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Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.

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4/16/2003

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, The best golfer is a black guy, The tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, The Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, And the 3 most powerful men in America are named: 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon'." Chris Rock

Sorry for the sounds of silence lately. Spring has got me a little...
distracted, if ya know what I mean. But we've got a big fat report
coming your way for the next couple of episodes! I've got a ton of
pictures to download off the digital camera, reviews of shows you
won't believe, and it ain't even Fantasm yet.
Meanwhile, here's a quickie to tide you over.

BLASPHEMY
Degenerate JDP sent us this link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm
Even Time is questioning the importance of the event and imagery, as
well as the Bush administration's use (or abuse) of mass
communication: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,443118,00.html?cnn=yes
The Onion has a funny article that reads much like my rant of last episode: "This war is not about oil," Rumsfeld said. "Our decision to intercede against this dictator and not against the dozens of other ruthless dictators in the world is not about oil. France and Russia's opposition to this war is not about the purely coincidental fact that both countries have lucrative, pre-existing oil contracts with Iraq. Furthermore, the interest of many U.S. corporations in the war has nothing to do with oil, either. This war is about liberty. Oil wells deserve liberty, too." http://www.theonion.com/onion3913/oil_wells_liberated.html

EAR PLUGS
We got a homemade CD from "ethelscull" called "ribbons into hysterics." The accompanying propaganda says it's "d.i.y. experimental ethereal lo fi." It's lo fi alright. You can barely hear the ethereal noise behind the hiss and fuzz. It sounds like it was recorded too low and you have to crank it to hear it, which cranks up the (I assume unintentional) white noise too and the results remind me of crappy homemade tapes I made back in the 80's when I was too poor to buy new cassettes and just kept re-recording over the old ones. But production values aside, there's not much here to talk about. It's ethereal alright, almost to the point of inaudible. Thin, synthesized stuff that reminds me of some of PJ Harvey's quieter moments. So little is there you can only tell track from track when the hissing stops between cuts. It sounds like someone in a building across campus warming up to do a show that never starts. Not something I like, but if it sounds like you would check out her site at http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/melancholia/index.html

Speaking of "not much there", we got a two-song EP from Late For Life out of south Florida. (As we've said before, we rarely review stuff from Yankees, but again we'll make an exception.) It's sort of punky thrashy metallic ska-influenced stuff with horns. Almost anything with horns is good in my book (except noodly jazz, but don't get me started on that again.) Late for Life is sort of like Mighty Mighty Bosstones doing hardcore metal. There's plenty of harmony in the vocals and horns, plenty of power in the distorted guitar, but the guitar solos fall a little flat in the mix. But it's only two songs, so I guess I can't really say too much. They're online at http://www.lateforlife.com

Also showing up in the box this week was something I almost mistook for hate mail, something that I would've enjoyed receiving. But no, I don't THINK it's hate mail after giving it another look. Tough to tell with little notes stuck in the "press kit?" like "Hey Degenerate Press! Brown Frown wants to suck yr Hot death." Ok... A homemade CD from Athens' "Brown Frown" was stuck in a sheet of paper with other strange notes on it. The disc, with "Fuck you very much" scrawled on it in permamarker, was so scratched or poorly recorded I missed half the first tune. But once it skipped through and got going, I found pretty cool sounding hard/heavy rock/metal stuff buried under some odd interference noise that didn't sound intentional. (What is it with poor recordings this week? Usually I'm amazed at the quality of homemade stuff I get, but this week it's two bad ones on the same day.) It's too bad Brown Frown trying so hard to offend with the other materials included with the CD, like a piece of fabric with a silkscreened print of a child smiling with a large brown stain around her mouth and the words "eat shit, die young" under it. Sure, it got my attention, but crap like this (pun intended) won't earn you much notice from "legitimate" established media. Too bad, because between the occasional sound of someone puking on the CD, buried under the static of a poor recording, the music rocks. But it's hard to talk about the music with the other materials they included. 80's hair metal band Poison used to complain that critics only talked about their hair and clothes, but when that's your strongest statement you're sort of asking for it. Fortunately there's more here musically than Poison, but they still risk distraction from the audio. There's some excellent hooks and guitar work, growly moany vocals with a burst of screaming from time to time but generally these are rare compared to the smooth singing on most of the CD. There are even a few very pretty moments to contrast with the other tunes, like someone with Tourette Syndrome who finally calms down says something poetic. Overall, an enjoyable CD is buried here under poor production value and purposefully offensive press materials. Their web site is under construction at http://www.brownfuckingfrown.com/

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