Saturday, August 31, 2013

PHOTO POST

THE MORONS - Melita's Basement - 1998 - Dalton, GA - Photo by Greg Harvester

SCHRODER - In a Field In The Middle Of Nowhere - 1996 - Outside of Starkville, MS - Photo by Daphne Nabors (?)

50 MILLION - Instant Beer Pleasure - 1998 - Chattanooga, TN - Photo by Greg Harvester
TWAT SAUCE - Idapalooza - 2010 - Middle Tennessee - Photo By Greg Harvester
THE SMUGGLERS - American Beat Records - 1995 - Birmingham, AL - Photo by Angie Elliott
THE REACTION - Thrillhouse Records - 2011 - San Francisco, CA - Photo by Greg Harvester
Fred and Toody Cole - Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture - 2010 - Weed, CA - Photo by Greg Harvester

Thursday, August 29, 2013

SCRATCHY 45's FROM JAMAICA - Vol I - Tape - 2007


   When it comes to reggae and ska, I know next to nothing about the genre and I'm not going to pretend that I'm any sort of expert. Like any other white kid who grew up in a small town that is 1253 miles from Jamaica, my first exposure to reggae was BOB MARLEY when I was 10 or 11 years old. I acted like I was into it for a while, but really, he never clicked with me. He still doesn't and I partially blame that on an early and very extreme hatred of hippies (I completely understand that MARLEY actually didn't have much to do with white hippies, but they just ruined it for me.) Later on, I got into THE SPECIALS and they introduced me to the world of ska, which was more to my liking. This led to total life-changers (like the ska-punk of OP IVY) and dubious purchases (like LESS THAN JAKE and MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES). After a mid-90's revival of the worst ska I've ever heard in my life, I never wanted to hear any of that shit ever again.
   I've always been drawn to people who know more about music than I do (an easy task) and when I found myself living in New Orleans in the early 00's, I would routinely hear names thrown around like the MAYTALS, PRINCE BUSTER and THE PARAGONS. I didn't know what any of these artists sounded like, but I knew that the way some people talked about them, I needed to hear them. Sometimes, I would go to the record store and pick out dusty, interesting-looking 45's. I never lucked out. They were always kinda shitty newer reggae and dancehall. I just wished someone would've made me a tape of a bunch of good stuff that I needed to hear.
  Once, on a visit back to New Orleans, I stopped by Domino Sound (without a doubt, my favorite record store in the entire US) and ended up spending over a hundred bucks on a stack of vinyl. When Matt, the owner, was ringing me up, he threw in a couple of tapes on top of the stack and assured me that they weren't just some throwaways. One of them was a ROARING LION collection and the other was this tape of scratchy, and I mean scratchy, 45's from Jamaica. I listened to the latter while driving down some sweltering back roads alone through the panhandle of Florida and that's when this kind of music really clicked with me. This is the tape that I wish someone would have made me years earlier, but I was still happy to get it when I did. As always, thanks to Domino Sound and whoever put this great tape together.


This file is pretty big (203 mb) and only two tracks. Each side sounds like it was put together by someone with good DJ experience so each song just flows into the next and I decided to not try and break up the flow of the tape. Side A is 45's from the 60's and Side B is 45's from the 70's. Each track is about 45 minutes. 

Saturday, August 24, 2013

PHOTO POST


DREAMDECAY - Sutro Cave (inside an actual cave) - 2013 - San Francisco, CA - Photo by Greg Harvester


DICK VAN DYKES - The Madison - 1999 - Bloomington, IN - Photo by ???


BERZERK - In a front yard on 4th Street late at night - 1998 - San Pedro, CA - Photo by Greg Harvester


FORCED VENGEANCE - Rear Entry - 2000 - Chattanooga, TN - Photo by Brontez Purnell (?)


ASTRID OTO - Oh My! - 1999 - Asheville, NC - Photo by Chrissie Griffith


SUPERSUCKERS - a VFW Hall or something - 1994 - Birmingham, AL - Photo by Greg Harvester


MONOTONIX - Uncle Fester's - 2008 - Bloomington, IN - Photo By Greg Harvester 

Friday, August 23, 2013

MUFFSTACHE - Demo - Tape - 2006 (?)


   I tried to track down information about this band, but I know next to nothing. I only heard about them for the first time last week when my friend Caitlin started blasting this tape in her kitchen. Our friend, Ray showed up and said "Whoa, this is cool! It sounds like JJ FAD!" I even had Caitlin tell me everything she knew over a couple of beers. I wrote notes, but when I woke up in the morning, it just looked like this....


   What the fuck does that mean?! Anyway, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that I remember Caitlin saying "This band made me feel good about being a woman in Boston." 
    The women in MUFFSTACHE lay out sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious rhymes that cover everything from getting the shits at McDonald's to cutting off the dicks of shitty bros to personal body acceptance. Don't worry about the background info this time. Just blast this in your kitchen. 

Thursday, August 22, 2013

CAPITAL SICKNESS - "Toolin' For Lucifer's Balloons" - Tape - 2000


    When I moved to Chattanooga in the late 90's, I was already friends with a bunch of punks who grew up in the nearby carpet mecca of Dalton, GA. Some of them had been playing in punk bands since the late 80's and were pretty "well-established" (whatever that means) in the local punk scene. By the time I got to town, most of them had moved to Chattanooga because it was a bigger town and there was more to do (kind of). A younger crop of punk kids had popped up in Dalton and started forming bands in their absence that made these elders (some at the extinct age of 25) look downright ancient. My favorite of these new punk bands was CAPITAL SICKNESS.
   Even though they were all teenagers, their band came up to Chattanooga to play fairly regularly at shows in bars, public parks and houses. Their singer/bass player, Josh has enough boundless energy and charisma that he probably could have screamed into a microphone solo for 20 minutes about the youth detention centers of Dalton and kept a room full of us entertained, but luckily, he didn't have to. Mason played the guitar and Mackey rounded out things on the drums. Even though their live sets and recorded output usually fell to pieces, they still maintained the enthusiasm that kept people dancing and singing the whole time. If you don't believe me, you can watch this video.


   On this tape, they play their hearts out in 8 quick songs (in about 8 minutes) and it includes their crowd favorite, "Burn The Mills", which is about destroying the carpet mills of Dalton (the town's core business). 


Members went on to be in a tidal wave of other bands like TRICYCLE FARM, QUEERWULF, PRINCESS THUNDERSTORM and HELLSTOMPER.
 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

GORILLA ANGREB - Live in New York - Tape - 2006


   Ever since I first heard the first anxious notes of "Astma" on a mix tape (from Anandi. Thanks!), I was instantly hooked on GORILLA ANGREB. They combined a guitar tone that seemed like it was culled directly from a Dangerhouse Records comp with darkly melodic bass lines and fierce vocals. And the drumming! The drumming was pounding and playing the sixteenth notes that make me want to smash my head through a wall. They hailed from Copenhagen, Denmark and were in bands you probably already love. I don't even know why I'm writing this part because this is a band that already has tons of information online and elsewhere.
  When I heard that they were playing their last show in Copenhagen back in 2007, I immediately looked up plane tickets. I was just about to buy them when a few different thoughts popped into my head: 1. I had never been to Europe. 2. I didn't know a single person in Copenhagen...or Denmark. 3. It was a ridiculous plan. 4. IF I followed through with that, I would be stuck living in Bloomington for yet another year saving up money and wishing that I could move away. It felt awful to miss their last show, but it felt better to get on a plane and leave Indiana for good less than a year later.
   This live tape was mailed to me a while back by my friend, Fil from DC. He was at this show, which was a house show in Brooklyn after they played a larger venue the same night with SUBHUMANS. Every song on here is great, but I'm not gonna lie to you. This show sounds like it was recorded on a walkman that was rejected from a thrift store and found in the dumpster. It also sounds as if a dog turd was taped over the microphone (Sorry Fil if you actually recorded this on something better than that). Still, did I listen to the whole thing? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Thoroughly.

From Fil "They were wasted and it was the best I ever saw them. Since it was the last show of their tour, they played at least one song they had been skipping to save her voice."


If this is your first intro to the band, you should start with their 2003 EP instead.

More live recordings with better quality.


GORILLA ANGREB - Live on KBOO

and if you want to send me their first demo, I'll send you my po box address.

Friday, August 16, 2013

PHOTO POST


THE GRUMPIES - Maxie Pad - 1998 - Maxie, MS - Photo by Frankie Chan


PINK COLLAR JOBS - Jesus Saves Space - 1996 - Boone, NC - Photo by Greg Harvester


THE HIGHLANDS - Stokes Street Warehouse - 1999 - Huntsville, AL - Photo by Brontez Purnell


LANDLORD (breaking down after their 1st or 2nd show) - Bloomington Skate Park - 2005 - Bloomington, IN - Photo by Greg Harvester


FUNERAL CONE - The Ship Room - 2012 - Worcester, MA - Photo by Greg Harvester


UKE OF PHILLIPS - 3037 (??) N Rampart - 2001 - New Orleans, LA - Photo by Greg Harvester


FROZEN TEENS - Sluggo's North - 2012 - Chattanooga, TN - Photo by Ryan Maddox

Thursday, August 15, 2013

TACHYCARDIA - CD - 2004

(I just want to start by saying this band is not from Alabama. Just bear with me)

   Often, when I tell people (who live outside of the south) that I grew up in Alabama, there are a few different reactions that folks like to cycle through. One reaction is embarrassing (for them not me): people seem to like to repeat the state name back to me in a faux southern accent as if to accentuate the fact that I come from a backwards, fucked up place and a southern accent can represent absolutely nothing besides ignorance and stupidity. Another reaction is a sense of shock followed by the usual reply of "That must have been weird." Yeah, of course it's weird, because all of youth is weird because you don't yet know what the fuck you're doing in life and you bumble around in an awkward haze. Plus, is it any less weird to grow up in a flat in Brooklyn, a bus in Bolinas or a tiny house in eastern Iceland? Still another reaction is a story of the one time that person drove through Alabama, got out at a gas station and heard someone say something fucked up. I'm not gonna deny that Alabama has some really fucked up, racist qualities, but so does Portland, NYC, the central valley of California and pretty much everywhere else in the entire world.
   A lesser-known quality about the state is that it has a long history of avant artists and musicians...many are well known and others fly far under the radar. When i was really young, I knew there had to be something out there besides top 40 radio and bad sitcoms on TV. I didn't know how to find it. I didn't know where to look, but I knew it was out there somewhere. I could feel it lurking in the shadows just out of sight. By the time I was in 4th grade, I had found THE CURE and VIOLENT FEMMES (thanks to a sister who knew what was up) but even that seemed distant...like I didn't know those people. It was cool to listen to their tapes, but I needed something to pull me into a different world altogether. When I was 11 or 12, I found myself in a dusty, wooden storefront in Montevallo with my sister at a performance art....thing.... Some people read bad poetry and others just kind of yelled at us. Then, LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams sat in front of the room and blew my little pre-teen mind, playing trombones and guitars like I had never seen before. That was it. I was fucked. It was over. I started finding more stuff (I still am). I discovered SUN RA, who many people believe is from Saturn but is actually from Birmingham, AL. Listening to his music helped me to open my mind up to all the possibilities of what's out there in the world and the rest of space. These people left deep, lasting impressions on me that have influenced my outlook on music ever since.
   That's why it was important for me to see SUN RA'S ARKESTRA a couple of weeks ago when they played in SF. Led by the 89 (!!) year old Marshall Allen, the Arkestra was transcendent and amazing. When they hit their first note, I felt at home. To see a band that was that trained and professional, but still able to improvise and go out on a limb was just a beautiful experience. (I'm getting to the point here in a second). I started thinking about the ways that they influenced my thoughts on free jazz and improv throughout the years.....the ways that I'm quick to dismiss whole swaths of the genre, even though the world of improv is so vast. To me, there's a huge difference between improv and "just kinda dicking around", but I know that not everyone thinks that way. I love the way that each performer can swirl around in their own world for a while but has an idea of when to join the others and work together.
   At some point during that performance, I started thinking of TACHYCARDIA, who I hadn't thought of in years. I got home and dug out this CD, which is just one 54 minute improv track of three accomplished artists in a studio in Austin. There's no riff or loop that they ever come back to but I think this recording has it's own character, personality and drive for the entirety of the recording. I can't really be the one to tell you how you should feel about this because I think everyone has their own approach to improv. For some that approach could be a full sprint in the opposite direction, but because of the weirdos I encountered during my early days in Alabama, I welcome this stuff with wide open arms.
  On this recording, TACHYCARDIA is Carl Smith on tenor sax, Walter Daniels on harmonica, clarinet, piper's chanter, nose flute and Wade Driver (from 50 MILLION, APOGEE SOUND CLUB and LIBERTAS) on drums, bugle and whistle. The amazing art (included in download) is done by Marcel Herms from Holland.


Thanks to Wade Driver for allowing this online.

Monday, August 12, 2013

RANDOM CONFLICT - "Defying the Megadread" - Tape - 1988


   If you've lived in Alabama (or the southeast) in the last 25 years, you've undoubtedly heard of RANDOM CONFLICT. Bill Reeves has been fronting these guys since they first stormed into the armories and shitty bars of northern Alabama, playing hardcore, crossover, and straight-up punk the whole time. They played their first show on August 12, 1988 (that's 25 years ago TODAY) at the Dance Not Destroy fest in Nashville, TN. They suffered through multiple line-up changes throughout the late 80's and early 90's before abandoning their crossover/metal roots and calling it quits.
   They reformed in the 90's with Brian on bass (and he's still with them to this day) and DJ on drums (anonymous reports say he is now in jail). I put them on a lot of shows that I set up throughout the late 90's with BLACK FORK, SHITBOY FROM OUTERSPACE and others. At this point, they vehemently denied that they were ever a metal/crossover band, even though you could still buy their 1991 EP for proof at the local record store. (funny/not funny side story: Sunburst, the record store in Huntsville, always had copies of their first 7" on the shelves and the owner, Jay would complain that no one was buying them. One day, the record store burned down and it sucked, obviously. Still, Jay rebuilt and re-opened. On the first day, I walked in and donated a bunch of records to the store. I said "Hey Jay, look on the bright side. At least those Random Conflict records are finally gone." It was the first time I saw him smile in a while.)
  I moved away from Alabama and RANDOM CONFLICT kept moving forward. The last time I saw them, they were playing a coffeeshop right by my house in Chattanooga in 2001 (there were no flyers. I just happened to see Bill in the parking lot.). They played an excellent set to almost no one. I told Bill I would happily set up a show for them at our all ages punk space where they could play to a room full of appreciative people. Bill said that they didn't believe in cliques or scenes. I asked if they believed in playing shows to people who wanted to see them but Bill maintained that they didn't need any help. So, I never did set up that show for them. A couple of years ago, I stumbled into a show just as Bill yelled "We're RANDOM CONFLICT! Thank you and good fuckin' night!" I turned around and walked right back out the door. They were the only reason I even showed up.
   25 years is a long fuckin time to be in a band, especially on an independent level, but RANDOM CONFLICT is still chugging along. They even put out a new LP that is, in my opinion, one of the best things they've ever put out (along with that first demo). I put the record on, expecting it to be a rehash of their earlier material, but it was all new and fresh. (You can order it from No Profit). If these guys keep moving in the direction that they're going, then I'm really looking forward to the next 25 years. Keep it up!!


Sunday, August 11, 2013

HUMAN HAIR HAT - "3H Fair Dairy Champion" - Tape - 2002


   Sometimes, thinking about the amount of weird shit that Trd Wrd Records has put out is just mind-boggling. When I was traveling to (or living in) New Orleans in the early 00's, it seemed like they had a new tape, record or project appearing every month. Many of their early releases appeared in very limited numbers, with analog equipment and super-DIY layouts being the norm (once I discovered the members of IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT screen-printing their record covers with some house paint that was sitting around because they couldn't find a place to buy the proper ink). Some releases were almost unlistenable to my ears, but I always seemed to "get it" about a year later. No matter what I thought of it, their releases were (still are) always interesting and helped me to open my mind up to the more experimental and noise-minded side of independent music.
    HUMAN HAIR HAT really went "out there." Members of IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT, GROUP B, HARRY FROM HAWAII and (maybe) COUNTY Z all got together and put out this noisy brain-fuck of analog knob turning and fucked up beats. Every song on here is called "Weed Milk" and I'm sure there's a good reason for that. If you don't know what weed milk is, I salute you and hope that you'll keep on that path in life. If you're familiar with weed milk, download this tape and meet your new best friends.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

ANOTHER JUAN RIDES THE BUS - Compilation - Tape - 1999



      No long-winded stories today. I wasn't living in the Bay Area when most of these bands were active and hardly saw any of them. To my knowledge, all of these bands are local to the Bay Area and/or nearby, except DBS, who were from Vancouver, BC (I once toured all the way across Canada with them, but that's a story for another time.) . The styles, as well as sound quality, are all over the map on this tape. You've got snotty garage pop (PANTY RAID), hardcore-ish (THE JOCKS), humorous (BOBBY JOE EBOLA and YOUR MOTHER) and lots more. I'll make no excuse for how fucking warbly the sound quality can be or how drastic the volume levels can get. My friend, Morgan, put out this tape in 1999 to showcase a lot of unknown and under-represented bands. Many of them are still some of my favorites to this day, including YOGURT, LOS RABBIS and TOMMY LASORDA. Enjoy.


This tape comes from the mysterious brown bag of Mike Wilson

Friday, August 9, 2013

SLEEPWALK - Tape - 2006

   
    I've been sitting on this one for a while (months) because I've been waiting on members to reveal band info and other stuff....maybe song titles...but the people in this band don't look back too often. They keep moving forward with new ideas and new projects. I respect that. On the flip side of that, I'm sick of waiting and want to get this out to a larger audience because it's a nearly perfect tape by a short lived Bay Area band.
   The band started back in 2006 in a practice space at the notorious cross streets of Turk and Taylor in San Francisco. They played  afew shows, put out this tape in a very small run and broke up. Supposedly, the band recorded a follow-up tape in Brooklyn that never saw the light of day. Why would a little known SF band record a demo so far away in Brooklyn, you ask? Well, that's just how the Bay Area works sometimes.
   Not long after the demise of this band, "bootleg" versions of this tape started showing up at stores in SF and rumor has it that a wild solo-bassman known as Dave Dean was making his own copies of it because he loved the tape so much. Once you listen to it, you may try to resist those same urges. I love all the songs on here, but I'm pretty sure that after you listen to the first song more than once, you are doomed to have it stuck in your head for all eternity because it's so fucking catchy.


Members of LIVID, NASTY INTENTIONS, BRILLIANT COLORS, INDEX, ENDEMICS, THE SLITS, HOMEOWNERS and more.

Sorry to the members of the band for just going ahead with this.

Tape is from Mike Wilson's mysterious brown bag. 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

PHOTO POST


COUNTY Z - Hi Ho Lounge - 2003 - New Orleans, LA - Photo by Greg Harvester


NOWHERE SQUARES - UAH Campus - 1997 - Huntsville,AL - Photo by Blair Menace


DISPLEASURE (last show) - Dead Rat Beach - 2012 - Oakland, CA - Photo by Greg Harvester


RICE HARVESTER - Gorin's Ice Cream Shop - 1997 - Huntsville, AL - Photo by Blair Menace


ONION FLAVORED RINGS - An Art Space - 2003 - Asheville, NC - Photo by Greg Harvester

ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT - Backyard on Bryant St - 2005 - San Francisco - Photo by Janice Flux


UH OH - Underground Art Gallery (again) - 2008 - San Francisco - Photo by Greg Harvester

Sorry for the lack of music posts this week. Shit has been busy and it will pick up again soon. 

Sunday, August 4, 2013

FULL BLAST - "Tight Sweats" - Tape - 2000

    I'm not even gonna pretend like I know shit about rap, hip-hop or anything resembling that genre of music. Besides some short stints with ICE CUBE and PUBLIC ENEMY (I saw them live in the 90's and it was fucking awesome), the only group I really even marginally pay attention to is THREE SIX MAFIA and some random super local people that show up from time to time.
    ...And then there's FULL BLAST. Fuck. I don't even know what's happening here. It's a trainwreck. It's awful and genius at the same time. Can you legitimately make fun of music if it's stuck in your head constantly? Well, yes...but who is the joke on? I'm just gonna leave it at that.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

PHOTO POST


DRILLER KILLERS - Melita's Basement - 1998 - Dalton, GA - Photo by Greg Harvester


THE CRIMINALS - Illegal Gazebo Show - 1997 - Huntsville, AL - Photo by Blair Menace


UH-OH - Underground Art Gallery - 2008 - San Francisco - Photo by Greg Harvester


CACA WOMEN FROM URANUS - Bandito Burrito - 1997 - Huntsville,AL - Photo by Blair Menace


LES TURDZ - A House - 1996 - Tallahassee, FL - Photo by Greg Harvester (This set lasted an amazing 15-30 seconds)


BITCHIN' - A Garage  - 2000 - Chattanooga, TN - Photo by Brontez Purnell