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Punk Business Manager

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Happy 30th Birthday, Spinal Tap!

I was reminded about a week ago that today, March 2nd, 2014 is the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of one of my FAVORITE movies of all time, This Is Spinal Tap.  So I wanted to make sure I take a few minutes to recognize this milestone and put all of my other upcoming postings on hold for now.

For me, Spinal Tap is a timeless classic that I can watch over and over again, right up there with the skateploitation classic Thrashin’ (which is a movie I should discuss at another time).

Director Rob Reiner packed so damn many laughs throughout the entire movie that it takes multiple viewings to catch all the subtleties of everything going on.  And it takes age too, I think.  Because when Spinal Tap came out I was in middle school and remember being a bit baffled at the marketing campaign they had back then. Were they a real band?  If so, why had I never heard of them?  Oh, they’ve been around since the early sixties?  I remember seeing them on the cover of Billboard Magazine in the Spring of ’84 and assuming they must be real if they were on the cover of a magazine like that.  But then I got confused because I recognized one of the band members as Lennie from the TV show Laverne and Shirley and I thought, wait, how is he in the band?  I thought he was just an actor.  Then someone called it a mockumentary and at the time I had no idea what that meant.

But I finally saw the movie a few years later, then a few years after that, then a friend of mine (Dave, RIP) got heavily into the movie in about 1990 or ’91 and so then I watched it many times with him and we both laughed our asses off and would casually quote the movie or, out of nowhere, sing Stonehenge or Listen To The Flower People or Sex Farm.  Then some years later my brother bought me a Spinal Tap DVD for Christmas and it’s been viewed many times since then.  Do they have midnight screenings of Spinal Tap?  If so, I should probably go so I can sit in a room full of other fans who can quote in at will.

The trio of Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest were/are just hilarious.  They all went on to Saturday Night Live, but I remember the ’84-’85 season of SNL very fondly as Guest and Shearer were in the brilliant cast that season.  But I think JUST that one season, along with Martin Short, Billy Crystal and many others.

Anyway, I could go on and on about Spinal Tap but I promised myself I would do a short posting and just quickly commemorate the 30th birthday and be done with it. So here’s to another 30 years of us treasuring Spinal Tap.  The original movie, that is- I personally never got into any of the reunion stuff or live concerts of the band post-1984.

P.S. As usual, I have a lot of good music postings planned so stay tuned in the coming weeks for a new post of something somewhat obscure.

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Neck Tie Party

NECK TIE PARTY “STRANGER STILL” 3-SONG 7″EP
(LONG ISLAND, NY- LITTLE BORIS, 1981)




There is a LOT of funny stuff happening on the front of the sleeve (more commentary
on that later!)  And more later on the THREE different sleeve variations that exist
as well.  Perhaps an episode of It Never Ends is needed!  The record also came with
a sticker insert, but then some of those were an orange day-glo color while others
were white.




The back of the sleeve is more tame and we see that this was the band lineup:
Antino Teterone- Vocals
Bwap Masterson- Bass
Caleb Macabre- Guitar
Mike Ock- Drums

You will also notice that the credits section include “Maxx The Dogg” for his
barking on the last song (listen carefully and you will hear it).  This has to
be the first time I’ve ever seen a dog credited for helping to add additional
audio on a punk record- hilarious!



Here’s the insert sticker that came with the record,
in its orange color variation.  I think I heard one
time that this thing measured at like 5 x 7 inches,
but of course you would never know that from this
tiny-sized scan.




The band (l to r): Antino (vocals) / Caleb (guitar) / Bwap (bass) / Mike Ock (drums)
This is the original picture that was used for the above sticker insert.
Dig the singer’s moustache, which I think is a solid runner up for “best punk moustache”.
(#1 of course goes to Pat Fear (RIP) from White Flag…)



First off, gotta love the band name which is a slang phrase from the old West for someone being hanged.  Or it sounds like some kinda phrase that the Mafia would use.

Secondly, whatever the record sounds like (only one song will appeal to “purist” fans of crazy KBD-ish punk), you can tell these guys were having a good time and having FUN which is always a plus and brings a smile to my face.  The whole fun thing was lost on many bands from the KBD years who took themselves too seriously eh.

I mean, just look at the crazy artwork on the front of the sleeve (see above)- a band member with a big, unkempt 70’s beard has a sockpuppet (?!) on his hand and he looks to be having some sort of serious, pissed off dialogue with it.  Hilarious. And then the other artwork- two outstretched arms are reaching out (and about to be bit by) what might be snakes.  But they actually look more to me like two electric eels.  And then one arm has this heart tattoo on it, like one of those heart tattoos you may see with a heart and the word “Mom” above it.  However, this tattoo has a 13 letter(!) abbreviation on it and god knows that those 13 letters stand for.  Must be some kind of in-joke that only the band (or maybe only the artist) understood.  The artwork definitely lives up to the record title “Stranger Still”…

The good time vibe comes through on all 3 songs, from the over 6 minute(!) title song which is a post-punkish type of thing done at a slooooowww pace.  During this song, they try a little bit of everything as various sound effects and instruments pop up all over the place.  According to one of the sleeve variations, this song was in the Top 5 for airplay at WUSB SUNY Stonybrook in Long Island at the time, right up there with Agent Orange’s “Everything Turns Grey”.

The second song, “Little Dahlin”, is kind of a punky send up of a doo-wop song from the late 50’s or something.  With repeated listens, this song is a catchy one that has a tongue-in-cheek vibe throughout it from the self-mocking “Wee ooo-ooo-ooo!” chorus to the hilarious spoken word part near the end of the song between a guy and his lady.  The guitars sound nice on this tune and the pace is a nice, quicker one.  And then the sound effects at the end of the song with the sped-up noises is funny.

For my ears, the highlight is the last song “Squash…” in which they really let loose and play fast, like they’re racing each other to the end of the song (which I think is always a good thing for bands to try to do).  The vocals get all snotty during the chorus, the guitar is on-point, and the drumming is one of the real highlights of the song.  Total manic crazy drumming which- as one person properly observed- brings to mind the hyperactive drumming on the 1st Damned LP.  The way he plays, I myself picture him practically standing up from his drum chair so he could play so manic and maintain that pace for the length of the whole song.  And dig those “Oh my” falsetto background vocals.  And listen carefully to the crafty lyrics that maintain the “squashing” theme throughout them- first a dog meets his maker, then a cat, then a duck, and finally someone who unfortunately gets drafted into the Army who doesn’t want to be squashed.

I first heard of the band back in 2005 when “Squash…” was included on the last-great vinyl KBD comp, Staring Down The Barrel.  It was a total standout track, and when I first heard it I was like “What the hell is this?  Where’s this record been hiding all these years?  How come I never heard of them before?!”  I’ve been wanting to hear the entire EP for some time, so thanks to Andrew for providing the rips!

The version of “Squash…” that was on Staring Down The Barrel has the ending sound effects edited out but here I included the unedited version of the song.  And the ending part is pretty funny to me- the singer’s voice is slowed down to a sludge pace where it sounds like he’s saying “Sheee-ittt, Mo Fo’s!!” and “C’mon, little doggies”.  Very funny.  Thanks for the laughs, I chuckle every time I hear it.

When I first listened to the EP in its entirety from start to finish “Little Dahlin” and “Squash…” kind of blend into each other and play together like one long song but I split them apart here.  If you want to be a purist, then open up yer sound editing software and cut and paste both songs together so they’re one long track in their original incarnation.


The band has a cool Facebook page, so check out it out- there’s lots of great, fun, vintage pictures of the band playing (both on stage and off-stage).


/files/98398-90993/02_Little_Dahlin.mp3″>Little Dahlin.mp3

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Updates From Former Band Members!

Happy New Year,

I’ll finally have a new posting up soon- the holidays got the best of me, plus work has been way too busy.

I also wanted to let everyone know that former members of various bands have stumbled upon my site since the Fall which is GREAT, so check out the below postings and their comments section with the info they provided:

DEPROGRAMMER
Former singer Nita Banyaga left a lengthy comment with lots of great info about the early days of the band and her time in Deprogrammer.

INANIMATE OBJECTS
Heard from two band members- the guy who sang on their 1982 EP as well as a longtime member Ron Obvious who is still with the band- their most recent gig was on December 28th by the way.

(+other postings!  I’ll provide links when I have more time)

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The Reaction

THE REACTION “ON THE BEACH / THE KIDS ARRIVED” 7″
(ST. JOHN’S NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA- NEUTRON RECORDS, 1979)





Here is one variation of the painfully rare sleeve (maybe only
50 to 75 copies total?).  Rick Harbin on guitar; Terry Carter
(ex-Da Slyme!) on drums; and Mike Fisher, bass and vocals




A rather plain, no-frills back sleeve eh



In my view, this record not only teaches us about old Canadian music, but also teaches a few grammar lessons eh.  Nine times out of ten I usually eliminate “The” from the beginning of band names; I usually find it useless.  BUT in the case of this band, I think the “The” must be included before the band name so that we can accurately understand the meaning they were trying to convey with their name.  Just saying “Reaction” sounds kind of flat and non-descriptive like, “Eh, whatever”. But saying “The Reaction” has more umph! to it like they are in the lab doing a science experiment and pouring chemicals that are about to explode out of its beaker.  I picture the band getting on stage back in the late 70’s and introducing themselves by saying “Hey everyone- we’re The Reaction!  Are you ready for a reaction?!”  Followed by them wildly launching into “The Kids Arrived” or something.  Imagine if a band just got up there and said “Hi, we’re Reaction” (without the “The” in front of their name)- no punch or hook to it!

Speaking of hooks, “The Kids Arrived” has some very catchy ones.  Overall, I think the song is very late 70’s Canadian in some ways- full of melody, as was a lot of late 70’s Canuck punk songs.  But, for my ears, too much late 70’s Canadian stuff had just TOO MUCH melody underlying it and not enough punch.  But not here!  “The Kids Arrived” is a great punk rave up, if you will, with a nice mixture of melody, drive and punch throughout it.  As well as sounding so darn URGENT which is always a plus.  The melodic, high-pitched guitar hook at the various breaks is very catchy.  But add to that the dirtier guitar strumming that follows the chorus- this adds the drive, bite and punch to the song. During these parts the bass is running a parllel track with the guitar and both sound like they are racing each other in a way with that “duh nuh nuh nuh, NUH nuh nuh” type of effect.  And some well-placed hand clapping (again, very late 70’s Canadian) is a nice touch in the middle.

“The Kids Arrived” also teaches us the other grammar lesson in my view, that of plural words vs. possessive words.  For the longest time I thought the song had an apostrophe-s in it like “The Kid’s Arrived” (aka “The Kids Has Arrived”) and thought the band was talking about one, singular kid arriving all by his lonesome some time ago.  But after a while I realized the proper song title is actually “The Kids Arrived” and described a plural GROUP of youngsters taking over the town.

I (and many other people, I assume) first heard “The Kids Arrived” when the song was included on 1999’s great, legit Smash The State Volume 3 comp LP put together by Frank Manley.  Volume 3 (and the first two in the trio of comps for that matter) was a great comp with well-done research and a great, informative booklet insert and was released during a time when lots of disappointing, sub-par, barrel-scraping, hit-or-miss, quickly thrown-together KBD-type comps were coming out far too often.  Volume 3 was also the first time I was actually able to hear tunes from the almighty Da Slyme double LP so I am forever grateful for this, as 1999 AD was back in the pre-internet blog days when Da Slyme was a mythical type of record and no one had it on their tape trading lists except for one person I eventually discovered.

Anyway, for many years I wanted to hear the- gulp!- “other side” of The Reaction 7″.  As usual I was worried that it would be a dreadful, throwaway “other side” as happens far too often with many KBD singles.  Earlier this year I was able to hear it (thanks again P.R.!) and, while “On The Beach” is not a wild punk rave up like The Kids Arrived and is much more mellow, I was pleasantly surprised by how soothing and catchy it is.  It has grown on me with each successive listen, but I don’t mean “It’s grown on me” like I hated it at first but repeated listenings has numbed me and eased the pain and I’ve gotten used to it.  No- I liked it at on first listen and it’s subtlety is further appreciated by me as time goes by.  I think there’s some DIY-ish aspects to it which is always a plus when applied properly.  And the type of “DIY-ish” quality that I refer to in regards to this song are not the ramshackle, sloppy, out of tune DIY- which, of course, is great in its own regard- but more of the “charming U.K. DIY” kinda like The Record Players’ Don’t Go Backwards.  On The Beach is a long song (over 6 minutes!) by traditional “2:36-max-length” punk standards but it’s very hummable and I think it’s a nice song to wind down with when you need a break from whatever wild, raw, frothing mad KBD song you just wildly pounded your fist to (does that sound too dramatic?!).

/files/98398-90993/02_The_Kids_Arrived.mp3″>The Kids Arrived.mp3

Thanks again to P.R. for the rips of both sides of this single!



ENDNOTES
If you are interested in hearing more by The Reaction, you can go here on YouTube to see them playing an unreleased song called “Get The Rods Out”.  The song was uploaded by the band over 6 years ago actually, and it is from circa 1980 when it looks like The Reaction was appearing on a local public access-type of TV show in Canada.

Here are the great, very informative 1999 liner notes from Smash The State Volume 3 related to The Reaction with some key info highlighted, and with also some of my commentary in brackets:



“Believe it or not, St. John’s, Newfoundland’s first punk band may not have been the mighty Da Slyme.  According to Wallace Hammond, Da Slyme’s bassist, co-founder, compiler and archivist, among other things, recorded Mike Fisher and Rick Harbin’s art-rock, hard-rock band sometime in 1977.  Apparently, at least two of the tracks he laid down on tape were borderline punk.

In any case, the Reaction’s real birth occurred when Terry Carter (aka Pasquale Neutron), another co-founder of Da Slyme, returned from broadcast school in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he’d been turned onto the raucous sounds of the Sex Pistols and the Ramones.  Since Carter’s departure for Halifax in early 1978, Da Slyme had replaced him on drums with, according to Carter, the more competent Justin Hall.  Luckily, when Carter returned to St. John’s in December 1978 he spotted an ad Fisher and Harbin had placed in the Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Thompson Students’ Centre looking for a drummer to play punk and new wave music, and so the Reaction was born.  They took their name from a line in the Jam song “All Around The World”.  Their first gig was around a month later, opening for Da Slyme.

Although the Reaction was modelled after The Jam and other Mod bands, their set lists also included numbers by Elvis Costello (“Less Than Zero”), Eddie and the Hot Rods (“Do Anything You Wanna Do”) and the Sex Pistols (“Anarchy In The U.K.”).  In the early incarnation they played mostly covers- to guarantee club gigs.  They initially snuck in a few originals, including “The Kids Arrived”, “No Excuses”, and the “Rest of It All”; the last two songs were never recorded.

Gig-wise they started by playing at the university and the legendary scumpit Middle Earth bar, where Da Slyme also played.  In the oddly named town of Old Shop near Trinity Bay, the Reaction had a fairly decent following, where the local youths had been exposed to the Ramones and caught the punk bug.  Whenever the Reaction played St. John’s, the so-called “Old Shop Army” kids would pile into town for the gig.

Later, the Reaction went out on the “Bay Circuit”, a tour of bars along the coast outside St. John’s, initially playing contemporary punk and new wave covers. However, Carter admits that was a less than successful recipe: playing songs by underground British bands did not go over too well with musically conservative bar audiences who’d never heard the originals.  They soon learned to throw in some high-energy 60s classics such as “Satisfaction”, “Ready Steady Go” and “Respectable” and often ended the evening with “My Generation”, which allowed Carter to indulge in a Keith Moon once or twice, kicking his kit over while the guitarist and bassist did the splits and hammered their instruments.

Still, it was tough being in the forefront of the new music scene.  Carter penned “The Kids Arrived” in response to people who were really negative about this new breed of musicians.  At a gig outside of St. John’s, one unhappy bar patron bought a copy of the record so he could smash it while the group was on stage [Idiot!  He’s one of the reasons their single is so damn rare!- ed].  ‘”The Kids Arrived” is a bit of self-vindication: it’s a big ‘fuck you’ to people who did nothing but criticize”, declares Carter.



He’s gonna be on the stage tonight
He’s gonna kick it out with rage tonight


They never call him for a loss
He’ll finally show them who’ll be boss
Move over- the kids arrived
He’ll be alright…
Climbing the greased ladder rung by rung
Singing a song that must be sung


[Pretty urgent lyrics!- ed]


They recorded the single at Echo Recording Studios in St. John’s in March 1979, later pressing around 500 copies at World Records in Toronto.  Mike and Terry came up with different picture sleeves, but they only made 50-75 of each [Ouch!- ed].  The single quickly made it into local jukeboxes, including the one at the Middle Earth.  Distribution, like all the records on this compilation, was DIY.


Also in the spring of 1979 the band recorded three more songs at Echo Recording Studios: “In Tune With The Times”, “Trials In Error” and “Till Midnight”.  They appeared on a posthumous cassette entitled “Underexposure” that was released in 1981 on Wallace Hammond’s Vicki Beat label [anyone have this cassette?- Ed].  The original group lasted for 10 months, until Carter left the band in October 1979.

Postscript
Harbin and Fisher recruited another drummer and continued gigging, including a trip to Toronto where they played a few gigs (one at the Ontario College of Art) and recorded a number of tracks while Tom Atom at Cottingham Sound.  Interestingly, Tom Atom was also the engineer of the Arson and Fits’ singles (see Smash The State Volume 1).”

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Strychnine September 14th Reunion Show- Updates?

Back in mid-April I happily reported that Strychnine of “Jack The Ripper” fame was having a reunion show in a Cleveland suburb on September 14th (thanks to former member Spike McCormack for getting in touch and providing that info to me back then).  Since then I was of course planning on going to this once-in-a-lifetime reunion show, but unfortunately something came up and I was not able to make it to the show this past weekend (damn).

So my question is- who went and how was the show?  Please either leave a lengthy comment; post a feed of some pictures and provide a link; or- better yet- post some video or audio somewhere and give a link to it.  Or, best yet- Strychnine members: how do ya think the show went?

Thanks!

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Vamps

BANDS-WHOSE-NAMES-BEGIN-WITH-THE-LETTER “V” SERIES: PART 5


VAMPS “FORMULA X / I USED TO BE COOL” 7″
(SAN ANTONIO, TX- BEEHIVE, 1979)






Here is the first, somewhat elusive 7″ (at least to me) from San Antonio’s Vamps.  The singer of the Vamps was Frank Pugliese, whose distinctive singing style I really dig.  He could be singing about tying his shoes or going to the grocery store but as long as he does it in his own cool way then I’m all over it.

Frank later went on to the mostly-great Mystery Dates in the early 80’s, then the Sons of Hercules who started in the early 90’s and are still around. When I posted the 2nd Mystery Dates EP about 3 1/2 years ago I went into detail about related musical history, including how The Vamps opened for the Sex Pistols in January of 1978, so re-read that posting for more info.

The Vamps released three records while they were around, all on their Beehive label, with their most well-known (and punkest) song being “Carving Knife” which was from their last record, a 4-song double EP.  That tune was on a few different comps in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when the Vamps were rediscovered (which, incidentally, was after the post-Vamps band The Mystery Dates were rediscovered in the mid 90’s when EV released that wild, barnstorming EP with all unreleased tunes).  Most of the Vamps tunes are pretty catchy, with a sort of 60’s garage influence to the but without a frothing-mad, over the top KBD style so if you’re looking for that sort of stuff then you probably want to go elsewhere.

I’d have to say that my favorite Vamps songs are Carving Knife, and then the two songs from this 7″.  “Formula X” is a catchy, mid-paced tune that I find myself humming.  I am usually not into the “Ahhh ahhh ahhh” background singing but it totally works here, as does the subtle organ playing.  And of course great vocals and great lyrics like “You’re like a viper just waiting to strike, but you ain’t got nothing on me”.  The flipside, “Used To Be Cool”, is played at a slower pace but is more wild.  When the loud guitar kicks in right at the start, and Frank does this long blood-curdling scream just afterwards, then you know you’re in for a good time.  Awesome vocals and singer Frank is very Frank throughout the whole tune.  A prominent component of the song is some organ (Frank’s brother Joe was the full-time keyboard player) but it fits well into the song and is not overwhelming or wanky.  I just wonder what specific person inspired this tune- who was this gentleman they sing about that used to be cool, was the hottest thing going and had all of the women?

/files/98398-90993/02_Used_To_Be_Cool.mp3″>I Used To Be Cool.mp3

Big thanks to blog commenter Brad C. for providing the rips!

———————————————————-
BONUS TRACKS!!
For the sake of completion, here are the other two Vamps records, both from 1980.

VAMPS 2nd 7″ (BEEHIVE 102, 1980)
/files/98398-90993/02_What_About_Me.mp3″>What About Me.mp3

*Like the first 7″, this one was released without a picture sleeve and I possess no scans of the labels- do you?


VAMPS DOUBLE 7″EP (BEEHIVE 103/104, 1980)
DISC 1
What’s Your Excuse
I Need Somebody

DISC 2
Carving Knife
Too Late

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Blows Against The Empire Radio Show Reunion!

BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE REUNION SHOW
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 (aka LATE SUNDAY NIGHT)
MIDNIGHT TO 2AM

WCSB 89.3 FM
CLEVELAND, OHIO






If you’re not from Cleveland and the title of this post does not immediately jump out at you, you may be wondering what kind of reunion this is and what all my excitement is about.  First off, no- it’s nothing related to Jefferson Airplane/Starship’s concept album called “Blows Against The Empire”. Instead, it’s an upcoming one-off reunion show for one of THE best college radio shows from the great and fertile college radio landscape of 1980’s Cleveland.

Blows Against The Empire (BATE) played punk and hardcore and was a weekly, 2 1/2 hour show on WSCB out of Cleveland State University that was hosted by then-students Matt Dudas and Mike Kole.  It originally aired between late 1987 and late 1989, mostly on Wednesday afternoons between 3 and 5:30 pm.  For me, the show was very formative in helping me develop my taste for punk and sparked a passion for punk that continues to this day, 25 years later.  I was wrapping up high school at the time and Blows was THE FIRST place I heard Black Flag, Bad Brains, Germs, Misfits, Subhumans, Sham 69, Social Distortion, you name it.  But beyond the music, Matt and Mike were awesome hosts who had great camaraderie between them and engaged in some great, fun shenanigans when they weren’t playing music during the show.  Their show inspired me to march into my campus radio station my first week of college in August of 1989 and get my own punk/HC show that I had for nearly 4 years.

Anyway, as I mentioned above the Blows reunion is going to air on Sunday night/Monday morning September 2nd between midnight and 2 am during Keith Newman’s Scruggscorp Radio time slot.  Of course, you can stream WCSB through iTunes (go to “Radio”, then “College/University”, then search for “WCSB 89.3 FM”); Windows Media Player; or RealPlayer, if you’re not in Cleveland to listen live on yer radio.

Here is the very cool, minute long promo that was just put together specifically for this reunion show- I really dig the vintage soundbites from old Blows shows scattered throughout it, brings back lots of great memories for me:



For all these years I thought that this was just some random picture Matt and Mike
cut out of a ‘zine of a punk with spiked-up hair.  However, Mike (who I happened
upon online earlier this year) said that this is actually his Blows co-host Matt
and that the picture was taken in London at Battersea Park, which I am told is the
park where Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols hung around in while they
were growing up.



ENDNOTES
As I said above, Blows Against The Empire was formative for me as I got more and more into punk.  I first started listening to punk in ’87, thanks to old messy newsprint days of Thrasher mag but I only dabbled in it.  Once I discovered Blows my mind was like a sponge that soaked up everything they played; it was all new to me at the time.  I remember them playing the first Misfits EP on the show and I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.  Same for Side 1 of the 7 Seconds Committed For Life EP.  And it just mushroomed from there.  See, I didn’t have a lot of money to buy records so I relied on the Blows radio show to be my record store.  My job in high school was a Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper route and, well, profits weren’t stellar from that so I didn’t have much disposable income.  My Dad worked in a factory so I didn’t exactly have a trust fund to pull from either ya hear.


Speaking of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, that is how I first heard the radio show.  I’d get up at 5 am every morning to deliver papers and I’d be done by about 5:45.  One morning in the Fall of 1987 I got home about 5:45 am and turned on the trusty grey boombox I had in my room.  I happened to tune the radio to 89.3 FM WCSB and heard some punk playing.  Cool, I thought, I get to hear this new kind of music I like even early in the morning!  At the end of the set, the DJ announced that their show was moving from this early morning slot to Wednesday afternoons at 3.  It turns out that DJ was Matt Dudas and the show I happened on a whim to hear about was Blows Against The Empire.  Fate perhaps?  Had I not turned on the radio that morning who knows how long it would have taken me to hear through the grapevine about Blows.  No one in my burg listened to punk, everyone was into Metallica and had the Master of Puppets patch on the back of their jean jackets to match.  So I definitely wasn’t going to hear it about from them.  No one at high school was going to tell me about Blows either, since I wasn’t “in” with the punk kids and definitely not the skate punk kids.  I guess I looked too normal and they probably didn’t believe I was into both punk and skating.  Oh, the injustice of high school! LOL


So here was my routine, especially during my senior year of high school in ’88-’89. I did not participate in any extracurricular stuff so as soon as school let out on Wednesdays I’d hop on the RTA #23 bus to get home (no driver’s license yet, and even if I did, I surely was not going to be able to get a car).  I’d probably get home about 3:15 or so and immediately turn on the trusty grey beast of a boombox.  The boombox was already pre-tuned to 89.3 of course.  I’d miss the first 15 or so minutes since it started at 3 but then I’d listen through the rest of the show until they went off the air at 5:30.  I’d have a tape in the cassette deck ready to tape anything I especially dug by having Record and Pause depressed at the same time.  My one regret is that I didn’t tape more complete Blows shows for posterity’s sake.  But who was thinking of that back then?!   Plus I didn’t have a lot of blank cassette tapes, I used to re-purpose old Cure and Def Leppard cassettes that I had laying around.   But to tape a whole 2 1/2 hour show, each week, would have gotten expensive since cassettes were either 60 or 90 minutes.  Luckily I taped select portions of some great shows they aired in ’88 and ’89, like the “12 Days of Hardcore Christmas” show from December of ’88 and the “Misfits Blitz” show from June of ’89.  Plus former Blows DJ Mike has hooked me up big time this year with digital rips of some old shows he had thankfully taped back then.  Listening to these old shows really takes me back 25 years ago, to sitting in my bedroom listening to Blows on the old boombox while either paging through the latest issue of Thrasher magazine or fine-tuning the bolts or trucks on my old Dogtown Eric Dressen Street board (the one with the cross drawing on it).

TO BE CONTINUED…



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Secret Savior

LISTENER REQUEST LINE, PART 4

SECRET SAVIOR “FIRST LOVE / SOMETHING’s MISSING” 7″
(NORTH TONAWANDA, NY– SELECT SOUND, 1980)





Here is a semi-crappy scan of the rare generic white sleeve with black lettering.
The plain look of it reminds me of that generic food you can buy at the grocery
store that just says “rice” or “cereal” on it instead of having some name brand
with multi-colored logos and fancy packaging.  Not having the band name on the
front of the sleeve might have hurt sale numbers for this 45, I am guessing.



On the labels we see that this song was written by a “K. Orgel”,
whose full name is actually Kenneth D. Orgel, and that is was
recorded at some place called Select Sound Studio (more on the
label later!) and produced by Dick Bauerie and the band. 



I’ve been meaning to post this one for a while, and then I got a request to post it, so here it is finally.  “First Love” was included on the last big KBD comp on vinyl before blogs took over, 2005’s Staring Down The Barrel.  This was the first place I (and I am guessing many others who are not in the inner-circle of collectors) first heard this great tune.

The guitars on “First Love” are so damn LOUD and in your face that it is almost begging you to turn it up as high as you can.  This guitar noodling is the highlight of the song for me- the vocals are very teen punk sounding, and the singer sounds like he’s about 15 years old or something.  The length of the song is like 3:30, almost a full minute past the usual 2:36 we punk fans are accustomed to but it moves along quickly and I really don’t even notice the longer length, to be honest.  What also appeals to me is how, at certain points, the loud guitars come out of nowhere all of the sudden and even get all “gunka gunka” at times which is always a good thing.  With a song title like “First Love”, the lyrics and the young-sounding singer perhaps the band meant it to be a more toned-down affair but- thankfully- it came out as a nice ripper.  Perhaps this was a good old “happy accident”.

The B-side is another story altogether, though- it’s not a punk song at all.  It’s very traditional rock; too long (5:10, anyone?!); and actually made me get a painful, gnashed-teeth expression on my face when I tried re-listening to the whole tune the other day.  But for the sake of completion I had to include it in this posting.


First Love.mp3
Somethings Missing.mp3 *

* Yes, the word something has an apostrophe “s” in it but my file server doesn’t like apostrophes for some reason

THANKS TO BLOG COMMENTER BRAD C. FOR THESE RIPS!


———————————————————
ENDNOTES
In case you were wondering, Secret Savior’s hometown of North Tonawanda is sandwiched halfway between Buffalo and the good ol’ tourist destination of Niagara Falls.

Here is what the Staring Down The Barrel liner notes had to say about Secret Savior:



Short-lived Buffalo group that must have operated on the fringes of the local scene as no one remembers them.  Press clippings indicate they played out and included some punk covers in their set, ruling this out as a “punk-by-accident” release by some AOR rock band


Well, the interwebs have come a long way since that was written in 2005 in terms of finding out band info very quickly but online info about Secret Savior is still rather scant unfortunately.  I found a MySpace page that mentioned an old 70’s Buffalo-area band called- get ready for this- “Ballzy” (LOL! Love that total hard rock spelling).  Apparently, one of their members (was it that Ken Orgel guy?) went on to Secret Savior a few years later.


Another blurb on the same page also makes it sound like Secret Savior had bigger commercial ambitions in the early 80’s but that didn’t pan out that way. They were included on some 1981 comp LP called “Buffalo Rocks” (anyone ever heard this thing cuz I haven’t) along with what sounds like a bunch of hard rock bands: Raven, Teaser, Mike Mazur and the Blue Collar Band, etc.  The comp was related to some local Buffalo station called “97 Rock WGRQ”.  I can just hear a cheesy, macho station ID done all dramatically for them by some deep-voiced announcer- ah, the early 80s’s.  Anyway, the comp was put out by this label called “Big America Music Contest” who released a slew of- I am guessing- similarly bad regional comps from other cities like Milwaukee, Denver, Houston, etc.

In digging around a little more, it turns out that the Select Sound label which put out the Secret Savior 7″ also released some other records, including some non-rock stuff, and probably nothing else even remotely punk-related.  Makes sense because the Secret Savior 7″ was label #SS-1015 and not a very low label number like SS-1000 or something.  The studio itself was located at 1585 Kenmore Avenue in Kenmore, New York near Buffalo.  When I did a Google Map search of that address, it looks like there is a drab, tiny strip mall at that location with a Curves in it and that the Select Studio is long gone.


**Any info on Secret Savior, better scans of the sleeve, scans of the press clipping alluded to in the Staring Down The Barrel liner notes would be greatly appreciated**

by

No No’s

As always I have a long queue of stuff to get up here “time permitting” (the key phrase here).  Work has been way too busy this Summer.  Plus, we essentially get 12 weeks of good weather where I live so gotta make the most of it with the kids and the Mrs.  So time in colder months that might be spent sittin inside in front of the computer is understandably substituted by “enjoying the great outdoors” in the Summer.




NO NO’s “WHO SHOT THE PRESIDENT?” 4-SONG 7″EP
(SAN DIEGO, CA- MUTATION PRODUCTIONS, 1981)



The No No’s remain a mystery band to me- searching the names on the labels,namely Engineer Mike Clark and Producers David Nestor aka David Slash and his lady (presumably) Linda Slash didn’t turn up much for me.  I assume all copies are sleeveless as well.




Anyway, here’s a mystery band- searching the interwebs on The No No’s turns up next to zilch.  Somehow the Collector Scum site knows that the band was from San Diego (but how?).  The early 80’s San Diego-area scene turned out some nice memorable records- we all know the great stuff on the area’s Radioactive label (Xterminators, Injections and Executives, all fine discs) as well as some other stuff (off the top of my head, the Tokyos’ 10″, that first Battalion of Saints record and the Standbys).  The Penetrators turned out some good songs, and of course the Cardiac Kidz squeezed out one superb track with “Get Out”.

And now that I’ve heard it I can add this No No’s EP to that list of good records from there.  It sounds kind of like “new wave punk” to me at some parts, meaning that it’s nothing over the top and frothing mad but rather has quirky new wave-ish vocals which border on sounding goofy.  But guitar skronk on the title track is good, at one point the gunka-gunka sound reminds me of similiar strumming on The Rivals’ Future Rights.


The title track is my favorite tune out of the four but thankfully the other three songs are no slouches.  I was pleasantly surprised, as I knew this was a 4-song EP before I heard it but I worried that it might be the old “one good song and three bad songs”.  But it’s not, and three out of the four songs are catchy and pretty driving stuff.  They almost lose me on the last track, “Call It Doom’s Day”, with this weird middle part that makes me grimace.  But the rest of the song makes up for the weird interlude.


Listening to the EP as a whole, I wonder- and speculate- if The No No’s might have been a more traditional rock band who morphed into a punk band ‘cuz I hear rock influences here and there ‘specially with the guitar playing and the cowbell(!) that pops up a few times.  But at a tolerable level to me, of course, or this record would have been filed away and not posted here.




/files/98398-90993/02_Hot_Love.mp3″>Hot Love.mp3
/files/98398-90993/04_Call_It_Dooms_Day.mp3″>Call It Dooms Day.mp3


Thanks to blog commenter Brad C. for providing these rips! I have been wanting to hear this entire EP for quite a while!

by

Fhab 4

FHAB 4 “DEAD-BEATLES / SOMETIMES I DON’T KNOW (WHY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH)” 7″
(LOS ANGELES, CA- GLU, 1982)

LISTENER REQUEST LINE, PART 3

5.10.2014 UPDATE
Posted upgraded rips of both sides (thanks GGS!) and, most importantly, the complete version of Dead Beatles.  Unbeknownst to me, my original rip of that A-side was missing an “outro” that’s about :15 seconds long in which someone desperately screams about a painful problem he’s having- pretty funny.


A commenter requested this a while ago so here it is.  And a quick posting before I waste any more time trying to scour the internet and create a long-winded research project on it.  I couldn’t find out much about the record other than it is extremely rare- 300 pressed I think.  So out of those 300 I’m sure many fewer have survived over the years.  In the past it’s gone for a lot on eBay I found out by searching Popsike.  I also found a favorable review of the record by Rockin’ Jeff Bale in an old issue of Maximum Rock n’ Roll from early 1983.

To be honest, had someone not requested this record then I probably would not have posted it.  I mean it’s OK to me, but for my ears it’s nothing mind-blowing or over the top.  But maybe you will love it and covet it.

I like the A-side better than the B-side.  “Dead Beatles” is an interesting mix of a few raw guitar jabs with some synthpunk qualities.  The B-side is weirder, but not unlistenable unlike some other infamous B-sides.

/files/98398-90993/02_Sometimes_I_Dont_Know_(Why_You_Like_Me_So_Much).mp3″>Sometimes I Dont Know Why You Like Me So Much.mp3