Monday, January 9, 2012



The latest product from The End Times Organization ... due out on vinyl as soon as God allows. New recordings commence in two days.
A couple new entries up on my long-ignored video blog Frenzy of the Visible, including the you'd-think-it's-a-joke-but-it-isn't cancer-themed Peanuts television special Why, Charlie Brown, Why? which I was informed of today thanks to an Onion AV Club article.

In other cancer-related news, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with lymphoma. Considering my mother died of the same ailment just a few months ago, I feel fairly pessimistic about this development, but I'm still hoping that the original lineup can complete the LP they recently started working on with Rick Rubin, who has been so successful with helping aging icons distill the primal urgency of their early years without sacrificing their hard-earned maturity and wisdom. Godspeed.


Found this balls-out Black Flag set this morning via Dutch record label Black Death Records' blog ... sound quality is great and the band is fucking frantic, plus it's got Dez on rhythm guitar and Rollins defending his newly-advanced hair length by mocking the crowd's uptight hardcore puritanism. It seems ridiculous now, but Flag's shaggy manes were an actual controversy at one time ... welcome to teenage myopia.

Friday, January 6, 2012

An experiment with Mediafire ... just a test to see how well this fits with my needs.



What we got here is the "lost" El Smasho album, recorded mere months before we broke up in acrimony in 1994. Commissioned by the long-defunct Icon Records of Detroit, who released our third 7" single in 1993, but wisely passed on releasing a full-length CD by an essentially-unknown local band with no means to promote or exploit such a thing after we (mostly) went our separate ways. Over the years I've had many requests for copies of this, all fulfilled, so it may be that critical mass has been met, but if you've never dug it before, I encourage you to check it out. We were fucking tight, if nothing else.

Tom Deja - vox
Brian Shaw - guitar
Fred Beldin - bass
Tim Ford - drums
Produced by Scott Sendra (down mf) and recorded by Tim Pak (Angry Red Planet) at Woodshed Studios in Detroit, MI (except for the final three songs, which were meant as "bonus" tracks taken from our earlier 7" records). All songs by El Smasho except "The Dave Hill" (The Dave Hill) and "Solid State" (Scott Sendra).

I've said it before -- El Smasho was a great band that wrote some lousy songs, and aside from a few tracks that still sound strong in my old age ("Duncan," "Wristrocket," "Notorious," "Foster Brooks" and our cover of down mf's "Solid State") among others that wax and wane depending on my mood, that's still my take on it. We ruled our backyard of East Lansing, MI between 1991 and 1993, and for better or worse this band set me on the crooked path I've followed ever since ...

Dedicated to all members of the ELHC, past, present and future. FTW.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year. The first day of 2012 was well spent, a calm day indoors cleaning the house and blasting biker films, including (for the hundredth time) THE WILD ANGELS ...



THE PEACE KILLERS ...



THE HARD RIDE ...



And ANGELS' WILD WOMEN ...



It all seems very appropriate. A cleansing ritual bolstered by savage images of outlaw freedom, men and broads who live for the now and leave scorched earth behind them. My 2012 has begun ...