A very large Rock band button collection in Tucson!

 

 

Earlier this month Disaster Amnesiac spent part of a Saturday afternoon hanging out with longtime Tucson resident Chuck A., who owns a very large collection of buttons from various and varied Rock (and a few Funk/Hip Hop) bands, along with a few TV show/cartoon ones. The pictures here represent only a small portion of his collection! Chuck's first concert was a Def Leppard show in eastern Washington State; the button that he purchased is right below this text. Chuck is an ordained minister within the Dudeism sect and he's officiated two weddings as such. He loves to attend Prog shows from bands such as Primus and Tool, often with his son who is a bass player within the Les Claypool school. It was quite fun to sit and listen to Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets live CD while going through hundreds of buttons.  Aside from that Def Leppard one, the buttons are presented in alphabetical order. Disaster Amnesiac's favorites are the Hawkwind and Grateful Dead ones; the best one that I noticed is the Slayer button though. It's very sleek and stylish. The Mötorhead button takes me right back to being twelve years old, while the Black Sabbath logo button makes me wish to have been living in Los Angeles in 1975.

Above: that first button.

Below: many buttons, all of them neat. 

Prismer-Ramshackle!!-No Sides Records, 2025

 

Within private conversations of analytical nature, Disaster Amnesiac often brings up the factor of just how many hurt, hurting people that are contained within our consensus reality. My opinion is that there are tons of humans who are wrestling with untold and often times undiagnosed factors, ones that are at work within their minds or bodies. The further that this writer gets along his mortal coil, the more apparent it is that one must be gentle and very patient with others, for the most part, because one rarely knows what those around them are going through. Sound organizer Maggie Noggle uses the project called Prismer as a vehicle for working through the condition of agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is described as an intense fear of not being able to escape stimuli that are perceived as life threatening. Obviously, that's a heavy burden for the mind to bear. That Prismer addresses the issue on its 2025 3" CD Ramshackle! is, along with being very commendable, very intriguing from a listening standpoint. Prismer uses sound sources from multiple media in order to stitch a collage of nacreous hues over four tracks. Voices haunted, haunting, hopeful, heartbreaking and heartbroken rise up out of the opaque environments of their sound beds. They have given this listener pause to reflect upon a few comrades now gone, along with a few presences missed. Other listeners will surely appreciate Prismer's melodic fearlessness on the closing track Zookeeper, a track which features a lovely ascending to Heaven feel. Ultimately Ramshacke! retains an aura of hope, and it's that which makes the album glow. As the last voice on the album intones: "God bless you all".

The Polkaholics-25 Years of Polka; No Sides Records, 2025

 

 

There are many types of music in this world and some of them have a lot of functionality. Disaster Amnesiac recalls a conversation with a guy, many years ago, in which we agreed that certain of our moms' favorite jams had a "vacuum track", ie they were mostly heard in tandem with mom's cleaning the house routine. Polka music also strikes this listener as a high function value music in that when it's being performed (and let's face it it's an inherently live form of music), it serves the function of getting people to socialize with one another. Polka gets people up and dancing, and all kinds of wonderful things can come of that: conversations, relationships, sex, children, breaks from the daily grind of adulting....on and on it goes. Thence, it comes as no surprise that there are long-standing bands that blend Polka with other amped up musical forms, in particular the strain of Punk Rock that also focuses on moving butts. Well on that last one, it's more accurately moving limbs but you'll catch the drift. Disaster Amnesiac has very fond memories of being in room that featured the live action of Ward Jablonksi and his wonderful Polkacide, a band with roots back to the early 1980's. If memory serves correctly they finally called it quits in 2019 or so. Long ass run, wouldn't you say? Another Polka-Punk mashup band is the Polkaholics, out of Chicago. They have a new release out on No Sides Records and it's called 25 Years of Polka for reasons that should be obvious. Over this CD's five tracks, the listener is treated to the group's tight and well focused blend of traditional Polka performance, both musically and lyrically, with the latter being best exemplified on No More Posin'-Time For Lederhosen and Punk, along with some of that Power Pop feel that comes so naturally to Chi-Area bands. Hallelujah I'm Drunk gets right to that point with funny descriptions of the moves a juicer has to make to find satisfaction. The title track summarizes The Polkaholics' travels: surely their audiences in Germany and Canada, along with those within these United States found much to love and to dance to while they kicked things live in front of them. So great that their sounds took them so far afield! Disaster Amnesiac imagines that it would not be too difficult for the Polkaholics to log enough hours for an eventual 35 Years of Polka, as they're tapped into a musical approach which will still have functionality a decade down the line.

Live shot(s) #204!

 

 

All shots taken at Golden Saguaro Tucson, 12/19/25. 

Below: Jane Field Elemetary explores the inherently droning nature of the accordion. Loops and primitive song also in the mix. B to F# modulations and chord clusters. 

Above: James King processes sounds of often Minimalist beauty, ones that lend themselves to enhanced visual experience within the inner perceptions. Not afraid to open up rhythmic fields either. Layers of digital sound sources melded into cohesive wholes until breaks, not feared, are encountered with acceptance. Sound Art scientist. 

Below: Pineross presents a piece entitled The Bell. Lovely shimmering drones, and pleasingly evocative of the deeper aspects presented by the Winter Solstice season, even those of healthy nostalgia. Well earned field recordings by the composer and others add mystery. 

Tucson has a few distinct Drone scenes happening and one of them continues to happen at Golden Saguaro.