Flophouse

Next way ' under the radar ' band I'm posting about is a group called - Flophouse. Self described as "Chicago's longest running kind of sounds like music combo , since 1984' (a great year for alot of kinds of music!) this 'group' (really the only constant member is Alan Richter I think) came to my attention due once again to WZRD 88.3fm in Chicago.  Their sound can barely be defined except maybe as 'noisejam' ??! Not a good description but there you have it. its as if i can picture this group jamming noise with a basement loaded with tons of old equipment (guitars with half blown out fuzzy pickups, bass guitars with ancient ,rusty wobbly strings, keyboards and synths from the early 70's , amps that need repair, drums and percussive instruments found at old thrift stores, garages and junk yards and ....well you get the idea!...) And with all this they just throw it into a big melting pot and compose stuff . Pot probably has a part speaking of too.  Some tracks are really solid  others are missing something  but its just sound like they are having fun in a twisted way . The best example of their work i think is the 1987 self released "7 -Flopdisk. 500 copies were made and you can still buy it .  Here's a few tracks from it : 


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=60944&songID=708652


 http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=60944&songID=623859



Other links for more than enough info and tons of songs :

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=60944


Discogs : http://www.discogs.com/artist/Flophouse



The actually released alot more than what is on the Discogs page and that needs to be corrected. There are alot of cassette only releases, several of which i've played on my dj days at WZRD, and a full length split Lp package with one whole slab of vinyl by Flophouse and one by fellow Chicago experimentalist Research Defense Squad. 

Some pics :

Pagan Amen

Pagan Amen-  to my knowledge was active ( i assume) in Chicago during the mid-late 80's.  It consisted of two members: Ziva Tara and Danger Joe.  They released two tapes i know of  : "Brainstemstrangleholddeathgrip" (see pics below) (1987) and "Fifth Circuit "(1987) . The music is very basic sound collage/ ultra primitive 4-track experiments : Casio Sk-1 loops/ keyboard noodling, tape loops and such. The " Live" side on S-B of  the 'Brain...'tape is noise generator sounds & junkyard percussion; one long track - very low fi . It doesn't say where it was recorded though. i bought this tape at Pravda records (next to the Metro) i forgot which side it was on  back in '89 i think . i still have the $3.99 sticker on it. When i brought it up to the counter the clerk had no idea who it was . I just remember some dj playing some of PA on WZRD I told him . Just by happenstance i saw it in the store that day when browsing. I was collecting all the weird stuff i could find in local shops back then that i heard on college radio.

music links forthcoming.......

                                                                   

                                     

                                          

                                         

                                          

                                                  

 

       

                                     

Intro post

This is the first  (introductory)post of this blog. Its intention is to bring to light (for no other reason than i just like these groups or tapes i found) some of the more obscure Noise /Experimental or hard to define  projects/ bands/artists  around the  Chicago area.  Mainly though these are groups from the past who are no longer around  or   have very little  information that they existed  (not even on the Net) . Most of them will be  concerning long gone groups  but also some from the current  Chicago scene who fly under the radar (which is easy to do in this city  , even more so in the Noise DIY  scene today than in the 80's).

I don't know how extensive this will be . We'll see how long i keep it going or my interest runs out .  I will try to post as much as i can but it probably will be far between posts.   BUT -  I need help !!  if you know of any information on these groups i post please send them my way.   Music links ,pics, background ,shows they did ,stories ect............  my email : mikekrause89@hotmail.com

Some of these i have lined up to post pics of cassettes ,  Lps and music links (need to work on digitizing  tapes though yet for a lot of them)  are :

Pagan Amen 
Burden of Friendship
Research Defense Squad 
End Result  (more known then most stuff i will post but still not  very well known)
Metnong 
Straightjacket Bazooka (nothing online on them i found yet!) They did a record or two in the 80's  
Flophouse
Basic Food Group 
Reality Scare
..............................................................................................


NOTE : thanks to Ken Wong for the title of the Blog .

hopefully i can get started in the next week or so ,  with a better layout/background page too.

send info. though to my e-mail - thanks!