Kevin Warwick, Reader staff writer, is obsessed with . . .
Fun Fun Fun Fest Not to be overshadowed by SXSW, Austin’s well-oiled Fun Fun Fun Fest is brilliantly curated but manageable, catering to what festivalgoers—old farts and young bucks alike—want to hear, not to some hip agenda that tries to dictate what they should hear. In the two years I’ve gone, I’ve caught Slayer, Araabmuzik, the Damned, Hot Snakes, David Cross, Public Enemy, Napalm Death, Sharon Van Etten, Turbonegro, Big Freedia, the Heartless Bastards, and Kid Dynamite. Bored with bands? Check out the hokey amateur wrestling or the shredding on the festival’s gnarly skate and BMX ramps. And I haven’t even touched on Austin’s fried avocado tacos. . . .
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Das Oath’s 11-inch self-titled LP You’d be surprised what a pain in the ass it is to drop a needle on (or pick up) a piece of vinyl whose edge sits just inside the lip of a turntable. Powerviolence/thrashcore aficionado Mark McCoy (Charles Bronson, Holy Molar) has been in the scene long enough to see his share of nonsensically shaped vinyl—and release some via his Youth Attack! label—so it makes perfect sense that Das Oath, the best of the roughly 800 bands he sang in, would’ve put out an 11-inch in 2006. Nothing like watching this sucker spin up to 45 RPM and jamming out for its ten minutes of blastbeats.
He asks . . .
Bill Roe, co-owner of Trouble in Mind Records, what he’s obsessed with. His answers are . . .
Ron Elliott, The Candlestickmaker Over the past few years I’ve cultivated a love affair with late-60s LA soft-psych/studio rock. Gene Clark solo was the gateway, leading me to the lone 1970 solo record by Beau Brummels guitarist and singer Ron Elliott, which I am digging hard. It’s folk-country at its core, but the lush strings and laid-back psych flourishes have bewitched me. I guess as I’ve gotten older, the emotion behind certain songs gets me first, but there needs to be more substance (unique arrangements, instrumentation, lyrics) to keep me coming back. This record has all that in spades. Interesting predicament for someone weaned on the blind fury of punk rock, but fuck it. Needs reissuing ASAP!
Witch, We Intend to Cause Havoc! box set (Now-Again, 2012) Witch, a band equally informed by James Brown groove and Jimi Hendrix scorch, released five LPs during the copper-rush era in Zambia (1972-’77). They’re now rare as hen’s teeth, even by collector-doofus standards, but Now-Again has thankfully rereleased all five in this box set (along with a sixth that compiles several singles). Do you really need to own every recorded utterance of these Zambian psych-rock legends? Once again, the answer is indubitably yes.
