Boredoms-Michidai b/w Fuanteidai (1990)

 

Artist: Boredoms

Title: Michidai b/w Fuanteidai 

Label: Public Bath 

Format: 7"

Cat #: PB 3

Year of Release: 1990

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1990 Hand Number 135

Sold Price: $19.99

Listed Condition: NM/NM

Sell Date: 8/29/20

Discogs Last Sold: 7/8/20 VG+/VG $14.99

Low: $6.49

Median: $18.99

High: $41.38

Current low price: $17.50

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 13

Have/Want: 166/224

Where Sold: Nyack, NY

Time it took to sell: 5 years

Where and When Bought: In Your Ear Allston, MA New 1990 around 4 or 5 bucks

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go?: No

A classic piece of noise from the Boredoms before they got all jam-bandy.  Public Bath introduced the Japanese noise scene of the early 90's via their great Japan Bashing 7" compilation series.  There was never any indication when I bought this release that the Boredoms would be fit for major label status.  I seem to recollect seeing them (Middle East Cambridge?) before Shimmy Disc issued the Soul Discharge album, and being very disappointed that the one "catchy" song that I wanted to hear I could neither find or identify.  Listening to this reminds me I have to spend some time listening to early Boredoms shows to answer this decades long question that could never be resolved in fact.

The Reverse Collector had a bit of a slow sales week only moving FIVE titles.  Many weeks I have more titles than I can write about, so I cherry pick from the cherry picked.  The jpeg of this cover sat on my desktop for a month as fresher orders piled up.  "What are you writing about this today?" one may ask the Reverse Collector, with recently sold titles still pending commentary.  Well, last Friday at band practice, fellow ABOG guitarist Vanya was commenting about the Bench review from last week, saying in that time period he was really getting into Japanese noise, but he ignored American noise rock, preferring the more NYC 70's influence of bands like Green River.  Vanya always hated Sonic Youth, bailed on Black Flag after Damaged and was a teenage Dead Boys and Stooges fanatic in his 70's NYC youth, to give a little background, so we are a couple 4-year punk generations apart.  The intersection of our conversation was the Public Bath label and the jpeg of this Boredoms single shone ever more brightly.

As for these two tracks, they are two cassette crud-fi gems.  Playing the A-side "Michidai" on the radio was always an act of concern with the long bits of silence between stop starts causing the "is it over?" anxiety that every radio DJ has cueing up the next record.  Yet, I played it regularly.  I was recently  having a conversation with my friend Nickie that I would describe my world view as 90% nihilist, 10% sadist with no masochism.  My enjoyment of this record perhaps would reconstitute this just a bit.

Humorous to note that Michidai translates to Dodai in the English language.  "What the fuck is that?" asked the Reverse Collector.  Well Dodai means Beloved.  David also means beloved in Hebrew, so I could say that Michidai is my Japanese name, if I was solely to rely on the interwebs for definitions for words that I never hear or use.  The B-side "Fuanteidai" translates to Anxiety, if you were so wondering.

Trying to track down the Boston club show before Soul Discharge, I was reminded that the Boredoms opened at Roseland for Sonic Youth and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Roseland the month I moved to NYC in October, 1992.  I'm certain I was there, although the memory of that specific show is very foggy in my brain.  I feel like I may have even missed JSBX for work reasons and an early start time/mini-set at Roseland, but I can't say this 100%, which would be weird because this year was the peak of my JSBX fanaticism between their twin tower releases of Extra Width and Orange.    I have sharper show memories of all three bands, but that is for another post when one of those bands sell.

As for the pricing, as most of my titles have been up for years and have fallen towards the median, this went for $19.99 compared to a similarly graded copy a couple years ago that went for $41.38 for a HIGHER HAND WRITTEN NUMBER COPY!  Ah, the stock market of used records.  

The agony! The ecstasy!

Oh!