OBLIVION - off the record 1+2

What we have here is a carefully assembled collection of nearly all of the released tracks from chicago's OBLIVION spanning the years of 1993-2000 (their early cassettes are the only thing not represented here) that didn't appear on their three albums. I included their half of the split they did with Man Dingo as well, as it is a small collection of songs that I don't think is in print anymore. The backbone of this comes from the 1998 compilation Suckers From the Start, released by sinister records. I have retained all of the tracks from there aside from the 3 live ones that were put close to the end of it. All art for every release will be represented in itunes, and I tried to go by known recorded song dates rather than actual release dates, cuz some of this stuff didn't see the light of day for a couple years after it was recorded.

I have a lot to say about Oblivion, but not enough time to say it. For now I will leave it at this:putting together this (mostly)chronological collection of songs was a labor of love, and I still fucking love this band. Once upon a time I complimented Pete on the handful of AMAZING split 7"s they had put out in a short period of time, and he told me something about how they liked to make sure that they were always giving their absolute best with the singles, as they were an efficient and good way to get more people into the band, or something like that. Eventually they called it a day in the spring of 2000, when drummer Brian left for Florida for a dream job working with large animals. Ideas for a parting EP were thrown around, but as far as I know nothing was ever recorded for that. The band did a short but sweet set at the Sludgeworth reunion show less than a year later, and then came back for the event of a lifetime that was the rematch of Apocalypse Hoboken vs Oblivion, in the winter of 2006.
Maybe one day one of the most hardworking (and never a rotating cast of players!) bands out of the Chicagoland area will get the recognition they deserve.


I split this into two volumes because I know some of you (very few) still use CDs, and this was too much to fit on one cd-r. Below is a list of all of the tracks and where they originally appeared. Items marked * are unreleased elsewhere and appeared more or less exclusively on the aforementioned Suckers From the Start CD.

ONE: download here.
1. Theodore (Product 7")
2. Fester (Product 7")
3. Yellow #5 (Product 7")
4. Fear of China (Full Blown Grover 7")
5. Autumn Salt Apathy Flytrap (Full Blown Grover 7")
6. Don't Sit Down (Full Blown Grover 7")
7. Up On the Housetop (A Very Punk Christmas 2x7" compilation)
8. In the Dumpster (Dumpsterland zine 7" compilation)
9. Fantastic Plastic (A Taste of Chicago compilation)
10. Uncontrollable Urge* [Devo]
11. We Had to Say It Again (split 7" with No Empathy)
12. Stolen (split 7" with No Empathy)
13. She's Moving to Paris (Achtung Chicago Drei compilation)
14. Hamster Man (The Check's in the Mail compilation)
15. Ellen McCarthy*
16. Gar (Marc's a Dick and Gar's a Drunk: The Johann's Face Story compilation)
17. Burn in Hell* [Twisted Sister]
18. Hey Chewbacca (The ABC's of Punk compliation)
----
TWO: download here.
1. Jonquil (split 7" with Humble Beginnings)
2. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (split 7" with Humble Beginnings) [AC/DC]
3. Stairway to Heaven*
4. Before You Go Away*
5. S.W.A.R. (split CD with Man Dingo)
6. September (split CD with Man Dingo)
7. Grandma Neusbaum, whoa nellie (split CD with Man Dingo)
8. D.A.D featuring Olde Earle (split CD with Man Dingo)
9. The Great American Rock and Roll Tragedy (split CD with Man Dingo)
10. Party Dress (split CD with Man Dingo)
11. Stupidtry (split CD with Man Dingo)
12. The Day the Calvary Got Gum Cancer (split 7" with God's Reflex)
13. The Rock Game (split 7" with God's Reflex)
14. Oak Park (Apocalypse Hoboken vs. Oblivion split 7")
15. Polaroid Man (Apocalypse Hoboken vs. Oblivion split 7")
16. Ice Cream Man* [Van Halen]
17. The Trooper* [Iron Maiden]
18. Whiplash* [Metallica]
19. She's a Brawler (Did Somebody Say Rock? 4 way split 7")
20. South Side Story (Magnetic Curses compilation)


As far as I know, Pete, Brian and or Scott should possibly still have copies of their self-released "Super Saver Series" CDs, which was a bargain priced single disc including their first two albums, Stop Thief! and Shoot Me a Waco. If any of them can confirm this and would like me to put contact information here, they should let me know.

Mr. Velocity Hopkins - S/T

(1999, Insignificant/Bulb)

Mr. Velocity Hopkins (a/k/a Pete Larsen, former head honcho of Bulb Records & member of Couch (r.i.p.) and 25 Suaves (???) puts together a then mostly unknown now somewhat "superstar" cast of players to execute his first solo album. And execute it does, this thing fucking slays. Its some kind of mix between of extreme free jazz, heavy metal and no wave.. I don't know. The old Bulb site says this:

"Long overdue and anxious, Mr. Velocity Hopkin's testament to space and time is here for you. 22 songs of hate and family breakup come blasting through your speakers in a free metal marathon that won't quit unless you can name all the players involved. Includes members of Galen, Easy Action and the famous L.A. Ellington, former drummer of the Pterodactyls. Get it for the cover alone."

Slightly reminiscent of some era or another of The Flying Luttenbachers, that only makes sense because Weasel is supposedly on this one.
I do not know who played what, maybe that is a studio secret. The Liner notes list these people: Aaron Dilloway (Galen, Couch, Wolf Eyes, etc..), Harold Richardson (?), Andrew Wilkes Krier (Ancient Art of Boar, Andrew WK), 'Weezel Walter' (Flying Luttenbachers, Chicago Sound, XBXRX, Hatewave, etc etc), Steev Kenny (Galen, Pterodactyls), & Doug Haynes as the players on the album. Actually, it doesn't even say they do anything, so maybe it's just a thank you list. Who the fuck knows? (Someone knows.)

UPDATE: Weasel is definitely NOT on this album.

Tracks:
1. Kill Everyone Now
2. Back to the Canyon
3. Systematic Death
4. The Smell of the Pelican
5. Immortal
6. Sad Wings of Destiny
7. Excacerbate Yourself
8. Two Heads, One Door
9. Bricklicker
10. Jet Velocity!
11. Rooting Beans Makes a Meal
12. X Japan
13. Get Out
14. Action Camera
15. Magas Refusal
16. Kings of Brazil
17. Anonymous
18. 22 Golden Hits
19. Triumph
20. Cake is Love
21. Ultrastupid

get it here.

The Mercury Players - 5 Songs

I really don't know much about these guys other than that they existed in the early '90s, and was one of the many precursors to the monster that was US Maple. Todd Rittmann & Pat Samson both later served time in that band (Todd for it's full run.) This band also included Jack Ahern, Rey Rehayem, and Tom Mioducki.

The songs are pretty good and you can hear some of the sounds that said performers would later carry on and expand in other groups. These 5 songs are from one 7", a split 7" with Festering Rinyanyons, and a compilation track. If anyone knows of any more recorded output from these guys, let me know...

Tracks:
1. Hollywood or Bust
2. Art Rock Takes a Holiday
3. Erectionist
4. Hopeless
5. New Hooker Abatement Rule

get it here.

Nondor Nevai - Diabolical Interventions 7"

EDIT: physical copies of this record available for $5 at nondornevai.com



Nondor put this 7" out on the flemish masters label sometime around 99' or '00. I forget which. It doesn't really matter either, because on the website he put it down as "UNAVAILABLE" or "NOT FOR SALE" or something like that. I emailed him way back when it was still active and asked "why not?" to which he told me something like "oh shit, maybe I should be selling those." I ended up picking up a copy from Weasel who had a handful of them sent to him.

I have to say this however. Nondor didn't like the mastering job or the pressing job or something in the process of getting his sounds to record - he mentioned that it sounded something like a "squeaky balloon", and really it kind of does. Still, I don't really think you're going to find this one anywhere else, so enjoy it here for now.
(I saw a used copy for .99 a couple years ago at reckless records - they mis-tagged it as a "HiM" record!)

2 tracks. the cover is actually a plain white sleeve with silver stickers pasted onto it. the silver did not trasnfer so well in the scanning process...

get it here.

complete vindictives singles 1991-2002

Like the emergence of "no wave revival" bands that were popping up like crazy in Chicago in the mid-90s that I only caught the tail end of, The Vindictives existed as a link between "Old Chicago" and "New Chicago" when it came to the local punk rock bands. I caught on a few seconds too late. The band seemed to have one of the most complicated existences of Chicago, backing into a hermit-like way of not playing shows for more than half of their on again/off again time on the earth. Somewhere during my 8th grade or freshman year I ended up with the "Alarm Clocks/Left for Dead" single during some kind of trade with my friend Tyler, and it would be a while before I got around to listening. When I did I felt stupid to have waited so long - Alarm Clocks was like nothing I had yet heard in the punk world, and Left For Dead was a depressing masterpiece. I would sit in my room with my then puny record collection, flipping that two song single over and over. I knew I was too late as I had read of their demise, though plenty of recordings existed. During the wave of "good" lookout releases (thanks to Green Day), they seemed to pick up this band that Ben Weasel had at one time played in (Screeching Weasel had been a lookout signature as well.) A "singles" collection called "The Many Mood Of the Vindictives" was released, which featured all of their past releases up to that point in one collection. The difference was there were tweaks and re-recordings of most of these songs, to reflect their then "new" lineup. Ben's playing was taken out of the mix, and Billy Blastoff's guitar work had been recorded in it's spot. This makes for a much different vision of the singles, and with all of the rearrangements it may as well be considered a proper album. Also existing at this point were "Partytime For Assholes", a brilliant album of cover songs, and another album of covers, their rendition of The Ramones "Leave Home". (Following their peers Screeching Weasel & The Queers, later to be followed by Boris the Sprinkler, Parasites, Beatnik Termites and who knows how many other bands in a series of Ramones cover albums) Even later came a "concept album", Hypno-Punko which had a few moments but might have proven the point that they should have remained a "singles band."

And now for a quick little personal story. There was a time during the mid '90s when Brian and Dave of the now legendary Fireside Bowl were letting small distributors take up space at various punk shows. This was before Brian started his more concentrated "distrobot", which contained records he enjoyed selling & all available skin graft releases, as he had just assumed the responsibility of carrying that heavy load on his back while founder Mark Fisher took a few year vacation to Vienna. A small handful of people would set up shop from time to time in the back of the bowling alley to sell their stuff. There was "The Old Man", who did a zine as well (I may still have a copy), who at one unfortunate (for him) event had a box full of promotional posters and stickers. My friends and I decided to take all of the stickers he had of the then mostly unknown Anti-Flag and decorate the Fireside's quarter machines. He yelled at us the forth or fifth time we came around his huge box looking for more stickers. There was Vic Vacume selling some records, and then there was the V.M.L. box. V.M.L. stood originally for "Vindictives Music Limited", and later evolved into a series that was V.M.Live, which captured various shows from what I think I remember being a single microphone into a DAT recorder(most or all recordings came from fireside?), and then put together 7"s with a handful of songs from each set. While I realize now that the person I was emailing with questions about the future of the Vindictives and various releases of theirs may very well have been the same guy running the distro, it was a much younger person who caught my eye one empty night at the bowling alley. She was sitting around with some friends who were holding up the back cover of "Many Moods" and really letting her have it. She seemed embarrassed when I took my eye off of the records I had been browsing and let out a little bit of a laugh at the not so flattering closeup of Joey Vindictive, sweat, pimples and all that takes up the whole back cover of the LP edition (and smaller but the same on the CD) as I acknowledged that it was a good record.
"That's my dad." She told me.
"Oh, wow!" I told her as I handed over $4 for the bootleg Descendents 7" I had picked out.

That beautiful daughter disappeared sometime that summer and I never saw her again. She WAS on the back covers of one of the post-lookout Screeching Weasel albums, but other than that I never saw anything of her otherwise. Oh well I suppose.

So while the world waits for yet another re-issue of songs that have probably appeared in some form or another on at least two different releases, I bring you what I think is the complete singles collection of The Vindictives. 42 tracks. Figure it out yourself. itunes will display all of the proper cover art for you.


get it here.

TUESDAY - demos '96/97

Tuesday were from Elgin and came from the great slapstick breakup in 1996.... I liked these guys. They played a lot of shows as a three piece, did the demo tape, had some of it released on a cd called 'early summer', which surprisingly not on it as it was the best song from this tape.. then they released a full length album called 'freewheelin', added a new member after that and kind of slowly faded away as Dan moved on to do bigger "better" things. I saw these guys so many times from the beginning to the end, which went pretty quick. One show in Milwaukee I saw them do a cover of 'surrender' by cheap trick and they never did it again. The last time I saw them was some "small" VFW show for food not bombs that I can confirm had My Lai playing, and maybe any of these other bands: The Valentines, The Broadways, and maybe even a veeeery early incarnation of The Brokedowns, but if i'm remembering it right maybe those guys (and they were all different guys except for Bronco) were just AT the show. Regardless, it was mostly unattended, bands & friends were playing softball out back, it was some Sunday night at the end of the summer and I had school the next day. Tuesday did a lot of great new songs that they had been playing out for a while, and I was really hoping to see a new album/release, but in an instance that plagues the punk rock world quite often this never came to be.

By that night Dan was already in the process of moving on into the rockstar world of the band "Matt Skiba featuring the Alkaline Trio" (i think that is what they are called), I don't know what Matt Stamps or Tyler did after Tuesday, but I do know Robbie Kelenberger went on to drum in the Smoking Popes (post reunion) before quitting that band to be a manager somewhere, or something like that.
Enjoy.

Sound quality here is awful - definitely has the "cassette" feel that the source of these tapes were... nothing much to do about that.

Tracks 1-6 are the UNRELEASED 'freewheelin' demos, which have a more raw sound than they ended up having on the more pop oriented album, and two of the tracks hewre never made it to the album or ANYWHERE ELSE for that matter. Tracks 7-14 are the original demo they sold at shows until they had better sounding recordings to sell. not sure the source of this rip, but i would imagine it was probably pepito, as i got a similar tape from him in the mail sometime around 1998.

FREEWHEELIN DEMOS:
01 Dreamers Club
02 Disappear
03 Please Come Home
04 Time To
05 Everything Left Out
06 Too Much of Today
TUESDAY DEMO CASSETTE:
07 It's a Bright Light
08 That's Not Like Me
09 She's Not Your Pet
10 One Day of Peace Please
11 Put a Little Love in Your Heart
12 So Awake
13 Early Summer
14 Everybody Was in Love

get it here.

Lil Princess - Complete Recordings 2003-2006

I met Meg around the time she recorded the first two tracks here. She was so excited to get her celebrity "rap career" started, and I was excited for her too. A year of weird ups and downs and eventually I moved in with her after hanging out with her all summer in 2004. I don't know why it took another year for her to revive the project.

I may be off on this but I think the first show Lil Princess played was either very late in '05 or very very early in '06. The shows consisted of her wearing "outrageous" costumes (which weren't too far off from how she dressed in her day to day life anyways) singing along to the recordings, which Andy would stop/play/stop and also sing backups. At a show at Sonoteque with Hunter from Mahjongg Dj'ing, Meg played, Andy was out of town so I controlled tape duties that night. I think it may have been the same night she was supposed to have her legendary "rap battle" with her new found enemy Gene Lee, someone who was gone from chicago just as quickly as he arrived. Can't remember if the battle ever happened or not, but it was widely advertised among social settings.

Sometime after she started recording, I had the idea for what I thought would be the best split record in the world. Lil Princess on side one, Ricky Kasso on two. RK was my short lived and not well thought out project I started after I more or less laid the whole "Amgam, Inc." moniker I was using since 2000 to rest. Drug problems, temporary insanity, general laziness and a thieving roommate were all very essential in why it DIDN'T come out. Someone Meg was seeing put out the first batch of songs on a cassette, which I felt was some sort of betrayal as I already had the plans to put them on record. Oh well. So she started working on new songs for that record, and those are the ones that fill up the rest of the recording. Things were pretty bleak and depressing in our world and I think it kind of shows through those later songs. Who knows?

Eventually towards the end of that year all of these songs (minus the interview) were put on a cd-r and handed out at Lil Princess shows. If anyone from Chicago got that cd and still has it - please get in touch about sending me a scan of Andy's cover art - I never had a physical copy.

About the recordings: they suffer from really bad 4 track hiss...
I don't know what 1 & 2 were recorded on, but everything else was recorded in the living room of the garbage dump we called home for 2 years at Rockwell "crackwell" & LeMoyne in Humboldt Park, Chicago Illinois. Andy came up with the music behind tracks 3-6, 7 used music from the movie Deep Throat, and tracks 8-10 were arranged by Meg & Andy with beats supplied by Julia a.k.a. Insect Deli. I guessed the track names because I am not sure if they were officially named or not. The interview came sometime later, and was conducted and aired in early 2007 by Chicago filmmaker Usama Alshaibi.

get it HERE.

1. Rapin Yo Dad '03
2. Song 4 Daddy '03
3. Daddy Daddy
4. Mailman Mailman
5. Psychic Hearts (thurston moore)
6. Michelle Ma Belle
7. Sex Song
8. Rapin Yo Dad '06
9. Make Me Sick
10. Matthew Shepard Song
11. J.B.R. Song
12. Song 4 Daddy '06 "Toxic Mix"
13. Interview

The "Complete" Golding Institute Singles

What we have here is a collection of 7"s that came out sometime in the '90s. Brought to us by the Golding Institute, which was the brainchild of one Gregg Turkington (who has ties Caroliner, Zip Code Rapists, Mr Bungle AND Neil Hamburger) who was seemingly inspired by the field recording albums which I believe were prominent in the mid 60's-early '70s. Here are all three 7" records released. Listen at your own risk, I'm not sure these things were meant to be heard all in one sitting!

I was going to put up a collection of Zip Code Rapists stuff a while back, however it is better off that I didn't because you can now once again OWN most of their creative output one one little disc available from eabla.com, a new record label.
There are some ZCR scraps and some live recordings I could put up here one day. Things that didn't make it to that new retrospective/'discography' disc. We'll see.

here they are.

Ipecac Recordings have gone and released ANOTHER Golding Institute Record called FINAL RELAXATION. It will help you through the "tough times" of life and help you take that one last step towards euthanasia. If you are ready to wander into the great beyond, please do not leave this lifetime without a copy of this A+ self help record. Apparently you can order a DIRECT audio file from ipecac, though I couldn't find a link to purchase a hard copy of the album through them. If you have already made up your mind and have a couple days left before your target date of leaving your body I suppose you could order said physical copy from amazon or another online retailer.

Monitor Radio.

Sorry for my disappearance. I'm not going to talk about that. Instead, I will give you these four tracks by the painfully under appreciated band MONITOR RADIO. They came and went. Curious parties would probably be happy to hear that in the beginning a guy named QUINTRON played guitar for them in the beginning, and appears on the first two tracks. While he was in Chicago he also ran the notorious "Milk of Burgundy" venue and put out noisy records of drum clanks. He moved to New Orleans and now makes solid dance records... I have also included a track from the camp skin graft cd, and a live set on WNUR. There are two things stopping this from being a (supposed) discography. Their half of the split with Lake of Dracula, "Brown Leather", though is played on the live track, and a song from the Lumpen Magazine compilation "Chicken Bomb" that is sort of mismatched track wise. Their contribution to that, "outro" is tagged on to another track. Band also featured Jeff Day and Emily O'Hara who were part of Bobby Conn's first backing band, and a guy named Lil Druzzi, who also goes by the name of Gabe Andruzzi and plays in some pretty big band from New York or California or something. Enjoy.

1. Observe: Spies
2. Halloween
3. Insouciance
4. Live on WNUR

get it.
I got the 7" and WNUR tracks from greg.
I got the pictures from some website (I own this record, but was too lazy to scan the cover)

Bobby Conn - Non Album Tracks

1996-2008, no record label.
Tracklist:
1. Who's the Paul?
2. Me, Most of All
3. Never Get Ahead (mostly clean chic a go go mix)
4. Sherman's Stick
5. The Power of the Aadams Family
6. The Language of Love (version 1)
7. I Love You
8. 69 Anne Erotique
9. Nehru Suit
10. The Whistler
11. California
12. The Language of Love (version 2)
13. Death to Wah-Wah
14. Seiko Shenai
15. Got to Get It
16. Washed in the Blood
---
17: BONUS: In the Creamfields by MUNK featuring Bobby Conn on vocals.
---------------------------
get it here.


So this one is a years in progress collection that I started long ago. #1 performer in all of Chicago... These are songs that were on compilations, B sides, imports, etc.... heres a mostly complete list of where all of them came from:
1 - whos the paul 7". 2 - b side to 2nd single "never get ahead", 3. Chic-a-go-go CD, 4 - LUMPEN TIMES "chicken bomb" cd, 5 - some pinball magazine 7", 6, 7 - japanese llovvessonnggs import cd, 8 - skin graft records CAMP SKIN GRAFT NOW WAVE FIGHT OR FUCK cd, 10,11 - Chicago 2018 compilation, 12 - science in the shape of birds cd toyo records, 13 - ???, 14 - golden age japanese import, 15 - the homeland japanese import, 16 - thrill jockey PLUM 7" box set.

The Mushuganas - S/T

1996 (1998?), Rocco Records.
Tracklist:
1. Shut Your Fucken Mouth
2. Shit City
3. Aimed Wrong
4. I Want Attention
5. Another Girl, Another Planet
6. Wright City
7. Everyone
8. Donny Most
9. The Consequence of Overplay
10. Mistreated

get it here.


i'll write something special about this band when i'm feeling up to it. I'm really sick right now.

Jackofficers - Digital Dump

1990,
Tracklist:
01 - Love - o - Maniac
02 - Time Machines, Part 1
03 - Time Machines, Part 2
04 - L.A. Mama Peanut Butter
05 - Do It
06 - Swingers Club
07 - Ventricular Refibulation
08 - #6
09 - Don't Touch That
10 - An Hawaiian Christmas Song
11 - Flush

get it here.

Jacofficers were a one album offshoot for the Butthole Surfers Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus. Supposedly very interested in the house music scene, they came up with their own version. What it sounds more like is a computerised version of a BS without vocals (though Gibby sings on a track or two..) Very sample heavy, very early computer music technology. I've also heard a story that the to guys actually played a couple Jackofficers shows - where they just put a cassette of this album in a boombox and pressed play and kind of danced to it - seems similar in theory to the Strangulated Beatoffs, who have played less than a handful of shows in their 20 year existence (another band for another day..)