If The World Didn't Suck We'd All Fall Off

Issue #5 of Incremental Decrepitude out now

Mountain Movers interview (from 2016), the usual photos and reviews,
and a "Favorite Bands" feature on Breaking Circus


18 pages, 8-1/2" x 11", corner-stapled

PayPal your address and $1.68 (as "family") to rock_in_my_shoe @ yahoo.com
or, if you're not a peckerwood, you can ask for a free copy
in person if you see me at a show or something sold out

I've also posted some for sale on the Cheat Prick Tapes store (cheatprick.storenvy.com),
along with some back-issue copies of Inc Dec #3 from 2014, although Storenvy will
add another fee to your order which is kinda sucky.

There Is Nothing New Under The Sun But There Are A Lot Of Old Things We Don't Know

This started out with a bunch of songs that I was listening to on my mp3 player in the car the other week, and the songs all seemed to fit together pretty well so I decided to make a podcast out of it. The voice-overs kinda blow, but I'm workin' on it.

We're Not So Smart podcast (episode 1), 10/20/17

Golden Boys - Cincinnati (12XU)
Diat - Pick a Line (Iron Lung)
Pill - Empathizer (Dull Tools)
The County Liners - Love Letter (Wharf Cat)
Alan Vega Alex Chilton Ben Vaughn - Lover of Love (Light in The Attic)
-- (initial verbal interruption) --
Spray Paint and Ben Mackie - Friendly Moving Man (12XU)
Blau Blau - Star Come Out (self-released)
Good Morning - Step Aside (Solitaire Recordings)
Cobra Verde - World Can't Have Her (Scat)
Nosebleed - My Rules (Grave Mistake)
Rash - Parlour Games (Slugsalt)
Rob Noyes - Paydirt (Poon Village)
-- (secondary verbal interruption) --
Salad Boys - No Taste Bomber (Melted Ice Cream)

Fake Best Of 2016

Burnt Offerings -

"Torn by The Whip of Flame"

Isotope Soap -

"Frontal Disorder Post Mental Border"

Uranium Club -

"Small Fry"

Meter Feeder -

"Who Feeds The Meter Feeder"

Burnt Envelope -

"I'm On Tour"

I've Never Been An Intellectual But I Have This Look

If you happen to see a copy of the new(-ish) Urochromes/Wizzard Sleeve split then grab it, because the Urochromes side shreds, plus it doesn't seem to be on the Free Music Archive like I thought all the WFMU live in-studio sessions were, so this is probably your only way of hearing it. (The Wizzard Sleeve side is okay too, just, y'know, not Urochromes.) I've blown a couple of chances at seeing Urochromes live because I'm kinda not good at sniffing things out that way, I guess; they actually played at the tail end of the Tenement / Big Zit show that I went to last year, but I split before their set because it was late and I had a two-hour drive home and if I stuck around any longer all the coffee in the world wasn't gonna keep me out of the trees. Should've stuck around to see them and buy their demo tape, though, I would've been SO AHEAD OF THE CURVE if I did. That's important to like two people, who all post on Termbo or the Jerkbooth so fuck 'em.

Urochromes -

"My Disposition"

"2 Men"

A Genius Is The One Most Like Himself

I had a thought of doing a "best live sets of 2015" recap earlier in the year, but like most things that idea quickly fell out of my head and I never picked it back up again. Definitely the best live band I saw last year was Uranium Club, back in November; I drove all the way to Providence just to see them (although Neutral Fixation II were on the bill, too, which made the trip worth it) and they were completely killer and their set was way tight, as any good band that's been on tour for a while tends to get. I mean, their songs are full of starts and stops and so forth and they didn't even bother really looking at each other or counting things off all that much, just starting each song or shifting through changes on-the-dot like it was the most natural thing in the world for anyone to do. Afterwards I asked them if it was actually The Minneapolis Uranium Club Band or just Uranium Club and they said "it can be whatever you want it to be", so that's cool. I think I'll start calling them Toto. Wait, that joke isn't even halfway funny. They also had some buttons and pencils for sale, and a weird hand-out about radiation poisoning, which I'm not sure where I put it so I think I lost mine. Anyway, their album (heavy Midwest legacy rock / Dow Jones & The Industrials damage) was originally self-released on a cassette and then Fashionable Idiots pressed it up as an LP and it sold out in like five months; I think it's be re-released overseas since, though. When I first bought the record last year I was so excited over it that I ripped it to my computer - which takes a couple of hours - because it didn't come with a download code, which was before I found out that you could get the whole thing as a free download on the Fashionable Idiots bandcamp. Duh. Also, the center labels on the record are faked, like a bootleg, and they dropped a card inside the jacket explaining that it was the pressing plant's fault but I'm pretty sure they just made that part up.

The Minneapolis Uranium Club Band -

"Rafter Man"

"Vanishing Point"


Also, someone at the show videotaped their set and you can watch the whole thing here, it's pretty great:

I Ain't Never Heard A Horse Sing A Song

I picked this tape up at a show that I was at the other day -- one of the bands at the show had it in their distro box -- and it's pretty rulin' noisy hardcore stuff, very Cult Maternal-ish, although the track that I'm going to post here is a dead-ringer for Hoax, ha ha. I can't say that there's anything here that breaks a whole lot of new ground, but I found myself listening to this tape (which came out last year on Perennial, home of lots of other neat stuff, like Vexx, Broken Water, etc) about ten times since I bought it and also the lyrics are pretty clever (read them), so I figured I'd share. There's a forthcoming Nasti LP on Iron Lung that's being mixed right now, according to the Iron Lung blogspot, although what type of idiot would have a blogspot in 2016, anyway.

Nasti -

"Nasti"

Strictly Speaking I Believe I’ve Never Been Anywhere

Alternate "show edition" 7" for two shows that didn't happen.

Framtid -

"Visions of Onkalo"

History Doesn't Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes

Good band (membs. of Priests/Downtown Boys/Neonates/etc), catchy song. Those rhythms are like a punch in the gut, so tight. You could likely slot this under "stuff that sounds like '78-'81 DIY post-punk", but stuff this good doesn't need me throwing any more words at it, so I'll just exit stage right gracefully here. Probably the best new song I've heard this week.

Fake Best Of 2015

Flemmings -

"Get Away From Me Right Now"

TV Ugly -

"QC"

Surveillance -

"Horrible Morning"

Estrogen Highs -

"Lover Lover Lover"
(Leonard Cohen cover)

Disipline -

"Sanctuary of Pain"

It Must Be Always Night, Otherwise They Wouldn't Need The Lights

Here's the first 7" from Total Control, a band that went on to achieve some notice afterwards (or so I've heard), although it figures I'd be the guy to like their earlier, more rock-like stuff. "Stare Away" is actually the best song on here, so I'm leaving it off so you'll be encouraged to go out and buy this thing on your own, or just download it from another blog, whatever. The front cover and back cover are both the same shade of grey, by the way, it's just that one side is a picture taken with a camera vs. scanning the other side on a scanner. Or, you can blame Jerry Garcia, if you'd like.

Total Control -

"Total Control"

"Meds"

The Thing I Hate Most About Writing Is The Paperwork

Out now - Incremental Decrepitude #4

32 quarter-sized pages of blatherings, featuring a discussion with Bonus McGinty on
some heavy matters related to all-time personal faves Dredd Foole and The Din / Volcano
Suns. Edition of ten (10) copies printed; if I thought you might be interested and
I had your current address, a copy is already in the mail on its way to you. No
further copies are available.

Don't Worry What People Think, They Don't Do It Very Often

I've been living in New Hampshire for about a year now, and one of the things that's starting to sink in is how much I took it for granted back in Connecticut when I was living about 6 miles away from The Whitney House, with maybe another 40 minute drive to get to "bigger shows" (in New Haven and etc). If there’s a similar venue around here in New Hampshire then I haven't found it yet (but there’s gotta be, right?), and while it's great to have access to Boston and all the amazing stuff that goes on there, the hefty hour/hour-and-20-minute drive into the city forces me to pick my spots more carefully and be a lot choosier about the bands that I go to see. It completely removes the WGAF-ness of going to a local basement show really quick and not even caring if any of the bands were good or not because, hey, it’s only gonna take me about 6 minutes to get back home and go to bed anyway.

Last week I got to break away from that pattern for a bit, and headed up to Modern Gypsy, a 'vintage' clothing store (i.e. "we take the best stuff from Savers and put it aside for you") in Manchester, about 20 miles away. Notches was supposed to play and while I really love Notches, I missed them by showing up too late. They said they sucked anyway, but that's what bands always say. Since I wasn't all that invested in what was going on -- yet another perk of low-key local show-hopping -- I stuck around just for the heck of it to watch the last two bands, one of which was Big Eater, who were sorta like a yacht-rock version of Low crossed with Procedure Club*. Some of their stuff kinda blew, but they had a second guitar player who sat down the whole time, making all kinds of distorted spaceship noises and punching up tape loops and so forth, and that part was pretty great. Then there was Infinity Girl – who maybe don’t even know that there was already a band called Velocity Girl, just like how Parenthetical Girls probably don’t care that there was already a band called Theoretical Girls, but whatever – who are like an emo/shoegaze revivalist band, and guess what: they’re on Topshelf Records (no, seriously. I’m not making this up). Everyone else dug it, for me it was no big deal either way. The main point was, I was able to see some bands as a spur-of-the-moment thing and still got home at a decent hour, which is something that I’ve been missing out on lately. Support your local DIY venue. (*ha ha, I just dropped a Procedure Club reference for no reason, hopefully someone catches it)

I Hate Reality, But It's Still The Only Place Where I Can Get A Decent Steak

I waited a month for Not Normally Hippies to send me this tape, only to wait another month and a half to finally listen to it. I've only made it through side one so far but only a couple of songs have really hit me; maybe the second side is better. The problem with most compilation tapes is, if you leave the room to go do something else for a few minutes, when you come back you have no idea what song is playing. I kinda like this The Floor Above track, though -- the guitar sound on it is pretty spectacular and they rip off the mosh part from Youth Korps. Maybe in another month and a half I'll listen to the other side, I don't know. I've already bought a bunch of newer records since then and some of them are pretty sweet.

History Is Just One Damn Thing After Another

A band that I saw. A record that I bought.

(Stunning post you got here, dipshit. -- editors)

Cuntz -

Factory Floor