If You See My Eyes Start To Close Please Pry Them Open For Me

They eventually faded out, lost their singer, and went sorta metal, but for a while back in the mid-80's, Starvation Army were punk as fuck. They actually started out as a hardcore band (see Erich's Good Bad Music blog for that, or here), but then slowed things down a bit and recorded a couple of rock-solid 7"-ers and a 12" before things went haywire again. Whatever the case, "City As A Ghost" (off "New Way To Burn") and "Deep Sea Diver" (off "In The Red") are two of my favorite CLE punk tracks ever-- just some really tough, Radio Birdman-style punk rock.

I actually interviewed Fraser Sims once; it could've been '88, but I think it was '87. I remember the accelerator cable on the old VW I was driving then (as opposed to the old VW I'm driving now) fell off right as I was leaving to go to the show, and I ended up having to fix it by hand and speed the whole way just to get the Anthrax on time. The interview never saw the light of day, unfortunately, but I remember Fraser being annoyed by the town we were in ("What's the problem with this place, anyway?") because there were no stores or gas stations near the club that were open late, making it impossible to find a pack of cigarettes after about 9 o'clock-- which was true. It might seem weird now, when pretty much everything's open 24 hours, but if you were in need of a pack back then, best you'd be getting that shit done early.





Starvation Army -

"City As A Ghost"

"Drinkin' Dog"

(these files are now listen-only)

I Gave Up Trying

The last (and best) Rip Offs single, and one that supposedly put MRR into a tizzy because of the words to "Sleeparound". Yeah, whatever, hippie. An insanely small amount of these were made as a two-sided record with an extra song, "Fast Livin'", pressed into the normally blank b-side; "You are a winner" and "Fast Livin by Shane White" were etched into the run-out grooves of the two-sided version, and lucky for you that's the version I have, so you get an extra song here. Punk rock!




The Rip Offs -

"Go Away"

"Sleeparound"

"Fast Livin'"

(these files are now listen-only)

Pardon Me, I'm Not Ignoring You

In case you didn't already know, Betty Blue was one of John Stabb's post-Government Issue bands, existing from around the mid-to-late 90's. Unlike The Factory Incident-- Stabb's most recent band, who were more post-punk/Mission of Burma styled-- Betty Blue's sound compares pretty favorably to J.Robbins/Pete Moffett-era Government Issue, with the same biting Stabb lyrics ("oh to be a famous major label star... just another flash in the pan" --"Seen Us Envy"), the one obvious exception being the lack of Tom Lyle's epic guitar playing.

Still, this is a pretty good CD (especially if you're a fan of Government Issue), as you can tell by checking out the three tracks I'm posting here. I can't remember exactly how I bought this, though I do remember trading letters with Stabb when it first came out, after I saw the address listed on the insert and sent along some GI photos that I had taken back in the 80's. I'm pretty sure this CD is the only thing that Betty Blue ever released, other than a compilation track or two, and oddly enough it seems to have disappeared-- meaning you can't find it listed anywhere on places like Gemm and Music Stack, or even on Amazon, where you can usually find a hundred 98-cent copies of every 90's "alternative" CD ever made.

One thing I did manage to find was a cover by Betty Blue, recorded live, of Naked Raygun's "Treason", which you can download here. Other than that, for perhaps the one and only time, here's Betty Blue.




Betty Blue -

"Fist"

"Disappointment"

"Seen Us Envy"

(these files are now listen-only)

If I Could Just Remember The Words

This is either the Pontiac Brothers' second or third album, or second and a half, depending upon how you count "Doll Hut", but there's no question that this is one of the best straight-up rock albums ever to come out of the 80's, period. Actually, with most people it wasn't all that easy a question, which was kinda too bad, so "Fiesta En La Biblioteca" sorta fell by the wayside; but by then Frontier was already making millions off Suicidal Tendencies, so what's one more record that didn't sell?

"Be Married Song" has been described as "the best Paul Westerberg song that Paul Westerberg never wrote", which is a bit unfair to Ward Dotson, whose songwriting trumps Westerberg's in several ways, not the least of which is the lack of total dreck. All the other songs on this record are sung by Matt Simon, who'd sorta laid off the Mick Jagger thing by then, although "Girl From El Reno" still sounds like it could've been lifted from any one of the Mick Taylor-era Stones records. And the Spinal Tap moment "She Likes To Rock" (properly pronounced here as "rök") sounds like it could've been lifted from a Ratt record, production-intact, except that it's a lot less dull-witted.




The Pontiac Brothers -

"She Knows It"

"Look Out For That Train"

"Be Married Song"

"She Likes To Rock"

"The Thing Just Goes"

"The Girl From El Reno"

(these files are now listen-only)

Some Things Were Never Meant To Be Answered

You're gonna laugh at this (or Jim Testa will, at least), but I thought this record was pretty cool when it first came out. I even once owned the original Ecstatic Peace pressing, too, which I bought before SST picked it up and re-released it-- that's how ahead of the curve I was back in those days *cough*.

Suprisingly enough, Forced Exposure gave this a decent review, even throwing Lyle Hysen's tagline from a review that he'd written for Thurston Moore's zine, Killer, "These bitches rock!", right back at them. Admittedly parts of this record sound borderline inept, but Lyle was in Misguided, which was a big part of the record's charm-- seeing the back cover photo of Das Damen at Maxwell's in their studly rock poses, all Partridge Familied-out, knowing they were a bunch of ex-hardcores just a couple of years earlier.

"Tsavo" isn't really a song, just a few seconds of backwards tape, the point of which I've never really figured out ("Ovast"?), but "Trick Question" rocks pretty hard in a circa-'86 Soul Asylum sort of way, which isn't bad. "House of Mirrors" is pretty good, too, plus the mumbled/spoken word breakdown right in the middle of it is always good for a laugh.




Das Damen -

"Tsavo"/"Trick Question"

"House of Mirrors"

(these files are now listen-only)

Act Like Nothing's Wrong

Scat Records had a deal once where, if you sent them a blank tape and three bucks, they'd send you back a dub of whatever the most recent Prisonshake show was that they had on tape. They gave up on the idea pretty quickly, but not before I was able to snag a live tape for my very own: May 5th, 1989 at the Phantasy Nite Club in Lakewood, Ohio (right outside of Cleveland), with the track listing hand-written onto the back of a leftover box of playing cards.

Whatever the tape might be lacking in fidelity-- it's not bad, just not from the soundboard-- it more than makes up for in entertainment value. Prisonshake was opening for Mojo Nixon that night, and some of the boobs in the audience, apparently not having any of the then-nascent Prisonshake, started calling out for the more easily-digestible headliner. The band responded to the shouts of "Mojo!!" and "Thank you, good night!!" with a slew of one-liners-- "Anyone wanna hear some Bob Seger tunes?", "I'd rather see him naked than you", "I'm making money being here, you paid 12 bucks", "Don't worry about Mojo, he ain't gonna rot", "Mojo will be out here later, he'll be doing the 'Punk Rock Girl' and 'Bitchin' Camaro' and all those hits"-- that last one flying right over the audience's heads, I'm sure.

The best part came towards the end of the set, when some school-teacherish lady began complaining to Doug Enkler about his protruding butt crack, so Doug brought her up on stage and handed her the mic. Nearly 20 years later, this scene became immortalized on YouTube when the guy who videotaped the show back in '89 for public access television posted it in 2006.

So, for all 1700 of you who searched for "Prisonshake" on YouTube and found that video, now you can hear some of the rest of what happened.




Prisonshake -

"I Am Going To Kill You"

"Bedtime Beats You Senseless"

a little friendly banter

"Ramblin' Gamblin' Man"

"Act Like Nothing's Wrong"

(all of these files are now listen-only)

I've Been Thinking A Bit Too Much

Not only is the Whitney House pretty close to becoming my favorite place to see a show, the show three nights ago with Cheap Time, Estrogen Highs, and Post-Modern Sounds is prety close to being my favorite show I've been to all year. Sure, Monotonix and Creepdust in Danbury back in July was a biggie (too bad I missed Tractor Flips), and when the singer from Pluto Gang passed out on stage at the Charter Oak it was fairly entertaining, but you can't beat three great bands playing a basement show not even two miles away from where you live.

I missed all but two songs from Post-Modern Sounds, but even then they sounded better than ever. It says somewhere that they're planning on recording a new record soon (sample lyric: "Hey guys, my name's Mark and this is Tom jammingalong, and in the back is Travis on the drums") -- yeah, should be great.

Going on last, Cheap Time almost got there late, driving straight up from Baltimore (I guess) in order to hop out of whatever it was they were driving and start playing in about five minutes. Their album is like the Rip-Offs doing Fastbacks covers ("Trip to the Zoo"), but underneath the lo-fi garage rock production of their records they're your basic awesome pop-punk band, and that's what comes out when they play live. Extra points for the Nigel Tufnel look the bass player was sporting, if only just this once.


Cheap Time -

"People Talk"
(Toys cover)

(this file is now listen-only)










The Estrogen Highs ruled. Good, like Negative Approach '84 good, even though they sound nothing like 'em-- they just held that kind of power. I've been back and forth on these guys a lot; I saw Estrogen Highs twice last year, before all the buzz, which unfortunately included a set in Danbury that was probably the worst I've ever seen from a band that was theoretically "good". Then they opened for King Khan and BBQ, and that was more than okay, so as a dare I bought their two records over the summer and filed them away, just in case I ever felt a need to listen to them sometime. Well, that sometime is now for the Estrogen Highs, because their set on Tuesday night was near-perfect, right down to the last two words out of Stefan's mouth-- "Fuck off"-- before he unplugged his guitar and walked away.


Estrogen Highs -

"She's Gone Missing"

(this file is now listen-only)

It's Not Going To Be That Easy

East Coast Panic was Al Pist's band right after The Pist, or in-between endless Pist reunions, whichever way you want to look at it. They sounded somewhat like N.O.T.A. or a speedier Iron Cross, with traded-off vocals (which wasn't always the best idea). They were also a ferocious live band, and I saw them once or twice if not more, usually at the basement punk shows that Al used to put on at his house in Waterbury. None of the E.C.P. pictures I took ever made it out alive, unfortunately.

East Coast Panic's record sleeves and flyers always looked good, and Al was usually pretty steadfast about whatever he was doing. I remember having a lengthy discussion with him by mail about trying to get more people out to see Ct. bands at shows and so forth, which ended up with Al telling me over and over again how I wasn't punk enough... which is kinda funny, now that I think about it.

I still have E.C.P.'s "Nowhere City" EP kicking around here somewhere, and Al's still making music, also, though in more of a folk-punk direction; I have a "God's Left Hand" CD that he put out a few years ago, though you're gonna have to let me get back to you on that one.


East Coast Panic -

"For All The Times..."

"Strike a Pose"

(these files are now listen-only)

Don't Say You Know 'Cuz I Don't Think You Do

Like I said back in the first Death of Samantha post, I used to own something like eight of the first ten St. Valentine singles, so here's one of them. This is a fairly decent jangle-pop record, as far as that stuff goes, although it's a good bet New Salem Witch Hunters consider themselves "garage psych" or something like that. They probably sound like the Leaving Trains, but I wouldn't know because I think the Leaving Trains were one of those bands that Byron Coley or some other hippie was always trying to convince people were really "rockin'" but in reality stunk pretty bad, so I never bothered listening to them.

I can't tell what the noise is that the singer makes with his mouth at the end of "Falling", but it's pretty funny. The b-side is a Dylan cover and not the Prince song, sorry to get your hopes up.




New Salem Witch Hunters -

"Falling"

(this file is now listen-only)

Disillusionment Keeps Me In My Place

I've mentioned the story of how I bought this record enough times already that maybe it's about time I actually posted it. You could argue with "Not Listening" that Snuff, like a lot of other bands besides them, delivered their all-time best song right off the bat, so needless to say I was pretty psyched for punk rock after I bought this.

If you've never heard Snuff before-- okay, so it's possible-- think of Leatherface, or Pegboy if they had a decent singer, although most likely you wouldn't have heard of any of them, either. Put another way, the runout groove to this 45 reads, "We may be poor but we're fuckin' loud", and I guess dat is all the people need to know. Heck, that's even better than "The Boise dork will die in Idaho", which I forgot to mention is on the Treepeople 7". My apologies for not staying on top of these things, but I can't do everything around here, y'know.




Snuff -

"Not Listening"

"Dead & Buried"

"Thats Enough"

(these files are now listen-only)