Rag Mag issue 6

Hey punk, are you on the rag? Hope everyone is hanging in there with all the chaos. Stay strong, stay punk, and help each other out. We are all we got. Creature's Double Feature is back with interviews with two of my favorite people on this dumb planet, Lance Barresi of Permanent Records Roadhouse and Cory Bell, international sweetheart and the best drummer in the game. Mittens returns with Creature on the Road part 2 and things are starting to get weird for yr ol' pal in south Jersey. Wasteland Chick goes back to Australia for the classic Sunset Strip by The Numbers (aka the riptides). Such a banger. All that and a new column coming in hot, It’s Casual by Dan Wars! This issue is jam packed. Keep sending in your events and columns. Stay punk.

Yr ol' pal creature here with a two-fer of interviews. First up, my buddy (and former band mate - dude kills it on the bass) Lance Barresi of Permanent Records Roadhouse. The roadhouse is a killer independent music venue/bar in LA that also happens to be an amazing record store and label too. Always so much happening and Lance is always out there digging up gold with a smile on his face for all us record hounds.

RM: How long have you been doing permanent records roadhouse?

LB: Permanent Records started back in October of 2006, but we bought the Roadhouse in October of 2019, just 5 months before the pandemic hit and shut us down.

RM: I love how everything you do is multi hyphenate, with a label, bar, venue, record store, and compiling all those reissues. What's your main focus these days?

LB: The main focus is the bar / venue with the store coming in at a very close second. The label and reissue projects that I do A&R on are a labor of love and are a very distant third.

RM: What drives you to keep digging for those obscure gems?

LB: Discovering new records and hearing them for the first time is the driving force. Sharing them with others and making sure the original artists are compensated is my (mostly) altruistic contribution to society. I have an insatiable desire to hear new music and share it with other people. I also love throwing good parties.

RM: How are things in LA now after the wildfires? Terrifying times and I imagine LA will be dealing with this for the foreseeable future.

LB: The latest wildfires were really intense and frightening. We know a lot of folks out here that lost everything. Many people lost homes and all of their earthly possessions, including some really incredible record collections...which to us, is the most devastating material loss imaginable. Thankfully, the city came together in an amazing way to support the victims and the process of cleaning up and rebuilding is already underway. This isn't our first rodeo and it certainly won't be the last. The most recent wildfires just happened to be some of the most devastating of all time.

RM: What's the scene like at the roadhouse? Any organizations you recommend for people to help?

LB: The scene at the Roadhouse is mostly back to normal, but the days and weeks immediately following the fires were bleak. We were hosting some folks that lost their home in Altadena and a bunch of shows got canceled. That was all in addition to the stress and worry of the fires spreading in our direction while the conditions were at their worst. We almost immediately began donating 25% of our sales to victims of the wildfires (through MusiCares) and we've hosted numerous benefit shows and events as well. It's been awesome to see the community come together to support the victims.

RM: Going back to music, those Brown Acid comps in particular shine a real light on independently released hard rock records. I imagine your love of compilations like this goes back to nuggets and lenny kaye, but were you inspired by those "bonehead crunchers" bootlegs from Europe that came out a decade or 2 back? Seems like a similar vibe, but yours are legit reissues of these old releases and put in the leg work to track down the band members. Do you have issues with bootlegs or is it all just about spreading the word of music?

LB: I've always loved compilations of rare singles. The "Nuggets", "Back From The Grave", and "Killed By Death" comps, were all a huge part of my early musical development. I also loved the Bonehead Crusher / Cruncher comps, of course! The vibe is definitely similar and those comps are very well-curated, but they included many major label records that would be difficult to license and they didn't do the legwork of contacting the artists to get the rights like I did. Making mixtapes is easy. Legitimately licensing tracks for compilations is the hardest part of what I do with the Brown Acid series. I'm very proud of the curation, but I'm especially proud of the work I've put into licensing the tracks from the artists directly and making sure the artists get paid (sometimes for the first time ever). Sharing the music and knowledge is number one, but the artists should always get their due.

RM: I saw in your latest email that George Brigman's Jungle Rot is being reissued soon. What a teenage proto punk banger. What's your current favorite release on Permanent and what is coming up for the future? Your label tends more towards hard rock than punk, so what would you recommend for punks dipping their toes into the hard rock swimming pool?

LB: "Jungle Rot" is a DIY proto-punk masterpiece. I've loved this album since I first heard it in my early Twenties. It was and remains to be a total game-changer! If you're a punk and you're looking for one record in the Acid Archives to get you into private pressings, this is one of the best! We've done more than 60 releases on the Permanent label over the years, and a few of them are still in print. Punk-friendly reissues like Stonewall, Raven, and Zipper will probably always be on Permanent, but I've mostly been tracking releases as the A&R rep for RidingEasy Records (the same label that releases my Brown Acid comps). I love doing reissues, but I simply don't have time for it anymore with everything else I do at the Roadhouse.

RM: Anything else you want to add?

LB: If anyone reading this is intrigued by what we're doing, please follow us on social media and sign up for our email newsletter and we'll keep you posted on all the exciting stuff we have going on at Permanent Records' Roadhouse that way. If you don't have time for much reading, you can also find us on YouTube. Cheers to you and your readership for your support, Jaan!

Next up, punk of the week Cory Bell cuz it's his birthday. Look at that Hilton honors member, beautiful. Full disclosure, this interview was conducted over breakfast in a diner in a tiny town in Vermont where we partied for Cory's bday. Cory is the nicest guy, the best drummer, and a carpenter extraordinaire.

RM: Hey Cory! Its your birthday. How does it feel to still be in multiple bands with uncontrollable frank for another trip around the sun?

CB: It's pretty incredible. I'm a lucky guy. I never thought I'd be this old as a kid.

RM: What bands you in now? I heard orange whip recorded? Is that coming out sometime?

CB: I play drums in Orange Whip, Blood Moron, and Ancient Filth. Orange whip did record and it was great! Our bud Doug Demay (our dungeon master) recorded us. He's the best. He was in Fat Day which is a legendary band I never got to see. Not sure when it's coming out but we will probably do a Bandcamp in a month or so

RM: Sick, excited to hear. The ancient filth LP from a couple years ago was so good. Any fun recording stories this time around?

CB: I have a real "fun" story. We started recording on Friday. I was to be there at 4. I had a stressful day on the job and had to leave early which stressed me out even more. I drove home changed cleaned up and right back out to get to Doug's. I'm driving on Storrow drive and BAM! puked all over myself while driving. No where to pull over. I puked three times. So I called Uncontrollable Frank told him the sitch and returned home.

RM: That sounds crazy. I'm sorry that happened to you. Who's in blood moron and how sick is conflict?

LB: Great group of friends. Luke from New England Patriots, Jeff Poot from every good Boston punk band, Uncontrollable Frank (who's also dad and plays hockey three nights a week while being in two band and having a baby on the way) Brian from Savage heads is singing. I'm gonna say Conflict changed my life. I went Vegan (24 years) from being inspired by them, before that my friends and I made super shitty stick n poke tattoo machine using an old remote control car and bic pen. The first tattoo was a very shitty Conflict logo which I refuse to cover up. So they rule.

RM: Can't wait to see you play. Have to book a show together. Why is dystopia the best band? Anything else you wanna say?

CB: Dystopia again hit me so hard and represented every thing I was feeling in high school. I had it good but also life sucked. They got me through for sure. I saw them at the space in Worcester in 1998. They played with Grief, and Orchid. It was fucking epic. Easily my fav show I've ever been to. I think I was 15 and just got my learners permit. I can still remember Dino getting out of the van. He was pissed for some reason and kicked a snow bank so hard. I thought, that's exactly how I thought he'd be. I bought every merch they had. Records, a VHS tape, and a hoodie which I lost and have never seen another again Really, really great band.

In closing I just like to say that the friends I met through punk are the greatest part of my life and the reason I'm still kicking. Love y'all. Love punk.

RM: Thanks Cory, love ya too punk.

Records of the week from Creature are a new one from one of Philly's current best acts and a dbeat hardcore reissue from Japan. Emily Robb - rotation free 7”. Solo guitar outta Philly. Emily has released 2 of my favorite lps in the last couple years of experimental guitar droning bliss. Here's a new short one recorded at her studio a couple years back. Get lost in it.

Apocalypse - s/t. New reissue on prank/mangrove records of recordings by Crow (the man) following Crow (the band) last chaos record and right before his grave new world project. Discharge, screaming, and psychedelic vibes. I love Crow and this rules. It starts off with looped screaming vocals and the wasteland Chick started calling this the screaming record. Check it out. https://prankrecords.bigcartel.com/product/apocalypse-s-t-lp

Soul song of the day is Try Me by Syl Johnson. I don't think there is a single song I've heard by Syl Johnson where he wasn't pushing it over the top. Always 100% from this guy. Killer.

One does not. Salutations, fellow Wasteland Chicks. Glad to be back. Let’s play a quick game: How many Teslas did yours truly flip off today? If you guessed too many, you’d be correct. Just kidding, the answer is 2. Anyway, let’s stave off the impending poxy-clipse by reviewing an old favorite of mine: 77 Sunset Strip by the Numbers. This song rules. Let’s start with the melody and rhythm. Overall, it feels like a classic 50’s bikini beach party song, but with a punk undertone with electric guitars and drums. Kind of like the MST3K song “Sodium”, but about something other than the eleventh periodic element. Anyway, the rhythm and melody feel both classic and punk at the same time, giving a nice tone and feel to the overall song. Next, the lyrics: The lyrics, like most punk songs, I’ve noticed, are a bit repetitive, but the way the singers sing the lyrics add both that 50’s bikini beach party and 80’s underground punk je nais se qua to it perfectly. I also like the random guitar solo midway through. A guitar solo for no reason= instant thumbs-up from this Wasteland Chick. Overall score, 9.2 out of ten, this song captures both a 50’s beach theme and a 80’s punk theme at the same time. A perfect song to play on your way to the beach, a cool party, or just picking up pizza on a Friday. Rise from the ashes of this wasteland, fellow Wasteland Chicks. Bye!

Sincerely, WASTELAND CHICK

I watch a lot of movies, both good and bad. That’s actually not totally true- while I do enjoy a well crafted film with top stars and comfortable budgets, my main interest is in dogshit. I absolutely adore old exploitation movies, lousy boob comedies, shoestring budget action films, 3rd rate slashers, and other forgotten features. I’m a lifelong horror and sci-fi fanatic, spending most of my teenage years plowing my way through every genre film the local VHS rental shops had to offer. Ive wasted hours, days, perhaps years of my life wading through junk. I’ve seen some shit. Thankfully streaming services like Tubi pay decent money for a handful of well known films and then bulk buy a fantastic amount of cheap unknown weird old shit to fill out their library of titles. It’s great! My wife hates it!

When pressed on the matter, my love of these movies is pretty easy to explain- I like strange old stuff. I adore the flea market. I faithfully read the letters columns in old comic books. I really enjoy drinking a beer and watching some obscure old picture. The filmmaking in a lot of these features is often inept to the point of absurdity. So many of these productions were made outside of the Hollywood studio system and have an almost anarchistic feel to them. You encounter lots of first time filmmakers with no idea what they’re doing, talentless hacks with rich relative investors, and total maniacs who had a vision that they felt that the world needed to see. A lot of this is outsider art. A lot of the people involved in these films would go on to bigger and greater things. Some of them would fade into obscurity.

The hit to miss ratio leans pretty heavy in a predictable direction but I’ve encountered some absolute gems. Some of my favorite films were discovered by accident. Even in the worst movies there is often something that scratches that itch for me. I like the term “Cinematic Catnip” in regards to these things- tropes, content, or otherwise. Off the top of my head, here are some things that really get me going:

~Someone running around while on fire

I love a good practical effect and I always squeal with delight whenever some stunt person is engulfed in flames on screen!

~ A title theme

I can dig a great iconic score or well curated “mixtape” soundtrack but I’m a sucker for a lousy theme song created for the film. Ideally they’ll say the name of the movie, hopefully it’s by a minor regional band. While the song “Are You Ready for the Summer” is treated as the theme song for the 1979 film Meatballs, the song “Meatballs” by Rick Dees is the true sonic representation of this comedy classic.

~ Familiar faces

I can give or take marquee names like Tom Cruise or Al Pacino. What I really want is to spend an hour and a half character actors like Dick Miller, Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Woronov, Charles Napier, or Stephen Tobolowski.

~ Equal opportunity nudity

I was watching Sean S. Cunningham’s non-slasher film Spring Break recently, a serviceable 80s boner jam comedy that features plenty of sexy coeds, both guys and gals, in various states of undress. This had the expected amount of tits but I was pleasantly surprised by the numerous scenes with greasy frat boy hunks in exotic underwear showing their bulges and tight bare asses.

~ Cheap knockoffs

The bigger the box office return or cultural impact, the more cheap knockoffs that will be made. Jaws was a big hit in 1975 and inspired a wild amount of derivatives. My favorites are Piranha, The Car, and Cruel Jaws. If you loved Star Wars, you might kind of like Battle Beyond the Stars, The Black Hole, or Krull. The second best Italian Mad Maxsploitation film is definitely Rats: Night of Terror because of the totally fucking mental ending.

~Punk

Guys with Mohawks as the bad guys in 80s action movies. Punk extras in a club scene to add to the gritty atmosphere. Punk posters on the wall. The Suburban Lawns poster in Damone’s bedroom in Fast Times. Punk songs on the soundtrack. The cast features Lee Ving, Henry Rollins, or Iggy Pop. Rock and Roll High School. Punxsploitation. That mohawk guy in Star Trek 4 on the bus that Spock assaults. Suburbia but not SubUrbia.

What’s your favorite shitty movie or things in a film that will immediately sell you on it?

Let me know at Humanvapor@gmail.com

It’s casual.

“Creature on the Road-Part Two” - by Mr. Mittens

I was halfway across the road now, my van hitched and bobbed as it slowly trampled up and down over the broken asphalt. I could hear my delivery wobbling from the back of the van, it made a sort of scuffle and scrape along the metal edges of the van walls. I didn’t like to haul things this precarious or this large, not usually anyway. My favorite type of haul was the kind I could keep in a little envelope on the seat beside me or tucked neatly inside my vest pocket, but I was getting extra on this run just for the inconvenience of its size. Still, it didn’t mean I couldn’t be sore about it. I’d spent an hour of my driving time just getting the fucking thing into the van and sent off with strict instructions not to damage it on my trip. Seemed to me like a lot of fuss over what looked like just a big black box, but the man I picked it up from said it was rare and though not technically illegal, it was highly frowned upon.

“They’ll smash it to bits- the man had said, his hands shaking “if those fuckers in the red suits stop you I just know they’ll smash it.” I’d nodded my head and kept my voice low and calm just to steady him. He wasn’t wrong though, every red suit I’ve ever met on the road out here loved a good smash up. They had laminated sheets tacked to every checkpoint with large glossy pictures of what was deemed illegal for transfer, but damned if they didn’t find loopholes for confiscation and damned if they didn’t love smashing whatever they took right in front of you. I once saw a group of red suits - all boys, they couldn’t have been older than my jean jacket, set fire to an old piano right there on the side of the highway. The poor woman who’d owned the instrument had screamed as the flames ate the instrument bit by wooden bit. I remember watching her face as the boys pissed on the fire, if she’d managed to keep all of her rotten and righteous thoughts to herself they probably wouldn’t have thrown her into the flame as well, but that uniform eats away at you. Once you put it on, you are dissolved of empathy, dissolved of individual reason, and worse you’re dissolved of consequences. I’d rather melt inside the fucking toxic water licking at my wheels right now.

There was a sharp thud against my van’s backdoor breaking me from my thoughts. I put it in park and waited for a second thud. It must be the Pineys, that was their usual greeting. Some of the drivers didn’t like them banging on their rigs, but I ask you what the hell else are they going to do to let you know they’re out on the road with you? They’re not shooting flares into the night’s sky for fucks sake. A second thud confirmed their presence and so I stopped the van and put it in park to let them pass. It was a miracle quite honestly, how they managed to edge along the narrow gap between my rig and the water. I’d told some of them before that they had my permission to climb over the van and slide down the front windshield to get ahead of me, but they never took me up on it and they never said why. I could hear their breath now as they pressed themselves lungs tight against the van and slowly inched past. Scooter the maniac, a redheaded driver with zits and a pet mouse in the glove box had tried to argue with them once about coming to the road early and getting across it without the need for her headlights. She’d told me about the fight weeks after it had taken place, framing it as though she’d given them a gift and received piss in return. She was young and still prone to misunderstanding the complications of obvious solutions. It took a solid hour or more to explain to her that any Pineys crossing the bog road at night are usually just checking their traps and it doesn't hurt to give them a little help with the light. I mean, I’m sure they could shimmy up those streetlights in the dark, a flashlight in their gummy mouths, but damn it doesn't hurt to give them some space and some bright light. I don’t want to feel on the hook for someone splashing to their death.

“It’s like everywhere, Scoot, just don’t be a dick, especially when it doesn’t cost you anything. You’d be surprised at how far not being an asshole can get you.”

To be continued…

That’s it for another issue of Rag Mag. Please see some upcoming events below and keep sending them in. Get in touch for events or to contribute. See ya soon, punk.