SNUGGLE - Lost LP Demos 2008?

Today's post is brought to you by frequent contributor and friend of the blog, Alex Turner.

   SNUGGLE is one of those bands, the bands you love that nobody else gets. I've seen them play in the basement of the FBK so many perfect times, the best times, the worst times, the drunkest times. Mad Dog 20/20 and shotgunning Sparks is what happened. A long time ago, SNUGGLE thought they might get paid to play a show or maybe they were surprised by getting paid? Regardless, they spent all that money on Mad Dog. I'm sure they got paid a few times on tour and didn't buy all their friends booze with the money, but that's the way it goes. They recorded this and lost it. like really fucking lost it. They had to re-record it because everybody they had given a copy to had also lost it. A real time and a place band. The 2000's in the basement of the FBK was SNUGGLE's time and I'm not sure why I have a copy of this lost recording, but if you'd like you can too.

     Rumor has it that Robert 'found' this at a coffee shop in Philly a year after it was considered a lost cause. I dunno. I guess this is like the demos for the LP that finally came out eventually on 1234 GO, Don't buy that, just download this.

DOWNLOAD

DISHPIT - Demo - Tape - 2012

   Minneapolis is really different from a lot of other places in the US. Today, their current temperature is 1 degree F. Tonight, it'll be negative 15. I never visit during these times, but when I see some of my friends before or after winter, they're very matter-of-fact. Short, simple answers. Busy, but happy to see you. The kind of psyche that has lived through 25-35 incredibly harsh winters. A lot of my favorite music has come from Minneapolis and most of that music can be very dark and cold. DISHPIT is neither of these things.
    My band played with DISHPIT in a dark, smokey warehouse in Minneapolis a couple of years ago. I was talking to a group of friends out front as the band was kicking into their first song. The friends were tersely discussing whether or not they should leave because they just felt tired and kind of bored. Then, one of them heard DISHPIT and smiled for the first time all night. He said "DISHPIT is playing!" and all of them ran inside. I followed and watched all of them as they danced and smiled more than I had ever seen any of them smile in my life. If you have that kind of effect on that level of detachment, you must be doing something right.
   DISHPIT, plain and simple, plays punk rock with lyrics about hopping trains, crustlords, stealing, shitty jobs and any self-respecting punks's favorite board game, Scrabble. They have some definite influences of 90's pop-punk and early 00's region rock but seen through the eyes of younger traveling punks. Their singer Gary really pulls the whole thing together with his rapid-fire, sort-of bratty approach to melodic punk. It might make your jaded heart sing once more.

DOWNLOAD

They also put out a 7", which you can order here. Might as well order the "Punks Win" comp too. It's really good. 

PASCAL'S LONG LOST MIX TAPE - 2007

   In my last year of living in Bloomington, IN, I made a whole lot of mix tapes for friends, both locally and far away. I would sit in front of the stereo for hours, laboring over 90 minutes of the perfect mix of punk and weirdness. Then, I would hand deliver it to someone's door or drop in the mail at the post office just 5 short blocks away. It took moving across the country to California to realize that I was utterly and morbidly depressed. I don't think that making mix tapes is a sign of depression (far from it), but I do think something is amiss when one is putting all of their free time into tape making or drinking endless pints of whiskey while flipping the same DEAD MOON record over and over.
   I think there is a certain beautiful power in mix tapes that can not be replicated by a mix CD or a play list. Many, many people have explained this in the past, so I won't bore you with the details, but there is something to be said for having to listen to each song in real time as you make the tape.
   Most of the tapes I made for folks eventually reached them...except for this one. I made this fairly eclectic tape for my friend Pascal in Paris and then never, ever mailed it to him. I took it to work and listened to it a lot. I carried it around in my bag with intentions of dropping it in the mail for him. I even flew to Europe, went to Paris and hung out with Pascal but forgot to take the tape with me. So, Pascal if you're reading this, I apologize. If you send me your current address, I'll mail you this tape. I mean it this time.
   In the meantime, I think this is a great tape with styles flying all over the map. Seriously. Have you ever gotten a mix tape that segues from UKE OF SPACES CORNERS to LIMPWRIST? KATRA TURANA to TULSA? OI POLLOI to JOHN DENVER to OMAR SOULEYMAN to ARTIMUS PYLE? BUNKER HILL to MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT? It makes sense. I like this tape a lot. Maybe you will too.

Download Side A

Download Side B

All music on here is vinyl to tape. No digital.

REMAIN INDOORS - Demo - Tape - 2012

   Sometime around the dawn of humankind in negative 84 BC, Joey Ramone decided to invent punk after knocking himself unconscious from running full speed into a brontosaurus. His friends dragged him into a cave and had a pizza party while he recovered. When he awoke, he decided that all he wanted to do was play fast, three chord songs and sing about cretins. Soon, a lot of other weirdos started showing up wearing leather jackets, sniffing glue and being generally obnoxious. Some of them even shaved their hair into weird creations and tied shoestrings around their heads. Joey decided that all of these outcasts needed a place to live, so he opened the first punk house and called it The Ranch. Somehow, the place survived earthquakes, floods, scabies, staph infections, the black plague, mold, folk punk shows and tornadoes. It still stands today as a proud testament to the lasting longevity of punk and they still have shows in their basement.
    Okay, obviously that's all a lie, but The Ranch is a real punk house in Portland, Oregon and it has been around for quite a long time now. They entered a hibernation period for a while, but they are doing great punk shows in their basement these days and it's easily my favorite place to play when I go to that fine city. The house is populated by punks (duh) and has a practice space/show space in the basement. Of course, people in the house use the space to practice with their band(s), but one day the entire house decided to all start a band together and they called that band REMAIN INDOORS (Some readers may remember that I mentioned in the GROUCH article that I needed a REMAIN INDOORS tape. Their drummer, Henderson was nice enough to send it to me. Thanks!) Their members have done time in bands like DRUNKEN BOAT, THE STOPS, THE CLOSET FAIRIES, SHOREBIRDS, UPSHIT CREEK and many, many more. So, you're already aware that these fools have a good idea of what they're doing. They play straightforward punk that has subtle tinges of that gloomy, almost-goth darkness that seems to permeate the northwestern punk scene. BUT, don't pull out your black nail polish and 48 eyelet stiletto boots just yet (actually, go ahead)...they keep it firmly in the punk camp but keep it gloomy enough to where you can put this on when you either feel like shit or wanna ride your bike in the sun all day. Unfortunately, this band only lasted for 7 short months before calling it quits. Is it awkward to live in a house with all of your bandmates after your band has broken up? I don't know. You can ponder that while you listen to this tape.

Download REMAIN INDOORS
Re-uploaded Feb 2013

If you'd like to order your own copy of this tape from the band (which I strongly urge), please write to themovieisalmostover@gmail.com

RVIVR - Demo - Tape - 2008

  In 2008, I went to see RVIVR, not knowing anything about them besides that Matt from LATTERMAN was in the band. I never liked LATTERMAN at all (sorry Matt) so I didn't really have high hopes for this new band. I was pleasantly surprised to hear energetic "crust-pop" with female and male vocals sharing the microphone. I feel pretty lucky to have seen them at that time, when they were still in the formative stages and figuring out what they wanted to do. I mean, I still go to see them now too, but I usually don't have the energy to wrestle with 200 other people to catch a glimpse of my friends playing music in a basement or a warehouse. Often, I feel like I'm running after a train that just left the station, if that makes any sense.

     This demo is the first thing they ever put out and was only available for a West Coast tour in an edition of 50, or something like that. It only has three songs that were all re-recorded later for their first 7"s. For a demo, it's pretty fuckin' great and shows the band's early confidence in songwriting that has only gotten stronger over time....and here comes the weirdest comparison I've had in quite a while. "Can't Stand It" really reminds me of KISS in the weirdest way (If you want a glimpse into my mind, synch up the chorus of the RVIVR song with video [no sound] of KISS at 1:50). None of this makes sense. You're just here to download the demo anyway, so get on with it and get out of here. Get out of my house!!

Download RVIVR
Re-uploaded Jan 2016

RECKLESS - "Taking A Beating" - Tape - 2010

   I'm just gonna go ahead and put this out there. I've only ever said this to my friend, Alex because it's just hella embarrassing and misleading, but the first time I heard RECKLESS, I thought they sounded sort of like THE DISTILLERS (p.s. I like THE DISTILLERS). Now, becoming more acquainted with the band, I don't hear that at all anymore, but I just thought I would get that weird tidbit out of the way.
  Anyhow, RECKLESS are real, living, breathing punks...not fake posers who look the part and put out records on major labels. They play melodic, driving punk that loosely connects with the (unfortunately-named) sub-sect of crust-pop that permeates the Pacific Northwest, like SNUGGLE, COUCH WAR (sorry, that one is really obscure if you're not from Seattle) and SOMETHING'S WRONG. The first time I saw them was at a pretty boring bar show in San Francisco, but when they played, a ton of punk kids busted through the doors, started wildly dancing and throwing each other all over the place. It made it a lot more fun and the band sounded great. I have since seen them play better shows in record stores and on the street in SF.

Here is the band somewhere. Photo by someone.

   This tape was the band's first recording and they put the sounds to tape in the living room at the FBK, one of the USA's punkest punk houses. It was late, muddy and rainy. The band was drunk and laughing. There was a moment when Chainsaw (vox/guitar) was doing the vocal tracks in the gross-ass bathroom and she started puking, mid-song. The band could not stop laughing at her. I wish that moment was on this tape, but unfortunately, it isn't. 

FBK bathroom. Photo by Alex Turner.

   RECKLESS went on to put out an LP that got a horrendously uninformed and unfair review in Maximum Rock N Roll. I'm convinced that the reviewer did not listen to the record on the right speed and never noticed, somehow. The record is great though! Then, the band went on a US tour, Chainsaw moved to Mexico City and the band broke up. You can now find their guitarist, Craig playing in KOHOSH and setting up bad-ass DIY shows in Seattle. Their bass player on this recording, (Godamnit) Pat moved to Kansas City, MO and played in STREET LEGAL until they broke up (or I think they broke up...don't quote me on that). I have no clue what their drummer is doing. As mentioned before, Chainsaw moved to Mexico City and has the cutest puppy known to humankind. It's too much.

Download RECKLESS - Updated Sept 2018

Radio, the puppy
Thanks to Craig for info.