Barely Human

In October of 2021, an email arrived in the Barely Human inbox titled 'Error Filled Podcast.' Normally we might have looked past it, mistakes being mistakes, except that it came from Clarke Blacker of Stick Men With Ray Guns: the band profiled as the Butthole Surfers' significantly more underground parallel in BH008. Clarke outlined a number of mistakes we had made, from incorrectly naming band members, to errors in dates and the approach of the episode... so after emailing back and forth for a few weeks, we decided to record an interview that goes back over the Stick Men With Ray Guns story properly. The introduction features producer Jason L'Ecuyer and writer/host Max Easton discussing how the errors came to be and reflecting on the series (which wrapped in April of 2020 as the first wave of COVID-19 descended.) The interview with Clarke begins at 00:15:30 and covers ground ranging from how Clarke arrived in the world of Texas punk, the formation of Stick Men With Ray Guns; the band's troubles with recording; the life of Bobby Soxx and its controversies; the band's philosophy, approach and legacy; and Clarke's more recent music projects.  Listen to Clarke Blacker's 'Hear Us Through the Hole in Thin Air' at https://clarkeblacker.bandcamp.com/album/hear-us-through-the-hole-in-thin-air or on Clarke's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_nLgtn8u8vB3GCmRjWdz1w. The more recent collaborative project between Clarke and Simon Waldrum called 'The Dream at the End of the World' can be found here: https://attheendoftheworld.bandcamp.com/album/distraction-at-the-lookout-car For the original Barely Human episode that prompted Clarke's email: BH008: Life Makes Me Nervous; I Like Butthole Surfers (...and Stick Men With Ray Guns) https://anchor.fm/barelyhuman/episodes/BH008-Life-Makes-Me-Nervous-I-Like-Butthole-Surfers----and-Stick-Men-With-Ray-Guns-eq8cp5 Follow Barely Human on Instagram and Twitter @barelyhuman__, or explore more information on the website www.barelyhuman.info

In Episode 11 of Barely Human, we arrive in the contemporary to look at a thriving subcultural community from Melbourne, Australia. With Dick Diver we find a band who related to the contemporary condition by singing about items littered on the kitchen table...before unwittingly creating a non-genre that was cruelly nicknamed 'dolewave.' Then we cross to the post-punk mania of Total Control, who turned to paranoid visions and the sounds of dystopia to become one of the most influential bands of the 2010s.  Barely Human was written and hosted by Max Easton and produced by Jason L'Ecuyer and Marty Peralta of Output Media.  Visit the website for show notes featuring extra discussion, sources, further reading and detailed credits here: https://www.barelyhuman.info/2020/03/ep-11-lend-me-fiver-i-like-dick-diver.html.  The accompanying playlist called 'Melbourne Scenius' can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1DWrsze7gJPLjIplnOYMav Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter --> @barelyhuman__

After stepping into the '90s last episode, Episode 9 highlights the backward looking glance of that decade: via its garage punk revival, and notions of 'discovery.' We look at R.L. Burnside, a unique Hill Country blues player who performed for decades in small-town Mississippi, becoming a household name after collaborating with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 50 years after his first gig. Then we turn to the most resilient underdogs of the '90s garage revival: a band from Boston called Cheater Slicks, who didn't languish in obscurity...but reveled in it.  Barely Human was written and hosted by Max Easton and produced by Jason L'Ecuyer and Marty Peralta of Output Media.  Theme song by Sydney punk band Tim & The Boys.  Visit the website for show notes featuring extra discussion, sources, further reading and detailed credits at: https://www.barelyhuman.info/2020/03/ep-9-dead-inside-i-like-rl-burnside-and.html.  The accompanying playlist called 'The Hill Country Revival' can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tkltr0SbVOdEPmZssueOb Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter --> @barelyhuman__

The second half of the Barely Human series begins! After covering '60s counter-culture, proto-punk and the punk explosion over the first six episodes, we reach 1978, to enter the world of London post-punk. Episode 7 finds an unofficial marker for the beginning of the elusive genre, when two kids from Chelsea called Television Personalities released 'Part-Time Punks,' a mockery of the movement that came before them. Then it looks at the independent community built around post-punk's DIY philosophy, through the eyes of a band who summed up the hope and ideals of the non-movement, the incredible sounds discovered by a band called The Raincoats.  Barely Human was written and hosted by Max Easton and produced by Jason L'Ecuyer and Marty Peralta of Output Media.  Theme song by Sydney punk band Tim & The Boys.  Visit the website for show notes featuring extra discussion, sources, further reading and detailed credits here: https://www.barelyhuman.info/2020/02/ep-7-lost-in-trivialities-i-like.html  The accompanying playlist called 'Post-punk Ground Zero' can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/12xxM7igPVgcmMSTvqiwOo Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter --> @barelyhuman__

Episode 5 of Barely Human looks at two characters who pushed and crossed boundaries in the name of antagonism. We start at the birth of L.A. punk to find Black Randy: a mysterious and eccentric musician who spent as much time pranking and tormenting his peers as he did appropriating soul music. Then we turn to GG Allin: someone whose artistic mission as a punk frontperson was not just depraved, but criminal.  Barely Human was written and hosted by Max Easton and produced by Jason L'Ecuyer and Marty Peralta of Output Media.  Theme song by Sydney punk band Tim & The Boys.  Visit the website for show notes featuring extra discussion, sources, further reading and detailed credits here: https://www.barelyhuman.info/2020/02/ep-5-everythings-dandy-i-like-black.html  The accompanying playlist can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1wLttIxp41i9kEmB7pjLxE  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter --> @barelyhuman__

The third episode of Barely Human is about two underground artists who are often placed in the uncomfortable category of the 'outsider musician.' We look at The Shaggs, a band from the '60s that comprised three sisters from small-town New Hampshire. They created their own unconventional sound and musical language as a result of their near-total isolation from the world around them. Then we turn to Roky Erickson: the frontperson of proto-hippy innovators the 13th Floor Elevators. He went from being an early counter-cultural figure to being sent to a hospital for the criminally insane, eventually creating a deep and overlooked body of solo works that included a self-made genre that he called 'horror rock.'  Barely Human was written and hosted by Max Easton and produced by Jason L'Ecuyer and Marty Peralta of Output Media.  Theme song by Sydney punk band Tim & The Boys.  Visit the website for show notes featuring extra discussion, sources, further reading and detailed credits here: https://www.barelyhuman.info/2020/01/ep-3-running-out-of-gags-i-like-shaggs.html  The accompanying playlist called 'Outsider Proto-Hippies' can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2EeP62j9UM11jX7tkv1mPE  Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter --> @barelyhuman__

In this first episode of Barely Human, we investigate two underground bands who managed to attract the eye of Presidents, Prime Ministers, the FBI and MI6. We look at '60s counter-cultural actors The Fugs, who were present at the famed Flower Power protests of 1967 and were described by J. Edgar Hoover as "repulsive to right-thinking people." Then we turn to '80s anarcho-punk agitators Crass, who managed to fool both the CIA and MI6 into believing they were Soviet spies.  Barely Human was written and hosted by Max Easton and produced by Jason L'Ecuyer and Marty Peralta of Output Media.  Theme song by Sydney punk band Tim & The Boys.  Visit the website for show notes featuring extra discussion, sources, further reading and detailed credits at https://www.barelyhuman.info/2020/01/ep-1-fbi-are-mugs-i-like-fugs-and-crass.html.  The accompanying playlist, 'Anarcho Counter Culture' can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3SpofGtVR0vSt0mvdvNseN. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter --> @barelyhuman__