V/A - Empty Skulls tape
The thing I dig about P2P programs (Soulseek, exclusively) is that they are the modern equivalent of the old practice of swapping tapes. It takes some searching and patience, but once you find the right people the results can be rewarding. The amount of way cool, long gone shit people are willing to swap is amazing. For example: Empty Skulls, a compilation tape of US Hardcore from 1984. I picked up the Empty Skulls Volume 2 - The Wound Deepens comp long ago and began a fruitless search for volume 1. When I found a clean rip on Soulseek I had to get it just to satisfy my old curiosity. 16 bands, 42 tracks all told. My favorite tracks:
Outpatients - G.P.D.mp3
Fast and furious hardcore from western Massachusetts. Bass player Scott Hellend was also in Deep Wound.
CIA - Violence.mp3
HC from Connecticut. pre 76% Uncertain
Out of Order - Concerned.mp3
Rough Chicago hardcore - released a decent lp in 1985 that has been reissued by reissued by Victory
Impact Unit - My Friends The Pit.mp3
Famous for being the first band for Bosstones Dickie Barret. Hyper Boston thrash
No Direction - ????.mp3
Powerful mid-tempo song from this Oklahoma band, but I have no idea on the particulars of the song. Hell, even KFTH has a blank. Info?
Rights Of The Accused - Guns of Youth.mp3
more speedy Chicago hardcore - there’s an unfortunate glitch in this file at the :23 mark, but don’t let that mar the song. Band history over at Punk Vault
N.O.T.A. - Moscow.mp3
Some melodic hardcore from Tulsa’s finest. This track is from the Live at the Crystal Pistol demo.
Other bands of note on the compilation: Corrosion of Conformotity, Stalag 13, and Septic Death
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Great one - thanks
Thanks for this great blog as well - it’s highly appreciated over here
aah, the old tradition of tapetrading. although i never traded with people outside of germany i still like it. now it’s mostly friends who recieve my tapes, but the one’s i get back are always fun to listen to.
as for soulseek, you are absolutely right. a great place to find “lost” records…. i’m looking for Symbol Six songs there, but i didn’t find anything until now…
Just saw your blog for the first time today, it is an excellent one. Keep up the good work!
Couple of great tunes! I have the feeling tapes, especially compilations, are getting somewhat overlooked in punk history. Maybe that’s ‘coz they’re not as valuable to collectors as vinyl… Here in Holland some of the best stuff was out on tape only, like the Frites Modern “6 Met” tape, or the Pistache BV/ Eton Crop split tape.
There’s some great songs by the Outpatients on “Bands That Could Be God” as well.
See ya!
You know I am one of the people that put out the Empty Skulls tape Vol. 1. I am glad it is up on SLSK so people can hear what we put out.:) I actually did put it out there when a friend burned it for me. To tell you the truth, we never made money off it, and lost more money on long distance phone calls at our parents house more than anything. It was hard trying to get certain bands on it. But I have fund memories of talking with all the bands. Pushead was great at telling me and my friend Justin how to go about putting it out and stuff. When Bob Durkee came into the picture I lost interest for I personally did not like him. We were kids and did not have a double tape player to dub the tapes and he offered to help. So I lost interset after awhile and let Justin take over. We already had all the bands sending tapes in and stuff. So all the hard work was over. Anyway thanks for the kind words.
Tim C (Empty Skulls Vol. 1)
why cant u put the whoel thing?