Blasting off for tour!

   The blog is closed until late June because I am going to travel and tour in Europe. In the meantime, why don't you download everything I've posted from Alabama? Or everything with the tag drunk? How about weirdo? Or you can just go outside and go on a bike ride. If you live in Europe, please ride your bike over to one of our shows in one of your fine countries. You can find all of the tour dates for our band, NEON PISS, right here. If you want to hear the band first, you can listen to us on our bandcamp page. We will have a new LP for sale with us. Thanks!

NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS - Discography - Tape - 2006

   In 2006, my current best friend/confidante/life partner Anandi mailed me a mix tape that is probably the best mix tape I've ever received in my life. Alongside classic standards like THE CLASH and YE OLDE BUTTFUCK, I was introduced to bands I had never heard before (and grew to love) like HUL, GORILLA ANGREB and KNUGEN FALLER. There was another Danish band on the tape that I overlooked on the tape for a while, even though their song was excellent ("Secret Police"), just because I thought they were an older band. I was trying to find out about the newer bands that were exciting to me. One day at work, it hit me how good that song is and I looked up more info about the band. It turns out that they were a current band and they were born out of former projects like AMDI PETERSEN'S ARMI and the always outstanding YOUNG WASTENERS. I tracked down everything that I could by the band I was not disappointed.
   Even though their LP has this crazy flanger effect throughout the entire thing, it still has great, dismal songs on it, like "Rainy Day", which starts with the illuminating line "I stuffed myself with pills today. Doesn't seem to be working." Their lyrics cover aspects of war and don't seem to take a side on it, much like 80's bands that sang about nuclear war with no clear objective. I don't really know what else to tell you. I never got a chance to see them and I don't know much about them. I will tell you that I was walking around on a beautiful San Francisco day with my good friend Cinque once and we mutually decided that our day would be vastly improved if we went and sat in my dark room in a building at 7th and Market while drinking beer and blasting every song by this band. We were right. If you like driving, melodic, depressing, tragic punk with guitar hooks that will stick in your head for days, download this right now.

Download NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS

If you want to order this tape from fucking Poland, it's still available from Trujaca Fala, who have released a lot of other great stuff as well. Check out BARAKA FACE JUNTA and SJU SVARA AR.

SUNSET BEACH - "Long Walks, Short Piers" + Cassingle - Tape - 2002

Think of this as "Part 2" of  the post about Matty Luv and Sarah T.

   Matty Luv was gone and the next day we still went ahead with the already-planned 5 year anniversary of Mission Records, even though it seemed like the hardest thing in the world to do. To date, it is still the saddest show I have ever been to in my life. Even though the show was set to start at 5 pm, people were already hanging out in the store, lighting candles, crying in corners and telling stories over beers when I woke up that morning. It felt natural for people to come there to grieve and be with friends. I'm glad that the space was there for them.

   When the bands started up, it just felt awful and counterintuitive. We were trying to celebrate this place and time, even though an integral piece of its entire day-to-day operation was missing forever. I felt crazy depressed and I'm sure everyone else did too...possibly more so. I barely remember anything about the show besides three things: 1.When my band, ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT played, we were out of tune since Matty always tuned Iggy's guitar. 2. We gave Aesop (one of Matty's oldest friends and bandmate in HICKEY) a mic for the whole show so that he could loudly heckle every band. 3. When THIS IS MY FIST was playing, I was crying my eyes out. I looked around and everyone else was too, including the band.

    The next week was filled with a lot of sadness, some group hangouts, countless homemade tattoos and much more. When the funeral happened the next week, I didn't want to go (who really wants to go to a funeral?), but I borrowed a black button-down and did it anyway. After paying my respects, I was headed out the door to unlock my bike and saw a kid sitting in the funeral home who looked like the spitting image of a young Matty, which threw me for a loop. There were friends and family hanging out on the street, but I needed to get back to Mission Records to help out with the last punk show that Matty set up.
    In the days of HICKEY, it seemed like no town appreciated the band better than Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the stories I heard, it seemed like every time they came through town, they were met by an army of cult devotees who's fervor was unmatched by the rest of the country. I remember going there one time and stumbling upon a crew of drunk dudes in a parking lot, blasting MANOWAR. They happened to be listening to the only song I knew by them at the time, which led me to join them, singing loudly. They spotted the HICKEY patch on my jacket, which sent them into drunken hysterics, numerous accolades, and praises of that fine band. I swear that by the time I walked away from them, they would have loaned me rent money and  killed any of my enemies...and that was just for being a fan of the band. Sooner or later, it was inevitable that some of these fervent followers would start a band, but I was never aware of how good that band would be.
    So, here I was back at the record store with a bunch of sad, post-funeral punks awaiting the start of the show. It turns out that the guy who looked like Matty played in the touring band from Tulsa (his name is Aaron and he no longer looks anything like Matty) alongside Jon Paul, who is still one of the best punk drummers I've ever seen. When SUNSET BEACH took to the rickety, sagging stage, they thanked Matty for setting up the show and raged through a relentless set. Some of the songs seemed like total HICKEY-worship while others felt mired in insane metal riffs. By the end of the set, they were pulling out alcohol and a torch. I remember exchanging worried glances with some other denizens of the store as the fire was lit and then trying to scramble up to the stage as visions of the dust-trap of a store going up in flames danced through my head. It was too late. Aaron stared breathing fire as they played their last song and I helplessly watched 10 foot flames flow across people's heads and lick the cracks in the ceiling. When I saw that we were not gonna die in the next 5 minutes, I finally exhaled and smiled for the first time all day. It was a great show.
   I ended up getting both of their tapes out of the free box at the store a few weeks later. For a long time, I thought that some fool had thrown them in there, but now I think Jon Paul put them there as a way to distribute them. The first side of "Long Walks, Short Piers" is total HICKEY-worship, but in the best way possible. I remember when I first heard it, I thought "Damn, do you guys only listen to one band?" and being a little annoyed, but over time, it's really grown on me and has become indispensable to my life. In the intervening years, I grew to appreciate them in their own right. If a band is gonna be influenced by someone, I'd rather that it be HICKEY instead of THE QUEERS, THIS BIKE IS A PIPEBOMB or CREED. Side two starts off with "Napkin" and the first time I heard it, I seriously thought the band had accidentally dubbed a different band onto their tapes. It starts off with a  straight up metal riff and dives into fucking awesome thrash. The entirety of side two stays in that vein and it totally rules. The closer, "In The Name of Justice" delves into some dual guitar riffage that sounds like what might have happened if IRON MAIDEN had grown up on DIY punk and bathtub crank. This tape is pretty ambitious for a demo at a time when not many people cared about tapes at all. I started off casually listening to this band, but this tape soon became fused with the boombox at my shitty kitchen job and provided the soundtrack to many fucked up nights. I love it.
   Also included in the download is their two song cassette single where they sound like another entirely different band..maybe one that is influenced by early 80's radio, THIN LIZZY and good, good indie-pop. Still so good. 

  Enjoy that shit and go start a band that is at least half as good as this.

Download SUNSET BEACH

IF YOU WERE LINKED HERE FROM THE MISSION MISSION BLOG, I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I DEFINITELY DO NOT SUPPORT ANYONE WHO TAKES UP DONATIONS TO REPAIR THE SMASHED WINDOWS OF A FUCKING POLICE STATION. FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING LIFE.

MATTY LUV AND SARAH T - "Plastic Jesus" - Tape - 2002

   I've been staring at this screen for ten minutes now without knowing the first word to write. Ten minutes of staring at that drawing above, alternately laughing and feeling kinda bad. If you're reading this, you probably have a pretty good idea who Matty Luv is, you probably know that he passed on into another realm almost ten years ago and you're probably aware of the fact that he wrote a good chunk of music that changed the lives of countless numbers of people forever. I'm only just beginning to understand exactly how much music he recorded that has never seen and will probably never see the light of day. Recently, I was loaned a shoebox full of Matty's old four track tapes to sift through and try to find something usable for an upcoming art show / city project called STREETOPIA. Every tape just contained more and more stuff. It was all over the place and put me through a wide range of emotions. Some tapes were funny, like the one where Matty just looped a recording of a guy tuning his guitar while an audience applauded wildly (it continued for the entire tape). Some were noisy and experimental, like the one where each song is the same as the one before it, but each successive version has an extra layer of feedback or noise. Some of it consisted of contemplative instrumentals. Some of it was sad and it felt like I was trespassing through the secret journals of an incredibly depressed man. All of it was pretty interesting, but probably none of it will ever appear here because it just feels too personal and I don't feel like it's my place to bring that stuff into the world.
   So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I'm not exactly sure. I think what I'm trying to say is that the man was incredibly prolific and put a lot of work into his music, even the stuff that was not intended for the public at large which brings us to this tape.
   During the final few months (years, perhaps) of his life, Matty worked tirelessly at Mission Records during a period when it seemed like hardly anyone cared about the place. He worked the counter of the store during the day, took money at the door during punk shows and ran the sound for bands. In the case of my band, he even tuned the guitar since our guitarist hadn't yet learned to use a tuner. He put a lot of time and effort into the dump and rarely got (or expected, most likely) any thanks for it. I remember waking up in my subleased room in the attic daily and hearing him open the front gate of the store and putting on coffee. I would crawl down from the ceiling and join him somedays while he listened to music and opened the store. Lots of times, he seemed really depressed or out of it, but sometimes when Sarah T would walk in the door with two cups of cafe con canela, you could actually see his whole world light up. During those days, the two of them were inseparable. I often saw them walking down Mission Street together, drinking coffee, chain smoking and just enjoying the fuck out of each other's company. At night, in their room at the Hickey Hotel on 24th Street, Matty was teaching Sarah how to play guitar. "Plastic Jesus", played by the FLAMING LIPS (one of their favorites) among many others, was the first song that Sarah learned how to play and sing at the same time. Matty recorded the two of them playing it together and added many of his own touches. Sadly, it ended up being one of the last songs that he would commit to tape. A few short months later, Matty would leave us all on an incredibly prophetic night that is still just too sad and fucked up to talk about.

Download "Plastic Jesus"

   If you actually do want to read more about the tragic parts, you can read the zine that was written and printed within a week of his passing at the Matty Luv site in the "memorial" section. 

   Thanks to Sarah T for loaning out this tape, supplying some info and for being a good friend for years now.

WAR TORN BABIES - Rough Mix Demo - Tape - 1999

   I moved to Asheville, NC for a short time back in 1999 and lived in a huge, dilapidated, musty, drafty, pink punk house on the edge of downtown. There was a library on the main floor, a screen printing set-up, couches for drunk crusties to sleep on, a couple of shacks in the backyard, 15 roommates, a show space in the basement and the landlord was one of the guys from CRASH WORSHIP. I was kind of obsessed with an old Asheville band called EXCESSIVE DEFIANCE and I usually listened to them every day when I woke up. Someone told me that I should listen to WAR TORN BABIES, which carried on the legacy of E.D.'s simple, noisy barrage of crust. I asked a couple of friends about them and soon found out that two of my roommates were in that band. Soon enough, they were playing a show in the basement.

   They started up with a distorted, fucked up bass tone and crashed haphazardly into their first song. I didn't get it. Everyone was dancing and singing along, but I felt out of place on the sidelines. Their drummer was possibly older than me, but played the same way that I did when I was 13. Each of their songs seemed to fall apart, but no one cared. Everyone just danced harder and sang louder. Then, it hit me. I began their set thinking that that they had no idea what they were doing, but then I realized that they knew exactly what they were doing. All of their songs were primal, plodding, visceral, simple and working towards an easily memorable chorus that you could sing along with the first time that you heard it. It dawned on me that this band was genius and by the end of their set, I was up front, fists in the air, singing along to "Dancing On The Ruins Of Multinational Corporations!!!"
   As far as I know, WAR TORN BABIES never released anything...I don't even think they ever got around to releasing this tape, but I could be wrong since I moved away from Asheville and lost touch. All I know is that they (probably) recorded this tape at UNCA in Asheville and then their guitarist, Ed left it in my room. Did it ever get mixed, mastered and released? Until we find out, here is this rough mix of their stuff at it's most primal and raw.

Both photos by Chrissie at the Pink House in Asheville.

Download WAR TORN BABIES

    Some might think that a band might not want their unmixed recording out there for people to consume, but I asked their singer Mikki if it was okay and she said "DO IT!!" Speaking of Mikki, she now runs a bar called the Get Down, that is  the best place to play shows in Asheville these days. They are going through some rough financial times at the moment, so if you want to donate money to them, it would be very appreciated. It's run by some great people, they have an awesome sound system and their politics are rock solid. You can find more info about them here or you can make a donation straight to them on their Paypal page.

LEFTY LOOSIE - Demo - Tape - 2006

   As you can see by the cover above, this tape has a title, but it is so confusing to me that I didn't type it out. Well, you can read it for yourself right there.
   I went to the Mauled By Tigers fest in Chicago a few years ago and the only bands I wanted to see, besides the ones that my good friends were in, was the POTENTIAL JOHNS and LEFTY LOOSIE. Lucky for me, they were playing back to back at the same venue. I wasted a lot of time before going to the show by drinking on a rooftop, talking about RUDIMENTARY PENI at Southern Records and listening to stories about King Buzzo wanting to stay in the same room (the one I would be sleeping in for the weekend) every time he comes to Chicago. By the time I dragged my ass out of the house to bike 20 blocks to the show, I was running late. I rode like the wind, but still found myself drinking outside of the show when I got there. I heard the last notes of a band finishing their set and asked" Who's playing right now?" Someone said "Oh, I don't know...some band called LEFTY LOOSIE or something." I slammed the last dregs of my cheap, flat beer and ran for the front door. The overzealous security guards searched me and came up with a bottle of whiskey. We got in an argument and they almost kicked me out before I even got in. It took so long that I even missed the first POTENTIAL JOHNS song. Bleh!
   I still kick myself for missing LEFTY LOOSIE because their songs were (still are) so good. You can tell that they grew up on crappy pop-punk, but also supplemented that with some quality music like the SHANGRI-LA'S, THE MUFFS and the FASTBACKS. Their singer/guitarist Addie has a voice that exhibits a total fucking knack for pop hooks that she took on to her next band, BORED GAMES (also great great great....and also broken up). These songs are so good that I can look past the fact that I don't like songs about crushes and love anymore. I was too cheap (and probably drunk) to buy their LP at the show and I feel like an idiot for not owning it now. The whole weekend was a failure for me in many ways, but let's just not talk about that. Let's just listen to this tape and get on with our lives, shall we?

Download

THE BANANAS - Live At Mission Records 8-4-01 - Tape - 2001

   As of this year, THE BANANAS have been a band for twenty goddamn years! That's longer than DEAD MOON and SHOTWELL. Their band is older than many of their fans. That shit is weird. It's been said before, but one reason for their longevity is that the band is probably just too lazy to break up. Sometimes, they even seem too lazy to play a show, as evidenced by the fact that lately, they usually play no more than 3 or 4 times a year. When they do manage to drag their asses to a show, it can either be gloriously life-affirming, a drunken chaotic trainwreck or a gloriously life-affirming, drunken, chaotic trainwreck. I've seen them countless times now; from raging, super-tight basement shows to long, drawn out, 3 am wasted slop-fests. One thing remains consistent though. They've always been entertaining and I've never once walked out before their set was finished. Even when they are bad, they are usually better and have more hooks than every other band on the show.
   This tape finds the band at a show back in 2001, teetering on the edge of being a little too drunk to play, but they manage to shambolically plow through their set and keep people entertained. There is the prerequisite 2-5 minute break between each song where Mike and Scott trade jabs with the audience and each other...which makes for a 45 minute set consisting of only 12 three minute songs. I'm not saying it's bad, because it isn't. I'm just warning you what you're in for.
   "This next song is about biting people in the butt! It's pretty good! It's a political song!" - Mike
   "...Political in the traditional sense..." - Scott

Download THE BANANAS

This tape is loaned out by Sarah T.

The quality isn't the best, but it's the thought that counts.

DORY TOURETTE - Solo - Tape - 1999?

   Dory Tourette was yet another misunderstood and tortured musical genius who was taken from this world way too soon. He could pen a song that would have you singing for days (or in most cases, years) about the most vile topics, like dating a 9 year old or sperm coming from his eyes. I still find myself walking down 24th Street singing these songs out loud and thinking "What the fuck is wrong with me?" Nothing is wrong with me. Dory just knew how to expertly craft a classic, catchy song and happened to put the weirdest, most fucked up lyrics to them, but also figured out how to make it sound sincerely sweet.
   I only hung out with Dory a handful of times and never really knew him well enough to call him a friend, so I don't have a ton of stories about him, but one of my favorites is from the first time we met. I think it was 1999. I was in Oakland visiting some folks and Janelle was throwing a going away party for herself in Port Costa, a tiny, sleepy town by the bay that is known for a legendary brothel-turned-hotel where people have partied wildly for years. Janelle invited a bunch of friends out to party with her and asked Dory to play a solo set in her hotel room. When I showed up to the Punks With Presses warehouse, everyone was trying to figure out how to shove everyone else into a car in order to get to Port Costa. There was a slight argument about who was going to transport Dory to the party.
"I don't want to let him ride in my car. Last time, he tried to jump out while we were on the freeway."
"Well, he can't ride with me!"
"I mean, I could probably take him, but he can't drink 3 forties in the backseat again and ask me to pull over every five minutes so he can piss."
"You guys, he's gotta get there somehow...he's the entertainment!!"
   A few minutes later, this guy drinking a beer walked through the door who looked like the dictionary definition of  "weird, sketchy dude". Real thin. Wispy, little moustache. Unpredictable look on his face. Kinda drunk. "Hey Dory!" someone shouted from across the room. Well, everyone made it out there somehow and when it came time for Dory to play, he could barely even stand up. His speech was heavily slurred and he seemed cross-eyed. I kinda rolled my eyes and said, "Oh, this is gonna be great."
   Janelle looked at me totally serious and said, "It is. Just watch."
   Dory cleared his throat and started playing the first song. It was completely flawless and perfect, which is quite an accomplishment. Listen to his songs. None of them are easy. After the first song, he kinda fell to his knees, drank a shot, swigged a beer, took some pills and talked for a long time. Ten minutes later, as he drunkenly swayed, someone shouted "Play another song, Dory!" He looked surprised, as if he completely forgot that he was performing music in front of an audience. He looked at his guitar like it was an alien, shook his head and then played another flawless song. This same scenario kept happening after every song: more booze, more pills, more stories, but he kept playing every song with a tireless, focused ferocity that floored me. I no longer cared that all of his songs offended by PC sensibilities.. I was a convert for life. I locked myself in the closet with my friend Tony and shotgunned three beers in a row while listening to Dory captivate everyone there. I don't remember anything else that happened that night at all.
   These songs were recorded around the turn of the century somewhere in San Francisco. Initially, it was determined that these songs were recorded in the bathroom of the Hickey Hotel by John Clancy, but now there is some doubt. That might be the least important thing about this recording. All the songs are performed by Dory solo and sound spectacular. It takes me back to that one magical night in Port Costa and makes me miss Dory's music even more than I already do. He was taken from this world way too soon and still had a lot  more music to offer.

Download Dory Tourette

The beginning of the first song is slightly cut off because that's how the tape starts.

   Many thanks to Sarah T for digging up this tape and loaning it out for this.

   I also want to add this last thing, written by Dory's longtime friend Dan Abbott and swiped from a much maligned, forgotten social networking site. I think he does a better job of summing up what I was trying to say. Dory was " a singer-songwriter and rock-n-roll rebel par excellence. With a James Dean swagger, a pervert's moustache and a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, he sang simple, beautiful and frantic anthems that were part 50's rockabilly, part end of the millenium Mission District punk and part filthy nightclub comic act. His excesses were legendary but so were his songs, most of which were about malt liquor, amphetamines and pedophilia. Sure, he cultivated a partly-true image of the skinny, sketchy meth-head, but there was more going on there. He didn't blend in. It was like he was the only one in color in a black and white photo sometimes..."

   If you want to read more writings about Dory from John March Mink, please look here.

  If you'd like to order the outstanding and under-appreciated LP by DORY TOURETTE AND THE SKIRTHEADS, you can get it from Thrillhouse Records.

BLACK LUNG BRASS BAND - Vol II - Tape - 2003

   My band played a show with the BLACK LUNG BRASS BAND back in 2003 in Chattanooga. I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't even sure if they were a brass band. What if they were just one of those annoying ironic bands like BLACK LADIES...a band that does not have that literal element in their band?Well, it turns out that they were a brass band and they were also my friends from Asheville. Luckily, none of them had black lung. They all piled out (all 11 or 12 of them, clown-car style) of a truck and started pulling all of their instruments out of a tangled mess in their trailer. When they took the stage (well, the room actually...there was no stage), they were a loud, blasting force to be reckoned with. They sounded like a loud-ass, multidisciplinary brass band. I mean, what else can I tell you? You either like this kind of stuff or you don't.
   A year later, I convinced my friend, Sarah Monster to drive down to Louisville, KY to see them play in a park. I was sure that there would be a million people there and it would be really cool. There was more like 10 people there and the show was awkward and weird, but the BLACK LUNG BRASS BAND was great. I found out that they had 3 days off before they needed to be in Chicago, so I convinced them to come stay at my house and play a show in Bloomington. We all left separately that night and made plans to meet up at my house in Indiana. Twenty minutes into the drive, Sarah and I noticed that the weather was beginning to look insanely ominous...dark clouds, high winds, a high-pitched whine. I knew from my years of growing up in the deep south that we needed to get into a ditch or risk being sucked up into a tornado. Oddly, we were driving through the town of Floyd's Knob and Sarah exclaimed, "I have family here!" To make a long story short, we made it to her relative's house and got to see some trees being blown over. It was the pre-cell phone days for most of us still, so I was worried about the brass band. I found out later that they pulled over at a motel, got free rooms from the family who lived there and rescued a stray dog from the storm.
    Let me get to the point. I bought their tape and it was great. I was listening to it while screening shirts and getting ready for tour. I let side two keep running after the music was done because I was busy. After a few minutes of silence, I heard the beautiful strains of a solo piano and got excited. A hidden track! The next few minutes were spent in awe. I must have rewound the tape and listened to that song 5 times in a row while the ink for my shirts was drying in the screen. I laid on the floor and smiled. Seriously, even if you don't give a fuck about this kind of music, I highly recommend that you download this for the last song. It's one of my favorite things ever.
   As far as the track listing goes, it's all over the place. When I put this in to digitize it, the tape broke!! I realized that Crab Jackson had put this on a tape for me years ago, so I digitized that one...but the song titles don't match up and...it's a long story. Don't worry about the titles. I think this is a great band..beautiful people. True freaks.

Download ye olde Brass Band