In 2010, a mononymous musician going by the handle “Chachy” needed a change. His Florida-based prog-punk band Libyan Hit Squad had finished half an album with Black Flag’s Greg Ginn, but he was enduring a serious employment drought and mourning the suicide of his band’s drummer. Attracted to the rather incredible post-punk scene happening in Beijing, he severed his lease and some personal ties and made his way to China. There, he joined up with another American expat, a Southern Rock drummer named Jimmy Jack, with whom he formed a freakish art-punk band with the pre-emptively othering name Round Eye, whose first release was a 2013 split LP with Libyan Hit Squad, a bridge between Chachy’s past and future titled Full Circle. In 2015, an eponymous LP followed.

Based in Shanghai, Round Eye are set to release a new LP this summer—one which happens to feature the final recordings by ex-Stooges saxophonist Steve Mackay—and they’ve made a brutal video for their single “Billy,” a caustic indictment of American police culture’s pathologies that in its anti-authoritarian ethos recalls the finest and most scathing moments from the heyday of ‘80s I-hate-Reagan hardcore. While China is hardly an apt place from which to lob brickbats against abuse of power, Round Eye’s critique is nonetheless dead-on in its depiction of the US right wing’s paranoid fantasies about Muslims, gays, the urban underclass, and non-white people.
 

 
Chachy was kind enough, despite a 12-hour time difference, to answer some questions via online chat.

Dangerous Minds: So you moved to China and formed a new band, and obviously you’ve been following the news from home. You clearly agree with a growing number of Americans that police culture is getting out of control.

Chachy: It’s insane. You know, it’s even more striking and vibrantly illustrated to us how bad things are when we tour the US now having our lives anchored in China, seeing our home as visitors.

Dangerous Minds: Could you talk some about the inspiration for the song and video? There are clear references to specific incidents…

Chachy: When I lived in the States, I was so used to the chaos of being inundated by everything that was happening socially. It’s a common topic right? No one is surprised by racism, bigots, over saturation of pop culture and violence in America. It just is. The Wild West with iPhones and Facebook. DE-evolution has truly arrived. But now, being away from American culture for so long things look sharper and more potent.

Our only news of the west comes from the sensational news headlines and articles on the Internet and whatever the Chinese media platforms will allow to enter the mainland. It’s almost like a perpetual stream of very bad and horrible news.  It’s funny, Chinese media is using what’s happening with Trump and America as an example of why Democracy doesn’t work. Trayvon Martin and the countless other victims of cop insanity, the Klan, the Muslim stigma, LGBT discrimination, all flowing from what seems like one place and then I turn off the computer.

I try to think “it’s the just the news and what they want to show”; surely things can’t be that bad in the States can they? But then we go on tour in the U.S. for something like 60 dates in the deep south and I’m quickly shown that yes, indeed, things are on a very dark path. Shanghai, 24 million people and I’ve never, not once, ever experienced fear in the streets. No guns in China. Then we go play a gig in podunk Florida and 30 minutes after we leave the bar four people are shot and killed over a drunken brawl in the very bar we were at. I kept the news article on that particular incident. I simply couldn’t believe it.
 

 
Dangerous Minds: Yeah, the cherry-picked news info may have a propaganda agenda, but it DOES underscore a valid point: The encroachment of authoritarianism here is really fucking alarming, and it’s accelerating after 30-35 years of steady growth. I trust you’ve been following the presidential elections. What do American expats think about the rise of Trump? And what do the Chinese people think of it, is there a broad consensus?

Chachy: Shanghai’s expat community is very very mixed.  People from all over the globe. In fact I don’t have that many American friends here. They’re from Russia, South Africa, England, Oz, Tazzy, France, etc. etc. etc., so I get a good earful of global opinions on how America is presenting itself and trust me, it’s universally laughed at. They laugh at the fact that it’s gotten this far, and trust me, I laughed with them. It’s all “can you believe this is really happening.” I remember a time only a few months ago when most of my expat/Chinese friends weren’t aware of who Trump was; this is when the astonishment sets in—now everyone knows who he is. Everyone sees the social nightmare he’s dredged up and they start to realize that what was once an American issue is now getting dangerously close to becoming an international one. Not laughing as much anymore.
 

 
Dangerous Minds: So this begs to be said—China is arguably kind of a HUGE glass house from which to be throwing anti-authority stones. How does Round Eye reconcile that stance with living in such a rigidly policed nation?

Chachy: Yeah, totally understand. China is indeed an extremely authoritarian place. There is no freedom of speech here and we’ve felt the influence of the Ministry of Culture quite swiftly when we had a tour cancelled and banned due to ‘unharmonious’ art for a flyer [NSFW-ish image at link]. But when it comes to these sorts of issues with China we feel that we’re in more of a position to support rather than to lead. We’re not Chinese. It’s not our place to criticize Chinese policy within its barriers but it is totally our responsibility and right to criticize American policy. I admire the hell out of the Chinese bands like SMZB, PK14, and Pangu who take a very very real risk in voicing their indignations.  I mean Pangu have been living in exile for nearly a decade because of their support for Taiwanese independence and their seditious content in their music.

But that being said, the line between what is allowed to be criticized and what is not, what is allowed to be played and what is not, who is allowed to perform and who is not, is a VERY blurred one but it’s generally always understood that Big Brother is definitely watching. With “Billy” we were a bit concerned with how the Chinese government could react to this. There isn’t any criticism of Chinese matters, but the very nature of this video and song go very much against Chinese political ideals. The fact that we’re directly addressing problems within our own government could be seen as an ‘unharmonious’ incentive for Chinese citizens to do the same themselves.  We haven’t released this video in China yet, but we may very shortly, and what follows, no one really knows. We’re a bit nervous to be perfectly honest.
 
Watch the video for “Billy” after the jump…

 
You know about the idea of the “memento mori,” right? Memento mori is Latin for “reminder of death” (as well as the title of a peculiar novel by Muriel Spark). The practice of tangible reminders of one’s own impending death dates back to ancient Rome, but it has been common throughout Europe from medieval times up through the present day. In the 16th century, Mary Queen of Scots, for instance, owned a large watch carved in the form of a silver skull that was adorned with some poetry by Horace.

In olden times, memento mori often took the form of human skulls intended to be displayed on one’s desk, as a constant reminder of the fact that “a certain convocation of politic worms” (Hamlet, Act 4, scene iii) will be munching at your very corpse one day or other.

For a contemporary instance of the memento mori, you can’t do much better than the recent work by artist Caitlin T. McCormack. For some years now, McCormack has been fashioning fascinating animal skeletons by crocheting cotton string that has been fortified with glue.

As she writes on her website,
 

The act of stiffening intricately crocheted cotton string with glue produces material that is structurally similar to delicate bone tissue. The string implemented in this process can be viewed as the basic cellular unit of fabrication, and by utilizing media and practices inherited from my deceased relatives, I aim to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism’s skeletal remains.

 
The reference to her “deceased relatives” serves as kind a dog whistle to her death-obsessed devotees in the audience.

 

 

 

 

 
Lots more after the jump…....
 

 
What you’ve been waiting your whole life for but you just didn’t know it, right? A Minimoog beanbag sofa! Still, while I appreciate the idea, I’m not so sure I like the execution. It looks a tad bit uncomfortable (like you’d roll right off it). I could be wrong as I’ve never actually tested this thing. Maybe it’s super-duper analog synth comfy?

Woouf! brands makes this Minimoog sofa, but I couldn’t find it on their actual website. I did, however, find it here for 381,20€ (or for around $429.42).

‘Surf Pack Assasins’ illustrated by Earl Norem from Male magazine, 1967.
 
Earl Norem was one of many illustrators whose work was featured in various popular “men’s interest” magazines such as Man’s Life, Men, For Men Only, and Action for Men back in the 1950s and 1960s. You may also be acquainted with Norem’s work for Marvel Comics if you were (like me) a fan of comics featuring Conan the Barbarian or He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
 

‘Carnival Wife’ illustrated by Earl Norem in For Men Only, August, 1970.
 
Norem’s career as an illustrator and painter spans 50 years—and as glorious as his colorful illustrations of a shirtless, musclebound rescuer of half-naked women Conan the Barbarian are in my eyes, it is his illustrations that accompanied the lurid tales within the pages (and on the covers) of the old-school men’s interest mags, that are a real turn on. I mean, how great is your job when you get to illustrate stories titled “Blonde Sex Machine” or “Surf Pack Assassins?” The answer has to be pretty damn great.

Norem retired due to issues with arthritis in 2005, citing his belief that young art buyers didn’t want “anything to do” with an 81-year-old artist, and would instead paint for his own amusement and for his grandchildren. The artist passed away in June of 2015 at the age of 92 leaving us with a vast body of work filled with multi-generational appeal. What’s not to love about a man who fearlessly illustrated a story about a circus bear that assassinated the Nazi Butchers of Stalag 13 (which appeared in the men’s interest magazine “True Action” in 1976)? Nothing, that’s what. The far-fetched, sexed-up, and flat out balls-out illustrations from Earl Norem’s more adult-oriented body of work follow (slightly NSFW).
 

Man’s World, ‘Nazi General Who Ran The World’s Biggest Vice Ring,’ 1963.
 
More after the jump…

 
Looking for a modern, easy to clean apartment in the east end of London? Then this maybe for you.

A fully tiled rental property is available in Walthamstow for a mere $1300 (£900) a month. And when I say tiled I mean fully tiled as every room comes with fully tiled walls in the same matching swimming pool design. Add in a tile pattern linoleum flooring and you have a dream abode for those who like Esther Williams movies or have a taste for hospital chic.

The apartment was available to rent through Spare Room—but apparently the ad has either been pulled or the property rented—and wouldn’t we like to know by whom? If still interested, keep a lookout—I’m sure the opportunity will resurface (ahem) again at some point.
 

 
More of this unusual decor after the jump…

 
It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes—or should I say Dorlock Homes, which is what Daffy Duck calls himself when he pretends to be Sherlock Holmes?—to realize that an album called Fresh Duck for Rotting Accordionists might have something to do with the Dead Kennedys’ album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. Sure enough, Fresh Duck for Rotting Accordionists is a track-by-track reworking of the DKs’ 1980 classic album that was released in 2008 by Duckmandu!—complete with exclamation point.

Duckmandu! is a San Francisco-based accordionist named Aaron Seeman, whose repertoire includes “70’s rock, Broadway, klezmer, classical, country, Sousa marches, punk rock, and even a polka or two.” According to Duckmandu!’s website, Klaus Fluoride, the bassist for the Dead Kennedys, reproduces his vocal parts on five of the tracks. Also, Duckmandu! persuaded Winston Smith to do his own duck-centric version of his cover art for the DKs’ In God We Trust, Inc.
 

Aaron Seeman, a.k.a. Duckmandu!
 
After warming up to Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra—you know, the majestic music from 2001: A Space Odyssey—Fresh Duck for Rotting Accordionists then settles into the project of presenting every song on Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables in order, although it unaccountably leaves out the DKs’ reworking of Elvis’ “Viva Las Vegas,” which closes out the album—maybe there was a legal issue with the rights?

To make up for that, Duckmandu! adds a few other classics from the heady days of the early 1980s, like DEVO’s “Girl U Want,” Black Flag’s “Police Story,” and Minutemen’s “Jesus and Tequila.”

Duckmandu! is justifiably proud of a writeup that appeared in Maximum Rock ‘n Roll, in which Henry Yu wrote that “Duck did a vocal performance that was a warble-for-warble spot-on Jello.”
   
In 2011 Duckmandu! came out with Quack Rock, which purported to present “five duckades of accordion mega-hits,” ranging from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to “Highway to Hell” and beyond.

“Holiday in Cambodia”:

 
After the jump, hear “Girl U Want” played on the accordion…

Click here to read larger image.
 
We’ve previously posted a rather shocking list of reasons for admission to the West Virginia’s Hospital for the Insane—aka the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum—back in the late-1800s. Well, here’s another list of causes for admission to the Aberdeen Lunatic Asylum in 1847—which contains some strange and troubling reasons for being committed including:

Sedentary Life
Tea drinking (“Abuse of Tea”)
Vegetable Poisoning
Acute Rheumatism
Cancer of Breast
Prolonged Nursing
Childbirth
Religious excitement
Loss of Property
Disappointment in Love
Fright

And if none of these common symptoms fit the bill, there’s the catchall: “Cause not ascertained.”
 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
List of Reasons for Admission to an Insane Asylum from the late 1800s

Via NHS Grampian Archives.

 
“Private Parts,” a loose and funny short about sex directed by British animator Anna Ginsburg, was released today by the arts blog It’s Nice That in collaboration with the British TV network Channel Four.

Ginsburg made the movie by collecting a series of frank conversations about sex and then having them animated, only with genitalia standing in for the people in the dialogue.

One vagina says it’s sad when you masturbate to a fantasized projection in your mind as opposed to the lover you’re with; one glum wang receives the advice to “just be who you are” in bed—“you do you, you do yourself, you get me?” One willy compares a woman’s vagina to a “Rubik’s cube ... sometimes it’s, like, quite straightforward, sometimes it doesn’t work like that!”

The animators who participated in the short, which alternates between many different styles and feels something akin to a Sesame Street-style short, only about sex, were Ginsburg, Moth Collective, Peter Millard, Loup Blaster, Will Anderson, George Wheeler, and Mark Prendergast.
 

The cover of Charles Bukowski’s short story, ‘Bring Me Your Love’ illustrated by R. Crumb.
 
The seemingly logical collaboration of the great R. Crumb and transgressive writer and poet Charles Bukowski finally became a reality in the early part of the 80s when Crumb created illustrations for two of Bukowski’s short stories, Bring Me Your Love (1983) and There’s No Business (1984).
 

An illustration from ‘There’s No Business’ by R. Crumb.
 
Crumb’s illustrations give the already gritty storylines of both stories visual context—such as a man who looks much like Buk wrestling on the floor with his “wife” after a dispute involving answering the phone or various barroom skirmishes depicting a Bukowski-looking character running amok. The pair would collaborate once again in 1998 (four years after Bukowski’s passing in 1994) with Crumb illustrating a collection of excerpts from Bukowski’s diary, specifically passages from the year prior to his death, The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship. Many of Crumb’s illustrations from all three publications, as well as a few other cartoons images of Charles Bukowski drawn by Crumb follow.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

Too much blusher, Bri?
 
The question came from Brenda in Barnwood, Gloucester, who asked:

What make-up does Eno use on and off stage and does he sing on any tracks of “Roxy Music”?

Brenda was one of three readers who sent in questions for Brian Eno to Melody Maker, April 21st 1973. Eno was more than happy to share his favorite makeup tips:

My make up is the same both on and off stage to a greater or lesser degree. It consists of a large selection of things including Quant, Revlon, Schwarzkopps and Yardley. I just choose whatever colour appeals to me at the time.

On my eyes I use six different colours by three different makers. I’m using Quant crayons quite a lot at present

 

His favorite crayons by Mary Quant.
 
Quant crayons came out sometime around the late 1960s—dates vary between 1966 to 1969. These make-up accessories were de rigueur for many a young girl and ambitious glam rocker. According to those who used and liked Quant’s crayons—they were “really high quality, the colors were great and they blended incredibly well.”

Alas, these exotic crayons are no longer available, but questioner Brenda Merrett is still a fan of Eno.
 

 
As for singing with Roxy Music Eno replied:

I don’t sing lead vocals at any time—only backing vocals. These are nearly always done by Andy MacKay and myself. Examples are “Would You Believe,” “If There Is Something” and “Bitter’s [sic] End.”

Eno joined Roxy Music after a chance meeting:

As a result of going into a subway station and meeting saxophonist Andy Mackay, I joined Roxy Music, and, as a result of that, I have a career in music. If I’d walked ten yards further on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, I probably would have been an art teacher now.

After the jump, Brian Eno singing his debut single “Seven Deadly Finns” on Dutch television…