BEER GARDEN - Complete Discography - 2002-2003

   Today's post is brought to you by Gaylen, who sang for the raging Brooklyn punk band, BEER GARDEN back in 2002. She sent over the tracks for their first demo to be posted for the birthday (today) of their late guitarist Dan. I decided to include their CD and a comp track as well to round out the discography. Thanks to Gaylen, Ella, Bobby and Dan for making all of this music. Here's Gaybob to tell you the rest. 

   Last year I called Dan on his birthday. the same number he's had since I met him in 7th grade. He was my brother's friend so I instantly hated him by association, but he was so fucking funny that it quickly dissipated. Dan was honest and brutal in his humor. We threw him a benefit show when we found about the ALS diagnosis, and it was like a NYC punk high school dropout reunion. People I hadn't seen in years came out of nowhere. Dan brought people together across social circles and music scenes. He got on the mic at one point,

“I went to the doctor today. He told me.... I'm still alive”. 

   That's Dan. Raw, honest, funny, and not giving a shit about how you might feel about it. He didn't want anyone to feel bad for him, to talk about him or memorialize his life like he was already dead. We were kids from Brooklyn before Brooklyn was hip. We would talk on the phone, long shit talking sessions, on landlines, the age before cellphones. We'd meet up in the “city”, sit on park benches, by the river, wherever we could find to go with no money. Drink on stoops and sneak into parties. My nostalgia for this time, this long gone city, is so intertwined with Dan, our friendship and our band, Beer Garden.

Dan, taken by drummer Bobby before leaving on the Lazer / Beer Garden tour.

    Beer Garden was based out of the backyard of ABC no Rio, where we hung out, nearly every Saturday, drinking, fighting, dancing and being wild teenagers. We had all been in a few bands before, but didn't have a rigid concept of what a band should be. It was still exciting. Our shows often erupted into impromptu dance parties, Dan free styling over Ella's bass lines. After the shows, outside, Dan would sing acapella, and his voice blew everyone away. We went out on tour with The Lazer after being a band for about a year. We were so ignorant of people and bands around the country. I remember being in awe that there were other fuckups and weirdos, like us, and sharing that with Dan. He listened to music constantly on that tour...to stay sane.

   Thanks to Rudi for saving this recording, our first demo. The lyrics feel embarrassing, but I think the guitar playing is classic Dan. Straight forward and solid. A lot of people turn up really loud when they play and drown everything out. Dan never did that. We usually didn't have equipment for shows so the sound was always reliant on what we could borrow but his playing was so solid. He had said he wanted to be remembered as a guitar player. So here it is.There's so more to say but it all comes out wrong. Dan was out getting tattooed when I called on his birthday. I left him a message. It's still hard to believe I can't call him this year.

Happy birthday Dan. We miss you.

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Includes their demo, "Coming After You" CD and a compilation track. 

THE YOUNG MEN / HUFF STUFF MAGAZINE / NEON PISS

   This one has been a tough one to get around to writing and going into it right now, I'm not even exactly sure what I'm going to say. Our friend Barker Gee took his own life in Conway, Arkansas on June 22nd this year and I'm still waiting for him to pop out of the bushes with that big dumb grin on his face and say "haw haw!! GOTCHA!"....and just walk off smoking a cigarette like nothing happened. To say that it's devastating to our community of friends is the understatement of the year. I hate it so much.
   I have too many stories to share about Barker. They're all darkness and light. Some of them are side splittingly funny. Others are so crushingly sad that if I think about them too much, I can't do anything but cry. He had a spark that is rare for the people you meet in this life. (I've now been sitting here staring at the screen for 20 minutes with my fingers on the keyboard thinking about everything....every interaction...and I just don't know what to say, still.)
   Once, our old band NEON PISS was driving up to Portland to play a show. I was driving and Barker was in the back seat asking if he could smoke in the car again (no). The mix tape I made was playing when "Tabletop Hop" by THE YOUNG MEN came on. Barker yelled "Whoa! You put this on your tape??!!? Hell yeah!" When the guitar solo - his guitar solo - came on, he yelled "Turn it all the way up!!" I did and he played air guitar to it. The whole thing was so ridiculous and endearing and we all just laughed like idiots.
   THE YOUNG MEN was Barker, Jamie, Ren and Skip. They started after BENT OUTTA SHAPE split up and (predictably) did not get the respect they deserved following the foot print that BENT left behind. Barker put this tape out years after the band split up and it's a bunch of stuff they never got around to releasing. The tape includes 10 songs from "The Chris Pierce Sessions", 3 songs I know very little about and their 4 song demo. "Alabam'" from the demo is easily my favorite song about my home state written by someone who never lived there.
   HUFF STUFF MAGAZINE was a short lived Oakland band featuring Barker on guitar and vocals, Stevo on bass and Brad on drums. One time, Barker called me and asked if I had ever listened to their demo tape. I said "Yeah....once." He said "Well, listen to it a few more times. We need you to play drums for us at Thrillhouse tonight." I did listen to it some more but  then I showed up too late and missed the entire show. I heard that they just grabbed someone from the audience to play. Regardless, through the repeated listening, I realized that the tape is excellent. You can still order their LP here. At a recent memorial for Barker, I noticed that almost every time I paid attention to what was on the stereo, it was the HUFF STUFF record.
    At some point while NP was still a band, Barker took off to New York to get clean. While he was there, he started playing some music with Aaron Cometbus and was supposed to get some dude from FUGAZI in the band too. I don't think that ever happened, but he sent me an email one day telling me about what he was up to on the East Coast. He sent me an mp3 of his new band and said "Don't ever let anyone hear this!!" Sorry Barker. Someone already put this song online anyway.
   I'm including the NEON PISS LP. 45. demo tape and weird "rarities" CD that we sold at our last show because I realized you can't download it for free on our Bandcamp page. I don't know how to log into that page anymore, so here's everything for free. Also included is the rough mix of "Siege Mentality" off of our LP. I threw this one in because Barker whispers "There is no God"during a break in the song towards the end. On the LP, it got mixed really far down, but on this mix, it's pretty prominent. It's one of my favorite things on the LP because it was an off the cuff thing that Barker decided to throw in without really talking to us about it. There's also a practice space recording of a later song that never got fully worked out that Barker wrote. (haha! I just remembered that this song is already included in the rarities CD. Ooops!)

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Why? by Huff Stuff Magazine from John No on Vimeo.

From John No's piece about this video in the memorial zine edited by Janelle Hessig: 

"Barker cracked an egg into the pan as the camera rolled and it had TWO YOLKS - Which is always freaky but of course it happens from time to time....then he cracked the second egg and it had two yolks AGAIN! This time, we were like "Holy shit!" and started laughing pretty hard so his cigarette fell into the pan. He left it in there, kept cooking the eggs and lit another cigarette and then put that one out into the pan. Barker ate most of it and promptly puked."

Barker at Kurt Cobain's house. Photo by me.

THANKS:
Alex Turner for finding the things I don't have.
Caitlin Kelly for repressing the YM tape for the memorial and being a perfect angel.
Barker Gee for being such a singular, weird, engaging and loving human freak in this world. 

YOUNG RUINS - Demo - Tape - 2014

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    A few years ago, my old band played a show in Brooklyn at Death By Audio that was well attended and featured good bands, but was (by my account) kind of boring. One of my favorite memories though was looking up from the drums during our last song and seeing my friend Mike Taylor pogo-ing like a madman. He was one of four people who seemed to not have their feet nailed to the floor. Mike has put so much of his energy and time into visual art in the last 20(+) years that I often forget that he, like most people in this world, is a multi-faceted individual with a plethora of interests...including energetic punk. I don't know why it surprised me to see him up front mouthing the words to our cover of "Kids Of The Black Hole", but it did...and it made me so happy.
    Fast forward another year and I got this tape in the mail. On it, Mike plays guitar and sings. A dude named Roy plays bass. Gina Marie, who I just met last week in Berkeley, plays drums. In a review in print, I said something like "I don't know what post-hardcore is, but this is probably post-hardcore." I also said that it sounds suspiciously like present day New York. Coming from someone who has never lived there and actually kinda doesn't like the place, you can take that however you want. It just sounds dark and desperate in all the ways that I love. It sounds like walking down the street and being plagued by all of the thoughts that make you want to kill. The kind of music that makes you say "Fuck you" every time you pass a cop or some shit in a suit...not because you're some young reactionary punk, but because you're pushing 40 and have been dealing with it for your whole goddamn life..being too aware of the power imbalances, the gender inequalities, all of the people who have been killed by pigs, the racism of capitalism, etc, etc and feeling like there's nothing you could ever possibly do to change anything....or am I projecting again?

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You can order this tape from them if you follow the link.

They recorded an LP and might've broken up. I bet it's great. You should put it out.

THE LAZER//SCENT OF HUMAN HISTORY - Split - CD - 2002

   What the fuck is up? I've been thinking about the ghosts that you see when you walk down the street and you can only look at your neighborhood through a lens of what used to be there. I'm trying to stop doing that, but it's hard when everything changes so quickly.
    One of the last times that I talked about my friend Jamie's bands, I did not use any filters and I didn't think too closely about what I was putting out into the world. Without going into detail, I was visited by different kinds of ghosts and put into sudden serious conversations with people I never thought I would encounter in my life. I don't plan on revisiting these conversations anytime in the near future and sometimes, it's better to let ghosts rest. That is why this entry will be noticeably vague and feel devoid of some kinds of obvious info.
   Both of these bands were from Long Island during the early '00's. Both of them played shows in Chattanooga when I lived there. One of them I liked. The other...not so much. When THE LAZER came into town, it was the first time I met Jamie after being his pen pal for about a year or so. I took him out for pizza even though I could barely afford it. He complained about the pizza because he is from New York and this is what New Yorkers do, but when I went to see him, he returned the favor because that's what friends do.
   THE LAZER broke up and some of the members soon started the freight train known as BENT OUTTA SHAPE. SCENT OF HUMAN HISTORY soon became extinct and did other things too. I can't tell you what those things are, but you can find more info about this release here.

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THE GOOD GOOD - "Giver" - CD-R - 2004

   Like many bands on this blog, I don't know where to start with THE GOOD GOOD. I think I first heard them when I was sitting around all day in my lonely bedroom in Mississippi, trying to find new music through my roommate's record collections. I knew that my band would be playing with them soon, so I figured I would check them out. I liked it but I wasn't sold. We played with them a few days later. The second that their singer Natalja put down her guitar and played an entire song with just a megaphone, I was in. These were my people. (That song was "Hello Friends", included in this download).
   I was also drawn to the rock solid bass playing and the wild, completely unpredictable-yet-still-somehow-solid drumming that sometimes drove the songs into dancey rhythms and sometimes drove it into dark dirges. I don't know how to explain this band and that doesn't even matter....I just know that I loved them when they were around and I miss them so fucking much now that they're gone.
   This four song CD_R gives small hints of what was to follow on their later full length LP. If you don't own their full-length LP, which contains insanely awesome art and even better music, then I feel bad for you....but you can order one here, maybe. If you just want to download it, I guess you can go here.

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Members of BLOODHUFF, CHA CHA CHA, MUGWORT, BOOMFANCY, COBRA KAI and QUERENT. 

THE BABIES - "West Coast Tour" - Tape - 2010

   THE BABIES came out to San Francisco back in 2010 and played the basement of a seedy, beautiful bar in Chinatown. I went to see them simply because I loved the song "Somebody Else" and my friend, Naters was playing bass for them at the time. The opening bands were largely popular SF indie rock acts and the basement was packed to the gills with the kinds of people I don't usually find myself hanging out with (take that however you want), so I spent most of my time kicking it on the street out front with Naters. When THE BABIES set up to play, the basement (unfortunately for them//cool for me) had cleared out a little bit and there was room to dance. I didn't know anyone at the show, so I just stood up front and danced the whole time. It was fun. They were great, because they're good at writing simple, yet infectious pop melodies. Plus, they have a steady drummer who hits the drums like he's pounding a cop's face, even though that's probably not how he thinks about it.
   I bought this tape expecting 20-something minutes of pop excellence, but that's not really how it turned out. Once I got over the disappointment, I found out that this tape is still pretty good. It's compiled mostly of warbly acoustic home recordings and some full band compositions as well. Everything on here sounds like it was recorded on half-inch tape that has been stored underwater since 1966 and then played over an AM radio broadcast from South Korea, which gives it a little bit of a VELVET UNDERGROUND "White Light/White Heat" kind of vibe. When I was digitizing this tape, I texted Naters and asked "Is this supposed to sound warbly and distant or did I just get a bad tape?" Nate simply answered "yes", which is a perfect answer. The longer story is that even though someone might be in a legitimately famous band, they still sometimes use their friends shitty ass tape duplicator that turns a perfectly good recording into something that sounds like a 4th generation dub from the bottom of your shoe box of cassettes from 2nd grade. Still, most of these songs are gems below the surface. Have fun digging into it.

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Ex-members of THE INSURGENT, BENT OUTTA SHAPE, BOSSY, SIX PACK FOUR, RINGERS, CREEPY ALIENS and some other stuff.

Hopefully, the band won't take me to the People's Court for posting this. 

SHORT STACK - "Got Soul" - Tape - 2006

   New York City in the mid-00's was pumping out loads of quality punk bands who never really left the city. I'm sure that NYC still produces these bands, but I don't know who they are. SHORT STACK were one of those bands who were drinking in Tompkins Square Park, walking the streets, eating cheap pizza, and recording their songs on 4 tracks in the basement.
   I visited NYC on tour and Ella (guitar/vocals) handed me this tape when I got to her house. I was stoked, but then promptly lost it among all the other piles of detritus in the tour van. I was never able to track it down. Luckily, I found this a few weeks ago in a free box at a punk house, which seems like a fitting way to acquire this tape.
  I don't know much about this band, but you can hear the beer, the NYC streets, the desperation, the oppressive heat and the grit in these songs. "San Pedro Post Office" and "Chuck Berry" will pull you in and the rest will hold you there for the full 14 minutes of this tape. Enjoy.

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Features members of DEAD DOG, RAW//WAR, SLEEPWALK, SIX PACK FOUR, BEER GARDEN and more. 

X - Live at Klub Foot - Tape - 1982

   There was a time in my life when X didn't mean that much to me. I remember first hearing them as a teenager and thinking that they sounded kinda dated and classic rock-y. It wasn't until I started living their songs that they became relevant to me. My whole fucking life was a wreck. Last night everything broke. I felt desperate. X was there and told me to get used to it. When I visited LA for the first time, I could feel a tinge of where they were coming from. Like almost everyone else ever in punk, X became my daily soundtrack. Not just Los Angeles and Wild Gift, but everything else too (I even have a cassette of "Hey Zeus" and think "Country At War" is pretty great).
   I was sure that I missed my chance to ever see the band live, but then they re-formed and I was ecstatic. They came to Indianapolis when I lived 45 short miles away and I jumped at the chance to go see them. I am just as skeptical of reunion shows as any other DIY punk, but I also needed to see X. Days before the event, a friend called from an X show in Atlanta so we could hear them. I put in on speakerphone and danced with my roommates in the living room. It was great! Anyhow, we went to the show and it was awesome. Of course, they played all the hits and I left a happy person. Then, they just never broke up again! They play all the time!! They're kinda always around. Billy Zoom is a creep and hit on my friend. John Doe puts my friends on guest lists for shows. I got to tell DJ Bonebrake that his drumming blows my mind. My girlfriend took Exene some painkillers for her Multiple Sclerosis. Exene opened a show for my band in a bowling alley, wants to make a documentary about my friend Ivy and shopped for tchotchkes at Jimmy Shotwell's street sale. They're cool people (well, besides Zoom) and I sorta just wish they were my friends. I don't need to see X ever again though.
    Oh yeah, there's a tape. It says this was recorded at "Klub Foot" in Houston in 1982, but I can't find any record of a place called that in Houston. There was one in SF and my friend still lives in the building. Who knows? I was 6 years old. Since it was '82, you get to hear them play a lot of really great songs and don't have to be subjected to "Love Shack" or "True Love Pt 2". Also, they play for over an hour! Jeez! There's 2 encores! (some weird sound shit happened on the 2nd encore of "Real Child of Hell" and it's almost inaudible, so I hope that's not your favorite song or anything) The last six songs are from a live broadcast on KBFH NY in 1984. It's all really good...except maybe "Nausea". Bonebrake must've been tired or something, but I'll give him a break. It's hard to play slow songs on drums.

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TREPANNING - "Live At WFMU" - Tape - 2012

   The way that I met Scott Youth was pretty embarrassing (for him, not me), so I'll spare the details on his behalf. What I will tell you is that he was about 13 years old and he gave me a flier for a "punk" show that I would never go to while we were both in the Chattanooga Public Library. I didn't see him for a couple of years and then, one day, he was living on my couch, claiming that he ran away from home. We told him that he couldn't live there for free. He needed to dumpster food to share with everyone. Nightly, he would bring home upwards of 15 pizzas, even though most of us worked at a pizza place and 99% of the house was vegan. We were never very nice about it (or maybe it was just me), but Scott was usually understanding, friendly and would give you anything he owned to make you happy.
    As the years sailed on, Scott started traveling pretty extensively and I would always hear stories about how he got drunk and broke a lot of shit. In a way, it made me sad because I still remembered that sweet, humble, calm kid. Don't get me wrong...I think it's important for young people to get trashed, listen to punk, smash shit and do things they'll regret in 5 years (or 5 minutes). The thing was, every time I hung out with him, Scott still was that same sweet kid, but that sweet kid liked to get drunk and loud (like a Merle Haggard song). Sometimes I could hang with it. Other times, I ran off into the night.

   All this time, I never knew that Scott knew how to play any instruments until he told me that his band was playing at Anarchtica, a long-running punk house in Chattanooga. I never actually saw any band he played in until years later when he drummed for CHEESEQUAKE after moving to Brooklyn. The kid was great! The "kid" was also a foot taller than me by this point and in his mid-twenties.
   Just a few weeks ago when my band played in Brooklyn, Scott appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, at the very end of the show and he had that former calm and casual demeanor about him.  We talked for a bit as I packed up my drums and that little bit of conversation made me wish that NYC wasn't so socially overwhelming because I suddenly wanted to hang out with the guy all night. But, like most of my times in Brooklyn, I drove across town to a comfortable place with quiet friends, which is just fine with me (coincidentally, it was also the location of one of the most ass-wild new year's parties I had ever been to, just 5 years previous). Before parting, Scott handed me a copy of his new band's first recording, live on WFMU, one of the country's best radio stations.
   When I got home from tour and popped this into the tape deck, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I don't know why, but that's just how I felt. This is excellent. In weird ways, it reminds me of the parts of New York that don't really exist anymore; a Times Square full of sleazy theaters, a $2 show at Max's Kansas City with Patti Smith lackadaisically dancing and smoking in the front row or The NEW YORK DOLLS shopping for high heels in a vintage shop. Some of the slower moments remind me of TELEVISION. I'm not sure if this is what the band was going for at all but this is what I get out of it. It just sounds like punk before punk knew what it was supposed to sound like, if you catch my drift. Maybe you'll think it sounds like indie rock or some "New York shit". Makes no difference to me. I'm still gonna blast this on my headphones and dream of a New York that I might've enjoyed at some point in my life.

This band is made of real winners and they've all been in cool bands that you like.

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LINK FIXED MARCH 2021
If you want to write to the band about getting your own tape, try this email...
trepanningbrooklyn@gmail.com

PASSIVE AGGRESSOR - Demo - Tape - 2009

   My buddy, Meredith has always been a big supporter of DIY punk bands. She has been known to drag me up front at shows, physically force me to dance and talk me into buying tapes from struggling bands on tour. It's not uncommon for her to yell (sometimes louder than the band's between song feedback), "YES! I LOVE IT! MAKE IT HAPPEN MORE!!!" The weird part to me, is that for all of her charm, natural charisma and penchant for being a lovable loudmouth, Meredith had never really been in any bands, barring a one-off project doing some X and STOOGES songs. She is a natural frontperson and has a way of captivating a room when she is in it.
   Of course I was happy when she told me that she was singing in this band called PASSIVE AGGRESSOR in Brooklyn and I was even happier when I saw them. They turn from slow, dirgy, JESUS LIZARD-worship to late-era BLACK FLAG to full-on hardcore attacks with Meredith's fierce, raspy voice guiding the way. Their songs wind around like a snake sliding through the grass that is coiling up for an attack. My favorite of the four tracks, "Nightmares" sounds like waking up in a cold sweat at 4 am and being short of breath. All 4 songs are great though.
   I was sad, but understanding when Meredith left the band after putting out their split 7" with PRSMS. The band forged ahead as a three-piece with their guitarist, Glenn taking on most of the vocal duties. I'm sure it was great, but I can't tell you for sure since I didn't listen to them again. No offense to the guys in the band, but I think Meredith is an outstanding frontperson and I couldn't imagine the band without her. So, I just let them slip out of my life. At least I have this demo to remind me of how great they were.
  The guys from PASSIVE AGGRESSOR started a new band called ACID PROBLEM that seems to be picking up where PA left off. Punk is calling you, Meredith and it wants you to be in another band.

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LINK REUPPED MARCH 2021

NASTY INTENTIONS - "Straight Outta Tompkins" - Tape - 2005?

   NASTY INTENTIONS were a punk band from Brooklyn that embodied the talents of some of the best NYC-dwelling sweethearts that I know. I like this tape a lot, but didn't really know anything about the band, plus I never saw them play a show. I'm a little clueless when it comes to NASTY INTENTIONS, so I asked the band for some information about their second tape, "Straight Outta Tompkins". The only real input that their charismatic singer, Joe Porter gave me was "Most importantly, you may think it's wrong, but it is our way." I could just end it there, give you the download link and call it a day, but their bass player, Colin Atrophy chimed in with his two cents as well. "Two cents" may be a little misleading. The man is quite verbose when it comes to the written word, so let's call it $2.25, which is the average going rate for a plain slice of pizza in NYC. Here is the story of NASTY INTENTIONS as told by Colin:


  "Nasty Intentions started out as a hat band. I was really nervous because Gloryhole, the band I was in at the time, was the first band I had been in that I played an instrument in and I was scared to be around these people I didn't know so well playing music together and having to pick up a guitar in front of them. Our first practice was upstairs at the Bent Haus. We wrote four songs, none of which are on Straight Outta Tompkins. They are on our first tape, which maybe doesn't have a name and maybe was called "Nasty As We Wanna Be".  We tried to write four songs in four different punk styles. I think I played guitar on two, John played guitar on one, bass on two, drums on one, Tooth played drums on two, guitar on one, bass on one, Joe sang every time. We also recorded some hot jams under the name Naz-T Intenshunz, with pseudonyms. I think Sweet Tooth was Velvet Patterson, John was Western Beef and I was Genuine Suede. Joe was at work that day or something.

After the hat band show, Tooth left town for a while, and when he came back and moved into Tompkins, we were all drinking beers together and decided to have a band again. This time we stuck to certain instruments: Joe still sang, Tooth played drums, John played guitar, and I played bass. When we were getting back into being a band, we decided to learn the songs off the old tape over again. We sat in the practice room in the basement of Tompkins (a dire place) and listened to the tape over and over again but couldn't find any of the notes to any of the songs. We'd get something partially, but then it would end up off key somewhere or we'd find a note that just didn't fit. Eventually we realized that when we recorded that first tape, at our second or third practice EVER, no one brought a tuner and we'd tuned by ear to a perfect e flat. So me and John retuned our guitars and voila, everything fit. 

There was about five seconds where Famous Local Indie Rock Stud Kevin Morby was playing second guitar, back in the day when he was just Kevin Morby and not FLIRS Kevin Morby. He is on the cover of the tape. The other person on the cover of the tape (playing Easy-E no less) is none other than Dan Klein aka Danskin aka Likkle Dan aka Brukk Face, of Beer Garden fame, and currently singing sweet reggae love jams in THE FRIGHTENERS. One time we got to play our cover of Alcohol at a show in Philly with JOE JACK TALCUM. I got so drunk I don't remember if he liked it or not, but I guess that's appropriate considering the song.

I was always really surprised by how much everyone liked Nasty Intentions, because I never thought I would be in a band that people liked, and I never could see how good it was from inside of it. I think, musically speaking, I was always the weak link, and I feel really lucky that I got to play with such talented people for a little while. Sweet Tooth is obviously a brilliant song writer, and John McLean can make a guitar weep or sing better than anyone I've ever met, but I knew that going into it. Joe Porter was the one that caught me off guard.

I guess everyone knows it by now, that he's great at everything he does, but I hadn't figured it out yet back then. Like the song Dumb Dream. I'd love to take credit for that cool ass bass part I play, I'm sure I have taken credit for it a few times, but the truth is, Joe came to practice one day with a dictaphone and played us a cassette tape of him singing that bassline. John figured it out and showed it to me. And that's to say nothing of his lyrics. I was re-listening to this tape the other day and there is a part on the song Augima where he is singing to his daydream crush about a letter he's imagining writing and he says, "and if this message should make it's way onto your door, please write back to me one three one Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn, NY!!" and it's so triumphant and hopeful it almost made me cry when I heard it again. 

This band, when things worked, was the best band I've ever been in and probably the best band I'll ever be in, in terms of feeling magical and transcendent. I know there's a lot I'm leaving out and a lot that's impossible to write about. The time when I was in this band was one of the best and worst of my entire life, I think it may have been that way for all of us. And I think maybe that vulnerability and honesty comes through on the tape. Who knows? 

   Okay, it's me again....At the 11th-hour-I'm-about-to-push-the-button-to-publish-this-any-second-now, Joe Porter sent me their last 4 songs that were intended for a 7" that never materialized (not the original 4 song demo as it says in the download), which I am now hearing for the first time and are included in this download. They sound awesome, my favorite of the moment being "People Like You". 

   These days, their guitarist, John lives in Athens,GA and crafts his maniac, beautifully shambolic guitar playing in the band DEAD DOG. N.I. drummer, Sweettooth lives in Oakland and runs a cinematheque out of the warehouse where he lives. He shows everything from experimental film to documentaries to  cult classics to everything inbetween everything else. Check it out here. Joe Porter is currently ruling what is left of the house show scene in Brooklyn, singing in the band MARVIN BERRY & THE NEW SOUND. Our friend and bassist, Colin is notorious for eating a slice of pizza at every pizza joint in Manhattan and chronicling his misadventures over at Slice Harvester. Also, I once got him to admit that there is a good pizza place in SF.

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If the writing on this entry looks insanely crazy and weird on your screen...sorry about that. I don't know what happened.

AYE NAKO - Demo - Tape - 2010

   When I put this tape in the stereo for the first time, I didn't know that I was dooming myself to having these songs hopelessly stuck in my head for the next year. I've known Mars (guitar/vox) and Joe (bass) for a long time now. I was (and still am) a big fan of their old band, FLEABAG back when they lived in the Bay Area, but this band is a step above, somehow. All the rough edges of FLEABAG are honed and sharpened. The guitars are thicker and more frenetic. It has the triumphant feel of being comfortable and confident with the music that you're creating.

AYE NAKO in Worcester, MA.

  AYE NAKO started in Bloomington, IN back in 2008 and broke up when Mars and Joe moved to the Bay Area. A couple of years later, the two of them ended up in Brooklyn and started playing with Angie on drums, once again as AYE NAKO with all new songs and a bigger sound. Mars sent me a early version of "Molasses" before the tape came out and I must have listened to it 5 times in a row as soon as I got it. I wanted more. I still want more. "Good Grief"'s screamy hardcore approach sounded out of place when I first heard it (also, kind of alarming after meeting Mars as a meek, almost mute acoustic performer 5 years ago), but now it fits in, in a weird way  The cacophonous guitar outro on "Slump" brings a mile-wide smile to my face. This is definitely one of my favorite tapes of the past year and as I said before, I still want more.

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In Richmond, VA. Photo by ???
p.s. one of the best tape covers ever, in my opinion.

CRYBABY MACARTHUR - "Kever's Room Sessions" - Tape - 2005

   There was this band in Brooklyn around 2002 called BEER GARDEN and I loved them. Their singer, Gaylen had this totally rad, weird voice that went from sweet to snarling in a split second. It was instantly recognizable and all her own. Like many great bands, they put out a really cool album and then broke up. The gnashing of teeth heard from around the world was deafening. Also, like many people in bands, they started another one and it seemed to pick up where BEER GARDEN left off. Ella (also the guitarist in BEER GARDEN) and Gaylen got together with their friends Alex and Good Kid Paulie to form this awesome band that played a shit-ton of living room shows in Brooklyn and went on a few tours around the Midwest and the South. The songs "The Chase" and "Sirens" give me that same great feeling as the first time I heard BEER GARDEN: catchy and triumphant, but also tough as nails.Seven songs on here and all of them rule. Later, they put out a 7" of a lot of these same songs that is totally worth tracking down.

    These days, Ella is living in Georgia and plays in the excellent band DEAD DOG. I had the honor of being in DIRTY MARQUEE with Gaybob for a couple of years. Now, she is back in Brooklyn and playing with PURE JOY. If you live in a punk house anywhere in the US or Mexico City, it's possible that Paulie has been sitting at your kitchen table, drinking copious amounts of coffee and talking your ear off about cities, bagels, New York pizza, the Spanish language, trainyards, train maps, train bums, beet harvests, weed harvests, cranberry harvests, sidewalks, books, street sales, sidewalk book sales and anything else that comes to his mind. I randomly ran into Alex once in Indiana when he was driving an ambulance across the country with his partner and let them sleep on my floor for a night. That was almost 7 years ago and I don't know what he's up to these days. Alex?

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Updated 4/14

Dear fanboys or fangirls: AC isn't their original drummer and didn't play on this.
This tape is from the collection of Erick Lyle.

DIRTY LOOKS - Demo - Tape - 2005

   I only got to see DIRTY LOOKS once and it was at their "last" show (nevermind that they went on a West Coast tour a few months later). They fucking rocked the shit out of a cramped house show in Brooklyn, flailing and wailing. They combined three quarters of BENT OUTTA SHAPE with the awesome, powerful voice of Gaybob from BEER GARDEN to make some crazy pop noise reminiscent of DEAD MOON, THE GITS and even HUSKER DU at times.
   This tape isn't the best representation of them (and the sound quality is traaaashed, probably due to the tape they used) and you should do your best to track down their 7" or their split with BOSSY. You won't be disappointed. If you are disappointed, get a clue.
    Half of this band is now playing in a new great band called PURE JOY. I had the privilege of playing in DIRTY MARQUEE with Gaybob for a couple of years. Members of this band are also responsible for THE YOUNG MEN, SCENT OF HUMAN HISTORY and THE BABIES.

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Updated Jan 2016

                         
d DIRTY LOOKS

BOSSY AND FRIENDS - Tape - 2006

     In 2001, I got a letter about my zine from a nice young punk kid named Jamie from Islip,NY.. The only mail I usually got regarding my zine either said "Here's two bucks. Send me your zine." or "Your pinball reviews suck." This letter was an actual letter. Jamie said that he really liked my zine a lot. It was sincere, encouraging and heartfelt. Jamie told me about his life and wanting to get out of the suburbs, wanting to travel with a band. He said maybe one day he would get down to Chattanooga and meet me. I kept in touch with him through letters and he kept me updated on his exodus from Long Island; about busking on the streets, getting beaten up by frat boys, getting his heart broken and all the things inbetween. True to his word, he made it to Chattanooga with his band, THE LAZER. His band fought each other on and off stage. I took him out for pizza and and he was just as sweet and sincere as the letters I got from him.I liked this guy a lot. He was a real fuck-up, but a loveable one: the kind that is harder and harder to find as you get older.
   The years went on and Jamie and I strayed a part a little bit. but it was always good to see him. He would give me any new music that he was working on at the time and never take any money from me, even when I shoved it in his hand. He would just drop it on the ground.
  "We're friends, Greg. We don't need money between us"
   The funny thing was that he wouldn't just give me one record, he would give me 5 or 6 and tell me to give them away to anyone who wanted it. Over the years, he probably gave me 20 copies of both BENT OUTTA SHAPE LP's and I've never held on to them because I gave them all away (As of 4 weeks ago, I now have my own copy of "Stray Dog Town". Thanks Naters!)
  All the music he gave me was good...straight from the heart...Even when I didn't really like it that much, I could appreciate it because Jamie was giving it his all every time. I saw BENT OUTTA SHAPE play to almost no one in a basement in Indiana and they played the show as if it was a sold out crowd at Madison Square Gardens. Totally rockin', Totally devoid of ego or posturing.
  There was one time that I stayed at his place in Brooklyn. It was late and I came home alone, trying to be quiet and sneaking under his loft to go to sleep. He peered over the side of the loft and told me to come up for a drink before bed. I said "I don't know, Jimbo. I'm kinda tired and already a little drunk"
 He said "One drink. One record. That's all i ask. I never get to see you."
   I crawled up in the loft, he handed me a tallcan of beer and put on "Tim" by the REPLACEMENTS. We had a nice long talk that covered everything from relationships to tour to future plans to the amazingness of the record we were listening to. As the last notes of "Here Comes a Regular" were fading out, we finished our beers as if on cue. Jamie leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "See...that wasn't so bad hanging out with your old friend, Jamie. Sleep well and I'll see you in the morning."
    We lost touch more over the years. I heard some bad stories, I saw some bad things. Jamie apologized to me in the streets of Brooklyn about things that never happened between us. Ten seconds later, he was getting beaten up by one of his friends. I couldn't really handle it and I left.
  The end of the story isn't the important part. It's too sad. Jamie isn't here anymore and we're left with all this music that is so hard to listen to now. All that heart, bravado, insecurity, longing and heartbreak spread out across some records, fading letters, torn photographs and decaying cassette tapes.I'm really glad I took that time to listen to "Tim" up in his loft. One last moment to say goodbye, even if I didn't know it was gonna be the last time.

   R.I.P.

  BOSSY AND FRIENDS is a tape that Jamie slipped into my hands while hugging me at a show in Gainesville, FL. It showcased some new bands of his at the time (BOSSY, THE YOUNG MEN and TENDER WIZARDS) and some good friends of his. I hated BOSSY when I first heard them, but it has grown on me over time. The YOUNG MEN song on here is my favorite song they ever did. If anyone knows anything about UPHOLSTERY, please tell me. THE DIRTY LOOKS songs on here are also two of my favorite songs they ever did. This tape catches the Brooklyn punk scene at a good time, just before everything shit the bed. Enjoy. Don't let it bring you down.

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