Things I Will Keep #16: GEM, Hexed

My cracked CD case says “hi”.

Gem
Hexed
1995, Restless Records

Happy September, folks.

August will probably always be a slow month on this site. I write everyday, but in the drag days of late summer in Texas, my brain takes a vacation. I won’t repeat my rant from the beginning of my Jill Cunniff piece from last year, but I always spend the 100-plus degree days of August annoyed at everything. I make notes and write fragments for new articles for this site, but in my cranky, sweatball state they rarely feel like anything worth pursuing. If this was my job, I could work my way through this misery, sure, but this is not my job, so I can say “fuck it” with impunity and just not update for a few weeks.

Now, it’s mid-September and it’s still fucking hot (Texas), but the nights are getting more pleasant. The supermarkets have Halloween displays up. Changes are happening, however slowly. The leaves here haven’t yet changed color, but as the world around me slides back into routine, I feel myself receiving good energy again.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m in the mood for some for some killer back-to-school rock and Gem’s shotgun blast of a debut album nails it. Maybe none of these guys had been in school for awhile when they made it. Maybe main songwriter Doug Gillard had been in bands for about fifteen years at this point. Nevertheless, they still kicked up the kind of blare and had the kind of songs that, in a better world, would have shouted out of high school parking lots in 1995.

From the cynical, misfit kids, at least. The kind of kids who could hear a song like “Your Heroes Hate You” and it just confirmed what they suspected about the world already.

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The Constant Bleeder is the World’s Worst Anime Reviewer #4: BUBBLEGUM CRISIS episode 4, “Revenge Road”

Well looky here, an episode of Bubblegum Crisis that ISN’T about the nefarious Genom corporation and their endless parade of killer robots. Am I still watching the same series? Did I click on the wrong thing on Night Flight?

No, I didn’t. (Seriously, I checked.) They just did something a little different this time. We all need to do something a little different sometimes. I’ve been doing the same shit for the past eighteen years, at least, and it hasn’t worked out that well, to be honest.

I digress.

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Robert Pollard-Mania! #38: MAG EARWHIG!

Guided by Voices
Mag Earwhig!
1997, Matador Records

For indie rocker kids, there was an uncomfortable truth about Guided by Voices and in 1997 they finally had to face it.

Robert Pollard likes and is very much influenced by prog-rock.

And not in a “math rock” way, which was cool back then. Bands who were into crazy time signatures and got compared to King Crimson and their LP was out on Touch & Go. That was okay.

Pollard probably digs that stuff, too, but he’s more into Peter Gabriel’s Genesis. He likes concept albums and all of that mystical, pastoral British junk. Fantasy imagery and songs that might kick in with the good part after about four minutes of build-up because kids in 1973 (a year when Pollard turned 16) had the attention span for that. Or at least they were stoned enough to go with it.

Yep, the guy known for recording songs that barely last a minute in his basement was influenced by the most long-winded and indulgent rock genre around.

Artists. They’re complicated.

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L. Ron Hubbard’s SPY KILLER

L. Ron Hubbard
Spy Killer
1936 (2008 reprint, Galaxy Press)

In the middle of reading, I accidentally spilled beer all over my copy of this book and it’s just as well. These Galaxy Press reprints of L. Ron Hubbard’s early pulp fiction work ARE a little too spiffy. They could use some rough treatment to match the contents.

Also, while I have klutzed up some rare collectibles in my day, reducing $100 vintage, outta-print records or books or movies to $3 damaged goods with one spilled drink or false step, I’m not concerned about this one. My local Half Price Books has stacks of these Hubbard reissues for $2 each, which is also perfect. Pulp should be cheap.

Cheap and stained.

If you’re reading junk like Spy Killer, you should be fine with that.

The story of this 1936 novella is Goofball City.

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THE PRISONER #4: Free For All

(October 20, 1967; writer: “Paddy Fitz”; director: Patrick McGoohan)

Star Patrick McGoohan both wrote and directed this episode (he assumes the name Paddy Fitz for his script credit) that takes the series to a striking new level of absurdity.

This is the one in which McGoohan’s “Number Six” learns that the position of the most powerful person that he’s met in The Village–that would be “Number Two”, who’s under the command of the still-mysterious “Number One”–goes up for election every year and that he’s very welcome to run for the job himself. In fact, the current “Number Two” (seasoned British film actor Eric Portman, a favorite of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) encourages it. Not that it takes much effort to convince him, as McGoohan sees this as a possible chance to escape. Or to least learn more about The Village’s secrets.

Now, none of this makes a lick of sense because there’s a different “Number Two” in every episode. The Village is clearly does NOT run elections for that position. They are hiring and firing like Donald Trump. Crazy turnover in that position.

So, I don’t know what the hell kind of of logic is happening in this episode, but that’s okay. The Prisoner is already weird all over. Every episode begins with Patrick McGoohan waking up and hobbling toward the window of his room, as if he’s unsure if he’s dreaming or not. And maybe he is.

And this very episode is VERY dreamy.

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Robert Pollard-Mania! #36: GUIDED BY VOICES / COBRA VERDE Split 7″

Guided by Voices/Cobra Verde
1997, Wabana Ore Limited

What, ANOTHER 7″? What year is this? 1994?

No, this is definitely 1997. There’s no mistaking this record for the Guided by Voices of ’94.

All of those guys were out and were replaced by an already-existing band who didn’t sound much like them. The newcomers were Cobra Verde outta Cleveland. Mean guys. City guys.

Old Guided by Voices had that small town thing happening. They were weirdos in the basement rocking while their neighbors slept.

By contrast, Cobra Verde hailed from urbanity and they kicked up the kind of confrontational roar that rises from street noise. Most of them had been in bands and put out records for as long Pollard had (a little longer, actually). They were seasoned and versatile, sometimes quiet, but often hard, mean and spiked with classic big balls 70s rock and a few splatters of punk. The also had a smokin’ lead guitarist (Doug Gillard).

In them, Robert Pollard heard the future of Guided by Voices.

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The Constant Bleeder Doesn’t Know Shit About Anime #3: BUBBLEGUM CRISIS episode 3, “Blow Up”

Another episode of Bubblegum Crisis, another story about the evil Genom corporation and how they have their dirty fingers lodged into every orifice of the dystopian Tokyo of 2032.

Another batch of hulking mecha-monsters who shoot up the streets of the city,  another excuse for the girls of The Knight Sabers to slip into their armored disguises (complete with quick cartoon nudity) and batter some metal.

Another bucket of blood, another terrific score loaded with synthesizers and blazing audio neon.

It’s also another strikingly cinematic affair that’s fun to watch if ultra-80s junk is your bag. Even if the storyline is murky, each episode is a neat cyberpunk smoke ring blown out in the night. We’re talkin’ miles of style.

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Robert Pollard-Mania! #35: WISH IN ONE HAND

Guided by Voices
Wish in One Hand
1997, Jass Records

Two years before Ric Ocasek shined up “Teenage FBI” for mainstream radio, the song appeared on this small-press 7″ that only indie dorks and GBV fan mega-dweebs, such as myself, knew about.

Two years before “Teenage FBI” acquired synthesizers and glittery Doug Gillard guitar work, it was a skeletal minute-and-a-half piece of raw indie pop, barebones and dog-simple.

Two years before “Teenage FBI” was the first song on the slickest GBV album ever, it sounded like an Alien Lanes outtake.

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