Cabal / Null Set

By some accounts Baltimore's first and greatest postpunk band, Null Set was the brainchild of singer Bill Dawson (previously seen here with Black Pete) and guitarist Mark Harp. Null Set's highest-profile gig was opening for the Ramones at Johns Hopkins University's Shriver Hall, and they were semi-regulars at the Marble Bar and DC's 9:30 Club in the early 80s. Their Bauhaus fandom shows pretty clearly in their early recordings; "An Evening In Town" is their "Bela Lugosi's Dead". Null Set came to an abrupt end when an identically-named band from another city put out a record; Baltimore's Null Set ended up changing their name to Cabal. In 1984 they released their only record, a self-titled 6-song EP on Buck Awf's ad-hoc Awf-Trak label; on it they started to come out from under the Bauhaus influence and expand their sound, even approaching synth-pop on "New Horizon." Commercial success did not ensue, however, and the band drifted apart. Mark Harp went on to record hundreds of hours of music in a myriad of different projects; he eventually divided them into 24 hour-long thematic sections and posted them on his website (and at the Internet Archive) as 24 Hours with Mark Harp. Mark died in December 2004, but his website is still there. What I am presenting here is the 12:00 AM hour of 24 Hours, containing all the Null Set and Cabal recordings; I have renamed the files and added ID3 tags for better playback display, and put them into a single zip file for easy downloading. The tracks are:

1. Cabal - Null Theme (Tracks 1-6 are from the Cabal EP)
2. Cabal - In Touch
3. Cabal - Future In Pain
4. Cabal - Blissful Trust
5. Cabal - Fall Flat
6. Cabal - New Horizon
7. Cabal - Open Up (Cassette only track from the Cabal EP release)
8. Cabal - Assistance (Live at The Marble Bar Baltimore 1983)
9. Cabal - Brash Finale (Also live at The Marble Bar 1983)
10. Cabal - Check This Out (Recorded live in Bill's basement 1984)
11. Cabal - No Way Out (Recorded live in Bill's basement 1984)
12. Null Set - Null Theme (Tracks 12-14 from Null Set's demo recorded 1981 at Eastern Studios in Glen Burnie, MD, produced by Sam Prager)
13. Null Set - Perception
14. Null Set - Go!
15. Null Set - An Evening In Town (synth thanks to Jack Heinicke)

CABAL - Bill Dawson - Vocals, Mark Harp - Guitars and stuff, Rich Dickson - Drums, Dave Zidek - Bass, Dick Hertz - Bass, Danny Brown - Keys, Steve Palmieri - Synth and sound, Les Hendrix - Bass, Mark King - Guitar & keys

NULL SET - Bill Dawson - Vocals, Mark Harp - Guitars & Stuff, John Chriest - Bass, Louis Frisino - Drums

Get the zip file here or here. (New links)

Various Artists - Merkin Records Seedy Sampler

Black Pete must have been the only alternative band in Baltimore that wasn't included on this 1989 20-band sampler CD from Merkin Records:

1. U. Violets - Gade (actually Ultra-Violets, must have been a legal issue that prevented them using the name on this CD)
2. All Mighty Senators - Wink (band still active)
3. Lambs Eat Ivy - Serpentine
4. Bazooka Joe - Insomnia
5. Dark Carnival - Back to the Factory
6. Monkeyspank - Dr. Omar
7. Jade - Line
8. Lungfish - Return Descender
9. The Pearl Fishers - Black Box (not the David Scott band)
10. The Unknown - Empty House of Night
11. Rise - God Bless the Creeps
12. Elements of Design - I Love a Man with Rhythm
13. The Last Picture Show - Destination (led by writer Louis Maistros as Lu Maestro)
14. Braver Noise - The Smiths Have Gone to Heaven
15. Seesaw - Rochelle Bridges
16. Motor Morons - Another Girl (may still be active, though no shows since 2007; imagine Devo songs played by Einstürzende Neubauten)
17. Mark Harp - The Drill (guitarist for Null Set/Cabal, also of the Beatoes, Motor Morons, Chelsea Graveyard, the Diamondheads, etc.)
18. Infant Lunch - Cut the Cord
19. Grey March - Beneath the Sea
20. Reptile House - Turning Disease

There's quite a variety of musical styles here: punk, gothic, new wave, Springsteenian populist rock, funk, and more. Get the CD rip here or here.