Quote from: theotherjohn on September 16, 2020, 02:06:20 PMPart 1 of the Dominick Fernow interview was another good episode! Here's some assorted links I gathered whilst listening to it:
Astronaut Ice Cream Headache: https://astronauticecreamheadache.bandcamp.com/releases
Prurient split on Beeshu Tapes: https://www.discogs.com/Prurient-Potassium-Cyanide-Dogbane-Sentiment-Persistence/release/857257
This is Dave who used to run Beeshu Records, was 1/2 of Astronaut Ice Cream Headache, played guitar in The Pottyshots, and was 1/2 of the short-lived PCDS, and so on and so forth. Thought I'd let you all know that my current label Kaji-Pup just put out a CD compiling the best of Astronaut Ice Cream Headache's work, transferred in 24-bits in the 2020s. This new release features the bonus track "Underwater Cave Diving Stress." It's the first time these finalized versions have found their way onto a physical format release.
You can snatch up a copy
HERE. The digital downloads are elsewhere on the AICH Bandcamp, and you can also stream the tracks for free on Spotify, Apple Music, and so on. Be warned though, AICH sometimes stretches the definition of "music." It's certainly not for everybody!
Kaji-Pup also put out a Blu-ray within the past few months that compiles the best of my more refined experimental-adjacent film and video work, made between 2000 and 2014. It's a tight ninety minutes. Fewer than 100 copies remain. You can buy one
HERE. It includes a film that features original noise music from Prurient. You can find some of these titles on Vimeo but the image quality is better on the Blu-ray and the work hangs together better as a proper sequence.
Anyway, it's been a minute since I've listened to the Noisextra episodes with Prurient (which I enjoyed!), but I thought I'd chime in here. Indulge me for a second . . .
Here is a photo of the first-ever Prurient live set, which I only have hazy memories of:
Dom was not embellishing when he said that—in the early days at least—we would try to sell tapes by approaching random people on the street or at school. This makes me chuckle because that's very much not my m.o. now. And circa '97-'98, cassettes were not seen as that viable a format for proper releases. A lot of people still had tape players in their cars, but they often went unused. I remember trying to put some of the early Beeshu stuff on consignment at an Exclusive Company in Brookfield (suburb west of Milwaukee) and the clerk said, "We only accept ones and zeros." This was right before when people started being able to burn CDRs with their computers; after maybe ten or so years of that, when CDRs had lost their luster, more boutique indie labels started putting out small runs of tapes, and cassette culture became more normalized again (at least as I see it).
A big influence on the Beeshu Records thing was the label Vinyl Communications. They'd started out as a more typical sort of punk label, but by the time I'd caught wind of them (through Matt Simmons) they were putting out noise (The Haters, Merzbow, Crash Worship, Zipper Spy), electronic music (Lesser, Spacewurm, Titwrench), novelty records (Melba Jackson, and Longmont Potion Castle, before he was more well known). The message was kind of an "anything goes" mindset, not puritanical. I liked a number of the prominent indie labels of the day (Dischord, Digital Hardcore Recordings, Warp, certain things on Matador, etc.), but the Beeshu ethos had something to do with not ever becoming interchangeable with a single genre. I think the need for Hospital arose because Dom and Matt wanted to be more noise focused and press ahead with more releases in that vein than I could keep up with. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or history in the making.
I still make music from time to time under the name
Tired of Triangles, and I'm presently working on my third novel. My second one deals with nineties punk stuff, among other things, and you can snag a copy
HERE. Down here in Florida I was involved in a recording project
Leila M. & Tired of Triangles, but I haven't played out in a while. Still buy the occasional noise release, but am more of a dabbler, not well versed.
Cheers.
