Suicidal Ad-Rock

Digging deep into the mid-90's Grand Royal archives comes a vinyl-only oddity featuring Beastie Boy Adam "Adrock" Horovitz and original Suicidal Tendencies drummer Amery Smith. Between the many B-movie/TV show samples are a bunch of two-minute tracks of Horovitz tinkering with his vintage synthesizer while Smith gets some exercise with a slew of repetitive breakbeats. There are no real vocals per se, just a bunch of silly samples here and there - usually repeating the song title. BS 2000 is best described as a proto version of what Crystal Method and the electronic genre were priming to develop over the next few years. While a good number of the songs are instantly forgettable, there are some real diamonds in the rough. "Baby" is a cool-ass fucking track and deserves to be sampled somewhere by someone. "Copsucker" (which could have easily fit in on the Beastie's Mix-Up instrumental LP) and the weirdly dark "Thrift King" are personal faves. Smith proficiently showcases the jazzy versatility he brought to the best hardcore album of all time and Adrock seems to be having a blast figuring out what his Casio SA-35 keyboard can do. Of course the record has a tough time standing up to the current electronic stuff out there today and most of this could be mimicked today by a 10-year old on his iPad but what can ya do. Enjoy.

Nobody Beats BS 2000

Flea Market Blues

Oh man, the days I spent at the flea market off of Route 22 in Watchung during my lazy drunken high school days. Cheap, sticky back issues of Swank, a couple illegal butterfly knives and bootleg live tapes fucking galore. Amazingly, there were actual levels of bootleg legitimacy within the cardboard crates of dusty yellowed cassettes. You could find some semi-legit ones - especially if you were considering a well-known musician like Jimi Hendrix - such glossy, pro-printed boots as From This Day On and The Last Experience are familiar to even casual collectors of the guitar legend. Then there was the next level, adequate cassette copies of bootleg LPs - a cheapo xeroxed copy of The Who's Who Dunit? comes to mind but there were fucking thousands of them. Usually first generation copies on unlabeled TDK60s complete with all the pops and cracks of a shitty record player. Then there were the boxes and boxes of bootleg live shows. Utterly disorganized, barely labeled and akin to looking for a peanut in a pile of shit, these wretched excuses for music usually didn't cost more then $2 and were hardly worth the price. Case in point: a hand-scrawled copy of Suicidal Tendencies' 1984 show at the Rollerworks in Chatsworth, CA dubbed over tape #3 of some Learn French In 30 Days cassette series. The audio equivalent of trying to watch scrambled 80's cable porn, this is probably the lowest quality piece of media I've ever heard and that's saying something. Sounding like it originally was recorded with a Walkman buried in someone's pocket, this worthless tenth-generation dupe ups the ante by appearing to be dubbed by two boomboxes set across the room from one another. In short, the show is barely listenable which is a shame because it is actually a really good show and it would be something else to hear it for real. Under 20+ decibels of tape hiss the band cuts through most of its Frontier Records debut - guitarist Grant Estes and drummer Amery Smith really show off their skills, casually diverging from the traditional arrangements off the album with aplomb. Mike Muir runs around yelling like an idiot but hey, he was barely 21 at the time so easily forgiven. I ripped the download that stands before you off of that cassette and tried as much as I could to clean it up but it still sounds fucking terrible and is for ST completists only. Interestingly, the guy who originally(?) taped it tacked on the demo version of "I Saw Your Mommy" (from the 1984 Mystic Records Mystic Sampler #1 LP) at the end and its the only good-sounding thing on this. Try to enjoy a strange snapshot of L.A. skater hardcore circa '84 and don't let the hiss get ya down.

Suicidal Failure

We're Evil

Well shit, with the posting of über-comp Welcome To Venice last week is it any surprise that this elusive slab of wax would find its way onto the 'Genocide? One of my favorite thrash records of the mid-80's which unbelievably has yet to find its way onto an official CD release, Widespread Bloodshed is easily Mike Muir's finest post circa-1983 Suicidal Tendencies release. The original band spawned from Venice, CA in the early 80's and managed to appear on the I've Got Brain Damage skate comp cassette before crossing paths with Muir on the aforementioned Welcome To Venice LP. Original lead singer Kevin Guercio quickly departed under the new stewardship of Muir and Bloodshed was recorded in 1987. 

I actually wrote a review of the record for my gay-as-fuck high school newspaper all those years ago. While it reads like it was written by a fucking retard it still holds its weight today:

   "During the year recording Suicidal Tendencies' sophomore effort Join The Army, vocalist Mike Muir spent time writing songs, singing and producing records for various Venice, California hardcore/speed metal bands.  Among these bands was No Mercy. No Mercy released their debut album, Widespread Bloodshed/Love Runs Red at some point during the mid-80's and it emerges as one of the best metal/hardcore albums ever to be pressed onto vinyl. 
   "Evil (So Fuckin' Evil)" starts off this album of pure chaotic intensity. A telephone ring breaks the cold silence. "Hello?" asks a startled young woman. The phone clicks dead. Another ring. "Hello? Hello?" the woman nervously inquires, feeling the skin on the back of her neck begin to crawl. A sharp blast of feedback is the only reply. Silence. The phone rings once again. "Who are you?" the terrified woman cries. "WE'RE FUCKIN' EVIL yeahhhhhh!" Widespread Bloodshed/Love Runs Red  has begun.
   The songs on this album deal with subjects of a dark, mysterious, evil nature. Nightmares, murder, Judgement Day and cemeteries are only some of the troubling song topics lyrically explored by Muir. The opening to "I'm Your Nightmare" recalls the eerie thumping bass track from Dawn Of The Dead (originally recorded by the Italian gothic metal band Goblin). The 7-minute epic "Waking The Dead" is one of the best metal songs ever be recorded. Guitarist Mike Clark fulfills the double duties of rhythm and lead guitar to perfection. Drummer Sal Troy (whose opening solo to "Waking The Dead" kicks ass) and bassist Ric Clayton also emerge as talented musicians.
   No Mercy is a group whose future I look forward to. Their unique rolling, pounding beat is betrayed slightly by the amateurish production values, though it emerges relatively unscathed. All in all, Widespread Bloodshed/Love Runs Red is one of the best fuckin' albums ever recorded. What else is there to say but to buy this album before you die."

Man, I was a cool teenager. Not much has changed in 25 years. Enjoy.

Welcome To The Nightmare

Look Up.....

1985 was a transitional year for SoCal thrashcore. Suicidal Tendencies had really taken over the scene after their eponymous 1983 debut and had started their own label (Suicidal Records, 'natch) to which they attracted a bunch of local acts, many associated with ST lead singer Mike Muir. The label's first release was the appropriately named Welcome To Venice compilation LP featuring local acts Suicidal, No Mercy, Excel, Beowülf and Los Cycos. In the same way N.W.A. would champion Compton a few years later - Venice, CA was the ST stomping ground and would stay the headquarters for the LA thrash movement until it was eaten alive by grunge in the early 90's. The comp is notable simply that it contains probably the weakest early material by all of the bands on it (save for Suicidal who I think shot their wad with the first album and never recovered) - as well as the fact that nearly every band sounds exactly the same. Now this could be because Muir was the singer for two of them or the fact that they were trading band members like fucking dominoes or it could just be coincidence. Suicidal's solo entry "Look Up..... (The Boys Are Back)" showcases the near-final transition of a once amazing hardcore band into the pretty tame thrash outfit they would become on '87's flaccid Join The Army. Beowülf do their Motörhead thing satisfactorily, No Mercy belt out a couple tracks with original singer Kevin Guercio (Muir would take the vocal reigns for the band's 1987 full-length debut) - their song "War Machine" would eventually be retooled into "Crazy But Proud" on the Widespread LP. Los Cycos were basically the original ST lineup with a new rhythm guitarist and No Mercy's drummer. Their song "It's Not Easy" probably sounds familiar because ST re-recorded it for their Feel Like Shit... joke of a record years later. It is such a sad song when regarding the talent behind it - really shows what Amery Smith brought to ST's old sound... But I digress, wrapping up the album are a solid three tracks by 'Genocide fave Excel. Not their best stuff by far but still great - I dig the instrumental "Enforcer" the most. In short, Welcome To Venice is a perfect snapshot of a long gone era; 30 minutes of an amazingly specific crossover thrash sound that went as fast as it came.

The Boys Are Back

I Feel Lovely...

What can you say about a band that has broken-up, reformed and changed styles more times than the fucking Bible has been rewritten? Suicidal Tendencies carved there niche in musical history with their 1983 eponymous debut - a tight 20-minute slab of SoCal hardcore which I still treasure to this day. Underproduced, underappreciated and underrated, Suicidal Tendencies broke up soon after Repo Man made "Institutionalized" a college radio hit only to reform in '87 as a relatively generic thrash band. Remember Join The Army? Probably the worst album ever released by Caroline/Suicidal Records, it was embarrassing back then trying to pretend the new ST was the old ST... and by the time the late 80's rolled around it was barely the same band, mainstay vocalist Mike Muir was the only holdover. OK, crossover thrash was the big thing at the time and ST grabbed hold to the bandwagon with their How Can I Laugh Tomorrow... and tried to suck up to their prog/thrash No Mercy incarnation with their ...Deja Vu release in '89. Yet I gotta give the Venice boys credit - 1990 was a perfect time to release what most feel is their strongest mainstream album: Lights... Camera... Revolution! "You Can't Bring Me Down" and "Send Me Your Money" were MTV staples (back when being an MTV staple actually meant something) and I think there were actually Grammy nominations for the album. LCR got the band a tour with Queensrÿche (I still got ticket stubs from that motherfucker!) and "Lovely" is easily the album's tightest track; admittedly while a bigger fan of their older stuff, I think the breaks and grooves (there's like 6 of them) were way ahead of what Anthrax or Faith No More were trying to do at the same time. At some point I grabbed the song's promo single (with bonus track!) and here it is. Since then, the history of ST has been annoying; an unforgivingly pathetic attempt to rekindle what started in '83 but can ya blame the guys? Reviews of their newer shit claimed fans "warmly welcomed" the new style.... really? Listening to "Suicidal Failure" has never been as cool as it was back in 8th grade. Good luck fellas.

La La La La La La

Currently watching: The Devil
Currently listening to: The Mung The Splatter Sessions