APRIL 2025 DIARY

Released 6 February 2000, V/Vm Test Records.Limited to 800 copies on black vinyl in a zip-lock bag. Runtime of 31 minutes.

Genres: Noise, Plunderphonics, Experimental

Tracklist:

1. Rock Me (H)amadeus (Edgeley Edit) - V/Vm

2. Vienna Calling ('86 Edit) - V/Vm

3. Ganz Veen - Rehberg & Bauer

4. Sound Of The Pig - The Notorious P.I.G.

5. 3 X Falco Punishment - Goodiepal + Steuea

6. Der Kommissar (c)Rap That - Butcher Claws

7. The Kiss Of Kathleen Turner - Cock E.S.P. + V/Vm

8. Coming Home (Jeanny Part Two) - V/Vm

Available for free download over at the Internet Archive, thanks to user "remember kids, always archive your shit ..." for uploading not only this one, but countless other out of print and rare V/Vm Test Records albums and EP's.

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If I had to choose one word to describe this album (and most of V/Vm's output too), its repetition. 'A looping guitar riff plays over a robotic voice before cutting to a wall of static and noise' is a good way of describing the songs present here. This collaborative EP is probably one of the most unconventional pieces of music ever made, a "tribute" to the late Austrian singer Falco, the liner notes mention this being a genuine tribute to him, and honestly its a 50/50, I can see this being both a parody of his works and a genuine accolaide to his legacy.

All of the tracks here sample Falco songs, and the songs here range from identifiable but fucked, to mutilated monstrosities that cannot be identified, this EP plays a lot with noise and pitch shifting (especially with the vocals), and in a very clever way too, managing to create a very dissonant, and at a lot of times unsettling, atmosphere. Random vocal samples from other Falco songs are also imposed here over the main sample, adding to that feeling. Its unlike any other piece of music you have heard, it sounds alien, as if we sent Falco CD's to extraterrestrial lifeforms and they sent us their covers of those songs, that product is this EP.

As a small fun fact, the first song "Rock Me (H)amadeus (Edgeley Edit)", would end up being used as the 12th track on V/Vm's second album 'The Green Door', an album quite similar in sound and atmosphere to this EP, and a rather interesting piece of music too, which I would like to disect on another day in greater detail.

Probably one of the lesser known (and most underrated) Ween rarities. This one is an outtake from the La Cucaracha sessions way back in 2007 or so, and very little information about it exists. From what I have been able to gather, the song was written around the title itself. And even if this is a Ween song, its better known as a solo Gener track, a live staple actually, he used to perform this one quite often with his band during the Ween hiatus circa 2008-2009, though the song has never been performed by Ween proper, not even post-hiatus. Actually, this was thought to be an exlusively live song for many years, until Ween Archived posted a studio version back in 2022.

Gene Ween Band performing the song at Mexicalli Blues, 2008

The song itself is this very bitter and angry song, in atmosphere at least, because its a very slow and mellow song, papa Gene Ween sings vocals (of course) with a funny voice, aside from that a very simple repeating drum pattern, a tuba and a guitar are present too.

I've seen a lot of people dismiss this song, which I don't really understand, this is easilly one of my favourite Ween rarities, alongside stuff like Be My Wife and Things You Already Know, its really really great, really fits and helps when you feel totally miserable. And honestly? Its way better than most of the songs that DID make it into La Cucaracha, in fact, for some reason the LC outtakes are way better than the actual songs that were chosen for the final product, which really confuses me, I should probably write more about that phenomenon some other day.

Listen to the song here.

Listen to the tape here

That's right, we're talkin' about Ween again, because I've been obsessed with their music again these last few days.

This is an unreleased demo tape by the boys, from the GodWeenSatan and The Pod days, outtakes, there are no specific dates for the tracks themselves, but the tape is dated to 1990, though it was apparently compiled in 1991, the same year The Pod released. This tape is probably even less accesible than The Pod itself and the other demo tape from this era (Bilboa), because those two have a lot of songs that have more conventional musical structures, whereas Big Timmy Wasserman has some very experimental, "ASMR-Rock" type of stuff going on.

Of course this tape was recorded at their old apartment, The Pod, so it has a very lo-fi sound, and when I say Lo-Fi, I MEAN it, some of these could be catalogued as experimental ambient songs, they're so quiet, and the instruments so muffled, the vocals so non-sensical and muted, it feels so dreamy, perfect soundtrack to when you're sick or depressed, so they're also perfect companion pieces to The Pod and Bilboa.

As for the songs themselves, I mentioned that its from the Pre-Pure Guava/Pre-Elekta era, so these range from: 1. GodWeenSatan Demos, 2. The Pod Demos, 3. Unfinished songs that were most definitely meant to be for The Pod but didnt make the cut. 4. Some Pre-GWS demos believe it or not, namely Seconds, which is a top tier early Ween song, I wish they had recorded a better studio version. This tape also contains "Good on Th' Bun" which would end up being rerecorded for Shinola Vol. 1 many years later as "Tastes Good on Th' Bun".