meatspinrecs-blog

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Allen Paulino

Listening to the recent Real Kids records from Crypt brought back such a flood of memories from my time spent with the crazy, irrepressible, ultimately lovable (sometimes infuriating) person named Allen Alpo Paulino. No one knows much about that time period except for me, David and Dana. We were an island unto ourselves in the Boston scene. We all worked at Rounder records in Cambridge. David and Dana and Allen worked in the warehouse, and I worked upstairs in the computer department. Rounder was a crazy place, even though it was a folkie label. JJ Rassler worked upstairs with me as did Glenn Dicker and Tor Hansen (later of Yep Roc label fame). We listened to music all day and were generally pretty unruly, undisciplined types who drank a lot (at least not at work, most of us anyway).

Down in the warehouse all kinds of weird shit was going on. Dana and David would keep me abreast of all the delinquent activities, people shitting in bathroom sinks etc. One day we had a new recruit to the warehouse staff- Allen Paulino. I don’t know how he ended up there. Probably through Howie Ferguson or maybe JJ Rassler. Alpo was in rough shape but he was doing the best he could to fight his demons, which were many…and not just alcohol related. I don’t remember how I personally met Alpo. But we worked together for a couple months and he came out to see us play at Bunratty’s. We had a woman named Dina Perleman playing bass with us. She was our first bassist. Allen watched the show and said something to the effect that we could use a better bass player and that he would be willing to play with us. So we unceremoniously booted Dina out. Cruel, but we wanted to get better, and we had A LOT of improving to do at that point. We were all just beginning to play instruments, let alone be playing out in clubs in a competitive Boston scene. But we were playing primarily original songs and Alpo liked what he heard.

So we started practicing together. We would ride down to our practice space from Central Square in Cambridge down to the south end of Boston near South Station. On the way down Alpo would want us to stop at the liquor stores to pick up some “nips”, little bottles of vodka usually. During the trips to the space and to shows we would hear so many stories about the Real Kids. I hate to say I did not know anything about the band at at that time- literally nothing. Their records were hard to find, no internet googling, 1977 was ancient history in 1989. Although I knew a lot about music from earlier periods. I was still pretty young and had been in college with no exposure to most things important ( except literature).

When we played with Allen we became much more cohesive as a unit. He taught us to be a band. He had experience and great taste, and always played the right notes- and he swung like a bastard. Full forward propulsion. None of that “on the beat” shit that I hate.

I will never forget going to his family house on the north shore (Peabody, I think) and seeing where he grew up. It was so amazing to me. And learning about his mom naming the Nervous Eaters because they ate so fast at the dinner table. And learning about Jonathan Richman’s dastardly deeds as a homewrecker. And all the things he found in the trash (the family business was trash collecting. We were big trash pickers too.) Fucking endless great stories that blew my mind.

Allen not only was in our band he lived with us for a period of time. He loved us like another brother. We tried to help him, but it was too much too take on. He lived in our basement and he had a friend that would sneak nips and drugs in pizza boxes and deliver them to him downstairs. I was a very naive person and thought he could cure himself if he had people who cared for him. It did not work. He went from bad to worse and we finally had to split ways. It was very sad and we were hurt and he was hurt also. I remember after he left he listened to us do a radio broadcast with Merle Allin who replaced him and he said something like “that guy isn’t right for you” and he was right (soundwise).

I will always look back fondly listening to music in our little living room in Allston. We would listen to Love “Forever Changes” and Modern Lovers “Hospital”. He would steal David’s prescription cold medicine and chug it. We would laugh incessantly at all that was ridiculous around us. He could be a real charmer. Then he could be the darkest demon you ever met. But I will never speak badly of him because I love him to this day, and am very happy he had a few years of peace in his life toward the end.

Alpo was a rock star in Boston. He was very brave to play music with us. Everyone thought he was crazy to play with us because his crowd thought we were terrible. They would tell him that right in front of us at shows we played. Often times we were  terrible. But Alpo shared the same love of crazy fucked up rock n roll and he treasured originality. And he saw that in us. We were from different worlds but he related to us. He knew we were raw and just beginning our journey but he was never condescending. His playing with us took me to another level of creativity at that time. Thank you Alpo- and long live the Real Kids!

[meatspinrecs-blog]

I look around at Australia’s underground music communities and I see worlds that operate and feed into each other, building movements and common sounds that don’t exist anywhere else. I see ‘scenius’ every weekend, through ideas that flow into and out of each other that occasionally yield a record, or a memorable live show, or a song that sticks for reasons that are unexplainable.

An article about the Snake & Friends LP, with a focus on collective contributions, the notion of ‘scenius’ and records/people as collective events, with discussions of the Hill Country Blues (R.L. Burnside, Cedell Davis, Junior Kimbrough, etc) and Ego Summit (Ron House, Mike Rep, Tommy Jay, etc) as a bonus. 

[meatspinrecs-blog]

"I honestly think that Low Life sounds like U2" - Low Life bassist Cristian O'Sullivan. 'I'm in Strife; I Like Low Life' is a long-form take on Sydney punk band Low Life by Australian music writer Max Easton (Tempered, MESS+NOISE, Crawlspace). It's the final edition of the sold-out zine trilogy completed in 2017 on musicians of varying (dis)repute who subverted their worlds to their own detriment (including Randy Newman, Butthole Surfers and Country Teasers.) This edition follows Low Life from their formation in Kings Cross in the late-00's to the present day. Covering their three releases and various scandals, while outlining what has made them one of the most discussed underground Sydney bands of the past decade. 'I'm in Strife' examines the world that Low Life were forced to live in, the driving force behind the torment within their songs, and the understated politics of a band that many in their circle have grown to either love or hate. I'm in Strife is co-published through MoodWar and Meatspin Prints, with a foreword by Toto and design by Alex Dabi Zhevi.

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Get the word on Sydney scamps Low Life before they’re all gone.. email meatspinrecs@gmail.com for bulk orders. About half the print run has gone in a week, so don’t snooze!

[meatspinrecs-blog]

Great review of the Tim & Boys LP over at goodbysunball, truly friends of the music of the world, buds with taste, pals of the earth's punk missive.

Get it in Oz at timandtheboys.bandcamp.com, or North America at thrillingliving.com and various other distros

Tim & the Boys: it’s like Big Black with more than a pinch of self-awareness, coupled with the confident baritone of Ed Schrader; there’s earworms for days amidst the electrical charge on Growing, brought to you by young upstart Meatspin Records. The LP reprises four of Hard Won’s six tracks, and the ex-podcasters start sprinting seconds after the needle hits. “No Can Do” is the best kind of opening track, a mid-tempo road trip, building up with shouted choruses and eventually double-timing its way into a fist-pumper. The song’s end is sudden, a sidestep that allows the rest of Growing to show off a versatility that the fidelity of the demo didn’t capture. There’s flashes of punk (”White Guys,” “Two Cowboys”), slow churning masses where Tim’s vocals vie for space amid the dust storm (”Hear Us,” particularly stunning here), and even some anthemic, heartfelt bits (”Plastic Curtains,” “Silent Room”). All of this is to say nothing of the most cantankerous reinterpretation of a Spice Girls song (”Hey”), or the way the bass lines twist around the drum machine on “Gary Glitter’s Eyes,” freeing up the guitar and synth to slash and sear. No foolin’: Growing is one to hang your hat on.

Thrilling Living has this Australian import record for a really nice price; some other distros in the US have picked it up, too, but it’s since disappeared from several. Get a move on. (Meatspin Records also has a print sector, recently releasing the second edition of Max Easton’s Tempered.)

[meatspinrecs-blog]

“Their debut LP on Meatspin is a deep well of enjoyment and fascination for me” - Doug Wallen (The Brag; ex-Skyway Zine, Mess + Noise, Big Issue).

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The Tim & The Boys LP has been out for a couple months now and we’ve moved about a quarter of the pressing - good! Sold out in a few overseas distros a little too quick, but furiously restocking everyone who needs it. I keep flogging it while packing LPs and it’s a damn strange record that keeps evolving every time I listen to it. 

Aligns with Devo or Black Randy historically, but I’d sign up if you were a fan of Perverts Again, BB Eye, The Rebel, etc - weird, weird, weird and subversive as shit.

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Get it in Australia from timandtheboys.bandcamp.com or in stores at Repressed, Lulu’s, Polyester, Strangeworld, Helta Skelta, Beatdisc, Urge, and more to come...

In the Northern Hemisphere direct from our buddy label thrillingliving.com or from stockists including: Feel It, Total Punk, Sorry State, Neckchop, Papertown Company, Faith/Void

In Japan from NAT Records, in the UK from Drunken Sailor, in Germany from Static Shock.

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[meatspinrecs-blog]

Another stellar review up on Difficult Fun

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BB & THE BLIPS “DEMO” CS . . “Debut cassette from a Sydney band with a borders-imposed time limit. Turns out some of the best things emerge under pressure. We’ve all got a time limit nowadays though, don’t we? Consider this the perfect murder punk soundtrack for these last days on earth. Members of Good Throb, Semi, Housewives, and Basic Human blast through six infectious and topical tunes, coming out the other side sounding something like if Geza X had produced Penis Envy; those Dangerhouse big bad city vibes meeting searing commentary on the structural failures of democracy, mass incarceration, and gender. Sydney’s only Punk band. Recorded on Gadigal land in Fall 2017” - Grace Ambrose . . Out now via #blowbloodrecords Listen and buy through blowbloodrecords.bandcamp.com, DM for wholesale #bbandtheblips #demo #cassette #sydneypunk #goodthrob #semi #housewives #basichuman (at Sydney, Australia)

[meatspinrecs-blog]

hi i was in a pop up on south king st a month or so ago and saw a butthole surfers zine. I asked the person working there today and they said it was connected to u guys and I was wondering if u have any more stocked/ know where i could find it. Thanks

Hey! Sorry for this slow reply, haven't been checking the Tumblr... Yeah! The zines are sold out unfortunately, but I'm looking to do a re-print in February, I'll keep ya updated!

[meatspinrecs-blog]

MTS@@1: Tim & The Boys - Growing LP Releases February 2018, with a pre-order bonus including the 'Girls' Boys Live' cassette and a 32 mm Meat Pin limited to 20 copies. Stream 'Gary Glitter's Eyes' and 'Hey' at the bandcamp - https://timandtheboys.bandcamp.com + Tim & The Boys’ 'Growing' is a constant bait and switch. Songs swing from the satirical to the accusatory and back again, hook-laden intros blur into pointed aggressions, and honest sentiments soon reveal themselves as comedic slights. It’s a record that lives and dies on dichotomies and double guessing. The grunted question of “Do you wanna have fun with me?” soon gives way to the laughing retraction of, “I’m not that kinda guy!” The suggestive query of “Do you get off on weakness?” is countered by, “Do you come on too strong?” And just when you think you have them pinned down, you come to realise that even naming their first record ‘growing’ is a juvenile double entendre. 'Growing' features drum-machine controlled garage jams that disintegrate at the seams. Through the driving bass of Dan Grosz (Dead Farmers), agitated guitars of Will Harley (Housewives, BB & The Blips) and the one-note synths and haggard vocal of Tim Collier, come sounds that tease the interface between punk and pop. The tension of working at borderlines materialises in the band’s live shows, which vary from jovial fist-in-the-air affairs (with an audience member once handing Tim a freshly peeled hard-boiled egg) to an unwelcome violent element resulting in forced moshes. Their audience is often unsure of how to take the band, and it’s hard to blame them when Tim grins and jokes between songs, before viciously shouting stolen Spice Girls lyrics in the chorus to ‘Hey’ (“a ziggi-zig-UH”). With a mission to subvert and confuse, Tim & The Boys are one of the most interesting and thought-out members of a new crop of bands from the well-spring of Sydney, Australia. Through childish jokes and pointed commentary, they search for the grotesque in pop culture (in Spice Girls, in Cat Stevens, in Gary Glitter) and re-fashion it through a distorted lens. Like Devo without the costumes, Country Teasers without the hate speech, Big Black without the whiny gear nerd at the front, and Black Randy without the repulsive back story, Tim & The Boys toy with form, style and structure to deliver a record that refuses to be pigeonholed. +

[meatspinrecs-blog]

get records from this friend of meatspin!

Blow Blood’s 2017 releases! New releases are currently in talks so keep your eyes peeled 👀😗 . . #blowblood #blowbloodrecords #vinyl #cassettes #fits #magiccity #bulsch #theroobydocks #meatdreams #brainwashedcalifornia #thecowboy #thesight . . . ✏️ @dirtattraction

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oil of sydney

https://soundcloud.com/oilyboys/cabramaverick

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this weekend in sydney

Spin the Gaelic with.... NASHO Huge new punk outing from members of Dispossessed, Royal Headache and Good Throb (UK). Powerful hardcore with bizarro vocal effects bringing in a horrid psych element - best new thing in town! NEGATIVE GEARS Members of Sinkhead and Whitney Houston's Crypt fray the edges of lyrical guitar rock with urgency. A mire of influences makes it hard to pinpoint a contemporary - the new sydney pub rock? BASIC HUMAN Trad four-piece rock format played by the Sex Havers DJ duo and members of Crane Games and BB & the Blips. Songs recall elements of '80s anti-punks like Wipers or Flipper with a contemporary edge. First ever show! 8pm $5/$10 Pay What You Can

https://www.facebook.com/events/383551182076967

(Poster by Daryl Prondoso)

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they may wet the bed, but they sure write a good tune

From the new album “Rot”

Out Nov 10

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Hey... Do you get off on weakness? MTS@@1 - Tim & The Boys 'Growing' LP Coming on too strong in January 2018.

[meatspinrecs-blog]

This Saturday night in ol Sydney town!

~~~~~~~~~What is?~~~~~~~~~

A four band bill of the new and strange in the basement of the PBC? A celebration of the flurry of new Sydney punk bands playing their first shows in Spring? A celebration of MTS@@1, an LP due January 2018 on Meatspin (and announcing this week)? ~~~~What does it sound like?~~~~ Tim & The Boys? Sydney's favourite drum machine driven subverts. The core three members have been mixing harsh punk vocals with affected hooks and unsettling electronics for two years now, but recent live shows are spiralling out of control to add guesting synths and saxophone. Come for the stolen spice girls lyrics, stay for the parody of harmful white male culture! BB & The Blips? Second show for a new five-piece punk band featuring members of Good Throb (UK), Housewives, Hunger (UK) and Dry Finish, sounding somewhere between the four of those bands. Come for the good-time murder punk, stay for the new Sydney oi! Exposure? New Sydney death rock! Evocative anarcho nightmares meets the goth energies of recent bands like Belgrado or NUN. Come for the horror movie synths, stay for the hooks! Fatalitas? Harsh industrial wasteland punk brutally frankensteining half of Death Church (RIP) with a coupla british punk intruders. Come for the thuggish riffs, stay for the theremin! ~~~~~~What does it look like?~~~~~~ $10 on the door in the best basement room in town?

[meatspinrecs-blog]

friend of meatspin

“When the Butthole Surfers finally did sell out, they didn’t laugh all the way to the bank so much as they cackled maniacally back and forth at the teller” - Max Easton, Life Makes Me Nervous

“You go live in a van, you asshole. You go home to your nice mommy-and-daddy little bed there and think about what a sellout I am” - Paul Leary, Butthole Surfers

‘Life Makes Me Nervous; I Like the Butthole Sufers’ is a 40 page diatribe that follows the Butthole Surfers as they moved from ‘80s whackjobs to ‘90s buy-in’s. Written as a sequel to ‘Barely Human; I Like Randy Newman,’ it touches on the band’s obsession with subversion and defiance, up to the point where even signing to a major label was a defiant act. 

Foreword by Rob Fuelner, designs by Alex Dhabi Zhevi and published through MoodWar.

Printing next week! Email max.e.easton@gmail.com or peace@moodwar.com to arrange stock or international orders.

[meatspinrecs-blog]

Meatspin Records is a new label from Sydney, Australia supporting subversive underground music through recordings, printed material and shows. Will be announcing a full-length LP release in June (MTS@@1) and the first Meatspin newsletter in zine format around a similar timeframe. 

In the mean time...stare at the logo/gif by Sydney designer Daryl Prondoso for a little while and look through his other stuff at http://www.daryl.work  

As a subversive yet socially conscious label we’re dedicated to open and public discourse about all aspects of the label, so please direct any comments to the ask section of this tumblr or contact Max at meatspinrecs@gmail.com.