Something 4 The Weekend # 248

Sylvia Juncosa:  Nature:  "Lick My Pussy, Eddie Van Halen" [mp3]


Sylvia Juncosa is still around, bless her.  Her career started back around 1980, playing keyboards at the age of sixteen for The Leaving Trains.  A couple years later she decided she'd rather play guitar, and started her own band, To Damascus.  Bands are difficult things, and a few years later she went solo and signed with SST.  Nature is her only solo record released on that vaunted label in 1988, but she ended up releasing three more solo records on various indie labels in the next three years.

In 1988, I knew nothing of Sylvia Juncosa, but when I ran across the artwork to this album while flipping through the stacks at Atomic Records, I was intrigued enough to pick it up and flip it over, finding the SST logo on the back, and this song title standing out, making me chuckle.

I think I would say that Sylvia Juncosa was the Marnie Stern of the Grunge era, except Marnie Stern is a much much better guitarist, not to take anything away from Ms. Juncosa, of course, because there's some pretty hot shit going on in this furious instrumental.  From a historical perspective, there were not very many women in the Punk or Grunge movements, much less a female instrumentalist in the indie scene in whole of the '80s (and even '90s), and by the time the Riot Grrl movement caught steam, Sylvia had retreated to Europe, so she was and remains a woman out of time.

Anyways, I think it's impossible to deny the beauty of a song titled "Lick My Pussy, Eddie Van Halen".  It's 100%  RAWK!

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 25 September 2012

MEAL:  2 Vegetable Spring Rolls + 1 small order Pork Lo Mein = $7.05 + $1.95 tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 18 September 2012

MEAL:  1 large order Moo Goo Gai Pan = $7.95 + $1.05 tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Something 4 A Monday In September

Tape Jazz Massacre:  100%:  "Smokin' Aspirin"  [mp3]

Tape Jazz Massacre are two dudes I've known for years, Ornette Yukahiro and Big Jimmmmi Cakefingers.  Some folks from around Madison think that I am Big Jimmmmi, and for the sake of ongoing mystery and TJM mythology and branding, I'll simply say that nobody's ever seen Ornette and I in the same place at the same time either, so...

Tape Jazz Massacre sample and loop and repeat and generally fuck with other people's intellectual property, and try to turn it into something slightly different and maybe original and hopefully interesting.  I'm not sure what the source material is for this song, "Smokin' Aspirin", but my guess is something by Matthew Shipp.  I am 100% sure that I provide the vocals on this song, and that all of it is 100% true, because the name of this album is 100%, and 100% is what Tape Jazz Massacre demand of themselves and those they choose to work with.

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 11 September 2012

MEAL:  6 Roast Pork Egg Rolls = $7.20 + 80¢ tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 247

Hank Mohaski:  Revolution & Pleasure:  "A Star For Everyone"  [mp3]

Did you know I'm a songwriter and musician?  I am, though I'm a bit more idle these days because arthritis has started rearing it's ugly head in my fretting hand.  I started playing guitar around 1982 - barre chords, or "Sabbath chords", as my gang called 'em.  Brick, Smoothy and I had a primitive punk-metal band called The Nadz.  I don't remember much except that we thought we ruled when in fact we half-sucked.  Our songs were pretty solid, if simple, and they were often funny and gross, and sometimes scathing and political, but fuck if we could play our instruments or sing.  I remember a few song titles - "Free Cheese", "Your Dad Is A Fat Asshole, Kyle", "Night Of A Thousand Hobosexuals", and our theme song and title of our one and only album, recorded on a boombox in Brick's basement, "Go, Nadz, Go!"  We played about four house parties in our year+ of existence, and then fizzled out because we half-sucked and only about two people liked us.  I wish I had a copy of our that Go, Nadz, Go! tape, but maybe it's best that I don't.

Skip ahead, past Mumniti (another band for another post, perhaps), to 1994, and I'm living above a sandwich shop in downtown Grafton with two friends and our girlfriends.  It's an enormous 3 bedroom flat, with a living room that's about 20' x 35', and half of it is a 4-track recording space I've set up.  This was the DowntownLivingroomRecorder, from 1988 to 1997.

Revolution & Pleasure was a tape I released in 1995.  "A Star For Everyone" is the last song on the album, and in fact was the last song recorded for the album, around Thanksgiving of '94, as I recall.  I guess this is a pretty typical kind of song for me back then - heavy guitars, basic beats on a busted drum machine, and non-traditional (and often badly sung) vocals.  It might be worth noting that in this particular song, the solo you hear in the middle section is not a guitar, but me vocalizing through a wahwah pedal, trying to sound like a guitar.  I think it works.

Anyways, if you're interested in hearing more of my music, stuff that spans 1988 to 2004, check out this month's EVERYTHINGATHON! podcast, which is all about me and my songs.  18 songs, as a matter of fact.  Something for everyone, perhaps.

http://www.everythingathon.com/podcast.htm

Enjoy!

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 04 September 2012

MEAL:  2 Roast Pork Egg Rolls + 1 small order Moo Goo Gai Pan = $6.85 + $1.15 tip

Hotcha!  Hank