Four Reasons Not To Visit Your Family On A Weekend

[James B Hofmann <hofmann@AMSAA.ARPA>]

(there being many more I won't get into)

Been like Woodstock or sumpin' round here lately.

On Thursday, 19 Jun:

	PUSSY GALORE/TAR BABIES/SONIC YOUTH @ 9:30 Club, D.C.

	P.G. (no - not you know who...) opened with their
        CRAMPS in the JUNKYARD cacophony.  I found them interesting
 	for about five songs then retired to the back to watch my
	Pepsi fumes.  Give 'em a 3.2 for originality.  TAR BABIES
	got ZILCH response from the gloomy trendies.  Maybe if
	they had dressed in black?  Though, they really weren't
	that good and their songs were kinda indentical, I found
	the backbeat hard to resist and danced through the set. 
	2.1 for dancability and dedication and ... oh, yawn -
	Then the YOUTH hit the stage and played virtually everything
	off EVOL - even the stuff with keyboards by Renaldo using
	a LL Beat Box.  Kim's vocals are between rasp and velvet
	and goosebumpy and all to say the least.  Some promo crap 9:30
	had laying around described SY as a "cinematic" experience
	leading me to believe that they were bringing thier horrorshow
	flicks along but alas, no ... they ARE "cinematic" in that
	they are interesting to watch for TECHNIQUES which included
	the ol' drumstick in the geetar, the offtunings, the running
	of feedback through the beatbox.  I also figgered why they
        thanked Bruce S. on EVOL, it's cuz they steal his Bored in
        the USA geetar swing (y'know diagonal-like) 'cepting where
        The BOSS has his widdle hand tight on the E chord - the SONIC
        BOSSES are tuning DOWN the E-Strang.  Another interesting thing they
	did was during the encore (XPressWAY to YOUR skuLL) and the
	train is supposed to be fading away so they were tapping the
	backs of the geetars (of which they had MANY) until the
	tones finally faded away.  An experience for which one doesn't
	need intoxiants...  They are kicking off a West Coast tour and
	will be back in D.C. on the 25th, July.

	[unknown]/ GRAY MARCH @ the Eutaw Clubhouse, Fri, 20, '86.
	First band, standard formula "hard"core, I guess.  As usual
	a fight broke out.  GRAY MARCH hits the stage and goes through
	their material rocking it all the way.  They sound MUCH different
	than their upcoming EP on the stage and hey, they even have
	synth(!) and  I like 'em - gasp.  JD'ers should take note BUT
	unlike the biting synth of JD, Ron plays a CULTish/CUREish type
	Roland.  Mike on guitar iz geetar god for some BUT the real
	attraction is 16 year old Junior on drums - tho' he don't
	grandstand or nothing, he's a JOY to listen to.  They've improved
	mightily since I first saw them and Louis has gotten a bit
	more stage personna going.  No plans definite yet, but expect
	a tour after the self-produced EP is released.  Keep an eye
	on Forced By Pressure to hit some college airwaves. . .

	DISDAIN/ LATE TEENS/ RHYTHM PIGS / BEEFEATER @ The Eutaw, 21, Jun 86
	BEEFEATER is on TOUR through the Waste Coast,  They said they'd
	be in Sanfrandisco a month from now - so peel 'em cuz you don't
	want to miss 'em.  They're opening up with basically new tunes
	(the record on Olive Tree is STILL not released) that are instantly
	likable if you dug their old stuff (although much different and
	harder).  They only did a coupla tunes from the Plays For Lovers
	release and Wars in Space (which has been changed to slag bong-heads
	as well as SDI).  Tomas, though, ought to can the political act or
	come up with something new ("your president, he is lying to you!"
	and then burns a picture of Ronnie, or the standard Apartheid hue
	and cry).  Dug, the ugliest man in D.C. proves that all a guy needs
	to do is join a rock band to attract Frauleins.  New drummer is
	pretty special, hope he stays.  Loved the Prince moves they
        picked up for their funkthrash songs - Encore to the 40 or so faithful 
	was Manic D. with Fred singing... intentional or not, he's like Jimi
	reincarnated.  ... oh yeah, the OTHER bands - quick now, RHYTHM 
	PIGS played their second time in a month in this area and still
	fail to impress me though they're all pretty nice guys and all...
	LATE TEENS are these 35 year old bald and fat men who missed out
	on punk rock cuz their guitarist was in jail for Cocaine.  Now
	they've shaved their heads and are skins...  Funniest part was when
	the singer (replete with suspenders and Doc Martins) asked "all the
	skinflints to come up front"... serious!  And they DID, like little
	sheep looking for a master... kinda reminded me of wedding receptions
	where all the unwed girls are asked to catch the bouquet, sniffleee
        snifflee, doo ... DISDAIN I didn't see so I can't say I have DISDAIN
	for DISDAIN, darn... Gordon said it was some more metalcore C.O.C.
	imitation.  In attendence, Sue T.'s wavo peer, D.J. Ennis, program
        director for WCVT -

	1/2 JAPANESE / The FORGOTTEN? or THE UNFORGIVEN? / MARGINAL MAN / 
	NAKED RAYGUN @ the Complex, Jun 22, 1986
	Quick now, 1/2 JAPANESE suck and should hang it up.  Fun band to heckle
	to, kinda like a new-wave Grateful Dead... THE FORGOTTEN or whatever
	are from Texas so they wore those pussy cowboy hats.  They belong
	in a Honkey Tonk but were probabably so bad they got thrown out of
	there, too... for some reason they're here headlining a show with 
	GARGOYLE SOX who suck too...but in a unique way, I guess.  MARGINAL MAN 
	thrashed the place down as usual, they never let you sit but then again 
	they really haven't DONE a heckuva lot since they got hailed as the big 
	THING in D.C. (Dick City).  Still by God they rock and that's all that 
	matters and all... NAKED RAYGUN, eeeeeeeeeee GAWD!  even attracted some 
	wank in a tie from SPIN to write about 'em - so of course I ripped off 
	Tim's copy of the rag and threw it in the pit.  When the little fukkker 
	checked his watch oh so fashionably I wanted to throw HIM in there.  I
	can't see how anyone can write anything of worth about the band 'less
	they're up there in front LISTENING - fuck 'em.  RAYGUN still cook live
	though parts of ALL RISE leave a bit to be desired.  Pezatti actually
	came up to ME and introed himself - "hi, I'm Jeff..." "Oh, hi, I'm Jim,
	I know who you are, is Steve Albini really a geek?" [ pause ] "Well, um,
        no, not really, uh, okay, sometimes, yeah..."  


And now for the gossip:...
Ian MacKaye, former bald man is now sporting some curls.....John Waters, arbiter
of bad taste, was seen in the front row of a Pia Zadora concert down on the 
Inner Harbor in Baltimore - what is next for Waters?  Kate Bush??????????...
local AD-SHEET MARYLAND MUSICIAN is now expanding into "NEW" music and admitting
that other music DOES exist in the area besides DIXIE ROADDUCKS and KIX and 
THE RAYVNS even if they won't buy ad space and we'll see how long THAT lasts.
Tim is in love with their reporter and was shining a flashlight into her
sheer black nighty dress to see what she was packing...  that PERVERT Wicinski
should be LOCKED up before he rapes heavy metal cheerleaders!  PERVERTphobe that
I am, I'll leave you now to discuss Peter Gabriel's new FILM career, sick, 
sickssick, ...  Adress random slags, personal commetns, etc to me as there
is no guarentee I'll pick up on it in the near future, yours, truly,j.h.


p.m.: (post modem?  post modern? post mortem?):
>Who is this abusive person, and why is he/she so angry?
>I cannot say that I have ever considered buying a record
>by Big Country before, although I vaguely remember being
>mildly  [ blah blah blah.... ]

Gawd, does THIS sound familar.............. buy buy!