It’s the party end of the year (well it was when I started this post) and it’s time for the first ever inaugural Stubbadub top 10 albums of the year list!
Even without any significant contributions from Mike Patton this year, which can be directly attributed to a certain reunion tour, there have been many great Stubbadub related releases to tickle our ear drums.
So lets get started. Counting down from 10 to 1:
10. Zu – Carboniferous (Mike Patton) - Italian metallers Zu released their latest album Carboniferous via Mike Patton’s label Ipecac Recordings. Mike appears on a couple of tracks (Soulympics and Orc) along with Buzz from the Melvins (Chthonian).
09. Shrinebuilder – Self Titled (Dale Crover) - Featuring Dale Crover of The Melvins fame on drums and Neurosis frontman Scott Kelly on Guitar, Shrinebuilder released their stoner fueled debut album in October.
07. Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine – The Audacity of Hype (Billy Gould) – The latest installment from outspoken ex-Dead Kennedys’ vocalist, Eric Reed Boucher aka Jello Biafra is a kick in the sack from start to finish. The album features Billy Gould on bass and one has to assume that he would have toured with the band if he hadn’t been side tracked by the recent reformation of Faith No More. Hopefully he can make the next tour (and they bring it to Australia )
06. Chuck Mosley and the VUA – Will Rap over Hard Rock for Food (Chuck Mosley) – It’s been a while since Chuck released anything of significance, but it was worth the wait. A good album over all and the rework of Faith No More’s We Care a Lot (Featuring special guest Mr Roddy Bottum on keys) is very interesting and worth grabbing the album for alone.
05. Umlaut – Self Titled (Bar McKinnon) – Bar’s first release since becoming an Aussie. Recently toured with Les Claypool. A very tidy album all round with some very nice Bungle-esque/Secret Chiefs 3 moments.
04. Isis – Wavering Radiant (Ipecac Recordings) – The latest installment from rockers Isis as usual does not disappoint.
02. The Fantastic Terrific Munkle – Music to Dance To (Danny Heifetz) – It is very difficult to keep up with what Danny is working on nowdays as he does not have any established online presence, but the best thing he is involved with at the moment is the Munkle band. Check this album out
01. John Zorn – O’o (Trevor Dunn) – The latest in Zorn’s “Romance” series and the follow up to 2008′s “The Dreamers”, this is an amazing record and by far my album of the year.
Hopefully next year we will see the highly anticipated release of Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane, possibly Crudo and fingers crossed another Fantomas would be most welcome.
Jello Biafra’s latest musical venture, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, have just released their debut album The Audacity of Hype and features none other than our good buddy Billy Gould on Bass:
“In the twenty or so years since his brainchild Dead Kennedys officially disbanded, Jello Biafra has made a career of spoken word gigs interspersed with musical collaborations with some of the most compelling figures in underground music. Recording projects and touring with the likes of Melvins, No Means No, DOA, Mojo Nixon and Lard (with Ministry’s Al Jorgensen) among others have kept his “hardcore as political weapon” message sharp, but the lack of his own band made these collaborations usually short-lived and left Biafra with a ton of songs that had never seen the light of day.
Inspired by Iggy Pop’s 60Th birthday gig at the Warfield in San Francisco, Biafra laid plans for his own 50th birthday party and finally decided it was time to start a band of his own. Ten years before he had been attempting the same thing with the likes of guitarist Ralph Spight (Victims Family,Freak Accident,Hellworms) and drummer Jon Weiss (Sharkbait,Horsey). They had also previously worked with bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More) who was tapped for the new group. After cramming rehearsals for a month the four piece band known as Jello Biafra and the Axis Of Merry Evildoers took the stage in a sold-out two night stand at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall and subsequently spent the next 9 months in rehearsal for an album project.
Before entering the studio guitarist Kimo Ball (Freak Accident,Carneyball Johnson,Mol Triffid,Griddle) was recruited and the resulting twin guitar attack took the groups sound to new, noisier heights. The quintet now known as Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School of Medicine began recording tracks for the upcoming LP/CD entitled “The Audacity Of Hype”(Alternative Tentacles Records) slated for release in October 2009, produced by Biafra and engineered by Hip Hop legend and long time Jello co-conspirator Matt Kelley (Hieroglyphics,Tupac,Digital Underground,Victims Family) at Prairie Sun Recording in Cotati,CA and San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios.
The band’s sound retains some of the the spy-music-on-meth chaos of the DK’s while adding a healthy dose of Detroit style proto-punk mixed with layers of sonic guitar noise, and Weiss’ industrial excursions into metal percussion. Topically, the album explores how our forced Iraqnophobia and Homeland Insecurity continues to feed lawlessness at the top (“The Terror Of Tiny Town”) vs. a runaway police state and class war towards the bottom (“Three Strikes”,”Electronic Plantation”). “Clean As A Thistle” becomes more timely every day as “Family Values” blowhards get caught in sinful trysts while, album closer “I Won’t Give Up” offers an Age of Obama anthem on how change comes from agitation from below, not glamour and soundbites from the top.
Thirty years on, Jello Biafra has made an album that solidifies and expands his uncompromising vision and updates it for the new century, with a powerhouse band that promises to be a terrifying live machine, featuring Jon’s brother Andrew Weiss (Rollins Band,Ween,Butthole Surfers) filling the live bass position recently left vacant by Billy Gould’s return to Faith No More.”
“In other SanFrancisco news, you are invited to Jello Biafra’s 50th birthday celebration!!! On June 16 & 17 join the Melvins in celebrating the big 5-0 for the punk rabble rousing former Dead Kennedy legend at the Great American Music Hall. Each night the Melvins will be playing a set from the “Mangled Demos” earliest Melvins era ever, as well as playing a set with Jello. These shows are stocked with cool bands including the world debut on the 16th of Jello’s new band that includes Billy Gould (x Faith No More)on bass, guitar legend Ralph Spight and drummer Jon Weiss!!
That birthday party sounds better than a Chuck E Cheese party!!!!!!”
Dates:
Jun. 16, 2008 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
w/ Jello Biafra’s 50th Birthday Party
Jun. 17, 2008 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
w/ Jello Biafra’s 50th Birthday Party
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Jello Biafra’s latest musical venture, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, have just released their debut album 
