Long
awaited reissue of this classic late 80s collaboration between the 2 sax players in
Borbetomagus (Sauter & Dietrich) and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. Five extended
tracks of guitar/sax/sax improvisational interplay, recorded in NYC in June, 1988. We
first issued this as an LP-only in 1990, but it has been o/p for a number of years (a CD
version was licensed by Shock UK and briefly available, but has been long o/p as well).
"This is one mindfuck of a noisefest. Imagine if Metal Machine Music-era Lou
Reed had been invited to Brotzmann's Machine Gun sessions. You're still not close.
Likes beasts of burden locked to a single axis, the circles the trinity treads shaft deep,
inside which they explode depth charges which reverberate to the core of your being. Now
and again one might pull away to release heart piercing shrieks into the foul night. Truly
tremendous." Biba Kopf / The Wire.
Liner notes to the album provided by none other than Thomas Pynchon himself!!
"One night Johnson,
Coley and I were sitting in the back yard with a bucket of fresh sangria and a few
bongloads of some very righteous boo. I'd brought out a box of my live Sonic Youth tapes
and we were arguing about Lee Ranaldo's tongue vectors in the third quadrant of 'Society
is a Hole' (Folk City, NYC 12/1/82) when one of T. Moore's downstrokes caught our
attention. We ran the tape back and listened to the passage a few times. The subtly
monstrous and mindless GUSH with which T. Moore hit the 'E' chord made it obvious that his
playing was not coming out of a complete spiritual void. this was a real revelation. It
meant that he capable of actually unclenching his brain and loosing demons of soul
creativity. Because we hate to see ANYONE
lackeyed to jive-ass, pop-structure, white-man a-motionalism, a plan was immediately spun
for freeing T. Moore from the shackles of Peggy Lee-descended dogshit that were obviously
choking off his TRUE HUMAN FORCE. Deciding which hominid cudgels might be best wielded
against these procedural chains was a lead pipe cinch. Who but Jim Sauter and Don
Dietrich? These two men are the freest, loudest, swingin'est white motherfuckers to ever
jaw-cleave an industrial strength reed. Their work with Borbetomagus has long been a
raucous fountain of tonal explosion and aesthetic purity, as well as a black-gloved fist
up the diz of all conservative musical architects. If anyone could blow the lock off of T.
Moore's creational emo-safe, Jim and Don were it. The rest was a snap. I had my
agent get in touch with all the parties. She explained the points of our proposal in no
uncertain terms. The results are
presented here. Two free men meet a slave. Everyone goes home barefoot. Right-fuckin'on.
Thomas Pynchon
Somerville, MA
January 1990"
Information submitted by Kurt Johnson.
CD
Barefoot
in the Head Artist: SAUTER/DON DIETRICH/THURSTON MOORE, JIM Title: Barefoot In The Head Label: FORCED EXPOSURE Format: CD Price: $13.00 Catalog Number: FE 015
Anderson,
Laurie.
Famous New York performance artist Laurie Anderson
dedicated a song to Pynchon on her Mister
Heartbreak album.
Benatar,
Pat.
Believe it or not, she named a final album Gravity's
Rainbow.
Benny
Profane.
English hard rockers from Liverpool, they took
their name from a character in V.
Blowtorch,
Eric
Reggae influenced artist putting Pynchon's lyrics
to music.
Cassiber.
An avant garde German group used Gravity's
Rainbow to tell a different tale.
Corey,
Prof. Irwin.
The man who was the infamous stand-in
for Thomas Ruggles Pynchon.
Dangtrippers.
They recorded Maxwell's Demon Box on
their album, Days Between Stations.
Einhorn,
Richard.
Another rendition of music devoted to the
Demon, and much more.
Fariña,
Richard.
An long-time friend of Pynchon, this folkie named
an instrumental work after a Pynchon novel.
Favorite
Color, The.
A New Jersey band sets a selection from V.
to music on their album Color Out of Space
(1996).
Fool,
The.
Surely not Slothrop's band, this was a short lived
group which did, in fact, have a harmonica player.
Forked
Yew.
Independent, highly experimental rockers and Pynchon
fans from the American South.
Frith
& Kaiser.
An instrumental pair with a piece called The Kirghiz
Light.
Hall,
Ed.
An early 90's band influenced by Pynchon, they
named a song Roger Mexico.
Insect
Trust.
This jazzy, psychedelic group mined V.
for lyrics to The Eyes of a New York Woman.
Jazz
Butcher.
AKA Pat Fish, who named a track Looking for
Lot 49 on his Fishcoteque album.
Jones,
Spike.
Pynchon himself wrote the liner notes for Spiked!
Knopfler,
Mark. The Sultan of Swing sails to Philadelphia!
Koron,
Barry.
Weilding the Sjambok never felt so good!
Lot
49 (Ontario).
This now retired hardcore outfit hailed from the
hometown of Spermatikos Logos' own Laurence
Daw.
Lot
49 (NYC).
Indie NYC rockers named after Pynchon's second
novel.
Lotion.
A New York group whose liner notes were penned
by the Man himself.
Maas.
A visit to San Narciso.
Nirvana.
Wasthe famous tune Smells Like Teen
Spirit acutally inspired by a song from Gravity's
Rainbow?
Nova
Mob.
A "Rock Opera" filled with references
to Gravity's Rainbow.
Ocker,
David.
Musical meditations on Eight Facts About
Thomas Pynchon.
Okasek,
Ric.
Ride The Rocket with the former frontman
of The Cars.
Pere
Ubu.
David Thomas' legendary, seminal band shows some
Pynchon influences.
PopCanon.
These literate Indies hail from Flordia, and have
a song about Wanda Tinasky which is highly recomm-ended!
Poster
Children.
This group from Champaign, Illinois, covers a
lot of Pynchon ground!
Radiohead.
English art-rockers who incorporate many Pynchon
motifs into their work.
Rapoon.
An offshoot of Zoviet France, Robin Storey's
group named Rapoon released an album
called The Kirghiz Light.
Sauter
& Dietrich, Moore.
More liner notes written by Pynchon !!
Six
Finger Satellite.
Indie electro-rock futurists Six Finger Satellite
make a reference to Gravity's Rainbow.
Soft
Machine.
Seminal "proggies," they recorded a
full-scale work called Esther's Nose Job
in 1969.
Spock's
Beard.
In memory of "the evil Spock," they
do homage to V.
Time
in Malta.
A California metal group with a name taken from
V.
Ware,
Tim.
Pynchon scholar, Web master, and MIDI Musician.
Whole
Sick Crew, The.
Purveyors of pirate folk-punk, truly a gang like
their Pynchon namesakes.
XXX
Atomic Toejam.
F. Thorendal, from praised thrash-heroes Meshuggah,
gets one in for the Vikings.
Yo
La Tengo.
Making music indebted to The Crying of Lot
49.
Yoyodyne.
Related to New York's Lot 49, ths Florida
group also takes their name from Pynchon's work.
Zevon,
Warren.
He recently released an album containing work
inspired by Pynchon.
