LAFMS Los Angeles Free Music Society
LAFMS, formed in 1974, was a collective of like-minded artists inspired by the likes of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa. Some of those in the collective included Smegma, Airway, Le Forte Four and Doo-Dooettes and some other groups interested in noise and improvisation.
”A&E, Adolf & Eva, Adam & Eve, in the Garden of Eden, Picnic, Mix”
This recording is roughly 80 minutes of the A&E three day performance superimposed. Performed by Paul McCarthy (Adolf / Eva) and Lilith Stangenberg (Eva / Eve).
Vibe
Important Records announces Vibe, the new LP from Extended Organ, the Los Angeles-based quintet associated with the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS). Vibe, Extended Organ's first full-length studio LP since 2000's XOXO was recorded in April 2016 by members Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, Paul McCarthy, Tom Recchion, and Alex Stevens. The album consists of two side-long tracks, Hate and Vibe, recorded live at LACM Studio in Pasadena, California by acclaimed engineer André Knecht. On Vibe, the gr…
LAFMS Box Box
Bringing together over seven hours of absurd, elusive and often disturbing music, The Box label finally unveil this epic, years-in-the-making 13x LP Box Set from Lafms, a must for those of you familiar with their work or, indeed, the colourful dreamscapes so often associated with.LAFMS BOX BOX documents every performance from the exhibition Beneath the Valley of the Lowest Form of Music - The Los Angeles Free Music Society 1972-2012 at The Box, Los Angeles in 2012. The Los Angeles Free Music So…
The Smegma Christmas Album
Bomb! * Edition of 200. Hand-made covers (each one is unique), comes with a postcard. * At the end of October 1973 Ricky Reets Hubba-Hubba Band was disbanded. It had been decided that what was needed was “a band without Musicians” and many wild experimental jam sessions took place. Finally on November 23 a particularly inspired jam was named “Cat Cheese” and the band SMEGMA was born. Although we had only been playing music together (or at all) for a few months, we decided to record a full lengt…
Glamour Girl 1941
Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah R…
The Raymond Building, 1976 (Art Edition)
Art Edition, includes a 5x5 inch pigment print, a self portrait from the book, printed by and signed on the back by Fredrik Nilsen. This is a 32 page perfect bound book of photographs by Fredrik Nilsen documenting 3 months in 1976 when we members of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, aka the LAFMS, occupied studios in the 35 South Raymond building in what was then the derelict district of Old Town Pasadena. Some images were taken as promotional photos for our upcoming infamous performances at t…
The Raymond Building, 1976 (Book)
300 copies. This is a 32 page perfect bound book of photographs by Fredrik Nilsen documenting 3 months in 1976 when we members of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, aka the LAFMS, occupied studios in the 35 South Raymond building in what was then the derelict district of Old Town Pasadena. Some images were taken as promotional photos for our upcoming infamous performances at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California in July of that year. Others show the general mayhem that transpir…
I.D. Art #2
When the Los Angeles Free Music Society 10 CD set came out I eagerly flipped through the contents to see what treasures had finally been made available again. Much to my surprise the early compilation I.D. Art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the LAFMS. I.D. Art #2 was the second LP release on their label, coming after Le Forte Four’s ‘Bikini tennis shoes’ LP, and before the 2LP ‘Live at the Brand’, a split album between Le 44 and The Doo-Dooettes. It dates from 1976. It i…
Los Angeles Free Music Society -1974~1983+
Building on the back of a pretty stunning series of releases over the last year and beyond, Vinyl on Demand returns with one of their most ambitious outings yet, Los Angeles Free Music Society's "-1974~1983+", a stunning, deluxe 13LP box set - issued in a limited edition of 500 copies - of early material that has never before been issued on vinyl, from one of the most important outfits in underground, experimental music from the American west.
Infringements
Tip! **Edition of 230** This is alga marghen’s third installment of Smegma’s original “Suburban Primitive Avant-folk music” Period (1973-1975) based in Pasadena, featuring three previously unreleased tracks from the deep vault of their home recordings. In the beginning, the Band Smegma had only one rule. No Musicians.
Starting from scratch, they took the Road much less traveled. They were inspired by outsider musical artists of the time such as John Cage, Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart, Wild Man Fish…
Solo 1975-1980
Sidestepping all normal expectations on this album, Ju Suk Reet Meate (founding member of Smegma) directly goes about casting musical spells, utilizing primitive "inner mind" techniques on hammered dulcimer, tape loops, thrift store records, a homemade synthesizer, electric guitar, saxophone, mouth sounds, and manipulated christian radio broadcasts. Recorded in Portland, Oregon, these previously unreleased recordings reflect a similar "inner-mind over limited technique matter" aesthetic as the a…
Japanese Cassette
** Much-Needed Repress, Red Vinyl ** Tom Recchion is a legendary character. He is a world-famous art director, a founding member of the L.A.F.M.S., and was even the drummer for Sonic Youth for a brief period. Since the '70s, Tom has been creating screwed-up music in a dizzying array of formats, from large fully-clothed ensembles to buck naked solo explorations. The Japanese Cassette album falls into the latter category, and it is a head spinning doozy. The music here was originally created in 19…
I Am Not Artist (1973-1988) 6Lp Box
This astonishing 6LP/DVD Box-Set compiles most of Smegma's long out or print and impossible to find Vinyl-releases and contributions on labels such as their own legendary Pigface Records, LAFMS, TRAP, DOM and SELEKTON. The box incl. their first three 7" inches "Disco Diarrhea", "Flashcards", "Pigface Chant", their Lp's like "Pigs for Leper" or "Glamour Girl 1941" as well as a 2Lp-sided extract of the Live 73-82 Double Tape „Spontaneaous Sound, all in one place. Smegma started collectively by Ju …
Organic
Lucky restock, totally sold-out at source **First-time vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl, one time pressing.** The inter-disciplinary maverick John Duncan emerged in 1970s Los Angeles as a confrontational performance artist and, as the decade progressed, aligned himself with the experimental-music collective Los Angeles Free Music Society. His sound art appeared on various self-released cassettes and alongside artists such as Jim Pomeroy and Yoshi Wada on the L…
Smegma
**Original edition of 100. About 20 copies left from the original pressing** The only Russian release for legendary Smegma!
35 S. Raymond Avenue
**Edition of 200** One afternoon in 1975, friend and fellow music traveler, Harold Schroeder, showed up at Poo-Bah Record Shop where Tom Recchion worked selling records and experimental music to people, forcing them to buy albums that he swore would change their lives. Harold asked if Tom wanted to share in a studio space close to the shop. After seeing it Tom immediately said "YES!". They moved in and divided the space in half. On Tom's half he made drawings, paintings, performances, video, scu…
Abacus Incognito
**Edition of 200 (numbered)** New primitive-suburban-folk music from Temple City and Pasadena, CA, circa 1973-4. This new edition is culled from the original unissued Smegma tape vaults of Ju Suk Reet Meate and represents the most pure expression of the insular sound-world that was spontaneously discovered as a group. Unlike 2017's Look'n For Ya (TES 154LP) no song forms are ever used, instead fearless group improvisational vocals take you on a strange shape-shifting journey through operatic sho…
Look'n for Ya (1973-75)
In 1973, when Smegma (the band) was born they had only one rule: No Musicians! That way they could re-invent the musical wheel with a new primitive, suburban, anti-hippie approach. 44 years later perhaps the world is ready for the first full LP of this original, uncompromising sound. At the time, it seemed they thought they were on a solitary journey, but shortly after these recordings, it was discovered that there was another local group, The Los Angeles Free Music Society, that they shortly be…
Howard
The Tenses is a duo comprised of Ju Suk Reet Meate and Jackie Oblivia, two veterans of the weirdo art collective that is known as the Los Angeles Free Music Society. They also form the core of legendary experimental juggernaut Smegma.
The LAFMS have been a singular force in DIY culture ever since the early seventies and encapsuled an endless string of projects and bands that married a sort of proto-punk with trashy guitars, avant-garde music, tape manipulations, free jazz, improv and absurd…
Think Space
Group improvisations intended to accompany a film on the Viking space probe in 1975. Includes the original Doo-Dooettes lineup; Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Fredrik Nilsen, Tom Recchion, Harold Schroeder. The 7" includes a Doo-Dooette version of Faust's 'Picnic On A Frozen River' recorded in 1978. Packaged in 7" gatefold jacket. Limited edition. First time available. The release includes: The Doo-Dooettes performing Faust's 'Picnic On A Frozen River' 7", CD of Think Space. Hand numbered edition of 7…