Mad Men / Madmen (DRAFT)

Madmen is Jonah's solo hardcore project.



Liner Notes of Mixtape 4 (By Mike Haliechuk): 
Jonah doesn't really have access to current events and media for some reason, so in 2009 while the show Mad Men was ripping up the Neilson charts (do these even exist anymore?) and women's’ Facebook status updates everywhere, he formed a one man band, also called Mad Men. Eventually some one will clue him in about the TV show, and he will watch it, right after he finishes watching The Wire and Thirty-somethings. Anyways, besides all that, Mad Men (the band, not the award winning, ubiquitous, hit TV show) is some pretty ripping stuff, his seamless tribute to the glorious anvil headed hardcore of the great lost years of the middle 1980s (i.e. right before he was born). He was gonna call this song (Wax World) “Wayne's World” but I advised against it, for obvious reasons. Jonah responds: “1st Mad Men Demo was recorded June, 2007. 1st Mad Men TV episode aired July ’07, haha, so there.”

Despite his rightful claim to the name, Jonah's "Mad Men" was shortened to "Madmen" at some point around 2010; the two demo tapes issued prior prior to that are under the name Mad Men, later releases are Madmen.

 Discographied below are the following vinyl releases:

• ''Madmen / Bootleg''  (12")
• ''Suspiria'' (7")

The tapes and a compilation get a mention too...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Madmen / Bootleg" 12"

Sleeve - Front:
Generic white sleeve, with glossy sticker

Sleeve - Back:
Photocopy track list / images pasted over centre hole. Some copies have the photocopy as a loose insert

Vinyl:
Blank labels...

Stats:
Side I: Too Hot / No Mind / The Neighboorhood / Square Glasses / Counterfeit Traitor
Side II: Madmen, The Awakening / Wax World
Released: 2010
Label: Not on label
Matrix A: 85870 -1A EW26
Matrix B: 85870 -1B eW26
Pressing Info: 
Test Pressings - 10
First Press - 500 copies, some have alternate sleeves - see pictures further down.




Notes:

Demo Tapes: The vinyl bootleg combines the material from the first two Mad Men demo tapes, plus an additional track.

Side 'I' contains the first demo, orginally released as a cassette in 2007:

Demo 1
(Image from Discogs)

Side 'II'  has the second demo, consisting of two tracks, originally released as a cassette  in  2008, plus additional track "The Awakening".

Demo 2
(Image from Discogs)

The material from both demos plus the additional track were also compiled on the "TWO AT A TIME PLUS ONE" cassette (2009)

TWO AT A TIME... Cassette
(Image from Discogs)

"The Awakening" (The additional track on the bootleg and the third casette)




Fleetwood Mac: According to Rumours, the bootleg 12" was actually released before the "Two at a Time..." cassette. It's not clear at this stage, how the bootlegger got hold of the additional track before it was released, or why the dates of the releases don't tie in with this fact, but the rumours came from a reliable source, so let's not be pedantic.


Quietus Review Feb 15 2010: Come early 2010, this 12" turns up in various keen distros: white label vinyl in a plain white sleeve with a tracklisting glued on the back. Official word is that it's a bootleg, but given Fucked Up's obtrusive approach to verifying the 'official' nature of some of their releases, smart kids reckon this might be Jonah's doing after all. If you're reading this and silently decrying it as irrelevant wild goose chase collectorscum anti-marketing-dollar hypeman bullshit, shame on you – what kind of monster would deny maladjusted men with low self-esteem the chance to feel part of an exclusive club? Anyway, this record bangs hard: constantly threatening to be tuneful but mostly sticking to the splattery chaos of metal-flecked 80s icons like Die Kreuzen and Void. Side two ups the weird a mite, slathering reverbed vocals and martial drumming over the turmoil.

In both style and aesthetic, Mad Men could be deemed 'mysterious guy hardcore'. Seriously? The scare quotes – that is an actual thing? Sort of, yes. It describes some bands with identifiable commonalities, which is generally how subgenres are constructed; it just doesn't exist outside of a few messageboards. (At this point – also thinking of 'hypnagogic pop' and 'wonky' here – annoying people seems to be as good a reason as any for inventing your own name for a basically unnecessary genre.)




Commodity Fetishism:

Alternate Sleeve # 1 - Front
White on black artwork - sheet pasted onto generic sleeve

Alternate Sleeve # 1 - Back
(As above)

Alternate Sleeve # 2 - Front
Gold on black artwork - sheet pasted onto generic sleeve

Alternate Sleeve # 2 - Back
(As above)

Test Press Sleeve - Front:
Black on white artwork pasted on

Test Press Sleeve - Back:
Black on white artwork pasted on

Test Press Dust Sleeve / Vinyl:
Black & white collage artwork pasted on. White hand-written label.

Test Press Dust Sleeve / Vinyl:
Black & white collage artwork pasted on

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Suspiria" 7"

Sleeve - Front:
(First press)

Sleeve - Back:
(Second Press)

Sleeve comparison:
Top: 1st press - Fold out sleeve on glossy card. reverse is blank.
Bottom: 2nd press - Pocket sleeve on matt card. Back of sleeve is same artwork as first press

Vinyl:
Left: 1st press with small spindle hole
Right: 2nd press with punch-out hole

1st Press Insert: Lyrics & credits, photocopied on A4 red paper. Single sided - reverse is blank.

2nd Press Insert - Front:
Lyrics & credits + string vest printed on glossy paper

2nd Press Insert - Back:
Manly

Stats:
Side A: Suspiria / The Italian Flag
Side B: The Myth
Released: 2011
Label: Slasher Murder 009
Matrix A: U-64937m-A MURDER-009 Ⓤ
Matrix B: U-64937m-B MURDER-009 Ⓤ

Pressing Info (Thanks to Matt Bickle @ Slasher Records)
20 Test Pressings
300 First press
400 Second press





Notes:

Printing Errors: The ''first press" sleeve and vinyl were actually printing errors; the intention was for the record to have the punch out centre hole and matt pocket sleeves.


French Connection: Sleeve artwork by Ryan Hogan of Montreal Band  Omegas. Jonah gets production credits on their "Sonic Order" 7"

Italian Job #1: Suspiria is a cover version of the title track of a film score for the cult Italian horror film of the same name.

The original is an instrumental recorded by Italian prog band Goblin. The Madmen version extends and develps the tune into second track "The Italian Flag".




Commodity Fetishism:

"Pre-Release Sleeve" (Front)
Sold at a show before the proper sleeves were available? TBC

"Pre-Release Sleeve" (Back)
This one's housing a Test Pressing 

Test Pressing:
Hand written labels - ''Uomini Pazzi"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Notes:

Italian Job #2: At the time of writing (July 2015), the only Madmen track that dosen't appear on a Madmen cassette or record is a cover of  "Odia", originally by Italian punk band Tiratura Limitata.


French Connection #2: The Madmen version appears on the compilation "City Limits - Down And Out In Toronto & Montreal", which was released on Chris Colohan's High Anxiety label and is gives a snapshop of a particularly symbiotic sector of the Toronto & Montreal scenes.

Most of the recordings are exclusive to the comp, Jonah recorded a lot of the tracks on the 'Toronto' side and closing the circle, Yannick Sarrazin of Omegas recorded a lot of the Montreal ones.

Chris talks about these things in THIS interview on EXD Radio; it's a pretty great listen and includes some nice insights into Jonah's work!

''Let Likes Be Cured By Likes''

Sleeve - Front (First Press)

Sleeve - Back (First Press)

Vinyl: First Press. The above picture shows the two main variants.  Both were pressed with black labels on clear vinyl.  The record is single-sided; the ones with the logo have the label painted white on the blank side.  

Sleeve Opened - Front

Sleeve Opened - Back

First Press Inserts: The first press records often have a small flyer advertising Schizophrenic releases.
The pictures above and below show the front and back of one. There may be other designs.

Stats:

General:
Tracks: 1. Generation 2. Colour Removal 3. Black Iron Prison 4. No Pasaran 5. The Light That Never Comes On 6. Last Man Standing 7. Zezozose 8. Circling The Drain 9. Police
Year: 2004
Label: Schizophrenic Records SCHIZ 21
Matrix 1st Press: SCHIZ 21
Matrix 2nd Press: PIRATES PRESS SCHIZO 021 A 66126E1/A

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pressing Info:
Figures based on the info on Toxic City, because the numbers seem to stack up better there, than on Discogs

First Press (2004):

Sleeves - 500 Total:

500 Brown paper with brown ink

Vinyl - 500 Total:

444 w/ FU logo

66 without - 8 had label painted white

Second Press (2006):

Sleeves - 850 Total:
630ish in brown ink sleeve
200 in black ink sleeve
Less than 20 in rejected sleeve

Vinyl - 850 Total:
400 on black / blue 'inside out'
400 on blue/orange split
50 w/ blue vinyl w/ black splatter

The 200 black ink sleeves contained all 50 of the blue w/ black splatter vinyl and 150 of the blue / orange

The 630 brown ink sleeves contained  250 blue / orange split  and  400 black / blue 'inside out'

The above figures are approx; the rejected sleeve contained a mixture of the colours.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inserts:
1st Press - Variable, mostly small inserts, see above
2nd press - Variable - see below

Variants:
Sleeve and vinyl variants - see below.

Sleeve Variants:

The 'regular' sleeve has three variants; one for the first press and two for the second.

Top: First Press - Brown print on brown  heavy-stock paper (500 copies)
Bottom Left: Second Press - Brown print on white heavy stock paper (approx 630 copies)
Bottom Right: Second Press - Black print on mixture of heavy and stock and thin paper (200 copies)

Vinyl Variants: 

First Press - 500 Total
Left: 'Clear' (66 copies)
Right: 'Clear With Logo' (444 copies)
(Approx numbers - 8 or so have white painted label, but no logo)

Second Press - 850 Total:
Top Left: Blue, black inside out (400 copies)
Top Right: Orange, blue split  (400 copies)
Bottom: Second Press - Blue with black splatter (50 copies)

Second Press Flip-side
The second press is double sided and has the same recording on both sides

Blue / Black 'inside out'
Pictured above are three examples of this variant.

Second Press Inserts:

Second Press Big Inserts - Front: A lot come with the large Schizoprenic insert shown above. These come on different types of paper.

Second Press Big Inserts - Back: The backs are variable; they are mostly the same layout, but have different images, reflecting available Schizophrenic stock

Second Press Small Inserts: 
Some of the second press have a small insert, an example is shown on the right of the picture above.
On the left is a gig flyer; this copy was bought at the gig.

Black-Ink Sleeves

Black - Ink Sleeves: These come on different weights of paper, some have a row of circles along the bottom edge, which looks like something to do with the hanger attached to the original artwork transparencies. Some of the black covers seem to be  printer's proofs - i.e. tests on different papers, for print quality. The one on the left at the bottom is on heavy shiny paper and the print quality is patchy - the record it came with also had a second sleeve,  which is one of the ones with rings on.

Notes:

''Let Likes Be Cured By Likes'' 

Recording has backwards messages at start and end of record.

Title reference 1:The band also released the Let Likes Be Cured By Likes live 12" (the title being a reference to one of homoeopathy's dicta, the "Law of Similars"). (Everything2.com)

Title reference 2:

Taking the Law of Similars one step further, there is a similar quote by Paracelsus about similar things. The Latin Phrases on which they're based are even more similar:

(Wikipedia)

Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. His hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man (microcosm) and Nature (macrocosm). (Wikipedia)

Sleeve Notes:

Homunculus (Wikipedia)
Homunculus (masculine, Latin for "little man", plural: "homunculi"; from the diminutive of homo) is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a small human being. Popularized in sixteenth century alchemy and nineteenth century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human.

In Alchemy
Paracelsus is credited with the first mention of the homunculus in De homunculis (c. 1529-1532), and De natura rerum (1537).

The homunculus continued to appear in alchemical writings after Paracelsus' time. The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616) for example, concludes with the creation of a male and female form identified as Homunculi duo. The allegorical text suggests to the reader that the ultimate goal of alchemy is not chrysopoeia, but it is instead the artificial generation of man. Here, the creation of homunculi symbolically represents spiritual regeneration and Christian soteriology.

Carl Jung believed that the concept first appeared in the Visions of Zosimos, written in the third century AD. In his commentary, Jung equates the homunculus with the Philosopher’s Stone, and the "inner man" in parallel with Christ. 

Ritual image:

''Ritual'' By Lynd Ward

Image From 'Rejected Artwork' Sleeve:

Copied from Dulce Et Decorum Est Blog:

This engraving, by the 17th century English artist John Payne, is the frontispiece to The Mirrour Which Flatters Not. Dedicated to their Maiesties of Great Britaine, by Le Sieur de la Serre, Historiographer of France. Enriched with faire Figures. (1639), a book of poetry by Jean Puget de La Serre, translated into English by Thomas Carey. The epigrams beneath the engraving read O that they were Wise, that they understood This, that they would Consider their Latter End! Deut. 32:29 and –Mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula, a line from Juvenal’s tenth satire, which translates roughly to Only death reveals what a nothing the body of man is.

Commodity Fetishism:

White Painted label, without logo (8 copies)

Second Press 'Rejected Artwork' Sleeve - Front (Less than 20 copies)

Second Press  'Rejected Artwork' Sleeve - Back

Test Press (First Press)
From Craig at Schizophrenic:
they were made with old record sleeves turned inside out and the FU logo was screened on it. There are maybe 5 of these.

Test Press (First Press)
Picture taken from LFG Blog; maybe the blue-text covers were a 'band only' thing?

Test Press (Second Press) - 'What God Means To Me' Package (See pictures below)

From Craig at Schizophrenic:
What god means to me were large cardstock envelopes that were roughly 12x14. They were hand screened and contained the let likes be cured by likes testpress. the package also contained the rejected sleeve and two stickers. What god means to me and a take off from the Fuck ups 7". There were 10 copies made of the test press package.

Screen Printed Envelope - Front

Screen  Printed Envelope - Back

Test Pressing - Came in Rejected Sleeve

Test Pressing - Vinyl - 'A' Side

Test Pressing - Vinyl - 'B' Side

The stickers (Placed loose on stamped dust sleeve for picture)

Fuck Ups 7"

Germs 7" 

From Mixtape 3 Notes: 
We have worked with Craig Caron from Schizophrenic records before. He runs a great label and put out a liver 12" for us that turned out great. When he asked us to be on a cover tribute comp of the "YES LA" LP, I secretly went "groan" because I hate cover comps. Here is a section of the cover that resulted. I hooked my ipod speakers into my guitar pickups and played the actual Germs original, and started running it through various effects and looping pedals. What a disaster. Didn't ever hear back from Craig about the song, and the comp never came out...

Exceptions To the Rule

Pictured below are a few 'odd' ones

Exception 1 - This one arrived with the 'Looking For Gold' insert. Maybe its synchronicity #2 or maybe it just got misfiled

Exception 2 - This 'Inside out' pattern vinyl with black-text sleeve

Exception 3 - 'What God Means To Me' cover, with regular vinyl