ON TOUR

 No new posts for the next week because I am going to the northwest to play shows and record with my band. If you are in Portland, Seattle or Olympia, come hang out with us. You can find the dates and places at NEON PISS. Thanks!

PETER STUBB - Powdered Doughnuts - 1994?

  To some, PETER STUBB is a legend. To others, he  is some crazy guy with a guitar. To many people, he is both. He's been writing his own songs and putting out cassettes (an average of 2 a year) since the late 80's/early 90's. My favorite tape, "Blueberry Masturbator", has some heartbreaking songs about mental health problems followed by jams that are sort-of indescribable (the song "Ba-doing-schwing" comes to mind). Other tapes have featured Peter and his friend just making race car noises and singing. Still others have been full of drum machine death metal, odes to Christmas, songs about whiskey, and stories of sticking drumsticks up his ass. You really never know what you're gonna get with one of his tapes, but it's always memorable.
    This epic love song to powdered doughnuts was recorded live by someone somewhere in the early to mid 90's and stands as one of my favorite Stubb songs of all time. I believe it catches him at his best: both playful and brutally heartfelt at the same time with the audience hanging on every word for the full eight and a half minutes of this song.
  My friend, Mitchell Powers made a short documentary about Peter that you can find a clip from HERE. You can find a really old interview with Peter Stubb here and find some live videos of him here, here and even here

  (the recording cuts out for 5 seconds around the 7 minute mark. Every recording of this that I've ever heard does that.)

     UPDATE 2020
   This link has been reactivated because this song is great. Added to the download is "Sad Way to Go", which he played right after "Powdered Donuts", further exemplifying how Stubb can change gears in a matter of seconds from playing funny songs into a song about suicide. He fucks it up and stops quickly, but i've always loved this version. Enjoy. "Powdered Donuts" is long but the payoff stays with you for a lifetime.

DOWNLOAD

Updated 3/2020

POTENTIAL JOHNS - tape - 1996

      That tape above is all I have of this compilation of bands from Denton, Texas. No insert. Not even a tape case. The tape is actually full of bands, but I honestly only got past these first 10 songs once or twice. When I first got this tape from Jayson Grumpy, I didn't even know the name of this band, but I was completely obsessed with them. I just rewound the tape over and over and listened to these songs every day. Later, I found out that the band was called the POTENTIAL JOHNS. I was obsessed with finding out any info about them and when a band from Denton called KID CHAOS came to my town, I asked them 1 million questions about the band. I found out that POTENTIAL JOHNS was just one guy named Jeff Burke playing all the instruments into his 4 track. One of the guys from KID CHAOS later sent me a 90 minute tape full of more songs by him and I was hooked for life. I carried that tape around on every tour I went on until I lost it in Arizona in 2006. By that time, I  had more clues, had tracked down this mysterious musical genius and Jeff sent me all the songs again on CDR.
   Over the years, POTENTIAL JOHNS has gotten more streamlined and more perfect, producing so many completely flawless pop songs that it is mind-boggling. These ten songs are the early, ragged punk years that are still flawless and beautiful in their own way. If you like this stuff, I urge you to track down any recordings that you can by any of Jeff's bands, but you've probably already heard it if you have any remote interest in punk. He's still playing in THE POTENTIAL JOHNS, MARKED MEN, and THE NOVICE



    Download POTENTIAL JOHNS tape here
    EDIT 12/12/11: There is a higher quality recording of alot of these songs here. It's not all the same versions though.

JACK PALANCE BAND - 1st Tape - 1995? 1996?

  Jack Palance Band were (still are) the soundtrack to the lives of a lot of the people that I know and love. The songs on this tape are the formative stages of the greatness that this band evolved into. It sounds similar to the kind of people they were at the time: sort-of politically correct, sort of pop-punk kids who grew up on a steady diet of DRI, COC and any other tapes they could order from Thrasher Magazine in the 80's. If there was ever a book written on Region Rock and Chattanooga (and there should be), these guys would be in the first chapter and almost every single band mentioned in the book would name them as an influence. Eric Nelson (guitar/vocals) and Mike Pack (bass) should be given lifetime achievement awards for consistently playing completely badass punk for twenty years straight. (Buddha --their second guitarist but not on this tape--should also be given this award with a backup MVP award).Jeremy Edds (drums) was constantly pushing the envelope, playing faster and more intricate beats than most other people in the region at that time. Eric, Mike and Buddha are all still playing music together in HIDDEN SPOTS.
   This tape was, most likely, recorded on 4 track in Dalton, GA while a little drunk and high on ditch weed. This tape is warbly (although it was also like that when it was given to me by Eric in 96) and has been played in excess of 1000 times in the factory stereo of a Ford Festiva. In addition, it has been in my bag on countless tours, hitchhiking trips and played on numerous shitty tape decks all across this god-forsaken land.

Jack Palance Band at Heart Of Huntsville Mall 1996. Photo by Butch

         UPDATE 2020: I re-ripped this demo because the files were missing and now they're available again. Listening to this 25 years after it was recorded is eerie because songs like "Wrong" and "Testosterone" are still sadly relevant. JPB still rules. Racists can still eat shit. 

DOWNLOAD (Link fixed 2020) 

CLEANSING WAVE - Demo 2011

  So far, I've been posting music that is ten years old or older, but I don't want this thing to be a complete nostalgia trip. I still go to punk shows and I still think there are vital, exciting bands playing great punk music all over this world in 2011. CLEANSING WAVE is one of those bands.
    My band, NEON PISS, toured the east coast earlier this year and when we played in Worcester, CLEANSING WAVE  blew us away. They filled the punk-lined basement with green lights and fog and proceeded to drive the audience into a wild frenzy. The music is noisy, fast, chaotic, and trebley.with vocals run though an echo pedal. Punk as fuck, in the "bullet belt, sleeveless D-Clone shirt, huge tattoos, smash a beer can on your head and shotgun it" kind of way. I'm not usually so into this style, but I really like this band a whole lot. If you can track them down, get this tape! They are putting out a split flexi with GASH (Boston) in the near future.

                                    CLEANSING WAVE

File updated 2013

BRIS--"Complete Discography" tape. 2000 (?)

  BRIS!! They were a punk as fuck band from Chattanooga, TN. Not like "bullet belts and charged hair" punk as fuck, but "I'm just gonna keep wearing these clothes that I've been wearing for the past 2 weeks and not give a fuck" punk. They started out as J.E.D. (which stood for "Jesus Eats Dick") but soon morphed into this wild sounding beast. Their only release was a criminally muddy sounding 7" (through no fault of their own. The songs came from this same recording, but the guy that pressed it got the songs from a third generation tape and it sounded like the band was playing underwater) that came out two or three years after the band broke up.  They are really one of my favorites  of all time! At one time, this band had 3 (!!) guitarists, one bass player, one drummer and 2 singers. This recording is from the 2 guitar days.You can read more about the band HERE

   Photo by ?????

     Features current and former members of Gravebound, ADD/C, Cavity, Forced Vengeance, Jack Palance Band, Are You Fucking Serious?, and about one million more.

       This photo by Brontez

      Next one by Blaire Newhard

Download a collection of tones in the key of "fuck you".
Updated May 2013

THE GRUMPIES Demo 1996

   My friend, Angie mailed me this tape in 1996 after seeing The Grumpies at American Beat Records in Birmingham, AL.. In her letter, she described these high-pitched, hyper-fast, pop-punk weirdos as being kind of alien and insane. I put in the tape and my life was completely changed forever. I couldn't believe that the recording wasn't sped up because their voices were so high pitched. The songs were (and still are) instantly infectious and I became literally addicted to this tape. I wrote to the band and begged them to come to Huntsville, AL. They did and blew everyone's minds with their live show
  I was so enamored with them that when their drummer quit the band to join the Army Reserves, I volunteered to play drums for them and did so for the next 3 years....then shit got really insane.
  There is a secret alternate copy of this demo that was recorded BEFORE this demo that I may post one day...unless the former members beg me not to let it see the light of day.
   Thanks to Tony Levi and Mike Wilson with the original uploading help on this one.

                                   Grumpies Demo!

TRES KIDS Live in Huntsville, AL 1996

Tres Kids were a punk band from Athens, GA. They were some of the first punks I ever met from that town and I am still friends with their drummer (Jason) to this day. This show was actually inside of a fucking MALL after hours. I know the flier says it was "Cousin Vinnie's", but the show actually took place outside of the pizza joint in the mall. Tres Kids showed up late and played to an enthusiastically under-appreciative crowd who tried their best to ignore the hyper-fast punk that they were playing. They also tried to ignore the band sticking drumsticks up their asses. After they played, they offered their 7"s for sale and no one wanted them. Jason said "If someone buys a 7", I'll drink my own piss." All of a sudden, people were ready to buy their records. Being a man of his word, Jason drank his own piss.

  I'll warn you: the recording quality on this is pretty terrible. It was recorded on a really old handheld tape recorder by either Ramesh or Butch. Jason is still playing in bands like DIVORCE, NO!, AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER and currently SHAVED CHRIST. I don't know what happened to Benji and Doheny.

TRES KIDS LIVE 1996

 
 You can download the first TRES KIDS 7" HERE

                                          photos by Butch

     Photographic evidence of crowd brutally ignoring a great band

 the whole flier wouldn't fit on the scanner

Yes, Another Music Blog

I know everyone needs another music blog as much as they need that last beer at 8 a.m., but I am doing it anyway. Mostly, you (hopefully, the listener) will be assaulted by low-resolution tapes and old 7"s that may or may not be something you want to spend your time with. Please leave comments and tell me what you think because I honestly don't know what the fuck I am doing. Enjoy!