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... happy spring everyone !!! to commemorate our favorite season (and to help get this place back to some sort of workable condition) we're having a "spring cleaning" sale !!! please visit the spring (2013) cleaning page to view a list of (recent, mostly 2012) releases that we're now offering at reduced prices (while supplies last, no rainchecks, etc) ...
previous artist:
 peter smeekens 
there are 9 titles featuring smegma in stock.
they are listed below.
next artist:
 smet 
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 $11.76

back in stock as of
april 9th, 2012

first in stock on
august 18th, 2006


threads:
lo-fi
harsh-noise
free-improvisation
modern-psych
lafms

de stijl (usa) #ind 036 cd

smegma / wolf eyesthe beast” compact disc

  • (no tracklisting)
de stijl press release...
smegma / wolf eyes
the beast
this also came to be known as no face lives 036 lp / cd

smegma, man, fucking smegma. they started the whole damn thing. sure there was lee rocky & some soundeffects 78s that set the crew in motion but screw it.. you wouldn't be blasting "the beast" or any "weird handdrawn lp" with rotten ears if it wasn't for this truly motley crew.

in high school my sweet momma would give me ten bones a week for lunch, come monday by noon that shit was blown at the local rec shop. when i only had a couple of raggedy bux left from gripping zorlac stickers, the only option was the dollar bin at the store. it was there that john bender, haystacks balboa, nik reicnek, & peter catham lps blew open my teen mind to the netherworlds.

among the giants was this homemade wreckord by ju suk reet meat. looked amazing… had no idea. threw it on for nearly every day since. mutant loops, improv from alien swamp prom & deviant horrible ideas. changed my life. just what a young mind needed to replace the texas chainsaw massacre.

found out later it was from the smegma camp, a strange unknown mystery troupe from portland. no photos ever... just a numbling clip on a rrr comp video lessard gave me & dilloway, a tunnel view into the spirtual mecca that would the smegma klan.

before the first wolf jaunt out west we dropped them a postcard saying it would be good to meet. soon it mangled into a recording session. we would be so honored. the day came. the smegma house, totally pink, queued us in to rainy, green portland. we knocked. a femme voice said through the door, “use the bell”. nate pushed it and out came a gargled electronic siren. the door openend, rock 'n roll jackie, 5 foot tall, grinning & long beatiful grey hair. we all fell in love.

soon after we meet ju suk & one by one slowly met all the smegmas in one of the strangest nights ever. burned mind, meltzer, stan, amazon bambi, others. all weird as hell, checking us as much as us checking them. yep, this is who we wanted to be with the rest of our lives...

the michigan crew had never been so inspired & moved but by this unholy blending of mutant minds... so we jammed. it was fucking amazing. here are the results. every year we are going to see them & hang like the best friend weirdo family. a total pilgrimage. nate & i once got so blasted from portland cloud that we projected that smegma has always existed, ever since the beginning of time. someone will always carry it on... might be this dude in ypsi who has no face. really. no nose, barely a mouth, always has a broken arm or something.. smells like shit. dude is totally in smegma. fucking life rules.

-john olson
ypsilanti, nov 2003

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 $10.08

new to stock as of
december 15th, 2011


threads:
lafms
harsh-noise
guitar-themed
electro-acoustic-composition
musique-concrθte
digital-musics

gilgongo (usa) #gggr-051 cd

sissy spacekgrisp” compact disc

  • real trash (2:29)
  • lipstick (1:41)
  • tribulation (4:00)
  • jerk loose (4:55)
  • fontellabass (4:31)
  • teenage kick (anti-anxiety) (11:34)
  • grisp (5:00)
  • mono no aware 2 (10:09)
november 2011 release ; ... here & below are four concurrent cd releases of material by john wiese & corydon ronnau’s sissy spacek ...

while 2-second songs & general noisecore malaise is (largely) the order of the day across all four discs, this one actually features some extended sections of free improvisation & very nicely executed tape-music flourish (seriously ; listen to the opening strains of “real trash” via the sound-sample ; sounds like a track from a gmeb compilation from 1992) via contributions from melon expander’s mitch brown, thin wrist’s peter kolovos, solid eye’s rick potts, smegma, the haters, etc ...
gilgongo press release...

sissy spacek grisp cd gggr-051

running the gamut of improv, concrθte, industrial tape music, and cut-up sounds. featuring appearances by mitchell brown (gasp), aaron hemphill (liars), peter kolovos (open city), rick potts (lafms, solid eye, airway), and source material by smegma and the haters. partially collects material from the beat (777 was 666), grisp, and ddt (chondritic sound) cassettes. for those that say things like, "i don't really listen to cds" — you're totally lame.

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 $12.64

back in stock as of
september 15th, 2009

first in stock on
march 3rd, 2007


threads:
lafms
free-improvisation
psych-prog
1980s-electronic
plunder-phonic
playback-music

harbinger sound (uk) #harb 051 cd

smegmanattering naybobs of negativity” compact disc

  • pile (5:04)
  • happy birthday rhumba (2:09)
  • spring flowers (1:40)
  • freakish high (3:39)
  • turn me loose (0:50)
  • limp dynamics (4:29)
  • thru the watery evening (3:30)
  • innermost cravings (2:21)
  • porky section (3:56)
  • en vout (1:46)
  • mouthful of rubber (7:29)

  • semi-incongruous morass (5:04)
  • project 22 (1:33)
  • grammer (3:35)
  • hairlip diary (1:51)
  • jungle ride (1:44)
  • now it's dark (3:48)
  • tiny everlyn (1:41)
  • sanctum (2:22)
  • imp-namics (4:33)
  • nail scarred hand (2:08)
2007 release ; new version of this late-80s set from smegma, covering both the titular lp (orig. dead man’s curve, 1987) and the “studio” side of the “morass” tape (orig. soleilmoon, 1988) ...

classic “semi-incongruous morass” ; wolf eyes et.al simply would not exist w/o ...
harbinger sound press release...
every home should have a smegma album. yes, don't you delay, y'here, this is more important than the coolest refrigerator, the best named beer, and your favorite corn chips. smegma, are from oregon, they're different, and they'll always be a talking point among your friends and relatives. this is their first european album release ... previously their fine product has turned up on their own us label - and they've shared half a seven inch on mute with non.

so don't delay! rush to the counter. buy this record, you know it makes sense...

the second in the series of harbinger sounds efforts to present the smegma back catalog.

this album originally came out in the uk only back in 1987 and is backed by the studio side from the 1988 cassette release, morass.

twenty-one tracks in total. dedicated to tom (pig champion) roberts. limited to #1000 copies.

cd features an eight-page booklet with photos and a pre-1988 smegma discography.

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 $13.13

back in stock as of
november 23rd, 2009

first in stock on
may 7th, 2007


threads:
modern-psych
harsh-noise
lafms
free-improvisation
lo-fi

important (usa) #imprec 145 lp

smegma33 1/3 lp version” long playing record

  • up there
  • glossolalia
  • antics

  • the door
  • not right
  • over & out
important press release...
smegma - 33 1/3 - lp
imprec145 - lp

this vinyl edition of 33 1/3 is limited to 1000 copies. includes a bonus track only available on the vinyl version..

33 1/3 is smegma's tribute to their 20th century avant-garde and out-jazz influences. the title is one part reference to the happy revival of passionate vinyl listening in the 21st century and one part celebration of their long hard slog of 33 1/3 years of being one of the most free thinking and original american underground groups. their focus, ideas and determination has brought them through more than three decades and to this day they remain unparalleled, original and highly influential.

smegma. seriously. they've been at it for so long now that you can't really even say they sound like anyone else. you can only say that others sound like them. they're all here on 33 1/3: oblivia, ju suk reet meate, burned mind, conroy, dr. id. the core group drumming up their influences and pulling off another burning album of magnificent proportions.

while smegma has never really fit in anywhere their influence on the modern avant garde and improvised noise scene is absolutely undeniable. however, it's essential to remember that smegma has never been noise for noise's sake. while they've had two feet firmly planted in avant-garde & free jazz one must not forget their rock roots as well. for this reason alone they're bound to not fit in anywhere. influences aside, not matter how much everyone else sounds like smegma, you can bet that smegma is always going to sound like nobody else. nobody else channels so much energy, effort, influence or sound into their work. they may just be the greatest american band. ever.

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 $12.96

back in stock as of
november 23rd, 2009

first in stock on
may 7th, 2007


threads:
lafms
modern-psych
lo-fi
harsh-noise
free-improvisation

important (usa) #imprec 137 cd

smegma33 1/3” compact disc

  • percrash (3:36)
  • glossolalia (4:56)
  • antics (9:14)
  • world of plugs (5:29)
  • the door (10:04)
  • not right (4:36)
  • up there (3:15)

  • video: smegma live! (7:10)
cd version ; includes a bonus embedded video of the group w/c. spencer yeh (burning star core) & twig harper (nautical almanac) ...
important press release...
smegma - 33 1/3 - cd
imprec137 - cd

33 1/3 is smegma's tribute to their 20th century avant-garde and out-jazz influences. the title is one part reference to the happy revival of passionate vinyl listening in the 21st century and one part celebration of their long hard slog of 33 1/3 years of being one of the most free thinking and original american underground groups. their focus, ideas and determination has brought them through more than three decades and to this day they remain unparalleled, original and highly influential.

33 1/3 is enhanced with live videos of happy holidays live at end times festival (with spencer yeh and twig harper) as well as grubsteak live at the three million tongues festival in chicago.

smegma. seriously. they've been at it for so long now that you can't really even say they sound like anyone else. you can only say that others sound like them. they're all here on 33 1/3: oblivia, ju suk reet meate, burned mind, conroy, dr. id. the core group drumming up their influences and pulling off another burning album of magnificent proportions.

while smegma has never really fit in anywhere their influence on the modern avant garde and improvised noise scene is absolutely undeniable. however, it's essential to remember that smegma has never been noise for noise's sake. while they've had two feet firmly planted in avant-garde & free jazz one must not forget their rock roots as well. for this reason alone they're bound to not fit in anywhere. influences aside, not matter how much everyone else sounds like smegma, you can bet that smegma is always going to sound like nobody else. nobody else channels so much energy, effort, influence or sound into their work. they may just be the greatest american band. ever.

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 $11.95

back in stock as of
june 7th, 2011

first in stock on
september 1st, 2007


threads:
harsh-noise
modern-psych
electro-acoustic-improvisation

no fun productions (usa) #nfp 16 cd

jazkamer / smegmaendless coast” compact disc

  • heavy fog (11:42)
  • white witch (5:33)
  • portland swamps (5:55)
  • stone eater (3:15)
  • carniviorous bog (8:13)
supersession involving the full smegma lineup (dr. id, ju suk reet meate, conroy, burned mind, oblivia) with an expanded jazkamer lineup (lasse marhaug, john hegre, and carlos giffoni) - the acoustic/plunderphonic cromp of smegma (much ayler-ian funeral-march freedom) meshing perfectly with the guitar & electronics of the norwegian/bushwick contingent.

aside from the fact that jazkamer and smegma are two of my favorite contemporary units; this record has much staying power aside from the initial jolt - both sides let down their guard in spots and the music sways readily from pointilist improv jank to full-bore skree. excellent stuff.
no fun productions press release...

16 jazkamer / smegma 'endless coast' cd

a collaboration between american underground psychedelic/noise pioneers (and still kicking hard now for over 30 years) smegma and norweigan noise/metal masters jazkamer. from two totally different worlds and approaches to sound a totally original abstract language is born creating an imaginary coast that extends from the brutality of the scandinavian frozen seas to the dark and mysterious rock filled beaches of the american northwest - a landscape full of strange creatures and beings, an eternal and endless coast. recorded and mixed at smegma’s legendary home base portland studio.

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 $8.41

new to stock as of
august 25th, 2008


threads:
modern-psych
plunder-phonic
electro-acoustic-improvisation
harsh-noise
lo-fi
sound-poetry

zelphabet (usa) #zelphabet b cd

the beast people / 16 bitch pile-up / blackhumour / bob belleruezelphabet • vol. b” compact disc

  • the beast people - backing (9:07)
  • 16 bitch pile-up - no burden, no guilt (15:00)
  • blackhumour - and do what / control (18:36)
  • bob bellerue - fridge tower (10:25)
second volume ... scattered psych-improv from the wolf eyes / smegma “beast peopl” team-up, boiler-room ambience from 16 bitch pile-up, phase-oriented plunderphonic sound-poetry from blackhumour, and an excellent electro-static interference-blast from bob “redglaer” bellerue ...
zelphabet press release...
zelphabet is a series of 26 cd compilations featuring: emil beaulieau, francisco lopez, the hanatarash, incapacitants, k2, kk null, the legendary pink dots, nocturnal emissions, quiet american, runzelstirn & gurgelstock, scott arford, small cruel party, sudden infant, thomas dimuzio, wolf eyes, zbigniew karkowski, z'ev, and many, many - many more!

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 $6.72

back in stock as of
march 21st, 2012

first in stock on
april 19th, 2006


threads:
lo-fi
harsh-noise
free-improvisation

hanson (usa) #hn us2 cs

underground series vol. 2” c30 cassette

  • sick llama
  • smegma
  • failing lights
  • oubliette
  • tusco terror
  • hive mind
hanson press release...
second volume in the hanson underground series. 6 artists on a c-30. only the most gutterball in experimental & noise music.. this volume contains tracks from sick llama, smegma, failing lights, oubliette, tusco terror, & hive mind.

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 $15.51

back in stock as of
october 9th, 2012

first in stock on
may 17th, 2007


threads:
lafms
art-punk
sound-art
lo-fi
field-recordings
electro-acoustic-composition
plunder-phonic

 best of 2007 !!! 
paradigm (uk) #pd 23 cd

i.d. art #2” compact disc

  • mac mccloud / mac mccloud (2:19)
  • harold schroeder “silent rituals” (3:32)
  • greg neutra / j.d. elliot “grieg fatigue” (2:01)
  • smegma “rrose selavy will wait for my washing, machine, even” / “the andalusian dog often digs into the furniture with onyx fingers.” (2:02)
  • smegma “potatoe war” (0:59)
  • fredrik nilsen “you can’t hide from aldehyde” (1:40)
  • miles forst “art, art, art” (0:41)
  • smegma “one moment” (1:30)
  • smegma “pig face blues” (0:24)
  • doug henry “view this command as a verbal enactment of a command” (0:15)
  • josie roth “heal, and another little time” (1:01)
  • joe potts “i don’t want to go to the farm” (0:21)
  • otto fick (0:48)
  • smegma “excerpt from: i’ll have julie nixon-eisenhower, for my appetizer (sour lungs to my surprise)” (3:01)
  • karen kato “xmas 1952” (0:35)
  • j.j. allen vargas “victim of racism” (1:25)
  • dennis guy mehaffey “busta nosa” (1:47)
  • m/r/zuniga “vulnerability: rape, male vs. female” (1:31)
  • mike green “martin heiddeger revisited” (dedicated to molly) (0:15)
  • mehaffey a. (introduction by buckminster fuller. “i stumble/you laugh” (4:01)
  • jules lemelle(1:03).
  • maureen abbott (0:14).
  • smegma “take one” (3:29).
  • dan weiss/p. hamilton ross “a bicentennial tribute to america’s freight trains” (0:56).
  • mr. foon “timeless #1” (5:50)
  • bertil petersson “monologue to henry viii” (2:05)
  • amrein & stoll (1:04)
  • ace & duce “dogs are barking" (0:37)
  • irene dogmatic/rose tatoo (0:36)
  • gordon shields “cotton duck, up and back” (0:59)
  • gary beydler “record stick” (0:16).
  • tom kemp “pasadena subway station poetry stills” (3:39)
  • donald spaulding “i don’t want this to happen” (0:32)
  • janice felger / joan hugo “one minute of art news update in 30 seconds” (1:04)
  • sue farthing (0:22)
  • waynna kato “white/noise” (0:29)
  • jim abuan / peter muzzey “why does love have to be so sad?” (0:20)
  • juan gomez “this is my country” (2:47)
  • p.j. campbell (1:01).
  • kathe schreyer “don’t make me laugh” (0:15)
  • mary dana chodzko “patty smith by mary dana chodzko” (1:42).
  • gary laskin “have sex with rex” (1:25)
  • jean koller “dream” (3:20).
  • le forte four “discarded portion of the soundtrack for rick’s film burger madness” / “the origin of largie schrapnel” / “i haven’t heard you for a long time...” / “fat ape” (1:17)
reissue of lafms 002, the 1976 “i.d. art #2” compilation lp - 44 short pieces (between 0:15 and 4:19) by smegma (five tracks actually), le forte four , ace & duce, frederik nilsen, and various agglomerates of lafms perennials chip chapman, ace farren ford, juan gomes, joe potts, rick potts, and tom recchion.
paradigm press release...
i.d. art #2 (pd 23)

jewel case cd with 8 page booklet

total time 65'48"

released 2007

when the los angeles free music society 10 cd set came out i eagerly flipped through the contents to see what treasures had finally been made available again. much to my surprise the early compilation i.d. art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the lafms. i.d. art #2 was the second lp release on their label, coming after le forte four’s ‘bikini tennis shoes’ lp, and before the 2lp ‘live at the brand’, a split album between le 44 and the doo-dooettes. it dates from 1976. it is also probably the most difficult lp on their catalogue to find. originally released in an edition of just 200 copies, most of which were given out to the 44 artists and groups who appeared on this extraordinary lp. the deal was that each track was paid for by the contributor at a rate of $8 per minute in exchange for 4 copies of the disc. consequently very few copies were ever made available via the lafms mail order service.

with a running time of 66 minutes and the sheer variety of contributions, i.d. art #2 remained for most people a mysterious and tantalising item.

most of the contributors came from the students at otis art institute in la, and many make their only ever recordings for this disc. among the known names from the lafms scene are: le forte four, joe potts, fredrick nilsen, mr foon, ace & duce, dennis mehaffey as well as 6 tracks by smegma. other artists include the painter miles forst, violinist josie roth, film makers doug henry and gary beydler, mail artist and dog portrait painter irene dogmatic, otis librarian joan hugo, graphic designer kathe schreyer and many other creative artists and designers at the start of their careers who submitted their audio idea, be it via telephone, in subways, recontextualising old vinyl, philosophising, story telling, being abstract, joking, rehearsing and lo even playing instruments. this exhilerating journey, bursting with ideas was compiled by joe potts and waynna kato.

...

otis and i.d. art by rick potts

while chip was up at cal arts, joe was going to cal state la getting an art degree. in fall of 1975 he, along with friend and fellow artist, waynna kato, got their bfas and started grad school at otis art institute. the three schools shared a lot of faculty and guest lectures, only cal arts with its deluxe facilities cost much, much more.

the california institute of arts sits like a castle in the hills outside the city. back then, before the golf course and tract homes filled in, the hills were ala natural, which translates into weeds. the cal arts castle did a magic trick as you approached on 1-5 from the city. it appeared on a hill as you levelled out after climbing a couple thousand feet above sea level, then as you dipped down into the meadows the castle sank and disappeared. it was actually on the next hill up and dropped behind the first hill as the perspective changed.

in contrast otis sat in the heart of the city. the once nice neighborhood, where earlier on bankers and their families strolled around macarthur park (of someone-left-a-cake-out-in-the-rain fame), was slowly dissolving into a funky barrio. the neighborhood bums and druggies shared the park and streets with retirees who played chess and checkers at picnic tables and refugee families with baby strollers.

a while later, they drained macarthur park's man-made lake exposing decades of discards. years of 'offerings' had sunk to the murky bottom including plenty of handguns, knives and other weapons. an artist collected dozens and dozens of muddy shoes of all shapes and sizes, which he displayed in a neat pile on campus.

otis was on busy wilshire boulevard, a main east/west vein from the heart of downtown l.a. out to the ocean in santa monica. ironically, cal arts had sort of morphed out of another art college, chouinard, which had been only a few blocks away. now the whole neighborhood was slipping. the art world was changing with the use of many new mediums. artists were finally getting access to video and audio equipment. boundaries were being trampled for better or for worse. there was an anything goes kind of freedom that was open to anything but the same old crap. artists made music or films, too. it was all the same. ideas were more important then technique. concepts were, at times, replacing art objects. there was a rebellion against the gallery system that was parallel to the diy music scene that was growing outside of the giant record companies.

joe potts contributed a crucial tactic to the lafms in those early days. his idea was to adapt a common hippie business model of the sixties where buying in bulk brought the price down. dudes, who pitched in and bought a large amount of granola and than divided it and packaged the portions themselves, got a righteous deal on breakfast cereal by cutting out the middleman. it's called communal, man. artists of the day were cutting out the gallery middlemen by making a series of small multiples and mailing them out to each other. joe and his production partner waynna twisted these concepts and created several editions of i.d. art. originally, the idea was a way for the new students to meet and get to know their fellow students and teachers. instead of going around the room doing the 'say a little something about yourselves' routine, they proposed a book of narcissistic self-portraits by fellow students as a way of everyone introducing themselves ... faculty and some friends were given flyers that invited them to participate and explained their scheme. the deal was each person had to print their own standard sized pages, fifty of them, for an edition of fifty. these pages would be collated and bound into a book. most of the pages were just straight from the xerox machine or p.i.p, a printing chain that was kinko's before kinko's. there were exceptions, including some sewn in fabric on one page and most notably chip's contribution which inclulded a firecracker taped to the paper with 'baby, you're a rich man, too' written across the page.

after a funny session of running around the kato family's dining room table making stacks with the pile of stuff people submitted, it was waynna's task to find a place that would bind them. explaining the eccentricities over the phone, she found reluctant businesses giving prices that were adding up to hundreds of dollars. back then you had to rely on the yellow pages and word of mouth to do your research. for a day or so there was no solution until finally waynna tracked down another shop to try. she gave her spiel again only this time the person on the phone thought it was funny. the firecracker was hilarious. they could spiral bind them for a buck fifty each.

like the 'bikini tennis shoes' lp (lafms 001), the covers were scavenged by chip from his job at cunningham press. off-register postcard sheets with messed up versions of stodgy portraits from the huntington library worked great as covers for this book of narcissistic self-portraits. the spiral bound books came out great. everyone in the book received a copy and the extras were sold to recoop some of their costs. waynna and joe wondered 'what next?'

after the success of i.d. art the next project connected the i.d. art concept with the bikini tennis shoes breakthrough. i.d. art #2 was a record.

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... this page was last updated on friday, may 17th, 2013 @ 9:16 am