What If I Don't Know

This single gives me a boner, even if it took the lab' a month after they banked my dough to put it in the mail to me (not that I'm bitching too much, plus it isn't even half the bummer that Siltbreeze is putting on me right now). Anyway, pretty much everything I own by these guys is astounding-- some Italian single that's a ripper in its own right, as well as a split LP with Teen Anger on ye mighty Telephone Explosion-- but what's it now, July? This one's got single of the half-year potential written all over it. I mean, this isn't your usual lo-fi donk that you've come to expect; the guitars roar like friggin' diesel trains, instead of plinking like banjos, and the drums could punch holes in your speakers. "Obliteration" has a great power-pop vocal hook, too, almost like The Move or Mersey Beat or something. Check out the song here, and then get on this shit sorta quickly (500 pressed, so they've probably still got one on hold for you).




Charlie and the Moonhearts -

"Obliteration"

Just Crush My Face

The Whitney House has been batting a thousand lately, with two ripping shows last week alone, starting with Cult Ritual, Ampere, and Open Star Clusters on Wednesday. I'm not normally down for weeknight shows, but with the three-day 4th of July weekend coming right up afterwards, plus the chance to check out Cult Ritual-- and besides, house shows normally finishing earlier anyway, so why be a baby about it-- I decided to give it a shot. Turned out to be a pretty good idea, too. (Note that I'm still limping along on a laptop until my new computer shows up, which is why parts of this blog are looking crookeder than Don Mossi's baby teeth.)




Open Star Clusters (from Ct.) were first ones up, and they were friggin' cool; theirs is poppier brand of free-form noise, not quite as industrial, with one guy manipulating a bunch of interconnected effects boxes that are all sitting on a table, and two other guys bashing away on guitar and drums (I think there's usually a fourth member, but not this time). I had a chance to see these guys once before, at a Charter Oak show earlier this year-- the one with The Book Slave and Defective Fiction, I think-- but unfortunately I bailed before Open Star Clusters played. I'm definitely hanging around the next time I get a chance to see them, though, because their shit's a riot. I like to keep an eye on the drummer whenever I'm watching a band, and that's one of the keys to watching Open Star Clusters, because whomever's drumming (they switch off sometimes) is usually the one keeping the pattern that makes the most sense, while the other two guys are basically just freaking out.

Open Star Clusters have a split 7" with Dek Boo out on Pregnant (the Weird Diner folks), but since my ability to rip vinyl is sorta crippled right now, the track I'm posting here is from some live stuff that was recorded for a Z Radio podcast, which OSC has collected onto a CD that comes inside a spray-painted silver case with a big black "Z" stenciled onto it, if you're into that super-limited hand-packaged sort of thing.




I'll admit that I still haven't gotten the hang of Ampere's recorded output-- the noisier bits are nice, but the rest is a bit too emo-core for me-- but their frenetic, pointed bursts are way more destructive in a live setting, where you can just let the chaotic riffage crease your brain cells and ignore whatever it is that the singer is doing. This is 17 songs in 15 minutes type stuff, so there's no hanging around and waiting for the next song, either, which I like a lot (curiously, Ampere's set list was just a bunch of numbers).




Cult Ritual were completely face-altering, like diving head-first into a lawnmower. Here's a band that sounds like early '80s American hardcore without coming off as intentionally trying to recreate early '80s American hardcore (unlike all those awful bands that try to recreate '88 straightedge)-- it's just what they sound like. Their new LP is one of those records that, after you listen to it once, it cleans your head out of all other sounds for a week. It amuses me to read people trying to describe this stuff; these are likely the same people who didn't hear "Damaged" until 20 years after it first came out, and still can't figure out if side one or side two is better (STUPID FUCKERS!). Seriously, Cult Ritual are as hard as any band I've ever seen, and they chew right down to the same spot where bands like Void, Black Flag, SS Decontrol, and Blast dug in years ago and never let go. I used to have a 1984 Negative Approach soundboard tape (the one that ends with some dude saying, "Please don't jump off the stage... the management will shut the place down. Hüsker Dü will be on in 15 minutes") which remains absolutely the most brutal thing I have ever heard, and there was a then-unreleased song on it called "Tunnel Vision" that was pure unfiltered white noise with John Brannon's unholy guttural shriek clawing to get out from underneath it all. Cult Ritual aren't exactly like that, but listening to them does make me think about those kinds of things.

By the time they played Whitney, Cult Ritual were already sold out of the tour pressing of their new LP, but they did have the repress of their 2nd EP, which I bought. I'm posting all four tracks here, since they're the same ones that the band is giving away on their own blog site. The new LP is on a completely different level, though, so definitely try to track one down (the second EP is much more Neaderthal-like, which is awesome in itself).

Have some of this shit:


Cult Ritual -

"Haunted Ground"

"Hunger Pains"

"Civilized"

"Leather"

Ampere -

"Remains Unadapted"

Open Star Clusters -

"Pogs" (live)

Disregard The Things I Said

I don't know what's happened to Danbury, since it's still my favorite town in Connecticut, but when you get maybe one paying customer at a punk show featuring two decent bands from out of town, you kinda start to wonder. Not that there isn't anything else to do in Danbury; there's three decent indie clubs all within easy walking distance of each other, plus a lot of other stuff going on, so Danbury has a long way to go before it backslides into becoming a little pisshole of a scene like Waterbury used to be or whatever. Still, you gotta figure that an above-average punk show on a Saturday night should earn a decent walk-up crowd, just out of habit.

One of the bands that everyone missed last Saturday was The Dispensed, who are sorta new as far as I know, besides having recently added Chris Grivet from The Steinways on guitar (my list of fave '00s pop-punk bands has The Steinways right up there with Chinese Telephones and The Ergs)-- not like that's a selling point or anything, I'm just throwing it out there to make it look like I know what I'm talking about. No kiddin', though, I thought The Dispensed were really really good. The sound during their set wasn't so great; I could pick out who was playing what as long as I had my earplugs in, but when I took my earplugs out (which is usually what I do when I want to hear the band better), all I got was an indescernable mush. All that aside, though, what I heard was some good 70's glam-influenced pop-punk, like The Stiffs, D-Generation, and Dimestore Halos. The singer, Brian, kept jumping all the time which would've made a cool photo but I had my flash set too slow, which had me mumbling "fuck, stupid asshole" at myself every time I missed another one. I'd definitely go to see these guys if they ever played around here again, just to get a better idea of what they're up to.




The Challenged played next, and they were also good, as they reminded me of The Thumbs quite a bit, or even that one Face to Face song ("Disconnected") that I used to really like a lot. I had some catching up to do with them (Jim Testa's been telling me how great they are) so I bought a couple of their CDs, but even better are the three songs that they've got lined up for an upcoming split ("Consolation Prize", down below, is one of them) which I think beat the hell out of everything else they've done. I''l be ready to buy the shit out of it once it comes out.


The Challenged -

"Consolation Prize"

"Cost of Higher Education"

The Dispensed -

"The Future is Unwritten"

Don't Hold A Grudge Against Anyone

Chronic Disorder were pretty much the outsiders of the early '80s Connecticut hardcore scene, although that didn't keep them from being one of the first CT hardcore bands that I ever really got into. They were also the second CT hardcore band that I ever saw, with the first being the Vatican Commandos and the third being Youth of Today; eventually, all three bands ended up on the "Make It Work" compilation EP that I pressed up at the end of '85, which proves I have a very linear thought process if nothing else.

Just to set a timeline here, the first Youth of Today show I ever saw was in Sept. '85 at the Anthrax, which was also the first Anthrax show that I ever went to. Now, I can't say what might've happened in the years before then, but from '85 on I'm not sure if Chronic Disorder ever played at the Anthrax, which was the undisputed hub of the CT hardcore scene back when most of the activity was centered around the Stamford-Bridgeport-Danbury area. Further north, the Hartford scene was barely acknowledged, if it even really existed as far as everyone west of New Haven was concerned. The southern tip of the state was where bands like 76% Uncertain, Vatican Commandos, C.I.A, Lost Generation, Fatal Vision, and Seizure were from; ask me to name one band from the Hartford area other than Chronic Disorder (the White Pigs don't count), and I'd draw a complete blank.

Besides having geography against them, another hang-up about Chronic Disorder back in those days was their sound, which took basic hardcore and built upon it with almost retro-glam-rock guitar breaks and melodies, adding a sometimes undigestable mix of weird extended intros and outros as Jason's songwriting progressed over the years. Then there were Jason's vocals, which had an affected British accent and were an accquired taste, to say the least. As a result, Chronic Disorder sounded a lot less like Negative Approach or SS Decontrol and more like the Dead Kennedys, at a time when a lot of people (or most of the kids that I chose to hang out with, at least) considered the DKs to be arty fags. This meant that Chronic Disorder were surprisingly popular with the hippy-dippy West Coast MRR crowd, but considerably less so back East.

By the time 1986 rolled around, Chronic Disorder already had four records to their credit-- two 7"-ers (including the "Fred" EP) and two LPs-- and had been on at least two or three compilations, meaning they'd probably relased more records than they'd even played shows by that point. (You can check out chronicdisorder.net for all the discography details, if you want.) The first LP was pretty great, and came with individually silk-screened covers for the first pressing, which Jason made for free at a local high school's print shop. I seem to remember my copy having a red cover, though I also saw one that was yellow and blue. The album even got a good review in Conflict, oddly enough, and I'm sure it's well worth hunting down even though I haven't seen a copy of this LP since I let my go over 20 years ago and I've almost completely forgotten what songs were on it.

"Blithering Idiots", the second LP, featured a re-recording of "Welcome To The Modern World" (the song that was on the "Make It Work" compilation), and of the four different recorded versions of that song that I've heard, I still prefer the "Make It Work" version best; you can still go back to when I posted "Make It Work" last year and decide for yourself. The four poppiest songs on the album-- "Summer-Time Blues" (not a cover), "On My Way", "Grown Ups", and "You Don't Fool Me"-- would've made a hell of a Lookout EP a year or so later, in my opinion, in which case we'd probably be talking about Chronic Disorder being one of the great early pop-punk bands... maybe. ("On My Way" has a little skip in it, but don't let it kill you.) "Je Ne Sais Pas" is an almost throwaway little reggae number, except that it's so damn catchy that once you listen to it you'll probably have it stuck in your head for the next day or two.

As an aside, I sometimes get the feeling that my longer descriptions (like this one) discourage people from clicking on the music, to which I say, fuck yeah you twerps-- you're saving me bandwith, which I'll use for the next Closet Fairies single or whatever.





Chronic Disorder -

"Mad At The Sun"

"Welcome To The Modern World"

"I See Red"

"Summer-Time Blues"

"You Don't Fool Me"

"Grown Ups"

"On My Way"

"Je Ne Sais Pas"






If all that wasn't enough, here's an interview I did with Jason ("Spit Respectable") of Chronic Disorder in September '85, for the third issue of Run It; this was around the time of the first Chronic Disorder LP, but before "Blithering Idiots" was finished. I've chopped it down a bit so that it reads a bit punchier, but you can click on the scans of the original zine pages to see the entire thing unedited, as well as check out neat ads for Incas Records and Bad Compilation Tapes from twenty-plus years ago.




Dave: Wow, I gotta ask a bunch of questions now.
Jason: Nobody told me about this!
Dave: I'm wondering about "Fascist Cliques", is that song about anyone in particular?
Jason: Oh, the part about Riistetyt, there were, like, skinheads in New York spitting on them.
Dave: I'm wondering about the line "violent little children".
Jason: Oh yeah, I didn't get that; it's just recently that I found out that they (Violent Children) had "fascist tendencies" about people drinking and all.
Dave: That's it, that was my only question!
Jason: Gee, great!
Dave: [heroically winging it from here on in] You put on shows in Hartford, right?
Jason: Yeah, we used to, but we don't have the money now. We've cooled down.
Dave: You were supposed to say "yes" so everyone would go, "Oh yeah, Chronic Disorder-- they built the scene all by themselves!"
Jason: Yeah, that's pretty much it... [laughs] Say that, and Jack Tragic will get all pissed off. He was here before us.
Dave: Where did you get this name, "Spit Respectable"?
Jason: I stole it from someone else. Some conservative-- well, not conservative, but he's religious-- some Australian kid who helped me start the band made it up for himself, but it didn't fit him. It's kind of a cute '77 name, like Sid Vicious.
Dave: What are your favorite shows on television?
Jason: Uh, I have a five-year-old sister so I watch whatever she watches when I get home, like the "Shirt-Tails" and stuff. I watch MTV, I'm not as pissed off at it as Jello Biafra is. I'm not too thrilled with it, either...
Dave: When Jello says that MTV sucks, I'm like, "Real bright, tell me something I don't already know." I don't need Jello Biafra to tell me that MTV sucks.
Jason: I think it's cool, because they're not-- like, any kid could write that song, they're not "developing" like The Clash...
Dave: You mean they're remaining simple?
Jason: Yeah. So we're gonna be like that, except for our bass player, who is getting into all these complex bass riffs. Like, the end of our album we're mellowing out, the end of the second side, and it wasn't on purpose...



Dave: I thought "Away" was pretty cool.
Jason: Wait'll you hear the next mix of it, we've learned how to use a studio.
Dave: You guys do "Anarchy in the U.K." sometimes...
Jason: Yeah, we used to do that, but it's becoming clichéd now. It's a good way to close the show-- a song that everyone knows the words to. As a last song, supposedly to bring the house down.
Dave: Oh, supposedly.
Jason: It's either that or "Stepping Stone".
[We start talking about all the other bands that do "Stepping Stone", and...]
Dave: We got sidetracked.
Jason: Oh damn! I knew this was gonnna happen! [laughs]
Dave: So, how did you get into Maximum Rocknroll?
Jason: I guess they like us or something. Steve Spinali really supports us, and I guess they had space.
Dave: So when are you guys gonna do, like, a 3-song 12" for $5.99 and really give people value, like Discharge or Social Distortion.
Jason: Whenever we can afford to-- I don't know.
Dave: But you have it planned.
Jason: Whenever it takes us only two weeks to put out a record, we'll start ripping people off like that.
Dave: You should think up some amusing anecdotes so this interview will come out better.
Jason: Let's see, amusing anecdotes... we've already picked on Violent Children, so let's see... Why am I cutting on other people when I don't give a shit?
Dave: 'Cuz everyone cuts on you.
Jason: What do they say?
Dave: "Nobody moshes to Chronic Disorder." [laugh]
Jason: Is mosh a verb or a fashion?
Dave: Got me. I don't know any skateboard terms, I can't even spell "vivisection". All this punk shit goes over my head.
Jason: You can always go for counseling!
Dave: Since you used to work at JC Penney, you should do commercials for them.
Jason: Or do commercials on the album, like The Who "Sell Out" or the "Cost of Living" EP by The Clash...
Dave: This makes me wonder, you're always (only) referring to English bands. Why is that?
Jason: I don't know. The first punk bands I heard were from England. I learned to sing with an English accent; everybody ranked on me, so I conformed and tried to get rid of it. Now I listen to Bob Dylan, so I'm all fucked up now!! I listen to a lot of foreign bands, I listen to American bands too...
Dave: You'd better, you commie! Your lyric sheet was printed at a high school print shop for free?
Jason: Yeah, the covers were silk-screened there, too.
Dave: Looked it.
Jason: Some people actually liked them!
Dave: It looked like a bootleg.
Jason: We're gonna do our own bootleg, "Skateboard Orgy". Except that we never have an audience, so it'll be missing something. We'll insert a laugh track.



Dave: On the lyric sheet, how'd you get the typing to print out over the photos?
Jason: We used a screen, so it blocked them out.
Dave: Technical things.
Jason: No, basically the White Pigs helped us. They summoned-up some dark demon. [The White Pigs were a local punk band turned "Satanic" heavy metal band, so that's the joke --Dave] "Starting Over" was written about one of the guys in the White Pigs who tried to smash our bass. "You're got the mind of a 12-year-old and you're already 22."
Dave: Let's talk about zines.
Jason: Ray's zine (Yolk) where he puts down the Dead Kennedys, that was pretty funny. [Ray being Ray Cappo --Dave] There was another zine, it was a one-time thing, Campaign Reform Failure. It ranked on everybody in the Hartford scene, and also guys like Lost Generation. It was kinda funny. I got to meet two bleached blonde girls cuz we were both written up in it.
Dave: Oh, really. Awesome.
Jason: Made my day.
Dave: What are some of the things that really bother you about the punk scene?
Jason: People thinking that they're the center of the universe. That's gonna come out on our next album. It's a song, called "Life, the Universe, and Everything".
Dave: I thought that was awesome, the first couple of books and the TV show. [Douglas Adams' "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"] Come on, we gotta fill this tape up. Be brilliant, goddamnit.
Jason: Be brilliant? Hmmmm...
Dave: Yeah, come on-- I wanna do interviews like Ink Disease, and instead they always come out like Run It.
Jason: You're spoiling the interview, I'm trying to be brilliant.
Dave: Let's do it this way: you interview me.
Jason: Okay-- Why'd you do it? Nobody's listening or paying attention. You're shelling out money for it.
Dave: I'm gonna take my time to think up a good answer for this question here. Even if I can't, when I type this up later I'll fake it.



Jason: Oh, here's an interesting anecdote, everybody heads up: I wrote out a mail interview for an Australian fanzine, and I wrote out a mail interview for a New York fanzine. Then I left 'em in the middle of nowhere, and when I came back three days later they were gone, and I'm all bummed out. Isn't that a bummer, man? One of the questions was, "How come Chronic Disorder gets such great reviews, and you're still unknown?" [laughs]
Dave: "Q: Duhh, you into anarchy?"... I think "Anarchy in the U.K." was stupid. The Sex Pistols had songs, like "Submission", which were totally stupid. [I think I'm just baiting Jason here by making fun of British bands --Dave]
Jason: But for then, they were alright, plus they got the attention of everybody. Here's an interesting story: some guys upstairs in my dorm are listening to Led Zeppelin records backwards. They're like, "Wait, you gotta hear this part!"
Dave: What about supermarkets? What are your favorite supermarkets?
Jason: Uh, I don't do supermarkets. I go buy grinders in the middle of the night at Medi Mart. Ham and cheese, or meatball. That place doesn't have much, there's a Subway right next to it...
Dave: I don't like Subway...
Jason: They cut 'em funny, they cut a "V" out of the top of 'em and it falls apart.
Dave: There's a couple of Subways in Waterbury. The grinders are stale and bums hang out there. [Of course, I love Subway now, once they figured out how to cut their bread right]
Jason: [still trying to come up with a brilliant story] There's this girl that's into punk here-- she's from New Hampshire. She says "hahd coah" for hardcore. But that's not too brilliant. What kind of things can you be brilliant about? People can't think, that's what annnoys me. We've got several of them in the Hartford scene.
Dave: I wouldn't know, I've never met anyone in the Hartford scene.
Jason: You kinda have to know which house to go to at what time. They all fit in the living room.
Dave: Boy, your scene's a real flop. Don't you read Flipside? You're supposed to know what punks are supposed to be like.
Jason: Yeah, that's what Campaign Reform Failure fanzine was all about, trying to straighten us out. I guess it didn't work too well, we just all got together and became even bigger flops.
Dave: Do you eat American cheese?
Jason: Uhhh............ I don't know.
Dave: What a complete failure! You're a real loser. I'm gonna call this interview, "Spit Respectable, Loser." [laughs]
Jason: Go for it! It's good being a loser, no one can use you cuz you're worthless. I got that from some Chinese philosophy. See, there was a tree that nobody cut down cuz it was all bent and twisted...
Dave: Oh, so it lived longer than all the good pretty trees.
Jason: Oh, you read it too?
Dave: No, I just figured it out.
Jason: Hey, spread the news, this is headline stuff: Chronic Disorder moshes now!! I'm not a poser anymore, I dyed the front of my hair permanently.
Dave: Oohh, how'd you do that?!
Jason: I don't know, some Clairol stuff. So we mosh now, it's okay to see us and clap, and stand in front of the stage and stuff like that.
Dave: I've got some back issues of MRR here, so I'll ask you random questions outta there... Sept. '84 issue: "You know that your EP could be considered dangerously leftist?" I wonder which EP they mean...
Jason: It musta been "Fred". Yeah, but who cares?
Dave: "Tell me about Ann Arbour. I haven't seen too many promos for shows lately."
Jason: Me neither. I haven't seen much of Ann Arbour much lately either! [Jason then goes on to tell his life story, how he was born in Taiwan and lived in California, plus he can swear in Finnish. His dad was in the Navy --Dave]
Dave: "Do you get a rough deal in the scene?"
Jason: Yeah, we're wonderful people and everybody hates us. "We only wanted to be loved..."



Dave: "Speaking of the first record, how did it come about?"
Jason: I was going to put out a tape, but someone laughed at me and said, "No one listens to tapes, put out a record." So I went home and cried, and I put out a record. We sold 300 and, like, it's supposed to be rare so we're gonna be rock stars and never repress it. A "collector's item".
Dave: Something Tim Yohannon would pay $20 for.
Jason: You're gonna love this: we wouldn't be anywhere without Maximum Rocknroll. [Bleeech!]
Dave: What do you think of stupid people who are eager for acceptance?
Jason: They're stupid! I think they should get a real life.
Dave: Why do you think people come to punk shows?
Jason: I get into catching stage divers. The thing that gets me is the big fat people who stage dive, it's kind of obnoxious.
Dave: Big headline: "Chronic Disorder Discriminatory Against Fat People."
Jason: Fascist! We're fascist! Large people can't stage dive!
Dave: [more random MRR questions] "You are from a little village..."
Jason: [laughs] Yes, we are!!
Dave: "Do you think Coca Cola is poison?"
Jason: I don't know. I don't drink it, I drink Sprite.
Dave: I drink Cherry Coke. I've been wondering, they had old Coke and New Coke, but they didn't have old Cherry Coke and New Cherry Coke.
Jason: Felt left out, huh?
Dave: What I assumed was Cherry Coke is the regular Coke formula with cherry flavoring. So I think the public has the right to know which formula is being used, old Coke or New Coke.
Jason: They should get that guy from "60 Minutes", the obnoxious one...
Dave: Andy Rooney. "What I wanna know is..."
Jason: My roommate has this parody of Penthouse, and there's an Andy Rooney article in there. "If they do it 71 times, is it still a 69?"
Dave: I'll just put in parentheses, "Poor Andy Rooney impression."
Jason: No, you did the poor Andy Rooney impression! [I did Ed Sullivan, too, which must set some sort of record --Dave]
Dave: June '84, the Jeff Bale vs. Metal Mike article: "Do you think that MTV is evil or just boring?"
Jason: Just boring.
Dave: Wow, that's witty. Here's one: "You've told me about your serious social/political issues; do you have a light vein in your songs?" What do they mean by that...
Jason: Humor.
Dave: Oh. I thought it was about hemophiliacs.
Jason: We're getting humorous now cuz we know nobody's listening, so why take ourselves seriously.
Dave: I never thought you guys were too funny. Hey, did you think up a good closing commment for me? I want something brilliant.
Jason: Who told you I was brilliant? Umm.... ummm... Okay, that was it. You didn't know I was already doing it, did you?
Dave: You what I hate most in the world? Substitute mailmen. Cuz they don't bring the mail on time, and they don't know who I am. Like, if I get something to just "Dave" or "Run It", they see my last name on the mailbox and stuff it into someone else's mailbox. Then I have to fish it out and it looks like I'm stealing. Anyway, I'll just put down that you said something really smart for a closing comment.
Jason: Like, "Eat pizza, live together, and don't put cigarettes out on each other."



old Chronic Disorder flyer that I swiped from chronicdisorder.net




Here's something that I found years ago, the first time I googled "Dave Run It"; Chris from Bad Compilation Tapes made a list of "Punks I Have Known", and I'm number 62 on the list. Yipee!

They're Stealing Flags Off The Graves To Wave In The Parades

On Saturday I drove the hour or so down to New Haven to see Lemuria (who've nearly become my favorite band all of a sudden) and a bunch of other bands that I also really like, only to get crossed up when the show was moved to a different venue within an hour or so of when it was supposed to start and I ended up missing the whole friggin' thing. All was not lost, however, since I hit up Redscroll on the way back home-- finally scoring a used copy of The Injections EP to replace my horribly battle-scarred original-- and then once I got back into town I stopped by the Whitney House, where they were having an all-acoustic show with Malcolm Tent and Al Pist.

I've known Malcolm peripherally for a lot of years, as well as being familiar with his playing with Bunnybrains and Ultrabunny and Creepdust and so forth, but this was the first time I've ever seen his solo acoustic show, and it was too hilarious. To say that his solo stuff sounds like an equal mix of Jello Biafra and Paul Caporino might sound like a bunch of hype, but for almost every one of the songs he played I was thinking, "This sounds like the Dead Kennedys", or "This could be a M.O.T.O. song" (except for the covers, of course-- Black Flag, Gorilla Biscuits(!), Devo, DKs, and the Ramones are the ones I can remember). You should seriously look up his "they all suck" song on YouTube; "Presidential People Suck" is the name of it, I think.

Al Pist was really good, too; he's got good songs and he presents them well, in a manner that is believable and sincere without any excess bullshit (seeing as I brought up Jello Biafra's name already, I figured I'd make that distinction). I think he was the only guy all night that I saw tuning up, also. I could definitely see Al playing to a regular crowd, and not just a punk crowd that already knows his background or whatever, and pulling it off sucessfully. I'm not sure any of this sounds complimentary or not, but it's meant to be, and I'm saying it anyway. Al ended his set with a Code of Honor cover, and he really does have a "Beware the Savage Jaw" tattoo, by the way.

I didn't take any pictures because I would've felt stupid using a flash in a small room where everyone was sitting down. I've had this God's Left Hand CD for a few years, though, so I'll go with that instead.




God's Left Hand -

"Fire Is My Friend"

I've Got No Wish To Go Back In Time

Another revved-up Aussie chunk of rock, and while hindsight has shown that this isn't quite up to the "rulin' pop-punk" tag I'd scrawled on the copy that used to hang in Walt's store (a buddy of mine and I used to write "helpful" descriptions on all the punk records back in the late '80s-- you shoulda seen it, some of them were pretty hilarious), it's still a pretty hot-sounding record. A more accurate description would be to say that this is more along the likes of Doctors' Mob than, say, the Hard-Ons, but the way the needle kept getting buried while I was ripping this thing, you'd think it was Crucifix or something.

I think I've got one other Happy Hate Me Nots single-- though I'd have to hunt a while to find it-- plus a copy of their 1988 "Out" LP on vinyl; if you want to check out the album right now, you can do that here, thanks to the always-crafty Wilfully Obscure.



Happy Hate Me Nots -

"Salt, Sour and Brighton"

You'd Be Better Off Alone

"Solid non-novelty effort from James McNew (Dump/Yo La Tengo) and Dan Cuddy (Hypnolovewheel/something else, I'm sure). A-side manages to feature a tender cello-and-violin melody without being creepy or anything; Chilton fans who maybe wished that "Sister Lovers" had been more hook-oriented would be pleased with this... the b-side is more up-tempo and fuzz-laden, and works just as well. Scrawling 'Matador sucks' on the inner groove is a really low blow, though" - Brushback #4

I decided to take the easy way out and base this post around the review that I wrote for an old issue of Brushback because I figured I couldn't come up with anything else useful to add, even 14 years later.

I liked this single enough to where I went on a Really Fast Racecar binge not long afterwards, buying up pretty much everything in their catalog, which left me stuck with a crappy Toddler EP but some pretty good records other than that. No doubt I'll be getting to them (just in time for that Spunk Davis revival) eventually.




The Special Pillow -

"Tomorrow Night"

"Paranormal"

There's No Truth Anyways

Friday night, while all the cool people nobody was at the Brava Spectre / Mammoth Hunter show in Willimantic, I was at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford to see Beloved Binge, from North Carolina. First, though, I had to suffer through some interminable local band (bass player who plays with his bass above his navel and makes slap/popping sounds + drummer with roto-toms + guitar player who wears a vest and makes guitar faces = DISASTER), but after a few walks around the block and some fiddling with my camera (hence the picture of the front door, below), it was finally safe to go back inside the building.

Actually, the opening band probably set things up well for Beloved Binge, because by the time they went on I was dying to hear anything that was short, sloppy, and to the point. For that I was rewarded, at least, because whatever Beloved Binge lack in technical virtuosity they more than make up for in their willingness to try just about anything during the course of their set. Toy xylophones as instruments, playing drums and keyboards at the same time, banging on guitar strings like a percussion instrument, whatever. Sure, it's not often that I'm in the mood to hear this sort of thing (I saw Shellshag doing something similar last year and found it completely annoying), but on this particular night it agreed with me fine, especially the blown-out Dinosaur Jr. part in "Married on Myspace" and the minimalist indie rock throb of "Miso (I Don't Like People)"-- "I don't like people, but still, I'm trying".

Plus, any time someone can drive the point home about what a mess seven-minute bloated prog-rock songs are, even if it's coincidental, that's fine with me.


Beloved Binge -

"Recall"

I Skinned The Tip Of My Chin When I Was A Boy

Here's a little gem that I wasn't even aware of before I read about it on the Matador boards about a year ago. The How is Stewart Anderson of Boyracer and Matt Hartman of Sic Alps, doing a two-piece mock-up of "the good Who, before Daltrey brought out the suede-fringed jackets" (although "I Was a Boy" totally deconstructs into a Boyracer-ish screeching feedback-ridden mess by the end of it). The packaging for this is neat, also; the sleeve is clear plastic with a silkscreened white logo so that the red vinyl 45 shows through and approximates a Union Jack-style Who logo, and the whole thing is pretty awesome. There's also a second The How single that came out a number of years before this one, but I've never seen it. (You can still get copies of this one through Slumberland, by the way.)

Besides the fake Who band, Stewart also has a fake Swedish HC thrash band called Lögnhalsmottagningen, which you gotta hear because it's completely hilarious.


The How -

"I Was a Boy"

Feeling In Reverse

Here's the Greenhouse of Terror 12" that I first mentioned about a year ago (sure, like anyone remembers that), one that I originally fished out of the used bin at Rhymes Records in New Haven around '86/'87 for maybe three bucks or so. This was back when you could buy almost anything from Australia and reasonably expect that it was gonna be great, even more so if it had a certain pedigree (Citadel, Aberrant, Waterfront, etc.). In this case, the Foetus and Black Flag t-shirts on the back cover were enough of a clue that Greenhouse of Terror were worthy of a measly three dollars, or that they had a decent sense of humor at least.

All in all, this is one of my favorite records from that time, and not just for the way that I casually stumbled upon it, or for the old-school press type lettering on the back cover with that casual Aussie slant to it ("noises onto tape", yes). The two songs on the a-side make up a couple of the best back-to-back songs you'll ever find on a 12-inch: "Compulsion", which davey-lopes along in a way reminiscent of The Fall, and the spastic "Now She's Shakin'", which is about as close as any favorite song of mine is ever going to get to sounding like the fucking Hoodoo Gurus.




Greenhouse of Terror -

"Compulsion"

"Now She's Shakin'"

You Don't Know What You're Fucking With

I haven't been to a Whitney show since Off With Their Heads last November, so it felt good to go back there last night and catch up on why it's such an awesome place to see a show. The sound is always great, the bands are right in your face, there's plenty of room to sell merch, there's always one or two people willing to do something crazy... which is probably about the same as all the other basement shows around, but unlike bars and clubs, there's always one or two things at every Whitney House show that make it worth showing up.

Last night it was Sister Kisser, from New York, who I'd never heard of before but they just totally rocked my ass off. Even though their demo is pretty good, you'd have to play it full blast in your car with the windows rolled up to get any kind of idea about how heavy these guys are live, because they sure know how to rock the fuck out of their songs. Sister Kisser seems to be approaching things from about the same direction as Get Bent, Iron Chic, Sleepwall, bands like that, but then they take the basic template, add in some Replacements "Stink" and maybe some AC/DC "Back In Black" sped up a little, and turn the rock up to ten. They're on a short tour now of the Northeast (VT, NY, PA, NJ), so go see them if you get the chance and they will kick your ass across the room, I guarantee it.




Hand Grenade Serenade's sound seems to be getting more technical these days; I don't know if they were always that way, or if I'm just starting to notice it more. Not that they're not still a wicked punk band, because they are, only that last night by the end of their set they were sounding like a big, amped-up metal machine. Maybe it's because of the way Genesis plays like Bob Stinson and K.K Downing all rolled into one; the guy's like a freak with a flamethrower in his hands, and I mean that in a good way. Every time I see Hand Grenade Serenade there's always more people getting into them by the end of their set then there was when they first started playing, and last night was no different. Hopefully one of these days they get some of these songs on a CD, and make it loud (like, Motörhead loud) this time.


Sister Kisser -

"Soul Glow"

"Fuck The Doomed"

Hand Grenade Serenade -

"Inkblot"

All Our Problems Were Solved

I made my way to Two Boots in Bridgeport last night for the first time, and it's a really good set-up they've got going on. First of all, the street in Bridgeport that Two Boots is on is suprisingly vibrant, with a string of cafés, clubs, and restaurants making it look a lot like South Norwalk for at least for half a block or so, (surprising enough to me, at least). Two Boots itself is a somewhat fancy red checkerboard tablecloth-type pizzeria with a long bar and a nice stage in the back; not just some crummy plywood riser, either, but a real stage with overhead track lighting and a red curtain backdrop and so forth. Heinekens are five bucks, though, so don't be expecting any bargains there.

The Inclined Plane, from Hartford, play buzzing '60-influenced lo-fi psych pop, which is a style that I can find either really annoying or really brilliant sometimes, depending upon who's doing it. Fortunately, The Inclined Plane have some good songs; not Medication good, or Titles good, but pretty good songs nonetheless, reminding me of the Lilys or any number of old spinART bands (in fact, the beginning to "Elbow Job" sounds a lot like "Winter Must Be Cold" by Apples In Stereo). The second song they played last night was a cover of "Motor Away", and I had to look at their set list afterwards before I even realized they'd played it, even though it's just about my favorite Guided By Voices song ever.

Anyway, The Inclined Plane have self-released a handful of CDs so far, all with spiffy hand-made packaging and limited to 50 copies each; if you're not from Ct. you might not be able to score one for yourself, but you can still check out some of their tuneage below, including their full 2009 release, "I Am Pants".

"I was reminded of all manner of awesome late punk and new wave bands. The Tyler Trudeau Attempt specialize not only in evoking the sounds of that time, but also the stubborn awkwardness, the difficulty of interpretation. ... You might be able to placate yourself with thoughts that the song structures are at least reasonably poppy — which they are. But then the band comes to a solo, and Trudeau launches into a discordant, Dada-esque destruct-a-thon which, if broadcast, would probably turn every FM receiver into anti-matter." Dan Barry, Hartford Advocate

"All of the guitar solos sound like he's just about to forget how to play." - Beware the Hippie Menace

The Tyler Trudeau Attempt are one of those bands that, when someone writes something about them, it makes them sound a lot more interesting than they actually are. It's like the old Diamond Dave quote, "Rock critics like Elvis Costello because rock critics look like Elvis Costello", which, in the case of The Tyler Trudeau Attempt, is even more apropos (maybe I'll explain why later). Besides the obvious influences-- like Paul Weller, Wreckless Eric, Elvis Costello, and so forth-- Tyler Trudeau's songs bring to mind a whole number of old New Haven-area bands, like the TV Neats, October Days, and The Furors. If you dig Ted Leo then you'll probably dig The Tyler Trudeau Attempt, although I find myself wanting as far as finding any solid rock riffs to offset the lack of hooks, or any abundance of hooks to offset the lack of solid rock riffs, whichever way you want to look at it. Luckily, The Tyler Trudeau Attempt have a kick-ass drummer, which in person goes a long way towards offsetting any lack of muscularity in Tyler's singing and playing.


The Inclined Plane -

"Crack Team"

"It's Not Like I Don't Know"


Plus, The Inclined Plane made their entire new 10-song album available for download here:

The Inclined Plane, "I Am Pants" LP

You're A Waste Of Time

Five or six years after their first 7" and Halo of Flies were still releasing fierce-sounding records, as evidenced by this 1991 single. Now, six years might not sound like a long time, but what are the chances that your favorite new band today will still be putting out their A-Grade material six years from now? If they're anything like the washed-out fake-indie crap that shows up in my in-box every day, my guess is "no fucking way".

This also happens to be my favorite Halo of Flies 7" sleeve, representing HoF's "Mod" phase or something (maybe it's because they're Mods is why you can barely hear the guitar solo on "Tired & Cold"). I don't know if Henry Owings (see this, by the way, it's great) is going to come in here and give a nod to Haze's particular graphic design on this one, but I thinks he oughta.




Halo of Flies -

"Tired & Cold"

"Wasted Time"

All Our Friends Are Hipster Fags

If I thought the Oasis Pub stage was problematic, then seeing bands set up on the lip of a half pipe at the Academy Skate Park last night was definitely an odd proposition, though the bands on the bill seemed to thrive on the challenge. Not that the occasional flying missle-like skateboard was the main issue-- more like equipment accidently falling downwards, though when Josh from Brava Spectre threw his bass over the edge in the middle of a song and then slid down after it, I'm pretty sure it was intentional. The mic stand that fell during Fatal Film's set was more of an accident, though who knows; it actually sounded kinda decent, the way it dragged itself back and forth a few times across the hardwood.




The stage set-up limited the physicality of Brava Spectre's set somewhat, as well as the sound bouncing off the metal walls from the corner they were pressed into, but when I walked outside the building for a bit and heard them from a distance, they sounded pretty damn good. Not that Brava Spectre didn't rock, anyway, as did Fatal Film, who I actually think pulled off the better set. Matt Potter's usual constant bobbing up and down during their set left him pretty close to hitting the speaker/heating duct-type thing that hung within inches of his head, but other than that (and the mic mishap), things went pretty smooth. Fatal Film's set last night was definitely one of my favorite sets that I've seen all year, and I can say that they were really crankin' it, even if they thought that no one was really paying attention.

There were skaters on the half pipe the whole time all three bands were playing, which made the whole show a real blast, plus a few band members even brought their skateboards with them for the little mini-quarter pipe that was behind the main half pipe. I'm not saying they were experts, but Dave from Fatal Film and Josh from Brava Spectre actually know enough to pull off tail drops and kick flips, which impressed me at least. Others weren't so lucky, but cheap beer was definitely a factor so I'll leave it at that.

The Weird Beards also played, and I'll admit that kept my interest even though I had to skip out after the first couple songs of their set. They reminded me somewhat of the Chuck Hestons minus the noisier parts, and I think I'll be checking them out with a bit more dilligence if I get the chance to see them again.

Fatal Film -

"Sick as a Dog"

Brava Spectre -

"Octobird, The Winged Mistress"






















Potter for the win

Spent Planet Cassingles Club

If you like Red Cross covers then Spent Planet might be your kind of racket, though as luck would have it almost everything that you see here-- not including the lollipop and the Smarties-- is impossibly limited stuff that you can't get anymore. Well, Phase One of the Spent Planet Cassingles Club (Bubble Gun, Closet Fairies), open to only 20 subscribers, is long gone, but you might still be able to hook up with Phase Two, starting with the Jean Claude Jam Band "Hong Kong Take Out" tape. In any case, I'm here to help you out with some of the goodies, as always.

Bubble Gun - like cross-breeding Eat Skull with M.O.T.O., only Bubble Gun is 1000x better than Eat Skull (cuz I'm so gud with math) and in fact Spent Planet makes the entire Siltbreeze catalog sound like doo-doo.

Closet Fairies - makes the entire Clitboys discography sound like doo-doo.

Jean Claude Jam Band - JCJB's split with Serious Geniuses made my Fake Best Of list for 2008, and now "Disappear", which fittingly nicks the riff from "Favorite Thing", is already one of the best three or four songs I've heard this year (Medication, Radio Faces, Wonderlust have the others).

Bubble Gun -

"50 Cent Keno"

"Big Big Fun"

The Closet Fairies -

"Popular Science"

Jean Claude Jam Band -

"Disappear"

Why Should You Care Now?

Doctors' Mob "Headache Machine" has been one of my favorite records practically since I first listening to records-- meaning the indie/punk kind, of course-- and I was still listening to it regularly enough to put it on the "Currently Listening To" list in one of the middle issues of Brushback, ten or eleven years after I first bought it. I've had to buy this LP three times from playing it so much, although all that buying has netted me only two copies of the actual record, which is a story that I'll be getting to in a minute.

Steve Collier was in the Big Boys before starting Doctors' Mob, who were the first and only "cow-punk"-type band back in the '80s to really grab me. Rank and File might've been doing it sooner, but they pretty much sucked as far as I was concerned (one of the worst shows I've ever been to was the time I got stuck seeing Rank and File in Boston, which is a story and a half by itself). Doctors' Mob, on the other hand, were basically the Replacements only with a lot more slide guitar, and I had no problem dealing with that. (For reference, check out "See Monkeys", which is a lot like "Seen Your Video" and "Buck Hill" mixed together.)

That's not to say that Doctors' Mob were some kind of knock-off band, because "Headache Machine" was definitely head and shoulders above almost everything else that was going on in rock at the time. For mid-'80s rocking I would place this slightly behind "Let It Be" and solidly ahead of "Done With Mirrors", and I'm being completely serious here.

My original copy of this had gotten worn to death, of course, so when I bought a USB turntable about a year ago, I figured it was time for an upgrade. I found a used copy at a reasonable price on eBay, but like most of the records that I've been buying lately (especially ones that I've already owned once), I filed it away without even looking at it. When I finally took it out of its sleeve a few months later, it turned out that the record inside the sleeve was actually a 12" single of Len Jewell doing "Slam Dunk" ("I sure love this full-court action, baby"), which woulda pissed me off if it wasn't so hilarious. I mean, at least the labels look sorta similar... anyway, I found a sealed copy not too long ago, so now I've got three "Headache Machine" jackets but only two records. I guess if I ever pass my records on to somebody, I'll have some explaining to do.




Doctors' Mob -

"Time's Up"

"Not Enough"

"See Monkeys"

"Somewhere Else"

"Dreaming"

"Why Should You Care Now?"





Now, here's your bonus:




Len Jewell -

"Slam Dunk"

I'm Pissing Down All My Love

There's no doubt in my mind that Change Zine was the best zine ever printed in Connecticut. I mean, for a hardcore zine it was basically untouchable. I don't have any of the issues anymore, but I do have three of the records Patrick West put out-- two 7"-ers (including this one), and a Simpsons tribute CD which is really a lot better than it sounds.

Fanzine EPs were pretty common back in the 90's, with most of them just stapled to the inside of the zine within a stock white paper sleeve, almost like an afterthought. There was definitely some extra effort put into this record, though, including a picture sleeve with two different inserts, with the inside of the sleeve and the inserts hand-stamped with a Change Zine logo just for the heck of it. On top of that, the songs from each band (Today is the Day and The Automatic Few) are bookended between movie soundtrack excerpts (that's what the "Conan" and "Unforgiven" credits on the sleeve and label are referring to) as well as soundbites taken from interviews with each of the bands, so each side of the record is like its own little episode.

I trimmed all of the excess audio from the Today is the Day track so that the mp3 you'll find here is pretty much just the song (I still saved the full track, in case anyone wants to hear it). I didn't feel like ripping the Automatic Few song on the other side, but it's actually pretty good for a demo-- sorta Fugazi/Hot Water Music sounding.


Today is the Day -

"Kill Yourself"

I Can't Hold On To Anything Worthwhile

I used to think that Boyracer were the best indie-pop band in the world, and I still don't think I was too far off. I love how most of the best Boyracer songs seem to explode when they get to the chorus, and how Stewart almost always sings the beginning of each verse like he's already in the middle of it. Anyway, this is a one-sided 12" EP in another impossibly limited pressing from the always unreliable Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club, as sort of a companion to the 7" version which was released in Germany around the same time by Turntable Friend. Three almost perfect pop songs here, all at about 1:20 each-- what could be better than that?




Boyracer -

"Your Unspoken Desires"

"Boxing Day"

"I Can't Hold Onto Anything Worthwhile"












My completely illiterate review in Brushback #5

My World Is Broken And You Have To Fix It

The Thing was the name of Sal Canzonieri's band before he formed Electric Frankenstein, probably because The Thing That Sounded Exactly Like Das Damen was too long to fit on a flyer. Back in the late 80's, Gerard Cosloy of Conflict used to print the letters that Sal would send him, in which Sal would run through every mundane detail about his band in order to scrounge up some free publicity ("The Thing are headlining a show in Italy!"). If only Gerard had known The Thing would practically invent Stoner Rock all by themselves-- along with a million other stupid longhair bands in NYC-- he might've been more receptive. Or maybe if Sal tried hiding out in Joe Piecuch's closet instead, he might've had better luck.

I don't know why I'm posting both songs here, except that I'm feeling stupid. "Dream Head" isn't that bad of a jam, if the 80's SST thing's your thing, plus it ends in a locked groove, so that piles on the stupid even higher for ya.




The Thing -

"Austere Precautions"

"Dream Head"

I Don't Need No Help From You

This isn't the greatest-sounding piece of vinyl ever; it was taken from a crystal-clear soundboard tape, but then it gets a bit fuzzy and drops in-and-out at times. Still, it's freakin' Kingface, the band that made all the hardcores and Revolution Summer emo-nerds face up to their own inner Van Halen, so what the heck.

Brian Simmons, the guy who ran the Constant Change record label, was one of the first Rhode Island scene kids that I ever met, back when Verbal Assault first started coming into Ct. to play shows when the only thing they had out was the "The Masses" demo. I'm probably stretching my memory a bit on this one, but I think Constant Change might've started out as a fanzine (which may or may not have actually come out), then as a record label, which eventually became Atomic Action Records.




Kingface -

"Read My Back"

"Lick The Moon"

"Life Keeps Getting Longer"










Kingface at Wesleyan, 1987 (photo taken from Kingface's Facebook)