UV Race plays Los Globos in Silverlake, Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, May 4th, 2013. They killed it. We were happy to be in attendance.
All photos by Mor Fleisher-Leach
UV Race plays Los Globos in Silverlake, Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, May 4th, 2013. They killed it. We were happy to be in attendance.
All photos by Mor Fleisher-Leach
Review by Ryan Leach.
Like Rocket From the Tombs, The Consumers didn't last long. The band released no material in its roughly eighteen-month lifespan. And if it weren't for All My Friends Are Dead, The Consumers likely would've been forgotten.
The Consumers formed in Phoenix, Arizona in 1977. The group's lineup was built around David Wiley (vocals), Paul Cutler (lead guitar) and Mikey Borens (bass); Greg Jones played rhythm guitar and "Jim" played drums (the band had a revolving door of drummers). The band was volatile; shows in Phoenix were halted abruptly or ended in scuffles (hard to imagine but punk really pissed people off thirty years ago). In late 1977 The Consumers recorded an eight-track demo with Joey Dears, a high school pal of guitarist Paul Cutler. In early '78 The Consumers made the logical choice of relocating to Los Angeles where they shared bills at The Masque with X, The Alley Cats and The Dils. By late 1978 they were done.
In 1995 Larry Hardy, head honcho of In The Red Records, put out All My Friends Are Dead -- the eleven tracks The Consumers recorded with Joey Dears back in '77. (Hardy was a fan of 45 Grave and heard the tracks on a bootleg back in '81 while hanging out at Dinah Cancer's house.) In 2001 the tracks were reissued on CD. With eBay prices hovering around the fifty dollar mark, Larry Hardy thankfully reissued All My Friends Are Dead again on vinyl in 2012.
As a historical footnote, All My Friends Are Dead would've been an interesting release. What really gets me about All My Friends Are Dead is the quality of the tracks. The songs are absolutely timeless -- they could've been recorded in late '77 or yesterday. The Consumers were an incredible punk band that didn't have to go through the birthpangs of punk rock; the group was erudite, could play and was already aware of Henry Cow and Robert Wyatt -- influences that'd take years for other groups to discover. The fidelity of the tracks is incredible (believe it or not, they were recorded on an eight-recorder in a demo studio). All My Friends Are Dead is distilled anger -- capturing refined, edgy and intuitive rock 'n' roll. There's no way anyone else could've recorded something like this. (When 45 Grave tried to re-record these tracks later on the Autopsy LP, they were lacking.) It's hard to believe that an eleven-track demo that laid dormant for eighteen years would turn out to be a lost gem. Thanks to In The Red, it's available.
After The Consumers, Paul Cutler would go on to form 45 Grave; he later joined the Dream Syndicate, replacing Karl Precoda. David Wiley formed Human Hands. Mikey Borens briefly played guitar for 45 Grave. Unfortunately only Paul Cutler and Mikey Borens are alive today.
Review by Ryan Leach
Wounded Lion is from Los Angeles. To the best of my knowledge, “Friendly?” (2009) was the band’s first In The Red release, followed shortly thereafter by a Self-titled LP. Like the material of their minimalist, post-punk influences (Wire, LiLiput, etc.), “Friendly?” is chock full of barre chords. (This is an abrasive 45.) Nevertheless, there’s texture to guitarist/singer Brad Eberhard’s guitar parts—his playing sounds like a repetitive, modern-era machine pumping out automobile parts; not quite where Wire’s Newman/Gilbert were on Chairs Missing—Wounded Lion is a little more belligerent—but he’s not too far back either. The lyrics to “Friendly?” are so straightforward they border on Dan Treacy’s work with The Television Personalities, sans the Ken Kesey influence.
B Side “Bad Moon Rising” has little relation to the Creedence original, outside of lyrics. Wounded Lion presents a full transformative use of the music. While picking such a predictable (albeit great) song usually produces a banal result—even the mighty Gun Club didn’t do much with “Run Through the Jungle”—Wounded Lion’s Psychocandy treatment is wonderful.
Even if the music weren’t great, “Friendly?” would be worth the purchase price alone for the Penguin Books-inspired cover art. Then again, this is the Lion. And they have yet to release a lemon.