VARIOUS ARTISTS - "We Will All Be Well" - Tape - 2006

   My friend Monica was attending all kinds of shows in the Bay Area (and beyond) ten years ago and she usually had some kind of recording device in tow. That recording device was often a thrifted (or lifted) handheld cassette player that might have been better off lounging away in a dumpster, but Monica dutifully dragged it around and captured some moments in backyards, dark basements, toxic beaches, bars, rock clubs, living rooms and the places in between.
   She made this compilation of some of the moments and mailed it out to friends in an edition of 15. It came in a screened cloth bag with typed out track listings and a feather. I've had this tape for ten years now and have been thinking about sharing it on here since the beginning of the blog, but most of the sound quality is abysmal. Sometimes, the tape hiss is just as loud, if not louder, than the songs themselves, but I think there are special moments on here that deserve to be shared. It's up to you to decide which moments are special, if any.
    If you listen to this on headphones, it would be a good idea to keep your hand near a volume control. Some of the songs are almost inaudible, mostly tape hiss and come out of one speaker. Some are clear, LOUD recordings. Some of the bands were never heard from again. The compilation is all over the map. Some (not all) of the bands included within are THE BOOKS, SEXUAL RITES, LIL RUNT,  MIRAH, NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL, ONE REASON, J.R.R. TALLCAN, DAVID DONDERO and about 20 more. Enjoy or don't.

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PIERCED ARROWS - Live On KBOO - 2007

   When DEAD MOON broke up in 2006, I was so heartbroken. I honestly felt like I had been dumped by a partner or kicked in the stomach or both. I thought that I had a lifetime of DEAD MOON shows to look forward to. Like, as long as Fred, Toody and Andrew were alive, I could rest assured that they would be there for me when I felt like I was at my lowest. If I was heartbroken, I could put on "Nervous Sooner Changes" and feel like someone felt the same as I did. If I woke up "in the bottom of something being loaded in a dumptruck", I could pull out the "Trash and Burn" LP and feel good enough to start the day...and not only start the day, but hold my head up high and take whatever damage flung itself into my life. The records are still there of course, but it was a whole different feeling to see DEAD MOON live with Fred and Toody's toes touching the edge of the stage while they sang each song with the fiercest conviction I've ever seen.
    So, yeah...I was sad. I should've known that they couldn't stay dormant for long. Within a year, I heard that Fred and Toody were already back with a new band. I can make my guesses as to why they weren't playing with Andrew anymore, but that's the kind of talk left for late night drunken conversations or long van rides in the middle of nowhere. PIERCED ARROWS were already playing some shows in the northwest, but I lived in Indiana, so I had no clue when I'd actually see or hear them until this CD-R made it's way into my hands.
    The band played on KBOO in Portland and it was only their 8th show. Most of the songs on here ended up on their first LP, "Straight To The Heart". They also threw in a DEAD MOON song for good measure and it's not the one or two that you might think it is. The recording is a good live recording, but the performance is a little....uh...rough.
   It might go without saying that I've never felt the same for PIERCED ARROWS as I did for DEAD MOON. I don't know anyone who did. I'm not a fan of reunions or even nostalgia really (I know that this entire blog might make you think otherwise, but it's the truth), but when DEAD MOON announced that they were gonna play a reunion show last year, I didn't hesitate to buy a plane ticket to Portland. I even went this year when they did it again. Now, it just seems like they're a band again...and I'm fine with that. I wouldn't even mind if they put out a new LP. With Fred having heart surgery, Andrew quitting drinking (??) and Toody trying to hold it all together, I can imagine what kind of new desperate sounds they might create.

   But this is about PIERCED ARROWS...and about their show on KBOO when they were just starting out...and how incredibly happy I was to know that they hadn't given up just yet.

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KARP - "Live At Yo Yo A Go Go" - Tape - 1994

Today's tape and write-up is brought to you by Alex Turner.

This show happened in 1994. 21 years ago, RANCID and KARP played together at an indie rock fest in Olympia. What the fuck? KARP is Olympia's best band. Enjoy.

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(ed. note: Sorry if it's misleading that I used the cover of their demo tape for the art.)

RANCID - "Live at YoYo A Go Go" - Tape - 1994

   In the mid-90's, I went on tour with my band through Florida and the south. On the tour, we played a generator show in the Everglades next to a rotting cow carcass, we played a VFW hall and we played in some living rooms. One night, we were in Cocoa Beach, FL with a night off and heard that RANCID was playing an hour away in Orlando. At this point in time, none of the members of my band paid any attention to major media (or any media for that matter) and we had the idea of driving to the show to see if we could jump on to the bill. Our guitarist, Joey had slept on Tim Armstrong's couch in Berkeley and was pretty good friends with his neighbors in SCREW 32, so we thought it would be easy to play a short set before them. Little did we know that in the intervening years, Tim's roommates would come home to find RANCID shooting a video complete with a camera crew and deli trays in their living room. That video was played on MTV, the band found their way to magazine covers and were now touring in a completely different style than we were. I doubt they had to jump start their van every time they tried to move it or fixed the alternator belt with a shoestring or chewing gum.
   So, when we got to Orlando, the security guards fittingly laughed in our faces when we asked to talk to the band about playing a short set at the show. We dutifully paid our 10 bucks like everyone else and went in to watch the bands. The LUNACHICKS made some speech about how it took a lot of hard work to get to where they were on that big stage. I laughed my ass off at them. Thinking about it now, I can imagine that it was a lot more frustrating for them to get to that point than RANCID, being four women playing punk and metal in the late 80's and early 90's. I'm sure it was also frustrating to think about how Dino, GG Allin's drummer, thought that he had a psychic connection to them and regularly masturbated to pictures of them...but I digress.
   RANCID was good. I also laughed at them. A lot. "And Out Come The Wolves" had just been released so they played a lot of songs from that one.
    We drove back to Cocoa Beach. I took off all of my clothes and walked in to the ocean.

  This tape (that's not it pictured above) was sent over by Alex Turner. It's from the year before I saw them when they played at Yoyo a Go Go in Olympia, WA back in 1994. We're both pretty sure that it was recorded off the board. Alex believes that the details are this: Somebody recorded it, Tobi Vail owned the tape for years, gave it to someone else in Olympia and then it made its way to milk crate at Punkall. Alex brought it back to Oakland and digitized it for you to enjoy. The sound quality is not bad, but a little assy at points.

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COUNTY Z - "Live At The Seward Cafe" - Tape - 2002

    Yesterday, I was hanging out with my friend Ryan in his studio while he showed me all of the new, huge paintings and installations he was working on. He was talking a million miles an hour, so excited to be working on art and learning everything he can about art history and theory. He's getting ready to ship everything out to Minneapolis, where he has a show coming up in November. An old friend, Forrest is helping to build some structures in the gallery, since he has a background in carpentry. Their friend, Naomi bought a house that has a storefront built into the first floor and she's going to host part of his art show there. It was inspiring to see him so wide-eyed and full of life, still figuring out his dreams while flying way under the radar.
   Another thing I found inspiring is that all three of those people have stuck together since they started playing in COUNTY Z almost 15 years ago. COUNTY Z is one of my favorite bands of all time, but that's beside the point, Naomi took me on my first freight train ride. Forrest told me he didn't like the sustain of cymbals so he used brake parts instead. Sometimes I couldn't tell if Ryan was playing with or against the band, but it usually worked.
   Most of this tape was recorded live at the Seward Cafe, which has been collectively ran since 1974 and is one of the best places on this entire earth. If you aren't familiar with COUNTY Z, I would suggest starting with their tape or LP first, Both are brilliant.
   If you're in Minneapolis in November, be sure to check out Ryan's art show. He'll be there daily with tea for you to drink. I might be there too. If you show up, don't talk about this band. Let's talk about his art, the new dreams and all the crackpot visions we hope to see to fruition before this world implodes in the next few years.

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This tape is from the collection of Caroline Paquita

UKE OF PHILLIPS & ERIN TOBEY - "Live On The Phone" - Tape - 2005

     Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved the sound of AM radio, lo-fi recordings and the way that music sounds over the phone through those tinny speakers. Put me in a tour van driving through the middle of the US at 2 am and I will guarantee that the radio will be tuned in to Coast To Coast AM. If that's not available, I'll be scanning the AM radio stations anyway. I also love it when any band has a sample of music being played over an answering machine. Once, an old friend called my house when she was at an X show and held the phone by her side for most of the show. My friends and I put it on speaker-phone and danced in my bedroom. It sounded amazing. So, imagine my delight when I stumbled across the radio show, "Phoning It In", which is comprised entirely of musicians calling in to the radio show and playing their songs over the phone!  

   The radio show ran from 2005-2011 and featured artists ranging from DANIEL JOHNSTON to DANIEL HIGGS to BILLY CHILDISH to SARAH DOUGHER to JULIE DOIRON to USAISAMONSTER to everything in between. Their archive is insane and impressive (and can be found here)(and here's another link)

   This tape compiles two separate 2005 performances by ERIN TOBEY and UKE OF PHILLIPS. Erin plays her otherworldly, nimble-fingered songs over a land line from the back room of a now-defunct punk warehouse called The Ark in Gainesville, FL (Fun Fact: A fitness club has now opened up in that warehouse that once hosted so many punk shows and debaucherous parties. That club is called...wait for it...The Ark). The tinny sound of the phone gives her songs a beautiful, faraway feel that is warm and enveloping. You can find more music by Erin here and a lot of her fantastic art here. 

   UKE OF PHILLIPS phone in from tour during a stop at MARS in Missoula, MT. They alternate between their gutter country/folky songs and just being totally "out there". On this recording, the group consists of Dan Beckman, Matt Beckman and A.M.O.S. Shit gets really weird at some points. It's cool. You can find way more stuff by UKE right here and you can find newer stuff here. Keep up with their rare appearances on their blog.

    Not so fun fact: When I went to digitize this tape, I accidentally put it in the wrong deck and the stereo immediately chewed up the analog tape and mangled it beyond all repair. I just looked at it helplessly and then just nailed the damn thing to my wall. Erin Tobey was nice enough to email over the tracks of both artists for you to enjoy in the digital realm. So, thanks Erin!

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HICKEY - "Live on KCXI. Last Show" - Tape - 1998

   Even if you're a casual reader of this blog, I'm sure I don't need to explain the importance or impact that HICKEY made on this world. I've had this tape for years and was sure that it was already uploaded. I realized that I hadn't because it was already widely available, but now most of those download links are dead, so here it is again. HICKEY broke up way back in the 90's after playing some bad bar show in Tucson, but then got back together the next day to play this one last live radio performance. It's a great send off because the band sounds pretty happy; like they're still having fun and ending things when it was time. For a little more info and the track listing, check Cosmic Hearse.

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Other links:

Rare and Unreleased Hickey

Hickey and 50 Million

Hickey Live on Valentine's Day 1997

More Hickey Recordings

San Francisco Needle Exchange

Thanks to Mike Wilson for pointing this one out.

COLD LAKE - "Live on KEXP" - Tape - 2010

  I met my friend Clyde way back in the early part of the 00's when he played guitar in an old time band. I even went on tour as their roadie after walking out of my shitty kitchen job. I lived in Clyde's room for a short time after that tour and would listen to old tapes of his long-running (and still running) band, YOUR HEART BREAKS while hiding from the world outside. These times made me associate Clyde's musical output with old-time music, homo-pop love songs and punk songs about fucking on rooftops.
  That's why I was surprised when Clyde handed me this tape a few years ago and said "Here's a live recording of my new hardcore band!" Like all of us, Clyde is multi-faceted and sometimes wants to play a short-scale bass through an amp that could kill you while screaming their fucking head off. So, he got this band together with some old, old friends in Seattle and made it happen. Corey, James and Zachary handle the vocals, guitar and drums respectively and take their influences from a place where I never took mine, so I don't really know what they are, but I'm gonna take a guess that it's a lot of thickneck 90's hardcore from the Pacific Northwest with singers who sound like they wear cardigans.
   This tape features 4 songs from a live broadcast on KEXP in Seattle and oh-my-god-the-bass-is-loud-in-the-mix, but it still rules. The fifth song is a demo for a comp the band was on. The band went on to put out two tapes that came packaged in a DVD-sized box along with a box-cutter. If you'd like to hear that stuff, look over to the COLD LAKE bandcamp. If you want the box set, I think you're shit outta luck.

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REMOTE OUTPOSTS WEIRDO MIX VOL 2 - Tape - 2013

   This is the second in a collection of songs and random bullshit that doesn't really fit elsewhere. I make no excuses or apologies for sound fidelity. You can find the first installment of this collection right here..
    The intro is the beginning of one of the worst songs of all time. Unfortunately, it got stuck in the heads of Cinque and I when we were working on a farm, picking basil for a few weeks. We would scream out the lyrics to each other across the field at 7 am. One day, I went into town and was looking at the 45 at the record store when the clerk said, "Oh God, please take that record! Just get it out of the store."
  The second is a lost RICE HARVESTER song that never made it onto any releases or into a recording studio. By this time, I had moved from Huntsville back to Birmingham, AL, but was still driving back to Huntsville (around a 3 hour drive, round trip) once a week to practice. I think we intended for this song to be on a compilation of Alabama bands that never got off the ground. It's about a homeless man in Huntsville named Gene who, rather than simply sleeping under overpasses, would build a little shack / house under the bridge in plain view of everyone. I immediately felt weird about writing this song because after talking to him a few times and being only 20 years old, I really had no grasp of the complexities of homelessness and mental illness. It's written from a place of privilege that just embarrasses me now. Luckily, the recording quality is abysmal.
   It's followed up by one of my favorite EFS songs. They were the house band at a punk house that was allegedly above the Black & White Liquors by Ashby BART in the East Bay way back in the dark ages. Following that is a band containing members who have won Grammys and shit. I'm not saying their name because I want to avoid the fiasco of being linked to slobbering fan site messageboards (again). If you listen to melodic punk, you will probably recognize this song, but maybe not this version. Sound quality is total trash. CBDS is after them with a different mix of one of their great songs. Sound quality has deteriorated so badly that you will wonder if there has been a turd stuffed into the cassette.
    Quality takes a step up for the intro to the long lost Alabama rock band, BUCKET FULL OF HERESY. The intro is the best part of their tape. The rest is an endurance test of having to listen to teenagers try to write a song while the tape is rolling. I know that this hasn't stopped me in the past, but I'll spare you the gory details this time. SMEGMAGICIANS are next. They've been a band since 1993, but only played one show in 1994. They're mysterious and choose to stay that way. This song was recorded in 1999.
   Next up is a recording from a FORCED VENGEANCE show that took place on my birthday back in 2000 (?). Details are hazy, but I do know that Harry (guitarist) and I played this show nearly blacked out drunk. This show was also when the proverbial line in the sand was drawn between the towns of Bloomington and Chattanooga because a bunch of Bloomington residents came down to this show and decided that we were some of the worst people to ever exist because my friend Piper (who lived in Bloomington most of the time, mind you) decided to construct a 3 foot long, paper mache cock to hang from the ceiling. I'm sure I'm missing some details here, but instead of talking to us and figuring out that we were not the worst people ever, a lot of folks just decided to go with that story....some of the debris of this show still lingers around to this day (obviously). ANYWAY, This recording comes from the beginning of the set when Harry needed to borrow an amp because his was crapping out. Rather than just wait around for this to happen, Eric (other guitar) and I (drums) started fucking around. Harry, who is usually fairly quiet and shy, took this opportunity to bust out a ridiculous, entirely ad-libbed 80's style rap. When Chrissie (bass) joins in, the whole thing gels together in this way that none of us expected, I'm pretty sure we were all laughing so hard that we cried. I know that I did when re-listening to it. I vaguely remember the audience laughing and dancing.
   Now, we do a 180 and switch gears entirely. DOOMSDAY CAULDRON is the best thing on here. I was never a huge follower of their music, but got a few things passed on to me through mix tapes that blew my mind in different ways. Coming from the background that I do, their songs initially sounded overbearing and unnecessarily serious to me, but as they grew on me, I knew that they meant every word with every fiber of their being. Their song "Song for Sera" is one of my favorites to listen to in the middle of the night on long drives in the middle of nowhere. Coupled with their song "Darkness Is Falling" and THE BODY's "Just Wretched", you can almost perfectly picture the world in the moments just before it explodes and destroys every last bit of life on this planet.
   To close out the tape, I switched gears again and went back to ridiculous. If you grew up in the 80's, you may remember those weird answering machine greeting tape commercials....They advertised tapes that you could buy for your answering machine that sang ultra corny greetings to the tune of Beethoven's Fifth and bad 50's rock. Here's a whole tape of them (2 and a half whole minutes) so that you can confuse people who call your cell now...if anyone ever calls you anymore.

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GORILLA ANGREB - Live in New York - Tape - 2006

   Ever since I first heard the first anxious notes of "Astma" on a mix tape (from Anandi. Thanks!), I was instantly hooked on GORILLA ANGREB. They combined a guitar tone that seemed like it was culled directly from a Dangerhouse Records comp with darkly melodic bass lines and fierce vocals. And the drumming! The drumming was pounding and playing the sixteenth notes that make me want to smash my head through a wall. They hailed from Copenhagen, Denmark and were in bands you probably already love. I don't even know why I'm writing this part because this is a band that already has tons of information online and elsewhere.
  When I heard that they were playing their last show in Copenhagen back in 2007, I immediately looked up plane tickets. I was just about to buy them when a few different thoughts popped into my head: 1. I had never been to Europe. 2. I didn't know a single person in Copenhagen...or Denmark. 3. It was a ridiculous plan. 4. IF I followed through with that, I would be stuck living in Bloomington for yet another year saving up money and wishing that I could move away. It felt awful to miss their last show, but it felt better to get on a plane and leave Indiana for good less than a year later.
   This live tape was mailed to me a while back by my friend, Fil from DC. He was at this show, which was a house show in Brooklyn after they played a larger venue the same night with SUBHUMANS. Every song on here is great, but I'm not gonna lie to you. This show sounds like it was recorded on a walkman that was rejected from a thrift store and found in the dumpster. It also sounds as if a dog turd was taped over the microphone (Sorry Fil if you actually recorded this on something better than that). Still, did I listen to the whole thing? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Thoroughly.

From Fil "They were wasted and it was the best I ever saw them. Since it was the last show of their tour, they played at least one song they had been skipping to save her voice."

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If this is your first intro to the band, you should start with their 2003 EP instead.

More live recordings with better quality.

GORILLA ANGREB - Live on WFMU

GORILLA ANGREB - Live on KBOO

and if you want to send me their first demo, I'll send you my po box address.

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. 

AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER - Live - Tape - 2007

   I'm sure I've said it before, but I've known Jason Griffin for 17-18 years and he's played drums in nothing but top quality hardcore bands the whole time. AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER is no exception. This tape finds the band at a live show on 7/27/07 at the Woodser in Brooklyn, NY. Typically, they are blazing and nothing short of awesome. Something I've also said before is that their singer James is one of my top favorite hardcore singers of all time. Once at a show in Gainesville, he was so "in the zone" that he whipped his shoes off and threw them full force over the audience to the back of the room. When they hit the last note of the set, he screamed "Where are my fuckin' shoes?", threw the mic down and flew off the stage. It was a perfect show. This tape sounds like it was just as much fun.

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Download is just one 16 minute track. No song titles were included, but you can bet that there are some titles like "Earth Turkey", "Resurrect the Vampire", "If Your Face Was Georgia, My Fist Would Be Home By Now" and "The Kid From the Space Center"

This tape was released by Vinyl Rites

IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT - "Thanks" - Tape - 2006

   As I'm sure I've said before, IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT is one of my favorite bands. Years back, they were getting ready to go on a tour and their drummer, Don broke his leg. Rather than call the whole thing off, Don learned how to use a combination of percussion and electronics, which ultimately sent the band to a new plateau of weirdness. That trajectory took them into a later tour where they would play sprawling hour long sets, employing the use of hand made horns, staticky radios, tape loops, half-broken amps and miscellaneous debris. The results could be hypnotic, challenging, abrasive and cleansing.
   I got a ride down to a show of theirs in Kentucky during this time and was dropped off at the bar hours before they even arrived. At the time of the show (8 hours later), they were the only musical act scheduled to play. They took their time setting up and the clientele of the bar eyed them warily. As they hit their first notes of the night, a huge Midwestern storm started brewing in the neighborhood. The doors to the bar were wide open and sheets of rain started pouring in. I looked at the middle-aged, burly, biker-style bartenders standing there...arms crossed, not batting an eye or making a move to close the doors. About five minutes into IPCP's set, every paying customer in the bar got up and left, deciding to brave the potentially tornado-inducing storm rather than listen to this band. I looked around. I was left alone with the band, the guy who set up the show, my friend Christina (who lived there and actually came to see the band), Stella (IPCP's roadie, who was laughing at the predicament) and the still-stoic and immobile bartenders. The band did not bat an eye and played their full set. It was great and the insane storm added an extra element of dreaminess to the whole thing.
   At the conclusion of their set, there was an awkward silence after our smattering of applause died down. We were then left with these burly dudes at the bar after driving out their entire clientele. I looked over after a heavy silence and one of 'em said "So, do ya'll like SUN RA and BEEFHEART or something?" Tension broken. The guys loved it and were happy to talk to some other weirdos. Drinks were on the house. The other act was the promoter, Kris, doing a "DJ set", which meant that he would put a record on and let the entire thing play. Then, he would flip it and listen to the other side. (I just now realized that I have told this entire story before in an earlier post. Oops. I am now senile).
   On that tour, IPCP had a mailing list and they said that if you signed it, they would send you free stuff. A lot of bands used to say that, but I never got any free stuff from them. At the conclusion of their tour, the band actually did send this tape out to people who signed the list or set up shows for them. It's called "Thanks" and it compiles live sets, field recordings, jams, talks about botox and random sounds. Listening to this reminds of that night and makes me miss their challenging sounds. I think the thing I love most about the band is that they were somehow always a year ahead of me. What that means is that every time a new LP came out (and they have a lot), I would listen to it and think it was pretty good. I wouldn't quite get it and it wouldn't really hit me, but something let me know that I had to hang onto it. Within a year, that record would become indispensable to me. The same thing happened with this tape. It's pretty out there and it's also really, really good.

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There's also a 12" out there called "Thanks II" that is more stuff like this, more field recordings and  moreeeeee weeeirdddddd. 

X - Live at Klub Foot - Tape - 1982

   There was a time in my life when X didn't mean that much to me. I remember first hearing them as a teenager and thinking that they sounded kinda dated and classic rock-y. It wasn't until I started living their songs that they became relevant to me. My whole fucking life was a wreck. Last night everything broke. I felt desperate. X was there and told me to get used to it. When I visited LA for the first time, I could feel a tinge of where they were coming from. Like almost everyone else ever in punk, X became my daily soundtrack. Not just Los Angeles and Wild Gift, but everything else too (I even have a cassette of "Hey Zeus" and think "Country At War" is pretty great).
   I was sure that I missed my chance to ever see the band live, but then they re-formed and I was ecstatic. They came to Indianapolis when I lived 45 short miles away and I jumped at the chance to go see them. I am just as skeptical of reunion shows as any other DIY punk, but I also needed to see X. Days before the event, a friend called from an X show in Atlanta so we could hear them. I put in on speakerphone and danced with my roommates in the living room. It was great! Anyhow, we went to the show and it was awesome. Of course, they played all the hits and I left a happy person. Then, they just never broke up again! They play all the time!! They're kinda always around. Billy Zoom is a creep and hit on my friend. John Doe puts my friends on guest lists for shows. I got to tell DJ Bonebrake that his drumming blows my mind. My girlfriend took Exene some painkillers for her Multiple Sclerosis. Exene opened a show for my band in a bowling alley, wants to make a documentary about my friend Ivy and shopped for tchotchkes at Jimmy Shotwell's street sale. They're cool people (well, besides Zoom) and I sorta just wish they were my friends. I don't need to see X ever again though.
    Oh yeah, there's a tape. It says this was recorded at "Klub Foot" in Houston in 1982, but I can't find any record of a place called that in Houston. There was one in SF and my friend still lives in the building. Who knows? I was 6 years old. Since it was '82, you get to hear them play a lot of really great songs and don't have to be subjected to "Love Shack" or "True Love Pt 2". Also, they play for over an hour! Jeez! There's 2 encores! (some weird sound shit happened on the 2nd encore of "Real Child of Hell" and it's almost inaudible, so I hope that's not your favorite song or anything) The last six songs are from a live broadcast on KBFH NY in 1984. It's all really good...except maybe "Nausea". Bonebrake must've been tired or something, but I'll give him a break. It's hard to play slow songs on drums.

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OLNEYVILLE KARAOKE VOL 2 - CD-R - 2005

   In 2006, I found myself in a junk shop called Happy Birthday Mike Leslie in Worcester, MA, which was run by my friend, Jacob. As I perused the racks of army men, bad cassettes, broken stuff, homemade stuffed animals, Chuck Norris comics and re-purposed M.U.S.C.L.E. men, I came across this CD. Upon seeing me looking at this, Jacob yelled "Oh, you have to buy that!! It will change your life!" and then I think he gave it to me. Did it change my life? Well, yes, but just about everything in the world changes your life in little ways.

  From the description inside the CD, this is....well, just read below. I don't think I can explain it any better than Mike Taylor did here:

   After I left the junk shop, I was thrust back into the reality of the total summer bummer, 3 month  punk tour that I was on. We were headed to play a lackluster, last minute show at a VFW hall in Hartford, CT while all of my Worcester friends were driving an hour south to go see LIMP WRIST. I put on this CD as soon as I got in the van and it lasted three whole songs before my band mate ejected it, dismissing it as some "weird Providence crap that feels like a joke at my expense." This is weird as fuck and maybe not meant to be listened to all in one sitting, but here it is....

DOWNLOAD

   Features members of THE TERRIBLES, COUGHS, TEENAGE WAISTBAND, YONI GORDON AND THE GOODS, PASSIVE AGGRESSOR, REACTIONARY 3 and more.

 I thought things were getting a little normal around here, so here ya go. My favorite song topics are "My Favorite Colonel", "????", "Things I Do Not Like To Eat" and "The Next Level"

Oh yeah, there's no real track listing because as the insert states "Just relax and don't get hung up on following it, okay?"

HICKEY - "The Ultra Heliocentric Underworld Of The Most Evil Terrifying and Naked Cult Of Hickey. Rare and Unreleased, Unstoppable Rock!!" - 1998 - Tape

   If you're at all familiar with this blog and many of the artists that I've shared on it, I don't need to tell you why HICKEY is important. I discovered punk through THE MINUTEMEN and THE RAMONES. It was because of HICKEY (along with BLACK FORK, BIKINI KILL and 50 MILLION) that I became fiercely attracted to the DIY aspect of punk that keeps me going today and their influence still informs just about every musical decision I make. It's kinda ridiculous.
   I copied this tape off of my friend Ivy way back in the late 90's. Initially, I was not that into it and preferred the band's piles of 7" EP's and their unfuckwithable LP. As time marched on, the songs on here kept creeping into my life and many of them became some of my favorites by the band. HICKEY was known for having a remarkable live show. Sometimes, they played all of the "hits" back to back. One time, I saw them and they just kinda jammed for a long time. It wasn't bad. The 3 members became an intuitive, unstoppable unit that was not afraid of experimentation and going out on a limb...even when it failed. I think some of that comes across on this tape.

  The tape starts off with a couple of unreleased (?) songs and then delves into the band's epic cover of MANOWAR's "Kingdom Come". That song originally appeared on the Probe Records compilation "Death To False Metal", but this is the original six-and-a-half minute version with an extended jam (p.s. it rules). Next up is a weird version of "Last Nite on the Planet" with Shell (I think..it sounds like him. Edit: It's Aesop) making pro-wrestler comments throughout. The next few songs are by HICKEY MILLION, who you can read about if you follow that link (and yes, you can download the file on that page when you get to it). The rest of the side is filled with jams, cover songs (SQUEEZE, DAVID BOWIE, GUNS N ROSES, STOOGES), alternate takes and interviews with teenagers at a live HICKEY show. Side 2 (or for you, song #21) kicks off with a radio promo and goes straight into a live set on KDVS in Davis, CA. There's more jams, a really cool duet with Matty and Allison Wonderslam, more cover songs (AVENGERS and SABBATH) and that damned trumpet they stole from VOODOO GLOW SKULLS all those years ago.
  I'm still constantly impressed by the amount of stuff that this little band recorded in their brief lifetime...and how much of it is really great! I mean, there's still more, although the further you dig, the sadder it gets. Drug addiction is not pretty, folks, so let's just stop here and enjoy this great band and all the years of inspiration they have injected into our lives.

Download HICKEY Oddities

(Just to warn you, this is a large file. 230mb)

Thanks to Ivy Jeanne for the source tape (mine is thrashed).

Thanks to Aesop for giving the green light and drumming on these recordings.
Thanks to MRR for digitization help.

Thanks to Chubby, Rizzler, Wade and Shell for making it out alive.

Thanks to Matty Luv for everything. R.I.P.

...and since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, why not check out this live HICKEY set from V-Day 1997?

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)

RYMODEE - "Live in Bloomington" - Tape - 2003

    If you just scroll down a couple of entries, you'll see this man's year end top ten list. You'll also see that I'm quite fond of the guy. So, yeah, it's RYMODEE from THIS BIKE IS A PIPEBOMB playing solo in Bloomington, IN at what I believe is a house show. If you can ever track down this man's solo LP, do not hesitate to pick it up, because it is excellent. While you're at it, you should also track down the recent LP by his last band ZIPPERS TO NOWHERE.
    I don't really know what else I can say about this recording.... besides that someone starts doing that annoying thing that folk punk kids do when an acoustic performer plays...which is to clap along loudly and out of time. BUT Rymo quashes it fairly quickly within the first song with his constant time changes. Also, I don't know many of the song titles, so you don't get them in this download. I asked Rymodee his thoughts on this tape and he said "It's kind of embarrassing."

Download RYMODEE

Re-upped Feb 2013

This tape was released years ago by the still relevant and always-interesting Friends and Relatives Records.

EDIT: The show was at Rhino's, an all ages club in Bloomington and the audio was recorded from a camcorder. Thanks to Justin at Friends and Relatives for the info.

"Help Me, I'm Trapped in a Ford Festiva" - Compilation - Tape - 1997

    I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of Alabama and discovered punk when I was in 6th grade through a tape of the MINUTEMEN's "Double Nickels on the Dime." Over the years, I tried to start bands with people who either really didn't want to be in a punk band or just had drastically different ideas of what a punk band was. The day after I graduated high school, I moved 108 miles away to a different small town called Huntsville. I lived in my car for those first couple of months and came to discover a whole new world of punk where people were actually playing the loud, fucked up, vibrant music that I wanted to be playing at that time in my life. It was perfect for me. I met people who put out their own records and set up their own shows in houses, parking lots and thrift stores. It was inspiring, to say the least. Within just a few months, I was playing in my own band and going on tour all over the southeast, making friends that I still have to this day. At the time, I wanted to make a compilation tape to show what was going on in my town (and where it had come from) so that other people would know how awesome it was, but honestly, I don't know if this tape ever reached people outside of Alabama.
   The comp starts off with RICE HARVESTER and THE CACA WOMEN FROM URANUS. I've already written about them, so you can click those links above if you're curious. Next up is THE REFILLS, who were a short lived band from the area that consisted of Neil (from JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS and 565 BURNOUTS), Ben (from RICE HARVESTER, SUCKERPUNCH and now in PINE HILL HAINTS) and Bill Conflict (who did and still plays in RANDOM CONFLICT). They played fucking tough, straight ahead punk that was informed by THE FREEZE and D.O.A. I loved them when they were around and their song "Bleed" on this tape still holds up today.

RICE HARVESTER on the 4th of July, 1998. San Pedro, CA.

   Next on the tape is AOA, which was originally a home recording project by my friends Blair and Ramesh. They would get together and record hours of MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT (and FAT DAY) inspired noise and weirdness at their houses. After a while, they would come over and kind of force me to play anything in their band, like a drum on a bed or some cans. They had tapes and tapes of this stuff (one of which got stuck in my car stereo for months so that it was the only thing I could ever listen to. When I finally removed it, it destroyed the tape and the stereo...a week or so later, the brakes failed at 3 am and I almost totaled a cop car, but that's a different story altogether.) On this recording, we sorta became a kinda normal punk band for a second. I think I played drums, but I also think I played guitar sometimes. Ramesh played bass and sang. Blair sang and played the keyboard maybe. I think a guy named Pube switched up instruments with me. It was a weird time, but I still like "Black Flag is Boring" and the theme song.

AOA in my room. 1996.

   SHITHEAD JONES is a fukkin punk band and you can read all about their saga here. After that is THE GRUMPIES, who weren't technically an Alabama band, but they played there so often that  one might think that they lived there. All of their songs on here (minus one) were later re-recorded for their LP on Recess Records. These early versions are pretty great and it also includes a ripping cover of "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford.  You can find their demo and other stuff here.

THE GRUMPIES playing in a storefront in Florence, AL.

  GARY COLEMAN BAND were just Blair and Ramesh from AOA playing really minimal stuff. This song was recorded in a porn shop in N Huntsville and is honestly one of my favorite things ever put on tape. The side ends with THE SMEGMAGICIANS, which is my high school punk band that I restarted just to finish out this side of the tape. It sucks. The first song is an AOA cover. I played guitar and sang while my friend Harry played drums. I wouldn't let him hear the song or practice it before recording. The second song is just me playing guitar and drums...and actually it's not too bad.
  Side 2 kicks off with a live set from SHITBOY FROM OUTERSPACE, a band I have already covered here (it's the same set too). They are followed up by the always great 565 BURNOUTS, who have their own entry right here.

A later incarnation of 565 BURNOUTS playing at American Beat Records in Birmingham, AL.

   JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS are up next, playing three songs that I'm pretty sure never appeared on other recordings. Well, two of the songs were definitely on a record, but not these recordings. The first song was never released on anything and it's not that good (but I'm biased...I was in the band). I have no clue where or why we recorded these songs. It could have been recorded in my bedroom or in a "real" studio. No idea. You can find more by the band here.

JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS playing an 8 year old's birthday party in St Mary's, GA. Note that Neil is smoking.

   Joey and Neil from the TOXIC SHOCKS were also in CHEESE ASS CHRIST. They weren't from Alabama. They were from Georgia. You can find possibly everything you ever wanted to know about them here. 

   One of Alabama's first hardcore bands (possibly the very first) was THE KNOCKABOUTS, who come up next on this tape. Their songs on here come from their demo tape-turned -EP from 1982. (well, the demo is from '82. The EP is from '95). You can find more info about them here. The only thing I want to add is that I talked to Ken (owner of Prank Records who released their EP) about them and he said that he might release an LP collection in the future. I guess there's a lot more songs laying around. He's obviously not in a big hurry, but I would be excited if that project ever saw the light of day, Fun fact: The title of this comp ("Help Me, I'm Trapped in a Ford Festiva") comes from THE KNOCKABOUTS. My band (JT and the TOXIC SHOCKS) used to go on tour in my Ford Festiva (with all of our equipment, yes), which is one of the tiniest cars you could possibly own in the 90's. We listened to THE KNOCKABOUTS a lot. When we would listen to their song "Fast Pulse" (included here), we would sing that line instead of the KNOCKABOUTS-penned line of "Help me, I'm trapped in a human body!!"

   MENACE (not really sure if they ever realized there was a classic punk band called MENACE) was a band of teenage punk kids from the burbs who could barely hold it together, but held it together just enough to belt out this rough recording on a boom box. I think I only saw them once and that was only because I drove out to one of their mom's houses in south Huntsville for a band practice. I could be wrong though because I think I have a flyer for them somewhere. One weird thing about this band is that my friend Ramesh sang for them and did not play an instrument, which is ridiculous because he was already becoming a good bass player at that point. Still, you can listen to their song "AUO994" and realize why they got him to sing. 

   THE MACK was somewhat the black sheep of the Huntsville punk family. I believe 50% of that was self-imposed and the other 50 was just punk kids not wanting to admit that they liked pop-punk at some point in their lives. Either way, THE MACK played undeniably tuneful and upbeat pop-punk that was not very popular among the local scene, but I'll bet that they would have been a hit if they had ever managed to go on a tour or two in the mid-90's. Now, you can download this and relive your secret (or not-so-secret) pop-punk past. I will admit now that these songs are good. (Fun facts: THE MACK was the only local band of this era to have an online presence at the time. They are also the only band I've ever "auditioned" for as a drummer...for which I was denied for not being good enough.)

  I'm not talking about the next band. Fuck it. They were from Florida. I was the only one who knew who they were. The first song made me want to learn to play drums. The second song sucks ass.
   15E was an insane sounding punk band that worked as a precursor to THE SLACKERS, SHITBOY FROM OUTERSPACE and most of the crop of 90's punk from Huntsville. The members were Jason (SHITBOY and later XPIA), Joey (JOEY TAMPON, THE SLACKERS, RADIOACTIVES, 3D's, many more and later a born again Baptist preacher), and Mike (SEWER PUNKS and others that flew off my radar). They named the band after the apartment number of the place they shared. This recording comes from a live set at the Tip Top in north Huntsville where the band constantly harangues the audience for being shitty people. Punk. This is all I know about them. They were before my time in that town. If anyone has their demo tape, I will gladly take it.
   The tape ends with local greats THE SLACKERS and THE JAWAS. Everything you might ever want to know about both of those bands can be found here and here. The closing sample is possibly one of the best samples ever committed to tape, in my opinion.

DOWNLOAD
Re-uploaded 2013

P.S. There's 65 tracks total in this download.
This one's for Ramesh, who was always a fan and supporter of Alabama punk bands.

Now, here's some flyers from that era.

I think this is one of the first punk flyers I ever made, with help from Jason Shitboy. We used to have illegal shows at the Jaycee's Fairgrounds, which was just a gazebo in a parking lot. Sometimes, we paid $100 to use the space. Other times, we just went in and had the show without permission. I think this was one of the illegal times. THE DUMBSHITZ was my old band from Birmingham that I had quit by this point. They didn't show up for this show. Here's a video of them playing in Birmingham after I quit.

This was my birthday show, also at the fairgrounds. PROPERTY was a mainstay of the Huntsville punk scene and I'm confused as to why they're not on the tape. THEE AUTOBOTS was a later band spearheaded by Jack THE MACK that incorporated sax into the pop-punk world.

Great show for $3. Gorin's was an ice cream shop downtown that was dumb enough to let us have punk shows. 

All local bands at Gorin's Flyer by Blair Menace. BLOODY HOLLY was mostly improv-violence. Blair, Jay Kaos and I wore bloody dress shirts and glasses while assaulting people, sonically. I can't even begin to explain the CATATONICS to you. If I can ever dig up their tape (doubtful), it will have its own thing on here.

Another local show at Gorin's. THE SHIZNICS never recorded and I don't remember much about them. THE PANIC BUTTONS should have been on the comp but never got any music to me. They will be featured on the blog one day. Those guys went on to play in THOMAS FUNCTION.

RICE HARVESTER's 1st show. One of the TOXIC SHOCKS' last. PINK COLLAR JOBS were one of the best bands from the southeast in the 90's.

Local times, minus THE GRUMPIES, who might as well have been local. Art by Marsh. Flyer by me.

TREPANNING - "Live At WFMU" - Tape - 2012

   The way that I met Scott Youth was pretty embarrassing (for him, not me), so I'll spare the details on his behalf. What I will tell you is that he was about 13 years old and he gave me a flier for a "punk" show that I would never go to while we were both in the Chattanooga Public Library. I didn't see him for a couple of years and then, one day, he was living on my couch, claiming that he ran away from home. We told him that he couldn't live there for free. He needed to dumpster food to share with everyone. Nightly, he would bring home upwards of 15 pizzas, even though most of us worked at a pizza place and 99% of the house was vegan. We were never very nice about it (or maybe it was just me), but Scott was usually understanding, friendly and would give you anything he owned to make you happy.
    As the years sailed on, Scott started traveling pretty extensively and I would always hear stories about how he got drunk and broke a lot of shit. In a way, it made me sad because I still remembered that sweet, humble, calm kid. Don't get me wrong...I think it's important for young people to get trashed, listen to punk, smash shit and do things they'll regret in 5 years (or 5 minutes). The thing was, every time I hung out with him, Scott still was that same sweet kid, but that sweet kid liked to get drunk and loud (like a Merle Haggard song). Sometimes I could hang with it. Other times, I ran off into the night.

   All this time, I never knew that Scott knew how to play any instruments until he told me that his band was playing at Anarchtica, a long-running punk house in Chattanooga. I never actually saw any band he played in until years later when he drummed for CHEESEQUAKE after moving to Brooklyn. The kid was great! The "kid" was also a foot taller than me by this point and in his mid-twenties.
   Just a few weeks ago when my band played in Brooklyn, Scott appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, at the very end of the show and he had that former calm and casual demeanor about him.  We talked for a bit as I packed up my drums and that little bit of conversation made me wish that NYC wasn't so socially overwhelming because I suddenly wanted to hang out with the guy all night. But, like most of my times in Brooklyn, I drove across town to a comfortable place with quiet friends, which is just fine with me (coincidentally, it was also the location of one of the most ass-wild new year's parties I had ever been to, just 5 years previous). Before parting, Scott handed me a copy of his new band's first recording, live on WFMU, one of the country's best radio stations.
   When I got home from tour and popped this into the tape deck, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I don't know why, but that's just how I felt. This is excellent. In weird ways, it reminds me of the parts of New York that don't really exist anymore; a Times Square full of sleazy theaters, a $2 show at Max's Kansas City with Patti Smith lackadaisically dancing and smoking in the front row or The NEW YORK DOLLS shopping for high heels in a vintage shop. Some of the slower moments remind me of TELEVISION. I'm not sure if this is what the band was going for at all but this is what I get out of it. It just sounds like punk before punk knew what it was supposed to sound like, if you catch my drift. Maybe you'll think it sounds like indie rock or some "New York shit". Makes no difference to me. I'm still gonna blast this on my headphones and dream of a New York that I might've enjoyed at some point in my life.

This band is made of real winners and they've all been in cool bands that you like.

Download TREPANNING

If you want to write to the band about getting your own tape, try this email...
trepanningbrooklyn@gmail.com