WHY ARE WE HERE?

Alright, so I'm gonna leech just a little bit here. That okay? Are the Cenobites of the mp3 blogging abyss going to tear my soul apart? Yank my license? C'mon be easy, it's my sixtieth post! Plus, the leeching will be minimal, which I'll credit when it rolls around.

One of the absolute greatest NC punk comps of all time is Why Are We Here?, which resurfaced itself the other day after I knocked over a stack of cassette tapes. No, it wasn't the original cassette version, but a dub of the 7" that came out in 1983 on No Core Records.

I thought, "Whoa! I'm a proud North Carolinian; I love early '80s hardcore; I post a lot of homecourt rock on my blog; I gotta post this!" But it was just an old Maxell 60, dubbed from the source, and not an original. No cover art or liner notes. But I had the music, right? It's all about the music...righhhh?



I stuffed the cassette in my deck and got it rolling. Unfortunately, the years had been pretty cruel to the physical condition of the actual tape. With a shrilly hiss atop muffled music, it sounded like everything was recorded at the beach and the bands were underwater. Plus, right in the middle of the second Stillborn Christians track, a practice session from my old band kicked in. While yeah, that was certainly neat to hear again: Dammit! The Stillborn Christians songs might've been the best part!

Here's where the ethics kick in. As a thrash lovin' Carolina boy, I still wanted this sentimental post, but that depended on the help of others. Thankfully, after a couple crafty web searches, I found a clean rip of Why Are We Here? at Killed By Death Records, who, beyond my obligation to plug them, is a fantastic site for rare punk, powerpop, mod and hardcore. Scope it out and leave webmaster Johan some comments.

The track listing presented at KBD was a bit different than the order on my tape, but everything was there. I decided to proceed with this post. The leeching is as follows: I'm using the mp3s found at KBD, as well as the cover art posted there. I hope Johan doesn't mind and understands my connection with this comp.

For information on each band, click here. That link contains the proper 7" track listing, each band name being a link to their own individual info page. Think you hate C.O.C. a.k.a Corrosion of Conformity? The present-day lineup bears little semblance to what they were in the '80s, when they were awesome.

By now you may be asking, "Why isn't he just telling everyone to download these songs from the KBD page?" Well, you can certainly do that, but two heads are better than one. Perhaps.

Title: Why Are We Here?
Label: No Core
Year: 1983
Bloodmobile / Drug-Related Death
Bloodmobile / Little Boy Blue
Bloodmobile / The Smiths
C.O.C. / Poison Planet
C.O.C. / Indifferent
C.O.C. / Too Cool
Stillborn Christians / New Right
Stillborn Christians / Fred
Stillborn Christians / Aggression
No Labels / Changes
No Labels / Compromises

RODNEY & THE TUBE TOPS

It wasn’t until recently that I saw the “like Forrest Gump but real” documentary on the life of Rodney Bingenheimer, Mayor of the Sunset Strip. I brought it home thinking it was going to be a goofy, lighthearted but fascinating diorama on the past and day-to-day of the legendary KROQ jockey, and the upbeat opening segment certainly pitched it as such. Sadly, life’s big hurts swept over the story and it ended up being a pretty pathetic downer. As enchanting a life as he’s lived, you really feel for the guy when basic human emotions become the focus. Yes, privileged stars get heartache too.

Don’t let that sway you; it’s not that bad. If you’re at all an aspiring rock’n’roll buff, it’s a film you need to see. If you’ve never heard of the guy, here’s Allmusic’s Bingenheimer bio for you to nibble on (authored by Michael Sutton):

Rodney Bingenheimer is punk rock's biggest cheerleader. In the mid-'70s, long before record labels found punk commercially viable, Bingenheimer beamed two-cord, two-minute garage pop via his Rodney on the ROQ radio show on Los Angeles' pioneering alternative station KROQ. The impact of his program was felt throughout Southern California; struggling young acts found exposure they couldn't acquire anywhere else while many of its listeners, such as Dexter Holland of the Offspring and Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, eventually took the Orange County punk and ska that Bingenheimer had long championed onto the Billboard charts.

Bingenheimer began his career as a stand-in for Davy Jones of the Monkees in 1966. Raised in Mountain View, CA, Bingenheimer ran away to L.A. after a suggestion from Cher. Called "The Mayor of Sunset Strip," Bingenheimer became such a prominent cult figure in the L.A. music scene that the G.T.O.'s wrote a song about him entitled "Rodney." In 1972, Bingenheimer opened a club that catered to the glam crowd, attracting visitors such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Led Zeppelin, Joan Jett, and even Elvis Presley. Rodney on the ROQ debuted on KROQ in 1976, and the show's underground discoveries — including punk rock icons such as Agent Orange, the Circle Jerks, and Social Distortion — were compiled onto Rodney on the ROQ albums in the '80s. In 2000, Bingenheimer was the executive producer of Blockbuster: Glitter Glam Rock Experience, a tribute to the early '70s U.K. imports he once spun in his club.

Always the party darling with chicks and celebs at his table, the royal vibe his [tamed] nickname suggests is abundant in the film (perhaps "Sexually Over-Experienced Celebrity Lodestone of the Sunset Strip" is a bit more accurate of a moniker). And now that we have some relevance, let's zoom in on the focus of this post: his one-off band.

Featuring Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) on guitar, Eric Erlandson (Hole) on second guitar, Pat Fear (White Fear) on bass, Dave Markey (director of The Year Punk Broke) on the skins, and Rodney Bingenheimer on vocals, here's Rodney & the Tube Tops!

Their one and only release (which I'm quite sure is how it was meant to be) was a three-song 7", recorded in 1996 and issued by Sympathy For the Record Industry. The record's feature moment, "I Hate the 90's," showcases Bingenheimer filing a few waggish complaints he has with the period, from difficulty finding his t-shirt size to landing a cute girl who isn't a junkie. And what's with the tattoos and piercings and vile hair styles? Bingenheimer agrees: "Marsha Brady never had one! She's godhead!" While the comedic gloss is thick, his high-pitched talk-whine makes the overall delivery ingratiating (which is a synonym for 'endearing,' an NPR toolbelt word I absolutely hate). The whole thing just kinda makes you go "Awwwww."

Since this record is presumably still available through SFTRI's mailorder set-up, I'm only going to post that one song. The b-side, consisting of "Tube Tops Forever" and "Cellphone Madness," is just about as enjoyable and cute. The first is an anthem for the band, and the second is a bunch of fake phone schmoozery between Bingenheimer and big music names such as Brian Wilson ("How'd you get that stereo mix on the Pet Sounds box set? It's amaaazing!"). It's pretty funny. Plus, the music is great. Thurston's tuning pegs are definitely in character.

"Get me to the year 2000 at once!"

Title: I Hate the 90's
Label: Sympathy For the Record Industry
Year: 1996
I Hate the 90's
Tube Tops Forever/Cellphone Madness


Bingenheimer with one of his buddies.


Bingenheimer with another one of his buddies.

THE LUCY SHOW

Your author is in the heat of passion right now, this post coming to you out of sheer argument. I have no clue why Allmusic gave one of my all-time favorite pop-rock albums an embarassing 1.5 stars (out of 5). I discovered this today during a little bit of downtime at the workplace, where one of my usual time killers is typing random bands I enjoy into the Allmusic machine, just to see what they have to say about the records I love. Today, the Lucy Show's ...Undone (A&M, 1985) came to mind, so I typed their name into the field and hit "search." Like walking in on my girlfriend with my disabled biker-bar neighbor, this is what I was shocked to find:

Undone finds the Lucy Show drowning in their own atmospherics. Echoing the moody British rock of early Cure and the Comsat Angels, the Lucy Show are infatuated with their own arty pretensions; such narcissism wouldn't be a problem if the band had carved sharp hooks beneath the shimmering surface of their pretty, dreamy pop. Unfortunately, although Undone may resemble the work of the Lucy Show's obvious heroes, the songs have little depth; the tracks float like clouds, drifting anonymously into one another. The Lucy Show's chiming guitars and enchanting synths are certainly attractive; however, the songs proceed at a snail's pace, lacking any lyrical insights or emotional highs that would make them compelling.

Sure, I can't expect everyone to agree with me, and particularly not in the subjective realm of music, but they gave the Lucy Show's 1986 follow-up, Mania (Big Time), four stars out of five. While yes it is a great album, I strongly believe it to be the weaker of the two. 1.5 stars! Bah! I had to get a web search going to see if I could get any other sources at my back. I found this, which is an impressively comprehensive and praising article on the Lucy Show's entire career, but it was more of a gushing fan's perspective, and not a bit critical (and I'll explain why in a couple paragraphs to come). But whatever, it'll do. It's a far better way to learn about their career than I'm prepared to unfurl. Eh, and I don't need like-minded support anyway. I know what I like.

Undone is an album I bought while knowing very little about the band, other than a few mentions here and there in the context of "good" '80s music. I think I recall reading of a comparison to The Sound (not the Sounds, that's a different band), who I was head-over-heels for at the time (and still am, of course), and that got me believing. Needless to say, I was enamored by my first spin with the Lucy Show.

I ended up leaving Undone on my turntable for a couple weeks straight because, everday, I knew it's what I'd be listening to the following morning. The dark, cinematic tones reminded me a lot of the Church, another band on the same raft that I was (and still am) a big fan of. Eventually, this album's solidity earned its place with my other favorite records. I still can't get enough of it.

Confusingly, it's out of print, and has never been available on compact disc. Meanwhile, Mania saw its re-release in 2005 on Words On Music, who authored that "comprehensive and praising" article I linked out a couple paragraphs back. But what about Undone? Why is A&M keeping this jewel prisoner?

Whatever the story, this album needs to be heard in today's context, which should lift the bum rap Allmusic left it. Due to my lack of information on the A&M end, I'm only going to leave the mp3 links active for just a day. Preview and learn while you can. Ideally, support like this should inspire A&M or another smart label to get this moment back on the market.

Title: ...Undone
Label: A&M
Year: 1985

Ephemeral (This Is No Heaven)
Resistance
Come Back to the Living
The White Space
Wipe Out
The Twister
Undone
Remain
Better on the Hard Side
Remembrances
Dream Days

You can visit their home on the web right here. And to clarify, I wasn't knocking Mania whatsoever. It's an awesome album, so if you like what you hear, here, visit Words On Music and learn how you can add Mania to your cd shelf at home.

UBF! CATCHING UP MIX #2

Well, the original plan was to do these 'mix posts' quarterly, but then I got to thinking: that's just too infrequent. Plus I figured you'd be needing a mix for your holiday travels, so I took some initiative, broke some personal rules and jumped the gun on Catching Up #2.

Here's a fine, fine shuffle of your favorite tunes I've worked into this website over the past couple months, and few from even farther back. It's a super-sized extravaganza of musical spirit to stuff your ears in balance with the cornucopia destined for your stomach!

Remember, I wouldn't be cracking my knuckles posting this hard-to-find material if my intent was to simply "give it away," so it's on you to seek out actual copies of the music you love, and furthermore to support any currently active bands that sprouted from the bands I've dedicated posts to. If you'd like some info on the bands below, whip out your machete and slash back through the archives on this website.

Here 'tis, a shiny CD-R-ful of scratchy noise. Drive safe!

Juke / The Child Bride
Pop Defect / Puro Desmadre
Vitapup / I Need It
Count Backwurds / Alligator
Aina / Luton Can Wait
*Doc Hopper / Caffinated Vampires
Assfactor 4 / I Reckon
Candy Snatchers / Lil' Lolita
Indian Summer / I am the Angry Son
Ding / Parallel
Blood Circus / Part of the Crowd
Dead Silence / Freedom
Couch of Eureka / Numb and Screwed
Eyeball / Kansas City MO
Action Patrol / B Plus
Resol / Troff
Halfman / Substitution
Small / Chuck's Buzz
Tilt Wheel / Another Sappy Song About Hate
Razorgas / Diesel Powered Love
Bad Attitude / Four
Thee Headcoats / Louie Louie (Where Did She Roam)

*NOTE: Awesome song, but has a one tiny skip! The second Doc Hopper song, below, is an alternate if you don't want a technically flawed--but still worthy--song. Or grab 'em both!
Doc Hopper / Lonely Guy

DOC HOPPER

Well, that 'early days of Lookout!' post went so well I thought I'd have another go at good early '90s pop punk. Doc Hopper was a band that drank in the same pubs of mentality as Samiam, the Wynona Riders, Tilt Wheel, Born Against, (early) Weston, Third Degree and other marginally successful bands that, like an academic club, 'got it' more than most of their contemporaries.

I'm not implying these bands were actually braniacs or buddy-buddy, but they were certainly on another island. They could still have their snotty moments, but all in all, this gang had better taste.

(Before you discredit me, I'm fully aware that there were plenty of other, perhaps better bands that "got it" that I didn't mention in the intro paragraph. For the sake of reaching a broader audience, I chose bands more people recognize. Anyway...).

Feels like everytime I spend more than one minute in a record store I find more and more releases from Doc Hopper. They had a split 7" with nearly every band in punk history, or so it would seem.

I dug out a couple of my favorite Doc Hopper singles the other day, and other than a bit of physical degradation on part of the vinyl, the songs still rock sharply after an era of music that received a bit of a bum rap with the success of some of its weaker or more gimmicky bands. But nevermind all that. Like I said, this was the good stuff.

Frustratingly, my favorite moment has a tiny, tiny, tiny skip in the grooves that I worked half an hour trying to repair, but alas, I lost the fight. There's also a bit of irremovable surface noise that was there when I bought this 7" in 1994, and I'm not a big believer in the "noise removal" feature built in to my audio programs. I hope you don't mind the [few, perhaps insignificant] imperfections on "Caffinated Vampires," since it's gotta be one of the band's proudest moments. Amidst the melodic pop punk, it's a riffing piece of metal in the vein of Nuclear Assault or something, but the band still manages to sound like Doc Hopper. Actually, well, you know when the Descendents have those metallic moments? Like "Hurtin' Crue"? It's like that (even in the subject matter of coffee and energy), but with more metal-headed tunnel vision. It's also pretty sloppy.

The song "Agameticus," while clocking in at around three seconds, is notable in that it features good ol' Sam McPheeters on vocals, who I hopefully don't have to remind you is shrieker for Born Against.

The aformentioned songs, along with a few more, are on the Sweetums 7" from 1992. The other slab I pulled out for you is 1993's Chaserep, which closes with a cover tune right up their alley.

If you like the songs below, scout out their full-lengths, notably their 1993 recording, Aloha (originally released on Reservoir Records, and perhaps re-released on another label? Anyone?). Until then, enjoy these extra crispy 7"s.

Title: Sweetums
Label: Constant Change
Year: 1992
Lonely Guy
Agameticus
Nutmeg
Caffinated Vampires
I Hate You (GG Allin cover)



Title: Chaserep (or Chaser EP)
Labl: Chainsaw Safety
Year: 1993
Melcher
Summit
Up Around the Bend (CCR cover)

BLOOD CIRCUS

Perhaps this will be the grungiest post to ever be king for a day here, but Blood Circus certainly deserves mention. Their 1988 Primal Rock Therapy EP was one of Sub Pop’s earliest releases (SP22), as well as one of the label’s most commercially unfulfilling. I gotta agree with Ned Raggett's words on Blood Circus’ Allmusic blurb, as he attributes a little too much front-man-in-leather-jacket presence for anyone to really take the band seriously.

I think such a delivery might have counted for something if they were selling snotty punk rock ten years prior, but in the pre-spotlight grunge era, critics thought it a little too put on; maybe a little too hair metal. But they're not that at all. Buffering the vocals (which really aren't bad) is some pretty decent power rock with slashy instrumentation. You’ll easily catch some Motorhead chops, or more appropriately, similarities to their label mates and contemporaries Cosmic Psychos, who rocked how Blood Circus maybe could have with a few alterations. On a different level this reminds me of the Buck Pets. Maybe some Exploding White Mice. And the opening cut, “Road to Hell,” while studded with a pretty traditional rock riff, sounds fairly close to “Boychucker” by Rocket From the Crypt (though surely unrelated).

The cocky 'house band' imagery Blood Circus may have evoked is probably what did them in (they have a song called "Gnarly," haha), but still, my ears can leap past any swaying complaints some may have regarding this EP. I seldom ever listen to it, but I enjoy it when it's playing.

Despite its unpopularity, Sub Pop showed some respect and released a beefed-up version of Primal Rock Therapy with new packaging, liner notes from Sub Pop big wig Jonathan Poneman and enough extra tracks to make it a full-length. It's everything Blood Circus recorded for the label.

Here's the original five-song EP from 1988:

Road to Hell
Part of the Crowd
My Dad's Dead
Lime Green
Gnarly

DEAD SILENCE

In combing through the archives of other mp3 blogs I often visit, I almost always read posts that mention how the author is "bored at work," or some variation on the same thought. Well, let me throw down on that, because today was a slow one at the "office," and that sent me combing through those archives once again. Gahd, what a weak intro.

One blog I'm always wandering the hallways of is Something I Learned Today, and today, in the June archives, I found a post on Dead Silence, a band I hadn't thought about in nearly a decade.

Out of Boulder, CO, Dead Silence was a soundtrack option for the molotov cocktails being thrown at chemical labs in the 1980s. They were pissed with a cause, pacing the line between peddling nonviolence and being so screamingly fed up that you tear your sleeves off and hurl your television through the dome of the Capitol building (though a mission of peace remained their bottom line).

Eric at Something I Learned Today wrote a good enough blurb in his post, so if you'd like to read it and fill in my blanks, here 'tis.

His post deals with Dead Silence's '80s material, so consider this one "Part Two: The early '90s." This was the final chapter for the band, but they managed to draw out a few more noticable moments between four 7"s and at least three compilation appearances, not to mention the release of Unlearning, which packs together their issues from '85 to '89.

Here's the Freedom 7" from 1993 on the long-gone Vinyl Communications label. The first two songs (which comprise the A side, to keep it in context) still hold up pretty damn well and are maybe even catchier than I remember, albeit in a dark way. The third song is what poked my gut, because it's probably the most 'hippie warsong' of the lot, which I remember thinking was awesome when I was fourteen. Tonight, I'll the take A side.

I also think it's funny that the anarchist rendered on the cover is throwing a brick through an allegorical "Bank of America," which is actually the name of a real banking chain, today. Like Dead Silence prefers Wachovia. Eh, but anyway, I can sense the crickets out there so here's some loud anarcho punk to protest our evil leaders by.

Freedom
Hope
Crazy Song

And here's a [complete?] discog of Dead Silence from '85 to '95.

SOME 'OTHER' LOOKOUT! BANDS

This post isn’t in response to anything immediate in the music world. Matter of fact, the base of what I’m writing about is old news, and has been discussed more times than anyone could possibly care to track, but…

I was flipping through some 7”s last night and swiffed out some old bands that were once part of the younger Lookout! Records roster, before the label was neutered by its new bosses. The Lookout! Records of today is a completely different enterprise than the shoestring project started in 1987 by Larry Livermore. A “business” has to shift, migrate and/or twist out of its initial form if it’s to survive in an evolving market. Every normal adult should know something about that, so I won’t whine about the travesties of Lookout!’s new owners doing some house cleaning with its back catalogue, including the dependable acts, such as Screeching Weasel and the now monstrous Green Day. The new guys did what they felt necessary to stay ahead in the music market. They brushed off the old team and started signing shiny mall-rock bands that loved the idea of being part of Lookout!’s esteemed name, which is why the label kept the moniker, and why the deal was made in the first place. These young and handsome bands are, in turn, making the new Lookout! a lot of beans. I have no sources for any of that, but that’s pretty much the story I imagine.

But I’ll admit I don’t know the core specifics of the label shift, or that of Livermore’s final days as its owner. Googling the story was hopeless, as the search returned a wasteland of teeny message board discussions and conflicting details. I did, however, pluck a good entry from Livermore’s personal blog where he discusses some of it, prompted by Lookout!’s decision to cut out Operation Ivy’s discs, which were the only meaty providers of Lookout’s income in the first place.

Have at an emotional excerpt from the entry:

…Operation Ivy, more than any other band, "made" Lookout Records. Sure, Green Day may have sold more records (though not by as many as you might think; I wouldn't be surprised if by now Energy, the only Op Ivy album, has sold close to a million copies, which is somewhere in the neighbourhood of what the two Green Day titles did. But if it hadn't been for Operation Ivy, it's questionable whether Lookout would have lasted long enough or had enough money to put out Green Day's albums.

When Green Day pulled their two albums from Lookout last summer over non-payment of royalties, it was disastrous for the label, which subsequently laid off all its employees and scaled back its operations to where it was basically doing little more than selling off what was left of its back catalogue. But as long as Operation Ivy remained part of that catalogue, that was no small thing. Now, however, it appears as though the other shoe has dropped, at least judging from this notice on the Lookout website, which declares both Energy and the Hectic 7" EP "out of print."No doubt they'll eventually re-appear elsewhere, or perhaps Lookout will even work a miracle and bring them back, but for now I'm assuming the East Bay/Lookout era is about as ended as an era can be. Which of course was also how it felt last summer with the departure of Green Day, at which time I threw out some casual comments on the Pop-Punk message board that got reprinted on punknews.org, pitchfork.com, and eventually the national media and the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. They were intemperate and maybe inconsiderate - I essentially accused the new owners of Lookout of squandering their legacy and credibility on a bunch of lousy new bands while neglecting their responsibilities to the old ones - but not particularly inaccurate.

Livermore goes onto lightly regret his heavier words, saying he perhaps neglected some responsibility of his own regarding his promise to the signed bands that their records would always be in print: I conveniently (for my own purposes, anyway) assumed that the new owners would carry on as we always had, and that turned out not to be the case.

He offers his apologies to the slighted Lookout! bands that stirred his life, wishing he’d played more of a positive role in their fate, but none of that is really what this post is about. Hell, maybe it was smart of nu-Lookout! to throw away some of the rotting vegetables from the back catalogue. I mean I’m sure the Corrupted Morals records weren’t soaring out of the warehouse at the time the Lookout! CEOs had to make some decisions. As a business, they did what they had to do, which, on my part, is not to argue with Livermore or nu-Lookout! in any way whatsoever. I understand both sides, and that their interests conflict anyway. But again, I’m not here to debate any economic strategies. Don’t care.



Finally getting to it, some of those old Lookout! slabs I pulled out just kinda made me think of the old days, before I had a car, before I had a job, before I was aware enough to worry about “business ethics” or anything ‘adult’ at all.

I didn’t discover the sub-underground punk/hardcore/garage gems that most blogs like this deal with until much, much later. Savage Beliefs? Who was that? I wanted Isocracy and the Hi-Fives. That was the coolest-kid-in-class stuff for me.

Here are a few lesser celebrated, commercially abandoned, but tip-top Lookout! jams from a simpler age, a time when—wait, hey, stop crying! What’s that all about? I’m not trying for the misty-eyed nostalgia thing! Are you kidding? Just enjoy the rock and leave me some comments. Man, I'm just starting to remember how many mix tapes I "Juked" out.

Surrogate Brains from the Surrogate Serenades 7" (1989)
You
If the Things They Say Are True

Eyeball from the Prosthetic Head 7" (1989)
Kansas City MO
S.P.T.

Juke from the Don't Hate Us Because We're Beautiful 7" (1992)
The Child Bride
Kids Will Rock

Monsula from the Nickel E.P. 7" (1990)
Firecracker
Razors

Scherzo s/t 7"(1991)
Life To You
Another
Never

Couch of Eureka from the Year of the Zombie 12" EP (1996)
Numb and Screwed
Year of the Zombie

NOTE: The Couch of Eureka Year of the Zombie EP is still available on CD. The vinyl was only limited to 1000 copies, but the CD is a great purchase.

BAD ATTITUDE

A couple months ago I had intended to do a Bad Attitude post, but a frustrating dilemma with the digitization process kept it offline. As the record played through the needle and into zeroes and ones, there was a horrible basso hum in the background, which seemed to thicken as the minutes progressed. It was something I had noticed a couple times in the past, but it was inoffensive and never too big a deal.

Though I've consciously only posted songs that didn't feature the uninvited hum, I apologize if any of it ever made it onto this site and ruined your day, but I think everything so far has been clean (other than natural crackles of surface noise). After two months or so of trouble-shooting theories shot down, I finally nicked the problem. In an embarassingly simple case, the shelf my record player rests on is made of metal, and when records of certain frequencies play, it vibrates the shelf. The vibrations whirl back through the unit, and the low-end of it travels through the needle, as if the hum is part of the music. My Bad Attitude A Long Way 7" gives my record player the worst case of "vibrating shelf" I've ever heard. They were a pretty intense band.

The remedy? I gave a couple old t-shirts a new home and purpose neath my record player, muffling any potential gremlins and eliminating the problem. The only thing neat about that boring tale is that I woke up at 4am with the solution in mind, which I tried out after lunch today to success, which is probably just neat to me.

Alright, now that I've lost what small number of readers I may have had, here's some long-time-coming, hum-free German thrash from 1988.

Bad Attitude A Long Way (X-Mist Records 003):

one
two
three
four

NOTE: If anyone would like to pitch in on the song titles, I'll give you credit for doing so. My copy never had a track listing; just a cruel, white sleeve.

THE CANDY SNATCHERS

Rick at Toe Stubber knows a lot more about the Candy Snatchers than I, so check out his informative November 8th post on these Virginia Beach-area punk asses. I suppose it's sheer coincidence that he had the same band cued up as I, but damned if he didn't do a much finer job than I was about to pull. The only reason I'm going ahead with my Candy Snatchers post is because I have a different set of songs.

If I may, allow me to borrow one of Rick's paragraphs that summizes the Candy Snatchers' live experience well (which I regret to have never seen in person):

Even aside from such audience participation, the band’s tried-and-true array of destructive gimmicks kept the bookers guessing. Depending on mood, singer Larry May or axer Matt Odietus would sometimes cut their own scalp, ’70s pro-wrestler style - up by the hairline or wherever the blood would flow most effusively. Once, at CBGB, Matt bled out so much he almost fainted, and eventually had to be carted off to the ER with a t-shirt turban wrapped around his noggin. Larry would smash glass bottles at random. Willy used lighter fluid to set his bass on fire, with the aid of excited audience members who’d often get outta hand with the flammables and torch Willy himself. Drums were routinely collided with and obliterated.

The complete write-up whirls through the back story and brings us all up to speed on the members' intoxicated lives. You'll find it here, and I highly recommend you check it out. There are some early '90s-era mp3s available for download as well, and while you're at it, comb through the rest of his website.

Here is the Candy Snatchers' official page, though other than marvelling at the massive discog, you can't spend quite as much time with it.

From '94, here's their side of the split 7" with Gimcrack, on Stiff Pole Records:

Lil' Lolita
Deadbeat
Loner

POP DEFECT

Hey, a Flipside release! Rad! Yeah, but you've had enough interaction with that legendary punk label. California trio Pop Defect will, from this sentence forth, be the main course of this post.

Pop Defect is my kind of band. They were a three-piece with a big sound, and they weren't so concerned with producing a glassy product that they missed what performing intense music is all about.

Their sound may have carried a messy vibe, but nothing was oversaturated with distortion or other overcompensating devices. On the contrary, the guitar carried a surfey-type clean tone that matched the bright bass levels perfectly, and it was the incisive picking that gave Pop Defect such an aggressive texture. But this isn't a tone clinic. It's about a band who did what they did damn well, and this 7" is one of my favorite moments from them.

It didn't occur to me until starting this post to see if they had a website. They do, or rather, someone maintains one for them. Though cheap in appearance, it's very informative. In fact, I had no idea there was a documentary film on Pop Defect. Hm! You can also mailorder a ton of their merchandise there, too; even some of the band's earliest material.

Here's an educational excerpt from the fansite:

POPDeFECT has released seven singles, three EP's, a 10", three CDs, six compilation tracks and been the subjects of "Live With This", a full length documentary film chronicling their tours across America. They have recorded songs for two different movies as well and appeared in a television pilot as the "House Band" (!) Bassist Charlie was even on TV's Jones and Jury program to stand trial for spitting beer on a wormy little photographer who dared come to one of their shows!! (He deserved it). Their last CD release, "LIVE IN BIG BEAR" showcases sixteen live tracks including a number of weird cover songs.

One of those cover songs happens to be "Can't Escape Myself," by The Sound (from Liverpool, not to be confused with the Sounds, from Sweden), which, other than being an album highlight, conveys their impeccable taste and knowledge of lesser known, but great, music.

I suppose this time around I don't have much else to say, other than to urge you to visit the website and buy all their merchandise (Yeah, I know you don't have loads of cash to blow, but I'm self-employed to advertise without ever seeing a dime, myself).

Until then, play these two wonderful tunes for all your friends. From 1990, here's a 7" with one of the most befitting cover photos ever (taken by Al Flipside, himself):

Puro Desmadre
That Was It

RAZORGAS (Used Bin Forever does field work!)

The NC artifacts continue to surface when splashing for interesting material, and while the usual (but not reserved) designation on this site is of the early ‘90s smart-punk sort, here’s a worthy rock and roll gem for variety and sleaze factor.

Not a big heap of information exists on Razorgas, a late ‘70s to early ‘80s r’n’r act whose members seem at home in an x-rated uniplex (just to set the mood). I chanced upon this 7” at the Salvation Army several years back, and brought it home because A) the band was from North Carolina, and B) the four members were pictured on the cover, and they looked like total scum rockers, which could either be really great or a complete waste of vinyl. Since it was only fifty cents, I was fine with the gamble. Plus, I found the label name fascinating: McBarkles The Crime Ape Records.

A few days passed before it went under the needle, but the moment came with a blast of microphonic buckshot. The recording date was marked “1979,” and the sound could have been the prototype for Guitar Wolf’s way-past-the-red recording style. Through the static I pictured a room of greasy auto mechanics (if employed at all) banging out loud garage rock next to a stack of wrinkly nudie books. After a couple runs through all four songs, I deemed it one morsel of a find and I wanted to learn more about my fellow North Carolinians from yesteryear.

My one and only informative source on this quartet comes from a Kure Beach drunk named Arnie who wears a faded Razorgas shirt every other day, which is the only reason I approached him, and I only approached him for the information. He looks as bad as Iggy will in ten more years (dead or alive), with thick-lensed glasses any man with a steady paycheck would have replaced twenty years ago.

After sitting through slurred recounts of “when MC5 played Durham in 1970” and how he caught Johnny Ramone’s guitar pick when it was dropped at a show in ’79 and when he [unbelievably] punched out Eric Clapton, he finally got to Razorgas. Maybe he just liked how the beer drool slushed around his mouth when he spoke, but he had a lot to tell me (on the condition I buy him a “24 ounce,” which were only two dollars).



According to Arnie, Razorgas was based out of his hometown of Sanford, NC, roughly between 1978 and 1982. He and his roommate (who, according to Arnie, were a “couple o’ Hell-raisers back then!”) would catch Razorgas at a place called the Dairy Bar, “back when they had bands play, before the glass counter got broken.”

Razorgas’ four members, “Gordie, Brad, Danny and Joe or Josh, can’t remember which,” were [take it, Arnie], “a bunch of assholes that knewed how to play loud,” which I’ll admit is a tried and true formula of so many great bands that it's hardly worth mentioning. “We’d go to the Dairy Bar and drink out back with those boys ‘cause they didn’t allow beer inside and we’d get rip-roared. Can’t always remember what they sounded like because they were so damn loud and I was so dang drunk. So were they.”

When I asked if he knew any specifics about the band’s recordings, he said he once had a tape with four songs on it (presumably the ones on my 7” posted below, but don’t scroll down just yet!), but he had “no idea where in God’s creation it got off to.”

Now here’s the part where I tell you there was another three-song 7” single doubled in with the four-songer that was supposed to be there. The previous owner must have mistakenly placed it there (instead of in its proper sleeve), but damn am I glad he/she did, because it pulled out a timeline for a bit of perspective. See, it was a later recording of Razorgas, stamped “1982,” with more of an otherworldly, facial hair type of psychedelia. Maintaining the form, however, was the third track, “Rock and Roll Son of a Bitch,” a reprisal on their earlier sound.

The vocals sounded slightly different on this one. Maybe a new singer took over or maybe another member was at the helm. I asked Arnie.

“Well, those days are pretty hazed out for me, ahaha, but come to think on it, I do remember something about a new drummer sittin’ in while Brad was in the Lee County slammer. He was abscondin’ or somethin’.”

This didn’t answer my question, but what fun would rock’n’roll be without mystery? I let the void ride.

Without being prompted, he unfurled what he could on Razorgas’ “drug era.”

“They were always rowdy,” he said, “and it was mostly just alcohol and trashy girls, ya know? When they found out about mushrooms and things like that, ahahahah, oh man.” He slapped my arm and I said, “Yeah.”

“Gordie grew out some Yosemite Sam moustache on his face. Danny’s hair grew out, which curled and looked gay. Brad was in lockup, don’t remember Josh or Joe much either way. And I ain’t got no clue who was on drums at the time. Mike? Was that his name? Eh.

“That was sorta the end of the road for ‘em,” Arnie continued. “Well, at least for me, it was, ‘cause that’s when I moved out here, so I can’t tell you no more ‘bout ‘em. Plus, I’m ‘bout out o’ this 24.”

When I asked him where he got the Razorgas shirt from, he said, “Dairy Bar, ’81!”

He refused to have his picture taken.

By now, this has become one of the longest posts I’ve done, here, but you gotta understand what a fun find this was, and how much I’d love to catch up with the boys of Razorgas, assuming Arnie hasn’t outlived them.

Here’s their 1979 s/t 7”:

Diesel Powered Love
Beggin’ For a Bullet
Rock’n Roll Enema
Taste Your Tang

And here’s three from, as Arnie titled it, “The Drug Era” of 1982:

Supersonic Deprivation
Hot Mouth
Rock and Roll Son of a Bitch

THE POPE SMASHERS & THE NO KILL I (Rockers of Sacramento)

I’m just gonna come out and say it. I’m...I’m...a Trekker; a Star Trek fan. Big one. Been to conventions. I love it. Raised that way. Dad, he had the whole collection, and I don’t just mean movies. We’re talking the “Classic” series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, the animated series, and even the weaker shows that materialized in the posthumous days of creator Gene Roddenberry, like Voyager and Enterprise.

Unlike Star Wars, Star Trek is not a hip thing to like. There are plenty of rockers who might happen to enjoy such sci-fi, but it sure as Hell isn’t cool. Now, don’t nobody raise their arms and say “What gives with that Star Wars being hip comment? I really like Star Wars! And not just because it’s cool to!” My response to that is: It’s not “cool” to like Star Wars either. If you have a massive collection of Star Wars memorabilia taking over your home and you have a hot date tonight, best not bring her/him over to check it out afterwards. You’re not going to get laid. I just meant that one would sooner mock a Star Trek fan than a Wars fan. And yes, they are two totally different things.

But enough mock debate. This is a music blog. Those dorkwad confessions were mainly a circumlocutory (SAT word) way of getting to the focus of this post, an early-to-mid ‘90s band out of Sacramento, CA called the Pope Smashers.

Which I’ll get back to.

A little while back, my pal and fellow Trekker Chris Murray flung at me a website for a Sacramento “Star Trek Punk Rock” band called The No Kill I. Thirteen songs from a 1994 recording session were available for free download, so before I dove into their bio, pics, whatever, I burned my very own No Kill I disc.

I loved it. Being just a simple two-track recording, any fan of the Mummies and their associations would quickly dub it “budget rock,” which is only a bad thing when the music stinks, but this garagey punk was fun and catchy. If your nerd level is high, you will remember, or soon experience, live footage of The No Kill I from Trekkies 2 (the sequel to Trekkies, which documents some of the most extreme cases of Star Trek mania).

Anyway, before this blog rolls out of control, let me get back to the main focus (which by now may have shifted to the No Kill I): The Pope Smashers. With too many intertwined Sacramento-band connections to map out without earning a headache, the Pope Smashers are just a degree away from the No Kill I, members of each band having worked together in Los Huevos, Buttplug and several others, I'd imagine. Too confusing? Who cares. They’re all Trekkers*, and in the insert of the Pope Smashers’ 1996 7”, This Is A Test, you’ll find a random scrawl of Chancellor Gorkon’s famous Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country line, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Wait, you’re not following me, are you? You just want to stuff me in a locker and put glue in my hair. Fine, but as a great soundtrack, here’s aforementioned the Pope Smashers 7”, (which, I might warn, will not appeal to you if you don't love a gritty, sloppy, take-it-or-leave-it delivery ala early, early Pavement. I love it):

Outrageous Sea Rover Pirate Song
Carnival
Pop Culture Dub
Man...You'll Lose



And here’s a link to The No Kill I downloads.

My favorite song among them is "Beyond the Neutral Zone," easily attainable by clicking those dilithium-blue letters.

UPDATE 11/11/06: Holy crap, I feel like such an idiot. How did it not occur to me that the Pope Smashers' Scott Soriano is the man behind one of my favorite mp3 blogs, Crud Crud? How? What did I hire my brain for? Neat!

*BUT...

Scott Soriano contacted me with this:

Thanks for the write up. But just to clear a few things up.

1. The band were not "Trekkers" and no members were in No Kill I. The phrase "Revenge is a dish best served cold" predates Star Trek. Birt, the singer, most likely got the reference from a horror novel or film, of which he was a big devotee. You will find more Lovecraft and Texas Chain Saw massacre references in the Pope Smashers than anything else. (Correct. The phrase was first delivered that way by a French writer, hundreds of years ago, whose name escapes me right now. I mistakenly thought the coincidence too close to doubt. And it was some nerd humor, attributing that line to a Klingon--I'm really going to dweeb out, here, but in that scene in the movie, the humans claim the line was penned by Shakespeare. The Klingons claim it came from some old Klingon philosopher. Neither were right. No one is expected to think that is in any way funny. Anyone who does probably needs a girlfriend. That helped me. My apologies to Scott for the erroneous assumptions!)

2. Sacramento's music scene was very incestuous, however there is no direct connection between No Kill I and the Pope Smashers. The closest is that I was in Los Huevos and, for a year or two, the Pope Smashers and Ed Hunter was in Los Huevos and No Kill I. Buttplug was a band that survived for one month and two shows. The Pope Smashers and No Kill I shared a bill once and the members were friends but that is as close as they got. (Which was correctly addressed in the post, but I may have been vague in my wording.)

3. Though I was with them for a year and some, I was barely a member of the band. My roll was akin to a temporary session player. I played horns and percussion but did not have a central roll and certainly not a decission making roll. While some members of the band considered me a member, at least two did not, which is why my name is mentioned as a thank you on the record and not as part of the band. Whatever the case, I had absolutely no influence on the sound or direction of the band. (I love you all the same.)

INNOCENCE IS BLISS (Attn: Screeching Weasel Fans)

'Round 1996, some friends and I went to check out beater guitars at the local independent pawn shop. They had horrible axes of unknown brands for outrageous prices, but, well, that's how such businesses tend to be. While browsing, however, I happened upon a tupperware box of cassette tapes for just a couple bucks each, and there were some alright finds among them. From what I remember, I walked away with the Descendents' Enjoy, D.R.I's Four of a Kind and a punk comp called Innocence is Bliss: A 17 Band Punk Sampler. The liner notes explained that it was a benefit for the animal rights effort, as well as for some A.I.D.S. Action Committee. I hope they made all the money they'd planned to, because now I'm posting it.

I picked this one up because it had a Screeching Weasel track, and one that I had never heard or heard of before. The song was called "Merry Go Round," and was totally in league with their 1987 s/t album. I mean, it had to be part of that session--but it wasn't anywhere on that disc. Consulting the VML reissue of the 1987 album (which has informative liner notes written by Ben Weasel), I couldn't even find mention of the song, but did find this bit: "The first album, by the way, appears here in its entirety..."

Was "Merry Go Round" an omission from that session, graciously donated to this benefit comp before being swallowed by oblivion? Had to've been, though I still couldn't find any source identifying the origin of the song, and Screeching Weasel is a pretty well-documented band. I guess this was a forgotten track.

The only lead I had on it is from a random guy who said it could have been from their 1987 demo, which, still according to him, has a ton of songs on it. He had never heard or seen it though. And I was under the impression that the VML reissue of the s/t (originally on Underdog Records) was the demo, passing for an album. Aaaaand the recording production of "Merry Go Round" matches the s/t sound tone-for-tone. Why would they re-record all those songs to get the same sounding result? You follow me?

Alright alright, I thought all of that until I found this. That, there, is a link to the supposed 1987 Demos by Screeching Weasel, which I've never seen on eBay or anywhere else. "Merry Go Round" is included, as are a few other songs I don't currently own. Sadly, the download link has expired. Plus, the website is in Portuguese or something. I can't read that (those online translators are good for nothing but laughs). I guess the song "I Hate Old Folks" on Thank You Very Little was yanked from this recording.

Gosh, I feel like I don't know anything.

Either way, I'm pretty sure this is a darn rare rarity, and I hope you enjoy it.

Other than that remains are a bunch of terribly recorded songs from a bunch of bands I've, for the most part, never heard of. I won't post the whole comp because, really, there are only a handful tracks to pass on. The good ones are, well, pretty good I guess. I dig the Chronic Disorder track. The song "Rise", by Rise, would fit perfectly in any mid '80s H-Street skate vid. And there's a delightful rendition of AC/DC's "Hell's Bells," done by Mimi & the Screechin' Chinchillas, who sound like maybe the Pointer Sisters had a couple younger, more 'special' siblings who wanted to grab the mic. The songs you won't be hearing in this post are from the bands who couldn't quite do what D.R.I. did well in their Crossover period.

If you're a jittery completist, email me and I'll send you the rest of the songs.

Oh, and as for the surface noise, I'm fairly certain it's not the quality of the aged tape, but rather the actual recordings themselves. Most of these songs were likely recorded in bedrooms and garages. But hey, that's awesome.

Alright, outta breath, here's the abridged version of Innocence is Bliss: A Punk Sampler (which I'll place at '87 or '88, on Wasted Effort Records):

Borscht He's My Dog
Angry Kids Hate In Numbers
Vonny Bratchnies Thinking of Yourself
Chronic Disorder This Could Be Your Stage
Stinking Badges Drunken Monkey
Nuclear Ants Punxsong (Alienation)
Crash Course Mommy and Daddy
Toxic Shock Absolutely Meaningless
Coffin Case Friends Till Death
The Black Problem Harry Lee
The Creeps Shut Up and Dance
Rise Rise
Mouth Device
Screeching Weasel Merry Go Round
Mimi and the Screechin' Chinchillas Highway to H*ll [It actually has an asterisk in the track listing]
The Aboriginals Hope
EGG To Young to Hate {sic}

UPDATE: I just got a tip that Egg was fronted by Chris Ballew, guitarist/lead singer of Presidents of the United States of America.

HALF MAN

In the first couple months of this blog's existence, I would get a little self-conscious not delivering the great '70s punk format that does so well on so many other sites. But since I've been getting emails from folks who are gung-ho for my usual early '90s vinyl-core discordia, I've embraced what I do with wild glee.

Now that my sappy intro is out of the way, here's a Used-Bin-Forever-friendly group from New York who kept the benefit comps and the 7" shelves loaded in the early '90s: Half Man.

In 1995, I excitedly mail-ordered their full-length, As Everything Fell Apart. When it arrived, I threw it on the player and sat through a couple complete listens. I was disappointed. Something was different here. Was it partially due to the absence of former member and songwriter Chris Jensen? Was it just one of those moments where the inspiration wasn't as radiant? Either way, the material was, to be fair, good, but landed nowhere near the bulls-eye of their earlier 7" releases.

I'm sure you have some of those 7"s or records that, for whatever reason (association with a period of time; awesome songs), really stand out in your collection--ones you probably wouldn't ever sell. Halfman wasn't the greatest band in all of rock history, and they're far from my fave, but they are included in that category on my record shelf. I got into them when they were active and awesome and I followed them into a bit of letdown, but all in all, they stood the test of time and their songs still hit the car trip mix tapes. Plus, I loved (and still love) the fact that they called out dramatic scenesters for putting punk fashion statements over the political causes these kids claimed to embrace.

If no one objects, here are three, complete 7" releases from their better days.




No Choice But To Learn (Buried Alive, 1993)
In Control
Welcome to the Insanity That I Created
Heritage
Lack of Order

Force Field (Mountain, 1993) [Pictured up top]
Force Field
Substitution
No Lunch Today
Change of Pace
Candle Stubs

Split w/ Kisses and Hugs (Mountain, 1994) [K & H songs not included. Maybe another time.]
Not My Place
Swimming

RESOL

To compliment the Blownapart Bastards post, here's another mid '90s moment for NC: Resol. My introduction to this Raleigh hardcore band came with their split with Blownapart Bastards, and while the two songs presented on the Resol side were good, their full-length, Sorry, Out of Ervice, really grabbed me by the collar.

Regarding the 7" tracks, something about them (beyond the recording quality) seemed a little reserved. The full-length, however, is a great shift to the "fuck it!" mentality, taking the governor off the motor and thrashing full speed. There are still a few moments of measured, thinking-man's artistry (the One Last Wish/Fugazi-esque track five, "Comet"), but overall, this is an A+ issue of hardcore that would make Born Against, Lava, Assfactor 4 and Heroin blush. I didn't have a copy of Sorry until recently, and I have to give my buddy Chris Murray some big thanks for passing along what has become one of the best rock albums I've jammed in eons.

Now, I only saw Resol once--I think. There were house shows left and right in those days, so forgive me if I say they tend to bleed together. I forget where I was going with that, anyway.

Hmmm, and some factual biscuits? Charlie, the member with the higher vocal register, was the guest screamer on Stewface's most epic song (which you'll remember from the Donut Friends comp I posted a while back), was in the similar sounding Fragrant Cloud, and sung on a Universal Order of Armageddon song (thanks to Chris for that last factoid).

Here are a few selections from Sorry, Out Of Ervice:
Troff
Turn Off the Fat Guy
Stardust Lounge
Global Foodie
Comet

And here's their side of the 1993 split with Blownapart Bastards:
Mapped
Jaundice