead of
buying me something, why don't you just let me make a
long-distance phone call?" (Nobody in our house had
ever made a long-distance phone call.) I decided that
I would call Edgard Varese. I deduced that a person
who looked like a mad scientist could only live in a
place called Greenwich Village. So I called New York
information and asked if they had a listing for Edgard
Varese. Sure enough, they did. They even gave me his
street address.
The section from REAL is more illustrative while the section
from VIVA! is more matter-of-fact. This is typical of REAL.
Frank seems to have made a concious effort to include tidbits
of his life which he never before shared. It was as if he had
a copy of VIVA! in his hand and thought, "Oh, I can add this
little story here." This fact becomes apparent when you
compare the first sections of both books: Frank's childhood.
The overall story is the same, with highlights of Frank's
upbringing presented in chronological order, but REAL differs
in that Frank will stop at a certain point and share a funny
little story, like this one (26):
You used to be able to buy single-shot caps at the
hobby store. These were better than the ones on the
little rolls because they had more powder in them and
made a bigger bang. I spent hours with my X-acto
knife, cutting away the extra paper, saving the
trimmed charges in a jar. Along with this, I had
another jar full of the semilethal Ping-Pong dust.
One afternoon I was sitting in our garage --an old
rickety one with a dirt floor... It was after the
Fourth of July and the gutters in our neighborhood
were littered with used fireworks tubes. I had
collected a few, and was in the process of reloading
one of them with my own secret formula. I had it
propped between my legs, filling it with a layer of
this and a layer of that, packing each layer down
with the butt end of a drumstick. When I got to the
layer of single-shot caps, I must have pressed too
hard and the charge ignited. It blew a large crater
in the dirt floor, blew the doors open, and blew me
back a few feet, balls first. Why, I could have
almost escaped from jail with that one.
This sort of personal touch permeates REAL, and gives us more
insight into the mind of Frank.
Although both books contain many photographs, REAL makes use of
many illustrative drawings. Most chapters in REAL begin with a
funny illustration depicting a charicature of Frank embroiled
in a situation with plenty of symbolism surrounding him. As
you delve into the chapter, the symbolism in the illustration
begins to take on more meaning. For example, chapter three
(REAL 38), "An Alternative to College," begins with an
illustration depicting the charicature of Frank shackled to a
set of encyclopedias, lying beside two large bags: one labeled
"beans," the other "rice." There is a large pulpit, standing
behind the bags, sporting an angry looking, short-haired
judge--waving his gavel with one hand and holding a reel of
audio tape in the other. Upon completion of the chapeter, you
learn that the shackles and encyclopedias represent the worst
job Frank ever had--selling Collier's Encyclopedias
door-to-door. The judge with the audio tape represents the
time when Frank spent six months in jail for "conspiracy to
commit pornograpy" (57). The bags of rice and beans represent
the meager foodstuffs Frank was forced to live off after he had
served his sentence.
Each chapter in VIVA! begins with a picture of Frank on the
left-hand page and a full page chapter title on the right. The
chapter titles are comprised of letters cut out from various
magazines and are illustrated with various pieces of
post-industrial mechanical parts. This format is an attempt by
VIVA! to recreate the record sleeve design popular with most
of Frank's works. VIVA!'s chapter title page format presents
each chapter in a way which is both comfortable and
recognizable with Frank Zappa fans.
REAL's format allows the reader to visually analyze the
material being presented in the chapter in a unique and
original way. VIVA! contains many photos, both black & white
and color. The wide variety of photos visually enhance the
stories about Frank, his family, and his musicians. The black
& white photos in REAL serve the same purpose, but all of these
photos are from Frank's personal collection. Many of the
photos have never before been published, and only on two
occasions do photos from both books match: Frank's baby photo
(REAL 12 & VIVA! 8) and his high school graduation photo (REAL
88 & VIVA! 9). The inclusion of personal photoes by Frank in
REAL is another instance where he adds his personal touch.
REAL is divided into nineteen chapters, each of which is
focused, while the seven chapters of VIVA! are more
general--encompassing a wide range of material. There is a
chapter in VIVA! called "The Zappa Menagerie" (43) which
discusses all the different musicians Frank has worked with,
his work as a producer, his own record label, his relation to
the technical people involved in recording, and various
projects, such as his work with the London Symphony Orchestra.
By contrast, REAL has a chapter titled "How Weird Am I Anyway?"
(13) which discusses Frank's early childhood years. Another
chapter from VIVA! called "No Commercial Potential" (61)
critically evaluates forty-one of Frank's works in
chronological order. Discussion on each record includes the
musicians used, where and when the record was recorded, what
instruments were used, and what recording equipment was used.
Then we have a chapter in REAL called "Porn Wars" (261) which
deals specifically with Frank's fight against the PMRC
(Parent's Music Resource Center). As you can see, the chapters
in VIVA! cover a wide range of material, sometimes making it
difficult to pinpoint specific information, while the chapters
in REAL concentrate on individual topics, making it easy to
find certain details.
VIVA! does a very good job of answering the how, what, where
and when of Frank's life, while REAL answers the most important
question: WHY. This fact may already be apparent, but let us
examine another example. VIVA! mentions Frank's relationship
with Captain Beefheart as being "a mixture of love and hate"
(27), but there is no support for this statement. The reader
can only assume that this statement is true. In REAL, Frank
goes into much more detail concerning the nature of their
relationship (51):
Life on the road with Captain Beefheart was definitely
not easy. He carried the bulk of his worldly
possesions around in a shopping bag. It held his art
and poetry books and a soprano sax. He used to forget
it in different places--just walk away and leave it,
driving the road manager crazy. Onstage, no matter
how loud the monitor system was, he complained that he
couldn't hear his voice. The high point of our
relationship (according to Rolling Stone--aren't they
some kind of authority on these matters?) was making
the Trout Mask Replica album together in 1969. Don
(Captain Beefheart) is not technically oriented, so,
first I had to help him figure out what he wanted to
do, and then, from a practical standpoint, how to
execute his demands. ...We taped a few selections...
and I thought they sounded terrific, but Don got
paranoid, accused me of trying to do the album on the
cheap, and demanded to go into a real recording studio.
Again, Frank describes facts of his life in detail, where in
VIVA!, certain details are a mixture of conjecture and hearsay.
VIVA! and REAL are two excellent references for anyone who
wants to know about Frank Zappa. VIVA! presents many
different aspects of Franks life and work in a concise,
straightforward format. In REAL, Frank elaborates on these
aspects of his life and gives them the credibility which only
Frank himself can. Together, these two works represent a near
complete view of the life, work and philosophy of Frank Zappa.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIKI GODS APPEASED - ALL IS WELL
Amnesia Magazine's Monica Rex sneaks
you into Otto Von Stroheim's 8th Annual
Summer Fest in Venice, CA (6-10-95)
Otto, the host and appeaser of the Tiki gods, greeted his guests
along the path of blazing tiki torches, in a grass skirt, bare
chest and hawaiian amulets -- I suddenly felt extremely under-
dressed in a hawaiian shirt. The fashion and decor at this party
were at least as important as the music. Otto has a fantastic tiki
mug collection, tiki bar and bar stools, a grass tree hut in the
backyard with a slide coming out of it, under which was the bar
offering a constant flow of blue hawaiian drinks, mai tais and
other pineapple and rum concoctions. This was definitely the party
to be at in L.A. that night. Otto does a fanzine all about Tiki
culture called Tiki News, available at $2.00 a copy from Schwarz
Grafiken, 1349 Preston Way, Venice, California, 90291
The first band was PINEAPPLE PRINCESS, a woman warrior goddess duo
from San Francisco, both on ukelele, specializing in sixties lounge
drinking songs, a sing along rendition of Tiny Bubbles and a mean
quick strumming version of Ramones' Rockaway Beach. They wore
fantastic floor length hawaiian ensembles - one hot house pink, the
other floral orange. Beth Ramona Allen had a mean fuzz sound on her
uke. The exotic Princess Pamela got the crowd riled up with her
songs in hawaiian tongue. For their fanzine, Kiss My Pineapple,
send $1.00 to Pinapple Princess, 1538 Fulton Street, Apt. B, San
Francisco, CA 94117.
Up next was Brazil 2001 doing rockin' versions of lounge favorites,
sixties movie sountrack songs (a transecendental version of
Midnight Cowboy) and surf instrumentals such as an amped up version
of Penetration. Guitarist Bernard Yin used to be the guitarist for
Samba Hell and Spindle, and has toured with Medicine and Permanent
Green Light (this guy can play anything). Brazil 2001 was a real
crowd pleaser.
Mel and Mike Lucas from Phantom Surfers were seen downing a few of
those butt kickin' rum drinks and rockin out along with other very
colorful partygoers such as KXLU's Surfwave DJ Jim Dunfrund, KXLU
DJ Stella and rockin son Felix and Roller Skating L.A. Lounge
legend Joey Cheezhee (to name but a few).
Up last was the Insect Surfers, an L.A. surf band. Jack Skelley
(formerly with Lawndale and now part time gigger with the Insects)
has some real psychedelic tendencies which were evident in some of
his solos. Guitarist Dave Arnson played feverishly and jumped all
over the place, anchored by Dan Valentie (who doesn't move, except
to play) and Mike Firehouse Gregan on drums smashed the place up.
The Insects got people dancing and offered up their set to the tiki
gods, in order to appease them. It appears they were successful due
to their sincerity and musical talent, so the gods are happy and a
summer of fun and great music is predicted for all of you out there
in Tiki Land.
* * * * * * * *
Monica Rex is an artist in L.A. who writes strange fiction,
writes for other zines and sporadically puts out Amnesia,
an art-zine with plenty of music related articles. Backissue
with interviews with Dick Dale and Ventures (limited copies
available $4)
PO Box 661441
Los Angeles, CA
90066
E-Mail: ag999@lafn.org
===========================================================================
THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE
The Tale of a PVC Junkie
By Matthew Kaplan
I can see it now. I'm in a crowded room, people seated all around. A
glazed, blank stare can be found in the eyes of everyone present. I look
towards the podium and then at the stooped figures sitting around me. I
take a deep breath, as if I'm about to dive into unknown depths. With
hands sweaty, a frog in my throat and butterflies in my stomach, I rise to
my feet. With all the courage I can muster I start to speak in a quavering
voice. "Hello, my name is Matthew and I'm addicted to poly vinyl chloride."
In a reassuring reply I hear a resounding, "Hello, Matthew."
I don't know if there is a 12-step program for PVC junkies, but there
should be! There must be someplace to speak to others who are similarly
afflicted. Yes, there is the monthly Sunday afternoon record convention,
but going there would defeat the purpose of trying to overcome these
tendencies. But see, I've admitted it. I am a recordholic. That must be
half the battle, the acceptance of our own problems. I love searching out
and buying records. Some people get frustrated and eat, others go on
drinking binges, I buy records out of celebration, out of anxiety, for the
hell of it. I just buy records. I've met others who have the same
cravings and they all have the same furtive look in their eyes and
nonexistent credit on their Visas and Mastercards.
To qualify all of this: in my case being a junkie is different from
being a collector. I've never considered myself a collector of records,
even though I do have a record collection. To me a record collector is a
completist and cares not for the music itself but more for completing a
collection. O.K., I did collect all of the singles on Two Tone Records,
even the shitty ones by the Apollinaires and the Friday Club, but that
was the exception to the rule. Usually I seek out releases because I've
got a burning desire to hear them and possess them. Tapes that friends
make for you do not count, they're not real, they're not the records
themselves no matter what the Pooh Sticks sang on their first single.
For me at least half the fun is the search for that elusive record.
Anyone can walk into Bleeker Bobs (it's a record store and not a museum)
and pay $150.00 for an original copy of Germ Free Adolescence by X-Ray Spex.
What fun is that? Where is the challenge? It's sort of like eating
strained baby food as opposed to the steak eating satisfaction one gets
in finding the same record in some hole in the wall store for $3.00!
It reminds me of when I was just a young buck collecting baseball cards.
Getting money by raking leaves, delivering newspapers, clandestinely
snagging coins from Mom's purse. There was no greater thrill in life than
going down to the corner store and buying a few more packs of Topps (why
did every other pack have a Manny Mota card?). It all ended the year that
I sent my $49.00 to Harry Fleer for the complete set of 1976 cards instead
of going out and buying them downtown. You know what? Without buying the
packs individually, without the anticipation of the unknown, what lay in
store in the pack yet unopened and without that sickly sweet hard-as-a-rock
gum it all meant nothing! The same still holds true today for me but with
records. The search, that's what it is about.
Some people walk into my apartment and ask what do I need 10000 records
for? Why don't I sell some of them? First of all they are my friends and
there was a reason that I got them originally. Secondly, at one time I
did sell some of my records and sure enough the same thing that made me
buy the record in the first place drove me to go out and get a new copy.
It may not be today or tomorrow but at some point I will "need" to hear
Ringo's Goodnight Vienna or J. Geils rockin' 1972 R&B spectacular Full
House or Canned Heat doing "Amphetamine Annie". Yes, one day it will
happen, I'll have to hear those records! You need a break every once in a
while from the newest and the hippest to get some perspective.
I know as the Good Lord is my witness that if I put my hand on a stack
of Bibles and swore up and down, left and right that I wouldn't buy another
record until all of my debts were paid off that I would probably be struck
down by lightning within a week. Records are fun, 7" singles are the best,
vinyl albums are great, even compact discs are o.k. but cassettes are a
joke! Could I live without records? Well, doctors say all you need to
live is water and some nutrition. Would I want to live without records?
I think not!
Matthew Kaplan
TweeKid@aol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANOTHER STACK OF RECORD REVIEWS! By Alan Wright
THE CRAWDADDY'S: "Here 'Tis" (Voxx/Bomp! CD) The Crawdaddys were one
of the first bands to emerge out of L.A.'s burgeoning "60s
revival" scene. They predated a lot of other bands that came before
them, and with a constant change in membership revolving around
group leader Ron Silva, they gave members to many bands that
followed in their wake such as The Tell-Tale Hearts and The
Nashville Ramblers. They only released on actual full-length LP
back in 1980 called "Express," which has also been reissued on CD.
This CD is a re-issue of an LP which originalkky came out in 1987,
long after the group disbanded and is a collection of odds and ends
featuring different line-ups and such, but all recorded around 1982.
Blues/R & B lovers will want to check these guys out as they
aproximated a sound of early 1960s R & B/Soul music better than
anybody else at that time! There's lots of great covers on this
one, songs by Chuck Berry, Alan Toussaint, The Coasters, Jimmy Page
- an excellent verion of Page's rare solo single "She Just
Satisfies" from 1965 or so - Van Morrison (Them period, or course),
The Neville Brothers, Slim Harpo and more. Silva's originals were
no slouches, either, and the band really got that R & B groove
happening on self-penned numbers such as "Don't Come Struttin'" and
"You're Gonna Need My Love Someday." A keeper!
VARIOUS ARTISTS: "The Sue Records Story - The Sound of Soul" (EMI 4 CD box
set) Sue Records was a small indie label that existed between 1957
and 1966. Owned and operated by Henry "Juggy Murray" Jones, it was
the most sucessful black-owned and operated labels in the history of
Soul music. Their most popular act was surely Ike & Tine Turner,
who enjoyed even more success when they signed to much larger labels
and crossed over into the white pop charts. Their recordings for
the Sue label are by far some of the rawest and most soulful they
produced, and ten songs are featured on this 4 CD set, including
amazing numbers like "I Idolize You" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine."
Sue, however, was much more than that. Their roster included a
virtual "who's who" of black Soul music. People like Inez Foxx, The
Magnificent 7, Derek Martin, The Hollywood Flames, Bill Doggett,
Russell Byrd, Baby Washington and tons more. This box set compiles
the absolute "cream of the crop" of the Sue label, and spin-off
subsidiaries like Symbol and Crackerjack records. As a
predominently 45's only label, you're not going to find much of this
stuff anywhere else, so hear it all is in amazing Mono mastertape
clarity! Witness the greatness of raw, fun, sexy and soulful
classics like "Daddy Rolling Stone" by Derek Martin, "Graveyard" by
The Blenders, "Mockingbird" by Inez Foxx, "Chicken Scratch" by The
Commanders and so much more. The amazingly detailed booklet
accompanying this makes for fine reading as you listen to this
classic part of black American musical heritage.
VARIOUS ARTISTS: "The Sun Records Collection" (Rhino/BMG 3 CD box set)
Sun records, the label responsible for the introduction of young Elvis
unto unsuspecting American white audiences, is the subject of this 3
CD box set of Rockabilly, Blues and Country music from the 1950s.
Aside from Elvis, the label also gave birth to other well-known
artists like Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny
Cash. What most folks may not have heard, or know about, is some of
the lesser-known, but equally talented and rockin' artists on Sun
that only recorded a few numbers and then vanished off the face of
the earth. Sun also released seminal recordings by Blues artists
like Howlin' Wolf, Joe Hill Loius, Harmonica Frank Floyd and Rufus
Thomas, to name a few. Disc One concentrates mostly on these guys,
with some great material by the aforementioned, including Howlin'
Wolf's classic "Moanin' At Midnight" and rare tunes by one of my
faves, the "one man band" Dr. Ross, who's signature distorted
guitar sound has been adopted by new blues revival groups like '68
Comeback and Jack o' Fire. Disc Two captures the Rockabilly sounds
of early Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and some lesser known
acts. In particular, it's great that they included demented numbers
like Warren Smith's "Ubangi Stomp" and Rosco Gordon's "Let's Get
High," an ode to the then popular drug habits of many a Sun artist
who gobbled benzadrine (a.k.a. "speed") by the handful. Check out
the insane "Red Headed Woman," by Sonny Burgess who's stripped-down
Rockabilly band included a trumpet player for extra effect! Disc
Three wraps things up with more from Jerry Lee Lewis & His Pumping
Piano, and the absolute classic rocker "Flyin' Saucer Rock 'n' Roll"
by Billy Lee Riley & His Little Green Men. There's also some
fantastic stuff by Bill Justice, The Million Dollar Quartet, The
Jesters and more. It's all mostly Rock 'n' Roll, although the
inclusion of some pretty sappy country stuff breaks up the momentum
a bit. For instance, their choice of Carl Perkins tunes leaves a
bit to be desired, as they include more of his whiney C & W stuff,
and less of his raw Rockabilly material. Overall, though, this is a
pretty killer box set of well-chosen early American Rock history.
LINK WRAY: "Jack The Ripper" (Jaspac 2XCD) This very cool Japanese
double CD set has a total of 53 Link Wray songs on it. Disc One is
instrumental, and Disc two is Link's vocal work, or stuff he and the
Raymen did backing up other performers. The liner notes are in
Japanese, so I don't know what they say. The songs have dates after
them, but I supsect some of them are incorrect, since I don't think
"Frenchy" came out in 1993! Becuase of the usage of Swan singles
for the booklet layout, andf their logo on the CD, I'm going under
the assumption that this material is all stuff Wray recorded for
Swan , and was released on small pressing singles and Lps. There's
a lot of cool material on Disc one, including some well-known tunes,
and some surprisingly different versions ("Rumble" with trumpet, for
instance). "Run Chicken Run, " "The Shadow Knows," "I'm Branded,"
"Ace of Spades," they're all on here, as well as instro verions of
popular vocal songs like "Please Please Me," "That'll Be The Day,"
"Peggy Sue," and "Heartbreak Hotel." Technically, "Deacon Jones"
isn't an instro, but then it's just got this crazy screamin' and
shouting "sort of" words throughout, so I guess it counts. Disc
two, the vocal one, is outstanding, Here's where a lot of the killer
stuff is to be found. Dig Link and the boys backing up the insane R
and B screaming of the doo-wop Dialtones whose stuff is all great,
save for their one clunker, the insipid Four Seasons-ish "So Young."
Who's the idiot singing this one in a stupid ultra-falsetto?. Also
cool are the Spiders, probably another vocal black vocal group, the
soulful Kathyn Lynn and Link's brother, Vernon belting it out on a
couple, as well. Of course, Link's own vocal material shreds, as he
lets loose his ruptured vocal chords on numbers like "Good Rockin'
Tonight" and "Hidden Charms." Essential!! '
KARL S. BLUE & HIS MAGIC QUELLS: "Rowdy" (Blue Enterprise LP) Germany
is the home of these five crazy cats who are obsessed with raw,
lo-fi Rock 'n' Roll. Karl S. Blue is a singer with a vision - to
strip rock 'n' roll back down to it's most primal form. Backed by
his illustrious band, The Quells, they embody the spirit of all the
things that made rock n' roll great. Put a '50s style pin-up babe
on the cover, record in a modest lo-tech studio (manned by Ted
Gaier, who's done time engineering for the likes of "Wild" Billy
Childish, among others) and press your record on ultra-thick, good
quality vinyl and this is what you get. Loud, and kind of fucked-up
sounding rockabilly-based music. Guitar, bass, drums and tenor sax
augment Blue's crazed singing and howling as they rip into rock
standards like "Walkin' The Dog," "No Particular Place To Go,"
"Something Else" (here re-titled "Sump'n Else") and "Heartbreak
Hotel." Suffice to say you've probably not heard such
interpretations of '50s R 'n' R standards since they early days of
The Cramps. The sound is very live, distorted, almost always
teetering on the edge of perfect rawness, threatening to go right
over the edge into complete chaos at any moment. This, of course,
is how really great rock 'n' roll is recorded, and when played by
the talented crew that is the Quells, you end up with some great
results. Aside from the aforementioned covers, they rip through
some insane originals like "I Hate To Drink Alone" and the
instrumental romp "Rocket," which should be adopted as the theme
song to this very publication! They tackle topical song subjects
like acne, heart problems, alcohol and automobiles with all the
sensitivity of a derailing freight train full of drunk blues
singers. "Rowdy" is more than an apt title for this twisted piece
of plastic that fans of real rock n' roll must check out!
VARIOUS ARTISTS: "Tribute to Poison 13" (Bag Of Hammers 7" EP)
With the recent Sub Pop CD retrospective of this amazing band's
recordings, what bettera time to also get this four-band "Tribute"
EP featuring great renditions of Poison 13 songs by Gas Huffer,
Sugar Shack, Big Foot Chester and Sinister Six. What, you don't
know who Poison 13 were? Forget it, I don't have time to explain
it to you. Go get the Sub Pop CD, then we'll talk! Anyways,
all the bands contribute great versions, especially Gas Huffer's
"First You Dream." Big Foot Chester , featuring Jack O' Fire vocalist
Walter Daniels, doing "Hellbound Train." In case you don't know,
Jack O' Fire also feature Poison 13 guitarist Tim Kerr, and now
that Poison 13 are back together, I think Jack O' Fire is in
limbo, so this must be Walter's new combo. Hey, they're pretty
cool! Sugar Shack, who are from Houston and always kind of reminded
me of Poison 13, turn in a good version of "Justice." Sinister Six,
with some help from Tom Price of Gas Huffer on second guitar, really
rev up "Die For Me." Nice Ed Fotheringham silk-screened sleeve design,
too. (PO Box 928, Seattle, WA 98111)
THE SEA MONKEYS: "Pizzaface" (Dionysus 10" LP) When I was a kid,
living back east in Ontario, Canada, my cousin came to visit our
family in 1973, when I was nine years old. My cousin was driving
across Canada from Hamilton to Vancouver, BC. He stopped in
Kingston to visit us, and he brought me a gift. It was his old
portable record player. It plugged in, or ran on batteries, and was
my first record player. He also gave me some 45s to go with it (no,
not bullets, those archaic vinyl thingies) by Johnny Cash, Alice
Cooper, T. Rex and Sweet. In particular, I liked "Little Willy" by
Sweet (with Cash's "Boy Named Sue" running a close second) a lot and
practically drove everyone around me nuts when I memorized the words
and melody and would sing it constantly. Oh, how I loved that Sweet
song! Imagine my glee when I received this new 10" LP by New York
City's Sea Monkeys, a crazy bunch of yokesters whose lead singer is
named "Dave the Spazz," and whom specialize in ridiculous, but
extremely catchy one- to-two minute Ramones-style punk songs. Their
goofy sense of humor is overly apparent here as the LP kicks off
with a cover of Tony Randall's "I Could Love You" (yes, the guy from
"The Odd Couple"). They also do The Brady Bunch's "Time To Change"
and the aforementioned "Little Willy," albeit at twice the
original's speed. Their own songs, with titles like "Weaselneck, "
"Stop Looking At My Underwear" (featuring a guest appearance from CJ
Ramone), "I Wanna Be A Kennedy" and "Chicks With Dicks" all shine
with a bizarre and absurd sense of humor that few bands can pull off
without being a total joke. The thing is, these guys have great
songs, and they're really tight and rocking. Hey, just you try
playing "Little Willy" at twice the normal speed. I bet you can't
do that (unless it's on your portable record player you had when you
were nine, of course).
THE WAILERS: "Tall Cool One/Golden Classics" (Collectables CD) In
1964, Imperial records (a subsidiary of Capitol) released the
original vinyl version of this CD. The record, with it's cheesy
"budget cover" was basically a re-release then of the "Wailers &
Co." LP that the Wailers themselves had released on Etiquette the
year before. Collectables obtained the original masters for this LP
from Capitol, and the result is a fine sounding CD reisssue of a
great party time record! A revamped 1961 version of "Tall Cool
One," The Wailers' 1959 hit single is included, as is the original
'61 take of "Louie Louie," featuring the superb vocal talents of
Rockin' Robin Robertson. There are boss instrumental tunes like the
spastic "Mashi," with it's crazy organ runs, "Frenzy" and "Tough
Walk," with it's honking sax. Kent Morill vocalizes on the screamer
"Isabella" and female vocalists The Marshans make an appearance on
"We're Going Surfin'." With only 11 songs, this makes for a pretty
short CD, but considering the rarity of the original version of
this, it's well worth checking out.
SIN ALLEY: "Headin' For Vegas" (Count Orlock Music CD) This CD is,
simply put, one of the most insane, balls-out, kick-ass Rock 'n'
Roll records I've heard in a while! Put Wanda Jackson circa 1959
and Reverend Horton Heat in a blender and you'll get Sin Alley.
Hailing from Belgium, they are fronted by the gorgeous and
strong-voiced Martine Van Hoot, Sin Alley create a whirlwind of
rockabilly, blues, country and punk that rarely lets up. Guitarist
Ruben Block adds some crazed guitar work while Alain and Koen lay
down the backbeat with stand-up and electric basses, and drum kit.
A few tunes feature some guest sax , as well. "Red Hot Texan" sets
the pace as the band barrels their way through originals like "Death
Row" and "Sinsational." They also revamp some great covers like "The
Witch" and The Rumblers' "I Don't Need You No More," adding some
fine semi-metallic guitar skronk, with Martine's hoot 'n' holler
laid over top. On "Last Goodbye," the band slows the pace down and
allows Martine to really stretch out those vocal pipes, while the
boys add some cool backing vocals. Excellently produced, without
being slick, this disc retains a ton of rock 'n' roll intensity, I
can only imagine what they'd be like live!
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
And now, Cosmic Debris proudly presents proof positive that we are not
merely Godless heathens, neanderthals or thugs. Proof that we know art
and grace and beauty when we see it. Proof that we can spell "Poetry."
And even use it in sentences! Ladies, Gentlemen and innocent bystanders!
We give you....
P O E T R Y F O R N O P A R T I C U L A R R E A S O N
===========================================================================
ODE TO AN AMERICAN BATHROOM
Oh porcelains and stainless steel,
(Forgive that tiny, giggling squeal!)
I blush at how you make me feel,
And rush to you from every meal.
Tiles glazed like soldiers, lining,
Black on white, jewels shining,
(My heart is longing, yearning, pining!)
I'm torn between this place or dining.
Crystal lights, brightly lancing,
Set my legs and feet to prancing,
In mirror-image, I see me dancing,
(I smile and sigh, while quickly glancing.)
Faucets flame with gleaming gold,
So smooth, so bright, so very cold,
You make me feel so brazen, bold,
I long to touch, caress, and hold!
Bathtubs, showers, shampoo rinses,
Come wash away my cares and senses,
Those pulsing waters, hot and steamy,
Tubs of bubbles, soft and dreamy,
Sooth my stress filled muscle's tenses,
With scented, oiled lotions, creamy....
by the Alien Cybr /\w/\ Spydr
(c) The Great Gig 1995
* * * * * * * *
THE SIP-ARM
by coLeSLAw
as i shake off lackadaisically
threads of memories unwind
in time with the volcanos
i'm opened
as i run sideways unprotected
so unabashed and silver fluttery
the half-dried shadows gaze
protectively
as wanting is what wanting does
and clasping tools of wood and glass
we waited for the foreign lights
for a while
i held a piece of broken home
under feathered pillows made of sky
the cup was drained as sank the sun
drowned
washed of that which caused the filth
the spider in my pocket sang
i have nineteen nails from god
tasteless
with malice and rage the wine was made
along with silver caskets
whose nails and pillows, lights and shadows
and memories
whose filth and sky and glass and silver
and threads became the fattened feast
and then we ate the beast...........
.................it tasted like chicken.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
INGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWA
============================================================================
OH MY GOD, look out! You've wandered into it now! Here it is...
T H E C E N S O R S H I P S E C T I O N
============================================================================
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
ARE YOU DECENT? (By Steven Leith) - What is the real meaning of the Exon/
Gorton bill? What would the real effects be? Steve talks to three
system operators, including Cosmic Debris' own Cai Campbell, about
this highly charged subject.
PHILLIP CRAFT VERSUS THE POWERS THAT KEEP TRYING TO BE (Interview by James
Andrews) - He has a public access television show that he uses to get
people to fight back against censorship. When he and his guests did
a 4 and 1/2 hour stint totally naked, the nation (and the politicians)
took notice. A year after that broadcast, Phillip Craft is still
fighting the good fight. Come learn from a wise man.
UNCOVERED (By Cai Campbell) - A brief history of album cover censorship,
from The Beatles to Nirvana. And guys, save some room for apple pie.
URBANIA (By James Andrews) - Our man James has some interesting ideas on
what SHOULD be censored. And an interesting offer for one of the
most vile and disgusting snake-oil salesmen in the Pray-for-Pay
racket.
IF IT LOOKS LIKE SHIT AND SMELLS LIKE SHIT (By DJ Johnson) - It probably
IS shit! And the shit DJ smells is on the shoes of nearly everyone
walking the Senate floor.
HOW MANY SENATORS DOES IT TAKE TO SCREW OVER A COUNTRY? - Answer: 84.
We close this issue with a list of the 84 Senators who voted for the
Exon/Gorton bill. If it passes, I can go to jail for pointing out
that these 84 fuckers are idiots. Imagine.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
===========================================================================
H A P P Y I N D E P E N D E N C E D A Y !
===========================================================================
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A R E Y O U D E C E N T ?
By Steven Leith
The Exon/Gorton Communications Decency Amendment to the
Telecommunications Reform Bill passed the Senate on June 14th by
a margin of 84 to 16. It is obviously not politic to be caught
upholding the Bill of Rights. The goal of a smut free society
may be impossible for the real world, but if Exon and Gorton have
their way, the cyber-world will be as clean and tidy as a church
social.
What is all the fuss? For those new to the debate, I will give
you the main point of the Decency Amendment covering all forms
of electronic transmission:
(a) Offenses: Section 223 (47 U.S.C. 223) is amended--
`(A) knowingly--
`(i) makes, creates, or solicits, and
`(ii) initiates the transmission of,
any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other
communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy,
or indecent;'; ...
For example a statement like: "Gorton has his head so far up his
butt he can see into his own sex obsessed brain," would be a
comment that is indecent and therefore subject to a fine of
$100,000.00 and two years in prison.
I asked three wired folk about this bill, and how it will impact
their systems. Sysop Cai Campbell's BBS "Great Gig" is a music
and adult oriented board with a link to the Net; Cai also
contributes to the Electronic Magazine "Cosmic Debris". Matt
Lampe is the Deputy Director of Administrative Services for the
City of Seattle, and has oversight of the City's "Public Access
Network"(PAN). Douglas Brick is the System Administrator for
"Speakeasy Cafe/Network", a Seattle Internet provider offering
Net access for Cafe customers and complete business accounts for
webpages and direct connections.
Steve: What changes will you make in your network to comply with
the law as you understand it?
Cai: "Absolutely none. The law is preposterous and in direct
violation of my (and my subscribers') First Amendment rights. I
take steps to insure that minors do not have access to the more
questionable material, but the very nature of my service suggests
that there may be material available that some may find
offensive. What really bugs me about this law is that "indecent"
is not defined. Indeed, it cannot be defined. It's about as
subjective a word as you're ever going to find. I find this law
indecent.
As such, any service carrying the text of this tripe
should be held accountable."
Matt: "I don't foresee much change except perhaps some notice or
warning when entering the forum that the material is unedited and
could be viewed as offensive."
Doug: "I don't plan on making any changes to my network, since
it's simply a pipeline to the Internet as a whole. I don't feel
that I'm responsible in any way for its content."
Steve: Do you think that enforcement of decency on the Net will
be possible?
Cai: "Absolutely not. It will simply force the "hard core"
underground. I'm sure they will make a few token arrests and I
think the overall tone of online communication will be altered.
It is very, very sad that our government feels the need to
instill feelings of paranoia in its citizenry. That's the mark
of a dictatorship, not a democracy!"
Matt: "No, I think it will be random, much the way obscenity
through the mails is enforced."
Doug: "No! Yes. I dunno. I think that any attempt to enforce
it will kill the Internet as we know it."
Steve: Given that citizens may reasonably fear that the
government will be reading their e-mail, looking for indecent
words, or pictures, do you think there will be a rise in
encryption, and will you allow encryption to be used on your
network?
Cai: "Yes, encryption will become more widely used. I have no
problems with people sending encrypted mail. What they say in
private is their own business. Contrary to what this law expects
me to do as an information provider, I absolutely refuse to
police for content and/or invade my users' privacy."
Matt: "I would question the initial premise -- I think it is
much more likely to be enforced on a "trapping" basis, like a lot
of the obscenity through the mails stuff is handled. I doubt
that anyone is going to try to enter into individuals' e-mails
for monitoring. I think the driver for encryption will be when
commerce, especially payment transactions, come more commonly
into the Net. In talking to our network folks, they view
encryption as a possible tool for our use to use the Net for more
transmission of city info."
Doug: "Yes, I imagine that people will start to use encryption.
Yes, I don't really have any way to control encryption. Any user
is free to use any resource that they can find or create. I
can't control it anymore than the Postal Service can control the
use of encryption in their users' mail."
Steve: A little talked about aspect of the growth of new
technology is the allure of sex. The video industry was
supported by the adult video industry in its early stages. The
CD-Rom industry is dominated by adult titles that bring cash into
the industry. If the Net is sanitized, will its commercial
growth be slowed?
Cai: "Commercial growth of small enterprises stand to lose the
most ground here. 'Sanitization' of the Net will only make it
easier for the special interests to establish or maintain their
dominance in the information arena."
Matt: "Only a little, as I think we have blown past the point
where "sex" services are driving the growth of the commercial
sphere of the Net."
Doug: "I don't think this will slow down the commercialization of
the Net. The 'sanitization' will just leave more bandwidth for
the same sorts of interests that have taken over TV, radio, and
the paper press.
The only hope I see is that the nature of the medium
itself will be powerful enough to create a whole different mode
of communication, beside which any issues of content will pale.
The real seductive nature of the Net doesn't have anything to do
with the number of nude pictures you can find. I don't know how
to express it, but the sexiest thing in the world is power, and
the Net gives one lots of powers, powers that we still don't know
anything about because they haven't been imagined yet.
Even if some governmental body succeeds in 'sanitizing'
it, there is no reason that a sufficiently inventive 14 year old
can't write a program that will morph General Motors' 'harmless'
automobile ad into the most erotic alien sex act he or she can
imagine. Maybe that's the thing: the Internet empowers the
imagination in a way that has never been possible before. It's
roughly analogous with the invention of language itself: language
allows people to share their imaginings with others, and the
Internet allows this to happen on an almost instantaneous global
scale. A fairly good example of this sort of thing is the Anime,
Japanese animation movement. I guess I'm hoping the changes the
Internet will create will overrun any attempts to legislate
them."
End interview
It bears saying that obscenity, as defined by the Supreme Court,
is not currently granted protection under the First Amendment.
But what is obscene, let alone indecent? In 1973 the Supreme
Court established a test for determination of obscenity:
(a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary
community standards" would find that the work, taken as a
whole, appeals to the prurient interest,. . . (b) whether
the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way,
sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state
law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks
serious artistic, political, or scientific value.
This test must be viewed in the context of the Court's
pronouncements that only hard-core pornography may be prosecuted.
Also the material must meet all three tests to be legally
obscene.
The Court's ruling has allowed a flourishing trade in adult
material that is not only legal, but has become a rather large
business interest. The pornography industry is regulated on a
state by state basis which is very much in keeping with the
Court's feelings.
Justice Harlan wrote, "The danger is perhaps not great if the
people of one State, through their legislature, decide that Lady
Chatterley's Lover goes so far beyond acceptable standards of
candor that it will be deemed offensive and non-sellable, for the
State next door is still free to make its own choice. At least
we do not have one uniform standard. But the dangers to free
thought and expression are truly great if the Federal Government
imposes a blanket ban over the nation on such a book. . . The
fact that the people of one state cannot read some of the works
of D.H. Lawrence seems to me, if not wise or desirable, at least
acceptable. But that no person in the United States should be
allowed to do so seems to me to be intolerable, and violative of
both the letter and spirit of the First Amendment."
The Decency Act strikes at the heart of Justice Harlan's belief
in the general protection afforded by the First Amendment. It
muddies the waters of obscenity law by bring in words such as
indecent and lewd, terms which are indeed subjective. Worse than
this, it seems to want to establish a Federal "Norm" for proper
communication.
The Exon/Gorton amendment will cover private e-mail between
adults and online publications with the same blanket restrictions
that should be reserved for peddlers of commercial obscene
material. It is hard not to view the Act as an infringement of
First Amendment rights.
A provision, added to please the Telcos, does allow large data
carries off the hook, but not if they also produce content.
Content on the Net will be subject to a standard higher than
content in printed books, open speech or even anonymous political
dissent.
Given the wording of the law, and its over-reaching nature, it
will be challenged in the courts. The entrenched interests of
the adult industry may have deep enough pockets to overturn the
law, but this will not happen before the power of the State has
been able to selectively destroy small networks and electronic
publishers who had the nerve to be "indecent."
The future of mass communication is the Net. As Information
Technology replaces many of our current means of information
exchange, we must extend the same rights to cyberspace that we
extend to public space. If the Net is not free today, will it be
free when it becomes the sole form of mass communication?
* * * * * *
Steven Leith is a contributing editor of The Seattle Dispatch,
a monthly paper. He recently finished writing a science fiction
novel about machine intelligence and government control of the net.
He can be reached via E-Mail at leith@wolfe.net
- - - = - - -
Featured systems:
Great Gig: Telnet greatgig.com
P.A.N : (URL) http://www.pan.ci.seattle.wa.us/
Speakeasy: (URL) http://www.speakeasy.org
===========================================================================
PHILLIP CRAFT VERSUS THE POWERS THAT KEEP TRYING TO BE
The controversial TV show host shares a
couple of beers and a whole lot of wisdom
with Cosmic Debris' James Andrews.
* * * * *
Phillip Craft is, among other things, the creative force behind
"Political Playhouse," a television show which has become known
locally and, indeed nationally as "the nude show." Although the
show's facets go far beyond that description, that one act,
broadcasting in the nude, has brought the censorship debate where
it belongs: out in the open. I spoke with Phillip recently at his
home in the Seattle area, about censorship and a few other things.
Here is a portion of that conversation.
* * * * *
Phillip Craft: Can I get you anything while I'm up?
Cosmic Debris: Is there any more beer?
PC: ...It's cheap beer.
CD: Cool. Beer is beer is beer.
PC: I haven't worked in four months, as far as a regular job. I just
get money from shows, gigs...I'm actually a bona fide artist!
CD: Wow! Must be nice!
PC: It sucks.
CD: Well, so does working...Which one sucks worse?
PC: Uh, there's just a certain amount of insecurity that goes with having
no money, but it gives you power as well.
CD: Well, I've gotten it down to three days a week, twelve bucks an hour,
so it's almost not like working...
PC: Well see, I was employed in that kind of liberal work policy as well,
because I was a school bus driver...I was laid off, I only worked 180 days
a year. I was laid off...I'd collect unemployment and I had a return to
work date all set up so I didn't have to look for work. I also made the
most out of my work experience. I was involved in the union, I was the
negotiator, I negotiated the contract for Laidlaw. When we chose to take
economic action, I was the strike captain...led the strike...the first
school bus driver strike in Seattle. And I think that was a valuable
lesson. The process of negotiations and dealing with a multi-million dollar
corporation, ya know. It totally changed my mindset. And after the fact,
Laidlaw had lied to us, manipulated us, hired private detectives to follow
me, tried to rake up as much dirt as possible, they tried to light fires
under my ass because of the controversial politics of the show, and I'm a
school bus driver. So they're telling the media "Ya know, the guy leading
the strike...He's that NAKED guy on public access."
CD: Do you ever find that to be...throughout your daily life, do you find
that there are a lot of people who associate you with that? I mean, people
who actually know you personally wouldn't, but everyone else who has heard
your name would probably associate you with being the naked guy. Does that
affect you in any way outside of television?
PC: I think it's funny.
CD: You don't think people sometimes miss the point? Guys calling up and
saying "Hey, why don't ya have her take her PANTIES off, too..."
PC: Well, of course. That's part of the point as well. We're trying to
reach people who aren't necessarily already converted. So they're not
initially gonna get the point.
CD: So, preaching to the choir isn't gonna do any good...
PC: Right, because the choir already knows and they're hip and they get
the point. But I'm trying to get to people who already don't agree, and at
first when they see the stuff, they're not gonna get it, because they don't
have the context. And that's then when it's up to us to establish the
context. And they tune in, they watch the show on a regular basis, and
they might not watch the show BECAUSE of the political content, they might
watch it because it breaks rules, and because it's not like anything else
on TV, so they might develop an affinity for a character on the show...And
eventually, they WILL get the point, and when they do, the battle is won.
Because then, they can't be brainwashed by all the bullshit that comes
across the airwaves. They've all of a sudden gained a little context on
what information is and what truth, liberty, and nudity really are. All
of a sudden they understand that censorship is just about the controlling
of information. And most people DON'T get that, and that's why censorship
is the tool and the power that it is. Because most people aren't hip
to how it's being used.
CD: Now, do you think the enemy is a palpable person or group of people?
Do you think that the enemy on this front is identifiable? Or, how would
YOU identify them?
PC: I like the idea that it's that conspiratorial, because it makes good
stories...
CD: I don't mean conspiratorial in the sense that they are setting up and...
PC: No, but "they" insinuates conspiracy.
CD: That's true.
PC: There are a group of people who have a vested interest in keeping the
populace ignorant, creating a class society, oppressing people. And
they're gonna try to hold on to that however they can. And that's the
game. And that's how it's played. And it's not a matter of them truly
knowing how they can stay in power as well, because it's a hit and miss
game. I think the battle is teaching people how manipulation works. How
people control people. Showing them the mechanisms of power. And you get
that across, and you're going to take those tools away. They're not gonna
have quite the power they had yesterday. And "they" have less control. And
people are less oppressed. People have more choices. We see that we have
a choice not to be told what we can see and hear and what we can put in
our body, whether or not we can choose to live in pain, or whether we should
have certain inalienable rights, or whether we should solve problems in our
society that aren't in the best interests of the capitalists who run it.
Like single payer health care. You look at all the information available
and it makes sense, because you're eliminating the insurance companies.
They don't need to be there, but there's a tremendous amount of capital
involved, and they don't want to lose that, so they're gonna fight like
hell to keep that. So they're gonna wage a campaign of disinformation,
and it's not a conspiracy thing, but they've got an interest in surviving...
CD: I'd have to argue with you there, a little bit. Insurance companies
almost strike me as conspiratorial, in the sense that it's almost like a
giant, legislated protection racket. I'd say that there are some very
useful forms of insurance, like renter's insurance...You pay ten bucks a
month, and if your place burns down or is robbed, they replace your
valuables. At equal value. Auto insurance? That strikes me as a
protection racket.
PC: Well, I'll just get back to the primary point, that there's a "they."
There are a whole bunch of "they"s and they're all just trying to survive,
because they're raised in a society where they might not even know the
consequences of their own actions. They don't have the context to see
that. Once we comprehend that if we throw garbage down on the grownd,
that we'll eventually bury ourselves in garbage, but because people take
that garbage somewhere else, they don't see it like they would if they
were dumping it all in their own house. But once they comprehend it, once
they see the big picture, you're talking to the converted. So that's what
you try to do is to enlighten people as to the context of the argument.
We're naked to get the point across that there's nothing wrong with nudity.
It's the CONTROL of information that's the real point. My argument has
always been that one of the reasons that nudity and sex are pitched as
something that needs to be censored is to create an ignorant state of
people, who are then afraid to act upon their own sexuality and have sex
because there is a moral agenda. And that moral agenda is that people are
not going to have sex until they're married. And that's what it says in
the Bible, and that's the rules that we want put forth. And people will
then be afraid to have sex. In fact, AIDS works in their favor NOT to
cure. Phil Gramm was talking on C-Span and he said "We all want public
health, but Foster's not gonna give it to us." and that's an out and out
lie, because he doesn't want public health. He doesn't want children to
learn about condoms. He doesn't want a needle exchange. All of these
things are great public health issues and can stop disease. But what they
want is they WANT disease because disease works in their favor. Disease
will coerce. Because the only people who will get the disease are people
that have sex out of wedlock; promiscuous people...
CD: Or intravenous drug users...
PC: or intravenous drug users and so, it becomes an arm...a tool for the
moralists and they play into it. They might not even be cognizant so
much...Yeah, they realize it but we feed ourselves into such a state of
denial that we tend to detach ourselves from our actions and they might
not even be aware...
CD: Right. To them it's a moral, just cause...it's from the Bible, Christ
has blessed this crap...
PC: We're trying to save them for their afterlife, and unfortunately,
doom them to death. Because we are sexual beings. And I argue that
whether we are or we aren't, the fact is that it is happening. And public
health and government is about solving problems that exist in society.
You're gonna have...there IS drug abuse. People use drugs. There is a
certain percentage of people who are always gonna have some kind of
chemical dependency. They're gonna be misfits, just like you're always
gonna have a certain small percentage of people who are not gonna have
empathy, and they're gonna murder other people. And then we have to deal
with them. It's a part of living in a society. So you have drug abuse...
now what is the best way to deal with these people? It's public health...
CD: Well, let's discuss this: Bill Clinton, it appears now, will not win
the next election, which leaves the real possiblity that we'll have a
Republican President.
PC: Probably Phil Gramm, or Bob Dole...
CD: Well, let's get to the list and see what you think of 'em. All of
them. Pete Wilson just signed up today, too. I don't know if you heard
about that.
PC: No.
CD: Just today. Just heard about it a while ago on CNN. He announced on
Larry King. How about Pat Buchanan? What would happen if he became
president?
PC: Oh I think, he would be the populist fascist. He is most like Adolph
Hitler, and the idea of popularizing fascism. I mean, Adolph was a very
popular guy. He divided people by race, he was a hate-monger, and he was
slick in the media. "Triumph of the Will" was a masterpiece. Pat Buchanan
cuts his chops on soundbite journalism.
CD: If Pat Buchanan had a Leni Reifenschtal at his side do you think that
he'd be able to create something equally...
PC: Absolutely.
CD: Like if he had a speech at the Republican Convention, and had someone
equally as adept, do you think...
PC: Actually, no. Film was the medium of the 1930's. Now, you have to
look at who we're trying to reach; the popular base of America, and they're
your CBS, ABC, NBC, 30, 40, 50 year olds, and they're gonna pay attention
to what comes out of the little box. And that's the tool that this new
popular fascism will be communicated through. It's not gonna go back to
arthouse films, because that's not where the market is and that's not
who's watching...
CD: Let me rephrase: If a modern day Reifenschtal...let's say some genius
from MTV, which I would say has dictated how modern communication is
achieved on television. Do you think Buchanan would be as dangerous as
Hitler with someone like that at his side?
PC: Absolutely.
CD: Okay, what about Alan Keyes? What do you think of him?
PC: Not familiar with him.
CD: Bob Dornan?
PC: Him either.
CD: Lamar Alexander?
PC: Nope.
CD: This is the playing field.
PC: I don't really study these mainstream right wing candidates. I don't
pay much attention to them...I know Pete Wilson, I know Bob Dole...
CD: Oh! Bob Dole's starting to show his true colors. I don't know if
you've noticed, the old Bob Dole is coming out again, which is good for
those of us who don't like him.
PC: I think Phil Gramm is posturing to be the Vice President. I've heard
people refer to him in the last couple days as "President Gramm" but I
think he's playing the Dan Quayle role, pandering to the far-right. By
pairing Dole with a far-right candidate, it makes him look more like a
centrist candidate.
CD: How would you tell someone to protect themselves from censorship?
PC: First of all, you review absolutely every single law, because laws are
tools of power. Then you remove any laws that give one person power over
another, laws that give corporations and government power over individuals.
The far-right purports to want to do that: "Let's get Big Brother off our
backs," but they ARE Big Brother, and their Big Brother is a hardcore
moralist that is full of a lot of dogma, who wants to control information.
CD: What experiences have you had on your show with people attempting to
censor it?
PC: There've been a lot of attempts by people to censor the show.
CD: In what way?
PC: First of all, there have been hundreds of calls to TCI from very
organized people, they have a moral agenda, they say nudity is bad, et
cetera. They don't understand the point that there is nothing wrong with
nudity, that it's all in the context of what is being said. If you showed
two people fucking, that is nudity in a sexual context. If you show
somebody walking out of the shower, it is simply somebody naked stepping
out of the shower, just like it always is. If you show somebody how to put
a condom on a penis, that is educational. There is nothing "sensual" about
that. It's simple education.
CD: Somebody could find that sensual, but somebody could find it sensual
to watch "Baywatch" for chrissakes. Somebody could find it sensual to
watch Jane Pauley. I think I understand what you're saying. The simple
fact that there's a penis on the screen with a condom on it doesn't mean
that it's aiming for your daughter's vagina...
PC: When we did what we did here, it was the first time on Public Access
here in town that this had happened. It wasn't the first time in the
United States, it happened many years ago in New York. We approached it
from an educational and political standpoint, arguing the points and
purpose behind censorship, opening a dialog about censorship. At the time,
what inspired me was a growing attempt here in this state to censor art
and music, to regulate music as erotic, and there were all of these
attempts and this inspired me to do this show on censorship. So I
dramatized various forms of censorship, and then discussed why it was
wrong, and what could be the effects of such an action. Like a
proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases, or people getting AIDS,
or unwanted pregnancies, as an example of when nudity is censored. Because
then people don't have the tools to prepare themselves to participate in
safe sex. I showed lots of examples of what happens when you censor hate;
the first consequence is that people aren't able to discern what hate is.
When you are a parent, you want to be able to teach your child what hate
is, because hate exists in this society. You want to be able to teach
them how to react when they encounter something like that. So, you can't
censor hate, because it builds and builds and eventually explodes...
Ruling classes love it when the lower classes hate each other. They can
use that as a bludgeon, which is how fascism works. Fascism works when
hate gets to a point that the people that have all the power then can use
that hate to dictate what they want.
CD: So, on what level did they try to censor you?
PC: These people called the FCC, they called the city attorney, they
called TCI, and then discovered that I had the law on my side. And I was
prepared for any kind of civil action, which would be the next step people
would take. I had pro bono representation, and the ACLU was also behind
me, and I had my lawyer. I could easily then get caught up in litigation,
and that's usually a tactic that people will use to tie you down. It's
been successfully used on some hate groups, like Metzger... Then the next
step they would use would be to legislate, because there was no legislation
on the subject. But because my arguments were political and educational,
I was afforded a lot more protection as well. I went in fully prepared to
fight for the freedom. It's not just an act of artistic expression, the
point is a political point, and that affords me political power, and I
know that. It's about protecting freedom. And I know that the next step
would be for them to legislate against me, which Slade Gorton has tried to
do, he's crafted an ammendment to the communications bill, also there's
another one, the Family Viewing Cable Act of 1995, which will make it a
felony of up to two years in prison and a $200,000 fine for perpetrating
any indecent material on any basic cable package, which includes Public
Access.
CD: Any parting words?
PC: Freedom is a muscle. If you don't use it, you lose it. It will
atrophy. It feels good to use it. It's part of the responsibility of
living in a free society. Every once in awhile, you have to act free.
You have to stand up and protect that freedom. You empower other people
to do that by living it.
* * * * *
"Political Playhouse" airs Thursdays at 3pm in
the Seattle area on Cable Channel 29, check your
local listings to see if your cable provider carries
it. If not, call up and tell them to.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNCOVERED! - A brief history of album covers
that got the black marking pen treatment.
Article by Cai Campbell
Censorship has been around since the creation of art. Art and
censorship are certainly not strange bedfellows. Indeed, they
travel together like Siamese twins who despise each other,
undeniably locked in a power struggle: the need to create and the
need to suppress.
This has held true throughout the evolution of pop music as well.
It is my attempt, here, to chronicle certain key censorship issues
regarding album cover artwork. Album cover art, like other media,
mirrors the cultural path that we follow. By reviewing our
response, as a society, to this "controversial" matter, we can,
perhaps, gain insight into a not-so-wonderful aspect of our own
humanity.
This is by no means a complete or definitive list. It is simply a
smattering of album cover art censorship over a twenty-seven-year
period.
1966 - Beatles - Yesterday and Today
For those up on rock history or for those (cough) who are actually
old enough to have experienced it firsthand, my apologies as I
provide some background info for the first record:
Back in the early sixties, the Beatles spearheaded a phenomenon
known as "The British Invasion." A nice record company called
Parlaphone released the Beatles' records in England in a way that
pretty much pleased the Liverpool Lads.
Well, here in America, Parlaphone had no distribution network, so to
get their product distributed, they had to sign a deal with an
American record company. Capitol Records here in the states were
the ones lucky enough to get their grubby mitts on the Beatles'
output.
Back in England, The Beatles were releasing their records regularly,
and made damn sure that the fans were getting their bob's worth!
Each new Beatle record featured fourteen songs, and the Beatles
personally selected the running order for the new material,
guaranteeing that their music would be presented in the manner in
which they wanted it heard.
Well, our friends at Capitol decided that fourteen songs were too
much! They could offer ten songs and then they'd have enough for a
whole 'nother album after every third release! In their infinite
wisdom regarding hotdogs, apple pie, and other things American, they
also changed the running order of the songs so that the records
would be "more appealing" to the American youngsters.
This practice incensed the Beatles, who worked so hard to craft a
quality product, only to have it butchered by some know-it-all
American. But the issue was out of their control. The contract had
already been signed.
This story, by itself, alludes to a form of censorship in the music
industry, but this is not the angle I have chosen to take. I have
provided this background, my dear reader, as a foundation for the
finale of our story:
After the release of Rubber Soul in 1965, Capitol had "accumulated"
enough material to release yet another rip-off album here in the
states. They phoned up the Beatles and said they needed another
photo of the group for the "new" album.
Fed up with the greedy Americans butchering their product, the
Beatles produced what has become known as the infamous Butcher
Sleeve. The group set up a photo shoot with them wearing butcher
smocks with big pieces of meat and dismembered baby doll parts
strewn about them. Apparently, they had a great time coming up with
the cover. When it was all over, they mailed off the pictures to
Capitol Records.
Capitol, in their frothing feeding frenzy never gave the photos a
second thought, and whipped up the album that we know as "Yesterday
and Today." Capitol then released the record upon the unsuspecting
masses. The outcry was immediate. The record was pulled just as
swiftly as it was released. I don't think anyone got the joke. The
record sleeve was deemed just plain offensive and was reissued with
a new cover.
1967 - Moby Grape
A hot, HOT new band was makin' the San Francisco scene back in the
full-blown explosion called the Summer of Love. They were called
Moby Grape and every record label wanted 'em. Columbia got lucky
and snagged 'em. It was one big promotional catastrophe after that,
including a flaky, bombastic signing party where guests were
showered with purple balloons, purple press kits, purple everything
in honor of Moby Grape. Then Columbia released five simultaneous
singles off the Grape's debut album, confusing DJ's across the
country. Then they released the album, which featured Skip Spence,
always the clown, flipping "the bird" in an almighty "fuck you"
right there on the cover. He was holding his finger against a
washboard, so it wasn't totally obvious. Still, Columbia was pissed
off big time when they found out this little number got by them! It
probably wouldn't have been a big deal if the whole Grape hoopla
hadn't soured so fast. Columbia stopped the presses and altered the
cover by airbrushing out "the bird." The funny thing is, one of the
best records to come out of the whole scene got overshadowed by a
whole buncha nothin'!
1968 - John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Two Virgins
As the Beatles began to fall apart, due mainly to their clashing
lifestyles and chosen directions in music, they managed to put
together a double album now know as "The White Album." In
retrospect, it is easy to see this record for what it truly is: a
disjointed collection of solo works rather than a tight group
effort. One of the most glaring examples of this is John Lennon's
piece titled "Revolution No. 9" that he recorded with Yoko Ono.
John was beginning to include Yoko more into his musical life, and
within one week of the release of the White Album, he released his
first full-fledged collaboration with her, an album titled "Two
Virgins." Capitol absolutely refused to issue the record when they
saw the cover, which featured a full frontal view of the couple
standing nude. John had to get a smaller record label to distribute
it under the auspices of the Beatles' own Apple label, but even
Tetragamatron wouldn't release the record without first enclosing it
in a brown wrapper, with holes cut out to show only the faces of
John and Yoko. There was a big controversy over its release, and
several record outlets refused to carry it. It was even confiscated
as obscene material in New Jersey. Looking at the cover today, it
all seems so innocent.
1969 - Blind Faith
The first and only release from this supergroup featuring Eric
Clapton, Steve Winwood, and Ginger Baker was jerked off the shelves
almost before it hit them. The cover showed a nude (and very young
looking) girl holding a big chrome airplane car ornament. Despite
the beautiful, artistic nature of the cover, it was replaced with a
bland cover featuring a black and white photo of the group.
Curiously, ever since it's reissue in 1975, the album has sported
its original cover and never met the resistance that surrounded its
initial release.
1971 - Mom's Apple Pie
The only thing this band is remembered for is the cover of their
debut album. At first glance, the cover looks innocent enough. It
shows a kindly looking farmer's wife holding forth a freshly baked pie
with one slice removed. Upon closer examination, however, you can
see that the pie is very special! Right at the tip of the missing
slice in the filling of the pie can be seen a very nice rendering of
female genitalia. After word got out, retailers demanded that
Capitol Records do something about it. They did. They filled the
slice up with bricks, surrounded it with barbed wire, and raised the
American Flag.
1974 - Roxy Music - Country Life
Roxy Music were enjoying great fame in their native England but
success in America remained elusive until the release of this
record. All it took was a little T&A to grab the Americans'
attention! Actually, the music was very good and could stand on
its own, but the cover, which featured a couple of nearly nude
women standing in front of a lush jungle, caused retailers to balk.
Future releases came in green shrinkwrap to hide the women, but
retailer resistance continued. Finally, the record company gave
into the pressure and reissued the record with the women completely
removed.
1984 - Roger Waters - Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking
This cover might have been overlooked had it not been so plain ugly!
Except for the beautiful ass of the babe hitching a ride on the
cover, the remainder looks like it was slapped together by a drunk,
color-blind interior decorator. Feminists cried foul regarding the
social implications of the cover: a buck naked (sans a backpack and
high heels) woman hitching a ride alone out on a desert highway.
Apparently they objected to yet another portrayal of a woman as an
easy target. The record company didn't really understand the
concern and thought people were objecting simply because they could
see the chick's butt, so they covered it up with a black rectangle.
They succeeded in blocking out the only thing that didn't hurt your
eyes to look at on the whole damn cover and still the depiction of a
woman as an easy mark was readily observable.
1990 - Jane's Addiction - Ritual Del Los Habitual
Another fantastic Farrell cover adorned this record. Unfortunately,
the subject matter was a tad touchy for many outlets. The cover
depicted a paper-mache menage a trois with a Christian shrine theme.
Later releases of the record featured a plain paper cover with the
album title unceremoniously dumped on it. Article 1 of the first
amendment to the Constitution is printed underneath the title:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religon,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
1990 - Dwarves - Blood, Guts & Pussy
Some things just don't need an explanation.
1993 - Nirvana - In Utero
This album shot right to number one on the Billboard charts. The
cover, which features plastic fetuses and cherubs, caused the record
to be banned from Wal-Mart and Kmart. Despite huge sales of the
album, these retail outlets claimed that their customers weren't
interested in that sort of music. Just before Kurt Cobain's
suicide, the band had agreed to change the artwork and a song title
to appease the retail giants.
Cai Campbell
vex@greatgig.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
U R B A N I A
CALLING JERRY FALWELL!!! CALLING JERRY FALWELL!!! You there? Good. I've
been thinking. With as much as you TALK about hoe moe sek shewalizm, I
figure that you probably THINK about it three times as much. Now, I'm not
into guys myself, but I'd be willing to be sucked off by the Great Reverend
Himself, for a couple of reasons. One, maybe you'd shut your bile infested
mouth about how other people live their lives once you developed that
underworked, overimagined homosexual tendency you obviously have. Two, I'd
get a blowjob and a great column. A scoop, as we say in the industry. Are
you game? Ok, just send me some E-Mail and I'll meet you after the 'zine.
Greetings to everyone who happens not to be Jerry Falwell! It's been a busy
month here at Cosmic Debris, Inc. After the success of Issue #1, we've had
to hire a third secretary just to handle the E-Mail from groupies. He
spends most of his day explaining that, no, we won't be coming to New
Jersey soon, yes, we ARE extremely cool, but REALLY, we aren't a band.
Now, as you may have discovered, this issue is dedicated to the issue of
censorship. Hey! I'm all for it! Let's start with the Holy Bible. Who
wrote this rag, anyway? First off, let's ditch some of the titles.
"Numbers." Even a fucking SHEPHERD knows what a "number" is, and most of
the Bible seems like it was written by people who had smoked plenty of 'em.
"Acts." Now, I haven't read this one lately, but I'll tell you, the
prurient part of my mind starts to race at the thought of what's contained
in a book called "Acts." Very graphic, I'm sure. "Leviticus." I don't know
for positive, but I'm pretty sure that "leviticus" is Latin. It comes from
two words: "Levi" and "Ticus" literally translating in English to "Tickle
what's in my Levi's." That one's out. And "Genesis." Jesus Christ!
That's the name of a rock band! They sing songs about doing it (giggle)
with people they aren't married to, I'll bet!
Ok, moving on...Oh, HERE'S a good one. "Song of Solomon." A "holy" book
largely devoted to poetry that some dirty old king wrote trying to woo his
minions into bed. Serious whack-off material, there. AND, when the poetry
didn't work for his predecessor, David, well, David just shipped off ol'
Bathsheba's husband to the front lines of some war he probably started just
for the occasion, then he fucked Bathsheba silly when the poor sap was
killed. So we can ditch "Psalms" too. OUR children don't need to be reading
that smut.
Now, "Revelation" reminds me a LITTLE too much of what I write when I have
the same type of "revelation," i.e., the kind that come to me when I'm
frying my brains on windowpane. Has anybody else read this crap?? Seven
headed dragons, indeed. I've seen God on MUCH better drugs than that hack
ever did.
Ok, enough titles. Let's get to the incest. Adam and Eve had a few kids,
right? They were the only people on the planet, right? Ok, uh, WHO WERE
THEY SCREWING?? Has not ONE of our duly elected officials thought about
this? They allow this smut to be peddled to OUR children by pedophiliac
priests?? Ok, I'll explain this concept again for the Republicans in the
audience.
ADAM does it (giggle) with EVE. CONCIEVES MANCHILD.
ADAM does it (giggle) with EVE again. CONCIEVES WOMANCHILD.
MANCHILD does it (giggle) with WOMANCHILD. HUMAN RACE started by INCESTUOUS
FAMILY.
GOD looks on with such pleasure that he has what came to be known in heaven
as "The Big Bang" which has no relation to the scientific theory by the same
name.
And do you suppose that God is REALLY as xenophobic as they paint him in the
Bible? It seems to me that God found disfavor with just about ANYONE who had
land that the Israelites wanted. So, either (a) Moses lied a lot when he
wrote, or (b) God had the protection racket from HELL going on down there in
Mesopotamia. Although, when you think about it, a place like Heaven can't
be cheap to run. Streets of gold are nice and everything, but they come at
a price. And you've GOT to have good stuff like that in your afterworld if
you want people to buy real estate there, if you know what I mean. You
can't have people buying lots in Valhalla or you start to lose credibility
as "the one true God" and all that crap. Hmmm. How DOES God pay for all of
that shit? I wonder if that's where the black budget from the Pentagon goes?
Maybe that's the big secret. We never spent a DIME on "Star Wars," they just
ship all the dough off to God, and he zaps all of our "enemies" i.e., anyone
whose land we want. Like the Native Americans. They worshipped "Mother
Earth." Ooooooo, I'll bet THAT burned ol' Yaweh's butt and GOOD! Oops,
topic drift.
So, I think we can all agree here (and, if not, you're CERTAINLY welcome to
send me mail, so I can make fun of you in future issues) that the Bible is a
Prehistoric Porno Mag. A BAD Prehistoric Porno Mag, to be sure, but no less
of one for it. I guess we might as well start worshipping Larry Flynt, for
all the good it'll do us to worship anyone. I think I'd like Larry Flynt's
idea of heaven a little more than I like Moses' idea of heaven, anyway.
Well, that about sums it up. I'm ALL for censorship. Let's just start with
the REALLY creepy stuff and leave the smut alone. And, with any luck, next
time I talk to you, I'll be sending a photo of yours truly chapping Jerry
Falwell's lips along with the article. Wish me luck!
- James Andrews
James can be thanked or screameth'd upon at ohchrist@u.washington.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF IT LOOKS LIKE SHIT AND SMELLS LIKE SHIT...
DJ Johnson smells trouble
I want to talk about June, 1995. The Exon/Gorton fiasco goes from
horrific fiction to unthinkable fact, pronto. Fear peddlers pound on
Bibles and point at the Internet community, screaming to all who will
listen that they have identified the new Satan. The 104th Congress,
drunk with power and clearly swerving over the center line, is being less
and less clever about hiding the real agenda. We start hearing something
about a bill before the Senate that would outlaw music written in any
scale not approved by a bunch of cretins who think "Wait Till The Sun
Shines, Nellie" should be the national anthem. "No way, not here, not
in America!" you whisper, eyes wide, and a "It's Safe To Kick Me" sign
on your back.
Yeah, well welcome to "AMERICA - CONSERVATIVE STYLE," the sitcom
that just ain't funny, is embarassing to watch, but doesn't seem to get
cancelled. It only got added to the 1994 lineup because we were all too
damned busy with our free little lives to go out and vote. I, myself,
didn't vote because I was too busy listening to music based on evil scales.
I blame Satan. A lot of you blame busy schedules, bad parking, and the
Internet. Hell, you might as well blame the Net. It's the cause of all
this country's woes. In Seattle, some 15 year old kid runs off to San
Francisco and meets up with somebody he originally met on America On-Line
in a gay and lesbian forum. The parents, mortified and desiring a speedy
reunion with their son, ran to the phone and called the PRESS! Next thing
the kid knows, his sexuality is front page news. The Internet is the
villian. The Internet helped lure this child from safety into the arms of
danger. I dunno, I think just about any kid is apt to run away if his or
her parents are the type of people who would share that kind of private
information with the press.
I'm not against all conservatives. I'm not for all liberals. I,
myself, have several beliefs that would fall more toward the conservative
side of the scales, mostly in the area of dealing with people who impose
their will on you. I'm not in favor of light punishments for horrible
crimes. Let's leave it at that. But I see a large number of people, card
carrying members of Newt's Army, that fit into that same catagory. People
trying to impose their will on me and you. People who seem to think we're
not intelligent enough to make our own choices. These people are criminals
just as surely as the guy who kicks an old lady in the gut and steals her
purse is a criminal. They're stealing your rights. Luckily, the law does
provide a punishment for these crimes. Loss of public office. Vote 'em
out. Get off your ass, get to the polls, and vote them out.
You're not helpless. If you're reading this, you're probably on the
Internet. Great place to be, if you want to be informed. Get on the World
Wide Web. Go to Webcrawler, or whatever your search tool of choice is.
Start looking for things! Try key words like "text of bills" or "U.S.
Senate." Go to Yahoo, or Cosmic Debris' Home Page, and use the links as
a jumping off point. Get EDUCATED! There are sites out there that list
all the votes made by Senators and members of Congress. There are sites
that let you know what companies and organizations contributed what amount
of money to each person's campaign. There are web sites and gopher sites
that offer full texts of important bills. There are E-Mail lists and
Usenet News groups where open discussion and debate take place. If you
have cable TV, you probably have CSPAN, which is boring as hell a great
majority of the time, but not ALL of the time. The trick there is to pop
a tape in the VCR, let it record 6 hours of uninterrupted CSPAN, and then
scan scan scan. See, a lot of these people seem to forget the camera is
on them when they are on the House or Senate floor. True colors can be
seen daily. I learned more about Al Swift and Bob Packwood in one hour
on CSPAN than I did in a hundred hours of reading the news.
Hey, you! You're on the infamous Information Highway. I'd suggest
you quit day dreaming and start grabbing up that information before someone
sticks a "Road Out" sign in your face, because these jokers are painting
up those signs right now.
About the author:
DJ Johnson is pissed off.
You'll find him glowering at moonbaby@greatgig.com
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
A L M O S T T H E E N D
Thank you for reading this issue of Cosmic Debris, and for taking
part in our little experiment. We'd like to close this issue by
giving you a list of the 84 Senators who voted in favor of the CDA
(Communications Decency Amendment). Remember these names. Watch
these people. If they represent your state, think about voting for
a light pole or a mailbox before you vote for these people again.
Don't feel bad. Cosmic Debris is based in the state of Washington.
The only state to vote for Pat Robertson in a caucus a few years back.
We know what it is to be ashamed. (We can proudly say, however, that
our own Senator Patty Murray is one of the 16 who did NOT vote for it.)
Don't look back. Just vote 'em out. The mailbox will do a much
better job of looking out for our best interests. At least the
mailbox is based on our right to privacy.
Feast your eyes on these sorry so and so's who voted for
the Exon/Gorton "Communications Decency Amendment." Some
of these will surprise you. Some of 'em won't.
D ST Name (Party) Phone Fax
= == ================== ============== ==============
R AK Murkowski, Frank H. 1-202-224-6665 1-202-224-5301
R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-1044
D AL Heflin, Howell T. 1-202-224-4124 1-202-224-3149
R AL Shelby, Richard C. 1-202-224-5744 1-202-224-3416
D AR Bumpers, Dale 1-202-224-4843 1-202-224-6435
D AR Pryor, David 1-202-224-2353 1-202-224-8261
R AZ Kyl, Jon 1-202-224-4521 1-202-228-1239
R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 1-602-952-8702
D CA Boxer, Barbara 1-202-224-3553 na
D CA Feinstein, Dianne 1-202-224-3841 1-202-228-3954
R CO Campbell, Ben N. 1-202-224-5852 1-202-225-0228
R CO Brown, Henry 1-202-224-5941 1-202-224-6471
D CT Dodd, Christopher J. 1-202-224-2823 na
R DE Roth Jr. William V. 1-202-224-2441 1-202-224-2805
D FL Graham, Robert 1-202-224-3041 1-202-224-2237
R FL Mack, Connie 1-202-224-5274 1-202-224-8022
D GA Nunn, Samuel 1-202-224-3521 1-202-224-0072
R GA Coverdell, Paul 1-202-224-3643 1-202-228-3783
D HI Akaka, Daniel K. 1-202-224-6361 1-202-224-2126
D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747
D IA Harkin, Thomas 1-202-224-3254 1-202-224-7431
R IA Grassley, Charles E. 1-202-224-3744 1-202-224-6020
R ID Craig, Larry E. 1-202-224-2752 1-202-224-2573
R ID Kempthorne, Dirk 1-202-224-6142 1-202-224-5893
R IN Coats, Daniel R. 1-202-224-5623 1-202-224-8964
R IN Lugar, Richard G. 1-202-224-4814 1-202-224-7877
R KS Dole, Robert 1-202-224-6521 1-202-224-8952
R KS Kassebaum, Nancy L. 1-202-224-4774 1-202-224-3514
D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046
R KY McConnell, Mitch 1-202-224-2541 1-202-224-2499
D LA Breaux, John B. 1-202-224-4623 na
D LA Johnston, J. Bennett 1-202-224-5824 1-202-224-2952
D MA Kerry, John F. 1-202-224-2742 1-202-224-8525
D MD Mikulski, Barbara A. 1-202-224-4654 1-202-224-8858
D MD Sarbanes, Paul S. 1-202-224-4524 1-202-224-1651
R ME Snowe, Olympia 1-202-224-5344 1-202-224-6853
R ME Cohen, William S. 1-202-224-2523 1-202-224-2693
R MI Abraham, Spencer 1-202-224-4822 1-202-224-8834
R MN Grams, Rod 1-202-224-3244 na
R MO Bond, Christopher S. 1-202-224-5721 1-202-224-8149
R MO Ashcroft, John 1-202-224-6154 na
R MS Cochran, Thad 1-202-224-5054 1-202-224-3576
R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262
D MT Baucus, Max 1-202-224-2651 na
R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594
R NC Faircloth, D. M. 1-202-224-3154 1-202-224-7406
R NC Helms, Jesse 1-202-224-6342 1-202-224-7588
D ND Conrad, Kent 1-202-224-2043 1-202-224-7776
D ND Dorgan, Byron L. 1-202-224-2551 1-202-224-1193
D NE Kerrey, Bob 1-202-224-6551 1-202-224-7645
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213
R NH Gregg, Judd 1-202-224-3324 1-202-224-4952
R NH Smith, Robert 1-202-224-2841 1-202-224-1353
D NJ Bradley, William 1-202-224-3224 1-202-224-8567
D NJ Lautenberg, Frank R. 1-202-224-4744 1-202-224-9707
R NM Domenici, Pete V. 1-202-224-6621 1-202-224-7371
D NV Bryan, Richard H. 1-202-224-6244 1-202-224-1867
D NV Reid, Harry 1-202-224-3542 1-202-224-7327
R NY D'Amato, Alfonse M. 1-202-224-6542 1-202-224-5871
R OH Dewine, Michael 1-202-224-2315 1-202-224-6519
R OK Inhofe, James 1-202-224-4721
R OK Nickles, Donald 1-202-224-5754 1-202-224-6008
R OR Hatfield, Mark O. 1-202-224-3753 1-202-224-0276
R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-3576
R PA Santorum, Rick 1-202-224-6324 na
R PA Specter, Arlen 1-202-224-4254 1-717-782-4920
D RI Pell, Claiborne 1-202-224-4642 1-202-224-4680
D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293
R SC Thurmond, Strom 1-202-224-5972 1-202-224-1300
D SD Daschle, Thomas A. 1-202-224-2321 1-202-224-2047
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259*
R TN Thompson, Fred 1-202-224-4944 1-202-228-3679
R TN Frist, Bill 1-202-224-3344 1-202-224-8062
R TX Hutchison, Kay B. 1-202-224-5922 1-202-224-0776
R TX Gramm, Phil 1-202-224-2934 1-202-228-2856
R UT Bennett, Robert 1-202-224-5444 1-202-224-6717
R UT Hatch, Orrin G. 1-202-224-5251 1-202-224-6331
R VA Warner, John W. 1-202-224-2023 1-202-224-6295
R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393
D WI Kohl, Herbert H. 1-202-224-5653 1-202-224-9787
D WV Byrd, Robert C. 1-202-224-3954 1-202-224-4025
D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 na
R WY Simpson, Alan K. 1-202-224-3424 1-202-224-1315
R WY Thomas, Craig 1-202-224-6441 1-202-224-3230
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cosmic Debris was brought to you this month by the letter "F."
ANNOUNCEMENT !
It has been brought to our attention that there is another E-Zine
called Cosmic Debris. It is a SciFi/Fantasy zine that is distributed
via BBS download and CD ROM. The editor, Joe O'Connell, can be reached
at joe.oconnell@swcbbs.com and he can tell you how to get a copy of his
zine. The long and the short of it is that they were here first, so
as of next month, this zine will have a slightly different title.
COSMIK DEBRIS.
That's right, we're just changing the spelling. That's fine with us,
though, because that's the way it's spelled in the Frank Zappa song
that inspired the name of this zine, and it's what this zine WOULD
have been titled if our airhead editor (me) had noticed the Zappa
spelling before setting up shop here. Mr. O'Connell is an extremely
nice man and we worked this arrangement out very very peacefully.
We will inform our subscribers of any important changes that occur
as a result. We would assume the URL to our WWW homepage would be
apt to change, since it includes the current spelling. By the way,
for now it's the same. Come and see us at
http://www.greatgig.com/cosmicdebris
and check out our political pages, music links, article archives,
and our Featured Band Of The Month section, which has pictures,
biographies, sound clips and more. That wraps it up. See you
next month, when we'll be COSMIK DEBRIS. Why? Because Frank would
have wanted it that way.
Deej
