I Can't Understand What You're Doing Anymore

I mentioned the Burnt "Where's My Head?" LP yesterday, so here it is. I'm not gonna act like this is a classic album or anything like that; it was a middle-of-the-pack hardcore punk record when it first came out almost 25 years ago, and time hasn't really improved on things all that much.

This was one of the first few dozen or so hardcore LPs that I ever owned-- I had just moved to Waterbury as a teenager around that time, and it took me a month or two of walking around before I discovered that, dang, there's actually stores around here that sell honest-to-god punk zines and records. Full-length hardcore records weren't anywhere near as common back then as they are now, and in my willingness to blindly buy whatever popped up in the LP section, based upon if I recognized the band's name from the one issue of Flipside that I had, I ended up with some real stinkers (don't let anyone kid you-- Channel 3's "Airborne" and Code of Honor's "Beware The Savage Jaw" are some sucky fuckin' records). Likewise, "Where's My Head" wasn't really thrashy enough for me at the time, so I got rid of it fairly quickly. A couple of decades later, I stumble across a copy in near-perfect shape sitting in a rack for only eight bucks, and I had to buy it again, if only because (thanks to eBay) you hardly ever see old stuff like this in an actual record store anymore.

Objectively, this isn't a bad record, just nothing amazing. It's loud enough, I suppose, and it has a few catchy vocal parts that used to stick in my head when I was younger ("No more drinking! No more driving!", "Action, action, I want action!", "F-f-f-forget about it!"), which all together means The Burnt were probably a fun band to sing along to if you were a part of the local NJ scene back then. When I listen to this now, it reminds me of the stuff they play over the PA at Cafe Nine in-between bands, which if Cafe Nine ever happened to play this record and I didn't recognize what it was I'd probably think that it was just okay, or that it was the Black Noise Scam or something.

As a cheapo record store find in the '00s, though, this ranks a lot higher, especially considering that if I ever run across a copy of "Airborne" again-- even if it's only 50 cents-- I'm leaving it right where it is.




The Burnt -

"D.W.I."

"I Hate You"

"Let's Fight"

"Garbage Can"

"Who Says?"

"Forget About It"

(these files are now listen-only)

Got A Problem Inside

Another record that was rescued from Jim Testa's former basement, and I kinda like the a-side on this one-- just some good, meaty oi-metal, nothing fancy. 'Course, sometimes I think it sounds a bit too much like "TV Party", or maybe it's just the gang-vocal technique that's throwing me off, who knows. This was pressed on a 6" (images have been downsized accordingly); Headache Records put out a series of 5" records, also, which won't play all the way through on spiffier turntables because the tonearm return kicks in too soon, but my record player's cheap and doesn't have one of those, so no problems here.

The Wretched Ones formed out of The Burnt, whose "Where's My Head?" album I actually have around here somewhere (believe it or not), so maybe I should post that one, too. If you've ever seen the sleeve of "Where's My Head?" you'll note that the Headache Records logo re-uses the "pained guy" drawing from the front cover. Recycling, it's not just for hippies anymore.




The Wretched Ones -

"Going Down The Bar"

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I Decided That It Was Best To Not Come Back For What I Left

I got the Radio Faces LP in the mail earlier this week, and "I'm So Lucky" jumped onto the list of songs that have floored me right away this year (the rest of the list so far is Wonderlust "Wolves" and Medication "Didn't Wanna Know"; bear in mind that there was one year when Texas Is The Reason "Johnny On The Spot" would've been on the list, so you've been warned). The whole record is great, though-- good if you like Gentleman Jesse and His Men, or (more to the point) Modern Machines/Used Kids/Ergs!/Bent Outta Shape/Ringers, which is where the Radio Faces line-up comes from.

The LP comes with a 192 kbps download card, though this is my own 320 kbps vinyl rip; only 525 of these were pressed, so hop to it-- art of the underground (is batting a thousand) dot com.




Radio Faces -

"I'm So Lucky"

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Bite On Me When You Get Back

Shiv were single-minded in their willingness to kick ass, at least on this CD, which was just about the most wicked flat-out thing to come out of New Haven at the time (outside of Hatebreed and that whole scene, of course). I have a couple of Shiv 7"-ers that I don't like nearly as much, one of which got snapped completely in half one night, although I still kept it (see below). On "Flayed and Ashamed", though, Shiv pile up the points in bunches, with each song propelled by some sort of monster guitar riff while Keith shotguns contempt at just about everyone and everything through his lyrics ("shithead... dirt bag... bastard... drunk").

Once Shiv was laid to rest, Keith became the frontman for the Spoilers alongside Puggs from Ugly Truth, and if there's one Connecticut band whose demo I wish I still had, theirs is it; it was like the Devil Dogs and New Bomb Turks all rolled into one, and it swung like a motherfucker. The other day I found the tapes from when I interviewed the Spoilers in '99, which oughta be worth transcribing now that the rock is back and open for business, though that's a story that I'll save for another day.




Shiv -

"Unsatisfaction"

"Fruit Pie"

"Coworker"

"Bank It"

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Don't Know How I Had It

I think I was hoping when I bought this that it would be an obscure Dutch noise compilation or something, since the only band I recognized was Buzzoven (and they're kinda noisy, right?). I figured out later that Union Morbide were on one of those No Idea zine compilations that I used to have, which woulda shot down what I was thinking from the very beginning.

The Union Morbide song turned out to be the only reason to keep this record around; most of "Sing Along With..." is just average p-rock, and the Buzzoven song (recorded in 1991) is basically inept; it was probably meant to sound like C.O.C. or something, but it sounds more like that really bad Void metal LP that Touch and Go wouldn't release, or the first Die Kreuzen LP if it had been recorded by fourth graders. The Union Morbide track, on the other hand, is totally great, and sounds a lot like Snuff, or a sped-up version of that Jean Claude Jam Band song I posted a few months ago.

The Random Killing song sucks, too, but I'm posting it here because if you're one of those people who used to listen to compilations like MRR's "Not So Quiet On The Western Front" or the RRAdical "Peace" comp all the way through when you were younger, you would've heard a bunch of shitty punk rock songs exactly like this one. Think of it as a chance to revisit your roots, I guess.




Union Morbide -

"Let Me Free"

Buzzoven -

"Splinter My Eye"

Random Killing -

"We're Sick"

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Someone's Got To Be Destroyed

"Out of Sight, Out of Mind" works the heavy power trio angle to good effect and stands as a unique album in the MDID discography - Scat Records catalog blurb

This is the only My Dad Is Dead album that I own, so lucky for me it works out that this is the MDID "rock" album-- and a fine piece of rock it be, said to be recorded with members of Cobra Verde and Prisonshake, besides (there's no actual info on the record itself, it's just something that I read somewhere). This was also mastered quieter overall than any other LP I've ripped up to this point, which I'm guessing is because Mark's guitar on most of the tracks is distorted way the heck out there. It might make your speakers buzz a little funny, but it also makes for a really heavy guitar record, and that's a wonderful thing.

Mark Edward's singing has been described as "flat" by some, but in looking at all that came afterwards which might've used MDID as a reference point (Dis-, Silkworm, Karl Hendricks, Thee Speaking Canaries, etc.), that's hardly anything to complain about. Now, when I go back and listen to the way Mark sings lines like, "She's in love, and she don't know what that means", almost right away it brings to mind Paul Banks, and if Interpol never covered "She's In Love" then maybe it's because they've got better things to do, like write another boring record or something, who knows.

The vinyl for this album went out of print last year sometime, but the CD version is still available from Scat (www.scatrecords.com), so because of that I'm only posting two tracks here. If you like 'em, head on over to Scat and buy the CD, please-- this entire alb's totally killer, if you're asking me. Also, the first five My Dad Is Dead LPs, along with some b-sides and obscurities, are generously available for download at www.mydadisdead.com; again, if you're looking for some direction, all three of the records on Homestead are pretty ace.




My Dad Is Dead -

"She's In Love"

"Had To Laugh"

(these files are now listen-only)

This Hatred Of Mine Is A New Kind Of Motivation

This isn't the tackiest record in my collection (I still own a Jesse Malin CD, after all), but it's also not one I'd be taking out if visitors were over, unless they were from 1-800-DUMP-RUNS or something. Still, I raised a flag a week ago saying that I'd be posting the first Buck Pets LP soon, so here it is.

I first got this as an advance cassette back in the 80's, though I don't think the label actually sent it to me; most likely I fished it out of the free bin at Brass City Records, amid all the leftover Keel and Saxon tapes. At that particular time, finding something on a major label that sounded even remotely underground-- in this case, a second-rate Soul Asylum, at a time when copying Soul Asylum wasn't quite the horrible idea that it would be now-- was much more of a novelty, which possibly explains why I really dug this album for about a month or so, to the point of even including some Buck Pets songs on tapes I would make for my punk rock friends who all probably wanted to kill me.

So what do we have here? Well, the front cover is awesome, if you like laughing at stupid things in hindsight; the band looks all properly mussed-up in their pre-grunge Charles Peterson photography, and you can guess that Mr. Louie Lips with the eyebrows thinks he's the cute one in the band. As for the grooves themselves, "A Little Murder" is about the only song now that stands out among the borrowed Soul Asylum moves, mostly because it's borrowed Goo Goo Dolls (were these guys ahead of their time when it comes to stealing, or what?). I guess I should stop acting so harsh, because this is still a pretty good album if all you're interested in is rocking out, and, like the kid in the Condo Fucks video, isn't that basically all we really wanna do anyway-- just rock the fuck out? Yes, I thought so.

I bought one other Buck Pets album after this; don't ask me to remember which one, though, because it had only one good song on it and I think I've been using it to hold up a table leg or something.




The Buck Pets -

"Iron Cock"

"Good Day"

"More and More"

"A Little Murder"

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I Can't Wait To Make You Hate Yourself

It's been almost a year since I've seen a show at Cafe Nine, which is sorta crummy because it's a really fun place to see a band-- only that I'm not all that into trekking back from New Haven at 1:00 in the morning on a weeknight, and the schedules just haven't fallen in the right spots lately.

Things worked out on Saturday, though, and that was good because I finally got to see Medication, which was fucking righteous to say the least. I have the single on HoZac and I've heard two or three of the other songs, but hearing a full set of Medication for the first time was a complete eye-opener. As recorded, a song like "Didn't Wanna Know" is an almost perfect bit of 90's Darla Records-style droney bedroom pop, but taken outside with a 2nd guitar (Stefan) and drums behind it and it becomes something else entirely-- like something Dredd Foole and The Din would do, or The King Khan and BBQ Show, even. No doubt "Didn't Wanna Know" is one of the 4 or 5 best songs I've heard all year, but I'm telling you right now that there's a helluva lot more to Medication than what most people have heard. I mean, the guy has more brilliant songs that I can keep up with.




Estrogen Highs were yet again gigantic, even if they weren't "on" because Stefan's vintage tube-looking piece of crap amp kept shorting out or something. Even then, the extra squawking noises sorta added to the overall feel of things somewhat. It appears that Estrogen Highs have now gotten their set down to a science, where every song is unstoppable and the Big Boys cover ("Red/Green") is like a freakin' hammer. The second guitar player, Mark, is truly miles ahead of where he was a year ago, and I'm thinking that Wes could be the best bass player that any Connecticut punk band has right now, seriously. People from other scenes can talk all they want, but give me an army of ten Estrogen Highs and I'd take over the world.

They closed with "God Is Black" ("for all the white kids"), and then I had to split, though not before I was able to score a copy of the numbered silkscreened edition of the new Sudden Walks EP, which I thought I'd never get (Stefan: "Neither did we"), and then drove home literally blasting the demo from Stefan's black metal band, Ehrgeizig-- at least I think that's what they're called-- on the cassette player. Didn't matter if it was any good or not (I can't remember), because by then my ears were shot anyway.


Medication -

"Didn't Wanna Know"

Estrogen Highs -

"Thinkin' of My Health"

(these files are now listen-only)