Afrika Islam In Beast 661

Okay, that's enough mind control youth-cult Pop Music(k) for now.  Time to get back to records that I actually believe in.  So go ahead and hit "play" on the video clip, and then check back in with me when these cats are done taking you to school.

So, Lake Of Dracula.  GodDAMN what a fabulous band.  This was one of a million short-lived projects that popped out of the No-Wave scene in late 90's Chicago.  LOD were unique in their scene because they actually did regular band stuff like play shows and put out an album, and also because they were (and this is relative, y'understand) a Straight-Up Punk Band while all their pals (and, to be honest, their side projects) were all free-jazzing and post-punk-noise-progging themselves to the absolute limits of endurance.

And this is the best thing they ever put out.  This is not to slight their excellent self-titled album (which, Portland Pals, is available for SEVEN BUCKS AT GREEN NOISE RECORDS RIGHT THIS SECOND GO GO GO), but this little number is FLAWLESS.  This is the LOD contribution to the "Kill Rock Stars Singles Club", and it features the same line-up from the full-length (former Couch member and future techno fop Marlon Magas on vocals, Heather from Scissor Girls on Drums, Weasel Walter from Flying Luttenbachers and a million other things on Guitar, and U.S. Maple's Al Johnson as THE MANHATTANITE), plus former JAKS member Jessica Ruffins on bass.


Now, maybe I'm prejudiced toward my own instrument, but I think there's a lesson here for all these new-fangled bands that think they're too cool to have bass players.  The lesson is:  YOU AREN'T.  Check the Lake of Dracula math:  no bass player equals great (if slightly monotonous) album, bass player equals BEST RECORD OF YR CAREER.  And she's not even playing particularly noticeable parts (except for on "Violators" when the bass sounds like an airplane).  All Jessica Ruffin is doing is holding the rhythm down like a pillow on the face of a comatose child (where the hell did that come from?).  A simple and unappreciated act (cos she's not on ANYTHING else these dudes did) that allows...


Well, shit, go download the thing.  Bask in the glory that is "Four Teachers," with its ludicrous and overblown intro suddenly clenching into the tightest Balled Fist of a Riff I've ever heard.  With its insane repetition and noise-wash bridge.  With Magas snarling that "Darby Crash is Afrika Islam in Beast 661" before that fucking monster riff comes back in.  I don't know what it means either, but it's fucking rad.

And then "Violators"!  With an Even More Preposterous Intro!  And another basic riff getting beaten into abstraction through a process of repetition repetition repetition.  And airplane bass.  Not as epic (and therefore not as essential) as "Teachers" it's still the sort of thing that lesser bands could (and should) build their careers on. 


So.  One single, one album, and out.  There's a bootleg live 7-inch floating around (I can put it up, if yr interested), and that's about it... oh, except they did a rarities album a few years ago that has some extra live stuff and alternate album takes (basically the same songs but with no Al Johnson, if that makes any sense to you).  It's all great.  But not as great as this 7-inch.