Mad Anthony Sank for Days EP/DL/CD

It's not just a street in Northside anymore! I remember Ambassador Mark "Zero" Dunbar, long-time Northside resident (Pre-Gentrification), rambling on social-media, or maybe in a Northside alley; about [General] Mad Anthony and some sorts of fierce battle that did not turn out well for the indigenous population (as usual).

This is about the other Mad Anthony... The one that's releasing 12"EP (and CD) from Phratry Records who has yet to compromise their aesthetics when it comes to sound. Phratry Records have their standards that are attainable thru hard work and honest virtues. Verily commendable!

Sank for Days is Mad Anthonys fifth release. Supposedly these songs are NOT a concept release but you just can't deny that they are steeped in tragic circumstances... The kind that comes with rigorous touring and surviving. There's something to be said when a word like survivors is used.

Sank plays well. There seems to be quite a story going on that you can pick-up on as you listen. It's understandable that life's tragedies automatically works into a band as a unit. I recently seen The Afgan Whigs on Later... with Jools Holland and they were great! As much as I wanted to deny it, the truth becomes clear. Afgan Whigs is an awesome band! Sank brings to mind a sound like Greg Duli fronting Fugazi as a backing band. The 'Phratry Records' sound is there reminiscent of Shane Johnson and his mouth-action from Caterpillar Tracks which, ironically enough, is a Phratry band.

You, the listener, are taken on an emotional ride up and down throughout the release which reeks of satisfaction by time you get to the end. Mad Anthony remade themselves during the writing of these songs. These songs are a set... A story told with words and sound. Looking deeply into the lyrics and feeling the desperation. Singing every song with a desperate, but urgent feel... Like every song may be the last song they play... Like their life depended on it. Sank hits your ears and heart ringing of true accomplishment... Of Victory... and surviving!

Before you go and buy this, just a quick mention of the packaging. The 12" is on clear wax and one sided. On the flat (non-anchor) side, there is a screen printed Octopus with wild tentacles... Yeah, another nautical themed release for Phratry (see The Shanks LP). The record comes with free digital downloads and is also available on CD so all bases are covered. Grab you life-jacket.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight Swami-Bear!

I seen the mail-carrier Post-Lady (or whatever the kids call it) drive down the driveway to deliver mail. This ment that my copies of The Great a Dismal Swamis newest release, Phantom Tollbooth, was here! Finally! The same record I'm credited as a bona-fide designer (or whatever the kids are calling it now)!

Jason Rowland, had confirmation from mailings that Dismals in Los Angeles had gotten their records but not me... Jason had no answers, but I did.

I went out into the thick, Cincinnati/Sputh-Western Ohio climate. Dew-points were reaching 74 degrees and that's bad. Real bad. Since I was already on alert for a unrelated package from FedEx I went out to greet the mail-carrier. I could tell she was feeling bad and although I had never seen her a single day in my life before, she wasn't right. 

She was sweating profusely. She was breathing shallow. She thought she might be having a heart-attack. she claimed she hasn't taken her blood pressure medicine... Like lightning my wife, daughter and in-laws visiting from Florida kept into action.

It turned out that her blood-pressure  (taken with a personal at-home apparatus was 179/150... The highest blood-pressure I have ever seen taken. This story is much more complicated than I care to really get into but under tear-field eyes she acknowledged her failing health and said I saved her life. This affected me deeply. She had no family she trusted so I sat and listened while the hospital doctors did their thing. I listened while she was discharged. I listened as we walked to the hospital pharmacy and while we waited for her new medicine.

I listened as I drove her around to find a fellow co-worker who she trusted to hand her keys to and then back to the Post Office.

"If they see that I can walk they will force me to work..."

She was ravaged with anxiety... My heart truly ached for her and her co-workers who live under never ending scrutiny. Despite being unionized, incidents that clearly seem as manipulative and horrendously cruel, were regularly committed...

So I listened to her and her life that she felt was crumbling around her.

"If it wasn't for you getting that package today I would have went on with my day and died."

That package was copies of The Great Dismal Swamis records in lieu for my cover design. It's strange how peoples lives become inter-connecting at times, and everyone is where they need to be after all. 

My batch of Swami records, in essence, saved a persons life today.

-Thanks

PS: I could go on and on for thousands of words that would include a recent post on THWART...!

If you haven't read The New Bolsheviks and the Next Red a October check it out below.

http://shawnabnoxious.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-new-bolsheviks-and-next-red-october.html

I can't say more about The Great Dismal Swamis record that wasn't already said by THUGBARIAN Blog http://thugbrarianreview.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/set-list-the-great-dismal-swamis-phantom-tollbooth-45/

Cryptic-Captions: A Decade Old Mystery!

Mysterious symbols/numbers such as these (see pictures below) have been appearing on household TVs since about 1995.

I now call them #CrypticCaptions. 

Unlike the televisions closed caption system for the hearing impaired, and without warning, numbers, letters and symbols appear at random on the TV screen. Cryptic-Captions has been witnessed over four different TVs, and three different cable and internet providers. Since it's inception.

Once, approximently around 1995-96, the TV went totally blank... You could still hear the programs audio but the TV began scrolling through the television stating "Hi Shawn" over and over until the TV was unplugged. The cable provider at Time-Warner Cable was called and no explaination was given for the occurances.

In August of 2014 I re-opened my faux-investigation after deciding to document the phenomenon. Using social-media outlets like Instagram which pushed the pictures further to Twitter and Facebook is a big help to spread the word.

I created a PAGE on Thwart Blog coinciding with this introductory blog posting, in hopes to further the incidences, their documentation and leave the question out there for some one smarter than me to answer!Send E-Mail to ShawnAbnoxious@Gmail .comREMOVE THIS

What the fuck is this?

 

 

 

The 'New' Bolsheviks and the Next Red October

"NO!" I told them I would yell from the small hill adjacent to the hanging tree. "NOT HIM! HE IS ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!" I would add and try to convince the blood-thirsty mob busy hanging lawyers, one-percenters and CEO's four at a time. There would be a mass grave near by where they would dump the corpses, then ready four more. Every set of four would basically say the same things. They would plead for their lives but you reap what you sowed and no one knew that, or witnessed that better, than the 'Beaten Generation'... The Working Class... The New Bolsheviks.

I opened my ears and listened beyond the racket of loud machines and listened to all the same things that the Bolsheviks said during their time, being repeated now, sometimes word for word, by blue-collar workers. The same workers who eat sound-bites from the local conservative news broadcast. Those broadcast, which feed them disinformation one value meal deal at a time. "Obama is a Socialist!" was a common statement of which I would explain... So are volunteer Fire-Fighters! At first the New Bolsheviks railed against 'the left' (or what they thought was the left) and were quick to declare any newscast that they didn't agree with their implanted reviews, liberal and/or biased. 

"You gotta learn how to read between the lines" I would say and would state that it's a right, not a privilege, to receive automatic Healthcare, Housing, Work and Education and when they would agree with me I would tell them that those things, being free to all, is what the Soviet Union was originally built upon. I don't think they believed me.

The media has a firm hold on the modern worker who fed them disinformation on an almost constant basis. I was the first-one the workers would run to when they needed an ally when something happened, like a work place accident or when someone wasn't treated right, and then other times those same people had me thrown under the bus and labeled a trouble-maker when the pressure was on. They cracked easily like chicken eggs.

I started a mid-week prayer group hat my job which was quite refreshing. It felt great to just stand with the working class and pray and it went over real well. The participants in the group refered to each other as "Brother" and "Sister" before our names when passing each other at work. A month later or so, I was approached by several fellow workers who were staunchly loyal to their Boss, and then the Boss himself began asking if I was starting a Union. My answer to both questions was no. I would explain that the meeting they were witnessing, was a prayer group and all were welcomed to participate. Even them.  I then explained that if I wanted to, all it would take is one phone call to have a card check the following morning. I didn't necessarily believe in the card check method but that threat gave me leverage against them.

No matter how much I'd get my fellow co-workers to believe and connect with, it wasn't enough to make them see that they were lied to and manipulated through wage slavery and more. When people are lied to, they get mad. Real mad. That pressure builds and builds until they explode in violent revolution.

I would tell them the story of me running down from the hill to speak-up, and declare whoever was next, really wasn't a bad person. That compassion and non-violence protesting was our tools and murder was their tool. If we used their tool. We were  no better than them! Soon though, I started seeing things differently. 

The people, the modern day working class, would eventually figure it out I hoped. Eventually is such an open ended way of looking at things, but that's all I had. I'd have little voice against the rage of the New Bolsheviks and their revengeful thirst of blood against those who not only oppressed them, but their collaborators, people pointing out the rich people who actually may really be nice, honest and worthy-- these collaborators would be strung up too.

That would include me.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want a bloodletting Class War, but the divisions, boundaries and hype that exist in modern day America and it's multi-faceted oppression, are definitely headed in that direction. I witnessed this at the starting point, the factory.

In America... Now... Everyone is tired. Mentally, physically and spiritually. They wish things were different but yet, don't have the time to educate themselves about what's really going on. There's bills to pay, dinner to make and things to buy. In America, it's always someone else's fault and the other guy always have it better than you. In America, the few ruin it for the many, compassion is an endangered emotion... In America, you are guilty until not proven innocent. Threats are a measure of how much They care. The more that things deteriorate in America, the closer and closer we get to violent revolution, a class war.

When the New Bolsheviks are doing their bloodletting, I've decided now that Im just going to stay at my spot on the hill and watch. If I speak up, I will hang too. Why would they listen to me then, when now they can't see with their eyes that we, the working class, are being fed hatred for each other for whatever foolish reason. Let me say it again, I don't want a violent class war but change does need to happen and options are few. I wish words and rational thinking would prevent the next Red October but it won't. Not until class war is realized as not only words, but a true solution.

Art-Wine-Drunk-Art

Yes, I was drunk. Verily drunk-- on wine. Whereas I never really was a fan of wine, I felt that I should drink wine due to all the carbs in regular beer. As recently discovering I was a Type-1 diabetic (finally) I did research about having diabetes concerning alcohol consumption and long-story short, dry-red wine was better than the rest... Actually, the higher the volume of alcohol, the less carbs it or any other adult beverage has. So whiskey is really the ideal alcoholic beverage when yer talking bang for your carbohydrate buck, but on this night, that wasn't in the options column. It was wine or beer... Let me rephrase that... It was FREE wine or FREE beer! A rare win/win situation. Shit yeah!

We, two cohorts and myself, were at a fundraiser for a art group in Cincinnati that helps people with mental disabilities called Visionaries & Voices (V+V). It's a really good program and I had the chance to talk to a few of the artist that night, which was totally a bonus.

Many different artist were asked to donate their works for the silent and non-silent auctions, which included one of my my cohorts' work. As it would figure, my artistic cohort was riding a manic high, so things were interesting to say the least. We had fun, and our friendship blossomed into a sub-group of a larger group. Our sub-group focused into recapturing public spaces in the name of art. As most 'art movements' go, I don't think many people 'got it'. I explained the group as "It's like a Fight Club, except with art.". But, with every high, there's a low. Not much can be done during the low so soon after it's founding, I resigned. 'Nuff said.

I drank plastic glass after plastic glass of wine, losing count at eight glasses, but I kept drinking because I'm a binge drinker and that's what binge drinkers do. The harder I worked, the harder Zi play. The drunker I got, the more art-bullshit I talked. I talked about my friends art and others. I hobbled around the facility in a wine-drunk stagger. I was drinking wine the way I drank beer. Fast, in large quantities. As the nn-silent suction began, I found myself standing alone. I figured as much that I was embarrassing my cohorts. In hindsight, I'm verily certain I was embarrassing them... Their attempts to control my artistic output and who I was and what I did would later arise... But before all of that they eventually caught up with me and took to my side. As soon as they acknowledged me I asked them to do me a 'solid' and get me a plastic glass of wine.

The non-silent auction was a bore. A real bore. Wine helped, but barely. Interesting and non-interesting art were both victims of 'maybe later' but when my friends piece came up I asked If I could say a few words about it. So I did.

I can't even paraphrase what I said, but that's not important. What is important is my friends piece was bought for $300 for V+V. From then on, sales and interest peaked. The spirit of the benefit started to shine. Each piece sold was for more money than expected, and then a gigantic picture of Pete Rose standing on first base in a Reds uniform, autographed in the top corner (as not to deface his spot in the picture), came up and no one was bidding. So I stepped up again and told the crowd about how Pete Rose, when autographing pictures, ALWAYS signed his name overtop his 'junk' when possible. If not then a corner or someplace else would do. Then I pointed out that this particular picture Pete DID NOT have his autograph over his junk. His bulge was scribble-free and as I went on, I explained that I never seen a full-body picture of Pete without him scribbling on his junk. This picture was a rarity!

I made that up. I can't remember if it sold or not, but that's ok... It was a good story. A lot of money was brought-in for charity... What I did, I did for Art. Machiavelli himself would have been proud. When a screen printed poster of The Gossip came up I explained who the band was and their history including the rise of Beth Ditto to famedom in the UK... This wasn't a lie.

The organizers awaited me afterwards and thanked me which I felt validated my actions. Taking control of the event as I did, I think embarrassed my cohorts even more. Soon they would even say, in a feeble attempt to subdue me, that my alcohol consumption and dagger carrying were liabilities to our art group.

My dagger was called a Smoky Mountain Toothpick which was was actually a helpful from time to time. I took to wearing it around the house, even when I never left the house. The dagger was a double-edged decorative blade made to be  tucked in my boot. When my cohorts questioned me about why I carried the blade, I told them I 'expected an ambush' at anytime. They falsely blamed the wine on this night which had nothing to do with that level of faux-paranoia that I exhibited. My views on paranoia aren't that incredibly ugly. This is a mad world we live in. We need to stay on-top of every possible situation. I was riding a full wine-drunk and I was (at least) enjoying it. The night didn't end there but all I will say further is ithe night later involved visits to The Comet and White-Castle before it ended.

Re-telling the story, and getting help calculating the amount of wine I drank, it was deducted that I probably drank two whole bottles worth of wine, one plastic cup by plastic cup. "I didn't do it for me..." I said "I did it for art!"

V+V

http://visionariesandvoices.com

Lets Cut Some Grazz [...! Playlist]

I found this shirt on the floor at Walgreens. You can't tell

From this picture but there's a riderless motorcycle too.

Who's riding the motorcycle?

The stealth presence of Fuckin' America!

Bold= Greater Cincinnati Area                 Itallic = Ohio Proper 

Box Wine Bitches-M Great Dismal Swamis Phantom Toll Booth

Phantom Tollbooth-M Great Dismal Swamis Phantom Toll Booth

Ripped-M Great Dismal Swamis Phantom Toll Booth

Red Morning Light KINGS OF LEON "Youth And Young Manhood"

Vertical Slum Swell Maps A Trip To Marineville

Halfway Gone WHITEY "The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is A Train"

Don't Say No CAN "Anthology 1968-1993" [Disc 2]

Big Soft Punch THE CLEAN "Anthology"

I'm With Stupid IKARA COLT "Modern Apprentice"

Hard Times Dont Bother Me JOE HIGGS "Life of Contradiction"

Pocket Knife PJ HARVEY "Uh Huh Her"

Cheree SUICIDE "First Album" [Disc 1]

Primitive TESTORS "Complete Recordings 1976-79" [Disc 1]

Cry Mercy, Judge TOM VERLAINE "Flash Light"

39 Explosion Heats 39 Clocks Pain It Dark

Chinese Intro CIRCUS LUPUS "Super Genius"

The Witch CLINIC "Do It!"

Childhood Verse  FIGURINES "When The Deer Wore Blue"

Random Celebrity Insult Generator [SBN Session]  MCLUSKY "McLuskyism [Disc 2] B-Sides"

Come Back to Me X "Under The Big Black Sun"

It Dosent Matter Adam & The Ants "Basing Studios Aug. 1978"

Not Fade Away BUDDY HOLLY "Essential Masters"

 Hey Girl BUFFALO KILLERS "Dig. Sow. Love. Grow"

Pacifier CIRCUS LUPUS "Super Genius"

Kinky Parents Dikes of Holland Live at WFMU on Talk's Cheap, Aug 28th 2012

Nice New Outfit FUGAZI "Steady Diet Of Nothing"

Rock-It To Stardom The Legendary Stardust Cowboy Paralyzed

Too Many Friends PENETRATION "Penetration"

Here Comes Your Man PIXIES "Doolittle"

Brick Is Red PIXIES "Surfer Rosa"

There Will Never Be Another Day THE PRETTY THINGS "Emotions"

Make It Wit Chu QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE "Era Vulgaris"

Based on a nonsense Secular Plague Secular Plague

Your Autumn Eyes Slickee Boys Fashionably Late

Ernie K SOCIAL CLIMBERS Social Climbers

No Change STIFF LITTLE FINGERS "Nobody's Heroes"

Picture Locket SWEAR JAR "Knife The Symphony/Swear Jar Split 12""

04 Pressure Gauge Synthetic ID "Aperatures"

Victory THOUGHT CRIMINALS "Chrono-Logical" [Disc 1]

Display / Reponse / Action THOUGHT CRIMINALS "Chrono-Logical" [Disc 2]

Something's In The House TUBEWAY ARMY "Tubeway Army"

I Lost You THE WALKMEN "You & Me"

Balloon WEAKNESS "Weakness Stack Session"

01 Cherish Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

02 Hurt Balls Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

03 In Pain Insane No Brain Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

04 Knife Damage Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

05 World War Wild Wings I Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

06 World War Wild Wings II Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

07 Cult Leadership Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

08 Birthplace Planet Werewolf Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

09 Revenge Porn I Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

10 Revenge Porn II Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

11 World War Wild Wings III Wild Wings World War Wild Wings

Ex Lion Tamer WIRE "Pink Flag"

It should be noted. I listened to Wild Wings stuff twice