"That was only me and another guitarist and a keyboard player. Together with Mike Watt we played a few shows. Nothing too serious. It was going on over a few years that we played from time to time. Then we extended the line up. The last show was, when Kevin (Shields, My Bloody Valentine) helped me with recording. We took him into the band. And Luisa (J’s girlfriend) played in that band, too, therefore we had six people in the band, but then there was a a rumor, it went was Kevin’s new project, and all these people became crazy and came, in order to see him. That was the last show."

Is he so well-known?

"Yes, certain music nerds wanted to see what happened there."

then the first of the celebrated collaborations with My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields sears out the speakers like a volcano erupting, with "Accelerator". Shields’ touch on this and two other tracks ("MBV Arkestra" and "Shoot Speed/Kill Light") are the undisputed highlights of a great LP, with the bloody hand of Kevin interjecting immense swathes of white noise and distortion into already mountain-levelling tracks. None more apparent than on "Accelerator", with its crackling guitar and seismic drumbeats, the MBV-meister’s mixing is a sonic enema up rock’s backside and is a sinus-clearing blast of energy (mix your metaphors the HeadCleaner way).

In 1991, Porter was quoted in Melody Maker: "As long as it’s demented, as long as it’s saying something, it’s cool to flirt with pop music." When asked if this still holds true: "Pretty much so. I still love the classic pop songs, but what really does it for me is Revolver-era Beatles, a song like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows.’ It’s pop music, but it’s a bit more eccentric.

"Actually, a friend of ours in Northampton has a project called Wank Factor 7 and Rising. They recently played a show, and I sat in with Kevin Shields on guitar (My Bloody Valentine) and J Mascis on drums (Dinosaur Jr.). It was this fun, brilliant thing with everyone building an improvisational wall of sound.

"Certainly that’s what was happening with the Belltower back in the day. So, what we’re doing now is more or less a continuation of that avant-garde style, but with a bit more of a pop sensibility. What Astrojet does is rock, but it’s also a lot of other things as well. It’s experimental, it’s noisy, it’s pop-it’s everything all in a nutshell, really."

wednesday, may 13, 1998 – northampton, ma

from bob lee:

another spending spree: drum equipment (can’t borrow cymbal stands from
jack drag to replace my broken ones anymore), sushi dinner, and cds (big
star live, black sabbath 1and another live hawkwind thing.) been pretty
good about not spending everything I earn on the road, but once in a
while I say "I’ve been good too long!" kind of my approach to dieting.
what can I say, I’m an indulgent motherfucker. wank factor 7 and rising
played the first of three shows with us. j mascis’ involvement is the
big "draw" but it seems the group is more the brainchild of the other
guitarist, kurt. well, an improv band can’t be just one person’s
creation, but just to set the record straight, it’s not exactly "mascis’
new band". kurt, j and keyboardist paul, who used to be in a tangerine
dream cover band. wow! they are trippy, sometimes sounding spacy &
dreamlike, sometimes sounding like three guys checking out effects boxes
at guitar center. maybe I just need to get over the missing rhythm
section. I think I like them. a good one for us too. say farewell to
"team new england", two taper guys named freddy and dave who have
followed us for the last few shows. see you guys, thanks for
everything… and send me those tapes!

from steve reed:

first of three shows with j mascis’ wank factor 7 & rising. wf7&r is a
kind of experimental 2-guitar and synthesizer group, very spacy but very
cool. I really like j, he’s very talented and a nice guy. our set was
very good and powerful. the team was tight! j played the encores with
us, sounded great.

from watt:

we head down the atlantic coast and on the western massachusets where
"pearl street," a club I’ve played many times is. this area has a least
five colleges around it. kim and thurston are raising coco near one
called smith college. byron coley lives around here too as well as j
mascis, who’s in a band we’re playing w/tonight. it’s his friend’s
kurt’s band and they’re called _wank factor seven and rising_. kurt
plays sits and plays guitar jams while a cat named john plays _tangerine
dream_ and _hawkwind_ type keyboards – playing lead guitar around this
the whole time is j. it’s a trip. there’s vocals in only one tune, I’m
told. however, I go to the van to nap and the club has the wank come on
early and I miss the whole thing! damn. it was really hot too in the van
and I had strange, scary dreams. somewhere along the persecution angle
w/lots of fear and trepidation. it’s humid too so the desire for gills
works into it too. damn. I get rousted by steve reed and get into the
pad. we go on and play our hearts out. it’s trippy to play the piece for
j but in a way I’m really into laying it out for him. we get called for
encores and have him play a few w/us. he really likes "drove up from
pedro." he says it’s like a _television_ (an early punk band from the
70s) song. it’s great playing it w/him. he tells me he digs joe baiza’s
playing. that’s great to hear, especially from a guy like j, who I have
a lot of respect for.

after the gig we head for the ho in south deerfield, some town a little
north of here the got started in the 1600s. damn, the shit’s a lot older
here in the east compared to pedro.

thursday, may 14, 1998 – boston, ma

from bob lee:

too bad you can’t take the park and ride to your gigs here, driving in
this town is a nightmare! but we arrive, in time for me to spend more
money at the record shop (found vinyl copies of john entwistle’s
"whistle rhymes," his best solo effort, and the new alliance comps
"chunks" and "cracks in the sidewalk", mike is quick to point out they
are reissues but I dont care. also another live hawkwind thing and a
live suicide thing. now if I can just find their reissued 1st album,
damn!) wf7 wait until the conclusion of the disappointing final seinfeld
to begin their set, which is better tonight. sparse but enthusiastic
crowd for our set, which goes quite well. a lovely woman named sara is
so impressed she blurts out "I love you, I think!" as she comes up to
shake hands afterwards.

from steve reed:

j’s wank factor 7 was very enjoyable. he’s so relaxed when playing
guitar, it’s very moving. he’s a natural. our set smoked! mike said his
monitors were the best so far. great crew and club, I love the paradise.
I missed working with roger, the old house sound man of eleven years.
they said he was pretty tough, but he was always nice to us. wow, it’s a
mindblow! roger is gone after eleven years and terry pearson has left
sonic youth after thirteen years! who will surprise me next?

from watt:

we drive almost across the entire state of massachusettes – it takes
about three hours. we take the mass pike, which we like to call the
_richie blackmoore road_ cuz the highway’s logo, a pilgrim hat, is what
blackmoore used to wear at gigs w/the purp when I saw them in the 70s.
he looked fuckin stupid but then hey, so do I, just in a different way.
steve reed takes like twenty or thirty shots of the fucking pilgrim hat
sign all over the freeway. we get to boston and they got like only three
exits for all the city of boston and of course, we take the that’s just
one two far and gotta backtrack through bean town. more than fifteen
years of playing this burg, sometimes twice a year and I still get
screwed up on these curlicue streets, damn. one day I’ll get it fucking
straight. no big space-out though and we get to the pad, it’s called
"the paradise" and I’ve played here many, many times before. the boss is
tim and he’s a very down dude and I dig him much. always glad to see
watt and he helps out big time.

tonight’s a tripper of gig for j cuz it’s the last show of _seinfeld_
and he watches that shit. I gotta confess I ain’t seen one show and I
don’t care how it ends. j says he can’t go on ’till it’s over and that’s
ok w/me – longer nap on the deck in the back of the van for watt. it’s
kind of warm and the shvitz effect in the van gives me really weird
dreams. I wake up soaked and get to the dressing room just as that show
j wants to see is over. j said it was lame. now they can go on. I think
the band is really good, the wank factor seven is surely rising! the
motif of the club has changed from neon palm trees to ancient pharaoh’s
tomb and I like it much better. really fits the sound j and company is
putting out. I’m very inspired. the crowd is kind of small for this room
but there’s not one skeptic out there so I’m shoving my all out. it’s a
wild opera for watt tonight! best monitors of the tour, even better than
danbury and the sound out front at the paradise is always great – a
really happening system there. we really have a good show and the crowd
has us back and back and we play everything the black gang knows. j is
all ready on his way back to west mass by the time we finish so I’ll see
him in nyc tomorrow. like all my gigs, I sell shirts from the stage
after the show, let cats sign my hoot line and rap w/the folks. I really
feel good about this gig tonight.

we go to a mo-six way out on the belt near rhode island and I konk,
thoroughly drained by the gig. thank god for naps or my shit would be
surely short.

friday, may 15, 1998 – new york city, ny

from bob lee:

the big banana! I have been looking forward to this one. mike’s
longtime friend jim dunbar takes us over to his house for a bbq on the
roof. however, I have eaten very little all day and the food prep is
taking a while, after taking just one bong hit and drinking just one
beer I turn green and nearly pass out. in fact, I fall on jim’s bed,
bounce off and hit the floor. must’ve been low blood sugar because after
I eat a little piece of bread I recover within a couple minutes.
combination of drinking on an empty stomach, sitting around for an hour
smelling food, and smoking something unexpectedly heavy. (I know, I said
earlier I would never do this before a gig, well it was 7 pm, 5 hours
before set time so I figured I’d be okay). don fleming told me I was the
color of yucateca hot sauce when this took place and he thought they’d
be calling the paramedics on me. in fact, this same thing happened a few
times when I first started smoking pot around age 17, but not in many
years. maybe being on the east coast has something to do with it? (I
grew up in jersey.) if so, get me back to cali because that sucked! I
like the wetlands club, but j mascis is so bothered by the "evil vibe"
of the place that he bails immediately after wf7 play their best show
yet. second band tonight is electric popsicle, what they call a "groove
band" (the guitarist openly admitted it, they try to sound like the
dead, refreshing honesty!) pretty good. I am bummed that two old pals
who said they were coming don’t make it (I find out later that one
bailed because she had an allergic reaction to her hair bleach and her
face swelled up from chemical burns. ouch! hope you are feeling better,
jen.) but still the show is a good one in spite of some overactive farts
from one of our crew (I’ll let him tell the story if he chooses to do
so.)

from steve reed:

so much damn traffic, confusion and hot weather! new york we are here!
hoping for a great show. may landlords, ealanor and julian gonzales came
to the show, moved here to new york. the show was good, sound good,
great audience. elizabeth who is a friend of mike’s was very moved by my
european journal. she felt everything I was going through with my
problems back home and my dogs and my girlfriend katherine. she feels
that kat is a great person and is very lucky to have a man like me.
thank you liz, that’s a very nice compliment.

from watt:

I wake up early and take big walks around where this ho is. it’s kind
of rural so I’m walking w/the trees and the birds, just thinking and
thinking – we’re about half way through the tour now. when the team is
rousted, we head towards the big city down I-95 through providence, new
london, new haven but at milford (in connecticut) I cut over to the
merrit parkway cuz they got real low bridges and overpasses so the
trucks can’t use them. real nice going through those woods too. the west
part of connecticut is kind of like rich burbs for nyc so they probably
had this way built for them to commute there. from the merrit we go to
the hutchinson parkway, then the cross country parkway, then the saw
mill parkway and finally the henry hudson parkway that cuts out all that
shit plug traffic of the interstates and puts on the west side of
manhattan. joe baiza however needs new tubes so we gotta go to manny’s
on 48th street and 7th avenue. that ain’t so tough. but getting down to
tonight’s pad which is called "wetlands" and is right by the holland
tunnel (just south of canal) is one bum fuck on a friday. damn. it must
take us an hour and half! after all that smooth flow too. on the way
down there I ask some cat on the street for a work-around this fucked up
one-way situation in greenwich village and who does it turn out to be?
anthony, the old manager for the _bad brains_, damn. that’s nyc for you.

we finally get there and this place is a trip. very hippy in it’s
outfitting, even w/a vw microbus sitting right in the club. a big hippy
mural is painted on the wall, the place is a hoot. nice folks working
there though and I’m glad to be there. it’s only a few blocks from
jimbo’s, where I always stay when I’m in this town. he’s an old friend I
love dearly. the opening band (along w/our last gig w/wank factor seven)
is a side project of some guys from a band called _moe_, who they
describe as a "dead band." they seem cool and we let them use our
equipment. they call this project _popsicle_ or something like that and
it’s most dedicated to the jam. we hear them do a zappa tune for the
soundcheck. man, this scene for "dead bands" is huge w/lots of folks
today, w/phish heading the pack. this world’s filled w/parallel
universes, that’s for sure.

jimbo has us come over to his pad and we go up to the roof for a que.
he ques up these big old steaks, some cut he really digs from his
favorite butcher and along w/string beans and baked potatoes, we chow
big time. maybe too big as later I will find out. I head back to the gig
cuz the second round of shirts have just been sent by bill and barbara
at tannis root from raleigh. I gotta take them out of the boxes and put
them in bags so they fit in the van better. elizabeth is there and it’s
great to see her. she helps me unbox and bag the shirts and we get it
done pronto. she’s incredible. I tell her I gotta nap or I’ll play
shitty (hah!) so it’s into the back of the van for me. it’s kind of a
sweaty night so my nap is filled w/all kind of bosch-like dreams. I just
remember swirling in all those details and then waking up in a massive
sweat. damn. I’ve missed both wank factor seven and popsicle. j comes
out to the van and tells me he’s got a band vibe from the scene and has
got to bolt. I tell him not to worry, follow your instinct. we talk a
little about the opera and he says he digs it. this means a lot to me.
both murph and george, two cats who’ve drummed for j are there too and
it’s good to see them. j calls it "drum talk." we all laugh.

…
Anyway, what makes the Bay State so interesting is that it has been, and remains the hub for the local Northampton music scene. There is always music at the Bay State; you can see live acts five nights a week. Weekends are hosted by Lord Russ, an extremely colorful character, and leader of one of the best new bands I’ve heard in a long time, The Aloha Steamtrain, and Mondays are hosted by the infamous Mal Thursday. What made tonight so odd was the fact that one of the bands playing was this local conglomeration of members of other local bands… this strange act, "Wank Factor 7 and Rising," which was very accurately named. One of the members of this band (which is what I have been getting to), playing on drums, is none other than J Mascis, most probably known for his Dinosaur Jr. fame. The rest of the band was made up of people who are veterans of the local scene, from bands like "Architectural Metaphor" (yes I know, it’s a goofy name, but so is the band… they play a lot of 70’s space rock that seems like a blend between early Pink Floyd and mid-era King Crimson). When one gets down to it, Wank Factor 7 was what the average listener would consider pretty awful, but if you were ready for a massive attack of synthesizer generated noise and Robert Fripp-like guitar noodling, the night was a semi-pure, semi-muddy heaven (which I must confess I truly enjoyed… I couldnt stop laughing). Also playing this night was a local favorite, Zeke Fiddler, an extremely nice fellow with a real talent for poignant songwriting.
…

monday, october 12, 1998 – northampton, ma

from bob lee:

the iron horse tavern is a bit uptight, more of a supper club suited to
the likes of richard thompson or strunz and farah than a bunch of dirty
punks like us. unlike everywhere else on the tour, we get no liquor and
I am nearly unable to add j mascis to our guest list because we are
limited to ten guests. annoying, but nothing like the geraldine fibbers’
gig here last year, whch I bet nels elucidates on in his section of this
document. in spite of this the show is pretty good, really good set from
scrawl, nice to see byron coley again, as well as mr. mascis. we go
check out j’s new band wank factor 7 & rising at the bayshore bar &
grill around the corner. unlike the trio gigs they did with us earlier
this year, the new lineup boasts a singer and second keyboardist, and
j’s playing drums. they remind me of la’s carnage asada, fluctuating
between song form and freakout. we stay at j’s country home, a gorgeous
place out in the woods, and his dog bob uses all of us for space heaters
at various points in the night.

from steve reed:

j’s town. great sounding show for both scrawl and the gang. after show
saw j perfoming in wank factor seven. he was playing drums. very good
drummer. stayed at j’s that night out in the woods. very beautiful, in
his house – we weren’t camping out in his yard.

from watt:

ok, unlike last tour where we thought we could shave off some miles by
going straight through the nyc area, this time we’ll do what we’ve
always done when we wanted to get to new england from phily, we head for
the motherfucking tappan zee bridge north of yonkers to cross the mighty
hudson. we do good, hitting no plugs and making northampton in five and
a half hours. beats the hell out the over eight we did last tour after
my asshole brainstorm. sometimes it’s good to stick w/what you know.
sometimes.

we’re playing a pad called "the iron horse" which is somewhere I’ve
never done before. played this town many, many times but never here. kimand thurst now live around here, they want to raise coco out here. byron coley lives out here too, I hope he can come. of course j’s from here and he shows up at soundcheck to tell us he’s playing w/his bud curt’s _wank factor seven_. they’re gonna play after us so he’ll come see usand then we’ll go see him. it’s so good to see him, I really dig him.
he’s got a great spirit and he cracks me up. murph (his old drummer)
comes by too. all right, lots of old friends.

Would be great if a recording of Wank Factor 7 & rising would show up somewhere