Notes from the underground.

HOWZABOUT STARTIN' OFF with a truly great reissue? An' I ain't just sayin' that because of the topless nubile band photo on the cover. Check out the Slits Cut LP reissued on the 4 Men With Beards label (who seem to be doing a great job of getting out-of-print stuff back in print). It's a great record, but also a reminder that you didn't have to be particularly musically adept instrumentally to make worthy music. But the three way girl singing is cool, and it's a great period piece from a time when bands were doing a lot of strange stuff musically and testing the water. It might make you think of a female Pop-O-Pies, but nowhere near as bad as the Yeastie Girls, with some yelping like Sugarcubes-era Bjork, although, of course, this record predates all of these projects (and was probably one of their influences, which I guess speaks to its pathbreaking nature). It's got a blending of ska and reggae influences, which back then made much more sense than it does now (a lot of early English punk and new wave was multi-racial and anti-racist in a period of under-the-surface racial tension that many people denied). And of course songs about drugs were more shocking then than they are now ... And speaking of lovely topless photos on the cover, you better check the Buttshakers! Soul Party Volume 3 compilation (on Mr Luckee Records). It's been out for a little while, but it's chock full of "soul boogaloo raw funk" that never made it close to the mainstream but rules, especially the song "The Hippie" by the Inclines ... And if you are in the mood for great comps, you better check Whip! Wobble! And Grind! on Harlem Recordings. It's hip shakin' soul, with a bunch of unknowns recorded between 1961 and 1964. Songs about dancing, girls and cars, can't really go wrong there ... The new Duane Peters Gunfight LP is just the drink-a-lot-of-beer and sing-along-with-your-fist-in-the-air kind of music I was looking for this month, and it's fucking solid, right down to the Radio Birdman cover "Breaks My Heart." It's self-titled, and on Disaster Records ... The new Epoxies record is great, kick ass from start to finish (well, maybe that last song that sounds suspiciously close to a ballad is pushing it, but all bands put one ballad on the record to, uh, find out who the pussies are). It's more of the same syntho Nouveau Wave, catchy as all get out with Roxie's strong vocals. It's funny, the new record (Stop the Future) is on Fat Wreck, which is great for the band, but I hope it doesn't mean they will continue to play shows with the likes of the Aquabats, like they just did here last night. Talk about masked and gimmick-laden pre-teen slop. The Epoxies still put on a great show, lasers pointing, tape liberally applied, and Roxie gyrating and going off ... In the deeply garagified and solidly trashy category this month comes the new (and apparently final) LP by the Zodiac Killers, Radiation Beach on Rip Off Records. It's got that classic Rip Off sound (well, the Rip Offs--the band--member Greg Lowery is in the band), nothing complicated just straight down the throat (and into the ears) garage punk ... A couple of worthy videos have crossed my path again this month. Check the Dwarves' Fuck You Up and Get Live. It's a live show from NYC in 2004, and the band rips through material from the early days to the last record. The added bonus videos add a spicy degree of titillation ... An' holy shit, it's Iggy Pop, Live San Fran 1981. Raw footage of the leader of one of the seminal proto punk bands, a little past his punkest days in the Stooges, but right around when he was finding more of an audience among the contemporary punk crowd, and turning out songs like the classic "Lust for Life" as a solo act ... Speaking of proto punk, the MC5 video Kick Out the Jams just came out on DVD. If you realize the genius and before-their-time virtuosity of the '5 you'll wanna dig this, but it's pretty stoney. The film was made by "conceptual artists" Leni Sinclair and Cary Loren, and includes rare footage (although I've begun to think that all of the footage that exists of the MC5 has been tapped, unfortunately), although there's no attempt to match the visuals (singing, playing) with the soundtrack, so the music is out of synch, and there's a bunch of swirly, psychedelic visuals interspersed as well (groovy, man, pass me that doob, brother!) ... Finally, has it really been almost 20 years since Public Enemy released "Yo, Bum Rush the Show?" It came out in 1987, the same year the footage for It Takes a Nation; The First London Invasion was filmed. PE does stuff from their first two LPs (and in fact some of the footage in the video was included on their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back), and there is interview and horsing-around footage in between songs. Flavor Flav is on point, and it makes his latest stuff (a reality TV show trying to get Bridgette Nielson?) make a little more sense, like when he interviews an old lady on the street who's just about as weird as he is ...