CHAOS L.R. - "Vacation Urination" - Tape - 1998

   CHAOS L.R. started, fittingly, in Little Rock, AR in the mid-90's. Their singer was a very tall, mean-looking, drunken beast named Mitchell. At least, that was my first impression of him, but after getting to know him, I found out he was a very tender, well-read, Merle Haggard-loving gentleman who is diligent about calling his mom whenever he gets a chance. For the sake of this though, let's imagine that he is a wild-ass who can't get through a song without shitting his pants...he sure sounds like it.
   I believe this is the band's second demo; the first one being put out a couple of years earlier and you can hear a few of those songs on "Technical Difficulties From Day One." By the time of this demo, their guitarist, Matt Limo had moved across the country to Portland and their drummer, Iggy Scam was living in San Francisco, so they decided to hang out on the West Coast, record these songs and do a tour. Mitchell, I believe, was already on the west coast, but they didn't have a bass player at the time. They enlisted their friend, Alan Disaster to play bass. Unfortunately, he was in Little Rock. Undeterred, Alan picked up his bass off of his (presumably) piss-soaked mattress, walked out the door and hitch-hiked all the way to SF to meet up with the band for tour.

Photo by Anandi

   This tape was recorded by Jeff Jank (aka Capt Funkaho) at the M&A Laundromat at 54th and MLK in Oakland, when a few punks were actually living inside the laundromat. It starts off with "Orange Jumpsuit", one of my personal favorites, which didn't make it onto their later 7" EP. It's followed by the now-classic "Self-Respect is Priceless (But Schlitz is Cheap)", a punk ode to lost love and getting wasted. "We're Not Here To Buy, We're Here To Die" has one of my favorite song concepts ever: It's about some people going to test drive a car, so that they can commit suicide in it..."Checkin' out the classifieds, Lookin' for our final ride..Need a car that you can die in, lookin' for a car for a coffin! We're not here to buy, we're here to diiieeee!" All 8 songs on this tape are great. Mitchell's voice is total gravel-gargling, but in that good, punk way that makes you want to smash your face through a window while screaming along to the songs. Matt's guitar is rough and fucked. Iggy and Alan are holding it down the rhythm section. It's fuckin' good. Just download it.

DOWLOAD - Updated Sept 2018

   Iggy and Mitchell went on to form YE OLDE BUTTFUCK out of the ashes of this band, who are nothing short of amazing. If you ever see their records anywhere (two different EP's), don't hesitate to pick them up. Matt, I believe, became a pilot? Someone back me up on this one. Alan, much to everyone's surprise, became an actor and has appeared in some semi-major motion pictures, as well as continuing to play in bands in Little Rock...I can't remember which movie he was in, but I'm sure someone out there in the internet world can let us know. Erick Lyle gave me this info years ago. I would just look it up on IMDB, but I really don't think his acting name is "Alan Disaster".

This tape is from the mixed up files of Anandi Wonder. Thanks to her and Erick for info.There is more info about them in back issues of SCAM zine.