Something I Learned Today

A couple of tracks to put you in the mood for a Sunday Halloween.

Misfits - Halloween.mp3
A no-brainer. Everyone should know Jersey’s best ghouls. This is from the Halloween 7″ released in 1981, when there was still some substance to go with the schtick. Not their best, but it fits the theme of the day, y’know? MisfitsCentral has a thorough history of the band. The bands official website isn’t much help, unless you want to buy figurine.

Dead Kennedys - Halloween.mp3
From 1982’s Plastic Surgery Disasters. One of my favorite tracks simply for the line “Take your social regulations and shove them up your ass”. That always got us all worked up in high school. Regardless of what anyone says I still like the Dk’s, even Frankenchrist ( but not Bedtime for Democracy )

The Freeze - Halloween Night.mp3
another Freeze track, this one is from 1984’s Guilty Face EP. Thick and twisted guitar riff playing behind a tale of Halloween dangers. I was going to post this one a couple of weeks ago but decided to save it for tonight.

25 years to the night for this Portland Punk Compilation.

10/29/79
Greg Sage of the Wipers put this compilation of Portland bands together on his Trap record label. All tracks were recorded 10/29/79 at the Earth Tavern in Portland and display a cross section of that towns late 70’s punk scene. Most of the bands fall under the “typical” punk heading( Wipers, Stiphnoyds,Sado-Nation, Rubbers, Lo Tek ). The comp also includes some jangly, poppy punk ( NeoBoys ), Pere Ubu style noise ( Smegma ) and Cramps-like rockabilly ( Bop Zombies )

Of course, my favorite tracks are the punk ones:

Wipers - Same Old Thing.mp3
Sage’s intro to this song pretty much sums up the lyrical content for many Wipers songs. This is one of their best. A great bassline to open and some nice, chunky guitar. This would have been the best song on Is This Real?

Sado-Nation- Johnny Paranoid.mp3
Melodic punk with the original (male) vocalist. This isn’t quite as great as “I’m Trouble” or “On Whom They Beat” but it still better than some of their other stuff. Then again I was never a fan of their releases with Mish Bondage/Leesa Anderson singing.

Stiphnoyds - Meat Is Rotten.mp3
A short blast from the Stiphynoids, but not nearly as good as their 7″. Still decent sounding though. The CD reissue leaves off their track “Jimmy Carter” for some reason.

Neo Boys - Running In The Shadows.mp3
simple, jangly garage rock with female vocals. This cut is similar to their first 7″. This sounds like the blueprint for a lot of latter day Northwest punk/indie stuff.

All of this is available as part of the History of Portland Punk volume 1

All squares go home!

Devil Dogs - Once Around The Block.mp3
If The Sopranos nudie bar “BadaBing’s” had a house band it would be Brooklyn’s own Devil Dogs. The Devil Dogs took the basics of ’50’s and 60’s rock and roll and amped it up Ramones style. Throw in some crude and crass lyrics and a gutter rock legend is born. The early singles and LP’s by these guys never excited me, as it was just non-descript garage rock with some snarl. 1993’s Saturday Night Fever saw these guys turn up the guitars, energy, and attitude to a new high. Acclaimed by many as the Dogs best turn, Saturday Night Fever is stupid fun from beginning to end. (Never mind those goofy pseudo party crowd sounds thrown in between songs )

Devil Dogs - 6th Ave Local.mp3
If you’re looking for insight, deep meaning, or fancy musicianship then keep moving. If you got a beer ball of Schlitz and want to party then throw this on. This is greasy, meathead rock at its best.

A couple of tracks of crazed Midwest hardcore from the Touch&Go label.

Die Kreuzen - Rumors.mp3
Die Kreuzen - Live Wire.mp3
No bones about it, Die Kreuzen’s 1984 self-titled LP is a heavyweight album in the history of American punk. There is no denying the urgency in these hyper tracks, nor the scariness of Dan Kubinski’s shrieking, mental patient vocals. Frenzied, furious, and at times just plain odd sounding . All attributes that allow this album to hold its own against time. Having said that, it is an exhausting listen. It was no surprise that the band couldn’t keep this hellish racket up. Later albums document the bands descent into unremarkable blandness. For proof, pick up the October File CD which appends the debut. While October File is a decent album, it really sounds empty and light when paired with the dense first album.

I really could have taken any two songs out of the 21. With the exception of the 3 minute dirge “All White”, all are spastic blasts less than two minutes in length. “Live Wire” and “Rumors” were just the two that jumped out at me while listening.

As always, Kill From the Heart is a great resource for info on the band. Flex also rates their albums.

These two songs in no way describe my completely ordinary,hum-drum weekend.

Psycho Surgeons - Wild Weekend.mp3
Psycho Surgeons - Horizontal Action.mp3
I’ve been a fan of early Australian punk ever since I picked up a copy of the bootleg comp Feel Lucky, Punk? I was drawn into this undiscovered world of early punk classics, especially the Aussie bands: Rocks, Psycho Surgeons, and the Leftovers. I’ve never been able to track down any of the originals ($$$$$), but I have been lucky enough to garner bits and pieces via comps, CD-R’s, and P2P. Some great Australian punk comps have been made available - The Birdmen series, the Murder Punk CD’s, and the 2 CD comp Do The Pop.

Anyhow, the Psycho Surgeons’ songs are from their first (and only?) single in 1978. Two top-notch cuts of frantic action. I hope you enjoy. I plan on posting some more Australian bands in the future ( Saints, X, Fun Things, Victims )

No music today. I just wanted to mention an amazing feat that occured in Minneapolis on Thursday night. As part of a benefit for Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller ( diagnosed with throat cancer ) Bob Mould and Grant Hart shared the stage for the first time in nearly 17 years. Anyone familiar with the acrimonious split of Husker Du and the years of subtle and not so subtle barbs aimed at one another should be very surprised by all of this. The details can be found here.

They played two songs: “Hardly Getting Over It” and “Never Talking To You Again”. Fitting. Glad to see that they could put aside their differences for a good cause. Too bad the ‘Mats couldn’t do the same.

Torn tonight between posting Scream and Black Market Baby. Guess BMB won.

Black Market Baby - Potential Suicide.mp3
I don’t know where to even start with BMB. I’m still amazed at how a band this good couldn’t break out from the pack, especially in DC. Of course they didn’t sound like traditional DC hardcore. A nice blend of driving, melodic punk, hardcore energy and a touch of ‘77 style britpunk. “Potential Suicide” is the A-side to their 1982 debut, and it is tough to top. Propelled by stun guitar and crash drumming, you can practicly feel the barely contained raw power of the song.

I think all of the BMB release are OOP. I’d love to see one release encompass the 7″s, 1983’s Senseless Offerings LP, and the never released second album. Years ago Bitzcore had released (or booted?) two albums (Baby on Board and Baby Takes), consisting of most of the material, but they were haphazard at best.

I’m stuck at work, waiting around for something to end. A couple of freebies from my hometown. All of these are from the excellent Rochester Punk page. Plenty more there, also.

Hunger Artist - Samsara.mp3
Hunger Artist - Inside Down.mp3
Hunger Artist were a late ’80’s mainstay in Rochester - the “it” hardcore band. They only mananged to release one full 7″, from which “Samsara” is taken. “Inside Down” is from a never released album. The DC sound was big in Rochester at the time, and you can hear the Soulside/Swiz influence in these songs. A detailed history can be found here.

Bent - New Beginning.mp3
Bent were the artsy/intellectual band in the late 80’s Rochester scene. Frenzied, hyper songcraft, crazed vocals, amazing drumming. Bent released a couple of excellent tapes ( Alice’s Phallus Palace and PickleNoodlePfieffer ) and had a song on the Hippycore comp “Earth Rapers and Hell Raisers”. The eventually released a (posthumous?) 7″ on a one off label.

I was so happy to find this page! ( via Mystery and Misery ) If anyone from Rochester (and I doubt there are many ) has the demo tapes of the following bands in digital format please let me know: Bent, Solution? As Is, Powerline, Hunger Artist, and Noxious. I’ve “misplaced” these over the years.

Some overlooked noisecore from NYC.

Gin Mill - Ex-Patriot.mp3
From their one and only release, 1994’s Patron. Gin Mill was a NYC trio featuring ex-members of Crawlpappy. Their sound was straight up noise rock, sounding like a blended version of their former band and, say, Unsane. I’m not sure whatever happened to these guys. Patron only contained 7 songs ( 6 + 1 unlisted track ) which only served to whet the appetite for more. Nothing more ever came, as far as I know. Listening to this is making me nostalgic for that great 90’s “noise” sound: Hammerhead, Jesus Lizard, Jehu, even Quicksand and Jawbox, just to name a few.

This one is for my wife, who never reads this blog anyway ( and is yelling at me to come to bed )

Big Black - Heartbeat.mp3
Man, I love Big Black. Only they could take a sweet, quiet Wire song and do such damage: drum machine, buzzing guitar, powertool bass. An upbeat dirge. Not the best Big Black song ever, but the one that popped into my head today. This was the “A” side from a 7″ released in 1987 or thereabouts, somewhere between their two great albums Atomizer and Songs About Fucking. One of the best parts of getting a Big Black record was reading the “liner” notes - the true stories behind the lyrics. I still to this day have the story behind in “Jordan, Minnesota” and “Grinder” stuck in my head. Hopefully the CD’s have preserved this album feature. “Heartbeat” can be found on Rich Man’s Eightrack if vinyl aint your thing.

Dementlieu has a nice breakdown on the band ( including some of the liner notes)