I guess there’s not much more to be said about The Texas Chain Massacre that hasn’t already been given. One of the most influential seventies American films after Star Wars and perhaps The Godfather and Jaws.  What I remember of it at the time of its release has little to do with the film but everything to do with expectation and rumor.

I first heard of the movie in the schoolyard. I was too young to go see it and living in Scotland meant if you didn’t see a movie on release then you had to make do with the semaphore of rumor, exaggeration and bullshit. Which is the part that kinda interests me because why would a junior high school kid in Scotland hear about The Texas Chain Massacre unless it was something important? There was no Internet, no Google, no streaming services, no mobile, none of that stuff. Information was read in comics, newspapers and magazines or recieved second, third or fourth hand from friends who had a relative in Canada or went for a holiday to Florida where there was a bad frost and all the oranges on the trees turned into fruit sorbet. That kind of thing.

The first story I heard about this particular movie came (I think) from a guy called John Scott, who claimed some of the actors genuinely died during the making of the movie and there was this guy called Leatherface who was a butcher and he was still out there dancing with his chainsaw in the sunlight.

I had no idea what this meant, but the name “Leatherface” implied something utterly perverse and deranged. Was it a gimp mask? Or, maybe an Ed Gein flesh mask? We all knew about Ed Gein as he was our parents’ bogeyman because of Psycho, a film one relative described to me as “the wickedest movie ever made.” Gein was a real life monster like Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were real monsters. We all knew something about the horrific things they had done. But then again, what we knew of Gein was mainly through exaggeration and myth. In fact, half the stories I heard about the old cross-dressing cannibal had nothing to do with him and more to do with the speaker’s imagination, which in comparison to the actual crimes—or even those of Hindley and Brady—were utterly anemic.

The second tale I heard about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a reiteration of the first, that the film was based on a true story. As it turned out this was what the film actually claimed, true events which took place on August 18th, 1973. But as filming on this movie finished four days before the date given in the opening titles this was unlikely, if not impossible. That was director Tobe Hooper’s intention. He considered America during the Nixon years to be riddled with fake news and propaganda pumped out by the government.

The third tale was something to do with a guy who used two teen girls to source young boys to rape, kill and torture. This made the film seem far more debauched and unsavory. We were skeptical about this, which shows you how our pre-pubescent minds had some kind of warped standard where torturing, killing and eating people was okay, but raping, torturing and killing people—especially boys—was a step too far. Go figure. But as it later turned out, this was a tad closer to the truth as co-writer Kim Henkel had:

...noticed a murder case in Houston at the time, a serial murderer you probably remember named Elmer Wayne Henley. He was a young man who recruited victims for an older homosexual man. I saw some news report where Elmer Wayne ... said, “I did these crimes, and I’m gonna stand up and take it like a man.” Well, that struck me as interesting, that he had this conventional morality at that point. He wanted it known that, now that he was caught, he would do the right thing. So this kind of moral schizophrenia is something I tried to build into the characters.

The final story of note was the one where someone said The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was so horrific that it had been banned. This happened to be true, well at least in certain countries, but we didn’t know where and why or how the film had been banned. It was just left to our imaginations to ferment the worst possible scenarios as to what the film was actually about.

It was more than a decade before I got to see the film and thought it well-made, clever, and entertaining. Though I guess I would have paid top dollar to have seen the movie my fevered imagination had concocted all those years ago.
 

 

 

 
More snaps of the infamous cinematic cannibal family, after the jump… 

Photo of Rowland S. Howard by Stefan De Batselier

I’ve been a big Birthday Party fan since Prayers on Fire first came out—which is 38 years ago, if you are keeping count—and lately I’ve been in a real BP kick again, buying up original Aussie singles on Discogs. When the offer to review Fat Possum Records’ 2-LP vinyl reissue of Rowland S. Howard’s 1999 solo album Teenage Snuff Film came my way, I said “yes please.”

I’m embarrassed to admit that this album had passed me by, which is strange as I continued to follow Howard’s music after the Birthday Party imploded. Crime & The City Solution.These Immortal Souls. His two albums with Lydia Lunch are amongst my top favorite records. And you’d think a title like Teenage Snuff Film would’ve been intriguing enough, but apparently I was otherwise engaged in 1999. (In my defense, it wasn’t released in North America.)

Better late than never. This album is a motherfucker!

Teenage Snuff Film kicks off with the brilliant “Dead Radio” and these lyrics:

You’re bad for me
Like cigarettes
But I haven’t sucked
Enough of you yet

Did Raymond Chandler ever write anything that good? No. No he never did.

In the very next song, “Breakdown (And Then…),” the crown prince of the crying Jag intones:

Crown prince of the crying Jag
Stuffed the towel in his mouth to gag,
Oh my darling I never knew
How hard it was to get rid of you

The opening lyrics of the third song are equally as strong as what preceded them, if not stronger still:

I had no knife but myself
It was me I cut but you bled as well
How could I help dear sweet pretty one
When I could not put down the gun.

The title of that last one takes the notion of the famous six word story attributed to Ernest Hemingway (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”) and cuts it down to just three: “I Burned Your Clothes.”

You really don’t have to wonder too much what that one’s all about do you? Does it come as any surprise that an album with a title like Teenage Snuff Film is a tad on the dark side? Probably not for most people, Howard clearly being a firm believer in truth-in-advertising. TSF is a bleak and diseased chronicle of an obsessive, toxic relationship and self-destruction. It delivers a payload of the very noirest noir. File it next to Marc Almond’s Torment and Toreros and Lou Reed’s Berlin under “Music to Slit Your Wrists To.” (This is a big compliment, if that’s not clear!)

The music lives up to the standard set by the lyrics. Howard is backed here by Mick Harvey on drums, organ and guitar, Brian Hooper (The Beasts of Bourbon) on bass and six string players. His longtime partner Genevieve McGuckin co-wrote and played organ on “Silver Chain.” There is a thick Phil Spectoresque Wall of Guitars-style production by Lindsay Gravina. I always found that the weakest part of These Immortal Souls was Howard’s singing—he always seemed more of a phantom than a frontman—but here I think his ravaged voice is just about the only one I could ever imagine hearing sing these songs. (At least the ones he wrote, there are also ace covers of the Shangri-Las’ “He Cried” and Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” which is set to a gothic blues dirge that really brings out a different side of that particular song.)

Teenage Snuff Film is out now in North and South America on Fat Possum Records as a 2-LP set newly remastered by producer Lindsay Gravina from the original tapes. It comes out in the UK and Europe on MUTE Records. Autoluminescent, Richard Lowenstein and Lynn-Maree Milburn’s documentary about the life of Rowland S. Howard is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Both are highly recommended.
 

“Exit Everything”
 
More Rowland S. Howard after the jump…

 
Do you watch horror stuff faster than Netflix churns it out? Do you possess, down to the most minute detail, the know-how to take out a zombie, a vampire or even a werewolf? Have you painfully experienced the axiom that one should always tie up the boots FIRST and THEN the corset? Would your garage make Paracelsus green with envy? Neighbors curl up in a fetal position every time you pump up the volume?
Perfect!

Trivia Obscura™+Do You Know Darkness?+ is the board game that allows you to bask in the glory of your dark existence and… rub your poser friends’ noses in it!

Cinema, music, video games, science, history, lifestyle, literature, the occult and many, many more carefully selected topics that flirt with the darkside, giving you all the juicy leftfield bits of info you crave. They all meet on the board of Trivia Obscura™, the first game of knowledge and strategy for lost souls!
 

 
Broadly speaking the game looks to me like a goth “Trivial Pursuit.” Is that fairly close to the mark?

Not at all!

You got it right that Trivia Obscura™ is a game based on knowledge, so you do answer questions in order to win. And you also got it right, that every question featured in the game has to be “dark”—in the general sense of the term. But Trivia Obscura™ is not just a gothic trivia game! A completely different approach towards question building has been taken. We don’t care about useless name dropping and dry facts, and we are sure that our players don’t either. So every theme presented is not just a plain old question that requires a boring answer, but a topic that is carefully selected to be interesting and intriguing, to make you go out and read more about it. Learning interesting stuff is at the heart and soul of Trivia Obscura™.

Question: Around 1232, Pope Gregory IX released a papal bull titled “Vox in Rama,” which condemned the contemporary surge in devil worship. Millions of people died the following years, because in this bull, the Pope made a connection between the Devil and ...?

Answer: Black cats. The bull mentioned that black cats were used in devil-worshipping rituals, and it inspired people to kill thousands of them. That triggered an upsurge in the rat population, which in turn brought about the Black Death.

 

 
But not everything has to be so serious. Life is a game that is not always fair and neither is Trivia Obscura™. That is why we decided to make the gameplay a bit more… interesting. We introduced the Carta Obscura cards which make Machiavelli strategists out of the players. Unlike mainstream trivia games, where the one with the most correct answers wins, in Trivia Obscura™ the players are encouraged to grab-stab-steal—or in other worlds use strategy—-and not rely only on what they know. But that’s not all. Trivia Obscura™ is also a territory building game, in which you strategically build your empire on the board, blocking other players as you expand. In order to win, you have to use your wits. So it’s a trivia/strategy/territory-building game. The result is amazing, and you get a unique gameplay every time you play!

What sort of dark knowledge a player would need to smite the competition? Give me some examples of the questions the game asks.

Darkness is in everything, and people that tend to shy away from it will be surprised on how much they know, and how interesting the things they do not know are!

There are six different categories in the game—called Houses—with two more Houses to be unlocked as stretch goals. Some Houses are more popular such as the House of Blood, which is clearly for those into horror, splatter movies, scary literature, and creepy stories. House of Music is targeted towards a goth/metal/punk audience, but not exclusively. Madonna, Prince, Niccolo Paganini, they all have their special “dark” sides, too and Trivia Obscura™ brings them out. House of the Occult is a place where if you know your Wicca from your alchemy you can’t really go wrong! Also being attentive to all those scary stories that your grandparents used to read to you to keep you well behaved, might help. Other Houses, such as the House of Science, History, the Arts, Death, and the House of Lifestyle, all bring out something dark in their respects.
 

 
For example, if you know the name of the clown in Stephen King’s IT, go for the House of Blood. If you can name all of the seven deadly sins, the House of the Occult is right up your street! Do you know which is the base ingredient for a zombie cocktail? Then the House of Lifestyle should be your first choice. House of History is for those who know the real name of Count Dracula, and House of Science for those who know the name of the natural substance that gives our skin and hair its dark color. Oh, we almost forgot, those of you who know how many of the seven wonders of the ancient world were tombs won’t feel lost in the House of the Arts. Goths and metalheads will eye up the House of Music, but do they know what a musical composition written for a funeral mass is called? But the main question remains in the House of Death: What did the deaths of King George II, Catherine the Great and Elvis Presley all share in common? And most importantly: can you name the term that typically describes conventional sex or sexual behavior that involves sex that does not include elements of bondage, sadomasochism or fetishism? (Answers below)

In contrast to other trivia games, in Trivia Obscura™ the player can choose which House to play under, the category that fits them the most. The result is tons of fun, where people struggle to win, but their opponents keep on blocking them. Chaos on the board, and that’s what it’s all about!
 

 
What is the main concept driving Trivia Obscura™?

Humanity, from ancient times, has flirted with the dark and the macabre, mainly out of fear towards the unknown, a way to come to terms with the idea of death. With Trivia Obscura™ we’ve taken a somewhat different approach. We do not bring the fear of the unknown to the fore, but we approach the dark via learning about it. We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that all the themes in our game cast light in the shadows, and positively promote creation. We don’t want to fill people with sorrow – well unless someone gets sad after learning what caused the bubonic plague or about the life and crimes of Gilles de Rais! Knowledge is power, the purest and most important form of power there is. It gives us the ability to tame our own lives and see the world we inhabit in a positive way. It helps us accept the things we cannot change and urges us to change what can be! Knowing about the innate order of the universe helps us approach it without fear, and with love towards nature and creation. We believe that you cannot really love life unless you respect it as a whole – and death is part of life, destruction part of creation, there is no light without a shadow, and to realize all this, is a magical thing in itself. We hope Trivia Obscura™ to be a celebration of this realization!

How do you play it? And how do you win the game?

First, you light up the candles—put Hellraiser on the TV, the Sisters on the stereo, and pour some absinthe in your glass—or anything, just as long as it helps bring out your dark side. This is a very important first step! The player with the blackest attire goes first. Even socks are included in the count! You choose which House you want to play under, you roll the die, and follow your path on the board, aiming for your House spots. For each correct answer in your House, you place a ring marker element on the spot. Once a spot is fully claimed, none shall pass over it, but you. Falling behind? Unleash your inner Machiavelli by using the Carta Obscura and backstab your way to victory! Show no mercy! Win the game by fully claiming all three spots that belong to your chosen House and then crawl your way back to the Dungeon Market where the Crown of Darkness is yours!

Think this is easy?

Well, think again!
 

 
What’s in your Kickstarter?

Take a look for yourself; Trivia Obscura™ premieres on Kickstarter on October 29, 2020!
It is important to note that Trivia Obscura™ is an indie project and a labor of love and hard work. It will mainly go through Kickstarter, printed in a small collectible run. If it is not funded, it will be forever stuck in limbo, and we will all be doomed to play mainstream trivia games, with questions on the reproductive cycle of the Galapagos tortoise! So boring!

There is nothing more to add but…please support Trivia Obscura™ on Kickstarter, and… unleash darkness on your tabletops!!!

Trivia Obscura™ is proudly supported by CULTartes magazine, Rock Your Life.gr, Dark Sun club, Ars Nocturna gothic books, Nyctophilia, and Mpoukouras funeral parlor.
 

 
ANSWERS:
Answers: 1) Pennywise 2) Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. 3)  Rum. 4) Vlad Tepes, (Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia). 5) Melanin. 6) Two. The Great Pyramid of Giza and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. 7) Requiem. 8) They all died in the toilet. 9) Vanilla sex.

 
It’s incredible that, over 25 years after Kurt Cobain’s death, previously uncirculated Nirvana video continues to pop up. We recently told you about the freshly unearthed 1991 footage, and now we’re here to inform you about a newly uncovered clip, one that dates from the group’s formative years.

In late 1988, Nirvana were still very much a young band. Their first record, the “Love Buzz”/“Big Cheese” 45, which was the inaugural release for the Sup Pop Singles Club, came out in November, and the following month, the Sub Pop 200 compilation was issued, and that included the group’s song “Spank Thru.” Sub Pop 200 was the boldest offering yet from the label, a lavish, limited edition vinyl box set containing twenty songs from twenty bands, pressed on three EPs, with a booklet.
 

 
To celebrate the release of Sub Pop 200, a two-night party was held at the Underground, a club in Seattle. On December 28th, the first night, Nirvana opened the sold-out show. An audio recording of their set has been online for years, but no video was known to exist. That all changed this week, when the first song Nirvana played that night, “School,” appeared on YouTube. Footage taken from two different camera angles were edited together and synched with the audience recording, giving us our first glimpse of this early Nirvana performance.
 

 
The band are introduced by local poet Steven Jesse Bernstein, and after a bit of tuning, the group launches into “School.” The song would be included on Nirvana’s debut album Bleach, which was being recorded during this period.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Blistering, previously unseen Nirvana footage captured the night before ‘Nevermind’ was released
Audio surfaces from a Nirvana acoustic gig that took place in a bar during the ‘Nevermind’ tour
Nirvana playing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ live for the very last time

 
Besides Go-go, the music scene of Washington D.C. in the eighties was largely defined by the birth of hardcore and the influential ‘Revolution Summer’ movement that followed. At its forefront were bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Rites of Spring, Embrace, Fugazi…. need I say more?
 
Something beautiful about punk rock is that for every scene that budded in America, there were a few bands that were simply nontraditional. Perhaps the members didn’t dress like everybody else. Maybe they had different influences. Or better yet, they played a completely different style of music altogether.
 
But that didn’t change if a band was punk or not. Because who gives a fuck
 

 
The Obsessed are a band from Maryland that Ian Mackaye tipped me off on. They formed in the late-seventies in Potomac, about a thirty minute drive from the Capitol. The leader of the group is a guy by the name of Scott Weinrich, but people know him as “Wino.” As far as I’m aware, there was no tougher motherfucker in the scene than Wino.
 
The band went through several lineup changes over the years, but not much else has changed. They were quintessential lifers; longhairs from the suburbs who ripped fat doom metal riffs and lived to play rock & roll. Henry Rollins described them as a band that truly represented America’s youth culture. They had nothing to lose, so there was nothing to lie about.
 

Early Obsessed Gig
 
Evidently, The Obsessed and its fans found themselves intermingling with the burgeoning hardcore movement of nearby Washington D.C. They’d play with bands like Bad Brains, Iron Cross, and the Dead Boys, so naturally they became a crossover band between hardcore and heavy metal. As Ian put it, they occupied their own space in the musical world. Because nobody does it with as much conviction as Wino does. Sure, there was plenty of tension between the suburban metal-heads and the skinhead punks. Wino didn’t care, though. He liked punk rock because it was cool - and he’d beat the shit out of anyone messing with punkers. But he’d take on anybody, really.
 

Scott “Wino” Weinrich
 
With no proper music released, the band called in quits when Wino moved to California to join another important stoner rock band, Saint Vitus. Eventually, The Obsessed’s self-titled debut was released and they reformed in 1990. Within a few years, they signed to Columbia Records before dissolving once more due to poor record sales.

In anticipation of their major label debut in 1994, Columbia Records filmed a short promo documentary on The Obsessed. An introduction to the mythical band, this amazing piece of work features no holds barred-style interviews with hardcore punk and metal mainstays, like Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, Dale Crover, Tesco Vee, Joe Lally, and members of Pantera, White Zombie, and Corrosion of Conformity. There is early performance footage of the band at a local high school, recordings of Wino shredding it up in the studio, and commentary by members of the band (and some super-‘Obsessed’ fans). Oh, and a story about Wino doing speed off the blade of a giant knife.
 
With the ‘boom’ of doom in recent years, Wino brought The Obsessed back in 2016. They signed with Relapse Records and released Sacred in 2017 - their first record in 21 years.
 
Watch the amazing ‘94 documentary on D.C.’s heavy metal crossover band and realest ones around - The Obsessed:

“Hells Angels were trying to impress Wino.”
 
Much more of The Obsessed after the jump…

A photo of Motörhead used in an article published in SPIN (February 1986) by journalist Scott Cohen declaring the band was “The Loudest Band on Earth.”
 
On the evening of December 2nd, 1984, Motörhead took the stage at the Variety Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. The performance was so decibel-heavy it broke the previous live sound record set by The Who on May 31st, 1976 at The Valley in London. The Who’s appearance at The Valley clocked in at an ear-shattering 120 decibels and got the band into the Guinness Book of World Records. Motörhead’s gig measured 130 decibels, exceeding what is known as the “Threshold of Pain” or, 120 decibels. If you need to know exactly how loud that is, the noise level associated with the Threshold is the equivalent of the sound emitted by a goddamned jackhammer.

Manowar would briefly become the first band to take the title of “Loudest Band in the World” from The Who during a gig in Hanover, Germany, in October of 1984, pumping 129.5 decibels through ten tons of amplifiers. However, that measurement isn’t far off Manowar’s sound requirements in their contract rider, guaranteeing that the band will deliver at least 126 decibels anytime they play live. Still, even on their best day, Manowar wasn’t able to break Motörhead’s record-setting sonic blast so loud it cracked the Variety’s ceiling, while plaster fell on the crowd. To further reinforce how loud Motörhead was that night, a man living near the venue reported he was able to record the show from his living room. This was all witnessed by the packed house at the Variety, including a 19-year-old Motörhead super fan (as well as the adult author of several books of pop culture history) who might have one of the coolest heavy metal brags of all time. And, just perhaps, balls as big as his hero Lemmy Kilmister. His name is Joseph Lanza, forever known as the kid who pretended to be a rock journalist just so he could meet Lemmy. And it’s the kind of scheme heavy metal dreams are made of.

When Lanza heard Motörhead was headed to Cleveland during their Death on the Road Tour, he got the idea he could pass himself off as a journalist and get into the show for free. His first move was to phone Motörhead’s label at the time, Mercury. Amazingly, he got put through to someone who actually bought his story—one he concocted by wildly exaggerating circulation numbers of a publication called Negative Print, a fanzine with a circulation of several dozen copies run by his friend David James. Lanza told Motörhead’s people that Negative Print’s circulation was around 130,000, pretty good for a 10-page zine made at the local Kinkos for free when James’ friends were working behind the counter.

It wasn’t until 72 hours before the show when he was contacted by Mercury telling him he had the green light to interview Lemmy Kilmister, and would be given full press credentials. Lanza’s access to Lemmy and the band included their time at Shattered Records, a headbanger-friendly record store where he hung out with a massive group of fans, as the current configuration of Motörhead (Würzel, Phil Campbell, and Pete Gill) signed albums. He was as nervous as anyone else might have been, and perhaps more so as he wasn’t actually a journalist, just a kid who loved Motörhead. He was becoming increasingly worried that he’d be tossed out at any moment once he was discovered. Lanza tried to look the part without going too far; he had a tape recorder, a pen, and a bunch of notes. Then, just like in a bad dream, moments before he was about to interview Lemmy, the batteries in his tape-recorder died.
 

A photo of the Variety’s marquee the night Motörhead murdered the venue. Photo by Joseph Lanza. See more of Lanza’s images of Motörhead in Cleveland here.
 
A few minutes later Lanza was kicking back with Lemmy and a bottle of Jack Daniels. The notoriously good-natured Kilmister had recognized Lanza’s unease as a byproduct of his young age and inexperience. The vocalist chain-smoked and drank his ever-present Jack and Coke. According to Lanza, Lemmy didn’t even care about the interview, he was having fun just hanging out. After leaving the tour bus to head to the show, Lanza realized that he had lost his pass, leaving him no way to get into the gig. Luckily he spotted Lemmy headed into the Variety and caught up to him, telling him he had lost his pass. Ever the gentleman, Lemmy took off his and handed it to Lanza, telling him to use it as he was pretty sure they knew who he was.

Once inside, Lanza and 1,900 Motörhead fans collectively blew their eardrums out to the punishing sounds of the band. The once opulent theater has stood in the same place since 1927, but had since fallen into disrepair. And Motörhead’s louder-than-fuck performance didn’t help. Nor did the multiple encores that went on and on while plaster fell on people’s heads below. It wasn’t until a maintenance worker for the Variety rightly worried about the integrity of the building due to the ongoing noise level, and went to the breaker box and shut Motörhead down. This pissed off Lemmy, but the band decided to call it a night. The show would help magnify ongoing issues with the Variety, which in addition to the building’s decay, included reports of safety concerns and after-hours loitering by patrons of the club. The Variety would close in 1986, and restoration work to bring the historic theater back to life continues to this day.
 

Footage of Motörhead rehearsing for their appearance on ITV’s Saturday morning kids show “Saturday Starship” in October of 1984. According to Lemmy, people complained because the band started warming up at 8:30 AM in the station’s parking lot. Said Lem: “I don’t know what the problem was. 8:30 AM was the time they gave us to rehearse and they put the stage up in the parking lot for us.”
 
HT: Cleveland.com

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Oral: The mysterious all-girl heavy metal band and their (maybe) connection to Lemmy Kilmister
Lemmy Kilmister gets ambushed by three of his ex’s on TV in the late 90s
New Motorhead video & Lemmy interview: ‘We’re arrogant bastards. We’re like a dose of crabs’
Motörhead trash a hotel room
In this Motörhead video game, Lemmy thwarts enemies with his Jack Daniels-fueled bad breath!
Böat of debauchery: Inside the Motörhead ‘Motörböat’ cruise

 
While I love all three of the Big Star albums released in the 1970s, I’ve always had a soft spot for Radio City. It’s the first one I bought, and I instantly fell for the tight-yet-loose, catchy rock ‘n’ roll embedded in the LP’s grooves. Years after becoming a huge fan of the band, I was surprised to discover that three of the songs on Radio City aren’t really Big Star at all.

The Dolby Fuckers were a studio project that consisted of Big Star’s Alex Chilton, drummer Richard Rosebrough, and bassist Danny Jones. Chilton and Rosebrough first met back when the former was fronting the Box Tops, and at the time of the recordings Rosebrough was working full-time as an engineer at Ardent Studios. Jones, a local musician, roomed with Chilton after Alex’s marriage fell apart.

There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Dolby Fuckers tracks, but one thing is for sure—no one remembers, exactly, when they were recorded. It seems most likely that the sessions took place during the months-long stretch in 1973 when Big Star were inactive. After they played a series of January shows at Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis, which were Big Star’s first public performances following the departure of Chris Bell in late 1972, the group effectively went on hiatus. They reconvened for a now legendary concert at the first and only Rock Writers’ Convention, held on May 25-26 at Lafayette’s. The band received such a positive response from notables like Lester Bangs, Nick Tosches, and a teenage Cameron Crowe, that they decided to keep Big Star going. In the fall of 1973, the group went into Ardent to cut what would become Radio City.
 

Big Star: Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel, and Alex Chilton in the William Eggleston photo that appears on the back cover of ‘Radio City.’

Here’s Richard Rosebrough on the wild late night sessions at Ardent that produced two of the songs that wound up on Radio City—“She’s a Mover” and “Mod Lang”:

The Dolby Fuckers were just some sessions we did. There was a period when I was hanging out with Alex and I may have been working all day, then we’d meet at the bar later that night. The bar was just two doors down from the studio and we’d go in the studio at 2 a.m. and just start going crazy and making these recordings…Alex at that point was starting to fall into chaos. It got to be anything could happen. (from Big Star’s Radio City (33 1/3))

 

Richard Rosebrough.

A third Dolby Fuckers track, “What’s Goin’ Ahn,” was recorded during a formal Chilton session at Ardent. 

Big Star recorded everything in their arsenal for Radio City, but it wasn’t enough for a full LP, so the Dolby Fuckers tracks were added to round out the record. The only information on the album related to the Chilton-led project is this credit: “Danny Jones and Richard Rosebrough played too.”

The British Invasion-sounding “She’s a Mover” is probably the oldest track on Radio City, possibly dating as far back as mid-to-late 1972. The looseness of the evening it was captured in is preserved in the recording, which ends with a jam. The odd feedback sounds came from waving a pair of headphones over a microphone. For reasons that are unclear, Andy Hummel later overdubbed a bass part, so he plays on the final version. Big Star took a stab at the song, but their rendering was shelved, as it was felt it didn’t have the spirit of the Dolby Fuckers’ take.
 

 
Much more Big Star, after the jump…

 
Beat Poetry for Survivalists is the whimsical—and rockin’—new collaboration between Peter Buck, late of R.E.M.—maybe you’ve heard of them?—and onetime Auteur, author, artist and radio disc jockey Luke Haines. Owing to the fact that it’s got Haines singing lyrics that he himself wrote (topics include Pol Pot, Andy Warhol, the Carpenters, 80s hairdressers, occultist Jack Parsons, the hardships of ugly people, French rock and roll, the Enfield poltergeist and other typically Hainesian concerns) and utilizes the recorder, it sounds, no surprise, not unlike a typical Luke Haines album of recent vintage, but even better.  I suspect this Peter Buck fellow might have had something to do with that. Buck’s well known to be a connoisseur of music with a massive record collection, so it’s no surprise that Haines was on his radar. The guitarist purchased one of Haines’ Lou Reed paintings (order yours here) and the rest is history…

[I just want to point out here that I, too, purchased one of Luke Haines’ Lou Reed paintings, just like Peter Buck did, but did Haines want to collaborate with me? I had the best idea ever, a sure-fire hit, an obviously Broadway-bound rock opera about the post fame “wilderness years” of Sweet’s Andy Priest—a tale of perseverance, comeback concerts at off-brand Florida amusement parks and a “Love is Like Oxygen” production number complete with oxygen tanks and wheelchairs—but with heart. I threw this out there to Haines on Twitter. Nuthin.’ Crickets. I can’t help it if I feel slighted, but I’m not bitter. I do like the painting, though.]

I asked Haines a few questions via email.

According to the early reviews, this collaboration occurred when Peter Buck bought one of your paintings. One of your Lous?

Luke Haines: So, yes. Peter Buck popped up in my inbox having just bought a painting of Lou Reed. We then started chatting on email. Peter’s pretty interested in Richard Nixon, so we chatted about “Tricky Dicky” and he mentioned that he liked my Baader Meinhof album!

Which one of you said “hey, we should do something together” first?

Luke Haines: It was me that suggested we record an album together. I’m pretty upfront. Mainly, because it’s so easy to contact people these days, I figure why the hell not? You can pretty much speak to anyone you want to collaborate with. Life is too short not to do these things.

How did you write songs together? Was it an over the internet kinda thing?

Luke Haines: The whole thing started with Peter sending me a guitar and drum machine demo that became “Jack Parsons.” I wandered round with the chords in my head and wrote lyrics and a melody. I added some extra bits: a synth, maybe another guitar. That’s how we built up the whole album.
 

Peter Buck by John Clark/Luke Haines by David Titlow

There are two other players credited. Was any of it recorded as a band?

Luke Haines: Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon. Everything was overdubbed. The drums went down in about two hours. Scott is from the Minus 5 and latter day REM. Linda is currently my fave drummer in the world.

Where was Scott and Linda’s contribution recorded?

Luke Haines: The whole thing was done over email. My stuff, then over to Peter and Scott. Then Linda overdubbed drums in Scott’s basement in Portland.

What about the touring band? Same players?

Luke Haines: Same line up. Three Americans and me. It’s been a while since I’ve worked with Americans. I like working with Americans, they have a very “can do” attitude. British musicians usually convince themselves out of doing anything. By the time they get to the pub they are suing each other.

There’s an American release of this one, right?

Luke Haines: Yep. First US release I’ve had for donkey’s. It’s out on Cherry Red in the UK and Omnivore Recordings in the US. CD, vinyl (that’s an elpee to us) and cassette tape. Really. March 6th.

Peter Buck has a reputation for having an amazing record collection. Did the two of you geek out over various rock snob matters and will he be a guest on your Righteous in the Afternoon radio show?

Luke Haines: The geek out is inevitable. Peter will come on my show. He has no choice.

Beat Poetry for Survivalists is out on March 6th.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘I Sometimes Dream Of Glue’: New Luke Haines concept album about very tiny, very horny glue sniffers
Attention rock snobs: Dig Luke Haines’ righteous outsider rock & roll radio show
Mythic motherfucking rock and roll: Why Luke Haines is the best British rock musician of our time
Life is Unfair: Black Box Recorder want you to kill yourself or get over it
Tourettes Karaoke: R.E.M.‘s ‘Losing My Religion’
‘Just Like a Movie’: Young Michael Stipe covers Velvet Underground in clip from R.E.M. ‘Holy Grail’
A heckler stirs up R.E.M. during fabled 1985 gig (and the band nearly fights the heckler!)
A very young R.E.M. gets noticed by the NY Rocker, March 1981
Legendary R.E.M. performances captured before they were famous, 1981 (with a DM exclusive)
R.E.M.’s Mike Mills on ‘Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee’
70s Michael Stipe in drag at ‘Rocky Horror’
Michael Stipe’s pipe!

 
In the late 1970s, Steve Piccolo was a founding member of the seminal No Wave jazz band Lounge Lizards along with John Lurie, his brother Evan Lurie and Arto Lindsay. He’d studied music at Bard and NYU and was doing performances, art and sound installations at night while during the day maintaining a job as a Wall Street computer analyst.

In 1982 Piccolo recorded an oddball—defiantly angsty and neurotically urban—low-fi minimalist singer/songwriter album titled Domestic Exile. The various songs were composed for his performances in art spaces but hang together nicely as an album due to the slightly sinister Jonathan Richman-esque persona employed on songs like “Businessman’s Lament” and “Superior Genes.” Whether or not he was actually anything like this at the time or just playing a character, I cannot say, but the image that comes to mind, to my mind at least, is that of a Wall Street guy, maybe he’s a Libertarian, on the downtown 6 train reading an Ayn Rand novel while listening to Merzbow or Swans full blast on his Sony Walkman.

Fellow Lizard Evan Lurie played keyboards on Domestic Exile and John Lurie took the photos for the cover. One of the numbers, a truly original love song called “I Don’t Want to Join a Cult” was an underground hit in Manhattan clubs and Debbie Harry reportedly wanted to do a cover version.
 

 
As no NYC-based record label was interested in releasing the album, Steve took it to to Italy where it was released by Materiali Sonori in a limited edition. In March Guerssen Records will release the first LP/CD/Digital reissue of Domestic Exile since the initial pressing in 1982. It’s a quirky collection, really unlike anything else I could think to compare it to. Highly recommended.
 

“I Don’t Want To Join A Cult”
 
More from ‘Domestic Exile,’ after the jump…

 
Sunday morning, flicking through news channels I chanced on a Nigerian breakfast show that held my attention between mouthfuls of cereal. Four women around a table were discussing a new movie called The Milkmaid. Clips were played as one woman said she hoped the movie would get the chance to be screened at Cannes, and have the chance of being seen at the Toronto Film Festival. This was not just an ordinary movie—The Milkmaid was one of the best movies to ever come out of Nigeria.

Every so often there comes along a movie that will change everything. Parasite did it at this year Academy Awards and I’m laying money that The Milkmaid will win awards and do the same at next year’s Oscars. This movie is a game changer—a work of brilliance, a compelling harrowing tale that does what all great works of art should do: make the viewer question what is going on in the world.

It’s inspiration comes from real events. In April 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from a school in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria. The girls had been kidnapped by Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist terrorist organization operating out of the north-east of the country. The kidnapping brought condemnation from across the world. After some of the girls were released, the story and interest in the lives of these girls and the people tragically caught in the crossfire between terror and extremism were soon forgotten. Filmmaker Desmond Ovbiagele thought something ought to be done to highlight the psychological trauma, displacement and economic impoverishment extremism inflicts on society. He started writing a screenplay about Aisha, a Fulani milkmaid, searching for her younger sister, who approaches the religious militants responsible for their separation. Ovbiagele has crafted a powerful piece of cinema which he hopes will bring “attention to the present plight of real-life victims of militant insurgency in Nigeria (internally displaced persons, IDPs), to generate support for their economic and psychological rehabilitation and social re-integration.” His film offers a discourse on the very real threats posed by extremism.

Shot over three months in Nigeria, The Milkmaid stars Anthonieta Kalunta in her film debut as Aisha, with Maryam Booth as her sister Zainab, and Gambo Usman Kona as Dangana. Unlike most movies pumped out by Hollywood or Marvel or Disney or whoever, The Milkmaid is an important, complex film, a substantial work of art that addresses issues pertinent to all of our lives. What it needs now is to be seen by as many people as possible.

I contacted writer and director Desmond Ovbiagele to find out more about him and the making of his movie.

How did you start making The Milkmaid?

Desmond Ovbiagele: I completed and released my first feature film in 2014, a locally set (in Nigeria) crime drama. Spent the next three years recovering from that interesting experience. Then early 2017, felt I was ready to get back into the fray, and commenced writing the script for what turned out to be my next feature, The Milkmaid.
 

 
What was your inspiration for the film?

DO: Creatively, I find myself drawn to themes that are of contemporary social relevance. Perhaps it’s because I believe that the medium of film is imbued with such amazing power, and the process of realizing a story can be so incredibly daunting and challenging; therefore one needs to tackle issues that justify all the palaver. And clearly the prevailing insurgency and general insecurity in my immediate environment was a natural candidate for attention. Following the much-publicized outcry and placard-carrying by presumably well-meaning international celebrities over the abduction of the Chibok girls in 2014, it was rather disheartening to watch the widespread moral indignation steadily (and surprisingly quickly) vaporize to near-total silence (both locally and internationally), even when the atrocities were clearly still being committed, albeit largely to victims from a different demographic, perhaps. And given that literally millions of survivors are currently wasting away in the makeshift camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) that dot the country, their lives at a total dead-end, I guess I felt a burden to use the craft and my privileged position to speak on behalf of those who lack the facility to make themselves heard.
 

 
How did you come into filmmaking? What is your background?

DO: Came from a career in financial services that was materially rewarding but clearly left a gap in the personal fulfilment department. Took me several years to identify how to fill that gap; turned out to be writing and directing. A bit surprising, as I had done practically nothing in either area all my life, although a rapacious reader of novels in my childhood, to be fair.

How did you become involved in filmmaking?

DO: Basically started out as a screenwriter; wrote and submitted several scripts (frequently with international settings) that went absolutely nowhere. Felt I needed to pursue more control of my destiny in order to break through, so accordingly refocused my attention on issues closer to home (literally), whilst simultaneously foraying into producing and directing.

Can you tell me about the casting for The Milkmaid?

DO: The plan from the outset was always to render the dialogue in the prevailing language of the theater of conflict (for authenticity) which is Hausa, and to a lesser extent, Fulfulde (the principal characters are of Fulani extraction). This naturally ruled out a large swathe of the most popular actors in the local film industry (a.k.a. Nollywood) who are predominantly English-speaking, and following a couple of auditions, the cast was largely drawn from the tiny film community in Taraba State in northeast Nigeria where we shot the film. In fact, for one of the lead actresses, this was her first performance in film, short or feature.
 

 
What was it like filming? Were there any difficulties?

DO: Difficulties aplenty on multiple fronts. I actually don’t speak Hausa myself, so directing the actors (several of whose English was severely limited) under the typical time pressures was an exercise in patience and endurance notwithstanding the presence of translators. And for aesthetic reasons, we shot a number of scenes on the Mambilla Plateau which features some of the most beautiful scenery in the country, but as the highest point geographically in Nigeria, is also considerably difficult to access, particularly with heavy equipment trucks. To put it in context, a trip just from the Taraba State capital in Jalingo to Mambilla (also in Taraba) takes seven hours, much of that time negotiating up the mountain. And the trucks were coming all the way from Lagos in the southwest, on the opposite side of the country. So additional challenges were encountered when transporting our production materials through southeast Nigeria enroute to location; essentially our crew were literally almost lynched by locals there who were erroneously informed that the our costumes and props were evidence that they were the terrorists who had coincidentally attacked that same community just a few days prior. We lost an entire week of shooting whilst battling to resolve that particular imbroglio. So, yes, a few difficulties.
 

Director and writer Desmond Ovbiagele.
 
What has been the response to your film?

DO: We’ve held just a couple of private screenings thus far but are very gratified at the feedback; people definitely seem to connect with the story, cinematography and performances, and it certainly helps that it is obviously a very topical issue (insecurity)

How can we get your film to Cannes and Toronto and onto the American market?

DO: Clearly very lofty platforms with a formidable number of films all aspiring to get in, so we would really appreciate as much buzz as can be generated anywhere possible to improve our prospects for
consideration.

Check here to find out how you can help get The Milkmaid to a cinema near you.