Something I Learned Today

I really don’t need to tell you to run out and grab those F.U.’s reissue CD’s on Taang!, right? I trust that you have that one covered. Lots of folks blather on about SSD or DYS as the definitive Boston bands but in my mind they don’t come close to the F.U.’s. Kill For Christ and My America are essential components of the US Hardcore template. Even the more rocked out Do We Really Want To Hurt You? still delivers a hammering. KFTH has a wealth of information for those looking for background info

The below is a live set recorded 4/1/84 on WERS in Boston, originally included as the second record on the Origin of the Straw Dogs reissue on Lost & Found. Bottom line: this thing is fucking nuts. I don’t think it’s physically possible to listen to the first 30 seconds of “Rock The Nation” and not get a sense of the incipient mayhem. The set draws heavily from the Do We Really Want To Hurt You Material, but the versions here make the studio takes sound tame. 20 tracks, 38 minutes. Fucking hardcore, dude:

F.U.’s - Rock The Nation.mp3
F.U.’s - Peer Police.mp3
F.U.’s - Pennies From Heaven.mp3
F.U.’s - Beast in My Bed.mp3
F.U.’s - Lick My Shiny Boots.mp3
F.U.’s - Shitheads.mp3
F.U.’s - Poor, Poor Pitiful You.mp3
F.U.’s - Twisted William’s Revenge.mp3
F.U.’s - Rock and Roll Mutha.mp3
F.U.’s - Ode to Larry Joe.mp3
F.U.’s - Do We Really Want To Hurt You.mp3
F.U.’s - Promised Land.mp3
F.U.’s - Walking Tall.mp3
F.U.’s - Pushed/Unite or Lose.mp3
F.U.’s - The Beast Within.mp3
F.U.’s - F.U.mp3
F.U.’s - What You Pay For.mp3
F.U.’s - Warlords.mp3
F.U.’s - American Band.mp3

It doesn’t smack you in the face or hit you over the head, but if you give it long enough eventually Breaking Circus will burrow into your brain like a parasite. Adjectives to describe the din include: terse, sharp, jagged, sinister. Musically akin to Roland from Big Black sitting in with Fly on a Wire era Effigies (that all could be suggested by the common locale of Chicago). Former Strike Under guitarist Steve Bjorklund was the mastermind behind Breaking Circus, releasing The Very Long Fuse in 1985. In ‘86 Bjorklund moved up I-94 to Minneapolis and began working with the Rifle Sport rhytm section of Flour and Todd Trainer. Two more recordings followed in 1987 - the simmering The Ice Machine LP and the 6 song zenith Smoker’s Paradise. Enjoy the beauty of “Knife in the Marathon”, the sharp cut of “Eat Lead”, and everything in between:

from The Very Long Fuse
Breaking Circus - Precision.mp3
Breaking Circus - (Knife in the) Marathon.mp3
Breaking Circus - Christian Soldiers.mp3

from The Ice Machine
Breaking Circus - Song of the South.mp3
Breaking Circus - Took a Hammering.mp3
Breaking Circus - Where.mp3

from Smoker’s Paradise
Breaking Circus - Three Cool Cats.mp3
Breaking Circus - Shockhammer 13.mp3
Breaking Circus - Eat Lead.mp3

You want the story on Boston’s Unnatural Axe? Check out the Axe page on Boston Rock Storybook. Want the abridged version? Hit Break My Face for a brief writeup (including a discograpy). Want a full length retrospective from a Killed By Death hitmaker that doesn’t disappoint? Track down Unnatural Axe Is Gonna Kick Your Ass, a 15 track compilation that captures all of the band’s studio material Yeah, it’s a dopey title but it is apt - there’s lots of killer three chord punk nuggets here, most notably the full 1978 EP. Worth it just for “The Creeper” and “The Man I Don’t Want to Be” (guitar solo and all) if nothing else. Some of the hits:

Unnatural Axe - They Saved Hitlers Brain.mp3
Unnatural Axe - Summertime.mp3
Unnatural Axe - The Creeper.mp3
Unnatural Axe - The Man I Don’t Wanna Be.mp3
Unnatural Axe - Tonight We Fight.mp3
Unnatural Axe - Sex Substitute.mp3

Notes:
>> Unnatural Axe alive and well - on Myspace (source of photo)
>> 2006 interview from Razorcake
>> 1979 interview from BGN

It’s been a crazy week between work, home, travel, and feeling sick as a dog. As a result you get more lazy blogging. Found on freesofree.net, the below is a wild sounding live set from the original (and now reformed) line up of Dinosaur Jr recorded in 1989 at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO. The setlist is choice mix of the band’s first three LP’s, heavy on the You’re Living All Over Me material. This is a warts and all recording - the sound drops out on “Bulbs of Passion” and “The Lung” grinds to a halt because of an equipment error - but around “Kracked” the shit kicks into high gear and you’re treated to some mighty Mascis freak outs. This isn’t as crisp a recording as the JayLouMurph live boot from the same time period, but I prefer this for setlist alone. Mega bigness from a band at the top of their game:

Dinosaur Jr - Bulbs of Passion.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - In A Jar.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - The Lung.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Kracked.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - No Bones.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - The Post.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Raisans.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Lose.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Tarpit.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Yeah We Know.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Severed Lips>Sludgefeast>Chunks.mp3
Dinosaur Jr - Mountain Man.mp3

I’m feeling pretty lazy today, so I’m just going to point you over to the MP3 page on the Butthole Surfers site. I won’t waste anyones time talking about the ugly lawsuit against Touch & Go, or the fact the band hasn’t released a worthwhile record in close to two decades. I generally liked the bands mid ’80’s material, particularly Psychic PowerLess…Another Man’s Sac and Hairway to Steven. But I loved the late 80’s Double Live “official” bootleg for it’s stripped down presentation of the band. To capture the live Butthole Surfer experience I never got to witness first hand I would drop acid and listen to this album. The first time I heard it on acid I was dumbfounded. The second time, I think I cried when I got to “The One I Love”. Soon thereafter I stopped taking acid. I lost the album after I let a shortlived girlffriend borrow it (I think she dated me just to get the record). Luckily, you can get the whole, expanded edition - 29 tracks in total - direct from the band right here. My favorites are below:

Butthole Surfers - Graveyard.mp3
Butthole Surfers - Florida.mp3
Butthole Surfers - Gary Floyd.mp3
Butthole Surfers - Creep In The Cellar.mp3
Butthole Surfers - I Saw An X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas.mp3
Butthole Surfers - Strawberry.mp3

I’m not proud of it now, but one of the ways I dealt with interning at my first college radio station was to steal stuff. In my mind it made up for the fact that I had to sit at a desk and answer the phone while people with less impeccable taste in music got on the air. It was definitely petty theft, consisting mostly of small office supplies, but sometimes I would snag some music I didn’t think would be appreciated. One of my scores was a mix tape of bands recorded live on WFMU, which is how I discovered Dirge. The music was typical of the scene and times - late ’80’s New Jersey moshcore with gravelly vocals and screaming “wheeeeeeee” metal leads. Definitely my thing at the time. (not so much now, but still…)

As you can tell, the filler up above is meant to consume some lines as I don’t have much information on Dirge. They released an LP, 12″ and 7″ and had a track on the Hardcore Breakout USA compilation. That’s all I got - if you have more then jump in and share. Below are a couple of cuts from the band’s 12″ records and demo. You can download all of the material I have here

from 1988’s Soulstorm LP, released on Anthrax Records
Dirge - Screwed To Death.mp3
Dirge - Superficial.mp3
Dirge - Self-Destruct.mp3

from 1990’s Fleshcrawler 12″ on Old World
Dirge - Corrupted.mp3
Dirge - Predictions.mp3
Dirge - Small Scene.mp3

a couple from Dirge’s 1987 demo. Crappier production, but the sound is still powerful
Dirge - Resurrection.mp3
Dirge - Threat of Power.mp3
Dirge - Negative Sanctions.mp3

Notes:
** Vocalist Jacko Monahan currently books shows at Brighton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey
** Anyone have a copy of 1989’s Matrix 7″ they’re willing to part with? Are the songs different than the versions found on Fleshcrawler?
** Also would love to here that WFMU session again if anyone happens to have it!

On the earlier Black Flag someone asked that I resurrect my Bl’ast! post from a couple years back over. I’m game. Bl’ast were one of my late 80’s favorites - I would bust out It’s In My Blood for anyone that would listen. Forming in Santa Cruz in the early ’80’s as M.A.D. (check their track on the Not So Quiet on the Western Front compilation below) before adding guitarist Mike Neider and becoming Bl’ast in 1984. I originally wrote:

a group of Santa Cruz skaters that absorbed all of the lessons that Black Flag could teach and then took it to the next level. Using Flag’s Damaged as a starting point, the band layered varying rhythm shifts, unique guitar sounds, and powerful drumming that resulted in satisfying hardcore… while the Black Flag influence is appreciable on some of the bands earlierwork, I never considered them derivative. And what the hell, after Damaged Black Flag produced a lot of dreck.

The piledriving Ginn-inspired guitar is obvious, especially on the band’s 1986 Power Of Expression LP. Not a bad thing at all, in my opinion:
Bl’ast - Our Explanation.mp3
Bl’ast - Break It Down.mp3
Bl’ast - Look Into Myself.mp3

Original guitarist Steve Stevenson left the band prior to the recording of 1987’s It’s In My Blood. Even with one guitarist the sound is still big and powerful, benefitting from more original material:
Bl’ast - Sometimes.mp3
Bl’ast - Tomorrow.mp3
Bl’ast - Something Beyond.mp3

1989’s Take The Manic Ride was the band’s last LP and was a let down, hindered by crappy production. The drums sound hollow, the guitars muffled, and Clifford Dinsmore’s vocals, rough and raw on the first two albums, at times sound muted and whispered.
Bl’ast - Overdrive.mp3
Bl’ast - Out of Alignment.mp3

For reference, here’s the MAD cut from Not So Quiet…

M.A.D. - Holocaust.mp3

Notes:
** Bl’ast on Myspace (source of image)
** Informative Wikipedia entry
** Buy Bl’ast releases