You can download them for FREE over at

Quixodelic.com

THE MONDO-CITY MOTORPSYCHOS

Variable Lag EP

This little gem fell into my hands while I was putting Daydream Generation 9 together. Here’s what I managed to dig up on these guys:

“The MCMP hail from Las Vegas where they were chucked out of the casino circuit fore playing too sleazy. They now frequent bars at the less profitable end of the strip where their brand of garage’y 60′s R&B is both appreciated and reviled.”

FIG MINTS (OF YOUR IMAGINATION)

We Love You EP

Next up we’ve got… wait for it… brand new Fig Mints! (Ah shit, that doesn’t work, does it? You already knew it was them from the title…) Anyway, it’s still something to get excited about. Here’s what Bobby has to say about it:

“This is the single for a song on the upcoming album, Say Okay. It includes the new release of a song called We Love You, as well as a remixed release of What Happened to Holiday, which originally appeared on Daydream Generation #8; Venus (Don’t Believe In Us), which was previously only available aboard an imaginary sea vessel; and Missed Bliss, a demo for a different upcoming album tentatively titled Bad Age for the Underdog.”

…

Finally there’s two, yes TWO new records from Planet Le Keux. They are:

PAULO RHYTHM & HIS PHANTOM BLUES

Live At The Strip Club

A spokesman for Uberfuzz said: “This was recorded at Rugby’s’ The Strip Club and consists of Paul playing old blues and R&B numbers with a guitar, tambourine with his foot, and singing through a distorted old guitar amp for maximum blues dirgeness. It owes as much to groups like The Cramps and The Gories as it does to Leadbelly and Bo Diddley.”

and…

ROCKETSHIPS OF LOVE

Sonic Ashtray

Second full-length record from Rocketships of Love. If you don’t know anything about this project, here’s what it’s all about:

***PROPERLY WIRED…FULLY EARTHED…From Rugby, ROL is a celebration of all things electronic and operating outside of normal gravity fields. The transmissions you are receiving are all cover versions except the instrumental pieces and are salutes to fellow space travellers. These renditions have been used to develop the ROL sound (acheived predominantly by the use of a MicroKorg Modular Synthesizer, Boss Drum Machine, electronic toys and various effects pedals). Vocal performaces are delivered by Kelly Le keux of ‘Uberfuzz’, Matt Storer of ‘Uberfuzz’ (www.myspace.com/uberfuz2) and ‘Elfwood Prattali’ (www.myspace.com/prettyboybluei) to name a few. All songs are mastered by Regal 3/30***

This one’s so hot that even I haven’t heard it yet! So join me right now floating over to the store to download it… I cannae wait!

A bored and drunk Bobby Rogan plays this timeless classic from his last record ‘Exercises In Futility’, and also good old Daydream Generation 1.

Fig Mints have loads of good stuff on their site including a video for shiny new song ‘What Happened To Holiday?’ – go show some love to the little guy at:

www.thefigmints.com

(*never underestimate your own popularity, dig?)

Here’s Bobby…

1 You can take one record to a desert island for the rest of your life – what would it be?

Probably Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand. Never get sick of it.

2 Who is your favourite artist?

Once again, I go the GbV route and say Bob Pollard

3 Favourite chord?

D for definitely.

4 Can God invent a rock that he cannot lift?

God gave rock n’ roll to ya.

5 Who did you last vote for in an election?

The only one that matters at this point.

6 Favourite fiction writer?

Don’t read much fiction, but Tolkein was the shit.

7 If you could invite 5 people to dinner (dead or alive) who would they be?

Bob Pollard, Jesus, the Buddha, Charles Bukowski, and Smally cos I think he’d get a kick out of it.

8 What pisses you off?

Pissed off people.

9 What’s the best song you’ve ever written?

We Love You.

10 One wish – what would it be?

To be able to shut my mind off at will.

11 Favourite band?

Why, GbV, of course!

12 3 websites worth checking out?

I don’t really use the web much anymore… Maybe cozyhomerecords.com, daydreamgeneration.com, and thefigmints.com. Sure, that’ll work. dictionary.com is pretty good….

13 Posters above your bed when you were a teenager?

Nirvana, Pear Jam, and Metallica. Dude.

14 When was the last time you cried with laughter?

Never got to that point. But I did throw up once. It was great.

15 If you could learn and play one instrument, what would it be?

The piano.

16 Preferred mode of travel?

Foot.

17 Shuffle your iPod – what are the first five songs that play?

Don’t got no iPod…

18 Snowballs, snowmen, or sledging?

Sledging? Like sledgehammers? Yeah!!!

19 Best gig you’ve ever been to?

The Warlocks and The Gris Gris at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC.

20 What’s the most embarrassing record in your collection?

Too many to list. Seriously.

21 Favourite drink?

Old Fashioned. That’s Bourbon, bitters and club soda… Mmmmm…

22 Drug of choice?

Used to be coke… Ahem… Like the soda, yeah… That’s it… Now it’s just good ol’ booze. Maybe psilocybin…

23 If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

Homo Erectus

24 And if you were a colour, what colour would you be?

Meh…

25 Are you good at any sports?

Nope. Well, I guess I’m pretty good at video bowling with my buddy, the Wii.

26 Last book you read?

The Art of War

27 First thing you think when you get up in the morning?

Oh fucking hell, not again…

28 Last thing you think when you go to bed?

Why?Why-why-why-why-why?????

29 Describe your music in three words?

Absolutely fucking brilliant.

30 If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?

Someone with a lot of money, so I could pay my tuition in advance.

31 Favourite comedian?

Neil Hamburger.

32 What colour is your front door?

Brown.

33 Favourite film?

The Fellowship of the Ring.

34 A quote that stuck in your head?

“Goddammit!! Never leave a man behind!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

35 Favourite subject at school?

Probably history, or math.

36 Which actor/actress would play you in a film about your life?

Tom Selleck.

37 What music makes you want to dance?

ESG, Animal Collective, Motown, Michael Jackson before the third nose job.

38 What should they write on your gravestone?

Don’t want one. Too expensive, and it just clutters up the Earth. Y’dig?

39 How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

6,665,420,319.1314599999…

40 When did you first start writing your own songs?

Whenever I figured out what melody was.

41 What’s the weirdest thing you ever saw?

My friend Johnny’s face appearing on a wall in Benny’s basement… Then it turned into Jesus. Then I said, “Jesus!”

42 Favourite smell?

Grillin’

43 Favourite sound?

Feedback.

44 Swings, roundabout, chute, or climbing frame?

Whoa, those last three ain’t part of American English, but I get the gist… Roundabout.

45 Who is your favourite Beatle?

Goddammit Smally, don’t ask me that. I don’t wanna get beat up for not saying Ringo.

46 Point us in the direction of a band one of your friends is in?

www.frogvillemusic.com

47 A YouTube video the world should watch?

48 Cats or dogs?

Dogs.

49 If you had to join the circus what would you be?

The ringmaster.

50 Favourite book?

Oh, I don’t know….

51 Have you ever been on TV?

Yep.

52 Have you ever been arrested?

Nope.

53 What songs do you (would you) sing at karaoke?

Loser, Fight For Your Right (To Party), Surrender, I Wanna Be Sedated.

54 Have you ever seen a ghost?

Every time I look in the mirror… Oooooh, creepy.

55 How do you like your coffee? Or would you prefer a wee cup of tea?

Black with sugar. And very strong.

56 Punk or Raver? Mod or Goth? Hippy or Beatnik? If you had to label yourself, what gang would you be in?

No.

57 What’s the worst job you ever had?

Gas station in Herkimer, NY. I lasted half an hour.

58 What’s brown and sticky?

Oh, don’t even get me started.

59 Do you have any recurring dreams?

Can’t say that I dream often enough to have anything happen more than once….

60 How many records have you released and which is your favourite?

Seven. I think Exercises In Futility is the best (plug plug… Buy my record!!!)

61 Where in the world would you like to go?

Scotland.

62 Favourite kind of cloud?

Altocumulus at sunset.

63 Favourite line from a song?

Wrapped in a cocoon of skintight buffoonery… Now here’s the plan. (Guided By Voices)

64 What’s the music scene like where you live?

Nonexistent.

65 Who would make up your dream band? (one singer, one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer, plus one extra)

Bob Pollard, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Krist Novoselic, Mike Garguilo.

66 Favourite cover art?

In The Court of the Crimson King

67 Early bird or night owl?

Depends on my agenda, eh?

68 Which of the seven sins are you?

Sloth… Only cos I’m trying to work on getting rid of gluttony and pride.

69 Three words people use to describe you?

Quiet, nice, drunk. Two of those are totally inaccurate.

70 You have ten minutes left to live, what would you do?

Take some pills and go to sleep.

71 Do you support any sports teams?

Syracuse Orangemen basketball, yo! Go Big East!!!

71 What do you want for Christmas?

Animal liberation.

72 Favourite track from all the Daydream Generation compilations?

Don’t Ask Me Again What I Dreamt by Becky N

73 Can you cook up a storm in the kitchen?

Just made some kick ass baked shells & cheese last night… Mmmmmm….

74 What’s the first thing you remember?

A metal railing on a concrete staircase, and a question without an answer.

75 How do you go about writing a song?

If I only knew…

76 When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

Not enough hair on my head.

77 What’s the best advice you were ever given?

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” It’s become a cliche by now, but really. Think about it.

78 Do you smoke?

Sometimes I wish I never quit…

79 Tell us a joke?

How can you tell if an elephant’s been in yr cupboard? There are footprints in the peanut butter!!!

80 Pick a card, any card?

Bill Gates’ Visa.

81 One question you’ve never been able to answer?

How will I know?

82 If you could travel back in time, when and where would you go?

NYC 1982

83 Favourite philosopher?

Ah shit… Maybe Lao Tzu

84 Do you have any pets?

Ah, my lovely pit bull, Mishu.

85 Ever climbed a mountain?

Yeah. Then I got a migrane threw up. I hated it, but the scenery was grand!

86 What do you do in the real world to pay the rent?

Direct care for the developmentally disabled

87 Self-diagnosis: any psychiatric disorders?

I don’t even want to comment.

88 Favourite poet?

Jim Carroll

89 What wouldn’t you do for a million dollars?

Kill any living thing.Well, I guess unless it was a bug. Or fish, maybe but I’d have to think long and hard about that.

90 Adrenalin junky?

Nah, just the regular kind.

91 What bands have you been in?

Oh. Well… From the beginning: David’s Boys; The Chesterfield Medical Experiment; Acoustic Mayhem; The Groan-Ups; Yous Guys; The Fucking Flame; The Real Burnouts; Pinky Stink’s Problem; Arthur Rules; Electric City Subway, Euro Language Abusive, the original Utica Flower Co. (Plural Noun); Fig Mints (of Your Imagination). Probably some others too…

92 Favourite board game/computer game?

Chess, even though I suck.

93 What kind of recording set-up do you have? Equipment etc.

Tascam 488, Sony Minidisc deck, lots of outdated stuff.

94 A character you love from a book or a film?

Ted Theodore Logan

95 Who is the sexiest person in the history of the world?

Rita Hayworth

96 If you could genetically fuse two animals together what would they be? And what would it make?

I don’t fuck with nature.

97 What kind of drunk are you?

Depends on how many days running.

98 What was the first record that really blew your mind?

Sonic Youth’s Washing Machine

99 What are your musical plans for the future?

Just keep cranking, and maybe get a band together.

100 Got some websites of your own we can visit?

www.thefigmints.com and www.cozyhomerecords.com

The boundaries of home recording equipment have been removed for quite some time. Long gone are the days of four-track cassette machines and bouncing; the art of scotch-tape over the protection tabs on Michael Bolton tapes given as gifts from far removed relatives because the store was closed seems almost lost. Digital interface, non-destructive editing, primitive pitch correction, and a galaxy of on-board effects at “reasonably affordable” prices makes analog craft boxes seem archaic and knucklish. The mix tape is gone, the mp3 era as arrived, and the wake created a great wind that set the lo-fi dream ship to sail into the great abyss we call “The Island of Forgotten Toys.”

Or so it was thought.

The latter half of this decade has seen a rejection of this silly idea. While digital recording is nifty and allows for a palette far beyond the capacity or need of many modern musicians, its missing the charm, the soul of tape hiss and natural distortion, the blood of bobbles in the takes, the mistakes that make a song human, the warmth that makes a song honest. This is not necessarily a new idea. Guided By Voices did it way before anyone thought is was cool. Lately bands the likes of the Black Lips and Wavves have been poking out of the mire and grabbing the affections of many purists and old-schoolers. For every group noticed for doing something “new” there always lies a subculture that understands the principles as well or better than the flagships that give it awareness. Fig Mints (of Your Imagination) is a shining example of a band that not only has had a solid grasp of this new ‘old’ sound, but have been at it for several years, culminating to this record, “Exercises in Futility”. It’s from this frame of reference the title is apt.

On the surface this album is unbridled and unkempt. Things are slightly out of tune or minutely out of key. Instruments are pegged and microphones are flattened out by the immensity of the sounds that pummel them. This is the future, ladies and gentlemen. Like track 2, A Change of Season, this record is the sonic equivalent of skipping class with your friends and mocking the world as it toils around you. Its unbounded and focused, yet is fenced by morals and codes that culture seemed hasty to forget. These songs call for normalcy in the midst of hurry, with the understanding that often the express route to normalcy can include a level of self-medication, most clearly represented in the opening track, The Well-Worn Road. What may be most striking about that particular song as well as the rest of the record is its consciousness. The Fig Mints are well aware of what they’re doing, much to our benefit. We are all entrenched in a field of voices, and “Exercises in Futility” sets up camp and is perfectly content to stay where it is and wave to the passing cars.

This is not a complicated record. The songs are ushered and unrelenting, moving like freight in the night. Guitars are towing ever further, yet are not overpowering. Even the solos are conservative and well shaped while commanding and necessary. The understated and restrained rhythm section plants its grooves like furrows in black soil, emerging from its toil to bomb the universe into bending at its every whim. All the while the vocals talk you through, calming and inciting, and always in the drivers seat. The range of the album is great, yet cohesive. Its tantric nature easily takes the mood from darkly introspective (Strung Out Sentries) to warmly reflective (the Stooges-esque My Days At University). The movement of the record as a whole resembles the behavior of a house party. At first all talk is intimate and the ideas are big, the songs are pointed and relaxed, often without drums. As the room fills up, songs like Undead Idea Mines convey a letting go, an acceptance of our own weirdness and the weirdness of others. Further down the line, as the room gets looser, the vibe descends into a lo-fi fuzz fest of whirl and rock and roll, particularly with Don’t Stay There and Its All I Can Do (To Stay Awake).

Down and dirty Ariel Pink kids will love this record. Black-shirted rock kids will love this record. Literate post-secondary astronauts that have learned to enjoy poverty will love this record. “Exercises in Futility” is eerily relevant and strongly appropriate for its time and season.

Wilford Benevolus
Junior Rock Analyst and Amateur Spokesperson for the League of American Wheelmen, Intl.

For more info on “Excercises In Futility” go to: www.cozyhomerecords.com

Out Now!

Here it is! Two years, two states, one retrospective outtakes EP, and five relocations after “Hugs and Smiles” hit the virtual shelves, Fig Mints are back with “Exercises In Futility”!

At the moment, the album is available only through mail orders for $8. Suffice to say, it’s worth it. The songs are his best yet, and it’s been reported that Bobby is only interested in breaking even with the money that he spent putting it out, so show some love and email bobby@cozyhomerecords.com for info on how to buy a copy, or just send your name and address with the payment to:

Out Today!

FIG MINTS (OF YOUR IMAGINATION)

The Passionate Misunderstanding

In association with our brothers & sisters & weird cousins twice removed at www.cozyhomerecords.com we’re grinning to present a seven-song slice of history available to download at your free & easy Quixodelic Record store right now so you can hear how it all began…

JUST CLICK ON THE STORE LINK AT THE TOP OF THIS SITE

FIG MINTS (OF YOUR IMAGINATION)

The Passionate Misunderstanding

If record reviews were personality contests then anything from Fig Mint HQ would be greeted like a long-lost Beatles album, recorded in a sunkissed LSD-obliterated Bermuda triangle of a fortnight in the summer of 1967. And on the Quixodelic underground “The Passionate Misunderstanding” should be afforded the same treatment… roll out the red carpet, download it for free, make a little space in your life, hang onto your headphones and disappear down a tunnel of time, way back to before it even started. But we all know it doesn’t work like that – the old cliche about good guys finishing last was seemingly written about songwriters like Robert Richard Rogan, the brains behind a name that began as a piss-take of himself, but stuck for the best part of a decade thereafter. The truth is, if there is a red carpet then it’s a ragged one – beer & vomit stained, threadbare in places, half-rolled up in a stinking backstreet of urban America. And yet, like a resplendant punk beatnik guitar-wielding troubadour, if you peer through the darkness of your own head, you can vaguely make out the silhouette of “Pinky” staggering bottle in hand on the carpet’s remains, perpetually flying beneath the radar. Perhaps more than anything, the reason I love Fig Mints records is the way it deals with the desolation and confusion of just being here through the songs, through the tangled guitar riffs, with bittersweet and comical words that you instantly recognise as the universal badge of intelligent bewilderment.

“The Passionate Misunderstanding” is something for the curiosity collector inside us all, documenting a time pre-Figs, when the music was nameless, and finding it’s feet while trying not to drop the bottle. 7 tracks ripped from almost-forgotten spools of tape recorded between 1999 and 2005, it is as raw and ragged as the carpet I’m imagining it walks down, but for anyone who has been lucky enough to catch any official Fig Mints records released in the last 5 years, it is well worth your attention. Make no mistake – if you want an introduction to Bobby Rogan’s particular brand of music, then head over to www.cozyhomerecords.com where you can download the brilliant “Bad Choice Brigade” or the equally impressive and most recent recording “Hugs & Smiles” for free. But if like me, you’re wondering how it all began, or simply just wanting some more Fig Mints on your iPod then “Misunderstanding” intentionally misses the spot and rolls off down the road behind you.

“The Passionate Misunderstanding” kicks off with the prototypical Fig Mints “War In Space”. There is an umistakeable sound that runs through the veins of any Figs records – like a compass of pop, punk, indie rock, and experimental folk with a needle that spasmodically wheels around the face, stopping for a moment here, before wheeling around to there. Reassuringly, you never know exactly what you’re going to get next, but at the same time you know that it’s going to be somewhere on that compass face. What I think I’m trying to say here is a Fig Mints record without a “War In Space” wouldn’t be a Fig Mints record. Think punk-pop. Or pop-punk. And smile at simply neat lines like “Of all the human race you’re the only one that I would like to save…” while you’re thinking. 

Next stop for the needle is the distinctly lo-fi “Front Porch-Cars Passing”, a dual acoustic recording that is exactly what is says it is – an experimental few minutes of instrumental guitar lines, switching between grungey chords and atmospheric folk licks all the while the Utican traffic rumbling by in lo-fi space. It sounds as chaotic and unplanned as a jazz trumpeter, and gets better and better with every passing second until it closes on a curious bar of seemingly accordian-esque notes. “Misunderstanding” is mathematically heavy on the non-vocal side with a whopping 43% of it being music only – but the other two instrumentals are perhaps two of the high points. “Light 100s” is my current favourite track of the 7, verging on atmospheric psychedelic rock it takes a riff and runs with it building in a crescendo of frenzied guitar squalls, whereas in stark contrast “Requiem For My Puppy Dog” is a breezy little electro/acoustic ditty hinting at the direction of jingle-jangle folk-pop that comprises some of Fig Mints finest later recordings. The instrumental side of this record is really no surprise if you join the dots and trace the development from musician/guitarist discovering and finding their way as a singer/songwriter, and frames a curious glimpse at such a transition. That perhaps the most endearing quality of more recent recordings (the lyrical connection of the words) is absent for much of “Misunderstanding” in the context of this record being such a snapshot, is forgiveable, and actually pretty damn enjoyable.

The record is made up with “What A Day” (the most recognisably Fig Mints track on the record – a chugging acoustic/electric drawl, with a catchy melody, Beck-esque in its delivery), “My Dreams Are Boring” (more of the same, an electric beat and a deadpan delivery that pulsates with digitalised “oohs” and “ahs” like tiny insects), and closing track “They’ll Be Here Soon (Full Moon)”. As a record closer it’s worth the admission price alone – oh shit, yeah it’s free – well, if there was an admission price then that track would be worth it. Here comes the sound of a recognisably Utica-style experimental madness – backwards guitars, tapes fizzing, voices screaming inexplicables (did I just hear someone yelling something about “dodgy ball”?). It is the soundtrack of mispent, beautiful hallucinogenic youth – too many drugs, too much drink, too much thought, much hilarity, alive and prickling with the electric NOWNESS of it, like listening to your own worst nightmare and waking up many years later to find out someone actually recorded it on the other side of the world.

So there you have it. “The Passionate Misunderstanding” is the sound of the artist stretching on the start-line before taking off on a neverending sprint to a finishing line nobody knows exists. If anything, it’s a timely and slightly eccentric reminder of why you can’t wait for the next chapter from a songwriter who is producing “one song a month” in a blacked-out bedroom somewhere, getting on with it, goofing with friends when he can, slowly digesting the absurd world he inhabits so that he can later regurgitate it in the shape of songs and observations, with great guitars and drums to keep it simple, and give it momentum. Beyond that it’s a neat and strange little record in its own right, with a compass needle that goes haywire pulling recordings that never found a place to be from spools of tape and pasting them together on the cutting floor of hindsight. The silhouette is singing to you, an upstairs window opens and someone hurls a slipper down into the street below with a shower of insults concerning time – but what does the silhouette care… the tune he is drunkly trying to whistle is timeless and the red carpet rolls out in the shadows beneath his feet. Long may the carpet keep rolling.

You can download “The Passionate Misunderstanding” from the Quixodelic STORE link at the top of this site FOR FREE

Or find out more about FIG MINTS at: www.myspace.com/figmints