HR026 - Viktimized Karcass — 2 Live Outings — C90 — 1986
|
Side A:
Humboldt, TN. Youth Center 1. Announcement 2. Sound Check 3. Self Pride 4. Outside 5. Sona 6. Night Creatures 7. Heartbeat 8. March Of The Blind 9. Freakin' Out Side B: Memphis, TN. Antenna Club 1. March Of The Blind 2. Now Say When 3. Clones 4. Action Clarinet 5. Queers 6. Wife Says 7. Time To Kill 8. Crazy Chris Phinney — Synths, Bass, Drum Programs, Vocals, Clarinet Richard Martin — Synths, Vocals, Clarinet, Percussion Roger Moneymaker — Guitars, Effects Michael Jackson — Vocals, Bass Pete McLean — Drums, Side B |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
2 Live Outings is just that… two Viktimized Karcass live performances, one at the Humboldt, Tennessee Youth Center and the other at the Antenna Club in Memphis. The band are still Chris Phinney on synths, bass, drum programs, clarinet and vocals; Richard Martin on synths, vocals, clarinet and percussion; and Roger Moneymaker on guitar and effects. Drummer Pete McLean is only present at the Antenna Club show, the Humboldt Youth Center performance being part of a short tour that he didn’t take part in, being replaced by a drum machine. Mike Jackson, Phinney’s partner in Cancerous Growth is in the band on bass.
The sound of the Humboldt show is pretty darn good, being in the upper end of the bootleg quality spectrum. The show opens with ‘Self Pride’, an abrasive, feedback laden, doom metallic, psychedelic space noise rocker with vocals that are alternately punk rapping and growling. Grinding metal riffage sets the pace on ‘Outside’ as guitars wail and pierce the air with feedback squeals and blinding oscillations periodically pop in to shatter the senses. We’ve also got punk rapping vocals to spice things up on this space rocking slab of psychedelic noise metal.
‘Sona’ is different, having a New Wave-ish vibe and funky rocking swing, led by punk poet vocals and cool grooving alien keys that have a pulsating effect attached to each note. The star of ‘Night Creatures’ is the edgily atmospheric guitars that are both beautiful and squealing. It’s got great sound and effects with soaring noisy melodies. The vocals are different, having a warbling delivery that at times sounds like David Byrne expressive angry angst. Lots of tasty variety in this set.
We’re back to the grinding acid space doom riffage on ‘Heartbeat’. This is slow doom that is totally out in the most aggressive regions of space. Dig that noisy clarinet wailing and cosmic keyboard chord assaults and cool cosmic guitar licks. ‘March Of The Blind’ has that metal thing going on but it’s got more of a stoned groove with killer whacked out electronic assaults, serpentine cosmic guitar leads, and sci-fi orchestral keys. On ‘Freakin’ Out’ someone announces, “This song is for our ex drummer. He freaked out”. If Karcass weren’t freaking out already they sure as hell are now. The vocals are straitjacket worthy and the band are jamming out in alien acid trip space. A fantastic set!
The sound quality on the Antenna Club performance isn’t nearly as good. BUT hang in there and give it a dedicated listen and you’ll hear a killer performance that’s very different from the Humboldt show. The electronics on ‘March Of The Blind’ are just as crazed as the Humboldt show but this is less metal, and certainly not stoned, but more pure experimental space punk free-wheeling. This is seriously crazed space chaos. And this is the only song title that is common to both shows.
‘Now Say When’ features brain fried noisy bashing rock ‘n’ roll. Pandemonium aside, this is a good time party rocker. Think Chrome as a New Wave pop band. ‘Clones’ is a robotically dancey, though Valium drugged industrial New Wave space rock ‘n’ roller with healthy doses of cosmic noise and grind. And it’s got a catchy simple but mesmerizing melody. ‘Action Clarinet’ is more seriously rock ‘n’ rolling Karcass. And yesirree that is one ACTION oriented wailing clarinet, though I can only briefly hear it, which sounds great with the blazing keyboard blasts and main riffing guitar and bass.
We’ve got more whacked jamming noise punk rock ‘n’ roll on ‘Queers’. Roger is a damn good guitarist who wrenches all kinds of cool ear splitting and noisy psychedelic sounds from his ax. I like the crazed ranting vocals too. ‘Wife Says’ is all THRASH! This is fast paced high intensity thrash punk ‘n’ roll, the only difference from classic thrash punk being Roger’s ass kicking solos. ‘Time To Kill’ is characterized by stoned 70s styled hard rock with an angst ridden punk edge. Think Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ with an injection of psychedelic noise punk. ‘Crazy’ is similar, not unlike F/i at their most jamming, but Karcass are more purely punk. I laughed at the end when an announcer says, "let’s hear it for Viktimized Corpse... Viktimized Karcass, excuse me."
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
JK: 2 Live Outings was two shows. But you did a tour? There were other shows?
CP: Yeah, there were a few in some small towns. They were basically all youth centers for the kids. It was all ages stuff. And we played most of the shows with Metro Waste. They were from Memphis.
JK: Did you book all these yourself? I know you had experience booking shows at the Antenna.
CP: I booked some of them and then Metro Waste booked some. We were the warm up band and Metro Waste was the headliner.
JK: One of the things that jumps out on this tape is you couldn’t have had a set list of songs, because ‘March Of The Blind’ is the only song that is common to the sets played at the Humboldt and Antenna shows. And it’s a very different song at each performance. Were you playing different sets each night or just whatever you felt like?
CP: The recording differs too.
JK: The B side is a good performance but the sound is definitely inferior.
CP: The soundman dicked us on that one. But ‘March Of The Blind’, those were different versions. We just changed it up. We didn’t record a lot of our live shows. I think a lot of it was disappointment from the Antenna Club. We played the Antenna Club a lot and we were the warm up for bands like Die Kreuzen and Black Flag and others. And the soundman didn’t really give a fuck about us. And they wanted to charge us $75 to play in the first place. And we figured we’re not going to make any money but we get to play a gig.
JK: But sound quality aside, ‘March Of The Blind’ on the A Side Humboldt performance, it’s got a kind of Metal sound going on… a stoned groove and all the crazy electronics. But on the B Side Antenna Club show, it’s far less Metal and stoned, and more experimental space-punk and a lot more freewheeling. So it’s interesting that on the same tour, which I’m assuming is in the same month or so you’re playing the same song in two very different ways. Which to me makes it fun.
CP: We did that shit on purpose. At those gigs we’d always get asked to play, like at the Antenna some asshole would always be asking us to play ‘Freebird’. And somewhere down the line there is a version where somebody asked us to play ‘Freebird’ and we said fuck it and did The Guess Who’s ‘American Woman’. Richard sang it and we called it ‘American Mama’. Later on we did a cover of ‘La Grange’ too. We did a cover of Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted To Love’ and called it ‘Dickin’ My Love’.
JK: Is that on any of the upcoming tapes?
CP: Yeah, it’s coming up.
JK: So this is a tour but I see in the credits that Pete McLean is on the B Side Antenna show but not the Humboldt show.
CP: I think we used the drum machine on that one.
JK: On the last song of the Humboldt set, ‘Freakin’ Out’, someone says “This is for our ex-drummer. He freaked out”. Did you lose him while on tour?
CP: He freaked out and didn’t want to go on tour. The Antenna Club show was before the tour. We used the drum machine on the tour. And if you noticed on the Humboldt show we did ‘Night Creatures’, which was a Skoptzies song. ‘Outside’, ‘Self Pride’, ‘Queers’, ‘Wife Says’, ‘Time To Kill’, ‘Crazy’… those are songs we practiced but we always changed them up when we played live.
JK: Roger was a really impressive guitar player on these tapes.
CP: He’s a bad ass one-eared guitar player. He’s deaf in one ear.
JK: Who did the vocals on ‘Night Creatures’ at the Humboldt show?
CP: That was me.
JK: I described them as, “The vocals are different, having a warbling delivery that at times sounds like David Byrne”.
CP: If you go back and listen to old Skoptzies ‘Night Creatures’ you’ll hear the same warbling. They didn’t know the lyrics to it, they just knew the music.
JK: I laughed at the end of the Antenna Club show when an announcer says, “Let’s hear it for Viktimized Corpse…. Viktimized Karcass, excuse me”.
CP: Yeah, well, you know (laughs). On the cover that’s Jackson standing with the headband on. I’m to the left of him. Richard is below me and Roger is below Jackson. That was taken somewhere on the tour. We used my brother’s van. My brother drove. We made enough money at every gig to eat and put gas in the van. And that was all we gave a damn about.
2 Live Outings is just that… two Viktimized Karcass live performances, one at the Humboldt, Tennessee Youth Center and the other at the Antenna Club in Memphis. The band are still Chris Phinney on synths, bass, drum programs, clarinet and vocals; Richard Martin on synths, vocals, clarinet and percussion; and Roger Moneymaker on guitar and effects. Drummer Pete McLean is only present at the Antenna Club show, the Humboldt Youth Center performance being part of a short tour that he didn’t take part in, being replaced by a drum machine. Mike Jackson, Phinney’s partner in Cancerous Growth is in the band on bass.
The sound of the Humboldt show is pretty darn good, being in the upper end of the bootleg quality spectrum. The show opens with ‘Self Pride’, an abrasive, feedback laden, doom metallic, psychedelic space noise rocker with vocals that are alternately punk rapping and growling. Grinding metal riffage sets the pace on ‘Outside’ as guitars wail and pierce the air with feedback squeals and blinding oscillations periodically pop in to shatter the senses. We’ve also got punk rapping vocals to spice things up on this space rocking slab of psychedelic noise metal.
‘Sona’ is different, having a New Wave-ish vibe and funky rocking swing, led by punk poet vocals and cool grooving alien keys that have a pulsating effect attached to each note. The star of ‘Night Creatures’ is the edgily atmospheric guitars that are both beautiful and squealing. It’s got great sound and effects with soaring noisy melodies. The vocals are different, having a warbling delivery that at times sounds like David Byrne expressive angry angst. Lots of tasty variety in this set.
We’re back to the grinding acid space doom riffage on ‘Heartbeat’. This is slow doom that is totally out in the most aggressive regions of space. Dig that noisy clarinet wailing and cosmic keyboard chord assaults and cool cosmic guitar licks. ‘March Of The Blind’ has that metal thing going on but it’s got more of a stoned groove with killer whacked out electronic assaults, serpentine cosmic guitar leads, and sci-fi orchestral keys. On ‘Freakin’ Out’ someone announces, “This song is for our ex drummer. He freaked out”. If Karcass weren’t freaking out already they sure as hell are now. The vocals are straitjacket worthy and the band are jamming out in alien acid trip space. A fantastic set!
The sound quality on the Antenna Club performance isn’t nearly as good. BUT hang in there and give it a dedicated listen and you’ll hear a killer performance that’s very different from the Humboldt show. The electronics on ‘March Of The Blind’ are just as crazed as the Humboldt show but this is less metal, and certainly not stoned, but more pure experimental space punk free-wheeling. This is seriously crazed space chaos. And this is the only song title that is common to both shows.
‘Now Say When’ features brain fried noisy bashing rock ‘n’ roll. Pandemonium aside, this is a good time party rocker. Think Chrome as a New Wave pop band. ‘Clones’ is a robotically dancey, though Valium drugged industrial New Wave space rock ‘n’ roller with healthy doses of cosmic noise and grind. And it’s got a catchy simple but mesmerizing melody. ‘Action Clarinet’ is more seriously rock ‘n’ rolling Karcass. And yesirree that is one ACTION oriented wailing clarinet, though I can only briefly hear it, which sounds great with the blazing keyboard blasts and main riffing guitar and bass.
We’ve got more whacked jamming noise punk rock ‘n’ roll on ‘Queers’. Roger is a damn good guitarist who wrenches all kinds of cool ear splitting and noisy psychedelic sounds from his ax. I like the crazed ranting vocals too. ‘Wife Says’ is all THRASH! This is fast paced high intensity thrash punk ‘n’ roll, the only difference from classic thrash punk being Roger’s ass kicking solos. ‘Time To Kill’ is characterized by stoned 70s styled hard rock with an angst ridden punk edge. Think Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ with an injection of psychedelic noise punk. ‘Crazy’ is similar, not unlike F/i at their most jamming, but Karcass are more purely punk. I laughed at the end when an announcer says, "let’s hear it for Viktimized Corpse... Viktimized Karcass, excuse me."
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
JK: 2 Live Outings was two shows. But you did a tour? There were other shows?
CP: Yeah, there were a few in some small towns. They were basically all youth centers for the kids. It was all ages stuff. And we played most of the shows with Metro Waste. They were from Memphis.
JK: Did you book all these yourself? I know you had experience booking shows at the Antenna.
CP: I booked some of them and then Metro Waste booked some. We were the warm up band and Metro Waste was the headliner.
JK: One of the things that jumps out on this tape is you couldn’t have had a set list of songs, because ‘March Of The Blind’ is the only song that is common to the sets played at the Humboldt and Antenna shows. And it’s a very different song at each performance. Were you playing different sets each night or just whatever you felt like?
CP: The recording differs too.
JK: The B side is a good performance but the sound is definitely inferior.
CP: The soundman dicked us on that one. But ‘March Of The Blind’, those were different versions. We just changed it up. We didn’t record a lot of our live shows. I think a lot of it was disappointment from the Antenna Club. We played the Antenna Club a lot and we were the warm up for bands like Die Kreuzen and Black Flag and others. And the soundman didn’t really give a fuck about us. And they wanted to charge us $75 to play in the first place. And we figured we’re not going to make any money but we get to play a gig.
JK: But sound quality aside, ‘March Of The Blind’ on the A Side Humboldt performance, it’s got a kind of Metal sound going on… a stoned groove and all the crazy electronics. But on the B Side Antenna Club show, it’s far less Metal and stoned, and more experimental space-punk and a lot more freewheeling. So it’s interesting that on the same tour, which I’m assuming is in the same month or so you’re playing the same song in two very different ways. Which to me makes it fun.
CP: We did that shit on purpose. At those gigs we’d always get asked to play, like at the Antenna some asshole would always be asking us to play ‘Freebird’. And somewhere down the line there is a version where somebody asked us to play ‘Freebird’ and we said fuck it and did The Guess Who’s ‘American Woman’. Richard sang it and we called it ‘American Mama’. Later on we did a cover of ‘La Grange’ too. We did a cover of Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted To Love’ and called it ‘Dickin’ My Love’.
JK: Is that on any of the upcoming tapes?
CP: Yeah, it’s coming up.
JK: So this is a tour but I see in the credits that Pete McLean is on the B Side Antenna show but not the Humboldt show.
CP: I think we used the drum machine on that one.
JK: On the last song of the Humboldt set, ‘Freakin’ Out’, someone says “This is for our ex-drummer. He freaked out”. Did you lose him while on tour?
CP: He freaked out and didn’t want to go on tour. The Antenna Club show was before the tour. We used the drum machine on the tour. And if you noticed on the Humboldt show we did ‘Night Creatures’, which was a Skoptzies song. ‘Outside’, ‘Self Pride’, ‘Queers’, ‘Wife Says’, ‘Time To Kill’, ‘Crazy’… those are songs we practiced but we always changed them up when we played live.
JK: Roger was a really impressive guitar player on these tapes.
CP: He’s a bad ass one-eared guitar player. He’s deaf in one ear.
JK: Who did the vocals on ‘Night Creatures’ at the Humboldt show?
CP: That was me.
JK: I described them as, “The vocals are different, having a warbling delivery that at times sounds like David Byrne”.
CP: If you go back and listen to old Skoptzies ‘Night Creatures’ you’ll hear the same warbling. They didn’t know the lyrics to it, they just knew the music.
JK: I laughed at the end of the Antenna Club show when an announcer says, “Let’s hear it for Viktimized Corpse…. Viktimized Karcass, excuse me”.
CP: Yeah, well, you know (laughs). On the cover that’s Jackson standing with the headband on. I’m to the left of him. Richard is below me and Roger is below Jackson. That was taken somewhere on the tour. We used my brother’s van. My brother drove. We made enough money at every gig to eat and put gas in the van. And that was all we gave a damn about.