SHORT STACK - "Got Soul" - Tape - 2006

   New York City in the mid-00's was pumping out loads of quality punk bands who never really left the city. I'm sure that NYC still produces these bands, but I don't know who they are. SHORT STACK were one of those bands who were drinking in Tompkins Square Park, walking the streets, eating cheap pizza, and recording their songs on 4 tracks in the basement.
   I visited NYC on tour and Ella (guitar/vocals) handed me this tape when I got to her house. I was stoked, but then promptly lost it among all the other piles of detritus in the tour van. I was never able to track it down. Luckily, I found this a few weeks ago in a free box at a punk house, which seems like a fitting way to acquire this tape.
  I don't know much about this band, but you can hear the beer, the NYC streets, the desperation, the oppressive heat and the grit in these songs. "San Pedro Post Office" and "Chuck Berry" will pull you in and the rest will hold you there for the full 14 minutes of this tape. Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD

Features members of DEAD DOG, RAW//WAR, SLEEPWALK, SIX PACK FOUR, BEER GARDEN and more. 

IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT - "Thanks" - Tape - 2006

   As I'm sure I've said before, IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT is one of my favorite bands. Years back, they were getting ready to go on a tour and their drummer, Don broke his leg. Rather than call the whole thing off, Don learned how to use a combination of percussion and electronics, which ultimately sent the band to a new plateau of weirdness. That trajectory took them into a later tour where they would play sprawling hour long sets, employing the use of hand made horns, staticky radios, tape loops, half-broken amps and miscellaneous debris. The results could be hypnotic, challenging, abrasive and cleansing.
   I got a ride down to a show of theirs in Kentucky during this time and was dropped off at the bar hours before they even arrived. At the time of the show (8 hours later), they were the only musical act scheduled to play. They took their time setting up and the clientele of the bar eyed them warily. As they hit their first notes of the night, a huge Midwestern storm started brewing in the neighborhood. The doors to the bar were wide open and sheets of rain started pouring in. I looked at the middle-aged, burly, biker-style bartenders standing there...arms crossed, not batting an eye or making a move to close the doors. About five minutes into IPCP's set, every paying customer in the bar got up and left, deciding to brave the potentially tornado-inducing storm rather than listen to this band. I looked around. I was left alone with the band, the guy who set up the show, my friend Christina (who lived there and actually came to see the band), Stella (IPCP's roadie, who was laughing at the predicament) and the still-stoic and immobile bartenders. The band did not bat an eye and played their full set. It was great and the insane storm added an extra element of dreaminess to the whole thing.
   At the conclusion of their set, there was an awkward silence after our smattering of applause died down. We were then left with these burly dudes at the bar after driving out their entire clientele. I looked over after a heavy silence and one of 'em said "So, do ya'll like SUN RA and BEEFHEART or something?" Tension broken. The guys loved it and were happy to talk to some other weirdos. Drinks were on the house. The other act was the promoter, Kris, doing a "DJ set", which meant that he would put a record on and let the entire thing play. Then, he would flip it and listen to the other side. (I just now realized that I have told this entire story before in an earlier post. Oops. I am now senile).
   On that tour, IPCP had a mailing list and they said that if you signed it, they would send you free stuff. A lot of bands used to say that, but I never got any free stuff from them. At the conclusion of their tour, the band actually did send this tape out to people who signed the list or set up shows for them. It's called "Thanks" and it compiles live sets, field recordings, jams, talks about botox and random sounds. Listening to this reminds of that night and makes me miss their challenging sounds. I think the thing I love most about the band is that they were somehow always a year ahead of me. What that means is that every time a new LP came out (and they have a lot), I would listen to it and think it was pretty good. I wouldn't quite get it and it wouldn't really hit me, but something let me know that I had to hang onto it. Within a year, that record would become indispensable to me. The same thing happened with this tape. It's pretty out there and it's also really, really good.

DOWNLOAD

There's also a 12" out there called "Thanks II" that is more stuff like this, more field recordings and  moreeeeee weeeirdddddd. 

FLORAL BEEF - Demo - Tape - 2008

   FLORAL BEEF started out with Sean, Emmalee and Jen playing their songs at a new band show in Sean's backyard on a half pipe. Later, they asked Billy to "try out" by getting him to make distressed animal noises and dance around. When he succeeded, they put him on the 2nd drum set.
   Jon Paul recorded this demo on a reel to reel at the 3rd St practice space in San Francisco. The drummers used an old school bell (as a cymbal) that JP had swiped from a school that he squatted.
   Like many bands, FLORAL BEEF went on a tour that destroyed them and strained friendships. Their roadie (Matty B) almost got them in many fights for drugs, unrestrained wildness and matters of religious differences. He was also their "chef", which just meant he poured Tapatio and lime juice into Fritos bags and shook it up.
   Some band members continued to live next door to each other, but barely talked. Jen moved into my house once, but I don't ever think we slept there at the same time. I know I only saw her once. The band got back together a couple of years ago for a reunion show where they took their shirts off, spit beer in each other's mouths, slow danced in the kitchen and tried (and failed) to crush up & snort Horny Goat Weed pills from the corner store. Maybe they even played a tape loop of Ron "Tater Salad" White's comic routine where he talks about getting his dick super-glued to his stomach like they used to...I don't know....I wasn't there....All of this info came from their drummer, Emmalee, not me.

  I only had 2 chances to see FLORAL BEEF and I totally squandered the first one. I believe the band was playing a mere 3 houses away from me, but I was locked up in an attic room alone stressing out and getting depressed. I shared a room with my friend Matt and laid on his bed while he was playing a movie awards show in Hollywood, schmoozing with Deniro and fighting over free Ipods with Jason Bateman. I should've been jumping up and down to FLORAL BEEF, but I was probably reading about total bullshit. If I opened my window, I probably could have heard them. 

  The second time, I raced with a group of bicyclists across SF to the Tenderloin (that's a neighborhood, for out-of-town readers) to try and catch them at their reunion show. We reached the door of the house where they were playing and started blitzing the door guy with questions. "FLORAL BEEF?! HAVE THEY PLAYED YET?!!" The door guy was trying to take our money without answering. "Yeah man, all the bands are great. I'm sure they'll go on soon." Suddenly, Emmalee appeared and said "We already played. It's a shit show." We took out money back and opted to drink on the street instead. Minutes later, a guy from the house walked out and started yelling at us about how we were assholes by drinking out front. We were "blowing up the spot." I looked up at the open window of the house where music was blasting out into the streets. I looked at the guys next to me drinking openly and dealing crack.  I looked at the Friday night hordes also drinking and shouting about nothing. I looked at the whole city going completely ass wild and then glanced back at my friends serenely drinking tall cans on the street. A cop car drove by without a second glance. The guy threatened to call the cops. We laughed and left. 

I've still never seen FLORAL BEEF.

Emmalee wanted me to add this at the last minute: "The most important thing to remember in the telling of FLORAL BEEF is that Jen and I went to the same elementary school (Mark Twain Elementary. Isn;t it weird to name a school after someone's pen name?), but she was in class with my little brother and remembers him being a bad kid."

DOWNLOAD

Members of FLORAL BEEF also played in DISPLEASURE, DAVID COPPERFUCK, RAW/WAR, SCHLITZ CLAIBORNE and lots more, okay?

I know I didn't say anything about what they sound like and that's okay because you can just download it. It's sometimes simple yet deceptively, brilliantly catchy. Abrasive but tender. Songs like "Void in my Head" and "Tell Me" will be stuck in your head for days. 

Re-Uploads!!!!

  As many of you know, Mediafire suspended my account a while back, which deleted many/most of the music files on this site. I have been re-uploading files by request, when possible. Here is a list of what is back online so far, in no particular order. If you have a request, please comment and I'll do my best to get it back on here. Some will not reappear for various reasons and if you ask, I'll tell you why.

RED THREAD

HARK HOW THE BELLS

LOS RABBIS // FLESHIES Split Tape

NAR Discography

BITCHIN' Demo

POTENTIAL JOHNS 90's CDR

COUNTY Z Tape

HARLEQUIN Demo Tape

FOREIGN BODIES tape

LOS RABBIS LP

50 MILLION - "This One's Pretty Cool..." CD

"Alien Boy" Zine

ADD/C First Tape

WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN Tape

THIS IS MY FIST demos

HICKEY MILLION

GRUMPIES demo tape

ARCTIC FLOWERS Demo

LETHAL YELLOW EP

"Cassingle and Lovin' It!" Compilation

FLEABAG Demo

FROZEN TEENS Demo

Comp of 90's Alabama Punk Bands

CLEANSING WAVE Demo

RICE HARVESTER Discography

SWEET BABY JESUS Demo

THE BANANAS Live at Mission Records

BOSSY and Friends Compilation

SPAWN SACS // DRILLER KILLERS split tape

CACA WOMEN FROM URANUS

VISITOR I Tape

VISITOR III Tape

LOS CANADIANS 4 track demos

WADE BOGGS LP

IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT - "Get Obvious" Tape

CORTEZ THE KILLER - Lost LP - 2008

   Today, there will be no fanfare, art or long-winded stories of all the fun you missed (or caused). I'm very happy and honored to bring you the unreleased LP by Minneapolis' own CORTEZ THE KILLER. They were around for a few years and committed a few songs to tape and vinyl before calling it quits. Will and Ski from this band went on to form the completely unfuckwithable FROZEN TEENS, along with their friend, Wil. If you're a fan of FT, you will not be let down by CORTEZ THE KILLER. Here's Ski to tell you some more....

  "There's an old Chattanooga axiom that pretty much sums up CORTEZ THE KILLER, "The party ain't easy." We started in 2005 as an all Fargoan Minneapolis band, and despite a couple bass player changes, surprisingly stayed true to that. We drank a lot of wine, smoked tons of weed, and managed to write close to twenty songs and tour the country a couple of times in our short years of existence. The keepers were all recorded for this full length, and we had dreams of it being put out on this yadda yadda label and that yadda yadda label, but we barely made it to the final mixes and our physical and mental healths would not permit the band to continue any longer. So our record was never put out (although many people have said they wanted to do it, none actually have) and it always felt like it should. Greg said he'd post it, so here you go. Grab a bottle of Tisdale, smoke a joint, and enjoy!"

Download CORTEZ THE KILLER

When you download this, you'll notice that the track listing runs #6-19. It's supposed to be like that. You're not missing any songs. 

TURBOSLUT - "Order Of The Turboslut" - Tape - 2008

   I got into TURBOSLUT pretty late in the game....like after they had already broken up...but I still knew their every move before they even recorded because my neighbor was tight friends with them. When she got this tape, I listened to it at her house, but I don't remember anything about it because my neighbor talked over the whole thing, telling me how awesome it was. I'm fine with that. I wasn't in the mood for new music and sometimes, I get more excited about my friends fervor over bands than I do about the bands themselves. It worked.
   Years later, I put this tape on in my room and was transported to a feeling that might have been similar to what she was feeling back in that kitchen in 2008. Granted, we are a different gender, close to ten years apart in age and have completely different reference points for the same things, but I could immediately see why she was singing the praises of this tape. It's fierce, feminist, unapologetic, punk, drone-y and political. And like I said, my reference points are different, so I will spare you the Kat Bjelland comparisons and just let you soak this in for yourself.

"Violent men muster

A cowed sensitivity

Living new lives 

In the same old community"

 Pics by Eric Gamiem

DOWNLOAD

Thanks to Kate for her rabid fandom.

Also, I just got back from a really fun tour with FUNERAL CONE a few days ago. Their tape has been on a constant loop in my brain as well as my tape deck. The tape is all sold out and I would just post it here, but it's being released as a 7" EP right this minute. Keep checking with Weirdo / 100% Breakfast Records to get a copy for yourself. It's excellent. 

TOUR // BREAK

   I'm taking a bit of a break from the blog again to work on some real world stuff. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, go see FUNERAL CONE on tour this week. They're awesome and I'll be selling stuff for them. Here's the dates:

Saturday April 13th in Portland, OR at The Ranch w/ Wild Mohicans, Sick Rats and Vicious Pleasures.

 Sunday April 14th in Tacoma, WA at Redroom with The Wrath, Earth Control and more.

 Monday April 15th in Victoria, BC at Talk's Cheap w Line Traps

 Tuesday, April 16th NOWHERE

 Wednesday, April 17th in Seattle at Victory Lounge w/ Fugitive Spot and more

 Thursday, April 18th in Olympia,WA at Grandmaw's House with Dogjaw (euro homecoming!)

 Friday, April 19th - just chillin in the van and Black Butte

 Saturday, April 20th - San Francisco 4/20 party at Thrillhouse with Nasty Christmas, 17 Reasons and Make Me Sick. $5. All ages.

For more info, look here and here. If you want to hear Funeral Cone, they were on this week's MRR Radio. You can find a link in the previous post.

I'll be back a bit after that with more moldy tapes.

MRR RADIO - #1343 - 4/7/13

SKI MASK LP

   Matt and I did the MRR radio show this week and it's online for your listening pleasure. Please check it out if you have an hour to spare. It was fun to make and hopefully, it'll be fun for you to listen to. 

Click over to MRR

CRIMENY - Demo - Tape - 2002

   Here's a band I know absolutely nothing about! Friend of the blog and lovable freak-about-town, Josh sent this one over to Remote Outposts HQ (which, for the record, is neither an imposing edifice nor an underground lair, but is simply my tape-strewn bedroom) to share with the world-at-large...or small. Josh said he loooooved this band when they were around and this tape had been lost in the shuffle for a few years. For a recent (?) birthday, his friend Ben bestowed this tape unto Josh and he felt as if the chakras had been aligned once more. I sent out a smoke signal (okay, maybe it was a text) to my friend Morgan to try and track down info on these guys, since both he and the band are SF natives and he had a bit to say....(I'm sure Morgan didn't intend for this email to be posted as-is. I was gonna edit it, but how do you edit brilliant terms like "ass-helmet"?). Here he is...

Morgan, Rio (from Mission Mini-Comics)and members of the band at Morgan's grandma's trailer park in Tigard, OR.

  

They were a relatively short-lived band: ~late 2001-2002.
 Zane Groshelle: guitar and vocals 
Tyson Vogel: bass and vocals 
Angus Haller: drums 

   The tape was recorded in Joe Demaree's garage on 7th Street in San Jose in May 2002, in preparation for CRIMENY/FUCK YEA! AVOCADO/LOS RABBIS tour. Undeniably influenced by HICKEY and some of the darker old mission sounds ala the likes of LOST GOAT, FAGGZ, TOWEL, etc. The bulk of their shows were at houses, on the street, or east bay warehouses now long lost to the blight of sweeping ass-helmet gentrification. 

 Assorted trivia: Zane also played in FUCK YEA! AVOCADO. Soon after CRIMENY's demise, he moved to Santa Cruz and started a great two piece band called BROWN RECLUSE, whom I'm pretty sure never recorded anything. Tyson went on to tour the world with TWO GALLANTS (which he's still doing), as well as assorted side projects (PEOPLEPEOPLE is one with Antonio and Andrew from OVENS/TRAINWRECK RIDERS)-- He also does a solo project called DEVOTIONALS. Angus was the original drummer of THE JOCKS (my first band; this may be useless information-- he only played our first two shows), and went on to play all sorts of bizarre music, but often was just known to 'jam out' with random garage lurkers throughout the Outer Mission and Bernal. I hope he's still playing music, cause he's a great drummer and a solid weirdo.

DOWNLOAD CRIMENY

X - Live at Klub Foot - Tape - 1982

   There was a time in my life when X didn't mean that much to me. I remember first hearing them as a teenager and thinking that they sounded kinda dated and classic rock-y. It wasn't until I started living their songs that they became relevant to me. My whole fucking life was a wreck. Last night everything broke. I felt desperate. X was there and told me to get used to it. When I visited LA for the first time, I could feel a tinge of where they were coming from. Like almost everyone else ever in punk, X became my daily soundtrack. Not just Los Angeles and Wild Gift, but everything else too (I even have a cassette of "Hey Zeus" and think "Country At War" is pretty great).
   I was sure that I missed my chance to ever see the band live, but then they re-formed and I was ecstatic. They came to Indianapolis when I lived 45 short miles away and I jumped at the chance to go see them. I am just as skeptical of reunion shows as any other DIY punk, but I also needed to see X. Days before the event, a friend called from an X show in Atlanta so we could hear them. I put in on speakerphone and danced with my roommates in the living room. It was great! Anyhow, we went to the show and it was awesome. Of course, they played all the hits and I left a happy person. Then, they just never broke up again! They play all the time!! They're kinda always around. Billy Zoom is a creep and hit on my friend. John Doe puts my friends on guest lists for shows. I got to tell DJ Bonebrake that his drumming blows my mind. My girlfriend took Exene some painkillers for her Multiple Sclerosis. Exene opened a show for my band in a bowling alley, wants to make a documentary about my friend Ivy and shopped for tchotchkes at Jimmy Shotwell's street sale. They're cool people (well, besides Zoom) and I sorta just wish they were my friends. I don't need to see X ever again though.
    Oh yeah, there's a tape. It says this was recorded at "Klub Foot" in Houston in 1982, but I can't find any record of a place called that in Houston. There was one in SF and my friend still lives in the building. Who knows? I was 6 years old. Since it was '82, you get to hear them play a lot of really great songs and don't have to be subjected to "Love Shack" or "True Love Pt 2". Also, they play for over an hour! Jeez! There's 2 encores! (some weird sound shit happened on the 2nd encore of "Real Child of Hell" and it's almost inaudible, so I hope that's not your favorite song or anything) The last six songs are from a live broadcast on KBFH NY in 1984. It's all really good...except maybe "Nausea". Bonebrake must've been tired or something, but I'll give him a break. It's hard to play slow songs on drums.

DOWNLOAD X