Fanatic! I hope you had a tremendous and music filled week. I made my way through the three Kosmetika records, Pop Soap, Illustration and Luxury. I thought they were really good.
I went for a return listen to Hence by Oren Ambarchi. I’m glad he’s so prolific because he’s always worth checking out.
The new Osees album, Sorcs 80 is out. We start in on it tonight. Engineer X will have his work cut out for him on this album. There’s all kinds of language the FCC would no doubt find objectionable in the tracks. It’s a great album.
After a ton of work, my new book, Stay Fanatic!!! Vol. 4 is available.
I’ve been trying to make all my summer visits with as many of my hot weather favorites as possible. Last night, I played Strawberries by the Damned. I listen to it once a year at some point in the summer. It was the band’s follow up to The Black Album. In June 1983, I was in Washington DC for the Damned / Minor Threat show at the Ontario Theater.
I was lucky to see Minor Threat play a lot of times and they weren’t a band you’d want to follow onto the stage. On this date, MT were laser-sighted. One of the greatest aspects of the band was their incredible precision live. Lyle Preslar, the band’s guitar player was razor sharp. All of them were great players but it was always remarkable to me how exact he was at the speed the band played. Minor Threat was insanely good on this night. I saw Rat Scabies in the lobby before the Damned went on and asked him how they planned to follow up and he said he didn’t know. I kinda felt bad for him. As I remember, the Damned opened with Ignite. They were great as I had last seen them in late 1981 but I don’t think they could overcome the challenge by the hometown band. It was great to see Minor Threat completely hold their own with a band we all loved so much. I’m so glad I got to see this show.
This weekend I’m starting in on the Nation Of Ulysses catalog. I try to cycle through their LPs at least once per summer. The albums got remastered years ago and sound really good.
For tonight, we’ve got a great mix you’ll hopefully find to your liking. Next week is our annual Case Of The Punks show. It’s already finished and waiting for you.
Have a great week, stay hydrated, the summer’s not done with us yet and STAY FANATIC!!!
–– Henry