somewhere deep in the subconscious realms of my mind...

...I finally find my phallus,

resting elegantly in a

dense wilderness of

confusion and bliss,

harsh erotic dissonance

brought to a calming

drone.

No heaven no hell, no sin no guilt

only flesh and then death,

and so with this newfound phallus

I embrace the ritual of the flesh

and begin to witness

the once holy mind sacrificed

to the sensations

of flesh embrace.

for the phallus has been recovered

with blood cells screaming and

moaning in preparation to ascend,

begging for oblivion and begging for

the void

the guilt has been terminated,

the gift has been granted -

Sudden Orgasm,

a glimpse

and a

flash

of

Sudden Death.

The seed is spilled,

the flesh glazed

with texture

of wet joy.

thank you, Cleveland & Lou Reed

There are a plethora of things to thank The Velvet Underground for and one of them is playing in Cleveland Ohio in the late 60's, inspiring a group of young musicians to ignore traditional music theory as well as the industry standards of the time and express the industrial angst they felt with an intensity and abandon not previously seen in music. Bands like Rocket From the Tombs, Mirrors, The Electric Eels and The Styrenes are rarely given recognition by the mainstream but left behind a sonic blueprint for not only punk rock but for the avant-garde tendencies of post-punk as well. In an age where being 'art-rock' meant sounding like ELP or Yes bands from Cleveland were recording lo-fi noise masterpieces that were arty without being pretentious or overwrought.

Rocket From the Tombs are probably best known for two reasons: Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys. Both groups were spawn of the RFTT and represent two opposing but equally important poles of the punk axis; Ubu were art damaged weirdos inspired by dadaism and free-jazz while The Dead Boys were nihilistic and rude rock'n'roll traditionalist that had more in common with The New York Dolls. Rocket From the Tombs utilized both of these musical approaches. There leader was the self-destructive genius Peter Laughner (RIP) whose Lou Reed fixation possibly led to his premature death of acute pancreatitis. Though they never recorded a proper album they are one of the most incendiary groups to grace rock history.



Consisting of demoes and live recordings from the group, 'The Day The Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs' is an essential collection for anyone looking to witness the genesis of punk rock. If you are familiar with the work of Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys many of these songs will already be familiar to you but exist here in there rawest and most authentic form, unhindered by production and sanitation. Stand out cuts include an explosive cover of the Velvet Underground rarity 'Foggy Notion' that adds even more of a relentless pulse to the original, a stumbling and anarchic early version of the Pere Ubu classic 'Life Stinks' that sounds like Captain Beefheart on quaaludes and 'Aint it Fun', an absolutely timeless rock anthem of alienation and violence. Given greater fame by The Dead Boys and mistreated by Guns'n'Roses, 'Ain't it Fun' is a plea for redemption from drug addled and shattered soul of Peter Laughner.

Ain't it fun when you're always on the run
Ain't it fun when your friends despise what you've become
Ain't it fun when you get so high that you, well you just can't come
Ain't it fun when you know that you're gonna die young

While Rocket From The Tombs approached nihilism they never reached the same level of sheer sociopathic madness as their contemporaries The Electric Eels. Probably the closest of the Cleveland bands to the modern definition of punk, The Electric Eels completely dismissed political correctness as much as they abandoned traditional music theory. Their songs are explosive and angry, bathed in distortion and fuzz and set to a primal back-beat that threatens to split ones mind open at any second. On 'Agitated' one can practically hear singer Dave McManus pulling his hair out while practically screaming in agony about how "the whole world stinks". Atonal guitar solos and fractured rhythmic sensibilities are abound, showing a band aware of their complete lack of commercial potential as well as the innovations of free jazz and Captain Beefheart. This is not to say The Eels are unlistenable - some of their songs are even catchy, carrying an infectious drive that could be missing link between The Stooges and punk 77.

The Electric Eels are not a band to play around your politically correct liberal roommates - songs like 'You Crummy Fags' and 'Spinach Blasters' are completely irresponsible flirtations with homophobia and racism that come across as completely tasteless and even harmful. One could easily assume the band to be the first neo-nazi punk band as well, their flirtations with swastika imagery not helping their case either. However guitarist Paul Marotta pleaded otherwise - "It was shock tactics, it was confrontational art, it was meant to be satire". Many bands in the future would take this same approach but The Eels were the first to cross the line of social acceptability as daringly.

If one wants to hear the best work of The Electric Eels one can find a good selection of their material on the compilation album 'Those Were Different Times: Cleveland 1972 - 1976' as well as their 'Eyeball of Hell' album.

Mirrors on the other hand were a far artier group, less afraid to embrace 60's influences and romantic sentimentality. Also featured on the "Those Were Different Times" compilation they are as indebted to Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd as they are to Lou Reed. This doesn't make Mirrors prog wankoff's by any means - they are just as capable of raw immediacy as they are of psychedelic whimsy. 'How Could I' is an almost victorian sounding ballad that works beautifully and could fit alongside the best works of The Kinks while 'Everything Near Me' almost sounds like something from The Nuggets Compilation. While the Electric Eels had their strengths in attitude Mirrors are simply gifted songwriters that aim for the sublime rather than the nauseating. Weird sonic experiments never get in the way of their incessant garage rock drive and melodic sensibility. Along with their contemporaries The Styrenes, Mirrors carry a sort of nostalgia for the 60's counterculture that punk rock prided itself in stomping on the grave of. However this is a 60's where The Velvet Underground were just as important as The Beatles, with any signs of pretentious hippy spirituality thankfully missing.

What is so essential and important about the Cleveland proto-punk scene, beyond it's influence on future musicians, is that it demonstrates the greatness that comes from musicians who are liberated from the need for commercial success and inspired by the bleakness that surrounds them. In a time where rock music was getting more and more overproduced and predicable the aforementioned bands favored authenticity over pop postures. Pioneering 'lo-fi' before it became a hip buzzword on Pitchfork and refusing to follow any rules, social or musical, Cleveland was the brewing ground for a musical ethos that still reverberates through the sound of artist to this day.

guilt

Standing in the hallway of your home,
in the corridor of your cave,
in the godliness of your gaze,
you leave me in a daze.

So when I bring myself to speak
and describe the state I'm in
I can bring myself think
and contemplate my sin

you've got me down on my knees
you've got me talking to god -
I ain't never been a believer before
and I ain't never seen the light

and when the light shines
I'll be sleeping through my sickness
And when my eyes have widened
I'll be staring at the darkness

I'll stagger like a drunken bum
through the labyrinths of my life
or I'll sit and still and stare and disappear
to a place devoid of fear

Sweet Sister Ray

There is something romantic to me about degradation and self-destruction so it only makes sense that Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground stands as one of the greatest works of noise-poetry ever conceived and recorded. Coming out of Lou Reed's methedrine laced street smarts and John Cale's training as a deconstructor of musical forms Sister Ray stands as the apocalyptic east coast counterpart to the Grateful Dead's Dark Star.

FINISH THIS WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE SCHOOLWORK YOU FOOL!!!!!

stagnation

I have little to say these days. My mood has been nihilistic and uninspired; I guess you can say my life isn't at the point where I'm burning with passion and excitement.

Living in this culture that fuels rampant greed and narcissism depresses me and I can see how it's leaking into my own self. I don't have any great ideas on how to fix it, in fact I'm completely clueless and nothing that's been proposing to me has warranted much other than laughter from me. My idealism of the past has been replaced by a lazy and jaded attitude that sees little hopes in dreams of a utopian future.

A utopian future doesn't even interest me anymore - such a thing seems more dull and oppressive than the capitalist tyranny we have now - no suffering? no incentive to rebel? Suffering and rebellion are essential to all human creativity that isn't pure scientific and technological progress. A world without suffering sounds desolate and simply boring, a greyscale pleasure prison.

The angst and alienation I feel is typical, I realize this. I don't have any delusions of individuality and uniqueness like I used to, I'm just another anonymous voice helpless whispering into the collective information network of the human race.

Why it is important Spacemen 3 came into my life and why they should be part of yours

Spacemen 3 came into my life before I ever experienced the novelty of chemically enhanced consciousness or understood the merit of numbing minimalism in music. Naive and close-minded, I was enamored by the bloated excess and pristine production values of 70's prog rock. Knowing little about music outside of these parameters I was in need of a savior to open the aesthetic floodgates and allow me to escape the slavery of complexity and pretention. Jason Pierce and Peter Kember, along with the brave travelers they took along for the ride served this role. So when I ended up with a copy of 'The Perfect Prescription' on my hardrive because of a comparison to Hawkwind (a band I still adore) it was the beginning of a new era.

Hearing the endorphin releasing fuzztone of 'Take Me To the Other Side' for the first time provided me with a high that I still chase to this day. Admittedly I didn't fully understand the music - it sounded like static compared to the elaborate prog symphonies I was absorbed in at the time - but nonetheless the feelings I felt were transcendent. From this moment on I came to the realization that you could make a masterpiece from only one chord and that Keith Emerson was a cunt.

'Walking With Jesus' came next and was possibly my first exposure to junk-induced nihilism. A rumination of the nature of sin and salvation, Jason Pierce tells us he's "found heaven on Earth" and is going to "burn for his sin" but finds solace in the fact that he'll "have good company down there with all my friends". For a young man in midst of an intense confusion about religion these words helped put a rest to intense internal dialogue in my head like they were a shot of heroin itself. 'Walking With Jesus' is an apt metaphor comparing the highs of opiates to the void filling nature of religion. It was clear which of the two they preferred, giving their music a quality of edginess as well as darkness. This was before I heard The Velvet Underground or read Burroughs and the deadpan skag addict aesthetic was slightly disturbing to me but also fascinating.

'The Perfect Prescription' became an object of obsession. It was foreign sounding because of it's minimalism but it's experimental nature and mind-manisfesting qualities appealed to the prog nerd I was. 'Ecstasy Symphony' was a journey through the psychedelic realms of the mind, an exercise in Eno-esque ambiance that melded together with a cover of The Red Krayola's 'Transparent Radiation'. 'Feel So Good' and 'Come Down Easy' were stoned folk anthems for the desolate and depraved seeking redemption. 'Call the Doctor' is a meditative look into the world of addiction and the despair the came with it, telling an unresolved tale of an overdose. "You better throw away the spoon, and all the other dirty things.." This music was real and direct, not lost in pretention and fantasy.

At first Spacemen 3 sounded like no other band I knew of. I soon discovered that they were fairly, if not extremely, derivative of past influences. 'Come Down Easy' was basically a perverted version of an old blues song, 'Ode To Street Hassle' was completely ripped off of an old Lou Reed tune called 'Street Hassle' and this was only the beginning. The minimalistic rawness was already achieved by The Velvets, Stooges and MC5 and so was the nihilism. Originality is often the sole quality that some seriously value in music and to some this was something the Spacemen took little stock in. However I see these 'rip-offs' as a tribute to the mastery of their influences and a revelation of how musical innovation truly happens in rock'n'roll. The truth is that all bands regarded as groundbreaking base their sound on past influences and mutate them into something "new". True originality, as defined by complete separation from the past, is simply impossible. Others who took the same influences as came to the conclusion of punk, whereas Spacemen 3 came up with something similar in spirit but far more sonically diverse.

Spacemen 3's debut 'Sound of Confusion', like most other debut albums, revelled in the bands influences more than any other album. Even more minimalistic than The Perfect Prescription, Sound of Confusion dealt in noise drenched mantras that sounded like The Stooge's debut except even more strung out and willing to abuse feedback. The song 'O.D. Catastrophe' is basically 'T.V. Eye' with different lyrics and 'Little Doll' is a straight Stooges cover. While the pristine and celestial moments that would be produced on future albums were missing there was hint of the spiritual nature of the band to come in the song 'Hey Man', which hypnotically glides between two heavily distorted notes while Jason tells us "I don't mind dying lord, I don't mind dying lord, I don't mind dying but I can't let my mother cry." This is gospel for the suicidal and nihilistic who are begging to find peace of mind in a world gone mad, only find more of the sickness in religion.

The transition in sound from Sound of Confusion to the Perfect Prescription proved Spacemen 3 to be a promising band, capable of developing their sound while still being grounded in a rich tradition of musical minimalism for the sake of raw power. Playing With Fire delivered on this promise even more and almost sounds like nothing else to come before hand. Peter Kember called it "the refining point of a lot of my theories on minimalism being maximalism, 'hypno-monontony' (consciousness change via repetition)". More electronics became a part of the picture and production was more involved, even strings being used in parts. But Playing With Fire was far from a sell-out of any kind, but a perfection of the ethereal and spacey sound the band was pursuing. There was still rawness abound; 'Revolution' which is the closest the album comes to another detroit proto-punk ripoff was raw enough to inspire a Mudhoney cover. 'Suicide', which is a tribute to the band of the same name, takes their formula of incessantly primitive drum machine rhythms and distorted organs to an ecstatic height of blissed-out spacerock mayhem. However for the most part Playing With Fire is reserved and meditative - the gospel and folk blues roots of the band are fully revealed but put in a totally modern context. There is also a sense of uptopianism in some of the lyrics, a sort of separation from the nihilism of the past. We hear a calling for revolution and a promise that "we could make love and live as one". On Playing With Fire, Spacemen 3 ascend to the heavens and reach a height that sets a standard for all bands with cosmic intentions to come afterwards.

After Playing With Fire, the next two recordings to come have a controversial nature amongst fans. 'Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music' sees the band taking their minimalism to an extreme. Inspired by the proto-Velvet Underground avant-garde classical collective the Dream Syndicate and Brian Eno's vast ambient landscapes, Dreamweapon is essentially 40 minutes of droning performed live. To some this was an exercise in extreme self-indulgence, but within the reverberating echoes of the drone is an essential aspect of Spacemen 3's sound being explored to it's full potential. Being high out of one's skull certainly helps, but if the listener simply surrenders to the void contained within the drone a new musical world is revealed.

Recurring is the final recording of Spacemen 3 and sees the group divided because of personal conflicts. The first side is entirely compositions by Kember, the second entirely Pierce. The separation of the two seemed to somewhat weaken the band, but rather than being a forced collaboration between the two, Recurring is a collection of great songs from both talents that shows their individual influences. Kember's side is far more electronic and drone oriented, even approaching Acid House with the ecstasy anthem 'Big City'. Pierce expands on the blues and gospel influences of the past, creating his own fair share of masterpieces such as 'When Tomorrow Hits' and 'Hypnotized'. While there are fewer sheer masterpieces to be found on Recurring, by no means is it a weak album. It is a parting of ways for the duo, as well a preview of what is to come in future from their respective side projects.

Spacemen 3 prove to be a band of contradictions. Derivative of past influences but with a radical approach, drug addled yet reverent, this is music that portrays both the grit of the streets and the beauty of the cosmic depths. It is part of an important tradition of music that covers everything from the spirituals hymns of slaves to the raw power of punk rock and should be heard by all who value the quality of authenticity in music.

this could be a cool beginning to a book

i wake up and the day begins, contrary to what I would prefer. it's time to take responsibility and care about things, no longer time to aimlessly wander the subconscious. however i have it my ambition to behave in the same way i do in the waking state of conscious consensus reality as i do in the dream state. I live in a haze, a cloud that filters out sensible logic and leaves me only with the abstractions and absurdities and none of the clarity.