This is a bit of a stepping stone of a post but I came across this little gem of a post, giving something out for free to the world. This something is the one album put out by the band, The VSS. The album is called “Nervous Circuits”. This album is one of my favourite records of all time.
Notoriously out of print for 10 years and then recently re-released by Hydrahead in 2008, it’s now available as free, approved download from the Pukekos website; a site I frequent often enough as it seems to be an archive of a lot of things musically I was listening to in my early 20s. To quote:
“I first heard Nervous Circuits in December of 1996. It was a dub of a dub of rough mixes that we listened to on my car stereo, the audio quality left a lot to be desired but that wasn’t why we were listening. Leaks were harder to come by in those days, etc.
“The VSS were like The Velvet Underground — not many people saw them or heard the records, but those who did all started bands or labels. This was a different era when to go on tour was literally to take the message to the people. The only way to find out about new bands was to go see them — if you were lucky enough to know about the show. Zines with ads for the tour would be be hit with delays and not come out until after it was over. If you were out of the loop, you missed it. It was an inscrutable world, and the only way to gain entry was to meet someone who already knew about it.”
And on the subject of music, archives, and that sort of thing — I’ve managed to squeeze in time (usually the last twilight hour before I force myself to go to sleep) in midst of everything else going on to put some work on some new White Lodge Podcasts. There’s three! And they’re fun. This will be announced soon enough for the small fraction of the world that has an interest in listening.
