i always meant to get into Dead Moon, except it’s kinda hard to find their records because dude makes them from melted down pine tar in a cabin in the wilds of the pacific northwest, handcutting them with paul bunyon’s ax and a rapunzel’s spinning wheel.
so now Sub Pop released a 2 CD career spanning comp of 49 tracks and it’s about the best goddamn rock music i’ve heard in ages.
it all seems so ancient and mysterious and cool.
but some people probably know a lot more about them than I do, so let me in on some knowledge.
dead moon are amazingly awesome. buncha lifers—fred cole has been kickin around for ages and was in the lollipop shoppe (of “you must be a witch” nuggets fame) and his wife toody’s been in the mix since the 70’s—they were in a portland punk band called the rats too. they play very long, very excellent sets and their stuff does seem very ancient and mysterious and cool—i think it’s that pre-70’s punk, but still raw and ragged and rocking approach that gives em that quality.
oddly enough, judging by the comp, they have actually gotten BETTER as well...
I like the comp a whole lot although CD1 (I think? whichever one has ‘Dead Moon Night’ on) does a lot more for me. I saw them at ATP in I think 2002, knowing nothing about them, and they melted my mind
one thing that’s striking me about this comp is, because of the way they’ve always recorded and manufactured their stuff, there’s almost not production quality/sonic differences between something from 81 and something from 2004...
also awesome: fred owns the lathe used to cut “louie louie” and uses it on the DM stuff
found this pretty informative website! (haha it’s even on geocities which seems somewhat appropriate...that’s sort of the louie louie lathecutter of website hosting i guess)
I love the song “It’s OK”
one of my favorite bands.
and the comp is great too, especially for lazy bastards like myself.
i need to get the comp, i think, but i just got the “dead moon night/13 off my hook” twofer. and yeah i’ve been procrastinating forever on them because all i could ever find was like “dead moon live in ljublana” or something. big fan of the lollipop shoppe, zipper, fred cole generally, too.
i like the few dead moon LPs i’ve got, as well as the singles.
also check out the dead moon DVD that just came out, dudes!
i finally just remembered what this reminds me of: rocket from the tombs! (sort of)
love this comp, first time I ever heard them too (although “Dead Moon Night” sounded really familiar, must have heard it somewhere along the line)
a lot of it reminds me of Neil Young .... “Poor Born” could be on Ragged Glory ...
somewhere far away has a great crazy horse vibe too
this is great, need to spend some more time with it tho.
Dead Moon are god. Great band, great folks, amazing method, fearsome tenacity, etc. Loved ’em since the Parchment Farm single back in 1980-whateverthefuck, seen ’em a billion times, and I love ’em still. Along with the Wipers and Poison Idea, among the best bands Oregon ever foisted us. A national treasure.
But this record here. I dunno. I have almost everything on it, and I bought it anyway, just as a gesture of support. But still I dunno. It’s an embarassment of riches. And it suffers for being curated by the obstinate, oppositional fuckers who wrote the tunes in the first place. I think it coulda been a bit more, uh, strategic.
Not that the selection unforgivably overlooks the classics. From that standpoint, it’s pretty damn solid, but it’s gonna serve as an introduction for a lotta folks, and even as a fan, I think the tunes start running together before you even get to the end of disc one. Too much meat, too much gristle, and too much fat.
Part Where I Geek Out:
And would it really have killed them to license It’s a Long Way to the Top and Parchment Farm? They’ve never been a cover band, but those (especially the first) are among their signature, band-defining tunes. Finally, while the live 54/40 or Fight is nice, why in god’s name didn’t they take the annihilating Live from Beyond version?!? It might be the single best recording they’ve ever put out. Sure as hell the most punk fucking rock, and it’s all but impossible to find. Instead they pick the tame and half-decent-sounding version from Live Evil. Shrug.
they’ve broken up! ;___;
yep, sucks. never saw ’em.
i’m so pissed i never went to see them when i had a chance.
damn.
aw shit:( RIP.
I’ve lived about two hours from Clackamas for 15 years and I never got to see them either. I think they only played here once and I had to work. Fortunately I can still pick their singles up in local stores for cheap. A one-of-a-kind band, for sure.
Rolled home from the office party last night in an advanced state of inebriation, and only pieced together mid-morning that I read this thread and (augh!) went on an ebay mission for the SubPop comp. Fortunately I didn’t pay over the score, and I’m sure people make much worse decisions in the aftermath of office parties. I’ll let you know how it is.