I got to ask you this because I think it's important. You'll be playing this weekend and at the same time the Gay Pride Parade will be going on in the city. A lot of people have written about and speculated on the whether the Bad Brains are homophobic or anti-gay. I was hoping you could address that and tell me exactly why the controversy exists, maybe put it to rest.

Check it out. All the things I've been telling you about the road and path of The Bad Brains, there was an era that lead into us discovering Rasta and Jah, and these things that were part of us being black and recognizing this part of our culture. Like with anything, say you're a young Krishna, there's a tendency to be over-zealous. We were over-zealous in our views about homosexuality, due to our ignorance, and the fact that we hadn't matured to a certain level. Just like anyone getting into anything. Every member of The Bad Brains are loving and we have nothing against any of god's creatures. In our growth and in trying to become wise and see life for what it is, without judgment, we went through a time where we did judge. Anyone can remember a time and say, "oh you remember when I was like that." A doctor can say, "Remember when I first worked the ER and was all nervous and people were looking at me when I was crazy." So when you're coming in as a young Rasta and discovering it, just like in Christianity, homosexuality isn't accepted. So being young Rasta and studying the religion that's what you see. But if you still continue to study and mature you'll find other texts that say, "love all god's creatures." So you can't just make your own thing and say, "This guys black, or this guys homosexual, I don't like him." The Bad Brains had a period of time where we might have said some things. Meanwhile, we were in a band and were popular, so it got out there. But someone took that and ran with it.

When the Beastie Boys came down and saw four black dudes from D.C. shredding this punk, and then when they see Cool C or the early rap days [and] they say they want to rap: "If the Bad Brains played punk, I can rap."

If you're not in the know, Atomic Bride are a Seattle punk/garage band. I know...uh, it's 2012 what the fuck does "punk," much less "garage" mean? Well, Atomic Bride mixes it up, kinda, they know their shit. I'd say they're more of a punk group really 'cause they got a BIG sound AND are adept at ROCKIN' their shit OUT. Um, in the past I've seen 'em get a couple Cramps refs, and a few Rezillos comparisons, but I don't hear the Cramps. However, I'd reckon them Rezillos nods are kinda there. Miss Astra Elaine and Chris Cool switch off vox duty, so the boy vs girl hollerin' could make for the shoehorn. Of course, Miss Astra's inflections have plenty o' Cherrie Curry rock sass. I always thought they sounded like a real smart mid '90s SoCal/Flipside magazine group. Tho' I'd actually say they're way smarter than nearly all the SoCal/Flipside magazine groups, because their songs are written SOOOOOOOOOOOO much better.

So...the album?!? On Dead Air, their driving songs are all fucking GO-GO-GO, and the slow weird bits are moody and a little creepy—it works well. They keep dynamic variety balanced without shifting the vibe, and the songs are hung/strung together concept style. Whether or not there IS a concept, to me, don't matter, but it creates a mood and pulse that just WORKS. Dead Air is fantastic beginning to almost end. Speaking of the ending—my only problem, like, the ONE thing I wish was different—is IT NEEDED TO BE LONGER. Seriously, I want more. Dead Air clocks in at just under thirty-eight minutes...CRAP. I!! Want!!! More!!!!!! Next time, if y'all make a record THIS good, make it last twice as long...please!! Whatever, I'm quite stoked on this record. Really, I've almost worn the 0's 'n' 1's off'a my copy of the advance CD. Okay then, see y'all tomorrow night!

• bumbershoot.org

Did you know King Khan, who's coming to Bumbershoot this fall with His Shrines, also has a spooky-ookey side project called the Black Jaspers? It's true!

Watch the new video, then read the spooky-ookey manifesto after the jump!

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Before Bob Log, a jumpsuited man who plays an f holed guitar and sings through a phone attatched to a motorcycle helmet, went solo, he was not solo. He played with a guy who beat on cardboard boxes and metal buckets with sticks...together they were called Doo Rag. Right, so here they are playing live. Godamn.

If I remember correctly Doo Rag played at the OK Corral Hotel in, perhaps late 1995 or early '96. I didn't get to see them as my ride to the show NEVER showed. Uh, yeah, I'M STILL FUCKING ANGRY. Anyway, it's amazing how much that open-tuned f hole can fill the room, then add that guy beating on boxes and pieces of metal, and suddenly they were Pussy Galore-ing the shit out of everything. 'Cept, like, not so Pussy Galore angry. Obviously, then, their records are great—track 'em down. Bob Log, of course, would go on to be Bob Log the one man "I Want Your Shit On My Leg" show, from Tucson, Arizona.

I've always wondered, as busking weirdos, how Doo Rag's sookie madness would'a gone down at, say, the staid Ballard Sunday Market.

But, as Guru said, with Bobby, it's mostly the voice: I got hooked on that beautiful, lifeworn voice the second I heard "Across 110th St" on the Jackie Brown soundtrack. Let the record show that he is one of the greatest to ever do it. His new album on XL drops next month, and it will be my first Tuesday afternoon, new music purchases in years. The title track debuted a couple weeks ago. Check it out after the cut.

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Watch these spokesmodels in "metal head" wigs try to sell you 36 top 40 hits from the 1980s as "punk" rock. Seriously, y'all, don't waste your money on CDs or tapes with only one or two GOOOOODDDD SONGS! Buy THIS!!

Huey Lewis, INXS, Men At Work, AND A Flock of Seagulls!! YEAH!! SO, just one question remains after hearing this sweet, sweet and most motherfuckingest of all punk comps...do you wanna MOSH or do you wanna THRASH, bro?!

Listen to the soundtrack.

Watch the whole thing.

Wear the belt.

Repeat!

Electric eels were a band from Lakewood, Ohio. They went to the same high school that I did, but graduated exactly 20 years earlier. Lakewood, Ohio is a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. The electric eels were active between 1972 and 1975. Those were dour times for the Cleveland area.

The Cuyahoga River had caught on fire, unemployment was through the roof, crime was rampant, but the Cleveland music scene was thriving with some of the most original music ever. The Mirrors, Rocket From the Tombs, Pere Ubu, X Blank X, the Dead Boys and the Styrene Money Band all came from or were influenced by this brilliant era of pre-punk art music.

Electric eels (actually lowercase "e"s in reference to e e cummings) only played in public five times. Each performance was rife with audience conflict, police visits and the band members beating each other to a pulp. Founder + guitar player John Morton admits to being influenced by free jazz: "I remember listening to Ornette Coleman, John Cale, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler. That's what the eels was supposed to be, but we didn't really understand it." We're friends on Facebook, but he's never responded to any of my interview requests. The original band was rounded out by Dave "E" McManus on vocals & clarinet and Brian McMahon on guitar. Many of their early Cleveland gigs included hitting sheet metal with sledgehammers, anvils, and a power lawnmower on stage. The band soon left Cleveland and moved to Columbus after receiving death threats for sleeping with "one too many married women."

Nick Knox (later to drum with the Cramps) was in electric eels in 1975, shortly before the band collapsed. The recordings of rehearsals from this era comprise most of the output of the band, including the 1978 Rough Trade single "Agitated" b/w "Cyclotron." Rumor is that the band broke up after playing a gig at Case Western Reserve college which ended in a fist fight between the members. There is a ton of material available that has been released over the years. If you're interested, check out the Eyeball of Hell compilation LP, or the Those Were Different Times collection. Unfortunately, both of those might be out of print at the moment.

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Well, SHIT, I got nothing on this group, Deadwood. Perhaps...maybe, they weren't for real, like they were a studio group?! Well, I do know they were English and had two 45s on Decca, "The Turning Of Them All" b/w "That Don't Help Me None" and "Me And My Friends" b/w "Little Joe," and both were issued in early 1971. "That Don't Help Me None" seems to be the best they had to offer. It's even gotten some club spins, but to me seems a bit too on the prog end of things to make the dancers groove. It is great track tho' it and certainly nods to late 1968. The second single I've not heard and is said to be quite lame.

Forgive, if you can that vid, it's a clip from Village Of The Giants. I think the clip was slowed down for MAXIMUM go-go girls in bikini effects!! Hubba HUBBA!! "That Don't Help Me None" has been comped twice, on A Visit To The Spaceship Factory and Psychamania.