Something I Learned Today

I’ll be off next week taking care of some work related crap, expect some new stuff the first week in October. And now the important question - can anyone recommend a good record (and by “record” I mean vinyl) store in the Denver/Boulder area? Let me know in the comments.

Later…

So I’ve seen a couple of places now that Naked Raygun will be reuniting to play the Riotfest this November in Chicago. And now it seems the question everyone is asking is “Will John Haggerty be playing?!??”. The hell if I know. If I was a gamblin’ man I’d bet no; Naked Raygun did a couple of reunion shows in 1997 with Haggerty’s beleagured replacement Bill Stephens on guitar, and unless their is some kind of cosmic alignment I don’t see Jeff Pezzati and Haggerty reuniting (not that I know anything more about their split than anyone else). So yeah, you want Raygun you’re most likely getting Bill Stephens on guitar - I’m sure it will be fun regardless…

You most likely know the story here, but I’ll give it the nickel setup. Stephens was recruited to fill the void created after Haggery left to form Pegboy and was the guitarist for the band’s much maligned Raygun… Naked Raygun. Years later it’s tough to fault Stephens as you can barely hear his guitar due to the terrible, muddy production. In contrast, the band’s last batch of songs are pretty decent. In 1997 Raygun re-recorded 4 songs from their last demo session and released them along with a bunch of other goodies as The Last of the Demohicans. The songs were mostly solid and represented a big improvement from Raygun… Naked Raygun. Here’s three of the four, the highlight being “Hot Atomics”:

Naked Raygun - Off The Edge.mp3
Naked Raygun - Hot Atomics.mp3
Naked Raygun - The Way It’s Supposed To Be.mp3

And just to be fair to Stephen’s, below are a couple of live Naked Raygun favorites from the 1997 reunion shows that feature that big “Chicago Sound” guitar (from Free Shit!)

Naked Raygun - I Don’t Know.mp3
Naked Raygun - Treason.mp3
Naked Raygun - Vanilla Blue.mp3
Naked Raygun - Surf Combat.mp3
Naked Raygun - New Dreams.mp3

A couple more great Portland, Oregon punk rock tracks here, this time from The Stiphnoyds. These guys would release a 3 song 7″ on Greg Sage’s Trap Records in late 1979-early 1980 along with a couple of tracks on the 10/29/79 Portland comp. The songs are rough and cool, with a great shock/stun guitar sound. This was reissued on Sage’s Zeno Records in 2001 along with other Trap singles (Wipers, Sado-Nation, Neo Boys) as the History of Portland Punk (which is where these tracks are from). The original disc is now out of print, but you can buy a CD-R of the material direct from Zeno for $6. Not too bad at all. Rave Up also reissued the 7 inch along with a good sounding but not terribly essential live set from 1979 on one LP back in 2002 (you can still grab that one from Interpunk). The band briefly reformed in a couple of years back and even had their own website for awhile, but all traces now appear to be gone. Any more info out there?

Stiphnoyds - Afraid of the Russians.mp3
Stiphnoyds - Mom’s a Fake.mp3
Stiphnoyds - Radiation.mp3

Cover image from Punk Rock Picture Sleeves

This has gotta be quick tonight, which brings me to Pittsburgh’s Mud City Manglers. I don’t much about ‘em other than they released a couple of never seen singles and an LP, 2001’s Heart Full of Hate, that’s chucked with snotty punk rock ‘n roll tunes about beer, shit talkers, and mother fuckers. And yeah, this may just be the shortest post I’ve thrown out there, but fuck it - I’m beat and in need of a beer.

Mud City Manglers - Shit You Talk.mp3
Mud City Manglers - 1234 Motherfucker.mp3
Mud City Manglers - One More Beer.mp3

First off - I didn’t go. These days I can barely drive 60 miles to Binghamton to take in X and the Rollins Band, let alone 700+ miles to Chicago for 3 days. Not that I didn’t want to though. Joe at Last Days of Man on Earth posted his take on the weekend and made me so envious I could spit. A couple of days late (I meant to post this before the festivities began last Friday), here’s a mix of the the bands I would have liked to have seen. Tops on my list would be the Didjits and Scratch Acid, both worth the price of admission according to early reports. Feel free to share your opinions of the event in the comments

Girls Against Boys - In Like Flynn.mp3
Pegboy - Dangerwood.mp3
Killdozer - King of Sex.mp3
Didjits - Agent 99.mp3
PW Long - The Shakin’ Fears.mp3
Negative Approach - Whatever I Do.mp3
Scratch Acid - She Said.mp3
Man or Astroman? - Linear Particle Accelerator.mp3
Big Black - Big Money.mp3
Shellac - Wingwalker.mp3
Arcwelder - Down To The Wire.mp3
The Monorchid - Southern Fried Wonton.mp3

And in case you missed it, there’s a bunch of video clips of the action available on YouTube.

I’m gonna look to you guys for some help on Rats of Unusual Size. I know they formed in 1989 and released material through the ’90’s, and I think they were based out of NYC. Other than that, I have nothing. I never heard their albums, but the band’s two 7″s on Vital were filled with funny garage rawk songs celebrating the joy of menstruation, slackers, and the horrible truth about tuna. The first single, 1990’s “Can’t Call You/Flipper Is Dead” still sounds great, and is the choice pick of the two. The 4 song Elephant Man 7″ is a little more straight ahead rock, not as good but still kinda entertaining. Take a listen and decide for yourself.

Rats of Unusual Size - Can’t Call You.mp3
Rats of Unusual Size - Flipper is Dead.mp3

While they’ve been long overshadowed by their western Massachusetts contemporaries Deep Wound, The Outpatients get more play on my on stereo these days. Scott Helland formed the Outpatients in 1982 with brother Vis Helland and drummer Mike Kingsbury while still the bassist for Deep Wound. During their hardcore heyday the band never released anything beyond compilation tracks, which included cuts on Bands That Could Be God, Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Volume 2, and the Empty Skulls cassette. The Outpatients relocated to New York and continued on into the 90’s though I’ve never heard this later material. The band’s early demos were released on CD in the mid-90’s as Hardcore Outcasts Revisited 82-84. 14 tracks of tight, fast hardcore with a sick grinding guitar sound.

Outpatients - Light Blue.mp3
Outpatients - Fight.mp3
Outpatients - GPD.mp3
Outpatients - Push-Button Warfare.mp3
Outpatients - Jenny Gurd.mp3