Frank Lynch: Static Aether

When albums are released on vinyl, they naturally have two acts, side one and side two. While most albums failed to take advantage of this, some great albums have been divided into two acts. One example is  Black Flag's My War LP. Side one, which is more straight forward and fast paced, has "My War", "Can't Decide", "Beat My Head Against The Wall", "I Love You", "Forever Time", and "Swinging Man", only one of which breaks the four minute mark. Side two has only three songs, "Nothing Left Inside", "Three Nights", and "Scream", three slower, sludgy, brooding songs, all of which break six minutes, almost reaching seven minutes twice. Jane's Addiction did this as well on Ritual De Lo Habitual, with their side two dedicated to singer Perry Ferrell's friend who died of a herion overdose, as well as his mother who committed suicide.
When albums are released on CD, you can lose the natural division of the two acts. My album, Static Aether, is also divided into two acts. To maintain the division on the CD format, I clearly divided the album into "Part One" and "Part Two" in the artwork. Part one, consisting of four tracks, is generally shorter, more upbeat songs. Part Two is more atmospheric. A quieter act that centers around one long track "Aetheric Energy", with a second track serving as a sort of into.
I made this album, my debut solo album, entirely through programming and audio manipulation. I didn't record or play any instruments whatsoever. My goal on this album was to make it entirely without instruments. I used four or five computer programs. The result is something I am very happy with, even if it isn't very accessible to a mainstream audience.


I am not really sure how to classify the album. Ambient, electronic, experimental, lo-fi. If you are into music described that way then you might give this a try. Be warned, it isn't for everybody.


Frank Lynch: Static Rain

Gil Scott-Heron: Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.

Small Talk at 125th and Lenox is the debut album from poet/musician/rap pioneer Gil Scott-Heron. Recorded live at a small club located on the corner of 125th and Lenox in New York City in 1970, the album is basically proto-rap. Social commentary poetry with musical (mostly percussion) accompaniment. Opening with "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", the album goes through fourteen tracks about poverty, violence, and the black experience in 1970 New York. While most of the tracks are poems, three of them, "The Vulture", "Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul", and "Everyday" are more or less straight forward songs, a preview of sorts of the kind of music Gil Scott-Heron would start recording after this album. Included on this album is a track called "The Subject Was Faggots", a seemingly homophobic rant. This track can be taken as it seems, as an offensive rant, or it can be viewed as a young man's honest confusion and curiosity of a scene he doesn't understand.
The original album is out of print, but it is available as part of the three disc set, The Revolution Begins: The Flying Dutchman Masters , a collection of all three albums Gil Scott-Heron recorded for the label, as well as plenty of previously unreleased material.


Evolution (and Flashback)

Whitey On The Moon

The Vulture

Jeremy Roscoe, Music Express and Circle Jerks VI.

The following is something I wrote for a book I am working on. This as of yet untitled project is envisioned as mixture of music reviews and memoirs. A collection of short reads.
This entry is on my first Circle Jerks album, VI


If every town has one guy who is ‘the punk’, then that title would go to Jeremy Roscoe where I grew up. In his middle school yearbook picture, he wore a Circle Jerks shirt. That shirt is the first I ever heard of the Circle Jerks. While Jeremy directly or indirectly got me into lots of bands, its the Circle Jerks I am giving him credit for here.
My all time favorite record store is Music Express. Music Express was on the corner of West Main and Drake, in Kalamazoo. Although long gone, I discovered a lot of music there, and have plenty of good memories of the place. They had a row of CD players with headphones in front of the used CD rack, so you could listen to used discs before you paid for them.

Jeremy Roscoe, Music Express and Circle Jerks VI.

One day while browsing the used rack at Music Express I noticed a copy of Circle Jerks VI. I recognized the name from Jeremy’s middle school yearbook picture. Around this time I had been discovering all sorts of new music. Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Ramones. All the classics. I popped in the Circle Jerks CD and liked it right away. I purchased the CD, and although I would end up take a fair amount of shit for my choice, the Circle Jerks quickly became one of my favorite bands.
VI is the fifth album from the Circle Jerks. Recorded 7 years after their debut set, the music had progressed much at this point. The band fell stagnant after this recorded, and after several years touring on this album and not recording anything new, the Circle Jerks split (they would reform, tour, record and split again eventually). VI is widely regarded as a weak followup to 1985's metal influenced Wonderful. It’s all punk to me.
Kicking off with Beat Me Senseless, the same track that kicks off the live album Gig, VI is off to a great start. A great riff from guitarist Greg Hetson sets both the mood and the pace.
Casualty Vampires, Tell Me Why, and Protection are solid tracks, leaning towards the social commentary that seems an undercurrent to the whole album. I’m Alive, along with Living and I Don’t, takes a more introspective approach. A positive song from a band that was borne from the drug fueled nihilism of the circa 1980 L.A. punk scene, now growing older and less capable of living a self destructive lifestyle.
The Circle Jerks sound right at home with Fortunate Son, a CCR cover. Their version really fits both the band and the album. All Wound Up, the album’s shortest track, would have fit in nicely on the bands third album Golden Shower of Hits. While a few songs seem like filler, none are out of place or hard to listen too. The album ends on a high note, with the aforementioned I Don’t, a fast track and a personal favorite.
Although some, perhaps even Morris himself, dislike what the Circle Jerks sounded like on VI, it is a solid album. Perhaps less punk to some ears, I found it at just the right time in my life.

It didn’t take long for me to get the rest of the Circle Jerks catalog. From the controversial but blistering 15 minute debut, to the equally blistering live album Gig, I fell in love with every album. Keith Morris remains to this day one of my favorite vocalists, although my least favorite Black Flag frontman. There was always something just right about his raspy talk/yell style.

Inerdzia: Tu Puoi.

Inerdzia is an Itailian three piece punk band. Elenerd singing and playing bass, Lipponerd playing guitar, and Stefano Baccarin playing drums. A good, fast moving punk with group vocals on the choruses.
This may be hard to find, but if you can track it down I recommend it.

Psicopatico


Tuta Blu

Io, live 2003