QUEERWULF - 18 Songs - CD-R - 2003

   Back in 2000 in Chattanooga, my roommate, Ryan asked if I wanted to play drums for a recording project that he was working on with my future roommate (Ed), our neighbor (Anthony) and our friend, Josh. For some reason, I declined and Ryan just decided to play the drums himself. The end result of that project was the first 4 or 5 songs by the band, QUEERWULF and when I heard it, I was impressed. The band was too good to just stop right there, so they kept going...for a few more years. The bulk of those first songs ended up being on their first 7", "Cockroach City", put out by This Here Records in Chattanooga.
   Their singer, Josh always seemed to put everything he had into the live performance of any band he was in. In his teenage punk band, CAPITAL SICKNESS, he would fuck up playing bass because he was singing so hard with his eyes closed...and they ruled. With QUEERWULF, he didn't have any instruments to hold him back, so he was allowed to completely lose it while the rest of the band blazed through the songs behind him, which often resulted in broken glass, bloody microphones and/or a destroyed basement. Nothing about his lyrics or performance was an act though. Josh kinda lived this life 24 hours a day. Once, Josh walked out of his job and came to my house to get drunk. We rode bikes all over the city, drinking whiskey and spraypainting shit. I don't really remember the end of the night, but when I woke up on the floor in my room the next morning, Josh was a few feet away and we were surrounded by shards of broken glass. My roommate later told me that he came up to my attic room really late to find the two of us singing along to PETER STUBB as loud as we could while smashing beer bottles against the wall.
   Also, when he sang about pissing on someone's grave and smiling, I could picture it vividly.

Blurry pic of the first QUEERWULF show at Rear Entry.

   The rest of the band were no slouches either. As the band progressed, it seemed like were trying to make the music more and more intense as the years rolled by. Twists and turns in their songwriting became more unexpected and calculatingly precise. Sometimes, I felt like seeing them play was probably something close to what it felt like to see BLACK FLAG during the Damaged years (fortunately, QUEERWULF did not go further than that and start doing spoken word/instrumental albums...but I bet it would have been interesting). 

   The later years of QUEERWULF coincided with my departure from Chattanooga, so I don't know what happened to them or why they broke up, but I can assume that a band with that much intensity can only blow up at some point. The best bands are always the most volatile and difficult to maintain.

Download QUEERWULF

This CD-R collects their first 2 7" records and their side of the split LP with SHARP KNIFE. You can still get their posthumously released LP from Do Ya Hear We.

   Members of the band went on to be in TRAILER PARK HEROES, ASSHOLE PARADE, GHETTOBIRD, ADD/C, ONETIMERS, HIDDEN SPOTS and many, many more.

This CD is from the mixed up files of Anandi Wonder.

ADULTS - "Vol. II" - Tape - 2011

   Last year, my friend Robert asked me if I could help him do demo reviews at MRR because the amount of demos that roll through their P.O. box every month is staggering. He was writing 20+ reviews for the magazine every month and still had piles and piles left over. I agreed and decided that I would almost exclusively review terrible looking CD-R demos; the horror-punk, the bar rock, the folk punk and the bedroom projects of young teenage couples who did bad renditions of radio hits. Some of these bands send multi-page promotional hype for their band and I'm treated to some of the most hilarious (or banal) bullshit I've ever read. My recycling bin is stuffed to the gills with this garbage. It's not all bad though. Sometimes, I come across insanely inspired punk, brutal hardcore or weird, nutso experimentation. It makes this thankless job totally worth it every time.
   Most of the time, I pass over the tapes in the demo box until all of the CD-R's are gone, but this tape by ADULTS was lingering around in the bottom and something in my brain said that I should take it. There was no note, no fucking promo sheets....just this tape and a mailing address. When I put it on, I was instantly hooked. They play straightforward punk with hooks to spare, like if the DICKIES lost their keyboard player and never even thought about playing slow songs. What if THE HEARTBREAKERS just shot speed exclusively and lived in a punk house in Oakland? They might sound like ADULTS. This is the funny thing about living in the Bay Area. This band lives a short 10-12 miles from my house, yet I had never seen them or heard of them even though I go to punk shows all the time. It's too hard to see every good band in this area. It's impossible, actually. I still haven't seen this band, but I plan on doing so in the near future. Until then, I will be blasting this tape in my room. You should too.

  Download ADULTS
Re-uploaded 2014

CISMA - "Imagenes Podridas" - Tape - 2012

   I just returned from a mind-blowing European tour with my band. Like all tours, there was a string of not-so-great shows. You see, I play punk music and I have devoted my life to punk, for better or worse. Oddly, I have high expectations. I want other punks involved in this scene to play music like they're gonna die afterwards. I want punk writers to speak from their heart with guts to spare. I want punks to look fuckin' punk, fucked up but approachable. This doesn't necessarily mean mohawks and bullet belts...it means you've lived the life you've been given with nothing holding you back. I want punks to play music like they mean it and I want to feel the intensity coming from them. That being said, we had just played a few shows with bands that seemed like they might be happier at their day job and I was questioning what exactly we were doing here in this foreign country. Then, we played with MUNDO MUERTO from L.A. As soon as they struck their first note, I was instantly reminded of why I love punk. They played with passion and a fierce energy that was infectious.
   After their set, I looked at what they had for sale and saw this tape by CISMA. Their roadie, Marta explained that they were a fuckin' hardcore band from the Canary Islands! I was all like "What?" and she was all like "Yeah!" and then I was all like, "Dude, I gotta get this!" Seriously though, I figured that the punks in MUNDO MUERTO wouldn't be peddling some trash along with them on their tour and I was right.
   CISMA plays raw, energetic hardcore that makes me wanna smash my head through a wall. They have a fucked up, noisy guitar sound that rules. Everything about them screams "Punk!" in a way that makes my heart sing. Just fuckin' download it.

Download CISMA

If you'd like to order a tape for yourself, get in touch with them here: cismapunk@gmail.com

   Don't get me wrong about the intentions of the European punks. The squats we played, the people we met and the way people get shit done over there was inspiring to say the very least. If you can keep an anarchist squat open and vital for 40 years, you're definitely doing something right. If you can manage to set up a show for some dumb US band, feed them, give them a comfy place to stay, give them more alcohol than they could ever want and still manage to do 40 other things in the same night, you're doing a lot better than most people in my country. I can't thank the punks in Europe enough for their hospitality and organization. All I'm saying is that we had a rough 4-5 days there and MUNDO MUERTO and Bremen, Germany put us back on track. Thanks. 

Blasting off for tour!

   The blog is closed until late June because I am going to travel and tour in Europe. In the meantime, why don't you download everything I've posted from Alabama? Or everything with the tag drunk? How about weirdo? Or you can just go outside and go on a bike ride. If you live in Europe, please ride your bike over to one of our shows in one of your fine countries. You can find all of the tour dates for our band, NEON PISS, right here. If you want to hear the band first, you can listen to us on our bandcamp page. We will have a new LP for sale with us. Thanks!

NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS - Discography - Tape - 2006

   In 2006, my current best friend/confidante/life partner Anandi mailed me a mix tape that is probably the best mix tape I've ever received in my life. Alongside classic standards like THE CLASH and YE OLDE BUTTFUCK, I was introduced to bands I had never heard before (and grew to love) like HUL, GORILLA ANGREB and KNUGEN FALLER. There was another Danish band on the tape that I overlooked on the tape for a while, even though their song was excellent ("Secret Police"), just because I thought they were an older band. I was trying to find out about the newer bands that were exciting to me. One day at work, it hit me how good that song is and I looked up more info about the band. It turns out that they were a current band and they were born out of former projects like AMDI PETERSEN'S ARMI and the always outstanding YOUNG WASTENERS. I tracked down everything that I could by the band I was not disappointed.
   Even though their LP has this crazy flanger effect throughout the entire thing, it still has great, dismal songs on it, like "Rainy Day", which starts with the illuminating line "I stuffed myself with pills today. Doesn't seem to be working." Their lyrics cover aspects of war and don't seem to take a side on it, much like 80's bands that sang about nuclear war with no clear objective. I don't really know what else to tell you. I never got a chance to see them and I don't know much about them. I will tell you that I was walking around on a beautiful San Francisco day with my good friend Cinque once and we mutually decided that our day would be vastly improved if we went and sat in my dark room in a building at 7th and Market while drinking beer and blasting every song by this band. We were right. If you like driving, melodic, depressing, tragic punk with guitar hooks that will stick in your head for days, download this right now.

Download NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS

If you want to order this tape from fucking Poland, it's still available from Trujaca Fala, who have released a lot of other great stuff as well. Check out BARAKA FACE JUNTA and SJU SVARA AR.

SUNSET BEACH - "Long Walks, Short Piers" + Cassingle - Tape - 2002

Think of this as "Part 2" of  the post about Matty Luv and Sarah T.

   Matty Luv was gone and the next day we still went ahead with the already-planned 5 year anniversary of Mission Records, even though it seemed like the hardest thing in the world to do. To date, it is still the saddest show I have ever been to in my life. Even though the show was set to start at 5 pm, people were already hanging out in the store, lighting candles, crying in corners and telling stories over beers when I woke up that morning. It felt natural for people to come there to grieve and be with friends. I'm glad that the space was there for them.

   When the bands started up, it just felt awful and counterintuitive. We were trying to celebrate this place and time, even though an integral piece of its entire day-to-day operation was missing forever. I felt crazy depressed and I'm sure everyone else did too...possibly more so. I barely remember anything about the show besides three things: 1.When my band, ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT played, we were out of tune since Matty always tuned Iggy's guitar. 2. We gave Aesop (one of Matty's oldest friends and bandmate in HICKEY) a mic for the whole show so that he could loudly heckle every band. 3. When THIS IS MY FIST was playing, I was crying my eyes out. I looked around and everyone else was too, including the band.

    The next week was filled with a lot of sadness, some group hangouts, countless homemade tattoos and much more. When the funeral happened the next week, I didn't want to go (who really wants to go to a funeral?), but I borrowed a black button-down and did it anyway. After paying my respects, I was headed out the door to unlock my bike and saw a kid sitting in the funeral home who looked like the spitting image of a young Matty, which threw me for a loop. There were friends and family hanging out on the street, but I needed to get back to Mission Records to help out with the last punk show that Matty set up.
    In the days of HICKEY, it seemed like no town appreciated the band better than Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the stories I heard, it seemed like every time they came through town, they were met by an army of cult devotees who's fervor was unmatched by the rest of the country. I remember going there one time and stumbling upon a crew of drunk dudes in a parking lot, blasting MANOWAR. They happened to be listening to the only song I knew by them at the time, which led me to join them, singing loudly. They spotted the HICKEY patch on my jacket, which sent them into drunken hysterics, numerous accolades, and praises of that fine band. I swear that by the time I walked away from them, they would have loaned me rent money and  killed any of my enemies...and that was just for being a fan of the band. Sooner or later, it was inevitable that some of these fervent followers would start a band, but I was never aware of how good that band would be.
    So, here I was back at the record store with a bunch of sad, post-funeral punks awaiting the start of the show. It turns out that the guy who looked like Matty played in the touring band from Tulsa (his name is Aaron and he no longer looks anything like Matty) alongside Jon Paul, who is still one of the best punk drummers I've ever seen. When SUNSET BEACH took to the rickety, sagging stage, they thanked Matty for setting up the show and raged through a relentless set. Some of the songs seemed like total HICKEY-worship while others felt mired in insane metal riffs. By the end of the set, they were pulling out alcohol and a torch. I remember exchanging worried glances with some other denizens of the store as the fire was lit and then trying to scramble up to the stage as visions of the dust-trap of a store going up in flames danced through my head. It was too late. Aaron started breathing fire as they played their last song and I helplessly watched 10 foot flames flow across people's heads and lick the cracks in the ceiling. When I saw that we were not gonna die in the next 5 minutes, I finally exhaled and smiled for the first time all day. It was a great show.
   I ended up getting both of their tapes out of the free box at the store a few weeks later. For a long time, I thought that some fool had thrown them in there, but now I think Jon Paul put them there as a way to distribute them. The first side of "Long Walks, Short Piers" is total HICKEY-worship, but in the best way possible. I remember when I first heard it, I thought "Damn, do you guys only listen to one band?" and being a little annoyed, but over time, it's really grown on me and has become indispensable to my life. In the intervening years, I grew to appreciate them in their own right. If a band is gonna be influenced by someone, I'd rather that it be HICKEY instead of THE QUEERS, GHOST MICE or CREED. Side two starts off with "Napkin" and the first time I heard it, I seriously thought the band had accidentally dubbed a different band onto their tapes. It starts off with a  straight up metal riff and dives into fucking awesome thrash. The entirety of side two stays in that vein and it totally rules. The closer, "In The Name of Justice" delves into some dual guitar riffage that sounds like what might have happened if IRON MAIDEN had grown up on DIY punk and bathtub crank. This tape is pretty ambitious for a demo at a time when not many people cared about tapes at all. I started off casually listening to this band, but this tape soon became fused with the boombox at my shitty kitchen job and provided the soundtrack to many fucked up nights. I love it.
   Also included in the download is their two song cassette single where they sound like another entirely different band..maybe one that is influenced by early 80's radio, THIN LIZZY and good, good indie-pop. Still so good. 

  Enjoy that shit and go start a band that is at least half as good as this.

Download SUNSET BEACH - Updated Sept 2018

IF YOU WERE LINKED HERE FROM THE MISSION MISSION BLOG, I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I DEFINITELY DO NOT SUPPORT ANYONE WHO TAKES UP DONATIONS TO REPAIR THE SMASHED WINDOWS OF A FUCKING POLICE STATION. FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING LIFE.

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.

WAR TORN BABIES - Rough Mix Demo - Tape - 1999

   I moved to Asheville, NC for a short time back in 1999 and lived in a huge, dilapidated, musty, drafty, pink punk house on the edge of downtown. There was a library on the main floor, a screen printing set-up, couches for drunk crusties to sleep on, a couple of shacks in the backyard, 15 roommates, a show space in the basement and the landlord was one of the guys from CRASH WORSHIP. I was kind of obsessed with an old Asheville band called EXCESSIVE DEFIANCE and I usually listened to them every day when I woke up. Someone told me that I should listen to WAR TORN BABIES, which carried on the legacy of E.D.'s simple, noisy barrage of crust. I asked a couple of friends about them and soon found out that two of my roommates were in that band. Soon enough, they were playing a show in the basement.

   They started up with a distorted, fucked up bass tone and crashed haphazardly into their first song. I didn't get it. Everyone was dancing and singing along, but I felt out of place on the sidelines. Their drummer was possibly older than me, but played the same way that I did when I was 13. Each of their songs seemed to fall apart, but no one cared. Everyone just danced harder and sang louder. Then, it hit me. I began their set thinking that that they had no idea what they were doing, but then I realized that they knew exactly what they were doing. All of their songs were primal, plodding, visceral, simple and working towards an easily memorable chorus that you could sing along with the first time that you heard it. It dawned on me that this band was genius and by the end of their set, I was up front, fists in the air, singing along to "Dancing On The Ruins Of Multinational Corporations!!!"
   As far as I know, WAR TORN BABIES never released anything...I don't even think they ever got around to releasing this tape, but I could be wrong since I moved away from Asheville and lost touch. All I know is that they (probably) recorded this tape at UNCA in Asheville and then their guitarist, Ed left it in my room. Did it ever get mixed, mastered and released? Until we find out, here is this rough mix of their stuff at it's most primal and raw.

Both photos by Chrissie at the Pink House in Asheville.

Download WAR TORN BABIES

    Some might think that a band might not want their unmixed recording out there for people to consume, but I asked their singer Mikki if it was okay and she said "DO IT!!" Speaking of Mikki, she now runs a bar called the Get Down, that is  the best place to play shows in Asheville these days. They are going through some rough financial times at the moment, so if you want to donate money to them, it would be very appreciated. It's run by some great people, they have an awesome sound system and their politics are rock solid. You can find more info about them here or you can make a donation straight to them on their Paypal page.

LEFTY LOOSIE - Demo - Tape - 2006

   As you can see by the cover above, this tape has a title, but it is so confusing to me that I didn't type it out. Well, you can read it for yourself right there.
   I went to the Mauled By Tigers fest in Chicago a few years ago and the only bands I wanted to see, besides the ones that my good friends were in, was the POTENTIAL JOHNS and LEFTY LOOSIE. Lucky for me, they were playing back to back at the same venue. I wasted a lot of time before going to the show by drinking on a rooftop, talking about RUDIMENTARY PENI at Southern Records and listening to stories about King Buzzo wanting to stay in the same room (the one I would be sleeping in for the weekend) every time he comes to Chicago. By the time I dragged my ass out of the house to bike 20 blocks to the show, I was running late. I rode like the wind, but still found myself drinking outside of the show when I got there. I heard the last notes of a band finishing their set and asked" Who's playing right now?" Someone said "Oh, I don't know...some band called LEFTY LOOSIE or something." I slammed the last dregs of my cheap, flat beer and ran for the front door. The overzealous security guards searched me and came up with a bottle of whiskey. We got in an argument and they almost kicked me out before I even got in. It took so long that I even missed the first POTENTIAL JOHNS song. Bleh!
   I still kick myself for missing LEFTY LOOSIE because their songs were (still are) so good. You can tell that they grew up on crappy pop-punk, but also supplemented that with some quality music like the SHANGRI-LA'S, THE MUFFS and the FASTBACKS. Their singer/guitarist Addie has a voice that exhibits a total fucking knack for pop hooks that she took on to her next band, BORED GAMES (also great great great....and also broken up). These songs are so good that I can look past the fact that I don't like songs about crushes and love anymore. I was too cheap (and probably drunk) to buy their LP at the show and I feel like an idiot for not owning it now. The whole weekend was a failure for me in many ways, but let's just not talk about that. Let's just listen to this tape and get on with our lives, shall we?

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