HR065 - Viktimized Karcass - Live! — C46 — 1988
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Side A: Monster Mash Talking About Crack Outside Blame It All On Myself Got To Be Side B: Molly Ann (Version) American Women Back On The Trail #3 Night Creatures I Can't Breathe-Lounge Version #2 |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
In October 1987, Al Margolis (If, Bwana) and Hal McGee (Dog As Master) toured together as Bwana Dog (detailed in HR050 review and see links below). The Live! cassette album documents Viktimized Karcass’ performance opening for Bwana Dog at the Antenna Club on the Memphis stop of the tour, October 30, 1987.
The sound quality is firmly bootleg but essential listening for Viktimized Karcass fans as you can easily hear the performance. Side A opens with a recording of the old ‘Monster Mash’ hit before launching into ‘Talking About Crack’, a heavy guitar driven rocker with a catchy melodic hook. There are vocals but they’re buried. ‘Outside’ is like industrial goth with a stoner rock ‘n’ roll guitarist. The vocals have a ghoulish sound, which is a cool and strange contrast with the chunky drugged rock pulse and guitar solos. ‘Blame It All On Myself’ consists of Industrial doom rock with demonically gnarly vocals and spaced out rhythmic electronic pulsations, plus additional vocals chanting, “We’re an American Band!”. Excellent tune with a killer sinister spaced out atmosphere. ‘Got To Be’ features wigged out punky space rock with really good guitar riffage and wailing keys. It’s like Chrome during their most brain damaged yet catchy song-oriented moments.
‘Molly Ann (Version)’ is an Industrial space rocker with a New Wave edge and more rocking guitar solos. I love the contrasts Karcass cram together and manage to make it WORK. It’s freeform crazy on the one hand but there is… sort of… a cohesive song in there too. Karcass take the Guess Who classic ‘American Woman’ and give it the psychedelic punk, brain-on-drugs treatment. It’s space-industrial yet good time rock. The band then tease the audience with little ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Freebird’ snippets before cranking out the dissonant, angular, yet tastefully melodic ‘Back On The Trail #3’, which is colored by strange noisy scratching hip-hop effects. ‘Night Creatures’ is Viktimized Karcass’ take on anthem rock. Karcass of course are noisy and grungy, but this is guitar and fist pumping cheer dominated, and it sure feels like we’re rocking at the stadium. Never short of surprises, Karcass close their set with ‘I Can’t Breathe – Lounge Version #2’, which is beautifully sedate, dreamy, melodic, jazzy, but with both punk lounge singer vocals and the same frightening vocals we heard on ‘Blame It All On Myself’. Quite a performance!
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: Was Viktimized Karcass opening for Bwana Dog? Any other bands on the bill?
CP: It was Halloween. Mystery Hearsay (Mike Honeycutt) played his live show. He opened. Then Viktimized Karcass. Then Hal came on and did a Dog As Master set. And Bwana Dog’s set got cut short because everybody took so damn long. We all took too long. It took a while even to start the show. But Bwana Dog did play and it was all good.
JK: So it was Mystery Hearsay, then Viktimized Karcass, Dog As Master, and then Bwana Dog. Were there many people there?
CP: A pretty good bit. The average crowd. Everybody drinking and having a good time. It was ok. We got our usual dose of shit while we were playing, but we were used to that. We played that bit of ‘Freebird’ on purpose just to piss people off. We played just a piece of it then quit.
JK: How long did Hal and Al stay in Memphis? Did you do any recording with them?
CP: No. We didn’t do any recording. We just chilled out.
JK: Was this the first time you had met Hal and Al?
CP: I had met Al before up in New York and stayed with him. I had not met Hal before this stop on the Bwana Dog tour. We had talked and traded but we hadn’t met. But Hal and I went on to create a long and illustrious catalog of music. And it’s still going.
JK: The Phinney/McGee catalog alone is pretty sizable.
CP: It’s a big one. I can’t remember but it’s like 22 releases.
JK: I liked the Karcass set. At the very beginning I hear ‘Monster Mash’, but it sounds like it's actually the record? Or is that Richard or you singing to the record? Doesn’t sound like the band.
CP: It was the ‘Monster Mash’ record. But Richard was mumbling some bullshit along with it (laughs).
JK: I really like ‘Outside’. Was that Richard doing the ghoulish sounding vocals?
CP: Yeah, that was Richard on vocals. We wrote that song a long time ago. You’ve heard probably 3 or 4 different versions of it. ‘Talking About Crack’, the song we opened with, that was originally on Doug Walker’s label, Galactus.
JK: A Viktimized Karcass tape on Galactus?
CP: The tape was called Think Like Abe Lincoln. It ended up on Xkurzhen Sound when Doug decided he couldn’t handle running Galactus tapes. He was mostly focused on Alien Planetscapes.
JK: Another song with crazy vocals that I liked is ‘Blame It All On Myself’.
CP: That’s a great song! I like it better on the studio version because the sound quality is better. Richard did the vocals on that song too. I think Richard did all the vocals during that show. I had to focus on drum machine and keys. Well, I did do vocals on ‘Night Creatures’. That’s an old Skoptzies song.
JK: I laughed when in the middle of ‘Blame It All On Myself’ someone is chanting “We’re an American band!”
CP: That was Richard. We have to throw our weirdness in there. And I’m pretty sure that after It’s Only Cock In Hole (HR066) you will not hear ‘Got To Be’ ever again.
JK: You must have liked it because it’s on Strangled (HR064) too. But this live version was good. I described it as wigged out punky space rock. It has really good guitar riffage and wailing keys too. And right before ‘Got To Be’, someone, I guess Richard, says “We dedicate this song to Molly Ann”.
CP: That was Mike Jackson who said that.
JK: And after that you did the song ‘Molly Ann’.
CP: One version of it out of a bunch of them (laughs).
JK: It has a great industrial space rock feel to it, but with a New Wave edge and good guitar solos. And the ‘American Woman’ cover was fun.
CP: We were provoked into doing a cover of some sort.
JK: What do you mean provoked?
CP: Just the crowd hollering that they wanted to hear this and that. Ok, you want a cover, this is what we’re gonna do.
JK: I gotcha, you were responding to the audience.
CP: Yeah, that’s why you hear all the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Freebird’ shit. Cause that’s what everybody always played.
JK: I did remember ‘Night Creatures’. It has a fist pumping anthem rock vibe to it.
CP: Oh yeah, it’s a wild one.
JK: And the last song, ‘I Can’t Breathe’, took me completely by surprise because it’s so sedate and dreamy and melodic. Bit of an oddball twist to the set.
CP: It’s insane is what it is (laughs). We recorded that in the studio (Death’s Deal, HR029) and decided to include it in the live show as well.
JK: On the tape cover there’s handwriting that says, “Hey dude! Did you go see the VK’s the other night? Huh, huh, did you?” Was that some inside joke?
CP: Just a joke about the shows and how many people show up. A lot of people didn’t show up to see Karcass or Skoptzies or several other bands. We were not the normal rock band bullshit.
BWANA DOG TOUR RECORDINGS:
Dog As Master/If, Bwana – ‘Painting’ (Recordings from various stops on the tour)
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/painting
Dog As Master/If, Bwana’ – ‘Live In Toronto’
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-toronto
Dog As Master – ‘Live In Memphis’
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-memphis
In October 1987, Al Margolis (If, Bwana) and Hal McGee (Dog As Master) toured together as Bwana Dog (detailed in HR050 review and see links below). The Live! cassette album documents Viktimized Karcass’ performance opening for Bwana Dog at the Antenna Club on the Memphis stop of the tour, October 30, 1987.
The sound quality is firmly bootleg but essential listening for Viktimized Karcass fans as you can easily hear the performance. Side A opens with a recording of the old ‘Monster Mash’ hit before launching into ‘Talking About Crack’, a heavy guitar driven rocker with a catchy melodic hook. There are vocals but they’re buried. ‘Outside’ is like industrial goth with a stoner rock ‘n’ roll guitarist. The vocals have a ghoulish sound, which is a cool and strange contrast with the chunky drugged rock pulse and guitar solos. ‘Blame It All On Myself’ consists of Industrial doom rock with demonically gnarly vocals and spaced out rhythmic electronic pulsations, plus additional vocals chanting, “We’re an American Band!”. Excellent tune with a killer sinister spaced out atmosphere. ‘Got To Be’ features wigged out punky space rock with really good guitar riffage and wailing keys. It’s like Chrome during their most brain damaged yet catchy song-oriented moments.
‘Molly Ann (Version)’ is an Industrial space rocker with a New Wave edge and more rocking guitar solos. I love the contrasts Karcass cram together and manage to make it WORK. It’s freeform crazy on the one hand but there is… sort of… a cohesive song in there too. Karcass take the Guess Who classic ‘American Woman’ and give it the psychedelic punk, brain-on-drugs treatment. It’s space-industrial yet good time rock. The band then tease the audience with little ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Freebird’ snippets before cranking out the dissonant, angular, yet tastefully melodic ‘Back On The Trail #3’, which is colored by strange noisy scratching hip-hop effects. ‘Night Creatures’ is Viktimized Karcass’ take on anthem rock. Karcass of course are noisy and grungy, but this is guitar and fist pumping cheer dominated, and it sure feels like we’re rocking at the stadium. Never short of surprises, Karcass close their set with ‘I Can’t Breathe – Lounge Version #2’, which is beautifully sedate, dreamy, melodic, jazzy, but with both punk lounge singer vocals and the same frightening vocals we heard on ‘Blame It All On Myself’. Quite a performance!
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: Was Viktimized Karcass opening for Bwana Dog? Any other bands on the bill?
CP: It was Halloween. Mystery Hearsay (Mike Honeycutt) played his live show. He opened. Then Viktimized Karcass. Then Hal came on and did a Dog As Master set. And Bwana Dog’s set got cut short because everybody took so damn long. We all took too long. It took a while even to start the show. But Bwana Dog did play and it was all good.
JK: So it was Mystery Hearsay, then Viktimized Karcass, Dog As Master, and then Bwana Dog. Were there many people there?
CP: A pretty good bit. The average crowd. Everybody drinking and having a good time. It was ok. We got our usual dose of shit while we were playing, but we were used to that. We played that bit of ‘Freebird’ on purpose just to piss people off. We played just a piece of it then quit.
JK: How long did Hal and Al stay in Memphis? Did you do any recording with them?
CP: No. We didn’t do any recording. We just chilled out.
JK: Was this the first time you had met Hal and Al?
CP: I had met Al before up in New York and stayed with him. I had not met Hal before this stop on the Bwana Dog tour. We had talked and traded but we hadn’t met. But Hal and I went on to create a long and illustrious catalog of music. And it’s still going.
JK: The Phinney/McGee catalog alone is pretty sizable.
CP: It’s a big one. I can’t remember but it’s like 22 releases.
JK: I liked the Karcass set. At the very beginning I hear ‘Monster Mash’, but it sounds like it's actually the record? Or is that Richard or you singing to the record? Doesn’t sound like the band.
CP: It was the ‘Monster Mash’ record. But Richard was mumbling some bullshit along with it (laughs).
JK: I really like ‘Outside’. Was that Richard doing the ghoulish sounding vocals?
CP: Yeah, that was Richard on vocals. We wrote that song a long time ago. You’ve heard probably 3 or 4 different versions of it. ‘Talking About Crack’, the song we opened with, that was originally on Doug Walker’s label, Galactus.
JK: A Viktimized Karcass tape on Galactus?
CP: The tape was called Think Like Abe Lincoln. It ended up on Xkurzhen Sound when Doug decided he couldn’t handle running Galactus tapes. He was mostly focused on Alien Planetscapes.
JK: Another song with crazy vocals that I liked is ‘Blame It All On Myself’.
CP: That’s a great song! I like it better on the studio version because the sound quality is better. Richard did the vocals on that song too. I think Richard did all the vocals during that show. I had to focus on drum machine and keys. Well, I did do vocals on ‘Night Creatures’. That’s an old Skoptzies song.
JK: I laughed when in the middle of ‘Blame It All On Myself’ someone is chanting “We’re an American band!”
CP: That was Richard. We have to throw our weirdness in there. And I’m pretty sure that after It’s Only Cock In Hole (HR066) you will not hear ‘Got To Be’ ever again.
JK: You must have liked it because it’s on Strangled (HR064) too. But this live version was good. I described it as wigged out punky space rock. It has really good guitar riffage and wailing keys too. And right before ‘Got To Be’, someone, I guess Richard, says “We dedicate this song to Molly Ann”.
CP: That was Mike Jackson who said that.
JK: And after that you did the song ‘Molly Ann’.
CP: One version of it out of a bunch of them (laughs).
JK: It has a great industrial space rock feel to it, but with a New Wave edge and good guitar solos. And the ‘American Woman’ cover was fun.
CP: We were provoked into doing a cover of some sort.
JK: What do you mean provoked?
CP: Just the crowd hollering that they wanted to hear this and that. Ok, you want a cover, this is what we’re gonna do.
JK: I gotcha, you were responding to the audience.
CP: Yeah, that’s why you hear all the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Freebird’ shit. Cause that’s what everybody always played.
JK: I did remember ‘Night Creatures’. It has a fist pumping anthem rock vibe to it.
CP: Oh yeah, it’s a wild one.
JK: And the last song, ‘I Can’t Breathe’, took me completely by surprise because it’s so sedate and dreamy and melodic. Bit of an oddball twist to the set.
CP: It’s insane is what it is (laughs). We recorded that in the studio (Death’s Deal, HR029) and decided to include it in the live show as well.
JK: On the tape cover there’s handwriting that says, “Hey dude! Did you go see the VK’s the other night? Huh, huh, did you?” Was that some inside joke?
CP: Just a joke about the shows and how many people show up. A lot of people didn’t show up to see Karcass or Skoptzies or several other bands. We were not the normal rock band bullshit.
BWANA DOG TOUR RECORDINGS:
Dog As Master/If, Bwana – ‘Painting’ (Recordings from various stops on the tour)
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/painting
Dog As Master/If, Bwana’ – ‘Live In Toronto’
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-toronto
Dog As Master – ‘Live In Memphis’
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-memphis