westside audio laboratories, for real though

ANNAH PLANET "Adhesive" cassette (Radar #1) A collection of home recordings with a twisted theme of adhesive products? Andrea Fontana's one-woman band plays 13 pieces of soft spacey guitar, odd four-track experiments, lots of effect-pedals and beautiful lulling vocals. From the dormrooms of Saturn, music that should make you happy to be alive. Only fifty copies made, when ours are gone, I'm pretty sure they all are.

CABAL "Multiorgasmic" 7"ep (Housemate #2) This record is pure Ypsilanti history-lesson material. A double-A-sided 7" of quirked out circus pop, lots of sound effects and tricky production. I know they played two or three "last show(s) ever," but I think these once kings of Ypsi might be done for good. Remember the good times, the younger and less aprehensive days? Remember when I lived at my parent's house and worked at Dunkin' Donuts to put out records? Don't let yourself forget..

EUGENE CHADBOURNE "Country Music of Southeastern Australia" CD (Entropy #2) Tyring to explain where Eugene Chadbourne is coming from is an exercise in both futility and stupidity. The dude 1) is nuts, 2) has somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 records attesting to the fact that he's nuts, 3) plays an electric rake, 4) etc.. "Country Music.." is a reissue of a long out-of-print recording never before available on CD, back with new liner-notes, bonus tracks and the regular reissue fare. A highly experimental collage of rock, jazz, traditional country and every other unlikely sort of music. Good!

CORNISH IN A TURTLENECK cassettes Don't be put off by the silly name, they rock way harder than any band you ever had in your highschool. Ypsi youth who are somewhat obsessed with T-Rex play quirky casio pop, freewheeling soul songs, acid-damaged interludes & just plain weird mystical music. The 7-song "Measles" ep is close to half an hour of weird wizardly pop, crackle, snap. CIAT personnel are also responsible for "A Collection of 10 Songs About Booties," a truly hillarious and ridiculous recording, ten one-minute dance songs based around a theme of booties.. Song titles include "Booty Don't Stop", "Booty Flava", "Booty Time", and most unfortunately "Wave Yo Booty In Tha Air." Both cassettes are available through Westside for $3.00 ppd

DELTA DAWN cassette (Pet #4) Wow. Nathan (ex-Cabal) and his computer have made some sounds that can only be described as "dope." Not really what you'd expect from the state of music today, and not really fitting into the ghetto of electronica/machine music, Delta Dawn is made up of samples, fragments & milisecond sections of random radio broadcasts, sliding together into slick songs that really have to be heard to be fully understood. Some parts are fluttering ambient drones, otehrs mixed up drum loops, the overall vibe just ends up making you feel confused in the coolest way possible. Great color covers too. Five songs, including "Rolex Social Club." Highly recommended. $5.00 ppd.

GRAVITAR "(Un)Authorized" cassette * Tapes aren't dead, in fact they are the lifeblood of this whole operation. Ann Arbor guitar noise imporvisers Gravitar give up this limited edition cassette and sift through two epic psychedelic noise monoliths. Dark and energetic sounds from the basements of frustration & hope.

HELLCHILD "Clockwork Toy" 7" (V#3) Brutal death metal from Japan with sentimental lyrics. Blistering rhythms and baffling time-changes/weird and confusing parts, full on metal brutality. Find out why Andrew Wilkes-Krier sold all his keyboards and then understand why it wasn't worth it.

HEY, DUMMY "Fall In Line" 7" (Saturnalia #1) Another treasure from the island of Bowling Green, Ohio. Three blasts of political hardcore, somewhat melodic & totally righteous. Lyrics adapted from essays about countercultures.. some of the people from Hey, Dummy are also now in Aloha. McMike was the bass-player & he gave me this typewriter. Both are factors as to why he rules.

LOVESICK cassette * "Executive branch in a nation of one.." Michigan heart-core is here to stay. Seven songs of quick and crashing urgent music, emotional but not emo? Maybe emo too, I don't care. Ex-members of Chore and The Butler, doing different things. A box of unsent loveletters, a broken four-track machine. Split LP with This Robot Kills due out on the All-Star label by January 1999.

MOTE 7" * Four songs of dynamic and dreamy instrumental compositions, somewhere in the background of which is a voice softly speaking lyrics which seem more like short stories. Stories about brief moments that leave long-lasting impressions. Really stunning. Members of this band went on to form Aloha.

PYRAMID SCHEME "I Have a Plot to Kill the President" 7" (9 Volt #1) Maximumrock&roll is a pretty worthless magazine. We all know that by now. But they did a few things right - they liked The Fags two years ago & they liked this record too. How punk can you get? This is the limit..nine songs on a one-sided 7", the shittiest xerox pictures you've ever seen. Jeff Fag's new band and they can't be stopped, fast and hectic punk rock the right way. DIE DIE DIE!!!!

THIS ROBOT KILLS 7" (Utilitarian #3) Explosive rock and roll astonishment from the band that will save south-eastern Michigan. Weird rhythms, grumbly & bothered vocals,a mesh of scatterbrained guitar & zipping analog synth bleeps, all moving in (more or less) unison in the form of six songs. You're gettting married and your nose starts bleeding, a large flock of menacing crows appears in the sky above the park, someone you've never seen before starts screaming gutteral noises when they get to the "Speak now or forever hold your peace" part. That's kind of what it's like to listen to this record. This is the first 7", soon to be followed by another 7", a picture-disc 10", & a split LP with Lovesick on the Westside label. A record you must have.

TWO NOISES 7" (Arch #1) Imagine Miles Davis right before he lost it and got really awful..'73 era? Whatever. Miles jamming with Can at some small club, someone in the audience tapes the show. Years later Jessamine hears the tape but its a little too late to go backwards in such a direction. Imagine what tha tmight sound like or just listen to the Two Noises 7", and electronics/drums improvising duo from Portland, OR. Only 275 copies were pressed & they're almost gone. Cool letterpress packaging, a sharp debut from a sweet new label. Get it together!

UNIVERSAL INDIANS/ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS split CD (Amer.Tapes) The Lansing label American Tapes continues to rule after recently branching out to vinyl & CD after existing mainly as a cassette-only operation for some time. I belive this is their first Compact Disc release, a split between Michigan guitar noise/free-fuzz excellents Universal Indians and the like-minded British project Ashtray Navigations. Both bands play improvised and unnatural compositions, each offering a half-hour of various pieces gathered together under the guise of blues suites. Cool minimal packaging, a tonal rush to say the least.

VOIDD/KATHODE split 7" (MCR #118) One of the best records of 98 as far as I can see. Detroit's defunct Kathode play "Unearthed", a grand-scale black metal masterpiece that ends with a drawn-out piano solo. Voidd (Japan) contributes two songs of evil thrash mayhem. With the world's weight resting on your shoulders, you're going to need someone on your side. Start with this single.

ANSUL PULL magazine * Everything I found on the ground, folded & stapled. Issue #4 has interviews with Gravitar & Unwound, endless record reviews, equally infinite show reviews, a biography on dub master King Tubby, a photo-comic about a magic city, found poems, letters & scraps and lots of other junk. (#4 is 70 pages, $2.00 ppd) #3 has interviews with AAB, Isis & Werewolves, Al Johnson of U.S.Maple/Lake of Dracula, all the reviews, found stuff, etc & essays on the evils of automobiles & McCoy Tyner (44 pages, $1.50 ppd) #2 was done in 1995 & has very little to offer except a centerfold of a pizza box with various phrases about Brian Jones written all over it. Send a few stamps for that one (sure.) #5 should be out in less than two years & is full of dark art & content already.

CASSETTE RADIO magazine * This magazine comes to us from the slightly older, certainly more bitter A. Hazlett, who at an earlier age was responsible for Ann Arbor youth-punk-anarchist-idealist zine Change. The debut issue is a collection of writings and observations made in, around & about Ypsilanti. Features on Couch, Lovesick, The Shortwave Channel & the Ypsi water tower, and odd interview with This Robot Kills, record reviews, donut and cassette appreciator & a slicer-esque introduction that was written on this typewriter. $1.50 ppd (46 pages)