Cassette Culture Revisited, Part VIII

June 29, 2007

Cassette Culture Revisited, Part VIII

Ray Zinnbrann - Takedowns, 1986 (.zip archive, 43MB)

Ray Zinnbrann first came to the attention of WFMU's staff and listeners with the song "I Fell in Love at WFMU," popularized on Irwin's show. Ray proved to be far from a one-note novelty act, being a skilled guitarist with psychedelic leanings and an idiosyncratically reedy but note-perfect vocal delivery. At the Lo-Fi event I organized in 1988, Ray, decked out in a gold lamé vest, played a bombastic fuzztone rendition of "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Not too long after their first meeting at that event, Ray and fellow Lo-Fi star Jet Screamer (aka Mark DeAngelis) formed The Living Guitars, a dynamic duo coupling surf-rock buzz and twang with some great original songs (and sadly few recordings.) Ray has always produced tasty cover versions, and this tape of carefully selected and thoughtfully rendered covers (with some pricelessly funny intros and outros) bubbled to the top of my Ray Z. tape collection as something that all ye blog punters should enjoy. I think I may even like Ray's version of "Elemental Child" more than the Marc Bolan original. See the insert on the right for more information and a track listing. Ray (now known as Ray Brazen) is still making music, and also maintains an in-depth fan site for legendary New York band The Godz.

Smegma - Morass/In Performance 1985–1987, 1988 (.zip archive, 52MB)

Portland, Oregon's Smegma have defied easy categorization for their 30 some odd years of existence. Are they a rock band? Well, yes, of a sort. A free noise ensemble? Absolutely. A bizarre performance troupe, with an often crass aesthetic? Mmm-hmm. A "tape" band? For sure. Were they embraced by the 80s–90s post-industrial avant-garde? Unquestionably. The material on their many releases ranges from pure sound collage to heavy, Krautrock-inspired one-note 4/4 jams, with everything in between being up for consideration as well. The Morass cassette, with its large, tri-fold insert, was the first release for the now world-renowned Soleilmoon label (also Portland-based.) The "studio" side of this tape was recently made available on the CD reissue of the Nattering Naybobs of Negativity LP. The other side of Morass, the "in performance" side, is presented here in all its sodden glory. With Smegma's recordings, distinctions between live and studio material become less relevant than with some other artists, and I personally find this side of the tape to be the more enjoyable one. (Note: Since the silences between tracks are few and mostly filled with applause and audience patter, this has been ripped as one continuous mp3; song titles are given on the insert and in the "Comments" field of the mp3 tags.)

Posted by WmMBerger on June 29, 2007 at 09:31 AM in History, MP3s, Music, WFMU in General, William Berger's Posts | Permalink

Comments

Cool beans! Berger, you're posts on cassettes is the ginchiest! Thankee.

Posted by: Krys O. | June 29, 2007 at 10:15 AM

Sgood sall good

Posted by: Boog Powell Unmoderatedly | June 29, 2007 at 10:22 AM

Ray Zinnbrazen here with some commentary...

First of all, wow, Bill, I think you may have written the definitive rock-encyclopedia encapsulation of my Lo-Fi history; it gives me pause to read something like this as analyses of this sort aren't written about me every day. And I giggle at the phrase "idiosyncratically reedy but note-perfect delivery." Sure wish I'd turned that one myself.

Gotta admit, while I'm still proud of my work of the late eighties, I do cringe when I hear certain parts of the TAKEDOWNS opus today, especially my embarrasing Nugent impression and the Monty Hall bits I inserted on the last track, but my versions of "Autobahn" and "Fractured Mirror" remain personal faves of mine and this is not the first time Bill has said he prefers my version of "Elemental Child" in my humbled presence.

The utterly primitive sound quality additionally is a bit harsher on my ears now than it was then, but... you know, home recording will never be the same anymore now that the technology available is so advanced that you can now make your bedroom noises sound so frigging hi-tech (though, to be sure, there is still some lovely home recorded music being made today, a lot of it is more along the lines of what Berger used to call "hi-fi lo-fi").

The entire work was recorded in my basement with the monstrous sound set-up I utilized to make my own music at the time: instead of plugging into a regular amp, I opted to go directly through my stereo which had two humongous speakers wired up to it, record the basic guitar track through my boombox, and then play the resulting tracks through my good cassette deck while I rolled another tape in the boombox and added whatever I wanted to put on top. Even with the horrid sound quality I can still hear the density in the sound. Truly lo-fi! A lost art, I tell you.

The lo-fi days were such fun, fun, fun for all involved. I'm still grateful to Bill for organizing that first lo-fi night and for making the initial suggestion that Jet Screamer and I would make a good pair. Those of you who have the super-rare second volume of WFMU's short-lived "Radio as a Visual Medium" series can go back and relive the lame-vest/Zarathustra moment he so gorgeously references.

By the way, I crossed paths with Jet for the first time in ages at the Television/Apples in Stereo gig in Central Park and he became a newlywed just last month! Congratulations to he and his new bride. And just last weekend I appeared onstage with the one and only R. Stevie Moore at Luna Lounge, fulfilling a lifelong dream of getting together and doing something with him at last! Felt almost like a new Living Guitars to me... stand by for YouTube links to footage from that insane night...

Posted by: Ray Brazen | June 30, 2007 at 10:26 AM