Monday, March 2, 2009

Don't Think That I Don't Care

click for enlarged view

Rifle Sport were one of my favorite bands back in the 80's, even if they didn't get the same recognition as some of the other Chicago/Minneapolis bands that they shared similar writing styles, lyrical themes, and occasionally even band members with (Big Black, Breaking Circus, early Naked Raygun, etc). Rifle Sport truly had some monster songs, though, along with Gerard Boissy's guitar work, which was probably the main thing that separated them from their brethren. While a lot of the Mid West bands of that era were suggesting icy Joy Division-type post-punk and even hardcore with their riffs, Boissy's playing style had hard rock written all over it. Check out especially the sprawling glam-rock stomp, "Box of Dirt", a live track that has Boissy going positively all Marc Bolan/Jimmy Page up in the joint by the time it's finished.

If you've ever dug the sound of the Chicago/Minneapolis bands from indie rock's 80's heyday but haven't gotten around to cranking up Rifle Sport yet, this here's an adult dose.


click for enlarged view

Rifle Sport -

"Complex"

"Bedroom Full of Ice"

"Box of Dirt"

(these files are now listen-only)


click for enlarged view

50 comments:

theneedledrop said...

Slave Girl = Fantastic!

Brushback said...

It's a song that they re-wrote one or two times, also, though that's a subject for a later post.

And, Anthony, you're on the wrong thread!

So while you're here, why don't you plug your Needle Drop event while you're at it - Screaming Females (Jim Testa's new favorite), Post Modern Sounds, and I forget who else at The Space in Hamden, March 23rd. Being recorded for the Needle Drop!

Jere said...

Hey, I'm seeing Screaming Females soon--but only because they're playing with 50 Ft Wave, which is the real reason I'm going. Don't know if I like ScreeFee yet.

lex dexter said...

OT, but, y'all're the crowd most apt, I think, to answer this important question:

is Man Sized Action any good?

Brushback said...

Man Sized Action's "Five Story Garage" (which I posted here) is very good. I had their "Claustrophobia" LP once, but it wasn't very good.

Man Sized are top-tier, though, no question.

Jere said...

Being the guy who comments right before an off-topic one is like getting intentionally walked and seeing the next batter homer. Especially if you bet on the other team.

Brushback said...

Honestly, I don't think I've even heard of 50-Foot Wave.

Anonymous said...

You catch that naked raygun documentary yet? I highly recommend it!

Jere said...

well at least I'm racking up the "runs scored."

(50-ft Wave is a Kristin Hersh "vehicle.")

Brushback said...

"You catch that naked raygun documentary yet? I highly recommend it!"

No, but I was watching the trailer to "You Weren't There" just last night-- it was spine-tingling. That's what it felt like to go to shows back then. These kids who started listening to the Pixies and Nirvana in 1995, they wouldn't know that.

Brushback said...

Jere, "Throwing Muses" Kristen Hersh? Seriously?

That does not compute.

Jere said...

Am I banned?

50FW is her band where she "rocks" "out," as opposed to her quieter acoustic songs. Which I also like.

Brushback said...

Lucky for you the "banned" button is broken (plus it probably doesn't work on a Ct. punk icon like yourself). I think The Bathrobes and DDTeens is more your A-game, though.

Brushback said...

'Course, I'm the one who's posting Congratulations Fruit and Orange Cake Mix.

Jere said...

I'm lucky you're talking to me at all after that Air Supply admission I made. (It's not my fault they were the band always playing on the car radio when I was four! It was the soundtrack of my pre-school life!!!)

Brushback said...

I think the first song I remember on the radio as a kid was "Rock The Boat" by The Hues Corporation, only because it was really really annoying. Though that wasn't really pre-school.

Anonymous said...

"Rock The Boat"? ha! even then you were keeping it local...that band was from Bridgeport!

Brushback said...

Hues Corporation were from Bridgeport, seriously? I never knew that. Are you sure you're not thinking of "Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey (Goodbye)"?

Anonymous said...

I have to agree, 50 Ft. Wave are really great. There's plenty of youtube clips, and they destroyed Cafe Nine unannounced at the end of the Kristen Hersh set..in a lot of ways they remind me of Small 23...songs you don't have to know to spill your beer to in that almost generically awesome way.

Please don't get me started on Naked Raygun, or how I almost had an aneurysm of gratitude when I saw 76% cover "Treason". I drove to Chicago just to see them in '07 and almost ran over Pierre.

Somewhere I have a PSA disc from the '92 election with all kinds of jerks urging you to vote, and Helmet sticks in a Hues Corp. thing at the end as it fades out.."rock the vote..don't rock the boat baby".

And finally, I actually liked Rifle Sport a lot..I remember being bummed out at the Brick Layer Cake stuff Todd Trainer did..my ears just didn't get it. I also didn't make the Breaking Circus connection at the time, but that's just the joy of an unencumbered youth.

Brushback said...

I can't even count the number of bands that have covered "Treason" - Betty Blue/G.I., The Hope Conspiracy... and it's not even a good song.

Anonymous said...

Is Steam finally going to rear it's head in an ultimate show of regional pride/sports anthem staples? There's also a direct lineage connection between Steam and now defunct post-punk emo-core-whatever-the-kids-called-it band Hot Rod Circuit, which I'm too foggy on the details of to commit to other than one of their dads was in one of the lineups. And I wonder why I can't find my car keys or remember to buy milk at the store!

Anonymous said...

Same thing with "Rat Patrol!" I have about five covers of it, and they all sound just like the original...I know No Image was covering it, but I never got to hear them play it live..but I'd be the guy who picked "Mr. Gridlock" to cover, which is why I don't have a band at the moment I'm sure. I think it was just the fantasy football league aspect of having one of my favorite CT bands covering one of my favorite anywhere bands, and not knowing they were going to...that made my brain leak something dangerous. Plus, Lost Generation was playing and I my beer-ometer read "yessshh".

Brushback said...

I've actually heard a Hot Rod Circuit song that I really like ("Stateside"). I've been meaning to write something about Jay's band eventually (Diamond J and The Rough), who're really good - I saw them about a year and a half ago...

Anonymous said...

Jay is the one with the Steam connection, and Diamond J also features Jim Aveni, who was in Thinner when I put out their 7" way back when. Speaking of which, I don't know if I offered, but theres a copy of the 7" and a copy of the "Carburate" album from Gunk for you if you're missing them!

Brushback said...

I've got a Gunk 7" with a green cover (which I don't think I've ever listened to - I do that a lot), and there's a Gunk LP that's still in the bins at either Phoenix or Redscroll, but I wasn't sure if it was the same band... mostly because I still need to listen to the 7"!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I've got that one too...that was..hmm..Watermark? They also put out the first Junction 7", who later became Samuel/The Delta '72..but the one I put out is on fancy colored vinyl with Russian contructivism art and sounds like late era GI meets Swiz, according to some reviews..and members went on to be in Lifter Puller, 76%, and Klimpter..pals of Monsterland/etc.

Thinner got some Shudder To Think/Embrace comparisons in reviews..and had future members of Quix*o*tic, Octis, Ortrhlem, Hotel, Diamond J, etc etc. I found a copy in San Diego for a buck and bought it back just to see it listed on the itemized receipt. Ebullition distributed 75 of each, so they're out there in some funny places!!

Brushback said...

The Gunk LP sounds like Gov't Issue? I might wanna check that out now... I forget what record store it's in, I'm sure it'll still be there the next time I go there.

Anonymous said...

Gunk had Ed from ONION on guitar...later of 76%, Klimpter.

BUSTED me on the Hues Corp.! Santa Monica says the internets!

Anonymous said...

Duhhhr, how did I forget Onion?! I picked up my second copy of that 7" in San Diego just to see it NEXT to Thinner on an itemized receipt. It was like someone local moved out there unloaded all their 7"s for frisbee money! Gunk also had an unreleased cover of GI's "Written Word" that I wish was on the LP. I'll still sink money from my shitty jobs into any project featuring one or more Winnick.

Anybody who needs a copy of either, just shoot me a note on the Wires In The Walls page! The word verification for THIS message is "squat". I guess that means the next post has to be about Extreme Noise Terror or Disrupt. Shoot me now!

Brushback said...

There's actually at least two Onion 7"-ers (one on that Revelation offshoot, another on Mondo Psychotic) - I happen to own multiple copies of both of them, as is my habit (again, I don't think I've listened to either of them).

I'd swear that Jim Spad of Vatican Commandos had something to do with Onion at some point.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah..I forgot! I meant the one on Crisis, the purple one...with "All Falls Apart" on it, one of my top..umm...let's say...twenty five favorite songs by a Connecticut band."Start The Machine" from Intl. Brunch Mummies might be in there as well, Bruce.

Brushback said...

Yeah, Crisis, that's the offshoot I was thinking of. Several people keep telling me it's a good record, including you now, so I'll have to sit down and really listen to it someday. I'm sure I did once at some point, but I have no impression of it.

I've got some Int'l Brunch Mummies stuff (thanks to Bruce), and that stuff I have listened to... no "Start The Machine" on any of the stuff I've got, tho! I wuz robbed!

Anonymous said...

Thanks! It's "Start The Device", gentlemen...that's on the HELLO GOOD TASTE disc, (which incidentally, is what the lady says when I call my local Chinese Food place)!

Somewhere I have a cassette with me singing 3 songs with Onion, when their singer Rich couldn't make a show at TK's!

Brushback said...

HA! There's a chinese food place up here near the Webster Theater called Great Wall that answers their phone the same way: "HERRO, GREAT WALL!!!"

Brushback said...

"NEW CHINA, MAY I HELP YOU?!?!!"

Anonymous said...

I thought I posted that in my hectic excitement, I swapped machine for device, but apparently the message didn't post. I even mentioned "Hello Good Taste", which I also strategically positioned atop the "local music" heap at the radio station...as well as my fondness for "Norwegian Adolescent"..errr..I mean "Dutch Teen".. This, of course, is why I fell for the previously mentioned Verbal Assault/Verbal Abuse calamity.

Once again, food inspiration and power chords seem to be a winning #1 combo. With extra awesome sauce.

Anonymous said...

this is a fun thing to do: listen to "everyday things" by The Plimsouls. The lyric is "wake up every mornin' with an ache in my head"...but I swear it sounds like peter case is waking up every morning with "an EGG in my head".

food for thought, gentlemen.

Jere said...

I would like to tell my version of the series of events which led to the Brunch Mummies' band name.

The Pac-Men wrote a song about the diners of Connecticut. We needed a name for it. I suggested we go around and each of the four of us band-members would say a word, and that would be the title. Now the last thing I thought is that anyone would attempt to describe the song's contents, as my plan was for a completely random title. So after "local" and "breakfast" were said, it was my turn, and I said "Frankenstein." And I believe it was Tim who took it to another level by saying * (asterisk) as his "word." So our song was called "Local Breakfast Frankenstein *".

Which led to people coming up with various meal-monsters in specific locales. Bruce (I assume) (and who was recording our session which included the song, I think) came up with the genius one: International Brunch Mummy, and named his band the plural of that. It later changed to Brunch Mummies Internacionale, and is now just Brunch Mummies.

Brushback said...

Another fun thing to do: walk around town reciting Black Flag's spoken word "Family Man" aloud to strangers.

"Do you want the family man, or do you want the swinging man?

With your Christmas lights already up. FAMILY. MAN."

If you want, you can even make up your own lines for it. "Would you like some fries with that? Will that be here... or TO GO? FAMILY. MAN."


Bonus points if you sing Fleetwood Mac's "Family Man" along with it.

Anonymous said...

That International Brunch Mummies story was the Batmobile of cadillacs! It's the small stories that get lost to time that I love to hear..it always seems to have it's own merit. Plus, it's a way better handle than "South American Midnight Snack Werewolves"!

I had this habit as an impressionable wayward teen of diving into bands starting with their "strange' albums...the Minuteflag EP might've been the first thing I'd heard by either band (maybe TV Party in some Powell & Peralta skate vid without knowing who it was at 14)...but "Family Man" was the first thing I mailordered from SST along with the "Paranoid Time" 7" from the Minutemen...and "Family Man" just confused me "geeze, all the older kids like poetry and instrumental jams?? I don't get it..I should've just kept listening to Rush!"

Now when I hear "I come to take your children into the street" I smile and think "go on with Uncle Hank kids, play in the traffic". I've still got the same copy I sent well-concealed cash for, and I love it...even if he DOES enunciate "FAMILY man....family MAN" the same way Stewie does "rocket MAN...ROCKET...man" in "Family Guy"..or vice-versa if you're obeying the time-space continuum.

Brushback said...

I remember rushing past those mid-to-late 80's SST releases in the bins at Phoenix Records - Blind Idiot God, SWA, Universal Congress Of, DOS, etc. - and thinking, "No way I'm buying any of that shit."

Anonymous said...

Yeah, because you had to leave them there for ME to buy! I still have SWA albums! One of the funniest story tellers I've run across is Kara aka Karanoid, the "cover model" for Black Flag's "Annihilate This Week" LP. She was also worked at the label for years..had an SST business card..and is chock full of good stories about Mugger, Spot, and The Meat Puppets. I've promised her a story about how I had EVERY shithole Cruz/New Alliance/SST tape...it's going to be called "You Can't Spell Cassette Without SST". You should see the photo for the article! I stacked them all up..Paper Bag, Lawndale, Gone (all three of them!)...but the best part of the story is as follows:

Circa 2001. X-Pect Discounts. Shopping for cheap bananas. Over by the photo frames and toys, I see people clawing through two plastic bins overflowing with cassettes. The average sift time seemed to be about five seconds. So being someone who always welcomes more audio ballast into my life, I saunter over..bananas in hand. It was some remnant warehouse distro.stock..maybe Giant?..and it was ALL the SST oddballs, plus things like the John Doe solo albums, a Metal Church release, M.O.D., and THREE copies of "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Log" from 76%!!!! They were TEN for a buck, and I left with 53 tapes. The best part was in my awe, I forgot the bananas. I still have one of the 76 tapes sealed with the price tag because it's just so typical of my life that I walk into a discount store for fruit and leave with 76% Uncertain.

chnkltgy said...

You know what, Dave? It's a pity that Albini's graphic design chops are all but forgotten nowadays. Looking at this Rifle Sport cover (not to mention the BB/Rapeman releases) always makes me think "goddamn, this guy was GOOD!" Typography, illustrations, color theory. Everything. Really solid. I don't know, sorry to bring this thread back to the actual album, but that's just me.

Brushback said...

Yeah, Albini practically invented the "big-faced font type" thing (as shown on the back of the Rifle Sport 12"), which almost everybody copied after that.

I remember him talking about his day job back then, which was commercial design-- retouching product photos in advertisements so that "it looked like Jesus himself shit it out", and so forth.

Anonymous said...

I can appreciate a man who picks a font and sticks with it until the apocalypse. There was almost a sparse draftsman approach..and I loved when he'd throw in little Raymond Pettibon type blurbs, like the cover of the Big Black "Heartbeat" 45 where it says "No Lovey Dovey Shit..Dilute! Dilute!". It definately has had an influence on the way I made fliers and design in general, along with the Minutemen run on typewriter cadence, and even Vaughan Oliver and all the 4AD releases you can spot a mile away from the design.

One of the first album sleeves I ripped off..err..payed homage to..was "The Hammer Party" for a Gories show in Ohio..it had Mick Collins afro and sunglasses flying off and a spark plug instead of a hammer and said "THE GORIES PARTY". About ten people, including the band, "got it"..and that's all you can ask for in good design. The ability to have some jerk rip you off and have people still mentally reference the source.

Brushback said...

That "No lovey-dovey shit! Dilute! Dilute!" was taken from a brand of organic liquid soap that all the hippies back in the 70's used to use (including my parents).

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. For those of you who missed the boat, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original files.

Anonymous said...

Hello!

Brushback said...

Hell.

alfredovpangue said...

all songs are deleted..

Can you re-upload this in some way?