OFF DA PIGS - 12" EP - 1998

   Before I get into the story behind this record, let me get into the story behind the story. You see, I know next to nothing about this record and, to be honest, I don't even really like it that much, but I actually had a few requests to put this one online, so here it is. I emailed the drummer, Scottzy, a while back to ask him a few questions and he said I should give him a call. Rather than blindly ask him stuff about a band I know nothing about, I asked an old friend named Jason (who is a legitimate fan of this band) to interview some ex-members. Jason was happy to do it, but time passed, I freaked out and quit all social media for a bit...and then I lost contact with Jason. Shit happens. So, I'm sorry if you're into this band and this isn't the info you wanted. Jason, if you see this and got around to writing up anything, feel free to send it to remoteoutpostsATgmail.com, and I will repost this whooole damn thing.
    So here's what I know..or think I know...Some SF Mission gangbanger kids worked in a kitchen with some SF Mission punks. They probably bonded over the menial drudgery of soul-sucking wage slavery, cheap drugs and burritos from Taqueria Cancun. I don't fucking know. What I do know is that they eventually ended up playing music together and putting out a 4 song 12" EP on Probe Records. What does it sound like when members of HICKEY and THE FAGGZ get together with some neighborhood rapper kids and collaborate on a record? Well, why you don't you click on that download link and hear for yourself.

DOWNLOAD

I just think it sounds like Judgement Night

HICKEY - "Live on KCXI. Last Show" - Tape - 1998

   Even if you're a casual reader of this blog, I'm sure I don't need to explain the importance or impact that HICKEY made on this world. I've had this tape for years and was sure that it was already uploaded. I realized that I hadn't because it was already widely available, but now most of those download links are dead, so here it is again. HICKEY broke up way back in the 90's after playing some bad bar show in Tucson, but then got back together the next day to play this one last live radio performance. It's a great send off because the band sounds pretty happy; like they're still having fun and ending things when it was time. For a little more info and the track listing, check Cosmic Hearse.

DOWNLOAD

Other links:

Rare and Unreleased Hickey

Hickey and 50 Million

Hickey Live on Valentine's Day 1997

More Hickey Recordings

San Francisco Needle Exchange

Thanks to Mike Wilson for pointing this one out.

YOGURT - Collected Songs - Tape - 1993 - 2002?

  I want to start this off by saying that I'm not sure if I can tell you much more about YOGURT that hasn't already been said more eloquently here or here.
   For the uninitiated, YOGURT is the home recorded output and brainchild of HICKEY guitarist/vocalist, Matty Luv. Also thrown into the mix was his longtime collaborator/best friend Aesop Dekker, various housemates, random bandmates, answering machines, found tapes and whoever happened to walk by when he was recording. YOGURT was often unfairly held up to the same standards of HICKEY, who's recorded output was completely unfuckwithable, but YOGURT was a different beast altogether. It's fairly standard practice for the general public to hold an artist up to their past accomplishments and scrutinize their current projects in this fashion. I was told by a few different people that YOGURT was "kind of like HICKEY without teeth", but I think this is wrong. YOGURT, while made by the same people, was experimenting into different realms and allowing themselves to be silly when they felt like it. As awesome as HICKEY was, it seemed like the band became a job to those involved where they had to take on a role as some sort of gutter-punk superhero at all times. I imagine that it must have been free-ing to let their guard down and branch out with a lot of this home recorded material. I dubbed a bunch of these songs off of my friend Sarah T when I stayed in her room in Georgia for a week. Over the years, many of these songs have become indispensable to me. From the noisy, sample laden experimentation to the beautiful guitar layered instrumentals to the short pop songs
  For a short time, YOGURT was a live band, featuring the original HICKEY lineup of Matty, Aesop and Chubby. I was visiting San Francisco in the late 90's and I found out that they were playing a bike messenger bar in the SOMA neighborhood. No less than three people tried to talk me out of going, explaining that YOGURT was boring and nothing like their former glory. I didn't care. I was some young southern punk visiting from Alabama and I wanted to see these guys that I looked up to. After dodging a fist fight in the alley, I made my way inside and, no, they were nothing like HICKEY because they weren't trying to be like that. It was still rad and I'm glad I didn't follow the advice of any of my friends. I feel lucky that I got to see them at all.
    This download is taken from the (now dead) link from the Cosmic Hearse blog and contains a ton of songs from different tapes. There's even more YOGURT songs out there. I once sifted through a small cardboard box full of random tapes from Matty's room, all of them teeming with home recorded songs and hazy band practices. The sheer amount of music that he recorded is dizzying to think about. Please enjoy this small bit of some of the best stuff he put out there.

DOWNLOAD

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.

DOWNLOAD

This tape comes from the mysterious brown bag of Mike Wilson

STREET SONGS - Summer '98 - VHS

   My friend, Chad recently unearthed the "Street Songs" VHS tape and put it online. I used to hitchhike around the south with this in my bag and organize punk movie nights in different towns just to get people to watch it. I usually paired it up with "Beyond the Screams" and the night was always a success. 

   "Street Songs" is a 8mm document of the summer of 1998 in San Francisco when all the punk clubs got shut down, so the punks just played on the streets and in the parks, using a generator for power. It also features footage of anti-war parades, dyke marches, dogs eating weird shit and the palm tress on Mission Street. Bands included are SHOTWELL, MIAMI, 50 MILLION, HUMAN BEANS (footage only. No music unfortunately) and Chattanooga's own SPAWN SACS. Locations are the doorway of Leed's Shoe Store (now a corporate shoe store at 22nd and Mission), 16th and Mission BART and Dolores Park. I can barely watch this video without my eyes tearing up for various reasons that I won't go into here.

  (The Youtube video is mislabeled. SHOTWELL "Under Law" is a 20-30 minute SHOTWELL tour video, also on 8mm, that was usually on the tape after "Street Songs". It's not Chad's fault that Jimmy Shotwell is a willfully confusing man.)

Enjoy!

HICKEY - "The Ultra Heliocentric Underworld Of The Most Evil Terrifying and Naked Cult Of Hickey. Rare and Unreleased, Unstoppable Rock!!" - 1998 - Tape

   If you're at all familiar with this blog and many of the artists that I've shared on it, I don't need to tell you why HICKEY is important. I discovered punk through THE MINUTEMEN and THE RAMONES. It was because of HICKEY (along with BLACK FORK, BIKINI KILL and 50 MILLION) that I became fiercely attracted to the DIY aspect of punk that keeps me going today and their influence still informs just about every musical decision I make. It's kinda ridiculous.
   I copied this tape off of my friend Ivy way back in the late 90's. Initially, I was not that into it and preferred the band's piles of 7" EP's and their unfuckwithable LP. As time marched on, the songs on here kept creeping into my life and many of them became some of my favorites by the band. HICKEY was known for having a remarkable live show. Sometimes, they played all of the "hits" back to back. One time, I saw them and they just kinda jammed for a long time. It wasn't bad. The 3 members became an intuitive, unstoppable unit that was not afraid of experimentation and going out on a limb...even when it failed. I think some of that comes across on this tape.

  The tape starts off with a couple of unreleased (?) songs and then delves into the band's epic cover of MANOWAR's "Kingdom Come". That song originally appeared on the Probe Records compilation "Death To False Metal", but this is the original six-and-a-half minute version with an extended jam (p.s. it rules). Next up is a weird version of "Last Nite on the Planet" with Shell (I think..it sounds like him. Edit: It's Aesop) making pro-wrestler comments throughout. The next few songs are by HICKEY MILLION, who you can read about if you follow that link (and yes, you can download the file on that page when you get to it). The rest of the side is filled with jams, cover songs (SQUEEZE, DAVID BOWIE, GUNS N ROSES, STOOGES), alternate takes and interviews with teenagers at a live HICKEY show. Side 2 (or for you, song #21) kicks off with a radio promo and goes straight into a live set on KDVS in Davis, CA. There's more jams, a really cool duet with Matty and Allison Wonderslam, more cover songs (AVENGERS and SABBATH) and that damned trumpet they stole from VOODOO GLOW SKULLS all those years ago.
  I'm still constantly impressed by the amount of stuff that this little band recorded in their brief lifetime...and how much of it is really great! I mean, there's still more, although the further you dig, the sadder it gets. Drug addiction is not pretty, folks, so let's just stop here and enjoy this great band and all the years of inspiration they have injected into our lives.

Download HICKEY Oddities

(Just to warn you, this is a large file. 230mb)

Thanks to Ivy Jeanne for the source tape (mine is thrashed).

Thanks to Aesop for giving the green light and drumming on these recordings.
Thanks to MRR for digitization help.

Thanks to Chubby, Rizzler, Wade and Shell for making it out alive.

Thanks to Matty Luv for everything. R.I.P.

...and since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, why not check out this live HICKEY set from V-Day 1997?

Matty Luv

   One of the last times I saw Matty Luv, I was in a van driving down Capp Street with my bandmates. He raised his fist to us in solidarity as we were about to go play in the middle of an illegal anti-war parade. Later, our band played in the middle of Mission Street on the back of a flatbed trailer and we stopped the parade right in front of Mission Records. The punk kids came out front to watch us and Matty took a break from working the door at the punk show to grace us with his smile. Later, i went back and tried to hang out with him for a little bit, but he was distant and preoccupied. Ironically, a bunch of us went to the park and gave each other hickeys. Meanwhile, Matty's life slipped away a few short blocks from us and we never saw him alive again. That was ten years ago today. I would be a liar if I told you that his impact wasn't still felt to this day, musically and aesthetically. I don't want to give a fucking eulogy. Just listen to this music and enjoy it. Keep living you lives and take care of the ones you love.

"Life is cheap, but living is expensive"

Matty and friends on Remote Outposts

Yogurt on Terminal Escape
FUCKBOYZ on Terminal Escape

Everythiing else you'll possibly need from Cosmic Hearse

For more info:
Mattyluv.com
SF Needle Exchange sites

DR DRE DEL - "Mic Of Defiance" - Tape - 1999

   In 1999, I was visiting friends in San Francisco and Ivy took me to the Hickey Hotel on 24th Street. It was a bustling den full of lovable freaks, assholes, musicians, artists, photographers and more. Like most of the inspiring and free-thinking enclaves of 90's-era SF, it was later evicted, whitewashed and stripped of any remnant of its former glory and it now sits anonymous and culturally barren atop a coffee shop that no one in their right mind would enter unless they long to sip lattes inside of a GQ magazine. But, I digress...While visiting the denizens of this particular abode, one resident named Aesop handed me this tape and said "You should check this out. It's a local Jewish rapper." My exterior self calmly took the tape and nonchalantly threw it in my bag while thanking him. Meanwhile, my interior self was running circles in my brain, exclaiming "Hey, your favorite drummer from your favorite punk band just gave you a fucking tape. Don't throw it around!" Aesop also showed me an 8x10 glossy picture of DR DRE DEL that made me think that this rapper could be his cleaner, smoother brother. Seconds after leaving the house, Ivy told me that DR DRE DEL was Aesop and that the DJ featured on the tape, DJ QUEENIE, was none other than Matty Luv. Both guys had formerly been 2/3's of the runaway train known as HICKEY, who had broken up the previous year. I don't know what was going through their heads at that point in their lives (literally, theoretically or pharmaceutically), but one can surmise that after years upon years of being in a band-turned-cult that took up mostly every second of their lives, these guys might want to take a break and churn out something ridiculous.

   If you are familiar with the output of the aforementioned gentlemen, you'll know that even the seemingly lighthearted, ridiculous, jokey shit has a lot of thought and effort behind it. If memory serves me correctly, Matty spent hours teaching himself how to sample beats and songs just for this project. No matter how scatalogical or sexual the lyrics got, Aesop made most of the songs on here insanely memorable by having an ear for a good hook. Starting off with the unforgettable "Dr Dre Del Is The Master", the duo sets the bar rather high in 56 short seconds with an unmistakable metal riff and flawless MC skills. From there on out, the tape is filled (i mean filled...48 songs) with fantastical imagery ("Fuck ALF"), still-relevant social commentary ("Make Room For Whitey"), typical shit-talking ("Fuck You Cecil" trilogy), a fucking RUDIMENTARY PENI sample ("Weird Ass Sisters"), fairly legit hip-hop ("Mic Of Defiance"), straight up awesome weirdness ("Smokin' Crack and Killin' Pigs") and so much more. If that doesn't work for you, DR DRE DEL also raps about his dick...a lot.

Picture of an ultra rare live performance.

Download DR DRE DEL

48 songs. None are over 2 minutes.
Matty Luv passed away in 2002 and his musical accomplishments are too numerous to name. You can find more info about him here. Aesop is still killing it on the drums in the bands AGALLOCH, WORM OUROBOROS and VHOL. 

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.

ME, YOU & THE BOYS - Live Tape - 2000?

   ME, YOU & THE BOYS was an acoustic project put together by Matty Luv (HICKEY), Shell, Jen (both of 50 MILLION and now SHELLSHAG) and Matt Powell (RUDIMENTS//FAGGZ). I'm pretty sure they never left San Francisco or went on any sort of tour to speak of. A lot of locals around SF were big fans of this group, but they never clicked with me. In my mind, it all ties into the "dark days" of the Mission punk scene that Erick Lyle speaks of in this entry about 50 MILLION, but I thought it might be of interest to fans of the aforementioned bands.
   This sounds like a practice tape recorded by the band on a boombox or something. They play some originals and a VASELINES cover. The tape was dubbed for me by my friend Sarah T (she also took the pic of them playing at Mission Records below). Enjoy.

Download the tape
Updated 2013

If you think I'm full of shit and this is your favorite band ever, please feel free to tell your own story about them in the comments. I'm sure it's good.
Oh yeah, almost forgot...this was obviously recorded off of a CD and it has a couple little skips in it. It's not too bad though....I think it's only in "78666".

HICKEY - Live at the Kommotion - Valentine's Day 1997

   Steve-o posted this little gem yesterday on a little social networking site that I sometimes frequent and I could not resist sharing with all of you. This is a very good quality recording of my favorite Mission punk band, HICKEY playing at Klub Kommotion (now the location of Amnesia, I believe...someone correct me if I'm wrong...EDIT: I'm wrong) in SF and it sounds great. They play a lot of "the hits", including "Hey Cutie Pie", "The Prettiest Junkie in Town" (the superior slow version) and "California Redemption", in addition to a lot of cringe-worthy stage banter (lots of talk about Valentine's Day and fucking) and a ruling space jam at the end. What better way to celebrate this weird holiday that was made up by greeting card companies to play up to your insecurities and fears about being alone for the rest of your life? Fuck 'em.

   This show happened in 1997, which is not the first year that I saw HICKEY, but it is the year that they changed my life. Later on in the year (October 13th, to be exact), HICKEY came to Florence, AL and my band, RICE HARVESTER played with them. They fuckin' ruled it that night and I was a convert to the Naked Cult for life. They even cracked my arch-enemy in the teeth with a microphone and later, their roadie pepper-sprayed the shit out of his eyes (for more on this guy and his ultimate apology for being a supreme dick, please click here). I liked them so much that I impulsively decided to make the trek to Murfreesboro, TN the next night to see them for my 21st birthday. That night was very different. The band played their show in a full-on fuckin' sports bar with multiple TV's showing bullshit and a crowd of punks and sports fans. It was weird. The bartender overheard me talking about my birthday and gave me a free pitcher of beer. I didn't even drink alcohol then, so I turned around and gave it to Matty Luv, HICKEY's singer/guitarist. He said "Thanks! We should share this." Now, I realize that I should've just gotten drunk with Matty, but I stuck to my self-imposed sober lifestyle and watched the band get hammered.

    Just before the band was about to hit their first note of the night, the cops inexplicably walked through the door and struck up a conversation with the bartender. Aesop, HICKEY's drummer, said "Oh hey, the cops are here." Without another word, the entire band and their roadie, Matt (who was across the room selling records) stripped every last bit of their clothes off. The band started playing a long, drawn out, improv jam and the cops left without even glancing at the naked dudes playing music a mere 15 feet away from them. It was some weird wizard shit. The band continued to play wild space jams, interspersed with their original songs for a full hour. Sometimes, their roadie Matt danced naked on the merch table as squares and normies filed out the door, averting their eyes. It was a great night. I remember being sorta thrown off and disappointed at the way the band made fun of the small audience that had actually paid for and been excited about seeing them. I felt better afterwards when I hung out with them at the house they stayed at and they had bought a ton of food on food stamps. They made a huge feast for everyone, hung out and were genuinely nice and appreciative of the people who set up the show for them. Later that night, I made the three hour drive back to Alabama, knowing that I would remember those last couple of days for the rest of my life.

Download HICKEY
Files updated Feb 2014

Original tape supplied by Matty's brother, Scott. Digitized by Steve-o.

50 MILLION - "3/14/05" - CDR - 2005

   I know I say this a lot about different bands, but 50 MILLION really is one of my all time top favorite bands. I'm still baffled by how they made it out of the 1990's Mission punk scene alive with most of their major organs still intact.
   50 MILLION is a core group of two brothers named Wade and Shell who have been playing music together for...uh..a really long fucking time. Wade used to play in a band called CORDUROY back in the 90's and he asked Shell to play 2nd guitar in the band. Before it could ever happen, the band broke up and the two brothers set out to continue writing songs together. A lot of the early recordings are beautifully fucked up, heartbroken pop songs recorded on 4 track. Sometimes they sent each other unfinished songs through the mail between San Francisco and San Marcos, Texas...and the other brother would finish it. They ranged from the aforementioned pop to experimental noise to soundscapes to audio dramas to loud metallish dirges. Along the way, they picked up friends to round out their sound and put out a handful of 7"'s and a couple of albums. They even formed a one-off band with HICKEY and recorded each other's songs (found here) They went on tour with a shotgun, drugs and machetes, but still somehow managed to come home in one piece even though they had a habit of getting into fights everywhere they went.In the early '00's, they recorded a double LP tentatively titled "The Song Remains Insane", which is still unreleased. A record label (which shall remain unnamed) said they would put it out if the band would shave off the "noisier" parts and just leave the pop songs. The band refused and the recordings are probably still lingering around somewhere in the Mission District. I've heard a lot of it. It's really good. Someone should put it out.
   This CDR is 4 quick songs recorded on a 4 track in 2005 and it includes the completely unfuckwithable pop song "Sunday to Monday". On this release, they stick mostly to the pop side of things. Even though the two brothers live about as far apart from each other as two people can while still living in the same country, they are still, somehow, a band in some form. Apparently, they just recorded some new material with their dad (Wade Driver), who is a professional square dance caller. I can't wait to hear it.

                                     50 MILLION!!

Updated September 2014

HICKEY MILLION - Tape - 1996

    On Christmas day in 1996, two of the Mission District's best bands got together with a shoddy 4 track and recorded this crazy shit. HICKEY and 50 MILLION hung out together, played shows together, and did boatloads of drugs together. Why not play music together as one big band doing each other's songs as well as a Billy Bragg cover? I wish they would've recorded more than five songs, but I'm not complaining. I'm glad it even happened in the first place. I'm also glad that most of these people made it out of the 90's Mission punk days alive and continue to write inspiring music.
    If you want to order a CD of these songs (with a different mix) as well as 30 more songs by 50 MILLION, you can find it right here.
                   Download HICKEY MILLION

MATTY AND MAX - Split 7" - 1997

   Nine years ago today, a man named Matty Luv passed away. The songs that he wrote with many of his bands (but primarily HICKEY) changed the way that I look at music. He was one of a kind and will never be forgotten. I still can't walk down 24th street in SF (2 blocks from my house)  or eat at El Farolito without thinking about him. I'll keep it short since I've written plenty about him in the past.
  This 7" came out in '97 or so and catches Matty at a solo show after the FUCKBOYZ broke up. It's pretty raw and fun. The flip side is by his friend, Max, and it's seriously one of the best acoustic songs ever written. You can download a lot of other music by Matty at Cosmic Hearse and Terminal Escape. Listen to it all day or just go out in the sun, eat a burrito and start a new band.

                            Photo by Karoline Collins
                            Download MATTY AND MAX

Link repaired September 2014