South Oaks - kill_the_humans (July 2018)

This EP took a looooong time to make. It didn’t take long to record, just syncing all of our calendars proved to be the hardest part. 

By November 2016 we had written 12 songs and planned to record our first full length album. But life got in the way and we didn’t actually get into the studio till June of 2017. We recorded 6 songs that day and intended to get right back into the studio to record the other 6, but it just didn’t happen for a multitude of reasons. So we decided to just go forward with the 6 we recorded and hold the other 6 for a future EP.

It then took another whole year to record overdubs, vocals and to mix and master. We finally released it back in July 2018. We’re happy with it…but damn…was that an ordeal.

Hopefully we’ll get to the remaining 6 in a more timely fashion.

You can download South Oaks - kill_the_humans for FREE at our bandcamp page or by clicking the link below…

[DOWNLOAD] South Oaks - kill_the_humans (2018)

1- Back of My Mind

2- Robot Rebellion

3- Emotions In Motion

4- Knights of Light

5- Cut and Run

6- Renwick Ruins

As always, we made a video for each song. Here they are…

"Back of My Mind"

"Robot Rebellion"

"Emotions In Motion"

"Knights of Light"

"Cut and Run"

"Renwick Ruins"

Follow South Oaks on Facebook.

SOUTH OAKS

Jim Burns - vocals

Frank Fusco - guitar

Kevin Purcell - bass

Steve Johnson - drums 

Author James Burns on Let It Roll Podcast

Head on over to the Let It Roll Podcast Soundcloud page and listen to their interview with James Burns. 

From Let It Roll Podcast:

Host Nate Wilcox is joined by author James Burns to discuss his book “Let’s Go to Hell: Scattered Memories of the Butthole Surfers.” This week, James and I talk about the unique circumstances of the 1980s that allowed a band as outre as the Butthole Surfers to reach a large international audience, the research involved in compiling a hardcore oral history, many staggering scatalogical anecdotes and the cosmo-historic importance of Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary and company.

Here’s Bellmore: The Unscene's original post about Jim’s book.

You can purchase your very own copy of Let's Go to Hell: Scattered Memories of the Butthole Surfers from Jim’s blog, or at Amazon.com.

And while you’re at it, you should “Like” the Facebook page, too.

Random Photo: Kevin Gets Electrocuted (1987)

Back when the Barking Spiders were originally called The Cause, Kevin used to play through Joe Kollar’s bass amp. The amp was pretty old and not grounded correctly so if you touched Kevin while he was playing it he’d get shocked. This photo captures one of those moments and Joe had a little fun making it into a GIF.

Andy "Flav" Glasser Memorial Show @ Amityville Music Hall (9/24/16)

I wish I could have been at this show but I had bought tickets for my family to see Weird Al Yankovic on the same night seven months prior. But judging by the photos on Facebook it looks like it was a fun night, considering the circumstances. 

Back in March, Andy "Flav" Glasser, drummer of Not Saved and Splinterface, passed away suddenly. This night of music was to pay tribute to Andy and his love of music and the proceeds went to fund a headstone. I believe every band that performed that night Andy had played drums with at some point.

Not Saved reformed for one last time, with Cliff Ferdon (Action Adventure Systems, Wormsmeat) taking Andy’s place on the drums. Here’s a bunch of photos I grabbed from Facebook…

At some point Not Saved and Splinterface teamed up. Here they are playing "My Ugly Self”, which I ripped from Facebook…

Here’s some more photos…

R.I.P. Andy

Jim Burns: Author

Jim Burns, best known on this blog as the singer for Not Saved, South Oaks, Sugarbush and Barking Spiders, has also added author to his skills. In early 2016 he released his book, Let's Go to Hell: Scattered Memories of the Butthole Surfers. As far as I can remember, Jim has been an avid fan of the Butthole Surfers. So much so that he just had to write a book about them.

Here’s the publicity spiel about the book…

Author James Burns explores the strange and enigmatic world of the Butthole Surfers in a new book entitled, Let’s Go to Hell: Scattered Memories of the Butthole Surfers, as the band destroyed musical genres, and brain cells through the 1980s and 90s.  

Set against the backdrop of the Reagan-era White House, and the greed and hypocrisy of the ‘Me Generation’, the Butthole Surfers were able to become a political force unto themselves; merely by living far outside the realm of mainstream society.  

As one of the few bands to emerge out of the US Hardcore movement of the early 1980s relatively intact, the Butthole Surfers were able to hone their heavy, psychedelic punk music into what would become a precursor to the grunge and alternative movement of the 1990s. Cited as a musical influence by everyone from Kurt Cobain and Beck, to Alejandro Escovedo and Daniel Johnston; and a true case study on how a rock band can overcome any obstacles through sheer strength of will and fortitude. 

Let’s Go to Hell drags the reader along for the long and harrowing journey to self-determination and to an unlikely Top 40 hit, where one is forced to evaluate the true meaning of success; artistic freedom, or the financial rewards of mass market acceptance?  

Finally, the complete story of the Butthole Surfers is in print! Featuring exclusive interviews with band members, both past and present, as well as those left indelibly scarred, Let's Go to Hell is the story that was thought, and often hoped, would never be told.

“I can't imagine putting this altogether. ..Trying to put together a book long narrative of a band that did most of their work before the Internet existed, where you can't just Google it all....This is old school journalism... I'm really impressed” – King Coffey, Butthole Surfers drummer (December 2015) 

“Captures the Butthole Surfers' story in all its megaphone shouting/LSD-addled/topless dancer glory. Twisted and great.” – Big Takeover (May 2016) 

“Given the amount of research that went into 'Let's Go to Hell', there is no need for anyone to ever attempt another tome on the band.” – Innocent Words (May 2016)

Here’s bunch of websites that reviewed the book…

Noisey - Vice  |  The Wire Magazine  |  The Arts Desk  |  Dangerous Minds  |  Sawney Hatton  |  Song Facts  |  Night Flight  |  Innocent Words  |  Hell Bound  |  Razor Cake  |  Record Collector Magazine

You can purchase your very own copy of Let's Go to Hell: Scattered Memories of the Butthole Surfers from Jim’s blog, Butthole Surfers Anal Obsession, or at Amazon.

And while you’re at it, you should “Like” the Facebook page, too.

R.I.P. Jack Rice

South Oaks - ( ( ( transmissions ) ) ) - (Sep. 2015)

This project actually started a year ago when we were asked to contribute a song for a Long Island band compilation. We went into My Low Studio in September of 2014 and recorded “Planet X”. A year later, the comp still hasn’t seen the light of day so we included it on this release. 

Eric Hoffman was the drummer on “Planet X”, but our schedule of getting together once a year proved to be too demanding so he bowed out for the ( ( ( transmissions ) ) ) session. His logical replacement was Steve Johnson (Eggplant Queens, Whatsoever). Steve was already our engineer (and owner of My Low Studios) and probably our biggest fan. Plus…he’s a pretty good drummer to boot.

For the most part, the songs on ( ( ( transmissions ) ) ) are in keeping with the traditional South Oaks sound. Two songs, though, are a bit of a departure…or break new ground (however you choose to see it). “Reflection On The Sea” is kind of pop oriented…sad pop, that is. It’s a little out of our comfort zone but yet it totally sounds like us. Our last outing had “Echoes of Laughter”, which was also a departure, so maybe that’s our thing.

The other new-type of song is “APOLLO IV”, a bass solo (essentially). Jim brought that one to the table and he’s also the performer. It’s named after his Apollo IV bass, which he composed it on and only feels comfortable playing it on. The thing is, the electronics inside the bass crapped out a while ago so we were forced to record it with a mic, acoustically. Alone, it was a little compromised sonically and didn’t sound like the rest of the album. But then we added some atmospheric noise in the background and it just gelled – that electro/acoustic thing.

My opinion; this is our strongest recording yet. But I always fall in love the the last thing I worked on. What do you think?

You can download ( ( ( transmissions ) ) ) for FREE at our bandcamp page or by clicking the link below…

[DOWNLOAD] South Oaks - ( ( ( transmissions ) ) ) - (2015)

01- APOLLO IV (†)

02- Planet X *

03- Last Laugh

04- Sword of Damocles

05- Belief

06- Reflection On The Sea

07- Grand Design

08- Forever and Ever After That

We always like to celebrate our new releases with a video for each song. Here they are…

"APOLLO IV"

"Planet X"

"Last Laugh"

"Sword of Damocles"

"Belief"

"Reflection On The Sea"

"Grand Design"

"Forever and Ever After That"

Follow South Oaks on Facebook.

SOUTH OAKS

Jim Burns - vocals

Frank Fusco - guitar

Kevin Purcell - bass

Steve Johnson - drums

Steve's crazy drum chart

Mike Watt Committed to South Oaks for Two Weeks (June 2014)

Not South Oaks the mental institution, South Oaks the band. Yes, Mike Watt, the legendary bassist, played two South Oaks songs in two consecutive weeks on his podcast show, The Watt From Pedro Show. Thanks Mike Watt!

[DOWNLOAD] The Watt From Pedro Show
1- The Watt From Pedro Show 6/15/14
2- The Watt From Pedro Show 6/22/14

SOUTH OAKS
Jim Burns - vocals
Frank Fusco - guitar
Kevin Purcell - bass
Eric Hoffman - drums

South Oaks - and of tomorrow… (May 2014)

We had fun recording the last EP so we did it again. Jim, Kevin and I each contributed two songs and worked on them via email, because we live too far from each other. Once we added our own parts and got them in a good place we went back to Steve Johnson's studio (My Low Studio). Again, like last time, we didn't practice beforehand, just straight to record. We recorded the basic tracks live, then I went back for some guitar overdubs and Jim went back for final vocals.

[DOWNLOAD] South Oaks - and of tomorrow… (2014)
01- Keep Your Judgment Day
02- When Humans Roamed The Earth
03- Halo of Stars
04- See With My Hands
05- Echoes of Laughter
06- Free To Follow

And to coincide with the EP release, I cut a video for each song…

"Keep Your Judgment Day"

"When Humans Roamed The Earth"

"Halo of Stars"

"See With My Hands"

"Echoes of Laughter"

"Free To Follow"

You can also download and of tomorrow… free at the South Oaks bandcamp page.

Follow South Oaks on Facebook.

SOUTH OAKS
Jim Burns - vocals
Frank Fusco - guitar
Kevin Purcell - bass
Eric Hoffman - drums

South Oaks - EP (2013)

In January 2012, I reunited the Barking Spiders just to record our old songs properly (read about Barking Spiders - Fresh For The Kill here). It was a pleasant enough experience that we decided to work on some new material to record. But given that we all live in different parts of two states, we opted to work on the songs via email. Kevin and Jim would share bass tracks and I'd share guitar tracks and from there we built upon the songs, emailing back and forth.

Eight months later, of on and off work, we had composed 5 original songs and 1 cover (Funkadelic's "Super Stupid"). 6 songs felt about right to go back to Steve Johnson's My Low Studio and commit them to hard drive. No practice beforehand, just straight to record. I went back a few weeks later to overdub some guitar solos and Jim went back to redo some vocals, then we mixed it.

Being that 20+ years had past since we last wrote music together, we no longer sounded like Barking Spiders. So we changed our name to South Oaks (named after a mental institution near our hometown). On February 12th, 2013, we released our self-titled EP...

[DOWNLOAD] South Oaks - South Oaks EP (2013)
01- Ghost Dream
02- Jaws of Life
03- Eulogy For A Cowboy
04- You've Never Suffered
05- Modern Clown
06- Super Stupid (Funkadelic cover)

And to coincide with the EP release, I cut a video for each song…

"Ghost Dream"


"Jaws of Life"


"Eulogy For A Cowboy"


"You've Never Suffered"


"Modern Clown"


"Super Stupid" (Funkadelic cover)


You can also download the EP at the South Oaks bandcamp page.

SOUTH OAKS
Jim Burns - vocals
Frank Fusco - guitar
Kevin Purcell - bass
Eric Hoffman - drums

Film Threat (3/4/05)

(To view it full size, click on it, drag it on to your desktop and open it in a preview program.)

Barking Spiders - Fresh For The Kill (2012)

Yeah, I know I've been going in chronological order when it comes to documenting Bellmore's "unsecene", but it's my blog so I'll break the rules if I want. And I want! I'm just too stoked to sit on this one.

Steve Johnson - My Low Studio

Every once in a while I'd listen to the old Barking Spiders tape and I was always disappointed. The songs are good, don't get me wrong, it's the production that sucks. But what's to be expected from hitting record on a boombox on the floor of a basement? Back in '88 we were kids with no cash so going to a professional studio wasn't even a thought. But these days it's so easy to record, especially when Steve Johnson is a close personal friend.

So I put some feelers out, by way of email, to see if the other guys were into recording our songs proper. Fortunately they were. We'd lost contact with John Hoffman (Barking Spiders drummer) through the years so we asked Eric Hoffman to join us. Eric was actually the drummer for Face Value – the original incarnation of Barking Spiders – so it made perfect sense.

We decided to record nine of our original songs from way back when, plus a new one for the occasion. Jim already had a song just waiting to be realized – "Fresh From The Kill" – so he sent us a bass line. Through a series of emails we each wrote and refined our parts and played them together for the first time as a band at the recording session, at My Low Studio (formerly Marv Studio).

We're all very pleased with what we captured that day. '80s hardcore at it's fiercest…in 2012!

[DOWNLOAD] Barking Spiders - Fresh For The Kill (2012)
01- Fresh From The Kill
02- Watch Out!
03- Spin
04- One World
05- You Can't Say
06- All Talk, No Action
07- Power Struggle
08- Peace through Chaos
09- Presidents & Kings
10- Separate Ways


"Like" Barking Spiders on Facebook (here).

BARKING SPIDERS:
Jim Burns - voice
Frank Fusco - guitar
Kevin Purcell - bass
Eric Hoffman - drums