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The dapper Punk Business Manager (left) and his Personal Assistant
Being a Punk Business Manager is a lot of work as you could imagine! In between all of the business strategy meetings, power lunches and cocktail receptions I somehow find time to listen to the good ol' punk rock and post some music here. As you can see from my picture above, I try to keep up with the latest fashions so shopping for the latest threads also takes up A LOT of time-- gotta look good on the job, especially when you're about to lay off/downsize people every Friday. But having my trusty Personal Assistant really helps- he drives me to work every day in my plush Jaguar so I can listen to some p-rock and post to the blog. Enjoy!
The music posted on this site is for educational purposes only. If you were in one of the old bands fanboy'd here and want your music removed, let me know and I will do so.
Cleavers
This cover of course has Buddy Rose front and center- one of the women flanking him is apparently a band member's wife. I found this out from that Whiskey Rebel guy from Portland’s Rancid Vat- he talks about the Cleavers and Buddy Rose a bit on his site so go there for more.
PUNK N' ROLL SERIES, VOLUME 2
Here is the controversial Cleavers 7" with its infamous "right wing" punk song on the B-side (or "conservative punk" or "reactionary" punk or whatever you want to call it). Musically, "Commie Symp" (short for "sympathizer", duh) is GREAT angry punk n' roll with a nice, tough driving melody and some sharp, jagged guitar jabs. Lyrically, it's pretty reactionary. But, 30 years removed, the lyrics are very laughable to me- "love it or leave it", they tell the commie symp about the United States. And then, right at the end, "Get Out- Now!". It's a simplistic, one-sided argument that yer typical blindly patriotic, flag-waving (and punk-hating) Americans have used over and over again throughout the years against lefties. These types of Americans shake their finger at you and scream: "If you don’t like the way this country is, then get outta here 'cuz we ain't changin for you". Um, OK. I wonder if the Cleavers are embarrassed about the lyrics all these years later.
And what exactly got the Cleavers all riled up? Could it have been wanna-be Communists The Dils? I posit this because I have an old cassette from my tape trading days on which The Dils play a live set on May 12, 1979 at the famous venue The Long Goodbye in Portland. Perhaps some of the Cleavers were there; heard The Dils singing some Commie-tinged song like "Red Rockers" or "Class War"; saw them wearing one of their hammer and sickle T-shirts and then got so mad that they wrote and recorded "Commie Symp". I think the Cleavers 7" came out in the early part of 1980 which wouldn't have been too long after that Dils show in mid-1979. It's early in the morning and I didn’t sleep much last night as I type this so I'm probably out in left field with this one...
Now if I was in Portland in 1980 when the Cleavers single came out, then I'm sure I would've be baffled by the lyrics, like "What the fuck is up with these guys?". But, like I said earlier, it's been 30 years since it came out so it comes across as pretty comedic this far removed ‘cuz they're so serious about their stance, like "We mean it, MAN!!". The bafflement in 1980 was probably pretty interesting- I mean, Portland is like lefty heaven so I picture other local punk bands shunning the Cleavers for taking such a conservative stand. I'm sure Greg Sage wasn't amused either- the earlier Cleavers song "Bug" was on the 10-29-79 live comp LP on Mr. Sage’s Trap Records label. But with such a conservative stand, I'm sure Greg would have refused to release this Cleavers 7" on his label. Kind of like the remarkable Ice 9 EP- the legend goes that Mr. Sage would not release their record since they had a song in their live repertoire called "Nazi" (see KBD 14 from 1998 for that vintage unreleased track). The song was definitely not pro-Nazi, so who was the reactionary I guess is the question begged. Thankfully, Ice 9 released their EP on another label and the rest is history.
Anyway, back to the Cleavers- the A-side is another GREAT, tough guy punk n' roll ditty, this time an homage to the local Portland wrestler Playboy Buddy Rose (nee Paul Perschmann, who actually died in April of 2009). "The Playboy" also has some fun, amusing lyrics- dig the references to Andre The Giant and Roddy Piper, back when he wrestled in the Pacific Northwest, pre-Pipers Pit, pre-WWF fame. The growling by the singer plays nicely against some nice, chunky driving guitar. I think the song especially gels when he says "He's the cripplerrrr- Playboy Buddy Rose!" and the punk n’ roll guitar kicks right in after that. Both "The Playboy" and "Commie Symp" have great, sharp guitar solos too. Um, one may argue that it should be no surprise that the Cleavers had a song like "Commie Symp" on the B-side since the A-side was wrestling worship for fucks sake.
The Playboy
Commie Symp
ENDNOTES
Another baffling thing about the Cleavers to me is how much interview time they got on 2006's great Northwest Passage documentary about the early Portland scene. The one old member (the singer?) was nearly waxing poetic about how the Cleavers were a groundbreaking, legendary band. Huh?! I mean, the single is good and their song on the 10-29-79 comp was cool but I'd consider them more of a minor Portland band and nowhere NEAR the stature (or output) of the almighty early Wipers or The Rats or friggin' Poison Idea if you want to go into the hardcore years. That aside, Northwest Passage is a really great doc that you should check out. It was produced and directed by Mike Lastra of the noisy "experimental" band Smegma- read about their history here. The movie has TONS of vintage footage, like The Bags visiting Portland and doing a mean version of the already-mean "Survive", early Dead Kennedys footage, or unreleased video footage from concerts from which the 10-29-79 comp LP was derived. VERY cool to me is seeing the Rubbers with Bob Glassley, before he played bass for the almighty Cheifs, doing the original version of "Riot Squad". The Cheifs re-recorded this song in their trademark intense fashion two years later for 1981's great Who Cares comp LP. Among others, that comp also featured a band called Political Crap which featured skate punk legend Duane Peters on vocals who was at the height of his Santa Cruz-era skate punk powers. And before he was in like 100 other bands.
I was a huge wrestling fan as a kid in the early 80's (mainly Georgia Wrestling 'cuz that's what came on Channel 61 in Cleveland on Saturday mornings). Before there was the slick Vince McMahon Jr. WWF takeover of wrestling in 1984, each part of the country had its own wrestling circuit (Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, etc.). The national wrestling mags back then (Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler, Inside Wrestling, etc.) were printed on lovely newsprint and used to have ratings for each region, and I remember Buddy Rose 'cuz he used to be in the Pacific Northwest ratings. Just some trivia that I decided to cut and paste from the main part of this posting to the end here...
Recipients Update
Neo Punkz
TEEN PUNK SERIES, VOLUME 2
Here is more teen punk, but this time we have the polar opposite of the quirky teen punk of a band like the Happy Cadavers. The young lads in Neo Punkz spewed out quite a snotty, raw, pissed-off racket that makes it legendary. Also adding to the legend is how darn rare this record is- apparently, it's on the most elusive and hard-to-find Dutch punk records (and, following that, one of the most expensive- got $800 to spare for a non-Mint copy?). And it being so sought-after says a lot 'cuz, as we all know, there are LOTS of great, painfully rare Dutch punk discs that people seek out. Holland's KBD era is perhaps the most comped along with our beloved late 70's Swedish scene, come to think of it.
I (and most other people?) first heard of Neo Punkz when "If I Watch The TV" was included on 1992's wonderful Killed By Death #5. The mix of snotty vocals, sloppy playing and razor-sharp tinnitus guitar breaks on that tune was full of urgency, and I was hooked. I finally heard the entire EP a few years later and was pleased to find that they were not a one-hit wonder- EVERY song was in the same great vein and all songs had the very thin, garage-y production which I think adds a certain charm. I would have to say that the leadoff, "Fascist Fuckers", sets the bad vibe of the whole EP and is my favorite tune with its evil rumble and screaming vocals. That evil undercurrent runs through the entire EP, actually- the next track, "Green Devil", is a real corker too- the boing-ing guitar noise on it is to die for. Then of course we have "If I Watch The TV". The whole EP is kind of a mid-tempo affair to begin with, but the pace slows down to a grind of sorts (and we have a different singer) on the next song, "Got To Go For A Piss", which is one of the best sloppy piss takes I've ever heard. I'd have to say that the shouting on the last track, "Kanker", gets to be a bit rote and annoying to me (and sounds like a piss take!)- it's my least favorite song on the record, but is still passable.
The band was from Haarlem, which is the capital of "North Holland", and which sits in the Eastern part of the country, not too far from the North Sea. Perhaps being from a sea side town made the boys in Neo Punkz so pissed off and "salty" (har har). This was their only record- in the next year, the band morphed into Suspense who released the OK Murder With The Axe EP in 1981- also on the Neo label- that has been comped several times too. Haarlem was also the home of Squits, who released one EP in 1982 (and which also got the comp treatment on 1996's great Punk Rock From Holland LP). Jesus, what band from Holland has NOT been on a comp?!
Apparently, there was a Neo Punkz CD that came out in 2000 that I'd love to hear- anyone have it (or have more info on it)? Unreleased live stuff? Demos? Same snottiness level as this EP? I hope so...
Fascist Fuckers
Green Devil
If I Watch The TV
Got To Go For A Piss
Kanker
Happy Cadavers
[I'm back again! Most people have probably given up on this blog since I keep following my pattern lately of "Post/disappear for two months/post again". Family life and particularly work life have been too busy lately. The blog is always in the back of my mind, of course, and I have a BIG queue of planned postings. I guess I could just throw up some music files and no text and have a continuous stream of postings but that's not my style. This blog is a personal labor of love that brings me personal satisfaction, so I do it when I can and how I like.]
Here is a quirky, fun teen punk record- nothing serious here and the lyrics are totally teenage. Nothing over the top, and no raging in-your-face snotty teen rawness- for that type of teen punk, see something like the Neo Punkz EP. I had never heard of this Happy Cadavers disc until Johan Kugelberg included it as #74 in his great list of the Top 100 DIY Records that ran across issues 19 and 20 of the almighty Ugly Things zine back in 2001 and 2002.
Here is what he had to say about it:
"Punk/wave slop from the Midwest? Kind of aims for the Stranglers but hits Small Wonder Records. Charming stuff. Give me a fake English accent any day."
Oh, that Mr. Kugelberg! The band members included two dudes with the last name Dzenitis- John on (and I quote the back of the picture sleeve) "Bass, Synthesized Percussion" (what a "music industry" term for a drum machine- LOL!) and Paul on drums and "Small Furry Animals". But the most notable member of the band was then 13 year old David Grubbs on guitar, who went on to 1980's college rock darlings Squirrel Bait among others. In reading some interviews with him, it sounds like he is totally embarrassed by the Happy Cadavers record and wishes it pretty much didn't exist- he calls it "a terrible record" and "Teenage new wave…It’s pretty awful".
But I guess now that he's a "serious" musician he can no longer appreciate how much FUN this record is. There are no deep statements on it, nothing earth shattering- it's just a bunch of teenagers having a good time, and this Happy Cadavers EP brings a smile to my face. Stylistically, they are all over the map (just like a teenager, eh)- the first track (my favorite), "Nothing New", is the punkest one; the second track is poppier and probably the ONLY song in punkdom with lyrics about meeting your girl in the meat section at Kroger's- this song is musically my least favorite on the EP, but lyrically the most amusing! The third track is the shortest and their stab at hardcore- I'd place this track in that realm of "Fake HC" (now that'd be an interesting post!); and the last track is a slower, bass driven track that is totally hummable and has some dreamy keyboard noodling. There is an awesome guitar growl on "Nothing New" that is interspersed with some subtle keyboards... until, out of nowhere, there is this keyboard solo near the end of the tune. How quirky is that?! Totally off-kilter and hilarious.
Equally as hilarious are the lyrics- check out my favorite line from Nothing New's chorus:
"Did you read the papers today? Did you see the news? History is being made; oh, what’s the use?"
Or, my other favorite line:
"Things are everywhere- what should I avoid? Don't ask me, you idiot; I ain't no Freud"
Great stuff. If a teenager didn't write lyrics like that, then I don't know who did! And if you write lyrics like that past your teen years, shame on you! Also adding to the charm of the vocals is the singer's dead serious, flat, spoken delivery that sounds like he's reading the lyrics instead of trying to sing them.
The minimalist layout on the sleeve has an amusing, homemade drawing of cadaver feet sticking out of a sheet, even with the foot tag drawn- funny! I love crude, homemade artwork like this.
Henry Yu, the former collector scum scribe at MRR post-Ryan Richardson, had an amusing blog called Cardboard Compulsion where he shows old record mailers he kept from years ago. One of his postings is about the Happy Cadavers EP where he states that guitarist David Grubbs and the band was comprised of "fellow preppies" from one of the day schools in Louisville. Hey, nothing like upper middle class suburban angst, eh!
Nothing New
I Saw My Baby In The Meat Section
Images
Rigourous Mortis
P.S. If you have a vinyl copy you want to give away, let me know!
The Ones
PUNK N' ROLL SERIES, VOLUME 1
Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about The Ones. What I DO know is that "Tightrope" is one of my favorite punk n' roll songs of all time. It's a very tense number, which is always a good thing with me. And the underlying tension does not slowly build up throughout the song but rather lasts from the first guitar strum right down to its abrupt ending. Very nice! The singer sounds all stressed out and the guitar noodling is great, especially during the breaks when it has this sort of "ping ponging" effect goin on. Great guitar solo too. Actually, the whole band- including the drummer and bass player- are a pretty tight unit on this 7" and just fucking nailed it on "Tightrope".
The first time I- and probably many others- first heard "Tightrope" is when it was a standout track on 2005’s mostly-good Staring Down The Barrel comp LP (new copies of which are still pretty widely available). According to the brief liner notes, The Ones won a Battle of The Bands competition in Wisconsin (the Milwaukee area, I assume) and the "prize" was having this sleeveless 7" released. I assume this info came from old fanzine/newspaper mention somewhere (where?!). If the band played "Tightrope" during the competition then I can clearly understand how they won. If you know anything else about this competition- or ANYTHING about The Ones- leave a comment. Because, like The Mel, The Ones also suffer from having an "un-Googleable" band name. Type "Ones Short Dress Tight Rope" into Google and you'll also see that a bunch of horseshit pops into the search results.
I have pieced together a scant amount of information that I stumbled upon about the label who put out this 7", Blue Ribbon. It was run by a guy named Jon Hall who, in the late 60's and early 70's, ran another small, local label out of nearby Thiensville, WI called Teen Town (how 60's sounding is that?!). So perhaps Mr. Hall organized the Battle of The Bands that The Ones were victorious at, maybe as a way to help promote his Blue Ribbon label (?). I just love the name "Blue Ribbon" because it draws up images of Milwaukee-based Pabst Blue Ribbon beer which has been the preferred beer of underage teenagers and budget-minded adults for generations. You also have to love the label logo; for me, it conjures up images of a Wisconsin State Fair and someone named Mrs. Wisniewski proudly displaying the blue ribbon she won for her homemade apple pie during the big bake off competition. By the way, if you have never visited a Midwestern state fair in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin or another nearby state fucking do it and you'll have a good, non-ironic time if you allow yourself to.
Oh yeah, back to the music- "Tightrope" is the best track on this two-sider and follows the KBD rule of "Best song resides on the B side". The A-side, "Short Dress" does not grab me the same way but it's a decent punk n' roll track, perhaps leaning more towards the "rock" side of things a bit too much for me. It took me a few listens to get into it- I guess I wanted it to sound exactly like "Tightrope" but it's NOT a horrible flipside totally detached and musically unrelated to the other song.**
Thanks to blog commenter John for the straight-from-original-vinyl rips of this 7"!
Short Dress.mp3
Tightrope.mp3
ENDNOTE #1
Punk n' roll is a genre I greatly enjoy when done the RIGHT way, meaning that it seamlessly mixes punk and rock and rides the "tightrope", if you will, between the two genres. Because if punk n' roll leans too much on the rock side of things then it loses some of its flavor. There's a fair amount of great, memorable punk n' roll tunes scattered through American punk for me. Probably the best example is the Nervous Eaters' Just Head 7". Boston also churned out The Tracks Breaks On You 7" which is quite a whomper for 1977 American punk. See also stuff like Scraps' "Strike Three" for good punk n' roll, that time mixed with a little pop (gasp!).
ENDNOTE #2
** For the "horrible flipside" phenomena, there are too many examples sadly enough. See Cowboys' Supermarket (bad reggae-ish flipside to their great teen anthem "Teenage Life"); Sick and Lame's "I Laugh At Dead Dogs" (fall-flat-on-your-face flip to the snotty classic "Ate Days A Week"); Jonstrom's Inte vanda mig om (atrocious hippie crap flip to the stomper "P3"); and many others. I didn't mention the flipside of Freestone's Bummer Bitch 7" because "Bummer Bitch" was a fake punk song to begin with- perhaps the best one ever- and fake punk is another thing altogether to discuss; just not at this time.
Crucified
*THIS RECORD IS BEING POSTED AT THE REQUEST OF BRIAN C, WHO FIRST POSTED A COMMENT ON KBD RECORDS A FEW WEEKS AGO THAT PUT A FIRE UNDER ME TO GET THIS DISC UP. AND- JUST A FEW NIGHTS AGO- BRIAN POSTED A COMMENT ON THIS HERE BLOG AGAIN ASKING FOR IT. SO, WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY (MY MIDDLE NAME LATELY) HERE IT IS...
Brian, I hope you enjoy checking this one off your want list. 'Cuz, for my tastes, there is only one song I really like on it and that is the last track, "Let The Kids Play", which is such a damn MONSTER of a song. I- and probably most others- first heard it when it was comped on Killed By Death 8.5 (that, if you care, I bought at the great, defunct Dummyroom record store here in Chicago when said comp came out in June of '95. Sigh, those were the days; miss that place).
Crucified got it so damn right on "Let The Kids Play"- I get chills up the spine when the bass intro innocently leads into the wall of noise that hits you like a freight train a few seconds later. Damn! Nicky Michaels' guitar playing is both in-the-red, tinnitus inducing as well as that thick "gunka-gunka" style during other parts. There's also great bass playing courtesy of someone named Dave Bahlken; good packing and breaks; and- to top it all off- all that damn guitar noise noodling at the end for like the last 60 seconds- yowlza! "Let The Kids Play" sounds so damn tough and American- I say that because I think that tough guy punk like this is a distinctly American thing in the late 70's- no other countries churned out stuff that sounded quite like this. If you have specific examples that I may be forgetting, let me know.
The other three songs on this 4-song EP are too rock for my tastes, meander along too much and sound too restrained. You can hear some slight hints of nice guitar noise simmering way under the surface on a track like "Problem Child" but for me it doesn't all come together until the last track. The back of the sleeve says that the EP was recorded in 9 hours so perhaps "Let The Kids Play" was the last thing they recorded that day and the other three tracks were a "warm up" for jelling together, letting loose and go all over-the-top on the last take of the day (?). But, then again, this Crucified EP came out in 1977 (perhaps even as early as July of '77) and, in that year, American punk rock tended to be heavier on the "rock" side of things and didn't come into its own and shed those rock influences and lean heavier on the "punk" side until 1978 according to my field study that I have performed over the years. So Crucified's heavy rock influence is kind of understandable since U.S. punk was still in its infancy that year.
The sleeve is one of my favorites of all time- the band logo is written all punked-out, and the band looks like a bunch of bad asses, 'specially the dude on the right. The blood-stained effect on the back of the sleeve only adds to the tough guy vibe. Plus, just the band name alone sounds so damn punk. In staring at the sleeve one day, I came to me to call Crucified "The Three B's" (from left to right): The Bachelor (with that 70's tuxedo with the flared-out bow tie, it looks like he was just a groomsman in a wedding); hmmm, I’m not sure what to call the second guy (although Brian C informs me it's the drummer, Steve Virgilio); The Barbarino (as in Vinnie Barbarino from Welcome Back Kotter)- the white wifebeater tank top tucked into jeans was a hot look that year; and, lastly, The Biker. Um, by 2010 standards he could be mistaken for a leather daddy but I'm sure that was NOT the case 'cuz that was something you didn't want to really openly flaunt in 1977.
Any more info on the band would be appreciated! Or spare copies of this record! Cuz I don't have a vinyl copy yet; I have relied on a tape P.R. made for me of this whole EP back in ’99. From checking good old Popsike, the price for this thing kind of ping pongs all over the place, from $23 to around $140 on eBay. LOL! Fucking eBay. I am a bit upset because one record store I used to frequent- and which I uncovered some great rarities at over the years- sold a copy for pretty cheap a few months back. Oh well.
The band was from here in Chicago so it's inevitable that I'll turn up a copy one of these days, probably when I least expect it, 'cuz there’s got to be some copies still floating around in dollar bins around town. [And I keep telling myself that sleeved copies of the DV8 single are also, but that's another story and- who knows- I might be delusional on both fronts- LOL!] Anyway, the PO Box for their label Power Records that's on the back of the sleeve lists the Chicago zip code 60641. This is near the Portage Park neighborhood- in digging a little deeper, I found out that the actual U.S. Post Office for the 60641 zip code is at 3319 North Cicero so perhaps that's the exact location where they checked their mail (?). Portage Park is on the Northwest side of the city and pretty far West inside the city limits. Thankfully, it's a pretty normal area and NOT one of those "trendy" Chicago neighborhoods where all the hipsters ride around slowly in skin tight jeans on their fixed gear bikes while they pass by yuppies eating at pretentious, high-priced, single-syllable name restaurants who pull out their iPhones every five seconds during dinner.
Problem Child.mp3
Heaven Seventeen.mp3
Let The Kids Play.mp3
Spies (TX)
In case you couldn't guess I do not have any scans or .jpg’s of the pic sleeve but
thought I'd throw in this picture since the Spies were from Houston. I am kind of
digging this Houston flag...
Here is a total mystery band- thanks to the Collector Scum Texas Discography I know the label name and that the band was from Houston, home of many fine bands like Really Red, Legionnaire's Disease Band, Hates, etc, etc. Like The Mel, the Spies suffer from an un-Google-able name and an internet search turns up only a bunch of horseshit that has nothing even remotely related to the record.
For my ears, "My Radio", is the real winner here with its speedy pace and great guitar strumming. Very catchy. A bit poppy but not too poppy, let's call it "pop flavored punk with a nice bite". The B-side, "Bad Girl" is more poppy, what with its hand claps and sing-along lyrics, but they still pull it off OK and don't turn off people like myself who are usually not fans of poppy stuff. Luckily, they did NOT insert any "Whoo ohhh ohhh" wanna-be melodic singing or else I would've totally skipped it over ya hear.
In 1982, when this disc was released, I can only imagine that it flew off the store shelves since hardcore was beginning to take over the land. I kid, I kid, I be sarcastic- I am guessing that this Spies 7" was largely ignored by folks who wanted it faster and louder in 1982, not melodic and catchy, and that the 7" quickly faded into obscurity and thus into the realm of "the ultra rare" after copies were either tossed away or starting lining bird cages of Houston hardcore fans. Ah the scenarios we can only imagine 28 years removed, eh.
I don't have a vinyl copy of this record unfortunately- I acquired these mp3's about five years ago when someone posted them to the KBD Yahoo Group. I almost forget I had em until just recently when I stumbled upon "My Radio" in the middle of a random shuffle of songs on my iPod.
Both songs seem to fade out at the end and thus appear to be edited versions- if you have full-length rips or know anything about the band please get in touch so I can improve this posting.
My Radio.mp3
ENDNOTES
The other punk bands with a similar name- the Spys from Canada and the Spy's (with an apostrophe S) from Sweden- also put out fine 7"s in case you forgot- ‘specially them Swedes. There was also a Spys from the U.K. who put out a powerpop-ish 7" if you're so inclined. The Canadian Spys also have a posthumous LP that came out on Incognito about 9 years ago that is pretty good too.
Posting Update
http://punkbusinessmanager.com/2009/11/26/the-mel.aspx
Thanks, Rik!
Mystery Dates
Apparently, some copies of this EP came with the above
"Self Inflicted Sex" picture sleeve and were sold as a
double pack that included their 1st EP. Unfortunately,
my copy is sleeveless but here it what it looks like.
And that is singer Frank Pugliese in the middle.
Here is the Mystery Dates' second of two EP’s that were released while the band was around on the Beehive label, which was run by singer Frank Pugliese's brother Joe. Two out of the three songs are nice, catchy melodic punk in the same vein as their 1st EP (which the always-reliable Good Bad Music blog posted about 3 years ago).
See, the problem for me is that I heard the Mystery Dates in "reverse order", and I feel like that kind of skewed my perception of the band and- initially- made me less receptive to the two EP's they released while they were around. 'Cuz the first thing I heard by the Mystery Dates was the barnstorming, unreleased posthumous EP that the great Existential Vacuum released in 1996 (and which I posted a few years back). Hot damn, they played some loose, unrestrained, speedy HC that still retained a hook-y punk edge. Wonderful! So when I later discovered via The Texas Punk Discography that the band released two EP's during their existence I assumed it was in the same vein... until I heard the first EP. I felt a bit let down because it was NUTTIN like that EV disc. But, time heals all wounds, and I have come to appreciate the two EP's for what they are, which is nice melodic punk with lots of cool guitar noodling. Er, for the most part- the third track on this "Easy Action" EP is a stinker of a wanna-be ballad but I included it here for sake of completion. But "Easy Action"- my favorite track on the record- is really great and catchy with nice, happy guitars not unlike Ground Zero’s Controversy. Listen closely to the lyrics of these horndogs- ladies, as long as you gave it up to these boys your girth was of no concern to them. The second track, "Borrowed Time", has really cool layering to it and nice interplay between the two gee-tars. Overall, the band sounded like a pretty cohesive unit to me. Now, just make sure you listen to their three EP's in chronological order.
Easy Action.mp3
Borrowed Time.mp3
Heart on Your Sleeve.mp3
ENDNOTES
The Mystery Dates were from San Antonio, Texas- y’all are familiar with great punk from other Texas locales like Austin (Big Boys, Dicks, etc.)and Houston (Really Red, Legionnaire's Disease Band, etc.) but perhaps not San Antonio. Here is what the liner notes to the cool Taco City Rockers comp LP from 1995 of all San Antonio bands from the 80’s and90’s had to say about the city, which is pretty memorable:
"San Antonio is exactly one six pack south of Austin, and one long evening at 75 miles per hour to Houston, one late night drive after closing from the Gulf of Mexico, and too far to even think about going to El Paso.Damn! As another sidenote, the Taco City Rockers comp was the first place that one of the barnstorming, unreleased HC tracks by the Mystery Dates appeared ("Man In The Middle"). This was about a year before that tune- and four other unreleased ones- were released as that 500 copy EP on the sorely-missed EV label. Taco City Rockers also unearthed a great song from the Rejects' 1980 7"- also about a year later, that band was immortalized on Killed By Death #12 and their 100-copy EP become a want list stable for basement dwellers across the world. Taco City was a legit comp, with great liner notes, packaging and an especially cool sleeve which is a collage of actual menus from Mexican restaurants. I’d have to say it’s the only record I own with a cover like that. Plus, I found an unplayed copy in a bargain bin a few years after its release. Here is what the cover looks like:
San Antonio is half Mexican, half white. It is three quarters poor,and 90 percent who gives a shit. Oh yeah, living is great. If you don't like it leave. Somebody will take your job, because we don't have many. Go to Austin to be hip, go to Dallas to get rich, go to Houston to gag on the air…
It don’t get cold in San Antonio, except for enough days in January and February to kill the bugs and keep Disney from building something here.And in the summer, it’s too hot. Why get out and try to make something of a band? Wait until dark, fill up on bean and cheeser tacos and relax."
Back to the real topic at hand- the Mystery Dates. I am a fan of their warbler Frank Pugliese- I think he has a great, unique singing style. And he's still doin' it in 2010 with his longest-running unit, the garage-y Sons of Hercules. However, his voice on this "Easy Action"EP is too restrained- its uniqueness comes out a smidge on last track, but that tune is my least favorite track musically. Frank could get pretty loose and wild on vinyl- the Existential Vacuum posthumous EP is full of it. His earlier warbling in The Vamps had some perfect examples on his great singing style- check it out in these two great tunes and 'specially dig the great blood-curdling screams near the beginning of the first track.
Vamps- Used To Be Cool.mp3 (1979)
Vamps- Carving Knife.mp3 (1980)
Overall, maybe both of the Mystery Dates EP's on Beehive sound restrained but- according to stories- their on-stage behavior was anything but sometimes. Here is what the Taco City Rockers liners had to say:
"The Mystery Dates' singer was known for his habit of bending over and rubbing the microphone around his anus on stage. Nobody wanted to sing after him. They put a t-shirt out featuring the singer in his famous pose. He was also in The Vamps, who opened up for the Sex Pistols at Randy's Rodeo."Er, if ANYONE has that T-shirt they are talking about, I would love to have one.
By the time Frank was in the Mystery Dates he had already been in "the scene" since the beginning with the Vamps, who musta formed around 1977. Well, it must have been 1977 or earlier since the show at which they opened for the Pistols was January 8, 1978. It was the third date of the Pistols U.S. tour and on the infamous Southern portion. There is actually a website for the old venue Randy’s Rodeo and below is a portion of what they had to say about the show here:
"The band arrive in San Antonio to play Randy's Rodeo, a ballroom that has sold out its 2,200 capacity. As soon as the band take the stage,they are pelted with beer cans, hot dogs and popcorn. Vicious tells the crowd, ‘You cowboys are all a bunch of fucking faggots!’ When a young cowboy tries physical retaliation, Vicious hits him with his bass. The show is stopped for several minutes while the cowboy is taken away by police. He later denounces the Pistols as 'sewer rats with guitars' on TV."We all debate about how "punk" the Pistols really were but taunting a crowd full of riled-up, good old boys in the South took some real cajones. And not something that most people would do in 2010, let alone 32 years ago.
Make sure you also visit the San Antonio Texas Punk Rock Archive, which includes lots of old, cool flyers.
Kris Methe and The Mistakes (a.k.a. The Suspex)
KRIS METHE AND THE MISTAKES "THE SUSPECT" 3-SONG 7"EP (ATLANTA, GA- BOMBAY, 1982)
I don’t have a vinyl copy of this rarity so I had to borrow this
picture of the sleeve and vinyl from Popsike, so ‘scuse the eBay
picture logo stamped in the lower right-hand corner
Here is a GREAT 3-songer without a hint of hardcore in it, even though it came out in one of the "latter years" of the KBD era when HC was beginning to dominate the land and bands who played in a straight-ahead punk style were quickly disappearing. First thing I like about the band is the name- I love band clever band names with an "and" in it that links together two related concepts: Kris Methe and the Mistakes, Gang Green and the Amputators (LOL!), Ebenezer and the Bludgeons, Jack and the Rippers, Dad and the Boys, Jack Tragic and the Unfortunates, Johnny Vomit and the Dry Heaves, Jackie Shark and the Beach Butchers, etc.
Anyway, Kris Methe were from the Atlanta area and Atlanta- and Georgia in general- is one of these areas that did not spawn a lot of records during the '77-'83 KBD era (see also other cities like St. Louis). The Collector Scum discography only lists about a dozen (!) records from late 70's/early 80's, pre-HC, non-"college rock" Georgia and that's a pretty small number of discs. And, judging from the Collector Scum reviews, 'bout half of em sound like snores to me. Perhaps there were more good bands but none of them released a record (?). From this very small pool of discs, though, I have some songs in my personal Top 250 like DDT’s psych-punk monster I'm Walking Down The Psychopath (from 1983, no less!) and the Swimming Pool Q’s raunchy, quirky, stupendous Rat Bait (but only the 7" version from '79, NOT the re-recorded 1981 LP version!).
I'm getting off topic like I always do, so back to the Kris Methe EP as I am trying to make this a relative short posting. I think they got it right on all three songs (which we all know is a feat for some of these here KBD records)- the two songs on the B-side, "Autopsy" and "Celebreakdown", are very catchy and hummable but pack a wallop and are still driving (a rare combination sometimes). When I talked about Autopsy in my Hooked on Junk posting last August I even called it "bouncy"- that melody lures me in during the first few seconds. I'm not sure what the lyrics about, maybe I am missing some obvious movie reference or something, but with them talking about an android getting an autopsy, "They mean it, man!" like when they passionately say "Examination...ON THE TABLE!!!". And dig the faux Brit accent. There are many U.S. punk songs with fake British accents (see Pagans’ What This Shit Called Love for one) but rarely from the Southerners, who ALREADY have a distinct accent from the rest of the U.S.
Anyway, the more I listen to this record I'm torn as to whether Autopsy or Celebreakdown is my favorite track on the EP. Both have great guitar work, especially Autopsy, and it has some nice growl to it but Celebreakdown has these great freakouts during the breaks that jump right out at ya. Please also note the very tight drumming on Autopsy which is one of the highlights for me- no sloppy stick work there! All that drumming practice paid off when it came time to go into the recording studio, eh. The song on the A-side, "Suspect" has a long lead in and is slower and moodier (and longer- clocking in at the non-Peter-approved length of 4:00! Horror!). But at the 1:00 minute mark those drums kick in and I'm happy. Great bass plucking on "Suspect" and a degree of snottiness to the vocals too, which is nice. For my ears, the playing is KIND of thug punk-ish which is always a plus.
Now, onto to the stamp collector details so get out your magnifying glass and a notepad and make sure you adjust those horn rim glasses on your nose. The band name of the sleeve (which is very rare by the way- check out this 2008 eBay auction with hammered vinyl) says Kris Methe and The Mistakes but the disc labels just say The Suspex. Kris Methe's MySpace page lists all the band members and you can see that there were some lineup changes that went along with the band's name change, but the site does not have a detailed history of the band or anything which disappoints people like me who crave all of these details. Like, when did they change their name? Why? Why did certain members leave the band? Why'd ya break up? What you do get from the band's page- which is nice- are streams (not downloads) of three unreleased songs from back in the day. All of them have rough sound quality and are played in a similar vein to the songs on their record but I'd have to say they smartly picked which songs went on the EP. Apparently the band played a handful of reunion shows in late 2008 and early 2009 in Atlanta which is interesting. On the band page you also get to see a number of vintage pictures of the band (chuckle at some of the early 80's outfits and hairdos), some recent pics of the band, some cool old flyers and several videos from the semi-recent reunion show. If you know more about Kris Methe, pressing quantities of the EP or even want to give me a free spare copy with sleeve post some comments.
Many thanks to blog commenter Aaron for hooking me up with these clean, upgraded rips!
Autopsy.mp3
Celebreakdown.mp3
Gina Harlow and The Cutthroats
This one is posted by request for Silvia who posted some comments on the site and, it turns out, used to be good friends with Gina Harlow in the late 70's and early 80's. I had this LP in my posting queue but good thing she requested it because God knows when I would have finally gotten around to putting it up here. 'Cuz, to be honest, there was some better sounding stuff that I felt more motivated to share before this 'un. You see, despite the album title that hints at X-rated content, the semi-nude picture of Gina Harlow on the front AND the menacing sounding band name, I would NOT call this a KBD type of record. Which is not a bad thing in itself of course- who listens to KBD stuff all the time, anyway? This LP is obscure and rather rare ($350 recently on eBay, anyone?)- two traits common to KBD stuff- but is not an over the top, wild, raw record that I associate with the term "KBD" (for that I reference The Mad's I Hate Music, The Maids' Back To Bataan, Mentally Ill's Gacy's Place, etc, etc).
Musically, I would say that this Gina Harlow is rather tame, fun, bouncy kind of stuff with a garage-y feel to it especially in the guitar. The rawest part of the entire record for me comes halfway through the FIRST song, near the 2:10 mark, where this brief snarling guitar noise pops up for a little while... and then disappears and the band goes back to the smoother garage-y vibe. The raw guitar pops up briefly again on the speedy second track, seemingly out of nowhere, and then disappears again for the rest of the record unfortunately. I think my favorite track is the catchy "I'm Hot and Wild"- I find myself humming or whistling the chorus, and it grew on me after a few listens. Lyrically, some of the songs are kinda graphic- on "I'm Hot and Wild" Gina pauses and asks if there are any guys with oversized phalluses in the audience (gasp!). Tracks 3 and 4 have more sex talk in 'em too. But they are sung in a rather straight-forward, matter-of-fact way instead of being screamed or sung in a bugged out manner which, for me, would have been more in-your-face and over the top. And there is a kind of cheesy vibe on the chorus to songs like "Mama Is A Bag Lady", but in a likeable kind of cheesy way and not a cover-your-ears-and-run-away manner.
There is a sticker on the front that says this was recorded live at the famous venue Max's Kansas City. Er- while I don't deny that it was recorded live, I am hearing some overdubbed crowd cheering added to the beginning and end of most of the songs that tries to make it sound like the place was fucking packed and that people were going absolutely bonkers for Gina and the boys that night. But the crowd noises suspiciously fade out and disappear. Perhaps they were really playing Max's that night to a handful of quiet folks who stood around and passively watched them play (?). Maybe it was a Tuesday night (?). If someone who was there can prove that the loud crowd noises are authentic to the recording of this LP, post some comments and prove it to me. Or if you have any more info about the band and/or details about their rare record to share, let me know that too.
Gina was the bass player and sings on some of the tracks. MB (is this Michael Bateman from N'Leans?), the reviewer of the LP on CollectorScum, mentions a rumor that Gina was a porn star but Gina responded back and dispelled that myth by saying that she did "appear as a dancer- being interviewed for a porn flick, in the movie Skin Flicks". A quick search on the interweb pulls up a review of the 1975 flick and a promotional poster here. Hell, there is even an entry for it on the Internet Movie Database which lists the release date as 1978 and credits Gina Harlow as a Dancer not a "performer". Whatever, these details are not important...
Gina's MySpace page mentions that now goes by Gina Davis, is almost 50, lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and has (had?) a business called FancyWraps that made shawls and capes for the women folk. There is one vintage photo of her from 1980 on there playing live at Max's which looks to be one of those glossy promotional photos. The MySpace page also states that the Cutthroats were around in "the late 70's and early 80's" but no specific dates are given. Did they break up in 1982? 1985? How many copies of this LP were pressed? Must notta been many- or many surviving copies- because a $350 price tag is pretty steep and way out of my league.
I also found a 2003 article from something called Fly Magazine in which Gina is briefly interviewed- it states that she took time off from playing music to raise some kids in the 80's but then got more into the "management" (!) side of music (a term which makes me cringe sometimes). This next article from 2006 has nothing to do with Gina Harlow but scroll down to the 7th comment at the bottom from someone named Marinade Dave, and he recounts some memories of seeing The Cutthroats play live in the late 70's. I also found a Webshots photo album of some photographer named ffranzos2006v1 who included a few photos of The Cutthroats along with lots of vintage shots from the late 70's NYC scene of more overground bands like The Dictators, Heartbrakers, etc.
Thanks for John for the rips of this LP- you have hooked me up recently with some of my want list items for which I am very grateful.
TRACK LISTING
SIDE 1
I'm Hot and Wild
Punks
Teri, Teri, Teri
Ripped T Shirt
SIDE 2
Mama Is A Bag Lady
Jim Jones
Running out of Love
Begging For a Job
Here is an .rar file of Side 1
Here is an .rar file of Side 2
Really Red
I had some other postings planned, but I got all riled up to post this great record after yet ANOTHER blog posted this 7" the wrong way recently. By "the wrong way", I mean that instead of using the 7" version of "White Lies" they posted the different, later version that was on the remarkable "Teaching You The Fear" LP. I have seen this done several times already on different blogs, so perhaps they are getting their mp3's from Soulseek or someplace instead of ripping it from their own collection and thus don’t realize about the two different versions of the same song. Darn kids these days!
As you will hear, this version of "White Lies" is different in several ways from the LP version. The single's version is played at a slower pace and in a more moody, pysch-ier and weirder manner if you will- U-Ron Bond’s vocals are echo-y and the lyrics sound improvised at times (and are thus a little different than what he says on the LP version). The guitar on the LP version is played in a faster, "chugga chugga" manner while the guitar on the single version is played in a more "pluck n' strum" manner. When I put the two versions side by side, I kind of gravitate more towards the strangeness of the version on the single but on the same hand I like the meatiness and chunkiness of the LP version.
Overall, "White Lies" is not my favorite Really Red song but still a good one- the Really Red song that tops my list is "Modern Needs". Dammit, the band was like a well-oiled machine in all ways on this classic ditty- Kelly Younger's guitar sound is to die for, Bob Weber's drumming is tight, John Paul Williams' bass playing melds in perfectly and, to top it all off, U-Ron's vocals are top notch. The band could really carry a tune and U-Ron could sing his ass off. He is one of my Top 5 punk singers of all time, hands down. I especially love the interplay between the guitar solo near the end of the song and the unique beat pattern than the drummer pounds away at. And then there's that cool, one last guitar growl right at the end. Powerful stuff all around. And the lyrics are just intelligent and great. A perfect formula for my ears.
Really Red's story and legacy have been well-documented many times already- check out the wonderful writeup on Break My Face or the liner notes to the Deep In The Throat of Texas comp- so I will hold back, or this posting will become very long. Here is another piece I just found on them while putting this post together. And a long interview with U-Ron from early 2007 that was reposted on the Really Red MySpace fan page. Suffice to say that Really Red is one of my favorite bands of all time and their vinyl output is almost spotless for me. "Almost" because I think the record that followed this one, the live Despise Moral Majority EP that was recorded in early November 1980, is just a mediocre recording of a great band and does not exemplify their tightness and power. I've listened to the EP many times and it just does not grab me- the LP versions of all of the songs on it were recorded just about 4 or 5 months later and are miles better. For years I've had a 2 hour VHS tape of different live Really Red stuff circa '81 and '82 and it's much better than that live EP. And I think their posthumous LP, Rest In Pain, is a bit spotty. But their 1st 7", this "Modern Needs" 7", the Teaching You The Fear LP and the New Strings For Old Puppets EP shows that they were crappin thunder and were like a freight train for a four year run between '79 and '82.
Modern Needs.mp3
P.S. Anyone have an original "Modern Needs" button for me like the one pictured above? I would love to have a real one to replace my virtual .jpg version.
ENDNOTES
Now, I have seen this "Modern Needs" 7" listed forever as being from 1980 but I am going to put it at late 1979 since Ron says "New decade right up ahead" near the start of the song. Er, I'm not a rocket scientist but I take that to mean that the 80's were about to begin. Perhaps there was bit of a lag between its recording and release that makes most sources date it to 1980 (?).
My first introduction to "Modern Needs" was when I picked up a newly released copy of Killed By Death #4 in October of 1989 (the first KBD volume I got) at the long-gone Pravda Records that was located on the 3700 block of North Clark Street in Chicago. Why do I remember these details?! The song grabbed me first listen and was one of my favorite nuggets on that LP. But the first Really Red song I ever heard was a little earlier when "Prostitution" was included on the wonderful Let Them Eat Jellybeans comp. Again, that song grabbed me and was one of the standout tracks on that LP. The foldout poster had a picture of the band and they looked like regular Joes- I think U-Ron was even holding a bottle of Lone Star beer in that picture. The poster also had an early discography of the band, and I wanted to hear other stuff I saw listed but I felt discouraged because I thought how the hell am I ever going to find their records- they must be rare and I feared most copies probably never made it outside of Texas. Sigh. A few years later I stumbled upon copies of both of their LP's at my then-dinky, low-wattage college radio station- that was quite a find and a shocker for me. [On a stamp collector note, the copy I found of "Teaching You The Fear" was not the first pressing with the white cover (this was one black) and it had the original two-sided insert printed on yellow paper. Nice.] In '93 that Really Red near-complete discography CD came out on the Angry Neighbor label but for some reason I didn't pick up a copy until early '95. I ended up ordering it directly from U-Ron himself- there was a classified in the back pages of Maximum Rock n' Roll advertising it for sale. Given the seller’s name that was listed I had a hunch it might have been U-Ron Bond himself. So I included a nice note with my payment saying how much I liked the band, etc. Few weeks later, I get the Angry Neighbor CD in the mail from him along with a nice bonus- a dead mint sleeve for the "New Strings For Old Puppets" EP. Thanks, Ron! I still have it.
The Mel
3.7.2010 UPDATE
Information about The Mel has surfaced! A few days ago I had a back and forth comments dialogue early one morning with a guy named Rik, who provided some info about the previously mysterious Mel. He appears to have been a former member although he never confirmed this in his comments. According to Rik, The Mel were from the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles county. [By the way, the San Gabriel Valley is East of L.A.and includes suburbs like Pasadena, Covina, Alhambra and about 20 others].
The band might have only released that one 7" in 1983 and you’d think that means they were a short-lived outfit, but the band was actually around for 10(!) years and played out between 1976 and 1986 according to Rik. The label for the 7"- simply named "A Record Company"- was based in Hollywood and the disc came with a poster sleeve AND stickers. Rik said that 250 (?!) copies of the 7" made it to Europe ‘cuz that's how many their label’s "European Distributor" ordered at the time (sounds very official). The 7" sessions also produced two other unreleased songs, "Rainy Day People" and "Realize"- according to Rik, an idea was thrown around to release a 4-song EP or a double EP with these two other tunes on it but it never happened unfortunately. Also sitting around unreleased are music videos, many hours or live gig recordings, rehearsals and studio outtakes says he. I'd love to hear some of this unreleased stuff one day, as I'm sure other fans of The Mel 7" would too eh.
Thanks again, Rik, for providing all of the above info- you’ve helped shed some light on a previously unknown outfit! People like myself who wonder about details like these feel better now.
What I do know about this quirky, offbeat 7" is that I like both sides of it, especially the B-side, "Modest Living". I have been digging that tune for about ten years now, ever since I first heard it on the great Killed By 7 Inch #9 comp EP from late 1999/early 2000- thanks to **** for compiling and releasing that series (you know who you are!). [Speaking of the Killed By 7 Inch series, I dug most of the 10 volumes and thought it was a cool concept to include just 4-5 songs instead of an LP with a slew of tunes to wade through. A 7" comp with just 4-5 songs kind of trimmed the fat, if you will, of mediocre stuff that was inevitably on a more expensive, full-length comp LP. And the series introduced me to a lot of obscure tunes that I had never heard before, like Mel. Also a plus is that most of the volumes had nice, thick, manly vinyl (and not that flimsy shit that you always fear will warp unless you store it in a perfectly vertical position). And it was kinda fun that most volumes only had 300-400 copies pressed which kept me on my toes to find one before they all vanished.]
On "Modest Living" there is some great meat n' potatoes guitar that grabs me from the get go and the singer sounds kinda like Lee Ving of Fear at times, especially when he gets all riled up. Add to that very hummable lyrics that, thankfully, do not make it TOO melodic ‘cuz "Whoo, Oooo Oooo Oooo" choruses usually turn me off. It's that mixture of "driving and melodic" that was really in the air in early 80's Southern California (the home of Mel). But what I REALLY like about Modest Living are the two breaks during which they switch things up and create a freakout of sorts- there’s a cool interplay between the echo-y, bouncy guitar and some frantic, kinda sloppy drumming on what sounds like a kids' Fischer Price drum set. Quirky! My only complaint is like the last 20 seconds of the song which are kinda weak and during which they almost lose me- the singer and others keep repeating one line over and over and it gets slightly annoying.
While Modest Living is my favorite track, the A-side keeps growing on me now that I've finally heard it after all these years (many thanks to John for hooking me up with it!). Some might dismiss it as the dreaded "other track" but I likes it- it has an offbeat nature to it, not as wild as "Modest Living", but catchy. The drumming at points reminds me of the same style of high-hat playing found on the Effigies' Security. But don't take that to mean that the ENTIRE song reminds me of The Effigies- no, just certain drum snippets (I don't want to start any fights here amongst Effigies fans). The catchy chorus and breaks have nice guitar noodling and this weird sped-up voice on it that I find myself singing along to for some reason.
If you know anything about Mel (or have a spare copy for me), post some comments already.
Block Walk Rock.mp3
Modest Living.mp3
K9's
Here's a funny, kinda off-the-wall EP from the U.K., land of a million punk bands in the late 70's and early 80's. You can read a history of the band on the great Punk 77 site so I won't bother repeating it all here.
According to Brian Sayles' great Punk Rock Picture Sleeve gallery, there were a total of 1,500 copies pressed- the first pressing was 1,000 while the second pressing was 500 with a stamped sleeve. Apparently, some copies also came with three inserts. This EP goes for a lot of money when it turns up so what happened to all 1,500 copies?
You can tell the K9's had a good time recording this EP, and for me all three tracks are winners even the long, "less punk" leadoff track "The K9 Hassle" that clocks in at the non-punk length of 3:37. It's is a GREAT piss take on the whole dug/reggae thing that was so big in England at the time with some punks. The song is complete with whistles and funny fake Jamaican accents, like when one guy says "I want you all to do de K-9 Hass-el" near the 2 minute mark which is followed by someone else shouting "Ya man!". Hilarious also during the chorus when they keep saying "Do it doggy style!" like real smart asses. [As a sidenote, the whole punk/reggae connection was big in the U.K. in the 70’s but that shit never caught on over here in the States’ punk scene to the same extent. Thankfully, because I almost always run away covering my ears when I hear “white boy reggae punk”. I mean, the Clash's cover of "Police and Thieves" is great and made my Top 250 Song list but tunes like Ground Zero’s "T.V. Land" are just shit.]
Back to the K9's- of course collector scum know the second track on this EP, "Idi Amin", after it was the leadoff track on the first Back To Front comp LP that came out in '93. Good-natured tune, but with a twist usually not found in good natured songs- an amazing mean, thug punk guitar chug noise. The skronk at the 1:18 mark is just superb. The chilling documentary Idi Amin Dada about the notorious ruler of Uganda between 1971 and 1979 had come out a few years earlier in like 1976 so maybe the band saw that flick and was inspired to write a ditty about the evil dictator (?).
The third and final track, "Sweeney Todd", is along the lines of "Idi Amin" with some more nice thuggy guitar noise- check out the great solo at the 1:06 mark. The popular Broadway play "Sweeney Todd" came out in 1979 so perhaps that was their inspiration for this ditty (?). The interesting thing about this thuggy song- and "Idi Amin"- is that the choruses are hummable or whistle-able, whatever your preference is.
According to the K9's page on the Punk 77 site (that was written by a fan of the band in the late 70's), there were a few unreleased songs that never saw the light of day. If they sound anything like this EP, then I hope to hear them one of these years.
The K9 Hassle.mp3
Idi Amin.mp3
Sweeney Todd.mp3
ENDNOTES
Since I brought it up before, I have to say that the Back To Front comp series was just too darn spotty for me. Don’t get me wrong- there were some really great, previously unknown tunes spread across its six volumes that were released between '93 and '95. What got me about the series is how the compiler tried to cram in too many other genres like powerpop, pop punk and even some mod-flavored stuff. I always thought he should have created another series for all that other shit and left Back To Front to be along the lines of the early Killed By Death volumes in terms of rawness and wildness. See, I’d be digging some rawer sounds a Back To Front LP and then all of the sudden the next track was some powerpop tune with a "Whoo Ohhh" chorus. Argh. It really ruined the flow of things for me. I also got frustrated sometimes when he included the "wrong" song from a KBD record, a.k.a. the weaker track. Like City Kent- the obvious better song on their 7" is without a doubt the mean grinder “Psalm” but Volume 4 of Back To Front included the more boring flipside, "Cancer". Or Attentat- Volume 1 had the weak poppy track "Opera Hauset". For me, a better choice would have obviously been Dod bland de doda from their 1st 7" or something from their superb, spazzed out and much more rawer second disc, the Stila dej inte EP. Back To Front was like Attentat’s first appearance on a comp and this is how they were presented to the world?! I am sure I'm not the only one out there who shares mixed memories of the series. The compiler Peter P. redeemed himself with his next three comps, the nice Break The Rules LP’s he released betwixt '96 and '99. He trimmed off all the fat by getting rid of the poppy stuff and included a lot of rawer, wilder stuff although he snuck in a few pop/mod tunes on Volume 9 (my choice for the weakest of the three volumes, natch).
U.S. Mods
Not only does the music have a great, homemade sound to it but the picture sleeve does too! I'll take a sleeve like this anyday over some shallow-looking, computer-generated one Chachi.
In continuing with the mellower mood, here are some great DIY-ish sounds from Texas. The Lone Star State has churned out so many great, unique records since time began and here's another cool one. This 7" is a rather rare and obscure disc (only 200 copies) and now goes for hundreds on eBay. B.C. taped this for me years ago, and it immediately grabbed me as a winner back then with an "outside the box" sound that makes it stand out against a stack of rekkids. The 7" sounds way more 60’s than 70’s punk, and both songs are catchy (especially the A-side, my favorite track). What makes it really charming to me is that thin, lo-fi production. I'll take thin 2-4 track production on homemade records any day over yer "professional" sounding crap from a 48 track studio ANYDAY- the cheaper-done stuff just has so much more depth, character, spontaneity and charm, me thinks.
This 7" plays nicely against other DIY-ish discs with nice, thin, minimal sound like the Inclusions 7" that I posted last summer. The U.S. Mods actually have a nice MySpace page with lots of old rare photos and info about this short-lived band from Mesquite, Texas (as well as some recently-done videos for both sides of the single). Er, that city name combined with the fact that it's in Texas drew up images for me of a total hick town with tumbleweed rolling down the street and a toothless old man sleeping on a lawn chair in front of the only gas station in town. But it turns out that Mesquite is just East of Dallas (about 10 miles) and looks rather civilized (and suburban)- check out the town’s website.
HERE IS A PHOTO OF THE BAND RECORDING THE 7" THAT I FOUND ON THEIR MY SPACE PAGE. Dig those flares on the guy in the middle, Jimmy Holcomb, guitar player and vocalist on "I'm Gone"! Here is what the band had to say about the high-tech recording session: "In true garage band fashion, it was recorded in a 4-track studio set up in a mini-warehouse somewhere off of Skillman and Audelia, and the vocals---and tape echo--- on "I'm Gone" were redone at home in Mesquite on an Akai 4000DS MKII reel-to-reel, and mixed into glorious mono. [This is before ProTools, mind you---MANY patch cords were involved]." According to lore, the single's producer, Ace Bowen, later went on engineer some fucking Culture Club records- yikes!!! I have always been suspicious of guys nicknamed "Ace" and here is one example of why I should be.
This was the only single the band recorded during their short existence. The band was essentially a trio of Adrian Booker, Jimmy Holcomb and Pat McKenna- they became a foursome when they borrowed drummer Reagan Eskridge from the VVV band Quad Pi for the recording session for the single. The band’s MySpace page has a stream of an unreleased song called "Reaction" when it was played on George Gimarc’s "Rock n’ Roll Alternative" show on KZEW in 1981. [As a sidenote, you may remember Mr. Gimarc as the man who wrote the rather comprehensive and exhaustive "Punk Diary 1970-1979" and "Post-Punk Diary 1980-1982" books way back when. Incidentally, both of those books were re-released in 2005 as just "Punk Diary 1970-1982"- you can actually browse the whole damn book on Google Books for free]. Speaking of books, almost 30 years later, a glowing 1980 review of the U.S. Mods single appeared in the unreleased, supposed-to-be-final-issue #22 of Bomp! magazine that finally appeared in the 2007 book "Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time". Adrian Booker, former U.S. Mod-er, actually has a blog on which he printed the review here. And according to Adrian, Bomp! bought 30 copies of their single back when it was released- Greg Shaw musta liked it eh.
Oh yeah- the unreleased song "Reaction" is pretty good, and in the same vein as the single, but my favorite track is still the A-side of the single, "I’m Gone". The dreamy mood of the song does it for me and it even has some great handclapping breaks. Handclapping was the hot thing to put in yer song circa 1980, and it got to be overkill with many songs, but on "I'm Gone" it's a nice compliment.
Morons
As a diversion from rawer stuff, here's a clean sounding, catchy keyboard-driven punker that I have not seen posted elsewhere yet. This plays nicely along other key-driven punk like the Los Reactors, I think (although stuff like the Los Reactors had a meaner, nastier undercurrent and is less happy sounding). J.T. taped this for me years ago and it immediately caught my attention the first time I heard it. Both sides are nice, but I think "Suburbanite" is the better of the two tracks- very catchy with some funny lyrics that are sung with a somewhat mad and snotty tone but in a more "snotty n' melodic" tone (as opposed to the "raw, desperate and snotty" style of, say, The Mad's "I Hate Music" or Legionnaire's Disease Band's "Rather See You Dead"). Anyway, if you're curious The Morons hometown of Albany is about 150 miles North of New York City and is situated right along the Hudson River. Someone I went to college with was from "Awlbany" and he spoke with a rather thick "Noo Yawk" accent and loved the place so the city always stuck in my mind since then.
The Morons only released this one 7" in an edition of 500 copies on a label named after a street in downtown Albany. They also had a track on the "Hudson Rock" compilation LP (a song called "Gimme", which I have yet to hear). This Hudson Rock comp actually has an EXCELLENT snotty and hooky song on it by Crude called "Vacation" that Chuck Warner included on the Hyped To Death #61 compilation back in ‘01. The Hudson Rock comp also has a song by the great A.D's and Verge so I am curious to hear the whole LP (anyone?), although Collector Scum warns that there is lots of new wave on it too. But it looks like Albany had a rather productive scene in the early 80's- I mean, the A.D.'s were from there, and we ALL know how good they were. Jim Furlong, former head A.D.'er, still runs a cool-looking record shop in Albany called Last Vestige. The Tragics (the band formerly named The Misfits before a forced name change) were also from Albany- their blazing "Amps at 11" tune "Laughing Lover" (made famous on KBD#10) is an all-time fave. And people site Verge and Capitle who are both also from "the city by the Hudson" although I have yet to take the time to listen to anything by them. Check out the cool Albany Style Hardcore site for lots of related info, pictures, musings and a few mp3’s of various stuff.
In putting this post together I also found a nice website about the Morons with some very detailed information about the history of the band and lots of info on unreleased recordings (but no mp3’s). With such detail, the site is of course maintained by an old band member (I figured out that it must be former singer TL Stone). The site also has lots of vintage pictures of the band (from which I got all the above photos- thanks), as well as a pic of the band 20 years later (but with only 5 of the 6 members). From a flyer posted on the site for the single’s record release party (Sunday, August 16, 1981) we see that the record came out in the latter half of that year. I love stamp-collector details like this but maybe they annoy you and you wish I would just have a short, 50-word, one-paragraph posting one of these days eh.
Suburbanite.mp3
Changing Days.mp3
…And here's a few more Albany-related songs I mentioned above:
A.D.’s- Living Downtown (1980)
Crude- Vacation (1982)
Tragics- Laughing Lover (1981)
Jerry's Kidz (NM)- Unreleased Live Stuff (Circa 1983)
Here's the different cover from the 2nd pressing of their great EP on the Test Site label. This "live" sleeve gets dinged up and smeared pretty easily (at least my second hand copy did)- maybe this is due to the type of paper used. And here is one of the labels which was also used on the first press- I guess the dual dicks smashing into each side of the skeleton skull are supposed to signify that the band is a "mind fuck" of sorts (?)
To follow up on my posting of Jerry’s Kidz "Counting Calories" cassette, here is some unreleased live stuff- one set from their appearance on the radio show at KUNM-FM in their hometown of Albuquerque (incidentally, KUNM is still around as a public radio station. I am a long-time digger of lots of NPR and other public radio, as well as now some CBC radio shows from Canada, but I digress...). The other set I included here is a mystery to me- it was taped for me years ago on the same dubbed tape that also included the Counting Calories cassette. Since I posted Counting Calories, I have been e-mailing back and forth with an old Albuquerque scenester now living in Florida, and he told me that the KUNM live in the studio set also included a radio interview. I don’t be having that otherwise I would have posted it.
Besides correcting me on the some of the Counting Calories song titles, the same guy also told me some other stuff that I never knew- namely, that Jerry's Kidz singer Dave Duran moved to the Bay Area after their breakup and sang for the thrash band Clown Alley who released an LP in 1986 called "Circus of Chaos" which I have yet to listen to. The LP, along with a 1985 demo, was posted here on the True Punk and Metal Blog several years back.
Mr. Duran then went on to the band Eyeball who released a few records on Lookout back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I think I have one of those Eyeball 7"s buried somewhere deep in my basement in my "found-in-the-50-cent-bin-but-never-listened-to" pile.
While poking around the internet, I actually found a short blurb from 2007 in this local Albuquerque paper called Alibi that mentions former Jerry’s Kidz member Gordy Andersen- here’s a link to the article. At 50 he is still rocking out, now in a band called Black Maria who- judging from the song posted on their MySpace page- seem to take a more hard rock approach- here’s a link to their site. One more link- I found an old MRR review of the Jerry’s Kidz EP (Issue #11, January 1984) on the great Operation Phoneix zine archive. Funny, but they name the review gives the EP is "This Is Albuquerque Not Boston" and the band address is singer Dave Duran’s- here’s a link to the review (it's on Page 2 of 9 in the .pdf).
TRACK LISTINGS
LIVE @ KUNM-FM, ALBUQUERQUE, NM (CIRCA 1983?)
1. Marionettes
2. B.R.S.
Tracks 3-5= (Unknown Titles)
LIVE (DATE AND VENUE UNKNOWN) (MAYBE 1983 or 1984?)
1. Atomic Zone (aka "Stepping Stone")
Tracks 2-6= (Unknown Titles)
*My tape did not come with any song titles- I don’t think any of them match songs that were on the Counting Calories cassette, though, unless my song matching abilities are being compromised right now
Here are both sets as one .rar file
Hooked on Junk unreleased comp LP
The swank cover art from the Deprogrammer "Instant Passion" 7" was to be used as this comp's cover with some slight modifications
[8.25 UPDATE- A kind benefactor provided me mp3's of the formerly missing Infections and Hey Taxi! songs, so this posting is no longer incomplete and I have added these two songs to the .rar files. Woo hoo!]
Here is a pretty good comp that never was. A few test pressings (5 copies?) were distributed to various collector scum at the time, and in early 2003 even Henry Yu wrote about it in his then-regular MRR article. But the comp was never officially released due to a fear of a potential lawsuit.
But which old band did they fear a suit from? Or was it just a general "chill factor" feeling because of another punk-related lawsuit going on the time? (More on that later) If you know more, post some comments. Or did said compiler fear specific bands? Perhaps RF7 because all their old stuff had been officially re-released by GTA at that point? Perhaps the old Cleveland outfit Suspect Device because the song also appeared on Hyped2Death #11? Remember that during this time, Chuck Warner and his Hyped2Death label was being sued by an old member of a band whose 20+ year-old single appeared on one of the Teenline comps without his permission. Turns out said band member became a lawyer so, well, you can guess how it unfolded from there. As a sidenote, there was an attempt to do a "trickle down" lawsuit and sue certain distros that carried anything put out by the Hyped2Death label but I forget how that side effort turned out. After this lawsuit, H2D switched their gears a bit and started doing a lot more CD's with just one band on em and, thankfully, are still around today plugging away. Their comp CD series are still around but are now "fully authorized" so some bands on the original 2000-2002 pressings are not on the newer ones.
Too bad Hooked On Junk never came out, because for being so late in the game in terms of KBD-type comps it is mostly solid. By the time 2003 rolled around, I thought the well had run dry and the barrel had been scraped for KBD-era stuff that was both obscure AND, more importantly, that sounded GOOD too. By early 2000 I was tired of wasting my money on mediocre comps with one or two good tracks and then a bunch of boring shit that was supposed to be noteworthy just because it was "mega rare". I think 1999 was the year that broke the camel's back with me 'cuz too many disappointing comps were released (and I had much less disposable income ten years ago). 2001's "No One Left To Blame" comp was a welcome surprise cuz it was chock full of so many great, classic obscurities that I had never heard before (and very little filler). Plus the whole packaging of it was great, what with the great choice of cover artwork and the clean layout on the back of the sleeve. But that was the one shining light in a sea of mediocrity, folks. The only glimmer of a good comp since then (and one of the only ones released on vinyl) was 2005's "Staring Down The Barrel" which unearthed more great, previously unheard nuggets (but with a little more filler than No One Left To Blame). But then by early 2006 these here mp3 blogs pretty much eliminated the need to release an actual hard copy, vinyl KBD-type comp anymore. Maybe someone else will someday for old time's sake, like a throwback to "the olden days".
A few clunkers are on Hooked On Junk, like the Malcolm Tent track which I have never liked in 10+ years of being familiar with it. In fact, I think the only reason the single even gets noticed is because he called himself "Malcolm Tent and His Unnatural Axe" although he has NO connection to the Unnatural Axe we all know and love from Boston. [As a sidenote, a documentary about Unnatural Axe called "You'll Pay For This" was announced about 4 years ago, and a company called Shiny Object was supposed to release it on DVD- has anyone seen this thing?!? Here is a link to a 2006 trailer]. But overall it appears that said compiler of Hooked On Junk put forth a fair amount of effort to dig up some unknowns, especially ones like the Body Count track which only existed as an acetate so no more than like 2 people probably ever heard the song before.
As well, another seller whose handle eludes me sold a real vinyl copy of this here Hooked on Junk LP in April of 2008- as you can see from the archived auction listing on good ol’ Popsike, the closing price was $260(!). The auction listing said "This is the ONLY copy that will be made available to the public, as the rest were given away to friends". Hmmm...
TRACK LISTING
SIDE 1
1. Scream (aka Rebels and Infidels)- Government Primer
2. Joe Hebert Band- I Don't Want To Be A Preppy
3. Malcolm Tent- I Will Be Heard
4. Infections- I'm Not Funny
5. Commandos- Operation Annihilation
6. RF7- Chainsaw Love Affair
7. Body Count– Clitorectomy
8. Kris Methe and the Mistakes- Autopsy
9. Ducky Boys- Hooked On Junk
SIDE 2
10. Legal Weapon- No One Listens
11. Helen Keller- Surfin' With Steve and Edi Amin
12. Suspect Device- The Image Has Cracked
13. Recipients– Lunatic
14. Katatonix- Basket Case
15. Manikenz- Living For The Weekend
16. Poodle Boys- Asphalt World
17. Deprogrammer- Instant Passion
18. Hey Taxi- I Hate Dogs
* Here are three .rar files with all of the tracks (it was ripped at 320 kbps and I had a problem uploading one, huge file so I had to split it into 3 parts)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
TRACK INFO
1= California- 1982 (from 4-song 7"EP on Immortal Nuts label)
2= Providence, RI- 1981 (from "First Date" 7" on Complex label)
3= Indiana- 1981 (from "Oh Yeah" 7" on Hardly Music label)
4= Grand Rapids, MI- 1980 (from "Girls In Magazines" 7" on band’s own label)
5= Worchester (aka Wormtown), MA- 1980 (from split 7" with Performers on Beast label)
6= California- 1980 (from "Acts of Defiance" 4-song 7"EP on SmokeSeven label)
7= Los Angeles, CA- 1981 (from unreleased acetate)
8= Atlanta, GA- 1982 (from 3-song 7"EP on Bombay label)
9= Brooklyn, NY- 1982 (from "Mercenary" 3-song 7"EP on Spoiler label)
10= Los Angeles, CA- 1981 (from "No Sorrow" 5-song 12"EP on Arsenal label)
11= Seattle, WA- 1978 (from "Dump on The Chumps" 7" on Britz label)
12= Cleveland (or Dayton?), OH- 1982 (from "Kill Ugly Radio" 7" on Creative Affairs label)
13= Houston, TX- 1981 (from "Constitution" 7" on band’s own label)
14= Baltimore, MD- 1983 (from "Valentine's Day" 3-song 7"EP on Dud Spud label)
15= Kingston, NY- 1981 (from "I Don't Want Romance" 3-song 7"EP on band's own label)
16= New Haven, CT- 1980 (from "What Can I Do" 3-song 7"EP on Gustav label)
17= TX/CA- 1981 (from "80-81" 7" on At Last label)
18= California- 1980 (from 3-song 7"EP on Mystic label)
MY LINER NOTES
Personally, my favorite songs are Tracks 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 14. Here is my two cents on each individual tune- I’m sure most of you impatient, short-attention span people have not even made it this far down in this looong posting.
Track 1= Great angry vocals! "Generation 80", from the same EP, was comped on the original Hyped2Death #2 CD but this tune sounds much better to me.
Track 2= Amazing guitar sound but the vocals are a bit annoying. Supposedly, there are only TWO known copies. According to one thing I read, the band was popular at the prestigious Brown University in their hometown of Providence, RI and played some small frat gigs (?!). The backing band on the 7" is alleged to be the original Tits band who recorded with Lou Miami around the same time.
Track 3= Bleechh! Put this record back in the dollar bins where it belongs. Boring rock shit.
Track 4= A thicker, Fun Things-ish guitar sound and a nice guitar solo but nothing over the top in the vocals or playing. Kinda anthemic type of lyrics, though, from a singer whose every word you can understand.
Track 5= For me, nothing else they did is as good as the sloppy, snotty "Suburb Rock" from an earlier record (and comped on No One Left To Blame).
Track 6= Wonderful song, singer Felix Alanis has one of the coolest sounding gruff voices in all of punkdom (even though I may not always dig the music on RF7 records). The song was on their 1st record, the half rock/half punk "Acts of Defiance" EP, which has been a want list staple for decades for many punk collectors.
Track 7= Pretty rude one here, nice fast playing.
Track 8= Bouncy and catchy with some jagged guitar breaks. Good records from the early 80's Atlanta punk scene were few and far between, aside from this Kris Methe EP and the Swimming Pool Q's stupendous ditty "Rat Bait".
Track 9= Some people cream themselves over this psych-punk tune, but I MUCH prefer their thuggy classic, "Mercenary".
Track 10= Mid-tempo killer with great chunky "gunka gunka" sound and a chorus you can even whistle! Chorus makes me think of "Gimme gimme this, gimme gimme that" from Germs' "Lexicon Devil". Having the ex-Bags’ bass player, Pat Morrison, play on this disc could not have hurt.
Track 11= I have never thought that this song was the best thing since sliced bread (as others do), but pretty scorching guitar nonetheless and an overall crazy vibe. This song was earlier comped on KBD#999 in 1999. This 7" is actually novelty/fake punk when you look at the story behind the band. I still want to see the Isuzu car commercial that had this song in it- anyone have a link to it?
Track 12= Pretty unpolished, with some rock influences in the guitar but still very catchy tune overall. Cool solo, too. They were from my hometown of Cleveland so extra points there. One member of the band was Doug Gillard who played would go on to play with some well-known band called Guided By Voices whom I have never taken the time to listen to.
Track 13= I prefer the flipside, "Constitution", as you all know from my posting of this 7" a few months back.
Track 14= Rather catchy and hummable- GREAT driving bass playing, plus a nice tinnitus guitar solo that really leaps out at ya. Nice to hear PUNK from the Balto/D.C. area during a time when just HC ruled the roost out there. Which probably means that this EP was sadly ignored when it came out.
Track 15= Eh, this is OK- I prefer the snottier "I Don’t Want Romance" from this EP. The comp would NOT have missed this track had it been excluded.
Track 16= Best song from their rather poppy EP, gotta give them points for playing very energetically. But this song sounds kinda stiff to my ears, like they were trying REALLY hard to "punk out".
Track 17= Pretty good and catchy, nice thundering drums for a pop-punkish song.
Track 18= Pretty funny song and catchy playing, although the lyrics get a little goofy at times. Hey Taxi's drummer on this EP was none other than George Hurley, pre-Minutemen- he even sheepishly mentions it in the GREAT 2005 "We Jam Econo" Minutemen documentary.
Part 2
Sad Sack
Here is a wonderfully craptastic single. Or Shit Rock, Shit-Fi, whatever you want to call it in 2009. The more I listen to this record, the more it becomes one of my more favorite singles from the 90's- and it came out so early in the decade (1991!), a few years before the "90’s KBD-inspired punk"/garage punk revival kicked into high gear. I had never heard this record until last April when Dave Hyde included it in his fantastic Shit-Fi.com Mixtape #5 of 90’s slop. Thanks, or I probably still would have been in the dark about it. And of course check out his nice "Cheap Rewards" columns on the great Terminal Boredom site.
The A-side SNARLS along at a great grinding, mid-tempo pace and just drips bad attitude with its mix of extremely snotty vocals (think Bobby Soxx’s "Scavenger of Death"), in-the-red bass pounding and just a general mean tone (and song title, eh). To top things off, the guitar breaks are just delightfully inept and will bring a smile to your face. The guitar virtuoso plays a great sloppy, clumsy solo in the middle that makes me think of other cringe-inducing solos I love like the one in Trend's "Band Aid". Sad Sack also used a cheap-ass drum machine which totally adds to their shit rock approach AND- how great is this- the single was recorded on a Panasonic tape recorder (the RQ-356 model, according to the back of the sleeve). Screw yer fancy, 24-track "professional" studio bud!
Speaking of the sleeve, you gotta love the homemade artwork on the front which has yer Grandma in her favorite floral-print dress. The A-side is the hands-down classic here but the B-side is also a jawdropper. "Trash It" is a totally menacing track with a mean guitar growl that is played a bit faster than the A-side and is full of snot and bile. Yowlza! These guys had a chip on their shoulder, and it comes across loud and clear. The notes for Dave Hyde’s Shit-Fi Mixtape said that their hometown of New Paltz, NY (about 80 miles North of New York City, by the way) is a college town that he pictures with sidewalks full of bead selling hippies. Perhaps these local residents helped fuel Sad Sack’s rage- I'm sure that if they played live with the same attitude put forth on this record they could have easily cleared a room of college kids who were expecting a jam band or something. [As an interesting sidenote- to me at least- New Paltz is only about 15 miles North of Kingston, home of the Manikenz famous for their rude "I Don’t Want Romance" ditty from 1980. I guess Sad Sack and the Manikenz prove that quaint cities outside of mean, dirty New York City could also be rude, eh.]
The first 200 copies of the Sad Sack 7" came on red vinyl, and according to the great Grunnen Rocks site, there were also 800 copies on black vinyl. Er, but I am guessing that when this single was released in 1991 they had a hard time finding anything close to a thousand people to buy and appreciate this classic at that time. Too bad.
Heinous Bitch
Trash It
Midway
(SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA- OWN LABEL, 1981)
Well, here’s an obscure one. It's nice to know in 2009, more than 20 years after the first Killed By Death comp came out, that there are still some unknown records turning up. So it's great to know that every stone has not been overturned yet, which of course begs the question “What other records are waiting to be unearthed?”. There's gotta be some more. There is no mention of this Midway 7" in the great Volume 3 Discography of American Punk on the equally great Collector Scum site. From all accounts, this 7" never came with a picture sleeve (my copy doesn't) so I know next to nothing about the band (and I cannot comment on their looks or potentially corny fashion choices, darn). The A-side is credited on the label to a "P. Carraber" and the B-side is credited to "Henry Castro" but Google searches on those names led me nowhere.
Now this is NOT a wild, frothing, barnstorming KBD classic but it’s not bad- I'd put it on the Reserve Team, a little after my B-Team bands but definitely not A-List caliber. But it's rather catchy and hummable with pretty good female vocals and has a "So Cal punk" feel to it. After listening to this several times, I am guessing that the band was possibly trying to create a "hit" and toned things down a bit for the single instead of throwing all caution to the wind and playing with reckless abandon. Because of their competent playing, maybe the band consisted of "musician types" who discovered punk and did this one-off stab at it (?). This is all speculation, folks- if you know anything about Midway please post some comments.
There is definitely a Brit influence, not only musically but with a song title like "Up The Rebels" and also by saying "Mum and Dad" on the B-side. I was born and raised in the U.S. and the American way of speaking does NOT include calling your parents "Mum and Dad" at all, folks. Nor do we say something like "Up The Rebels"- in 2009, we in the U.S. would probably say something like "Give It Up To The Rebels". Or in 1981, "Allright! Let’s hear it for the rebels! Rebels RULE!"
Like I said earlier, Midway plays in a more melodic manner on both sides and the highlight of "Up The Rebels" for me is that guitar that comes through loud and clear at the 1:50 mark and which hits a high point at like the 2:20 mark- they did let loose there, thankfully. And then again in the last 40 seconds of the songs with some tinnitus guitar, which always makes for a nice ending. Um, the B-side is full of acoustic guitar playing. Usually I run far away when the guitar goes acoustic but I think it totally works here for some reason and they get a happy, campfire sing-along vibe going with the male-female shared vocal duties during the chorus. For me, the downside of "Mum and Dad and Knives" is the bass solo (?!) at the 2:25 mark. Bass solos usually do nothing for me, especially in a supposed punk song (er, EXCEPT for KFC’s incredible one in “Kriminalpogo”, but I digress). To me, bass solos symbolize unnecessary instrument wanking done by "musicians" and I always picture them done by a bass player with closed eyes and a cornball look on his or her face while the crowd lets out a “Wooooo!” during said solo and throw up the horns or something. Without the bass solo, the B-side would have left a much nicer taste in my mouth. But overall, a nice and happy flipside.
Up The Rebels
Mum and Dad and Knives
Jerry's Kidz (NM)
This cassette is another one of those instances where I put something on my want list but then realize that it's actually been in my collection for years- doh! About 13 years ago, trusty tape trader J.T. dubbed me a tape, part of which just said "Jerry’s Kidz (NM)- Live and Demo". There were no song titles, nothin. I've always really liked their only vinyl release, the great "Well Fed Society" 5-song EP- the leadoff track, "Marionettes", even made my Top 250 Song posting from a year ago. Now let’s go back about two years- I heard that Jerry’s Kidz "officially" released a cassette back in 1983- before the EP came out- entitled "Counting Calories". I immediately thought, "I have to find this thing!" so I added it to my want list that you will see on the left sidebar. [As a sidenote, if you have mp3’s of anything on my want list, let me know.]
About a month ago I happened to stumble upon a blog that posted the "Counting Calories" cassette. Very exciting. I listen to the thing and then realize "Doh! This is the same as the stuff someone taped for me back in ‘96!". I had digitized the tracks a few years back so I’ve gotten the sound quality as good as I can (the other blog’s posting of the cassette had pretty rough, muddy sound quality).
If you are a fan of the Jerry’s Kidz EP then I you’ll probably enjoy most of these raw tracks. There is lots of fast, urgent-sounding teen HC that is still hummable and melodic at times and it has lots of the lead warbler's great style of singing (good, well-delivered, passionate vocals are always a plus for me). But they refined their approach by the time the EP came out, and I think that disc still stands as their best playing and delivery.
TRACK LISTING
Um, now I still don’t have a track listing for this cassette so I totally guessed at most of the song titles and probably got some totally wrong. My track record of mishearing lyrics and song titles is rather spotty (more on that at another time!). If you have the actual track listing, PLEASE leave it in your comments. Or if you have an original copy of this cassette, let me know that too.
1. (Title Completely Unknown, No Guesses)
2. Beat My Head (?)
3-4. Officer Bill / Stereo Turns On (?)
5. Pork Chop (???)
6. Are You Afraid (?)
7. Social Drinker (?)
8. Reagan (?)
9. I Wanna Bong (??)
10. (Title Completely Unknown, No Guesses)
11. Mass Destruction (?)
12. If Your Number’s Up (?)
13. Breakout (?)
14. (Title Completely Unknown, No Guesses)
15. Bright Light (?)
16. (Title Completely Unknown, No Guesses)
17. Blood and Honor (?)
18. Sick (?)
Here is an .rar file of the entire cassette
*And stay tuned because I have some unreleased live Jerry’s Kidz, as well as some songs from a radio broadcast they did, that I will post sometime in the future when I get around to it.
ENDNOTES
Well, I tried with this one but you can only get old cassettes to sound so good. Which brings me to my next point- I am glad that cassette tapes are a dead format, and I do not miss them one bit. I doubt that anyone does. There’s nice to look at, like museum pieces, but now have no practical everyday use- I treasure certain ones like my original, yellow Bad Brains ROIR cassette from 1982. I used to have an original copy of the "Future Looks Bright" cassette comp from '81 with the cool Raymond Pettibon artwork on the front and liked looking at that one too. I have some other rare, cassette-only comps from the 80’s. And some homemade cassette comps with some cool artwork I did by hand. But I don't play em anymore, unless I'm going to digitize them through the computer. Just too much work with crummy analog sound and all that rewinding and fast forwarding that takes forever.
OF COURSE cassettes served a purpose for bands to get out their music without a label per se and there are hundreds and hundreds or rare, self-produced cassettes out there from the 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s. But I have more bad memories from cassette tapes than good ones. The worst memory of course is having so many cassettes break over the years or get stuck in tape decks and crumbled. I was a broke-ass kid back when I started listening to punk in ’87 so to have a cassette tape break sent me into a mild heart attack 'cuz I didn’t want to see what little money I had go down the drain and into the trash can. I had some vinyl back then but for some reason I bought a fair number of cassettes too. What was a real pain in the ass it was to perform surgery on broken or mangled magnetic tape from cassettes. If the tape was stuck but not broken, I’d carefully unwind part of the tape, put some pencils into the spools and then carefully rewind the tape back in as tightly as I could in an effort to remove the damage. Then of course I’d rewind and fast forward the tape a few times to "get it righted", not that this fixed the garbled sound too many times.
If the magnetic tape broke, this was a whole ‘nother process. I’d first cut down a small piece of scotch tape and put it on the underside of the magnetic tape to see if that would work. I’d rewind and fast forward the cassette a few times to try to “get it back to normal”. If the scotch tape didn’t work (or didn’t play through the tape deck- why would it when you really think about it) then I’d try to do a follow-up procedure by using my tiny screwdriver to take the whole damn thing apart. One time I remember re-cutting the tape but then it somehow got turned around so if you played the cassette it played backwards for a certain stretch before righting itself around- hilarious. Sometimes the outer plastic case would get cracked and prevent the otherwise fine tape from playing so I’d once again have to take the whole thing apart, carefully lift the spools out of the damaged case and reinstall them into a "good" shell. Not that I fucked around all the time with fixing damaged cassettes, but enough times to leave some bad memories.
What this all proves is that vinyl is the most rugged format that will be around in hundreds of years. When CD’s start skipping and become unplayable, when yer iPod crashes, implodes and is unusable, you can still put a needle onto a vinyl record and be assured that it will play. It might be a little scratchy or need a cleaning (I prefer the KAB EV-1 cleaning machine), but the record will play and you can continue to blow out your already-fragile, aging, abused eardrums.
New Posts Coming Soon!
So, in the future, I am really goin to try to just get shit posted in a more timely manner for the few people that regularly visit this site and who haven't given up on me. Granted, I have a few small kids runnin 'round the house, and they keep me busy but my time management skills gotta improve. Anyone want to pay for me to go to a class for it? har har
I have heard from some old band members (or people who know them) from Plain Jane and The Jokes/Insults, Deprogrammer and- drum roll please- the formerly mysterious Inclusions(!) so I will revise some old postings with corrected info straight from the sources. And maybe a mini-interview or two. Stay tuned.
Recipients
I do not have a vinyl copy of this 7" and cannot find a .jpg of it online, so the best I can do is this flyer for this early 1982 Austin show at which the Recipients played. Look at what only $5 would have gotten you on this night- not only the Big Boys but also the Dicks, Really Red, Butthole Surfers and the Recipients. Damn, damn, damn, that must have been quite a show.
8.5.2010 UPDATE
The former guitar player for the Recipients, Gino, recently posted a comment on this posting which is great news! It's always a pleasant surprise for me when, over a year after an original posting, I hear from a former member! Gino told me that former bass player Mike J. told him about my posting so that's cool that two former members stumbled upon this post. Gino provided some more info on the band which I have now added to this updated posting. All of the new info I have is in red.
Um, the Recipients were from Houston (home of the almighty Really Red among others), they released this one single in 1981 on their own label aaaand
The Recipients were around for two years, and here was their lineup:
Vocals- Chris
Guitar- Gino
Bass- Mike J.
Drums- CTF
Former member Gino said that most of the band went on to other groups and projects, so more on that once I get to chat further with him. Gino said the Recipients had some great times and did some wonderful shows with some great bands during their lifespan. It was Texas, it was 1981-1982, so I can only imagine! Really Red, anyone?
He also said that the Recipients recorded a 10-song demo (!) while they were around and were in the planning stage for releasing an LP (!) before their breakup. But, unfortunately, most of the stuff that they recorded at that time has been lost. A serious bummer, because I'm sure there was some great sounding stuff on those tapes that would have been nice to hear.
The very awesome Idle Time archive has two pictures of the band from that early 1982 show with the guest singer- one here and another here. I first saw a picture of the flyer for this show back in 1995 and the Recipients stood out because they were the only band name I didn't recognize on the bill. So I added them to a list of mystery bands I kept in my head (it was pretty big list at that point in time and has since dwindled a lot, thankfully). Fast forward a few years later when I saw them listed on the wonderful Texas Punk Discography when it was in its infancy- I was excited to see that the Recipients released a record. About a year later P.R. taped me a copy of the 7", and that was 10 years ago already.
"Constitution" was comped on the original Hyped To Death #1 comp CD back in 2000 and I think that's where many people rediscovered them. I don't have a vinyl copy of this record so I don’t have a scan of the sleeve but H2D #1 had a small glimpse of the rather plain sleeve that had black and white stripes on the front (and back?) with just the band name on it. Pretty Spartan. The A-side, "Lunatic", was to be comped on the Hooked On Junk LP back in 2003 but that project was aborted and never officially released- more on THAT comp at another time.
Both sides of this single are pretty original sounding stuff that stands out against yer average sounding stack of punk discs. The band plays in a rather passionate, energetic manner and there’s lots of great, unique guitar noise and some muscular drumming. But I think "Constitution" is the catchier and stronger of the two ditties. Pretty hummable, which is a good thing. "Lunatic" is nice too but it’s only downfall for me is that they repeat the chorus "You’re a lunatic! No I’m not; yes, you are!" about ten times too many and it gets slightly annoying. Other than that, it's nice. Um, the liner notes of H2D #1 called the band a cross between the Dead Kennedys and the Nasal Boys- err, I really wouldn't call it THAT. For me, I don’t take a comparison to the Nasal Boys lightly since their "Hot Love" 7" is a total barnstorming jaw dropper. And this Recipients 7" is not on that par. When I think "Dead Kennedys" I envision lots of echoplex guitar, and there's definitely none of that on this meat and potatoes 7". I’m not sure what to compare the Recipients too, actually. It's good, tho- enjoy.
Lunatic.mp3
Constitution.mp3
See kids, my route to hearing the Recipients 7" is how the whole process of hearing rare records used to work before punk music blogs were everywhere and the interweb was prevalent. It was a damn journey that would sometime take years. Nowadays, instant gratification means that you type a band or record name into Google and a minute or two later you’ve not only found a blog that has that record but you’ve already downloaded it and either burned the mp3’s onto a CD or loaded into directly onto yer iPod. Not to say I prefer "the old way"- I’d much rather have the quick, instantaneous route since it saves so much time and effort. But, looking back over the years, I've jumped through a lot of hoops in some quests to hear certain obscurities. I had regular places I'd scour "back in the day"- MRR’s great Scumpit columns of the late 80’s and early 90’s; the small print of want lists and sale lists in MRR’s classifieds (‘member those?); Dr. Strange Records’ huge printed catalogs; and Mike Bastarache’s great set sale lists. Once I made a list of records in my head, the first place to check was, of course, local record stores every week (this was before marriage, kids or a "career" so I had nothing but time to record shop back then). If that didn't turn anything up then I'd look through tape trading lists. If such and such tape trader had said items, then I'd mail him a letter with my wants, patiently wait a few weeks (or impatiently for months) and then finally get a cassette tape in the mail (this was several years before we all had burners and CD-R's). But nobody had certain rare records so that's where the never-ending want list came in and where certain records sat for years before I got a chance to hear them, eh.
Deprogrammer
I saw "semi-good" because I cannot get into the slower, rockier, moodier flipside on that record, "80-81". This points to a bigger fact that, overall, Deprogrammer is a mixed bag for me quality-wise. I have never heard their first record, the very rare "Discipline" 3-song EP, so I cannot vouch for the quality of that one. But for what I have heard I say "mixed bag" 'cuz Deprogrammer leans too much towards the rock part of "punk rock" for me. I cannot call them a "punk n’ roll" band- a style I usually get into- because, to me, that term means that you lean more towards the punk side than the rock side of the fence and I do not think Deprogrammer accomplishes that specific mixture. Not that they strived to in the first place.
Anyway, on this, their only LP (and their last of 3 records), which was released on the (in)famous Mystic Records label, they churn out 3 good songs for my ears. The rest of the tunes plod along and during those, I lose my interest and my mind begins to wander so I am not posting the whole LP. Plus the style of the singer is not really my cup of tea and kind of annoys me after a while, to be honest. The great Texas Punk Discography had me intrigued for the last 10 years since someone on that site called the LP "great guitarpunk chugs, nicely influenced by the Avengers and Flesheaters". Ummmmm, I guess we all hear different things in records, ya know, cuz the best Avengers or Flesheaters songs I know sound a lot better than what this LP has to offer. But maybe that's just ME.
I will get on a more positive vibe here and tell you why I like the 3 songs that I do on this here record. The leadoff track, "Heroine", is a fine choice to start the record- it's a slow grinder with the 'ol double entendre that is a thinly veiled homage to smack, dope, Lady Junk, whatever you want to call it. With such a lovingly sang ballad were these dudes really junkies or just singing wanna-be "junk rock"? Someone who was around back then post some comments and let me know. The next song I posted, "Denmark", is a catchy ditty that is rather hummable. But my favorite song on the LP is the last one I posted, "No Way", which leads off Side 2. It’s a rather tense affair with some great guitar work, nice punchy drumming and some neat tempo changes, especially at the 1:52 mark- great! "Denmark" has the "punk-friendly" length of 2 minutes- the other two are- gasp!- about 4 minutes long each which is way longer than I usually tolerate but I like em both for some reason.
If you want to hear the whole LP, search eBay- I found my copy on eBay for just under $15 last Fall so it won’t dent your pocketbook too much. I mean, the sleeve on my copy is a little beat up (as you can see in the above photos) but the vinyl was extremely clean. The sleeve is rather thick cardboard and the artwork is just plain and Spartan and kinda blah. The budget-minded vibe continues on the back of the sleeve where the lyrics to all songs are printed so no separate insert had to be pressed up. And the labels are in the "classic" Mystic style- flat-looking black and white with just the band logo and, of course, the Mystic logo we all know and love. Perhaps the plainness of the sleeve caused it to be overlooked by the record buying public and caused it to fade into obscurity. I mean, damn, with a better looking sleeve more people mighta picked this thing up in 1982. There were a lotta records out that year, a lot of which had much cooler sleeves that jumped out at ya.
Like I mentioned before, Deprogrammer was listed in the Texas Punk Discography but they were really Texas folks who transplanted to California- I think the only record they released while based in Texas was their 1st EP from 1980 (which, again, I have yet to hear) on the band’s At Last label. Their 2nd release, the "Instant Passion" 7" from 1981, was on the same label but the address is in Los Angeles. The story is that all band members were- except for San Diegoan and singer Richard Scott (aka Scott Shannon)- from Garland, TX which is just outside of Dallas, home of many great late 70's punk bands. Deprogrammer moved to L.A. after the "big" record deal with Mystic and sometime after the "Instant Passion" 7" they went from a 4 piece to a 5 piece with the addition of rhythm guitarist Jim Littleton. Er, considering that this LP was the band’s last release we can only guess that things did not work out so well with old Doug Moody’s Mystic label. I am curious to know more, so maybe someone from the band will post some comments and tell more firsthand stories of what led to the demise of the band- was frustration? Was it smack? Was it your Mom? Inquiring minds would like to know this (and an estimate of how many copies of the LP were pressed).
SIDE 1
Heroine.mp3
Subject Object
Letting Go
Take Th’ Blame
Nightmares
Denmark.mp3
SIDE 2
No Way.mp3
Forever
Propaganda
Complex
Plain Jane and The Jokes
(NORTHERN CALIFORNIA- SICK SOUND, 1981)
Here is a rather rare one from a post-Insults band- the guitarist was Richard B. Shively (aka "Richard Sikk") from the Insults, along with his wife Deborah on vocals. It is also on the same label as the 2nd Insults record, which was the snot"Stiff Love" 3-song EP (which you can check out here on the always great KBD Records site).
Of course there is also a bass player and drummer in Plain Jane and The Jokes, but I don’t know who they are since I only possess rips of this rarity instead of a vinyl copy so I can’t check the credits on the back of the sleeve or anything. Perhaps it was the other ex-Insults (?). If you happen to know this, or any other information about Plain Jane and The Jokes, please post some comments.
If you are familiar with and a fan of both great Insults 7"s from 1979, you will definitely recognize the similar guitar sounds emanating from Mr. Shively’s instrument. But while both Insults records were full of wild, off kilter guitar noodling, the playing on this Plain Jane record is a bit more restrained me thinks. They do cover the Insults' "Zombie Lover" (the B-side of their 1st 7") but I prefer the original over this redone version. There are also two other covers, a funny short one of the Velvet Underground’s long opus "What Goes On" as well as one of the first punk cover songs, that of the Dils’ immortal "Class War". Funny cover there, full of sloppy playing and the singer chanting "You asshole, you asshole, you asshole" at the end. Kind of lightens the mood of the serious and overtly political original if you ask me. [Speaking of the Dils, I think THEIR live cover of "What Goes On" (see the "What Stuff" comp) was very moody and much better. But I digress...] Plain Jane was "rediscovered" when their version of "Class War" was included on the beloved Bloodstains Across California comp way back in 1993. And that probably set off a fire storm of sorts amongst collector scum and sent the price skyrocketing after it languished it dollar bins for 12 years before that. But such is the nature of record collecting, eh.
Probably my favorite song on this pretty good 12" is the last one, "I Hate", which- given that they play three other cover songs- you may assume is a cover of White Boy’s killer 1978 song of the same name (from the mostly-great ":30 Over DC" comp LP which, incidentally, was reissued by Henry Rollins’ 2.13.61 label a few years back). But Plain Jane’s "I Hate" it is an original, uh, "composition" as are the first four tracks. This 12" is definitely not one of my favorite records but overall it's a fun, somewhat sloppy record that is definitely worth a few spins. The vocals are bit monotone and Deborah really can't sing all too well but I think that adds to the charm of this disc. Thought I'd post it because I haven’t seen it on any of the other 3,000 punk music blogs currently out there.
TRACK LISTING
Agent Orange
Hostage
Soylent Green
I Got Fired
Zombie Lover
What Goes On
Class War
I Hate
Here is a .rar file with all 8 songs on it
As an added bonus, here is the Insults 1st 7" (which used to be posted elsewhere but since disappeared), released on Ric Mar Records in 1979
Population Zero.mp3
Zombie Lover.mp3
ENDNOTES
The Insults were based out of Watsonville, CA- Plain Jane and The Jokes, I have no idea (someone help me out here). I always wondered where the fuck Watsonville was but found out a number of years back while driving with the Mrs. from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We took the scenic route that I highly recommend, driving due South along the Pacific Coast Highway that runs right next to the Pacific Ocean. Very nice, relaxing ride that you can split up over two days. Anyway, we get outside of San Francisco and about an hour or so later we see a sign for Santa Cruz. Exciting to me since I am a lifelong skateboarding fan and Santa Cruz Skateboards is based out of there. From the late 70’s until about 1991, Santa Cruz was THE punk company back when punk and skateboarding went hand in hand. They had the killer graphics from Jim Phillips, along with a bunch of raw, unpolished riders from Steve Olson to Duane Peters to Jason Jessee to Tom Knox.
But I digress again… anyway, we first pass Santa Cruz. Then a little later on is a nondescript sign for Watsonville, CA- I almost crashed the car since it kind of came out of nowhere. Here was the home of the Insults, the town in which they spawned such rude ditties as "Stiff Love" and crazy, whacked out anthems like "Population Zero". And, from what we saw, it looked like a mellow, cute, little, quiet town right next to the Pacific Ocean. For all we know, the Insults could have been sitting on the beach writing their classic tunes while staring off into the ocean as the waves rippled and the sun glistened on the water (ha!). I wanted to get off in Watsonville and find the first hippie record store I could that would be stockpiling multiple dead mint copies of both Insults 7”s 20+ years later (LOL!) but thought that’d be a pipedream so we kept on driving. But it made me think, yeah, I can see why the Insults played such rude stuff- they were in a little hippie town in Northern California and probably wanted to throw a monkeywrench in the mellow, quite vibe of their hometown and shock people a bit. Which I am sure they succeeded at after I saw their hometown firsthand. Thank goodness they- and countless other bands in the same situation worldwide- did this in the late 70’s because here we are 30 years later still enjoying their wreckords.
Lou Miami and The Kozmetix
5.12.2009 UPDATE
I've updated this posting by adding an mp3 of the B-side, "To Sir With Love". I was about to say "enjoy" but I'm not sure if you're going to like it- let me know.
Here’s a great song that, for some reason, was never included on a KBD-type comp during the 1995-2000 boom period of those comps, way before blog mania and the conveninence of having old stuff posted everywhere online. [Come to think of it, in this decade there's really only been two great vinyl comps of KBD-type stuff- 2001’s No One Left To Blame LP and 2005’s Staring Down The Barrel. And those were seemingly put out by the same chap. But I digress...]
"Fascist Lover" would have fit well on a late 90’s KBD comp, what with its fast pace and especially those thundering, barnstorming drums that really jump out at ya during the breaks (and ESPECIALLY during the last 20 seconds of the song- damn!). The drumming is one of the highlights for me, right along with the kooky-ass lyrics and the tall tale singer Lou Miami tells about his mother getting knocked up by a Nazi exile in South America after WWII. Huh?! Pretty off the wall stuff, especially the chant of "A fascist lover made my mother, and then my mother made me". Hilarious. And, to top it all, there’s a nice sharp gee-tar solo in the middle from guitarist Jack Rootoo (who, incidentally, died in June of 2008. Lou is dead too, but more on that later...)
Er, but then there's the flipside- a homoerotic cover of "To Sir With Love" that was made famous in the late 60's movie of the same name with Sidney Potier (?!?). So Lou Miami kept up the fine KBD tradition of "one great song per record" by choosing this as the flipside. Actually, it’s not THAT bad of a B-side I guess- there are ones far, far worse- and I have kind of sort of kind of warmed up to it over the years. Or maybe just gotten used to it being there. But it's still a total departure from the A-side so I have not included it. If I get some requests to post it, I will then probably toss it on here.
Now, if Lou Miami really released this record in 1982 Boston (some people say 1980), I bet he was a HUGE hit with the muscle-flexing, shaved head hardcore boys club since apparently he was a somewhat flamboyant character and wore makeup or drag sometimes on stage. Even the sleeve of the record is supposed to look like a Lord & Taylor cosmetics bag, fer Chrissake, complete with a plastic handle at the top- LOL! All that combined would have no doubt put him on the hit list of the "youth crew of youth".
Fascist Lover.mp3
To Sir With Love.mp3
ENDNOTES
There is a nice fan tribute page that I got some of my information from for this posting- go here to read the whole thing and to see some rare pictures and flyers of the band. According to that page and other sources, Lou Miami started playing in Boston around 1978 at famous places like The Rat and he and the Kozmetix ceased to exist in either 1984 or 1985. Besides the single, they also released a 6-song 12"EP in 1982 on the well-known (but spotty) Modern Method label. Circa 1985, they released the 6-song "Rituals" 12"EP on Chuck Warner’s Throbbing Lobster label- both of those later records were posted on this blog. The band also appeared on two comps, the "Sounds Electric" LP on the Revolution Records label and the "Boston Gets Stoned" LP that was on the Bowtown label and is a bunch of Rolling Stones covers (anyone have any of this stuff? Both of those comps are probably crap but I still wouldn't mind hearing em for curiosity's sake). According to the above fan page, Lou Miami got into witchcraft (?!) in- where else- Salem, MA and then died in Los Angeles of the ol'- ahem- "natural causes, heart failure" the first week of August 1995, just shy of his 40th birthday.
Reissue of Clockwork Criminals "Young and Bold" 7"EP- Coming Soon!
Speaking of reissues, Chicago-based label Drag City has been on a roll with reissues during these cold months (with namely the JTIV reissue and unreleased Death LP), and this momentum continues with their officially reissing the rare Fems "Go To A Party" 4-song 7"EP circa Buffalo, 1982- pick up one of these too! The label's site sold out of the reissue in ONE DAY after it came out on March 17th, but other places may still have copies although they seem to be disappearing fast- Google it and see where copies turn up (eBay- here they come! har har). NYC's Other Music had some copies mid-week but those now appear to be gone. [In case you forgot, the Fems were "rediscoved" when their great, unique-sounding tune "Go To A Party" was included on 2001's No One Left To Blame comp LP. Copies of that comp still turn up from time to time, so pick one up if you don't already have one, or if you played your original copy to death. Speaking of which, Death was rediscovered on that comp too].
Intravein
Well, I am sad to say (and I know those of you with short attention spans will also shed a tear) that this will be a shorter posting since I do not know much of anything about Intravein (who does?!) other than the fact that they were from the U.K. and that most copies of this 7" came in just a rubber-stamped plain white outer sleeve. And, according to the great Punk 77 site, supposedly some copies came in a black PVC sleeve which would be kind of funky looking if it really exists.
"Speed of The City" made it onto my Top 250 song list and is one of my favorite thug punk ditties. It’s a pretty tense affair, with a nice slow buildup in the first minute with just the drum pounding and spooky whispering. Around the :50 mark, that chunky bass line kicks in and does not let up until the end of this classic 4 minute (!) ditty (far longer than one man’s 2:36 rule!). To top it all off, at the halfway point this cool guitar solo barges in- very nice! And then more nice guitar noise towards the end. Pretty tough sounding stuff. A lot of good thug punk came outta the U.K., although other countries had some good stuff in a thug punk-ish vein- one example that quickly jumps to mind is Sweden’s Slobobans Undergang and their classic "Maktgalen". Or the tough-guy classic "Mercenary" from Brooklyn, NY’s Ducky Boys.
Well, the B-side "Sick" is also 4 minutes but is a clunker and just drags on and on for me. And has too much of a pub rock-vibe going on, which is a genre I have NEVER gotten into. I included it simply for the purposes of completion. Oh well, at least Intravein got it right for one memorable song.
Speed Of The City.mp3
Sick.mp3
ENDNOTES
Intravein morphed into just "The Veins" by 1979 and that band released one 7" called- yikes- "Lose Control To Rock n’ Roll" on Redball Records. Um, I have never heard it but I don't know if I ever really want to because two major red flags jump out at me. Red flag #1- that song title is just completely corny sounding and makes me suspicious that it'll just sound like shite. I get some sort of Spinal Tap-ish image in my head of the band all bug-eyed throwing up the horns and saying, "I just love control to rock n' roll, baby! Woooo!". The sleeve which I have seen brings to light red flag #2- the band has SEVEN frickin' members. Yes, 7. Most memorable punk bands were either trios or had 4 members, 5 would be pushing it at times. No classic bands had 6 or 7 members... expect maybe for Da Slyme but that’s a whole different story. Also on the sleeve several- not just one- of the Veins members have moustaches. And- here is the coup de grace- the band members include one "keyboards and synth" player. Not just the general "keyboards" credit but keyboards AND synth. Given that, I say case closed on this one. If you can prove me wrong and can speak of the greatness of the Veins 7" please let me know, or provide audio examples.
Mopo Mogo
I was first tipped off to the Mopo Mogo 7" back in '98. A year later, P.R. taped me a copy and I was hooked right away on its unique sound, especially by the snotty B-side. As you will hear, it does not follow the typical punk formula of "guitar-bass-drums" so it’s one of those outside-the-box classics. Um, first, there's no bass. Secondly, there's no real drums- just a drum machine (that of course brings to mind fellow Frenchmen Metal Urbain). And thirdly, as I found out through my research, there was no band.
It turns out that Mopo Mogo was a one-man band- namely, one Didier Ruyer who was just armed with a guitar, amp and drum machine. Didier was from the city of Colmar which, for reference’s sake, is about 5 hours Southeast of Paris and somewhat near the Swiss border (French and Swiss readers in the know will probably chide me for my simple Google Map geography). From what I understand, Mr. Ruyer was a race car driver(?!) of sorts who got into punk after hearing bands like the Dead Kennedys, and the 7" was then recorded a few months later. Judging from his photo of him on the front of the sleeve, he was trying hard to get "the punk look"- check out the spiky Mohawk, leather jacket and- how punk is this- the pet mouse on his right shoulder. The mouse makes me picture some Mohican character straight out of an early 80’s punxploitation movie where the main punk character squats under a dank, dirty bridge with only mice and other vermin as his friends. But I digress...
This 7" was the only Mopo Mogo record, but Didier Ruyer/Mopo Mogo appeared pseudonymously as "Le Cure De La Lune" ("The Father of The Moon") and contributed one song to an obscure punk and minimal synth compilation LP entitled "Colmar Futur" that was also released on the Studio label (label #16-024) in 1983. Supposedly 1,000 copies were pressed- does anyone have this LP? Furthermore, would you want to share some rips of it? Apparently the comp has 4 different bands on it.
Here is a picture of the front cover of the "Colmar Futur" comp LP
Both sides of this 7" are winners in my book and stand out against yer average "punk-by-numbers" classic. And of course because Didier sings in French- for me, French language punk just sounds so fucking cool. I mean, a French singer could be babbling about tying his shoes or emptying the trash but if it’s sung in French it just sounds totally smooth and flowing. The late, great Tim Yohannon of MRR once said many years ago that French is the language of punk, and I definitely second that. Like I mentioned before, the B-side "Fuck Off" is the real winner for me and kind of drips attitude with its slower approach. It’s very catchy, and you may find yourself humming the song and chanting the chorus in a sing along manner. But with a song title like "Fuck Off" it better have some attitude, ya know. If you’ve never heard this tune before, be patient because there’s a long, slow intro before it kicks into high gear around the :40 second mark. The A-side has a faster pace and, like the B-side, has some great wailing guitar noise but on this one the drum machine is almost at a fast pace. Weird, in a great way. I can’t think of another song with a speedy HC pace played on a drum machine.
"Pouvoir", was on the somewhat well-known comp LP from the 90's entitled "Chaos en France Volume 2". But as far as I know, "Fuck Off" has not been comped anywhere although IMHO it’s the better of two great tracks.
Pouvoir.mp3
Fuck Off.mp3
ENDNOTES
Now, there is some debate over how many copies of this 7" were actually pressed. Just first know that it's fucking rare and has gone for $300 or more on eBay. Some people say that 1,000 were pressed but given its high price tag that seems unlikely, unless there was some sort of scenario where most of the 7"s ended up in a trash can, were tossed in a field in the French countryside, or ended up lining bird cages or something. One old auction listing I found says that only 200 were pressed, and I tend to believe that estimate more given the record’s high price tag. I do not have a vinyl copy, just these rips. For years I struggled with a hiss-filled taped copy which was hard to clean up digitally and which I hesitated to post- thankfully the above mp3's I recently acquired have clean, clear sound (I think they were ripped from a vinyl copy).
Didier has been playing guitar in a Colmar-based group called Mai-ak Affair that has apparently been around since 1997. It's pretty mellow stuff that is not my cup of tea, though. Which of course means that no one else is allowed to listen to it.
mp3's Wanted
Hey Taxi "I Hate Dogs" (CA, 1980)
Infections "I'm Not Funny" (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1980- not the late 90's Rip Off band)
Thanks!
LJUD FRAN FRIBERGA
V/A "LJUD FRAN FRIBERGA" LP (BRODERNA SURF- SWEDEN, 1978)
In any event, in the
1999 issue of the great Ugly Things ‘zine, the one and only Mr. Johan "KBD 1-4"
Kugelberg made a very brief mention of the Ljud fran friberga comp that got my
nose open. Six months later, P.R. taped me a copy and finally 6 years later in
January 2006 I happened upon someone online was selling a copy (not through eBay) and I
couldn’t pass it up ‘cuz I don’t think copies turn up that often. The one I bought (and, er, not for $5 or
something) also came with an insert booklet which I didn’t know that it
did. The pocket sleeve is printed on
thin paper and is somewhat fragile so good luck finding a NM copy of this 31
year old record, Chachi.
And check out the
photos of the bands on the front- no one looks like they’re over 18! The kid on the far right looks like he’s 14
or somethin. So I guess this LP can be
considered true "Swe teen punk" (a popular catch phrase sometimes). The production has a very cool, garage-y
feel, and much of the playing is crude, raw, unpolished bashing which makes it
a winner in my book. Not to say there
aren't any clunkers- for my ears, the two Santa Luzia with prominent keyboards
are rather boring. But most tracks are so great, especially ones like "The King
and The Queen", "They Are Gone" and "Mrs. Blue". Dig that growling guitar noise on “Mrs. Blue”
that, dare I say, slightly reminds me of Nervous Breakdown-era Black Flag. The High Voltage track “I’m A Fool” was on
KBD #50 back in 2003 but, while good, I don't think it's the best track. But, as well as know, taste is a very
personal thing. I don't think any of
these bands released their own records or appeared anywhere else- if you know something
to the contrary (or have the discs!) please post some comments.
SIDE 1
Chilly Chimes- The
King and The Queen
Fifth Avenue- Night
Overdoze- They Are
Gone
High Voltage- I’m A
Fool
Superstition- Mrs.
Blue
Santa Luzia- Saj,
alskar du maj
SIDE 2
Santa Luzia- Tysta
gatan
Superstition- Real
Cardiac
High Voltage- I Saw
Her
Overdoze- Run
Through The Desert
Chilly Chimes- Katti
har inaa kamrater
Check out a .rar file of the entire LP here
Breakouts
BREAKOUTS "JACKED UP URBAN MODIFIED" CD (SAN FRANCISCO, 1996)
I don’t have an original copy of this CD but
it was dubbed for me by J.T. in '96 back in my tape trading days and was
originally identified as an unreleased CD.
For all of these years I thought it was never was officially released
UNTIL I began putting this post together and found out that it was indeed
released, albeit in a limited manner and apparently without any distribution. I also found out the official name of it,
because for all of these years I have just been calling it "Unreleased
Breakouts CD". Did have the track listing for all these years, tho.
If anyone knows of
his whereabouts (or if you are reading this yourself Rudy Fontaine), post some
comments. Some comments on another blog talk about how mighty the Breakouts were live in early 80’s, and other blog commenter mentioned that he has live tapes from that era full of unreleased tracks- if this is you, share the
wealth eh.
Lux Interior R.I.P.
I found out a few things from reading a few online obituaries- first, the fact that Lux and Ivy were married for 37 years. I knew they were a couple for more than 30 years but, wow, they've been married as long as I've been alive. Now I knew he was born in Ohio (lovely Stow to be exact, about 40 miles Southeast of Cleveland and a little North of Akron), but I did not know that he was born on October 21, 1948 which made him 62 years old. I also did not know that he had a pre-existing heart condition prior to his death. So while you and I complain about being tired after surfing the internet or flipping through dollar bins at record stores, Lux had more legitimate health complaints AND he still found time to writhe around on stage like a madman for years and years.
First Ron Asheton, then Lux- what icon is next to die in 2009? Shit, we're only 5 weeks into the new year. And I am still very bummed that Rudy Ray Moore another legendary Ohioan (via Fort Smith, Arkansas) died last October.
I think I am going to make a contribution to Glendale Hospital in memory of Lux, and I think you all should too.
Ron Asheton of Stooges, RIP
I also found out through the power of the information superhighway that this Saturday the 17th there will be a tribute held at The Music Hall Center For The Performing Arts located at 350 Madison Street in Detroit- The Detroit Free Press has more info and an article here. Me, the Mrs. and the kids usually go to Detroit to see family King Day weekend but cannot this year... damn.
While I was not some kind of Stooges fanatic, I was a big fan of most of their classic ditties. I will never forget being floored the first time I heard Mr. Asheton's amazing guitar noise on "I Wanna Be Your Dog" many years back as a young and impressionable teenager. That was the first Stooges song I heard, followed by the equally amazing "No Fun", then "T.V. Eye" and the list goes on.
Opus
Ah, here is one of the "holy grails" of punk rekkids- this mega rarity supposedly only had about 200 copies pressed. But out of that small number, not many survived- the story goes that bassist A.J. Terry had most copies of the small pressing, but when he and his friends were kicked out of the Silverlake, CA house in which they were residing most copies Mr. Terry had were thrown away by the people who promptly gave them the boot. And the rest is history for fans of the obscure micro pressings. About four years ago uber punk detective #1 Ryan Richardson cracked the case, the details of which are on the Opus page of his great Break My Face site so I am not going to repeat them all here.
From hearing some differing opinions over the years about
this record, there seems to be a line drawn in the sand about it. Seems that the people that hate it and/or
don’t think it’s that great of a record think those who hype it up, love it and
cream their jeans over it do so only because it’s so painfully rare and NOT
because the music is that great. Or they
think people grow to like the record and give it a break only because of its
rarity. The detractors say that had the
Opus 7" been a common punk disc with thousands of copies floating around
(imagine that!), it wouldn’t be such a revered classic.
OK, on to my sidebars (I love these although you may not). According to a friend of the band, the first copies of the 7" came with the yellow sleeve and the white sleeve came after. Which, due to its extreme rarity, translates to mean that 1 or 2 surviving copies have the yellow sleeve while the other 10 or so known copies have the white one. Here is the yellow sleeve- I don’t want to call it a "variation" because it's got the same pictures and layout as the white sleeve and is just a different color of paper really.
I thought the Discwasher was doing a good of a job as it
could, as certain records still had noticeable noise on them and I just chalked
it up to the nature of vinyl, or to the fact that maybe my Dischwasher kit was
worn out. But then someone tipped me off
to the joys of real nerdy record cleaning when they recommended Nitty Gritty’s
budget-minded KAB EV-1 kit.
Now of course I had heard of these expensive audiophile cleaners for a while but when I saw the price tags for some hovering around $500 (and even as much as a fucking grand!) I said forget it for years. The KAB EV-1 is on the low end of cost at around $150 but it does a bang up job of cleaning most records. It looks a bit odd hooking up your vacuum cleaner to the EV-1 but it vacs most of that grimy shit away. But of course some records are too far gone with too many scratches or to get them sounding Near Mint again. So in those cases, make sure you’re vague and say it's a "vintage pressing in pretty good condition" as you try to sell it on eBay. The future owner will love you for it.
Defnics- Unreleased Live Tracks From 1981
The Defnics’ only release back in the day was the “51%/Hello From Berlin” 7” back in 1981 on Terminal Records which was the label run by Mike Hudson of the almighty Pagans (Terminal Tower = Cleveland landmark- get it?). More on that 7” later... The Defnics’ singer and rhythm gee-tarist was Bobby Conn (nee Bill DeGidio) who was in the almighty late 70’s Pagans for a brief time and actually sang on the immortal “Six and Change” before Mike Hudson took over as lead warbler. Er, Messrs Hudson and Conn had some falling out years later because, according to Mike Hudson’s liner notes for Thermionic’s 1998 reissue of Terminal’s 1982’s GREAT “Cleveland Confidential” comp LP, he said Bobby Conn turned into a “white power Nazi dude” who scared Hudson’s wife and son. Fuck. The lead guitarist for the Defnics was Bob Sablack who would go on to several other good Cleveland bands back in the 80’s like the Pink Holes, the Plague and others.
When I discovered the Defnics way back when, I had found yet another hometown band to be proud of (although I was hearing them for the first time years after their 1982 breakup). Even though they were from the East Side of Cleveland, The Defnics still rocked in my book (ha ha). Let me explain my lighthearted jab-- I grew up on the West Side of Cleveland and for years there’s been this “East Side vs. West Side” rivalry of sorts. Chicago has the North Side vs. South Side thing (and the West Side vs. South Side thing too) for example- I guess most major U.S. cities have similar pseudo-jingoistic rivalries going on. Cleveland’s East vs. West rivalry has lots of different factors layered in it, but at least when I was growing up in Cleveland it boiled down to West Siders seeing themselves as more salt of the earth, down home, common folks while East Siders were seen as snootier, wealthier and more elitist. Or maybe I should sum it up like this- West Siders worked in the factories owned by the East Siders. Both the East and West sides of Cleveland have wealthy AND normal, working-to-middle class suburbs which kind of negates the perception each side has of each other but enough on that for now.
Anyway, the address for the Defnics on the back of my vinyl copy of their 7” is in Eastlake, a "normal" East Side suburb (in terms of median income) about 20 miles Northeast of downtown Cleveland that is very close to Lake Erie. Due to its close proximity to the lake, Eastlake is near the infamous “snowbelt” area of Cleveland where they get fucking dumped on in the wintertime with wonderful lake effect snow. ANY part of Cleveland gets a lot of the white stuff every winter, but the snowbelt is like the usual heavy snowfall x 10. Fun.
OK- back to the issue at hand, the Defnics. A year after I first heard their 7” I then heard their great track on the “Cleveland Confidential” comp LP, the very tense and haunting slow grinder, “Suicide Trip”. Cool! The Defnics were 3 for 3 in my book so far. These were the only three songs that the Defnics committed to vinyl back in the early 80’s, but I really wanted to hear more. There had to be some unreleased live or studio stuff, I thought.
And it turns out that there was! A short two years later in late 1996, back in the height of my tape trading days, someone from Cleveland taped me some unreleased live stuff by the Defnics (c’mon, where else would stuff like that pop up on a tape trader list?!). It was great- lots of LOUD thick guitars, nice singing by Mr. Conn, very catchy and hummable mid-tempo ditties that were in a similar vein as “51%”. As with many of my live tapes, this one came with no song titles but someone that I recorded it for around 2000 actually wrote to the band via the great ClePunk.com site and acquired all of the song titles (thanks P.R.).
Listening to the unreleased stuff over the years, it made me sad to think such great stuff never saw the light of day on an official rerelease. I thought that perhaps these great tunes would linger in the netherworld of tape trading forever so why not put it on my blog. Well, while I was halfway done with this post I did a random Google search on the Defnics and actually found out that the Smog Veil label is actually going to put out a Defnics reissue, er, tomorrow (January 6th) entitled “Black Hole Anthology 1980-1982”. Um- the timing of my posting and this reissue is coincidental, as I was planning on doing this post for some time but kids, family life and the holidays interfered. [Well, the holidays interfered- I love my wife and kids so I should choose to instead say “postponed” in reference to them, eh]
From listening to the quick 30 second audio samples on Amazon, it looks like this Smog Veil reissue not only has the 7” and their Cleveland Confidential comp track but also unreleased live AND studio stuff from the early 80’s. Although I have never met him, I am kind of acquainted with the cool guy Frank Mauceri who runs Smog Veil and I don’t want to steal his thunder so I have slightly revised the tracks I posted below so as not to lapover with his label’s official reissue. One of the tracks, “Governor’s Daughter”, that I was going to post sounds identical to the version that was also included on Smog Veil’s 2001 “Pies and Ears” comp of lots of Cleveland bands so that song is not here. I also see that the upcoming Defnics reissue also has a different version of the track "My Girl" that I was going to post below, so I left that one off too so there is no lapover again although the versions of it differ. I’d love to know why the ones I posted below were not included on the upcoming Smog Veil reissue ‘cuz they are great- ESPECIALLY the lead off track, “1981”, and are NOT substandard filler by any stretch as is the case with too many “discovered” live tapes I have heard over the years by other KBD-type bands. Perhaps the song title “Daddy’s Little Homo” was seen as a bit too politically incorrect for 2009 (er, plus the sound quality is a little too rough also). Social Distortion gave us “Mommy’s Little Monster” and the Defnics gave us "Daddy's Little Homo", so I guess they can be considered companion tracks of sorts- har har har...
Most of these tracks were recorded at the famous J.B.’s Down Under in Kent, Ohio which is about 40 miles South of the Defnics’ home base of Eastlake (and 10 miles or so Northeast of Akron a.k.a. Rubber City, also home to some cool bands in the late 70’s and early 80’s). Kent, Ohio is of course home to Kent State University where VietNam war protestors were shot dead at in 1970. Another embarrassing bit of Ohio trivia (there’s a lot of it, my friends- don’t get me started or this blog posting will go on forever). Cleveland had a famous long-time venue called Peabody’s Down Under that I saw some great shows at in the late 80’s but totally different place than J.B.’s in Kent.
LIVE @ J.B.’s DOWN UNDER, KENT, OHIO, 1981
1981.mp3
Filing Out.mp3
(Banter With Crowd Hecklers).mp3
Governor's Daughter
Wild Dreams.mp3
My Girl
Mongo Boy.mp3
Bringing Me Down.mp3
51%.mp3
LIVE IN OHIO, 1981 (LOCALE UNKNOWN)
Daddys Little Homo.mp3
ENDNOTES
From reading the VERY informative Defnics page on ClePunk.com with lots of info from lead guitarist Bob Sablack, the band apparently had some problems at Kent, Ohio shows with the local skinheads- perhaps this who was heckling the band during these live songs and taunting them to play faster. Or, if not skinheads, then maybe some local drunk redneck wandered into J.B.’s that night (always a fun person to have at shows) and gave the band some shit (?).
Stamps collectors- get out your magnifying glasses and follow along with me as I dissect the fragile sleeve for the Defnics 7”. First off, my copy- like all others- is a plain white inner sleeve that has square, mustard yellow-colored paperstock pasted on both sides. I absolutely LOVE homemade sleeves on punk records- it’s very charming, DIY and part of what makes punk so, er, punk for me. I just picture the band sitting in some kitchen gluing together all 1,000(!) sleeves, in between swigging on some beer, for a very long period of time. I mean, it seemed like a long, two-part process- first they had to glue together the sleeves (and then wait for them to dry) before they slid the actual vinyl into each and every sleeve or else the glue might have permeated and wrecked the vinyl. What a labor of love.
Damn, they must have used some strong glue on the sleeve because the record is almost 30 years old and the paperstock on my copy show no signs of loosening or peeling off. From the Defnics page on ClePunk.com, I found out that the cover photo of the band playing live was taken at a place called The Flipside on Green Road (in Eastlake?). The back of the 7” shows the band standing between two garages in someone’s backyard- wonder where this photo was taken. Speaking of the back of the sleeve, this is where some variations come in when I do a little research. My copy has the band's contact address in Eastlake handwritten in blank pen in the lower left-hand corner (see picture of my copy above)- also handwritten is "Write!" just below the address. But I seen other copies- like this one on Brian Sayle’s great punk rock sleeve archive site- which have NO address on the back of the sleeve- hmmm? Maybe some old band member will post a comment here and clear up this important global dilemma. How many copies had the handwritten addresses out of the 1,000 pressed? Inquiring minds want to know. Forgot the problems with the economy or the war in Iraq- this sleeve issue demands our utmost attention and focus in the new year.
Some sleeveless copies of the Defnics 7” turned up in the mid 90’s at this bad record shop in Cleveland with a wanker of an owner who hovered over you and who kept his short stack of Defnics 7” under the counter. I forget how much he sold them for, or to what “elite” customers, but I tried to obtain a copy on a trip to Cleveland in 1995 and was totally denied in a somewhat condescending manner by that tosser. Goddammit, I cannot remember the name of that place for the life of me but I remember he had a small section of punk vinyl which was ridiculously overpriced for dog-eared copies of some common U.K. 7”s. Doh.
I keep plugging the ClePunk site, but they have a GREAT stream (read: not for download) of two live Defnics songs here- one of unknown title and “51%”. These tracks seem to have come from a different show than the one I am posting but is still circa 1981 or 1982 and not from the Defnics’ early 2000’s reunion.
One more thing if you’re still reading- there is a documentary that has had some East and West Coast screenings called “Cleveland’s Screaming” that talks about the early-to-mid 80’s Cleveland and Kent, Ohio scenes (HC mostly). I have not seen it yet but there are several trailers on YouTube, and very soon Parts Unknown Records is supposed to be selling copies. There was a GREAT interview with the guy who did the film in the January 2009 issue of good old Maximum Rock n’ Roll. It was a fantastic issue in general, as the theme was “Punks and Film” and aside from interviews with contemporary filmmakers, went all the way back to punxploitation films of the late 70’s and early 80’s. But, sorry, no interview with our friend, the beloved Steven Blush who did “American Hardcore”. Har har.
Ground Zero
How many damn bands named themselves Ground Zero in the late 70's and early 80's? I can think of three off the top of my head- the ones from Boston who had a few cool songs (see Killed By Death #12); another one from Minneapolis who released an LP (and maybe other stuff?) in the mid 80's; and then this obscure bunch from fucking Pittsburgh.
This is a cool, catchy EP that is all over the place- hooky punk, HC and and even an "artsier", slower track in the last song, "You Talk". The guitar on "Controversy" is just so darn happpy sounding that you cannot think any bad thoughts (like you might whenst listening to evil KBD stuff like Vicious Visions "I Beat You" or Bobby Soxx "Scavenger of Death"). It was 1982 and HC ruled the nation, so the third track "Living In Tandem" is their nod to the prevailing trend at the time. But me thinks they were probably more comfortable playing non-HC "traditional" punk like "Controversy". The 2nd track, "T.V. Land" is crappy wanna-be reggae dreck sandwiched in between two great tracks, and I was not going to include it. But for the sake of being a "completist" and posting the whole EP, I reluctantly put it down below. I try not to include crap tracks in my postings so hopefully this will not sully my reputation. Well, at least they got it right on 3 out of 4 tracks.
Controversy.mp3
TV Land.mp3
Living In Tandem.mp3
You Talk.mp3
A couple of side notes (as usual)- first, listening to this record made me realize that I split stuff into "A List" and "B List" records. This Ground Zero EP would be on the B Team. I mean, it's mostly good but not a "must have" jaw dropper of an A-Lister like The Mad's "I Hate Music" or The Weirdos' "Solitary Confinement". Far from it, but good for a listen once and a while. Or a welcome surprise a track like "Controversy" pops up on a shuffle on my trusty iPod. Perhaps this record is remembered more in collector scum's minds because it is rather rare and obscure.
Which brings me to my next sidebar. This record is definitely on my list of "Records I Kinda Wish I Hadn't Traded Away" since copies of it do not pop up that much. I've had a Favorite Search on eBay for this record for some time, and zilch has popped up. I first got interested in finding this EP when it was listed on Tim Yo's famous Want List from MRR (from like the March 1989 issue). I used to study that list because it had hundreds and hundreds of records I had never heard of before, including this EP. So one day in 1996 I was happy to stumble upon a copy for like $2 at a local record store during my weekly hunts. If I remember right, it had a cool, kinda fragile silkscreened sleeve (the above image is borrowed) and an insert [I really am impartial to silkscreened sleeves in my old age]. But then in the late 90's I thought, "Eh, it's all about the music- do I really need an actual copy of this record? I can just record it onto cassette and enjoy the tunes without having to necessarily put needle to wax" So in a big deal, 20-record trading deal with someone this EP went to a new home on the East Coast (who knows where it's traveled since then). Oh well, I know we are all supposed to not have regrets and all that, blah, blah, blah but I KINDA regret getting rid of this EP. But it's not on the list of records I TRULY regret trading away. Man, THAT would be an interesting posting but perhaps too emotional for me to do...
NEW POSTS COMING SOON!
Until that time, dig on the below video of The Screamers circa 1978. I am not on YouTube a lot, but this is one of the coolest things I've found on there. Too bad so many other bands with synthesizers never sounded as evil and punk as The Screamers...
Inclusions
Here is a band about which I know absolutely nothing, other than the fact that they were from Minneapolis (damn, what a great scene they had in the late 70's and early 80's!)... and they made only one record, this nice angular DIY-ish 7" which apparently was issued without a picture sleeve. So if you've come lookin' for a raw and snotty posting then you will probably want to skip this one.
The U.K. was like the DIY headquarters in the late 70's and early 80's but there were a number of great like-minded records from the U.S. during that same time period (more postings of them will follow in the future). With this track from The Inclusions, you get a great stripped-down, minimally-produced sound that includes- gasp!- an acoustic guitar. How unpunk is that?! I usually despise acoustic guitars, but here it totally works for some reason. Maybe it's the subtlety of it. The singer also has a unique, sing-songy "up and down" style that I dig but which will probably annoy others. I also like the guitar noise (of the electric type) that kicks in towards the end, nice way to end it.
The great Collector Scum.com site dated this 7" from 1980, but I say 1981 since it has all these Ronald Reagan references and he did not become President and start destroying the U.S. until January 20, 1981. Unless of course The Inclusions were closely following the 1980 presidential race and recorded it in late 1980 sometime after the November election. Which is kind of unlikely since nearly all (all?) Reagan references do not start appearing in punk records until 1981 (now THERE's an idea for a future posting!). Very early in the year too, I may add, which shows how much he pissed people off from the get go. But that's another issue in itself...
If you know anything about The Inclusions (or have a spare copy or two you want to donate to me) please post some comments. Um, since my other postings are short novels I feel kind of obligated to write more but I guess I will cut it short. Oh yeah- the B-side, "Russian Youth", is not quite up to par as the A-side so I didn't post it [11.20.2008 POSTSCRIPT: due to a request, I have stopped being stingy and have now posted the other side]. Thanks to S.B. (via J.R.) for burning this for me a number of years back.
Unamerican Activity.mp3
Russian Youth.mp3
Back From The Grave
Before I heard the rather amazing Back From The Grave comps, my understanding of rock n’ roll from the 1960’s was very limited. I thought rock in the 60’s comprised of mainly two periods: syrup-y safe Beatles and British Invasion-type stuff in the mid 60’s and then wanky psychedelic hippie shit between 1967 and 1969. And I thought that was about it. I liked the cool guitar noise on The Stones’ "Satisfaction", I dug the rawness of the Kinks’ "You Really Got Me" and I thought Hendrix could noodle the guitar pretty well (although he meandered on and on sometimes). And I had always liked Question Mark and The Mysterians’ "96 Tears". But I thought that was the extent of raw, somewhat in-your-face, good 60’s music.
I thought raw and desperate did not happen in rock until the 1977 punk explosion. I had no idea that hundreds, if not thousands, of obscure-o garage bands released total stompers back in the dark ages of the mid-60’s. [Yes, you guessed it- my next sentence here is "…But that all changed when I heard Back From The Grave comps"]. Man, there were some pissed off, scorned teens recording some splendid fuckedness back in 1966! By "splendid fuckedness" (a term coined I think by Mr. Richardson to describe the 70’s KBD sound) I mean raw guitars, desperate vocals, pounding drums and- ah!- crummy production. Basically a general disregard for "playing it safe" and being commercially viable. ALTHOUGH- and this makes Back From The Grave ditties even MORE charming- some of these musical trainwrecks were good ol "happy accidents" and me thinks not an intentional shunning of commercial potential. Like the band intended to make "a hit" and ape The Stones or some other popular group but instead the song committed to vinyl came out sounding just fucked and a record that no one would dare buy or, if they did, it was promptly thrown into the trash. (Which of course explains in some cases why some of these 60’s punk discs are so painfully rare. But I digress...). I mean, Back From The Grave is basically a collection of love songs. Yeah, some of the scorchers are "woman-you-did-me-wrong" ditties but look at some of the others with their sappy "I love you!" lyrics.
[To get on a slight tangent (my specialty), I am always fascinated by "happy accidents", whether they involves 60’s punk, 70’s punk, UK DIY or whatever. Regarding some of these happy accidents on a Back From The Grave comp, here’s how I picture it going down back in 1966 with some of these bands. Band plays lots of teen dances and has a growing following. Band attracts interest of record label, probably a shady one. Band is excited and goes to said label’s run-down basement "studio" that had bad mics, a bad mixing board and cheap equipment to record their single. Band feels happy after the recording session and feels like they will have a can't miss "hit" on their hands and be the next big thing. Band listens to recording session and can’t believe how fucked the production sounds and how distorted their guitars came out. Label releases raw single anyway. Radio stations and the general public totally ignore band’s single. Most copies are thrown into the trash and band is forgotten. Which is where a 60’s addict like Tim Warren finds them nearly 20 years later and puts them on his Back From The Grave comps.]
What is really funny to me is how some of the bands with the corniest hairdos or straight-laced appearances (suits and ties, anyone?) produced some of the rawest memorable ditties of all on these comps.
Sad to say, I did not hear my a Back From The Grave LP until 1996. I clearly remember becoming interested in hearing them after reading a great long feature on bootlegs in an issue of MRR from the Summer of ’91. In that article, they interviewed Mr. Kugelberg (before everyone knew he was the culprit) about releasing KBD Volumes 1-4. He said that his inspiration came from the (I quote) "fuck-all amazing Back From The Grave series". I thought, jeez, if those 60’s comps inspired him to do his great KBD volumes then they’re probably worth checking out. But that still didn’t happen for another 5 years as I was neck-deep in obsessing over late 70’s/early 80’s Killed By Death-type stuff.
All eight Back From The Grave volumes have great stuff on em. But that’s not to say all songs on all volumes are top-notch. There are some clunkers and out of place songs- but that’s ANY comp, from the 60’s or 70’s or whatever time period. I am not a big fan of tambourines and especially not harmonicas, and there are enough mediocre songs with those flavors spread across the eight volumes to make me sigh and press the "Next" button on my iPod (the modern day equivalent of picking up the record needle and going to the next song, I suppose). But taken as a whole, Back From The Grave is an amazing series filled with a lot of wild stuff that was thankfully documented and preserved by the fanatical Tim Warren. And the "revenge" artwork on all eight volumes totally rules and is hilarious.
Hopefully people bored with bad music in 20 or 30 more years will stumble upon Back To The Graves and be awestruck too. When they’re all grown in 20 years, hopefully my two sons will ask me "Hey Dad, have you ever heard those Back From The Graves? Wow, great stuff!" But hopefully they won’t ask me until I first get a chance to put in my hearing aids so I can hear properly hear them, har har…
A lot of great songs stick out in my head as being the best cuts, but I have tried to narrow it down to a Top 10, Next 10 and Honorable Mentions. What are yours?
MY TOP 10 (ALPHA ORDER ONLY)
1. Groop- Alright.mp3 (Volume 8)
One of the most high energy BFTG songs, especially on what sounds like bongo drums. For me, the drumming on this tune is the 60’s equivalent of The Maids’ "Back To Bataan" from more than a decade later.
2. Jerry and The Others- Dont Cry To Me.mp3 (Volume 3)
Amazing pounding and thundering drums- damn! One of the best drum solos ever, as funny as that may sound since drum solos usually involve groups like Rush.
3. Jesters of Newport- Stormy.mp3 (Volume 5)
Very tense and organ-driven. Good guitar solo too. Second best use of an organ ever, right next to "96 Tears".
4. Keggs- To Find Out.mp3 (Volume 5)
Totally primitive and out of tune slop- a genre-defining song, I think. If there was ever to be a dictionary entry for Back From The Grave, it should say "See Keggs,The". This song MUST have been a "happy accident"- there is no way the band intended for it to sound this primitive when they went into the studio that morning with a hangover to record this classic.
5. Outsiders- Summertime Blues.mp3 (Volume 2)
This stomper of a cover song, with its amazingly LOUD and raw guitar snarl, completely blows away the wimpy original.
6. Puddin Heads- Now You Say Were Through.mp3 (Volume 7)
The production on this raw and fast tune totally throws the great pounding drumming and loud guitar snarl right in the front of the mix. Listen closely and you’ll hear a juice harp in the background- how eccentric and odd!
7. Reasons Why- All I Really Need Is Love.mp3 (Volume 2)
Some pretty sappy lyrics but some raw, fast manic guitar playing makes you forget about that. Also cool is that this came out not in the usual Back From The Grave year of 1966 but rather 1967 when hippie shit and wanky psychedelic music was everywhere and rock n' roll like this had mostly disappeared.
8. Sir Winston and The Commons- Were Gonna Love.mp3 (Volume 3)
Totally mean and nasty guitar crunch and punchy drumming makes for a jaw-dropping combination. No other Back From The Grave song has guitar noise that sounds quite like this, me thinks.
9. Snails- Snails Love Theme.mp3 (Volume 7)
A slow, mean grinder that is as primitive as The Keggs’ “To Find Out”. Probably the biggest and best musical trainwreck on Back From The Grave. Just amazing. The first guitar of many, er, "solos" at the :45 second mark makes me cringe and grit my teeth- beautiful! These guys (and their gal pals) had a big-ass party in the studio with hilarious results. I laugh every time sometime in the background drunkenly yells "Raaandy, baaaaby!" near the beginning. For some reason, the singer sounds to me like he’s preaching so I picture him singing behind a pulpit with dark shades on while the band plays behind him in some hot, run-down church while their gal pals and other friends get wasted in the pews and throw bottles and hamburger wrappers all over the place.
10. Vestells- Wont You Tell Me.mp3 (Volume 5)
A more melodic, "feel good" track and not really raw and snarling like a lot of Back From The Grave songs, but extremely catchy and hummable.
MY NEXT 10 (ALPHA ONLY)
Botumles Pit- 13 Stories High (Volume 4)
Fugitives- You Can't Blame That On Me (Volume 3)
Golden Catalinas- Varsity Club Song (Volume 6)
Half-Pint & The Fifths- Orphan Boy (Volume 7)
Illusions- City of People (Volume 5)
Intruders- Ain't Coming Back (Volume 3)
Murphy and The Mob- Born Loser (Volume 3)
Outspoken Blues- Not Right Now (Volume 8)
Sloths- Makin' Love (Volume 4)
Worlocks- I Love You (Volume 7)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (ALPHA ONLY, AGAIN)
Benders- Can't Tame Me (Volume 8)
Bunker Hill- The Girl Can't Dance (Volume 4)
Canadian Rogues- Keep In Touch (Volume 2)
Dave Myers & The Disciples- C'Mon Love (Volume 8)
Elite U.F.O.- Now Who's Good Enough (Volume 8)
Few- Escape (Volume 5)
Gentrys- Wild (Volume 7)
Little Willie and The Adolescents- Get Out of My Life (Volume 3)
Moguls- Another Day (Volume 7)
Nightriders- With Friends Like You, Who Needs Friends (Volume 8)
Spiders- Don't Blow Your Mind (Volume 7)
Tombstones- I Want You (Volume 7)
Travel Agency- Jailbait (Volume 7)
Triumphs- Surfside Date (Volume 2)
My Top 250 Songs
[I know, I haven’t
posted anything to the site in more than 3 months which is like 10 years in
“blog time”. So I’m sure people have
probably either given up on me and stopped checking the site to see what’s
new. Maybe some folks got mad and even
deleted me from their internet favorites, har har.
Alan Milman Sect-
Stitches In My Head (NYC, 1977)
Bad Brains- Big
Takeover (NYC, 1981)
Bad Brains- Pay To
Cum (7” version) (D.C., 1980)
Black Flag- Damaged
II (with Dez only, from 'Everything Went Black') (CA, 1980)
Bobby Soxx-
Scavenger of Death (TX, 1980)
Buzzcocks- What Do
I Get? (
Cheifs- Blues (CA,
1980)
Crime- Hot Wire My
Heart (SF, 1976)
Dead Kennedys-
Holiday In
Detention- Dead
Rock n' Rollers (NJ, 1983)
Dicks- Rich Daddy
(TX, 1983)
Eat- Communist
Radio (FL, 1979)
Electric Eels-
Agitated (
Endtables- Process
of Elimination (KY, 1979)
Filth- Don't Hide
Your Hate (
Flesheaters- The
Word Goes Flesh (CA, 1979)
Frantix- My Dad's A
Fuckin' Alcoholic (
Gasoline- Killerman
(
Germs- No God (CA,
1978)
KAOS- Alcoholiday
(CA, 1980)
Kriminella
Gitarrer- Vardad Klädsel (
Mad- I Hate Music
(NYC, 1978)
Mad Virgins- Fuck
& Suck (
Maids- Back To
Mentally Ill-
Gacy's Place (IL, 1979)
Middle Class- Out
of Vogue (CA, 1978)
Nasal Boys- Hot
Love (
Normals- Almost
Ready (N'Leans, 1978)
Pagans- Dead End
Pagans- What's This
Shit Called Love (
Public Disturbance-
S&M (NJ, 1983)
Razar- Stamp Out
Disco (
Really Red- Modern
Needs (TX, 1980)
Rude Kids- Absolute
Ruler (
Sonics- The Witch
(LP version) (
Iggy and The Stooges-
Search and Destroy (
Tapeworm- Break My
Face (CT, 1978)
Teengenerate- This
Is Rock n' Roll (
Weirdos- Solitary
Confinement (CA, 1978)
Wipers- Over The
Edge (
THE REST OF THE
250 (ALSO IN ALPHA ORDER ONLY)
A Tribe Called Quest- Award Tour (NYC, 1993)
Absentees- Tryin' To Mess With Me (CA, 1981)
Action- T.V.'s on The Blink (
Adolescents- Kids of The Black Hole (CA, 1981)
A-Frames- Nobot (
Agent Orange- Bloodstains (I prefer the 'Rodney On ROQ
v.1' version) (CA, 1980)
Alleycats- Nothing Means Nothing Anymore (CA, 1978)
Angry Samoans- Lights Out (CA, 1982)
Attentat- Omyndiga (
Bad Brains- Don't Need It (NYC, 1981)
Bad Posture- Time For Smack (SF, 1983)
Big Boys- Which Way to Go (TX, 1984)
Black Flag- Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (CA, 1978)
Black Flag- Nervous Breakdown (CA, 1978)
Black Flag- Rise Above (CA, 1981)
Black Market Baby- Potential Suicide (D.C., 1981)
Black Sabbath- Black Sabbath (
Black Sabbath- Electric Funeral (
Black Sabbath- The Wizard (
Black Sheep- Flavor of The Month (NYC, 1992)
Bollocks- Another City (MD, 1981)
BPeople- Can Can't (CA, 1981)
Brats- Magazine (
BVD- Duty (
Cardiac Kidz- Get Out (CA, 1979)
CH3- I'll Take My Chances (CA, 1983)
CH3- Manzanar (12”EP version) (CA, 1981)
Circle Jerks- World Up My Ass (CA, 1980)
Clash- Police and Thieves (
Consumers- Teen Love Song (AZ, 1979)
Controllers- (The Original) Neutron Bomb (CA, 1977)
Controllers- Jezebel (CA, 1979)
Cramps- New Kind of Kick (NYC, 1980?)
Creation- Making Time (
Crime- Frustration (SF, 1977)
Crowd- Modern Machine (CA, 1979)
Cult
Curtis Mayfield- Pusher Man (
D.D.T.- I'm Walking Down The Psychopath (GA, 1983)
D.O.A.- Fuck You (
D.O.A.- I Don't Give A Shit (
D.O.A.- The Prisoner ('Let Them Eat Jellybeans' version)
(
D.R.I.- Sad To Be (TX, 1983)
Da Slyme- Kickin Till I Die (
Damned- Neat Neat Neat (TX, 1968)
Dave Brubeck- Take Five (
Dead Boys- Sonic Reducer (I prefer the rougher 'Younger,
Louder & Snottier' version) (
Dead Kennedys- California Uber Alles (LP version) (SF,
1980)
Dead Kennedys- Kill The Poor (SF, 1980)
Dead Kennedys- Moon Over Marin (SF, 1982)
Dead Kennedys- Police Truck (SF, 1980)
Defnics- 51% (
Desperate Bicycles- The Medium Was Tedium (
Devo- Whip It (CA, 1980)
Dicks- Hate the Police (TX, 1980)
Digable Planets- Where I'm From (Aural G. Remix) (NYC,
1993)
Dils- Class War (CA, 1977)
Dils- Mr. Big (CA, 1977)
Dirt Shit- Exit (
Discharge- Realities of War (
Dogs (
Dow Jones & The Industrials- Can't Stand The
Eddie and The Subtitles- American Society (CA, 1980)
Endtables- Circumcision (KY, 1979)
Eppu Normaali- Poliisi pamputtaa taas (
Eric B & Rakim- Don't Sweat the Technique (
Ernie & The Top Notes- Dap Walk (N'Leans, 1972)
Fix- Vengeance (MI, 1980)
Flipper- Brainwash (SF, 1981)
Flipper- Ha Ha Ha (SF, 1981)
Flipper- Sex Bomb Baby (7” version) (SF, 1981)
Flyin'
Gang Green- Snob (MA, 1982)
Gang of Four- Damaged Goods (LP Version) (
Gears- Let's Go To The Beach (CA, 1979)
Generation X- Your Generation (
Germs- Forming (CA, 1977)
Geza X- Isotope Soap ('Let Them Eat Jellybeans' version)
(CA, 1981)
Gizmos- Amerika First (IN, 1977)
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five- The Message (NYC,
1982)
Grim/Klone Band- Heat's Rising (NJ, 1978)
Guilty Razors- Don't Wanna Be A Rich (France via Spain,
1978)
Haskels- Takin' The City By Storm (WI, 1980)
Helmettes- I Don't Care What The People Say (
Hitler SS- Slave (
Hooker- Young & Suicidal (MA, 1975?)
Human Hands- New Look (CA, 1981?)
Husker Du- Diane (MN, 1983)
Ice 9- Revolting Mess (
Intravein- Speed of The City (
Iron Cross- New Breed (D.C., 1981)
Ivy Green- I'm Sure We're Gonna Make It (
Jay Reatard- Blood Visions (TN, 2006)
Jerry's Kidz- Marionetts (NM, 1983)
Jeru The Damaga- Come Clean (NYC, 1993)
Jesters of
Johnny Concrete- Johnny, Johnny (
Keggs- To Find Out (MI, 1966)
KFC- Kriminalpogo (
Klips 1988- Ultimatum (
KMD- Peachfuzz (NYC, 1991)
Kneecappers- Tumor (
Kraut- Unemployed (LP version) (NYC, 1982)
Kriminella Gitarrer- Silvias Unge (
KRS-One- Love's Gonna Get'cha (Material Love) (NYC, 1990)
Laudernunnan- Ensam i natt (
Legionaire's Disease Band- Rather See You Dead (Than With
Wool On Your Head) (TX, 1979)
Les Thugs- I Love You So (
Link Wray- Bo Diddley (D.C., 1965?)
Link Wray- Rumble (D.C., 1959?)
Los Reactors- Dead In The Suburbs (OK, 1980)
Lost Cause- Born Dead (CA, 1981)
Lost Sounds- Plastic Skin (7EP version) (TN, 2000)
Love- 7 and 7 Is (CA, 1967)
M.D.- Manisch Depressiv, Part 1 (
Machines- True Life (
Manu Dibango- Soul Makossa (
Massmedia- Jag Vill Ingenting (
MC5- Kick Out the Jams (
Meatmen- Orgy of One (Demo version) (MI, 1981)
Mentally Ill- Tumor Boy (IL, 1979)
Metal Urbain- Panik (
Meters- Cissy Strut (N'Leans, 1969)
Mike Rep & The Quotas- Rocket To Nowhere (OH, 1975)
Minor Threat- 12XU (D.C., 1981)
Mirrors- Shogeki-x (
Misfits- Hollywood
Monks- Monk Time (Germany via U.S., 1966)
Mort Subite- Ich Liebe Ulrike (
Mox Nix- We Won´t Be Controlled (CA, 1982)
Music Machine- Talk Talk (CA, 1966)
Naked Raygun- I Lie (
Negative FX- Feel Like A Man (
Negative Trend- Mercenaries (SF, 1978)
Next- Cheap Rewards (TX, 1979)
Nights and Days- These Days (
NNB- Slack (MN, 1978)
No Tag- No Tag (NZ, 1982)
Outcasts- 1523 Blair (TX, 1967)
Pack (
Pekinska Patka- Bela Sljiva (
Penetrators- Teenage Lifestyle (NY, 1979)
Plugz- Achin' (7” version) (CA, 1979)
P-Nissarna- Jugend (
Poison Idea- Lifestyles (
Powertrip- Lab Animal (CA, 1982)
Private Dicks- She Said Go (
Professionals- (Join The) Professionals (
Public Enemy- Bring The Noise (NYC, 1987)
Public Enemy- She Watch Channel Zero (NYC, 1988)
PVC- Waiting For WW III (
Queers- We'd Have A Riot Doing Heroin (NH, 1982)
Question Mark & The Mysterians- 96 Tears (
Reactors (CT)- I Want Sex (CT, 1979)
Really Red- Teaching You The Fear (TX, 1981)
Really Red- Too Political? (TX, 1981)
Red Decade- Scars of Lust (
Rejex- Niagara Baby (
Rhino 39- Prolixin Stomp (CA, 1979)
Riots- I Can Go On (U.S., 1966?)
Rocket From The Tombs- 30 Seconds Over
Run-DMC- Peter Piper (NYC, 1986)
Rutto- Mi Vihaan (
S.S. Decontrol- Glue (
Saints- (I'm) Stranded (
Saints- Erotic Neurotic (
Screamin' Mee-Mees- Hot Sody (MO, 1976)
Screaming Sneakers- Violent Days (FL, 1982)
Shattered Faith- We Love
Shitdogs- Reborn (LA, 1981)
Shock- This Generation's On Vacation (CA, 1978)
Skunks- Earthquake Shake (TX, 1979)
Snails- Snails Love Theme (GA, 1966)
Snuky Tate- Stage Speech (SF, 1979)
Social Distortion- 1945 (13th Floor Version) (CA, 1982)
Social Distortion- Hour of Darkness (CA, 1982)
Sonics- Strychnine (
Sperma- Bombs (
SS- Blitzkrieg Bop (
Stains- John Wayne Was A Nazi (I prefer the 7” version)
(TX, 1980)
Stooges- I Wanna Be Your Dog (
Subhumans (
Suicidal Tendencies- Institutionalized (CA, 1983)
Swimming Pool Q's- Rat Bait (GA, 1979)
T.S.O.L.- Abolish Government/Silent Majority (CA, 1981)
T.S.O.L.- Sounds of Laughter (CA, 1981)
Tampax- UFO Dictator (
Teen Idles- Get Up and Go (D.C., 1980)
Testors- You Don't Break My Heart (NYC, 1977)
Thee Undertakers- Death Breath (Skull Version) (CA, 1981)
Tiki Men- Black Cat (CA, 1994)
Tronics- Shark Fucks (
Ike and Tina
Tyrades- I Am Homicide (
Tyvek- Mary Ellen Claims (
U.X.B.- Mr. Fixit (
Undertones- Teenage Kicks (7” version) (
Units- Cannibals (SF, 1979)
Unnatural Axe- They Saved Hitler's Brain (MA, 1978)
Urinals- Ack Ack Ack (CA, 1979)
Vandals- Urban Struggle (12”EP version) (CA, 1982)
Velvet Underground- The Gift (NYC, 1967)
Victims- Television Addict (
Weirdos- Destroy All Music (CA, 1977)
Wire- 12XU (
X (
YDI- Zombie Youth (Demo version) (
Maybe I’ll add a
few more songs and revise this list if I realize that I forgot some. But no promises there…
Let me just say
that an iPod is such an easy way to manage all yer music. I do not mean this as bragging, but my iPod
has like 6,000 songs on it and they’re all at my fingertips everyday with no
CD’s or cassettes to fumble around with (after my initial fumbling of course when
I have to rip the tracks from vinyl and those other sources). An iPod makes it so easy to create a list
like I just did in a relatively short amount of time with NO retyping. Once the playlist was set, I exported it to a
text file, cleaned it up a little and then tossed that text into a Word
file. Very easy and non-labor intensive
and carpal tunnel-free. I know some of
you who do still do not own iPods but if you can afford it I would highly
encourage it. Sell a few records to raise
the money if you haveta. Or, shit, ask
yer Mom to get you one since you’re still living in her basement anyway, he he.
Factory (CA)
[I am on a roll- here's my third posting in as many days. Someone I know recently told me my posts are too wordy so here is my big experiment to keep it short and sweet. This one's dedicated to him]. There were several bands worldwide who have gone by the name of Factory- these ones were from California, and specifically Southern California according to the great Collector Scum site. What you get with this track is some good driving "chugga-chugga" punk with some nice punchy drumming and tense-sounding vocals (albeit a little annoying at times). Now this track is not "Grade A" punk like The Mad's "I Hate Music" (or anything on the early Killed By Death volumes) but I would say Factory is a nice "B Grade" rarity. The flipside, "Smile!", has grown on me a bit over the last 10 years that I have been acquainted with this disc and has some decent guitar noise but it's definitely not on the same level as "World Gone Mad". The sleeve artwork and font choice, as you can see above, is really BAD in the "yuck!" sense of the word, and I wonder if this caused many people to pass it on by in record store bins. Um, I do not know anything else about Factory so I guess that's all I have to say for now. Fill me in on any details if you have them.
World Gone Mad.mp3
The Tapes
Here's another very early one from Sweden, and even more obscure than my previous post of the Homo Electrica 7". In 1978, an absolute boatload of wonderful punk records were released in Sweden but ones with a date of 1977 can be pretty much be counted on one hand. Well, this Tapes 7" is not really punk per se in the "classic" sense of that word. It's more DIY-ish but it a bit early for that categorization too. Whatever you want to label it, me thinks it possesses the same energy and spirit behind a lot of punk. I have to admit, it took me a few listens to get into it but I was hooked after that on its sloppy, charming nature. "Dreamland" is the winner on the record- very catchy with some great hokey "Ooo-ooo-ooo" background singing goin on and an odd guitar. And the tambourine playing also definitely adds to the song's overall quirkiness. It's sung in English in a rather serious, flat manner- which I dig- and the singer's Swedish-accented English makes it more charming for me. And it's topped off by him spinning a great story which, as you will see, ends on a tragic note.
"The Mysterious Mr. Kugelberg" has tipped me off to countless great obscurities like this one over the years through various articles in the wonderful Ugly Things 'zine, and I thank him for that. Mr. Kugelberg's "Valhalla of Amateurism" articles turned me on to several bands like The Tokyos and Kriminella Gitarrer in my, er, more "formative" KBD years. And although I questioned some of the records he listed in it, his "Top 100 Punk Records" list in the 1999 issue of Ugly Things turned me on to some incredible stuff I had never heard of before. In the 2001 and 2002 issues of the zine, he did a two-part "Top 100 DIY Records" and more great obscurities then came to my attention. Now, The Tapes 7" was not in that Top 100 but rather featured prominently in a "whoops" post-script of 20 records he should have included on the list. I had never heard of them and was immediately intrigued- I remember thinking "How many more unturned stones ARE there in Sweden when it comes to obscurities? Will it ever end?!" (Hope not!)
I know nothing about the band and Johan did not give more more info other than hyping it by saying it is "A heartbreaking work of staggering ineptitude" that is "geographically challenged hick-punk-chug from the boondocks of Scandanavia". I wonder what region of the country they were from- does anyone know? Given the generic band name, a Google search goes absolutely nowhere. I do not have a vinyl copy of The Tapes 7", only some mp3's, so excuse the crummy scan I pulled above from the aforementioned Ugly Things article.
Dreamland.mp3
Is It You.mp3
Homo Electrica
I could go on, but Stuart's article in the February 2005 Maximum Rock n' Roll on Homo Electrica summed up the record and the band's history very nicely so here is what he had to say:
"HOMO ELECTRICA released one two-song, one-sided 7" on Violent Vinyl, limited to 200 copies, with a crude sleeve. It was recorded October 10, 1977. Their name is supposed to be Latin for 'The Electric Human' but then it should have properly been Homo Electricus. The thanks list includes Lou Reed, Alvin Lee, the hippie guitarist of Ten Years After, and Ginger Baker, the drummer of Cream. My initial reaction was that this was too good to be true. Then I listened to it.The two songs are mid-tempo (meaning they end up mostly playing the tempo in between the fast and slow ones to which they accidentally waver), untalented, at times arrhythmic, and obviously enthralled with rocknroll as if they lived in the parallel universe in the which the DESPERATE BICYCLES had respectfully watched the PISTOLS bash out their floating racket during the Silver Jubilee and then torpedoed and sank their vessel (homemade torpedo, natch). 'Beat On' and 'Surviver' (yes, with an e) are basic tracks about rock music that sound like PROBLEM's younger brudders lampooning their elder siblings' love of rocknroll. But music this recklessly passionate and passionately reckless is no joke.Frederick, the singer of HOMO ELECTRICA, discovered punk rock because his school library had a subscription to New Musical Express, but he had been a fan of Lou Reed since the early 70s, even going as far as to get a short haircut like Reed's while long hair was in. (Note: HOMO ELECTRICA, like a million other bands, covered 'Waiting For My Man'). The bassist had never played before, but the drummer had previously played in another band- ironic because his drumming is some of the worst this side of Houston's Vast Majority (actually, that's unfair: no other drumming is that bad!). On October 10, 1977, HOMO ELECTRICA had a gig at their high school, and after the crowd left, they recorded the two songs for the 7" live through the mixing board. They found the cheapest pressing plant in Sweden, and decided that it'd be even cheaper to squeeze both songs on one side of the record. They cut and folded the sleeves themselves, decorated the blank labels with a marker, and then sold copies to friends at school and to stores, employees of which were surprised that these kids had made their own record. Without even knowing about the DESPERATE BICYCLES, HOMO ELECTRICA embodied their DIY principles. Or, perhaps I should say that the 'BIKES, as perfect as they are, wanted nothing more than to be like HOMO ELECTRICA, but the difference was that the intellectual Brits couldn't help being self-conscious in the process. In the end, HOMO ELECTRICA played only ten gigs and lasted a year and a half, but their admitted intention of using the band to get girls (not to enact a DIY ethic) seemed to work, because none of the boys in their school would go see them play.Sometimes I wonder what listeners want to get out of a punk record. If every band were out of tune, lo-fi, and stupid, the world of punk would be a boring one, but I think there should be a lot of room in our collections for gems like HOMO ELECTRICA, because they're vivid, unadulterated (and un-adult) examples of a punk rock aesthetic by kids who did not know or care to know any better. It's records like this, even if they're not something one wants to listen to every day, which make the search for rare old punk records worthwhile. Oh yeah, to my knowledge, this record does not appear on any compilations." [Punk Business Manager's note: no, Homo Electrica has not been on any comp and in these days, when the virtual world of mp3 blogs have kind of taken the place in SOME ways of KBD-type comps being pressed on actual vinyl, to my knowledge, no, Homo Electrica has not appeared on any other blog yet]
www.punktjafs.com/ny/09_historik.htm
Bollocks
Here’s a real catchy, fun, unique-sounding EP! And from the early 80’s D.C.-area scene of all places, which at the time was dominated by lots of thick n' chunky traditional hardcore. This EP has energetic drumming, quirky bass plucking and great guitar noodling with some- gasp!- ska influenced strumming here and there. Now, the term "ska punk" (Operation Ivy et all) usually causes me to clench my teeth, cover my ears and run for the nearest bomb shelter. But on this cool record it totally works for me. And what makes the package complete is the DIY cut-and-paste nature of the sleeve where they cram as much text and pictures as humanly possible onto both sides (including what appears to be some Arabic text in the lower right corner- cool!). The two-sided insert is also jam packed with clip art, good ol' handwritten text as well as stuff down on a typewriter (yeah!). Nice and raw looking like packaging on a punk record should be.
Another City.mp3
Blow Up The Bayou.mp3
R.I.P. Vicious.mp3
Never Mind The Bollocks.mp3
Peer Pressure.mp3
Business Man.mp3
Invasion of The Plastics.mp3
War On Drugs.mp3
All Rock Stars Should Be Drafted.mp3
Song For Baltimore.mp3
ENDNOTES
An MRR Scumpit article from 1989 on the old D.C.-area scene first got me interested in hearing this EP after they recommended it as a good yet more obscure one. At the time my knowledge of D.C. area stuff was limited to either Dischord-related or 1/2 Japanese. J.T. taped the EP for me a few years later and I was instantly hooked.
I then raved about it and taped it for Scott (later of the very sorely-missed Antenna Internet Radio site of which I was a contributor in the interest of full disclosure). Scott dug it and shortly thereafter unearthed a boatload of copies in a big warehouse find in the D.C. area. Being such a cool guy, he was nice enough to send my multiple copies of the EP. What is very curious is the different sleeve variations- the PS came in a variety of colors, from white to light yellow (see above) to darker yellow and even a minty-green one if I remember right. Then some of the different sleeve colors have slight text variations on the front- I'd have to check all my copies when I get a chance, but I believe some less stuff written on the shoe. But I'd love to know how many copies were pressed in total and which colors constitute a 1st pressing, 2nd pressing, etc. Their later "Mediterran" EP also came in a variety of sleeve colors, including white and green. Again, I'd have to check all my copies to see which ones I have and if there's any others.
HERE IS THE TWO-SIDED INSERT
Public Disturbance
[FIRST OFF, I HAVE NOT POSTED ANYTHING IN SOME TIME BUT WORK-RELATED NONSENSE AND IMPORTANT FAMILY-RELATED MATTERS HAVE TAKEN UP MOST OF MY TIME OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS. I HAVE LOTS OF POSTINGS IN MY HEAD THAT I'D ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO THROW UP HERE BUT ADVANCED WARNING THAT I MAY FADE IN AND OUT AGAIN AS THE YEAR UNFOLDS...]
What a great EP, but very "out of place" if you will. First off, it came out in 1983 when speedy atonal hardcore was taking over the land and unique, out-of-the-box PUNK records like this 'un were few and far between (and probably frowned upon by the majority of muscle-headed hardcore conformists emerging at the time). Secondly, it came out on the Mutha label and sounds rather different from Mutha's other output at the time. Thirdly, they break the "KBD Rule" of "first release is the best" since Public Disturbance released a rather generic LP (Mutha 003) prior to this EP (which is Mutha 011).
"S&M" is a total instant classic, I have absolutely loved it since the very first time I heard it many years ago when someone taped the whole EP for me. The guitar noise totally rules- it's haunting and weird in all the right ways and sounds kinda psych-ish. For some, a great song is judged by just the geetar noise. For me, it's got to be "the total package" which is the case with this 'un. The drummer pounds away, the bass player plucks along and the singer wails aways in a crazy manner with the goofy lyrics and they all create a nice, tight package and get it so damn right. To top it all off the song is full of off-kilter breaks that you don't see coming, especially at the end. And fear not- this is not yer typical KBD record with one "happy accident" and a bunch of other bad songs-- it's a winner from start to finish for me. "Destroy The Fad" is a crazy one. It calmly starts off with a great out of tune guitar intro and then dives right into things-- dig how the drummer REALLY pounds away on that one. "S&M" is the best tune for me but the last one, "Do The Gilly", is the craziest- the guitar wails away and gets really outer space-y and things get pretty insane and reach a very fevered pitch throughout until it just abruptly ends. Yeah!!!
I absoutely love records with crude, crazy amateur-ish artwork and this one has it in droves from the dripping band logo to "Oh God!! I should have stayed at football practice"... completely hilarious. OK, I get that the guy on the left is the scared jock and the guy on the right is the punk (wearing what appears to be knee-high fishing boots and not biker boots as they may have intended) whose face tells me that he is about to enjoy the upcoming S&M from the angry lass. But who is the naked balding guy in the middle supposed to be? A tortured school teacher, an uptight suburban dad.. or perhaps a paying client of the Mistress? You tell me. And, oh yeah- you gotta always love the homemade Mutha Records logo which graced their releases. Almost forgot- the artwork from this EP graced the cover of 1995's superb Killed By Death #8.5 comp if you didn't already know ("S&M" led off Side 2 of said LP).
S&M.mp3
Destroy The Fad.mp3
Do The Gilly.mp3
ENDNOTES
OK, I guess I do these endnotes because I already babble too much above when people probably just want to listen to the music I posted instead of reading paragraph after paragraph just talking about the record. Perhaps you've made it this far so here goes...
In a trade about 10 years ago, I was very excited to get a vinyl copy of this Public Disturbance EP. The vinyl and sleeve were dead mint too, natch. The guy who traded it to me said that the picture sleeve appeared to be a photocopy and was not sure if it was an original. If I remember right, he said that his sleeve looked a bit different. The foldover sleeve with mine did not appear to be a photocopy, though- first off, the picture quality is very very good, almost too good to be a photocopy. Also, the paper is a thicker and glossier which is atypical of yer typical Xerox. I described my sleeve to the Yahoo! KBD Group about a year ago to get a consensus about it. Someone that bought a copy of the EP when it came out responded back and said his looked the same as mine. So I guess mine has an original sleeve- cool! Cumstains across my record collection!
There were lots of great "Welcome To The Scumpit" articles in MRR between 1988 and into the early 90's (I particularly remember that 1989 was a very productive year for the Scumpit). These one-page articles were great sources of info on lots of obscuro stuff that I had never heard of before, and I used to comb the articles for names of bands and records unknown to my ears. Some records or bands I discovered through the Scumpit articles remain favorites to this day, including the Public Disturbance EP. I was first tipped off to the EP when it was mentioned in a "guest Scumpit" written by none other than Tim Yohannon in the June 1989 issue. He did a short roll call of some of his favorite obscurities so you know it was quite a list. When he described the off-kilter nature of the Public Disturbance EP I was intrigued and had to hear it. Regarding Tim's list and very discerning taste, the article appears to have been very influential because most of the then-unknown records he listed ended up being on various early volumes of Killed By Death or other sorta comps in the early-to-mid 90's from the 1st Middle Class EP to the Public Disturbance EP to Deiter Meier's "Cry For Fame" 7" to the Village Pistols 7". A variety of enterprising collector scum must have taken note of Tim's recommendations. Although it didn't appear on a KBD volume, Tim's article also mentioned the wonderful proto-hardcore SS 12"EP from Japan and, lo and behold, there was a CD reissue of it in the early 90's on an official label too and not as a boot.
The other interesting thing about Public Disturbance to me is that they had a black member (see the back of the sleeve- turns out his name was Darryl Hell and he played bass). I have an affinity for punk bands with black members since it was and unfortunately still is an anomaly in many ways (check out the pretty cool 2003 documentary Afro Punk while you're at it since it's now out on DVD after being on the festival circuit for a while). The always great Roctober 'zine helmed by Jake Austen did us all a favor- a 2002 issue of the 'zine did a very great article called "Black Punk Time" whose purpose is to be a comprehensive list of black people in punk and sorta-punk bands. The list continues to be updated on their site (I have provided some info myself for it even on mostly KBD-type bands)- go here for the article. Darryl from Public Disturbance is mentioned in it, and someone updated his listing to say that he played in some other bands (none of which I heard of) and is currently working as a DJ- here is his MySpace page if you're interested.
FROM JUNE 1989 MAXIMUM ROCK N' ROLL
Clockwork Criminals
(RECORDED 1980 / RELEASED 1982)
[MARCH 21, 2009 UPDATE
I took down the mp3's of this EP after a request from former member Bill- he told me it's going to be reissued on CD very soon which is great to hear. I still don't have specific details on the reissue, but pick one up when it comes out and continue to check the band's MySpace site for specs.]
Damn, what a barnstormer of a record! "Young and Bold" calmly starts with the singer making his declaration in the first few seconds of the song and then- wham!- total charging noise smacks you right in the head. A nice, unexpected surprise- the guitars are loud, tense and waily, kinda DIY-ish in sound (unlike "traditionally" loud guitars that tend to be chunky and thick a la Black Flag or P.F. Commando). The drummer and bass player pound away trying to keep up with the two-chord geetar player and then the singer wails away in a desperate manner- in other words, wonderful! Also impressive that this unique racket was recorded in 1980 at a time when not a lot of bands were soundin’ out there like this.
[As a sidenote- sigh, I miss all those different Hyped To Death-related comps that Mr. Warner churned out in 2000 and 2001. In the late 90's- pretty much after KBD#12 came out in late '96/early '97- KBD-type comps had really started scraping the barrel and most were big letdowns that had maybe one or two good songs and then a dozen mediocre tracks- in other words, a waste of yer hard earned money. Sure, a lot of bands on those bad comps were total obscurities but that does not justify inclusion on a comp. C’mon gimme something that SOUNDS good or I could pretty much care less than it was a sleeveless "private pressing" of 10 copies or whatever (the U.K. is the capital of these types o' rarities). But oh yeah- back to Hyped To Deaths- here came uber-collector Chuck digging up total obscurities like Screamin’ Sneakers that were rare as hell, previously uncomped AND which sounded ABSOLUTELY wonderful too. Now don’t get me wrong- not every CD was full of 100% Grade A prime chug- there were some clunkers to my ears but overall Chuck did a good job before the fun was forced to come to an end]
ENDNOTES
Clockwork Criminals have a page on MySpace on which they posted 3 unreleased songs, two of which are available for download (the fouth track is their track from the "Bullshit Detector" comp). Unfortunately, they are too drawn out and dreamy and lack the total smack-in-the-face quality of their EP. Oh well, still interesting that they have a page and posted em to begin with...
The great Detour Records site has a nice history of the band- read on:
"Hailing from the South Coast of England from a fairly large town called Hastings, the band started off life called 'Charlie and the Criminals'. They notched up a few gigs under this name before opting for the 'Clockwork Criminals'. Despite the 'Young and Bold' EP coming out in 82 it was recorded in 1980. They played along side most of the other local bands that were around on the same gig circuit like 'Smeggy and the Cheesybits', 'The Teenbeats', 'The Pirahnas' and just about all the other top South Coast bands.
Sadly the band only released one single but also had another track featured on a compilation album called 'Bullshit Detector' that was released on the 'Crass' label.
The vocalist and guitarist went on to form 'Flowers of the Past' who gigged a lot in 1982 doing the whole "State of the Nation" tour with 'Vice Squad' and releasing a single called 'The Fuhrer' / 'Medieval' on 'Memorial records'."
Here is the above writeup complete with TONS of pictures of the band, flyers, buttons, etc:
http://www.detour-records.co.uk/CLOCKWORK%20CRIMINALS.htm
Stiffs, Inc.
Besides being stuck in a time warp listening predominantly to 60's and 70's stuff, punk and otherwise, I am also a big fan of 90's "KBD-type" punk (excuse the shallow term but I didn't want to use the even-more shallow term "garage revival"). So here's my first semi-modern posting (er, this one came out 12 years ago so, fuck, I think that qualifies as modern) of one of my favorite 90's punk gems. Kind of unlikely considering the band was on a- gasp! - major label (I am usually not a fan of majors or wanna-be majors), but given that Mr. Johan "Killed By Death v.1-4" Kugelberg worked (ran?) the Onion label at the time then it makes more sense. Johan also signed Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments to Onion and released their good "Bait and Switch" LP the same year. And then Onion also did a Monks reissue during the same period, another unlikely release on a major had Mr. Kugelberg not been lobbying for them all I suppose.
Both songs from this promo 7" also appeared on their much-hyped "Nix Nought Nothing" LP in '95, which now lines cut-out bins and can be found for a few bucks. Onion musta pressed a ton of them in hopes that Stiffs, Inc. would be "the next big thing" thus the total glut. I cannot listen to that whole LP, though- the singer irks me about halfway through, and I’m even not that hot on the flipside of this single but "Chelsea" is genius. A very catchy ditty from the first note, and a very layered song. Check out how the guitar goes from being strummed in the beginning to kinda growling a little later and then back again. The band changes up the overall tempo of the tune several times which is nice, especially in the last 30 seconds when they finish it off with a whole different vibe that totally works for me and is a rightful finish to a great tune. These guys could really play, and they got it so right in these 4 minutes (far longer than my preferred song length too). "Chelsea" is melodic in all the right places but then driving and punchy in all the right places too. Right on.
Chelsea.mp3
TRIVIA NOTES: Before signing to Onion, Stiffs, Inc. had two self-released 7"s in '94 as just "The Stiffs" that were pretty good- the "Destroy All Art" and "Blown Away Baby" 45's ("Blown Away Baby" also appears on "Nix Nought Nothing"). Then after their flop on Onion, they released the "Electric Chair Theatre" LP in '97 on another label. It was a disappointment to me when I listened to it about 10 years ago, but maybe I need to give it another listen all these years later. Sometimes time heals wounds when it comes to some rekkids. [Case in point- when I first heard Cocksparrer's thug-punk stomper "Runnin Riot" about 10 years ago it didn't grab me for some reason, but now is a fave of mine and I don't know what I was thinkin' a decade ago. I was in my fucking 20's, gimme a break]
COLLECTOR SCUM NOTES: In the most recent issue of the great scholarly 'zine Ugly Things Mr. Kugelberg happened to mention that he pressed up this promo 7" in a run of only 200 copies. Never knew that until now, so that’s kind of cool to find out all these years later. I found my copy for 49 cents here in Chicago in a cheapo bin full of bad 80's records- if you look closely at the above picture of the sleeve, you'll notice a few things. First, some store employee put a black mark in the upper right of the sleeve, presumably this meant the thing was getting tossed into the cut-out bin. Secondly, the sleeve has a tear in the same area from where I tried to remove the price sticker- not a good idea when a sleeve is cardboard (doh). The sleeve is a thick cardboard job with no artwork, just Spartan informational details much like the Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments promo 45 that also came in a run of 200 copies on Onion.
From Punk To Horrid Junk, Case Study #325: The Red Rockers
Anyway, Sirius satellite radio is on in the van and he’s flipping through the hundred or so choices for stations with different themes- comedy, R&B, hip hop, country, etc- there's too fucking many. We happen upon a station called something like "80's New Wave" and who is playing but the fucking Red Rockers and that horrid song of theirs "China". My first instinct was to quickly change the station, but I decided to listen to the whole crappy song so I could really remember how bad they became a few short years after their great "Guns of Revolution" 7"EP in '80 and "Condition Red" LP a year later.
The "Condition Red" LP drops and the Red Rockers are blazing around town doing lots of shows and playing great punk making a name for themselves in S.F. after their big move from N’Leans.
Punk cred = pretty high
The band continues to play punk shows (see flyers below from April of ’82- even a show with the Bad Brains at the height of their power!) but starts "experimenting" and- yikes!- "branches out" by slowing down the speed of songs, turning the amps down from 11 and getting more "melodic" or whatever. Major labels start sniffing around because the band has toned things down and are more "marketable". Old fans of their blazing p-rock lost interest in them in droves.
Punk cred = waning quickly
The Red Rockers sign to Columbia Records and do a group hug while saying "We’ve made it! We are on a major label! We are the next big thing and will be famous rock stars remembered for years and not a flash in the pan! Yippee!!"
Punk cred = -1,000
The band has a meeting and says "No more hints of loud stuff in the least bit- you know, wimpy music like Culture Club is really huge right now so let’s go that route- and PRONTO! We’ll still call ourselves a rock n’ roll band, though, and keep the Commie-related band name".
Band rapidly wimps out and then shortly thereafter writes and records crap like "China", puts out an album called "Good As Gold”, lumbers along for a few more years and are merely a small footnote in the annals of rock history and loathed by punk fans worldwide for their big sellout.
September 1, 2007
The Punk Business Manager- any maybe a few others- hears "China" on satellite radio and is perplexed at their rapid descent.
I was 11 years old in 1983 and not into punk when "China" came out and I vaguely remember seeing music videos of theirs on Friday Night Videos (‘member that show? It was on NBC and watched by those of us without cable). But if anyone active in the punk scene back then remembers seeing the Red Rockers in their great '80 to '81 period (or the pre-Red Rockers band the Rat Finks), please post some comments below so I can get some first-hand stories of how they wimped out so quickly. Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe they were just punk poseurs the whole time singing about guns of revolution and anti-war stuff but always keeping their "eyes on the prize" of getting a major label contract and mainstream acceptance? Help me out here.
Guns of Revolution.mp3
*This is the version on the "Condition Red" LP from 1981, which I different and I think better than the one on their 1980 7"EP
1982 Flyers
And here is a video of "China" that I found, where else, but on YouTube
When Unreleased Is The Best
The great Good Bad Music blog recently posted the 1st Mystery Dates EP from 1982, and although I found a few of the songs- especially the lead-off track "Mystery Date"- to be catchy and hooky, dammit, it can’t hold a finger to this whopper of an EP! Put the two records side to side and it makes one think that the 'Dates were holding back and "toning things down" on their official releases because they really speed things up and let loose on these unreleased nuggets! Maybe they let down their hair because they knew this stuff was not going to be committed to vinyl? Or maybe they released their two EP’s earlier in 1982 and then changed their style to a speedier, more HC-ish by late '82/early '83 when this unreleased stuff was recorded? I'd love to hear from an old band member so I can solve this, er, "mystery" (har har).
"Protect The Innocent" (my favorite track) is like a freight train with its charging pace, loud guitars and loose, unique warbling from lead singer Frank. It’s like they’ve got their head in two worlds- on the one hand, they’ve got the speed of hardcore but also want to maintain a punkier edge by having hooky, very catchy guitar noodling. A tricky tight rope to walk, if you ask me, but they totally pull it off.
MORE RAMBLING- MAYBE YOU'LL MAKE IT THIS FAR DOWN THE POSTING
*This EP was put out in ’96 by Ryan Richardson’s sorely-missed Existential Vacuum label. I had never heard of the Mystery Dates but in the Summer of ’96 while closely studying the record reviews section of Maximum Rock n’ Roll (as I did at the time) I was tipped off to this EP after they gave it a glowing review. I was a big fan of Ryan’s EV label so I had to get this one- and quick- since there were only 500 copies made. Looking back, Ryan kept us on our toes since about all of the EV releases were very limited, especially the scum editions with different colored vinyl, etc. It was always fun, albeit a little stressful, for me to try to track them down sometimes since you know they’d sell out in a flash. Nubees 7" in an edition of 45 copies, anyone? And I snagged two copies of the Mystery Dates EP at the also sorely-missed Dummyroom record shop here in Chicago during the Christmas of ’96, after I was sure that I wouldn’t find a copy. A nice holiday surprise.
For any very young whippernsappers who may happen to be reading this (although I bet you're in your 30's or 40's, you old man!), there was no fancy interweb to order records on in a jiffy back then- you had to do something we called "mailorder" where you hand-addressed(!) an envelope, slapped a 25 cent stamp on it and put- gasp!- actual cash in an envelope and mailed it off with your order. Said records would sometimes take weeks to get. Kid, back then PayPal only described a generous friend who funded your way into a show or otherwise fronted you cash.
So here we are about 10 years later and I’ve now heard the Mystery Dates stuff in reverse order- the unreleased stuff first and then one of their "official" EP’s. Had I heard them the other way around, maybe I would appreciate the unreleased stuff even more than I already do (?). Who knows? And who fucking cares other than me?
