Well, haven't written for a while, lots to cover, some important stuff, lots of waffling; let's jam it all into one gigantic unwieldy post

Thanks for sticking with us through the lean times, the meantimes, those pink and purple hours spent without another fucking new post on some fucking blog somewhere.....



What the hell was that? That was the uncrowned King/Thing of Dunedin, Dr Rory Storm; just a typical night, you know, perched on some cushions, strange black hookahs around him, winnowing out the deathless ethnic electrobeat of the gods... yes, we all had fun this Saturday past at Arc Cafe laying down some ultra-chilled jams in our new 'combo' Jo Jo ef Steve, supporting the shaman munt of the mighty Futurians. This is the grouping that took shape on the radio a couple of weeks back - see post below - of Cockburn, Currin, Storm and, although she couldn't make to the radio gig, finally we got to play with the awesome Eddie Stevens WHO you can also hear on the BRAND NEW Rory Storm and the Invaders cd 'Lone Nines', out NOW on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon (click here for a rather thoughtful review of the Invaders' last gig...)! A good time was had by all - Ryan got to wear his bunny suit (unfortunately NOT one of the ones made of dinosaur wallpaper) - and thanks to everyone who snaffled up our t-shirts, cd's, beer coasters and coffee mugs. Also, thanks to The Futurians for the gig and SPECIAL thanks to the below-pictured sweetie who came perfectly dressed as Velma from Scooby Doo and laid in the moves somethin' rare.



Nerves and passions are all atwinge this week as we prepare to send our first REAL CD off to the plant, Three Forks' 'Seven Layer Ape'. It's been a long hard road but I think we all agree that it's been worth the pain and the shouting matches to get here; this baby is a gem. You'd drop several hundred hard-earned dollars on it right now, too, if you could only hear it. Contains some astonishingly great, shortish jams that sound like composed 'pieces' - about which we said 'fuck, that sucked' straight after we recorded 'em - and the legendaryish 'Drunken Traffic' performance at the Community Gallery in the centre of town. Which member of the band was actually having trouble standing during that gig? You'll never guess...

Also, nestled screaming and bewildered on Ryan Cockburn's stomach, umbilical knife at the ready, is the Spit cdr 'Trash Music Spitacular' which I'll rave out about at length once he lets me listen to the whole thing. Suffice to say for now that it'll come in a hard-card printed inner sleeve, screenprinted outer sleeve, with a booklet, and features recordings that'll have you saying things like 'I've never heard asphalt sound quite like that before' and 'interesting, I didn't know you could perform S/M/bondage on a pile of furniture', etc.

Now it must be pointed out that although there seems to be no end of out-of-print, You-Missed-It-Muther items listed on this page, quite a few of those ARE still available via our esteemed, gentle, worthy, handsome distributors whose links you will find on the right-hand side of this page but whom I'll mention here again in all-capitals: ECLIPSE, FUSETRON and VOLCANIC TONGUE. Search around these lovelies' sites and you should find all of these:

Sinking Infinities 'Forever Young' cdr
Ray Off 'I Am Not In The Racing Sky' cdr
Sinking Infinities 'Thousand Year Reich' cdr

as well as these non-UFM, yet affiliated, out-of-print releases:

Co.,Inc 'Hollows Time' cdr (sdn)
Three Forks 'Firewood' 3"cdr (metonymic)

Also on Metonymic, in the same series of 3"ers, and still available is Nathan Thompson's 'The Extinction Suite' which you can find at Volcanic Tongue or order through us ($6nz plus postage). Here's a bit of the nutty hyperbole I wrote about it after I'd spent all day listening to it: "....It's an evocation of the bones, and the overgrowth. You could put this on at home and almost think you're hearing distant traffic, or your refridgerator, before coming to and realising that you're actually hearing the desolation of eons and the deep brain-stem memory of flailing death in a lizard's skin....". Yeah. And I stand by that.

All day today I've been listening to a cache of releases from Auckland's CMR label, who I want to mention especially as 1) the discs fuckin' rock; 2) Richard Francis (aka-Eso Steel), who runs the concern, is a good guy; and 3) he's such a good guy that he's also now doing UFM distribution up in that stinky, overcrowded metropolis. AND he's releasing, in the fullness of time, cdrs by our very own Three Forks and Eye, as well as QUITE a number of other things, in his own extremely attractive packaging style (either woodblock or screenprint onto handmade paper - gorgeous!).

Well, that wasn't as much waffle as I'd suspected.... OH, please note there are now 5 mp3's up on the site; Three Forks' 'Baby Ives' has been added. More soon hopefully from Sinking Infinities, Eye, and who knows..... Jo jo ef Steve?

(NEXT TIME: actual, useable information about some of the recording artists affiliated with this 'label')