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Sunday, March 22, 2009

A.O.S.: Tripping back to the 80's for some post-punk art rock- Rip It Up



We go back to the 80's for this one by Anxiety of Silence. A post-punk art rock band featuring David Lamb, from Cattle Mutilators and Manson Family Christmas fame, his art school compatriot Raul Dorn, and my brother Matt on guitar, A.O.S. was known primarily for Raul's on-stage antics (which included Iggy Pop levels of danger and head-worn architecture), elaborate stage sets, and catchy college-radio friendly tunes. The song "love riot" managed to top the local college radio charts, and A.O.S.'s legendary performances at the annual Art Students League fund raisers held in the NMSU art department sculpture graveyard were a sight to behold. Very much a band of the time, some of this stuff sounds pretty dated to my ears, but I was surprised while preparing this post with how many of the songs hold up.

Album: Rip It up
Style: Post punk art rock with touches of goth & punk
DIY Cassette release from 1988

A.O.S. were
Raul Dorn - vocal
David Lamb - Bass
Matt Thorne - Guitar
me - drum kit

Get Rip It Up

Side One (note - tracking does not match list on cover)
Southern Romance Song
Love Riot
Katchina
Bad Brick
Laughing
That's My Heart
Side two
Bitter Grass
Rhyme of Reason
Confession
Rip it Up
Core Canto
Mary Mary in the Lavender Pumps

Thanks to Darin for the scan of the original artwork.

As a bonus, I have included some songs from one of the Art Student League Halloween shows. This one is from 1988 and was recorded by a fan on a reel-to-reel 2-track. Most of the tape is unusable due to "wow and flutter" issues, but I pulled the ones that I thought good enough to preserve. On the way to this show, Matt's homemade guitar amp fell out of the van at about 35 MPH. It lasted for most of the set, but you'll hear its final gasp on the end of "I can hear the Monsters." My old roommate Linda Rosul adds some additional vocals on "Caw Crow."

Tracklist:
Caw Crow
I can hear the monsters
Robert
The Thing (part II)
Get it


Enjoy





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5 comments:

  1. Stacey OlsonMarch 23, 2009 at 6:57 PM

    Great work here. just stopped by to say thanks for the visit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 26, 2009 at 7:03 PM

    YES - I'm really digging this AOS album...Now is a good a time as any for 80s music. Thanks for the comment on http://oursoundtracks.com If you yourself have any "mixes" of sorts to contribute - PLEASE contact me again. Also, the site you found me through, The Tweezers, was my father's band-he was on bass. Keep up the great site.

    mike davis

    ReplyDelete
  3. icasticoMarch 26, 2009 at 8:03 PM

    Thanks for the nice comments Mike.

    So you're the son of a Tweezer and the son of the AOS singer is in Nancy Site Nine (see my links)...

    And yet I don't FEEL old.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 25, 2009 at 4:12 AM

    You have a really interesting blog site with a lot of interesting music. Your artwork is especially interesting.
    I'm not sure how you found our place but thanks for stopping and actually taking the time to leave a comment. We'll put up a link for you on both Voodoo Wagon and FloppyBootStomp. We'll include your flicker photostream also if that's allright.

    ReplyDelete
  5. icasticoJuly 25, 2009 at 9:57 AM

    Thanks Silentway,
    It is certainly okay to include the flickr stream.

    Thanks for the kind words and the support.

    ReplyDelete