Bands 

Foetus

Pere Ubu

Babble

Dead Kennedys

Links

www.allmusic.com
www.cddb.com

Updated January 02, 2002

Like a ten-ton truck, don't give a f**k, and if you don't like the poppies that's your hard luck.  I discovered these guys in 1990.  I had just bought a new JVC CD player at Circuit City and it came with $30 worth of free CDs at an independent music store across the street.  They had a huge used CD collection and players to listen to the CDs on.  I browsed for a while and what attracted me first was the cover to This is the day...This is the hour...This is This.  I tried it and it was a little foreign to me, but I liked the hard edge.  The music was a strange sort of rap (I hate rap), but the samples were so different and the lyrics so unusual.  They didn't just do the pathetically straightforward stuff like Run DMC or the Beastie Boys, these guys were sampling all kinds of off-beat TV shows, movies, they had esoteric references to a plethora of topics.  Here's a sample of Can U Dig It. (Sorry for the low bit-rate: I have 10MB limit on my Web server)  For more info try www.pweination.org 

Foetus

James Thirlwell goes by so many variations on Foetus its difficult to keep track: Scrapping Foetus off the Wheel, Foetus Interruptus, Foetus Corruptus, Foetus Inc., Foetus Symphony Orchestra, You've Got Foetus on Your Breath, Foetus Under Glass, Foetus over Frisco, Phillip and His Foetus Vibrations, The Foetus All Nude Revue, Wiseblood, Steroid Maximus, Clint Ruin, etc.  This guy is absolutely amazing.  With few exceptions he writes, performs, sings, produces, engineers, runs his own label, publishing house, and promotes the music himself.  Plus he does the graphic art for his CDs.  Foetus is pigeon-holed as industrial, but that is a very myopic view.  He does everything from industrial to rock to experimental to lounge to classical orchestrations.  He sings all of it, plays all the instruments, arranges it, records it in his own studio, engineers it, and produces the final product.  It is such a joyous departure from the canned big-business music-by-committee of our pop-culture that he should have the biggest section of Detroit's Rock Museum (I'm sure he doesn't).  Jim's biggest downfall is his "band's" name: Foetus.  It's a big turn-off for a lot of people.  I don't get why; he's not saying anything like "kill fetuses" he's more referring to the embryonic stage he regards all his music as.  I've met him, and he has a real lack of self-esteem that drives him to produce better and better work.  He was probably raised in a household where "nothing was good enough."  Plus his focus has always been the music itself, not the business of music.  I think I own every CD ever produced by this guy, which is no small trick.  Foetus' albums really need to be listened to in their entirety.  Contextually they sound much better when the songs are listened to in order, an album at a time, similar to "progressive" bands.  It's guys like Jim that really show you how untalented popular acts, like Nine Inch Nails, really are.  Here's a sample of The Throne of Agony. (Sorry for the low bit-rate: I have 10MB limit on my Web server)  For more information try www.foetus.org 

Pere Ubu

The Avant-Garage in Ohio.  Pere Ubu has been labeled proto-punk and proto-art rock, and are widely regarded as being seminal for the whole 1970-80's scene from Devo (also from Ohio) to the Talking Heads.  When I first heard them back in 1982 I couldn't figure out if they were musical geniuses or musical morons.  I spent about 3 weeks listening to almost nothing except for Pere Ubu, and emerged believing them geniuses.  It took that long.  They are NOT "accessible" by normal music fans.  They are however brilliant.  If you are new to Pere Ubu, be prepared to spend a lot of time listening to them before you can appreciate them.  It is difficult to explain this band, but half of the appreciation of the music is the "experience" of listening to them.  You just have to do it to appreciate it.  Start with "The Modern Dance" and move to "Dub Housing" and then "Song of the Bailing Man."  Kick everyone out and listen to them from sunup to sundown and you'll understand.  Sample of I Will Wait.

Babble

If you think Ravel's "Bolero" is music to f**k to, then you gotta try Babble's "The Stone."  Babble is essentially Alannah Currie and Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins (I know, I know, "Lies, Lies, Lies, yeah").  But this stuff is very different and much better than TT.  Babble has mainly been panned by music critics, but each album is wonderfully listen-able to.  I haven't included a sample because it wouldn't do this stuff justice: you really need to hear the production.

Dead Kennedys

I wouldn't really call Dead Kennedy's lesser known, but I just don't think they get enough attention.