Charlie McAlister 'Savage Arena' on Tick Tock Records

I've been waiting for this Charlie McAlister from Tick Tock Records to get to the top of the pile, sadly it wasn't before this light blue lathe cut was sold out from the source, so you best be quick on the draw yourself checking back regularly with Tick Tock because you obviously can't rely on me to break any of their new releases. Charlie McAlister last showed up on a Tick Tock lathe cut about a year ago, the same kind of awesome screen printed white inner sleeve and handnumbering. Charlie has been writing his particular brand of scuzzy no-fi swamp folk numbers since at least 2009, when I came across this Carolina by-product single co released with Unread Records, each time I end up poking around the world wide web for this guy I get more intrigued, imagining the front porch of a cabin in the middle of nowhere, an ancient 4-track machine, broken instruments...a bathtub of moonshine maybe in the basement. A combination of Beck from the one foot in the grave era with the patina of Mountain Goats early cassette recordings and the personality of Jonathan Richman. Hearing it delivered on this one sided handcut lathe is the icing on the cake, giving the whole thing this weird authenticity, like an old blues 78, buried under layers of hiss, taped off an old AM radio...there's nothing better to compliment this sound. It started out in the backwoods without a decent mic for miles and it will end up on this slowly degrading thin piece of plastic, leaving anyone within earshot to wonder exactly when the hell this was recorded.
The first track, "Savage Arena" has something to do with a book by Joe Tasker as noted on the reverse of this sleeve but more than that the plague of mosquito's referred to many times, every other word in fact, as 'fuckers'. I have a similar reaction when it's dusk in the middle of nowhere in the woods of the northeast...they are everywhere, and they are complete fuckers. There's no escape. The beat up stabs of guitar melody from both a halfway decent acoustic and I think one of those little plastic numbers with nylon strings is giving this a carnival ramshackle feel, fighting with the instruments to make this noise, not lasting much past a couple of go's probably. Beating on the floor, or a piece of wood, the succinct, perfect argument for making gold out of whatever is lying around. Old necessity is the friend and trademark of Charlie McAlister. At this point I don't want to hear this on anything but a hissy lathe record...do they distress brand new LP's like jeans? I bet Charlie could. I want a full length, but I'm afraid of those perfect, clean grooves. THAT'S NOT CHARLIE.
Next track, "Piss Parade", is about having to really use the restroom, as you could imagine, lots of wine, gatorade, whatever he could find to drink and I won't ruin the ending lets just say he 'rained' on their parade if you know what I mean. A couple layers of bluesy, slow bending chords...vocals right up in the blown out mic, narrating the story in a slight nasal whine, a mellow Bob Log III, I would love to hear those guys collaborate on something....or hell, play on the same bill.
Finally, "I ain't scared of shit", Charlie ends this side with a really classic almost protest track of lists of things that he's not afraid of, nuclear bombs, fire, ghosts, you name it...I also think that he's probably just really trying to convince himself most of all. A true contemporary folk sound, this is carrying on those traditions in a south carolina endgame. There's probably no one like Charlie steadily carrying on in those broken chords, and holy guitars, beating on washboards, hating mosquitos, not afraid of anything.

Marshall Mcluhan would also approve of this format.

Charlie McAlister 5" lathe cut on Tick Tick Records

This single sided lathe cut that was in the same package from Tick Tock Records is from the infamous Charlie McAlister...an outsider artist for sure, I don't know how much of the stuff I'm finding online is created or endorsed by him and how much must be fans and friends that are just trying to help out. I can't help but think of Daniel Johnston or Jandek.
I don't know Charlie, but in especially Daniel's case and I've experienced this personally, I don't know how much the person being helped actually realizes how lucky they are...how much trouble it is to take care of that side of things. I want to think they appreciate it, that they can't promote themselves etc. But are they entirely oblivious? Or just not care either way? If Daniel or Charlie write a song...do they need anyone there to hear it? I don't think so.
Like outsider visual artists...do they even care about what anyone thinks of their work? It's amazing because it ignores everything anyone knows to be good painting, but that's like child actors, they imitate, they don't know what they're doing. If you aren't conscious, with an intention behind it, then I have to label it an accident. A great accident that I can recognize as great, but still just an accident. It's not reproducible. Not that any of this could even apply to Charlie McAlister. I've barely scratched the surface of his mythology in my research...but that recorded quality is there, he's being marketed in that way...as a crazed backwoods genius. Which is as much about the recording as the sound coming from this awesome misshapen circle. If I ever thought records were magic, this piece of round plastic/vinyl makes the case. Fidelity be damned, the songs get another layer of hiss to paw through in the imprecise groove duplication. But it's definitely magic every time I put the needle back at the beginning. Listening to something that's barely there.
I have a whole lot of questions and no answers.
The sealed envelope sleeve is even more mysterious, it's screened in weird colors, I can't tell if the grooves were pressed down and left this circular grooved print, like a rubbing, or it's part of the graphic. The back is scrawled text over a pic of someone barfing in a pool? Not sure, the whole thing just adds to this mystique, a long lost relic of a recording summoned out of a plain red circle.
Between what I'm imagining I actually stopped looking up info, because I like the story in my head so much. I' just going to leave it at that and not watch the youtube videos.

Nauseus Waves is my favorite track on this, there's extra layers of recorded hiss, but overall it's a more full sound. I love to hear what Charlie does when he pulls it together enough to layer his own playing on top of itself, like the Carolina bi-product single, it benefits for me when it starts to turn Doo-Rag. It's own foreign throwback blues, that are still melodic and rock, but maybe just have the blues because they just sound sad. All of the sounds that are still there...the sadness of not having great equipment. The sadness of the sound...is that just because it makes me think he's already dead? Like old movies and Robert Johnson...they are long gone, but here is this sound. It's like a ghost...even mores so with this crackly indecipherable medium.

The whole thing is really like listening to an AM station that is just out of reach, or on old reel to reel that's about to fall apart. It's just a damn cool object that's so homemade it almost prevents it from getting out there to anyone. As unique and original as Charlie McAlister, it makes perfect sense.

This record is being released through Tick Tock, Don Weagus, and Rah Rah records. They will all come in a special envelope screenprinted by our good friends at Pundt Printing.

Charlie McAlister on Unread / Tick Tock records

Christopher from Unread records sent me his latest release for review from Charlie McAlister. It looks like it's backed by a couple different labels, Unread being one of them. I have to admit I didn't know anything about this prolific homespun musician, until I started looking up his myspace, and that's where the ball unraveled. Apparently Charlie has released somewhere near 80 self released tapes on his own and small labels that he's seen come and go. I imagine he's the kind of guy that has been all over the country and seen every bar back room, pizza place, basement there is to play, and fought his way out of some of them.

A-Side "Carolina bi-product beach ball boogie" It sounds like we caught Charlie mid sentence talking about his feet (?) and then the track launches into spastic banjo/acoustic/washboard singing verse after verse of rapid fire lyrics in almost square dance style. It's going to take a few listens to work through even catching half the one liners in here. The percussion sounds like people working with whatever's laying around...beer boxes, trash cans, to keep up with this insane tempo folk madman.

I'm Freezing: The second track on the A-Side is mostly instrumental, Charlie creates this repetitive blues bassline with a distorted guitar soloing on top that repeats measure after measure. The song periodically cuts out and Charlie says 'I'm freezing' and 'It's cold in here'. At first I thought the tape stopped or he was messing with a loop of some kind. By the last breakdown he's groaning from the cold. And then the maddening little bassline is back, with more hooting and howling, to end Side A. I'm sure he was freezing out in some garage or barn and that's how this track started and they pressed record. I've been there, Charlie.

I don't love you anymore: The guitar has this really warm tube sound, and Charlie's yelling again either into something distorting his voice or the recording is just peaking out. There's at least 4 different strummed instruments coming together to create this carnival hootenanny. Maybe there's a Ukulele here? It's really perfect.
This has to be the best use of the trumpet sound on the SK-1, it actually works, only after repeated listens I'm realizing what that sound has to be.
As expected Charlie, as narrator, is really pissed off and gets more unrestrained as the song goes on. At the end it sounds like everyone simultaneously hitting the mic at once before the tape is stopped, and that's the homemade touch that makes me pay just a little more attention.

'Memories in the Rain' is a slow distorted drawling guitar melody that seems to get me everytime. At first Charlie's yelling off in the distance, probably at himself playing on the other 3 tracks. It's almost a sad kind of howl to just set the tone of this sincere bedroom middle of the night recording. When the main vocals start it's really up front, close to the mic. He has a kind of nasal Daniel Johnston voice, but there's some low end to his vocals here, as opposed to the typical metallic sounding distortion of the other ones. This has to be my favorite track...it's reminding me of the Mountain Goats, their home recorded feel stuff, it's spontaneous and couldn't exist any other way. It isn't too self conscious, it's not going for the obvious gag, the drums sound like cardboard boxes, it fades out with the sound of the rain.

Where does this fit into anything I've been listening to lately? Well, it really doesn't, Charlie is really out there in his own world, nearly outsider, but it seems like he's well adjusted to society enough to go on lengthy tours, and probably win over everyone he meets.

From Unread records:
Charlie Mcalister - "carolina bi-product" [seven inch] four new delicious cuts of classic mcalister strum and fuckery on pink platter.
span across and feel up some babes while square dancing on the beach. deal with the robot inside, and throw yourself out into the surf...only to drift away and rust up.
limited to 500 copies, with seven or so different hand screened covers, and co-released with : tick tock, doormat tx, borrowdeer, and carl.
A
"carolina bi-product beachball boogie"
"im freezing"
B
"i dont love you anymore"
"memories in the rain"

On Sardine colored vinyl...which is a kind of light purple. It plays at 33 and I'm pretty sure all the sleeves are hand silkscreened and different. Mine looks nothing like either of the ones pictured on Unread or Tick Tock.

It seems Unread has released several full lengths from Charlie in the past and at least one is still available, so you can get a double dose of Charlie who won't sound like anything else on your shelf.