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.
