Episode 26 – Hate

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I fussed over how best to summarize Peter Bagge to anyone who doesn’t know about him or his art. Until I came across this succinct, if not somewhat outdated, bio from an old art-toy site.

Bagge does have a new series out from Dark Horse comics and his work frequently pops up from other companies. I recommend Hate, though. It is everything a garagepunk aficionado could want: Trashy, filled with black humor, and irresistible.

“Peter Bagge was born on December 11th, 1957, and raised in Peekskill, New York, about 40 miles north of New York City. While enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1977, Bagge discovered underground comics, and the work of R. Crumb in particular turned what had initially been only a vague interest in cartooning into a passion.

In the early ’80s Bagge co-published three issues of Comical Funnies, a New York-based comic tabloid which saw the debut of Bagge’s dysfunctional suburban family, The Bradleys. Bagge broke into R. Crumb’s legendary magazine, Weirdo, and eventually took over as managing editor of that magazine from 1983 to 1986.

Bagge started his own comic book series, Neat Stuff, for Fantagraphics Books, producing 15 issues from 1985 to 1989. Buddy Bradley, the Bradleys’ alienated and pessimistic teenage son, emerged as Neat Stuff’s most engaging and fully-realized character. In 1990, Neat Stuff evolved into a new title, Hate, which exclusively followed the foibles of the semi-autobiographical Buddy Bradley. Hate became the voice of the twenty-nothing slackers as well as being hailed by critics for its brilliant characterization in its complete chronicle of the 1990s. Hate and Buddy Bradley continue to appear in print, albeit less frequently, under the title Hate Annual.

Bagge’s exaggerated and distinctively in-your-face illustration style has also appeared on many record and CD covers, and in magazines as far ranging as Hustler, Mad and the Oxford American…”
From Strangeco

Episode 26 – Peter Bagge’s Hate

A Simple Gesture – J Church
Hate Your Friends - The Lemonheads
Tarpit – Dinosaur Jr.
Beergasm – The Karl Hendricks Rock Band
Slack Motherfucker – Superchunk
They Don’t Care – Fastbacks
Stumblin’ Man – Tad
If I Think – Mudhoney
Feels Blind – Bikini Kill
One Out of Four – Seaweed
Be Nicer To Me – Can You Imagine?
I Can’t Control Myself – The Troggs
Lil’ Red Riding Hood – John Felice
Can’t Stand It  - The Greenhornes
Muck ‘n’ Bullets – The Mobbs
New Resolution – Heartless Bastards
California Sun  - The Ramones
No Correspondence – The Beckett Quintet
Mine All Mine – The Beat Rats
Love Is All Around (The Troggs Cover) - Mooseheart Faith
Ain’t like you – The Primates

For more information on Peter Bagge
For information on Hate Comics from Fantagraphic Books

Photo courtesy of sacks08

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BiblioCool 3

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This week Ixnayray of Way Past Cool and I give you, free of charge, one bad-ass mix. Weighing in at close to 1 hour 15 minutes, this explosive, deep groovin’ low down romp will rock your socks and bust your eardrums . So if you dig free and you dig soul, funk, hip-hop, blues, and jazz, hop on this ride. R-rated for those sensitive folk.

Erik :
California Uber Alles The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
List Of Demands [Reparations] – Saul Williams
Black And Blue – Louis Armstrong
Lying On The Truth – Rance Allen
54-46 Was My Number – Toots And The Maytals
You Can’t Blame The Youth – Bob Marley & The Wailers
Ixnayray:
Poor Folks – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Bitch, I Love You – Black Joe Lewis
The Big Takeover – Bad Brains
Get Up And Get Down – The Dramatics
Black Is Back – Public Enemy
Erik:
You Must Learn – Boogie Down Productions
5 Million Ways To Kill A C.E.O. – The Coup
Break The Bank – Del The Funky Homosapien
Slow Bus Movin’ [Howard Beach Party] – Fishbone
Ixnayray :
Police Officer Blues – Robert Wilkins
[Don't Worry] If There’s Hell Below, We’re All Gonna Go – Curtis Mayfield
Prison Bars All Around Me – Junior Wells & Earl Hooker
I Wanna Take You Higher – Sly & The Family Stone
Signifying Rapper – Schoolly D

 

Something Nice – April Maddness

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Agreeable Comics - The guys are nicer than your best friend

Last year at Boston Comic-Con, I grabbed the first issue of this and excitedly wrote about how great it was to read an indie book that delivered. Because I’m a fool for print editions (I’ve lost a harddrive and tons of files)\, I waited a year for the complete story. It was worth it.

Despite a few narrative jumps and a confusing panel or two, I recommend this. Writer Kevin Church creates a protagonist who, on the outside, appears to be a chain-smoking- big drinking- punching bag, but, by the tale’s end reveals himself to be something quite different. The change is quick,in-character, and surprising. Not too many people would take that risk with a narrator, but I found that it ultimately created a stronger sense of the wounded noir anti-hero and set up a sequel (let there be one soon, please) real nicely.

Agreeable Comics 

Moore's characters rise from the page like ghosts from the graves. They will haunt you.

This year at Boston Comic Con I also grabbed the Rachel Rising trade – the new book by Terry Moore that more people need to read. I’m serious. Leave your home, go to the local comic shop, grab your local vendor and force them to bring in copies of this book. I promise you that you will not feel wronged.

Rachel Rising is the one true horror book. Protagonist Rachel is murdered and buried in a shallow grave where a mass cleansing of witches occurred a century ago. Newly risen and a tad confused over her stare, she meanders about town putting the pieces of her death together. As Rachel wastes time, others are called from the dead and begin avenging a yet unknown wrong against the men of the town. Imagine a Children of the Corn prequel to Y the Last Man.  This book has well-paced scenes of horror interspersed with brutality, EC level creepiness, and awkward humor. Each character has a unique feel and their own directions; they don’t feel stock.

Despite being nominated for an Eisner, not enough people are reading Rachel Rising. Maybe its the black and white art; maybe its the fact the first issues was almost entirely visual; maybe its because it has strong female protagonists; this book needs your attention. Now.

Read an interview with Terry Moore

The Official Site

 

Episode 25 – The Gentlemen’s Hour

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Roughly four months ago, I received a lovely little package of books from Duane Swierczynski. It contained some great stuff from authors I never read before and, quite possibly, may not have picked up on my own. In the case of Don Winslow that would have been a massive error.

First: He lived, for a brief time, in RI. This may not matter to anyone else outside the 1,045 miles of America’s smallest state, but for a place that can only really boast H.P. Lovecraft, Poe (while sober), and Cormac McCarthy, we grapple all personage of interest and hold them in a octopod* death grip.

Second: The book is about surfing. A detective pulp with surfing? Yes. Winslow manages to take the darkness and brutality of the pulps and make it digestible for Southern California lifestyle.

Third: This is the guy who penned the Trevanian prequel! Oliver Stone is turning his novel Savages into a film with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. Winslow is good.
See the Trailer

Last: Its a chance to play some surf rock, some 80′s punk, and to generally get ready for summer.

Rage Well,

Episode 25 – Don Winslow’s The Gentleman’s Hour

Badge Of Honor – Satan’s Pilgrims
The Sunburst Kid – Bonney & Buzz
Twist, Twist! – Imperial Surfers
San Diego Shutdown – Los Straitjackets
Syncophant – Laika & The Cosmonauts
Mish Mash – Mach Kung Fu
Slaughter Beach – Atomic Mosquitos
Across The Border – Prince Fatty & The Mutant HiFi
Butthole Surfers Theme Song – Butthole Surfers
Rise Above – Black Flag
Plateau – The Meat Puppets
Fortune Favors The Brave – J.F.A.
Bad Kid – Drunk Injuns
History Lesson Part 2 – Minutemen
Why – T. Lance & The Coctails
Aqvanatic Business – Messer Chups
Surfin’ Spooks – The Ghastly Ones
The Drowning Man Knows His God – The Mermen
Last Wave Of The Day – Krontjong Devils
Kalini Wipe Out – The Surf Teens
Black Sea Surf – The Concrete Rivals
Go Go – The Zoggs
Kalifornia – Los Tiki Phantoms
Bulldog – Pedrito Diablo & Los Cadáveras
She’s The One – The Fathoms
Sometimes Good Guys Don’t wear White – The Pretty Things

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*Octopod is the correct plural. Octo is Greek. Deal with it.

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Something Nice

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If You Had Ears, You Could Not Ignore It: Mainstream Responses to Punk by David Bloom - This article looks at the reaction of pioneers like Springsteen and Young to the birth of punk in ’77.

For those looking for an interesting read, here are a few books I’ve finished this month:

The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death – Charlie Huston
This is easily one of the best novels I have ever read. I’m not saying it’s Steinbeck or  DeLillio, but it holds its own amongst the top ten. Webster Fillmore Goodhue is an ex-teacher profession slacker who has decided the time has come for employment. Unfortunately, the only one willing to hire him is Clean Team – a family run trauma cleaning business. And a woman who needs a favor.

Huston creates compelling characters – believable in their characterization and motivation. You not only feel for each one despite their foibles, but you find yourself empathizing with them as well.

Caught Stealing – Charlie Huston
For years I have been hesitant about reading more Huston for the fear that nothing could compete with The Mystic Art….Well, Caught Stealing doesn’t quite make it there, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t completely intense and captivating in its own right. Caught Stealing is another ‘wrong place/wrong time’ scenario and for protagonist Hank winning out in the end comes at a such a loss, it almost is easier to accept just laying down and dying as a resolution.

Joe Golem and the Drowning City – Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola
This quick read started with a mystic, a half sunken New York, and a 14 year old street rat, it quickly found itself running out of steam. I love the work of Mignola and Golden, but the severe lack of subplots creates a literary mouse wheel effect, you feel like you’re getting somewhere but the incessant metal squeaking could drive you mad. Joe Golem looks to be a great core character (in the way that Baltimore did), and his continued quest will certainly fill the pages of Dark Horse spin-off books, but overall its feels like its missing the same sense of fun Hellboy or BPRD does.

Something Nice – The small factory Reunion

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small factory reunion

dave, alex, and phoebe remind us why pop is important

small factory returned to Providence last night.

After their somber and no-fuss break-up in the mid’90’s, Dave, Alex, and Phoebe, came back together for the Chickfactor reunion tour. I must thank the brilliant folks at Chickfactor magazine because last night, at the new Met Café, I experienced the closest thing to time-travel anyone could possibly imagine. My wife summed the night nicely, “It’s like someone paused a show from ’92, fast forwarded it, and un-paused it.” Yeah, it really was a lot like that.

I was a loner in my high school years. After a falling out with my pack of pals, I spent junior and senior years going to a small dark, dirty, delightful club in Providence, RI, called Babyhead. It was there a group of kids, not much older but seeming so, called small factory, played the most energetic, blissful and spectacular music I ever heard. I walked away from the punk scene and entered the world of indie rock.

In the space of two years I caught every show they played in RI. In that time, I was exposed to some other great bands from Versus to Matthew Sweet, Robyn Hitchcock to My Bloody Valentine, to numerous others. Phoebe, Alex, and Dave, became surrogate friends. Certainly they only knew me as the high school kid who wrote letters and found a way into all the shows, but musically, they helped get me through some rough stuff. And for that they deserve some kind of medals.

small factory

circa 1992 - my graduation party

The summer they broke up was a tough one. Life’s accumulated messes had gathered and I was stuck between stations in RI after living for a time in Australia and waiting for my first apt to open up in Allentown, Pa. I went to the final show and said goodbye to that chapter in my life.

Last night, some 17 years later, I was transported back to those nights where all that mattered was dancing and singing alongside anonymous others; all of whom I’m sure where all experiencing the same feelings. Collectively we celebrated the hallmark small factory songs like “Suggestions”, “Happy to See”, “Hi, Howard, I’m Back”, and the melancholic discordance of  “Junky on a Good Day”. It became so evident last night that so much of small factory’s appeal was the ability to effortlessly transition between the gleeful and the melancholy without gimmick or charade. There exists a purity of emotion and ethos in small factory’s music that I have never felt from any other band.

Teachers, bank-tellers, painters, cashiers, parents, and whatever else people get up to over the course of two decades, we all became kids again. Once again Providence was alive with the power of pop music.  It was impossible to tell, despite one bump, that the small factory workers are now spread across the country with new lives and homes. The cohesion and energy of the band resurrected the best parts of the 90’s: A time when music was all that mattered.

music for a happy turntable

Something Nice – Birds of Prey ’77

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From superheroofthemonth.com

Birds of Prey is a great book.

Swierzcynski is currently rocking it out and Simone just flat out owned every single panel during her extensive run. Considering that DC has done some dumb Elseworld stuff and tried to connect it into continuity like an Orangutan surgically stitching a wound I demand DC gives us this Elseworld. A Mod Batgirl? A Punk Black Canary? I don’t know anything about the artist ‘Rory’ and didn’t spend too much time fishing around the site, but hot damn! It has the tension already built in (unless you are a punk history revisionist and everyone always got along). It has two characters people care about. It is drawn so cool I demand that this book exist. If not, I demand that this Rory kid just take the designs and make his own Indie Comic – Perhaps Juliet and Juliet or two girls from different subcultures wronged by the same criminal bastard.

Seriously. Go pitch this to Steve Niles. Now. Go.

Speaking of Duane Swierczynski, Looks like the last book in the Charlie Hardie series is going to be delayed until 2013. But dry those eyes, folks! Not only is his Birds of Prey series rounding it’s dirty dozen, but he will be doing what sounds like a really unique take on the Godzilla mythos. Read an interview about all of its Kaiju greatness!

Episode 24 – Preacher

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Jesse Custer courtesy of Johnny Destructo - Poptardsgo!

 

It’s hard to explain Preacher to those who have never read it. The quick synopsis (A Texas preacher cursed with the powers from an angel/devil love child teams up with his ex and an Irish Vampire to find and kick God’s ass) seems a bit off-putting. The surprise is that, despite the level of grotesque violence and numerous other offensive images, it is really a comic series about what it means to be, however faulty, a man, a friend, and what we, as humans, owe back to mankind.

It is a safe bet that most of us spend our lives seeking someone to connect with. We are creatures in need of companionship and we gravitate toward others like us. Time comes, though, when our bonds are tested and we must stand up for our friends and lovers; that is when we are truly tested. For those of us found wanting it is a testament to how we have treated others as well as how we have nurtured our relationships.

What Garth Ennis has created in Preacher is a hyper-violent tale of humanity. It is humorous in the blackest, and most decadent, sense of the word. It is frightening in its imagery and scenes. It is littered with pages that will haunt you well after you’ve closed the book. I hope that I have done it justice in this month’s podcast.

Finally, thanks to Johnny Destructo for this month’s cover image. JD is the host and founder of the comic review site Poptardsgo! He is also an old friend and one of the nicest guys (if not the lewdest) I know. And I know a great many lewd peoples.

JD is open to doing commissions and would, if you have a minute, most likely be really grateful if you gave either one of his two podcasts a listen. The man is a workhorse and I have no idea where he finds the extra hours in the day.

Preacher links – Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry

Episode 24 – Preacher

Time Of The Preacher – Willie Nelson
Rake at the Gates of Hell  - The Pogues
Feathers of the wings of the angel Gabriel – Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat
The Further I Get From Texas (The Less I Think Of You) –  The Defilers
An Ear for Baby –  The Thermals
Todays Empires, Tomorrows Ashes  - The Magnificent 7′s
Swamp Water  - Mama Rosin together with Hipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers
Backstabbin’ Savior – Reverend Deadeye
LA PARADA DE JESUS   –  TUMBA SWING
Are You Drinkin’ With Me Jesus  -  Jello Biafra And Mojo Nixon
Drunken Angel –  The Dark Rags
Saint O Killers –  the goddamn gallows
Demon Riders - Wild Rooster
God Help You Dumb Boy  - Reverend Glasseye
El Boogie de la Muerte – Guadalupe Plata
Mr. Custer Stomp – Les Scouts
The Good, Bad & Ugly  - The C-Types
Your Miserable Life  - Movie Star Junkies
Watch It Burn – Lucero
No Death - Mirel Wagner

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Something Nice – March’s Required Reading – Part I

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March was a pretty productive reading month for me.
I don’t usually take to recommendations too well and I’m sure it has everything to do with my snobbishness and “I found it first attitude”, but I’m trying to change. Mainly because I’ve discounted some great books over the years and perhaps, as I get older, I need to learn to value the opinions of my friends.

The Passage – Justin Cronin (Recommended by Julie of Fantasy Zone Comics, RI)
Here is something to ponder: How do you make a reader care about the repercussions of the apocalypse? In Cronin’s eyes, you spend roughly 400 pages building everyman back stories for the characters and then slaughter most of them. Sure it’s brutal and Stephen King-esq, but I’ll be damned if more than once I gnashed my teeth in anguish as another person fell to the way-side. In short, it did exactly what a good book should: immerse the reader into the world. On a side note, despite the terrible cover, this book gave new life to the vampire genre in the same way 28 Days Later did for zombies.

No Book Should Have This Cover. Ever.

No Book Should Have This Cover. Ever.

The Dog of the South – Charles Portis
One reviewer called Portis something to the effect of Cormac McCarthy with a sense of humor. Yup. That is pretty much how I figure it, too. This book is much more about the quest then it is the resolution. Humorous and wry, I had a few chuckles, but found myself stopping at the rest stop of boredom more than a few times. Portis is a gifted writer and has a sense of white-trash America (one of my favorite topics) and maybe, he’ll be the subject of a podcast, but this one rambled a bit too much for my blood.

The Nick Tosches Reader – Nick Tosches (Recommended by Bibliodiscofan Jezabella Cruella)
Bukowski, Burroughs, Carroll, Thompson, Bangs, and the Beats. There was a time in American literature when barflies, junkies, and low-lives wrote beautiful prose and poetry. Now, with the gentrification of America and our collective fear of ruffling anyone’s feathers, these authors have all but vanished from the reading lists and been relegated to fringe culture. I’m saying this now, in no uncertain terms, America could stand to have some of these folks back.

I’m not too sure how I missed Tosches during my formative years. His eloquence and control of language is nothing short of a gift and his methods for reviewing music is exactly like Bangs, and the lesser-known Mad Peck,  in that he discusses everything except the album at hand. He’s the kind of writer I used to daydream about being.

Mad Peck was amazing

Shambling Towards Hiroshima – James Marrow
Marrow is one of the best satirical writers in Contemporary Fiction. In this relatively quick but emotionally impactful tale, Marrow unveils the secret American plot to send genetically made Kaiju monsters to Japan in an effort to avoid unleashing the real monsters; Fat Man and Little Boy. For Marrow, a world of giant fire-breathing lizards is preferable to one in which one missile can destroy thousands of lives.

The book is something like this, but even more B-movie Hollywood

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants – Christopher Golden & Mike Mignola (Recommended to Hugh M.)
 A quick read that matches the tone and wit of the Hellboy comics. This one has Scandinavian gods, killer weasels, and a squirrel; everything you have come to expect from Mignola’s world.

Any excuse to show Mignola's work, really

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