Loaded

Local label unleashes sharp sampler

by Michael Caito

With the release of You're Soaking In It . . . The Sounds and Smells of Load Records (21-song Load compilation), Ben McOsker has now been pivotal in the release of three nifty comps -- two on the label he started in 1993 (including Repopulation Program) plus Bitter Pill To Swallow, which Load had a big hand in.

While Sounds and Smells is a comparatively incestuous little bugger -- most of the groups can be traced back to basically two bands, Providence's Six Finger Satellite and Cumberland's now-defunct Von Ryan's Express -- it's also the closest sonic approximation yet to the music held most dear by West Warwick-native McOsker.

"Difficult music for difficult people" was one off-handed, semi-serious description he offered this week, on the phone from the Armory District apartment he shares with Satellite drummer Rick Pelletier near the Hudson Street Market. And sure, if you want to compare it to the current Modern Rock charts it is, in fact, what the label's website ( www.loadrecords.com) dubs "Not Wave," existing well (as in "far" and as in "successfully") beneath the sonar of mainstream radio and press. You could argue that Load's most affable release of the almost two dozen in less than six years was the first -- Boss Fuel's debut 7" vinyl "Just Like Anybody Else Would." Great, but straightforward and downright mainstream when compared with what came later.

This "label" is essentially one guy running around like a nut, losing money on many early releases, all the while still arranging shows, releasing and promoting records, lending his P.A. and living the oft-insane existence of a temp worker. If rock and roll had a Distinguished Service award, McOsker would probably have earned . . . a load of them.

For it is the rock music that Load has always wallowed in, tormented through satire and parody, and giggled aloud with in pubescent glee. Analog fetishists, Casio catastrophes, feedback whiteouts, cesspit punk / throb / crust / skronk with a goofy-toothed smile and a spiritual aversion to tired rock 'n' roll cliché. But while the masses often stay away in droves, Load does not -- and evidently will not -- ever make it simpler for Susie and Bobby because they can't read. The label instead force-feeds apocalyptic Sartre and Orwell, and adds Dr. Seuss and Moe Howard when their neurons get too sweaty -- a finesse mastered by the Satellite.

Thus runs this latest compilation, lowballed in price ($5.99 retail) by McOsker for the specific purpose of getting the word out about the musical ideology, if you will, that keeps Load a visionary, vital and growing force leaning into the 21st century.

Twenty-one guns:Arab on Radar (at Fort Thunder Saturday, recently touring with 6FS) open with typically unsettling yelps by frontman Eric; Sweden-based scuzzrockers Brainbombs offer profanity-laced vitriol and the assurance of much upcoming controversy. (Thee defunct) Hydrogen Terrors have a whack at the Michigan State U fight song in a live track, Dropdead typically sear flesh in their 62-second, previously-unreleased "Us and Them." Most of the songs here, it should be noted, are unique to this comp. Landed's track "Live in April" made me scramble for their Dairy for Dinner 7", while Pleasurehorse's and Mr. Brinkman's tracks both give apt ideas of the mayhem that happens on their respective and concurrent Vermiform Records releases. (Defunct) Lightning Bolt wrassle up some of the energy that made their 7" split with Forcefield (featuring Matt Brinkman) a pace-keeper for the Load attitude in 1997, but Astoveboat's doomy recreation of the fishing-boat-meets-Das Boot vibe on their full-length New Bedford does better than "What's White &What Bleeds" here. Neil Burke's perturbable Men's Recovery Project has, according to McOsker, been evolving a lot recently with sometime appearances by 6FS singer / Moogist Jay Ryan, and the ensuing two tracks -- La Machine's "Metatron" and Childkraft's "Tiny Planets" -- are rip-roaring, hilarious goofs featuring 6FS drummer Pelletier on disco ball and then Ryan, singing like Isaac Hayes on acid. John Von Ryan, Jay's bro, revisits the wallop of his own Organs vs. Furniture solo LP. Brooklynites Gerty Farish turn in one of the best tracks on their bubbly Casio / guitar-driven "Hootars," (they have a full-length out already), Larry Marshall adds compound-fractured fairy tales and off-key crooning on "Jack the Giant," Boston-based Bullroarer add a fine "Quiet Hindsight . . . " and the resuscitated Olneyville Sound System (at the Met Sunday) contribute "It Ain't So." Netmen and Strawman add a little indulgence to the end, but there's enough godstuf in Sounds and Smells already to make it a rewarding peek into the Zen of Ben.

STARS & BARS. The jam-band phenomenon is now into its third generation, the first two being the Grateful Dead then Phish. Twice this week Providence hosts some worthier descendants of the Jerry-Trey legacy in Entrain and Ominous Seapods. And let's face it, there are an awful lot (key word: awful) of bands claiming to be jam-bands just because one night onstage they forgot how to end a song, kept playing it for six weeks, and the crowd was too groovin' to rip their freakin' hippy guts out. Seriously, tonight (2.11) at the Met the Vineyard's Entrain celebrate the re-release of 1996's Can U Get It(Dolphin Safe); their blend of funk, reggae and worldbeat (often a la Luaka Bop) dawdles rarely thanks to a percussive whomp not found in many like-minded jammers these days. This separates Entrain in terms of focus, and with high-vis events (a Today Show gig, jamming with a saxually deviant President, a Boston Music Award for live performance), there's a buzz about these Capenuts. The 'Pods hail from upstate New York, and have been assaulting the tour trail behind their Matinee Idols (Hydrophonics). Podmusic is equally proficient in playing but better on the humor tip, which will be tough to miss at the Century Lounge, where they arrive Friday.

AS220 again reinvents the Pataphysical Circus with His Panic Band and guests Saturday, but Friday is a potential sleeper involving Boston-based Asciento, whose stirring Some Come Home (Asciento Records) is out now. 'Twill doubtless remind folks around here of Chick Graning in the range and delivery of the Scarce alum and Asciento's singer / guitarist Jason Celat. That's not very surprising since this record's producer Chris Cugini (whose wife Liz did the striking cover art and sings backup on "Halo") played with Graning in Anastasia Screamed and is now on a five-city tour as a member of Graning's backup band DC3 (which also includes two others from the mighty Delta Clutch). Anyway, to peg the Asciento mood you'd have to mention Scarce, the Wedding Present (decelerated) and Nick Cave. An introspective mire to admire on Friday.

Loverly:try finding an out-of-the-way place on Valentine's Day that meets the romance quota and whose price doesn't doom you to six weeks of 99 cents Whopper Jr's. Hint: Wakefield Music presents guitarist Dennis Costa on Sunday at 4 p.m., featuring selections of Albeniz, Bach, Bernstein, Brouwer, Joplin and Lauro. It's in Potter Hall, upstairs in the very romantic Kingston Public Library. Inexpensive but hey, if you buy in advance who's gonna know? It's the day after that matters anyway. Info at 783-5390.