When Unreleased Is The Best
MYSTERY DATES s/t 5-SONG 7"EP (SAN ANTONIO, TX- RECORDED LATE 1982 & EARLY 1983) (RELEASED 1996 ON EXISTENTIAL VACUUM)
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.
A year or so later in early 1998 I found the great Texas Punk Discography online and, from that labor of love, I learned that the Mystery Dates put out two EP’s back in ’82. Cool! However, a review of both EP’s scared me off since it said that the unreleased EP on EV was by far their best stuff. So I then added both Mystery Dates EP’s to my long list of "Try to hear one of these days, but no rush" records. I learned that the Mystery Dates' singer Frank Pugliese was earlier in a band called the Vamps circa '78 to '80 who put out three EP's (and is still rocking in his 50's with the long-lived Sons of Hercules). Someone taped two Vamps EP's for me- to my ears, they had a few good moments in "Carving Knife" and "Used To Be Cool" but not really any "top shelf", A-list classics. By the way- I still need to hear "Formula X", the A-side of the "Used To Be Cool" 7"- mp3's, anyone?
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?
Great post! You're absolutely right: This blows away the other two 7".
I till have an unplayed stock copy of this one here. Drop me a line if interested.
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