TRRASH - Demo - Tape - 2014

   I've been away from this blog because I couldn't think about posting demo tapes by obscure bands while my mind was filled with all of the atrocities of the last few weeks...while black and brown people were getting murdered by white cops...while queer people..while trans people were getting murdered by cops and idiots and idiot cops. Clearly, I still can't think well enough to form real sentences. I don't know how to personally fit myself in to modes of resistance while taking care of my own mental and physical health...while being aware of giving space to the voices that truly matter in this whole debate. You don't need the updates from me, because the updates are being reported every second from more eloquent and important independent sources. Please stay informed. I keep learning new things as I get older and they work to re-enforce the important things that I already know:

• Cops are useless
• There is no such thing as a good cop because in order to be a cop, you have to already believe in an outdated system of "right and wrong" that is built on racism.
• Smashing the windows of corporate stores is not "violence"
• Everything is fucked.

    Moving on....TRRASH is fucked. It sounds like everything falling apart into a cacophonous mess (but not like the world falling apart...which is a big difference...that sounds like this at the 45 second mark turned all the way up on headphones). It's like a storm cloud moving through your living room and breaking everything in its path....like someone just grabbed all the instruments and threw them down the stairs with a maniac, foaming at the mouth, crazed animal surfing on top of it with a microphone jammed down their throat.

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They have a Soundcloud thing here.

DARK LION - Demo - Tape - 2003

   DARK LION almost didn't happen. The way I was told, Zak and Sean got together to play some music while they had both dropped anchor in Pensacola, FL. The two of them had never played music together and both were trying to cater to each others backgrounds with disastrous results. Zak had come up playing pop and noise freak out shit with PUPPY VS DYSLEXIA. Sean had already toured the world playing drums in GOOD CLEAN FUN. Adding those things together came out sounding like half a turd, as it was reported to me. Zak was about to give up and then he started playing off-the-cuff riffs. Sean left his comfort zone and decided to "go off." The results became the groundwork for DARK LION. Adding jailbird dreamboat, Sarah Derelict on vocals was the icing on the cake. Her lyrics were (are) incisive, direct and blunt. Pure hate was directed towards the cops, not because we're punks and we're supposed to hate the cops, but because she'd get fucked with by the cops over total bullshit. DARK LION existed during the reign of George W. Bush and that was evident in their output. The future and the present felt bleak as fuck, but I'm not gonna lie...it feels worse now.

   Vinyl Rites released this demo a couple of years ago on a 7" (you might as well click over and order it right now) along with a booklet of fawning praise (all deserved). Initially, I thought the praise was a little overblown but then I thought back to how bad 2003 felt...and I thought about how real DARK LION was at a time when bands weren't speaking directly about how fucked up everything felt. I only saw DARK LION a couple of times. Once was after playing a couple of shows on tour, performing in front of people I'd rather ignore than entertain. Those shows led me to seriously question what the fuck I was doing with my life. Leaving that realm and delving back into my comfort zone of dilapidated warehouses produced of dubious craftmanship gave me a sigh of relief. Seeing DARK LION play a 10-12 minute set to a room full of obvious freaks of society made me feel right at home again. Watching Sarah with her fist raised high and screaming "I try to work and I keep thinking of killing cops! I'm trying to talk to girls and I keep thinking of killing cops!" felt like victory. I didn't question anything and felt at home, even though I was 3000 miles away from where I lived. 

   Like any good band, DARK LION was too volatile to have any sort of longevity. The members went their separate ways, each still being genuine lifers.

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This tape is from the collection of Caroline Paquita

WET DRAG - "Silhouette Yeah" - Tape - 2014

   WET DRAG is a band I've never seen and I'm not sure if they're even still around. Are either of these things important to you? I doubt it. In the past, I said that this band seems to combine the different aspects of the members' other bands (STILLSUIT, UZI RASH and GRASS WIDOW [a.k.a. Glass Window] is the short list), but now I don't think that's wholly accurate. Is this important either? No. Is this tape good? Fuck yeah. I have nothing else to say.

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VACCUUM - Demo - Tape - 2009

   The one time that I saw VACCUUM, it kinda went like this:
Show up at venue
Pay money to get in
Walk up to the front to see VACCUUM already playing.
Watch them play for about 45 more seconds
When the song ended, their singer Robert said, "Thanks! Goodnight!"
Walk out of the venue and go home.
I never saw them again and then they broke up.
 
   Luckily, they left behind this demo tape and a smattering of fucked up remixes to remember them by. VACCUUM plays noisy raw-punk in the vein of those fucking shoestring heads who like to makes their amps sound like a headache on Monday morning, but I don't think any of these folks ever used their shoestrings for anything other than their intended purpose. They shit out 9 songs that sound like hate and more hate. Since you didn't ask, my favorite song on here is their theme. Features members of NO STATIK, PEDESTRIANS, MORPHEME, RITUAL CONTROL and many, many more.

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Truthfully, I prefer this tape and their collaboration EP with PIG HEART TRANSPLANT, but this is still pretty great. 

Not to be confused with the old band from Holland, VACUUM, who only had one "C" in their name. Totally different...different spelling. You know, like when VANILLA ICE tried to explain how "Ice Ice Baby" was nothing like "Under Pressure".(go to 1:50) 

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.

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VACCUUM - "Space-Fi Demo" - Tape - 2011

   When my band went to Europe last year, I had a daily ritual in the van. No matter what, I would make a point to listen to the entire FROZEN TEENS LP (buy it here) and this VACCUUM demo. I had previously heard the original VACCUUM demo and even seen the band live, but I would be hard pressed to tell you what they sound like other than "noisy hardcore". With this demo, something clicked in my head and I've had it on repeat ever since. The band took four songs from two different EP's and gave them a serious remix...and the drums are played on a shoe box...and the vocals are almost bored...I don't know...I love this shit soooo much. It's the perfect kind of music for a tape. It just sounds perfectly fucked out.
   This tape is an excellent compliment to their later EP that was given the remix treatment by PIG HEART TRANSPLANT. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember what the original band sounds like because I've listened to their remixes way more than their original recordings. Join me, why don't you? Get obsessed.

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BRAIN KILLER - Demo - Tape - 2008

    I'M WRITING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I JUST LISTENED TO THIS DEMO, SNIFFED A BUNCH OF GLUE, TIED A FUCKIN SHOESTRING AROUND MY HEAD AND BROKE OUT OF ALL OF MY WINDOWS!!!! I DYED MY HAIR BLACK AND KINDA CHARGED IT BUT I ENDED UP LOOKING LIKE A DUDE THAT GOT KICKED OUTTA MOTLEY CRUE SO I JUST PUT ON ANOTHER BULLET BELT AND IT KINDA HELPED. SHIT'S BEEN REAL FUCKED UP LATELY AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT BUT THIS TAPE MAKES ME FEEL REAL FUCKED UP TOO...YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

   MAYBE YOU WILL FEEL JUST AS FUCKED UP AS I DO WHEN YOU LISTEN TO THIS. IF ANYBODY WANTS TO COME OVER WITH THEIR STUDDED FUCKIN GLUE BAG AND GET SHIT HAMMERED, I'LL BE HERE ON THE FUCKIN FLOOR.

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THIS TAPE IS FROM THE JUNK DRAWER OF BARKER GEE, THE PUNKEST MOTHERFUCKER I KNOW!!!!

    (P.S. I don't know what that's all about. I don't even like this band. Could someone mail me the new WHO KILLED SPIKEY JACKET LP?)