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

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.

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

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

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

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

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]

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

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

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]