#tful282

[lovesongforthedeadche]

[palilalia]

PAL-072 WATT LP

“Recorded in Miami 1989-1991”

BUY LP — tinyurl.com/59f39x2x "I was hanging out with Bill Orcutt at the 930 Club nearly 30 years ago, watching a famous post-rock band (who shall remain nameless, but whose moniker contained two- and-a-half times more articles and conjunctions than nouns) when he said: "This band is like my band in college -- all major 7th and 9h chords." I relate this to emphasize that in the case of Bill Orcutt and Harry Pussy, the seemingly untutored ooze of "Please Don't Come Back From the Moon" and "Girl With Frog" had its genesis in something far more Apollonian than is usually understood. It's debatable whether or not Watt, the duo of Orcutt and drummer Tim Koffley featured on Recorded in Miami, is the above- referenced grad-school band. Watt is not resplendent with jazz chords, but it's certainly more tutored, offering a mannered link between the contemporaneous Thunders-esque punk of Orcutt's Trash Monkeys and Harry Pussy's mayhem. The continuity with Harry Pussy is more than temporal -- Recorded in Miami is Orcutt’s first use of the four string guitar, and Harry Pussy claimed the same amp and drum kit. The resemblance more or less ends there. To further put Recorded in Miami -- made on Orcutt's Walkman, Rat Bastard's North Miami studio, and South Miami’s Natural Sound (total bill $289) -- into context, consider the fecundity of the underground music world as the '80s rolled into the '90s. It's hard to relate to those who missed it, but it was a time when post-hardcore hadn't quite given way to the bloat of grunge, when the Minutemen held sway (for the moment) over Led Zeppelin. The indie world was ruled by an ever-propagating compost heap of jagged guitar bands like TFUL282, Truman's Water, and (to crank it back a couple years) Phantom Tollbooth. And in some ways (although Orcutt swears Watt's prime influences were James Blood Ulmer and Fred Frith's Massacre), this record seems very much cut from that decade-ending cloth, seemingly only one vocal overdub away from a Homestead catalog number. Track after track (mostly titled after episodes of Art Clokey's slyly Buddhist TV masterwork, Gumby), Recorded in Miami's tracks spill over with right angles, rockist tropes, and verse/ chorus structures, from the Minutemen-oid funk of "Band Contest" to the stroked Moore-Ranaldoisms of "The Young and the Decoding." Yet Orcutt's fretboard-spanning angular melodic runs are right up front in the latter, and the final two tracks introduce a bit of the explosive chaos that would follow when Adris finally claimed the drum kit. Consider "Wattstock," where Koffley forms the bedrock for an extended Orcutt hotbox of instantly-composed harmolodics. Or "God Are You There, It's Me, Watt," where we can hear the spontaneous vocal bursts (the only vocals on the album) that would re-emerge on Orcutt's early solo records. Watt began to crumble when Koffley, as drummers will do, yearned for rhythmic grids of increasing complexity, while Orcutt instead wanted to "smoke more pot and improvise." For a few records with Harry Pussy, Orcutt would get his wish (though some of the structuralism of Watt would creep into later records). But we shouldn't regard Recorded in Miami as mere transitional scraps of juvenalia, or stunt-rock delivered for the mere thrill of pulling it off. Rather, it's an early, major piece of the unfolding and complex puzzle of Orcutt's music. A foundation. And without the earth beneath our feet, how can we ever reach the sky?" -- TOM CARTER 

[bulbous-monocle]

#TFUL282 #Sirrichardbishop #threedaystubble

[indieephemera]

Partial rolls of stickers from U.S. label Matador Records, each one featuring a unique design promoting Thinking Fellers Union Local 282′s 1994 album Strangers From the Universe.

These stickers are a fun and colorful riff on the painted lightbulbs featured on the cover of TFUL282′s 1994 album. While I cannot conjure up a specific picture in my head of one or more of these adorning the “coffins” (record bins) at my old radio station, I have no doubt that at least one ended up adhered there or to some other flat surface in our Record Hospital den. Because even though they ended up on the “major indie” Matador starting with their 1991 album Lovelyville, this was one of the bands most of us DJs could agree on.

Anyway, this album is definitely my favorite of their catalog, and seeing a good chunk of it performed onstage at their Boston-area tour date in support of this record was a revelation. Such intense weirdos, such mind-blowing music! Who knew the banjo could be so cool?

[contac]

See that guy?

He's a lot like me.

He's a lot like me.

He's dumb as hell.

[duckcuduckcud]

Song of the Day

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Everything’s Impossible (Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche)

[gotankgo]

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 “Hummingbird in a Cube of Ice”

• Mother of All Saints (1992)

[obsidivm-blog]

i’m gay ost track 2

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, California, October 29, 1993

My 1995 indie rock bootleg mix from a little while back had me listening to a lot of 1990s indie rock bootlegs! Some of the bands I was very familiar with in my youth, others less so. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 falls in the latter category; I knew of them back in the day, but for whatever reason they didn’t grab me. But in recent years, I’ve dug in a little bit more and discovered that TFUL282 were an extremely cool, extremely original band. This excellent tape of the group opening for Sun City Girls back in 1993 (freshly uploaded by the estimable Eric PH) is a good way in, I think. TFUL282 follow their own weird inner logic, the songs careening one way and then the other, sometimes twisting into pretzel-like formations, at others going with the psychedelic flow. The awesome “Hurricane” here will convince you if you need convincing. And the glorious cover of Morricone’s “Fistful of Dollars” — dedicated to the SCG, who were die-hard Ennio-heads — is just perfect.  

[bulbous-monocle]

Hear HEAR! New release from Bulbous Monocle! Links in bio. Vinyl pre-order on bandcamp . @tful282official …….Vinyl reissue of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - The Funeral Pudding ******* The Funeral Pudding originally came out as a CD-only release on the Dutch label Brinkman to promote Thinking Fellers Union Local 282’s 1994 European tour. For the domestic release, the band chose Chicago’s Ajax Records—which had already released two TFUL282 singles in 1990—to press a 12” mini-LP. Comprising a selection of songs masterfully recorded and produced by Greg Freeman right after the sessions that yielded 1993’s Admonishing The Bishops EP, The Funeral Pudding could be thought of as a sister release to that EP; indeed, the band originally considered combining tracks from both sessions into a single album. Had it been released, that record would’ve followed the pattern of the previous album in which the band’s pop and avant-garde leanings are yoked together cheek by jowl. Instead, Admonishing showcases the band at its most accessible while The Funeral Pudding flaunts their more expansive, abrasive and absurdist side without forfeiting the earlier EP’s miraculously high standards for songwriting and sonic clarity. What makes The Funeral Pudding a unique feather in the Fellers’ cap is that most of the tracks are sung by bassist Anne Eickelberg and guitarist Hugh Swarts — a notable departure from the Davies/Hageman vocal dominance on most of the other albums. With Eickelberg’s soaring vocals leading the proceedings, tracks like “Waited Too Long” and “Heavy Head” are some of the most beloved in the band’s discography. And “23 Kings Crossing” is a whiplash-inducing psych/prog stunner that adds another metric ton to the burden of proof demonstrating that TFUL282 was creating some of the most thrilling, enduring and sonically autonomous music of its era.

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

“...a thrilling rope-walk...” 

THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 review by MARC MASTERS, Editor

CRANK #5  1994 (no page #)

TFUL282!

Previously on Fuckin’ Record Reviews: 

“Marc writes for/wrote for The Wire, Pitchfork, The Washington Post, The Independent Weekly and, for the purposes of this tumblr, CRANK, which remains indispensable to anyone interested in humans making sounds and the objects with which they make them.”

In 2017, Marc plies some of his fuckin’ record reviewing trade at @the-out-door, an excellent weekly shout into the outer limits, as well as at his monthly hangout at bancamp HQ, Hi Bias: Notable Cassette Releases on Bandcamp. 

[contac]

Let's soak our toes in champagne, let's dance on a lonely street Let's kick up a cloud of dust and shake our heads to a fancy beat Let's squish the life out of everything and cheer through a swanky ghost Let's bathe in a cup of dreams and share in a saucy toast