Ya’man people be dubbin that oxcide all over the times.
People been stealin and dubbin them tapes all through the 1970s - - before the
handheld cassette pushers like my father dubbed up them 8 tracks, my man. hell
yes. My daddy, he taught me that the 8 track and cassette tape was worth its
weight in gold. He showed me on winter days while the barracuda was a warmin up
– you could take that tape out of the player and use it to scrape the frost
from your windshield. Put it back in. good to go.
Yeah, folks been dubbin all over them tapes. Takin and makin
and fakin. Sure you had so many sprouting up and dishing out…the good will…all
over those years. Some people was not even people if not for that chunk and
clutch and whir. I am sure many a band in 1970 who spent their hard earned
paper route cash might have bought an 8 track recorder, dubbed up some bucket
brigade…spilled those over to the cassette when they was old enough to fuck, to
make the opposites swoon. Sure sure sure sure.
For me, I got a dubbin when I was old enough to push
play/rec. dubbing random sounds, parody plays, fake radio shows, etc. at some
point I learned if you put a piece of scotch tape over the record head you
could multi-track on that fischer-price. And then at some point I hollowed out
a old school text book and hid my smokes & firecrackers in there. Around
THAT time, I found out about a small label in California called SHRIMPER. Do I
need to write anything about said label on this fuckin webpage? I would hope
not. But in these dubbed days I may have to sprout clout.
Your daddy don’t know no SHRIMPER. Your mommy dun neither.
Was / is SHRIMPER “underground”? hell, I don’t know. Its all heaven in my eyes.
Yet I still feel I have to type (badly)this to let you fine folks know who be reading this,
what the hell I am trying to convey. Sure
things like this been done in the past, and I for one am not gonna go there. Im
also not the most privy to things before my time. I collect cassettes, and I
know a lot of old 80s labels, and even back to the late 70s, but my base of
knowledge lies firm in the 1990s. that’s just the cards I was delt. I love it
all, but I especially love me some SHRIMPER ‘und such!
SO NOW – here you go. Two brand new tapes from a label of
utmost importance! Yeah, I said it. The tapes dwindled in the late 90s from this
one man label operation, but always steadfast, SHRIMPER pushed on…a good 3-4
records a year, sometimes more. It wasn’t till last year a few new tapes
started showing up. (and no, there aint no web sight. And there aint even no
mailorder – seek and find is the only method – corner store friends, and water
cooler gabber) I for one, who proudly still listens to all my SHRIMPER tapes
from time to time (suggestion box / winky dog / more soul / dance till you stop
– the list goes on forever!) am glad as all gasses that new tapes bubbled up,
and like 15 years stalled, still - - - - PURE SHRIMPER PRODUCT.
SEBADOH – KCRtroubleU – is a live on the air recording
session, complete with cover art / liner notes that are barely visible. It
begins with some verbal exchanges, and falls into NOT disarray, but some real
nice performance. Its culled from circa 1999 I think – a time I am not TOO
familiar with sebadoh, but you have some hefty rendition of song, warts and
all. There is a dialog of failure, but I don’t really see it. There is use of
random / odd instrumentation, but barlow and co. follow through pretty well if
my ears hear and are the ears I been born with. All in all pretty great studio
fraction of hate and love. It sums up all unicycle like. Peddeling grand.
****
COUNTERFEIT BLANKS – A SHRIMPER COMPILATION – 25 year
compilation of billowing solid gold. Could be longer in my book, but you get a
good 30-ish mins, with unreleased material from the likes of : Calexico / liz
gilbert / the babies / john davis / refrigerator / dump / franklin bruno / WCKR
SPGT / paste / woods / simon joyner…HIGHLIGHTS??? I cant go there…wait… how
about a sun setting on an old field in summer…with dying brush? Oh, or
maybe a stick laying barren in the snow
against a piece of rotting wood, with the red lead paint stripping away from
it? How about the old folk gathering together with the young in a smoke filled
VFW while an orchestra plays? How about stories…songs…sometimes cassettes of
this nature hurt to try to figure out. Sometimes the figuring out is the only
way to really, really know what it is you love. Sometimes you have to figure
things out for yourself.
Find and buy. If you have a will, you will.
-c. fischer