Mom, if you're reading, I'm only repeating the name of the band. Things were different in the 70s, mom. You remember. So here's Side A of a 45 that everyone needs to hear and then hear again. Best as I know it - and you can find a lot more detail in an issue of Ugly Things from a few years ago (sense a pattern this week?) - the FUCKIN' FLYIN' A-HEADS were an out-of-time, out-of-their-element, outcast bunch of freaks on the island of Oahu, making an unholy din & some wild-ass psychedelic punk rock in the late 1970s. At least a couple members were Japanese. I found a copy of this 45 in the late 1980s at a San Francisco metal store called "Record Vault", after seeing Byron Coley namecheck it in passing (yet with glee) in an old Forced Exposure. Good enough for me. I sold it on eBay a few years back for far less than anticipated. I think it's still awaiting full discovery by the populace at large, and I'm posting it here to do my part. Wow. Clear the room, you're gonna need the space.Download THE FUCKIN' FLYIN' A-HEADS - "Swiss Cheese Back" (A-side of 45)
Posts
12 comments:
If I remember right it got a "C/U Entire Pressing" rating in FE. First time I played it I thought my needle was broken.
Someone cleaned out a storage locker in San Jose (!?) with about 1-200 copies of this EP about 6 years ago and sold them on ebay as a lump LOT, thus the rather depressed value, sorry champ. Makes sense, the A-Heads very briefly lived in the Bay Area in the late 70s and played the Mabuhay Gardens.
There is supposed to be an entire live tape (natch), from which these two songs are merely edited samples. Argh.
-Ryan W.
Outstanding. When you packed up the old Agony Shorthand site and announced plans for an MP3 blog, I hoped that you'd post this one. Had heard it before and knew how genuinely great the track was. Sounds similar but superior to Locast Abortion Technician era Butthole Surfers in my book. Thank you very much indeed. Don't suppose there is any chance of Watchin TV making an appearance is there?
Back in early '99, I bought two copies from former singer (and now unfortunately deceased) Eric "Sep" Ishii. He was working at the time in the mailroom of some big company and had a number of copies that were close to dead mint condition, just a little yellowing from age on the sleeve. I e-mailed Sep back and forth at the time, and he told some funny stories about people being disturbed by the record. One story involved him playing the record at full blast in the middle of the night to piss off his neighbors in SF at the time. Behjan Mirhadi wrote the Ugly Things article in like 2000 and not too soon after I got an e-mail from Behjan about Sep's death. Too bad.
- Tony in Chicago
Whoops, forgot to post this above. Along with some copies of the 45, Sep also sent me a package full of old Fuckin' Flyin' A-Heads flyers from both Hawaii and SF shows and record reviews from various 'zines like Ripper. He also sent a homemade 'zine he did while the band was based in Hawaii. Cool guy.
- Tony in Chicago
A buddy of mine has this record and I make him play it every time I stop by. Great stuff, and not just because it's from such an odd locale, but that definitely doesn't hurt.
-Trickknee
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/%7Emotopu/hawaiirelatedtop.htm
Hawaii 70s-80s Punk Museum
WOW ( double WOW ) . z
Would have been really neat if you'd posted the entire single. It's out of print, impossible to find, expensive. Why not share with the world?
"He then lists 10 records, all 45s, that he feels are the high-water marks of the genre, but are far more likely records that he owns that he'd now like to rub in your face."
Sounds like you and Kugelburg have something in common!
Say what, anonymous? I not only don't own this record, I barely own any records at all anymore. Those that I've kept I'm trying to digitize and share with the world via this blog. I may be a lot of things that are very very wrong, but I bristle at the comparison....!
PS - I didn't post "Watching TV" because I don't really like it. In subsequent posts I've tried to post some b-sides that maybe I don't like but that you might.
Post a Comment