TIP OF THE TONGUE 27 JUNE 2010
Mike Rep And The Quotas
Stupor Hiatus
Siltbreeze SB-113/114
2xLP
OUT OF STOCK!
There are days when I think that Mike Rep & The Quota’s “Rocket To Nowhere” might be the most important single of mine or anyone else’s lifetime. It marks the early convergence of a bunch of parallel strains that would see their full flowering in the genesis of the Columbus Ohio scene and in the international underground in general. It took rock at its word, its promise of instant satori, its democratization of the urge to ugh even as it championed basement DIY styles and lo-fidelity as an aesthetic choice that was somehow more ‘in tune’ with the ethos of Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Albert Ayler and 1960s garage punk than any of their supposed overground heirs. Recorded in 1975 (!) it has all of the street-walking sass of The Stooges and the hamburger brains of the post-Bangs under-the-counter-culture. Stupor Hiatus, a lovingly compiled compilation of highlights from the non-career of Rep and brothers in arms like Tommy Jay, Ron House and Nudge Squidfish, feels like an underground manifesto, devouring classic cover versions of The Velvet Underground, (“Sister Ray”), 13th Floor Elevators (“She Live”) and Roky Erickson (“Creature With The Atom Brain”) while working smart, funny and just plain doofy lyrics into rock/roll specific mutants that hallucinate the aesthetic that Tom Lax would articulate via the Siltbreeze label a couple of decades later. Kicking off with the ’75 recording of “Rocket To Nowhere” and running all the way to 1997’s “In The Pineys” this is the perfect map of an alternate rock universe, one played out in basements and record stores and shitty bars and in the pages of Creem magazine that continues to resonate in the brains of believer four decades later. Too fucking much. Gatefold sleeve with some classy pics. Highly recommended.
