Since yesterday's tune uploading seemed to go so well, I'm going to "take things to a whole `nother level," as the hip kids say, and post another `choon for your listening pleasure today. I've decided that the only music I'm going to upload here should be of a sort that is out of print or otherwise impossible to find, so if you're waiting for me to bring you something by, say, Killing Joke, I'd strenuously advise against holding your breath. As before, if you are or represent an artist whose music I've posted and you do not want it shared, let me know - it will be removed immediately. The music is here to for evaluation purposes. I will always link to a place the music can be purchased if one is available. In the instance of today's track, I'm friends with half of the now-defunct band (who, I'd imagine, probably wouldn't give a good gosh darn anyway), but if so (Dean, if you're out there), just give a shout and it'll vanish from this site like the those nutty kids in the "Blair Witch Project".
Today's song comes from the Hot Corn Girls, an endearingly amateurish quartet of Lower East Siders who date back to the mid-90's. Being friends with Joanne their bass player and Dean Rispler their drummer (a punk rock rennaissance man who'd later go onto play for bands like The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Murphy's Law, Tiger Mountain and the Brought Low, as well as becoming a sought-after producer in his own right), I was fortunate enough to catch the band performing live a couple of times (notably at the Pyramid on Avenue A and again at Under Acme on Great Jones Street). Rounded out by one Bob Limp on vocals and the enigmatic Squeaky on guitar (an erstwhile member of the similarly inclined Japanese band, The Chimpanzees, despite not being Japanese himself), the Hot Corn Girls were both hilarious and surprisingly catchy, as this tune handily demonstrates. Through the benificent affiliation with the Chimpanzees (whose lead singer, Naoko Nozawa a.k.a Diarreah Naoko, was -- evidently -- a hugely popular television comedienne in her native Japan and Bob Limp's girlfriend), the HCG were fleetingly financially solvent enough to be able to go into the studio and cut an album. Look at My Bum came out in 1994 on Stingy Banana records, graced with a suitably pervy cover photograph by transgressive shutterbug extraordinaire, Richard Kern, and fifteen luridly surreal tracks with largely improvised, unintelligible lyrics. Despite their wilfully challenged aesthetic, the sound (produced, once again, by budding knob-twiddler Dean Rispler) absolutely crackles with depth and definition (not things normally associated with humble East Village bands).
I belive the song titles were assigned to their respective songs with Burroughsian arbitrariness, so don't bother listening for the song's title in the already indecipherable and quite-possibly-not-sung-in-any-language-known-to-man chorus. Incidentally, I'd have posted a picture of the band or the sleeve if I could find one on the `net, but I was unsuccessful in that pursuit and have yet to purchase a scanner for such things. Suffice it to say, a Google search for "the Hot Corn Girls" didn't turn up anything I could re-produce here (especially if you have your Google filters turned off) without offending a whole lot of people. So, without further ado, herewith "My Pile of Leaves" by the Hot Corn Girls. Download hot_corn_girls_my_pile_of_leaves.mp3
Incidentally, the name "Hot Corn Girls" itself does not refer to any deviant sexual practice but rather to a book by Solon Rovinson called "Hot Corn - Life Scenes in New York" from 1854 (the source of the illustration at the top of this post). The Hot Corn Girls themselves were Irish-American immigrants who peddled hot corn in the streets. There's also the arguable theory that the Hot Corn Girls doubled as murderous prostitutes who slew their johns. I'll defer to the historians over that one. If you're as smitten with this track as I am, you can still find copies of Look at My Bum if you're willing to search for it. In fact, there's a copy for sale right here. The Hot Corn Girls went onto record another 7" single before splitting. Dean Rispler went onto work with dozens of other great bands. Joanne got married and left NYC. Bob went off to Japan with Nozawa where they perform as the tastefully named Ass Baboons of Venus. No idea what happened to Squeaky.
*QUICK ADDENDUM*: About an hour after I posted this, I actually ran into Dean Rispler on 6th Avenue (having not come across the great man in a couple of years). He's no longer playing with any bands, but is still involvea sideline as a D.J. Here's Dean playing with the Brought Low in 2002.
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