Sunday, December 11, 2005

Sarcastic Orgasm


mini-LP, Synn's Allright Now Records, 1986

Here's an obscure mid-80's DC group that to my knowledge only put this record out and appeared in assorted compilations. I only remember ever seeing them listed as playing live in DC maybe once and I never saw them. I suppose among my peers at the time, I was about their only supporter if they knew anything about them in the first place. I think DC in the mid-80's was a hard place to be truly weird and maybe it still is. Of course, that made the Darwinian dynamic give rise to some great weirdo bands like 1/2 Japanese and No Trend and forced other wierdos like Psycodrama and White Boy even further into the underground.

This record consists of six mostly damaged art-punk songs that I suppose qualify as social critique whilst maintaining a veneer of fun or at least the type of fun a band that uses publishes a back-cover picture of nostril hairs in lieu of band photo.

Each side has what I would call two "concept songs" and one conventional song, if anything about this band can be labeled conventional. The concept pieces are mostly retarded Zappaish music beds or synthy Ur-plop that generally underscore a spoken word narrative such as a dry reading of a newstory about an African massacre ("Hebephrenic List"), a portentous recap of a soap opera story line ("Soap-Opera Hallucination") using the Young and Restless theme song for effect or a restless rendering of a Penthouse Forum Letter while the band merrily skronks out ("Name and Address Withheld").

The two "conventional" songs are circus-like juvenile lurch-pop with titles like "You Are What You Fuck" and the anti-authority "Why, Because I Said So." Due to a technical glitch, I was unable to get "You Are What You Fuck" in this go-round but I may post it later.


Band Members:
  • Jerry Boner - Bass + Bkrd Vocal
  • Brad Glosserman - Drums
  • John Hoppe - Keyboards + Violin
  • Scott Phillips - Guitar + Vocals
  • Extra Hard Working Guest Artist: Synn
Songs:
Links:

Answer to Future 80's Underground Music Trivial Pursuit Question:

Sarcastic Orgasm are mentioned in Mike Watt's liner notes for Sonic Youth's The Whitey Album:
"However, death is not mocked and my big man D. Boon was killed December 11, 1985 in a van crash. I was tiny and stopped wrestling my bass, wouldn't touch it. Kira had to do some internship at Yale so I drove her to Connecticut. I stopped in NYC and stayed with Thurston and Kim for a week. Staying up late laying on the couch with a blanket on just talking and talking. Talking about everything, even silly band names out of Flipside like Sarcastic Orgasm. I must have drove them crazy. But it really helped me get over that hell of D. Boon Dying, I really owe them all I've done since the Minutemen."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is awesome, thank you!

Anonymous said...

Jim H.,

I was trying to listen to Adrenalin O.D.'s "Theme From an Imaginary Midget Western", but the link was broken. Is there anywhere I can download this .mp3 file?

Jim H said...

Song samples are only up for a short period of time.

Anonymous said...

Jim H.: Song samples are only up for a short period of time.

Crap. Well, thanks anyway.

Apexbasher said...

This album brings me back to the days of DC Punk and concerts like "Rock Against Reagan" downtown. I have been looking for "Why, because I said so" for YEARS!!!! Where can i get an MP3 of this?