WOLF EYES

Fuck Pete Larsen "bootleg" LP (Bad Glue Records??Bulb Records???, no address specified; BLB???)

I picked up this record personally from Bulb Records CEO Pete Larsen on his latest 25 Suaves US jaunt. He said that it was a bootleg of some old cassette tapes which makes sense if you examine the shoddy packaging. The record labels are blank. The outer sleeve is info-free with the exception of a pasted-on Xerox of a wolf skull along with the title and band name. I suppose that for a record label owner to call something a bootleg is his way of saying that he's too lazy to care much about the sleeve design, but of course, still expects you to pay full price. In the age of MP3s (the TRUE bootlegs of the 21st century) this is hardly passable. After listening to two sides of unmastered power tool massacres, chalk board scratches, echoed earthquakes, and looped fire alarms, I think what he meant to say was that it was "bootleg quality," mostly because that's just the aesthetic of the Eyes' early material. And like the recently issued First Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle (Get Back LP/Thirsty Ear CD), Fuck Pete Larsen is reduced to a novelty noise record for a band that can, and has done much better.

Honestly, I don't see myself listening to this LP very often in the near or even distant future, but i'm sure it will fetch a respectable sum on Ebay as soon as it goes out of print. In the meantime, why not reissue the Couch CD? Larsen himself admits that interest is at an all-time high. Who cares that he foolishly and regrettably decided to store the unsold distributor returns of the first pressing in a dumpster (I recall Loren Mazzacane Connors doing a similar thing in the '80s and look at how much unsubstantiated recognition he has accumulated). Who cares that there are at least two other bands that have sprayed a lake of brown all over this planet trying to use the same name! Stop dilly-dallying and just press it up! (Or at least post MP3s of it.) Frankly, I'd rather say "fuck Pete Larsen" for being such a deadbeat and NOT doing that, than trying to act cool and doing this.—Chris Woo