Sunday, October 21, 2007

Music For Pressure.....Breakdance The Dawn & The Advancement Of (The New) Australian DIY Crudophonics




None of us 'round here expect EVERY reader out there to cotton to all the releases what comes out on the label. It's nice when you's do but it ain't expected. Course it is curious when folks we know don't dig it, but there's no accounting for intellect or lack thereof. Our erstwhile buddy 'Moose' likes to think of himself as a tough nut, a real wheat from the chafe sorta guy w/a dead-on bullshit detector. What's the line about 'buyin you for what your really worth & sellin you for what you think your worth'? There's a little bit've that goin on where Moose is concerned. We's had him over to the house just a few nights back to watch the Indians clinch against the Yankees. It's a friendly rivalry between the 2 of us; I was rootin for Cleveland & he was for the Yanks. I got to teasin him about bein a front runner (cause he is), but he couldn't be bothered for a retort on account of the fact he had his head buried in a bucket've fried chicken I'd put out for us all to share. He must've consumed a dozen pieces of yardbird by himself. And this was after eatin an entire platter of deviled eggs, all on his own! We's got nary a one. He was swillin down the suds, gobblin away, alls the time screamin at the tv when somethin didn't go the Yankees way. "YOU SUCK" he'd spit ever so often, projectin blasts of saliva, bit's of chicken skin & Lord knows what other bacteria into the air & across the screen. He'd spilled beer all over himself at one point, on account that he had to get up & run over to the tv & shoot A-Rod the bird. Once the game was over (Indians won) I figured we could settle down to some record playin but he was too cantankerous to have any fun. He was wearin this shirt what read 'Number 1 Bad Ass' that had me in stitches, so while he was sittin there sulkin (he don't even like really baseball neither) I had to give him some good natured shit. 'What the fuck do you know?" he roared, "you guys put out that XNo bBqX lp, man what a pile of SHIT. Dude, ANYBODY can play like them. What do you think people aren't fuckin payin attention? C'mon! Hey, I dig primitive music as much as the next arbiter, but that was just garbage. You wanna hear a good record? Play that new 12" by Fucked Up. They got it goin on. I'm outta here". He wiped his face w/his shirt & off he went. Sorry Moose! What can you do? You either "get it" or you don't. I remember goin to this Joseph Beuys exhibit once. Just in front of me was this windbag who throughout the entire collection would audibly scoff "my KID could paint better than this"! I dunno, I think it's funny. I ain't gonna take time to sit here & defend Xno Bbqx (or Joseph Beuys). Hell, we's used to hearin such complaints. Dead C, Shadow Ring, Harry Pussy.....there's was as many a peep what cried about how "bad" they was what dug it & hunkered in. And now them bands is all canonized & copied. And as the copyist's have proven, anybody CAN'T do it & there is way too many examples of that to checklist here. Most of'em Moose probably likes. But I can tell you this; anybody's got an open invitation to try. Ain't that what the whole DIY aesthetic is all about? I think it was Mark Perry what wrote a manifesto of sorts in Sniffin Glue what outlined the basics/primitives of how one goes about formin a band. Sure, lot's has changed since 1976 or whenever, but that sentiment espoused back then ain't waivered a bit. One faction/outfit/collective what got it straight off was the Street Level bunch. Under said umbrella, label's like Fuck Off, Weird Noise, Organized Chaos (to name a few) functioned as arteries for bands such as Danny & The Dressmakers, 012, Bimbo Lunchbox & Androids Of Mu, which is only 4 out've (maybe) 4 dozen. Lot's of what they did come out on cassette or small run 7"ers & if you ain't never seen most of'em, well, there weren't many done & it was a long time ago. But in the last few yrs there's been a huge collectors groundswell for all that's obscure & DIY from them times & especially releases on these labels. The money some of these things change hands for is obscene but I guess if you got it, flaunt it. For those what's curious (& rich) enough to gain entry, this is an endlessly fascinatin world of sub-underground U.K. DIY splatter. As the last bastion of the 1% these bands/artists was true purist's to the cause & weren't about to be stopped by such boring rules as knowin chords, time changes, hooks or any of that. It was/is bashin away for the sake of makin a racket for personal enjoyment & for a few likeminded campadres in on the fun & action. It is a shame they ain't better represented nowadays & a boxset or series of re-releases wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. But until then, right under our very noses a similiar current scene has been takin place on a label down to Australia so here's your chance to get in on the ground floor. Breakdance The Dawn is a cassette/cdr label run by Matt Earle (of XNo BbQX 'notoriety') & has been unknowingly howlin a 21st century atavistic response to the Fuck Off call of yore. Originatin in 2004, the label's raison d'etre has been to release music 'that no one else would' (hey Matt, I hear ya!-Capt'n Siltbreeze) mostly on recycled tapes. But it seems that Matt & Co. have finally hauled in their huge cache of Toohey's empties & recieved a hefty deposit for the trouble as the label is primarily cdr nowadays. And man am I a fan! Like the entrants of the various Street Level mafia, I suspect there's lot's of folks what wear many hats in different bands/projects the label has to offer. Unlike a lot of the DIY labels operatin down to Oz (a shoutout to the great works available on Spanish Magic, Trapdoor Tapes & Inverted Crux), BDTD's headwater has a 'punk' 'rock' undertow, even if it is paleolithic. And that's what's so Goddamn great about it. You listen to The Minerals, Mosweintraub Band, Your Intestines or X Wave & you can hear the channelin(albiet unintentionally) of the Sell Outs, Wilful Damage, (the aforementioned) Danny & The Dressmakers + the rest of the lot. Of course, there's always a fly in the ointment & here's it's Arse Lunch that are the contrarians. On their 'Complete' 2xcdr opus, the gurglin, textured concret they course out sounds so bewitchingly contemporaneous yet classically avant, it's hard to know if it took 6 (dog) years or 6 (human) hours to conjure together. Call them the Colin Potter's of the bunch. In the immortal words of Thomas DeQuincey; "it's all good".
To date there's 52 titles what's been released. In fact, XNobbqX's 'Sunshine For Your Love' found it's origin here. Some might be out of print, but who knows, you talk sweet enough, Matt might make an exception. If you'd rather go the comp route & get a sprinklin of what there is to offer, Therhizomelabel has a BDTD cdr sampler available as well. It includes entries from all the bands done named as well as a few others what I'll leave as a suprise. And since we's on the subject, for all of you's what wrote & asked about that Son Of The Seventh Sister 3xlp lathe cut what got a mention in the Pulled Out post, it's now available on cd (via the Heard Worse folks). Breakdancin The Dawn is a label by the people, for the people & that includes ANYBODY curious enough to heed the call. True, it ain't the 2nd comin of X-Claim! & for that, we (w/the possible exception of Moose) can all be very thankful. So if your Chinese Junk is tootled up & ready to sail, head it south makin stops at; www.myspace.com/breakdancethedawn (for some advance tuneage), www.halftheory.com/bdtd (to order BDTD releases), therhizomelabel@hotmail.com (to inquire about the BDTD comp) & www.myspace.com/heardworserecords (for the SSS cd + other interesting noise assortments)

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