BRAIN: Portland, Oregon 9/26

[Stephen Swann]

Chris Baxley writes:
>
> Hey, I was there too.  It must be that half the audience was made of
> members from this list.
>
> It was cool to finally see Meltzer.  He looks like just another crusty NWer
> (long hair, greying beard)
> but when he speaks, reveals a decidedly dark aesthetic sense.  I will have
> to search out his book.

It adds whole new dimensions to the concept of artistic self-indulgence.
That's not to say that it doesn't make for entertaining reading - I stayed
up all night when I first got it, reading random passages from it.  It
reads much better that way - if you read too much of in proper sequence,
you start to see how cheap it is; but little bits of it are just dazzling
in their wit and excess.

> I overheard him say that he has joined the Portland band Smegma, which is a
> noisy, dada-istic gaggle of
> aging misfits who periodically erupt like a pimple on the face of the
> Portland music scene.  I think they are
> playing this Thursday at the same club.

What a strange coincidence.  I was just in J&R Music world, looking
for some CDs (that I owe to a fellow list member and which they didn't
have in stock, of course).  Anyway, on on my way out, I happened to
notice a CD by a band called "Smegma".  My first thought was that it
would be a real shame if they're deserving of abuse, because the
poor reviewer will be deprived of the pleasure of calling their
work "masturbatory".  ;-)

Steve