chest first onto a wooden floor

OBLIVION - off the record 1+2

2010-08-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-21T10:48:00.001-08:00

(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

2010-01-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

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"

2010-01-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T15:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-01-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-03-25T13:26:00.001-07:00

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

2008-02-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

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..)

Black Roses - Original Soundtrack

2008-01-30T07:38:00.001-08:00

1988, Metal Blade Records
Tracklist:
01 - Black Roses - Dance on Fire
02 - Black Roses - Soldiers of the Night
03 - Bang Tango - I'm No Stranger
04 - Black Roses - Rock Invasion
05 - Black Roses - Paradise (We're On Our Way)
06 - Lizzy Borden - Me Against the World
07 - King Cobra - Take It Off
08 - David Michael Phillips - King of Kool
09 - Tempest - Streetlife Warrior
10 - Hallows Eve - D.I.E.

link no longer exists. possibly reported, sorry.

I have a friend who just rented the recently released DVD of the movie Black Roses to my suggestion. He seemed to think it was an utter piece of shit... Its possible that the only reason I hold it in high regard in the "Heavy Metal Horror" genre of films that were coming out in the late '80s is because thats when I first watched it. How could it be bad? Look at that cover! The actual VHS copy of it that was available for rental had a pop up textured cover! (you'd have to remember that VHS sales didn't become a household thing until the '90s, and rental copies were the only ones available from companies - generally at the up and up price of $80 or more) Anyways. The movie is directed by the same guy who directed the Thor starring heavy metal horror "Rock'N'Roll Nightmare" a year or two before. This one was a more realistic feeling story about teenage rebellion and a town (Mill Basin) that didn't want the kids favorite band - Black Roses, to play. With good reason, of course. The bands music leads to demonic posession (oh how typical) Anyways, This soundtrack has a bunch of odd-metal ballads (I guess thats what they can be called), and the Lizzy Borden song is actually top notch, I think its playing in the movie during a scene where the guy who plays Big Pussy on the Sopranos gets EATEN BY A FUCKING STEREO. Go watch this movie, and then tell me if you think it sucks too or if my friend is just an asshole.... right now I really just miss the "Satanic Panic" that I was living through firsthand in the '80s. No, I wasn't too young to absorb it all. It was everywhere...
Another friend, when I was about 10 or 11, went through an issue of Circus magazine that I owned and went to the rock and roll t shirts and crossed out the ones he said were devil worshipping bands -the funny thing was he only seemed to target items like White Lion and Guns and Roses while leaving the obvious satanic insignia of bands such as Slayer and Helloween unmarked. Thats the '80s for ya.

For What? #1

2008-01-28T20:09:00.000-08:00

mix cd, approx. feb 2004.
Tracklist:
01 - Laid Back - White Horse
02 - Coati Mundi Hernandez - K Pasa Pos I
03 - M-A-R-R-S - Pump Up the Volume
04 - Tuxedomoon - Desire
05 - Luniz - I've Got Five On It
06 - Liquid Liquid - Caverns
07 - Grandmaster Flash - White Lines
08 - The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
09 - Stacey Q - Two of Hearts
10 - Nu Shooz - Baby, I Can't Wait
11 - Quintron - Meet Me at the Clubhouse (remix)
12 - Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance
13 - Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock
14 - SSQ - Tonight (We'll Make Live 'Til We Die)
15 - Curtis Mayfield - Pusherman
16 - Suicide - Cheree

get it here.

First in a long line of hit or miss mix cds i've made. Named after something a friend wrote on his sweatpants and pointed at when asked questions around that same period of time. Inspired by drug use. Party drugs, duh. Also took a few rip offs from the Downtown '81 Soundtrack. (A running theme has been taking a soundtrack and running with some of the tracks, as seen later in #3.)

Neil Young - Trans

2008-01-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

Geffen Records, 1982.
Tracklist:
01 - Little Thing Called Love
02- Computer Age
03 - We R in Control
04 - Transformer Man
05 - Computer Cowboy
06 - Hold on to Your Love
07 - Sample and Hold
08 - Mr Soul
09 - Like an Inca
-----
Bonus: 10 minute "jam" of Neil Young with Devo as his backing band doing "My My Hey Hey", with Mark Mothersbaugh on vocals. From the movie Human Highway.

get it here.

Pretty crazy album here. Most of the songs are sung with a vocoder. The first of two albums that ended up getting Neil sued by Geffen records for turning in "unmarketable albums." How cool is that? Anyways, the sound is very different from an average Neil Young Album, as the compositions represent "future music" - somewhere in between the gap between Kraftwerk and Trans Am... but I know its sort of cheesy to and lame to say that. Whatever.

From wikipedia:
"The story behind its creation is very interesting. Neil Young found that when using a vocoder when communicating to his son (who was born with cerebral palsy) he was able to elicit a better response." wow.

Edith Massey - Big Girls Don't Cry 7"

2008-01-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

Egg Records, Unknown year. (approx. 1980ish)
Tracklist (as if it wasn't obvious):
01 - Big Girls Don't Cry
02 - Punks, Get off the Grass

get it here.

As noted on the sleeve pictured above - "the egg lady from pink flamingos", dreamlander Edith Massey reinvented herself as a punk goddess in the late 70s. Unfortunately, this is the only recorded document of that time period, though a few handfuls of photographs exist.
Pretty weird stuff, but really good sounding for some reason.

Short & sweet.

Sidekick Kato - First Class Chump

2008-01-26T17:49:00.000-08:00

1995, Johanns Face Records.
Tracklist:
01 - Yellow Fever
02 - 1st Class Chump
03 - Kruses
04 - Valentine
05 - Elephant Shoes
06 - Bruised
07 - Airborne
08 - Orion
09 - Crashhappy
10 - Liquid Courage

get it here.

They brought the weird into the Chicagoland punk. And I think they brought the beers, too. Or maybe Dave Eaves was smuggling them in that fannypack of his. Love songs about drinking, paintings (and paranoias) about aliens, and tight songwriting. I swear though, I think theres something in the water over in Des Plaines... I think it was at one of their shows where I first spotted the modest Eorl Scholl, who was probably taking care of setting up/taking apart the drums. Hes still around. The rest of the guys I don't know about. Had a strange encounter with Tom Anderson (vocals) a few years back, and the Apocalypse Hoboken vs. Oblivion show in December of last year is probably the only time i've seen any of the other guys since the beginning of this decade...

In a clever way to whore this out (I never said I wouldn't sellout if the price was right... we're all whores anyways, right?) and give some search engine fodder i'll go ahead and make note that the boys choir on Kruses had a lil youngin who went on to be every fifteen year old girls heartthrob cream dream, Matt Skiba. At this point in time ('95) Alkaline Trio wasn't even a cumstain on the map yet, they came around a year later and were actually GOOD for about 10 months... prettysure that he wasn't old enough to legally drink yet, but then again Tom probably wasn't either. This was a while before Dave Eaves put a halt to underage drinking at Fireside.. Oh, and on a better note, the mainstays of Apocalypse Hoboken are also part of that choir. (Todd, Andy, Scott.) I'll probably be adding more of their stuff in the future as it has all gone so hopelessly out of print... ((updated 1/21/10, higher quality image!))

Dot Dot Dot - 2 x 7"

2008-01-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

Emu Records, Complacency records, 1983/1984.
Tracklist:
01 - And Then You Realized You Haven't Left Yet
02 - Was War Morgen
03 - Just
04 - Not To Say

get it here.

Dot Dot Dot started somewhere around 1982 (hey, just like me.) somewhere around Palatine or Schaumburg (IL), featuring Thymme Jones, Chris Block, Jef Bek, Scott Ashley and maybe a few other guys ended up playing with them too. Thymme is the forerunner for Cheer-Accident, who are still going strong despite a rotating cast of 20 or so people over the years and the death of their guitarist/friend Phil Bonnet. I don't know much else about these recordings other than to say C-A has been incorporating the first track into their sets a lot recently, and possibly the second song as well. I'm never going to get the definitive story, but in the mid '90s, three girls who were prominent in their own bands (jodi mecanic - math/duotron/monotrona, kelly kuvo - scissor girls, rose pm - zeek sheck) later started a all girl Dot Dot Dot, and to make things even weirder friends and members of Cheer-Accident were involved on their one and only LP (Dylan "Mick Mars" Posa was a guest, and during that period he was a member of C-A, Bobby Conn sang for them on a track called "valentine" - I have video of a bleach blonde Bobby belting this one out with the girls at their last show ever..) and now, there is a complete waste of time from the same area going under the Dot Dot Dot moniker, though I don't know anything else about them other than they were winners on some Fox "Making the Band" type reality show. Confused? Good. This is the best band to ever use the name....

Apocalypse Hoboken - "easy instructions for complex machinery"

2008-01-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

1995, Johanns Face Records.
Tracklist:
01 - Jerk Lessons
02 - Smoker's Cough
03 - Not My Kind of Guy
04 - Be Alright
05 - Butter on the Rim
06 - Dean is a Punk
07 - Cindy (Nip Drivers)
08 - Kicking my Head In
09 - Hate is Such a Strong Word
10 - Gay Parade
11 - Sixteen
12 - Misguided Memories (the Freeze)
13 - Sorry Bout the Mess
14 - Sorry
15 - Space Glaze
16 - So Emotional
17 - Little Red Riding Hood (Sam Sham and the Pharohs)

get it here.

One day i'll write a very long winded story about my teenage years. One day. Before I die. Maybe. For now I don't really know where to start - it's overwhelming. The fireside bowl was the place to be in Chicago, and if you were around for that and if you were into punk rock in the mid '90s, theres a good chance you saw these guys, unless you absolutely avoided the,. (My toll was probably an average of once every two or three months for these guys. Oblivion, their rivals and good freinds, on the other hand usually played once a month. All that work and barely any recogniton... shame.) A majority of the people who played in this band are still involved in some project or another, with singer Todd ranking most active with at least three new bands under his belt, after a long period of no bands at all. They still rise from the grave from time to time, though those shows are few and far between they're really not something to be missed. I miss these guys more than most bands around from that period (oblivion is on top of that list too) and when I think about how long ago all of this was it just makes me feel like i'm too old for this shit. Maybe. Probably not.

Here is the original album description as recalled by drummer Andy on their now defunct website, with more information that you really asked for:

"Todd insisted on this title, and even had a lyric by the same title, but never used it. We had to record this quickly to finish it for our summer tour, so we've always had little bitches about it. We finally got to do a Nip Drivers song, and I think we did a Freeze cover, too (now there's an original idea). Whereas on past releases Bill and Scott did the majority of the songwriting, now everyone was gettin involved, which made it really fun and different. The cover was our take on The Rolling Stones' "Exile On Main Street", though the only thing we ever heard about it was, "Why are the KKK on the cover? Do you like the KKK? You're going to get in TROUBLE!" As of today, we still haven't gotten 'in trouble', Punk Rock is soooo daring these days. Also, the song "Kicking My Head In" was taken a little too literally. While we were trying to poke holes in "homophobic logic", some people just didn't understand the black humor we intend to inject into our songs. ("Gay Parade" has nothing to do with gay people, by the way). The first song should be a dead give-away as to how we feel about those who take everything at face value. "Little Red Riding Hood" became a regular set closer, and I think we've played "Sorry" live twice. "So Emotional", one of our favorite songs, with guest vocals by Tom Little Face from Sidekick Kato, has never been played live, because screaming for three minutes straight makes Todd a dull boy. "Dean Is a Punk", I think, is about someone in particular, not named Dean, though. The "Baby" (LP insert, CD back cover) is Todd's baby brother, Skylar."

Bobby Conn - Self Titled (LP Version)

2008-01-24T06:40:00.001-08:00

1997, Truckstop/Atavistic.
Tracklist:
01 - The Sportsman
02 - I Love You
03 - Whos the Paul?
04 - Crimson and Clover
05 - No Kids, No Money

REMOVED - fire records uk plan on adding this material to their upcoming reissue of bobby's s/t album! here is what i had written here for archival purposes:

He's still making great albums to this day, but in 1997 Bobby was a lot more edgy, and the music was a lot more raw. Hes since gone on to make very polished yet amazing albums (why his only recognition seems to be in Europe i'll never be sure) and while this one is almost completely different in style, its just as good. Back when he first re-emerged from the ashes of Condeucent, he came with some new stories. Not represented here, but very prominent on the CD, was his "Axis '67" storyline. (of which parts one and three were on the self titled album, while part two ended up on his second album "Rise Up!" a years later) In this prediction, Bobby synced up the year he was born (1967) to the year the world was supposed to end (2000), and Jesus Christ's age when he supposedly died (33). Bobby would sing about how he was the antichrist, how come 2000 we were all fucked. The continuous cash flow system he "invented" also staged for some good hype, stories of taking money from the audience, in which those who didn't fork out a dollar or twenty or fifty were only passed on the person next to them who had the dollar, twenty or fifty to spare. All of this came with a publicist that no one ever saw "Marla Cummings (or is it Marsha, or maybe Martha?)", he did an amazing job getting himself out there and making sure nobody knew if he was for real or not. There are stories still disputed to this day...

During this time, pamphlets and promotional materials were widely distributed, fabrication of events in the press (he had told one interviewer as a joke that he cut off the ring finger on one of his hands, which became a popular myth at the time despite both of his hands having fully efficient sets of fingers) and many more stories came out of it that i've seemed to have forgotten at this point. The strength on these stories alone could probably win in the favor of why '90s Chicago was much more exciting than Chicago now, but who cares?
These days the storyline is pretty much gone, and he's more focused on just writing songs and being a father.

Released on vinyl and CD at the same time, with the same album cover, but that was almost all they had in common. This version is even more raw sounding than the CD, they both have three of the same songs, though each are different versions (the sportsman represented here I believe is also from his first 7", leans more towards funk than rock, while the CD is vice versa), Whos the Paul ended up as an experiement on the CD version, with the 7" 45 rpm version slowed down to 33, and No Kids, No Money has some different arrangments. A re-recorded version of I Love You Ended up on the japanese import of 1999s "llovessonggs" EP. Oh, also, a limited amount of the original pressing of the LP had googly eyes glued on.

This rip is missing track 06, as it is the same version of "Never Get Ahead" that also appears on the CD version of the album. You can find a video of the "clean" version on youtube, edited from footage from Chic-a-go-go, it ended up on MTV's Alternative Nation sometime in 96 or 97, or so the story goes. There is an annoying needle jump in "I Love You", though sometime soon I think I'm putting up another version of that song here anyways, along with a bunch of other non album tracks.

Neon King Kong - Complete Recordings/Live

2008-01-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

Approx. 2003. Various record labels.
Tracklist:
Studio:
01 - Mix up the Mix
02 - Jerks are Creeping
03 - Get Whats Going Around
04 - Theres a Party
05 - Annette's Got the Hits
Live:
01 - Mix up the Mix
02 - Hit Me Like a Jet
03 - untitled
04 - Annette's Got the Hits
05 - untitled
06 - untitled
07 - Jerks are Creeping
08 - untitled
09 - untitled

get it here.

Another short lived project from Hot Rod Todd of Le Shok (I'm debating putting up their collected singles, as the official release hasn't come yet.) NKK existed for what seemed like maybe 4 weeks, plowing through and giving up with an impressive catalog for such a short live: two 7" singles and a compilation track. I'm imagining the live set here is one of if not their only show, as they had a tour scheduled but broke up right before it launched. Musically it's pretty similar to Le Shok, unlike the other 4 or 5 projects Todd has been involved with since.

Mort Garson - "Black Mass (by) Lucifer"

2008-01-23T03:32:00.000-08:00

1971, MCA Records.
Tracklist:
01 - Solomon's Ring
02 - Ride of Aida
03 - Incubus
04 - Black Mass
05 - Evil Eye
06 - Exorcism
07 - Philostone
08 - Voices of Dead
09 - Witchtrial
10 - ESP

Get it here.

Looks like the artist (or album, I guess) is called "Black Mass Lucifer", right? What you can't see in the reduced image, and is pretty much only visible on an original LP copy itself is the word "by" between the two blocks of letters - making the album titled "Black Mass" and the supposed artist Lucifer. In reality, the person behind this was one man named Mort Garson, who not only pioneered moog music with albums such as this in the early '70s, but also paved the way for a slew of "demonic" albums that were released in the '80s, mostly of the heavy metal variety, although this is a far cry from a typical metal album it was mentioned briefly in the book Lords of Chaos. The LP lays out printed mythos to go along with each song, and if I remember correctly has no mention of Garson on it at all, to make it seem more authentically "evil" (he also had work in music for films.)

My first experience with this album was probably much like many people who also discovered it out of nowhere. Somewhere around 2000 a friend of mine kept telling me about his dad's "Black Mass Lucifer" record, though he believed it to be a true product of evil - mentioned how his parents would play it on Halloween (barf.) and how his dad wouldn't give him the record. So we listened to it, I was somewhat impressed, and looked more into it to find out that not only was the album name not what he had been referring to it as, but that there wasn't even a band involved.

In searching for the cover art to this album I also discovered something unfortunate - Mort Garson passed away not less than a month ago, on January 4th, 2008. Over the next few days or weeks I'll continue to post more records recorded by him, as none of them ever saw reissues in his lifetime, and have more or less faded into obscurity.

Black Randy and the Metrosquad - "Pass the Dust, I Think I'm Bowie"

2008-01-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

January, 1980.
Tracklist:
01 - I Slept in an Arcade
02 - Marlon Brando
03 - Down at the Laundromat
05 - I Wanna be a Nark
06 - Give it up or Turn it Loose
07 - Idi Amin
08 - Sperm Bank Baby (lp)
09 - Barefootin on the Wicked Picket
10 - San Francisco
11 - Tellin Lies
12 - Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud
13 - (Theme From) Shaft
14 - Last Stop on the Express
15 - Trouble at the Cup
16 - Loner with a Boner
17 - Sperm Bank Baby (single)
18 - Green Frog Excerpts
19 - Theme from Scorpio
20 - Beershit, Disco Loner

REMOVED. reissued on LP in 2009

Not much I can say about Black Randy other than it's not only a shame that you can't really find this album anymore, but that it's also a shame that he never recorded another album, and most of all, its a shame that he died in either '89 or '90. Hard to explain just exactly what this is, you're better off just following this link:
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/blackrandy.html

Drunks With Guns - self titled 7" a.k.a. "Melissa"

2008-01-22T18:01:00.000-08:00

1991, Glitterhouse Records
Track List:
01 - Zombie
02 - Fistpuppet
03 - WW IX
04 - Shredded Meat

Download HERE

The original Drunks With Guns were a "legendary" punk band from St Louis, MO, active in the mid 80s. Internal conflict brought a split between the two "main members" - Stan Seitrich and Mike Doscosil. Each of them continued to record under the Drunks moniker, each claiming they owned the rights to the name, wrote the songs, etc. In a most bizarre movie, Stan's Drunks "hired" a "12 or 13 year old" girl named Melissa to do the singing on the last incarnation of the band. The first time I ever saw this in a record bin it had a sticker that the distributor added to it saying " 12 year old singer! Jailbait!" Stan's new DWG put out this 7", another repackackaged version with more songs, and a more appealing cover featuring the 12 (or 13) year old in all of her glory, with a somewhat questionable picture on the back of her dressed up like a lolita on the playground.

Stan now "plays" in the Strangulated Beatoffs, but that is another band for another day. There is no solid proof of whatever became of Melissa, though I have a vague remembrance of reading someone post on a St Louis music message board that shes gone on to become you're average white trash young mother. No proof to back that up, it's possible that I just dreamed that up...

Mike to this day still claims he IS Drunks With Guns, and someone is still paying the fees for web domain with 2 or 3 pictures of him on it, which looks like it was made in 1998 and hasn't been updated since. But really, who cares anymore? The original spark is long gone and I think Stan's choice in a new singer wins the battle between them hands down. Enjoy.

The cover I've chosen to include is from a different edition of the 7" that was a double and released on Behemoth records. As far as I know the recordings are the same. Lacking from this set is the second 7", which included three songs. A Ramones cover (long way back), a song called "Melissa explains it all" (an obvious reference to "Clarissa explains it all", this one was my favorite song out of the whole set), and one other I can't remember right now. Those songs might be added here later.
-----
From Trouser Press:
Seitrich formed the negligible, less rocking Strangulated Beatoffs with Fritz Noble. Doskocil played drums (quite well) for melodic HC middleweights Ultraman before getting kicked out and moving to Arizona. In exile, he released material with Bootbeast and Bullets for Pussy. DeLeon stayed home and founded Fruitcake. As a result of posthumous notoriety and general idiocy, Mike D. (along with one Malcolm Bliss) reformed DWG at some point. So did Seitrich and DeLeon around the same time, only they had the gall to hire some 12-year-old jailbait named Melissa as their singer. Resulting singles and EPs by both parties are simply flat. Doskocil's version resembled a dull punk band covering Drunks' tunes, while the guitarist and bassist version spat out raw riffery topped with Melissa's annoying (if disturbingly funny) sex-and-blood whimsy.

Hello.

2008-01-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

I typically hate these things. "Music blogs." I typically hate the word "blog." (therefore this will be the only mention of it from here on out, aside from the url.) I felt that I have come across plenty of albums/singles that I feel should be more easily available that have either never been released, reissued, or had their run and have since gone far out of print. A fair amount of what I am posting here has come from various sources, and there are only a few rips of my own that i'll be including (for now at least.) Have fun. I've got enough lined up to post one every day or two for the first couple months, we'll see if it gets that far and if it does, we'll see where it goes from there.

How lame.