The Screamers, The Thread

Oh nice, is there a link to a site for it?

I've got that great semi-handmade vaguely bootleg 2 CD comp that came out some years ago, mindblowingly grand. I should listen to it again, been a while here...

i don't actually have the 2CD thing, though i've got everything on it on various tapes a friend made for me. this friend actually kept up a bit of correspondence with tomata in the year or so before his death ('99, '00?) and purchased a piece of art or two from him.

in addition to the double-cd there's a single cd of demo recordings that are actually better overall, but have an irritating high-frequency tone running through the whole disc (sounds like the kind of thing you get when you hi-speed dub a cassette, but louder). look for screamers demos on slsk. oh! and the "scuzzy the death cone clown" double 7" has some good stuff on it too. both are bootleg.

Tell me more! Actually I was just re-reading Neutron Bomb the other day and you're right, dude was from Oklahoma.

I think that high pitched tone in the (stunning, essential) LP bootleg is a guide or test tone that they forgot to take out or that was mistakenly added to the tape. I can't remember the specifics from my college audio classes, but that kind of thing can happen.

can't they remove that with newfangled technology or is it now considered a part of the screamers listening experience?

I also have that 2xCD comp, definitely recommend that one.

I just got into them. They're quite good; I'm surprised that NO ONE's heard of them. Nervous Gender, too.

It's also California synthpunk, so I figured I'd throw it in this thread - does anyone know anything about "Units" / "The Units"? I have a couple of vinyl rips that I found on some blog ("High Pressure Days" and "Warm Moving Bodies") - both are awesome, and I was digging around for more - but they never seem to have put out anything on CD.

Wikipedia says something about a comp. that was supposed to come out on a Portland Oregon label called "Community Library," but I can't find any other info on that.

Anyone know more about these guys?

Here's a discography.

I believe I've got a CDR of the Digital Stimulation album and it's pretty good. I also own the vinyl of their last release "New Way To Move" but like so many other bands of the era, by '83 there was a significant drop in quality.

I can easily put the Digital Stimulation album up on my blog tonight if you like.

Argh - that would be awesome!

Yes, Bimble do it!

Alright here it is, but really...I don't want to clog up a Screamers thread with too much Units! :) I'm thinking of just starting another thread for the Units. Eventually. But not right now.

I have the LP bootleg on mp3 and managed to get the annoying tone out very easily with Cool Edit Pro. Dunno why someone didn't do that before they bootlegged the stuff in the first place, damn lazy bootleggers!

Colonel Poo, you don't happen to have a blog or something where this might show up someday, do you?

^

BTW that Units discography did finally come out on Community Library.

My old band was on the Screamers tribute album too.

Big fans should really check out the Phantom Limbs, a synth punk band from the bay area that is sadly defunct, but left behind a better recorded legacy than the Screamers managed (since they were all anti-album and all...)

Eva Braun from demos 77-78 session

I'm trying to find old demos and stuff but everything on Synthsteria is like 22.5k and 56kbps :( Anyone got anything to share?

Try Xeroid Records from Seattle. That guy is an authority.

There's a newish bootleg 12" with I think six demo tracks kicking around, if that interests anyone

xpost: article on The Units in the recent issue of The Sound Projector

gimme a couple of hours (xpost)

I LOVE that Eva Braun version, am0n, never heard it before. yeah, it's 56k, but whatever.

Leonardo Music Journal -- Awesome!!

man I really wish there was a better rip of that "Eva Braun" version

man I really wish there was a better rip of that "Eva Braun" version

― sleeve, Wednesday, September 7, 2011 3:35 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

does anyone have a copy/rip of the "Trying To Be Like Jesus" CDR? I cannot find it *anywhere*

I've got the CDR; came across it on a Yahoo! Auction (IIRC) circa 1999, maybe. Had never heard of it before; have barely heard of it since.

please PM me if you can, thanks! would love a copy of that and have some cool stuff like a DVD of a bunch of video to trade.

How does it sound?

Pretty decent, if memory serves. IIRC, the version of "Eva Braun" is pretty much definitive.

Hi Dan, thanks for the PM, I got it, can you send me another one with yer email address? I can't reply to your email by itself.

and THANK YOU, I will hook u up with that DVD

that DVD offer goes for u too Stevie, just PM me w/ yer email or address

Meanwhile, never knew this is what K K Barrett does these days...

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/below-the-line-designing-her/?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043

Done, sleeve ... I think. Getting odd (or maybe I'm just not sufficiently awake to comprehend reality at the moment) non-results when I PM you.

Oh, cool. Didn't realize it till now because I'm apparently even slower than I think I am, but when andrewm, who started this thread back at the dawn of time, refers in a subsequent post to a "friend (who) actually kept up a bit of correspondence with tomata in the year or so before his death ('99, '00?) and purchased a piece of art or two from him," he's referring to moi. We (andrewm & I, not Tomata) used to work together in Little Rock. The piece of art in question is a rendition of my all-time favorite author, Philip K. Dick.

stevie I got your webmail (I assume), but Dan i did not get yer 2nd one. just send an email to sleeve then the at sign then kittymail then dot com if you would, and thank you!

O M G

I have never seen/heard "Nervous" before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzQXsVXVRCI&list=PL62A1766D1743001F&index=26

just put on the CD, thanks Dan, apparently my copy of the DVD is degraded and doesn't play past the first hour... but it's all on Youtube, I am not sure if the vid above is on it or not :(

the whole thing is here

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL62A1766D1743001F

Stevie I will send U a copy of this CDR

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/when_david_lee_roth_awesomely_botched

holy schnikeys

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=541941&viewcomm=7006947#comm7006947
was upped to Dime last week

lol DLR

comments below flagged up Van Halen's synthpunk one-off - Screamers influence is *debatable* but feeling it either way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vOL8e8oeTQ

Some demos being given an official vinyl release.

https://www.superiorviaduct.com/collections/screamers

woowwww

never thought I'd see this

this bootleg that came out in 2014 but turned up again a couple of years ago (altho still managed to miss out on buying a copy) is really good btw:

https://www.discogs.com/Screamers-Strength-Through-Intimidation-The-1978-Geza-X-Demos/master/889466

oh FFS, missed that one

i missed that one too! added to the list.

got mine pre-ordered

I've heard an advance and yep, great to hear these songs in that quality (which'll be even better on the real thing, I suspect).

A friend of mine did an unofficial remix/remaster of those demo tracks, and I am fine with that version tbh ... maybe if this wasn't Superior Viaduct and wasn't vinyl only I would consider it, but I am not dissing y'all's excitement about this

I'm previously unfamiliar with the company. Are they shit?

lol sarahell I was gonna PM you abt that, Bay Area politics partly and iirc some money complaints?

some feud w/Stranded that I don't understand at all

lol petty scene politics otm -- fwiw, my grudge against scarfy steve is tapering off such that I don't feel compelled to talk shit and say "fuck that guy and his label" every time it comes up, but, his response to Flyergate was serious dickery. ... the money thing was ilxor akm's issue iirc

xp sleeve, the musician whose fb complaint about Stranded that kicked off Flyergate recently moved to Oregon ... probably somewhere near you i think?

and to be super ilx-y here -- the friend who did the Screamers remaster (just a thing he shared w/friends) was the dude through whom I met ilxor Chaki at the Throbbing Gristle reunion show!

Cool

In the late '70s, Screamers were one of the leaders of the L.A. punk scene—but they never released any recorded music. So they became a myth.

A new archival 12" changes all that. For the @nytimes, I wrote about the band stepping into the light: https://t.co/E75jYlMBlr

— Nate Rogers (@Nate_Rgrs) April 14, 2021

Interesting article. 12 “ record out Friday April 16. Saw on twitter someone say they saw Screamers in NYC way back when. I had always thought they just did Cali gigs. I guess not

https://nodogsinspace.libsyn.com/the-screamers-pt-i

The latest episode of Pleasant Gehman's podcast "The Devil's Music" is an interview with Fayette Hauser, the "Cockette" with whom Tomata du Plenty moved to NYC and performed with there circa '72-'74. Some discussion of the Screamers in that.

There's a great interview with Paul Roessl on the Mojack pod.
https://soundcloud.com/mojackpod/154-pat-ruthensmear-ruthensmear-w-paul-roessler
Note that on every episode of that show you need to skip ahead about twenty minutes to get to the interviews. Oh it's also all about the Pat Smear solo album, too, and there is not much mention of the Screamers.

I like No Dogs in Space, but I wonder why they insist that Suicide made just two albums?

holy shit, these are a revelation

WAY more Eno in this (new to me) take of "Punish Or Be Damned" than I ever noticed before

I ordered this thing, is it ever coming out?

mine came today, I'm close to Oakland relatively. it does seem late.

got it!

this ruuuuuuuuuules