CRIMENY - Demo - Tape - 2002

   Here's a band I know absolutely nothing about! Friend of the blog and lovable freak-about-town, Josh sent this one over to Remote Outposts HQ (which, for the record, is neither an imposing edifice nor an underground lair, but is simply my tape-strewn bedroom) to share with the world-at-large...or small. Josh said he loooooved this band when they were around and this tape had been lost in the shuffle for a few years. For a recent (?) birthday, his friend Ben bestowed this tape unto Josh and he felt as if the chakras had been aligned once more. I sent out a smoke signal (okay, maybe it was a text) to my friend Morgan to try and track down info on these guys, since both he and the band are SF natives and he had a bit to say....(I'm sure Morgan didn't intend for this email to be posted as-is. I was gonna edit it, but how do you edit brilliant terms like "ass-helmet"?). Here he is...

Morgan, Rio (from Mission Mini-Comics)and members of the band at Morgan's grandma's trailer park in Tigard, OR.

  

They were a relatively short-lived band: ~late 2001-2002.
 Zane Groshelle: guitar and vocals 
Tyson Vogel: bass and vocals 
Angus Haller: drums 

   The tape was recorded in Joe Demaree's garage on 7th Street in San Jose in May 2002, in preparation for CRIMENY/FUCK YEA! AVOCADO/LOS RABBIS tour. Undeniably influenced by HICKEY and some of the darker old mission sounds ala the likes of LOST GOAT, FAGGZ, TOWEL, etc. The bulk of their shows were at houses, on the street, or east bay warehouses now long lost to the blight of sweeping ass-helmet gentrification. 

 Assorted trivia: Zane also played in FUCK YEA! AVOCADO. Soon after CRIMENY's demise, he moved to Santa Cruz and started a great two piece band called BROWN RECLUSE, whom I'm pretty sure never recorded anything. Tyson went on to tour the world with TWO GALLANTS (which he's still doing), as well as assorted side projects (PEOPLEPEOPLE is one with Antonio and Andrew from OVENS/TRAINWRECK RIDERS)-- He also does a solo project called DEVOTIONALS. Angus was the original drummer of THE JOCKS (my first band; this may be useless information-- he only played our first two shows), and went on to play all sorts of bizarre music, but often was just known to 'jam out' with random garage lurkers throughout the Outer Mission and Bernal. I hope he's still playing music, cause he's a great drummer and a solid weirdo.

DOWNLOAD CRIMENY

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.

DOWNLOAD X

DAN B'S MIX TAPE - 2005

   Back in 2005, a package showed up in my P.O. box from Dan B (from IMPRACTICAL COCKPIT / UKE OF SPACES / Trd Wrd Records) with this tape inside. There was no insert and no track listing. Just the instructions on the front and the tape. What I found on the tape was strange and entrancing: Tiki music, weird lounge, something that sounds like KORLA PANDIT on too many pills, EUGENE CHADBOURNE, MALVINA REYNOLDS, DREAMLAND FACES, radios between stations and phone calls. I still play it frequently in my room when I'm trying to keep busy and it helps. Maybe it will help you out too.

DOWNLOAD

Track listing left blank intentionally. 

LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS - "Bat / X-Rod" - Cassingle - 2012

   You may remember when I wrote about this band's first demo last summer. Since then, that tape went on to be my favorite tape of last year. I would walk down the streets of SF, listening to their spiraling, sprawling, fucked up madness and wish that my head would spin off of my body, fly through the air, crash through the shiny windows of a brand new condo, latch onto the face of a tech worker and chew his/her fucking lips off while screaming "ONE OF THESE DAYS, YOU'RE GONNA FACE THE MEAT!!!!" Yes, it's that good. (The link for the first tape is dead now. Go and get it from their Bandcamp page)
    This two song tape was put out as part of a Halloween cassingle series, which also included TRAUMA HARNESS, ORANGE SODA and KOWABUNGA KID. LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS howl their way through one punishing original song about running from a pack of bats. They have a sound that can only be made by cheap instruments, playing everything as hard as you can and a truly damaged singer. Side 2 is a cover of the MAX LOAD song "X-Rod", which is my first intro to this 1979 punk band from LUMPY's hometown of Belleville, IL. Like the first side, it also destroys.

Download

The band invites you to send them "bones in viscous substances" at 21 W Garfield, Belleville, IL 62220.

MODERN MACHINES - 4 Tapes - 2001 - 2006

   One of my goals of 2013 is to be a more positive person. I don't mean that I want to kill people with kindness or be fake. I just want to be less negative. The state of this world leads people to just be complete jackasses to one another and there's really no need for it. The internet is a vast network of faceless shit-talking and hate-mongering where folks are encouraged to foist their bile and are rarely expected to hold themselves accountable. I think people should be open about what they don't like, but they should also be able to talk about ways to make it better without being condescending or shitty. It's possible and it's something I'm working towards.
   That being said, I never liked MODERN MACHINES, but I appreciate their existence. I also think Jon Hanson is a fantastic drummer. I understand that the band meant a lot to other people, so I decided to let one of those people talk about them for a while. Here is Mike Wilson (from B ARTHUR) to talk about the MODERN MACHINES:

   THE MODERN MACHINES at their peak were my favorite existing band in the Midwest... I was living in Tower MN (try to find that on a map) and I was obsessed with Bay Area CA punk from the 80's, 90's, and current. I was getting very into bands on the label NEW DISORDER RECORDS. I noticed that label had released a split CD with two Milwaukee bands THE MODERN MACHINES and THE FRAGMENTS (pre-Holy Shit! and others). I got that CD in 2003 when I was 15 years old and was really into it. Really really good catchy poppy punk done the way that I liked. Particularly I was into the MODERN MACHINES side of the split. I contacted both bands separately suggesting that they should play in Duluth, since conceivably they lived not that far away. Both bands responded excited that somebody from northern MN was into them, which was really nice to hear. THE FRAGMENTS broke up probably not that long after that, and I never did see them.. But Nato from the MODERN MACHINES was particularly into the idea of playing up in Duluth / Superior and he eventually contacted me to seriously inquire about getting a show. I didn't really know how to set up shows quite yet (I didn't even live in Duluth) but I knew of an existing show the day that they wanted to play in Superior WI with my friends THE UNDESIRABLES, and a Grand Rapids MN pop punk band THE VALENTINES. I got the folks from that show to let MODERN MACHINES hop on. I was slightly bummed and worried I wouldn't even get in, because it was at a bar and I was 15 years old. But Nato insisted on sneaking me in as their roadie. It worked! All of the MODERN MACHINES guys were really nice, and I was so happy. Jon Hanson, their drummer, had a HICKEY tattoo on his chest which was maybe the coolest thing I had ever seen at that point. PLUS they even covered "Waiting For The Swelling To Go Down" by HICKEY. They KILLED it. I video taped that show and still have it. 

   MODERN MACHINES made a lasting impression and everybody from the show was really blown away by them. Highly energetic raging poppy punk with heart and plenty of rock and roll. One of those bands I'd consider "perfect", having every element a band should have. Constantly compared to bands like THE REPLACEMENTS and HUSKER DU, which is accurate but still were beyond that and were not derivative. MODERN MACHINES had just released their first full length CD "Thwap!" on New Disorder Records, so I got that and a shirt from them at the show. I liked their stuff from that previous split CD but this new album totally destroyed their previous material. That album "Thwap!" is to this day one of my favorite Midwestern punk albums of the 2000's, no question. MODERN MACHINES kept going for years after this, and at least once a year they would hit me up to play Duluth / Superior and it was always a blast to see them and hang out. I was always very flattered they were so into playing up there. Their second album "Taco Blessing" on Recess Records is arguably even better than "Thwap!" but I'm not really sure. The MODERN MACHINES eventually broke up and Nato moved to Brooklyn and started THE USED KIDS (who toured through Duluth as well), and then eventually they broke up and he now resides in Minneapolis playing with NATO COLES & THE BLUE DIAMOND BAND. Over the years Nato's songs progressively were getting less punk and more on the rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen type) side of things. A simple way of putting it, THE MODERN MACHINES were a self proclaimed "basement band", but NATO COLES & THE BLUE DIAMOND BAND are definitely more of a "bar band". I don't mean that as an insult, I think Nato would probably agree with me (even though they play basements all the time). I can't help but strongly prefer those amazing early MODERN MACHINES shows and records over anything after, but still, I love everything Nato has done and I can't count how many times I've seen him play (especially now that he's living in Minnesota and comes up north every chance he gets). He is a great song writer and an amazing performer and puts everything he's got into every show.

   I didn't mention any of these early tapes here yet because I can't even remember how or where I got these, so figured I'd just talk about the band in general. I always listened to their full length albums more than these tapes. I think these tapes pre-date all their albums, but I'm not sure.. This many years later I'm excited to actually listen to these tapes finally since I've exhausted their other material over the years.

DOWNLOAD

This download includes 4 tapes by MOMACS. "Huberty" was originally posted here, but has since been deleted by Mediafire. You can now download it in this file. 

B. ARTHUR - Demo - Tape - 2012

   Before B ARTHUR, there was RAG RAGE. RAG RAGE lived in Columbus, OH and once featured a bass player who's mohawk was so tall that she had to lay down in the car on the way to the show because otherwise, her hair would get all bent up on the ceiling of the car. Here's a picture for reference....

   RAG RAGE had a lineup change (no more hawks), moved to Chattanooga, went on some tours and broke up. Britt (guitar/vocals) decided to move away from Chattanooga and within approximately 10 minutes, she was in a new band and on tour again. The first time I saw them was late last year in a basement in Milwaukee. Honestly, I watched them for about 5 minutes before retiring to a couch in the back because I was tired and felt destroyed. The band made me feel like a grandpa when they invited me out to get wasted at a tiki bar. All I wanted was to go to Eric Apnea's house, eat pizza and pass out watching HOLY SHIT videos (which I did). Luckily, I ran into the band later in a basement in Flagstaff, AZ where we were both equally kinda exhausted but both played a fun show. This time, I watched the band rip it to an appreciative, wild and very drunk basement full of punks. B ARTHUR picks up where RAG RAGE left off, but sounds more confident and honed. Britt's voice sounds like a mixture of Too Fast For Love-era Vince Neil mixed with Kat Bjelland, but informed by the Ivy's and Annie's of our ragged basement punk world. Bass player, Ryan's fingers are just as fuckin' busy as hers and play weirdly fucked up bass lines that would cause Tony Lombardo to lose his shit. Meanwhile, punk MVP of 2012 Mike Wilson holds it down on the drums and consistently raises the bar of what should be expected of DIY punk bands in 2013.
   My tape didn't include an insert or song titles, so that's what ya get....no song titles. Since you asked, my favorite songs are #8 and #10. If you want your own tape, drop Mike a line at timecrusader3000AThotmailDOTcom and see if they have any left.

Download B ARTHUR

ENDEMICS - Demo - Tape - 2011

   I used to share a practice space in SF with ENDEMICS and sometimes I would show up a little too early to my own band practice to find that they were still there working on new songs. I have very fond memories of hanging out on the couch outside while listening to Sarah Beth croon away at their new stuff and Lil' B penned expertly crafted guitar hooks (He was using ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT's old guitar, which never stayed in tune, but he could somehow pound away at it without tuning at all). I was at their first show and remember telling friends how they sounded like a fully formed entity, rather than any other band playing their sloppy first show. I was also at (what I believe was) their second show, which happened to be at a farm outside of Athens, Ohio and all the punks danced when they played.
   This tape isn't their first demo (if I can dig that one up, I'll put it here). I think this one was supposed to be an LP, but the band almost dissolved before it could be released, with their drummer Mason moving to LA and their bass player, Sonia getting too busy with school. I'm sure the fact that Sarah Beth was in nursing school also played a factor, but who knows? Well, to be honest, I don't really know the circumstances, but the band kept moving forward with two new members: Maren (from QUIET COYOTE and CHER HOROWITZ) joined on drums and Chrissy (from ALABASTER CHOAD) started playing bass for them. They're still around, but I've been out of town when they've played recently. If you need an herbal consultation, a good fuckin laugh (because they are funny people, they don't make funny music), someone to take your stitches out or intense Mia Zapata-like vocals, ENDEMICS are there for you.

Download ENDEMICS

This is the only contact I know for them.

I listened to John Denver while writing this.

RAT'S REST - Demo - Tape - 2013

   An age old argument in punk is the constant bickering about what is and what is not punk. Some people think that upholding male dominance and huffing glue is the way to go. Others think that being vegan, playing acoustic music and riding bikes are what punk is all about. Still others believe that you can't have punk without strong anarchist politics. Some people even think that rape jokes and being an anti-intellectual bonehead is punk. I'm not here to tell you that any of this is wrong because you can decide for yourself (but if you're a fan of rape jokes, please don't ever, ever, ever try to talk to me). I will tell you what my world of punk consists of:
   In my reality, bands go on tour even though they only have a demo tape available....not a Bandcamp page or a Facebook page...just a plain old tape with their songs on it that they recorded in someone's basement. The band will sell this tape to you for a little bit of money or just give it to you if you buy them a drink....or just give it to you because you're a nice person. Their van breaks down because it's a piece of shit that can barely even make it across town, but somehow the band thinks it'll make it 3000 miles around the country. When the van does break down, the band becomes despondent and hopeless because they're not gonna make to their show in New Orleans to play in front of 35 fucked up oogles in a trash pile in the 9th ward. At the last minute, a friend with another crappy van decides to just take the band there while another friend agrees to drive the original van to the band when it gets fixed. Meanwhile, the band members have been surviving on a diet of cheap whiskey, cheaper beer and bad pasta, so of course they all contract the rabid anthrax that has been plaguing normal society and proceed to release all kinds of bile, vomit and shit from any orifice on their bodies that will provide them the sweet release they so desire. When they find themselves broke, starving, insane and stuck in the middle of nowhere, they don't start a Kickstarter or plead to their online fans for monetary support. This is their lives and they made their own choice to put themselves in this desperate situation. So, they take out their instruments and busk at the gas station in order to hustle up enough money to fill the tank and make it to the show. When they do make it to the show, they have been through all of these ridiculous trials and tribulations that cause them to play with heart and vigor. You can tell they fucking mean it. It comes from pure desperation. They look tired and smell bad, but they give everything they've got for the 15-20 minutes they've been allotted at the basement show. Amps break, Someone drew something on your face. An annoying punk dude in plaid pants is swinging around a headless, life-sized Santa Claus in the pit. Somebody's walking around with a cup, asking you to put money into it so this band will leave your town. Sometimes it's annoying as fuck and stressful as hell, but I love it. This is what punk is to me.
   This could be a story from 1995 or yesterday, but it's actually from today. This has all happened to RAT'S REST in the past couple of weeks. I just saw them play their hearts out to 50 maniacs in a basement in Oakland.  They're on tour right now and they'll be in Eureka, CA tonight. They're not on the internet (well, they are now). Look for fliers on poles, find the basement they're playing in and buy this tape from them because it's so good. Members of the band have probably been in bands you like, if you like stuff on this blog. They live in Kansas City in huge, dilapidated houses and run community gardens for people in their neighborhoods. They're good people and play the kind of punk that I love. That is all.

DOWNLOAD

 

THE DEAD C MEN - Demo - Tape - 1995

Photo by Angie Elliott.

    Way back when I first started doing this blog, I had a few things in mind. I wanted to document a lot of the early Region Rock scene along with overlooked southeastern US punk bands. I also had other motives in mind that I didn't talk about, but fell into the same mode of thinking. I wanted to track down a couple of tapes by really forgotten southern punk bands that still managed to rattle around my brain after all these years. One of those bands was the ANGEL BB'S from Mississippi and the other was THE DEAD C MEN from Florida. I'm still working on the former but the latter came into my hands (or inbox, more accurately) without any effort at all. Friend of the blog, Adam seemed to psychically intuit that this tape needed to be part of the history and sent the digital tracks over to me. He didn't know that I've been ravenously searching for any mention of this band anywhere for the past 10+ years. 10+ years of fruitlessly searching through endless articles about the DEAD C with absolutely nothing to show for it. All that time, this tape has been sitting in Adam's stuff. 

   Back in 1995, I went to a lot of punk shows with my good friend, Angie (we're still good friends, even though we haven't seen each other in way-too-long. Hi Angie!) in Birmingham, AL. Even though I played in a crappy band, I didn't really feel like I was a part of anything bigger or that I was making any kind of mark in the world by plodding away on my $30 bass. A lot of the bands that came to town were really great but so far out of the realm of what I was playing with my friends (meaning, those bands could structure a rad song) that it felt unattainable. While watching AUS ROTTEN, OI POLLOI, BIKINI KILL, TEENGENERATE, OBLIVIANS and BUZZOVEN, it felt hopeless to continue playing music as a teenager in the 90's. 

     One day, THE DEAD C MEN played a sparsely attended show to almost no one at the local record store, American Beat and (probably unbeknownst to them) opened up a new world to me. It's a well worn story in the annals of punk-dom, but no less important every time it happens to anyone. The people in the band were just like me: awkward, acne ridden punk teenagers who had to look at their guitars when they played. Their songs fell apart and they struggled to keep it all together. Still, their songs were catchy and at the end of their set, they gave tapes away for free. I'm not sure if I just never got one or my tape broke immediately, but I've been looking for it ever since. This band provided the inspiration for me that I could travel around and play music without being well known. They showed me that you can just do things cheaply and give stuff away for free. Somehow, the guitar hook to their first song has been rattling around in my head for all these years and it's so nice to finally have a copy of it. 

    Many listeners will find a sound that's hopelessly mired in the 90's and that's fine. It was the 90's. The first song is a legitimately great song with an unforgettable guitar hook (for me, literally). The other four songs don't have the same energy or inspiration as the first one, but they're still pretty good....except maybe the 2nd song. The 4th song is basically the same hook as the one on the first song....I guess when something works, you just roll with it. Thanks to Adam and Angie for digging up artifacts (Angie is used to digging up artifacts in the ground in Turkey, so I'm sure digging through a box in her house is much easier). Thanks to the DEAD C MEN for existing for a brief time and bringing your band to the record store. It meant a lot to me.

DOWNLOAD

Now, who's got that ANGEL BB'S tape?

P.S. If you're in the Bay Area tonight, I am Dj-ing between bands at a punk show at the Knockout in SF. The bands are Rat's Rest (from KC, MO), True Mutants, Great Apes and Bad Liar. 

Useless Chatter / Life Update

   I haven't updated this in a bit because life has been busy with work, shows, projects, friends in town, long walks with said friends, art shows, flat bike tires and other fun stuff. The flyer above is for a show this upcoming Tuesday in San Francisco at the Knockout. RAT'S REST is a new band from Kansas City featuring my best friend, Cinque. You may know him from bands like ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT, HELLO SHITTY PEOPLE, STREET LEGAL and many many more. I will be dj-ing vinyl between bands, for some weird reason. If you're in the area, come on out.

   My band just put out a new 7". If you would like to order a copy from us, you can get it on our page here. You can also get it from Vinyl Rites. You can also download it for free on our bandcamp page. If you want to donate a few bucks, you can do that too. We'll use the money to make more stuff or put it towards recording. If you want to keep up with our shows (only local ones until late in the year), you can find that info here.

   I'm going to sleep for 15 hours. When I wake up, I will post some more music. Until then, just go listen to COUNTY Z. It's totally worth it.