Something I Learned Today

For fuck’s sake, I’ve been trying to conjure up a post for this evening with no luck. I’ve been beaten to the punch by bloggers with quicker reflexes, which is becoming the norm these days. With all of the quality punk/hardcore mp3 blogs around these days it’s getting harder and harder to find something worthwhile that hasn’t already been posted somewhere. Of course, the big winners in all of this are you bastards - there is so much great, previously hard to come by music easily available for mass consumption. So what was I looking to post you wonder?

Dressed for the H Bomb gives us both tracks from the Huns lone single. Weird, wonderful stuff

Last Days of Man on Earth delivers a 1+2 punch of late 70’s LA punk greatness with both the Flesh Eaters first 7″ and the Gears Let’s Go To The Beach 7″.

Killed By Death Records has been on a roll lately, posting like a goddamn machine. Check The Normals single right here. Peter didn’t post the b-side for some reason. I’m more than happy to offer up “Hardcore”, which is a mighty fine piece of ‘78 Louisiana p-rock

The Normals - Hardcore.mp3

Chew on that (if you haven’t already) while I go back and try and come up with something for tomorrow.

I thought about starting this post with a comment about how the sound of Neurosis has changed over the years, but then realized I have no idea what they sound like now. Last I heard of Neurosis was 1993’s Enemy of the Sun, and by that point my short attention span couldn’t get around the sprawling prog-metal that the group was churning out. Not to say I didn’t appreciate the changes in the band’s sound from the heavy thrash of 1988’s Pain of Mind to the ambitious soundscapes captured on 1992’s monstrous Souls At Zero, but a little went a long way. 1989’s Aberration EP on Lookout is a decent capture of the band before their metamorphisis began. The “A” side contains two rough, mid-tempo metalcore tracks, the flip a longer, more interesting cut. I can only imagine that this sounds primitive by comparison to their latter day material, but it still works for me.

Neurosis - Self Doubt.mp3
Neurosis - Nonsense.mp3
Neurosis - Pollution.mp3

Shit, before I knew Greg Prevost as the frontman for Rochester, NY garage rock revivalists the Chesterfield Kings I knew him as the “fag with the eyeliner” (sorry) who worked as a clerk at the House of Guitars music/record store in Irondequoit. I was never all that big on the Kings, but many years later I was turned on to some of the cool earlier collaborations of Prevost and Andy Babiuk. In 1978 they released a single as Distorted Levels, then soon morphed into the Mean Red Spiders (also known as the Tar Babies ). The material here is from a reputed full album session recorded in 1978-1979. These 4 tracks were released in 1990 on one off label Buster Bulb, and display a nasty, Stoogified guitar sound complete with demented Iggy shrieking. Loud and nasty stuff. Hard to believe that less than a year after this was recorded the tepid (by comparison) first Chesterfield Kings single would be released. Check it out:

Mean Red Spiders - Rejected At The High School Dance.mp3
Mean Red Spiders - Diabolical.mp3
Mean Red Spiders - Kick Your Ass Across The USA.mp3
Mean Red Spiders - I Got VD.mp3

and for good measure, here’s the A-side to the Distorted Levels single

Distorted Levels - Hey Mister.mp3

Notes:
I know I sound like a broken record, but Hinman nails this one. After reading that last year I just had to pull this one out of the closet and give it another listen. Well worth it.

Sorry, this isn’t a post about The Freeze’s great 7″ Guilty Face (that’s been done before), or that really rare, but ultimately not so great first Freeze 7″ (covered here). Nor is it a post about the band’s classic 1984 LP Land of the Lost (right here). With all of the existing blog coverage I’m left to contemplate the band’s latter-day output. Specifically, the Bloodlights 7″ from 1991. Story is that Taang! was looking to reissue the band’s first two albums when the band pulled out these tracks. Taang! released this 7″ in addition to repressed both Land of the Lost and Rabid Reaction. Despite being a bit slower and generally less vicious than their earlier material I still loved this record. Both songs here are quality mid-tempo melodic cuts that I still enjoy many years after my first listen. They would later be included on the band’s third LP Misery Loves Company. While Misery Loves Company was just OK, much of the band’s later efforts (especially Crawling Blind) have been strong. Hard to believe that after 26 years The Freeze are still going strong, recording new material and playing gigs.

The Freeze - Bloodlights.mp3
The Freeze - Talking Bombs.mp3

Here are a couple of earlier Freeze cuts I posted ( from This Is Boston, Not LA and Unsafe At Any Speed)

The Freeze - Trouble If You Hide.mp3
The Freeze - Refrigerator Heaven.mp3

Check out The Freeze@MySpace

Man, 1990 was a great year for hardcore compilations, especially those in featuring bands from the NYC region. Forever is one of three killer NY/NJ hardcore 7″ comps released in ‘90 (Murders Among Us and Rebuilding being the other two 7″s, not to mention the Look At All The Children Now 12″). Forever was released on Irate and features early material from some of the NY/NJ hardcore scene heavies. 5 bands, 5 tracks, featuring posi-core from Turning Point, bilious hardcore from Born Against, and vicious blasts from Rorschach and Citizen’s Arrest. Not to be overlooked, Burn contributes a wild hardcore track that borders on greatness, hindered only by muddy production. One of my favorite comps from my own hardcore heyday:

Turning Point - Insecurity.mp3
Born Against - Mary and Child.mp3
Rorschach - Checkmate.mp3
Burn - Decay.mp3
Citizen’s Arrest - Pain.mp3

Unless you’ve been locked in a basement, chances are you’ve already heard the news that Negative Approach is scheduled to play the big Touch & Go 25th Anniversary blockbuster. (anyone know the real reason the McCullough brothers aren’t playing?) In celebration here’s some live NA circa 1984 (Live in DC at the Newton Theatre 6.24.84). These tracks are from a Swiss 7″ boot that was released to benefit either animal liberators or sexual slavery, not sure which. Whatever, I picked it up solely on the fact it was Negative Approach. The sound ain’t the greatest, but the tracks are fucking fierce. “Your Mistake”, “Can’t Tell No One”, and “Obsession” are the best bets here.

Negative Approach - Nothing/Friend or Foe.mp3
Negative Approach - Tunnelvision.mp3
Negative Approach - Can’t Tell No One.mp3
Negative Approach - Evacuate.mp3
Negative Approach - Your Mistake.mp3
Negative Approach - Obsession.mp3

I can’t remember specifically when I came across Killed By Death #9 (1997, 1998?), but it was a revelation if only to discover The Shirkers and the original version of “Drunk & Disorderly”. Up until that point I had assumed it was an original by house favorite Black Market Baby. This, the band’s sole recorded output, was originally released in 1978 on DC’s Limp label. From the Hyped To Death liner notes:

The Shirkers “Drunk & Disorderly” is a trash-punk masterpiece, but the sound, well, it’s either wall-of-mud (H2D has no particular problem with that) or a cleaner but almost guitar-free remix on the Best of Limp comp. They only played one gig, and broke up shortly after the 45. (There are 500 copies each of two sleeves, both released at the same time.) Tom Kane (Slickee Boy Kim’s bro) did time in the Dark and the Velvet Monkeys [Homework #4 & 5], Jeff Zang played in Kim Kane’s Date Bait, and Libby Hatch went on to Tru Fax & the Insaniacs [H2D #12, 21]: she died in an accident in 1997 or ‘98. R.I.P.

“Drunk” is a choice piece of raw, sloppy punk. The flip eluded me for years, but was worth the wait - “Suicide” is darker, driving, with a wonderful blown out guitar sound. Not as great as “Drunk & Disorderly”, but definitely up there. For comparison sake I’ve included Black Market Baby’s cover from 1986 or so. A great tune that sounds positively slick by comparison. Compare and contrast:

The Shirkers - Drunk & Disorderly.mp3
The Shirkers - Suicide.mp3

Black Market Baby - Drunk & Disorderly.mp3

Notes:
>:30 Under DC has a fantastic page dedicated to Limp Records. Check it out (and the rest of :30 Under DC and Dementlieu Punk Archive while your at it) for tons of info.
> The band pic cover is from Punk Rock Picture sleeves, the bottle cover from the :30 Under DC above

I just discovered via Strange Reaction that Cosmic Psychos guitarist Robbie Watts passed away on July 1 after finishing a gig with the band. He was 47 years old. No other details to be had at the moment. Fucking terrible news. Watts joined the Pyschos in 1990 and played on the bands last 5 albums, including 2006’s Off Ya Cruet! . I never had a chance to see the band, but according to others they were always a rip. A couple of my favorites:

Cosmic Psychos - Dead in a Ditch.mp3
Cosmic Psychos - What?.mp3
Cosmic Psychos - Shut Up.mp3
Cosmic Psychos - Hard.mp3
Cosmic Psychos - Neighbors.mp3
Cosmic Psychos - Guns Away.mp3

Notes:
> Original Cosmic Psychos post from May 2005
> Cosmic Psychos on MySpace
> Cosmic Psychos offical homepage

Dallas, TX’s Fireworks were scheduled to be my 4th of July 2005 post, but somewhere I took a left turn and ended up with Last Rights instead. So, here in 2006 what better time to dish out some lo-fi, blown stack rock’n'roll? A 3-piece of two guitars and a drummer, Fireworks 1993-1997 run saw them put out 7 singles, 3 albums, and numerous comp appearances on the likes of Crypt, Augogo, In The Red, and 1+2. Alternative Press of all places hit it:

This sounds like what you think Jon Spencer Blues Explosion would
sound like from reading about them… Actually, this is pretty swampy, with a lo-fi feel…fucked-up vocal sound. It’s juvenile-delinquent rock. Bad-boyrock…It’s hard to go wrong with a trashed -out swamped-up blues-a-billy number

Or, as guitarist/vocalist Darin Lin Wood describes them, “(Fireworks is) music for people who like fucked up music.” No matter how your describe it, one listen confirms this is raw, rootsy trash. Below are my two favorite singles by the band. Check that thicknecked guitar on the last two tracks

from 1993 single on Easy Action
Fireworks - Silver Moon.mp3
Fireworks - Moonshot.mp3

from 1995’s single on Human Fly
Fireworks - Baby Go!.mp3
Fireworks - Don’t Let It Go.mp3

Notes:
> Darin Lin Wood and drummer Janet Walker paired w/ Mick Collins to form the side project Blacktop.
> Guitarist James Arthur would later turn up in the Necessary Evils. He is currently fronting the Golden Boys
>All three of Fireworks LPs seem to be readily available - check out Lit Up! , Set the World On Fire, and Off the Air