Something I Learned Today

Columbus, Ohio in the early 90’s must have been a cool place to be, what with all of the great garage punk bands and labels - New Bomb Turks, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Cheater Slicks, Datapanik records, and of course Gaunt. 400 miles away from Columbus in Rochacha it was also an exciting time, as it seemed there was a new Turks or Gaunt single hitting the bins every month or so. Man, 1993 was a fucking fantastic year, but I’m getting off track. Gaunt had a way of delivering a big noisy fuck you topped off with a pop coating to help it all wash down, displayed nicely on a bunch of singles, a couple of EP’s and some great albums. If you don’t have I Can See Your Mom from Here or Sob Story just what are you waiting for? Go grab them. The later albums (Yeah, Me Too and Kryptonite) are also pretty decent. I can’t comment on the one and only major label effort Bricks and Blackouts, as I never got around to picking that one up. Only thing missing is a singles compilation, a shame since some of their greatest moments were found on 7 inch slabs. If you don’t believe me then check out “Spine” below. I’ve done my best to put together some of the band’s best 1992-1993 moments, though I’m missing the Fielders Choice EP and the split w/ the New Bomb Turks. If anyone has a copy of these available (for sale or on mp3) then get in touch.

RIP Jerry Wick (1967-2001)

from 1992’s Jim Motherfucker 7″
Gaunt - Jim Motherfucker.mp3
Gaunt - Spine.mp3

from 1992’s Whitey The Man 10″ EP
Gaunt - Silly Watches.mp3
Gaunt - Back Off.mp3
Gaunt - Salvation Army.mp3
Gaunt - Ignored.mp3
Gaunt - Whitey.mp3
Gaunt - USA.mp3
Gaunt - Jim Motherfucker.mp3

from 1993’s Pop Song 7″
Gaunt - Pop Song.mp3
Gaunt - No Hope.mp3

from 1993’s Good Bad Happy Sad 7″
Gaunt - Good Bad Happy Sad.mp3
Gaunt - Quality of Armor.mp3 (Guided By Voices)

from 1993’s Solution 7″ (came with Speed Kills #5)
Gaunt - Solution.mp3 (Pere Ubu)
Gaunt - Black Cat.mp3

So Joe over at LDOMOE gave me a shout out last week while writing about the almighty Didjits - much appreciation, man. Without a doubt, the Didjits are at the top of my list when it comes to all time fave bands (check here). After the Didjits demise in the mid-90’s main Didjit Rick Sims became a hired gun before settling back in as the frontman for the Gaza Strippers. Make no mistake, this is not the Didjits - the music here is more in the vein of the 70’s hard rock of latter day Turbonegro and other Scandinavian neo glamrockers. The Gaza Strippers best moments have a touch of the deranged lunacy of the best Didjits material; their worst are juvenile punkish cock rock. If it was anyone else besides Rick Sims I’m not sure how much I would like this, but hell, I’m a fan of Sims’ high pitched shrieking and fuck you attitude. As it stands the band put out four releases before packing it in 2003. I’ve handpicked my favorites from the band’s material

From 1999’s Laced Candy CD on Man’s Ruin
Gaza Strippers - Automat.mp3
Gaza Strippers - Yin and Yang The Flower Pot Man.mp3 (Love and Rockets)

From 2000’s 1,000 Watt Confessions on Lookout
Gaza Strippers - Juvenile Detention.mp3
Gaza Strippers - As Long As It Feels Good.mp3

From 2001’s Electric Bible - The Last Testament disc, which contained the first single, demo tracks, and a couple of tracks from Laced Candy
Gaza Strippers - Lipstick Vogue.mp3 (Elvis Costello)
Gaza Strippers - Stinger.mp3 (b-side to first single)

From 2002’s From the Desk of Dr. Freepill on Nicotine
Gaza Strippers - Almost Instant Karma.mp3
Gaza Strippers - Sheer Heart Attack.mp3 (Queen)

Notes:
> Original Didjits played some reunion gigs last fall around the big T&G block party dates. Please, let there be more of those!
> Buy Gaza Strippers material

I considered adding The Hookers cover of “Halloween” to my Halloween mix post, but thought better of it. Why? Well, The Hookers really deserve a post of their own. I can’t think of band that has a cruder, more over the top level of misdirected machismo running through their body of work than this Lexington, KY quartet. Not that that’s a bad thing though. It’s kind of entertaining to hear songs that beat you over the head with ham-fisted wanna be metal lyrics celebrating Satan, sluts, evil, dope, and sexual prowess. And really, the music does rock - think early Nashville Pussy minus all the sophistication (vocalist Adam “Rock and Roll Outlaw” Neal was the original drummer for Nashville Pussy).

It all comes together on the band’s two shining moments - 1997’s Satan’s Highway LP and the 1998 split 10″/CD with Electric Frankenstein. Both releases delivered a mix of hard driving metal tinged punk, goofball braggadocio, and throat shredding vocals that really does kick ass - you simply can’t deny the greatness of tracks such as “Rock ‘n’ Roll Motherfucker” and “Tear You Apart”. I hopped off The Hookers bandwagon after these two releases, ignoring subsequent releases like Black Visions of Crimson Glory. So someone clue me in - this was all a joke, right? I mean, a band that covers Spinal Tap (”Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”) has to be laughing with us…

from their debut 7″
The Hookers- Kiss My Fuckin’ Ass.mp3

from Satan’s Highway
The Hookers - Get Fucked.mp3
The Hookers - Tear You Apart.mp3
The Hookers - We Don’t Fuck Around.mp3

from the split with Electric Frankenstein
The Hookers - Rock ‘n’ Roll Motherfucker.mp3
The Hookers - Runaway Nightmare.mp3
The Hookers - Let’s Get High.mp3

Notes:
** Toestubber has an informative Hookers post. Check it out

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

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

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

I honestly don’t think I can describe Baltimore’s Jakkpot any better than this description of the band from :30 Under DC

Great stupid punk rock… Musically this is killer stuff: big ol’ Black Market Baby style guitar (courtesy of Keith Campbell), pounding rock drums, and lyrics about getting your dick sucked. If that’s yer thing, then so is this.

And that really sums it up. I missed out on the band’s singles on American Punk, Junk and Ken Rock (so if anyone wants to hook me up…), but I was fortunate enough to track down an album/singles comp(?) called Lie, Cheat, ‘n Steal a couple of years back, which is where these tracks come from. So yeah, Jakkpot’s all about thick guitar riffs, tough vocals, and leather jackets - great stupid punk rock:

Jakkpot - 3,2,1 - Go!.mp3
Jakkpot - You Ain’t Shit.mp3
Jakkpot - Hit or Miss.mp3
Jakkpot - Just One Fix.mp3

Here are two split singles I’ve been meaning to post but never seemed to fit in. If I recall, the Jawbreaker & Jawbox split was released on Selfless in 1991 and features the two big Jaw bands busting out the covers (Buzzcocks for Jawbox, a U2/Misfits/Vapors medley for Jawbreaker). I was never huge on Jawbreaker, but I’ve always loved “With or Without U2″. The Jawbox cut “Airwaves Dream” is also pretty great.

Jawbreaker - With or Without U2.mp3
Jawbox - Airwaves Dream.mp3

The Tar/Jawbox split 7″ was a joint venture between Dischord (77.7) and Touch and Go (113.3) Each band had an original tune called “Static” that the other covered. The results? Each song sounds almost indistinguishable from the original. Not necessarily a bad thing, but nothing earth shattering either. The Jawbox track was included on the band’s My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidents compilation. The Tar track hasn’t been comped elsewhere.

Jawbox - Static.mp3
Tar - Static.mp3

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

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