No less than respected punk legend Henry Rollins called Flipper, and I am quoting here:
“Blah Blah Look at my tattoos Blah Blah Denis Leary Blah Blah VH1 Blah Blah Heavier Than You!!!!”
And, well… if it is coming from Henry Rollins, you’d be silly not to take it as gospel. He is a spoken word artist and actor, you know. Just like Jello Biafra! And that crazy bag lady down the street who cries drunken soliloquies to her long dead child. But I don’t see her getting her own VH1 show or college spoken word tours, you two-bit carnies.
But I sure loved Flipper. If the bands around them played faster, Flipper slowed it down to a crawl. If the bands around them politicized their inner (and outer) angsty bullshit, Flipper boldly suggested that the Bored (i.e. YOU) were simply Boring. Frankly, they were the most subversive band of the punk era – and possibly beyond.
Today I am sharing my Flipper-esqe 7″ vinyl collection for anyone that may be interested. These singles are long out of print. No harm, no foul.
Love Canal b/w Ha, Ha, Ha (Front) – Subterranean Records (SUB 7)
This here single is one of the most outrageous releases of the American punk era. Sexbomb, in itself, pissed off a lot of the more serious punkers – but Brainwash… Brainwash is special in its Subversion. They take a twenty six second bit and repeat it for over six (6!) minutes. I cannot believe the band had the GALL to release this.
And that’s why I love them so.
Forget it. You wouldn’t understand anyway.
Sex Bomb b/w Brainwash (Back) – Subterranean Records (SUB 23)
Get Away b/w The Old Lady That Swallowed The Fly (Front) – Subterranean Records (SUB 35)
Not too long after I first began purchasing my own music, I stumbled across Rat Music For Rat People, a compilation album of U.S.* punk rock royalty playing live* in San Francisco, California between the years 1981-82*. The title excited newly minted, teenaged me. I had recently read James Herbert’s 1974 novel The Rats. My imagination ran hot at the possibility: Would there be songs about giant rats and their unwilling food sources?
Not as such.
But the band listing was almost as fascinating as the title: Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks… haha! A band named Flipper? Neat!D.O.A., Crucifix, TSOL, The Avengers*, and The Dils*.
– Rat Music For Rat People (Front), 1982 – Go! Records #GO 003
It was a risky purchase for this not so privileged thirteen year old of the inner suburbs. Money was tight. Influences even tighter. I had heard of four of the ten bands, but had only actually listened to two of them at that particular point. And it was a live album*. Even then I knew that live albums were never to be trusted.
Unless it was Johnny Cash. You could always trust Johnny Cash.
In the end, I swung the deal on the merits of the Dead Kennedys name. That was sure to irk my father, the hippie vampire.
It ended up a wise purchase – and a sucker buy at the same time. The next four or five compilation purchases I would make were, for one reason or another, flat-out amazing…
– Rat Music For Rat People (Back), 1982 – Go! Records #GO 003
Probably my all-time favorite song ever put to vinyl: Ashtray Heart by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Don Van Vliet dynamites the punks and new wavers for essentially ripping him off – in particular the ‘Man on the Porcupine Fence’, Johnny Rotten.
Fair or not, the man had a point.
And Beefheart’s word play in this one is simply off the charts.
You used me like an ashtray heart
Case of the punks. Right from the start
I feel like a glass shrimp in a pink panty
With a saccharine chaperone
Make invalids out of supermen
Call in a “shrink”
And pick you up in a girdle
You used me like an ashtray heart
Right from the start
Case of the punks
Another day, another way…
Somebody’s had too much to think
Open up another case of the punks
Each pillow is touted like a rock
The mother / father figure
Somebody’s had too much to think
Send your mother home your navel
Case of the punks
New hearts to the dining rooms
Violet heart cake
Dissolve in new cards, boards, throats, underwear
Ashtray heart
You picked me out, brushed me off
Crushed me while I was burning out
Then you picked me out
Like an ashtray heart
Hid behind the curtain
Waited for me to go out
A man on a porcupine fence
Used me for an ashtray heart
Hit me where the lover hangs out
Stood behind the curtain
While they crushed me out
You used me for an ashtray heart
You looked in the window when I went out
You used me like an ashtray heart.
… in shitty WordPress oriented fashion (Part Two).
Celebrating the one year anniversary of my excursion into noise pop (as Bärkər), I asked a former friend of mine to run a sit-down Q&A session with me. I figured that I could maybe shed more light on the motivations and accomplishments of this Bärkər thing, to allow a reversed timeline peek behind the curtain, so to speak.
Unfortunately, that gesture was undone by bad acting.
Yet I am going to continue to humor myself by thinking that the reader might find interest in me covering some releases.
There’s Something You’re Missing – 2024, Mayfly Records
He asked if I wanted to work with him, and I jumped at the chance.
He presented me an instrumental piece that could have been the lead track off any of his albums. The piece was everything one expects from Rucker; low-fi, melodic, and touching. He handed the track off and gave me free rein to do whatever it was I wanted. I am still honored by that.
There’s Something You’re Missing Back Cover
I added a 30 second prelude that I thought was pretty neat. I then put some effects on a straggler track, which bled through the mix to add interesting sounds. Finally, I took a bit from my prelude and processed it to sound ‘harmonium’, then wove it throughout 2/3rds of the piece. The ending instrumental was, well… Ghostly, almost translucent.
The dialogue samples came from an anti-media outfit from the 1980s, these centering on how television (a metaphor for the ilk of today) subjected latchkey children to constant barrages of alcohol ads, sex, and television violence. I thought the finished piece (released October 25, 2024) rather poignant. It sounds different. The listener is taken on a pleasant journey, while still presented an opportunity to think.
I thought it would be a winner.
Live: From the Basement – Kent, Ohio ’24 – 2024, Mayfly Records
Gimmicks, contrary to the connotations associated them (KISS? 🤮), can be powerful tools in the grand cause of Subversion.
Live: From the Basement(released October 8, 2024) is one of my personal favorites. Rather than pussyfooting around, as I had done for some time, I dove headfirst into the tape loop inspired avant-garde with this extended player (EP).
Over a played soundscape, pre-recorded loops were triggered, cut up, and then manipulated/processed live. I greatly missed recording in this fashion. I did so with Linda Sharpe for close to two years and always had fun with it. When done ‘properly’, the improvisational aspect can be creatively rewarding.
There is a bit at the end of Not Completely Like Other People (@4’15”) that basically hypnotized me. I came out of it a couple of minutes later and hastily threw in a sample of Reverend Ernest Angley that I stretched and manipulated to interesting effect on, ‘Do You Believe?‘
I made VERY liberal use of Puremagnetik’s Ember micro collage plug-in when recording this. Ember can do some magical things. In live situations, it can also very easily escape its pen and do some damage to your petunias. You never know.
… in shitty WordPress oriented fashion (Part One).
Celebrating the one year anniversary of my excursion into noise pop, I asked a former friend of mine to run a sit-down Q&A session with me. It was done over Zoom and transcribed by a third party. I figured that I could maybe shed more light on the motivations and accomplishments of this Bärkər thing – allow a peek behind the curtain, so to speak.
Sound interesting? Let’s read on.
Eric Baker (aka Bärkər)
Mayfly Radio – Various Artists – 2025, Mayfly Records
Q: Your latest production is ‘Mayfly Radio Volume One’, released March 5th. How did you manage to convince anyone to work with you on this? I’m counting 14 or 15 independent musicians or personalities on this compilation. Going by your past work, that’s about 14 or 15 more than I’d think possible.
A: I’ve asked myself that question many times throughout the process.
Q: Were I you, I’d keep asking… [pause lasts 7 seconds]… Other than riding on coattails, what did you actually do on ‘Mayfly Radio’?
A: Listen, hold on a minute. Is there something going on here? There are some edges to these questions I wasn’t quite expecting when I asked you to do this.
Q: Coattails it is…
A: Well, actually I compiled and coordinated all of the material, I hammered them into place, I provided background soundscapes to all but one of the spoken word pieces provided me, I engineered the pseudo broadcast, I acted as the disc jockey throughout, and I recorded three originals for the closing segment.
Q: The segment with the least amount of listens. Isn’t that what you were telling me? Now this ‘DJ’ character you portray, Montgomery Van is it? Most radio personalities, or those pretending to be ones, seem to have actual personalities. Why don’t you?
A: Thank you for noticing. I worked rather hard at that. Oftentimes I would record a particular line or bit three or four times, then go back and piece together all of the most awkward deliveries. I wanted the character to come across as stilted and disjointed and socially unable.
Q: So this is autobiographical then.
Q: Moving on… Why?
A: Pardon?
Q: In the context of just about all music available to us, why does your ‘music’ suck?
A: …
Q: Why is your music so stripped down and primitive? I mean, what is this?
Living Ghosts – Bärkər & Subtlety – 2025, Mayfly Records
Q: A synth line with loopy side dressings sung by, in your own words, a ‘voice of an Angel’? Wasn’t this already done by Susan Boyle? You know, I was listening to a radio interview where they/them said not to even bother submitting music to stations or labels unless it/tw’it was perfectly pristine. This is the exact opposite!
A: Exactly.
Q: But… why?
A: Imagine spending the limited time we are allowed to chase the muse endlessly trying to lay down ‘The Perfect Track’, the ‘Perfect Guitar Solo’, the pitch perfected ‘Pristine Vocal’. Now imagine that 90% of your fellow musicians are attempting to do the exact same thing; producing the perfect UNIT Over… and Over… and Over again. Eventually, no matter the genre of music, everything begins to sound the same. THAT is the death of creativity.
Q: …
A: Exactly.
Textures – 2024, Mayfly Records
Q: Your most recent solo release was an EP called ‘Textures’, from this past Christmas Eve. Why does the majority of Bärkər material start off so difficult to listen to? Whether it is an album with the most unnatural openings, or individual songs that spend the first minute or so sounding confused as to where they want to go. Is this a stylized choice, or do you simply not know what you’re doing?
A: I have stated plenty of times that not only am I not a musician, I have inherent distrust towards anyone claiming themselves to be one. In my efforts to sculpt stuff I wish to listen to, I have learned how to bash out notes on a synthesizer or an equivalent, and to program rhythms – but anyone can do that. I consider myself a sound designer; I consider myself an artist (whatever that might mean). To answer the question, I prefer art that challenges. If the listener manages to meet the challenges of my openings, I consider that listener a kindred spirit (whatever that might mean).
Q: So you don’t know what you are doing. Got it.
Subversions – Bärkər & Arwr Neb – 2024, Mayfly Records
Q: You’ve collaborated with four different artists this past year; Feminoise, Subtlety, Ghost of Rucker, and Arwr Neb. Were all of these artists slumming it by working with you, or did you just sell them on snake oil?
A: Um, thanks. This is… I mean, what the fuck? I thought you wanted to do this? You know what? We’ll end this right here. Take care and fuck right off.
Early last summer (2024), I was asked by acclaimed Emo-Gazey pop artist Feminoise to collaborate on a project that would become Dystopian Communications. To this day, I consider that single to be one of my highest of achievements. Her asking me to collaborate was a blessing, as it opened the doors to so much that would follow; other collaborations, a wider exposure, the confidence to continue doing what I’ve been doing, AND the outline for an ambitious project left in its wake.
When seeking inspiration for the lyrics she would pen, Feminoise asked me for a concept. That concept, a lonely and isolated person culture jamming a pirated radio broadcast in effort to communicate with others, would eventually evolve into Mayfly Radio, Volume One.
Thanks, Mel!
I would continue chasing down that idea with ‘A Dystopian Broadcast’, a radio-waved sound collage, off my ‘Don’t Cry Upon Arrival’ EP.
A Dystopian Broadcast
But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go all-in on the concept. What if I actually put a radio program together? Or at least something that could pass for one. What if it was ‘call-in’ based, like the programs I remember listening to as a child? What if I masked a compilation album as a radio drama and vice versa?
Maybe…
Maybe I could convince the talents that I most respect from the independent music scene to contribute songs? Without songs, there could be no pseudo radio program. I was lucky enough to have been provided original pieces by Feminoise, neuroshock, Lost Cause Industry, House of Warwick, and Histheory. I was also granted permission (hand shake licensing? GASP!) to use previously released works by Subtlety (and myself), Arwr Neb, Betrav Kolektiv, Plains Desperate Symphony, Czña, and Ghost of Rucker.
And maybe I could convince some of the best voices of the independent arts scene to record ‘call-ins’ to the station? Without people calling in to cement the central themes, there was no point to any of this. I was very lucky to have received spoken word contributions from Entropy in Motion, Plains Desperate Symphony (3x), GAB, Arcane Synthetic, Subtlety, Deb LaMotta, Lost Cause Industry, Arwr Neb, and Montgomery Van.
Mayfly Radio Volume One (and only) is the result; a one hour, forty four minute broadcast that tells as many stories as the listener is willing to hear. Or willing to bear. Whichever works for you.
Mayfly Radio is the crown jewel of this Bärkər experiment, yet ‘Bärkər’ doesn’t exist anywhere on it. That is not only fitting, but prophetic.
For anyone that might be interested, here is a PDF itinerary for the broadcast (included with purchase on Bandcamp): Mayfly Radio Itinerary
