Punk Business Manager

Posting Update

2010-03-07T12:07:00Z

A few days ago I had a surprise back-and-forth comments dialogue early one morning with a guy named Rik, who provided some information about the mysterious Mel, whose "Block Walk Rock / Modest Living" 7" I posted a few months back. I have updated the posting with the info that Rik provided- read the updated info at:

http://punkbusinessmanager.com/2009/11/26/the-mel.aspx

Thanks, Rik!

Mystery Dates

2010-03-03T09:30:00Z

MYSTERY DATES "EASY ACTION" 3-SONG 7"EP (SAN ANTONIO, TX- BEEHIVE, 1983)

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.

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."

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:

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)

2010-02-13T09:28:00Z

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!

The Suspect.mp3
Autopsy.mp3
Celebreakdown.mp3

Gina Harlow and The Cutthroats

2009-12-23T11:16:00Z

GINA HARLOW & THE CUTTHROATS "XXX LIVE ON STAGE XXX” LP (NYC- CUTTHROAT, 1979)

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

2009-12-05T10:08:00Z

REALLY RED "MODERN NEEDS / WHITE LIES" 7" (HOUSTON, TX- CIA, 1979)

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

White Lies.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

2009-11-26T15:05:00Z

MEL "BLOCK ROCK WALK / MODEST LIVING" 7" 1982 (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA- A RECORD CO., 1983)

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.

~~I don't know squat about this band so this will be a relatively short posting~~. A Google search of this Mel 7" turns up nothing other than its inclusion in the Volume 3 discography on the Collector Scum page. Alternatively, typing "Modest Living Mel" into Google turns up shit about former Spice Girl Mel B living a modest life for some motherfucking reality show- doh! No one cares about that garbage when you're trying to find info about an unknown KBD-type band, ya hear. The problem is that the band name "The Mel" is such a plain-ass, flat, one-syllable name that it would never stand out and just gets lost in the shuffle on the information superhighway. A unique band name like Kriminella Gitarrer will get you some sure fire, juicy results in Google but Mel doesn't turn up squat. Perhaps the band had some special reason for naming their band Mel (?).

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 Rock Walk.mp3

Modest Living.mp3

K9's

2009-11-22T11:55:00Z

K9’s "THE K9 HASSLE" 3-SONG 7"EP (READING,U.K.- DOG BREATH, 1979)

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

2009-09-29T15:19:00Z

U.S. MODS "I'M GONE / GOVERNMENT" 7" (MESQUITE, TX- TREBLEPHONE, 1980)

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.

Im Gone.mp3

Government.mp3

Morons

2009-09-27T10:49:00Z

MORONS "SUBURBANITE / CHANGING DAYS" 7" (ALBANY, NY- LARK BEAT, 1981)

Here is the cover of the 7"- I guess in following with the theme of suburbia, the picture looks to have been taken in a wood-paneled basement rec room. No suburban home in America was complete in the 1970's unless it had the vertical wood panels installed in the basement. Although I can't see it I hope some shag carpeting also adorned the room they are posing in. And a stand-up wet bar.

Here is a photo of the band circa 1981 (?)- again, more tell-tale signs of suburbia like the split-level home in the background and of course the metal mailbox in the frontyard, preferably by the curb. It is still standing meaning that it was not a victim of "mailbox baseball". From what I can gather, the band is (left to right): Guitarist #1 / Drummer / Singer / Bass Player / Keys Player / Guitarist #2.

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)

2009-09-26T10:25:00Z

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

2009-08-07T10:59:00Z

V/A "HOOKED ON JUNK: 18 FORGOTTEN U.S. PUNK LOSERS 1978-1983" UNRELEASED LP (2003)

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

2009-07-30T21:48:00Z

SAD SACK "HEINOUS BITCH/TRASH IT" 7" (NEW PALTZ, NY- ERL, 1991)

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

2009-07-29T20:18:00Z

MIDWAY "UP THE REBELS / MUM AND DAD AND KNIVES" 7"
(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)

2009-07-22T14:39:00Z

JERRY’S KIDZ "COUNTING CALORIES" 18-SONG CASSETTE (ALBUQUERQUE, NM- 1983)

I don't have a picture of the cassette artwork, but here are some old flyers from some Jerry's Kidz shows

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!

2009-07-22T14:06:00Z

I will have about four new postings going up over the course of the next week- this months between postings shit has gone on too fucking long. It has been said that "the perfect is the enemy of the good" and that is my problem with this blog- I want every post to be this well-written short novel but that's preventin' me from just quickly getting anything new up. It's not that I'm burned out on the blog or that I don't know what to post- I have a TON of stuff I keep thinking to toss up here.

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

2009-05-13T10:51:00Z

RECIPIENTS “LUNATIC / CONSTITUTION” 7” (HOUSTON, TX- PR-001, 1981)

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.

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 that’s about all I know. I have no idea who the band members were, aside from the fact that they had a guest vocalist named Hubert at the above show from early 1982 (perhaps the regular singer was sick or somethin?). The very awesome Idle Time archive has two pictures of the band from that show- 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

2009-05-08T17:09:00Z

DEPROGRAMMER s/t LP (LOS ANGELES, CA- MYSTIC RECORDS, 1982)

The inspiration for this posting came after KBD Records posted the 2nd of two Deprogrammer 7"s, the semi-good "Instant Passion" 7".

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

2009-04-30T19:03:00Z

PLAIN JANE AND THE JOKES "THE JOKE’S ON YOU!" 8-SONG 12"EP
(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

2009-04-28T19:14:00Z

LOU MIAMI AND THE KOZMETIX "FASCIST LOVER / TO SIR WITH LOVE" 7" (BOSTON, MA- FINAL VINYL, 1982)

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.