more obscure or less?
So for some reason I found myself in the Beat last week, and bought a few things I had on decaying cassette and wanted on CD, including the Mr. Bungle CD, Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage" and "Freak Out!", Operation Ivy "Energy" and the Foetus collection "Sink", plus two Jane's Addiction albums I had been meaning to buy. Even though I always kinda liked Jane's Addiction, I never bought any of their albums back in college (me and my "they're-on-a-major-label-they-must-suck" period, I guess.) So I corrected that mistake, and in the process of looking up Jane's Addiction trivia stumbled across references to Psi Com, Perry Farrell's band before Jane's Addiction. They were apparently fairly well established in the early 80s LA deathrock scene, playing a lot with Christian Death.
Intrigued, I ordered the CD reissue of their one very limited release album. It does remind me in some ways of various early deathrock (the aforementioned Christian Death, 45 Grave, Kommunity FK) with a bit of the style later expressed in Jane's Addiction--whom I've always thought sounded like they could have been a little more goth. It's definitely a bit raw and rough sounding, not very polished, but then I've always been a sucker for first albums by bands that are still in the process of finding their stride. I may have to give it a spin this Saturday at Reverence (my first DJ gig at a club in about a year and a half) just to see what happens.
Now, I'm sure that most music nerds have known this for like ever, and my recent awareness of Psi Com is about as silly-sounding as announcing that I recently learned that John Lennon had originally been in this band called the Beatles before his solo career. But I'm pretty struck by this particular bit of trivia, and happy to have stumbled across it.
I also picked up a couple of the "the Beat" mugs, with their logo 80's looking guy and girl, for $1.50 each. I have been hearing rumors that they might be closing in a year or so if sales don't improve (and, from the look of things, they haven't much improved their stock, or lowered their prices on the things I want to buy) so I figured I'd better get my memorabilia of the place now...and maybe a few more records, at least the ones that are reasonably priced.
Intrigued, I ordered the CD reissue of their one very limited release album. It does remind me in some ways of various early deathrock (the aforementioned Christian Death, 45 Grave, Kommunity FK) with a bit of the style later expressed in Jane's Addiction--whom I've always thought sounded like they could have been a little more goth. It's definitely a bit raw and rough sounding, not very polished, but then I've always been a sucker for first albums by bands that are still in the process of finding their stride. I may have to give it a spin this Saturday at Reverence (my first DJ gig at a club in about a year and a half) just to see what happens.
Now, I'm sure that most music nerds have known this for like ever, and my recent awareness of Psi Com is about as silly-sounding as announcing that I recently learned that John Lennon had originally been in this band called the Beatles before his solo career. But I'm pretty struck by this particular bit of trivia, and happy to have stumbled across it.
I also picked up a couple of the "the Beat" mugs, with their logo 80's looking guy and girl, for $1.50 each. I have been hearing rumors that they might be closing in a year or so if sales don't improve (and, from the look of things, they haven't much improved their stock, or lowered their prices on the things I want to buy) so I figured I'd better get my memorabilia of the place now...and maybe a few more records, at least the ones that are reasonably priced.