Antithesis

Fun fact concerning Nuclear Blast Records

2011-06-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

Their in-house counsel wrote Mediafire to remove my No Escape links because of "being related to the new Agnostic Front record" (???????????). For what reason ever that might be the cause: of course, I do not want to be associated with the new Agnostic Front record or any other rubbish.

THEOLOGIAN + STEVE MOORE - Into The Uttermost Fields Of Ether (CD-R) Annihilvs 2010

2011-02-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

Here is a well known and still working nicely approach and somehow a release that slipped the attention of many people: Theologian - now on Crucial Blast - is reworking with digital means Steve Moore's analog synthie sounds. The complete source material is by Steve Moore and Theologian turns is through the digital meat grinder. There are no Tangerine Dream like or Jean-Michel Jarre1 soundscapes here but it's a beautiful 48 minutes long dark ambient and drone trip. The release is like most of Annihilvs' stuff burned on demand. In my opinion a great idea in the neverending flood of music releases nowadays.

I will remove the download link within a few days.

THEOLOGIAN + STEVE MOORE - Into The Uttermost Fields Of Ether (CD-R) Annihilvs 2010

1. From Beyond An Obfuscated Constellation
2. Fields Of Ether
3. Cities Of Negative Space
4. Song For The Spheres
[MP3, 320kb, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Steve Moore
Theologian

1 Nothing Steve Moore does wether with Zombi nor solo is new, but it's incredibly well done

FUGAZI live recordings mp3 archive (Double CD-R) Bootleg 200?

2011-01-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

About nine years ago Alex gave me those MP3 CD-Rs. It was a dawn of a new era (remember Audiogalaxy?) and personally a hard one: I was and still I am a diehard tape trader. While most of my friends and trading partners went digital I still was into the old way. Not because of a new medium but mainly because of the huge amount of music coming into my house and the loss of one thing: communication and the time to deal with music itself. While I was still able to make it through a shoe box full of tape dubs by my friend Steff until today I was not able to go through all the MP3 CDs he burned me. A decade later I also think that many efforts made in the early years of going digital were for no purpose: although many MP3s have a better sound quality than tapes the early stuff is poorly ripped. Some days ago I made it through old MP3 CDs with audio books of some of my favourite philosophers and authors and I couldn't stand it: the files are cracking, there's clunk and constant background noise. They went to the garbage can and I pulled out old tape dubs of Luhmann and Bloch for enjoyment. What I miss most is the communication: a lettre and a parcel is not only haptic but also takes more time and effort and will also be appraised more. Blogging and an e-mail with ten download links do not really touch me - you can burn me DVD-Rs with free jazz and cosmic muzak but I will still attach more importance to a crust punk demo tape with xerox copied cover some 16 year old kid from overseas sends me. Yeah, let the old fart prattle.

Howsoever here are two CD-Rs with one of our favourite bands - some of the stuff is not available through the Fugazi Live Series which justifies the posting in my opinion. It took me three computers and four drives to get the files onto my hard drive without CRC errors. I am not sure if this was just a compatibility problem of operating systems that are ten years older or if the CD-Rs are dissolving like many of them do. The sound quality varies a lot and the bitrates are low but I think you will have some pleasure with the stuff.

My Beatles tapes are still running without any problems in a 20 year old Sony tape deck, fuckers!

FUGAZI live recordings mp3 archive (Double CD-R) Bootleg 200? CD-R 1, CD-R 2

CD-R 1, CD-R 2

Links
17 live recordings at Archive.org
Fugazi Live Series

V/A - Rebuilding Compilation (CD) Temperance Records #TEMP#3 1992

2010-12-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

To complete the No Escape discography and me being too lazy to rip vinyl records I choose the path which is easiest: the CD rerelease of the split 7" (both No Escape songs are on the album), rebuilding compilation and two songs from the forever compilation. I never understood why they didn't include the Born Against, Citizens Arrest and Rorschach songs. Some months ago I read a blog posting stating that this CD version is more ugly than the LP version - kids, it isn't: there are two vinyl versions. One looks exactly like the CD version and the green 12" version looks awful (picture proof will follow) - but I do not have any pressing infos (maybe someone can help out).

The metal guitar part starting around 1:25 in "Silence" is so great, after being played four times it is used as theme modified afterwards. I love such gimmicks.

I am quite sure that these are the best Turning Point songs (before becoming the beautiful Godspeed and Shadow Season) and maybe the same goes for "Drown" by Burn. Who says Lost and Found is sloppy: titled "Drawn" here.

Important side note: No Escape's "Silence" was released together with the Big Boys cover on one of those Lost And Found nonsense split 7" records - in this case with Bonesaw. The Burn songs are on a split 7" with Prison and the Gorilla Biscuits can be found on one of the compilation CDs by L&F. I suppose they have licenced all the Temperance stuff around that time (same goes for Overkill Records).

V/A - Rebuilding Compilation (CD) Temperance Records #TEMP#3 1992

1. Turning Point - Broken
2. Burn - Drawn
3. Gorilla Biscuits - Biscuit Power
4. No Escape - Silence
5. Turning Point - Insecurity
6. Burn - Decay
7. Turning Point - Thursday
8. Turning Point - Behind This Wall
9. Turning Point - Anxiety Asking
10. No Escape - Framework
11. No Escape - Guilty
12. No Escape - No
[MP3, 320kb, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

NO ESCAPE - Just Accept It (CD) Lost And Found Records #276 1997

2010-12-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

This is the Lost And Found version of No Escape's fulllength - compared to the original CD version which has the LP followed by the demo songs, this version just has all songs leaving the doublets. It was released when their singer Tim Singer (needs to have a new band!!!) already left Deadguy and joined Kiss It Goodbye - I hope the band received some bucks for this one.
Like many L & F releases it just sounds better then the original - remastered or using the newest computer compressors at that time most of the label's releases sound better than the originals or even newer or regular rereleases (I will post some examples in the future) - I wrote this a thousand times before. Recorded in 1993 for me this just blew away everything else what was known for noisy slowed down hardcore - okay not counting Rorschach etc.
Maybe the most distinctive part is still the lyrics: personal, prosaic, nihilistic and yes, sometimes drippy - but please consider the age of the band members. 2010 and I can still somehow relate to them - mission accomplished by the artist.
My favourite tracks are "Left Hanging" starting with a beautiful bass solo, followed by the dry toms and "No Question" (Quicksand, Helmet and Burn jamming together?).
Considering Singer's artwork for all his other bands I still don't get it why this release looks that shitty - in best Lost And Found manner. The booklet just looks just horrible and the tracklist on the tray says "Left Handing" instead of "Left Hanging" and "Falling" became "Failling" [sic!].

Name me another early 90ies hardcore band covering the Big Boys?!

"Don't leave me hanging don't say goodbye"

NO ESCAPE - Just Accept It (CD) Lost And Found Records #276 1997

1. Falling
2. Just Accept It
3. Bed of Nails
4. Left Hanging
5. No Question
6. Time Bomb
7. Downtime
8. Framework
9. Guilty
10. No (BIG BOYS)
11. Thread
12. Blind
13. Search
[MP3, 320k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Posting of the original Overkill Records release
Review of this version
No Escape at the new, ugly Myspace

NO ESCAPE - demo (Tape) self released ca. 1990

2010-12-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

After years just listening to bad tape dubs - or later as mp3 when the Contrast Records site had a huger audio section (there used to be the demo once) - I finally got it (thanks Gonzo). For many these are their best songs together with the split 7" stuff - most of my friends do not like the album1. The production - it's a demo! - is not the best and there is a lot of tape noise/ distortion, but you can easily get the direction this band was going in 1990..... Burn, Grunge, Youth Crew bands slowing down in sound, Amphetamine Reptile Records, ABC No Rio bands... it's all there, but quite unique in my opinion. Still lacks the power of the album so I do not get the people who prefer this demo to anything the band has done later.

NO ESCAPE - demo (Tape) self released ca. 1990

side a:
1. Falling
2. Thread
3. Blind

side b:
1. Search
2. Guilty
[MP32, 320k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
No Escape at Bandtoband.com

1 Two songs ended up rerecorded on the album.

2 you can stop sending those gumbo mails now

THE NOTORIOUS LOVE AFFAIR - rough mix (Tape) self released 1996

2010-06-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Two years ago I did a The Notorious Love Affair posting and now another member contacted me about the unreleased song - acutally there are two unreleased songs!!! Old-timer Markus Haas from Per Koro1 has sent me a huge box with old demo tapes, rough mixes etc.. Among those was the cassette I was longing for: the rough mix of their recordings including two songs which did not make it onto the 7" record. As good as the four songs on the vinyl just the mix of all songs is still a bit weaker and less powerful than on the actual release.

Nice start to reactivated the blog again. Two years after the mentioned posting, one year after the last posting. Next one is in about ten years... ah, and sorry, I didn't see Total Abuse on Berlin's streets but it's a comical story anyway.

THE NOTORIOUS LOVE AFFAIR - rough mix (Tape) self released 1996

side a:
1. Autist
2. Blutlicht/ Erntedank
3. Panic
4. Wundenlecken
5. I am the song my enemy sings
6. T.G.A.
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links
The Notorious Love Affair @ Indiepedia.de

1 how's the shithole?

GRAF ORLOCK & GHOSTLIMB - European Tour 2009

2009-06-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

(tour poster by Bis Aufs Messer)

No doubt, one of the happenings this year - and my second or third show within one year (hahahahaha, okay I will attend Yo La Tengo's gig in my town, too). Reviews and shirt postings by both bands will follow.

4 000 000 TELEPHONES - French Girls (12") Summerhouse #Sums 02 recorded 1986 released 1987

2009-05-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

Finally I could get my hands on a copy of this record. It was released after their brilliant debut LP. It's a pity that they never got the attention they deserved.
The title track is way more catchy and pop than the songs on their first release, but still unique. But the other tracks are a fine frowardness in a time when it simply wasn't cool anymore to play that sound. Especially the saxophone is very driving here giving it all a bit The Pop Group or James White & The Blacks feeling. While when it gets more way out in those three tracks The Contortions and La Société Des Timides à l' a Parade Des Oiseau come to my mind. 4 000 000 Telephones even learned some Sun Ra and Art Ensemble Of Chicago lessons here - can't go wrong here.

Is that a xylphone in "Mrs. Brown (The Clown)"? Totally corrosive!

Now: Funk you!

4 000 000 TELEPHONES - French Girls E.P. (12") Summerhouse #Sums 02 recorded 1986 released 1987

side a:
1. French Girls
2. The Same Thing

side b:
1. Mrs. Brown (The Clown)
2. Icebox
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

ANASARCA - self titled (7") Yuletide Records #04 1995

2009-05-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Again: please do not confuse them with the Death Metal band of the same name!

I was just uploading their split 7" again and I thought it might be nice to post their 7" too. Maybe their two best songs with a lot of mid phase Shotmaker and Thumbnail in here, although I think that those bands weren't an influence to Anasarca. On the other hand the flip side was a huge influence to Blue Water Boy - a band that was better than Anasarca in my opinion just suffering from the European underdog status.

Released on the small label that brought us Frail or Four Hundred Years and produced by no one else than Ken Olden from Battery/ Worlds Collide/ Damnation a.d./ Farcry and and and.

ANASARCA - self titled (7") Yuletide Records #04 1995

side a:
1. East Bunk Hill

side b:
1. Eugene Debs
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Livetrack at The Sound Of Indie
Video at The Sound Of Indie
Liveset at The Sound Of Indie

BLACK VELVET FLAG - come recline with... (LP) Go Kart Records #GKLP008

2009-05-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

I have sent Erich a digital version once and he answered with "the perfect nails into the coffin".
Yes, here it is: the nails into hardcore punk's coffin. A big "fuck you" towards exaggerated nostalgia and historiography. It's like the end scene of "American Hardcore" with Keith Morris' statement.

Black Velvet Flag were three guys covering the Westcoast classics they grew up with with their definition of lounge music. Lounge music, a music that is used for non annoying1 background sounding in bars, hotels or malls, is in every way the total opposite to those originals. And it just fits! It sounds like late Frank Sinatra, muzak, lounge and elevator jazz and new bossa jazz with horrible 80ies pop themes.
Although the record got some attention in many magazines and the band having articles in well known newspapers (some of them are featured on the Black Velvet Flag movie homepage) only a few seem to know this record. I always have to copy it to friends, when I try to share my joy with them. Go Kart Records even do not list the record or the band any more on their homepage! Why?
There is even a movie in existence documenting their tour experience but I have never seen it. It was finished in 2003 and it never was up for sale as DVD. The homepage works but there is no contact address etc.. If anyone can help me out here: please drop me a line.

Back to the record - one of the best Go Kart Records ever did: the cover is a wonderful rip off of the The Decline of Western Civilization compilation LP cover with Jeff, Black Velvet Flag's singer, doing a perfect imitation of Darby Crash. I am not sure if the interviews in between are just fake or if they are from the filmed material, I did not rip them separatly unlike the CD version.
When I first got it I tried to find out who did "I shot JFK" for weeks until I was told that this is their own song. I didn't get it since the lyrics easily could have been by Angry Samoans, White Flag, Vandals, Fear or even the Minutemen. My favourite tracks are the Suicidal cover and an overwhelming, mind blowing "I Don't Care About You" by Fear. A fucking highlight, it just blows: Everything brutal and cynical in the original it comes back here, intensified and like a suckerpunch. The lyrics in combination with the music of Black Velvet Flag and Jeff's sublimial staginess, sorry, but it doesn't get any better. The whole album was recorded live at CBGB's.

There is a crack at the end of "Institutionalized" and I tried to remove it but it didn't work. I washed the record but it still isn't gone - no scratch on the record at least not visible to me. Sorry.

They never recorded their second album, and this is their only output known to me - besides their own song being on the "Go Kart vs. the Corporate Giant" CD compilation. The vinyl version does not pop up very often but you all should get the CD version easily at Amazon etc..

Enjoy this big middle finger now!

BLACK VELVET FLAG - come recline with... (LP) Go Kart Records #GKLP008

side a:
1. Wasted (Black Flag)
2. Amoeba (Adolescents)
3. Group Sex (Circle Jerks)
4. I Shot JFK
5. Institutionalized (Suicidal Tendencies)

side b:
1. No Values (Black Flag)
2. Media Blitz (Germs)
3. I Don't Care About You (Fear)
4. Code Blue (TSOL)
5. Stepping Stone (The Monkees)
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Black Velvet Flag - The Movie
Go Kart Records

1 I found it very annoying - ever been in a mall where they played Chet Baker or Nuyorican Soul? Don't think so.

Simple!

2009-05-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

Just looks better.

Black Velvet Flag, V/A - Look at All the Children Now, Deuter, 4 000 000 Telephones E.P. and some reups are next.

Never forget: support the knives!

(Philipp playing in my Neglect hooded sweater - I need that one again! - Bunker Friedrichshafen ca. 1997)

JUD JUD - no tolerance for instruments (7") Victory Records Fan Club Swingin' Singles #02 1998

2009-05-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

That was a surprise to me: a hoax interview in the first Victory Megazine following a 7” for the Victory Records Fan Club single series (someone remembers the ugly shirt that came for every member?!). This might be one of the best records Victory has ever done – just kidding. The plastic sleeve is screen printed or sprayed and the record was recorded “on the straightest days of 1998 at the straightest place by the straightest person, Thanxxx to straightness.” And please always keep that in mind: “Jud Jud can only be contact by those who are at least as straight as themselves. From this it follows that Jud Jud can only b[e] contacted by Jud Jud. Sorry, any outside communication would certainly jeopardize our status as the world’s straightest band and we cannot allow this, we are too straight.”

JUD JUD - no tolerance for instruments (7") Victory Records Fan Club Swingin' Singles #02 1998

side a:

1. we're back
2. wah wah song
3. harmonics song
4. speed picking song
5. tune down song

side b:

1. bass in beginning song
2. double bass song
3. grindcore song
4. hammeron song
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

JUD JUD - x the demos x (7") No Idea Records #57 1997

2009-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

First of all: thanks to my sister Simone who gave me her USB record player until I buy myself a phono preamp again.

Here they come: the only two straight edge records which ever mattered. Jud Jud are nothing then Steve Heritage from Assück, Bombs Of Death and Anthem Eighty Eight and B. Rouse from End Of The Century Party and Scholastic Deth (Bookstore Core!!!!) doing human beatbox straight edge anthems. Total deconstruction of every cliché, riff, chorus etc. you expect from a drug free hymn. Beside those two singles they had several tracks on compilations (403 comp., Blindspot mailorder compilation, Back to Donut etc.) which are on the singles too. Everything’s a winner here. The Side By Side mocking cover, the flyers and yes, the lyrics. If there will be a “incredible strange music” compilation for the 90ies Jud Jud will be on it.

JUD JUD – x the demos x (7”) No Idea Records #57 August 1997

side a:

1. high hat song
2. gallop song
3. slither song
4. divebomb song

side b:

1. fast song
2. rounds of jud song
3. tuning song
4. backmasking song
5. turn around song
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Jud Jud @ myspace
Jud Jud @ No Idea Records

Those Who Fear Tomorrow MP3 Blog

2009-02-15T02:29:00.000-08:00

"bring honour or walk away RJC - BTBC - CTYC"

(Abhinanda in the 90ies by Henrik)

My buddy Henrik from Sweden started a blog concentrating on the 90ies and some 80ies classic mainly concerning Beatdown and vegan drugfree music. He posted some real burners until now - some stuff we traded a while ago, but were told by other traders to not share it on the internet, but that was quite some time in the past; I think the good old tape trading and even CD-R days are gone forever. So check it out and download all the stuff I needed nearly ten years to get by tapetrading - the world is fucked! Things like the Birthrigt demo, Everlast demo, Flame of God demo, two of the three Contempt demos etc.:

Those who fear tomorrow!

I will also use the opportunity or let's say as trigger for posting stuff I held back for some years now.

DISFEAR - self titled (7") Finn Records & Rødel Records #17 1998

2008-11-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry, for this nonsense posting. This is the rerelease by Rødel Records - supposed to be a bootleg, but I don't think so. Maybe just some misunderstandings, lack of communication and crustpunk paranoia. The repress must have been done in the same pressing plant: the etchings are the same like from the No Records release just adding the Rødel catalogue number. I just know that Finn took over No Records after only a few releases. The main reason for posting this is that my copy of the rerelease is just better sounding - no surface noise etc.

Rødel Records is one of the most likeable labels in this whole grind, crust and hardcore universe: still no homepage, no myspace page and I can remember him writing down his e-mail address on paper flyers by hand. You won't sell that many records in this way like others do, but you also won't have to deal with a lot of shit that comes with the www.

DISFEAR - self titled (7") Finn Records & Rødel Records #17 1998

side a:
1. religion
2. min elegi
3. undergang

side b:
1. vietnam idag
2. det sista kriget (Svart Parad)
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

DISFEAR - self titled (7") No Records #02 1992

2008-11-18T02:26:00.000-08:00

Since the band is nearly existing for 20 years - if you include the Anti-Bofors - now I will celebrate this with their first 7"; okay I am lying, I was just going through my 7" records starting with "dis" for the Dismay 7". Since there are a lot records starting with "dis" in my collection, I didn't know what to pick first but I choose Disfear's debut released in 1992 by No Records, a short lived label which was "taken over" by Finn Records then.

Disfear became quite huge now due to being on Relapse - I even wonder if their wider audience knows "soul scars" and "everyday slaughter" - and having a more popular sound now (thinking of Mötorhead, Turbonegro and Entombed etc.), which still rips anyway.

This single can't be compared to the new Disfear sound: d-beat with this typical Swedish sound that made me buy hundreds of records blindly at that time (do not just blame it on Anti-Cimex and Mob 47). The worst part - maybe the blog indicated earlier that I had (have?) a huge love for d-beat/dis-core and crust - I listened to those records daily and now the vinyl of all those records is totally shabby. The Disfear 7" is no exception here - but no match to my fucked up Discharge singles - and I tried to polish the sound with Steinberg's Wavelab, but it just made it worth, so I kept the 1:1 recording I did. The last song is a cover tribute to Svart Parad - maybe known to some of you tape traders (a species becoming extinct).

DISFEAR - self titled (7") No Records #02 1992

side a:
1. religion
2. min elegi
3. undergang

side b:
1. vietnam idag
2. det sista kriget (Svart Parad)
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Disfear
Disfear@Myspace

DISMAY - self titled (7") M13 #02 & TPOS 1995 (& compilation track)

2008-11-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

This 7" came out before their fulllength and featured - again - three songs which are released on the demo tape and cd ("untitled") and the cd ("death of a planet" and "uncivilization"), so it makes no sense if you own the cd. But I wouldn't be a record collector if... guess what. This record was distributed by the famous TPOS label/ record store (you will know the label if you know GG Allin, Violent Children (pre-Youth Of Today), Charles Manson, Reflex From Pain, 76% Uncertain, Far Cry (pre-Battery), Antiseen or Agathocles). The label also did some crazy stuff like 8-track cartridges (I'd like to hear those stuff from Violent Children, GG Allin and Charles Manson - please help out!) or those famous 80ies tape compilations ("war between the states" etc.)

Although the pressing quality is shitty I am quite angry that all the other stuff wasn't released on vinyl: it just gives Dismay's music the right power due to the sound.

Yes, the cover is cheesy.

DISMAY - self titled (7") M13 #02 & TPOS 1995

side a:
1. untitled

side b:
2. death of a planet
3. uncivilization
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Since Dismay had only a few songs some of them made their way onto compilations. Two of them are Endless Fight's "over the edge vol.2" which I sadly do not own and this compilation (which I bought for other reasons back then: Jasta 14, Blood Runs Black, Botch, Asphalt and Dissolve):

V/A -Psycho Civilized (CD) Elevator Music #09 1995
8. In Doubt (Of The Absolute Truth)
[password: antithesis]

And a friend of mine mailed me the demo tape version, that was posted on Middle Aged Youth. Thanks!

DISMAY - demo 1994 (Tape)
1. nowhere
2. in doubt
3. madness
4. another day in the life
[password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

DISMAY - in doubt (CD) We Bite #121 1995

2008-11-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

This was a real blast to me. Dismay's album on We Bite Records - a European label is the last thing you will do to become more known (although their stuff was distributed by Victory back then (before the big clash)) - has a better production and the new songs (all songs from the demo are on this cd too) add a lot more diversity to the previous stuff. Adding Quicksand to the huge Burn influence. The songwriting is elaborate not just a sequence of riffs and parts, just the guitar solos are sometimes annoying.

If you dig Quicksand, Burn, Fahrenheit 451, Orange 9mm, 454 Big Block (with members of Wrecking Crew), Only Living Witness or newer - so called "modern hardcore"? - bands like Soul Control or I Rise you have to love "In Doubt". You can get this cd for cheap at Ebay, Amazon etc. and it was also released as cassette in the States.

In my opinion it's better than Burn's reunion 12". By the way the producer of the recording is later doing stuff by Snapcase or Boy Sets Fire's "After the Eulogy".

DISMAY - in doubt (CD) We Bite #121 1995

1. catch 22
2. waiting
3. untitled
4. death of a planet
5. uncivilization
6. king for a day
7. madness
8. overseer
9. in doubt
10. onlooker
11. grasshopper
[OGG Vorbis, quality settings, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

DISMAY - demo (Tape) Rockhouse Productions #?? 1994

2008-11-17T09:56:00.001-08:00

Dismay's demo was released in several versions with different song orders and some with different covers (one version was featured at Middleagedyouth, but this blog is gone now). Their 1995 version is listed at Discogs.com and I am very interested in it since it features different songs. Besides the stuff I own Dismay also released a demo in 1991 and I am very interested in it. I can also remember seeing live recordings from that time in tape trading lists but the MP3 just killed it.

Dismay hailed from Wilton a small town in Connecticut - about 16. or 17.000 inhabitants - and dissolved too early. They only recorded a few songs which all appeared overlapping on different releases, which I will post now. I don't know why they never became more well known. The time - 1994/1995 - was just right for this well played mid tempo hardcore. The production is right, the singer does a great job and the half personal half critical lyrics are well written. Of course one band comes directly to your mind/ear: Burn (sometimes Eye For An Eye too). Dismay just sound like Burn did never stop to exist - until their reunion. Where Burn left a breach Dismay was filling it for me and they did my expectations justice. 14 years later I can still listen to this and enjoy it.
If you have any more informations on Dismay please leave a comment. Thanks.

Sadly their singer passed away in 2007. RIP.

DISMAY - demo (Tape) Rockhouse Productions #?? 1994

side a:
1. untitled
2. lucky grasshopper
3. madness
4. another day in the life
5. overseer
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Update:

I was able to find the former Middle Aged Youth posting at archive.org:

"About a year and a half ago, while on a 2-county musical shopping spree, I walked into a local record store that I had never been to and started up my usual A-Z browsing of CD titles. While browsing, my eyes were constantly being drawn toward the wall of cassettes they had, fully stocked and completely neglected. By the letter H, I realized that I wasn't finding a goddamn thing to buy in the CDs, so I walked over to the wall of tapes and saw the sign that said "$1.50 each, or 10 for $10". It's a well-known fact that people do not buy cassettes anymore, and this was obviously a blowout-sale of sorts. I noticed that all of the titles were old, and I started to get excited wondering what I was going to find. It didn't take long before I realized that they had tons of demo tapes in the selection - jackpot. That's a quick way to my musical heart - present me with a feast of demo tapes from unknown bands. I pilfered through the wall-rack and pulled out 20 cassettes, 15 of which were demo tapes from bands that I had never heard of. I took them home like a kid with a new video game, but ended up stashing them away after listening to only a few. I recently pulled them back out and was elated to find some really good shit in the bunch, both Hardcore and Metal.

Which brings me to Dismay. All I know about these cats is that they were a Hardcore band from Connecticut and released this demo in 1994. Other than that, they are a complete mystery to me. There must have been 500 bands called Dismay over the years, so finding any info on them has been nigh impossible. Running a few different Google searches produced nothing except the band Palehorse mentioning them in an interview with Bystander Fanzine and a kid who had this on a trade list. But this shit kills, period. The first thing that jumped out at me was how much the vocalist sounded like Chaka Malik (Burn/Orange 9mm) in his delivery. Dude is almost a dead-ringer for Chaka, but really sounds like what would happen if you could somehow splice together the voices of Malik and Anthony Comunale (Raw Deal/Killing Time). The music has an obvious Burn influence as well, though it is crossed with the CT/NJ HC sound of that era, and is a bit "laid back" at times while still being crushingly heavy. I find myself playing this thing over and over lately, especially "Nowhere" and "Madness". The part in "Madness" where it kicks in with "...there's no way out" just fucking smokes my ass, and makes me wish I had found these guys when they were around. I gobbled up this kind of stuff like it was breakfast in those days, and I still love this style of HC. One confusing thing about this demo is that the songs on the actual tape do not match the songs listed inside the cover, so I wonder if there was another demo and they got crossed, or if it was just a weird decision by the band to change songs after the covers were copied (?). Also, the tape had no labels for Side A and Side B, so I don't even know if this is the proper order for the songs. I'm hoping that someone out there knows more about them and will clue me in, because if there is anything else out there floating around by this band, I have to have that shit.

Nowhere In Doubt Madness Another Day In The Life"

THE DESCENDENTS - ride the wild / it's a hectic world (7" ) Orca & Pacific Records l-1056 1980 & 1985

2008-11-17T07:02:00.000-08:00

I still don't get all the myths around this 7". The first version is considered to be in a 100 pieces press run but for 100 pieces it just pops up too often. My copy is supposed to be the reissue from 1985 and it states "an ORCA production for PACIFIC RECORDS INT." on the back. Is Pacific Records Int. = Pinsicato Records???? Or is this copy an even later rerelease? Also this copy has stated "recorded in 1979" on the back, which I have never seen on any other sleeves of the reissue. But who cares! The Descendents still without Milo and more into surf than punk and: I love it. I do not share the many scorchers concerning this 7".

Here is a detailed posting about the pressings but I am not wiser after reading it, especially concerning my copy.

It's a SPOT production of course. This 7" is later included on SST's "bonus fat" compilation - still available as cd, 12" or even cassette.

THE DESCENDENTS - ride the wild / it's a hectic world (7" ) Orca & Pacific Records l-1056 1980 & 1985

side a:
1. ride the wild

side b:
1. it's a hectic world
[OGG vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror1, mirror 2)

Links:
The Descendents
This 7" @ Flex!

NITWITS - great day! (7") Monitor Records #01 1994

2008-11-17T05:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe I was too harsh concerning my Recess Records statement, since I love a lot of stuff by them (even posted it), but something by the Nitwits still captivates me. I think it's the sympathetic presumptuousness of playing this strumming punk (we Krauts call it "Schrammelpunk"). A huge middlefinger towards musical finesse - not that this concept is the biggest statement in 1994, but this nonchalant amusement meant a lot to me1.

They even deconstruct mercilessly Johnny Mercer and Rube Blooms' "Fools Rush in"2 - and I think they even intended not to do so.

Please do not confuse those Cali boys with the European Nitwits - two bands with the same name (including an "the") are known too me and both play boring punk rock. And please do not confuse those with the dutch The Nitwitz (I just know their quite nice, early but somehow way to average stuff - never heard the 90ies reunion stuff).

While comparable bands like F.Y.P. etc still exist and got a lot of fame I found nothing on Nitwits on the world wide web so this posting makes sense in preventing this record for being lost. I wonder what they were doing afterwards (I just hope they didn't improve concerning instruments and songwriting because it ruins bands like this one - I am dead serious).

NITWITS - great day! (7") Monitor Records #01 1994

side a:
1. Catalyst
2. Ankrumb
3. Mad Ratts

side b:
1. Killjoy
2. Only Fools Rush in [Johnny Mercer/Rube Bloom]
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

1 it doesn't nowadays since Youtube and Myspace offers millions of Überzeugungstäter to share their inabilities. Please do not call this Zeitgeist or I'll slap your ass.

2 Nelson's version was better than the one by Elvis!

MOHINDER & NITWITS - split (7") Stinky Feet Records #?? & Unleaded Records #?? 1994

2008-11-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

Here is the Mohinder split 7" with Nitwits on both the bands' own labels Stinky Feet and Unleaded. Nitwits from San Jose were totally different and this split was recorded right after their demo tape (I will post their own 7" too). I liked their snotty lowfi punk more then comparable stuff from labels like Recess in the 90ies. Another band that comes to my mind is Quadiliacha1. I still wonder what amps were used by Nitwits since they make Destroyer sound like Manowar.
The three Mohinder songs might be my favourites by the band - especially "Imbalance" which has some very Swing Kids-ish moments. All tracks are even better recorded compared to the other two singles.
Companies which produced envelopes back then must have been well off in the 90ies if you consider the need by kids to buy them in huge quantities for silkscreening and hand painting them over.

MOHINDER & NITWITS - split (7") Stinky Feet Records #?? & Unleaded Records #?? 1994

side a:
Nitwits
1. Captain America
2. Walgreens Girl
3. Strawgly

side b:
Mohinder
1. Number One
2. Imbalance
3. Itch
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2)

Links:
To me known releases by Unleaded (Mohinder's own label)
7" @ Discogs

1 I wanted to post their 7" and 10" until I realised that nearly everything by them is on this page and in a good quality. I even didn't know that they had a fulllength cd but these weren't my cd buying times back then.

MOHINDER - 2nd (7") Gravity Records #13 1994

2008-11-06T01:05:00.000-08:00

It's been a while again and I've gone through a lot of changes.

Here we go: I'll post the second Mohinder 7" and their split 7" - I was never into the first one. All the stuff was later compiled on a LP on GSL including a CD with live recordings (I am looking for this vinyl version, so help me out). If there was ever something you can call the Gravity sound Mohinder1 will be one hell of a definition. If you dig Honeywell, Angel Hair, Eurich and Han-Shan this is for you. Fast and hectic hardcore with screamed vocals and lyrics quite in the - what I call - Rainald Goetz emo vein. I am not sure, but most of the songs sound like being done in an old fashioned way: all instruments recorded together "live" and then the vocals later. When the songs have transitions it sounds like those two songs are even recorded in one take. This might lack some quality concerning the production but captures the energy better.

The covers for this 7" are all different since they were pictures or ads in fashion etc. magazines and thenscreenprinted. Some people list this single as "the mission" e.p. but it's just self titled - at least old Gravity flyers etc. tell so.

The members went on to play in Makara (I will post the 7"), Duster, Calm (together with Indian Summer members) and Jenny Piccolo.

I found this short description at Epitonic.com:

"1993. Cupertino, CA. Right in the heart of what was soon to become (for a time) the new economic heart of America, Silicon Valley, came a hair-raising, filling-rattling scream of rage. Hidden behind the pristine office parks and suburban strip malls, a seething force of paranoid aggression was brooding, and its name was Mohinder. For a little over a year, Mohinder captured the attention of the Bay Area's alienated hardcore underground, providing a Northern California counterpart to the burgeoning San Diego art-punk scene (Mohinder, like Heroin, Antioch Arrow, et al, was associated with the notorious Gravity Records) with their brief but absurdly powerful bursts of shambolic noise and instantly legendary live performances. By the end of 1994 Mohinder was only a memory, the brevity of the band's existence a testament to its unsustainably fierce, almost superhuman energy.

Mohinder's four members went on to form a number of noteworthy new bands, including Jenny Piccolo, The Anasazi, Calm, Duster, Valium Aggelian, Haelah, and A-Set. GSL's Discography collects Mohinder's complete musical output -- the two EPs they put out on their own Unleaded imprint, their one Gravity EP, and live performances recordeed at the Gilman in Berkeley and on KZSU Stanford radio."

MOHINDER - 2nd (7") Gravity Records #13 1994

side a:
1. the mission
2. alien
3. division
4. acceptane

side b:
1. the static cult
2. beautiful
3. one warrior
4. expiration
[OGG Vorbis, maximum quality, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2)

Links:
This 7" at Flex!

1 not to be confused with the crazy guy at Heroes.

OLD GLORY RECORDS - shirt

2008-06-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

Someone who wrote a comment was missing his Old Glory Records shirt, so I give you the opportunity to at least look at it again. I got it from a friend who was clearing his closet and selling a lot of his old shirts, but I was just wearing it two times for running outside and I just got weird looks. So I think this will stay a pyjama forever. Due to the fact being a lazy retard I just managed to do one Old Glory Records posting until now although nearly all old records (and some of the later releases) by this label were hit unaccountably by the needle of my record player - just think of Assfactor 4, In/Humanity, Avail, Policy Of Three, Groove, Iconoclast or even Jerome's Dream (me being an idiot I even gave the Funeral Diner stuff away).

Old Glory Records was mentioned in a list of antisemitic and antizionistic bands and I think this shirt was also one of the reasons; but I am not able to give a lecture on the coherence since I can't remember why the label was named.

What I do remember an increbible statement by Holger Ohst who used to do Summersault and shared his flat with the owner of Old Glory Records once concerning the - let's say - mannerism of the label owner, but since I can't stand the shittalk anymore: just pull out the Plot fanzine issue and figure it out for yourself.

I just realized that some shirt pictures are really bad, so I am going to redo some of them.

DON MARTIN 3 - self titled (7") Oberon Records #?? 199?

2008-04-13T02:14:00.000-07:00

Okay here it is: the fucking essence with only 300 copies in existence.

I am not sure if Oberon was the band's own label - I do not know any other releases by this "label" - and when it was recorded/ released. There are no detailed informations provided here - all Don Martin Three records have that in common.

This 7" must be one of my most played ones concerning the 90ies emo thing (together with Inkwell maybe) - I have an additional copy up for trade.

I am not writing that much today (I haven't the last few weeks), just let those nine and a half minutes of delightful cliché speak to you.

DON MARTIN THREE - self titled (7") Oberon Records #?? 199?

side a:
1. katahdn

side b:
1. inefficient engine
[OGG Vorbis; 256 K; password: antithesis; mirror 1, mirror 2]

I recently saw that the scans of the 12" and 7" compilation were taken for the myspace tribute page of Don Martin Three - at least: ask nicely.

Links:
Former postings 1, 2

V/A - Education (LP) Mountain Records #04 1994

2008-03-06T14:43:00.000-08:00

Uh, back from the dead. Thanks to all those who wrote.

Last part concerning Floodgate: the "Education" compilation on the now defunct Mountain label. Here are some notes by Jeff from Mountain Records:

"The Education compilation was Mountain's first release to focus not just on music but also address a particular social issue. The booklet that came with the LP contained liner notes for the LP as well as lengthy essays by various educators and educatees addressing the titular issue. It examined the complicated relationship that politically-minded, idealistic individuals have to education as it is and should be. All proceeds from the comp, which has now sold all 3,000 copies, went to the East Harlem Tutorial Program.

Musically, this comp is (for me) one of the key records from that period of time between the great wave of HC that spawned bands like Born Against, Rorschach, Econochrist, and the like - and the time when the word "emo" showed up on every page of every hardcore zine applied to every kind of music. Some of these bands are probably familiar to most people: Devoid of Faith, Policy of Three, and Floodgate are all fairly seminal groups. The rest of the comp is no slouch either. Coleman, one of my all time favorites, gives a slower song that spews venom and mucas. Kisses and Hugs offer a spazzcore (emoviolence?) tripcych that is nothing short of great, three short blasts of total fury. The rest of the music ranges from rocking quiet/loud stuff to more simple punk with an emphasis on screaming, bile chucking mid-tempo hardcore. As if the material in the booklet wasn't enough, all these songs address issues of education as well."

Quite self-explanatory, although I think the statements and ideas by the contributors are kinda one-sided and somehow even naive - a very strong "punk rock" view on the topic. But decide for yourself: I included the complete booklet within the zip file. Musically it's also an up and down. Outstanding tracks on this LP are - in my opinion - the Bleed track (must be one of their best), another New York hardcore mid tempo anthem by Devoid Of Faith, Policy Of Three and of course Floodgate. I also like the Citizens Arrest, Void feeling in the Dead Inside track but my favourite is Kisses And Hugs (get their LP and split 7"): three spazztic attacks within 1 minute - if you dig In/Humanity, Eurich, Palatka or the End Of The Century Party you have to love them too.

That was it - concerning Floodgate.

V/A - Education (LP) Mountain Records #04 1994

Side a:
1. DEVOID OF FAITH - I'll Keep You Safe From Me
2. BLEED - Better Days
3. KISSES AND HUGS - Lessons 1-3
4. HORACE PINKER- You Know
5. BENCHMARK - Knowledge Is Power
6. ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR - Monday
7. COLEMAN - Homage
8. OX - Channel 1

Side b:
1. FLOODGATE - Ruler
2. SILENCE EQUALS - How Does It Feel To Be The Last One Picked?
3. THREE STUDIES FOR A CRUCIFIXION - To Some Degree
4. RAZE - Blackboard
5. DEAD INSIDE - Natural Selection
6. POLICY OF THREE - Twelve Years Down
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, part 1, part 2, part 3]

Update:

Sendspace seems to be a bit slow: split in 3 parts -> 1, 2 and 3.

Links:
Mountain Records

VA - No Idea Fanzine - Bread, the Edible Napkin (CD) No Idea #20 1997

2007-12-18T13:57:00.001-08:00

Okay, one of the compilations I am posting concerning Floodgate; their track "the pessimist" is otherwise unreleased and has a strong Moss Icon feel to it, but it is sadly one of their weaker tracks. But that's venial: "Bread, the Edible Napkin" is a great compilation. It was part of the No Idea fanzine - I was too lazy to scan the issue but I included the booklet of the compilation - but also available as double LP. You might still get it from No Idea records, if not you'll get it cheap second hand. The tracklist reads like a who is who of the late 90ies: Braid, Brutal Truth, Hot Water Music, Floor, Serpico, Cavity, Threadbare, Still Life, Sideshow, Moonraker, Horace Pinker, Car Vs. Driver, Locust, Christie Front Drive and so on. More than a half of the songs are otherwise unreleased and a few are my favourites by these bands especially those by Moonraker and Hope Springs Eternal. Some bands should be featured here sooner or later (later! ha ha ha): Serpico, Rhythm Collision and Gus.

If anyone has any additional tracks by The Lisa Killers which is a Floor/Dove sideproject, please write me a short e-mail!

Okay, that's it for today, after Threadbare's version of "sunstroke" I am going to spend my evening with Swiz records.

VA - No Idea Fanzine #12 - Bread, the Edible Napkin (CD) No Idea #20 1997

1. Hot Water Music - Floor
2. Floor - Who Are You?
3. No Empathy - Daddy's Got a Problem
4. Ash County Sluggers - Achiever 9
5. Brutal Truth - Eggshells
6. Christie Front Drive - Bag
7. Cavity - Wounded
8. Pung - Anthem for the Youth
9. V-Card - Strap Me Down
10. Floodgate - The Pessimist
11. Against All Authority - Corporate Takeover
12. Serpico - Double Negative
13. Elmer - Let's Get into a Fistfight
14. Gus (Canada) - Sinister Acts in Bright Sunshine
15. Moonraker - Friendly Fire
16. The Bruce Lee Band - Calling For Me
17. Horace Pinker - Sloth
18. Car vs. Driver - Generis
19. Locust - Inbred America
20. Hope Springs Eternal - Loneliness Equals Coldness
21. Jack With Killer - Stupid Heavy Metal 2--Restriction
22. King Friday - Lonnie
23. Braid - Katy Cat
24. The Lisa Killers - No One Gets Through
25. Rhythm Collision - Jack
26. Sideshow - Soar
27. Skankin' Pickle - $13,000 is a Lot of Food (live)
28. Crunch - Furioso Zapping
29. Threadbare - Sunstroke
30. The End of the Century Party - Doozer La, Doozer Do
31. Still Life - Someone Stole My Bike
32. Bombs of Cheese - White People in the Park
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
No Idea Records

FLOODGATE - Troubles A' Brewin (12") Youth Strike Chord #2 & Ebullition #13.5 1993/1994

2007-12-16T00:30:00.001-08:00

And finally: Floodgate's 12" which was a cooperation between Ebullition and the band's own label Youth Strike Chord - a huge step forward after their 7" but I must insist: still behind the double 7". Anyway I always loved how they managed to keep their sound on the hardcore side and "6+5+4=3" and "big brother blindness" are really two great songs. The instrumental on the flip side totally reminds me of something... but I can't recall of what... Rain? You tell me.

Funny sidenote: I saw this twelve inch on some Spanish blog filed under the category "Stoner".

FLOODGATE - Troubles A' Brewin (12") Youth Strike Chord #2 & Ebullition #13.5 1993/1994

side a:
1. troubles a' brewin
2. 6+5+4=3
3. big brother blindness

side b:
1.floodgate, m.l. (instrumental)
2. eldin o'brian
3. ancient of days
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

And since it has been a while, I repost their double 7":

Click! (Here is the original posting)

FLOODGATE - shirt

2007-12-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

(front print)

This is an original Floodgate shirt and the only one known to me. In the 90ies it was a must for every band or fanzine to have at least one Käthe Kollwitz drawing or etching for a record cover, artwork etc. (no matter if your name was Split Lip or even Earth Crisis). This motive is also on the back cover of the Floodgate 12" on Youth Strike Chord/ Ebullition.

Off topic: if you ever stop by in Berlin, please drop a bomb on the district Kollwitz used to live. You'll do the city a huge favour!

FLOODGATE - 1st (7") Youth Strike Chord #01 & Anomaly #?? 1993

2007-12-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

It's been a while and I like to subsume the last 4 months as "hard times in an age of quarrel".

I got Floodgate's first 7" for 5 bucks lately and I will post it together with other Floodgate stuff (12", shirt and compilations) the next few hours. Their debut release - I don't know if there's a demo tape - is still a bit behind their later stuff but it has it's moments. The last song "mountain" on this 7" is one of these moments: about 5 minutes long and driving with a huge Wash D.C. feeling in it. I'd like to emphasise that not that many bands played this style in 1993!

FLOODGATE - 1st (7") Youth Strike Chord #01 & Anomaly #?? 1993

side a:
1. the organic
2. conscription

side b:
1. abusive ego
2. mountain
[OGG Vorbis; 256k; password: antithesis; mirror 1, mirror2]

Links:
Floodgate @ BandtoBand
Floodgate's double 7"
The Notorious Love Affair

FLOODGATE - I choose danger (Double 7") No Idea #17 1994

2007-08-30T01:32:00.001-07:00

Floodgate are mentioned rarely (while people throw in Indian Summer, Constantine Sankathi and Current to often)! I never heard or even had their first 7" on their own label Youthstrikechord (Nuzzle, Loomis Slovak...) but their 12" and this double 7" are classics for sure. Driven and heartfelt Hardcore with members of Campaign and the Fisticuffs Bluff including a household name: Andrew Gilbert who was also in The Notorious Love Affair (by the way: I think he wrote his best lyrics for The Notorious Love Affair, also I really dig the staccato but kafkaesque like lyrics from Floodgate).

I haven't listened to this record in years now until I picked up an additional copy some weeks ago and like more than 10 years ago I was steamrolled by "at rest". Jeez, this song blows. It has everything I expect from this type of music.

Compared to the previous 12" on Youthstrikechord/ Ebullition those songs are more sophisticated, true and tuneful. Even the production is way better.

The other songs are great too but I listen to "at rest" ten times in a row without getting bored.

If anyone wants to contribute a good rip of the first 7" including scans or sell it to me for a reasonable price: get in touch! Thanks.

Since it's easy to satisfy me concerning artwork: I really love the nice idea of an obi/banderolle around those two seven inches inside.

"Miles behind on the road to success" - yeah, me too!

FLOODGATE - I choose danger (Double 7") No Idea #17 1994

side a:
1. at rest

side b:
1. grind the pepper

side c:
1. I'd rather be out here with the unkown

side d:
1. miles behind on the road to success
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2)

"At rest" was also released on the "Blindspot" compilation CD on No Idea/ Toybox Records in 1997 and it looks like this (other bands are Integrity, Jud Jud, Ascension, Hot Water Music...):

SPIT ACID & STEP INTO NOWHERE - split (7") Per Koro Records #?? & NC #01 1995

2007-08-26T15:14:00.001-07:00

Maybe you remember some of my previous postings: one of them was the No Cruelty shirt which was the “label” and mailorder of Tina and Peter who did Hardline Germany in Lörrach back in the days. I can also remember them organizing gigs in Lörrach with bands like Acme and Dawnbreed – none of these bands knew that they were involved in Hardline1.
Anyway this 7” was intended to be released on No Cruelty (their only releases are the Neckbrace 7” and an audio cooking book), but was released by Per Koro in the end, after the bands found out about the Hardline chapter and some crude statements by the people involved.

An observing reader of the blog also wrote me that he wanted to point out the Zorn – Step Into Nowhere connection which was swept under the carpet by me: Zorn (1, 2, 3, 4) were not only friends to Step Into Nowhere but also influenced by them, which makes sense. But I wanted to concentrate on the metal influences since I am a short haired friend of all longhairs.

Maybe Step Into Nowhere won’t stand the test of time like Zorn do (something big is coming up concerning Zorn by the way!), but this song here really sounds like early Zorn stuff.: empathic vocals, sluggish guitars… in the end: very “krauty”. Make sure you get your hands on their LP which is their best stuff in my eyes… ears. Spit Acid were from Göttingen and also had a LP on Per Koro/ Conquer The World Records which I listened a lot to in the 90ies. More due to their combination of political attitude, huge booklets and the melodic hardcore punk which combines early Ebullition with Berkeley – the weak vocals sometimes ruined it for me.
The only thing I found: an old Heartattack review.
The lyrics and a statement in the booklet all deal with the issue of animal "rights" and exploitation in a way both bands would have been better off on a Hardline label.
The label of the a side looks like the cover of the Crisis Of Faith/ Chokehold split 7" by the way.

SPIT ACID & STEP INTO NOWHERE - split (7'') Per Koro #?? & NC #01 1995

side a:
Spit Acid
1. PETA
2. tell me

side b:
Step Into Nowhere
1. schweigsam (im Grauen)
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, first mirror, second mirror]

1 funny side note: Hardline in Germany was more connected to the Ebullition and Profane Existence type of thing.

CHISPA - obstinator (7'') Per Koro #29,5 & Bloodlink Records #31 1999

2007-08-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Postmodernism! This band arose after the end of Loxiran and clearly has one influence: San Diego. I think the band was also intended to be a rip off of bands like Guyver One – if you remember them? – and Swing Kids. They also had the perfect outfit for the sound (take a look at the glasses inside of the cover). But they kept this – self reflective - in mind and even their lyrics were insinuatingly this a bit (for example in „es gibt keinen Neuschnee“). Apart from those points (Alan Sokal we salute you… ha ha ha ha ha) they were one of the most intense live bands around that time on the old continent. You might be bored by this 7” - which was available as 5 song US version, 4 song version from Per Koro in Germany and a split CD version of those songs together with Enfold - but won’t do this band justice if you haven’t seen them live (they also toured the US together with label mates Enfold): an intense mayhem of guitar throwing and flying, doing somersaults and collecting the lost eyeglasses.
Enjoy! If you love Guyver One. „Showing ze Americans where ze hammer hangs“.
The members are quite successful in doing music nowadays being in Tomte, Marr and Der Tante Renate. Chispa just did those 7” songs and a compilation song. Markus from Per Koro Records still has some of those in his basement, write him nicely.

CHISPA - obstinator (7'') Per Koro #29,5 & Bloodlink Records #31 1999

side a:
1. Bradley
2. Glorification

side b:
1. Alienation aka K. Meine
2. Iskra
3. Es gibt keinen Neuschnee
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

CHISPA – unreleased song (recorded live) & compilation track (“Seed Of The Next Season” CD/LP Alveran & Per Koro Records)
1. Johnny Cash (live)
2. City of…
[MP3, 128k, password: antithesis]

Links:
Myspace Page

Headphone Festival 2007 - 10. - 12. August Leipzig

2007-08-10T13:31:00.001-07:00

Okay, my robot friends; Since I have to work I still can listen to the Headphone Festival by Privatelektro this year. Here is the stream:

privatelektro headphone festival livestream

Informations:

Headphone Festival @ Myspace

Artists:

Friday: 10th August

18.00 Uhr: Rolf Ulrich Kaiser (DJ) Hamburg / D

19.00 Uhr: Minimatika (DJ) Berlin / D

19.30 Uhr: triPhaze Leipzig / D

20.00 Uhr: Mix Mup Leipzig / D

21.00 Uhr: Kauerhof & Randy Carpenhengst Leipzig / D

22.00 Uhr: THE ! Weimar / Jena / Leipzig / D

23.00 Uhr: Manami N. Berlin / Tokyo, D / Jp

23.30 Uhr: Jadegarten Osaka / Japan

00.00 Uhr: Gast fall Paris / Frankreich

Saturday: 11th August

00.30 Uhr: Minimatika (DJ) Berlin / D

01.30 Uhr: Inannia (DJ) Jena / D

02.30 Uhr: Nachtwächter und Maurer Leipzig / D

Pause!

13.00 Uhr: Rolf Ulrich Kaiser (DJ) Hamburg / D

14.30 Uhr: Brandt & Friebe Leipzig / D

15.00 Uhr: Idiot Switch Berlin / D / USA

16.00 Uhr:

17.00 Uhr: Readymedia Berlin / D

17.30 Uhr: 33 Leipzig / D

18.00 Uhr: Dirk Markham Deeside / Berlin, UK / D

18.30 Uhr: Tetsuya Hori Berlin / D

19.00 Uhr: Enzym Dresden / D

20.00 Uhr: Sven Ihlenfeld Berlin / D

20.30 Uhr: Tilman Schmidt Berlin / D

21.00 Uhr: Igor Hax Liverpool / UK

22.00 Uhr: Stephane Leonard Berlin / D

22.30 Uhr: Shintaro Miyazaki Basel / Berlin, CH / D

23.00 Uhr: Rev. Benn Schipper Toronto / Leipzig, CAN

23.30 Uhr: Rebecca Cunningham Australien / AU - direct Stream

Sunday: 12th August

00.00 Uhr: Nicolas T. Weiser Berlin / Leipzig, D

00.30 Uhr: Rubén D'Hers Caracas / Venezuela .. TBA

01.00 Uhr: Electrigger Berlin / Leipzig, D

02.00 Uhr: Various Artists Szession!

Selling shit @ Ebay.

2007-08-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

I am selling some stuff I own twice or three times, maybe you are interested: both Five O 7"s, Assay LP, Assfactor4 LP, Up For Grabs compilation with Acme and Luzifers Mob, Against The Wall, Ex-Ignota, Antioch Arrow, Framework, Hail Mary, Monster X, Carol, In/Humanity, The GTC (ex-Honeywell), Pale Creation, Shed...

Klick here!

STATEMENT - "prepare for battle" bootleg shirt

2007-07-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a while and I am starting with a shirt (again for all the political correct ones): nice screenprinted bootleg shirt with the cover of the second Statement 7" (first one was the split with the Apostles1 (one of the first queer punk bands as far as I can remember)).
I still quarrel with myself since flaunting a huge hardline logo in 2007 might not be the most clever thing to do, but on the other hand: who really remembers hardline? And: Statement wasn't a hardline band - a Wikipedia entry states:

"[...]had a one-man studio project called Statement which initially was aligned with Hardline; however, he discarded the label over a disagreement over the issue of homosexuality."

The shirt is currently available, has a great printing and cotton quality and is a fine thing to antagonise the hippies in town.

1 I am going to post the split 7" and split LP in the near (far) future.

Sorry: busy!

2007-07-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Two jobs and law school, I can't remember what "free time" is. Thanks to everyone who wrote nicely and sorry to all those who still have a lot of requests.

Reups & welcome MP3mos!

2007-06-18T01:56:00.001-07:00

Stop sending annoying e-mails about selling records and shirts or even bullying concerning "re-ups"!
I will occasionally upload some of the stuff posted again and rework the postings with additional information and pictures.

THE NOTORIOUS LOVE AFFAIR - self titled (7'') Per Koro #14 1996

2007-06-18T00:39:00.001-07:00

Here is a very short lived project from Germany with Andrew from Floodgate, Campaign & Fisticuffs Bluff and former/recent members of Prone, Stack, Narsaak, Dead Beat, Bastard King and Black Shape of Nexus. They never played live and just managed to do this 7" on Per Koro. They listened a lot to Native Nod, early Rye Coalition/Merel and Iconoclast but still have this krauty/Bremen touch. I am recently trying to get my hands on one unreleased song from the same recording session, so stayed tuned.

THE NOTORIOUS LOVE AFFAIR - self titled (7'') Per Koro #14 1996

side a:
1. Das Wundenlecken
2. I am the song my enemy sings

side b:
1. Autist
2. panic
[OGG Vorbis, 256k & MP3, 256k, password: antithesis]

Links:
Myspace Page (recently done by their nice bass player Michael)

V/A - ghost dance (Do7'') Slave Cut #01 1994

2007-06-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Update: some readers here are faaast (thank you!)!
Here is a different cover version, which is slightly different from the first booklet page (the complete booklet is included in the .zip file):

I think I saw this compilation with different covers? Maybe you can fill me in on this here.
Another 90ies emo jewel, no need for much talking: all your heroes on two 7"s. Have fun (or cry, kiss... whatever)!

Pressing quality is shitty by the way but it features one of my favourite Indian Summer song, so... I am going to listen to Cap'N Jazz's album now. Good bye...

V/A - ghost dance (Do7'') Slave Cut #01 1994

side a:
Indian Summer
1. sugar pill
From Ashes Of
2. theme for memory

side b:
Third Rail Rhyhme
1. double helix

side c:
Embassy
1. his years
Cap'N Jazz
2. blue grass

side d:
Braid
1. elephant
Embassy
2. how can you
[OGG vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

V/A - Turner Raus (7'') A-Wat #11 circa 1992

2007-06-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a benefit by the A-Wat fanzine for Animal Peace which was an animal rights organisation and had its most popularity in the late 80ies and early 90ies in Germany and got later critisised for having "Drückerkolonnen" (I found no English expression for it; the word describes a group or people who use every means necessary to get money for their cause/ organisation etc.).
Abolition contribute an otherwise unreleased track; same goes for two other bands of my youth: Embittered from the U.K. (most of them know them from their split with Dystopia and their 7" on Ecocentric Records) and Truth Against Tradition from the Ulm area. Their previous name was Out Of Question and they had a nice demo tape (I am looking for the cover (scanned or xerox copy)!?) and released a 7" on Equality Records and one self released 7" (distributed by Knopp's Common Cause label) later. Truth Against Tradition was an incredible live band. Their track is very much in the Underdog/ late Bad Brains way.

V/A - Turner Raus (7'') A-Wat #11 circa 1992

side a:
Abolition
1. state of perfection
Embittered
2. crush

side b:
Truth Against Tradition
1. if not you
Venus Fly Trap
2. crocodile
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

ABOLITION - jesus was a fuckin' dick (7") Equality Records #02 circa 1991

2007-06-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

This band was called Violent Arrest - which is an old The Freeze track and should not be mistaken for the new U.K. hardcore band - before and they had a demo tape and another version of this demo as split with Step Into Nowhere (all things which are requests by readers; be patient and contribute!). Abolition were fronted by the man behind the famous Amok/Confrontation fanzine and Corey who was mainly running Equality Records back then (I really regret selling the old three-sided Downcast shirt she wore too). This was their first output besides the "Turner Raus" compilation, at least I think so.
Quite in the vein of the early Power Violence bands like Infest and No Comment and some Reagan Era or even NYHC bands, this 7" won't stand the test of time but has my sympathy, especially for the 26 paged booklet with explanations concerning the lyrics which were written in a less affective and heated way than most of the political hardcore pamphlets at that time (something I loved about the Confrontation fanzine too).
Incredible comic cover artwork (or horrible... depends on your standpoint).
They were called Stack later - in case you didn't know.

ABOLITION - jesus was a fuckin' dick (7") Equality Records #02 circa 1991

side a:
1. in my own right
2. sadistic soldiers
3. reasons

side b:
1. I'm pissed
2. action/reaction
3. death + death
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Links
7" @ Panx.net
Abolition @ Punk-O-Graphie

V/A - for a fistful of yens! (CD) Bitzcore #01665 planned 1992 released 1994 (???)

2007-06-01T04:59:00.001-07:00

Here is decent overlook of all the Bitzcore stuff the label did in its most exciting era (Rereleases by Articles Of Faith, Offenders, Verbal Abuse, Direct Action, Attitude Adjustment, Reflex From Pain, good compilations by Black Market Baby, United Mutation, Flag Of Democracy etc. or even new and good releases by Zero Boys (yes, I love the reunion LP), Alloy and so on).
I was watching some old Clint Eastwood classics the last few days - me having the flue I used the time in bed to do so - and after posting the two Articles Of Faith CDs (1, 2) I remembered this one. After pulling it out I spent the whole morning listening to records by Black Market Baby (man, they were brilliant and overlooked, shame on all consumers of D.C. hardcore punk records!), United Mutation (brutal!), Attitude Adjustment (I like them now more than I used to do) and Toxic Reasons (most of my friends said that they are something like a boring D.O.A. copy, that's not true: two mixtapes I did with my favourite songs by them and their heavy used condition proof the opposite). All songs were on different Bitzcore releases, but maybe you like it anyway or you even discover something you didn't know.
I am not sure, but I think there was also a US version of this compilation?!

Related want: I am interested in a dub with cover scan/ xerox copy of the Direct Action demo tape! I heard one original version on a tape compilation and it's great! Please write me.

V/A - for a fistful of yens! (CD) Bitzcore #01665 planned 1992 released 1994 (???)

1. Last Train To Dagenham -- Cock Sparrer
2. Headfirst -- Toxic Reasons
3. Animal Day -- Leatherface
4. On My Way -- Chiona Drum
5. More Alone With You -- Alloy
6. Unafraid -- Alloy
7. Indianapolis -- Zero Boys
8. Do The Wrong Thing -- Apartment 3-G
9. White As A Sheet -- Apartment 3-G
10. 5 o'Clock -- Articles Of Faith
11. Buried Alive -- Articles Of Faith
12. American Paranoia -- Attitude Adjustment
13. Bombs -- Attitude Adjustment
14. Verbal Abuse -- Verbal Abuse
15. Leeches -- Verbal Abuse
16. Laughing Boy -- Poison Idea
17. Cop An Attitude -- Poison Idea
18. Face Down In The Dirt -- Offenders
19. Fight Back -- Offenders
20. White Noise -- Toxic Reasons
21. Positive Change -- Zero Boys
22. Powerload -- Flag Of Democracy
23. Own Way -- United Mutation
24. Fugitive Family -- United Mutation
25. Generic Life -- Reflex From Pain
26. Damn-Age -- Direct Action
27. UXB -- Direct Action
28. Sacrifice Not Suicide -- The Freeze
29. Broken Bones -- The Freeze
30. Downward Christian Soldier -- Black Market Baby
31. Killing Time -- Black Market Baby
32. Kicks -- Destination Zero
33. The Only Way -- Destination Zero
34. Straight Time -- Jones Very
35. Don't Turn Away -- Vic Bondi
36. Dino -- Reflex From Pain
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Links:
Bitzcore Records

ARTICLES OF FAITH - give thanks (CD) Bitzcore #01678 1992

2007-05-31T15:29:00.000-07:00

Just to complete the previous posting: the first LP rerelease on Bitzcore (originally by Reflex in 1984) with a slightly redone cover layout. Again with songs which are not on any other record or even on one of the Alternative Tentacles compilations! Those two songs are also from the "wait" recording session and are nice; especially "angry man" which has a dub feeling in it.
The album itself is way more diversified or let's even call it experimental than the previous stuff. Many tempo changes, lead guitar solos (but not annoying) and the production by Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü make this a very interesting record and for me it also doesn't lack power like many others stated. The calm parts in "hollow eyes" are just beautiful, really predate the later Chicago indie guitar rock!

By the way: if you like the calmer second LP, make sure you check out Jones Very.

ARTICLES OF FAITH - give thanks (CD) Bitzcore #01678 1992

1. give thanks
2. in your suit
3. I objectify
4. acceptance
5. Chicago
6. everyman for himself
7. five o'clock
8. hollow eyes
9. in this jungle
10. American dreams
11. prison
12. angry man
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Review @ Flex!
Articles Of Faith Homepage
Articles Of Faith @ VicBondi.com
Lyrics to this record

ARTICLES OF FAITH - core (CD) Bitzcore #01664 1991

2007-05-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was digitalizing some CDs for my MP3 player the last few days stumbling over some things which might be nice for the blog.
There is nothing what has not been written about Articles Of Faith so I am going to spare you this part, the only thing I am going to tell you: you need this compilation by Bitzcore! It features complete remixed versions of all songs by Articles Of Faith before their first LP (including the first two 7"s, songs from the "wait" e.p. sessions and the compilation/ demo tracks) and although I love the sound from the original records, these versions blow! Many tracks (mainly the tape compilation stuff) here are not on the so called discography CDs/LPs on Alternative Tentacles (!!!), among them my favourite Articles Of Faith track of all time: Articles Of Faith. It was a recording featured - together with 4 songs from the same session - on the "charred remains" tape compilation in 1981/1982 on Version Sound. The original version lacked a bit of power, but the remixed one just kicks ass! Listen to the bass run and then the vocal staccato by Bondi: Brilliant! I read that they left this one off the compilations on Alternative Tentacles since it wouldn't do the band justice today (bullshit!).

Nice liner notes by Vic Bondi and 3 more tracks on the CD compared to the vinyl version of this record. Leech now, downloading freaks!

Someone at Kill From The Heart with the same opinion:

"Core includes the first two Articles of Faith EPs, a bunch of compilation tracks, and a few unreleased songs. Although their later records were also good, nothing can touch their early stuff. Anger and emotion, amazingly great music, and intelligent lyrics. The songs on this collection were either remixed or remastered from the originals, and since this record was my first exposure to AOF, I tend to prefer listening to these versions than those on the actual 7"s (the sound seems fuller, which might not be the best thing for a lot of hardcore bands, but definitely works for AOF). This is one of the handful of records I would consider essential.
-CHRIS"

ARTICLES OF FAITH - core (CD) Bitzcore #01664 1991

1. I've Got Mine
2. Buried Alive
3. Sin and Redemption
4. My Father's Dreams
5. Articles of Faith
6. By My Rules
7. What We Want is Free
8. Born To Be
9. Wait
10. Buy This War
11. Streetfight
12. Ghost In the House
13. Everyday
14. Bad Attitude
15. Dependence
16. False Security
17. Up Against a Wall
18. Poison In My Sweat
19. Belfast
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

Links:
Review @ Flex!
Articles Of Faith homepage

DISFLEISH - hear nothing see nothing say nothing new (7'') Roedel Records #13 circa 1997

2007-05-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

(cover)

(misprinted cover)

A few days ago someone demanded a band that takes crust punk for a ride by using its sound, aesthetics and lyrics and then unmasking the merciless boredom of crust as known it today. Disfleisch - who said Swabians couldn't be funny - is the only band that comes to my mind who ever tried to do so! Their only 7" was released on the beautiful Rödel Records label featuring three cover songs - partly with different lyrics - of the nordic Dis-clones Dischange & Dissober and three tracks on their own. All the lyrics attack hang-up attitudes within crust etc.: outlook, lyrics, stealing riffs, unimaginative band names...

Although being a huge fan of the sound and many bands (old and new), I consider crust one of the most redundant styles ever followed by zombies with fascist dress codes (Did you ever wonder why crusties haven't got tools in their tool belt?).

It's 2007 not 1982!

Review from an old Profane Existence fanzine:

"DISFLEISCH Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing New 7"

I'm aware that I'm probably the only one at PE that holds this view, but as far as I'm concerned it would be best to dig a big hole and throw about 98% of all the Dis-bands in it. Needless to say, I'm extremely pleased that others in the DIY scene are beginning to hold similar views. While Active Minds set the standard with their recent Dis is getting Pathetic 7", this new German bands have made it their goal to give a good kick in the nuts to the international Dis conspiracy. Features hilarious lyrics lampooning the mindless sloganeering and meaningless pose that goes with doing a Dis band in the 90ies. Songs like Disease of Punk, War is Unsightly, God Bless Dis Way really bring the message home. My favorite line is: Rob Discharge of some riffs, play them a bit faster - It's gonna be a hit! The real surprise is that all of this is carried by some pretty damn powerful Hardcore Punk, certainly better than most of these Dis clowns out there, played very tight and in-your-face. (Y@hoo)

Rödel Rec / Keule Sternkicker / Allmendeweg 89 / 13509 Berlin / Germany"

DISFLEISH - hear nothing see nothing say nothing new (7'') Roedel Records #13 circa 1997

side a:
1. god bless dis way
2. punk's not dead yet (agony lasts)
3. going under
4. dis-dur

side b:
1. after-beer farts
2. war is unsightly
3. disease of punk
4. dis-moll
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

VA - degress of... malice (7'') Stationeight Records #02 1995

2007-05-21T11:00:00.001-07:00

I thought about posting all Rye Coalition stuff that is not available anymore (or not that easy available; some other stuff - split 7", demo (an earlier rip is already floating around at Soulseek) etc. - will follow) starting with this compilation on Stationeight Records, featuring them, Impetus Inter, Animal Farm and As Good As Dead. Here is an interview with Rye Coalition in which Dave mentions the 7" (but forgot its name and the other bands on it). Animal Farm was a typical compilation band back then, nothing exciting... a bit like hectic Black Flag, Econochrist etc.. I remember As Good As Dead being better on their regular records, for example the split 7" with Armatron (featuring As Good As Dead members and had a record on GSL) is quite nice. Impetus Inter's track is one of the last they recorded before they changed their name to L Vado (and Lux Vanitas; I will buy their 7" next week and tell you about it); nothing new but quite solid in the vein of their previous stuff.
Rye Coalition are definitely the winner here.

VA - degress of... malice (7'') Stationeight Records #02 1995

side a:
Rye Coalition
1. ceremony for a fat lip
Animal Farm
2. another day

side b:
Impetus Inter
1. don't care much about places
As Good As Dead
2. shackled
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

V/A - for want of... (Double 7") X-Mist #50 circa 1996

2007-05-21T10:45:00.001-07:00

Update:

As stated in the comments before: Alex was so nice to provide a cover scan of a limited version of the compilation! Thanks!:

This one of the last releases by X-Mist – together with Steakknife and Hell No – in a more conservative hardcore/punk context ( I would consider Guyana Punchline or Eniac conservative too, but that’ s different story – the voice from the off1 might even say: “reactionary”) and it’s an enjoyable one. If you see the track list, you might think: a who’s who of the era. Some tracks are even exclusive here: so enjoy. Solar Bomb Kit – used to be called Scud before and they were a provoking band (have a nice 7” too) – are pre-Trend by the way. The Baby Harp Seal song was recorded while being on tour, I think. Some distinguished bands existed in the UK back then: Schema, Baby Harp Seal, Spy Vs Spy, Fabric, Dead Wrong, Tribute, Understand etc.
I consider Kurt being the best band here, often dispatched as Germany’s Shotmaker, but this fails their abilities (they also disprove the most popular public opinion within the culture industry that nasty people do good music and polite people don’t).

V/A – for want of… (Double-7”) X-Mist #50 circa 1996

side a:
Christie Front Drive
1. After the Parade

side b:
In/Humanity
1. The ins and outs of haste of flesh
Baby Harp Seal
2. fully transistorised

side c:
Torches To Rome
1. Torches to Rome
Solar Bomb Kit
2. Wicked I Shift

side d:
In/Humanity
1. Rocket Park
Kurt
2. Franklin (kleiner Ladenbesitzer)
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Links:
X-Mist

1 The off is located in Switzerland, fool.

OGG files.

2007-05-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

I am getting several mails concerning the OGG files.

If anyone has playback problems, check the Vorbis homepage for everything you need to get it running on all of your systems (Mac OSx, Linux, Windoof or even IBM OS/2 (those were the best of times!)).

Vorbis.com

Even iTunes is running them afterwards, so you can synchronize your iPod, Sansa or Hongkong copy with it. A powerful and nice alternative to all the common media players is MediaMonkey by the way. It combines everything you need (ripping, tagging, converting, organizing, playing nearly all files etc.) in one easy program. It has a nice Amazon based tagging option for adding the album cover art and additional informations:

MediaMonkey

I tried several players over all the years combining them with additional tools (ExactAudioCopy, Foobar2000 etc.) and I think this is the best I had until now. If you have portable MP3 players: MediaMonkey will convert every playable file on fly while sychronizing with your player.

Why OGG files?

I do not have an own server or web space and I want to keep it this way (due to the costs), but until now all free file host services still offer not enough space for one file being lossless. It would be fine with me if I could offer all the stuff in lossless files like APE or FLAC although it's sad that still only a few nerdarios care about this issue.
OGG files offer the better sound than MP3s while having the same file size (or even a bit less). One may argue that it makes no sense for Assück or Indian Summer if they are offered as MP3 or OGG files, but that's not the point here.
And: OGG is open source - license- and patent-free (MP3 isn't!).

Why are the OGG files not tagged?

I am a lazy bastard. Do it on your own (Foobar2000, MediaMonkey etc.).

REFUSE TO FALL - grey (MCD) Abridged Records #08 1997

2007-05-17T03:09:00.000-07:00

This is the second Abridged Records posting (more to come). Refuse To Fall reunited once for a Shelter gig and also recorded tracks they just played live before. This are definitely their most melodic and - some of them - best songs. The MCD does not capture the feeling of their 1991/ 1992 stuff since this was six years later with people changing but luckily with improved music skills. I am still vexed by the bad guitar solos (like in the second song of the "stalemate sessions" 7").

"Fuck rock, fuck cigarettes and and fuck the high door price".

REFUSE TO FALL - grey (MCD) Abridged Records #08 1997

1. 236 (intro)
2. grey
3. faith healer
4. in or out
5. self-contained
6. 236 (outro)
7. pleasure (live version)
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Here's a video from 1991:

Links:
The MCD at Abridged Records

V/A - No Exit, No Return (7") Upstate Records #01 1991

2007-05-17T02:54:00.000-07:00

Quite unkown record by the Syracuse label that also did the Framework "justice coming" 7" (catalogue number 03) together with Conquer The World Records.
Process Of Elimination are very "New York hardcore", but too rudimental to be remembered. Dead Image had a 7" on New Direction Records and I sold it being pretty vacant.
The Refuse To Fall track is very much in the vein of their first 7" on Equal Vision and Encounter's song suffers a bit from the thin production and the pressing quality. Now you know why this is quite unkown... ha ha ha...

V/A - No Exit, No Return (7") Upstate Records #01 1991

side a:
Process Of Elimination
1. fight back
Dead Image
2. winter

side b:
Refuse To Fall
1. count me out
Encounter
2.disillusioned
no artist
3. outro
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

REFUSE TO FALL - stalemate sessions (7") Drive Records #03 1994

2007-05-17T02:41:00.000-07:00

This was released about 2 years after Refuse To Fall disbanded and includes two songs from a previous unreleased recording session. Less mosh, more rock and in the end I think it's boring; the first song has its moments but couldn't catch the drive of the first 7". The cover with the fallen man uncovering the logo on the bottom side is somewhat too pathetic; comical.

That's about it.

REFUSE TO FALL - stalemate sessions (7") Drive Records #03 1994

side a:
1. stalemate

side b:
1. pleasure
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

REFUSE TO FALL - soulfire (7") Equal Vision Records #02 1991

2007-05-17T01:14:00.000-07:00

Speaking of "emo mosh" and having an Abridged Records posting before I thought it's about time to post the Refuse Of Fall stuff I have. They were somehow discovered by Ray Cappo when he was still involved with Equal Vision Records and existed for about three years (break up after a US tour with Shelter and 108 and being disillusioned with the hardcore scene). Them being less preachy than the other two bands I like them a bit more among the Krishna "hardcore" bands that were popping up everywhere.
This record had more power when I first got it - listening to it over and over again; had the same status like the second Shelter album or all the 108 stuff concerning my listening habits. the first song totally reminds me of something but I do not get it (Outspoken? I am getting old...). Somehow or other enjoyable to listen to those tunes again. Lyrics are very in the Krishna vein, spiritual but not preachy. Some members of Refuse To Fall join the Dischord band Bluetip (with former Swiz and Krishna influenced Worlds Collide members) later.

If you want a debate about Krishna within hardcore and punk check out Confrontation #05, a fanzine mainly done by the Abolition/Stack singer. This issue dealt seriously with the Krishna movement without all the affected fuss which was the main issue when those discussions were led back then.

To spare me the talking, here's a quite nice story/interview with Damon Allen from an e-zine called Space City Rock:

"not done yet: damon allen grows up. words between by jeremy hart

Damon Allen Damon Allen's been around. He started out back in the late '80s as the singer for influential Houston straightedge band Refuse To Fall, whose members went on to form a half-dozen similarly influential bands, in turn, hardcore and otherwise: guitarist Arnett went on to I End Result; bassist Danny formed Scarred For Life (now known as Will to Live); Bill, the drummer, ended up in Austin, playing with ska guys The Bowler Boys; and Damon himself joined with guitarist Gilbert to start Blueprint, and later moved on to Celindine and then to his most recent band, That Gospel Sound.
Despite the years, though, Damon's probably best known for his Refuse To Fall days ("When [That Gospel Sound] go[es] on tour, I'm gonna put 'ex-Refuse To Fall' on all the flyers, so people'll come to the shows," he says, with a smile).
In the years since Refuse To Fall started, Damon's had a lot of growing up to do. Now he's got a full-time job, a wife, and a much more complex musical project to spend his time on, and he's learned the hard way that you can't keep doing things the way you did as a kid. Don't take that to mean, though, that Damon's stuck on memories of his former band -- he's the last person to want to keep that particular ghost alive. Instead he's moved on, keeping his eyes open all the while, and watching Houston's music scene change and grow.
Damon Allen So, it's not too surprising that when we get together at Mientje's to talk, it's the state of the scene as a whole that comes up first. Damon starts out talking about a recent article in The Houston Press, where Gram and Killian of local favorites The Drapes talked about not needing to support everybody.
"I just wish they'd be a little bit more considerate of other people," he says, "and not be so self-centered all the time. You can't just expect to have this grip on the whole scene and analyze everything and put everybody else down." He shakes his head.
"I've been through that whole not really wanting other bands to play, or wanting other bands to get ahead of where we are, y'know, if I didn't think they were good, with the whole straightedge thing. That was all about 'we're this, and they're that.' And you can't do that; it'll never work out."
We talk about how important it is for Houston musicians to stick together, the non-fanbase in this town being what it is. He points to ZZ Top, King's X, and Helstar(?!) as the only bands from Houston who've ever made it big in the music world at large, and wonders if Houston's scene will ever "explode" nationally, or if that time's already passed us by.
"I feel like, when I was in Refuse To Fall, starting over again, I feel like it's that era but ten years later, because it's so hard for me to get shows now, 'cause I don't know anybody anymore, and 'cause I don't have friends that play in a lot of bands that I used to get shows with. I feel like it's the same thing. People would ask us for shows, 'cause we had our pick, of like the Axiom or wherever we'd play," he remembers.

Damon Allen I tell him that somebody else I'd talked to referred to him as "the Ray Cappo of the west of the Mississippi," to which he just laughs. "No, I know Ray, and I'm nothing like Ray," he answers. When I press for details on Refuse To Fall, he recounts a bit of the band's history, from his joining the band at 16 after seeing Youth Of Today at the Axiom. He's not straightedge these days, but doesn't regret adopting the philosophy in his youth at all.
"I'm glad I was at that time," he says, "because I think that's the time where if you don't have...some people just need a little more to keep them on the right path, or whatever, and not fuck up real bad. 'Cause a lot of people in their teens are looking for themselves, trying to find certain things -- they go through a lot of crap, and a lot of hard times." I put forward the idea that you need some kind of group to support you, something to belong to, and he nods in agreement.
"Big time. Maybe it was like a...not a 'club,' or whatever you want to call it -- I don't know what you'd want to call it, but it's like, it helped, and it was supporting, and just having that was fun, more than anything. We had so much fun. We didn't have the problems that most bands had during that time, with people being into drugs, or people being into whatever, breaking up. That's why we stuck together so long.
"We didn't do anything, we didn't have any activities besides the band. We didn't go party -- y'know, when you're a teenager, that's a big thing, to party and drink, because 'we're not supposed to do that, but we want to do that,' y'know? We didn't want to do that, so we had all this extra time...why not play music, y'know? It made it so easy. And we were just like, 'this is fun; it's what we like to do.' And we were just true with ourselves. That's the basic thing -- I think that's why it went somewhere. It wasn't the fact that we knew anybody, because we didn't know anybody!" As the rain starts to come down harder, we pause for a moment to move our chairs under cover.
"We were really into it, with all of our hearts. And that's what I try to do that with every band I have."
Rain starts leaking on us through the overhanging tarp, so we adjourn inside Mientje's and resume our conversation in whispers. About Refuse To Fall and the straightedge scene, Damon says, "it taught me a lot about music. 'Cause we played in New Jersey; it was the biggest crowd we'd ever played to, huge. It was the Gardens...? A big huge place. Like the Unicorn [a now-defunct Houston club that was basically a hollowed-out supermarket], but totally packed. And we had this video, and it was just like...playing places like that, y'know, if you want to be around those people that're pretty popular, it teaches you a lot.
"You wish you could experience that with every band you play in, y'know. But it definitely taught me that you just have to be patient with things, and if you're really into it with all your heart, you can make things happen."
He talks about how much easier it was to tour back then, working at Kroger and quitting every time they wanted to hit the road, and says that that made the success of Refuse To Fall possible; with the responsibilities that come up later, you can't necessarily tour like that, and that lessens your chances. "If they want to make it so big, they're gonna have to do the same thing," he says, referring back to The Drapes article for a moment. "The label reps aren't going to come to you -- you're going to have to go to them, and play there, and that's what we did."
We get sidetracked talking about the Refuse To Fall CD that local labels Abridged and 76.2% put out last year. The album, simply entitled Refuse To Fall, was a "reunion" of sorts for the band; they got back together and finally re-recorded old songs that they'd played back in their heyday (however, the album also features a live track, "Pleasure," from an old show at local club the Vatican).
Refuse To Fall were together for six years, a surprisingly long time for a Houston band. In the end, the reason they called it quits had a lot to do with disillusionment with what they saw going on around them in the scene.
"I think it all kind of fell apart when it was just like Equal Vision [Records], with the whole Krishna thing, because we got to know those guys so much better, and just found out that it wasn't what it was all cracked up to be." He says he still likes a lot of the Krishna philosophy, and thinks that it has a lot to offer, but that it didn't help the band, especially once the backlash against "Krishnacore" started within the straightedge scene. For himself, he says that "it was a lot more than just being in a band and trying to be a 'Krishna band' and playing. I was looking for something religious, y'know, and I didn't really get into Christianity, so that had something to offer.
"It's just like anything -- I mean, I wasn't born knowing about Christianity; it's been taught to me. It's the same thing with Krishna, where people think 'they're being brainwashed!', or it's just because Ray Cappo...yeah, it could be, but no," he demurs, and points out that the majority of people who are into it aren't musicians at all, but are instead doctors or lawyers, so-called "respectable" people.
When I ask about his view of the current straightedge scene, Damon admits ignorance of a lot of what's out there, but says that he's skeptical. "It's just like before," he says, "I mean, there were people who were into it for the image, and there were people who were really into it. And just by sitting down and talking for like thirty minutes, you can figure out who's really into it and who's not."
He also says he doesn't like a lot of the more "metal" straightedge that's out now, and that Refuse To Fall never really fell into the same category as a lot of the ultra-heavy New York/New Jersey straightedge bands, but took a more melodic route.
"That's the thing that I think appealed to a lot of people. You'd be surprised how people on the East Coast when we toured out there liked it because it wasn't the 'heavy thing.' And it wasn't the 'mellow thing,' too -- it wasn't like we were doing any 'thing'; we were just kind of ourselves, doing our own thing. And it appealed to a lot of people, 'cause we weren't your typical straightedge band. A lot of people didn't even think we were straightedge -- we'd play and they were like 'what kind of stuff are you guys?'"
I mention that I'd heard a while back about a Refuse To Fall reunion, and Damon chuckles and shakes his head. "It's just...it's over. And people want to keep bringing it back because it was the popular thing, and people want to relive the glory days. It won't happen, because for one thing, everybody's not into it; it was so much of an emotional outlet, and you can't recreate that, y'know. We played with Shelter when they came through a few years back, and that was kind of a 'let's just do it' kind of thing, but we were into it -- we were just kind of like 'yeah, this's cool.' It was alright, but it wasn't like the old days, y'know. If it has no value for you, how can you expect to output that? It's real visible, especially to people who've seen you before. So I started thinking, 'y'know, this is just a facade; it's a total'...I don't know. It just didn't seem to work well."
After Refuse To Fall's breakup, everybody went their separate ways. Damon picked up a guitar for the first time, and he and ex-RTF guitarist Gilbert joined together to form Blueprint, partly out of a newfound love for a lot of different, non-straightedge music that he'd never been exposed to previously.
"I could kick myself for not going to shows that I heard about a long time ago, just because it wasn't the thing that I was into, y'know? Now, I look back and think of all the bands and things I could've seen, and things I could've heard so long ago, that've influenced me now... I missed out on a lot, but y'know, now that I've realized it, the generation after me missed out on all the stuff we did, too, that I had a chance to see."
He goes on to talk about the ways in which different styles of music evolve, and how it's pretty much impossible to not be influenced by something -- even The Beatles ripped off Chuck Berry, he points out.
"A lot of people go 'I don't like them because they're not completely original.' Okay, well, you don't need to go to shows if you want originality. Originality would be actually not listening to music -- that'd be pretty original..."
That Gospel Sound, in contrast with Refuse To Fall's mass acceptance in the straightedge scene at the time, has been an uphill battle for Damon and his bandmates. In the short time they've been together (just over a year, which is a lifetime for Houston bands), they've gone through a total of five bassists (the most recent, Dyn@mutt alum Chad Shaw, quit to play with The Cinders), their practice space was burglarized a few months back, and both Damon and guitarist Zeke (who quit the band not long after) have gotten married, which obviously makes things a bit more complicated for the band as a whole. All the while, their odd style of indie-rock, quiet, instrumental soundscapes (a far cry from RTF's melodic quasi-hardcore), has received only grudging recognition in Houston.
"A lot of people don't understand, 'cause a lot of what we're doing is slower, like 'sad' type of music, quiet and other things," Damon says, his voice barely audible over the coffee machine down the hall. "People don't want to go out and be sad -- they wanna go out and be happy. People don't understand that our music is happy, but in a different way, y'know? They just take it for face value, and we won't probably ever get ever as many people as Refuse To Fall did, 'cause there's not that adrenaline going."
I point out that it probably has to do with categorization problems -- straightedge is an easy reference point; if you're into it and somebody says "hey, let's go to a straightedge show," chances are that if you can, you will. That Gospel Sound, though, aren't that easy to classify; they're kind of rock-ish, but more "spaghetti Western"-ish, almost.
"Yeah, we were kind of trying to go for that sort of thing. It's funny...my perfect thing wouldn't be this alternative band that gets played on the Buzz or anything. What I really want to do is make music for movies -- just like soundtrack stuff as the background, something so different, so instrumental.
"What I focused on with Refuse To Fall and all other bands..." he continues, "I've been singing for so long, and I want to get more into the music. And I know that I'm not like this great guitar player; I can't play that type of music and have enough ideas to where I can just put it into things, and I want to start doing other things, just having other avenues to go down, beyond just playing clubs and playing shows and stuff like that. I wouldn't mind doing that."
When I suggest that maybe that's a better route than the traditional "play-shows-sell-tapes-and-tour" method, he tells me that he'd like to do that, as well, but with no illusions about their chances. "It's just, y'know, I'm not gonna try with all my heart to get picked up by a label, because I know that it just might not happen.
"It's like, I've been disillusioned, just being here so long. I've tried so many different things; maybe they weren't...maybe they just didn't have what it took to get picked up. That could be the ultimate reality, and I'm not saying they were great bands; it's just, y'know, if there's a way to make things work out to where I can play music and get paid for it, that would be better. That would be a good thing."
Following along those lines, I ask if That Gospel Sound has any plans to put anything out. "If we can ever get a lineup together and actually stay together for a while!" Damon says, laughing. END"

~~REFUSE TO FALL - soulfire (7") Equal Vision Records #02 1991~~

side a:
1. temporary eye
2. when the well runs dry

side b:
1. soulfire
2. salvation
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Links:
Krishnacore
Krishnacore blog
Flex! entry
Equal Vision Records (like most of the labels nowadays they do not have detailed informations about their discography, history etc. - kinda a pity)

V/A - Horizon Records Hardcore Compilation (7") Horizon Records #01 1991

2007-05-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

After listening to Drift Again I though that this might fit in here, even though it's a fair compilation (it achieves high prices now at Ebay.com, but that's Ebay). The early Lifetime track is a new recorded version of a song from their demo tape and it's also featured on their first full length "background" on New Age Records; still has some straight edge hardcore feeling in it compared to the Sticks And Stones influenced sound they did later. The Ressurection song is also released otherwise; it's a pity that their stuff had such a shitty production, the album is great but really lacks power, but I loved it anyway: Rob Fish's straight edge lyrics in combination with the dodgy chugga chugga sound. The Flagman (members of Crud Is A Cult, Mouthpiece and later Ink & Dagger) track - otherwise unreleased I think - is a bit more boy scout hardcore styled than their later great stuff, sounds like Turning Point etc. I mainly kept this one due to Encounter (a favourite band of mine). A friend wants to put out a Encounter discography for years now, including the unreleased EP and the demo etc., but I think it will never see the light of day, since Redemption Records wants to do a compilation CD with their early 7"s etc.

V/A - Horizon Records Hardcore Compilation (7") Horizon Records #01 1991

side a:
Encounter
1. solitude
Flagman
2. tomorrow

side b:
Ressurection
1. melting awy
Lifetime
2. alive
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

DRIFT AGAIN - 1992 shirt

2007-05-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

This was done by Network Sound/ New Age Records one year after the 7" came out. I cannot remember the compilations Drift Again were on besides the New Age Records 7"; if you do: tell me - and I post them...

The front print looks like some cheezy early techno label stuff ("does anyone know where the rave is?").

Members of Drift Again were not only in Freewill/ Stone Telling, Against The Wall and Pushed Aside before but also in Outspoken, Kill The Messenger, March (great LP!) or even Ignite (at least at the beginning) later.

DRIFT AGAIN - "forever starts today" shirt

2007-05-16T01:03:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

I think this was Drift Again's first shirt design (who was drunk while doing the back print?). Holy moly, the beginning of the 9oies - the heydays of the emo mosh, I was really into all those bands who combined the second wave of slower but melodic youth crew bands and of course Verbal Assault with mosh; for all you may say: only straight edge bands have this sound: early Split Lip, Framework (huge!), Remain (totally forgotten!), early Network Sound, New Age, Doghouse etc.
Currently listening to their 7" again, funny how effective two riffs in one song were to me.
Before I forget it: Mike Hartsfield from Freewill/ Stone Telling, Outspoken, Strife and so forth was in Drift Again.

SPLIT LIP - "I seek life but cannot find it's face" shirt

2007-05-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

I can remember the faces of the straight edge kids who were excited about Chamberlain on their European tour them being called Split Lip afore and the incontestable heroes of Doghouse records and even a whole new wave of bands: some guy with long hair and cowboy boots entered the stage. Me being toughened from the change in appearance of Uniform Choice or all New York straight edge heroes I wasn't bemused.

Back to Split Lip, who had really nice shirt designs back then. Here is one example, I sold another one in khaki which had the print above the tailbone (and I want it back!). Native speakers: isn't "it's" wrong? Wouldn't be so bad since I know people who have tattoos which say "straihgt edge" or for example "strenhgt", but it's funny.

I am still looking for both of their demo tapes!!! Maybe someone wants to contribute them to the blog (same goes for pictures of other shirt designs by Split Lip). And: I lost the booklet of the Split Lip digipack CD version of "Fate's got a driver"! If anyone will be so nice to do some scans for me I would post and uploading anything you demand from me! Thanks!

Funny side note: some Split Lip members filled in for impeded members of Hardball for their shows since Split Lip have been friends with them since the beginning. I think that was when Clearsight were still around?

Links:
Wikipedia entry
Split Lip's "For The Love of the Wounded" @ Doghouse
Chamberlain

Google hit.

2007-05-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Who ever entered "jutta bunker friedrichshafen punk" at Google.de: you are my hero! Contact me for nobel prize or whatever.

(home sweet home)

JONES VERY - words and days (LP) Hawker #9441 1989

2007-05-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

While all the Reagan era hardcore cult followers or let's say crybabies1 were still moaning about the end of Articles Of Faith, others already enjoyed the acoustic album on Wishing Well Records and of course later: Jones Very.
There is a nice story about how the name Hawker Records came into existence: the guy who started the label had this ultra brutal New York street accent and he wanted to name his label "Hardcore Records", but when he was talking on the phone everyone caught "Hawker" and not "Hardcore"; quite nice anecdote - also included here (I don't know if there's an English version of the book).
Anyway the label - a subdivision of Roadrunner - was blamed for bad business tactics, which also led into the demise of bands (Wrecking Crew). Vic Bondi states that he never saw royalties for this record. All Hawker records have a poor appearance, mostly no lyric sheets, black and white printing but - especially the European pressings - promotional sheets which left me embarrassed for the writer. Some of the Hawker records also sound shitty (Token Entry), but that's not the case with this beautiful record (which looks shitty... ha ha ha).

Jones Very's first album still has some Articles Of Faith moments but is way more diverse, melodic and sophisticated (I should concentrate on grammar instead of foreign words) and it's a pity that it's not available anymore (pops up at Ebay sometimes or as CD version at Amazon.com), maybe one of the reasons it's overlooked? Same goes for the LP and EP on Jade Tree, whose release miens led to the end of Jones Very. I know people who just know Alloy concerning the Articles Of Faith/ Bondi context but never heard of Jones Very!

After ripping and listening to it several times again: I am really in love with it! Quite a consequent development after the last Articles Of Faith album; a lot of late Hüsker Dü and Mission Of Burma influences. The calmer songs really anticipate a style that will become famous for Sub Pop, Chicago bands, Caulfield etc..

The lyrics are mainly political, not that finger pointing more in a lyrical way (maybe someone has seen the "American Hardcore" movie, which was a frightening freak show and left the impression to me that Vic Bondi and Mike Watt were the only more or less self-reflecting people, although I wouldn't be consistent with Bondi's conceivabilities of left-wing politics). The first song also points at the Reagan era hardcore nostalgists and American leftists who stilled fueled their anger and views from political circumstances which existed half a decade before:

"past the nuclear age
the American century lasted barley a decade
things fall apart and thing fade away
past nostalgic hate
looking back on a new generation of waiters
in hell they watch heaven on television
it's yesterday in the western world"

Vic Bondi ("I was playing hardcore before you were born") has definitely one of the best voices in the history of hardcore and punk. All produced by Lou Giordano - which is obvious.

Important side note: Jeff Goddard, who was also in Apology and Grin, was later in Karate and the Lune!

Update:

Here is a short description by Jeff Goddard:

"Recorded at the original Fort Apache South on Norfolk St. in Roxbury by Lou Giordano, this often overlooked debut was way ahead of it's time. The tiny tracking room with brick walls and piles of gear provided a very live sound also found on The Pixes "Come on Pilgrim" and Uncle Tupelo's "No Depression. Despite the chorus effect on the bass, i am particularly proud of this record. Apparently Ryan Adams also likes "Words and Days"."

JONES VERY - words and days (LP) Hawker #9441 1989

side a:
1. yesterday in the western world
2. ash and dust
3. words and days
4. letting go in time
5. desperation bends
6. jesus... I

side b:
1. rest, you know too well
2. granted
3. cut
4. ray
5. red sky dry

[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Links:
Vic Bondi
Vic Bondi's blog
Jones Very @ Jade Tree
Flex! entry

1 for me: nostalgia is still connoted negative (although this blog might not fit into this mindset?!)

THE MEN OF HELL aka ZORN - the return of the gods (LP) Maximum Voice Production #666 1998

2007-05-14T02:54:00.000-07:00

I will post one of the simple black and white posters that got Zorn blacklisted and banned from clubs later, before: their last sign of life. And it blew me away.
They already changed their name and just the vinyl etching states: "The Men Of Hell aka Zorn". 6 killer tracks in about 26 minutes and the best they have done - driven and mean.

All the people who shit talked about Zorn them being metal heads etc. since their beginning got their possibility to set themselves up now. Brilliant!

Nice full colour Marvel cover and the inside is printed in black:

This was also released on CD and one of the last things Maximum Voice did; there were some stories about the label being a rip off (the vinyl etchings for the Maximum Voice releases already stated "rip off #[..]" as catalogue numbers before, maybe as a reaction towards the accusations), which is funny since I can remember some mailorder lists by the owner who blamed other distributions etc. for not paying him etc.. But I am not into this shit, although a band I really love was affected. Within the world of hardcore and punk you'll find the same business tactics like everywhere.

Shake your manes!!!!

THE MEN OF HELL aka ZORN - the return of the gods (LP) Maximum Voice Production #666 1998

side a:
1. welcome to violence
2. pure fuckin' madness
3. man of hell
4. the god of emptiness

side b:
1. the hatemachine
2. morphin
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

ZORN - ... denn alle Lust will Ewigkeit (LP) Maximum Voice Production #07 1996

2007-05-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

This record was a shock to the hardcore and emo crowd, but I loved it and I still do. That's what happens when hardcore punk "kids" grew up with Amebix, early Black Metal, Winter, Candlemass, The Obsessed, Neurosis or Carnage and try to create something on their own. And Zorn's attempt is light-years away from all those metalcore bands who repeat the same Slayer (US, Belgium...) or Bolt Thrower (Germany) riff over and over again. I really wish that Zorn would be a band that is named for a definition of metalcore but you can't always want to have one's cake and eat it.

Some vocal/ singing parts here remind me of Ulver and the lyrics are really, really metal including all the - intended - pathos.

The artwork also reflects the love for sado-masochism of the owner of Maximum Voice Production, but I do not know if it was his wish or a coincidence.

Funny sidenote: "Im Nirgendwo" was covered by the German vegan straight edge semi-legend Megatonin.

ZORN - ... denn alle Lust will Ewigkeit (LP) Maximum Voice Production #07 1996

side a:
1. Zeremonie des Abschieds
2. Magma
3. Hinter der Sonne
4. Erebos II
5. Dornen

side b:
1. Im Nirgendwo
2. VII
3. Durch Schmerz, in Stein
4. Die tödliche Sünde
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

ZORN/ ZELOT - split (7") Spring Records #?? 1995

2007-05-14T01:37:00.000-07:00

I try to keep it in the chronological order - sorry Pat! - and so here is Zorn's split with Zelot. These are the only Zelot recordings I know besides the Plot compilation track. "Fuck the haters!" might be one thing Zorn thought after the reactions they got. The thankslist is one of the best in the 90ies - together with Failure Face: "Tiefste Verachtung für Euch alle!" (= "Our deepest contempt to all of you!").
Their tracks got more and more "Doom-y" and better concerning musicianship. I really love the bass guitar runs here.
Zelot have a really bad production which is sad since they are doing the typical kraut thing: combining chugga chugga/ mosh with Bremer Schule and early Ebullition; could be compared to Groundwork for example but with - sadly - less power.

Quite easy to find in your record collection.

ZORN/ ZELOT - split (7") Spring Reords #?? 1995

side a:
Zorn
1. brandmal
2. stumm
3. gekreuzigt

side b:
Zelot
1. smoke like a man
2. riccardo
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

FEEDING THE FIRE - "price of progress" shirt

2007-05-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

(sleeve print)

This is an early three-sided Feeding The Fire shirt with a motive concerning animal testings and lyrics from "price of progress" (later compiled on the "hope springs eternal" CD on Mad Mob). I really wished that I could have seen them in their early days, when the 7" on Rew Wax - the label by the Man Lifting Banner dudes - came out and the played the Man Lifting Banner influence Red Edge style. They got slower later, especially the "crusade" MCD on March Through is very 90ies. The members are later in Bloodsport and Born From Pain.
I am confused concerning their discography; I saw a 7" in the early 90ies in lists but it wasn't "no submission"!!! Their early tracks are dated around 1992 but I just know the 7", split 7", CD, MCD and the compilation tracks ("Realization", "Anti-Racist"...). Can anyone tell me something about earlier releases (7", demo...)?

INDIAN SUMMER - discography (LP) Adagio 830 #20 2006

2007-05-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, kids: the crazy Ebay shopping can stop now. You can get the vinyl version of the Indian Summer discography now from Robert and Stefan from Bis Aufs Messer ! It has a nice foldout cover a bit like the Comadre LP rerelease Robert did before and comes with three inlets and a little poster. And all songs have been remastered.

It looks like this:

Victory in Europe Day!

2007-05-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

Plain and without pathos: Thanks!

TODAY IS THE DAY - "in the eyes of god" shirt

2007-05-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

Original shirt printed by Relapse for the album back then; love everything by them, from the early AmpRep stuff to new.

Links:
Homepage

DEEP WOUND - shirt

2007-05-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

(front print)

Done by the label we love to hate in 1997, when they did a MCD version of the 7", demo and compilation tracks, all redone - remastered or computer compressor, I am not sure. This version was later on some of these cheezy compilation discs compiling other boots or not boots (?) . I am also disappointed by the recent discography LP which has no inlet/ lyric sheet etc. A cobbler should stick to his last anyway, so I pull out the 7" when I meet the need to listen to one of the best Boston hardcore records ever.
I've been told that all those shirts - Heresy, Siege, F.U.'s, Battery, Citizens Arrest, Warzone, Deep Wound, Straight Ahead, Void, Youth Of Today etc. - by this particular label achieve high prices at Ebay.com, which is funny since they had those as give-aways when ordering.

Links:
Deep Wound at KFTH
Deep Wound discography

DISCHARGE - "never again" bootleg shirt

2007-05-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

(front print)

Must-have for every punk household. This is a bootleg, the original had "never again" edgewise. Early stuff blows, but all the clones are intolerable. For some moments and some bands especially while the huge crust revival in the early 90ies I thought some things are exciting but today there are still people and bands doing the same thing over and over again, all with an ultra-fascist dress code and deadlocked in every aspect (lyrics, sound etc.)1. There was a nice coffin nail brought out be Keule Sternkicker from Rödel Records back then: the Disfleisch 7", which I am going to post soon (I think the Dawnbreed drummer was involved, or?).

Links:
Fansite

1 the worldwide Dis-conspiracy!

INFEST - "mankind" bootleg shirt

2007-05-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

(front print)

Here's one bootleg shirt among thousands by the best band blablablabla in the world. This was done in Germany by some "fastcore" heroes in 1993 .

I first heard Infest on a mix tape from a friend of mine with other California bands among them were Chorus, No For An Answer, Visual Discrimination, Bl'ast!, Carry Nation etc. first and Infest was on the b side of the tape. It changed everything. Like the first time when your head hits the asphalt while skateboarding and you get the feeling you deserve it. And your elbows suppurate for weeks but you don't care because you just think of the moment when your head is dashing against the street over and over again.

Links:
Fansite

ANDREW THOMAS COMPANY & MEDIUM - "drug free youth" shirt

2007-05-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

(front pocket print)

(back print)

Here's another Andrew Thomas Company/ Medium shirt. Nice classic like Battery's "drug free youth" design by Lost And Found. I think this is one of the last designs I own today - together with "straight edge means I have no friends". I just realized that I gave the others - Sega/Atari rip off, Stormtrooper etc. - to a friend and I sold some at Ebay (for example the windbreaker). So if anyone wants to contribute other designs by them: Please write me!

SURFACE - "d.e.a.d." shirt

2007-05-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

(front print)

(back print)

Original Surface shirt mainly sold on their M.A.D. X-mas tour together with Disrespect, Deviate and Backfire! (the best and worst of euro metal core on one evening). Ringer shirts were quite famous back then, or?
They were a good live band and while their first 7" on March Through was quite Unbroken-ish, their albums on Mad Mob were very much H8000 and Morning Again like, but could never capture their live qualities. Their singer had one of the best quiffs1 ever and I think was also in a Krishnacore project called Dharma.

Members of Surface were in Drift, Deadsoil and Copykill later (still are).

1 part of a Ruhrpott uniform back then.

HITLER - the best day in her life (7") Rex Rotari #03 1996

2007-05-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

For all the political correct ones: Hitler again - the band of course. As I told you a short lived side project with Ambush members in the footsteps of bluegrass, old delta blues and even some neo folk. They took themselves and what others were thinking not too serious and I still prefer this version to the shady grey area of neo folk and its listeners who try to hide their bad education and absence of a sex life behind Nietzsche and Marinetti quotes.
The cover is a winner. For sure.

HITLER - the best day in her life (7") Rex Rotari #03 1996

side a:
1. on the farm
2. just for some month

side b:
1. abraxas
2. maroc & scary childrenbooks
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

BOY WONDER - selftitled (7'') Abridged Records #02 1994 & patch & bonus

2007-05-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the second release by Abridged Records, the label that brought us Blueprint, Refuse To Fall, Jimmy Eat World (their split 7" with Blueprint is still available from Revelation), Badger (later The Tie That Binds) and also distributed Germany's Smith & Nephew Empire stuff - label of an Upset member - with releases from German bands like Upset, Cerulean (later Pilots In Paris with a nice CD on Abridged), Azure or even the second Cursive record on vinyl.

I really loved it when it came out since they had independent and dodgy sound, lost a bit power to me over the years but it's still exciting. I love bass guitars sounding like a vacuum cleaner - serious! The second song has some Shotmaker-like moments them jamming with Albini.

They disbanded too soon like so many Texas bands do.

BOY WONDER - selftitled (7'') Abridged Records #02 1994

side a:
1. sap

side b:
1. coal
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Here is a patch by Boy Wonder - some of them were included in the 7":

The complete recording session for the 7" (the had a recording session before this one, but I never had the chance to listen to those songs; maybe for a demo tape?), some songs were released on a compilation with other Texas, mainly Austin, based bands called "Seek Sound Shelter" released by Dotzit Records in 1996 (among the other bands were Gut, Glorium1, Gomez and Johnboy):

BOY WONDER - complete 7" recording session 1994

1. 290
2. account
3. untitled
4. coal
5. sap
6. untitled
[OGG Vorbis, 192k, password: antithesis]

And here are the tracks from the split 12" with Gut - I think this was available on CD too:

BOY WONDER - tracks from the split 12" with GUT - Dotzit Records #?? 1994

side a:
Boy Wonder
1. take a number
2. fall
3. communion
4. virus
5. rot
6. seven fold

side b:
Gut
1. donkey kong long leg
2. baboon
3. spiffy cricket
4. yellow stool pigeon
5. disco cow
[OGG Vorbis, 192k, password: antithesis]

(Boy Wonder live)

Links:
The only of the many versions of the Abridged homepage that still exists

1 their early stuff is nice, a lot of new wave and post punk combined with Dinosaur Jr and Chicago bands. Their homepage is a detailed documentation of the band's work (why do other homepages don't look like theirs?).

SKINK - violence (7") Gasoline Boost #02 1992

2007-05-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

Okay another Gasoline Boost posting - please check out all their other releases! Maybe some of the readers here like Godflesh/ Final, Pitchshifter and Fudge Tunnel, because here are some mates (do not mistake them for the UK electronica artist) of Fudge Tunnel ( also produced by Alex Newport (in Nailbomb at that time, or?) and they were also on tour with them). They are a bit heavier than Fudge Tunnel but have this Chicago/ Noise Rock influence; maybe like a missing link between them, Helmet and early Godflesh1. The front cover just fits.

I have an additional copy, if you want to trade it for the 7" afterwards or the CD, please let me know. I am still in need of the other Single! Drop me a line, dude!

SKINK - violence (7") Gasoline Boost #02 1992

side a:
1. violence

side b:
1. 100 tons
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis, mirror 1, mirror 2]

1 still makes everything else sound like muzak.

Repost: DON MARTIN 3 - self titled (12") Belladonna/ Kurt & Jason #01 circa 1994

2007-05-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the Don Martin 3 12" again, after a request by a reader. Here is the original posting.

DON MARTIN 3 - self titled (12") Belladonna/ Kurt & Jason #01 circa 1994

side a:
1. untitled
2. untitled
3. untitled

side b:
1. untitled
[MP3, 256k]

WARCRY - system under anguish (MCD) Precedent Records #01 1994

2007-05-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

Just to complete the Warcry roster: only half a year later they recorded a MCD that was supposed to be on a German label1 but it never happened, so they did it on their own. They also rerecorded two songs from the 7" here and the whole thing sounds a bit better than on the first release - think of melodic mosh like Encounter or the Louisville bands, early Chokehold or even Integrity. They also changed concerning ideology, while the lyrics are quite in the same direction the whole thing seems more moderate and also with a wink, for example the whole band biography has a nonserious undertone2 and the CD label is a beer mat from Munich ("...ein Prost aus München"), which might be a reaction towards the critics of the first release. Today I just realized that Warcry were from the same city like Militant Records; I am an inattentive nerd. I don't know what happened to them later.

WARCRY - system under anguish (MCD) Precedent Records #01 1994

1. configuration four
2. insolitude
3. until darkness
4. ritual
5. demand for retraction
6. awakening
7. witness
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

1 I daresay who.

2 the copyright information says:

" if you reproduce this without permission, you will be kicked out of the scene, with no 7"s, shows, backpacks, or e-mail, for two weeks."

WARCRY – until darkness... (7”) Militant Records & Vegan Earth Order #01 1994

2007-05-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here is another request by a reader: the first release by Vegan Earth Order & Militant Records. Many people say that it is the worst release of the label; might be true, but if you have an affinity for 90ies vegan mosh, you might like it. Warcry sound a bit like a mosh version of Outspoken and were still part of the first wave - those recordings are from 1993.
The band got criticized very much - not for their lyrics (straight edge1 and earth defence) or their support of AIM but for the drawing on the label of the flip side done by Guav (a Syracuse hardcore legend). In a Heartattack review someone stated that it was Eurocentrism but that’s a bit out of the blue. It’s just the old “firestorm” scheme: a straight edge boy with a hooded sweater and x’d fists is pointing a gun at someone’s head - the person has rastas and is smoking. I think it doesn’t need any further remarks it’s just dumb, although the drawing is poorly looking anyway.

(flip side label)

WARCRY – until darkness... (7”) Militant Records & Vegan Earth Order #01 1994

side a:
1. until darkness
2. witness

side b:
1. suppress
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Update: found the review in the old Heartattack issue.

1 "until darkness falls the edge will remain"

FREDDY - Eine Handvoll Reis/ Wir (7") Polydor #52781 1967

2007-05-01T23:51:00.001-07:00

Here it comes: the reaction by the record label concerning the Beatles and Rolling Stones mania and the changing society mainly due to the German student protests in the 1960ies. The lyrics to the flip side read like a NS propaganda song. It was later covered by Die Toten Hosen (ex-ZK).

Try some online translation since the lyrics are simple.

The title track has some kind of pro-Vietnam war position.

And while this was the first song with principle standardizations supporting the state Freddy was later charged with tax evasion.

Lyrics:

Eine Handvoll Reis

"Eine Handvoll Reis gab es in Lao-tan
Eine Handvoll Reis für einen Tag pro Mann
Eine Handvoll Reis, eine Handvoll Reis

Dazu 300 Schuß Munition und zum Appell generell
Stolz und Trauer und die Grüße,
ja, die Grüße - der ganzen Nation

Wir kämpften in uns'rer Kolonne für Freiheit und Demokratie
Und hinter uns rollte die Tonne mit dem Whisky der Kompagnie
Wir sind in die Hölle gefahren, Malaria, letzte Ration
Von 70 Mann, die wir waren, erreichten nur drei die Station

Der Ort Lao-tan an der Küste war dreimal verwüstet und leer
Die Felder dort wurden zur Wüste und es gab keine Blumen mehr
Hier wurde die Hoffnung verladen, die Heimat erreichten wir nie
Wir waren drei Kameraden, die letzten der Kompanie."

Wir

"Wer will nicht mit Gammlern verwechselt werden? WIR!
Wer sorgt sich um den Frieden auf Erden? WIR!
Ihr lungert herum in Parks und in Gassen,
wer kann eure sinnlose Faulheit nicht fassen? WIR! WIR! WIR!

Wer hat den Mut, für euch sich zu schämen? WIR!
Wer läßt sich unsere Zukunft nicht nehmen?WIR!
Wer sieht euch alte Kirchen beschmieren,
und muß vor euch jede Achtung verlieren? WIR! WIR! WIR!

Denn jemand muß da sein, der nicht nur vernichtet,
der uns unseren Glauben erhält,
der lernt, der sich bildet, sein Pensum verrichtet,
zum Aufbau der morgigen Welt.

Die Welt von Morgen sind bereits heute WIR!
Wer bleibt nichtewig die lautstarke Meute? WIR!
Wer sagt sogar, daß Arbeit nur schändet,
Wer ist so gelangweilt, so maßlos verblendet? IHR! IHR! IHR!

Wer will nochmal mit euch offen sprechen? WIR!
Wer hat natürlich auch seine Schwächen? WIR!
Wer hat sogar so ähnliche Maschen,
auch lange Haare, nur sind sie gewaschen? WIR! WIR! WIR!

Auch wir sind für Härte,
auch wir tragen Bärte,
auch wir geh´n oft viel zu weit.
Doch manchmal im Guten,
in stillen Minuten,
da tut uns verschiedenes leid.

Wer hat noch nicht die Hoffnung verloren? WIR!
Und dankt noch denen, die uns geboren? WIR!
Doch wer will weiter nur protestieren,
bis nichts mehr da ist zum protestieren? IHR! IHR! IHR!"

FREDDY - Eine Handvoll Reis/ Wir (7") Polydor #52781 1967

side a:
1. Für eine Hand voll Reis

side b:
1. Wir
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

FREDDY - Hundert Mann und ein Befehl/ 24 Stunden (7") Polydor #52681 1966

2007-05-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

Some people think that the 7" I will post later was the first reactionary German pop record in history but this piece of plastic was released one year earlier. Freddy Quinn was a beat-music singer asociated to the 'Schlager' scene from Austria who had his most success in Germany in the 1950ies and 1960ies, he was also actor in many, many strange films. While many songs of him dealt with being a sailor and everything connected to this, he later stated that he has never been a sailor and he was also making too many concessions to his record company - that's also the case with the next 7".

The first song here is a cover version of "The ballad of the Green Berets" by Sgt. Barry Sandler, all sung in German, but with less martial lyrics compared to the original. Maybe the record label just wanted to cash in on the success of the original version; this was also Freddy Quinn's last number 1 hit.

Just pay attention to the rolling "r".

FREDDY - Hundert Mann und ein Befehl/ 24 Stunden (7") Polydor #52681 1966

side a:
1. Hundert Mann und ein Befehl

side b:
1. 24 Stunden
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

And while you think: what the fuck did those Krauts do? I can offer you a matchable version from the GDR. It was released for the anniversary of a radio operator unit of the GDR army - the National People's Army - named after Konrad Wolf. Have fun (if you understand the lyrics).

LIEDER DES TRUPPENTEILS "KONRAD WOLF" - Richtfunkerlied/ Konrad Wolf (7") 19??

side a:
1. Richtfunkerlied

side b:
2. Konrad Wolf
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

V/A - Andersen (7") Stigma #01 1996

2007-04-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Nice and interesting compilation that came out 10 years ago. Kimusawea - their singer is now in Bolz'n - had a good 7" on Maximum Voice Production and a LP1 on Nabate - quite challenging and diverse, combining punk rock, Nausea, Neurosis, emo core and yes: Zorn. The Ambush track is from the "Pigs" album on Common Cause.
And while Zorn broach the issue of Auschwitz in their lyrics the last artist is Hitler having a analogical booklet page but I can't remember any discussions about this release back then, maybe it was overlooked?! Hitler had a very strange but good humor2 comparable to Chaplin or Brooks and it was actually an Ambush side project in the footsteps of Delta Blues and Bluegrass, unplugged with guitar and a mandoline. I think they also had a demo tape, if you know some details, please let me know.
The title and the cover is a reference to H.C. Andersen.

V/A - Andersen (7") Stigma #01 1996

side a:
Kimusawea
1. ich-panzerung
Ambush
2. one day in december

side b:
Zorn
1. sintflut
Hitler
2. she's fine
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

1 review from an old Profane Existence issue:

"KIMUSAWEA Kurze Abhandlung Vom Menschen Und Seinem Glück LP

This is amazing. Complex, layered music, with a driving beat and powerful female vocals that are full of emotion, melody, and intensity. The music sometimes reminds me of NEUROSIS, sometimes ACME, but mostly of something completely unique. Really unique packaging as well with great use of printing techniques, imagery and color. Lyrics are all in German, so I can't comment on that. Musically though, this will draw you in and take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Great stuff. (Jon)"

2 maybe someone knows their 7" and especially the cover on the label of the ABC Diabolo dudes: Rex Rotari. The booklet page here has Bruno Rey's name as contact with an adress in Buenos Aires.

V/A - Plot compilation & fanzine (LP) Plot #00 & X-Mist 1994

2007-04-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

This compilation was released together with the first issue of the Plot fanzine - one of the best 'zines in the 90ies out of Germany associated with a lot of controversy since the editors were shooting in every direction of what was once called hardcore and punk (I was consistent with every target!). Among the writers were Armin and Ute from X-Mist, KHS (a fanzine 'legend'), Zenker from Luzifers Mob, Markus from Toys Move Fanzine, Flo from Zelot, Lee from Spermbirds/2Bad and many others. Anyway the compilation was intended to support the Plot fanzine financially and this institution lasted more than 21 issues.

The compilation itself left me more satisfied than the Illiterate LP on Ebullition and nearly every band from this LP will be featured here soon, among them Golgatha, Ambush, Acme, Ego-Trip, Cwill, Systral, Stack (ex-Abolition), Wounded Knee, Mine (ex-Armicide/Monument, pre-Cataract), Corrosive, Zelot and Dawnbreed (pre-Monochrome). The last track here is an early Bohren & Der Club Of Gore (ex-7 Inch Boots: 1 & 2) track under the name Bohren and it's from their '93 demo tape.

V/A - Plot compilation (LP) Plot #00 & X-mist 1994

side a:
Graue Zellen
1. voice your opinion
Cwill
2. ashamed
Ambush
3. locuste
Ego-Trip
4. here & now
Golgatha
5. c.a.c.
Slumlords
6. rainship
Zorn
7. kranke frucht
Acme
8. "new song"
Systral
9. pretending judiciousness
Luzifers Mob
10. 9-15 (und der böse blick)

side b:
Stack
1. armistice
Time To Suffer Power
2. animal
Wounded Knee
3. wake up!
Mine
4. xxx
Corrosive
5. rausch des irrens
Zelot
6. lotzeyn
Dawnbreed
7. menschmotorik
Bohren
8. luder, samba & tavernen
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

PLOT issue #0 november 1994
PDF, 48 pages

I excluded the fanzine from the .zip file since there might be many here who are only in it for the muuuusic.1

1 best are the downloading obsessed MP3mos who are asking for the password of the .zip files. Ha ha ha ha ha...

ZORN - heftig aufflammender unwille (7") Equality Records #08 1994

2007-04-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

(regular cover)

(limited version with paintings)

You know it was coming: Zorn.

Please do not confuse them with the bad black metal band.

If I have to name the 10 best bands from this era among Acme, Age, Dawnbreed and Kurt I will throw in their name. Hailing from the area between Mannheim and Heidelberg those dudes from Baden-Wuerttemberg were polarising right from the beginning. Besides some grind and noise core bands (and ABC Diabolo) in Germany they were the first having black and death metal influenced layouts and lyrics. Labeled as "metal" by the hardcore in-crowd and later blacklisted and banned from clubs by p.c. dudes due to tour posters with a Pushead like artwork.

Their first vinyl release on Ludwigshafen based Equality Records (Profax, Stack, Abolition, Age, Malva, Hypocritical Society etc.) was a 100% progression after their demo tape but still a bit behind the split 7" and LP, like an unpolished rough diamond. Quite lovely when the undistorted guitars lead into the moshy part while the scraping, emo like German singing never sounds annoying.
The nice looking booklet - included in the .zip file - also has essays/ thoughts by friends of the band among them for example Marianne from Profax/ Sundowner/ Ape Must Not Kill Ape Records.

(live picture in the booklet)

Their drummer is doing finest robot music now: T.Raumschmiere and also the famous Shitkatapult label.

ZORN - heftig aufflammender unwille (7") Equality Records #08 1994

side a:
1. flucht
2. schwarzer frühling
3. hirnvergifter

side b:
1. mord an einer seele
2. messer
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

~~I will rerip this, since I took a sloppy copy I own with a more used vinyl.~~
Okay, did this one from a better copy again, seems like the pressing quality isn't that good; a 12" version - like planned - would have been fine.

Discography:
demo (Tape) DIY 1993
heftig aufflammender unwille (7") Equality Records #08 1994
about 10 EP testpressings (12") Equality Records #08 1994
track on "Plot" compilation (LP) Plot #0/ X-Mist 1994
track on "andersen" compilation (7") Stigma Records #01 1995
split with Zelot (7") Spring Records #0? 1995
... denn alle lust will ewigkeit (LP) Maximum Voice Production #07 1996
unreleased demo (Tape) DIY 199?
The Men Of Hell aka Zorn - self titled (LP/CD) Maximum Voice Production #666 1998
Into the Pandemonium of Bunker Nimmerland (Tape) Antithesis 2000

Links:
T.Raumschmiere
Shitkatapult

Some people are also demanding a reunion by them or at least a nice discography CD:

ROSWELL PROJECT - self titled (7") Nothing Left Records #03 1996

2007-04-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here is another San Diego based band which most of you might remember from their 7" (and compilation track) on Pushead's Bacteria Sour label which has one of the best layouts he has ever done (here are some variations: 1 & 2). This less known 7" features two songs which are not released otherwise (the flip side is on the Bacteria Sour 7") and the packaging is also very nice: fold out cover, sticker and a photograph etc.
The second song reminds me a bit of One Eyed God Prophecy but altogether it sounds like where they are from: screamed, varied San Diego emo hardcore.

By the way: if anyone knows what Nothing Left Records released besides the Stickfigure Carousel 7" and this one and what the members from Roswell Project did afterwards or before please tell me!

ROSWELL PROJECT - self titled (7") Nothing Left Records #03 1996

side a:
1. reoccuring dream
2. rule with a plastic fist

side b:
1. more than a hero less than human
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

HAN-SHAN - self titled (7") Soledad #02 1993

2007-04-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

From the Olympia based label that brought us the incredible Toadliquor1 came this 7" from this San Diego dudes (members of Kirsch' s John Henry West, End Of The Line and later Salem Lights and Tight Bro's From Way Back When) and fuck: the production or mastering fucks this whole thing up. It sounds like shit shit shit and shit which is really sad since it's another spastic San Diego styled record - Flex! says so too. I also listened to it some days ago after nearly 5 years or so and I remembered them being heavier maybe my ears were poisoned with nowadays productions because I can' t remember this 7" being that weak and thin.
The lyrics are a bit in the vein of Angel Hair, but maybe based on and influenced by the Chinese poet from whom they got their name and who was also an influence to Kerouac. The whole packaging is also a reference to him.

Sorry for this posting, but I thought of this as a better record than I do now. At least the crazy wind instrument and sludge parts in the last song can reparate it a bit.

HAN-SHAN - self titled (7") Soledad #02 1993

side a:
1. in autumn
2. flesh light and stars
3. torrent
4. black teagarden

side b:
1. toast to the
2. insomnia
3. loquat tree
4. crain pattern
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

1 although rereleased as CD on SL I am going to post the 7" and LP here

POT VALIANT - volar/ low dexterity points (7") Sunney Sindicut Records #06 1993

2007-04-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember the Vagrants (not the famous 60ies band)? Their 7" on Lookout, compilation tracks and demos were great, playing a style that became very famous after the band stopped. Anyway the complete line up of the Vagrants played in Pot Valiant shortly after. And I think this 2 song 7" on Sunney Sindicut1 - a emo heyday label with releases from Yah Mos, Sinker, Amber Inn, Exhale, The Popesmashers and Land Of The Wee Beasties - is their best stuff also the album and the other 7" are nice. The flip side sounds like Sunny Day Real Estate and The Hated meet at the practice space. Enjoy this forgotten band.

POT VALIANT - volar/ low dexterity points (7") Sunney Sindicut Records #06 1993

side a:
1. volar

side b:
1. low dexterity points
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

1 a few informations about the label owner can be found here.

V/A - An American Tragedy - benefit compilation for Judi Bari's case (7'') Diffusion #03 1996

2007-04-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

One of the many benefits back then for Judi Bari, an former Earth First! activist who died from breast cancer in 1997. If you want detailed informations about the lawsuit and her activities, visit her homepage. Decide for yourself; there is also a booklet included in this 7" and I added it with the scans.

I posted it due to the version of Three Studies For A Crucifixion's "operation: dandelion" which is better than on the split 7".
Also quite funny: Dead Silence from Denver, CO are covering "angry" from Rapid City's Dissent! Dead Silence had some nice records in the late 80ies - especially the LP.
The Still Life track is also on their "madness and the gackle" LP on The Sunflower Tribe.
Never heard of Watercolour than on this compilation - quite typical indie emo mix for this time, like a poppy, less chaotic version of Cap 'N Jazz; I like it, anyone with more informations about them?

V/A - An American Tragedy - benefit compilation for Judi Bari's case (7'') Diffusion #03 1996

side a:
Dead Silence
1. angry (Dissent)
Three Studies For A Crucifixion
2. operation: dandelion

side b:
Still Life
1. fool
Watercolour
2. American worries
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]

Update:

Thanks for this contribution! The unreleased Watercolour LP!

WATERCOLOUR - stories about old rich white people

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
[MP3, 192k]

"watercolour was an indianapolis band - ex-jaded, pre-racebannon, rapider than horsepower, and others. they played at the re-opening of the sitcom collective in indianapolis in the mid-90s along with ice 9 and birthright. i'm pretty sure most or all of them went to pike high school. if i remember right, they sometimes switched on instruments. heartfelt music and words, poetry in between songs, melodic and rocking, etc."

Videos @ the Rapid City Punk Archive

2007-04-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

(Single File Line, RC Archive)

I don' t know if you already knew this homepage, but they have some fine stuff up for years now, like all the unreleased Via stuff (maybe you remember them from the XXX compilation on Ebullition; they were supposed to be on AmpRep but it sadly never happened) and all other RC bands (Element, Dissent, Single File Line, State Of The Union, Straight From The Heart etc.) or some live shows from Angel Hair, Threadbare, Slant 6 and Jawbreaker. Also make sure that you check out the photo section (Detestation, Downcast, Rorschach, Demise, Insted etc.).

But my main intend for this postings: videos by Threadbare, Still Life, Current, Assfactor 4, Chino Horde, Current, Evergreen, Farside, Jawbox, N.O.U., Single File Line, Rorschach, Universal Order Of Armageddon, Up Front, Via and and and. That' s the who is who of the 90ies.

Enjoy:

http://www.rcpunkarchive.com/

HARRIET THE SPY - unfuckwithable (12") Troubleman Unlimited #29 1997

2007-04-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, just to complete the previous postings (I am still looking for the tour 7" and the last split 7"): the first record I purchased by Harriet The Spy, not as solid as the 10" but still: unfuckwithable (!!!) and a beautiful record. And although I used the word "unique" quite often in my previous posts: here it is appropriate. Could have been huge if they were on Touch & Go or Sub Pop at the right time.

Still available from Troubleman Unlimited as CD - so just up for one week.

"I can't break your face when it's in cyberspace but I'll be waiting in the parking lot with a fistful of food".

HARRIET THE SPY - unfuckwithable (12") Troubleman Unlimited #29 1997

side a:
1. the unforgetable fire
2. untitled
3. girls in bikinis
4. octohelpme

side b:
1. paint my atoms
2. androidgeny
3. when the shit hits the commodore 64
4. cum stomache
5. when we saw our names up in lights
[OGG Vorbis, 256k, password: antithesis]