INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES - Demo - Tape - 2013

   Look...I know that there's been a time in your life when you were sitting around in the gutter in a shitty part of town and thought, "Whoa, I wonder what it would sound like if members of ORCHID, AMPERE, VACCINE, FOREIGN OBJECTS and LONGINGS were sitting around talking about how much they loved the ANGRY SAMOANS and then decided to form a band and record it in one day?" Wonder no longer, my friend.

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Two songs

Roughly 2 minutes

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Mix Tape - 2001

   The fun thing about making a mix tape for yourself is that you don't have to give a fuck. You can jump to different genres and not worry about the continuity. You can put on "songs for your crush" without feeling all weird and self-conscious about putting on a "song for your crush". You can pitch-shift the whole thing up a notch so the songs are faster, because that's how you want to hear everything. You can put on songs that might be embarrassing.
  I made this mix sometime in 2001 when I was traveling a lot by myself. It's a lot of my favorite songs from that time in my life and I think it still holds up today. I still like every song on here. I'm not gonna tell you who any of the bands are. You'll just have to figure it out when you download it. If you're into hardcore, you'll like this tape. Also, if you're into hardcore, you might not like this tape. Here's what I will tell you: The RSS song is one of my favorite songs of all time. There have been numerous times when I've screamed along to every word of the song that starts with "Sing it again..." and then looked down to realize that I'm driving over 80 MPH. Same thing with the S.R. songs. Luckily, the songs that follow those songs will jolt one out of their speed demon stupor. Just go for it...or don't.

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As always, no apologies for sound quality or volume changes.

BABE QUEST - Demo - Tape - 2013

   I wish that US DIY musicians had access to a magical free recording studio where they could take in their crappy, duct taped instruments, bash out their stupidly flawless songs and always have it coming out sounding as good as even the crappiest FASTBACKS EP's. I started thinking this when I had "The Wait" by BABE QUEST cranked up to ten in my room and wishing that I could have it cranked to 20 without even distorting a little bit.
   I think BABE QUEST was produced by a bitterly harsh Minneapolis winter...a winter that I hope to never experience or even begin to understand. These two women bash out hook-filled melodic punk that will be stuck in your head all day. Sometimes, it sounds fast and punk. Other times, it can sound like a lost RUNAWAYS demo. Like all demos, it has some missteps, but if you breeze past this and don't have the chorus from "The Wait" stuck in your head for at least an hour, I don't even know what you're doing here.

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If you can't tell, that's a fabric tape case at the top with "BABE QUEST" written in glitter paint. 

Find BABE QUEST here and encourage them to upload their songs to their Bandcamp page.

Members of RAG RAGE, B ARTHUR, CHIPPER and SNARLAS

MRR RADIO #1401

   Life is busy. I forgot how to sleep. My hand hurts too much to type. I did a radio show with my friend Pars this week on MRR. Check it out. More tapes soon.

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VALLEY BOYS - Tape - 2012

   I'm not sure if anyone noticed or not, but I took a 2+ week break from the blog to live life. At the same time, I took a break from the internet in general and noticed that I felt a lot happier. As soon as I went back to catching up on my emails and paying attention to the weird world of online life, I felt anxious and upset. Fact: I didn't use the internet until 2001 or so and I still think it's trash, for the most part.
    Moving on, here's VALLEY BOYS. I got this tape back in 2012 and it blew me away. Then, I put it on a shelf and forgot about it because I do things like that sometimes. I pulled it back down this morning and remembered why I like it so much. It's just simple and great punk. There's no pretense or posturing. It instantly reminded me of THE PROBLEMATICS and other classic Rip-Off Records bands, but they're more interested in punk than the garage rock world. Shit's good. Go for it.

Download it from them.

The tape is sold out, but was pressed onto vinyl in Germany by Cut The Cord That...

IMMORTAL MICE MEN - 4 Songs - Tape - Year???

   Okay, are you ready to get a little weird with me? I was browsing through my stacks of tapes and came across this mix tape from 2001 made by my friend, Amy, which is comprised solely of under-appreciated Midwestern bands from years past. Included are timeless tracks by THE GIZMOS, DOW JONES AND THE INDUSTRIALS, PROBLEMATICS, THE JETSONS and many more classics that are all worth tracking down. Then, I remembered that there are four songs by a band called THE IMMORTAL MICE MEN. I vaguely recall Amy telling me about buying that band's LP at a yard sale (??) in the middle of nowhere in southern Indiana. She dubbed her four favorite songs from the LP onto my tape. The band played urgent, anxious, goofy, shambolic synth-y new wave with a drum machine. The band's only LP was self-released sometime in the late 70's/early 80's. I wasn't going to upload these songs because I was sure that the band's material was all over the internet and probably picked over by the Killed By Death crowd. Turns out that when I started looking around, I could barely find anything at all! I found a youtube video of the band's full LP, which was posted almost four years ago and only has 150 views (as of this writing). The record isn't listed anywhere on Discogs, but a later record by Alan Nelson (the man responsible for IMMORTAL MICE MEN) can be found here. Also, Alan Nelson's youtube page is a treasure trove of 70's/80's weirdness. So, yeah....that's where my search ended. There's not much more info out there that I could find.

   I love these four songs and found some other gems on the full record. I might just be more familiar with these songs, but I think they're the best ones out of all of them (although "Dancing is For Assholes" is great and not on this tape). The download starts out with "Tease and Flirt", which sounds so budget, so fucked, so goofy and so compelling that I can't believe it's not a KBD classic. All of the songs are in that same vein. They're heavily synth based and driving. Kinda new wavey, but still urgent and punk-sounding. I'm pretty sure it's all home recorded. It sounds paranoid and claustrophobic, but also doesn't take itself too seriously/ (side note: the last song on here is called "Useless Chatter", which I have been using as a tag on this blog since day one...meant as a nod towards this song.)
   I highly recommend downloading this one and putting it on at your next dumb party...or listening to it on headphones on the bus to make yourself feel even crazier than you already are. Oh, and if you have a copy of this LP sitting in your garage or attic, I will gladly take it off of your hands.

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If you know any info about this record, feel free to talk about it in the comments. 

YEAR ONE - Demo - Tape - 2009

   When I started this blog, I feel like I made more of an effort of talking about gender politics and making sure that I always included bands with women or trans folks or poc in them. That's still on my mind when I upload stuff to this blog, but I don't talk about it as much and I've certainly posted multiple bands in a row that consisted of only white cis dudes. As time goes by, I see scenes splitting more and more into different genres of punk. I wish that all the queer bands would play with the hardcore bands and all the pop-punk bands would play with the POC bands, but I also understand exactly why CRABAPPLE and STOIC VIOLENCE might not wanna split a bill.
   Hardcore has never really been a progressive scene, but I feel like lately, it's just like holding a mirror up to the rest of society. I can go almost anywhere to see shitty bros being dickheads to everyone and not giving a fuck about the ways in which they flaunt their privilege, but if I go to a hardcore show, they're wearing leather jackets. There's been a slew of videos posted online in the last few days from New York's Alright (some punk fest). I watched a few of them and then wondered "Were there any women involved in this fest at all?" I looked at the lineup and found LA MISMA and VARIX (both great!), but not much else. This isn't the fault of the bands. Many of them are great (LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS, LIFE CHAIN, etc), but it just feels so sterile...so predictable....I guess this is why I'm not a big fan of hardcore, even though there's a ton of exciting bands who fall into that genre. In the end, I don't really care that much....the hardcore scene can do what it wants, when it wants without me.

   What does this too much coffee//not enough food rant have to do with YEAR ONE? Absolutely nothing!! YEAR ONE was a too-short-lived band from San Francisco. They shared a practice space with me and played a bunch of shows on the streets, in houses, by the bay and (sometimes) in a bar. Mason, their guitarist, has an approach to playing that seems deceptively simple, but is always insanely catchy. You may already know this if you've heard her play in LIVID or SLEEPWALK. Arwen sings tunefully and direct in a way that recalls a more timid Dangerhouse Records roster. You may recognize her voice if you listened to HUE & CRY...or if she chastised you for turning in your record reviews late for MRR magazine in the early 00's when she was the head coordinator. Heather and Darren rounded out the rhythm section and both of them played harder than needed all of the time, which made them great. I feel like they broke up before they even started, but this happens a lot. Download this tape as well as their track on the Noise Ordinance compilation and you'll have their entire discography.

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Thanks to Caitlin for digging up this tape.
Thanks to Alex for digitizing it. 

THE MORONS - Discography - Tape - 2012

   I meant to upload some old MORONS tapes ages ago, but I held off because Once Tender Records was planning on putting out a complete discography. Now, I realized it's been out for a couple of years, so here's the whole thing.
   THE MORONS were from Chatsworth and Dalton, GA: two towns in north Georgia that have bred a stunning array of truly unforgettable people in my life. THE MORONS formed (probably) out of utter boredom and a love of substance abuse. I've never really seen a band live up to their name more than THE MORONS. From huffing copious amounts of gold spraypaint to throwing themselves down flights of stairs to their special game of "Sneaky P" to many other things that I don't feel that I can share here without clearing it with them first, THE MORONS were one of the most real bands I've ever seen. I know that punk celebrates (or "should celebrate" as far as I care) the idea of "no idols" and strives to blur the lines between audience and band, but THE MORONS were truly the same on or off the stage (or "stage"). You know that dude you were just shotgunning a beer with by the dumpster? Now, he's that dude shotgunning a beer behind the drumset, for better or worse.
   Anyway, THE MORONS came from trailer parks and shitty situations and put it all in their songs. They got drunk and then wrote classic songs about being drunk. When they said "smoke some crack and go for a beer run", they had probably just done that. They didn't waste space or deal in hyperbole. If you're from a certain time and era (like me), they wrote one of the best songs of all time, which was about living with the spirit of rock n roll inside of you, which no one could ever steal. THE MORONS were utter morons, but they were also musical geniuses.
    Here's most of everything they ever recorded, culled from self-released tapes, unreleased studio recordings and their EP's. If you want a tape of your own, follow that link above and write to Chad at Once Tender.

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MORONS in Dalton, GA. Photo by me.

This one's for Big Shank.

     ADDENDUM 8/8/19: I re-uploaded this because I've been listening to THE MORONS a lot lately and I also wanted to add this note. I went to the Chattanooga punk fest known as Do Ya Hear We last year to see some very dear friends and play in some very dear bands. I had a great time. At some point in the weekend, a member of THE MORONS took me aside to talk about what I had written above. Where I saw nothing but complete praise and adulation, he saw a mockery. He saw his youth frozen in time, played out as a joke. He saw me ending the piece calling him and his bandmates morons, not geniuses...and he is right. Imagine going to read something about about your old band and the author just calls you a Moron and leaves it at that. We talked it out. We hugged and let it go, but I just wanted to add this. THE MORONS were what they were and they represented what we all were at that time and it was beautiful. The people in this band went on to grow up and become enthusiastic dads, animal-lovers, great friends, supportive husbands and even a ship captain. They still write music that is a celebration of life and love that is rooted in anything other than moronic pursuits and I salute them for that. THE MORONS made an impact to me and a whole huge scene of people because they wrote what they lived and it was real. A lot of bands try to claim that but very few actually follow through. So let's just say they were musical geniuses and leave it that, okay? 

NO MORE ART - Demo - Tape - 2012

   NO MORE ART is from Hamburg, Germany and plays straightforward melodic punk in the vein of Dangerhouse Records and some certain Scandinavian bands from a few years back. I feel like there are a lot of bands playing this style of punk, but they are doing it really badly because too many people think it's easy to just bash out three chords while screaming over it. I mean, it is easy, but it's harder to make people still wanna listen to it in a year. I reviewed this demo for MRR a couple of years ago and still listen to it regularly because it's super catchy, their singer Milo has a really strong voice and the whole band has a good ear for melody. I wish that my band could have played with them in Hamburg instead of the technical doomcore band that we ended up with, but so is life. 

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More by NO MORE ART

Check out the members' other completely different bands: RHONDA and BORN//DEAD

TREMARCHE//MOTEL MATTRESS - Tour Split - Tape - 2013

   TREMARCHE and MOTEL MATTRESS are two bands from the great state of Massachusetts. The former is from Worcester and the latter is from Boston. TREMARCHE lives in my favorite house in Worcester: Distant Castle. That's about the point where my familiarity with these bands end. I've never seen either band and had never heard either one until receiving this tape, although I briefly met one of the dudes in TREMARCHE and he was super friendly. I was out of my mind while wearing a dress and bird mask. 

  MOTEL MATTRESS plays one, long seven minute, proggy, vocal-less super jam that dissolves into tape loops at the end. There's some hints of USAISAMONSTER or KING CRIMSON in there somewhere or maybe I'm way off the mark. Maybe they're just a jazz fusion band. Either way, if you had given me a tape by them ten years ago, I might have smashed it into bits with a hammer and let monster trucks run over it in the street, but now I'm really into it. Now, I want a 21 minute loop of it, which just means I'll let it play three times in a row and be happy as hell. 

  On the flip, TREMARCHE throws out three hardcore blasts in less time than it took MM to play their one song. "Hardcore" might be too simple of a term for this band. There's a lot more going on. There's some noodly bits. There's some parts that sound like they might have been really into FUGAZI when they were 16 or 17, but actually haven't put on "Repeater" since they turned 19. There's some parts that show that they live in a heavily creative environment and it would just be too easy to write a simple verse//chorus song. Basically, I don't know how to easily tell you what they're playing, but I can tell you that I like it. 

   

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Also, I was surprised when I looked up these two bands online and saw the "official" cover of their split. Even though both bands live about 990 miles from my old home of Chattanooga, TN, the cover features a nice photo of Parkway Towers, which is an abandoned building on the south side of downtown Chattanooga. I once tried to squat that building with two friends of mine. We spent a couple of nights there, but the building was too fucked up to safely and comfortably spend a winter. That was in 1998. The building is still abandoned, as far as I know. 

More from TREMARCHE

More from MOTEL MATTRESS