Smack Shire

XEX - group: xex

For all the moaning Ive done over the years about growing up in a\r\nculturally detached small town in Pennsylvania though my formative years of\r\ndiscovering weird-ass punk and new/no wave music, the truth is simply that\r\nthe most mind-boggling ideas and warped musical aesthetics sprung from these\r\nplaces. Amidst the sea of coked-up Cinderella wannabes who played my high\r\nschool anti-drug rallies, the Kevin Cronin-of REO-produced\r\nbig-fish-in-a-small-pond rock gods that walked down our streets, and the\r\nsheer overload of crapola, there were mutants who had it up to here with all\r\nof that silliness. For example: HB was a one man Magic Band who would tell\r\nstories for hours while whacking away on drums in a pierogi parlor like a\r\ncosmic Sam Ulano, The Delusions were what the Velvets coulda been in a coal\r\nmining town, and Psychatrone Rhonedakk made hobbit-like basement synth\r\ngurgle for years and years and never stepped on a stage. 100 miles from New\r\nYork but not quite there, they never quite got recognized, and they sure\r\nconfused a lot of locals. I sure appreciated em for merely existing in an\r\noppressive musical locale where the towns one promoter was too busy hosting\r\ndance shows on TV where he got out of a Rolls flanked by hos and booking\r\nwheezy hair-metal reunions.\r\nxex must have been in a similar boat down in South River, New Jersey.\r\nSporting black garb, blurting arps, and bizarro names like Thumbalina\r\nGuglielmo" and "Waw Pierogi" (holy hell, more pierogis!) these guys\r\nrepresented a totally bonkers aesthetic that seems like it was taking its\r\ncues from what was being hyped in the NYC underground scene about that time:\r\nEno, Talking Heads, etc., but in fact this music is choking under something\r\nmore black, toxic, and totally Jersey. While they sang about mall rat\r\nzombies who ran around trying to catch up with fashion, they also addressed\r\nnuns and nerve gas. Musically, it sounds like it has more to do with German\r\nnuts like Grauzone and Californias zonked synth-gothers Factrix or Nervous\r\nGender than anything else remotely in xexs radius. What gives? \r\nTom Smith did radio shows for a while on WFMU, and was entrenched in the LP\r\nlibrary listening to odd finds in backwards order starting at Z when he\r\ncame across this lost gem. It totally blew our brains. Theres zilch about\r\nthem on the web, as well (apparently not even the hip New York papers gave\r\nem a mention), and he has been threatening to reissue this baby for some\r\ntime. Here tis at last. Turn up the minimal synth NJ underground!" -Brian Turner, Music/Program Director, Jersey City, WFMU.

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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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