Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel

Anyone heard that Baby Zizane album that came out last year?

Favorite Foetus tune: "Bedrock"
Runner-up: "Free James (so he can run me down)"

Wash It All Off

I'll Meet You in Poland, Baby

Wiseblood LP

I didn't much like Deaf or Ache and never really went much further..

Nail is the classic, though Thaw is particularly gruesome and makes a lot of appearances even now

yes Gash was ace (the mad jazz of Slung is a highlight), despite it getting a little to close to industrial stereotyping for much of the 60 mins, though the spinoff Null ep with remixes was far more concise and enjoyable, but the latest album Flow was seriously back on form with his mutant horns and dark fun. which was remixed to death by various electronica folks for Blow (Young Gods, DJ Food, Amon Tombin being my faves of this set)

recently though he has been discovering the inner workings of his laptop with Manorexia (??) and i have to admit i aint heard that yet.

new Foetus stuff on its way i hear 'Love'

Story : London T&C (1986) - Thaw release - backing band The Swans.

Jim was getting seriously wound up by some kid in the full on mosh pit, the bass monster from the Swans (??) - A LARGE man - also giving ugly gesticulations to said people in the mosh was slapping the bass sooo hard that a string snapped and recoiled around his finger, he than pulled his finger out of the coil string only to create a spray of blood. naturally he continued pounding the instrumnent to the gorebeat.

within a few minutes Jim jumped into the moshpit and started beating the shit out of somebody before climbing back on stage.

not a note was missed.

it was the most intense gig of my life.
whether it was staged or not.
i suspect not.

avoid Boil, not a good live album, especially up against the excellent Male live cd.

enjoy.

As an introduction, the Foetus live album 'Male' is pretty much untouchable for beginners. It has pretty damn great versions of my favourite Foetus songs ("I'll Meet You In Poland, Baby", "Butterfly Potion", "English Faggot", "Someone Drowned In My Pool", "Free James Brown") and two astonishing covers ("Faith Healer" and "Behemoth"), aligned with probably the best backing band Thirlwell ever had (Kizys, David Ouimet, Norman Westerberg).

Studio albums: 'Nail' and 'Hole' are the two real essentials, and the Wiseblood album.

'hole' is a total masterpiece. totally changed my life. 'ache' has actually aged really well, much better than i'd have thought it would.

a perfect evenings entertainment.

bloke next to me was On something .. naked from waste up .. girating constantly .. as if at a Rave .. weird as fuck considering the noise being made by the band.

one freaky time.

only to be followed up by wearing the Foetus Interruptus T-shirt in Leeds a few days later - and being accosted by some girl that it was appalling ..

How the hell did I remember all those lyrics?

HEEEEEEELLLLLLLO operator give me no-man's land
Collect call to no one at all
Been yellin' into an empty closet
To the point of no return and no deposit

killer stuff.

(xpost)

Where next? Gash, Flow or Nail?

WHEN YOU'RE DESTINED TO LIVE IN A STREET OF SHAME!

oOOH ah, DESTINED, destined to live in a street of shame,

STREET OF SHAME

Sounds like a good idea, following the discography back in time like that. LOVE is very different from the older albums, and if you follow that order the trip back could be (slightly) easier, I think.

I've probably listened to my 12" of "Wash It All Off" about 3000 times over the years, but today is a great day because I finally heard the original 7" version from 1982. Ha-ha. That is totally off the hook. What a treat. I love him all over again now.

Seriously, the period from 84 - 87 when he released not only "Hole" and "Nail" but also "Calamity Crush", "Wash It All Off", "Finely Honed Machine", "Bedrock" and "Ramrod". Just.....whew! Fucking amazing. Absolutely fucking amazing.

yup, that was an amazing period. got to add 'motorslug' and 'dirtdish' too.

i couldn't find them at the time but have subsequently and also really love the early records- 'spite your face', 'custom built for capitalism', 'wash it all off' (7"), 'tell me what is the bane of your life', 'deaf' and 'ache'.

i wonder whatever happened to the proposed foetus on the beach triple lp and 2nd f.a.t. 12"?

FORTHCOMING RELEASES ON SELF IMMOLATION/SOME BIZZARE & ASSOCIATED PRODUCT

WOMB FGH 12.8: YOU'VE GOT FOETUS ON YOUR BREATH
"Wash It All Off"/"Today I Started Slogging Again" - 12 45rpm ( Jan '85 )

WOMB UNC12.7 FOETUS UBER FRISCO
"Finely Honed Machine"/"Sick Minutes" - 12" 45rpm ( Jan '85 )

WISEBLOOD ( featuring CLINT RUIN of SFOTW & ROLI MOSIMANN of SWANS )
"Motor-slug"/"Death Rape 2000" ( on K422 ) - 12" 45rpm ( Feb '85 )

"THE FOETUS OF EXCELLENCE" - EMPTY BOX/ T SHIRT ( Feb '85 )

FOETUS ART TERRORISM: 2nd twelve inch - ( Mid '85 )

SCRAPING FOETUS OFF THE WHEEL: 2nd L.P. - ( Mid '85 )

WOMB 6T33: "FOETUS ON THE BEACH" - triple L.P. ( Late '89‡ )

all early Foetus rules, yes. the singles are great, both early albums also excellent. Thirsty Ear reissued them on CD some years back.

don't forget the Foetus Of Excellence T-shirt!

Yeah I forgot about the Motorslug 12" - a work of genius, obviously. What a guy!

I have to get those first two albums sometime. I wanted them for years but when they were reissued I'd kind of moved on and it wasn't so urgent anymore. But I'll pick them up someday.

ahh motorslug.
but seriously - who can listen to Death Rape 2000 all the way through ? the lead track is just sheer class, but i never manage to make it all the way through the flip.
12" came with a great comic as well ..
agree - this really was an amazing period in Jims career.
the Dirtdish cd version is totally worth tracking down, just for the different versions of Someone drowned in my pool (surely one of the funniest/darkest tracks ever ?), and the genius that was Stumbo.
Ahh the days I used to wear my dayglo orange/pink Savage Pencil Stumbo T-shirt and revel in the disbelieving stares, whereas now its banned to the archive as my wife refuses to be seen out in public with me wearing it.
Naturally, he fell in for the Sony dollar, and things were never quite the same again, though the internet only album Damp seems to have some cracking stuff on it, once i get back into the Foetus mood.

who can listen to Death Rape 2000 all the way through ?

Weah, what a headache. David Gedge once chose it in a list of his favourite records along with Spike Milligan's Tape Recorder by the Membranes so he must have an ear for such things. They even played a little bit of it on the radio.

Who knew Dave Gedge liked Foetus!

have to admit my head was spun a little by that fact.

I've been on a Foetus kick for the last few days. The timelessness of these recordings is astounding. The absence of band photos or videos, combined with the facts that he's always been difficult to pigeonhole AND the superb quality of the recordings means they could have been released anytime in the last 30 years. Things like "Diabolus in Musica" or "Sick Minutes" sound so contemporary alonside groups like Battles, for instance.

I'm not surprised David Gedge likes Foetus & the Membranes - apparently the name The Wedding Present was inspired by his being a fan of the Birthday Party.

And the early Weddoes stuff was super-intense too.

Currently listening to Stereoid Maximus's "Gondwanaland". Wild. And GROOVY!

Along with everybody else, I just fucking LOVE the mid-to-late-80s Foetus stuff. Esp Nail, but the singles and side projex too. Fucking Wiseblood! Amazing music and the lyrics are even better. Stuck in that "confrontational" 80s fake tough guy mode, but still so smart, funny, self-lacerating and perversely joyful. I like how he frames the stereotypical pigfuck tropes as 40s hard-boiled noir. Gives it a big wink and makes the nihilist mutilation angle seem a lot less pretentious. Damn fine producer of other folks' music, too (Boss Hog, etc.).

guess what?

TEMBATEMBATEMBATEMBA

Yes

good morning all.
here's this years treat from Jim - if it works.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-K7H5xXIAMPATm?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

slackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslackslack
flakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflakflak

Aye!

I hear you got a six inch guarantee of unilateral security

SEE YOU AT YOUR GRAVESIDE, BABY.

*squeals of feedback*

Imponderable soundtrack CD for $5 on Discogs, US peeps. (I'm not selling it I just think you should buy it.)

https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/1298660760

ember ember

too soon for a "me and putin, we just signed..." remake

Best use of a Fairlight in music history

A live chamber music version, from 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPkbh0XAsI8

i was meant to see the ensemble thing in london a couple of years back, but covid etc.

oh, and the picture jim has posted today could have been taken this week.

too soon for a "me and putin, we just signed..." remake

boom!

seconded on best use of a fairlight.

Wasn't Calamity Crush/Catastrophe Crunch done on a Fairlight?

it 100% sounds like it was.

all the orchestral stuff on "nail" too.

Couple nights ago...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGN7_j7uG3o

The instrumental at the start of Nail is so lovely

another year another love

Thirwell is done with releasing physical media isn't he? I should probably get what CDs I can afford right now if they're never coming out again

I think he mentioned that a CD of Archer music was coming later this year. And he released a 40th anniversary white vinyl version of Ache.

nice, missed that Ache reissue but I have an OG LP and reissue CD already, always nice to see it out there again. Ache is so great and has my single favorite song of his ("Gums Bleed")

Gums Bleed available only on Apple Music almost makes me have an Apple Music account only for this

Thirwell is done with releasing physical media isn't he?

interesting.
has he actually said this anywhwere ?

in foetus related news :
i once ordered a cd from him and it came with a signed sticker.
fast forward years later, and could i find that sticker anywhere ?
i scoured this place from top to bottom for weeks once i had it in my head that i had to find it.
i gave up.
then a couple of weeks back i decided to check out my Motorslug 12" with comic (wanted to look at the artwork etc) ..
and yeah, the sticker dropped out of the comic.

I just have a memory of him and Jarboe saying they wouldn't be releasing physical media anymore. Can't recall sources

put GASH on cos of this nudge.
damn, SLUNG is insanely fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnn-L1utCS8

This interview is from 2020 but he said he has 9 albums in the works! And he lived with Keith Allen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdVxXt4zbqY

And he lived with Keith Allen!

Which is likely why he appeared briefly in The Bullshitters.

It's about time for Mortaring Foetus Back on the Wheel I think.

that soft cell appearance is soemething else. I really loved the soft cell set in SF but this would have put it over the top.

He also says there will be a final concluding Foetus album.

The last few Xordox and Thirlwell albums have been on CD so either I misremembered or he changed his mind

Which is likely why he appeared briefly in The Bullshitters.

Best cameo ever. Nice if he could have been the centre of The Yob instead of UB40 as well

What day is it????

TEMBATEMBATEMBATEMBA

― visiting, Tuesday, August 31, 2021 10:39 PM (two years ago)

We have ways of making you talk

WELL I GAVE YOU A LOT OF SLACK
BUT ALL I GET FROM YOU IS FLAK
-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK

Today is the first first of September without onimo.

:(

JG Thirlwell was in my dream last night ... I rarely have dreams about music

when my sister still lived in london she was leaving her house once and encountered a pasty-looking type on the pavement eyeing her house weirdly. she asked what was up and pasty said the house was a SHRINE* bcz FOETUS once lived there. which she had not till then known (the previous inhabitant had been a sad-seeming lady with many cats). anyway maybe keith allen also lived there…

*i don't imagine they actually said SHRINE, it's what they meant tho (i have a very clear imagined idea of this person lol, based entirely on unjust assumption)

Pasty fans of pasty Foetus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNXroStKqg4

Another interview at Lydia and Tim's podcast. Mostly about soundtrack work, he's writing an autobiography and there's a bit of talk about the best musician autobiographies

https://archive.is/AeGJZ what a beautiful loft <3

https://www.curbed.com/article/brooklyn-artists-loft-law-joshua-charow-book-excerpt.html

original URL

the photos:

https://archive.is/AeGJZ/a7d089fd461a95ddf82f26903a72d52dacf84b54.webp
https://archive.is/AeGJZ/bd32c9244f172a21c23e215b20007763eba93ed5.webp
https://archive.is/AeGJZ/1966299db734f3e3896d7ee18f61112aa28372fc.webp

wow

Lovely stuff

I went there once to interview him for The Wire. It's a really nice space.