Graveyards - Duo

Ben Hall and John Olson on a C16 released on American Tapes in 2000 in an edition of eighteen.

It's AM128 btw.

Duo

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The Fountain Of Youth - Plays The East Lansing Folk Festival

C30 released on American Tapes in 2003 in an edition of 15. The Fountain Of Youth is (inevitably) the work of the lovely John Olson.

It's AM298 btw.

Plays The East Lansing Folk Festival

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Solvent People - Third

It may come as no surprise that this is the third Solvent People release. It's John Olson on 22 minutes of tape and it was sent forth on American Tapes in 2005 and there were only five copies of this made.

It's AM386 btw.

Third

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The Rita / Goat - HNRA

These are two tapes that come in at roughly 48 minutes a piece. Sam abstains from his usual muse to join Goat in a dragster / car engine themed harsh noise fest.

Released on Andy O'Sullivan's (aka Goat's) Philosophy Shop in 2010.

HNRA

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The Rita - Womankind

C20 released on Andrew Nolan's Survivalist in 2010.

Womankind

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The Rita - The Rack

The unmistakable sound of Sam McKinlay. Released on Handmade Birds in 2011.

The Rack

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Black Tent - Ascent of the Protists

Limited CDR on Muet Organization that reissues two earlier Black Tent releases, a tape called "Pardon Me, But Your Teeth are in My Neck" and a CDR called "Chihuahua Style". It came out in 2003, right on the precipice of The Year Noise Broke and almost everyone who had been playing for years in previously-empty basements in Hamtramck found themselves profiled in The Wire by a breathless David Keenan, headlining No Fun Fest, collaborating with Thurston Moore, and had Henry Rollins driving up the prices of their crappy cassettes on eBay. Why anyone clamored for more indistinct mud by Sick Llama and not Black Tent's spindly electronic shitstorm is beyond me. 

Black Tent - Ascent of the Protists

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Black Tent - III

Self-released CDR from one of the more obscure artists of pre-Wolf Eyes Michigan junk electronics.

Black Tent - III

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Black Tent & Cotton Museum - Untitled

Collaborative CDR of harsh noise from Detroit, Michigan. 

Black Tent & Cotton Museum - Untitled

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Cotton Museum ‎- Crippled Sloth

Ten inches of solid Michigan noise released on Scratch And Sniff Entertainment in 2004.

Crippled Sloth

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Thurston Moore / Cotton Museum - Split

Newly born noise kid Thurston Moore and Chris Pottinger sharing the spoils on an LP released on Chris' Tasty Soil in 2007.

Thurston Moore / Cotton Museum

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Cotton Museum ‎- Merkin's Revenge

C30 released on David Payne's Middle James Co in 2010 in an edition of 33.

Merkin's Revenge

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The Beast People - The Beast People

Another C10 released on Aaron Dilloway's Hanson Records in 1997 which also has a great bandcamp page.

The Beast People

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The Beast People - The Birthing

C10 released on Hanson Records in 1997. The Beast People were Aaron Dilloway, Andrew W.K., James Twig Harper and Nate Young but probably not always all of them at the same time.

The Birthing

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Jean Street - Pure Jeanious

This is a C10 that actually only runs to a total of 7 minutes and 9 seconds featuring an understated Nate Young. Released on Hanson Records in 1999 in an edition of 30 copies.

Pure Jeanious

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Neon Noodle - Come Quick, Please Help Us, We Cannot Kill the Tabanga

Weird (even for these guys) tape of sparse (or should I say "minimal"?) synth tunes by an alter ego of Smersh. Mostly instrumental and more synthesizer-based than Smersh, Neon Noodle music favors brutish basement bleep over Smersh's overdriven guitars-and-machines "rock". This addled disco is slathered with a generous portion of Tascam 4-track tape hiss, which I did not try very hard to EQ out. The hiss is part of the charm (if, in fact, you find this sort of thing charming).  Neon Noodle has some real macho industrial song titles too, like "Summer Sunsets are the Best" (they really are!), "Brenda's Real Arty" (she sure is!), and the sort-of-onomopoeic "Plastic Box Wobble Wobble". I'm not sure if that creature on the cover is supposed to be a Tabanga or a Boston Terrier, but in either case I doubt anyone would want to help kill him. He looks cuddly, doesn't he? This tape came out on the band's Atlas King label in 1985.

Neon Noodle - Come Quick, Please Help Us, We Cannot Kill the Tabanga

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Smersh - Chronology 122

This tape imperfectly attempts to address a problem that I don't think anybody actually needed solved. According to the text on the cover, "This tape contains pieces from over 100 Smersh songs. This has been done to placate the bastards who find Smersh songs overly long and uncreative." Had enough people actually complained about the length of Smersh songs to merit making a whole album to "placate" them? Smersh songs tended to be usual pop-song length, three to five minutes each. They didn't do side-long jams. Whoever thought they were too long probably just didn't like them at all. And why are they "bastards"? That's a lot of emotion to level at probably-non-existant people. But let's assume that throngs of angry cassette listeners wrote hate mail to Smersh's suburban Piscataway NJ address in 1985 to complain, "Your songs are just too long!". Why would those people be placated by a collage made out of a few seconds each of 100 Smersh songs? And if those people found Smersh songs uncreative, then why would they like this tape any more than previous ones? Maybe I don't get it. Or maybe I do get it, and it simply makes no sense. Whatever the case, "Chronology 122" does exactly what it says on the tin: a few seconds of a Smersh song are cut roughly into another few seconds of a different Smersh song and so on for two 26-minute collages. No attempt was made to make the cuts sound smooth, or mesh together in any way. Listening to it is a weird experience. It's wholly, objectively unsatisfying by design, and so a perfect encapsulation of the freedom embraced by the no-genre no-audience cassette-culture non-scene of the 1980s. Artists and non-artists were free to dive headfirst directly to the bottom of their own nonsensical sonic impulse, which they energetically did. Released on Atlas King in 1986.

Smersh - Chronology 122

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Brian Ruryk - Smeared Gravity And Guitars Lippin' Off

Have you ever lacked the motivation to smash up your kitchen and break a few guitar strings? Have no fear, we are here for you! Now go and do it ... you know you want to ...

Released on Beniffer Editions in 2004.

Smeared Gravity And Guitars Lippin' Off

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Brian Ruryk - Piece Of Shit Guitar

Imagine Eugene Chadbourne creating the soundtrack for Tom & Jerry. I mean that as a compliment.

CDr released on Cast Exotic (and Yeay! Cassettes) in 2005.

Piece Of Shit Guitar

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Brian Ruryk - Guitar Stuck In Blades Of Fan

Hhhmm ... that kind of explains it ...

3" CDr released on Ultra Eczema in 2005.

Guitar Stuck In Blades Of Fan

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