UBF! CATCHING UP MIX #1

The Carolina coast has issued some distractingly nice weather on this September weekend, so forgive me for feeling a little anxious.

I'm not skipping out on a proper post per se (haha, I love the loose per se), I just thought now would be a good time to catch you folks up with a mix of Used Bin Forever! favorites from the past three months worth of posts, so I can go outside and sit on the bench. I plan to make these mixes 'a thing,' to be delivered quarterly. I'm also considering ousting the exclamation point from this website's title. It's too cute to actually convey serious excitement, and therefore, unforgivably lame.

Here y'are.

Catching Up Mix #1

Unherd Dripping
Portraits of Past Bang Yer Head
Stewface Noble Silence
Dillinger Four Twin Cities Sinners, United
Cutting [Up] Crew (I Just) Died [Laughing] (the single played at 33rpm as opposed to 45)
Roy Loney & the Phantom Movers I Was Born To Be Your Fool
Plan 9 I Like Girls
Pylon Feast On My Heart
The Deviators Century 21
Charlie Pickett & the Eggs Trash Fever
Salvo Rain Drivethrough
Dampading (Song 3)
Monsula Firecracker
Fire In The Kitchen The Fog

Comb through the archives for info on the artists (my attempt at nabbing your time). Enjoy the mix and I shall see you on the other side of the weekend.

But hey (sorry), just one more thing. Some of these songs were digitized from the vinyl through different mixing sources, so there may be some slight level differentials here and there, but all should be fine for the most part. Alright, I'll let go of your arm now.

BLANK LABEL and HOW TO DE-WARP A RECORD

When I found this one, the vinyl looked like pasta. Evidently the heat had its way with the poor little fella, rippling it beyond all hope. But that was before I came along and rescued it from the used bin, for I successfully de-warped this record, giving it a second chance at life. Why thank you! I wasn't expecting applause, but that's very kind of you.

I've heard the question asked many times: How does one de-warp a record? I've read many techniques (where they use the term "unwarp," which I think is erroneous), but most of them seem more like ways to destroy the disc even further. Some say to place the record between two sheets of glass and leave it out in the sun for some amount of time. Others say to employ the glass technique in an oven at a low-heat temperature. I was skeptical, as one should think melting the vinyl down would also destroy the grooves. That's your sound, right there. I can also imagine the record actually sticking to the glass, where removing it could be tragic. How would one keep the record from touching the glass? Some sort of frame? Wouldn't this heat technique just warp the vinyl all over again?

Regardless, this is what worked for me:
1. I turned on the oven to 450 degrees.
2. When it felt pretty darn hot, I held the 7" in my hand and hovered it over the coils.
***ALRIGHT, now BE CAREFUL!*** Just so I don't get sued by some clumsy burn victim, I guess I have to say "Don't try this!" Take this as 'my story' for entertainment reasons or something. Got it?
3. After several seconds at a time, I would take the record out and feel the vinyl. I did this a few times, you know, to see if it was yet ready.
4. Once the vinyl felt right and pliable, I booked it over to a stack of large, hardback books (such as encyclopedias). The biggest, smoothest one was the first on the floor, and I placed the warm vinyl on top of it. Then came a heavy stack of books to flatten it down. On top of the books, just to be safe, I laid my guitar amp. So it's like this, in vertical fashion: big, smooth book-7" record-some more heavy books-guitar amp.
5. From here, I let it sit overnight.
6. I checked it the next day, and while it looked worlds better, it needed another oven session. Worried about the grooves, I went easier this time, but employed the same technique. I let it sit for two whole days.
7. After those two days expired came the moment of truth.

Ding! ('ding' as in the "it's ready!" bell, not having anything to do with the last post).

It wasn't absolute perfection, but it was playable. Its punk-level recording quality wasn't outstanding in the first place, but I put it on the turntable and was pretty impressed. I wish I had taken a photo of it as it was before I de-warped it. It was a sad sack, and to the unadventurous, a complete lost cause. But this atheist had faith.

Still, why devote time to flattening out a crappy punk rock 7"? Because a fourteen-year-old Ryan Adams played drums in Blank Label, and it might be worth something, if not simply novel to hear. Only 200 of these were pressed, in 1991.



But hey, sorry to keep you. I have one more thing you should know. Once you've de-warped the record, waste no time making a listening copy of it. Maybe you can dub it onto cassette. I, of course, digitized this record. The vinyl is now very vulnerable to warping again, because the initially damaged area was stretched and weakened. Unless you keep books piled on it, which isn't too practical, it will probably curl up again. Mine did, at least.

Luckily, I ripped these songs in time, and now I give you little Ryan Adams in his first band, Blank Label. Here is their 1991 s/t 7" on Fishbeat Records (you're going to have to bear with a few crackles, but as I've noted before, you folks claim to love such character).

Non-Existence (link disabled)
Sonic Issue (link disabled)
JLW (link disabled)

P.S. Since Ryan Adams has a lot of money and official types beneath him, I'm only going to leave these songs up here for a few days. You know how that goes. Is it because I'm a chicken? Well, yes. Those who are desperate for this critter can email me.

DING

A lack of information on this Pennsylvania band is restraining this post from length, so this time you're exempt from my usual stampede of words. Savor it.

This LP turned up in the used bin in 1998. After recognizing the record label, Chumpire, from some other titles I had purchased before, and liking the lean price of one U.S. dollar, I said "Sure."

I took it home and threw it under the needle. Not bad! Ding played sonically inferior (that may be too harsh of a word...perhaps 'sloppier'?), melodic scream rock in the spirit of one of my absolute favorite hardcore bands ever, Assfactor 4. As the record progressed, the similarities increased. With that going for them, this record earned frequent play, but as my collection fattened, Ding got lost on the shelf.

I dug this one back out the other day and gave it a spin. While I'm still sticking with my opinion that Ding is a sub-Assfactor 4, it still survived the test of time enough to do a post on it (for what that's worth).

Here's their 1995 LP, It Is '97% Genuine,' Your Feeling Of Being Watched... on Chumpire Records. And if I may, "Home Furnishings" is a killer song.

Renovo
Home Furnishings
Parallel
Yummy Nutrition
Used
Jolly Ploughboy
The Lamp
River O'Punk
What's Wrong
Traffic
Human Dogs
Fritz
Rainbow Day

INDIAN SUMMER

I am aware of stuffy mp3 bloggers who condemn those who post what has already been posted, but I've mentioned my "fuck it" mentality a time or two before. If I step on anyone's toes for posting what someone else has already discussed, I could care less. They can still take the credit for what they've written, and I hope they take pride in that.

That said, I'll go on to say there's no way in Hell I'm the first person to do a post on Indian Summer, but you're getting one. Around '97 or '98, their self-titled 7" became a holy grail for hardcore vinyl fiends, sometimes moving on eBay for $75+ (though, one would be lucky to squeeze ten bucks out of it if he or she listed it today). Their national noteriety is impressive, given they were only active from '93-'94 in Oakland, CA, but you can't dispute its reality. As cheesy as what I'm about to say sounds, their song "I am the Angry Son" was more or less an emotional (I tried to avoid that word) anthem for kids whose hair was Vulcanized by their girlfriends. While Indian Summer's sound was built from the resin left behind by Rites Of Spring, One Last Wish and Moss Icon, their cultish shockwave in the mid '90s inspired countless copycat acts across the country. Their similar contemporaries, such as Embassy, Julia, Ordination of Aaron, Vine and Current, earned acclaim as well, but not to the height Indian Summer achieved.

I regret selling my Food Not Bombs benefit LP, which featured a song from them, but I still have everything else they released, which includes the s/t 7", split EPs with Current, Embassy and Ordination of Aaron, the Ghost Dance double 7" compilation, the Eucalyptus double 7" compilation and a discography consolidating it all. There is also a live radio show CD called Live: Blue Universe, which was only available for a brief time.

Here is the once (and maybe future) coveted s/t 7".

Aren't You Angel
Millimeter
I Am the Angry Son

THE GIRL SCOUTS (Chopped and Screwed)

I bought this one solely based on the cover. It looked like fun, and with a title track such as "I Don't Want To Be A Zombie," I figured I was getting some Ramones-dipped rock in lacey fabric. Was I wrong? Quite.

Heidi Petrikat, Mary Huner and Barbara Markay are the Girl Scouts, whose music I can only describe as zippy, urban disco pop for a day at the roller rink, certainly not keeping in trend with the typical Used Bin Forever! material. That is, until you hear it at 33rpm, which changes the game altogether.

In August, I posted a slowed-down version of Cutting Crew's single, "(I Just) Died In Your Arms." When played at 33rpm (as opposed to the correct 45rpm), vocalist Nick Van Eede sounds like a depressed wino, sitting in a running car with the garage door down. If I may, it's just hilarious. The same concept surfaced by accident the first time I played this 1982 single from the Girl Scouts on my record player. It was already set to 33rpm from the previous record I had been playing, but I didn't notice anything was awry until a voice that sounded like Kurtis Blow imitating Biz Markie chimed in for the lead vocal. I hit the switch, swinging it up to 45rpm, and, well, I liked it better at 33.

Really. It's not the case where, when played slow, it just sounds like a dragging voice on a Talkboy. It really sounds like a man at real-time (however unintelligent), and the music, itself, is a little easier to take in. When played at its appropriate speed, the music is insanely spastic, particularly on the b-side. Just wait!

I like to throw in bio notes whenever I can, but they were lacking. A crafty web search dug up two of the three Girl Scouts, being Mary Huner and Barbara Markay. To my surprise, Huner went on to do some mentionable screen work, including a few episodes of Law & Order. She has also played leading roles in b-movies I now have to check out, such as Slime City (1988), Ghoul School (1990) and New York Vampire (1991). Band mate Markay continued with music, and she has accomplished more than I would have imagined. Click the link on her name for more info than I'm prepared to disclose here. It's kind of impressive. There is one notable bit of info found there I'll mention: "I Don't Want To Be A Zombie" reached #2 on the "French Dance Charts" of the day.

As for Petrikat, I hope she's doing well.

But getting back in focus, I'm setting you up with the normal version of the song first, then a "chopped and screwed" cut (you're getting an abridged version of the slow guy, but it'll be good and long enough, I promise).

Here's "I Don't Want To Be A Zombie" b/w "Hometown Girl," from R.A.C. Records, 1982.

I Don't Want To Be A Zombie (45rpm)
I Don't Want To Be A Zombie (slowed down to 33)

Hometown Girl (45rpm)
Hometown Girl (slowed down to 33)

HELL NO

As with my last post, on Citizens Arrest, mentioning Ted Leo's brief presence in this band gives this one the validation or relevance the administrators of the rock blogging world seem to require, but mooning the prerequisites is the perfect introductory image to a post on NYC's Hell No (though I don't know why Ted Leo makes it relevant. Well, maybe I do. It's a present-day stake to hammer into the ground with plenty of ribbons attached that lead to some notable point in the past. Got it).

As I was preparing my notes for this one, I found Hell No in the foul, bloated guts of Myspace, but my findings there got me excited for the single reason that their lengthy bio (lengthy as in Myspace-lengthy, AKA not much to read for someone who appreciates text) was, in all honesty, a fun read.

I'll let chunklets from said bio serve as the bulk of this post (after giving it a light tinkering for clarity so I don't have to type sic after every few bits, but I didn't touch or add any words. There are still plenty of grammatical and syntactical errors I'm rad enough to be fully aware of). The following italicized selections are said chunklets:

Hell No , or HellNo, was founded on the ashes of the now legendary thrash/hardcore band Citizen's Arrest. Towards the end of CA's time on earth, Hell No was formed by bassist Joe Martin, guitarist Janis Cakars with the help of Vocalist John Woods and Drummer Jim Paradise, all of which were part of the early ABC No Rio scene. With a 7" release circa 1991 they played a few shows and tried to find their stride, later recording their first LP with Wharton Tiers in 1992, at which time Ted Leo of Ted Leo fame left the band.
-
After many "iffy" live shows and basement gigs, Hell No recorded a 7", "Superstar chop," (recorded/engineered by Steve McAlister of the legendary NYHC band Damage and various other recording/sound projects) at Loho studios 1994, receiving much acclaim from music lovers and a few geers from their punk police peers. For it was at that time Hell No decided to incorporate their likes into their music and no longer play scene politics or "do it for the kids". Fuck the kids! They played for themselves and if no one came or bought any records, so be it.
-
As one critic from an international "Guitar" magazine remarked "the music is interesting and well played with hints of Frank Zappa", a comment you probably have never heard referring to a hardcore band. After another year, Hell No was to record another 7", "Super Nasty" (recorded and engineered by Martin Bisi) which would again further push their own musical interests upon the hardcore listener. The 7" was considered one of their best. Though it met with a small amount of criticism from certain of their PC policing punk peers as it had on its cover an image from an old movie of a young girl with skirt riding high. With complete disregard for [the punk scene's] lame attempts at censoring something so NON SEXUAL and after a little practice, the European tour was set and so went Hell No again into the continent of music appreciation.
-
Hell No was by no means a groundbreaker. But if you were a part of the local scene in NY in [Hell No's] 9 year span, you had to agree that they were different than most you’d heard of in that decade. That in a DIY world of people playing the same thing over and over again they tried to hold their own without the use of phony 8 X 10 glossy promo pictures with folded arms looking "hard" in front of a brick wall with graffiti. They found no need of devices like mystical, religious, metaphysical symbols. They found no need to be the Van Gogh's of music packaging with exceptional quality “EMO” photo's mimicking Fugazi. They found no need to send out endless promo copies to AR hacks or to kiss the asses of club owners for shows. That was a fault of theirs, some might say they didn't try hard enough while others realize they just felt disdain for the regurgitating, generic automaton like behavior and abilities of the average band. But no one has EVER said they tried too hard. Some people loved them, others never heard of them and some people thought they sucked. Hell No thought you sucked.

See what I mean? Fun. Fun and funny. Sincere without giving a shit. You can read the complete bio right here.

This is the aforementioned, excellent Superstar Chop 7", recorded in January and March of 1994. Fuck the kids!

The Greatest Vs. The Robots of Destroy
Be Nice To Spiders
Worker's Comp.

CITIZENS ARREST

I see this one on eBay every now and then. The first time I saw it listed, about seven years ago, it moved for fifty-some dollars. I just did a "completed" auction search a few minutes ago and saw weak demand had diminished its value to five crummy bucks.

But it's about the jams and not the beans, right? Citizens Arrest tore through fast New York hardcore in the late '80s and early '90s, and you can't read a Ted Leo bio without it first mentioning his vocal duties in this band's most youthful stage (though they quite often inaccurately pitch it like Leo led the band the entire time. Those hip music writers don't research anything!). These songs were recorded after he hung it up, when Daryl Kahan's voice took over. This is the Citizens Arrest line up most people know.

This is an 8" flexi-vinyl released on Rebound Records in 1990, limited to a thousand copies (according to Flex) between two pressings (according to me, somehow). The recording quality improves as it progresses, but it's my guess that it was taped on-the-fly because it starts out calamitous.

If I were wretchedly critical (or desperate for material), I'd mention that it sounds like drummer Patrick Winter drops his sticks at approximately 1:04 and 1:10 into the first song. I'd also cite the somehow humorous nature of 'tween-song comments, such as "You can put a little reverb on the vocals, please?" (he gets his wish in a heavy dose) , "Thanks...sorry about yer leg, dude," "I'm feelin' kinda shitty, so...," and "Alright, this song's called 'I Won't Allow,' and if it comes out good it's gonna be on [Rebound Records' owner] Ryan Sikorski's flexi, on Rebound Records." I guess it made it (and he knew it was going to be a flexi).

Wait, wait, I'm not poking fun. This is an awesome hardcore record that, despite a cut-rate recording, breaks through with command (like if the real Superman had to settle for a K-Mart Halloween knockoff of his costume while he launders his official suit...he could still get the job done). Since the nature of this live recording allows no easy breaking points for cutting up the tracks, each side is a single file. For takers and fans, here you are:

Side A
A Light In the Darkness
Grand Mal
Without Peace
Through the Mist

Side B
Serve and Protect
I Won't Allow
Death Threat

IMPLEMENT

How's your stomach for some random '80s hardcore? Here's a not-so-bad EP from a band called Implement, who I have absolutely no facts on. Where are they from? The Bay Area maybe? That's my detective's guess, as they include 924 Gilman in their "Much Thanx" list (along with Satan), but anyone could throw such a thing in there to look important or established. My first band put Sonic Youth in the thank-you list of our demo tape, who we obviously had no connection with (but it looked good!). The only relevant thing I know for sure with this band is the loose recording date of this s/t 7": July, 1989 (as detailed in the insert booklet).

Like I said, the music is pretty catchy, probably of the Dag Nasty or Faction school of songwriting. There's plenty of melody and classic "positive lyrics" in the five songs served (with standard lines like Too many things that I wanted to say/Too many things that I never said!). The low-priority musicianship is fine enough, but it does sound like the drummer took a break to practice between recording sides A and B. You'll see what I mean.

Bass intros, skate haircuts and songs that begin with the letter F abound with Implements' s/t 7" from '89, on Chump Records.

Inside Out
Fire Billows
Free
Five
Ignite

PYLON

Critics turned their shoulders directly at Athens, GA in the early to mid 1980s when R.E.M., Love Tractor and others in the city limits were impacting the post-punk and alternative rock scenes. Pylon was one of the best Athens bands of the time that never reached the level they could have, unfortunately overshadowed by peers that would become household names (the aforementioned R.E.M., along with the B-52s).

Other than knowing Pylon were a band of could-have-beens from Athens, I admittedly didn’t know much else until I leeched on Allmusic’s megabrain. The best noteworthy chunk in the praising blurb said this:

…Athens emerged as the nexus of the American underground thanks largely to the snowballing success of R.E.M., who regularly cited Pylon as a major influence on their music; in fact, when in 1987 Rolling Stone named R.E.M. ‘America's Best Band,’ drummer Bill Berry argued the honor actually belonged to Pylon, even though the group had disbanded four years earlier.

Pylon started Athenians off with Gyrate, released in 1980 on DB Records. Its British post-punk feel (even vocalist Vanessa Ellison’s vocals seem to bear such an accent) dials up thoughts of Au Pairs straight away, but it would be too cheap to leave it there. The presence of agitated female vocals makes such a comparison too easy, and isn’t quite right. Pylon is darker, and far more primal. If you’ll accept it, they’re more their own character than nearly any imitative post-punk band of the era. Even if I said they projected elements of early Joy Division, Au Pairs or a little Wire, you couldn’t add that back up to equal Pylon.

As far as I know, all of their material, other than a best-of called Hits, is out of print. Though their other works are certainly good, they don’t match the resonant mood of Gyrate. Here are some cuts from that album, but like I said, it has a tone that courses through, which I’m breaking by only posting certain tracks. I highly recommend you seek out a complete copy for yourself!

1. Volume
2. Feast on My Heart
3. Precaution
4. Weather Radio
5. The Human Body
6. Read a Book
7. Recent Title (the first pressing contains “Driving School” instead)
8. Gravity
9. Danger
10. Working Is No Problem
11. Stop It

ROAD TRIP!!!

Tuesday I cranked up the wagon and headed about an hour up I-40 West to visit a fellow named Jay B. (pictured). Every other weekend, he'd come into the record store where I work and we'd shoot the crap for an hour at a time on old garage, psych and punk rock from the heyday. Raised in Philadelphia and having travelled the globe, he's loaded with stories of "the time me and Rat Scabies did this one thing" or when "there was this night of crazy drinking with Mark E. Smith," and plenty more I love hearing about. His knowledge on the topic is measureless, and when he asked me to come out to his house and check out some rare vinyl, I couldn't wait to take him up on it.

Almost every semi-populated town has a vinyl-phile or two with a massive collection, but the percentage of Jay's that was scarce or nearly impossible to find made his outstanding. He was very cool about letting me dub some rarities onto cassette, and knowing of my fondness for Charlie Pickett & the Eggs, he already had a few things cued up for me when I arrived.

Pickett's Cowboy Junkie Au-Go-Go (left) is one I don't know I'll ever have in my collection. I usually don't go the eBay route when seeking out records, because you never really know what you're getting (and I've been burned a time or two in the past), but I don't think I've ever seen this one listed before. I didn't even have a listening copy of it, so it was the first thing to go on my tape. Another, Tuned Up and Howlin is "famous" for the studio version of "If This Is Love (Can I Get My Money Back?)" and his account of the Flamin' Groovies' "Slow Death," which could be the best rendition of the song other than the raw original found on Slow Death (Norton #297).

The next big museum-esque treat was Roy Loney's first solo LP, Out After Dark. I don't know anyone else who has this, and even Jay considered it a standout piece in his collection. The songs are catchy as you'll ever hear, and if you keep your swords sheathed, I'll go ahead and say it's right up there with Loney's best moments fronting the Flamin' Groovies. The first song, "I Was Born To Be Your Fool," is one of his best credits.



Gutsy Aussie rock is holy to Jay, and I can't track how many times he's used the greats like Radio Birdman, The Saints or The New Christs as a gauge for how wimpy today's rock can be. That said, he made sure my ninety minutes of blank Maxell took on the Cosmic Psychos, Exploding White Mice, and some Celibate Rifles I didn't yet have.



Yes, it may seem a little unorthodox in the eyes of the music blog police to post material based on someone else's collection, but this was a good trip. Consider the mp3s here a soundtrack for my car ride back to the Used Bin Forever! headquarters. Thanks Jay!

Charlie Pickett & The Eggs- Marlboro Country***
Charlie Pickett & The Eggs- Trash Fever
Charlie Pickett & The Eggs- Slow Death
Roy Loney & The Phantom Movers- I Was Born To Be Your Fool
Celibate Rifles- This Week
Exploding White Mice- Burning Red
Plan 9- I Like Girls

***I debated for a while before posting this mp3, because, well, it's a bit warbley at the get-go (don't be thrown by it, it clears up). I thought, "maybe I should wait until I get my own, clean copy," but only until the "fuck it" mentality took hold. My apologies to the purists whose aural boundaries I may be violating. When and if I do get my own copy of Charlie Pickett's Cowboy Junkie Au-Go-Go, I'll do a post dedicated to it. God, I love that drum sound.

DILLINGER FOUR

The good music blogger possesses a long arm of knowledge, able to reach deep in a well of musical history, drilled and filled by personal experience. S/he is aware of the fact that below the upper crust of the Ramones, Buzzcocks, Husker Du, The Fall, or whoever, there is an immeasurable mass of great music that never got its due, and perhaps never will. Many of these nebulous bands are good enough to punch-out the likes of the aforementioned champs, which is what drives me to search on for great, underexposed music.

You may find it funny, then, that I consider Dillinger Four one of my favorite punk bands of all time. Sure, they haven’t redefined any limb of rock and they hardly take the band concept seriously, but if a sarcastically outlined group of guys can knock down most bands I place them aside, they’re certainly contenders.

I’d even go so far as to say they possess a quality most contemporary punk bands don’t: they “get it.” They have smarts. Their song titles are silly, granted, but their lyrics are dead on and not at all devoid of sincerity (From “Portrait of the Artist as a Fucking Asshole”: I’m neither a poet nor a babysitter/But I got a guitar and a way to kill an hour now/I got no fucking pity for the fools who broke their eyes/Trying to break a whole culture down to size). They also know how to string together the right combination of chords. Their lyrics could be about lunar agricultural concepts and I’d still love their melodies and delivery. And…well, I’m not going to babble (not about things like their actual, rare integrity that flips the bird to career-minded punks who…[babble, babble]…). You’re probably familiar with them, anyway.

But this post is a tribute to one of my absolute favorite catchy punk rock EPs: Dillinger Four’s More Songs About Girlfriends & Bubblegum. Yes, it’s far from obscurity (which goes against the way of many a music blogger), but it’s also not available on their collection of singles and comp tracks, This Shit Is Genius (No Idea, 1999).

The apparently idle Mutant Pop Records released this 7” in 1997, marking my first date with this Minneapolis based group. The songs were chocked full of action, note-to-note-to-note-to-note without rest, and I wore my copy down with play. When they started releasing full-lengths in 1998 they proved they were authentically good, as opposed to some bland group who had a lucky moment with songwriting. Their three studio albums, Midwestern Songs of the Americas (Hopeless, 1998), Versus God (Hopeless, 2000) and Situationist Comedy (Fat Wreck Chords, 2002) proves their sense of melody and grip on what works. They reportedly will be releasing their next album, C I V I L W A R, in early 2007. They also have a live album, First Avenue Live (LSD, 2003), which ends up being a hilarious concept in its own right. Read the story on it.

While floating around the Internet the other day, I found this interview piece on Dillinger Four, which starts off with the same brand of gushing found on the blog laid out by yours truly. For fans, it’s worth your time reading.

If this is your first sally with these fellows, I’ll make it easy for you to buy their albums, which you’ll undoubtedly want. Just go here. Until then, enjoy 1997’s [currently unavailable?] More Songs About Girlfriends & Bubblegum. And if I may, while the a-side is excellent enough, the b-side wins me over and over and over.

1. Fuck You Ms. Rochelle
2. An American Banned

3. Thanks For Nothing
4. Twin Cities Sinners, United

(More) NoMeansNo

I realize I've already given you two NoMeansNo related posts in the past couple months (here and here), but what the hell, let's keep drumming. They have a new album out and they're back on tour, so we'll keep them in our minds.

While thwacking through my shelf of 7"s yesterday, I found one I thought I had lost years ago. In a plain white sleeve, with only the face of the cartoon boy on the You Kill Me 12" EP as an identifier, it's a live recording of NoMeansNo playing "Two Lips, Two Lungs and One Tongue," "Rags and Bones," and "No Fucking." I found it in a used bin for two dollars some eight years back and maybe listened to a time or two before filing it away. The quality is barely so-so, which doesn't compete with the excellent live versions found on their Live and Cuddly album (Alternative Tentacles/Wrong, 1991), so it just made sense to settle for those.

But through a collector's lense, it's neat finding lost gems like this. Pondering its rarity, I hit up a Google search. Surprisingly, it took no time at all tracking down info on this one, which is funny because it did end up being somewhat scarce. According to the Flex website, this is the Leave the Seaside 7", which was recorded in April 1990 at a show in Whitstable, England. Limited to an estimated 300 copies, it came free in 1993 with an issue of the UK-based Fear and Loathing Magazine in conjunction with Wrong Records, Nomeansno's own label (not to be confused with another, weak label of the same name).

But in learning that this came free with a zine, my authenticity alarm sounded. Usually, zine freebies are in the flexi-vinyl format. I Googled the title and, yes, it was originally a flexi. My copy, therefore, is a bootlegged reproduction, limited to an untold number. But due to the fact that "hard" vinyl is of higher quality (but not fantastic in this case...I did the best I could on a sonic boost, here), methinks it merits sharing. And it has other redeeming qualities as well, such as an 'alternate version' of the smart-assed break in "Two Lips, Two Lungs and One Tongue," (commercially found on Live and Cuddly) where John Wright taunts the audience during a limp "guitar solo." So all you NoMeansNo fans have fun with this one and don't forget to support them on their 2006 tour.

1. Two Lips, Two Lungs and One Tongue
2. Rags and Bones
3. No Fucking

BOARD GAMES TO KEEP YOUR MIND OFF THE PUNK ROCK STRUGGLE

After a Labor Day off (and working my other job), here's the post revealing the LP curtained by the 7"s in the last update. It's a cheaply pressed but oh so listenable LP comp from Donut Friends, an Ohio based label run by Harriet the Spy drummer and Party Of Helicopters guitarist Jamie Stillman.

Most of the seventeen bands featured on this 1995 comp are also from Ohio, starring Harriet the Spy and The Man I Fell In Love With (whose vital members went on to form Party Of Helicopters). However, and not to sound geocentric, but the no-contest shining track comes from Raleigh, NC's own Stewface, who dish out a damn epic. The insert booklet credits "Charlie" as the guest vocalist for their track, who I'm guessing is Charlie from Resol. Anyone want to throw down on that? The only thing that leads me to believe that is Resol was also a notable NC band of the same crowd, and, well, it sounds just like him.

Here are the shining moments from the 1995 LP compilation from Donut Friends, Board Games To Keep Your Mind Off The Punk Struggle (BUT HEY: The vinyl is of pretty low quality, so bear with those pops and crackles you claim to love so much).

1. Red Aunts- Smoke
2. Kill City Babies- Kristy Can't Breathe
3. Velocipede- Pink and Blonde
4. Polyestrogen- Social C
5. Grain- Springboy
6. Shale- Scissor Kick
7. Collete- You Are
8. Stewface- Noble Silence
9. Kill The Hippies- I, Shrink Ray
10. Armstrongs Secret Nine- Particulars
11. The Reconstruction- Gone
12. Harriet The Spy- Spaceship Woman
13. The Man I Fell In Love With- Candy and Space
14. Mote- MacGyver
15. Schistfield- In Adult Film
16. Ligod- Green Paper
17. Varnish- 5000 Letters

Learn more about Donut Friends releases here.

THE FELLS and FORKLIFT

What would you say to some [not very] insignificant punk rock of sorts for a Friday night in? How's about it? Alright, here's a double dose of perhaps new-to-you music from a couple strangers randomly grabbed from the 'F' file, The Fells and Fork Lift.

I barely have anything factual on the Fells beyond the sounds and packaging of this two-song 7". Their mailing address places this quartet in Tuscon, AZ circa 1995, the year this record was recorded and released on Seattle, WA's Bag of Hammers Records. Their Mummies-influenced garage rock couldn't escape the wide eye of Estrus Records, who released the band's s/t full-length in 1997. And, well, that's all I have for you. While the featured song, "I Don't Need You," is straight down the center of garage revival, the b-side, "I Just Wanna Go Back to Sleep" wins out with its character, which sticks right to me with its lazy, work-can-wait attitude. I dig the chorus: "I just wanna go back to sleep/I had a dream I wanted to keep."

As for Fork Lift, I threw my line out to the World Wide Web and didn't get a single bite. With the insert as my source, all I can tell you is this EP was recorded in 1992. Their style follows the path of the Bollweevils or a less inspired Naked Raygun, and it certainly does sound fresh out of the '80s decade, with the chorus effect still clutching onto their guitar sound. All in all, it's not half-bad.

Have a good weekend. I'll see you on the other side with some more relevant jams (like the LP hiding behind these two 7"s in the picture above)!

THE FELLS
1. I Don't Need You
2. I Just Wanna Go Back to Sleep

FORK LIFT
1. P.P.S.
2. Mailman
3. Untitled
4. Bathroomsong