Welcome to the
ugEXPLODE blog. I will use this to update people about new
ugEXPLODE label releases as well as a platform for my reminiscences and random writing related to myself and musicians associated with the label. Available October 15th, from http://www.ugEXPLODE.com will be two new compact discs:
Jack Ruby - a collection of newly unearthed NYC proto-punk/no-wave from '74-'77 featuring George Scott (
Contortions/Raybeats/8-Eyed Spy) and
Boris Policeband; and
Weasel Walter's
"Ominous Telepathic Mayhem", featuring frenetic duos with
Mary Halvorson, Peter Evans, Darius Jones and
Alex Ward.
These will be available from the site and are also distributed by
Revolver, Carrot Top, Stickfigure, CD Baby, Wayside Music and
Downtown Music Gallery. If you work at a record store: order these releases from a distributor! They carry other great backstock items from the catalog and you can get them! If you want to order direct, don't hesitate to
ask! Many of our releases are available digitally either directly from the
site or from all the major digital stores like
I-Tunes, Emusic, etc.
Here are blurbs on the new releases. I promise the blog will get much meatier ASAP . . .
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JACK RUBY CD ug50
THE FIRST RECORDINGS UNEARTHED OF THIS SEMINAL PROTO-PUNK/NO WAVE UNIT FROM NEW YORK CITY, CIRCA 1974-1977!!! TWISTED, AGGRESSIVE, WEIRD ROCK ON PAR WITH THE ELECTRIC EELS, ‘DEBRIS AND MX-80 SOUND!
“Seven years ago, a guy named
Gary Reese wrote me and said he was friends with the late
Contortions bass player
George Scott, and that he could probably help me out with some information on the mythic band
Jack Ruby. Up until that point, nobody knew of any surviving recordings by this unit. They remained a shady footnote in underground rock history. After years of cajoling and pursuit, Gary finally convinced George’s brother to let him make a dub of a ratty old cassette tape with two Fall ‘77
Jack Ruby rehearsals on them. Those rehearsals belied an incredible amount of guitar-skree bombast. I mastered the tracks to eke out the most clarity possible from them and the result was circulated amongst very few cognoscenti with little fanfare.
In 2009, another
Jack Ruby tape surfaced. Gary was in contact with Scott’s old girlfriend Leslie, who had a mysterious 1/4 reel of tape with the band’s name and some song titles scrawled on it. It took some time, but I had the reel baked and transferred . . . and, lo and behold, it featured four crystal clear-sounding ‘74 studio demos! I kept playing these great demos and I thought to myself, “If I’m listening to this stuff so much, somebody else is going to want to hear it too!” That’s the point where I knew it was my duty to release this anthology.
So, we found all the surviving ex-members of the group and put together this fully-authorized package featuring eight killer tracks of noisy, high-energy greatness and designed a full-color package featuring extensive liner notes and tons of period photos. This release is a must-have for those who crave those truly bizarre missing links from the pre-punk past. Jack Ruby’s tough, sleazy sound is a direct antecedent to both
PUNK and
NO WAVE.”
- WEASEL WALTER, SEPTEMBER 2011
“Maybe it was 1976. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe I stumbled into
Bleecker Bob’s.
Maybe a lanky giant with an immense toxic cloud of frizzy hair and huge hands lumbered toward me.
Maybe it was
Chris Gray. Somehow I ended up in a dank rehearsal space. Face to face with
George Scott.
Having my head torn off by my ears.
Jack Ruby. Music to murder by.
Like 3 hits of acid and a shot of crystal meth after a month long beer binge.
A brutal psycho-delic teenage scream of sexual frustration, disappointment and misery
channeled into sonic overdrive. A beautifully violent horrible throttling. I loved it”
- LYDIA LUNCH, AUGUST 2011
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WEASEL WALTER - OMINOUS TELEPATHIC MAYHEM CD ug51
Frenetic, high-speed improvised duos featuring iconoclastic drummer Weasel Walter with trumpeter Peter Evans, guitarist Mary Halvorson, alto saxophonist Darius Jones and clarinettist/guitarist Alex Ward. Total Communication!
This CD contains 72 minutes of intense, fast, articulate improvised music featuring superhuman drummer
Weasel Walter in duos with some of his favorite contemporary sparring partners:
Mary Halvorson (guitar),
Alex Ward
(guitar/clarinet),
Darius Jones (alto saxophone) and
Peter Evans (trumpet). Over the course of ten action-packed cuts, a stunning array of musical ideas are investigated as well as some serious instrumental virtuosity. This music is clear and articulate with a complex sense of structure and interplay.
Drummer
Weasel Walter is best known as leader of and primary composer for the long-running cult band
The Flying Luttenbachers. Living in Chicago, the Bay Area, and most recently New York, Walter has spent the past two decades bridging numerous factions within the experimental music scene. He has performed with seminal noise-rock acts like
Lake Of Dracula, Burmese and
XBXRX, maintaining all the while his career as a free improviser. Walter has collaborated with luminaries like
Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Henry Kaiser, Jim O’Rourke, Mick Barr, Ken Vandermark, Kevin Drumm, Vinny Golia and many others. Walter is also a current member the technical metal band
Behold . . . The Arctopus and the no-wave trio
Cellular Chaos
Guitarist
Mary Halvorson has been active in the New York music scene since 2002. In addition to leading her own bands, she is a veteran of
Anthony Braxton’s ensembles and has performed with
Tim Berne,
Trevor Dunn, Tony Malaby, Marc Ribot and
John Tchicai, amongst others. Mary is “the most original jazz guitarist to emerge this decade,” (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader).
In addition to leading his own ensembles, classically-trained trumpeter
Peter Evans performs with groups ranging from terrorist-bebop unit
Mostly Other People Do the Killing to the
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). Other collaborators include
Steve Beresford, Keiji Haino, Jim Black, Evan Parker and
Christian Marclay.
Saxophonist
Darius Jones is a critically acclaimed bandleader whose 2009 AUM Fidelity release “Man’ish Boy (A Raw and Beautiful Thing” topped year-end critics lists as well as garnering overwhelming praise in publications from
The New York Times to
The Wire. Jones also performs in the brutal, rock-influenced band
Little Women. He recently released an album of duos with pianist
Matthew Shipp.
London-based instrumentalist
Alex Ward first became known as a prodigious, teenaged clarinettist during the mid-80s in an association with guitar legend
Derek Bailey. Since then, he has added guitar to his arsenal and has appeared with a wide range of players including
Eugene Chadbourne, Joe Morris and
Joe McPhee.
