Thursday, August 28, 2008

TOTALITÄR Sin Egen Motständare 1994




I just heard this band for the first time about 2 months ago and loved it from the get go. Totalitar is a political crust band from Sweden which formed back in 1985 and has released over 18 albums.

Hudiksvall

CRIMPSHRINE Demos




If you don't know who Crimpshrine is and you love punk rock, you are probably just listening to poseur bands like My Chemical Romance and wearing black nail polish because it's so emo. That ain't punk, that's poseurs! Crimpshrine was a very early 80's San Francisco Bay area punk band who later influenced all the guys who made the world love pop punk - the frontmen of Operation Ivy and Green Day among others. Aaron Cometbus, one of the most well known zine editors, writers and book publishers in the underground literary world, was the drummer of Crimpshrine along with none other than guitarist Jeff Ott of Fifteen. You've probably seen Aaron's handwritten font on many punk LPs and 7 inch records over the years. Unfortunately for its fans, Crimpshrine had only one tour in 1988 which turned out to be their last.
(I hope Aaron doesn't come back to Pensacola and kick my ass for posting these. If he does I will blame it on Al Barkley!)

1. Walk Away
2. Wake Up
3. Another Day
4. RDC
5. Over The Years
6. Can You Feel That
7. I Don't Know Why
8. My Friend
9. Tomorrow

(I fixed the link! 8/29/08)


Can You Feel That

Saturday, August 23, 2008

SWIZ No Punches Pulled 1993




Former Dag Nasty vocalist Shawn Brown helped form DC hardcore standouts Swiz in the early 90's and then Bluetip. You can't go wrong with DC hardcore. I've personally heard very little that sucked from DC. After listening to Swiz, go listen to Sweetbelly Freakdown and Jesuseater.


Won't Breathe For You

Thursday, August 21, 2008

THE DICKS 1980 - 1986




"Hate the Police" 7 inch


You got to love any band that calls itself The Dicks! They have some of the funniest song titles like "Dicks Hate the Police" and "Shit on Me" and "I Hope You Get Drafted." Snotty and obnoxious!




Shit On Me

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Punk's Not Dead 2007




This is one of those documentaries I can watch over and over and not get tired of it!
Old and newer punk bands are featured in this great movie, including all time favs The Ramones, The Damned, Sex Pistols, UK Subs, Anti-Nowhere League, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion and Phil Donahue. Plus tons more bands! It'll make you laugh, it will make you feel nostalgic and make you wish you hadn't have sold all of those old punk LPs you had a few years ago. It's also a relief to know that whenever Wattie Buchan speaks, there are captions to translate what he's saying into English.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

KILLED BY DEATH Volume 1 1977 - 1982



If you're into punk rock, especially the earlier and more obscure bands, then you'll know all about the KBD releases. They sell like mad on eBay and now any goon with an old punk record will put "KBD" or "Killed By Death" next to whatever punk LP or 7 inch they are trying to sell, even when it has nothing to do with KBD, maybe to try and squeeze out a few more bucks from some poor sap. I'm still waiting to see an old Green Day 7 inch show up on eBay with a "KBD" next to it. I'm sure someone will do it one day.

Track List:
1. Mad - I Hate Music
2. Hollywood Square - Hillside Strangler
3. The Slugs - Problem Child
4. Vox Pop - Cab Drive
5. The Controllers - (The Original) Neutron Bomb
6. The Dogs - Slash Your Face
7. Gasoline - Killer Man
8. Kraut - Matinee
9. Child Molesters - (I'm The) Hillside Strangler
10. Cold Cock - I Wanna Be Rich
11. The Authorities - Radiation Masturbation
12. The Authorities - I Hate Cops
13. The Nuns - Decadent Jew
14. The Users - Sick Of You
15. Vicious Visions - I Beat You

Linked fixed 1/16/2009


I Hate Music

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

DECONSTRUCTION self titled 1994




In the Dream 6 blog, Johnette Napolitano also mentioned the only full length release by Deconstruction, a CD that got very little airplay except for the occasional nod from college radio. Dave Navarro played guitar along with his childhood friend Eric Avery on bass and Michael Murphy on drums. Check this out - it's dark, heavy and damned good. Gibby Hanes from The Butthole Surfers makes a guest appearance on the record in the song Fire in the Hole. Deconstruction was produced by Rick Rubin, most well known for his work with The Beastie Boys.

Fire In The Hole

And here are 5 demos from Deconstruction.

1. Iris
2. America
3. Jealous Song
4. One
5. Untitled

Deconstruction demos

DREAM 6 1982 pre Concrete Blonde




Johnette Napolitano, bassist and lead singer of Concrete Blonde, writes this interesting anecdote concerning the release of the Dream 6 EP, which was a band that proceeded Concrete Blonde. So I'll let her do the talking.

"The first thing Jim & I had recorded together was a little electronic dance tune called 'Heart Attack' for a compilation album put together by a 'zine called D.I.Y. We were psyched, something on a record meant we may be able to put a band together. In L.A., nobody would play with you unless you had a deal or a following. We had neither.

We called ourselves The Dreamers, then the L.A. Dreamers. I worked at a studio called Gold Star on the corner of Santa Monica and Vine. Formerly a legendary room that had produced hits by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher and Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, the aging studio now attracted a new breed of punk indie pioneers like The Cramps, Geza X, Posh Boy Records, Bomp Records and an ambitious young Bad Religion.

Having been passed on by various producers and majors and inspired by the wave of new labels, I asked for a weekend of down time at the studio and we brought in Jim's brother, Earle Mankey, and recorded our first EP. Drummer Michael Murphy, who years later would play on Dave Navarro's brilliant 'Deconstruction' album, had wandered in one day to fill out a job application. I called him up after work and we roped him in.

We slammed out the songs, but didn't have enough time to mix them all...but used the rough mixes anyway. We photographed the cover photo in the bedroom, and I cut and pasted the back cover together inspired by the cover of Genesis' 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' where they reach into each other's frames. We photographed the insert at the cabin where we lived at the time, '70's rocker Dave Mason's old house in Benedict Canyon. I glued it all together and between the pressing plant and Max at G&M Graphics on Santa Monica Boulevard, who did the labels, were very proud to have a real record..now we were a real band. Since there were 6 songs, we became Dream 6: too many Dreamers, and it brought to mind John Lennon's Dream #9.

So I bought a ton of cardboard and envelopes (which at the time costs more than the pressings themselves)and stayed up all night sending them out to papers and college radio stations...then one day I stopped at the Las Palmas newsstand off Hollywood Boulevard and opened up the English music paper Melody Maker and there it was.. a review of our little record by a woman named Helen Fitzgerald. And it was good.

Well I flew down the boulevard back to work, I doubt my feet touched the ground at all. I think we managed to press about 900 LP's, but couldn't afford the inserts after the first few hundred. There wasa CD made as a bonus promo by Capitol Records many years later when 'Mexican Moon' was released, but since then we've found an extra track from the original session that we hadn't used, 'It's My Life' which was a hit for Eric Burdon & The Animals. Also managed to find at the bottom of a dusty box outtakes from the original photo sessions and Jim being the archive king that he is, has scanned and saved the original insert.

Those were the days of Duran Duran and New Romantic synth-pop and no one understood what the hell we were doing.

Neither did we.

We still don't. I like it that way."

Johnette Napolitano

Mojave Desert



February 2003

This CD is the original 6 song EP, released in the original slipcase cardboard cover.

Tracklist:
1. Rain
2. Human Condition
3. Tomorrow May Never Come
4. Showdown
5. Secret Life
6. Daddy Lied



Everybody Knows