For the last few weeks, when I have a little free time around the office, I've been trying to compile every last bit of music I've played on which has been legitimately released for a personal multidisc high-quality mp3 archival/reference set. Needless to say this is a somewhat staggering task. It's taking a long time. The archives are reasonably organized, but not down to the sort of detail where I can pull just anything in a matter of seconds. A good amount of reasonably unrelated stuff can tend to be compiled on various discs, so sorting this stuff in a serious manner would basically entail logging the contents of each onto a searchable spreadsheet. For example, I might have some weird XBXRX rough mixes on a CD with a Nitro(!) remix, a Nondor Nevai track, a full Luttenbachers album, some solo demos and who knows what else! The contents of the backup discs reflect whatever was being worked on in a certain period at a certain time and not much else.
There are definitely a few things which have gone awol. For example, I cannot seem to find the final master for the WW/Mick Barr/Sam Hillmer 10". I can find rough mixes, final mixes, multitracks, unreleased outtakes, a complete full-length version which was canned, but I cannot find the mastered, edited master. Hmmm. It's got to be around here some place.
There are things I'm on which people never bothered to give me a copy of. For example, when I first moved to the Bay Area around 2003, I wound up going to an all-electronic jam session with a band called Goof Ice, led by my fellow Skin Graft Records alumni Zeek Sheck and featuring some other weirdos including another Chicago ex-pat Erin Weber (then also a member of the warped electro band Crack: We Are Rock). We did a few funny, performance-heavy gigs here and there and eventually it seemed like the results of the initial jam resulted in a limited CD-R release. So limited, even I didn't get one! It's a bit of a pet peeve when I'm not given a copy of my work (and a much bigger pisser on the rare occasions when I'm not even asked permission for something I'm on to be released! An extremely rare, but maddening situation . . .) It seems weird to have to pay money for something you played on, especially if you weren't paid to do the recording. Every now and then, it happens, but not much.
Part of the reason why I began avidly taping my own gigs on a handy-dandy Sony D-50 recorder in 2007 had to do with the frustration stemming from the overwhelming preponderance of tapers showing up to gigs and refusing to give me copies of my own music. There is virtually no excuse for this. I've had huge arguments with tapers. Some of them seem to think their "taping" is their art and your, uh, music - which they are taping - is really besides the point. Ha ha ha. Ok fucker, well then, pack up your "art" and get the hell out of here. Without my music, you've got a blank tape. I've even run into situations where I knew who taped something and even offered to PAY whatever they asked for a copy of the material and almost always my requests have been completely ignored with radio silence. It's extremely rude and inconsiderate.
Needless to say, I have probably better than 90 percent of all the gigs I've played in the last five years in good-to-excellent quality sitting on shelves on my wall in raw data and mastered audio versions. Some of these recordings have made it onto releases such as "Firestorm", "End Of The Trail", "Particles","American Free","Large Group Performances" and so on. There's a lot of good music here which will probably never be released or circulated, but that's the breaks. Want to hear my kickass tapes with Evan Parker or John Butcher? Well, don't hold your breath! Ha ha ha.
When I release something, it has to be special. If I was just releasing "good" music, I could crank out 50 releases a year easily. However, considering that the economy is slow and people don't really spend money like they used to on recorded music, I have to be very discriminating about what the label releases. For example, the Orthrelm CD: this is some of my favorite music of all-time. I wanted it to be done right and I wanted to give the band a good deal out of respect for them both as people and artists. When you buy that disc, Mick and Josh get 100 percent of the wholesale price in their pocket. That's that. If you don't believe me, just ask them. Same with Toy Killers.
One of the good things about digging through all this media is finding little gems one has forgotten about. Like the weird CD-R I made with Talibam! at the end of '09 when we needed something to sell at the gig that night. We literally recorded, mixed, packaged and sold it that night. The music is funny, raw and unapologetic. There are so many bizarre edits (due to malfunctioning computer) and random events, I can't help but to think an artifact like this couldn't have possibly came out so interesting if we had actually taken the time to do it right!
XBXRX also did a little-known tour-only CD-R in the summer of '07 called "Bad Gratitude Persons". The title is an illusion to the sort of shaky English spewed from the slobbering maw of the shyster promoter who ripped-us off on a chaotic and totally un-fun Mexican tour just prior to this recording being made. The disc features our live set as a bass-less trio, recorded in one take at our practice space on a small multitrack recorder. It is essentially what we sounded like live at that point, under the best possible sonic circumstances. It reveals yet another aspect of a really multifaceted group, caught casually, for the fuck of it on a random afternoon. I wish more people would have heard it. The rough mixes from the last release I did with the group, the mp3-only "Un Usper", showed even more hidden angles. There is a ton of improvising between the actual songs that I had totally forgotten about. A few snippets of these improvs made the album, but were heavily mixed and edited. I'm glad there's still some evidence of the raw material, even if it's not for public consumption.
So, I look at this mountain of output I've created over the past 25 years and I feel glad: glad this shit hasn't burnt up in an apartment fire, or drowned in a flood, or been vandalized by a psycho, or . . . I'm not the kind of guy who believes in "jinxing" myself, luckily. I guess if all this stuff went up in smoke tomorrow, I'd be sad for a while, but then I'd do what I normally do: move on and create more new work . . .
If you haven't heard it yet, Toy Killers' "The Unlistenable Years" anthology CD (ugEXPLODE, 2008) is a collection of early '80s Downtown NYC no wave/improv/noise/new wave/post-punk awesomeness featuring a cavalcade of amazing musicians, most of which remain vital to this very day. We still have copies in stock.
Originally posted on the Toy Killers' Myspace page, here are my notes about this release . . .
The Making of Toy Killers' "The Unlistenable Years"
Out Dec. 15th, 2008 on ugEXPLODE appears the great, lost New York No Wave record: Toy Killers "The Unlistenable Years". this 67 minute CD features previously unheard recordings circa 1980-1984 by the destructive Downtown NYC duo formed by improv madmen Mark E. Miller and Charles K. Noyes with special guests John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsay and many more. "The Unlistenable Years" is a vital document of some seriously weird and awesome music by some seminal musicians at the top of their games early in their careers . . . here's the story. . . .
Back in 1988, when I was ripe 16 years old, I got hold of a compilation on Homestead Records entitled "Speed Trials". This LP was a document of an experimental music festival from 1983 and featured early live cuts by Sonic Youth, Swans, the pre-rap Beastie Boys, The Fall, Lydia Lunch, and others. The stand-out track was a very chaotic, violent song by a band called "Toy Killers", seemingly led by DNA guitar mutilator Arto Lindsay. Of particular note on this great recording was the hecticly discontinuous drumming of Charles K. Noyes - I had never before heard anything quite as disruptive and random as the percussion Noyes laid down on this song. I was instantly hooked. I did some further research and found another record Noyes was on: the bizarre 1983 Korean/free improv hybrid double album "Invite the Spirit", also featuring guitar legend Henry Kaiser. Over the years I often listened to this single Toy Killers track over and over, wondering what the hell was the deal with this mysterious band. Was it a one-off? Was it a continuing interest? Back in 1988, it was considerably more difficult to find these things out . . .
Time flies by and we skip forward to 2002. I'm on tour with the Flying Luttenbachers and I'm browsing the great NYC record store Downtown Music Gallery. Elliott Sharp walks in and begins chit-chatting with Bruce Gallanter, the owner. I walk up to them, introduce myself and ask them whatever happened to Mark Miller (with Noyes, the other 'official' Toy Killers member)? They both laugh and tell me some strange story about Miller's love for letting off explosives during concerts as well as an anecdote about some Elliott Sharp gig at the Kitchen where Miller lit his hands on fire and the show got shut down . . . Bruce tells me Mark is somewhere out on the West Coast . . .
Fast forward to 2005: I've been living in Oakland, California for several years now and through my associate, bass player Damon Smith, I make the acquaintance of guitarist Henry Kaiser and begin sporadically playing music with him. Charles K. Noyes comes up in the conversation to little ado other than Kaiser and I both agreeing that Noyes is a sort of drumming genius. The following year I notice a listing at local venue for a concert featuring ROVA saxophonist Larry Ochs, Fred Frith and . . . Mark E. Miller on drums. I get in touch with Miller and ask him to play some music with me. We quickly spark up a friendship and the million dollar question is asked: "What was the deal with the Toy Killers?"
Mark reveals to me that he and Charlie started playing together in the late '70s. The two would often pop up in the nascent downtown New York improvisation scene as a team, notably appearing together on classic records like John Zorn's "Pool", Elliott Sharp's "Carbon" and more. Initially they started just as a two-piece, abusing all sorts of percussion instruments, making feedback and lighting things on fire. Mark explained that his use of fire merely had to do with finding a way of separating himself from the herd of improvising drummers! Mission accomplished.
As time went on, a lot of various people in the scene would play with the Toy Killers, coming and going at whim. For a while Arto Lindsay was indeed in the ranks for a spell, lending his distinctively warped vocal outbursts and trademark guitar skronk to the proceedings. A very rare self-released cassette called "Humdrum" (of which all the tracks appear freshly remixed from the original multi-track masters on "the unlistenable years"), showed this guest star mania in full bloom with great, off-the-cuff performances by Material bassist Bill Laswell, Sharp and saxophonist John Zorn amongst others.
At one point, Mark suddenly envisioned Toy Killers as a "kick-ass rock and roll band", even though they didn't really rehearse and Noyes had almost no experience or interest in playing rock and roll! Mark morphed from being a drummer to being a true wild card, sometimes singing, sometimes abusing a bass guitar, sometimes deafening everybody with his amplified metal drink shakers, sometimes disappearing into thin-air half way through the set.
While Noyes explored his Eastern music inspirations with the exotic polyglot improv of Invite the Spirit, Miller helped found the Golden Palominos as well as Arto Lindsay's Ambitious Lovers (he appears on both groups' debut releases). By the time the Toy Killers made it to the studio near around 1984, things were beginning to unravel even more and the remnants from this aborted project produced by Bill Laswell (tracked at Martin Bisi's OAO Studios) appear fully mixed for the first time on the new CD.Luckily for us, Mark happened to be sitting on a box of Toy Killers tapes which I began sifting through earlier this year.
Many of the live recordings on the CD were made by DMG domo Bruce Gallanter back in the day and they still sound incredible. On one track you hear fireworks going off. On another track, if you squint you can detect Derek Bailey almost inaudibly fretting a few note clusters before walking out in total disgust. All the spit, sweat and noise of the various Toy Killers bands are in full evidence. The studio recordings sound amazing with their brand new remixes. This is a truly action packed hour plus of intense and varied chaos. Anton Fier was kind enough to write some succinct liner notes detailing yet another anecdote of Toy Killers property-damage-as-performance for us.
On a technical note, putting together this CD was a lot of work. Dozens and dozens of hours of critical listening, editing, mixing and mastering went into this disc. The material was whittled down from about 6 or 7 hours of possibilities of varying fidelity. We went through many revisions before we were satisfied that we had the best possible master version.
At one point earlier this year Mark handed me a box of cassettes from the early '80s which had been recorded at the actual gigs by Bruce Gallanter. Lots of interesting stuff featuring a wide swath of the prominent musicians in the scene at the time. There were several Toy Killers cassettes in the box which I transferred to digital with good results. Mark also provided me with more digital transfers of various Toy Killers tapes including multitrack masters, some of which had never seen the light of day in any form before.
Sometime in the early '80s - my guess is around 1981 or 1982 - the Toy Killers actually distributed a cassette-only release entitled "Humdrum", featuring different mixes of tracks 4 through 9 on the cd. I have never seen an actual copy of this tape and I'm assuming there's probably few-to-no existing copies of the original item, so we set about remixing from the original multi-track master. Having the good fortune of modern technology on my side, I was able to remix this music from scratch and really enhance what fidelity made it to the tape during this crude basement 4-track session. the results were excellent. on a track like "Bleed For the Mind" you can hear everything crystal clear, Mark and Charlie's duelling drums, Bill Laswell's trademark gutteral bass lines, Elliott Sharp's cyber-JBs chicken-scratch guitar and a great reed solo by John Zorn right on top of it all.
Tracks 3, 15 and 16 come from an aborted album session produced by Bill Laswell at Martin Bisi's OAO Studios. I'm assuming these tracks were laid down either sometime in late 1983 or early '84. Bisi's original tracking was perfect and totally clean so I was able to remix these tracks with incredible success. All three of these cuts have a ton of overdubs - i think "Away All Pests" and "24 Handkerchiefs For Roger Trilling" were both approaching 24 tracks each! - so the mixing was pretty meticulous and I had to cut away some stuff and pick and choose moments from this incredibly dense music. On "Away All Pests" some of the separate tracks include: bullroarer (a sort of noisemaker you whip around in the air to get a whizzing dopplar effect); a seemingly unrelated track of African drumming; various animalistic male and female vocal noises and turntable scratching - you name it!
"24 Handkerchiefs" in particular was what most people would consider true "remix": although this music was released on the Elliott Sharp curated "Island of Sanity" 2LP compilation back in the late '80s under the title "At Home", the cd version is an almost unrelated beast to the original. The main riff of "At Home" was written by Robin Holcomb, but mutilated almost recognition by me in the new version. The separate tracks include fingers whisking water around in a bowl, a flanged snare, a totally hilarious and destructive Charlie Noyes drumkit performance, some middle-eastern modal guitar playing and heavy metal whammy bar shredding by Nicky Skopelitis, a found tape of some girls in a swimming pool *, Charlie's distinctive bowed saw playing and much more.
In terms of the live Toy Killers material, things got a little tricky at times. the main live stuff came from tapes made by Bruce Gallanter at the gigs. Most of them were in pretty good shape, particularly the one with Zorn and Burwell. The tapes done at Toy Killers central a.k.a Studio Henry/Club Mort/Morton Street/whatever you want to call it, often had the sound of crickets in the background courtesy of the pet shop which resided upstairs from the venue. It was interesting to hear the genesis of the Toy Killers sound through the years. Basically they started as a duo with Charlie and Nark, focusing on percussive approaches. You can hear examples of this formation at the end of the cd. At some point Mark switched to bass and vocals . . . the resulting trio with Thi-Linh Le on guitar and Charlie on drums has a very destructive, DNA-like power approach.
The Kitchen tapes were in a very strange condition when i got them: the tracks were almost randomly separated into the left and right channels of a single stereo track, so i had to do some really weird EQ, compression and rechannelling to get them to sound like anything. I think things worked out really well, as you can hear on tracks like "Sex Carp". Mark thinks this gig might have been one with the early Beastie Boys opening . . .
Mark's favorite track on the cd is "Dance of the Were-Samurai", a brooding, sparse but shocking stretch of anti-music recorded live at the defunct Danceteria club.
There was a tape from an unknown source featuring 3 songs total from the infamous White Columns gallery "Speed Trials" gig (without Mark, who was in Europe with the Golden Palominos at the time). Unfortunately the fidelity was insanely terrible and degraded on this particular source and we chose to release only "The Devil May Be 'Your Santa Claus", basically to show the difference between the live version and the studio version. There is probably video and audio for the entire White Columns festival, but the whereabouts are unknown.
The improvisation on track 20 created a strange quandary for us. I cut the recording of the gig down to what I thought the best segment was, considering that the overall fidelity was not great. At some point Charlie kept remarking about the track "with Derek Bailey". Mark and I were totally confused - we kept wondering what the hell he was talking about! There seemed to be no tracks with Derek on them whatsoever. Charlie insisted that Derek played this particular gig and that his guitar was indeed on there. Neither Mark or I could detect it, so we gave the clip to Baileyphile Henry Kaiser for the final decision. Henry said, yes, Derek certainly was on there, albeit almost undetectable. It seems that the Toy Killers (with Wayne Horvitz) began their set and Derek played just a few notes before walking offstage, apparently in disgust!
* "Actually the "fingers whisking water around in a bowl..." and "a found tape of some girls in a swimming pool..." are the same - and neither. What they actually are is a cassette that David Toop once sent me of something called "Balinese Water Splash Gamelan," where girls rhythmically slap their cupped hands on the surface of some water, and get the giggles doing it. Something about the piece caused Mark to realize how appropriate it would be in Robin's piece, and right he was."
