NEW MUSIC
Local label records area bands
Malcolm Con
over, a co
owner of
Eugene's Fatal
Erection
Records, has a
great time do
ing what he does: making and
marketing record albums.
“It’s a lot of fun having a
(record) label, because you can
entertain all sorts of ideas and
fantasies,” says Conover.
The aim of Fatal Erection, he
says, has never been to make
money; but neither is it to lose
money. “It’s kind of a full-time
hobby,” Conover says. He also
finds it a good way to maintain
contact with music fans and
record collectors worldwide.
Conover, 29, a Eugene resi
dent. first conceived of the idea
for a record label in 1982, when
he thought of putting out a com
pilation album of Northwest
punk bands. As a widely known
record collector he'd bought
and sold records by little
known bands all over the world,
before deciding to get “a little
more involved.”
He looked around and found
a few bands which, he says,
because of their politics, were
overlooked by the record in
dustry. He decided to start a
record label to help give these
groups better exposure.
Conover met w'ith Tom
Roberts from Portland, who he
describes as "350 pounds of
forceful ness.” Roberts, guitarist
with Poison Idea, had the same
idea, and the two got along so
well they decided to become
partners in the ettort, Conover
says.
After what Conover describes
as “a lot of beer and head scrat
ching" they came up with the
name, Fatal Erection.
"A Ipt of people might think
(the name) is there for some
kind of shock value. like, ‘Who
is the erection fatal for?' People
. carf construe it in a lot of ways,
but the idea is partially to get
people to think. It’s kind of a
colorful name, but in essence,
it's just a play on all the phallic
symbols in nuclear energy;
bombs, silos, nuclear-power
plants. They all seem kind of
phallic looking, so that's what I
read into the whole thing," says
Conover.
But, he adds, anything people
want to make of it is all right.
"People shouldn’t take it as
some kind of sexist crack,
which it isn’t. I'm very sensitive
about that,” he says.
The original idea of Fatal
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Erection was to give exposure to
musicians. “(To) bands that we
had a certain confidence
in... who weren't complete
dicks spouting a bunch of right
wing fascism or left wing
stupidity,” Conover says.
He is now trying to arrange
for a record to be released on the
Eugene/Portland-based label by
a band from Poland, the
Deserters.
He calls the band “too
radical” to have anything
released in their home country.
“I don’t know if it’s going to
Malcolm Conover
'People shouldn't take
it as some kind of sex
ual crack, which it
isn't.'
— Malcolm Conover.
materialize or not,” he says, ad
ding that he may possibly work
with “half a dozen or more of
the more accomplished bands
from Poland that are heavily
censored.”
But, he says, there may be
repercussions for the bands in
Poland, and “I'd be hesitant to
do it, because I wouldn’t want
to cook their goose...I think
they’d be hesitant to do it. too.”
It’s unfortunate, Conover
says, that there are no punk
bands that he knows of from
either the Soviet Union or the
Middle East. “People over there
certainly have a lot to scream
about,” he says.
Fatal Erection's first release,
in March of 1983, was the “Pick
Your King” EP by Poison Idea
from Portland. “Pick Your
King,” features 13 songs in
about 12 and one-half minutes,
and features a record jacket with
a picture of Elvis Presley on one
side and Jesus Christ on the
other.
This release, Conover says,
has “sold phenomenally well”
in the Northwest, as well as
throughout the rest of the
United States and in Europe,
especially in Germany, Holland
and Poland, and in Brazil.
(“They’ve got a big punk scene
down there,” says Conover.)
They make a point, he con
tinues, to ship at least 20-25
percent of the records pressed to
foreign and overseas markets,
especially since Poison Idea has
become so popular in other
countries. This F.P, he says, was
on the top 10 of one Brazilian
fanzine’s charts for about six
months.
I^ast month, E13, one of
Eugene's premier punk bands,
released its first single, “No
Mercy for Swine,” on Fatal
Erection Records.
The E13 single contains eight
songs in just over eight
minutes, and was pressed in a
limited edition with each record
numbered and with a printed
label on side A and a unique, in
dividual hand-sketched label on
side o.
Future releases by the label
include an EP by Final Warning
from Portland, due out “any
day,” and a 12-inch, eight-song
E!P by Poison Idea, “Record Col
lectors are Pretentious
Assholes,” scheduled for
release in December.
The releases on Fatal Erection
have been well received in punk
fanzines all over the world,
especially in "Maximum Rock
and Roll,” an internationally
known and respected publica
tion out of Berkeley, Calif. He
adds that the records are “more
or less sold out” on release, due
to advance sales and orders
locally, across the United States
and overseas.
They wouldn’t really have to
worry, he adds, about foreign
distribution if they didn’t “feel
a need for the records to get into
isolated nooks and crannies
around the universe."
Fatal Erection’s releases are
sold in Eugene at House of
Records and at Earth River
Records. Conover personally
sells them to his friends or to
people who write him at home
(693 East 16th, Eugene, 97401).
“I'll either send (the records) to
you or drop them by your
house," he says.
Marty Schwarzbauer
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