V/A - Rat Music For Rat People
When it comes to punk compilations a post on the first Rat Music For Rat People compilation may seem ordinary given all of the rarities now available via blogs, p2p, and usenet. Nothing obscure here by any stretch - all of the bands are legendary and all tracks are live versions of songs that also appear on the official releases of each band (with the exception of the Dils, I believe). So why post it then? Two main reasons:
Not to mention that it’s out of print and the CD version (with only 27 of the 42 cuts from all three volumes) is selling for the ridiculous price of $126 on GEMM. WTF? BY comparison an original press of this LP on Go! can be found for the bargain basement price of $15 on Ebay. Go figure. Below are my favorite tracks from the comp, all recorded live in San Francisco from 1977 through 1982. You can download the whole thing as .rar archive right here.
DOA - America The Beautiful.mp3
Flipper - Life.mp3
Circle Jerks - Live Fast, Die Young.mp3
Bad Brains - You.mp3
Crucifix - Steel Cage Enclosure.mp3
Dead Kennedys - Forward To Death.mp3
Black Flag - Scream.mp3
TSOL - Sounds of Laughter.mp3
Avengers - Cheap Tragedies.mp3
Dils - Blow Up.mp3
22 Comments so far
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I have that cd and it’s pretty weak, leaves out another bad brains ripper. thanks for posting the original.
Wonderful comp and great for posting!
you sure they’re available on official releases by the bands? so far as i’m able to tell, the only tracks available in these versions are dead kennedys and maybe the crucifix track. “blow up” has been on a couple of boots and maybe the dionysus cd, “cheap tragedies” is on the “scavengers” boot, but that’s pretty much it, methinks….
“all tracks are live versions of songs that also appear on the official releases of each band”
back to school, tumors ela!
The CRUCIFIX “steel cage enclosure” version is the best I ever heard of the band! That geetar tune in the midle is just fantastic.
Great post I’m getting the Rar file its so cool and all i have is dialup lol thats why i check out SILT everyday for update……..
Anyway I was planning on starting a blog. A series of short stories about becoming a punk from what WE ALL KNOW are our humble beginnings (can you say lynard skynard) to the good times, violent times, and just plain fucked up things that happen when you live in Poduck, Nowhere were the scene is small, full of posers and assholes abound. Heres my thing I was wondering if there was anyone who would be willing to work things out see if they like the site and let me post a song r two for each entry to the story off of their server (I am broke) just a cool punk rock old school song that matches the vibe or feel of the story. I would really like to find a collaborator on this to help me with the music end since i don’t have a file server and many of you good people have more musical knowledge than me(and lets just say i’ve pretty much downloaded every old school punk/hc mp3 this and all the other blogs i can find have.
If anyone is interested i think it would be a cool blog so reply and we’ll see what gets goin.
DOH! that’s what i get for ingesting all that kool-aid in my formative years….. to that end, i’m pretty sure “cheap tragedies” was originally exclusive to “rat people,” too. it didn’t appear on the pink avengers lp until it was booted as a cd……..
I could care less about how obscure something is. It’s moments like these when I log on to find a record I used to have and forgot all about just staring me in the face, ready to be listened to again, that always makes my day. Plus, I’ve never used soulseek and don’t know how it works. At this point there are so many good blogs going that I prefer the personal touch of people talking about the records they are posting over a faceless download. Even if you think a post is rudimentary, it’s probably some vinyl I no longer have- so keep it coming!
hear ya, malfeitor. i sold all my punk vinyl in seattle in 1990 (pretty big collection, i sold it to U Ron Bondage, the singer of Really Red at his new store (at the time) on capitol hill), and these blogs have been re-upping my music in the last 2 years. i had this one and the second one as well. i’ve spent the last 16 years re-buying my old punk stuff on cd, but what i haven’t been able to find i’ve found here and elsewhere (just found Youth Youth Youth on one and the C.I.A. Gods Guts Guns on another, made my fucking day…)thanks, SILT!!!
This is a classic. One of the first albums I ever bought. First time I ever heard the Bad Bains was on this comp. Bought it the same day I bought Back From Samoa, I think. Thanks for posting it. This is one less LP I haveconvert from my vinyl!
Oh yeah — and I also bought The Avengers CD Presents LP back then and Cheap Tragedies was not on it. THe Dils track was ultr-hard to locate too back then
I picked up this record in the late 80’s and the version of Scream obliterates the studio version. Probably haven’t heard this for at least 10 years. Thanks for posting this.
The listing you have on GEMM has expired now, but there is another listing for $80!?! That’s just insane. Anyway, loved this when I bought way back when it as it introduced me to the Avengers.
I had the cassette version of this back in the early 90’s. I recall it had a smokin’ version of “Weathered Statues” from TSOL. It’s too bad that’s not the TSOL track available, “Sounds of Laughter” was always a so-so track.
Dewtron - it is a good version of Weathered Statues, it’s part of the .rar file if you want to download 60 MB
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CD Presents did a press of this LP in 1982 as well with a very different, and somewhat awful, cover but is otherwise identical. The version of “How Low Can A Punk Get” fomr this comp. is one of my favorite Bad Brains tracks.
Ah, so many smiles! Tracks are from ‘77-’82, and back then we thought that music from 10-20 years (’50s-’60s) prior was pretty corny. This stuff is now 30 years old, so I wonder how it sounds to the ears of kids today. Punk is the new pop. Buy the whole scene in any mall. That is amusing, yet strangely still endearing. At any rate, these tracks still hold up for me, and make me miss my DC punks.
Katya, if I had a sould, I’d call you my sould-mate.
i recently stumbled on to your site, and i am totally jazzed by it. thanks so much for posting these songs. the avengers’ “cheap tragedies” is one of my favorite songs and i havn’t heard it in well over ten years… so thanks for the good work, keep on…
This version of “Steelcase Enclosure” was re-released a few years back on Crucifix’s “Exhibit A.” [http://www.amazon.com/Exhibit-Crucifix/dp/B000005AGL]
By the way, Sothira and Jimmy (v. and g. respectively) are playing together again in Proudflesh. [http://www.myspace.com/proudflesh] They play “Steelcase” live every now and then.
Thank you for this great post!
[…] So there you have it. An OK comp with one very classic song and a couple of other gems. By this time hardcore was starting to show its age and a lot of the energy just wasn’t there. The peak years were probably 81-83. Check out Rat Music for Rat People from 82 on SILT or Paul Mahern’s classic Master Tape from 82 for a comparison. Still, the Black Market Baby track alone is worth it. […]