PEDRO SAYS HI - "Live At Sweet Hickory" - Video - 2007

   PEDRO SAY HI was the solo "pop" project of my good friend, Zak who usually concentrated on noise projects and the long running juggernaut known as PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA. He decided that he wanted to flesh out his simple pop songs into a full band, while making it noisier and a little more chaotic. He recruited his PUPPY-bandmate, Leah to play 2nd guitar (who is the only person I've ever seen play in a punk band using finger picks exclusively), Benny on bass (who played in GOURMET SCUM and later had the most wonderful child named....Pedro) and he got me to play drums. We were pretty short-lived due to other commitments, self-destruction and things that I just can't talk about. I wish that the band had recorded, but Zak didn't want to for his own reasons, which is fine. 

   These videos were filmed by Dave Walter back in 2007 at a very, very sweaty and humid show at Sweet Hickory (an art gallery/record store) in Bloomington, IN, where we lived. The performance is loose, to say the least. We even threw out an ELO cover, which I had never heard in my life and Zak asked me to never listen to it...so I still haven't. 

   Time marched on. Some truly unspeakable events happened. We got back together to play a show in Chattanooga in 2011, as well as record a demo tape. We got the basic tracks down for all of the songs, but Zak was never fully satisfied with how his voice sounded, so the tape has slipped into hiding and I haven't heard a note of it since recording it. 

   That's how things go and that's fine. Enjoy these shoddy live videos of songs about cannibalism, secret societies, feral humans, licking blood off the floors and mental breakdowns. I hope to be in the same room with these fine humans again one day soon, because I love the shit out of them.
  Features members of PUPPY VS DYSELXIA, GOURMET SCUM, TWAT SAUCE, JON BENET SASQUATCH, NEON PISS and many, many more. 

LEG - Self Titled EP - 2002

   LEG, according to their record insert, started as a joke because their friend needed an extra band to play a show. Then, they just kept existing. Listening to their songs, I can tell that they're definitely no joke. Over the course of the few shows I saw them play (always in cramped Indiana basements), I could tell that they didn't take themselves too seriously, but still invested serious time into developing finely crafted pop hooks. Jim, the guitarist, had a bit of a lazy handed approach to playing and sometimes sloppily strummed his guitar, but then he would pull off some wizardly genius hook that let you know that he knew exactly what he was doing. After seeing them, their songs would be stuck in my head for days. I was in a band with their drummer, Matte (GIANT BAGS OF WEED), which is initially why I paid attention to LEG in the first place. When I would hear them practice or see them play shows, I soon felt like Matte and I were the ones in the joke band.

   On this recording, LEG is a four piece band with their original singer, Nick. I only saw them play with him once and he had some of the weirdest dance moves I had seen at that point in my life. Kind of like a failed marionette puppet being controlled by a blacked out senior citizen. After recording this EP, LEG became a three piece with Jim taking over on vocals. The songs are punctuated by Jim's clean guitar tones and insistent down-stroking.  I think Jim and Chris were into a lot of indie rock and took some influences from that, but I couldn't tell you what those influences were. A poor man's BUILT TO SPILL? SWIRLIES? I don't fuckin' know. I do know that I really like this band and these five songs are firmly lodged into my brain for life. If you're late to the game, now is a good time to let LEG into your life.

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I don't really know what any of these people are up to now. Matte played in NANA GRIZOL, LANDLORD, GNARX and a lot more bands. Jim put out a lot of solo stuff under the name BAD KNEES and his own given birth name. You can find his music here and here (his cover of the song "A Slippery Subject" is one of the saddest things I've ever heard....I mean that positively). Chris played in Bloomington goth act TURN PALE and a pretty good JAWBREAKER cover band. I'm sure he did more too, but I don't know what it is. I like to imagine Nick dancing like a maniac...where ever he is.

This record came out on Half-Day Records in 2002. I think the band also had a tape, but I kinda think it was the same songs. I've never owned or seen the tape. 

POSER POSSE - Live - Tape - 2003

   Some friends from out of town were playing a house show in Berkeley back in 2003 so I decided to make the trek up to that weird place. I had been hanging out with the band all day and there was so much tension and anger between them that I didn't even care about seeing them play the show at that point. They had reached the level where they would get in arguments at the drop of a hat about ridiculous things, like whose turn it was to sit in the front seat or whose fault it was that the van broke down. Instead of getting a ride with them to the show, I took my bike so I would have an easy out.
   I have the flyer for the show somewhere, but I couldn't tell you who else played if my life depended on it. All I know is that when the 2nd band started setting up, I got fucking stoked because I recognized the two guys (Adam and Mike) from the flawlessly flawed TOMMY LASORDA. Each of them played guitar through tiny little practice amps and Patrick put towels and t-shirts over his drum heads to muffle them. They didn't have a bass player. I remember running outside to tell friends to come watch this band because I knew it would be good, even though I had never heard them. In my opinion, I was right (you can make your own decisions) and it was a great set. They even played a stellar WIPERS cover. I had to track down Mike later to get a recording from him and he gave me this tape.
   The tape may or may not be live on the radio. The band implies that it's a live radio show, but who knows? There's some definite hits and misses on this tape, but I'll leave it up to you to decide which is which. One of my favorite moments is when Adam breaks a string in the middle of "Refrigerated Planes" but still plays the rest of the song and it sounds beautifully fucked up.

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You should also check out their other bands: TOMMY LASORDA, LOS RABBIS, CHINESE, RAINBOW BRIDGE, BROKEN STRINGS and more and more....

Fun fact: At that show, I met my lifelong friend, Sarah Sky, who literally saved my life less than a year and a half later. 

MODERN MACHINES - 4 Tapes - 2001 - 2006

   One of my goals of 2013 is to be a more positive person. I don't mean that I want to kill people with kindness or be fake. I just want to be less negative. The state of this world leads people to just be complete jackasses to one another and there's really no need for it. The internet is a vast network of faceless shit-talking and hate-mongering where folks are encouraged to foist their bile and are rarely expected to hold themselves accountable. I think people should be open about what they don't like, but they should also be able to talk about ways to make it better without being condescending or shitty. It's possible and it's something I'm working towards.
   That being said, I never liked MODERN MACHINES, but I appreciate their existence. I also think Jon Hanson is a fantastic drummer. I understand that the band meant a lot to other people, so I decided to let one of those people talk about them for a while. Here is Mike Wilson (from B ARTHUR) to talk about the MODERN MACHINES:

   THE MODERN MACHINES at their peak were my favorite existing band in the Midwest... I was living in Tower MN (try to find that on a map) and I was obsessed with Bay Area CA punk from the 80's, 90's, and current. I was getting very into bands on the label NEW DISORDER RECORDS. I noticed that label had released a split CD with two Milwaukee bands THE MODERN MACHINES and THE FRAGMENTS (pre-Holy Shit! and others). I got that CD in 2003 when I was 15 years old and was really into it. Really really good catchy poppy punk done the way that I liked. Particularly I was into the MODERN MACHINES side of the split. I contacted both bands separately suggesting that they should play in Duluth, since conceivably they lived not that far away. Both bands responded excited that somebody from northern MN was into them, which was really nice to hear. THE FRAGMENTS broke up probably not that long after that, and I never did see them.. But Nato from the MODERN MACHINES was particularly into the idea of playing up in Duluth / Superior and he eventually contacted me to seriously inquire about getting a show. I didn't really know how to set up shows quite yet (I didn't even live in Duluth) but I knew of an existing show the day that they wanted to play in Superior WI with my friends THE UNDESIRABLES, and a Grand Rapids MN pop punk band THE VALENTINES. I got the folks from that show to let MODERN MACHINES hop on. I was slightly bummed and worried I wouldn't even get in, because it was at a bar and I was 15 years old. But Nato insisted on sneaking me in as their roadie. It worked! All of the MODERN MACHINES guys were really nice, and I was so happy. Jon Hanson, their drummer, had a HICKEY tattoo on his chest which was maybe the coolest thing I had ever seen at that point. PLUS they even covered "Waiting For The Swelling To Go Down" by HICKEY. They KILLED it. I video taped that show and still have it. 

   MODERN MACHINES made a lasting impression and everybody from the show was really blown away by them. Highly energetic raging poppy punk with heart and plenty of rock and roll. One of those bands I'd consider "perfect", having every element a band should have. Constantly compared to bands like THE REPLACEMENTS and HUSKER DU, which is accurate but still were beyond that and were not derivative. MODERN MACHINES had just released their first full length CD "Thwap!" on New Disorder Records, so I got that and a shirt from them at the show. I liked their stuff from that previous split CD but this new album totally destroyed their previous material. That album "Thwap!" is to this day one of my favorite Midwestern punk albums of the 2000's, no question. MODERN MACHINES kept going for years after this, and at least once a year they would hit me up to play Duluth / Superior and it was always a blast to see them and hang out. I was always very flattered they were so into playing up there. Their second album "Taco Blessing" on Recess Records is arguably even better than "Thwap!" but I'm not really sure. The MODERN MACHINES eventually broke up and Nato moved to Brooklyn and started THE USED KIDS (who toured through Duluth as well), and then eventually they broke up and he now resides in Minneapolis playing with NATO COLES & THE BLUE DIAMOND BAND. Over the years Nato's songs progressively were getting less punk and more on the rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen type) side of things. A simple way of putting it, THE MODERN MACHINES were a self proclaimed "basement band", but NATO COLES & THE BLUE DIAMOND BAND are definitely more of a "bar band". I don't mean that as an insult, I think Nato would probably agree with me (even though they play basements all the time). I can't help but strongly prefer those amazing early MODERN MACHINES shows and records over anything after, but still, I love everything Nato has done and I can't count how many times I've seen him play (especially now that he's living in Minnesota and comes up north every chance he gets). He is a great song writer and an amazing performer and puts everything he's got into every show.

   I didn't mention any of these early tapes here yet because I can't even remember how or where I got these, so figured I'd just talk about the band in general. I always listened to their full length albums more than these tapes. I think these tapes pre-date all their albums, but I'm not sure.. This many years later I'm excited to actually listen to these tapes finally since I've exhausted their other material over the years.

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This download includes 4 tapes by MOMACS. "Huberty" was originally posted here, but has since been deleted by Mediafire. You can now download it in this file. 

BROKEN STRINGS / ICKY GIRLFRIENDS - Split - Tape- 2006

   I was just gonna write "fuck you" for the entire text for this one, but then decided against it. I don't really know anything about this tape. BROKEN STRINGS is Adam from TOMMY LASORDA, RAINBOW BRIDGE and LOS RABBIS playing home recorded solo stuff. He put out an LP a few years ago under this name that was just phenomenal. These two songs are more lo-fi (somehow) and "out there". I like them a lot.
  ICKY GIRLFRIENDS were screaming out of weird little holes in the Bay Area some years back and they completely eluded any notice from me. I never really knew they were there until they were gone. This tape is the only thing I've ever heard by them and it sounds like screamy, bratty teenagers having more fun than I was in 2006. Their full length CD is still available from Starcleaner.

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This one is from the bag of Mike Wilson's tapes on my floor.

CASSINGLE AND LOVIN' IT - Compilation - CD-R - Mid-to-late-90's and beyond

   Before we get into the music part, I just wanted to update you all on the Mediafire business (see here for reference). The account is still locked and my emails to customer service were fruitless. My final email mirrored the frustration I was feeling from dealing with them and I simply asked "Can you prove that you work for Mediafire? Can you prove that your names are real? Can you prove that the Earth is indeed round?" Whatever. Oddly, they never wrote back. While it is a bummer that a majority of the links on this site are dead, I am moving forward because That Is What I Do. I am re-upping some old ones and will continue to do so from time to time. Feel free to tell me what you want re-uploaded. For now, feel free to continue downloading CLEANSING WAVE, RYMODEE, HICKEY, FLEABAG, This Alabama punk comp, REMAIN INDOORS, FROZEN TEENS, TOMMY LASORDA and RICE HARVESTER. As I stated way back in the beginning, none of this stuff is copyrighted and if you don't feel comfortable having your music shared on this site, just let me know and I will take it down, no questions asked. There is no need to involve outside sources. We can exist without the Man. Onto the music....

   You may know Scott from his manic drumming in THE BANANAS or, more recently, his smooth guitar stylings in THE BRIGHT IDEAS. During the 90's, he ran a great record label called Secret Center, who put out the first BANANAS singles as well as all manner of nerdy, under-appreciated jangly punk bands from the Sacramento area. In the 90's and early 00's, he did an offshoot of the label that specifically specialized in one-off cassingles (for those of you who did not grow up in the 90's, that's a really short cassette with only 2 songs on it) comprised of bands that were usually around long enough to record their 2 songs. The cassettes could be bought through the mail for a buck or two. This download is a collection of all the songs as well as a few unreleased "gems". All bands are from Sacramento except for (US SOUTHERNERS TAKE NOTE) "Gary League". Gary is actually none other than Peter Stubb, the North Georgia wildman who has been self-releasing his own tapes consistently since the late 80's (I think the League recordings remain unreleased by this Sac label, but remained close to their hearts). Here is Scott to tell you everything you never wanted to know about this label and these bands....

   I generally consider the cassingle label to be the best idea I've ever had. The inspiration hit me some time in 1996 a few days before the BANANAS headed to Cupertino to play a show. After the show, I mentioned it to Gavin and Hutch - two Cupertino guys I'd become friends with through playing shows and doing Secret Center Records. Hutch was in a rad band called BUNCHA LOSERS, whose tape I distro-ed (now he's in THE THERMALS) and Gavin was in THE NARDS, who were one of my favorite bands to play with. He was also just one of the nicest guys ever. He played in a great band called THE FEVERS later on and is currently in an AWESOME band called THE RANTOULS, who play way too infrequently. Anyway, I told them about the label idea  at the show and they were like "we like have the perfect thing for you!", which ended up being THE CARNIES cassingle (which sadly other than one song, is lost at the moment.) A few days later, THE CARNIES master tape and artwork showed up in my mailbox, so I figured "Cassingle and Lovin' It!" had been officially born. I couldn't even believe how perfect THE CARNIES stuff was - they had just done it one bored weekend but it was the ideal cassingle music. To me, it seemed like a sign that I had to do the label. 

    The first one we did was at U Street (aka The Gentlemen's Club and basically cassingle headquarters) was THE ICE BUCKET HEADS, which is me, Tristan, Davey and Jay. We all lived there and were sitting around talking about doing a cassingle & there was this styrofoam ice bucket that had been lying around in the front room & we were sort of discussing how rad it was that a cassingle could just be any stupid idea that you could possibly think of. I think originally we were going to make a band called THE QUESADILLA MAKERS (I believe Jay was making a quesadilla at the time) & then somebody put the ice bucket on their head, so we did that instead. It's amazing how freeing it is to write songs for a fake band. I sat down and wrote "Everybody Loves The IBH" the next morning in like 10 minutes and Davey wrote "Stay Cool" which came out pretty bad because he's the worst at articulating how he thinks something should sound. But it was a great start.

   "Dude With The Shirt With The Dude On It"  was an inside joke from BANANAS / FOUR EYES  tour where some guy walked in to the house we were staying at in Chattanooga at like 3am looking for someone (the guy was wasted) and he just kept saying "I'm...looking for the dude...with the shirt....with the dude on it!!" So, we sort of wrote that one in the van & recorded it when we got back home. (Ed. note: this song blows my mind)  That was the funnest one because we had a party to provide the backing vocals & party sounds. This one is Jay, Joel, Mike and me. 

    SACTO APES is these two Japanese kids  - Kei and Naomi - that were visiting California. They had mail-ordered stuff from me a few times. My friend, Dave Smith, who lived in San Francisco, met them. When he was visiting Sac that weekend, he said "I met these two Japanese kids who knew what Secret Center was. They seemed bored in SF." So, we decided to go kidnap them and bring them to Sac. Banana Mike was moving out of his house that day so he had an empty house that we could throw a show in for those kids. LIL BUNNIES, BANANAS and ICE BUCKET HEADS played (the only cassingle band to play a show. We did the cassingle and a cover of "Never Understand") & these kids were completely sold on Sac. They stayed for a few days at U Street. One day, I came home and they had written a cassingle about liking Sacramento. Their lyrics are the sweetest. They're printed on the cassingle cover (Ed. note: included in download). Tristan plays drums and several drunk people provide the chorus singing. 

   THE ROMS was the most grueling tape ever. After it was done, I realized that it took 18 hours to finish. We found a drum machine that my friend, Jason had left over at U Street. It had a bunch of dancehall beats on it. He had gotten super into Dancehall a few years earlier (he actually started a dancehall label called "Ruff Chicken" that put out dancehall LP's and tapes). So, he had all these beats he'd programmed into it and we built the cassingle around those. There was a Rom comic lying around that provided the inspiration. We had a Moog that only worked some of the time and it kind of broke in the middle of recording. Somehow, we salvaged it. Everyone was playing something they weren't good at on equipment they were totally unfamiliar with & to this day, I can't believe it sounds as good as it does. It could never be duplicated in a million years! This one is Joel, Jay, Lisa, Davey and me. 
   FANCY LADS was written by Tristan in the middle of our house-wide obsession with the TELEVISION PERSONALITIES. No B-side was ever written, so this one is "unreleased", but it's always been one of my favorites. I rememeber being in my room when he and Jay started working on it and being totally jealous that I wasn't involved. 

   VERUCA SALT FAN CLUB is pretty self-explanatory. Based on my celeb crush on Louise Post.

   "Forever Nursing Brew" is another unreleased one thanks to no B-side. I've always loved this song and it's absurd stance that someone was trying to "stop us from drinking our brew". It's like the "legalize it" of beer! This one always reminds me of Eric Copeland because we used to quote it to each other whenever we were drinking brews on BLACK DICE tour, which was most of the time. 

   SIMILAR GUYS is Gavin and Mike, who do sort of look alike. Gavin was coming to visit and do a cassingle, so Mike wrote "We're Similar Guys" the day before, but we still needed a B-side. (Ed. note: I listened to this song exactly once and it was stuck in my head for a week straight) Before Gavin got to town, I was going to a beer fest down the street and I wrote "We're Similar" in my head on the walk there. I spent the whole fest constantly repeating it over in my head so I wouldn't forget it. That one was super fun. I was proud of the line "We've got a lot in common, just like soup and ramen."

   The HONEY I SHRUNK THE BAND cassingle was the last of the golden era of cassingles and it's one of my favorites for sure. Mike wrote "Hip To Be Small" and we sang it with the 4 track on slow speed so it would sound like munchkins. I wrote the theme song based on that annoying riff, which is something I used to play whenever I picked up a guitar for a while. I was dating the girl who talks on it and she used to live in Berkeley, so we only hung out on weekends. She already didn't like Sac that much but this particular weekend I was in a fit of cassingle fever so I was totally distracted with working on HISTB. She was super annoyed, hanging out in my room, when I was like "hey, will you do this talking part?" She immediately got all psyched and into it - the magic of the cassingle. 

    We started the label back up again for a bit in 2000 or so with the YAWNING MUSHROOM, which was the "psychedelic cassingle". My friend Marie and I were working on BRIGHT IDEAS stuff and she had some mushrooms...so, we took them and decided to write a cassingle instead. One of the weird side effects of the mushrooms was that we couldn't stop yawning, hence the name. She had this little contact mic that she put inside an acoustic and it sounded so incredible high in headphones! I had written those songs a few weeks earlier and they seemed to fit together. 

   JUNIOR QUENCH is one of my best friends, Josh, who lives in NYC. He used to live in Sac and is Sac through and through. So, when Marie called him at his apartment in NYC and said "hey, Dillon and I wrote a reggae jam. Do you want to sing over it?", he, of course, said "yes". He's way into dancehall as well and I guess there's a little-known dancehall DJ called Quench Aid who Josh loves. He was already making these funny tapes of him imitating Quench Aid over instrumental reggae tracks and calling it "JUNIOR QUENCH", so he grabbed some lyrics he had written, went outside his apartment and sang over the phone into the 4 track while they cranked the track so he could hear it. One take! 

   There are a lot more...some that even I've forgotten. Some were recorded on long lost tapes. Some were just REALLY bad. There are some good ones not on here, but these are the ones that have the classic spirit of what was going on for that glorious, heady year or so. 

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P.S. I am still figuring out the kinks of the new file-sharing service. Let me know if you have problems. 

TOMMY LASORDA - "Live At The End of the World" - 2002

   Yesterday, I probably told you everything I know about TOMMY LASORDA, so today is devoted to things I don't know about them. As mentioned previously, Mike from TOMMY LASORDA got in touch and sent over a live set that was intended for an album, but never saw the light of day. So, I'm featuring it here for the first time. Here's what Mike has to say about it....

 The show on this album was the first day of what turned out to be Tommy's longest tour, five weeks all over the country. We set off in a minivan with tons of oatmeal and spaghetti which we made anywhere we could along the way. I'm pretty sure that was all we ate the entire trip. Going into the Frontier restaurant in Albuquerque to get hot water for the oats, we saw Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top getting into a limousine. (Coincidentally we would skip our show with Fleshies and Sexy in Albuquerque on a later tour to see the Top at the local amphitheater.) Later on this tour we played for a room full of neo-Nazis in St. Louis who were really, really into us. We ended up canceling our last show in northern Montana after spinning out on a snow-covered mountain pass en route. We were so freaked out that we turned right around and drove all the way back to SF in time to see the Melvins at Slim's. They were awesome.

TL in Tulsa, OK with Hammy from FLESHIES on 2nd drums. Photo provided by the band.

   This show was at a teen center called The Don in Visalia, CA on 4 April, 2002. Despite our frequent onstage pleas for a place to crash, we ended up sleeping in the van, but the guy that recorded this did give us a Danelectro distortion pedal after watching us pause in the middle of all of our songs to manually push the button on Adam's Sunn bass head. That amp was really loud but a huge pain in the butt, as evidenced by our broken amp song on here, played by Adam while I changed a fuse. We were constantly having to change fuses and the tubes were shot like, once a month it seemed. Most of the songs on here that aren't on the tape or the 7" were going to be on our LP which only ever got halfway recorded. The exception is "Lloyd", which was going to be on a split 10" with the Ovens, which also never came out.

    Five or six years ago, I started a label called Swiss Army Records just because I wanted to release a 7" from San Pedro's Can of Beans. I later ended up putting out a 7" by my instrumental band Chinese and a full-length by my quieter pop band Sorry Safari. The label unceremoniously folded before I could release the Lasorda live album (as well as Sorry Safari's second album). Adam and I created some album art for this live joint, Adam did the cover on glossy silver paper and mixed it with glitter and construction paper. The insert was going to be pictures of kids slam dancing at small town shows we had played on tour. I've been able to track down the photos of the punks but the cover art is nowhere to be found. 

Thanks to Mike and Adam for everything and without further ado....

Download Live At The End of the World. updated aug 2013


(not the same show)

TOMMY LASORDA - Demo Tape and 7" EP - 2001-2003

   You may remember a while back when I told you about the teenage punk band LOS RABBIS and all of their exploits (or some of them) in the Bay Area. Mike and Adam, who made up half of that band were also wailing away at another band called TOMMY LASORDA, where they constantly traded off instrument duties. The latter appeared to take the teenage freakout abandon of LOS RABBIS and mold it into wildly addictive pop hooks. They didn't ever have an easily classifiable sound, but they seemed to take equal parts of HICKEY, MELVINS, BEAT HAPPENING and anything else rattling around on their bedroom floors and just meld it into some kind of low-fi hodge-podge that was wholly their own.

"Planetary explorers" - Provided by the band.

   LOS RABBIS were supposed to come to Chattanooga many years ago when I lived there, but they ended up cancelling due to a family emergency (possibly?). Less than a year later, I got a call from Mike or Adam asking if there was a show that TOMMY LASORDA could jump onto that night because they would be driving though Chattanooga. Luckily, there was already a show set up for RESIN at our all-ages space, so I told them they could jump onto the show, even though I had never seen or heard TOMMY LASORDA in my life. They showed up in a busted ass minivan and loaded out their shit to play first. They played their hearts out to the 20 or so people in attendance, belting out two-minute-or-less ragged punk songs; each one better than the last. At the end of their set, they played "King Solomon's Reef" (included on demo tape), which is a complete departure from all of their other songs (to put it lightly) and blew my mind. I didn't watch the other bands that night because I knew that it wouldn't get any better than that (luckily, for the other touring band, the room soon filled up with people and weed smoke).

TOMMY LASORDA live at Rear Entry in Chattanooga. Photos by me.

    Later, after I moved out to SF, I was "working" one day at Mission Records when Adam and Mike walked in. They asked if they could borrow an extension cord. I rummaged around and found one behind the counter. I asked what they needed it for and Mike casually said that they were going to play a set at the BART station as the two of them walked out the door. Sarah T and I hurriedly locked up the gate to the store and rushed down there. Five minutes later, I saw one of the best sets I ever saw by the band in the middle of the day, as they played to drunks, freaks, commuters and addicts on the street corner. Mike started off the set by saying "Hi, we're TOMMY LASORDA and we really don't give a fuck!"

TOMMY LASORDA at 16th and Mission (a different time). Pic provided by the band.

   This download includes both the band's demo tape and 7" Ep, which was released by S.P.A.M. Records. The demo tape is chock full of classics, in my mind. The tape kicks off with "I Can't Swim", which passes itself off as a lackadaisical pop song until the screaming kicks in. Its followed by "Artful Dodger", which is a slice of catchy genius. Later in the tape, the listener is greeted by "Mr. Frogman Superhero", a song that suffers from something I like to call "The Sugar Bear Syndrome". Let me explain. When I first heard the beginning of the song "Sugar Bear" by THE BANANAS, I thought "Oh my god, this song has stupid cutesy lyrics. I almost can't listen to this". Then, the whole band kicked in and it became the best thing ever. This TL song did the same thing to me when I first heard it. Recently, I listened to the TOMMY LASORDA song 20 times in a row and loved it every time (nevermind that I was on a plane over the Grand Canyon, freaking out and on pills). The EP does not let up one bit and is just as good as the tape. "Racing My Ego" off of that record has been a mixtape staple for years. 

   As I've mentioned before, maintaining this blog has put me in touch with a lot of unexpected people. One of those unexpected people is Mike from TOMMY LASORDA / LOS RABBIS. He was nice enough to send some unreleased TOMMY LASORDA recordings (check back tomorrow!) and he got together with Adam (digitally) to answer some of my dumb questions. So, here is an interview with TOMMY LASORDA....

Remote Outposts: First off, why the name Tommy Lasorda? Really, why any band name? But specifically, is there any meaning behind the band name?

 Adam: I’ve always thought of it as just an opener, a first move, a gambit. I can not recall when we actually thought of the name or if any decision making process actually even occurred. Personally, I believe the name had something to do with the canary yellow walls of the room we dubbed our tapes in. Then, it may have went something like this: Kirk Gibson? No. Fernando Valenzuela? Naw. Sandy Koufax? Naw. Yeah. Maybe. Orel Hershiser! Yeahhhnaw. Should we just be Lenny Dykstra? Dykstra? Dykstra! Yeah. Dykstra! Probably. No. For all I know, that may have been more a’ pro pro. Hindsights 40/40-- a hot bat, many a-stolen bags, and an above average amount of base hits.

 Mike: Because Boone Logan wasn’t in the Majors yet.

 Adam: Because Tommy Lasorda was in the Majors. Because Logan Hatch didn’t exist yet.

 RO: I could never really figure out if your band was from the Bay Area or Olympia? In the long run, it really doesn’t matter, but what would you say?

 Adam: Olympia. Shortly after Y2K.

 Mike: After high school everyone went off to far-flung colleges except me. I stayed in the Bay Area and enrolled at Skyline Community College only to drop out and spend all day at the Burlingame library. When I exhausted all of their books on silent movies and lucid dreaming, I moved up to Olympia where Adam was enrolled at Evergreen. I convinced him to drop out. We shared a bedroom at a house on Edison St. near Ralph’s Thriftway, both of us paying $100 a month in rent. Tommy Lasorda started in the basement of that house. We moved back and forth between Olympia and the Bay Area a couple of times during the band’s lifespan but the germ of the band began in Olympia. Olympia was good for us because it was a scene we had absolutely nothing to do with. We played maybe four shows in town the entire time we lived there. We spent all of our free time in the basement writing songs.

 Adam: Far-flung.

 Mike: Flung far.

 RO: The band started pretty soon after the disbandment of LOS RABBIS. What made the two of you keep playing together?

Mike: That’s actually a bit of a misconception. Los Rabbis was still a seasonal concern while Tommy was around. For a few years, the four of us would get together in the summer when school got out and go on a multi-week tour. Tommy Lasorda was basically what Adam and I did while Dean and Mike were in school. This caused tension down the line because at a couple of points I felt like we shouldn’t have to put Tommy on hold so Los Rabbis could re-form. It felt like we hindered ourselves by putting everything on pause for two or three months.

 Adam: Music, like a Maui timeshare: its amazing that we made it, even if but for the few times that we did!

 RO: LOS RABBIS, to me, seemed like pure unbridled teenage anger but still had a goofy, almost nerdy edge to it. Tommy Lasorda definitely retained that edge but seemed more focused on writing unhinged pop songs. Was that intentional? Were you guys just trying to be a pop band that was informed by the MELVINS?

Adam: A few descriptions I’ve heard: Dirt Pop, Camaro Rock, and Two Man Rock Armada--there may be more. We had an interesting amp-to-speaker ratio with some decent output levels. We had some fairly oversized drum skins and cymbal radii to contend with and we just kinda took it from there -- worked within that framework. Occasionally the circuits got hot, the sticks got hotter, and at that point some might have said they were in to see a pretty good fight.

 Mike: Nothing was planned, it was just a natural progression of where our mutual musical tastes were headed. As most people probably do when they move to Olympia, we were listening to a lot of Beat Happening at the time. But also a lot of godheadSilo and the Wu-Tang Clan. The Melvins were always a constant, more as a template for what was possible than actually trying to sound like them, although we played a few shows, most notably in a Manhattan bar, where we did all Melvins sets.

 RO: I got your band on a show in Chattanooga where you won the audience over with your catchy songs. At the end, you asked if you had time to play one more and then played “King Solomon’s Reef” (from the tape), which kinda blew everyone’s minds. What’s up with that song? It’s totally different from everything else, really intricate and weird. What was the inspiration for it? (besides maybe the diner in Olympia?)

Adam: Riff obsessed demolition derby Robert Christgau has never dissected. A+

 Mike: “King Solomon’s Reef” was a test. We basically wanted to see if we could do it. The jury is still out on if we succeeded. A lot of that was written outside the basement while we walked around town, just vocally passing off riffs and fills. We woodshedded it for hours and just kept adding more parts to it. The very beginning is a direct rip-off of the song “Charlotte” by the all-girl Canadian metal band Kittie, who we were kind of obsessed with at the time.

 Adam: We wanted to be actual “merchants of the riff”...like “Hey..(opens coat)...would you like to see a riff collection...allow us to respectfully pull out a few licks...tell us if you see anything you like or should I say lick...oh?...(sigh)...that one’s not for sale...

 Mike: Speaking of that show in Chattanooga, there was a local guy there filming all of the bands that night and he asked us what our band name was. We said “Tommy Lasorda” but he didn’t understand us and all night he kept calling us “Time and Disorder”, which is still the greatest punk rock band name ever. That’s what Adam says at the beginning of “Punkest Girl in Town” on the 7”.

 Adam: I also say The Reef should change it up and try going with “King Solomon’s Riff” for a while.

 RO: What do you guys have against bass players? Tommy Lasorda, Chinese, Poser Posse, Rainbow Bridge, etc,etc...No bass.

 Adam: On one hand, the lack of traditional and/or orthodox lineups is to warn against the pratfalls of anti-establishment ethos and lifestyle; a visual, if you will, symbol. On the other hand it shows and proves that there is quite possibly many more and still, yet another way. Bassist wishlist: Old St. Nick, Mickey (and Minnie!) Mouse, Vaclav Havel, Don Rickles (No!), Branch Rickey.

 Mike: And Thelma Ritter.

 Adam: A symbol, if you will.

 Mike: Our next band will be ALL bass. No drums, no guitars, no performers. Just six or seven basses all lined up in a blue bedroom. Not even plugged in.

 RO: Speaking of Poser Posse, what led to the formation of that band? (for the reader, Tommy Lasorda was Mike and Adam switching off between drums and guitar. Poser Posse was Mike and Adam both playing guitars with a drummer.)

 Mike: Like Los Rabbis, Poser Posse was originally a Dean and Adam project. They started playing with Patrick at his house in Oakland and I went along once or twice before weaseling my way into the band. Dean ended up leaving to do a million more important things while the three of us ate burritos, talked about burritos, and covered The Flying Burrito Brothers.

 Adam: The name Poser Posse originated in Olympia, but truly it could have been discovered anywhere.

 RO: What is your favorite MELVINS song and why?

 Mike: Easy. “The Fool, the Meddling Idiot” off of the band’s best album, 2002’s Hostile Ambient Takeover. There are three components that make up the Melvins’ music: heavy, noisy, and pretty; and over its generous seven-and-a-half minutes “The Fool, the Meddling Idiot” covers all of these bases with utter aplomb. It is the perfect desert island selection. The song contains some crazy ass Kevin Rutmanis slide bass, a terrifyingly awesome vocal performance from Buzz, and one of Dale Crover’s greatest drum fills. Oh, and it ends with a coda that sounds like Captain Beefheart writing music for Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.

RO: That is also my favorite Melvins album!

 Adam: There is one song that comes to mind, one song any Melvinaut should they, if they have not already, take some time to seek out. This one song is a b-side that begins with some talk about a “Principal’s Office” before settling into a nice, easy groove. The title and lyrics rhyme with “Banal Straighten”.

RO: I have no idea what you're talking about but it made me think about their Mott The Hoople cover, which is awesome....oh wait, I have that 7".

 Mike: Wait, is it too late to change my answer?

 RO: Guest question from Morgan Stickrod: Just to see if your views have changed over time, which La Cumbre taqueria is the best, in your opinion? The one in SF or the one in San Mateo?

 Mike: Well, the San Francisco La Cumbre has way better tortillas but the San Mateo one has a framed photograph of Los Rabbis hanging above the door, so the best one is the El Farolito in South San Francisco. 650!

 Adam: I fondly remember a wonderful summer time deluxe burrito from La Cumbre in San Mateo. It was really, really, really, really good. I was very impressed and it was far and away more better than the usual “its just as good as I remember, but even better,” burrito. Honestly, I just cannot tell you the last time I remember eating a burrito in that ol’ Baghdad by the Bay--so San Mateo, handily.

 RO: And since we are not living in the past, and I have no desire to do so....what projects are you both working on these days?

 Mike: I have spent the last year working on a book of essays about Disney movies. That should be coming out soon. My brother and I have also been working for the last couple of years on a hip-hop concept album all about, and for, our father. It was originally going to be a Father’s Day present, then birthday, then Christmas, and then the year was over and the cycle started again. The songs are about the Green Bay Packers, Steely Dan, and living in a retirement community in Santa Rosa. It’s my magnum opus.

 Adam: Work? I like a recently cleared desk. Thanks for the questions!

Download TOMMY LASORDA Tape and EP
Updated Aug 2013

Check back tomorrow for more from this band.

Thanks to Morgan Stickrod for loaning out the tape to digitize (mine broke years ago) and to the MRR house for their advanced digitizing capabilities.

FULL SUN - "Bare Floor" - Tape - 2012

   Well, the end of the year is approaching quickly, and traditionally it's a time when people start thinking about their favorite musical releases of the past 365 days. Every year, folks always complain about how there wasn't anything good that came out. Then, if you were to fast forward their lives two years, they will complain about how nothing is as good as it was two years ago. My point is, people are releasing great music all the time, even if it's not on your radar. There is someone, somewhere, holed up in a tiny basement writing the new anthems for your life. Now you just have to find them and get a copy of it. That's the part that can be the hardest sometimes.
   This is where FULL SUN comes in. They put out an excellent tape last year that was easily one of my favorite releases of 2011 (you can find it here and here). The newer tape, "Bare Floor" is just as great, if not better, and will top the list for this year. As mentioned in the write up of the other tape, FULL SUN is the recording project of Jeff Grant (from FAT SHADOW and formerly PINK RAZORS) and he writes solid, catchy basement punk songs that offer hook after hook that will have you listening for days (weeks, years). Some comparisons could be drawn to POTENTIAL JOHNS, PLOW UNITED, PINK RAZORS and early SUPERCHUNK, but Jeff definitely has his own thing going here. Like the last tape, there are some awesome dub interludes that come from a love and respect of the genre, so it doesn't make you feel like some white clown in a rasta/dread hat is giving you the wink-nod while he slaughters your eardrums (say, like JAHBREAKER).
   Once again, there's only 100 copies of this tape in existence, so get yours now. I warned you about the last one and now it's sold out. Don't miss this one. You can order it from Jeff's label, Houseplant Records.

Download FULL SUN

Or download it from their Bandcamp

Jeff and I briefly discussed having my band, NEON PISS travel out to the Midwest and act as his backing band for a FULL SUN tour, but it sounds like a logistical nightmare. If any rich benefactors want to pay for 4 people to fly out to Indiana and make this happen, get in touch. Ha!

JAMES F. BECK - "Forbidden Fruit" - Year??

   You might remember when I posted Jim Beck's cover album of "A Slippery Subject" a couple of weeks ago. Well, Jim got in touch and said he was happy that more people got to hear it. He also included a link to his lesser-known tribute to THE BANANAS debut album "Forbidden Fruit", which I've never heard until now. Like the other release, it accentuates the paranoia and malaise behind their lyrics while managing to stand on its own. Take a listen for yourself.

Link to James F Beck's Bandcamp.

JAMES F BECK - "A Slippery Subject" - CD-R - 2004

    James F Beck is a singer/songwriter from the middle of Indiana who is tall and lanky. I lived in his basement for a short time and he spent most of his days in his room writing and recording heartbroken songs on his beat-up guitar. He also played in an under-appreciated local indie-rock band called LEG, who were nothing short of amazing every time I saw them. Jim always seemed to be putting out self-released CD-R's, which he sold for almost nothing at the local record store or gave away to anyone who asked. If nothing else, he was prolific and focused.
   At some point, he released this cover album of the BANANAS LP, "A Slippery Subject". I was kind of skeptical at first, but after listening to it a few times, I realized the genius behind it. Sure, it's 12 cover songs, but Jim made each song his own by lending a melancholic vibe to the whole thing that really accentuates exactly how depressing and doomed this album really is! Listen to "Disappear" or "Slippery Subject" for proof.  I barely even think of this as a cover album anymore.  It transcends all of that and manages to stand on it's own.
   I've been carrying this one around for years and putting it on during the low points in life and some of the high ones too. It still holds up after all these years, but the CD-R is getting a little worn, so I thought I would put it here for eternity.
  In the intervening years, Jim moved out to Vermont and started a family. I'm having a hard time finding any other info about his music, but you can find one of his other albums here and a little bit of info here. Expect to see the long out of print LEG 7" here in the near future.

Download A Slippery Subject

SUNSET BEACH - "Long Walks, Short Piers" + Cassingle - Tape - 2002

Think of this as "Part 2" of  the post about Matty Luv and Sarah T.

   Matty Luv was gone and the next day we still went ahead with the already-planned 5 year anniversary of Mission Records, even though it seemed like the hardest thing in the world to do. To date, it is still the saddest show I have ever been to in my life. Even though the show was set to start at 5 pm, people were already hanging out in the store, lighting candles, crying in corners and telling stories over beers when I woke up that morning. It felt natural for people to come there to grieve and be with friends. I'm glad that the space was there for them.

   When the bands started up, it just felt awful and counterintuitive. We were trying to celebrate this place and time, even though an integral piece of its entire day-to-day operation was missing forever. I felt crazy depressed and I'm sure everyone else did too...possibly more so. I barely remember anything about the show besides three things: 1.When my band, ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT played, we were out of tune since Matty always tuned Iggy's guitar. 2. We gave Aesop (one of Matty's oldest friends and bandmate in HICKEY) a mic for the whole show so that he could loudly heckle every band. 3. When THIS IS MY FIST was playing, I was crying my eyes out. I looked around and everyone else was too, including the band.

    The next week was filled with a lot of sadness, some group hangouts, countless homemade tattoos and much more. When the funeral happened the next week, I didn't want to go (who really wants to go to a funeral?), but I borrowed a black button-down and did it anyway. After paying my respects, I was headed out the door to unlock my bike and saw a kid sitting in the funeral home who looked like the spitting image of a young Matty, which threw me for a loop. There were friends and family hanging out on the street, but I needed to get back to Mission Records to help out with the last punk show that Matty set up.
    In the days of HICKEY, it seemed like no town appreciated the band better than Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the stories I heard, it seemed like every time they came through town, they were met by an army of cult devotees who's fervor was unmatched by the rest of the country. I remember going there one time and stumbling upon a crew of drunk dudes in a parking lot, blasting MANOWAR. They happened to be listening to the only song I knew by them at the time, which led me to join them, singing loudly. They spotted the HICKEY patch on my jacket, which sent them into drunken hysterics, numerous accolades, and praises of that fine band. I swear that by the time I walked away from them, they would have loaned me rent money and  killed any of my enemies...and that was just for being a fan of the band. Sooner or later, it was inevitable that some of these fervent followers would start a band, but I was never aware of how good that band would be.
    So, here I was back at the record store with a bunch of sad, post-funeral punks awaiting the start of the show. It turns out that the guy who looked like Matty played in the touring band from Tulsa (his name is Aaron and he no longer looks anything like Matty) alongside Jon Paul, who is still one of the best punk drummers I've ever seen. When SUNSET BEACH took to the rickety, sagging stage, they thanked Matty for setting up the show and raged through a relentless set. Some of the songs seemed like total HICKEY-worship while others felt mired in insane metal riffs. By the end of the set, they were pulling out alcohol and a torch. I remember exchanging worried glances with some other denizens of the store as the fire was lit and then trying to scramble up to the stage as visions of the dust-trap of a store going up in flames danced through my head. It was too late. Aaron started breathing fire as they played their last song and I helplessly watched 10 foot flames flow across people's heads and lick the cracks in the ceiling. When I saw that we were not gonna die in the next 5 minutes, I finally exhaled and smiled for the first time all day. It was a great show.
   I ended up getting both of their tapes out of the free box at the store a few weeks later. For a long time, I thought that some fool had thrown them in there, but now I think Jon Paul put them there as a way to distribute them. The first side of "Long Walks, Short Piers" is total HICKEY-worship, but in the best way possible. I remember when I first heard it, I thought "Damn, do you guys only listen to one band?" and being a little annoyed, but over time, it's really grown on me and has become indispensable to my life. In the intervening years, I grew to appreciate them in their own right. If a band is gonna be influenced by someone, I'd rather that it be HICKEY instead of THE QUEERS, GHOST MICE or CREED. Side two starts off with "Napkin" and the first time I heard it, I seriously thought the band had accidentally dubbed a different band onto their tapes. It starts off with a  straight up metal riff and dives into fucking awesome thrash. The entirety of side two stays in that vein and it totally rules. The closer, "In The Name of Justice" delves into some dual guitar riffage that sounds like what might have happened if IRON MAIDEN had grown up on DIY punk and bathtub crank. This tape is pretty ambitious for a demo at a time when not many people cared about tapes at all. I started off casually listening to this band, but this tape soon became fused with the boombox at my shitty kitchen job and provided the soundtrack to many fucked up nights. I love it.
   Also included in the download is their two song cassette single where they sound like another entirely different band..maybe one that is influenced by early 80's radio, THIN LIZZY and good, good indie-pop. Still so good. 

  Enjoy that shit and go start a band that is at least half as good as this.

Download SUNSET BEACH

DOOR KEYS - "Tour EP" - CD-R - 2006

  

   We've talked a little about THE DOOR KEYS in the past, but I have only posted a collection of odds and ends. This is a tour EP that they put out in 2006 that collects some songs that were intended to be re-recorded and released on their next album. That never happened. Well, the songs got recorded again in Chattanooga but the album never got a proper release, which is too bad. The DOOR KEYS were playing a style of even, understated basement pop. The song "70's" is a great example of how they would craft a seemingly simple pop hook and have it rattle around your brain for days. Chris' wavering, vibrato vocals intermingle with Daun's strong, upfront voice that reminds me of the power of X. I don't think they sound like X, but they have that same intent and purpose.

   If you'd like to get the album version of these songs, you can download them over at Basement Pop on the "Southern Belles" LP. There is also a lot of other great pop, punk and indie-rock that can be found on their site...and it is all from Indiana...and it's all free (but you can also pay them if you want).

Download DOOR KEYS EP

     Happy International Women's Day, everyone! Now, if I can just talk to the men for a second, that would be cool. I'll give the women a second to click away from this website so we can be alone.....hmmm, hmmm...Okay, we're alone, now, right? Just us dudes....Dudes, stop being such haters to women. They want to walk down the street at night (or during the day or anytime) without being subjected to your brutal catcalls, your leering stares and your remarks about their appearance. While helping women to learn how to protect themselves from attacks is beneficial, what we really need to be doing is to change our whole way of thinking. Why are women learning self-defense? Because there are creeps everywhere who think it is okay to attack women (I understand that women learn self-defense because it is empowering and a useful tool in the world but just bear with me while I am on this tangent). What needs to be happening is that we need to pull back from a culture of violence that we have intertwined ourselves in. Women should not be having to learn to protect themselves from us. WE should be working with other men to unlearn all of the bullshit that has been crammed into our heads since birth. This includes practicing good consent, calling your friends on their shit when they start saying sketchy stuff in the company of dudes (any guy knows that this happens in the company of other men. I am guilty of it and it sucks), and just learning to be respectful of boundaries. 

   Dudes, you know how sometimes you say "edgy" sexist stuff around your friends or in public to get a laugh? It's not funny. You look like an idiot and you out yourself as a dumbass supporter of the patriarchy. I know this may sound really "PC" to you, but just think about it for a minute. I got into punk because I didn't feel at home in this mainstream world. In school, I got called a "fag" constantly, was harassed by football players daily and did not have many friends. I felt like a total freak and wanted nothing to do with anything I saw on TV or in magazines. When I found punk, it opened a new world to me, full of freaks and weirdos just living their fucking crazy lives. It wasn't utopia, but I've always seen it as a rejection of mainstream values and an alternative to the world at large. To me, part of that rejection is that everyone is equal. I don't want this world (meaning punk, which I have now devoted 23 years of my life to) to mirror mainstream society, although I realize that it does in many ways. I'm rambling...the point is, please stop being a sexist dude and learn to respect the people around you. This also means respecting the rights of trans-women (and dudes!). I run into a LOT of people who make fun of transgender folks and it is mostly out of ignorance. Do yourself a favor and please read up on trans issues to educate yourselves (you can start here). It's not weird...sometimes people just don't feel at home with the gender they were assigned at birth. Sometimes, I don't wanna be a guy, but here I am. 

    Sorry this is so rambling, but it's just flowing out of me. Bottom line: Educate yourselves, stop telling sexist jokes, do not sexually assault anyone (if you have, never do it again and learn to be a better person) and be a supportive guy. You can still party, shotgun PBR, yell "WOOOOOO!!", hang out with your dudes and manage to not be a sexist jerk. It's possible. Let's all work on it to make this world a better place. No one else is going to do that for us.

   Feel free to leave comments or write to me: remoteoutpostsATgmailDOTcom

QUADRILLION BABES - "Breast Friends" - Tape - 2008

   I was living in Bloomington, IN for a few years and found myself in a bit of a depression, not knowing what to do with myself in the last year before I finally moved away. I kept seeing this teenage girl at parties who wore her hair in two braids that went past her waist. She was always standing in the corner, looking eager to join in at dance parties, but seeming too shy to do so. I started talking to her whenever I saw her (I was usually drunk), whether or not she talked back to me. Our conversations were brief and noncommittal. Like, once I found out her name was Marilyn. I know it sounds creepy, but I honestly just wanted to be her friend. She was painfully shy and I was horrendously overbearing, but we slowly became something more than acquaintances, but not quite friends yet.
   There was a "Band in a Hat" drawing (where people put their names in a hat and someone draws out names in groups of four and...voila, you have a band) and fate put Marilyn and I in a band together with a friend named "Myke with a Y" (our 4th guy showed up once with no equipment, watched us silently and left....we never heard from him again). Marilyn had only played solo before and this was her first band. She brought a few songs to practice that were simple and catchy. Myke wanted to play the state anthem of Indiana for some reason. I came up with a hundred or so band names by thumbing through the dictionary and grouping two random words together without looking at them first...like "Stopped Venue", "Burning Month" or "Nothing Clubs". I read the list aloud to Marilyn and "Quadrillion Babes" made her laugh the hardest, so we agreed that it should be the name of the band. After the Band in a Hat show, Myke left the country, my friendship with Marilyn solidified and we decided to keep playing music together.

QUADRILLION BABES at Guilty Pleasures "Band in a Hat" show. Photo by Ginger Alford.

   Our friend, Leah played bass with us for the equivalent of about 5 and a half minutes. We decided to ask our friend, Chiara to play bass, even though she had two children, school and artistic commitments. She was stoked to do it and we continued on until I moved away to San Francisco.

      JRD recorded this tape in his basement on a four-track and I feel like we did the whole thing in 2-3 hours...maybe less. Chiara and I kept foolishly convincing Marilyn to leave in any screw-ups because it would make it more interesting. JRD laughed at us..or with us....take your pick. (by the way, you can also record with him in Bloomington at Vegas Hotel.). It sounds a little rushed and flubbed, but that's our fault. We were having a lot of fun and that's the important part.

QUADRILLION BABES at Sweet Hickory in Bloomington. Photo by Joe McCann

   Like I said, I moved away to SF and I'm still there. I do this writing and I play in NEON PISS. I'm also a social worker, but this is about music, I think. Chiara ended up in Chicago, working on her art and great writing about disabilities, sickness and life.. She also wants to play music, so if you're looking to start an awesome band in Chicago and you need a bass player, get in touch with her. She's a lot of fun to play music with.  Marilyn started a band called AYE NAKO while she was still in Bloomington and they were much better than QUADRILLION BABES. Then, she moved out to Oakland and played in FLEABAG (with Joe from AYE NAKO) and DIRTY MARQUEE (with me, again). Not content to stay in one place, she moved again to Brooklyn (and now goes by Mars) and started a new version of AYE NAKO (with Joe again!) that rules harder than everything she's done musically thus far. I'm proud and honored to have played in this short-lived band with these two great people. 

Download QUADRILLION BABES

More live photos by Joe. Thanks!

Chiara with a very large cat. Bad kitty.

HALO BENDERS - "Canned Oxygen" - 7" - 1994

   I bought this 7" in 1994 at a record store in Alabama just because it looked cool. It came packaged in a printed manila envelope and didn't have much information with it. I got it home to realize that they were a jangly, noisy, loose indie-rock band with a totally budget sounding recording. I was sold, even though it featured Calvin Johnson (I always loved BEAT HAPPENING but was really not into his other projects) sharing vocals with Doug Martsch from BUILT TO SPILL (full disclosure: I didn't know that he was in BTS until today). I liked it so much that I bought two of their LP's over the next couple of years (and then resold them for more than I bought them), but those records never grabbed me as tightly as this one 7". There's just something about this record that I really love, even the weird dance number on the B side.

Download

FULL SUN - "High Ceiling" - Tape - 2011

   I totally "got" FULL SUN when I was sitting on top of Bernal Hill overlooking the city of SF and I was blasting this tape out of my boom box the day after my birthday while eating a burrito and drinking a tall can. Meanwhile, at that very moment on the other side of the country, Jeff Grant (the songwriter and instrumentalist behind these songs) was getting married to his longtime sweetheart in a barn (I think) in Indiana. I raised a toast to them and the city and flipped this tape over for the fifth time in a row.
  FULL SUN started out as a three piece band, but never recorded anything to my knowledge before they broke up. Jeff (their guitarist/singer and formerly of PINK RAZORS) kept the band name and pushed onward. He wrote and recorded these six songs at home, playing all the instruments himself and it came out amazingly. While it has an undeniable late-era POTENTIAL JOHNS feel to me, Jeff pulls out some tricks that make the sound all his own...like throwing in a dub song. He has a knack for ear-grabbing pop hooks and the recording has a thin, treble-y (but high quality and clear) sound that reminds me of AM radio, which I fuckin' love. It's flawless.

   Download FULL SUN

   If you would like to buy your own copy of this tape, act fast because he only pressed 100. You can get it from Houseplant Records. While you're there, go ahead and order the LP by FAT SHADOW; the band he plays drums for. Jeff is reportedly hard at work on new FULL SUN recordings and I can't wait to hear them.

DOOR-KEYS - "Oddities" - CDR - 2006

                                         Photo by Ben Rains
 In 2006, I was on tour with ONE REASON and HOT NEW MEXICANS. The DOOR KEYS had hit all of the same towns about a week ahead of us and they left notes and presents for us in a lot of the towns. One of the presents was this CDR. I think it was originally intended as a gift for HOT NEW MEXICANS, but at the end of the tour I found the CD under the seat of our van after HNM had already left town. Their loss, your gain. The first two songs were recorded for a split 7" with ADD/C that never materialized (unless I totally missed it somehow) and shows the band belting out their mid-tempo, Midwestern basement pop to the best of their abilities. As far a s I know, these songs never made it onto any releases. Tracks 3 and 4 are taken from the 2006 Boxcar Books Rock N Roll Prom, which is a show that happens every year in Bloomington, IN and benefits the bookstore as well as The Midwest Pages To Prisoners Project. It's a really fun event where local musicians form cover bands for the prom and get to play in from of 300-600 people. For this event, 3/4's of the DOOR KEYS joined forces with Leah (from PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA) and Alex (from ETIQUETTE) to blow some minds covering PATTY SMITH. On tracks 5 and 6, the same lineup got together and covered JEFFERSON AIRPLANE. The thing about the DOOR KEYS (and friends) is that they can really play their instruments well and their singer Daun is usually belting out some next level shit as it is, so when you hear them play "White Rabbit", you can tell they're not fucking around...but even if they are fucking around, it still rules...which brings us to the last 4 songs. The DOOR KEYS, for some strange reason, decided to play a local show covering FEAR, which is incredibly out of character for them. It would be like if LOS CRUDOS covered BARRY MANILOW or if EARTH covered songs by ANAL CUNT. Anyway, it sounds like they practiced these songs for about 10 minutes before the show and then blazed through their set by relying on pure attitude. Sample quote: "Did you say show me your balls?! I don't have any balls, I'm a fucking girl!"
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   Chris and Matte now play in LANDLORD and are on tour as I type this. Go see them! Chris also plays guitar in another band with Daun called FAT SHADOW. I'm not sure if their bass player Greg is playing in a band at this time, but he is one of the funniest people that I have ever met in my life. If you want to download every album by the DOOR KEYS, as well as the members past and present projects, then look no further.